Chapter 27: The Originator
Eastern Continent, White Spring Wetlands.
Muddy water splashed everywhere as a giant war pig ran across the swamp. Looking down from above, one could see a small wooden hut tied to the giant war pig's back.
As the giant war pig ran, it kicked its hind legs, causing the wooden chair tied to its back to slide directly under its belly. This made the war pig run even faster, its legs kicking more vigorously.
"Woof, bark!"
Bubu Wang's bark came from inside the small wooden hut. The giant war pig stopped.
With a bang, one side of the small wooden hut was kicked apart. Su Xiao's hand reached out, grabbing the edge of the wooden board.
After stepping out of the wooden hut, Su Xiao shook his head and crouched on the ground for a few seconds before recovering.
"Amu, beat it to death."
Hearing this, Amu rushed in front of the giant war pig and started pounding it relentlessly.
"Ugh~"
Bubu Wang's stomach convulsed. The terrible idea of tying a wooden hut onto the giant war pig's back was his. He had also tied the hut himself. The initial experience wasn't bad, but who knew the giant war pig would start running wild.
Su Xiao took a map from his chest, examined it, and confirmed that this place was not far from the Abyss.
In the past two days, the giant war pig's gaze had gradually become more "friendly." Trying to tame it with food was useless, but beating it to death had a surprisingly good effect.
At least for now, the giant war pig no longer tried to escape. That was enough.
After resting for a moment, Su Xiao continued on his way. There were no incidents along the journey. On the fourth day at noon, Su Xiao saw black mist rising in the distance.
This black mist blotted out the sky, even blocking the clouds and sunlight above, making the sky appear gray and hazy.
After advancing about half a kilometer, the ground was replaced by hard black rock. After advancing another two kilometers, the land came to an abrupt halt.
The continent seemed to have broken off here. Ahead was a bottomless cliff, and on the other side of the cliff was the rising black mist. This was the Abyss.
Su Xiao took out the [Devouring Annihilation] sniper rifle from his storage space, loaded a flare, chambered it, leveled the muzzle, and pulled the trigger.
Bang!
The flare shot into the black mist. The intense light it emitted was instantly swallowed up. Seeing this, Su Xiao took out a horizontal positioning device and began to observe the flare's flight trajectory.
The flare flew forward in a parabolic arc for about 5 kilometers before starting to descend. It fell more than 2,400 meters before losing the signal.
The Abyss was not a pitch-black canyon. It was quite large below. As for whether there was land on the other side of the Abyss, that was unknown for now.
"Want me to give it a try?"
Baha looked at the black mist ahead.
"Sure."
The Realm Severing Thread extended from Su Xiao's sleeve and wrapped around Baha's leg. Baha spread his wings and flew into the black mist ahead.
Zzzz~
The spool of thread spun rapidly. Soon, Su Xiao noticed that the spool had stopped turning. The entire Realm Severing Thread began to shift downward. Baha was falling.
Seeing this, Su Xiao immediately tightened the Realm Severing Thread. A resistance appeared for an instant before disappearing.
Baha quickly flew out of the black mist, looking perfectly normal.
"What happened just now? I didn't encounter anything unusual."
Baha landed on Amu's shoulder.
"You were flying downward."
"Huh? How is that possible? I'm not Bubu."
"Bark! (Old Baha, your whole family flies downward!)"
"Lost your sense of direction."
Su Xiao looked down at the Abyss below. The black mist drifted, bottomless.
"Scout the area. Bubu Wang, you and Amu take the right side. Baha, you take the left."
Su Xiao waited for nearly two hours. Bubu Wang returned. There was no end to his side. After three hours, Baha also returned.
"Found a crazy old woman, but I don't know if she's the 'Originator of Everything.'"
Upon hearing this news, Su Xiao decided to go check it out. According to the mission prompt, the "Originator of Everything" was either below the Abyss or nearby. This damn place was not somewhere ordinary people would come.
When Su Xiao arrived at the place Baha had mentioned, he saw an old woman in tattered clothes. She was kneeling at the edge of the cliff, her hands clasped together. As she bowed forward repeatedly, she muttered to herself.
Getting closer, Su Xiao heard the old woman whispering something.
"Slaughtering gods will eventually bring calamity. You can't escape it, can't escape..."
The old woman repeated this sentence over and over. As soon as he approached her, Su Xiao judged that she was a Saint Descendant. Her life force had almost completely dissipated, turning her into an idiot who only knew how to repent to the gods.
Su Xiao took out Alexander's heart and threw it beside the crazy old woman, but she still knelt there, muttering to herself.
Seeing this, Su Xiao stepped forward, picked up the heart on the ground, and made a motion to throw the heart into the Abyss.
"Son of the Ancient Dragon, ah~ the heart of an Ancient Dragon descendant. What a delicious thing that would be."
The old woman's right arm twitched unconsciously a few times, then reached out to Su Xiao. Su Xiao released his grip, and Alexander's heart fell into the old woman's hand.
As soon as the heart landed in her hand, she raised it to her face and began devouring it in large mouthfuls.
"Good... eats, Ancient Dragon descendant... heart."
The old woman said indistinctly. In at most five bites, she had finished the heart in her hand. Her unfocused pupils regained a trace of luster.
"Young man, are you seeking the power of the gods? If you want it, then it's yours."
As soon as the old woman finished speaking, Su Xiao received a prompt.
[Prompt: Does the Hunter accept the power inheritance of Iwill? After accepting this power, unpredictable situations may occur (as the Hunter has already inherited the Shadow of Law Destruction).]
...
"Not needed."
"Oh~ is that so? Then... do you want to fight me?"
A smile appeared on the old woman's face. Her withered cheeks gradually recovered. It seemed that if she could absorb more life force, she could return to her youthful appearance.
"If you keep talking nonsense, I'll kick you off this cliff. The first God-Eater in history, Iwill."
"..."
The old woman, Iwill, was dazed for a moment. Then her body began to tremble.
"Iwill, Iwill, Iwill..."
The old woman grabbed her hair and pulled it out in clumps. After a moment, she calmed down.
"Young man, where are you going?"
The old woman still knelt there, staring blankly at the Abyss below.
"The Divine Ceremony Hall."
"There, it's down below."
"Specific location."
"It's down below. It will guide you."
The old woman's three fingers pierced into her own eye socket, gouged out one of her eyeballs, and crushed it.
A surge of white energy emerged, coalescing into a ball of light that floated in front of Su Xiao.
"Kill, kill them all. This is my most insignificant guilt."
The old woman continued kneeling in repentance. She wasn't forced to do this because her life force had completely dissipated, but out of her own subjective will.
Su Xiao had basically deduced who this old woman was. Based on the world introduction, he learned that initially, an explorer was seduced by the Abyss and thus committed deicide. The explorer mentioned in the prompt was referred to as "she," indicating that the explorer was female.
And in the mission prompt, this old woman was called the "Originator of Everything." The two were easily connected.
Iwill, the first God-Eater in history, the longest-living Saint Descendant to date, and also a Saint Descendant Hunter. According to the records of the Sera Empire, Iwill had slaughtered at least tens of thousands of Saint Descendants.
Given the strength of Iwill's aura, she shouldn't have ended up like this. Even five Saint Descendant Dukes combined wouldn't be enough for one swing of Iwill's scythe. Her Life Scythe was a scythe that seized life force. When dealing with Saint Descendants, if she struck them with one swing, it was an instant kill, no matter how strong the Saint Descendant was.
Iwill had killed the most gods and the most Saint Descendants, yet she knelt here repenting to the fallen gods.
Based on Su Xiao's speculation, Iwill probably deeply regretted her deicide, which was why she chose to kneel here.
Su Xiao stopped paying attention to Iwill. He took out a nearly five-meter-long ground spike from his storage space and drove it into the rock layer beneath his feet.
Soon, the giant war pig was tied up tightly. A steel cable was wrapped around its neck. Su Xiao also covered its body with a crystal layer to enhance the war pig's defense.
Clatter, clatter, clatter...
The winch turned, and the giant war pig was lowered into the Abyss in a hanging position, serving as cannon fodder... no, it should be a vanguard, to scout the path at the bottom of the Abyss.