Chapter 248: The Life of a Scavenger

The afternoon sun was brilliant, and the sound of the tide echoed from afar.

In the middle of winter, white clouds drifted across the vast, clear sky, and the sun scattered its halo, dispelling the dampness and the cold.

Flowers were blooming, and birds were singing.

And yet, some unlucky kid was already running out of breath...

Boom!

The workshop doors slowly creaked open, and a mangled figure crawled out with great difficulty, wriggling along the ground, their breath as thin as a gossamer thread.

Right beneath them, the cashmere carpet hissed, leaving a scorched, yellow trail in their wake.

Heat radiated outward.

"Trash... trash... give me trash..."

Ji Jue reached out with great difficulty, pleading for help from the person on the sofa, his eyes blurred with tears: "Give me a bite, Senior Sister, just one bite..."

Ye Chun lay on the sofa, propping up her chin, gloating as she examined his miserable state.

"Hm? Who's speaking? Sorry, I can't hear you."

She hooked a piece of scrap just taken from the warehouse with her finger, dangling it back and forth in front of Ji Jue, refusing to give it to him: "Maybe the Chief Artisan who was talking was too magnificent, and a tiny ant like me couldn't see him... Hey, what do you think is going on? Two days ago he was still telling me about how he easily snatched the glory of the top-ranked big shot, and today he's disappeared. Do you have any leads?"

"It must have been the work of the Ether Eye Sect!"

Ji Jue shouted, shifting the blame, gritting his teeth as he reached out to grab the helmet in Ye Chun's hand, but he missed by a hair every single time, until Ye Chun finally had her fun and lowered the height slightly, though the smile on her face grew even more sinister: "Want it? If you want it, then you..."

Before she could finish, a sharp gaze seemed to look over from the deepest part of the workshop, watching to see what kind of nonsense she was about to spout.

It made the salted fish instinctively shudder.

Instantly, the scrap helmet was snatched up by Ji Jue and refined in an instant.

Under the increasingly masterful Dissociation Art, the complete helmet instantly shattered and collapsed, turning into a pile of dust. The Essence of Supreme Good drifted down like snowflakes, gathered together, and fell into Ji Jue's hand.

It merged into his soul.

"Hoo..."

Ji Jue let out a sigh of relief, collapsing on the ground.

He couldn't move anymore.

The high temperature surrounding his body was also gradually dissipating.

Only Ye Chun's expression grew increasingly heavy, pained to the core.

"Didn't you promise me you'd never eat trash again?"

She raised her hand to wipe away non-existent tears, and while Ji Jue couldn't resist, she furiously rubbed his head: "Quit it, Ji Jue, once you get hooked on this stuff, your whole life is ruined! There's no money left at home for you to eat trash, boo-hoo-hoo... Senior Sister will go out and wash dishes to buy you trash to eat..."

Ji Jue rolled his eyes, not wanting to deal with her.

Isn't it just because, after coming back last week, he accidentally bragged seven, eight, nine, ten times about how he easily took first place, snatched the Chief position, and scolded the old fogey?

Clearly broad-minded in appearance, yet so narrow-minded in heart!

He sighed silently, feeling that time was like a knife. The cold and considerate Senior Sister of the past had disappeared, and now, all that remained was a parasite whose only purpose in life was to make potato chips more expensive!

And without paying attention, a hat folded from a potato chip bag was plopped onto his head, while Ye Chun continued to chatter excitedly: "After wearing this crown, you will become a scavenger for the rest of your life, and you'll never be able to touch a single finished product in this world again..."

Slap!

The hat and her hand were swatted away.

Leaving only a face full of salt and pepper.

Ji Jue finally caught his breath and climbed up from the floor, still feeling dizzy.

Ye Xian walked out of the workshop with her hands behind her back, glanced at him, then sat back in her designated seat, took a few sips of the strong tea Ye Xian had timed perfectly to brew, and asked, "How is the situation?"

"Let me see..."

Ji Jue raised his hand and slapped his forehead, and the intelligence of the electronic thermometer stored in his soul reported the information: "The current body temperature is 54, and it's still dropping. The normal temperature has recently been maintained at 41. When it went out of control just now, it spiked to around ninety-something degrees..."

Ye Xian let out a cold snort and shook her head, showing no sympathy.

Serves him right.

This is the consequence of taking shortcuts.

Whether in academics or craftsmanship, the most important thing is to take it one step at a time. Even if one lingers and struggles to advance, every overlapping footprint still has its meaning.

Rapid progress comes at a price, and at the same time, the future troubles are endless.

Like a castle in the air, it falls at the first gust of wind and collapses when the tide comes in.

Now that Ji Jue had been forcibly pulled up and had his growth spurred by the Lord Tianlu, the fact that only his body temperature went out of control was already the greatest of fortunes; it didn't even count as a sequela.

It was just a bit of a messy ordeal, not a problem at all.

It seems that he still needs to take more Spiritual Quality Offense and Defense classes in the future. This dog of a Ji Jue is a dog to the bone; he doesn't remember the pain once the wound heals. This little bit of suffering won't provide any warning effect.

If he isn't taught a sufficient lesson now, who knows what kind of trouble he'll stir up in the future? Ending up with no bones left would be the best-case scenario.

The reason why it was such a troublesome ordeal boils down to only one point.

The blessing 【Furnace Blood】 had gone out of control.

A blessing that requires accumulation of quantity and long-term, subtle influence to slowly change an artisan's constitution, eventually forming a qualitative leap, had suddenly been stuffed into his soul and body.

In the blink of an eye, the little electric scooter had turned into the current Little Niu Ma.

It would be strange if there were no sequelae!

If someone else had been as rough as Ji Jue, they might have exploded on the spot, and it wouldn't have been this troublesome. It just so happened that the feedback and Essence of Supreme Good that Ji Jue received were all his own achievements, with no conflict or contradiction, so it turned from an on-the-spot explosion into a minor sequela that many people would beg for.

—Body temperature out of control.

His body and soul had not yet adapted to such a thorough upheaval and were still slowly digesting it. During this period, Ji Jue's body temperature was maintained at over fifty degrees for a long time. If he were to lose control carelessly, it could easily spike to several hundred degrees in a short time, turning him from a living person into a torch, causing him to spontaneously combust.

Although he wouldn't die, suffering was always inevitable.

Ji Jue thought back and forth, pondering for a long time, but it was still hard to determine: was this sequela an accident, or was the old dog Lord Tianlu taking the opportunity to retaliate against him?

Considering how small-minded the old dog was, there was no need to think about it; even if it wasn't intentional, it was intentional!

Every time his body temperature went out of control, he could almost hear gloating laughter in his ears: Next, I'm going to let an unlucky kid suffer a little...

Solving it is actually very simple.

The fundamental method is: eat more, drink more water, and rest more. Human cells will completely replace themselves about every 120 days, and by then, he will naturally have initially adapted. If once isn't enough, then do it again.

The symptomatic method is also simple: use Dissociation Art to dismantle scrap, eat some Essence of Supreme Good, enhance the effect of Mechanical Descent, and forcibly suppress it with his own soul, and that's it.

Now, relying on eating scrap, the progress bar for the 【4】 on his watch was already more than halfway full. Once it was completely full, his soul and abilities would be enough to accommodate and control this fourth blessing, and then he would smoothly transition to the 【5】 Stage.

After all, ordinary Chosen Ones, at the corresponding rank, wait until their own spiritual quality is abundant and fully developed before seeking a blessing. Cases like Ji Jue, who arrived at the destination before even collecting the ticket money, are truly too rare.

A blessing coming too early is, in a sense, also a trouble.

A few days ago, Ji Jue would even have a nosebleed if he wasn't careful, and he had to be careful even when spitting. If his gums bled, the spit could potentially cause a fire.

Sometimes, before he even opened his eyes in the morning, his pillow and quilt would be on fire. It got to the point where he could only weld a bed frame himself and sleep on the sheet metal.

Now, Ji Jue only needs a thought, and his blood can rise to over several hundred degrees.

This isn't even the limit. If he fully digested the Furnace Blood, his blood's maximum temperature could rise to around two thousand degrees, even hotter than molten steel.

And this is just the most superficial application of the blessing.

Also as a passive blessing, the application of Furnace Blood is not as extensive as Masterpiece, Spiritual Primacy, or Axis of Dominion.

Instead, it focuses on embers and himself.

Under the effect of Furnace Blood, his control over the furnace's heat had completely turned into instinct, and all his creations and techniques had stepped onto a brand-new level.

Through material interference and combining spiritual quality, his blood was currently undergoing a comprehensive replacement and qualitative change, turning into an excellent carrier of spiritual quality. For a full week or more, relying on Ji Jue's own natural recovery, only one-third of his blood had been converted.

And the converted Furnace Blood had also become a rare and precious material, used in alchemy for ascension, which could give materials spirituality and improve their quality.

Even without forging, it was an excellent match for fluid alchemy, even handier than ordinary purified mercury. Now, whenever Ji Jue had nothing to do, he would let out some blood and merge it into the mercury.

On one hand, to increase reserves, and on the other, to reduce future troubles and side effects.

After all, who could stand the days when just sneezing could cause spontaneous combustion? How could life go on?

Thanks to this, Ji Jue hadn't even started the training mentioned in the Elephant Sword.

Without absolute control over himself, starting such a dangerous course now might lead to him sacrificing his sword after one lesson, or perhaps turning into a sword-rolling dog and being infamous for ten thousand years.

What he could do for now was to memorize the pile of ancient books and sword diagrams of the Ye family inheritance that his teacher had thrown at him, and put his heart into pondering them.

The Elephant Sword is divided into two parts: the Elephant Chapter is for operation, and the Sword Chapter is for theory and analysis; both are indispensable.

Yet the times had changed, but the inheritance remained the same, containing many metaphors, codes, and references. To avoid misunderstanding, Ji Jue could only turn back and struggle through ancient language and classical Chinese again, filling his head with "zhi, hu, zhe, ye."

And even then, he could only understand one or two out of ten, knowing the "what" but not the "why."

"If you don't understand, just read it slowly. Anyway, there's plenty of time."

After answering a few questions, Ye Xian put down her teacup: "The inheritance of the previous generation is not necessarily the truth. The Elephant Sword does have its brilliance, but the times have long since changed. Over the past few hundred years, it's not rare for people to have gone into demonic deviation or turned to corruption, yet not a single sage has emerged."

Regarding the incredibly precious family inheritance, Ye Xian had long since looked past it.

As long as it could be passed down, it didn't matter what it turned into.

"Times change, and if you just memorize the old recipes for a lifetime, you'll only be trapping yourself. What you need to care about is whether you can digest it, and whether you can use it as a stepping stone to catch a glimpse of more distant scenery."

"... Teacher, is your expectation of me a bit too high?" Ji Jue smiled bitterly.

Let alone using it as a stepping stone, right now, just the theoretical part alone was enough to crush him to death; he couldn't even crawl out.

Ideals that are too distant are sometimes a burden.

Ye Xian glanced at him, smiling but not smiling: "Don't you want to punch that old thing in the face one day?"

"That makes sense!"

Ji Jue widened his eyes, and instantly, his fighting spirit erupted.

Not only erupted, but he was going to roll ten more salted fish to death! Hahaha!

Ye Chun, who was sprawled on the sofa, suddenly became vigilant, hugging the shrimp crackers in her arms tightly.

The phone rang.

Her phone. ===== CHAPTER 249 =====