Chapter 1435: I Want to Extinguish the Fire
“There’s also a monitoring room, so high-tech!” I immediately ran behind the office. It was indeed a monitoring room, filled with crystal screens made of magic crystals, displaying scenes from all over the New Energy Company.
Most of the screens showed the workshop assembly lines, and even the restrooms and employee dormitories. Were they usually monitoring if workers were doing their jobs properly? Were they even monitoring unscheduled bathroom breaks?
Of course, the place was now deserted and swallowed by fire. The camera feeds were filled with flames and thick smoke. If these monitoring systems weren’t powered by magic, they would likely be useless by now.
The most striking view was an aerial perspective of the entire New Energy Company’s perimeter, like a drone’s-eye view. Without magic, this would be impossible to achieve.
From the sky, the oil storage area had turned into a sea of fire, the flames burning fiercely. A thick layer of clouds had formed in the sky, and heavy rain was pouring down.
This wasn’t normal rain; it was a torrential downpour conjured by magic. Through the monitors, I could see many soldiers surrounding the factory grounds, evacuating fleeing civilians. Several mages, standing amongst the soldiers, had their hands raised, staffs pointed to the sky, casting spells.
Two of them were familiar faces: Calond, the Lord of the City’s Occultism consultant and weather mage, and Daijia, an Engraver I had once saved. Both of them were part of the spellcasting team.
I remembered the Knight Captain telling me that when I caused the fire, it was Calond who cast the rain to extinguish it, preventing its spread and averting greater damage.
Now, there were even more mages in Cando City, and their combined magic was far stronger than Calond’s alone. The torrential rain seemed to pour directly from the sky, drenching the sea of fire.
However, the fire showed no signs of subsiding. The massive amount of rain, subjected to the high temperatures, turned into steam. This steam, mixed with the black smoke and dark clouds, obscured the sky, making it seem as if night had fallen.
Many civilians, facing this hellish scene, knelt and wept. They feared the flames would spread, and in reality, that was exactly what was happening; the fire was slowly creeping outwards.
The mages were frantic. They tried other water-based spells, such as creating tides and waves to douse the flames, or forming water shields to cut off the fire from the air, but none seemed effective.
The Heavenly Fire that Older Brother Jayad had summoned to burn away evil couldn’t be extinguished by ordinary rainwater. Furthermore, Blood Oil was difficult to extinguish with water. The Blood Oil even floated on the water formed by the rain, allowing the flames to spread along the surface, inching outwards.
If this continued, the fire would only extinguish itself when all the Blood Oil was burned. But Blood Oil’s greatest advantage was its long burning time, potentially far longer than normal petroleum. And who knew how many tons of Blood Oil the New Energy Company had stored on its premises?
Even if the fire eventually burned out on its own, I still remembered the scene I witnessed from the city walls: the residual Blood Oil would corrode the land. Allowing the burning Blood Oil to flow freely now would undoubtedly severely damage Cando City’s land.
And then there were the thick fumes and exhaust gases from the fire, also produced by burning Blood Oil. Who knew if they would cause pollution and corrosion? Given the sinister nature of Blood Oil, I suspected they certainly would.
Therefore, I couldn’t let them continue this slow process of extinguishing the fire. I had to resolve this. Not just the fire, but the root of all evil here: the Blood Oil.
This was undoubtedly difficult. Setting aside the unknown quantity of Blood Oil in the New Energy Company’s giant storage tanks, simply getting close to this sea of fire meant turning into charcoal. How could I extinguish it?
But I still had a few tricks up my sleeve. It was similar to how I dealt with the Blood Oil from Sturgeon No. 3. I would sacrifice it all to Beelzebub. In fact, that was my initial plan for dealing with the Blood Oil – not to let these harmful substances remain in Cando City.
However, plans do not always go as expected. Older Brother Jayad’s Heavenly Fire had ignited the Blood Oil lake, and now the flames covered the entire factory. For me to sacrifice the Blood Oil, the minimum condition would be to place the Divine Seal upon it, which was the difficult part.
I walked back. Less than half of the money in the treasury had been transferred. Older Brother Jayad turned to me and asked, “Parul, what’s the situation?”
“It’s terrible. The fire can’t be stopped. If this continues, it will engulf the city. I have to find a way to sacrifice the Blood Oil to extinguish the fire,” I said in a low voice.
“Sacrifice the Blood Oil? That would be extremely difficult,” Older Brother Jayad replied.
“You only said it’s difficult, not impossible, which means you actually have a way, right?” I asked.
“Yes, I can command the Heavenly Fire to separate. My shield can isolate the smoke and carry some oxygen, but it cannot block the immense heat. We will have to endure extreme temperatures to touch the Blood Oil,” Jayad said.
“That’s what I was thinking too. As for the heat, I have a solution,” I said, already very familiar with Older Brother Jayad’s abilities and considering them without him needing to mention.
I took out a few vials of snow-white potions from my backpack. These were potions I had bought from the Hunter’s Guild, called “Cold Drinks.” Although they had a simple, unfussy name, they were actually potent concoctions made from ingredients like frozen mushrooms and ice crystals.
The purpose of the Cold Drinks was to allow hunters to hunt monsters in extreme environments without getting burned, such as in volcanoes or lava pools.
After learning the recipe, I made some myself and sold them. The quality of these Cold Drinks far surpassed those sold in the guild, both in duration and heat resistance.
However, according to Old Golden Tooth, the sales of hot drinks were much higher than cold drinks these days due to the cold winter weather, making warming hot drinks very popular.
So, I still had a few Cold Drinks stored at home. Fortunately, I was cautious and brought a few in my backpack, or it would have been even more troublesome. In fact, I had even brought a few hot drinks as well.
“Parul (Sister), the second portal to the left outside the gate leads to the Blood Oil brewing area where we fought before. It should be easier to access the Blood Oil there,” Sherris said, knowing she couldn’t dissuade me and providing useful information instead.
“Big Brother, Parul (Sister), please be careful. Don’t push yourselves. If you truly encounter danger, please retreat,” Via said.
She wasn’t planning to join us. Vampires are intolerant of high temperatures, and she knew that more people wouldn’t necessarily be better for this mission; in fact, they might become a burden. Sherris also stayed behind.
“Don’t worry. You two, hurry up and empty the treasury. We’ll retreat immediately once we’re back,” I instructed. Taking Older Brother Jayad with me was enough.
And so, Brother and I arrived at the portal Sherris mentioned. Before entering, I took a swig of Cold Drink, and my entire body was instantly filled with a refreshing coolness.
