Chapter 43: Abyss and Power
An intangible pressure spread from ahead. Su Xiao pressed one hand on his sword hilt, his mind unprecedentedly calm. For some reason, even knowing this was a foe he would surely die facing, his condition had never been better.
The crimson gleam in his eyes turned pitch black, caused by switching to the "Soul Severing Shadow: Soul Core." After being enhanced by the "Soul Awakening" obtained from the [Soul Secret Treasure Box], the Soul Severing Shadow had received an epic-level boost. The three refined soul cores were each exceptionally powerful.
"Azure Steel: Soul Core (Passive): Comprehensive intensity of Azure Steel Shadow ability increased by 40% (this amplification can exceed the maximum limit of Azure Steel Shadow ability).
Soul Severing: Soul Core (Passive): Grants blade attacks the "Soul Severing" trait (current Soul Severing intensity: 50).
Devouring Darkness: Soul Core (Passive): Nullifies 30% of all damage."
The change in color at the center of Su Xiao's pupils represented the switching of soul cores. A faint blue gleam in the eyes indicated "Azure Steel: Soul Core," a red glow indicated "Soul Severing: Soul Core," and an exceptionally dark pupil center indicated "Devouring Darkness: Soul Core." However, since his pupils were originally black, the "Devouring Darkness: Soul Core" was the least noticeable.
Given the current situation, survival came first. Su Xiao drew the longsword at his waist.
Clang~
The blade hummed softly, as if sensing the powerful Abyss entity ahead. The Blade Demon Spirit within Dragon-Slaying Flash stirred slightly, but it did not take the opportunity to interfere with Su Xiao. If Su Xiao died, the demon spirit would dissipate as well. The demon spirit had always craved usurpation, not Su Xiao's death.
"Not yet ascended to Supreme, yet possessing such a powerful demon spirit. If not eliminated soon, it will surely become a calamity."
The Abyss Guard Captain walked barefoot across the black-blooded ground. With each splashing step, he arrived before the shattered gray stone throne. Gazing at the half-exposed Abyss Greatsword, his eyes brimmed with uncontrollable excitement and ecstasy.
"My King, you have not yet fallen!"
The Abyss Guard Captain gripped the hilt of the Abyss Greatsword with one hand in excitement. With a thunderous crash, the gray stone throne shattered. This powerful Abyss entity seemed to sense the general state of the previous Lord of the Abyss through the greatsword.
Now, the Abyss Guard Captain had only one thought: kill all the weaklings here, break free from this world that had sealed him for years, and seek his former master, who had shown him boundless grace.
Hum~
The greatsword vibrated, and intense dark aura radiated from the Abyss Guard Captain. The next moment, eyes of various sizes opened on his muscular arm gripping the Abyss Greatsword.
Boom!
Su Xiao and the Abyss Guard Captain vanished from their spots almost simultaneously. Though the foe before him was suffocatingly powerful, as a Blade Grandmaster, Su Xiao did not yield an inch in momentum.
"Extreme Blade: White Night!"
He greeted the enemy with his ultimate move right from the start.
Dong!!!
The greatsword and longsword clashed, producing a sound like two falling stars colliding. The palace hall, sealed with multiple sealing techniques, cracked and shattered like a collapsing house of cards from the inside. All debris hung in midair before being annihilated by darkness and blood qi.
Layers of shockwaves and air currents spread from the center point of Su Xiao and the Abyss Guard Captain. Despite the significant size difference, the larger Abyss Guard Captain staggered back a full step under Su Xiao's slash.
"Oh? Truly impressive. Even your master, Mawen, was not as skilled as you at this level."
The Abyss Guard Captain squinted his many eyes, bared his gleaming white teeth, and smiled.
Su Xiao stood still, longsword in hand, its tip angled toward the ground. He did not strike again. The reason: his sword-wielding hand was completely numb, and even half his body was numb. The ultimate move versus a normal attack seemed advantageous, but the situation was dire. "Extreme Blade: White Night" was the Blade Grandmaster's most powerful ultimate technique, unlocked at Lv.95.
"Lv.95 Ultimate Ability: Extreme Blade: White Night (Supreme Rank: Active/Passive). Upon activation, the next melee slash is enhanced by 500% (including slash attack power, slash force, slash impact, etc. Based on the current 800 Strength attribute, this equates to a powerful slash derived from approximately 1460 True Strength attribute).
Warning: This slash will cause you to take 10% to 25% of your maximum health as True Damage recoil."
Su Xiao confirmed that, even with the world's suppression, this Abyss Guard Captain still possessed combat power exceeding the Absolute Strength limit. Worse, Absolute Strength and Supreme were not a normal promotion relationship; one had to ascend to Supreme.
If advancing from Ninth Rank to Absolute Strength boosted combat power by 100, then advancing from Absolute Strength to Supreme represented a leap of at least 30,000 to 50,000. Across the Void and myriad worlds, Supreme beings were firmly at the top tier of powerhouses.
Wind pressure rushed toward him. Su Xiao raised his sword to block.
"Perfect Block."
Clang!!
Sparks flew. Even with the Absolute Strength-level passive "Perfect Block: X," Su Xiao still retreated a full step. The ground beneath him violently cracked, and the impact caused his coat hem to flutter. The right sleeve was torn into several fine cuts.
Retreating a full step was not the worst. The fact that his weapon did not shatter and his block was not broken was due to Dragon-Slaying Flash's rating of 10,050 points—4,050 points higher than the highest Eternal Rank equipment—and the Moon Wolf's signature technique, Perfect Block, which was truly effective.
A bloodstain appeared on Su Xiao's right cheek, caused by the pressure of the Abyss Greatsword. The wound faintly felt the erosion of Abyss power, but there was no time to worry about that. An unstoppable wind pressure was already upon him.
"Perfect Block!"
Clang!!!
Sparks scattered widely, but this time, the Abyss Guard Captain's greatsword was not deflected. The burly Abyss entity's other three massive arms gripped the sword hilt. Black skin on his body writhed like serpents. All four arms swung in a slashing motion.
Boom!
Su Xiao was sent flying backward. Blood droplets splattered through the air along his path, quickly absorbed by the fine spatial cracks caused by the clash.
While flying backward, Su Xiao raised his hand toward the Abyss Guard Captain charging at him from below.
"Blood Smoke Cannon."
Blood qi instantly gathered at his fingertip, compressed to the limit, and shot out as a blood-colored beam. It pierced through layers of small air currents, striking the Abyss Guard Captain's shoulder. The Abyss powerhouse only shook slightly. One of his lower right arms swelled, clenched into a fist, and punched toward Su Xiao.
A sharp sound of wind cutting. A figure over three meters tall, bare-chested with a wild lion's mane, rushed in front of Su Xiao to meet the Abyss Guard Captain. This person was none other than one of Su Xiao's mortal enemies, Haotao.
"Ha!"
Haotao's face showed a wild grin. His forearms and fists turned blazing red. His right fist met the Abyss Guard Captain's massive punch.
A brief silence.
Dong!!!
The earth trembled, then shattered into fragments that flew upward. A bowl-shaped crater dozens of kilometers in diameter instantly appeared.
With the fist clash, the Abyss Guard Captain was halted and stepped back half a step. Haotao hung a few meters in the air, completing his full-power punch. He had pushed back the Abyss Guard Captain.
Haotao landed.
"Pwah!"
A large mouthful of scalding blood sprayed out. Hands on his knees, head lowered, Haotao's expression was priceless. His left eye twitched constantly, as if he had seen a ghost.
"Oh? There's another one?"
The Abyss Guard Captain flexed his slightly sore wrist, looking down at Haotao with some surprise.
Darkness erupted from Haotao's chest, stiffening his entire body. He could not move a single finger, forced to watch helplessly as the Abyss Guard Captain's massive hand reached for him.
"Lost: Lamb."
The voice seemed to come from an unknown otherworld. On the Abyss Guard Captain's extended hand, gray-white, dead-skin-like petrified crystals appeared, stopping his hand.
"Ancient God?"
The Abyss Guard Captain clenched his fist. The gray-white petrified crystals on his hand shattered and fell off with a crash. The damaged skin and flesh on his arm regenerated at high speed.
Rapid footsteps approached. A blade cut through the air. A demon scythe wreathed in black flames streaked with afterimages toward the Abyss Guard Captain.
Clang~
The demon scythe clashed with the Abyss Greatsword. The Abyss Guard Captain swung with immense force, sending the demon scythe, Tailide, flying. Tailide landed gracefully, the scythe naturally twirling, leaving several curved flame trails.
"Law Destroyer, Ancient God, Demon Scythe. Good, very good. Just freed, and three groups of enemies come for me to slaughter. It seems I need to get serious."
The Abyss Guard Captain thrust his Abyss Greatsword into the ground. Layers of dark pulses radiated, causing spatial cracks across the surrounding area. These cracks spread far, and pitch-black liquid seeped from them. The Abyss began high-intensity erosion of this place.
Su Xiao, Haotao, Demon Scythe Tailide, Kaien, Water Brother, Battle Angel Zellina, the couple Guangyan and Yingqin, and even the Violator Moon Witch and Bandage Man formed an encirclement around the Abyss Guard Captain.
Not everyone wanted a deathmatch, but there was no escape. Even support-type personnel were within a few kilometers. Farther away, the Abyss invasion intensity was too high.
Eight teams, totaling 27 participants, gathered. Among them, the tank-type Hamdi took the lead. This bald, burly man was both trembling and excited. He felt that, before so many fierce fighters today, he might restore the dignity of tanks.
Hamdi did not dare be careless. He took out his Eternal Rank +13 giant tower shield. His thought was: if the brute-force type Haotao and Blade Grandmaster Bai Ye could block one or two attacks from this ultimate boss, he, as a tank, could withstand at least three, even if weaker than the first two. Besides, there were so many support and healing types from Holy Light Paradise.
With this thought, Hamdi's confidence surged. He roared.
"Fight!"
This roar drew all the support and healing skills from the crowd toward him, earning recognition from the support types.
"Bring honor to us tanks, brother."
The Violator Sea Crocodile spoke, surprising Hamdi that this Violator had once been a tank.
"You've got this."
"Count on you."
"Don't flinch. Overwhelm him."
Faced with their goading, Zellina, captain of the Zellina Team, ground her teeth in anger. Hamdi was not their teammate, but logically, a tank should take the lead. They couldn't let the Blade Grandmaster and brute-force type face such a large enemy head-on.
"Roar!!"
Hamdi let out a battle cry, charging like a steel train. Initially slow, he soon gained unstoppable momentum.
With a boom, Hamdi streaked with afterimages toward the Abyss Guard Captain. The Abyss Guard Captain scratched his chin, then suddenly raised his hand.
Dong~!
Like a bell tolling, the Abyss Guard Captain blocked the giant shield with five fingers. His three massive hands grabbed the shield's edge. Before the others could attack, he leaped, turning into a black dot that vanished into the clouds above.
"Uh... Tank bro got snatched."
The Demon Scythe team's Weiweiyin spoke with a strange expression. The next moment, her face turned pale. She shouted:
"Defend!"
As she spoke, she used a life-saving item. Golden light appeared behind her. An angel made of platinum light embraced her from behind.
A mournful falling sound came from the sky. A black object like a meteor, trailing flames, crashed down. Upon impact, Abyss energy erupted. In an instant, the Abyss energy covering dozens of kilometers mutated into a dark green biological substance. Fiery red eyes, each fist-sized, grew from this substance, swelling, heating, and exploding.
After a deafening blast, the explosion ended. Amid drifting embers, Weiweiyin knelt on one knee, hair disheveled, panting heavily. Blood dripped from her nose. Beside her, the old priest was worse off, half his body shattered, his white beard stained with blood.
"This is... too much."
The Zellina team's assassin trembled. That attack was not only terrifying in power but also at least 30% True Damage.
"That was just the prelude. The real attack is coming!"
Weiweiyin nearly screamed. At the same time, the Abyss Guard Captain, now a black metal meteor dozens of kilometers in diameter, fell from above.
"Heh, heh~"
The Demon Scythe team's big healer, Goddess, looked up. The overwhelming destructive force above, as if it would shatter the entire world, told her, even with her life-saving item, her death was certain.
The black meteor crashed down. Dark red flames reflected on Goddess's face.
"God, have mercy on me."
Goddess pressed one hand lightly to her chest, ready to face death calmly. Not because she didn't want to fight, but because there was no chance.
Steel wings wrapped around her from both sides, casting shadows over her beautiful face. The ominous blood-red reflected by the flames was hidden, as if she truly received divine salvation.
What saved Goddess was not God, but the steel dragon Kaien behind her, spreading his wings. Within this steel-winged protection, Goddess stared blankly at Kaien. After a moment, she confirmed: for the rest of this battle, she would prioritize healing him above all!
When the impact and flames dissipated, white ash covered the ground—countless undead creatures burned to cinders.
A giant ball of undead ash stood a hundred meters away. The gray sphere cracked, and the undead-type Lujiade staggered out, coughing violently and spitting blood.
Lujiade looked around, then checked the temporary adventure group. Of the original 27, nearly half were grayed out. Only 14 remained alive.
"Is this... too ridiculous?"
Greed Youtelo sat nearby, arms on his knees, head buried between his legs. Blood streamed from his nostrils, pooling beneath him.
"No chance to escape. We have to..."
Before Lujiade could finish, he looked up, then cursed with a bitter smile. Another black metal meteor was falling from above. If it were just steel, he had many ways to shatter it. But it was not; it was a metal substance mutated by an extremely high-level power.
Clang!
A crisp slash seemed to echo across the entire world. A dark blue blade light cut through the black meteor, splitting it in two. Then, due to Shenfu's ability, it decomposed into gray, dandruff-like material, falling like snow.
Before Lujiade could relax, a third black meteor broke through the gray snow and fell. Darkness swallowed Lujiade. Not that he lacked countermeasures, but the increasingly intense Abyss power invasion made his flesh feel like being cut by knives. Some parts even became woody.
Worse, an eye grew on the back of his hand, staring coldly at him. Even more despairing, when he opened his skill list, four-fifths of his abilities were grayed out. This meant, due to permanent Abyss erosion, he would never use those abilities again.
This was the helplessness and despair of ordinary powerhouses facing the Abyss. Lujiade was relatively lucky. Some were mutated and assimilated shortly after engaging the Abyss powerhouse, becoming its lower-level individuals. Frozen in place by a mere thought, they watched themselves die, unable to use abilities cultivated for centuries or more. It was both frustrating and hopeless.
A fourth meteor fell!
A fifth meteor fell!
When everything settled, only a few remained in the temporary adventure group. Of the original 27, only Su Xiao, Shenfu, Haotao, Demon Scythe Tailide, Kaien, and Water Brother survived. Water Brother and Kaien were severely injured; Tailide was also badly hurt.
As for Moon Witch, Witch Liliya, Battle Angel Zellina, Sea Crocodile, Goddess, and others, they were dead. Though each had their skills, facing the Abyss head-on, death was inevitable.
Whether Black Demon survived was unknown. Perhaps he had fled into the distant Abyss darkness. After all, he had already fallen to the Abyss.
Crack~
The Abyss Guard Captain crushed Hamdi's dried, brittle skull. Fragments slipped through his fingers. He gripped the Abyss Greatsword's hilt and pulled it from the newly formed dark pedestal.
Compared to when he first broke free, the Abyss Guard Captain was now silent. His gaze fell on Haotao. Among the three who posed a threat, he judged this one the easiest to kill.
"Damn!"
Haotao couldn't help cursing. Wasn't the Abyss supposed to be mortal enemies with the Law Destroyers? Couldn't he see the Demon Scythe user was out of sight, or the Law Destroyer with the blade?
With a boom, the ground beneath the Abyss Guard Captain exploded. This Abyss powerhouse was a fusion of strength and speed. He had no flashy abilities, only pure, overwhelming power that left one feeling helpless.
Clang!
Haotao could not block the Abyss Greatsword with his bare body. Su Xiao, who had teleported in front of him using Dragon Shadow Flash, blocked the strike with Perfect Block.
Strangely, Haotao did not block or dodge. Instead, he predicted and charged forward, landing a side hook punch on the Abyss Greatsword's spine.
The clash echoed. Using the force from Haotao's punch, Su Xiao changed his block into a powerful outward sweep, deflecting the Abyss Guard Captain's greatsword.
"Lost: Lamb."
A pale arm emerged from the Abyss Guard Captain's chest, pressing against it. He felt a deathly chill spreading through his body—an unprecedented sense of death, ancient, prolonged, and eerie.
"Primordial... Death?!"
The Abyss Guard Captain was indeed startled by these three. One was the strongest Law Destroyer in history at the Absolute Strength level. Another was a chosen one wielding a forbidden mark. The third was a humanoid Ancient God plus Primordial Death.
This gave the Abyss Guard Captain an absurd feeling: if he were careless today, he might actually be surrounded and killed by these three Absolute Strength beings, sinking back into dark slumber?