Chapter 752 - 474: Animated Environmental Pollution

Chapter 752: Chapter 474: Animated Environmental Pollution

「India.」

The River of Life, originating from the roof of the world, flows gently, nurturing generation after generation. This is not only the Holy River of the Tianzhu Sect but also the birthplace of Buddhism. It holds deep significance for every person in India, who believes they must bathe in the Ganges River at least once in their lifetime to let the Holy River wash away the sins of all their lives.

On the Varanasi River Bank, one could find all walks of life: luxurious mansions and dilapidated shacks, Ascetic Monks and funeral pyres, tourists and Priests, heavy metal music and tour boats. Here, people played out their daily dramas.

Some cremated their deceased relatives, allowing them to enter Heaven from this place and escape the cycle of reincarnation. Others leaped into the river, bathing in what they believed to be pure, holy water. As far as the eye could see, the filthy river was filled with the faces and bodies of the pious and devout. Expressionless Ascetic Monks begged for alms, their emaciated, wood-like bodies drawing quiet murmurs from tourists. Barefoot children chased each other along the bank, never tiring of their games...

A few foreign tourists, muttering prayers, placed the river lanterns they had bought into the water. Their tour guide had proclaimed it was the way to make one’s most devout wish in the most sacred of places.

In reality, however, anyone could see how turbid and filthy the Holy River’s water was.

Cremation ashes, ritual offerings, floating corpses, human remains, feces, garbage, industrial runoff, and domestic sewage... All the byproducts of religious ceremony and human life converged here, creating one of the most polluted rivers in the world.

And yet, people still flocked to it, even reveling in bathing in the Holy River Water.

Carried by the current, the wishing lanterns drifted farther and farther away. Suddenly, a whirlpool appeared on the river’s surface. The nearest lanterns were instantly sucked into the vortex, disappearing without a trace.

Before the people on the bank and in the water could react, the whirlpool grew larger, effortlessly capsizing a passing tour boat. The tourists aboard jumped clear just in time and swam desperately for shore, but they could not escape the vortex’s pull.

Within seconds, their desperate screams were silenced as they were pulled beneath the surface.

A clamor erupted. Those in the river scrambled for their lives, while those on the bank stared in shocked disbelief. They didn’t flee right away, feeling perfectly safe so far from the water.

A moment later, however, their false sense of security was mercilessly shattered.

BOOM!

A ten-thousand-ton plume of water erupted, spraying like a waterfall. A behemoth formed of turbid currents rose up on two legs from the Holy River, its hollow eye sockets staring down at the terrified crowds on the bank, whose souls seemed to scatter in fear.

WEE-WOO-WEE-WOO!!!!

An ear-piercing siren suddenly blared across the city. The people finally snapped out of their stupor and fled for their lives in abject terror. They stumbled and fell, their cries and screams filling the air as the riverbank descended into utter chaos.

A beam of light radiating a biting cold descended from the sky, instantly freezing the water monster solid. With a loud crack, it shattered into fine dust. But immediately after, more and more sewage monsters rose from the river.

Their bodies gradually turned green, transforming from mere water into some kind of hard, metallic substance. Their two pairs of eyes blazed like searchlights, emitting a skin-searing radiation. The bodies of many who failed to escape quickly began to ulcerate, melting into viscous flesh and bare bone amidst clouds of acrid, green smoke.

Hydrogen, helium, lithium, beryllium, boron. Carbon, nitrogen, oxygen, fluorine, neon. Sodium, magnesium, aluminum, silicon, phosphorus. Sulfur, chlorine, argon, potassium, calcium... Vast quantities of hazardous Elements began to react. The old joke about a single mouthful of Holy River Water containing half the periodic table was now a grim reality.

In fact, it was even worse.

Beyond the hazardous Elements that had settled over countless years, innumerable super-bacteria and viruses were now awakening. They aggregated, fused, and mutated at astonishing speeds, giving birth to dozens, even hundreds, of new viral strains every second.

An army of monsters, animated by toxins and radiation, roared at the sky. The river, now a toxic, viridian green, churned and swelled into a monstrous, raging tsunami.

A thick sediment of the Abyss began to manifest in the air, spreading like the grasping claws of a Demon, reaching slowly for the ancient city.

·

「South Africa.」

The main industry of the "Mechanical Graveyard" was recovering precious metals from computers and electronic devices. The area was covered in scrapyards with appalling environmental conditions, all piled high with mountains of e-waste.

Local residents would burn the plastic casings off the e-waste to extract the copper cores within. This process released massive amounts of lead, causing severe harm to both people and the environment. The columns of black smoke billowing toward the heavens weren’t just from burning electronics; they were from the burning-out of the workers’ very lives.

Living in such a hostile environment long-term meant that most people didn’t live past the age of twenty-five.

But if they didn’t do this work, they wouldn’t survive to see tomorrow.

Day after day, the work filled the air with vast quantities of toxic substances: high concentrations of lead, polybrominated diphenyl ethers, polychlorinated dibenzodioxins and furans, and mixtures of polybrominated dioxins and furans. Bottom ash, dust, contaminated soil, and wastewater piled up around the e-waste recycling stations, causing the environment to deteriorate even further.

And so, at the call of the God of Contamination, a toxic Demon opened its eyes amidst the e-waste.

The earth rumbled. Hundreds of millions of pieces of e-waste shot into the sky, all flying in the same direction. In a tsunami-like surge, they assembled into a single, colossal figure.

A pair of long, narrow wings unfurled from its back, and a halo materialized above its head.

It resembled an Angel of legend, but a closer look revealed that its wings and halo were composed entirely of e-waste. It spewed foul, black smoke and constantly rained down pieces of debris. The grotesque sight was enough to make countless people choke on the spot.

·

「Industrial Zone.」

A gray smog surged up, swallowing the massive industrial park whole. Workers suffocated in agony, choking on the acrid haze. Only those who wore gas masks were lucky enough to survive.

The smog did not linger, soon transforming into a dust storm that swept toward the city. Before long, that city was lost in an ocean of dust.

And from deep within the smog, a sharp, maniacal laugh echoed.

·

「Yingzhou Sea Realm.」

The discharge of nuclear wastewater had caused mass mutations among the marine life. Beneath the churning surface of the sea, an even more violent Demon Tide was brewing.

·

At almost the exact same time, locations all over the World were attacked.

Attacks from environmental pollution that had come to life.

Human progress is inevitably accompanied by pollution. Even with today’s technology, this problem cannot be entirely solved. Now, at the call of the God of Contamination, the foul deeds of humankind were finally coming back to bite them.

"This is but a humble gift I offer for the grand, world-ending war. I do hope you like it."

"And as for you... if you think you can stop me, then come. We shall wager this World on the outcome."

A smirk played on Turbidity’s lips before he dissolved into a wisp of haze and vanished on the wind.

Immediately afterward, Zhou Chen received a summons from the Star Association’s high command.

’Time to get to work.’