Free Web NovelChapter 29: The So-Called Supreme Benevolences
At 2:00 PM, Professor Ye’s car pulled up to an abandoned factory in a desolate coastal area of the North Mount District.
Several factory buildings were scattered within high walls, and a low office building was covered in greenery. In the sound of distant waves, the place felt quiet and secluded.
There didn’t seem to be any signs of disrepair. After passing through the weathered walls, the entire compound was eerily quiet, with no people in sight. There were no guards, cleaners, or workers, yet it was spotless. Even the plants were neatly trimmed and well maintained. Everything was in its proper place, with no excess clutter or obstruction.
“Is this your place?” Ji Jue asked as he followed his mentor.
“Over ten years ago, when I decided to settle in Cliff City, it was given to me by the Balance Chamber of Commerce,” Ye Xian replied calmly as she walked ahead. “This is my workshop. Most of my alchemy work is done here. You can move freely in Buildings A and B. You can also use the equipment when it’s available, but clean up after yourself when you’re done.”
“Zone C,” she continued, referring to the area marked with warning signs at the entrance, “and anything above the third floor of the office building are off-limits. Do not go in there.”
“Okay.” Ji Jue nodded obediently, going along with it and committing everything to memory. He didn’t ask what would happen if he accidentally went into a restricted area. The outcome was probably nothing short of death, or something even worse than that.
Back when he was a freshman working as a helper in a project team, he had nearly lost his head once due to a teammate’s idiotic mistake. Since then, Ji Jue had memorized all safety procedures from beginning to end, and had even obtained a project safety officer certification on the side.
“I’ll go prepare some things we’ll need later.” She casually pushed open the door to the main hall and pointed inside at the warm, home-like spacious room, as well as Ye Chun, who was lying on the sofa watching TV and eating chips with great enjoyment. “She’ll tell you the rest.”
Ye Chun was shocked. She sprang up from the sofa, hurriedly tidying up her snacks and soda.
“Auntie? Didn’t you have something to do this afternoon?” When she saw Ji Jue, she froze, and she looked even more panicked. “I only tagged you as a co-author! Why are you so mad? How did you track me all the way here?!”
Professor Ye sighed. She was truly worn out by the two youngsters and their overly abstract interaction.
“The schedule was moved forward a bit. Starting today, Ji Jue will officially be working in the workshop. He’s assigned under your supervision as an apprentice. Introduce him to the basics and give him an overview of common knowledge. You don’t need me to tell you how to train him, do you?”
Ye Chun was stunned. “Huh? So soon?”
“By the way, he got caught up in a serious incident a few days ago. After being affected by a spirit matter intrusion, he has already awakened on his own.”
“Wait, what?! Already?!”
“Also, both your paper and his are unacceptable. Rewrite them.” Professor Ye walked up the stairs. “Submit them before next month.”
“Wait, this...” Ye Chun started to say something, then noticed Professor Ye’s gaze from the stairs. She froze for a moment, then quickly put on a docile, flattering smile. “This is great, I love it!”
Professor Ye turned around and went upstairs.
Only Ji Jue and Ye Chun remained in the hall, staring at each other. Ye Chun’s messy hair and makeup made her look rather sloppy, completely unlike the radiant presence she had at school. Instead, she felt much more down-to-earth. Her eyes were filled with curiosity, as if she had just seen a sow sprout wings and fly. She circled Ji Jue three or four times while holding her unfinished soda in utter disbelief.
“You actually awakened on your own? That’s impressive!”
Ji Jue looked confused. “Is that a big deal?”
“Hmm, on a scale of one to a hundred, you’d score around ninety.” Ye Chun grinned, patting his shoulder sympathetically. “It’s pretty impressive. Last month there was some freak who triggered a Fate Summoning out of nowhere. That was a real monster... Compared to that, you are just average.”
“Yeah, that makes sense.” freewёbn૦νeɭ.com
Hard to argue with that, Ji Jue thought.
Then he picked up her chips and another can of soda and sat down to eat. Ye Chun leaned in, eyes still sparkling with curiosity. “I heard that all self-awakened individuals have some special soul ability. What’s your ability?”
Ji Jue lowered his voice, pretending to be mysterious. “Let me tell you a secret... I can make phones talk to me.”
Ye Chun looked impressed. “What a coincidence, I can do that too!”
“Then you’re also a self-awakened Chosen One. That’s impressive.”
They looked at each other, then burst into loud laughter.
Soon after, Ye Chun theatrically pulled out a small blackboard from a corner, and put on a serious expression as if she were Professor Ye herself. She picked up a piece of chalk and said, “Auntie asked me to give you a crash course on basics. So, how much do you know about Chosen Ones?”
“Miss Ye.” Ji Jue raised his hand. “Basically... nothing.”
“Huh? You’re clueless, Ji Jue.” Ye Chun said in a mocking, teacherly tone as she tapped the blackboard. “Then let’s start with the types of Chosen awakenings.”
She wrote three lines on the board, Upper Legacy, Self-Awakening, and Fate Summoning.
“Self-Awakening is what you went through. It might be caused by contamination, or perhaps some disaster or other circumstance. By chance, the soul touches the essence of one of the Supreme Benevolences, and through that contact, undergoes an elevation and becomes a Chosen One.
“Because the circumstances differ, the innate abilities vary wildly. Some are strong, some are weak. The weak can talk to telephones, while the strong can make telephone poles talk to you. In short, the ceiling is very high, but the floor is also very low.
“Upper Legacy, on the other hand, is achieved through a fixed ritual. By using various special items derived from the Twelve Supreme Benevolences, or even methods like alchemy, contracts, or organ transplantation, the user’s soul is forcibly altered, eventually triggering awakening and qualitative change.
“Those who use this method are usually aligned with the specific Supreme Benevolence indicated by the ritual, and their abilities tend to be very similar in nature. The lower bound is relatively stable, but the upper limit generally depends on luck. The only advantage is that, as long as you have the money, you can mass-produce Chosen Ones.”
Very intrigued, Ji Jue couldn’t help but raise his hand. “How much does it cost?”
“Hmm, let me think.” Ye Chun pondered for a moment. “A safe, low-risk Upper Legacy ritual probably costs somewhere between six million and ten million Fedra. It’s said there are methods that use high-tier matrices and divine craftsmanship, but those come with sky-high prices. At that level, it’s more about favors than money. If things go wrong, you could end up working yourself to the bone for the rest of your life just to pay it off. Some cheaper ones do exist, but they aren’t as reliable. The success rate... is hard to describe.”
Ji Jue lowered his head in shame. He was too broke for this discussion. “Alright, my bad for asking. Oh right, so you—”
Ye Chun shook her head. “Auntie actually had connections. When I graduated, she even asked for my opinion and had a full set of procedures and rituals prepared. I was told there was even a chance to borrow the Security Bureau’s Mountain Light. But, somehow, it just didn’t feel right for me. Constant research didn’t suit me, and fighting and killing didn’t seem like my strength either. It felt safer to just live as an ordinary person.
“I don’t really enjoy research, either. It doesn’t fit the requirements of the Ember Path. So I figured I’d just stay and help Auntie as an assistant instead. That whole setup is still around. I originally thought Auntie would use it on you. I didn’t expect... you’d save money and handle it yourself, and even choose the Ember Path that’s directly in line with your field.”
Ji Jue wiped his sweat. “I already owe Professor Ye a lot. I really shouldn’t be taking on even more debt—”
He still hadn’t paid off his student loans, let alone anything else.
“...Let’s get back to the main topic.” Ji Jue finally asked the question that had been on his mind for a long time, “What exactly is a Chosen One? Is there really some ‘heaven’ that chooses me?”
“Maybe. Or maybe not. There’s not just one, there are at least twelve,” Ye Chun replied. “The word ‘Chosen’ refers both to the rarity of these people’s birth, since they’re difficult to mass-produce, and to the idea that the moment a Chosen One awakens, they are entrusted with a kind of destiny. A Chosen One is selected by a Supreme Benevolence.”
She continued writing on the blackboard, jotting down terms Ji Jue had heard several times before.
The Twelve Supreme Benevolences: Ascension, Origin, Swarm, White Deer, Vortex, Heart Core, Aether, Eternal Gate, Ember, Mirror, Entropy, and Ruins.
Ye Chun explained solemnly, “These are the sources of a Chosen One’s power. There are twelve different paths, which we call the Twelve Supreme Benevolences. They are neither living beings nor gods, but rather a grand tapestry woven from countless events across past and future, stretching back to the very beginning and extending to the end of destruction. In a sense, everything they comprise is the world itself as we know it.
“Ascension represents transcendence and truth. Origin represents structure and authority. White Deer represents wildness and chaos. Vortex represents the cycle of life—birth, aging, illness, and death. Swarm represents conflict and destruction. Heart Core represents thought and desire. Aether represents observation and recording. Eternal Gate represents space and time. Mirror represents illusion and emptiness. Ember represents creation and renewal. Entropy represents energy and explosive force. Ruins represents matter and eternity.
“As a newcomer, you must remember the symbols and emblems they represent. And stay away from any tapestry or symbol outside of these twelve. Anything beyond the Supreme Benevolences is nothing but heresy and folly!”
Curious, Ji Jue asked, “What happens if you accidentally come into contact with one of those?”
Ye Chun smiled. “You’ll undergo corruption. If you’re lucky, you’ll die quickly and cleanly. If you’re unlucky, you’ll live a life of endless torment. You might even turn into some kind of non-human aberration that can live forever... in eternal suffering. So you must remember this, but even if you don’t, it’s fine. After a while, you’ll naturally get used to it. Just don’t mess with strange, suspicious things.”
Ji Jue practically pressed himself against the blackboard, staring hard to memorize everything. Confused, he asked, “You said before that Swarm represents conflict and destruction, but Swarm is also one of the Supreme Benevolences. How is that a good thing?”
“Why wouldn’t it be?” Ye Chun answered matter-of-factly. “War and slaughter are also part of the world. They may be ugly or brutal, but they are still part of it. If Swarm doesn’t count as a Supreme Benevolence, then wouldn’t White Deer, which governs wildness, instinct, freedom, and resistance, also be excluded? And Origin, which represents structure and authority, also symbolises tyranny and control. freewёbn૦νeɭ.com
“The Supreme Benevolences are eternal. They stand above the mortal world, unaffected by human preferences or emotions.”
