Chapter 41: The Choice

Chapter 41: The Choice

Within the grand cathedral, the intense heat generated by the forging gradually receded.
Su Xiao had originally thought he would need to resolve the karma with Dead Silence City before obtaining his first Origin-rank equipment. Unexpectedly, the Demon Blacksmith had forged one.
This equipment was named [Seal Demon]. It was pitch black throughout. Picking it up, one could feel that the scabbard had been finely polished overall, giving its surface enough friction for secure holding without feeling rough to the touch.
Near the upper half of the scabbard, a strip of leather as wide as a pinky finger was wrapped around it. This was the hide of some kind of Abyss Spawn, a material not provided by Su Xiao but from the Demon Blacksmith's own collection.

Clang~
Su Xiao drew the Dragon-Slaying Flash from his waist, preparing to sheathe it. But as soon as the blade left the scabbard, two intertwining plumes of smoke, blood-red and dark blue-black, spread from the blade. Clearly, it was due to [Seal Demon] that this change occurred.
"Even as a Hunter in Reincarnation Paradise, the Demon Spirit shouldn't have grown to this extent. With such violent blood energy in the Demon Spirit, did you plunder the blood energy of an ancient battlefield?"
The Demon Blacksmith, sitting on a stone seat nearby and enjoying fine wine, spoke. He had named the scabbard he forged [Seal Demon] for a unique reason. However, his mention of plundering ancient battlefield blood energy was more of a metaphor.
The Demon Blacksmith had existed for a long time. In his view, even a Law Destroyer probably wouldn't plunder ancient battlefield blood energy. Probably not.
Su Xiao sheathed the long blade. As the sword returned to [Seal Demon], the intertwining blood-red and dark blue-black smoke dissipated.
"Besides being eroded by the blood energy there, are there other risks to plundering blood energy from an ancient battlefield?"
Su Xiao asked. Upon hearing this, the Demon Blacksmith, who was enjoying his wine, paused. He looked Su Xiao up and down and said:
"Did you go plunder blood energy from an ancient battlefield?"
As the Demon Blacksmith spoke, he frowned. Beside him, Zuiyasi and Wude both cast glances, their expressions conveying a 'as expected of you' sentiment, which Su Xiao could feel even without meeting their eyes.
"Occasionally."
Upon hearing this, the Demon Blacksmith finished his wine, exhaled a breath of alcohol, and said: "If you can completely remove the residue, the blood energy there is indeed special, but..."
The Demon Blacksmith didn't continue, because he suddenly remembered something. There was a previous-generation Law Destroyer, Mawen Hua'erzi's master, who had even absorbed Demon Blade energy into himself.
Thinking of this, the idea of a Law Destroyer plundering ancient battlefield blood energy suddenly seemed perfectly reasonable.
The Demon Blacksmith returned to the forge, picked up a small forging hammer, and began clanging away at something on a lower anvil. Suddenly, he paused, looked towards Su Xiao and the others, and said:
"If you have nothing else to do, get lost. What are you hanging around here for?"
With that, the stone door of the forge slowly descended, leaving only the sound of rapid but rhythmic clanging from within. The Demon Blacksmith's forging skills were unquestionable, but his temper was equally bad.
The Demon Blacksmith's rise to fame was during the Law Annihilation Era, which was not only the era of Law Destroyers but also the golden age of alchemy and forging.
The Second Era: Alchemical Civilization needs no further mention. As for forging, besides the Demon Blacksmith, the Wind Sea Continent and the Ancient Dragon Kingdom each had a supreme blacksmith. Later generations called these three the Legendary Blacksmiths.
Among the three Legendary Blacksmiths, the one in the Void was naturally the Demon Blacksmith. The one on the Wind Sea Continent was the Dwarf King. The last, from the Ancient Dragon Kingdom, was a blacksmith named the Molten Giant.
It was said that these three had even competed in forging skills, but that was a private, secret gathering, so the results were naturally unknown. Forging Grandmasters of this caliber naturally wouldn't compete publicly, nor would they let a crowd of onlookers point fingers. The purpose of their private gathering was more to find sparks of craftsmanship they lacked in the forging techniques of the other two.
According to Su Xiao's understanding, among these three Legendary Blacksmiths, the Demon Blacksmith specialized in forging instruments of slaughter, his works tending to be heavy with killing intent.
The Dwarf King specialized in forging weapons leaning towards elemental characteristics. They had a secret method that allowed the forged weapon to achieve a balanced cyclical relationship with elemental power, even using this method to strengthen the elemental power within a world. For this reason, Arcane Eternal Star and the Transcendent Primordial World, Wind Sea Continent, had always been in a cooperative relationship.
As for the last Legendary Blacksmith, the Molten Giant, his whereabouts were unknown. He once lived in the Ancient Dragon Kingdom, but after the Ancient Dragons and the Sun God Clan fought a nearly mutually destructive war, both factions declined one after another.
The Molten Giant, who had always advocated mutual restraint, witnessed that brutal bloodbath and left in dejection, his whereabouts unknown. Among the three Legendary Blacksmiths, the battle armor he forged was unique.
That kind of armor was not powerful initially; it would be close to the wearer's strength level. But this armor was more like a half-living thing, growing alongside the wearer. The Molten Giant himself was taciturn, but many of the armors he forged were exceptionally talkative.
The most peculiar thing was that when the wearer was defeated, this type of armor would wrap around the wearer's body and control it to flee. It was said that if you gained the recognition of this armor, it would even be willing to cover your retreat in times of crisis.
In short, this was a suit of armor that could grow and was almost as talkative as Baha, possessing an inherent 'taunt ability' against enemies.

An hour ago, Su Xiao had just finished his decisive battle with the Collective of Sin. He was in dire need of rest. Additionally, Zuiyasi and Wude had both chosen their Proofs, which needed time to absorb the artificial Source Stones to obtain a sufficiently high level of protection. So, he simply walked into a small room, sat cross-legged on a wooden bed, and rested.
To deal with the Collective of Sin, Su Xiao had adopted a strategy of trading injuries for kills, reducing the numbers of the Wolf Cavalry and the Saint Choir members. Therefore, his injuries were predictable. Until his injuries fully recovered and his state reached its peak, he would absolutely not advance towards the [Supreme Sanctuary]. That was the final battleground. Whether he could leave Dead Silence City alive depended on the situation within the [Supreme Sanctuary].
After meditation and treatment from the Gray Maid, Su Xiao's condition improved significantly. The feeling of tightness in his chest was completely gone, and his organs no longer ached. The Gray Maid's healing ability was as reliable as ever.
Although the forging and equipment enhancement this time were successful, the three-slot standard inscription base entrusted to the Demon Blacksmith for repair was repaired to the point of being scrapped.
This was inevitable. The inscription base was a unique resource of the Paradise faction. Although the Demon Blacksmith had seen this item before, he had neither forged nor studied it in depth. He had only said he would try, with the original words being that there was a 90% chance he couldn't fix it.
Even so, Su Xiao still entrusted the repair to the Demon Blacksmith. The reason was simple: no other blacksmith would accept this commission. No, Lide was very willing to accept it, but Su Xiao found that Lide wasn't confident he could repair the three-slot standard inscription base; rather, he wanted to smash it open with a few hammer blows to study its internal structure.
Looking back now, when it came to repairing the three-slot standard inscription base, there seemed to be little difference between going to Lide and the Demon Blacksmith. The former would smash it directly, while the latter would try to repair it, find he couldn't figure it out, and then also take a forging hammer to it.
Otherwise, Su Xiao couldn't imagine what repair method could turn a three-slot standard inscription base into fragments finer than sifted sand.
Although the Demon Blacksmith stated outright that if he smashed three or five more inscription bases, he could figure out their structure and principles and thus repair them properly, considering the price and rarity of inscription bases, Su Xiao chose to ignore this point.
Needless to say, the Demon Blacksmith had taken a liking to the [Inscription Base: Wrathful Image] Su Xiao was currently wearing. Not to take it for himself, but to smash it open and study its internal structure.
Su Xiao picked up the sheathed Dragon-Slaying Flash beside him. To forge the scabbard and upgrade [Blood Feather], he had consumed two precious Evil God souls, plus a full 100 ounces of Space-Time Power, along with various other rare materials. This was even after the Demon Blacksmith waived the forging fee and was quite satisfied with [Seal Demon], subsequently adding some materials of his own.
Su Xiao checked the attributes of the new scabbard [Seal Demon]. Before he could see the attributes, a notification appeared first.
[Notification: You have obtained your first Origin-rank equipment.]
[You have gained the Authority: High Rating Stabilization.]
[Notification: Advancing to Ninth Rank or obtaining your first Origin-rank equipment will activate this authority.]
[Origin-rank Equipment: Rating 1500~3000 points. Equipment has unique characteristics. The number of max-rated Origin-rank equipment that can be produced per world is limited (Origin-rank equipment forged through Void Tree and Paradise certification will not be restricted by origin location).]
...

Previously, Su Xiao couldn't check the rating of [Silver Moon Blade], and he knew this. He had thought he needed to advance to Ninth Rank to obtain this authority. Now it seemed that obtaining his first Origin-rank equipment could also activate it.
Closing the notification, Su Xiao continued to check the attributes of the new scabbard.

[Seal Demon]
Origin: Reincarnation Paradise · Certification.
Quality: Origin-rank
Category: Scabbard (Self-Adaptive)
Durability: 210/210 points.
Equipment Requirement: Shadow of Law Destruction.
Basic Effect: Before the Demon Blade ability of Dragon-Slaying Flash enters its cooldown phase, the blade damage caused by the Hunter with Dragon-Slaying Flash will additionally inflict Energy Erosion Damage equal to 1.5~3% of the enemy's maximum Health Points.
Hint: This damage will reach its maximum within 1.5~3 seconds. During this time, the attacked target will find it difficult to gather large amounts of bodily energy.
Equipment Effect 1, Seal Demon (Core · Passive): When the Blade of Law Annihilation is sheathed, it can put the [Blade Demon Spirit] into a Sealed Slumber state.
Hint: After entering Sealed Slumber, the [Blade Demon Spirit] will cease releasing chaotic killing intent, thereby preventing surrounding creatures from falling into a frenzied rage state (the weapon's owner is naturally immune to this abnormal state).
Hint: After the [Blade Demon Spirit] enters the Sealed Slumber state, the 'digestion' speed of the devoured Primordial Energy will be accelerated.
Equipment Effect 2, Demon Spirit Awakening (Core · Passive): This characteristic is temporarily unactivatable.
Hint: When the Hunter's Supreme Blade ability reaches X, this characteristic can be activated.
Hint: After activating this characteristic, it will be stripped from this equipment and transformed into an ability mastered by the Hunter. This ability can temporarily fully awaken the [Blade Demon Spirit], causing it to enter a [Rampant Devouring State], thereby devouring the Primordial Energy of enemies with the [Undying] characteristic to achieve the goal of eliminating them.
Hint: After this ability is stripped, the Seal Demon Scabbard will gain a new ability, and this ability will definitely enhance the [Blade Demon Spirit] in the [Rampant Devouring State].
Equipment Effect 3, Sheath Nurturing (Passive): When Dragon-Slaying Flash is in its sheathed state, it will begin to gather momentum. By slowly consuming Soul Energy, it enhances the power of the next slash and the drawing speed. While gathering momentum, it increases attack intensity by 3.5% per hour and drawing speed by 1.5% per hour, up to a maximum of 65% attack intensity and 32% drawing speed.
Hint: This attack intensity bonus can only be maintained for one slash. Regardless of whether this slash hits the enemy, the accumulated momentum effect will be consumed.
Rating: 3000 points (Origin-rank equipment rating is 1500~3000 points).
Description: Slay gods, punish evil. The seal demon can slay the undying; the undying are also the food of the Demon Spirit.
Price: Unsellable.
...

After reviewing the attributes of [Seal Demon], Su Xiao confirmed one thing: this scabbard was tailor-made for a Law Destroyer. Presumably, the Demon Blacksmith had forged similar scabbards for other Law Destroyers in the past.
At first glance, the Basic Effect and Equipment Effect 3 of [Seal Demon] seemed more prominent. However, there was no doubt that the [Seal Demon] effect and [Demon Spirit Awakening] were the core of this scabbard.
Currently, the Blade Demon Spirit of Dragon-Slashing Flash didn't need [Seal Demon] yet. At least in Su Xiao's feeling, it wasn't necessary for now.
Not needing it now didn't mean it wouldn't be needed later. Thinking this, Su Xiao left the small room to find the Demon Blacksmith.
As soon as he arrived at the forge, he was met with the Demon Blacksmith's less-than-friendly gaze. For so many days, the Demon Blacksmith had been forging equipment for free. The current situation was that, in the next few days, if Su Xiao proposed another commission, the most likely outcome was getting hit in the face with a forging hammer.
However, upon learning that Su Xiao had come to inquire about the [Rampant Devouring State] of the [Blade Demon Spirit], the Demon Blacksmith's gaze became relatively friendlier. But he didn't say much, only stating that when Su Xiao encountered troublesome Abyss Spawn in the future, he would understand how important the Blade Demon Spirit was.
Returning to the small rest room, Su Xiao sat cross-legged on the wooden bed and drew Dragon-Slashing Flash a few inches from the scabbard. The Demon Blacksmith's meaning was clear: advancing to Ninth Rank meant the time for fighting Abyss Spawn was not far off.
Ordinary Abyss Spawn were manageable, but some possessed Undying, Indestructible characteristics. Even if killed and burned to ashes this time, the Abyss Spawn would reappear a few days later.
Against these extremely troublesome Abyss Spawn, the usually unstoppable Execution was useless. Complete immunity to Execution was a unique characteristic of this type of Abyss Spawn. Other beings, no matter how strong, could not be immune to Execution unless they passed the judgment during the activation of the Execution ability. This was an interruption-type immunity to Execution, not a complete immunity.
Furthermore, this type of Abyss Spawn was not only Undying and Indestructible but also possessed powerful Erosion, Assimilation, Regeneration, and Corrosion properties. Forget a protracted battle; if you couldn't deal with them in a few exchanges upon encounter, you'd likely be done for.
The previous-generation Law Destroyers often dealt with these terrifying beings. Since Execution was ineffective against them, they would briefly put the Blade Demon Spirit into a [Rampant Devouring State], devour the Primordial Source of this type of Abyss Spawn, let the Blade Demon Spirit slowly digest that Primordial Source, and completely eliminate these terrifying Abyss Spawn.
Su Xiao seemed to understand why some high-level worlds had a love-hate relationship with Law Destroyers—hating them to the bone yet somewhat welcoming them.
Hating them to the bone was because of the Law Destroyers' bandit-like looting... ahem, the Law Destroyers' reasonable resource allocation, which was sometimes hard to accept.
Welcoming them was because once an Undying, Indestructible Abyss Spawn appeared in a world, it would bring a nightmare-like disaster. Saying that one such Abyss Spawn was enough to destroy a world was no exaggeration.
Many of the [World-Destroying] races imprisoned in the Eternal Light World were aberrations of this type of Abyss Spawn. Those things had mutated to the point where even the [Rampant Devouring State] of the Blade Demon Spirit couldn't fully digest their Primordial Source. They could only be temporarily imprisoned by the Blade Demon Spirit's Primordial Source and then locked away in the Eternal Light World.
Thinking of this, Su Xiao's understanding of the Eternal Light World's purpose became clear. If he ever encountered an Abyss Spawn that he couldn't execute or digest its Primordial Source with the Blade Demon Spirit, he would throw it into the Eternal Light World.
In Su Xiao's view, there was really no need to fight to the death with those terrifying beings lacking reason or even self-awareness. If you encountered one, you were just unlucky. Deal with it.

Putting down the sheathed Dragon-Slashing Flash, Su Xiao took out [Blood Feather]. After one upgrade, Blood Feather had risen from the third-tier Overlord equipment to the second tier.

[Blood Feather]
Origin: Overlord Creature · Holy Spirit Bird
Quality: Overlord-rank
Category: Special Equipment
Durability: 25/25 points.
Equipment Requirement: Charm Attribute below 5 points.
Good Use Effect: Charm Attribute below 2 points.
Best Use Effect: Charm Attribute below 0 points.
Equipment Effect 1: Malignant Elegance (Active): Blood Feather will shatter in a short time and attach to the enemy's body surface. Effect lasts 10 minutes. During this time, healing-type skills released by the enemy will inflict an equal amount of True Damage on their own allies.
Hint: If the enemy unit attached by Blood Feather does not use a healing-type ability within 20 seconds, a Instant Death effect will be triggered.
Hint: Malignant Elegance (Active) has transmissibility. If the attached target dies, it will automatically attach to the next enemy healing-type unit's body surface, resetting the duration.
Hint: If an enemy unit attached by Blood Feather uses a healing-type ability on the holder of Blood Feather (Su Xiao), the healing effect of this ability will be increased by 5 times.
Hint: Malignant Elegance (Active) will consume 5 points of this equipment's durability.
Hint: This equipment's durability can only be repaired within Reincarnation Paradise.
Equipment Effect 2: Deep Wound (Active): Blood Feather will shatter in a short time and attach to a healing-type enemy's body surface. Effect lasts 72 hours. During this time, healing-type skills released by the enemy will initially provide normal healing effects to their allies. However, after this healing ends, the healed enemy unit will, within a random subsequent time, suffer continuous True Damage equal to 3.9 times the intensity of this healing (e.g., if 1000 points of healing are received, within 1~600 seconds after the healing ends, the healed target will suffer 3900 points of True Damage).
Hint: When an enemy dies from this healing backlash damage, it will be counted as a kill by the Hunter.
Hint: In this state, Blood Feather possesses extremely strong concealment, able to evade over 96.7% of detection effects, and cannot be purified or forcibly stripped.
Hint: When the continuous effect ends, the Hunter can forcibly recall Blood Feather regardless of distance.
Hint: Deep Wound (Active) will consume 10 points of this equipment's durability.
Hint: This equipment's durability can only be repaired within Reincarnation Paradise.
Rating: 2350 points.
Description: The holy bird stained by blood. Her death cry decrees that only the wicked are worthy of using Blood Feather — Malignant Elegance · Boswell.
Price: Unsellable.
...

The first characteristic of Blood Feather was the same as before, but its intensity had increased. Originally lasting 5 minutes, it now reached 10 minutes.
Compared to the original effect, the newly appeared ability was quite interesting. This ability was silent and stealthy, difficult even for the healing-type it attached to, to detect.
But in the following 72 hours, this healer would become a nightmare for their teammates. After healing a teammate, there would be no initial abnormality. However, at some random point within the subsequent 1~600 seconds, the teammate who received this healing would suddenly suffer continuous True Damage.
This damage was 3.9 times the intensity of the previous healing. If a group was fighting a powerful enemy in a critical moment, and the frontline melee tank who blocked the enemy took this hit, it wouldn't be an exaggeration to say the team would be wiped out in a short time.
Even if lucky, and the healed target only suffered the continuous True Damage after the battle ended, encountering such a surprise attack, the healed target would immediately seek help from the team's healer. But they wouldn't know that their reliable big healer had turned into a poison healer. The more they healed, the faster the target would die later.
In simple terms, the second ability of Blood Feather attached a subsequent True Damage effect to the healer. The effect was simple, but its lethality was astonishing.
Su Xiao felt that Blood Feather in this state was an assassination-type equipment. Just use it on the enemy team's healer, and there was no need to worry further. Within 3 days, there was over a 90% chance the team would be completely wiped out.
Besides using it as assassination equipment, when fighting a group of enemies in the future, if he couldn't wipe them out in one go, he could deliberately let a 'lucky' surviving healer escape during a victorious battle, silently attach Blood Feather to them, turning them into a poison healer upon their return. The wonderful thing was, this poison healer wouldn't know they were a poison healer.

"Someone's looking for you outside."
As Gulu walked into the small room, her steps faltered. The reason was that the soul fluctuation of Sacred Hymn within her consciousness space suddenly intensified and awakened.
Since being entangled by Sacred Hymn, Gulu had never felt such a strong emotional fluctuation from Sacred Hymn's soul body. It felt like a cat thrown into a group of tigers, its fur standing on end as if struck by lightning.
"What... are you holding?"
Sacred Hymn spoke, her tone filled with undisguised vigilance.
"..."
Su Xiao didn't speak. He put away Blood Feather. The details of equipment like Blood Feather naturally couldn't be known by Sacred Hymn. After all, this was the strongest Eighth Rank healing-type contractor. If she saw Blood Feather's attributes, there would only be two outcomes: 1. From now on, upon seeing Su Xiao, she would turn and leave, always maintaining a safe distance of over 20 kilometers from him. 2. She would try every means to destroy Blood Feather, or she wouldn't feel at ease.
Considering the gap in combat power, if Sacred Hymn chose the second strategy, she would likely become Blood Feather's first experiencer.
Ignoring Sacred Hymn's vigilance, Su Xiao asked, "Who's looking for me?"
"Crow Woman."
Leaving these words, Gulu put on headphones and listened to music as she left. She would absolutely not participate in the upcoming battle. Having courage and seeking death were two different concepts.
Su Xiao left the cathedral and arrived at the misty Slumber Courtyard. Sure enough, Crow Woman was sitting by the dried-up fountain pool, draped in a black feathered cloak, her aura weak.
"I'm about to die."
Crow Woman raised her head. The depths of her eyes were still pitch black, but her pupils had turned a glowing white. This meant she was consuming her life force to resist something.
"..."
Su Xiao didn't speak, but he had already guessed Crow Woman's intention.
"I accidentally entered a Dark Zone and was eroded by an Abyss Spawn. Strangely, the Necronomicon doesn't allow other enemies to kill me, but it doesn't intend to stop me from dying from Abyss Spawn erosion. So, I'm about to die. Will you watch me die before I return to Arcane Eternal Star this time? I haven't brought the Necronomicon back yet."
Crow Woman grinned. If not for her origins in Arcane Eternal Star, she would likely have become a contractor of Reincarnation Paradise, or even a Hunter.
In fact, she came here just to try her luck. Having been extremely unlucky and targeted by an Abyss Spawn, if she died here, there was nothing to be done. If she didn't die, she'd have gained something.
"Are you just going to let me die like this? For some reason, my mood right now... is excellent."
"..."
Su Xiao looked at Crow Woman leaning against the dried-up pool. Bubu Wang, Amu, and Baha, sensing his gaze, gradually huddled together, almost hugging each other. Because the look in Su Xiao's eyes at that moment reminded them of their experiences with major repairs.
"..."
Su Xiao walked towards the cathedral. Behind him, Crow Woman struggled to her feet. As she walked, a smile reappeared on her face. Having been schemed against to the point of fighting shadows, she had finally turned the tables. Clearly, she didn't know what unforgettable experience awaited her during the treatment process.

Eight hours later, Crow Woman, leaning against the dried-up fountain pool, slowly awoke. She looked around in confusion, then raised her hand, looking at her right hand wrapped in bandages.
Her memory of the past eight hours was a complete blank. She could feel that this wasn't a case of having part of her memory cut away, but rather, for some reason, she had sealed this part of her memory herself. It seemed that within these few hours of memory, there was unimaginable fear and pain.
"Hmm?"
Crow Woman squinted, suspicious. Why had her injuries healed so much? And how had she gotten here?
"What the hell is this thing?"
Crow Woman stared at a ф mark on the palm of her left hand. Although the mark was gradually fading, she always felt it looked like a single-use contract. A very ominous feeling lingered in her heart.
Crow Woman vanished from the Slumber Courtyard. A hundred meters away, on top of the cathedral, Su Xiao pressed one hand against a floating piece of parchment in front of him.
'Contract... established.'
The parchment vanished. Not far away, Wude, seeing this, his flame-like pupils condensed. He was very interested in this kind of one-time contract.
Su Xiao returned to the cathedral. His state had recovered to its peak. It was time to advance towards the Supreme Sanctuary.
"I'm good here."
Zuiyasi raised his hand. On his index finger was a ring. This was a Proof that had absorbed a large amount of artificial Source Stone.
Beside him, Wude was the same. On the chest of his dark purple suit was pinned a brooch, also a Proof.
Bubu Wang, Amu, and Baha were also ready. If a battle occurred within the Supreme Sanctuary, Amu would be the tank this time. How long he could hold out was unknown.
The group entered the small room containing the teleportation device. As the spatial teleportation was activated, everything around them blurred for a moment. When the surrounding scene became clear again, they were already inside a side hall of the [Hall of Atonement].
Leaving the side hall, they came before a door at the back of the [Hall of Atonement]. Through the open door, the scene outside was gray and dim. Gray, flocculent substances fell from above like gray snowflakes symbolizing death. The ground was soft dust, creating a landscape of rolling hills and ravines.
Walking on the soft dust for about ten minutes, a majestic building stood before them. It was the Supreme Sanctuary.
A towering double door, dozens of meters high, stood before them. Each door leaf had two symmetrical locking discs. At this moment, all four locking discs were open, signifying that Su Xiao had passed the four trials: the Saint Choir Trial, the Wolf Trial, the Saintess Trial, and the final Sin Trial.
Amidst the drifting gray snowflakes, Su Xiao pushed against the massive doors. With a rumbling sound, the doors opened. Countless black souls surged out from the gap, brushing past Su Xiao's face, sides, and other places.
The sight of millions of dark souls pouring out from the crack was both spectacular and chilling. When Su Xiao stopped pushing, a cloak made of black mist and a faintly visible crown had formed on him.
Entering the Supreme Sanctuary, the hundred-meter-high grand hall made one feel as if they had entered a colossal building built by giants. The view was vast and empty. The floor was paved with marble, but it had been eroded to a rough, dilapidated state.
After advancing several dozen meters, a door over ten meters high blocked the way. Su Xiao took out the [Sanctuary Key]. With a click, the key was automatically drawn into the lock.
Click, click, click~
The key turned on its own. The three-layered metal door split into many pieces, retracting into the surrounding walls.
An open temple came into view. At the very back of the temple stood a towering stone throne. As Su Xiao and the others entered the temple, the three-layered metal door behind them slammed shut with a bang.
A gray, extremely solid stone tablet rose in the center of the temple. Su Xiao approached the five-meter-tall stone tablet, looked at the dense patterns on it, and understood what choice the Chosen One could make.
After passing the four trials, the Chosen One had proven their strength and gained the qualification to enter the Supreme Sanctuary, or rather, the qualification to be crowned king here.
By accepting the Dead Silence Primordial Source sealed within this gray stone tablet, replacing the Eternal God to continue sealing this Primordial Source, one could be crowned the Dead Silence King. If Su Xiao made this choice, he would never be able to leave Dead Silence City for even half a step.
Conversely, there was another choice: Break the Seal and Slay the God. Once the seal was broken, the Eternal God would be completely eroded by the Dead Silence Primordial Source. Defeat the Eternal God, thereby weakening the Dead Silence Primordial Source within him, and then seal it with the Proof. This was the second choice.

Crack, crack, crack~
A crystal layer spread over Su Xiao's left hand. He swung his left fist in a sideways arc. His left fist, clad in the Black King Bracer, smashed the sealing stone tablet to pieces.
A beast-like roar came from above. Just hearing this roar made one feel as if a heavy stone was pressing on their heart. This was the pressure of facing a god directly. Do not compare the Eternal God with those divine system beings. The difference between the two was too great.
The sealing stone tablet shattered with a bang. Large pieces of broken gray rock scattered in front of Su Xiao. Almost simultaneously, the cloak and crown formed from black smoke on his body dissipated.
Break the seal, slay the god!