Chapter 26: Good Fortune Continues
[The battle avatar will complete cultivation in 1 hour. Please do not leave the terminal's 5-kilometer range, as this would interrupt mental synchronization.]
The terminal device Su Xiao was in began rumbling and operating. He opened his eyes, rose from the terminal chair, and walked to the door to try opening it. The bedroom door that had been impossible to open before now opened easily.
Fenni, Bubu Wang, and Baha didn't have Su Xiao's strong mental strength, so when constructing their battle avatars, they couldn't leave the control terminal. He took Amu and Beini out of the house. Stepping outside, he found this was a building in the backstreet district, surrounded by other buildings packed within half a meter. Fortunately, these buildings weren't tall, mostly two-story structures, with only the distant church being quite high.
Walking through the dirty, damp alley, Su Xiao looked up at the sky. It was a gray-black night, with countless stars faintly visible. This visual effect came from the massive barrier separating them. Confirming there was no full moon in the sky, he continued forward.
The Void Tree's prompts clearly stated, "Do not go out at night during a full moon." Su Xiao was always one to heed advice. Regardless of what consequences a full moon might bring, it was wise to observe first.
Yuhui Town's area far exceeded that of a normal town, much larger than Muyu City. Its population was conservatively estimated at several hundred thousand, which also meant the town felt crowded.
Yuhui Town had three layers: the ground-level buildings, the underground first layer, and the underground second layer. Completely different from the Lord Continent, adventurers, middle-aged, and elderly people lived on the surface, young people lived in the first underground layer, and the royalty lived in the second underground layer.
Don't think that going deeper underground meant more safety. The deep underground had long been saturated with curses. Living in the second underground layer meant facing higher curse concentrations than on the surface. The royalty were generally stronger, so they could withstand it.
Over 80% of those living on the surface were middle-aged, elderly, or outsiders. Contractors like Su Xiao and Shenfu belonged to the outsider category.
The truly safe area was the first underground layer. With living layers above and below for protection, the curse concentration here was so low it was nearly nonexistent. Therefore, residents aged 1 to 35 lived here, ensuring Yuhui Town's population wouldn't wither. This wasn't due to the far-sighted vision of Yuhui Town's rulers, but a pressing survival issue.
Once the newborn population was insufficient, it would inevitably lead to a decrease in the number of 10-to-15-year-old boys and girls a decade or so later. This age group was the golden period for awakening formation talent and learning formation studies. When the number of formation masters became insufficient, Yuhui Town's massive formation would inevitably have problems. By then, the curse would erode everything, and it would all be over.
It was worth noting that Yuhui Town's royalty were not the rulers of this town. They were people who possessed great power but were cursed in their bloodline. Logically, they should have been expelled from the town. However, many years ago, the town's residents and the royalty had shared hardships during the most dangerous times, and subsequently, the two sides tacitly chose to coexist.
Don't underestimate this small faction of Yuhui Town. The internal situation was quite lively. There were five factions in total: the Formation Master Guild, the Mercy Sanctuary, the Hunting Church, the Dark God Cult, and the Pilgrims.
The grudges among these five factions were enough to make one's expression complicated. First, the Formation Master Guild. This was the big brother figure, always frowning, with an expression that seemed to say, "Can you guys just calm down for one day? Just one day, that's all I ask."
The Formation Master Guild's main responsibilities were training formation masters and maintaining Yuhui Town's large-scale formation.
The Mercy Sanctuary could clearly tell this big brother, "No way. We haven't converted the heretics yet. How can we be quiet?" Being eroded by the curse in the body wasn't scary; what was scary was having one's mind eroded. Take the fools in the Hunting Church, for example. They were the foolish ones whose minds had been eroded by the curse. As for evidence? What normal person would keep constructing battle avatars and running outside the town? These guys were heretics and must disband the Hunting Church immediately.
The Mercy Sanctuary was mainly responsible for Yuhui Town's treatment, curse erosion relief, funeral rites, and so on.
The Hunting Church's attitude was that the Mercy Sanctuary's cultivation secrets must have problems, otherwise these guys wouldn't all have water in their brains. Don't bother us. Get lost!!
The Hunting Church was mainly responsible for external exploration and investigating the source of the curse. They had made quite a few gains during this process. The current third-generation large-scale formation used by Yuhui Town was the initial version they found outside, later improved by the Formation Master Guild before being put into use.
Compared to the three factions above, the Dark God Cult, notorious in other worlds, was surprisingly responsible in this one.
Their attitude was, "Ladies and gentlemen, compared to formations, heretics, and external exploration, shouldn't we pay more attention to the royalty in the second underground layer? They're looking more and more abnormal. Is that really okay? And even if you don't worship the darkness, can you at least not worship the curse? You three, hurry up and control those Pilgrims."
That's right, the fifth faction of Yuhui Town was the Pilgrims. This group was quite peculiar. They firmly believed that only the "Eternal Great Bell" at the center of the world could save everyone, so making a pilgrimage to the "Eternal Great Bell" was a must.
Many groups of Pilgrims had already left Yuhui Town, but 99% of the town's residents believed these Pilgrims wouldn't get far before being eroded by the curse and turning into wood.
Besides the complex factions, the town's residents were also simple and honest in their own way. Su Xiao had encountered worlds where superhumans had a chance of going berserk before, but here, anything could go out of control and mutate. Sometimes it was due to emotional excitement, sometimes due to continuous curse erosion.
Compared to the mutated town residents, those on the verge of losing control were actually more dangerous. They still had human forms, but their minds and souls were mad to the extreme.
This was also why the Mercy Sanctuary could never deal with the Hunting Church. Besides external exploration, the Hunting Church's more important duty was hunting within the city. Rather than calling Yuhui Town a town, with its population and building scale, it would be more appropriate to call it Yuhui City.
Su Xiao walked along the street. Although it was already 10 PM, there were quite a few pedestrians. This was because the daytime here was pitch black, while the night had moonlight, making travel more convenient. This also meant that the black day was the time when mutants appeared and the best time for church hunters to hunt. After all, after the initial stage, mutants had particularly strong disguise abilities.
The entire Yuhui City was plagued by internal and external troubles. It had remained stable until now because the city's five major factions were all quite powerful. Although, except for the Formation Master Guild, the thinking of the other four factions was somewhat abnormal.
Yuhui City was certainly not a safe zone. The "safe zone" mentioned in the prompts was relative. Moreover, the residence Su Xiao was in was the 100% "safe zone" certified by the Void Tree. Not only could others not attack inside, but without Su Xiao's authorization, no one could enter it by any means.
Considering that he would need to continuously connect to the battle avatar through the "terminal" mentally, providing such a safe environment was normal. As for prohibiting contractors from using force within the town, this was clearly to prevent contractors from affecting the natives. Except for Yuhui City, other places in this world were under the erosion of the curse. Given the contractors' ability to cause trouble, if not restricted, Yuhui City might cease to exist after this round of competition ended.
"Meow."
Beini called out and jumped onto Su Xiao's shoulder.
"Meow."
Beini pointed with her cat paw toward the side alley.
"Are you sure?"
"Meow meow, meow meow meow~"
"Hmm."
Su Xiao walked into the alley. It was winding and twisting, with multiple misleading formations. If one's mental strength wasn't strong enough, they would definitely be affected by these formations and end up walking back out of the alley.
At the end, there was a three-story building with a heavy wooden door blocking the way. There was an observation window at the upper part of the wooden door. Su Xiao knocked on the door. After a moment of silence, footsteps came from inside. With a scraping sound, the observation window was pulled open, revealing a face full of fierce features.
"Let's see your goods."
The burly man with the fierce face spoke impatiently through the observation window.
"..."
Su Xiao didn't speak. He didn't know what the burly man was referring to. The reason he came here was that Beini judged this place to be a trading post or market.
"No goods, no deal."
Just as the burly man was about to close the observation window, Su Xiao said, "I was robbed on the way."
"Hah, if you have the ability to find cursed artifacts outside the city, you should have the means to protect them and bring them here intact. Only then do you qualify to enter. For a new face like you, to be blunt, who knows if you're a member of the Dark God Cult."
With that, the burly man inside closed the observation window.
Black market, cursed artifacts. The combination of these two was quite intriguing.
Dong dong~
Su Xiao knocked on the door again. The observation window was angrily pulled open, and the burly man inside shouted, "You!"
The anger stopped there because a money pouch was thrown into the observation window. The burly man inside squeezed the money pouch. The crisp sound of Soul Coins rubbing together made the anger on his face gradually recede, replaced by a smile.
The burly man observed Su Xiao for a few more seconds and said, "Well, you look like... like someone who won't cause trouble. Come in."
The burly man originally wanted to say you look like a good person, but he just couldn't say it. Even for him, facing this foreigner made his heart uneasy. The faint blood aura was definitely not from a good person, but that had nothing to do with the burly man. There were no good people in the black market.
Entering the dim building, under the burly man's guidance, they went all the way inside, passed through the building, and arrived at a sealed dark street. It was about five meters wide. The windows of the buildings on both sides were sealed with wooden boards and formations. The top was sealed with iron-black metal structures, hanging millstone-sized fire lamps.
Warm firelight illuminated the dark street black market. Small stalls were set up against the walls on both sides, with stall owners sitting behind them, dressed in black robes with hoods and masks.
Among these people, some were explorers controlling battle avatars, some were superhumans in a semi-out-of-control state. At this stage, they didn't care about curse erosion anymore. Some were members of the Hunting Church. The relationship between the Hunting Church and the Mercy Sanctuary was too bad, and the richest faction in the city was the Mercy Sanctuary. When the other factions were short on money, as long as they put aside their pride and came to ask for funds, the Mercy Sanctuary was easy to talk to.
If the Hunting Church came, the elders of the Mercy Sanctuary couldn't help but laugh. They would definitely give the funds without a penny missing, after all, the mutants in the city still needed these guys to clean up. But after giving the money, they would definitely be sarcastic from the inside out.
It was said that a few years ago, one month when the Hunting Church really couldn't make ends meet, the Archbishop brought the Chief Priest to the Mercy Sanctuary, wanting to borrow some funds temporarily. The result was that they got every penny, no, the other party even gave an extra 20%. At that time, the Archbishop naively thought the Mercy Sanctuary wanted to ease relations between the two sides. But what happened afterward made the Archbishop's lips tremble with anger when he walked out of the sanctuary.
The Archbishop learned from his mistakes and decided they couldn't continue like this. They decided to make some investments in the city. The result was that the Hunting Church almost lost their underwear, and they were even cheated by a merchant swindler in the process.
This matter was mercilessly mocked by the Mercy Sanctuary elders at the year-end council meeting. The high-ranking members of the Formation Master Guild and the Dark God Cult present barely managed to hold back their laughter.
The next day, the sanctuary elder who had mocked the most was robbed on his way home in the evening. The group of robbers was particularly vicious. They pressed the old man face down on the ground and shaved his hair, leaving a ditch in the middle. Unfortunately, a reporter from the city morning newspaper happened to pass by and captured this brutal scene.
Therefore, the next day's morning newspaper headline featured a photo of this sanctuary elder and his trendy hairstyle that was seven or eight versions ahead of its time.
Walking between the stalls, Su Xiao found that the stalls were filled with all kinds of strange things. If Kaiser were here, he would definitely like them. These cursed artifacts were basically in an unappraised state. Just as he was about to leave, a cursed artifact caught his attention. Looking at the stall owner behind the stall, his aura was dark with a hint of violence, yet steady enough. He was most likely a member of the Hunting Church.
He crouched down and picked up the cursed artifact from the stall. It was a badge-like oath item with the following attributes:
[Ancient Hatred]
Origin: Cursed Land · Decaying Blood Sea · Skeleton Island · Smile Town.
Category: Oath Item / Cursed Item / Misfortune Item.
Oath Effect: Hatred Force (Passive): When your maximum health drops by more than 50% instantly, your "Body Defense" and "All Abnormal Resistance" will increase by 300%. This state lasts for 5 seconds.
Oath Cost: Hatred Erosion (Oath Cost · Unique Passive): You will suffer mental torment from the will of hatred. Every 24 hours, you will endure a mental frenzy. The duration is randomly long. During this period, your sanity value will continuously decrease until you exit this state.
Note: Due to the mental immunity derived from your Blade Grandmaster Lv.95, this cost is ineffective against you.
Curse Cost: Dying Curse (Curse Cost · Unique Passive): The dying health threshold increases from 10% to 25% (i.e., when your health drops below 25%, you will enter a dying state).
Misfortune Cost: Misfortune Has Arrived (Misfortune Cost · Unique Passive): Your luck -300.
Note: Your current lowest luck value is -42000. This penalty is ineffective against you.
Description: Hatred, curse, misfortune, and... oath.
Price: Cannot be sold after equipping.
...
This item was quite good. It could replace the [Oath Item · Life Reversal] that Su Xiao currently had equipped.
"Name your price."
Su Xiao put down the uniquely auraed [Ancient Hatred]. The man behind the stall thought for a moment and said in a hoarse voice, "Trade... with cursed artifacts. It's a first-tier artifact. If you have a first-tier artifact we need, you can... exchange."
The hoarse man seemed to have impaired language ability, not from physical damage but from curse erosion.
The cursed artifacts in this world were divided into five tiers. The Void Tree's certification ranged from S to D level. [Ancient Hatred] was an S-level artifact.
"Hold it for a few days."
Hearing Su Xiao's words, the hoarse man stared at Su Xiao for a few seconds. He felt that Su Xiao didn't seem like someone who would break his word, so he nodded.
Putting down [Ancient Hatred], Su Xiao examined the items on the stall. A dragon-eye-sized "Metal Core" caught his attention. He picked it up, observed it for a few seconds, seemed somewhat interested, and asked, "This thing, name a price."
"Ten... first-tier... cursed artifacts."
"..."
Su Xiao put down the "Metal Core," didn't say much, and stood up to leave.
"Do you need me to... hold this for you too?"
The hoarse man picked up the "Metal Core."
"No need. Too expensive."
Hearing Su Xiao say this, the hoarse man wanted to explain how rare this thing was. They had obtained it from an alchemy laboratory. An entire squad had almost been permanently trapped there because of this "Metal Core."
"Actually... it can be cheaper."
The hoarse man began to waver. After all, the "Metal Core" hadn't been sold for a long time. They now needed several very crucial cursed artifacts to complete a plan that had been in preparation for decades.
The hoarse man's words made Su Xiao pause mid-step. He looked at the "Metal Core" again: "Then hold it for a few days. I feel this is a rare treasure, I just don't know its specific function."
The value of this "Metal Core" was beyond doubt. But even if he wanted to negotiate the price, there was no need to keep belittling it. That would only make him seem more eager to buy it.
"Alright. I'll... hold it for you for a few days."
The hoarse man picked up the "Metal Core" and put it together with [Ancient Hatred] into a wooden box.
Seeing this, Su Xiao walked out of the black market. His expression was calm, but his mood was very bright. This trip to the dark street black market was incredibly worthwhile. [Ancient Hatred] was just a pleasant surprise. The "Metal Core" was the real highlight. If he wasn't mistaken, there was a 90% chance this thing was the lost core of the "Mysterious Eye."
As one of the alchemy faction's highest creations, once the "Mysterious Eye" was restored to completeness, it might bring unexpected improvements.
As for how to obtain "cursed artifacts," there was no need to worry. He would use his battle avatar to explore outside the city later and would likely obtain such items.
Su Xiao returned to the safe house and went up to the third floor. The battle avatar still needed over ten minutes to complete cultivation. Using this time, he manipulated his blood energy to condense into summoning lines. After a brief wait, the Evil Heart emerged from within.
This time, the Evil Heart appeared with a beaming smile, very fawning: "Great Law Annihilator, it seems you have successfully defeated the Scarlet Lord. I am truly happy for you."
The Evil Heart laughed even more freely. The Scarlet Lord had once been its oath master. What happened during that time was unknown, but the Evil Heart had betrayed its oath master. In the previous world, when it knew its oath master was still alive, after the initial panic came hysteria. To eliminate its oath master, it had predicted the irresistible condition of "Supreme Life Source · Unique."
"Unfortunately."
"What?" The smile on the Evil Heart's face froze.
"I did defeat the Scarlet Lord, but I couldn't kill him."
Su Xiao didn't bother to explain why the Scarlet Lord was still alive. Explaining would only seem like covering up. In his view, although the Evil Heart knew the function of "Supreme Life Source · Unique," it was 99% unaware that using "Supreme Life Source · Unique" required having 5.5 million health points.
This meant that Su Xiao's current inability to absorb "Supreme Life Source · Unique" appeared to the Evil Heart as a sign that he hadn't killed the Scarlet Lord. Otherwise, in such a dangerous competition, why would he pass up the chance to increase his health by 2 million points?
Realizing this, the Evil Heart's expression twisted slightly. It asked tentatively, "So... that's it?"
"Of course not. I am determined to obtain the 'Supreme Life Source.' I called you out to predict the Scarlet Lord's whereabouts."
"Well..." The Evil Heart showed a troubled expression. It clearly couldn't do this. Its eyes flickered with cunning and malice as it thought for a moment, then said, "How about we first look for life-type secret treasures in this world?"
"..."
Su Xiao didn't speak. The Evil Heart closed its eyes and began to predict. After a moment.
[You have completed this prediction transaction.]
[You have obtained the current location of the "Ancient Dragon Essence": Ashen Land.]
[You have paid the Evil Heart "Dark Blood Potion" ×1 bottle.]
...
In this prediction transaction, the Evil Heart didn't try to collect "Fate." Given its personality, it wouldn't completely give up just because of a few previous failed attempts. It was clearly holding back because it still needed Su Xiao's help to eliminate the Scarlet Lord. This was exactly the result Su Xiao wanted.
The Evil Heart left reluctantly. Su Xiao went to the control terminal, opened the valve, and lay down on the terminal chair. A prompt appeared.
[The battle avatar has completed cultivation. Your battle avatar's class characteristic is: Soul Grandmaster.]
[Mental transmission in progress...]
[Transmission complete.]
Su Xiao felt darkness for a moment. When everything returned, he felt a sense of weakness. But upon closer inspection, it wasn't that. It was that his own body was too powerful. Suddenly entering this battle avatar mentally naturally made him feel this physique wasn't strong enough. After initial adaptation, the weakness disappeared.
Su Xiao rose from the metal tank filled with culture fluid. He opened his eyes and saw through the reflection on the opposite metal surface that this battle avatar had the same appearance as him. In fact, it was cultivated from his cell samples, 100% compatible with his mental power.
Raising his hand to move his fingers, the adaptation speed was decent. He tried to check the status of this battle avatar.
[Prompt (Void Tree): The ability separation between your main body and avatar has been completed. None of your own abilities (except combat experience or knowledge-type abilities) can provide bonuses to the battle avatar. Correspondingly, your luck (good fortune/misfortune) cannot be shared with the battle avatar. The battle avatar will have independent luck determination.]
[Warning: This separation of your Law Annihilation luck has consumed more than the standard value.]
[Stabilizing...]
[Stabilization complete. This is a necessary process for this round of competition, so you don't need to pay additional resources.]
[Hunter · Kukulin Bai Ye (Battle Avatar).]
Class: Soul Grandmaster.
Health: 100%.
Soul Energy: 500%.
Strength: E (Upgradable, max A).
Agility: E (Upgradable, max A).
Stamina: E (Upgradable, max A).
Luck: E (Upgradable, max A).
Soul: E (Upgradable, max S).
Class Core Passive · Soul Grandmaster: All your soul-type skill damage has a 50% chance to deal double damage, a 20% chance to deal triple damage, and a 5% chance to deal quintuple damage (Luck characteristics will affect the triggering of this probability).
Skill 1, Soul Weapon · Arrow (Passive, X): You can form a "Soul Crystal Bow" and consume 0.5% to 50% Soul Energy to form a soul arrow. The soul arrow you shoot will carry a brief "Soul Paralysis" effect upon hit.
Note: Your soul arrow can be instant-cast, or you can consume Soul Energy to charge it. After charging, the attack power, flight speed, penetration, and maximum range will continuously increase based on the charge level. Maximum charge time: 10 seconds.
This weapon's attack speed: Very Fast.
Skill 2, Soul Weapon · Hammer (Passive, X): Form a "Soul Crystal Great Hammer." Attacks deal high damage while causing at least 2 seconds of "Soul Paralysis" effect.
This weapon's attack speed: Slow.
Skill 3, Soul Weapon · Blade (Passive, X): Form a "Soul Crystal Heavy Longsword." This heavy longsword's attack intensity increases by 1000%, attack speed -500%.
This weapon's attack speed: Extremely Slow.
Skill 4, Soul Lock Net (Passive, X): Consume 5% Soul Energy to form a 5×5 meter "Absolute Concealment" soul trap. When an enemy steps on it, they will be trapped and lifted by the soul lock net. The final duration of imprisonment and lifting is determined by the enemy's Strength attribute, this ability's level, and your Soul attribute.
Note: If the enemy's strength is insufficient, the escape time will be extended, or they may be completely unable to escape.
Maximum number of soul traps that can be set: Soul Energy Upper Limit × 0.06 = 30.
...
PS: (Recommending a good friend's book, title "Part-Time Artist.")