Chapter 31: Three Arrows
Seeing this series of prompts, Su Xiao roughly understood the current situation. From the many clues, he deduced that the Space-Time Hub Device was not in the Abyss, nor in the Northern Continent, but within the Divine Kingdom.
The Divine Kingdom was a sixth to seventh-rank region. There was no better place to store the Space-Time Hub Device. This world was a sixth-rank Primordial World, and those who entered here were also sixth-rank Contractors.
For a region like the Divine Kingdom, even just exploring it was fraught with danger, let alone attacking it.
Su Xiao stood in a swift, shallow river. The river water was slightly cool, and a cluster of blue flowers grew on the bank. The natural environment here was excellent, untouched by any damage.
Bubu Wang dipped his head into the clear river water, seemingly searching for something underwater. But not long after, the fool let out a miserable howl as a large cyan fish slapped him.
Less than half an hour later, Baha dragged Amu up from below the rock wall. The team had assembled.
Based on the world introduction, Su Xiao learned that the Abyss should have been filled with many monsters, enough to threaten the safety of both gods and humans, even leading to war between them.
However, after traveling for a day in the Abyss, Su Xiao confirmed that there were basically no living creatures here. The only suspicious beings he saw were a very small number clinging to the rock wall on the eastern side of the Abyss.
Where had the monsters in the Abyss gone? This was a question worth pondering. In fact, Su Xiao suspected that the Abyssal Serpent was no longer within the Abyss.
As for the Lv.57 difficulty of the Fifth Ring mission, it should represent the risk during exploration. For example, the teleportation array in the Divine Ritual Hall—if someone rashly used that thing, Su Xiao wouldn't be surprised even if the mission difficulty reached Lv.60 or above.
The thoughts in Su Xiao's mind gradually became clear. He had figured out the relationships between the gods, the God-Eaters, the Abyss, and the Divine Kingdom.
In the past, the Abyss was very dangerous. The Abyssal Serpent and a large number of Abyssal monsters lived there. The "monsters" of the Abyss were led by the Abyssal Serpent.
At that time, the low-rank gods were enemies of the Abyss forces. They fought for years, but the low-rank gods were far from a match for the Abyss forces. So they united, allied with humanity, and drove back the Abyss forces.
There were three major forces at that time: the Divine Kingdom formed by the gods, the Human Alliance on the Eastern Continent, and the Abyss forces. As for the Northern Continent, that barren, cold land was always isolated. The Abyss forces couldn't threaten them at all. Compared to the environment of the Northern Continent, the Abyss was slightly better, so the Abyss forces naturally wouldn't attack them.
The gods and the Human Alliance united and waged war against the Abyss. This was the Holy War in history.
Wars need a purpose. The Abyss forces' goal wasn't that they were born bloodthirsty or were representatives of evil. It was because the Abyss forces also craved land. The Abyss was barren and completely unsuitable for living.
Were the inhabitants of the Abyss all monsters? Not exactly. The people living there were also a human race—a blue-skinned human race. Due to language barriers and hostile stances, the outside world called them monsters. The Abyssal Serpent was their guardian sacred spirit.
The result of the Holy War was a crushing defeat for the Abyss forces. They were driven back to the Abyss to eat dirt and were even imprisoned under the ice.
Until one day, the ice layer of the Abyss was cracked by the Abyssal Serpent's relentless impact over hundreds of years. It nearly died from the effort, but it succeeded. It had intelligence and had things it needed to protect.
The Abyssal Serpent knew it couldn't fight the alliance of gods and the Eastern Continent. So it tempted an explorer, Iwell, using the characteristic that gods pass on their power after death, to disintegrate the enemy from within.
Clearly, the Abyssal Serpent succeeded. But strangely, the Abyss forces didn't continue attacking the Eastern Continent. Instead, they disappeared until now.
Where did these Abyss residents go? The answer was: they climbed up the inner rock wall of the Abyss and went to live in the Divine Kingdom. Habitable land was what they wanted.
The gods were slaughtered, leaving the Divine Kingdom empty. But one puzzling thing was that a hundred years ago, the Abyssal Serpent began tempting the high-ranking officials of the Sera Empire again and had one of its eyes gouged out by the Iron Feather King.
The Iron Feather King went to the Abyss and saw the situation there. So after the war, he made an agreement with the Abyssal Serpent: mutual non-aggression.
The Iron Feather King knew that the Divine Kingdom was now different. If the residents there were released, they could flatten the entire continent without issue.
Logically, the Abyss residents and the Abyssal Serpent had gotten what they wanted. They even created the Black Mist to prevent anyone from entering the Divine Kingdom. They should have been living quietly in the Divine Kingdom.
The only possibility was that a drastic change had occurred within the Divine Kingdom, forcing the Abyssal Serpent to try again to transfer some Abyss residents to the Eastern Continent.
Ursula had previously said that she and the Abyssal Serpent had coexisted peacefully in the Abyss for hundreds of years. This was Ursula lying. She was also covering up the existence of the Divine Kingdom.
In the recent centuries, there hadn't been a single ghost in the Abyss. Even if Ursula was a super homebody, she wouldn't endure hundreds of years of loneliness in the Abyss.
Therefore, Ursula likely also lived in the Divine Kingdom.
Thinking of this, many of Su Xiao's doubts were resolved. And he confirmed one thing: Xi's purpose in coming to the Abyss was definitely to reach the Divine Kingdom. Since there was nothing in the Abyss now, Xi's goal was easy to determine.
Moreover, Xi coming to the Divine Kingdom was most likely to find Ursula, devour her Divine Source, and search to see if there were any other gods left in the Divine Kingdom.
And the fastest way to find the Divine Kingdom was through Iwell's guidance.
Su Xiao could imagine the scene when Xi met Iwell. Those two wouldn't stop until one of them was dead.
One of Xi's goals was to find Ursula and eat her Source. Since there was nothing in the Abyss now, it was only a matter of time before Xi found the Divine Ritual Hall below. If her team had a large-scale Perception-type, the speed would be even faster.
Therefore, Su Xiao decided to find a way to clear this area and wait here for Xi to walk right into the trap.
Based on the time and location of the giant war pig's fall, Su Xiao could determine that the other end of the teleportation array in the Divine Ritual Hall was nearby.
Baha flew up to a low altitude. The death of the giant war pig was still vivid in his mind. He didn't want to be shot into a pincushion.
Baha had just flown up to a low altitude when he immediately descended. He saw a cluster of buildings a few hundred meters away, with the exact same architectural style as what he had seen in the Abyss.
Upon receiving this news, Su Xiao headed upstream along the shallow river. Sure enough, after traveling just a few hundred meters, he saw a group of buildings among the trees. Some of these buildings were built on flat ground, but more were built against the mountain range. In terms of aesthetics, the architectural style of the Sera Empire couldn't compare at all.
These buildings were mostly two-story structures with gabled roofs covered in tiles. Behind this group of buildings was a mountain wall. The gray-white rock wall was covered with large patches of green vegetation, with only a few rocks exposed.
Su Xiao walked out of the shallow river and slowly approached the group of buildings ahead. Soon, he arrived beside a house. The windows of this house were made of paper, semi-transparent. It was unclear what craft had produced them.
Snoring came from inside the house. Su Xiao looked through the window and saw a man with light blue skin, wearing a loose long robe, sleeping soundly on the floor. The long robe was dark green with huge sleeves, embroidered with a forked-tail snake, the image of the Abyssal Serpent.
On the wall beside the blue-skinned man hung a longbow. The bow body was tied with thin string, and the bowstring was very fine, looking both simple and exquisite.
Just as Su Xiao grasped the hilt of his waist sword, the sleeping blue-skinned man on the floor mat opened his eyes. He leaped up instantly, grabbed the longbow from the wall, and without any visible movement, he had already drawn the bow and aimed at Amu. It wasn't that Su Xiao had been exposed, but that Amu, 50 meters away, had been discovered.
Bang! Bang! Bang!
The bowstring rang out in succession. The blue-skinned man rolled as he landed, his eyes so sharp that one would believe he was a sixth-rank boss.
Three sharp arrows struck Amu. His health plummeted in multiples: the first arrow took 3% health, the second 5%, and the third directly reached 10%. Three arrows, and Amu had lost nearly 20% of his health.
"Ee—yo!"
The blue-skinned man let out a strange roar. After that, it was like poking a hornet's nest.
Blue-skinned figures rushed out from various buildings, all wielding longbows.
"Boss, this..."
"Fall back first."
Su Xiao rushed a few steps in front of Amu, grabbed Amu's horn, and charged back in the direction they came from. If they were hit by a few more arrows in a row, they might really die.