Chapter 31: Come, do a whole show for her!

On the long base, there are complex structures like circuits, extending from the indentations at the position of both hands to the inside of the spherical crystal.

Unseen shape and structure, inexplicably strange.

"Professor, this won't be the kind that will shine after pressing it in novels, right?"

It's like the kind of magic academy qualification test in very early novels, like installing a light bulb, shining brightly.

Ji Jue didn't hesitate, put both hands directly on it, and just as he expected, a faint light suddenly lit up inside the sphere.

Unfortunately, the brightness was not enough for two watts, and it was about the same as inserting a potato between the electrodes, which made him feel a slight frustration.

Then, he felt that the spiritual quality in his body was jumping eagerly, as if he noticed some kind of attraction, and had an urge to flow out.

"Don't resist the operation of spiritual quality, input it, step by step, layer by layer inward, you can be slower, take your time.

Its base is called a simple spiritual quality probe, which can help the Chosen One's own spiritual quality maintain a stable structure and state within the material. Constant spiritual quality pathways, runes, and imprints in the material with the probe, this is the foundation of modern alchemy."

Professor Ye said slowly: "Yes, stabilize your own spiritual quality, make it in a fixed form, maintain a contracted state, and maintain stability."

Just in her words, strands of light rose in the crystal ball, just like flowing copper light, with restrained brilliant brilliance, input from the spiritual quality pathways of the ten fingers, ten thin spiritual quality lines swam smoothly in the crystal, following the guidance, gathered in one place, outlined and woven into a stable ring.

"Now, you can let go of your hands."

Accompanied by Professor Ye's words, Ji Jue's hands slowly raised.

In the silence, neither of them spoke, just stared, the ring woven by Ji Jue's spiritual quality in the crystal ball slowly rotating, the dim light gradually dimmed, until ten minutes later, it finally collapsed from the middle and dissipated.

"Next, use your spiritual quality, diffuse, fill the entire sphere, and keep it uniform." Professor Ye suddenly asked: "Can you feel anything?"

"Seems, in here..." Ji Jue hesitated: "The material inside the crystal ball, seems to be converting between liquid and solid?"

"Normal, what is injected inside is high spiritual quality reaction crystal, which will produce liquefaction after injecting spiritual quality. Next, you have to control the proportion between liquid and solid—mobilize it, guide it, move it."

Professor Ye's voice was slow and solemn, word by word, echoing in his ears.

Soon, when Ji Jue let go of his hands again, inside the sphere, a golden vortex had appeared, which was Ji Jue's spiritual quality guiding the liquefied crystal to start operation and rotation.

Professor Ye pressed the stopwatch, which lasted for thirteen minutes and sixteen seconds, the spiritual quality dissipated, and the rotation stopped.

Next, according to Professor Ye's instructions, after the crystal part inside the sphere was liquefied, part of it was kept in a solid shape, and a standard hexahedron, dodecahedron, prototype, or nested structure was

After a few attempts, Ji Jue gradually grew excited, feeling that his Qi, under the extension of the probe, was like a carving knife, shaping all sorts of contours.

He even instinctively and successfully tried techniques like turning, milling, planing, and grinding, carving a little sheep pattern inside the crystal.

Oh my god, is there such a good thing in this world?!

Ji Jue became increasingly fascinated.

Isn't this much simpler and more convenient than a CNC machine tool?!

You don't even need to program; you just have to move your thoughts.

"Is this alchemy?" he murmured subconsciously, "It feels like it's still..."

Pretty simple.

That was what he wanted to say, and in reality, that was how he felt—it wasn't as troublesome or difficult as he had expected; it was easy, simple, and intuitive.

No, don't get careless!

Everything is easy at first and hard later; entering the door now is just kindergarten level, and maybe it will be so hard later that he'll vomit blood.

He was just afraid that Professor Ye would tell him: "This is running, this is rolling, this is attacking; alright, now let's go slaughter these ridiculous enemies called the Soul of Cinder, Orphan of Kos, and Malenia..." How is this any different from entering an online game where you die if your character dies, only to discover the supervisor is Hidetaka Miyazaki?!

"Very good, maintain the state."

Professor Ye was expressionless as she took a thick, massive book from the box beside her. Every page was actually made of sharp, heavy copper foil. She flipped open the cover and pointed to the first negative-engraved symbol at the very top.

It was complex and strange, looking like a blurry mass of flame, rising upward.

"Use your Qi to replicate this symbol inside the crystal as precisely as possible. Start from the left; the first stroke goes from top to bottom. Don't be constrained by a flat plane; it is three-dimensional. Follow your own intuition, and the Qi will complete its structure on its own. What you must ensure is absolute stability, yes..."

Pop!

Ji Jue felt like he had been shocked and subconsciously let go. Just now, his Qi lost stability due to a moment of carelessness, and as a result, the symbol, which had just been one-third complete inside the sphere, burst silently and dissipated completely.

He couldn't help but want to slap himself twice!

Why on earth did you have to remark that it was simple! The difficulty level shot right up immediately!

"Failure is normal, continue."

Professor Ye's expression remained calm, without any change: "Do not doubt yourself. What you need is to integrate your own perception and will into the Qi. Do not let the Qi lead you; it is a part of you. Yes, just like that..."

Pop!

Soon, another mistake.

"Again."

And so, soon, another mistake. Ji Jue was sweating profusely, but Professor Ye still reacted, only saying: "Continue."

"Continue again."

"The final finishing point just now was wrong. Your Qi density changed. Recall your previous feeling."

"Qi is not a knife; it is not just a knife, but also the very thing that constitutes the brand. They are a whole. Continue."

"Again, maintain it, shrink it a bit more."

Time and again he started over, with only the crisp sound of ticking time. Ji Jue's face gradually turned pale, his breathing heavy, and he felt dizzy. Yet, in his trance, his Qi stability improved once more. Under the guidance of the probe, it gradually changed, operating bit by bit within the crystal.

Until, light like a dream bloomed from beneath Ji Jue's hands.

When Ji Jue's Qi dissipated, the rune left inside the crystal actually began to operate like a living thing, releasing soft colors. As it flowed, it was so magnificent that it illuminated Ji Jue's eyes.

He forgot to breathe.

It was as if, in an instant, the Qi became a bridge, connecting him to that operating rune, and some inexplicable realization welled up in his heart.

The soul is like a flame, burning ceaselessly, rising endlessly. Thinking, feeling, and realizing—all the philosophy and true essence of the world flowed from this source of miracles, permeating everything.

Therefore, its name is...

—【Metamorphosis】!

This is the emblem and totem of the Twelve Virtues!

And then, everything went black before his eyes.

A drop of blood suddenly appeared on the crystal ball, then a second drop, a third drop...

Scarlet dripped from the tip of Ji Jue's nose, splashing onto the console.

He staggered back a step, wanting to steady himself on something, but landed on the chair and cushion, breathing heavily. After a long time, he finally came to his senses, staring at the gradually blurring rune inside the crystal.

"Professor, can I consider myself successful?"

Professor Ye did not speak.

She stood where she was, looking down at the crystal, not knowing what she was thinking.

She only gently wiped away the bloodstains on it, then reached out and tapped a finger on the crystal, causing the rune, which was on the verge of dissipating, to suddenly stabilize, becoming even more dazzling than when Ji Jue had just finished writing it.

It shone with ten thousand rays of light!

It was as if a searchlight had suddenly been turned on right in front of his eyelids. Countless tiny branches extended from the rune, solemn and glorious, a hundred times better than before—no, a thousand, ten thousand times!

That was the absolute gap between the two in their understanding and realization of the Path of Metamorphosis.

It was like the distance between heaven and the abyss.

"Not bad."

She suddenly said.

Not only was it his first contact, but he was able to use the Qi probe—this level of Qi control was shockingly high.

Stability, persistence, precision... for a master, it was full of holes and too immature, but for an apprentice, it could already be called flawless.

What if this apprentice was coming into contact with all this for the first time?

What if he had absolutely no foundation in alchemy before this?

What if he had successfully created a Virtue rune brand in just half an hour?!

If someone had told her all this yesterday, she would have scoffed at it, but even having witnessed it all with her own eyes today, she still felt it was completely...

A fantasy!

Skillful use of the probe, controllable operation of Qi, the development and maintenance of alchemical circuits, the application and mastery of rune brands... how could someone complete the entire content of standard apprentice training in one go within half an hour?

Back then, it took her a week to complete the introduction to alchemy. Her progress and efficiency were at the very forefront of everyone in her cohort, and even her teacher was amazed by it.

She thought it was just ordinary and didn't care, even if those gazes behind her were full of fear and jealousy.

And now, more than twenty years later, she finally experienced the frustration of others in her cohort, and the amazement in her teacher's heart at that time.

And even... the relief that she hadn't let Ye Chun follow along to observe.

If she had seen it, it would probably have been another devastating blow, right?

"You are very good, Ji Jue."

Ye Xian finally raised her eyes and looked over: "Better than I thought... does this have anything to do with your ability?"

"Uh, it seems somewhat similar, but some parts are a bit different."

Ji Jue scratched his head. He gestured for a long time, not knowing how to describe it, so he simply reached out and pointed remotely at the Longmen machining center in the distance: "Probably, just like this."

【Buddy, move! Give me a show!】

The moment the command was issued, the massive CNC machine tool suddenly shook. The power was connected, the program started, and indicator lights suddenly lit up. Amidst a low humming sound, the machining center happily agreed: 【OJBK!】

And then, on the workbench, a harsh friction sound rang out!

A dazzling light emerged from a strange, crow-gold cutter head that Ji Jue had never seen before. It descended suddenly, causing the massive titanium alloy octagonal ingot to shake violently.

Amidst the spraying of cutting fluid and coolant, thousands of metal threads flew out from beneath the cutter head.

It was fucking like a hot knife through wax!

The processing difficulty of this stuff, which was hard as hell, brittle as death, and had shitty thermal conductivity, used to be like a nightmare for Ji Jue. But now, he felt as if he had accidentally stumbled into some barbershop.

At this moment, the once unruly ingot had been held down by the barber, being ravaged, cut, and dressed as one pleased, dancing lightly amidst the rotation of the five-axis linkage.

Just like a silly boy who had lost himself under the barber's sweet talk!

Fast, too fast.

No assistance was needed, and there was no prior preparation work. Just do it, fuck it. Amidst the hallucinatory, manic laughter of the machine tool, the ingot was shaped and remade as one pleased, shedding layer after layer of cumbersome coats. Fine threads scattered, but not a single one could tangle around that cutter head, which was so nimble it seemed to be twitching manically.

In just under four minutes, a bust of Professor Ye had already emerged from the original ingot. He lifted it up, corresponding remotely through the glass.

It was just like looking in a mirror; every hair, every wrinkle, was flawless.

Even Professor Ye's movements froze in place.

Her eyes widened.

After a long time, her slightly trembling hand raised to adjust her glasses, as if suppressing her emotions: "Ji Jue..."

"Yeah."

Ji Jue grinned, his smug head held high, "How do you feel, Master?"

"... Very bad."

Professor Ye slowly let out a long breath, ultimately not punching his head in: "That custom ingot, I originally intended to use it to make an engineering prototype for an armored transmission spine. The program was almost finished."

"Ah, this..."

Ji Jue's smile stiffened on his face.

An awkward silence descended suddenly. Only Ji Jue's head was bent by an invisible force. Several times, he wanted to speak but stopped, but in the end, he gathered his courage: "Um, is it... expensive?"

"It's fine, just 260,000," the professor comforted, "Just deduct it from your salary."

Ji Jue was even more shocked: "I still have a salary?!"

Professor Ye finally turned her head to look over, examining his shocked expression. After a long time, she nodded slowly:

"Originally, you did."