Chapter 115: The Hand
Late at night, after finishing her work, Professor Ye lowered her gaze and looked at the amber-colored crystal in her hand. It was a condensed blessing, a temporary vessel for the blessing, created by simulating a soul environment with solidified spirit matter, then sealed externally with Ember-type spirit matter circuits.
“Not bad. Pretty good. Aside from some residual contamination left from the first forging, the blessing itself wasn’t damaged. Good enough for practice.” Ye Xian nodded slightly in approval. “Have you decided on your first blessed creation?”
“A ring,” Ji Jue replied.
“Alright.” Ye Xian nodded slightly, showing no objection.
For this type of blessing, any craftsman would naturally consider jewelry as the first option. A pendant would also work, but Ji Jue already had one around his neck. Wearing two identical items at the same time and trying to activate them simultaneously would cause the alchemical constructs to interfere with each other, producing unexpected outcomes. It could lead to overload and overclocking, or they could fail to fully activate, but in either case, the items would be damaged.
Therefore, even someone as wealthy as Young Master Lou would never consider stuffing rings onto all ten fingers. Even under ideal conditions, only two items could be used simultaneously.
Moreover, setting aside spirit matter consumption, when activating alchemical tools, the external blessing also placed a burden on the soul. The stronger the effect, the heavier that burden became.
In every sense, trying to pull a small horse to haul a heavy cart ends badly.
“And the spirit matter structure?” Professor Ye asked.
Ji Jue promptly answered, “For the blessing carrier, I want to use a Three-Phase Knot structure to anchor Ascension, Ruins, and Ember.”
Three Supreme Benevolence emblems were connected through a tri-phase spirit matter circuit, representing spirit matter, physical matter, and transmutation, the three fundamental principles. They were stable yet flexible, capable of containing the blessing while also ensuring expandability for future modifications.
“And the contact layer?”
“For a single blessing, there’s no need to make it overly complex. I want to use a compact, classical ring-shaped structure.”
“That does fit.” Professor Ye fell into thought for a moment, then asked, “Have you considered a bracelet?”
Ji Jue shook his head. “The weight of the blessing itself isn’t significant, and the effect is relatively simple. A bracelet would just be a waste of materials.”
For a single blessing, a ring was already more than enough to carry it. If turned into a bracelet, although manufacturing would be easier, the size would increase proportionally, while the effect would remain unchanged. Just to save a bit of effort, it would cost so much more money. It would be too expensive!
“As for the materials?” Professor Ye continued.
“Seven grams of transformed gold as the base material, three grams of solidified polymer silver as the spirit matter circuit carrier, one gram of liquid white mink solvent, and four grams of standardized azure crystal to satisfy the requirements of Ascension refinement.”
This time, before Professor Ye could ask any more questions, Ji Jue continued on his own.
“For the process, I plan to use modern alchemy techniques, but for material processing, I want to try Fluid Alchemy. In that case, after the reaction is complete and the forging is finished, the weight should be controlled to around eight grams. It won’t cause any inconvenience when worn.”
“You’re giving yourself a bit of a challenge? If you want to save money, you can reduce the refinement material a bit more,” Professor Ye suggested.
Ji Jue smiled. “If I lower it to another tier, the stability of the Three-Phase Knot won’t matter anymore. And there’s no such thing as a first attempt without reworks. If it becomes inconvenient to use later, I still want the option to modify it.”
Professor Ye nodded. “So, a challenge it is.”
He had no flashy ideas of a beginner suddenly leaping to mastery. The design and reasoning were very grounded, solid, and pragmatic, completely focused on stability. Under the premise of cost-effectiveness, he was aiming to use techniques appropriate for his level to maximize the blessing’s effect and power.
If this were an exam, Ji Jue never even considered bonus questions. He wasn’t trying to show off anything special. He just steadily and reliably secured every point he could get.
“Good.” Ye Xian gave a slight nod, showing no criticism of her student’s choice.
If it were her crafting this ring, there would certainly be better methods, better handling, better options, but she said nothing. If she constantly interfered and instructed everything using her own mastery as the standard, what she would end up cultivating would be nothing more than a diminished copy of herself. She did not like followers who trailed behind step by step.
On the contrary, if one day Ji Jue could break away from her path, turn around, and walk into the endless Ember wilderness on a route of his own choosing, creating his own domain, that would be the greatest reward she could receive as a teacher.
“On paper it all sounds impressive. In practice, how it turns out depends entirely on how much you’ve actually learned these past days.” She slowly stood up. “Let’s go.”
Ji Jue was startled. “Now?”
“If not now, when?” Ye Xian turned back and asked, “Do you want to learn from those superstitious idiots who bathe, fast, and change into lucky red underwear[1] first?”
Ji Jue gave a wry smile, lifting his hands slightly. His fingers were trembling faintly.
“My condition isn’t great.”
He was suffering side effects. His brain had forced the Dissociation Technique, something he hadn’t yet mastered, into overclocking through a single impulsive push, then immediately executed a violent dismantling. The pendant was destroyed, and Ji Jue had almost suffered the same fate in the process. As a result, both of his hands were now numb, and his tactile sense was severely distorted.
If it weren’t for the buffering and control from Pacifier, the pendant could have survived, but his hands would have likely been the first thing shredded by the high-pressure spirit matter vibration blade. All he could say was that he’d basically almost killed himself.
Professor Ye walked ahead. “Isn’t that perfect? It’ll help you break your dependence on Flawless Craft and take a proper look at the fundamentals. As long as you have enough spirit matter, you act when you should act. Besides, I won’t have time tomorrow.”
That last part was probably the real reason.
Ji Jue followed behind her, not daring to speak. Thinking positively, what apprentice got a master-level craftsman personally supervising their very first Blessed Creation? No, wait, what apprentice even got to start working on blessed creations just three months after entering the field?
Something about this progression still felt off. He scratched his head and sighed helplessly before heading toward the workshop.
***
This time, they were still using the outer workshop operations room that had been opened to Ji Jue, the same place where he had first seen all the equipment.
Compared to Professor Ye’s private studio, the difference in equipment quality was naturally enormous. But for Ji Jue, an apprentice, it was already more than sufficient in function.
Moreover, what Professor Ye despised most were those sheltered brats who could do nothing once separated from expensive equipment. People who couldn’t survive outside their own workshops because they weren’t capable of even basic material refinement were useless. They didn’t deserve to tarnish the name of craftsmen.
She stood beside Ji Jue, offering a final reminder. “No need to overthink it. Your ability is enough. If anything unexpected happens, I’ll step in. But if it’s your mistake that blows up the furnace, don’t expect me to help.”
“Understood.”
Ji Jue’s palm moved. The Pacifier matrix manifested, and he skillfully activated the furnace, adjusting the temperature. With the Deus Ex Machina ability, he didn’t even need to touch the control panel. Everything quickly fell into perfect order.
In theory, Ji Jue could have even performed a manual Pacifier system demonstration for the professor, but with workshop equipment right in front of him, not using it would simply be a sign of mental deficiency.
Even someone whose craftsmanship was as peerless and fluid as Mercury’s would still use a workshop when handling certain complex creations, still relied on workshop tools. Moreover, combining Pacifier’s operational control with workshop equipment only amplified the results.
Soon, a tray slid in through the opening in the wall. On it were four large containers made of glass, stone, lead, and even plastic. Each held different materials immersed in various media. The tray and bottles were enormous, but the total material inside weighed less than twenty grams. It felt feather-light in his hand, but Ji Jue didn’t even dare tremble. He held his breath, his fingers steady as stone.
910,000. Just this tiny amount of material cost 910,000 Fedra!
Even if he had money now, it wasn’t meant to be burned like this! If he messed this up, he’d only be able to go home and cry under the blanket at night.
Calm down. Calm down, Ji Jue. Stay calm.
He took a deep breath and placed the transformed gold into the furnace. It melted into a flowing liquid, its golden hue shifting slightly as a faint, brilliant light emerged from within. Instantly, he lowered the temperature, stabilizing it right at the melting threshold.
Material activation complete.
Transformed gold had excellent toughness and spirit matter conductivity, making it more than sufficient as the main material of the ring.
Next was the solidified polymer silver, responsible for carrying the spirit matter structure. It was extremely temperature-sensitive and could only be heated gradually from the outer layer. If the temperature difference spiked too suddenly, it would instantly vaporize into mist, and the material would be ruined. Even if it were later re-condensed, once it had undergone vaporization, it would lose its original adaptability to spirit matter structures.
Under slow, controlled heating, the polymer silver gradually dissolved, flowing like silvery droplets. Within the furnace, it slowly approached the transformed gold.
During the moment of contact, Ji Jue’s eyes instantly lit up.
Now!
Above his hands, the long-awaited surge of spiritual essence poured in, maintaining stability as it activated the furnace operation. Gravity seemed to vanish for a moment as the metallic liquid lifted into the air, shaped and transformed under the precise control of Pacifier.
Like kneading dough, the two materials gradually fused. A thin line of silver appeared within the gold for a fleeting moment before being buried deep inside.
Without pause, Ji Jue continued, and the spirit matter became blade-like. Dense, intricate spirit matter circuits emerged within the material like flowing water, sweeping across the inner layer of the ring before vanishing just as quickly.
Then, amid sharp sizzling sounds, large amounts of smoke and mixed impurities were stripped out from the droplets. That was the Purification of Fluid Alchemy, and also...
Professor Ye immediately understood what was happening. “An Elevation sequence?”
This kind of spirit matter circuit was also a fundamental structure in Fluid Alchemy, and one of the most classic ones. Its function was to gradually absorb the user’s subtle spirit matter during wear, nurturing the artifact over time, and subtly improving the compatibility between the carrier, the blessing, and the user.
However, performing Purification and Elevation simultaneously was a bit beyond Ji Jue’s level.
“Can you handle it?” Professor Ye asked.
“Yes.”
Sweat slid down Ji Jue’s forehead. His eyes were fixed on the blazing furnace light, and there was not even a moment of wavering or distraction. He completed the Elevation sequence engraving in one go, yet he didn’t relax at all.
That had only been the basic material processing. The real challenge was just beginning: using special reagents to trigger the metal’s fusion and refinement, he had to simultaneously activate the blessing and integrate it into the carrier.
Most craftsmen failed here. Performing both processes at once did not simply double the mental load. Due to the chaos of countless variables, even the slightest lapse or confusion would lead to total failure.
The white mink solvent and azure crystal were indeed the most suitable reactants, but the reason it was called “white mink” was that, during the reaction, the solvent was far too active. The changes it underwent were frequent, chaotic, and extremely difficult to control.
Ji Jue forced himself to stay calm and took deep breaths, but the moment the blessing was introduced and the seal broke, he still couldn’t help but feel a spike in tension. He pushed his perception to its absolute limit, trying to encompass every single change within his field of awareness.
But as he poured everything into it, his pupils gradually diffused and lost focus, as if his mind had gone blank. That sense of calm was not distraction or confusion. It was something far more steady, something eerily reassuring and composed.
For a brief moment, he felt as though he had become an observer. He watched everything unfold before his eyes: material activation, refinement of components, and operation of the blessing. Everything became clear, no longer complex or incomprehensible. It was as if all transformations had already fallen into his hands, but his hands were not in the flame, nor were they anywhere at all.
That strange perception continued without stopping. It transmitted every subtle change to him in complete detail. He could feel the scorching temperature, the soft texture of molten metal droplets, the gradual shifts in heat, and even the movement of all spirit matter currents, as if an invisible hand had already grasped the impending transmutation within its palm.
The moment Ji Jue realized this, what inexplicably surfaced before his eyes was a memory from the past: Mercury’s sky-covering form of countless hands within the rift realm. Even amid distortion and mutation, the imprint of Pacifier remained clearly visible. It revealed its essence directly to those successors hundreds of years later.
The hand was the tool born with humanity, the limb never forgotten since the moment one opened their eyes. To touch, to test, to grasp, to hold tight. To open into a palm, to clench into a fist. Drilling wood to make fire, splitting stone to craft plows. Raising beams to build great halls, forging iron into weapons.
In the end, everything a person possessed was held in the hand. Everything humanity had ever created originated from the palm.
From the moment the first human reached out toward the world before them, they had already set into motion the radiant prosperity and infinite creation of the ages that followed. All the flourishing of the world was made by hand, and all things in existence were formed by ten fingers.
“So that’s how it is...”
A true sense of clarity and realization emerged in Ji Jue’s heart. This... is Pacifier.
From the nothingness of that hand, all things began. His ten fingers would one day cover the earth and span the sky. To grasp everything, to control all things... A vision like Mercury’s was too distant. Ji Jue did not dare to hope for it. He only wanted to firmly hold what he had struggled so hard to obtain, and keep it in his hands.
So now, he needed to move his fingers. Like a newborn infant crying for the first time, reaching out toward the world before its eyes, not in prayer, not in desire, but purely driven by instinct, wanting to seize everything.
He wanted to grasp this unseen beauty, this unreachable vastness of all existence, within his palm!
Ji Jue extended his hand.
Boom!
A violent explosion erupted from the rising flames.
Ye Xian frowned. She instinctively raised her hand, but her fingers froze midair. Behind her lenses, her eyes reflected the blazing light.
She saw something painfully familiar. That was... her own Dissociation Technique?!
The intense transformation between motion and stillness unfolded like flowing water. Under the control of that invisible hand, it enveloped everything within the furnace once more, causing even the fragile blessing to tremble fiercely.
Amid the violent fluctuations of spirit matter, the halo seemed on the verge of shattering, but it did not break. Instead, the contamination it carried, the traces left from the first creation, were finally stripped away like dirt washed clean under flowing water through the dual application of Dissociation Technique and Fluid Alchemy, as if it had been reborn.
The invisible hand controlled everything, governing all operations within the furnace core seemingly by instinct, eliminating all variation, and excluding any unintended noise. This was a divine phenomenon that could only appear within the process of alchemical creation, and it belonged solely to the profound lineage of Pacifier.
In the blink of an eye, Purification was complete. On the gradually forming ring, the Three-Phase Knot structure was completed in a single stroke.
Complex spirit matter circuits intertwined like ropes. At their intersections, the emblems of Ascension, Ruins, and Ember emerged from the transmuted spirit matter, solidifying. The spirit matter circuits coiled around the blessing, merging into one unified whole. Everything unfolded exactly as Ji Jue had envisioned and designed, evolving naturally as it should have.
And thus, it was a success!
Standing outside the furnace, Ji Jue raised his hand. Within the furnace, the formless hand extended outward in its final moment before dispersing. The tangible and the intangible seemed to touch in that fleeting moment, and yet like an illusion, they immediately scattered into nothingness.
Only a red-hot, sizzling ring landed in Ji Jue’s hand, with its spirit matter plating still burning.
Soon, the last trace of heat dissipated into vapor. The ring shed its brilliant glow, turning into a plain iron-gray color. But the moment spirit matter was first infused into it, it began to shake violently. Amid shifting iridescent light, a faint resonance emerged, like a newborn chick breaking its shell and calling out to the world.
It was so subtle, yet so distant. It immersed Ji Jue completely, leaving him utterly intoxicated.
“Alchemy is truly beautiful, Teacher.”
He raised his hand, holding it against the light as he gazed at the exquisite creation at his fingertips. Overjoyed, he could no longer hold back and laughed.
It was almost like... he was creating life itself.
1. Red is the most auspicious, lucky, and popular color in China, representing fire, happiness, vitality, and prosperity. Deeply rooted in tradition, it is used to attract good fortune, wealth, and success while warding off evil spirits. ☜
Comments