"Suffering... absolute suffering."
Inside the workshop, his face smeared with soot, Ji Jue opened his eyes, dragged himself up from his pallet on the floor, and wailed, "It's so agonizing! I'm suffering too much!"
To tell the truth, he had braced himself to endure hardship long ago, but he had never imagined it could be this agonizing.
A single week had felt like utter hell.
It was not that Professor Ye ran some sort of cramming boot camp; quite the contrary, she placed great emphasis on balancing work and rest. Aside from having Ji Jue maintain his previous practice and continue working through the pile of scrap and leftovers in the warehouse, she had only added two fixed classes a day.
One hour of fundamental coursework, covering the specific classifications and branches of the four pillars, as well as the various domains of alchemy—from Sovereign Virtues to boons, down to the practical application of diverse runes in different circumstances.
Pure theory.
Ji Jue absorbed it like a man dying of thirst.
And then came... the disastrous practical lessons.
Under Professor Ye's guidance, he analyzed and worked on the warehouse scraps and offcuts. Professor Ye would explain in meticulous detail the crafting process of each discarded piece and the problems encountered during its making. Then, with precise accuracy, she would assess Ji Jue's capabilities and set a problem that was perched right at his limit—or just a hair beyond it—for him to tackle hands-on.
Tracing spiritus circuits, inscribing layered runes, bridging subsidiary Sovereign Virtue insignias—every single one was something absent from textbooks, yet extraordinarily difficult or prone to mishaps in actual practice!
As a result, Ji Jue was trapped in a maddening cycle of failure. Attempt, crash, try again, crash again, try once more, until he finally managed a single success against all odds—only to be handed a new problem, starting the cycle of crashing all over again.
The excessive drain on spiritus was secondary; the psychological blows were relentless, coming without pause. It got to the point where just stepping near the furnace made Ji Jue's butt clench tight.
Pure terror.
Even if this damned furnace came alive and fought him one-on-one, it would still beat being tormented like this!
Granted, under such intense pressure, his skill was progressing by leaps and bounds with each passing day, but the process was truly far too agonizing.
And just when Ji Jue had finally managed, by grinding through scrap metal and chewing through kibble, to light up every single one of the Twelve Virtues' insignias, a new course began.
"As an artisan, you must understand alchemical creations—especially the items you use yourself."
Professor Ye said calmly, "Generally speaking, an artisan with real ambition won't use someone else's work. It isn't just about confidence in their own craft, but also for very practical reasons."
On the one hand, you naturally understand items you crafted yourself far better than anyone else's creations; you know exactly how to operate them, when you can overclock them, and where their limits lie.
On the other hand, it was because... other people's stuff had way too many landmines buried inside!
Modern creations were not so bad; at worst, they might install a monitor and a backdoor, recording your spiritus fluctuations, condition, exact physical state, and detailed ability effects when you used them, laying you bare for all to see... And that was considered relatively benign. If you were in the middle of a brawl one day and someone used a backdoor to remotely shut your gear down, rendering it useless, you would be sitting ducks.
And if you went further back—to the Cataclysm Era, or even earlier... that was a no-holds-barred contest in sheer lack of scruples!
Before the Ring of Taiyi was established, the industry environment was absolute crap and the artisans' morals were even shittier. When it came to wickedness, they constantly broke new ground in an explosion of variety. Just looking at the artifacts excavated today: some started draining your lifespan as you used them; some caused sudden abominable mutations; some cursed every friend and family member you had to death; some harbored a thousand-year-old ghost that crawled out at night to slaughter your entire family; and some concealed an ancient specter that slowly eroded your soul day by day, plotting to possess your body for rebirth...
It was truly an eye-opener for Ji Jue!
Furthermore, Professor Ye had practically drilled the warning into his skull: whenever you encountered something unfamiliar that looked powerful inside ancient tombs, Border Realms, or Chrono-Ruins, if you could not figure it out, steer clear immediately. Keep your distance and do not touch the damn thing no matter how impressive it seemed. Some lucky bastards could touch one a thousand times and come out unscathed, while unlucky chumps dropped dead before even making contact.
Thus, the top priority right now was to figure out the principles, materials, and effects of the alchemical items he carried on his person—such as the fragment of the Emperor figurine hanging around Ji Jue's neck: the Mouth of the Ancient.
Of course, as an effigy of the Emperor and an official, genuine figurine of the Eternal Empire, no artisan was audacious enough to tamper with it. But by that same token, to showcase the Empire's might and the Emperor's majestic presence, it had to be crafted with exquisite perfection, without the slightest flaw.
This was the start of hell...
Within a fragment merely the size of a thumb, there were actually thousands of spiritus circuits, hundreds of miniature runes, and no fewer than nine Sovereign Virtue insignias... The vast majority had already been ruined, and the other boons shackled and contained by the runes and insignias had long dissipated, leaving only a single remaining boon.
According to Ji Jue's estimates, in its complete state, its complexity would exceed this shard by a hundred—or even a thousand—times over!
Dozens of artisans within a single workshop likely spent decades, sparing no cost or labor, just to forge such a symbolic trinket. The extravagance and madness of the Eternal Empire was readily apparent.
At Ji Jue's current level, forget about replicating it—merely deciphering and analyzing its structure was already pushing him to the brink of death.
How was this any different from taking a middle-schooler who had only attended a few math classes and telling them to analyze an advanced calculus paper? On top of that, it was only two fragmented pages, and they still had to decipher what it meant, how to calculate it, and why the calculations worked that way.
"Just let me die..."
Slumped over the table, Ji Jue groaned in despair.
"You think this is bad?"
Beside him, Ye Chun, having finally made it ashore, gloated shamelessly. "When I was young, I lived through days like this for over a year."
In truth, Professor Ye had realized in the very first week that her niece was not cut out for this at all, but she had not stopped in the slightest, paying no heed to Ye Chun's wailing and tears.
Over the course of that full year, she crammed everything a Celestial Chosen needed to know, study, grasp, and comprehend—from alchemy to appraisal, across all general knowledge, and even the entirety of middle school through college curricula—straight into Ye Chun's head.
She did not stop until she was certain Ye Chun could stand on her own two feet and live comfortably by herself in the future.
And after that, she had degenerated at the speed of light into a lazy freeloader.
Loafing around every day as if the sole purpose of human existence was to drive up the price of crayfish-flavored potato chips, she made Ji Jue so envi... disgusted!
"Here, want one?" Ye Chun held out the bag of chips.
Ji Jue glared indignantly. Was he the kind of guy who craved potato chips?
Then, purely by reflex, he obediently opened his mouth.
"...Yes!"
"All right, quit your whining. Auntie went out today, so you've got the day off."
Having finished feeding him half a bag of chips, Ye Chun felt she had already worked exceptionally hard today. She flopped back onto the couch and waved a hand. "Didn't you say you were heading to the Security Bureau? Don't go stirring up trouble again."
"What do you mean by 'stirring up trouble'? A man of peace like me sweeps the floor gently lest an ant be harmed, and covers the lantern shade out of pity for the moth. Stirring up trouble is my least favorite thing."
Ji Jue retorted with utmost solemnity. After a quick wash in the downstairs public bath, he slung his pack over his shoulder and happily took Little Niuma out the door.
The sun was bright, and the breeze was fresh.
Praise be to freedom!
If only tomorrow's classes could be just a little bit easier, it would be even freer!
Whistling a tune, he sent Wen Wen a message, then followed the address provided all the way into Beishan District's bustling commercial area, checking the address repeatedly.
He looked up ahead.
Before him stood only a massive shopping mall, bustling with pedestrian traffic.
"What the hell?"
Ji Jue scratched his head. "Is the Security Bureau really this down-to-earth?"
"Because Sister Wen said a livelier place is good for the mood," a voice answered from behind him.
Startled, Ji Jue turned around to see a kid leaning on a crutch. With chin-length short hair and a tender face, the youth looked like a middle-schooler, exuding an unmistakable air of youthful innocence.
"Hello, are you Brother Ji Jue?" the newcomer asked politely.
"Huh?"
Ji Jue froze for a moment, then recognized the person as someone he had seen following Wen Wen on-site the day before yesterday. His demeanor instantly turned warm as he offered a hand. "And how should I address you?"
"An Ran. 'An' as in safety, and 'Ran' as in after. You can call me Xiao An or Xiao Ran, Brother Ji Jue." The kid flashed a brilliant smile. "It worked out nicely, I just got here too. I'll take you up. Let's go."
With that, leaning on the crutch, the youth hobbled ahead.
Ji Jue followed along obediently, but as he eyed the youth's back, he could not help wondering: was this... a boy or a girl?
"I'm a boy," An Ran said without turning his head.
"Huh?"
Ji Jue was flabbergasted. Was this the legendary mind-reading ability?
"I'm not a Chosen of the Heart Pivot. Every generation of my family has been White Stag," An Ran said, glancing back with a bright laugh. "Still, almost everyone is curious the first time we meet. It's probably because I can't exercise; my complexion and physique aren't great, so people easily mix it up."
No, no, no, that is definitely not an issue of complexion and physique!
Ji Jue raised his eyes and caught sight of the delicate cheeks reflected in the storefront display window. Oh no, his thoughts were starting to slip down a dangerous slope... What was this feeling of his heart fluttering like crazy?!
Following behind An Ran, he finally experienced the sheer grandeur of the Security Bureau.
Even if it was just the Beishan District branch, they had actually leased an entire floor of the mall, complete with a dedicated elevator. And according to An Ran, there were branches with even more outrageous displays of opulence.
The Nanlu District branch had gone straight ahead and built an entire forty-plus-story building, after which Team Leader Lu Shenzhou shamelessly abused public resources to open the largest, most comprehensive, and most badass twenty-four-hour gym in all of Yacheng... Just thinking about it felt like psychological damage to an impoverished student like Ji Jue who had to take out loans for school.
"We're here," An Ran said suddenly inside the elevator.
With a ding, the elevator doors slid open.
And then, an ear-splitting screech came rushing right at them.
Like a nightmare...
Half a minute earlier, in the lobby.
Calling it a lobby was generous; it was essentially a lounge for the members of the Beishan District Security Bureau. It had everything from sofas to televisions, plus an unlimited supply of free snacks—more than enough for a slacking fiend like Tong Hua to spend twenty-four hours a day there without getting bored.
"Ohoho, he's here, he's here! The Famous Quote Bro has arrived!"
Clutching her phone, Tong Hua pumped her fists excitedly, letting out bizarre shrieks of delight: "Gua! Today, I shall perform Famous Quote Bro's maxims live on the spot, ya!
My performance will definitely not disappoint Famous Quote Bro, ya!"
Camera, on!
Recording, start!
Her eyes gleamed with boundless anticipation.
I, Tong Hua, shall personally record this glorious moment of Famous Quote Bro, yeah!
Chapter 49