Chapter 66: Everything Can Be an 'Ally'
Golden dust particles drifted around Su Xiao. Holding his breath, he dashed to the gallery door in a few steps.
Having successfully instantly killed over a hundred royal maidservants, more than four-fifths of the inner hall was now covered in golden light particles. Contact with these particles was far more intense than being scorched by the 'Sun'.
[Reward settlement complete.]
[You have obtained Pure White Feather ×15 (Holy Spirit rank, consumable material).]
[You have obtained Soul Coins ×619.]
[You have obtained Sun Contract (Bloodline/Occupation item. Upon signing this contract, you will immediately arrive at the 'Holy Sacrificial Hall'. After offering 25 Soul Crystals (Complete), you will become a Sun Warrior).]
[Sun Warrior: High survivability, melee combat characteristics, possesses limited mid-range combat ability, possesses limited recovery abilities.]
[Occupation Potential: A (Bloodline/Occupation inheritance item, potential ranges from E to S+).]
...
There were three types of rewards. [Pure White Feather] was a material, not used for forging equipment or the like, but a material to assist light-attribute abilities. For example, when using a light-attribute healing ability, this item could be consumed to greatly enhance the ability's strength.
The [Sun Contract] was a good item. Su Xiao couldn't use it himself, but he could sell it. Occupation items with A potential were rare. The last time he obtained [Ice Pulse Enlightenment], which was only A- potential, it had drained the entire team funds of the Divine Emperor Adventure Group.
What a Sun Warrior was, Su Xiao didn't know. He had only encountered Sun Warriors before.
After the golden dust particles in the inner hall dissipated somewhat, Su Xiao walked towards the short corridor opposite. Past this short corridor was the middle hall.
Passing through the short corridor, the light ahead dimmed slightly. Inside the middle hall, stone pillars stood in clusters. Su Xiao hid behind one of them.
No enemies were visible in the middle hall, but if one looked up at the ceiling, they could see vines covered in thorns hanging down.
Su Xiao picked up a half-broken pottery jar nearby and tossed it towards the hanging vines. The jar hit a vine, then shattered on the ground with a crack.
Seeing this, Su Xiao's eyes showed confusion. In his perception, these vines were both dangerous and lacked aggression—a contradiction.
Clang.
A flash of slashing light passed. One of the hanging vines was severed, writhing like a snake after hitting the ground. After a few seconds, it stopped moving, and a wisp of black smoke drifted out.
This black smoke had the feeling of Ancient God energy. Su Xiao looked at the large patch of vines on the ceiling. There should be no danger here. Shenfu had been here and absorbed all the stored power within these vines.
Judging by the looks of it, the other party was harvesting like cutting leeks—not absorbing everything at once, planning to let these vines grow and come back later to absorb more.
Shenfu first became a Violator, then entered the Holy Land, just to absorb the energy from these vines? Su Xiao felt this was unlikely.
Picking up the broken vine on the ground, Su Xiao sensed a trace of Solar Force within it. This Solar Force was special, different from that within the Sun Warriors. The Solar Force in this vine, after being transformed by the plant, possessed a unique life characteristic.
"So that's what you're after."
Su Xiao looked at the hole in the ceiling. Through it, he saw the 'Sun' above. He thought about what Shenfu was plotting. If that guy didn't get himself killed by overindulgence, the power gained would indeed be worth becoming a Violator.
"Boss, is Shenfu trying to bring that thing down from up there?"
Baha was somewhat shocked. It found what Shenfu was scheming to be somewhat unbelievable.
"Not bring it down. He's going up there."
Su Xiao took out the Blazing Sun Disc from his chest. This key wasn't what he needed. The Holy Land had two major power systems: Darkness (Soul Energy) and Sunlight. He was about to face the Darkness and had no time to explore things related to Sunlight.
Or rather, he couldn't explore it either. He was already hostile to the 'Sunlight Faction'. From the moment he chose to kill that Sun Warrior in the dungeon, this point was unchangeable.
Back in the dungeon, when Su Xiao killed the Sun Warrior, Shenfu had just watched, seemingly uninterested in the kill reward. Now it seemed, it wasn't that the other party had no interest, but that he couldn't do it.
Su Xiao gripped the Blazing Sun Disc with both hands, exerting full force to snap it in two. Dazzling golden energy drifted out from within, sucked in by a spatial vortex.
The key was hard to completely destroy. This was a product of the Ganglu Dynasty's wisdom. Su Xiao felt that, perhaps not long from now, the Blazing Sun Disc would reform somewhere in the Eastern Continent.
He casually tossed the two broken halves of the Blazing Sun Disc aside. A few seconds later, the faint feeling of being watched from diagonally above disappeared.
The reason Su Xiao broke the Blazing Sun Disc was to make Shenfu run around frantically for a period of time. The Blazing Sun Disc was useful to Shenfu, but not absolutely necessary; otherwise, Shenfu would have already shown himself again.
Meanwhile, above the King's Palace, vines were wrapped around Shenfu's body. His eyes opened.
"Already discovered, huh. Can't delay any longer."
Shenfu looked at the 'Sun' above. Now that the Blazing Sun Disc was destroyed, his shortcut was cut off. Originally, his plan was that after completing a certain matter, if time permitted, he would participate in the game between Su Xiao and Rogge. Now it seemed, he couldn't spare the time.
Inside the middle hall, Su Xiao first scouted the front hall. The layout of the front hall was similar to the middle hall, but about a third smaller.
From the residual energy fluctuations in the front hall, it seemed Sun Warriors were originally stationed here. For some unknown reason, the Sun Warriors here had been transferred away. There weren't many people in the palace who could do such a thing. It was very likely Rogge.
After scouting the front hall, Su Xiao returned to the middle hall. On the left and right walls of the middle hall, there was a large door each. The door to the left side hall was half-open, while the door to the right side hall was locked.
The final Soul Skeleton was in one of these two side halls. Su Xiao walked towards the left side hall.
Entering it, Su Xiao saw pits and rubble everywhere. A battle had taken place here.
A broken chain hung in mid-air. Below the chain was a large pit, covered in splattered bloodstains.
The inner wall was dotted with fist-sized holes, several hundred of them. Seeing these traces, Su Xiao deduced that two battles had taken place in the left side hall.
One was a one-sided battle, where one side instantly killed the other. The flesh fragments of the loser left large holes in the wall.
Compared to this battle, the other was much more intense, like a raging beast running amok. Strangely, the one being attacked didn't resist much, just passively taking the beating.
The battle abruptly ended when one side smashed a large pit. Su Xiao dipped his index finger in the blood in the pit, rubbed it with his fingers, and fine iron-sand-like energy drifted out.
"So this is where Rogge succeeded."
Su Xiao wiped the blood from his finger. He couldn't determine the specifics. Rogge hadn't concealed the battle traces here, indicating that even if everything here was exposed, it wouldn't be enough to affect him.
After searching the left side hall, Su Xiao didn't find the Soul Skeleton. That left two possibilities: 1. The Soul Skeleton in the King's Palace was destroyed by Shenfu. 2. The Soul Skeleton was in the right side hall.
The final Soul Skeleton was very important to Su Xiao. He speculated that activating all the Soul Skeletons should produce a different change.
Leaving the left side hall, passing through the middle hall, Su Xiao arrived before the door of the right side hall. He easily picked the lock and pushed open the metal door.
Dust fell from the door crack. Su Xiao pushed the metal door open just enough to pass through, then stopped, looking inside.
The layout of the right side hall was similar to the left side hall. White light seeped from a corner. Seeing this light, Su Xiao breathed a sigh of relief. His biggest worry was that the final Soul Skeleton had been destroyed by Shenfu.
Entering the right side hall, he hadn't taken a few steps before stopping. In the center of the right side hall, a Great Axe Brother was sitting there, sound asleep.
This Great Axe Brother wore iron-black full body armor, its surface covered in dark gold sun patterns. The center of the long-handled giant axe's head seemed to be embedded with a small sun.
If the Great Axe Brother in the 'City Wall Basement' was the poor man's budget version, then this Great Axe Brother was the luxury top-tier version. Going one-on-one against a dozen Sun Warriors, he wouldn't be at a disadvantage.
Fighting this Great Axe Brother, Su Xiao was confident he could win. But the issue wasn't whether he could win or not. His deathmatch with Rogge was inevitable. The key was whether it was worth making a move here.
"Boss, should we make him spin around with the magic of love?"
Baha took out a few Alchemy Bombs, ready to repeat the old trick. Bubu Wang also took out a few. It had long discovered the joy in this and was ready to join in this time.
"No. Let him go deal with Rogge."
Su Xiao took out an item from his storage space. The Great Axe Brother's weakness was low intelligence—basically, his intelligence was reduced by the 'Sun'. If things went as he envisioned, he could make this Great Axe Brother go fight Rogge to the death.