Chapter 91: Continuous Battle?
If it were the original Sleep Guardian, on the ancient battlefield, Su Xiao indeed couldn't defeat that opponent. But this substitute? One slash would be enough to kill him.
"This place isn't bad."
After surveying the ancient battlefield's blood mist around him, Su Xiao sat cross-legged on the stone altar below.
The ancient battlefield's blood mist continuously converged toward Su Xiao, then was drawn into the simplified Devouring Core. Due to the absorption speed being too fast, the wear rate of the simplified Devouring Core also increased dramatically.
The ancient battlefield wasn't a place to linger. The temporary Sleep Guardian he had just dealt with was merely a small fry. It was best not to stay here long.
Inside the ancient battlefield, Su Xiao felt immense pressure. A faint, elusive sense of threat frequently appeared in the distance. What that was, Su Xiao didn't know, but he was certain that with his current strength, he absolutely could not face that thing head-on.
If he didn't absorb the ancient battlefield's blood mist, coming here wasn't too dangerous for Su Xiao. But absorbing it? The danger level skyrocketed more than a thousandfold.
Many Void scavengers came to the ancient battlefield to seek treasures. Among these scavengers, there was an ironclad rule: never take any remains from the battlefield. Some dragon clan remains were incredibly valuable, with blood still uncoagulated, yet even so, no one dared to touch them.
This was a race against time. The sooner he could leave, the better. Thinking this, Su Xiao overloaded the simplified Devouring Core. After absorbing the ancient battlefield's blood mist for nearly an hour, this simplified Devouring Core was nearing its limit.
Crack~
A crisp sound came. Su Xiao opened his eyes. This sound wasn't from the Devouring Core, but something else.
Crack, crack~
The sound of crushing dry bones emerged. A figure wearing tattered, strip-like clothing walked over, holding a longsword with a blade full of nicks. At first glance, this was a corpse, but aside from its dull skin color, the flesh hadn't withered.
Seeing this figure, Su Xiao placed his hand on the sword hilt at his waist. In an instant, he sensed that this Sleep Guardian, in life, was a Shadow of Law Destruction!
Zheng!
The Sleep Guardian slashed out. The surrounding ground was completely torn up. Dark blue energy surged wildly, then formed energy threads in midair that crisscrossed and stretched taut, cutting the nearby powerful remains into sugar-cube-sized fragments.
Boom! Boom! Boom!
Hundreds of blue lightning bolts struck down from the sky, covering the entire area within several kilometers.
When everything subsided, all matter had turned into dust particles floating in the air. A figure in tattered clothes walked off into the distance.
...
Inside the Skill Upgrade Pod, Su Xiao exhaled faint blood mist. While the ancient battlefield was full of benefits, it was also full of surprises—he had even encountered the remains of an Ancestral Law Destroyer.
Su Xiao was certain that corpse had no consciousness; it was merely guarding the ancient battlefield. If he went to absorb the ancient battlefield's blood mist again in the future, he would need to be even more cautious.
[Warning: The Hunter has been eroded by the ancient battlefield's blood mist. Body slightly damaged. A trace amount of blood mist residue has mixed into your aura. Pay Paradise Coins to recover and cleanse?]
This warning wasn't surprising. The main function of the simplified Devouring Core was to filter the ancient battlefield's blood mist to a level Su Xiao could absorb, with purification being the most critical step.
"Pay."
As soon as Su Xiao spoke, a very unique fluctuation appeared.
[Prompt: Removing ancient battlefield blood mist erosion costs 5236 Paradise Coins.]
[Prompt: Restoring injuries costs 260 Paradise Coins.]
[Prompt: Cleansing blood mist residue from aura costs 12,800 Paradise Coins.]
Compared to before, the Paradise Coin cost this time was much lower, indicating that the simplified Devouring Core Su Xiao had constructed was more refined. After all, the amount of blood mist he absorbed this time was several times greater than the total of all previous times combined.
Half an hour later, Su Xiao felt much lighter. Reincarnation Paradise's recovery and cleansing were very reliable, leaving no trace behind.
[Aura Release Lv.16 (Dual Form)]
Skill Effect (Active): Release your own aura, dealing 1200 points of blood damage (ignoring defense) to all enemies within 120 meters (increased by 340 points), and causing the enemy's stamina consumption rate to increase by +20% (increased by 8%), lasting 30 minutes.
Prompt: During the enemy's accelerated stamina consumption, the enemy's physical defense will decrease by 1 point per second (increased by 0.5 points), until reduced by more than 50% (increased by 5%).
Prompt: This physical defense reduction has priority.
Prompt: This is a judgment-free ability, only resistible through aura.
...
After just one trip to the ancient battlefield, Aura Release had been raised to Lv.16, with comprehensive attributes greatly improved.
He still had 4,757 Soul Coins left. Su Xiao decided to raise the Technique Sublimation ability from Lv.27 to Lv.30, leaving 1,757 Soul Coins.
When Su Xiao walked out of the Skill Upgrade Hall, he was pondering a question: how to obtain more Soul Coins within a mission world. After raising Technique Sublimation to Lv.30, the power of his blade techniques had further increased, and his blade technique potential rank had increased by +4. The latter improvement had reached a point where Su Xiao could faintly sense it.
When such a potential improvement reaches a level that can be vaguely felt, it's clear how high the bonus from Technique Sublimation is. Su Xiao suspected that his original blade technique potential rank was between 2 and 3, at most not exceeding 3.
Technique Sublimation was very important, but after reaching Lv.30, the upgrade cost increased further, reaching 2,000 Soul Coins per level.
On his way back to his Exclusive Room, Su Xiao took out a translucent scroll. Light flowed on this item, and just looking at it made one feel a longing. This was a [Tempering Scroll]. After use, it could raise a Holy Spirit rank or below equipment to Reinforcement +14.
Su Xiao hadn't yet decided how to use this. The Black King Set, Dragon Hunter Set, and Demon Hunter Set—three sets—had all been smelted into representative equipment. The Black King was a bracer, while the Dragon Hunter and Demon Hunter were both pendants. There was no help for it; the Dragon Hunter Set's armor and sword-spear were completely unusable by Su Xiao.
None of the three sets could be reinforced—that was the cost of smelting. The current Dragon-Slaying Flash was at +12. Using the [Tempering Scroll] on it wouldn't have as high a cost-performance ratio as imagined. [Azure Will (Holy Spirit rank · Pendant)] had already been reinforced to +13.
Other equipment that could be used long-term, such as [Blood Feather], [Soul Locking Lantern], [Primordial Mask], etc., were equipment that didn't need reinforcement. Even if reinforced, the returns wouldn't be very high.
Holy Spirit rank weapons like [Whisper of the Soul] and [Metal · Tyrant] might be replaced at any time. Currently, Su Xiao had two options: reinforce the [Divine Judgment] ring, or wait until he obtained an Epic rank Divine Bone, then upgrade Fate Dominator all the way to Holy Spirit rank and reinforce it to +14. By then, he would only need the Goddess of Fortune's Divine Blood.
However, [Divine Judgment] increased health by a full 40,000 points. This was a health increase that would leave main tanks dumbfounded and assassination types in tears. Moreover, this was a Holy Spirit rank growth-type equipment.
If [Divine Judgment] were reinforced to +14, when it upgraded in quality, the reinforcement level would reset. Su Xiao had learned this lesson multiple times from other growth-type equipment.
After thinking for a moment, Su Xiao decided to upgrade [Divine Judgment]. The reason was simple: he was about to undergo the Eighth Rank promotion trial. If successful, the enemies he encountered in mission worlds would be significantly stronger.
If he died in a mission world, keeping the [Tempering Scroll] would be meaningless. During the rank promotion period, improving survivability was a good choice.
[You have used a Tempering Scroll on Divine Judgment (Holy Spirit rank). This is a scroll-type reinforcement item. It will take only 7 minutes and 23 seconds to complete this reinforcement.]
The reinforcement time was much shorter than expected. This made Su Xiao change his mind. There was nothing to do back in his Exclusive Room anyway, so he might as well go to the Tree Arena to test the abilities [Aura Release] and [Murderous Tremor (Passive)], and also test the improvement in his blade techniques.
Changing course, by the time Su Xiao arrived near the arena, the [Divine Judgment] reinforcement was complete.
[Divine Judgment (Holy Spirit rank) has been raised to Reinforcement +14.]
[Divine Judgment]
Quality: Holy Spirit rank
Category: Ring
Durability: 48/70 (increased by 20 points)
Equipment Requirement: None
Equipment Effect 1: Soul's Life (Passive) — For each point of the wearer's Soul Strength, increase health by 130 points and neural reflex speed by 0.7%.
Current Soul Strength: 380 points.
Health Increased: 49,400 points (this equipment can increase health by a maximum of 50,000 points).
Neural Reflex Speed Increased: 175% (this equipment can increase neural reflex speed by a maximum of 175%).
Growth Condition: After killing an extremely evil deity, this equipment can absorb divine energy to grow. The growth magnitude depends on the rank of the evil god killed (extremely evil deities are mostly Ancient Gods).
Growth: 62%
Reinforcement Effects:
+5 Additional Effect: Wearer's physical defense +2.
+8 Additional Effect: Equipment durability +20 points.
+10 Additional Effect: Wearer slightly increases resistance to divine energy.
+12 Additional Effect: Equipment growth speed +12%.
+13 Additional Effect: When fighting Ancient Gods, the wearer gains an additional 30 points of physical defense.
+14 Additional Effect: When fighting Ancient Gods, this ring can be used to instantly cause a divine energy control disorder effect on the Ancient God.
Rating: 1000+++ (Holy Spirit rank equipment rating is 700–1000 points).
Description: Survive, then... hunt the evil gods to your heart's content.
Price: Unsellable.
...
After teleporting into the exclusive rest room of the Tree Arena, Su Xiao put on the Divine Judgment ring.
[Competitor: Su Xiao.]
[Status: Good.]
[Tree Arena Ranking: Unranked (Seventh Rank). Rankings visible only within the top 10,000.]
[Consecutive Wins: 0.]
[Matching opponent...]
[Match successful. Opponent: Unranked.]
After his vision blurred for a moment, Su Xiao was standing in a circular arena. Yellow sand was everywhere. The surrounding spectator stands were filled with Contractors, Workers, and even Void races. It was very lively.
"Already on a six-win streak, tsk tsk tsk."
"Her fighting stance... I think I'm smitten. Maybe this is love at first sight."
"Shameless. You're just lusting after her body."
The audience buzzed with discussion. The Tree Arena was different from ordinary arenas. The spectators here could come from Reincarnation Paradise, Apocalypse Paradise, Holy Light Paradise, etc., or from the Void, since this place was certified by the Void Tree.
The yellow sand everywhere was stained with some bloodstains. From the surrounding pits and splattered sand, several battles had taken place here. A patch of yellow sand had been scorched red by flames and hadn't cooled down much.
A figure clad in full body armor, holding a long spear, stood several dozen meters away. From the figure's build, it was female—a powerful woman like a war goddess.
This war goddess was in continuous combat, meaning she was fighting different opponents in a wheel battle. This was an unfair fight, but it could raise the arena ranking faster. Some Contractors whose strength increased quickly and who didn't often come to fight in the arena would choose to do this.
Su Xiao had been dragged into this wheel battle, becoming one of the many "small fries." Given his unranked status and broken winning streak, this was normal.
"Finish it quickly. Combat was never fair. You don't need to feel guilty."
The war goddess's eyes opened. Due to her faceplate, her voice had a faint metallic quality.
Zheng~
The long blade was drawn. Su Xiao looked at the distant war goddess. Their eyes met.
In that instant of eye contact, the war goddess's pupils contracted to their limit. All the hair on her body stood on end, her scalp tingled, and she gripped her long spear so hard it creaked.
With a boom, the war goddess's energy surged wildly. Amidst the splashing sand, she assumed a combat stance, looking like a cat whose fur had been ruffled.