Apocalyptic Forecast - Chapter 52

Chapter 52: Rancher

Pop!

It was like popping open a water balloon.

Blood spewed out.

However, once the blood fell upon the knife, it quickly disappeared as it was absorbed into the blade. As the blood irrigated it, the gap in the blade grew and recovered, as if time was being reversed, until finally, a gorgeous golden pattern appeared on the copper blade.

A fake antique from a roadside stall had turned into a genuine work of art.

It looked intricate and fine, as if someone had cast it with their life.

Ai Qing took a step back, ignoring the desperate cries that came from the tip of the blade, and pulled the blade out of Wailing Snake’s throat indifferently. She shook the blood off the tip of the blade and returned it to Huai Shi.

“For the time being, it’s still considered pretty useful. Even though its appetite is quite large, it’s not bad when dealing with powerful living creatures—if this kind of illegal equipment shows up in the market, there will be a lot of trouble. You should look after it carefully.” She glanced at Chief Fu who seemed like he wanted to say something but did not know how to get the words out of his mouth. “After all…it is also the Astronomical Association’s responsibility to store dangerous items.”

Just like that, she had blatantly designated this border relic, whose threat level was most definitely Grade C and above, as a Grade D threat, and had used storage as an excuse to make it the Astronomical Association’s possession.

As soon as they had gotten their hands on it, it had already been given to this Huai kid… was that not too outrageous?

Before he could protest, Chief Fu heard a bone-chilling noise.

The temperature of the corpse that was slowly losing its vitality was not decreasing, but blood no longer spewed from its wounds. Instead, it was replaced by plumes of black smoke that rose from the corpse’s limbs.

The black smoke resembled a viscous liquid as it covered Wailing Snake’s corpse inch by inch, like it was swallowing the corpse.

This was quickly followed by gruesome chewing noises.

Every time they heard a chew, a huge chunk would disappear from the corpse as if it was being eaten by some invisible entity. Until finally, the black mist dissipated silently.

Beneath the layers of shackles, only a pile of pale bones remained.

The spirit, the flesh, and even the bone marrow had disappeared completely. Even if they were thrown into a pot and boiled for a long time, the resulting liquid would still end up like a pot of boiling water.

There was so little calcium that there was barely anything to absorb.

A gentle breeze blew past, and the bones silently crumbled into a pile of ashes.

The short “banquet” had ended with everyone’s dull expressions.

“Then, we’ll be relying on you to take care of what happens next.”

Ai Qing nodded at Chief Fu calmly. “I will submit an assistance report to the upper management, and I will ask the Social Security Bureau and the Special Affairs Bureau to cooperate.”

Chief Fu was quiet for a while, then he nodded dryly.

Next, the responsibility of cleaning up the scene belonged to the Special Affairs Bureau. Once again, the pattern repeated itself whereby Ai Qing and certain benefits came hand in hand, and Huai Shi got to enjoy being picked up by a personal driver.

It was like being a leader who had gone out an expedition, and after arriving at his destination and conducting his meeting, he had taken with him some local products before being sent back the same way he had come.

“That’s right, come tomorrow afternoon.”

Before he left, Ai Qing said to him, “There’s a delivery for you.”

“What delivery?”

“East Wind?”

Huai Shi glanced at Ms. Wheelchair, who had just washed the floors with missiles, and did not dare to ask further questions.

In short, it seemed like in the blink of an eye, the task had been completed. Equipment +1, Material +3, Experience +5… like it had also buried the foreshadowing of the mainline.

He still had a lot of doubts in his mind, but fortunately, he would find a way soon enough.

Huai Shi took out his phone and opened his contacts.

So, which lucky friend of his would get the opportunity to treat him to lunch and answer his questions?

.

.

“What’s this?”

Half an hour later, at New Ocean’s hottest Quanque Banquet Hall, Liu Dongli spewed out the tea he had just drunk, choking violently.

“What’s wrong, Person of the Pure Land?”

Huai Shi had a dumbfounded look on his face.

Liu Dongli spent a long time gasping before he could finally catch his breath, before asking in a whisper, “You’re sure it’s Elysium, People of the Pure Land?”

Just as Huai Shi nodded, Dongli put his hands together in front of him in a gesture of respect, then opened his mouth to speak. However, no words came out. He quickly pushed Old Liu’s hands down. “Don’t be in a hurry to turn yourself into Three Hua Tuos[1], brother. What the hell are the People of the Pure Land?”

“An illegal religious organization.”

Liu Dongli’s explanation was concise, and he was now wiping the cold sweat off his brow, feeling very afraid. “My friend, why did you get involved in this kind of trouble? They’re a group of psychos.”

“Yeah?” Huai Shi nodded understandingly. “I’ve seen them…”

Liu Dongli was so angry he hit the back of his head again. “Can you be a little more serious, brother? If this isn’t handled properly, you’re not the only one who will be done for, the entire New Ocean might be goners too.”

“But even if you say that, I can’t exactly back out…” Huai Shi thought for a moment, then asked, “Compared to Green Day, who’s more powerful?”

“…”

Liu Dongli was stumped by his odd question for a long time. Huai Shi did not know if there were some thoughts brewing in his head, or if he was just trying to stabilize his train of thoughts.

“They aren’t the same… category.”

He talked for a long time, but he did not know how to explain it to Huai Shi concisely, so he could only spread it out and say, “Let’s put it this way, Green Day is a group of anti-social, crazy people, but most of their attacks are targeted at the Astronomical Association, do you understand?”

Huai Shi thought for a while before slapping his knee. “You’re talking about the Liangshan Heroes[2]?”

“…It’s probably similar. Even though Liangshan Heroes and Green Day aren’t good people, their main goal is to kill their way up to the top, steal the throne, then make their big brother the king, the second brother the second king, and the next person the great general or whatnot. In the end, it’s all internal struggles.”

Liu Dongli sighed, then put down his cup. “Now, back to People of the Pure Land—they’re a lot more complicated than Green Day.”

“Mm, go ahead.” Huai Shi nodded and quietly took note.

“Their base is within the hell beyond the borders, in a place called Elysium. Even if the Astronomical Association can figure out their exact coordinates, they would not be able to eliminate all of them. Over the past few years, they’ve caused all kinds of trouble. I heard that this was how Manchester fell… but in the end, it’s not them who are the biggest threats, it’s what’s behind them.”

When he heard “Manchester”, which sounded familiar to him, Huai Shi was temporarily stunned. Nevertheless, Liu Dongli very quickly recaptured his attention with his next topic:

“What they worship is something that the Astronomical Association had calculated based on the previous president’s predictions. It’s one of the ‘Twenty-Four Elements of Destruction’, some call it –’Rancher’.”

“Elements of Destruction?” Huai Shi was stunned. “Why is something that sounds so powerful called ‘Rancher’? Does he raise cattle?”

“…Something like that.”

Liu Dongli continued numbly, “It’s called an Element of Destruction because, according to the assessment of the Astronomical Association, there is a high probability that it has the ability or qualifications to destroy those within the interior.

“It’s not a gentle thing like a nuclear bomb, instead, it can force more distorted qualitative change and subversion. In short, it has the power to completely transform the interior into hell…

“You should regard it as a Great World-Destroying Demon King.

“Supposedly, there are another 23 powerful creatures just like it. So far, only a few have been announced. One of their remains might already be a common sight to you.”

As he said this, he pointed toward the sky outside the window.

Huai Shi looked out curiously at the blue afternoon sky, where white clouds floated above, along with traces of a school of fish. They appeared amongst the corals in the clouds, sending waves and ripples of water toward the ground.

He was first dazed, then confused, before finally, falling into dismay.

“Hold on, coral clouds?”

“That’s right.”

Liu Dongli was expressionless as he took a sip of his tea. “More precisely, it should be called the Old Gaia. It represents the old world that was destroyed… Nevertheless, those things are too distant from you now. All you need to know is that those coral clouds that are now floating in the sky are the creature’s corpse.

“Rancher, Heaven, Piper, Old Gaia, The Man in Gray, Golden Dawn…out of the nine Elements of Destruction that have been announced so far, the Rancher takes first place.

“According to the rumors that have been going around beneath the surface, it might even be involved in the collective fall of the old deities back in 1650. The depth of the water in its back is immeasurable, and it’s more than enough to drown a hundred thousand you’s.

“How’s that? Are you afraid now?”

“…”

Huai Shi was quiet for a long time, then he raised his hand. “May I ask, did I hear you say… Heaven?”

Liu Dongli gave him a long, confused look. “Ah, yes, it was Heaven. It literally means Heaven. I can’t give you a more detailed answer than that. Why do you ask?”

“No reason, just asking.”

Huai Shi smiled awkwardly, he felt as if he had heard that term somewhere before, but he could not place the thought. Thus, all he could do was scratch his head. “You haven’t told me why the hell it is called ‘Rancher’.”

“To put it simply, it’s probably got something to do with the food chain.”

Liu Dongli scratched his head, picked up his chopsticks, and drew a circle around everything before Huai Shi’s eyes. Then finally, he picked up a sparrow leg from the dry pot that had just been served.

“You see, to those psychos that call themselves the People of the Pure Land, the world is one big food chain that runs through the interior, the border and hell.

“It’s like the sheep eating grass, and humans eating sheep. If the priests regard their followers as their flock, and themselves as the shepherds, then sitting at the top of this deformed food chain from hell, wouldn’t the one who commands all the shepherds be called the Rancher?”

“After the essence of the gods was distorted by hell, it can be said that the Rancher is the pure God of Evil.

“To it, the whole world is nothing but one big ranch. Every living creature is nothing but its food.

“And what the People of the Pure Land are seeking is to merge themselves with their God at the top of the of the food chain, to become the Rancher’s incarnate… This so-called Elysium is just one big snack plate to the Rancher, and they’re nothing but tools used to clean the Rancher’s plate. Some of these tools can even be used as food if required… that’s it.”

He paused for a moment, then stuffed the glazed sparrow leg into his mouth. He said whilst chewing loudly,

“Now, do you understand?”T

[1] A Chinese meme where they edit three pictures of the Chinese physician Hua Tuo side by side, in gradually increasing or decreasing sizes, with a sequence of captions

[2] Characters from Water Margin, a 14th-century Chinese novel