Half an hour later.
In a corner of a milk tea shop along the Tianmen University commercial street, Ji Jue stared at the almost entirely melted ice cubes in his cup, then looked across the table at Wen Wen, who appeared like a ghost on the verge of ascending to heaven.
Ever since they stepped out of the office, she had looked completely burned out. She floated when she walked, her soul already halfway to the Empire.
In her brief life, she had borne far too much unbearable weight of embarrassment.
"Sis? Sis Wen? Are you all right?"
Ji Jue plucked up his courage, waving a hand in front of her eyes. "Don't scare me."
His main worry wasn't that something had happened to her—even if Tianmen University blew up, nothing would happen to her. He was mainly worried that if she couldn't take it anymore, what if she dragged him down with her!
"...I want to die."
Wen Wen sprawled across the table as if finally snapping back to reality. Her voice sounded like a wronged ghost weeping in the underworld, filled with bitter sorrow. "Why didn't you tell me? Why didn't you say anything?!
"Aaaargh, I want to die! Just let me die..."
"I didn't know either!"
Ji Jue was completely innocent, his own head still buzzing. "You suddenly pointed at my professor and told me she's an alchemy master—I was totally baffled too, okay? She's been my advisor for two years, and I've never seen her wave a hand and turn heaven and earth upside down, eclipsing the sun and moon. If I'd known, why would I hide it?"
*Besides, you didn't give me a chance to stop you!*
Of course, he didn't dare say that last line aloud. If Wen Wen crushed him to death in a fit of shame and anger, he would be finished.
Though she certainly wouldn't do that, she had been so good to him—how could he go and provoke her further?
She didn't punch Ji Jue and half of Tianmen University into the stratosphere to eradicate the dark history that would make her cringe with embarrassment for the rest of her life.
After chugging two liters of craft beer in one breath, Wen Wen finally caught her breath. Crossing her arms, she scrutinized the cowering Ji Jue, and after confirming that he truly wasn't gloating, she ultimately refrained from hitting him with a memory-wiping spell.
Why did some ridiculous disaster always strike every time she ran into this little bastard?
Was there something wrong with him?
Damn it, she was still so pissed! She really wanted to give him a couple of solid wallops!
Knock his head clean off!
She let out a faint sigh. "Good thing I didn't drag you into the mud pit that is the Security Bureau back then, or it would've become trouble instead. Did you use up all the luck you've saved up for your whole life right here?"
Ji Jue remained baffled. "Huh?"
"Ye Xian! That is Ye Xian we're talking about!
"The youngest master in the Federation in decades! She received a Red-grade evaluation from the Ring of Taiyi when she was twenty-four, and they say she's only a single step away from Grandmaster right now. What do you think?" She cast a sidelong glance, snapping irritably, "Anyway, to be able to cling to such powerful backing, you'd better be secretly laughing your ass off."
"Even if you say that, I have no frame of reference," Ji Jue said with a bitter smile.
"Lawrence, you remember him?"
Wen Wen brought up their familiar old acquaintance. "If you converted Lawrence's achievements in medicine into alchemy... he'd probably have to mess around for another seventy or eighty years just to barely touch the footprints Professor Ye left behind when she was twenty-four."
"She's that badass?!" Ji Jue blurted out.
He never imagined that the quiet, unassuming Professor Ye was privately, like Wen Wen, an ultra-Lawrence-tier powerhouse?!
Positively terrifying!
Wen Wen rolled her eyes, able to guess what he was thinking with her heels alone. "Destructive power is another matter. Although the Path of Embers doesn't have much offensive capability, someone like Professor Ye commands far more respect wherever she goes than someone like me who does rough labor."
"I respect Sis Wen too, from the bottom of my heart!" Ji Jue declared loudly without a second thought, wishing he could tie a headband around his forehead that read [LOYALTY!].
"All right, cut the flattery. I really embarrassed myself big time today. If you truly respect me, just don't go blabbering about this to anyone. Otherwise, your big sis will have to kill you and flee to the Empire to eke out a living."
Wen Wen sighed and glanced at him. "Master Ye is dependable. Rest easy."
Ji Jue nodded.
That went without saying.
He had spent far more time by Professor Ye's side than Wen Wen ever had.
Fairly speaking, Professor Ye wasn't one of those storybook saints who swept the floor carefully lest they harm an ant and shielded lanterns with gauze to save the moths. Quite the contrary—from the very first day he met her, he had sensed it: that utterly unvarnished indifference, harshness, arrogance, and an empathy that was absolute zero.
In her world, there was no air for idiots to breathe.
Even more unfortunately, in her view, the vast majority of people in this world were idiots.
As for Ji Jue?
Among all those idiots, he was the one willing to work hard to make himself a little less idiotic.
As the only person in her elective course who had gritted his teeth, endured to the end, and managed a passing grade, he knew that severity all too well.
However, to Ji Jue, almost all of the above were virtues.
A teacher who would pinch her nose while thoroughly correcting the steaming pile of crap you wrote, providing revision suggestions, reference literature, and research directions—no matter how strict, bad-tempered, condescending, or demanding she was, she was a teacher good enough to be enshrined in a temple and gilded in gold.
As long as you could keep up with the pace, she held nothing back, imparting everything she knew.
As long as you had talent, she never hesitated to put it to work, regardless of scale, utilizing every ounce of it.
Otherwise, with only a handful of slots each year at Tianmen to sit for the Level Two Engineer exam, what the hell would Ji Jue use to compete against those chosen scions whose families had power, status, influence, and filthy amounts of money?
To put it bluntly, without Professor Ye's recommendation letter, he couldn't catch up even if he sold his ass!
And as the price, being called a tryhard dog or an overachieving freak, being collectively ostracized and mocked by his so-called classmates—Ji Jue genuinely felt nothing about it and couldn't care less. *I'm swimming in the ocean of knowledge, all right? Go play in traffic, you lot!*
*Crack!*
The brief chat came to an end with a crisp sound.
In the beer mug beside Wen Wen's hand, a translucent crystalline frost-flower bloomed, then swiftly melted away.
"All right, I'm taking off."
Wen Wen stood up and waved goodbye. "Now that you've grabbed hold of a massive thigh, hold on tight. Once you become a Grandmaster in the future, remember to look out for me."
"So soon?" Ji Jue asked in surprise. "Where are you going?"
"The weather's been damp lately. Feeling a bit inflamed."
Wen Wen turned her head away to hide the expression she could no longer maintain, doing her best to keep up her poise and cool demeanor. "Going to find a few blind fugitives and have a chat with them about life and dreams."
Tell them their great-grandmothers miss them down below, and send them down to have a word with her!
With that, she strode off proudly.
Channeling her embarrassment into motivation, contributing to the count of unmarked graves outside Yacheng.
.
.
Half an hour later, having dawdled at the milk tea shop until he drained the very last drop, Ji Jue finally shuffled his way back to the office step by reluctant step.
Steeling himself, he pushed open the door and forced an enthusiastic, bright, and innocent smile, looking like a Samoyed covered in kisses. "Professor, I'm back."
"Mm."
Behind the desk, the professor, currently brewing her second cup of strong tea, glanced up at him. She pointed at a chair, gesturing for him to sit down, and before he could gather his thoughts, she asked out of nowhere, "The person conscripted by Heaven's Choice last month... was it you?"
"...Huh?"
Ji Jue froze for a second. Instinctively wanting to cover it up, he hesitated for a moment before finally nodding. "If there wasn't anyone else."
Now it was the professor's turn to fall silent.
She lowered her head, gazing at the tea leaves rising and falling in the boiling water until they settled, seemingly deep in thought or simply lost in a daydream.
After a long silence, she let out a deep sigh.
"You really did... give me quite a huge surprise."
"Ah?" Ji Jue was at a loss.
"I originally planned to let you work as coolie labor for another two years, and then when you reached graduate school, see how things stood before considering whether to introduce you to the Path of Embers. Now it seems there's no need for all that trouble..."
Professor Ye adjusted her glasses and said solemnly, "However, before that, I must tell you: a Celestial Chosen who can draw down nine Virtues in sovereign descent would be fought over wherever they go. There is no need to tie yourself to this single tree of mine.
"I know Miss Wen probably told you that I'm formidable, that I'm famous, and all that. But in reality, compared to the true behemoths, I'm merely a marginal figure doing research. Aside from teaching you to be an artisan, I have no other future to offer you; I can't even assemble a complete matrix for you.
"Yet as long as you're willing, those old fogies in the Security Bureau, the grandmasters of the Ring of Taiyi, the ringleaders of the Wild Gathering, even the Church of Chongguang, Universal Heavy Industries, and Hope Hospital would offer sky-high prices. In another four or five years, you might become another Su Biluo, or another Wen Wen..."
"Don't say that, Professor!"
Ji Jue shook his head in fright. "I haven't even taken my Level Two exam yet! Where do you want me to go?!"
It wasn't that he was anxious to swear loyalty or latch onto powerful backing; it was purely that once Ji Jue learned Professor Ye's true standing, he hadn't considered any other option at all.
Setting aside the Security Bureau, which Sis Wen herself called a mud pit, the other places might be badass, impressive, and outrageously overpowered—but so what?
When he was dirt-poor and a nobody, had they spared him so much as a single glance?
The one willing to reach out and pull up a penniless student who had no redeeming qualities other than grinding like crazy—wasn't it the professor right before his eyes?
"I think staying with you is great," Ji Jue said, scratching his head in mild embarrassment. "At the very least, if I had to call anyone else 'Teacher,' I wouldn't be able to open my mouth."
"..."
Professor Ye said nothing, merely sipping her tea. She showed no sign of being touched, nor did she look upon him with any newfound regard. Only as she breathed out did it sound like a sigh.
"That's why it's so troublesome."
"Huh?"
Ji Jue was baffled.
"When a cheap wrench breaks, your heart doesn't ache. Ji Jue, sometimes scrap material is much easier to work with."
The slightly aged alchemy master rubbed between her brows, speaking slowly. "I initially thought you were merely mediocre material that could put in some effort. Managing and shaping you naturally came with no burden; no matter how poorly it turned out, you'd still be better off than before.
"Only after realizing I'd misjudged did I start to regret it... It has been many years since I touched fine material suited for heavenly craftsmanship."
Just like an old craftsman scrutinizing raw materials.
If it were ordinary rough stone, one could carve freely. If it was botched, scratched, or chipped to pieces, so what? Toss it away. Even if it turned out well, it would only be a trinket or an ornament—no great achievement, no great loss.
Yet if someone wrapped a raw boulder in red silk and placed it solemnly into her hands, telling her: within this stone lies an exquisite piece of jade, peerlessly captivating, please carve it—
What artisan wouldn't fret over every stroke?
"Rest assured, I'm merely reflecting on myself. I haven't sunk so low as to hand over my own project to someone else."
Just as Ji Jue was growing uneasy, Ye Xian set down her teacup, stood up, and concluded, "Each of the Twelve Virtues has its drawbacks, but the Path of Embers happens to be the most troublesome. Whether stepping onto this path will be good or bad for you, no one can say.
"Still, since destiny placed you right under my nose from the very start, let us see—whether a piece of material like you can be forged into heavenly craft!"
For a fleeting instant, Ji Jue froze, a chill instinctively spreading through his entire body.
All along, he had thought he had grown accustomed to Professor Ye's harshness and disparagement, and that no matter how troublesome a task was, he could tackle it methodically. Brave Ji Jue wasn't easily daunted by difficulties.
It was only just now that he realized the sharp, chilling gleam directed at him from behind those thick lenses was sharper than any axe or chisel.
It told him:
The true tempering hadn't even begun!
Chapter 28