Chapter 96: Is a Heavenly Craft Nuclear Bomb by My Side?

The moment he stepped into the "Alchemist" realm, Li Yu perceived both the astonishing transformation of his own body and the new strange arts he had acquired.

First was the body; the body of a Pill Disciple was already not weak, but compared to the Alchemist’s Dharma Body, it was far inferior. Beyond the doubling of attributes like strength, self-healing, poison resistance, and drug resistance, he had also gained resistance to negative status effects and corruption, as well as powerful intuition.

At this moment, even if he did not circulate his pill fire, the time it would take for the blood-rust virus in the air to invade his body would be ten times longer than before.

Next were the strange arts!

Li Yu’s original three arts—Pill Fire, Ingestion, and Medicinal Cuisine—had all received a massive boost.

For instance, with the art of Ingestion, Li Yu no longer needed to use his tongue; he could "taste" the flavor and strange properties of the blood-rust virus through the pores of his skin, and the direction for an antidote vaguely surfaced as well.

Of course, he had also gained new strange arts.

They were: [Demonic Speech] and [God-Playing].

Both were easy to understand and extremely useful techniques.

The former allowed Li Yu to form a special force field once he spoke; those who heard his voice would have their emotions swayed by him and would involuntarily choose to believe him. If they were commoners with weak resistance, even if Li Yu said something outrageous, they would still obey him implicitly.

The latter allowed him to impersonate practitioners of other sequences, such as the nine pills he had swallowed. Of course, he could only impersonate the appearance and did not possess true power, unless he continued to swallow pills for assistance, in which case the effect would far exceed the previous one, reaching a level of perfect impersonation.

To put it plainly, it was exactly the eight characters: "Demonic speech to confuse the masses" and "playing god to deceive."

And the very next moment, he put them to use.

Because the efficacy of the [Furnace Body-Refining Soup] was truly astonishing.

The thousand-plus people who had been attracted to buy it had their conditions return to normal after drinking it, and they all reacted accordingly.

This soup’s miraculous effect lasted only one day.

What was to be done after that day?

Who knew when the rescue from the Holy Nest would come, or if it would even come at all?

Consequently, these people did not leave; instead, they surrounded Li Yu, demanding he continue to brew more Furnace Body-Refining Soup.

At the same time, they tacitly kept the news contained.

With over a thousand people gathered, there was no lack of low-level practitioners. Strength in numbers gave them courage; at first, they only demanded that Li Yu lower the price.

Later, as the clamor rose, some blind ones began shouting for it to be free, otherwise they would tear down Li Yu’s home and slaughter him, and so on.

Such a rapid change!

Li Yu saw it with his own eyes and could not help but be startled.

Fortunately, he was not too surprised; this was Wanfu City, after all—it couldn't be more normal.

This was human nature; he believed that even in the Three Kingdoms, if it were truly the end of the world, the residents wouldn't be much better.

However, now that Li Yu had ascended to "Alchemist," he naturally lost the interest to continue selling the body-refining soup, even though it could earn a lot of money.

But he also knew by now!

When at Sequence Seven or below, money still had great use.

Any higher, and it was useless.

The higher the sequence, the more terrifying the power, and secret medicine formulas were simply not something money could buy.

"Causing such a big commotion is already somewhat out of control; I cannot sell the soup anymore."

"I will stop here."

With the thought settled, Li Yu acted immediately.

One could see his complexion turn visibly pale, and the Qi he emitted became incomparably weak as he spoke:

"My fellow neighbors, it is not that I am unwilling to brew the medicinal soup for everyone, but I truly cannot do it."

"These medicinal soups have exhausted all my spiritual Qi; I have even used forbidden arts and divine abilities. To recover, it will take at least two or three days, or perhaps half a month at most. Neighbors, please wait for me a little longer."

"During this time, news about me must not be leaked."

"Everyone, please disperse."

Li Yu’s feigned transformation and these evasive words were not particularly clever.

Normally, few people would listen.

But at this moment, a strange scene occurred: the commoners among the thousand-plus neighbors smiled and agreed upon hearing this, then obediently dispersed. The remaining low-level practitioners did not hold out much longer either; upon hearing the last sentence, they fully accepted Li Yu’s explanation and followed suit, leaving as well.

A major trouble that was likely to cost him his life was easily resolved by Li Yu, and on the surface, it didn't even look like anything special had happened.

Demonic speech to confuse the masses—it was truly strange.

Afterward, Li Yu glanced from afar at the protective barrier and the bustling crowd outside the Tianji Workshop.

His brows furrowed slightly, then he returned to his residence and dragged Hong Dou straight to the alchemy room.

On the way, he shouted:

"Come, come, come, evaluate my combat power for your master again."

"This time, can you still kill me easily?"

……

When night fell again over Tianji Workshop, the door to the alchemy room inside the meat shop residence opened once more.

Li Yu walked out with a look of satisfaction. Behind him, in the scarlet steam carrying a strange fragrance, was the mechanical maid slowly retracting her chain-saw sword.

The post-battle evaluation report spilled from her mouth:

"Based on the combat results and the information provided by the Master, when the Master does not consume pills for assistance, Hong Dou must exhaust her spiritual energy to enter high-intensity slaughter mode to barely kill the Master... If the Master consumes pills, Hong Dou will be killed by the Master... As a mechanical body, Hong Dou is immune to other abilities the Master is more proficient in, leading to a deviation of over fifty percent in the estimation of the Master’s combat power..."

"Hong Dou suggests that the Master store as many relevant spiritual pills as possible; the more diverse the varieties and the higher the grade, the stronger the Master’s combat power will be."

"At the same time, for the second strange art the Master possesses, [God-Playing], it is suggested that the Master reduce the frequency of use... Every time this art is used, the probability of the Master being noticed and killed by an unknown True God will increase."

"As for the new path sequence cultivation the Master will undertake, according to its characteristic requirements, if you go to the Qian, Li, or Jing kingdoms ruled by the six great orthodox god sects, efficiency will drop by thirty to sixty percent. If you remain in Wanfu City, the time to ascend to the next sequence can be significantly shortened..."

Clearly, Hong Dou’s evolution and transformation were significant. This time, besides the combat conclusion, she had additionally provided some cultivation suggestions.

Falling into Li Yu’s ears, he really felt that every point was extremely useful.

Although he desperately wanted to leave Wanfu City!

He also knew that the Alchemist sequence indeed progressed fastest in a place as dangerous and complex as Wanfu City.

"Let’s take it one step at a time for now."

"There is still a not-so-small trouble right in front of us; I don't know how the [Holy Nest] intends to deal with Tianji Workshop."

"There are tens of thousands of workshop residents here, many practitioners, and forces like the Rouge Society that are slightly inferior to the Three Saints Gang... For a district hegemon, this is a major asset that cannot be lost."

"Normally, they shouldn't just ignore it. The question is, can the Holy Nest detoxify it once and for all?"

"If it drags past tonight, I fear large-scale deaths will begin."

Just as Li Yu stood in the courtyard, looking up at the barrier and deducing the aftermath.

The "rescue" he had anticipated abruptly arrived.

=9+Book_Bar

A full ten massive steam airships, with scarlet paint and the large, obvious logo of the Holy Nest, flew in from the distance.

Along the way, there was a constant roar.

Even a fool knew that the South District hegemon, [Holy Nest], was finally going to take action to rescue Tianji Workshop. The onlookers who had seen enough excitement during the day and dispersed gathered once again outside the barrier.

Very quickly, the ten airships reached the top of the barrier, and as the dome of the barrier cracked open,

One after another, mechanical constructs resembling "cannonballs" detached from the bottoms of the giant airships and smashed directly into Tianji Workshop.

This scene!

Terrified quite a few people.

Both inside and outside the workshop, a terrifying thought subconsciously arose in everyone's hearts: "What is the Holy Nest doing? Are they going to bombard Tianji Workshop? Since they can't detoxify it, are they just going to kill all the residents? Has the Holy Nest gone mad?"

Fortunately, the next moment, a "beep-beep-beep" warning prompt echoed throughout the inside and outside of Tianji Workshop.

"Attention all residents of Tianji Workshop! Please stay in your homes and do not move about; there is no need to panic."

"The Holy Nest is deploying a detoxifying agent that can completely decompose the blood-rust virus in all residents at once, leaving no sequelae."

"However, the detoxification process will involve some tolerable pain."

"After half an incense stick of time, the barrier will be deactivated."

"Repeating again! Please, Tianji Workshop..."

As the broadcast began to repeat.

All the bombs that had landed also burst open with a "bang, bang, bang."

But, there was no destructive power.

They merely released a large amount of sickly green mist with a "hiss, hiss, hiss," which seemed to have a life of its own, rapidly permeating the entire Tianji Workshop.

The Old Street was naturally within the coverage area.

As the green mist permeated the meat shop residence, Li Yu first smelled a sour odor like aged vinegar, followed by a faint corrosiveness. The blood-rust virus, of which there wasn't much left in his body, was instantly decomposed and destroyed by this green mist.

The concentration of the virus filling the air dropped rapidly, and even the floating rust particles grew larger and coarser, turning into "green copper sand" visible to the naked eye, falling down with a rustle.

For a time, it rained green copper in Tianji Workshop.

The scene looked both strange and possessed a certain unique beauty.

"Hmm? Is it really a detoxifying agent that works once and for all?"

"The Holy Nest has really spent a fortune this time."

"I wonder what the ingredients are; the effect is far better than my Furnace Body-Refining Soup."

As Li Yu asked this, he also turned his head to look at Hong Dou.

With the mechanical maid’s current intelligence, she should be able to respond immediately and analyze the components of the sickly green mist.

But at this moment, what Li Yu saw was a look of extremely "vivid" surprise and shock suddenly appearing on the maid’s face.

And what she uttered was not the answer Li Yu expected, but an unprovoked, intense warning:

"Master!"

"An unknown danger has occurred, originating from a mechanical secret box suspected to be produced by the Heavenly Craft Sect."

"It is speculated that the antidote released by the [Sacred Nest] organization is the special biological key for this secret box; it will open automatically upon contact."

"Beep, beep, beep!"

"High-intensity danger detected, threatening the master's life..."

Before these mechanical sounds had even faded, Hongdou had already turned back to the main room.

Li Yu followed closely behind, and upon entering the room, he saw Hongdou take out the mechanical secret box that had been temporarily shelved because the key could not be solved.

At this moment, this seamless, flawless, and incredibly exquisite and mysterious box—

—was glowing with a frantic red light and, accompanied by "click-clack" sounds, was opening on its own.

But before Li Yu could see what was stored inside, he first heard a terrifying notification that made his soul flee in terror:

"Biological key contacted, opening in progress."

"Beep, beep, beep...!"

"Incorrect location detected, incorrect time, incorrect person contacted... initiating [Small Heavenly Craft Nuclear Bomb] self-destruct sequence..."

(End of chapter)