Chapter 223: Reborn as a Beast of Burden in the Profound

"Supposedly sent from the south."

"Still alive? What good luck."

"They say he was hiding in an interlayer and didn't get blown up, but his teacher died, he's crippled himself, and he's not far from death if left alone."

"Wasting so much medicine on such a piece of trash?"

"Doesn't he still have hands? People are needed everywhere, trash has its uses too; otherwise, how could he have been sent here?"

"Shh, keep your voice down... that guy is looking over here!"

"What are you afraid of? Look, he's even smiling at us."

In the rolling heat, the roaring was constant.

Ji Jue grinned foolishly at the two apprentices, but unfortunately, his burned face was no longer handsome and approachable, but rather ugly and ferocious; after the scars tore, scarlet blood seeped out.

It stung the eyes of those two people.

The trivial whispers came to an abrupt end.

How wonderful, being ugly has this benefit; I've experienced it.

Ji Jue retracted his gaze, leaned on his crutches, and moved forward awkwardly, trying to speed up.

The middle-aged man leading the way heard the frequency of the tapping increase, looked back at him, and slowed down slightly.

Watching him try to force a smile, he sighed and just said: "People who come here are basically like this; just be less talkative, and you'll get used to it once everyone is familiar."

Ji Jue nodded, revealing a smile that fit his character setting.

Miserable, with a hint of sycophancy.

The middle-aged man retracted his gaze, unmoved, as if he had long been used to weakness and humbleness.

Inside the massive workshop, which resembled a factory, they were already at the lowest level; it was stuffy and humid, and the air seemed to be forever filled with a pungent smell, with faint coughing rising from the intervals of the ramming hammers.

The operation of every department was sleepless; who knows how many artisans were squatting at their posts day and night, working without end. And the beast-of-burden apprentices didn't even have to think about slacking off or sleeping; everyone's face was pale, their eyes covered in bloodshot veins.

The middle-aged man who led Ji Jue, Sun Ci, was a small manager among the beast-of-burden apprentices on this level, one of the leading beasts. He was also the direct manager of Ji Jue, this crippled beast.

"Here, seeing you're so miserable, do these first."

Sun Ci pointed to an empty spot; dried blood stains still remained on the chair, and waste materials were piled like a mountain on the operation table: "Finish them within today."

After saying that, he left.

Almost every moment, a large amount of waste material fell from the passage in the corner.

Like diarrhea, it was endless.

And the work of these bottom-level apprentices was to pick out and decompose whatever could still be used from the waste as quickly as possible, recycling it.

No one said what would happen if they didn't finish, but everyone was using all their strength to work; presumably, the result wouldn't be good.

In the Association, if there was too much work, at least you could still cry.

But here, crying also counted as time.

"Oh my, I say, fate..."

Ji Jue sat in this position, looking around at the chaos and busyness on the left and right, and suddenly felt a trance—in the Association, he was squatting in the recycling department dealing with waste, racking his brains to infiltrate the enemy's interior, and now he was racking his brains to deal with waste again!

Was this infiltration a bit of a waste?

Although he complained in his heart, his hands moved nimbly, skillfully starting to pick and classify.

Not far away, Sun Ci, who had taken the time to look over, saw his skillful appearance and immediately nodded slightly, retracting his gaze, secretly relieved—it seemed he could work a little less overtime today.

Among the six groups on this level, only their group had been understaffed for years, yet the workload was the same; they suffered more, endured the same crimes, and had to eat who knows how many more losses.

And Ji Jue, in the mirror reflection of the broken iron pieces, was also quietly observing the work processes of others... mainly paying attention to efficiency, not to accidentally handle it too smoothly and blow up the output...

The result was actually fine; the efficiency here was much higher than in the Association's recycling department.

Mainly because there was no need to equip any protection, and many links were omitted. The Association still had to care about human rights, but the Profound artisans didn't have this tradition of caring for tools.

It was just that what Ji Jue didn't understand was—throwing away the protection link, the efficiency was actually not much different from the Association's recycling department? Then what are you worshipping sin for; is this sin, is it a bit of a waste to worship?

Regardless of the Association or the Profound, the pursuits of artisans and masters might be different, but beasts of burden are always beasts of burden, nothing unusual.

Just like that, from raw to getting the hang of it to fully adapting, it took a full three or four hours; including Ji Jue, no one had stopped at all.

And the heart that Ji Jue had been secretly hanging finally let go.

Integrate into the environment.

The work of infiltrating the Sin-Eradicating Cult wasn't as difficult as imagined, and there wasn't even any special interrogation for him, the only survivor.

The Anquan Bureau was attacking fiercely from all sides, and everyone was busy, so where would they have the time to confirm things back and forth?

In the bank's central hub, there were his records and spiritual quality verification, he was a sin-tainted one, and he was wearing the apprentice uniform of a Profound artisan, so that was about enough.

After checking the ether records and reading the shallow memories, finding that he knew nothing and had discovered nothing, they roughly threw a few treatments at him and used heavy medicine.

If he still had a breath, they pulled him back to continue working; if he could be used, he continued to be used; if he couldn't be used, he became material.

Confirming that he could live and move was the end of it; as for whether there were any sequelae... everyone was working with their heads on their belts, so don't think so much.

The good news was that pretending to be an apprentice was indeed easy to mix in.

But the bad news was that mixing in still meant being an apprentice, a bottom-level beast of burden, and looking at this posture, it was aimed at 007 every day, being used like a nuclear-powered donkey.

And the working environment was no different from a sweatshop.

A large amount of toxins produced during decomposition work, dust enough to open a crash course for silicosis, sin-tainted pollution constantly leaking from waste materials, 24-hour high-intensity work, and saturated workload...

Even a workaholic like Ji Jue couldn't help but shout that it was stimulating.

The Association was just anthropomorphic; you Profound are completely not treating people as people, right?

You know, even Profound artisans are still people to some extent; everyone worships sin for progress, not to turn themselves into some messy thing.

For those with insufficient talent, the path of supreme good is like a long road, winding, suffering, and sometimes lost and difficult to climb. The favor of evil ignorance is like a high-altitude zipline, and it's the kind that is oiled and electrified, slippery and difficult to hold; either rise fast or fall fast, playing for the stimulation.

Even with various secret rituals and transformations to improve resistance and reduce risk, if you are not careful, you will still be finished.

Supreme good or great sin, those are things for the strong to consider, and beasts of burden usually have no choice. The apprentices working here all have sin-tainted symptoms to a greater or lesser extent.

The sin-tainted symptoms of the Ember path are the most direct—flesh and blood materialization, loss of reason.

Too much pollution in the body leads to loss of control over the body and soul, appearing with inappropriate manifestations.

Either the face is stiff like a mask, or the arms are withered and shrunken with wood grain like a puppet, or the ten fingers are alienated into tools... even worse, simply put, they can no longer be called people.

The distortion and twisting of the soul and body are too heavy, and the whole person changes under the entanglement of pollution and blessing, completely losing their original appearance. Just like that strange creation in the corner that has completely merged with the flesh-and-blood entanglement and crusher.

Opening its mouth in wailing, swallowing waste, chewing, blood gushing, splashing, spitting out residue.

Such scenes seem commonplace here.

Everyone just walks around it.

In the numb work, Ji Jue's hand shook, and a drop of grease leaked from between his fingers, falling under the table.

There, in the pool of viscous grease, something suddenly moved; a spider the size of a little finger joint crawled out from the grease filled with pollution residue, silently crawling toward the distance along the shadows.

Then another, and another...

Calm and composed, multitasking, while dismantling waste, he picked off a portion of the loss. Between his ten fingers, the invisible furnace operated instantly, kneading spiritual quality, fluid alchemy gave form, and finally, mechanical descent gave spiritual quality.

One grease spider after another was created with ease.

Following the back and forth of the grease spiders, the underground workshop, which was originally as complex as a maze, gradually reflected in Ji Jue's eyes. It was a pity that the entire underground was blocked by various secret rituals and spiritual quality circuits, and the distance was too far, making it difficult to find any gaps to escape.

After all, a place like the recycling department is no different from a garbage dump.

No one wants the sewer to smell, nor would they want the beasts of burden to quietly climb over the railing and escape.

Locked up, it's good for everyone.

Except for the beasts of burden.

"One hundred and fifty pieces?!"

When the grease spiders crawled through the ventilation ducts inside the workshop, they heard a familiar voice.

Not far from the furnace, in the quietest and cleanest part of the entire underground workshop, a compartment had been partitioned off, even decorated with two pots of half-dead pothos.

In the office-like setting, the man in the chair nodded with a smile.

"Manager, did you make a mistake?" Sun Ci was already sweating profusely, stuttering: "How did it suddenly double?"

"That's what was ordered from above, what can I do?" The manager picked up his teacup and took a sip, laughing indifferently: "But your group has been at the bottom for a long time, right? How are you embarrassed to complain? Old Sun, you make it very difficult for me."

"But, but..."

"But what?!"

The manager raised his voice, his face changing suddenly, "If you can do it, do it; if you can't, get out! Don't occupy the latrine and not poop; if you don't do it, there are plenty of people who will!

Understand?"

"Understand, understand."

Sun Ci didn't dare to argue anymore and left in a sorry state.

At the door, the young man waiting with a smile was quite good-looking, with a beautiful appearance; he appreciated his sorry state and patted his shoulder: "Brother Sun, if you can't do it, retire early and let the virtuous take over."

Sun Ci said nothing, bowed his head, and walked away.

And the young man walked into the office; after the door closed, only vague sounds could be heard, like giggling and moaning.

"One hundred and fifty pieces?!"

When Sun Ci returned to the group and announced the news, almost everyone went crazy.

Sensing many resentful gazes, he gave a bitter smile: "I..."

The apprentice, whose hair was almost gone, stared, "If you don't have the ability, don't do it, why force yourself to hold on?"

"What are you saying!" the apprentice next to him was furious, "Brother Sun hasn't taken care of you? Oh, you took advantage of the cheapness, and now you're saying nice things, right?"

"Under the eaves, what can you do? If he wants to install his own people to do this management, you just follow him, that's all! Why drag everyone down to be targeted and wear so many small shoes!"

Sun Ci listened silently to the rebuttal, didn't interrupt, and after conveying the target, he finally wanted to encourage or promise something, but no one believed him anymore.

He gave a self-deprecating smile and sighed wearily.

If possible, he also wanted to 'retire and let the virtuous take over', to give up this position, but he had no choice.

In the past few months, his materialization symptoms had become more and more frequent. If he didn't make some achievements and find an opportunity to transfer elsewhere, he was afraid he wouldn't be able to control it at all.

Now that he was asked to hand over this straw of life, how was it different from killing him directly?

And in the end, he saw Ji Jue, who was slowly rising on his crutches, standing beside him at some point.

"Manager Sun..."

"What manager, tomorrow I won't be."

Sun Ci shook his head self-deprecatingly; the target was not met continuously, and his management was coming to an end; he was afraid that if he didn't finish it today, he would be plucked off, "What's the matter, tell me? You also want to change groups?"

"I..."

The new cripple hesitated for a moment and said in a low voice: "I might... have a way..."

At that moment, Sun Ci froze.

He looked up. ===== CHAPTER 224 =====