It Even Has to Thank Me!

The long night slipped away unnoticed. Inside the makeshift workshop set up in the carriage, Ji Jue only sluggishly realized morning had broken when the alarm went off. Thanks to his constitution as a Celestial Chosen, pulling an all-nighter didn't bother him in the slightest, not to mention he had rested plenty along the journey. When the furnace opened once more after a night of hard labor, brilliant silver light illuminated his eyes. "All done!" Ji Jue grinned broadly. "Thanks, Brother Ball!" [We're brothers, what's there to be polite about?] the puzzle ball replied calmly. [Haven't seen you in a while, but your skills have certainly grown. Looking at your current level, if you brush up on your theory later, you could actually go sit for a license.] "Still a long way off." Ji Jue shook his head. He knew his own limits best; he wasn't so full of himself as to think a few months was enough to leap across that dragon gate that had stymied countless people for who knew how many years. His skillset was far too lopsided. Among all his crafts right now, aside from his ever-improving Dissociation Art, the technique he practiced most deftly was Fluid Alchemy. After all, outside a workshop and combined with Non-Offensive, that combination was ridiculously handy—yet it was precisely the one thing he couldn't use to apply for a license. While his proficiency in modern alchemy wasn't low, practically all of it had been invested into practical execution. It couldn't be said to be purely his own effort either; the insights Deus Ex Machina granted while digesting Sovereign Virtue quintessence accounted for well over ninety percent. Without the theoretical foundation to back it up, he could only copy down the answers, unable to fathom why a certain number belonged where it did. Among the four fundamental skills, his proficiency in Purification and Synthesis was terrifyingly high, Ascension was mediocre, while Transmutation—which required experience, theory, and practice in equal measure—remained squarely at the apprentice level. To raise it, all he could do was burn cash and grind like mad; there were no shortcuts. Even if dumb luck landed him a license, he would only be able to churn out knockoffs and pirated copies, utterly devoid of real substance... Ji Jue couldn't stomach playing such a joke of a character, let alone Professor Ye, who would probably be tempted to clean house and purge him from her lineage. Better to take things one step at a time. "Come here." Ji Jue crooked a finger toward the interior of the furnace. Instantly, surging quicksilver gushed out, pouring itself into the open toolbox by his feet without requiring any manual control. It seemed no different from before it went into the furnace, but after a night of purification, all impurities had been purged, and the bone matter had vanished without a trace, replaced by a lustrous glow shimmering across the quicksilver's surface. Under the lamplight, like countless dense microcrystals, it refracted faint wisps of shifting color that rippled with endless subtleties. Ji Jue waved a hand and snapped his fingers. In an instant, the dormant quicksilver surged out, draping in front of him to form an iron wall. Unlike the pure metallic silver sheen of the past, this iron wall was faintly translucent, taking on the texture of crystal. [What the hell? Did you botch it, kid?] The puzzle ball's tone registered momentary astonishment before turning mocking: [If I'd known, that blessing would've been better off rotting in the vortex. What the heck did you make?] After all, the blessing Metallic Quality was meant to enhance the strength, hardness, and rigidity of any material, varying according to the user's comprehension of the Path of the Desolate Ruins and the amount of spiritus invested. There was no doubt about one thing: since it was called Metallic Quality, the closer to metal it was, the better! How did it turn into glassblowing in this kid's hands, laboring all night only to produce something like this? "Try it and find out." Ji Jue calmly flicked his finger. An offshoot extended from the iron wall—a sheet thin as paper, yet growing increasingly transparent under the infusion of spiritus! *Snap!* Out of thin air, an invisible force erupted. Then, a negligible hairline fracture suddenly appeared on that wafer-thin quicksilver crystal. Just as Ji Jue was about to crack a smirk, he saw the crystal snap clean in half! It dropped to the floor, rapidly collapsing into scattered liquid quicksilver. The finished product he'd poured so much spiritus and blood-sweat into had actually gotten sliced to pieces during testing? "What the hell?" [Holy shit!] At this moment, the puzzle ball was even more shocked than he was. [What the fuck is with this toughness?! What kind of dope did you take, kid?] To put some pressure on Ji Jue, even for a mere durability test, it had scaled the strike to the standard Professor Ye used in her tests. Never mind a wafer-thin sheet, even a full iron wall should have been obliterated into dust under that slash. Yet the test subject had actually managed to hold its shape? And during the strike, it had actually felt a brief, subtle snag, as if cutting through something substantial?! In other words, if the invested spiritus and the wielder's specs had been on par, that slash might well have ended in total failure... [Something's wrong. This composition... Minerva?] With a momentary scan by its analysis module, the puzzle ball realized. [When the fuck did you pick this up?] "That's a long story." Ji Jue instinctively touched his abdomen, but alas, the familiar crest was gone. He let out a soft sigh. Now that his horizons had broadened, he increasingly felt that using the Sword of Minerva back then to chop that old lightning geezer had been an absolute waste—gross overkill. During the smelting and forging of the Metallic Quality blessing, he had deliberately imitated the crystalline structure Sister Wen had created based on his own understanding. Regrettably, like attempting to draw a tiger and ending up with an oversized orange tabby, he hadn't fully matched it. Even so, it had elevated the theoretical strength ceiling of Metallic Quality by a massive bound. Surpassing metal was neither an exaggeration nor a metaphor. While it looked like a pool of quicksilver, its interior had replicated the structure of metallic crystals into untold layers and compositions, absorbing shock and vibrations while cutting off spiritus corrosion and dispersion. Both physical and magical resistances had practically been pushed to their theoretical limits, squeezing every drop of potential out of the blessing. According to Ji Jue's calculations, deployed at full strength, the quicksilver wall could easily withstand the blast impact of a dozen jin of phlogiston explosives. As for whether the person behind it would be concussed to death by the shockwave... well, that was another story. With this, his shortcoming in defense was temporarily patched up, and he didn't need to worry about it for the time being. After stowing away the puzzle ball, Ji Jue spent half the morning pacifying Little Niuma, who had suffered the trauma of watching its owner fawn over another vehicle and then endured a whole night of neglect. He nearly fed it the entire supply of poached chicken stored in the fridge before finally soothing its hurt feelings a little. "There, there, baby. I'm doing all this for our future together!" Ji Jue sighed with heartfelt earnestness, stroking the dashboard as he lamented, "I merely made a mistake that any ordinary engineer would make... Hey, don't be mad. Look, haven't we arrived at Quancheng already? "There are bound to be countless materials and treasures coming up. Won't you be able to gorge yourself on as much as you want? Of course, of course, I'll feed them all to you first! "Who am I doing this for? Isn't it all for you? For this family?!" The more he spoke, the quieter Little Niuma's honks became. Ji Jue's tone, on the other hand, grew indignant and stern: "Am I the kind of person who forgets you the moment I see a nicer vehicle? Am I not doing this just to earn more money and upgrade your chassis sooner? If I hadn't borne this humiliation and carried this burden, how could we afford such top-grade motor oil and lubricant? "You really need to reflect on yourself. You're not allowed to act like this next time, got it? Reflect quietly here, and I'll see how you behave when I return. If you do well, that winch set you had your eye on last time isn't off the table..." With that, leaving Little Niuma whimpering with its engine humming, Ji Jue strutted off toward the motorhome. Only the puzzle ball, having witnessed the entire performance, hesitated several times, at a loss for words. [Bro, if you keep being such a scumbag, I get the feeling your own car is gonna run you down and splatter you one day...] "Bullshit, what kind of talk is that?" Ji Jue glared in retort. "This is true love, the bond between a man and his vehicle, understand? It even has to say thank you to me!" Before the words had finished settling, a grateful honk sounded from behind. "See what I told you!" [...] The puzzle ball brewed a string of curses for ages, but in the end found itself rendered speechless. "Also, what was that strike earlier all about?" Ji Jue suddenly caught on and grew suspicious. "I didn't see you pull that off back in the Border Realm. Don't tell me I'm opening my heart to my brother while my brother's playing mind games with me?" [Bullshit! I'm here as your safety net, not your slave!] The puzzle ball flared up in rage. Now that the gaslighting was being directed at itself, it could bear it no longer: [My preset order is to keep you alive, not to be your handheld weapon! [Besides, you have to actually give me a chance to be useful! Instead you fucking transform... whip out whatever the hell that thing was, ridiculous beyond belief. What else could I do except play dead?] It was the puzzle ball's first time dealing with such a bizarre temporary user. Right at the threshold, it had been ambushed by the Prophet, nearly frying its core. The ones encountered afterward were an array of monsters and freaks—either a bunch of small fry Ji Jue dealt with himself, or ultra-heavyweights like corrupted quicksilver. It had been thwarted and sidelined practically the entire time. Though Ye Xian had never lent it to anyone else since its creation, the puzzle ball could tell: even among Ember Celestial Chosen, Ji Jue was in the absolute most fucking sinister tier. Besides, look at the underworld-tier stunts you pull! Embers' moral bottom line was already low enough, so how was there someone constantly scheming to dig a basement below it? At this moment, after the puzzle ball's profanity database spun madly for half a day, it could only offer a silent blessing: *I hope you fucking die a miserable death!* "Done so soon?" Inside the motorhome, Professor Ye was having breakfast. Seeing Ji Jue step in, she pointed to a seat. Immediately, someone brought over a plate, cutlery, freshly toasted bread, and hot tea. Ham and char siu garnished with greens looked utterly mouthwatering. This only strengthened Ji Jue's resolve to mooch meals here over the coming days! "Not finished yet. I don't have many great ideas at the moment, so I just did preliminary preprocessing. The fusion between the blessing and the quicksilver turned out quite well, and it can be perfected step-by-step later on," Ji Jue reported. "However, aside from the main body, the treatment process consumed quite a few materials." "Just spare consumables, it doesn't matter." Professor Ye was unconcerned. For non-essential items, the puzzle ball naturally wouldn't be stingy, while for genuinely rare and precious materials, it wouldn't dare bring them out without her permission anyway. Setting down her teacup, she wiped her hands, picked up the puzzle ball, seemed to read through its logs, and hung it back onto her thermos. Toward Ji Jue's smelting and crafting, she merely gave a faint nod. "Not bad." Ji Jue paused for a second, the corners of his mouth curling up uncontrollably, before he lowered his head to continue eating. After he finished, someone naturally cleaned up, sparing Ji Jue the trouble of bustling about to show courtesy. "Alright, let's go." Professor Ye picked up her thermos. "It's about time to go through the motions and report in, lest our peers think I look down on them." Though in reality, she truly did look down on them. Past early morning, the camp remained bustling with people coming and going. Numerous Military Department vehicles shuttled back and forth, and the patrols returning from the perimeter carried hints of fatigue. Several people stepping out of the mess hall after breakfast seemed to pale slightly upon spotting Ye Xian and Ji Jue from afar, lowering their heads and quickening their pace to scurry away. A few old geezers paused in their tracks upon seeing her, yet only gave a nod of acknowledgment without approaching. Watching this, Ji Jue couldn't help but scratch his head. It seemed their lineage didn't have the friendliest reputation in the industry. Then again, that made sense. If Professor Ye were to ever speak to people with gentle words and pleasant smiles one day, Ji Jue would suspect he'd wandered into some rules-based anomaly story. Now that he had arrived here, he couldn't help craning his neck to look around. He gazed outside the camp, toward the direction of the Quancheng ruins. Regrettably, there was only a blanket of white fog so thick nothing could be seen. In the faint, indistinct haze, there seemed to be the silhouettes and traces of structures, yet they were entirely indiscernible. Without turning her head, Professor Ye said, "Don't waste your effort. Over the years, countless measures have been applied, from subliminal repellent signals to Tianyuan isolation and Ember blockades. Nothing can be seen from the outside." "Didn't they say it collapsed? I don't see any signs of an earthquake or rift valley," Ji Jue asked out of curiosity. "It'd be strange if there were." Ye Xian shook her head. "The word 'collapsed' is relative to the material world and dimensional space, referring to proximity to Sovereign Virtue. Closeness to Sovereign Virtue makes it a sanctuary; distance from Sovereign Virtue makes it a wicked realm. "In terms of proximity, present-day Quancheng is probably on the verge of breaking away from the material world and drawing close to the vortex. Though still linked to the material world, it is practically akin to a Border Realm; it wouldn't be surprising if it fell completely at any moment." If it merely fell, that would actually be relatively fine. However, the region of Quancheng was immense. Once it fully collapsed into the vortex, it would likely puncture a massive hole right through the material world along with it, unleashing endless disaster. For all these years, it couldn't be elevated back up, nor could it be allowed to plunge all the way down. Hanging suspended right over everyone's soft underbelly, it was, in a word, excruciating. If this matter could truly be settled once and for all in a single stroke, it would unquestionably be a monumental blessing. The question was, could it truly be resolved? A question mark hung in everyone's heart. Yet the further he walked alongside Ye Xian, the calmer Ji Jue felt inside, though this sense of peace struck him as somewhat inexplicable. It was entirely subconscious. It was like stepping into a sanctuary; even with the Quancheng Catacombs right in front of them, he instinctively felt something to rely on. Not only his mind, but even his spiritus settled down. Its spontaneous overflow and dispersion vanished, circulating tamely and confined strictly within his body. As if wading through deep water, he felt the presence of resistance. Some invisible power enveloped the air, suppressing all chaos and strife, erecting rules and standards, making everything seem lucid, straightforward, and orderly. It was as though an unseen eye hung high above the heavens, overlooking all things. Witnessing everything. Unconcealed, yet making it difficult for anyone to feel resistance or revulsion. Within this domain, every movement of spiritus left a traceable path, and all fluctuations of abilities and blessings drew back in. It wasn't that they couldn't be mobilized, but rather like swords sheathed into scabbards; every change would be detected and understood. Even suppressed! Ji Jue had no doubt that such an exalted power was certainly not used merely for surveillance; if any disturbance arose, it would probably be suppressed with a flick of the hand. What shocked him even more was that even straining his perception to its limits, he could not reach the boundaries of this domain. It seemed to envelop the entire surrounding perimeter of Quancheng! This was simply too exaggerated... "This is why I told you to get out more. Staying stuck in your tiny plot in Yacheng will never broaden your horizons. Spend too long burrowing in petty corners, and you'll end up scheming for scraps with short-sighted vision." Ye Xian walked ahead, remarking casually, "This is a Domain of the Tianyuan lineage. "If a Celestial Chosen of the Transcendent Rank possesses an adequate matrix and blessings, once unleashed at full power, it forms a vast boundary capable of interfering with reality. You should have seen one already, right?" Ji Jue nodded. He recalled the crystalline domain that had frozen all of Mercy Hospital when Sister Wen and Lawrence clashed in earnest. Overriding reality with will, replacing phenomena with soul, inversely eroding the world with the self... reaching this level was like cutting open a Raw Stone to reveal peerless brilliance. Ji Jue asked curiously, "Only... maintaining such an enormous Domain every day, doesn't it get tiring?" "Who knows?" Ye Xian shook her head slightly. "For a Celestial-Human, it's probably only a minor strain—or perhaps, he simply doesn't care." Celestial-Human. Ji Jue's breath hitched slightly. Suddenly, his sense of security surged once more. A Celestial-Human... an existence that had breached the boundary between mortal and divine, truly touching Heaven's Mandate. Their power and capability were already beyond ordinary imagination. If a Celestial-Human took action, resolving the Quancheng matter might truly be feasible! His spirits lifted with newfound confidence. Walking ahead, Professor Ye seemed to sense something. She cast a strange glance back at him, almost with pity, but said nothing. Ten minutes later, Ji Jue already wanted to slap his past self across the face. What the hell was he thinking? Feasible, my ass! Everything's completely screwed, alright?! Hurry up and pack your bags to go home!