Chapter 166 - 165: The Graveyard Demon’s Great Transformation

Chapter 166: Chapter 165: The Graveyard Demon’s Great Transformation

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About half an hour later, the Corroding Mycelium wrapped around the spaceship and Mobile Castle finally stopped squirming. Those two behemoths had completely disappeared, devoured by the mycelium.

The Graveyard Demon, which had been held aloft, slowly descended back to the ground. Its heavy body crashed onto the rubble, letting out a dull BOOM.

Gu Su stood on the wall, his gaze sweeping over this familiar territory as his pupils contracted slightly.

The Graveyard Demon before him was now vastly different from the one in his memory. 𝘧𝓇ℯℴ𝓂

The original, pure eeriness and Undead Qi were still dense, but on top of that, other things had been added—about ten percent of a mechanical texture, and some indescribable traces of biotechnology.

It was like an alien bloodline had been forcibly stitched into this land of the Undead. Though it seemed out of place, it had bizarrely fused into a single entity.

The greatest change of all was the Yin Fire Heap.

What was once just a simple pile of faint blue flames had now completely transformed.

A three-meter-high Melting Furnace rose from the ground, its body clearly converted from the casing of some abandoned engine. Its surface still bore mottled metal patterns and semi-molten welding marks.

Half of the Melting Furnace was buried underground. The part above ground had a feed port on each of its four sides, their calibers varied. Some were suitable for inserting whole logs, while others were better for pouring in powdered fuel.

Four metal pipes of varying thickness extended from the top of the Melting Furnace, spreading out like twisted blood vessels before converging into a main smokestack.

The smokestack pierced straight into the sky, its opening wreathed in a perpetually swirling cloud of black smoke. The black smoke intertwined with the faint blue flames visible from within the furnace, forming an eerie halo at the smokestack’s opening.

When the flames danced, the entire Melting Furnace would emit a low hum, as if some slumbering Giant Beast were breathing.

Gu Su took a few steps closer and could feel the cold radiating from the furnace’s body. Despite being a fire, it was a few degrees colder than the surrounding air. It was no wonder so many white candles could be stuck into such a large Yin Fire Heap.

On the wall faces on either side of the city gate, a neat row of nozzles had appeared. Each nozzle was the width of a bowl, its metal interior a scorched black, and its edges welded with fine reinforcing rings.

The nozzles were angled slightly outward, and a faint airflow surged from deep within, causing the dust at the base of the wall to roll and tumble.

The bottoms of these nozzles were connected to pipes buried underground—the very same propulsion system piping salvaged from the spaceship wreckage.

Then there were the huge Red Balloons on the walls.

The balloons still hung in their original positions, their scarlet skins gleaming with an ominous luster under the purple light.

But now, the surface of each balloon was covered by a fine wire mesh. The uniform mesh tightly enveloped the entire sphere, as if the balloon was wearing a layer of chainmail.

The edges of the wire mesh were secured to the crenellations of the wall with thick metal hooks. When the wind blew, the clashing metal would emit faint tinkling sounds.

It was clear that these balloons now had extremely high Defense Power and would no longer burst immediately upon being attacked.

But the most crucial part was at the foot of the newly-built Watchtower.

There, lay the cockpit he had been longing for.

The Watchtower divided the northern wall into two sections, and the cockpit was hidden on the first floor to the left of the Watchtower.

The entire cockpit wasn’t very large, about twenty square meters, but the entire opposite wall had been completely removed and replaced with a single, complete sheet of glass.

The glass was clearly pieced together from porthole windows salvaged from the spaceship. Traces of sealant remained on the edges, but it was fitted tightly enough to provide a clear view of the ruins outside and the distant horizon.

In front of the glass were five staggered pilot stations.

The seats were the kind salvaged from military trucks. Their leather surfaces were worn shiny, with cracks in many places revealing the yellowed springs inside.

Some springs had come loose and were retightened with thick iron wire, fastened to the seat frames.

The edges of the leather had been patched up with hemp rope. The stitching was crude but strong. Although they wouldn’t be very comfortable to sit on, they could at least support a person’s weight.

The five stations each had a different role.

The one in the very center was clearly the main pilot’s station. There was no steering wheel on the console before it, only a row of levers of varying lengths.

The grips of the levers were wrapped in tattered cloth to prevent slipping. Yellowed labels were stuck to the shafts, with words like "Left Thrust," "Right Thrust," "Double Yin Qi," and "Emergency Acceleration" scrawled on them.

To the left of the main pilot was the co-pilot, who also had a few levers, though noticeably fewer. They mainly controlled the backup power and emergency brakes.

To the right was the communications officer’s station. An internal telephone in the shape of a small doll hung from the ceiling above. It was one of the small dolls transformed from the military band, but this one was clearly a dedicated line, able to connect directly with the Watchtower above and Gu Su’s tent.

The two stations further to the right belonged to the surveyor and the emergency brake operator.

In front of the surveyor was a slanted wooden table with a simple coordinate grid carved into its surface. A telescope mount was fixed to the corner of the table, but the telescope hadn’t been installed yet, leaving only an empty metal ring.

The emergency brake station stood alone at the very end. In front of it was a single, thick red lever with the large words "E-STOP" painted on its shaft in white.

Of course, Gu Su could also directly communicate with the Graveyard Demon via his spiritual connection and command it to move on its own. However, this method was extremely crude. He could only control the Graveyard Demon to move sideways or straight, without the ability to flexibly adjust its direction or precisely control its speed. It was far less convenient than operating it from the cockpit.

To the right of the Watchtower was the space reserved for the Map Room.

Compared to the cockpit, this area seemed much more shabby.

The room was the same size, but it was completely empty except for a metal table salvaged from the spaceship, which was propped against a corner.

A damaged star chart was spread out on the table. It was something from the spaceship’s cockpit. Half of it had been destroyed when the ship crashed, and the remaining part was blurry. Only the outlines of a few star systems were vaguely discernible, and it could no longer function properly.

Other than that, there was nothing.

No map stand, no surveying tools, no paper and pens for recording, and certainly no complete atlas that would allow Gu Su to understand the geography of this region.

This damaged star chart wasn’t so much a prototype for the Map Room as it was a reminder—a reminder of how much Gu Su still had yet to build.

However, after seeing all the changes to the Graveyard Demon, Gu Su was actually less anxious.

’He had been worried that buildings like the cockpit and the Map Room would require special blueprints, and he had no idea where to find them.

’It now seems that after the Graveyard Demon devours a complete structure, it automatically dismantles and assembles the usable parts, gradually piecing together a prototype of these facilities.

’The cockpit was contributed by the Mobile Castle, and the Map Room by the spaceship. Although both are still just bare-bones frameworks, at least they exist now. I can slowly complete them in the future.’

Standing on the wall, Gu Su looked at the increasingly chaotic Undead base before him.

Eerie, Undead, apocalyptic, mechanical, and biotechnological—elements of several styles were crudely stitched together. Some parts blended together somewhat naturally, while in other places, the seams were clearly visible.

’But so what? This is the Graveyard Demon, my Golden Finger. That’s enough!’