Out of the Capsule, Feeling Good

The workshop was dead silent; no one answered. Yet in that quiet, the severed head in Ji Jue's hands seemed to twitch slightly, as if curious. But that was merely an instinctive spasm amidst the erosion of corruption. Its pupils remained blank and hollow. "It really gets lonely. It's been so long since anyone spoke." Ji Jue sat in his chair, stroking the head with a sigh. "Good thing you dropped by for a visit. If this dragged on any longer, I'd probably have had to find a volleyball, draw a face on it, and make it my friend." The head remained mute, true to the empty nature of a mirror puppet. "In your eyes, what does the world look like?" Ji Jue asked with curiosity. "Not what's right in front of us, nor what lies further away, nor this Luye Island. I mean this world." He raised five fingers, flexing and curling them. "The sensations of touch, the wind blowing against my face, the scent in the air when the rain falls, the intervals between heartbeats, the pulse—every bit of it is completely identical to reality. "A couple days ago, I tried performing minor surgery on myself. Even the condition of my internal organs was indistinguishable from the real thing. To achieve such astonishing realism, this must be an extraordinary Celestial Craft, right? "So, have you ever considered that maybe there isn't much difference between this false world and the real one? "Even though I know it's fake, that all of this must be an event simulation, and that there are very likely invisible walls or other barriers—" Ji Jue shrugged. "I just can't help myself." So why not give it a shot? Besides, the opportunity was right in front of him, and you couldn't just walk past without taking it. Since he was already here, and life was still young... "Anyway, once the duel ends, everything will be restored, won't it?" He surveyed his surroundings and asked softly, "Then why not take advantage of the duel while it's still going, and test my limits?" At that instant, accompanied by a vast echo like an ebbing tide, mercury surged within the walls. Driven by the roar of pumps, it functioned like a hydraulic press, unfolding layered containment structures from deep beneath the nine earths. The workshop rooted in the leylines slowly, steadily rose... And so the earth split and the mountains crumbled. Phlogiston explosives buried within the rock face detonated in chain reactions, whipping up blast waves. Blazing fire and roaring gales swept outward, instantly vaporizing rainwater. Mud slid downward like an oncoming tide. And the towering mountain, peeled open like an orange, laid bare the cold metallic gleam within. The workshop operated and rotated, turning like a Rubik's cube. Guided by tracks, the immense structure rose, unfurling layer after layer. And right upon the mountain's summit, behind blast doors that slowly ground open, a darkness as deep as an abyssal well was revealed. Then, mercury flowed upward against the stone, hardening into a massive, gleaming silver shaft in the blink of an eye. Once freed from the constraints of the other modules, the core crucible workshop shrank its walls and ceiling, gradually rising under the support of the mercury. Like a bullet loaded into a chamber! Countless mercury hands reached in from all directions. Welding sparks flashed, sealing Ji Jue and his 'guest' inside. And when the final rivet was driven into the steel, the crude, grotesque rocket had already been drawn into place on the launch rail! Looking up from the end of this metal shaft, all that could be seen was the torrential rain and pitch-black storm clouds, hiding the distant night sky and stars. In the darkness, there was only void. "To tell you the truth, my earliest dream as a kid was to become an astronaut." Amidst the rushing flow and transformation of the quicksilver garment, a pressure suit formed over Ji Jue, bundling him up like an oversized giant. Along the way, it encased his vital guest into another container. Placed right beside his hand, it did nothing to interrupt the lively conversation. "Later, after I got into Tianmen, I actually thought: if I could become an engineer, I'd send my resume to the Federal Space Agency! Even if I couldn't be an astronaut myself, building a rocket that landed on the moon would still count as a dream come true, wouldn't it? "Too bad that dogshit Congress scrapped the moon landing program just to screw around with some space war... "To hell with space wars, space-based weapons, and orbital strikes! "Who gives a fuck?!" Ji Jue cursed, slamming a fist onto the box holding the head. "How could a bunch of bureaucrats whose brains are stuffed with corruption and power ever appreciate the beauty of technology and exploration, right? "Counting on those idiots to contribute to aerospace one day? I'd rather do it myself!" *Boom!* Amidst a tremendous crash, the retaining clamps detached, melting into liquid mercury that flowed off in all directions. The crucible ran on severe overload. Waves of searing heat rose inside the cramped cabin, and amidst violent tremors, grayish-black flecks of spiritus light burst forth. Inside the reaction chamber's battery array, the souls of evil spirits wailed and shrieked silently within the crucible's flames, shattered and squeezed until they were reduced to ash. In their place, blood-red plumes of fire erupted from the thrusters below! "Don't be scared! This is one small step for modern alchemy, but one giant leap for human spaceflight!" Strapped into the layered, heavily armored safety harness, Ji Jue patted his 'roommate's' container and cheered. "With this on our resumes, even if we run for Chief in the Wild Gathering someday, we can tell the brothers: 'I led the crew all the way to the moon!' Right?" *BOOM!* A thunderous detonation erupted outside the layers of containment. The earth shook violently as savage flames surged, blasting upward through the narrow metal shaft. In an instant, a dazzling pillar of blazing light shot into the heavens, piercing the torrential downpour and tearing through the gloom, as if recklessly determined to burn away all darkness. A bladelike radiance pointed straight toward the vault of heaven! *** Before the floating luminescence of the Tower of Myriad Transformations, Jiang Tongguang watched the projected scene and couldn't help shaking his head. "Seriously, aren't you going to stop him?" Even if the Tower of Myriad Transformations, as a Celestial Craft, could perfectly simulate an entire world and even preview the future to a certain extent once provided with parameters and events... Such observation did not come without a price. The more it deduced, the more detailed it became, the more individuals and targets were involved, and the vaster the outcome, the more terrifying the consumption of spiritus and Sovereign Virtue essence of Aether became. Merely joining forces to push the mobilization request through the Council had already drawn numerous warnings. While the simulation was confined to the bounds of Luye Island, it remained within the limits of what the Association could bear. Once Ji Jue successfully took off, whether he succeeded or failed, reconstructing the mortal realm and the cosmos during the deduction would undoubtedly exceed acceptable parameters. Yet through it all, Gustav remained completely still, watching with folded hands. "Did he break any rules?" Gustav countered. "Isn't exploiting the mechanics part of the exam as well?" "..." Jiang Tongguang sighed. "I always get the feeling that if we leave this kid alone, he'll launch his workshop right past the troposphere... Fuck, wait!" He jerked to sudden alert. "That's not what he's planning, is it?!" "You're only just realizing that?" Gustav cast him a glance, waved his hand, and brought up another projection. "He isn't the only one. Andrei, the Clock Tower's Old Dragon's disciple, has already begun planning to shatter the leylines and detonate the volcano to sink the entire island of Luye just to verify his own hypotheses..." "..." Jiang Tongguang fell silent. After a long pause, he let out a helpless sigh. "Kids these days are truly terrifying. Even back in my day, I never dared turn heaven and earth upside down like this..." Gustav sneered. "Was it that you didn't dare, or that you didn't want to?" Jiang Tongguang merely shrugged. Almost as if harboring regret. And so they silently watched as the dazzling radiance grew brighter and brighter within the drifting light before them. *** Between the stormy sea and sky, amid the endless black rain, an immense metal creation spewed blazing light, reaching a hand toward the vault of heaven like an awakening titan. Countless billows of mercury vapor dispersed, burning the sky above all of Luye Island into a brilliant silver-white. Having shed the vast majority of its nonessential structures, the workshop core—now converted into a rocket—rose from the deep shaft, pulling against the earth's gravity as it climbed into the heavens inch by inch! Even compared to an actual aerospace rocket, Ji Jue's creation reeked of crude improvisation inside and out. Even the relevant data and mechanical calculations had only been roughly estimated once. Operating on an overload that bordered on self-destruction, with countless gaps and controls patched together by alchemy, the thermal tiles composed of fluid mercury were vaporizing and crumbling away at a rate visible to the naked eye. The outer cabin shell rapidly melted and fractured, falling toward the earth like peeling scales. *Boom!* Midway through the air, another fiery burst of detonation erupted. Having jettisoned its aft booster structure, vast quantities of phlogiston were converted. The rocket above the firmament belched furious light, accelerating once more through the purest method of sheer, unadulterated thrust! Even the severe corruption, hyper-energized by the spiritus, was transformed into an accelerant. The crimson flames resembled blood, writhing and surging like living things, revealing a hideous, ruthless visage. Looking down from the high altitudes... The ocean churned and surged as if boiling. Colossal tidal waves rose from nowhere and swept past in howling roars. Between the vast sea and sky, the island below looked like a fragile, drifting leaf, teetering on the verge of ruin. And in the flashing lightning, one could glimpse a terrifying silhouette in the distance, resembling a mirage. An eerie, immense shadow that made one's scalp tingle. The once-empty world suddenly felt like a cramped cage. When that faint segment of a body rolled and surfaced from the seawater, it whipped up a storm that engulfed and permeated everything... A single claw, a solitary scale, exposed for only an instant, etched an indelible shadow upon the observer's mind. The so-called Nether Sea Worm! Even an inadvertent glance was like a bucket of icy water poured straight through Ji Jue's skull, wiping away the faint complacency that had risen in his heart. Compared to a power truly capable of poisoning the world and destroying all things, an artisan no different from a speck of dust was simply too minuscule. Yet what did being minuscule matter? Ji Jue didn't care in the slightest. Closing his eyes, amidst the rapidly mounting gravitational pull, he hummed silently and spread his arms. At this moment, neither the dark world nor the torrential gales could obscure that tiny spark of light. Like a star breaking free from the shackles of endless night, returning to the heavens! *Boom!* When the second booster stage detached from the warped hull, the boundless storm clouds and lightning vanished without a trace. He was already soaring above the black clouds. The dark world seemed to welcome light once more. Flickering constellations blinked in the far-off night sky, like curious eyes. Looking down now, the earth appeared to slowly warp. From high in the celestial vault, the vast, flat world gradually revealed its true contours. Amidst the dead silence, there were only the violent vibrations and cracking of the hull, with mercury rushing to seal the breaches. As fissures surfaced across the crucible, scorching heat spread outward, driving the core cabin's temperature up by hundreds of degrees. Yet the altitude kept climbing... Accompanied by Ji Jue's cheers. He continued to ascend toward the higher firmament, breaking free of all restraints, greeting freedom. Even if it was all an illusory dream, even if this freedom was merely an apparition within a dream, so brief and fleeting, it was already enough to intoxicate his soul. *Boom!* The final propulsion engine detached from the riddled hull and plummeted toward the world below. Inside the fractured cabin, the crucible shook violently before shattering, leaving behind only a single wisp of faint flame. And the core cabin had completely disintegrated. Amid the explosion, Ji Jue floated up inside his protective suit, ejected outward, pulled along by a tether of mercury as he spun fruitlessly in the dark, fractured light glinting off his helmet. The night sky seemed round. Countless points of light traveled through the darkness, distant and ethereal—the stars. A mirror-like moon hung suspended high above, reflecting everything, slowly sinking into deeper darkness. Meanwhile, in the distance, an enormous sun rose gradually, illuminating the broken world once more. He could already see the distant continents. Connected by streaks of flowing light, the shattered pieces knit back together into a whole. Above the azure ocean, the cloud bank that had seemed to blot out the heavens was now tiny, like an insignificant smudge. In the very center of the world lay the barren, desolate Mid-Continent, dotted with countless islands, while the Empire to the south and the Federation to the north were shrouded in dreamlike, shimmering halos. The mortal realm was square. Grand, immense silhouettes faintly materialized from the void, crisscrossing as Sovereign Virtues stood like pillars, supporting everything and anchoring all existence. Countless Border Realms silently orbited like satellites, flashing across the void from time to time. And beneath the mortal realm, the eternal, raging Vortex revealed its edges within the void, turning silently, expanding and contracting, swallowing every tiny fragment that peeled away from the world above. This was the true shape of the world. Complete, yet shattered. Brilliant, yet dark. Magnificent, yet cruel. "So beautiful." He reached out, caressing that glimmer of light through his heavy protective gear. The mortal realm remained silent, offering no reply. *** "Brilliantly done." Jiang Tongguang took one last look at the magnificent reflection within the floating light and couldn't help a soft murmur of admiration. "'Searching high and low from azure skies to the yellow springs, the thirst for knowledge cannot be quelled, and the firewood of revolution never dies out'... In all my years in the Association, this is the first time I've ever witnessed a scene like this." However, when he turned around, his expression instantly turned grave, and he warned, "In a little bit, when Delong calls to chew someone out, don't you dare drag me in to take the fall with you." "Relax, he won't." Gustav remained as calm as ever. Then, he reached into his pocket, pulled out his phone, and powered it off. "..." Jiang Tongguang was speechless, then clapped in admiration. *Brilliantly played! As long as I turn off my phone fast enough, the Director-General can't yell at me. Noted, noted. I'll have to try that next time.* Yet after bearing witness to this reckless display of Embers aerospace, when he turned back to look at the numerous projections and shifting sights within the floating light, he couldn't help letting out an emotional sigh. "What is it?" Gustav asked. "Are you still worried I'll make you the scapegoat?" "No, just admiring you." Jiang Tongguang glanced back at him. "As a teacher, you truly leave nothing to be faulted." Gustav remained cold and impassive. "I never taught them anything." "Instilling a sense of defeat, providing nurturing, establishing reverence, and showing the path ahead... There are probably few teachers who can accomplish such things, wouldn't you say?" Jiang Tongguang grinned playfully. "Except—for all these years, I've constantly heard people say how harsh your standards are, how strict your Lithogenesis School is, and how nobody catches your eye unless they're a true genius. "Yet looking at you now, aren't you actually the one who believes the least in talent and genius?" "Talent? Genius?" Gustav seemed to smile, though only mockery surfaced on that indifferent face. "Just how much talent does it take to count as talent? How exceptional a gift does it take to be called a genius? "True talent and genius are like the Plowsmith blazing a new path through old doctrines; like the Carrion Eater possessing an endless multitude of disciples; like Tianlu standing atop the peak of Embers in a mere decade. "Never mind those apprentices—even across the entire Association and the Profound, who dares claim they can stand alongside them?" If one could match them, why hadn't they achieved it already? And if one could not, then the gifts they prided themselves on were nothing more than petty cleverness unworthy of the stage! Thinking oneself clever was, at times, synonymous with seeking one's own death. Embers was cruel; it had no pity for mediocrity. How many times had that phrase been wailed by reckless artisans who lost themselves in flattery and arrogance, trapped in cocoons of their own making, only to reap what they had sown? Rather than watching these apprentices wallow in the so-called halo of genius, lose their way, and become unrecognizable, it was better to give them a couple of slaps across the face early on to wake them up. At the very least, they wouldn't have to wait decades only to find themselves unable to face grim reality and smash headfirst into ruin. "The mediocre are all like this. They constantly need warnings, setbacks, tempering, and constraints—only the degrees vary." Gustav gazed down upon the eliminations and defeats in the various projections, completely unmoved. "A true genius can grow wings and soar in the sky, but others don't understand that for them, leaping off a cliff leads only to death. "For the vast majority of people, whether rules are good or bad, having rules is always better than having none. "This is a crutch that belongs solely to the mediocre. "As long as they can endure constraints and toil, as long as they can bear the torment and pain, they too can reach, step by step, the places that would otherwise require wings." "Sounds wonderful." Amidst a long silence, Jiang Tongguang shrugged and remarked, "It's rare to see you express such genuine sentiment, Old Gu. You're making me feel ashamed. If you run for Director-General someday, I'll definitely cast my vote for you." Gustav remained unmoved and looked toward him. Glancing at his grinning, flippant expression, Gustav suddenly asked, "And what about you?" "Me?" Jiang Tongguang blinked, puzzled. "What about me?" "How much longer can you endure?" As if returning the blow, Gustav bluntly punctured that hypocritical smile. "In my eyes, you—the most well-liked Director in the Association—are probably the one most disappointed in it, aren't you?" Jiang Tongguang did not speak. Nor did he wave his hand dismissively as he usually did. *"Suit yourselves," "I don't mind," "Let's just talk it out," "Isn't this fine too?"* For the longest time, those were the only phrases ever heard from him in the Council. Perhaps, read in reverse, they carried another meaning entirely: *—Fuck off, I'm done caring, do whatever the hell you want!* A person on good terms with everyone often had no truly close ties with anyone at all. A friend welcomed by all did not necessarily welcome everyone in his heart. It wasn't that the others failed to grasp this truth; they had simply looked upon that agreeable smile for so long that they had grown accustomed to it. So accustomed that everyone had, either subconsciously or deliberately, forgotten. Before he succeeded to the post of Director, he had once charged into the Vale of the Profound three times in a fit of rage, dragging his fellow sect brothers, disciples, and juniors back one by one, hanging them from the Gate of Tianshu... "Honestly speaking, given Delong's capabilities, keeping things together up to this point has already been no easy feat," Gustav sighed softly. "His ability is simply limited. That you could consider the bigger picture and hold back until his retirement without making a move has already exceeded my expectations." "What on earth are you talking about?!" Jiang Tongguang gasped in shock, eyes wide. "I just didn't want to help you take the heat and carry the blame, that's all. Don't go slandering me! Who doesn't know that I, Director Jiang, am the most yielding, agreeable, and non-confrontational person around? "Tongguang, Tongguang—'harmonizing with the dust and merging with the light'! It's written right in my name! That is the ancient wisdom of our Federation; don't talk nonsense if you don't understand!" Gustav looked at him for a long moment, then nodded in understanding. "Let's just say that's the case, then." "It *is* the case, alright?!" Jiang Tongguang nodded emphatically, pulled out his flask, and took a sip to calm his nerves. "The Association is my home; I love the Association. I fucking love it to death! Don't go to extremes, Old Gu. We're all one big loving family; what obstacle can't we get past?" And so, silence fell once more within the Tower of Myriad Transformations. The 'family members' forgot the conversation they had just had, and work resumed in absolute harmony. And the results of the second round of elimination were about to be revealed.