Chapter 1: Lineup
[Teleportation complete, you have returned to Reincarnation Paradise.]
The spatial fluctuations subsided, Su Xiao appeared in his exclusive room. He checked the remaining stay time limit; there were still over 6 hours before he needed to head to the "Berthing Area" in the Great Gathering Place to board a Void Tree-certified inter-realm spaceship, heading to the Transcendent Primordial World: Wind Sea Continent.
This was one of the characteristics of a Transcendent Primordial World. There were only three ways to get there. First, through the summoning of an inter-realm teleportation array within the Transcendent Primordial World. There were no more than three such arrays in the entire Wind Sea Continent, and they were all controlled by powerful local factions who would never allow anyone from the Paradise camps to use them to enter Wind Sea Continent.
The second way was to board an inter-realm spaceship to break through the world's seal.
As for the third way, only the Paradise camps could do it: consuming a massive amount of Space-Time Power to tear open the seal layer of the Transcendent Primordial World.
Getting out of a Transcendent Primordial World wasn't as difficult. In short, the seal layer of a Transcendent Primordial World was like a one-way valve: easy to get out, but very hard to get in.
With a full six hours of preparation time, Su Xiao felt quite suspicious. The preparation time before entering a world was far too generous this time. No matter how he looked at it, this was vastly different from before.
Su Xiao tried to check his world progress log and was surprised to find that his original world progress wasn't Wind Sea Continent. After checking the specific reason, he learned the general situation.
The purpose of this trip to Wind Sea Continent was to find and seize an item called the "Initial Mark," more precisely known as the "Dawn Paradise Initial Mark."
Back when Reincarnation Paradise and Dawn Paradise fought the Paradise War, after Dawn Paradise's disastrous defeat, their "Initial Mark" went missing. Not long ago, a Sea Clan member from Wind Sea Continent, while diving deep in the sea, discovered this "Initial Mark" that Dawn Paradise had, in an emergency, consumed a massive amount of Space-Time Power to cast into Wind Sea Continent.
This "Initial Mark" wasn't something like the core essence of Dawn Paradise. To put it simply, it was the key to the device Dawn Paradise used to store Space-Time Power, and it was the only key.
Because of the Paradise War, that "Storage Device" had been certified by the Void Tree. Due to the loss of the "Initial Mark," the "Storage Device" was still under the Void Tree's certification at this stage.
More importantly, even after the brutal consumption of the Paradise War, this "Storage Device" still contained at least over 2 million ounces of Space-Time Power. This meant that whichever Paradise camp obtained that "Initial Mark" could use it as the basis to terminate the certification, end the Void Tree's certification of the "Storage Device," retrieve it, and use the "Initial Mark" to open it, obtaining the massive amount of stored Space-Time Power.
After reading this information, Su Xiao understood why this trip was to Wind Sea Continent. There was only one goal: seize the "Initial Mark."
Su Xiao went to the Honor Shop and activated it. He was surprised to find that his potion supply quota had increased from the previous 2/2 to 3/3. This was likely a benefit from the S-rank comprehensive evaluation after the world settlement upon advancing to the Ninth Rank.
Not only had the potion supply quota increased, but the variety of potions was also greater than before. The total list was:
[Honor Revival Potion (Ninth Rank)]
Effect: After use, instantly restore 100% Health Points / 100% Mana Points...
Price: Potion Supply Quota × 1.
Note: The maximum carry limit for this type of potion is 1 (this is the highest priority certification).
Warning: This potion is prohibited from being sold, transferred, re-blended, discarded without special reason, or given to others to drink. It can only be consumed by the Hunter himself, or his followers, permanent summons...
[Strength Potion (Ninth Rank)]
Effect: After use, True Strength Attribute +8 points, Strength Judgment increased by 10%.
Note: The effect of this potion lasts for 350 seconds.
Price: Potion Supply Quota × 1.
[Mithril Potion (Ninth Rank)]
Effect: After use, True Agility Attribute +8 points, Adaptive Damage Rank +1 (only applies to melee damage ranks, such as blade weapon damage rank, unarmed combat damage rank, sword weapon damage rank, etc.).
Note: The effect of this potion lasts for 200 seconds...
[Dragon Blood Potion (Ninth Rank)]
Effect: After use, maximum Health Points increased by 20%, physical toughness increased by 15%.
Note: The effect of this potion lasts for 800 seconds...
[Burst Potion (Ninth Rank)]
Effect: After use, True Intelligence Attribute +9 points, recover 2% of maximum Mana Points or other adaptive body energy per second...
[Soul Potion (Ninth Rank)]
Effect: Slowly recovers Soul Energy after use.
Price: Potion Supply Quota × 1.
[Wild Beast Potion (Ninth Rank)]
Effect: After use, temporarily reduces maximum Health Points by 15%. During the potion's effect duration, True Strength and Agility Attributes are increased by 10 points, ignoring all judgment effects of Ninth Rank or below. This effect has priority.
Note: After combat begins, this potion's duration is 300 seconds.
Price: Potion Supply Quota × 1.
Su Xiao first exchanged for [Honor Revival Potion], then [Dragon Blood Potion]. After thinking for a few seconds, he finally exchanged for [Soul Potion]. The reason was that his Strength, Agility, and Endurance attributes had all reached 300 points. Before breaking through the 300-point attribute barrier, drinking potions that enhanced these aspects was like drinking nothing at all.
Sitting on the single sofa, Su Xiao checked two emails. One was from Divine Emperor repaying 7500 Soul Coins, and the other was from White Bull sending the wine money through an intermediary, 4000 Soul Coins.
Su Xiao currently had 27,118 Soul Coins. He decided to get some "Runes" to fill the four empty slots on the five-slot [Rune Base: Divine Sacrifice], thereby enhancing the effect of the main rune [Supreme Blazing Sun (Origin Grade Rune)].
Su Xiao opened the "Auction Platform" certified by the Void Tree and started searching for the keyword "Rune." The next second, thousands of rune information entries appeared, various runes emitting mysterious or profound glimmers.
To stimulate the strongest effect of [Supreme Blazing Sun (Origin Grade Rune)], he would definitely need four Origin Grade runes to empower this main rune. Therefore, Su Xiao set the viewing scope to only Origin Grade runes and sorted the price from low to high.
[Polar Guardian (Origin Grade Rune), Price: 48,500 Soul Coins. View detailed attributes by opening the branch list.]
Su Xiao immediately switched the viewing option, changing from "Only Origin Grade Runes" to "Only Immortal Grade Runes." He wasn't a frequent buyer or seller of runes and had somewhat forgotten how expensive they were.
As for taking rune pieces from [Rune Base: Wrathful Image (Four Slots)], he didn't have that idea for now. The "Dark Embers" effect enhanced by this base was quite suitable for Su Xiao.
"Dark Embers (Core, Passive): When the base wearer's Health Points drop below 25%, you will trigger the power of Dark Embers, greatly increasing physical defense for a short time (this effect lasts 30 seconds, trigger interval is 48 hours)."
This effect perfectly stacked with the Law Destruction passive: Indestructible Physique.
"Indestructible Physique (Passive): When your Health Points drop to 25%, your physical defense will be 'massively' increased based on your True Strength, True Agility, True Endurance, and True Intelligence Attributes."
Whether in a life-or-death battle against a powerful enemy or when ambushed, these two bonuses were divine skills to prevent being one-shot.
Su Xiao checked a series of Immortal Grade runes and finally bought four relatively average Immortal Grade runes for 24,900 Soul Coins. They were:
[Scorching Breath (Immortal Grade Rune)]
[Blazing Flame (Immortal Grade Rune)]
[Flame Arcane Master (Immortal Grade Rune)]
[Light Knight (Immortal Grade Rune)]
Since they were meant to enhance [Supreme Blazing Sun (Origin Grade Rune)], the rune selection naturally leaned towards flame characteristics, or at least light characteristics if not flame.
Even if he got better rune pieces later, these four Immortal Grade runes could be sold. Rune prices generally didn't drop much. If he needed to sell them quickly, he could find a merchant guild and easily offload them, at most losing a few hundred Soul Coins.
He inserted the runes one by one into [Rune Base: Divine Sacrifice]. After stabilizing for a moment, the rune resonance was complete.
[Rune Base: Divine Sacrifice]
Origin: Night Temptress Witch Guild (Witch Realm).
Type: Five Rune Slot Base.
Main Rune Slot: Supreme Blazing Sun.
Sub Rune Slot: Scorching.
Sub Rune Slot: Blazing Flame.
Sub Rune Slot: Flame Arcane.
Sub Rune Slot: Light Knight.
Rune Effect: Supreme Blazing Sun (Core, Passive), immune to 61% of Sun Flame damage, including True Damage caused by Sun Flame (base 55%, for each sub rune inserted into the rune base, the effect of this main rune will be additionally increased by 0.1% to 5%, i.e., a maximum of 75% immunity to Sun Flame damage).
He put away [Rune Base: Divine Sacrifice]. This thing wasn't usually needed.
Su Xiao walked into the room storing the Awakening Stele. Placing one hand on it, he sensed for a moment and found that something was still missing. Ever since he got the Awakening Stele, he had tried to use it to activate another ability of the "Law Destruction Talent: Shadow Hunt," but he had never succeeded.
[Shadow Hunt]
Category: Law Destruction Shadow: Exclusive Talent (Not Awakened)
Grade: S (After completing one awakening, it can reach SSS grade).
Talent Effect 1 (Passive): Pending activation.
Note: Requires going to the Law Destruction Shadow Inheritance Hall, touching the Awakening Stele to activate this ability.
Talent Effect 2 (Passive): After killing an enemy, your Devouring Core will absorb the enemy's undispersed source energy...
He had the Awakening Stele, but he originally thought that "going to the Law Destruction Shadow Inheritance Hall" was just a symbolic description. Now it seemed to be a necessary process, which was:
Enter the Law Destruction Shadow Inheritance Hall → Touch the Awakening Stele → Activate all effects of the Shadow Hunt talent.
This made Su Xiao wonder if that Inheritance Hall had some special environment. Thinking of this, he suddenly wondered if his method of using the Awakening Stele was even correct. Although the mastered Law Destruction abilities were slightly stronger than recorded and seemed more stable, he felt that his method of using the Awakening Stele was probably slightly off. Otherwise, why would he enter the "Dreamland" every time he used it?
Regarding stability, Su Xiao had actually been puzzled for a while. The Awakening Stele recorded that after mastering "Demon Spirit Awakening," the Blade Demon Spirit would have a period of backlash. But he hadn't experienced that. After mastering "Demon Spirit Awakening," he directly tried to release the demon spirit.
If Mawen Hua'erzi knew how Su Xiao used the Awakening Stele, he would definitely look puzzled and ask: "When you found the Awakening Stele, didn't you find the corresponding ritual array?"
Obviously, Su Xiao hadn't found the corresponding ritual array. Although that ritual array didn't improve the strength of the mastered Law Destruction abilities, it made the mastering process easier to endure, so he wouldn't enter the "Dreamland" every time he mastered a Law Destruction passive.
The more Su Xiao probed the Awakening Stele, the clearer his thoughts became. When he finally probed the engraving of "Law Destruction: Abyss Flash," he confirmed that this Awakening Stele had a corresponding ritual array.
If he used this corresponding ritual array, and the strength of a Law Destruction ability was compared to 100 points, it would be 100 points after mastering. But if he didn't use this array, the ability's strength could reach 103 to 110 points. This was pursuing the limit of the ability's strength, but the cost was that the mortality rate during mastering increased by at least 30% to 40%. Considering there was already a death probability, this raised the risk several times higher. Therefore, even Law Destroyers would activate the ritual array in the Law Destruction Shadow Inheritance Hall, stand on it, place one hand on the Awakening Stele, and then master the abilities above. That was the correct way to use the Awakening Stele.
Of course, there were those who pursued the limit strength of Law Destruction abilities, like the Old Law Destroyer and Green Gillian. They also didn't use the ritual array, directly activating the Awakening Stele to master the engraved Law Destruction abilities.
The current situation was that Su Xiao was forced to pursue the limit strength of Law Destruction abilities. It wasn't that he didn't want to use the array; he simply didn't have it.
Although Su Xiao could use the Awakening Stele without the ritual array, the problem was that without the resonance fluctuations from the corresponding array, even touching the Awakening Stele couldn't activate the other ability of Shadow Hunt.
Su Xiao's first thought was to ask Mawen Hua'erzi or the Old Law Destroyer, but he quickly dismissed the idea. Mawen Hua'erzi's attainments in ritual arrays were notoriously appalling; even the simplest array could be engraved incorrectly. So even if the other party said they remembered, Su Xiao wouldn't dare learn it; it was 99% likely to be wrong.
As for the Old Law Destroyer, this master-disciple pair had formed their bond precisely because of this. Both believed that ritual arrays were useless and not worth mastering. In reality, they simply couldn't learn them, just like Su Xiao's gaze gradually became confused when he saw the engravings on Charm-type ability scrolls.
If he really needed to ask about this, Green Gillian was the best choice. But at this stage, he had no idea where her remnant soul was.
Just as Su Xiao was thinking about this, an email arrived from Kaisa. The mining team was basically ready. They just needed the world progress to start to enter the Eighth Rank world. It was worth mentioning that the cost of making [Tunnel Servant] and [Silent Servant] this time was funded by Kaisa. Obviously, Kaisa was also looking forward to the mining team.
Originally, Black A wasn't planning to join, but after being persuaded by Jielei and Weiwei, Black A finally chose to join. As Su Xiao had predicted, after being rejected by the world, one would really be struck by Jielei, and the stronger the rejection, the fiercer the Jielei.
Su Xiao, along with Bubu Wang, Amu, Baha, and Beini, left the exclusive room and headed towards Trade Street. Through the teleportation tower on Trade Street, they arrived at the Great Gathering Place. Finally, following the prompts, they arrived at the Berthing Area.
On the open ground, an iron-black spaceship was docked. This ship was over a kilometer long, a behemoth. On one side of the hull was a ψ mark, representing the Void Tree.
The cabin door was open, and the iron-black metal steps were lowered. After Su Xiao boarded the ship, he found that all the seats were against the cabin walls, with safety devices fixed to the walls. According to the seat order in the previous prompt, he found his seat. Bubu Wang and Baha's seats were nearby, while Amu and Beini were a bit further back.
Relatively near the center were deployment pods about three meters high, half-sunk into the ship, with only one meter exposed.
Su Xiao found no one else in the cabin. He checked the countdown to entry; there were still 4 hours. He had clearly arrived early. But since he had nothing else to do, he might as well come early and see if he could cooperate with the ship's captain. Unfortunately, the front cabin door was tightly shut, and he couldn't see the captain.
Just as Su Xiao was about to take a short nap, a prompt appeared.
[Prompt: Detected that the Hunter is about to enter a new world progress. Your held "Hunt List: Blood Pact" is in a pending activation state.]
Seeing this prompt, Su Xiao was briefly puzzled. He had noticed before that after eliminating all targets on the "Hunt List," the list hadn't disappeared. It still maintained its status as a permission item. Although it always existed, he couldn't see it unless he manifested it. Now it seemed that this "Hunt List" had other uses.
After checking the detailed content of the prompt, Su Xiao was somewhat surprised to find that this "Hunt List: Blood Pact" was an unexpectedly good item.
After completing the initial hunts on it, the "Hunt List: Blood Pact" was fully activated. Its ability was to conduct limited bounties, specifically bounties related to oneself or one's enemies.
Simply put, if there was an enemy who had a long-standing grudge against Su Xiao within the Wind Sea Continent he was about to enter, then this "Hunt List" had a certain probability of manifesting this point as a bounty on the list.
Assuming Gray Gentleman wasn't dead and was in Wind Sea Continent, then when Su Xiao entered Wind Sea Continent this time, there was a certain probability that Gray Gentleman's name would appear on this "Hunt List."
Not to mention anything else, the intelligence value brought by this characteristic alone was immeasurable. Moreover, the function of "Hunt List: Blood Pact" didn't stop there. Assuming Gray Gentleman's name really appeared on this list, Su Xiao could, within a limited quota, invest Space-Time Power as a bounty deposit.
For example, if Gray Gentleman's bounty deposit was in the range of 100 to 500 ounces of Space-Time Power, then Su Xiao could, according to his financial resources, put down a minimum of 100 and a maximum of 500 ounces of Space-Time Power.
Assuming Su Xiao used 200 ounces of Space-Time Power as the bounty deposit, and if he really killed Gray Gentleman in Wind Sea Continent, then according to the bounty amount being 5 times the deposit, he would receive a total of 1000 ounces of Space-Time Power as the bounty reward.
If he failed to complete the bounty, then those 200 ounces of Space-Time Power would be lost.
It could be said that the function of "Hunt List: Blood Pact" was quite powerful. But recalling what kind of enemies he had faced to complete this "Hunt List," it felt that the power of this "Hunt List" was perfectly reasonable.
Previously, Su Xiao's "Hunt List: Blood Pact" had a total of five names. Excluding the first name, a filler Deceiver, the remaining four enemies were strong to an increasingly ridiculous degree.
When facing the second target, Nightmare King, Su Xiao thought that the upper limit of enemy strength on this "Hunt List" should be around that level. But not long after, he encountered the Agony Queen.
Just as Su Xiao thought that the Agony Queen should be the upper limit of enemy strength on the "Hunt List," he learned that the army commanded by the Sand King was almost capable of directly confronting one of the Alliance or the Northern Border Empire.
After dealing with the Sand King, Su Xiao thought the last enemy shouldn't be too outrageous. Then the Abyssal Shadow told him through a life-or-death battle: "If this old man weren't nearing his end, about to die of old age, you would definitely die today." It wasn't something that could be overcome by going all out or having a power-up; he genuinely couldn't win.
Whether it was the missions issued by Reincarnation Paradise or the certified permission items, there was a rule: risk and reward were proportional. At this point, Su Xiao had survived the risk, and the biggest reward seemed to be the "Hunt List: Blood Pact" itself.
Su Xiao manifested the "Hunt List: Blood Pact" and tried to activate the bounty. A prompt appeared.
[Bounty activated...]
[Your current Space-Time Power: 2987.5 ounces.]
[You are about to enter the Transcendent Primordial World: Wind Sea Continent.]
[Judging matters related to you based on multiple information sources...]
[Judgment complete. You can use the "Hunt List: Blood Pact" to place bounties on the following matters.]