Chapter 27: Treatment
Within the Golden Lake, Su Xiao's mind was exceptionally tranquil. This feeling was similar to meditation, yet lacked some of the immersion and focus that meditation brought.
The sensation of his consciousness returning to his body was wonderful. First, he felt his powerful physique, then gradually adapted to it, and finally returned to his usual ease.
Su Xiao sensed the changes in his body. He had absorbed a large amount of "Special Golden Power" within the Golden Lake. Currently, he felt no change in his physique, so he opened his personal information to check the potential-related list. At the very top, a golden font attribute was visible.
「The efficiency improvement brought by Golden Skill Points is increased by 50%.」
...
A rising sensation occurred as Su Xiao ascended within the pale golden liquid. When he slowly emerged from the surface, he felt a spatial fluctuation. The next instant, he stood on a circular sandy arena. This was a gladiatorial ground several hundred meters in diameter, surrounded by wooden walls a few meters high. Further up were tiered spectator seats.
This was the main venue of the Golden Arena, built in an old, grand style capable of accommodating hundreds of thousands of spectators. Looking around at the audience seats, they were completely full. This was a clash of Absolute Strength-level combatants; tickets for the main venue of the Golden Arena were always incredibly hard to come by.
Although the Golden Arena's regulations stated that the highest level of participation was Absolute Strength, with no lower limit, few below Absolute Strength would dare to participate.
In previous Golden Arena tournaments at this stage, when the combatants were teleported to the main venue, the surrounding audience would erupt in thunderous cheers. But this time, the audience was somewhat quiet.
It wasn't intentional silence. The spectators' emotions were too complicated. They had all spent a considerable amount of money to buy main venue tickets. Yet, after the Golden Arena began, they hadn't seen the Absolute Strength combatants engage in subtle struggles using their arena bodies, nor any brilliant tactical plays. If that were all, they could have shouted, "Give me my money back!"
The problem was, the second match, where the Overlord unit camped the respawn point and slaughtered everyone, was something they had never seen before and found extremely thrilling. However, the original six matches had been compressed into one by that respawn camping. At this moment, the spectators felt that the tickets seemed worth it, yet also seemed somewhat of a loss.
Su Xiao placed one hand on the end of his knife's hilt. As a melee fighter, not having his blade within easy reach always felt somewhat uncomfortable. Now, as his thumb brushed over the soul gem at the end of the hilt, the familiar feeling of holding the knife returned.
A countdown appeared above. The demon on the high platform was very good at stirring up the atmosphere. With one sentence, he piqued the audience's curiosity: that the encounter between the Law Destroyer and the Spellcaster would certainly not end simply today.
When the countdown in the air reached zero, the entire sandy arena transformed into a formation diagram. This time, the teleportation sensation was strong. When the spatial mist dissipated, Su Xiao felt a falling sensation. Wind howled past his ears, and his long leather coat flapped loudly. He opened his eyes and found himself falling at high speed.
After descending through the clouds, a continent came into view. This continent was generally oval-shaped. The central area was a ruined ancient ruin. The eastern region was shrouded in water mist; the scenery there must have been quite beautiful. The southern region was a vast expanse of red maple forest.
The direction Su Xiao was falling towards was the central ancient ruins. When he was still a few meters from the ground, his speed decreased sharply, and he landed slowly.
The stone slabs on the ground were relatively flat, showing signs of weathering. There were no broken walls or debris around, but rather scattered stone pillars. This open space was very suitable for a fight.
Boom, boom, boom, boom!
Four booming sounds rang out as four figures landed. The Death Four Brothers stood up from the craters, stretching their bodies, letting the stone chips and dust clinging to them fall off. If the four brothers using their arena bodies still had a slight resemblance to the Three Brothers of National Football, now they were completely different from them.
The Death Four Brothers now exuded a calm cruelty. They weren't grinning ferociously or issuing threats, but the cruelty concentrated in their fists, palms, and flat teeth was palpable.
These four guys had eaten many things. In fact, all enemies who had lost to them, regardless of race, as long as they weren't inorganic enemies, had been devoured alive by them to strengthen themselves.
When the Death Four Brothers smiled, they revealed their stark white, flat teeth, which was more chilling than any beast's fangs. Now, all four brothers were grinning, looking at Su Xiao. While there was a hint of foolishness, their cruelty was maxed out.
"We four brothers know we can't fool you, so there's no need to pretend anymore."
The eldest spoke. They often pretended to be simple and honest to deceive chance encounters, collaborators, and even enemies. But after sensing Su Xiao's blood energy, the four brothers knew there was no need to pretend this time; they would be seen through at a glance.
"Night of Decapitation, long admired your name."
The second brother smiled with a strange aura. Combined with his strong physique and pink fitness briefs, he gave off a very eerie feeling.
"Please don't misunderstand. There's no old grudge between us."
The eldest brother dropped his previous seriousness. With his true nature exposed, his expressions became much richer. He continued in a conversational tone:
"We four brothers have no interest in the bounty on you from the Hunter's Guild, nor are we planning to flatter Arcane Eternal Star. Although they are the strongest force in the Void, our brothers' goal is simple. We just want to taste the flesh and blood of Brother Bai Ye. You shouldn't mind, should you?"
The eldest brother smiled even more brightly, not only showing his full mouth of stark white, flat teeth but even his gums.
...
Su Xiao didn't speak, or rather, he couldn't be bothered to waste words on an enemy. He gripped the knife hilt and slowly drew the long blade.
Boom!
The ground beneath his feet trembled as the Death Four Brothers charged from all sides, perfectly encircling Su Xiao. Their approach speed was incredibly fast, and their momentum was exceptionally domineering. The wind pressure from their charge lifted Su Xiao's short black hair, making his blue-glowing eyes even more striking.
'Extreme Blade: World!'
The long blade in Su Xiao's hand, pointing diagonally at the ground, let out a faint, crisp ring.
Clang!
A sharp, metallic-sounding slash resounded. Centered on Su Xiao, a spherical 'Extreme Blade Domain' appeared. Within the domain, every ten or so centimeters, there was a grain-of-rice-sized flash point of slashing energy. The charging Death Four Brothers were instantly chopped into large pieces of flesh, scattering towards Su Xiao.
Amidst this minced flesh, tendrils of muscle and sinew formed and twisted together, constructing a ten-meter-long, powerful-looking spike that stabbed towards Su Xiao.
Clang~
Su Xiao slashed once. The front half of the incoming muscle spike was severed, falling to the ground where it writhed and proliferated wildly, looking very unsettling.
The large pieces of minced flesh from the shattered Death Four Brothers gathered together. With a sticky sound of regeneration, the four brothers merged into one, becoming a three-meter-tall humanoid monster. Its muscles were like metal, it had eight eyes, and the corners of its mouth split all the way to its ears.
...
Its cheeks had gill-like pores. Its disheveled, wild hair was as thick as yarn. Its skin was dark red and rough like horn. It spread its two large hands, each palm having a mouth full of flat teeth, with a sharp tongue licking over the stark white teeth.
This was the true form of the Death Four Brothers. They also had another name: Voracious Eater.
Voracious Eater's core ability was very powerful. Every enemy it defeated and then devoured increased its strength. Additionally, Voracious Eater had top-tier survivability among its rank. It could withstand enemy attacks for a long time without issue, but just a few of its attacks could damage the enemy's soul with its attached 'Rending Effect.'
A blade cut through the air. Voracious Eater's forearms grew arm blades, a precaution against Su Xiao's swordsmanship. It didn't need to match Su Xiao's blade skills; it just needed to parry his blade with its arm blades.
Voracious Eater crouched low. With a bang, its aura compressed the surrounding ground by a layer. Just as it seemed about to charge forward, it suddenly slammed its hands against the ground.
Hideous spikes burst from the ground beneath Su Xiao's feet, covering a hundred-meter radius. This sudden attack failed to pierce Su Xiao's body. He stood on a half-meter-thick crystal layer, which was lifted several meters high by the erupting spikes below.
Su Xiao crouched on the crystal layer, his left hand, clad in the Black King Bracer, pointing at Voracious Eater. Compressed blood energy gathered at his fingertip.
'Blood Smoke Cannon.'
Bang!
This sudden Blood Smoke Cannon didn't directly hit Voracious Eater. The creature thrust one hand forward, and the tissue on its hand transformed into a flesh-structured shield. It looked crude but completely blocked the Blood Smoke Cannon.
However, Voracious Eater, whose hand was slightly numb, didn't notice that a 'Heaven's Wrath Mark' had formed on its palm upon impact.
Su Xiao activated the 'Heaven's Wrath Mark.' The next moment, a bolt of Realm Lightning with a 5-meter diameter attack range descended. The golden Realm Lightning reflected in Voracious Eater's rapidly constricting pupils. It could tell that this lightning wouldn't kill it, at most severely wounding it. Yet, in its perception, it sensed death approaching.
Crack!!
Voracious Eater was enveloped in golden arcs. As the golden electricity surged, its whole body convulsed and fell into paralysis.
With a boom, the crystal layer beneath Su Xiao shattered. He turned into an afterimage, instantly closing in on Voracious Eater. Taking advantage of the paralysis, he delivered a straight kick.
Voracious Eater saw this. Although it didn't understand why the Blade Grandmaster was using a straight kick instead of a powerful slash with his long blade to severely wound it, it secretly breathed a sigh of relief. At the start of the fight, it had felt the threat of death from the enemy's long blade.
Voracious Eater's relief lasted only 0.5 seconds before vanishing. The incoming straight kick felt as terrifying as if the entire world opposite it was pressing down. The horror of this attack made every cell in Voracious Eater's body scream in agony, making it feel like the Erosion Cells inside it wanted to break free and flee in all directions.
Wind pressure hit its face. Before the attack landed, Voracious Eater couldn't open its eyes. Its facial features were distorted by the wind pressure. But it was who it was, the Undying Voracious Eater. It pushed its cells to their most active state, instantly raising its body strength by a tier. Today, it was going to withstand this straight kick head-on...
Thump!!
With a gush, Voracious Eater vomited a massive amount of blood and organ fragments. It turned into a beam of light, flying parallel and straight half a meter above the ground.
Before Voracious Eater could fly far, Su Xiao had already swapped positions with the Demon Spirit a hundred meters away. A crystal layer formed on his right calf and foot. He delivered a side kick, hitting the incoming Voracious Eater.
With a loud boom, Voracious Eater was blown apart by the side kick. Even so, its intact head let out a roar. Using blood vessels and nerves as pullers, it forcibly healed its body. Its size increased from three meters to over four meters, and its aura grew stronger. This was one of Voracious Eater's core abilities: the more it was injured and the stronger the attacks it endured, the stronger it became.
A curved greatsword made of muscle, bone, and metal blades was pulled from an alternate space by Voracious Eater. The weapon seemed to be forged from a several-meter-long spine, looking exceptionally fierce.
The curved greatsword split space, leaving a black spatial scar as it swung down at Su Xiao with wind pressure. Su Xiao stepped forward, meeting it with an upward slash.
Clang!
The impact spread from the point of the clash. The surrounding ground shattered. In terms of size and weapon specs, Voracious Eater seemed to overwhelm Su Xiao. But after one exchange, Voracious Eater's curved greatsword uncontrollably flew backward, dragging its arm up with it.
Why was this? It was because of Su Xiao's 539 points of True Strength attribute, a multitude of passives that enhanced slashing damage, and the Blade Grandmaster's 'Blade Weapon Damage Rank +71' and 'Blade Weapon Slashing Judgment Rank +71.'
In other words, Su Xiao could even clash blades head-on with the Scarlet Monarch. What made Voracious Eater think it could do the same?
After one slash, Voracious Eater staggered back a large step. Ceramic-like cracks appeared on the arm holding the weapon.
Su Xiao, on the other hand, was calm. He raised his blade and delivered a powerful slash.
Faced with this slash, Voracious Eater could only parry. If exchanging blows with weapons was like this, being directly hit by the blade would be disastrous.
Clang!
Su Xiao slashed down, and the four-meter-tall Voracious Eater was forced to one knee.
"Blade Path Sword: Extreme."
Su Xiao delivered another powerful slash. The pressure forced Voracious Eater to grip the half-meter-long hilt of its curved greatsword with both hands and parry. It wasn't that it wanted to, but it had no choice. Under the relentless pressure of a Technique Grandmaster's melee attacks, any attempt at movement or using life-saving measures was impossible, unless it was something as absurd as the Apocalypse Paradise's life-saving items.
Boom!
The curved greatsword was shattered. After the slash passed, blood sprayed from Voracious Eater's chest. Yet its expression grew even more ferocious. It didn't believe it would die here today. It wasn't afraid of killing skills with insufficient judgment, and instant-death judgments were useless against it.
Dark blue smoke clung to the Dragon-Slaying Flash. The long blade made an elegant, light horizontal slash, passing through Voracious Eater's neck, leaving a curved trail of blood in the air.
Voracious Eater clutched its throat with both hands, but this couldn't stop the dark blue smoke drifting from the wound. It fell to one knee with a thud. The ferocity on its face gradually calmed, and finally, its pupils dimmed. Its head drooped, and it died. Only very few strong individuals could persist for over ten seconds, or even half a minute, after being killed by the Demon Blade.
...
[You have killed Death Ranger: Voracious Eater.]
[You have obtained Scarlet Chest: Voracious Eater.]
[If you choose to open it, you can make one of the following choices.]