Chapter 54: Starry Sky Seat
D·Assassination aimed at the Fifteen-Eyed Specter inside the prison cell. Su Xiao did not pull the trigger immediately. At that moment, Hank, Reinhardt, and others rushed into the basement.
Su Xiao gestured for them to leave first. Sin had already escaped and was not trapped in the basement.
"You don't dare to kill me."
The Fifteen-Eyed Specter, leaning against the inner wall of the cell, spoke and let out a strange laugh.
"Is that so? Then forget it."
Su Xiao stepped toward the exit of the basement.
"Wait, wait."
The Specter inside the cell raised its arm. This ordinary movement drained all its strength.
"I'll use, a secret, to exchange, for release."
The Fifteen-Eyed Specter had previously claimed Su Xiao didn't dare kill it, just a provocation. Compared to being imprisoned here, death was nothing—it was liberation.
Imagine being locked in a pitch-black cell for over a decade, even decades, without food, without even the faintest light. How despairing would that be?
Scientists once conducted an experiment: several subjects were confined in a dark room with food and fresh water. The results were surprising. In the first half hour, the subjects talked to themselves to overcome loneliness. After eight hours, mild paranoia set in. After forty hours, their mental state nearly collapsed.
Yet this Fifteen-Eyed Specter had been imprisoned for 36 years and 11 months. Its current state: intermittent insanity, multiple personality disorder, paranoia, severe suicidal tendencies, and partial loss of language ability.
Whoever proposed using this basement to imprison Specters was definitely insane. Not only was it foolish to capture Specters without killing them immediately, but there was also the risk factor.
Of course, this dark prison had no new inmates for a long time. As for the Specters already locked here, if Sin hadn't come to rescue them, perhaps Harold and other rulers had forgotten their existence, or assumed they were long dead. After all, before the Ghost Ring incident, this basement hadn't been opened for years, and the three keys were no longer held by one person.
"Oh? Tell me. If the information is valuable, I'll consider wasting a bullet on you."
"Haha, hahaha..."
The Fifteen-Eyed Specter inside the cell continued its strange laughter. Once upon a time, it was a renowned powerhouse on the Specter Continent, once the empire's most wanted fugitive. Now, it only wished to endure no more loneliness.
"I once, met, a strong being from another world. They called themselves, the Starry Sky Seat, advocating equal trade. The human I met, he was powerful enough to destroy our world. He was also, a member of the Starry Sky Seat. He called himself, the Leader. I became a Fifteen-Eyed Specter, only, because, of one equal trade. I exchanged, a third of my soul, for enough potential."
Saying this, the Fifteen-Eyed Specter looked up at Su Xiao.
"I, once, was only a Five-Eyed Specter. I wanted, to join them, but, I wasn't qualified."
"Starry Sky Seat? Are you sure it's the Starry Sky Seat?"
Su Xiao stared intently at the Specter inside the cell. He had heard of the Starry Sky Seat—a force in the Void. As for specific intelligence, he didn't know yet.
He learned about the existence of the Starry Sky Seat through his relationship with the Demon Race. According to Demon Race information, the Starry Sky Seat had few members, no more than twenty, and they never seized territory. In fact, they didn't need territory. It was less a faction and more a trading organization for intelligence, items, and such. Even so, the major races in the Void wouldn't easily provoke this force.
What made this force so famous was that its only publicly known member was the Blade Demon. That's right, the Blade Demon was a member of the Starry Sky Seat. Whether he traded with other members was debatable. Many races in the Void were skeptical, and some even claimed it was a rumor.
"That's right, it's the Starry Sky Seat."
"Goodbye. No, farewell forever."
As he spoke, Su Xiao pulled the trigger.
Pfft!
The bullet pierced the Fifteen-Eyed Specter's skull. Though the gunshot was muffled, Hank and the others, waiting outside, rushed in again.
[You have killed the Fifteen-Eyed Specter, Case Lecock.]
[You have obtained the Secret Code Card: Frenzy. This card can be opened directly or exchanged for 415 Secret Code Merits.]
The Realm Severing Thread shot out, hooking the Secret Code Card: Frenzy out of the cell.
"This is Sin's accomplice. Dispose of the body quickly."
"..."
"..."
Hank and Reinhardt said nothing, their expressions conveying: "You say so, boss. Whatever you say."
It turned out that before breaking imperial law, it was important to have a good excuse ready. Although Su Xiao wanted to deal with the other Specter prisoners, the current situation clearly didn't allow it. Many Awakened were present, and this basement held special significance for the Execution Agency. Fortunately, all three keys were in his hands, so there was no rush.
He turned and entered Fadiel's cell. Besides two broken metal chains on the inner wall, there was nothing else.
Fadiel was a Sixteen-Eyed Specter. According to Su Xiao's information, the plan to capture Fadiel was actually initiated by the Empire itself.
That was over a decade ago, before Harold came to power, during the struggle between parliamentary and monarchical rule.
As a Sixteen-Eyed Specter—the strongest Specter in history—Fadiel did not gather a Specter army to wage war against the Empire. On the contrary, it lived very cautiously.
But it was too powerful. Sometimes, power itself was a crime. The previous councilors sent troops to besiege Fadiel in a small town.
The result: over 200,000 imperial soldiers died, 2,768 Awakened fell, the town was nearly leveled, and Fadiel, exhausted, was captured alive.
Fadiel had done nothing wrong. Its crime was simply being too strong, arousing the rulers' fear. In Harold's words, "With such a good opportunity, those fat pigs actually mobilized the army out of fear?"
Standing inside the cell, Su Xiao looked around. The spatial fluctuations in the cell hadn't dissipated yet. Clearly, Sin had used some spatial item to escape. Su Xiao had fought Sin before; he didn't believe that after such a battle, the other party would have hidden spatial abilities.
[Prompt: The final phase of the promotion mission has been activated.]
[Promotion Mission: Space-Time Core (Final Phase)]
Difficulty Level: Lv.44
Mission Briefing: Obtain the Space-Time Core.
Mission Information: After the Eye Chamber is activated, its core will transform into the Space-Time Core (containing a large amount of Space-Time Power).
Prompt: If a contractor other than this mission obtains the Space-Time Core, they can increase World Source by 25% during world settlement. The Hunter can obtain the Space-Time Core's location every 12 hours, each lasting 3 seconds.
Prompt: The Space-Time Core will be attracted by sealed Eye Chambers (nine sealed Eye Chambers in total). The Space-Time Core cannot be taken beyond a 30-kilometer radius of Zul City. This restriction lasts for 72 hours (after 72 hours, the sealed Eye Chambers will completely lose vitality and cannot attract the Space-Time Core).
Mission Duration: 3 natural days.
Mission Reward: Promotion to Fifth-Rank Hunter.
Mission Penalty: Promotion failure (remaining promotion attempts: 2/3).
...