Chapter 84: Choose Yourself

Chapter 84: Chapter 84: Choose Yourself

Xiang Yi politely declined. "I don’t think I’d do well in the military."

Master Chang didn’t push him. "Your call," he said. "Just keep in mind that military service is a mandatory obligation for every citizen of the Human Federation."

"If a full-scale war breaks out down the line, someone like you won’t be able to sit it out. But if you enlist now, I can pull some strings and get you a cushy posting."

So conscription was actually a thing here.

Then again, for a militarized Human Federation, universal service made a certain kind of sense.

But the thought reminded Xiang Yi of something he’d discussed with Ning Ye not long ago, and he asked, "Does that apply to scientists too?"

"Every Human Federation citizen serves, no exceptions. That said, there are privileges — no training, no frontline deployment. You’d just be doing research from the rear."

"Your Spiritual Energy actually seems well-suited for that path. Make enough breakthroughs in research and you could get your service requirement reduced or waived entirely."

"So that’s the academic exemption?"

"That’s the academic exemption. Not something I can help you with, though — I’m just a rough-and-tumble guy who’s good at fixing equipment. Ask me to write one of those mind-numbing papers and you can forget it."

That was what Master Chang said.

But Xiang Yi was thinking that carving out a path through academia — using it as a way to turn his situation around — was actually one of his options.

And research into Abnormality Weapons was a field that was essentially his and his alone.

"Can you walk me through how that would actually work?"

"Let me think... first you’d need to contact the Star Domain Government — they’re the only ones with the authority to grant it. Then you publish papers, submit your materials, and wait in custody."

"Never mind..."

Wait in custody. God only knew how long that would take.

If the prison or Iron Shell Company came looking for him in the meantime, he’d have nowhere to hide.

At best, this route could only serve as a backup plan.

"Does my status as a Spiritual Ability User count for anything here?"

Master Chang shook his head. "When it comes to military service, everyone’s equal. Being a Spiritual Ability User doesn’t get you out of it."

"As for your current situation... hasn’t your status already helped you? I gave you the option to enlist — that’s an extra door that’s open to you."

"I need some more time to think it over."

"No rush. You’ve got plenty of time."

"And everything I’ve told you still stands."

"You may have lost your memories, but the fact that you can still use Spiritual Energy means a lot of what you learned in university is still in there somewhere. I’ll teach you again, bit by bit."

"When I was discharged, the military put me through a long stretch of specialized training — enough to let me run this junkyard on my own."

"I’m not asking for anything in return. I just want you to take what I teach you seriously."

"Starting tomorrow — if you’re interested — come find me at eight in the morning."

They’d covered most of what needed to be said.

Master Chang’s mind was already running through the logistics of everything that came next.

Xiang Yi’s work arrangement, the training he’d be putting him through, and his own contacts in the military.

Xiang Yi hadn’t agreed to anything yet, but Master Chang had already made up his mind to start reaching out to his old comrades.

He’d made it sound simple just now, but getting into the military wasn’t actually that easy — better to start laying the groundwork early.

And if Xiang Yi really had no interest in enlisting, given his current background, keeping him out wouldn’t be hard either.

Master Chang had said pretty much everything he needed to say. There wasn’t much left for the two of them to talk about.

He was just about to walk Xiang Yi out when Xiang Yi suddenly said, "Hold on, Master Chang — there’s something I want to run by you."

Ever since Master Chang had helped him figure out what made his Spiritual Energy special — the ability to seize an Abnormality’s power —

he’d been turning over the question of what else his Spiritual Energy might be capable of.

Now he had his answer.

He didn’t need to follow the path others had laid out for him.

He was certain his Spiritual Energy could take him further than any of that.

There was some risk involved — it came down to Master Chang’s character — but given the apology earlier, he felt he could trust the man.

Master Chang gave a small nod and looked over at him. "What did you want to talk about?"

"My Spiritual Energy."

"What about it?"

Xiang Yi lifted his hand, gesturing to the modified Laser Cutter he was holding — the one that fired a Blood-colored Laser capable of crystallizing flesh on contact.

"I can use this to produce Blood Crystals as an Abnormality Material. In bulk."

Master Chang went still for a moment. His pupils shrank.

He had noticed the Blood Crystals forming earlier, but his attention had been focused on their destructive potential.

The way they warped flesh, consuming it and replacing it with crystalline growth — nearly impossible to deal with once it set in. A devastating weapon against carbon-based lifeforms.

Because of that, he’d completely overlooked something else.

The crystals that grew out of flesh struck by that Blood-colored Laser were themselves Abnormality Material.

As long as Xiang Yi had that Laser Cutter, with enough power running through it and enough raw flesh to work with, it could produce Blood Crystals as Abnormality Material indefinitely.

A single laser beam slowly sweeping across a piece of meat, yielding a small amount of Blood Crystal — that image seemed unremarkable enough on its own.

But what if a factory assembly line was outfitted with hundreds, even thousands of modified Blood-colored Laser emitters, while a livestock operation fed an unbroken stream of raw flesh into the line?

What if it wasn’t just one factory — but an entire industrial park, an entire colony, all running the same operation?

The potential behind that...

Master Chang grasped what Xiang Yi was getting at in an instant. He reined in the surge of excitement rising in his chest and said, "Come with me."

He led Xiang Yi back to his quarters and pulled two fresh cuts of pork from the refrigerator — ones he’d bought earlier that day, since the previous piece had been eaten by Shi Tie.

He had Xiang Yi try again, this time aiming to convert the pork completely into Blood Crystal.

The laser swept across the entire cut. The Blood Crystal spread rapidly, replacing the meat entirely.

The piece Master Chang had taken out weighed half a jin — 250 grams. After full conversion, it measured 54 grams. Nearly four-fifths of the mass had been lost in the process.

But that hardly mattered. Even if half a jin of pork only yielded a single gram of low-quality Blood Crystal, it would still be an enormous profit.

"The quality’s a bit lacking, though."

Whenever Xiang Yi looked at Blood Crystals, his mind automatically went to that cluster formed from the highest-grade specimens.

Clear, luminous, dazzling — beautiful, despite the violence hidden within them.

What sat in front of him now was nowhere close to that.

"That doesn’t matter at all!"

Master Chang said, barely containing his excitement. "So what if the quality’s low? Low-quality Abnormality Material is still Abnormality Material — and mass production erases every other problem."

"Crystal purification technology exists. Strip out the impurities and you’ve got high-quality Blood Crystal. It’s that simple."

Xiang Yi had his doubts — even with purification, the end result probably wouldn’t exceed average quality at best. But Master Chang’s point still held.

When a rare material finally has a mass-producible lower-grade version, every flaw of that version stops being a problem.

On top of that, high-quality Blood Crystals still required death-row inmates or corpses as their source.

His method, by contrast, only needed a sufficient supply of Blood Crystal Spiritual Energy Psychic Laser Guns and enough raw material to feed the process.