Chapter 506: Awakening

Consciousness slowly rose from the darkness.

The first thing he perceived was a comfort that soaked into his very soul.

It felt as though he were immersed in a spring of perfectly warm water brimming with vitality. Gentle yet persistent power seeped in from all directions, smoothing over the hideous cracks and searing pain buried deep within his consciousness.

Jie Ming opened his eyes.

What met his gaze was an arched ceiling gleaming with cold metallic luster.

Turning his head slightly, he realized he was lying flat on a broad metal platform. The surface of the platform was engraved with extremely complex and precise composite spell formations.

At this moment, those formations were operating steadily, emitting a soft milky-white radiance.

The light flowed as if it possessed life, gathering into warm streams of energy that continuously poured into his shattered soul.

Jie Ming briefly sensed his condition. The state of his soul’s deficiency had not changed—the missing sixty percent was still completely absent.

Yet the remaining portion of his soul, which had nearly disintegrated completely under the severe injury and was only being forcibly held together by his natal magic treasure, was now being meticulously “stitched” and “reinforced” by a gentle yet tenacious power.

The cracks still existed, but they no longer threatened total collapse. Instead, they showed a slow trend toward healing.

This meant that even if he left this treatment formation right now, he would still be able to recover gradually using his own strength. It would simply take time.

Roughly speaking, he had gone from on the verge of death to severely wounded.

“Judging from my biological clock… five days have passed.” Jie Ming silently calculated the time, feeling slightly relieved.

It seemed the treatment technology at the Noren workshop was quite reliable.

“Primary life signs have stabilized. Soul fluctuations are trending toward order. Consciousness activity has reached acceptable levels. Notification sent to other personnel. Wizard Jie Ming, how do you feel?”

A flat, emotionless metallic synthesized voice sounded beside his ear.

Jie Ming turned his head and saw a sleek, entirely silver humanoid construct standing beside the platform.

Its smooth face had no facial features—only a faintly glowing array of blue crystals directed toward him, scanning.

“A Caretaker-series construct?” Jie Ming tried flexing his fingers. The joints felt slightly stiff, but nothing serious. “I feel… much better. Thank you.”

“Duty-bound. Commencing deep soul scan and physical condition assessment. Please remain relaxed.” The silver construct extended slender metallic fingers. Thin probing beams shot from its fingertips, enveloping Jie Ming’s entire body.

At that moment…

Bang!

The heavy metal door of the treatment room was shoved open with brute force, slamming against the inner wall with a dull boom.

A silver-gray figure swept in like a storm of wind and thunder. Silver-gray eyes instantly locked onto Jie Ming on the metal platform.

It was Viola.

She casually pushed aside the construct that had begun issuing warnings and leaned her face close to the edge of Jie Ming’s bed.

The usual elegant composure on her face was gone, replaced by a mixture of astonishment and completely undisguised interest.

That look… it was practically the gaze of someone who had discovered an entirely new, never-before-seen exotic material.

Right after, another figure entered at an unhurried pace.

A plain deep-gray wizard robe. An indifferent expression. Eyes calm as an ancient well.

It was Mentor Clark.

His gaze also fell on Jie Ming. Compared to Viola’s near-burning intensity, his look was far more tranquil.

Being stared at by both of them made Jie Ming’s scalp tingle—especially under Viola’s gaze that seemed intent on dissecting him piece by piece.

“Senior Sister Viola, Mentor Clark… what is this about?”

Viola didn’t answer immediately. Instead she slowly circled the metal platform once, her line of sight slicing across every part of Jie Ming’s body like a blade.

Finally she stopped near his head, bent down, and stared straight into his eyes from close range with her silver-gray pupils. Her tone was exaggeratedly amazed:

“Junior brother… oh junior brother… you really gave us one

huge

‘surprise’.”

She reached out with a finger whose nail was painted dark red and hovered it above Jie Ming’s forehead.

“Soul loss exceeding sixty percent. The remaining portion on the verge of complete disintegration. The physical body bearing multiple deep wounds… An injury like this, forget fifth-ring, even many sixth-ring wizards who aren’t specialized in soul domains would already be thoroughly dead.”

She straightened up, crossed her arms, and the playfulness on her face grew even stronger:

“Yet you actually managed to hold on. Not only that, while in that state you counter-killed a group of pursuers, and in the end… well, we’ll talk about what happened afterward later. So, my dear junior brother—can I discuss something with you?”

An ominous premonition rose in Jie Ming’s heart. “…What is it?”

“You see,” Viola smiled like a fox that had just discovered a jar of honey, “this special quality of yours—‘clearly should be dead yet isn’t’—is just

far too

valuable for research! The principles of soul resilience involved, the life-sustaining mechanisms, perhaps even some unknown resistance law we’ve never encountered before… it’s practically a key that opens the door to deeper soul mysteries! So…”

She leaned even closer, her voice filled with temptation:

“For the advancement of knowledge… would you be willing to sacrifice just a tiny bit of yourself? Don’t worry, I definitely won’t kill you. I promise… probably.”

She winked: “At most we’d just take a small slice of soul tissue. We can collaborate on the research. If there are results, you’ll be first author…”

“Collaborate on research my ass! I’m the one being researched here, right?!”

Jie Ming felt his hair stand on end. Without thinking he immediately refused: “Absolutely impossible! Senior Sister, don’t even dream about it!”

He instinctively looked toward his mentor, hoping the usually strict yet fair Clark would say something.

However, when he saw Mentor Clark’s expression, his heart suddenly sank.

On that eternally unchanging indifferent face… there was actually a trace of interest?

Clark slightly tilted his head, brows faintly creasing as if seriously considering the feasibility of Viola’s proposal.

His gaze roamed across Jie Ming’s body, seemingly evaluating the most suitable place to make the first cut.

“M-Mentor?!”

Jie Ming’s voice cracked slightly.

It was also at this moment that Jie Ming suddenly realized something was wrong with the environment.

This metal platform beneath him…

The icy touch, the recessed grooves clearly designed to restrain the body, the mechanical arms around him obviously meant for fixation and precision operations, the adjustable high-energy irradiation lamp overhead…

This was not some high-end treatment bed at all!

This was clearly a top-grade dissection table used soul surgery platform used in laboratories!

“Holy shit!”

Jie Ming was so startled he nearly had his soul scatter in the literal sense. He felt the soul that had just been painstakingly stitched together tremble violently.

Survival instinct instantly overrode everything else. Power surged within his body in a stress response. His waist exerted force, and like a spring he shot up from the metal platform, leaping several meters backward to press his back against the wall, staring warily at the two people before him.

“Pfft… hahahaha!” Viola was stunned for a second, then burst into completely unladylike laughter, rocking back and forth until tears nearly came out. “Junior brother, that reaction… hahahaha! Too funny!”

Even Mentor Clark—who usually never showed joy or anger—had the corner of his mouth lift in an extremely faint arc.

The trace of “interest” in his eyes quickly faded, returning to his usual indifference, though deep in his pupils there seemed to flash an almost imperceptible hint of amusement.

Jie Ming looked at Viola clutching her stomach laughing, then at his mentor with the slightly raised corner of mouth. He froze for several seconds before realization dawned. Veins throbbed at his temple:

“You two… teamed up to scare me?!”

“What else?” Viola finally managed to stop laughing and wiped the corner of her eye. “If we were really going to slice you up for study, do you think you’d still be awake and lying here? You’d have long since been soaked in preservation fluid.”

Her tone was relaxed, yet deep in the gaze she directed at Jie Ming there still lingered genuine curiosity and desire to probe.

Clark also returned to his usual demeanor and spoke calmly: “When we received the rescue signal, based on the description, we originally thought we would be going to the body activation chamber in the backup vault to see you.”

He paused. “I didn’t expect you to actually pull through. Viola is right—your kind of… ‘death resistance’ truly exceeds the scope of normal understanding. It’s worth paying attention to.”

His tone shifted, and he looked at Jie Ming with calm eyes: “However, that is your secret. Rest assured. A wizard’s knowledge is protected by Ninth-Ring level authority. You don’t need to worry.”

With that, he said no more. Turning, he walked toward the door, the hem of his gray robe brushing soundlessly across the floor.

Watching his mentor’s departing back, Jie Ming finally let out a breath of relief.

“Hey, junior brother.” Viola silently moved close again, lowering her voice, a familiar shrewd look on her face.

“Seriously though—that ‘no matter how badly you mess up you just won’t die’ modification technique of yours… you selling? Or maybe just licensing the technology? That fault tolerance is ridiculous. It’s practically a second life! Even I—if I suffered your level of injury—the survival probability wouldn’t even reach one percent.”

“What do you mean ‘no matter how badly you mess up you just won’t die’ modification technique? Can’t you give it a nicer name?!” Veins bulged on Jie Ming’s forehead. Then he helplessly shook his head.

He knew full well in his heart that this wasn’t any modification technique at all. His inability to die was entirely thanks to the adaptive evolution of the Body Forging Method.

But even he himself was still groping around the principles behind the adaptive evolution of Body Forging. Reproducing it or selling it was out of the question.

He showed an awkward yet polite smile: “Senior Sister, this… really isn’t a mature technology. It was just an accidental byproduct from some of my earlier experiments. The principle isn’t even stable, let alone reproducible. Once I figure it out in the future and the technology matures, I’ll definitely consider you first.”

Viola pursed her lips, looking somewhat regretful.

But she also understood how strongly wizards guarded their core secrets. She didn’t press further, only emphasizing once more: “Fine. Remember what you said. If you ever really want to sell, you must contact me first. Price is negotiable.”

“Definitely, definitely.” Jie Ming hurriedly promised, then quickly changed the subject. “By the way Senior Sister, how’s the situation on the battlefield right now?”

When serious matters were brought up, Viola’s expression grew somewhat more solemn: “Same as before. Both sides are sending out reconnaissance units, spreading them like a net, trying to locate the other side’s ‘trump card’ wizards who are setting up large-scale war sorceries. After fighting this long, both sides’ most critical arrangements are nearing completion. So recently the battles of reconnaissance versus counter-reconnaissance have been especially fierce. Casualty rates are rising sharply.”