Chapter 25: Calm Before the Storm

"Dear father and mother, when you see this message, I might have been dragged to the operating table as an experiment subject. Of course, don't be sad, after all, as a family, you will probably be dragged to be experiment subjects too, I believe we will be reunited soon..."

Honestly, after hearing the devastating "news" brought by Amy and confirming that the person was himself, Jie Ming's subconscious reaction was this.

Since then, his life seemed to have been put on the guillotine, waiting for the gate to fall at any time.

After all, he had become that "mysterious apprentice who shocked the academy"!

Jie Ming had thought that the wizards of the academy would immediately find him, ask about the source of his materials, and interrogate him about his alchemy lineage.

Even the most serious: directly discovering the problems in his power system and taking him down on the spot for research.

As for running away or something, don't even think about it. According to the two months of study, Jie Ming basically knew how exaggerated the combat power of this Nuolun Academy was.

As the supreme leader guarding Plane Nuolun No. 13 and dozens of surrounding small planes, the dean of Nuolun Academy was a seventh-level wizard.

The mentors of various schools under his command were basically fourth-level wizards and above, and the number of first and second-level wizards who stayed in the school for short-term rest and precipitation was even more countless.

And he, Jie Ming, holder of the Great Dao Library, had reached the second level of Qi Condensation.

So after this happened, Jie Ming had completely given up the idea of resistance and running away, and instead began to organize his language in his mind, intending to confess everything at the first opportunity after being found and having his problems discovered, and then seeking "protection."

"I just hope the person who comes to catch me gives me a chance to explain."

Various possibilities flashed through Jie Ming's mind, making him wait in fear for the judgment that might come at any time.

However, half a month passed, and it was calm.

The workshop was still that boring and busy workshop, Mentor Clark was still that expressionless mentor, Amy was still sharing the latest gossip, and Vido Lei En was still calculating missions carefully.

No wizard, or even a senior apprentice, showed any special attention to him.

This made Jie Ming a bit confused.

"Could it be... that occasionally inventing a special material is not enough to make the academy notice me?" Jie Ming couldn't help but start to persuade himself in his heart.

It's not impossible.

After all, not only in his previous life, but even in the Wizarding World, material research was like a bottomless "pit."

Besides discovering those naturally formed strange materials in other planes, wanting to rely purely on existing materials for recombination, purification, and synthesis to discover a new material with extremely special attributes was unimaginably difficult.

Among them, seven parts rely on profound knowledge and theoretical foundation, three parts rely on unremitting efforts and repeated experiments... and the remaining most important ninety parts depend on destiny.

So, a wizard apprentice, relying on talent or pure luck, accidentally tinkered with a particularly awesome material... this kind of thing, theoretically speaking, doesn't seem completely impossible, right?

Jie Ming hypnotized himself with his mouth, but his actions didn't relax at all.

His internal circulation system ran non-stop, completely sealing his own aura, not letting a trace of fluctuations belonging to a cultivator leak out.

To prevent those wizards from possibly using mind control or soul infiltration means, he even carefully used alchemy to plate a layer of protective film on his body surface that was almost invisible to the naked eye.

Jie Ming actually knew that these measures were just psychological comfort for himself.

If the high-tier wizards of the academy really suspected him and wanted to dig to the bottom, they had plenty of means and power to penetrate all his disguises.

He was like a small boat on the eve of a storm, calm on the surface, but surging in his heart, ready to welcome the stormy waves that might come at any time.

In this daily life of fear, the "storm" didn't come, but an accident suddenly broke out.

In the public class this afternoon, Jie Ming was conducting a basic practice of grinding composite materials into standard shapes in the alchemy workshop.

To increase the difficulty, several apprentices used an old "elemental dust separator" nearby—a device used to separate specific elemental particles from air or materials—to enchant the composite materials used for practice.

Suddenly, a harsh alarm sounded!

Beep... beep... beep...

Jie Ming's heart jumped violently. This was a warning of equipment overload or failure!

Subconsciously extending his spiritual sense to the machine, he captured an energy flow in the core rune of that old separator that instantly went out of control, forming energy congestion and turbulence.

At the same time, a gray dust with strong corrosiveness that escaped with the energy turbulence was spreading like a tide towards the surroundings!

"Careful!" Jie Ming shouted instinctively, and his body had already reacted before his brain.

He retreated violently, leaping behind a thick load-bearing pillar with the agility of a cheetah.

As he retreated, he saw Amy not far from the separator out of the corner of his eye. She was looking at the equipment blankly, seemingly not having reacted yet.

His right hand reached out like lightning subconsciously, grabbed Amy's arm, and dragged her towards the back of the load-bearing pillar with an irresistible force.

Amy exclaimed, and her center of gravity became unstable as Jie Ming pulled her, almost falling behind the load-bearing pillar.

Immediately after, a visible gray mist spread out with the separator as the center!

"Ah!!"

"My hand! So painful!"

"What the hell is this!"

The apprentices who couldn't retreat completely let out painful screams.

Although the range of the corrosive dust was not large, the effect was terrifying. The moment it touched the skin, it began to erode the flesh and blood, emitting bursts of green smoke and making sizzling sounds!

Some apprentices were even swept by the chaotic energy turbulence while dodging, falling to the ground with convulsions.

For a time, the scene was chaotic and panicked.

Jie Ming hid behind the pillar to avoid a wave of energy erosion, and seeing the gray mist spreading towards the entire room, he couldn't help but frown.

The separator was still sounding the alarm, and the energy fluctuations were becoming more and more violent.

The knowledge accumulation during this period allowed him to quickly understand the core rune structure of the equipment and the trajectory of the out-of-control energy flow.

He saw several key energy congestion nodes and knew that if he didn't act as soon as possible, he would have to face the complete explosion of the equipment or a larger-scale leak!

"Troublesome!" ===== CHAPTER 26 =====