Chapter 44: Clash
The strength of the War Lord title was still astonishing, but given the situation in the Eternal Light World, having this title alone might not be enough to deal with the World Devourer. The insect race needed to be developed to its extreme.
There was no rush to deal with the World Devourer for now. The top priority was to continue advancing the talent mission. Su Xiao checked the team channel and saw a message from Kaisa.
"My dear friend, I hope I haven't kept you waiting too long."
Kaisa's voice suddenly came from the adjacent seat. Su Xiao nearly drew his blade. The other's appearance was far too sudden. To this day, he still hadn't figured out the principle behind Kaisa's sudden appearance ability. It shouldn't be a spatial ability; otherwise, there would be no way there wasn't a trace of teleportation fluctuation.
After appearing, Kaisa took out a metal disc the size of a plate. This item was almost identical to the blood-patterned disc on the Blood Altar in the Underground World, only differing in material and size. The blood-patterned disc on the Blood Altar was made of stone, while this one was made of black metal.
Making the Scarlet Monarch one of the new Four Giants was no simple matter. Any flaw in any link would cause this plan to fail.
Bringing this item, Su Xiao and his group exited the council hall, following a downward staircase to the underground of the Supreme Temple.
This place was originally filled with life force extraction runes, used to slowly drain the Primordial Life Force of the beings in the Middle District and Lower District. Those residents of Sanctuary City who chose to pledge allegiance to the Lightless Temple thought they had escaped the ranks of bait. In truth, the Four Giants didn't care about them at all and treated them as life force bait as well, slowly draining their Primordial Life Force.
Now, the appearance of this underground space had changed drastically. With the assistance of several disciples of the Mechanical Creator, this place now looked almost identical to the Blood Altar in the Underground World.
One by one, members of the Lightless Temple had changed into the attire of the Scarlet Faction, standing in the open space before the altar. The scarlet guillotine had been moved here from the Underground World.
Seeing this scene, Su Xiao retreated into a secret chamber. Bubu Wang, Amu, and Baha followed him inside, but unexpectedly, the Shadow Devourer also entered.
"Alright, tell me, what do you want this time?"
The Shadow Devourer crossed its arms. After a few days, its aura had actually grown stronger than before. It seemed that this elemental eruption had caused many monsters in this world to weaken, and the Shadow Devourer had taken the opportunity to devour quite a bit of source power.
Seeing the Shadow Devourer enter the secret chamber, Su Xiao was a bit surprised. He had commissioned it to come here with three bottles of [Darkness Potion] this time to make this monarch sacrifice more convincing.
"Over there."
Su Xiao pointed toward the distant altar platform. The Shadow Devourer followed his gaze, and the next second, everything went black before its eyes.
When the Shadow Devourer slowly regained consciousness, a wave of weakness washed over it. The ritual shackles on its arms temporarily suppressed all its abilities. Not only that, but it also noticed that its surroundings were shrouded in scarlet. It was at the edge of an altar platform, locked inside a large iron cage.
With a clang, a Red-Eyed Knight smashed the lock of the iron cage with a warhammer. Before the Shadow Devourer could react, two Red-Eyed Knights had already dragged it out of the cage, each holding one of its arms, and hauled it toward the guillotine at the center of the altar.
The Shadow Devourer looked around. Inside the altar was a stone disc, with a metal disc embedded in its center. An old man dressed in a scarlet robe, looking like a high priest, stood beneath the blood-patterned disc.
This scene immediately reminded the Shadow Devourer of its capture in the Underground World. It looked at the guillotine and saw a mutated aberrant demon already bound to it. Then, the blade above fell.
The mutated aberrant demon's head was severed with a sound. Blood gushed from the severed neck, flowing along the grooves of the guillotine, spreading through the stone patterns on the ground toward the blood-patterned disc behind.
Seeing this, the Shadow Devourer's previously furious gaze suddenly cleared. Before it could speak, the blood-patterned disc emitted a scarlet glow, absorbing the source blood of the mutated aberrant demon completely.
Inside the secret chamber, Su Xiao saw this and knew things had succeeded. This scene was achieved by Kaisa disguising himself as the Scarlet Faction's high priest, combined with Wood's disguise abilities.
Such a level of disguised sacrifice naturally couldn't fool the Scarlet Monarch, since the Scarlet Faction was a force he himself had created. However, the target of this disguised sacrifice wasn't the Scarlet Monarch himself, but rather the [Scarlet Scepter].
In fact, back in the Underground World, this kind of sacrifice by the Scarlet Faction was used to temporarily appease the big daddy [Scarlet Scepter] using monster source blood.
When dealing with the Star Devourer, Su Xiao had released the [Scarlet Scepter] from the [Book of Original Sin] into the Star Devourer's belly. As soon as the Star Devourer spat it out, the [Scarlet Scepter] vanished without a trace.
Based on Su Xiao's experience and knowledge of Original Sin Objects, the [Scarlet Scepter] was definitely not the type to move on its own. In fact, ninety-nine percent of Original Sin Objects wouldn't move on their own. Among all the Original Sin Objects he had seen, only the [Necronomicon] and the [Primordial Mask] had this trait.
More accurately, even the [Necronomicon] wouldn't move without a holder. So, the only one with this trait was the [Primordial Mask], a quasi-Original Sin Object that had run away from home.
Since the [Scarlet Scepter] wouldn't move on its own, its sudden disappearance had only two possibilities: 1. It returned to the seal of the Book of Original Sin. 2. It returned to its holder.
Undoubtedly, the [Scarlet Scepter] had returned to its holder. This was a choice made out of necessity. Compared to being sealed by Su Xiao, entering the seal where its holder was, through the causal connection with its holder, was a better option for the [Scarlet Scepter].
This meant that the Scarlet Monarch was now holding the [Scarlet Scepter], which indicated one thing: the Scarlet Monarch might break through the seal faster.
On the flip side, if source blood was sacrificed to the [Scarlet Scepter] now, to some extent, it was also a sacrifice to the Scarlet Monarch. And those performing the sacrifice were a group of Lightless Temple members dressed in Scarlet Faction attire.
Under Kaisa's direction, all of this went smoothly. In the Void Tree's judgment, this matter wouldn't be so complicated. It could be summed up in one sentence: The Scarlet Monarch accepted the sacrifice from the Lightless Temple.
At this moment, on the sixth floor of the Supreme Temple, the statue that originally represented the Eternal Dark Lord had been moved away, replaced by a statue of the Scarlet Monarch.
Almost simultaneously, in the secret chamber of the underground space, Su Xiao received a notification.
[Notification: Due to the faction change of the Lightless Temple, your talent mission will also change. The Lightless Temple's Four Giants have been changed to:]
[Scarlet Monarch, Archbishop of the Abyss, Star Devourer (Killed), Ancestor (Killed).]
[Detected that the Scarlet Monarch's combat power far exceeds that of the Eternal Dark Lord. This change will significantly increase the difficulty of the talent mission.]
...
As Su Xiao had predicted, lowering the mission difficulty was extremely difficult, but raising it was much simpler.
Su Xiao walked out of the secret chamber. The various disguises in the underground space began to revert as Wood withdrew his abilities. Su Xiao climbed onto the stone platform and removed the metal disc embedded in the blood-patterned disc.
Just then, the Shadow Devourer, eyes full of anger, walked over. Its shark-like teeth were grinding audibly, and it asked furiously, "You... next time this happens, tell me in advance."
Its voice quickly dropped, and its anger vanished completely. The reason was the wooden box Su Xiao handed over, and the ten neatly arranged bottles of [Darkness Potion] inside when the box was opened.
Su Xiao went up the stairs to the first floor of the Supreme Temple, exited the grand building, took an elevator to the Middle District of Sanctuary City, then descended to the Lower District, and finally went deep into the Dark Street.
After winding through several alleys, Su Xiao stopped in front of a small building. The person living here was Yusha, whom he had interacted with a few times before. He guessed that the Scarlet Seed was most likely inside Yusha, but what relationship Yusha had with the female swordsman Losna was still unknown for now.
Knock, knock, knock~
Su Xiao knocked on the door, but after a moment, no one answered. However, in his perception, there was one aura inside the building, and it was Yusha's. She should be in a bedroom on the second floor.
Su Xiao stepped aside, signaled Amu to kick the door down, then took out a cigarette and lit it. As he exhaled a plume of smoke, the faintly blue-tinged smoke spread around him. This smoke, mixed with a trace of Cyan Steel Shadow Energy, could linger for half an hour. During that time, if anyone touched it, no matter how they concealed themselves, Su Xiao would detect them.
Stepping over the shattered remnants of the wooden door, Su Xiao entered the small building. This place was originally full of children, teenagers, and young girls. But for some reason, on both visits, he felt that these children and teenagers were slightly off. However, this level of strangeness wasn't worth a special investigation. Since entering the Eternal Light World, he had rarely encountered normal people or relatively normal environments.
Upstairs, in front of the bedroom door, Su Xiao's thumb brushed against a transparent thread. This method was actually decent, but since he often used Spirit Shadow Threads as activation devices for Apollo, he naturally recognized such tricks.
Su Xiao raised his right forearm, and Baha landed on it, activating its spatial ability. This allowed Su Xiao to pinch an explosive pin out of the space with his index and middle fingers. After disarming the activation device, he examined the explosive pin for a moment. Overall, it wasn't bad.
Pushing open the bedroom door, Su Xiao walked in and saw a doll lying on the bed, covered with a blanket. The doll was exquisitely made, with a blood energy mark on its arm, slowly emitting blood energy.
The craftsmanship of this doll was far superior to the explosive pin from earlier. Even sensing it this close, it still felt like the doll's aura matched Yusha's.
"Losna."
Su Xiao had Amu pick up the doll, then turned and left the small building, heading deeper into the Dark Street. A professional was also here, and he could ask them about the doll's origin.
Jingle~
Su Xiao pushed open the door to a tavern. Inside, it was unusually lively, but what was puzzling was that the patrons came from different factions. Among them were three Scarlet Faction boss-level Scarlet Ritual Head leaders, two boss-level Scarlet Great Knights, three Lightless Temple Red Robe Priests, five Black Iron City Armored Guard Captains, one one-eyed giant demon clan member, and finally, a one-armed violator with a startling aura, whose eyes were tightly shut.
All these people had one thing in common: although they looked natural, there were more or less doll-like stitching marks on their hands, faces, or necks.
The person Su Xiao had come to see was Number 2 of the Phantom Troupe, the Puppet Master.
The Puppet Master still wore a fox mask and a loose black robe. Although the robe was a single color, it had a kind of pure elegance. The fox mask was made of metal, with the number "2" on the forehead, and at the bottom hung a small ornament—a little doll in a Gothic dress.
The Puppet Master sat at the bar, with half a glass of wine in front of her. She habitually flicked the little doll hanging under her mask, making it sway left and right.
"Alright, tell me what you want. Anything except dealing with your nightmare incarnation, and I'm fine with it."
Hearing this, Baha, perched on Su Xiao's shoulder, asked, "Puppet Master, how did you know that was my boss's nightmare incarnation?"
"I really can't think of anyone else with such strong blood energy. The first time I saw that nightmare incarnation, my first thought was, Bai Ye's nightmare incarnation had escaped from the nightmare."
This left Baha speechless. It reached out a claw, grabbed a glass of wine, and gulped it down.
Su Xiao glanced at Amu. Without needing words, Amu swung the doll he was holding onto the bar. Although Amu was a bit simple, he was far from slow when it came to understanding what Su Xiao meant.
"Losna of Sanctuary City. I saw her a few days ago."
The Puppet Master recognized the doll's origin at a glance. She tapped the doll with her finger and continued, "This doll is very precious. If it weren't an emergency, Losna wouldn't have abandoned it. Or maybe she used it as bait, since the person this doll represents has been targeted by you."
With that, the Puppet Master tapped the blood energy mark on the doll's hand with her fingertip.
"Can you track the person this doll represents?"
"Unlikely. Apart from its precise aura, this doll has no other outstanding features. It's more like a substitute death doll. It has already served its purpose and been abandoned."
Hearing this, Su Xiao understood what was going on. Although he didn't know the relationship between Losna and Yusha, Losna had been protecting Yusha for a long time, possibly in secret, and had prepared a substitute death doll for her in advance.
The Scarlet Seed was inside Yusha. Only by awakening the Scarlet Seed within her using the [Scarlet Awakening Stone] could Yusha open the second seal that imprisoned the Scarlet Monarch.
There were two possibilities: one, awakening the Scarlet Seed would cost Yusha dearly; two, Losna believed that the current Law Destruction Faction couldn't defeat the Scarlet Monarch, even with the "Super World-Level Sealing Ritual" active in this world.
If the Scarlet Monarch's seal was opened and they couldn't kill him, the Scarlet Monarch would first hunt down the Law Destroyers, and his second target would be Yusha, who carried the Scarlet Seed. That was why Losna opposed opening the seal now.
However, Losna didn't know that even if they didn't open the seal deep in the Sand Sea now, that sealed place wouldn't hold the Scarlet Monarch for much longer. As for explaining this to her, without clear evidence, she wouldn't believe it, so there was no need to waste words.
Having roughly figured this out, Su Xiao decided not to look for Yusha for now. Losna had taken Yusha away, and under her protection, Yusha was safe. He could find her later.
"I'm going after the Nightmare Blood Shadow tomorrow. Are you interested in joining?"
"Given the risk of this matter, I'm not very interested."
"After it's done, I'll pay you with Black Maple Tree yield."
"This~"
The Puppet Master hesitated. Seeing this, Su Xiao dipped his fingertip in some wine and wrote a "3" on the bar. This offer was already generous.
"3 ounces of Black Maple Tree yield, actually..."
The Puppet Master hesitated even more. 3 ounces was 85 grams, or 0.17 pounds of Black Maple Tree yield. That was already a lot.
"I meant 3 kilograms."
"?"
A heavy blow struck the Puppet Master's heart. She was silent for a few seconds, then habitually touched the little doll hanging under her mask, and said, "I'll bring more dolls tomorrow."
When Su Xiao walked out of the tavern, he had a small doll in his hand. Although it wasn't the one hanging under the Puppet Master's mask, as long as he crushed this doll, the Puppet Master had guaranteed she would arrive within an hour.
Arriving at a deserted spot in the Dark Street, Su Xiao set up the teleportation array. He looked at Bubu Wang, Amu, and Baha. Amu was the first to chicken out, slowly stepping onto the teleportation array, followed by Baha. Bubu Wang held out for over ten seconds before finally stepping onto it as well.
With a bang, the teleportation array activated. When the surrounding spatial mist dissipated, Su Xiao had already returned to the Manufacturing Institute of Black Iron City.
Sitting at a round table, Su Xiao took out a contract. This was a contract prepared for Shenfu. He didn't need Shenfu to sign it directly; just touching it would have an over eighty percent chance of triggering the contract.
As for why he was scheming against Shenfu now, it involved the Archbishop of the Abyss escaping this world.
Previously, the Archbishop of the Abyss's plan seemed to be a three-way game between Su Xiao, the Eternal Dark Lord, and the Archbishop of the Abyss. But that wasn't the case. If you thought about it carefully, Shenfu was also involved.
First, during their last meeting in the study of the Scarlet Temple, Shenfu had deduced that Su Xiao's mission was to deal with the Lightless Temple's Four Giants, and that killing three of them would complete the talent mission.
Armed with this crucial intelligence, Shenfu would certainly turn it into an advantage, shifting from passive to active.
The reason Shenfu cooperated with Su Xiao was to have Su Xiao open the Scarlet Monarch's seal, thereby fulfilling the contract he had previously signed with the Scarlet Faction. This would grant him a secret technique to moderately increase his compatibility with Original Sin Objects.
On the surface, whether Su Xiao opened the seal to deal with the Scarlet Monarch depended entirely on Su Xiao's decision, making Shenfu seem very passive. Shenfu did know that the seal imprisoning the Scarlet Monarch wouldn't last much longer, but he had no accurate judgment of how long it would hold, since it was a seal set by the Law Destruction Faction.
In this situation, Shenfu's position was very passive. If Su Xiao chose to ignore the cooperation promise and didn't open the seal deep in the Sand Sea, Shenfu's plan would fail.
How to force Su Xiao to deal with the Scarlet Monarch was what Shenfu most wanted to achieve. So, he looked for an opportunity within the Lightless Temple's Four Giants.
It seemed like the Archbishop of the Abyss had backstabbed the Eternal Dark Lord, but the Eternal Dark Lord's intelligence was only slightly below that of Shenfu and the Archbishop of the Abyss. It shouldn't have been so easily backstabbed, and after being backstabbed, it had no power to fight back.
The reason for this was that the identity Shenfu had taken over—Temple High Priest Ezle—was the Eternal Dark Lord's most trusted confidant. In fact, the founder of the Lightless Temple was the Eternal Dark Lord himself, and as the Temple High Priest, a position second only to the Four Giants, Ezle was naturally the Eternal Dark Lord's confidant.
The Eternal Dark Lord had no room to fight back after being backstabbed because not only was it schemed against by the Archbishop of the Abyss, but its most trusted subordinate had also eliminated all its options for retaliation.
Once the Archbishop of the Abyss killed the Eternal Dark Lord and then escaped this world, a kill slot would open in Su Xiao's talent mission. To fill that slot, there was only one way: through Shenfu and the Lightless Temple, making a new member of the Lightless Temple's Four Giants.
As for who the new Four Giant would be, there was no need to think. In this situation, for the new Four Giant to meet the talent mission's criteria, its combat power would have to surpass that of the Eternal Dark Lord, the Archbishop of the Abyss, the Ancestor, and the Star Devourer for the operation to succeed.
Thinking this way, the new Four Giant could only be one person: the Scarlet Monarch.
Thus, Su Xiao had a reason to deal with the Scarlet Monarch, which turned Shenfu from a passive position to an active one. In fact, Shenfu only needed to wait for Su Xiao to open the seal deep in the Sand Sea, and his goal would be achieved naturally.
As for whether Shenfu would come to meet Su Xiao this time, Su Xiao wasn't worried. If Shenfu didn't come, he would activate the [Old Hunter] title and use the existing tens of thousands of Demon Flame Dragons to hunt Shenfu down continuously.
When Su Xiao saw the Archbishop of the Abyss disappear into the spatial rift, he had considered whether Shenfu had conspired with the Archbishop of the Abyss to backstab the Eternal Dark Lord together. Now it seemed that Shenfu had definitely participated in the Archbishop of the Abyss's plan.
Just as Su Xiao was pondering this, the door to the inner hall was pushed open, and Shenfu walked in, taking a seat across from the wooden round table.
Su Xiao and Shenfu locked eyes. Both wore smiles, but one had a contract hidden in his sleeve, while the other had a charm-attribute-determined cursed item tucked in his robe.