Buy the Casket, Return the Pearls

Buying the Casket and Returning the Pearl

After thoroughly studying the introductory material and core theories, Ji Jue finally grasped the essence and defining characteristics of the Dust Haze Tradition.

Even as he marveled at it, he could not help but feel regret.

Just as he had witnessed before, those endless transformations—one thing changing and changing again, plug-and-play—were destined to remain confined within the workshop. Once removed from that environment, they could no longer be utilized.

The reason Dust Haze could shift endlessly between [All] and [One] lay in its true strength—[Deconstruction]!

What they excelled at most was breaking down complete structures according to their purposes, then analyzing, processing, and reconstructing them.

Turning a whole into countless components with different functions.

Even when applied to the most common Spiritual Substance frameworks, this method could create endless variations.

For example, the "Cosmos Framework" Master Zhou had used when forging Tong Shan's [Wielding Brush] had no fewer than twelve variants in this tradition. All of them could be adjusted to local conditions, freely expanded, reduced, or replaced according to the materials and requirements, and could even be merged with other frameworks.

Even the Three-Phase Node used by apprentices as an introduction—the structure Ji Jue had used when creating his first Blessed Creation—had been turned into something extraordinary by Dust Haze.

From it extended three-layered, six-layered, eight-layered versions, the Five-Phase Lock, interlocking clasps...

Just a cursory glance made his Vision Darken. It felt like topology, changing and shifting until his head spun and his skull ached.

No wonder the tradition was so difficult. There were simply too many fixed patterns to master!

Too many to count, vast as the sea. And once those fixed patterns overlapped, they produced still more patterns and variants. It was impossible to learn them all!

Yet in the