Chapter 54: Victory or Defeat
With the death of the Collective, the starlight particles within the hall dissipated. Su Xiao arrived at the innermost part of the hall, where a dark silver door blocked his path. This dark silver door seemed to be made of candle wax, appearing soft and pliable, yet it gave off an exceptionally tough feeling.
After observing for a moment, Su Xiao found no way to open the door. He took out a thumb-thick sealed vial, hesitated briefly, then threw it against the dark silver door.
A fine, gnawing sound came from it. The reason for his hesitation was the high value of this biological solution. It was a type of fungus cultivated through alchemical pharmaceutics, possessing powerful corrosive and invasive properties. However, this was an anaerobic fungus that could only survive for 30 to 45 minutes in an oxygen environment.
The alchemical fungus initially was only the size of a fist, but it quickly spread across the entire dark silver door. After a few minutes of erosion, it bore a hole through it.
This was a space of about a hundred square meters. As Su Xiao entered, the first thing he saw was a three-meter-wide, five-meter-high glass column. Inside, in a pale green solution, was a figure submerged—none other than Gray Gentleman.
Su Xiao approached the glass column. Suddenly, the Gray Gentleman inside opened his eyes. However, at this moment, there was no light in the Gray Gentleman's eyes. Those dull eyes indicated that this was a body without a soul.
Arriving at the door, Su Xiao's crystal right hand touched the alchemical fungus. The bright red fungus began to erode onto his crystal palm. He paid it no mind and returned to the glass column, pressing his crystal right hand against it. The alchemical fungus started to erode, penetrating into the solution inside.
Crack~
Su Xiao's crystal combat prosthetic shattered, but it began to reform in the next second. He stared at the Gray Gentleman, who was right in front of him. A feeling that this destined formidable foe was about to fall silent grew stronger. However, the Gray Gentleman was just the beginning. What he was about to face was an even more terrifying enemy: Arcane Eternal Star's Soul Faction Controller, Soul Master, Youwen Gewu.
Initially, Su Xiao thought that the four major factions of Arcane Eternal Star—the Arcane Faction, Elemental Faction, Mana Faction, and Soul Faction—were all on the same side. But as he learned more about Arcane Eternal Star, he discovered that wasn't the case.
First, among the four major factions, the Soul Faction and the Elemental Faction had the strongest foundations. The representatives of these two were Soul Master Youwen Gewu and the Fierce Wind King.
These two represented the two fundamental power systems of Arcane Eternal Star: Elements and Souls. Or rather, during the Second Era, the Age of Law Annihilation, Arcane Eternal Star only had the Elemental School. The Soul School joined Arcane Eternal Star later, essentially as a senior member "investing with capital," and was the absolute main force in dealing with the Law Destruction Faction back then.
In that era's war, the Soul Faction made great contributions, becoming a pillar of Arcane Eternal Star despite not being a magic-based system.
The reason for this was the terrifying core secret art of the Soul Faction: by devouring natural elements, they nourished and strengthened their own souls, and by opening "Spirit Holes" on their heads, they further amplified the release of soul power.
Su Xiao's 1500 points of soul strength were already exaggerated, but the problem was that Soul Master, who could permanently strengthen his soul power by devouring natural elements, must have soul strength at an absolutely horrifying level.
This was also why the Soul Faction joined Arcane Eternal Star. Both the Soul Faction and the Elemental Faction shared the same consequence: devouring the elemental power of all worlds. They naturally knew what the outcome would be, but as long as they were strong enough, they could dominate until the moment before the consequences erupted.
As for stopping in moderation—forget it. Devouring natural elemental power was like a train that could only accelerate, not decelerate, and had no brakes. It could only move forward, never stop. Even if Arcane Eternal Star had built the tracks into a vast loop, the ever-accelerating train would eventually wear down the tracks and derail.
In a sense, the Soul Faction was more dangerous than the Spellcasters. The Spellcasters' power system had a deep and stable background, while the Soul Faction only began to rise in the mid-First Era.
There was also a theory that Soul Master was actually one of the founders of the Soul Faction, meaning he was a terrifying existence that had lived from the First Era to the Third Era.
As for the Arcane Faction and Mana Faction of Arcane Eternal Star, the former only rose in the Third Era. As a result, its controller, Mage Sage Seraphilia, had not yet reached the Supreme level until recently, reportedly just achieving it.
The Mana Faction was a teaching faction, and its representative, Dean Guya, had been killed by Su Xiao. Although his personal strength was not yet on par with Seraphilia's, his achievements in teaching made him one of the four giants.
In short, among these four giants, the Elemental Faction's Fierce Wind King represented the various families of Arcane Eternal Star's power factions, commonly known as the traditionalists. Currently, the Void Great Library was controlled by this faction.
Soul Master, on the other hand, was incredibly powerful, one of the few Supreme Peaks in the current Void myriad realms, on par with the Underworld God, Blade Demon, Immortal Old Man, and Deer God. Soul Master's Soul Faction was a merit-based faction, after all, being one of the main forces against the Law Destruction Faction back then.
Seraphilia represented the rising new faction. Therefore, what had been targeting Su Xiao before was not the entire Arcane Eternal Star, but the Arcane Faction within it, represented by Mage Sage Seraphilia. As a newly risen faction, some minor troubles should naturally be handled by them. If other factions intervened, it would undoubtedly mean stealing credit and indirectly suppressing and mocking the Arcane Faction.
After Su Xiao made Arcane Eternal Star taste the Sun Holy Sword and blew up their resource star, he was no longer a minor trouble. Thus, the one coming to deal with Su Xiao next would most likely be the particularly combat-capable and extreme Soul Faction.
Even worse, if nothing unexpected happened, Su Xiao was about to advance to Supreme. Then, the worlds he entered subsequently would also be at the Supreme level. This naturally meant that if a Supreme being entered his mission world, Reincarnation Paradise would not suppress their strength. In other words, in his subsequent mission worlds, he would very likely encounter Soul Master at full power.
If he encountered Soul Master within the first one or two world progressions after advancing to Supreme, he would surely die.
Su Xiao watched the melting glass column ahead. After confirming that the alchemical fungus had devoured everything, he began to look around. Several bookshelves and a desk came into view. He approached the bookshelves, which contained many records about the "Forbidden Mark."
After a quick glance, he walked to the desk. As he got close, a prompt appeared.
[Verification: You are Hunter No. 13013. There is a stored item at this coordinate.]
After the prompt, a letter landed on the desk in front of him. Su Xiao immediately stepped back two paces. A thin crystal rod appeared in his hand. He used the crystal rod to poke the letter on the desk. After confirming that this thing wouldn't suddenly turn into one of Gray Gentleman's puppets, he manipulated Spirit Shadow Threads to open it. Keeping his distance, he read the contents of the letter:
'White Night, if you really came here and saw this letter, then I am convinced that I have personally failed completely. But I have also won.
It is frustrating to have an opponent like you, yet also somewhat gratifying. Who wants their opponent to be a boring and brainless fool? If that were the case, even becoming the final winner would be dull.
By the way, since you came here, the "Puppet Mark" will also be left here. Whether you like it or not, who can defy Dawn's sealing mechanism? It will likely benefit that old fellow.
My journey ends here. However, someone will soon come to send you to meet me. If there truly is a Yellow Spring Purgatory in this world, good luck, my enemy, and also my friend.'
After reading this letter, Su Xiao felt no fluctuation in his heart. The reason was that he had stepped into too many of Gray Gentleman's traps before. Now, he didn't believe a single punctuation mark in this guy's message, even if it was a suicide note.
Confirming there was nothing else left behind, Su Xiao turned and walked out. As soon as he reached the entrance of the hall, an invisible resistance appeared.
[Warning: The final stage has not yet begun. You are temporarily unable to leave this area.]
Seeing this prompt, Su Xiao's brow furrowed slightly. The situation seemed to be heading in a very peculiar direction.
The remaining few hours passed in an instant. Soon, it was time for the final stage to begin.
[Announcement: The exploration phase has ended. The final stage of this Paradise Battle is about to begin.]
[Due to special circumstances, the originally scheduled "Escape and Kill Phase" has been changed. It is now the "Deathmatch Phase."]
[The final enemy of this phase, the Collective, has been eliminated by the Overlord unit. Its function will be replaced by the Overlord unit that eliminated it. Killing this Overlord unit will grant the exclusive chest of this Paradise Battle, the "Collective Chest." Opening this chest has a 5% chance of obtaining an ultra-rare reward.]
[Current number of teams within "Dawn Ruins": 5.5.]
[Each remaining team will receive "Fragmented Origin Mark" ×2. Successfully eliminating another team will grant you their corresponding number of "Fragmented Origin Marks" and the "Fragmented Origin" they currently possess.]
[This round will forcibly end in 80 hours. If no absolute winner in terms of "Fragmented Origin" holdings appears by then, the winner will be determined based on the current ranking.]
[This round of deathmatch will begin in 10 seconds. It is estimated that the deathmatch zone will shrink by 0.5% per hour. During this time, powerful supplies will be dropped, such as recovery items and buff items. Such supplies are not fully notarized, but can be used normally. However, they cannot be taken out of this area.]
...
As the countdown began, a flood of prompts appeared.
[Prompt: Because you killed the Collective and have been verified to have Overlord unit related judgment, you are about to become the final enemy of this round. If you are successfully killed, the following rewards will be obtained.]