Chapter 22: Hash
Su Xiao walked out of the bedchamber. After killing the Wolf Spider Queen, he had received quite a few rewards, summarized as follows.
[Prompt: You have killed the Wolf Spider Queen · Milien.]
[You have obtained 17.57% World Source.]
[You have obtained a Blue Quality Chest · Spider Pride.]
The World Source gained was substantial. As for the chest, it was only Blue quality. If Su Xiao were still in the First Rank, this would be a good item, but now, the rank of this chest was far too low.
The Wolf Spider Queen was an absolute powerhouse in terms of combat. Her status as queen was a matter from several hundred years ago. She had remained within the bedchamber for centuries, and the insects had long since governed themselves.
The reason for obtaining a Blue quality chest was that the Wolf Spider Queen was too weak. She had waited for hundreds of years, hoping someone would be willing to fight the Ancient God. Yet just now, she was so feeble that she lacked even the strength to lift her head and look at the one she had been waiting for.
The conditions for the second part of the main quest had been met, but Su Xiao did not choose to complete it immediately. The quest still had over five days remaining, and during this time, he had many things to do.
His next stop was to find the Great Sage. Based on the Wolf Spider Queen's words, the journey ahead would not be smooth.
Of course, this was merely the Wolf Spider Queen's personal opinion. She advocated breaking the seal and engaging the Ancient God in a decisive battle, while the Great Sage advocated lying low first and waiting for an opportunity to act.
The soul-level dialogue between these two sides could be imagined, with the content roughly as follows:
Wolf Spider Queen: 'Old thing, have you been corrupted by the Ancient God?'
Great Sage: '...'
Wolf Spider Queen: 'Old thing, are you afraid?'
Great Sage: 'Within the seal sequence, I am in the inner layer, bearing more than you.'
Wolf Spider Queen (consciousness in chaos): 'Have you betrayed us?!'
Great Sage: '...'
Wolf Spider Queen (consciousness in chaos): 'Light King, that old thing has betrayed us.'
Light King (in slumber) ...
That was several hundred years ago. After the Wolf Spider Queen had fought the Ancient God, her nature became exceptionally ferocious and brutal. Two of her Four Knights were devoured by her, one was mortally wounded by her, and the last was so heartbroken that he vanished from then on.
When the Wolf Spider Queen came to her senses, she had torn off her own lower body and used her silk to bind her upper body.
Just now in the bedchamber, the Wolf Spider Queen's lower half had not been buried by rubble; rather, she had torn it off and eaten it herself to alleviate her nearly maddening predatory hunger, thereby depriving herself of that terrifying pouncing speed.
For this reason, the Wolf Spider Queen's words could be taken as a reference. As for the Great Sage, judgment should be based on the actual situation.
Su Xiao, accompanied by Bubu Wang, Amu, and Yue Ling, walked out of the bedchamber. The artifacts that had sealed the Ancient God energy here had all been destroyed by Su Xiao, causing the Ancient God energy to begin spreading. He had a major use for this Ancient God energy.
After passing through the long corridor, Su Xiao returned to the ninth floor of the Black Nest, where the corpses of numerous insect warriors came into view.
As the Mother God had said, the corruptive force that had emanated from the slain insect warriors had already dissipated, but that was not important.
Ascending layer by layer through the vertical openings, Su Xiao soon reached the second floor of the Black Nest. He went up to the first floor alone, took out a very small glass rod, and tossed it toward the wall.
With a crackling sound, the solution splattered. As soon as it contacted the air, a faint green Netherworld Flame rose—a trace of the Netherworld Flame · Hades.
The green flames burned. Su Xiao returned to the second floor to wait. After a few minutes, the Nether Flame on the upper floor had burned out. When he returned to the first floor, it had been thoroughly cleaned, with even a layer of the wall gone.
With the space ready, Su Xiao had Bubu Wang go scout, while Baha and Yue Ling followed Bubu Wang at a moderate distance.
After doing all this, Su Xiao took out many artifacts and began laying out an array diagram on the ground.
He waited for a long time before Bubu Wang, Baha, and Yue Ling returned. Yue Ling was dragging a large scorpion. This giant armored scorpion had a dark brown carapace and was over four meters in length.
The scorpion's brownish-yellow eyes indicated it had been corrupted. After being beaten half to death by Yue Ling, it was now unable to move and could only be dragged to the center of the array diagram.
The Realm Severing Thread was wrapped around the end of Banishment. Banishment pierced through the scorpion's body one after another, then split apart, embedding into the ground and the surrounding walls.
With a click, the spool hidden beneath the guard on Su Xiao's wrist detached and was fixed into the ground by the fragments of Banishment.
In this way, the Realm Severing Thread firmly trapped the large scorpion. Additionally, Su Xiao had infused the Realm Severing Thread with a Soul Thread state, making it even harder for the scorpion to escape.
In Su Xiao's view, when a living being is corrupted, it is essentially the erosion of its will by Ancient God energy, resulting in mutation based on that energy.
Therefore, corruptive force is not equal to Ancient God energy. It is a mutated energy that appears after Ancient God energy merges with the spiritual energy of a living being.
To collect this energy, under normal circumstances, killing corrupted beings is the fastest method. But what if a being that has already been corrupted is further eroded by Ancient God energy, becoming corrupted again?
Exactly—this is high-level corruption, which is the origin of insect warriors.
Su Xiao's plan was as follows: first, gather Ancient God energy, then forcibly compress it into the large scorpion's body, causing it to enter a state of high-level corruption.
During this process, he would 'drill holes' in the large scorpion's body, place the Worn Containers into the holes, and attach energy absorption devices to them, thereby charging the Worn Containers.
Of course, high-level corruption required the large scorpion to have strong mental strength. Corruptive force is derived from Ancient God energy + the mutated mental energy of a living being.
Su Xiao had a way to solve this. In Alchemy Pharmacology, there were many potions that could temporarily enhance mental strength.
For this enhancement, there was no need to consider risks. The large scorpion only needed to survive for a few hours, or even less.
Exactly. Su Xiao intended to artificially create corruptive force. The Mother God wanted to watch the show at low cost, didn't she? Su Xiao didn't believe that if he brought corruptive force to her side, she would renege on her debt.
Why hadn't Su Xiao immediately completed the second part of the main quest? He was waiting for this. If the Mother God defaulted, he would use these five days of quest time to 'pay a visit.'
The Mother God was a beneficiary after the Ancient God was defeated. Su Xiao had no hobby of being a hired hand. Therefore, the Mother God had three choices: 1. Join in dealing with the Ancient God, 2. Offer benefits satisfactory to Su Xiao, or 3. Continue to remain dormant, never appearing while Su Xiao dealt with the Ancient God, and not try to take a share from the middle with a spectator's attitude.
Su Xiao activated the array diagram on the ground. Instantly, Ancient God power surged up from below—the Ancient God power that had been released when the seal was broken earlier.
He thrust an injection gun into the gap in the carapace on the large scorpion's head. The scorpion, which had been unable to move, suddenly went berserk. The carapace on its head rapidly cracked—a phenomenon caused by mental strength being too strong, leading to overflow.
The Ancient God power was drawn in by the array diagram and entered the large scorpion's body. Coupled with its now powerful mental strength, the scorpion's entire carapace shattered. The Realm Severing Thread tightened and continued to bind.
In just three seconds, this large scorpion had transformed into an insect warrior!
This insect warrior was humanoid in form, its entire body pitch black. The exoskeleton on its head was very pale, several times larger than a normal insect warrior's faceplate. At the top were four backward-curving bone horns, giving it a cold, ruthless appearance.
"Roar!"
The insect warrior let out a roar. The 'Worn Container' at the center of its chest emitted a brownish-yellow light, absorbing a large amount of corruptive force.
[Warning: The Hunter has created an Elite-level · Insect Warrior.]
[Warning: The Hunter has created a Head-level · Insect Warrior.]
[Warning: The Hunter has created a Leader-level · Insect Warrior. This unit's combat power is rapidly increasing!]
"Roar!!"
The insect warrior roared. Its eye sockets first emitted a brownish-yellow pupil light, which then shifted to a bright yellow.
Not only that, the insect warrior's size was rapidly increasing, from 1.5 meters to 2 meters, until it reached 2.9 meters, at which point its height stopped growing.
A bone spear quickly coalesced in its hand. Seeing this, Su Xiao had already made a decision: after the matter was done, he would withdraw. This was a monster he had created; no one understood it better than him.
Just now, after the Wolf Spider Queen died, how much Ancient God energy had been released from the seal? This was difficult to calculate. It was the accumulation of nearly a hundred years by the Ancient God within the seal.
All this Ancient God energy was now being absorbed by the monster before him. Su Xiao knew very well how strong this monster was, and he also knew that this monster had been forcibly spawned and wouldn't exist for long. The kill rewards would be pitifully low.
This was just a collector. As long as it could provide corruptive force, that was enough.
Crack!
The Realm Severing Thread, infused with Soul Thread, was pulled taut, emitting a crisp sound. It was impossible to break unless the soul judgment was stronger than Su Xiao's.
The insect warrior ahead stopped roaring. It fixed its pupil flame on Su Xiao and even seemed somewhat ingratiating?
Seeing this, Su Xiao knew he couldn't continue. This thing had already developed a hint of intelligence, even knowing to feign weakness to trick him into retracting the Realm Severing Thread.
Su Xiao approached the insect warrior. Just as he was about to remove the Worn Container on its chest, the insect warrior actually spoke:
"My, name, is, kill... you, destroy."
"Hash."
Su Xiao casually said a name. This thing had low intelligence and was easily distracted.
Sure enough, the Insect Lord · Hash began to tilt its head in thought. Taking this opportunity, Su Xiao tore off the Worn Container on its chest and retracted the Realm Severing Thread.
After doing this, Su Xiao walked toward the alternate space passage that Baha had opened.
Insect Lord · Hash remained standing in place. It looked at the bone awl in its hand. The bone awl was nearly three meters long, the front end like a broadsword, the rear half a handle. It casually swung the bone awl.
Boom!
The ground was gouged out a layer. Hash pointed the bone awl forward, and the flying rubble suddenly froze. The faceplate on its mouth split open, revealing a mouthful of sharp teeth. It smiled.
"Kill, you!"
Insect Lord · Hash aimed the bone awl at Su Xiao, making as if to charge forward.
"Get back into your hole."
Su Xiao glanced sideways at Insect Lord · Hash. He had created it, so of course he could destroy it. He would leave it for now. If it died in an hour, that was normal. If it didn't, it might be useful in the future, but the probability was very low.
The originally twisted and chaotic Insect Lord · Hash suddenly fell silent. In its not-so-intelligent consciousness, it sensed death. Its innate perception told it that if it took one step forward now, its head would explode, followed by its torso, legs, and finally, not even ashes would remain.
As for controlling Insect Lord · Hash, Su Xiao had never considered it. The interior of this thing was too chaotic and twisted.
After Su Xiao left, Insect Lord · Hash began to rage, rampaging and destroying everything around it for a long time before stopping.
Insect Lord · Hash lowered its posture. It seemed to sniff, catching a 'scent' different from other insects.
Boom!
Insect Lord · Hash vanished from its spot. It was almost flying at low altitude through the underground passages. After tearing through streaks of afterimages, it burst out of the underground passage. The surroundings were dim, and an abandoned underground city appeared in its sight.
With a loud boom, a sound came from ahead. Hash leaped onto a broken stone pillar, looking down. There were over a dozen upright-walking creatures slaughtering its 'kin.'
Hash felt disgust toward these 'kin.' When it tried to communicate with them, it received no response, only hostility.
Hash tore through an afterimage, landing among the dozen or so contractors. The fighting stopped. These dozen or so contractors from Apocalypse Paradise all turned their heads stiffly to look at Hash.
Hash did not intend to kill these people. It had a kind of pride. It was different from other lowly insects. It had intelligence. When it was a bit more lucid, it would not attack other intelligent beings without reason.
Hash just raised its hand when a sound of breaking wind came from its side. An arm wrapped in earth vein energy shot toward it. A fist the size of a sandbag slammed into its faceplate.
Bang!
Hash flew backward, eventually crashing to the ground.
"You scared me half to death. I thought a big boss had arrived."
"You're too impulsive. You should have scouted first."
"Scout my ass. It was already standing behind Bean Sprout. Bean Sprout is the only healer among us. If something happens to her, none of us will make it out."
While discussing, the group of contractors semi-encircled Hash. Hash sat up from the ground, somewhat puzzled. Why had these people thrown him away? Was that an attack on him just now?
Ding!
A spike embedded itself into Hash's shoulder, penetrating two centimeters before it could go no further. This time, Hash was certain—those people were attacking him.
Bright yellow pupil light appeared in Hash's eye sockets. Its arms bent, and it let out a roar. Layers of air waves spread outward, enveloping the surrounding three hundred meters. Hash's aura surged.
Almost simultaneously, the group of contractors from Apocalypse Paradise received a prompt.
[Warning: You have enraged the Lord-level unit · Hash.]