Chapter 57: The Flaw
Su Xiao closed the [Initial Mark] fragment leaderboard. As things stood, the rankings on this board were no longer reliable. This wasn't to question the Void Tree's judgment, but rather that it seemed a certain someone capable of replicating the [Initial Mark] had infiltrated the rankings.
To become the ultimate victor, distinguishing which [Initial Mark] fragments held by various parties were genuine and which were fake was the primary issue.
In Su Xiao's view, the [Initial Mark] fragments held by Beast King, who ranked first, had the most substance. The reason was that, before the contenders arrived in this world, these fragments had likely been collected by the Beast Clan and presented to Beast King.
This also resolved a doubt for Su Xiao: the Beast Clan's territory was so vast, why hadn't a single [Initial Mark] fragment scattered here? He had previously been a Beast Clan lord and was now their Grand Commander; he should have been able to obtain fragments scattered across Beast Clan lands.
It now seemed that the [Initial Mark] fragments hadn't failed to scatter here; rather, they had all been gathered and delivered to Beast King.
Following this line of reasoning, the 30.95% [Initial Mark] held by the ruthless man should also be genuine. The situation was similar to the Beast Clan: fragments scattered across the Eternal Frozen Wastes had been collected by the Icefield Clan and presented to the Elder.
The remaining [Initial Mark] fragments all carried some risk, especially those held by violators, which were highly likely to be replicas.
This was particularly true of the 20.3% [Initial Mark] held by Shenfu. Although the origin of these fragments was clear—Shenfu obtained them from the Shadow Devourer—the question was whether Shenfu had already swapped them out. The genuine [Initial Mark] fragments might have been hidden away somewhere unknown.
Moreover, Su Xiao had another conjecture: the [Initial Mark] was a key, or more precisely, the key to a [Space-Time Power Storage Device] of the Dawn Paradise.
The problem was that the Dawn Paradise had more than one [Space-Time Power Storage Device]. How could a single paradise faction store only a few million ounces of space-time power? As a ninth-rank hunter, Su Xiao himself had several thousand ounces of space-time power.
Following this reasoning, the Dawn Paradise absolutely had more than one [Space-Time Power Storage Device]. Since there were more locks, there might also be more keys, meaning more [Initial Marks].
What if someone else brought those abandoned [Initial Marks] into this world? What would happen then? Keep in mind, these were genuine [Initial Marks], authenticated by the Dawn Paradise.
Under normal circumstances, such a thing generally wouldn't happen. The problem was that Shenfu was also one of the contenders this time. This old man wasn't a selected contender but one who participated on his own.
Furthermore, Shenfu had paid a high price to obtain the 20% [Initial Mark] from the Shadow Devourer.
So, was it possible that Shenfu had possessed a large piece of [Initial Mark] long ago, temporarily calling it [Initial Mark No. 1]? However, the [Space-Time Power Storage Device] corresponding to [Initial Mark No. 1] had long been abandoned, making it more of a souvenir.
But not long ago, Shenfu learned that the Mark Struggle was about to begin, and the target of the struggle was the [Initial Mark]. However, this time, the struggle was for [Initial Mark No. 2].
The characteristics of the two were extremely similar, yet there was a slight difference. The reason Shenfu was willing to pay a heavy price to obtain the 20% [Initial Mark] from the Shadow Devourer was to assimilate the two marks with nearly identical characteristics.
If the Dawn Paradise's authentication were still in effect, this would be absolutely impossible. The problem was that the Dawn Paradise's authentication had long since failed. The [Initial Mark] had been downgraded from a paradise-authenticated item to a paradise product.
There was an essential difference between a paradise-authenticated item and a paradise product. The former could not be manipulated even by the combined efforts of Kaisa, the ruthless man, and Shenfu. The latter, however, could be slightly manipulated with the right methods.
The key difference was that a paradise-authenticated item could not be personally acquired by a contractor. Even if obtained, it could only be held temporarily without ownership. A paradise product, on the other hand, became the contractor's personal asset once acquired.
The reason the previous struggle for the [Initial Mark] required holding it for 40 minutes before officially owning it was the process of the Void Tree downgrading the [Initial Mark] to a personal possession.
Many contractors in this struggle had a misconception, believing that the [Initial Mark] was similar in nature to the [World Core], a task item with absolute priority. In reality, this was wrong. Once obtained by a contender, the [Initial Mark] became a personal item. Task items could never become personal items.
In fact, this item was quite similar in type to the [Scroll Fragment] from the World of Paintings. Shenfu might have seized on this point, bringing a large piece of [Initial Mark] into this world.
If so, Shenfu wasn't replicating counterfeit [Initial Marks]. This old fox's method was more reliable. He had brought a genuine piece of [Initial Mark] into this world.
It was precisely for this reason that Shenfu was willing to pay such a high price to obtain the 20% [Initial Mark] from the Shadow Devourer. Not only was it to use this piece as a standard to assimilate the [Initial Mark] he previously held, but more critically, after obtaining this 20%, the total amount of marks he held made victory almost certain.
This led Su Xiao to another question: Was the Eternal Frozen Wastes becoming a ruleless struggle zone solely because of the ruthless man? Perhaps not. It might have been the combination of the ruthless man becoming the Elder and Shenfu successfully assimilating the large piece of [Initial Mark] he brought, which together created the ruleless struggle zone.
Thus, the total amount of [Initial Mark] could no longer be calculated with 100% as the upper limit. The fact that the fragments in the rankings added up to 100.1% was also due to this situation, not someone replicating the [Initial Mark].
What was even more ingenious was that the Void Tree would not interfere with this at all. It would even regard it as an advantage for the contender, much like when Su Xiao participated in the struggle in the World of Paintings, initially bringing a [Scroll Fragment].
Su Xiao estimated that if things continued like this, the ultimate winner would not be the ruthless man but Shenfu.
Su Xiao took out his current 5.1% [Initial Mark]. He had a method to test whether Shenfu had already succeeded. Under the astonished gaze of Hao Mei, Su Xiao exerted force with his hand, and the 5.1% [Initial Mark] in his hand cracked into three pieces with a snap.
There was no warning, not even a prompt. This meant that this item belonged entirely to Su Xiao. Even if he completely destroyed it, the Void Tree would not interfere. If destruction was permissible, then using other homologous [Initial Marks] to assimilate and create more was naturally also fine.
Don't overlook the most critical point: this [Initial Mark] was an item with the characteristics of the Dawn Paradise. The Dawn Paradise had once been the lair of violators. As a violator, Shenfu had a natural advantage in manipulating the [Initial Mark]. It was even possible that the item characteristics of the Dawn Paradise allowed for some degree of manipulation by violators, as part of its authentication regulations.
No matter how he looked at it, there seemed to be no chance of beating Shenfu. However, the other party had a flaw that seemed small but was actually fatal. Thinking of this, Su Xiao opened the world contact platform list, found Witch Lilia, and contacted her.
[Tip: The contractor you are contacting has left this world. The world contact platform does not currently support cross-realm communication.]
Seeing this prompt, Su Xiao gained a new respect for Witch Lilia's cleverness while also increasing his vigilance toward her. This witch had clearly sensed something was wrong and preferred not to participate in the final struggle, completing her main mission early to leave this world.
Su Xiao took out a communicator and contacted Seer Peril. After a long ring with no answer, the communication automatically disconnected.
Seeing this, he took out a feather and tried to activate it. This was a contact method from a prophet of the tribe. However, the feather floated in mid-air for a long time without being activated.
One divination-type person leaving might be a coincidence, but both Peril and the tribe prophet, as natives of this world, disappearing simultaneously was abnormal. Especially since Peril had just cooperated with Su Xiao, and the cooperation had been pleasant, with no outsiders detecting her involvement in killing the Absolute Strength Spellcaster. Under such circumstances, Peril was actually hiding from Su Xiao.
What was the fastest way to find someone? The answer was to seek out a top-tier diviner. Su Xiao wanted to find the trail of a violator, yet all the diviners he knew had vanished. To say this wasn't someone secretly interfering was clearly impossible.
The violator Su Xiao wanted to find was naturally not Shenfu, but Violator Beffrey. To reverse the current situation, finding this violator was the only slim possibility.
Just as Su Xiao was pondering how to break the current deadlock, Baha flew into the inner hall and said, "Boss, the last batch of fungal carpet has been recovered and sent to the underground mother nest."
"Mm."
Su Xiao tried to check the mother nest's data. Last time the mother nest upgraded, he had been busy with other matters. Only now did he have time to look.
[Demonic Insect Race]
Race Level: Lv.90 (Each consumption of 50 Evolution Points can increase the race level by 1).
Dominator (Jila): Lv.90 (Each consumption of 15 Evolution Points can increase the Dominator's growth by 1. This characteristic will improve with the increase of [Race Level]).
Insect Nest: Lv.83 (Each consumption of 15 Evolution Points can increase the Insect Nest level by 1. This characteristic will improve with the increase of [Race Level]).
Gene Pool: Lv.54 (Each consumption of 25 Evolution Points can increase the Gene Pool level by 1. This characteristic will improve with the increase of [Race Level]).
...
Seeing this data, Su Xiao was a bit puzzled. Based on the previous consumption of Evolution Points, the race level should have reached Lv.92, but it had only reached Lv.90.
Before Su Xiao could inquire about what was going on, a prompt appeared.
[This upgrade has been completed. You can choose the development direction for this insect race from the following options.]