Chapter 65: Blood Intent
Looking at Yueshitu inside the iron cage, Su Xiao furrowed his brows. He had already set everything up, only waiting for Molei to arrive so he could arrange things clearly, but a flaw appeared in the plan.
Unlocking the iron cage, Su Xiao tossed the [Church Knight Helmet] inside, producing a clang.
Yueshitu sighed, put on the [Church Knight Helmet] herself, but didn't stand up.
"This time, there aren't 18,000 Soul Coins. I'm not an ATM, you know. I only have 4,000 left. Not a single drop more. You've drained me dry."
"..."
Su Xiao didn't speak. Actually, he was somewhat surprised that Yueshitu still had 4,000 Soul Coins. He should have asked for more last time.
[Prompt: You have received 4,000 Soul Coins.]
As the prompt appeared, Su Xiao's assets swelled. He checked his current Soul Coins—43,080 Soul Coins!
This was a huge fortune. In the past, even after clearing an entire world, Su Xiao had never obtained this many Soul Coins. Moreover, this windfall came with very little risk.
Su Xiao turned and walked toward the Grand Cathedral. Yueshitu followed behind; she was already somewhat familiar with this route.
Half an hour later, on the wilderness before the Grand Cathedral, Yueshitu was released again. Before she could walk far, Baha said:
"Don't get caught again this time. Our line of work has principles, you know. As they say, 'three strikes and you're out.'"
"I-I won't get caught!"
Yueshitu was a bit embarrassed and angry. Being caught a second time, compared to the property loss, her dignity was more important. She also had a reputation to uphold. Cough—occasionally, she cared about face.
"This whole thing is just bizarre. Damn."
Baha sighed. It always felt that the style of these Apocalypse Paradise people was different from their side. There was always some inexplicable cheerfulness over there.
Su Xiao checked the time. It was already past four in the morning. He returned to his room in the Supply Station. Bubu Wang, Baha, and Kaisa agreed that this time, no one would cheat, and they started playing Landlord again.
This time, the cards didn't increase but instead grew fewer. In the end, Bubu Wang, Baha, and Kaisa each held two or three cards, staring at each other with wide eyes.
Sitting on the single sofa, Su Xiao lit a cigarette and opened the title list. Multiple titles appeared before him, arranged by star rating.
The highest-rated title was [Sky-Sweeping Storm], an eight-star title. Below it were the seven-star titles [Crownless King], [War Lord], [World Invasion], and [Blood Intent]. He checked the attributes of [Blood Intent].
[Blood Intent]
Origin: Reincarnation Paradise
Quality: ★★★★★★★
Title Effect: Blood Spring Surge (Passive) — When enhancing blood-type or blood-qi-type abilities, it can greatly increase the quality of blood or enhance the intensity of blood-qi aura.
Rating: No rating for titles.
Introduction: Either elegant, or mad, or arrogantly laughing.
Price: Unsellable.
...
The [Blood Intent] title didn't directly boost combat power, but for Su Xiao, it was very useful.
When enhancing his aura, he would use his self-created method to absorb blood-qi on the ancient battlefield. Now with [Blood Intent], going to the ancient battlefield to enhance blood-qi would be twice the result with half the effort.
Aura wasn't just about range; intensity also mattered. [Blood Intent] boosted aura intensity.
For example, if Su Xiao's Aura Release ability went from Lv.32 to Lv.33, it would normally increase aura intensity by 1 point. But if he wore the [Blood Intent] title during the enhancement, it would increase by 2 to 3 points—a huge difference.
That was the nature of seven-star titles. Either they greatly boosted combat power, or they had strong functionality, or like [War Lord], they were invincible in group battles. It was precisely because he had [War Lord] that Su Xiao could execute the Bai Ye-style legion tactics. [War Lord] was the absolute core.
Su Xiao had known for a long time that he wasn't particularly good at commanding legions. Compared to commanders who specialized in this field, he was far inferior. His solution was to delegate authority, plus the collective buffs from [War Lord].
Summoning Jila solved these problems, but the issue was that not all worlds were suitable for Jila's development.
Su Xiao currently had four seven-star titles. He had long wanted to upgrade [War Lord] to an eight-star title. Although it was a devilish endeavor, an eight-star [War Lord] would undoubtedly be terrifyingly powerful.
To upgrade a title, he needed to open the Title Fusion Disc, place the title to be upgraded in the main slot, and then place one title of the same star rating or no lower than two stars below the main title in each of the five surrounding sub-slots.
If Su Xiao placed [War Lord] in the main slot and [Crownless King] and [World Invasion] in the sub-slots, there would be a 60% chance of upgrading [War Lord] to an eight-star title.
But for some reason, seeing this 60% success rate, Su Xiao always felt it looked like 6%. Over such a long time, he had somewhat figured out his own luck. Unless the probability was 100%, like 90%, he could basically default to removing the zero and downgrading it to 9%.
The only solution was [Fate Dominator]. [Fate Dominator] could occasionally make that zero appear. This showed how important [Fate Dominator] was.
Among the seven-star titles, [World Invasion] was very useful. If used as a sub-title in title fusion, it would count as two sub-titles of the same star rating.
That meant Su Xiao only needed to obtain two more seven-star titles to have a 100% chance of upgrading [War Lord] to eight stars.
Closing the title list, Su Xiao continued meditating. Soon, it was 6 AM. The door pushed open, and a church member wearing gray clothes and a helmet walked into the room. After entering, this person glanced at Su Xiao, stopped, and nodded to him.
Su Xiao looked at the newcomer. He seemed familiar, but he had interacted with too many Sun Church members recently, so he couldn't remember exactly who this was.
"Nicholas Kaisa, I'm here to verify today's accounts."
A somewhat androgynous voice came. Hearing this voice, Su Xiao remembered who this was—a church member he had treated last night named Airo.
Airo was originally somewhat effeminate and weak, but was also an outstanding beast hunter, quite ruthless in battle—that was important.
A certain mission's intelligence error led Airo to mistakenly believe he was dealing with a psychic beast, but instead encountered an alien creature that had strayed from the nightmare world into the Sand World.
This alien creature had traits of life, reproduction, mother body, and metamorphosis. Given time, it could lay a large number of eggs, hatching many lower-level individuals.
Airo fought this mother body. It had to be said, Airo was indeed strong at the time. Completely unaware of the enemy's nature, he killed the mother body at the cost of severe injuries.
After the battle, Airo crawled out of the mixture of enemy mucus and blood. He didn't think much of it until, after returning to the church to recuperate for half a month, his "pectoral muscles" became increasingly developed, and he realized the severity of the situation.
Airo had a problem at the genetic level. Every morning, his first task was to determine his gender, then decide which clothes to wear. Today, it was Ms. Airo.
Airo came to verify the accounts. Her relationship with Kaisa was unpleasant. Understandably, given Kaisa's nature, the accounts seemed fine on the surface, but there were constant minor issues, just impossible to detect.
Half an hour later, the reluctant Ms. Airo put down the account book. She clearly knew Kaisa was up to something but couldn't find the problem. This feeling was worse than changing gender.
After Ms. Airo left, Su Xiao came to the counter. Seeing this, Bubu Wang went to the door to keep watch.
Su Xiao opened the reputation shop and purchased two [Sun Flame: Detonation Mark].
[You need to pay 900,000 Reputation Points. Actual payment: 675,000 Reputation Points.]
[Your faction authority: Return has been activated.]
[Sun Flame: Detonation Mark ×2 has been successfully returned.]
[You have received 900,000 Reputation Points.]
...
Su Xiao tossed the wooden box in his hand to Kaisa behind the counter. As soon as Kaisa touched the wooden box, it disappeared.
In just a few seconds, 225,000 Reputation Points were obtained. Su Xiao's Reputation Points reached 1.46 million. It seemed enough, but in reality, it wasn't.
Leaving the Supply Station, Su Xiao walked up the stairs to the fifth floor of the Grand Cathedral. Passing through the south corridor of the fifth floor, he pushed open the door and entered the greenhouse.
The greenhouse covered over 2,000 square meters. Inside, many wooden racks were set up, growing various rare plants, over 90% of which were supernatural plants.
The entire greenhouse was over 12 meters high, with multi-layered planting. Ladders and platforms were intricately arranged.
An artificial glass wall stood on the right side of the greenhouse. This glass wall was over a meter thick, serving both as a wall and for sunlight exchange. Particles of sunlight drifted out from within the glass wall.
"This is the wisdom of the Sun God Clan. We are merely imitating it. It's said that in Chiriade's Royal City, the city walls can absorb the power of the sun, constructing Flame Spirits for defense."
A man with a small beard under his chin walked over. He looked to be in his early fifties, but his eyes were full of spirit. The newcomer was named Bishop Cooper, the most accomplished potion formula developer in the Sun Church, and the least trusted alchemist.
Su Xiao had come to the greenhouse for an appointment. According to the agreement, two bishops, four deacons, and twelve priests were supposed to meet him here to decide whether he would leave the Sun Church or stay.
Only Bishop Cooper had come. This already said a lot.
"Bai Ye, in your understanding, what is the sun?"
Bishop Cooper stood before the glass wall, hands behind his back, chin slightly raised.
"The sun is... art?"
Saying this, Su Xiao suddenly thought of Apollo.