Imagine, when your back itches unbearably but you find you can't reach to scratch it. After tearing the house apart, you finally find a back scratcher, only to discover that no matter how you scratch, it just doesn't feel right. The more you scratch, the more uncomfortable it becomes, and the more you itch, the more you scratch.

A small itch turns into a big one, and eventually, it becomes an itch that lasts seven years.

Thinking about the brutal reality, it's a matter of life and death, with no relief in sight.

In the end, you collapse on the ground, clutching the back scratcher with tears streaming down, full of regret.

The lethality cannot be said to be insignificant, and the malice behind it cannot be said to be benign.

And the result, well, cannot be said to be anything but a waste...

So much so that, at this moment, Jian Yuan just wanted to ask:

"How did you manage that?"

The procedure was correct, the steps were correct, the approach was correct, but the outcome was completely wrong!

Despite using so many materials charged with negative energy, employing so many techniques to enhance mutations... why was the level of mutation so superficial and coarse?

What should have been a vicious blade that could claim lives even with a minor scratch had turned into this ridiculous joke!

It was like being suddenly inspired to melt down an old necklace to craft a bracelet, and before you put it in Melting Furnace it was 24 karats and a full two taels, but how come only the outer layer is left when it comes out?!

Where's the rest?

Did you eat it?

"Where is the Mutated Transformation?"

"I have no idea!" Ji Jue glared, "Isn't this just a normal product? You taught me the theory, you provided the books, your materials, and in the end, this is what comes out. I want to ask you!"

"When something goes wrong, shouldn't you reflect on your own issues instead of blaming others?"

Ji Jue's smile gradually faded until at last, he did not hide his indifference, "Or maybe, you can kindly tell me... what exactly are you teaching me?!"

Jian Yuan had no answer, simply weighing the back scratcher in his hand with a sigh.

——Masterfully controlling the direction of the mutation, doggedly adjusting the effects and intensity, and in the end, just right in turning the piece into a piece of scrap.

It was truly breathtaking.

He had come to understand this long ago.

After all, this was not the first...

Before this, there was the imposing but utterly defenseless armor that caused eczema when worn, the red nose balls that induced uncontrollable laughter on whoever put them on, and the letter openers that were freakishly good at stabbing the user and guaranteed tetanus.

And this back scratcher that only made the itch worse...

All of them were laughable.

As the saying goes, a worthy opponent brings out the best in one.

Encountering such fine material should make teaching a breeze.

What a thoroughly exhilarating teaching experience—He once harbored such naïve thoughts: his first student with such great aptitude, the first one to progress so swiftly on the path of Mutated Transformation, two joys layered... and more below.

So much so that Jian Yuan suddenly really wanted to crack open the skull of his student to check whether his brain was inserted upside-down—why the hell can't you learn properly!

As the saying goes, the master leads you to the door, but the practice is up to the individual.

The invaluable worth of the true teachings goes without saying.

As a Craftsman Grandmaster, Jian Yuan's worth was doubly verified by the association and You Sui. And yet, just as Ji was on the threshold of mastery, Ji Jue began to hop left and right, stirring up a small ruckus.

Hey, I'm in~ Hey, I'm out~ Hey, I'm back in~ If you don't like it take a swing at me~

Squandering his talent in such a reckless manner.

Truly regrettable.

But no matter...

There's always a way.

"Very good, a satisfactory completion."

He tossed Ji Jue's work into the Annihilation Furnace carelessly, not even bothering to look again.

If, in an exam, a student could get one hundred percent, there might still only be one hundred percent worth of knowledge.

But when he nails exactly sixty percent every time, it means that the current test holds no difficulty for him anymore, just a pure plaything.

Theory, practical application, conception, creativity, philosophy... not a single weakness!

With such excellent material, how can it be wasted absentmindedly?

"That's enough basics for now," he said. "Time for the next lesson."

"Alright, alright, I get it."

Ji Jue extended his hand nonchalantly, "Where's the book?"

"What a pity, this lesson isn't in any book."

Jian Yuan smiled, filled with anticipation, "You need to learn by doing."

With a wave of his hand, as if an Invisible Power controlled everything, he then swept aside everything within view.

Ji Jue's vision blurred, and it seemed in an instant, after passing through numerous doorways and corridors, he arrived in a dark and decrepit space.

Vast and barren, the darkness stretched into the distance.

The ground was fissured, the blue bricks riddled with cracks.

The once grand hall lay in ruin, walls collapsed and pillars toppled, and even the great Melting Furnace at the very center was damaged and extinguished, its last use lost in the mists of time.

Above the sky, white ashes fell in flurries like grey snow, interspersed with sparks that glinted briefly before dying, eventually accumulated on the ground.

The wheelchair rolled over the ground, following behind Jian Yuan, etching two narrow tracks in its wake.

Forward.

It came to a stop before the ruins of the Melting Furnace.

All this looked like a ruined... workshop?

"This was my abode before I defected from the association. I had a fight with that guy, made a mess of it, and decided to abandon it... Though the fires of the Melting Furnace have died out, the heap of ashes gathered over the years is barely enough to make use of the waste, I guess."

Jian Yuan wandered through, his black robe trailing on the ground without a speck of ash staining it.

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