Chapter 211: Dead End

Many things happen without warning.

Like turmoil and collapse, like disaster and death.

Even though there were many clues that alerted people beforehand, no one could know how these spreading clues would gather and become tangled under the nine earths, and when and what exaggerated disaster spores would grow.

To what extent can repeated eradication and vigilance, repeated scrutiny and consideration have any effect?
And when it breaks out of the ground, the flood overflows the dam, the heavy rain falls from the sky, and the tsunami sweeps in, apart from the mere preparation, all we can do is passively respond.

Just like this moment.

Ten minutes before the strange incident in Quancheng.

A sky-high flame rose and burst out from the wilderness outside the outpost.

The association's construction site.

The piercing alarm sounded and stopped abruptly as the circuit was destroyed. At the huge construction site, huge equipment stretched out towards the sky like towers, emitting dazzling electric light, and countless spiritual essences flowed from them. In the explosion and chaos, the dark night sky was dyed into a sickening color.

What followed and spread was a pollution that was even more horrific than that within Quancheng.

In the original material storage warehouse, huge storage tanks that had been moved in at some point in time now set off a chain of explosions. The pollution and evil dust gathered from the massive recycling and processing department rose into the sky from the storm, and in an instant, the entire construction site was transformed into a demonic domain.

The pollution that countless craftsmen and apprentices had worked hard to extract day and night over the past few days was now dumped back on everyone's heads in this form.

Abnormalities sprang up like bamboo shoots after a rain, sprouting from the ground, from the walls, from the pipes and lines, and from every inch of the air. Vague illusions continued to appear, and one wailing figure after another crawled out from the mud and blood.

Everything seemed to be going on normally just a few seconds ago, with everyone following the procedures and seizing every opportunity to carry out emergency construction. But in just a few moments, everything has changed beyond recognition.

On top of the broken tower that had turned into flesh and blood, strange eyes opened and looked down at everything.

The overall design that was once extremely normal and just slightly complicated is now completely defenseless under the erosion of evil. It seems as if it was supposed to be this way, and it has naturally fallen into its current state.

With a large number of spiritual circuits being dismantled and reconnected, everything quickly became unrecognizable.

It's like an ancient landscape scroll with just a few strokes and dirty ink marks, and it suddenly changes from a beautiful landscape into a hellish mud plow.

After stripping off the disguise, the malicious intent hidden in it from the very beginning of the design was revealed, revealing a sinister face that even the creator had not expected.

Laughing ferociously.

There were wailings everywhere, and screams and cries were heard everywhere.

Amid the spreading smoke and pollution, the survivors struggled desperately.

What's going on? What the hell? What on earth... just happened?
After the initial impact and contamination, the apprentices and craftsmen who had managed to survive the core of the explosion struggled desperately and tried to call for help.

But the smart people, after a moment of confusion, hid all their breath, lurked in hiding, and ran away without looking back.

Freezing three feet is not a day's cold.

The most evil Rome has already been built, so facing the tragic city before us, it is best not to think about turning the tide, and saving lives should be the first priority.

Whether it was a spy, a trap, or just a piece in a larger chess game...

——The Association and the Security Bureau are no longer trustworthy!
"Teacher, save me, save me... Teacher, teacher..."

From behind the door, shouts could be heard from the sea of ​​fire.

The bloody master pulled a steel bar to support himself, staring at the tragic scene with an expressionless face. He watched his student gradually burn in the flames, and saw tentacles and many alienated organs breaking out of his body.

For a moment, Zhou Zhong opened his mouth, wanting to say something.

But he could not make a sound in the thick smoke and burning. He raised his mutilated arm and pointed his remaining finger at the student's face in the distance.

The sound stopped suddenly.

The corpse in the flames no longer struggled, and just like that, it returned to dust.

In the dancing smoke, turbid tears mixed with blood flowed down his face, but he couldn't tell exactly how much sadness there was...

He turned his head away, propped himself up, staggered out of the fire, opened his mouth, roared silently, shouted, cursed, and his voice seemed to be burned out by the flames, along with his white hair.

It was not until he finally rushed out of the broken makeshift workshop, staggered and gasped that he saw the figure standing in the middle of the construction site.

There was no trace of embarrassment or trauma, and the mottled short hair danced slightly in the scorching wind.

It feels like I've been waiting for a long time.

Look back and examine.

"Well?"

The corners of her eyes slightly raised, and she looked over: "Did he survive?"

At that moment, Zhou Zhong looked at her indifferent expression, then looked at the craftsmen and apprentices at her feet, whose lives and deaths were unknown and were dying. He could no longer hold back, and his eyes turned red.

"Ye Xian!!!!"

Zhou Zhong's expression twitched, "Are you crazy? You actually... actually... Even if you have a grudge against me, others..."

Amid the roars and accusations, Ye Xian withdrew his gaze indifferently, showing no interest at all.

"I'm worrying too much."

She sighed with regret: "I thought it was a 'gentleman who changes like a leopard', I underestimated the heroes in the world. Now it seems that with your courage and tolerance, Master Zhou, you can only stay in your own small piece of land and squeeze the apprentices, but you don't have the courage to go against the association and the security bureau...

Forget it, let’s go to sleep first!”

As she spoke, she waved her hand, and in an instant, a strange shadow suddenly rose from the dancing shadow in the flames behind her. The strange shadow like a pair of wings extended infinitely and instantly enveloped Master Zhou.

In just a blink of an eye, the spiritual essence's confrontation, invasion, defense, interference and correction began at a dazzling speed, and then ended.

The sound of cracking was endless.

Master Zhou was seriously injured and unconscious. He was no longer able to resist and fell to the ground. The only thing he heard was a cold whisper:

"Just lie down and don't get in the way."

The wing-like shadows changed and gathered into a palm, which lifted him up and threw him into the crowd. Zhou Zhong tried hard to raise his head and glared at Ye Xian's back, but in the end, he couldn't bear it anymore and fainted completely.

Ye Xian raised his head and looked into the depths of the fire.

Amidst the distortion, a figure staggered out, his expression slightly changing, for a long time: "So that's how it is, after all, I underestimated the world."

In the flames of the opening, Master Kong, who was covered in dust, was stunned for a moment. Looking at Ye Xian who was walking towards him with an expressionless face, he froze and shook his head decisively: "It's not me!"

"I know."

Ye Xian passed by and left a message: "I'll leave those burdens to you."

Just like that, he walked straight behind Master Kong.

Under the broken tower that had turned into flesh and blood, in the dancing flames and thick smoke, a skinny and hunched figure slowly emerged as Ye Xian moved forward.

From the beginning, he just sat there but did nothing.

Watch all this happen quietly, observe with a cold eye, and appreciate the tragic disaster and drama unfolding before your eyes.

Master Kong was struck by lightning and broke out in a cold sweat.

She had just walked out of there, but in the chaos and trauma, she didn't even notice anything. But what frightened her even more was the man's face.

So old.

It was so familiar, yet at this moment it was so strange and unbelievable.

The master sent by the association, the manager of all alchemy work in Quancheng, the master who proposed and controlled the entire construction and all processes. ——Duan Mu!
She froze for a moment and glared subconsciously, but soon, gritted her teeth in shame and rage, turned and left, taking the survivors with her without hesitation.

Only Ye Xian walked forward step by step, staring at the old face that seemed to be forever filled with wrinkles and sorrow.

Full of curiosity.

"Master Duan is alright?"

Duan Mu smiled nonchalantly and looked at her: "What about you, Master Ye? I remember you were working in a deep well, right? That's the most dangerous place.

When the evil came back, I thought you would die there."

"Fortunately, I have a bad temper. I don't trust anyone. I find everyone annoying and I can't trust anyone. So I always make some small preparations.

On the contrary, Master Duan suddenly scared me."

Ye Xian put his hands in his pockets and looked at him seriously: "He suddenly did such a big thing, but there is no trace of the old and frail body that he always talked about.

Should I say that he is an old horse still waiting to be stable?

It’s not easy.”

"Easy. Actually, it's quite easy."

Duan Mu felt neither complacent nor happy at all.

Obviously, as the instigator of all this, he should be complacent and condescending and mocking, but at this moment, facing Ye Xian's words, his face full of sorrow and wrinkles looked even older.

Just a tired sigh.

"As long as you are thick-skinned enough, you will fight again and again after repeated defeats. As long as you can get up again, you will be indomitable... This kind of praise for the loser, besides fooling people, can only be used as poison to sprinkle on the wound."

Duan Mu raised his head to the sky and sighed. He could no longer hold back and laughed: "For so many years, everyone has regarded me as an example of late bloomer and perseverance, but there has never been a day that I have not wondered - why can't someone else be the late bloomer and perseverance? Why does it have to be me?"

Ye Xian was silent and did not speak.

From the Taiyi Ring Association, from the minds of all craftsmen, Duan Mu's existence is simply the manifestation of inspiration itself.

At the age of thirty-one, he awakened on his own and joined the Embers, but he was already past the age of an apprentice. He wandered between various workshops, repeatedly hitting a wall, and fought again and again after each failure.

At the age of forty, he spent nine years to obtain a craftsman's license as an elderly remnant of a career who had just changed careers.

Logically speaking, it should have received rave reviews, stunned everyone and shocked everyone for the whole year.

Unfortunately, that year, in the same examination room as him, there was a fourteen-year-old boy who had no school or sect, no foundation, no elders or teachers. He taught himself in a year with the popular science booklet from the association. He laid the foundation for a new field of modern alchemy with the fourteen conclusions and four principles proposed in his paper with completely incorrect format.

By the time Duan Mu had proven his abilities, breaking through his own limits step by step, climbing up the ranks within the association and claiming the title of Grandmaster, the taciturn young man had already become the Grandmaster of Ashes, a living sage - [Plowsmith].

When he raised his arm with his old body and tried to revive the Juhe School, the prospect of Juhe School was denied by Grandmaster Tianlu.

After failing to revive the Juhe School and declining for decades, he made a comeback with a brand new theory. However, in the master evaluation that year, he met a roadblock called heretic, who broke through the door. That person's name was Ye Xian...

The theories and achievements he had completed after a lifetime of hard work were eliminated by the paper submitted by Ye Xian less than five days after he submitted them, and were no longer valuable.

Even so, he never gave up and continued his exploration until today.

So much tragedy, so much suffering, so many failures.

It almost filled up Duan Mu's entire life.

Anyone who encounters one of these stages would be devastated, but he has stepped over them all and crossed them all. Now he is a master who is above everyone else and a model of late bloomer.

But no one knows how much Duan Mu hates the term "late bloomer".

How much I hate myself.

And that meager talent which is far from what the best can offer but just enough to be better than what the worst can offer.

“That year, when I met you at the Master Assessment, I knew that one day, you would reach a height that I could never have imagined in my lifetime.

I still feel that way to this day.”

Duan Mu sighed: "I just hope that I can spend the rest of my life trying to move forward, a little further. As long as I can move forward, that's enough."

Ye Xian asked: "If that's the case, why change your tune?"

"Maybe it's because... you can't walk anymore?"

Duan Mu's expression twitched, as if he was crying and laughing: "Since seven years ago, I found that my hard work and research all day long have no effect except to move myself and others.

At best, we are just marking time.”

Staying where you are and not moving forward.

In the futile struggle, I watched the figures behind me surpass me one by one, the goals I wanted to pursue were getting farther and farther away, and I watched myself becoming more and more confused and truly degenerated into an old man.

When he called the wrong name of the student next to him for the fourth time, he suddenly realized how high the embers were.

Also, my own mediocrity...

"Tell me, what is the basis for this, Master Ye?"

Duan Mu looked at her without any resentment or bitterness, or perhaps he was just trying hard to remain calm. Until now, he did not want to be looked down upon by Ye Xian.

"The embers' generosity led me to this path, and the embers' cruelty made me confused and desperate. But why has my life been so miserable?

What is the use of me being born by heaven?"

He raised his hand, stroked the gradually peeling old face, and whispered softly: "Gift of Embers, Furnace of the World, what will you forge me into?
Waste from the furnace? Or residue from the embers?"

He looked at the craftsman in front of him and asked solemnly: "Is it wishful thinking for a piece of scrap iron to become gold?"

"As it should be."

Ye Xian nodded decisively, "Transcend the ordinary, turn stone into gold, shed the old form and appearance, even ordinary iron can step into the realm of gold.

Isn't that what alchemy is all about?"

“Yeah, so I let it go.”

Duan Mu nodded slightly.

A smile finally appeared on that broken face: "It doesn't matter if I'm on the wrong path, at least there is a way. I want to keep going forward, the farther the better, but any step forward is better than wandering around in the same place.

To a genius like you, my shameless appearance must be ridiculous, right? "

Ye Xian asked calmly, "Would you care?"

"...I can't take care of it anymore."

Duan Mu grinned, and behind his peeling face, sticky darkness and hideousness emerged, and one scarlet eye after another opened from the darkness.

At that moment, countless roars and wailing sounds were heard in the roaring darkness, overlapping and turning into a strange echo:

"Master Ye, please help me take a look..."

He said, “Did I go far enough this time?”

In the distance, roars and shocks were heard, the world was shaken, the white fog was disturbed, and dissipated, replaced by infinite darkness, like a tsunami, carrying a large number of deformed objects and residual souls, and rushing towards the outpost!

And right in front of Ye Xian, Duan Mu's old body was cracking layer by layer, and the evil transformation forged in the rotten furnace slowly unfolded, and the layers of darkness gathered into a four-armed giant over three meters tall, with seven eyes on his face, either compassionate or cruel. Countless spiritual circuits gathered and entangled around his body, like gold and colored glaze.

From the hysterical laughter, a spirit that transcends the raw stone rises, overwhelming everyone.

——Heavenly man!!!
(End of this chapter)