Chapter 236: A Pleasant Surprise and a Fright

One day dragged into the next with no end in sight.

The same relentless cramming continued, enough to make Ji Jue’s brain boil, along with round after round of forging. The demands remained exacting, and the punishments were brutally severe.

Ji Jue had once worried that he wouldn’t live to see the next day, or that he just wouldn’t be able to keep going. By now, however, he had gradually grown accustomed to this seemingly endless torment.

No, more than accustomed. He was thriving in it.

Perhaps Jian Yuan had been right. The moment Ji Jue stopped concealing his hatred and malice and began releasing them of his own accord, he had crossed the threshold into true mastery and gained firm command of the craft.

No longer did he care whether that hatred was directed at someone else or at himself. If he wished to forge a true Divine Creation blade, why should he fear being cut by a double-edged sword? On the contrary, the colder, sharper, and more vicious its gleam became, the more delighted he ought to feel.

Jian Yuan did not care in the slightest whether Ji Jue slacked off, cut corners, or attempted some futile resistance.

After the ritual at the furnace, Ji Jue’s progress in alchemy took off again. He was improving so quickly that it felt as though he was making progress even while eating or sleeping. Sometimes, while staring blankly into space, inspiration would strike, allowing him to understand several crucial points at once.

This wasn’t limited to Aberrant Alchemy. The same was true of Modern Alchemy and Fluid Alchemy, as well as Solid Alchemy, whose direction he had only just begun to grasp.

The price was that every technique he had learned over these past few days had also blended seamlessly into the system and habits Ji Jue was gradually organizing and perfecting, becoming an inseparable part of them. There was no avoiding it, escaping it, or denying it. Everything Jian Yuan taught had real substance. What he passed down consisted of secrets and divine essence that many craftsmen of the Depths would never have had the chance to learn.

It was like reaching into a toolbox for a hammer when driving a nail during carpentry work. His hand would naturally close around it without conscious thought. He could choose to discard the hammer and refuse to use it, but doing so would only make things harder for himself.

Over the past several decades, there was no telling how many creations had been forged by the craftsmen under Jian Yuan’s command. In Spring City alone, the works they had produced over the past few days probably already numbered in the thousands.

So much residual ash had gathered, and the divine essence hidden within it had emerged and condensed under the stimulation of the old furnace’s flames. The changes it brought Ji Jue went far beyond this. Most importantly, his blessing had undergone a qualitative transformation.

Under the ritual’s corrosion and crushing pressure, Spirit Primacy had evolved in an entirely unexpected direction. After greatly strengthening Ji Jue’s mental resistance to aberrant corruption, it had now given him the ability to use his own spirit matter to interfere with the mutation and corruption of creations inside the furnace.

The effect could have been slight, but at a critical moment, even the smallest difference could determine whether a creation succeeded or failed. For Aberrant Alchemy, it was like giving wings to a tiger[1], making the craft even easier for him to wield.

Once one got the hang of Aberrant Alchemy, one would advance at an astonishing pace. Now, it was as though Ji Jue had strapped a jet engine to himself. Even the slightest amount of study sent his progress soaring at a terrifying rate.

But what was the price?

After Jian Yuan granted Ji Jue access to his private library, Ji Jue began reading the other theories and works on Aberrant Alchemy stored within. The more he read, the more he realized just how sinister the system he had learned truly was. It was nothing more than an experimental theory. There wasn’t even a single successful precedent for it.

After stripping away countless irrelevant details, it focused only on the central principles and went straight to the essence.It had removed much of the material concerning communication with Upper Abominations.

Unlike other craftsmen, its practitioners did not need to worship a Lord and pray for its blessings. Instead, they took what they wanted with their own hands. They didn’t merely snatch food from an aberrant’s jaws; they went so far as to shove the aberrant itself straight into their mouths.

The price was that, without any protection, their chances of losing control were many times higher than anyone else’s, while the risk of becoming corrupted themselves rose just as rapidly. That included Ji Jue, even now.

Ji Jue glanced down at his hands. Faint gray and black marks stained his fingernails, resembling human faces twisted in silent screams. Some twisted in rage, others wept in pain. They shifted endlessly, never holding a fixed shape.

In the reflection of the mercury mirror, he looked almost completely different from before. It wasn’t merely the ugly scars crisscrossing his body, nor the muscle necrosis and wrinkles caused by his skin being brutally stripped away. Even his once-black hair was now streaked with white, leaving it mottled and uneven.

Between the strands of short hair hanging over his forehead, his eyes had also taken on an eerie hue under the erosion of esoterism and the influence of corruption. Unlike Jian Yuan’s emerald green, Ji Jue’s irises glimmered with a faint, intermittent scarlet, like embers that had never gone out.

With a soft sigh, he dismissed the mercury mirror with a wave of his hand. Sharp pains throbbed through both hands as the Pacifier matrix flowed through them. Its once-vibrant glow gradually dimmed, as though covered in dust. It was utterly exhausted, yet it stubbornly continued to purge the corruption that had seeped into his hands, again and again, refusing to let him stray down the path of aberration.

Ji Jue flexed his fingers and murmured under his breath, “Don’t worry.”

The glory of Pacifier and the sins committed through Pacifier were his to bear. Whether it was the legacy of Fluid Alchemy or the many gifts that followed, Sage Mercury had placed so many hopes upon him. How could he possibly be foolish enough to deny the life he had upheld all this time simply because of something he had seen in a dream?

With a piercing wail, the furnace shook, as though someone invisible were throwing themselves against its walls, pounding on the furnace door while shouting, wailing, and begging for mercy.

“Is anyone there? Anyone?! Help me! Save me!” the shrill voice cried out in despair. “Let me out! Please, I’m begging you! Is anyone there? Aaaaargh!”

The cries for help came to an abrupt halt. In their place came crazed laughter, followed by hysterical curses and anguished sobbing.

Thick blood seeped from behind the furnace door. It dripped outside, only to vanish. Within the flames, the shrieks gradually faded. At last, the furnace door opened with one final choking sob.

Ji Jue beckoned with one hand, and a piercing whistle tore through the air. A dagger shot out of the furnace and flew into his hand, vibrating with a shrill hum that made every piece of metal nearby rattle.

Pain stabbed through his eardrums. Viscous scarlet liquid slowly dripped from the dagger’s edge in an endless stream, yet every drop vanished before it could land.

Jian Yuan had appeared behind him at some point, looking down at the weapon. “It’s finished? You’ve made a little progress, at least.”

“It’s nothing but scrap.” Ji Jue held the dagger and gave it a couple of swings. He glanced back at Jian Yuan before looking down at the blade in his hand and shaking his head regretfully. “I focused too much on its sharpness and destructive power. It would probably fall apart before it could even hurt anyone. It’s useless.”

“That depends on the target, doesn’t it?” Jian Yuan reached out and tightly gripped the blade in Ji Jue’s hand.

Without a care, he took the dagger and drew it across his own palm, leaving a bloody gash. He watched with interest as his blood mutated and hardened, then even came alive, writhing like a monster as it burrowed back toward the center of his palm.

Unfortunately, after opening a single wound, the dagger shattered under the backlash from Jian Yuan’s matrix and aura. The mutated blood, as though it had encountered an even more terrifying monster, quickly dissolved. In the end, the wound closed neatly, as though it had never existed.

“Indeed. It’s still lacking.” Jian Yuan tossed the fragments aside, then turned to look at the now-empty furnace. “What else is in there?”

“Hmm...” Ji Jue pondered for a moment, then gave a slight shrug. “Just something insignificant. Interested, Master Craftsman?”

“You wasted so much material. The least you can do is let me see where it all went,” Jian Yuan said with a mocking laugh. “Of course, if you were planning a surprise for me, I can always pretend I knew nothing about it.”

Ji Jue beckoned casually. A thread of scarlet light emerged from the ashes and debris inside the furnace. It rose into the air, then settled into Jian Yuan’s hand.

“This is... a Blessed Creation?” Jian Yuan raised an eyebrow and began examining it.

Despite Ji Jue’s skill level, he could not find a single flaw. Its internal structure was even more intricate than the work of an ordinary craftsman, and it had even been encrypted. Jian Yuan had no intention of using the overwhelming insight of a Master Craftsman to force his way through it, so in that brief moment of inspection, he could only compare it with the materials Ji Jue had extracted and determine that the blessing within it came from the Heart Core.

Resting in his palm was a scarlet skull. It was only the size of a fist and looked as though it had been carved from blood-red jade, yet there were no marks left by blade or chisel. Its smooth, rounded form appeared entirely natural. All the catalyzed mutations and aberrant corruption had been sealed within, without the slightest sign of instability or loss of control.

Perfect.

“What sort of trick have you come up with this time?”

After matching wits with Ji Jue for so long, Jian Yuan had already grown accustomed to his occasional acts of defiance and unprovoked attacks. He did not seem bothered in the slightest. In fact, he almost seemed to enjoy them and even took the initiative to channel his own spirit matter into the object and awaken the creation.

“How can you say that, Master Craftsman? This is one of my finest creations,” Ji Jue replied with a faint smile. “You wouldn’t get angry if it didn’t turn out quite right, would you?”

“Everyone deserves the chance to make mistakes.” Jian Yuan gave him a long look. He was about to say something more when the skull in his hand opened its mouth.

“Ha! Then you’re in for one hell of a time, you bastard!”

Jian Yuan frowned, having realized something.

Ji Jue was still smiling. “Speaking of which, Master Craftsman, what do you think of your Spring City alliance?”

Jian Yuan glanced at him suspiciously. “It’s merely a working partnership. What else is there to think?”

The skull in his hand burst into wild laughter. “Please don’t misunderstand. What I mean is that everyone here is trash.”

Jian Yuan’s expression grew increasingly intrigued. “Interesting.”

Those two exchanges alone had been enough for him to completely break through the finished spirit matter seal and read the structure within, which contained a Heart Core blessing called Knowing Hearts.

After undergoing mutation and corruption, the blessing’s power had gone completely out of control. It constantly read the user’s spirit matter, and whenever the words they spoke differed from what they truly thought, it voiced their inner thoughts aloud. No, judging by what had just happened, it also seemed to embellish them a little.

Jian Yuan lifted the skull and examined it with curiosity. “All this, just for that?”

“I wouldn’t dare.” Ji Jue smiled and waved dismissively. The moment the words left his mouth, he discovered that Jian Yuan had somehow drawn out his spirit matter and channeled it into the skull as well.

The skull grinned. “Heh. Go to ▇ing hell.”

1. “Like giving wings to a tiger” is a Chinese idiom, pronounced rú hǔ tiān yì. The expression describes someone or something already powerful becoming even stronger after receiving help. It can also refer to a malicious force becoming even more dangerous with additional support. ☜