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Unable to kill? Holding the bone blade in his hand, Ji Jue showed not the slightest hint of distaste. On the contrary, he could hardly resist leaning in to plant a couple of kisses on it—*My, oh my, who knew you'd be such an understanding little sweetheart!* Not being able to kill was the best part! What era was this? Who still used knives to kill people? Anyone with a gun used a gun; anyone with a cannon brought out a cannon. How many people could you kill with a blade anyway? Besides, if someone died the moment you stabbed them, that would be truly disastrous... Dissipating spiritus, collapsing matrices, blessings returning to Sovereign Virtue—dealing with each of those in time was a frantic mess, and in the end, less than one in ten remained intact. If they couldn't die, he wouldn't have to worry about ruining his raw materials at all! Furthermore, dual interference with both flesh and spiritus offered endless utility in Ji Jue's hands. Whether paired with Non-Offensive to inflict destruction on inanimate objects, disrupting the operation of an opponent's internal matrix with Dissociation Art, or simply stabbing it in to sever the link and resonance between blessing and soul— And then conveniently extracting it at his leisure... Just thinking about it made his mouth water. Caressing the incessantly humming bone blade, he praised, "Such a merciful blade is a perfect match for a bodhisattva heart like mine! "Our bond was truly made in heaven!" "..." Standing nearby, Ye Xian watched with a cold eye. She could guess what Ji Jue was plotting without even using half her brain, because... she was thinking the exact same thing. In fact, her thoughts went even further. Constrained by his ability and horizon, Ji Jue couldn't pull off certain high-end maneuvers yet... A precious pearl smothered in dust! She coughed lightly, breaking her train of thought, and suddenly asked, "Have you decided on a name?" "How about 'Mercy'?" Without hesitation, Ji Jue held up the bone blade and praised, "Wounds without killing, delivers all living beings from suffering... truly a genuine blade of mercy." Ye Xian nodded in approval. Beside them, only Ye Chun couldn't help rolling her eyes and sighing soundlessly. *Mercy?* *What kind of thing could retain even a shred of mercy once it fell into the hands of a scoundrel like you!* *Showing mercy to a grindset dog like this is straight-up persecution of ordinary underachievers everywhere!* *It's decided. You inherently evil little Embers brat, I'm going to snatch your... paper right now!* While the two of them played out their little drama of benevolent teacher and filial student, her sneaky little hand crept toward the documents beside the table, pinching the edge bit by bit before lifting them. Only then did a seemingly casual cough sound from behind her. Turning around, she saw half a flash drive that Ji Jue had casually pulled out of his pocket earlier when fetching his things. *Tsk...* *I'll definitely make you second author this time!* *And next time too!* In the darkness, the floor rose, the ceiling descended, and lamps illuminated one after another, blooming with light. The customary spiritus offense and defense class—the one where he got beaten up—began once more. Professor Ye descended the stairs step by step. Looking at Ji Jue, she noticed his eager expression and immediately understood. "All right, come on, show off." She said, "Let me see what new tricks you've cooked up." "Teacher, saying it like that really breaks your student's heart." Ji Jue sighed. Holding that broken pocket watch in his left hand, he reached out with his right and plucked out a strand of spiritus light—completely intact, dancing in his hand like a candle in the wind. Then he shoved it back in, and plucked it out again. Under the control of his ten fingers, a wisp of faint animus bounded with effortless ease. In the end, as the material closed back up, it vanished without a trace, returning into Ji Jue's soul, nowhere to be seen. Yet the hallucinatory ticking of a second hand echoed by his ear, constant and steady. It made his smiling face look all the more delighted. "This is the proud result of all my painstaking efforts." In just a few seconds, the extraction and transplantation of the animus was repeated dozens of times—practiced, effortless, and without the slightest hitch. In merely a few days, compared to the clumsy, stiff handling she remembered, the progress defied all reason. It was practically as if he were a different person. Even his application of the Dissociation Art had reached a new level. It wasn't just his spiritus manipulation; his blessing had likely undergone a qualitative transformation as well, hadn't it? "Looks like you're quite proud of yourself indeed." Professor Ye nodded slowly in apparent approval. He actually had the guts to talk glibly in front of her... He certainly had gained something, proud enough to get carried away. But that didn't matter. Fine timber was precisely like this: no need for endless lecturing, watering, or fertilizing. With every bout of wind, frost, rain, and snow, it would always grow and yield a harvest. In other words... no matter how wildly it grew, so long as it was properly educated and pruned, he would surely shed arrogance and impatience and face reality. And ultimately be straightened out! Wasn't that the very purpose of a teacher? Ye Xian took no offense. On the contrary... for the first time in a while, a spark of anticipation rose within her! "Come on, let your teacher see for herself." She beckoned, urging, "Where's the surprise? Serve it up." Smiling, Ji Jue stood where he was without stepping forward. Instead, he drew the bone blade and sliced open his index finger. A thread of blood trickled down from his fingertip, dripping into the open-mouthed jar beside his feet. Instantly, a thread of crimson surfaced amidst the tranquil silvery white. Spiritus circulated. Like a living creature, the mercury writhed, rose, and undulated, shifting restlessly as Ji Jue's fingers guided it. Ye Xian's brow twitched slightly—Fluid Alchemy, growing more and more proficient. Using his own blood as a carrier for spiritus, infusing it into the mercury, he implanted a brand-new animus into the blank mercury and endowed it with a soul. "Not bad at all," Ye Xian "praised." "To think you came back from the Chrono Ruin having learned such a pretty snake-charming trick. If you can't make it as a craftsman in the future, you won't have to worry about starving to death." The corner of Ji Jue's eye twitched. He felt he had finally found the root cause of why his own tongue had grown increasingly sharp and caustic lately! "Be careful, Teacher, that's no snake." He sighed and cautioned, "At least, not just that..." In that instant, the mercury undulating across the ground suddenly shot forth like lightning! Like a shapeless monster morphing at will, sharp appendages sprouted from within, striking against the floor in near-springloaded bursts, shifting directions, transforming formlessly. Guided by the sweeping motions of Ji Jue's fingers, it changed direction with utter ease, splitting from one into two, and two into four. Circling around from the center, a sharp limb thrust forward from behind, stabbing straight out! *Smack!* Ye Xian casually flicked her finger. The mass of mercury shattered on impact, exploding into droplets. "Like I said, a snake-charming trick, nothing more." Ji Jue couldn't help widening his eyes. Discerning what had happened, he understood in an instant, and a bone-chilling dread washed over him... Air?! Just as she flicked her finger, the air at her fingertip had been subjected to the Embers branch's material property adjustments through her spiritus—aggregation, shaping, hardening, reinforcement—and then... Moxie's matrix applied "repulsion," launching a clump of compressed air faster than a bullet! Too many operations had occurred in that fleeting instant, yet they were executed without the slightest hitch, smooth as flowing water, condensed to the point of pure instinct. In the end, it produced destruction no weaker than a point-blank shotgun blast! Which meant... From the very moment Professor Ye stood within ten paces of him, Ji Jue had already been targeted by an untold number of gun barrels! No, it was far more terrifying than that. If she infused spiritus to grant it greater variation and destructive power, with Professor Ye's mastery, she could turn the air into self-propelled artillery shells at any time! If she were even slightly serious, not even Ji Jue's bones would remain! "At this rate, I can at least be considered somewhat serious, can't I?" Ye Xian cast an expressionless glance over. "Show your real skill, Ji Jue. Otherwise, your lesson is about to begin." "What are you talking about, Teacher?" Ji Jue smiled. "I've been taking this seriously all along." In that instant, Ye Xian finally noticed the gale whipping up behind her, right at point-blank range... Turning her head, her eyes widened slightly. At some point, a colossal behemoth with a ferocious silhouette had appeared right behind her... It was a silvery-white truck! In the span of a split second, the shattered, scattered mercury had coalesced anew, manifesting a brand-new form and roaring as it slammed violently toward her! At this moment, Ye Xian finally understood where the mechanical spirit carried within Ji Jue's blood had come from! Without a doubt, it was a tool animus he had swiped from some passing truck on his way here... Fluid Alchemy was simply far too convenient for this kid! An alchemy that conformed form to essence, paired with Ji Jue's ability to bestow mechanical animus at will and his craft of freely extracting and transplanting animi, could actually produce such an outrageous effect! Good, very good. A good student always got a teacher excited! The corners of Ye Xian's lips curved upward. With a casual wave of her hand, the moment her fingertips touched the front of the truck, the mercury truck blasted apart with a roar, turning into a sky full of flying silver rain. All flash, no substance. Right now, it was only enough to fool the eye. A hundred-odd kilograms of mercury was at most enough to put up an empty shell. Leaving aside the spiritus and effort required to harden it to the strength of steel, wasn't a truck's lethality derived from its mass and speed? Even a fool would consider such a simple problem. If Ji Jue only had tricks like this, where did his eager anticipation and excitement come from? Conclusion: a feint to draw her attention. A jar of mercury weighed about a hundred kilograms, yet what composed this truck was merely fifty-odd jin, and it didn't even include the purified mercury she had ordered. Then where was the rest? Where was the surprise?! *Bang!* Along with the thunderous crash of the collapsing truck, Ye Xian raised her other hand, fingers splayed, pointing straight at the charging Ji Jue. The air hardened, crystal-like patterns faintly surfacing within it, before fracturing with even more fissures in the very next instant! A flash of silver! From Ji Jue's sleeves, two streams of mercury surged out like ropes, whipping through the air. Their tips contracted into sharp blades, instantly crossing as they slashed down! Beneath the fissures, the mercury halted, suddenly snapping back into Ji Jue's hands, tracing a circular arc through the air before sweeping forward once more. Swiftly swelling, increasing in volume, gaining weight, hardening! Linked by interconnected chains, the mercury at the front had hardened into an iron hammer—smash! A massive boom erupted. The barely hardened air barrier shuddered, cracking open with more fissures. And right beside Ye Xian, the mercury that had burst from the truck cab into rain actually reconverged through the interplay of blood threads and spiritus. Letting out a convincing, shrill blare of a truck horn, it formed a massive wheel that rolled forward to crush her—only to be sent flying with a single punch. Ji Jue's eyes lit up. Finally, she used an actual move! Through the cracks in the air barrier, he finally saw the smile on Ye Xian's face—part satisfaction, part approval, or perhaps the sheer delight of *I can finally use a bit more force now.* As a teacher, one couldn't be strictly harsh all the time. One had to be patient and gentle once in a while... *For now, I won't use the Dissociation Art; I'll play with you for a bit!* Clenching her fist, knuckles grinding, wind and thunder stirred anew—the earth trembled, the heavens shook! A punch empowered by material reinforcement struck straight toward Ji Jue's face. The remaining air barrier, the giant mercury hammer—everything shattered on impact! A simple punch, yet in the oncoming storm, Ji Jue felt as if a battering ram were about to crush him head-on. His hair whipped wildly, his face twitched, and goosebumps broke out all over his skin. Without thinking, he raised both arms, crossing them in front of his face. *Boom!* In that instant, the destructive fist clashed head-on with silver light. Ripples churned, and countless drops of mercury splashed outward before sluggishly returning, crawling back up his body along his trouser legs. Ji Jue skidded backward several meters! He could barely stop himself. Yet this time, he wasn't sent flying? Ye Xian looked up, and what she saw was the silver light enveloping Ji Jue—layers of mercury surging, hardening, turning into an outer shell tougher than steel. A knockoff youth edition of Dragonscale Armor, modeled after Young Master Lou's spiritus shaping technique, had completely encased his entire body! Only the style was completely different... It was like forcibly welding an iron shell over a civilian construction power-assisted exoskeleton: crudely made, weld seams clearly visible, pieced together from bits and pieces, patched all over, yet brimming with a certain wild beauty. "Ehehe~" At the head of the mercury armor, the welding mask slowly lifted. Amidst the shimmering light, a preset emoji surfaced toward his stunned teacher: [√]