Chapter 102: The Character
A half-meter thick wooden fist smashed toward Su Xiao, with even clear fingerprints visible on the fingers of that wooden fist.
The long blade in Su Xiao's hand slashed toward Hashirama Senju's throat, a cold gleam flashing on the edge of the Dragon-Slaying Flash.
At that moment, everything around seemed to freeze. Su Xiao and Hashirama Senju locked eyes, both gazes equally calm.
Boom!
A deafening roar spread outward, shockwaves rippling in all directions. Gravel surged like tidal waves, sweeping outward.
Whoosh~
A figure flew backward, crashing with a thunderous boom into a slope a hundred meters away. The slope seemed to have explosives detonated within it, stones of various sizes blasting outward.
With a whoosh, a pebble the size of a soybean grazed Karin's cheek. She had been hiding there for shelter, never expecting disaster to fall from the sky.
Blood seeped from the tiny wound on Karin's cheek. Her body trembled because she knew—if that pebble had hit her head, it would have punched a hole straight through. The kinetic energy of that stone was terrifying.
"After taking such a terrifying punch, he should be dead, right?"
Karin swallowed hard. She had a secret: she could never sense Su Xiao. From start to finish, she couldn't perceive him unless he actively released killing intent.
An arm reached out from the stone cave in the slope. With a clatter, rubble fell.
Su Xiao bent down and stepped out of the cave, rolling his neck left and right, producing two crisp cracks.
"So you're here. Perfect timing."
Su Xiao walked slowly toward Karin. Karin looked as if she'd seen a ghost.
"You... you're not dead."
Karin was draped in torn clothing, her hands covering her chest. Between her arms, a patch of pale skin revealed a bite mark. To be fair, Karin had genuinely given Su Xiao a life-saving bite earlier.
"You really hoped I'd die."
Su Xiao pulled aside Karin's clothing and bit down on her pale back.
Karin had somewhat resigned herself. Her emotions were tangled beyond belief. First, she didn't dare flee. If Su Xiao hadn't died, her fate would be worse than dying here.
Unable to escape, Karin also didn't want either Su Xiao or Hashirama Senju to win.
If Hashirama Senju won, Karin's life was forfeit. If Su Xiao won—but only barely, heavily injured—then he'd bite her for a full recovery, and that would also mean her death. What she feared most was Su Xiao winning a pyrrhic victory.
At this moment, Karin had no idea how Hashirama Senju fared, but to her surprise, Su Xiao wasn't badly injured.
Su Xiao's wounds healed rapidly. Within seconds, he was essentially fine.
"Ahh~"
Su Xiao let out a long breath and sat on the ground without moving.
"Don't you need to... deal with Hashirama Senju?"
Karin asked tentatively. She was crouched on the ground, clothes draped behind her. As for her chest, she'd gotten used to being exposed in front of Su Xiao. Besides, she knew he had zero interest in her flat chest.
"He lost."
Su Xiao lit a cigarette. Bubu Wang ran over from a distance, a treasure chest in its mouth.
During their final clash, just before Hashirama Senju's wooden fist struck him, Su Xiao had activated his Secondary Invincibility Shield.
Though the shield shattered under the punch, it absorbed the force, sending Su Xiao flying. His injuries were all from the impact.
As for Hashirama Senju, he hadn't had his neck severed. When Su Xiao's blade was about to strike, the man had summoned a mass of trees from the ground, lifting himself slightly. That slash landed on Hashirama Senju's chest.
How did Hashirama Senju lose? He died from the true damage of the Azure Steel Shadow. In this battle, 70% of the damage Su Xiao inflicted was Azure Steel Shadow's true damage, 16% was from the Demon Mark's true damage, and 10% was from Life Severing's defense-ignoring damage.
Bubu Wang trotted over quickly, carrying a Legendary Chest in its mouth—not the higher-quality chest Su Xiao had anticipated.
The Legendary Chest Su Xiao had obtained from killing Raikage A had emitted a dark-gold glow. In contrast, Hashirama's chest showed only a faint golden hue, its body mostly pitch-black.
Su Xiao took the chest from Bubu Wang's mouth. His hand sank; the chest nearly fell. It was unexpectedly heavy.
As soon as he took it, he saw Bubu Wang baring its teeth, looking like the chest was so heavy it made its mouth sore.
But the dog's expression before that had been completely relaxed, pretending it was easy. It was visually tricking Su Xiao—the usual mutual pranking between man and dog.
Su Xiao examined the Legendary Chest in his hand. Even with the naked eye, he could tell its value was on a completely different level from the one Raikage A had dropped.
Raikage A had dropped a Legendary Chest only because Su Xiao's luck was off the charts at the time. Even so, that chest was among the lowest-tier Legendary Chests.
But Hashirama Senju's chest was undoubtedly top-tier among Legendary Chests.
Su Xiao sat cross-legged on the ground. He took out the Fate Redemption lighter and the Slaughter short blade, then began carving on the surface of Fate Redemption.
Soon, Su Xiao carved a small character: "Qian" (Thousand). He did this to record his formidable opponents, a practice he'd started long ago.
On one side of Fate Redemption, seven characters were already carved:
Si (representing the first Ghoul in the Ghoul world).
Chi (Akame from the Akame ga Kill world).
An (Dark King Minas from the first trial world).
Chou (the violator from the Hunter world, the Red Clown).
Shan (the Heroic King Gilgamesh from the Holy Grail world).
Xi (the enemy leader from the War world, Xi).
Qian (First Hokage, Hashirama Senju).
...
Recording these things was originally just Su Xiao's habit. But later, something miraculous happened.
Su Xiao had a vague feeling that when Fate Redemption was fully covered with characters, this equipment might undergo an extraordinary transformation.
Whenever Su Xiao defeated an enemy, Fate Redemption absorbed their luck. After carving the "An" character, Su Xiao faintly sensed that part of the Dark King's luck had entered that character. At first, he thought it was an illusion. But after carving the "Shan" character, the feeling became unmistakable.
As soon as the "Qian" character was carved on Fate Redemption, it flashed with golden light before fading. The item's attributes showed no change.
Su Xiao didn't mind. If it worked, great. If not, it was just a record—a record of the strong he had defeated. Some were villains, some madmen, some good people, some heroes. But they all shared one thing: they were worthy opponents.
Setting aside their personalities, those who became strong through their own efforts had unique qualities. Learning from others' strengths to compensate for one's weaknesses—this was something Su Xiao often did.