Chapter 79: The Ancestral Law Destroyers
On the eastern side of the Dark Moon Swamp, within a vast forest.
Bushes rustled, and a figure emerged from within, brushing fallen leaves off his head.
"Is it alright leaving Amu in the Dark Moon Swamp?"
The figure who stepped out of the bushes spoke—it was Su Xiao, who had already washed up.
"Woof."
A familiar bark came from behind Su Xiao. It was Bubu Wang. After causing chaos in the undead capital, this guy immediately used his environment integration ability to leave the undead capital and rendezvous with Su Xiao. As for Amu, he couldn't leave for now and was still soaking in the swamp's muddy water.
Su Xiao had temporarily shaken off the undead army, but not completely. He had previously discovered something: the undead race could track his location through some means, but that tracking method could only pinpoint his general area and couldn't sustain continuous detection. Whenever the mark on the back of his hand emitted a burning sensation, it meant the undead were tracking his location.
This kind of tracking required at least three to four hours between each attempt. Su Xiao was using this time gap to evade the undead's encirclement.
Once, more than two hours after the undead had tracked Su Xiao's location, he had Bubu Wang create chaos in the undead capital. In principle, two hours was enough time for Su Xiao to reach the undead capital. After the capital fell into chaos, part of the undead army began converging toward the Dark Moon Swamp, ready to close the net.
Clearly, the undead hadn't caught Su Xiao. After a series of plans—hiding in bear dens, playing dead, Bubu Wang causing chaos, taking detours, and so on—the undead's first large-scale encirclement failed.
This didn't mean the undead had lost. In fact, to some extent, they had succeeded. They had successfully compressed Su Xiao's range of movement to the vicinity of the Dark Moon Swamp.
Remember, this was still the second stage, the survival stage. During this stage, it was very difficult for the undead to find Su Xiao. As for the third stage, the purgatory stage, by then the undead could track Su Xiao's location every ten minutes. As for the final nightmare stage, it would be continuous surveillance.
Su Xiao walked through the forest. He could confirm that this forest was surrounded by the undead. The countless signal flares in the sky proved this. The previous plan could never succeed a second time.
"Woof."
Bubu Wang, standing on a treetop, barked loudly.
"Found the ruins?"
A hint of excitement flickered in Su Xiao's eyes. He had endured countless hardships just to reach the Law-Destroying Shadow ruins.
Bubu Wang's dog face showed an awkward expression. He hadn't found the Law-Destroying Shadow ruins, but he had discovered a pillar of light.
Su Xiao leaped onto the treetop. At a certain location in the forest, a blue pillar of light dozens of meters in diameter shot into the sky, surrounded by large floating rubble.
Su Xiao's heartbeat quickened. The Azure Steel Shadow energy within him was unusually active, as if some consciousness was calling to him.
'Come here.'
'Come inherit our will.'
'We have... waited a thousand years.'
Blue light flickered in Su Xiao's eyes.
"Finally... found it."
Su Xiao leaped down from the treetop and quickly rushed toward the location of the blue pillar of light. Suddenly, Bubu Wang behind him bit down on Su Xiao's calf.
Su Xiao was startled. Bubu Wang's expression was very anxious, as if worried that some consciousness was controlling Su Xiao's mind.
Seeing Bubu Wang's expression, Su Xiao's mouth twitched. This fool had clearly watched too many movies. He was a Law-Destroying Shadow; how could he be deceived by the ancestral Law Destroyers? The atmosphere was extremely awkward.
"Let go. The undead are about to surround us."
Bubu Wang's brain clearly hadn't caught up. He wagged his tail to ease the awkwardness.
One man and one dog quickly rushed toward the blue pillar of light. After charging through a patch of trees, a magnificent hall came into view.
This hall was dozens of meters tall, very ancient—so ancient that it was half-collapsed, with large rubble scattered around it.
Within several hundred meters around the hall, pale blue energy filled the air. Bubu Wang tried touching the blue energy with his paw. Crackling sounds and sparks flew, and he let out a miserable howl from the electric shock.
Su Xiao tried touching the blue energy with his hand. Electric light flickered, and his palm went numb. Azure Steel Shadow energy surged out from within him, quickly dispelling the tingling sensation.
Su Xiao coated his body surface with Azure Steel Shadow energy and tried entering the blue energy. No more sparks appeared.
A mass of Azure Steel Shadow energy appeared in Su Xiao's hand. He covered Bubu Wang's body surface with this energy and, despite Bubu Wang's terrified gaze, dragged him into the blue energy.
"Owww~"
A scream, then nothing happened. Bubu Wang's tightly shut dog eyes opened, as if a drama queen had possessed him.
"This is lightning-attribute Azure Steel Shadow energy."
Su Xiao observed these drifting energies around him, feeling very puzzled. Why did Azure Steel Shadow energy have a lightning attribute? This was very unreasonable.
It was precisely because of this lightning-attribute Azure Steel Shadow energy that the undead couldn't enter the Law-Destroying Shadow ruins. They couldn't even get close to the ruins.
Su Xiao walked toward the ancient hall ahead. Bubu Wang looked around with curious eyes.
Just then, a signal flare rose into the sky from the forest. Dense ranks of undead soldiers charged from all directions.
Seeing this, Su Xiao and Bubu Wang quickened their pace, rushing toward the ancient hall. Soon, one man and one dog reached the hall's entrance. The lower half of the hall's door was already broken, so Su Xiao charged straight into the hall.
Standing behind the half-damaged stone door, Su Xiao looked out at the forest. As far as the eye could see, there were undead soldiers.
They were blocked by the lightning-attribute Azure Steel Shadow energy. Seeming to know this was a forbidden zone, they all stopped in place.
The undead soldiers parted left and right, creating a path. An undead with a bare upper body covered in scars walked out. He looked at Su Xiao from a distance.
"Law Destroyer, this is your burial ground."
The bare-chested undead spoke. After glancing at Su Xiao, he turned and disappeared back into the mass of soldiers.
"Being able to hold out until now before being exposed is already an unexpected blessing."
Su Xiao pulled a metal spike from his collar. A wisp of blue smoke rose from the spike. This item was a high-tech product that could alter the appearance of abilities within a certain time frame. Su Xiao had obtained it during a transaction with the Mechanical Sister to make up the price difference.
This thing had been sitting in his storage space for a long time. Before being surrounded by the undead army, Su Xiao used it to change the nature of his abilities—more precisely, to slightly alter the appearance of his abilities, similar to a holographic projection device.
The undead soldiers clearly had never seen such high-tech items. Coupled with Su Xiao's deliberate concealment, they hadn't discovered his identity as a Law-Destroying Shadow.
If his Law-Destroying Shadow identity were exposed, all his previous plans would be ruined.
The current situation was that the undead army had Su Xiao completely surrounded, but Su Xiao had already entered the Law-Destroying Shadow ruins. The undead's intention was obvious: to starve him out. They didn't believe he could go without food or water forever.
Su Xiao's goal was to enter the Law-Destroying Shadow ruins. After that, they could surround him all they wanted.
Confirming that the undead couldn't enter the ruins, Su Xiao turned and walked deeper into the ancient hall.
The main hall was very spacious, with only many stone statues placed inside. Most of these statues had crumbled, with only a few still standing in the hall.
Su Xiao stopped beside one statue. Below it was written:
'Mawen Hua'erzi.'
'Soul-Severing Shadow.'
'Devouring Core Reformer.'
'Null Magic Constitution Developer.'
'Died in the Extermination Campaign.'
'Guarded Elemental Balance 247 times, prevented 58 planets' inhabitants from dying in planetary collapse.'
'Killing is evil, even if you use killing to save more lives. Perhaps we truly went mad, perhaps not—Mawen Hua'erzi.'
...
Su Xiao had seen the residual consciousness of Mawen Hua'erzi. He had learned many abilities from him, though they weren't in a master-disciple relationship.
The impression Mawen Hua'erzi left on Su Xiao was that he was a trickster. This guy's memory seemed poor, causing Su Xiao excruciating pain every time he inherited an ability.
Beside Mawen Hua'erzi's statue was a half-collapsed female statue. Below it was written:
'Green Gillian.'
'Soul-Severing Shadow.'
'Supreme Blade Developer.'
'Died in the Extermination Campaign.'
'Guarded Elemental Balance 427 times, prevented 58 planets' inhabitants from dying in planetary collapse.'
'Don't touch my statue! Or I'll chop you to death—Green Gillian.'
...
Su Xiao shook his head. This seemed to be a voice-recorded message. The personality of the ancestral female Law-Destroying Shadow was unexpectedly harsh.
PS: (This world is ending soon. The next one will be an anime world. Does anyone have a favorite world they'd like? If it meets the requirements, I can include that world as a candidate for the world after next.)