Chapter 00258: Someone Else’s Bicycle
# Someone Else’s Bicycle
Chapter 258
Novel: Above Destiny
Chapter 258: Someone Else’s Bicycle
Just like burning paper offerings at a grave or lighting a warm fire in winter.
Ji Jue’s foremost task was to throw one thick spiritual quality book after another into the blazing flames.
He burned all the many record books created by the Yitai lineage—these detailed disaster records painstakingly traced over the years by the Tong family, engraved with their own spiritual essence and matrix from countless calamity sites across the lands.
Then, using his own spiritual essence, he stimulated the records, accelerating the phenomena.
From the chaotic changes and intense heat, he seized the crucial moment, imprinting everything recorded within the blaze onto the fiery light.
He aimed to minimize the loss of the phenomena as much as possible, avoiding any distortion in the records.
After that, by inputting the records and phenomena into the circled flow, everything that had once been would evolve again from the furnace, tempering its sharpness, engraving new marks…
The sword’s ringing sound rose again, cold light flashing, severing countless chaos in one stroke!
It was as if following the movement of Heaven and Earth, cutting away all barren rebels, establishing a new pattern and set of rules.
Such terrifying presence and sharpness were, however, tightly contained within ironclad laws.
Based on the Primordial Element to restrain many things; the Yitai axis to encompass all; the Mirror for turning points, reversing reality and illusion; the Wasteland as the body, to interfere with the present world…
These four blessings formed a complete whole from countless runic seals and spiritual essence circuits.
If it could be forged, then even up to the Celestial level, Tong Shan would never need to look for another weapon.
Even if this weapon one day became useless to him, it would be enough to pass down to future generations and open a new lineage in the Tong family’s heritage!
Rather than a weapon, it would be more fitting to call it a ceremonial vessel!
Just as Master Zhou Zhong said…
This is even better!
“Feed it.”
Unexpectedly, Zhou Zhong’s voice sounded again.
The furnace fire illuminated Ji Jue’s eyes.
He reached out once more.
At this moment, there was no time for distraction.
For him, this was an unprecedented opportunity—a master’s focused creative demonstration, the essence and changes close at hand, even the ability to connect ideas and intuitions.
He was already immersed.
Without waiting for Zhou Zhong’s orders or reminders, he naturally integrated himself into the process.
Without any hesitation.
The record books in his hands were thrown one after another into the fierce flames, seizing each crucial chance, using non-aggressive stimulation and catalyzation, endlessly.
And there was no need for him to speak; boxes upon boxes of those records—normally requiring a Yitai Chosen one to spend a long time carefully documenting, cross-examining, and verifying—were brought in by the Tong family’s workers like an endless stream.
No idle talk, just continuous supply.
The whole process was smooth and flawless.
Such a massive project made of so many people, under Zhou Zhong’s guidance, had no setbacks or problems.
Even if there were issues, he solved them easily on the spot.
More hidden dangers had already been weeded out before they could appear.
This was a true master.
While Ji Jue admired him in his heart, he also felt the mounting weight and pressure bearing down on him.
If the collaborative structure of the myriad sources returning to one were like a vast system, then Ji Jue’s role had unknowingly been raised from the distant periphery to the core.
Though the essence flowing within was still as elusive as seeing flowers in the fog, hard to discern, he could now observe and touch far more changes than before.
Unexpectedly, even narrow-minded Master Zhou Zhong could sometimes display such broad-minded generosity.
Before the furnace, Zhou Zhong’s face was as calm and unreadable as still waters.
Only familiar and close people could catch the fleeting flash of displeasure and gloom in his eyes just then.
He didn’t want to feel this way!
But damn it, Ji Jue was just too damn smooth to work with…
Such a huge project required full integration of efforts—if you had strength, you had to give it fully, ten out of ten.
There was no room for slacking.
Originally, Zhou Zhong planned to kick him out and ridicule him once he lagged behind.
But he didn’t expect Ji Jue to be so slick.
Despite never having cooperated before, after just a few times of feeding materials, Ji Jue instinctively followed the flow of countless origin returns, judging for himself the timing to feed and catalyze.
He even adjusted his position on his own based on the fire’s intensity and blessings’ transformations, coordinating to help other parts take action and maintain control.
He even took on pressure in place of other parts.
Unknowingly, more and more weight hung on him.
The heavy load that other apprentices or craftsmen once barely endured was like a breeze to him—his hands and fingers moved smoothly and steadily throughout, all spiritual essence flowing perfectly, solid as a rock.
The whole coordination of myriad sources returning to one was a process where the best rose to the top—the more pressure you could bear and the more stable you were, the more crucial your role.
When he came back to his senses, he had already become one of the keys in the entire project.
Damn it…
Even Zhou Zhong, self-proclaimed master and with deep cultivation, couldn’t help but feel a surge of irritation and… jealousy, which he stubbornly refused to admit.
Good apprentices, they always go to others.
Why could he never seem to find such a good disciple himself? If this one were under him, who’d worry about the workshop’s decline or the legacy dying out?
Such a pity, such a shame, such frustration.
But then again… It wasn’t his student anyway, so why care? After all, the bicycle belongs to someone else—what’s wrong with me standing up and pedaling it?!
He should be thanking me!
He wore a calm expression, casually elevating Ji Jue into the core axis of the purification phase.
The balance shifted unknowingly as an immense amount of pressure flowed toward Ji Jue through the circled flow.
Here, have some more pressure!
The furnace’s flames soared vigorously.
The highest good flowed unbroken, blessings transformed, spiritual essence burst forth.
Time passed quietly.
To bystanders, nothing much seemed to happen during the craftsmen’s mysterious refining and creation process.
By late afternoon around seven or eight, Tong Hua finally ran out of phone battery and couldn’t stay any longer.
She left a note and left.
But the sharp ringing of the sword continued, growing clearer and higher.
The lingering sound wouldn’t fade.
Every strand of that ringing made everyone’s scalp tingle as if the ironclad laws, sharp as blades, were already resting at their necks.
In that instant, the circled flow suddenly shifted.
The furnace trembled.
A crack appeared abruptly in the sharp ringing, like a fierce beast restrained by iron laws making a last desperate struggle.
After the fissure burst open, spiritual essence erupted wildly.
A piercing scream followed.
A scorching jet swept past Ji Jue, striking an apprentice who immediately burst into flames, their skin blackened and charred.
Amidst the screams, the nexus the apprentice maintained was suddenly severed.
One spiritual circuit after another collapsed and dissipated.
But then, in midair, they reconnected and linked again.
Zhou Zhong’s outstretched palm cracked, blood seeping from his fingers.
The viscous scarlet dripped but evaporated before hitting the ground, vanishing without a trace.
“Hold steady!”
Zhou Zhong shouted angrily.
Amidst his rising voice and the increasingly high-pitched sword ringing, the sounds of cracking echoed endlessly.
The enormous workshop instantly filled with mist.
The circled flow shook violently.
The nine-layered structure, arranged in a three-above, six-below formation, could barely contain the blazing flames bursting from the furnace and the power emerging from the blessings’ transformations!
There was no way to merge it all…
After countless materials had been elevated and purified, after gathering and soaring through massive recorded events, everything finally converged.
But if the ironclad law of the Primordial Element couldn’t suppress the backlash exploding inside, then all that evolved inside the furnace would become a rare and spectacular fireworks show for the Tong family’s history.
Along with the items destined for Tong Botanical’s works, there would be Zhou Zhong’s painstaking effort over recent days and his lifetime reputation sent hurtling into the sky!
The furnace was about to blow!
Unless Zhou Zhong had already prepared himself mentally to hang himself crying at the entrance of the association tomorrow and accept the annual loser award, no matter what, even if he died, he couldn’t let the furnace take the lead away from him…
“Hold steady for me!!!”
Zhou Zhong screamed.
The vast torrent of raging spiritual essence surged from his body, forcefully taking over many spiritual circuits that were already breaking down and spiraling out of control.
With his own power alone, he reconstructed the structure of the circled flow again.
But in the highly concentrated spiritual essence environment, countless blazing flames spread, waves surged, and illusions of thunder and lightning appeared.
If he slipped for even a moment, these illusions could become real…
Everything originally shouldn’t have been so bad, but too many heavy materials had been fed in!
Plus the presence of a tool like Ji Jue helping.
The more materials fed, the smoother it all went.
The faster the progress, even beyond earlier expectations, too many event changes were merged into the fiery light.
The quality reached a new height!
So much so that the furnace’s core was the first to buckle.
Under a disastrous chain reaction, the four parts and eight pillars scattered, and the circled flow wobbled without rest.
Yet from the loud rumbling and chaos, a complex matrix light suddenly rose from Zhou Zhong’s body, spreading endlessly and imprinting the void.
Using himself as the crucial axis, he once more brought all the turmoil back to stability.
Unexpectedly, amid that chaos, besides the prepared backup measures and plans, there was also a key node close by.
Right beside the furnace, within arm’s reach.
Staunchly bearing more than a third of the heavy pressure, it had never let go.
Ji Jue!
The moment was too brief to think or hesitate.
Zhou Zhong decisively used himself and three other key nexus nodes around him as a base, reestablishing stability.
In an instant, after the momentary turbulence, everything returned to order.
The circled flow ran without pause.
Countless shining flows swirled like rushing stars, gathering among the resonant sounds, exposed cracks in the furnace revealed.
The roaring of tides, thunder, earth tremors, mountain collapses echoed endlessly.
Water hues, firelight, dust, tides, falling omens swept over and vanished.
Finally, inch by inch, iron light emerged from the ashes.
Like a soaring dragon rising into the sky.
The three-above, six-below nine-layer circled flow suddenly contracted, colors swirling ceased, forming many layers of seals.
Like a sheath, it enclosed the core.
A heavy long sword fell from the sky.
Landed gently into Zhou Zhong’s hand.
As natural as water flowing into its channel.
Only then did the slight trembling in the hands holding the sword reveal itself; finally, there was time and opportunity for cold sweat to bead.
Around him, coughing and panting never ceased.
After days of torment, the ash-covered apprentices lay utterly exhausted, unable to move.
Only in front of the furnace did Ji Jue lift his wrist and wipe the ashes off his face.
He breathed out a long breath.
Luckily it didn’t explode.
Otherwise, this round would have launched his flesh body into space…
Turning back, he saw Zhou Zhong’s cold expression fixed on him.
“Why didn’t you stop?”
In that instant just now, Ji Jue clearly had a chance to let go in time, or else he wouldn’t have fallen into such a predicament.
His hands hung down now, palms burnt and charred, fingertips dripping blood.
The cracks ran deep, visible to the bone.
“No choice. Anyone else would have stopped.”
Ji Jue shrugged helplessly. “But Tong Botanical’s pretty loyal to me. If I stopped, it’d be hard to pass the buck later and cheat people out of money, right?”
Zhou Zhong said nothing, just watched him.
He waved his hand.
A bottle flew from the void, landing in Ji Jue’s palm.
“Tend to yourself.”
The fist-sized bottle was mostly made of crystal-like material, layers upon layers of sealed spiritual essence circuits, not leaking a bit.
Once unscrewed, a wisp of cyan liquid fell onto Ji Jue’s hands; the cracks instantly shrank, blood and scars faded away.
No trace of injury remained.
Not just on the surface—even tiny inner fissures healed immediately, and Ji Jue’s body, slightly weakened from soul growth, felt instantly restored.
A faint natural flush appeared on his pale face.
The key was there were no signs of false recovery—everything simply happened naturally.
Good stuff—definitely good stuff!
Only a master would treasure something like this.
Ji Jue clicked his tongue, carefully recapped the bottle, then casually stuffed the rest into his pockets…
“…”
Zhou Zhong stared at him expressionlessly for a long moment.
Until Ji Jue seemed to remember, slapped his head, and said “Oops.”
He sluggishly pulled the bottle back out of his pocket, reluctantly handed it over.
It was snatched away.
Put away.
Every time I admire you, you always cause some trouble!
Ye Xian’s temper—how did he teach such a shameless student?!
But bizarrely, right in front of the master, after the item was safe, this guy shamelessly came closer, blinking his eyes, looking at the heavy long sword in Zhou Zhong’s hands.
“Let me see, let me see!”
(End of Chapter)