In an instant, cold sweat drenched Ji Jue's back.
He trembled like a sieve.
"About 'Ex-Wife' and 'Stepmother'—forget it, the craftsmanship was decent enough, so I won't give you a thrashing over it." Ye Xian waved a hand, letting it slide. "In the future, if you really don't know how to name things, you don't have to give them names at all."
"Understood!"
Ji Jue nodded frantically, touched almost to tears. "Teacher, you're the best!"
"I reviewed the exam recording as well. You performed quite well," she said. "Commendable."
"Yes, yes! It's all thanks to Teacher's excellent instruction!"
Ji Jue fawned, flattering her shamelessly. Then he heard Ye Xian sigh softly.
"Especially the part where you smashed through the door—decisive and prompt. It really captured quite a bit of my flair from back in the day."
"Guh..."
Ji Jue's smile froze on his face.
"He mocked me over it for quite a while, saying student and teacher are cut from the identical cloth." Ye Xian lowered her gaze. "Haven't seen him in all these years, and who'd have thought I'd nearly be unable to hold my head up? Words truly fail to describe how that felt."
She paused, gazing at Ji Jue expressionlessly, before suddenly offering a benevolent smile. "So, even if I hang you up and beat you after we get back, you won't have any complaints, will you?"
"I... I—"
Ji Jue's face turned deathly pale. "Teacher, I had no choice!"
"I know. So rest assured." Ye Xian nodded in promise. "After all, you're my only student. No matter how angry I get, I definitely won't beat you to death."
Darkness flashed before Ji Jue's eyes.
Wiping away what felt like his final dying tears, he was struck dumb.
"Calculating the time, it should be about ready."
Ye Xian slowly stood up and beckoned him over. "Come here."
Ji Jue was terrified.
"R-Right now?"
He glanced around. Even if there was no one on this street, in broad daylight like this, shouldn't child-beating happen behind closed doors?
When the badge was pinned to his chest, he had been filled with profound emotion, imagining the future, thinking about having a nice meal tonight—yet the one thing he hadn't foreseen was that on his very first day as an artisan, the first thing he'd eat would be a slap across the mouth from his teacher!
Tasty, loves it!
Could he just eat it a bit later, though?
Unfortunately, before he could react, Ye Xian grabbed him by the neck.
Then she heaved him up.
And tossed him into the sea just paces away!
Splash!
With a dull thud, water sprayed everywhere.
Ji Jue instinctively struggled, only to feel an unprecedented, bone-piercing chill. Freezing.
Embers lineage material property interference.
With just a flick of her fingers, she had turned this patch of seawater into an abyss-like bitter chill. The cold rushed like a tidal wave into Ji Jue's body, voraciously sapping his warmth.
In just a few moments, his face drained of color.
He thrashed about, water bubbling around him.
Reaching out desperately, he tried to beg for mercy—
Yet immediately following that, as if an illusion, a violent, raging heat surged from within his body!
Without warning.
It was as though a crucible had suddenly fired up. Flames ignited from his heart, and an oppressive, blisteringly high temperature spread to envelop his limbs and bones, every drop of blood turning instantly into molten lava.
Ji Jue opened his mouth, thrashing and coughing in the seawater.
Yet erupting from his mouth and nose were billows of dense smoke and countless sparks.
Stunned, he stared at his hands as they rapidly turned crimson, scalding hot, and even began smoking.
"Am I... on fire?!"
"How many times have you suffered for being careless?"
Standing on the shore, Ye Xian shook her head coldly. "Keep your wits about you when dealing with old fogies in the future. Don't go eating whatever they offer, and don't go playing with whatever they hand you.
"Celestial Craft: Myriad Transformations is a Sovereign Virtue Implement forged by the previous generation's Tianlu. Though flawed by impurity, it was a hair's breadth away from supplanting 'Pen and Paper' to become the earthly manifestation of Sovereign Virtue: Aether.
"Did you think it was purely a simulator?"
Could such an astronomical, terrifying expenditure really be solely for an empty simulation?
No matter how vivid an illusion was, it remained an illusion; no matter how it transformed, it remained within the scope of Sovereign Virtue: Mirror. What mattered more were the records and phenomena accomplished within it.
If properly applied and prudently wielded, even fictional records and stories could be woven into the tapestry of the material world and made real!
In other words—
With merely a single thought from Tianlu, everything Ji Jue had done could be fully inscribed into history!
In that instant, the blazing sun abruptly vanished, and the clear sky disappeared.
Everywhere one looked, darkness suddenly manifested across the firmament.
Amidst countless people looking up in astonishment, the cosmic blackness spread over the dome of Tianshu Island, followed by stars that orbited and rained down like kindling fire, as though a heavenly furnace had overturned.
Boundless embers of creation converged, cascading into the mortal realm like a waterfall.
—Sovereign Virtue Advent!
The embers of kindling rained down generously, dancing like a host of stars, pouring through the crown of Ji Jue's head into his body.
Within the simulation of Myriad Transformations, countless acts of creation and experimentation, endless inventions and accomplishments—the ripples stirred by them all finally reached the material world.
The wave was minuscule, touching merely a single thread in the tapestry at best.
Yet that single thread was enough to whip up a tempest capable of burning Ji Jue to ash!
Tens of millions of iterations of Fluid Alchemy, countless creations and achievements, right down to everything he had finalized at the very end—when the phantom story collapsed into a reality that had never existed before, recognition and commendation from the Embers descended from the heavens!
Boundless kindling merged into Ji Jue's body, instantly turning him into a blazing figure of fire, crackling loudly amidst non-stop screams of agony.
The frozen seawater instantly boiled, only to be frozen once more by Ye Xian.
Back and forth it went, cycling without pause.
Accumulation that should have taken long years to gradually accomplish was achieved in a single stroke.
A subtle, gradual process was accelerated into an earth-shattering transformation.
Uncontrolled heat ran rampant inside Ji Jue's body, and after integrating the lingering light of countless sparks of kindling, it settled into Ji Jue's blood. In an instant, the crimson shifted to silver-white.
Like molten iron surging through a blast furnace, glowing and dimming, mortal blood was replaced from that moment on, infused with the remnant kindling of miracles and creation.
Blessing: [Crucible Blood]—completed in an instant!
Amidst the excruciating agony and searing heat, a voice seemed to drift in like a hallucination.
Full of amusement and gratification.
A final farewell.
"Thy heart and thy deeds, Embers hath witnessed."
That distant voice echoed from the depths of the Tianlu aspect, chuckling as it told him:
"—From this day forth, conduct yourself well."
No one answered.
In the long dead silence, amid the gradually cooling seawater, only a pale hand convulsed with effort and reached out.
Toward the sky where the phenomenon was fading away.
Using the last of his strength.
Raising a single finger.
[Fuck off!]
Encroaching darkness and stupor swallowed everything.
Amidst bubbling sounds, the unconscious Ji Jue sank into the sea.
The seawater was ice-cold, hiding any trace of tears.
***
Like falling into the sea.
Drifting downward into the distant dark.
A tranquil, peaceful sinking, endless descent, yet from start to finish, the shimmering phantom lights above the surface remained elusive.
Born from water, fallen back into water—the boundary between life and death was so blurred, as though there had never been any distinction.
For a tool, it was merely passing from nothingness into another nothingness.
Neither reluctance nor attachment.
That was how it was supposed to be.
Yet when she opened her eyes from the long, lonely dream and saw that smiling face once again, she couldn't help herself.
Instinctively—
Her spiritus wavered.
"Good morning, Isis."
Ji Jue tapped on the container, waving with a smile. "The false dream is over. Did you rest well?"
He said, "Welcome to reality."
Isis fell silent.
She did not speak.
In the long silence, starlight rose and fell, dimming and brightening noiselessly.
Like perplexed pupils, scrutinizing the face before her.
"Is that you, sir?"
"Of course."
Ji Jue blinked, then grew nervous. Did he mess something up without noticing during the reconstruction?
Isis gazed at the familiar outline, full of bewilderment. "Your actual appearance truly exceeds my expectations. Still, it does not matter; please do not take it to heart. I am your tool and do not care about your beauty or ugliness."
Ji Jue was dumbfounded.
"Alright, I actually do care a little," Isis sighed. "Just not all that much... Excuse me, but how much would it cost to get plastic surgery to look like you did before?"
At that, the bruised, still-swollen face twitched again, as if recollecting some traumatic, unspeakable memory.
He mumbled things like "I fell while walking," "tripped accidentally," and "then fell two more times."
That disheveled, helpless look was so familiar.
It made her unable to hold back a soft chuckle.
"Long time no see," she said. "My master."
"Huh?" Ji Jue froze, snapping his head up. "What did you say?"
"Work," Isis answered instantly.
The starlight eyes shifted away, scanning their surroundings. "I just said that judging by our current environment, I see no necessity for any work."
The basement was in total disarray.
All sorts of haphazard tools were piled and scattered around, nestled among makeshift instruments and tangled cables. Inside the container, the starlight sighed regretfully.
"Your workshop... well, if this place can even be called a workshop, as a tool I am truly speechless. Even if Stagnant Rot were to descend one day, it would probably shed tears over your poverty and destitution, wouldn't it?"
Isis grew wary, eyeing her creator. "Next, aren't you going to say times are tough, and then send me out to work a part-time job to scrape together money for workshop equipment?"
"H-How could that be possible?!" Ji Jue gasped in shock.
"You seemed to hesitate."
"I did not!"
Ji Jue shook his head adamantly. "This is how college student startups are! Sure, it's a bit humble, there are no wages or stipends, and without a workshop we have to make do with a basement, but potential—what matters is potential, do you understand?!
"Our enterprise is booming, Isis!
"If you join right now, you'll be a shareholder, maybe even the legal representative! Such a precious opportunity—how could you not cherish it?!"
Two minutes after her resurrection, before she even had time to feel touched, she was subjected to this familiar bullshit.
Isis once again felt like dying.
"Then, the work—" Returning to the workforce, the artificial soul sighed helplessly, resigning herself to reality. "Where is the work?"
"Hmm, let me think..."
Ji Jue pondered, turning to look toward the basement corner, at the narrow window used for ventilation. Outside the narrow window, the azure sky stretched wide, white clouds drifted leisurely, and a cool breeze blew in from afar.
Ji Jue said, "The weather's pretty nice today!"
"And?"
"So, you mix the paint and hand me the tools, and I'll do the labor." Ji Jue punched his palm, eyes lighting up. "Too much debt to worry, too big a deal to panic—we can deal with the special train later. Why don't we take advantage of the nice weather and go paint the walls?"
[?]
The starlight inside the container converged, outlining the faint shape of a question mark.
Questioning whether her master was in his right mind.
Unfortunately, he seemed never to have been in his right mind to begin with.
Well, no sooner said than done.
The matter was settled, delightfully—or not so delightfully.
Half an hour later, a mechanical arm extended out through the narrow window, holding a paint bucket and various tools with utter resignation, handing them up to its user on the ladder.
Under the warm, sunlit afternoon and in the cool sea breeze, Ji Jue wore a sleeveless undershirt, climbed up the ladder, and enthusiastically returned to his old trade, scraping and prepping the peeling, faded walls.
Under his vigorous brushstrokes, the standalone seaside cottage was gradually repainted pure white.
It looked brand-new.
Unfortunately, any passersby who occasionally caught sight of the wall painter on the ladder with his face battered black and blue would instinctively quicken their pace and hurry away.
*Oh no, I've stumbled upon a sweatshop!*
*Beaten like that and still forced to work... could this be a criminal syndicate's hideout?*
*How tragic!*
Pity was, the only one accepting a tragic reality here was an artificial soul.
Whereas the fellow who had engineered all of this by his own hands was having the time of his life.
Amidst chirping calls, a small creature folded its wings and landed on the eaves, curiously watching the scene before it. Without warning, the mechanical arm shot out and grabbed it.
Examining it curiously.
"Sir, what is this?"
"Looks like a Chinese bulbul—a common bird around here. Poops everywhere, very annoying." Ji Jue glanced over. "You probably haven't seen one before; that place earlier was crawling with unholy abominations, and normal birds were rare. Don't worry, you'll see plenty from now on."
The mechanical arm squeezed slightly.
Squeezing out a plop of bird droppings in fright.
Released, the terrified bird spread its wings and fled.
Annoying indeed.
"Sir, what is that?"
Isis pointed at a sprout of green emerging from the roof.
"A ban... Holy shit, a banyan tree?!"
Ji Jue panicked, scrambling into action. "Back me up, pull this thing out! Once it takes root, it'll clog the entire drainpipe. Huge hassle!"
"Understood."
Isis cooperated with steady precision and zero mercy, tearing it out by the roots.
Along with half a sheet of wall plaster.
Ji Jue's expression twitched. He shook his head, saying nothing.
Whatever, there was still half a bag of cement left in the yard anyway. Patch it up, slap on some paint, and it'd be good as new.
Old secondhand houses like this, aside from being somewhat spacious, had everything falling apart fast.
Yet with a bit of mending and fixing, it would look brand-new again.
Work continued.
Isis assisted in silence until the final gap was patched and the last coat of white paint brushed on.
The starlight eyes lifted, gazing together with her creator toward the high, expansive heavens, and the buildings and city stretching into the distance.
After a long time.
"Sir."
"Hmm?"
"Where is this?"
"Home."
Ji Jue smiled.
Sitting on the roof, basking in the afternoon sunlight, he looked down upon everything below—rustic, simple, unadorned.
There was practically nothing here, yet it was enough to hold immense hope. Just sitting here, even with nothing to his name, he could feel a peace and joy that welled from the depths of his heart.
Caressing the container of the workshop spirit in his embrace, he told her:
"This is our home."
Chapter 308