CHAPTER 437: CHAPTER 437: NEVER ADMIT DEFEAT!

Ji You’s eyes widened with full anticipation—

A light like twinkling stars gradually emerged from the Clover pendant, then the light grew brighter and brighter...

second.

seconds.

seconds.

...

As time passed, Ji You’s anxious heart was slowly relaxing!

It’s done!

Definitely!

Ji You’s furrowed brows relaxed, her lips curled upwards, just about to say something when suddenly—

Crack—

A crisp sound, and the Clover pendant shattered into pieces in an instant!

Ji You: "..."

Ji You felt nearly suffocated!

She simply couldn’t believe her own eyes! She clutched at her chest, feeling her whole body on the verge of collapse!

How could this be!

How could this possibly happen!

It was clearly successful! It was successful! How could it have failed again?

What on earth is going on?

Ji You took out the detector again, meticulously testing the shattered Mithril, not missing a single detail...

This time, the molecular density of Mithril had dropped again, and even more than last time—a straight drop of 40%!

40%!

What’s going on?

Was it the instability of the Array Diagram that caused the collapse?

Or was it the reduced molecular density of Mithril that caused the material to fail?

...

Ji You furrowed her brows, lost in thought, but still without a clue.

Helpless, Ji You decided to use the process of elimination, switching to another Array Diagram to see if it was the instability of the Clover pattern that led to the pendant’s collapse.

Once more, Ji You took out the third piece of Mithril, polished it into a Clover-shaped pendant as usual, and then started to carve an Array Diagram on the pendant. This time, Ji You didn’t stubbornly carve the Clover pattern again but switched to another shape, carving a triangle on the Mithril.

Worried about the stability of the figure’s structure, Ji You drew a simple triangle, of course, utilizing the stability of a triangle!

This time, the Array Diagram shouldn’t collapse, right?

The moment the pen touched, Six Spiritual Threads leaped from the ethereal Spirit Space, streaming into the pendant along the tip of Ji You’s pen...

Whoosh~

Settled—

Ji You held her breath, nervously staring at the pendant on the workbench...

second.

seconds.

seconds.

...

A minute passed, and the pendant shimmered with a layer of lustrous light, appearing full of vitality.

Is—

Is it done?

Ji You still dared not relax her vigilance—

Her eyes, unblinking, didn’t dare to move away one bit, and then—

Ji You watched as tiny cracks began to form on the Mithril, the cracks widening until finally with a snap—

It collapsed!

Ji You: "..."

Ji You raised her hand, rubbing her slightly sore and swollen eyes, then looked down to ponder:

Changing the Array Diagram, but it still failed, what does this mean?

Does the problem not lie in the Array Diagram?

Then, the results of the Mithril’s molecular density check came out, this time showing a decrease of 45%!

Higher than the last time!

Although Ji You was very disappointed and regretful, she still didn’t give up and started her fourth attempt...

This time, she changed materials, switching the main material to a type of Companion Stone left over from her last assignment.

The steps remained the same: she still polished the pink, almost rose quartz-like Companion Stone into the shape of a clover. The stone was crystal clear; although it didn’t look as modest as Mithril, it was also exceptionally cute and beautiful...

Ji You was very satisfied.

Then, she began inscribing the Array Diagram, channeling the Spiritual Silk... a series of movements, executed in one go!

The moment the pink pendant was completed, Ji You was herself taken aback! So pretty! So girlish!

And then—

Crack—

It broke!

Not just broke! It turned to powder in less than a second...

This time, the pendant cracked before Ji You even had time to react!

Ji You: "..."

Ji You took a deep breath, checked with an expressionless face, and came to a conclusion, "This Companion Stone is even more fragile than Mithril!"

Mithril is not good, and this Companion Stone is even worse.

So—

Is the problem not with the materials?

Ji You was conflicted!

She grabbed her hair fiercely, unable to understand where the problem lay.

By now, Ji You also understood the reason mentioned on the Star Network why the success rate of Soul Artifact Makers was low!

Like this, with no clue of the reason, continuously failing, failing, failing... It was indeed both speechless and disheartening...

Ji You clutched her head, began recalling her previous successes; originally, she didn’t even know what an Array Diagram was, yet she somehow managed to craft so many low-level soul artifacts, so blindly—bringing it up would make her luck seem astounding!!!

What was going on at that time?

Ji You couldn’t quite figure it out; she only vaguely remembered that during the entire process of crafting the soul artifacts to their completion, she was in a very mystical atmosphere...

But, she also had a bit of that mystical feeling today, so why did it fail?

Ji You started the 5th attempt!

The 6th attempt!

The 7th attempt!

The 8th attempt!

...

While crafting, she summarized her failures, until finally, Ji You had completely thrown disappointment to the back of her mind, focusing solely on researching, analyzing, summarizing...

After using up the Mithril cut into nine pieces, Ji You took another palm-sized piece and cut it into nine!

Then, all nine of these attempts also ended in failure.

Ji You stopped her work, feeling a bit of heartache as she looked at the scattering Mithril fragments on the workbench!

This Mithril needed to be extracted from several rather precious ores, so it was quite expensive, charged by its weight in grams. Fifty credit points for each gram, a palm-sized piece approximately 200–300 grams, meaning one piece was about 10,000–15,000 credit points.

Now, Ji You had already wasted more than 30,000 credit points; the pain was almost leaving her breathless.

She knew that she had bought three palm-sized pieces of Mithril in one go. Buying in bulk could save a few hundred credit points. She intended to use them for this semester’s Material Department assignments because there was a large demand for Mithril in this term’s material class; Ji You originally thought that these pieces of Mithril would last her till the end of the semester...

Ah!

Gone!

Such agony!

Although it was painful! The repeated failures also ignited Ji You’s unyielding spirit!

Failure—then continue!

Until—it doesn’t fail!

Ji You took out the last piece of Mithril, cut it into nine, and once again immersed herself in crafting.

Suddenly—

In the Spiritual World, Sixth wobbled and cried out to its master: [Master! Master! Master! Sixth can’t hold on any longer, I need to rest for a while...]

Old Five too, with head held high and tail wagging: [Master, Old Five also requests a rest!]

Fourth, the cunning one, seeing the situation, although still able, started to shirk: [Ouch! Ouch! Ouch! Fourth can’t take it anymore!]

Old Two and Third looked at these three, then at Boss, somewhat undecided...

Boss, with a majestic flick of his tail: [Master! Don’t worry, the three of us can still hold on!]

Ji You looked at the Six Spiritual Threads, and suddenly, a flash of inspiration struck her mind!