Chapter 65: The King's Palace
Inside the gallery, Su Xiao activated the fifth Soul Skeleton. The kneeling skeleton held a metal cup in its hands. As the reverse-flow incense overflowed from the cup, the ring of gems embedded around its rim turned blue, and blue flame-like pupils appeared in the skeleton's eye sockets.
According to Su Xiao's knowledge, there were a total of six Soul Skeletons. If all six were activated, all item exchange permissions in the Soul Shop would be unlocked, and the exchange prices would be reduced to their minimum.
Su Xiao currently had 7,576 Soul Coins. Notably, the 320 Soul Coins he had spent earlier to exchange for the Sacred Language were well worth it from the current perspective.
Without understanding the Sacred Language, he would be unable to negotiate with the Nightmare Prince, and thus unable to play the beast chess game with him.
Moreover, being unable to negotiate meant he would have to forcefully break through the gallery. Although the Nightmare Prince was not strong, his mother was a super boss.
One thing puzzled Su Xiao: from start to finish, the Nightmare Prince only used Death Coins as his stake, never touching anything else in the gallery.
In the end, even when the Nightmare Prince bet his own soul, he still didn't take those items. It seemed that the other things in the gallery no longer belonged to him.
Standing before the Soul Skeleton, Su Xiao was only one skeleton away from activating all six. According to the information from the Prophet's Stone Tablet, the last Soul Skeleton was located in the King's Palace.
Su Xiao had already reached most areas of the Holy Land·Kiliad. Combined with the intelligence provided by Sun Warrior·Uch, he had a rough understanding of the Holy Land's terrain. If he followed the normal route, it would be:
Outermost edge → Desolate Village → Torture Dungeon → City Wall Basement → Top of the City Wall → Kiliad Royal City → King's Palace → Gallery → Holy Sacrificial Hall.
Because the Soul Skeleton at the Kiliad Royal City·Prayer Room had a teleportation function, Su Xiao had directly arrived at the Holy Sacrificial Hall.
From this perspective, after passing through the gallery, the next area should be the King's Palace, where the last Soul Skeleton was located.
Su Xiao had just learned from the Nightmare Prince that Rogge was at the Ring Water Altar, which was located on the eastern side of Kiliad Royal City. He would need to leave the royal palace first to get there.
Besides this intelligence, Su Xiao also learned from the Nightmare Prince that the leader·Rogge had already seized Xi Wu's power and the Dark Mask. The other party was hiding at the Ring Water Altar and would likely fully control the Dark Mask's power in about two days.
This timeframe was neither long nor short. Rogge's plan was essentially complete, having arranged everything for the immortal·Xi Wu and his family.
To deal with Rogge, relying on a carefully laid plan was no longer feasible. The reason was that in the Holy Land, even moving forward was fraught with obstacles. As for plotting against Rogge, it was inherently difficult to scheme against an old yinbi, especially in the Holy Land·Kiliad.
Just as Rogge hadn't schemed against Su Xiao, the two sides had remained in a state of non-interference since entering the Holy Land. It wasn't that they didn't want to, but it was very hard to outmaneuver each other.
The Holy Land was swarming with powerful enemies. Su Xiao's method of dealing with Rogge was simple and crude: since he couldn't weaken the enemy, he would strengthen himself. He had decided on this approach when he activated the first Soul Skeleton.
Su Xiao's current advantage was that he had several trump cards that Rogge didn't know about, such as the Dragon Hunting Set, Azure Shadow King, Demon Blade, and other abilities.
As for the opponent's intelligence, Su Xiao knew some. No matter what power Rogge gained after wearing the Dark Mask, that power would definitely be dark in nature. This was certain, as it was the characteristic of the Dark Mask, or rather, the characteristic of soul energy.
"Woof."
Bubu Wang walked out from the gallery's exit. It had gone to scout ahead. As Sun Warrior·Uch had said, beyond the gallery was the King's Palace.
Su Xiao walked through the two open metal giant doors and entered a dilapidated palace. The marble floor was covered in stains, candlesticks and tables were overturned, and the chandelier above was thick with dust, threatening to fall at any moment.
The King's Palace was divided into four parts. Su Xiao was in the inner hall. Ahead was the middle hall, with two side halls on either side. Beyond the middle hall was the front hall.
As soon as he entered the inner hall, Su Xiao stopped. In this thousand-square-meter inner hall stood over a hundred figures, all of them royal maids.
Don't mistake royal maids for ancient-style maids. In the Holy Land, royal maids were dangerous monsters. If you made physical contact with them, the touched area would explode.
The royal maids lowered their heads, wearing light white dresses. Their large wings were folded, wrapping around their upper bodies.
Bubu Wang raised its dog head, indicating that as long as they made no sound and didn't touch them, they wouldn't alert these royal maids.
Su Xiao signaled Bubu Wang and Baha to fall back. He restrained his aura, walked slowly, and moved among the royal maids.
Over a hundred royal maids stood still, spaced about a meter apart. They were all in a dormant state. If awakened, even Su Xiao couldn't handle so many at once.
The reason was that after a royal maid died, it would explode into dust with "scorching light characteristics."
Although Su Xiao had consumed the Sun Potion, if he fought for a long time in this "scorching light dust," the potion's effect would be quickly consumed. What should have lasted 12 hours might be depleted in just a few minutes.
Su Xiao moved silently. He looked toward the entrance of the inner hall, which was a short corridor without a door. Above the doorway hung a round mirror, facing downward. Anyone walking out of the short corridor's doorway would definitely be reflected by this mirror.
Su Xiao speculated that once reflected by the mirror, it would likely instantly alert all the royal maids in the inner hall.
Over a hundred royal maids swarming in at once, the result would be...
Su Xiao's current advantage was that he was exploring the King's Palace in reverse. This situation was somewhat similar to when he had explored the Torture Dungeon earlier.
This was an opportunity. Although Su Xiao couldn't handle the royal maids if they were all awakened and attacked together, they were currently in a dormant state, with very low solar energy activity, resulting in weak physical defense.
Royal maids could teleport instantly through steam, smoke, or shadowy areas where dust particles drifted.
At this moment, dust was floating in the inner hall, and sunlight streaming through the holes above cast large patches of shadow. This meant the royal maids could continuously teleport within the inner hall.
A few royal maids like this wouldn't be a problem, but all of them being able to do so meant one thing.
The inner hall was not something a seventh-rank contractor could explore. It required several eighth-rank contractors to first reach the ancient capital of the Eastern Continent via props, then enter the Holy Land. Once inside the Holy Land, the seventh-rank world restrictions on eighth-rank contractors would disappear.
Su Xiao stopped. This was a golden opportunity. The royal maids hadn't been alerted yet, and their solar energy was dormant. With Su Xiao's blade skills, there was a high probability he could kill all these royal maids in an instant.
Su Xiao took a slow breath. Since mastering the Technique Sublimation ability and raising it to Lv.30, the blade techniques he had developed himself had become increasingly powerful and smoother to execute.
Su Xiao placed his hand on the sword hilt and began to gather momentum. He rarely did this.
'Blade Path Sword: Ten·Ring Break.'
Clang! Clang! Clang!...
The crisp sound of slashes rang out. Pale blue ring-shaped blade auras spread outward. As soon as Ring Break was unleashed, all the royal maids around Su Xiao spread their wings, revealing their withered faces.
The ring-shaped blade auras first cut through a royal maid's right arm, then into its chest, and finally severed its other arm before continuing outward.
Slash marks appeared on the surrounding walls, as if someone had stabbed a knife into the wall and run around the hall while dragging it along.
Large pieces of severed, withered feathers flew up, mixed with broken limbs. Su Xiao, holding his sword, crouched low. The 'Ten·Ring Break' he had just used had pushed his slashing power to its limit. Now, all the muscles in his right arm seemed to be screaming in agony, occasionally twitching.
[Prompt: You have killed 117 Royal Maids.]
[Hunter has annihilated all enemies in this area. Rewards are being calculated collectively...]