# Chapter 28: New Plan
After some friendly persuasion, the weasel merchant sniffled back bloody snot and finally believed that Su Xiao and his group were good people. Seeing this, Baha retracted its metallic-sharp eagle claws that could have pierced through its skull at any moment, and the soul crystal heavy long blade pressed against its neck—more than twice the length of its body—gradually dissipated.
"Tell me, why did you run when you saw us?"
Baha's question made the weasel merchant's eyes redden. It glared hatefully at Baha and growled, "You... you killed my only friend."
"Friend?"
Baha was puzzled. Since arriving in this world, they hadn't killed any intelligent beings—only a small wilderness boss. Then it thought of something.
"Oh~, I get it. Don't tell me, let me guess. Were you traveling through the wilderness when a monster attacked you, and then the foraging beast, the Ancient Ghoul, happened to eat the monster that was about to swallow you? Is that how it went? Did I guess right?"
"N-no! We've been friends since childhood."
The weasel merchant tried to be stubborn.
"Oh? Is that really so? Normally speaking, even if the beast was young, it wouldn't bother with you."
Baha deliberately made one eye bigger than the other, activating its sarcasm mode.
"N-no!"
The weasel merchant was so angry its back fur stood on end.
"Oh hoho~, I hit the mark. Let me tell you another fact: the only reason this Ancient Ghoul didn't eat you is because of your unique body odor. Have you been delusionally bringing it food? How pitiful—you don't even qualify to be eaten, let alone be friends. What exactly are you fantasizing about?"
After hearing Baha's words, the weasel merchant's gaze went blank.
"So, you weren't friends at all. Once you understand that, we didn't kill your friend."
Baha patted the weasel merchant's shoulder. The weasel merchant lowered its head. It wasn't actually stupid—it knew that its "friendship" with the "old friend" was one-sided. But did that matter? No. Loneliness was like a monster that could devour everything, starting from the heart and slowly spreading outward.
"What's your name?"
Baha sighed, as if pondering something.
"Pag Bobotuga."
The weasel merchant, Pag, was still dejected. Seeing this, Baha sighed and said, "Pag, we've fought and become half-friends now, right?"
Having just lost his "old friend," Pag wasn't in high spirits and just grunted in response.
"I'm sorry I lied to you, Pag."
"Huh?"
The weasel merchant, Pag, was confused.
"Actually, the person you teleported away earlier really was our friend. But to crush your sense of achievement, I lied and said I didn't know them. We call her Death Sister—she's a necromancer."
"But that was just an avatar..."
"A necromancer's spirit is 100% connected to their avatar. If the avatar dies, so does she."
"Th-this serious?! Then we need to go save her quickly! I can roughly judge where I sent her."
"Too late. She's already dead."
If the Death Sister, who was currently hanging from a soul chain net on Skeleton Island, heard Baha say this, she would definitely punch it and tell it, "I'm not dead yet!"
"Th-this... what do we do?"
"?"
Baha was stunned because it hadn't expected the weasel merchant, Pag, to actually believe it.
"I... I killed someone."
The weasel merchant, Pag, collapsed to the ground.
"This..."
Baha was completely at a loss. Against vicious enemies, it could be crueler. Against shameless ones, it could be a hundred or thousand times more shameless. But against someone kind-hearted and easily trusting, Baha found it really difficult. It narrowed its eyes, feeling that deceiving this person would weigh on its conscience. Well, better just kill them directly.
It looked at Su Xiao with a questioning gaze. The answer it got was simple: time had already been invested, so killing them would be a loss.
"Ahem~, don't be too sad. I was just joking. We really don't know that person."
"Huh?!"
The weasel merchant, Pag, looked at Baha suspiciously, then seemed to understand something: "You mean she won't die along with her avatar's death?"
"How would I know? I'm not familiar with her."
"You're so vicious! You lied to people!"
"Uh..."
Baha was completely dumbfounded. It found it hard to understand how the weasel merchant, Pag, could be so naive in such a dangerous world.
"Have the people you've dealt with never deceived you?"
"I usually... don't meet living people. The customers I deal with don't seem to think I'm worth deceiving. Sometimes they don't even bother with me."
The weasel merchant, Pag, began recounting its experiences. In short, it had inherited its father's job—making various mechanical goods and selling them to the Nightmare Clan in Nightmare Sanctuary or to the royalty deep in the underground city of Ember City. In return, it got clean food and water, and the surplus it traded with Death Soul Merchants for various materials and daily necessities.
As it spoke, the weasel merchant, Pag, proudly took out the goods it had made—all sorts of strange and peculiar items. Some were for timing, others for identifying "Cursed Artifacts."
"The underground royalty trades food and water for these things from you? Don't you feel cheated?"
Baha could naturally judge the value of these strange items.
"They also gave me some things they didn't need. I keep them at home. Do you want to see?"
"No, just go home. It's very dangerous outside. Scram."
Baha even kicked the weasel merchant, Pag's, butt. This time, Pag didn't want to leave. It had forgotten how long it had been since anyone talked to it this much.
Just as the weasel merchant, Pag, was about to leave—
"Wait."
Su Xiao spoke. He looked at the weasel merchant. Though subtle, there was a strange aura about it—like a curse, but without much erosive power.
"Let's go to your place and take a look."
"Sure!"
The weasel merchant, Pag, was in a good mood, even though it had just lost a fake friend that might have eaten it at any moment.
But as they walked, the weasel merchant, Pag, suddenly stopped. It looked at Su Xiao, Bubu Wang, and Baha with confusion, thought hard for a moment, then took out an old notebook. Opening it, the contents were automatically recorded. Pag quickly checked the first page, and its eyes cleared.
"Oh, so we're friends. We're on our way to my place for a visit. My memory is a bit bad—I forgot just now. Let's go."
The weasel merchant, Pag, pressed a hand to its head and continued leading the way.
Seeing this, Baha finally understood why Pag seemed so strange. It had memory problems—it could only remember things that happened within a short period, apparently no more than an hour. Every hour, its memories would blur. However, some knowledge-based memories were permanently retained.
The notebook that automatically generated records didn't objectively record what happened—it recorded Pag's personal experiences and feelings, with strong personal bias.
Pag's mood was noticeably better. Soon, it arrived at an underground passage entrance. Entering, they found an abandoned subway tunnel. Following the steel tracks for about a few kilometers, side passages began to appear, and even parts of buildings were exposed.
The weasel clan lived here, but the weasels they encountered along the way were cold toward Pag, some even hostile, closing their windows to avoid seeing it. Pag was used to this, though it had long forgotten why it was so disliked.
At the deepest point, the tunnel was blocked by thick wooden planks. Turning right, they reached Pag's home—a two-story wooden building. The first floor was about 2 meters high, and entering required care not to hit one's head on the ceiling decorations.
Pag's home was old but tidy. The first floor was its workshop, with various tools suited to its size neatly hung. There was also a display shelf.
"These are the rewards the royalty gave me. Most are books—I can't read a single word. Some are stranger things, like this."
Pag picked up a mechanical sphere, twisted it like a Rubik's cube with clicking sounds, and it turned out to be a replica of the Mystic Eye.
This wasn't surprising. The Alchemy faction had caused mechanical pollution—that was universally acknowledged. This world had mechanical spread, likely because when the Second Era's Alchemical Civilization was nearing its end, a few alchemists fled here. After they died one by one, they left their alchemical knowledge in this world.
Later, the royalty obtained this knowledge and tried to replicate one of the Alchemical Civilization's treasures, the Mystic Eye—though it was more commonly called the Alchemical Eye.
Su Xiao picked up an ancient book and found it was written in First Era ancient script. He couldn't fully understand it, but he could grasp the general content. It was about "Engraving Studies." Across the void universe, these "Engraving Studies" still held considerable prestige.
Su Xiao didn't plan to master these "Engraving Studies." Though the knowledge was useful and beneficial to Sealcraft, he had already mastered Alchemy, Pharmaceutics, and Sealcraft, with levels:
Alchemy: Lv.95 (Max Level).
Pharmaceutics: Lv.95 (Max Level).
Sealcraft: Lv.92 (Accumulating).
As the saying goes, bite off more than you can chew. His spare time was now devoted to "Sealcraft," which was crucial. If he didn't improve fast enough, his life would be in danger.
No matter how he looked at it, the royalty's reward was absurd. Also, this probably wasn't the knowledge passed down by the underground royalty—otherwise, such inherited ancient texts wouldn't be given away so easily. Ancient books were different from regular books; they allowed for spiritual immersion learning and resonance.
"The royalty often pays you with this kind of reward?"
Su Xiao's question stumped Pag. It scratched its head in thought, then painfully clutched its head and thought hard for a few seconds. Suddenly, it seemed to recall something and said:
"I remember now. The royalty has an entire great library. They have all these ancient books there. They also said that if I ever meet someone who needs them, I can introduce them. They're willing to sell all the books in that great library."
Hearing this, Su Xiao picked up the most valuable ancient book and asked, "How many of these ancient books are in that great library?"
"Probably seventy to eighty percent are like this. The rest are very old scrolls."
"..."
Su Xiao sat down, and a plan began to form. To be honest, he really hadn't planned to win this round. The battle avatar created with 1360 soul strength + top-tier pharmaceutics was indeed powerful—it could crush conventional enemies. But the problem was that this round's opponents were Shenfu, Platinum Apostle, and Haoji. With the three of them working together, how could he win? By luck?
Not being able to win this round was a fact. That was why he was playing by the rules so obediently, creating such a powerful avatar—not out of delusional hope to win, but to farm as many "dungeons" in this world as possible to offset the losses from losing this round.
In the first round, Su Xiao won by relying on his unreasonable boss-fighting ability—taking on the three elders, the "Dense Maple Royal Capital" big boss, one against three. He even controlled the Lord's Train, charged into the royal capital's central district, and cut down the three elders in the main hall while enduring the surging plant royal capital legion.
This caused the second boss with a "Broken Origin" to politely concede and flee overnight to the Lord's Continent—that was the Swamp King.
Plus, in the first round, Shenfu, Platinum Apostle, and Haoji were wary of each other. One-on-one, none of them feared fighting Su Xiao, but the pressure was still high.
By the second round, after Su Xiao activated the infinite gold coin army-building mode, Shenfu and Platinum Apostle spent the whole time reaping benefits. When the final battle came, the two chose to say goodbye. The unconvinced Moon Witch and others wore painful masks in the final battle because it couldn't even be called a battle—it was a wild beast tide spread and flat push.
Shenfu, Platinum Apostle, and Haoji were all wary of Su Xiao. Why? Because in a game, while Su Xiao wouldn't exaggeratedly jump beyond the boundaries of the rules, he certainly wouldn't obediently follow the rules and play games with these violators. It was like a rock-paper-scissors game where the opponent had prepared a rule-breaking cleaver, and Su Xiao pulled out a chainsaw to face the opponent sitting across from him—a very powerful diesel chainsaw.
Now in the third round, Su Xiao's chainsaw card had been played. Shenfu, Platinum Apostle, and Haoji's trump cards had gone from one to two. The trump card meant for the previous round, Shenfu the old fox had kept, saving it for this round.
Compared to struggling with all means, it was better to preserve means. There were still three more crucial rounds ahead. The biggest loss in this round was nothing more than the failure of "Bounty 4: Perfectionist" and the small amount of space-time power distributed at the end of this round. He had the "Hunt List: Blood Pact" as a stable source of space-time power, so he wasn't empty in terms of space-time power loss.
But now, Su Xiao didn't plan to give up this round. Meeting the weasel merchant, Pag, and seeing these ancient books gave him a way to turn things around.
Speaking of which, this was also trained by the "Fortune Electrocardiogram." Given his luck, when he made plans, he should be grateful if there were no side effects—never expect smooth sailing.
This kind of daily adversity had trained Su Xiao to the point where, as long as he was given a tiny opportunity or possibility, he could make his opponents gradually wear painful masks. The enemy's mental journey was basically:
"The signs seem wrong, but overall it's fine. Hold steady."
"The problem seems a bit big, but holding steady can still win. Yes, that's right. This Law Destroyer can't stir up any waves. This round is secure."
"Things seem increasingly wrong."
"Damn! Bad, looks like we might lose."
"It's over. That Law Destroyer has already brought his blade to the door. In the few seconds before meeting, I must stabilize my expression changes. Must look relaxed throughout. Even if I die, I can't lose face."
...
Su Xiao closed his eyes and leaned back in the wooden chair, one hand on the ancient book's cover on the small table beside him, his index finger tapping rhythmically. The feasibility of this plan was very high. However, he didn't know if the world's residents would see him as the big villain boss and unite to resist him. Although he could kill them all, that would ultimately cause the plan to fail.
Su Xiao opened his eyes and looked at the weasel merchant, Pag beside him. This was a weasel with short memory and a kind heart. If it could accept the changes brought by the subsequent plan, then the other residents of this world would be even more delighted.
"Pag, I have a question I hope you can answer."
"What?"
Pag had forgotten who Su Xiao was again, but after opening the notebook and seeing the words "Friend Bai Ye," it nodded firmly.
"Do you wish to live in an area without the spread of curses?"
Hearing this question, Pag thought seriously for a while, then nodded and said with even more seriousness that it very much wished to.
"Is that so? Thank you for your answer."
Su Xiao raised his hand, and when he opened his palm, there were several wrapped soul candies. Pag picked one up, sniffed it, unwrapped it, and tentatively put it in its mouth. The next second, its mood began to bloom beautifully.
"You said earlier that the underground royalty has many of these ancient books?"
Pag seemed not to hear Su Xiao's words, as if it had never tasted anything so sweet in its life. It stood there, a bit frozen.
Snap, snap~
Su Xiao's two crisp finger snaps brought Pag back to reality. Baha on its shoulder repeated the question, and Pag nodded:
"Yes, the royalty really wants to sell those ancient books. Their situation is very bad now. To keep their promise and resist the curse, they're almost at their limit."
Pag sighed, feeling lost about its inability to help. Baha asked, "Promise? Curse? Can you explain on the way?"
"Sure."
Pag got up and went to the inner part of the house. In a storage room of a few square meters, it opened a secret door and led the way through the passage inside, which would reach the underground city beneath Ember City.
Pag's ancestors were all skilled craftsmen serving the underground royalty. By now, the royalty could no longer afford to employ Pag's father long-term, so the relationship changed from employment to cooperation, though the royalty still had priority supply. By Pag's generation, the royalty had declined to its lowest point.
Pag also had a notebook, handwritten by itself, recording what it considered important. As it led the way, it flipped through the notebook while narrating the underground royalty's situation.
It was during the Second Era when the royalty fled here. At that time, the world's situation was still manageable—though the curse was spreading, it could still be barely contained. After the royalty arrived, one of the world's two major forces, the Soul Ancient Hall, advocated expelling the royalty, while the other force, the Holy Temple, proposed taking them in.
The Soul Ancient Hall became today's Array Master Guild and Pilgrims, and their split was relatively peaceful. The Holy Temple, however, split into the Mercy Holy Temple and the Hunting Church. Obviously, that split was catastrophic. Initially, both sides maintained decorum, but as the fighting escalated, they resorted to everything—eye-gouging, hair-pulling, groin-kicking, and more.
The result was that the royalty was in a state of being expelled at any time, temporarily staying in this world. At the end of the Second Era, the world's two major forces collapsed during the process of resisting curse erosion.
The royalty approached the Holy Temple's upper echelons and promised that, in gratitude for taking them in, they would help resist the main city's curse erosion until the end of the Third Era. The Holy Temple's former main city was today's Ember City.
As Pag spoke, they reached the end of the passage. Pag took out a string of keys and opened a metal door. From the various branch channels spreading here, it was clear that entering the underground city wasn't difficult. No wonder the Ember City above had sealed the passage from the underground city's first layer to the second so tightly.
Entering the underground city's second layer, the first impression was thin mist spreading everywhere. It was like a ghost realm. Dark buildings stood here, their doors and windows reinforced, with lights shining inside.
The faint clatter of armor came as a patrol approached. They were all heavily armored. Some, due to curse erosion, were naturally born with three arms and one eye. Others were tall, with eyes on their chests and shoulders, only having a mouth, nose, and ears on their heads, and eyes on the backs of their hands.
Hundreds of eyes looked over, examining Su Xiao, Bubu Wang, and Baha for a moment. The patrol leader nodded at Pag, and the group strode away. Compared to the weasel clan's settlement, the underground royalty was friendlier to Pag.
Under Pag's guidance, Su Xiao arrived at a dark royal hall. After notifying the six-eyed guard, the guard made a "wait" gesture. A few minutes later, a hunched figure with seven or eight arms, wearing a tattered long coat, walked over slowly. Four of its five eyes were cloudy and blind, with only one still somewhat spirited. This was an elder of the royalty.
"You are..."
The royalty elder stopped its slow pace after seeing Su Xiao, looked him up and down with its remaining eye, revealed two rotten teeth, and smiled.
"Yes, darkness is approaching. How could you be cut off? Trash-tier races like us have managed to linger on until today, let alone you Law Destruction Shadows."
The royalty elder laughed sinisterly, slowly raised a hand, and said, "Come, this way."
The royalty elder leaned on a cane, supported by the six-eyed guard, and walked forward through the main hall, going deeper. Because the elder's legs were too slow, it took over half an hour for them to reach the end of the corridor and enter a great library. Rows of bookshelves several tens of meters high represented the former glory of this place.
The royalty elder pointed with its wooden cane at the rows of bookshelves: "This is the inherited knowledge of the Feather Race from the First Era. Yes, that troublemaker race in the void now. They were glorious in the past too, but every time they made a choice, they lacked boldness, always worrying about gains and losses. But because of that, they've survived until now, still quite glorious."
The royalty elder looked at Su Xiao: "Law Destroyer, how much do you want?"
"All of it."
"Oh? The price will be very high."
"Prepaid."
"Tell me more. This old man seems a bit interested."
The royalty elder showed a senile smile, but in truth, this old fellow's mind was as clear as a mirror.
"After it's done, the Lord's Continent will have a place for your royalty to live."
Su Xiao's words made a different light appear in the royalty elder's single eye. The pupils of its other five eyes also focused a bit. After a moment, it shook its head regretfully:
"No, we promised to resist the curse for this city until the end of the Third Era. Although with the curse spreading, we can't hold out until then, a promise is a promise. Our race is arrogant, proud, and reckless, but... a promise is a promise."
As it spoke, the royalty elder tapped the ground with its wooden cane, and its aura changed—imposing without anger.
"What if all the residents of Ember City have a place to live on the Lord's Continent?"
Currently, on the Lord's Continent, the humans, undead, and swamp tribes coexisted peacefully. Given the continent's vastness, even if these three factions developed for centuries, they wouldn't reach the point of resource scarcity and mutual contention. Adding the royalty and Ember City residents would be the same. This population would be like a drop in the ocean on the Lord's Continent. More likely, if they didn't make a big fuss, the three native forces on the Lord's Continent might not even know they had arrived for decades. And outside Ember City's barrier, the curse was spreading—they were used to lying low.
This offer made the royalty elder's heart move, but it still shook its head: "Law Destroyer, the lords of the Lord's Continent won't agree."
"Don't worry."
"Oh? You'll negotiate? I've experienced your Law Destroyers' negotiation skills before. The process cost me a few teeth, but the lords' teeth are hard to knock out."
"Don't worry. I've already killed them all."
With that, Su Xiao turned his head to look at the royalty elder, saying the most ruthless and shocking words in the most plain tone.
"You..."
The royalty elder's old face twitched, then it nodded. It believed this was true because Law Destroyers really could do such things.
"Alright, how do you guarantee it?"
"I guarantee it with the honor of a Law Destroyer."
"What?"
The royalty elder suddenly changed from its slow, low speech, its gaze becoming sharp. If it weren't so old, it might have used its cane to assume a combat stance.
Su Xiao and the royalty elder stared at each other in silence. After a moment, Su Xiao said:
"I guarantee it with my personal honor."
"Good, then it's settled. These ancient books are all yours."
Leaving these words, the royalty elder leaned on its cane and walked away slowly, looking very assured by Su Xiao's promise.
Entering the great library, it had been uncleaned for a long time—not only covered in dust and cobwebs but also with broken books and stone fragments on the floor. After previously accumulating 10 world comprehensive evaluations of S+, Su Xiao's team storage space had reached 5000 cubic meters, enough to hold all these ancient books and scrolls.
After sending messages to Amu and Beini in the team channel, Su Xiao, Bubu Wang, and Baha began storing the ancient books and scrolls into the team storage space. Pag, being warm-hearted, wanted to help, so they let it pick out complete ancient books or scrolls from a pile of waste book piles.
An hour later, Amu and Beini arrived. With Amu, work efficiency immediately improved. Bubu Wang, the lazy one, really liked to slack off, but if the situation was critical, it could be serious enough to hide in one place and stare at an enemy for days or even longer.
By evening, Su Xiao had stored all the valuable ancient books and scrolls into the team storage space. He didn't return to Ember City directly from the underground city's second layer but took the original route back, then entered the city through Ember City's main gate. Sometimes, details determined success or failure, especially when dealing with a super old yin bi like Shenfu.
Returning to the safe zone residence in the back city district, Su Xiao controlled the avatar into the terminal's cultivation tank, withdrew his mental energy, and disconnected. A brief dizziness, and he opened his eyes, sat up, and felt the familiar and powerful body, experiencing a comfort from the inside out.
As expected, Su Xiao wouldn't control this battle avatar again. However, in the subsequent plan, this battle avatar was very important—it could "automatically" farm "dungeons," allowing Su Xiao to gain rewards from clearing "dungeons" repeatedly.
In theory, this battle avatar, which was 100% mentally compatible with Su Xiao, couldn't be controlled by anyone else. But he had a brilliant idea.
Standing before the control chair, Su Xiao pressed one hand on the blade hilt at his waist, released the Blade Demon Spirit, and to a certain extent, lifted the suppression on the spirit.
The spirit's image began to change, from only having slender finger features to having a head full of smoky long hair, with blue-tinted eyes and black pupils.
Su Xiao pointed at the control chair. In this state, the spirit naturally wouldn't obey his control. But as Su Xiao's suppression force came, the spirit seemed to think for a moment. Seeing this made Su Xiao's pupils contract slightly—he rarely showed such emotional changes.
After a moment, the spirit lay back in the terminal seat. With the terminal chair's assistance, the spirit gradually formed a mental connection with the battle avatar. As for the battle avatar being 100% mentally compatible with Su Xiao and unusable by others, the spirit obviously couldn't be counted as "others." The initial trace of demon spirit energy in Su Xiao's body had appeared when he inherited the Law Destruction Shadow profession, born because of him and coexisting with him.
The sound of cultivation liquid dripping came as the rear hatch opened, and Su Xiao's battle avatar walked out.
Regarding how to control this spirit avatar to achieve the expected goal, Su Xiao took out a contract. Seeing this, the spirit avatar immediately tried to escape. The contract parchment in Su Xiao's hand dissolved, turning into a stream of energy that entered the spirit avatar's body.
The spirit avatar paused. Just as it was about to take another step, the contract's force made it stiffly fall to the ground. After struggling for over ten minutes, the spirit avatar got up and stared straight at Su Xiao. The accounts for stealing its spirit energy in the past and this forced control were all added together—it planned to settle things after reaching the Supreme level.
Yes, the final question of who would completely suppress whom would only be decided after Su Xiao advanced to Supreme and reached the upper-middle level of Supreme.
Su Xiao gave the spirit avatar a simple task: solo the Level 10 dungeon "Soul Hall." Previously, he felt this round was doomed to lose, so he had carefully created an avatar to farm benefits. The avatar was Level 1, but the improvement from potions was equivalent to a hidden level of Lv.60.
Either bold enough to swallow an entire world, or stable enough to be speechless—that was how Su Xiao made decisions in advantageous and disadvantageous situations. So his previous idea was to let the avatar have a hidden level of Lv.60, plus wilderness leveling to Lv.20, making the actual level Lv.80 to farm the Lv.10 dungeon "Soul Hall."
Imagine if that happened—the monsters in "Soul Hall" would be crying, "Don't come near!"
"Baha."
"Here, boss."
Baha flew over. Su Xiao assigned it the task of taking the avatar outside, flying around the world to open the map, hopefully revealing all special areas—dungeon area information and icons. Then, after planning, let the spirit avatar go solo them one by one.
The purpose of farming these dungeons was twofold. First, two or three of this round's five "Broken Origins" were in different "dungeon areas." Second, by farming these "dungeon areas," they could obtain enough "Cursed Artifacts."
Su Xiao needed at least nine of the highest grade, A-rank "Cursed Artifacts" to exchange for [Ancient Hatred] and the "Mystic Eye Core." The latter was crucial.
Taking out the [Library Badge], Su Xiao opened a passage to the Soul Great Library. The wall in front twisted irregularly. He led Bubu Wang inside. Beini also wanted to go, but as soon as it ran into the wall, Su Xiao threw it out. Young Miss Beini unhappily tilted its head, indicating it was unhappy.
The reason for not letting Beini go was that it always caught the little elves. Elf Second Prince Boboli had tactfully mentioned it once, meaning that Young Miss Beini was welcome, but please don't catch the little elves. Beini knew it was wrong, but seeing flying little things made its claws itch.
Space fluctuated. When Su Xiao arrived at the Soul Great Library, he found not a single little elf around. Little heads peeked out from the bookshelves ahead. Seeing that Su Xiao hadn't brought Beini, they continued flying around cleaning the library.
A few little elves landed on Su Xiao's shoulders, chirping in elvish, complaining that they had been bullied by the Third Prince in the elven kingdom. The Elf Third Prince was the irritable little elf Diagu.
Going deeper into the great library, Su Xiao walked up a semi-arc staircase to a separate room. The inner part of the room was occupied by tree roots. The Ancient One among the tangled tree roots was nowhere to be seen. Instead, an old man sat in a chair before the tree roots, reading an ancient book.
The owner of the Soul Great Library, the Ancient One, wasn't there, but the Painter was. Seeing Su Xiao arrive, the Painter closed the ancient book: "He's not here. If you have something, you can talk to me."
"Selling ancient books."
"How many?"
"About 4000-plus cubic meters."
Hearing this, the Painter looked at Su Xiao and smiled, as if saying, "As expected of you, kid." He tossed a hexagonal container over.
"Put them in here. I'll appraise them. Don't worry. During the busiest part of the Second Era, I watched this place for about a fifth of an era for my old friend. Also, do you know about Spider Lady's escape?"
"Yes."
"Did you participate?"
"No."
Su Xiao rarely lied, but when he did, there were no flaws. But if you said he participated, that wasn't quite right either. It was inevitable that he had some connection, since he had been to the Soul Great Library and Wind Sea Continent. He couldn't completely wash his hands of it.
The Painter appraised for a moment and finally judged that these ancient books and scrolls were worth 5680 Library Silver Coins. This price was certified by the Void Tree, representing fairness.
He went to the top floor of the library. Entering, the snoring of the top floor manager, the Soul Elder, came. He was used to this. It was said that this one once slept for several thousand years. Going deeper, he saw the acting manager, Little Elf Boboli, also sound asleep. This was understandable—staying here, you might not see a visitor for a month, so every day was naturally boring.
Dong dong~
Su Xiao knocked on the table. Little Elf Boboli woke up and looked over blurrily: "You're early this time, Bai Ye."
"..."
Su Xiao didn't speak. He put down a large box of Xia's braised food. Little Elf Boboli swallowed, took out a piece and ate it happily, then couldn't bear to eat the rest, planning to take it back for his younger siblings to enjoy. Although the Elf royalty was wealthy, Xia's cooking level wasn't something wealth alone could taste.
Activating the exchange list on the top floor, Su Xiao first returned [High-Level Sealcraft], getting 3800 Library Silver Coins. Thus, he had a total of 9860 Library Silver Coins. In the list, he exchanged 7000 Library Silver Coins for [Master-Level Sealcraft].
The so-called [High-Level Sealcraft] and [Master-Level Sealcraft] were unified naming during organization. For example, [Master-Level Sealcraft] contained over 20 top-tier sealcraft ancient books and over 100 types of sealcraft techniques recorded on scrolls.
Just these 20-plus top-tier sealcraft ancient books were the achievements of the most top-tier sealers from the First Era to the present, passed down and modified generation after generation.
More specifically, a large sealcraft faction, from rise to fall, would only leave behind 1 ancient book worthy of being included in [Master-Level Sealcraft]. Such sealcraft ancient books would only produce 10 to 12 in a very long era. The Soul Great Library preserving 20 of them showed its unfathomable depth.
Putting away [Master-Level Sealcraft], Su Xiao came to the entrance of the Soul Great Library and used the Library Badge to open the exit. When the space fluctuation ended, he returned to the safe residence in Ember City.
This was a safe zone certified by the Void Tree, so even if he studied sealcraft here until his mental energy was exhausted, there would be no risk. Su Xiao took out [Master-Level Sealcraft] and first categorized the ancient books and scrolls.
To achieve the envisioned plan, he needed at least to raise Sealcraft from Lv.92 to Lv.93. Although the difficulty was extremely high, fortunately there were many auxiliary means.
Su Xiao took out the "Abyss Contract." Its core function was "Restriction" and "Price." If he tried to gain something without cost through it, he would inevitably suffer evil consequences. But if he used it to enhance learning ability within a certain time limit, and set the "Price" large enough, there would be no problem. He had tested this many times. This time's settings were as follows:
Restriction: Cannot use this item long-term, cannot use it for more than 50 hours at a time, cannot directly pry into or desire Abyss power through this contract, cannot desire easily obtained dark power, cannot fall into the Abyss.
Price: Extreme Misfortune, Severe Weakness, Intense Spirit Vision, Life Stripping (consumes 1440 HP per minute), Death Descends (exempted due to holding Soul: King's Crown), Original Sin Descends·Extreme Amplitude (exempted due to holding the Book of Original Sin).
Su Xiao trusted the absolute safe zone certified by the Void Tree, so he set the price very harshly.
Quantifying the price, the first three were each 10 points, Life Stripping was about 5 points. The harsher ones were Price 4 and Price 5. Price 4 was 500 points, and Price 5 was at least over 6000. He had set the Original Sin Descends threshold very high.
The "Price" and "Reward" of the "Abyss Contract" were like weights on both sides of a scale, with the middle pillar being the "Restriction." The weights on both sides had to be balanced to be stable. Also, when both sides' weights were very heavy, it tested the middle pillar—the "Restriction's" endurance.
6535 points of "Price" could only be described as tragic. In return, what he needed to obtain was: 100 times knowledge mastery efficiency improvement.
No matter how you looked at it, with the above "Restriction" and "Price," obtaining "100 times knowledge mastery efficiency improvement" seemed a bit disadvantageous. But what if this was the hundredfold gain after the title boost?
[Original Sin Scholar]
Quality: ★★★★★★★★★
Limit Refinement: Once.
Effect 1: Scholar (Passive), while wearing this title, reading efficiency +153%, reading immersion +194%, knowledge mark interpretation efficiency +217%.
Effect 2: Absolute Focus (Passive), after starting to master knowledge, consumes 30 MP per minute. During this time, efficiency in mastering Original Sin Studies/Sealcraft/Dark Studies increases by 1200%, other knowledge mastery efficiency increases by 35%.
Effect 3: Original Sin Scholar (Passive), for each peak Original Sin item you hold/seal, all effects of "Absolute Focus" increase by 20%.
Current number of sealed Original Sin items: 6.
Current "Absolute Focus" effect bonus: 120%.
That is: after starting to master knowledge, consumes 66 MP per minute. During this time, efficiency in mastering Original Sin Studies/Sealcraft/Dark Studies increases by 2640%, other knowledge mastery efficiency increases by 77%.
Description: When the famous teacher named Death personally supervises, people's learning potential continuously rises. Of course, sometimes this teacher inevitably becomes too strict.
...
With Su Xiao's current maximum MP of 199906 points, he could maintain "Absolute Focus" for 50 hours each time. That was why he set the "Abyss Contract's" restriction to no more than 50 hours at a time.
As for why he made so many exaggerated restrictions before using the "Abyss Contract" to gain "100 times knowledge mastery efficiency improvement," when this hundredfold was placed after the [Original Sin Scholar] boost, setting such strict restrictions was very normal.
Assuming Su Xiao's original knowledge mastery characteristic was 320 points, the title raised it to 8448 points, and then the hundredfold boost brought it to 844800 points. With this exaggerated gain, 1 day equaled 2640 days of efficiency. Correspondingly, Su Xiao found that the "Abyss Contract" had limits. Using it like this, he could only use it four or five times before it broke down. Fortunately, the title was very safe.
Considering it could bring Sealcraft level +1 or even +2, it was worth it. After preparing everything, Su Xiao picked up the first sealcraft ancient book and began to raise "Sealcraft."
The plan he wanted to achieve, Su Xiao had actually considered after understanding this world's situation. But the current Lv.92 Sealcraft was too far-fetched to achieve this plan. Don't underestimate the gap between Sealcraft Lv.92 and Lv.93. After Sealcraft reached Lv.90, each of the 5 levels was another world.
Checking the progress of this round's contention war, no one had yet obtained this round's "Broken Origin." Actually, Su Xiao had experienced a similar situation before, with a constructed avatar like this. That time, he trapped the other participants in the spring resurrection point. If this succeeded, he wouldn't need to trap the spring—this time was far more outrageous than trapping the spring.
Shenfu and the others had thorough plans? It didn't matter. No matter how thorough the plan, when facing the world itself's "roar," it would lose all meaning. Yes, Su Xiao wanted to make this already dead world roar—roar until... all participants were terrified.
Meanwhile, on the west side of Ember City, Nightmare Sanctuary, the Death Tavern.
"I saw it. It's Bai Ye's avatar leaving the city. But his avatar is a bit strange."
Moon Witch spoke while covering her right eye, as if she could see faraway scenes through her covered eye.
"Strange? How strange?"
Haoji spoke. Beside him, Shenfu's face wore a kind smile, back to his usual appearance. If Su Xiao were present, he would definitely feel that this old fox's plan was indeed very stable. Not through detecting changes in expression—Shenfu was such an old fox that unless his smile disappeared, no other expression changes were trustworthy.
"How to describe it? His avatar is like... darkification? No, it's black mistification. Something like that."
Haoji didn't understand the implication and looked at Shenfu: "Shenfu?"
"Bai Ye is using his demon spirit to control this avatar."
"Oh, you know him well."
Haoji nodded, then thought of something and said, "Not controlling it himself, using the demon spirit. So he doesn't want to lose attributes? Hmm, this guy's main attributes are all capped at 800. Not wanting to lose them is normal. But it feels like he's given up a bit. This guy, unexpectedly knows when to cut his losses. He's already seen that he has no hope in this round."
Haoji's explanation was also what Shenfu thought. Although Shenfu still maintained a kind smile on his face, a chill rose in his heart. The Kukulin Bai Ye he knew would try to farm benefits in such a losing situation, but not to this extent of giving up completely.
A feeling of extreme unease gradually emerged in Shenfu's heart. He began to think of various possibilities but eliminated them one by one. Suddenly, he thought of something—the book the other party held... the Book of Original Sin.
Shenfu picked up his wooden cup. He didn't drink it all at once, but he rarely drank half a cup in one go. Then, his smile grew even wider. He had almost forgotten—his old friend was the madman of Reincarnation. When you corner a madman of Reincarnation with no way out, what he would do was really unpredictable.
Around him, Platinum Apostle, Black Demon, Haoji, and others were all watching Shenfu's growing smile. Some even stood up from their seats and stepped back several paces. The first three were fine, very calm, but Moon Witch, Bandage Man, the Four Brothers, and Sea Crocodile were all creeped out.
"Everyone, what's wrong with you?"
Shenfu, his smile restored, looked around at the people present.
"Shenfu, your smile just now..."
Moon Witch's eye twitched. The smile on Shenfu's face just now, to be honest, would linger in her heart for a long time. It wasn't scary at all—even more kind and benevolent—but it made her whole body feel like her fur was standing on end.
"Nothing. I just suddenly thought of something happy. Let's continue our plan and welcome the possible... stormy waves."
Shenfu put down his empty cup. The game to come made him look even more kind at Moon Witch, Bandage Man, the Four Brothers, and Sea Crocodile—so 'kind' that it was like looking at a few dead people.
Updated late, sorry. Feeling okay today, so decided to write more. 12000-word update delivered.