Chapter 00032: Come, Let’s Get Her to Work!
# Come, Let’s Get Her to Work!
Chapter 32
Novel: Above Destiny
Chapter 32: Come, Let’s Get Her to Work!
The long, rectangular base was covered in complex patterns that looked like circuits, extending from the indentations where hands would rest all the way to the interior of the spherical crystal.
The design and structure were unfamiliar and strangely bizarre.
“Professor, this isn’t one of those things from a novel that lights up when you press it, right?”
It reminded him of stories from long ago, where magic academies tested abilities with something akin to a light bulb, shining brightly when activated.
Ji Jue did not hesitate and placed his hands directly on the surface, just as he expected, a faint glow suddenly ignited from within the sphere.
Unfortunately, the brightness was barely enough to count as two watts.
He might as well have plugged a potato into the electrodes; this left him feeling a little defeated.
Then, he felt something within him—the spiritual essence began to tremble eagerly, as if it had noticed some attraction, a strong impulse to flow outward.
“There’s no need to resist the movement of your spiritual essence,” said Professor Ye soothingly. “Input it slowly and layer by layer. Take your time. The base is called an easy-spiritual-probe; it helps the Chosen ones maintain a stable structure and state of their own spiritual essence within matter. It establishes a constant pathway for spiritual essence, runes, and inscriptions within the material—this is the foundation of modern alchemy.”
“Yes, stabilize your own spiritual essence, keep it in a fixed form, maintain its gathered state to ensure stability,” she continued.
As she spoke, strands of light began to rise within the crystal ball, flowing like molten copper, carrying a restrained brilliance.
The spiritual essence flowed in through the pathways created by his ten fingers, weaving into a stable loop.
“Now, you can let go of your hands.”
As she finished her sentence, Ji Jue slowly lifted his hands.
A silence enveloped them; neither spoke, simply gazing as the loop, formed from Ji Jue’s spiritual essence within the crystal ball, spun gently.
The faint light gradually dimmed until, after ten minutes, it finally collapsed in on itself and dissipated.
“Next, use your spiritual essence to spread and fill the entire sphere evenly,” Ye Xian instructed. “What do you feel?”
“It seems like… inside here…” Ji Jue hesitated, “the material of the crystal ball is shifting between liquid and solid states?”
“That’s normal. What you’ve injected is a high-spiritual essence reaction crystal. After injecting your spiritual essence, it will become liquid. Next, you need to control the proportions of liquid and solid—manipulate it, guide it, make it move.”
Professor Ye’s voice was slow and grave, each word echoing in his ears.
Soon, when Ji Jue lifted his hands again, a golden whirlpool appeared inside the sphere, his spiritual essence directing the liquefied crystal into motion.
Ye Professor kept track of the time, and the essence lasted for thirteen minutes and sixteen seconds before fading away.
Following her instructions, he let the crystal portion inside become partly liquefied while maintaining a solid form.
He tried to form standard shapes like hexahedrons and dodecahedrons or nested structures.
With each attempt, Ji Jue became increasingly excited, feeling his spiritual essence, under the probe’s guidance, sculpting various outlines like a sculptor’s chisel.
He even independently succeeded in trying out techniques like turning, milling, planing, and grinding, carving a small sheep pattern within the crystal.
Wow, is there really such a marvelous thing?!
Ji Jue was more and more fascinated.
Wasn’t this simpler and more convenient than a CNC machine?!
There was no need for programming; just a thought to set things in motion. “Is this alchemy?” he murmured reflexively. “It feels… pretty simple.”
That’s what he wanted to say.
It truly felt easier than he expected, not as complicated or difficult, more like something easy and straightforward to take on.
But no, he couldn’t be careless!
In every endeavor, one must first master the simple before moving on to the complex; entering this was merely kindergarten-level.
Who knows what would come next that might have him spitting blood?
He dreaded the thought of Professor Ye saying, “This is running, this is rolling, this is attacking. Good, next let’s go slaughter those ridiculous enemies called the Ember Kings, the Kos Orphans, and Malleenia…” Wasn't this like stepping into a game where the character would die if you weren’t careful, only to find that the overseer was Miyazaki Hidetaka?
“Well done, maintain the state,” Ye Professor stated, her expression unchanging as she retrieved a thick tome from a nearby box.
Each page was made of heavy copper foil.
She opened the cover and pointed to the first ancient symbol at the top.
It was both complex and strange, like a swirling flame rising upwards. “Use your spiritual essence to precisely recreate this symbol within the crystal, starting from the left. The first stroke goes top to bottom. Don’t limit yourself to a flat plane; it is three-dimensional. Follow your own feelings. Your spiritual essence will complete its structure. What you need to ensure is absolute stability. Focus…”
Snap!
Ji Jue felt a shock, instinctively letting go.
He accidentally lost the stability of his spiritual essence, resulting in the symbol he had barely completed exploding soundlessly in the sphere, dispersing entirely.
He couldn’t help wanting to slap his own face!
What was he bemoaning as simple?! Suddenly, the difficulty spiked!
“Failure is normal, continue,” Professor Ye replied, her expression still calm, unfazed. “Don’t doubt yourself; you need to merge your perception and will into your spiritual essence. Don’t let it drag you around; it’s part of you—yes, that’s right…”
Snap!
Quickly, he made another mistake.
“Again.”
Then, yet another error.
Ji Jue was sweating profusely, but Professor Ye merely said, “Continue.”
“Keep going.”
“You made a mistake on the last stroke. Your spiritual essence density changed. Recall how you felt before.”
“Spiritual essence is not just a blade; it also comprises the essence of the inscription itself. They are a whole; go on.”
“Again, hold it steady, and tighten it a bit more.”
…
Time marched on with the sound of the ticking clock, Ji Jue’s face grew pale, his breathing heavy, feeling dizzy.
Yet, in his haze, the stability of his spiritual essence improved once more.
Under the probe's guidance, it began to shift, moving little by little from within the crystal.
Until, like a dream, light burst forth from Ji Jue’s hands.
As his spiritual essence dissipated, the rune left inside the crystal surprisingly began to move like a living creature, releasing a soft glow, flowing magnificently, lighting up Ji Jue’s eyes.
He forgot to breathe.
In that instant, the spiritual essence became a bridge connecting him to the moving rune, a sense of inexplicable comprehension welling up within him.
His soul, like a flame, burned brightly, soaring endlessly, thinking, feeling, grasping all the philosophies and true essence of the world flowing from this miracle's source, permeating everything.
Thus, its name was…
—Transcendence!
This was the emblem and totem of the Twelve Virtues!
Then everything went dark before his eyes.
A drop of blood suddenly appeared on the crystal, then a second, a third…
Crimson dripped from Ji Jue’s nose, splattering onto the workbench.
Stumbling back a step, he reached out to steady himself, only to land on a chair with cushions, gasping heavily.
After a while, he came to his senses, staring at the gradually blurring rune within the crystal.
“Professor, did I succeed?”
Professor Ye remained silent.
She stood still, gazing down at the crystal, deep in thought.
Gently, she wiped away the bloodstains and, reaching out, pressed a finger onto the crystal, instantly stabilizing the nearly dissipated rune, making it even more brilliant than when Ji Jue had completed it.
A dazzling radiance erupted!
It was as if a spotlight had suddenly turned on right before his eyes; countless fine tendrils extended from the rune, majestic and brilliant, far beyond before—no, a hundred times, a thousand times, ten thousand times greater!
That was the absolute disparity in understanding and insight into the path of transcendence.
It was as if there was an unfathomable gap.
“Very good.”
She suddenly spoke.
Not only had Ji Jue managed to use the spiritual probe skillfully upon their first encounter, but the control he wielded over the spiritual essence was astonishingly high.
Stability, continuity, precision… For a master, it was so riddled and frail, far too raw, yet for an apprentice, it was nearly flawless.
What if this apprentice had only just first come into contact with all of this?
What if he had absolutely no alchemical foundation before?
What if he had created a mark of superior virtues in just half an hour?!
Had someone told her all this yesterday, she would have scoffed, but even now, witnessing it with her own eyes, she felt it was completely…
Unbelievable!
The skilled use of the probe, the controllable operation of spiritual essence, the establishment and maintenance of the alchemical circuit, the use and mastery of rune inscriptions… to actually have someone complete all the contents of regular apprentice training in just half an hour?
It had taken her a week to begin her journey into alchemy, the progress and efficiency ranked among the top of her peers, even astonishing her teachers.
She thought it was nothing out of the ordinary, did not care, even if the gazes of those behind her were filled with fear and envy.
Now, twenty years later, she finally tasted the sense of defeat experienced by others in her cohort, and the astonishment her teacher felt back then.
Even… relishing the fact that Ye Chun hadn’t followed to observe.
Had he seen, it would surely have dealt another brutal blow, wouldn’t it?
“You are impressive, Ji Jue.”
Ye Xian finally lifted her gaze towards him, “Better than I expected… Is this tied to your abilities?”
“Uh, it seems a bit similar, but some parts are a little different.”
Ji Jue scratched his head, gesturing for a long time without knowing how to describe it.
He simply extended his hand and pointed toward the distant Dragon Gate Processing Center: “It’s kind of like this.”
“Bro, get moving! Work for me!”
In an instant, the massive CNC machine suddenly jolted, power flowing through it, the program starting, and indicator lights began to flicker to life amidst a deep hum, as the processing center eagerly responded: “OJBK!”
Then, on the workbench, screeching friction sounds erupted!
Ji Jue had never seen a strange, pitch-black, golden cutting head before; it gleamed brightly, suddenly coming down to shock the massive titanium alloy octagonal ingot.
With the splashing of cutting and cooling fluids, a thousand strands of metal flew out from beneath the cutting head.
It was as if a hot knife cutting through wax!
The hardness was absurdly high, brittle and had terribly poor thermal conductivity, making processing it feel like a nightmare for Ji Jue in the past.
Yet now, he felt as if he accidentally wandered into a barbershop.
At this moment, the once-rebellious ingot was held down by the barber and cruelly cut and styled at will, dancing lightly through five-axis rotations.
It was like a silly boy under the barber's flattery, lost in the experience!
So quick, too quick.
No need for any aids, no prior preparations, it was all in and go time, hell yes, with the machine's illusionary cackling laughter, the ingot was molded freely and reshaped, shedding layer after layer of unnecessary outer shells, strands scattering everywhere, but none could tangle with that delightfully manic and twitching cutting head.
In less than four short minutes, a bust of Professor Ye had already emerged from the original ingot, raised high, corresponding from across glass.
It was akin to looking in a mirror; every hair, every wrinkle, without the slightest flaw.
Even Professor Ye's own actions had frozen in place.
Eyes wide open.
After a long moment, her trembling hand raised, adjusting her glasses, perhaps suppressing her emotions, “Ji Jue…”
“Mm.”
Ji Jue grinned, raising his proud head high, “How do you feel, Professor?”
“… Not very good.”
Professor Ye sighed slowly, ultimately not punching him in the face: “That block of custom material was meant to be a prototype for the armoured transmission spine; I was nearly finished programming it.”
“Uh, wait…”
Ji Jue’s smile froze on his face.
An awkward silence descended, only Ji Jue’s head was metaphorically bent under an invisible force.
He wanted to speak several times but ultimately mustered his courage: “Was… that very… expensive?”
“It’s fine, just twenty-six thousand,” the professor reassured. “It’ll just be deducted from your salary.”
Ji Jue was even more astonished: “Do I even have a salary?!”
Professor Ye finally turned her head to look over, staring at his shocked expression, before slowly nodding.
“It was supposed to be.”
(End of Chapter)