Chapter 41: Backstab
Ripples spread across the shallow water at the base of the ten-thousand-meter-tall Star Giant Tree. Su Xiao stood alone, blade in hand, facing the Archbishop of the Abyss and the Eternal Dark Lord. Undoubtedly, this was nearly a death sentence.
Among the Four Titans of the Lightless Temple, the Star Devourer had the strongest frontal combat power, but its intelligence was lacking, making it the weakest overall in combat.
The Primordial was immovable, could continuously absorb the enemy's life force, and possessed terrifying effects like corruption and instant death. If one were to ask who among the Four Titans had the strongest defense, it would undoubtedly be the Primordial, not the Star Devourer. The Primordial boasted an exaggerated damage reduction of "All Damage Reduced by 95%," like a ten-thousand-year-old withered corpse—dry, hard, undying, and indestructible.
Even so, the Primordial's overall strength could only rank third from the bottom. It wasn't that it was weak, but that the remaining two were too strong.
The Eternal Dark Lord was very mysterious. Beneath its metallic white robe and hood seemed to be a void, yet it also appeared to contain the countless agonies and struggles of all beings.
But compared to the Archbishop of the Abyss, the Eternal Dark Lord couldn't rank first. Indeed, in terms of overall strength, the Archbishop of the Abyss was formidable in combat power, intelligence, and various trump cards.
More importantly, this place was the Eternal Light World, a world with only elemental power and no Abyssal power. Even here, the Archbishop of the Abyss possessed such means. One could imagine how difficult it would be to deal with this guy once outside.
Su Xiao's talent mission was to kill three of the Four Titans of the Lightless Temple. He had always excluded the Archbishop of the Abyss because he felt the probability of killing this guy was less than forty percent.
After the Nightmare Blood Shadow broke through the nightmare, Su Xiao had one more powerful enemy to deal with, which invisibly reduced his chances of killing the Archbishop of the Abyss by another twenty percent. Some methods had to be reserved for dealing with the Nightmare Blood Shadow, not the Archbishop of the Abyss.
Another point was that the Primordial, the Star Devourer, and the Eternal Dark Lord all devoured entire worlds, either swallowing the world itself or turning it into a wasteland. This was undoubtedly the most hate-attracting method.
In contrast, the Archbishop of the Abyss was much more low-key. In all the myriad realms, no matter which world's Dark God Cult, if they wanted to gain power through the dark faith of this sect, they had to make equivalent sacrifices, whether secret treasures, collected soul energy, or even their own original soul energy.
These sacrifices, supposedly offered to the Abyss, were actually just wishful thinking on the part of the sacrificers. The Abyss wouldn't respond to them at all. All these offerings were actually sacrificed to the Archbishop of the Abyss. It was the supreme deity of the Dark God Cult.
Even though the Archbishop of the Abyss was imprisoned in the Eternal Light World, the Dark God Cult remained active. After Su Xiao advanced to the Ninth Rank, he experienced two worlds: the Shadow World and the Wind Sea Continent. Both worlds had the Dark God Cult.
Especially the Wind Sea Continent. Although the Dark God Cult there wasn't very active, it was as stubborn as a malignant tumor. In that world, there was also an Archbishop of the Abyss, but that one was more like a branch individual gradually influenced by the consciousness of the true Archbishop of the Abyss, having long lost its sense of self.
In fact, it was inaccurate to call the leader of the Dark God Cult on the Wind Sea Continent the Archbishop of the Abyss. It would be more appropriate to call him the Abyss Bishop, because there was only one true Archbishop of the Abyss, and it was inside the Eternal Light World.
Facing both the Archbishop of the Abyss and the Eternal Dark Lord simultaneously, Su Xiao naturally planned to retreat according to the predetermined plan. Even before the plan to kill the Star Devourer, Su Xiao had considered whether the Archbishop of the Abyss and the Eternal Dark Lord would take this opportunity to deal with him together. Now, it seemed that was indeed the case.
If he couldn't win, he couldn't win. There were no miracles or good luck, and no temporary power-ups. When fighting the Abyssal Shadow, Ximan Aqide, Su Xiao had already lost once. He didn't die that time, but that didn't mean he would have a second such chance. That was his first defeat, and he had to strive to make it his last.
The retreat plan was simple and crude. He still had two "Sun Holy Swords" left. He would take one out and detonate it instantly, relying on the Sun Flame damage reduction of [Inscription Base: Divine Sacrifice] to withstand it, then immediately use the Law-Destroying Teleportation Array to leave this place.
Just as Su Xiao was about to take out the "Sun Holy Sword," he suddenly noticed a semi-transparent grid appearing in the sky, covering this entire area. This grid was covered in spatial crystal thorns. If he tried to forcefully break through, he would be caught by this spatial net and then teleported along with this trap full of spatial spikes, which would be extremely dangerous.
"Your friends are all busy dealing with the Deep Sea Evil Spirit now. There's no way they can come to save you."
The Eternal Dark Lord spoke. The Deep Sea Evil Spirit it mentioned was the monster Su Xiao had eliminated one-thirtieth of when he first entered this world using the Law-Destroying Teleportation Array. He still remembered the prompt at that time:
[You have eliminated the Deep Sea Evil Spirit (1/30).]
[You are now hated by the Deep Sea Evil Spirit.]
...
An invisible yet cold fluctuation appeared on the back of Su Xiao's right hand. It was a circular mark, identical to the mark on the cuff of the Eternal Dark Lord's sleeve.
After a brief perception, Su Xiao confirmed it was a tracking mark. He could devour and destroy it, but maintaining a stable flow of his Cyan Steel Shadow Energy, he could do so within a minute. However, if he was in battle or being chased, destroying it would take at least an hour.
The current situation was a killing trap set by the Archbishop of the Abyss and the Eternal Dark Lord, with the Star Devourer as the bait.
Su Xiao was prepared for this trap because, besides his four "good teammates," he also had a collaborator: Solomon, with whom he had agreed to cooperate before entering this world. Solomon was currently inside the Gray Holy Sanctuary, ready to reinforce at any moment. A Ninth Rank necromancer, even if newly promoted, was not to be underestimated.
Solomon had two ways to summon undead or necromancers. One was permanent summons, of which he only had a few, which could be summoned instantly for sudden encounters.
The remaining undead and necromancers, Solomon could summon different types depending on the world he was in. In this world, Solomon received an unprecedented boost.
Given the danger level of the Eternal Light World, only the exceptionally powerful were qualified to survive here. But among those who died in the elimination process, there were actually many powerful individuals who were unlucky. After these powerful beings died and were summoned in undead form, their strength could be imagined.
This also meant that after advancing to the Ninth Rank, Solomon didn't dare to fully unleash his summoning ability. A full summoning might produce undead and necromancers that exceeded Solomon's control limit. In other worlds, this wouldn't happen, but in this world, it was a definite possibility.
Although he had this trump card in hand, Su Xiao felt something was wrong this time. He couldn't pinpoint exactly what, but facing such a strategically strong enemy, he had to be cautious.
The Eternal Dark Lord opposite naturally didn't know Su Xiao had such a trump card. Since entering this world, Su Xiao hadn't met with Solomon.
Water vapor slowly rose, and with the ten-thousand-meter-tall, faintly glowing Star Giant Tree, the scene was beautiful. Unfortunately, none of the three present had the mind to appreciate it.
The Eternal Dark Lord raised its hand, its invisible palm aimed at Su Xiao. An eye gradually appeared in the center of its palm. This eye had multiple pupils, and each pupil contained many smaller pupils. This seemed to be the secret of the Eternal Dark Lord's immortality.
"Being buried beneath this Star Giant Tree is not a bad ending, don't you think, Shadow of Law Destruction..."
Pfft!!
A thick, arm-sized dark tentacle pierced through the Eternal Dark Lord's back from behind, emerging from its chest. The invisible blood stains on the black tentacle caused transparent flesh branches to sprout and writhe wildly.
This attack was so sudden. More importantly, the one who performed this backstab was none other than the Archbishop of the Abyss, who was supposed to be joining the Eternal Dark Lord in dealing with Su Xiao.
Normally, being pierced through the back wouldn't be a serious injury for the Eternal Dark Lord. But the weapon that pierced its back was called "Spite." This thing had once backstabbed and killed the strongest Beast King of the Wind Sea Continent.
Across the myriad realms, this was the strongest backstabbing weapon, bar none. However, it hadn't appeared for tens of thousands of years. Now, it seemed the Archbishop of the Abyss had brought it to the Eternal Light World.
"Spite" had three characteristics. Once a successful backstab was achieved, its attack characteristics would be determined by the characteristics of the world it was in. If it were in the Gloomy Continent, "Spite" would have Abyssal characteristics. Now, in the Eternal Light World, "Spite's" attack characteristics were elemental.
"Spite's" second characteristic was that its attack had two stages. After the first stage successfully achieved "Backstabber," it would unleash a second stage attack based on the world's characteristics. Moreover, the intensity of this second stage attack would be based on the strength of the backstabbed target, meaning it became stronger against stronger enemies.
"Spite's" third characteristic was adaptation. The stronger the wielder, the greater the power it could unleash.
In simple terms, the stronger the user of "Spite," the stronger the world it was in, and the stronger the backstabbed enemy, the more powerful the attack it would unleash.
This attack was likely the most powerful blow "Spite" had ever unleashed, because it was the Archbishop of the Abyss backstabbing the Eternal Dark Lord in the Eternal Light World.
The Eternal Dark Lord's eyes, covered in pupils, widened slightly. Its right arm slowly rose but couldn't move further. This was caused by "Spite" and the Archbishop of the Abyss's abilities.
All of this happened too suddenly. This was the essence of a clash between old schemers. You could never guess what would happen next. A second ago, the Archbishop of the Abyss and the Eternal Dark Lord were about to besiege Su Xiao standing beneath the Star Giant Tree. The next second, the Eternal Dark Lord was backstabbed.
Beneath the Star Giant Tree, after witnessing this scene, Su Xiao immediately felt a faint stinging sensation all over his body. This was a perception sting, so intense it felt like real needles were piercing him. He had only experienced this feeling once before, when he was fighting the Abyssal Shadow, having exhausted all his means and slumped against a tree wall, watching the Abyssal Shadow approach step by step. That was a near-death experience.
But now, this feeling appeared for the second time, and it was even more intense.
Unbeknownst to him, the sky had turned a blinding platinum white. An unprecedented daylight converged and surged. Platinum white realm thunder emerged, contained within a massive vortex of daylight.
Looking up at the sky, one would see that this slowly rotating daylight vortex covered nearly a third of the Eternal Light World's sky. Under this heavenly might, everything seemed incredibly small, including the ten-thousand-meter-tall Star Giant Tree.
Everything happened too fast. Su Xiao had only an instant to make a decision. He put away the Dragon-Slaying Flash and the Wild Hunt Night on him, took out the [Intense Emblem] which had only 2 durability points remaining, held it in his palm, and consumed the remaining 88,703 mana points, converting them into Cyan Steel Shadow Energy, all of which he used to form a crystal layer on his body surface.
The only good news was that this was originally to deal with the Star Devourer. To prevent the Star Devourer from a desperate counterattack with a large-scale mutual destruction method, Su Xiao had come alone. Bubu Wang, Amu, and Baha were all inside the Gray Holy Sanctuary.
"Farewell, Eternal Dark."
The Archbishop of the Abyss spoke. As it spoke, darkness surged on its body surface. A horn appeared in its hand, resembling a male reindeer's antler, somewhat lignified. The strongest manifestation of the Abyss was sometimes not darkness, but this lignification. This item was a life-saving artifact.
As for why Su Xiao and the Archbishop of the Abyss didn't turn and run, it wasn't that they didn't want to, but that they couldn't. After the daylight vortex appeared in the sky, root-like platinum lightning threads spread across the surrounding area.
This time, the Archbishop of the Abyss had maximized "Spite's" characteristics. Especially since "Spite" determined its attack attribute based on the world's characteristics. Being in the Eternal Light World, it naturally had the attack attribute of extreme natural elements. Plus, over the years, the extreme natural elements accumulated here had become stagnant and precipitated, unable to circulate. Now that they were triggered, the result was naturally unprecedented terror.
The combination of time and place made this attack not only contain platinum realm thunder but also equivalent to the entire world's extreme elements bombarding this location.
A blinding pillar of light descended from the sky. Su Xiao's vision turned into a vast expanse of white. A feeling of being evaporated by daylight washed over him. The crystal layer on his body surface cracked. His million-level health points plummeted to just 1%, triggering the Blood Spear Grandmaster: Blood Controller ability while also activating the [Intense Emblem] effect.
[Intense Emblem: After storing it in the team storage space, when you or any team member receives a high-intensity strong attack causing health to suddenly drop to 1%, this emblem will activate, locking the unit's life force for 10 seconds, granting absolute invincibility.]
The surroundings were a blaze of light. Vision seemed to lose its meaning at this moment. Su Xiao seemed to see the entire Eternal Light World, and outside the Eternal Light World, a layer of scarlet. This scarlet was slowly but steadily eroding the world's spatial seal. It seemed it wouldn't be long before it could erode through the spatial seal in a certain area of this world, thus breaking free. That area was located deep within the Sand Sea.
Buzz~
Intense tinnitus pulled Su Xiao out of this surreal state. As the tinnitus gradually faded until it finally disappeared, pain struck him from all over his body. However, after the massive drop in health, the adventure team skill was triggered.
[Vitality Awakening (Rare · Team Passive Lv.72): When a team member's health drops below 10%, this ability will activate, restoring 10,100 health points + 65% of maximum health over the next 3 seconds...]
The rapid recovery of health made the pain all over Su Xiao's body disappear. By this time, his vision gradually returned. The vast expanse of white in his field of view slowly gained color. This was an area filled with white light particles. The surroundings were exceptionally open, but there was nothing. The ground was relatively flat but very hard, like black volcanic rock.
Looking down from above, one would see that this was actually a cylindrical giant pit with a diameter of over a hundred kilometers, and it was bottomless. The air was filled with granular daylight, slowly floating upward. Su Xiao was currently at the bottom of this giant pit, at least a hundred kilometers below the ground.
Under the heavenly might of the previous attack, the underground rock layers, water layers, and magma layers had all been pierced or compacted, forming this vast underground area.
Amidst the large swaths of floating light particles, even though Su Xiao's health had recovered by more than half, he still felt somewhat weak all over. He held his blade in his right hand and the scabbard in his left, using it as a staff to support himself. After resting for over ten seconds, he flickered and disappeared from the spot.
Traveling at maximum speed for several kilometers, a spatial crack several hundred meters high stood before him. The Archbishop of the Abyss was standing beneath this spatial crack, holding a horned head in one hand. This was the head left behind by the Eternal Dark Lord after its death.
The Star Devourer, which had originally been thought to be schemed to death, first swallowing the "Book of Original Sin," then the "Scarlet Scepter," and finally the "Sun Holy Sword," had died quite miserably. Now, it seemed the Eternal Dark Lord's resentment was definitely greater than the Star Devourer's.
"Until we meet again, Bai Ye."
The Archbishop of the Abyss leaned back, falling into the spatial crack behind it. But at that moment, a "Sealing Blade" flew through the air with a whistling sound, causing the Archbishop of the Abyss's gaze to sharpen slightly.
Crack!
As if piercing into crystal, the Sealing Blade stabbed into the spatial crack and remained there. However, because the spatial crack was too large, cracks gradually appeared on the Sealing Blade. It seemed it could only hold for a few seconds.
A blood shadow cut through the wind. A long blade came flying, a thrust from top to bottom. With a crack, it pierced through a dark barrier, stopping just a few centimeters from the Archbishop of the Abyss's brow.
A wave of dark impact hit Su Xiao head-on. He immediately took a large step back, pulling his long blade out of the dark barrier. With his left hand, protected by the Black King Bracer, blocking in front, he steadied his breath for one second, then delivered a straight kick.
Boom!
The dark barrier was shattered into pieces. Su Xiao and the Archbishop of the Abyss were no more than three meters apart. Having both endured the heavenly might of the Eternal Light World, their conditions were very poor.
Crack!
The Sealing Blade above shattered. Chaotic spatial fluctuations surged, distorting the surrounding air.
'Blade Path Sword: Demon Blade.'
'Dark Abyss: Thirst.'
Zheng!
The long blade, covered in dark blue smoke, severed the Archbishop of the Abyss's entire left arm. This was a strike combining Double Soul Slash and Demon Blade.
Pfft! Pfft! Pfft!
Three sharp-tipped black tentacles pierced into Su Xiao's left shoulder, right chest, and right ribs.
Both sides left some "gifts" for each other. The Sealing Blade inside the spatial crack completely shattered. As the crack healed, a huge suction force spread, and the Archbishop of the Abyss disappeared into it.
With a whoosh, Su Xiao's Demon Blade strike sent out a slanted chain of black flames, burning the Archbishop of the Abyss's severed arm to ashes with the Demon Blade's black flames. No matter what recovery methods the Archbishop of the Abyss had, this arm could never be restored. Su Xiao had first severed the original soul part of the arm, then killed the entire arm with one slash.
Even if the Archbishop of the Abyss used various methods to regenerate the soul of this arm, thereby achieving flesh regeneration, this arm would be a deteriorating fake, because this arm had been killed by Su Xiao, the Shadow of Law Destruction.
After watching the spatial crack completely disappear, Su Xiao spat out a large amount of black blood from his mouth and nose. The darkness spreading on his left shoulder caused his left arm to hang limply. Fortunately, as a master alchemist, he immediately took out several potions and poured them onto the three penetrating wounds on his body. With a hiss, white mist rose. Even with Su Xiao's willpower, the veins on his neck bulged, and it took a moment to calm down.
Su Xiao looked at the slowly burning severed arm not far away. He felt at this moment that the Archbishop of the Abyss was definitely a great enemy in his life, and its minion, the Dark God Cult, was a force he would have to focus on dealing with in the future. With the Archbishop of the Abyss's return, the Dark God Cult would be incomparable to before.
The Archbishop of the Abyss had escaped, successfully breaking free from this cage. As for how its plan succeeded, it also involved the Star Devourer.
In this series of developments and calculations, Su Xiao, the Eternal Dark Lord, and the Star Devourer could each be considered a faction, and they all had different plans among themselves.
Su Xiao's plan was to lure out the Star Devourer with the help of Shenfu and eliminate it without a desperate battle. The result was success.
The Eternal Dark Lord's plan was to join forces with the Archbishop of the Abyss, using the Star Devourer as bait to lure out Su Xiao. Even if the Star Devourer was eliminated, it didn't matter, as long as Su Xiao could be trapped. The result was that although the plan succeeded, it wasn't a complete success.
The Archbishop of the Abyss's plan was to wait for the Star Devourer to be schemed to death, then pretend to join forces with the Eternal Dark Lord. Its real purpose was to backstab the Eternal Dark Lord using the strongest backstabbing weapon, "Spite."
Then, through the powerful attack triggered by "Spite," it would kill the Eternal Dark Lord. In fact, killing the Eternal Dark Lord wasn't the Archbishop of the Abyss's goal. It wanted to use this unparalleled powerful attack to temporarily blast a crack in the world's already dilapidated spatial seal, and through this crack, escape the cage of the Eternal Light World.
In fact, the Archbishop of the Abyss had long had this idea, but it only had one chance to use "Spite." Once it revealed that it possessed "Spite," the Eternal Dark Lord, the Primordial, and the Star Devourer would all stay away from it. Without these three strong enough to backstab, it couldn't unleash "Spite's" strongest second-stage attack.
It wasn't until the Archbishop of the Abyss used a "Sealing Blade" that it confirmed one thing: the world's spatial seal was no longer as indestructible as it had been tens of thousands of years ago. Especially, a scarlet force had been eroding the world's spatial seal.
This made the Archbishop of the Abyss make up its mind, leading to the plan that seemed to be joining the Eternal Dark Lord to ambush the Law Destroyer using the Star Devourer as bait, but was actually a plan to backstab the Eternal Dark Lord.
Among the Four Titans of the Lightless Temple, Su Xiao had killed the Primordial and the Star Devourer. His talent mission only required killing one more of the Four Titans to complete. But now, the Eternal Dark Lord had died at the hands of the Archbishop of the Abyss, and the Archbishop of the Abyss had escaped this cage.
No matter how one looked at it, this mission was about to fail. The reason it hadn't failed yet was that the mission target, the Archbishop of the Abyss, was still alive. However, there was no longer any chance to kill this Abyssal existence within this world.
But there was still room for a turnaround. The Four Titans of the Lightless Temple didn't necessarily have to be only four. Moreover, now that three of the Four Titans were dead and one had fled, this meant that the Lightless Temple, and even the entire Sanctuary City, would be under the control of Shenfu, the Temple Priest. This force was now leaderless and urgently needed a new Titan, a supreme deity of the Lightless Temple.
In such a situation, if a random person was chosen to become one of the new Titans, it would definitely not pass the mission judgment. If the talent mission didn't recognize it, no amount of manipulation would work. But what if this new Titan was even stronger than the original Four Titans? Additionally, if the force this new Titan originally commanded had been destroyed, then no matter how one looked at it, this new Titan could successfully pass the talent mission's judgment.
As for who this new Titan of the Lightless Temple would be, it was naturally the Scarlet Monarch. As for whether the current middle and high-ranking members of the Lightless Temple would agree, that was easy. Su Xiao had a way to make them agree.
It seemed that two powerful enemies had been dealt with, but among the enemies to be dealt with, the Eternal Dark Lord and the Archbishop of the Abyss were actually the easiest. The other enemies were the Nightmare Blood Shadow, the World Borer, and the Scarlet Monarch.
Compared to these three powerful enemies, the Eternal Dark Lord and the Archbishop of the Abyss seemed less difficult to deal with. So Su Xiao wasn't worried about the current situation. Moreover, the "Talent Awakening Mission: Shadow of Law Destruction (Phase One)" was a no-penalty mission. Even if this mission failed, he still had one more chance to activate it. A second failure would mean a complete inability to awaken the talent.
Thinking about it this way, the current situation wasn't actually bad. It was even better than before. Previously, Su Xiao had to deal with the Eternal Dark Lord, the Archbishop of the Abyss, the Nightmare Blood Shadow, the World Borer, and the Scarlet Monarch. Among these, each had an irreconcilable hostile relationship with him.
But the problem was that after dealing with the Eternal Dark Lord and the Archbishop of the Abyss, even if Su Xiao won, he would have used all his means and basically lost the qualification to deal with the Nightmare Blood Shadow and the Scarlet Monarch. Now, he only needed to concentrate all his means on dealing with these two powerful enemies.
The dark aura on Su Xiao's body dissipated, making him breathe a long sigh of relief. Only then did he have time to check the kill reward from the Star Devourer.
[You have killed a World-Destroying existence: Star Devourer.]
[You have received 11 Golden Skill Points.]
[You have received 10,350 Soul Coins (due to the Star Devourer's combat power limit being restricted by this world, this is the assessed Soul Coin reward amount).]
[You have received an Eternal Grade Chest: Star Devourer.]
[You have received a Source Matter Chest (has a chance of being obtained from killing powerful enemies).]
[You have received a Star Crystal Core (highly rare item, can be submitted to Reincarnation Paradise for Space-Time Power, or used for upgrading Eternal Grade equipment).]
[You have received 538,000 World Reputation.]
...