Chapter 38: Transaction
Inside the secret study, the priest sat steadily on a wooden chair, his expression still as amiable as ever. To anyone who didn't know him, he would surely be seen as a kind and benevolent old clergyman.
The scarlet passage behind him closed, but Su Xiao paid it no mind. The moment he saw the priest, his hand was already on his blade hilt.
Clang!
A flowing wind scar slashed through. As a greeting, he used "Blade Path Sword: Flow." The wind scar passed through the priest's head, then cut the portrait of the Scarlet Monarch behind him in two.
The priest's head was slashed diagonally. His upper half began to slowly slide to one side, but instead of blood, black liquid emerged from the wound.
In turn, this black liquid transformed into very fine black tentacles that twisted together, pulling the diagonally severed upper half of his head back to its original position instead of letting it fall. Finally, the wound healed.
The priest's face still wore that amiable smile, as if nothing had happened.
Su Xiao sheathed his long blade. He had confirmed that this was not the priest's true body. Whether this was a new ability gained after the priest's promotion to Absolute Strength, this clone ability was quite formidable—not only was it hard to distinguish from the real thing, but it also possessed a certain degree of immortality.
The further into the later stages, the harder Violators were to kill—take the priest, for example, or the former No. 1 member of the Traveling Group, the Platinum Apostle. But then again, it made sense. Violators who survived to the late stages had been hunted countless times by Hunters and Death Rangers.
To survive those repeated hunts, even completing counter-kills time and again, their ability development paths would inevitably lean toward immortality, indestructibility, and bizarre, uncanny traits.
Su Xiao looked at the priest across from him. He could be certain that the priest had left this clone here waiting for someone, but that person hadn't come.
First, he ruled out that this person was from the Scarlet faction. The priest was cooperating with the Scarlet faction, so there was no need for such a complicated meeting. Second, he ruled out Contractors or Violators, since they could communicate through the world channel without risking a meeting in this place.
Moreover, few could enter the underground world. Without some strength, coming here was suicide. This narrowed down the scope of who the priest was waiting for. Su Xiao suddenly recalled the Scarlet Eldest Son he had encountered earlier—that guy perfectly met the above conditions.
Since both parties had arranged to meet here, they each had their own goals. The Scarlet Eldest Son's goal was easy to guess. After Su Xiao had flattened Scarlet Castle, this guy desperately needed a reliable faction to take shelter in. Otherwise, in the dangerous Eternal Light World, the Scarlet Eldest Son would eventually die.
Outside, reaching Absolute Strength was impressive, but in the Eternal Light World, Absolute Strength was everywhere. Without at least early-stage Absolute Strength combat power, you couldn't even breathe loudly here.
Thinking this way, the Scarlet Eldest Son's goal was easy to understand. Even if he had strength, the Scarlet Force he controlled leaned more toward proliferation and parasitic traits, which the Scarlet faction clearly looked down on. What the Scarlet faction revered were the blood flame, burning, and boiling traits of the Scarlet Force.
Therefore, it was very difficult for the Scarlet Eldest Son to join the Scarlet faction and latch onto a powerful backer. But with the priest's introduction, that was no longer a problem.
If the Scarlet Eldest Son wanted the priest's help, he would have to pay several times, even a dozen times the price. Otherwise, he might not even keep his life. But the question was, what did the priest need the Scarlet Eldest Son's help with?
No matter how Su Xiao thought about it, he couldn't figure this out. Apart from being good at begging for mercy, the Scarlet Eldest Son seemed to have nothing worth the priest exploiting. Suddenly, Su Xiao remembered one thing—the Scarlet Eldest Son came from Scarlet Castle.
Back then, the Dark Blood City Lord of Scarlet Castle and his son were ruthless enough to open an Abyss Passage, even if what emerged from it was scarlet.
When the scarlet erupted inside the castle, the Dark Blood City Lord fought to the death to cover the retreat, letting his second son take away his youngest child. It was highly likely that the second son, who had been mutated by the scarlet but whose rationality remained unaffected, was the current Scarlet Eldest Son.
The reason the Scarlet Eldest Son called himself that had to do with the scarlet eruption at Scarlet Castle. That was the result of the City Lord's eldest son acting on his own.
The second son lost both parents and all his younger siblings in a short time. The hatred for his elder brother would not be weak. But since that elder brother was already dead, the hatred could never be vented. The second son simply pretended his elder brother had never existed, thus calling himself the Scarlet Eldest Son.
The Scarlet Eldest Son had always guarded the fourth floor of Scarlet Castle, the entrance to the bedchamber. He claimed it was to prevent the monsters inside the fifth-floor bedchamber from escaping, but it was more like guarding his mother, who had become a monster, preventing her from killing and devouring innocent beings—until someone could defeat the monster she had become and let her rest in eternal peace.
If this were true, then Su Xiao's earlier guesses about the Scarlet Castle mission were at least 70% correct.
If the Scarlet Eldest Son really was the second son of the Dark Blood City Lord, then the knowledge his elder brother and father possessed—would they have shared it with him? They were family, so the probability was actually quite high.
In other words, the Scarlet Eldest Son had a decent chance of knowing the method to open an Abyss Passage in this world—no, the method to open a Scarlet Passage.
The initial terms of their negotiation were: the priest would help the Scarlet Eldest Son get an introduction, allowing him to smoothly join the Scarlet faction and gain a mid-level or higher position, while the Scarlet Eldest Son would hand over the method to open the Scarlet Passage.
The priest wanting to open a Scarlet Passage could only have two purposes.