Chapter 93: Blood Rust Virus

"Liu Tu launched a sneak attack and slashed the Yin-Yang Rogue with a sword, ascending to the Daoist Path sequence 6 [Law-Passer]..."

"Green Robe used a forbidden technique to cause hundreds of people in the West District to die of illness, while simultaneously refining three Black Maitreya Path sequence 7 Life-Claiming Walkers into puppet corpses, thereby ascending to sequence 6 [Disease Corpse]."

"Zhao De, the youngest son of the East District's Wedding King, successfully passed the ritual by devouring hundreds of people without pause within one hour, ascending to the Forbidden God Path sequence 6 [Flesh Envoy]."

"A nun in the West District named Li Xuanji successfully incited the desires within the bodies of tens of thousands of people in the West District by creating a spectacle, and by using this method, she extracted the vital essence and blood from their bodies, successfully ascending to the Immaculate Buddha Mother Path sequence 5 [Wonderful Appearance Lady]."

"As expected of Ten Thousand Blessings City; one can truly do whatever one wants here."

"The city residents are likely used to it too; they are consumables themselves and view others as consumables. In short, whoever is ruthless takes the top spot, and whoever is strong lives freely."

"However, those causing trouble today must all be Demon Star Order Holders."

Muttering these things, Li Yu returned to his own residence.

Except for Liu Tu's ascension, which he saw with his own eyes, all other deeds were heard on the road, aboard the monster bus.

Today, Ten Thousand Blessings City is unusually restless.

And once something happens, the speed of transmission is extremely fast; usually, it spreads throughout the city in less than half an hour after occurring.

Moreover, as long as they are "old city residents" with a little experience, they are all secretly guessing that there will likely be more disasters after nightfall.

Most people will choose to hide at home.

Staying at home does not necessarily mean one can avoid disaster.

But wandering outside at this juncture would greatly increase the probability of being caught in the disaster; no one is stupid.

Li Yu made the same choice; of course, he was originally doing it for his own ascension, the first step of which required refining nine types of elixirs in full.

"Hong Dou!"

"Guard me while I refine elixirs."

"Understood, Master!"

Amidst the familiar dialogue, the master and servant went to the alchemy room with bags in hand.

Nowadays, Li Yu no longer needs the assistance of an alchemy furnace.

He directly activated the "Internal Refining Method" and began to refine the five elixir formulas he had exchanged from the Demon Star Order.

He had actually exchanged for six, but he could not refine the bizarre Ancient People Elixir.

Very quickly, all five elixirs were successful.

Although the process of producing the elixirs, as well as the subsequent method of consuming them, were as disgusting and painful as always.

Like the Martial Dao Elixir; after eating it, Li Yu could impersonate a "Martial Disciple" for one hundred breaths, but he would also have to endure various pains, such as his limbs becoming deformed and his internal organs being continuously tempered and tortured by internal Qi.

And the Ghost Soul Elixir is even more terrifying; it targets Li Yu's heart and soul. Once consumed, his soul will suffer for a hundred breaths.

The subsequent three elixirs were all the same.

"Looking at it this way, although the effects of these elixir formulas created by our predecessors are quite good, the side effects are equally significant."

"By comparison, my [Compassionate Heart Elixir] and [Skin-Peeling Trick Elixir] are even more outstanding."

"Could it be that my talent in this area is relatively exceptional?"

While Li Yu pondered, he began to replenish the elixirs he had exhausted in the Trick Domain.

The Sword Evil and Sorrowful Cry elixirs.

The replenishment process went very smoothly.

But for some reason, perhaps because he had seen and heard too many messy disasters since the daytime, Li Yu's heart grew increasingly uneasy, and he had a growing sense of an ominous omen.

Clutching the nine elixirs, he brought his fully armed maid into the courtyard.

Li Yu looked up at the night sky, where neon lights flickered and airships patrolled; there was not a single trace of a great disaster to be seen.

But he still did not let his guard down and looked at his own eye membranes.

The eighth and ninth truth bubbles were already full, and the tenth bubble was slowly flickering and charging.

Even though he did not use this means, the Truth Soul Body could still give him inspiration far beyond other cultivators.

A sudden whim must have a reason.

"I am currently a proper sequence 8, and I have a powerful maid like Hong Dou by my side... even if Ten Thousand Blessings City might be full of disasters tonight, it shouldn't be difficult for me to save my life; why do I have this sense of crisis?"

"Unless, someone is going to hold an ascension ritual in the Heavenly Mystery Workshop, and it's at the level of sequence 5 or above?"

"Hmm?"

"It wouldn't be those three..."

As if to confirm Li Yu's current premonition.

The Heavenly Mystery Workshop!

That terrifying factory that had recently made the people of the Heavenly Mystery Workshop tremble, lying on the earth like an ancient monster sucking blood.

At this very moment, it exploded without warning.

Boom!

The entire Ten Thousand Blessings City, near or far, heard this shocking loud noise, and the residents of the South District could even see it with their naked eyes.

As for the people of the Heavenly Mystery Workshop who were close at hand, they felt it directly.

First, the earth shook, followed by a super-huge mushroom cloud wrapped in flames and thick smoke rising in that area; the nearest dozen buildings and residential houses were directly shattered by the aftermath.

What was even more incredible was that along with the rising mushroom cloud, a large amount of flesh, blood, and mechanical fragments rained down like a torrential downpour.

At the same time, accompanied by a terrifying shockwave, a certain type of Qi spread and enveloped the entire Heavenly Mystery Workshop and several surrounding markets in the blink of an eye; the nearby City Lord Street was also within the scope of the impact.

The old street where Li Yu's residence was located could not be avoided either.

It was completely filled with a strange odor; it smelled slightly of a metallic sweetness, followed by a fishy stench, like the smell of rust and fresh blood.

Although Li Yu wanted to take Hong Dou and flee the moment the explosion occurred.

Unfortunately, it was too late. Before he could even move, the shockwave had passed, and then his nose was full of that fishy, sweet smell of rust.

The Consumption Technique operated on its own.

In an instant, Li Yu's complexion changed.

"Deadly poison?"

As soon as this thought arose, Li Yu's body immediately provided extremely rich and detailed feedback.

As a [Elixir Disciple], he had strong poison resistance and could also analyze toxicity and symptoms the fastest.

Most deadly poisons would not be effective on him at all, and even if they took effect, Li Yu would quickly deduce an antidote.

But the toxicity he was suffering from at this moment left him feeling confused.

"What kind of poison is this? It is attacking my flesh, organs, skin, and even bone marrow in every aspect... every part of my body is becoming heavy, operating slowly, my blood vessels show signs of comprehensive damage, and hallucinations are beginning to sprout in my brain..."

"Hmm? What are these? Rust? Blood spots?"

=9+Shu_Ba

Li Yu suddenly lowered his head and looked at the skin of his exposed arm.

On it, scarlet blood spots were emerging one by one and spreading rapidly.

The texture was strange; Li Yu reached out to touch it, and his palm was covered in a lot of grit-like, powdery foreign matter. Upon closer inspection, it was clearly a mixture of rust and fresh blood.

"How is this possible?"

"Is the blood, flesh, and bone in my body being eroded into rust bit by bit?"

"In this world, there is such a deadly poison?"

Li Yu seemed to have seen something that shattered his worldview; his eyes were full of surprise.

The deadly poison before him was indeed unexpected.

But what was truly terrifying was the mutation on Hong Dou's body the next moment.

"Beep beep beep!"

"Warning, warning... the machine body has been exposed to a dangerous environment... the machine body has been infected with an unknown virus..."

"Machine body is being corroded... the durability of all parts is rapidly consuming... the rust growth rate anomaly has exceeded ten thousand times... the virus is attempting to attack the remaining secret core..."

"Activating Spirit Medicine module... activation failed."

"Activating disinfection module... starting disinfection!"

As these sounds rang out, Li Yu turned his head abruptly.

He saw that Hong Dou's body was also covered in red, rust-like patches, and the speed of their spread was even more astonishing than those on his own body.

Until the next moment, accompanied by the gushing of fragrant steam, the special flames previously used to "destroy corpses and eliminate traces" began to gush out from Hong Dou's various parts and joints.

Amidst the pattering sounds, pieces of corroded rusted iron of various sizes fell off Hong Dou's body.

When the flames ceased, Hong Dou had shrunk by a circle.

There was comfort, and the mechanical voice spoke again:

"Disinfection complete!"

"The unknown virus that invaded the machine body has been expelled... but the machine body is still exposed to a dangerous environment... activating self-defense module..."

"Activated, spiritual energy consumption rate is twice as fast as before... can still persist for three days."

When he finished listening, Li Yu saw that his maid had become incredibly hot.

That's right, hot in the literal sense.

Her entire mechanical body seemed to have been placed in a furnace, baked to a bright red.

Seeing this scene, Li Yu also gained inspiration.

"Elixir Fire!"

As his mind stirred, a heterogenous flame was born rootless within Li Yu's body, and in the blink of an eye, it swept through every corner and acupuncture point.

The rust blood spots began to recede, but no iron pieces fell off; instead, grains of "blood-colored rust" seeped out from under Li Yu's skin and were blown away by the wind.

When all signs of poisoning vanished!

Li Yu also seemed to recall something, and a tempest suddenly surged in his mind.

The scene he recalled: it was the accident he encountered when he previously snuck out of the city; that smuggling airship operated by the Holy Nest and the Three Saints Gang had crashed and caught fire. Inside the cabin, besides a large quantity of strange objects and treasures, there were also many mechanical soldiers lying there called [Holy Blood Forbidden Guards], and these soldiers happened to have rust-colored blood spots similar to the ones just now.

He hadn't paid any attention when he saw them back then, simply assuming it was some kind of contamination.

But looking at it now, it clearly had a close connection.

"This virus only spread after that flesh-and-blood factory exploded, and inside that factory were the three gang leaders of the Three Saints Gang."

"They collectively defected to the Holy Nest and accepted the Holy Nest's flesh-and-blood and mechanical modifications, attempting to jump to a special sequence called [Holy Skull Heavenly Soldier] through this special method."

"This massive explosion clearly happened because of them—did the modification go wrong?"

"Were the supplies that smuggling ship was meant to smuggle intended for the Three Saints' modification?"

"Could the occurrence of this accident also be related to me?"

The reason this final thought arose was that Li Yu suddenly remembered.

Although that attempt to sneak out failed, the harvest was not small at all, aside from letting Hongdou pick up a set of high-end weapons and equipment for nothing.

He also had Hongdou use her "high clearance" to go into that smuggling ship and snatch the most valuable strange object, a mechanical secret box that even Hongdou could not forcibly crack.

Afterwards, both the Holy Nest and the Three Saints Gang went mad because of that smuggling ship, searching everywhere in the Ten Thousand Ghost Frozen Tundra, even making it impossible for the exploration teams to work normally.

Recalling it now, those weapons and equipment that seemed high-end but could actually be bought were not enough to make the Holy Nest mobilize so many people.

Unless, there was a more important strange object or secret lost?

PS: The first update is here, asking for double monthly votes, thank you, thank you.

(End of this chapter)