# Chapter 12: Success and Choice
The fourteenth floor of the Watcher's Tower, the highest level of the tower.
In the spacious arena, the Dark Maiden stood holding a sharp sword, her crystal arm faintly emitting a glimmer. Her pitch-black eyes no longer held the gentleness from their last meeting.
Su Xiao looked at the sharp sword in the Dark Maiden's hand. One-third of this blade was the hilt, and it had no handguard. Combined with the blade being slightly narrower than ordinary swords, and the total length of 1.3 meters, this sharp sword appeared to have both powerful penetrating force and considerable slashing power.
The Dark Maiden raised her sharp sword slightly, letting the tip no longer touch the ground.
Drip, drip~
Black liquid dripped from the sword tip. Before leaving the blade, this liquid was pure black, but upon detaching from the tip and falling through the air, the liquid turned clear and transparent. When this droplet of liquid hit the ground, it transformed into wind traces that scattered away.
This represented one thing: the Dark Maiden's abilities had three characteristics, namely darkness, water, and wind. However, the Dark Maiden could not use these three characteristics simultaneously; she had to switch between them. For example, in dark form, the water and wind abilities lay dormant, and when switching to water form, the dark and wind abilities lay dormant.
Thinking of this, Su Xiao kept his Soul Core form unchanged and did not switch from Soul Severing Soul Core to Swift Soul Core.
The next second, a wave spread outward with the Dark Maiden as the center, causing the surrounding air's color to become richer. The faint light falling from above seemed to slow down.
[Warning: You are enveloped by the "Dark Domain."]
[All your active abilities except domain-type abilities are in an unusable state.]
[Within this domain, all your attributes have been suppressed to 100 points (Supreme Rank can exempt this suppression; as the prerequisite for exemption has not been met, you have been suppressed).]
[Your movement speed has been temporarily suppressed to 80% of the Dark Maiden's.]
[Your maximum health has been temporarily suppressed to 10% of your current health.]
...
An invisible sense of restraint appeared around him. Su Xiao understood how the Dark Maiden usually dealt with World-Destroying Rank existences. Once the domain was activated, only basic attacks could be used within it. The various bizarre abilities of World-Destroying Rank existences became completely meaningless, ultimately leading to their execution by the Dark Maiden.
After detection, Su Xiao learned that the Dark Maiden had all attributes at 120 points except for Luck Attribute. Don't underestimate this 20-point attribute gap; when only basic attacks and combat experience were used, this gap was fatal.
"Law Annihilation Lord, please be careful."
The Dark Maiden said this while already stepping forward. She was currently in her dark form, her figure occasionally blurring, making it difficult to capture her attack trajectory.
Clang!
The sharp sword and long blade clashed. Su Xiao felt from the blade that the Dark Maiden's slashing power seemed endless, without any decline in force after striking, like the spread of darkness—not fast, but resolute and persistent.
The Dark Maiden slashed five consecutive times, leaving specks of darkness along her path. Finally, she swept her sharp sword, sending Su Xiao, who was holding the long blade, flying backward.
Su Xiao flew backward more than ten meters. He pulled with one hand, tightening the Spirit Shadow Thread wrapped around the reliefs on the surrounding walls. He stood on the Spirit Shadow Thread. The Spirit Shadow Thread was not an active ability; it was a deep development and application of his own Cyan Steel Shadow Energy.
Seeing Su Xiao's composed response, the Dark Maiden seemed somewhat puzzled. She looked at the sharp sword in her hand.
What the Dark Maiden didn't know was that Su Xiao was so composed because, long ago, he had been constantly undergoing the "trials" of the Greed Chapter. Initially, he always thought it was because his own abilities were insufficient that he couldn't clear the Greed Chapter, so he "died" inside it time and time again, but this never made him give up the challenge.
The current situation was much better than being inside the Greed Chapter. Moreover, if he wanted to, he could immediately use "Extreme Blade: World" to break through this "Dark Domain." But from the current situation, there was no such need for now. The Dark Maiden excelled in simple, unadorned close combat, and as a Triple Technique Grandmaster, Su Xiao was not weak in this aspect either.
Clang!
The sharp sword and long blade clashed again. Despite the 20-point Strength attribute difference, Su Xiao did not retreat at all. Not only did he not retreat, but the long blade in his hand even pressed forward slightly.
The reason for this was that even though Blade Grandmaster was greatly reduced within the "Dark Domain," it still had the bonus of "Blade Weapon Slashing Power Judgment Rank +2."
It was easy to imagine how powerful the slashing force would be if not suppressed, with the Blade Grandmaster's bonus of "Blade Weapon Slashing Power Judgment Rank +19."
Crack, crack, crack~
The long blade and sharp sword pressed against each other, sparks occasionally appearing. Su Xiao exerted force with his right arm, and with a screech, the blades rubbed against each other, sweeping the Dark Maiden back a large step.
'Blade Path Sword: Extreme.'
Su Xiao slashed down with his blade. The Dark Maiden had just been swept back and was off-balance, so she could only block reluctantly.
Clang!!
Sparks burst and scattered in all directions. Due to the clash of over a hundred points of Strength attribute, and because this place was the Eternal Light World with extremely tough space, no particularly spectacular shockwave was produced. However, this exchange was a more stringent test of combat techniques.
The Dark Maiden staggered from the slash. Su Xiao took the opportunity to slash down again, but the next moment, he felt that the slashing momentum of this strike was absorbed by the sharp sword in the Dark Maiden's hand and was about to be returned together with her own slashing force—a counter slash.
'Perfect Block.'
Clang!!
Su Xiao blocked with one hand holding the blade, stopping this slash that was nearly within the 150-point Strength range. Not only that, but it also made the Dark Maiden retreat half a step.
"This kid is impressive. He's clearly fought many enemies."
The old Law Annihilator in the shadows spoke. This old fellow, who rarely praised others, was now unsparing with his admiration.
"Of course. You also have to see who his guide is."
Mawen Hua'erzi said with a smile. Hearing this, the black mist figure beside him felt embarrassed for him and couldn't help but ask, "Then tell me, besides teaching him the Devouring Core, what other proper things has this guide of yours done?"
"Well~, this, hmm~, this is our unique teaching method of the Law Annihilation Shadow. Yes, that's right."
After saying this, Mawen Hua'erzi fell silent. It was hard to believe that among the three black-hearted old men, the one who became the most proper after death as a residual soul was actually a Spellcaster.
Clang!
Weapons clashed. Su Xiao once again forced the Dark Maiden back a step, as if victory was right before him. When he slashed down again, he suddenly heard the sound of flowing water. His body's reaction surpassed his neural reflexes as he held his blade vertically in front of him.
After a crisp sound, Su Xiao was knocked back by a slash that appeared out of nowhere. Before landing, he adjusted his posture in mid-air. Several water droplets, due to their extreme speed, transformed into miniature sharp sword shapes, flying past his face and under his armpit. One miniature water sharp sword grazed his neck.
The wound was not large, but Su Xiao immediately covered it with one hand because his blood, like weightless liquid, was about to surge out from the wound and float upward.
Su Xiao stared at a drop of blood oozing from his wound. This drop of blood slowly surged and floated upward, as if weightless.
The next second, Su Xiao himself felt this sensation. He felt as if he were standing on a cloud; the ground beneath his feet no longer bore his weight. Instead, he fell toward the ceiling—yes, a falling sensation headfirst upward. This feeling was somewhat unpleasant.
Su Xiao adjusted his posture, and thus he stood upside down on the ceiling. This was not a change in the environmental gravity of this place; some of his pendants still hung downward toward the ground. This was his personal gravity, changed by being injured by the Dark Maiden's attack.
This was not an active ability; it was a domain incidental effect that appeared when the Dark Maiden switched from the dark attribute to the water attribute.
The Dark Maiden opposite also stood upside down on the ceiling, but from her expression, she had long adapted to this state and charged toward Su Xiao.
Clang!
Weapons clashed. Su Xiao retreated a few steps on the ceiling, then immediately felt himself falling headfirst toward the ground again. His personal gravity had returned to normal, and along with it, the Dark Maiden opposite also recovered.
Su Xiao understood the characteristics of the Dark Maiden's domain changes. The trigger point for the gravity change was clashing weapons with her. After one exchange, his personal gravity would flip, and after another exchange, it would recover. The next exchange would be another flip of personal gravity.
Thinking of this, Su Xiao looked at the two Dark Maidens opposite. Yes, two of them, because each time she exchanged a slash with him, a water-attribute clone would appear, and this clone had strong misleading properties, making it difficult to determine which was the real Dark Maiden.
Seeing this, Su Xiao knew he couldn't continue fighting within this domain. It was time to test the Blade Grandmaster's ability to destroy domains.
Su Xiao charged to the front of the Dark Maiden and exchanged a slash.
Clang!
The crisp sound of metal. At the same time as this slash, Extreme Blade: World was activated.
Zheng!!
A sharp, metallic slashing sound appeared. With Su Xiao as the center, a spherical "Extreme Blade Domain" appeared. In just an instant, the surrounding air color deepened, and every ten or so centimeters, a rice-grain-sized slashing flicker point appeared.
With two crisp sounds, the Dark Maiden's two clones shattered. Almost simultaneously, Su Xiao and the Dark Maiden's auras both recovered to the peak of Ninth Rank.
The Dark Domain dissipated. The Dark Maiden's dress was slashed with multiple wounds, but this black dress was composed of energy and recovered instantly. Blood flowed down the Dark Maiden's crystal arm, indicating she was not lightly injured.
The sharp sword and long blade clashed again. Su Xiao's Blade Grandmaster could finally use 70% of its power. To unleash the full combat power of the current Blade Grandmaster, he needed to advance to Absolute Strength. He slashed down, and the momentum caused the ground beneath the Dark Maiden's feet to crack extensively, and the surrounding space to crack with fine fissures.
The Demon Spirit was released. The Demon Spirit formed a crystal blade in its hand. With the blessing of the "Soul Blade, X" ability, the attack intensity of this crystal blade soared.
With a crash, the weapon in the Demon Spirit's hand clashed. Above and behind the Dark Maiden, a deep blue Demon Spirit appeared, holding the same sharp sword as the Dark Maiden, with wisps of cold air dispersing from this Demon Spirit.
Slap!
Water ripples appeared, knocking Su Xiao back. The Dark Maiden held the long hilt of the sharp sword with both hands in a reverse grip. A large amount of water surged on the blade. She stabbed the sword into the ground beneath her feet, and a large amount of water suddenly exploded and scattered.
Almost simultaneously, the deep blue Demon Spirit's sharp sword pointed upward, and cold air spread.
'Frozen: Moment!'
Crack, crack, crack!
Every inch of space in the entire arena was frozen by solid ice. The deep blue Demon Spirit clung to the Dark Maiden, giving her the ability to move through the solid ice. She turned into an afterimage and appeared in front of Su Xiao in an instant.
"Sorry, Law Annihilation Lord."
Although she said sorry, the Dark Maiden did not hold back. Her sharp sword pierced through Su Xiao's chest and heart, then withdrew. A massive amount of blood spurted out due to the water characteristic, but because the surrounding solid ice had returned to a solid state, the splattered blood was frozen.
Looking closely, one could see that these bloodstains were rapidly turning black, eventually becoming like iron sand. This represented that what the Dark Maiden had pierced was Su Xiao's Blade Demon Spirit.
The Dark Maiden immediately became alert to her surroundings, but the sense of crisis came from the front. Su Xiao, sealed in the solid ice, adopted a simple and unadorned method—a straight kick forward.
With a dull thud, all the solid ice in the spacious arena shattered due to the attack momentum of the straight kick. As this straight kick carried the remaining few tenths of force and hit the Dark Maiden, who was blocking with her sword, she turned into an afterimage flying backward.
As for why the Dark Maiden didn't swap positions with the deep blue Demon Spirit, it wasn't that she didn't want to, but that she couldn't. This Demon Spirit did not belong to her; she was only borrowing it. Moreover, the original ability of this Demon Spirit was not like this. It was only after adapting to the Dark Maiden that it derived several abilities.
'Blade Path Sword: Flow...'
An ethereal wind trace slashed out. From the cold mist where the Dark Maiden was, a crisp clang sound came. Su Xiao pointed forward with his left hand.
'Blood Smoke Cannon.'
Su Xiao pointed at the Dark Maiden with his index finger. Blood Qi gathered at his fingertip, compressed to the limit, and then shot out as a blood-colored ray, breaking through layers of small air waves along the way.
Just as the Dark Maiden blocked this attack with her sharp sword, Su Xiao had already manifested a Blood Qi Phantom. One Blood Soul enhanced himself, and one enhanced the Blood Qi Phantom.
'Super: Blood Smoke Cannon.'
Boom!!
Blood mist dispersed. After a brief calm, a sharp flash of light appeared within the blood mist. Su Xiao instinctively tilted his head. In the blink of an eye, a sharp sword stabbed past almost against his cheek, and a few severed black hairs floated down.
Su Xiao slashed down with force. With a crash, the Dark Maiden staggered back a step, letting out a muffled groan. The powerful slashing force developed with Blade Grandmaster as the core ability was truly too difficult to withstand.
Another forceful slash came down. With a crisp crack, a sound came from the Dark Maiden. It wasn't a bone fracture, but a seal that had been barely maintained had been damaged.
With a boom, the Dark Maiden's long hair spread out, flying in an aesthetically pleasing manner. Everything around her stopped. Her combat power recovered to its peak. She instantly crossed several meters of distance and appeared in front of Su Xiao. The sharp sword in her hand pierced through Su Xiao's chest. This single stab dealt over 500,000 damage! For an ordinary Ninth Rank peak, this stab would have been enough to kill them instantly, triggering the resurrection technique.
The only good news was that although the Dark Maiden's seal had been broken, her health had already dropped to a very low level. After all, while sealed, she had endured one Extreme Blade: World, one straight kick, and multiple forceful slashes, causing high oscillation damage.
Don't underestimate these oscillation damages. Su Xiao had been fighting the Dark Maiden for over 20 minutes. The oscillation damage from each individual slash wasn't very high, but accumulated, it was considerable.
The Dark Maiden withdrew her sharp sword. Su Xiao's health dropped another large chunk. At this moment, Extreme Blade: World was used again. This ability, which could only be used every fifteen minutes, was finally available again.
'Extreme Blade: World!'
With Su Xiao as the center, a spherical "Extreme Blade Domain" appeared. Every ten or so centimeters, a rice-grain-sized slashing flicker point emerged.
The Dark Maiden leaped backward at full speed but still couldn't escape the range of Extreme Blade: World. This ability activated without any warning. As long as Su Xiao held the long blade, even when being attacked, he could use this ability. The strongest domain-level ability of the Blade Path was this unstoppable.
"Law Annihilation Lord, I'm very sorry. You need to think of more ways to defeat..."
Just as the Dark Maiden finished speaking, she suddenly felt a different sensation on her crystal arm. She raised her hand to look and found that dark blue smoke was merging into her crystal left arm. This was Su Xiao's Blade Demon Spirit.
On the hilt of the sword the Dark Maiden held, several golden gems lit up with faint light. The one-time resurrection technique notarized by the Void Tree was activated. This meant that if the Demon Spirit eroded into the Dark Maiden's wound and triggered a killing blow, it would be enough to drop her health below 5%.
Su Xiao controlled the Demon Spirit to detach from the Dark Maiden's crystal arm and return to the Dragon-Slaying Flash. If the Dark Maiden had been continuously sealed at Ninth Rank peak combat power, he could indeed defeat her. But after her seal was damaged, he had to use some trump cards against the Dark Maiden, whose health had dropped below 20%. Although this was an ally, if he didn't use trump cards, given the Dark Maiden's stubborn personality, she would continue to guard here.
Otherwise, the Dark Maiden wouldn't have spent decades in the Eternal Light World, cleaning up World-Destroying Rank existences that were equal to or weaker than her in strength. Of course, those slightly stronger than her, she would also try to clean up, but each time it was relatively dangerous.
After calming his breath, Su Xiao got up from the ground. Before advancing to Absolute Strength, the combat power gap was indeed too obvious. Just now, when the Dark Maiden pierced his chest with her sharp sword, his health suddenly dropped by 50%, and then one sword withdrawal caused massive bleeding, dropping his health by another 20%. But now, these were no longer problems.
Risking entering the Eternal Light World, always trying not to make a move to find the Watcher's Tower, then having all teammates eliminated along the way before reaching the twelfth floor—the reward for all this was right before him.
Su Xiao stepped forward to the innermost metal door. The Dark Maiden stood with her hands folded in front of her lower abdomen, her aura gentle, showing no trace of her combat posture from before.
"Law Annihilation Lord, you're bleeding."
"..."
Su Xiao turned his head to look at the Dark Maiden. He was very sure that the Dark Maiden was showing concern, but for some reason, it didn't feel heartwarming. He was bleeding now because he had almost been killed by her sharp sword. This was too strong; recovery potions couldn't stop the bleeding for a while.
"Law Annihilation Lord, you should rest temporarily. When activating the 'Super: World-Level Sealing Technique,' you need to bear a great burden. Your current state is not suitable."
Hearing this, Su Xiao's hand, which was about to adjust the lock plate, paused, then lowered. He formed a crystal chair, sat on it, and leaned back to rest. As soon as he sat down, his whole body ached.
"Law Annihilation Lord, do you mind if I help you with treatment?"
"Sure."
"Please give me your hand."
"..."
Su Xiao raised his left hand and formed another crystal chair beside him. The Dark Maiden sat down, held Su Xiao's left hand with both hands, and murmured in an unknown language. Dark yet pure energy gradually dispersed around them. Unlike ordinary darkness, this darkness gave a clear and comfortable feeling.
Su Xiao rested for a moment, then opened his eyes. The pain throughout his body had disappeared. The Dark Maiden still stood quietly beside him with her hands folded in front of her lower abdomen. Even though she remained silent, she was always there.
Standing up and approaching the metal door, Su Xiao adjusted the lock plate on the door. There were a total of 30 layers of lock rings, corresponding to the 30 activation secret codes previously informed by the old tree clan.
After the adjustment was completed, the lock plate started from the center circle, layer by layer retracting inward. Finally, all the lock rings on the lock plate began to rotate. When the speed reached a certain level, they scattered with a crash, and pieces of secret locks embedded themselves in various parts of the metal door, forming the Law Annihilation mark.
Su Xiao raised his hand and pressed it on the center, releasing Cyan Steel Shadow Energy. The dust-covered door opened.
Entering the most core room of the fourteenth floor of the tower, everything in sight was runes and techniques. At the center, there was a sphere composed of tens of thousands of runes and techniques.
[Yes/No to activate the "Super: World-Level Sealing Technique."]
[This technique has been notarized by the Void Tree. If activated, this technique will officially activate in 12 hours.]
[Remaining available uses of this technique: 1 time.]
Seeing these prompts, Su Xiao knew this matter was basically settled. He had originally been concerned whether this "Super: World-Level Sealing Technique," which had not been maintained for many years, could still be as stable as before. Now that it had the Void Tree's notarization, it was certainly very stable.
Su Xiao chose to activate the "Super: World-Level Sealing Technique," and then received a prompt that this technique was expected to activate in 12 hours.
[Your Trial Mission: Phase 1: Arrive at the Watcher's Tower (Completed).]
[Your Trial Mission: Phase 2: Activate the "Super: World-Level Sealing Technique" (Completed).]
[Your Trial Mission: Phase 3 has been triggered. You need to complete this promotion within the Attribute Enhancement Pod.]
[Due to the Trial Mission, you can immediately end this world progress. Yes/No to end. If ending in this way, there will be no world settlement this time.]
Su Xiao naturally chose No. He wanted to continue staying in this world. As soon as he made his choice, a prompt appeared.
[It has been detected that your team has cleared the fourteenth floor (highest floor) of the Watcher's Tower.]
[Since Bubuteni and Baha are followers, they will not receive regular reward settlement but will receive rare rewards needed by followers.]
[Such rewards have been distributed. Subsequent settlements will not include follower slots in the calculation.]
[As the team leader, you now have two ways to distribute the settlement rewards for this clearance.]