Apocalypse Forecast Chapter 72: Exclusive Information

After Ai Qing left, the Crow crept out from the corner.
“Ah, she’s finally gone.”
The Crow sighed.
“I couldn’t bear to watch. You hurt her.”
“Me? Why?”
Huai Shi was surprised.
“I don’t recall teaching you those kinds of scumbag lines.”
The Crow rolled her eyes at Huai Shi.
“In times like that, you should be gentle and show understanding. That way, a wonderful route would open up.”
The Crow was talking, but suddenly she was startled and said,
“You didn’t say that on purpose, did you?”
“...”
Huai Shi was silent. After a while, Huai Shi finally opened his mouth.
“I knew it when I was a child—this world is overflowing with people who have cheap sympathy and goodwill.
They don’t have the power to realize anything, and there’s no need to get close to them.
When you understand someone’s pain and past, can you take responsibility for the problems and future they carry?
Ai Qing doesn’t want my sympathy either; she is much stronger than others. If I said something stupid, she would despise me.”
“Is that how you pick up women?”
The Crow nodded as if convinced.
“One day, you’ll be stabbed for playing with a woman’s heart.”
“...Could you not look at me like that? What do you mean by ‘pick up’?”
Huai Shi glared at the Crow.
“Did you come here just to talk about such nonsense?”
“I just happened to be there.”
The Crow flapped her wings.
“Her family seems very complicated.”
“Have you heard about her?”
“Yes.”
“About the Yin family too?”
“Maybe.”
The Crow nodded.
“So, what are you going to do?”
“That’s right. What should I do?”
Huai Shi started muttering to himself and thinking.
“We can talk about the future later. Today, I brought you some news.”
The Crow interrupted Huai Shi’s train of thought.
“Prison Rock isn’t bad, but unfortunately, your prison life won’t last long.”
“Is the Special Affairs Bureau planning to execute me by firing squad? No way? What happened to the Juvenile Protection Act?”
“Didn’t you know it doesn’t apply to Sublimators?”
The Crow glanced at this coward.
“Don’t panic. It’s still too early to shoot you.”
“Then am I being released?”
“No. The People of Returning Purity have started something. Something big. In a while, you might be mobilized from behind bars too. So you have to be prepared. I also have to complete my Stigmata.”
“Something big?” Huai Shi was surprised. “How big?”
“As big as the Demon Capital!”
“The Demon Capital again! What even is the Demon Capital?! Why does everyone talk about it like it’s some terrifying hell?”
“Because it is hell.”
The Crow explained calmly.
“Depth 27 Hell: Demon Capital. Depth 29 Hell: Metropolis. Depth 30 Hell: Holy City.
These three places have been a headache for the Astronomical Society for a long time. After using every means to seal them, they were driven to the deepest parts of hell.”
“Is it that amazing?”
“What if I told you this? Originally, Xinhai was a massive city with a population of tens of millions, 80 million square kilometers, one of the centers of the world economy, and the brightest pearl of Dongxia. What would you think then?”
“My hometown is awesome!”
The Crow rolled her eyes and ignored him.
“During the pre-previous era, such a city existed, right where Xinhai is now. And then something... something that no one wanted happened.”
Huai Shi was startled. He had a bad feeling.
“And then?”
“And then, it became what it is now. Twenty million people disappeared along with it.”
The Crow shrugged.
“Its name became a kind of taboo. You can’t even whisper it. You can only call it by the substitute name, Demon Capital.”
And then, the Crow said,
“The name is ‘ ’”
Huai Shi only heard a vague sound. As if replaced by asterisks in writing, an invisible force had deleted all information about it.
Secretly, all information about the Demon Capital had been erased.
“But, what does that have to do with the People of Returning Purity?”
“From here on is Sister Crow’s exclusive information—”
The Crow wore a mysterious smile.
“What they are plotting is to open the path to the Demon Capital again. More accurately, to make the Demon Capital resurface and appear in this world again... and as the first step, they will first create a gap in the current reality, pass through a narrow path, then destroy the Boundary Wedges in Xinhai or other regions, summon the Demon Capital... and finally, boom!”
The Crow spread her wings and made an explosion gesture.
“The goals of the Green Sun and the People of Returning Purity are similar. When the Red Gloves descended the Wind Disaster Beast, the Boundary Wedge in Xinhai was almost pulled out... do you understand how bad the situation is?”
“Does that mean Xinhai is finished?”
Huai Shi lost his color in surprise.
“Do you think it’s just Xinhai? If things go wrong, the entire coastal region will be completely finished. But you’ll be fine.
Even if the People of Returning Purity and the Astronomical Society’s Social Security Bureau go to war, it won’t necessarily be in Xinhai. If a war happens in Xinhai, at most you’ll just provoke the enemy, draw their attention, and when the real fighting starts, you can just run far away... at your level, you won’t be on the front lines, so you don’t need to worry.”
“Then why are you telling me this?”
“So you don’t let your guard down. So that in the unlikely event such a situation occurs, you’ll be mentally prepared.”
Saying this, the Crow patted Huai Shi’s shoulder with her wing.
“Rest assured, you are my contractor. If anything happens, big sister will take you and run.”
Huai Shi opened his eyes wide.
“In short, you’re saying I should just eat and sleep?”
“Exactly. If something happens, you just show your face, defeat a few People of Returning Purity, and brag about your achievements. Getting a sentence reduction is easy.”
“The way you put it...”
Huai Shi looked at the Crow sideways.
“If something happens, it can’t be helped, but don’t do anything unnecessary when nothing is happening!”
“Rest assured, what kind of person is your big sister?”
The Crow laughed completely oblivious.
“It’s not like I need to start anything. The fuse is already lit, isn’t it? Anyway, I’m glad you’re doing well. Otherwise, your family would have been worried.”
Huai Shi couldn’t help but glare at the Crow.
“My family is all dead. There is no one to worry.”
“Oh, don’t you have your big sister? Whenever you want to cry, I’ll always lend you my shoulder~”
The Crow said something stupid again.
And then, following her habit, she performed a physical examination on Huai Shi and began to check the changes in his soul abilities.
Whether it was thanks to the Crow’s regret medicine or not, Huai Shi realized that during the battle with the Naga the day before yesterday, besides the ‘Formless Axe’ that condensed killing intent and fury, he could consciously extract negative emotions like sadness and condense them into substance through the ‘Hand of Confinement’.
The form was a black rope.
About the thickness of a little finger, and tough. The length could be extended infinitely within the range Huai Shi could support.
The usual length was about twenty meters. It could be moved by Huai Shi’s will, and the speed was about the same as his own.
The opponent bound by the rope condensed from sadness would taste Huai Shi’s extreme feelings of sadness and lose the power to counterattack.
The ‘Hand of Confinement’ brewed by seven years of the stress period proved to have a wider range of applications than other simple soul abilities.
Huai Shi tried to see if other emotions could be converted into substance, but it was a wasted effort. According to the Crow’s explanation, it would naturally become possible if he accumulated them without trying too hard.
Although the soul transcends matter, it is still subject to the limitations of the Sublimator’s body.
As he advances to the second and third stages, the Stigmata will be strengthened, Huai Shi’s power will increase, and a qualitative change will occur.
Therefore, there is no need to go through unnecessary trouble at this stage; he should just let nature take its course.
The Crow brought good news. Huai Shi’s growth period had officially ended.
Due to the continuous battles, psychological pressure, and the Crow’s nutritional supplements, the growth period that was originally scheduled to take a month was compressed to about a week, and he was able to overcome the final hurdle during the confrontation with the Naga.
This was the reason why his body was weak when Huai Shi woke up.
Not only were the internal invisible wounds repaired, but the repaired parts were further strengthened. Of course, there were also large deficiencies that could not be filled by saline and glucose.
The Special Affairs Bureau’s alchemical drugs were just a drop in the bucket.
If the Crow hadn’t snuck in and fed him special nutritional supplements, Huai Shi would have died of exhaustion.
“Wait a minute, how did you feed them to me?”
Huai Shi heard that far and looked at the Crow. The Crow didn’t seem to have hands.
“Ah, that question lacks delicacy.”
The Crow was shy, fidgeted, and said in a low voice,
“Of course, mouth-to-mouth. That’s the fastest way, right?”
Huai Shi didn’t want to believe it!
After the Crow left, Huai Shi lay on the bed again, thinking of having a pleasant dream.
But remembering what the Crow had warned him about earlier, he thought he shouldn’t be lazy, so he secretly took out the Book of Destiny from under the futon and entered the records.
And immediately, Huai Shi was in that training ground where he had been trampled repeatedly.
And he was facing that steel instructor.
How many side stories had been created in these few days? When the instructor saw Huai Shi, he subconsciously stepped back and took a defensive stance.
“Brother, don’t be afraid. We aren’t practicing military boxing today.”
Huai Shi waved his hand to reassure him. Then, through the authority of the Book of Destiny, he created two black-green scimitars.
Swinging them toward the instructor, he smiled familiarly.
“Why don’t you try the sword technique I learned recently?”

Translator’s Note:
The name of the Demon Capital is surely “Shanghai”.
So while Huai Shi was sleeping, the Crow was feeding him nutritional supplements mouth-to-mouth...