# Chapter 50: Birth
Old Royal Capital, Talo.
The desolate streets were empty, every household's doors tightly shut. Even starving, skin-and-bones stray dogs dared not run into the streets. Night had fallen, and 'monsters' roamed here.
In reality, this was just a rumor. Starting from a few years ago, the number of missing persons in the Old Royal Capital was several times greater than those who died from hunger + disease + corruption, especially at night, when this phenomenon was most rampant.
The reason for this was that the Soul Clock Tower had ostensibly withdrawn from the Old Royal Capital, but in truth, they had made this place their base of operations. They didn't need prosperity here, nor did they need order. As long as commoners continued to live here, they would not stop.
It was less like rule and more like 'hunting.' As a lightly corrupted area, as long as the corruption here didn't worsen, commoners would continue to live here.
It wasn't that they didn't want to flee, but that they had no choice. At least in the Old Royal Capital, Talo, they could barely survive. Running to the wilderness, they might encounter those corrupted monsters, covered in stench and rot.
Double Moon Street, Duwa Clinic.
The name Duwa Fuen spread widely throughout the Old Royal Capital. As a doctor, he had already earned a fearsome reputation.
Doctor Fuen's medical skills were quite 'advanced.' He was most famous for two major therapies: bloodletting therapy and amputation therapy. Internal diseases called for bloodletting, external diseases called for amputation.
Unless a patient was on their last breath, no one would send them to Duwa Clinic for Doctor Fuen to treat. Even so, Doctor Fuen still had many patients. His superb surgical skills caught the attention of the Soul Clock Tower, and the two parties became long-term collaborators.
Inside the cramped clinic, filled with the smell of blood and the pervasive odor of formaldehyde, Doctor Fuen took off his blood-stained surgical gown. He rolled a cigarette, ignoring the patient on the operating table who was barely breathing. He lit the cigarette, took a deep drag, and then coughed hoarsely.
Amidst this violent coughing, the patient on the operating table actually sat up, showing none of his previous weakness. His dull eyes became sharp.
"You... cut out a piece of my brain?"
The man with resolute features spoke. He had forgotten many things—who he was, where he was born, whether he had any relatives. The only thing he remembered was that he had killed many people with holes in their heads. Those people could create invisible explosions. Even so, he had killed many of them, until he was defeated by an old man wearing a priest's robe and a pale bone ring. He couldn't remember what happened after that.
"I cut out a piece and also opened a hole in your head. Any feeling of pressure?"
Doctor Fuen exhaled smoke. He wasn't really a member of the Soul Clock Tower. They brought the people, left the Crystal Resin, and he performed the surgery. It was that simple.
"No pain. Strange."
The resolute man touched his forehead and indeed felt a hole the size of a finger, just enough to insert his index finger.
"Looks like it was successful. Do you feel lighter?"
"Well..." The resolute man hesitated for a moment, then finally nodded and replied, "I do feel lighter."
His current sensation was marvelous. It was as if he had been bound inside his shell all along. Now that a hole had been opened in his head, something called a soul had been freed. It could extend outward through this hole, accomplishing incredible things.
"Congratulations, you've become a member of the Soul Clock Tower. On this corrupted continent, there's nowhere you can't go—except for 'Danke City.' That's Kodo School territory. I hear the God Hunters have gone there too."
Doctor Fuen smiled, a somewhat neurotic smile.
"Kodo School? God Hunters? What are those?"
The resolute man was confused about many things. Right now, he wanted to know who he really was.
"Kodo School is a faction—a bunch of faith-crazed researchers studying the power of Ancient Gods. You'd better stay far away from them. As for God Hunters, they should be enemies of the Ancient Gods. Anyway, none of this concerns small fry like us. Cherish the last moments."
Doctor Fuen stroked the stubble on his chin. He used to be a very disciplined person, not this slovenly. But after learning about a certain event, he no longer cared about anything. He had once witnessed an Ancient God giving birth to an infant through a woman. Fortunately, the infant turned into a monster as soon as it was born, rampaging through the Old Royal Capital with roars.
What Doctor Fuen found laughable was that the Soul Clock Tower, which had helped the Ancient God accomplish all this, claimed it was a failed attempt to create a new container, causing the container to go mad.
The final result was that the newborn monster reduced the population of the Old Royal Capital by one-tenth. It seemed that the residents of the Old Royal Capital had joined forces to drive the Soul Clock Tower out, but that wasn't the case. The Soul Clock Tower simply stopped appearing openly, still lurking in the shadows of the Old Royal Capital.
The Soul Clock Tower, once loyal to the Light King, had become the lapdog of the Ancient Gods. Thinking about this, Doctor Fuen laughed even more neurotically.
This damned world. The Kodo School, originally mistaken as the lapdogs of the Ancient Gods, was secretly fighting against them. The Soul Clock Tower, considered the savior, had become the Ancient Gods' dogs.
Doctor Fuen touched his beard again, sighed, and went to the bathroom. He picked up the razor he had made himself and, looking at the mirror covered in stains, began to shave.
Doctor Fuen had always hidden a secret. During the 'Ancient God Child Birth Incident,' he had secretly kept a small piece of umbilical cord. Even though he knew this was asking for death, he couldn't resist studying it.
Until one night in a dream, he saw a blurry black shadow. That was the Ancient God. Just by looking at the shadow, he felt his mind begin to spiral, as if he would go mad at any moment.
That night, Doctor Fuen woke from his dream in a cold sweat. He controlled his trembling body, brewed a cup of hot tea, and downed the scalding liquid in one gulp. Only then did he feel that this world still had warmth. The near-maddening emotions barely stabilized.
As he thought this, Doctor Fuen suddenly saw in the mirror that a very thin black tentacle had grown on his face, still writhing.
Doctor Fuen calmly shaved off the tentacle with his razor, touched his face in the mirror, and smiled with satisfaction.
Doctor Fuen really wanted to know what kind of monster would dare to hunt Ancient Gods. That kind of existence—just seeing its shadow in a dream nearly drove his mind to madness and collapse. Was such an existence truly something you could fight? Even kill?
...
Danke City, Gem Street, inside the inn.
Su Xiao checked the time limit for the third main quest. There were less than 3 days remaining. In other words, within 3 days, he had to sever the Soul Chain of the Divine Maiden Shata Ye.
Su Xiao wasn't planning to complete this quest immediately. From the world introduction earlier, this quest seemed very simple—just break the seal and kill the Ancient God.
After learning more about the situation, Su Xiao found that things weren't so simple. Various intelligence indicated that the Ancient God's combat power was enough to crush the Light King + Spider Queen + Mother Goddess. As for the Great Sage, his allegiance remained unclear.
From the beginning, the Light King and the others never had the ability to seal the Ancient God, even with a container. The Ancient God had allowed itself to be sealed. It seemed like it was avoiding something.
There weren't many things worth an Ancient God avoiding. Most likely, it was other Ancient Gods. Ancient Gods weren't friendly with each other.
Although this Ancient God was sealed, it wasn't unable to influence the outside world. The spreading corruption was more like forcing the intelligent beings of this world to prostrate themselves before the Ancient God's throne.
This was quite effective. Some factions had already joined the Ancient God's camp, such as the Great Sage's faction and the Soul Clock Tower.
Those who joined the Ancient God's faction all shared a common trait: they wore pale bone rings. These rings had the characteristics of containers. Wearing them allowed communication with the Ancient God inside the container, at the risk of madness, in exchange for high-dimensional and dangerous transcendent knowledge.
Su Xiao had tried wearing a pale bone ring. Just for an instant, he threw it away, because in that instant, he sensed the Ancient God within the seal.
This was the intelligence that the Merlos couple had risked their lives to convey to Su Xiao, repaying the favor they owed. No doubt, the couple was in a bad situation now.
Overall, although the Ancient God was sealed, it could still influence the power structure of this world through the pale bone rings.
The current power distribution was clear. There were the following factions:
Ancient God Faction (Enemy): Including the Soul Clock Tower, the Great Sage's faction, and many hidden Ancient God believers. Their characteristic was wearing pale bone rings.
Insect Kingdom (Neutral/Friendly): Their resistance to Ancient God energy was too weak. They could only sit on the sidelines and develop technology. They no longer believed in any gods, instead believing in the great father of technology. They were preparing to create firearms and such to blow up the Ancient God. Sadly, their weapon technology was still stuck at gunpowder. The 'retro-style guns' they made often turned into palm grenades. The funny thing was, the insects themselves didn't dare use them and planned to sell them to the Beast Clan.
Beast Faction (Neutral/Chaotic): Always confused.
Mother Goddess Faction (Neutral): Hiding, even more cautious than the Great Sage. Easy to forget they existed.
Kodo School (Intermittent Ally): Their surface stance was confusing, but in reality, they had been fighting the Ancient Gods to the death for centuries. They stopped at nothing. To deal with the Ancient God in this world, they didn't hesitate to summon other Ancient Gods. For a long time, Su Xiao hesitated whether to wipe them out first. If these divine fanatics summoned another powerful Ancient God, things would get bad.
White Town (Ally): This morning, it was the strongest faction in this world. Now, most of the gathered powerhouses had dispersed. Represented by Su Xiao, this side was preparing to deal with the Ancient God.
Time was short. Before the full-scale war with the Ancient God, Su Xiao had to complete one thing: obtain three gems suitable for Dragon-Slaying Flash.
He had already obtained one Immortal-rank gem, [Sky-Rending]. He had ways to get the remaining two. The gem seller arriving soon would bring an Immortal-rank gem.
The last one would come through the Ouroboros Stone Tablet. Su Xiao still had a score to settle with that tablet from the last world, when it took something from Beini.