Chapter 3: You Immediately Suffer "Permanent Death."
The last point was the real problem: use it and die. Considering that the current owner of the [Supreme Life Source] was still alive, there had to be a way to resolve it.
Su Xiao stood up, placing one hand on the Skill Upgrade Pod. As he activated the teleportation array beneath it, he sent this item to the Lord's Train. Although it was useless for now, if there was a chance to repair it later, its price would skyrocket from 5,000 ounces of Space-Time Power to 8,000 ounces.
Leaving the Hidden Sanctuary, Su Xiao continued downward, descending deep into the center of the insect nest to the Silver Queen's bed chamber. The Silver Queen was seated on a high throne styled with insectoid technology, holding a book in her hands. Its content was about how to improve a world's environment and stabilize natural elements.
The Silver Queen had changed too much. From the former warring and slaughtering empress, she had become a world empress who loved life and nature.
"Your plan is about to succeed."
The Silver Queen closed the book and took off the glasses she had ordered from Bubu Wang. These glasses had recording functions and perfectly suited the Silver Queen's aesthetic.
"..."
"It seems that in a few days, I can return to my home planet. I have a plan. I heard there is a type of tree that gives birth to wood spirits. The elves love nature. With their help, I might achieve my expected goals."
"..."
Su Xiao still didn't speak. The last lady he had seen transform from violent to elegant was named Spider Lady. She had caused a Transcendent World to be swallowed by darkness.
"What are you hesitating about, Law Destroyer?"
The Silver Queen's tone was even gentler than before.
"Hesitating whether to kill you, to eliminate future trouble."
Su Xiao's words made the Silver Queen pause, then she laughed softly. She said, "Stop joking, Bai Ye. Even if we're not friends, we're acquaintances, right?"
"I rarely joke."
"Give me a reason. At least you should give me a reason."
"Someone who changed similarly to you recently destroyed a Transcendent World."
Hearing Su Xiao's words, this time it was the Silver Queen's turn to be silent. She smiled gently and asked, "Could it be that there's a flaw in my smile?"
"No."
"I feel there's no flaw either. Otherwise, those insect clan elders wouldn't believe I've changed. Trust me this time. My rationality can suppress the ever-spreading desire for destruction in my heart."
"..."
"Thank you for the trust. But if that day really comes, I hope you will come to kill me. I cannot bear to turn into a crude beast myself."
"Oh."
"I will win. Making my home planet a better place is the best way to calm my inner self."
No one suddenly undergoes a complete personality change. Even though the Silver Queen had been beaten down several times by Su Xiao and Jila, she couldn't suddenly turn from evil to good. Now it seemed that due to some unknown problem, the Silver Queen's heart was constantly breeding evil thoughts, killing intent, and madness, which she suppressed with gentleness and kindness.
Confirming that the Silver Queen wouldn't have problems in the near future, Su Xiao left the Mother Nest. He returned to the bedroom on the third floor, collapsed onto the bed, and slept until nine o'clock the next morning.
---
**Southern Region, a hundred kilometers in front of the Dark Spreading Zone, Molten Iron City.**
From a distance, the high walls of Molten Iron City showed an iron-black color. Inside the cracks on the walls, one could vaguely see magma-like high temperatures. This was one of Molten Iron City's defensive measures.
Molten Iron City was several times larger than Golden City. However, the buildings here were all iron-black or iron-gray, giving a sense of stern oppression. The city wasn't filled with towering residential areas but various factories. Humid steam rose from sewer openings. Going deeper, one would find countless pipes as dense as tree roots and innumerable rats.
The entire city felt like a giant machine with iron-black rust on its surface. The only place with a bit of vitality was the inner city, which occupied 10% of the city's area. Here, the green coverage was over 80%, and the buildings were made of concrete or stone. The wall colors had a living tone, not just the coldness of iron-black metal.
Molten Iron Lord was far more clever than Gurbak. He didn't drive all the residents into the underground city. Instead, he distinguished between commoners and nobles, set up promotion channels for commoners to become nobles, and allowed nobles to live in the inner city, with hereditary rights for several generations.
As a result, the nobles of Molten Iron City were now more anxious than the Molten Iron Lord himself about how to deal with the Law Destroyer who had suddenly appeared in this world and single-handedly annihilated the Golden Faction. They had discussed many times plans like poisoning, ambushing, or kidnapping the follower Bubuteni. This led to a chaotic mess in the Council Hall.
Sitting at the head seat, the Molten Iron Lord gently rubbed his forehead. He had a burly frame, but on closer inspection, it was just that his skeleton was large. Having lived too long, his vitality had been greatly eroded by time. The dark red feathered robe he wore and the crown on his head made him look even more imposing.
"Everyone, shut up."
The Molten Iron Lord spoke. As soon as he finished, the captain of his personal guard struck the ground with the scabbard of his ceremonial sword. On the other side of the Molten Iron Lord, Laswo shouted loudly, "Silence!"
Gurbak's trusted aide, Laswo, had now become the right-hand man of the Molten Iron Lord. To be precise, he was originally the Molten Iron Lord's trusted aide, sent to Gurbak's side to secure a mid-to-high-ranking official position and monitor Golden City's movements. But Laswo had overdone it and ended up becoming Gurbak's trusted aide.
As for whom Laswo truly served, he would firmly answer that he would loyally follow the Lord for life. Note that this "Lord" didn't specifically refer to any particular lord.
The Molten Iron Lord scanned the nobles on both sides of the Council Table. Among them, there were some with outstanding abilities, but their vision was limited. He said in a deep voice, "I will deal with that Law Destroyer. What you should be doing now is investigating what exactly happened in the 'Sin City' of the Great Swamp Zone."
Starting two days ago, thick fog had spread over the Great Swamp Zone. When outsiders entered, within a short time, black tentacles would begin growing from various parts of their bodies, and their minds would fall into madness. What worried the Molten Iron Lord even more was that Sin City had completely lost contact. The Scarlet Lord had entrusted this matter to him.
Although the Molten Iron Lord had long harbored rebellious intentions, before gaining the upper hand, he still had to obediently play the role of the Scarlet Lord's dog. And he genuinely wanted to know what had happened in the Great Swamp Zone.
As for the Law Destroyer who had single-handedly annihilated the Golden Faction yesterday, the Molten Iron Lord didn't care much. His trusted aide, Laswo, understood the full picture. Gurbak's failure was more due to internal issues among his four legions. Three legions had internal conflicts, and only one Giant Demon clan fought with full force. Moreover, before the Law Destroyer formally attacked Golden City, he had used World Thunder to eliminate most of the Giant Demon Legion.
The Molten Iron Lord indeed feared the power of World Thunder, but he also knew something about it. With such a short interval, repeatedly summoning large amounts of World Thunder in this world would inevitably cause the scale of World Thunder summoned in this world to sharply decrease for the next few months or even half a year. This posed no threat to Molten Iron City.
The Molten Iron Lord had a plan. The ideal outcome was to ally with this Law Destroyer, form an alliance with the Undead clan and the Corrupted Beast Horde, attack Eternal Light City, use their legions to hold back the Orc Warrior Legion, and let the Law Destroyer break through the encirclement to kill the Scarlet Lord.
If the plan reached this point, it would be half successful. Then came the ambush against the reckless Law Destroyer. The Molten Iron Lord had heard that this Law Destroyer had a grudge against Arcane Eternal Star. He didn't know much about this aspect, but he could keep the Law Destroyer alive and hand him over to Arcane Eternal Star. This way, he could latch onto the super thigh of Arcane Eternal Star.
After that, he would deal with the Undead clan and the Corrupted Beast Horde. First, sow discord between them, and once they had exhausted each other in battle, he would take them all down in one fell swoop. This way, the Molten Iron Lord would become the absolute ruler of this world.
The plan was quite beautiful. The Molten Iron Lord wasn't naive enough to think everything would go smoothly. But if the plan succeeded by more than 70%, he would achieve his expected goals. The key step was ambushing the Law Destroyer and handing him over to Arcane Eternal Star, which was crucial for securing a place in the Void Realm in the future.
Just as the Molten Iron Lord was refining his plan in his mind, one of his trusted aide Laswo's subordinates hurried over, whispered something to Laswo, and then left.
"Lord."
Laswo spoke, hesitating. This was a habit he had developed from his long stint as a spy under Gurbak, who had a rather irritable temper.
"Lord, that Law Destroyer has arrived a few kilometers outside the city."
"Hmm."
The Molten Iron Lord remained calm, but inwardly, he thought he had underestimated the Law Destroyer's judgment. It seemed the framing from yesterday had been seen through.
"Has he allied with the Corrupted Beast Horde?"
"Well... no. He came alone."
"Alone?"
The Molten Iron Lord looked at his trusted aide, Laswo. After a moment, he couldn't help but laugh, feeling he had overestimated the Law Destroyer's intelligence. This wasn't about seeing through the framing; this guy was simply reckless to the extreme, coming alone to challenge Molten Iron City.
Laswo hadn't deliberately lowered his voice, so the nobles present also heard that the Law Destroyer had arrived at the city walls. This prompted the nobles to declare that they would personally lead their legions to kill the Law Destroyer.
Everyone in the Council moved out, following the Molten Iron Lord to the front high wall. When the Molten Iron Lord stood at the edge of the wall, feeling the hot wind on his face, he saw the Law Destroyer stopping a few kilometers away. This made him think that the Law Destroyer wasn't reckless enough to step into the range of the city's defensive devices.
The Molten Iron Lord decided to change his plan. Compared to letting this Law Destroyer deal with the Scarlet Lord, it was wiser to capture him alive first, then hand him over to Arcane Eternal Star, using their power to eliminate the Scarlet Lord. As for the Law Destroyer's formidable combat power at the same rank, as a lord system, the last thing they cared about was powerful fighters.
The city gates opened, and a war horn over ten meters long was blown. Six legions of Wolf Cavalry charged out of the city gates. These Wolf Cavalry were clad in scale armor, and the black wolves beneath them were larger than average. The two were connected through a mental link, achieving tacit cooperation. As the highest-tier unit type, the Wolf Knights, under the bonus of an SSS-level Lord Aura, were each a major boss-level unit in this world. This was also the Molten Iron Lord's confidence in challenging the Scarlet Lord.
Six Wolf Cavalry legions, eight Half-Elf legions, one Tree Giant legion, fifteen Beastman legions, and half a One-Armed Giant legion. Such a scale showed that the Molten Iron Lord was by no means arrogant. He wasn't giving Su Xiao any chance and intended to leave him here.
The roar of battle came from ahead. Su Xiao felt the ground beneath him tremble. What met his eyes were all charging Wolf Cavalry.
Facing such a scene, Su Xiao didn't even draw his long blade. As he activated the bonus of the [Death Monarch] Title, several hundred meters behind him, large areas of ground collapsed, forming massive underground passages.
"Roar!"
The furious roar of a mad beast came from the darkness underground. Amid heavy breathing, the first Mad Beastman emerged into the sunlight. Due to states like frenzy and extreme hunger, it was closer to a beast, so it ran on all fours, its hind legs bent. Overall, it looked somewhat like a muscular version of a Licker, except it had fur—sparse gray-white fur—and its claws even had a metallic sheen.
One by one, Mad Beastmen rushed out from the underground passages behind Su Xiao, charging past him on both sides. In the first few seconds, the Mad Beastmen could still maintain their rush, but after a few seconds, they simply squeezed out. Half a minute later, the Mad Beastmen surged out like an underground tide, howling and pouring forth, until their pushing force lifted the ground for over ten kilometers behind them.
Countless Mad Beastmen erupted from underground. The Wolf Cavalry legions, which had been charging with momentum, immediately slowed down. However, the Mad Beastmen didn't care what rank of legion they were facing; they swarmed forward.
Large Horse-Slaying Blades swung, and the front row of Mad Beastmen was cut in two in the blink of an eye. Such enemies boosted the Wolf Cavalry's morale slightly. But soon, they found that most of the Mad Beastmen cut in two didn't die. They were like undead mad beasts crawling out of nightmares, howling and pouncing forward.
Pfft!
A Wolf Cavalry squad leader pierced a Mad Beastman that was only half its body with his lance. Before he could fling it away—
Boom!
An explosion rang out. The Mad Beastman's bone fragments deeply embedded into the Wolf Cavalry squad leader's chest, some even piercing through his body. However, as a combat legion, the Wolf Cavalry were unafraid of pain and instead became more battle-hungry. The problem was that countless Mad Beastmen were pouncing at him.
Boom! Boom! Boom!
Mad Beastmen kept exploding before being killed. Although the explosion range was only 10×10 meters, its penetration was extremely strong, as it dealt "15% of the exploding unit's maximum health as True Damage." Even though the Wolf Cavalry had strong combat power and survivability, they couldn't withstand the tide of Mad Beastmen and the chain explosions triggered by the deaths of so many Mad Beastmen.
In an instant, the front row of Wolf Cavalry fell in large numbers. A Mad Beastman howled and pounced, its claws piercing into the chest and back of a Half-Elf. It opened its bloody maw and bit down on the Half-Elf's head.
This brutal scene made the nobles on the high wall change color. It wasn't that they hadn't seen cruelty and bloodshed before, but the Mad Beastmen weren't just fearless of death; they were like evil ghosts crawling out of the underworld. Upon seeing living things, they howled, opened their bloody mouths, and lunged to bite.
Compared to the nobles with varied expressions, the Molten Iron Lord on the wall was very calm, at least on the surface. But in reality, fear was uncontrollably surging in his heart. The reason was that he recognized what was below the city walls—Mad Beastmen, the lord legion of the Silver Lord, the former mortal enemy of the Scarlet Lord.
After calming himself a bit, the Molten Iron Lord suddenly felt this might be an opportunity. From his understanding, Mad Beastmen needed a lot of food. Given this world's low food production, it wasn't enough to unleash the Mad Beastmen's full power.
The Molten Iron Lord scanned the battlefield below and found that the number of Mad Beastmen wasn't as high as he had imagined. He formulated a plan. Unfortunately, this plan only lasted a few seconds before being stillborn. The reason was that if one looked from above, they would see tens of millions of Mad Beastmen charging from the surrounding areas.
After 20 minutes, the Mad Beastmen had forced all of Molten Iron City's legions back inside the city. If the city gates weren't heavy enough, they couldn't have been closed under the Mad Beastmen's swarm.
After 25 minutes, the outer walls of Molten Iron City were covered with Mad Beastmen. The walls hummed, and the iron-black high walls on all four sides emitted high temperatures, burning the climbing Mad Beastmen to ashes. The death explosions merged into a continuous roar, eventually blasting layers of skin off the iron-black walls. The Mad Beastmen swarmed up, using their piled bodies to climb the walls.
At the top floor of the Lord's Tower, standing by the floor-to-ceiling window, the Molten Iron Lord witnessed this scene. His expression began to darken, but with the combat power of his legions, they wouldn't be routed. At most, they would lose the advantage of the walls and fight within the vast Molten Iron City.
Just then, the Molten Iron Lord heard a rumble from above. He looked up and saw a massive teleportation array with insectoid characteristics appearing in the sky. As the black hole-like array opened, it poured out countless Mad Beastmen like a waterfall. This scene was visually shocking.
The Molten Iron Lord's estimation was wrong. The number of Mad Beastmen wasn't a ridiculous few million; it was a terrifying scale of tens of millions.
Because the number of Mad Beastmen was so massive, the effect of the [Death Monarch] Title's third ability, Death Awakening, exceeded expectations.
"Death Awakening (Passive): When your combat units/summoned units are in battle, there is a 5% chance of permanently promoting to Elite rank, a 0.1% chance of permanently promoting to Leader rank, and a 0.0001% chance of permanently promoting to Lord rank."
Bang!
A falling Leader-rank Mad Beastman clung to the outside of the floor-to-ceiling window, just a few meters away from the Molten Iron Lord, and roared: "Roar!!"
This caused the nobles behind the Molten Iron Lord to quickly step back, with a few even falling awkwardly.
The Molten Iron Lord looked at the Leader-rank Mad Beastman in front of him. At that moment, he knew he had lost.
From above, Molten Iron City wasn't just occupied by Mad Beastmen; it was nearly submerged. After several dozen Mad Beastmen devoured a Wolf Cavalry soldier, they howled and perfectly split. It seemed that the Molten Iron Lord's legions killed a sea of Mad Beastmen, but the more Mad Beastmen died, the more there were.
Under the endless legion flow, after a total of 1 hour and 20 minutes, the Molten Iron City faction was annihilated. The Molten Iron Lord was captured alive, and almost all the nobles were killed.
---
**Meanwhile, Western Region, Corrupted Beast Horde's Base Camp, the Beast King's Nest.**
In the dim environment, the dormant Corrupted Beast King suddenly opened its eyes. Just moments ago, it had witnessed the entire process of Molten Iron City's annihilation through an avatar. Moreover, that avatar had been devoured by the relentless Mad Beastmen. The Mad Beastmen's hunger-driven, soul-deep mad biting made the Corrupted Beast King's heart race.
Compared to this, the Corrupted Beast King realized another problem: what if those Mad Beastmen attacked its territory? Thinking of this, the Beast King's heart began to panic. The Molten Iron Lord had been beaten without any ability to fight back, let alone the Beast King, whose strength was inferior.
Footsteps approached. It was Demon Scythe·Talide, leading four teammates.
"Beast King, it's time to fulfill your promise."
Hearing Demon Scythe·Talide's words, the Beast King was silent for a long time before saying, "I want to change my conditions."
The Beast King's backtracking made Talide's teammate, Weiwei, feel dissatisfied. She was about to say something when Talide raised her hand to stop her.
"Fine. Say it now. What conditions?"
Receiving Talide's reply, the Beast King was silent for a few more seconds before finally letting go of all face and sincerely saying, "Save me!"