Pressure-Cooking the Tryhard

This was simply no way to live. Ji Jue sprawled on the floor, dizzy, his vision swimming and his ears ringing furiously. A mocking voice seemed to drift over from not far away, but as if underwater, it sounded muffled and indistinct. Looking up, he saw three Ye Xians shaking their heads at him in pity. Oh, triple vision. A concussion. No big deal, minor issue. He socked himself on the opposite side of the head, balancing out the lingering turmoil inside his skull. Instantly, his head cleared quite a bit. Once again, he scrambled up from the ground. For the who-knew-how-many-eth time. "How long?" "Three minutes. You've regressed too much." Ye Xian shook her head. "If this is all you're capable of, completing your apprenticeship is still a long way off." Regressed? Ji Jue nearly laughed out loud. This wasn't even on the same difficulty level anymore, alright? If at the beginning Professor Ye had boiled the frog in lukewarm water, giving Ji Jue some time to adapt, now she had turned the burner straight to max, stir-frying him over high heat under full pressure. Pressure-cooking the tryhard—fast, thorough, dishing out a little teacherly love and care to a student who didn't know his limits. Even without using blessed creations, relying purely on fundamental material property interference to bring herself down to Ji Jue's level against the barehanded alchemy of Non-Offensive and the enhancement of Masterwork Nature, Ye Xian still effortlessly used the Embers branch's unique veteran suppression to deliver a truly wholesome ranked-match experience. "Rested enough?" Ye Xian beckoned boredly with a finger. "Don't waste my time. Where's that third hand of yours? What's the point of hiding a trick you've already used once?" She glanced at the dark bruise circling Ji Jue's right eye, feeling slightly dissatisfied. A matching one on the left would make it properly symmetrical. "Hurry up," she said. "Give me a sec—" Ji Jue pushed off his knees to stand, taking a deep breath before coughing violently, hacking out mucus and the blood oozing from his loosened gums. It splattered onto the floor, hissing. Finally, he felt a bit more refreshed. He took another deep breath and clenched his fists. "Teacher, be careful." Ji Jue warned, "I'm going to launch a sneak attack." The corner of Ye Xian's lips curved faintly, as if mocking him. Whether she was mocking the sheer absurdity of announcing a sneak attack beforehand, or the craftiness of declaring it in advance just to avoid angering his teacher and getting beaten even harder, was hard to say. In any case, he appeared supremely confident in this "sneak attack" plan of his. In other words, was he truly convinced that even after giving warning, it would still work against her? Boom! In that instant, a deafening blast erupted. Followed immediately by a surging wave of bloody fire and scorching heat! In a flash, crossing a distance of over twenty meters, Ji Jue was right before her! Like a volcanic eruption, molten lava churning, terrifying heat radiated from his body, singeing his hair into subtle curls. In his pupils, the smoldering embers burst into blazing brilliance. Like a shrimp tossed into boiling water, his entire frame bent sharply, turning completely crimson. A low rumble like war drums thundered as his heart pumped violently, ramping up pressure! Crucible Blood surged, coursing throughout his limbs, reacting furiously like the finest fuel and energy source imaginable. Full throttle! "This move again..." Ye Xian gave a slight shake of her head, raising her hand to effortlessly parry Ji Jue's fist, redirecting his momentum to deflect it aside. In that fleeting clash, however, she felt as though her arm had blocked a truck charging at full speed; her tempered martial stance was almost knocked apart. This strength and hardness far beyond common sense—even a Desolate Ruins practitioner of the same rank would probably struggle to match it. Through material property interference, he had reinforced the hardness and resilience of his skin and bones, while Crucible Blood provided its unique tempering and enhancement. It was likely derived from his familiarity with Metallic Quality and Form of Utmost Resilience, applied inversely to his own body. And that wasn't all. The essence, the propulsion, the true source of this extraordinary speed and destructive power was Ji Jue himself. Using Crucible Blood as fuel, and using Deus Ex Machina to treat his own body like a machine, issuing commands to run it in overdrive. A skill once so clumsy, crude, and impractical had, with the user's growing control and experience, actually reached a preliminary state of completion?! Faster, more exaggerated, and... stronger than she had anticipated! Boom! By now, the enemy was in her face, a tempest crashing over her! Sonic cracks tore the air without pause. Finger jabs, palm strikes, punches, driving elbows, knees, stomps, sweeping kicks, and flying kicks... Each limb acted independently, as if detached from normal control and thinking for itself, striking freely and shifting unpredictably in a ceaseless assault that defied common sense. Yet what was more terrifying was that every one of these intricate, chaotic strikes remained completely under control. From beginning to end, Ji Jue's body never once wobbled, nor did his center of gravity waver. Had it not been for the physiological limits of his joints, Ye Xian would have felt as though she were fighting four mechanical arms—and in a pinch, she even had to account for the possibility of him dislocating his joints to extend his reach. On top of that, a third hand—of spiritus—targeted vulnerabilities and gaps without warning... Without prior preparation, even Ye Xian would have been hard-pressed. Making himself into an alchemical puppet? Even those automaton masters who had gone mad chanting about ascension through their creations wouldn't dare display their slight skill in front of her... "Inexperienced after all." Ye Xian lowered her eyes and sighed softly. Stepping forward abruptly, she stamped down on Ji Jue's barely raised left foot, closing in with a rising elbow strike. When her elbow collided with Ji Jue's ribs, it rang out with the sound of clashing metal. The echo lingered. Ji Jue was thrown backward, but with his left foot pinned by Ye Xian, he couldn't fly clear. He fell backward toward the floor like a steel target. Yet before touching down, he propped himself up with an elbow, bounced upward, and swept his right leg around in a vicious kick, whipping up a gale. Too slow, unfortunately. Far too slow. If only it were a bit faster— Bang! Without warning, Ye Xian fell back! Or rather, slid back... leather shoes grating against the floor with an ear-splitting screech. She maintained her parrying posture, but on the sleeve of her shirt, which had previously lacked a single wrinkle, a patch of crimson had appeared, steaming with heat. More importantly: Moxie! Under her student's sneak attack, she had finally deployed her matrix. In that split second, the sweep that should have been too sluggish suddenly accelerated the moment she overlooked it, hurtling forward at a speed far beyond Ji Jue's physical limits and forcing her into a hurried defense that slid her backward. "How's that, Teacher?" Pushing off the ground with one foot, Ji Jue jerked upright in an eerie posture, regaining his footing, and grinned. "That's my blood-boiling combo!" "Crude beyond belief." Ye Xian shook her head with a sigh. Looking down at her arm, she flicked a finger, and instantly, the crimson stain adhering to her sleeve vaporized into nothingness. Only the scorching tang of blood lingered in the air. "So that was the sneak attack?" She glanced at the exploded sneaker on Ji Jue's foot and understood at once. The secret to that frantic, full-power burst of secondary acceleration was Crucible Blood... Slicing open the skin around his ankle from the inside, he had guided his blood out, shaped it, and detonated it like a secondary rocket booster to propel himself forward. And the Crucible Blood, once detonated at full force, radiated enough heat to melt and scorch steel. There were actually far more convenient and rapid ways to use it, but this fellow had feared a beating and hadn't dared to unleash them. If, instead of using it for propulsion, he had channeled it directly into his palm, brewing it to burst forth in an instant, she would probably have been caught off balance even more. And yet... "Has he already brought Crucible Blood under control this quickly?" As a passive blessing, Crucible Blood naturally required gradual adaptation and incremental control. On the one hand, an artisan needed to temper it through tens of thousands of forging sessions; on the other, it was a rare Mercy from the Embers... If thrust upon someone all at once, the artisan would likely be consumed and incinerated by its violent power. Under normal circumstances, achieving it in three years was considered fast. Yet how long had Ji Jue spent taking control of it? Half a month? Two weeks? Or even less. Though he was still far from mastering it completely and unlocking its full potential, he had already crossed the threshold into proficiency. A passing grade was secured; what remained was merely patient grinding. What made her even more curious was how his progress had leaped forward so dramatically in just a single day. "What on earth happened last night?" "Uh, cough cough!!" Ji Jue instantly felt awkward and gave a self-deprecating laugh. "When I was made to take penalty drinks, I secretly used a blessing to cheat, but Ye Chun caught me. Everyone egged me on, so I put on a show doing a Godzilla fire-breathing trick for them." He scratched his head. "Breathing fire over and over... somehow, I stumbled onto the knack of it." Ye Xian was deadpan, completely speechless. Outrageous and ridiculous as it was, when it came to this little bastard... ...it was actually par for the course. "Later, when you beg for mercy, make sure to perform it for me," she said slowly. "Underneath your T-shirt, on your chest—is that a layer of lead? If I'm not mistaken, that's meant to guard against the Dissociation Art, isn't it?" Since Ji Jue had already laid a card on the table, she didn't mind flipping over two more for him. "A block of lead isn't a fluid; it's not so easy to conceal. But given its opposite properties to quicksilver, that must be the material you intend to use for Solid Alchemy, right?" "...Guilty." Ji Jue grew even more sheepish. "Good thinking. Sulfur reacts too violently, and salt is too scattered to unify easily. By contrast, being a poor conductor of spiritus, lead serves as a material—provided you're prepared—that lends itself better to Solid Alchemy than quicksilver." Professor Ye saw through everything with crystalline clarity. "You deliberately used Deus Ex Machina to control your body and reinforced the prime target of the Dissociation Art with protection. You wanted to trade time for an opportunity, seizing the upper hand before the Dissociation Art could breach the spiritus isolation in the lead." She had laid bare every single calculation in Ji Jue's mind. After hearing enough dog barking, one was bound to decipher a pattern or two. At this, Ji Jue could only sigh in defeat. "All right, that's enough." Having punctured her student's little clever tricks, Ye Xian had no interest in continuing the routine. "Now that you've grasped the fundamentals to this degree, it's about time I taught you something new." In an instant, Ji Jue was overjoyed. At the same time, dread and alarm seized him. He braced as if facing a mortal threat. It was common knowledge that Professor Ye subscribed to big-stick discipline—or rather, when it came to a rascal like Ji Jue, she especially loved swinging the stick. Words never teach a man, but an experience only takes once. Especially during spiritus offense and defense classes! Usually, whenever she said something like that, what awaited Ji Jue was a deluxe combo of being mashed into dragon fruit, CPR, and kicks straight to the solar plexus. Yet under the tantalizing lure of the carrot, Ji Jue was utterly powerless to resist. "Teacher... can we change locations for the lesson?" Ji Jue plucked up his courage and asked, "I feel like this environment isn't really suitable for teaching." To this, Ye Xian smiled kindly. "If you'd like to learn on Yacheng Avenue or in Mingyue Square, I have no objections." A choice between physical death and social death—one had to pick one. She's definitely still mad, isn't she?! Isn't she?! Ji Jue shivered with indignant anger: I warned you I was going to sneak attack! It was your own carelessness, Teacher—how can you blame me for fighting dirty? "What are you waiting for?" Ye Xian gave one final beckoning gesture, signaling him to bring it on. "Hesitate any longer, and I might change my mind." Ji Jue took a deep breath. Summoned his courage. And just like that, took his first step forward. And then he perished.