Discarding any concern for consequences, with no intention of salvaging parts for reuse, all that was needed was the purest, most thorough destruction!
After so many days spent taking apart similar equipment, every structural detail and weak point had long been memorized. There were no secrets left.
Now, with a wave of his five fingers, spiritus turned into blades. Pervasive and penetrating, it swept swiftly and effortlessly across the junction points on every level, followed immediately by a chain reaction of collapse and ruin!
With just a nonchalant forward thrust, a piercing shriek capable of shaking the soul abruptly erupted.
Convulsing violently, the aberration split with fissure after fissure, spewing vast quantities of aberrant spiritus like bloody water. Once the containment unit's core was obliterated in an instant, the aberration that had parasitized and fused with it completely lost its heart and life.
Only a twisted soul, crammed with untold hatred and madness, abruptly contracted under a final surge of venomous malice and curses, as though trying to tear free from its husk.
It burst forth from containment in a dying death-spasm.
Right toward Ji Jue, who stood right in front of it!
"Hey!"
Lou Feng's expression shifted drastically. He cried out, "Care—"
The moment the anomaly appeared, he had been the first to sense it. After all, from the moment he became a Celestial Chosen until now, he had undergone countless training sessions centered on his spiritus shaping ability, making him naturally perceptive.
Yet Ji Jue, standing at point-blank range, could just as easily sense the violent torrent on the verge of detonating like a bomb.
And yet he seemed utterly unbothered.
He even looked up and flashed a smile in appreciation of Lou Feng's concern.
At the very last fraction of a second, the finger he had stretched out lifted ever so slightly. In an instant, a glittering silver curtain rose from the pool of quicksilver, interposing itself before him.
*Idiot!*
Lou Feng was furious, almost cursing aloud again: even if quicksilver's material properties enhancement was pushed to the absolute max alongside a blessing, how could it possibly have any... effect against a spiritus shockwave and the erosion of corruption?!
*Holy shit?!*
*What the hell?*
*What the fuck am I looking at?!*
In that single breath, Lou Feng felt as though his eyes were playing tricks on him.
The crimson torrent of spiritus erupting from containment slammed head-on into the silver curtain—and then vanished without a trace, as if plunging into a bottomless abyss.
The instant it realized something was wrong, the writhing corrupted spiritus seemed to struggle to break away, but it was already too late.
Like a rat stepping onto a glue board, it thrashed and rolled frantically, yet only sank deeper. No matter what it did, it could not pull free from that thin sheet of quicksilver.
At Ji Jue's command, the quicksilver spread across the floor rapidly surged, converging from all directions into a cube precise down to the millimeter.
Then it rapidly contracted!
Inside the cube, something still seemed to thrash and slam with wild frenzy, pressing a series of writhing contours against the surface, yet it remained powerless to break free from the quicksilver's binds.
In the end, the steadily shrinking cube dwindled to the size of a fist, entirely pitch-black, with lines of crimson patterns slithering and writhing across it.
It detached from the pillar of quicksilver supporting it and dropped neatly into Ji Jue's hand.
*New material, acquired!*
Ji Jue grinned.
Using material properties to reverse-influence spiritus, using mundane form and vessel to shackle internal sublimation and transcendence, ultimately achieving the effect of Mind Enslaved by Form!
This was Solid Alchemy—diametrically opposed and fundamentally contradictory to Fluid Alchemy in both conception and foundation!
Using this technique for the first time outside the workshop, Ji Jue had not anticipated results this good.
The more his attainment in Fluid Alchemy progressed, the more outstanding the results when he applied its core principles in reverse to execute Solid Alchemy. Though completely antithetical, the two complemented each other.
At the end of the day, both were rooted in the foundations of matter and spirit, form and quality.
In that brief moment of reflection, another insight blossomed in Ji Jue's mind.
Turning back to look at Lou Feng, who had finally landed and caught his breath, Ji Jue reached out and clapped him on the shoulder.
"Thanks for the teamwork," Ji Jue said. "Nice fighting!"
Yet as Lou Feng watched Ji Jue walk away as if nothing had happened, he froze where he stood, lost in thought, his back drenched in cold sweat before he even realized it.
*Oh crap!*
His chest and sphincter tightened at the same time: *Was that move just now aimed at my spiritus shaping?!*
Young Master Lou felt a chill run through him, as if his entire body were crawling with hyper-competitive tryhards.
—That bastard still hadn't given up on coming after him!
When Ji Jue stepped back out through the swirling dust, what met his eyes was a sea of eager faces waiting outside the workshop. They were full of hope, yet none dared speak, nor did they know what to ask.
Not until Ji Jue smiled and waved. "Don't worry, everyone. It's dealt with. The damage wasn't big. If we move fast, we can resume work in a little while."
Instantly, cheers and shouts erupted without end. Relief and excitement from surviving a catastrophe washed over every apprentice's face. Forgetting all decorum, they surged forward to embrace Ji Jue, along with Lou Feng trailing sluggishly behind him.
No one held back praise or gratitude.
This was a genuine, life-saving favor!
If the Recycling and Disposal Department had truly been devastated because of this, not a single one of them would have escaped joint liability. Even the supervisor, who had been in a fit of helpless rage earlier, now clutched Ji Jue's hands, on the verge of shedding two grateful pearls of tears.
"Don't worry, Mr. Ji. This is a major merit..."
"Is that really necessary?" Ji Jue suddenly said.
"Huh?" The supervisor was stunned.
"No, what I mean is, since no real damage was caused and no irreversible consequences occurred, at most we only lost a batch of storage units."
Ji Jue continued casually, "This matter... could actually just not exist, right?"
The supervisor stood frozen.
"This..."
In all honesty, for everyone involved, that was the best possible outcome.
Make big issues small, and small issues vanish.
A major aberration breach would become a minor contamination error that triggered an alarm. Minor leaks were inevitable in this line of work anyway. Without severe repercussions, it would amount to nothing worse than a reprimand or two—hardly harmful.
At worst, they'd dock a bit of pay.
So what?
Who cared about a few hundred or a thousand bucks of dead salary a month?
The only ones taking a loss would be Ji Jue and Lou Feng, who could have earned substantial merits from this. Yet Lou Feng merely glanced at Ji Jue and kept his mouth shut.
As for Ji Jue, he didn't care about such petty merits in the first place.
With his teacher backing him, would he ever need to worry about going hungry?
For a moment, not only the supervisor, but even the apprentice standing to the side—who had been forcing a smile to mask his grief—stood frozen in place.
"W-Why...?" the injured apprentice stammered, incredulous, barely able to keep his footing.
"When I first arrived, weren't you the one who showed me the ropes?"
Ji Jue looked over with a puzzled expression. "From protective gear to operating procedures, you guided me back and forth for ages. You were so worried I wouldn't understand, and it cost you quite a bit of time, didn't it?
"If this were an assembly line in a factory, I'd have offered you a cigarette and called you Master."
With that, he gave a careless laugh and patted the apprentice's shoulder.
"Just lending a hand. Don't take it to heart."
The Recycling and Disposal Department was a place where people traded their lifespans for a future.
Apprentices lacking talent, money, or the favor of their mentors—desperate to scrap for the slightest scrap of merit, hone skills others had mastered long ago, or unable to refuse the workshop's assigned quotas—had no choice but to come here as beasts of burden, putting their heads down to turn the millstone in hopes of winning a tomorrow.
That was why beasts of burden looked out for one another.
Even when faced with an 'elite young master' parachuted in from above, someone had patiently repeated safety regulations time and again. Even when annoyed, they had carefully explained every step to keep him from getting hurt.
Times had changed. Ji Jue had already escaped that sea of misery, but compared to the refined young lords and ladies boasting in the lounge, he still preferred the people who kept their heads down and worked hard beside him in the workshop.
Even if he missed out on this bite, he had plenty of others. But a bite so insignificant to him, when placed on the other side of the scale, might represent the hopeful future several people were banking on.
Since he lost nothing anyway, why not?
"I... I..."
The apprentice stood dazed, wanting to speak, but choked back a sob as tears welled in his eyes.
Ji Jue didn't wait for him to finish.
"Hey! Did everyone hear that? Old Zhao says dinner is on him!" He turned and raised his voice. "One dish per person, pick whatever you want from the cafeteria!"
"Holy crap, for real?"
"So generous? Count me in!"
"Can I get takeout?"
Amid the relief and lightheartedness of surviving a crisis, several apprentices chimed in. Zhao Yan choked back another sniffle, smiled gratefully, wiped his face, and called out:
"Everyone go! Everyone! My treat!"
In the lightened mood, repairs and cleanup inside the workshop accelerated. At this rate, normal operations could resume in just a few hours.
The only thing left was waiting for the delivery of a new batch of containment units.
Once the crowd had mostly dispersed, a familiar voice sounded from behind Ji Jue, carrying its usual solemnity: "Failing to report a major safety incident carries serious liability. You should know that, right?"
Ji Jue turned around in surprise, brows furrowed. But the moment he saw Tong Shan's face, he broke into a grin.
"Well well, Director Tong! Long time no see! You came out here too?"
"Practically all the Security Bureaus across Haizhou have arrived in waves. I couldn't just sit in an air-conditioned office forever." A faint smirk seemed to tug at the corner of Tong Shan's mouth. "Otherwise, I wouldn't have caught you red-handed trying to cover up an incident, would I?"
"Incident? What incident?" Ji Jue said innocently. "How come I didn't see one?"
"Even if you don't say anything, it won't stay hidden long. The alarm was tripped and made quite a ruckus. An investigation would uncover it easily." He raised a brow, glancing toward the sky. "Don't forget where we are."
Ji Jue sighed helplessly.
*The Heavenly Eye watches above.*
Lying under the noses of the Celestial-Humans was truly no simple task.
Only then did he hear the slow, measured conclusion of Tong Shan's sentence: "That said... how the report is written is another matter entirely."
"Hm?"
Ji Jue sensed something in the air.
Tong Shan continued, "'Faced with an insidious attack by the Evil Transmutation Cult, the Recycling and Disposal Department, led by apprentices Ji Jue and Lou Feng, courageously battled a Rank A corrupted aberration. Not only did they neutralize it safely, but they also defended the workshop and department, ensuring ongoing operations and efficiency...'
"Do you think that report sounds inspiring enough?"
Ji Jue stared with eyes wide, struck speechless.
*Holy shit, is this the professional standard of a Federation civil servant? No, is this the difference between a common peasant and the First Department Director plus Bureau Chief Assistant of the Yacheng Security Bureau?!*
*He just spun an accident directly into a victory dispatch!*
At best, Ji Jue could only think to make big issues small and sweep things under the rug. Yet the moment Plant Tong opened his mouth, he punted the blame so high into the stratosphere Ji Jue couldn't even see it—and when it came down, he'd slammed it squarely onto the heads of the Evil Transmutation Cult!
Ji Jue had been at the outpost for so long and hadn't even seen a single living cultist yet, damn it!
"Aberrations don't arise without cause. An audit of the salvage teams is definitely necessary. Besides, stirring up some noise will tighten the lax discipline around here lately, saving those people from getting too full of themselves.
"Those madmen huddled in Quancheng won't just sit waiting for death. Who knows how they'll strike back in a few days."
Tong Shan glanced at Ji Jue. "I'll push this forward on behalf of the Yacheng Security Bureau. Rest easy."
That was the crucial point.
Sometimes, with the exact same report, having one extra official stamp versus missing one produced completely different results. On a matter like this, an apprentice like Ji Jue had no weight; his words carried zero volume. But Tong Shan, speaking on behalf of the Yacheng Security Bureau, carried resounding authority.
Besides, with a collective honor—second-class at minimum—falling straight from the heavens...
Who would turn that down?
"Oh my goodness, if it isn't my Brother Shan?!"
In the brief silence, Ji Jue slapped his thigh, beaming from ear to ear. "Come, sit, please sit! Take the seat of honor! Old Lou, tea, hurry up and pour some tea!
"Go fetch that pack of Da Hong Pao from the bottom of my trunk!"
Beside them, Lou Feng rolled his eyes so hard they nearly flipped back, completely unwilling to speak.
*There's nothing in that battered crate of yours except wrenches and screwdrivers! What bloody Da Hong Pao?! You dump whatever cheap tea into a giant kettle, brew two liters at a time, let it steep overnight, and on top of that, you freeloader, every last tea leaf you own came from me!*
"You little rascal..."
Only after sitting down on the chair Ji Jue dragged over did a faint trace of a smile finally emerge on Tong Shan's stern face. He suddenly asked, "Can you do me a favor?"
"Who are we killing?"
Ji Jue's eyes lit up.
Chapter 191