Chapter 4: Platinum Apostle
There are currently 48,532 Fate Substitutes.
In other words, the seemingly light palm strike from the Platinum Apostle now was her attack amplified 48,532 times, thus unleashed. The reason it appeared so slow was like a heavy train starting up—once it gets going...
Boom!!!
The sound of space exploding traveled far. Su Xiao tilted his head to dodge the palm strike, but the accompanying gale force pushed him back, his feet plowing the ground for dozens of meters. Fortunately, his shoes were transformed from the Overlord equipment [Planet Destroyer], so there was no risk of worn-out soles or the like.
‘Extreme Blade: World!’
Clang!!
With Su Xiao at the center, a sharp, metallic ringing sound erupted. A spherical 「Extreme Blade Domain」 appeared, lasting only an instant. It looked as if the surrounding air had simply darkened, with flickering points of slashing light the size of rice grains every dozen or so centimeters.
Hao Tiao leaped backward with all his might. A slashing line passed before his eyes, causing his cheek to twitch. Being struck by that was no joke.
The Platinum Apostle was instantly slashed apart. Su Xiao swung his longsword, blasting away the rapidly healing flesh of the Platinum Apostle. The ground beneath him shook as he turned into an afterimage, charging straight toward the Steel Demon Dragon, Kane.
Bang!
Su Xiao was sent flying, landing over a dozen meters away. The Ancient God aspect of the Priest had thrown a punch from a distance. Truly, each ability was more troublesome than the last.
Just as Su Xiao was about to veer sideways, he phased through space, and then, as if his soul had left his body, a crystalline shell flew off to the side—a layer of crystal that bore the brunt of the impact force and was sent flying instead.
Su Xiao arrived in front of Kane.
‘Blade Path Sword: Time.’
With a thud, everything around slowed down. Normally, Kane had multiple ways to evade attacks, but facing Su Xiao directly now, he felt that if he dared to use those evasive methods to dodge the attack of this Technique Grandmaster, he would surely be slain on the spot. A feeling of being locked onto, where no evasive method would work, made him absolutely certain of this.
‘Steel Flying Dragon: Immortal!’
Clang!
The longsword slashed. Large pieces of severed steel wings flew out. Kane, who had turned his head, had half an arm and one ear slashed off.
‘Primordial Mirror Image.’
Sitting in the distance, Water Brother had the Original Sin Object, the Primordial Source Mirror, materialize behind him. It reflected Su Xiao. Almost simultaneously, Su Xiao’s blade reached Kane’s neck, stopping just as it touched the skin.
Kane’s pupils shrank to their limit. In just one exchange, he had nearly died. This blow nearly shattered his resolve. He was a late bloomer, but today was the peak match of a monster brawl.
The Platinum Apostle appeared beside Su Xiao and punched out.
Boom!!
Su Xiao was sent flying backward as an afterimage. After flying just over a dozen meters, he used the crystal layer on his body as a decoy to break free, letting the residual force act on the crystal layer.
With a whoosh, space was pierced. Su Xiao had already arrived in front of Water Brother. Without hesitation, Water Brother turned into water, facing Su Xiao’s straight kick.
A dull thud followed as Su Xiao kicked straight into the Primordial Source Mirror, sending this Original Sin Object flying. This sight made both the Platinum Apostle and Hao Tiao’s hearts skip a beat. To treat an Original Sin Object like this, across the vast Void... truly few dared.
Su Xiao certainly dared. He had sealed six Daddy-level Original Sin Objects with a danger rating maxed out at 100. The Primordial Source Mirror was indeed an Original Sin Object, but its danger rating was around 72. If it came knocking—no, the Primordial Source Mirror would definitely not come knocking.
In the distant ruins, the blind Water Brother sensed the Hunter wielding the longsword from afar. After only two seconds of thought, he decided to give up. An extremely ominous premonition arose in his heart. He always felt that this siege might conceal an even more terrifying conspiracy.
At the center of the battle zone, black flames ignited on Su Xiao’s arm. He raised his hand to look at the burning black flames. The Demon Scythe that once hunted Abyss beings—its black flames were now filled with Abyss power. How ironic.
With a clang, the Sin-Eye Demon Scythe was blocked by the longsword. Less than two meters apart, Su Xiao and Demon Scythe Tailed locked eyes. A hint of amusement appeared in Su Xiao’s eyes. Seeing this, Tailed’s pupils constricted to the extreme.
“Sin-Eye, it seems she didn’t pass your trial.”
Su Xiao spoke. He rarely spoke during battle, but when he did, it was always with a purpose.
Pfft!
Dark red spikes pierced out from Tailed’s right arm, which held the Sin-Eye Demon Scythe. Agonizing pain shot through her hand gripping the scythe, forcing her to release it. At this level of combat, life and death hung by a thread, let alone being betrayed by the weapon she wielded.
Clang!
The longsword slashed through. Demon Scythe Tailed stood frozen, a bloodstain appearing on her neck. But the next instant, Su Xiao in front of her was blasted away by an invisible force—it was the Priest in the distance.
Clatter! The metal demon scythe fell to the ground. Demon Scythe Tailed clutched her neck with one hand. Black flames flickered at the circular wound on her neck. As a Demon Scythe, this level of injury could be suppressed.
A mouthful of blood sprayed out. Demon Scythe Tailed—no, Tailed not only failed to heal the wound with black flames but was instead burned by the backlash of the black flames. She collapsed weakly to the ground, turning her head to look at the Sin-Eye Demon Scythe, the weapon held by the strongest Demon Scythe of each generation.
“Why.”
Tailed didn’t expect an answer, but she was too unwilling. She wasn’t afraid to die in this battle, but being slain in a single exchange was something her pride couldn’t accept.
All five eyes on the Sin-Eye Demon Scythe opened wide, all staring at Tailed. A voice full of mockery came from the alternate space.
“Why? A Demon Scythe sliding toward the Abyss—don’t you think that’s too ridiculous? Or have you forgotten the words your guide must have said to you: Even if you are qualified to gaze into the Abyss, you must do so with full reverence. Tailed, you have lost that reverence.”
The Sin-Eye Demon Scythe transformed, becoming a five-eyed vulture with dark red metal feathers. It looked at Tailed with a half-smile.
“The taste of being burned by Demon Scythe black flames isn’t pleasant, is it? I made a deal with that Law Destroyer. If you regained your reverence for Abyss power and crawled back to your original height, I would accompany you until the end of your life. Unfortunately, you forgot. Demon Scythes climb up from the bottom of the Abyss, constantly climbing outward to grow stronger. The black flames are the power of will, not a gift from the Abyss. They come from you, from the will of the Demon Scythe inheritor, Tailed.”
The Sin-Eye Demon Scythe watched as Tailed was more than half consumed by the black flames. Tailed’s eyes narrowed slightly as she asked, “Even if I am the last Demon Scythe, it’s still not allowed?”
“Haha~, hahahaha. Who said... you are the last Demon Scythe? Farewell, Tailed.”
The Sin-Eye Demon Scythe spread its wings and flew up. Tailed instinctively reached out to grab it, but her entire right arm burned to ashes, and she herself turned to ash.
A hundred meters away, a pitch-black hand brushed past Su Xiao’s cheek—it was the Platinum Apostle’s hand. This hand had a strong dark corrosive property. Alone, this ability wasn’t much, but amplified tens of thousands of times, it became a qualitative change. The viscous darkness would instantly devour whatever it corroded.
Boom! Su Xiao was once again blasted away by the Priest, specks of blood lingering in the air. Hao Tiao’s Overlord Blade and the Platinum Apostle’s super-limit amplification—Su Xiao could still handle those. But the Priest’s long-range attack was truly difficult to defend against.
Flying through the air, Su Xiao once again used Dragon Shadow Flash + crystal layer decoy to escape being blasted away. The next second, he appeared beside the bald man. This Perception-type sensed Su Xiao, but his body couldn’t keep up with his senses. What he faced was Su Xiao’s seemingly ordinary side kick.
Bang!
A mist of blood burst forth. Yes, the bald man was kicked into a blood mist by Su Xiao. This sight made Blood Ji, who had been bombarding Su Xiao with blood abilities, gasp for breath.
With a dull thud, Su Xiao was once again blasted away by the Priest. Midair, he felt wind pressure coming from diagonally behind—it was Hao Tiao’s Overlord Blade. He adjusted his perfect block angle.
Clang!
Perfect block succeeded. Without a foothold, Su Xiao turned into an afterimage, flying diagonally toward the ground. However, because he had adjusted the block angle, his direction of flight was toward Blood Ji’s position.
One after another, frenzied blood qi spears attacked Su Xiao. He phased through space to evade, then used the crystal layer as a decoy to break free from the impact force generated by the Overlord Blade. This was a new move he had developed, though not yet named, but it was especially useful against encirclement.
Su Xiao appeared behind Blood Ji. In an instant, Blood Ji’s mind went numb.
“Ah!!”
Blood Ji screamed, turning all her blood qi into blood blades, attacking indiscriminately in all directions centered on herself. Unfortunately, she was facing a Melee Grandmaster with 7.81 million HP.
Another seemingly ordinary side kick.
Bang!
Blood Ji turned into a blood mist. Being a blood qi type, the blood mist she turned into was especially thick.
Su Xiao disappeared again. Almost simultaneously, Kane’s cheek twitched violently. He felt a gale coming from the side. Suddenly, an unprecedented calm filled his heart.
A gentle breeze blew, carrying the unique scent of summer grass and trees. The chirping of cicadas reached his ears. Kane, dressed in formal wear, held flowers in his hands. He was 30 years old then, and his late wife was 25. That day, they walked into the wedding hall together.
“Yes, it’s been that long.”
Holding the flowers, Kane turned his head to look at his wife. This face, not particularly beautiful but deeply missed, was now so clear.
Bang!
Blood mist exploded. This was the Paradise War—life or death. Everyone had their own stories and their own goals.
Clang!!
The Overlord Blade slashed down. Hao Tiao, with blood at the corner of his mouth, let out a joyful roar as he stepped forward, knocking aside the longsword in Su Xiao’s hand.
“Now!”
Hao Tiao strained so hard that blood spurted from his seven orifices, making him look like a vengeful spirit.
‘Extreme Blade: White Night.’
In an instant, most of Su Xiao’s technique-derived protective energy was consumed. With a hum! The Dragon-Slaying Flash in his hand burst forth with golden radiance. Unlike the golden light corresponding to gold or the sun, this golden light was more condensed, possessing formidable offensive power.
The slashing aura spread, covering Hao Tiao’s chest with slash marks. The slash hadn’t even arrived, yet it had such momentum. Clearly, not only had they not used their full strength against the Abyss Personal Guard Leader, but the 「Extreme Blade: White Night」 Su Xiao had used earlier was nowhere near as terrifying as this.
One slash descended. A pitch-black hand met it. After a brief silence, the golden light of technique and the pitch black exploded.
The shockwave blasted back Su Xiao, Hao Tiao, and the Platinum Apostle who had intervened to block. Dust rose everywhere. When everything settled, Su Xiao stood in place, blood dripping from his longsword—his own blood.
Crimson patterns appeared on Su Xiao’s arms, triggered by activating the core ability of the Eternal-level equipment [Blood Moon Queen]. Unfortunately, this ability was shattered by a single blow from the Platinum Apostle.
「Equipment Effect 2: Crimson Blood Moon (Core·Active), immediately consume 95% of current Soul Energy, converting it into 'Primordial Life Force,' thereby increasing your maximum HP by 400% for the next 10 seconds. This is 'Bonus Maximum HP.' During this period, all damage you take will only consume 'Bonus Maximum HP' until it is depleted.
Hint: This ability has a cooldown of five natural days.
Hint: The maximum 'Bonus Maximum HP' boost can reach 10 million points.」
This showed just how absurdly powerful the Platinum Apostle’s attack methods were. Before Su Xiao could recover, a sense of threat came from his side. A blood qi phantom materialized behind him.
A loud crash. The blood qi phantom used its arm to block the Priest’s long-range attack, then drew a bow and nocked an arrow, aiming a blood gun arrow at the Priest.
A pitch-black, domineering slashing light swept past. Hao Tiao lunged forward, gripping his blade with both hands, slashing down with full force. With a clang, a powerful penetrating force numbed Su Xiao’s body, dropping his HP below 50%. The next moment, the Platinum Apostle and Hao Tiao swapped positions. A pitch-black hand slapped down toward Su Xiao’s chest.
Dark impact pierced through from Su Xiao’s back. Truly, the Platinum Apostle’s attack ability was excessively abnormal. This blow actually triggered Su Xiao’s life-saving ability [Blood Controller], meaning his HP had dropped to just 1%. No wonder this guy could survive after betraying the leader to become a Violator.
“Hmm?”
The Platinum Apostle was slightly surprised that this palm strike hadn’t killed Su Xiao. Without any hesitation, she activated the Fate Imprint and struck another palm toward Su Xiao. Su Xiao didn’t dodge but met her gaze—this was the [Malicious Gaze] ability.
‘Time: Dominator.’
「Skill Effect (Passive): When you use a Technique-type ability to see through an enemy's weakness and attack, your Technique-type ability will affect the time force field within a 10-meter diameter around you, causing a 'Slowdown Phenomenon' lasting 0.2 to 1 second. Within this area, you will ignore the 'Slowdown Phenomenon' and maintain normal speed to attack the enemy.」
Suddenly, the Platinum Apostle felt time slow down, preventing her from immediately deactivating the Fate Imprint. This was why Su Xiao hadn’t chosen the easier-to-trigger 「Blade Path Sword: Time」. Fighting the Platinum Apostle meant fighting her main body plus tens of thousands of Fate Substitutes. 「Blade Path Sword: Time」 couldn’t affect tens of thousands of enemy units simultaneously, but the Law-Destroying ability 「Time: Dominator」 could.
At this moment, the Platinum Apostle felt a strong sense of unease. To permanently keep this Law Destroyer here and seize the 「Puppet Imprint」 in his storage space, she had even staged a bitter play with the Priest, pretending to be hostile to him to lull the Law Destroyer, all to set up this final siege.
Of course, on the surface, it was about seizing the 「Puppet Imprint」, but in reality, it was for the [Origin Stone: World]. As for the Original Sin backlash after killing this Hunter, the Platinum Apostle had numerous Fate Substitutes and wasn’t too afraid of such backlash.
But now, the Platinum Apostle felt a strong crisis. Ignoring the dark hand attack that hadn’t yet hit Su Xiao, she used all her strength to try to deactivate the 「Fate Imprint」 under the 「Time Slowdown Phenomenon」.
Silently, an arm-thick dark tentacle pierced through the Platinum Apostle’s back from behind. This dark tentacle seemed forged from some meteorite, its tip extremely sharp. The previous holder of this weapon was called the Archbishop of the Abyss, whose peak strength was 「Supreme Peak」. Now, this strongest backstabbing weapon in the Void was owned by the Priest. That time in the Eternal Light World, 「Spurn」 was the Priest’s greatest gain.
「Spurn」 had three characteristics. Once a successful backstab was achieved, its attack characteristics would be determined by the characteristics of the world it was in. Currently, everyone was in the Dawn Paradise. The intensity of this attack was not the limit of the area but the limit 「Spurn」 could achieve.
The second characteristic of 「Spurn」 was that its attack had two stages. After the first stage successfully achieved a 「Backstab」, it would unleash a second stage based on the world’s characteristics. Moreover, the intensity of this second-stage attack would also depend on the strength of the person being backstabbed—the stronger the target, the stronger the attack.
The third characteristic of 「Spurn」 was 「Adaptation」. The stronger the wielder, the greater the power it could unleash.
This blow was undoubtedly the strongest strike 「Spurn」 could unleash.
But this alone couldn’t kill the Platinum Apostle with tens of thousands of lives. The key was that the Platinum Apostle’s 「Fate Imprint」 was in an activated state. In this state, her attacks were amplified tens of thousands of times, but conversely, the attacks she received would also use this as a connection channel to spread to her Fate Substitutes.
And this blow from 「Spurn」 was enough to instantly kill those tens of thousands of Fate Substitutes.
However, what truly killed the Platinum Apostle was not just the scheming of Su Xiao and the Priest, but more critically, the backlash of the forbidden imprint 「Fate Imprint」.
Those who toy with fate will inevitably be abandoned by fate.
At this moment, the Platinum Apostle was abandoned by fate. Her greed for the [Origin Stone: World] was so similar to the victims whose fates she had devoured in the past. Those skilled in swimming drown in water.
“Oh, so that’s how it is.”
The Platinum Apostle looked down at 「Spurn」 and smiled. She understood everything. This scene was all too familiar—wasn’t it the sight that appeared after fate was completely devoured? And the thing devouring her fate was called the 「Fate Imprint」.
Slap!!
The Platinum Apostle’s body exploded. This Violator, arguably the hardest to kill, ultimately died at the hands of another Violator. What a wondrous scene. However, the old thing Priest had killed no fewer Violators than Su Xiao.
A pale golden imprint floated in midair—the 「Fate Imprint」. The Priest, having put away 「Spurn」, pressed one hand on this imprint, which sank into his palm. Undoubtedly, the Priest had become the new owner of the 「Fate Imprint」.
In fact, Su Xiao and the Priest had been cooperating all along. From the very beginning, Su Xiao didn’t think he could win this monster brawl one against many and become the final victor. So he needed to find a collaborator. The Priest, who was scheming for the 「Mind Imprint」 in the Dawn Ruins, was undoubtedly the best choice.
Both being forbidden imprints, 「Puppet Imprint」 + 「Fate Imprint」 = 「Master Imprint」. This temptation was irresistible even to the Platinum Apostle. As for the fact that after arriving in the Dawn Paradise, the 「Puppet Imprint」 couldn’t be taken away and would be forcibly left here—only two people knew this: the Priest and Grey Gentleman. Obviously, neither would tell the Platinum Apostle this key information.
Not to mention, scheming for more forbidden imprints was just a smoke screen thrown out by the Platinum Apostle. Her real goal was the [Origin Stone: World].
Everything was settled. The Priest tossed over a [Scarlet Chest]—the agreed-upon share. Su Xiao wanted the Platinum Apostle’s [Scarlet Chest] plus victory in this war. All other forbidden imprints belonged to the Priest.
Undoubtedly, the Priest would become more dangerous in the future. But in return, Su Xiao gained more. With the Apocalypse Paradise War mission, he was about to advance to Supreme with the highest promotion standard in the history of the Law Destruction faction. By then, he truly wouldn’t fear the Priest with multiple forbidden imprints.
Everything happened in just a few seconds. Hao Tiao, holding the Overlord Blade, witnessed it all. He was stunned, completely dumbfounded.
“Gulp~”
Hao Tiao rarely swallowed saliva. An extremely ominous feeling gradually surged in his heart.
Tomorrow, Sunday, rest day, no updates. Please forgive me, dear readers. This mosquito’s small body really can’t keep grinding anymore. Plus, with the saved drafts about to run out, tomorrow I plan to write only half a chapter, just to take a day off.