Chapter 38: The Upper Limit
Sacred Hymn gracefully landed behind Su Xiao. Although her identity as a poison healer was exposed, she had dealt high damage to the Sand King, healing his 495 health points to 452. Don't underestimate this damage intensity; against a heavy sword powerhouse like the Sand King, achieving such damage proved Sacred Hymn's astonishing healing output.
Just as Sacred Hymn landed behind Su Xiao, a gold-green energy thread extended from her hand and sank into Su Xiao's back. The next moment, Su Xiao felt a warm and clear energy spreading from his back, like a clear spring nourishing his internal organs, allowing his various organs, damaged from blade-clashing with the Sand King, to begin recovering.
The situation changed in an instant. Moments ago, Su Xiao was about to kill Sacred Hymn behind the Sand King, but now the tables had turned, with the Sand King glaring menacingly at Sacred Hymn.
This was why pure healers became rarer at higher ranks. First, their self-preservation abilities were poor, and second, during battles, healers were too hated by enemies.
Drip~
Blood dripped from the blade tip, falling onto the water surface, gradually diluted by the shallow water.
Su Xiao stared at the Sand King dozens of meters away. He could sense that since the battle began, the Sand King's aura had grown increasingly frenzied, indicating that the Soul Crown's erosion was deepening.
Su Xiao didn't believe the Soul Crown would help him. That meant he had to kill the Sand King before the Soul Crown completely eroded his mind, or else unforeseen changes might occur.
"Mere mortal, how dare you betray me."
The Sand King's voice was deep and dark, hard to imagine any voice could be so dark and heavy. Not only that, but the "Abyssal Fall" greatsword in his hand began to emit Abyss aura.
"Mortal!"
The Sand King roared, holding the war blade with one hand and thrusting it into the shallow water below.
Boom!!
Like an explosion, the weight of "Abyssal Fall" was fully released. With one thrust, the ground within dozens of kilometers in diameter cracked open, the earth's crust shattering into fragments of various sizes.
Su Xiao crouched on a piece of broken crust that tilted upward at one end. Leaping between flying crust fragments, he launched a surprise attack in front of the Sand King.
Clang!
The war blade blocked the longsword. The next moment, Su Xiao felt a tremendous force coming from the blade. His right arm ached, but he didn't resist head-on. Instead, he angled the blade, letting the war blade slide along his sword's edge.
With a screech, blade and sword edge scraped past, sparks flying everywhere. The Sand King's strike seemed fierce and victorious in the clash, but after fully swinging, not only did it fail to wound Su Xiao, but the wide-open swing left him completely exposed.
Clang! Clang! Clang!
Three lightning-fast strikes cut across the Sand King's chest, neck, and face. But unexpectedly, instead of blood, black smoke billowed from the wounds.
Now wearing the Soul Crown, the Sand King's eyes were pitch black, sending chills down one's spine. After taking three strikes, he showed no sign of the usual stiffness from damage. Instead, he swung a heavy slash downward.
Su Xiao's Instinct ability immediately gave a death warning, causing him to dodge sideways, letting the war blade slice past his cheek. But the passing sword pressure and the destruction caused by spatial collapse left crack-like wounds on his left cheek and left arm.
Boom!!
With one slash, the previously shattered and flying crust fragments all broke apart from the impact force, scattering to the surrounding area. Groundwater surged up, filling the giant pit.
The Sand King crashed onto the water surface, stomping the water beneath his feet with a cracking sound as he stood steadily. Su Xiao landed smoothly, naturally stepping on the water as if on flat ground. Technique Grandmasters, when meditating, comprehend the world and nature; at high ranks, standing on water was effortless.
"Roar!!"
The Sand King, holding the war blade with one arm, roared. His hair, like black tentacles, flew wildly. Layers of black sound waves spread from his roar. Upon closer inspection, the ruby on the Soul Crown became increasingly conspicuous, as if the Sand King had only this red "single eye" left.
"White Night, I feel the Sand King is getting crazier."
Sacred Hymn, floating half a meter above the water, spoke. While talking, she healed herself. From her expression, she was very frustrated because her health percentage was dropping faster than Su Xiao's, who was fighting the Sand King to the death.
"..."
Su Xiao didn't speak. He could clearly see the Sand King growing crazier. This had both advantages and disadvantages for him. The advantage was that the crazier the opponent, the harder it was to use dual Grandmaster abilities. The disadvantage was that the crazier the opponent, the stronger their pure physical strength.
At this moment, the Sand King's height had reached nearly 4 meters. His sword-wielding right arm was several times thicker than before, the metal scales on it turning black. Combined with his tentacle-like flowing black hair, the Sand King looked like a dark monarch about to fall into madness.
The Sand King shifted his gaze to Sacred Hymn, his killing intent nearly materializing. Sacred Hymn immediately received a notification.
...
Sacred Hymn was expelled from the Sand King's faction. This made her and Su Xiao the same faction, meaning healing Su Xiao would deal true damage, while healing the Sand King would have a 5x healing effect.
"White Night, it's my turn to perform."
Sacred Hymn spoke as she activated her healing enhancement ability, temporarily raising all her healing abilities except her ultimate-level ability. The increase was an additional Lv.8 level bonus for 10 minutes.
After doing this, a golden light orb appeared in Sacred Hymn's hand, then appeared 100 meters above. Brilliant light burst forth, providing a wide-range healing effect.
The dazzling light shone down. Su Xiao immediately felt a stinging pain throughout his body. This was the first time he had suffered true damage from healing.
Dozens of meters away, the Sand King, still somewhat rational, had darkness surging from his body, quickly healing the cut marks on him. This was the self-healing ability granted by the Soul Crown. But the next moment, the growing madness in the Sand King's eyes turned to confusion and disbelief. The light shining down from above was rapidly restoring his health, combined with his own activated self-healing ability. In an instant, his condition returned to optimal, with health restored to 500.
It seemed everything Su Xiao had done was futile. But would he really do futile things in a life-or-death battle with a powerful enemy? Of course not. When he saw the Sand King had 500 health and his ultimate-level passive gave 1 point of physical defense for every 1 health lost, Su Xiao determined that even with Sacred Hymn's "Blood Feather Version Ultimate Ability" dealing 300 true damage, they couldn't defeat the Sand King.
The Sand King, a heavy sword powerhouse, had an astonishing physique. Coupled with the Soul Crown's erosion, once eroded to a certain degree, he would definitely gain a self-healing ability strong enough to astonish. This was the inevitable result of the ability's characteristics.
This would lead to the final situation where, with his self-healing ability, the Sand King's health would always remain above 50, impossible to kill, plus becoming a heavy sword powerhouse with over 600 physical defense. That meant strong attack power + invulnerability.
Su Xiao's life-and-death battle with the Sand King wasn't meant to severely wound him. Trying to defeat an enemy wearing an "Original Sin Object" through conventional means was very unwise.
The reason Su Xiao fought that life-and-death battle with the Sand King was to let Sacred Hymn stack marks. Sacred Hymn was a soul-type. This was evident from her ability to enter Gulu's consciousness space as a spirit and her ultimate ability being named "Soul Surge."
One key point was that if Sacred Hymn wanted to use her "Ultimate Ability: Soul Surge" on a target, she needed to ensure the target had at least 3 layers of her soul marks. Only then could she use the "Soul Surge" ability on the target using these soul marks as a medium.
Earlier, Sacred Hymn had been continuously poison-healing the Sand King. The Sand King, having received these healing abilities, would definitely have temporary soul marks from Sacred Hymn. According to Sacred Hymn, her soul marks would last 8-10 minutes before dissipating on their own.
That's right. Su Xiao chose to fight the Sand King to the death earlier precisely to let the Sand King accumulate enough soul marks.
On the water surface, Sacred Hymn gracefully landed behind Su Xiao. She needed to focus all her attention while using "Soul Surge."
Wind pressure came head-on. It was the Sand King leaping forward. His war blade slashed down, and a water channel suddenly appeared.
A blood shadow carried Sacred Hymn backward. Just as Su Xiao dodged this heavy slash, he felt strong soul energy fluctuations behind him.
Sacred Hymn behind Su Xiao had completed her charge. She floated up like ascending, her hair flying. Her raised right hand pointed her index finger at the Sand King.
The Sand King was about to continue pursuing Su Xiao when he suddenly felt something wrong. The strangeness in his life force caused the madness from the Soul Crown to recede significantly. He actually reversed his sword and pierced his own chest.
Using the Blood Feather version of "Soul Surge" to deal 300 true damage to the Sand King? At first glance, this was indeed powerful, even exaggerated. But considering the Sand King was wearing the Soul Crown, this 300 true damage seemed difficult to decide the battle. Don't forget, the Sand King's Mad King state gave him a 500 health cap.
Such a high health cap made Su Xiao think of one possibility: this was caused by the Sand King devouring a large amount of life source. It seemed like a powerful ability, but Su Xiao believed this was the Sand King's greatest weakness.
How much primordial life force had to overflow to achieve a 500 health cap? If so, was constantly severely wounding the Sand King really hurting him? No matter how you looked at it, this was helping him release the overflowing, nearly exploding primordial life force, allowing him to reach his peak state.
That's right. The Sand King's 500 health was a trap. Fighting him conventionally, when his health dropped below 100, the Sand King would enter his peak state, his strength skyrocketing.
Su Xiao's idea was: since the enemy's life force was overflowing to this extent, why not add more force, making his life force even more overflowing until it reached its limit and exploded.
In the current judgment, Su Xiao and Sacred Hymn were allies. Sacred Hymn healing Su Xiao would cause true damage. Conversely, Sacred Hymn healing the Sand King would cause a 5x healing effect.
"Soul Surge (Ultimate Ability, Lv.42): Can be used on self or a single allied target. After use, the target will recover 20% of maximum health per second for 15 seconds, and remove all current debuffs."
Thus, Sacred Hymn's Soul Surge would restore 1500 health over 15 seconds. The Sand King, already overflowing with life force, what would happen after receiving such treatment? This wasn't a game where overflow was just overflow. Real healing used non-characteristic life energy to nourish and restore the life force within the recipient.
With a muffled boom from within the Sand King, his torso suddenly expanded, as if something inside was violently swelling. Blood gushed from his mouth and nose. Even though he had pierced his own chest with his sword, under the 1500 health recovery, this strike appeared extremely pale and powerless.
"How, could this be..."
Before the Sand King could finish speaking, a plate-sized hole exploded in his chest. Due to excessive life force overflow, proliferating flesh surged out from the hole, spreading wildly in all directions.
Water splashed under Su Xiao's feet as he leaped backward just before the proliferating flesh reached him. Sacred Hymn behind him had already gracefully dodged to a distance. Although her face was pale from exhaustion after using "Soul Surge," she kept throwing healing abilities at the Sand King.
Proliferating flesh tissue continuously surged from the hole in the Sand King's chest. The Sand King soon discovered that as large amounts of primordial life force flowed out, his strength began to decline. He immediately blocked the hole in his chest with one hand. Finding one hand insufficient, he released the "Abyssal Fall" war blade in his right hand and pressed both hands tightly over the chest hole.
The massive primordial life force stopped flowing out. Combined with the Soul Crown's effect, the Sand King immediately felt his power continuously increasing. In a very short time, under the crown's enhancement, his strength took a big step forward. This made the Sand King grin, revealing sharp white teeth.
"You, cannot kill me!"
The Sand King's black tentacle-like hair moved without wind. The hole in his chest healed. His right hand reached downward, and the "Abyssal Fall" war blade, which had sunk into the water, broke through the surface and was grasped in his hand.
"I am the chosen King of Kings. The power and the crown belong only to me!"
The Sand King had completely become the Mad King. Nearly 5 meters tall, holding the war blade, he stepped toward Su Xiao. But just as he took one step, he suddenly felt dizzy, causing him to kneel on one knee. Confusion appeared in his eyes. His Mad King-ified consciousness didn't understand why.
With a muffled boom, the Sand King's left arm thickened several times. It was no longer steel-like muscle but a twisted, proliferating thick left arm.
Starting from the left arm, the Sand King's torso, legs, and neck all severely proliferated in succession. Only his scale-covered right arm and head, protected by the Law-Destroying spell formations on the back of his hand and under his eyes, didn't experience life force rampage. But this only lasted for over ten seconds. His right arm also began to grow wildly. Bulging proliferating flesh quickly swallowed the Sand King's head.
"I, am, the King of Kings..."
After the Sand King laboriously spoke these words, his head was swallowed by the wildly proliferating flesh tissue. His entire body transformed into an irregular flesh ball that kept growing. In a very short time, this flesh ball reached 100 meters in size.
From the moment he saw the Sand King's 500 maximum health cap, Su Xiao had already formulated this plan. Battle was like this; one had to adapt. Or rather, Su Xiao wasn't prepared to fight a life-and-death battle with a powerhouse wearing the Soul Crown. That was too irrational.
"Ahh~!"
A drawn-out shout came from above. Su Xiao looked up to see Amu and Platinum Archbishop falling from the sky. At the start of the battle, Amu and Platinum Archbishop had been teleported to an unknown location by the Sand King at the cost of a secret treasure ring. Now they were falling from above.
Amu fell into the water first. After several sea adventures, Amu was somewhat panicked. So as soon as he fell into the water, ice spread from him, freezing the water surface for several kilometers around.
Platinum Archbishop crashed upside down onto the ice surface. After crawling out of the broken ice, he looked at Amu. Amu guiltily looked around, feeling very guilty for having let down his teammate.
"White Night, where did the Sand King go? That guy teleported me into a spatial passage. I've been free-falling there until now."
As Platinum Archbishop spoke, he was attracted by the continuously growing flesh giant ball.
Boom!!
An explosion resounded through the sky. The flesh giant ball on the ice surface exploded. A pitch-black crown flew out from the scattered flesh, clattering onto the ice surface. Due to inertia, it slid to Su Xiao's feet.
Su Xiao picked up the crown, wiped off the bloodstains, took out a charcoal box, threw the crown inside, sealed the charcoal box, and put it away.
Looking down from above, one could see that this large ice surface had been stained red by blood and flesh fragments. But within a few seconds, all the blood and flesh fragments began to evaporate, as if indicating that gaining power through the Soul Crown might be fast, but this was false power.
On an ice surface covered with black stains, a figure so thin it was skin and bones lay there. It was the Sand King. Hearing footsteps approaching, the Sand King turned his gaze and asked, weak to the point of dying:
"The crown, you sent someone to deliver it."
"..."
Su Xiao didn't answer. He just stood a few meters away, watching the Sand King. No matter how you looked at it, he was on guard against the Sand King suddenly using some desperate measure.
"Not willing to waste words on a traitor? That's the style expected of that old man's disciple."
The Sand King smiled, lying on his back, looking at the sky.
"Your next target must be the Abyssal Shadow. I can tell you about the Abyssal Shadow's whereabouts, but you must..."
Before the Sand King could finish, Su Xiao raised his hand. A Blood Smoke Cannon blasted the Sand King's head apart. He wouldn't waste words with a dying enemy, nor would he believe a single word from a traitor. He had means to track down the betrayer's whereabouts.
The "Hunt List: Blood Pact" materialized in front of Su Xiao. Using the enemy's blood on his thumb, he erased the Sand King's name. Thus, only the lowest name remained among the six names on the Hunt List: the betrayer, or as the Sand King called him, the Abyssal Shadow.
...
Seeing this reward, Su Xiao had a bold idea. His recently acquired Agility Basic Passive: Shadow Dash was still at Lv.1. Based on past experience, although this authority could only enhance one ability once, there was no limit on how much it could enhance. As long as the body could withstand it, raising "Basic Passive: Shadow Dash" from Lv.1 to Lv.90, then to X, was no problem.
If it were a Ninth Rank contractor of similar strength to Su Xiao, raising a "Basic Passive" like this, especially one corresponding to the Agility attribute, would have a high probability of immediate death.
Su Xiao was different. He wasn't blindly confident. After undergoing training in mastering Law-Destroying abilities like Spirit Shadow Constitution, Azure Shadow King, Soul Severing Shadow, and Law-Destroying Talent: Shadow Hunt, his resistance in this area was extremely high. He hadn't died when mastering "Soul Severing Shadow" before. Raising "Basic Passive: Shadow Dash" from Lv.1 to X was worth trying.
To make an analogy, the danger level of mastering "Law-Destroying Talent: Shadow Hunt" was 19, "Soul Severing Shadow" was 30. Raising "Basic Passive: Shadow Dash" from Lv.1 to X would have a danger level of at most around 15. Worth a try.
Su Xiao put away everything he had obtained. He had chosen to decisively kill the Sand King not only because he didn't trust the traitor's words but also because he had means to find clues about the betrayer from the Sand King.
Besides enhancing soul strength, Su Xiao's "Soul Devourer" talent had an effect of extracting soul memories. However, absorbing soul memories was very risky. After using it a few times, he rarely used this ability.
Su Xiao held his hands in front of him. A mottled, semi-transparent light sphere appeared between his hands. Several hair-thin blue energy threads pierced into it.
A muffled thunderclap seemed to sound in Su Xiao's ears. A scene appeared before his eyes: a bleak, lead-gray sky like the end of days, corpses scattered across the ground, broken weapons stuck into the earth everywhere.
"Cough, cough~"
The Sand King, still young in appearance, lay on the ground, coughing blood. His chest and abdomen were pierced by a longsword. A Law-Destroying Shadow, who had taken a backstab from him, looked down with lowered eyelids, using blue-glowing pupils to gaze at the dying Sand King. This was the most humiliating moment in the Sand King's life: backstabbing his mentor, only to be backhanded by his mentor and wounded to near death with one slash.
The longsword was pulled from the flesh. The sharp blade pressed against the Sand King's neck. Just touching it, the sharp blade cut the skin, and a few bloodstains flowed down. But this was a disciple raised from childhood. In the end, the Law-Destroyer, with traces of gray in his hair, sheathed his longsword and left, leaving only the Sand King, unconscious from severe injuries, and the large number of enemy corpses that had been the ambushers.
The soul memory ended here. Su Xiao tried to switch memory fragments. The next moment was a scene of the Sand King fighting a powerful enemy. He tried switching again.
After switching memory fragments several times, Su Xiao finally saw what he wanted to see. It was a dark, strangely furnished church. Inside, besides the Sand King, there were two figures. One figure had the upper body of a human and the lower body of a thick snake-like black mud semi-fluid. Based on known information, Su Xiao recognized this as Abyss Leader: Sirvis.
In the dark church, besides the Sand King and Abyss Leader Sirvis, there was a figure sitting on a bench with their back to the Sand King. According to the cognitive feedback from the soul memory, this was the betrayer, or the Abyssal Shadow.
Besides this memory feedback, Su Xiao also noticed that the Sand King was somewhat afraid of the betrayer. It wasn't fear from a power gap but more like reverence for a strict elder. Considering the Sand King grew up in the Law-Destruction faction, this meant the betrayer had joined the Law-Destruction faction even earlier.
The scene provided by the memory fragment ended here. Su Xiao continued examining until the light sphere formed by the memory fragments completely dissipated. He found no more traces of the betrayer.
Sand King, Abyss Leader Sirvis, Betrayer.
Su Xiao's goal began to clear. Next target: Abyss Leader Sirvis.