Chapter 22: Luck
Within the alternate space barrier, Caesar's sudden arrival meant that Su Xiao's original plans needed some adjustments. To be precise, the plan needed to yield greater gains.
Caesar, now one with the jar, looked around the barrier for a while before taking off the Abyssal Jar from his head, revealing his signature smile—seven parts cunning and three parts sleazy.
The moment the Goddess of Fortune saw Caesar's smile, she instinctively covered the bracelet on her left wrist with her right hand. This was a spatial item containing many good things.
After making this gesture, even the Goddess of Fortune herself was stunned. She didn't know why, but upon seeing this short, thin old man, she instinctively felt that her wallet was in danger.
Baha dispelled the alternate space barrier, and everyone returned to the spacious bedroom. A moment later, Su Xiao went to the office, sat behind the desk, with Caesar sitting across from him and the Goddess of Fortune sitting to the side.
Since just now, the Goddess of Fortune had been afraid to get too close to Caesar. Although Caesar's combat power was almost nonexistent, the Goddess of Fortune recognized the Abyssal Jar. Seeing someone wearing this thing on their head, not only unharmed but so composed, her worldview was starting to crack.
Su Xiao used the tea set on the table to brew several cups of tea, giving one each to Caesar and the Goddess of Fortune. Caesar, who had drunk Maple Tea before, sipped it with a relaxed expression.
The Goddess of Fortune picked up the teacup and took a small sip. The unique tea fragrance and the lingering aftertaste reminiscent of meditation made her look suspicious. She took another sip with a serious expression and tentatively asked:
"This tea seems to have the essence of the Black Maple Tree. How peculiar."
Hearing this, Baha, who was holding the teacup with his wing-like hand, smacked his lips and said, "It's not just 'seems to have the essence of the Black Maple Tree.' This tea is made from the young shoots of the Black Maple Tree, stir-fried by Amu. Pretty skilled, right?"
Upon hearing this, the Goddess of Fortune, who had just taken a sip of tea, nearly spat it out. But thinking about how extravagant this tea was, she held it in, swallowed it with a gulp, and stared at the teacup in her hand, shocked. She couldn't understand what kind of wasteful behavior this was.
"Let's not talk about these trivial matters for now. This time, we're going to the Saint Lan Kingdom to deal with the God of Radiance. Fortune, from what you said earlier, it seems you know the God of Radiance? That makes sense; you're both benevolent deities."
Hearing Baha's words, the Goddess of Fortune denied it, saying, "He's not a benevolent deity. Deities who accumulate divine blood through faith are not benevolent deities. He can't even be considered a neutral deity; he should be considered an evil god."
"Oh? How so?"
"Most intelligent races place deities too high on a pedestal. In reality, deities are just 'divine souls' with different characteristics. Among us, there are those like me with flesh and blood, and those with energy-based divine bodies. It's nothing special. Those who say things like 'you ants' to mortals are mostly mentally ill."
After speaking, the Goddess of Fortune finished her tea and let out a comfortable long sigh.
"Deities who accumulate divine blood through faith are actually not that great."
The Goddess of Fortune's words were profound and thought-provoking. At present, the Dawn God Cult had grown exceptionally strong in the Saint Lan Kingdom, even rivaling the royal power. Under such circumstances, was the God of Radiance really a benevolent deity? The possibility was too low.
When mortals are on the brink of suffering, they are more desperate for divine protection. Now that the Alliance and the Northern Empire had been at peace for years, the Saint Lan Kingdom naturally wouldn't be affected by war. This meant there wouldn't be much suffering in the Saint Lan Kingdom. Logically, the Dawn God Cult shouldn't have grown so strong.
But the opposite happened. Since the thousand-year bloody war between the Alliance and the Northern Empire ended, several kings of the Saint Lan Kingdom hadn't lived past the age of 40. They all inherited the throne around the age of ten and were treated as puppets. After enduring for decades and finally reaching their prime, ready to truly seize royal power, they suddenly died of illness.
Once or twice could be coincidence, but if several consecutive kings suffered the same fate, someone was pulling strings in the shadows. Not only that, but within the Saint Lan Kingdom, apart from the royal capital, other major cities were frequently raided by beast tribes from the Bar Forest.
The Saint Lan Kingdom's impression on outsiders mostly came from its royal capital—slow-paced civilian life, thriving music and art, etc. But the entire Saint Lan Kingdom was only like this in the royal capital.
The current situation in this kingdom was that a young king under ten years old sat on the throne. The ministers around him colluded with the queen, royal power was controlled by the Black Rose, and divine power was firmly held by the High Priest of the Dawn God Cult. The High Priest didn't care about the young king's decrees at all, only obeying the God of Radiance.
This was just the situation in the royal capital. In the major cities of the Saint Lan Kingdom, each city lord treated royal power as nothing, either obeying the Black Rose or the High Priest's men.
In fact, from the earlier attempt of the Dawn God Cult to develop into the Alliance, one could see the true face of this force. However, the four Grand Councilors of the Alliance had already arranged everything, treating the priests sent by the Dawn God Cult as tools.
Originally, the four Grand Councilors' plan was to warn the Golden God Cult while also dealing with the increasingly unruly Dawn God Cult. But after Su Xiao dragged the Dark God Cult into the crossfire, the four Grand Councilors' eyes lit up. They actually wanted to deal with the Dark God Cult more, so they took this opportunity to uproot the Dark God Cult within the Alliance.
After witnessing the Dark God Cult being caught in the crossfire, the Dawn God Cult quickly withdrew, having personally experienced the methods of the Council.
Su Xiao wasn't interested in the character of the God of Radiance. What he needed to do now was kill this deity who had colluded with the Black Rose. An enemy's friend is a new enemy.
"Fortune, what's the strength of the God of Radiance roughly? This is too hard to investigate. This deity hasn't made a move in at least a few hundred years."
Baha threw the intelligence about the God of Radiance onto the table.
"The last time I came to this world, that was... uh~, regarding the age of deities, you can just divide by 100. For example, sometimes I sleep for decades at a time. I'm actually a very young deity..."
"Stop, stop, stop. That's not the point. Say something important."
"This is actually quite important..."
Before the Goddess of Fortune could finish, she found Su Xiao staring at her expressionlessly. She changed the subject and said:
"Let's put it this way, the God of Radiance is stronger than you estimated. You previously estimated that he was about the same strength as the Sand King, but that's not the case. Due to some special reasons, I've come to this world many times. Otherwise, I wouldn't have responded to your summon so quickly."
"Special reasons? Elaborate."
Su Xiao spoke. He didn't want any unknown factors in the intelligence. No matter how he looked at it, the Goddess of Fortune was hiding something.
"Ahem~, there's a barbecue restaurant in the main city of the Northern Empire in this world. It's very... delicious."
At the end, the Goddess of Fortune even swallowed her saliva.
"I... I'm speechless."
Baha was choked by a belly full of dirty jokes, unable to say a single word in the end.
The Goddess of Fortune cleared her throat and began to explain the general situation of this world. She was very familiar with over 70% of ninth-rank worlds. The reason was that the native forces in these worlds didn't reject her. Who would want to offend a deity who governs luck? Moreover, when this deity came, she neither caused trouble nor preached; she just came to play.
However, the Goddess of Fortune didn't dare to go to the Transcendent Primordial World. According to her, there used to be four Transcendent Primordial Worlds. After the Gloomy Continent declined, there were three left: the Night Temptation Witch Guild (Witch Realm), the Doom Star, and the Wind Sea Continent.
The Night Temptation Witch Guild, also known as the Witch Realm, didn't welcome outsiders. Whether it was foreign deities or contractors from the Paradise camp, once discovered, the Night Temptation Witches would start expulsion, giving outsiders ample time to leave. But if someone attacked the Night Temptation Witches, they would experience the top spot on the Void's grudge list.
It wasn't that they were rejecting outsiders. To enter, one had to contact the witches at the World Gate of the Witch Realm. After both parties negotiated properly, the Night Temptation Witches would show a welcoming attitude to guests. But if someone barged in, they wouldn't be polite.
It was said that the Witch Realm had hundreds of billions of people, and intelligent beings were too numerous to count. The Night Temptation Witches were the guardians of these beings.
As for the other two Transcendent Primordial Worlds, the Wind Sea Continent was in a mess, with multiple races in a massive melee. To be precise, the races in this Transcendent World were either at war or resting and preparing for war. There, powerful aberrant beasts roamed, sky-covering ferocious birds flew overhead. In that place, a beast a hundred meters in size was practically a little brother. A thousand-meter-long scaled bone giant python could barely be considered a local boss, and its territory wasn't even large.
The current situation was that the races on the Wind Sea Continent were fighting fiercely. Even thousand-meter aberrant beasts didn't dare to go out casually, as they could easily be caught by various races and forcibly transformed into war beasts.
Compared to the chaos of the Wind Sea Continent, the Doom Star was the lair of the Ancient God faction. The scene there could be imagined—a desolate, eerie place where even the sewage in roadside ditches was highly toxic.
"Off topic again. Talk about the situation in this world."
Baha spoke, bringing the Goddess of Fortune, who was sipping tea and describing things with relish, back to the main topic.
According to the Goddess of Fortune, the strength ranking of the strong in this world was roughly as follows:
First: The Betrayer.
Second: The God of Radiance.
Third: Abyss Leader · Sirvis.
Fourth: The Sand King (Defector).
Fifth: The Platinum Bishop.
Sixth: Tessa.
Seventh: The Northern Empire's Grand General.
Eighth: The Black Rose.
...
The God of Radiance was harder to deal with than imagined. It seemed that going head-to-head with him wasn't wise. Moreover, they still had to deal with the Sand King and the Betrayer later, especially the Betrayer. If some methods were used against the God of Radiance, even if they won in the end, they would face certain death when dealing with the Betrayer later.
"My dear friend, I have an idea, but it requires your luck to be at a normal to above-average level, even if only for a short time."
Caesar spoke. Hearing this, Su Xiao frowned. He hadn't considered luck before, and since Fate Dominator was currently being upgraded, he couldn't take it out for use.
"Increasing Bai Ye's luck isn't impossible."
When the Goddess of Fortune spoke, her eyes showed a hint of pain. Everyone's eyes were on her.
"Increasing the luck of a Law Destroyer is theoretically not impossible, but the issue is intensity. Let's make an analogy. Suppose a Transcendent's luck is the capacity of this water cup."
The Goddess of Fortune placed her teacup on the table. Baha continued, "So the Law Destroyer's luck is a bucket?"
"A bucket? If it were just the difference between a cup and a bucket, I could still manage. The total luck of a Law Destroyer isn't a bucket; it's a tank. The water tank on top of a water tower."
Saying this, the Goddess of Fortune pointed out the window at the tall water tank in the distance. That thing was at least ten meters high and five meters wide.
"A normal person's luck is like filling this cup with water—that's good luck. For a Law Destroyer to fill that tank with water is good luck. But conversely, when a Law Destroyer's luck overflows, imagine what happens when they compete with others in terms of luck? A water tank smashing into a water cup. Smack~, the cup turns to dust. That's the dual nature of a Law Destroyer's luck. Law Destroyers are all old unlucky bastards... No, I'm not talking about you. You know what I mean... I mean, oh, right, a luck electrocardiogram."
The more the Goddess of Fortune explained, the more her words were like honey on her lips.
"Hahaha."
Baha couldn't help but laugh.
"Let me think about how to describe it. Yeah, this kind of luck makes you unlucky, but it also makes you immune to fate and causality abilities. If someone with those two types of abilities comes looking for trouble, it's simply overreaching."
"..."
Su Xiao frowned. Seeing this, the Goddess of Fortune brought the topic back on track.
"In the past, I couldn't significantly change your luck. Now I should be able to, provided I'm within two meters of you and burn over 500 drops of my Luck Divine Blood to empower this ability."
The Goddess of Fortune was making a huge sacrifice. Or rather, if she didn't show some sincerity, she wouldn't feel at ease with the over 3,000 drops of Luck Divine Blood she had obtained. It all felt unreal.
After some discussion, a plan to deal with the God of Radiance was formed. More precisely, it was a plan to deal with the Mysterious · Black Rose. But the first step of this plan was to hunt down the God of Radiance, who ranked second in strength in this world.
When the sky was just getting light, a prison cart stopped in the courtyard of the Madhouse. Several prisoners wearing black hoods were escorted down. Three of them were taken to the first floor of the underground prison, while one was taken by an orderly to the director's office.
With a click, the orderly unlocked the prisoner's handcuffs and shackles. The prisoner pulled off his own hood, revealing himself to be Dragon God · Dean.
"Bai Ye, I did join the Alliance camp, but not the Twilight Madhouse..."
Before Dragon God · Dean could finish, he received a notification.
[Notification: Under the recommendation of Twilight Madhouse Director · Bai Ye, your Alliance camp reputation rank +1.]
[Due to this recommendation, you have been temporarily transferred to the Twilight Madhouse · Logistics Department, managed by Logistics Administrator · Nicholas Caesar.]
[Due to Nicholas Caesar's unique skill · Camp Bully (Active, X), you receive the following benefits.]
[Due to this benefit, your Alliance camp reputation gain is reduced by 99.99% (this reduction covers all reputation acquisition methods).]
...
Seeing this notification, Dean was stunned for a moment. He didn't care who Nicholas Caesar was right now. He wanted to know why his camp reputation gain was reduced by 99.99%. This meant that if he could originally gain 1,000 reputation points, he would now only get 0.1 points? Even more absurdly, this was labeled as a benefit. No matter how he looked at it, it was a debuff.
Before Dean could speak, more notifications appeared.
[Notification: Logistics Administrator · Nicholas Caesar has voluntarily initiated a notarization verification with the Void Tree. The Void Tree has verified that Nicholas Caesar has indeed treated you harshly. You will receive the following compensation from Nicholas Caesar.]
[Your Alliance camp reputation gain is increased by 99.99% (this increase covers all reputation acquisition methods).]
[Your Alliance camp reputation gain is increased by 32.6%.]
[Your Alliance camp reputation gain is increased by 5.7%.]
[Your Alliance camp reputation gain is increased by 17%.]
[Your Alliance camp reputation gain is increased by 56%.]
[Your Alliance camp reputation gain is increased by 12%.]
[You have triggered an emergency mission issued by Alliance · Twilight Madhouse · Director Bai Ye.]
[Emergency Mission · Disguise.]
Mission Content: Disguise as ??? Director · Bai Ye, and travel with others to the Saint Lan Kingdom · Royal Capital by train.
Mission Difficulty: ★★★★ (This type of mission difficulty ranges from ★ to ★★★★★).
Mission Danger Level: ★★★★★
Mission Reward: ★★★★★★★★★★★ (Originally the maximum was ★★★★★, but due to your reputation gain cap, an additional ★★★★★★ has been added).
Notification: Each ★ reward corresponds to 200 reputation points. The final mission reward is Mission Reward Stars × Mission Completion × 200, which is the final reputation points obtained.
...
Seeing this mission reward, Dean was silent for a moment. He looked at Su Xiao and Caesar across from him. At this point, he naturally realized that Caesar was the Doctor Wolf he had met before, as well as the famous Arbitrator · Caesar in both the Paradise camp and the Void.
"You two are really a Hunter and an Arbitrator."
"..."
Su Xiao didn't speak. He simply manifested his Reincarnation Imprint, floating in front of him. Meanwhile, Caesar raised his palm, manifesting the unique imprint of an Arbitrator.
Seeing this, Dean was silent. He took out a pack of cigarettes, lit one after a long time, sat there taking a few puffs, then threw the cigarette on the ground and stomped it out. Resolutely, he said, "I'll take this job."
"Pleasure doing business."
Su Xiao stood up, raised his hand, and shook hands with Dean. This made Dean slightly puzzled, but out of politeness, he still chose to shake Su Xiao's hand.
Slap!
Su Xiao's hand, wrapped in a crystal layer, grasped Dean's right hand. This made Dean's expression change drastically. He was about to manifest his dragon wings, but behind him, Amu had already wrapped his arms around Dean, tightly hugging him. Suddenly appearing Baha grabbed Dean's right hand with his eagle claws. Veronica wrapped metal wire around Dean's left forearm and pulled hard. Finally, Dre used a locking technique to restrain Dean's legs.
"You!"
Dean was furious. He had let his guard down, never expecting this to be a trap.
"..."
Su Xiao took out the Primordial Mask from his storage space. Seeing this, Dean's breath caught. The corner of his eye twitched, and he said, "Bai Ye, what you're holding in your hand... it's not an Original Sin Object, is it?"
Su Xiao didn't speak. Beside him, Caesar, wearing the Abyssal Jar on his head, tapped the jar with his finger and said, "That one isn't. This one is."
"!"
This time, Dean's eye didn't just twitch; his entire cheek twitched violently several times.
Su Xiao activated the Primordial Mask. Crimson, hair-thin tentacles spread from the inside of the mask. Su Xiao pressed the Primordial Mask onto Dean's face. Dean tried to tilt his head back, but it was impossible.
"Bai Ye, I'm not done with you over this. Wait, wait, I have disguise items. This mask of yours..."
Before Dean could finish, the Primordial Mask was already pressed onto his face.
An hour later, a group led by 'Su Xiao' drove away from the Madhouse. Inside several cars sat 'Su Xiao', Amu, Dre, Silver Face, Veronica, the Platinum Bishop, the Red-Eyed Woman, and the Beast Knight. For some reason, 'Su Xiao' in the passenger seat seemed to have a somewhat gloomy expression.
When the vehicles passed a street corner, a beggar seemingly casually glanced at the convoy. When the group arrived at the train station, a ticket seller glanced at 'Su Xiao' and the others. After everyone boarded the train, this ticket seller went into the restroom, took out a small communication device in a single stall, and reported.
Ten minutes later, in the Saint Lan Kingdom · Royal Capital, a three-story small building, a man in a suit looked at the report in his hand and instructed his subordinate beside him, "Go immediately and inform the lord. That group is heading our way."
...
Alliance · Kusu City · Twilight Madhouse, third floor, the bedroom connected only to the director's office.
The curtains were drawn tightly. Su Xiao, Bubu Wang, Baha, Caesar, and the Goddess of Fortune were all here. As for the person who led the team earlier, it was naturally Dean, who was wearing the Primordial Mask.
Dean, who had been forced to wear the Primordial Mask, was furious. But just as he was about to attack Su Xiao, he received a notification that if he actively attacked Su Xiao, who was the director of the Twilight Madhouse, he would continuously lose Alliance reputation ranks and the reputation points he had already gained. This calmed Dean down. He looked at the exaggerated eleven-star mission reward, and his anger subsided significantly.
Su Xiao arranged this to attract the Black Rose's attention. While the Black Rose was focused on Director Bai Ye's team, Su Xiao's side would have a safer chance to fight the God of Radiance.
Su Xiao came to the Demon Teleportation Array. Bubu Wang and Baha both stood on it. Caesar put on the Abyssal Jar and naturally stepped on. Finally, the Goddess of Fortune was staring blankly at the corner of the ceiling.
"Stop escaping reality. Let's go."
Baha urged. The Goddess of Fortune looked at the teleportation array and stubbornly shook her head.
A moment later, after some careful persuasion, the Goddess of Fortune, with tears of joy in her eyes, stepped onto the teleportation array.
Boom!
With a dull sound, Su Xiao arrived at the warehouse in Sotto City. Then they went to the outskirts. The Storm Flame Dragon flew over. The group boarded the Storm Flame Dragon and set off for the Saint Lan Kingdom.
The reason for using the teleportation array to reach Sotto City was for safety. The Black Rose had likely placed spies near the Madhouse, but she definitely wouldn't have placed spies in Sotto City, which was over a hundred kilometers away.
The wind whistled past their ears. The Goddess of Fortune, whose face was still a bit pale, had basically recovered. Regarding how to deal with the God of Radiance, after some discussion, it was decided that Su Xiao would fight the God of Radiance alone.
However, there was a prerequisite. The Goddess of Fortune would expend over 500 drops of Luck Divine Blood to temporarily increase Su Xiao's luck while decreasing the God of Radiance's luck.
This advantage naturally couldn't be left to chance, like hoping the God of Radiance would be unlucky in battle or make mistakes in ability usage. That would be wasting such a huge luck disparity. Therefore, Su Xiao decided that during the battle, he would activate [Thunder Spirit] and use his luck attribute to summon World Thunder.
This summoning of World Thunder was different from before. Su Xiao would stop the summoning halfway. This would cause a situation where World Thunder would still be summoned, but where it would strike would be entirely up to luck.
Under such circumstances, only Su Xiao and the God of Radiance would be in the battle arena. With the blessing of over 500 drops of Luck Divine Blood, Su Xiao's luck attribute would be ridiculously high. Moreover, as a Law Destroyer, his luck would reach an extremely high level. To be safe, Su Xiao decided to wait a few hours until Fate Dominator completed its current upgrade. Then, under the blessing of Fate Dominator and the additional luck blessing from the Goddess of Fortune's 500 drops of divine blood.
As the Goddess of Fortune said, when a Law Destroyer has no luck boost, they sometimes seem unlucky. But once it involves a luck contest with others, it's a different story. It's the difference between a water tank smashing a water cup or a water tank smashing a water bucket. Moreover, this water tank would be temporarily filled with water. Its weight could be imagined.
When the World Thunder strikes, Su Xiao's side would have astonishing luck. On the other hand, the God of Radiance might even have negative luck attributes. Plus, this World Thunder was summoned using the luck attribute as a medium, with strong fate judgment. At that point, who the World Thunder would strike was obvious.