Chapter 15: Professional
Wisps of black smoke drifted out from the main entrance of the palace, giving off a sense of ominousness and confusion. Based on Su Xiao's experience, he had already determined this was the aura of an Ancient God.
"Bubu, how long has this Ancient God been unsealed?"
"Woof."
"3 minutes and 49 seconds. Good."
Su Xiao took out over a dozen test tubes and several intricately structured tools from his storage space. Bubu Wang, Amu, and Baha each took some. Of the remaining two test tubes, one was wedged under Su Xiao's Black King Bracer, and the other was loaded into an injection gun.
Su Xiao stabbed the injection gun into his upper arm, injecting the light red medicinal fluid inside. Bubu Wang, Amu, and Baha were all doing the same thing.
This was a suppressive agent that resisted erosion and avoided mental resonance. It was developed by Su Xiao based on Ancient God energy, had no side effects, and was cheap to produce, so he had prepared a lot of it.
Having hunted so many Ancient Gods, Su Xiao's team was very professional at dealing with them.
Baha sucked a device about three meters in diameter and one meter high onto the ground and activated it. Upon closer inspection, one could see that the device contained three hearts: one black, one blood-red, and one dark purple. As energy was injected, these hearts began to beat. The subtle shockwaves produced by each beat were absorbed into the base of the device and then sank into the ground.
Once fully activated, this device would use the earth's veins as a medium to release a high-frequency pulse wave. It had no effect on most living things, but it had a high compatibility rate with Ancient God auras, between 42% and 68%. Each time the "high-frequency pulse wave" was released, the Ancient God would fall into a brief daze, the specific effect depending on the Ancient God's strength.
Click, clack...
Baha snapped rings onto its talons and nodded at Su Xiao, signaling it was ready.
Baha entered an alternate space, Bubu Wang blended into the environment, and Amu followed behind Su Xiao. Everything was ready. The hunt for the god began.
Su Xiao walked up the steps. The closer he got to the main entrance of the palace above, the stronger the unique aura of the Ancient God became. The aura was very dense and had not yet fully erupted.
Su Xiao stopped at the palace gate. The scene inside the palace came into view. The King of Light was still on the throne at the far end, and beside him was a stone statue covered in black patterns.
At the center of the palace, black smoke swirled. A humanoid figure stood there. It was over two and a half meters tall, with a row of eyes on its head and a mouth full of chaotic pores. All over its body hung drooping black tree roots. These roots were not hard, and their ends had a texture like hair, swaying with the surrounding black smoke.
Seeming to sense Su Xiao's fierce bloodlust, the Ancient God raised its head, and its dozen or so eyes all fixed on Su Xiao.
"Mortal."
Boom!
Space exploded. Baha suddenly appeared directly above the Ancient God. All the metal rings on its two talons extended, and arcs of electricity crackled and surged.
The Ancient God below didn't seem to care. It raised its hand, covered in roots, and made a grasping motion toward Baha.
"Heh~"
Baha laughed. A binding force appeared around it, and at almost the same moment, all the metal rings on its talons shattered. These things were extremely sensitive to Ancient God energy.
Ding, ding, ding...
The fragments of the rings just happened to embed into the ground around the Ancient God, forming a circle eight meters in diameter.
Dozens of metal spikes shot up from the ground, each about half a meter long. The Ancient God at the center looked on with cold, indifferent eyes.
Ice spread. The dozens of metal spikes around the Ancient God were covered in frost, and branching spikes grew out from them. This required a massive amount of energy, provided by Amu.
With a roar, Su Xiao, holding his longsword, vanished from his spot and reappeared in front of the Ancient God.
The longsword cut through the air. The roots on the Ancient God's body grew wildly, twisting toward Su Xiao.
Without needing much judgment, Su Xiao knew this was definitely not the sealed Ancient God. That Ancient God had a will-erosion characteristic. This one was more inclined toward dark life, growth, and the like.
Regardless, he would first beat it half to death or just cut it down. The King of Light had just awakened, and this Ancient God appeared. It couldn't be a coincidence.
Zheng.
The longsword severed a large number of roots. Just as Su Xiao was about to strike a second blow, nearly a hundred roots pierced through the stone floor, rising from below to entangle him.
This surprised Su Xiao. The aura of the Ancient God in front of him was astonishing, but in actual combat...
The roots were about to envelop Su Xiao when a pulse surged up from the ground, sweeping over the Ancient God. The pupils in its dozen or so eyes trembled wildly, and some eyes even crossed.
The Ancient God fell to one knee with a thud. Baha swooped down from above, its talons piercing into the back of the Ancient God's neck.
All of the Ancient God's eyes returned to normal. It tried to rise from the ground, and at almost the same moment, a black shockwave spread out from it as the center.
Su Xiao clenched his left fist. The test tube inside his sleeve shattered, and a large burst of light particles exploded.
The Ancient God's consciousness trembled again. The black wave it had released collapsed on its own. Only then did it realize that today's affair was not simple. This human in front of it was like a specialized hunter of Ancient Gods, with many methods developed specifically to deal with them.
The Ancient God's movements were restricted. Su Xiao stepped forward and thrust his longsword.
Puchi!
Dragon-Slaying Flash pierced through the Ancient God's chest. This was an Immortal-rank Dragon-Slaying Flash. Its sharpness and penetrating power were incomparable to before.
Upon closer inspection, on the blood-stained tip of Dragon-Slaying Flash, fragments of Banishment were clinging to it, and the Realm Severing Thread was also wrapped around the blade.
Su Xiao withdrew his sword and retreated. Banishment formed a hiltless rapier behind the Ancient God, its tail end connected to the Realm Severing Thread.
Banishment dragged the Realm Severing Thread at high speed around the area. Don't forget, the Realm Severing Thread was also passing through the sword wound on the Ancient God's chest.
Zzz~
The spool inside Su Xiao's sleeve spun rapidly. When it reached a certain point, he pulled hard with his left hand. The Realm Severing Thread, enhanced with the Soul Thread state, tightened.
Looking at the Ancient God now, the Realm Severing Thread was not only wrapped around its entire body but also hooked onto the surrounding metal spikes, firmly fixing it in place.
Boom!
Another shockwave hit. The pupils in the Ancient God's dozen or so eyes began to tremble again. Amu charged forward, slapping one hand onto the ground.
Crack, crack, crack...
Ice froze, encasing the Ancient God and the Realm Severing Thread around it in a tomb-shaped pile of ice. The Ancient God, which had just been full of ominous and confusing aura, now only had its head exposed.
Baha grabbed a weapon that looked like a harpoon gun and shot spikes covered in patterns into the ice pile. Pale blue arcs of electricity appeared within the ice.
"Where did this Ancient God come from? It's way too weak."
Baha circled in the low air. Amu formed an ice sculpture. As long as the ice layer on its surface wasn't broken, the ice pile trapping the Ancient God would be very difficult to destroy, a principle similar to "Rupert's Drop."
Su Xiao also wanted to know where this Ancient God came from. Its combat power was far too weak.
"You, where are you from?"
Su Xiao stood in front of the ice pile and spoke.
"Mortal..."
Zheng.
The longsword swept through. The Ancient God's head was severed.
As soon as its head was cut off, the Ancient God's aura deflated like a punctured ball, quickly "shrinking."
"Don't kill it! It's very important. Just trap it first."
The stone statue beside the King of Light partially shattered, revealing the upper body of Yue Ling. The expression on her small face was somewhat dazed, clearly having witnessed the battle just now. Although she couldn't quite understand what had happened, she noticed one thing: Su Xiao and his team seemed very professional at dealing with Ancient Gods. She had originally planned to help but didn't know what to do.
"It escaped again."
Yue Ling looked at the ice-sealed Ancient God. Even the simple-minded Yue Ling felt that this Ancient God was very unlucky. This Ancient God was called the Tree God, Bellerophon. It had escaped a total of four times. The first time was when the people of the Soul Clock Tower came to pay homage to the King of Light. During that time, due to a mistake by a messenger, the Tree God escaped.
Just as the Tree God was about to go on a killing spree, a tragic scene unfolded. It was almost blown to pieces by the soul self-destructions of those from the Soul Clock Tower. After over a hundred soul messengers died, the Tree God was shattered and then stuffed back into the outer layer of the seal by Yue Ling.
The Tree God escaped a second time, but was beaten back by Yue Ling leading the souls in the town. This time, the Tree God wasn't seriously injured and recovered after a dozen years of rest.
The Tree God didn't give up. The process of it becoming an Ancient God was somewhat unbelievable, but regardless, it barely counted as an Ancient God.
If it had never seen a real Ancient God, that would be one thing, but within the seal, the neighbor so powerful that it terrified the Tree God was a true Ancient God.
The Tree God felt that an Ancient God should be like that: indifferent, looking down on all living beings, with those who chanted its divine name exuding fear from every pore—an indescribable terror.
With such a powerful "neighbor" as a benchmark, the Tree God's spirit gradually became "Ancient God-like," and then it prepared for its third "escape."
The process went smoothly. That hateful royal guard didn't wake up. Just as the Tree God was stepping out of the Pale Palace, it saw a blacksmith with dark red skin and goat-like horns walking over. The Tree God pounced on him and almost ceased to exist.
When the Tree God came to its senses, it was already in the outer layer of the seal. After lying there for several decades, it could barely move again.
Stuffed back into the outer layer of the seal, the Tree God used mental waves to tell its neighbor about the third "escape." To its surprise, the neighbor, who hadn't paid it any attention for centuries, actually sent back a mental wave. Its meaning seemed to be a compliment on the Tree God's bravery?
In reality, the true Ancient God did indeed compliment the Tree God. The King of Light, the Great Sage, the Wolf Spider Queen, the Mother Goddess, etc.—the true Ancient God didn't care about any of them. The only one it slightly acknowledged was the Container. As for the blacksmith in the white town...
The Tree God didn't give up. After accumulating for many years, taking advantage of the King of Light's awakening, it rushed out of the outer layer of the seal again, and then it encountered Su Xiao's team.