Chapter 82: The Rat's Offer
Su Xiao had already improved several abilities in succession, but this was not the end; his Blade Grandmaster ability had yet to be enhanced.
[Yes/No to improve Blade Grandmaster Lv.58. Improving this ability requires Soul Crystal·Complete ×100 + 5,000,000 Paradise Coins.]
Su Xiao had 221 Soul Crystals (Complete). He chose to improve Blade Grandmaster by 2 levels, raising it to Lv.60. Every 10 levels, Blade Grandmaster would undergo a significant enhancement.
[Prompt: Lacking the required resources for improvement. Cannot improve.]
Seeing this prompt, Su Xiao felt a sense of unease. He chose to first improve Blade Grandmaster by 1 level.
As soon as he made the choice, the 100 Soul Crystals (Complete) he had just taken out shattered, gradually merging into his body. The improvement efficiency was unprecedented, finishing in just a few minutes.
[Blade Grandmaster: Lv.59 (Passive Skill)]
Skill Effect: Blade weapon attack power increased by 799% (increase of 12%), Base·Neural Reflex Speed +55 points (increase of 5 points), the damage tier caused by blade weapons +1.
Lv.10 Ultimate Ability: Heart Blade (Passive)...
Lv.20 Ultimate Ability: Soul Blade (Passive)...
Lv.30 Ultimate Ability: Blade's Extreme (Passive/Active)...
Lv.40 Ultimate Ability: Heart·Soul·Blade (Passive)...
Lv.50 Ultimate Ability: Soul Edge (Passive), when attacking with blade weapons, inflicts additional soul damage equal to own Soul Strength × 3.8 (increase of 0.1%).
Prompt: This ability can inflict 1672 points of Soul Damage.
...
[To improve Blade Grandmaster to Lv.60, requires consuming Soul Crystal Core ×10 + 8,500,000 Paradise Coins.]
Su Xiao's storage space contained 7 Soul Crystal Cores, each with a significant origin. As for gathering 10, buying them on Trade Street for over 1000 Soul Coins each? Forget it. Su Xiao had only seen someone sell this item once, and the whole process took 3 seconds.
Back then, when that stall owner displayed the Soul Crystal Core, Su Xiao hesitated. The Soul Crystal Core was useless to him at that time, and 1000 Soul Coins was already a huge sum. Of course, it was still a considerable amount now.
In that one or two seconds of hesitation, the Soul Crystal Core was bought. Since then, Su Xiao had never seen anyone sell this item. The price was stable, sure, but if no one sells it, what good is a stable price?
With 121 Soul Crystals (Complete) remaining, Su Xiao officially began his dual Grandmaster development plan. He would use these Soul Crystals (Complete) to improve Melee Grandmaster.
[Yes/No to improve Melee Grandmaster Lv.50. Improving this ability requires Soul Crystal·Complete ×100 + 5,000,000 Paradise Coins.]
An hour later, Su Xiao walked out of the Skill Upgrade Hall. He hadn't taken a few steps before he suddenly penetrated space, nearly crashing into a burly man.
"Watch where you're going."
The burly man was not angry. Su Xiao nodded and continued forward. After a few more steps, he penetrated space again.
"Ah!"
A wild healing-type girl was knocked down, landing on her butt. Although she was inside Reincarnation Paradise, she was a bit dazed. If this had happened outside Reincarnation Paradise, her entire body would have shattered, evenly distributing over a few square meters.
"Do I have a grudge against you?"
"No."
"Then why did you... Hey? Where'd they go?"
The wild healing-type girl looked around, but Su Xiao was nowhere to be seen.
Su Xiao sat on the steps in front of a small building, planning to adapt for a while before continuing. The reason for this situation was that he had allocated all 4 Golden Skill Points to the Dragon Shadow Flash ability.
[Dragon Shadow Flash: X+++++++ (Active Ability)]
Skill Effect: Can penetrate space to move 35 meters (increase of 12 meters), freely choose between 0 to 35 meters.
Prompt: Dragon Shadow Flash activation speed increased by 85% (increase of 50%).
Prompt: Dragon Shadow Flash cooldown time is 2 minutes (this is the most stable interval).
Prompt: Each use of Dragon Shadow Flash consumes 500 points of Cyan Steel Shadow Energy.
Prompt: If Dragon Shadow Flash (Active) is on cooldown, it can be forcibly used. After forced use, the cooldown time temporarily increases to 5 minutes. If forced use continues, it will place a huge burden on the body, and the cooldown time temporarily increases to 20 minutes.
...
The current situation was that Su Xiao could use Dragon Shadow Flash three times in a very short period, but after that, there would be a long cooldown.
Compared to that, the speed at which Dragon Shadow Flash now penetrated space was far faster than before. This was why Su Xiao had been inadvertently penetrating space; he needed some time to adapt.
Dragon Shadow Flash had been raised to its absolute limit. After consuming 3 Golden Skill Points, Dragon Shadow Flash was nearing its limit. Su Xiao decided to invest one more point, resulting in the current scene.
Now, whenever Su Xiao moved, he would penetrate space. If his physique weren't so strong, he would have been severely injured or unconscious from multiple space penetrations.
"Bai Ye, what are you sitting there for? I waited for you at the Trial Grounds for over half an hour. When you didn't show up, I came looking for you along the way."
Sha walked over from a distance. Her attire was very casual, as if she had just finished training. Entering this sparsely populated street, she took off her jacket, sat on the stone steps beside him, and exhaled a puff of hot air.
Regarding Sha's cool attire at the moment, Su Xiao felt nothing. The reason was that he had seen it too many times. He had lost count of how many times he had seen her completely naked. Initially, it had felt stimulating, but later he got used to it.
"Are you Eighth Rank too?"
As Sha spoke, she suddenly reached for Su Xiao. Her hand passed through his chest.
"The space around you... has been penetrated? Yeah, it's penetration. This ability of yours is really shameless."
Sha had sparred with Su Xiao many times. Although it was called a 'spar,' it was quite dangerous. In the early stages, Su Xiao was severely injured 38 times. In the middle stage, Sha was injured 6 times. In the later stage, Sha was severely injured 12 times. After that, she refused to be his training partner.
"What do you want?"
"There's a toad with the same rank as me but higher authority. It asked me to pass a message to you..."
"Its grudge with the Blade Demon? I heard about this from Kaiser. I can't mediate it."
"What grudge?"
Hearing Sha's words, Su Xiao felt a slight doubt in his heart.
"Never mind. Forget it."
"Will I die?"
"Yes."
"Alright, I've forgotten."
Sha was as straightforward as ever, or rather, this was her powerful instinct sensing danger.
Su Xiao's instinct was learned from Sha, but their instincts had completely diverged, developing in different directions. Different combat styles lead to different ability developments.
In the Demon Sea World, Su Xiao had heard from Kaiser that a conflict had arisen between the Toad and the Blade Demon, or rather, the Toad had inadvertently provoked the Blade Demon.
The Toad no longer dared to go to the Void at all. Not to mention fighting the Blade Demon, if it ever encountered the Blade Demon, the Toad would surely die.
Regarding this matter, Su Xiao planned to give it a try. The last time he saw the Blade Demon, although the other party didn't directly draw his blade, it wasn't exactly friendly either.
If successful, the Toad would have to pay a significant price. If unsuccessful, Su Xiao would lose nothing.
"What does it want from me?"
"Ah, I almost forgot the main thing. The Toad cultivated an Arbiter, Saber from the Holy Grail World. Her name is... Altria Pendragon?"
"Pendragon."
"Yeah, yeah, that's her. She went to the Abyssal Dragon's Lair to undergo the Dragon Trial, then fell into the Black Mud. Hahahaha."
Saying this, Sha laughed uncontrollably.
"..."
Su Xiao said nothing, or rather, he was speechless. He was very puzzled about one thing: would a person with normal thinking really go to participate in the Dragon Trial?
"You're an Alchemist. You must have studied Dark Matter, right?"
"Mm."
"Save her?"
"No."
Su Xiao's body had mostly recovered. He stood up to leave.
"The Rat prepared a gift. It's the tip of a blade. The owner of that blade is Green Gillian, the most heinous female Law Destroyer in history. Too bad you're not willing to act."
As soon as Sha finished speaking, Su Xiao sat back down and said, "Set a time. Removing Dark Matter isn't simple. It needs to be done in multiple sessions."
"You're too real!"
Sha's mouth twitched. Su Xiao's expression remained unchanged. Of course, he wouldn't save her without profit. But if he could get the tip of Green Gillian's blade, that was a different story.
"How many sessions?"
"Three to four. She's an Arbiter. The location will be within Reincarnation Paradise."
"Is the process painful? How does it compare to the treatment I received before?"
As Sha spoke, a strange smile appeared on her face.
"Not comparable."
"Oh."
Sha lost interest.
"The process of treating you was relatively gentle. Extracting Dark Matter involves 'tearing and pulling.' During this, you have to prevent pulling out the soul, consciousness, nervous system, etc. So a stabilization process is needed."
When Su Xiao said this, Sha's expression began to change. Ignoring Sha, Su Xiao continued:
"Imagine Dark Matter as tens of millions of threads. After being eroded by Dark Matter, these threads spread into blood vessels and organs, splitting into tens of millions of branches, spreading throughout the entire body. Pulling out the 'threads' isn't difficult. The hard part is how to prevent the recipient's... how to prevent the patient's soul and consciousness from reaching their breaking point."
"Ugh~"
Just thinking about it made Sha feel a chill all over.
"After my next world progress ends, have them wait for me in Reincarnation Paradise."
Su Xiao stood up and left. With such a good opportunity, he certainly wouldn't miss it. Each treatment session only lasted about an hour, and the reward was the tip of Green Gillian's blade. This compensation was hard to refuse.
Su Xiao no longer penetrated space; he had fully adapted to the Dragon Shadow Flash ability. Entering the next world, using this ability in combat would be no problem.
Returning to his Exclusive Room, Su Xiao sat back on the sofa. After the previous enhancements, he was once again unable to judge his own strength. If he were to face the Nameless One now, he had a 90% chance of winning. But if the Nameless One's seal were completely removed, whether he could defeat him was unknown.
Resting for a moment, Su Xiao took out three Overlord Essences from his storage space to exchange. What Overlord-level equipment he could get was completely random.
[You have consumed Overlord Essence ×3.]
[Prompt: All Overlord-level equipment is unique. It is absolutely impossible for identical Overlord-level equipment to appear.]
[Prompt: Overlord-level equipment can be smelted. After smelting, you can obtain Overlord Essence ×2 and a trace of Space-Time Power.]
[Reincarnation Paradise current inventory of Overlord-level equipment: 283 pieces.]
[Randomly drawing...]
[Drawing complete. You have obtained Golden Balance (Overlord-level Equipment).]