# Chapter 34: Treasures
After learning the properties of the [Sacred Gem], Su Xiao had zero interest in the gem. While obtaining it and selling it at a high price would be good, finding the Dead Silence Ember and [Moon's Radiance] was more important, especially the latter, which had high priority.
If he wasn't mistaken, the Archbishop of the Abyss and the Eternal Dark Lord had most likely already arrived in this underground world. As for the Star Devourer, logically speaking, it would be safest for all three to come to the underground world together. But don't forget, the Archbishop of the Abyss and the Star Devourer had just finished contending over the "Sealing Blade" not long ago.
Given the Archbishop of the Abyss's cunning, he certainly wouldn't let this matter create conflict with the Star Devourer. With the great enemy who killed the Ancestor before them, this was naturally not the time to dwell on such grudges.
The Archbishop of the Abyss had such foresight, but the Star Devourer did not. This guy became one of the Four Giants of the Lightless Temple solely through his incomparably powerful physique. If ranking the Four Giants of the Lightless Temple by frontal combat power, the Star Devourer would definitely be first—able to both attack and defend, possessing incredible speed despite his large size, and with defensive power so formidable that even taking the Archbishop of the Abyss's ultimate attack would only crack a layer of his shell.
Although the Star Devourer had unparalleled physical strength, his intelligence was mediocre at best. What's more fatal was that the Star Devourer always believed his own cunning was no less than that of the Archbishop of the Abyss or the Eternal Dark Lord.
So this time, coming to the underground world would definitely be the Archbishop of the Abyss and the Eternal Dark Lord together, with the Star Devourer acting alone. This was a perfect opportunity to kill the Star Devourer.
For now, since there was no trace of the Star Devourer yet, it was better to first rescue the captured good teammate and deal with the troublesome enemy, the Priest. Thinking of this, Su Xiao walked toward the direction where the patrol team had disappeared.
"White Night, where are you going? The Tyrant's Palace is that way, you're going the wrong direction."
The Witch, Lilya, kindly reminded him. Su Xiao paused mid-step and said, "I have a teammate who was taken away by the patrol team."
"But that's the Sacred Gem, are you really not going to compete for it?"
"No interest."
With that, Su Xiao walked toward the direction where the patrol team had disappeared. Watching Su Xiao's back, the Witch, Lilya, fell into thought.
...
At the ancient bonfire site, a plume of burnt ash slowly drifted upward, forming a straight line that stood between the sky and the earth.
Ancient, mysterious, and bloody—that was the feeling this place gave. A circular rock disc covered with ring-shaped grooves stood floating behind the altar. The blood patterns on it vaguely formed the shape of a sun.
The altar was built from massive square stones stacked together. The platform at the top was about several hundred square meters. Against the backdrop of the blood-patterned disc behind it, the altar gave people a strong mental pressure.
A guillotine stood at the center of the altar. The blade suspended above this guillotine faintly emitted a chilling scarlet light.
At this moment, around the altar, red-eyed warriors stood guard. They were fully armored, with cold and stern expressions.
To ascend the altar, one could only proceed from the front steps. After passing the ancient bonfire site, there were over a hundred steps. The captured Dark Devourer was being escorted up the altar by a red-eyed warrior leader and two red-eyed warriors.
The Dark Devourer occasionally glanced around. As for being sent to the guillotine, it didn't care. As a world-destroying level creature, being executed like this? Ridiculous.
With this thought, the Dark Devourer reached the altar. Suddenly, it noticed that the one being pressed onto the execution platform was actually its acquaintance from the Erosion Rain Land—the Aberrant Demon, Nelse. That guy had even beaten it before.
Remembering this, a smile involuntarily appeared on the Dark Devourer's small face. But it was somewhat puzzled—why had the Aberrant Demon, Nelse, been caught here? That guy had strong survivability.
Just as the Dark Devourer hadn't figured this out, the blade above fell. In that instant, the Dark Devourer's pupils contracted to their smallest, and even its flowing energy blood stagnated for a few seconds. An unprecedented fear rushed toward it.
Puchi!
The Aberrant Demon, Nelse's head was severed. The light in its vertical pupils quickly faded. Blood gushed from the severed neck, flowing along the grooves beneath the guillotine toward the blood-patterned disc behind, eventually being absorbed by this disc.
In just a few seconds, the Aberrant Demon, Nelse's corpse completely lost all its supernatural characteristics, becoming a monster corpse with no special features except being harder than usual.
Witnessing all this, the Dark Devourer's legs went weak. It could sense that being executed here would be a hundred times more terrifying than death.
A hand wrapped in a blood-colored armguard grabbed the Dark Devourer's nape. It was the warrior leader who had captured it earlier. The warrior leader carried the Dark Devourer to the guillotine and was about to press it down.
Bang!
An explosion came from a tower a thousand meters away. By the time the sound was heard, a blood spear that pierced through layers of spatial ripples had already reached half a meter in front of the blood-armored leader.
Boom!
After a dull loud noise, most of the blood-armored leader's body disappeared. The remaining lower half took a few steps back before crashing to the ground.
This surprise attack immediately attracted all the nearby red-eyed warriors. Spiral arrows shot out with air-bursting sounds, blowing up the upper half of the tower a thousand meters away. The destruction caused by these spiral arrows created a huge spherical hole in that space, with scarlet spreading and churning inside.
There were two types of red-eyed warriors: melee and ranged. Their scarlet power was terrifying, capable of damaging the enemy's primordial life force.
While life force damage could gradually recover, primordial life force damage would permanently reduce the maximum health cap.
In other words, even if one survived a few arrows from these scarlet warriors, their health cap would drop from 100% to below 50%. What's more troublesome was that neither healing abilities nor recovery potions worked. Once the health cap was lowered, healing effects would only overflow.
The tower's fragments scattered and crashed to the ground. A group of red-eyed warriors and parasites rushed forward, ready to tear apart the enemy who had killed their leader.
Among them was a parasite over five meters tall, with a bloated body, cracks all over its blood-colored armor, and blood-red spikes covering its back. It twitched its nostril-covered nose, searching for traces of the intruder. But as it took another step—
Snap~
A spirit shadow thread was stepped on, followed by the unique fluctuation of Apollo being detonated.
With a dull thud, an Apollo exploded. The explosion range of this Apollo was only a hundred meters, but the flames that surged were dazzling gold. Normally, only when the Sun Holy Sword exploded would there be such a color of solar flame.
That's right, Su Xiao had fully upgraded Apollo. He had reduced Apollo's explosion range. If a large-scale explosion was needed, Apollo could never compare to the Sun Holy Sword, so it was better to sacrifice explosion range to enhance power and detonation time.
The new version of basic Apollo had an explosion range of only 100 to 500 meters. Within the explosion range, the power was about 85% of the Sun Holy Sword. If detonated by mental power, the upgraded Apollo only needed 2 seconds to detonate. And by setting up spirit shadow threads for a more direct trap-style detonation, it could achieve instant detonation when the threads were triggered.
Previously, the enemies he faced were either too strong to have a chance to use the upgraded Apollo, or too weak, making it wasteful. This time, the enemy's strength was sufficient to use this method.
The golden solar flame gradually subsided. Of the red-eyed warriors and parasites that had rushed to the base of the tower, only a few suits of armor remained, still burning in the golden flames.
Hmm~!
A parasite with a huge belly blew a horn. This horn was four to five meters long, with a strange shape. The sound traveled far. In just a few seconds, an afterimage broke through the air—a black-scaled wyvern that resembled both a dragon and a bird, with a bird's beak and claws. On its back was a dragon knight leader wearing gold-red armor, carrying a large bow, and holding a lance.
"Baya, duyeye supu (unknown language)."
The dragon knight leader surveyed the red-eyed warriors and parasites kneeling before him. No one dared to look up, not even daring to breathe loudly. The dragon knight leader seemed to have other matters. After sternly reprimanding the red-eyed warriors present, he mounted the black wyvern and flew away.
At this moment, inside a building near the ancient bonfire site, Su Xiao was in an alternate space. Looking outside from within, the scene often had ripples. Su Xiao pressed his index and middle fingers together against the spatial barrier, making the ripples disappear. His gaze pierced through the barrier, watching the dragon knight leader fly into the distance.
This Eternal Light World seemed like a simple and dangerous prison. But upon entering, Su Xiao found that the situation here was not simple. The Sanctuary City went without saying, but the existence of the Iron City had already surprised him greatly.
He had originally thought this world had two major forces: the Lightless Temple of the Sanctuary City and the Manufacturing Workshop of the Iron City.
Now it seemed there were three major forces. The scarlet force in this underground world was hidden too well. If one didn't go deep here, they would subconsciously think this was the Tyrant's lair, and after the Tyrant's death, this place had been occupied by mindless monsters.
The reality was not so. Only after the Tyrant's death did this place reveal its true face. The scarlet force here not only had a hierarchy but also unique language, architectural style, power inheritance, and so on.
No matter how one looked at it, this wasn't something that had mutated from the monsters here after the Tyrant's death. Without several eras of sedimentation, this force wouldn't give people this feeling.
Su Xiao's speculation was that the force in this underground world was the empire once ruled by the Scarlet Monarch, which had quietly come to the Eternal Light World, preparing to open the seal of the Nightmare Land.
If that were the case, one of Su Xiao's doubts would be resolved—how the Tyrant had originally found parasites that could adapt to scarlet power. Now it seemed these parasites had existed long before, but the Tyrant mistakenly believed that his subordinates had gradually cultivated parasites capable of adapting to scarlet power.
Because of this, the Tyrant's parasites eventually spiraled out of control, which also led to the annihilation of his Disaster Legion in a short time, making it convenient for someone to take over this underground world later.
If he wasn't mistaken, the Tyrant's most trusted confidant—the one who had created the parasites—was actually someone from the scarlet faction. This person had infiltrated the Tyrant's ranks, using this guy wearing the "Soul Crown" to come to this underground world.
The real reason the "Soul Crown" abandoned the Tyrant might not be because the Tyrant lost to the Witch Realm, but because the Tyrant was used by this confidant.
Another point was that people from the scarlet faction probably couldn't enter the Eternal Light World. The spatial seal here most likely had the effect of resisting scarlet and preventing those with scarlet power from entering.
The remnants of the scarlet faction had always wanted to rescue the Scarlet Monarch, letting this terrifying monarch rule them again, letting the myriad realms witness the posture of the Scarlet Legion once more—a whole world shrouded and crushed by scarlet, leaving only crystallized world force inlaid on the blood-patterned disc, giving all scarlet power controllers endless life essence, making them nearly immortal.
Compared to the Scarlet Monarch, even if the Tyrant wore the "Soul Crown," he would be nothing but a younger brother. If the Scarlet Monarch wore the "Soul Crown," that would be a catastrophe.
As for how the scarlet faction entered the Eternal Light World and reached the underground world, Su Xiao thought of the Tyrant's out-of-control parasite, the Greedy Mouth.
This thing was most likely a powerful spatial coordinate, allowing the scarlet faction to successfully enter this place. Of course, going out with this thing was impossible—leaving the Eternal Light World was much harder than entering.
If this underground world was already the lair of the scarlet faction, then what the Witch, Lilya, had said about going to the Tyrant's Palace to compete for the [Sacred Gem] was clearly a trap. Strangely, the Priest seemed to have fallen for this trap too.
Suddenly, Su Xiao remembered something. Before entering this world, Kaiser had mentioned that someone claimed the "Monarch's Treasure" was in the Eternal Light World. This was almost identical to the method used before entering the Dead Silence City, where someone said the Dead Silence City had Black Maple Tree seeds.
The person who claimed the "Monarch's Treasure" was in the Eternal Light World had also spread photos of the "Monarch's Treasure." However, the content of these photos was the portion of the "Monarch's Treasure" that Su Xiao and Kaiser had divided in the upper space of the underground world earlier.
The person spreading this news was confirmed to be the Priest. Su Xiao wasn't surprised at all that the Priest had such operations. What he really couldn't figure out was where the Priest had gotten that photo. Those treasures were located in the upper level of the underground world, a secret place that was very hard to reach.
There was only one possibility: the Priest had long been cooperating with the scarlet faction. The treasures in that photo were benefits promised to the Priest by the scarlet faction. This time, being dragged into the Eternal Light World, the Priest simply claimed this was the "Monarch's Treasure" and deliberately leaked it.
This also explained why the Priest, despite disguising himself as the Lightless Temple's High Priest, Ezle, hadn't revealed any information about Su Xiao to the Four Giants. Because the Priest wasn't trying to defect to the Four Giants of the Lightless Temple. This old bastard was playing both sides with the scarlet faction, using each other while preparing to stab each other in the back at any moment.
Su Xiao looked toward the direction of the Tyrant's Palace. He was certain that was a trap set by the Priest and the scarlet faction, with the purpose temporarily unknown.
Boom!!
A loud noise came from the direction of the Tyrant's Palace that Su Xiao was looking at. A black lightning pillar descended from the sky there. This black lightning pillar lasted for half a minute before gradually subsiding.
Su Xiao checked the world contact platform and found that, aside from the Priest and the Moon Witch, the codenames of all other violators who had come here had disappeared from the contact list. Beffrey, Little Ge, Insect Tamer, etc.—all gone in an instant.
Besides these people, the codename of Black Demon in this list had become semi-transparent. This was a situation that had never occurred before. If someone was dead, they should disappear from the list. If they had left this world, they would appear gray.
This situation must have been caused by the Priest's plan. This old bastard hadn't made a move before, but now he was starting to exert force. This didn't quite match the Priest's usual style of staying hidden until the end. This situation indicated that the Priest must have a major scheme this time.
Not to mention anything else, although the Priest was a violator, Su Xiao found that the number of violators who had died at this old bastard's hands seemed no less than those he had killed himself.
Just as Su Xiao was pondering what scheme the Priest was plotting, purple-black starlight appeared in the distance, followed by a deafening roar. A shockwave hit. Even though he was in an alternate space, Su Xiao still felt the force of this shockwave. It should be the Star Devourer making a move in the distance.
Hundred-meter-sized meteorites crashed down in the distance, followed by dragon roars and flashes of scarlet. After a while, the black wyvern in the distance let out a mournful cry before being torn in half by a four-armed giant beast over ten meters tall standing on top of a tall building. The beast then devoured it in a few bites. This four-armed giant beast was the Star Devourer.
Meteorites continued to fall in the distance. Even though they were over ten kilometers apart, Su Xiao could still feel the ground shaking beneath his feet. The surrounding space became extremely unstable. He had Baha cancel this alternate space.
As soon as the alternate space was canceled, the deafening roar came again. A giant meteorite, trailing purple-black flames, crashed down. In the meteorite's flames, the Star Devourer roared angrily.
Gray-white human skin surged forth. These gray-white skins formed a giant hand covered in black tentacles, grabbing the Star Devourer's face. It could be seen that even the Star Devourer, hit by this extremely bizarre attack, had its aura fall silent for a few seconds. Moments later, this bizarre giant hand shattered, falling as gray dregs.
Su Xiao confirmed this was the Priest's attack. The Priest had also taken this opportunity to advance to Absolute Strength. This great enemy had finally begun to display his powerful methods.
A few minutes later, the chaotic battle in the distance subsided. Even without being at the scene, Su Xiao could tell that the Priest was cooperating with the scarlet faction, and that the Star Devourer's physique was too strong. Even under siege, it had successfully retreated.
Just then, Su Xiao noticed darkness erupting from the southern direction. Dense darkness surged there, so exaggerated that it dyed the starry sky black. This was the Archbishop of the Abyss making a move.
Red-eyed warriors leaping between building tops, and dragon knight representatives flying toward the dark area from above—the scarlet faction had likely been ambushed at their lair by the Archbishop of the Abyss and the Eternal Dark Lord.
A huge spatial gate appeared in the distance, followed by a large group of Lightless Temple members rushing out from there. For a time, most areas of the underground world were in chaotic battle. But this chaos only lasted for over ten minutes. All the Lightless Temple members were either dead or fleeing. These pawns used by the Four Giants were no match for the red-eyed warriors at all.
These red-eyed warriors reminded Su Xiao of the sword saints of the Dead Silence City. These guys were even stronger. He had even seen a red-eyed warrior kill a red-robed priest with three slashes.
The former was just an elite mob in the underground world, while the latter was a minor boss in the Lightless Temple. As for the red-eyed warrior leader with twin long blades, cutting down Lightless Temple members was like slicing vegetables.
Simply put, the scarlet faction had strength in all its members but lacked powerful individuals like the Star Devourer or the Archbishop of the Abyss. The Lightless Temple was the opposite—it had three powerful leader-level combatants, but the other members were basically small fry.
The situation was somewhat chaotic, but Su Xiao's thinking was very clear. He had only three goals here: first, find the Dead Silence Ember; second, find [Moon's Radiance]; third, kill the Star Devourer.
Why the Priest's target was the Star Devourer, Su Xiao wasn't entirely sure, but he was certain this was the best opportunity to kill the Star Devourer.
Besides that, killing red-eyed warriors and parasites gave high rewards. Su Xiao checked the notifications that had appeared.
[You have killed Red-Eyed Warrior Leader·Ha·Wago.]
[You have obtained 2150 Soul Coins.]
[You have obtained Pure Blood Stone ×5 (Rare Item).]
[Pure Blood Stone: A solidified body formed after primordial life force is assimilated by scarlet and then cooled. This is a rare material. If you encounter a Mysterious Merchant, you can use this item to trade with the Mysterious Merchant, purchasing Abyss-type equipment or other rare equipment.]
[Tip: The Mysterious Merchant has come to this area due to the activation of the Blood Altar and is expected to stay here for 5 to 8 days.]
[Warning: The Mysterious Merchant is a neutral unit notarized by the Void Tree. Attempting to attack will result in multiple negative consequences.]
[Tip: Due to the Mysterious Merchant's ability characteristics, he will ignore the derivative effects of Charm Attribute. He will not be affected by high Charm Attribute, nor will he be indifferent due to low Charm Attribute.]
[You have killed six Red-Eyed Warriors.]
[You have obtained 1860 Soul Coins.]
[You have obtained Pure Blood Stone ×6 (Rare Item).]
[You have killed two Parasites.]
[You have obtained 722 Soul Coins.]
[You have obtained Pure Blood Stone ×2 (Rare Item).]
[You have killed one Red-Robed Warlock.]
[You have obtained 409 Soul Coins.]
[You have obtained Pure Blood Stone ×2 (Rare Item).]
Over 5000 Soul Coins in hand, and this was with Su Xiao barely doing anything—only using a blood spear to remotely kill one warrior leader and using the improved Apollo. If the goal this time had been to kill enemies for Soul Coins rather than rescue the Dark Devourer, the profit would have been at least 20,000 Soul Coins or more.
If one wasn't afraid of death, hunting scarlet faction members here for a whole day, given the exaggerated kill rewards in this area, would yield at least hundreds of thousands of Soul Coins, plus [Pure Blood Stones]. Although he didn't know where the Mysterious Merchant was yet.
Su Xiao looked at the darkness rising into the sky in the distance. Whether it was the Four Giants of the Lightless Temple or the scarlet faction, they were all his enemies. So this place wasn't chaotic enough yet. As for how to make it more lively—
He opened the world contact platform, chose to post anonymously, and published the kill rewards from killing the Red-Eyed Warrior Leader onto the contact platform.
After a few seconds of silence on the world contact platform, messages began flooding in. The content was basically team recruitment. Few people would miss such a high-reward area. Even if this place was dangerous, skimming some benefits from the peripheral areas was still very good.
After doing this, Su Xiao looked at the Dark Devourer beside him and said, "The Priest is here."
"Where is he!"
The Dark Devourer's eyes were filled with killing intent.
"That gray-white giant hand just now was the Priest's technique."
Hearing this, the Dark Devourer looked surprised. But then it thought, in the previous world, this Law Destroyer couldn't even beat it. Yet in this world, he could already beat it up. Sometimes, the speed at which Paradise faction members grew stronger was just this ridiculous.
"What, don't want to take revenge on the Priest anymore?"
"Of course not, it's just..."
"Just that you're scared?"
"Scared? Me? Scared?!"
The Dark Devourer made as if to go find the Priest for revenge, but thinking of that gray-white giant hand just now, it inexplicably shuddered. This made it change its tune and say, "Revenge on the Priest can wait. You just saved my life. Repaying your life-saving grace is more important. Revenge can be postponed for now."
Saying this, the Dark Devourer felt completely relieved. This way, it appeared grateful without seeming cowardly.
"Hmm, that's fine."
Su Xiao answered with exceptional naturalness, as if he had long known the Dark Devourer would say this.
Hearing Su Xiao's smooth reply, the Dark Devourer's expression froze. It suddenly felt like it had been tricked, but it couldn't back out now.
"Woof."
Bubu Wang returned to the large stone house. It had already patrolled the area. There were no red-eyed warriors nearby. Aside from the hundred or so red-eyed warrior leaders guarding the Blood Altar, the parasites, red-robed warlocks, etc., had all rushed to the front of the Scarlet Temple.
Speaking of which, both the ancient bonfire site and the Blood Altar were in the backyard area of the Scarlet Temple. The Tyrant's Palace, Bone Street, Ascension Platform, Sewer Entrance, etc., were all in the front area of the Scarlet Temple.
This massive Scarlet Temple roughly divided the underground world into two large areas. Su Xiao was currently in the rear courtyard area. The Four Giants of the Lightless Temple, the Priest, the Moon Witch, and the scarlet faction members were all in the large area in front of the Scarlet Temple.
Su Xiao didn't immediately leave the large stone house. Instead, he looked down sideways at the Dark Devourer beside him. His calm gaze made the Dark Devourer increasingly guilty, until it finally said indignantly, "Why are you staring at me?"
"I'm thinking, why were you caught by those red-eyed warriors?"
"Because... because I'm unlucky."
"Pfft~"
Baha almost couldn't hold back its laughter. The Dark Devourer and the word "unlucky" had absolutely no connection.
Feeling like it had let something slip, the Dark Devourer started explaining, but the more it explained, the worse it got.
As Su Xiao sat down, a crystal seat formed simultaneously. He looked at the Dark Devourer in front of him and said amiably, "Just now, I saved your life, right?"
"Yeah."
"Since that's the case, why are you deceiving me?"
Su Xiao looked at the Dark Devourer with a smile. The Dark Devourer gulped, feeling that it really couldn't beat the Law Destroyer opposite it. After clicking its tongue in disdain, it pulled out a blood-colored parchment.
"It's because of this thing that I got caught."
"..."
Su Xiao took the blood-colored parchment. After examining it, he found it was a map of this area. Except for the internal situation of the Scarlet Temple, other areas were depicted in great detail. It should have been issued to patrol teams for dividing patrol areas.
"Where did you steal this?"
Su Xiao felt this item was very valuable and began to study it carefully.
"After I was swallowed by that giant mouth, when I opened my eyes again, I was on a very wide street. I picked this up."
Hearing the Dark Devourer's words, Su Xiao was somewhat surprised. He knew the Dark Devourer was lucky, but this was too ridiculous. Just arriving in a dangerous area, and a detailed map of this area was a few meters from its starting point. This luck was simply absurd.
Su Xiao examined the map for a moment and found that at the right rear side of the Scarlet Temple, there was a red mark that looked like it was indicating a door.
Whether entering the Scarlet Temple from the front or back door was extremely difficult. The groups fighting so fiercely in front hadn't broken through the front door's defenses, showing how powerful the Scarlet Temple's defensive forces were.
The back door was blocked by a large mass of parasites. When passing by the ancient bonfire site earlier, Su Xiao had seen that mass of parasites from afar. That thing was definitely not to be trifled with. Don't forget, the scarlet power here was different from the Scarlet Castle. The scarlet power here was purer, capable of eroding primordial life force and reducing the health cap.
Su Xiao decided to check the location marked with the blood-red arch. If he could really enter the Scarlet Temple through here, that would be a great advantage. If he wasn't mistaken, the Dead Silence Ember and [Moon's Radiance] were both inside the Scarlet Temple.
Leaving the large stone house, a gust of wind hit. The wind carried a sweet, cloying smell. Combined with the blood moon above, it made the blood in one's body seem to stir restlessly.
After traveling not far, Su Xiao restrained his aura and hid behind a statue. Before long, a patrol team in full armor passed by. One of the red-eyed warriors was leading a two-headed dog with severe hair loss and scarlet ulcerations on its skin.
The closer they got to the Scarlet Temple, the more patrol teams there were. The good news was that the various chaotic battles in the front area of the temple had caused over 70% of the patrol teams in the rear courtyard to go for reinforcements. So Su Xiao didn't take too long to reach the target area—the blood-red arch marked on the map.
After climbing a dozen steps, Su Xiao stopped on a stone platform. Ahead was indeed a three-meter-wide, five-meter-high arch, but this arch was sealed by dense scarlet energy.
Crack, crack, crack~
A crystal layer spread over Su Xiao's hand. He reached one hand into the scarlet. As the scarlet eroded, the crystal layer on his hand turned blood-red, then the scarlet eroded his skin and invaded his body.
[Warning: You are suffering from the erosion of Scarlet Power!]
[Scarlet Power and Cyan Steel Shadow Energy will undergo this round of judgment.]
[Judgment complete.]
[Cyan Steel Shadow Energy priority: 10.]
[Scarlet Power priority: 9.69.]
[Due to enduring erosion, the effects you bear will be relatively passive.]
[You will suffer the erosion effect of Scarlet Power, causing a temporary decrease in health cap. The degree of decrease and duration will depend on the erosion level.]
[Your health cap has decreased from 100% to 99.8%. This effect lasts for 5 natural days (this is the minimum duration for Scarlet Power erosion).]
Even with Su Xiao's Cyan Steel Shadow Energy, he couldn't avoid having his health cap reduced. But the good news was that even Scarlet Power couldn't permanently damage his primordial life force, so this debuff was temporary.
After confirming this, Su Xiao withdrew his hand from the high-concentration Scarlet Power. The crystal layer wrapped around it dissipated. Then he put on the [Scarlet Ring (Fake)].
[Scarlet Ring (Fake)]
Equipment Effect: After wearing, can control Scarlet Power to a certain extent.
Although using this ring also caused scarlet erosion, the degree of erosion wasn't strong. Su Xiao pressed his hand against the scarlet energy in front. The scarlet energy sealing the arch gradually surged, finally forming a passage.
Su Xiao, Bubu Wang, Baha, and the Dark Devourer quickly entered the Scarlet Temple through this passage. The passage behind them closed rapidly.
Checking the ring in his hand, the cracks on this item were denser. It was estimated to be usable four or five more times. But just after entering this place, the Black King Bracer on Su Xiao's left arm had a different fluctuation.
Vaguely, Su Xiao felt something resonating with the Black King Bracer. That was the location of the Dead Silence Ember.
The corridors here were interconnected like a maze. Following the empty corridors, Su Xiao gradually approached the location of the Dead Silence Ember. But when he reached a corner, he stopped, leaning against the wall. Behind this corner was an arch. Passing through this arch led to a spacious hall. In this hall, over a hundred red-eyed knights were stationed.
These red-eyed knights wore armor an inch thick and wielded two-handed greatswords or warhammers covered in spikes. What was even more shocking was that these red-eyed knights had scarlet parasites clinging to their bodies. The strength of these enemies was definitely higher than that of red-eyed warrior leaders.
Especially since these red-eyed knights were all over five meters tall, giving a very oppressive feeling, like a group of minor bosses guarding this place.
At the innermost part of this hall was a door that had been sealed for years. Traces of dead silence force seeped out from the keyhole of this metal door.
Throwing in a "Sun Holy Sword" seemed like a good choice, but Su Xiao couldn't be sure whether that metal door could withstand the "Sun Holy Sword." If it couldn't, the Dead Silence Ember might be melted by the solar flame. The Dead Silence Ember was an attack-type weapon. Even if it was a supreme treasure, it couldn't withstand too strong an attack.
"White Night, these guys all look tough. How do we get past?"
The Dark Devourer stared at the door at the innermost part of the hall. There seemed to be a fruit condensing a massive amount of darkness there, making it salivate.
"We'll infiltrate."
"But we don't have infiltration abilities. Why... why are you just walking out!"
Under the Dark Devourer's astonished gaze, Su Xiao walked directly through the arch into the hall. As for infiltration, the Dark Devourer clearly hadn't understood Su Xiao's meaning. So-called infiltration meant killing all the strong enemies in the hall without alerting more enemies, then infiltrating into the treasure vault further inside.
Su Xiao walked openly into the dim hall. The braziers on the walls on both sides of the hall ignited one after another.
Clang~
Su Xiao drew the long blade at his waist. The red-eyed knights opposite drew their greatswords or blood-bladed twin swords over three meters long. Some picked up hammers and chain hammers from the ground.
Boom!
Blood energy enveloped the hall but didn't spread at all beyond the arch behind.
Meanwhile, at the Sanctuary City, Lower District, Dark Street.
In a three-story building lived dozens of half-grown children and some children under ten. In the lower district, such special families were not uncommon. Many lower district residents spent their childhood and teenage years this way.
In a bedroom on the third floor, Yousha, as the leader of this Dark Street family, naturally had a separate bedroom. But now she was tossing and turning. The increasingly high protection fees demanded by the local gangs meant that her income from the teleportation array alone could no longer cover expenses.
So Yousha had finally taken a step outside the city. She brought a few reliable companions, intending to become a scavenger. But just after leaving the city, she witnessed the Law Destroyer VS the Four Giants of the Lightless Temple. The dimensionality-reducing strike-like shock made Yousha question life. Was it really this dangerous outside the city?
For some reason, Yousha herself wasn't scared at all, but her companions were all pale with fear. They probably wouldn't dare go out of the city again anytime soon. Failing to become a scavenger outside the city made Yousha even more worried. She was now tossing and turning, unable to sleep.
However, Yousha didn't notice that as she grew drowsy, the noise and commotion outside her room gradually subsided. The children in other rooms seemed to deliberately lower their voices as Yousha fell asleep.
Finally, these children fell completely silent. The expressions on their faces shed their previous childishness, stopping like puppets. To be precise, these were actually puppets, controlled at medium range by a puppeteer.
The small building's door was pushed open. A figure in a green robe walked into the building, going all the way up to the third floor. She stopped by Yousha's bed. She wanted to touch Yousha's cheek, but seeing her own hand, covered in cracks from sealing the scarlet object, she stopped and withdrew her hand disappointedly.
"I'm sorry. Although I gave you life, I also burdened you with responsibility. But there's still a Law Destroyer lord. One day, he will come to help you escape this fate. I will definitely let you leave here and see the wonders of the myriad realms. I definitely will."
With that, the green-robed woman sat on the wooden chair by the bed, looking lovingly at the sleeping Yousha.
However, Yousha's sleep was not peaceful. Her consciousness kept sinking, as if sinking deep underground. When she opened her eyes again, she was in a library.
Yousha was no stranger to this place. She had come to this dream when she was very young and had explored it. But whether books or scrolls, when opened, they were all scarlet.
Yousha gradually floated up. This was her ability in the "dream." She skillfully floated to a bookshelf. She was too familiar with this place. She had come here thousands of times since childhood.
But today, Yousha suddenly noticed that a door that had always been closed was now open a crack. Given her size, she could definitely squeeze through.
Discovering this, Yousha was both excited and somewhat afraid of the unknown. She floated to the door and squeezed through the crack. After that, she let out a long breath. The crack was a bit tight. Then, she looked puzzled. In the dream, her senses should be dull. Then she found that she couldn't fly anymore. She could only walk on the ground, and her feet felt cold.
This dream was too real, so real that Yousha didn't dare continue exploring. But the courage in her heart made her decide to continue investigating.
After turning a corner, a corridor appeared. Walking to the end of the corridor and turning another corner, Yousha immediately stopped. The clanging sound of metal boots hitting the ground came. Yousha took a deep breath. This was another ability of hers in the "dream." As long as she didn't breathe, she could become transparent, or rather, temporarily half-detach from this "dream."
A red-eyed knight over five meters tall walked past. When the red-eyed knight had gone far, Yousha took a big breath. Seeing this red-eyed knight, an unprecedented fear surged in her heart. Intuition told her to immediately return to the library, where it was safe.
But moments later, Yousha looked around blankly. She had gotten lost in the "dream." Before she could figure out the direction, a rotting two-headed dog had already appeared behind her. Yousha immediately fled at full speed.
But the more she ran, the more rotting two-headed dogs chased behind her. Until a loud bang rang in Yousha's ears, as if she had penetrated a barrier. The dozen or so rotting two-headed dogs behind her all stopped, retreating in fear before finally fleeing.
"Huff~, good thing I ran fast."
Yousha let out a long breath. Only then did she have time to look around. She was now in a hall. On the walls on both sides, every few meters, there was a brazier.
The hall was filled with a faint blood energy that made Yousha's heart race and her feet go weak. What was even more terrifying was that the fearsome red-eyed knights she had seen earlier were now everywhere—at least several dozen red-eyed knights had been shattered and scattered about.
A figure in a long coat covered in blood, holding a long blade, with eyes emitting a soul-shaking blood light, was stepping on the shoulder of the last red-eyed knight, pulling the blood-stained long blade from the kneeling red-eyed knight's head.
Seeing this blood shadow, Yousha felt unprecedented fear. She couldn't even move. The next instant, the blood shadow appeared in front of her.
"Oh? A mental body projected through a dream."
Yousha heard the blood shadow opposite speak. Although she wanted to answer that she meant no offense, the overwhelming pressure coming at her made her unable to speak.
"You can leave."
Hearing this, Yousha's feelings were indescribable. She even felt the first joy of her life that made her want to cry. But the other party's next words made her feel like she had fallen into an ice cellar.
"When you wake up, I will... come find you."
With that, the blood shadow grabbed one of Yousha's hands that she had instinctively raised to block. A sharp pain came from the back of Yousha's hand.
"Ah!"
Yousha suddenly sat up from the bed. She widened her eyes, looking around the dim bedroom. While breathing heavily, she felt that sweat had soaked her clothes, sticking to her back. Finally, she let out a long breath.
"Thank goodness it was a dream. But what a real and strange dream. The pain felt so real..."
As Yousha spoke, she raised her right hand to check. This made her muttering stop abruptly, because she saw that on the back of her right hand, there was a blood-colored mark. If her knowledge was broad enough, she would recognize that this was a mark used by Law Destroyers for positioning.
At this moment, in the brazier hall of the Scarlet Temple, Su Xiao looked at the mental body gradually dissipating in front of him. If he wasn't mistaken, the main body of this mental body was very far from here. It was very possible that the other party would think this place was a dream.
The reason he let the other party leave was both because she had the mark of the Eternal Light Watcher and because she seemed to be sealing something. It was like scarlet, yet somewhat different from the scarlet here.
Putting this aside for now, Su Xiao flicked the blood off his blade. Back in the Dead Silence City, he had been chased badly by the People of Death. This time, coming to the Scarlet Temple, he naturally wouldn't repeat that mistake.
Arriving at the innermost door, Su Xiao pushed it open. A small room appeared. It was only a few square meters, containing a display stand with three items on it.
At the bottom was a pitch-black fruit. In the middle was the Dead Silence Ember. And on the top rack was an ancient, twisted scepter. This was actually an Original Sin Object, and a daddy-level Original Sin Object at that. This was:
Original Sin Object · Scarlet Scepter!