It felt as if, all of a sudden, glowing red-hot iron balls were tossed into a serene pool, sparking a chain of boiling spiritual reactions that, one after another, distorted the once tranquil depths into a fierce display.
Amidst this chaos, what drew the most attention... was a torrent of spiritual quality that had mixed into a myriad shades and then darkened into a black flow. The sight alone was enough to send shivers down one's spine, as the flow ceaselessly changed its shape!
At that moment, within the central hub, the rampant torrent spread and even preyed upon other Chosen Ones who had intruded, often wiping their signals from existence after just one encounter and merging them into that dense blackness...
It was utterly unclear what this diabolical thing was or where it had come from!
[Spiritual Analysis Complete—Identification: Dragon Sacrifice Ceremony]
The instant the Ghost Work Ball gave its judgment, he couldn't help but his vision darkened again.
Damn it, not you again!
Why is it always you, everywhere!
Ji Jue shivered with a cold anger, failing to comprehend how a bomb of such magnitude had suddenly been dropped into the pond. Surely it couldn't be that Lawrence, that old ghost, had finally won his comeback match?!
Especially when he saw the number that followed the Rank indicated by the Ghost Work Ball...
Eighth Rank?!
What kind of sick joke was this?
To have surpassed Summoning and Transformation, reaching the Rebirth Rank, this entity had left Ji Jue, a complete newbie who hadn't even stepped through the door, behind by three vast realms!
No, how did it get inside? Wasn't this round supposed to be locked?
Boom!
In an instant of distraction, a shockwave erupted, like an invisible tidal wave, roaring past.
The earth quaked, the sky shook.
It seemed as if the entire Crack Realm was experiencing an unprecedented disturbance, a succession of fracturing sounds, as cracks rapidly spread across the dome above the central hub... The Sea of Spirit boiled amidst the tremors, its radiance disrupted.
A faint bell tolled.
Like a hallucination, it echoed in the ears of every soul.
The massive central hub also shook violently, its interior shifting rapidly, expanding like a living labyrinth with endless new structures and transformations!
Literally, the world spun upside down.
Ji Jue almost carelessly got thrown onto the ceiling, but soon, the ceiling spun underfoot. The calf seemed panicked and clung onto what was once the floor, hanging upside down, peering over with a terrified look, and bleating frantically.
It was lucky Ji Jue had quick reflexes, managing to catch the Prophet who had tumbled out of the basket.
"What's going on?"
He looked around in shock: "This scene looks like something out of an old-gen horror movie."
"It's just adaptive change, not even a defensive program."
The Prophet said nonchalantly: "Fluid Alchemy is the art of adapting materials to their true essences. Under external stimuli, the central hub expands its domain, altering the space within to preserve its original functions.
You can think of the entire hub as a living space, continuously changing. All sequences are preparing for a reboot.
We don't have much time."
"So, what's next?" Ji Jue looked around, at the fluctuating staircases, and doors which appeared and vanished on the walls: "Are we supposed to open mystery boxes now?"
"Do you think Mercury would take the stairs and need a map to find its way home?" The Prophet seemed to chuckle: "The central hub is like a constantly changing lock; all intruders who do not grasp its patterns and essence will be trapped within its infinite transformations, and Fluid Alchemy is the key—Ji Jue, you need to learn to look 'down,' not up."
"Huh?"
Ji Jue looked down only to see the ever-changing patterns on the floor, completely baffled.
"It's not about looking down, but 'downward.' Overlook the superficial, do not get bogged down in material properties, seek the essence. Ascending leads to complexity, descending grasps the true essence.
One is the shape, the other the soul."
The Prophet spoke slowly: "Concern with shape and function is the path of disorder, but pursuit of the soul and the truth is the essence of purity—do not get dazzled by the messy applications and theories. Trace the essence, adjust the essence, control the essence; that is the True Essence of Fluid Alchemy."
Ji Jue stood frozen in place.
Dumbfounded, he watched the Spiritual Realm before him.
Countless changing lights ascended, descended, fluttered, stirred, and calmed, with the entire world revolving like a galaxy, as if an Invisible hand controlled everything from a hidden height above, effortlessly commanding all.
Including himself.
The central system, the underground, the entire Crack Realm, the Invisible veins intertwined like threads between those unseen fingers, a slight adjustment following a given command brought about endless change and extension.
From one to all.
Invisible fluids wove together innumerable turbulent streams, becoming perplexing and bewildering to those within, but to step out and oversee the whole picture one must—[look down]!
Look down.
"...So, it's not about finding my own way."
Muttered Ji Jue from his stupor, a sudden spark flying across his mind: "It's about making the path appear under my feet, right?"
Control the workshop to clear a path for oneself.
So simple.
Unfortunately, he couldn't do it.
He was no Saint, not even close to the Master's realm, it was quite frankly an overestimation of his own abilities.
"So, applying it the other way around should work too."
Ji Jue murmured decisively, causing the Prophet's expression to pause slightly, his intended words unable to proceed as he looked back in surprise.
For the first time, witnessing a fearsome talent unseen in four hundred years.
Admittedly, as a newbie with a blank slate, trying to control the workshop was a fool's dream.
But he could control himself.
Through Fluid Alchemy, exerting an influence on himself, becoming part of the central system, truly participating in its operations...
Even, truly merging into it!
For others, it might be as ludicrous as for him earlier, but for the Mechanical Descent, it was a piece of cake!
Even, just in a blink...
In the snap of a finger, Mechanical Descent had already captured the vast resonance filling the entire Crack Realm, neither to communicate nor to dominate, but as a part of the whole workshop, Ji Jue had integrated into it with the privileges from the Old Furnace.
An indescribable, terrifying boom echoed inside Ji Jue's head, like the reverberating echo of the world's movements, and even as a mere ripple of a ripple, it was still unbearable for him.
But as blood seeped from his nose and mouth, Ji Jue's eyes grew brighter.
From the observation within the Spiritual Realm, the complex and ever-changing became crystal clear, the intricacies of its workings seemed normal, exposed without concealment.
The operation of countless rooms, their contraction, expansion, creation, and destruction became as clear as day.
He was like Dust, passively moved within a massive Rubik's cube.
But now, the cube had revealed a mysterious corner to him, showing the gears that drove its movements...
Snap!
Amidst the violent tremors, a crack unexpectedly emerged from the rotating wall opposite, revealing a complex structure undergoing constant change, and the narrow passages leading who knows where.
"Hold tight, Little An."
Ji Jue was too excited to wipe the blood from his nose, laughing as he twisted the throttle: "We're hitching a ride!"
The engine roared.
They sped off, rushing into the darkness!