Chapter 41: War Poison Milk
After preliminary negotiations, Su Xiao learned that this "Holy Maiden Goddess" was named Dorothea, a hybrid of human and alien species.
Upon hearing this introduction, Baha expressed curiosity and bluntly asked Dorothea how her parents managed it.
Dorothea was somewhat angry and muttered the words "rude fellow."
Ground-walkers and Fission-types were naturally impossible to crossbreed with humans. Parasitic types, after seizing a human body, could interbreed with humans, with a high probability of producing normal humans and a very low probability of producing hybrids that inherited alien genes—hybrids with higher transcendent talent than beastmen.
Dorothea was such a hybrid. Her father was human, and her mother was a parasitic type. Their union wasn't driven by clichéd love stories; rather, her father was exceptionally strong, and the female parasitic type who had taken over a human body was quite attractive, leading to Dorothea's birth.
Sunlight City was an underground city, only a few dozen kilometers from the alien stronghold. Due to ongoing internal conflicts among the aliens and the fact that the humans in Sunlight City mostly possessed transcendent abilities, the two sides had reached a stalemate.
After the Space-Time Crystals began to fall, the Alien King forced several commanding officers to cease their internal conflicts. The alien army took three days to destroy Sunlight City. This city, hailed as humanity's last hope and sworn to bask in sunlight, was annihilated by the alien forces.
As for the Sunlight Preaching Ground, it was located 15 kilometers east of Sunlight City. Originally an inconspicuous small organization, after Sunlight City was destroyed, a few surviving humans took refuge there, preparing to eke out the rest of their lives in hiding.
Regarding the "King's Heart" Dorothea had mentioned earlier, she was unwilling to reveal more and insisted on one point: she wouldn't disclose any information on that front until she met Su Xiao in person, even if he roasted her along with the "King's Heart" she had stored.
Dorothea's arrival wasn't coincidental. She had been observing the Fallen Zone in her spiritual form for a long time. As soon as the five Paradise bases landed, she took notice.
Initially, Dorothea wanted to cooperate with Death Paradise, as that faction was known for its strict discipline.
Just as she was about to contact a contractor from Death Paradise, Death Paradise was completely wiped out. Dorothea was stunned for a long time.
Afterward, Dorothea considered cooperating with the Church, since one side worshipped gods and the other sought to propagate humanity through its teachings. Though fundamentally different, they shared some distant kinship.
Not long after, the Church was annihilated by the aliens.
Holy Light Paradise came into Dorothea's view. She had favored this faction before, but then... nothing came of it. Holy Light Paradise wasn't wiped out, but it suffered a worse fate: 12 contractors were captured alive.
Her next target was Apocalypse Paradise. In Dorothea's view, this faction was the perfect partner—large in number and gentle in approach. But soon, Dorothea gave up again. Their combat awareness reminded her of the resistance forces her grandmother had commanded, and besides, Apocalypse Paradise was crippled, making cooperation impossible.
After hearing Dorothea's account, Bubu Wang and Baha nearly laughed themselves into shock. This girl was practically cursed—whoever she wanted to cooperate with ended up doomed.
After Reincarnation Paradise's base withdrew, Dorothea sensed that Su Xiao actually carried a piece of the "King's Heart." She couldn't believe it. After the "King's Heart" was split into four pieces, Beastman-Human Leader Shukaro had taken one, which was now stored at the Sunlight Preaching Ground. The remaining three were with the aliens, with two reportedly awarded to alien commanding officers.
During the war between the aliens and Reincarnation Paradise, Dorothea had sensed Su Xiao's aura. She had secretly decided not to contact this human or those madmen for now. If someone said they wanted to destroy the world, Dorothea wouldn't be surprised; in fact, she'd find it normal.
But the war situation forced Dorothea to seek out Su Xiao and use the "King's Heart" as a medium to establish friendly negotiations. As for why she didn't come in her spiritual form, Dorothea stammered without giving a clear reason.
In truth, it was understandable. Su Xiao's Charm attribute, already blood-red tinged with black, made Dorothea afraid to approach directly. She feared he would trap her spiritual form and then destroy her.
Who would have thought that the "dream-sending" method wouldn't work either? In the dream, Su Xiao's consciousness was fully alert, his judgment unaffected. Before Dorothea could even introduce herself, Su Xiao forcibly tore apart the dream created by spiritual resonance, leaving the spiritually weakened Dorothea trapped inside the "King's Heart."
"Amu, stop roasting."
"Moo~"
Amu was a bit reluctant. The "King's Heart" smelled increasingly fragrant as it roasted, and he was already ready to sprinkle cumin.
"My goal is simple: kill all the aliens. Yeah, my homeland was destroyed by them."
Su Xiao said this casually. Even he didn't believe this origin story, nor did he expect Dorothea to believe it. It was just a pretext for negotiation.
"I see. No wonder you're so ruthless when killing aliens. Aliens only bring misfortune."
Hearing this, Su Xiao was a bit surprised. Bubu Wang and Baha beside him were stunned.
"Tell me your goal?"
"To let humanity continue to reproduce. Though I'm not fully human and can't reproduce myself."
Dorothea's tone was very dejected.
"Where is the Sunlight Preaching Ground?"
"Well..."
Dorothea hesitated. She still felt Su Xiao was dangerous.
"Forget it then. See you around."
Su Xiao grabbed the "King's Heart," a blue gleam flashing in his eyes. This woman might still be useful, so he planned to let her go. As for the Sunlight Preaching Ground, such a good hiding spot and resting place had to be found.
"Wait, let me think for a moment, just a moment."
Dorothea inside the "King's Heart" pondered for over ten seconds before letting out a faint sigh.
"Head south. If your travel speed is fast enough, you'll reach the vicinity of the Sunlight Preaching Ground in three days."
After saying this, Dorothea inside the "King's Heart" fell into spiritual slumber. She would never again attempt spiritual resonance with Su Xiao, as being stared at by a massive Blood Beast was a terrifying experience.
Based on the directions Dorothea provided, Su Xiao traveled through the night. His injuries had recovered over eighty percent, so traveling wasn't an issue.
Along the way, he still saw no human factions. He did spot a large beastman tribe, but it was over half destroyed by the aliens. Not all beastmen were spineless enough to surrender to the aliens; those who did were from three beastman branches.
Specifically, the Hyena, Sacrificial, and Barbarian branches of beastmen. They represented over two-thirds of the beastman population and held more sway among their kind.
The remaining orthodox beastmen upheld the belief that beastmen would never be slaves. Even if they became food for ground-walkers or faced extinction, they wouldn't submit. This caused the orthodox beastmen's numbers to plummet, leaving only a few tens of thousands.
These orthodox beastmen fought with exceptional ferocity in wars and were determined to defend the beastmen's origin place, Insegang. They were prepared to perish there and meet their fallen human comrades.
The orthodox beastmen's tenacity and iron will stung the pride of the other three beastman branches. So, leveraging their numerical advantage, they declared that the orthodox beastmen were expelled from the tribe and could only call themselves Wild Beastmen.
The orthodox beastmen's response was simple: contempt.
Traveling without pause, Su Xiao's team advanced at full speed. By the evening of the second day after the war mission's second phase began, they reached the central region of the Ten Thousand Beasts Continent.
The twilight sun cast its rays as Su Xiao stood on a large boulder. After pressing a protrusion on top of the boulder, the ground nearby began to tremble.
The mechanism operated, and from the sound, it was clear the gears hadn't been maintained in a long time.
A metal plate disguised as ground rose up, revealing a stone staircase leading underground.
Su Xiao led the way, with Bubu Wang in the middle and Amu and Baha at the rear, as they began descending the stone steps.
They hadn't gone far when the steps ended. Around a corner was an arched passageway. Every few meters, a candlestick was mounted on the wall, with pools of wax on the ground beneath them.
Following the arched passage, after walking over ten meters, Su Xiao saw a man in tattered, tightly wrapped clothes leaning against the passage wall, emitting a rotting smell.
"That woman tricked another one into coming to die. Go back. This world is dying."
The rotting man's voice was hoarse, his laugh filled with mockery.
Su Xiao looked at the rotting man. Besides his very dirty face, one foot was exposed, hardened like wood.
The rotting man had been injured by an alien commanding officer. He was slowly withering, eventually turning into a human-shaped piece of rotten wood. He had once tried to assassinate the Alien King but hadn't even seen the Alien King's face before ending up like this.