Who cares about that damned Sky Rail Company? It's none of my business!
Goodbye!
Anyway, there was no contract signed, and they're all shut down. Even the system in the watch can't connect online. The Sky Rail Company may have been amazing, but it's been bankrupt for over two hundred years. Surely no leader has turned into a ghost and is going to co looking for to work overti in the dead of night, right?
Just like that, he made up his mind and cast the thought of Sky Rail out of his mind.
I don't recognize it, I don't know it, I'm not clear on it, I found this watch, and I thought no one wanted it anymore!
After being startled beyond expectation, Ji Jue spent the whole afternoon imrsed in the study of alchemy, completely engrossing himself so much that he didn't even notice the passage of ti.
Until the familiar sound of breaking echoed once more from the lting Furnace.
The 51st failure.
Reason: imbalance of properties.
Holding the pincers, Ji Jue examined the tortured copper remnants of the afternoon, feeling the uncontrolled spread of spiritual essence within, and analyzed the cause of failure once again.
However, he saw that on the cooling copper piece, a crack suddenly erged, then a second, a third, dense and nurous... until finally, right before Ji Jue's very eyes, it cracked, collapsed, and turned into a heap of glowing copper sand.
"Oh, congratulations."
Ye Chun poked his head in, clapping his hands as he saw the piece completely ruined: "At last, the first step to clearing the rubbish pile is completed!"
Spiritual essence overload.
After an afternoon of training and engraving by Ji Jue, the already defective remnants could no longer withstand any more processing and engraving. They crossed the limit of their endurance and collapsed from within.
The simpler the materials, the more fragile their physical properties were, the lower their limit of tolerance, and the smaller the reaction after self-destruction.
If it were so dangerous material, after being infused with a massive amount of spiritual essence and Superior Essence, it might just explode in the furnace and could potentially flatten the entire workshop into a crater. Furnace explosions are the eternal nightmare of Alchemy Craftsn.
This was Professor Ye's educational plan—keep trying until you can't make it explode.
After all, the warehouse was full of worthless junk and scrap materials. It would be better to use their last bit of heat and give Ji Jue a chance to practice.
Even a dog, relying on its own alchemy skills to process the entire warehouse of scrap into overload and self-destruction, could beco a craftsman, let alone a Chosen Summoner?
At this mont, having finally completed the first step of a lengthy journey, Ji Jue should have been jumping for joy.
Yet he inexplicably sank into a daze.
He gazed blankly down at the copper shavings at his feet, and then at the spiritual essence rising and swiftly dispersing within the heated copper. The sedint and traces accumulated from the dozens of processing and engraving sessions were rapidly evaporating.
But why did he feel... so hungry?
Hunger, hunger, hunger, hunger, hunger!
Like a starving ghost who hadn't eaten a single grain of rice for dozens of days, an indescribable hunger erged from Ji Jue's soul and consciousness, rising and nearly turning him into a rabid dog.
Subconsciously, he reached out as if to grab the quickly dissipating spiritual essence and essence, wanting to stuff them into his mouth.
After coming to his senses, he couldn't help but smile bitterly.
Trying to grasp the Invisible spiritual essence and essence with his own hands, digesting remnants mixed with who-knows-how-many tis of forging and processing with his own mouth and stomach, was just too insane.
The next mont, he froze in place.
Because his hand seed to have actually grabbed sothing... not just the rapidly dissipating spiritual essence in the air, but even the essence remaining in the copper sand seed to be absorbed by an Invisible force, controlled, pulled, and gathered into Ji Jue's palm.
On his right hand, faint silver light resembling the circuits of a circuit board began to glow, so familiar—every ti he used the watch to extract spiritual essence, Ji Jue would see them, but now, with just a thought, the complex and dizzying Spiritual Circuit erged from his hand.
It was as if his hand had also beco an alchemy item.
Out of thin air, he collected, extracted, and then, as his fingers clenched, the emblem within Ji Jue's soul that represented power suddenly ascended, absorbing all the essence, devouring and digesting it.
Dizziness struck abruptly!
Ji Jue twitched, during the brief mont that had just passed in less than an instant, his perception revealed fifty-one instances of engraving and processing!
It was as if he had turned into copper, enduring the scorching and forging of flas, feeling the movent of spiritual essence. But at the sa ti, he seed to beco the spiritual essence itself, leaving behind circuits and imprints ti after ti, facing failure over and over... And before that, even earlier, he felt as if he were part of so colossal entity.
Before its fragnts had yet to crumble, uncountable Spiritual Circuits operated within the being, from the hands of a blurry silhouette rising from the flas of the lting Furnace.
It was as if they were performing creation, shaping the universe!
One rune after another was born and vanished within the fierce flas and molten copper, complex circuits intertwined like great trees, and ultimately, at the very core, the essence of the Superior collided and rged.
A grand creation beyond Ji Jue's imagination took form within the furnace, under the control of that silhouette, the unruly properties of matter obedient like faithful dogs, the ever-changing spiritual essence like flowing water, achieving new transformations through his command.
Until at last, flas parted to either side like a tide, and from the violently shaking lting Furnace rose a huge engine, over two n tall, its complex machinery glittering with light, the blessing of the Superior coursing through the radiance of copper, oh so solemn!
But what t it was a gaze tinged with disappointnt.
"Ascension sufficient, Purification lacking."
Professor Ye withdrew his look: "Another failure."
In the snap of a finger, the grand engine that had just been completed disintegrated in an instant, turning into countless fragnts.
All that remained was the thunderous echo within Ji Jue's soul.
Boom!
Ji Jue's vision darkened, and he couldn't help but take a step backward.
But as soon as he recovered, he grabbed the tongs again, throwing another fragnt into the furnace, racing against ti, not even waiting for the material to warm up and the properties to change before pressing it onto the operation panel again.
Taking advantage of the fleeting experience of embodying Professor Ye and the fragnt itself not yet dissipated, the spiritual essence surged out!
The feeling ca!
Gone was the previous awkwardness, gone the tentative trepidation. Ji Jue's consciousness and perception followed the flow of spiritual essence within the fragnt effortlessly, as freely as fish in water, boldly moving forward, undisturbed by any interference.
Rugged and bold, like a cursive script flowing effortlessly, bringing the concepts that erged in his chest to life at the flick of a wrist!
In the span of a few short seconds, the process Ji Jue used to carefully spend over ten minutes on was completed, feeling an unprecedented exhilaration.
He picked up the tongs, extracted the shard from the furnace, and gazed at the single success he had finally achieved after an afternoon of failures—the Superior Totem!
An Invisible fire ascended eternally, never extinguished.
It was the beginning of the Twelve Superior, Truth, transcendence, the foundation of insight, the source of all thought and soul in the world.
—[Ascension]!
After leaving the interference-free simulation environnt, it took Ji Jue less than six hours to overco the difficulty that other apprentices required countless failures and accumulated experience to conquer, completing his first true Superior engraving...
He raised his hand, wiped away the nosebleed caused by the overuse of spiritual essence, unable to hold back his excited smile.
This was his first step!
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