Who cares about that damned Sky Rail Company? It's none of my business!

Goodbye!

Anyway, there was no contract signed, and they're all shut down. Even the system in the watch can't connect online. The Sky Rail Company may have been amazing, but it's been bankrupt for over two hundred years. Surely no leader has turned into a ghost and is going to come looking for me to work overtime in the dead of night, right?

Just like that, he made up his mind and cast the thought of Sky Rail out of his mind.

I don't recognize it, I don't know it, I'm not clear on it, I found this watch, and I thought no one wanted it anymore!

After being startled beyond expectation, Ji Jue spent the whole afternoon immersed in the study of alchemy, completely engrossing himself so much that he didn't even notice the passage of time.

Until the familiar sound of breaking echoed once more from the Melting Furnace.

The 51st failure.

Reason: imbalance of properties.

Holding the pincers, Ji Jue examined the tortured copper remnants of the afternoon, feeling the uncontrolled spread of spiritual essence within, and analyzed the cause of failure once again.

However, he saw that on the cooling copper piece, a crack suddenly emerged, then a second, a third, dense and numerous... until finally, right before Ji Jue's very eyes, it cracked, collapsed, and turned into a heap of glowing copper sand.

"Oh, congratulations."

Ye Chun poked his head in, clapping his hands as he saw the piece completely ruined: "At last, the first step to clearing the rubbish pile is completed!"

Spiritual essence overload.

After an afternoon of training and engraving by Ji Jue, the already defective remnants could no longer withstand any more processing and engraving. They crossed the limit of their endurance and collapsed from within.

The simpler the materials, the more fragile their physical properties were, the lower their limit of tolerance, and the smaller the reaction after self-destruction.

If it were some dangerous material, after being infused with a massive amount of spiritual essence and Superior Essence, it might just explode in the furnace and could potentially flatten the entire workshop into a crater. Furnace explosions are the eternal nightmare of Alchemy Craftsmen.

This was Professor Ye's educational plan—keep trying until you can't make it explode.

After all, the warehouse was full of worthless junk and scrap materials. It would be better to use their last bit of heat and give Ji Jue a chance to practice.

Even a dog, relying on its own alchemy skills to process the entire warehouse of scrap into overload and self-destruction, could become a craftsman, let alone a Chosen Summoner?

At this moment, having finally completed the first step of a lengthy journey, Ji Jue should have been jumping for joy.

Yet he inexplicably sank into a daze.

He gazed blankly down at the copper shavings at his feet, and then at the spiritual essence rising and swiftly dispersing within the heated copper. The sediment and traces accumulated from the 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 single grain of rice for dozens of days, an indescribable hunger emerged from Ji Jue's soul and consciousness, rising and nearly turning him into a rabid dog.

Subconsciously, he reached out as if to grab the quickly dissipating spiritual essence and essence, wanting to stuff them into his mouth.

After coming to his senses, he couldn't help but smile bitterly.

Trying to grasp the Invisible spiritual essence and essence with his own hands, digesting remnants mixed with who-knows-how-many times of forging and processing with his own mouth and stomach, was just too insane.

The next moment, he froze in place.

Because his hand seemed to have actually grabbed something... not just the rapidly dissipating spiritual essence in the air, but even the essence remaining in the copper sand seemed to be absorbed by an Invisible force, controlled, pulled, and gathered into Ji Jue's palm.

On his right hand, faint silver light resembling the circuits of a circuit board began to glow, so familiar—every time he used the watch to extract spiritual essence, Ji Jue would see them, but now, with just a thought, the complex and dizzying Spiritual Circuit emerged from his hand.

It was as if his hand had also become an alchemy item.

Out of thin air, he collected, extracted, and then, as his fingers clenched, the emblem within Ji Jue's soul that represented power suddenly ascended, absorbing all the essence, devouring and digesting it.

Dizziness struck abruptly!

Ji Jue twitched, during the brief moment that had just passed in less than an instant, his perception revealed fifty-one instances of engraving and processing!

It was as if he had turned into copper, enduring the scorching and forging of flames, feeling the movement of spiritual essence. But at the same time, he seemed to become the spiritual essence itself, leaving behind circuits and imprints time after time, facing failure over and over... And before that, even earlier, he felt as if he were part of some colossal entity.

Before its fragments had yet to crumble, uncountable Spiritual Circuits operated within the being, from the hands of a blurry silhouette rising from the flames of the Melting Furnace.

It was as if they were performing creation, shaping the universe!

One rune after another was born and vanished within the fierce flames and molten copper, complex circuits intertwined like great trees, and ultimately, at the very core, the essence of the Superior collided and merged.

A grand creation beyond Ji Jue's imagination took form within the furnace, under the control of that silhouette, the unruly properties of matter obedient like faithful dogs, the ever-changing spiritual essence like flowing water, achieving new transformations through his command.

Until at last, flames parted to either side like a tide, and from the violently shaking Melting Furnace rose a huge engine, over two men tall, its complex machinery glittering with light, the blessing of the Superior coursing through the radiance of copper, oh so solemn!

But what met it was a gaze tinged with disappointment.

"Ascension sufficient, Purification lacking."

Professor Ye withdrew his look: "Another failure."

In the snap of a finger, the grand engine that had just been completed disintegrated in an instant, turning into countless fragments.

All that remained was the thunderous echo within Ji Jue's soul.

Boom!

Ji Jue's vision darkened, and he couldn't help but take a step backward.

But as soon as he recovered, he grabbed the tongs again, throwing another fragment into the furnace, racing against time, not even waiting for the material to warm up and the properties to change before pressing it onto the operation panel again.

Taking advantage of the fleeting experience of embodying Professor Ye and the fragment itself not yet dissipated, the spiritual essence surged out!

The feeling came!

Gone was the previous awkwardness, gone the tentative trepidation. Ji Jue's consciousness and perception followed the flow of spiritual essence within the fragment effortlessly, as freely as fish in water, boldly moving forward, undisturbed by any interference.

Rugged and bold, like a cursive script flowing effortlessly, bringing the concepts that emerged in his chest to life at the flick of a wrist!

In the span of a few short seconds, the process Ji Jue used to carefully spend over ten minutes on was completed, feeling an unprecedented exhilaration.

He picked up the tongs, extracted the shard from the furnace, and gazed at the single success he had finally achieved after an afternoon of failures—the Superior Totem!

An Invisible fire ascended eternally, never extinguished.

It was the beginning of the Twelve Superior, Truth, transcendence, the foundation of insight, the source of all thought and soul in the world.

—[Ascension]!

After leaving the interference-free simulation environment, it took Ji Jue less than six hours to overcome the difficulty that other apprentices required countless failures and accumulated experience to conquer, completing his first true Superior engraving...

He raised his hand, wiped away the nosebleed caused by the overuse of spiritual essence, unable to hold back his excited smile.

This was his first step!

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