Chosen: Beyond Fate

For a moment, Ji Jue genuinely wanted to smack Zhou Cheng across the back of the head. The nerve of this guy! Who does he think he’s talking to?! How dare he bring up my grandfather—

His hand had already risen halfway before he remembered something.

Oh, right. Zhou Cheng is talking about his own grandfather, Master Zhou Zhong.

Under the sharp gaze coming from the deepest part of the workshop, Ji Jue awkwardly lowered his half-raised hand. To make the motion look less suspicious, he even pretended to dust off Zhou Cheng’s back.

Then, under Zhou Cheng’s furious glare, he flashed him a smile that practically said, See how nice I am to you?

He was in their territory, after all. He had to behave.

Fine. He wouldn’t hold it against him, then.

With that perfectly reasonable excuse in mind, Ji Jue strode inside as though nothing had happened. Glancing around, he soon realized that Zhou Zhong had brought nearly half the equipment from his workshop with him this time.

𝒻𝑟𝘦𝘦𝘸ℯ𝒷𝑛𝘰𝓋ℯ𝘭.𝘤𝘰𝘮

The vast underground space was now covered in spirit circuits. Structurally, they formed three layers above and six below, fitted tightly into one another and sealed from both inside and out.

It was a classic and extravagantly expensive Celestial Circuit.

Using the emblems of the Twelve Supreme Benevolences and a host of ritual items, the workshop recreated its own miniature heaven and earth, with three tiers of heaven above and six layers of underworld below.

The divine essence of the Supreme Benevolences circulated and transformed throughout the structure. The added defensive strength was secondary; its true purpose was to catalyze the creation within the furnace and induce a unique qualitative transformation. It was especially well suited to the laws and control of the Origin Path.

When necessary, the surrounding Celestial Circuit structure could even connect directly with the creation inside the furnace, making it far easier to manipulate.

The moment Ji Jue stepped into the Celestial Circuit, he felt the strict order woven through the flowing spirit matter and radiance. Even after stepping inside, Ji Jue remained an outsider to it, barred from sensing anything beyond its surface. He could look, but that was all. None of the intricate changes taking place within, nor the divine essence at their core, could be perceived by him.

From a distance, Ji Jue could already see the figure standing before the furnace with his back to him. The gaunt master stood with his hands clasped behind his back, impassively watching every change within the furnace while controlling the operation of the surrounding Celestial Circuit in tandem. Naturally, he also noticed the arrival of someone who did not belong in the workshop.

“Ji Jue?”

“That’s me.” Ji Jue stopped five paces away and respectfully inclined his head, just as any junior would before a senior.

No matter how arrogant he was, he still had to acknowledge the gulf between himself and Zhou Zhong and show due respect for the master’s skill. A craftsman could look down on anything else, but creation itself was always worthy of reverence.

Without turning around, Zhou Zhong gave a cold laugh. “Hmph. So the great hero knows when to bow his head after all. Your teacher already told me what you needed. I owed her a favor from Spring City. Never thought she’d spend it on you. Looks like my favor isn’t worth all that much to her after all.”

Ji Jue remained perfectly calm. “My teacher cares for me.”

Zhou Zhong stopped speaking. Perhaps Ji Jue’s answer had reminded him of something. Or perhaps he was simply concentrating on the changes inside the furnace.

After a while, he pointed at a nearby table, where a form bearing his signature had already been placed. Then he pointed at a spot beside the furnace, where an apprentice was drenched in sweat from working.

“The signature’s there. The work’s over there. Can you handle it?”

Ji Jue took two steps forward and studied the enormous furnace. “What’s inside?”

“A sword.”

Ji Jue paused. “Why a sword?”

“Why not?” Zhou Zhong asked flatly.

“Considering Tong Shan’s fighting style and habits, a sword probably isn’t the best fit for him,” Ji Jue answered truthfully.

“And waving a flag on the battlefield is?” Zhou Zhong sneered. “If he likes charging into battle with a spear that much, he might as well join the Swarm. A craftsman isn’t a servant. There’s no need to cater to the user’s every preference. Adjusting the finer points to suit them is perfectly reasonable, but if you have no judgment of your own and do nothing but pander to people’s wishes, how can you claim to command a Supreme Benevolence and forge all things into form?”

Ji Jue glanced back at Zhou Zhong’s expressionless face. “Can you really be certain your design is better than what the user chose for himself?”

“I can,” Zhou Zhong answered without hesitation. There was absolute certainty in his tone.

From the countless hours of practice and experimentation he had endured as an apprentice, to the experience accumulated day after day after becoming a craftsman, to the countless cases he had studied as a Chosen One, and the creations and explorations into which he had poured everything he had, all of it had forged a level of skill far beyond that of ordinary craftsmen, along with judgment and instinct that surpassed even that.

He had rejected the original design outright, discarded the old approach, changed direction, and rebuilt it into something entirely new. Even with a client as powerful as the Tong family, he had refused to compromise. So why would he care about the doubts of a mere apprentice?

Ji Jue had no way to judge the finer details or the reasoning behind Zhou Zhong’s decisions, but that undisguised confidence—or perhaps arrogance—still made him see the man in a new light. The Ember Path had always judged everything by results. No matter how convincing Zhou Zhong sounded now, if the finished product failed to deliver, there would be no explaining it away.

Even without knowing the exact circumstances, Ji Jue could tell from the elaborate Celestial Circuit and everything that had been invested into it that the Tong family had paid an enormous price. This was not something anyone could bluff their way through, nor was it the sort of commission where a few vouchers could make things right if the result was ruined.

For work like this, where avoiding failure mattered more than chasing brilliance, sticking to established methods and playing it safe was usually the norm. Yet Zhou Zhong had been willing to stake the reputation he had built over a lifetime, along with the credibility of his workshop, which he valued as dearly as his life, on his own design. In terms of sheer nerve alone, he already stood above countless others.

Ji Jue sighed softly. “I’ve learned something new.”

Zhou Zhong remained expressionless, not even bothering to look back at him. “You’re not my student. Why would I teach you anything? If you can do the task, do it. If you can’t, leave.”

Ji Jue said nothing more. He took off his coat, emptied the miscellaneous items he carried into its pockets, and handed it to Tong Hua. Then he picked up a set of work clothes from the corner and put them on. Without another word, he walked straight toward the furnace.

The moment he stepped forward, it felt as though he had entered the furnace itself. Invisible flames seemed to spread through the air, and the space around him was filled with terrifying heat in an instant. The temperature had been tightly contained around the furnace, so intense that sweat evaporated before it could even form. Every breath sent a sharp, burning pain through his throat and lungs.

The air warped in the heat, making everything before him seem to drift nearer and farther away, swelling and shrinking in his vision. Even walking became difficult, and he found himself stumbling despite his best efforts.

At the very front of the open furnace, the apprentice responsible for feeding in materials was on the verge of collapse. His hair had curled from the heat, and his eyes were bloodshot. He sat crouched on the floor, his body swaying uncontrollably. When he glanced up, his eyes were unfocused.

Seeing Ji Jue approach, he numbly handed over what he was holding. Then he staggered to his feet, managed two steps, and collapsed to the floor with a thud.

An apprentice waiting nearby immediately rushed in, hoisted him up, and carried him outside so he wouldn’t interfere with the alchemy crafting.

Around the furnace, more than a dozen other apprentices were stationed at the nodes of the Celestial Circuit, maintaining its operation. They worked together with practiced coordination, without the slightest delay. Under Zhou Zhong’s direction and control, the Celestial Circuit structure shifted continuously as one precise operation followed another. Ji Jue watched with wide eyes, genuinely impressed.

As expected of the infamous sweatshop known throughout Haizhou. It was a workshop so brutal that even Jian Yuan would have given a grudging nod of approval. The apprentices were treated almost like tools, used up at an astonishing rate. Once one was exhausted, another immediately took their place, as if they were an endless supply of interchangeable parts.

And the thing that allowed all those individually limited talents and operations to be brought together while sharing Zhou Zhong’s burden and carrying out his every requirement was probably the far more complex spirit matter sequence hidden beneath the Celestial Circuit, the Myriad Convergence.

Now that was good stuff. He absolutely had to find a way to swipe something this good for himself.

Unfortunately, Zhou Zhong’s safeguards were ridiculously thorough. There wasn’t the slightest opening for him to exploit. As a signature technique meant to be passed down within the workshop, there was no way it would be left completely unprotected. Ji Jue wasn’t the only one kept in the dark; even the other apprentices taking part in the operation probably understood only fragments of the whole technique.

Once they became accustomed to its underlying theory, they had little choice but to keep building within the framework Zhou Zhong had established, slowly working their way upward in hopes of gaining greater access and deeper theoretical knowledge. Trying to strike out on their own would be no different from starting all over again. No wonder people called this place ruthless.

“Feed the furnace,” Zhou Zhong said coldly from nearby.

Guided by the shifting spirit matter and changing circuits around him, fissures opened around the furnace. Flames burst from within, their light reflecting in Ji Jue’s eyes.

Without hesitation, he raised his hand, and sheets of paper rose between his fingers. They curled in the surging flames, blackened and crumbled into ash. As the ash vanished without a trace, countless words rose from it and layered over one another. Black ink spread through the air, as though an invisible brush were sketching through the flames. In the next moment, a thunderous torrent erupted, and an immense surge poured forth from the creation, flooding everything around it.

Yet, under the crushing force of the Celestial Circuit, it remained tightly confined within the furnace.

The torrent roared. Ripples crashed into one another, and waves surged violently. The lightning towering over a vast sea rose from the turbulence, but amid all that chaotic noise, a single clear note rang out. It was the sharp cry of a sword. It swept through instantaneously, and the blaring turbulence immediately shattered, fading into echoes before disappearing altogether.

At the heart of the flames, the vague outline within grew a little clearer.

Just from seeing that fleeting fluctuation, the hairs on the back of Ji Jue’s hand stood on end. He could feel a bone-chilling sharpness and an almost oppressive sense of order within it. As the spirit matter circulated, the blessings of Origin, Aether, Mirror, and Ruins revealed themselves. The auras of four different blessings rose together, already showing signs of gradually merging into one. It was nothing short of a masterpiece.

No, this was precisely why Zhou Zhong had spent so long preparing, invested so much into the process, and gone so far as to construct an entire Celestial Circuit. All of it was meant to achieve this perfectly seamless “evolution.”

Between the three tiers of heaven and six layers of the underworld, the essence of the Supreme Benevolences circulated continuously. As the phenomena within the furnace were continuously catalyzed, the four blessings gradually blended together, becoming one inseparable whole.

And Ji Jue’s job was to keep feeding record books into the furnace as catalysts.

“Feed the furnace.” Zhou Zhong said again.

Ji Jue promptly reached forward once more. The Pacifier matrix shimmered faintly across both hands as he found the perfect opening in the heat, which was hot enough to reduce him to ash in an instant, and slipped through it to add another recorded phenomenon.

Lightning blasted through the furnace, and the earth seemed to rumble beneath his feet. The howl of a storm surged from within the furnace.

His job was to burn books.