Apocalyptic Forecast - Chapter 51
Chapter 51: People of the Pure Land
“That good huh?”
After recovering from his shock, Huai Shi was immediately overjoyed as his confidence began to swell. This time, he did not wait for his opponent to attack and instead initiated the first move.
The sacrificial knife was not exactly long, just slightly longer than the ordinary dagger, so it was a perfect fit with Huai Shi’s dagger skills.
His LV8 Roman Dagger Kickboxing technique had come in handy when he fought against Red Glove. That technique of his had reached a professional level of mastery and was no longer just a flowery technique used for showing off. Now, it had evolved into a lethal killing move.
Suddenly, Wailing Snake felt an excruciating pain that interrupted his anger.
All it wanted to do was to take back the sacred relic given by the Lord and play around with a weak chicken along the way to vent his anger. However, it did not expect to have kicked over a beehive.
Where did such an abnormal guy pop out from?
This weird guy was reacting in a strange way, and not only was he unafraid of snake venom, his knife skills were terribly good too. He had also directly skipped two stages and completely beaten his *ss without even having a stigma…
“F*ck off!”
He shrieked as he used his bone blade to parry Huai Shi’s knife. Then, he turned swiftly in an attempt to flee, only to see a row of people standing behind him. When they saw that he was attempting to escape, they immediately started shooting, as if trying to force him into a duel with Huai Shi.
Wailing Snake was so frustrated it was going to lose its mind.
Even in a tense combat situation where it was being suppressed by soldiers with weapons, would he—a second stage Gold-grade Ascender—be afraid of a newbie who did not even have a stigma?
He should grab a hostage now before thinking of his next step!
As Huai Shi continued attacking aggressively, Wailing Snake’s teeth suddenly increased in size and sprayed out a water-like venom, which quickly transformed into a white spray of mist in the air. As the white mist moved through the air, the nearby stones that came into contact with it started to melt.
Huai Shi was shocked and quickly backed away, but Wailing Snake seized the opportunity and forced an attack. Ignoring the danger, it reached out and grabbed the blood-sucking knife while its other free arm reached for Huai Shi’s neck.
All of a sudden, its vision went black as it heard an ear-deafening gunshot.
With one hand still gripping the knife, Huai Shi’s other hand had reached for his handgun inside his vest. He then held it against Wailing Snake’s temple and pulled the trigger continuously.
Although the small-caliber bullet could not penetrate Wailing Snake’s skull, the impact of the bullet was still just as substantial as if it had. Wailing Snake was instantly stunned, unsure if its brain had been blown out of its head.
“Let go!”
Huai Shi drew the sacrificial knife in his hand and struggled to get out of Wailing Snake’s grip. As the edge of the knife cut through the air, a ball of white elementium fire ignited in his hand, exerting the weight of an ax onto the knife. Then, with a swift swing of his arm, Huai Shi sliced off one of Wailing Snake’s arms, before quickly drawing his knife to take another swing.
With two quick swings, he had sliced off both of Wailing Snake’s arms.
After absorbing all the fresh blood, the sacrificial knife that was previously chipped seemed to have repaired itself. It went from looking like an old piece of tattered bronze scrap to having its original bronzy glow restored, as if it was freshly forged. Moreover, it suddenly seemed to have a change of heart and started to absorb Huai Shi’s elementium.
“Stealing my elementium? Are you kidding me?”
Huai Shi was amused. How dare it steal a negativity machine’s elementium? The sacrificial sword must be making a mistake.
He simply turned his Disastrous Dust into elementium and mixed it together with a huge dose of Heart Poison before pumping it throughout his body. The sword could suck all it wanted if it wished to.
At first, the sword continued gulping down as much elementium as it could, but when it finally noticed that something was wrong, the Trapping Hand had already gripped it by the handle such that it was forced to continue absorbing. It was as if it was forcing it to gulp down chili water, allowing it to chug to its heart’s content.
In the end, the sword trembled violently and let out a wailing sound, seemingly begging for mercy.
The pure negative energy and deadly poison had tortured it to the point where it was choking and desperately gasping for air. It had returned to its rusty state in which Huai Shi had found it earlier as it stayed in his grip obediently, not daring to try anything funny anymore.
Now that he had settled what was going on in his body, it was time to return his focus to the battle.
Huai Shi raised the sacrificial knife and flipped the edge of the blade before continuing his attack on Wailing Snake. The Trapping Hand exerted a force as great as an ax would, and soon enough, the Wailing Snake fell to the ground. It continued twitching for a bit before finally falling silent.
It was as though a tiger had left his hills and descended to the plains, only to be insulted by a dog. After being served several rounds of missiles and explosives, a Gold-grade powerhouse that could have easily defeated Huai Shi ended up being beaten instead. Not only that, under Crow’s stubborn persuasion, its three horns had also been chopped off and taken away by Huai Shi as well.
Those were incredibly valuable.
The poison and essence of Wailing Snake’s stigma were contained in them. If they managed to extract it and purify it, it could be used to brew plenty of detox potions for neurotoxins.
“These can probably be sold for tens of thousands,” Crow said before pausing for a second before continuing, “Per gram.”
After hearing these words, Huai Shi, who was initially still hesitating, immediately decided to take the risk and go ahead.
It was good stuff!
A high-level Ascender like Wailing Snake was indeed precious!
After Huai Shi finished up his task, the suppression troop that had been waiting aside for a long time immediately rushed over and put multiple layers of shackles on the dying Wailing Snake that was barely even breathing.
First, they placed shackles to bound its body, followed by an explosive collar around its neck that could block off its stigma. Then, they injected a few tubes of colorful drugs into the carotid artery on its neck using a syringe gun. Finally, they inserted a nail that was approximately seven or eight centimeters long into its neck. Huai Shi jumped slightly as he watched out of the corner of his eye.
Was there a need to be this ruthless?
The macho men of the suppression troop looked calm and collected as one of them gave him a wave as if to say that this was basic protocol. Perhaps Chief Fu was ordering this to serve as a warning for someone else… In his head, Huai Shi reminded himself not to mess around in the interior anymore.
Nevertheless, there seemed to only be one fish that had narrowly missed the net. Huai Shi went around the ruins to check once again, but nothing jumped out at him this time around.
Unfortunately, there was no sight of Wang Hai either, not even his corpse.
Technically, a weakling like him who was not even an Ascender should not be able to survive the missile explosion, which was why Huai Shi was so suspicious. How strong was this fellow to be able to survive Red Glove? Even now, as his corpse was nowhere to be seen, it was likely he was probably hiding somewhere trying to plot his next step.
In the woods far away, Crow whistled and looked in the direction of another small hill.
Earlier, from the moment the bomb dropped from the sky, the group of human figures who could be seen hiding in the dark had immediately turned around. Ditching their comrades, they fled wildly without even looking back, like old peasants who had just been caught red-handed for stealing watermelons.
From that, she could only conclude that the way Wang Hai was able to warn his accomplices was way scarier than whatever plots he was hatching.
Crow watched everything unfold from the beginning to the end from the sidelines but said nothing, only fluttering her wings every now and then, causing her feathers to fall to the ground.
Carried by the wind, the feather landed on the back of his naked neck, and just like a droplet of diluted ink, it sank into his skin, turning into something akin to a sunburn mark.
What kind of fish can this bait attract in this slough?
She was indeed curious.
.
.
“Good job.”
Ai Qing cast a glance at Wailing Snake, who was locked in the cage. “I say, we caught a big fish this time.”
Chief Fu heaved a heavy sigh as he looked at the ruins that had been burned to the ground. The Astronomical Association might have had fun calling an air raid, but the Special Affairs Bureau was the one in charge of cleaning up the aftermath.
This group of people was indeed tough, otherwise, they would not be able to get even a single confession from them.
What puzzled him more was Ai Qing’s hardcore Russian Federation-style logic.
However, he still had her to thank for this rash and extreme measure, now that they had successfully avoided a potentially risky ambush. Just one look at the remains on sight was enough to make one flinch.
Something that bothered him even more was the fact that so many border mutants had appeared in the interior.
The number of monstrosities was enough to form a group to start a head-on war with their modern troops…
He lit a cigarette in frustration. “What the hell are those people at Customs doing?”
“Although it’s tempting to bring it up with that useless bunch, unfortunately, Customs has nothing to do with this.”
Ai Qing let out a heavy sigh and continued in a pitiful tone, suggesting another possibility, “What if they’re not being smuggled across the border, but they’re being raised here in the interior?”
“Eh?” Chief Fu was stunned at her suggestion but immediately frowned.
If that was truly the case, everything made sense. It added up when he thought of where the Savior’s Association had been hiding all their stolen money and resources, as well as the reason behind their continuous effort in climbing ranks to obtain certain privileges.
However, this also meant that the severity of the situation had increased again.
The ironic part was that the Special Affairs Bureau only found out after Green Day, the terrorist organization, had exposed it. The Savior’s Association had been totally hush-hush about their movements, quietly developing along the coastal areas over the past few years, which was why the Special Affairs Bureau had absolutely no knowledge about it.
From this, it was highly likely that someone behind the scenes was covering this up to keep them safe and allow them to continue thriving…
The most troublesome thing was that unlike normal farm animals that could grow healthily after being fed some grass or hay, border mutants were extremely sensitive to their environments, perhaps even more so than most endangered animals. Whether it was air or food, even the depth of their surroundings would greatly affect their growth and development.
Aside from the Astronomical Association that had closed down all biological experiments involving large living creatures, there were only a few other institutions that were capable of doing so.
As it happens, among the few remaining institutions, one was especially known for their ability to groom border mutants…
“The People of the Pure Land.”
The words came out like a strained moan as Chief Fu massaged his temples. “D*mn it, we’re in deep sh*t then. Are you sure?”
“Don’t we already have a test subject in front of us now?”
Ai Qing raised her head to look at Wailing Snake in the cage, the look in her eyes deep and meaningful. “If it’s really that gang of lunatics, you won’t be able to get any answers out of them. So, why don’t we reuse the trash now?
When the People of the Pure Land accomplish Ascension through the aid of external forces, an imprint of their Lord would be left in their souls. From then onward, everything, including the creature’s life and flesh body, every drop of blood, and every piece of flesh, ultimately belongs to the ultimate Lord.
At the Elysium in Hell, whether it was a believer or a messenger, all living creatures were nothing but stockpiled food. Once they were deemed to have lost their value, they became meals at banquets for those in the higher ranks…”
She looked as Chief Fu as she spoke, his expression changing every now and then. After a long pause, he heaved a helpless sigh and waved his arm at her. “It’s up to you then. I’ll sign the papers later.”
With that, Ai Qing turned away contentedly and beckoned at Huai Shi.
Huai Shi, who was idling away in the corner, jumped in shock, and after looking around him to confirm that Ai Qing was indeed calling him over, he could not help but feel a sense of uneasiness wash over him.
“Dude…” He lingered on the spot, clearly reluctant to get any closer to her. “Even if I’m a brick that belongs to the Astronomical Association, it’s not appropriate to move me around every single day, right?”
“Relax, I’m not asking you to leap into the line of fire.”
Ai Qing pointed at the sacrificial knife in his pocket and continued, “Give that to me.”
Huai Shi hesitated slightly before finally taking the knife out. He turned the knife over and passed it to her blade-first. “Be careful, this thing is quite evil.”
“It’s just a Grade B border relic, the risks it holds is still very controllable.”
Completely unbothered by what Huai Shi had just said, she took out a handkerchief and wrapped it around the knife before taking it from Huai Shi. Immediately after the knife left Huai Shi’s hand, it began to act up once again. It started to shake and let out a low wail that made one’s hair stand on end.
Ai Qing propped up her crutches with one hand and lifted herself from the wheelchair. With the other arm holding the knife, she stepped forward nonchalantly and moved nearer to the cage. Then, she reached through the cage bars and stabbed the Wailing Snake Ascender in the throat.
Bang!