Chapter 10: The Creditor
Inside the ancient hall, after some investigation, Su Xiao determined that the unknown evil god had already fled overnight, rather than setting up some scheme or pretending to leave.
First of all, this evil god was also injured. An eighth-rank top-tier overlord-level creature was not to be trifled with. For its overlord essence and a large amount of source blood, this evil god had gone all out, directly confronting and killing that overlord creature.
From various clues, this evil god was definitely a big shot among the eighth rank. However, this time, they had encountered a Waterloo. After paying a heavy price for a cross-realm spatial journey, they arrived in this world.
Obviously, this evil god had a good time when they first arrived, even subduing many intelligent beings of this world.
Unfortunately, after Su Xiao and the others entered this world, the hidden dangers that already existed in this world were triggered.
To be precise, it wasn't because Su Xiao and the others entered this world that it became like this, but because this world was going to become like this that it became the destination for the user of [Nightmare's Beginning]. To put it accurately, Su Xiao and the others accelerated this process.
Two days ago, the evil god, who was originally going to expand their influence here, suddenly frowned, realizing that this place was not simple. Therefore, the evil god deceived their followers into hunting supernatural creatures, and they themselves went to trouble the overlord creature. Finally, using a large amount of source blood to construct a ritual array, they fled overnight.
Su Xiao still gained something from this trip, such as the ritual array left by the evil god.
Su Xiao couldn't fathom the cross-realm ultra-long-distance teleportation of this array. The difference between alchemy and ritual studies was simply like chemistry and astronomy. Asking a chemistry professor to teach astronomy would definitely make their head spin.
There was one aspect of this ritual array that Su Xiao could refer to. This array was constructed with source blood, belonging to a technique for deeply developing the "Power of Blood." Thinking from a different perspective, could this method of utilizing the "Power of Blood" be replicated?
If this could be achieved, could Su Xiao use blood energy to construct alchemical arrays? Not to mention other things, the key was saving money. The basic materials required for some alchemical arrays were so expensive it made one's heart bleed.
After selecting several core points of the ritual array, Su Xiao brought Bubu Wang, Amu, and Baha and left, riding the Demon Flame Dragon back to the base camp.
The sky was clear without a single cloud. Su Xiao sat cross-legged on the dragon's back, considering how to deal with the subsequent situation. The intelligence provided by Kaisa was that, starting from today, there wouldn't be any major changes in the next 10 days. On the Nether Forces' side, they would mostly be making preparations before the invasion.
How large the Nether Forces were was still unknown, but a large-scale invasion from an outer world was definitely not something that could be accomplished overnight. This was a different concept from the evil god entering this world. The evil god only needed to complete a one-way entry, while the Nether Forces needed to construct a stable inter-dimensional passage to form a large-scale invasion.
Currently, there was no sign of anything on Pandora Star. Shenfu had taken the initiative to go to the Empire's home planet, clearly having obtained concrete intelligence. The initial infiltration point of the Nether Forces was over at "Okae Star."
Since that was the case, Su Xiao decided not to consider the Nether Forces for now. In fact, thinking about it was useless with too little intelligence. What he should do now was stabilize the situation on Pandora Star.
Among the three major forces here, the Empire, the Company, and the Crimson Queen, none of them could be allied with. Telling them that the Nether was about to invade was like casting pearls before swine. Compared to those invisible threats, they were more concerned about their immediate enemies.
Even if, for the sake of argument, these three major forces agreed to cooperate, during the subsequent resistance against the Nether, there would inevitably be problems with decision-makers from several sides influencing each other, leading to an inability to make quick decisions and a complete collapse.
Su Xiao would rather arrange all three major forces, seize resources to develop, than cooperate with pig teammates. Not to mention the others, the Company side was definitely a pig teammate. This could be 100% confirmed.
The Empire was arrogant, the Company was shameless, so Su Xiao decided to first attack the Crimson Queen's faction. It wasn't for any other reason, mainly because it was close.
Our base camp was in the south, while the Empire was in the north directly ahead. Between the two sides was the Crimson Queen's territory. If we didn't deal with the Crimson Queen before attacking the Empire or the Company, we would either get stabbed in the back or hit on the flank. We definitely had to kill the Crimson Queen first.
The current problem was that the Crimson Queen's faction was formed by five insect race mother queens sticking together. Brutal Kara, the low-key Aiseya, the pro-peace Gai, and finally the Spider Queen were all supporters of the Crimson Queen.
This meant that attacking one meant provoking all five. This was not the situation Su Xiao wanted to see.
His original idea was to ally with the Empire and besiege the Crimson Queen's faction from front and back. The problem was that the Empire was preparing to station new fleets on Pandora Star. The existing Third Fleet would remain, and the Eighth and Ninth Fleets would be stationed here later.
In addition, the immigration zone that had been under construction for a long time was also activated a month ago, and citizens had long been gradually relocated here.
The Empire's attitude was that they were determined to take Pandora Star. However, due to the need to station fleets and relocate citizens, the war between the Third Fleet and the Crimson Queen's faction had temporarily subsided.
If we asked the Empire to start a war now, we would most likely get promises. When the war actually started, they wouldn't send a single soldier, watching Su Xiao and the Crimson Queen fight to the death, and finally reaping the benefits.
Since we couldn't get external reinforcements, we had to weaken the enemy from within. Su Xiao estimated that after the insect race alliance and the Empire ceased fire, the five mother queens of the insect race alliance would likely have minor conflicts.
Regardless, the ceasefire was proposed by the Empire. The insect race alliance could be considered to have a small victory. With a victory in war, even if it was just a small victory, there would definitely be benefits to follow.
If we could make the four subordinate mother queens have a dispute over the spoils, it would definitely exacerbate the conflict. Even the Crimson Queen, as the leader of the insect race alliance, could at most mediate, not suppress by force.
Looking at it from another angle, why did the insect race alliance agree to a ceasefire so easily? Su Xiao estimated that the Empire was more than 90% likely to have proposed the concept of coexistence, and then later find a way to make the insect race fight among themselves.
This method of first giving a punch, then coaxing with candy, and finally disintegrating the enemy from within was something the Empire was quite skilled at. More than half of the dozen or so colonial planets they controlled were taken down this way.
From another perspective, from the insect race alliance's point of view, a long period of peace was coming. This was not Su Xiao's delusion. If the insect race didn't think they were entering a period of peace, the Spider Queen would definitely not continue to lend out high-interest loans.
Thinking of the Spider Queen, Su Xiao thought of a breakthrough. The Spider Queen had once paid the price of damaging her origin to split off a spiritual body, shaping a spiritual clone, and then cultivating a flesh-and-blood body that looked exactly like a human to carry this spiritual clone.
Originally, the Spider Queen wanted to infiltrate the human race and destroy the enemy from within. Unfortunately, just two days after infiltrating, she was stabbed in the back.
Who was the one who stabbed her in the back? To this day, the Spider Queen hadn't found out. The only thing that could be confirmed was that it was done by the insect race.
Su Xiao planned to do something about this. Before the evening of today, the Spider Queen would personally bring her subordinates to deliver 150,000 units of life ore. At that time, the Spider Queen would become our creditor.
Once the other party became a creditor, it would be easy. For example, Su Xiao's side could, through a "special channel," discover who exactly backstabbed the Spider Queen and solve this problem for the creditor.
First of all, the one who backstabbed the Spider Queen was definitely not the Crimson Queen, because Su Xiao couldn't beat the Crimson Queen's tribe yet.
Of the remaining three parties, Brutal Kara, the low-key Aiseya, and the pro-peace Gai, Su Xiao decided to choose the pro-peace Gai. Not only because the other party was not far from us, but also because Gai was not truly pro-peace. She just wanted to avoid war and let others be cannon fodder. This had made the other four insect race mother queens dissatisfied with her for a long time.
Su Xiao would use the pretext that Gai had once backstabbed the Spider Queen to start a war with her. The advantage of doing this was that even if the Crimson Queen wanted to intervene, she would first find the Spider Queen. The reason was that, from an external perspective, Su Xiao's side seemed to be under the Spider Queen.
When the Crimson Queen found the Spider Queen about this, the other party would definitely be dumbfounded and give a triple denial of "I didn't, I'm not, I never thought of doing that."
At that time, if Su Xiao could defeat Gai, it would be a successful revenge for the Spider Queen. If he couldn't, he would say that this matter was instigated by the Spider Queen, and they still owed her high-interest loans. The possibility of the Spider Queen directly attacking was extremely slim.
More importantly, at this time, the insect race alliance had already ceased fire with the Empire. Coupled with the pro-peace Gai's various teammate-selling behaviors during the war, if she was beaten now, the other four insect races, even if they didn't applaud, would be grinning and eating popcorn while watching the show, saying, "You finally got what you deserved! Heaven has eyes!"
The plan gradually took shape in Su Xiao's mind. For now, he just had to wait for the Spider Queen to deliver that batch of 150,000 units of life ore and become our creditor.
The Demon Flame Dragon flying high in the sky swooped down, landing in front of the base camp's mother nest. Su Xiao jumped off the dragon's back and walked into a two-story wooden building. This structure looked like it was woven from tree roots. It was a strange object seed given by the Mushroom Prophet when they parted ways in the last world.
Inside the spacious and bright second floor, Su Xiao sat cross-legged on the ground. To attack other insect race mother queens and develop quickly, having only the 150,000 units of life ore borrowed from the Spider Queen was not enough.
1.5 million points of bio-energy could cultivate a total of 30,000 elite demon beasts. Even if the pro-peace Gai's strength was at the bottom among all insect race queens, she couldn't be taken down with just over 30,000 elite demon beasts and 10 Demon Flame Dragons.
Beep, beep, beep~
An electronic sound came from the side. Su Xiao picked up the communicator. It was Kaisa calling. After answering, Kaisa's deliberately lowered voice came through:
"My dear friend, I'll send you the electronic route map and time intelligence in a moment. There are two pieces of news, one good and one bad. Which one do you want to hear first?"
"Bad."
"The bad news is that the escort team for this shipment includes the Company's three top ace employees and an Empire executioner."
"Executioner?"
Su Xiao hadn't heard any intelligence about this.
"To put it simply, it's the ultimate single-soldier combat power. Not only is he strong, but the moment he dies, he will also detonate his own energy core. Boom! Everything within seven or eight kilometers will be gone."
"Mm. The good news?"
"The good news is that I've confirmed one thing. Because there is a massive consciousness entity on our Pandora Star, the Nether Forces can only carry out a violent invasion, not infiltration. I'm not sure of the specific reason. In short, before the Empire's home planet, Okae Star, and those dozen or so colonial planets fall, we are safe here."
"Mm."
With that, Su Xiao hung up the communication. This was indeed good news. He estimated that this might not be because of the massive consciousness entity on Pandora Star, but because this place was being notarized by the Void Tree, thus avoiding early infiltration.
Before long, Kaisa sent the information. The Company's base camp was on the east side, which was to the right front of our base camp. The Company's plan was that at 3:00 PM today, the transport ship responsible for this mission would depart, and it was expected to arrive at the Third Fleet's station, the "New Star City" in the north, between 6:10 PM and 6:15 PM.
On this route from the Company's base camp to New Star City, the several hundred people on the transport ship would have to undergo scleral and voiceprint authentication every 5 minutes. This equipment was carried on their person, and any abnormality would trigger an alarm.
Not only that, the entire ship was equipped with surveillance facilities and was under real-time monitoring from New Star City. What was even more unsolvable was that once there was any abnormality here, causing both the control center in New Star City and the control center in the Company's base camp to be unable to receive the transport ship's signal, New Star City would unilaterally detonate the "Fission-Type Gravity Bomb" in the cargo hold, crushing the entire transport ship to the size of a basketball.
Su Xiao projected the route map and the transport ship's structural diagram onto the table. Bubu Wang, Baha, Amu, and Jila gathered around the table. It was worth mentioning that the latter two were just joining in the fun.
"Boss, the strength of the Company's three ace employees is all at the top tier of the eighth rank. Besides them, there's also an Empire executioner. The executioner's combat power is probably a notch higher than the ace employees. The key is that if you kill him, he explodes. And there's also a 'Fission-Type Gravity Bomb' in the cargo hold of this transport ship. This is tough."
Baha had a worried expression. Upon hearing this, Jila and Amu nodded thoughtfully.
"..."
Su Xiao, Bubu Wang, and Baha were all a bit speechless. Jila and Amu weren't participating in this operation, yet they looked like they were the main force.
Su Xiao took out a large box of spicy crawfish made by Xia. Amu and Jila's eyes began to shine. A few seconds later, they went to the side to eat the crawfish, completely losing interest in the plan to hijack the ship.
"This transport ship will sail for 3 hours and 10 minutes. We'll make our move here."
Su Xiao pointed to the upper middle part of the map. Bubu Wang and Baha both nodded to indicate understanding.
"This area is a high-gravity zone. Unless the Company's transport ship takes a detour for several hours, it will definitely pass through here. When passing through this kind of high-gravity zone, the transport ship's signal will be slightly affected. Bubu, you hack into the transport ship's control system and make the signal interference more severe. Baha, you take care of the 'Fission-Type Gravity Bomb' in the cargo hold. Any problems?"
"Nope."
"Good. Bubu, after we make our move, you immediately cut off the transport ship's main line control, turning all the ship's cabins into separate cells."
"Woof!"
"Mm. It all depends on you then. The plan is basically like this. Any additions?"
"Boss, are you going to handle all those ace employees and the executioner yourself? The time left for you to act is too short. Should we contact the Undead Girl..."
"No need."
"Alright, then we'll follow your orders. Let's just do it! Ollie give!"
"..."
Su Xiao closed the terminal projection, brought Bubu Wang and Baha, and left the two-story wooden building, heading straight for the Company's base camp, the "Aitaichi Laboratory."
...
Meanwhile, in the central region, a mother nest over 200 meters high stood here. With this mother nest as the center, various insect race buildings stood tall. This large building complex covered an area of over 2,000 square kilometers. From a distance, it looked like a city with an insect race style. The edges even had walls made of biological tissue, and every 500 meters, there was a defensive tower integrated with the wall.
This was the Crimson Queen's domain. The strongest insect race mother queen in this world was not just for show. In the war with the Empire, the insect race troops under the Crimson Queen were the absolute main force.
At this moment, inside the central mother nest, in the mother queen's resting chamber.
Sunlight streamed in through the floor-to-ceiling windows. The Crimson Queen sat in a place where the sunlight didn't reach. She held a cup of black tea in her hand, with a faint smile on her face. At that moment, a voice came from beside her:
"So boring~ No thrilling sense of development, so restless~"
Yueshitu lay back on a recliner, swaying back and forth.
Beside her, Molei and Hao Mei were doing their own things. One was repairing a mining shovel, and the other was meditating. After all, Hao Mei was a sword technique grandmaster, and she maintained her daily meditation.
This time, Yueshitu could be considered the MVP of the team. Originally, the three of them, as Su Xiao's neighbors, developed their insect races together. On the first day, they found that their neighbor had developed a seventh-rank mother nest. At that time, Molei's mood could only be described as being struck by lightning.
Heaven finally favored the Apocalypse Three Sisters once. Yueshitu, who originally wanted to bring the insect race mother body to join the insect race alliance, found that she seemed to know the Crimson Queen. When the two met, Yueshitu just wanted to look up to the sky and laugh three times, because the Crimson Queen was actually her former "Contract Partner."
The so-called "Contract Partner" was an exclusive advantage of the summoning system. Summoners often come into contact with beings from other worlds or gods. When facing some high-level beings, even if the summoner cannot form a contractual subordinate relationship with them, they can still conduct sacrificial transactions with them, benefiting both parties.
In fact, Su Xiao's transactions with the Rampaging Growth and the Old One were somewhat similar to the summoning system's "Contract." It's just that the transaction parties Su Xiao dealt with were one more terrifying than the other, the kind that would make summoners exclaim "Holy crap!"
Now, the meeting between the Crimson Queen and Yueshitu left both sides with complex feelings.
This time, the Crimson Queen decided to cooperate with Yueshitu, Molei, and Hao Mei. Of course, besides the personal feelings between the Crimson Queen and Yueshitu, the Crimson Queen was also somewhat overwhelmed by Yueshitu's power of wealth.
When Molei and Hao Mei learned that the cooperation was successful, they were stunned. To use Molei's words: "Yueshitu, before I met you, I always heard that you were a big shot. But after meeting you, I found you were not right. It's been so long, and you finally act like a big shot. Slap me in the face so I can confirm this isn't a dream."
Yueshitu didn't be modest either. She raised her chin, almost saying, "You two each grab one of my thighs, and I'll take you to fly."
The Apocalypse Three Sisters had reached the top in one step, but they didn't get cocky. After testing, they found that the Crimson Queen was genuinely sincere in wanting to cooperate with them. The Crimson Queen was also having a hard time. She had no one she could trust around her. Since the war stopped, her "neighbor" Brutal Kara had been eager to try, wanting to replace the Crimson Queen.
"Yueshitu, with your followers joining, our mining speed will increase by at least three times. I plan to continue expanding the tribe's numbers."
The Crimson Queen spoke and put down her red tea cup.
"Why don't you advance to the Dominator rank first?"
Yueshitu's suggestion made the Crimson Queen shake her head with slight helplessness and said, "It's not that simple. To advance to the Dominator rank, I need a certain resource."
"What resource? Just say it."
"This... I actually don't know either."
The Crimson Queen laughed herself when she said this. Yueshitu and Molei both had expressions of utter despair.
"By the way, about that mother nest you mentioned earlier, the one you called a seventh-rank mother nest, I had my subordinates investigate it."
"Is it strong over there!"
Molei was a bit excited.
"Based on the current intelligence, it's not strong. If you want, you can take a combat unit and go destroy that mother nest."
"Well..."
Molei, Yueshitu, and Hao Mei looked at each other. Every time they had clashed with Su Xiao before, they had been beaten. They were a bit traumatized.
"Revenge!"
Yueshitu suddenly became determined. She wanted to overcome herself and cross the psychological shadow that had been haunting her.
"When do we set off?"
"Right now!"
Boom!!
As soon as Molei finished speaking, a loud noise was heard. The vibration caused by the loud noise shook her off her chair.
Boom! Boom! Boom!
The earth trembled. Molei, Yueshitu, and Hao Mei quickly walked to the floor-to-ceiling windows. The scene before them left them dumbfounded.
Dozens of hundred-meter-tall giant skeletons were walking over from a distance. The sky was filled with a dense, sky-covering swarm of withered pterosaurs. As for the ground, a sea of bones surged from the horizon.
"This... this monster!"
Yueshitu naturally knew who had come. The universally recognized monster among their summoning system, the Undead Girl.
Standing on the head of a hundred-meter-tall giant skeleton was the Undead Girl. She held an Immortal Rank +14 staff, inlaid with three full-score Immortal Rank gems. This staff was called [Endless Undead].
The Undead Girl raised the staff in her hand, and her pupils turned gray.
'Return of the Dead.'
Dong~
A shockwave spread out with the Undead Girl as the center. After a brief silence, bone claws began to emerge from the soil.
...
At 1:00 PM, in the dense forest near the "Aitaichi Laboratory" in the east.
This area was all Company territory. The Aitaichi Laboratory was just a general term. The overall area here was about the size of a city. Entering this place was not much different from entering a modern city.
However, within half a year of the Empire's "New Star City" being established, the Company forces dared not call this place a city. Stealing the Empire's thunder would get them into big trouble.
Around the entire building complex, there was a protective wall made of an electromagnetic net. Su Xiao looked at the electromagnetic net ahead. He didn't plan to sneak in like this. He had already agreed with Kaisa that the other party would come to pick him up.
There were still two hours until the transport ship departed. Kaisa didn't keep Su Xiao waiting long and arrived in a few minutes.
Kaisa used his identity badge to deactivate the electromagnetic net. He was wearing a suit that was a few sizes too big, walking with his hands behind his back. They say clothes make the man, but this saying didn't apply to Kaisa. Even if he wore a dragon robe, he would still look like a weasel spirit.
"Hurry, we're about to leave."
Kaisa waved his hand and turned back towards the gap between the buildings he came from. Su Xiao followed. After walking for over ten minutes, they arrived at a cave entrance. They jumped down, passed through an underground drainage channel, and after many twists and turns, Su Xiao arrived at an elevator. He took the elevator up, passed through a corridor, and stopped in front of Room 307.
Using the room card to open the door, Su Xiao followed Kaisa to a wall. Kaisa said:
"My dear friend, I have calculated that 45 meters diagonally opposite is the maintenance area for the transport ship."
"Wait, the transport ship is about to depart. Why are we going to the maintenance area?"
Baha was very puzzled.
"It's like this. This escort team, besides the Company's three ace employees and one executioner, also includes 129 Company guards and 52 Empire soldiers. I tampered with the lunch of a few of the Company guards. They will have to urinate urgently, so they have two choices: 1. Solve it in their pants, or 2. Come to the toilet closest to the tarmac, which is this maintenance area."
Kaisa snapped his fingers after speaking. Suddenly, the alarm on him beeped. He nodded to indicate that a Company guard was coming.
Su Xiao activated the Dragon Shadow Flash ability and disappeared from the spot. When he reappeared, he was in a long corridor. On the metal low cabinets on both sides, various tools and parts were piled up in disarray.
A guard wearing individual armor and a full protective helmet walked towards him. He had kinetic firearms slung over his shoulder, a terminal on his forearm, and a small communication device on his belt.
The position Su Xiao was in was carefully chosen by Kaisa. This long corridor had surveillance devices on both sides. Only the 3-meter section where Su Xiao was located was in the blind spot between two surveillance cameras. This was not an oversight; Kaisa had deliberately created it.
The guard walking towards him naturally saw Su Xiao standing in the corridor. He was a little puzzled but didn't ask any questions. Just as he was about to pass by Su Xiao, a crystal spike slid out from Su Xiao's sleeve.
Puchi~
The crystal spike suddenly pierced into the guard's jaw. Su Xiao's hand pulled, and the crystal spike penetrated into the guard's brain. Then, this part of the crystal spike split into a coral-like shape, and the guard died instantly.
Su Xiao pulled off the terminal, communicator, and other equipment from the guard's body. Then he took out the Primordial Mask and put it on the guard's face. The Primordial Mask showed its daddy-level potential. The crimson tentacles quickly devoured the guard's body. The moment the crimson tentacles disappeared, Su Xiao put the Primordial Mask on his own face.
At this moment, in the monitoring room, the scene in the corridor was constantly being monitored here. A Company security guard was drinking coffee, staring at the monitor boredly. In his view, the guard in the corridor suddenly walked out of the monitoring range for a second or two, then appeared on another screen. There was no abnormality.
Seeing this, the security guard raised an eyebrow. He adjusted the range of the two monitors, and the blind spot in the middle disappeared. As for reporting this matter, he wouldn't ask for trouble.
After a while, Su Xiao walked out of the restroom at the end of the corridor. He was now disguised as a guard. This guard was one of the escorts for this transport ship. The infiltration was successful.
Su Xiao walked through the corridor in the image of a guard. After turning a corner, he entered a spacious maintenance area that looked like a warehouse. Exiting this place, there was a large tarmac outside. A heavy transport ship was docked here, giving a sense of steel and heaviness.
Su Xiao's gaze swept around. The next second, a figure came into his view. This person was somewhat stocky, but didn't have the feeling of a bodybuilder. Overall, this man had an inexplicable sense of authority. His name was Kai Yin, the backup scapegoat brother chosen by Kaisa.