The Harvest

As everyone knew, running a dungeon was all about the drops—gear, crafting materials, and of course, the glittering gold coins that burst out of the boss. If you didn't walk away with any local specialties at all, wouldn't that just be community service? Besides, even if you volunteered for community service, they'd at least hand out a couple of eggs to nourish the worker bees! Now, the run was over, the loot was in hand, and the appraisals were done. It was time for the stage everyone loved: splitting the spoils. After all, Xiao An was a top-tier expert among experts. Even taking Sister Wen's arrangements and his rose-tinted fanboy glasses into account, there was no reason for him to work for free in this Ji guy's party, was there? What would he be in it for? Getting up close and personal with his precious *oppa*? Give it a rest. There were plenty of things in this world one could take for free. Some things delivered right to your doorstep could be slurped down, spat out, and called mediocre. But certain favors were best left unowed—it compromised your conscience and ruined your character. Bully a kid just because he didn't know any better? Did you think the adults and friends in his corner wouldn't see right through what kind of scumbag you were? What Ji Jue brought out was half the total volume of this haul. In reality, though, this pile didn't even amount to a tenth of the harvest's total value. It was entirely composed of materials easily converted into cash, precious metals, or Chrono-Sand crystals. Within Quicksilver's workshop, these were the only things easily converted into money—or rather, the only things whose value could be clearly quantified. By comparison, they were precisely the least valuable items. After all, when it came down to it, anyone could have money, but could money buy Fluid Alchemy? Could it buy the blessings treasured away by a sage? Could it buy the hoard of long-discontinued materials resting in the storehouse? Many of them were uniquely paired with the workshop and Fluid Alchemy—one of a kind, irreplaceable. An astronomical sum on paper couldn't buy a single scrap of them. They had no market price, or rather, no price could even be put on them. Others existed only in barter trades between major workshops, where only the parties involved knew who got fleeced and who made a killing. If Ji Jue were shameless enough, he could have brought out the single item of the highest theoretical value: an Aether crystal. It was the control core of the entire Border Realm, weighing forty-one kilograms, flawless throughout, completely natural, and personally processed by Quicksilver to a purity that reached theoretical limits—an absolute marvel across the entire world! Whether used as the engine core of an island-class warship or the command hub for large-scale alchemical constructs, it was more than capable. On the open market, it could easily fetch billions, enough for castles, beauties, and yachts all at once. The only fly in the ointment was... after Quicksilver's modifications, it was only compatible with Fluid Alchemy. When applied to modern alchemy, regardless of the school, its efficiency plummeted to less than a tenth. Never mind selling it; holding onto strategic materiel like this would only bring endless trouble. Better to leave it at the bottom of the chest in his teacher's workshop. What was even more awkward was that the vast majority of this harvest was just like that. It couldn't be helped; even a sage had no surplus grain to spare. Centuries ago, to convert the Border Realm into a workshop, Quicksilver had already liquidated most of the valuable items in his collection. What remained was either heavily tailored to Fluid Alchemy—barely enough for Ji Jue's own future use—or so high-end that even grandmasters would find them exceptionally rare and precious. Cashing them in would be pure prodigality. As a result, upon reviewing his haul, Ji Jue realized that what was left to him was simply a massive pile of materials, with hardly anything that could be liquidated. Even so, he had already taken the lion's share of the benefits. So much so that his conscience ached with a dull pang of guilt. "Holy sh—" Tong Hua, finally back to her senses and banking on Wen Wen's protection, poked her head out from behind. Staring at the opened chests, her eyes lit up with the gleam of precious metals. "Did you two go to a Border Realm or rob a bank?!" Golden glints, rich oranges, silver sparkles, dazzling shines... As the only wealthy lady in their group, she casually estimated the total weight and value in her head, and couldn't help sucking in several sharp breaths of cold air. Beyond the intrinsic worth of the precious metals themselves, most of the items were antiques whose true value was nearly impossible to quantify. Most still bore the distinct style of the Eternal Empire era. If a massive hoard like this flooded the market, it might trigger an earthquake across the entire Federation's antique trade. As a Celestial Chosen of the Path of Aether, she instinctively picked up an exquisite, ornate clock, wiped away the accumulated dust with her sleeve, and took a delicate sniff. A rich, ancient aura washed over her. Ninety-nine percent genuine—a genuine rarity! Before Wen Wen could stop her, her eyes suddenly flared with light. An instant later, her vision went black. Like an innocent puppy kicked mercilessly, she let out a shriek of agony. "Aaaagh! My 24k dog eyes!" Clutching her eyes, she rolled around on the sofa. Beside her, Lao Zhang and Wen Wen were thoroughly accustomed to the sight; one pinned her down while the other administered eye drops. Ji Jue's face twitched. For the first time, he found himself genuinely admiring someone's sheer guts. If you said she was brave, she looked like she'd seen a ghost every time she saw him; if you said she was cowardly, she dared to peer into absolutely anything. The Yesterday Once More matrix allowed a Celestial Chosen to read past history and imagery by touching an object. Even along the Path of Aether, it was a rare and top-tier matrix. The problem was, over the past four hundred years, Quicksilver's retrospection within the workshop had practically never stopped. No matter how weathered an antique was, after undergoing such complex interference, its records had degraded into garbled text. It would be a miracle if anyone could make heads or tails of it! Who would have thought that a seemingly quiet, demure young woman would have such an iron skull! Faced with this small mountain of gold, however, Xiao An's reaction was far more composed. Or rather, from start to finish, he had no real concept of money and simply didn't care about it. *Since Brother Ji Jue says it's mine, I'll take it.* "Thank you, Brother Ji Jue." The boy smiled sweetly, shut the chest, and turned toward Wen Wen. "Sister Wen, could you help me store these away as well?" The bond between the four members of Beishan District was clearly far tighter than that of typical Security Bureau colleagues who merely worked in the same office. Their camaraderie ran deep. A few years back, not long after Wen Wen took office, her extravagant spending habits and refusal to take dirty money or deal with shady characters had left her running a deficit. On Tong Hua's suggestion, she set up a shell company. With no actual business operations, it primarily managed cash flow for the Beishan Section, functioning like an off-the-books departmental slush fund. Most of the Beishan Section's gray income flowed through it. Through Tong Hua's maneuvers and insider information, it even turned a profit through investments, allowing them to live comfortably. After all, if they relied solely on their meager base salaries, how could they possibly sustain the expenses of a Celestial Chosen? Once endowed with abilities and matrices, slacking off was easy, but making progress was exceedingly difficult. Equipment, potions, occult rituals, intelligence, rest and rehabilitation, medical care, training and advancing one's abilities, mastering skills and resource consumption, acquiring blessings and executing operations—everything required money. Even during the mess stirred up by Lawrence a while ago, the treatment and convalescence for most victims infected with Bloodthirst Syndrome had been charged to the company's account. Now, with such a massive influx of funds, their financial outlook would remain bright for a considerable time to come. Having received her eye drops, Tong Hua was no longer screaming. Now sprawled over the chests like a mythical dragon, she inventoried the haul while giggling uncontrollably. Once that matter was settled, Ji Jue cleared his throat with a solemn cough. Waiting until everyone turned their eyes toward him, he broke into a smile and lifted a backpack resting beside him onto the table. "The main reason I came all the way here today was actually this—*ta-da!*" Accompanied by Ji Jue's vocal fanfare, his very first official alchemical creation finally made its debut! Under the soft lamplight, a powered brace with a peculiar silhouette was revealed before everyone's eyes. It resembled an external supportive skeleton hugging close to the flesh. By securing multiple anchor points across the thigh, joint, calf, and ankle, it fulfilled the functions of both movement and support. The main body was milled from a single block of aluminum alloy, its structural strength and durability reinforced through alchemy. Guided by an ultra-lightweight design philosophy that stripped away every nonessential component, the total weight was astonishingly reduced to just over nine hundred grams. The power mechanism in the joint adopted designs from academic papers, implementing a simple magnetic energy storage structure via an Entropy insignia and spiritus circuits. When lifting and bending the leg, it absorbed a portion of the pressure and potential energy exerted by body weight and limb motion, releasing it during extension to minimize the user's burden. It could also automatically shift between walking, running, and jumping gears based on the force applied. When necessary, the wearer could even channel their own spiritus into it to achieve a brief burst of enhanced power. The length and specific dimensions were tailored precisely to Xiao An's build. This was a prosthetic custom-made specifically for the boy. Under the bewildered gazes of the others, Ji Jue offered no lengthy explanation, merely sliding it toward Xiao An. "Put it on and give it a try." "Huh?" The boy froze in surprise, staring at the prosthesis on the table. After a long moment, realization finally seemed to dawn. "Me?" Guided by Ji Jue, he rolled up his pant leg to reveal the harrowing iron spikes, then carefully fitted the brace onto his right leg. The process was not complicated. Once familiar, one could easily put it on or take it off with a single hand using just two buckles. The metal frame bypassed the long spikes above his knee and sat flush against his skin, acting in place of the joint to bear load, operating silky-smooth without the slightest noise. In the silence where even breathing was faint enough to ignore, Xiao An's body swayed slightly. Bracing his hands on the armrests of the sofa, he carefully pushed himself up once more. He felt a sensation he had never experienced before. He instinctively turned his head to look at Ji Jue. Ji Jue only smiled, gesturing for him to continue. And so, he gently took his first step forward. Then a second step, a third... The Path of the White Stag's innate balance and bodily control allowed him to rapidly adapt to the prosthetic's support. After just five steps, he was moving normally. Only then, as if waking from a dream, did he look back down at his feet planted firmly on the floor. He turned toward Ji Jue, a bright, overjoyed smile breaking across his face. "Looks like the base model works fine for everyday use." Ji Jue rubbed his chin, grinning smugly as he basked in that grateful gaze. Then, like performing a magic trick, he pulled several more frames out of the backpack and arranged them in a dazzling array on the table. "Next up, let's try the extended model, the reinforced model, and the ergonomic model!" With an entire afternoon at his disposal, how could he have made just one? With Non-Offensive in hand, crafting simple alchemical works like these was as fast as an assembly line—terrifyingly efficient. Besides, it was never complicated to begin with, and the design was straightforward. Stripping away all flashy, unnecessary gimmicks, it leaned fully into maximum lightweight construction, comfortable wear, and rugged durability. Great art conceals its craft, as the saying went. But for a novice, that was often harder; sometimes it was easy to under-engineer, other times easy to over-engineer. Striking the exact balance was always the trickiest part. Fortunately, under Professor Ye's supervision and guidance, that hurdle had been cleared directly, saving Ji Jue from endless trial and error. After examining the first finished piece, the professor had flagged several issues and sent it back for a redo. An hour later came the next iteration, revised and remade again. After three versions, they finally produced a prototype that appeared flawless in Ji Jue's eyes and "barely passable" in the professor's words. Then, with his momentum running hot throughout the afternoon, Ji Jue hadn't stopped for a second. Building upon the prototype, he produced a version for every variation he had envisioned. If time hadn't run out, he might have even rolled out a flashy dyed version and an LED glow version to make sure Xiao An shone like a beacon through every dark night. "Two sets of each model. If one breaks, just swap it out—no need to baby them or hold back." Ji Jue piled item after item into Xiao An's arms. "Give them a good test run over the next couple of days. If any issues pop up in actual use, let me know anytime. I can tweak and finish them whenever!" "It's a pity the materials are fairly ordinary, and the range of motion is somewhat constrained. In a real fight, it might actually drag down your mobility, so take it off whenever it gets in the way. "For daily use, though, it's more than enough." By now, after swapping through several different models in succession, Xiao An could put them on and take them off with ease. With such a simple design, routine maintenance wasn't complicated either: just spray some WD-40 wherever it didn't glide smoothly—foolproof upkeep. Seeing Xiao An running, jumping, and moving about freely, the ever-emotional Tong Hua was already leaning against Wen Wen, pulling out tissues with reddened eyes. "Waaaah, the baby can walk! Sister Wen, I'm so touched!" "Get off, get off, you're getting snot on my clothes... Xiao An isn't a toddler learning to walk for the first time! What are you so worked up about?" With mock disgust, Wen Wen picked her up by the scruff of her neck, moving her away to fend off the clinginess, though the smile at the corner of her lips didn't hide at all. "If you really want to thank Ji Jue, just don't pull any new stunts next time." Throughout it all, Lao Zhang rotated his iron walnuts, staying out of the commotion and merely watching in silence from the side. After a long while, he patted Ji Jue on the shoulder. "You did good, young man." In his long life, the old man had eaten, played, seen, and fought through everything. He had been dirt poor and filthy rich. As a weathered Celestial Chosen who had seen the world, what he ended up passing down to future generations was merely a massage technique unmatched across Haizhou. The money Ji Jue brought was certainly a welcome surprise, but compared to that, this was a gesture and a gift that money could never buy. Lao Zhang's lips parted, his voice focusing into a fine thread that slipped into Ji Jue's ear: "If any trouble comes your way later, just come find me." Ji Jue smiled, merely nodding slightly. If he truly cared about trouble, he wouldn't have made it in the first place. Yet, amid his thoughts, he suddenly felt a gentle weight against him. The boy who could walk again had stepped up before him, risen on tiptoe, spread his arms, and given him a soft embrace. His eyes seemed to sparkle, glowing bright, his face flushed with a smile that was pure and clear. "Thank you, Brother Ji Jue," he said. "Aha, hahaha, it was nothing, really nothing at all..." Ji Jue froze on the spot, his head tilting upward unbidden. Between sheepish chuckles, he took deep breaths. *Hold your ground, Ji Jue, hold your ground.* *God damn it, hang in there!* He felt that if he blushed right now, nineteen years of living as straight as an arrow would be completely ruined! Yet, wonderfully, beneath all of that, another feeling arose. Something beyond words. It felt as if he had gained something far more precious. For the first time in his life, he felt such pure, overflowing joy born from his own creation. *Is this what alchemy is?* He couldn't help looking down at his hands. His fingers slowly clenched into fists. He was already looking forward to his next lessons...