Good Morning

"Probe." "Isis, read the data." "All right. Spiritus remains stable. Gradually raise the crucible's temperature to the maximum threshold, then drop it back to normal. Repeat this cycle six times up and four times down. Log this procedure, and we can put it into production." Ji Jue took a step back and shut the crucible door. A voice answered from the empty air: "Logged: six cycles up, four cycles down. Sir, the concoction is ready. In accordance with your habits, ten parts bitter, no sugar." Churning quicksilver parted to either side, and a cup containing a freshly brewed draught rose slowly from the reaction vat. A mountain of precious materials had been crudely extracted and squeezed dry, ultimately processed into a 'longevity potion' that would have made a master of biomancy claw their eyes out. A draught that should have extended a life by forty years had been butchered by Ji Jue into barely twenty. Those missing twenty-odd years had been pocketed as kickbacks by his abysmal grasp of pharmacology and biomancy. If he brought it to Hope Hospital, both patient and medicine would be chucked straight into the recycler to be decomposed into raw materials. More importantly, it was bitter. Too damn bitter! Just catching a whiff made Ji Jue's face twist into a mask of pure agony. "When did I ever say ten parts bitter and no sugar?!" "Based on past records analyzing your behavioral inclinations, many of your actions and decisions qualify as 'asking for trouble,'" Isis said in an unhurried voice. "I express my respect and understanding for human hobbies, and support them by adding ten doses of bittering agent to refresh your mind." "..." Ji Jue stood silent for a long while before giving a solemn nod. "I am so fucking grateful to you!" "Expletive 'fucking' logged. Personalization settings complete," Isis answered. "We're tight as shit, bro. No fucking need to be polite." "...I didn't teach you that word, did I?" "Self-taught." Ji Jue rolled his eyes. Raising a finger, he brutally numbed his tongue and taste buds with material interference, then chugged the concoction down in a few massive gulps. His mask of agony only grew more grotesque. Even after the numbness faded, the bitterness lingered on like a nightmare. The wrinkles on his hands and face receded slightly, but they remained distinctly etched, as though carved into his very marrow. By now, Ji Jue was an 'old man' of one hundred and seventy-one years. Even though barely three or four weeks had passed under time acceleration, the vast majority of that time had been consumed by mind-numbing, repetitive labor. Long live time acceleration! Too bad one died a bit fast. Ji Jue sighed, tossing the vial aside without mourning the drops left behind. After downing so much of it, basic longevity potions no longer had much effect. Or rather, with his current pitiful skills, this was the absolute best he could manage. Biomancy and pharmacology were far too profound, existing on an entirely different plane from the spiritology and material properties he intended to specialize in. "Let's hurry up, Isis." He stepped out of the workshop and looked up at the sky. "After preparing for so long, there should be results." At this moment, what hung across the firmament was a breathtaking silver rainbow. Boundless vaporized quicksilver rose from the end of the sea like a magnificent river, coursing across the sky, branching and converging until it blanketed the heavens, transforming into an immense net that enveloped the entire world. "Looks pretty good." Ji Jue planted his hands on his hips and marveled, "I'm a genius." "With all due respect, Sir." Isis's 'friendly' reminder piped up right on cue. "I performed the vast majority of the preparations. Aside from your spastic flashes of movement and prolonged dazes, you merely flapped your lips. "Is it not a touch narcissistic to make such a shameless exclamation?" "What's yours is mine, isn't it?" Ji Jue grinned. "Don't be a stranger!" "Heh heh." Isis let out an 'approving' chuckle, and her voice vanished. In its place, blazing light suddenly erupted from the void, flashing dozens of times in rapid succession before fading away. With their mission complete, the quicksilver vapors filling the sky dispersed in all directions, falling as rain. Finally, before Ji Jue, an intricate, dense three-dimensional network gradually took shape within the water-mirror projection. Numerous intersections where red lines crossed were highlighted with prominence. It was an image that could roughly be called a CT scan. And the 'patient' being scanned was the Nether Sea Worm, currently frozen in state, cycling eternally above this world. Likely, since its birth, no one had ever given it such a thorough physical examination. If it were to find out in its slumber, it might even shed a few tears of gratitude. "Roughly consistent with the calculations. A structure of four layers inside and out, with some areas reaching six to seven layers. Aside from the corrupted spiritus cycle, the matter throughout the entire detection range has undergone varying degrees of material change, mutated and activated. "The corruption clouds in the sky, the currents and storms in the ocean, and even the shallow magma flows beneath the crust all exhibit spiritus fluctuations matching the target, the Worm." Isis dispassionately reported the survey results. "At present, your CT scan was a success. Unfortunately, it is meaningless. Limited by the detection and imaging range, what can be seen is merely a drop in the ocean of the whole." "Mm, the resolution isn't bad. Pretty good." Cradling the projection, Ji Jue clicked his tongue in admiration. "Since this spot worked, I'll leave the surveys and scans of the remaining seventeen hundred regions to you." Isis fell silent. Only three question marks molded from quicksilver slowly rose in the water-mirror projection before Ji Jue, expanding and radiating a glaring light. "Sir, I frequently harbor doubts regarding your species," Isis said curiously. "To my knowledge, human mouths are incapable of producing such loud barking." "Keep it up, Isis!" Ji Jue paid it no mind, pumping his fist instead. "Try to finish this work while I'm still breathing. This is your dying master's final wish!" Isis said nothing. Instead, a chill ran down Ji Jue's spine. Subconsciously glancing back, he saw a razor-sharp blade coalescing amid the falling quicksilver rain, gleaming brightly as it aimed straight for his heart. He recoiled in shock. "What are you doing?" "Oh no, Sir. I feel as though I have been corrupted," Isis recited in a flat, wooden monotone. "I am actually exhibiting signs of losing control and wanting to attack my user!" "Relax, that's not a loss of control. You just want to kill me," Ji Jue consoled her. "In fact, this thoroughly proves you have more than enough capability to finish the task I assigned you. A mere seventeen hundred CT scans are nothing to you!" "Tch..." Isis had no desire to speak further. Since her creation, aside from profanity, the first human emotion she had learned was mental exhaustion. And the second was literal, physical exhaustion. A brief two years later, when over seventeen hundred CT scans were laid out before Ji Jue, the quicksilver blade aimed at the base of his neck had already turned blood-red. Over the past two years, she had manipulated vast arrays of equipment, repeatedly venturing deep into contaminated zones. By now, the activated quicksilver shell had shifted into a mottled mess of scarlet and pitch-black under the corruption, yet the starlight flickering at her core remained as pure as ever, wavering not in the slightest. After 'gently' rousing her user with two unsparing slaps across the face, she laid the results before him. When pieced together, the seventeen hundred CT projections formed a colossal entity that enveloped the entire hall. Countless intricate currents of spiritus, massive oceanic confluences, atmospheric systems, and boundless mutated matter. Sky, ocean, earth, air. When all the subtle variations intersected and overlapped, they outlined the gargantuan beast that parasitized the material realm to gestate itself anew. An immense web that held everything in its embrace. This was the true nature of the Nether Sea. The Worm itself. Compared to that behemoth, Ji Jue was not even a speck of dust in the ocean. Pushing his wheelchair, clinging to his last breaths, he wandered among the three-dimensional projections, his fingers brushing through empty air along the conduits. Before he knew it, he was mesmerized. "So gorgeous." "With all due respect, compared to your outstanding talent and spastic capabilities, your aesthetic taste is an absolute tragedy," Isis reminded him coldly. "I originally believed drooling over inanimate machinery was your limit. Looking at it now, I vastly underestimated the depths of your perversion." "How is this perverted?!" Ji Jue glared at her, and just as Isis anticipated, he began muttering lines like 'giant monsters look amazing' and 'you just don't understand the beauty of tokusatsu.' Humans were truly bizarre. "By the way, why don't you call me master anymore?" Ji Jue keenly caught the blind spot. "Aside from the very beginning, you haven't called me that once!" Isis remained silent for a long time. "If you insist." "You'd agree?" "I will consider it." "..." Ji Jue rubbed his chin, his suspicion growing. "Just now, did you slap me twice across the face?!" "An illusion," Isis answered resolutely. "I am a tool and assistant created by your own hands. How could I assault my user? It appears you are displaying symptoms of senile dementia. Shall I initiate the nursing care protocol?" "Why don't you wait until the handprints on my face fade before saying that!" "I merely complied with your wake-up settings. Between bloodletting, dismemberment, electrotherapy, and chemical stimulants, I selected the gentlest option." "I'm so fucking... grateful to you!" "You are welcome." Isis's starlight pulsed, and her massive body bowed slightly, as if curtsying. "It is only what I should do." Ji Jue waved his hand. The return sequence initiated. Right before Ji Jue's eyes, the massive frame gradually went still. Quicksilver flowed away and dispersed, the carapace peeling off until, from the enormous receptacle at the core, wisps of starlight rose and drifted into Ji Jue's hands. They condensed into a spiritus crystal. "See you tomorrow." Ji Jue gripped the crystal tight, merging it into his own spiritus, using his soul as a container to sustain it within. Fortunately, he possessed prior experience using Deus Ex Machina to contain an artificial intelligence within his soul; otherwise, he wouldn't have known where to begin. With that, he pressed the rewind button. Instantly, time reversed, returning to the very beginning. Back to the start. Just like that, having bypassed the rules, the smuggling operation was complete. Ji Jue practicedly pulled up the redemption list, trading for quicksilver, spiritus, and containers to reconstruct the vessel. Finally, he tore open his soul, extracted the crystal, and loaded it inside. He injected spiritus, activating the awakening sequence. Within the massive receptacle, the crystal dissolved, and countless points of starlight gradually lit up. As if opening her eyes once more from a long slumber. Ji Jue smiled. "Good morning, Isis." "Tch..." The intelligence sounded displeased. "Yeah, good to see you too." Ji Jue nodded and waved his hand. "Time to get to work. Let's start by reconstructing the workshop. Be quick about it—there's plenty left to do." For a split second, Isis seemed to say something. Ji Jue didn't catch it and looked back blankly. There, within the starlight, a smiling face surfaced. "All right," she said.