Chapter Four
“Alchemy doll? That’s not…” Denos paused, then said in surprise, but then felt it was inappropriate and swallowed the words back.
Alchemical puppets are defensive weapons created by alchemists using alchemical matrices. However, theoretically, these things are like elemental puppets created by sorcerers, lacking intelligence and only able to act according to commands or presets.
But this guy in front of me, regardless of whether he is a monster or a human, at least I can tell that he is a living being.
“I was created two years ago,” Lady said softly, perhaps thinking that since these people had saved her, there was little chance they would harm her: “I’m rather… rather special, but I’m not entirely sure why.”
Denos glanced at Ark questioningly, but Ark shook his head slightly, indicating that he shouldn't ask any further questions. Everyone has their own secrets, and the fact that she told them this already showed that she trusted them to some extent.
“Your injuries haven’t healed yet, so you should rest early.” Ark changed the subject. “That coffin can inhibit decay, so you should spend more time lying in it.”
The chaos here is also reflected in the elements. If left unattended, wounds will rot due to the corruption of darkness, and even the dead will turn into disgusting monsters like zombies.
“Remember to eat the food I bring you,” Yak continued. “There’s some medicine mixed in; it’ll help your injuries heal faster.”
Lady nodded slightly and prepared to get up.
"Oh, and..." Ark suddenly sounded a little confused, and the little face on his head instantly turned red: "Um... your bandage needs to be changed..."
A blush crept onto Lady's face. She nodded slightly and fled into the carriage.
...
"Do you think what she said is credible?" A moment later, after Ark finished changing her bandages and stepped out of the carriage, Denos asked.
“I don’t quite believe it.” Ark hesitated for a moment, his expression looking a little off. “I paid special attention when I changed her bandages just now, and I didn’t see the alchemical matrix on her.”
“Then that doesn’t conform to the rules of alchemy,” Denos said, seemingly lost in thought. “Is it possible that it’s been hidden?”
“There was no opportunity to observe further.” Ark sat down, paused, and said, “I’ve never seen an alchemical doll like this before, so she’s likely a monster, just unwilling to tell us.”
"You actually want to observe further? Haven't you seen all the girls naked enough?" Denos suddenly chuckled and nudged him with his elbow.
"Go to hell, go to hell." Ark's emoticon, its face flushed, said, "That's enough. I definitely need to hire another doctor when I have time... Speaking of which, I miss Raven a bit. If that guy were here, things wouldn't be so awkward."
The atmosphere suddenly changed when he uttered the word "crow." The relaxed atmosphere that had allowed for jokes vanished instantly, replaced by a quiet sadness that made even the most playful person lose their will to joke.
"Stop fooling around. Anyway, let's treat her as a monster for now." Ark shook his head, as if trying to shake off some bad mood. "But since she calls herself a doll, let's just look at her like that in front of her, otherwise it will make her feel uneasy."
“I can understand.” Denos suddenly sighed and exhaled a puff of white smoke. “If that’s the case, doesn’t that mean I’m still the only human here?”
Ark glanced at him, and a threatening expression immediately appeared on his face. Denos shut up immediately and stopped complaining.
"Is she asleep?" Suddenly, a hoarse voice, as if it had been rubbed against a piece of metal, came from behind. Anyone who heard such a voice for the first time would instinctively tremble.
“The medication I gave her contains a sleeping ingredient… a potent drug against monsters, so as long as we don’t make too much noise, she shouldn’t wake up.” Ark looked at the cargo wagon: “Would you like to come out and get something to eat?”
"Hmm..." The only response he received was a sound that was almost a sigh.
Then, a series of rustling sounds came from inside the carriage canopy, as if something was moving around inside. Until, from under the gray cloth, a jet-black, sharp thorn emerged.
Next came the second one. These two sharp spikes braced against the ground and pulled the thing out of the gray cloth.
It was a monster that would make most people want to scream in terror at the sight of it. It was pitch black all over and covered with a short layer of sharp, bristly hair. It was about the size of a child, with arms and legs so thin that they were constricting the bones.
The creature was wearing a somewhat comical hoodie with a hole cut in the back, from which four spear-like spider legs protruded. It was a spider that looked like a human, but by all accounts, it was a filthy and ugly creature.
But the other two seemed oblivious to the fact that it was a monster; they simply shifted their positions to make room for it next to the fire.
Ark took a cloth bag from the box behind him and handed it to the spider monster: "Want me to grill some skewers for you?"
"No, no need. I'll eat something quickly and go back to my cage." After taking it, it said in a hoarse voice, "If she suddenly wakes up and sees me, she'll be frightened."
Then it tore open the cloth bundle and grabbed a large piece of raw meat.
On his large, black head, two eyes that looked like rolling beads were ferocious and terrifying, while six scattered small eyes were distributed on the top of his head, making him look even more disgusting.
When that mouth opened, it was as if a black sphere had suddenly cracked open. Apart from two relatively neat fangs, the other teeth were scattered haphazardly, biting at the piece of flesh and making eerie sounds.
Anyone who saw this scene would probably feel nauseous, because it looked exactly like a monster that had been hunting humans and was now devouring a corpse. It was disgusting enough to make you want to vomit.
“Actually, you don’t need to be so careful.” Denos took a bamboo tube filled with water from his waist and placed it next to him: “Drink some water to wash it off, so you don’t choke.”
"Hmm... thank you." The monster took it and drank it down in one gulp, wiping the food crumbs from the corner of its mouth.
In just a few minutes, he ate a large bag of raw meat, and he did look quite choked.
“She’s a monster too. In a sense, you’re all the same kind.” Denos shrugged. “Besides, it was you who asked us to save her back then.”
"Nobody likes monsters, and nobody likes an ugly spider," the disgusting creature said. "So nobody likes me either."
After those words were spoken, the atmosphere suddenly became oppressive, making it hard to breathe.
"It's alright, don't worry about it." Ark tried his best to sound cheerful, then grabbed the monster's large head. Its neck was excessively thin, covered only by a single layer of hard, hairy black skin around its cervical spine: "Crimson, want to play a game of cards?"
"Aren't you going to rest?" The spider called Chrison looked at Ark with some confusion, and subconsciously moved his position, seemingly wanting to put some distance between himself and Ark.
“If that happens, you’ll definitely just go back into the cage; it’s not comfortable in there.” Yak patted its head.
Knowing this spider well, he understood his companion's personality perfectly. To put it simply, the spider knew very well that it was ugly, disgusting, and repulsive, so it shouldn't be so shameless as to be active in visible places; it should just stay where no one could see it.
...
Lady looked out from inside the coffin at the roof of the carriage; she didn't appear to be asleep.
The medicine that Ark fed her contained enough monster sleeping pills to give anyone who wasn't resistant to the drug a good night's sleep.
However, she couldn't feel sleepy; she could only feel a slight warmth coming from her wound, which relieved the pain.
Lady turned her head and stared blankly at the inner wall of the coffin.
The carved patterns were extremely bizarre, beyond description. Those chaotic patterns looked so ferocious and terrifying, lacking any concrete form, yet resembling an aggregation of all things horrifying. One truly wonders whether the person who carved this was a madman or a psychopath.
But without this coffin, she would have already died as a monster.
Its name is "Life Palace," derived from its pronunciation. Confining life within this coffin prevents it from being taken by the wandering Grim Reaper. In this chaotic land, without it, even the slightest injury would result in a gruesome death.
She only watched for a short while before closing her eyes, her body trembling slightly.
It wasn't because of the cold. The fur that had been stained with blood had been replaced with a softer and more comfortable goatskin. Yak had also brought out a stove about half the size of a person from the corner, and once it was lit, the whole small space became warm and comfortable.
But these things made her uneasy, quite uneasy.
Especially after she realized that the medicine Yak gave her before bed contained sedative ingredients, this unease became even harder to ignore.
The stories her father had told her kept popping into her mind uncontrollably, and she kept imagining what she might experience next, causing her to instinctively curl up into a ball.
Would she be sold? Lady wondered. She herself was an unidentified doll, and most laws only protected human rights for those with identification. Even if residents outside that group were persecuted, no one would bother to interfere.
She also knew that there were some shady deals going on in the dark corners of the city... If she were sold to such a place, the thought of it made her feel that it would be easier to die.
Lady thought to herself, "I have to find a way to escape. I absolutely can't stay in a place like this."
...
The light pierced through the dark clouds, like the sun's sword piercing the ground. In just a few minutes, the swamp was dried up, and a gust of wind turned it into sand and gravel.
The endless swamp has become the Gobi Desert, where as far as the eye can see, there is only sand.
Just a moment ago it was night, the air was cold and damp, but now it's noon, and the sun is scorching.
The surface temperature here is approaching 80 degrees Celsius, and the air temperature is close to 50 degrees Celsius. Without any protective measures, this high temperature can instantly cause shock, and one can die without even experiencing heatstroke.
However, this is still more suitable for moving forward than the swamp we just passed, because if we have protective gear, we can manage to endure it.
“We’re really lucky,” Yak whistled from his horse ahead. “Looks like we’ll be at the next city soon.”
"What about the weather next?" Denos had somehow ended up sitting outside; it was unbearably hot inside the carriage, and he had to hold up the protective barrier. His clothes were now soaked with sweat.
“Three days of daylight in the desert,” Yak said with certainty. “There will be a short sandstorm after half a day, but the rest of the time it will be calm. This is the Kurrus Plain, one of the few safe places.”
It's definitely safe... after all, the worst weather recorded here was just a fireball falling from the sky accompanied by an earthquake. It's much safer than other places.
For example, there's the roughly 600-square-kilometer forbidden zone to the left of Nidra, named after its first discoverer, Hodrian. When that place goes berserk, even gravity sometimes malfunctions, with tens of millions of tons of lava lakes flying upwards, while the temperature plummets to nearly zero degrees Celsius. Without the protection of elemental barriers, everything would instantly freeze into ice, then sublimate into steam before the intense heat of the lava could even melt it…
In this light, all that's possible here is a sandstorm whipping up sand at over 80 degrees Celsius at speeds of 150 kilometers per hour, and the worst outcome for those exposed would be burns to over 90% of their body surface, with their muscles practically roasted. But at least they could keep a body to take back for a funeral.
So they slowly made their way through the desert to the next city.
The city was called Morri, and it also belonged to the Gorlov dynasty.
The Gorlov dynasty is the largest known kingdom today, simply because it consists of twelve cities of varying sizes, which maintain minimal connections with each other. It also has a 40,000 square kilometer security zone within its borders.
A safe zone is a landscape untouched by the war between gods and demons; it is a place without darkness, warm all day, bathed in sunshine, and free from natural disasters. Only in such places can crops be grown. Therefore, the size of a safe zone became an important standard for measuring national strength.
Cities are built next to safe zones, with huge elemental barriers forming a protective layer, creating artificial safe havens.
As for why it wasn't built within safe zones... it's because crops can't be grown outside of safe zones, making every inch incredibly precious. Artificially constructed areas can only mitigate the damage from natural disasters, not completely prevent them. Sudden climate changes are too much for delicate crops to withstand.
Therefore, although she was delicate, she had no choice but to make do and live in a city next to the safe zone.
Morrie is one of these cities, a beacon of hope in this world of despair.
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