The Flaw

[Dear Mr. Ji Jue: We are pleased to inform you that you have been admitted to our hospital's standardized advanced training program. Attached is a list of required books and equipment. The term is scheduled to begin on November 1. We look forward to receiving your reply by October 31. Yan Xueqian Director of Medical Affairs, Attending Physician of Infectious Diseases, Hope Hospital] In the workshop's living room, Ji Jue stared blankly at the stationery in his hand. Turning to the second page, his gaze hurried past miscellaneous items such as "three plain work robes (white)." He read it front to back three times. When he finally snapped out of it, a cold sweat broke out across his skin. Especially when Professor Ye, seated across from him on the sofa, unhurriedly lifted her teacup for a sip and cast a deeply meaningful look his way... Ji Jue had never imagined this. He had only taken two measly days off! After being put through the wringer half to death in the Chrono Ruin, followed by one Security Bureau checkup after another, he had finally managed to take the kids out for a trip to the beach—only to come right back to the workshop and be greeted by this lethal piece of work. "I certainly didn't expect that after just a few days of vacation, you'd manage to pull off another new stunt for me," Professor Ye remarked with a sigh. "To have Hope Hospital trying to poach an Embers disciple... once word gets out, it'll be quite the feather in my cap as your teacher." "Teacher, this is a frame-up! A total frame-up!" Ji Jue crumpled the damn invitation into a ball and shouted at the top of his lungs, "My devotion to Tide Sound Workshop is whole and undivided! Teacher, you are the only sun in my sky!" Saying so, he shot a look at Ye Chun, calling for backup. "Right?" "Oh! That might not be so certain~" Sitting behind the desk, watching the drama unfold without an ounce of sympathy, Ye Chun stroked Xiao Jiu's metallic feathers and sighed with feigned melancholy. "I know. You went out and caused trouble again, and with the Security Bureau and the Tong family protecting you, you don't need a friend like me anymore. But now you come to me and say, 'Ye Chun, quick, put in a good word for me'... Just what have I done to make you disrespect me like this? You won't even call me Senior Sister." Fists clenched. Fists were definitely clenching. Ji Jue glared in indignant fury at Ye Chun's gloating expression, throwing all caution to the wind. *Thirty seconds east of the river, thirty seconds west of the river—do not bully the young and poor!* He abruptly reached down and pulled a freshly printed stack of documents from his backpack. "Teacher, I found some spare time over the past two days to write a paper: *A Brief Discussion on Spiritus Operations in the Severing of Flesh and Essence*. Please critique it for me. "Hm? By the way, has Senior Sister submitted her thesis yet? I remember she was still revising it last time..." Instantly, Ye Chun's smile froze on her face. She glared daggers at the tryhard grindset dog. Under her aunt's teasing gaze, Ye Chun's fists clenched as well. She immediately kicked him while he was down, heaping on slander. "Auntie, you can't let him fool you! He's deflecting! "Hurry up and expel this traitorous turncoat from our school! Otherwise, once this scoundrel grows into his power, you'll never wash the stain off your record in the academic world!" "Alright, that's enough." Having enjoyed the workshop's regularly scheduled weekly program, *Noobs Pecking at Each Other*, Professor Ye took the papers, skimmed them, nodded slightly, and set them aside. "The Security Bureau told me about what happened in the Chrono Ruin. You did well. Those pathetic lackeys of the Evil Transmutation Cult are good enough for target practice. "Don't worry about how I feel. I'm a teacher, not a babysitter. What you do once you leave the workshop isn't my business. As long as you know your limits." Just like that, she breezily brushed past all the trouble as if it were nothing. Only when she picked up the torn envelope from the table and caught sight of the hospital's emblem did she let out a cold sneer. "As for those lunatics from the Vortex path at the hospital, you don't need to worry about them either. They have no business coveting my apprentice. "Rest assured," she said. "I've already politely declined on your behalf." Accompanying her calm words, something translucent and indistinct seemed to briefly manifest in the sparse curtain of rain outside the window before vanishing in a flash. The blood on its face slowly washed away in the downpour, leaving only half a pale, waterlogged arm dangling from its mouth, swaying in midair. Just like that, amidst crunching chewing noises, it vanished entirely. *Gulp.* Ji Jue swallowed dryly. For a moment, he hesitated. *Teacher, if I may ask... isn't your way of 'politely declining' a little too direct?* However, the moment Professor Ye glanced over, he instantly sat ramrod straight. Docile as a chick. *Polite. Far too polite. Truly showing the magnanimous grace of a master!* "Those people at the hospital are like chewing gum—once they stick to you, you can't shake them off. Be careful in the future. Don't pull your punches when it's time to be blunt, or you'll only give them an inch to take a mile." Saying so, Professor Ye shook the envelope, and a card fell out. "Take it. It's for you." Ji Jue took it curiously and examined it. It bore only a phone number; the surface was crystal-clear, adorned with a large drawn heart. "What's this?" "The hospital's Diamond VIP card," the professor said indifferently. "If one day you feel like you're about to die, call that number. The hospital will unconditionally arrange an expert consultation for you. Of course, you still have to pay. So you'd best take it easy. Sometimes, compared to dying, being alive with insurmountable debt is an even worse fate." Ji Jue's hand trembled, nearly dropping the card. *What kind of nonsense is this?* It felt thoroughly ominous, possessing the peculiar beauty of delivering oneself to the butcher's block—like an idiot voluntarily lying down on an Embers operating table. Still, he tucked it away carefully. At the very least, it was a promise from the hospital. Even if the side effects and costs were beyond measure, it was still a life-saving talisman. It seemed the things he had handed over to Lao Zhang held at least some practical and innovative value. If they could be applied in the future, it would be some small comfort to the doctors in the Chrono Ruin, wouldn't it? "Is there more? Is there more?" Setting aside the irrelevant matters, Ji Jue rubbed his hands together, his eyes shining as he looked at Professor Ye. The true main event. "..." Watching his impatient look, Professor Ye shook her head slightly and let out a silent sigh. Back when she was a student, she had never heard of a teacher's duties including an appraisal service. Back then, they hadn't possessed so many bizarre things, nor had anything been this eerie. Every single item he brought back made her wonder if modern alchemy was on the verge of extinction. She reached out and tapped the tabletop. Instantly, a bone blade over forty centimeters long emerged from behind the workshop's layers of occult rites, returning before Ji Jue. Fluorescent light rippled across its glaze-like edge, dreamlike and surreal. "...A masterpiece of nature," Ye Xian murmured with downcast eyes, feeling her fists itch more and more. She felt a burning urge to pummel a certain apprentice surnamed Ji—how in the world did this bastard have such absurd luck? *How could he even run into something like this?!* Or was staying in the workshop doing research completely pointless? Should she go outside for a stroll sometime too? Why did some people lie quietly at home, only for a Chrono Ruin to bizarrely knock on their front door and come with this kind of windfall attached?! Lifting the bone blade, she gazed at the flowing luminescence and its seamless, flawless form. No matter how harsh she tried to be, only a single evaluation formed in her mind: [Crafted by Nature]. A genuine masterpiece of nature. From Ji Jue's description, she had already pieced together what had occurred. Through a confluence of chance, the powers of Sovereign Virtue and Vile Folly had converged, using Non-Offensive's creation and interference as a foundation to circulate and transmute within the Chrono Ruin... Ascension's blessing, Abyssal Void's essence, White Manor's corruption, Embers' witness, and the doctors' obsession and Mercy had all fused into one. After passing through the four stages of Ascension, Purification, Transmutation, and Synthesis, it had ultimately taken shape in Ji Jue's hands. The Chrono Ruin as the furnace, Heaven's Mandate as the artisan. With Ji Jue himself as the kindling, all the exacting conditions had intersected, presiding over everything, and the end result was this bone blade. It could not be replicated, could not be reproduced, and its profound mysteries could never be fully plumbed through any method. One of a kind. Throughout the entire process, the presence of a craftsman had not even been strictly indispensable. Yet the crux lay in the fact that, as the central hub where Sovereign Virtue, Vile Folly, blessings, and spiritus intersected, the changes felt, the essence circulated, the experience gained, and the comprehension acquired were enough to drive any craftsman mad. Every naturally formed creation was enough to cause a craftsman's skill and capability to advance by leaps and bounds, transforming them into an entirely different person. The absurd part was that an opportunity countless craftsmen dreamed of day and night—something sought after but rarely found—came to Ji Jue as easily as cabbages in a market! Counting Little Niuma from before, this was already the second time! What was even more absurd was that Ye Xian felt this certainly wouldn't be the last time in the future... Wouldn't anyone consider this a bit too bizarre? By comparison, even the bone blade seemed normal. "There are no drawbacks or side effects. Use it with peace of mind. To you and you alone, it is completely harmless." Professor Ye handed the bone blade over. "Aside from you, it will not respond to anyone else's commands or calls. It won't even accept their spiritus." This was the most regrettable part. Otherwise, with the bone blade's quality and achievement, rating it as a Celestial Craft would have been well within reach, effortless. An apprentice without even an official license personally crafting a Celestial Craft? Such a spectacle would have slapped countless useless fools in the face. In Ji Jue's grasp, the bone blade—parted from him for only a brief period—hummed warmly, showing neither friction nor resistance. As the fluorescent light rippled, the glazed edge appeared increasingly dreamlike, ethereal and elusive. Like a phantom bubble. The Abyssal Void essence left behind by the abomination had originally consisted of pure spiritus, while the physician's obsession with Ascension was a minuscule, drifting, indestructible thought. Once the two combined, the bone blade had thoroughly transformed into an existence bridging the material and the spiritual. Half-matter, half-spirit. Because of this, it could dismantle and destroy both matter and spiritus simultaneously, while possessing immense restraint over all living organisms. At the same time, merely gripping the blade allowed spiritus communication to transmit the vast knowledge, experience, and instincts left behind by the physicians, turning the wielder into a top-tier surgeon. It was the natural enemy of all Vortex creations. If infused with enough spiritus, it might even punch a hole through Lao Zhang when his Golden Body was fully deployed. Though, before that could happen, Ji Jue would likely be completely drained dry. If used for slaughter, it would be a divine weapon! The pity was... its user was restricted to Ji Jue, meaning it could hardly unleash any destructive power. Furthermore, it could not kill people. Yes, exactly—this blade could not kill anyone! Not just humans; it could not kill any living creature... It actively resisted any lethal act. Even if Ji Jue plunged this blade into someone's forehead and stirred it around for half a day, the phantom blade would not inflict the slightest injury. Even if it pierced a soul, aside from necessary surgical operations, it would leave no damage upon the soul whatsoever... It was purely a scalpel intended solely for treating illnesses, saving lives, excising corruption, and performing emergency surgery! "I've already tested it," Professor Ye told him. "Its identification and judgment are extremely flexible, so don't count on finding loopholes or exploiting oversights. Just accept its flaw honestly and use it as an auxiliary tool. "Though it might not necessarily resist if you force it, deliberately using it to cause harm could damage its essence and spirituality. The losses would far outweigh the gains." Hearing this, Ji Jue remained stunned for a long while. "Aside from that?" he asked curiously. "What was the 'flaw' you just mentioned?" What flaw? Why hadn't he noticed? Weren't these all advantages?