Apocalypse Forecast

Amidst the long silence, Huai Shi and the skeleton, who was happily soaking in the pool of poison, stared at each other. They both seemed to misunderstand why the other was so strange, leaving them wordless.

Huai Shi finally cleared his throat, breaking the silence, and tentatively asked:

"...Hey, why did you jump in without saying anything?"

"Huh?"

The skeleton was taken aback, as if it finally understood something, incredulously.

"You’re so stingy, A-Dog!"

It widened its hollow eyes, accusingly stating, "I’ve treated you to so much, yet you can’t even spare me a sip!"

Huai Shi almost choked on his own words, feeling a headache.

Are we even talking about the same thing here?!

He felt something was off.

"Aren’t you afraid it might be poisonous?"

"Poisonous? Where is the poison in such fine wine?" The skeleton looked at the pool it was soaking in, not understanding what Huai Shi meant. It submerged its head and took another big gulp, "Doesn’t it taste authentic?"

In the silence, Huai Shi didn’t say a word.

He stared at it, dumbfounded.

Watching as the wine leaked through the gaps in its jaw, it seemed to undergo some magical transformation, revealing traces of pale gold.

Just like formaldehyde encountering bamboo charcoal, the Hell Essence hidden in the Divine Wine slowly contracted. With the skeleton’s stirring, it attached to its framework, causing the originally pure white skeleton to display subtle greenish patterns, making it seem more lively.

Huai Shi’s eyelid twitched, feeling: It seemed to transform from a long-dead corpse into... slightly fresher?

"Wow, A-Dog! Look quick!"

The skeleton raised its hand, touching its skull, shouting excitedly: "I’m growing hair!!!"

No time to correct the term "A-Dog."

Huai Shi already saw, strands of golden hair budding from the skeleton’s skull, emerging rapidly.

Finally, they became long and straight, dazzling and pure like golden silk...

How terrifying!

Huai Shi rubbed his eyes hard, confirming he was not hallucinating: The skeleton in front of him grew hair from soaking in this poison wine!

So firm and upright, enough to bring a down-and-out Cowherd to tears, only it’s growing in the middle and not on the sides?

It turned into an overwhelmingly stylish Mohican!

What kind of intriguing principle causes this transformation?

Huai Shi scratched his head, feeling once again that the world’s fantastical nature was skyrocketing beyond his comprehension.

Especially after he confirmed that the curse in the Divine Wine had significantly weakened, almost purged, his gaze at the skeleton became enthusiastic.

Is this what a Great Grandmaster is?

Not only can it be used as a pad for the furnace but can also soak in wine!

Love it, love it!

.

.

Half an hour later, beside the wine pool, Huai Shi’s pot was already heated.

The Divine Wine gradually boiled, emitting a rich fragrance, mesmerizing.

And in the gradually bubbling water, the skeleton’s two arms rested on the edge of the pot, a hot towel over its head, settling into a comfortable position, it let out a satisfying sigh.

"Hotter, make it hotter."

"Got it!"

Huai Shi added two more pieces of firewood underneath.

The Divine Wine in the wine pool, through the iron pot as an intermediary, was completely purified, then dripped bit by bit into Huai Shi’s water tank through a slender conduit.

Thus, a freshly forged Poison Filter Valve was completed!

At the moment, in the iron pot, the skeleton enjoyed the long-lost warmth, holding a small cup in its hand, took a big gulp, almost causing little stars to twinkle in its touched eyes:

"A-Dog, you’re so good to me!"

Huai Shi, in front of the iron pot, looked up, wiped his sweat, smiled naively: "Don’t mention it, no need to be so polite between us."

He casually pulled two books from the mountain of books beside him, ripped apart those invaluable volumes and manuscripts filled with untold wisdom, and threw them into the fire to maintain the temperature.

Without any regret.

Anyway, they weren’t decent books.

Initially, Huai Shi had some expectations for Helios, but after flipping through some of the alchemist’s private collections, he found them disgustingly filthy.

Simply unsightly.

Although accusing them all would be unfair, leaving one alive for every executed one surely would let some slip through the cracks.

Just looking at these fellows’ notes and collections tells it all.

If not secretly researching live sacrifice and biological alchemy, then it’s records of soul experimentations, and some filled with instructions on how to trade with various Hell entities and precautions... even worse, there are Mystic Rituals and methods for acquiring materials that are against humanity.

Those guys, long gone beyond ethical boundaries in the vast space, stepping into forbidden territory.

Even daring to touch the domain of the Element of Destructive.

In just a few decades, under the guidance of the Piper, the alchemists monopolizing God’s leftover alchemy had degenerated to a jaw-dropping extent.

Initially maybe to simplify some steps for convenience, adopting more aggressive methods, then became accustomed to testing the limits repeatedly, until someone went to great lengths for results...

When the bottom line vanished, everyone even competed to outdo each other in their downfall.

The increasingly crazy alchemists even attempted to simulate The Old Gaia’s environment in Helios’s closed space to better recreate the Chaos Era’s ecosystem, trying to bypass the restrictions of the three major blockades.