Chapter 64

In this dark place where day and night could not be distinguished, the sound of childish weeping echoed in the silence.

Like a baby.

Ji Jue felt his whole body go numb.

No way.

A single embroidered shoe, two red lanterns, a gloomy mansion on a rainy night, a pale bride wearing a red veil, and other scenes suddenly emerged from his heart. It was all Lu Feng’s fault for always filling the computer with horror movies and liking to play them out loud, giving Ji Jue a psychological shadow.

Now that the silence had arrived, the fragmented sounds became more and more obvious, and what made Ji Jue’s whole body go cold was... it was coming from behind him.

In the dead silence, he turned his head stiffly.

And then he saw the Little Cow-Horse shivering like a dog!

After noticing Ji Jue’s gaze, the cowering motorcycle stuck itself to him, as if seeking warmth, it was simply scared to death!!!

Why are you so spineless?

Ji Jue wanted to slap it; you’re a motorcycle spirit, what are you afraid of ghosts for!

"Do you want to go take a look?" Little An asked in a low voice.

Ji Jue shook his head decisively.

Without hesitation!

Just kidding, a character who wants to go over and watch the fun when they hear a strange noise is definitely the first to die in a horror movie, okay?!

But not looking didn't feel quite right; after all, sitting in these gloomy ruins with a BGM playing was terrifying no matter what.

But don't be afraid, at this time, you have to take out a magical little gadget...

Ji Jue rummaged through the bag on his chest for a long time, and then held up the thing that had been placed at the very bottom with great excitement:

—A drone!

Ever since he experienced the convenience of this thing last time, Ji Jue gritted his teeth and ordered a high-end military version from Sister Laila, a rotor reconnaissance type, hidden and silent; the Imperial Army of Middle Earth said it was good even after being bombed. After being reinforced with the Supreme Good emblem of the Wasteland, it could already prevent shooting from small-caliber semi-automatic weapons.

To prepare the things needed for this trip, he had been detained at the security company, modifying guns for them for an entire afternoon.

Ever since Ji Jue gave Lu Feng’s service pistol an Ethereal quality "health check," everyone who had used it was hooked, and it was said that at Laila’s place, Master Ji’s consecration service was already booked until next year.

At this moment, with a thought, the drone took off, and the screen in his hand lit up, displaying the image. The small drone swept silently through the air, not alarming the monsters lurking in the dark, which relieved the worry in Ji Jue’s heart.

It was just that when it flew past a corner, it almost bumped into a spider monster head-on; the spider monster seemed not to see it either, with no reaction at all, which made Ji Jue even more confused about their madness mechanism—could it be that the local guys only like to eat fresh food and don't eat vegetables?

Just like that, carefully crossing a distance that wasn't too long, they found the source of the crying on the back of the ruins, an apartment covered in cracks.

Behind the collapsed and broken walls, the lights were dim and flickering, intermittent.

A family sat around the dining table, enjoying dinner after a day’s toil, laughing softly in a beautiful reunion... if it were only like this, it would be fine.

The ragged husband could vaguely distinguish the outline of a human, but his head was already hanging from his neck, and the bloodstains at the crack had long since dried.

It was as if he was using his long-gone right hand to pick up food to enjoy, his stiff face twitching, as if squeezing out a smile: "Eat, eat, eat, it’s so good, thank you for your hard work."

The table was empty, with only dust left in the broken plates.

The busy wife looked back, smiling gently, revealing the deep depression on her face, and viscous black liquid slowly dripped from the corners of her eyes.

"The, the, the baby is crying, crying, crying again, go see..."

In the tattered cradle, the baby was wailing sharply. The mother’s alienated claws brushed across its face, stroking gently, leaving another gaping blood wound.

"Mommy, it hurts, Mommy, I, it hurts."

"Yes, baby, Mommy, Mommy, Mommy loves you too." The mother picked up a piece of rag that was nothing but rotten threads and asked gently: "Do you like the new clothes Daddy bought for you?"

"It hurts so much, Mommy, it hurts."

The baby in the swaddling clothes wailed, making a sound, "It hurts, hurts, hurts—"

Under the baby’s rotting flesh, it seemed as if invisible insects or something else were writhing violently, rising and falling, constantly pushing up one vague outline after another.

Making the wailing sound more and more shrill, sharp, and resounding throughout the entire apartment.

Only, it seemed to be gradually changing... or rather, gradually becoming non-human. From the once childish voice, it gradually became hoarse, shrill, sharp, deep, or numb!

It was as if countless people were hiding inside that small shell, screaming in despair over and over again, becoming more and more frantic.

Until the end, when the wailing stopped without warning, the tattered baby in the cradle also burst open, and beneath the blood and broken meat, writhing tentacles and insect-like arthropods grew, swaying, crawling, darting out of the cradle, and hissing away.

Disappearing under the dark sky.

And the mother was still smiling, facing the empty cradle, soothing the non-existent baby. Then, she cleared the dishes, tidied up the housework, and finally, turned off the light that had long since gone out, and together with her husband, welcomed a peaceful sleep on the tattered bed.

In their dreams, beneath the incomplete shells of the couple, invisible things writhed and rose, like parasites drawing nutrients from the host’s shell, waiting for the day of birth.

The drone flew back slowly and fell into Ji Jue’s hand.

The two looked at each other in silence.

At least, Ji Jue now knew where those messy things came from...

Non-human things born from non-human things.

Butterflies, birds, crocodiles, snakes, and even that terrifying giant insect lurking in the ruins that could treat Ji Jue as a snack and eat several bags without burping—those messy ghost things were probably all created this way!

Although he didn't know why those "people" were so obsessed with imitating the lives of normal humans, there was no doubt that these were all masterpieces created by Mercury!

Temporarily turning materials into fluid, following their physical properties and essence, adjusting them to the best state that conforms to their inner nature, or catalyzing the creation in reverse through Ethereal quality transformation, bestowing a further level of metamorphosis.

This was the proof of why Mercury could ascend to the position of a Grandmaster and reach the pinnacle of a Sage; it was the "Fluid Alchemy" that had already become a swan song in the history of alchemy!

Even this title came from this technique.

Products created through Fluid Alchemy often had extremely strong concealment, with no traces of external processing at all, and would even possess multiple forms and appearances.

Therefore, it was called the Art of Ten Thousand Changes.

The scene Ji Jue had just seen was probably the further metamorphosis that the creation underwent amidst the chaos of Ethereal quality.

And according to the information Ji Jue had crammed by reading books: this kind of metamorphosis, if not restricted, would definitely not happen only once. They could continue to grow like living things, turning into even more hellish things, until the Ethereal quality overloaded and the physical properties collapsed!

What made his hair stand on end even more was that even with such a degree of chaos and loss of control, there was still no trace of corruption within the entire Rift.

Not a single flaw of pollution or corruption.

The hell before his eyes was entirely created by the power of Supreme Good!

"What kind of things did he create?"

Ji Jue sat on the rubble, his scalp tingling, as if a newly graduated junior programmer had accidentally opened a mountain of data shit piled up by predecessors over decades.

No way to start, nowhere to ponder, nothing to be done.

He didn't know what mechanism was hidden inside, nor did he know what other mysterious big surprises were hidden at the bottom that were enough to make his heart stop, only the thought of wanting to die was stronger than the last.

Little An sat quietly on the ground, still maintaining that blankness as if something had happened but he didn't understand it at all. Anyway, Sister Wen said to listen to Ji Jue if anything happened, so wouldn't he be able to not use his brain?

This was the first time for such an easy Rift exploration!

Yay!

Brother Ji Jue is great, no need to say more!

Feeling the longing and worshipful gaze from the boy, Ji Jue wanted to say something but stopped, and then, he wanted to die even more.

And just in the silence, he finally felt a slight vibration in his arms.

The Ghost-Work Sphere, which had been hot for several hours, seemed to have finally broken its fever.

It gave a faint response.

The moment Ji Jue realized it, he immediately fished it out and hurriedly poured all his Ethereal quality into it, letting the Ghost-Work Sphere swallow it like a whale drinking water. Just draining Ji Jue’s Ethereal quality alone wasn't enough; it even drained more than half of the cousin’s Ethereal quality reserve before it finally let out a faint sigh.

"Are you okay, Brother Sphere?" Ji Jue asked with joy.

【...Half-dead, but still manageable.】

The Ghost-Work Sphere, still warm, gave a groan-like response: 【I didn't expect that after so many years of storms and waves, I would almost capsize in a gutter.

Taking an apprentice on an outing almost caused a car crash.

They came to cheat and ambush me the moment I opened the door, bullying an old sphere like me with no one to rely on, almost kicking my parting line open; despicable, shameless, extremely base!】

The Ghost-Work Sphere shook violently and cursed: 【How can that dog Mercury still be called a Grandmaster!】

The moment it entered the Rift, when it opened the detection mode according to the logic of the underlying circuit... it was reverse-detected by another signal so powerful it was jaw-dropping!

Like the mutual observation between two sonars in the deep sea.

The moment it sensed the other party’s existence, the Ghost-Work Sphere had already felt something was wrong and wanted to close, but it was too late. The malice from the other side had already surged over.

The moment it sensed the appearance of the second signal, the workshop guard module left by Mercury was activated. It stirred up an aggressive tide directly from the fluctuations of Ethereal quality.

Thousands of miles away, it began to invade the Ghost-Work Sphere’s Ethereal quality circuit from afar, even wanting to completely overwrite the Ghost-Work Sphere’s underlying instructions on top of Professor Ye’s foundation.

This was also a required course for the Ember lineage in workshop struggles: suppressing the opponent’s alchemical items and even plundering control for a backlash.

Regrettably, four hundred years had passed.

The outside world was still constantly changing, and the establishment of modern alchemy had led to completely different versions. Plus, the guard program without anyone controlling it was too rigid, and in the end, it was completely shaken off by the Ghost-Work Sphere.

The price was that it itself had also crashed for who knows how long.

Pity, it failed to launch a counterattack.

Because in this level of struggle, Ji Jue was useless! If Ye Xian were here, let alone suffering, by this time, the workshop on the other side would have been renamed Ye!

But at the very least, in that moment of confrontation, it had gained some basic understanding of the workshop Mercury left behind.

"Found it so quickly?"

Ji Jue’s eyes lit up: "Speedy efficiency, Brother Sphere! Where is the workshop?"

【Can’t you tell yet, you silly boy?】

The Ghost-Work Sphere sighed gloomily, just like Professor Ye once expressed regret to others about their intelligence: 【We have long been inside Mercury’s workshop.】

It said: 【The entire Rift is her workshop!】