Chapter 210: Desperate Situation, Forked Road

Many things come without warning.

Just like turmoil and collapse, just like disaster and death.

Even if there were many clues to be vigilant about beforehand, no one could know how these spreading clues would aggregate and knot together in the burial nine lands deep, or when they would grow into such exaggerated disaster spores.

How much effect could repeated eradication and vigilance, repeated scrutiny and consideration actually have?

And when it broke through the soil, when the flood crossed the dam, when the rain fell from the sky, when the tsunami raged, besides the few preparations, only passive response remained.

Just like this moment.

Ten minutes before the Quancheng mutation.

The soaring firelight rose from the wilderness outside the outpost, bursting forth.

The Association's construction site.

The shrill alarm sound ceased with the destruction of the circuit. On the huge construction site, huge equipment extending toward the sky like towers floated with dazzling electric light, countless spiritual qualities flowed scattered within it, amidst the explosion and chaos, dyeing the pitch-black night sky into a nauseating mottled color.

What spread immediately after was terrifying pollution that surpassed that inside Quancheng.

In the original material storage vault, huge storage tanks that had been moved in at some point now set off a chain of explosions. Massive amounts of pollution and sin-tainted dust extracted from the recycling processing department rose into the sky amidst the storm, instantly turning the entire construction site into a demonic realm.

The pollution and sin-tainted dust that countless artisans and apprentices had painstakingly extracted and separated day and night for days were now poured back onto everyone's heads in such a manner.

Mutations sprouted like bamboo shoots after a rain, from the ground, from the walls, from the pipeline lines, from every inch of air; flickering phantoms constantly appeared, and one wailing figure after another crawled out from the mud and blood.

Clearly, a few seconds ago everything was still continuing normally, everyone was working according to plan, emergency construction seizing every second, but after a few short flicks of the finger, everything was unrecognizable.

On the flesh-and-blood broken towers, one eerie eye after another opened, overlooking everything.

The originally perfectly normal, only slightly complex overall design now had no resistance in the erosion of sin-tainted transformation, and it even seemed as if it should have been like this, naturally falling into its current state.

Accompanied by the dismantling and reconnection of a large number of spiritual-quality circuits, everything became unrecognizable rapidly.

It was like a few strokes on an ancient landscape scroll, after sprinkling dirty ink marks, it transformed from a beautiful landscape into a hellish mud-plow.

After stripping away the disguise, the malice hidden in the design from the beginning was revealed, exposing a sinister face that even the creator hadn't anticipated.

Ferocious laughter.

Wailing everywhere, screams and cries were endless.

Amidst the billowing smoke and pollution, the survivors struggled in embarrassment.

What happened? What ghost? Exactly... what happened?

After the initial impact and pollution erosion, the apprentices and artisans who luckily survived the explosion core struggled in embarrassment, still trying to call for rescue.

But smart people, after a moment of chaos, hid all their aura, lurking and hiding, running away without looking back.

Freezing three feet is not a day's cold.

The Roman of the Supreme Evil had already been built, so facing the tragic city wall in front of them, it was best not to think about turning the tide; preserving one's life was the first priority.

Whether it was a mole, a trap, or some piece in a big game...

—The Association, the Anquan Bureau, could no longer be trusted!

"Teacher, save me, save me... Teacher, Teacher..."

Behind the door, the shouting from the sea of fire came.

The blood-covered master pulled a steel bar, propping up his body, staring at this tragic scene, expressionless. He watched as his student was gradually burned in the flames, and there were tentacles and many mutated organs breaking out of his body.

For a moment, Zhou Zhong opened his mouth, very much wanting to say something.

But amidst the smoke and burning, he couldn't make a sound, raising his incomplete arm, his remaining fingers pointing, pointing far away at the student's face.

The sound ceased abruptly.

The corpse in the fire struggled no more, and just like that, returned to dust.

Amidst the dancing smoke, turbid tears mixed with blood flowed down from his face, but it was unclear how much was sadness...

He turned his head away, propped up his body, staggered out of the fire, opened his mouth, roaring silently, shouting, cursing, the sound seemed to be burned out by the flames, along with his white hair.

Until he finally rushed out of the broken temporary workshop, stumbled, and in his panting, he saw the figure standing in the center of the construction site.

Without the slightest embarrassment or injury, his short, mottled hair danced slightly in the scorching wind.

As if waiting for a long time.

Looking back and examining.

"Hmm?"

Her eyes lifted slightly, examining: "Actually survived?"

At that moment, looking at her cold appearance, and then looking at the artisans and apprentices who were alive or dead, unconscious or on the verge of death at her feet, Zhou Zhong couldn't help but have scarlet eyes.

"YE XIAN!!!!"

Zhou Zhong's expression twitched, "Are you crazy! Actually... actually... even if you have a grudge against me, others..." 【210

Amidst the roaring and accusations, Ye Xian withdrew her gaze indifferently, showing no interest.

"I overthought it."

She sighed with regret: "I had thought it would be a 'gentleman's transformation,' but I underestimated the heroes of the world. Now it seems, with your courage and capacity, Master Zhou, squatting on your own little plot of land and squeezing your apprentices for all they're worth is the limit; you lack the guts to go against the Society and the Anquan Bureau...

Forget it, go to sleep first!"

As she spoke, she waved her hand, and instantly, from behind her, shadows dancing within the blazing light rose abruptly; these eerie shadows, resembling wings, extended without limit, instantly shrouding Master Zhou within them.

In the mere blink of an eye, the spiritual quality confrontation, invasion, defense, interference, and correction began at a dazzling speed, and then, it ended.

The sound of shattering was incessant.

Master Zhou, heavily wounded and dizzy, saw darkness before his eyes, losing all ability to resist; he collapsed to the ground, powerless to fight back, and the only thing he heard was a cold whisper:

"Lie still, don't get in the way."

The wing-like shadows shifted, converging into a palm that lifted him up and tossed him into the 'pile of people.' Zhou Zhong struggled to lift his head, glaring at Ye Xian's back, but in the end, he could no longer hold on and fainted completely.

Ye Xian looked up toward the depths of the fire.

Amidst the clusters of distortion, a figure stumbled out, their expression shifting slightly for a long moment: "So that's how it is; I truly underestimated the people of this world."

In the opening flames, the soot-covered Master Kong froze, looking at the expressionless Ye Xian walking toward her; she stiffened and shook her head decisively: "It wasn't me!"

"I know."

Ye Xian brushed past her, leaving behind the words: "Those burdens are yours to handle."

Just like that, she walked straight behind Master Kong.

Beneath the flesh-transformed broken tower, amidst the dancing flames and thick smoke, a withered, hunched figure slowly emerged from the path Ye Xian was taking.

He had been sitting there from the very beginning, yet he had made no move.

He watched all of this happen quietly, observing with cold eyes, appreciating the tragic disaster and drama unfolding before him.

Master Kong felt as if struck by lightning, drenched in cold sweat.

She had just walked out from inside, yet amidst the chaos and trauma, she hadn't noticed a single thing. But what terrified her even more was that person's face.

So aged.

It was clearly so familiar, yet at this moment, it was incredibly strange, making it hard to believe.

The Master sent by the Society, the administrator in charge of all alchemy work in Quancheng, the Master who proposed and controlled the entire construction and all its processes.

——Duan Mu!

She stiffened for a moment, subconsciously glaring, but soon, she gritted her teeth in shame and fury, turning to leave, taking the survivors with her without hesitation.

Only Ye Xian walked forward step by step, gazing at that aged face that seemed forever etched with wrinkles and sorrow.

Filled with curiosity.

"Is Master Duan unharmed?"

Duan Mu smiled indifferently and looked at her: "And what about you, Master Ye? I remember you were working in the deep well, right? That was the most dangerous place.

When the sin-taint backflowed, I thought you would die there."

"Fortunately, I have a perverse temperament; I don't trust anyone, everyone is an eyesore to me, and I can't bring myself to trust anyone, so I always make a few little preparations of my own.

On the contrary, Master Duan, you really startled me just now."

Ye Xian stood with her hands in her pockets, examining him solemnly: "To suddenly do something so big, yet I couldn't see a hint of the 'old and decrepit body' you always talk about.

Should I offer a compliment, like 'an old steed in the stable'?

It really isn't easy."

"Easy, actually, it's quite easy."

Duan Mu felt no self-satisfaction, nor any joy.

Clearly, as the mastermind behind all this, he should have been smug and mocking from a position of superiority, but facing Ye Xian's words, that face full of sorrow and wrinkles grew even more aged.

He only sighed with exhaustion.

"As long as one's skin is thick enough, one can naturally fight repeatedly after defeat; as long as one can crawl back up, one is naturally indomitable... This kind of praise for the loser, besides fooling people, can only be used as poison sprinkled on a wound."

Duan Mu sighed lightly at the sky, unable to help but laugh: "For so many years, everyone has regarded me as an example of 'late success' and 'indomitability,' but I have never spent a day without wondering—why couldn't it be someone else who was the 'late success' and 'indomitable' one? Why did it have to be me?"

Ye Xian was silent and did not speak.

Within the Society of the Ring of Taiyi, and in the hearts of all artisans, Duan Mu's existence was practically the embodiment of inspiration itself.

He awakened independently at thirty-one and threw himself into the Embers, but he was already past the age of an apprentice, wandering between various workshops, repeatedly hitting walls, yet fighting on after every defeat.

At forty, he spent nine years as an elderly, self-taught Ember to earn his artisan's license.

Logically, there should have been waves of praise, shocking everyone's eyes and stunning them for an entire year.

Unfortunately, that year, in the same examination hall as him, there was a fourteen-year-old boy, without sect or faction, with no foundation, no elders, and no teachers, who took the Society's popular science pamphlet and, in one year, became self-taught, establishing a brand-new field of modern alchemy with fourteen summaries and four principles proposed in a paper with completely incorrect formatting.

By the time Duan Mu proved his own ability, broke through his limits step by step, and climbed within the Society to claim the title of Master, that taciturn boy had long since become an Ember Grandmaster and a sage of the present world—【The Plow-Casting Artisan】.

When he raised his arms in his old age, intending to revitalize the Aggregation lineage, the prospects of the Aggregation lineage were negated by a single word from Grandmaster Tianlu.

After the revitalization of the Aggregation lineage failed and it declined for decades, he accumulated strength and made a comeback, proposing brand-new theories and breaking through to establish something new, only to encounter a roadblocker in that year's Master evaluation who was called a heretic and a rebel, and that person's name was Ye Xian...

The theories and results he had spent his life agonizing over were rendered obsolete by the paper Ye Xian submitted less than five days after he had submitted his own, holding no further value.

Even so, he never gave up, and until today, he had continued his exploration.

Numerous tragedies, numerous torments, numerous failures.

They almost filled Duan Mu's entire life.

No matter who encountered any one of these, it would be enough to keep them down, but he had stepped over all of them and crossed them all. Today, he was a Master above ten thousand, a model of late success.

But no one knew how much Duan Mu hated the term 'late success.'

How much he hated himself.

And that meager talent that was far from enough to compare with those above, yet just barely enough to surpass those below.

"That year, when I met you at the Master evaluation, I knew that one day, you would definitely reach a height I could never have anticipated in my life.

Even today, I still feel that way."

Duan Mu sighed lightly: "I only hoped to exhaust my remaining years, trying my best to move forward, just a little further. As long as I could move forward again, it would be enough."

Ye Xian asked: "If so, why change your path?"

"Probably because... I can't walk anymore, right?"

Duan Mu's expression twitched, looking like he was crying and laughing: "Starting seven years ago, I discovered that no matter how hard I studied all day, it was useless, except for moving myself and others.

At best, it was just treading water."

Staying in place, stopping without moving forward.

In futile struggle, watching one figure after another behind him surpass him, watching the goals he wanted to pursue grow further and further away, watching himself grow increasingly senile, truly falling into the state of an old man.

When he called his student by the wrong name for the fourth time, he suddenly discovered the loftiness of the Embers.

And his own mediocrity...

"Tell me, what is this for, Master Ye?"

Duan Mu looked at her, without resentment or venom, or perhaps, he was just trying hard to maintain a peaceful appearance, unwilling even now to be looked down upon by Ye Xian.

"The Embers are generous, leading me toward this path; the Embers are cruel, leaving me in such confusion and despair. But my life is pathetic; why did it come to this?

Heaven gave birth to me, but what is the use?"

He raised his hand, stroking his gradually peeling aged face, whispering softly: "The Embers' gift, the furnace of the world, what is it forging me into?

Scrap in the furnace? Or residue in the embers?"

He looked at the artisan before him, asking solemnly: "Is it a delusional fantasy for a piece of scrap iron to want to become gold?"

"It is only natural."

Ye Xian nodded decisively, "Transcending mediocrity, turning stones into gold, shedding the old form and appearance; even common iron can enter the realm of gold.

Isn't that what alchemy is for?"

"Hmm, so I've let it go."

Duan Mu nodded lightly.

On that shattered face, a smile finally appeared: "If I've stepped onto a crooked path, then so be it; at least there is a path. I still want to continue walking forward, as far as I can; even if I can only take one step, it is better than wandering in place.

In the eyes of a genius like you, this shameless appearance of mine must be very ridiculous, right?"

Ye Xian asked indifferently, "Would you care?"

"……I can no longer, afford to care."

Duan Mu grinned; behind his peeling face, viscous darkness and ferocity emerged, and one scarlet eye after another opened from the darkness.

In that instant, within the ringing darkness, countless sounds of roaring and wailing came, overlapping in one place, turning into an eerie echo:

"Master Ye, please help me see..."

He said, "This time, have I walked far enough?"

In the distance, a roaring vibration erupted, the present world shook violently, white mist swirled and dissipated, replaced by infinite pitch-blackness, like a tsunami, carrying massive amounts of distortions and residual spirits, surging toward the outpost!

And right before Ye Xian, Duan Mu's aged body crumbled layer by layer, and the sin-tainted form forged from the stagnant furnace slowly unfolded, layers of darkness converging into a four-armed giant over three meters tall, with seven eyes on its face, eyes that were compassionate or cruel. Countless spiritual quality circuits converged and wound around his body, decorating it like gold and glaze.

Amidst hysterical laughter, a spirit surpassing the Raw Stone stage rose, suppressing all directions.

——Heavenly Human!!!