Chapter 7: Plan B
Inside the guest room on the third floor of the inn, Su Xiao sat cross-legged on the bed. From what had just happened, he deduced one thing: Meros had kidnapped the previous Divine Maiden, most likely not out of love or a desire to forcibly marry her.
Being able to guard the Kodo School branch in the old royal capital for so many years meant Meros’s background was far from simple. This was also why Su Xiao chose to cooperate with him.
A complicated background meant potential trouble, but what use was someone with a simple background? Risk and opportunity coexisted.
When they first met, Meros first recounted his experience of kidnapping the previous Divine Maiden, then mentioned that the current Divine Maiden also knew where the Light King was.
First showing he had experience kidnapping Divine Maidens, then revealing that the Divine Maiden knew the Light King’s location—this was clearly intentional. He just didn’t say one thing outright: “If you want to successfully kidnap the current Divine Maiden, it’s best to bring me along.”
Su Xiao didn’t care much about Meros’s motives. He only cared about the result—successfully kidnapping the Divine Maiden and confirming she indeed knew where the Light King was. That was enough.
There was no need to ask what Meros wanted to achieve. No one was a fool; why would anyone risk their life to help a stranger kidnap a Divine Maiden?
If he lacked that much tolerance, he would never accomplish anything, constantly suspicious of traps or schemes.
Maintaining sufficient caution was necessary, but he couldn’t be overly restrained. As an alchemist, Su Xiao wasn’t afraid of Meros suddenly stabbing him in the back.
The door pushed open, and Meros walked in. The old man looked radiant, as if he had found a second spring. His hand pressed against his lower back carried multiple implications.
“I’m really getting old, hahaha.”
Meros sat down, pulled a map from his chest, and said seriously:
“The Divine Maidens of the Kodo School are no ordinary beings. They are born with a constitution that senses ancient god power, and can even borrow this power to some extent. Though not enough for combat, it’s still the power of an ancient god.”
As he spoke, Meros rolled up his left sleeve. His withered forearm was covered in grooves, with some areas showing signs of lignification.
“Thirty years ago, I was bitten on the arm by the previous Divine Maiden. So you must be careful when dealing with them.”
Meros’s eyes were full of wariness. He tapped the map on the table and continued:
“This is the Kodo School headquarters. We don’t need to go there. What we need to do is lure the Divine Maiden out.”
“How?”
Baha tossed an apple to Meros, who caught it and took a bite. His brow relaxed as he continued:
“Use ancient god power as bait. I investigated this thirty years ago. Living beings become corrupted because ancient god power invades their brains. Crystal resin can suppress this process to some extent. If...”
Based on Meros’s explanation, Su Xiao understood the plan. When the concentration of ancient god power in a certain area reached a certain level, the Divine Maiden would sense it. This held great temptation for them.
Because the ancient god power in this world was too strong, it couldn’t be collected or stored using tools. To absorb the gathered ancient god power, the Divine Maiden had to go there in person, using her special constitution to absorb it.
In fact, this was why they were called Divine Maidens. They had status but weren’t the leaders of the Kodo School. The Kodo School had no absolute leader; it was composed of multiple factions.
To put it bluntly, the Divine Maiden was just another special container. Her body could absorb and store ancient god energy, while the Kodo School needed to study that energy.
This meant one thing: if anyone dared touch the Divine Maiden, the Kodo School would immediately go berserk.
The successive Divine Maidens also had another ability—they could sense where the Light King was.
Ancient god energy came from the ancient god itself. The container sealed the ancient god, and the Light King, representing the soul chain of humanity, was wrapped around the container, almost connected to the ancient god energy. A Divine Maiden who could absorb ancient god energy sensing the Light King’s location was normal. In fact, they could not only sense it but also communicate with the Light King over vast distances.
The so-called Divine Maiden was actually born when her mother was corrupted during childbirth. In such cases, the newborn had a 99.99% chance of also being corrupted. The remaining 0.01% were lucky survivors—a one in ten thousand chance.
The mother being corrupted during childbirth was already rare, and then there was the one in ten thousand survival rate. It was incredibly difficult for a Divine Maiden to appear.
Su Xiao was certain that the Divine Maidens were deliberately created by the Kodo School. The survivors were all female—how could that be a coincidence? Too many coincidences added up to deliberate inevitability.
Meros’s plan was to gather some ancient god energy, lure the Divine Maiden to a certain location, then eliminate the guards protecting her and kidnap her.
“Do you have a way to gather ancient god power?”
Su Xiao bit into the soul crystal in his hand. Hearing his question, Meros, whose expression was somewhat unnatural, said:
“I have a way to gather it. But more importantly, what you’re eating—is that a soul stone?”
Meros’s body tensed, looking ready to jump out the window at any moment.
“No. Soul stones can’t be eaten.”
As he spoke, Su Xiao popped the last piece of soul crystal into his mouth, crunching it crisply.
Su Xiao also had ways to gather ancient god energy, but he wanted to see what method Meros would use, which would help determine if what the other had said was true or false.
Outside, the sky was gradually darkening. Su Xiao sat cross-legged on the bed, meditating. The plan had been discussed; they would act at 11 PM.
Night fell, and a full moon hung in the sky. At the edge of the moon, a faint black halo was barely visible. It was so subtle that it was hard to notice without careful observation—a unique phenomenon of a world being drained.
Southeast of Dunk City, inside a main sewer channel about ten meters wide, several rusted ladders were distributed along the stone walls. The main channel was a full 30 meters deep, with multiple metal pipes nearly a meter thick lining the walls. Sewage flowed out from them, converging into the main channel.
On the right side of the main channel was a raised stone platform, a foothold left for workers to clean the sediment at the bottom. Normally, no one came down here; the stench was overwhelming.
“Bai Ye, it’s time.”
Meros called out from where he stood on the stone platform. It was now midnight, and with the foul smell from the sewer, no residents lived nearby.
Above the main sewer channel, Su Xiao stood on a row of iron racks. These were originally used to transport sediment, but due to the regression of civilization, the cost of producing parts for these transport devices had become too high, and they had been abandoned.
“We’ll go in first. Get ready for the ambush.”
Leaving these words, Meros, now wearing a set of crude leather clothes, walked into the pitch-black sewer. Baha went with him.
Su Xiao sat on the iron racks, more than ten meters above the ground. As long as he suppressed his aura, the chance of being discovered was low. He just needed to wait here.
After more than half an hour, a fluctuation came from diagonally below, deep within the sewer. Meros had started gathering ancient god power.
Meanwhile, at the Kodo School headquarters, in a bedroom on the seventh floor, moonlight fell on the soft bed. Golden-brown hair spread out, and a smooth velvet blanket covered a graceful figure.
“Gathering again, huh.”
A pair of amber eyes opened. In the darkness, these eyes were very bright, captivating. Yes, this was the Divine Maiden of the Kodo School.
The Divine Maiden sensed for a moment, then lost interest. The gathered ancient god power was too little. Someone as noble as her wouldn’t be attracted by such a small amount.
An hour later, inside the dark, foul-smelling sewer, a few rats scurried along the wall.
“Old Mer, are you any good? It’s been an hour and you still haven’t caught the Divine Maiden. Want me to try?”
“Be patient. Trust my experience.”
Two hours later.
“It’s already two in the morning! Let me do it. Move aside, I’m about to show off.”
Baha spread his wings. Meros could indeed gather ancient god energy, but his method was too inefficient. His approach was basically dancing with death.
When one’s consciousness relaxed, corruption would set in. Meros’s method was to borrow a few pieces of crystal resin from Marsha, string them into a necklace around his neck, then use his unique technique to intermittently enter a negative state, actively attracting corruption.
Meros was a transcendent; he wouldn’t be instantly corrupted. With the crystal resin blocking it and only being somewhat negative, he wouldn’t be infected by corruption.
By repeating this process, the ancient god energy around Meros naturally became more concentrated. That was his brilliant plan for gathering ancient god power.
Inside the sewer, Baha opened a scroll covered in black-red alchemical formations. These were drawn using ancient god blood; the same origin of divine blood and energy made them more likely to attract each other.
The formation on the scroll was activated. Before long, a wisp of black energy appeared. Baha stopped channeling mental energy into the formation; they couldn’t gather too much.
Without a completely identical carrier, the wisp of ancient god energy above the scroll dissipated at a moderate pace. It looked like it would completely disperse in about half an hour.
“If you had this thing, why didn’t you bring it out earlier?”
Meros glared at Baha. He had been dancing between life and death, gathering ancient god energy that wasn’t even visible, while Baha just took out a scroll, injected mental energy, and the gathered ancient god energy was visible to the naked eye.
Having worked for over three hours, his forehead sweating, Meros was furious.
“Bullshit! I said it seven or eight times just now. Put your hand on your heart and say that.”
“When did you say that? You must have misremembered. Ahem, definitely.”
Meros felt awkward. Thinking about it, wasn’t that the truth? Baha had said it seven or eight times just now, but he found it annoying and told him to be quiet. He always thought Baha wanted to learn from his method, but the method was too dangerous. Outsiders shouldn’t try it.
“Let’s wait. If the Divine Maiden still doesn’t come, we’ll execute Plan B.”
“What’s Plan B?”
“Blow up the Kodo School headquarters.”
“Hahaha, you bird sure knows how to joke.”
Meros gradually stopped laughing. For some reason, he felt Baha was serious.
At the Kodo School headquarters, in the bedroom on the seventh floor, a pair of amber eyes opened. The Divine Maiden sat up in bed. Someone as noble as her wouldn’t easily leave the Kodo School headquarters—unless there was too much ancient god power gathered.