Chosen: Beyond Fate

Among blessings, Spirit Primacy stood opposite to the so-called Pillar of the Wasteland Ruins: Physical Primacy.

The names alone made their relationship obvious; they were utterly irreconcilable, like fire and water. The two had never once appeared together within the same Chosen One.

Physical Primacy emphasized that physical matter was the fundamental existence of the world, and all spirit had to submit to physical matter. The essence of Spirit Primacy, meanwhile, was the complete inversion of that relationship, placing spirit before the world itself. It denied that consciousness depended upon material objects, instead emphasizing the priority of spirit above all else.

Physical Primacy at least sounded scientifically reasonable, but Spirit Primacy sounded insane the moment you heard the description. Then again, considering it belonged to the Ascension Path, that was perfectly normal.

The core doctrine of Ascension revolved around the transcendence of the soul and liberation of the will. It focused entirely on absolute subjectivity, with not a shred of objectivity involved. Ideas and theories such as “The world exists because of me,” “All things are already contained within me,” or “Life is but a fleeting dream, where the butterfly and I are one and the same[1],” were absurdly common among Chosen Ones of the Ascension Path.

Merely placing one’s subjectivity above objective reality was considered beginner-level stuff. The real skill lay in forcing your own subjectivity above other people’s subjectivity. Madmen shouting things like “Today I shall defy the heavens!” or “My drill will pierce the fucking sky!” appeared one after another without end.

Although saying so might be rather unobjective, among the two paths governing the soul and mind, namely Ascension and Heart Core, being mentally unstable was actually pretty normal. Against that backdrop, a passive blessing like Spirit Primacy seemed unusually straightforward and down-to-earth compared to the others.

Aside from significantly strengthening the typical Ascension Path traits, like increased spirit matter capacity and faster recovery, it also granted Ji Jue gradually improving mental resistance and tolerance.

Its primary effect, however, was the ability to partially ignore flaws or harsh limitations in material reality under certain conditions, compensating through spirit matter expenditure and sheer force of will in order to achieve a desired result.

Put simply, if the conditions were lacking, he could make up for it with fighting spirit.

For example: a survivor escaping a burning building, a mother lifting a car to save her child, a climber hanging on the edge of a cliff moments from a fatal fall, an athlete setting a record while being chased by a bear, or someone trekking across mountains and wilderness for four hours straight to escape a scam compound and survive, and so on.

Without other blessings to complement it, its initial effects were fairly limited. Left on its own, the most it could do was something like letting a phone survive the trip home from the subway on just one percent battery.

But this was a rare, high-class passive ability that could grow stronger over time! There was simply too much potential.

Even at the most basic level, it had already dramatically increased the duration of Deus Ex Machina, directly doubling it. Ji Jue didn’t even dare imagine what kind of surprises would appear later once the blessing underwent qualitative transformation and advanced in rank.

Whether it was Flawless Craft or Spirit Primacy, these late-game blessings were basically heaven-sent gifts for grind addicts. Ji Jue wasn’t afraid of long experience bars; the longer the grind, the more excited he became. The harder the grind, the more motivated he felt. He was practically overflowing with joy.

His first small goal was to use Spirit Primacy to save several thousand in electricity bills! Who wouldn’t love a phone that only needed charging once a week? His fighting spirit was absolutely soaring.

Inside the workshop, after once again checking Ji Jue’s current condition, Professor Ye calmly stated, “Mm. Since you obtained the blessing of Spirit Primacy so smoothly, then the next phase of training can begin. We’ll work on the integration and synergy between blessings. Have you thought about the development direction for Flawless Craft?”

Ji Jue froze. For a moment, he genuinely didn’t know how to answer.

The time had simply been too short. Simply adapting to the enhancement from Flawless Craft and gradually experimenting with expanding its effects and limits had already kept him overwhelmingly busy.

For now, he could only say he had barely mastered it. On top of that, his advancement speed had been absurdly fast, to the point that he hadn’t even had time to think about such things.

It was like how people often said there was no strongest weapon, only the strongest wielder. Even with the same weapon, different users developed vastly different styles and tendencies. Some fought with hammers in heavy, crushing blows, some with light and elusive daggers, others with cursed katana techniques involving sheathing stances and airborne slashes.

Blessings were no different. Sometimes, the exact same blessing could display completely different effects depending on who wielded it.

Take Tom for example. He had the same Swarm setup, same standard trio of Blood Drinking, Battle Frenzy, and Fortress Breaker, plus First Strike. Yet in Ji Jue’s eyes, with the exact same configuration, Tom could casually slaughter ten opponents without even breaking a sweat.

His proficiency had long since been maxed out. After multiple qualitative evolutions of his blessings, some of them had probably even advanced in level already. Even with the exact same build, could a beginner character and a fully maxed-out one possibly be considered the same thing?

With limited time, trying to learn everything equally only resulted in mediocrity across the board. There was no way such a person could compare to someone who devoted themselves wholeheartedly to a single specialty.

In fact, certain schools even possessed secret rituals and methods that allowed practitioners to sacrifice or discard part of a blessing’s effects for a qualitative enhancement to another aspect.

Of course, for a blessing like Flawless Craft, whose application range was terrifyingly broad, there was no need to foolishly sacrifice the fundamentals just to overdraw one aspect. Ji Jue had now reached the stage where he had to choose a direction of specialization. Uncontrolled growth only produced weeds everywhere, it could never grow into a towering tree.

And besides, it wasn’t truly giving anything up. It was merely a matter of prioritization at the current stage.

Yet precisely because its applications were so broad, when Professor Ye suddenly raised the question, Ji Jue found himself momentarily unable to decide. Specializing in strength could allow him to literally tear steel plates apart with his bare hands. Specializing in speed could push his operations to their absolute limit in an instant.

If he pursued precision to the ultimate extreme, then perhaps one day Ji Jue could use microscopic molecular tweezers to pluck excess protons out of mercury and handcraft gold, though, admittedly, nobody would probably be that bored.

And that was only considering the most fundamental aspects. The possibilities multiplied even further depending on both the process and the material involved: smelting, extraction, sublimation, purification. The different kinds of materials also affected this outcome. One could work with metal, wood, compounds, blood, organs, or even...

“Spirit matter?” In no more than a second, enlightenment struck Ji Jue thanks to Professor Ye’s hint. His eyes lit up. “You mean my next training direction should mainly focus on spirit matter manipulation?”

Professor Ye nodded, unable to suppress the faint curve at the corner of her lips. Teaching students with good compatibility and sharp intuition truly made things easy and satisfying for her. There was no need for lengthy lectures or constant, painstaking instruction. A single hint toward the crucial point was enough, and they’d immediately understand.

Ji Jue’s greatest strength was precisely his manipulation of spirit matter. Whether it was the enhancement brought by Pacifier, the purification techniques of Fluid Alchemy, his training in the Dissociation Technique, or the effects granted by Spirit Primacy, all of it had already pushed Ji Jue way ahead of others in the field of spirit matter manipulation.

Forget apprentices. Even ordinary craftsmen could not compare to his level. With conditions this favorable, failing to charge forward along this path and establish an advantage would be the real waste!

“But even if I focus on spirit matter manipulation, I still don’t know how to train it.” Ji Jue sighed. “It can’t seriously mean squatting in front of a furnace every day refining things over and over, right?”

At last, Professor Ye smiled faintly. “No need. I’ve already prepared everything for you.”

Ji Jue felt his heart skip in alarm on pure instinct. Professor Ye waved a hand, and a hole suddenly opened in the workshop ceiling, accompanied by the excited shout of the devil’s work ball.

“Coming through, bro!”

A box tumbled down from above and landed right at Ji Jue’s feet. He picked it up and opened it. When he saw what was inside, he was dumbfounded.

It was about the size of a palm, round and squat. The craftsmanship was mediocre, the materials were nothing special, and the assembly was a complete mess. Ji Jue lifted it and examined it over and over. No matter how he looked at it, something felt wrong.

This seemed—maybe, possibly—to be an extremely ordinary mechanical pocket watch sold at roadside stalls.

Ji Jue looked utterly baffled. “Teacher, do you want a watch? If you needed one, you could’ve just told me. My mom’s family used to make these, you know? If you don’t like brand names, I can handcraft one for you myself. If it loses even the slightest fraction of a second within a year, you can twist my head off.”

Professor Ye calmly took the pocket watch from his hand and held it back out toward him. “It’s not for me. It’s for you.”

The box even still had the receipt attached: 25.80 Fedra. It had apparently been brought yesterday by the delivery guy from some yellow food-delivery app courier service, and the label hadn’t even been peeled off yet.

Ji Jue inspected it repeatedly and carefully, confirming that aside from telling the time, the thing was completely worthless. He became even more confused. It was probably something assembled by some bored auntie taking side gigs to earn household money.

Why give this to him?

“Use your ability on it,” Professor Ye ordered bluntly.

Without hesitation, Ji Jue reached out and cast Deus Ex Machina.

The spirit response was extremely weak, like a candle flickering in the wind. For a mass-produced object like this—something poured out without any craftsmanship, emotional investment, or history at all—the fact that it could generate such a stiff and lifeless spirit response was already the limit. If he wanted a more active or lively response, Ji Jue would need to continuously pour in additional spirit matter to cultivate it.

“The spirit awakening has been completed,” Ji Jue reported.

“Very good,” Professor Ye said. “Now, take it out.”

Ji Jue froze. “Huh?”

Subconsciously, he reached out, intending to cancel the ability, but he quickly realized that wasn’t what Professor Ye meant. She didn’t ask him to cancel the ability he cast on it. She asked him to take it out. Take what out?

Ji Jue’s hand hovered stiffly in midair. “What am I supposed to take out?”

“What you just created,” Professor Ye replied calmly. “Take it out from this pocket watch. Use Flawless Craft to manipulate the spirit matter and extract it wholly without damaging even the slightest fragment of its consciousness.”

Ji Jue went blank. He felt as if he’d been struck by lightning.

He held the pocket watch rigidly in both hands, standing frozen in place. After a long while, he looked at Professor Ye in confusion. She looked back at him calmly, without urging him. Patiently, she waited.

At last, Ji Jue gathered his courage and reached out. The convergence of spirit matter slipped by the tiniest fraction.

Crack!

The fragile spirit reaction instantly collapsed, dissolving into scattered wisps of spirit matter that drifted into Ji Jue’s hands, now utterly meaningless. The dull consciousness inside the pocket watch had completely vanished.

And Ji Jue hadn’t even begun yet. He hadn’t even managed to touch it.

A mere trace of spirit matter fluctuation leaked from his power had already completely shattered the pocket watch’s spirit intelligence.

It couldn’t be helped. The material limitations of the pocket watch were simply too severe. Even though Ji Jue had done everything possible to construct a stable spirit consciousness within it, its innate deficiencies made it far too weak compared to other targets.

Even if Ji Jue could get it to actively cooperate, it was like asking a giant to pick up a tiny wrench, dismantle a precision instrument, remove its core, and keep it intact throughout the process. One careless breath could destroy it entirely.

He’d once heard that the tiniest mechanical wristwatch in the world had an internal mechanism smaller than 0.2 centimeters in size and consisted of ninety-seven separate components.

When dismantling it, craftsmen supposedly had to use specialized tools and even hold their breath, because a momentary lapse in concentration could result in irreversible failure. At least, that was how the story went. It sounded impressive enough, so he’d just assumed it was true.

Ji Jue had once dreamed of getting his hands on one of those watches just to try dismantling it. But now, something even more troublesome had appeared before him.

He didn’t even know where to begin.

Professor Ye admired the pained expression on his face and calmly told him, “This will be your next training objective, Ji Jue. Do your best.”

1. 蝴蝶化我 is almost certainly an original variation inspired by the butterfly dream in Zhuangzi, rather than a fixed quote from a classical text. For more info, refer to Translator’s Thoughts. ☜