Chapter 58: Non-Aggression

As soon as Ji Jue said this, the whole workshop fell into silence.

Not only was Ye Chun dumbfounded, but even Professor Ye was silent for a moment, a trace of shock appearing in her expression, as if an FPS game enthusiast who felt they were full of evil suddenly saw a P-club player.

Is this idea of yours a bit too urbanized?

"...Your suggestion is even wilder than mine." She looked at Ji Jue deeply: "It's just, where did this habit of killing and setting fires at every turn come from?"

"Ah?"

Ji Jue was also stunned. Didn't you say it's an eye for an eye, and to give Kong Qingyan a good look?!

But thinking carefully, Professor Ye didn't seem to be making a gesture across her neck, telling him to finish her off... Something is wrong. Is the trend and tendency of my thinking sliding becoming more and more obvious?

I'm a normal person!

How could I finish off everyone who offended me at every turn?

Well, it seems that everyone who offended me has been finished off by me... Unfortunately, there's still Yu Hanguang.

"You're right, I'll definitely pay more attention." Ji Jue nodded shamefully.

"I'm not blaming you. Actually, I think it's quite good. At least I don't have to worry about my student being a good person who suffers everywhere. As for style and preferences, that's your own business, and I don't need to point fingers."

Professor Ye accepted the reality that her student might have antisocial tendencies quite calmly, ignoring Ji Jue's eyes that wanted to argue several times, and asked again:

"What do you think Kong Qingyan is here for this time?"

"Uh..."

Ji Jue thought for a moment and said tentatively: "After making full preparations, trying to suppress you by comparing the students?"

"Perhaps that's part of the reason, but that's not enough for her to make a big fuss and run over from Chaocheng to show off just because she heard I took a student."

"Personal honor and disgrace will not be the main reason for a mature craftsman's actions. I hope you remember this."

Professor Ye said solemnly: "Alchemy is a precise and complex discipline. Most people study nothing more than changes of a hair's breadth all day long, and emotional impulses are worn away day by day."

"As a result, over a long period of time, craftsmen have almost become profit-seeking creatures who haggle over every ounce, and others have directly put the cart before the horse, becoming merchants who only know how to market."

"Kong Qingyan is that kind of person, valuing honor more than results, and status more than skill. For her, business where she can't take advantage is not done, and things where she can only take a little advantage are not worth the trip."

The professor said flatly: "She came here this time for me."

"Ah?"

Ji Jue was dumbfounded.

"But since that's the case, there should be more actions. But I almost slapped her in the face, yet she didn't dare to challenge me."

"In other words, just to confirm something? My situation, or the situation of the workshop, or perhaps plotting some results and wanting to realize some kind of plan, wanting to block my interference from the beginning."

In her self-analysis and murmurs, a faint vibration sounded.

From the phone on the table.

Contact: [Wild Collection · Chen Xingzhou]

The call was connected, and a voice came from the other end. But in the interference that came with the phone, the bystander couldn't hear it clearly at all, only seeing Professor Ye's expression change slightly, as if realizing something.

"So that's it, I see. The final payment will be completed within two working days. Happy cooperation."

After the call hung up, Professor Ye fell into deep thought.

As if considering something.

"Perhaps, this is fate."

She suddenly turned to ask Ji Jue, "How far have you gone with the deconstruction and analysis of the Ancient One's Mouth?"

"Ah?"

Seeing the topic jump so much, Ji Jue was a bit confused. His first reaction was "almost, figured it all out," but after careful consideration, he felt "figured out ninety percent," but even so, it was still an exaggeration.

"Almost, figured out half of it..."

He hesitated, not daring to say that he had been completely confused and dazzled.

Not only was the workload huge, but the difficulty also exceeded Ji Jue's understanding by I don't know how much. All he could do was touch the elephant like a blind man, repeatedly guessing and excluding to confirm the effect and function of each part.

He handed over his notes obediently: "The deconstruction of the main part has been figured out."

In human terms, he probably figured out which part plays a role, and which part looks fancy but actually has no use at all.

Professor Ye took it, put on her glasses, and entered judgment mode.

After about ten minutes of grading, she handed the notes back to Ji Jue, and then he was stung by the many red crosses and corrections on it.

Too many mistakes!

Besides denying many of Ji Jue's guesses, there were more additions to many aspects he had never imagined.

With a master's experience, looking down from a higher perspective at the production philosophy of the entire alchemical work.

And more importantly...

When she reached out and gripped the necklace of the Ancient One's Mouth, those complex structures that were like flowers in the fog to Ji Jue were projected from the air.

In an instant, it filled the entire living room, and even the entire living room couldn't contain it, unable to display the more fancy details.

This was a complex structure concentrated in the volume of a thumb, but after the internal structure was unfolded, it could cover more than half a stadium.

But most of the time, the complexity was meaningless, making people feel that it was purely for showing off, spending a lot of effort in inexplicable places, sacrificing many functions and structures for the sake of aesthetics.

This made Ji Jue, who was accustomed to the cost-effectiveness philosophy emphasized in modern alchemy from the foundation, feel very uncomfortable: "Are these alchemical craftsmen idle all day?"

"Things offered to the Emperor are all like this, ritual is above all else, better to overdo it than not be respectful. Just such a small thing requires decades of time and effort from a large workshop."

"And yet, the cattle and livestock of that time felt honored."

Professor Ye commented mockingly, not caring at all about the hard work involved.

This kind of hard work spent in meaningless places is not hard work, but just a vanity price for pleasing authority and labeling oneself.

After guiding Ji Jue on the structure of the Ancient One's Mouth and waiting for him to finally be able to correctly distinguish the function and reality of each structure, Professor Ye nodded slowly: "That's enough. To be able to do this in a few days, I originally estimated that it would take about a month, but unfortunately, it seems there isn't that much time now."

As she spoke, she clenched her five fingers.

The projection in the sky dissipated without a trace, and immediately after, a soft shattering sound came from her palm.

In the sudden horror, Ji Jue jumped up from the sofa subconsciously, not because of the damage to the Ancient One's Mouth, but because of the spiritual quality fluctuation that erupted from between Professor Ye's five fingers at that moment.

So complex and complicated, changing at a frequency exceeding microseconds, rising or falling, without any pattern, impossible to figure out.

And right between her unfolded five fingers, insignificant debris fell off the Ancient One's Mouth, turning into dust, but it made Ji Jue's ability almost crazy.

Drooling, starving.

Almost, unable to control!

After carefully taking the debris and items, and putting the debris into his pocket, he checked the internal structure of the Ancient One's Mouth for the first time.

But he found that the structure, which was originally complex to the point of being outrageous, had now disappeared without a trace.

Those spiritual quality circuits associated with other fragments and meaningless decorative structures were actually easily and completely erased by Professor Ye in this short moment!

The simplified structure was composed according to the standards of modern alchemy, and the volume was not even one-tenth of the original. But after throwing away the original redundancy, the efficiency was increased several times over.

All runes and circuits revolved around the Goodness emblem · Vortex in the center, and what was preserved in it was the blessing from the Vortex's gift, known as [Regeneration].

Besides that, everything irrelevant disappeared.

"What is this?"

Ji Jue felt like he was hallucinating.

They say destruction is easy and construction is hard, but to destroy irrelevant parts while retaining the main body and even simplifying it, the difficulty is sky-high.

Unbelievable!

If he were to do the same work, he might need to borrow the workshop's ultra-micro equipment, purely grinding for several months to complete such a fine process one by one, stripping away and erasing those irrelevant structures, and it would be difficult to guarantee the effect and result.

How could it be so fast?

It's simply like precision blasting, blowing up everything above the eighth floor and below the eighth floor of a building, and ensuring that after the eighth floor lands, not even a potted plant loses a leaf, and water and electricity run as usual.

Within this range, which is so small that it needs a microscope to observe, all targets are destroyed, extracted, and the rest are unharmed.

"It can be considered my unique skill."

Ye Xian rarely smiled: "Stripping impurities, erasing physical properties, dismantling structures—based on my own experience, through special operations and methods, freely performing dissociation and reconstruction on the alchemical structure inside the item."

"Back then, I relied on this to pass the Reddening assessment of the Tai Yi Ring."

"Its registered name is 'Disassociation Technique'."

"Want to learn?"

Ji Jue nodded frantically, his eyes shining like light bulbs.

With such a shocking stunt in front of him, if he didn't wag his tail and sycophantically agree, he would probably drop little pearls and slap himself a few times in his sleep tonight, pretending to be a big tail wolf!

At this time, any hesitation would be a disrespect to his own intelligence and the professor's favor.

Think about that warehouse full of waste. With this hand, does he still need to worry about not being able to eat dog food in the future?! Where would he need to rack his brains to make the spirituality overload and collapse? Isn't it just *wow*, show off as much as you want?

Even more exaggerated... when encountering a Federation coin warrior armed to the teeth like Young Master Lou in the future, wouldn't he be able to reach out his evil little hand directly?

"Very good."

Ye Xian nodded, her expression returning to seriousness: "I'm busy with another project recently and can't get away for the time being. You go and do one thing for me."

Where to go? Who to kill? How many to kill?

Seeing the golden exclamation mark rising from Professor Ye's head, Ji Jue couldn't hold back anymore. If he didn't press the confirm button at this time, is he still human?

"To be precise, it's to go to a place and help me bring back an item."

Professor Ye added: "Location, outside Yacheng, a Rift entrance that is about to emerge in the world."

The first half of the sentence made Ji Jue's smile stiffen on his face, not knowing whether to cry or laugh. But for the second half, he couldn't care about dropping little pearls.

"The item you need to bring back is a matrix."

Professor Ye said slowly, "A matrix that can be said to be a perfect match for you."

"——Its name is [Non-Aggression]."