There can't be a Harvest Moon in the RimWorld.

“Uh… the contamination from evil spirits is corrosive, especially this kind of being that’s close to being evil… if we rashly enter the poisonous fog, we might be swept into a distorted world… so we can’t let the residents get close either…”

I asked, "Then why are these cats allowed to touch them?"

Father Carter patiently explained, “Cats are born with psychic abilities, and they have worshipped cat gods who communicate with the underworld since the early days of religious cults. They use their psychic instincts to touch and expel these evil spirits. But without the aid of papal secrets and alchemical products, they cannot kill them; instead, they will be distorted, corrupted, and slowly influenced, becoming voodoo corpses…”

I looked at him with disappointment, ready to give the priest a lecture. "Alright, alright, I've heard you talk about alchemical secrets and Vatican technology for ages, my ears are practically calloused. But in the end, you're just making excuses for yourself. If it really came in handy, the Vatican wouldn't even be as useful as a few cats..."

As soon as I said that, Father Carter glared at me angrily and said sternly, "That's slander! You can question the Holy Spirit Church, but you absolutely cannot question me! Please take back what you just said!"

Haha, that provocation worked wonders!

As expected, dealing with such cunning and deceitful individuals requires some force...

Wait a minute, something about that last sentence didn't quite make sense...

I thought for a moment, then immediately sprayed it back.

"You're the one who should retract your statement! What kind of honor are you defending? Apologize to the entire church right now!"

Father Carter immediately laughed sheepishly, "I'm sorry, I spoke my true feelings in my haste... Oh no, I misspoke... But I meant the same thing!"

He patted his chest and said, "I'm helpless right now simply because I came in such a hurry and didn't prepare any alchemical materials! If I had materials to suppress the mutation, I could completely..."

I looked at him with suspicion. "What kind of materials do you need? You're empty-handed right now. Even if you had the materials, you'd be helpless, right? Do you think your priests carry an entire blacksmith shop with them when they go out to exorcise demons?"

I'd only heard that priests were skilled at copper smelting, I'd never heard of them being experts in alchemy...

The priest, his face flushed, protested, "Who would bring a blacksmith shop to perform an exorcism? We're not a circus!"

He took off an ornate necklace from his priest's robes and held it up in front of my eyes. "Look closely, what is this!"

Because of the dim lighting, I could only see a deep red gemstone inlaid in the openwork gold decoration. Even the eerie scene of cold wind and rain and howling ghosts around me could not take away the beautiful brilliance contained in the gemstone.

"What's this?" I asked.

Carter shook the ornate necklace. And then, to my astonishment, I saw a ripple within the gemstones caused by the movement…

Is this a liquid?!

Carter said smugly, "Beneath the transparent diamond shell lies the supreme product of alchemy and potion-making, the ultimate treasure capable of reconstructing all matter at will, the dream star that turns lead into gold—the Philosopher's Stone!"

What? The Philosopher's Stone!

Is your Vatican still secretly practicing human transmutation?!

Father Carter certainly didn't know the reason for my surprise, but seeing my stunned expression, he said, "The outside world has always thought that the Philosopher's Stone is a kind of stone, but in fact, the Philosopher's Stone after alchemical processing and purification is this garnet-colored liquid. With it, just one drop is enough to complete the alchemical transformation and quickly combat chaos and distortion. Unfortunately, I don't have a medium like mercury stone that can combat distortion and corruption..."

"No, perhaps I have a way..."

I said.

...............

Seeing me rush into the main house and quickly carry boxes out, Father Carter exclaimed in surprise, "Marcus, what are you doing? It's too late to pack your bags and prepare to escape now!"

I kicked open the box and pulled out a rusty metal object, which I then shoved into his hand.

"These are our hopes!"

Seeing Father Carter's puzzled expression, I said fiercely, "This is the metal frame that broke off after the mirror shattered! I was planning to throw it away yesterday, but then I thought I'd keep it to make equipment, so I put it in the box with the other odds and ends..."

Carter instantly understood what I meant, and slapped his palm: "Hey, that's right! If the frame of the Death Mirror can withstand the erosion of the mirror for hundreds of years, then it must also have a deterrent and suppressive effect!"

He excitedly crouched down and rummaged through the box of miscellaneous items, searching for the metal frame of the Death Mirror and picking out usable parts bit by bit.

"Marcus, you have way too much random stuff in this box!"

The priest scoffed, "A stone mask? A leather bag? A tattered flag? Swords made of precious metals? A tattered book? And what's with the broken stone?!"

As he threw things out, I painstakingly picked them all up. "Don't throw things away! That's my Stone Mask, and the Jay's animal skin bag, the Gan Jiang and Mo Xie swords, and the nautical manual! These are all treasures!"

What is this stone?

The flint the jay left me doesn't seem to be this big or this round, does it?

Never mind, I'll just put it away for now!

As I held the things in my arms, I saw Father Carter grit his teeth and say, "Let's take a gamble!"

As he spoke, he piled up the metal frame of the magic mirror, gently unscrewed the cap of the dark red liquid, and poured out a drop of the mysterious substance.

The drop of dark red liquid, as if it possessed a life of its own, quickly landed, burrowed along the grass into the pile of rusty metal, and transformed into countless hair-thin red threads that swiftly wrapped around the target.

"Don't go over there and join the fun," Father Carter stopped me from getting too close to watch.

"The Philosopher's Stone in my hand is a special exorcism stone, refined and separated by an alchemist, and is maintained in a critical state of liquefaction and sublimation. It will automatically enter a state of proliferation and projection, combining with effective substances to transform chaos and distortion into a stable state, without any human intervention throughout the process..."

I frowned. "It's not that I want to get closer, it's that it's pulling me..."

"Drag you? How can you do that..."

Before Carter could finish speaking, he discovered that a red, thread-like object was indeed traversing a great distance, relentlessly pulling at his trouser leg and climbing upwards, quickly reaching his chest.

Then, with lightning speed, it snatched the inconspicuous stone from my hand!

…………

The battle among the cats was nearing its end. Their exhausted bodies could no longer withstand the corrosive effects of the twisted pollution. The drifting figures of the misty paper figures had already surrounded a five-meter diameter area, and could only barely be prevented from being compressed further by the efforts of the police leopard.

But from their exhausted roars, one could also hear their waning strength...

Suddenly, an extremely bright light emanated from the field, like the first ray of dawn radiating from the horizon, or like the first blazing torch lit in a dense forest, arriving on this land with fearless light and heat!

Suddenly, a hurricane swept through the area, the airflow spiraling inward, drawing in the mist drifting from the pasture, swirling and tumbling into a towering tornado that defied logic and swayed as it drilled into the ground.

But upon closer inspection, one will find that the source and end of the tornado are not the land, but an oval dressing mirror lying flat on the ground, with a fist-sized, warm jade stone embedded on top of the mirror...

Chapter 582 I Want to Be an Astronaut When I Grow Up

"I give this mirror's fully automated manufacturing process a perfect score... and then what?"

The eerie and chaotic atmosphere in Mineral Town Ranch suddenly disappeared, and even I, a layman, could clearly feel that the anomaly had been brought under control.

The most obvious sign of the disappearance of the anomaly was that the cat radars suddenly lay limply on the ground, not even willing to move their whiskers, which reminded people of the legend that cats would grow on the ground if it wasn't exposed to the sun.

But the Philosopher's Stone was then forged into a mirror, which is a bit absurd—I shattered the magic mirror, the shards of the magic mirror became corrupted, and I forged it into a new magic mirror...

Are you trying to create a nested nesting effect here? Is this never going to end?

Next, should I try another midnight trek and then come back after going through all sorts of hardships?

Father Carter plopped down in a chair and carefully put the Philosopher's Stone necklace back into his clothes.

"This is the Philosopher's Stone's choice... It seems that controlling these anomalies in the form of mirrors is the most suitable method. Although the mirror fragments are still scattered across your ranch, they are invisibly bound within the abyssal substance..."

To convince me, he carried the life-sized mirror, walked into the ranch gate, and passed under the gate with the ranch sign.

Something strange happened.

Even standing still, I could clearly see that part of the once reflective surface had lost its luster, becoming as dull as a lead plate. At the same time, the gloomy atmosphere and resentment of the pasture reappeared out of nowhere, causing the leopard to warily roll over and stand alert!

"Enough! Put the mirror back!"

I quickly snatched the mirror back from Carter. Sure enough, as soon as we entered the ranch area, the full-length mirror regained its silvery reflective effect, and the strange phenomena around it disappeared.

Carter said smugly, "See? That's the power of alchemy! With the right materials, you can spread the distortion and contamination across this mirror and seal the distortion point! This alchemical 'projection' technique can project onto jewelry and furniture on a microscopic scale, and on a larger scale, it can even project onto celestial bodies, sealing away those indescribable entities!"

I asked curiously, "Is it that powerful? What other functions does it have?"

Carter counted on his fingers: "Forging, liquefaction, separation, combination, corruption, condensation, addition, sublimation, fermentation, enhancement, proliferation, projection... The mysteries of alchemy are endless, and each step can have unimaginable effects, especially substances infused with 'Vitrol,' which can turn the tide as soon as they appear."

I said expectantly, "Could you teach me?"

Father Carter smiled and said, “That’s not impossible. If you start learning from scratch, it will take about twenty years to get started and fifty years to achieve some success… If you start learning at your current age, you might be able to have the title of ‘Apprentice Alchemist’ engraved on your tombstone.”

Farewell! This is even more outrageous than Chen Jinnan's unparalleled martial arts. If I actually learned it, I'd only have enough to carve on my tombstone...

"Is this mirror safe? Will it break again?"

I immediately gave up studying and resolved to focus on practical matters.

The priest looked somewhat troubled.

"You've given me another big problem..."

He touched the mirror on the ground with his hand. "Although I don't know why this Death Mirror ended up in your hands, it was originally a sealed item from the Holy Treasury of the Vatican, and it should have been returned upon discovery..."

I immediately snatched the Death Mirror from his hand. "That won't do! If you take the mirror away, something bad will happen to me again!"

“But this puts me in a difficult position. I can’t defy the orders of the Vatican… Minor mistakes are usually overlooked, but if something like this is covered up, I’ll have to go to court myself…”

"Don't worry, just fight illegality with illegality!"

"That's not a solution at all! You care about the ranch, but I have to care about my own safety!"

"But you have no idea how important it is to me!"

I said with dissatisfaction, "Even if you're right, Uruguay has a population of 345.7 million, while Australia alone has 4700 million kangaroos. If the kangaroos decide to invade Uruguay, then every Uruguayan will have to fight 14 kangaroos. You don't know this, you don't care, you only care about yourself!"

The priest left me bewildered. It took me a long time to think before I finally found the logical connection between the kangaroo invasion and the accusations. I nodded reluctantly and said, "Okay, the Philosopher's Stone projects its distortion and corruption onto this mirror. Once the two separate, it will get out of control and could indeed spread beyond the ranch, affecting the town..."

“Exactly!” I agreed.

Father Carter circled the mirror, frowning as he examined it closely. Suddenly, he pointed to the unidentified jade stone on it and asked, "Marcus, where did you get that stone you were holding just now?"

I scratched my head and said, "I don't really remember... but I'm sure it's not a tourist souvenir... Oh right, I think I got it from Zack! I was planning to do some sculpture art at the time, so I just grabbed it..."

"Zack?"

Father Carter muttered something to himself in confusion, then reached out and touched the stone.

But the next moment, the mirror suddenly generated a suction force, and after a flash of light, he disappeared from my sight!

Holy crap! What's going on?!

I rushed over to check the mirror, but all I could touch was a cold, smooth surface. There was nothing unusual about it, as if what I had just seen was just an illusion.

I don't mind Father Carter disappearing, but he absolutely cannot disappear from my ranch!

Just as they were struggling with this, another flash of light appeared, and the unscrupulous priest was back in the same spot, still in the position of reaching out to touch the jade with a look of terror on his face!

"Making people disappear? Father, you still say you don't know magic?! Teach me!"

But the priest's shock lingered for a long time before it subsided. He placed his slightly trembling hand on my shoulder, trying to regain his composure.

"What did you see?" I asked quickly.