Chapter 2: Obtain 1 to 50,000 Soul Coins as base income, with a small chance of obtaining additional rare resources (such as Space-Time Power, Power Source Matter, Special Source Matter, Primordial Fragments, Soul Crystals, etc.).
Tip: Due to the characteristics of this equipment, effects derived from the Luck Attribute yield negative returns, while Misfortune yields positive returns.
Tip: This equipment can be used once every 10 natural days.
Equipment Effect 2: Misfortune Invasion (Passive) — Upon touching this equipment, it will bind to the user. Subsequently, every 10 natural days, the holder of this equipment must use it once, or permanently lose 10% of their Primordial Life Force (permanent loss of 10% max health).
Rating: 5000 points (Special equipment rating ranges from 1 to 6000 points).
Description: This is a gamble with the God of Misfortune.
Price: Cannot be sold, traded, transferred, or abandoned after binding.
...
The characteristics of this Misfortune Money Pouch were quite peculiar — either lose 10% max health, or gain benefits. However, even if benefits were triggered, the amount of those benefits was also very strange.
Under normal circumstances, the higher the Luck Attribute, the greater the benefits should be. But this item's trait was that the more unlucky you were, the higher the probability of gaining benefits. In fact, if you were unlucky enough, you wouldn't even trigger the max health reduction, and would instead keep gaining benefits. This was truly a gamble with the God of Misfortune.
Each time they gambled, if the God of Misfortune won, it could take 10% of the holder's Primordial Life Force. If the holder won, they could obtain the God of Misfortune's Soul Coins, with a low chance of additionally obtaining rare resources.
But upon closer examination, this gamble was far too unfair. This equipment required 65 points in the Luck Attribute to use. Forget 65 — even having a Luck Attribute over 50 was already very fortunate.
With such good luck, there was bound to be little misfortune. And without misfortune, using the [Strange Misfortune Money Pouch] would most likely result in losing Primordial Life Force. Even if benefits were obtained, it might only be a few dozen Soul Coins.
What was even more insidious was that simply touching this equipment counted as activating it, thereby binding it. Subsequently, every ten natural days, it had to be used once, or the God of Misfortune would directly take 10% of the holder's max health.
Su Xiao took the [Strange Misfortune Money Pouch]. The moment he touched it, a wave of misfortune quietly surged and merged into his fortune, signifying that he had already bound the equipment.
Su Xiao had never liked equipment that relied on luck, but this time it wasn't about luck — it was about the degree of misfortune.
Given his experiences over such a long time, he had great confidence in the Law-Destruction fortune. Additionally, as a master alchemist, if he wanted to increase his Primordial Life Force cap by 10%, he couldn't do it without sufficiently precious materials. However, if he lost 10% of his max health and later made up for it with potions, his alchemy skills were more than sufficient.
[You have activated the 'Misfortune Gamble' effect.]
[Misfortune Judgment in progress...]
[Judgment complete. You will receive benefits.]
[You have obtained 49,500 Soul Coins.]
[You have obtained Primordial Fragments ×2 pieces.]
...
Seeing this notification, Su Xiao was quite surprised. The Soul Coin income was within expectations, but the 2 pieces of [Primordial Fragments] were indeed something he hadn't anticipated.
Su Xiao allocated 25,000 Soul Coins and 1 piece of [Primordial Fragment] to Kaisa. As for subsequent benefits, he had originally planned to give Kaisa a 30% share — without Kaisa gifting this equipment, there would be no future gains. However, Kaisa refused. Although this guy was greedy, he also knew when to draw the line.
This time, obtaining 25,000 Soul Coins and 1 piece of [Primordial Fragment] had already met Kaisa's expected goal. This transaction ended here, so he naturally wouldn't be greedy for the subsequent benefits of the [Strange Misfortune Money Pouch].
At this moment, in the Void, a temple stood in a place of nothingness. Due to the lack of gravity nearby, large rocks and small islands floated around, connected to each other by roots resembling tree roots.
The temple appeared dim, and the deity behind the curtain was sleeping. Suddenly, its eyes opened.
"Another one, daring to challenge a deity of the Misfortune system."
Visible misfortune appeared around the God of Misfortune, causing space itself to begin distorting. However, this evil god still didn't know what it was about to face.
...
Following the diagonally downward steps, Su Xiao arrived before the metal door he had come to earlier. However, this time the door had closed by itself. He turned the lock disc and found that the previous unlocking method had failed. He took out the Mysterious Eye, adjusted its mode, and attached it to the door.
The precise sound of mechanical operation came. A few minutes later, the metal lock disc clicked open. Kaisa, who could no longer contain himself, immediately walked into the ruined hall. Seeing the Soul Coins spread out before his eyes, Kaisa's smile was already uncontrollable.
After picking up a Soul Coin, Kaisa was also moved by the intensity of the soul curse. He began pacing while scratching his head and ears, thinking of a way to resolve this curse. After a while, Kaisa's pace slowed, and the smile on his face grew more lecherous and cunning.
"My dear friend, can you seal curses?"
As he spoke, Kaisa took out a dirty wooden jar, opened it, and poured out a black crystal block. Upon closer inspection, this thing didn't look like a crystal at all — it was more like a piece of shattered exoskeleton, with star patterns on it.
"I haven't tried, but it should be possible."
Su Xiao had indeed never sealed a curse before, but given his sealing skills — capable of sealing even Original Sin Objects — sealing a curse would certainly be no problem.
"Then in a bit, seal this thing up, so the soul curse doesn't latch onto me."
After saying this, Kaisa put the Abyssal Jar over his head, then took out the [Deceiver's Headwrap], put it over the Abyssal Jar, and finally placed that black crystal on top of his head.
Kaisa pulled out various odds and ends, hanging them all over his body. As he muttered something, these scattered items all melted, transforming into various energies that surged toward the black crystal on his head. The crystal first attached itself to his head, then began to grow, eventually forming a backward-curving horn with very faint star patterns.
The appearance of this horn was very much like a greatly shrunk-down version of one of the Four Great Ones of the Darkless Temple — the Star Devourer's horn. Especially the star patterns, though far less pronounced than those on the Star Devourer's horn, had the same lines.
As for where Kaisa got this piece of the Star Devourer's exoskeleton, it must have been during the previous confrontation between the Star Devourer and the Archbishop of the Abyss.
It wasn't that Kaisa had foresight and predicted he would need it now, but rather that this piece of exoskeleton was a relatively valuable item.
After doing all this, Kaisa took out a large cloth bag. This bag had a strong suction force, quickly drawing in the scattered [Primordial Fragments], Soul Crystals, and Soul Coins.
According to the previously agreed 50-50 split, Su Xiao received the following notifications:
[You have obtained 81,960 Soul Coins.]
[You have obtained Soul Crystals ×21 pieces.]
[You have obtained Primordial Fragments ×4 pieces.]
[You have obtained Storm Shield (Eternal Rank Equipment · Unidentified, cannot view attributes).]
[You have obtained Book of Curses (Eternal Rank Equipment · Unidentified, cannot view attributes).]
...
As expected, due to poor preservation conditions, some [Primordial Fragments] and Soul Crystals had been damaged. Additionally, having been there for too long, these damaged resources had lost their value.
Although this was an astonishing income, it probably wasn't all of the Monarch's Treasure. Other things might be missing, but the [Moon's Radiance] was most likely among the Monarch's Treasure.
With a large sum of Soul Coins in hand, Su Xiao didn't immediately check the other gains. Instead, he took out 95,000 Soul Coins to repay Kaisa — he had borrowed some from Kaisa earlier when he didn't have enough Soul Coins to upgrade his Blade Grandmaster skill.
Upon receiving the Soul Coins, Kaisa took out the [Ring of Sacred Mark] that Su Xiao had previously given him as collateral and returned it to its rightful owner.
Kaisa was still maintaining his strange pose. Seeing this, Su Xiao took out a sealing box. Kaisa immediately pulled off the star-patterned horn from his head and threw it into the sealing box.
Using the same technique he used to seal Original Sin Objects, Su Xiao sealed the horn that had absorbed the intense soul curse. Kaisa's method this time was simple and direct — through the deceptive effect of the [Deceiver's Headwrap], he made the soul curse mistakenly believe that the horn was Kaisa's true body, causing all the soul curse to naturally gather on it.
Once all the soul curse had gathered, Kaisa immediately severed the deceptive connection with the horn. Then, with Su Xiao's sealing skills, the horn carrying the intense soul curse was sealed. This way, they obtained the secret treasure while avoiding the soul curse through sealing.
Not only that, Su Xiao felt that this horn might have an unexpectedly useful effect when dealing with the Star Devourer.
Putting away the sealing box, Su Xiao walked back up the steps to the streets of Mad Laugh Town. He activated his [Hunting Vision], and everything around him lost its color. Only a large crimson sphere, located a thousand meters away, remained visible — this was the Greedy Mouth. Without being swallowed by this thing, one couldn't enter the Monarch's Underground Palace below.
However, the problem was that Su Xiao found the Greedy Mouth could clearly sense him. When he took a few steps forward, the Greedy Mouth would drift a distance away, always maintaining a safe distance from him. This was because it had been startled by the near-use of [Extreme Blade · World] earlier.
After thinking it over, Su Xiao had Baha approach the Greedy Mouth alone. The result was that, whether the Greedy Mouth sensed that Baha was a follower of a Law-Destroyer, or because they were both space-type beings, it remained wary of Baha as well, always keeping its distance.
Seeing this situation, Su Xiao had Baha take out a few Black Maple Leaves from the team storage space. This method worked. After confirming that Su Xiao was still far away, the Greedy Mouth quietly crept forward and swallowed Baha in one gulp.
Su Xiao looked at Bubu Wang beside him. Bubu Wang shook his dog head, indicating that he didn't want to be swallowed by that terrifying maw. However, upon learning that Baha would set up a spatial coordinate inside the Monarch's Underground Palace, and then Su Xiao would teleport there using the [Law-Destroying Teleportation Array], Bubu Wang immediately ran toward the Greedy Mouth.
The distant Greedy Mouth felt puzzled. After being on alert for a while, it finally swallowed Bubu Wang in one gulp.
"Cough~, my dear friend, let's use the teleportation array together."
Kaisa put the Abyssal Jar back on his head. As for why he didn't go through the Greedy Mouth to reach the Monarch's Underground Palace — the Greedy Mouth had actually tried to swallow Kaisa before. But just as it swallowed him, before it could even swallow, the Greedy Mouth nearly lost consciousness.
The teleportation array beneath their feet gradually activated. With a roar, the surrounding spatial mist slowly dissipated.
[Notification: You have arrived at the Monarch's Underground Palace.]
[Due to the 'Dead Silence Annihilation' being located within this area, you can use your existing equipment 'Soul · King's Coronation' to sense the location of the 'Dead Silence Annihilation'. If you obtain the 'Dead Silence Annihilation', three of the five seals on 'Soul · King's Coronation' will be released, unleashing more power from the 'Dead Silence Origin', greatly enhancing the strength of 'Soul · King's Coronation' as well as the risk of using it. You must carefully consider whether to obtain the 'Dead Silence Annihilation'.]