Chapter 14: Supreme
Just by overlooking the frozen wasteland that was the Exile Grounds from above, one could glimpse how fierce the battle had been, especially the massive pit at the center of the ice field.
Crack, crack~
Su Xiao stepped on the crushed ice and arrived beside the severely injured Daughter of Nature, Elukulu. As a "Contract Master," even though they had signed a contract in Twilight City that prohibited harming each other after joining the team, he still had ways to circumvent it.
The question was, was it truly wise to kill this spellcaster now? One important point was that the damage output against the Beast God in this battle, calculated at 100%, was as follows for the Twilight Team members:
Su Xiao's output: 42.7% (excluding the subsequent execution damage).
Elukulu's output: 32.59%.
Zuiyasi's output: 18.79%.
Wood's output: 5.92%.
Among them, Zuiyasi and Wood's outputs were severely inconsistent with their combat contributions. For example, Wood dealt less than 6% damage to the Beast God, but at the critical moment, the move that instantly reduced the Beast God's Strength, Agility, and Endurance attributes by 100 points was incredibly powerful.
The result was that after Su Xiao struck down the Beast God, it couldn't get back up until it was executed.
The reason Su Xiao and Elukulu's outputs kept increasing was also because Wood continuously reduced the Beast God's defense.
As for Zuiyasi, this guy could deal damage, provide strong control, and even act as a frontline tank at critical moments. For instance, when the Beast God punched Su Xiao all the way to Twilight City, it was Zuiyasi who withstood the Beast God's fierce assault. Otherwise, by the time Su Xiao returned, the team members would have been killed, leaving him to fight the Beast God alone.
More importantly, throughout the entire battle, the Beast God couldn't recover even 0.1% of its health. Did the Beast God lack recovery abilities? Of course not. This powerhouse, who had endured the power of the Aberrant Sun, had exceptionally strong recovery abilities.
It wasn't that the Beast God didn't want to recover health; it was that Zuiyasi, who had invaded its body, was constantly devouring its regenerative life force, preventing it from recovering.
If the health the Beast God could have recovered was calculated as Zuiyasi's output, his damage would have been much higher.
A guy who could fight, tank, suppress healing, provide buffs, and save teammates at critical moments, yet only dealt 18.79% of the total damage in the entire battle. This output seemed quite absurd.
As for Su Xiao, who dealt 42.7% output, if execution damage was included, he actually dealt 72% of the total damage. But he didn't have the habit of counting execution damage. The key point was that he dealt this damage while directly facing the Beast God head-on. So, compared to Zuiyasi and Wood, Su Xiao's performance was even more absurd.
Elukulu, as a ranged magic damage dealer, dealing 32.59% output seemed average. But don't forget a key issue: Elukulu had fully drawn the Beast God's aggro throughout the battle. While the Beast God constantly wanted to catch and devour her, she still managed to deal such high damage.
A more intuitive metaphor would be: a large group of people enters a dungeon to fight a boss. The large boss ignores the tank's and warrior's aggro skills and chases the mage the entire time. In the entire team, only one melee fighter directly confronts the boss, blocking its attacks to buy the mage some breathing room and output space. Under such circumstances, the mage still dealt 32.59% of the damage.
The known upcoming strong enemy is the "High Tower Knight Commander." Undoubtedly, the High Tower Knight Commander will only be more difficult to deal with. Weighing this, would it really be possible to find a teammate with combat power similar to Elukulu before dealing with the High Tower Knight Commander, if she were eliminated now?
She was one of the top spellcasters of the same rank. Additionally, given her current severe injury, one could use "friendship" among teammates to help treat her. This would create more room for manipulation. As long as a backup plan was kept, the probability of hidden dangers would plummet.
Furthermore, he needed to figure out this spellcaster's purpose. When they last met, this Elemental Spellcaster turned and retreated without hesitation. This showed that the Daughter of Nature, Elukulu, was definitely not the type of spellcaster who blindly believed she could kill Su Xiao even when her abilities were suppressed.
Thinking this way, why did she join the Twilight Team? There was only one possibility: among the enemies the Twilight Team would face along the way, there was one that was Elukulu's target. This target was definitely not the Beast God; it might be the High Tower Knight Commander.
Elukulu's purpose in coming to this world might be to kill the High Tower Knight Commander. Analyzing with this line of thought, her sparing no effort to deal with the Beast God made sense. She couldn't possibly deal with the High Tower Knight Commander alone and would need the help of the rest of the Twilight Team later.
Considering the message Mawen Hua'erzi conveyed through Green Gillian, Lord Soul had brought many spellcasters to this world but was currently blocked by Mawen Hua'erzi, the Old Law Annihilator, and the Black Mist Figure. Interestingly, these three unscrupulous old guys didn't block the spellcasters through force.
During the Second Era of the Void, both Mawen Hua'erzi and the Old Law Annihilator had visited this world many times to resolve the increasingly severe Abyss invasion here. According to the Paradise camp's judgment standards, Mawen Hua'erzi and the Old Law Annihilator had quite high "World Favorability" in this world, at least 95/100 points.
In the judgment of this world's World Consciousness, Mawen Hua'erzi and the Old Law Annihilator, as former world guardians, were far more trustworthy than a group of spellcasters who devoured natural elements. So, Mawen Hua'erzi and the Old Law Annihilator used a special method to convey to the World Consciousness: "Lord Soul, Yuwen Gewu, and other spellcasters are equivalent to Abyss disasters."
This caused Lord Soul and the other spellcasters to be continuously struck by World Thunder as soon as they entered this world, and the World Thunder kept getting stronger.
In simpler terms, those two old guys had reported Lord Soul and the others. Although the World Consciousness had no evidence, the two old guys were once administrators of this world. Even though they were now dead and only had remnant souls, their status in this world's judgment was still very high.
Although this world's rejection couldn't last forever, it only needed a month or two for Su Xiao to leave this world. As for why the Daughter of Nature, Elukulu, could enter safely, it was because she had natural World Favorability, at least an initial 65/100 points.
The World Consciousness's judgment method was different from the thoughts of intelligent beings. So, this world's World Consciousness would at most not favor Elukulu much, but it wouldn't go so far as to strike her with World Thunder.
However, there was one point: Elukulu could previously draw down World Thunder within the world, but this time she could only draw down Soul Thunder. Of course, at particularly critical moments, Elukulu could temporarily draw down World Thunder. But this was her trump card reserved for dealing with Su Xiao.
Obviously, Arcane Eternal Star didn't know about Su Xiao's proficiency with World Thunder. Or rather, very few knew about this. Over 90% of those who had seen him use World Thunder were dead. Moreover, he only used his Elemental Affinity to draw down World Thunder at particularly critical moments.
If Su Xiao knew that Elukulu's trump card against him was World Thunder, he wouldn't need to weigh the pros and cons. At least before killing the High Tower Knight Commander, he would not easily make a move against Elukulu.
After he mastered "Heaven's Wrath: Thunderclap Slash," it wasn't just a matter of his high Thunder Resistance making World Thunder damage ineffective. He could gather all the falling World Thunder onto his blade. So, this wasn't a trump card at all; it was actually a very high-damage buff for Su Xiao.
"If you're going to make a move, this is indeed a good time."
Elukulu, whose right arm was severed and who was lying in a pool of blood, spoke. Her long hair had turned light blue, and her gaze was calm.
"..."
Su Xiao pointed into the distance. Seeing this, Elukulu turned her head to look. The next second.
Bang!
Elukulu was knocked unconscious by Su Xiao's punch. Before losing consciousness, Elukulu's mental defenses crumbled. She had anticipated many outcomes, but she never expected this one.
After a brief period of darkness and jolting, Elukulu felt herself sinking continuously. When she regained some sensation, she vaguely heard:
"Bai Ye, who is this?"
"..."
"She looks seriously injured. Should we give her a bottle of healing potion?"
"No need. I'll treat her."
After vaguely hearing this, Elukulu suddenly felt a palpitation. It was clearly an attempt to save her, but it gave her a tremendous sense of crisis.
Over ten hours later.
Drip~, drip~
The faint electronic sound of instruments came. Elukulu's eyelids trembled. She slowly opened her eyes and instinctively sat up from the operating bed. She felt many infusion tubes and breathing tubes hindering her movement. She pulled them all off her body. Especially when she pulled out the energy threads that had gone deep into her trachea, the intense sensation made her tear ducts surge.
An extremely weak feeling came over her. However, the various organ injuries caused by the Beast God had healed. After getting out of bed, the weakness and dizziness made her instinctively support herself with one hand on the nearby medical instrument. But the feeling from her hand made her look suspicious. She looked at her right hand.
A translucent blue crystalline substance formed her right arm. She tried to move the fingers of her right hand. Both the flexibility and reaction speed were infinitely close to her original hand. She used her index finger to tap the pressure relief valve of the nearby instrument. The slight burning sensation from her fingertip surprised her. She used her index finger to stroke the curtain. The smooth, silky texture came through.
Elukulu looked at her right arm. She sincerely felt that this was not just a prosthetic limb; it was more like a work of art that combined practicality and aesthetics. She tried to channel magical energy through this arm. The crystalline material of the arm had almost 0 magical conductivity. But the runes that immediately appeared on the arm's surface allowed her magical energy to reach her fingertips.
Elukulu was not a melee fighter. She didn't have particularly high requirements for the strength of her limbs. Therefore, she even felt that maybe she shouldn't bother regenerating her right arm and just use this crystalline prosthetic. However, she quickly dismissed this thought. The origin of this prosthetic was too special.
After Elukulu walked out of the room, she found it was a large underground space. On a carpet covering several dozen square meters in the center, three people were each holding terminals.
From the snacks near them, it could be seen that this cooperative game session had started happily. But after Yueshitu collapsed in the mid-lane and Hao Mei kept feeding in the jungle, Molei's blood pressure in the top lane kept rising. The three had gone from laughter and chatter to increasing silence.
"You're awake? Want to join?"
Molei pointed to the terminal on the coffee table. Elukulu raised her hand to decline.
"Are you hungry? Baked an hour ago."
Molei picked up a plate of cream cookies. This made Elukulu feel a bit uncomfortable. She and Molei were complete strangers. Moreover, the other party's concern, without any flattery, made it hard for her to keep a straight face.
Why was Little Angel Molei like this? Because a few hours ago, she had heard the entire process from the treatment room: Scolding → Cursing → Surrendering → Beginning to Despair.
Elukulu simply sealed this memory away to avoid any impact on her momentum when she later had to fight Su Xiao.
"Who are you?"
Elukulu looked at Molei and the other two. Hearing this, Molei's pupils darkened slightly, looking like she wanted to say something but hesitated. Finally, she transformed into a little angel and said with a smile, "We're fine."
Seeing this scene, Elukulu smiled. She knew exactly what was going on in her heart. With Molei's acting skills, Elukulu could naturally tell that these three were probably collaborators of that Law Annihilator. They were putting on an act now to prevent her from finding the Law Annihilator and retaliating against his collaborators out of spite.
Elukulu looked directly at Molei and suddenly felt that this girl had a soul that was inherently interesting. She hadn't seen such an interesting soul in many years.
"You are very kind and have an interesting soul."
"Uh~, this~, hahaha, not really."
Molei was a bit embarrassed by the compliment and scratched her pink short hair.
"I have a hobby."
Elukulu spoke with a smile in her eyes.
"What hobby?"
"Collecting interesting souls."
"!"
The smile on Molei's face froze. She could clearly sense that this big sister in the mage robe had strength beyond her perception, to the point that her perception was misled into thinking the other party was not dangerous.
"Tell me, where did that Law Annihilator go?"
Elukulu looked at Molei with a smile. This made Molei swallow her saliva and point to the Law-Destroying Teleportation Array several dozen meters away. She wasn't lying! Bai Ye had stood on that teleportation array and disappeared. As for the specific teleportation coordinates, how would she know? Bai Ye only told her that she couldn't use that teleportation array without coordinates. Since this spellcaster didn't ask, she naturally wouldn't volunteer the information. Who told the other party to threaten her?
After inspecting the teleportation array, Elukulu found it should be a fixed-direction teleportation array. She tried to activate it. Unexpectedly, the teleportation array didn't have a runic lock set. She activated it very smoothly.
Watching Elukulu stand on the teleportation array, Molei and the other two silently counted down in their hearts, then covered their ears with both hands. Elukulu on the teleportation array suddenly felt something was wrong. When she tried to stop the teleportation, she found that although this teleportation array looked almost identical to a normal one, it couldn't be stopped once activated.
Boom~!
The spatial explosion ended. Molei and the other two looked at each other and decided to continue playing the game. An hour later, the teleportation array was activated. Su Xiao, Bubu Wang, Amu, and Baha walked down from it. They had gone out this time to retrieve the "Dawn Shield."
"Molei, where's that mage?"
Baha spoke. Molei, holding her terminal without looking up, replied, "She left using your teleportation array."
"Huh?!"
Baha's eyes widened. He pursued, "You didn't tell her that this thing can't be used like that?"
Baha flew to the control panel and began to backtrack the teleportation scale from earlier.
"She said I have an interesting soul."
Hearing this, Baha asked in confusion, "So what?"
"She also said she likes collecting interesting souls."
"Alright."
Baha continued fiddling with the teleportation array. After a moment, he said, "Boss, that spellcaster should be in the area of the World Tree, near the academy tower of the Soul Academy."
"..."
Su Xiao sat on a single sofa and didn't speak. Elukulu wouldn't be in mortal danger over there, after all, she was a top-tier Absolute Strong spellcaster. But those soul-crazy lunatics would definitely show her what hospitality meant.
Su Xiao closed his eyes and sensed his own condition. The injuries from yesterday's battle with the Beast God had recovered over 90%. He checked the task list, and a related prompt appeared.
[You have completed Main Quest: First Ring: Beast.]
[You have obtained a High-Tier Passive Scroll Chest (Opening this chest will randomly grant a high-tier passive skill scroll).]
[Main Quest: Second Ring (Activated).]
[Main Quest: Second Ring: Dark Moon.]
Difficulty Level: Lv.95.
Quest Brief: Witness the final glory of the Dark Moon.
Quest Duration: 12 natural days.
Quest Reward 1: Moon Eclipse Mark (This reward can only be triggered if you possess the Black Blade: Starving Wolf).
Quest Reward 2: Dark Moon Ring (This item will definitely drop after killing the High Tower Knight Commander).
Quest Penalty: Forced Execution.
...
The rewards for the second ring were unexpectedly generous. The "Black Blade: Starving Wolf" was the blade of the Black Moon Wolf, Helaibuh, obtained by Su Xiao after defeating the Initial Witch.
The appearance of the "Moon Eclipse Mark" in the current quest reward was triggered because Su Xiao possessed the "Black Blade: Starving Wolf." More specific details would be known after obtaining this reward.
As for the "Dark Moon Ring," Su Xiao was quite familiar with this item. The "Advanced Abyss Studies" he had spent a large amount of Space-Time Power to master was not just for show. The "Dark Moon Ring" came from the First Era of the Void, and its main effect was convergence.
A clearer metaphor would be: this item could enlarge itself, be embedded around an Abyss Passage, and then the irregularly shaped ring would slowly contract, thereby achieving the goal of shrinking or even completely closing the Abyss Passage.
In the Dark Zone of Blazing Sun Star, there were a large number of small Abyss Passages. Why couldn't the residents of this world close these Abyss Passages during the First Era? The answer was that the "Dark Moon Ring" was indeed effective against these Abyss Passages, but one "Dark Moon Ring" could only be effective against one Abyss Passage, and once embedded, it could never be removed.
There were too many small Abyss Passages in this world. To close them all with "Dark Moon Rings," considering the terrifying cost of a "Dark Moon Ring," it would probably require exhausting all the resources of six to eight "Transcendent Worlds," plus all the resources from the early First Era to the mid-Second Era of the Void, to meet such consumption.
Under these circumstances, the Sun God Clan had to give up. Currently, in the ancient high tower area of the Northern Continent, there was one "Dark Moon Ring." More accurately, after killing the High Tower Knight Commander, this supreme treasure could be obtained.
Seeing this quest information, Su Xiao naturally knew Elukulu's purpose for coming here. The unclosable Abyss Passage in the Green Wetlands of the Void had been keeping Arcane Eternal Star restless recently.
Arcane Eternal Star couldn't possibly launch a large-scale attack on Blazing Sun Star for the "Dark Moon Ring." First, it wasn't worth it. This world with an Aberrant Sun had an absurdly high number of powerhouses. It could be said that this was a relatively rational version of the Eternal Light World.
So, Lord Soul's current pursuit of Su Xiao was quite intriguing. Speaking of which, Su Xiao had greater grievances with the "Arcane Faction" and "Magical Energy Faction" of Arcane Eternal Star. The Arcane Faction needed no introduction; its leader was Sefeiliya. As for the Magical Energy Faction, this was the academic faction. Su Xiao had killed Dean Guya in the Wind Sea Continent.
Dean Guya might not be the strongest in the academic faction, but he was certainly its representative. Currently, the academic faction hated Su Xiao to the bone.
On the other hand, the spellcasters who came to pursue Su Xiao this time were the "Elemental Faction's" Daughter of Nature, Elukulu, and the leader of the Soul Faction, Lord Soul. Neither of these factions had a particularly high hatred value towards Su Xiao.
This situation clearly aimed to avoid a scenario where they only focused on pursuing Su Xiao, thereby delaying the opportunity to obtain the "Dark Moon Ring."
Closing the task list, Su Xiao checked the "Hunt Bounty: Blood Pact." Among the five bounties, Bounty 1: Collector was two-thirds complete.
Twisted Robust Heart: 2/2 pieces.
Bloodthirsty Heart: 2/2 pieces.
Nightmare Heart: 0/2 pieces.
Earlier, Su Xiao had released Iron-Blooded Hounds to surround and kill the Aberrant Gods, obtaining many "Twisted Robust Hearts" and "Bloodthirsty Hearts." As for the final "Nightmare Heart," this could only be obtained when completing Bounty 2: Depths of Nightmare.
"Bounty 2: Depths of Nightmare: Save the noble lady in the nightmare."
Where the nightmare mentioned in this bounty was located was still unclear. On the other hand, Bounty 3: High Tower was expected to be completed soon.
"Bounty 3: High Tower: Ascend to the top of the ancient high tower."
Su Xiao's next target was the High Tower Knight Commander. According to intelligence from the old nobles of Twilight City, the High Tower Knight Commander was located at the ancient high tower in the Northern Continent.
[Prompt: Your equipped item "Frozen Will" has been reactivated.]
Seeing this prompt, Su Xiao took out [Frozen Will]. This was obtained from killing the Ancient King in the previous world.
[Frozen Will]
Origin: Ancient Dragon Kingdom · Ebayasi · Soul of the Old Dragon of the Eternal Frost Icefield.
Quality: Overlord Rank.
Category: Special Equipment.
Durability: 1280/1500 points.
Equipment Requirement: Ancient Dragon Faction (Due to your possession of the Oath Emblem · White Dragon, you can use this equipment).
Equipment Effect: Protective Frost (Core · Passive). Upon activating this equipment, it will grant a protective aura to you and friendly targets within 1000 meters, reducing the Solar damage you take by 50% (including True Solar damage, this is a faction mutual suppression characteristic).
Prompt: This equipment cannot take effect simultaneously with "Rune Base · Divine Sacrifice."
World-Specific Effect: ??? (Active): Pending activation, estimated to activate in ??? natural days.
Rating: 6000+++++ points (Overlord equipment rating is 1~6000 points).
Introduction: This is one of the supreme treasures of the Ancient Dragon Faction.
...
Su Xiao equipped [Frozen Will]. In this world, it was a divine-level piece of equipment. Yesterday, when dealing with a pure physical boss like the Beast God, its attacks all carried Solar Flame damage.
Furthermore, [Frozen Will] had a world-specific effect in this world. It made sense that the Ancient Wyverns and the Sun God Clan were mortal enemies. It was normal for the Ancient Dragons' supreme treasures to have a specific suppression effect in Blazing Sun Star.
[Prompt: Power Lord (Nourishing Type · Eternal Rank Equipment) has absorbed enough Natural Force in this world. You can use this equipment to convert the absorbed and stored World Force into a "Power Fragment." There are a total of three types of "Power Fragments" as follows.]