Chapter 29: The Fierce Mu Hua
The Execution Blade dissipated, and Anna's black dress seemed to have become slightly more ornate, yet also appeared unchanged.
"As a reward for completing the Death Game, you may choose any one collection piece in the Final Place."
Anna stood beside the entrance to the corridor, her meaning clear: passing through this corridor would lead to the Final Place, the treasure vault of the Death House.
Su Xiao walked into the corridor. On the walls on both sides were oil paintings depicting men and women with various expressions—some gloomy, some solemn.
These were the past masters of the Death House, and above each of their paintings was stabbed a bloodstained short blade.
When he reached the middle of the corridor, Su Xiao saw Anna's painting. In it, Anna smiled, her skin fair but not as pale as it was now.
Su Xiao stopped and took out the Cursed Gold Coin. He wanted to test whether he would be hunted by Axe Bro here.
Ding~
The Cursed Gold Coin was tossed up, spinning slowly in midair before stopping a meter above the ground, tails side up.
Successfully summoning Axe Bro's pursuit, Su Xiao began to wait. At most a few minutes later, heavy footsteps sounded outside the corridor. Axe Bro was coming.
Su Xiao quickened his pace, followed by Bubu Wang and Baha. Reaching the end of the corridor, a large door stood open.
Su Xiao entered the Final Place, and a notification from Reincarnation Paradise appeared.
[Notification: After the Hunter selects the Death Game reward, he will immediately return to the Strongest Battle Rest Area.]
[If the Hunter does not make a selection within half an hour, an item from the Final Place will be obtained at random.]
At the corridor entrance, Anna watched Axe Bro, who had stopped inside the corridor, and smiled.
"He didn't choose to kill you. That's surprising."
A hoarse, dry voice came from nearby. The hunchbacked old woman carrying an oil lamp appeared beside Anna.
"Do you really want me dead so badly, Silent One?"
Anna's voice remained as gentle as ever.
"Both yes and no."
"Do you know why you lost back then?"
"Because I wasn't as despicable as you."
"Hmm~ That's partly it. More importantly..."
"What is it?"
The hunchbacked old woman's gaze turned hostile.
"Because... I know you too well."
"..."
The hunchbacked old woman said nothing, turned, and walked into the black mist that appeared beside her out of nowhere.
As it turned out, women who are gentle-spoken, fair-skinned, and powerful are usually black at heart when you cut them open.
...
Final Place, Ancient Collection Area.
Rows of shelves were arranged here, similar in layout to a library, but with books replaced by various treasures.
Walking between the collection shelves, Su Xiao was constantly pondering what form the third round of the Strongest Battle would take.
The first round was a free-for-all (Twilight Island), the second was resource accumulation (Death House), the third was unknown, the fourth was arena mode, and the fifth was the Ten Strongest Battle.
On the shelves beside him, Su Xiao had already seen countless items he coveted, but he did not choose any of them. Even one of the pieces was likely a Holy Spirit-grade long blade with a high rating.
With only 17 minutes left, if he didn't make a choice soon, it would be random, and what he got would depend entirely on luck.
Su Xiao quickened his pace. The Final Place was too large; it was impossible to inspect all the collections here in half an hour.
Therefore, Su Xiao had Bubu Wang and Baha split up to search for a specific type of item.
"Woof."
Bubu Wang's bark came from a distance. Su Xiao put down the crystal ball in his hand and walked toward the direction of the sound.
Soon, Su Xiao arrived near Bubu Wang, who had a glass bottle in his mouth, filled with gray-black fine sand.
Su Xiao took the glass bottle. This item was neither equipment nor a prop, but he immediately selected it as the reward for the Death Game.
[Hunter is about to return to the Strongest Battle Rest Area.]
[Equipment wearing restrictions have been lifted.]
[The Hunter can take out required equipment from the storage space within 5 minutes. No items other than equipment can be taken out.]
[Storage space seal not lifted.]
[Notification: The storage space seal will remain until the fourth round of the Strongest Battle.]
[Teleporting...]
Light and shadow flickered before his eyes. When the spatial fluctuations stabilized, Su Xiao found himself in Rest Room 1005. The dull-looking butler robot quickly approached. Confirming it was not an intruder, the robot's electronic eyes changed from red back to green. Beini, perched on its head, noticed Su Xiao had no injuries and continued to look beautiful.
As for Amu, he was lying on the floor, snoring loudly.
Sitting on the sofa, Su Xiao took out all the equipment he needed to wear and put them on.
The storage space was still sealed and would not be restored until the fourth round. In terms of combat power alone, this had little impact on Su Xiao.
Su Xiao relaxed completely, leaning back on the sofa. The Death House was quite dangerous, with too many enemies he couldn't fight. Most of the people he encountered showed a string of question marks when he checked their information.
[Notification: The Hunter has passed the second round of the Strongest Battle.]
[Number of participants from this side this round: 3 (Reincarnation Paradise).]
[Number of promotions from this side this round: 1.]
[Number of deaths from this side this round: 1.]
[Number of eliminations from this side this round: 1 (Has returned to Reincarnation Paradise, honorable return. This participant has successfully seized a Primordial World).]
[Number of enemy participants killed by this side this round: 25 (The Hunter killed 1 enemy this round).]
The statistics for the second round ended. Seeing this, Su Xiao immediately realized that the other two from his side had arrived at locations with a considerable number of participants.
The Death House where Su Xiao had been had only 6 people, while the locations the other two arrived at had at least 28 people combined.
The result was not optimistic, but it showcased the style of the Madman Paradise. One was eliminated, the other died in battle. No need to guess—these two were surrounded, slaughtered a bunch, but couldn't break out.
The actual situation was indeed like this. Among the three from Reincarnation Paradise this time, besides Su Xiao, one was named Mu Hua, a combat healer and also a Hunter.
The last one, named Giant Warrior, was a lone wolf about to advance to the seventh rank.
Mu Hua didn't die. The trial she participated in was a snatching type. She was eliminated purely due to bad luck. While she was in a chaotic battle with a large group of participants, one participant, in despair, used his ability to destroy six "memory chips," leaving one half-destroyed.
Mu Hua got angry. She slaughtered all the participants in the same area, took the half-destroyed memory chip, and used it to stall for time. Then... this girl directly took a World Core, and the Void Tree almost judged her as a violator.
As for Giant Warrior, he was surrounded. Seventeen people attacked him. He died in battle, and two enemies survived. One of them died before being teleported away by the World Tree, eroded by Giant Warrior's ability. On that island, only one person survived in the end, and that person was traumatized.
Su Xiao recognized Mu Hua. When he had just advanced to the sixth rank, she was ranked 34th in the sixth-rank Paradise Arena. Actually, it was said that this girl had dropped from the top ten because she had already obtained the fifth-place reward and was countered by the fourth-place's ability. Plus, the top ten were just those few people, and matching with each other was too boring, so she simply dropped ranks to have fun and started happily bullying the weak.
All the other participants from his side were eliminated. Su Xiao felt no ripples in his heart. If not for the restrictions of Reincarnation Paradise, it would be good enough if they didn't fight when they met.
The third round would start in two days. Hearing this news, Su Xiao thought of a possibility: the third round of the Strongest Battle would have all participants in the same location or the same area.
This matched Su Xiao's previous speculation. If everything went smoothly, the item he obtained in the Death House would shine brilliantly in the third round.
Su Xiao sat cross-legged on the sofa. With nothing to do, he began to meditate with his eyes closed.
Meditation made time pass quickly. Coupled with his daily blade technique practice, a day passed quickly.
Su Xiao didn't wait two days. On the afternoon of the next day, the second round of the Strongest Battle ended. Three hours later, the third round began.
[Hunter is about to participate in the third round of the Strongest Battle. Teleportation is about to begin.]
[Destination: Viking Sea.]