Chapter 38: Opponent
Su Xiao took two Soul Crystals (Complete) from his storage space and tossed them directly to Molly, along with a communicator.
Molly caught the two Soul Crystals first, then grasped the communicator.
“You’re… trying to bribe me?”
A flicker of light passed through Molly’s eyes as her purple-lidded gaze narrowed.
“Eat this, and those two Soul Crystals are yours.”
Su Xiao tossed out another pure blue capsule. Molly caught it and hesitated.
“Don’t hesitate, War Goddess. If you don’t eat it, you’ll die here today.”
Baha appeared on Molly’s shoulder, his eyes glowing red as he stared at her.
“What are the side effects?”
Molly was no fool; she understood the situation perfectly.
“T5-type energy fission toxin. It takes effect in 107 to 129 hours. As for the result, you can use your imagination freely—it’s hard to describe what that thing looks like.”
Su Xiao didn’t say things like “you’ll die when the poison takes effect.” Instead, he subtly hinted to Molly that after 107 to 129 hours, if she didn’t get the other type of neutralizing solution, she would turn into a monster whose appearance was hard to describe.
“Tch~”
Molly tossed the pure blue capsule into her mouth. Just as she was about to store it in her storage space, the capsule suddenly decomposed and vanished, making her expression turn even uglier.
“What’s your goal?”
Molly let out a long breath, her expression calming considerably.
“You can leave now.”
Su Xiao leaped to the other side of the wall. As soon as he landed, a wave of weakness hit him. The terrain for this fight was terrible, but that was inevitable given the Sunglasses Man’s long-planned ambush. Su Xiao had no choice but to fall into a disadvantage.
Su Xiao pulled out the dagger from his abdomen, along with the arrows lodged in his forearm and thigh.
“Kukulin, Kaiser found a pretty good rest spot. Follow me.”
Kaiser poked his head around, looking in all directions. Amu and Baha flanked Su Xiao from behind. As for Bubu Wang, he was currently tailing War Goddess Molly.
In reality, the thing Su Xiao had just taken out wasn’t alchemical poison at all. He never believed his own alchemical poisons were unsolvable.
What Molly had just swallowed was merely a small compressed piece of crystal layer. The moment she swallowed it, Su Xiao deactivated the energy convergence to prevent her from storing it in her storage space.
Ask yourself, what poison is hardest to cure? The answer is “poison of the heart.” Molly believed she was poisoned—that was the most unsolvable part.
Molly could never remove a poisoning effect that didn’t exist. And to be safe, Su Xiao had even set the poison’s activation time to 107 to 129 hours.
If Molly didn’t want to betray, after 107 hours, her heart would fall into struggle. And those 22 hours of delayed poison activation would torment her every second.
Every minute, every second, her heart would waver: Should she betray the other Violators?
If Molly could hold out for 129 hours—no, she couldn’t. Su Xiao was sure of that. If Molly were so loyal to the Violator Alliance that she would sacrifice herself, she wouldn’t have healed him earlier.
To heal Su Xiao, Molly’s moves had even impressed him. This woman had developed a kind of “melee heal”—using her staff like a club, hiding healing energy inside it, and smacking Su Xiao with it to restore a large chunk of health. It was commonly known as “hitting people to heal.”
To cover for this, Baha had assassinated three Perception-type enemies in a row.
…
Miracle Land: Aisenla, Southern City Ruins.
The Violators were gathered together, exchanging silent glances. Dozens of Sixth Rank Violators had simultaneously besieged Su Xiao, but not only did they fail to kill him, they had lost nearly half their numbers.
“Let’s just pretend this never happened.”
A Violator with bandages wrapped around his head—one eye blinded by Su Xiao’s blade—spoke up.
“That guy will find out. His intelligence…”
“I even suspect this ambush was within that person’s calculations.”
“He’d calculate even his own people?”
An angry voice rang out.
“We chose to ambush him. From a standpoint, we’re no longer ‘his people.’”
The Sunglasses Man smiled bitterly. The enemy had a super old schemer, and their own side also had a super old schemer. This constant feeling of being calculated or killed off was terrible—absolutely terrible.
“Madman’s Paradise. No wonder an organization like the Traveling Group appeared.”
“War Goddess is back.”
Hearing this, everyone looked at the returning Molly.
“Careless. He escaped.”
Molly leaped onto a large rock and sat down. Her right hand, wearing a black cloth glove, pulled out a lady’s cigarette. She lit it, took a deep drag, and tilted her head back slightly to exhale smoke.
“Next time, I won’t make such a low-level mistake. Never.”
Molly murmured softly, as if talking to herself. Her pale arm rested on her knee, and a wisp of light blue smoke rose from the cigarette between her fingers. She was striking whatever cool pose she could, even putting on thin black gloves for the effect.
Bubu Wang, blending into the environment and crouching on the rock, yawned and silently gave Molly a thumbs-up. Nice pose.
Confirming Molly’s attitude, Bubu Wang turned and left. He had more important things to do.
“Everyone shares the blame. You’ve done well enough, Molly.”
Haonuo nodded to Molly and even smiled.
“What now? This mess…”
The Saber-Wielding Strongman said this, but he didn’t really care about the situation. For him, fighting was the greatest pleasure. The moment when he and Su Xiao brushed past each other and exchanged a slash was something he savored endlessly.
This kind of battle maniac, once he grew up, would never be a small figure.
“What now? Let’s go find… Sphinx.”
At the Sunglasses Man’s words, everyone fell silent.
Meanwhile, in the eastern part of Aisenla City, inside a three-story castle.
Tick, tick, tick…
The second hand of a pocket watch jumped. A man in a white suit, his hair meticulously combed, with a short beard on his chin, sat behind a desk. A glass of red wine rested beside his hand. Sunlight streamed through the window, casting light on his profile, giving him the charm of a mature male.
“Hey~ hey~, Sphinx, why are you ignoring me again? I’m upset! Angry!”
A little girl popped her head out from the other side of the desk, puffing out her cheeks.
“I’m right here.”
Sphinx’s gaze was fixed on a book, a faint smile on his face.
“Will they succeed? He’s the Old Hunter, after all. They say even Mr. J was scared of him. Though Mr. J’s combat ability isn’t great, his brain is still pretty good.”
The little girl was still huffing. She rested her chin on the desk, her puffed cheeks looking very soft.
“Prepare some hot tea. They’ll be here soon. After tasting the bitterness of failure, they’ll be much more obedient.”
Sphinx closed the book in his hand and looked out the window.
“White Goat. How stupid.”
Sphinx said the same thing as Su Xiao. In fact, both had the same opinion of White Goat.
A dozen minutes later, the door was knocked. The Sunglasses Man, Haonuo, the Saber-Wielding Strongman, and Molly entered the room. Three cups of hot tea were placed on a small round wooden table.
“Four people came. Not happy. Only three can have tea.”
The Bun-Faced Little Girl tilted her head, thought for a moment, then suddenly vanished.
“Mm, now it’s three people.”
As soon as the little girl spoke, a headless body thudded to the ground. It was the Sunglasses Man.
“Please, the three of you.”
The little girl blinked playfully. If she weren’t holding a head with a face full of shock, she would indeed look very cute.
Molly “calmly” sat down at the round wooden table, but inside, her heart was racing like ten thousand wild donkeys stampeding. She only wanted to know how this terrifying brat had struck. In an instant, the temporary leader, the Sunglasses Man, was dead, without even a chance to counterattack.
“Big sister, who are you? You don’t look like much.”
The little girl smiled at Molly, her eyes squinting.
“Little Bun, this is War Goddess Molly. Among us, she’s the only one who can fight Kukulin Bai Ye head-on. She’s currently in ‘Seal’ mode; she’ll release it during battle.”
Haonuo quickly spoke up, hoping to avoid a conflict between Molly and the little girl. They couldn’t afford to lose any more high-end combat power.
“Oh my? Impressive.”
The little girl bared her neat little white teeth and smiled at Molly, a very innocent, naive smile.
“Sphinx, we…”
Haonuo was about to speak, but Sphinx, sitting behind the desk, raised a hand to stop him.
“You came to me, which means you still trust my ability. No need for more words.”
“Thank you.”
Haonuo outwardly looked relieved, but inwardly, he was constantly on guard against being schemed by Sphinx.
…
In a dim warehouse, Su Xiao leaned against a wooden crate, contemplating his next moves, or rather, how to eliminate more Violators.
Previously, killing Violators from other Paradises only gave him a chance to drop Scarlet Cards, with no other gains. Now, it was different. The Violators he was dealing with were directly connected to the lost Space-Time Power, which triggered a reward mechanism.
Su Xiao checked the notification from Reincarnation Paradise at the end of the battle.
[Notification: As the Hunter has confirmed, the ‘Violator Alliance’ is directly related to the lost Space-Time Power. Additional rewards have been triggered.]
[The Hunter has accumulated 56 Violator kills (Fifth to Sixth Rank). Rewards are being settled uniformly…]
[You have obtained Diamond Honor Medal ×14.]
…
Su Xiao didn’t know how many ‘Golden Honor Medals’ one ‘Diamond Honor Medal’ was worth, but a ratio of 1:10 was the minimum, possibly even higher.
For now, Su Xiao could obtain many ‘Diamond Honor Medals.’ The enemy had an informant he had planted. This way, he could use the informant to get the locations of some isolated Violators. If it was a team of fewer than five, with Baha and Amu’s cooperation, the battle would end quickly.
Su Xiao’s plan was simple: since the enemy had an old schemer, he would kill until the other side had no one left to use. If they holed up, even better—Apollo would pay them a visit.