Chapter 41: Master-Level Extortion
The Soul Devourer completed its awakening, and Su Xiao’s mental state relaxed. All he wanted now was to sleep.
After sleeping a full ten hours, Su Xiao’s fatigued spirit recovered. In the Moon God World, he had been on high alert at all times, since two old schemers could have tried to kill him at any moment.
After washing up, Su Xiao began organizing the remaining items. First, he needed to sell what he had obtained. [Twisted Love] would be handled by Beini for sale.
Compared to [Twisted Love], Su Xiao had an even more valuable item called [Earth Tremor], which was the reward for killing the Earth Dragon·Tamen. It was a large-scale area-of-effect skill with a control effect attached.
[Earth Tremor] was an ultimate-type skill. When selling such a high-quality item, Su Xiao’s first thought was of the Divine Emperor. Dealing with him was the fastest way to move it.
Su Xiao drafted an email and sent it to the Divine Emperor. Within about two minutes, the Divine Emperor replied.
‘Brother Bai Ye, sorry.’
Seeing the Divine Emperor’s reply, Su Xiao was slightly puzzled. Given the scale of the Divine Emperor Adventure Group, they should have no problem affording [Earth Tremor].
Inside the headquarters of the Divine Emperor Adventure Group, the Divine Emperor himself was sighing in frustration. If he ignored the state of the team’s wallet, he could buy [Earth Tremor]. The skill’s power was enough to make him willingly go bankrupt.
What was truly sad was that [Earth Tremor] had extremely high prerequisites: 130 points of True Strength and 86 to 105 points of True Stamina.
Even within the Divine Emperor Adventure Group, which had recently advanced to the Fifth Rank, they couldn’t find anyone with True Strength over 120 points, let alone 130. Even Su Xiao, with the boost from his Demon Hunter Set, only had 129 points of True Strength.
They could afford it but couldn’t use it—nothing was more frustrating than that. Moreover, the value of [Earth Tremor] was too high. If the Divine Emperor Adventure Group bought it but couldn’t convert it into combat power quickly, it would cause major problems.
Learning this, Su Xiao understood. He had indeed forgotten about [Earth Tremor]’s prerequisites.
After thinking for a moment, Su Xiao contacted Yin Luo. This crazy girl was a Sixth Rank contractor, so the attribute prerequisites wouldn’t stop her, and she had an adventure group behind her.
Yin Luo was interested in buying, but her offer was low because their group had few members, and the only one suited for this ability was already deep in debt.
Su Xiao then contacted the Wutong Adventure Group. The leader, Ku Tu, was interested but wanted to trade a large batch of recovery potions. Su Xiao refused.
After some thought, Su Xiao contacted the three idiots. The National Football Team had advanced to the Fifth Rank and was quite strong. The advantage of the three brothers’ numbers became more apparent at later stages.
The National Football Team’s reply was unusually straightforward. They really liked this item. After some price negotiation, just as Su Xiao thought they would buy it, the eldest of the National Football Team said they had no money.
Su Xiao ‘kindly’ asked where they were now. The eldest and second didn’t say, and the third was evasive too. However, they did want to buy it, but only through barter.
[Scarlet Angel +13]
Origin: Apocalypse Paradise
Quality: Epic
Category: Combat Boots (Color: Black, change requires 7,000 Paradise Coins)
Durability: 1/1
Equipment Requirements: 80 True Strength, 80 True Agility (Enhancement +13 reduces usage requirements by 25).
Equipment Effect: Annihilation (Passive): Total intensity of kick-type attacks +93 (Enhancement +13 increased by 32), with additional effects: Armor Break, Shield Violent Destruction, Power Explosion, Organ Crushing, Forced Knockback/Knockup (Power Explosion and Organ Crushing are effects from Enhancement +13).
Embedded Gems: 5
Malice (Epic Gem): Greatly enhances Armor Break effect.
Lost Stone (Epic Gem): Greatly enhances Shield Break effect.
Red Dragon (Epic Gem): Greatly enhances Knockback effect.
Storm Walker (Epic Gem): Reduces equipment weight by 62, increases movement speed by 5 (this bonus applies to True Agility below 1 point).
Holy War (Epic Gem): Greatly enhances equipment durability.
Rating: 700++
Description: Please don’t anger me, or… you might die.
Price: 390,000 Paradise Coins.
Seeing the stats of [Scarlet Angel +13], Su Xiao made up his mind: he had to get this item. After raising his close combat skills to Grandmaster level, his side kick had made countless enemies fall in regret. Even gods had been sent flying by it.
With [Scarlet Angel +13], the power of Su Xiao’s side kick would multiply. While enemies were on guard against his blade, a single kick would deliver a devastating surprise.
Su Xiao knew his energy was limited. Just mastering the blade arts was enough to study; he couldn’t spare time to develop close combat abilities. Therefore, he only trained one move—the side kick—and honed it in actual combat. All his close combat-related abilities were geared toward enhancing this kick.
Sometimes, focusing on a seemingly simple technique could make it terrifying in the end.
[Scarlet Angel +13] would greatly boost the side kick’s power. This was equipment produced in the Apocalypse Paradise. Only contractors from the Apocalypse Paradise could craft such gear. Five Epic gems, all perfectly aligned with [Scarlet Angel +13]’s abilities—the wealth of the Apocalypse Paradise was legendary.
As for how the National Football Team got this equipment, they must have captured an enemy and extorted it. Those three were so skilled at this that they even extorted contractors from the Reincarnation Paradise. Extorting someone from the Apocalypse Paradise was a piece of cake.
After more than ten minutes of haggling, Su Xiao traded [Earth Tremor] + [Earth Vein Fruit] for [Scarlet Angel +13]. The [Earth Vein Fruit] wasn’t suitable for Su Xiao; it permanently increased Wood Element affinity.
Soon, the National Football Team contacted Beini, who was nearby, and through her, completed the trade with Su Xiao.
The moment the trade succeeded, a strange image popped into Su Xiao’s mind: one of the National Football Team brothers leaping high, spouting trash talk while using [Earth Tremor]. The scene was inexplicably hilarious.
[Scarlet Angel +13] appeared in the team storage space. Su Xiao took it out, and two metal combat boots appeared in his hands. The boots were intricately constructed, with interlocking armor plates that moved as one, not hindering Su Xiao’s foot movement at all.
After putting on [Scarlet Angel +13], Su Xiao executed a side kick.
Boom!
The air burst with a shockwave, sending a ripple through the atmosphere. The lethality was very satisfying.
Su Xiao took a small bottle from his storage space. It contained [Soul Source (High Purity)], which he would use to enhance his Azure Steel Shadow ability.
He had used Soul Source once before, and it was basically risk-free. So, his Azure Steel Shadow ability smoothly rose to LV.49, increasing the True Damage from burning mana to 440 points.
He was only one level away from reaching LV.50 and activating the Energy Block effect. But without an opportunity, that level would be hard to gain. After choosing to enhance Azure Steel Shadow through the Devouring Core, using Soul Crystals to improve this ability wasn’t impossible, but the cost multiplied.
There was no helping it. If he hadn’t made that choice back then, Su Xiao wouldn’t have his current strength.
The gains from the Moon God World had mostly been converted into combat power. Su Xiao was in excellent condition now. He planned to visit the Arena to challenge the top ten, especially the first-place Sea God·Gu Sheng Yi.