CH 5

"Ah... life is unbearable..."

Huai Shi sat in the garden, his clothes disheveled and his face pale. Thinking about the past few days, he couldn't help but howl to the sky and tears streamed down his face.

It was not just a matter of being on the verge of bankruptcy, but also experiencing the humiliation of being discovered interviewing for prostitution, encountering a corpse inexplicably, being taken to some strange mechanical department at gunpoint, and then suffering another blow to his soul...

From the inside out, from his spirit to his wallet, his life was no longer able to withstand such bitterness and pain.

Especially the record in that book, every time Huai Shi read it, he wanted to die. But his family was so poor that they couldn't even afford a rope, and their gas had been cut off for half a year.

No way out, no way to live.

"Fine, I'll just die!"

He threw the notebook aside, powerless and angry, tears streaming down his face. After the anger subsided and the tears stopped, he obediently picked up the notebook, wiped the dirt off it, sighed, and continued to stare blankly at the bare garden.

It will pass, Huai Shi, it will pass... Maybe in a while, he would forget all about this.

He silently prayed in his heart, then began to worry about where to earn his living expenses.

"If you can think like that, it's good. But considering the time, those guys should have their eye on you..."

He heard a strange voice beside him, like a woman's voice, hoarse and charming, with a hint of ridicule. She said, "Young man, you're going to die."

"You're the one who's going to die!"

Huai Shi turned his head back angrily, but then froze in place.

There was no one beside him.

This was his backyard, and no one would come here, let alone speak to him for no reason.

But who was the one talking?

He saw a crow lazily preening its wings on the fence.

"Don't just stand there, it's me."

In his confused look, the crow casually spoke, "Yes, it's the crow talking to you. You're not dreaming."

As she spoke, she seemed to have just burped.

"You can talk?"

Huai Shi was stunned, then immediately became alert, "No, what kind of creature are you!"

The crow laughed softly, her tone becoming aggrieved and narrow, "Wow, when you used to stare at me without blinking, you treated me like a pet. Now you call me a creature?"

"You... you... you... you're that book!"

Huai Shi realized, and opened the cover of the notebook. The silhouette of the crow on the title page had disappeared without a trace, as if it had really turned into a living creature and flew out of the book.

"Close enough."Crow sighed and looked at the notebook in his arms. "Although we are both remnants, now I am just a record on it. But if you confuse me with the 'Heavenly Kingdom,' that would be ridiculous."

Ignoring Huai Shi's confusion, her red eyes stared at him sharply. "But that's not important. The question is... do you really think I was trying to frame you just now?"

She asked softly, "You've experienced the records of those people before they died, haven't you?"

Thinking of the nightmares he had last night, Huai Shi shuddered subconsciously and his tone became dry. "Are they really... all dead?"

"Yes," Crow nodded. "Except for you, everyone who has seen that box has died. There are many good things inside, and after sleeping for so many years, it's rare to be able to replenish so much source material. Although it's a bit messy, there are probably about eight or nine hundred people's worth of it."

She clicked her tongue in satisfaction and looked at Huai Shi with a smile. "Since it's a gift for our meeting, do you need my help, young man?"

...

"40 grams of copper, 57 grams of silver, 12 grams of tin powder... a set of crucible and gas stove, and the remaining lead blocks were given away for free..."

In the evening, after running around the city all day, Huai Shi finally returned home and threw the plastic bag in his hand on the table. He picked up the leftover mineral water from two days ago and drank it without caring about whether it was healthy or not.

"My credit card and loan have been emptied. What's the use of buying these things?"

"For alchemy," Crow said calmly while preening his feathers. "It's not easy to create holy marks that ordinary people can use."

"Holy marks?" Huai Shi laughed. "Do you want me to become a cleaner doing aerial splits?"

"What is that? A modern joke?"

"No, it's just a trick by a garbage game company to scam money."

Thinking of the classmates who spent thousands or tens of thousands of dollars on in-game purchases, Huai Shi couldn't help but feel envious.

"It's not the same, Huai Shi. Although the name is the same, the holy marks I'm talking about are not those ridiculous things."

Crow explained calmly, "If the essence of the soul that sublimators possess is the embryonic form of divine power, then holy marks are the result of analyzing the legacy of the gods."By tracing the remnants of miracles to find the way to the divine, imitating the gods, investigating their authority and remaining traces, the existence of Holy Marks was discovered. Using metal and incense to create secret rituals, tiny miracles are made by imitating the massive miracles.

"This is the Holy Mark."

"...God?"

Huai Shi was stunned. "Are there really gods in this world?"

"There used to be."

Crow fell silent for a moment. "But they're all dead. Things abandoned by time are of no concern to the world today. I'm afraid that soon, even their value will be forgotten."

Crow didn't want to say more about this, only urging Huai Shi to set up the crucible and start the refining process as soon as possible.

"Is this enough?"

When the temperature of the flame was high enough, Huai Shi followed Crow's instructions and ground the lead blocks into powder, mixing them with his own blood and carefully writing unfamiliar inscriptions on the metal that were extremely simple in structure but allowed no deviation.

Crow's eyes were terrifyingly sharp. Even the slightest deviation would require him to erase and rewrite it, wasting countless CCs of blood. After a long time, he finally finished this simple task.

"These are just auxiliary materials. Even the simplest Holy Mark cannot be produced by mortal fire and metal. These are just the most rudimentary emergency supplies. When you want to make more advanced Holy Marks in the future, you will need the blood of magical beasts and a lot of sacrifices, even..."

It paused for a moment and didn't say anything else, just saying lightly, "Rest for ten minutes. We'll start at 11:15. Remember, you only have one chance. If you miss it, I don't think you'll have enough money to start over, right?"

Mentioning money made Huai Shi even more nervous. He repeatedly checked the order Crow had told him in his notebook and practiced it in his mind.

Meanwhile, Crow stood next to the crucible, staring at the flames.

In an instant, the bright red flames suddenly turned pure white. Finally, countless streams of light emerged from it, gorgeous and dazzling.

But Crow's figure became even thinner.

"What is that?"

"Source material, ignited source material." Crow glanced at him and explained, "Source material is the material that makes up the soul, the spirit hidden in matter... you can think of it as fragments of the soul. Your materials are insufficient, so you can only work on the flames. Now, one person's soul is being burned every second. Oh, don't worry about the source. These are all inventory from that box."

Huai Shi swallowed his saliva, not knowing what to say.What's scarier than burning a person every second is the fact that, according to Crow, the box contains source material equivalent to almost a thousand people...

What the hell is it?

"Don't think too much about it, let's get started, Huai Shi."

Crow gave Huai Shi one last glance. The lead in the crucible was already boiling, but there was no smell or other odors. Instead, a hint of gold was faintly visible under the pure white flames, like gold dust rippling in a light gray.

Huai Shi didn't have time to think too much. He picked up the things arranged in order next to him and put them into the crucible one by one. First tin, then copper, and finally silver...

Every time he put something in, the metal solution in the crucible didn't show any ripples and instantly melted the foreign object.

The pure white flames suddenly rose, and countless streams of light were greedily drawn into the crucible. The intense light hurt Huai Shi's eyes.

In the last moment, Huai Shi heard Crow sigh.

"I hope you've really made the right bet this time, Huai Shi."

As she whispered softly, she spread her wings, flew up, and plunged into the crucible.

Boom!

With a dull thud, the flames went out, and the liquid in the crucible rose up, outlining a complex outline in the air. Finally, it collapsed layer by layer.

As Huai Shi stared in amazement, it gradually solidified and slowly fell from the sky.

It was a feather.

Find the original at "pawread dot com".

A metallic feather.

Each fork on the feather, as if cast in pure silver, was slender and perfect, without any flaws. The light flowed on the mirror-like membrane, as if refracting the whole world, constantly flashing various strange scenes.

The feather fell into Huai Shi's hand.

"This is my current form, the special type Holy Mark without a lineage - Event Branch."

Crow's voice sounded in his ear, full of exhaustion. "With this notebook and Event Branch in hand, even before the turmoil, you have the qualifications to be a reserve secretary."

Huai Shi looked at the thick notebook in his hand in amazement, feeling dizzy. Although there were countless flowing words, it was as if he was looking at another himself in the mirror.

Another self that only existed in written records.

"What exactly... is this thing?"

"Well, if I had to say... it's probably the last remnant of Heaven on Earth." Crow sighed softly. "You can call it the Book of Fate."

In that instant, countless flowing words suddenly contracted, and with the disappearance of Crow on the title page, new words appeared.

Huai Shi (Stress Period)

Title: NoneHoly Mark: None

Miracle Seal: None

Skills: General Knowledge LV3, Art·Performance·Cello LV6, Death Perception LV0.

...

"See, now you are the recognized master." Crow said wearily, "You can figure out the specific usage yourself later. I'm going to sleep for a while..."

"Wait, what is 'Death Perception'? Why is it so vague?" Huai Shi pressed his face against the page and finally saw the faint handwriting.

"It's the perception of death. No matter what it is, after experiencing dozens of deaths, you will have some insights, right? The vagueness represents that you have already entered the door, but it is not yet at the level of being a skill. But I didn't expect that you actually have LV6 in cello performance. You might really be a genius..." Crow's voice gradually faded away and finally disappeared.

It might have really fallen asleep.

Only Huai Shi, dumbfounded, held the pen and notebook, not knowing what to do.

Holding the feather pen called the 'phenomenon branch', he naturally thought of the corresponding operations and applications. In addition to operating some text-type artifacts, the biggest function was to write freely in the air and change colors as he wished...

"Well, at least I can save on printing costs when posting advertisements in the future..."

Huai Shi smiled bitterly and looked at the pen, then finally looked at the book in his hand. After carefully flipping through it, he found that there seemed to be no changes inside, only a few files at the end had some faint light.

Huai Shi hesitated for a long time, lifted the pen, and clicked on them.

In an instant, the pages of the book shone brightly.

The light swallowed him up.