Ascension was easy to begin but incredibly hard to improve. Purification was tedious and required extreme precision. Harmony demanded full-system control to ensure every component was properly aligned, cooperating without interfering with one another.

These all shared one thing in common: when one failed, one just had to be careful and try again. As long as you followed the procedure, you wouldn’t go too far wrong. If you messed up, you just needed a couple of slaps to make you remember next time.

But Transformation was a vicious dead loop for apprentices. Without money to buy materials, you couldn’t practice; without practice, you’d make mistakes; mistakes ruined materials and earned you punishment and deductions; after deductions, you had even less money to buy materials.

Thinking about this, Ji Jue, as a veteran of poverty, immediately felt a chill down his spine. He clutched the little over a million that hadn’t even had time to warm in his pocket, silently hoping that Chen Yubo, that shameless deadbeat, would quickly transfer the remaining payment to him.

“You don’t need to worry about money.” Professor Ye took a sip of tea, placed a black card on the table, and slid it over to Ji Jue. “Looks like you didn’t exactly work for nothing last night. Someone has already solved that problem for you.”

The exquisitely crafted black card lay on the table. The gilded serial code on its surface shimmered under the sunlight, casting a golden glow that lit up Ji Jue’s eyes. It radiated both the suppression of the poor and the aura of wealth, something that instinctively made people feel its nobility.

“Holy crap...” Ji Jue’s heart lurched. He almost couldn’t hold back a curse in front of the professor and quickly changed the subject. “What... What card is this? I’ve never seen it before. Who sent it?”

“Chen Xingzhou did. It arrived this morning through his people. Those two brothers don’t usually even acknowledge each other, let alone send anyone over for each other, but it seems he’s still quite concerned about whether his younger brother lives or dies.”

The professor let out a cold laugh. “I only said you were a new apprentice, and he immediately understood what he needed to offer. This is a premium membership card from the Balance Chamber of Commerce. It was probably urgently acquired last night. Your name and all your information have already been transferred onto it.

“There should be about twenty million inside. If you find it troublesome, you can withdraw it and transfer it into your own account. With this, you won’t have to worry about expenses for at least half a year.”

Ji Jue couldn’t hold it in anymore. His mind went blank from shock.

What the hell! So this is what big shots are like? They give away twenty million just like that? They give such insane compensation as a reward? They just multiplied the final payment by ten?!

And...

“Half a year?”

He stared at the professor, hesitating several times as if wanting to speak but stopping himself. Wasn’t the consumption rate of alchemy a bit too high?

Twenty million divided by 180 days came out to roughly 111,111 Fedra per day. That number was so single[1] that even the loneliest bachelor would feel deeply wounded.

But once that number turned into money and got multiplied by days, it was enough to transform any ordinary lonely guy into a bigshot rich man, a patron of nightlife legends, a shareholder in the spirits industry, and a peerless figure ruling the night scene.

I’m using up one hundred ten thousand Fedra daily?!

Ji Jue felt like he could die from eating, drinking, and having fun for his whole life and still not spend that much.

What kind of alchemy burns money like this?!

Professor Ye glanced at his ignorant, naive expression. “You’re progressing too fast. Don’t blame alchemy. Other apprentices haven’t even finished the basics in a little over two months. You pick things up so fast that modern techniques aren’t even enough for you anymore, so now you’re digging up ancient ones too.

“If you want a slower, steadier pace, that’s fine too. Ten or eight years would still be enough for you to learn everything. Take it slow, build up your credentials, and maybe by the time you’re thirty you can become a formal craftsman. They’ll probably still be praising you then, saying you’re in your prime and already so accomplished for your age.

“Chen Xingzhou probably had the same idea. After eight or nine years, you’ll become a craftsman with his funding. By then, it’ll be simple and convenient for you to get whatever you want.”

Ji Jue kept a polite smile on his lips and didn’t dare say anything. He could only sigh inwardly. As expected of the Ember Path, you could get stronger by spending money, and you could even pay to speed up your progress. Still, he’d always thought rich people simply had more money than they knew what to do with. He didn’t expect even a simple thank-you gift could come with this many twists. Sure, if he wanted to be a bit cynical, that was a pretty likely explanation, but then again, no one had made him sign anything. They hadn’t even said an extra word about it.

Favors worked both ways. The more you went back and forth, the more that sense of obligation built up. It had to be something both sides were willing to play along with. Chen Xingzhou had been generous, no doubt, but Ji Jue hadn’t exactly done nothing either. Besides, without Professor Ye backing him, there was no way he’d be getting this kind of treatment.

Ji Jue wasn’t dumb enough to just pull out his card and go, “How about you take half?” If he really did that, he would only earn a glare from his teacher.

So he could only work harder and speed up his progress.

Completely unaware that his advancement in modern alchemy was already absurdly fast, the soul of a workaholic was once again burning brightly within him. If not for the professor sitting right beside him, he would have been tempted to throw his head back and laugh. He had both his workaholic ways, and he had money to pay-to-win.

With these, who can possibly outgrind me?!

Very quickly, his attention was drawn to the pendant beside the card.

“What’s this?”

“Your spoils. Chen Xingzhou’s people cleaned up the scene and sent it over.”

“Looks like an alchemical work?” Ji Jue picked it up and examined it. It looked like one, and in fact, it really was.

The moment he held it, he could already feel the aura of blessing within it. That faint, drifting sensation rising upward was Ascension.

He became more cautious.

In general, Ascension Path blessings acted on the soul and consciousness. If used improperly, it could very well mess with your brain. Besides, this craftsmanship... It looked flashy, like it was something serious, and he could tell the technique was quite skilled, far better than what Ji Jue could pull off.

But after seeing the natural, seamless unity of Mercury’s works, and experiencing the rigorous, all-encompassing, almost oppressive grandeur of Professor Ye’s modern alchemy, he could only say this pendant was just mediocre, nothing more.

In fact, maybe even...

“Kind of flawed?” he said, unsure.

“Your judgment has improved.” Professor Ye rarely offered praise. She immediately followed with an assessment. “No need to be so polite. With materials like this and a blessing like that, yet for it to turn out like this, you can’t call it anything but trash.

“To be able to refine a blessing into this kind of half-baked failure, and still have the nerve to sell it, is nothing short of embarrassing. No wonder the craftsman didn’t dare engrave their emblem on it. If it ever gets exposed, they’ll probably be laughed at for the rest of their life.”

The materials were good, and the blessing was also decent. Only the craftsmanship was utterly disastrous.

Its Ascension was only superficial, while its Transformation blindly copied formulas. Its Purification was inconsistent, while its Harmony was a complete mess. You couldn’t find a more textbook example of something that only looked the part but fell apart under scrutiny.

The blessing inside it probably already knew it would end up like this, and it might as well have just jumped off on its own and rotted together with the Nine Abominations in the vortex.

As for its details, Professor Ye had already examined it. Its name was Transcendent Vision. In short, it granted the user the ability to improve their own perception and thinking speed, thereby indirectly achieving the effect of slowing down time.

It was not ordinary, but it was not especially rare either, because there were many blessings with similar effects. For example, White Deer’s Lightning Reflex, Ruins’ Shared Heart, Vortex’s Neural Spiritization, and even the legendary blessing Time Interception bestowed by the Eternal Gate.

In fact, Flawless Craft also had a few counterparts. The Swarm had Pillaging Hand, White Deer had Lingxi Finger[2], and Vortex had Miraculous Hands. One focused on extreme destructive power, another emphasized dexterity and counterplay, and the last was outright a healing ability. None of them could compare to the terrifying versatility and growth potential of Flawless Craft.

“Alright, that’s enough. Stop staring at it, it’s nothing but a shoddy piece of junk.” Professor Ye cut off Ji Jue’s thoughts, then, in a tone straight out of a nightmare, added, “Since it’s in your hands now, I’ll assign you a bit of homework.”

Ji Jue scowled, and he almost tossed the thing away on reflex.

No way. Can I just not take it?! How can she just pile on homework like this?!

Professor Ye lifted her teacup, showing no mercy. “From now on, for your introductory practice of Dissociation Technique, you’ll switch to this as your target object. What you need to do is take it apart, strip away all those messy spirit matter circuits and material contamination, and keep the blessing inside as intact as possible. The devil’s work ball will stay here to assist you. Your task is to extract the blessing in full.”

“Uh... Is there a time limit?”

“No. Whether you finish quickly or slowly, it doesn’t matter.” The professor gave him one final look and delivered a dose of motivation that nearly broke him. “I suppose once you’ve stripped out the blessing, it’ll be about time to begin. I’m talking about your first true act of alchemical creation.”

As silence fell, Ye Chun closed her eyes in despair, but Ji Jue’s eyes lit up, as if a bloodthirsty light had ignited within them. His study freak berserk mode was activated!

1. In Chinese culture and internet slang, the number 1 (一, yī) is frequently used to represent “single,” “lonely,” or a “bare stick.” ☜

2. “Lingxi Finger” is the signature move of Lu Xiaofeng, the lead in Gu Long’s Legend of Lu Xiaofeng. It’s famous for using just two fingers to catch blades, swords, whips, spears, pretty much any weapon with pinpoint precision. People call it a one-of-a-kind technique that never misses, a top-tier skill for both offense and defense without even using a weapon. ☜