Chapter 5 Raven and Stigma_1

"Ah... I can't live like this anymore..."

Huai Shi sat in the garden, disheveled and pale-faced. Considering the past couple of days' experiences, he couldn't help but let out a long wail to the sky, tears streaming down his face.

This was no longer just the dire situation of nearly going bankrupt. First, he endured the disgrace of being discovered interviewing to become a Cowherd, only to stumble upon mysterious corpses, then he was targeted and hauled into some strange organizational department, and in the end, his soul suffered yet another blow...

From the inside out, from spirit to wallet, he could no longer bear such a bitter and painful life.

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

There was no escape in death, no door to life.

"Screw it, might as well be dead!"

He hurled his notebook aside in a helpless rage, tears flowing like a panda's. After the rage and tears, he obediently picked up the notebook, wiped the dirt off, and then sighed as he continued to stare blankly at the barren garden.

It'll pass, Huai Shi, it will pass... Maybe after some time, I'll forget all about it, right?

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

"It would be good if you really could think like that. But counting the time, that group of guys should have set their sights on you by now..."

He heard a strange voice beside him, that of a woman, husky and seductive, with an indescribable hint of mockery. She said, "Hey kiddo, you're going to die."

"You're the one who's dying!"

Huai Shi retorted irritably, looking back... and then froze.

There was no one beside him.

This was his family's backyard, where no one would usually come, let alone strike up a conversation so bizarrely.

But then who was speaking?

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

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

In his bewildered state, the raven casually said, "A raven is talking to you, that's right. You're not dreaming."

With that, she seemed to burp contentedly.

"You can speak?"

Huai Shi was astonished, and then quickly on guard: "No, what devilish thing are you!"

The raven chuckled softly, its tone becoming aggrieved yet cheeky, "Wow, when you used to stare at me without blinking, you treated me as your little beloved. Now am I some creepy thing?"

"You, you, you... You're that damn book?"

Huai Shi realized, flipping open the notebook. On the title page… the silhouette of that raven had disappeared without a trace, as if it truly became a living creature and flew out from the pages.

"Something like that."

The raven sighed and glanced at the notebook in his arms, "Although I am also a remnant, now I am just a part of the records there.

However, if you were to confuse me with 'Heavenly Kingdom,' that would be hilarious."

Speaking words Huai Shi couldn't understand, she swiftly changed the subject, her crimson pupils fixing on Huai Shi, "However, this has nothing to do with who I am. The problem is—"

"—do you really think I was just teasing you a moment ago?"

She asked softly, "Haven't you personally experienced the records of those people before they died?"

Huai Shi thought of the relentless nightmares he'd endured last night and shivered involuntarily, his voice becoming hoarse, "They really... all died?"

"Ah, yes."

The raven nodded, "Apart from you, everyone who has seen that box is dead by now.

There were quite a few nice things in there, after so many years of Deep Sleep, it's rare to replenish so much Source Substance. Although it's a bit chaotic, by my reckoning, it amounts to roughly eight or nine hundred people's worth, right?"

She smacked her lips as if longing for more, smiling pleasantly at Huai Shi, "Considering those first-meeting gifts, do you need my help, young man?"

.

.

"40 grams copper, 57 grams silver, 12 grams of tin ground into powder... a set of crucible and gas furnace, the left-over lead blocks you can have for free..."

In the evening, having run around the city all day, Huai Shi finally came home. He tossed the plastic bag onto the table and grabbed the bottled water left from the day before, chugging it without a care for health anymore.

"I've maxed out my credit lines, and I'm drowning in debt. What's the point of buying all this stuff anyway?"

"Alchemy,"

The raven was picking its feathers, saying nonchalantly, "Making Stigmata that an ordinary person like you can use is not easy."

"Stigmata?" Huai Shi scoffed, "Am I supposed to become an aerial splits cleaner or something?"

"What's that? A modern joke?"

"No, just a trick by greedy game developers to swindle money."

Thinking of the few classmates who had gone red-eyed from splurging thousands on games, Huai Shi felt deep envy from the bottom of his heart.

"It's not the same, Huai Shi. Although the name is the same, the Stigmata I'm talking about is not that kind of joke."

The raven calmly explained, "If the essence of the soul possessed by the Sublimators is the embryonic form of divine power, then Stigmata is the result of analyzing and deciphering the God Spirit Legacy.

By retracing the remnants of Miracles to find the path to the divine, imitating Gods, investigating the authority and lingering vestiges of Gods, that's how Stigmata came to be explored. They are made of metals and Incense as part of Mystic Rituals, creating minor Miracles that mimic major ones.

That is what Stigmata are."

"...Gods?"

Huai Shi was taken aback, "Do Gods really exist in this world?"

"They used to."

The raven fell silent for a moment, "But they're all dead, abandoned by time. Those things from a bygone era are immaterial to today's world. In fact, they may soon lose even the value of being remembered."

Unwilling to discuss it further, the raven hurried Huai Shi to set up the crucible, urging him to start this round of Alchemy as soon as possible.

"Is this enough with just these?"

Once the fire reached the necessary temperature, Huai Shi, following Raven's instructions, put on a mask, ground the lead blocks into powder, and mixed it with his own blood to carefully inscribe unfamiliar inscriptions onto the extremely thin metal. The structure of the incantations was deceptively simple, yet brooked no deviation.

Raven's scrutiny was terrifyingly sharp. Even the slightest misstep required him to erase and rewrite. After wasting countless CCs of blood, he finally completed the simple yet demanding task.

"These are merely auxiliary materials. Even the simplest of stigmata cannot be created with the fire and metal of ordinary humans. What we have here is merely a rudimentary emergency measure. When you're crafting higher level stigmata in the future, you'll even need the blood of magical creatures and a great number of sacrifices, perhaps even..."

It paused, then without continuing, added indifferently, "Rest for ten minutes. We'll start at eleven-fifteen. Remember, you only have one chance. If you miss it, well, I don't think you have enough money to start over, right?"

Mention of money made Huai Shi even more nervous. He held his notebook and repeatedly confirmed the order Raven had once verbally explained to him, rehearsing it in his mind.

Meanwhile, Raven stood next to the crucible, gazing into the flames.

In the blink of an eye, the crimson fire abruptly turned pure white, and ultimately, a myriad of radiant lights emerged, resplendent and dazzling.

But Raven's form became more and more faint.

"What is that?"

"Source Substance, ignited Source Substance." Raven glanced at him. Before he could ask further, it explained, "Source Substance is the material that makes up the soul, the spirit stored within matter... You can think of it as fragments of the soul.

Since your materials are insufficient, we can only concentrate on the fire. Now, for every second, a person's worth of a soul is being consumed. Ah, no need to worry about the source, these are all stock from that box."

Huai Shi swallowed hard, unsure of what to say.

More terrifying than burning a person every second was what that box contained, according to Raven—nearly a thousand people's worth of Source Substance...

What on earth was that ghastly thing?

"Don't dwell too much on unnecessary thoughts. It's starting, Huai Shi."

Raven gave Huai Shi a final look. The molten lead in the crucible was boiling vigorously, yet there was no foul odor or any other smell. Instead, under the torture of the pure white fire, a hint of gold emerged.

It was like a wave of gold dust rippling through light gray.

Huai Shi didn't have time to think further; he grabbed the items arranged in order beside him and dropped them into the crucible one by one. First tin, then copper, and finally silver...

Each addition caused no ripples in the metallic solution of the crucible, instantly assimilating the foreign objects.

The pure white flames soared suddenly, countless rays of light greedily drawn into the crucible, the intense brightness stinging Huai Shi's eyes.

In the final moment, Huai Shi heard the sigh of Raven.

"I hope this gamble pays off, Huai Shi."

Murmuring softly, her form as fleeting as a phantom, she suddenly spread her wings, took flight, and plunged into the crucible.

Boom!

In the depths of a muffled explosion, the flames extinguished, and the liquid in the crucible rose up, sketching complex contours in the air, ultimately collapsing inwards, layer by layer.

As Huai Shi watched in astonishment, it gradually solidified into substance and began to descend from the sky at a gentle pace.

It was a feather.

A metal feather.

Like a feather forged from pure silver, every detail and fork was delicate and flawless, with no visible imperfections. Light flowed over the mirror-like membrane, as if refracting the entire world, with a variety of bizarre images flashing by momentarily.

The feather fell into Huai Shi's hands.

"This is my true form now, an atypical Stigma without a genealogy—the Event Branch."

The Raven's voice arose beside Huai Shi's ear, filled with exhaustion, "With that notebook and the Event Branch in hand, even before the turmoil, you would have been qualified to serve as a Preparatory Secretary."

Huai Shi stared in astonishment at the heavy notebook in his hands, which turned its pages as if blown by the wind, feeling dizzy and disoriented. Though the script was flowing incessantly, it appeared as if he were looking at another self in a mirror.

Another self that existed only within the written record.

"What in the world is this?"

"Well, if you have to say... it is probably the last afterimage of the Heavenly Kingdom on earth," the Raven sighed softly, "You may call it the Book of Fate."

In that instant, the myriad flowing words suddenly converged, and as the Raven on the title page vanished without trace, new lines of text appeared.

Huai Shi (Stress Period)

Title: None

Stigmata: None

Miracle Imprint: None

Skills held: General Knowledge Level 3, Artistry·Performance·Cello Level 6, Death Perception Level 0.

...

"Look, you're now acknowledged as the master by him," the Raven said wearily, "You'll figure out the specific way to use it in a bit. I need to sleep now..."

"Wait a minute, 'Death Perception'? What the hell is that, and why is it so vague?"

Huai Shi pressed his face against the title page to see the faint line of text that was nearly invisible.

"It's just a premonition of death. Whatever it is, if you experience death dozens of times in a row, you're bound to gain some insights, right? The vagueness and dullness signify that you've just begun and are not yet proficient enough to be considered skilled. However, I didn't expect you to have a Level 6 in Cello Performance. You might really be a genius..."

The voice gradually became distant, and at last, it could no longer be heard.

It might have indeed fallen asleep.

There was only a dumbfounded Huai Shi, still holding the pen and notebook, unsure of what to do with them.

As he held the pen called 'Event Branch,' the appropriate operations and applications came to him instinctively. In addition to manipulating text-based objects, its greatest function was to write in the air, freely changing colors...

"Well, at least it'll save on printing costs for any spam ads I might send out in the future..."

Huai Shi smiled wryly at the pen, then turned his attention back to the book in his hand. After a careful review, he found no changes within it, except for a few pages at the end that faintly glowed.

After hesitating for a long while, Huai Shi lifted the pen and pointed it at them.

In an instant, the pages illuminated brilliantly.

The light engulfed him.