Chapter 45: Supreme
This battle could not be considered a fluke victory, because from the very beginning, Su Xiao never expected to defeat an Abyss powerhouse of this level in a direct confrontation.
On the high-speed Lord's Train, Su Xiao leaned back in a single-person sofa, slowly feeling his body recover after drinking the "Vitality Essence."
"Vitality Essence·Perfect (Immortal Rank): Upon consumption, rapidly restores 45% of Health Points, and subsequently restores 300 Health Points per second for 180 seconds (Perfect Grade Bonus: After consumption, greatly reduces potion resistance)."
Immortal Rank < Origin Rank < Eternal Rank.
This potion was already quite good, but there was one problem: his current maximum Health Points had reached 5.41 million. The fact that this potion could still have some effect was already impressive. It seemed that a new recovery potion needed to be put on the agenda.
Two paths lay ahead: develop one himself or find an existing formula. With his Alchemy skill at Lv.95, he certainly had the confidence to develop a high-quality recovery potion. However, this would take time. Without a flash of inspiration, a conservative estimate would be several years to develop a potion with a high effect on his current physique.
From this perspective, it seemed he could only look for existing ones. The problem was that in Alchemy, the lower the grade, the more types of recovery potions there were, and the fewer permanent enhancement potions. This was because early-stage permanent potions were too popular. But in the later stages of Alchemy, the number of high-grade recovery potion formulas was less than one percent of permanent enhancement potion formulas.
There were two reasons for this. First, permanent enhancement potions were more popular, which was true at any stage of strength. Moreover, in the Void and myriad realms, once one reached a high tier of strength, the intensity of actual combat was not that high.
Some Supreme powerhouses might not make a move for decades, or even a hundred years. In their respective factions, as long as they were alive, they were the guardian deities of that faction.
Demand created the market, the market gave value, and value drove development. However, ultra-high-grade recovery potions were bottlenecked on the demand side. Would Supreme powerhouses stockpile some high-grade healing secret potions for emergencies? Of course, they would. And they would refresh their stock every few years or longer. Even so, few people liked to develop such things.
Su Xiao estimated that such formulas could only exist in ultra-high-risk worlds that were under constant Abyss erosion. Only there would the natives be forced to develop them. Although such formulas were crude, with a little improvement, they could become Origin-grade potions. If he could improve one into an Eternal-grade recovery potion, that would be a huge win.
Suddenly, an idea struck Su Xiao. He realized he had fallen into a misconception. He didn't need to develop a conventional high-grade recovery potion. The high-grade recovery potions on the market sacrificed healing effect for storage time.
This catered to the needs of Supreme powerhouses. They might not make a move for decades, and even if they did, there was a 99% chance they wouldn't get injured. If they did get injured, they would heal themselves quickly. Selling them a recovery potion with a shelf life of two months was simply ridiculous.
The problem was that Su Xiao could use such treatment potions. Forget two months, even one month, or even fifteen days, as long as the effect was strong enough, it would be useful to him.
First, he was an alchemist himself and could brew them. Second, each time he entered a world, it lasted from one to two months at most, or just over twenty days at least. Moreover, he now had the Lord's Train. In the train's bedroom, there was a simplified alchemy workbench compared to his Exclusive Room, but it was more than enough for brewing various potions.
His thoughts gradually diverged, and Su Xiao had a new idea. It would be best to create a potion that could be absorbed through the skin, had a short cooldown, and had a strong effect. During intense combat, he could simply take it out of his storage space and crush it, which would be equivalent to drinking it. Since he brewed it himself, the cost would be very low, and he wouldn't feel bad about drinking it during a fight.
Just like in the previous battle, whenever Su Xiao had a chance, he would take out a bottle of potion and drink it. He even threw one to the Steel Demon Dragon, Kane.
After drinking the "Vitality Essence," Kane was shocked by the potion's effect. When Su Xiao threw him a second and third bottle, Kane felt genuinely touched.
When a total of sixteen bottles had been thrown over, Kane felt that if he encountered this Hunter in a subsequent confrontation, he would be too embarrassed to make a move. This kind of potion couldn't even be bought at a high price from potion dealers. It could only be obtained occasionally by opening treasure chests or visiting the Trade Street.
However, what Kane didn't know was that at the start of this Paradise War, Su Xiao had brought a total of 210 bottles of this potion. In his spare time afterward, he had brewed over 200 more.
It wasn't just Kane. In the previous desperate battle, the Demon Scythe, Talid, and Water Brother had also been severely injured. Since the healers were all dead, they had each drunk over a dozen bottles of "Vitality Essence."
Su Xiao took out a one-way communicator. Although this type of communicator could only send messages one way, it could cross world barriers and send messages to people in other worlds.
After sending a message to Crystal Ji, who was in the World of Paintings, Su Xiao fell into deep thought. He felt that the mining team in the World of Paintings wouldn't last much longer. It all depended on those few guys.
Black A.
Boiling Red·Alisa.
Crystal Ji.
Sun Apostle.
These guys were either rebellious sons (Black A), or full of tricks (Crystal Ji), or turncoats who had been seduced by Shenfu (Dark Sun Apostle). And the one he had originally thought of as a good little girl (Boiling Red·Alisa), after her "Boiling Red" ability awakened, seemed to be transforming into a black-hearted little girl.
In fact, the appearance of these four was a coincidence of coincidences, and also a detour Su Xiao had taken in his Alchemy studies. But as this detour continued, it became unique.
However, a detour was still a detour. Instability was inevitable. Moreover, he had already gained hundreds of thousands of Soul Coins from it, which was a huge profit.
But there were unexpected gains. Crystal Ji, who he had originally thought was unreliable and full of tricks, seemed to have understood the situation and started to cling to his side. Moreover, because of her previous identity as the Northern Border Princess, she held shares in the Shadow Merchant Guild, which she seamlessly acquired.
What Su Xiao asked Crystal Ji to do this time was to contact the "Alchemist Guild" in the Void. Last time, at Arcane Eternal Star, he had given the old guys of the "Alchemist Guild" a way out. He hadn't used his superb Alchemy to slap the faces of these top Alchemy masters too hard. In return, they had sent him a favor, which was the [Alchemist Guild·Holy Flame Badge (Alchemy Master Badge)].
Although it was later revealed that the Holy Flame Alchemist was a Law Destroyer, the Alchemist Guild wouldn't cut off ties with Su Xiao because of that. The few old immortals of the Alchemist Guild were honored guests of major factions and brought in a huge amount of wealth for Arcane Eternal Star every year.
Su Xiao's idea was to have Crystal Ji represent him in contacting the Alchemist Guild, thus facilitating the subsequent purchase of formulas, alchemy materials, etc. In terms of channels for obtaining alchemy materials, even the largest merchant guild in the Void, the Goblin Merchant Guild, was no match for the Alchemist Guild.
This was also a test of Crystal Ji's abilities. If she was indeed capable enough, it wouldn't be bad to support her as his agent in the Void. Su Xiao was a Hunter of Reincarnation Paradise and didn't have that much time to handle everything himself. Previously, he had entrusted Lide with things, but Lide was a friend, not a subordinate. It wasn't appropriate to keep troubling him.
Su Xiao looked at Fenny, who was sitting in a seat diagonally opposite, staring blankly out the window. This healer had survived by hiding inside the Lord's Train. It turned out that this "Lord's Train" was quite impressive. It could withstand Abyss areas that weren't too extremely concentrated. This made Su Xiao decide that, if possible, he would further upgrade the Lord's Train later.
After handling this matter, Su Xiao opened the notification message he had received after defeating the Abyss Guard Captain.
[You have killed the Abyss Guard Captain.]
[You have received 500 Hunter Gold Coins.]
[You have received Broken Origin ×2 (Special item for this Paradise War).]
[You have received a Primordial Core Chest (Opening yields 1 to 10 Primordial Cores).]
[You have received an Abyss Chest (★★★★★).]
...
[Primordial Core Chest] was undoubtedly a good thing. Su Xiao had been fighting tooth and nail to accumulate them, and he only had 17 so far. Moreover, this was the "core item" required for promotion to the Supreme rank. The more, the better.
Most Supreme powerhouses from ordinary factions had chosen 50 [Primordial Fragments] as their promotion requirement. Some factions with a bit more strength would choose five [Primordial Cores] as their promotion requirement.
However, today's good mood came to an abrupt halt with the appearance of the [Abyss Chest] notification. Su Xiao clearly remembered that the last time he opened an [Abyss Chest], he got the "Nether Bone Ring," a Big Daddy-level Original Sin Object.
But if he didn't open it, whenever an [Abyss Chest] dropped something, it was a windfall. It was possible that the income from an entire world progress wouldn't match what came out of a single [Abyss Chest], let alone that this was a five-star Abyss Chest. But if he did open it, and it really did produce another Big Daddy-level Original Sin Object, he really couldn't handle it right now. The current situation of the [Book of Original Sin] was:
Page 1: Collector.
Page 2: Necronomicon.
Page 3: Scarlet Scepter.
Page 4: Sun Mask.
Page 5: Nether Bone Ring.
Page 6: Soul Crown.
Page 7: World Devourer.
Page 8: Abyss Descendant·Eternal Night Empress.
...
Any one of these would be enough to make a major faction or family in the myriad realms "happy" to the point of shock. But with Su Xiao, there were eight.
After weighing the pros and cons, Su Xiao decided to open this thing after returning to Reincarnation Paradise. If this time went smoothly, then the next world would be the time for his promotion to Supreme. The trial for promotion to Supreme was the most difficult of all trials, so he naturally had to be fully prepared.
As for what to do if he opened another Big Daddy-level Original Sin Object, he estimated that with his luck... ahem, let's not talk about luck. There were only a few Big Daddy-level Original Sin Objects. He had already sealed six of them. He probably couldn't open a new Big Daddy-level Original Sin Object anymore.
Thinking of this, Su Xiao felt a bit more at ease. He opened his task list:
[Abyss Task·Death's Grant.]
Difficulty Level: Lv.98～???
Task Brief: Eliminate the "Undying·Abyss Spawn" and "Abyss Descendants."
Hint: Due to the activation of related permissions, the kill range of this task has been expanded.
Task Deadline: No limit.
Task Reward: Determined by the total number and comprehensive danger/combat strength of the "Undying·Abyss Spawn" and "Abyss Descendants" eliminated.
Hint: The task completion calculation method is as follows: After successfully killing a target unit, increase the "task completion corresponding to the target unit's danger level" + "35% of the current existing task completion" as the added task completion for this kill.
Current Task Completion: 119.765%.
Task Scope: Any world.
Task Penalty: None.
Hint: This task can be abandoned at any time. Abandoning it will permanently forfeit the qualification to accept this task again.
...
This task was more satisfying the more it stacked, but Su Xiao felt that he couldn't continue stacking this task. The reason was that he was about to be promoted to Supreme. The promotion specifications he prepared for this Supreme rank would determine his "achievable combat power ceiling" after reaching the Supreme rank.
Unfortunately, after being promoted to Supreme, he would definitely encounter many powerful Abyss powerhouses. If he could reactivate this task, that would be a huge gain.
After weighing it, asking Kaisa to handle this wasn't very reliable. Kaisa wasn't good at this kind of "fairness-perfecting" operation. It would be better to have a "permission item" that could replicate the task.
Su Xiao took out all the "Broken Origins" from his storage space, a total of 17. He originally had 15. Because the Abyss Guard Captain had unexpectedly broken its seal this time, the Void Tree had adaptively changed the rules for this round of the competition. The higher the comprehensive contribution during the battle against the Abyss Guard Captain, the more "Broken Origins" one would receive.
Logically, he shouldn't have only received two. It was because his kill contribution was too high, resulting in most of the kill rewards going to him. To balance things out, the Void Tree's arbitration distributed a few "Broken Origins" to the remaining four teams.
Because Shenfu had used some kind of permission item earlier, the 50 "Broken Origins" for this Paradise War had become 52. Of course, if two sides each had 26, then an extra one would appear in the final round.
Calculating this way, in the subsequent two rounds of the confrontation zone, there would be 8 "Broken Origins" in the "Ruins Outskirts," and 21 initially placed in the "Dawn Ruins," with 1 reserved.
If the decisive number became 27, then with his current 17, even if he obtained all 8 in the next round, he couldn't achieve a decisive victory. This meant that in the next round, he wouldn't need to fight with all his might. Instead, he would save his trump card for the "Dawn Ruins."
Su Xiao hadn't forgotten that he still had the [Dawn Badge] unused. This was the key to activating the "Potential Transcendence Device." His current Strength, Agility, Stamina, and Intelligence were all at the Absolute Strong rank limit of 800 points. To reach the most extreme limit of 900 points for this tier, he could only rely on the Dawn Paradise's unique facility, the "Potential Transcendence Device."
Looking at the notification that had just appeared, Su Xiao found that there were still 10 minutes of stay in this world. It wasn't an immediate departure to the "Dawn Ruins Outskirts." First, they would go to a rest area, rest for 36 hours, and then face the final melee.
The rules of this war were very cruel. Only when all members of a team were dead would that Paradise faction be eliminated. From the current situation, the team leaders chosen by each Paradise faction were correct. They had survived this round of slaughter, preserving the team's flame for their respective Paradise factions.
Apocalypse Paradise Team Remaining Members: Su Xiao.
Death Paradise Team Remaining Members: Kane, Water Brother.
Sanctuary Paradise Team Remaining Members: Shenfu, Shenfu, Shenfu, Shenfu, Shenfu.
Holy Light Paradise Team Remaining Members: Demon Scythe·Talid.
Watchful Paradise Team Remaining Members: Hao Tao, Black Demon, Platinum Apostle.
...
Well, well, well. Baha's guess was right. The five members of Shenfu's team were all Shenfu.
Previously, it was thought that only six people had survived. After the battle, it was discovered that Black Demon was still alive. Having slid towards the Abyss, it was immune to the invasion of Abyss power, thus avoiding the battle zone.
Compared to this, the mood in the rest area for the substitute members of each Paradise must be very anxious. They could all see the situation of their main teams. The sight of a team being cleared out instantly, leaving only the leader, was enough to make their hearts skip a few beats.
It was imaginable that the rest area was now filled with lamentations. A total of 27 vacant spots across eight teams would be filled by them in the next round. Even if they weren't necessarily chosen, the total number of remaining combatants summoned by each Paradise faction this time was only a little over a hundred. A conservative estimate of a one-in-five probability was enough to make everyone's liver tremble.
Among them, the members of the Watchful Paradise faction were the most bitter. Because if they were chosen to join the team, they would be with Hao Tao, Black Demon, and Platinum Apostle. This couldn't help but elicit unkind laughter.
However, compared to this, the rest area of the Apocalypse Paradise faction was completely silent. If they were chosen to join the team, they would be with the humanoid overlord unit, Bai Ye. What was even more terrifying was that Apocalypse Paradise now had two teams with 10 spots. After one round, 8 spots were empty. This was too scary.
[Announcement (Void Tree): World War·Round 4 has ended.]
[Current Team Rankings:]
First Place: Apocalypse Paradise·Bai Ye Team (17 Broken Origins).
Second Place: Sanctuary Paradise·Shenfu Team (2 Broken Origins), Watchful Paradise·Hao Tao Team (2 Broken Origins).
Third Place: Death Paradise·Kane Team (1 Broken Origin), Holy Light Paradise·Demon Scythe Team (1 Broken Origin).
[Hint: All teams will arrive at a neutral area for rest.]
[Paradise War·Round 5 will begin in 35 hours, 59 minutes, and 59 seconds.]
Space fluctuations appeared on the central teleportation array in the rest area. When the spatial ripples dissipated, Su Xiao and the other seven stood on a wooden-metal platform. Looking around, this was an area like a large tree hollow, about several thousand square meters. In the center was a giant tree stump-like teleportation array, surrounded by a dozen rest areas, each with seats formed from intertwined branches.
On the southern wall, six arched doorways had been temporarily opened, each about five meters high and three meters wide. Above the arches were the emblems of the six major Paradises. Of course, there was no Reincarnation Paradise emblem. Otherwise, Su Xiao wouldn't have needed to participate in this war as an Apocalypse Paradise combatant.
The rest area, which had been somewhat noisy, suddenly fell silent. A few people walked down the teleportation platform. Two groups of combatants crowded over. One group came to find Kane, whose prestige in the Death Paradise faction was evident. The other group was interesting; they were all Apocalypse Paradise combatants, and they surrounded Fenny. One healing-type mature lady excitedly grabbed Fenny's hand:
"Fenny, how did you survive?"
"Uh..."
Fenny's expression was a bit complicated. She suddenly realized that most of the things she had done while following Su Xiao couldn't be mentioned, especially those related to that Arbiter named Kaisa. No one would believe her even if she told them.
"I... of course, I survived by my own ability."
Fenny's words plunged the group of Apocalypse Paradise Battle Angels and Contractors into silence.
"What's with that look? I'm very strong."
Obviously, Fenny's words failed to convince them.
Su Xiao walked past not far away. Suddenly, he paused, thinking of a question. Since some of the auxiliary-type Contractors of Apocalypse Paradise didn't want to participate in the subsequent slaughter, as their team leader, could he sell "entry and then withdrawal" spots, thereby allowing them to avoid subsequent danger?
Under normal circumstances, doing such a thing would inevitably incur punishment from Apocalypse Paradise. From a certification perspective, Reincarnation Paradise also didn't have a rule system to block such punishment.
The problem was that in the previous four rounds, Su Xiao had fought for the ownership of two worlds. This had already far exceeded the peak income estimate for this war in Apocalypse Paradise's certification. As a result, in the subsequent rounds of this war, Apocalypse Paradise's certification towards Su Xiao might be much more lenient.
If so, the room for manipulation was huge. Su Xiao's team had three vacant spots. Selling one withdrawal spot for 300,000 Soul Coins would net 900,000 for three. With two rounds remaining, that was a total of 1.8 million Soul Coins.
Of course, if an Apocalypse Paradise Contractor was assigned to Su Xiao's team and was willing to face the subsequent danger rather than withdraw to avoid risk...
That would be even better. In the final round of the "Dawn Ruins," a high-level cannon fodder... ahem, a reliable consumable teammate, might prove to be worth more than 300,000 Soul Coins.
Thinking of this, Su Xiao's gaze towards the group of Apocalypse Paradise Contractors became a bit kinder as he passed by. This caused the Apocalypse Paradise members, who had been discussing, to suddenly fall silent. For some reason, they suddenly felt a chill down their spines.
Entering the doorway with the Apocalypse Paradise emblem, after walking about a dozen meters, a door engraved with the Law Destroyer's mark appeared. Placing one hand on the door completed the authentication, and he walked inside.
This was a rest point of about a hundred square meters, with a bedroom, dining room, bathroom, etc., and a self-service mini-bar. After he sat down, Amu took out the delicious food cooked by Xia from the team storage space. The already hungry Bubu Wang started eating. It wasn't that he was particularly gluttonous, but if he ate slowly, there might be nothing left.
It had to be said that with Amu around, the eating speed and appetite of Su Xiao's team had improved. Even the usually elegant Beini would transform into a food-devouring cat. As the saying goes, if you're not proactive in eating, Amu might even eat the plates.
Interestingly, before Amu started visiting Xia's restaurant, the tableware there was luxury-grade. In Xia's words, beautiful tableware was also part of the dining experience. But after Su Xiao frequently brought Amu there, the tableware at Xia's restaurant gradually became simpler, changing from custom-made to wholesale products.
After eating and drinking his fill, Su Xiao sat cross-legged in the living room to meditate, placing Dragon-Slaying Flash flat on his legs. After completing his daily meditation, he opened his equipment list and activated the characteristic of [Life Source Monarch].
[Life Source Monarch]
Origin: Eternal Light World·High Lord's Private Residence·Fourth Forging Workshop.
Quality: Eternal Rank.
Type: Ring.
Durability: 150/500 points.
Warning: The durability of nurturing-type equipment cannot be repaired.
Equipment Requirement: True Stamina 800 points.
Equipment Effect 1: Life Hunt (Nurturing·Passive), upon killing a powerful enemy, this equipment can absorb the enemy's "Life Source," thereby storing, filtering, and transforming it. When enough Life Source is absorbed, it will form a "Life Source Essence."
Hint: Each "Life Source Essence" absorbed will permanently increase Health Points by 200,000.
Absorbed "Life Source Essences": 4/5.
Currently Condensed Life Source: 1.
Equipment Effect 2: Monarch (Core·Passive): After successfully absorbing 5 "Life Source Essences," this equipment will transform to "Form 2."
Hint: This equipment has a total of three stages. Stage 1: Nurturing-type equipment. Stage 2: Slaughter-type equipment. Stage 3: Devouring-type equipment.
Hint: Due to this equipment absorbing an excessively powerful Life Source, the current Stage 2 will have two branch choices: "Slaughter Characteristic" and "Extreme Characteristic."
Hint: Success rate for completing the form transformation by choosing "Slaughter Characteristic": 16.75%.
Hint: Success rate for completing the form transformation by choosing "Extreme Characteristic": 98.8%.
Rating: 6000 points (Eternal Rank equipment rating is 3000～6000 points).
Introduction: Bloom to the extreme.
...
Due to the Abyss Guard Captain's Life Source being too vast, the characteristic of the Eternal Rank·Nurturing-type equipment [Life Source Monarch] had changed.
Among the two characteristic branches, the "Slaughter" characteristic was obviously stronger. It might even become a major aid in the future. The problem was that the 1.675% success rate was too absurd.
He tried to take out the "Life Source Essence." The "Life Source Essence" appeared in his hand. A small amount of his own Primordial Life Force merged into it, causing the "Life Source Essence" to gradually dissolve. It first merged into his palm, then flowed throughout his body.
Flowing, nurturing, strengthening. The feeling of increasing his maximum Health Points was very good. A few hours later, when Su Xiao opened his eyes, he felt completely relaxed. The fatigue caused by the invasion of Abyss power had disappeared. He checked his own attributes:
Health Points: 100% (approximately 5.61 million).
Mana Points: 204,106.
Strength: 800 points.
Agility: 800 points.
Stamina: 800 points.
Intelligence: 800 points.
Soul Strength: 1500.
Abyss Resistance: 96.
Charm: -30 points.
...
The Charm attribute was advancing by leaps and bounds. Fortunately, he had obtained the [Exemption Badge (★★★★★★)] earlier, which prevented any debuff effects from appearing before Charm reached -100 points. Well, there was still a buffer zone of 70 points. Very stable.
Su Xiao removed the [Life Source Monarch] and used [Fate Dominator] to push his luck to the peak of the "Luck Electrocardiogram." He attempted to transform [Life Source Monarch] towards the "Extreme" direction. But in the next second...
Bang!
[Life Source Monarch] suddenly exploded. Su Xiao's expression darkened. Seeing this, Baha, who was nearby, spoke up:
"Boss, the success rate for this equipment to advance to the Slaughter branch was 16.75%. Failure is normal."
It could be said that Baha's emotional intelligence was as high as ever.
"Woof!"
"Meow~"
"Moo."
"..."
Su Xiao was silent for a moment. He told Amu to clean up the fragments of [Life Source Monarch] so they wouldn't be an eyesore. As for whether he had chosen "Slaughter" or "Extreme," the answer was obvious. Of course, it was "Extreme." But on second thought, failing with a 9.88% success rate was also quite normal.
Closing his personal information list, Su Xiao took out an item. This was the [Supreme Life Source Matter·Unique] obtained from killing the Crimson Lord.
[Supreme Life Source Matter·Unique: A Source Matter unique in the entire Star Realm. Its true rank lies between "Supreme Source Matter" and "Highest Source Matter." Due to its unique characteristics, it is judged as "Supreme Source Matter." It can only be obtained by killing the current owner.]
[Supreme Life Source Matter·Absorption Prerequisites: True Strength 800 points (Achieved), True Stamina 800 points (Achieved), Willpower 500 points (Achieved), Maximum Health Points 5.5 million (Achieved).]
[Supreme Life Source Matter·Unique (Enhancement Effect): Permanently increases Health Points by 2 million and Maximum Health Points by 2 million.]
[Supreme Life Source Matter·Unique·Cost 1 (Causal Equivalence): While possessing the "Supreme Life Source Matter," your luck is reduced by 3500.]
[Supreme Life Source Matter·Unique·Cost 2 (Plunder): You must choose one body attribute to be permanently reduced by 50%. You can only choose one of the seven important body attributes: Strength, Agility, Stamina, Intelligence, Charm, Willpower, and Soul Strength.]
[Supreme Life Source Matter·Unique·Cost 3 (Death's Grant): You will immediately experience "Permanent Death."]