Chapter 129.2: Twilight Has Passed Part 2
“What’s wrong?” Ji Jue asked, confused.
“Nothing, it’s just that during the stage of refining sword qi, my spirit matter can barely be released at all. I can’t really help anymore,” An Ran replied, pinching the bullet with a disappointed tone.
Ji Jue paused, then smiled. “It’s fine. This is just a minor issue.”
Even without sword qi enchantment, there were still other methods.
When the time was about right, after checking on the camera that An Ran had gone to watch TV, Ji Jue finally opened the box in the corner and undid layer after layer of seals.
What was revealed at the deepest layer was a pile of pitch-black material, resembling chunks of charcoal. They were the final remains of that corrupted Chosen One from before.
After extracting the blessing, according to procedure, Professor Ye would have thrown it into a high-risk disposal furnace to be completely burned into ash. The ash would then be mixed into a processing solution, and after reaction completion, dumped into a waste container. Once enough accumulated, it would be sent to a specialized institution for complete annihilation.
But Ji Jue had personally asked to keep it. Professor Ye had given him a long, deep look, as if understanding what he was planning. She’d only said, “Your own things, you handle yourself,” and left it at that.
After all, something twisted like this, tainted with the aura of the Nine Abominations, what else could it be used for besides harming people? Protecting world peace?
He was doing something so utterly unethical that he couldn’t let children see it. What if it ruined Ji Jue’s “radiant and noble” image? Even if it didn’t, what if An Ran wrote in his notes something like “Ji Jue is very frugal and never wastes anything, even enemy corpses are used to make bullets?” That would be a disaster.
“Now it’s time for you to have your final usefulness, old brother.” Ji Jue rubbed his hands together as a glint flashed in his eyes.
Next, he would show what his true skill as a genius craftsman really was. He extended his right hand into the air, pressing toward the pile of remains. Then...
“Come out, Mr. Watch!”
As the saying went, the most precious materials often require the simplest processing methods. After preparing all day, Ji Jue began making bullets from his enemy. What he intended to use was the remains left by the corrupted Chosen One.
More precisely, it was the corrupted residual spirit matter sealed within the remains by Professor Ye. Under the pull of the Nine Abominations and the distortion of corruption, the Chosen One’s soul and body had irreversibly transformed, eroded by runaway blessings and mad corruption. What was left behind was this damaged residual spirit matter soaked in the aura of the Nine Abominations.
It had no consciousness, no thought, and no way back. If left alone and accidentally touched by ordinary people, it might even give rise to something even more monstrous over time within its pollution.
Such a dangerous thing... not using it would truly be a waste.
Snap!
The moment his hand made contact with the remains, a sharp cracking sound echoed in the air; it was the sound of spirit matter bursting.
Then, the dormant eerie aura inside the remains seemed to come alive, rapidly trying to surge along the spirit matter Ji Jue was injecting, flowing backward to invade his soul. But it could not break through the barrier, unable to escape the spiritual cage he had constructed. Pacifier acted like a check valve between the two, only allowing Ji Jue’s spiritual output to pass through one direction.
The moment the seal opened, Mr. Watch immediately began flashing with long-missed pop-up windows.
[Warning, warning: external aberrant spirit matter detected.]
And just as Ji Jue’s spirit matter fully activated the dormant corrupted aura, a brand-new pop-up appeared.
[Extract?]
With the shift of his will, an unimaginable, terrifying pulling force emerged from the wristwatch. Layer upon layer of complex spirit matter circuits expanded outward, seamlessly interfacing with the Pacifier matrix, as if the two had always been one system.
Cracking sounds rang out one after another. Visible to the naked eye, the carbonized fragments rapidly broke apart until they turned into a pile of pure white ash. Woven strands of black aura manifested within the rising spirit matter, gathering and flowing into the space between his fingers.
This time, Ji Jue did not let Mr. Watch extract all the corrupted spirit matter. Instead, he forcibly used Pacifier to intercept it, redirecting it all into a pre-prepared mercury carrier.
Whether it was because Ji Jue’s authority had increased after becoming a Chosen One, or due to the influence of Pacifier, this time the wristwatch actually stopped its operation on its own under his interference, no longer competing for the spirit matter.
All of the corrupted spirit matter was completely guided by Ji Jue through an Ascension process into the dormant mercury. Instantly, the mercury rippled, writhing like it had come alive, as if trying to break free from that hollow shell devoid of blood or soul.
But then, it was ruthlessly shoved by Ji Jue into the furnace that had already been preheated for a long time. And so, Purification began.
Bang!
The moment the Purification phase of Fluid Alchemy started, a sudden surge of spirit matter fluctuation occurred, stirring up a violent gust inside the cramped room. The lightbulb overhead shattered on the spot, flickering in and out.
Immediately after came a grinding sound like a piercing scream, rising abruptly from within the flames, like the wailing of ghosts or the mourning of the dead.
The corrupted spirit matter had been fully activated.
The core principle of Fluid Alchemy was making the outward form draw closer to the inner essence. As the mercury gradually converged toward the nature of corrupted spirit matter, violent disturbances and eruptions continuously manifested within the liquid.
Even the entire second-hand furnace was shaking violently, unable to bear the load. If not for the isolation spirit matter circuits Ji Jue had set up on the outer layer, the noise would have already alerted everyone by now.
He pressed both hands on the furnace control panel while Pacifier operated at full capacity. To prevent the corrupted spirit matter from invading and eroding him through perception, he did not even dare to use Deus Ex Machina.
Corruption alchemical refinement was an extremely dangerous and complex discipline. Even masters who had studied it for years could hardly predict what would happen during the process.
Ji Jue felt as if he had opened the entrance to hell itself. Endless wails and screams emerged from within the flames. The furnace shook relentlessly, as if someone inside was pounding on the scorching furnace door, trying to crawl out of hell.
Soon, the wails turned into fragmented whispers, like someone was calling Ji Jue’s name. It was strange yet familiar, carrying a chillingly seductive tone, sweet yet hoarse. Then, faint and indistinct sobbing seemed to echo, but it was impossible to hear clearly.
Finally, even the crying disappeared. Only a sudden, piercing scream like a dying lament erupted, increasing in volume without limit before dissipating into the resonance of metal.
The spirit matter was completely burned away, and the flames extinguished. Ji Jue finally breathed out in relief and collapsed to the ground, drenched in sweat.
If not for Pacifier’s absolute control over spirit matter, there were several moments when he felt he had lost control completely. Once that happened, the furnace would explode, he would explode, or both the furnace and himself along with half the villa would be blown into the sky.
Alchemy was all about the thrill of the process. Now even the furnace had completely shut down.
After a quick inspection, Ji Jue found that all internal spirit matter circuits had been completely destroyed by overload. Only the outer shell remained, practically no different from scrap.
The only result was the strange, blood-red substance slowly flowing out from the container drop by drop.
The mercury, now fully fused with corrupted spirit matter, had taken on the color of fresh blood. It rolled across the workbench like a living thing, and within each droplet, faint faces seemed to emerge, screaming in agony or twisting in mad rage.
Even the occasional contact between two droplets produced a series of sharp sizzling sounds, like they were devouring each other, until they finally merged completely into one.
Through the thick mask, Ji Jue whispered in a daze, “So this is Rampant Slaughter?”
Like the Putrefied Furnace, it was another strange existence among the Nine Abominations. It was a colossal presence born from countless massacres, ravages, enslavements, annihilations, and deaths.
What stood before Ji Jue now was, at best, nothing more than a minuscule trace of contamination left behind by one insignificant projection among the countless manifestations of the Rampant Slaughter corruption.
And yet, it was enough to make his soul tremble uncontrollably.
When he had dripped it drop by drop into the bullet cores and imposed sealing, the pressure and fear he felt were even more intense than synthesizing and extracting fuel-based explosives.
The latter would only kill him outright. The former would make him wish he were dead. At the same time, it would make his enemies suffer far worse than death itself.
“Heh... hehehehe... hehehehehe...”
When An Ran came knocking to call Ji Jue for dinner, he only saw, under the flickering dim light, a shadow laughing in a strange, unsettling way, and rows of bizarre bullets in front of him on the table.
They looked completely ordinary at first glance, nothing more than basic alchemical processing, but the moment one got close enough to touch them, a bone-deep chill spread through the body.
“What is this?” An Ran asked, leaning in curiously.
“Gifts.” Ji Jue smiled, his tone light and almost joyful. “Some gifts prepared for our guests.”
Like any well-prepared host, the moment the gift was wrapped, he had already begun imagining the look of surprise once it was unwrapped.
He really hoped they would like it.
***
Beep... beep...
In a hospital room smelling faintly of disinfectant, the deathly silence was broken only by the monotonous sound of medical equipment. Within that long, dull sound, the rhythm seemed to shift ever so slightly for a brief moment.
On the hospital bed, Chen Xingzhou’s finger suddenly twitched. Then again, just a little more. For a long period of time, it slowly and stubbornly clenched, as if exerting all its strength just to grab hold of an invisible thread.
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