Chapter 41: Good Fortune
Danger Zone: The Great Ruins.
Su Xiao slowly pulled an energy thread from the soil. With a click, the explosive deeply buried underground was activated. This was an explosive made from liquid Apollo, highly sensitive to touch. One step on it, and *boom*—a pillar of fire would erupt, incinerating the enemy on the spot. The subsequent shockwave would even scatter the ashes.
From death, to cremation, to ash scattering, the entire process was seamless and fully automated.
Compared to the other bombs nearby, this pressure-triggered landmine was nothing special. The other bombs included sound-sensitive, bristle-type energy capture, heat-sensitive, and perception-sharing types.
Su Xiao set these up to prevent any contractors or violators from coming here during his absence. It wasn't a problem if they came to use the "Talent Awakening Device"; he had even left instructions nearby with several relatively safe activation methods.
Su Xiao didn't mind others using the "Talent Awakening Device." To prevent people from trying random methods, he even left the correct usage instructions. The problem was that some people, after using it, would think about dismantling it. When they couldn't take it apart due to their own lack of ability, they would start smashing it destructively, thinking, "If I can't have it, no one else will."
If they were from an opposing faction, this would be understandable. But the issue was that some people simply couldn't take it away, yet they didn't want any other capable stranger to obtain this treasure either.
To prevent such idiots, Su Xiao simply set up bombs around the area. Anyone who could get through the minefield should be relatively rational and calm, greatly reducing the probability of encountering a reckless fool.
This "Talent Awakening Device" was precious. It was built during the most glorious era of the Law Destruction Faction, consuming massive resources and taking the allied Slinster clan over a hundred years to construct.
It could be said that this "Talent Awakening Device" was one of a kind. It would be a great pity if it were destroyed.
Su Xiao's thought was that if those three old-timers, Mawen Hua'erzi and the others, could take this device away, things would be promising. Besides, it was actually their property, belonging to the Law Destruction Faction, and by extension, Su Xiao also had a share in it.
Su Xiao estimated that those older generation Law Destroyers might even have the manufacturing blueprints for the "Talent Awakening Device." Wo Wo, the adopted daughter of Lide, was a Slinster.
Wo Wo couldn't replicate a second "Talent Awakening Device," but after obtaining her ancestors' technology, with the unique creativity and manufacturing ability of the Slinster clan, she could likely take on the maintenance work of the "Talent Awakening Device." In layman's terms, if it broke, there was a place to fix it, which was quite good.
Su Xiao estimated that those three black-hearted old grandpas would likely be willing to bleed resources to take away the "Talent Awakening Device." With this thing, those three unscrupulous old-timers would evolve from veteran black-hearted old grandpas to ultimate black-hearted old grandpas.
Interestingly, it was said that once, Mawen Hua'erzi discovered a World Child and started a new round of black-hearted old grandpa routine, helping the "protagonist" grow and embark on the journey to defeat the tyrant.
When the "protagonist," after countless hardships, finally faced the tyrant, and the tyrant said, "I am actually your father," one could imagine how exciting that round's plot was. It would be a waste of material not to make a 52-episode war, family, ethical, and romance drama.
Su Xiao took out the ancient divine statue and activated it. Dense fog spread around them. When it thinned and dissipated, Su Xiao, Bubu Wang, Baha, and A Duo'er had already returned to the treehouse in Mushroom Village.
Although Yuer had completed his path of destiny, Beacon City wouldn't show any obvious changes within half a month. It was still a danger zone, so Mushroom Village remained a safe zone.
Speaking of which, Beacon City, as a newly formed danger zone, lacked a certain depth. It felt different from Dead Silence City, Doom Town, and Holy Land Chiriad.
Su Xiao pushed open the small hut's door and saw the Mushroom Prophet behind the counter, looking drowsy. After the initial period, the sales of "tickets" weren't as good.
That made sense. Among the contractors and violators, there were many capable people. Since Su Xiao could make "tickets," others could too. Those who had reached the Eighth Rank and had some reputation were all resourceful. Moreover, the technical content of "Life Secret Medicine" wasn't high. If it could stump the Elf race, it didn't mean it could stump the contractors and violators.
Su Xiao wasn't disappointed. He walked out of the treehouse and returned to his temporary residence in Mushroom Village. It was worth noting that this temporary residence was neighbors with Gulu and Sacred Poem.
Gulu looked well, but after seeing Su Xiao, she felt terrible. Spending 2500 Soul Coins on a bottle of improved strong sleeping pills would make anyone feel bad. She estimated that this thing might not even be worth 5 Soul Coins. A profit margin of over 500 times would give anyone a headache.
"Did you finish the sleeping pills? A Duo'er, this is Gulu, who used your sleeping pills. She's very satisfied with the effect."
Baha spoke. Hearing this, A Duo'er asked doubtfully, "Sleeping pills? Oh, that. No need..."
A Duo'er stopped mid-sentence, suddenly realizing something was wrong. She immediately denied it: "I don't sell medicine."
"Right, right, we sold it all."
Baha said this as he landed on Su Xiao's shoulder. A Duo'er was about to speak when a glance made her shiver. She turned her head slightly and saw Gulu, dressed in a Gothic dress, looking at her with a smile.
A Duo'er wanted to explain but was afraid of making things worse. She could only grit her teeth and quickly leave.
A few minutes later, in the wooden house where Su Xiao was staying, Su Xiao sat cross-legged on the bed, while A Duo'er sat on a chair opposite him.
"..."
Su Xiao opened his eyes, postponing his daily meditation for a while.
"Just now..."
A Duo'er wanted to ask what was going on. Baha, beside her, enthusiastically explained the general situation to her.
First, the sleeping pills sold to Gulu were indeed extorted by Su Xiao from A Duo'er. For this minor little rich girl, of course, he would squeeze out whatever benefits he could.
Now that Gulu knew the original source of the sleeping pills was A Duo'er, as the sucker who spent 2500 Soul Coins on strong sleeping pills, how could she not be angry?
This was a transaction, not enough to make them enemies. But Gulu had a strong vengeful streak and categorized grudges by level. Apart from her occasional bouts of suddenly killing contractors, she usually kept her grudges very clear. Since she couldn't beat Su Xiao, she had to postpone it, commonly known as keeping a little notebook. But she could beat A Duo'er, so of course, she would find a chance to settle this score.
What would happen if a healer from Apocalypse Paradise fell into Gulu's hands? With this level of grudge, death wasn't likely, but there would be suffering. If Gulu suddenly had an episode, it was unclear. The younger brother of Scale Dragon Yalik, Wild Beast Gasik, had died that way.
"So, you don't need to worry. From my understanding of Gulu, she'll at most torture you for two days and then let you go. Her mind isn't right, and she's not afraid of making enemies, so she definitely won't kill you. She might even hope you grow stronger so she can 'have fun' with you. It's said that when she finally kills you, she'll feel an extraordinary pleasure. As for whether that's true, that's what she said herself. I'm not sure."
Hearing Baha's words, A Duo'er's mood was far from calm.
"How... torture?"
A Duo'er swallowed.
"Look at this. There's a video."
Baha played a short video. It showed Gulu, after catching her mortal enemy, creating a miracle angel. A tough man was howling in a particularly chilling way.
The more A Duo'er watched, the paler her face became. She didn't doubt the authenticity of the video. She had once been captured alive by a female lunatic hunter from Reincarnation Paradise. Those days were like a nightmare.
"There's another thing. Sacred Poem is currently stored in Gulu's right arm. Don't look at me like that. It's Sacred Poem from Holy Light Paradise, the one who likes to bury people. Oh, right! That bottle of strong sleeping pills you had, Sacred Poem also spent 2500 Soul Coins on it. She and Gulu split the bill."
Hearing this, A Duo'er almost fainted from 'happiness.'
"And think about it. We are mortal enemies with Huishenshi. You've been following us for so many days. Do you think Huishenshi will let you off?"
"Wah~"
A Duo'er suddenly felt her future was bleak. Baha continued to twist the knife: "And Crow Woman is also hostile to us. I'll bet five cents that she's seen you moving with us. Guess what would happen if you ran into Crow Woman?"
"You might not know, but Crow Woman is from Arcane Eternal Star, specializing in 'dirty work'—assassination, tracking, interrogation. She's particularly good at it. If she catches you, she'll interrogate you for information about us. Tsk tsk tsk~, it'll be miserable."
Baha spoke in a strange, sarcastic tone, not caring at all that A Duo'er's eyes had lost their light.
"Also, all the remaining violators are hostile to us..."
"Woof."
Bubu interrupted Baha, meaning that was enough. If he continued, A Duo'er would mentally die.
"We won't force you to act with us..."
"I definitely won't run! Definitely!"
A Duo'er loudly expressed her determination. As long as she wasn't stupid, she could tell that staying with the Dawn Team was the safest option now. She had too many enemies, and they were all the type who could kill her with a flick of their fingers.
A Duo'er took out a red card and placed it on the bed with a pitiful expression. This was her final reward as a special overlord unit: a 100-point Kill Merit Card.
"What about the Angelic War Intent? You promised to give it to me if I cooperated."
A Duo'er's voice lacked confidence because even if Su Xiao said he wanted to freeload now, she couldn't do anything about it. She couldn't even leave the team in anger. If she dared to leave, she suspected she would die as soon as she left Mushroom Village.
She now had many enemies but lacked the strength to match them. She could only cling tightly to a powerful thigh. The three Seven-Star titles she had obtained earlier weren't easy to get.
This was kidnapping... ahem, the best way to find a temporary healer. Violence and intimidation would only make them submit temporarily; they would resist over time. But if you first lured them with benefits and then assimilated them into your faction, when that healer realized they were surrounded by enemies, they would become obedient. This was the strategy for capturing a wild healer.
A Duo'er first felt anger and helplessness, then made appropriate compromises. When she realized her current situation, she chose complete surrender.
"I also... got this."
A Duo'er took out a box and placed it on the table.
Su Xiao had previously estimated that A Duo'er, as a special overlord unit surviving to the third stage, should have more rewards than just a 100-point Kill Merit Card. That would be too thin and disproportionate to the risks she took. It seemed that was indeed the case.
[You have obtained Precipitated Glass (Abyss Curio, material. Can be used for weapon forging, enhancement, smelting, etc. This is the glass-like substance precipitated after the Abyss erodes a soul).]
Su Xiao put it away and began to meditate with his eyes closed, evaluating his development direction and whether there were any issues. Compared to before, he now had many more abilities.
After a careful inventory, he found that his combat style hadn't deviated. Blade techniques were primary, and everything else was supplementary.
Among them, Melee Grandmaster and Blood Spear Grandmaster had very limited derived combat methods—only Straight Kick and Blood Spear. More importantly, they provided passive bonuses through technique abilities.
Su Xiao deliberately developed them this way. Trying to bite off more than one could chew was unwise. Developing blade techniques already consumed a lot of mental energy.
His ultimate-level abilities included Demon Blade and Azure Shadow King. As for the blade technique's Blade Domain, he had recently been developing this ability toward a passive form.
To put it bluntly, Su Xiao initially thought this ability was extremely strong, until he had to 'scratch' multiple final bosses, especially the old knight. He found that this ability was indeed strong against minor bosses and elite units, but against stronger enemies, it gradually became ineffective.
It would be better to transform it into a passive ability, making normal attacks equivalent to ultimate moves—more intense and pure.
This made Su Xiao realize one thing: flashy abilities were useless. Stacking passives to the max, making normal attacks equal to ultimate moves, was truly stronger than anything else. He had killed too many enemies with flashy abilities.
His combat core was Blade Techniques + Azure Steel Shadow, Dodge Dragon Shadow Flash, Defense Crystal Layer. The other abilities were 90% self-boosting passives or talent abilities like Soul Devourer and Shadow Hunt, which aided his growth.
Interestingly, Su Xiao, after developing to this point, only had six active abilities, even counting Devouring Core and Supreme Blade.
Only counting combat active abilities, there were only four: Azure Steel Shadow, Azure Shadow King, Dragon Shadow Flash, and Aura Release. That was it. The other major categories were all self-boosting passive abilities.
Then there were equipment bonuses. Even equipment bonuses were mostly passive effects.
Su Xiao was very satisfied with this development method centered on his own physique. He planned to continue stacking passive abilities.
He had already pushed the Technique Sublimation ability to X. Recently, Su Xiao felt wealthy again. He estimated that even if he got two more, no, three more technique passives similar to Technique Sublimation, he could afford them. Ahem, probably.
After planning his strengthening path, Su Xiao ended his daily meditation. The smell of food wafted over.
"Dinner is ready."
A Duo'er, standing by the stove, spoke.
"..."
Su Xiao came to the small dining table and looked at the food on it. He sat down and casually took a bite. His chewing motion paused as he realized things weren't simple.
"Boss, how does it taste? It smells good. I didn't know A Duo'er was so talented."
Baha asked.
"It's okay."
Hearing Su Xiao's words, Baha also took a taste. His eyebrows raised, and he said, "Pretty good. Bubu, you try it."
Bubu Wang took a big bite of the pepper lamb ribs. He was choked by the pepper flavor and shuddered. Then a force rushed to his head. He covered his head with his paw, stunned.
"How is it? My mustard pepper lamb ribs are good, right?"
A Duo'er picked up a piece of lamb rib and ate it happily.
"..."
Su Xiao didn't say anything. He took out some instant meals and asked Baha to heat them up, hastily finishing this meal.
After the meal, A Duo'er, who had cleaned up the dishes, sat contentedly at the table. From her expression, it seemed she had her own unique standard for what was delicious.
Su Xiao was considering how to maximize A Duo'er's value. He had kept her until now because of her almost fantastical luck.
He had checked her information. Her 15 points of Luck Attribute actually brought better fortune than his own 50 points of Luck Attribute. This was very unscientific.
Or rather, fortune itself was unscientific and had no logic. It involved fate, causality, and other levels that Su Xiao couldn't control at this point.
Su Xiao indeed couldn't control fortune, but he could control people with good fortune, like A Duo'er.
Su Xiao handed the [Sacred Serpent Guardian] pendant to A Duo'er, asking her to wear it around her neck. A Duo'er herself was very lucky. With this luck-enhancing item, her fortune would only get better.
A Duo'er put on the [Sacred Serpent Guardian]. After seeing the pendant's attributes, she genuinely wanted it but quickly suppressed the thought.
Inside the hollow gem, the Sacred Serpent had tears of gratitude in its eyes. It wanted to say that this was the life a snake should live. A trace of misfortune spread from the surroundings. In contrast, when it was wrapped around Su Xiao's wrist, the amount of misfortune was like having a high-pressure fire hose shoved into its mouth with the valve fully open.
Ignoring the Sacred Serpent's feelings, Su Xiao took out the [Misfortune Coin] and tossed it to A Duo'er.
When the Misfortune Coin landed on heads, it meant minor misfortune—bad luck was coming. Tails meant great misfortune—a threat of death was imminent.
Su Xiao had previously wanted A Duo'er to toss the [Misfortune Coin] while wearing the [Sacred Serpent Guardian] to predict good or bad fortune. The problem was that A Duo'er had always wanted to escape before. Now, there was no need to worry.
"Toss it."
Su Xiao said. A Duo'er tossed the Misfortune Coin with a nervous expression.
*Ding~*
The [Misfortune Coin] flew up. When Su Xiao tossed it, seven out of ten times it landed on tails (great misfortune), so he felt this thing was useless.
He decided to do an experiment. If it didn't work, he would throw the [Misfortune Coin] to Kaisa, just like the [Ouroboros Stone Tablet], to let him know the dangers of the world.
As if sensing the intense fluctuation of fate, the Misfortune Coin landed in mid-air, a meter above the ground. It wasn't heads or tails. It actually stood upright.
Bubu Wang and Baha both widened their eyes. Heads meant bad luck, tails meant death. Standing upright—what did that mean? Good luck?
Su Xiao picked up the Misfortune Coin and casually tossed it again. *Clink*. The coin landed on tails—great misfortune.
Seeing this, A Duo'er said with a honeyed mouth, "Not good. Tails means you might die. You have a death omen. Be careful."
"..."
Su Xiao ignored A Duo'er. He picked it up and tossed it again. It was still tails—great misfortune. This time, he confirmed that the Misfortune Coin was working normally. It was A Duo'er's fortune that was abnormal.
Su Xiao took out the [Soul Coin Pouch] from his storage space and handed it to A Duo'er. Then he drew the long knife at his waist and pressed it against A Duo'er's neck.
"Open it."
"Okay!"
A Duo'er answered very promptly, no longer speaking with a honeyed mouth.
[Soul Coin Pouch: Upon opening, you can obtain 1 to 10,000 Soul Coins.]
With a nervous heart, A Duo'er opened the Soul Coin Pouch. With a *whoosh*, a large number of Soul Coins gushed out like a fountain.
Su Xiao activated his storage space function, absorbing the gushing Soul Coins. After more than two minutes, he received a notification.
[You have obtained 7275 Soul Coins.]
Seeing this, Su Xiao sheathed his long knife. He took out a card booklet and handed it to A Duo'er opposite him, signaling her to open it. This was a random draw for team skill cards.
"Hold on, ahem, wait."
A Duo'er, who had a slight lisp when nervous, took out a candle under the puzzled gazes of Su Xiao, Bubu Wang, Baha, and Gulu, who was watching from the doorway.
A Duo'er lit the candle. After hesitating, she signaled Bubu to come closer, saying there was something good to see. Bubu leaned in to look. A Duo'er quickly used the candle flame to burn the soft flesh of Bubu's dog mouth.
"Woof! Arf!"
Bubu Wang jerked his head back. Su Xiao and Baha both looked at A Duo'er with 'friendly' gazes.
"Wait, this is borrowing luck. If I said it out loud, it wouldn't work. His luck is the best."
A Duo'er didn't continue. Her implication was that borrowing Baha's luck would be useless, and borrowing Su Xiao's might even cause negative effects.
Bubu Wang licked his mouth. He didn't feel any burns, but his luck for the recent period had been drained, returning to a normal growth level.
"Bubu, if there's danger later, you must take me and run. I'm sincere."
As A Duo'er spoke, the candle in her hand burned out quickly. This thing burned luck as smoke. After inhaling it, the burned luck would burst out in a short time. Simply put, this was a one-time Fate Dominator, but due to its consumable nature, its single-use effect was stronger than Fate Dominator.
That wasn't all. A Duo'er ate a golden candy, took out a platinum narrow crown and put it on, and finally put on a ring. The one-time good luck set was complete, concentrating great fortune on the next fortune fluctuation.
"Open!"
A Duo'er opened the card booklet with a chuunibyou aura. With a *whoosh*, a large number of cards flew up. These cards formed a disk, spun rapidly for over a dozen rotations, then clicked to a stop. One card popped out.
Just as A Duo'er grabbed the card, the four legs of her chair suddenly split with a *crack*. It was hard to understand how A Duo'er, at 1.60 meters tall and weighing less than 95 jin, could break the chair.
The chair collapsed, and A Duo'er sat down hard on the ground, causing the wooden floor to tremble slightly. The vibration reached the nearby wooden table.
Just as A Duo'er was focusing on the wooden cabinet, wary of any bad luck, the hanging lamp above fell down. The lamp, shaped like an Elizabethan collar, landed around her neck. With a crackling sound of electricity, she trembled slightly as she took off the lamp.
At that moment, the floorboard under A Duo'er cracked with a *crack*, and she fell through. The wooden cabinet she had been staring at fell into the hole and hit her on the head.
"Eek!"
A Duo'er let out a cry. Baha flew down and pulled her up. After steadying herself, she held the team skill card in her hand, a strange light in her eyes.
"Let's trade."
"..."
Su Xiao took out [Angelic War Intent] and tossed it to A Duo'er. The opposite A Duo'er, with joy in her eyes, threw the team skill card. It could only be said that she was too naive.
*Zzzt~*
The Realm Severing Thread tightened, pulling back [Angelic War Intent]. Su Xiao raised his hand, catching [Angelic War Intent] with one hand and the skill card with the other.
[You have obtained Team Skill Card: Thunder Breath Blessing (Passive, X).]
[Thunder Breath Blessing (Passive, X): Improves physique with active lightning. Upon triggering this ability, permanently increases Life Value by 1 point per minute (up to a maximum of 5000 points), increases Mana Value by 1 point every five minutes (up to a maximum of 1500 points), and increases Lightning Resistance by 1 point per day (up to a maximum of 30 points).]
[Note: When the enhancement effects of Thunder Breath Blessing reach their maximum, this ability's personal bonus will adaptively change to increasing high Lightning Resistance.]
...
"Ah, this! Ah!"
A Duo'er instinctively wanted to reach out and grab it. With [Angelic War Intent] and successfully returning to Apocalypse Paradise, she could undergo a reset-style ability transformation, turning her life around completely.
"Didn't you say you'd give it to me?"
A Duo'er was angry inside but still had to keep smiling.
"This is the rational allocation of resources."
Su Xiao said.
"?"
A Duo'er was confused.
"You can't guarantee you'll survive until the end of this world. Your mortality rate is too high. If I give you [Angelic War Intent] now and you die, it would be like taking [Angelic War Intent] into the grave with you. That would be a huge waste of resources."
"??"
A Duo'er was bewildered. She felt that what Su Xiao said was both reasonable and unreasonable.
Su Xiao tossed [Precipitated Glass] back to A Duo'er. In his view, [Angelic War Intent] and [Precipitated Glass] were of similar value, but [Angelic War Intent] was easier to sell.
"This originally belonged to you. I'm returning it to you now. If you can survive until the end, use it to exchange for [Angelic War Intent]. I never lie. They can prove it."
Su Xiao tilted his chin toward Bubu Wang and Baha.
"You lied to Zuiyasi before..."
"..."
As Su Xiao's gaze gradually became stern, A Duo'er's voice grew softer until she completely lowered her head.
Su Xiao felt he couldn't keep dangling a carrot forever. Plus, obtaining an X-rank team skill card put him in a good mood. He took out two candies and tossed one to A Duo'er. It was a [Soul Candy].
[Soul Candy]
Origin: Soul Arena (Unique)
Quality: Holy Spirit Rank (Soul Item)
Type: Permanent Soul Enhancement Item.
Effect: After consumption, permanently increases Soul Strength. The lower the user's Soul Strength, the greater the enhancement.
Rating: 1000 points.
...
A Duo'er's eyes lit up. Although she was wealthy, things like [Soul Candy] were still hard to obtain. Such items with special origins and limited quantities were difficult to buy.
Su Xiao looked at Gulu at the door and said, "There's one left. Do you want to eat it?"
"Heh~, who do you think I am? What candy haven't I eaten? How could I possibly... thank you."
Gulu took the candy and left. She originally didn't want it, but this candy was hard to refuse.
"How much?"
Outside the door, Gulu, with the candy in her mouth, was in a better mood.
"Free."
Su Xiao pulled out a handful of Soul Candies. Gulu instinctively took a big step back, her vigilant gaze asking, "What are you doing?"
Su Xiao was just showing her. She was a big customer for Soul Candies. As for the remaining 11, unless someone offered 3000 Soul Coins each, he wouldn't sell them. He knew the taste of souls better than others, especially these processed, more delicious Soul Candies.
He had Baha see the guest out and began to think. Using the [Navigation Compass] to track Huishenshi now was too late. The other's plan was basically in its final stages.
Su Xiao guessed that Huishenshi had endured for so long to be stable. The supply crate dropped in the fourth stage contained a special crate with this world's unique output. Huishenshi's target was over 90% likely to be this thing.
Shenfu, Xianji, Minglang, and all the violators who came to this world were used by Huishenshi. Huishenshi didn't actually need them to do anything else—just buy time. These violators thought they were guarding well against Huishenshi, but in reality, they were all played.
Geographically, there was no need to stay in Mushroom Village now. Going to the ancient capital, Ring Tree City, was more reliable. The supply crate drop was on the grassland of the initial tree in the ancient capital.
Su Xiao left the temporary wooden house and found that there were far fewer people in Mushroom Village. The fourth stage would start soon, and those people had gone to seize the supply crates.
Su Xiao noticed that many familiar faces had stayed behind: Solomon, the Three Brothers of National Football, Water Brother, Scale Dragon Yalik, and others. None of them were heading to the ancient capital.
These were all smart people. They knew that Su Xiao and Huishenshi would likely have a deathmatch in the ancient capital. Since there were benefits to be had in Beacon City now, none of them wanted to wade into the muddy waters of the ancient capital.
In their view, nothing Su Xiao and Huishenshi did would be surprising. These two were about to fight to the death. The farther away, the better. Who knew if these two would use large-scale attacks on each other? If they died just from watching the show, that would be too embarrassing.
After estimating the number of people in Mushroom Village, Su Xiao turned back into the wooden house, activated the ancient divine statue, and teleported to the initial tree in the central area.
...
Two hours later, on the streets of the ancient capital, Ring Tree City.
Su Xiao observed the expressions of passing Vine Clan members and felt that nothing major had happened here.
So far, Su Xiao had found no trace of Huishenshi. This made him wonder if Huishenshi had actually entered the Treeborn World. Could all this be a setup by the other party? Using a puppet to enter the Treeborn World to attract attention while the real body completed his long-standing plan in some Primordial World?
Su Xiao estimated this was unlikely. There were too many contradictions. He walked along the street, checking the Kill Merit ranking. He had now used all his Kill Merit Cards.
[Ranking has been refreshed. Current ranking is as follows:]
First Place: Solomon (Reincarnation Paradise), 175 Kill Merit.
Second Place: En Zuo (Death Paradise), 162 Kill Merit.
Third Place: Bai Ye (Reincarnation Paradise), 141 Kill Merit.
Fourth Place: Anonymous (Apocalypse Paradise), 70 Kill Merit.
Fifth Place: Gulu (Reincarnation Paradise), 42 Kill Merit.
...
The amount of Kill Merit obtained was not directly proportional to the number of kills. This thing could be consumed and obtained through other means. For example, Su Xiao's current 141 Kill Merit, 120 of which were not obtained through kills.
The competition for the Kill Merit ranking wasn't fierce. That was natural. It couldn't be fierce even if they wanted it to be.
Originally, the top five were: Su Xiao, Shenfu, Solomon, Xianji, and Sacred Poem.
But among the top five, Su Xiao had killed three. Xianji was dead. Although Shenfu and Sacred Poem weren't completely dead, they had fallen off the rankings. Plus, Huishenshi and Crow Woman weren't participating in this competition. Under these circumstances, it would be strange if the competition were fierce.
Looking at the current situation, Water Brother from Death Paradise had risen. He was extremely skilled in contractor-versus-contractor combat. This was the man who had dominated the World of Paintings. No one knew if he could break the curse of being the eternal second this time.
Compared to Water Brother, the contractor named Anonymous from Apocalypse Paradise was a dark horse, having been very low-key before.
Actually, Su Xiao misunderstood. When Anonymous entered this world and saw the list of overlord units published by the Void Tree, his head was buzzing. His thought was, "Is this a place for humans?"
But soon, Anonymous discovered that these overlord units had grudges among themselves and were mutually restraining each other. So he took the opportunity to rise.
Su Xiao closed the Kill Merit ranking. This time, he didn't want to take first place. The first-place reward, [Primordial Demon Mirror (Abyss Product)], didn't interest him after his contact with the Abyssal Jar.
If it was a 'Daddy-level' item, he couldn't keep tricking Wude with it. The Devil race wasn't a 'Wild Daddy Club.'
Compared to the first-place reward, the second-place [Technique Soul (High-Level Technique Trait Skill Scroll)] was more satisfying. So this time, controlling the intensity was crucial. He absolutely couldn't overdo it like in the Canglong Continent, where he ended up losing second place and being forced into first.
With nothing else to do for now, Su Xiao headed toward the Invisible Room. It was now the third stage of this world, meaning the World Store had refreshed twice.
Half an hour later, Su Xiao stopped in front of the large iron door of the Invisible Room. After pushing it open, he found four people discussing something in low voices in front of the World Store. Without needing to investigate, he knew they were violators.
Murderous intent surged in Su Xiao's heart. He decided to find a reason to deal with these four violators. As the saying goes, with reason, you can travel the world; without reason, you can only eat dust. Ring Tree City was the Vine Clan's territory. If these four rushed out of the Invisible Room, he would have to chase and kill them.
If he killed someone on the street in the Vine Clan's territory, he had to give a reason, allowing the Vine Clan to save face. Then both sides would give each other face, and the matter would be perfectly resolved. Making unnecessary enemies was unwise. Never try to trample a race's dignity underfoot.
The four violators opposite walked toward him. To Su Xiao's surprise, none of them looked forward. They all looked at the ground and walked quickly. This obviously meant he couldn't say things like "Why are you looking at me?" since they were looking at the ground.
Just as they were getting close, Su Xiao frowned and asked, "Why are you sneaking around? Could it be... you want to harm me?"
"Damn it!"
"F*ck you, I'll fight you!"
"???"
The four all glared at Su Xiao. They knew that this encounter would inevitably lead to a fight. They had originally planned to ambush him after passing by and then immediately flee. Why flee? When encountering the beheader of the night, they had to flee. If they didn't, they would die.
"Sure enough, you don't look like good people. With a little probing, you reveal your true colors."
Hearing Su Xiao's words, the four angry people gradually put on expressions of pain.
Law Destruction Formula: The other party is sneaking around = harboring ill intentions = the other party is likely to attack first = the other side struck first = our side is 'forced' to engage.
After applying the Law Destruction Formula, before the other side could act, Su Xiao had already drawn the long knife at his waist and began to 'forcibly' engage the enemy.