As it turned out, Ji Jue's calculations were spot-on.
At the crack of dawn, the fish had been hauled up; before night even fell, the fish was dead!
Today, of all days.
There on the dissection table, it had been taken apart from head to tail, subjected to response testing, and drained for reams of data. Through nine grueling hours of agony without a single drop of anesthetic, the merfolk had finally drawn its last breath.
Yet as Ji Jue set down the scalpel, he merely wiped the sweat from his forehead with hearty satisfaction and let out a contented sigh, as if he had just finished a thrilling battle.
Had the merfolk been capable of speech, it surely would have cursed him with its dying breath: *You underhanded bastard, you really schemed your daddy into the grave!*
How could anyone in this world be so shameless?
A grand Regeneration-tier practitioner, going out of his way to butcher a barely adult merfolk, was unwilling to take the slightest risk. Not only that, but he had spent ages fussing over it, chumming the waters and lacing the bait with drugs—had he committed so many wicked deeds that he was terrified an extra step would make him trip, crack the back of his head, and drop dead on the spot?
He had not even granted it a quick death. Before dying, it had been sliced to ribbons, subjected to the full sequence of Embers combos without skipping a single beat.
Even the White Pavilion would have shed tears at the sight.
It had died too brutally.
It had died with too much grievance.
There had been no other way.
Everyone had things they were not good at.
While the Vortex branch could not be called a complete blind spot for Ji Jue, his foundation in the study of life sciences was still far too shallow. Back when dissecting the wolf, being allowed to hold a retractor and assist Aignu had already been an exceptional promotion.
Now, taking apart an entire merfolk from head to tail had worked him into a heavy sweat.
In the end, aside from the most fundamental baseline data and organ functions, he had barely made sense of the endocrinology, genetics, recessive traits, or dominant expressions. As for bloodline tracing, genetic differentiation, mutation screening, and various potentials or possibilities, those were entirely out of the question.
The only conclusion he could draw was: this truly was a merfolk.
If he tried to pad a paper with these meager findings, it would probably become the Association's laughingstock of the year.
He simply had not had enough time; his accumulated foundation was too thin.
Different trades were worlds apart. Sometimes, even within the same overarching path, the thresholds between separate fields were insurmountable.
Spiritus studies and life sciences were distinct branches of the Embers path. The difference between them was like that between the Vortex and Ascension. Even if their foundational elements overlapped, the higher one went, the further apart they diverged.
Almost everything Ji Jue had learned was meant for dealing with inanimate objects; what he could apply to living beings was pitifully sparse. But that did not matter—
A man had to know how to adapt.
If dealing with living things was tricky, wouldn't turning the living into the dead solve the problem?
For an entire day, Ji Jue had dismantled the merfolk and pieced it back together, then dismantled and reassembled it again, repeating the cycle countless times.
Even if he understood little beyond basic blood circulation and organ functions, the roles and mechanics of the muscles, nerves, lymph nodes, bones, and organs were now crystal clear to him.
That was enough!
Dead or alive, it made no difference—as long as it was usable!
"Data derivation complete, sir."
Isis's voice echoed through the cabin. Thousands of miles away in Punabantu, the workshop spirit had faithfully finished its duties: observing, recording, analyzing, and deriving.
"Your conjecture was indeed correct. It is entirely feasible."
"Then what are we waiting for? Let's begin!"
After resting for a few minutes, Ji Jue rolled up his sleeves once more and walked over to the massive corpse resting on the extended dissection table.
The remains of the merfolk.
He reached out his hand, and Non-Offensive manifested. Silver matrices flickered into existence within the void, enveloping the entire creature.
Inside the cabin's temporary workshop, the colossal merfolk levitated into the air. Scales, flesh, bone, and internal organs detached from the main body in orderly succession.
It looked as though thousands of invisible hands were meticulously breaking it down, treating it, and transforming it.
Amidst a rushing torrent of spiritus flames, Three-Phase Alchemy manifested, and the transmutation began!
This time, Ji Jue completely discarded the rigid rules and frameworks of life sciences. Disregarding the essence of life, he treated the merfolk purely as inanimate raw material, embarking on a brand-new creation upon that foundation!
Not life sciences, but engineering. Not biological reconstruction, but inanimate conversion!
A living organism was inherently a vast and intricate system. All corporeal life could be viewed as a form of precision engineering.
Once the boundary between flesh and steel was stripped away, how many differences truly remained between a living creature and a machine?
There might be some, but they were negligible!
What Ji Jue aimed to do was not to exhaust the species' potential, control it, and elevate it as Master Aignu would, but to view the merfolk as a machine—examining, measuring, designing, and upgrading it strictly from an engineering standpoint.
To make it purer!
*Boom!*
In an instant, the transposition began.
Countless invisible hands emerged from the void, executing their prearranged tasks: replacing calcium with metal, substituting nerves with spiritus circuits, swapping blood for quicksilver, reinforcing functions with the Haze's established formulas, and overwriting the original soul with the spirit of the Lord of the Flies.
The heart's output was too feeble, so it was remolded into an engine. The scales served too singular a function, so they were adapted to act as heat sinks. Eating and digestion were too inefficient, so they were replaced with sacrifice and three-phase conversion.
The spine and frame were too brittle, so they were reinforced with metal!
Ascension, Purification, Extraction—
By the end, countless tiny components floating in midair took on a metallic gleam. The crimson hue of blood vanished, replaced by an array of suspended parts drifting like rising and setting stars, awaiting only the final integration.
With that—
Ji Jue pointed a finger one last time:
"—[Deus Ex Machina]!"
Amid the dead silence, a resonant ringing of steel rose like a droning hum, layering over itself into a distant, majestic overtone.
The countless floating components began to recombine and fit together once more, forming a seamless whole that bonded into unity under the transmutation of Non-Offensive.
In the blink of an eye, the reconstructed merfolk revealed itself, completely transformed from before. Its dimensions remained unchanged, but its weight had multiplied dozens of times over. Most striking of all was the metallic luster gleaming beneath its scales.
At that moment, the inanimate object was endowed with life. The merfolk that should have perished opened its eyes once more.
A faint gleam flickered in its hollow gaze.
When Ji Jue casually extended his bare hand to its snout, the creature's ferocious face showed not a shred of savagery or malice.
It bowed its head submissively toward him, respectfully awaiting orders.
A complete success!
If only it hadn't let out a soft "Meow" while lying prostrate on the floor, it would have been perfect.
Ji Jue's expression twitched, and he let out a helpless sigh.
Fine. A meow was fine. At least it could make a sound...
Over the hours that followed, Ji Jue directed the steel merfolk through various movements and tests inside the cabin. An upgrade in performance was to be expected, but its stability had improved by more than a single notch compared to previous attempts.
There were no symptoms of delirium or madness, nor any self-destructive impulses or violent frenzies.
Even when Ji Jue completely relinquished all active control and issued commands to spin, roll over, do a handstand, or leap through a hoop of fire, it executed every single one methodically and without hesitation.
By contrast, the crude conversions he had performed back on the Venom Fleet had produced puppets that were far too erratic, driven by an almost instinctual urge to destroy. The moment control was loosened, they would run amok or kill themselves.
They had been practically useless, fit only for practice and gaining experience.
Just as Ji Jue had noted: not only was turning dead objects into living things troublesome, but transforming living things into dead matter was equally fraught with hurdles.
Yet unlike that batch of trash from before, this conversion of the merfolk had gone smoothly from start to finish.
Upon evaluation, the creation's longevity and stability had jumped several tiers, and its level of completion was worlds apart.
The contrast was greater than the difference between a man and a dog.
While accumulated experience certainly played a role, the primary factor lay in the fundamental nature of the chosen raw material—not merely the species difference between pirates and merfolk, but the inherent divide between humans and beasts!
In other words...
"The existence of the self?"
Ji Jue murmured in contemplation, directing his attention to the core foundation of the Ascension branch: [self-nature]!
All changes and developments in Ascension were built upon this foundation of the self and self-nature. For Ascension, once one lost their self-nature and self, they were effectively dead.
Take Wulou Temple, for instance. Once one converted, their self-nature dissolved into the True Dharma, reducing them to a puppet and an instrument. From that point on, no matter how much their cultivation advanced, it was merely an expansion of the True Dharma.
*I am no longer I.*
Looked at this way, what Ji Jue was doing was no different from what the Absolute Abyss did.
Replacing the merfolk's self with a Spirit of Creation was functionally no different from practicing the so-called "True Dharma" and integrating into the Lord of the Flies' system.
Compared to humanity's overabundant self-awareness, the sense of self in beasts was dim and muddled; even if present, it was minimal. A species like the merfolk, possessing a powerful collective consciousness and clear division of labor, naturally aligned with the architecture of the Lord of the Flies swarm. After being converted, the job remained the exact same job—they had simply switched companies and jumped ship.
"Does this count as a success, sir?" Isis asked.
"It's only the beginning. Still a long way to go..."
Ji Jue shook his head. Stroking the tame steel creation beneath his hand, he suddenly asked, "Isis, tell me, does this count as All Things Self-Transform?"
Isis replied impassively, "If your previous insight was correct, the essence of All Things Self-Transform is being natural and spontaneous. Where, then, is this 'nature' you speak of right now?"
"Yes, where is it?"
Ji Jue raised his hand and tapped the steel merfolk on the skull.
The conversion through Deus Ex Machina, the modification through alchemy, the forced deconstruction and overwriting of life sciences through engineering... If compared to the phenomena of the mortal world, what part of this process could be called natural?
It was unadulterated aberration and distortion!
Yet since aberration and distortion existed, were they not also a part of nature?
Aberration was still a variation; distortion was still a change.
Since it was an inherent link within the mortal world, why should it be excluded?
*The mortal world is a furnace; all things transform of themselves.*
If all changes were part of nature, why wasn't he also a link within it?
"Three-Phase Alchemy came to be through me, and Deus Ex Machina originates from me. Since heaven birthed me, how can my actions not count as a part of nature?"
Ji Jue laughed, lifting his head to counter, "Why shouldn't what I achieve be considered an achievement of nature?
"In that case, using my nature to supersede the nature of the world—why should that be forbidden?"
For a fleeting moment, he seemed to grasp a faint trace of All Things Self-Transform, yet he could not tell whether it was genuine comprehension or an illusion, nor could he discern if it was a flash of genius or a descent into madness.
As for whether the path beneath his feet was a righteous avenue or a dead end?
He did not care.
He had simply come to feel, firsthand, his teacher's arrogance, Kanemoto's wild audacity, and the resolve of countless artisans who had thrown themselves into Stagnant Rot.
This obsession, rooted in the very nature of a craftsman, was the source of both Embers and Stagnant Rot.
Even if it was the wrong path, so what? Even if it was a dead end, what of it?
Success or failure—one would only know after trying!
In this uncharted territory where no one had ever set foot, Ji Jue stepped onto the course he had chosen, without hesitation and without looking back.
And so, just like that—Ji Jue rolled up his sleeves with keen enthusiasm and picked up the fishing rod once again!
Since he was already here, he might as well catch another one!
Just one more!
Chapter 737