Apocalypse Forecast

Huai Shi returned home earlier than most people expected, but later than some others had anticipated.

Uncle Fang, waiting at the door, bowed and reported, "Miss Ai visited this evening. After learning the young master was not in, she left a message saying to stop by the Astronomical Society when you have time."

Huai Shi paused, scratching his head involuntarily. She must have caught wind of something...

So much for the flawless plan; it's leaking all over the place.

Wasn't I supposed to remain concealed in my contributions and achievements?

"It is about remaining hidden, yes."

In the basement, Raven shrugged. "Look, Director Fu just wants to mess with you, and Ai Qing might just suspect you for now. So relax. We've been careful, there's no evidence. If anyone talks, we can accuse them of slander!"

Where exactly did you learn these TVB-style crimes?

Huai Shi rolled his eyes and sat down on the chair, once again becoming a salted fish.

He didn't want to move a muscle.

Actually, Fu Yi cried for a bit, then wiped away her tears. There wasn't the anticipated shoulder to lean on, nor any display of vulnerability. After rubbing her eyes, she lifted her head, finished her cigarette, and left.

But Huai Shi still felt uncomfortable inside.

"You have to look on the bright side. You're not the only one who's deceived her, right?"

Huai Shi couldn't help but roll his eyes again. "You can't think that trust is cheap just because there are a lot of liars, right? Besides, if I..."

"If you hadn't messed things up, Director Fu might have gone, and her mother still wouldn't have come."

Raven looked at him with pity. "This isn't something that a dinner or a meeting can change. Some things, once they happen, can never be changed.

So, put away that sense of responsibility, Little Brag. It's not time for you to be responsible for others yet. Or are you really planning to marry her and spend a lifetime together?"

"..." Huai Shi was stunned for a long time, scratching his head. "We're too familiar; it's awkward to make a move."

"That's right. As her close confidante, her good buddy, just dutifully fulfill your mission as a negative energy receptor. You're not supposed to be a Goblin or a bootlicker, so why all the melodrama?"

Raven looked behind her. "Compared to that, shouldn't we... check the goods now?"

She looked at the small box on the table, excitedly rubbing her wings together.

"I hope it's worth the price."

Huai Shi sighed, opened the box, and gingerly took out the yellowed fragment.

It didn't look like paper but something else. To think it hadn't degraded over such a long period was astonishing. Could it be some kind of magical beast skin?

"Stop imagining things. It's just plastic."

Raven cast a glance at him as if looking at an idiot.

"Plastic?" Huai Shi was astounded, incredulous. There was plastic back then?

Called plastic, Huai Shi looked carefully and found it really was plastic... A plastic sheet?

Raven shrugged. "Alchemists, you know, always come up with strange things. Count St. Germain claimed this was an essence sifted from petroleum, useful for convenient writing and storage, more durable than paper..."

"So how exactly is this thing used?"

Huai Shi was amused. Is this some kind of ultimate secret manual that needs to be practiced according to instructions? Or do we need to find the materials to recreate what's on it?

"It's not that complicated. In fact, it's quite straightforward."

Raven flapped her wings, and the heavy Book of Fate spontaneously appeared, landing on the table and opening itself. The pages turned without wind, directly to the middle section, revealing several torn paper fragments.

It was as if they were the remnants of being torn off. Huai Shi tried to match them, and they fit together seamlessly... It was as easy as plugging a USB drive into a computer.

He let go, and the formula automatically fell from his hand, drawn towards the Book of Fate, merging with the fragments until they became one.

Then, the cracks on it began to heal.

Huai Shi's vision darkened.

He collapsed to the ground in an instant, feeling drained, with just enough energy to curse. This thing is absorbing my Source Substance!

In a blink, almost all his Source Substance was drained. Then, the prepared Raven opened a copper box hidden somewhere, and the accumulated Source Substance poured out swiftly into the pages of the Book of Fate.

It was a massive amount; Source Substance equivalent to that of a thousand people was consumed in an instant.

Huai Shi was more curious about where Raven had collected so much Source Substance.

"You see, a while back The Purified People were causing trouble, right?" Raven chuckled bashfully. "You were busy, and I didn't want to bother you, so I quietly lent a small hand..."

So it was you sneaking around, quietly stealing their spoils of war, huh?

Raven shook her head, stating earnestly, "I just picked up some unwanted things. How could that be called stealing?"

"..."

Huai Shi was about to say something else when suddenly, everything went dark once again.

This time it was truly dark. He couldn't see anything. His heartbeat stopped, his pulse paused; he could no longer feel his breathing, nor his limbs and everything else. It was as if he were thrown into the deepest darkness in an instant. Eternal descent.

But then, amidst the profound darkness, a spark burst forth, hovering in the void, slowly growing.

It turned into a point of light. The fire burned, its light radiating, piercing through all darkness, igniting Huai Shi completely. He became the fire. Burning fiercely.

That spark grew countless times in the blink of an eye, then quickly collapsed and contracted, until in the end, it was hard to tell whether it was still a flame.

In the sporadic glimmers like dust, it seemed as if it contained the whole world. Countless transformations emerged from within, colliding continuously, bursting forth with flashes of light. So precise, like clockwork, countless gear-like flames formed mechanical phenomena, each transformation exact. Millions of strands converged to form this point of pure white fire, too intricate and complex for the naked eye to perceive.

It ascended and extinguished, was reborn, and underwent every conceivable transformation.

It was as if it was created by drilling wood, or as if it was plucked by thunder from the heavens; like thick black petroleum ignited by high temperatures, billowing upwards; or like the light emanating from a slight collision, the mutual excitation of chemical substances; or the fierce light from a collapsing star; or even fire spewed from a Giant Dragon's mouth...

In an instant, Huai Shi seemed to have been born countless times.

After exhausting the origins of all the flames in the world, he became a part of the fire. He was plasma, he was an energy gradient field, he was a radiant energy wave spreading in all directions, he became the phenomenon that occurs after ionization...

He seemed to be matter, yet he had no shell. He was like a legend, yet he spread in the mortal world, bringing light and heat.

In the end, Huai Shi finally realized what it should be named.

This is a miracle—the ember left by the miracle as it transforms and comes into being.

At that moment, he awoke from within the fire, opening his eyes.

No longer needing Liberator, in an instant, he entered the Yin Soul form, feeling the Fire of Apocalypse surging forth from the infinite darkness. But the flame, once wild and hard to tame, now seemed like a part of him, flowing calmly and obediently in the fissure on his chest, radiating a lava-like glow.

When he withdrew the flames, he finally transformed completely into darkness.

Under the table, where no light reached, he found the outlines of his legs beginning to thin, like ink about to dissolve in water, slowly blurring. The darkness became his outer garment, concealing his form.

"Progress is good."

Raven nodded approvingly. "When you can stand in the darkness and become invisible, the Stigma of the Yin Soul will have truly become part of your soul."

"Stand in the darkness and become invisible to others? What's the use of that?"

Huai Shi couldn't help but laugh. If it's just a bit darker, won't everyone be invisible?

"What about infrared night vision? Source Substance perception? And the countless other methods of detection? The naked eye is just the most common and easiest to deceive means of observation."

Raven looked at him as if he were a fool again. "Don't be ungrateful, scoundrel. This talent is called Dark Windbreaker. As you advance to the Third Stage, you will become a Hell Walker, and at the Fifth Stage, a Deep Blessing—the darkness will stand like a fortress around you, protecting you from all attacks..."

Listening to this, Huai Shi became fascinated, but this time he was more cautious and asked, "So, when can I reach the Fifth Stage?"

"That's hard to say."

Raven laughed awkwardly twice, shifted his gaze, then changed the topic. "The growth that the record fragments brought you can't be just this, right?"

"There's more. Give me a Liberator."

Huai Shi took the white crystal particle and threw it into the hole in his chest. Visibly, the immersed darkness roared alive as if engines were thundering into operation.

But this time, not even a trace of flame leaked out from within the Stigma.

Instead of futilely trying to seal it from the outside, Huai Shi tried to suppress the scale of the reaction between the two—that is, the burning speed of Liberator.

What was once an uncontrollable degree of reaction was now effortless to handle.

With ease, he split Liberator from within and without into sixteen layers, triggering each layer step by step, keeping the power within his control and stretching the burning process to its limit.

In his estimation, the maximum time was about half an hour.

Unless there was some major war, half an hour was entirely sufficient for usual skirmishes and encounters. Now, he could even control it to unleash half an hour's worth of firepower in one go.

More importantly, Huai Shi felt that the flames burning within his chest had undergone some sort of qualitative change, becoming a form that he could hardly describe.

When he raised his palm, pure white flames ignited from his hand.

From within the flames.

Countless dust-sized iron fragments slowly emerged, interlocking with each other.