Apocalyptic Forecast - Chapter 50

Chapter 50: Basilisk

Armed with an assault rifle and a gas mask, Huai Shi was kicked out of the car within seconds. He tailed the Ascenders suppression troop and headed toward the manor where small fires continued crackling half-heartedly.

As far as he could see, the place was a wreck.

Amidst the ash and ruins, there were various figures that resembled huge monsters. Whether it was the extremely hard scales or the grisly-looking skeletons… They seemed as if they had come from Hell, and no matter how one looked at them, they looked too strange to be creatures of natural evolution.

Aside from that, the manor was dead silent.

As Huai Shi moved forward further, his heart went cold. What were these bastards hiding in this place? Even now, wisps of black gas were still rising slowly from the white ash, slowly dissipating in the air.

Even the strong soldiers, although wearing gas masks, seemed to be unable to withstand the pressure. Every now and then, one would stagger and fall to the ground. When this happened, nearby teammates would rush over and drag them away to receive medical attention.

Huai Shi, on the other hand, seemed to be completely unaffected.

Not only did he not sense any discomfort, he had never felt more alert and conscious. His body’s reaction speed and perception seemed to have heightened as well.

“Abyssal Sedimentation. The place has been transformed into a feeding site. The concentration of the Abyssal Sedimentation here is higher than the border.”

Ai Qing who was on the other end of correspondence replied, “With the appropriate amount of pressure, your soul functions better, similar to how diving works. However, for ordinary people who don’t have a molded soul, these sediments are highly toxic. I believe this is a favorite trick among cults.”

“Uh…”

Huai Shi lifted his rifle as he looked around cautiously. “What the hell are they up to?”

“Who knows? Maybe they were looking for some fun.”

Ai Qing continued calmly, “Once the troop enter the place, use your God-granted seal to get us deeper. Think of it as stuffing us down some creature’s stomach. If you look at the black gas there, imagine it as gastric juice that will slowly digest…”

Huai Shi shuddered as he drew his neck back, immediately becoming more vigilant.

Although the Special Affairs Bureau had plenty of manpower, they were still a government organization, so they had their limits. When it came to things like this, all they could do was fire a few mortars. With that in mind, how could terrorists have expected an unusual high-ranking crippled woman who would easily launch a missile without any warning?

They were still in the country!

What in the world was she thinking?

Aside from their friendly forces, even those unlucky spirits of the deceased would have question marks written all over their faces.

Fortunately, Ai Qing’s moral righteousness and white phosphorus bomb had thoroughly cleaned the ground so that the manor was clear of any sign of living creatures.

Even if there were any creature that had not been blown to death, they should all be poisoned now.

At the innermost level of the wreck, Huai Shi noticed a vicious-looking corpse that seemed to have been in the blast zone when the missile first exploded. Though its upper body was scorched, it may not have died on the spot and it looked as if it had been struggling to escape.

Unfortunately, it did not make it out alive as the white phosphorus bomb dropped from the sky soon after, immediately engulfing it and burning it alive.

The distorted beast-like face was still vaguely distinguishable.

The half-scorched and half-broken head revealed an ape-like broken skull, its teeth huge and sharp. However, with a soft tap of the gun barrel, it easily broke into two pieces.

One had science and technology, and the other had divine power.[1] Well, this just proves that divine power still could not beat science.

Although it was impossible to work out which rank Ascender it was or what kind of strange stigma it had, it was in the interior, so it was impossible that it would have been able to withstand the pressure.

It was said that in the old era of magic, things were very different. However, with the establishment of the Three Major Blockades in the interior, it became more and more difficult for Ascenders to mess around here.

Crow had made it clear to Huai Shi that she would only go into further detail after planting his stigma. She had never willingly brought it up with him before that, so perhaps she was trying to hide something.

Huai Shi did a final sweep through for any lurking threats, then, with a wave of his arm, a few soldiers wearing hazmat suits came forward carrying a huge box. After this, they simply threw the corpse into the box and sealed it before taking it away.

An Ascender’s corpse still held value regardless of the condition. Even if it had burned to ashes, there was still a possibility of deconstructing the remains of their stigma. They might be able to identify the corpse too if they ran an autopsy.

Unfortunately, the corpse was already thoroughly burned, such that once they touched it, it disintegrated into ashes and fell to the ground.

It was impossible to piece it back together.

Huai Shi continued moving forward, but after taking another two steps, a sense of uneasiness washed over him and he immediately took two steps backward to his original position. Bending down, he touched the white dust on the ground.

Through the ashes that remained on the ground, he spotted a slight metallic glint. When he continued digging, he quickly recognized the frame of the steel.

It was a sword.

The hilt had already been burned out of shape, as well as the hand strap on the sword handle. However, the sword itself was still intact, with only a layer of dark charcoal over it.

It was a single-edged blade about forty centimeters in length and five centimeters wide. The style of the sword suggested that it could be some sort of ritual object, but it felt smooth and nimble in his hand when he waved it around, making it obvious that it was not a sword for just some commoner.

He weighed it in his hand, finally realizing that it was not just an ordinary sword.

“It’s a border relic.”

Crow’s voice suddenly sounded by his ears. “That should have been taken from at least the seventh or eighth depth of Hell. From the looks of it, it might be the sacrificial sword used by the Tenochtitlan Empire during live sacrificial ceremonies. It’s really something!”

Crow peeped at him stealthily from the shadows behind, a gleam in her eyes as she batted her lashes. “Is there a way you can sneak it off?”

“… Where did you pop out from? What’s that head of yours thinking?!” Huai Shi asked through the Book of Destiny, “There are people watching from behind, how can I take it without them noticing?”

“Isn’t it normal for a soldier to open up his bag of equipment?”

Crow replied with a wink and shrugged casually. “And be careful, something’s behind you.”

At that instant, he felt a gust of cold wind from behind.

A chill surged from the back of his head.

Without a second of hesitation, he thrust the sacrificial sword behind him and immediately heard a loud, sharp sound. He was almost blown away by the tremendous force that met him.

Fortunately, he was no longer a weak chicken. He instinctively broke into a somersault in the air and landed steadily on the ground with his back to whatever that had attacked him.

Then, he saw a figure slowly emerging from the air.

The first thing that came to sight was the viscous blood that dripped from the burnt shell. As the figure moved, countless small, bright red cracks appeared on the surface of the burnt black skin.

Immediately afterward, the burnt layer of skin began to peel off slowly.

It was as if it was a molting snake.

Breaking free of the old body, escaping death.

Ushering in a new life.

Bits and pieces of burnt dead skin peeled off from the body and fell to the ground with each spasm, but there was no sign of skin regeneration. Soon, it revealed a distorted and bloody face.

As well as a pair of eyes that burned with hatred.

Huai Shi sucked in a deep breath.

“Dude, do you want me to call an ambulance for you?”

Although the words came out of his mouth in a joking manner, his body betrayed him. He dropped the sacrificial knife in his hand and lifted the assault rifle.

Once he was within ten meters of the creature, he began shooting and immediately emptied his magazine. Then, he skillfully pulled out a new magazine from his waistband and switched out the empty cartridge with one arm before continuing to fire.

He had to start shooting! Would he be so stupid to just wait for the creature to come over and stab him?

Huai Shi was doubtful about his chances against someone who could survive an explosion, but he would worry about that after firing his gun… After the Book of Destiny’s training, although Huai Shi dared not claim to be the king of guns, he was still skillful enough to protect himself. He was no longer the soft boy who could not even pull a trigger. The suppression troop gaped at him wide-eyed from behind as he single-handedly switched out the magazine, a skill he picked up just that morning.

How dare he claim that he did not know martial arts!

The moment Huai Shi pulled the trigger, the strange figure had tried dodging the bullets. Perhaps it had not expected Huai Shi to respond so quickly, as it did not even bother about him, instead choosing to focus on the border relic in his hand. When he saw the object being dropped from Huai Shi’s hand, it instantly pounced forward, eager to snatch its weapon back.

However, bullets were faster than beasts. In a flash, it was hit with twenty rounds of steel core bullets as a strange-looking shade of green blood splattered all over the ground.

Taking advantage of the few seconds as Huai Shi switched out the empty bullet magazine, the figure crawled back into the ruins through the broken wall.

The suppression troops were not idling away either. They were stunned at first for a few seconds, but had recovered quickly, responding with a flurry of bullets, almost turning the wall into a sieve with the sheer number of bullets they fired.

After loading a new magazine, Huai Shi casually picked up the border relic from the ground and stuffed it into his vest. He did not rush over behind the wall to check either, but instead reached into one of the soldier’s pockets and pulled out a grenade. He pulled the pin and waited a few seconds before throwing it out as hard as he could.

Before he could hear the sound of an explosion, a figure dashed out from behind the broken wall as it wailed loudly, heading directly at Huai Shi.

Bang!

Huai Shi instinctively drew his knife out to defend himself, but he could sense the army knife breaking before he fell to the ground. He felt something cold sweeping across his face; it was ice-cold and sent chills running down his spine.

It was a sharp bone.

The chaotic gunshots came to an abrupt halt as the soldiers who surrounded him fell to the ground as if they had lost their strength.

Through the gas mask, Huai Shi smelled a sweet fragrance as his vision began to blur.

It was poison!

He grabbed a handful of Disastrous Dust and threw it at the figure, who backed away right away. When he finally pulled himself up from the ground, he could feel his legs turning into jelly once more.

Only now did he finally have a clear view of the newcomer’s face.

After surviving the missile explosion and being showered with bullets, the man looked as if he had merely peeled off a layer of skin. There was a layer of pink scales covering the newly regenerated skin as well as three weird horns on his forehead that were each a different color.

What the hell?

“What are you waiting for? Finish him off!”

Crow’s voice rang in his ears with words of encouragement. “There are only two stages to a Wailing Snake’s stigma. It can only survive all that because it has a soul stronger than usual. Mind you, its poison is nothing compared to the medicine I’ve been giving you every day!”

‘Can you don’t spout bullsh*t at a time like this!’

Huai Shi retorted furiously in his head. ‘I don’t even know what you feed me every day!’

Before he could respond to Crow, the Wailing Snake Ascender pounced forward again, the sharp bone protrusion in his hand going straight for his throat, with every movement swift and forceful… However, Huai Shi could not help but find his opponent’s fighting stance funny.

Dude, are you okay?

Huai Shi easily dodged the sudden attack and pulled out the sacrificial knife that was tucked into his chest. He twisted the knife in his air as he gripped onto it tightly before thrusting it forward.

Both figures brushed by each other, but before Huai Shi could steady himself, he heard a shrill scream from behind.

The sacrificial knife had left a huge gash in the Wailing Snake’s shell from his shoulder all the way down to his lower back, revealing the colorful bones beneath.

The moment the sacrificial knife drew blood, the layer of charcoal ash above it disappeared as if washed away, and a bronze glow shone through.

As if being sucked by the knife, the trickle of blood that remained on the edge of the knife converged along the edge, forming small beads of blood. However, the wound it had opened showed no trace of blood, but instead, shriveled up like a piece of dry wood.

The sight of it was strangely terrifying.

[1] This line is quoted from the movie The East Is Red, and is said to have inspired the combination of modern weapons and traditional Chinese martial arts in Hong Kong Wuxia action movies.