Chapter 56: Holy Spirit Rank Gem
When Su Xiao walked out of the main entrance of the Equipment Enhancement Hall, Gulu was still standing in front of that same equipment enhancement machine. As a member of the Travel Group, even if her main weapon shattered from enhancement, Gulu showed no fear at all, pulling out a secondary weapon and starting to enhance it instead. Judging by her expression, she was locked in a battle of wills with that equipment enhancement machine today—one of them had to be carried away.
Gulu's actions with her +14 weapon made it clear: even if there was only a 1% chance of the main weapon shattering, one should never rashly attempt to upgrade it.
If Dragon-Slaying Flash shattered due to enhancement, the impact on Su Xiao would be unimaginable, especially with the Strongest Warrior Tournament about to begin.
Su Xiao found a cold drink shop near the Equipment Enhancement Hall. At the enthusiastic invitation of the female shop owner, he entered a private room. The prices here were steep—the cheapest cold drink cost over 50 Paradise Coins. For daily expenses, this was extremely extravagant.
Su Xiao came here mainly because of the intelligence service channel; the cold drinks were just a side product. Some interesting yet valuable information was the main draw here, perfect for passing the time.
Inside the private room, about twenty square meters in size, Su Xiao sat on a sofa, waiting for a group of people.
The people he was waiting for hadn't arrived yet. Su Xiao unclasped the sheathed Dragon-Slaying Flash at his waist and took out a Soul Severing Shadow Stone from his storage space, preparing to embed it into Dragon-Slaying Flash.
Dragon-Slaying Flash had a total of 7 gem slots, 3 of which were filled with Soul Severing Shadow Stones. The remaining 4 were Spirit Cat (Legendary), Mad Knight (Legendary), Moon's Grace (Epic), and Elegy (Legendary).
Among these four gems, one was about to be replaced by a Soul Severing Shadow Stone. Elegy could never be replaced—although it didn't enhance combat attributes, it was the final insurance during enhancement.
Moon's Grace couldn't be replaced for now either; it increased slashing speed. In battle, even a fraction of a second faster in a slash could determine life or death.
Spirit Cat, upon hitting an enemy with a slash, ignored 45 points of the enemy's physical defense and reduced the healing effect on the slashed target by 20% for 30 seconds.
The reduced healing effect was quite good, but as a Legendary gem, Spirit Cat's healing reduction judgment rank wasn't very high, occasionally failing to achieve the expected effect.
As for Mad Knight, its effect was simple and brutal—it dealt damage that ignored physical defense equal to True Agility × 0.9 (128 points).
When it came to replacement, the choice was between Spirit Cat and Mad Knight. Compared to Mad Knight's damage that ignored physical defense, Su Xiao preferred directly reducing the enemy's physical defense.
Sometimes, whether a limb or neck could be severed depended heavily on how much the enemy's physical defense was reduced. Once a vital point was struck, Spirit Cat's effect completely outclassed Mad Knight.
At the moment of hitting a vital point, Spirit Cat's reduction on the enemy, combined with Dragon-Slashing Flash's high sharpness, resulted in devastating damage intensity.
If a vital point wasn't hit, Mad Knight's effect was stronger. Therefore, Su Xiao directly chose to abandon Mad Knight. When fighting enemies, his strikes always aimed for vital points, making Spirit Cat superior to Mad Knight.
[Yes/No to proceed with this gem replacement. If replaced, Mad Knight (Legendary) has an 87.5% chance of shattering.]
[This gem replacement requires 40,000 Paradise Coins.]
Su Xiao chose to replace it. The Soul Severing Shadow Stone in his hand flew up, rapidly shrinking in size until it became the size of a grain of rice. Meanwhile, the Mad Knight gem at the end of the sword handle began to detach.
With a crack, Mad Knight shattered, completely ruined.
The Soul Severing Shadow Stone, now reduced to the size of a grain of rice, embedded itself into the circular slot. The light gradually faded, and the fourth Soul Severing Shadow Stone was successfully embedded.
When Su Xiao obtained five Soul Severing Shadow Stones and embedded them all into Dragon-Slashing Flash, the five stones would merge. At that point, the resulting Soul Severing Shadow Ability Inheritance Stone would detach from Dragon-Slashing Flash.
At that time, Su Xiao would consider embedding Holy Spirit Rank gems into Dragon-Slashing Flash. However, due to the characteristics of Holy Spirit Rank gems, no matter how many gem slots an equipment had, they would be evenly distributed among three Holy Spirit Rank gems.
For example, if an equipment had a total of 9 gem slots, three Holy Spirit Rank gems would each split and occupy three slots, leaving no empty slots. This involved the issue of equipment load-bearing capacity, and some Holy Spirit Rank gems also had mutual repulsion issues.
Generally speaking, a main weapon could withstand a maximum of three Holy Spirit Rank gems. As for how to match these three gems, it depended on the user's situation. However, given the rarity of Holy Spirit Rank gems, unless the contractor was exceptionally wealthy, there was no talk of matching—one gem was embedded as soon as it was obtained.
As for other equipment, it was best to embed only one Holy Spirit Rank gem to avoid conflicts during battle. According to the intelligence Su Xiao had obtained, to be safe, a contractor's total equipment could withstand a maximum of 5 to 7 Holy Spirit Rank gems.
Su Xiao had noticed earlier that Holy Spirit Rank gems were very special. The [Fate Stone (Holy Spirit Rank)] he obtained could not only be used for embedding, granting a +5 boost to Luck Attribute, but could also be directly consumed to permanently increase Su Xiao's Luck Attribute by 2 points.
It could be embedded or used as a permanent enhancement item—this was the unique aspect of Holy Spirit Rank gems.
In other words, if a contractor obtained enough Holy Spirit Rank gems, they could quickly enhance their various abilities by using these gems.
Although this method was feasible, even the wealthiest Apocalypse Paradise contractor couldn't afford it. Compared to permanent enhancement, the boost from embedding Holy Spirit Rank gems was higher—the enhancement from embedding was about 1.5 times that of direct use.
Being both a gem and a permanent enhancement crystal, one could imagine the price of Holy Spirit Rank gems and how rare they were.
Su Xiao picked up the lemon water on the table, downed it in one gulp, and chewed on the ice cubes in his mouth. The sour, icy lemon water brought a refreshing chill as it went down.
The group Su Xiao was waiting for still hadn't arrived. Since Dragon-Slashing Flash had just been enhanced and embedded, he began to check its attributes.
Dragon-Slashing Flash +12 (Blade Edge Value 0%)
Origin: Shadow of Law Destruction
Quality: Holy Spirit Rank
Category: Longsword
Durability: 230/230 (Increased by 20 points)
Attack Power: 339～430 (Increased by 27～35 points)
Equipment Requirement: Inheritor of the Shadow of Law Destruction
Supreme Blade Effect 1: Sharpness +105.
Supreme Blade Effect 2: This weapon enhances Azure Steel Shadow Energy, reducing mana consumption by 92%, and increasing true damage dealt by Azure Steel Shadow Energy by 22% (Increased by 2%).
Supreme Blade Effect 3: Demon Blade (Active), when attacking an enemy unit with HP below 25%, can release the Blade Demon Spirit within Dragon-Slashing Flash. The Blade Demon Spirit will use Azure Steel Shadow Energy to invade the enemy's body, dealing a lethal effect that ignores resistance, immunity, and defense (this instant-death effect has no judgment process).
Enhancement Effects:
+5 Additional Effect: Weapon sharpness permanently increased by 10 points.
+8 Additional Effect: Weapon toughness permanently increased by 21 points.
+10 Additional Effect: Armor penetration increased by 35 points.
+12 Additional Effect: Penetration power permanently increased by 17%.
Embedding Effects: 7 slots
Spirit Cat (Legendary Gem)
Soul Severing Shadow Stone·Incomplete (Legendary Gem): Sharpness +28
Soul Severing Shadow Stone·Incomplete (Legendary Gem): Sharpness +29
Soul Severing Shadow Stone·Incomplete (Legendary Gem): Sharpness +28
Soul Severing Shadow Stone·Incomplete (Legendary Gem): Sharpness +28
Elegy (Legendary Gem): If enhancement causes the weapon to shatter, Elegy will replace the embedded weapon and shatter.
Moon's Grace (Epic Gem): After each slash...
Rating: 1000+ (Holy Spirit Rank equipment rating is 700～1000 points)
Description: Loss, Encounter, Shared Battle, Rebirth, Growth, Legend, Awakening, Demon Spirit.
Price: Cannot be sold.
...
With Dragon-Slashing Flash in hand, combined with converting all the rewards from this time into strength, Su Xiao was confident in reaching the top tier among the Sixth Rank.
Just then, the door was pushed open. The people Su Xiao was waiting for had arrived. It was Yin Luo, dressed as a waitress, followed by a man and a woman.
Both of these individuals had extraordinary auras. The woman had long hair hanging in front of her face, her attire and demeanor resembling a female ghost. She floated in, the type who wouldn't need makeup for a horror film.
As for the man, he was around thirty years old, with a small mustache under his chin and a smile on his face.
But the moment the man stepped through the door, his smile suddenly froze. He stood at the entrance, not moving a step forward, his eyes fixed on Su Xiao.