Snap.
He removed his monocle, revealing eyes as sharp as a hawk's.
Without using any extra tools, he reached out and picked up a fist-sized irregular piece of gold to show to the many apprentices.
"Next, I will demonstrate, pay attention!"
As he spoke, Clark deliberately extended his Spiritual Power, making the piece of gold float away from his hand and suspend in mid-air.
Jeming could clearly sense that Clark's Spiritual Power undulated with exceptional steadiness, like a gentle stream, yet containing formidable resilience.
Under the guidance of Professor Clark's Spiritual Power, that irregular piece of gold seemed to come to life.
It did not melt, nor did it deform too quickly, but within an invisible Force Field, it changed shape slowly yet resolutely.
The uneven surface was smoothed out, and the edges were shaped; the entire process was fluid and stable.
Within a dozen seconds, the irregular piece of gold transformed into a sharply defined, smooth standard cube, as if cut by the most precise machine, with a surface so smooth that it could reflect images like a mirror.
Professor Clark retracted his Spiritual Power, and the cubic gold quietly lay back on the table, emitting a faint gleam.
"This is the most basic shaping in Alchemy. You need to master precise control over material form through repeated practice." He put his glasses back on, "Now, receive your materials and tools, and start practicing."
With a wave of Clark's hand, the supplies stored in the lab cabinets flew out, and everyone received a piece of irregular gold similar in size to the one in the professor's hand, along with a basic toolkit.
Inside the toolkit, aside from basic crucibles, tweezers, protective gloves, and goggles, there was also a Metal Disc engraved with complex Runes.
Jeming also received his materials and tools and returned to his workbench.
He could clearly feel, at the moment of contact with this disc, the Truth Runes within his Sea of Spirit became rapidly active, and the small Runes representing Alchemy in the center resonated with the many Runes on the disc.
"Because your Meditation Method hasn't completed the first three Truth Runes, you can only use the Alchemy Disc as an aid for now. Once you engrave all three Alchemy Truth Runes in your Sea of Spirit, you can perform Alchemy by hand without this aid."
Clark calmly reminded everyone, "The Alchemy Disc is very expensive; the first one can be considered a free teaching aid, but if you damage it, you'll need to spend Points to buy the next one..."
Jeming put on protective gloves and goggles, following Clark's instructions to place the piece of gold in the recess at the center of the Metal Disc.
"Using Spiritual Power to control material form... Truly unbelievable, is this the unique system of the Wizard?" Jeming pondered.
A cultivator's Divine Sense is more about perceiving, scanning, attaching, and direct Psychic Shock, and can also manipulate True Essence to fetch items from a distance.
Using it directly to change a material's physical form is possible, but that involves using greater external force forcibly, unlike Alchemy, which seems to let the material change shape on its own.
Jeming took a deep breath, immersed himself in his Sea of Spirit, extended his Spiritual Power through the Truth Runes, and connected with the Alchemy Disc, cautiously enveloping the piece of gold.
Buzz!
He felt a faint but clear "resistance" coming from the gold, seemingly rejecting his Spiritual Power.
He attempted to compress his Spiritual Power into a bundle, according to the method of guiding Elemental Energy in Meditation, to "press" a protrusion on the surface of the gold, trying to make it concave.
The result...
Crack!
Due to a moment of excessive exertion, not only did the gold not dent, but a small piece flaked off the surface.
Startled, Jeming quickly adjusted.
He attempted again, this time cautiously guiding a surge of energy to focus on a corner of the gold, intending to round it.
The result...
Sizzle...
The local temperature instantly rose, and the gold's surface started to melt slightly, turning into a flowing liquid.
"Damn! It feels completely different..." Jeming cursed under his breath.
He was habitually using the Cultivation Immortality System's method of controlling Spiritual Power for this Wizard System operation, which felt incredibly awkward.
It was like asking a stone carver, skilled with a chisel to sculpt statues, to suddenly embroider, with the force application and technique being entirely different.
He looked at the surrounding apprentices, most of whom were in as much of a mess as he was.
Some metal pieces were pitted and dented on the surface, some had melted into a puddle, and some had been reduced to crumbs when trying to deconstruct them.
Of course, there were exceptions.
Jeming noticed that although Amy next to him wasn't fast, her energy fluctuations were relatively stable; the gold piece was slowly changing shape under her control, rough but at least showing signs of shaping.
Jeming took a deep breath, forcing himself to forget his habitual method of controlling Spiritual Power, instead mimicking the way Professor Clark demonstrated his Spiritual Power fluctuations.
He re-wrapped the gold with Spiritual Power, and this time, he didn't rush to shape it, but rather approached it like a Cultivator "nurturing a Magical Treasure," using a gentle and sustained method to let his Spiritual Power "interact" with the gold, feeling its "nature" and "resistance."
Failure... try again... failure...
A complete piece of gold became increasingly deformed under Jeming's hands, but he gradually grasped the crux of Alchemy.
"Understand, deconstruct, then reconstruct... I see."
The most important thing is "understanding"; the remaining two steps are built on the foundation of "understanding."
So-called "understanding" means knowing the internal structure of a material, its properties, even its energy fluctuations in order to change its form according to the circumstances, not by brute force.
After several attempts, he finally managed to roughly shape a piece of gold into something that could barely be called a "cube."
It was twisted, with a surface full of melting attempts that had solidified again, blurred edges, a world apart from the professor's standard cube.
"Is this my first Alchemy product?" Jeming looked at the unsightly chunk of gold in his hand, caught between amusement and exasperation.
Just then, Professor Clark descended from the podium, patrolling between the apprentices' workbenches.
His sharp gaze lingered on each failed or successful work, occasionally offering brief comments.
He came to Jeming's workbench, looked at the lopsided gold block, and Jeming felt an unusual hint of apprehension.
Professor Clark's hawk-like eyes scrutinized the gold block carefully, then glanced at Jeming.
"Spiritual Power control... fairly stable." Professor Clark remarked in his usual flat tone, "But energy output is unstable, temperature and Force Field control is quite poor."
He pointed to the melted marks and warped corners on the surface of the gold block:
"Go back and practice Basic Meditation more, enhance the stability of your Spiritual Power, get used to the feeling of manipulating Elemental Power, and pay more attention to the material's structural details when using Alchemy." He offered advice, then moved to the next apprentice's workbench.
Jeming couldn't agree more in his heart; Professor Clark had immediately pointed out the key issues.
The instability of Elemental Power output was actually because he was maintaining the Inner Cycle all along; closing off oneself while also trying to output energy was bound to cause such results.
At that moment, a painful scream and the loud sound of metal shattering suddenly came from the other side of the lab.
Boom—!