Chapter 17: A Return Gift
Over a hundred spellcasters led by Dicken En were surrounded by the crowd. Strangely enough, although there was only one encirclement, there were two groups inside.
One group was, of course, the spellcasters. The other group had only one person: the Crow Woman.
The spellcasters did not attack the Crow Woman. Although they all suspected she had betrayed them, without concrete evidence, they would not act based on an enemy's words alone.
Around them, it was no longer just members of the Healing Church. People from the Steam God Church and the High Wall Council had also arrived. The Duke and Lady Smoke were naturally present as well.
Dicken En's face grew even paler. This backstab was too vicious. Worse still, the short blade could not be pulled out. That was the nature of this weapon—even if it pierced a vital area, such as the head, it would at most cause injury, never death.
On the flip side, once struck by this weapon, before it had drunk its fill of blood, anyone who dared to pull it out would most likely die on the spot, with a small chance of mutating into a frenzied beast.
"Retreat."
Dicken En spoke in a deep voice. Since things had come to this, they could only fall back using the backup plan.
"Leave no survivors."
Grand Sage Tulse spoke. The moment his words fell, the first to charge forward were not the Academy's combat-oriented Supervisory Team, but the High Wall Council's military police. When it came to encirclement and slaughter, they were the most professional.
Armor clashed against armor. The sacred marks on the military police's armor and weapons glowed faintly. Even more astonishingly, their physiques grew larger along with their armor. Each person's aura was exceptionally fierce.
"So many people."
A lazy-looking spellcaster had demonic energy surging throughout his body. The next moment—
Boom!
Layers of deep blue fire rings erupted, sweeping outward in waves. The ground within a kilometer was torn up in all directions. The charging military police were all sent flying or blasted back. The scene was quite shocking. This was a spellcaster.
"Converge."
The lazy spellcaster raised one hand and made a grasping motion. The spreading layers of flame rings suddenly retracted, leaving only scorched earth and some charred bones.
A deep blue fire core appeared in the spellcaster's hand. It vanished, then reappeared high in the air, rapidly expanding.
Crackle!
Deep blue rays shot out from the fire core. Hundreds of rays swept randomly across the surroundings. Then, explosions erupted one after another in the areas they had swept.
A whistling sound came from above. From a distance, it looked like a rain of fire falling. Closer inspection revealed it was a cluster of meteors drawing together. Finally, a meteor giant a hundred meters tall formed and crashed down.
Boom!!
The ground trembled. After the meteor giant landed, the earth within several kilometers first cracked, then the cracks quickly turned blazing red. Finally, the ground was swallowed by rising magma.
As for the hundred-plus spellcasters, they were standing on a separate piece of ground that had been peeled away, like a floating island pulled up by gravity, about a dozen meters above the ground.
"Roar!!"
The meteor giant let out a roar. Layers of gravity spread outward, pressing down even the magma layer below.
On the floating island, spatial fluctuations grew stronger. A female spellcaster with a ponytail crouched down, gradually constructing a spatial array. She was preparing a large-scale teleportation to take all the spellcasters present away.
Boom! Boom! Boom!
Layers of demonic energy erupted and spread. Everything within several kilometers was first shattered, then reduced to dust particles that scattered in the air. An Academy apprentice who retreated too slowly was first blasted by the demonic energy eruption, blood spraying from his body, and the next second turned into a mist of blood.
The demonic energy eruption continued unabated. Within several kilometers, it had become a forbidden zone for living beings. Just then, the spatial fluctuations on the floating island reached their peak. All the spellcasters vanished.
With a bang, the hundred-meter-tall meteor giant shattered. The surrounding magma quickly cooled. The continuous demonic energy eruption also stopped. The spellcasters had escaped.
Several kilometers away, the Duke stood up from a pile of rubble. He brushed the dust off his shoulders and looked at Lady Smoke and the bearded mentor nearby.
At this moment, all three shared the same doubt: why had those spellcasters, whose group combat strength was jaw-dropping, chosen to flee? With just the people present, if it came to a life-and-death struggle, although the other side had fewer numbers, they had the higher chance of winning. It could only be said that Arcane Eternal Star lived up to its reputation.
"Why... did they flee so hastily?"
Lady Smoke voiced her confusion.
"Probably because our momentum was overwhelming?"
After saying this, even the bearded mentor couldn't help but laugh sheepishly.
At the eastern edge of the giant pit left by the battle, the magma inside was cooling rapidly. Su Xiao checked the time. It wasn't even four in the afternoon yet. If things went smoothly, he could still return to the headquarters in the Central District for dinner.
"I won't get involved in your grudge with Arcane Eternal Star."
Zuiyasi, standing nearby, spoke up. However, as he spoke, he tossed over a ring. Even Zuiyasi, who had an undying ability, would be in great danger facing the bombardment of over a hundred eighth-rank spellcasters.
Su Xiao caught the ring and put it on his index finger. He sensed something in the west resonating with the ring. It was the short blade that the bearded mentor had stabbed into Dicken En earlier.
The spellcasters having an escape method was expected. That was why the Academy's backstab wasn't meant to kill Dicken En, but to mark him.
The Academy had already set their terms beforehand. They would ensure that, within a certain time frame, they could lock onto the spellcasters' location and participate in one siege against them. After that, the Academy would no longer act.
As for besieging the spellcasters, Su Xiao had never held much hope from the start. Surrounding a group of magical artillery platforms—just imagining it told you the result. So seeing this scene, he wasn't surprised at all. In fact, he hadn't even attacked.
Not because he didn't want to, but because he couldn't. If he tried to suppress the spellcasters at this moment, those temporary allies would inevitably counterattack. Moreover, as a melee fighter, the most likely scenario was that while he was locked in fierce combat with the spellcasters, indiscriminate attacks from his allies would rain down from behind.
The Steam God Church, the Academy's Supervisory Team, and the High Wall Council's military police—all of them were capable of doing that.
Rather than cooperating with these temporary teammates who, despite their strength, were unreliable, Su Xiao would rather face those spellcasters alone.
In truth, the best lineup would be to join forces with his two "good teammates." However, Wood represented the Devil Clan and couldn't directly participate in this matter, while Zuiyasi represented an upper-tier Ancient God from Doom Star and also couldn't easily clash with Arcane Eternal Star.
Bringing Bubu Wang and Baha this time was enough. Bubu Wang would provide buffs and handle reconnaissance, while Baha would coordinate with Su Xiao in battle.
"Baha."
The moment Su Xiao spoke, Baha opened an alternate space, and Xiusi stepped out from within.
Creak~
A spatial ghost door opened. This was the farthest west Xiusi had ever been—on the western high wall.
Stepping through the ghost door, when the world around him became clear again, Su Xiao was standing on the high wall. The city defense troops stationed there rushed over. After preliminarily confirming Su Xiao's identity, they returned to their posts.
Using the black iron ring in his hand to sense the direction, the Law Destroyers were even further west. It seemed they had reserved the teleportation node outside the city. That was a safe move.
Leaping down from the city wall, the wind whistled past his ears. As Su Xiao was about to land, Baha swooped down, his eagle claws gripping Su Xiao's crystal-wrapped right forearm, sharply reducing his falling speed.
What met his eyes was a desolate landscape. He could faintly see bones half-buried in yellow earth. The ground was dry and cracked. This was the Wasteland outside the city.
Su Xiao moved at full speed, pursuing the spellcasters. After more than ten minutes, he stopped in a swamp. This was a rare sight in the Wasteland. Nourished by the muddy water, sparse trees grew here.
He was not far from the spellcasters ahead, but the resonance between the black iron ring on his hand and the short blade had disappeared. Clearly, Dicken En had successfully pulled out the blade.
For anyone else, this might have seemed troublesome. But Su Xiao was a Hunter. Tracking was one of his specialties. He could find Violators who were skilled at hiding, let alone those spellcasters ahead who usually acted so arrogantly.
"Woof!"
Bubu Wang barked. Before long, a few toads, venomous snakes, and some never-before-seen rodents gathered nearby.
"Woof, woof woof, woof! Woof woof woof."
Bubu Wang's expression was extremely serious. He even took out some Soul Crystals (Small) and gave one to each of the toads, snakes, and rodents. One python's tail tip pointed to the side.
"Woof."
Bubu Wang barked, meaning "Thanks, bro," then began leading the way. Not far ahead, Bubu Wang successfully caught the scent of a spellcaster and locked onto it.
A few minutes later, inside a white forest surrounded by swamp, all the trees in this forest were dead and petrified. No one knew what had happened here in the past.
The Wasteland outside the city was different from inside. The climate here was capricious. Right now, the forest was bone-chillingly cold, the sky was dim, and the spellcasters had gathered a large bonfire from dead wood.
"Crow Woman, I'll give you a chance to explain."
Dicken En, the commander of this operation, spoke. Hearing this, the spellcasters around the bonfire all looked at the Crow Woman. Indeed, the Crow Woman had also been enveloped by the teleportation array earlier and had retreated with them.
"Get lost."
The Crow Woman was in a terrible mood. Not explaining was actually the best explanation.
"Show some respect! I'm telling you, you're just a dog raised by our Arcane Eternal Star—"
A young spellcaster named Loric shouted angrily, but before he could finish, Dicken En raised his hand and backhanded the air in front of him.
Slap!
Loric was slapped so hard he almost choked. This made him even angrier, but realizing it was Dicken En who had slapped him, he sat down sullenly.
"You can suspect the Crow Woman, but you cannot insult her. You come from Arcane Eternal Star. Every word and action you take represents Arcane Eternal Star to outsiders. This time, it was only seen by our own people, so I'll forgive you. Don't let it happen again."
Dicken En spoke in a calm tone. Loric, who had been looking sullen, lowered his head and murmured an acknowledgment, recognizing his mistake.
"Actually, I think we can trust the Crow Woman."
A female voice came. Everyone turned to look. The speaker was a female spellcaster named Xiersha, who specialized in mental arts and demonic energy catalysis.
"Everyone makes mistakes. I dare say that none of us here have contributed as much to Eternal Star as the Crow Woman. Besides, she has many enemies in the Void and Transcendent Worlds. If she betrayed Eternal Star, those enemies would kill her. If it were me, I wouldn't betray Eternal Star."
The female spellcaster Xiersha's words left everyone speechless. At the end of the day, being set up like that before was too embarrassing. No one wanted to dwell on it.
Dicken En frowned. For himself, being so thoroughly outmaneuvered before—if he went back and was asked about it by superiors or friends, he would definitely hem and haw, only mentioning the important parts and skipping the humiliating details.
Thinking of this, Dicken En suddenly understood why the Crow Woman had been so evasive when recounting her first two assassination attempts. She had clearly been outmaneuvered, and by a chain of schemes. The Crow Woman had been toyed with by three old schemers until she couldn't find her way, completing the assassination like she was sleepwalking. How embarrassing was that? If she could hem and haw, she would definitely hem and haw and gloss over it, just stating the key points.
And indeed, that was the case. The first time the Crow Woman pursued Su Xiao in the World of Paintings, she was led around by the nose by the trio of "good teammates," including Su Xiao.
The subsequent time in the Treeborn World was even worse, because the "good teammates" had become a quartet. That time, the Crow Woman was almost mentally dazed. When she returned, she wanted to tell the higher-ups of Arcane Eternal Star outright to abandon the assassination mission.
Unfortunately, as soon as the Crow Woman showed this inclination, the higher-up at Arcane Eternal Star noticed and shut her down with a few words.
In truth, that higher-up was also bitter. Su Xiao only entered worlds certified by the Void Tree or Paradise factions. That meant when he was at the eighth rank, Arcane Eternal Star could only send eighth-rank assassins. It wasn't that they didn't have stronger ones, but it was very difficult for them to enter those worlds. Even if they did, they would have to seal their strength using Paradise products. In that case, it was better to just find an eighth-rank assassin.
Pursuing Su Xiao—if a same-rank spellcaster went, it would be like sending a warm hug and a scraping technician to his doorstep.
Sadly, a same-rank spellcaster couldn't beat a Law Destroyer. If there were a group of them, but not enough, they still couldn't win. That was the most frustrating part.
To be precise, they couldn't deal damage. Law Destroyers had absurdly high resistance to magical abilities. Magical abilities that would heavily wound demon clans or feather clans, when used against a Law Destroyer, had no effect at all.
Therefore, the Crow Woman, who wasn't a spellcaster but always worked for Arcane Eternal Star, naturally became the first choice to assassinate Su Xiao.
In truth, Arcane Eternal Star had also tried to find other eighth-rank assassins. Unfortunately, it didn't go smoothly. Those assassins, who usually cared only about money and not their lives, were generally unwilling to accept the commission when they heard it was to assassinate a Law Destroyer. Even if they accepted, they would stall, preferring to forfeit several times the deposit rather than act.
This wasn't because Su Xiao had a big reputation. The sufficiently strong desperados in the Void were either subordinates of White Bull or had ties with him. With White Bull interfering, of course no desperado would come after Su Xiao.
"What do we do now? It seems we've become enemies with all the factions in High Wall City. How about we set up a gravity trap and lure the Law Destroyer in to kill him?"
The lazy spellcaster who had acted earlier spoke up. As soon as he finished, a petite female spellcaster beside him, who specialized in perception, suddenly had her pupils contract sharply. She shouted:
"There's—"
Pfft!
A long blade swept through the air, leaving a light blue slash mark. The perception-specializing female spellcaster's vision went dark. The last thing she saw was a pair of eyes with blue light in the center, cold and piercing.
With a thud, her corpse fell. A meter away, the lazy spellcaster, whose face was splattered with warm blood droplets, felt both shock and fury. Demonic energy erupted from his body.
Boom!
Su Xiao delivered a straight kick to the side of the lazy spellcaster's head. A headless body spun away and landed with a wet slap in the distance.
Light blue arcs of electricity spread through the air, instantly enveloping all the spellcasters nearby. No matter what defensive abilities they activated, none had any effect.
However, the spellcasters noticed that the spreading light blue arcs had no killing power. This gave them some relief. Unfortunately, they didn't know that the nightmare was just beginning.
[Energy Interruption (Active): Covers the enemy's body surface with Cyan Steel Shadow Energy. Effect lasts 10 minutes. When the enemy uses an energy-based skill, there is a chance of interruption, causing the enemy to enter a paralyzed state.
Note: If used against a magical enemy, there is a 58% chance of forced interruption when they cast a spell, causing them to enter a judgment-free paralyzed state lasting 0.85 to 3 seconds, and dealing True Damage equal to 0.9 times the enemy's consumed mana.
Note: This ability has no cooldown. If the magical enemy exceeds the Cyan Steel Shadow Energy's tolerance limit by one rank, the effect will be reduced.]
Boom! Boom! Boom!
Over a dozen dark devouring orbs slammed into Su Xiao. Dark-attribute demonic energy corroded his body. However, this activated two of his passive abilities.
[Absolute Magic Constitution (Passive): Immune to 40% of magical damage.
Awakening Effect: During combat, each time you take a spell attack, increase magical damage immunity by 2%, up to a maximum of 20%. This effect lasts until the end of combat.]
...
[Cyan Steel Shadow Branch Ability: Law Annihilation (Passive): After taking magical damage, the Cyan Steel Shadow Energy within your body becomes further activated, continuously increasing your magical resistance (incremental increase).
Note: After each battle with a magical enemy, if you have taken multiple magical damage hits, your magical resistance will have a small permanent increase.]
The Cyan Steel Shadow Energy within Su Xiao was activated to an unprecedented degree. The skin that had been stinging from the dark-attribute demonic energy erosion now only felt a slight tingling numbness.
At this moment, Su Xiao was in the middle of over a hundred spellcasters. Their reaction to his sudden appearance was extremely fast.
But in this situation, Su Xiao sheathed his long blade and assumed a stance for a charged drawing slash. He was preparing to use [Blade Path Sword: Extreme: Ring Break].
Diagonally across from him, a spellcaster clasped his hands together, preparing to use a shockwave-type magical ability to blast Su Xiao away.
Crackle!
Arcs of electricity appeared on this spellcaster's body. The Soul Electrocution effect triggered. His body suddenly went rigid. Perhaps for the first time in his life, he was this stiff.
Every time they cast a spell, there was a 58% chance of Soul Electrocution, causing them to be rooted in place. Worse still, none of the spellcasters present had any practical experience fighting a Law Destroyer. Even if they knew the precautions, in actual combat, the so-called experience from their predecessors was useless.
Of course it was useless. If those old spellcasters had a good strategy for dealing with Law Destroyers, they wouldn't have resorted to human wave tactics. So, their so-called experience in fighting Law Destroyers could be taken with a grain of salt.
As a result, nearly 60% of the spellcasters present suddenly found themselves rooted in place.
"Fall back—"
Dicken En shouted. He didn't cast a spell but chose to retreat first.
Boom! Boom! Boom!
Magical abilities of various attributes bombarded Su Xiao, engulfing him. But with his survivability and magical resistance, he could completely withstand these attacks while counterattacking.
[Blade Path Sword: Extreme: Ring Break...]
Bang!
Amid the chaotic attacks, a hand pressed firmly against the end of Su Xiao's sword hilt, interrupting the drawing slash.
"Don't even think about it!"
The Crow Woman's long hair spread out, floating. Her eyes were pitch black, with white pupils.
It could be said that the Crow Woman's action saved many spellcasters present. Otherwise, if Su Xiao had unleashed that Extreme: Ring Break, all the spellcasters rooted by Soul Electrocution would have died.
With his slash interrupted by the Crow Woman, Su Xiao simply let go of the sword hilt. Crystal layer formed on his right arm. He drove his elbow into the side of the Crow Woman's neck. Don't forget, Su Xiao was a Melee Grandmaster.
The Crow Woman's head buzzed. Fortunately, the surrounding spellcasters weren't useless teammates. They didn't use large-scale abilities to bombard Su Xiao, to avoid hitting the Crow Woman.
With a crackle, an extreme ice spike struck Su Xiao's back shoulder. The spike shattered. Su Xiao only suffered superficial injuries. It hurt a bit, but that was all.
Various single-target magical abilities rained down on Su Xiao. But this couldn't stop him from beating the Crow Woman in close combat.
Su Xiao suddenly vanished and reappeared behind the Crow Woman. A compressed demonic energy cannon that was originally aimed at him hit the Crow Woman's abdomen.
The Crow Woman, who already felt like her neck was broken, was blasted into a hunched position, blood droplets flying from her mouth.
Behind her, Su Xiao grabbed the back of her neck with one hand. Without a blade, instantly killing a top-tier eighth-rank fighter like the Crow Woman was unlikely. But rendering her combat-ineffective for a certain period was no problem.
Ignoring the attacks from around him, Su Xiao gripped the Crow Woman's neck with his left hand. The crystal layer on his right hand activated, and he punched her in the coccyx.
Crack, crack, crack~
The activated crystal layer had broader compatibility. It was immediately injected into the Crow Woman's back, traveling up her spine, then crystallizing, encasing her spine in a crystal layer.
After doing this, Su Xiao used the Crow Woman to block another compressed demonic energy cannon, then threw her aside.
Standing among the many spellcasters, it seemed like Su Xiao was surrounded by them. In reality, the opposite was true. Su Xiao had surrounded these spellcasters.
A ten-meter-tall blood aura phantom appeared above Su Xiao. Its form was both human-like and beast-like—a Fei. A soul great bow materialized in its hands, followed by a blood spear.
The blood aura phantom drew the bow and aimed at a spellcaster. It released the string.
The blood spear pierced through layers of air, unimpeded, through the spellcaster's torso. Then, a blood energy explosion.
Why was killing so easy? Because the blood aura phantom only shot at spellcasters paralyzed by Soul Electrocution. One shot, one kill.
Every time the spellcasters cast a spell, there was a 58% chance of triggering Soul Electrocution. In other words, every time they cast, there was a roughly half chance they would die on the spot.
[Blade Path Sword: Ring Break.]
The instant Ring Break spread out. After a series of clinking sounds, it was blocked by a translucent barrier formed by a spellcaster.
Su Xiao looked at this person. He was dignified and sturdy, clearly no ordinary character. Unfortunately, he had triggered Soul Electrocution.
Su Xiao raised his left arm and pointed his index finger at him. Highly compressed blood energy gathered at his fingertip.
[Blood Smoke Cannon.]
Bang!
A straight beam of blood energy shot out. The spellcaster stood frozen. At the center of his forehead was a finger-wide hole, piercing through his skull.
Amid the barrage of attacks, Su Xiao charged straight at a white-haired female spellcaster. She pointed her staff forward. Elemental ring blades appeared around Su Xiao, spinning and cutting at high speed.
After a round of scraping, Su Xiao closed in. He first slashed and shattered the staff in the white-haired spellcaster's hand, stopping her annoying elemental ring blade scraping, then killed her with a single slash.
At the outer edge of the spellcaster group, Loric watched the blood-red figure in the encirclement and the towering blood aura phantom. For the first time in his life, he felt such fear in battle. He even had the urge to turn and flee.
The spellcasters "surrounding" Su Xiao were growing weaker and weaker. Not only could they generally not beat him, but the more critical issue was that every time they cast a spell, there was a 58% chance of being paralyzed, followed by a blood spear to the face. Who could endure that?
Clang!
A long blade sliced through an incoming elemental giant hand. The next second, Su Xiao's blade pierced Loric's neck. Blood droplets flew.
Loric made painful gurgling sounds in his throat. Su Xiao ignored this. Pulling out the blade, he looked at a nearby female spellcaster.
"Scatter! Now!"
Dicken En, his face covered in blood spots, shouted. At these words, the surrounding spellcasters fled in all directions.
If they didn't run, they would be wiped out sooner or later. If they ran, spellcasters generally had short legs.
Su Xiao was about to pursue a bearded spellcaster when gravity struck from the side. He raised his arm to block, getting knocked sideways, flying over a dozen meters before landing in a crouch.
The other spellcasters all scattered. But Dicken En, the leader of this operation, didn't flee. He chose to stay behind and hold off this terrifying Law Destroyer.
"Hey, hello."
Dicken En grinned, revealing blood-stained teeth.
Clang!
The long blade came straight at him.
Two minutes later, Dicken En was on his knees. The long blade pierced through his chest. Not far away, Su Xiao held a spellcaster by the neck with one hand. This small-statured spellcaster was quite loyal. Seeing that Dicken En hadn't left, he had come back to help him hold the rear.
Crack~
Su Xiao snapped the small-statured spellcaster's neck. He appreciated the loyalty, but as an enemy, he had to be eliminated.
Su Xiao walked up to Dicken En. Dying, Dicken En raised his head and looked at Su Xiao. Su Xiao didn't speak. He pulled the Dragon-Slaying Flash from Dicken En's chest, then clamped the blade under his elbow and dragged it, wiping off the blood and magical residue.
"You... can't beat us. This is... our era, hahaha..."
Dicken En laughed, tilting his head back. Su Xiao didn't say a word. With one slash, he finished off this enemy.
Locking onto several directions, Su Xiao began pursuing the fleeing spellcasters. A few minutes later, he returned to the previous battlefield.
Su Xiao looked around, silently conducting a self-critique. Against over a hundred spellcasters, he had let a few escape. That was a mistake.
His gaze turned to the Crow Woman. She was lying on her back, pinned to the ground by several blood spears. In truth, her strength was not weak at all. But to save her teammates at the start, she had chosen to engage Su Xiao in close combat, and was immediately beaten to severe injury.
"I always had a feeling... I might die by your hand. And so it is."
The Crow Woman spoke. She didn't think Su Xiao would spare her. In fact, compared to being killed on the spot, she was more afraid of that happening.
Su Xiao stopped beside the Crow Woman, deep in thought. This made the Crow Woman's pupils contract rapidly. She felt her heartbeat accelerate. She was afraid. The Crow Woman, who feared not even death, now felt terror.
Su Xiao crouched down and looked at the Crow Woman. After a few seconds, he took out an injection gun and injected a dose of anesthetic strong enough to paralyze a Demon Flame Dragon into the Crow Woman's body.
Then, Su Xiao took out a translucent tentacle. He wanted to try a possibility. Killing the Crow Woman now wouldn't even make the higher-ups at Arcane Eternal Star blink. But if this attempt succeeded, then all the higher-ups at Arcane Eternal Star, except for the Supreme Being, would have to put on a pain mask.
The translucent tentacle floated in front of Su Xiao. He held his hands in a grasping motion, using mental fluctuations to summon the residual fluctuations within the translucent tentacle.
Ripple~
Layers of ripples spread through the air. The [Necronomicon] gradually materialized, then solidified.
"You... what are you... going to do?"
The Crow Woman's tone began to panic. Su Xiao didn't speak. His right hand, wrapped in crystal layer, pointed at the [Necronomicon]. The residual aura of the evil god on it was not weak.
He found that, as he had expected, the [Necronomicon] had been dealing with the evil god all along, not returning to the Devil Clan. The reason was simple: the Devil Clan had been severely ravaged by the Abyssal Jar. They were currently poor and recovering. Faced with such a Devil Clan, the [Necronomicon] was somewhat disdainful. They were not a worthy Void foster-parent clan.
The situation was as Su Xiao had predicted. Since the [Necronomicon] looked down on the Devil Clan's poverty, no problem. Su Xiao would find it a rich one. The Void overlord, Arcane Eternal Star—wasn't that rich enough?
Su Xiao directly picked up the [Necronomicon]. He and the [Necronomicon] mutually despised each other, so he naturally dared to touch it directly.
Su Xiao pressed the [Necronomicon] toward the Crow Woman. He was certain that if the Crow Woman was forced to return to Arcane Eternal Star with the [Necronomicon], the higher-ups there would absolutely put on a pain mask—and a particularly painful custom-made one.
Su Xiao had always been indebted to Arcane Eternal Star's care. This return gift—he wondered if they would be satisfied. If not, Su Xiao could discuss with Kaisa about sending the Abyssal Jar to Arcane Eternal Star as well, letting them experience double the joy.
If Wood were present and knew Su Xiao's thoughts, he would definitely say: "I'm not worthy of being a Devil Clan member. You are."