A Matter of Course

When all was said and done, it had nothing to do with effort or sweat, nor did it touch upon talent or genius. It was purely because the Embers three-piece set was simply too strong! Overpowered to an absurd degree. Even if Ji Jue were utterly careless, dozing off or spacing out, whatever materials he threw in would produce at least a passing sixty-point creation as a baseline. Throughout the entire process, Non-Offensive's control was so overpowering that even when an accident occurred, it ceased to be an accident at all. Attempting and exploring strictly within theoretical bounds, exhausting every effort just to seek his own failure... With the theory of Three-Phase Alchemy, the foundation of the Nine Forms, the absolute control of Non-Offensive, and countless other aids raising his floor to such ridiculous heights, achieving a natural failure was far more difficult than succeeding as a matter of course! To successfully fail, he had to actively seek out and exploit his own blind spots and shortcomings. Precisely because of this, the handful of rare failures he did manage to produce brought unexpected flashes of inspiration and insight. It was like combing through everything he had learned, known, felt, and realized from the very beginning—methodically and step-by-step checking for gaps and deficiencies, leaving no oversight unexamined, reviewing all that he was from an angle he had never previously conceived. In just a few days of searching, the progress granted by Heaven Moves Vigorous had multiplied beyond measure compared to when he was bitterly slaving away in the workshop! Only after experiencing the method his teacher spoke of firsthand did he understand that this was a shortcut tailor-made for him, leading straight toward [All Things Self-Transform]. The essence of All Things Self-Transform lay in the countless phenomena and things of heaven and earth constantly colliding, achieving completion naturally, like the craft of nature forged without design. Without a craftsman, matter gathering in the earth would still form ley lines; without a controller, lightning and flame would still birth spirits— Just as people marvel at nature's miraculous handiwork upon seeing stalactites formed over ten thousand years in a cavern, even without an artisan, countless mysterious creations and wondrous sights would naturally arise from the blending of spirit and matter, of Ascension and the Desolate Ruins. So much so that when everyone was intoxicated by the grandeur of creation, they often overlooked the countless failures and premature ends that were just as natural behind that self-evident success. Before matter could even converge, a ley line would be snuffed out by a volcanic tremor. Before lightning and flame could manifest, they would be extinguished in a tempest. An earthquake, and the cavern shattered; a tsunami, and the magnificent scenery was gone forever. Success and failure were both mere links in the circulation of all phenomena. To Ascension and the Desolate Ruins, was the birth or collapse of a ley line, the gestation or demise of a spirit, truly a success or a failure? When onlookers lamented that the splendors had vanished and elegance was no more, they never stopped to consider: did this natural wonder, this heaven-sent ruin, exist and unfold merely for the fleeting pleasure or regret of a bystander? All Things Self-Transform had never been called "all phenomena formed by heaven." Therefore, the point was never success or failure! Instead, it was— "—a matter of course!" In the instant Ji Jue had his epiphany: "Success and failure both reside within the Principle. Because transformation is natural, formation and failure arise of themselves!" Thus, success was a matter of course, and failure was equally a matter of course... All he could do was choose factors that leaned toward success as much as possible, pluck out the roots that fostered failure, and within an environment of his own choosing, guide this transformation naturally toward where it ought to go, toward the destination he desired— That was why Ye Xian had told Ji Jue to seek failure. He had long possessed no shortage of theories and techniques leading to success, but sorely lacked the experiential understanding of the path leading to failure. Wait... Ji Jue's eyes shifted. A natural, inevitable failure... It seemed he might, perhaps, actually have one! In the silence, he lowered his head and looked at his right hand. Viscous, churning black flames silently surfaced, swirling, surging, rising upward. Disordered chaos manifested right here! "Oh, so strong—" Ji Jue's eyes lit up. He was itching to try! Why not... give it a shot? And then he bit the dust. BOOM!!!! Who am I? Where am I? What just happened? Oh, I was courting death. Never mind then! Amid the spinning world, Ji Jue opened his eyes. He'd almost found his ass hanging from a tree... Excuse me, but when two completely diametrical forces are tossed into the same crucible to react naturally, what happens? They either annihilate each other, or violently catalyze each other. In the process of mutual stimulation, colliding with each other, they would directly turn the sealed Crucible into a bomb that only lacked a fragmentation grid carved onto it. And in the process of mutual annihilation, they would likewise release massive amounts of spiritus and motley material properties... which also meant an explosion! What was even more terrifying was—Isis cast a chilling gaze his way. "Sir," she said slowly. "I had just finished cleaning the workshop this morning." "I'm sorry." Ji Jue bowed his head obediently. "After it blew up this morning, I cleaned it up again at noon." "I am terribly sorry!" Ji Jue began to sweat. "After it blew up this afternoon, before dinner, I recall cleaning it yet another time." "Isis, it's me—it's Ji Jue—" Ji Jue's face twitched. "...By the way, your latest crucible explosion successfully ruined the Crucible that had only just been conditioned. If I recall correctly, your loan hasn't been fully paid off yet?" Isis delivered the fatal blow. Ji Jue was rendered speechless, feeling as though he was on the verge of shedding little pearl tears. Fortunately, it wasn't unfixable. Over ninety-nine percent of a crucible's main structure was consumable wear-and-tear anyway. After all, when artisans got up to trouble, no one knew what kind of stunt they'd pull. They broke quickly, but repairs were simple enough; it just took money— Fine, pay it then. The money earned from Sundial was just sitting on the books, more than he could spend. Chen Xingzhou was urging him every day to invest, when Ji Jue was actually hoping to pull some sponsorship out of him! Alas, while the money had been earned, when the Dragon Head did the math, he wouldn't budge an inch. Investing in an industry yielded returns, but investing in an artisan? How was that any different from tossing meat buns to a dog? To prevent himself from accidentally blowing up his workshop completely, Ji Jue had no choice but to rein in his extreme stunts and find somewhere else to continue. And so—Lou Feng began to suffer horribly. Damn it all! The Haian Tech office building shook nine times in three days, and seventeen crucibles were scrapped in five days! Even if they were the cheapest models, who could endure this?! Old Lou kicked open the door and roared furiously, "Why the hell don't you go to your own Haian Industry?!" Ji Jue looked shocked. "Haian Industry is an enterprise I personally founded!" "..." Lou Feng stared blankly for a long while, let out a helpless chuckle, and rolled up his sleeves. His fists clenched tight. Let's have a damn brawl first! In truth, blowing up the crucible was completely within Ji Jue's expectations. In fact, it would be unnatural if it didn't blow! The black flame of his sin fiend reflection was, by its very nature, extreme disorder and chaos. To apply it to alchemy, one would inevitably need to reshape order from within it. But through continuous experimentation, Ji Jue discovered that this was fundamentally impossible! How could order be reconstructed from pure chaos and disorder? The control of Non-Offensive and the erosive nature of the black flame were both too extreme, yet both were undeniably matters of course in their own right, each representing a potentiality of spirituality and material properties. It was precisely this that allowed Ji Jue to glimpse a possibility of their coexistence. Drawing inspiration from the Great Sin resonance in corruption alchemy, he replaced the Great Sin with himself as the object of sacrifice, introducing the disordered chaos into the crucible as part of the transmutation. Breaking through the extreme control of Non-Offensive, he successfully introduced more variables... abandoning any floor, reaching solely for the ceiling! Having discarded the originally rock-solid guidance, he turned around and proactively created an environment of rampant instability, allowing the materials within to complete catalysis and undergo metamorphosis on their own. A pure gamble! Fail, and it would explode instantly; succeed, and it might still explode. Crafting, altering, and blowing things up all at once, sometimes not even knowing what monstrosity he would produce—it was like drawing a lottery ticket, sheer thrill from start to finish! Giving free rein to his impulses, he freely explored every possibility outside standard formulas, following instinct, stepping beyond success and failure to observe the transmutation from an entirely different perspective. Sublimation, Purification, Extraction, Integration. The four stages flowed or stalled naturally, achieving completion or meeting failure as a matter of course. Ji Jue lost himself in the process, utterly immersed. Gradually, he let go of what he had formally learned, detached from his former perspectives, and found brand-new joy in this observation that exerted zero interference. The blessing of Heaven Moves Vigorous blazed with incandescent light, operating with terrifying efficiency to drive his progress forward. BOOM!!! The Crucible shuddered, erupting without warning. Yet even before it happened, Ji Jue had already raised his hand. Non-Offensive flowed, material properties were enhanced, and Three-Phase Alchemy cycled between states, quelling the erupting storm of spiritus once more. Just as though he had foreseen this failure. In this completely chaotic, purely random transmutation, Ji Jue had actually begun to discern a pattern... Even ignoring theory and past experience, he could occasionally sense what changes and phenomena would manifest in the very next step! No, it wasn't foresight or premonition; it was comprehension and realization! Because if it continued to change like this, it would blow! If it evolved this way, it would spiral completely out of control. And even after the explosion—Ji Jue reached out once more, drawing a defective blade from the cracked, utterly ruined Crucible: the Prototype Juque! It was a failure. The blade's structure was completely unstable; infusing even a trace of spiritus would likely shatter it on its own. Yet at the same time, it was a success— Right now, Ji Jue smiled. With a casual swing, the blade hummed, the air trembled, and a low buzzing tone suddenly rippled outward. Immediately, every metal and stone object throughout the entire workshop began to vibrate violently. Even flesh and blood felt spasms and twitches. Strands of hair buzzed, and teeth chattered. The resonance between material substances was amplified dozens of times beyond its original limit! The fine tremors spread alongside a soft whistle, echoing all things, rising from the earth and soaring skyward, enveloping the entire Haian Tech office building. Floorboards swayed. Crisp clatters resembling falling glass marbles burst out. Water pipes shuddered, scattering an ocean of boiling reverberations. Windowpanes rattled as hairline fractures crept silently across the glass. In his office, Lou Feng had just picked up his cup when he noticed faint ripples across the surface of the tea, blurring his reflection. He froze in place. Unable to take it any longer, he erupted in curses. "Ji, do you ever fucking quit?!" Unable to hold back, he rolled up his sleeves, ignoring the bruise on his face and the dull ache in his back. He kicked open the basement door, jabbed a finger right at Ji Jue's nose, and roared, "What the fuck are you doing every single day like a madman?!" Then, he was met with Ji Jue's unhinged grin. "You came at the perfect time, Old Lou!" Amid a burst of cackling laughter right in his face, he was grabbed in a tight grip! "Come quick, let me show you something good!"