Apocalypse Forecast

Chapter 740: Chapter 600 Casting_1

For some reason, Huai Shi harbored a myriad of resentments towards Luo Su, the old bastard.

For some reason, I harbor a myriad of resentments towards Luo Su, the old bastard. He was dying to find an opportunity to stab him in the back a few times and avenge the persecution he had suffered. But alas, he couldn’t beat him. To make matters worse, he was summoned and ordered around by him every day, dedicating his youth to the Ivory Tower.

Just the other day, he was dragged into a lengthy stint as a ”tool person” for a promotional video, and he didn’t even get paid a dime.

It’s as if the rights to Paradise are worth nothing! Simply lawless!

If Little Cat weren’t adamantly ignoring his calls to report the issue, Huai Shi would’ve called the Department of Justice to demand payment.

Taiyi Academy occupied a vast area, yet there were few buildings on the surface; the majority were underground. Amidst the eerie atmosphere left by countless Alchemy experiments stood a few lonely buildings, surrounded by barrenness. Cracks in the ground occasionally emitted puffs of black smoke. It was beyond comprehension what these people were actually up to here.

Before they even reached the entrance, a person with a walking stick greeted them enthusiastically. The old man, his hair white and his back slightly hunched, was dressed in loose Yingzhou attire. He had clearly been waiting for a considerable amount of time.

”I apologize for the long wait, Mr. Ping,” Huai Shi hurried to apologize. ”I’m sorry, we should’ve come earlier.”

”Oh no, no, it’s just that I’ve been so eager,” the old man grinned, his wrinkled face crinkling up like an aged chrysanthemum. ”I’ve heard about the Forgers’ skills from Mr. Simon, and I’m terribly curious, so curious—” As he spoke, he let out a strange, cackling laugh that sent chills down one’s spine.

”Come, come, Mr. Huai Shi, your lab and the Mystic Ritual have all been prepared,” the old man said, leaning on his cane as he led them through multiple twists and turns within the building, deeper into the growing darkness.

Something is definitely wrong with this building... Huai Shi thought.

Behind him, the color had drained from Lin Nineteen’s face. The interior space and orientations were beyond reason; the structure and layout were also problematic, thoroughly confusing one’s sense of place and direction.

It’s inconceivably vast.

More importantly... the negative Source Substance and aura of Disaster that hangs in the air. It’s like walking into Hell itself!

A chill ran through them, causing an involuntary shiver.

Wood Cottage saw his own shadow detach from his body and writhe and dance on the wall. When the shadow sensed his gaze, its head twisted to an unbelievable angle. It turned back and smiled at him.

His expression twitched, and he quickly followed close behind Huai Shi, not daring to stray. He was nearly at the point of childishly reaching for Huai Shi’s hand.

Huai Shi, on the other hand, let out a long, refreshing sigh and looked back to ask, ”Did you turn on the air conditioning so early?”

”Ah... right, yes, that’s correct,” replied the workshop manager, Usually Degree, nodding in agreement. He thumped his lower back. ”Aiya, when you get old, you can’t stand the heat. Please don’t mind me, Mr. Huai.”

”No problem, no problem, I’m quite cool myself,” Huai Shi agreed, stepping into the flickering elevator.

Just as everyone was on board, the light overhead suddenly dimmed and went out completely. In the fleeting darkness, Lin Nineteen felt something ice-cold and soft brush past his face.

He froze in place.

Then, he heard a hoarse, dry cough. Deep yet shrill, it pierced the darkness, bringing back the light.

”Sorry, the voice-activated lights we installed a few years ago are acting up again.” The old man squinted, gesturing awkwardly. He forcefully pressed the elevator’s control panel a couple of times before the doors slowly closed and they finally began to descend.

Lin Nineteen instinctively drew closer to Huai Shi, almost clambering onto his leg.

On the elevator’s inner wall, mold-like stains and spots began to wriggle and spread, forming a rapidly protruding face...

Then, a hand holding a cleaning agent reached over and sprayed it vigorously twice.

The face vanished.

”I apologize, it seems the cleaning crew didn’t do their job properly today,” Usually Degree said, stuffing the spray bottle filled with concentrated Holy Water back into his sleeve and smiling wryly at the guests. ”This place rarely sees visitors, so everyone tends to relax a bit, but I didn’t expect such neglect. I will definitely manage this properly; it’s simply unacceptable. Please bear with us. After all, this is the only century-old building on campus, HEH HEH, it’s just old and in disrepair, old and in disrepair...”

”...” Lin Nineteen wisely kept silent.

I’m afraid this old ghost will eat me.

Who knows what this old ghost is up to every day; he’s wrapped up in all sorts of chaotic Curses and Disasters. Even a liver spot plucked from his face could probably poison an entire school.

Besides, in a haunted place like the Ivory Tower, even a teaching building left unrepaired for two years could spawn eighteen eerie tales. A century-old building here... might as well be a haunt of ghost kings!

As a normal person, I really can’t compare my nerves to my teacher’s nerves of steel.

And I’m scared to death of ghosts.

Right now, I feel like crying but have no tears.

I should have known better than to come.

Luckily, the laboratory was clean and tidy, maintaining the absolute stability required for the Alchemy Secret Rite. Even its internal Depth could be adjusted.

”We’ve employed the latest technology,” Usually Degree explained. ”It can support artificial Depths up to level 17, so you don’t need to worry about the harsh environments some Mystic Rituals require.”

Inside the vast laboratory, he raised his hand, and the floor slowly parted to reveal a massive platform hidden beneath.

After the preparations were complete, he stood aside, beaming, like an invisible presence. He didn’t hurry anyone but watched Huai Shi set up the Mystic Ritual with keen anticipation, clicking his tongue in amazement.

The setup of the Mystic Ritual was rather complex. After all, the Forgers’ techniques differed from Alchemy, and combining them without any deviation could be quite troublesome.

Working with the Blueprints generously provided by the Great Grandmaster, Huai Shi proceeded step by step, making several mistakes along the way. Had it not been for Mr. Ping’s reminders, he wouldn’t have even noticed them.

In the midst of it all, he also received an email from Professor Anton of the Russian Federation, conveying the Ivory Tower’s research results on the Mechanical Ravens.

Boiled down to its essence, the central idea was four words: ”unable to assist.”

This was well out of Professor Anton’s area of expertise, even though it still fell under the field of mechanics and transmission studies. Professor Anton could even perfectly reconstruct their structural diagrams without disassembling them, but it was of no use.

They were like life forms evolved purely from machinery. All operations within these Ravens were maintained purely by their own Source Substance and the miracles left by the Forgers.

Strengthening them was easy; one could attach a host of reinforcing external devices in minutes, but that wouldn’t fundamentally help them. It’s not as if upgrading a graphics card and CPU would transform your XP system into Windows 10...

While the Forgers’ heritage might appear and function similarly to Alchemy, their essences represented two completely different approaches. No one knew what consequences might arise from random experimentation. The Alchemists had many bold ideas, but Huai Shi dared not try a single one.

These are all my treasures, after all. Occasionally, when two or three of them disappeared because they couldn’t see those little racy pamphlets, I’d be heartbroken. But heartache aside, and understanding aside, I still strictly prohibited the spread of those little racy pamphlets.

Otherwise, if word got out, how could I maintain my image? It would be too damaging to my reputation!

In any case, according to the Ivory Tower’s research: the Raven Flock was healthy. There were no signs of heatstroke, broken legs, or other accidents. The results of this upgrade were very good.

With the help of the Sun Caster, they were uniformly given a perfect base template, as if they had just left Newbie Village and completed a class change. They gained the freedom to transition between Source Materialization and mechanization. They also acquired a high affinity for metals, which facilitated further operations with Huai Shi’s Hand of Confinement, and were granted a Hell resistance so formidable that they could function normally even in the Abnormal Zone of Depth Nineteen.

Beyond that, there was nothing; it was a blank slate. This was merely a foundation; Huai Shi still needed to handle all subsequent matters himself.

Thus, after research, the experts concluded: it wasn’t necessarily difficult, nor was it necessarily simple. ”Not difficult” meant that for the experts, it really wasn’t challenging at all.

But for Huai Shi...

Sorry, this maneuver is too slick; you probably won’t be able to learn it.

Therefore, in the end, only two feasible approaches remained.

One was to leave it to fate and see if the Ravens, through their own efforts and daily recitation of ”Holy,” could help Huai Shi’s Sky’s Command grow, thereby indirectly boosting their own progress. Maybe they could even throw him a birthday party.

The other was for Huai Shi to strive to study the technology left by the Forgers and see if he could work a miracle through great effort.

This was a test left by the Sun Caster.

The principle that 1+1=2 has been taught to you; how to prove 1+1=2 is now up to you.

Thoughtfully enough, materials and tools had even been left for Huai Shi.

CLANG! With a sharp, crisp sound, the entire workshop was instantly shrouded in gloom.

The Ravens, working together, had extracted the Iron Ingot that had been stuffed into the Dream Cage. For Source Substance creatures like them, the despair imbued within was overwhelmingly heavy; it took hundreds of Ravens toiling for half a day to finally pry it loose. Any later, and the thing might have sprouted roots inside.

No choice. Otherwise, I couldn’t get it through Border customs.

While it looked like an Iron Ingot, it was, in reality, a negative Source Substance aggregate. It was utterly pure and dense despair. From this despair, a Curse was born. From this Curse, a form condensed, having undergone at least three Source Material Transformations. This substance, once released, could instantly lower the Depth of a Border by one.

Even as Source Substance, it’s beyond my Soul’s absorption capacity. It requires further processing.

With such a rich store of negative Source Substance, pure despair, I’m eager to see what kind of weapon it could ultimately create.

When Huai Shi raised his right hand, the limb of steel slowly unfolded.

The furnace heart, long dormant within, ignited.

The time for forging had arrived!