Chapter 13

Click.

He took off his monocle, revealing those eyes that were as sharp as a hawk's.

He didn't use any extra tools, reached out and picked up the irregular gold the size of an adult's fist, and displayed it in front of many apprentices.

"Next, I will demonstrate, observe carefully!"

Saying that, Clark deliberately released his mental power, letting this piece of gold detach from his hand and float in mid-air.

Jie Ming could clearly perceive that Clark's mental power fluctuation was exceptionally stable, like a trickling stream, yet it contained powerful resilience.

Under the guidance of Mentor Clark's mental power, that piece of irregular gold seemed to come alive.

It didn't melt, nor did it deform too quickly, but changed its shape bit by bit in an invisible force field at a slow and firm speed.

The unevenness on the surface was smoothed out, the edges and corners were shaped, and the entire process was smooth and stable.

Ten seconds later, the irregular gold turned into a standard cube with distinct edges and corners and a smooth surface, as if it had been cut by the most precise machine tool, and the smoothness of the surface could even reflect images like a mirror.

Mentor Clark withdrew his mental power, and the cubic gold lay quietly back on the table, emitting a faint luster.

"This is the most basic shaping in alchemy. You need to master the precise control of mental power over the shape of matter through repeated practice." He put on his glasses again, "Now, receive your materials and tools, and start practicing."

As Clark waved his hand, the supplies stored in the laboratory cabinet flew out one after another, and everyone received an irregular gold similar in size to the one in the mentor's hand, as well as a basic tool box.

In addition to basic crucibles, tweezers, protective gloves, and goggles, the tool box also contained a metal disc covered with complex runes.

Jie Ming also received his materials and tools and returned to the workbench.

He clearly felt that the moment he touched this disc, the truth runes in his mental sea became active quickly, and the small rune representing alchemy in the center echoed with many runes on the disc.

"Because your meditation method hasn't completed the first three truth runes, you can only use the alchemy disc as an auxiliary for now; after depicting all three truth runes representing alchemy into the mental sea later, you can perform alchemy with bare hands away from this thing."

Clark reminded everyone in a flat tone: "The cost of the alchemy disc is very expensive; the first one can be considered a free textbook, but if you break it, you can only purchase it with credits later..."

Jie Ming put on protective gloves and goggles, and placed the gold into the groove in the center of the metal disc according to Clark's instructions.

"Actually able to control the shape of matter with mental power... truly incredible, is this the unique system of wizards?" Jie Ming pondered in his heart.

A cultivator's spiritual sense is more for perception, scanning, attachment, and direct mental impact, and can also take objects from the air through true essence manipulation.

Directly using it to change the physical shape of matter can be done, but that is just using stronger external force to suppress it, which is completely different from alchemy, which seems to let matter change its shape by itself.

Jie Ming took a deep breath, sank into his mental sea, wrapped the gold with mental power through the truth runes, and after connecting with the alchemy disc, carefully wrapped the gold.

Hum!

He felt a faint but obvious "repulsive force" coming from the gold, seemingly resisting his mental power.

He tried to condense his mental power into a beam according to the way the meditation method guided elemental energy, and "pressed" it against a bump on the surface of the gold, trying to make it concave.

As a result...

Crack!

Because of the excessive output in an instant, the gold didn't concave, but instead peeled off a small piece of debris from the surface.

Jie Ming was startled in his heart and hurriedly adjusted.

Tried again, this time carefully guiding a stream of energy to concentrate on a corner of the gold, wanting to grind it round.

As a result...

Sizzle...

The local temperature rose instantly, and the surface of the gold actually began to melt slightly, turning into a flowing liquid.

"Damn! The feeling is completely different..." Jie Ming cursed secretly.

He habitually used the mental power manipulation method of the cultivation system to perform this kind of operation in the wizard system, and the feeling was very uncomfortable.

It was like a stone mason who was good at carving sculptures with a carving knife was suddenly asked to embroider; both the way of using power and the technique were completely different.

He looked at the apprentices around him, and most of them were as embarrassed as he was.

Some metal blocks had pits and bumps on the surface, some had melted into a pool of liquid, and some were even turned into powder when trying to decompose.

Of course, there were exceptions.

Jie Ming saw that although Amy's speed was not fast, her power fluctuation was relatively stable, and the gold block slowly changed its shape under her manipulation; although it was still very rough, at least the traces of shaping could be seen.

Jie Ming took a deep breath, forcing himself to forget the habitual mental power manipulation method, but instead imitated the mental power fluctuation method of Mentor Clark during the demonstration.

He wrapped the gold with mental power again. This time, he didn't rush to shape it, but used a gentle and continuous way like a cultivator "nurturing a magic treasure," letting mental power "interact" with the gold, perceiving its "disposition" and "resistance."

Failed... tried again... failed...

A complete piece of gold became more and more deformed in Jie Ming's hands, but he also gradually grasped the key points of alchemy.

"Understanding, decomposition, reconstruction... so that's it."

The most important thing is "understanding," and the remaining two steps are based on the premise of "understanding."

The so-called "understanding" is knowing the internal structure, property characteristics, and even energy fluctuations of matter, and then being able to guide the change of the shape of matter according to the trend, rather than relying on brute force.

After several attempts, he finally barely turned a piece of gold into a shape that could barely be called a "cube."

It was crooked, the surface was covered with traces of attempted melting and solidification, the edges and corners were blurred, and compared with the mentor's standard cube, it was simply a world of difference.

"Is this my first alchemy product?" Jie Ming looked at this ugly gold block in his hand, feeling a bit dumbfounded in his heart.

Just then, Mentor Clark came down from the podium and patrolled between the workbenches of the apprentices.

His gaze was sharp, stopping on every failed or successful work, occasionally giving brief evaluations.

He walked to Jie Ming's workbench and looked at the crooked gold block; Jie Ming felt rare trepidation in his heart.

Mentor Clark's hawk-like eyes carefully examined the gold block and glanced at Jie Ming again.

"Mental power control... is still stable." Mentor Clark's tone was as flat as ever, "But energy output is unstable, and temperature and force field control are terrible."

He pointed his finger at the traces of melting and twisted edges on the surface of the gold block:

"Go back and practice basic meditation more, enhance mental power stability, get used to the feeling of manipulating elemental power, and pay more attention to the structural details of matter when using alchemy." He gave advice, and then walked to the next apprentice's workbench.

Jie Ming agreed repeatedly in his heart; this Mentor Clark pointed out the key points all at once.

The unstable elemental power output was actually caused by his constant maintenance of internal circulation; having to close himself while outputting energy would naturally cause such a result.

Just then, a painful scream and a huge sound of metal shattering suddenly came from the other side of the laboratory.

Boom—!