Chapter 30: Advantage
Inside a dimly lit basement with mysteriously styled furnishings, the Witch Lilya sat behind a fortune-telling table covered in velvet cloth, a set of divination cards laid out before her.
"Everything you wish to know lies here."
The long smoking pipe in Witch Lilya's hand pressed lightly against the divination cards. These cards carried a sense of age, their back patterns simple yet intricate, subtly resonating with the world's causal system.
Using her long pipe, Lilya spread the cards across the velvet, letting the purple ash residue from the pipe fall evenly onto each card, forming an arc with the fanned-out deck.
Fluorescent purple particles drifted from the ash. At the same time, Lilya's pupils became scattered with stars, tiny starlight glimmers appearing within her fluorescent purple irises.
"Your past is known only to you. Draw four cards at will—these will be the answers you seek."
As she spoke, the starlight in Lilya's eyes began to fade. Su Xiao, seated across the fortune-telling table, reached out and drew four cards from the spread deck. Fluorescent purple light seeped into them.
Tap~
The long pipe lightly struck the table. With the velvet cushioning, the sound was faint and muffled. Almost simultaneously, the remaining divination cards on the table turned into smoke, vanishing into the long pipe.
"Last night, four absolute powerhouses ambushed you. They were..."
Witch Lilya flipped over the first card Su Xiao had chosen. The emblem on it depicted a female sage.
Seeing this card, Su Xiao already knew who it represented: Mage Sage Seraphilia.
Lilya turned over the second card. Its emblem was an aged scholar. After some elimination, Su Xiao deduced this was Ancient Academy Dean from Arcane Eternal Star.
The third card revealed a warrior clad in full plate armor. From the details, this was a fish-man. Among the absolute powerhouses of the Sea Race, only Great Warrior Zakava was a fish-man—more precisely, a giant fish-man.
The final card was flipped over. The face showed a dark blue vortex, which, due to the divination card's nature, was slowly rotating.
Seeing this, Su Xiao looked up at Witch Lilya across the table. He noticed she seemed puzzled as well.
"This shouldn't be. This deck only divines images. Could it be that among the absolute powerhouses who ambushed you last night, there was an Ancient God? Do you have a grudge with Ancient Gods?"
"..."
Su Xiao said nothing. It wasn't that he wanted to hide this matter, but his grudges with Ancient Gods were truly too numerous to recount easily.
Lilya re-manifested the entire deck, spread it out, and had Su Xiao draw another card. He casually slid one out, and when Lilya flipped it, the face still showed a dark blue vortex.
This made Lilya, as a diviner, furrow her slender brows. She swept all the spread cards open at once, and every single face bore the dark blue vortex.
"What does this symbolize?"
Su Xiao felt a faint sense of foreboding. Across from him, Witch Lilya hesitated, then carefully crafted a tactful explanation: "It means the divination failed. The reason is... your recent fortune has been... somewhat average."
Hearing this, Su Xiao's sense of foreboding vanished completely. Poor fortune was a minor issue for him, as he rarely had good luck anyway. At present, it was likely that accumulated misfortune was building up.
This made Su Xiao decide to head to the tribe's territory as soon as possible. After returning from there, his priority would be rescuing the Dwarf King. The reason was that he wanted to commission the Dwarf King to forge equipment with no traits.
So-called no-trait equipment had high ratings but provided no attribute bonuses. Due to the extremely low demand for such items, even the Goblin Merchant Guild didn't sell them. The reason for forging this type of equipment was the passive ability Su Xiao gained after his naked Charm Attribute reached 50 points.
「Controller (Rare Reward): Due to your immense causality and fortune, when your fortune is overdrawn, you can channel the misfortune you bear into equipment/items, quickly relieve the fortune overdraft.」
Su Xiao's plan was to inject misfortune into no-trait equipment, turning it into cursed equipment, then use the [Endless Ring] to devour it, thereby increasing the [Endless Ring]'s rating.
When the [Endless Ring]'s rating was high enough, it could provide a substantial boost to health points. At full rating—6000 points—the [Endless Ring] could grant a 120,000 health point bonus.
This would both solve his occasional extreme bad luck and save the cost of upgrading the [Endless Ring], killing two birds with one stone.
Among the four absolute powerhouses who set up last night's ambush, three had been identified. Su Xiao decided to choose between Seraphilia and Ancient Academy Dean to set up a counter-ambush. This would both make Arcane Eternal Star pay a heavy price and complete the bounty on the [Hunt List: Blood Pact], which offered 5000 ounces of Space-Time Power.
When Su Xiao left the villa district, it was already afternoon. Seeing Shenfu standing on the forest path, he invited the other to join him for lunch, even though it was nearly one o'clock.
After lunch, Su Xiao invited Shenfu to return together to Twilight City. When they reached the temporary residence, Little Lord Gurwe had already been taken away by Baha and Xianlulu, leaving the three-story mansion quiet.
In the second-floor living room, Su Xiao and Shenfu sat across from each other with a coffee table between them, drinking tea and chatting casually. Su Xiao remarked offhandedly, "Shenfu, your Ancient God Source Blood seems to be more than that of an average ninth-rank Ancient God."
Hearing this, Shenfu smiled amiably. He set down his teacup and said, "After all, I'm considered part of the Paradise camp. Even though I'm a violator, my resource acquisition channels are certainly more than those of a ninth-rank Ancient God."
"Oh? Is that so? So it's normal for your Source Blood to be several times that of a ninth-rank Ancient God?"
Su Xiao looked at Shenfu across from him with a faint smile. He had faced many powerful enemies, but someone like Shenfu was unprecedented. The other still retained various human characteristics, yet his ability system was entirely Ancient God version—not Ancient God lineage, but a full Ancient God-style ability system.
Su Xiao even wondered if this old fellow could, if he wanted, suck on worlds like an Ancient God. Of course, given Shenfu's modus operandi, even if he had such an ability, he wouldn't use it.
When they last met in an eighth-rank world, Shenfu's Source Blood hadn't been this exaggeratedly abundant. But this time, the amount of Source Blood he had exceeded that of most ninth-rank Ancient Gods. Moreover, because this old fellow also followed a late-stage development strategy, now that he was at ninth rank, his strength was even more unfathomable.
Shenfu had never been the type to be straightforwardly strong; instead, he was eerily strong and extremely hard to kill. At least, Su Xiao had failed to kill this old fellow twice.
"Do you really think you can compare to Kaisa?"
Su Xiao's smile faded as he picked up the teapot and poured Shenfu a cup of tea. Shenfu stopped looking so amiable and instead nodded thoughtfully.
"Kaisa and the Abyssal Jar showed me some possibilities. The Necronomicon is too restraining against me—that thing is almost the natural enemy of the Ancient God system. But this time, the Original Sin Object I've actively taken up is different."
Shenfu sighed as he spoke, his mood somewhat complicated. The reason he had so much Source Blood now was precisely because of that Original Sin Object. The problem was that it was now time to pay the price.
"Arcane Eternal Star might be interested in this Original Sin Object."
"Oh?"
Even Shenfu was surprised for about 0.5 seconds.
"You mean, transfer the Original Sin Object I hold to Arcane Eternal Star?"
"Yes."
"Is that feasible?"
"It is. I've already practiced it three times."
Hearing this, Shenfu, who was about to take a light sip of tea, paused. He didn't think Su Xiao would lie about this, and his willingness to cooperate on this matter naturally increased.
However, even after discussing it to the end, Shenfu, that old fox, never mentioned what Original Sin Object he held. He only hinted in fragments that this Original Sin Object could increase the quantity of Source Blood.
In the cleared first-floor hall, Su Xiao half-activated the [Law-Destroying Teleportation Array]. As soon as he stepped onto it, he immediately stepped back down. Seeing this, the smiling Shenfu looked suspicious.
"I'm not going to space-teleport with an unknown Original Sin Object. That represents unknown risks. Either you go first, or I go first."
"You go first."
Shenfu clearly wasn't willing to use the [Law-Destroying Teleportation Array] first. Seeing this, Su Xiao stepped onto the array and gestured for Shenfu to activate it. Shenfu, standing outside the array, placed one hand on the activation node. But after a few seconds, the teleportation array didn't react. Although Su Xiao on the array could also activate it, the problem was that if Shenfu couldn't activate this array, then after Su Xiao was teleported away, the other would have to use a teleportation tower. Holding an Original Sin Object while using a teleportation tower—whether the teleportation could withstand it was truly unknown.
"..."
Su Xiao said nothing, nor did he show impatience. He simply looked at Shenfu. After studying for a few minutes, Shenfu coughed lightly and stepped onto the teleportation array.
Su Xiao went to the activation node, placed one hand on it, and before Shenfu could speak, he activated the [Law-Destroying Teleportation Array].
Boom!
With a dull roar and a burst of light, Shenfu vanished from the array.
Su Xiao opened the World Contact Platform and saw that Shenfu's name hadn't disappeared. He felt much more reassured about the [Law-Destroying Teleportation Array]. Since this old fellow Shenfu hadn't died, he could try it too—it would definitely be fine. His 720,000 health points weren't just for show.
Su Xiao checked the World Contact Platform list again, confirming Shenfu was still alive, then activated the teleportation array beneath his feet. The next moment, his vision was filled with white light.
Boom!!
Crystals shattered as Su Xiao crashed heavily into the sunken teleportation array. Fragments of broken crystal drifted around him. After a moment, he crawled to the wall, propped himself up, and drank a bottle of Recovery Potion.
This place was a warehouse in the backyard of the Lord's Estate in Twilight City. Su Xiao leaned against the wall for a while until the world before him stopped having double images. He saw, near the sunken array pattern, Shenfu reduced to a mass of minced flesh, which was slowly gathering together. It seemed that in a little while, Shenfu would recover.
An hour later, in the second-floor inner hall of the ancient castle, a frowning Shenfu looked at Su Xiao, who was lying back on a recliner with his eyes closed in a resting state, and asked with some suspicion, "That array of yours—is it really a teleportation array?"
"Absolutely. I used it myself."
Hearing this, even Shenfu, that old yinbi, felt speechless. He asked, "Are we still going to use that teleportation array to go to the tribe's territory?"
Shenfu's brows were tightly furrowed, clearly unwilling to use the [Law-Destroying Teleportation Array] again. Hearing this, Su Xiao, who looked slightly tired, sat up and said, "If you want to use it, I can prepare it for you for free."
"No need."
Shenfu also lay back on his recliner and let out a long sigh.
When Su Xiao's condition was fully restored, he went to the fourth-floor potion mixing room and took out a glass column ten centimeters thick and as long as an arm. Inside was a golden-green liquid cell tissue—more precisely, [Living Tissue of Sacred Oak], obtained from killing the ancient deity Sacred Oak.
Additionally, based on the energy characteristics of the world's aberrant beasts, Su Xiao had prepared several semi-finished potions. One theory was that the aberrant beasts in this world all originated from the World Tree, meaning they tended to devour World Force.
Su Xiao didn't have World Force, but he had [World Core (Fragment)]. Using the [Ring Holy Mark], he fused three [World Core (Fragments)] together, then liquefied them, obtaining a high-concentration liquid World Force.
Using the liquid cells of the ancient deity Sacred Oak as the main material, he cultivated a large piece of divine flesh.
Finally, using this divine flesh as a base, he poured several semi-finished potions mixed with World Force onto it. The divine flesh sprouted shoots, gradually grew into branches, and eventually bore a large, dark red fruit.
A strange fragrance emanated from this fruit. Without a doubt, this item had an unimaginable attraction for aberrant beasts. Su Xiao intended to use it as bait to lure the aberrant beasts on the tribe's territory.
The plan was to have Eugin as the leader, along with the Abyss Dragon's eldest son, and finally several hundred head-level centaur clansmen forming a hunting party. They would use this fruit as bait to lure aberrant beasts into a trap and ambush them. This would both obtain more [Eternal Life Source] and complete some of the Hunter Guild's commissions.
At first glance, the hunting party faced high risks, but that wasn't the case. By then, Su Xiao would switch his title to Sun Lord, with the main bonus being:
「When the enemy is at five stacks, i.e., full 'Blazing Sun Mark' status: All allied 'ranged' elite units attacking this enemy unit will deal 320 points + 10% of maximum health as true scorching damage, with severe healing suppression effects.」
Don't forget, the centaur clans on Wind Sea Continent weren't the graceful, swift forest elves. Here, every centaur was essentially a heavy cavalryman, and they used heavy arrows—full metal spiral arrows.
This meant that Eugin, as the leader, was essentially providing the Sun Lord bonus through his [Leadership Potential]. He might not even need to act before the battle was over.
The hunting party seemed invincible, but only in an ambush. If the enemy was too strong, even if the centaurs were heavy cavalry, they could be wiped out in one blow.
Su Xiao had Baha handle this matter—informing Eugin to select several hundred exceptionally powerful centaurs from their nine legions.
Additionally, through mental commands, Su Xiao had Jila use the insect nest to mass-produce [Fungal Carpet]. Without the mother nest providing nutrients, the [Fungal Carpet] was more like a consumable.
The bio-energy stored in the mother nest could cultivate about 200 units of fungal carpet, which was sufficient. Their fungal carpet wasn't just given away; it would be retrieved later, allowing the mother nest to absorb the soul energy and bio-energy stored within. Since the Beast King had expressed his stance, this time they would definitely stockpile more bio-energy to have a better start when they reached the Eternal Light World.
Su Xiao estimated that in that damned Eternal Light World, there would be no way to obtain bio-energy at the start. They would have to rely on bringing enough bio-energy to complete the initial wave of troop production.
After arranging the insect race's development and the allied legions on the main battlefield, Su Xiao knew it was time to set out for the tribe's territory to settle things with the Soul Death God there.
Su Xiao had originally bought the [Soul Gaze] ability scroll on Trade Street and later upgraded it to X. At first, he hadn't noticed anything wrong and even thought the ability was both practical and powerful, highly compatible with him.
「Skill Effect (Passive): After exempting control effects, immediately counter the caster, causing them to be controlled by their own ability and suffer soul damage. If this damage intensity exceeds 60% of the enemy's maximum health, the enemy will immediately suffer soul execution!」
That's right, this was an execution skill—one he had lucked into buying on Trade Street. From first rank to ninth rank, Su Xiao only had one execution ability, Demon Blade, whose execution prerequisite was the enemy's maximum health being below 25%.
In contrast, [Soul Gaze], when used against contractors, had an 80% chance of triggering soul execution as long as the opponent wasn't a soul system. Compared to the upgrade cost, the cost-effectiveness of this ability was absurdly high.
Su Xiao had initially thought he had mastered a divine skill, but the more he used it, the more wrong it felt. Especially when the Soul Death God appeared during soul execution, it sent chills down his spine every time. This led him to frequently set the [Soul Gaze] ability to a dormant state.
It wasn't until he entered this world and saw the Soul Death God on the Hunt List that Su Xiao understood everything. This [Soul Gaze] ability was a bait. If he used it too often or relied too heavily on this divine skill, he would inevitably have his soul harvested by the Soul Death God.
One possibility was that the [Soul Gaze] skill scroll was deliberately spread by the Soul Death God's followers. With its overwhelmingly powerful effect and cost-effectiveness, it tempted soul-system transcendents to master and develop this ability. When these soul-system transcendents' strength reached a certain level, the Soul Death God would come to harvest their [Soul Source Matter].
So-called Soul Source Matter was essentially the basic building block of a soul body. Every person's soul body was composed of this energy, making it one of the several types of Source Matter at high ranks. However, an ordinary person's Soul Source Matter might only be 0.0001 units. For an eighth- or ninth-rank soul-system transcendent, who had been continuously strengthening their soul, the amount of Soul Source Matter would definitely be above 8000–9000 units.
Devouring the soul of a ninth-rank soul-system powerhouse was far better than devouring billions of ordinary beings. The difference wasn't just in quantity but also in quality.
Su Xiao was very interested in one thing: how much Soul Source Matter could he collect after killing the Soul Death God? And how high would the quality of that Soul Source Matter be?
He didn't know if a soul-system powerhouse could devour this Soul Source Matter, but with his Soul Devourer talent, he certainly could. He could even directly eat Soul Crystal Cores, let alone absorb high-quality Soul Source Matter.
If he killed the Soul Death God and absorbed all its Soul Source Matter, how much would his Soul Strength permanently increase? 50 points? 100 points? Or more?
Just then, a notification suddenly appeared.
[Notification: Synchronized with the commission change information from the Hunter Guild. You have marked this commission. Yes/No to view the change with Hunter authority.]
Su Xiao chose to view it, and a commission message appeared before him.
[Hunting Commission: Shadow of Law Annihilation.]
Commission Content: Kill Shadow of Law Annihilation·Kukulin Bai Ye (After accepting the commission, you can learn partial information about this person. Due to the rarity of survivors from battles with this person, information about him is scarce).
Reward Amount: 2,600,000 Soul Coins (The Sea Race has added an additional 1,100,000 Soul Coins to the reward).
...
Generally, having one's own hunting bounty increase was a bad thing, but for Su Xiao, it was good.
The reason for this bounty increase, Su Xiao estimated, was likely not because he had broken last night's ambush, but because the news of him providing fungal carpet to various beast race legions had been detected by the Sea Race's spies. Thus, the Sea Race went to the Hunter Guild to put a bounty on Su Xiao, increasing the probability of assassinating him. Unexpectedly, there was already a bounty, so they simply added 1,100,000 Soul Coins.
The original bounty of 1,500,000 Soul Coins had only been conceptualized by Su Xiao in terms of operational space; he wasn't really sure if he could manipulate it. After all, forging either a Law-Destroying Heart or a Law-Destroying Blade was no simple task. But now it was different—the bounty had suddenly soared to 2,600,000 Soul Coins.
This made Su Xiao think: if the Sea Race hated him this much just for providing fungal carpet to the beast legions, what if he actually created a [Life Nourishment Mound]—an insect race building that, like a mobile fountain, could be built on fungal carpet to restore the health of nearby beast units? Wouldn't the Sea Race be even angrier?
If so, would the Sea Race increase the bounty again, hoping to get the world's hunters, contractors, or unaffiliated absolute powerhouses to eliminate Su Xiao?
If that were the case, this huge sum of Soul Coins would be very worth manipulating.
Su Xiao went to the underground second floor of the ancient castle and, through a hidden passage, entered the underground mother nest. Walking along the main passage for about several dozen meters, he stopped before a sealed branch passage.
The branch passage opened, and Su Xiao entered. After winding through several more branch passages, he finally arrived before the completely sealed [Evolution Chamber].
Su Xiao placed one hand on the outer gelatinous substance of the [Evolution Chamber] and used his soul power to awaken the insect race scientist, Pross, who was sleeping inside. After a tremor, Pross woke up and, using mental wavelengths, asked Su Xiao for instructions.
Su Xiao conveyed the concepts of [Fungal Carpet] and [Life Nourishment Mound] to Pross via mental commands, instructing him to develop similar insect race buildings, with priority on developing the [Life Nourishment Mound].
Since the Sea Race had raised the bounty, Su Xiao naturally wouldn't back down. He chose to awaken a leader-level insect race member who had no combat power but was extremely important, letting the Sea Race see on the main battlefield soon what a ninth-rank insect race building looked like.
Leaving the insect nest, Su Xiao went to the second-floor inner hall, found Shenfu resting on a recliner, and prepared to head to the tribe's territory together. The Witch Doctor Baze from the Sacred Snake Tribe was already waiting there.
Just as Su Xiao and Shenfu were planning how to find the Soul Death God quickly once they reached the tribe's territory, the Spotted Fox Clan member Pielu quickly walked over and reported in a low voice, "My lord, a bishop from the Dark God Cult has come and requests an audience with you."
Hearing this, Su Xiao was puzzled. This tumor, which cost him 1000–2000 reputation points daily, not only hadn't hidden away but had actively come to find him. This was very abnormal.
Moreover, Su Xiao had noticed something earlier: ever since he became the lord of this fief in the Fierce Winter territory, the Dark God Cult here had become inexplicably rampant. Initially, he thought all fiefs in this frigid zone suffered from this.
But earlier, at the main city council hall, when he met his two neighbors, the White Dragon Lord and the Winter Bear Lord, Su Xiao found that wasn't the case. When the topic came up, both lords were delighted. Their implication was that they had also been troubled by this tumor before, but recently, the Dark God Cult members on their fiefs had become oddly well-behaved, as if they had left.
Su Xiao had Lord Fenris investigate this matter this morning. The result was that the Dark God Cult members from several neighboring fiefs seemed to have all come to the Fierce Winter fief, and this had started not long after Su Xiao became lord here.
It seemed that this happened after Su Xiao had Witch Doctor Baze deal with the Dark God Cult in the Fierce Winter fief. But if he calculated the timing carefully, it didn't match at all. Before Su Xiao commissioned Witch Doctor Baze for this matter, the Dark God Cult members from neighboring fiefs were already heading here, and some had already arrived at the Fierce Winter fief.
It looked like the Dark God Cult was deliberately targeting Su Xiao. What was even more puzzling was that now, a Dark God Cult bishop had actively come to see Su Xiao.
"Let him in."
Su Xiao wanted to see what the Dark God Cult was up to. He simply hadn't had the time to deal with this tumor yet; otherwise, he would have cleaned it up long ago.
Before long, an old man in a black robe, with pale, bluish skin and a gloomy expression, walked into the inner hall. This Dark Bishop had very sharp eyes, as if they could pierce through a person's soul.
Sitting down unceremoniously, the Dark Bishop fixed his sickly green eyes on Su Xiao and said, "Lord White Night, the supreme deity of our Dark God Cult wishes to summon you."
Hearing this, Su Xiao was puzzled. Previously, the Dark God Cult in the Shadow World didn't believe in deities but in the Abyss. Now, the Dark God Cult on Wind Sea Continent actually believed in deities?
Seeing Su Xiao's silence, the Dark Bishop briefly introduced—no, praised their cult's three supreme deities, and expressed that they didn't actually believe in these three deities. Instead, these three deities were high-ranking members of the Dark God Cult, and what the cult truly believed in was still the Abyss.
In simple terms, these three supreme deities were all high-ranking members of the Dark God Cult, or rather, one of the controllers. This cult had no leader or the like.
It turned out that the Sun Archbishop of the Shadow World had chosen to split off his dark incarnation as the Abyss Leader, Sirvis, which was a necessary correct choice. At the very least, it could control the Dark God Cult in that world.
The Dark God Cult on Wind Sea Continent, however, was a completely unbound tumor. Even powerful deities could only serve as high-ranking members of the cult.
The three supreme deities of the Dark God Cult were: the Death God, the Desire God, and the Serpent God.
Su Xiao suddenly thought of a possibility: could this Death God be the Soul Death God? Was the other both a deity of some large tribe and a supreme deity of the Dark God Cult?
That is to say, there was no need to search for the Soul Death God's traces. The other had already sent someone to find him. And judging by this attitude, the other side clearly had a very high chance of winning. Just as Su Xiao coveted the large amount of Soul Source Matter he could obtain by killing the Soul Death God, the Soul Death God also wanted the Law Destroyer's Soul Source Matter.
However, regarding this battle, Su Xiao was very confident, for the following reasons: