novelraw Chapter 1334 671: When the Craftsman Starts Thinking, the Old Dog Laughs_2
Chapter 1334 671: When the Craftsman Starts Thinking, the Old Dog Laughs_2
What would you call a bottleneck if this is one? What about everyone else's days?
Would you call it a gallows!
"Isn't diving into exploration and research beyond paradigms and templates just like this? Stumbling, circling, it's difficult at the start, in the middle, and at the end, with every part being painful, each step fraught with difficulty.
You've only been stuck for four or five days, and you feel unbearable pain, claiming you've hit a bottleneck. But is this really a bottleneck, Ji Jue?
Once in Spring City, Master Duan, who fell into the Abyss of You Sui, began living like this at the age of twenty-two, persisted for seventy years, even longer... Building a high tower from nothing on a dead end road, all the way until the road ran out and the tower collapsed, yet still enduring and never looking back!"
The more Ye Xian spoke, the sharper and colder her tone became: "Tell me, compared to such a desperate situation, what are you! Running to me tearfully over a minor inconvenience, what do you expect me to do?
Help you solve such trivial matters? No problem, but if you come to me for such small things, then why be a craftsman? Go back to Tide Sound and be an apprentice all your life, doing chores every day!"
"No! Teacher, rest assured, this kind of thing doesn't need to trouble you..."
It's been a while since being scolded by the teacher, Ji Jue didn't feel any resentment, but rather his once shaken and confused heart surprisingly stabilized once again.
He glanced at the manuscript on the table, softly sighed: "The issues in the design, I can solve, and I can continue to endure. But, I just want to know... where my problem lies."
Thus, Ye Xian fell silent, watching him.
Mockery, reflection, pity, helplessness.
As if sighing in wonder, a gentle sigh.
"Indeed, in a certain sense, it is the biggest issue for you -- including, the choice of coming to me is part of the 'problem' you're facing."
She chuckled softly: "You know how to do it right, Ji Jue, you can always find a way to break through difficulties... Just like now, you've made the optimal solution."
"..."
Ji Jue fell silent for a moment, seemingly pondering, then questioned again after a long while: "Isn't this wrong?"
"Where could it be wrong for a student encountering a problem to seek guidance from a teacher? Rather, the fact that you trust me so deeply as your teacher is something I should feel proud of."
Ye Xian held her teacup, blowing on the curling mist, "You can find a way, Ji Jue, you always find a way, it's precisely because you can, you've come this far so quickly, and precisely for this reason, you've taken too many 'shortcuts', resulting in smooth sailing."
Ji Jue wanted to speak but stopped.
He indeed took plenty of shortcuts, but he never missed the hardship and the extra classes needed, how could it be said that he took too many shortcuts?
"Mediocre people always find the right way hard and shortcuts easy, but talented people like you understand that if you look to the future, the truly hardest right path now is the real shortcut... On this path, you thrived, relying on your talent and insight, you've navigated smoothly to this point.
But easy paths ultimately have ends, you just haven't gotten used to walking beaten paths, Ji Jue, you need to understand: as long as you keep walking this path, the kind of dilemmas you'll encounter in the future will only be more numerous and more difficult.
The cruelty of Ember, is it something that a person's talent can escape?"
Ye Xian said slowly: "Don't worry about having a problem, you don't have a problem, this isn't the exhaustion of talent, it's merely the limits of accumulation, that's all.
You've found a new path outside of accumulation, expanding outward, seeking upward, naturally it's hard, naturally it's troublesome, but that does not constitute a problem.
But by this point, you should be able to understand, right?"
She paused, looking at Ji Jue:
"—The biggest issue with yourself."
"Are you saying... that I haven't taken any wrong paths?"
Ji Jue was momentarily perplexed.
Wrong paths?
He should have taken plenty, right?
He researched a lot of things about Zhi Fu too!
"The matters of You Sui don't count, who says jumping into the abyss signifies no distant prospects..."
Ye Xian chuckled: "You've just never been lost, so you've never seen the scenery on the wrong paths, hence your 'accumulation' is still insufficient.
—What you're lacking is 'futility', missing is 'tedious effort', what's absent is stupidity and confusion.
Without failure, there's no wandering, without stepping onto the wrong path, there's a lack of incorrect evidence and reference. Even if it's a wrong path, the mere fact that it can be called a path indicates there's some outcome on it, right?"
Since becoming a craftsman, Ji Jue has never taken a wrong step!
Once the direction was determined, it didn't deviate in the slightest.
Shooting straight up to the clouds!
But there were so many sights on this correct path that Ji Jue overlooked the landscapes on the wrong paths. After going full throttle so many times, there was less insight from the uncertain ups and downs.
Even if it's picking up stones one by one from the ground when standing still, who knows if, at other times, they might emit the brilliance of fine jade?
Indeed, Ji Jue's design, every choice he made was the optimal solution... but what does Ji Jue ultimately count for? What you consider the optimal solution, is it really the optimal solution?
On the wrong paths, is there really nothing worth referencing?
Indeed, in Fluid Alchemy and the Nine Forms, answers have already been provided — yet Fluid Alchemy is polished to perfection, and in the hands of a Saint, it's a piece of cake to change the world, but is Mercury's optimal solution truly your optimal solution?