In this dim place where day and night were indistinguishable, a tender, childish wail echoed through the silence, seemingly belonging to a baby.

Ji Jue’s whole body went numb.

No way.

An embroidered shoe, two red lanterns, a gloomy mansion on a rainy night, a deathly pale bride with a red veil over her head... All these images suddenly surfaced in his mind. It was all that bastard Lu Feng’s fault, always stuffing his computer full of horror movies and blasting them at max volume to traumatize Ji Jue.

Now, as silence fell, the faint, fragmented sounds became all the more distinct. What sent a chill through Ji Jue’s entire body was that... the weird sounds were coming from behind him.

In the dead stillness, he turned stiffly and saw Horsey trembling like a scared dog. The moment it sensed Ji Jue’s gaze, the cowering scooter shuffled closer on its own, as if seeking warmth, scared out of its mind!!!

Ji Jue wanted to smack it, thinking, What the hell is wrong with you, being this pathetic?! You’re a spirit scooter! What’s there to be afraid of?!

“Do you want to go check?” An Ran whispered. 𝓯𝓻𝒆𝙚𝒘𝓮𝙗𝓷𝒐𝓿𝙚𝒍.𝙘𝓸𝙢

Without hesitation, Ji Jue shook his head firmly.

You gotta be kidding. Any character who hears a strange noise and sneaks over to see what’s going on is always the first to die in a horror movie!

But not looking felt wrong too. Sitting here in this eerie ruin, with the creepy atmosphere practically providing its own BGM, it was impossible not to feel a chill.

But no worries, it was time to bring out the magical little gadget.

Ji Jue rummaged through the pouch on the front of his backpack and, eyes shining with excitement, lifted the item buried at the very bottom, a drone!

After experiencing its convenience last time, Ji Jue had bitten the bullet and ordered a high-end military version from Layla. It was a rotor reconnaissance drone, and it was stealthy and silent. Even the Imperial Army of Central Lands said it was top-notch. With the Ruins’ emblem added, it could now withstand small-caliber semi-automatic gunfire.

To prepare for this trip, he had even been stuck at the security company all afternoon modifying their firearms.

Ever since Ji Jue had given Lu Feng’s weapons a full spirit matter enhancement, everyone who tried them went completely crazy over them. Word was that at Layla’s place, Master Ji’s “blessing” service for weapons was booked all the way into next year.

With a flick of his thoughts, the drone soared into the air. The screen in his hand lit up, displaying the live feed. The small drone glided silently over the ruins, disturbing none of the monsters lurking in the shadows, much to Ji Jue’s relief.

Although, just as it flew past a corner, it nearly ran head-on into a spider-like creature. The spider didn’t seem to notice at all. This only deepened Ji Jue’s confusion about their “frenzy mechanism.” Could it be that these local guys only ate fresh meat and ignored the rest?

Carefully covering the relatively short distance, they eventually located the source of the crying at the far side of the ruins. It came from an apartment building riddled with cracks.

Behind the collapsed, crumbling walls, dim lights flickered intermittently. A family sat around a dining table, enjoying dinner after a long day’s work. Their smiles were soft and warm, and it was the perfect picture of a happy reunion... if only it were really like that.

The husband, in tattered clothes, still had the vague outline of a human figure, but his head hung from his neck. The blood around the wound had long since dried. It looked as if he were using a right hand that had long since vanished to scoop up food, his stiff face twitching as he forced a smile. “E-E-Eat up... So good. You’ve worked hard.”

The table was empty, broken plates reduced to dust.

The busy, overworked wife glanced back, smiling gently, revealing deep hollows in her face. Thick, black fluid dripped slowly from the corners of her eyes.

“Th-the, the, the baby... is c-c-crying again... go, go see...”

In the tattered cradle, the infant wailed sharply. The mother’s transformed, clawed hand traced over its face, gentle in touch, leaving a curling gash of blood behind.

“Mommy... it hurts... mommy, it hurts.”

“Yes, dear... M-Mommy... loves you too.” She lifted a piece of rag, now nothing but rotten stuffing, and asked softly, “Do you like the new clothes daddy bought you?”

The baby still cried. “It hurts so much, mommy... it hurts. So much pain... pain... pain...”

Beneath the baby’s rotting flesh, it was as if invisible worms, or something else entirely, were writhing violently, rising and falling, constantly pushing up faint, shifting outlines.

The wailing grew ever more shrill, more piercing, echoing throughout the entire apartment.

Gradually, it began to change... or rather, become inhuman. The once tender voice turned hoarse, sharp, guttural, or even numb, as if countless souls were trapped inside that tiny body, each screaming in despair, their madness compounding.

Until finally, without warning, the cries ceased. The tattered baby in the cradle ruptured, and beneath the blood and shredded flesh, writhing tendrils and insect-like limbs sprouted. They twisted, crawled, and leapt from the cradle, shrieking as they disappeared into the shadowed ceiling above.

And the mother still smiled, facing the empty cradle, soothing a baby that no longer existed. Then she washed the dishes, organized the house, and finally, turned off the long-dead lights. Together with her husband, she lay down on the tattered bed and found a peaceful sleep.

In the baby’s dream, beneath the broken shells of that couple, formless things writhed and shifted, like parasites feeding inside their host, waiting for the day of their birth.

The drone slowly returned, landing in Ji Jue’s hands. He and An Ran exchanged no words. At least now, Ji Jue knew where all those chaotic abominations had come from. They were mimicking humanity despite being born from nonhuman things.

Butterflies, birds, crocodiles, snakes, even that monstrous giant worm lurking in the ruins that could snack on Ji Jue like a few packs of chips without even belching, all those bizarre, nightmarish things were probably born this way!

He didn’t know why those “people” were so obsessed with imitating normal human life, but there was no doubt about it, all of this was the handiwork of Mercury!

Temporarily turning materials into fluid, following their inherent properties and nature, adjusting them to their optimal state, or using qualitative changes in spirit matter to catalyze the construct in reverse, granting it another stage of transformation... This was the very reason Mercury could ascend to the rank of grandmaster and even rival the sages. It was all thanks to a technique in alchemy history already celebrated as the legendary Fluid Alchemy.

Even the name itself came from this method. Products created through Fluid Alchemy were often extremely concealed, leaving no visible traces of external processing, and could even take multiple forms and appearances.

Hence, it was called the Art of Infinite Transformation. The scene Ji Jue had just witnessed was likely a second metamorphosis, triggered within the chaos of spirit matter.

According to the texts Ji Jue had crammed through, if left unchecked, this transformation would not happen just once. These creations could continue to grow like living beings, becoming even more horrifying, until spirit matter overloaded and their physical bodies collapsed.

What chilled him even more was that, even at this level of chaos and loss of control, there was still no trace of corruption anywhere in the rift realm. There was not a single flaw of contamination or mutation.

The hell before his eyes had been entirely crafted by the power of Supreme Benevolence!

“What the hell has she made this time?”

Ji Jue sat on the rubble. A chill went down his spine, as if he were a freshly graduated junior programmer who’d accidentally opened a decades-old data disaster left behind by generations of predecessors. He didn’t know where to start, couldn’t make sense of anything, and felt utterly powerless.

He had no idea what mechanisms were hidden inside this realm, or what kind of mysterious, heart-stopping surprises could be lurking beneath the surface. The thought of dying kept surfacing again and again.

An Ran sat on the ground, still wearing that dazed expression, as if something strange had happened but he had no clue what. Ms. Wen had said that if anything came up, he just needed to listen to Ji Jue. So didn’t that mean he could just stop thinking altogether? This was the first time a rift realm exploration had been this easy!

Yay! Ji Jue is awesome, ‘nuff said!

Sensing the young boy’s eyes full of admiration and reverence, Ji Jue wanted to speak but hesitated. Then, he just wanted to die even more. He finally felt a faint vibration in his arms. The devil's work ball, which had been heating up for hours, finally seemed to cool down. It emitted a faint reaction.

The moment Ji Jue realized that, he snatched it up, panicked, and poured all his spirit matter into it, letting the orb swallow it like a whale drinking water. Ji Jue alone wasn’t enough, the orb even drained over half of Mr. Watch’s spirit reserve before finally letting out a faint sigh.

“You’re okay now, Mr. Ball?” Ji Jue said excitedly.

The still-warm orb groaned.

“I’m half-dead, but I can still manage. Didn’t expect that after weathering all those storms over the years, I’d almost capsize in a gutter. Just taking an apprentice out on a field trip almost got me killed. The moment the gate opened, they went straight for deceit and a sneak attack, and even bullied a poor, helpless old ball like me. They kicked me so hard it almost split me right along the mold seam. How despicable, shameless, and utterly vile!”

The devil’s work ball shook violently. “That jerk Mercury dares call herself a grandmaster?!”

The moment the ball entered the rift realm and activated its detection mode according to its internal circuits, it had been counter-detected by another signal of shocking strength, like two sonar systems observing each other in the deep sea.

The moment it sensed the other’s presence, the devil's work ball knew something was wrong and tried to shut down, but it was already too late. Malice had surged in from the other side. The instant the second signal appeared, the workshop defense modules Mercury had left behind were activated, stirring a tide of intrusion directly through the fluctuations of spirit matter.

From thousands of li[1] away, they began invading the orb’s spirit circuits remotely, even attempting to completely overwrite its core instructions based on Professor Ye’s foundational programming.

This was a standard lesson in the Ember faction’s workshop struggles: suppress the opponent’s alchemical artifacts, even seize control for counterattack.

Unfortunately, four hundred years had passed. In the meantime, the outside world had evolved. The foundation of modern alchemy had made each version of alchemy completely different, and the unattended defense programs had grown rigid. In the end, the devil's work ball completely shook them off, but it crashed for an unknown length of time. A counterattack had failed.

At this level of conflict, Ji Jue was of no use. If Ye Xian were here, forget taking a hit, the opposing workshop would have been under her name by now!

Still, at the very least, during that brief confrontation, the orb gained a fundamental understanding of Mercury’s workshop.

Ji Jue’s eyes lit up. “You already found the workshop? That was fast! Incredible efficiency, Mr. Ball! Where is it?”

The devil's work ball let out a faint sigh, reminiscent of how Professor Ye once expressed regret at others’ lack of intelligence. “Haven’t you realized yet, you fool? We’ve been inside Mercury’s workshop all along. The entire rift realm is her workshop!”

1. A li is a traditional Chinese unit of distance, often referred to as a “Chinese mile,” but it is significantly shorter than an English mile. ☜