I Am Also An Extraordinary Creature
Chapter 159 - 143 It’s Been Too Long_1

Chapter 159: Chapter 143 It’s Been Too Long_1

A gratuitous sympathy twitched at the corner of Zheng Yichen’s eyes as he regarded the girl before him. To attribute one or two coincidences to chance seemed plausible, but with such a number, where could chance be found? One’s luck in romance couldn’t possibly be like this, with each one of them so young, despite the world being an ancient backdrop.

"Don’t be sad just yet, tell me your story," Zheng Yichen said seriously to the girl in front of him. Comparing the status of Liu Hongzhao with Lin Yaoyao, the former should be living a better life, which was evident from the details of her clothing. The living conditions of the girl before him couldn’t be too bad either.

"What story?" The rescued girl looked out at the devastation with a face full of sadness, "We’re too close to the Demon Flower. My father had wanted to relocate, but the others in the town disagreed. Now there’s nothing left."

"It wouldn’t have been easy to relocate, right?" Zheng Yichen glanced over the town, realizing that relocation in such conditions must be truly difficult.

The girl shook her head. "The entire town is the biggest automaton; talking about it now is meaningless."

It was exceptional that the girl maintained such composure after undergoing such a catastrophe. Zheng Yichen was still conflicted, as he hadn’t detected anything abnormal in their conversation, but exactly how to put it—the absence of anything abnormal only added to his disturbance.

Zheng Yichen changed the topic. "Do you know Mechanical Techniques?"

The girl nodded.

He looked at the wind wheel. "Could you make something like this wind wheel then? A smaller one would do."

The girl looked at Zheng Yichen strangely. The man who could confront and even defeat the avatar of the Battle Maniac Asura, who knew spells, needed such a thing?

There had been spellcasters who passed through this town before, and they had offered a fair assessment of Mechanical Techniques, considering some of them as simplified versions of spells, less convenient in parts but still able to replace spells to some degree. In this world, spells and martial arts coexisted.

Each had its advantages, and being proficient in spells didn’t guarantee invincibility or the ability to overpower martial artists of equal rank.

Zheng Yichen observed someone who seemed to have mastered both fields to a very high level.

"Someone over there needs it."

The girl glanced at the motorcycle parked in the distance and realization flickered in her eyes, "I understand; making a wind wheel isn’t difficult, and there are plenty of materials here... Anyway, there’s no need to cherish them any longer."

Everyone in the town was dead, just as her father had feared, being too close to the Demon Flower and on one of the paths leading directly to it. This meant that if anything came from the Demon Flower, it would most likely pass through here.

But the others in town believed it was built and protected by Mechanical Techniques, confident that the entire town could be activated defensively when necessary. They saw no need to relocate, as it would cause too much upheaval. Besides, with the world in its current state, where could they go?

At least here, they had arable land they could work on. In the future, they might become self-sufficient and further utilize Mechanical Techniques to improve the nearby environment. Leaving this place would mean losing all that, and with the harvest approaching, her father couldn’t override the consensus.

When the Asura Demons attacked the town, a mole emerged within, compromising the town’s central automata mechanisms. Many automata weapons that could have fended off the invaders were unusable, leaving the townspeople to face the Asura Demons alone. But there were far too many of them, including many 4-armed Asura Demons, driving the town’s defenders into retreat. Even those guarding the wind wheel, who fought valiantly, couldn’t safeguard it, and once the wind wheel was destroyed, the outcome was sealed. Allies who had fought side by side turned into Demon Flowers, and those who had died stood up again under the Demon Flower’s influence, becoming new enemies.

They had prepared masks to resist the Demon Flowers, but the influence wasn’t just airborne. Contact could cause infection as well, albeit more slowly. And not everyone in town had such masks.

Her father had sent her to a safe space inside the mechanism of the wind wheel, reasoning that the most dangerous place could be the safest. Though she was reluctant, her usually gentle father was very adamant this time, allowing no opportunity for objection.

There were a few automata protective suits in the place, capable of shielding one’s whole body. Her father had instructed her to wait until the town quieted down before figuring out how to leave.

Though it was termed figuring out a way, it was essentially a gamble on whether the place she hid would remain undiscovered.

Could it remain undiscovered? Within her hiding place, she could somewhat observe the outside world and saw some Asura Demons bringing an idol to the location, intentionally placing it to obstruct her view.

The idol absorbed the blood of those who had died in battle, regardless of whether they were the townspeople who had courteously conversed with her before or the slain Asura Demons. All became sources of blood for the idol.

Once the idol turned red, she felt she was being watched. From that moment on, she was in despair, with no doubt her hideout had been exposed, and the discoverer wasn’t the Asura Demons, but a presence even more ruthless.

Afterward, Zheng Yichen came here, the very person that Battle Maniac Asura had been waiting for.

"My name is Qi Xiangyun, follow me," the girl introduced herself and led Zheng Yichen and the others to a secret treasury, without a moment’s hesitation she took out a key and opened it.

The storeroom was filled with a great deal of materials, including a number of fine irons that were hard to come by outside. However, these items could only be placed here now, as without people to use them, they were just waste.

As for the accumulated wealth of the town? There were hardly any survivors left in the entire town, and without people, wealth was useless. Perhaps one day when the world returned to normal, the resources preserved here could be used to revitalize Qi Family Town? But with only her left, how could she possibly revitalize anything...

The reluctance of the people from Qi Family Town to relocate was partly due to this secret treasury, which held the wealth preserved from the era of the Qi family.

Looking at the red mist filling the secret treasury, Qi Xiangyun sighed, "This place has become unsafe too..."

She soon discovered the cause of the red mist in the treasury—the destruction of the town’s mechanical core had triggered a chain collapse, affecting the air circulation system here. That system wouldn’t activate when the treasury was closed, but it was implicated due to the violent destruction of the core.

The two girls peered curiously through their isolation masks at the large secret treasury, the items within making them think of the phrase "rich enough to rival nations." Although that might be an exaggeration here, the overall value of the items exceeded their imagination.

Lin Yaoyao’s family was rather ordinary; she simply thought everything was impressive, while Liu Hongzhao’s family was among the local wealthy before the disaster, and she had seen more of the world.

A gust of wind swept through, clearing all the red mist from the treasury. Qi Xiangyun checked the tools: "The forge can still be used; if it’s just me, it will take two to three days to get the wind wheel ready."

For a large wind wheel, it wouldn’t take as long if there were enough hands available, but she was on her own now and missing many parts, necessitating adjustments and the remaking of certain components.

"... That’s too long; I can’t wait that much time, let’s go." As soon as Zheng Yichen heard what Qi Xiangyun said, he immediately changed his mind. He had only half a month’s time, and it would take over two, possibly three days just to travel. To wait here another three days? What a waste, that would burn a week’s worth of time.

"What exactly do you want to do, to be in such a hurry?" Qi Xiangyun asked with confusion, "If you have a grudge against Battle Maniac Asura, give me some time, and I could attempt to create some powerful automata weapons to help you deal with Battle Maniac Asura..."

The mole from Qi Family Town fueled her anger, but apart from the mole, it was the Asura Demons who had annihilated the people of Qi Family Town!

She was unclear about who the mole was, but she knew who the corresponding Demon Lord of the Asura Demons was!

"That’s secondary, I need to deal with the Demon Flower, and I don’t have much time left."

"Demon Flower?" Qi Xiangyun’s eyes widened, "How can that be? Anyone who gets close to a Demon Flower turns into a monster, and the area around the Demon Flower is filled with monsters transformed from people; it’s impossible to get past."

"Oh? You seem to know quite a bit about that?"

After a hesitation, Qi Xiangyun gently shook her head, "Not much. Originally, Qi Family Town wanted to try to deal with the Demon Flower, but after my father led people to check out the situation, we gave up. That flower cannot be dealt with by normal means."

"Well, I’m going to give it a try anyway." Zheng Yichen didn’t explain much; he certainly didn’t want to be frozen by Dusk. According to the nun’s explanation, the so-called freezing was simply an instant in his perception, a blink of an eye. How much time had passed was irrelevant to him; he just had to face those moments of despair at the end.

He had no desire to face that thing.

"... Then what about your conflict with Battle Maniac Asura?" Qi Xiangyun thought of something, her eyes widening slightly as she looked at Zheng Yichen. If Zheng Yichen’s target was the Demon Flower, he would most likely pass through Qi Family Town, and if Battle Maniac Asura was waiting here for him, could it mean that Qi Family Town was implicated by coincidence?

No, that’s not right; Qi Family Town had a mole... There must be another reason.

The girl’s emotions became complicated.

"That? I came across some refugees on the way who wanted to burn some things, so I stopped them." Zheng Yichen glanced at Liu Hongzhao, and Qi Xiangyun understood what had happened.

"... Battle Maniac Asura won’t let you off," she said as she looked through the bookshelves in the treasury, searching for a particular book. Her father used to bring her here when he had nothing to do, to familiarize her with the place, so finding something here wasn’t difficult for her.

The book was about the Supreme Demons of their world—a topic most people simply considered myth.