Chapter 266.2: Before the Storm Part 2

The pressure wave was only the appetizer. What followed was the tremendous heat and fire unleashed by the massive quantity of combustible, made all the worse by Ji Jue’s deranged decision to add white phosphorus, aluminum powder, a huge quantity of spirit matter, and various mysterious little additives.

The flames rolled outward in thick waves, turning everything in their path into an inferno.

At last, a piercing shriek came from within the flames. The rapidly regenerating evil creature thrashed frantically. Almost as if shedding its skin, it crawled desperately on all fours, trying to escape the sea of fire.

Unfortunately for it, the bombardment didn’t stop. A rain of metal poured from the sky, punching through the creature’s flesh and embedding itself in its hardened body before melting into molten iron. The large amount of aluminum powder mixed into the barrage only fed the flames further.

The evil creature roared. Even from hundreds of meters away, the sound was painfully shrill, like nails scraping across a chalkboard.

Blazing light burst from its eye like a heat ray, sweeping its surroundings wildly, but it still could not cut its way out of the burning prison. Dozens of limbs lashed about frantically, striking in every direction.

Its efforts were useless. In the end, its cries gradually faded away until it no longer reacted. Shells continued to rain in from afar, battering it again and again. Its carbonized shell cracked, then shattered. After the accelerants burned themselves out, nothing remained on the oxygen-starved scorched earth but an empty husk.

As thick black smoke lingered overhead, the scarlet powered armor stepped across the charred ground and slowly advanced one cautious step at a time. There was no response.

“That’s it? You’re dead already?” Ji Jue looked down and nudged the carbonized remains with his foot. Something cracked beneath the impact. “Tch. That was quick. You don’t actually think I’d fall for that, do you?”

The moment he turned away, a blood-slick limb burst from the ground beneath the charred fragments. Unlike the chaos and madness of aberrants, evil creatures possessed intelligence. Many had even originally transformed from humans, which meant their ability to think and their survival instincts could be quite strong.

The moment the evil creature realized it could not escape the sea of fire, it drove more and more of its limbs deep into the ground while pretending to struggle helplessly. Even though the entire surface had been scorched black by the flames, the thick layer of soil below had insulated it from most of the heat and destruction, allowing it to preserve most of its body. Hidden away, it continued to grow, rapidly regenerating like a plant.

Suddenly, the evil creature concealed beneath the dried, scorched earth burst forth. To its dismay, it realized it couldn’t move. It tried again and again, but it was carrying itself like someone lying under the covers on a freezing winter morning, unwilling to go to work. No matter how many alarms they set, they simply could not win the battle against getting out of bed.

Except this time, what held the creature down was not a warm blanket, but blood-red mercury that had somehow seeped into the soil, winding its way in from deep underground.

Countless strands had wrapped themselves around its regenerated limbs and torso, swiftly hardening to lock it in place. No longer bothering to conceal themselves, streams of mercury surged through the earth and coiled tightly around the creature like snakes.

The scorched ground churned as though it were boiling. Scarlet mercury and writhing limbs kept surfacing, only to be dragged back beneath the earth. It looked like a struggle taking place in the depths of the sea.

Without a blessing to strengthen it, mercury lacked the durability needed for this kind of strain. Under extreme loads, it could usually serve only as part of a transmission mechanism, or as some other kind of conductor or carrier. It was nowhere near strong enough to wrestle directly with an evil creature like this.

Unfortunately for the creature, it had been wounded far too badly, and it had regenerated far too quickly. Mercury had seeped into it not only through its wounds but also through its many roots as they absorbed moisture from the soil, carrying heavy-metal toxins deep into its body. Plus, there was all the damage Ji Jue had already inflicted on it.

Ignoring the roots and limbs that continued to writhe around it, Ji Jue stomped forward. Through the churning ground, he planted one foot squarely on the evil creature.

Ji Jue reached behind him and pulled free an absurdly oversized firearm, nearly two meters long. He cradled it in both hands, aimed straight at the creature beneath him, and pulled the trigger!

BOOM!!!

A streak of metallic light flashed past, punched through the earth, and buried itself deep in the creature. It was like adding another ton of straw to the camel’s already breaking back.

Watching the floating screen, Gustav explained to his puzzled colleague, “Judging from the overall design and the ammunition, that should be one of the Federation’s anchor-style assault guns. Just think of it as a shotgun designed for powered-armor units. It relies on kinetic force and fires specially designed spike-shaped rounds meant for taking down large war machines and other powered armor.

“From the looks of it, though, this seems to follow the previous generation’s design. Newer weapons of this type don’t use solid rounds anymore. They fire metal jets directly to penetrate armor.”

“Wow, the kid certainly knows a bit of everything!”

Jiang Tongguang marveled as he counted on his fingers. First there had been renovation and preparation, then construction and engineering, followed by production lines and manufacturing.

Ji Jue’s skill in mechanical engineering came as no surprise to him. After all, Ye Xian had spent years researching that very area. Building complex Blessed Creations had always been one of her greatest strengths aside from spirit matter alchemy, so it was hardly strange that she would teach her student mechanical engineering as well.

From the looks of things, Ye Xian was absolutely determined to train a miniature version of herself, a student who, like her, was proficient in everything and had no obvious weaknesses.

Jiang Tongguang sighed softly. “What a lucky kid.”

Ji Jue was certainly lucky to have a teacher like Ye Xian. But for a teacher to find a student who could master whatever she taught him and excel at whatever he learned, wasn’t that like hitting the jackpot, too? Otherwise, there wouldn’t be so many schools of thought left without anyone to carry on their legacy.

“I see,” Gustav murmured in sudden realization.

His words drew Jiang Tongguang’s attention back to the screen. He glanced at the screen in confusion, then quickly noticed the crucial detail Gustav had spotted. “The bullets?”

Something was wrong with the bullets!

Even the artillery shells from earlier had inflicted little more than superficial wounds on the evil creature, injuries it could heal in an instant. But now, with every shot Ji Jue fired, the creature’s struggles and movements visibly slowed, growing more sluggish by the second.

Just as Gustav had said, relying on the kinetic force of solid ammunition was an outdated approach. There was no reason to cling to an older design unless the spike-shaped alloy rounds possessed some irreplaceable advantage over metal jets, like... being alchemical creations!

Realization dawned on Jiang Tongguang. “A reverse application of Fluid Alchemy!”

Alloy spikes more than a meter long blasted from the crude force of gunpowder. They punched through the earth and embedded themselves deep within the creature, where the spirit circuits inscribed upon them immediately activated. Their purpose was simple: seal its spirit matter and suppress its soul!

Every metal spike driven into its flesh bore the results of Solid Alchemy, forcibly imposing those restraints upon the creature. They disrupted the circulation of its spirit matter and even turned its battered body into a vessel, sealing its soul inside.

Entangled by the blood-red mercury and battered from both within and without, the creature could not even pull the spikes from its flesh. It could only struggle in vain, with no hope of escape, unable to even end its suffering. All it could do was watch helplessly as it was turned into a specimen.

BOOM!

When the final metal spike buried itself in the evil creature, its battered body had been turned into a pincushion by Ji Jue. Just to be safe, he had used twice the necessary amount. He had taken every possible precaution and eliminated every potential risk, all to ensure that his precious material would stay fresh, intact, and in one piece until he made it back to his workshop.

Before long, the blood-red mercury flowed over the completely immobilized evil creature, swallowing it whole before hardening around it. The monster became a blood-red metal statue covered in barbed spikes.

All packed up. Job done!

And so, Ji Jue headed back toward the workshop with the material slung over his shoulder, eating canned food and humming a tune along the way.

With the first one taken care of, he had already decided where to look for the next. Just imagining himself waking up tomorrow to find another fresh batch of material waiting for him made him burst out laughing. Compared to the Depths, where people ate each other, the Association really was much better. Here, you could eat people and evil creatures alike.

What a wonderful life!

Before the floating screen, a long silence followed. Jiang Tongguang sighed.

“Seriously, is there even any point in evaluating a freak like this?” He held his pen, thought for a moment, and wrote down a score of 99 on the form, the highest score possible in the preliminary assessment.

Truthfully, he should have given Ji Jue a “100,” but he had to dock one point for the... presentation.

It wasn’t that the sight had left the two council members particularly traumatized. It was just that if they didn’t show at least some disapproval, people might think the Association actively encouraged everyone to follow the ways of the Depths.

Fortunately, there weren’t many people watching at the moment. Otherwise, the Association’s complaint line would probably have been flooded with calls by now. Such blatant and brutal exploitation of aberrant creatures could have an immeasurably bad influence on the apprentices!

“Hmm, let me see...” Jiang Tongguang skimmed through the form in his hand. “So far, ninety-one examinees have passed the preliminary assessment, and there should be quite a few more to come. We’ve been eliminating people this aggressively, and there are still so many left... This year’s examinees are exceptionally strong.”

Jiang Tongguang’s grin grew increasingly mischievous as he looked toward the stone-faced Gustav. Gustav glanced at him, clearly unable to understand why he was making such a fuss.

“Is this really worthy of praise? Anyone can follow instructions and stick to the rules. Even a mediocre craftsman can manage that much on their own. What merit is there in that? Planning ahead and preparing in advance should be the bare minimum. Besides, didn’t we deliberately set aside this entire week to give them time to adapt to the environment? If they grow complacent just because things seem peaceful for the moment, they’re doing nothing more than committing slow suicide.”

Jiang Tongguang gave a slight shrug. “So when are you planning to tell those poor kids that there’s another little surprise waiting for them?”

Gustav remained indifferent. “Once they notice the aberration levels in the environment are still rising, they’ll understand.”

Now that the little frogs in the pot had gradually grown accustomed to the temperature, it was time to turn up the flame and show everyone something a little more exciting[1].

1. In Chinese culture, 温水煮青蛙 “Boiling a frog slowly” is a well-known fable. The idea is that if you throw a frog into boiling water, it will immediately jump out, but if you place it in cold water and gradually heat it, the frog will fail to notice the slow change in temperature and eventually be boiled alive. The story is used as a metaphor for how people can become complacent in comfortable circumstances and fail to react to gradual changes until they eventually face disaster. In reality, however, biological experiments have shown that a frog would actually try to escape; the story is only a metaphor. ☜