# Chapter 63: The Vessel
Inside the Pale Palace.
Su Xiao looked at the vessel over ten meters away, hearing a series of booming sounds coming from a distance. It was the battle between the Feather God and Baha's side. This was not good news.
Su Xiao had no time to reinforce. The vessel was not easy to deal with. If ranking the boss-level units of this world, the vessel was definitely second, with only the Feather God being stronger.
The Eye of All Gods floating behind Su Xiao activated overload mode. Its reconnaissance ability was still in cooldown, so overload was the only option. Although it would reduce durability by 10-15 points, there was no other choice. Su Xiao urgently needed information on the vessel—this was one of his advantages as a Hunter.
[Comparing both parties' intelligence attributes... Comparison complete. 100% of enemy data detected.]
Name: Vessel
Category: Son of the King / Descendant of the Gods
Health: 100%
Divine Energy (Ancient): 34000/34000 points
Divine Energy (Life): 0/0 (Completely eroded)
Radiance Power: 0/0 (Completely eroded)
Strength: 217 (True Attribute)
Agility: 217 (True Attribute)
Endurance: 215 (True Attribute)
Intelligence: 15 (Eroded)
Charm: 1 (Eroded, originally 108 points)
Skill 1, Perfect Vessel (Passive, X): This ability has been eroded.
Skill 2, Mark of Fate (Passive, X): Ignores all mental control effects. No emotions, no pain, training efficiency increased by 17.9 times.
Note: This ability is fluctuating...
Skill 3, King's Technique (Technique Class·Passive, Lv.59): Spear-type weapon attack power increased by 755%. Weapon damage tier +2. Attacks carry high-tier penetration. This ability has derived 16 self-developed abilities.
Note: Vessel's base·neural reflex speed +52 points, base·dynamic vision +52 points.
Note: Vessel's body speed increased by 0.2 times.
Note: This ability was taught by the Light King.
Skill 4, Beast Soul (Passive, Lv.71): Through the Great Sage's cultivation, the Vessel possesses a powerful body and adaptability. Health +37000 points, body defense +72 points, critical damage reduced by 25%, energy erosion damage reduced by 92%, slashing damage reduced by 14%, blunt damage reduced by 50%.
Skill 5, Wolf Spider Instinct (Passive, Lv.71): Through the Wolf Spider Queen's teaching, the Vessel possesses a perception ability that can briefly foresee the future by 0.5 seconds. After successfully 'catching' an enemy's attack, the Vessel's movement speed and reaction speed increase by 60% for the following 2 seconds, allowing ultra-fast evasion or attack.
Skill 6, Divine Descendant (Passive, Lv.71): Health +25400 points, body speed increased by 0.7 times, health recovery speed increased after injury.
Skill 7, Whisper (Passive, X): A weapon forged by the Light King commissioning the Demon Blacksmith. An Immortal Rank·Blade Spear. When attacking enemies with Whisper, it can dispel the enemy's body energy, dispelling 350-540 points each time, and dealing 350-540 points of energy penetration damage when dispelling the enemy's body energy.
Note: This weapon enhances the user's attack power and attack penetration.
Skill 8, Corrupted Constitution (Passive, Lv.70): The Vessel's body has been heavily eroded and corrupted by Ancient God energy. Ignores all Eighth Rank or below physical control effects.
Skill 9, Corruption·Spread (Ultimate Ability, Lv.39): The Vessel releases the highest concentration of corruption force, splashing it to the surroundings. Contact with the corruption force triggers a willpower judgment. If judgment fails, permanent corruption occurs. If judgment passes, 4750-5600 points of corruption damage ignoring body defense is taken, and for the following 5-20 minutes, all healing/restoration effects received are reduced by 95%.
Note: After the Vessel uses this ability, corruption force covers the ground within 350 meters. While in this area, 245 points of corruption damage is taken per second (14700 points per minute), and all healing/restoration effects received are reduced by 95%.
...
The Vessel's characteristics were distinct. The Light King, the Great Sage, and the Wolf Spider Queen had all concentrated their lifelong skills into the Vessel. The Vessel was an instinct-type technique specialist, its attack power not to be underestimated, and its speed had multiple boosts.
Over ten meters away, the tall, thin Vessel stood still. From the beginning, it had been staring at the throne, as if thinking. Unfortunately, its ability to think had been taken away at the moment of its birth.
The Vessel raised its hand toward the throne. The bright yellow flame in its eyes receded slightly, as if recalling something. But the figure on the throne had long since shattered into over a thousand pieces, scattered on and around the throne.
"Roar!"
The Vessel roared, raising the blade spear in its hand.
Clang!
A long blade struck down. The Vessel's body bent, nearly falling to one knee.
Su Xiao slashed once, about to kick the Vessel's side, when he felt a strange force coming from his blade.
Sizzle~
The blade spear scraped against the sword edge. Within Su Xiao's perception circle, the Vessel suddenly lunged forward, breaking through a black shadow. It ignored physical collision and appeared behind him.
The Vessel gripped the blade spear with both hands, smashing the butt of the spear into the ground.
Boom! A massive sphere of white-yellow light appeared centered on the Vessel, seven meters in diameter, enveloping Su Xiao.
A stinging pain spread across Su Xiao's entire body, as if countless blade spears were slashing at him from all directions. He entered a state of space penetration.
Sharp sounds of spear blades cutting through air came from all around. The Vessel switched to holding the blade spear with one hand. As the light sphere around it disappeared, countless spear auras spread outward, cutting through the palace walls that had lost their supernatural enhancement.
Clang! Clang!
Su Xiao slashed twice, deflecting the incoming spear auras. Suddenly, the Vessel appeared before him, the blade spear thrusting straight for his head.
Su Xiao tilted his body. The sound of the blade spear tearing through air was especially clear beside his ear. A slight pain came from his cheek—a very shallow wound, just the spear blade scraping his skin.
After being wounded by the blade spear, the Azure Steel Shadow energy within Su Xiao fluctuated, all of it moving away from the wound. It seemed as if it might be driven out of his body? In reality, this was impossible. The blade spear in the Vessel's hand had attack properties imitated by the Demon Blacksmith based on Azure Steel Shadow's abilities. There was absolutely no way it could dispel Azure Steel Shadow energy.
The blade spear thrust past Su Xiao's cheek. The long blade in his hand slashed forward.
Zheng.
The blade whimpered, slashing almost right against the Vessel's neck. The Vessel seemed to have sensed this in advance, evading 0.4 seconds early. Not only that, after successfully evading, its speed increased dramatically.
The Vessel leaned back, flipping its body in mid-air, landing in a half-crouch. The moment it landed, a boom sounded from beneath its feet as it lunged at Su Xiao. The blade spear in its hand emitted a black light, with a very faint white glow on the outermost edge.
In an instant, the blade spear reached Su Xiao's brow, about to pierce through his skull the next moment.
'Blade Path Sword: Time.'
The shockwave spread. The Vessel slowed down. Su Xiao stomped the ground beneath him.
Thud!
The stone slabs on the ground buckled. The ground beneath the Vessel's feet cracked, and it stepped into empty space, losing its foothold. The blade spear in its hand also thrust off-target.
Pfft, pfft, pfft...
Slash marks appeared on the Vessel's body. Though it blocked repeatedly with the blade spear, sparks flying from the clashing blade and spear, it still couldn't stop all of Su Xiao's slashes.
Su Xiao slashed at the exoskeleton on the Vessel's face. The Vessel flew backward, crashing into the wall with a boom.
'Blade Path Sword: Azure Demon.'
Su Xiao made a slashing motion in the air. A blue-green blade aura shot out, disappearing into the hole in the wall.
Inside the wall, the Vessel thrust the blade spear downward. Crack! It pinned the fast-flying Azure Demon to the ground, then stomped it to pieces.
The blade spear in the Vessel's hand flipped. The spear blade absorbed the shattered Azure Demon, then swung hard.
Zheng!
A spear aura over 90% similar to Azure Demon shot out, heading straight for Su Xiao.
'Blade Path Sword: Blood Blade.'
Blood-red feathers appeared. Su Xiao transformed into a blood shadow and vanished from his spot. When he reappeared, he was in front of the Vessel. He made as if to slash diagonally, and the Vessel immediately raised its spear to block.
The moment the Vessel raised the blade spear, Su Xiao abandoned the slash and instead delivered a straight kick.
Boom!
The Vessel was sent flying into the wall again, shooting straight out of the palace. Breaking through a sonic boom, it crashed into the Demon Blacksmith's forge. Due to the exhaustion of supernatural power in the White Town, the forge collapsed into ruins.
Inside the ruins, the Vessel rose from the ground. Centered on its abdomen, large cracks spread across its body.
As soon as the Vessel stood up, it staggered backward a few steps, stabbing the blade spear into the ground to barely steady itself. Bright red blood seeped from under its faceplate. The color of blood was the final proof of its humanity.
Su Xiao walked out of the palace. Just as he was about to charge at the Vessel, he saw a figure approaching from a distance. That seemed to be... Snake Lady?
In the distance, Snake Lady stopped in her tracks. She had been traveling for several days, first leaving the Beast Clan's territory, then passing through the Insect Tower to reach Sentinel Light.
Just as she reached outside the Lost Withered Forest, she nearly got caught up in the battle between the Feather God and Amu's group. Snake Lady was badly frightened. She wanted to run back, but found that behind her was a frozen zone created by Amu. So she could only come to the White Town. In Snake Lady's view, the White Town was definitely safer than over there.
Snake Lady had just arrived near the White Town when she heard a boom, then saw a black monster with an exoskeleton faceplate on its head fly out.
"You two continue. I'm... I'm just passing through."
Snake Lady turned to leave. Suddenly, she felt a chill on her back, as if she had been 'violently bumped.' She looked down. Sharp, bloodstained gravel appeared on her chest. A hand without any warmth grabbed the back of her neck.
Snake Lady's body began to weaken. In her heart, there was no room for fear or despair—only extreme grievance. She just wanted to come back and take a look, maybe visit the blacksmith. How did she get caught up in a fight between two monsters? She had divined before—everything was fine.
Zheng.
A blade aura slashed past. A piece of faceplate flew up. Snake Lady's vision gradually narrowed to a thin line. Then she felt a hand with a metallic touch grab her neck. This made her think: 'Great, that man covered in blood aura is actually going to save me.'
In her hazy consciousness, Snake Lady's joy was beyond words. But her joy lasted only one second before she felt herself fall to the ground. Her 'savior' stepped right over her, not paying her any attention.
# Chapter 64: On the Importance of Survivability
Inside the White Town, Su Xiao's pace wasn't fast. The Vessel was just over ten meters away. Its speed was too fast, and after evading attacks, its speed would skyrocket for a short time.
The good news was that the booming in the distance had stopped. He had previously severely wounded the Feather God through various means, and through strategy, had caused the Feather God to expend most of its divine energy detecting the surroundings. Now the Feather God had retreated, its destination unknown.
Su Xiao set that aside for now. Under his perception lock, the Vessel was leaping through the ruins. After leaving the Pale Palace, the Vessel always wanted to charge back inside.
Su Xiao changed from a slow walk to a full-speed charge. The Vessel also came from ahead.
'Blade Path Sword: Extreme.'
Su Xiao slashed out a very 'ordinary' strike. 'Blade Path Sword: Extreme' was his strongest close-range slash, bar none.
The blade spear in the Vessel's hand was wrapped in dark light. It held the spear with one hand, charged forward a few steps, then leaped, delivering a thunderous overhead strike.
Long blade and blade spear clashed. Blood-red and black-yellow light collided.
Thud!
The shockwave spread outward. The ground was torn up. Bubu Wang, dragging Snake Lady, hid behind a broken wall that immediately became covered in cracks.
When the dust and smoke cleared somewhat, Su Xiao and the Vessel were in a large pit. Long blade and blade spear pressed against each other, the edges grinding with a cracking sound.
Clang! Clang! Clang!
After a series of high-speed slashes that left afterimages, Su Xiao and the Vessel each stepped back a few paces.
Every time the Vessel evaded an attack, its speed increased dramatically. But at these moments, Su Xiao would use 'Blade Path Sword: Time' to counteract, even reducing the enemy's speed.
The Vessel's blade spear technique had an unavoidable flaw: judgment. The Vessel was in a state of confusion, fighting on instinct. The trouble was that its instincts were too strong. Even with a confused mind, it didn't reveal any openings.
Inside the large pit, long blade and blade spear clashed repeatedly. The ringing of metal, the booming all around, layers of airwaves spreading outward.
Waves of recoil traveled up Su Xiao's arm. The Vessel's strength was greater than his—an unavoidable problem.
Crack.
After Su Xiao slashed once, a crisp sound came from beneath his feet. This surprised him. There was a considerable underground space beneath the White Town.
"Roar."
The Vessel roared. Its left arm raised, shooting clusters of corruption energy from its palm.
Su Xiao dodged sideways repeatedly, then lunged forward with an upward slash.
Shrrrk! The long blade cut through the Vessel's arm. If it had been the previous Dragon-Slaying Flash, it would at most have cut to the bone. But now, the long blade slashed through, severing half of the Vessel's arm.
The Vessel didn't care at all. It had no sense of pain. A black light mass gathered at the tip of the blade spear in its other hand. The Vessel used the blade spear like a 'long-handled hammer,' swinging it in a full arc at Su Xiao.
Su Xiao retreated quickly to dodge. Wind pressure passed before his face. A massive tremor came from beneath his feet. He felt the ground beneath him collapse, sinking downward.
As he fell, the light around Su Xiao gradually dimmed. His pupils dilated, quickly adapting to the dark environment.
When Su Xiao's feet touched solid ground, he was in an underground palace. The area was several hundred square meters, with a layer of white crushed bones on the floor.
The surrounding walls were stacked with Vessel faceplates. Conservative estimate: over a hundred thousand faceplates. Some darkness was meant to be hidden underground forever—like this place.
The layout here was exactly the same as the Pale Palace. The only difference was that there was no throne. Where the throne should have been, there were three stone statues: the Light King, the Great Sage, and the Wolf Spider Queen.
Drip, drip~
Blood dripped from Su Xiao's chin. The Vessel opposite him seemed frozen in place. This was where the Vessel was born.
The Vessel bent its body. Boom! It leaped up from the underground palace, as if unwilling to stay here even for a second.
A blade aura slashed past. Clang! The leaping Vessel flew backward, crashing into the wall made of stacked faceplates. Broken bone fragments scattered everywhere.
The Vessel landed. It actually staggered a few steps, then reversed its grip on the blade spear and thrust it toward its own chest.
Pfft! Bright yellow liquid splattered everywhere. The Vessel released the blade spear, bent its arms, and roared while leaning back.
Bright yellow liquid splashed everywhere, quickly filling the underground palace. This was the Vessel's ultimate ability.
Su Xiao didn't hesitate. He leaped up while entering a state of space penetration. Even so, his left arm got splashed with the bright yellow liquid, which corroded it with a hissing sound, burning painfully.
Returning to the surface, Su Xiao stepped back. A bright yellow spike thrust up from the ground before his foot, rising over ten meters before stopping. He couldn't get hit by this thing. Even if it didn't instantly kill him, it would be a severe injury.
After fighting for so long, Su Xiao had realized that improving his survivability was very useful. His opponents were all too strong. The benefit of improving survivability was that sometimes, a fatal wound could be endured as a severe injury. As for completely tanking the opponent's attacks—that was impossible. The opponents he faced had attack power so absurdly high that even tank-type contractors were killed like chickens, unless the tank had a healer behind them to barely hold on for a while.
Boom. Boom. Boom!
Bright yellow spikes thrust up from the ground one after another. Su Xiao leaped backward repeatedly. Before long, he had climbed onto the steps before the palace.
Su Xiao continued leaping backward. When he returned to the Pale Palace, the bright yellow spikes finally stopped emerging from the ground.
The Vessel walked in through the main entrance of the Pale Palace. Its left arm had already regenerated—an ability inherited from the Mother God.
The Vessel broke through a black afterimage, thrusting the blade spear forward.
Blood aura gathered behind Su Xiao, forming the Blood Beast. The Blood Beast lunged at the Vessel. The Vessel didn't dodge or evade, thrusting the spear straight at the Blood Beast.
Smack! The Blood Beast was pierced and exploded into a large cloud of blood aura. The Vessel charged through the blood aura.
Su Xiao advanced to meet it. The blood aura from the exploded Blood Beast would dissipate in at most 5 seconds. Within these 5 seconds, he had to create an opportunity.
Boom! A bright yellow spike suddenly thrust up from beneath Su Xiao's foot. This spike was very short, but it pierced through his right foot, drastically reducing his speed and throwing off his balance.
Whoosh.
The Vessel streaked through like a black afterimage. When it reappeared, it was behind Su Xiao. Amid the spreading blood aura, black smoke coiled around the Vessel's right arm. The blade spear thrust out a flurry of afterimages.
Pfft, pfft, pfft...
Four penetrating wounds appeared on Su Xiao's back. Blood splattered everywhere. Corresponding wounds appeared on his chest. A feeling of weakness spread through Su Xiao's body.
The Vessel streaked through another black afterimage. It stood behind Su Xiao, sweeping the blade spear downward, cutting through the spreading blood aura. The spear blade headed straight for Su Xiao's neck.
Just as the spear blade was only a few centimeters from Su Xiao's neck, his left arm pulled.
Zing!
The Realm Severing Thread, reinforced with Soul Thread, tightened. Using the surrounding Banishment fragments as anchor points, it tightly bound the Vessel.
Clang.
The blade spear still slashed down, but much slower. Su Xiao's long blade blocked it.
Su Xiao pulled the Realm Severing Thread again. All the Banishment fragments connected to the thread spread outward with maximum force, pulling the thread as taut as possible.
Su Xiao exerted force with his hand. The long blade clanged as it pushed aside the blade spear. He held the blade with one hand, charging forward a few steps to close in on the Vessel. The blood aura from the Blood Beast gathered around, all of it clinging to the long blade, dyeing Dragon-Slashing Flash blood-red.
Shrrrk! The long blade pierced through the Vessel's head. Its body stiffened. The Realm Severing Thread wrapped around it creaked.
Just as the blood-red long blade pierced the Vessel's head, the blood color on the blade surged upward, entering the Vessel's skull.
Su Xiao withdrew the blade and retreated, simultaneously retracting the Realm Severing Thread, which disappeared into his sleeve.
After leaping several meters away, red light appeared in Su Xiao's eyes. Almost simultaneously, the Vessel released the blade spear and pounded its own head with both hands.
"Roar!"
"Roar!"
Two roars occurred almost simultaneously. One was the Vessel's roar. The other was from the highly compressed Blood Beast inside the Vessel's head. With these two roars, black soundwaves mixed with blood aura spread outward.
Thud!
A dull sound came from inside the Vessel's head. The Blood Beast had exploded inside the Vessel's skull. After the explosion, blood aura sprayed out through the Vessel's eye sockets and the cracks in its faceplate. The Vessel staggered backward in large steps. The blade spear it had just picked up clattered to the ground.
Finally, the Vessel fell to one knee with a thud. Gurgling blood flowed out through the gaps beneath its faceplate, quickly forming a large pool of blood beneath it. Its health dropped like water.
Su Xiao's numerous previous slashes + the true damage from Azure Steel Shadow, plus the damage from blade techniques, and finally the Blood Beast exploding inside its head—all these injuries combined nearly killed the Vessel. It was too weak to continue fighting.
The Vessel fell to the ground. It began crawling laboriously, not to escape. It was crawling toward the nearby throne.
Su Xiao landed from above, thrusting his blade through the Vessel's head once more. Another fatal wound reinforced with Azure Steel Shadow energy.
The Vessel's hand trembled as it raised, reaching toward the throne that was now within reach. It picked up a fragment of the Light King's body, struggling to hold this piece close to its chest. From this moment on, it was no longer a perfect vessel. It had developed some kind of emotion.
Su Xiao pulled Dragon-Slashing Flash out of the Vessel's head. Blood sprayed high. The bright yellow flame in the Vessel's eyes faded.
"An imperfect vessel."
Su Xiao spoke as he sat down on the ground, thrusting the long blade into the earth. He raised his hand to wipe the blood from his chin. The Vessel had been slain.