Chapter 289: Crimson Gold and Graduation

In his office, as Jie Ming quietly shook his head over his student Anita, a voice laced with playful mockery drifted in from the doorway.

“Well, well, my dear junior, I could smell the fresh scent of ‘suffering’ wafting off you from miles away! So, how’s it feel to be a mentor for the first time and get a proper beating from reality?”

Senior Sister Viola sauntered in uninvited, like a shark drawn to blood, her face adorned with an unabashed, almost gleeful grin.

Jie Ming shot her a sidelong glance, retorting dryly, “Senior Sister, is your joy always built on my misery?”

“Of course not

just

yours—my joy thrives on

everyone’s

misery!” Viola waved her hand dramatically, then launched into an animated tale with relish.

“Speaking of which, it reminds me of my two darling students! When they realized potioncraft wasn’t the romantic dream they imagined but an endless slog of material processing, tedious ratio calculations, and the constant risk of blowing up the cauldron, the despair on their faces as they gritted their teeth and pressed on… tsk tsk, it was a wellspring of joy for me for quite a while!”

Her tone shifted, eyes sparkling with anticipation as she looked at Jie Ming. “So, Junior Brother, next time you hold a class for that little Anita, you

must

let me know! I want a front-row seat to savor the pain and confusion radiating from her as she drowns in the sea of tedious knowledge! Just thinking about it is delightful!”

Without waiting for Jie Ming’s response, she let out a string of “Jie jie jie jie” cackles, turned with a flourish, and left the office as if her sole purpose had been to harvest a dose of amusement.

Watching Viola’s retreating figure, the trace of exasperation on Jie Ming’s face softened into a gentle smile.

“That lunatic…” he muttered under his breath, a warmth spreading in his heart.

How could he not see that Viola, in her slightly twisted way, was showing concern and lightening the mood?

Her interruption had dispelled much of the gloom weighing on him.

He settled back into his chair, his thoughts clearing.

“Fine, everyone has their own choices and paths,” he reasoned, his mind sharpening. “My duty as a mentor is to present knowledge clearly. How much she absorbs and which path she takes is ultimately her own fate.”

With his current knowledge and realm, guiding an apprentice yet to become a full sorcerer was effortless.

As for her achievements, that depended solely on her own ability.

With this realization, Jie Ming’s mindset fully settled.

Over the next few years, his life remained largely unchanged despite the addition of a student.

Aside from weekly alchemy lessons for Anita at the academy, he poured most of his energy into his research.

Anita’s performance, as expected, fell short of his initial hopes.

The early stages of alchemy—laden with rote memorization of foundational theories, meticulous identification of material properties, and painstakingly precise operations—quickly bored and frustrated her.

Her enthusiasm visibly waned, and she diverted her focus and hard-earned points to learning flashy, instant-effect offensive or utility sorceries.

Jie Ming often saw her in the academy, excitedly practicing newly learned sorceries with peers or trading points for pre-made sorcery models, then diligently honing her casting techniques.

In class, he had warned her more than once: “Relying on pre-made sorcery models without understanding their roots is like walking with a crutch forged by another. It may feel easy at first, but you’ll never grasp the true essence of power or advance to higher realms.”

Sadly, his words sank like stones into the sea.

Anita might have heard him, but she clearly didn’t take it to heart.

Or perhaps, given her current level of “wisdom” and interests, independently researching, understanding, and constructing her own sorcery models was simply too daunting and dull.

“After all, not everyone is a genius like Amy or Victor…” Jie Ming mused while observing her from afar, a pang of nostalgia for old friends passing through him.

Even with Amy and Victor’s talents, they had been standout figures in their academy days.

By contrast, Jie Ming’s own research progressed remarkably smoothly.

After completing the third phase of energy transformation in the Infernal Sulfur Plane, abundant energy allowed him to work without restraint.

The incubation speed of Black Giants surged, their population steadily growing.

He estimated that by the next planar war, his Black Giant forces could exceed a thousand—a formidable, heavy-armored ground fodder legion.

Meanwhile, his analysis of exotic biological samples from the Void Plane proceeded on schedule.

By deeply studying their flight structures, energy utilization, and spatial adaptability, Jie Ming had already formed a clear blueprint for the next generation of fodder units.

But for now, a more pressing goal demanded his attention: the second reforging of his natal treasure, the

Five Aggregates Rainbow Mirror

After years of accumulation, he had gathered most of the rare materials needed, save for one final, critical component—crimson gold.

“Crimson gold… its refinement is truly a grind,” Jie Ming’s consciousness sat cross-legged before the Great Dao Book Pavilion in the depths of his sea of consciousness, holding an ancient tome radiating profound charm, studying the records on crimson gold refinement.

According to the tome, crimson gold, like refined gold, was a conceptual material derived from gold.

But their core “concepts” were fundamentally different.

Refined gold extracted the “eternity” concept of gold, emphasizing “immutability” and “permanence,” granting artifacts near-indestructible properties.

However, an overemphasis on “eternity” could limit a treasure’s future growth and adaptability.

Crimson gold, conversely, extracted the “immortality” concept.

Immortality wasn’t mere unchanging eternity but focused on “indestructible essence” and “enduring true nature.”

Even if its form or properties changed, its core “existence” and “essence” remained intact, even gaining rebirth through transformation.

For a treasure like the

Five Aggregates Rainbow Mirror

, which was forged from refining various “lights,” the “immortality” concept was far more fitting than “eternity,” leaving vast room for future evolution and ascension.

The challenge lay in refinement “purity.”

The initial refinement of crimson gold, like refined gold, was surprisingly simple, achievable even by Qi Refinement cultivators.

With Jie Ming’s Golden Core realm cultivation and sorcerer alchemy’s precise control over energy and matter, crude refinement posed no difficulty.

The real hurdle was the subsequent purification.

To isolate the pure “immortality” concept, all other concepts and most of gold’s material properties had to be meticulously stripped away through repeated, high-intensity refining.

This demanded immense patience and energy investment.

The tome noted that at least ten rounds of refining were needed to produce crimson gold approaching pure conceptualization.

“Not technically difficult, just time- and energy-intensive,” Jie Ming concluded, exiting his inner vision and returning to his core laboratory in the Infernal Sulfur Plane.

Eyeing the mountain of dazzling standard gold ingots before him, he decided, “Fortunately, I’m not short on time.”

Per the tome, crimson gold’s mass would shrink during refining. To ensure ample material for the second reforging, Jie Ming prepared a thousand cubic meters of gold!

Activating a pre-set, large-scale composite alchemical array, he began the initial crude refinement.

Immense pill flames intertwined with the array’s energy, melting and boiling the vast quantity of gold at its center.

The “immortality” concept was forcibly extracted, condensing into dark red, uniquely textured chunks of crude crimson gold.

He then combined all the crude crimson gold and placed it into a more intricate array from the cultivation system, designed for “purification,” initiating the second refinement.

As the array hummed and glowed, the crude crimson gold began to “evaporate” under the energy’s wash, expelling impurities—unneeded concepts and material residues.

The remaining portion grew deeper in color, its texture seemingly purer.

He knew this process would need at least ten repetitions.

The later stages would grow increasingly difficult, with spiritual energy and time costs rising exponentially.

“Fortunately, this can mostly run autonomously, requiring only periodic spiritual energy refills and array adjustments… it won’t waste too much of my time.”

Jie Ming set up monitoring alerts and redirected his primary focus to other research.

…

Time slipped by like sand through fingers.

In the blink of an eye, the graduation period for Noren Academy No. 147’s apprentices arrived.

The plaza buzzed with a solemn yet tense atmosphere.

Jie Ming hovered on the mentors’ viewing platform, his calm gaze sweeping the crowd below, easily spotting a familiar yet distant figure—Anita Chack.

Ten years of academy life had left little mark of transformation on her.

Her focus on flashy, unstable sorceries had slowed her progress in alchemy, where solid foundations and rigorous thinking were essential, even leading to regression in some areas.

The outcome was unsurprising.

When Dean Avery Knight announced the list of those who passed the graduation trial and qualified for elite selection in his steady, authoritative tone, Anita’s name was absent.

She stood among the failed, head bowed, hands tightly clutching her skirt, shoulders trembling slightly, as if struggling to accept reality.

The other sorcerers around her mirrored her reaction, the air thick with disappointment and reluctance.

Per Noren Workshop’s rules, failing the graduation trial didn’t end one’s sorcerer path.

They still had a chance—to head to the frontlines of planar wars, seeking a breakthrough in the crucible of life-and-death trials or… to sink and perish.