The birth of every Celestial Chosen was premised on a blessing bestowed by the Virtues.
Distilled essences, cast down from the vast tapestry of time woven from infinite phenomena, fell into the soul. They answered the thirst and prayers of the Celestial Chosen, bestowing power granted by the world itself.
Although there was no rule forbidding someone from receiving a blessing from another Virtue after already receiving one, the vast majority of Celestial Chosen chose to cultivate deeply along a single Path of the Virtues. Unless necessary, they would not expose themselves too much to blessings from others.
Every person's capacity had an upper limit.
The vast majority, even if specializing in a single path, could hardly bear multiple blessings. Once the number of blessings exceeded what one could endure, the blessings spiraling out of control would shatter the overburdened soul, inflict grave trauma on consciousness, and even mutate the physical body.
What ensued would be the dread of every Celestial Chosen: "corruption"!
With a bit of luck, they might still be salvaged—left as a cripple or a vegetative husk after the blessings were stripped away. With bad luck, if they were sensed and noticed by Vile Follies outside the Virtues, the outcome was often far worse than death.
To prevent this, the occult rite known as the "matrix" had been created.
After generations of exploration and experimentation, the Celestial Chosen had devised soul imprints for the Twelve Virtues. They raised the soul's capacity and guided the Chosen along predetermined paths as they advanced, keeping them from spinning out of control.
It was like a guide and a map for the Path of the Virtues.
At the same time, it served as armor and protection for the soul, resisting the erosion and contamination of other Vile Follies. Advanced matrices even incorporated disciplines and covenants, granting abilities that ordinary Celestial Chosen lacked.
Just like what Ji Jue had seen on Wen Wen—her "Minerva."
Named after the goddess of war from before the Cataclysm Era, it was a top-tier matrix of the Desolate Ruins. It not only pushed Wen Wen's crystallization abilities to their absolute limit, but also added an erosive force, defense, and lethality unmatched by other matrices. In the end, it could even overwrite reality, manifesting an otherworldly "Domain"!
"Mmh, sounds like a character class template specially made for twelve different build paths. You level up step by step, gradually unlocking designated skills, so you don't accidentally ruin your build, right?"
Ji Jue felt he got it. Not just a little bit, but completely—he had fully grasped it.
"...Well, that's pretty much it, but why does it sound so cheap when you put it like that?"
Ye Chun's eye twitched. Rather than dwelling on it, she continued along the same thread: "Starting from awakening, someone who becomes a Celestial Chosen will steadily grow.
"They pass through four realms in succession—Calling, Metamorphosis, Regeneration, and Exaltation. Crossing twelve ranks leads to the realm of Celestial-Human, something most Celestial Chosen can only dream of reaching in their entire lives.
"A Celestial Chosen who steps into that realm is probably no different from a god to ordinary mortals.
"Not that it has anything to do with you. As a level-one blank-slate newbie, you'd better worry about what to do for your matrix. Otherwise, even if the Virtues bestow another blessing, you won't be able to keep it."
She gloated, "Auntie's inherited matrix is called 'Moxie.' It's one of the top matrices in the Embers domain, specialized in boosting alchemy. But unfortunately... female only.
"Why don't you consider a trip to the Southeast Archipelago? I hear their sex-change services are pretty well developed."
"It's actually gender-locked?" Ji Jue was shocked, shivering in sheer exasperation, almost moved to tears. What kind of matrix cared about gender?
*Overconfident matrix, so gross!*
*No way, I need to post a rant on RedPotato...*
"Just gender? The stronger the matrix, the more restrictions it has. Some restrict the age of implantation or required personality traits. Some require simultaneous surgery to scoop out an eyeball or sever a limb. Others forcibly alter your personality, or even wipe out the user's emotions entirely."
Ye Chun shook her head. "Restricting only gender is basically on the milder end of the spectrum."
In the silence, Ji Jue said nothing.
For a moment, he had wanted to crack another joke, but he couldn't help recalling Wen Wen... and those indifferent eyes devoid of any emotion after she expanded her Domain.
He meant to make light of it, but when he opened his mouth, his voice came out raspy, catching even himself off guard: "Senior, earlier I heard a bastard say that the Path of Desolate Ruins requires a human heart least of all.
"Was he telling the truth?"
"Mmh, there's some truth to it. After all, Desolate Ruins represents matter, and matter probably cares least about things like feelings.
"Still, it's not absolute."
To outsiders, Celestial Chosen tended to display certain characteristics depending on their chosen Path of the Virtues. Or perhaps it was precisely because they possessed those traits that they received the blessings of the Virtues in the first place.
For example, the Chosen of Desolate Ruins were all rigid and inflexible, cold inside and out, while the Chosen of Ascension, the Virtue governing souls, were so emotionally overflowing as to seem neurotic.
The Chosen of the White Stag were often undisciplined and unruly; from the perspective of Tianyuan's Chosen, those of the White Stag lacked perseverance, refused advice entirely, never kept promises, and lacked any manners or upbringing.
The Chosen of Tianyuan tended to abide by rules and follow convention, while those of the White Stag viewed Tianyuan's Chosen as control freaks whose every sentence—down to the punctuation—laid a trap, offering nothing but predatory contracts.
The Chosen of Swarm were murderous maniacs prone to causing atrocious incidents; the Chosen of Heart Pivot were schemers shrouded in deep secrecy; the Chosen of Mirror lied through their teeth and loved conning people; the Chosen of Aether loved prying into privacy, willing to risk their lives for gossip and drama; the Chosen of Entropy had explosive tempers that detonated at a spark; and the Chosen of Embers were tech-obsessed lunatics, so unhinged that if you weren't looking, they'd pull off twisted, horrifying experiments straight out of an "Onii-chan, let's play" nightmare...
Between Celestial Chosen of different Paths of the Virtues, there was no lack of opposition and conflict, rife with stereotypes and prejudices like those above. In fact, most of them...
Were actually true!
Regrettably, they were facts, not mere biases.
Of course, in a vast forest there would always be oddities, but most of the time, Celestial Chosen and the Virtues they belonged to complemented each other.
"Take you, for instance—"
Ye Chun pointed a finger at a bewildered Ji Jue. "Aren't you the same?"
"Huh? I'm not crazy enough to lose my mind over tech!"
"You think? After sticking with Auntie at Tianmen University for all these years, I've seen people grinding day and night for certifications, and people working themselves to the bone to publish results. But you're the first one to grind yourself to the bone and actually be happy doing it. Sometimes I even find it annoying and wish you'd just work yourself to death and get lost, but if I didn't drag you out to eat, you'd starve to death right in the lab."
"That's just life forcing my hand, all right?" Ji Jue answered decisively. "If I were like those rich young masters with no worries about food and clothes every day, why would I grind like this? I had no choice!"
"You have a choice now, Ji Jue."
Ye Chun looked at him with an inscrutable expression, letting out a soft sigh. "You're a Celestial Chosen now, and an Autonomous Awakening at that. Aren't there plenty of things that are easier, more convenient, and more lucrative than being an alchemist?
"Why haven't you thought about looking for other work?"
Ji Jue had no retort.
Though he could say he was shy around strangers, that he was used to staying with Professor Ye, and that he trusted her, there was no denying... no matter how difficult things were in the project team or how troublesome keeping up with the schedule became, he truly enjoyed it.
The blessing of Embers had never fallen in vain.
Compared to dominating others, indulging his whims without restraint, or going around killing and burning, this was the life he loved.
If he were truly to rely on his abilities to make a fortune and spend his days idling about with nothing to do, he would feel ashamed of wasting his time and life.
He wanted to live a life of greater value. Even if he couldn't become a scholar spearheading an industrial revolution or a peerless alchemy Grandmaster, wouldn't using his creations to improve the lives of more people still be a worthy endeavor?
After a brief daze, he calmly accepted this reality.
It was fine.
Mad scientist, then. Wait, what he was doing wasn't even scientific anymore. What did that make him? A mad sorcerer? Whatever—as long as he was still human, that was enough.
*Tap.*
Crisp footsteps came from the stairs.
"Finished talking?"
Carrying a case that looked covered in dust, Professor Ye walked down from upstairs.
"Yeah, pretty much. He can read books for the rest of the common knowledge."
Ye Chun sighed and rubbed the bridge of her nose. "I finally understand why you said I'd regret it sooner or later even if I became a Celestial Chosen, Auntie."
"Those who think too much will always second-guess themselves, and those with too many choices get paralyzed by indecision. It's not a fault of yours; it's simply not for you.
"Forcing yourself is never a good thing."
Professor Ye gestured specifically to Ji Jue. "Follow me."
Ji Jue stood up and followed, while Ye Chun remained on the sofa, eating potato chips. She merely gave a nonchalant wave and went back to watching the variety show.
As if holding herself back from looking back.
"Don't worry about her. She's not like you. The research and exploration you find so delightful are far too tedious and dull for her. She's different from you."
Walking ahead, Professor Ye spoke without turning around, as though reading his mind. "You'd better worry about yourself, Ji Jue."
"Huh?"
Ji Jue's focus was pulled back, and he grew tense.
The basement was unexpectedly spacious. It was completely unlike the dim candlelight, goat skulls, bizarre specimen jars, and intricate magic circles etched into the floor that Ji Jue had imagined.
If anything... it was entirely a machining workshop!
Ninety percent of the equipment arranged inside was identical to what the university provided for project research labs, but the specifications were vastly superior... Ji Jue's eyes went wide just looking at the gantry machining center produced by Universal Heavy Industries in the corner.
It was a model he had never seen before, yet it bore the Universal Heavy Industries logo, as if custom-built.
Over nine meters long and taller than Ji Jue, the machine was impressive enough to draw all eyes even in a massive factory, yet here it was relegated to the corner.
Most striking of all was the furnace door at the far end of the basement, easily over two meters tall. Even from a distance, waves of heat radiated from it, as though it ran continuously day and night.
And right in the center, resting on the workbench, was a steel creation resembling the skeleton of a giant—the emerging frame of a suit of power armor!
It had yet to be painted, bore no markings, and appeared unfinished, with intricate cables spilling out from the mechanisms in the torso.
A dangerous weapon that would be strictly secured even within the military and never deployed to a battlefield without orders from the Military Department lay openly before Ji Jue.
He swallowed hard.
*Shoot, do I know too much? Am I gonna be silenced?*
The absurd thought flashed across his mind. Walking ahead, Professor Ye seemed to sense it, though she didn't even bother glancing back:
"A classified development contract with the Haizhou military. Interested?"
"Uh, n-no!"
Ji Jue shook his head furiously. But seeing the exposed harmonic drives in the armor's joints, and the glimpses of the phlogiston power reactor layered within the torso, he finally had an inkling of what terrifying machine his paper on the application of novel planetary carriers was tied to.
No—in fact, the work of everyone in the Tianmen research team had likely just been supporting and laying the groundwork for the thing on this workbench.
"Come here," Professor Ye said. "Put your hand on it."
The aged case was opened on another table, revealing a delicate object resting atop a velvet cushion. It looked like the kind of crystal ball beloved by readers of fantasy novels.
Wait...
Ji Jue rubbed his eyes, double-checking.
*It really is a crystal ball?!*
*Good news: things are getting classical!*
Chapter 30