Chapter 12: The Rise of the Sun
10 PM, Jila's Nest.
Sitting on the back of a Demon Beast, Jila had a face full of displeasure. Understandably so—she had been sleeping soundly when she was suddenly dragged out of her nest. How could she be happy? Unfortunately, Su Xiao had temporarily requisitioned the safest location within the Mother Nest. Jila dared not be angry, nor could she speak out. She could only act pitifully (wei qu ba ba) and bully the Demon Beast.
On the bed, cocooned like a giant chrysalis, this was the safest place in the Mother Nest. The reason Su Xiao had requisitioned it was that after several days of stability, the [Soul Severing Shadow Stone] was finally usable.
For a long time, Su Xiao had been collecting Soul Severing Shadow Stones. It wasn't until the Treeborn World that he finally gathered the last piece, the [Soul Severing Shadow Stone · Fragment].
Logically, five [Soul Severing Shadow Stone · Fragments] could not be pieced together into a complete Soul Severing Shadow Stone. The five fragments Su Xiao found didn't even come from the same stone. Fortunately, after being certified by Reincarnation Paradise, as long as he gathered enough quantity (fen liang), he could return to Reincarnation Paradise and pay a certain amount of Soul Coins to fuse them.
In Su Xiao's view, the Soul Coins were well spent. If it were someone from the Void or a Primordial World, even if they had Soul Coins, they would have nowhere to fuse them. Being in a Paradise faction came with high risks, but it also offered many conveniences.
Su Xiao took out the Soul Severing Shadow Stone from his storage space. This inheritance stone was a brilliant blue, giving a sense of dazzling beauty. Do not be deceived by its beautiful appearance. The Soul Severing Shadow ability was developed by Green Gillian. Su Xiao had seen the appearance of that female Law Destroyer once through Mawen Hua'erzi.
At that time, Mawen Hua'erzi's exact words were: "If that madwoman's remnant soul is still around, you'd better be careful if you meet her."
Green Gillian had a neutral, beautiful appearance. No wonder she could mess up Mage Sage Seraphilia so badly.
The standard for abilities developed by that super masochist was definitely: as long as you probably won't die during the learning process, it's fine.
Su Xiao had no turning back. As one of the advanced abilities of Azure Steel Shadow, Soul Severing Shadow was something he had to master.
As for the other advanced Azure Steel Shadow abilities, Soul Devouring Shadow and Space-Rending Shadow, their ability tendencies were different. Mastering them wouldn't bring much improvement to Su Xiao.
The Soul Severing Shadow Stone floated in front of Su Xiao. He grabbed it with one hand. The next second, he only felt a burst of blue light in his eyes, a roar in his ears, and then he couldn't feel anything at all.
Almost simultaneously, Su Xiao's [Spirit Shadow Constitution X] ability was triggered.
[Skill Effect 4: Increased adaptability of the body to all Law Destruction faction energies. When mastering a new Law Destruction faction ability, mortality rate is reduced by 20%.]
In a daze, Su Xiao felt everything around him was white and hazy, with a sense of unreality. This feeling lasted for an unknown time. Gradually, he could feel himself again. At this moment, his body seemed to be composed of light particles, or perhaps soul energy.
"Stay, awake."
A voice came from ahead. Su Xiao 'looked' forward. In the vast whiteness, a graceful figure walked towards him.
She came step by step, finally stopping in front of Su Xiao. She reached out a hand to caress his cheek.
"Thank you."
The voice reached Su Xiao's ears. In this illusory realm, he vaguely felt a slightly long, pointed fingertip touch his cheek.
"My ability inheritor, you wouldn't mind... if I take a bite out of you, would you? Hehehehehe..."
The scene changed abruptly! The next moment, the graceful figure in front of him opened a mouth full of sharp teeth and bit off half of Su Xiao's head.
Boom!
Another roar sounded in Su Xiao's ears. A feeling of rapid retreat occurred. As he 'retreated', a blue source energy floated out from the graceful figure ahead and shot straight towards him. This was the seed of Soul Severing Shadow. Only with this trace amount of source energy could one master the Soul Severing Shadow ability.
Su Xiao's eyes snapped open. He was still sitting on Jila's bed. Everything that had just happened seemed like an illusion, but the intense pain in his head proved that it had all truly occurred.
The Azure Steel Shadow energy in his body was now only 15 points. It wasn't consumed; it was eaten. Fortunately, this wasn't permanent damage and could be recovered normally.
Previously, Su Xiao's mana value was 57398 points. Originally, his mana wasn't that high, but after using [Type VII Tempering Mixture] to increase it by 30%, it jumped from 44152 points to 57398 points.
After entering this world, Su Xiao also permanently increased his mana by 650 points using his Soul Devourer talent. That meant his current mana reached 58048 points.
1 point of mana = 1 point of Azure Steel Shadow energy. The two could be converted. So, the bite he just took had consumed 58033 points of Azure Steel Shadow energy.
As for who it was, there was no need to think. It was definitely Green Gillian. Su Xiao had just confirmed one thing: Green Gillian's remnant soul was on the verge of dissipating, but hadn't completely dissipated yet. If not for today's events, her remnant soul would probably have faded away. Now, having swallowed a stream of homologous energy, she clearly had a chance to turn things around.
Su Xiao didn't know Green Gillian's exact location. Unless necessary, he wouldn't actively seek out that madwoman. The most malicious female Law Destroyer in history wasn't just an empty title.
[Tip: You have mastered Soul Severing Shadow, X.]
[Soul Severing Shadow: X (Active)]
Existing Soul Cores: Azure Steel, Swift, Soul Sever, Blade Spirit (this Soul Core is not yet awakened).
Azure Steel · Soul Core (Passive Trait): The overall intensity of the Azure Steel Shadow ability is increased by 20%. This enhancement can exceed the maximum limit of the Azure Steel Shadow ability (the 20% enhancement includes burning the enemy's body energy, as well as the Proud Song form and Law Destruction form).
Tip: This is a passive trait Soul Core. After switching to this Soul Core, it will continuously take effect passively with no consumption.
Swift · Soul Core (Passive Trait): Greatly increases body speed, but also significantly increases the rate of stamina consumption.
Soul Sever · Soul Core (Passive Trait): Can 'Sever' or 'Cut Off' souls. Determined by the difference in soul strength. If the user's soul strength is higher than the enemy's, while severing the enemy's physical body, the corresponding part of the soul can also be severed.
Blade Spirit · Soul Core: Can be activated after Blade Grandmaster reaches Lv.70.
Tip: The Soul Severing Shadow ability can only activate one Soul Core at a time.
...
Initially, Su Xiao thought the Soul Severing Shadow ability was just a simple soul-severing ability. Now it seemed to be a super late-game ability.
Su Xiao closed his eyes and sensed. He could feel a seemingly real, illusory energy disc inside his chest. This disc was about 10 centimeters in size and composed of a type of energy.
The edge of this Soul Disc was thread-like energy, and the whole thing was illusory. If he didn't perceive it carefully, even Su Xiao himself couldn't detect this seemingly real, illusory Soul Disc.
In the center of the Soul Disc was a semi-circular depression the size of a marble. Currently, this depression was empty. Around it were six other semi-circular depressions, four of which had Soul Cores. Each Soul Core had a character on it. Although Su Xiao had never seen these characters before, he recognized them as: Shadow, Speed, Soul, and Blade.
These four Soul Cores corresponded to Azure Steel Shadow, Swift, Soul Sever, and finally, Blade Technique.
Using his will, Su Xiao manipulated the Soul Core representing Swift, making it appear in the center of the Soul Disc.
The next second, Su Xiao felt the Soul Core representing Swift detach from its original position and embed itself in the center of the Soul Disc. Blue-white wind patterns appeared on the entire Soul Disc.
Su Xiao's eyes opened. He could feel his body becoming lighter. His speed must have increased by a significant margin. His current speed was at least 30% faster than before.
At Su Xiao's level, let alone a 30% increase in speed, even a 5% increase would bring a noticeable change, especially in combat.
As a cost, Su Xiao felt his stamina consumption rate had increased. That was fine. The benefit of pushing [Basic Passive · Body Soul] to X was now evident.
Besides the Swift Soul Core, the Azure Steel Soul Core and the Soul Sever Soul Core were also very useful.
With a 20% overall increase in the Azure Steel Shadow ability, Su Xiao's current true damage per slash would increase from 2108 points to 2530 points. Not only that, the 20% increase in the Proud Song form would greatly enhance Su Xiao's overall defense.
Moreover, the Azure Steel Soul Core was a Soul Core that only became powerful in the super late game. When Su Xiao's Azure Steel Shadow ability reached its limit, this Soul Core could further increase the already maxed-out Azure Steel Shadow ability by another 20%. That was terrifying.
No wonder other Law Destroyers said Soul Severing Shadow was strong in one-on-one combat. When exchanging blows, having 20% more body energy than the opponent, even if both sides had the same source energy, the weaker side couldn't hold out.
As for the final Soul Sever Soul Core, Su Xiao could previously only use his blade to injure an enemy's soul. There was still a gap between that and being able to cut through an enemy's soul.
Seeing this Soul Core, Su Xiao immediately thought of Zuiyasi. In their previous battle, he had cut off Zuiyasi's head several times, but couldn't kill him.
If he encountered a similar enemy again, one slash would sever an arm, and the arm couldn't regenerate. The soul part of the arm would be severed. Even if it regenerated, it would be a piece of rotten flesh, barely able to form the shape of an arm.
If the head was severed, the enemy would die on the spot. The Soul Sever Soul Core was the nemesis of regeneration systems, a natural counter.
As for the unactivated Blade Spirit Soul Core, Su Xiao wasn't in a hurry. His Blade Grandmaster was already at Lv.65. Reaching Lv.70 was just a matter of time.
Among the three passive Soul Cores, Su Xiao switched to the Azure Steel Soul Core. This was the best Soul Core for normal situations. The reason was that this Soul Core enhanced the Proud Song form, making it easier to handle unexpected situations.
As for activating Swift, it was best not to use this state normally. Even without fighting, this state would gradually consume stamina.
Su Xiao was very satisfied with the four existing Soul Cores. However, he didn't know how to obtain the corresponding Soul Cores for the remaining two slots.
This made Su Xiao hesitate about whether to ask Green Gillian. But considering the associated risks, he abandoned the idea. For now, he hadn't fully figured out how to use the four Soul Cores. He could upgrade them later when the opportunity arose.
Closing the Soul Severing Shadow ability information, Su Xiao began to mobilize the 337% soul energy absorbed through his Law Destruction talent. Between upgrading the Azure Steel Shadow ability by 3 levels and the Azure Shadow King ability by 1 level, he decisively chose the latter.
After consuming over 90% of the soul energy in the Devouring Core, Su Xiao's Azure Shadow King ability began to upgrade. No matter how many times he upgraded it, upgrading Azure Shadow King was always this exhilarating.
After a moment, Su Xiao wiped the sweat from his chin. The stinging pain inside his body subsided. The reason it was like this this time was that Azure Shadow King had broken through a major threshold every 10 levels and gained a new trait.
[Azure Shadow King skill has been upgraded to Lv.31.]
[Hunting Shadow · Passive: The intensity of Azure Steel Shadow energy is increased, and the true damage dealt is increased by 30% (this ability has been separately stripped, this ability has been permanently fixed, cannot be viewed in the skill list, cannot be upgraded, and has been permanently mastered).]
...
[Azure Shadow King: Lv.31 (Ultimate Skill)]
Effect 1 (Battle Soul Shadow · Passive): Physical strength increased by 3%.
Effect 2 (Azure Shadow King · Active): Immediately consume 6500 points of Azure Steel Shadow energy to construct a weapon of any shape within 0.01 seconds. This weapon can only attack once, dealing [enemy's lost mana value × 2.6 + 6400] points of true damage.
...
Azure Shadow King had gained a new trait. So-called physical strength referred to Su Xiao's overall body defense, including muscle toughness, bone density, organ vitality, etc. Abilities that could increase physical strength were very rare.
From Lv.1 to Lv.31, Azure Shadow King had allowed Su Xiao to master three very useful passive traits, summarized as follows: