Chosen: Beyond Fate

Chapter 36: T5

She didn’t give Ji Jue a second to react, and she had none of the shock, confusion, or caution he was expecting. She was completely nonchalant and utterly indifferent, as if she was casually talking about how nice the weather was or what she had for breakfast. It nearly made Ji Jue fall right off the sofa.

Subconsciously, he grabbed a can of soda and held it out with both hands. “Ma’am, have a drink. Please tell me more.”

Ye Chun glanced at his overly enthusiastic expression, then raised a hand and pointed at the bookshelf behind him.

“It’s probably in the middle row of the left cabinet. Take a look. There should be a copy of the Encyclopedia of All Things: Comprehensive Guide.”

It was a massive, dictionary-sized book. The back cover showed it had been published in Year 388 of the Cataclysm Era, making it older than Ji Jue himself. Following Ye Chun’s instructions, he searched the index and found the entry related to Skyrail, the term he had just heard from her. It had a very confusing abbreviation—T5.

This term referred to five major corporate organizations that had already existed before the Cataclysm Era, back during the Central Era of the Eternal Dynasty in Central Lands. It was said that even before the rise of the Supreme Ruler, these companies had already been active in history, playing indispensable roles within the Eternal Dynasty. Although they held no real political power within the imperial court, they were still granted authorization and respect by the emperor.

Then, when the catastrophe struck, the lands shattered, the heavens were overturned, and everything changed drastically. This marked the beginning of the Cataclysm Era. The Eternal Dynasty collapsed and turned to dust, while Central Lands, once a heavenly and sacred land, became a war-torn wasteland.

Yet these five companies survived. They even participated in rebuilding the world and restoring order during the Cataclysm Era, making immense contributions. Whether it was the Northern Federation, the Southern Empire, or Central Lands and all the drifting island groups across the Endless Sea, every legitimate governing power recognized their transcendent status and authority that reigned above the mortal world.

To prevent another catastrophe and suppress the falling trend of fractured realms to the greatest extent, all parties came together to sign the T5 Protocol, which limited the powers, operations, production, and even activity scope of these five companies.

With massive resources pooled together, backed by historical accumulation and countless uninterrupted secret research efforts, each of these companies dominated its own field with absolute control. Their domains were: healthcare, communications, manufacturing, finance, and transportation.

Among them, the manufacturing and construction sector companies had split and evolved into two colossal entities that monopolized most of the industrial markets in the Federation and the Empire—Universal Heavy Industries and Great Creation.

Damn... Universal Heavy Industries.

Ji Jue’s entire worldview was shaken.

Just as people from the Empire couldn’t possibly be unaware of the Great Creation, people from the Federation couldn’t avoid interacting with Universal Heavy Industries. For some, their entire lives were tied to these companies in some way.

Ever since Ji Jue started learning car repair, he had seen those three words countless times. The parts were made by companies under Universal Heavy Industries, and the oil was refined by them. The gloves came from their chemical factories, as well as the helmets, uniforms, fuel, and basically everything else. They even had investments and shares in the local coastal auto factory in Cliff City.

A small repair shop like Mrs. Lu’s place didn’t even qualify as a minor downstream business, so it wasn’t on their radar.

In the communications field, the United Borderless Communications Group dominated the global market with an eighty percent share. In a world plagued by earthquakes and disasters, people in Cliff City couldn’t even call someone in Central City without going through this company. As for Ji Jue, he was still paying eighteen Fedra a month for his phone plan.

In healthcare, there was Hope Hospital. He thought he had heard the name before, but couldn’t recall any details. It might have been too high-end for someone like him to ever encounter. Or maybe they had already spread across the world through shareholding networks and were invisible to people like him.

In the finance department, there was the Eternal Bank. Aside from their name, there were no further details about them. With the little money in Ji Jue’s pocket, he probably wouldn’t have any connection with them in this lifetime.

And finally, the undisputed overlord of transportation, Skyrail Corporation. According to the book, this group not only operated airships, trains, and ocean liners but also built the transportation network that reconnected the shattered world.

Reading this, Ji Jue felt his blood boil with excitement and pride. Skyrail Corporation was such an incredible, powerful, and impressive company. Their salaries had to be amazing, right?

Unfortunately, he couldn’t find any trace of their presence. Even the description was incredibly brief. Aside from their name and general scope of business, there was only one more line left. Due to poor management, this company has now gone bankrupt and shut down.

Bankrupt?! Ji Jue’s eyes nearly stared a hole through that damn page. Bankrupt? Are you serious?

Even though he had sincerely wished for that to happen before, the other four were all so ridiculously powerful. How did this one turn out like this? A company that sounded so insanely strong, it seemed invincible on paper—scratch that, it had actually been invincible—vanished just like that?!

When he looked at the shutdown date, he completely lost it again.

Year 198 of the Cataclysm Era? It had already been gone for over two hundred years?!

So what did that make him?! He had only just become a full employee last month! It was bad enough not having a big backer to lean on, but at this rate, he could end up being made the legal representative on his very first day on the job?!

Snap!

Ji Jue slammed the book shut and carefully put it back into the cabinet before shutting the door properly.

Forget this damn Skyrail Corporation. Whoever wants to join them can go ahead and join them, it has nothing to do with me. Goodbye!

Anyway, I didn’t sign any contract, and the company is already bankrupt. Even the watch’s own system can’t contact headquarters. No matter how impressive Skyrail once was, it has been out of business for over two hundred years. There is no way some ghost of a manager is going to show up in the middle of the night and demand overtime, right?

With that thought, he decided to forget about Skyrail. He didn’t know it, didn’t understand it, and didn’t care. Plus, he had randomly picked up this watch. He thought it was just lying there, abandoned!

After enduring that unexpected scare, Ji Jue spent the entire afternoon immersed in alchemy. Completely absorbed, he lost track of time until that familiar cracking sound once again came from the furnace. It was his fifty-first failure, and this time it was because of material instability.

Ji Jue held the fire tongs and examined the copper fragment that had suffered through the entire afternoon, sensing the chaotic, out-of-control spirit matter within it as he analyzed the failure once again.

And then he saw it. A crack appeared on the cooled copper piece. Then a second, then a third. Dense fractures spread everywhere until, right before his eyes, the fragment shattered and collapsed into a pile of scorching copper sand.

Ye Chun poked her head into the room. Seeing the fragment completely destroyed, she clapped her hands. “Oh, congratulations. You’ve completed the first step in clearing the junk pile.”

There was an overload of spirit matter.

After an entire afternoon of tempering and inscribing by Ji Jue, the already ruined fragment could no longer withstand further refinement or engraving. It exceeded its limits and collapsed from within. The simpler the material, the weaker its properties and the lower its maximum tolerance. Once it self-destructed, the resulting reaction was also minimal.

If it were a more dangerous material, after being infused with massive amounts of spirit matter and the Supreme Benevolence's essence, it could lose control inside the furnace and explode on the spot. In the worst-case scenario, the entire workshop could be reduced to a crater. A furnace explosion had always been the eternal nightmare of alchemists.

This was Professor Ye’s training plan: if it can’t explode, push it until it does.

After all, the warehouse was full of useless scrap and discarded materials with no value. Might as well squeeze ‌some use from them and let Ji Jue train. Even a dog that could refine that entire warehouse of scrap until it was overloaded and self-destructed would eventually become a craftsman, especially a Chosen One like Ji Jue.

Having finally completed the first step on a long journey, Ji Jue should have been celebrating. Yet instead, he fell into a daze. He looked down in confusion at the copper shards beneath his feet, and at the spirit matter slowly rising and dissipating from the scorching debris. The accumulation of dozens of rounds of processing and inscription was now rapidly vanishing.

But why did he feel so... hungry?

He was starving! He was absolutely ravenous! Like a starving ghost who hadn’t eaten a grain of rice for dozens of days, an indescribable craving rose and surged from deep within his soul and consciousness, almost turning him into a ravenous beast.

Subconsciously, he reached out, as if trying to grab those rapidly dissipating spirit energies and essences, wanting to stuff them into his mouth.

When he realized what he was doing, he put on a wry smile. Trying to seize intangible spirit matter and essence with his bare hands, and even attempting to digest those remnants that had been refined and processed countless times using his mouth and stomach, was simply too insane.

He froze in place because his hand seemed to have actually caught something. Not just the spirit matter and essence vanishing in the air, but even the remaining essence within the copper sand seemed to be drawn, controlled, and pulled by an invisible force, gathering into Ji Jue’s palm.

On his right hand, faint silver light lines, resembling circuit board pathways, glowed.

It was a familiar sight. Every time he used the watch to extract spirit matter, Ji Jue would see this. But now, with just a thought, those intricate and dizzying spirit circuits manifested from his own hand. It was as if his hand had become an alchemical artifact itself.

Out of thin air, it gathered and extracted spirit matter. As his fingers closed, the emblem within Ji Jue’s soul representing his ability surged, absorbing and devouring all the essence.

Then, dizziness struck him without warning.

Ji Jue twitched. In that fleeting instant, his perception was flooded with fifty-one rounds of inscription and refinement.

It was as if he had become copper itself, enduring the burning and forging of flames, feeling the flow of spirit matter. He also seemed to have become spirit matter itself, forming circuits and imprints over and over again, facing failure again and again...

And even before this process, he felt as if he had become a part of something vast.

Before the fragment collapsed, countless spirit circuits circulated from within the furnace’s blazing heat through the hands of a vague human figure. It was shaping all types of things, as if they were performing creation itself!

Runes were born and extinguished within flames and molten copper. Complex circuits spread like towering trees, connecting everything. And at the very core of the circuits, the Supreme Benevolence’s essence collided and merged with itself.

A grand creation, far beyond Ji Jue’s imagination, emerged from the furnace under that figure’s control. The unruly nature of materials became as docile as a loyal dog, while the ever-changing spirit matter flowed like water, transforming with each gesture.

In the end, the flames surged like a tide and split apart to either side. From within the violently shaking furnace, a massive engine over two men tall slowly rose. Set atop a web of complex machinery, it shone brilliantly, the blessings of the Supreme Benevolence flowing through its bronze glow, solemn and awe-inspiring.

And yet, what greeted it was a single glance laced with disappointment.

“It has plenty of elevation, but not enough purification.” Professor Ye looked away. “Another dud.” freēwēbnovel.com

With a flick of a finger, the grand engine that had just been completed instantly shattered into countless fragments. All that remained was the echo resonating within Ji Jue’s soul.

BOOM!

Ji Jue’s vision went black, and he staggered back a step.

But the moment he regained his senses, he had already grabbed the fire tongs, tossed another fragment into the furnace without hesitation, and pressed his hand back onto the control panel. Racing against time, he didn’t even wait for the material to heat up and its properties to change before beginning the process once more.

Taking advantage of that fleeting experience of having seemingly become both Professor Ye and the fragment itself, the spirit matter surged forth before it had a chance to fade!

It felt right this time. There was none of the awkwardness from before, and none of the earlier hesitation. Ji Jue’s consciousness and perception flowed together with the spirit matter through the fragment. The process felt natural, smooth, and completely unrestrained. Even under layers of interference, he did not care at all.

Bold and unrestrained like flowing cursive script, he poured the ideas in his mind onto reality in one decisive stroke!

In less than a few seconds, a process that once took Ji Jue over ten minutes of careful effort was already complete. What he felt was an unprecedented sense of exhilaration and satisfaction.

He grabbed the fire tongs and lifted the fragment from the furnace, staring at the result of his entire afternoon of failure, which was the only success so far. It was the Supreme Benevolence's totem!

Like an invisible flame, it rose upward, never extinguishing. It was Ascension, the origin of the Twelve Supreme Benevolences, the foundation of truth, transcendence, and insight, and the source of all thought and spirit in the world.

After leaving the uninterrupted simulated environment, Ji Jue had crossed a threshold that other apprentices would need countless failures and accumulated experience to overcome, completing his first true Supreme Benevolence’s inscription in less than six hours...

He raised his hand and wiped away the nosebleed caused by spirit exhaustion, unable to suppress his excited smile. This was just his very first step!