Chapter 36

There was no time for Ji Jue to react, nor was there the shock, bewilderment, or vigilance he had expected.

It was completely as if she were discussing that the weather was really nice today or what he had for breakfast... careless and indifferent.

It made Ji Jue almost fall off the sofa in fright.

He subconsciously picked up a can of happy water and offered it with both hands: "Young hero, drink some tea, tell me in detail."

Ye Chun looked at his enthusiastic expression suspiciously, raised her hand, and pointed to the bookshelf behind: "It should be the cabinet on the left, the middle row. You look for it; there should be an encyclopedia of the Myriad Phenomena General Knowledge series."

That was a book as big as a dictionary. Looking at the back, it was published in the 388th year of the Catastrophe Era, older than Ji Jue. According to Ye Chun, he found the entry about the Heavenly Track from the index.

An abbreviation that left him confused.

—【T5】.

This name refers to five large company organizations that had already existed before the Catastrophe Era, in the Central Era, which was the Eternal Dynasty period of Middle Earth.

It is said that in the era before the Virtues descended, they were already active in history and played an indispensable key role in the Eternal Dynasty.

Although they had no actual status in the court, they still received authorization and respect from the Emperor.

And just after the disaster descended, the lands fell apart, and the world turned upside down, the Catastrophe Era arrived, the Eternal Dynasty fell apart and vanished into smoke, and Middle Earth also turned from the once Heavenly Kingdom Holy Land into a muddy pit of endless war.

And these five companies still existed and participated in the reconstruction of the world and order in the Catastrophe Era, making significant contributions and sacrifices.

Whether it was the Federation in the north or the Empire in the Southern Continent, or even Middle Earth and all the archipelagos wandering in the Endless Sea, all orthodox regimes recognized their transcendent status and power higher than the secular world.

At the same time, in order to avoid the recurrence of disasters and curb the trend of Rift Realm falling to the greatest extent, all parties gathered together and signed the T5 Agreement, limiting the power, operation, production, and even the scope of activities of these five companies.

Under the gathering of massive resources, backed by historical accumulation and countless uninterrupted secret research, these five companies also occupied an absolute dominant position in their respective fields.

And their business scope was medical, communication, production, finance, and transportation...

Among them, the companies engaged in production and construction, after splitting, respectively became the behemoths that monopolized most of the industrial markets of the Federation and the Empire, 【Cosmic Heavy Industry】 and 【Great Creation】!

God damn Cosmic Heavy Industry!

Ji Jue felt terrible.

Just as it was impossible for people in the Empire not to know about Great Creation, it was impossible for people in the Federation not to have dealt with Cosmic Heavy Industry. Some people's birth, aging, sickness, death, eating, drinking, and pooping were all within its business scope.

Since Ji Jue started learning to fix cars, he hadn't seen these four characters less. The parts were produced by companies under Cosmic Heavy Industry, the engine oil was refined by them, the gloves were from their chemical plants, and the hard hats, uniforms, and fuel, even the Coastal Auto Factory in Yacheng had their capital injection and holding. Lu Ma's Mainland Auto Repair Shop didn't even count as an operating downstream; it couldn't reach the edge at all.

The Boundless United Communication Group in the communication field was a behemoth that directly occupied 80% of the global communication market. In a world where earthquakes were rampant and disasters were constant, Yacheng people couldn't bypass them even if they wanted to call people in the Central City. Ji Jue was still using an 18-dollar-a-month plan.

Hope Hospital in the medical field... it seemed he had heard of it somewhere, but he had no impression. It might be too high-end, and a bottom-feeder like Ji Jue couldn't reach the edge at all. It might also be that they had already spread all over the world through shareholding, but he had no way to discover it.

The Perpetual Bank in the financial field, apart from the name, had no detailed description, and with the few coins in Ji Jue's pocket, I'm afraid he wouldn't be able to reach the edge of them in this life.

As for the last one, it was the undisputed hegemon in the transportation field—the Heavenly Track Transportation Group!

The book said that this group not only operated all ranges including airships, trains, and cruise ships, but also built a transportation network that could reconnect the present world.

It made Ji Jue's blood boil, and he felt honored.

Such an awesome company must be very strong, very cool, very domineering, and the salary must be very high, right?

But regrettably, Ji Jue couldn't find any traces of their existence at all, and even the introduction was so short. Apart from simply stating the business scope and name, there was only one sentence left.

—【Due to poor management, it has now gone bankrupt】.

Bankrupt?!

Ji Jue's eyes were about to stare through the broken paper: Bankrupt? Are you serious?

Although he really hoped so from the bottom of his heart, the other four were so awesome, why were you so draggy?

Such a company that sounded so cool that it was almost... no, it was completely capable of going to heaven and entering the earth, just gone like that?!

And after taking a look at the bankruptcy time, he couldn't help but go crazy again: 198th year of the Catastrophe Era? It had been gone for more than two hundred years!

Then what was going on with him?!

He had just become a regular last month, okay?

Not to mention having no big tree to lean on, looking like this, maybe he would have to be the legal representative on the first day of work?!

Slap!

The book was closed by Ji Jue without hesitation, put into the cabinet, and the door was carefully closed.

Whoever wants to go to this crappy Heavenly Track company, it has nothing to do with me!

Goodbye!

Anyway, there was no contract signed, and anyway, it had gone bankrupt. Even the watch's own system couldn't contact the superior. No matter how awesome the Heavenly Track company was, it had been bankrupt for more than two hundred years. It was impossible for any leader to turn into a ghost and come to him to work overtime in the middle of the night, right?

Just like that, he made up his mind to throw the Heavenly Track to the back of his mind.

Don't know, don't know, don't know. I picked up this watch; I thought no one wanted it!

After being frightened unexpectedly, Ji Jue, whose lingering fear had not yet dissipated, devoted his whole afternoon to the study of alchemy, forgetting himself, and even didn't notice the passage of time.

Until the familiar sound of breaking emerged from the furnace again.

The 51st failure.

Reason, physical property imbalance.

Ji Jue held the fire tongs, examining the copper fragments that had been tortured all afternoon, feeling the spiritual quality spreading out of control inside, and analyzed the reason for the failure again.

As a result, he saw that a crack suddenly appeared on the cooled copper piece, and then the second, the third, densely packed... In the end, right under Ji Jue's eyelids, it cracked and collapsed, turning into a pile of scorching copper sand.

"Oh, congratulations, congratulations."

Ye Chun poked her head out, seeing the fragments completely scrapped, and couldn't help but clap her hands: "The first step to clearing the trash pile is finally completed!"

Spiritual quality overload.

After Ji Jue's afternoon of exercise and engraving, the already scrapped fragments could no longer withstand more processing and engraving, crossed the limit, and collapsed from within.

The simpler the material's physical properties, the more fragile it is, the lower the upper limit it can withstand, and the smaller the reaction after self-destruction.

If it were some dangerous substances, after pouring in massive amounts of spiritual quality and Virtues' essence, maybe it would explode directly in the furnace if it went out of control. Maybe the whole workshop would be razed to the ground and become a big pit. Furnace explosions have always been the eternal nightmare of alchemists.

This is Professor Ye's education plan—as long as it can't explode, just make it explode.

Anyway, the warehouse is full of useless scrap and leftovers, which have no value, so it's better to exert some residual heat and take it for Ji Jue to practice.

Even if it were a dog, if it could rely on its alchemical skills to refine that warehouse of scrap until it overloaded and self-destructed, it could also become an artisan, not to mention a Chosen One conscript?

At this moment, having finally completed the first step of the ten-thousand-mile road, Ji Jue should have been cheering.

It's just that he inexplicably fell into a trance.

He lowered his head blankly, looking at the copper filings under his feet, and even the spiritual quality that gradually rose and dissipated rapidly in the scorching copper filings. The precipitation and traces accumulated in it during those dozens of processing and engraving sessions were rapidly evaporating.

But why did he feel... so hungry?

Hunger, hunger, hunger, hunger, hunger!

Like a starving ghost who hadn't eaten a grain of rice for dozens of days, an indescribable hunger and thirst emerged and rose from Ji Jue's soul and consciousness, almost making him turn into a vicious dog.

Subconsciously reaching out, it was like grabbing the rapidly dissipating spiritual quality and essence, wanting to stuff it into his mouth.

After reacting, he couldn't help but smile bitterly.

Relying only on his hands to grab the invisible spiritual quality and essence, and relying on his mouth and stomach to digest the residues that had been mixed with I don't know how many times of forging and processing, was simply too crazy.

The next moment, he was stunned on the spot.

Because his hand seemed to have really grabbed something... Not only the spiritual quality essence rapidly dissipating in the air, but even the essence remaining in the copper sand seemed to be captured, controlled, pulled, and gathered in Ji Jue's palm by an invisible force.

On his right hand, silver rays of light like circuit boards lit up, so familiar—every time he used the watch to extract spiritual quality, Ji Jue would see it, but now, he just had a thought, and the spiritual quality circuit that was dizzying and complex emerged from his hand.

It seemed that his hand had also become an alchemical item.

Capturing and extracting out of thin air, and then, with the clenching of his five fingers, the emblem representing his ability in Ji Jue's soul suddenly rose, absorbing, swallowing, and digesting all the essence.

Dizziness came suddenly!

Ji Jue twitched. In the short moment that was less than an instant just now, what appeared in his perception was actually fifty-one engravings and processing!

It was like turning into copper, enduring the burning and forging of fire, and feeling the operation of spiritual quality. But at the same time, he seemed to have turned into the spiritual quality itself, leaving circuits and imprints time and again, facing failure time and again... And before that, even earlier, he seemed to have turned into a part of some behemoth.

That was when the fragments hadn't collapsed yet, from the burning of the furnace, countless spiritual quality circuits were running in the body, from the hands of a blurred figure.

It was like performing creation, creating all phenomena!

Runes were born and died from the flames and copper juice, complex circuits ran through everything like giant trees, and in the end, at the core, the essence of the Virtues collided and fused with each other.

The magnificent creation beyond Ji Jue's imagination appeared from the furnace. Under the control of that figure, the unruly physical properties were like loyal dogs, and the ever-changing spiritual quality was like flowing water, achieving brand-new changes in the waving.

Until the end, the flames opened from both sides like a tide. From the violently shaking furnace, a huge engine more than two people tall slowly rose. On the complex machinery, the light was brilliant, and the blessing of the Virtues flowed from the copper light, so solemn!

But what greeted it was a gaze containing disappointment.

"There is enough elevation, but not enough purification."

Professor Ye took back her gaze: "Another piece of scrap."

In the flick of a finger, the magnificent engine that had just been completed fell apart in an instant, turning into countless fragments.

What remained was only the loud noise echoing in Ji Jue's soul.

Boom!

Ji Jue's eyes went dark, and he couldn't help but take a step back.

But the moment he reacted, he had already picked up the fire tongs, pinched another fragment and threw it into the furnace, racing against time, not even waiting for the material to heat up and the physical properties to change, and pressed it on the operation table again.

Taking advantage of the experience of turning into Professor Ye and the fragment itself just now, which hadn't had time to dissipate, the spiritual quality rushed out!

The feeling was here!

Completely without the previous rawness, and no longer the previous trepidation. Ji Jue's consciousness and perception ran in the fragments with the spiritual quality, like a fish in water, moving forward heartily, even under heavy interference, he didn't care at all.

Rough and heroic, just like the cursive script of flowing clouds and water, he finished the conception that appeared in his chest in one go!

In less than a few seconds, the process that Ji Jue had to be careful about for more than ten minutes before was already over, and what he felt was unprecedented heartiness.

He picked up the fire tongs, took out the fragments from the furnace, and stared at the only success he had finally achieved after a whole afternoon of failure—the Virtues' totem!

Like formless fire, rising upward, eternal and inextinguishable.

It is the beginning of the Twelve Virtues, the foundation of truth, transcendence, and insight, the source of all thinking and soul in the world.

—【Ascension】!

After getting rid of the non-interfering simulated operation environment, in less than six hours, Ji Jue crossed the hurdle that other apprentices needed countless failures and accumulation of experience to overcome, and completed his first true Virtues' engraving...

He raised his hand, wiped away the nosebleed that flowed out due to the overdraft of spiritual quality, and couldn't help but smile excitedly.

This was his first step!