Chapter 49: White Night Style Treatment
After some inner struggle, Molei muttered about taking the 9000 Soul Coin route, but actually paid 12,000 Soul Coins. This wasn't because Molei was cowardly; although she had used a Recovery Potion, her injuries hadn't fully healed yet.
In just a few minutes, 17,000 Soul Coins were in hand. For an early Eighth Rank contractor, Su Xiao would have to fight through an entire world to earn 17,000 Soul Coins. With these Soul Coins, he could further enhance his passive abilities.
Under the night sky, Su Xiao took out a helmet and a bottle of [Sun Potion]. He poured some of the [Sun Potion] and smeared it on the inner wall of the [Church Knight Helmet], then placed the helmet over Molei's head.
Su Xiao walked out of the valley. Molei tapped her helmet, wanting to ask but didn't, and quickly followed behind.
After passing through the rear garden path, Su Xiao stopped at the back door of the Grand Cathedral. The reason was that Molei had stopped walking. After two seconds of mental struggle, she finally gritted her teeth, stomped her foot, and followed behind.
Su Xiao walked in front, with Molei following like a little sidekick. After passing through the hall on the first floor of the Grand Cathedral, the two walked out through the main entrance. After traveling through the night wilderness for over ten minutes, Su Xiao stopped.
"Hand over the helmet. You're free."
Hearing this, Molei took off the helmet, tidied her pink short hair that fell to her ears, and handed the helmet back to Su Xiao.
"It feels like a dream."
"Oh?"
"Spending these 17,000 Soul Coins feels like a dream."
Molei looked at the full moon in the sky, as if contemplating life and mourning the tragically spent 17,000 Soul Coins.
"Disappear within 10 seconds."
"It's just 17,000 Soul Coins. Not painful at all. Not one bit."
With tears in her eyes, Molei ran off. Unfortunately, she hadn't realized the seriousness of the situation.
Su Xiao watched Molei's disappearing figure, already forming a plan. Given this Battle Angel's wealth, losing 25,000 to 30,000 Soul Coins wouldn't lead to revenge; she'd probably just feel heartbroken for a while and then forget.
Although Molei had slipped away now, she had a mark on her. From the perspective of resource recycling, in a few days, Su Xiao could implement the following plan.
First, use reputation points to exchange for Sun Stones. Then, use the Sun Stones as payment to hire several or a dozen Sun Church followers skilled in ambush and capture to catch Molei.
After the capture, Molei would be sent to the valley behind the Grand Cathedral. At that time, Su Xiao could repeat tonight's transaction. As a second transaction, he could give Molei a 15% discount, meaning 14,450 Soul Coins. After all, this was their second cooperation. As for Molei not agreeing to the transaction, there would also be a discount — breaking her legs.
On the night wilderness, Su Xiao decided not to return to the Grand Cathedral behind him. Instead, he headed straight toward Eternal Hope Town to investigate the strange noises there.
Besides this faction mission, after entering the Sand World, Su Xiao had also received a side mission. The mission content was:
[Battle · Side Mission: Collector's Obsession]
Difficulty Level: Lv.77 ~ ???
Mission Information: Collect 25 Scroll Fragments within this world.
Mission Deadline: Before leaving this world.
Mission Reward: Origin Stone Random Draw Authority (Can be used after returning to Reincarnation Paradise).
Mission Penalty: Charm Attribute -5 points, Luck Attribute -3 points.
...
This mission was quite difficult, but there was also an easy mode. Otherwise, the minimum mission difficulty for collecting 25 Scroll Fragments wouldn't be Lv.77.
Su Xiao felt that with his current identity as a Church member, plus Caesar's assistance, this was definitely easy mode. With Caesar, an Arbiter who scurried around various worlds, there was a high probability of completing this mission.
Caesar and Saber were both Arbiters, but the difference between them was huge.
False Arbiter · Saber: The dream wife of many people — beautiful, kind, righteous. During World Battles, she supervises outside the battlefield, maintaining an impartial attitude. She never doubts the prompts and announcements from Reincarnation Paradise and the Void Tree, and never steps into the war zone.
True Arbiter · Caesar: Vile in demeanor, cunning, an utterly unscrupulous profiteer. His own life is paramount, money is second. During World Battles, he never supervises in one place. Instead, ignoring various warnings, he delves deep into the war zone. First, he colludes with his own side's participants, then infiltrates the enemy camp, stirs up internal conflict, coordinates with his own side's participants from within and without, and ultimately delivers a heavy blow to the enemy to secure victory.
Su Xiao closed the mission list. This mission was worth the risk. The [Origin Stone Random Draw Authority] was very rare. He had two types of Origin Stones: one complete ordinary [Origin Stone] and [Origin Stone: World (1/5)].
[Origin Stone: World] was indeed a top-tier Origin Stone, but with only one-fifth of it, its effect was only slightly better than an ordinary [Origin Stone], and the improvement was limited.
In this case, it was really better to get a complete Origin Stone with a suffix. Then, he could sell the ordinary [Origin Stone] in his hand.
Su Xiao had a somewhat devilish idea: sell this [Origin Stone] to the Divine Emperor Adventure Group. It had been a while since he last fleeced them. A sudden shearing would definitely yield good stuff. The Divine Emperor Adventure Group had already advanced to Sixth Rank for some time, and as a large adventure group, it was a completely different concept from an individual Sixth Rank contractor.
Su Xiao traveled southward. Although this place was called the Sand World, aside from the endless desert when he first entered, he hadn't seen much related to sand in this world.
As he walked, a thunderclap came from the sky. Soon, raindrops fell on Su Xiao's face, very cold, cold enough to penetrate the bone.
Pattering...
The sparse night rain fell. Su Xiao raised his hand. After a moment, some rainwater gathered in his palm. Under the faint light, he saw that the rainwater showed a hint of red — eerie, ominous, and even... exuding a sense of madness.
A tough but not strong life force was contained within this rainwater. Being nourished by this rainwater was hard to tell whether it was good or bad.
Su Xiao understood why the Sand World wasn't a desert. It had been like that before, as could be heard from titles like Blazing Sun Lord. And this blood-tinged rainwater had changed everything.
[Warning: Your Sanity Value is dropping.]
[Your Sanity Value has decreased by 1 point. Current: 538/545 points.]
Su Xiao took a black umbrella from his storage space and opened it. With his resistance in terms of sanity, after being exposed to this rainwater for a while, his Sanity Value had already decreased. If ordinary people were exposed to this rain, it wouldn't take long for them to undergo mental beast transformation.
...
Dark Rain Forest. The rain fell sparsely. Tian Yu sat inside a tree hollow. The originally handsome face now had an ugly scar. However, this wasn't a problem for him. After returning to the Void, there were many ways to remove this scar.
Looking at the shallow red puddles outside the tree hollow, Tian Yu began to contemplate life. After defeating his mental beast in the Endless Desert and arriving at this forest, he decided to hide in the shadows from now on. He wouldn't play with those old yinbis anymore. He would stay far away from them. He didn't believe they could still do anything to him.
"Let them fight. Hopefully, they all kill each other."
Tian Yu sighed, his inner anger rising. Since coming to the World of Paintings, there hadn't been anyone he deemed worthy. Thinking this, Tian Yu scratched his neck. The side of his neck was very itchy, unbearably itchy.
After scratching for a while, Tian Yu felt his hand was wet. He looked at his hand — it was completely red, all blood.
"This..."
Tian Yu suddenly realized his left leg had no feeling. On the inner wall of the tree hollow in front of him, a painting had appeared. This painting was a leg. More precisely, Tian Yu's leg had been downgraded from three-dimensional to two-dimensional, becoming a flat surface like a painting.
Not far from this 'leg painting,' a figure stood there, also in the form of a painting on the inner wall of the tree hollow. Seeing this figure, Tian Yu's pupils rapidly contracted, and he exclaimed:
"Wood..."
Pfft!
A withered, skin-and-bones arm burst out from the side of Tian Yu's neck, forcing his head to tilt. The arm bent, its hand pressing on Tian Yu's face, and began to pull the rest of its body out.
"Ah!!"
Tian Yu let out a hoarse scream. The wound on the side of his neck grew larger and larger. First, a skull studded with rice-sized black gems emerged, followed by the skin-and-bones body.
Tian Yu wailed for over half a minute before falling to the ground with a thud, very weak, saliva dripping from the corner of his mouth.
Wood, covered in blood, stood up. He raised his hand and snapped his fingers. A blood-red Contract Parchment covered Tian Yu's face. This was a contingency plan Wood had prepared long ago.
"Hoo~"
Devil Clan · Wood exhaled a breath of cold air, then took a deep breath. The feeling of being alive was truly wonderful.
"Wood, we went to... Lovisco together. For the sake of that bond, don't... silence me."
Tian Yu's body twitched, like a tattered sack.
"We're good brothers. Don't worry, I won't kill you. Relax."
Wood said this, then suddenly stomped on Tian Yu's head. With a crack, he crushed Tian Yu's skull. Tian Yu's body convulsed twice, then stopped moving, completely relaxed.
...
Fifty kilometers from Eternal Hope Town, beside an abandoned roadside inn.
Su Xiao sat on a worn-out chair. It was already eight in the morning. The sunlight was blocked by the tattered awning above his head.
Su Xiao was waiting for Bubu Wang and Baha. The rain had stopped this morning. Before it stopped, something happened: the Feather Race was eliminated, meaning Tian Yu was dead.
Su Xiao, Zuiyasi, Wood, Lilim, and Molei + Yueshitu represented five factions. The Scroll World could accommodate up to seven factions entering. When a vacancy appeared, a new faction would immediately fill it, unless there were no new factions left to the point of death.
Tian Yu was dead, meaning a new faction was about to enter. The speed of inviting the next victim was a bit fast. Previously, when Watchful Paradise withdrew, it wasn't clear which faction's participant had entered. Now Tian Yu was dead, making it the third new faction to enter.
Looking at this trend, in the end, it might really reach the point where there were no new factions to enter. If that happened, it would be lively. What would happen to the vacant faction slots? Randomly draw a lucky audience member from the Arena?
"Woof!"
Bubu Wang's bark came. Su Xiao checked Bubu Wang's data. Bubu's Sanity Value was 102/113, still relatively stable. As long as he didn't encounter ghostly beings, Bubu Wang wouldn't go crazy from sanity loss.
After waiting nearly another hour, Baha flew over.
"Boss, Zuiyasi will be very quiet for the next two days."
Baha landed on the broken wooden table, shook the feathers on his body, and began to narrate the intelligence from their side.
Bubu Wang, Baha, Zuiyasi, and Lilim had all gathered around Yueshitu earlier, using her 'Wealth Power' to escape.
Their entry point into the Sand World was not far from the territory of the Blazing Sun Lord. After gathering information in a semi-abandoned village, Zuiyasi suggested defecting to the Blazing Sun Lord to obtain Scroll Fragments.
Bubu Wang and Baha didn't express their stance. They were definitely going to leave. Yueshitu and Lilim were in a difficult position. Lilim had previously overdrawn her awakened power, immobilizing the blood monster in place for nearly 3.5 seconds. Without her move, that battle would likely have been lost.
Zuiyasi's core abilities were regeneration and indestructibility. After arriving in the Sand World, the gap in combat power between the two sides was particularly obvious.
What Zuiyasi didn't expect was that Yueshitu, using her 'Wealth Power,' took out a [Holy Extreme Flame Scroll] from her storage space. Little Moon Teacher taught Zuiyasi a lesson: spending money really can make you stronger.
Zuiyasi was from the Ancient God System. If he weren't strong enough, the [Holy Extreme Flame Scroll] would have definitely killed him.
After listening to Baha's account, Su Xiao basically understood the current situation. For now, it was stable. At most two days later, Zuiyasi and the still-alive Wood would start causing trouble, likely targeting the Blazing Sun Lord.
What was even more lively was that two new participants were about to enter. It was unknown if among them was the Crow Woman from Arcane Eternal Star or other acquaintances from other Paradises.
Bringing Bubu Wang and Baha, Su Xiao walked toward Eternal Hope Town. When the temperature gradually rose with the sun, Su Xiao arrived at Eternal Hope Town.
The entire town had only one main street, flanked by orderly buildings. Several commoners sitting on the steps in front of the buildings had fierce looks in their eyes. They didn't belong to any kingdom and weren't bound by any restrictions.
As Su Xiao, an outsider, walked into the town, pairs of eyes watched him from the buildings on both sides of the street, but they quickly withdrew. Su Xiao's Sun Church attire was too easy to recognize, especially the [Cruel Saw Blade] on his back and the Sun Helmet on his head.
Without any obstruction, Su Xiao arrived at the three-story building of the town mayor and knocked on the door.
Knock, knock~
Su Xiao had only knocked twice when the door opened a crack. Inside the crack was pitch black, with only one bloodshot eye visible. The pupil of this eye was a murky brown-yellow, severely dilated.
Bang!
The door was immediately closed tightly. The person inside coughed lightly and then calmly asked, "Are you a follower of the Sun Church?"
"Yes."
"Thank you for coming. Recently, there have been strange noises as soon as night falls. The people in the town are very panicked."
The man, suspected to be the mayor, spoke from inside the door. His voice was calm yet helpless, completely different from the mental state of the eye in the door crack just now.
Su Xiao gripped the handle of the saw blade sword on his back with one hand. The mayor of Eternal Hope Town had a problem and needed treatment. He planned to adopt the 'Saw Blade Therapy' — fast-acting, guaranteed to cure.
PS: (Two chapters today, one 3700 words, one 4000 words, not split into three chapters. Reading continuity would be compromised.)