Chapter 252: These Things…

Chapter 252: These Things…

“Wow, what are these things you gave me? I’ve never seen them before!” After organizing Dan Marina’s materials, Zheng Yichen had a splitting headache. He, the fast-tracked Alchemy master, found himself in an awkward situation—he actually couldn’t recognize some of the materials Dan Marina brought out!

It wasn’t that Zheng Yichen was so skilled that he could ignore material limitations and create an Alchemical Avatar right away just because the witches provided high-quality materials. Rather, as witches, each of them was an old monster with centuries of accumulation. Even if their achievements in Alchemy weren’t the highest, their theoretical knowledge was vast. Their “not high” status was only relative to the top experts in their Secondary Professions.

In truth, the witches were quite versatile. Under such conditions, the materials they seemingly casually provided were definitely the right ones, naturally sparing Zheng Yichen the trouble of picking and choosing or even making a list.

Similarly, there was even less chance of any tricks.

Ahem, as a dragon, one must uphold credibility. With the material supply so precise, there couldn’t be any tricks… But this time, while Zheng Yichen could recognize ninety percent of the materials Dan Marina brought out—after all, he only focused on making Alchemical Avatars, and even if the material types differed, their effects definitely belonged to the same category—the remaining twenty percent left him baffled.

Especially that eerie, squirming blob emitting black gas that looked like black mud. Could this thing have been dug out by Dan Marina from some cup?

And that thing with flesh-like texture but hard as stone to the touch… what was that? He hadn’t seen it in any books!

“Hehe, didn’t I say it? I’m one of the richest among the witches. What I have on hand certainly wouldn’t be common goods.” Dan Marina chuckled proudly.

Zheng Yichen couldn’t help but look at Irene. This witch actually avoided his gaze. Damn, was she admitting Dan Marina’s words!?

“You… just how many people have you scammed?” Zheng Yichen hesitated for a moment before asking in a rather complicated tone. Naturally, he earned a big eye roll from the witch.

“What nonsense are you talking? I obtained these things through my own skills; how can you call it scamming? Don’t think I just casually pulled these out. Do you know how much hardship I went through?” Dan Marina grabbed the black mud and vigorously kneaded it a couple of times. This seemingly eerie, almost-living blob actually cowered under her kneading, and even the black gas it emitted faded a bit… So was this woman the real hidden boss?

“You talk so big, but I didn’t see it. How would I know how much hardship you endured?” Zheng Yichen picked up the hard material that looked like a chunk of flesh with blood-like texture to examine it. He was also very curious about this novel thing, but this wasn’t his Laboratory, so he couldn’t immediately conduct detailed research on it. This thing… no matter how he looked at it, it seemed like a piece of real flesh that had undergone some special mutation before turning into this. What was even more absurd was that Zheng Yichen actually sensed a pure Life Force from it.

Hmm, the Alchemical Avatars Qin and the others used also possessed Life Force, but that was due to certain materials giving the Alchemical Avatars perfect camouflage. Qin used a jade-green crystal, while Irene’s was two leaves from the Tree of Life. In any case, by this world’s current standards, they could all be classified as extinct items.

As for this unknown thing Dan Marina brought out, Zheng Yichen racked his brains and even mobilized his Dreamscape, fiercely “searching” on the Computer within it. That kind of search was essentially scouring his deep memories, but he still couldn’t find any similar records. In other words, from his studies so far, he hadn’t seen any documentation about such a thing.

“That’s why you can’t recognize what this is.” Dan Marina slightly raised the corner of her mouth and gave Zheng Yichen a casual glance. “This, I dug out from a Veteran Evil God in the Abyss.”

The Abyss… Hmm, Zheng Yichen knew about this. It was similar to the Forbidden Zone he had been to before—places where ordinary people would die just from the environment even if they stood still. If Professionals weren’t strong enough, moving in such places would be extremely difficult, and it would be normal to be killed by a random rock. To put it simply, those with insufficient magic resistance were weaklings there, and what determined this was sheer strength!

“Evil God… aren’t Evil Gods something you can just push around… uh? Did I say something wrong?”

“Generally speaking, there’s nothing wrong with that. Actually…” Dan Marina smoothed a strand of her long hair and looked at Zheng Yichen with an expression that said he had read too many books. “Some Veteran Evil Gods have existed longer than your family.”

“That sounds a bit impressive.” Zheng Yichen suddenly felt a genuine toothache. Weren’t Evil Gods supposed to be like weeds—impossible to completely eradicate? How did they suddenly have such a high status… Wait, on second thought, it seemed nothing was wrong. If Evil Gods were generally like weeds, the Sheng Tang Church, which had suppressed the witches for so long, might not be able to uproot them completely. The reason Cults could run rampant for so long might not be because the Sanctuary Church didn’t want to eliminate them, but because they couldn’t?

“So when I dug this thing out, I went through a lot of trouble!” Dan Marina puffed out her chest a little as she said this. Zheng Yichen looked at the clay-like black mud in her hand. This thing that Dan Marina kept and was so proud of… the Evil God it was dug out from was probably long gone.

“Ahem, besides that, I’m more curious… who’s older, you or Loris?”

“Of course I am.”

“I wasn’t talking about chest size!”

“Oh →_→, then she’s a little older than me…” Dan Marina pouted, speaking somewhat reluctantly.

Irene, who had been silently observing without a word, spoke up at this moment. She looked at the black mud in Dan Marina’s hand. “Although there are many Evil Gods in the Abyss, only one has been eliminated recently (within the last hundred years), and that was a crusade organized by the Sanctuary Church. For you to have secretly kept this under the Sanctuary Church’s nose at that time must have indeed taken a lot of effort.”

Zheng Yichen immediately looked at Dan Marina with an utterly distrustful dead fish stare. He had thought this woman had painstakingly fought that Evil God, finally defeating it and claiming this trophy. But after hearing Irene’s words, the prestige immediately dropped. It sounded like she took advantage, slacked off, and secretly schemed, engaging in all sorts of trickery with the Sanctuary Church people, and ultimately succeeded in snagging this trophy?

“…If it weren’t for me, how could they have smoothly dealt with that Evil God? What’s wrong with me taking a suitable trophy?” Dan Marina’s mouth twitched slightly. Noticing Zheng Yichen’s rapidly changing expression, she silently cursed in her heart. Although she hated to admit it, what Irene said was indeed correct. At the time, she was still bound by the Sanctuary Church’s Contract. Obtaining this blob had truly taken great effort. Its use?

Its former use was, of course, to prepare for ‘defection.’ But with Zheng Yichen as the special disruptor, all the things she had secretly acquired through limited rule-bending back then became useless, as her own problem was resolved.

“You’re using something from an Evil God to make an Alchemical Avatar. Aren’t you afraid of problems?”

“Problems? With you here, what problems should I worry about? This thing is quite suitable as an additive for making an Alchemical Avatar, and I happen to need it.”

“What’s it used for?”

“Hmm, mimicry.” Dan Marina briefly explained the function of this black mud. The Evil God she and the Sanctuary Church dealt with back then was of the ‘disguise type,’ capable of freely mimicking others. As a Veteran Evil God with this ability as its Core Ability, there were no useless abilities. That Evil God’s mimicry ability had reached a god-like level. The features it mimicked weren’t just appearance—it could mimic all other factors, achieving almost a hundred percent similarity.

It was precisely because of this ability that the Evil God acted extremely recklessly. Not only ordinary people, but even the king of a kingdom was unknowingly replaced, triggering a chain of large-scale wars with massive casualties. Because the Sanctuary Church didn’t interfere much in matters between nations, the Evil God’s actions weren’t exposed in the early and mid-stages. Only when it went too far in the later stages did it leave some clues, arousing the Sanctuary Church’s suspicion. After numerous investigations yielded no results, as a final confirmation, they had Dan Marina intervene once.

As a result, the Evil God’s ability met its nemesis… If it were just an ordinary warmonger launching wars, that might have been one thing. But an Evil God daring to do such a thing right under the Sanctuary Church’s nose? That was a slap in the face—several slaps, in fact. For both public and private reasons, this Evil God had to die, even if it was a long-existing Veteran Evil God!

The Evil God’s mimicry ability was practically flawless, but with Dan Marina as its nemesis, that ability was completely nullified. After losing this peak-developed mimicry ability, the Evil God’s strength was halved. It was humiliatingly cornered by the Sanctuary Church at the entrance to the Abyss and relentlessly beaten to death right before the fountain.

This blob of black mud was an extract from that Evil God, though it couldn’t possess all the ability traits of the Evil God. Back then, restricted by the Contract, she could only preserve this incomplete part with great effort. Now, its mimicry effect was limited to appearance; mimicking aura or power was basically out of the question. Even so, it was quite precious; otherwise, Dan Marina wouldn’t have kept it.

“If this thing weren’t used as material for making an Alchemical Avatar, but processed in another way, it would be the best pollutant.”

“Pollutant?”

“Hmm, do you know about the Sanctuary Church’s Saintess? Used properly, this thing could directly pollute them into non-Human monsters. Not just in appearance, but their very essence would be polluted, and it would be irreversible!”

“Damn! So you mean it would work on witches too?”

“Exactly. But there’s only this one piece. Of course, achieving that specific effect I mentioned is very difficult now, with too many limitations.” Dan Marina said with some regret. “Otherwise, how great would it be to use this to pollute all the higher-ups of the Sanctuary Church into Masquerader monsters…”

What what what? Zheng Yichen scratched his ear. Did he hear that right? Masquerader? …Uh, probably a coincidence. After all, according to Dan Marina, that Evil God’s mimicry ability was so powerful that calling it a Masquerader was quite fitting. If not for meeting a nemesis like Dan Marina, it would have been impossible to tell the fake from the real when it mimicked someone.

“You don’t still have such ideas now, do you?”

“It’s just a thought. I couldn’t do it before, and I still can’t now.” Dan Marina rolled her eyes at Zheng Yichen. Having ideas was fine, but for unrealistic ones—even if she used her abilities, there was no guarantee of success—Dan Marina simply wouldn’t take the risk.

“Alright… I pretty much know how to use this thing now. After I research it further, I should be able to make use of it. But using this thing to make an Alchemical Avatar really suits you.” Zheng Yichen said sincerely. Dan Marina liked interacting with Humans, often telling fortunes (and, depending on her mood) altering fates for fun. However, her appearance wasn’t a secret in the circles of the powerful, so interacting with ordinary people wouldn’t lead to exposure.

In higher circles, she was too famous and would be easily exposed. Even with thorough disguises, disguises could only cover for a while, not forever. But with this Alchemical Avatar, it would undoubtedly be much easier for her to stir up trouble when she wanted.

The only thing was, such an Alchemical Avatar couldn’t easily adopt certain appearances. It wasn’t like she could add a bunch of ‘skins’ just for one Alchemical Avatar, right? Fine! Just make a faceless Alchemical Avatar then. Dan Marina could make it look however she wanted. If the effects of this black mud were as she described, changing appearance would be a breeze. She could probably even make it look like an alien if she wanted…

“What about this one?” Zheng Yichen tossed the ‘Flesh Stone’ in his hand.

“Gods disappeared from the world at some point, but they left behind many traces. Although those traces are diminishing over time, some ultimately remain.”

“So… this is God’s flesh?” Zheng Yichen raised an eyebrow, his expression saying ‘you’re kidding me.’ He could sense an extremely pure Life Force from this thing but no other power aura!

“More or less. Even if it is, it’s not very useful in this state. If I hadn’t found it early, this thing would have turned into a truly ordinary stone after a while back then. In short, it’s just a special piece of flesh, something that can be processed as material. You should know where to use it, right?”

“Girl, you’re trying to defy the heavens.” Zheng Yichen sighed with genuine feeling. The other materials Dan Marina brought out were similar to what the other witches provided, but these two items were kind of cheating. In terms of aura and material quality, they might only be on par with those materials, or possibly even lower. For example, this Flesh Stone—its background completely overshadowed the other materials. What unknown effects or changes it might bring to the finished Alchemical Avatar, he himself had no idea.

After some thought, Zheng Yichen frowned slightly and offered some advice: “I think it would be safer to be a bit more conservative.”

“It’s fine, I trust you!”

The silent Irene glanced at Dan Marina. Would this woman take risks with herself? Her actions were more about testing Zheng Yichen’s limits… At that moment, Dan Marina casually turned her head and gave Irene a knowing smile. Irene remained silent; she was also somewhat curious about this.

“Death-seeking woman…” Zheng Yichen muttered, then scooped all the materials into his Personal Space. “Delivering the goods immediately is impossible. Wait for ten days to half a month until I thoroughly research them!”

Dan Marina’s face stiffened slightly. Uh, maybe she went a bit overboard. Although there was an element of testing involved, she really needed it urgently…