Chapter 52: The Dark Prison Door
“This person… came to defect?”
As Xia spoke, she stepped back a few paces, distancing herself from Huanhuan.
“She just came to try her luck.”
Su Xiao drew his longsword, stepped forward to Huanhuan, and thrust it straight through her chest.
Huanhuan’s body rapidly withered, eventually crumbling into a pile of broken wood fragments, while her clothes turned directly to ash.
There was no kill notification, which Su Xiao had expected. The enemy wouldn’t be foolish enough to hand him an easy kill.
That was indeed the case. Huanhuan had once accepted a commission from Sfenke to assassinate Su Xiao from an ultra-long distance twice, but both attempts failed.
Something must have gone wrong in Huanhuan’s cooperation with Sfenke, and she had been schemed against by him, not only failing to receive the subsequent payment but also ending up half-dead.
After Sfenke sacrificed those 63 violators, Huanhuan’s first instinct was to flee Eisnera. Unfortunately, while she escaped, she was also on the brink of death, given that she knew too many secrets.
As for Huanhuan coming to Su Xiao, it was a desperate gamble, hoping to exchange intelligence for a chance to survive.
If it were any other violator, Su Xiao might have considered trading with them, but Huanhuan had attempted to assassinate him twice, placing her on his mortal enemy list. He wouldn’t believe a single word she said, especially with the old schemer Sfenke lurking in the background. Without sufficient caution, he could easily fall into a trap.
Huanhuan had likely guessed this as well, which was why she used a clone as a disguise, adopting a tentative attitude to approach Su Xiao.
“So complicated.”
Xia took out a blanket, spread it on the ground, curled up on it, and fell asleep shortly after.
“This one’s been abandoned too. Looks like you’ve gathered quite a few helpers, Sfenke.”
Su Xiao sat before the campfire, lowering his head to rest.
Time passed quickly. Unnoticed, the sky had already begun to lighten, but today, the sun never rose.
After a preliminary calculation of the route, Su Xiao decided to head toward Eisnera. There was no need to rush; arriving by noon would be most suitable.
The wasteland where Su Xiao was located, though somewhat far from Eisnera, should still have been bathed in sunlight. Yet today, the sky was a murky gray, and the dark clouds in the distance even formed a slowly rotating vortex.
The journey was uneventful. By 11 a.m., Su Xiao arrived about three kilometers from Eisnera.
From a distance, he could see Eisnera’s ten-meter-high city walls, with a conspicuous breach—the one he had created yesterday.
Baha was about to scout from above when Su Xiao stopped him. It was too dangerous; who knew if Sfenke had set traps in the sky.
Sfenke wasn’t the type of old schemer who orchestrated strategies from afar, winning battles thousands of miles away. He was the kind who calculated everything, setting traps even for a one-in-ten-thousand possibility. He was steady and cautious.
When Su Xiao reached the base of the city wall, a chilling sensation washed over him. He raised his hand and pressed it against the wall built of black stone. Yesterday’s smooth surface was now pitted and uneven, as if weathered by centuries of wind and rain.
The wall was covered in many wind-eroded hollows, their edges shaped like crescent moons, thin yet sturdy, sharp as knives.
A moss-like black substance clung to the base of the wall. Su Xiao coated his hand with a crystal layer, tore off a piece of the black wall covering, brought it to his nose, and sniffed. He confirmed that it was identical to the wall covering found everywhere in Heru City—same smell, texture, and color.
Su Xiao coated his left hand with a crystal layer and began climbing the wall. Just as he reached the breach he had made last night, footsteps sounded from above.
Scrape… scrape…
It sounded like something being dragged. Su Xiao tried to extend his perception, but as soon as it exceeded five meters, a pitch-black, murky malice emerged. It wasn’t energy but an aura that blocked his perception.
Inside Eisnera, this “malice” filled everything, making Su Xiao realize why Reincarnation Paradise had designated Xia as reinforcement. Her temporary ability, “Spirit Eye,” was the only means to scout Eisnera’s interior from a distance.
Silently climbing to the top of the wall, Su Xiao reached the edge and saw two figures. One held a torch, the other carried a rusted iron pitchfork—clearly a farming tool.
On that pitchfork, Su Xiao spotted an eyeball and two severed fingers. The mottled bloodstains indicated that this tool had already become a deadly weapon.
The two men standing on the wall were once farmers. In life, they were hardworking and kind. Now, they would kill any living creature in sight.
Eisnera at this moment was more “primitive” than Bone Harbor, rivaling Dead Silence City in its hospitality—deadly hospitality.
The dragging sound Su Xiao had heard came from a fisherman with a broken leg. Aside from his four-meter height and grotesque face, he had indeed been a simple fisherman in life.
Su Xiao quietly vaulted onto the wall, his longsword slowly sliding from its sheath.
With a sharp *shing*, the blade flashed, severing the heads of the two “farmers.” They froze in place before collapsing to the ground.
Though he had instantly killed two enemies, Su Xiao’s expression wasn’t pleased. Their bodies were too tough, clearly having undergone a wooden transformation, making them harder to cut.
What was even more frustrating was that killing these two enemies yielded no rewards. And enemies of this caliber were everywhere in Eisnera.
These frenzied Eisnera residents, though lacking other abilities, had bodies so tough that even the epic-grade +13 Dragon-Slaying Flash required some effort to cut through.
Clang! Clang! Clang!
A sharp metallic clang rang out. A short figure, wearing tattered cloth-like rags and holding a black pot, stood dozens of meters away.
It was less than a meter tall, hunched over, frantically beating the black pot with an iron rod. It had sensed Su Xiao, as the malice spreading through Eisnera didn’t block its perception.
Bang. Bang.
Two shots from D·Darkness shattered the pot, and the ragged dwarf collapsed. It didn’t have an extremely tough body, easily killed by D·Darkness’s bullets.
Climbing sounds came from inside the wall, rapid and frantic.
“Roar!”
An Eisnera resident, with tattered clothes and a withered face, lunged at Su Xiao.
Clang.
The longsword swept through, sending a head flying. The headless corpse fell at Su Xiao’s feet, twitched a few times, and then lay still.
Fortunately, these Eisnera residents lacked immortality. If they were both unkillable and possessed such tough bodies, they would become a terrifying force once gathered.
A hand, withered like a tree branch, gripped the edge of the wall, followed by a head peeking out. Its hair was sparse and yellow, its murky eyes fixed on Su Xiao.
This was a frenzied Eisnera resident. Before seeing living creatures, they were dull and sluggish. Once they spotted one, they became utterly insane, charging recklessly.