Chapter 36: Choice
Many years ago, ever since being sealed within the Golden Scales, the consciousness of the Molten Gold Demon had fallen into chaos. Yet the hatred embedded within that consciousness gradually allowed it to regain awareness, and it realized it was being sealed inside an artifact.
Faced with this predicament, the Molten Gold Demon had no intention of giving up. Instead, it slowly used its innate abilities to draw energy from the Void Realm to recover itself. As long as there was space, it could connect its consciousness to the Void Realm, and no matter how sealed the environment, it could not be stopped.
With anger toward the Slinteus Dwarves burning in its heart, the Molten Gold Demon within the Golden Scales absorbed energy day after day to restore itself. During this time, the Golden Scales had been held by the Demon Race, worshipped by the Soul Ghosts, and obtained by a dimensional traveler, only to be lost in some Primordial World when that traveler died.
And so, the Molten Gold Demon accumulated and endured day after day, until one day, the Golden Scales was once again obtained by the Demon Race. The Molten Gold Demon, sealed within the scales, received a thunderous revelation: the era of Law Annihilation had ended, and the Slinteus Dwarves had been exterminated.
Ask yourself, what is the most painful thing? An enemy too strong to take revenge on? No. It is when your enemy is suddenly wiped out, and it has nothing to do with you—to the point that the enemy you hated day and night had even forgotten your existence.
This left the Molten Gold Demon unusually depressed and frustrated for a few days. But afterward, it poured all its energy into escaping. Time passed like this, until many years later, the Golden Scales was obtained by a contractor. Since they had no use for it, they sold it to Reincarnation Paradise.
At that moment, the Molten Gold Demon was only one step away from breaking free. But that single step was impossibly distant.
When it was sold to Reincarnation Paradise and subjected to free appraisal, the Molten Gold Demon's only feeling was that it was over. This time, it was completely and utterly finished, with no chance to struggle or resist.
Even so, the tenacious Molten Gold Demon still didn't give up. But it quickly discovered that its proud innate ability was utterly useless in Reincarnation Paradise's Overlord Equipment storage. It couldn't connect to the Void Realm at all, meaning it couldn't absorb natural energy.
And so, the Molten Gold Demon began a long wait in a desolate darkness. Unable to recover itself or enter a cultivation state, a few years of dark solitude caused its mentality to shift. It wasn't that the Molten Gold Demon lacked willpower, but in Reincarnation Paradise's Overlord Equipment storage, the concept of time itself was stagnant. It couldn't tell if a second had passed or an eternity.
Thus, the Molten Gold Demon transformed from an arrogant, cruel Overlord Demon God into a somewhat neurotic, reckless, and violent being. After such a long confinement, this old fellow went from being aloof to extremely talkative, desperate to grab any living thing and talk for days on end.
Just as the Molten Gold Demon was about to give up and stop thinking, Su Xiao used an Overlord Essence to perform a random exchange, pulling the Golden Scales out of Reincarnation Paradise's Overlord Equipment storage.
At that moment, the Molten Gold Demon was moved. It suddenly decided that, if possible, helping the one who freed it become stronger might not be a bad choice. Given its experience and former level of power, this wasn't arrogance. But then, the Molten Gold Demon took a closer look and realized that the person who exchanged for the Golden Scales seemed… off. Was this a Law Destroyer?!
Upon realizing this, the Molten Gold Demon was so furious it almost choked. Back then, when the Slinteus Dwarves had melted it into molten gold, that was only the second chapter of the story. The first chapter involved several Law Destroyers pulling it out of a volcano. Among them were three young Law Destroyers named Mawen Hua'erzi and Green Gillian, who surrounded it and kicked it around. The Molten Gold Demon stubbornly refused to submit.
Old hatred surged back, and the Molten Gold Demon's initial thought was, "Law Destroyer, just you wait."
But that thought didn't last long before the Molten Gold Demon discovered another problem: Su Xiao's strength was increasing too quickly. By the time it broke free, it might not even be able to defeat him.
Still, the Molten Gold Demon quickly regained confidence. After all, its original power level was high. Even if its strength had severely declined, surely it wasn't afraid of a growing Law Destroyer? Ridiculous.
Through unremitting efforts, the Molten Gold Demon finally saw its combat power nearly matched by Su Xiao. It hesitated—should it pretend the past never happened? It was all old grudges. It wasn't that it feared losing to this Law Destroyer after breaking free, but that it was broad-minded. Yes, that was it.
With this mindset, the Molten Gold Demon was about to break free. But the energy fluctuations from its impending release caused the Golden Scales' aura to change slightly, alerting Su Xiao.
If the Molten Gold Demon had previously been sealed in a wooden barrel, congratulations—it now had a super-strength alloy barrel.
"So, you're saying that your silent concealment and preparation to escape was all a misunderstanding on our part?"
Baha stared at the black sealing orb ahead, speaking with a hint of disbelief.
"That's right. The grudges between me and the Law Destroyers have long since faded with time."
At this, the Molten Gold Demon even let out a wistful sigh.
"..."
Su Xiao, Baha, and Kaisa exchanged glances, not believing the Molten Gold Demon's words.
"Actually, I've always been ready to thank you for helping me escape. It's just that you're a Law Destroyer. But that doesn't matter now. Tell me, what do you want? Anything related to knowledge or insight, I can answer. Consider it thanks for helping me break free earlier."
The Molten Gold Demon's tone was sincere. Su Xiao pondered for a few seconds before asking:
"I'm very interested in alchemy. If you can provide knowledge in this area, I can open the seal."
"Alchemy? Hahaha, to be honest, before I was sealed, I had some achievements in that field."
Hearing this, Su Xiao looked somewhat surprised. He quickly took the sealed object upstairs to the alchemy room on the fourth floor, placed it on the table, and temporarily turned off the black barrier so the Molten Gold Demon inside could see the outside.
Since it involved alchemical knowledge, Kaisa naturally came along and was now listening intently. Bubu Wang, Baha, and Xianlulu gathered around to watch.
The Molten Gold Demon spoke seriously: "During my confinement, I could only see part of the outside world when you used the Golden Scales. So I focused more on your strength. As for your alchemy level, don't be shy—tell me where you stand."
A moment later, the Molten Gold Demon cleared its throat and said, "Your alchemy skills are… quite good. Let's change the subject. Is there any other knowledge you're interested in?"
"Sealcraft."
"..."
The Molten Gold Demon suddenly fell silent. Earlier, when it tried to guide Su Xiao in alchemy, the more it guided, the more confused it became. Sometimes, it even thought, "Oh, so this profound formula is actually this simple to understand?"
"I mean, besides alchemy and sealcraft, isn't there anything else you're interested in?!"
The Molten Gold Demon's tone seemed a bit frantic.
"Not for now. I have a library token from the Soul Library. If I want knowledge, I usually go there."
Hearing this, the Molten Gold Demon fell silent again. After a few seconds, it carefully said, "Ahem, if you get the chance, could you introduce me? My old library token expired."
"Oh."
"Let's stop the knowledge discussion here. I've existed for many ages, and my experiences can greatly help you. I've been to many worlds. By the way, how many worlds have you been to?"
"About 50."
"Hmm… slightly less than me."
After saying this, the Molten Gold Demon inside the sealed object wanted to slap itself. It was too embarrassed. But then it thought, having been to more worlds didn't mean broader knowledge. The twenty-odd worlds it had visited were all high-tier or Transcendent worlds, like Wind Sea Continent, Doom Star, and Witch Realm.
Just then, Su Xiao asked, "I need information about the Supreme Being—whether it's origins or ability traits."
"Hiss, well, my memory was damaged during my confinement. But one thing: I've fought the Supreme Being."
The Molten Gold Demon began to narrate. First, its peak strength. As a top-tier Overlord creature, it hadn't reached the Supreme Strong level but was between Absolute Strong and Supreme Strong—closer to Absolute Strong peak but slightly stronger.
Among all races, Absolute Strong were rare, let alone among Overlord creatures alone. Under these circumstances, the Molten Gold Demon calling itself a top Overlord wasn't wrong.
Having reached this level, the Molten Gold Demon naturally became proud. Then one day, a loud boom came, and it was engulfed in elemental flames. When it realized what happened, it found that a huge fireball of elemental flames had flown over. Hundreds of kilometers away was a chaotic battlefield between Spellcasters and Law Destroyers, with the Demon Race, Feather Race, and Soul Clan fighting fiercely.
Its home suddenly flattened, the Molten Gold Demon couldn't swallow this. When it reached the battlefield, looking for a Spellcaster to deal with, it spotted the Supreme Being at the center. The Molten Gold Demon decided to go all out and challenge the Supreme Being.
It wasn't completely insane. It found a spear, charged it with power from a distance, and hurled it at the Supreme Being. Then, without waiting to see the result, it turned and ran—both nervous and thrilling.
To its disappointment and relief, the Supreme Being didn't chase after it, seemingly ignoring it. Thinking this, the Molten Gold Demon began looking for a new home and slept until the Law Destroyers came knocking.
"Wait, you said you fought the Supreme Being. That's how you fought?"
Baha looked stunned, rubbing its head with a wing.
"That was the Supreme Being. I wasn't even a Supreme Strong then. Just daring to attack showed courage."
Even now, the Molten Gold Demon still shuddered at the mention of the Supreme Being.
"You said that after finding a new home, the Law Destroyers came. What happened?"
Hearing this question, the Molten Gold Demon's emotions fluctuated greatly, its tone rising: "Who knew a Law Destroyer was hiding in a spatial rift, waiting for the Supreme Being to approach! My spear, infused with golden power, blasted him out of stealth!"
"?"
Baha pressed its head with both wings, completely baffled by the Molten Gold Demon.
After a moment, Baha asked, "Is that why the Slinteus Dwarves, allies of the Law Destroyers, sealed you in the Golden Scales?"
"No. Those Law Destroyers beat me up and let me go. Later, I 'borrowed' a few hundred units of golden source matter from the Slinteus Dwarves. Those misers—it was just a few million Soul Coins' worth—and they sealed me in an artifact for all these years."
The Molten Gold Demon's voice grew quieter. Baha immediately added, "Not killing you outright shows how kind the Slinteus Dwarves were."
Hearing this, Su Xiao only believed half of it, but he expanded his options from three to four.
"Up to now, we've been enemies. Do you dispute that?"
Su Xiao spoke. Hearing this, the Molten Gold Demon was silent for a few seconds before saying, "No."
"Alright. Regardless, I am a Shadow of Law Destruction. I act with reason."
"Huh?"
The Molten Gold Demon was suddenly confused. It couldn't connect a Shadow of Law Destruction with reason.
"Originally, you had three choices. Now it's four."
"You're giving me a choice? Let's hear it."
Though uneasy, the Molten Gold Demon preferred having a choice over being sealed forever.
"First, keep your current sealed state and be thrown into the Abyss Passage."
"Pick another!"
The Molten Gold Demon's tone was firm.
"Second, while sealed, you and Kaisa get along peacefully."
"This… is acceptable…"
But before it could finish, it noticed Kaisa's eyes glowing yellow. In that instant, the Molten Gold Demon felt that compared to "getting along peacefully" with this guy, it would rather be thrown into the Abyss Passage.
"Third, I'm currently holding three Original Sin Objects. They've been sent away but will return. When they do, you'll be sealed together with them to save on sealing costs."
Hearing this, the dark golden vertical pupil in the sealed object was full of confusion. From its gaze, Su Xiao could tell the Molten Gold Demon didn't want this option.
"The last option is relatively safe. I'll go to the Eternal Light World later. Once there, I'll unseal you and claim you're my collaborator."
After hearing this, the Molten Gold Demon was speechless. Four choices, but none led to a good outcome. It realized that if it didn't offer something valuable today, there would be no good end.
After thinking, the Molten Gold Demon said, "Last time a Devil Race member brought the Golden Scales to Wind Sea Continent was over a hundred years ago. Is the Sea Race still strong? Is their main city still Yatuo Ancient City?"
"Yes."
"I know a coordinate—the Sea Race's secret treasure vault. If I can get close, I can extract all metal-type artifacts inside."
The Molten Gold Demon revealed its ability: unparalleled control over metal. It didn't just absorb metal; it first gave it life, then controlled it.
"To take those treasures, you'd have to release me first. Of course, after so many years, I'm not sure the vault is still in use. But building such a vault is expensive. Unless necessary, the Sea Race should still use it."
Hearing this, Su Xiao naturally guessed the Molten Gold Demon's goal: to plunder the treasure vault. But after succeeding, it would definitely try to escape.
Su Xiao had roughly figured out the Molten Gold Demon's background. It knew a bit about everything, between a professional and a master in each field.
In terms of strength, the original Molten Gold Demon was formidable. But during the era of Spellcaster and Law Destroyer wars, there were too many strong beings. Even medium-sized factions among the warring parties had at least one Absolute Strong to hold the line.
"Where is the vault's coordinate?"
Su Xiao probed. Hearing his tone, the Molten Gold Demon knew half the battle was won.
"The coordinate is naturally in Yatuo Ancient City."
"More specific."
"Alright. You can verify it. But the spatial coordinates I give might sound like ancient relics to people of your era…"
The Molten Gold Demon gave a rough coordinate, with various values that were both professional and obscure.
Su Xiao took out a piece of white paper and began writing and drawing. Soon, the paper was covered with horizontal and vertical lines, with circles marking intersections.
"Based on this world's spatial dimensions, this is indeed the Sea Race's main base, Yatuo Ancient City."
Su Xiao put down his pen. The Molten Gold Demon, watching the whole process from inside the seal, was silent. After over ten seconds, it suddenly sneered, "Law Destroyer, you're not planning to raid this vault, are you? Although you Law Destroyers treat enemies like bandits, with your current strength—not even Absolute Strong—going to Yatuo Ancient City to provoke the Sea Race is suicide."
"So, to extract equipment from this vault, I need your ability?"
Su Xiao turned to look at the sealed object on the table.
"Of course."
The Molten Gold Demon, holding a bargaining chip, spoke more confidently.
"Why would I steal equipment from this vault? That's time-consuming and labor-intensive. I could just put one piece of equipment in."
A plan gradually formed in Su Xiao's mind, and it was very feasible.
"Put one piece of equipment in? What are you…"
The Molten Gold Demon couldn't understand. No matter how it thought, it couldn't grasp why Su Xiao would do this.
First, the Molten Gold Demon didn't know about the [Endless Ring]. Su Xiao had only recently obtained this equipment.
[Endless Ring]
Origin: Abyss.
Quality: Abyss Level.
Equipment Effect 1: Thriving Life (Core, Passive) – While carrying this equipment, HP +200 points (each point of this equipment's rating provides an additional 20 HP)…
Equipment Effect 2: Rapid Devouring (Core, Passive) – Can permanently increase this equipment's rating by devouring equipment, items, gems, and other high-value objects.
Equipment Effect 3: Slow Absorption (Core, Passive)…
Equipment Penalty: Dark Drowning (Passive)…
Rating: 10 points (Abyss-level equipment rating ranges from 1 to 6000 points).
Simply put, the more equipment the [Endless Ring] devoured, and the higher the quality, the more its rating permanently increased.
One thing was certain: the vault coordinates provided by the Molten Gold Demon had a 90% chance of still being in use. Currently, the Sea Race was semi-coercing the Dwarf King through various methods. Su Xiao didn't believe the Sea Race would let the Dwarf King be idle every day. The most likely outcome was that the Sea Race had the Dwarf King train their blacksmiths.
From the main battlefield situation, the Sea Race's weapons and armor were several tiers higher than the Beast Race's. This was likely due to the large number of Sea Race craftsmen.
The Sea Race probably had many blacksmiths below the Dwarf King's level. This would result in a large number of high-tier Sea Race equipment.
This was inevitable. Wind Sea Continent was vast, with many high-tier supernatural materials, numerous skilled craftsmen, and only a limited number of Sea Race generals. This would inevitably lead to many high-quality equipment being forged but left unused.
This was why the Goblin Merchant Guild became the Sea Race's partner, allowing the Sea Race to earn Soul Coins. But even so, the Sea Race still stored a large amount of high-quality equipment, requiring a vault.
Wind Sea Continent's vaults were different from those in other worlds. There were too many space-system powerhouses here. For a vault full of equipment, it was worth the risk. After succeeding, one could go to the Beast Race, pay a large sum of Soul Coins, and use a dimensional teleportation array to leave this world.
This also meant that building a vault in this world was very expensive. The Sea Race might have vast resources, but they weren't wasteful enough to abandon a vault that was still in use a hundred years ago.
If the activated [Endless Ring] were placed in a vault full of high-tier equipment, what would happen? Needless to say, the [Endless Ring] would devour the surrounding high-quality equipment one by one.
Did the Sea Race not monitor such a vault? Of course, they did. But the problem was that the vault was too secure. Even their own people couldn't sense it from the outside. They could only appoint an official to inspect the vault periodically—at least, that was the case for the Beast Race.
Su Xiao couldn't handle the detection arrays inside the vault, but he could handle the Sea Race official responsible for inspecting them. Or rather, he could entrust Kaisa, who was currently serving as a Sea Race quartermaster, to deal with that guy.
As long as the [Endless Ring] was stored inside and no one inspected the vault for a while, the plan would succeed. As for retrieving the high-rating [Endless Ring], it would rely on the Sea Race faction store's appraisal mechanism. Before leaving this world, when he went to collude with Kaisa to "restock," he could use Sea Race reputation to exchange for the [Endless Ring].
Su Xiao took out the [Endless Ring] and placed it on the table. Kaisa grinned slyly and said, "My dear friend, this is very difficult."
"30,000."
Su Xiao offered 30,000 Soul Coins. Kaisa still looked troubled.
"50,000."
Su Xiao placed a 50,000 Soul Coin savings card on the table. Seeing the price exceeded expectations, Kaisa smiled and pocketed the card and the [Endless Ring].
After Kaisa left, the Molten Gold Demon said solemnly, "Earlier, you mentioned going to the Eternal Light World. That was a threat, wasn't it?"
"Unfortunately, no."
"Law Destroyer, let's end our grudges here. I won't come after you in the future…"
Before it could finish, Su Xiao picked up the sealed object and put it away. He asked Baha, "How long has Shenfu been here?"
That's right. Shenfu, who had gone to the Sea Race's main city to negotiate the trade of the [Initial Mark] fragment, had left as soon as he arrived, seemingly no longer interested in the 20% [Initial Mark] fragment they held.
"About half an hour."
Hearing this, Su Xiao left the alchemy room and went to the inner hall on the second floor. As soon as he entered, he saw Shenfu, whose face was somewhat pale. Shenfu was leaning back on a single sofa, his aura showing signs of severe injury.
Seeing Shenfu in this state, Su Xiao sat down, poured him a cup of tea, and asked, "Original Sin Object backlash?"
"No. It's that thing in the Sea Race's main city. I feel it's close to the level of Candlestick Woman or Old One. It's similar but not quite the same. Very… eerie."
As Shenfu spoke, he pulled up his right sleeve. His arm was already showing white bone. The upper arm was okay, but the forearm had only a little flesh left on the bone. With Shenfu's recovery ability, the flesh was regenerating very slowly, as if suppressed by something.
Su Xiao didn't ask further. Earlier, when he sensed that even Kaisa was wary of that thing, he knew it was dangerous. Now, Shenfu had nearly had an arm eaten clean, and he had probably lost some Divine Source Blood. Yet, Shenfu had admitted defeat.
Shenfu had come here not about that thing, but to discuss with Su Xiao how to transfer the [Golden Holy Grail] to Arcane Eternal Star.
PS: (Recommending a friend's book, titled "Armed Witch.")