Chapter 116: Hand

Late at night, having finished his work, Professor Ye lowered his head, gazing at the amber-colored crystal in his hand.

Solidified Blessing.

By simulating a soul environment through solid spiritual quality and sealing the exterior with an ember spiritual quality circuit, it had finally been crafted into a temporary container for this Blessing.

"Acceptable, not bad. Aside from the partial contamination left behind by the first casting, the Blessing itself remains undamaged. For practice, this is sufficient."

Ye Xian nodded in assessment and asked, "Do you have any ideas for your first Blessing creation?"

"How about a ring?" Ji Jue asked.

"That works."

Ye Xian nodded, offering no objection. After all, for this type of Blessing, any artisan would consider jewelry as their first choice.

A pendant would also work, but Ji Jue already had one around his neck. Wearing two identical items simultaneously while intending to use them both would cause the alchemical creations to interfere with each other, leading to unforeseen circumstances.

It might result in an overload or a failure to fully activate, but either way, it would cause damage to the items themselves.

Therefore, even someone as wealthy as Young Master Lou had never thought of filling all ten fingers with rings. After all, one could only use two items at once while ensuring their effectiveness.

Furthermore, even without mentioning the consumption of spiritual quality, alchemical items place a burden on the soul when in use. The more powerful the item's effect, the more exaggerated the burden becomes.

In every sense, a small horse pulling a heavy cart never ends well.

"And the spiritual quality structure?" Professor Ye asked again.

Ji Jue answered fluently, "For the Blessing carrier, I want to use a 'Three-Phase Knot' to anchor Metamorphosis, Ruin, and Ember."

Three emblems of supreme goodness, connected by the Three-Phase Knot's spiritual quality circuit, represent the three foundations of spiritual quality, matter, and change. It is stable yet flexible, sufficient to contain the Blessing while ensuring expandability for future modifications.

"The contact point?"

"A single Blessing doesn't need to be too complex. I want to use a small-scale, classic ring configuration."

"That is suitable."

Professor Ye pondered for a moment, then suddenly asked, "Have you considered a bracelet?"

Ji Jue shook his head. "The weight of the Blessing itself isn't exaggerated, and its effect is relatively simple. A bracelet would be a waste of materials."

After all, for a unique Blessing, the form of a ring is perfectly sufficient to carry it. Switching to a bracelet would indeed lower the difficulty of processing and production, but once the volume is scaled up proportionally, the effect remains unchanged.

Just to save a little effort, one would have to spend so much money.

It's too expensive!!

"What about materials?" Professor Ye continued to ask.

"Seven grams of Qualitative Leap Gold as the base material, three grams of solid polymerized silver as the spiritual quality circuit carrier, one gram of liquid white mink solvent, and four grams of standardized cyan crystal to satisfy the requirements for sublimation and extraction."

This time, Ji Jue didn't wait for the professor to ask again; he took the initiative to continue. "Regarding the process, I will adopt modern alchemy, but for material processing, I want to try fluid alchemy."

"In this way, after the reaction is complete and the forging is finished, the weight should be controllable at around 8 grams, which won't cause inconvenience when worn."

"You want to challenge yourself?"

Professor Ye suggested, "If you want to save money, the extraction materials can be downgraded."

"If I downgrade another level, the stability of the Three-Phase Knot becomes meaningless. There's no such thing as a first creation that doesn't require rework; if it's inconvenient to use later, I'll want to modify it again."

Ji Jue laughed. "So, a challenge it is."

Thus, Professor Ye nodded.

There were no flashy ideas of reaching the sky in a single bound after just entering the field; his thinking and design were very down-to-earth, which could be called 'stable.' Considering cost-effectiveness, he was maximizing the Blessing's effect and power using the technology most suitable for his current stage.

If this were an exam, Ji Jue hadn't considered the bonus questions from the start, nor had he thought about showing off anything special; he was steadily aiming to secure every point he was supposed to get.

"Very good."

Ye Xian nodded slightly, never criticizing her student's choices.

If she were to take over, there would certainly be better methods, better processing ways, and better choices, but she said nothing.

If one were to interfere and guide everything with the attainments of a master, what would be cultivated would merely be a shrunken version of oneself.

She did not like sycophants who followed behind her every step.

On the contrary, if one day Ji Jue could break away from her path, turn around, and walk toward that infinite wilderness of embers according to the path he had chosen, creating his own unique domain, that would be the greatest reward she could receive as a teacher.

"You talk a big game, but how it turns out in practice depends on how much you've learned these past few days."

She stood up slowly and said, "Let's go."

"Now?" Ji Jue was stunned.

"Otherwise?" Ye Xian looked back and asked, "Do you want to learn from those fools obsessed with metaphysics who bathe, fast, and change into red underwear?"

Ji Jue gave a bitter smile, raising his hands, his ten fingers trembling slightly.

"My condition isn't very good."

Aftereffects.

He had impulsively forced an overclocking of the dissociation technique he hadn't even mastered, directly unleashing a violent disassembly that wrecked the pendant and nearly wrecked himself, leaving his hands numb and his tactile senses disordered.

If there were no non-aggression buffer and control, it's likely the pendant would have been fine, but his hand would have been the first thing shredded by the high-pressure spiritual vibration blade.

One could only say, he was courting death.

"Isn't that perfect? It's just the right time to break your reliance on 'divine craftsmanship' and take a good look at your basic skills."

Professor Ye walked in front. "As long as the spiritual quality is sufficient, act when you must. Besides, I don't have time tomorrow."

That last point was the most important one, wasn't it?

Ji Jue followed behind, not daring to speak.

However, looking at the bright side, which apprentice could get a master to personally supervise their first Blessing creation?

No, wait—which apprentice could start working on a Blessing creation just three months after entering the field!

I always feel like this progress is a bit off.

He scratched his head and sighed helplessly.

Walking toward the workshop.

This time, he was still using the outer workshop operation room open to Ji Jue, the same place where he had first seen the numerous pieces of equipment upon his arrival.

Compared to Professor Ye's own studio, the gap in equipment was naturally immeasurable, but for an apprentice like Ji Jue, the functionality was already more than enough.

Moreover, what Professor Ye despised most were greenhouse creatures who couldn't do anything without expensive equipment. Those losers who had no survival ability outside their own workshops and couldn't even purify materials might as well not live and disgrace the name of an artisan.

"Don't be hesitant; your ability is sufficient."

She stood by with her hands folded, giving a final warning: "If any accidents happen, I will help. But if you blow up the furnace due to your own mistakes, don't expect me to intervene."

"Understood."

On Ji Jue's palms, the matrix of non-offense appeared, and he skillfully started the furnace and adjusted the temperature. With the mechanical deus ex machina, he didn't even need to fiddle with the panel; everything quickly became orderly.

Although theoretically Ji Jue could perform a 'non-offensive hand-rubbing' for the professor, with the workshop equipment right in front of him, anyone who didn't use it would have something wrong with their brain.

Even for someone whose skills were as vast as mercury, when performing certain complex creations, they would still use the workshop. Moreover, the operational power of non-offense combined with the workshop would only produce even more exaggerated effects.

Soon, a tray was sent in through an opening in the wall.

Four huge bottles—glass, stone, lead, and even plastic—each different, with various materials soaked in different media inside.

The tray and bottles were that large, yet the materials combined weighed less than twenty grams.

Holding them in his hand, they felt weightless, but Ji Jue didn't even dare to tremble, holding his breath, his ten fingers as steady as stone—910,000, 910,000! Such a small amount of stuff, and it cost 910,000!

Even if he had money, it wasn't meant to be squandered like this! If he messed it up, he could only go home at night and wipe away tears under his blanket.

Calm down, calm down Ji Jue, calm down!

He took a deep breath and, first of all, threw the Qualitative Leap Gold into the furnace.

Letting it melt into a flowing liquid, the color shifted, and from the original golden yellow, it slightly released a trace of brilliant light. Instantly, he controlled the temperature to drop, maintaining it at the melting point.

Physical property activation complete.

Qualitative Leap Gold possesses good toughness and spiritual quality conductivity, making it perfectly sufficient as the main body of the ring. The next thing to be added was the solid polymerized silver responsible for carrying the spiritual quality structure. It is particularly sensitive to temperature and can only be heated gradually from the periphery; if there were a sudden, large temperature difference, it would evaporate directly into mist, and the material would be ruined. Even if it were condensed back, the once-vaporized material would lose its original adaptability to the spiritual quality structure.

Amidst the slow heating, the polymerized silver gradually dissolved, like silver-white water droplets circulating in the furnace, gradually approaching the Qualitative Leap Gold. Until, the moment of contact—

Ji Jue's eyes suddenly lit up.

Now is the time!

Above his hands, the long-awaited spiritual quality surged in, maintaining stability, and he activated the furnace's operation, causing gravity to vanish instantly. The metal droplets rose, unfolding and changing through the precise operation of non-offense.

Just like dough, they gradually merged, and a silver line appeared from within the gold for an instant before being deeply buried within. Then, Ji Jue's movements didn't stop; his spiritual quality was like a blade.

Dense and complex spiritual quality circuits appeared from within, flowing like water, skimming across the inner layer of the ring before vanishing rapidly.

Then, amidst intense hissing sounds, a large amount of thick smoke and impurities were dissected out from the droplets—that was the purification of fluid alchemy, and even...

"Sublimation sequence?"

Professor Ye immediately understood.

Such a spiritual quality circuit is also the foundation of fluid alchemy, and the most classic one at that. Its effect is to gradually absorb the user's subtle spiritual quality while being worn, nourishing the work over the long term and subtly enhancing the affinity between the carrier, the Blessing, and the user.

It's just that performing purification and sublimation simultaneously is a bit beyond Ji Jue's current capabilities.

Professor Ye asked, "Can you handle it?"

"No problem."

Sweat rolled down Ji Jue's forehead, his eyes fixed intently on the scorching fire, without a moment of wavering or distraction. The engraving of the sublimation sequence was completed in one go, yet he didn't relax in the slightest.

What just happened was only basic material processing; the real difficulty was yet to come.

Using special materials to stimulate the fusion and extraction of the metal, while simultaneously activating the Blessing and integrating it into the carrier.

The failure of the vast majority of artisans stems from this; the simultaneous operation of two aspects consumes more than just double the mental effort. Amidst a thousand threads, the slightest relaxation or confusion would lead to total failure.

The white mink solvent and cyan crystal are indeed the most suitable reactants, but at the same time, the reason it's called 'white mink' is that this solvent is too active during the reaction, changing frequently and becoming too chaotic, making it difficult to control.

He tried his best to remain calm, taking deep breaths, but the moment the Blessing was added and the seal broke, he couldn't help but feel nervous.

He poured all his effort into expanding his perception, striving to keep every change within his sight.

But when he was fully focused, his pupils gradually dilated, losing focus, as if he were in a trance. Yet that peaceful feeling wasn't distraction or confusion, but a certain kind of even more reassuring tranquility and composure.

For a moment, he felt as if he had become a bystander.

Appreciating everything happening before him.

Physical property activation, material extraction, Blessing operation...

Everything became so clear, no longer complex or difficult to understand.

It was as if all the changes had already fallen into his hands, yet his hands were not in the fire, and there was nothing in them.

That inexplicable perception, however, was continuous.

Conveying every subtle change to him in exhaustive detail, he could feel the scorching temperature, the soft tactile sensation of the metal droplets, the gradually changing temperature, and even the movement of all spiritual quality.

It was as if an invisible hand had already grasped the extraction that was about to happen!

In the moment of realization, the scene that inexplicably emerged before his eyes was the posture of the ten thousand hands of mercury covering the sky in the Rift Realm of the past; amidst the distortion, the traces of non-offense were still clearly visible.

Straightforwardly revealing its essence to the successor hundreds of years later.

【Hand】

The tool inherent to humanity, the limb never forgotten since opening one's eyes—touching, probing, grasping, clenching, spreading into a palm, tightening into a fist.

Drilling wood can start a fire; splitting stone can forge a plow. Pillars rise high to build grand mansions; iron and stone are gripped tight to forge weapons of war.

In the end, everything a person possesses is held in their hand.

Everything a person creates originates from the palm.

The moment the first person reached out their hand toward the world before them, it achieved the brilliant radiance and infinite creation of this world hundreds and thousands of years later!

The prosperity of all things is created by this hand.

Everything in the world is accomplished by ten fingers.

"So that's it..."

At this moment, a genuine realization and understanding emerged from Ji Jue's heart:

"—This is non-offense!"

Everything starts from this empty hand; his ten fingers will eventually cover the earth and reach across the sky.

Holding everything, controlling all—the vision of being like mercury is too distant; Ji Jue doesn't dare to hope for it. He just wants to clench tight what he has struggled so hard to grasp, keeping it in his hand.

So, now... he needs to move his fingers.

Just like a newborn reaching out its palm toward the world for the first time from its cries—not in prayer, nor for the sake of demand, but instinctively wanting to grasp all of this.

To hold in his palm this beautiful scenery he had never understood, this vast existence he could not reach!

Ji Jue reached out his hand.

Boom!

A bursting sound erupted from the rising flames.

Ye Xian's expression changed suddenly, and she subconsciously wanted to raise her hand, but then, her slightly raised fingers froze in place, her eyes behind her lenses lifting, reflecting the fierce light.

Then she saw something incredibly familiar.

That is her own... dissociation technique?!

The intense transition between movement and stillness appeared like flowing water at this moment, and under the control of the invisible hand, it once again enveloped everything in the furnace, causing the fragile Blessing to vibrate intensely.

In the intense transformation of spiritual quality, the halo seemed on the verge of shattering, yet it did not break.

Instead, the contamination it had been stained with—the traces left behind by the first creation—actually peeled off like a wash under the dual application of the dissociation technique and fluid alchemy.

As if reborn!

The invisible hand controls everything, as if by instinct, manipulating all the operations within the furnace core, excluding all changes, eliminating unexpected sounds—this is the miracle that can only appear in alchemical creation, a high and distant inheritance belonging solely to non-offense!

In an instant, purification and cleaning were complete.

Then, on the ring that was gradually taking shape, the structure of the Three-Phase Knot was completed in one stroke!

The complex spiritual quality circuits were like ropes, intertwining with each other; at the intersection points, the emblems of Metamorphosis, Ruin, and Ember emerged from the qualitative spiritual quality, solidifying, and the spiritual quality circuits surrounded the Blessing, merging into one.

Everything evolved naturally, just as Ji Jue had envisioned and designed.

Thus, the task was accomplished!

At that moment, Ji Jue outside the furnace raised his palm.

And the invisible hand in the furnace, before dissipating, reached out beyond the flames.

The tangible and the intangible seemed to touch for a fleeting moment, and then, like a phantom, they rapidly dissipated without a trace.

Only the red-hot ring fell into Ji Jue's hand.

Scorching the spiritual quality plating.

Hissing sounds.

Soon, the last trace of heat dissipated through evaporation, and the ring faded from its original brilliant luster, turning into a simple iron-gray.

But the moment spiritual quality was injected into it for the first time, it vibrated intensely, emitting a faint ringing sound from the flow of iridescence.

Like a chick breaking its shell, calling out to the world.

So subtle, yet so distant.

Leaving Ji Jue immersed in it, already intoxicated!

"Alchemy is truly beautiful, teacher."

He raised his hand, against the light, gazing at the wonderful creation at his fingertips.

Unable to hold back any longer, he laughed.

Filled with joy and delight.

It was almost like creating life! ===== CHAPTER 117 =====