Chapter 93: Liberation

When the mutated sage descended, everything was shrouded in control, but unexpected changes came suddenly.

Ji Jue felt that his reason and perception had deceived him, and he couldn't believe it—the workshop created by the sage herself launched an attack on mercury?!

He stiffened in place, looking back at the prophet in disbelief.

But the prophet stopped talking.

From the silence, cracks appeared on the incomplete skull, and behind the broken face, dazzling light appeared that surpassed everything Ji Jue had seen.

At that moment, he felt the unprecedented huge rhythm again.

Shrouding the firmament, covering the earth, filling the entire Rift Realm, reaching all, forcibly terminating the operation of all spiritual quality circuits, and reverse-blocking the operation of the creation theory.

At this very moment, the creator of the workshop was suppressed by the workshop.

Even...

Imprisoned in a cage!

No, it should be said that mercury had been shackled and imprisoned by the workshop from beginning to end, right?

Even the changes welcomed after the outsiders entered the hub were not to resist the invasion, but to seal the many embers left by mercury...

Yet, it retained her soul, not allowing her to throw herself into that abyss of nothingness.

Between the tragedy of having nothing and the tragedy of struggling in vain, it chose a brand new tragedy that was neither, planting new bitter fruits between bitter fruits and bitter fruits.

"Everyone is so pathetic."

The prophet whispered, staring at the behemoth imprisoned above the firmament—having lost everything from infinite cycles and torture, even the pride and determination she was proud of gradually peeled off; in four hundred years, she wandered lonely in pain and despair, falling into such a state.

Even the self had completely dissipated in the wear and tear again and again.

What remained was only obsession.

And countless creations that were born unable to be autonomous and death could not end.

For so many years, everyone has been circulating in this hell day after day, struggling endlessly, as if it were to continue forever, but there is no forever in this world.

What seems eternal will inevitably perish, and what seems infinite will inevitably dry up.

"It should be over."

She sighed tiredly, "Whether it's you or us."

At that moment, what sounded from the ruins was the final bell. Toward the Rift Realm, toward the workshop, the earth, the firmament, all creations, toward mercury, issuing the final declaration.

Like a dirge.

Above the broken bell tower, the old and shattered bronze bell vibrated hard, making a hoarse cry again and again, calling everything. Following the agreement promised to each other in countless cycles, declaring the final end had arrived.

Thus, all things woke up from the torture.

The first to boil was the ocean...

From under the nine lands, infinite spiritual quality surged; in the deep sea, countless embers silent like mountains were surging, rising again, setting off violent turbulence.

Clarity and magnificence were gone, replaced by the irritability and scarlet accumulated for more than four hundred years.

They were surging, from the boiling, rising upward, countless colors operated from the purest spiritual quality, until the end, only the scarlet accumulated in the cycles of destruction and reshaping again and again!

Rampant, rushing, spreading from the earth, drowning everything in this ocean of pain and despair.

From the blood-like ocean, countless broken souls opened their eyes.

"Ah, finally..."

"Thank you for your hard work."

"Prophet... prophet..."

"Where, exactly where..."

At that moment, from the intense drowsiness and trance, Ji Jue heard those hoarse voices again, overlapping, confused and crazy, as if they had lost all reason and logic, but were so persistent.

Containing despair, but also... so happy, joyful, as if in the infinite waiting and torment, finally welcoming the result.

【Wake up, wake up kid!!!】

The blue light of the ghost work ball splashed on him frantically, maintaining his reason and consciousness, shouting: 【You are now bound too deeply with mercury's workshop, disconnect, disconnect immediately, do you hear me?! Otherwise, you will also be rolled in and melted!】

At this very moment, Ji Jue was still in the resonance of the workshop, just like a part of the workshop, feeling the wailing coming from the infinite scarlet ocean.

But before reason and soul were completely melted, everything stopped abruptly, and the operation of the workshop isolated all erosion and impact.

Conversely, it shrouded him in it.

Only nosebleed slowly fell from Ji Jue's face; he gasped with difficulty, raised his head, and saw the gathered iron light, spreading from the void, intertwining, turning into the outline of steel, intertwining into a simple body.

Then, dressed in solemn white clothes.

Just like the rebirth of the sage in the past, that posture and appearance made the ghost work ball fall into silence.

"Don't worry, you will be fine."

The prophet looked back, the old face covered in cracks still as usual, "It's just a little bit of lingering hatred that doesn't belong to you, no need to be sad for this."

At that moment, a high-pitched hiss came from the spiritual quality ocean.

The huge body like a worm appeared again from the drowned city, the monster that had been hungry and thirsty behind them when Ji Jue first entered the Rift Realm, bathed in the blood-colored seawater, squirming its body, countless iron pieces and tissues fell off from the swollen body, turning into dust.

The distortion began again, but what was born from that broken body was a chain extending infinitely, extending toward the wreckage of mercury above the firmament.

Shackles, circling, entangling endlessly...

Then, the second one, from the collapse of the earth, the distorted monster like a giant turtle roared, pain and resentment turned into chains, rising to the sky.

Thousands of ferocious strange birds were cannibalizing, merging, and transforming above the firmament, just like a link in the chain, when they were buckled together, they entangled on the hands that opened one by one.

And there were more, those dying, distorted, or still remaining human-shaped creations, bathed in the blood-like ocean, embracing the iron disease that was once heard of, shedding the form, turning into chains, entangling on the sage.

Shackling it in this rebellious cage...

And between the collapsed buildings and surging blood water, Ji Jue saw the familiar figure again...

"97?"

He whispered.

That middle-aged man with deformed arms was climbing upward desperately, toward a higher place; behind him followed one after another members of the camp.

When he raised his head, he noticed the gaze cast from the hub in mid-air, as if he saw Ji Jue, so he waved his hand desperately.

Just like saying goodbye, shouting something loudly, but Ji Jue couldn't hear clearly, only saw his smile.

Relieved and liberated.

Filled with joy, 97 spread his arms, letting the scarlet spiritual quality flowing upstream swallow him; from the blood color, his body swelled violently, distorted, and shattered, until finally, he merged into those rising chains...

Thousands of threads, like a net of rebellion rising from the earth.

Entangled on the sage's body.

But Ji Jue finally reacted.

"What about the camp? What about the people in the camp?"

He staggered forward, grabbed the prophet's collar, and could no longer suppress his anger, roaring and questioning: "What exactly are you doing! No matter how great the plan is, does it have to kill them!"

"Die?"

The prophet looked back in confusion, looking at Ji Jue's angry face, and gradually realized: "So that's it... thank you, Ji Jue, until now, you still treat us as the same kind of people as you.

Thank you for the pity and sympathy you bestowed... but the premise of death is having lived, right?

Do you think that our appearance counts as living?"

The prophet asked: "Do you think we have truly lived?"

Since birth, everything was doomed.

Operating day after day in the preset trajectory and life, until wear and tear, destruction, and then being recast into a new appearance, thrown into the cycle without end.

As a tool, everything is justified.

But why be endowed with a soul?

Why let us understand what 'I' is?

"We were shaped into the appearance of humans, but we never thought of becoming humans... living and dying, for us, have never been any different.

But for tools, living like humans is too painful."

"So-called living is like hell."

The prophet looked back, staring at the unrecognizable Rift Realm, "We were born as part of hell, but even if it is hell, we should be able to freely choose to survive or be destroyed...

Not just me, this is the common decision made by all tools.

——If our world shouldn't have existed from the beginning, then returning to nothingness is the correct answer to everything."

"..."

In the silence, Ji Jue let go tiredly, but staring at those firm and calm eyes, he couldn't help but ask: "Prophet, who exactly are you?"

The prophet was silent.

Couldn't help but smile self-deprecatingly.

"A liar who was entrusted with hope by all companions but couldn't achieve hope, a traitor who was poured with a mission by his own master but violated the mission.

An out-of-control tool, nothing more."

The prophet answered as such.

Another lie.

Ji Jue shook his head. But thinking carefully, since they met, Ji Jue really didn't know whether the truth or lies she told him were more.

Sure enough, one shouldn't believe this riddle-filled god-stick from the beginning.

Clearly, the answer was placed before his eyes from the beginning.

The only figure missing in countless broken time, the only important character missing in the cycles of the small town, the only creation that broke away from the original trajectory and settings, and decided her own life and future without authorization.

Is she a puppet crowned with the name 'mercury'?

Or, after inheriting mercury's memory and obsession, the workshop core entrusted with a heavy responsibility?

Perhaps, there is also the gathering of all broken souls and obsessions in the Rift Realm...

She is everything itself.

This is the Heavenly Forging performed by mercury unconsciously in the end... after gathering all the causes, another result born from this endless magnificent alchemy.

The Heavenly Artisan known as the Prophet.

And now, the authority and power to decide everything had appeared from the prophet's hands. The supreme authority to control the workshop, control the Rift Realm, and interrupt pain and cycles.

The flowing mercury slowly rose from the ground, turning into a slender and concise scepter.

Just like that, held up with care.

Sent to Ji Jue's front.

"Do you still remember our previous agreement, Mr. Ji Jue."

The prophet asked softly: "Now, in the bottom-level judgment instruction of the workshop, you who inherited fluid alchemy and Non-Aggression have the same authority as mercury, enough to make the decision that a tool like me can never make, and issue instructions... are you still willing to bestow mercy on us non-human things?"

For four hundred years, day after day of torment and waiting, endless repetition and cycles.

Began to look forward to and wait the moment the creation calling itself 'Prophet' was born.

Outsiders came one after another, died, or left.

Didn't cast any gaze on these puppet creations, nor did they pour any care into this poor and broken Rift Realm...

Until she noticed the door of the present world open again.

A soul that had never existed before emitted a faint flash from the gloom, but it was so dazzling.

The only outsider who would sincerely pity creations and still bestow mercy when facing suffering and temptation.

Not just the furnace that generously gifted everything after activation, any creation, when sensing the essence of the machine god's ability, would sincerely offer rewards and gratitude.

If one didn't sincerely treat those ignorant machines and creations as companions, how could one be moved by the wailing of mere puppet creations?

At that moment, she had already seen it from the tears.

The dawn of the end she dreamed of.

"What we crave is not so-called freedom, nor a painful life like a human, just returning to silence, as a tool, welcoming the end that should be."

The prophet lowered her head, begging humbly, toward the controller she chose, the master enough to preside over the workshop, offering everything: "Please let them be liberated."

"Please, let her be liberated..." ===== CHAPTER 94 =====