Chapter 22: The Most Yinjian Adventure Group in History
The golden thunder pillar pouring down from the sky gradually thinned, finally becoming like a curved thread before vanishing into the air. The awe-inspiring wrath of the heavens finally ceased.
The "Gaozawa Lake," known as the Mother Lake, had its water level drop by over 90%, revealing a large, cracked lakebed resembling a drought-stricken area. Due to the terrifying high temperature generated by the falling world thunder, the cracked lakebed had taken on a rough, glassy crystalline texture.
Dozens of agile figures rushed out from the dense forest. When these natives, wearing beast-skin skirts and faces covered in graffiti, saw the scene before them, they let out terrified screams. Some simply knelt and began to worship the Gaozawa Lake.
Because the water level had dropped by over ninety percent, a lake island was revealed within the lake. Kara was located on this island.
At this moment, Kara was like a crab that had been stepped on by the heavens. All its limbs were embedded into the soil, their tips pointing skyward. Its main torso was nothing but a pile of riddled, thick carapace; everything else had evaporated.
That's right, Kara was dead, cleanly and thoroughly. This world had already suffered consecutive super-doublings, plus the nuclear bomb brought by Kaiser. Therefore, when Su Xiao used his elemental affinity to attract lightning here, even if it wasn't the strongest eighth-rank world thunder, it was still among the top two.
As for attracting lightning with elemental affinity in the Void or a Transcendent Primordial World, Su Xiao wouldn't do that. He didn't want to die yet. In the past, there really was a Law Destroyer who was struck dead by world thunder. That old brother seemed to have been in the Void when he attracted lightning with his elemental affinity.
Bang!
A large, charred piece of carapace flew up. Su Xiao, with light blue energy mist wafting from his body, stood up. He couldn't steady himself and propped one hand against a standing piece of thick carapace beside him.
"Cough, cough, cough~"
Su Xiao coughed dryly, covering his mouth with one hand. Blood seeped through his fingers. After the double vision before him swayed for a moment, he leaned back against a broken carapace wall, took out a cigarette, and lit it.
Su Xiao was heavily injured. The good news was that, after gaining "Recover 5% of Max HP every 3 seconds" and "External Armor Defense Rank +4," Kara was incredibly resilient.
Additionally, the massive amount of lake water had shared the power of the world thunder. So, by the time the world thunder reached Su Xiao, it wasn't as terrifying. He withstood it with his crystal layer, which didn't trigger the near-death limit of [Bud of Creation].
Not using the [Bud of Creation] was good news for Su Xiao. Today was the sixth day of entering this world. In just over three days, the Netherworld invasion would begin. Having a life-saving item like [Bud of Creation] always provided an extra lifeline.
Su Xiao released the [Thunder Spirit] clinging to his arm. This world-class equipment, resembling intertwined tree roots, was the foundation of his ability to attract world thunder.
The world thunder he attracted this time was stronger than anything Su Xiao had ever experienced. So, he had just used the [Thunder Spirit] to absorb a significant amount of it. Later, when he had time, he would use this world thunder to improve the lightning resistance of Bubu Wang, Amu, Baha, and Beini.
Su Xiao checked his own lightning resistance, which had reached 172 points, up from 159 points before, a full increase of 12 points. A more intuitive analogy would be: an eighth-rank contractor specializing in lightning magic, upon encountering an opponent with over 160 lightning resistance, would feel like meeting a long-lost wild father.
The reason his lightning resistance had increased so much this time was due to some changes in Su Xiao's Cyan Steel Shadow ability. He checked the prompt that had just appeared.
[Prompt: Due to enduring high-intensity world thunder stimulation, your Cyan Steel Shadow branch ability: Law Annihilation (Passive) has transformed into a Trait Ability.]
[Trait Ability: This type of ability has no fixed method of improvement. It will improve according to the corresponding tendency or the Hunter's own growth.]
……
Regarding Trait Abilities, Su Xiao had understood them in detail a long time ago. A simple analogy would be: a branch ability transforming into a Trait Ability was a huge win.
"Cyan Steel Shadow branch ability: Law Annihilation (Passive). After suffering magic-type damage, the Cyan Steel Shadow energy within your body will be further activated, thereby continuously improving your magic-type resistance (incremental improvement).
Prompt: If no magic-type damage is received within 40 minutes, this bonus will gradually decay.
Prompt: Each time you fight against a magic-type user, if you suffer multiple instances of magic-type damage, your magic-type resistance will have a small permanent increase.
Prompt: When you endure effects like lightning, fire, or frost, you will permanently and slightly increase the corresponding resistance (this is a growth-type improvement)."
This was one of the previous branch bonuses of Cyan Steel Shadow: Law Annihilation. It had now been stripped from the skill description of Cyan Steel Shadow and become an independent Trait Ability.
The so-called Trait Ability has the disadvantage of not being able to be actively improved, but the advantage is that it doesn't consume resources. For example, this [Law Annihilation (Passive)] will gradually improve as Su Xiao's True Stamina attribute, Cyan Steel Shadow skill level, and True Intelligence attribute increase. It's an ability that will never become obsolete or fall behind, even without investing resources.
Su Xiao had several Trait Abilities: Soul Thread, Soul Reaping Scythe, Energy Blockade (also stripped from Cyan Steel Shadow ability), Rhythm of All Things (stripped from Blade Grandmaster), Blood Extreme Shadow, and Law Annihilation.
Interestingly, this Cyan Steel Shadow branch ability called Law Annihilation was designed by the Ancestral Law Destroyers to permanently improve the magic-type resistance of Law Destroyers when fighting against Spellcasters.
It allowed Law Destroyers to grow stronger through battle, tempering themselves, and finally achieving magic-type resistance that would astonish Spellcasters.
The problem Su Xiao faced was that he rarely encountered magic-type users. It wasn't fate's arrangement, but rather that magic-type powerhouses in Paradise camps or Primordial Worlds would sense his aura and turn around to leave, unwilling to even meet him, let alone fight.
Occasionally, he would encounter a magic-type user who actively came to slide tackle him, but after a few exchanges, the opponent would die, which was very unsatisfying.
This resulted in Su Xiao's Cyan Steel Shadow energy deriving the Law Annihilation (Passive), but his magic-type resistance hadn't improved much. His lightning resistance, however, had been skyrocketing, reaching 172 points.
Last time, Su Xiao mentioned this to Mawen Hua'erzi, hoping his unscrupulous mentor would give some advice. The result was that the other party laughed exceptionally loudly.
Su Xiao looked at the Law Annihilation (Passive) that had become a Trait Ability. After this world thunder strike, the "common sense bonus" of this ability in improving lightning resistance was no longer inferior to its potential in improving magic-type resistance. Su Xiao thought it would be more appropriate to call this Trait Ability "Thunder Control."
[Prompt: You have killed World-Class Creature: Kara.]
[You have obtained Golden Skill Point × 2.]
[You have obtained 35.72% World Source (Due to Kara being eroded by the Netherworld, its World Child characteristics have been greatly reduced, resulting in a corresponding reduction in World Source obtained from the kill).]
[You have obtained 3319 Soul Coins.]
[You have obtained World-Class Chest × 1.]
[You have obtained Dark Hole (Special Item, cannot be taken out of this world).]
……
The rewards for killing Kara were generous. However, there was one point: although Su Xiao had previously had his own faction certified, the achievement task related to Kara was not triggered. He missed out on the task reward that could have yielded a World Key. While regrettable, there was nothing to be done. Not everything can be perfect; that's reality.
Putting away the chest, Su Xiao looked at the [Dark Hole] floating before him. This was an additional reward for killing Kara.
[Dark Hole]
Origin: Abyss/Netherworld Depths.
Type: Special Item
Effect: This item was about to complete its construction, but due to the host's death, this item has been damaged.
Introduction: When the Dark Hole obscures the blazing sun, the Netherworld will arrive.
……
Su Xiao looked at the Dark Hole ahead. A crystal layer wrapped his hand, and he tapped it with his index finger. Black residue fell from the Dark Hole. It was a failed product.
Su Xiao's understanding was that someone had ambushed Kara and planted the Dark Hole inside its body.
The Netherworld forces weren't trying to turn Kara into a war weapon. Instead, while eliminating this world-class existence, they wanted to open a passage through it, facilitating a large-scale invasion of Pandora Star.
This confirmed one thing for Su Xiao: the "Netherworld" was by no means a chaotic and disorderly force. This force possessed terrifying invasion and war tactics, as well as exceptionally clear strategies.
Su Xiao didn't believe the Netherworld forces would invade this world for no reason. According to known intelligence, the Netherworld's invasion of this world had begun long ago. The specific manifestation was occasional strange events within the Empire, though such events were rare.
To put it another way, there was something within this world that the Netherworld forces wanted, but that thing wasn't worth a full-scale invasion. So, they adopted a slow-acting but low-cost method to gradually infiltrate the world.
According to the Netherworld forces' original plan, they would likely seize that item and then withdraw, not wasting time here.
The Withered Heart produced after using [Beginning of Nightmare] was also something the Netherworld forces needed, and it held even greater attraction for them.
This time, there were a total of three Withered Hearts within this world. This situation was enough to attract the Netherworld forces to launch a full-scale invasion.
The problem was that, compared to the item held by the Empire, the Withered Hearts held by Su Xiao, Shenfu, and the Necromancer Girl, and the Abyssal Jar in Kaiser's hands, the latter held an almost fatal attraction for the Netherworld forces.
This also led to the Netherworld forces' attitude towards this side escalating from initially sending only "militia" to sending "regular troops," and finally, the Netherworld forces decided to stop all other activities and fully commit to the invasion campaign of this world. This was the main reason for the world's danger level skyrocketing.
Since the Netherworld forces were considered a cunning faction with both a leader and good strategy, then the [Dark Hole] that aided their invasion of Pandora Star—was there really only one?
Ever since his confrontation with Huishenshi, Su Xiao had been accustomed to considering that enemies wouldn't put all their eggs in one basket.
Assuming Huishenshi had designed this invasion plan, his plan would definitely be to plant [Dark Holes] in both Kara and another person. On the surface, Kara's side seemed to be the core of the plan, but in reality, it was meant to divert attention. The other, easily overlooked target, would be the real thunderclap.
Don't ask Su Xiao how he knew this so well. He had been arranged with this style of plan in the Alliance Star. It wasn't shameful; what was truly shameful was not learning from the experience.
Assuming there really was a second Dark Hole being nurtured within Pandora Star, it had to be destroyed. Otherwise, the Netherworld might invade today, not three days later.
If the Netherworld invaded today, judging by the miserable state of the Mother Star and the colony stars, the defensive forces they had set up now would certainly be unable to stop them. Without the defense towers, it would be a futile effort. No matter how many troops they had, they couldn't possibly have even one percent, or even one-thousandth, of the Netherworld's numbers.
After a simple process of elimination, Su Xiao took out his communicator and dialed a number. A few seconds later, the call connected.
"Rhein God?"
Su Xiao exhaled smoke. The other side was silent for a moment before replying, "Yes."
The last time Su Xiao met Rhein God was on the transport spaceship. At that time, they were enemies. Now, their relationship was delicate—both enemies and allies.
"Your uncle was corrupted by the Netherworld's mind?"
"Lord Bai Ye, this matter..."
"Cut open his heart or brain and look for a ring composed of black particles."
Hearing Su Xiao's words, the other side was silent for a few seconds before speaking. "Lord Bai Ye, I am a man of the system. I need to consider the rules within the system. Give me a reason to ignore the system's rules."
"Netherworld invasion today, or three days later. You choose."
"Understood. I'll get back to you in ten minutes. If you don't hear from me within ten minutes, it means I'm dead. Do your best to organize defensive forces to resist the Netherworld's undead."
Leaving these words, Rhein God on the other end hung up the communication.
Before long, Bubu Wang, Baha, and Barbatos arrived one after another. Among them, Barbatos was the most battered. After assessing the other's condition, Su Xiao decided to give it a major overhaul upon returning.
Rhein God didn't make Su Xiao wait ten minutes before replying to the communication.
"Lord Bai Ye, I indeed found a ring composed of black particles inside my uncle's heart. Is this the Dark Ring?"
"Yes."
"How should it be handled?"
"Kill your uncle."
"Understood. Thank you for the reminder. I will report this to the Empire. Mr. Olding will prepare a thank-you gift for you. See you later."
Inside a secret cell on the main fleet, Rhein God hung up the communication. His gaze turned to General Sand, whose chest was cut open, revealing his heart and the Dark Ring on it. This was Rhein God's biological uncle.
General Sand had been scanned multiple times since being subdued and imprisoned, but no problem was ever detected. This showed the concealment of the Dark Ring; it wasn't something just anyone could bear.
Rhein God looked at his uncle. Scenes from his childhood flashed through his mind. He had lost his parents at a young age, and his uncle was practically his father.
A black force field appeared around Rhein God. The next instant, it swept over his uncle. General Sand was instantly pulverized into red particles, floating in mid-air.
Rhein God took out a pack of cigarettes. With a calm expression, he lit one, made a move to walk out, but paused as he turned. He took one last look at the red particles floating in the room before turning and walking out.
Even though his heart felt like it was being gnawed by knives, there were things he had to do. Not just for the Empire, but also for the tens of millions of civilians in Nova City. If even he, the Hand of the Empire, hesitated and faltered in the face of such a disaster, then Nova City would have no hope.
……
Central Region, a primitive tribe of a few hundred people.
Flames burned the tent-shaped wooden huts. A native, blown in half, had his upper body hanging between wooden frames, his intestines spilling everywhere.
The smell of burning and blood permeated the air. The tribe's Great Chieftain was hung upside down by one leg, in a very awkward, wide-split posture.
Aisia, with a neutral temperament and medium-length golden hair, stood before the Great Chieftain. A red mark, like a trident, was on her forehead. Animal tooth pendants hung from her earlobes.
Compared to her previous bare-chested, muscular image, Aisia now appeared more feminine, with a full figure and curves.
As for what gender to become, Aisia herself hadn't decided. He/She was evolving towards a perfect being and could currently swap genders at will.
Aisia's fingertip touched the Great Chieftain's chest. With a bang, the flesh on the Great Chieftain's chest blasted through. Along with the shattered heart, a black ring flew out, dispersing into black particles.
"Unexpectedly simple. Is this the mission you spoke of?"
Aisia spoke, but there was no one beside her.
"Oh? Kara is dead? You're not choosing Jila, but choosing me? That doesn't make sense."
Aisia continued talking to herself, as if there were an invisible presence nearby.
"I see. If Jila is from an outer world, then you indeed can't choose her, nor can you choose her. You said before that you were about to perish. Does that mean this planet will be destroyed along with you? Aren't you the will of this planet?"
Aisia looked ahead. Soon, a thought answered her. The annihilation of a world's consciousness did not mean the destruction of the world.
Very few Primordial Worlds have a clear world consciousness, and none of them have been seen to simply perish.
Due to the continuous invasion of the Netherworld forces, the death of Kara, and the exhaustion of all its power to choose a new savior, Aisia, the massive consciousness entity of Pandora Star had finally reached its end. It was about to be annihilated.
Annihilation sometimes doesn't mean complete destruction, but a process of destruction and subsequent reshaping.
This massive consciousness entity, in essence, was not a world consciousness, but an existence that could approach the root of this world. That's why it could enable Kara's transformation and make Aisia a world-favored savior.
……
At the friendly faction's base camp, the over 200-meter-tall mother nest was gradually retracting. Other insectoid buildings, like the sensor tower and the Jila Spiral Tower, were also beginning to shrink in volume.
A total of over 5800 hosts had been cultivated, including 3 super-giant hosts formed by fusing over a hundred hosts each.
The reason for this was that Su Xiao had decided to move. The current large mineral vein was one he had snatched from Rage Armor and was now depleted.
After defeating Kara, the entire southern region officially became Su Xiao's territory. Of the remaining three insectoid mother queens, the Spider Queen had already allied. Of course, "allied" was a polite term; bluntly put, the Spider Queen had surrendered.
Aisia was pursuing individual strength and was a half-ally. Su Xiao's attitude towards this insectoid powerhouse was to avoid hostility if possible. They might need to fight the Netherworld forces together in the future. Aisia was a strong combatant on par with Rhein God.
The last insectoid mother queen, the Crimson Empress, had been beaten by Kara to the point where she could barely maintain her queenly demeanor and started whimpering.
This wasn't an exaggeration. The Crimson Empress was almost beaten silly by Kara. She had now formed an alliance with the Company and had gone to the "Platinum Capital" in the east. This was a good thing for everyone.
The Crimson Empress's evolutionary ladder combined with the Company's biotechnology was a match made in heaven, a dream collaboration. If both sides truly cooperated wholeheartedly, the Platinum Capital might even rise in these final days.
Su Xiao wouldn't interfere with the situation there. What he needed to do was move his faction's base camp to the former location of the Crimson Empress's tribe, the only source mine in this world.
The super-giant host enveloped the faction's base camp. With the help of several hundred other hosts pulling, it slowly lifted off. The move had begun.
At 4 PM, the last host set down the "biological reaction bunker." The faction's relocation was basically complete.
The mother nest re-expanded. The fungal carpet spread across the ground towards the surroundings. Su Xiao stood atop the mother nest and looked out. This was a large grassland. Choosing this place as the base camp had the advantage of an open field of view, but the disadvantage was having to face enemies from 360 degrees.
Therefore, ensuring the fungal carpet area and building defense towers around the perimeter were essential.
Su Xiao's idea was to have the fungal carpet's range be a circle with a diameter of 3 kilometers at this stage. With such a layout, the circumference of the fungal carpet would be 9420 meters. Temporarily disregarding the footprint of the defense towers themselves, assuming each tower was spaced 50 meters apart, 189 defense towers would need to be built to surround the fungal carpet.
Once these defense towers were built, connecting them with biological structure walls would be an excellent choice.
It wasn't that Su Xiao didn't want a larger fungal carpet area. The larger the circular fungal carpet, the farther the walls and the mother nest would be from the enemy. Naturally, the enemy would be farther from the mother nest.
The problem was that expanding the fungal carpet range required more defense towers. Even though the defense towers were still under development, Su Xiao estimated that their construction cost would definitely not be low.
As for the faction's basic type of defense tower, a prototype had already been developed. It was a type that incorporated Kara's living missiles. Those forearm-length, homing living missiles were incredibly useful. They had high power, excellent explosion range, and a continuous armor-reducing property that was a nightmare for heavy units.
According to the insectoid scientist, Pross, obtaining Kara's biological samples today was a crucial breakthrough. At the latest by tomorrow morning, it could develop a defense tower capable of mass-launching living missiles. In terms of performance, it would be at least as good as Kara's living missiles.
This was good news. However, the plasma weaponry was still under development. This wasn't urgent. Even if developed, not many of these defense towers could be built. They were a trump card for dealing with the enemy's super-giant units.
Before long, the fungal carpet covered the surrounding three kilometers. The sensor tower and the Jila Spiral Tower were erected. The fungal carpet's range wasn't fixed. As the faction built more defense towers, the base camp would grow larger and larger, potentially surpassing Nova City and the Platinum Capital.
Once everything stabilized, the worker scorpions resumed mining the source mine below to prevent ground collapse. The base camp was built diagonally above the source mine.
Several figures with grayish-white skin and no hair walked out from the incubation nest. These were fanatics cultivated by the mother nest to dispose of the faith residue.
These fanatics, after leaving the incubation nest, looked up at the sun for a moment, then formed a line and walked towards the west. All fanatics did this, for unknown reasons.
Su Xiao roughly calculated that over 500 fanatics had already appeared. The faith residue filtered from cultivating the Sun Flame Dragon was too much, and this was the only way to handle it.
He hadn't had time before, but now he did. Su Xiao had Bubu Wang follow these fanatics to see what they were actually doing.
Soon, using the signal transmitted by Bubu Wang, Su Xiao saw on the terminal screen that the fanatics were now covered in a black substance. It looked like tattered cloth, but in reality, it felt heavy and profound, not like a physical substance, but more like a manifestation of evil thoughts.
Why were these fanatics burdened with such heavy evil? Logically, they had only been born not long ago. Thinking of it another way, what they were carrying now might not be their own evil, but the evil of the world, the evil of the Empire, the evil of the Company—all the evil of humanity.
As for the Sun Faith, this was actually normal. The biggest characteristic of the Sun Faith was that it rarely spoke, but did more.
These fanatics, burdened with the evil of humanity, had become exceptionally heavy. Every step they took left a deep footprint. Ahead of them was a muddy path trodden by many footprints.
Bubu Wang overtook these fanatics and sprinted along the muddy path. When it reached the western great Gobi, although it was already 7 PM, the sky here was a chaotic red, with fierce winds whipping up sand and gravel.
In the wind and sand, Bubu Wang searched for a while before finding the traces left by the fanatics. Following these traces, it tracked down a corpse. A fanatic, wrapped in tattered black robes, lay face down there, dead for some time.
Continuing the pursuit, Bubu Wang arrived before a majestic giant hall. Entering through the main gate, Bubu Wang was shocked by the scene before it. The bodies of fanatics were piled up. They held the hall's original, broken weapons and had died fighting each other.
One surviving fanatic sat atop the pile of corpses. The black, tattered robe on him was so dark it chilled the heart. It was an evil formed by bearing an unknown amount of humanity's darkness.
Meeting the gaze of this fanatic, Bubu Wang shuddered. Fortunately, this fanatic meant no harm.
Just as Bubu Wang was about to retreat, footsteps came from outside the giant hall. A travel-worn figure walked in. It was a fanatic who had made a pilgrimage here. After entering the hall, he picked up a large, black-rusted sword from the ground and charged fiercely at the fanatic on the corpse pile. His fighting style had a hint of the Hunters from the World of Paintings, as well as the feel of a Sun Warrior.
On top of the mother nest, Su Xiao put away his terminal. He didn't know why the fanatics behaved this way. He wasn't completely familiar with the Sun Faith, which had a long history.
From the fact that the fanatics were willing to bear the evil of humanity, it could be seen that they were a Neutral/Friendly/Occasionally Evil faction. In Su Xiao's view, this wasn't dangerous.
Su Xiao looked up at the sky. It was 8 PM. The sky, besides having no sun, was still bright as day. A black ring was located high above, occasionally dripping a sticky, dark green liquid. The Netherworld's invasion was very close.
Besides this, Su Xiao discovered another thing: Kane hadn't died. Not only Kane, but also the three team backbones present at the time, Silver Pheasant and the others, hadn't died either. The remaining over one hundred members had all died instantly. More accurately, Kane, Silver Pheasant, and the other four were actually dead; they just weren't completely dead due to a team skill.
As an SSS-rank large adventure group, the core team ability of Valhalla was not comparable to that of a single-person SSS-rank adventure group, as the difficulty of improving them was worlds apart.
It was precisely because of this core team skill that Kane and the other four hadn't died. However, while they hadn't died, they had screwed over the over forty team members within this world who hadn't participated in the "Gaozawa Lake Plan."
Valhalla had brought over 190 people this time. With one world thunder, over 150 had died on the spot. Kane, Silver Pheasant, and the other four, though they had "survived," had become heroic spirit-like beings. To put it nicely, they were heroic spirits; to put it bluntly, they were "soul ghosts."
Kane and the other four had become "soul ghosts." But to prevent the team skill of Valhalla from evaporating their souls when resisting the world thunder, it had overdrawn the lives of all Valhalla members within this world. This meant that the over forty contractors who hadn't participated in the "Gaozawa Lake Plan" and were handling other matters had suddenly all become soul ghosts.
This sudden death and transformation into ghosts, coupled with the fact that the group leader and the new vice group leader were also ghosts, made the atmosphere at Valhalla instantly very gloomy.
At this moment, this large group of ghosts was preparing a plan to retaliate against Su Xiao, whose soul strength had reached a staggering 620 points and who had already mastered the Soul Severing Shadow ability.