Chapter 62: Endless Greed
[Prompt: You have successfully sealed the Abyss Hole.]
[Main Quest · Second Ring · Abyss Hole (Completed).]
[You have obtained Soul Crystal Core × 3.]
[Main Quest · Third Ring pending activation. This quest will activate upon returning to the Southern Continent.]
[Warning: An ancient existence has been awakened.]
...
Su Xiao dismissed the prompts. As he had anticipated, the main quest was not limited to just two rings. The other notifications were unremarkable, but the last one caught his attention.
What exactly this ancient existence referred to was still unclear. The intelligence available was limited.
"Let's go, Baha."
Su Xiao turned and walked back into the black mist. He had only taken two steps when he felt a tremor beneath his feet, as if an earthquake were about to strike.
[Announcement (Void Tree): The war in the Western Continent has subsided. The Western Continent faction has been annihilated.]
Su Xiao grabbed Baha's talons and began to ascend. Before long, he returned to the giant pit.
As soon as he was back in the pit, Su Xiao saw several figures approaching quickly. One of them was Major Gewei.
"Mr. White Night, the war is over. We've won."
Major Gewei's face was beaming with joy. No one wanted to fight, and he was no exception.
"Mm."
As Su Xiao walked forward, the ground beneath him trembled again, making him wonder if the Western Continent might sink into the sea.
Under normal circumstances, after the war ended, the four old-timers of the Alliance would immediately issue a decree to strip Su Xiao of his military command.
In reality, they did not do so. Instead, they wanted to maintain the temporary alliance to jointly develop the resources of the Western Continent, even though it was already quite barren.
Everywhere he looked, there were relaxed soldiers with smiles on their faces. Su Xiao returned to the command post in the outer district. Sitting before the sand table, he issued an order: disband the temporary alliance.
This news reached the four old-timers of the Alliance at lightning speed. They immediately sent an envoy via the teleportation array.
Inside the command post, Bubu Wang was lying on the bed, snoring loudly, occasionally kicking his hind legs and grunting.
"Commander, have you truly decided this?"
The formally dressed envoy stood beside the sand table, politely accepting the coffee handed to him by Goya.
"Yes."
Su Xiao leaned back in his chair. All he wanted now was to sleep. These three days had drained a lot of his mental energy. Commanding over a dozen legions in battle was no simple task.
"Then... we can only respect your wishes."
The envoy bowed in salute before quickly leaving the command post.
Half an hour later, Major Gewei entered the command post, holding an exquisite wooden box. Without saying much, he set the box down and left.
Su Xiao opened the box, and his eyes fell upon a pile of Soul Crystals (Complete).
[You have obtained Soul Crystal (Complete) × 69.]
Nearly 70 Soul Crystals (Complete). Even for Su Xiao, this was a windfall. It was a gesture of goodwill from the four old-timers of the Alliance.
The war was over. If Su Xiao stubbornly held onto his military command, neither the Southern nor the Eastern Alliance had any good way to deal with him. He was not only the commander of the temporary alliance but also the leader of the Execution Agency.
By making his stance clear and disbanding the alliance, Su Xiao prompted the other side to immediately show their sincerity. This was the benefit of dealing with old schemers.
The core of a temporary alliance was not the "alliance" but the word "temporary." Both sides achieved their respective goals and exercised restraint. For instance, the Alliance never mentioned the casualty numbers from this war.
The matters in the Western Continent were settled. It was time to return to Jaman City in the Southern Continent. Su Xiao needed to reclaim his position as the Legion Commander of the Execution Agency to prevent others from exploiting any loopholes.
Just as Su Xiao was about to stand up, Skinny Monkey Xili rushed into the command post, his face pale and expression twisted. "Commander, this is bad."
"Speak."
"The headquarters was attacked. The containment... the containment vault was blown open. The No. 9 prison on the outskirts was also hit."
"..."
Su Xiao said nothing. The air around him seemed to grow faintly bloody. He asked, "Were S-001 and S-005 taken?"
"No, not that."
As soon as Xili said this, he wanted to slap himself. He explained, "Dangerous Object S-005 wasn't taken. She ran off on her own."
"What the hell? What's the difference?"
Baha glared at Xili, who nodded and said, "There's a big difference. Oh, and Commander, there's one more thing. S-001 has become active. Probably because of the war in the Western Continent, S-001 has started foreseeing the future again."
After saying this, Xili set down a portrait and stepped aside.
Su Xiao felt the situation growing increasingly murky. The mysteries of the Western Continent were still unresolved, and now the Execution Agency headquarters had been attacked.
The attack on the headquarters, aside from the loss of Dangerous Object S-005, was within acceptable limits. This incident was most likely the work of someone connected to Su Xiao, taking advantage of his preoccupation with the Western Continent war to achieve some goal.
Su Xiao picked up the portrait on the table. It depicted a woman wearing a gown that seemed to be made of light particles, its hem trailing several meters.
It was Fairy. Su Xiao had never seen Fairy in person, but Bubu Wang had. She had arrived in the Western Continent yesterday, and Bubu Wang had witnessed her conversation with the Tyrant, learning her identity.
For this reason, Su Xiao had even prepared a special "gift" for Fairy—the ancient war beast of the War Lord. Unfortunately, even after tearing through the Western Continent, he never directly confronted her.
Fairy had left the Western Continent and gone to the Execution Agency headquarters in Jaman City, launching a surprise attack while its defenses were weak.
Setting aside Fairy's motives for now, she might not have a very clear goal. She might simply be harvesting World Source. After all, Su Xiao's current World Source ranking was higher than hers. If she didn't do something soon, the first-place reward, [Tree Bud], would go to Su Xiao.
Su Xiao began racking his brain, thinking about the Western Continent and Emperor Taiyatu. He understood the situation before the modern era, but what puzzled him was why Emperor Taiyatu hadn't mobilized all his parasitic insect warriors for an effective counterattack.
Moreover, under the relentless bombardment, he never left the Imperial Palace, not even rising from his throne.
Alternatively, perhaps Emperor Taiyatu wasn't unwilling to leave the Imperial Palace but unable to. He couldn't even rise from his throne until Amu, the Transcendents, and a large group of veteran soldiers stormed the palace, breaking some kind of barrier during the battle, allowing him to finally stand and escape.
The three knights under Emperor Taiyatu had defected to Kingsley, only to be killed by him. This was evident from their attitudes: Emperor Taiyatu had been abandoned by all.
This made sense. Emperor Taiyatu hadn't been unwilling to build up his forces for a prolonged war with the temporary alliance; he simply couldn't. He was trapped in the Imperial Palace with no one to command, not even the three knights obeying his orders.
If Emperor Taiyatu had only besieged and killed the Moon Wolf, he wouldn't have faced such betrayal. From the perspective of the Taiyatu civilization, the Moon Wolf was an outsider—a being so powerful it could only be looked up to. Even if Emperor Taiyatu's actions didn't gain his subjects' support, he wouldn't have ended up like this.
The key issue was that, because of Emperor Taiyatu, all living beings in the Western Continent had been parasitized by threadworms. This was the main reason for his complete abandonment.
The parasitic insect warriors in the Western Continent were a chaotic mess. Despite their strength, they were wiped out in just three days.
The Western Continent felt like a farm—a massive farm for raising parasitic insect warriors. Those with low levels of aberration were on the surface, while those with higher aberration hid underground beneath the royal city.
It was as if they were accumulating strength. When the Western Continent was attacked, its master was absent, leaving the parasitic insect warriors leaderless.
The most critical question was: where did the threadworms in the Western Continent come from? The answer was that a thousand years ago, a meteorite fell from the sky, containing a single threadworm—the progenitor of all threadworms.
This progenitor threadworm had once devoured Abyss Force in other worlds, undergoing transformation. It then split off offspring, leading them to consume the lifeforms of many worlds before moving on, until it encountered the Moon Wolf.
This progenitor threadworm was so powerful that even the Moon Wolf was wary of it. After a decisive battle, the Moon Wolf was severely injured, illustrating the threadworm's danger.
Suppose... this thing wasn't completely dead. Most of it was destroyed by the Moon Wolf, but a part survived. That would explain many things.
Remember, after the meteorite fell, Emperor Taiyatu took the threadworm inside. Soon after, the Moon Wolf fought the threadworm, was gravely wounded, and Emperor Taiyatu took advantage of its weakened state to besiege and kill it.
A bolder conjecture: the threadworm was mostly destroyed by the Moon Wolf, with only a small part surviving and parasitizing Emperor Taiyatu.
Emperor Taiyatu conquered the Western Continent through tyranny, proving he wasn't incompetent. Would he really lose his mind and send troops to besiege an existence that was once beyond reach? The answer was that, with any shred of rationality, he wouldn't dare. What gave him the courage?
Unless he knew that the Moon Wolf was already at its limit. But that wasn't enough. Taking risks without reward was an extremely foolish choice.
Unless Emperor Taiyatu saw that absorbing pure Abyss Force could transform one into an incredibly powerful being. The remnant of the threadworm progenitor dormant inside him was the best proof. This was an existence that could face the Moon Wolf head-on, even if it was now asleep.
As a tyrant, wouldn't Emperor Taiyatu crave power? Even if the price was turning his subjects into monsters.
With that kind of power, as long as he wanted, ruling over more subjects was only a matter of time. So, Emperor Taiyatu acted, and the doom of the Western Continent's civilians began.
Emperor Taiyatu succeeded and failed. The power he gained was far less than imagined, and the threadworm remnant inside him awakened.
The Moon Wolf was dead. The threadworm progenitor's remnant had no interest in Emperor Taiyatu. It was actually surprised that he had besieged the Moon Wolf. The battle with the Moon Wolf taught the threadworm progenitor that this world was not to be trifled with. Its original plan was to sleep for a while and then leave. The Moon Wolf was severely injured, and it was over 80% dead—no more fighting to the death.
The threadworm progenitor never expected Emperor Taiyatu to besiege the world's guardian. It specifically asked why he did it and how he used its offspring to turn his subjects into parasitic insect warriors, gaining uncontrollable power.
The threadworm progenitor fought the Moon Wolf because it needed to consume the world's lifeforms and Abyss Force to extend its life cycle. The Moon Wolf was the world's guardian, making their conflict inevitable—a battle of survival and oath.
Learning the truth, the threadworm progenitor imprisoned Emperor Taiyatu and went to the frozen wastelands of the far south. It went to see the opponent it respected—Silver Moon Wolf. But it found only a stone tablet, which made the threadworm progenitor decide to hide and recover.
If someone ever discovered the Moon Wolf's death, Emperor Taiyatu would be the perfect scapegoat, after all, he was tempted by greed, power, and authority.
On the frozen plain where the Moon Wolf rested stood a stone tablet, inscribed with:
'All lands bathed in my glory submit to me. No beast needs to guard them—Emperor Taiyatu.'
Emperor Taiyatu was ambitious, intending to grasp the entire world in his hand. Unfortunately, after besieging and killing the Moon Wolf, the situation spiraled completely out of his control.
Actually, saying Emperor Taiyatu was abandoned by all wasn't entirely accurate. A primitive tribe had remained loyal to him, even helping him capture Dangerous Object 006 (Mermaid) in an attempt to free him by having him devour it. But Su Xiao's clash with Kingsley accidentally blew up that tribe.
If someone in this world discovered the Moon Wolf's death and, driven by a sense of justice, sought revenge, the normal process would be: first infiltrate the Western Continent, avoid the parasitic insect warriors, and finally kill Emperor Taiyatu.
At least in that existence's plan, things would develop that way.
But the situation didn't follow that existence's expectations. Su Xiao turned all the power it had accumulated in the Western Continent to ashes and dealt with Emperor Taiyatu in the process.
Presumably, that existence would be deeply pained. The highly aberrant parasitic insect warriors accumulated under the royal city for so long were all reduced to ashes. The Abyss Hole guarded by those warriors was also destroyed by Su Xiao—a massive loss.
In a sense, that existence's plan succeeded. Emperor Taiyatu indeed became a scapegoat. But Su Xiao struck too hard, not only shattering the scapegoat to pieces but also reducing what was behind it to ash.
As Su Xiao pondered, the ground trembled beneath him. He frowned. This time, he had overdone it. Not only had he turned what was behind the scapegoat to ash, but the Western Continent itself was about to sink.