Chapter 00078: Compassion
# Compassion
Chapter 78
Novel: Above Destiny
Chapter 78: Compassion
It worked!
Blood slowly dripped from Ji Jue's nose as he gritted his teeth and pushed his ability further: [Recovery]!
But this time, it provoked a riot of spiritual essence.
Wailing filled his ears, growing more violent, echoing in his soul and launching an attack against him.
Yet when faced with the manipulation of fluid alchemy, all of it crumbled without a fight.
The frantic, writhing body came to a halt, showing signs of dissolution, especially those mutated limbs that began to fall away.
This was Ji Jue's first time applying the purification aspect of fluid alchemy.
He hadn’t expected such immediate results!
These beings were creations of fluid alchemy, completely defenseless against it.
In just a few seconds, all abnormalities had completely detached and vanished.
At this moment, the vast camp seemed to finally break free from its freeze.
“Mama, Mama!”
As soon as Ji Jue let go, the nearby child rushed over first, hugging the person in the net, tears streaming down his face.
Yet there was no response.
The once bloated man had returned to his original form, even thinner than before.
However, once Ji Jue pulled back his hand, he never moved again.
It seemed he was still alive.
But his eyes were hollow from start to finish.
It felt like a piece of his soul had completely vanished along with the mutation.
—Spiritual essence overload, matter self-destructing.
A damaged creation cannot be restored to its former self, no matter how hard it is repaired.
Ji Jue sighed wearily and muttered a curse.
97 sat beside him, saying, “Thank you.”
“I didn’t succeed, so why thank me?”
Ji Jue wiped away the blood on his face, and after the stains disappeared, the dark purple mesh marks became even more distinct—those were the faint patterns formed by burst capillaries in his face.
Soon, they vanished under the old man's healing.
Then he noticed the astonished gaze of 97 beside him.
“What’s wrong?” Ji Jue asked.
“No, just surprised.” 97 said in a daze: “I didn’t realize you actually sympathized with us.”
Ji Jue fell silent.
“Thank you, and thank you for being sad because he couldn’t return to his original self.” 97 said, “You’ve already done enough, Mr. Ji Jue. For beings like us, iron sickness is the most terrifying thing. Being turned into a strange monster without any control, and still being alive, is far worse than death. To keep him in his current state, even if it’s like this, is already very good.”
He patted Ji Jue on the shoulder and expressed his gratitude one last time: “Thank you.”
“Let’s not talk about that.”
Ji Jue sighed, wanting to change the topic, and pointed at the crying child: “What’s wrong with him? Why is he calling someone else Mama? If I’m not mistaken, you’re all men, right?”
“That’s indeed the case, but everyone here could be said to be his mother,” 97 replied. “To be precise, everyone within the Rift, even those monsters, are. Xiao Jiu is a ‘newborn’ just produced in this restart, but the others are different. Do you understand my meaning?”
“They’ve been processed through cycles so many times.”
He pointed at his head: “Basically, they’re all mixed up.”
This was the workshop’s cycle mechanism.
All products deemed obsolete were collected, dismantled, categorized, mixed, reshaped, and then put back into production.
They became brand new ‘people’.
To follow the setup, walk the predetermined path, and play their assigned roles.
Whether it be commoners or high officials,
From then on, they went about their actions day after day, year after year, in a daze, as if they were performing rituals or bound to endless sacrifices—
Until one day, from this life so close to human existence, they truly understood what ‘I’ was.
They would genuinely take themselves for humans.
But once they discovered their true nature, the beautiful dream would end.
Once the inherent setup and identity lose their meaning, once they grasp what they truly are, those who cannot accept their own existence will fall into chaos, eventually going completely mad.
Instinctively, they would destroy, slaughter, and seek after death!
Yearning for an end.
And after total destruction, everything would once again be reclaimed by the workshop, with spiritual essence cleansed, consciousness reset, reproduced, then welcoming new roles and new ‘lives’.
Thus, day by day, year by year, generation after generation…
Accumulating over time.
For four hundred years, that initial despair passed down continuously, until the madness hidden beneath everyone’s consciousness became as deep as the ocean!
Ji Jue was silent, almost choking.
He couldn’t fathom how desperate he would feel after countless cycles of rebirth only to realize that life was but an illusion, the self was a void, and fate so cruel.
If they were modern alchemical creations, it would just be spiritual overload, spiraling into collapse, but fluid alchemy was different…
Its greatest ‘advantage’ and ‘feature’ lay in its ability to align the form and structure of creations slowly towards their essence.
Once the essence had completely collapsed, when such a mad spiritual substance awoke from its slumber, the original appearance would disappear without a trace, and they would become unadulterated monsters.
Suffering night and day, howling night and day.
It was akin to true hell.
Unable to seek survival, unable to wish for death.
“We want to stop.”
97 whispered, speaking to himself, as if praying to a demon or a deity, “It doesn’t matter what we do, as long as we can stop.”
Ji Jue fell silent.
No further words came.
Perhaps it was the next day, or maybe just a couple of hours later.
Ji Jue was awakened by noises outside, hearing cheers and blessings from the camp.
Stepping out of the tent, he saw 97 and several others being surrounded by a crowd, armed with weapons, fully geared.
It looked like they were preparing for battle.
Noticing Ji Jue’s gaze, 97 smiled, waved at him like saying farewell, and turned to leave.
The exploration was about to begin again.
The crowd cheered and shouted, sending wishes toward their backs, filled with hope as they bid farewell.
Ji Jue even spotted the Prophet among the crowd.
At the very back, near the entrance of a tent, she sat in a wheelchair, pushed by someone, watching as the exploration team departed, the door slowly closing once more.
Noticing Ji Jue approaching, she whispered something, and the accompanying person left.
“How are you considering things, Mr. Ji Jue?” the Prophet asked.
Ji Jue shook his head: “I don’t know, I haven’t figured it out, but instinctively I dislike you a bit.”
“That's normal. A character that is vague and mysterious can never gain trust. Compared to someone as honest as you, I'm the one who is even more hypocritical.”
The Prophet smiled lightly: “Please forgive me, sir. Some chips are simply too precious, and chances are limited. I can’t recklessly place them in the hands of someone I might not be able to trust.”
“Can’t you explore on your own?” Ji Jue asked.
“Yeah.” The Prophet nodded hard: “Do you think we will have results?”
“I don’t know.” Ji Jue shook his head.
“I’ll tell you, there might be some fragmented findings, perhaps we can find some warehouses and traces left by mercury, but real breakthroughs? True changes? No, there won’t be.”
The Prophet stated: “There never will be.”
“From the very beginning, everything was already predetermined. We are tools, and tools cannot escape the operational range set by their masters.”
The Prophet said: “Even if the workshop's core appeared before them, they would only turn a blind eye, and even be unable to comprehend…”
“And you?”
Ji Jue asked: “Aren’t you the Prophet? The all-knowing Prophet, unable to find it?”
“I can find it, of course I can.”
The Prophet replied firmly, a more mocking smile spreading: “But what happens after finding it? Tools can never destroy the work left by their masters, because that is inscribed in the depths of our spiritual essence.”
Others simply cannot discover, cannot enter.
And even though the Prophet had long known and was fully aware, she was still powerless to act.
This is destined to be a cycle without results.
Futile expeditions will initiate again and again, but there will be no results.
Ji Jue asked: “Do they know?”
The Prophet did not respond.
A long while passed.
Only a helpless sigh escaped her lips.
“Mr. Ji Jue, if you awaken from a hell of nothing but torment and realize your tragic outcome, it would be best not to wake anyone else who is asleep. But those who are waking up are increasing… so, you must make them believe there is a possibility to break through hell.”
“Otherwise, what awaits them is only despair.”
“Yes, that’s right. I’m lying. I don’t know everything. I’ve deceived them more than once.”
The Prophet chuckled lightly: “In reality, I can do nothing, just a liar. Even the existence of this camp only lasts for fifty or sixty years each time; at the start of each reboot, we all return to the workshop, once again becoming unrecognizable. But I have to make them believe that there is hope for the future. No matter how distant that hope might be—”
“Humans will need lies, and we will too.”
The Prophet murmured, lightly sighing: “The mercury plan actually has no problems; the only loophole is… did she make us too much like humans?”
Tools do not fear hell.
Tools do not despair.
Tools do not yearn for liberation.
Only humans do.
Heaven and hell are both created by humans.
All they can do is silently endure this torment.
Neither aware of time nor the end.
In silence, Ji Jue quietly gazed at the camp before him, for a while, he self-deprecatingly smiled.
“Then why me? Prophet, if you have any knowledge, you should know I am no different from the other outsiders.”
“Perhaps you are just lucky?”
“My luck has never been good; it’s only been terrible and worse, including you seeking me out.” Ji Jue said: “This question, please answer me honestly and straightforwardly.”
“You learned fluid alchemy, right?”
The Prophet turned back to look at him, her incomplete eyes staring intently: “This is mercury’s workshop, according to the instructions set by mercury, if an apprentice masters fluid alchemy, they will automatically register in the core and gain the most basic access permissions. But your authority is much higher than you think; your spiritual essence recognition circuit represents the core thermal reaction furnace from the past. That authorization module assigned to you has added a small note to your authorization.”
The Prophet raised a finger and drew a small symbol in front of Ji Jue, conveying the message from the ancient furnace:
“It says you can be trusted.”
Ji Jue's pupils constricted for a moment.
He discerned the meaning of that outline.
It was a rune flowing from the Highest Good and Transformation.
In the interpretation of alchemy, it represents tolerance and bearing, symbolizing protection and gift.
Its meaning is [Compassion].
Ah, the end of the month is here, asking for a monthly ticket.
(End of chapter)