It worked!

Ji Jue's nosebleed dribbled slowly, he gritted his teeth, and pushed his ability again: "Recovery"!!!

But this time, it provoked a violent uprising of his spiritual essence. The mournful screams became more ferocious by his ear, echoing within his soul as if launching an assault on him.

Yet when they encountered the workings of Fluid Alchemy, everything collapsed of its own accord.

The frenziedly writhing body stilled, even showing signs of dissolving, especially those sprawling, mutated limbs, which began to fall off.

This was the first time Ji Jue applied the Purification of Fluid Alchemy.

But he had not expected it to be so... effective!

They were creations of Fluid Alchemy themselves and had no resistance to it at all.

In just a few short seconds, all abnormalities had shed and vanished.

And at this moment, the vast camp seemed to finally thaw from its freeze.

"Mommy, Mommy!"

As soon as Ji Jue let go, the child next to him was the first to rush over, embracing the person in the net and weeping as he called out.

But there was no response.

The bloated man had regained his original appearance, even thinner than before, but... once Ji Jue moved his hand away, he lay motionless.

As if still alive.

And yet, from beginning to end, his pupils remained hollow.

As if a part of his soul had been completely lost along with the mutation.

— Overload of spiritual essence, self-collapse of material properties.

Even if the damaged creation is repaired, it could never return to its original state.

Ji Jue sighed wearily, cursing under his breath.

97 sat beside him, "Thank you."

"What's there to thank? It wasn't a success."

Ji Jue wiped the blood from his face. As the bloodstain disappeared, the black and purple web-like marks became more pronounced, the vague pattern of burst facial capillaries.

Soon, under the repair of the Ancient's Mouth, they disappeared.

Then, he noticed the astonished look from 97 beside him.

"What's up?" Ji Jue asked.

"No, just surprised," 97 said nonchalantly, "I didn't realize you actually sympathized with us."

Ji Jue stayed silent.

"Thank you for being sad because he can't go back to the way he was," 97 said. "You've done enough, Mr. Ji Jue.

For creatures like us, the ironization disease is the most terrifying thing. To involuntarily transform into those inexplicable monsters, to live on is worse than death.

You've preserved his original condition, even if only like this; it's already a lot."

He patted Ji Jue's shoulder, adding with gratitude, "Thank you."

"Let's not talk about that."

Ji Jue sighed, not wishing to continue, and pointed at the crying child, "What's his story? Why is he calling someone else Mom?

If I'm not mistaken, you're... all males, right?"

"Indeed, you're correct, but here, everyone might as well be his mother," 97 replied. "To be precise, everyone in the Crack Realm, even the monsters.

Xiao Jiu is a 'newbie' born from this latest reboot, but others are not the same. Do you get what I mean?"

"We've been processed in cycles who knows how many times."

He pointed to his head, "Basically, everything's jumbled together."

This is the workshop's recycling mechanism.

All products deemed defective are collected, disassembled, categorized, mixed, and reshaped, then thrust back into production.

Transformed into brand new 'people'.

To follow the script, tread the assigned paths, and play the role that belongs to them.

Whether as lowly traders or noble merchants.

Day after day, year after year, they carry out inscrutable acts in a daze, as if worship rituals and endless sacrifices.

Until one day, from this life so closely resembling human existence, they truly comprehend what 'self' is.

They would really start to see themselves as human beings.

But once they realize what they truly are, the beautiful dream shatters.

As soon as the set identity and role lose their meaning, once they grasp what they truly are, those creatures that cannot accept themselves fall into confusion and eventually spiral into utter madness.

Instinctively, they destroy, they fight, they seek death!

Longing for an end.

And when they are utterly wrecked, it all gets recycled by the workshop again, spiritual essence cleansed, consciousness reset, reproduced, welcoming new roles, new 'lives'.

Just like that, day by day, year by year, generation after generation...

Accumulating over time.

Over four hundred years, the initial despair passed on, until at last, the madness lurking beneath everyone's consciousness had become deep as the ocean!

Ji Jue stayed silent, nearly suffocating.

He couldn't imagine how one would feel absolutely desolate upon discovering after countless rebirth cycles that life was but an Illusion, the self a void, and fate so cruel.

If it were creations of Modern Alchemy, it would be spiritual overload, resulting in collapse, but Fluid Alchemy was different...

Its greatest 'advantage' and 'feature' were that it made the creatures' form and structure gradually approach their essence.

And when the essence itself is utterly wrecked, as such mad spirituality awakens from slumber, the original human appearance will vanish without a trace, and they will become true monsters.

Suffering night and day, wailing night and day.

Like real Hell.

Desperately seeking life but not finding it, seeking death but unable.

"We want to stop."

97 whispered softly to himself, mumbling as if praying to demons or perhaps gods, "Do anything you like, just as long as it stops."

Ji Jue was silent.

He said no more.

Perhaps it was the next day, or just a few hours later.

Ji Jue was awakened by the noise outside, hearing the cheers and blessings of the camp.

Stepping out of his tent, he saw 97 surrounded by a crowd of people, along with a few others, armed to the teeth.

It was as if they were preparing to set off to war.

Noticing Ji Jue's gaze, 97 grinned, waved at him as if to bid farewell, and then turned and left.

The exploration was about to begin again.

The crowd cheered and shouted, bidding them farewell with great expectation.

Ji Jue even saw the Prophet in the throng.

Sitting in a wheelchair at the entrance of a tent in the back, she was being pushed by someone, watching the exploration team depart as the gate closed once again.

Noticing Ji Jue approaching, she whispered something, and the person accompanying her walked away.

"How are you considering it, Mr. Ji Jue?" the Prophet asked.

Ji Jue shook his head, "I don't know, haven't thought it through, but instinctively, I somewhat dislike you."

"That's very normal. People who are evasive and pretend to be mysterious can never gain trust. Compared to someone as honest as you, it is rather I who must be more deceitful as a non-human creation."

The Prophet gave a dispassionate smile, "Please forgive me, sir. Some stakes are just too precious. There's only one chance, and I cannot rashly entrust it to someone who might not be trustworthy."

"You can explore on your own," Ji Jue said.

"Yes," the Prophet nodded with difficulty, "Do you think we will succeed?"

"I don't know," Ji Jue shook his head.

"Let me tell you, there might be some minor discoveries, perhaps some warehouses and traces left by Mercury, but a real breakthrough? A real transformation? No, there won't be any."

The Prophet said, "Never."

"From the beginning, everything was predestined. We are tools, and tools cannot deviate from the range set by their master," the Prophet stated. "Even if the central mechanism of the workshop appeared before them, they would be blind to it, even, incapable of understanding…"

"What about you?"

Ji Jue asked, "Aren't you the Prophet? The all-knowing Prophet, can't you find it?"

"I can find it, of course, I can."

The Prophet replied decisively, with a more mocking smile, "But what after finding it? A tool can never destroy the work left by its master, as that command is engraved in the deepest part of our spiritual essence."

Others simply couldn't discover it, couldn't enter.

Even though the Prophet had known all along, clearly understood, she was incapable of action.

This was a cycle doomed to remain resultless.

Futile expeditions would launch over and over, but they would yield no outcomes.

"Do they know?" Ji Jue asked.

The Prophet did not answer.

For a long time.

Just a helpless sigh.

"Mr. Ji Jue, if you awake from a hell that brought only torment and realized your wretched end, then it is best not to awaken the others who still slumber. But the awakened are growing in number... then you must make them believe that hell may still be broken."

"Otherwise, what awaits them is only despair."

"Yes, that's right, I am lying, I am not all-knowing, I have deceived them, more than once."

The Prophet candidly chuckled, "In reality, I can't do anything, I am just a charlatan. Even this camp's existence, each time, only lasts for fifty or sixty years. At the start of every reset, we will return to the midst of the workshop, once again becoming a disfigured shell."

"But I must make them believe that there is hope for the future."

"Even if it is a hope oh so distant—"

"People need lies, and we need them too."

The Prophet murmured, sighing softly, "Mercury's plan didn't actually have any flaws, the only loophole is… did she make us too human-like?"

A tool does not fear hell, does not despair, does not wish for deliverance.

Only people do.

Heaven and hell, both are human constructs, and all they could do is silently endure the torment.

Unaware of time, unaware of an end.

In the quiet, Ji Jue gazed silently at the camp before him for a long time, then chuckled in self-mockery.

"Why me then? Prophet, if you have any knowledge at all, then you should be aware that I am no different from the other outsiders."

"Perhaps you're just lucky?"

"My luck has never been good, only bad and worse, including the fact that you've sought me out," Ji Jue said. "Please be frank and answer me directly."

"You've learned Fluid Alchemy, right?"

The Prophet turned back, her damaged eyes fixing on him, "This is Mercury's workshop. According to the commands once set by Mercury, if an apprentice masters Fluid Alchemy, they will be registered automatically in the core and granted the most basic inner access rights."

"But your authority is far higher than you imagine. Your spiritual essence identification circuit represents the central heat reaction of the Melting Furnace. The module authorized to you added a small notation to your authorization."

The Prophet's fingertips lifted, and before Ji Jue's eyes, traced a tiny symbol, conveying a trust from the days of the Melting Furnace:

"It says, you are trustworthy."

Ji Jue's pupils contracted for a moment.

He recognized the meaning of that outline.

It was a rune flowing from Superior Transformation.

In the interpretation of Alchemy, it represented inclusiveness and bearing, signifying protection and giving.

It meant, "Mercy."

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