Chapter 94: Furnace Refining Soup and Seizing the Opportunity to Advance

"Don't you dare tell me that there's such a coincidence, such a cliché thing in this world."

"Because I let Hongdou snatch that mystic box, causing the Three Saints' modification to fail, this Blood Rust Disaster was born?"

While Li Yu mimicked Hongdou's self-defense mechanism, controlling his internal fire to roast his entire body so the blood rust virus couldn't invade, he felt it was absurd.

At the same time, he ordered Hongdou without hesitation:

"Go, pack up our belongings and luggage."

"First, leave the Heavenly Mechanism Workshop."

As the saying goes, a gentleman does not stand under a dangerous wall. Li Yu didn't have time to think about whether this sudden disaster was related to him; running away first was the priority.

One could tell from the movement of that massive explosion and the range covered by the shockwave!

The entire Heavenly Mechanism Workshop had nowhere to hide.

From humans to various mechanical creations, all would be poisoned and suffer.

Sure enough!

Just as he finished speaking, things began to fall from the sky above the Heavenly Mechanism Workshop like dumplings.

Steam airships and mechanical tower ships all suffered severe malfunctions, stalling in mid-air and beginning to rust. Even the new tower ships that had been in use for less than a few days were the same. After a clattering sound, they fell straight to the ground, smashing into balls of fire.

And when Li Yu rushed out of the residence with Hongdou, a scene like the apocalypse forced its way into his eyes.

The workshop residents had all rushed out of their homes, wailing and begging for help.

Regardless of gender or age, their symptoms were exactly the same as Li Yu's earlier. Large patches of blood rust eroded and spread. Everyone was coughing incessantly, but what they spat out wasn't thick phlegm or saliva, but a blood mist carrying rust, causing the entire street and even the whole Heavenly Mechanism Workshop to be filled with that thick, fishy, sweet smell.

Furthermore, because hallucinations were constantly sprouting in their minds, the residents cried and wailed by turns, terrifying and strange.

And those monster buses on the street that should have been operating in an orderly fashion also stalled and lost control, crashing around, and in a very short time became covered in rust, as if they were old objects that had been used for a long time.

There were also various mechanical buildings like clock towers and towers that met the same fate. The mechanical clocks no longer moved, and the outer wall pipes were covered in rust...

This massive change made Li Yu feel dazed, reminding him of the scenes of the Great Depression in some industrial cities he had seen online in his past life. Coupled with the residents coughing up blood mist and begging for help everywhere, the sense of déjà vu became even stronger.

"Flesh and rust combined... will it become like this?"

"It's the Sacred Nest!"

"A group of lunatics inside mastered the Heavenly Work Sect's mechanical forbidden arts, attempting to fuse their own flesh forbidden arts with machinery, which is why they created this strange and terrifying virus."

Because Li Yu knew many secrets, his mind didn't have a single doubt; he was very certain.

And in the next moment, it turned into cursing.

Seeing that Li Yu was about to leave the Heavenly Mechanism Workshop with Hongdou, while still two streets away from entering the City Lord's Mansion area.

Abruptly, a giant barrier descended, shrouding the entire Heavenly Mechanism Workshop.

Steam airships and tower ships, brand new and loaded with terrifying turrets, flew in from everywhere, surrounding the outside of the Heavenly Mechanism Workshop. A warning notification with a strong sense of killing intent echoed through the night sky.

"Beep, beep, beep!"

"Warning, warning!"

"Due to an unknown disaster occurring within the Heavenly Mechanism Workshop, leading to the spread of an unknown virus, the Heavenly Mechanism Workshop is temporarily being closed off."

"No one is allowed to enter, and no Heavenly Mechanism Workshop resident is allowed to leave."

"Please rest assured, all residents; this incident has been taken over by the 【Sacred Nest】, and an antidote will be developed and distributed as soon as possible."

"After the first spread, the virus concentration is rapidly decreasing. The Sacred Nest guarantees there will be no second explosion."

"In addition, according to observations of existing cases, the unknown virus will not cause death in a short time. However, please do not drink water, do not engage in strenuous activity, and please return to your homes to wait for the antidote to be developed..."

Obviously, the mortals and cultivators who wanted to escape the Heavenly Mechanism Workshop overnight were far more than just Li Yu.

But at this moment, they were all blocked by the barrier, and those notifications and orders clearly came from the Southern District overlord, the 【Sacred Nest】.

If one chose to force their way out, even if they didn't die under the artillery fire, they wouldn't escape the pursuit of the Sacred Nest's experts.

Facing an overlord of a district!

Even those at Sequence Five would choose to retreat.

Of course, it was inevitable that they would curse loudly:

"What kind of nonsense is this, telling us to go home and wait for death?"

"And 'unknown disaster'? Doesn't that exploded factory belong to the Three Saints Gang? Hu Xianfeng, Yang Daoli, and Lu Yimiao, these three monsters, are now completely people of the Sacred Nest. They caused this, so what 'unknown' are you talking about?"

"It would be best if those three monsters were blown to death. I don't know what kind of conscience-less things they were doing to create such a strange virus. I can spit out half a catty of rust every time I cough now."

"Although the whole Wanfu City is causing trouble today, no one said such a big thing would happen. Besides, didn't those three monsters not get the Demon Star Command? Why join in the fun? Could it be that the three monsters are collectively advancing to Sequence Five?"

"There might not be a disaster; it's all the Demon Star Command Master causing trouble."

"Sigh, let's all go back and wait for death. I never thought I'd encounter such a thing one day. Can a flesh body rust too?"

"I don't know how many people will die in the Heavenly Mechanism Workshop tonight."

"You'll know if you go near that factory. The ground and streets are full of rusted corpses. They were all living people before, but now if you throw their bodies into a steel furnace, you can directly refine them into steel ingots... *cough, cough, cough*... I can gather an iron nail every time I cough a few times now."

Li Yu, who was also driven back home, was originally thinking of a way to escape.

But listening to these curses and looking at the residents along the way who were coughing incessantly on the streets or in their own homes, but were indeed not yet dead.

A rather crazy thought suddenly appeared in his mind.

"The time for advancement has come?"

"I need to become famous through alchemy or gold refining, and leave a mark in the bodies of at least a thousand people... If I use those methods I collected earlier, there will be no shortage of dangerous consequences."

"But right now, it is clearly a near-perfect scene."

"As a member of the City Lord's Mansion exploration team, because I'm infected, I research the antidote myself. Even if it's just a spirit elixir to alleviate symptoms, sharing it afterwards... oh no, selling it, is simply the most reasonable thing."

The more Li Yu thought about it, the brighter the light in his eyes became.

But he didn't turn back immediately, instead quietly withdrawing his alchemy fire and letting the blood rust virus in the air invade his body again.

He wanted to use the currently poisoned Heavenly Mechanism Workshop residents to complete the ritual!

The prerequisite was naturally that he could produce medicine to detoxify or alleviate the poison to save lives.

His alchemy fire and Hongdou's corpse-burning furnace fire were clearly not enough.

Very quickly, Li Yu's expression shifted, revealing a hint of a smile.

The content of the blood rust virus in the air had indeed dropped a lot. Although it could still poison people and cause rust to precipitate on the surface of their skin, it could no longer reach a lethal dose directly.

Li Yu silently estimated that even mortals could hold on for a few days if they were poisoned by this.

Of course!

If there was no antidote after a few days, everyone would turn into rusted, strange iron corpses.

Once the idea was set, Li Yu was no longer in a hurry to leave.

Instead, he dragged Hongdou back to the residence. During the process, Li Yu operated the ingestion technique, chewing the blood rust poison in his body back and forth, analyzing its toxic components. After arriving home, Li Yu seemed to remember something and ordered his maid:

"Hongdou!"

"Release your defenses and let the virus infect your body again."

"Before the symptoms become severe, analyze it and see if there is any way to stop the rust poison from spreading."

"Yes, Master!"

After speaking, Li Yu reached into his bosom and took out the storage sachet gifted by the little nun Miaochang.

With a thought, a strange book made entirely of human skin fell into his hands.

The Zhishan Notes!

Li Yu had anticipated before that he might use this evil book, which recorded many flesh modification forbidden arts, in the future.

He didn't expect this day to come so soon.

"This blood rust virus is most likely created by the Sacred Nest lunatics through experiments, and it is related to flesh and machinery."

"Although the notes are a book from the Warring States period, lagging behind the current version by who knows how many generations, one of its compilers, the 【Fifth Saint】, is likely an expert within the Sacred Nest. Coupled with the support of a large number of flesh experiments, there might be clues to the antidote to be found."

=9+Book_Bar

With this thought, Li Yu began to quickly read through the notes, which emitted a disgusting and uncomfortable smell.

One perverted experiment after another entered his eyes.

Although Li Yu's mind was already beyond that of an ordinary person, and regardless of what he was polluted by, his last shred of reason would be locked tight.

But the experimental records in the "Zhishan Notes" were too realistic.

The more he read, the more he felt immersed in the scene.

Reading a few more pages, he would even feel that he was the "operator," the saint who could create new races and control all flesh.

"Phew! If this ghostly thing fell into the hands of others, whether they were mortals or cultivators, I'm afraid they wouldn't be able to resist the temptation at all and would directly throw themselves into the embrace of the Sacred Nest."

"The feeling of using all things and everyone else as experimental subjects is too refreshing, too joyful; it's simply not something that bed affairs can compare to."

"No wonder the people of the Sacred Nest are arrogant lunatics. It turns out they all see themselves as 'Creators of the Human World'?"

Li Yu complained while enduring the nausea to find clues and ideas for the antidote.

Not long after, he made a discovery.

"Hmm?"

"The rejection reaction between the flesh of different races... will lead to the collapse of the sutured flesh organs... They must be refined separately using the refining technique first. Master said this technique is a secret transmission of the Sacred Nest, but it is actually extremely troublesome and inefficient. I have developed a 【Blood Washing Agent】 that can permeate and refine rejected flesh on a large scale, facilitating suturing."

"Blood Washing Agent!"

Just as Li Yu extracted the keyword and was about to study its formula.

Hongdou, who was on the side, suddenly spoke up:

"Reporting to Master, the analysis is complete."

"The rust contained in the virus is exactly the same as real rust. You can use oily substances like machine oil or lard to stop its spread."

"Machine oil? Lard?"

When this answer, which was completely unrelated and even somewhat absurd, entered Li Yu's ears.

It seemed to trigger his inspiration in an instant. His original intention was to refine some kind of detoxifying spirit elixir, but what was triggered to operate automatically at this moment was the Medicinal Cuisine technique.

Very quickly, a very special medicinal cuisine took shape in his mind.

A brilliant smile also appeared on Li Yu's face.

The next day, at dawn.

The Heavenly Mechanism Workshop, which used to be bustling, was now extremely miserable, and it had also become the focus of attention. People from the entire Southern District, and even other districts, flocked here.

For no other reason!

The mushroom cloud from the big explosion last night was too shocking; even the barbarians far away in the Northern District heard it clearly.

Of course, what was even more eye-catching was the so-called blood rust virus that spread after this explosion; it was truly sensational and incredibly bizarre.

"Everyone, hurry and go look. The Heavenly Mechanism Workshop is blocked. I heard there's a plague that can make people's flesh bodies grow rust."

"What? There's such a thing?"

"It's absolutely true. Around the big explosion last night, the ground was full of rusted iron corpses."

"The Heavenly Mechanism Workshop has been activated with restrictions by the Sacred Nest, completely sealing off the entry and exit roads. However, the barrier is transparent. If you find a good spot now, you can see the strange appearance of the Heavenly Mechanism Workshop residents."

"Hurry, hurry, let's all go take a look."

"If that's the case, if all the infected Heavenly Mechanism Workshop residents were thrown into a steel furnace, wouldn't it be possible to refine an unprecedentedly large lump of steel ingots?"

This is Wanfu City; it's perfectly normal for people to tell hell jokes.

And at this moment, outside the barrier, almost every place was crowded with people.

There were both mortals and cultivators, all here to see the rare sight, and they were soon satisfied.

Everyone saw that now, inside the Heavenly Mechanism Workshop, there were infected residents everywhere.

Most people followed the Sacred Nest's warning, lying at home without eating or drinking, trying to slow down the speed of the virus erosion.

But there were also many people who were tortured by hallucinations and wandered around wailing, because every inch of their skin was incredibly itchy. They kept reaching out to rub it, and with every rub, they could rub off a large handful of rust, which fell down with a rustling sound.

These scenes made people click their tongues in wonder.

The number of onlookers was also increasing.

"What a strange plague virus. Flesh rusting, unheard of."

"The Heavenly Mechanism Workshop has tens of thousands of residents, right? I'm afraid they're all hopeless. Something like rust, swallowing a handful into the abdomen is enough to kill you, let alone this kind of internal erosion."

"Causing such a disaster, do the three monsters of the Three Saints Gang want to collectively advance to Sequence Five?"

"This is already considered a terrifying torture. If 【Kind Doctor Hu Buku】 were put inside to fight poison with poison, I wonder what would happen?"

"Hu Buku has already been here. He is indeed very kind-hearted, saying he wanted to go in and turn all the residents into zombies to end their suffering... If he hadn't run fast, he would have been caught and slaughtered by a Sacred Nest expert."

"Eh?"

"Look at that street quickly. The symptoms on the residents there are fading. They are gathering towards a meat shop residence near the street, as if they are buying some kind of soup? It can't be an antidote, right?"

"Dream on. This is obviously a disgusting plague virus created by the Three Saints Gang's flesh experiments. What kind of soup could cure it, and it was made overnight?"

"Ah, it's effective. That group of people seems to have really been cured after drinking it."

"There's a bronze chicken standing next to that person, seemingly broadcasting something. Who has the supernatural power to copy it and listen?"

(End of chapter) ===== CHAPTER 95 =====