Chapter 17: Rebirth
The "Beast Arena," which had been rowdy moments before, suddenly fell into a terrifying silence.
Su Xiao stood at the center of the black sand arena. On the surrounding circular stone walls, the ten rising stars, each in different poses, had varied reactions—some sneered, others showed anger in their eyes. However, those among the top five all wore grim expressions.
The number one, Faceless Ghost, was as burly as a small giant. It leaped down from the stone wall, signaling its acceptance of this ten-versus-one challenge. Seeing this, the second-ranked, Ghostly Visage, the third-ranked, Chi Hui, and the fourth-ranked, Sif, all jumped down from the wall one after another, vaguely forming a semicircle around Su Xiao.
This scene caused the tenth-ranked, a jackal-like figure with a mocking expression, to suddenly freeze. Its eyes narrowed, and its entire body, covered in wet, black fur like a water monkey, gave it a sinister, underhanded aura. But aside from it, the other nine had all stepped down, forcing it to grit its teeth and jump down as well.
Seeing this, the demon girl in the audience adjusted the glasses on her nose. His earlier remark, "If you dare say 'handsome' in that flippant tone again, Amu will break your legs immediately," suddenly reminded her of her long-absent elder brother. When he was still in the void, he had said something similar: "If you keep using that flippant tone, I'll break your legs."
Thus, the demon girl, Mi Erwei, decided to trick this guy into leaving, to get him away from this place that seemed like mere deathmatches but would, after just one match, cause someone to become completely addicted to combat through "Dark Corruption."
"Too bad, I hadn't figured out what to do yet, and you jumped into a dead end yourself."
The demon girl, Mi Erwei, tilted her head, using her index finger, adorned with sparkling diamond nail art, to tap her forehead repeatedly, seemingly lost in thought.
On the field, Su Xiao didn't act immediately. The reason was that as soon as he stepped onto this arena, he triggered a task certified by the Void Tree. The task was:
[Side Quest: Beast Arena]
Difficulty Level: Lv.95 ~ Lv.98
Quest Brief: In the upcoming deathmatches, accumulate "Battle Spirit Value." When "Battle Spirit Value" reaches 30%, you can complete this quest at the minimum standard.
Hint: This quest will trigger different "Battle Spirit Value" gain bonuses depending on the situation.
Quest Duration: 48 hours.
Quest Reward: Determined by the amount of "Battle Spirit Value."
Quest Penalty: All main attributes reduced by 10%.
The penalty for this quest was severe. If it failed, Su Xiao would lose 1028 points of body attributes.
However, risk always came with reward. Moreover, the "Beast Arena" didn't involve the "Ancient Patriarch Hatu." In other words, as long as he didn't get careless and capsize in a ditch, this was a reward delivered to his doorstep.
Su Xiao was puzzled. With his Void Tree reputation, how could he encounter such a good thing falling from the sky? After consulting the Reincarnation Paradise about the situation, he learned that all contractors, hunters, and battle angels in the "Beast Arena" would trigger this quest. It was a public characteristic quest.
[Prompt (Void Tree): The "Battle Spirit Value" gain trigger for the main quest "Beast Arena" has been activated. If you successfully kill all rising stars within 3 minutes/5 minutes/20 minutes/60 minutes, your "Battle Spirit Value" gain for this round will be multiplied by 30x/15x/5x/2x.]
Su Xiao immediately chose to kill all the rising stars within 3 minutes. This wasn't arrogance. This main quest was very interesting, and it could trigger temporary income boosts. Moreover, this trigger effect had no penalty mechanism. If he didn't achieve it, he would at most lose the bonus, and it wouldn't even reduce the basic income he deserved.
His hand, which had been resting on the sword hilt, changed to gripping the sword. He drew the long blade at a moderate pace, calmly, then raised his right arm, pointing the sword toward the sky. He spoke in a calm tone:
"Any one of you ten lives past three minutes, and I'll consider it your win."
As soon as Su Xiao said this, even Faceless Ghost, who had been looking serious, began to show anger in its eyes. The gradually smaller secondary eyes on both sides of its head narrowed dangerously.
"Kill... him! (Abyss Language)."
The jackal roared, its entire body beginning to emit filthy gray smoke, and all its eyes turned into swirling vortexes.
'Extreme Blade: Black Moon.'
A pitch-black moon appeared in the sky. Su Xiao's sword, pointed at the heavens, slashed down.
Boom!!!
An invisible slashing pressure descended from the sky, landing on the open-air "Beast Arena." In an instant, large splashes of black blood spurted from the layers of circular seating around the arena. In that moment, the Abyss descendants and other battle-hungry spectators were crushed and killed on the spot. Su Xiao couldn't care less about their lives.
The only survivor in the audience was the demon girl, Mi Erwei, beside Amu. Her small round sunglasses had slipped down to the bridge of her nose, and her green flame-like pupils were constricted to the extreme.
On the field, the ten rising stars, who had been full of battle pride, were immediately forced to their knees or flattened by the slashing pressure. Four of them were down. The lowest-ranked jackal's bones creaked and cracked. Its already bizarre and ugly face was now scrunched up, with black blood oozing from the air holes around its mouth.
Crack, crack~!
The jackal's entire body began to emit crisp sounds. It let out a furious roar and lunged as if to pounce at Su Xiao.
Bang!
Blood beads, like black marbles, scattered in all directions. The jackal was crushed to pieces by the slashing might of "Black Moon." After it, the ninth, eighth, and sixth-ranked were successively crushed and killed. The slashing pressure of "Black Moon," which had lasted for half a minute, finally dissipated.
'Extreme Blade...'
Su Xiao raised his long sword again.
'Black Moon.'
He slashed down once more, and the slashing might of "Black Moon" descended again with a boom. This caused the remaining rising stars, except for the first-ranked Faceless Ghost, to feel despair. The reason was that they had thought this Law Destroyer's technique was not only his strongest sword move but definitely a trump card-level skill. Now, it seemed... this was just a regular sword technique he could use without much burden.
The third-ranked, Chi Hui, whose body was covered in black scaled snakes, writhed and twisted. It stared at Su Xiao, waiting for even the slightest opening from this enemy. However, what greeted it was a hand wearing a crimson metal bracer, pointing an index finger at it.
'Blood Smoke Cannon.'
Bang!
The Blood Smoke Cannon blasted through layers of air, and along with it, the upper half of the third-ranked, Chi Hui, was shattered. The next second, it was crushed and killed by the slashing pressure of "Black Moon."
Su Xiao raised his long sword, aimed at the fourth-ranked, Sif, and gathered blood energy at the tip of the blade, compressing it to the size of a needlepoint. The Blood Smoke Cannon blasted out, and with it, Sif's head was shattered. Its final thought was, "Does it have to be this ridiculously strong?"
'Extreme Blade: Twin Moons.'
Su Xiao's sword, pointed at the sky, slashed down again. With a boom, the black sand on the field was compressed into a steel-hard layer. The remaining rising stars, except for Faceless Ghost and the second-ranked, Ghostly Visage, died on the spot without a sound under the "Twin Black Moons" above.
The immortality and indestructibility of Abyss descendants didn't mean they couldn't be killed on the spot. They could be reborn in the Abyss through the "Ancestral Clan Emblem."
In fact, members of the Rune Family had strong physical immortality. The problem was that they were facing a three-soul-slashing sword technique grandmaster. Moreover, "Extreme Blade: Black Moon," besides its crushing and killing power, was fundamentally a sword technique, so it naturally carried the three-soul-slashing property. Thus, the rising stars that had just died became fragmented limbs and pieces, lying there quite "peacefully."
Only Faceless Ghost remained on the field. Under the suppression of the twin moons, its giant-like body began to twist and deform irregularly.
Faceless Ghost let out a roar. It had clearly realized that compared to the monster across from it, the gap in strength was like a heavenly wall. But at the very least, it had to... make one move. Otherwise, even if it could be reborn from death, the strong heart it had nurtured through constant deathmatches would shatter. It had never lost before, and today it would not only lose but lose so thoroughly.
Faceless Ghost took a step forward, its body covered in blood marks, its flesh and blood condensing. Just as it was about to use everything to charge through this terrifying slashing pressure and reach the Law Destroyer...
'Extreme Blade: Heavy Moon.'
Another calm, virtual slash descended. A third black moon appeared in the sky. The three black moons overlapped slightly, like afterimages.
This scene caused all of Faceless Ghost's eyes to widen. It looked up at the sky, its expression shifting from its usual cold cruelty to a somewhat dazed stupor.
Bang!!
The giant-like Faceless Ghost shattered. Fist-sized black blood beads scattered in all directions. It was bloody and brutal, but under the reflection of the triple black moons in the sky, it had a dark beauty.
[You have killed the Ten Rising Stars.]
[You have obtained 8.59% World Source.]
Only obtaining World Source, and no treasure chests, was normal. Also, don't overlook one point: this prompt said "you have killed," not the usual "slain." If he had truly annihilated the Ten Rising Stars, the reward would have been dozens of times greater.
If, a few days later, these Abyss descendants were reborn and he killed them again, it would be the same as killing all Ten Rising Stars, but he might not even get 3% World Source. Su Xiao didn't know the exact certification rules, but simply put, if he killed Abyss descendants frequently in a short time, after a few times, there would be no World Source reward at all.
Even without completely annihilating the Ten Rising Stars, he could still obtain World Source. This confirmed to Su Xiao that the plan he had in mind might be achievable.
[Prompt (Void Tree): You have obtained a total of 700% "Battle Spirit Value" this time. This is the upper limit for this quest, not the upper limit for your current gain. Your actual gain this time should be 8730% "Battle Spirit Value."]
Obviously, this quest wasn't meant for Su Xiao to complete. It was a reward for "Top-Tier Supreme" to "Super Top-Tier Supreme" who dared to challenge the "Beast Arena." A more direct comparison was that the final big boss of the "Beast Arena" was the Great Elder among the three elders.
And the Great Elder was clearly a descendant of the Ancient Patriarch Hatu. Su Xiao's actual combat power was on the same level as the current Ancient Patriarch Hatu, the Clock Tower Master, and the Leader of the Gods.
So, for him to challenge the "Beast Arena," considering his age and his world progress after reaching Supreme, it was normal behavior. But if you looked at his actual combat power...
Su Xiao took out the crystal invitation and tossed it out, signaling that he wanted to continue the next deathmatch, which was against the three elders.
However, the "Beast Arena," certified by the Void Tree, didn't react. This only meant one thing: the Third Elder among the three elder-level figures was no longer on the Southern Continent.
Why was that? It had to be said that the Third Elder, who looked like a mummy, was truly sharp. It had been watching the entire match from the top of the arena. When it saw the three black moons overlapping, it knew something was wrong. Its inner thought was, "Is the Great Elder out of its mind? Why invite such a monster to the arena?"
Why did the Great Elder do this? Actually, it was quite wronged. The Patriarch had invited it to do so, to test the strength of this Law Destroyer.
If the other party could fight to the top of the arena, then they could consider letting him board the ship. If not, they would have to find a way to steal his alchemy knowledge. Although this was very unstable, compared to carrying a burden who was weak and might die at any time on the "Sea of Life," this was the only option.
Thus, the misunderstanding occurred where the Great Elder sent Sif to invite Su Xiao. Now, the Third Elder had already fled. As for the Rune Family members being battle-hungry, one had to first distinguish that fighting and being abused were not the same thing.
Also, after arriving on the Southern Continent, Su Xiao noticed that this so-called Rune Family was clearly not the full picture of the Rune Family. Its foundation was too weak, not worthy of the title "Abyss Descendant." Although the Dukain Family had declined, its foundation wasn't this thin.
This place felt more like a lower branch of the Rune Family. The only one who truly gave off that terrifying Abyss descendant vibe was the "Ancient Patriarch Hatu."
The other members of the Rune Family in this world seemed more like Hatu's development through "Dark Corruption." It had just taken over two thousand years to make it look this decent.
If this conjecture was true, then the real "Rune Family" was terrifying. Its entry requirement was to kill one of the current members of the "Rune Family." And the "Rune Family" might only have a few members, just like the Law Destruction faction back then. In contrast, the threshold for all "Rune Family" members was... Supreme Peak!
The Dukain Family also had more than one Supreme Peak back then, which was why they fought the Law Destruction faction for so many years.
Adding up the existing major Abyss descendants, there might be dozens of "Supreme Peaks." At first glance, this seemed very exaggerated. But if calculated from the First Era to the present, this number was normal. Abyss descendants rarely died of old age; they were long-lived species that could live for several eras.
The current situation gave Su Xiao a general understanding of the Rune Family. This family, representing the Abyss Beast, had only a few "Supreme Peak" members. Moreover, the "Ancestral Clan Emblem" belonging to the Rune Family wasn't a single piece but several large pieces. Each member of the Rune Family had the right to take away the piece of the "Ancestral Clan Emblem" that bore their own "Causal Fate Mark."
Thus, the Ancient Patriarch Hatu, trapped here, could develop this watered-down version of the Rune Family. That was also why it had no objection to Su Xiao's arrival. In fact, it didn't mind if Su Xiao killed all these Abyss descendants. That would help it clear the space on its own large piece of the "Ancestral Clan Emblem."
Zzzt~
The Spirit Shadow Thread was pulled back, bringing back the "Crystal Card" that had just been thrown. He frowned as he checked the item's properties. It had been certified by the Void Tree, so it shouldn't have problems.
After a moment of thought, he chose to continue challenging upward. The next second, spatial fluctuations occurred. A mass of twisted black threads appeared in front of him, writhing and intertwining to form a sphere about a dozen meters in diameter.
This was the Second Elder of the arena. As for why it wasn't the Second Elder of the Rune Family, the entire Rune Family didn't even have a true Patriarch, let alone elders.
As soon as the Second Elder appeared, it began to spread outward. In the blink of an eye, as far as the eye could see, everything was covered in half-meter-long black threadworms. They were as thick as earthworms, covered in slime, and writhed through the space, creating a disgusting visual impact.
'Extreme Blade: Heavy Moon!'
Su Xiao had just finished fighting the Dukain Ancestor in the previous world and didn't want to experience being drilled into by Abyss insects again.
Boom!
Under the slashing pressure, Su Xiao immediately found the main body of the Second Elder.
'Extreme Blade: Flow.'
A graceful wind mark cut through. The black threadworms filling the surroundings suddenly stopped. A severed dark red threadworm twisted in pain and began to proliferate wildly.
'Roar!!'
The Blood Beast, instantly formed, let out a roar. Layers of blood-colored sound waves spread out. When they hit the Second Elder's main body, its proliferation momentum abruptly stopped.
The Blood Beast didn't pounce. Instead, Su Xiao gathered and compressed it to his fingertip using the Blood Smoke Cannon method, turning it into a red beam that shot out at high speed, piercing through the Second Elder's main body.
Crystal walls rose around the Second Elder. Inside these crystal walls, a layer of blood energy adhered. This caused the "Beast Core," which had pierced through the Second Elder's main body, to bounce back at high speed. It ricocheted rapidly within this crystal prison, starting as a single red dot, then moving so fast it formed a series of refracted red lines.
A terrifying ricochet sound came from within the crystal prison. As for the Second Elder inside, it could only be said that its proliferation ability was truly strong. It could occasionally fill a third of the crystal prison. The problem was that the ricochet speed of the "Beast Core" seemed to have no upper limit, continuously accelerating.
With a crisp sound, as if a glass bead had shattered, the Second Elder's proliferation suddenly stopped. The "Beast Core" ricocheting inside the crystal prison instantly pulverized the dark red worms inside. Finally, the "Beast Core" exploded with a bang, and the crystal prison scattered.
As for what this move was called, it had no name. It was a combination of Su Xiao's abilities: "Blood Beast," "Blood Smoke Cannon," "Proud Song Crystal," and "Sealcraft." It was effective against enemies with extremely tenacious vitality. Well, it was a move for bullying the weak.
[You have killed the Beast Arena Second Elder.]
[You have obtained 3.82% World Source.]
Seeing this prompt, Su Xiao activated the Crystal Card again, challenging the final enemy of this arena, the Great Elder Moraki.
Rumble~
The entire arena began to tremble. A figure appeared in the sky, and the next moment, it was less than half a meter above the ground, landing slowly. This was a man over three meters tall, generally humanoid, wearing a bone-white mask on his face, with pitch-black eyes, and wielding a heavy black spear over four meters long.
The black spear looked extremely heavy. From the faint black smoke rising from it, one could tell it was an Abyss weapon.
After the Great Elder Moraki appeared, it erupted with pitch-black aura without any nonsense. Su Xiao, who had been slightly disappointed with the "Beast Arena," began to release his blood energy. This Great Elder was no pushover. The previous Ten Rising Stars plus two elder-level figures couldn't compare to it alone.
'Extreme Blade: Heavy Moon!'
With a boom, the slashing pressure descended. The Great Elder Moraki's body visibly sank, its posture slightly lowered. It held the black spear in one hand, while the other hand formed a claw. Its pitch-black hand had web-like white stripes, giving it a strong sense of power.
The Great Elder Moraki's darkness erupted further. The mouth area of its bone mask cracked with a snap, not like hard material breaking, but like flexible membrane snapping and tearing. Its mouthful of beastly fangs were exposed.
The Great Elder Moraki... no, at this moment, it was no longer the Great Elder of this place. It had encountered a strong enemy worth risking everything to challenge. The Beast Moraki, enduring the slashing pressure of "Heavy Moon," charged forward fiercely.
At this moment, the Beast Moraki felt surging power throughout its body. It hadn't felt this way in a very, very long time. It was hundreds of years ago, facing a powerful beast. That beast stood on a giant rock, looking down at it, covered in blood from heavy punches, on the verge of death, and said:
"From today on, be my child. My dead child Moraki, from today, this name belongs to you."
Decades later, the Beast Moraki, through countless battles, became the Great Elder of the Beast Arena. People respectfully called it the Great Elder, and over time, it got used to this title. But today, Moraki became a beast again.
Every step the Beast Moraki took caused the entire Beast Arena to tremble slightly. The slashing pressure from the pitch-black heavy moon above was too terrifying.
But the Beast Moraki found that the closer it got to the strong enemy ahead, the smaller it seemed to become. The closer it got, the more prominent the image of the enemy's massive, grinning Blood Beast became in its perception.
"Roar!"
The Beast Moraki let out a wild roar. The oppressive pressure and blood energy caused its bare upper body to show substantial wounds. It gripped the black spear with both hands. The truly terrifying aspect of this spear wasn't the sharpness of its blade but its terrifying weight. It raised the black spear high, preparing to strike down, and what greeted it was a slashing long sword.
With a boom, the long sword hadn't arrived yet, but the wind pressure from the terrifying slashing force came first. The Beast Moraki's long hair and tattered pants were blown straight back.
The Beast Moraki, which had intended to strike down, immediately adapted. It flipped the black spear, holding it horizontally in front of it for a block. It was ready to withstand this blow and then, relying on its combat experience and instincts, temporarily suppress the strong enemy.
However, when the long sword truly slashed down, the Beast Moraki's pupils contracted violently. Facing this seemingly simple slash, it deeply felt the sensation of an invisible hand gripping its heart tightly, its perception warning like a thousand needles piercing its brain, and its blood seeming to boil and burst out of its body. All of this told it how terrifying this simple slash was.
Dong~!!
The long sword struck the black spear. It wasn't a crisp metallic sound but a dull explosion-like roar.
As for the Beast Moraki, the mask on its face was torn off by the wind pressure, revealing its wild features and the dozen or so eyes covering the upper half of its face. Its beastly lips were wildly flapped by the wind pressure. Cracks began to appear in the flesh of its arms.
All of the Beast Moraki's eyes were wide open. It even temporarily grew six arms of varying lengths on the sides of its torso, all gripping the black spear.
After a wild roar from the Beast Moraki, it finally withstood the slashing force. It stumbled back several big steps. Three of its right arms held the spear, while one left hand instinctively covered its mouth and jaw. But it still spat out a large amount of black blood, even several mouthfuls in succession.
The sharp fangs in the Beast Moraki's mouth ground together with a cracking sound. It used all its strength to stand up, preparing to pounce at the strong enemy opposite. However, the strong enemy holding the long sword was already standing less than two meters in front of the Beast Moraki.
Zheng~
After a swift and clean slash, the Beast Moraki felt its body become light, especially its head, which floated up lightly.
Before it completely fell into darkness, the Beast Moraki felt a pure, dark power merging into its body. Its death perspective also confirmed this. A minotaur was grabbing its headless corpse, dragging it to a formation. The formation was filled with pure and massive Abyss power.
On the arena, Su Xiao crouched in front of the Abyss formation, placing one hand on the formation node. With his "Top-Tier Abyssology" skill, constructing this formation was no problem.
He had beheaded the Beast Moraki with one slash, sending it back to the Abyss to be reborn. But this headless corpse and the Beast Moraki's causality weren't just related; fundamentally, they were the same causality.
The real difficulty was how to transmit the Abyss enhancement applied to this headless corpse to the Beast Moraki's causality within the Abyss. This was where Kaiser came in.
As the saying goes, "With the Abyssal Jar on the head, all things in the Star Realm can be deceived."
Kaiser was helping this time for free. It wasn't that Kaiser had lost his greed, but he wanted to challenge whether he could use the Abyssal Jar to "deceive" the Abyss power transformed by the ritual formation.
Directly deceiving the Abyss was something Kaiser wouldn't attempt; that would be suicide. But when the Abyss power left the Abyss and was transformed by the ritual, Kaiser was happy to try. The result was that Kaiser succeeded.
Why did Su Xiao and Kaiser want to enhance the Beast Moraki? The answer was that, normally, the Beast Moraki would take several days to be reborn in the Abyss. Su Xiao certainly didn't have three days to wait. He and Kaiser wanted to speed up this process.
In common terms, this small boss respawned too slowly. Su Xiao and Kaiser were helping it respawn faster.
Simply making the Beast Moraki respawn quickly was useless. They also had to ensure its respawn location. That was easy. Its corpse was still at the center of the dark ritual. This would inevitably be the Beast Moraki's most preferred location to return to the material world. Moreover, one of the functions of this ritual was to forcibly drag the reborn Beast Moraki back.
Thus, Su Xiao and Kaiser had solved both the respawn speed and the respawn point. The most critical issue was that the first kill of the Beast Moraki had yielded 8.6% World Source. After the next kill, under normal circumstances, the World Source gain would drop to below 2%. After a few times, no more World Source would be obtained.
Su Xiao certainly wouldn't let that happen. First, he had to understand one point: why did killing an Abyss descendant for the first time yield a certain amount of "World Source," which then gradually decreased?
After discussing with Kaiser, they concluded that "World Source" might be somewhat related to "World Force." The more World Force a powerful being drew upon, the greater its influence on the world. Killing it would yield more "World Source."
This was also why killing some high-ranking individuals who weren't particularly strong but held high status could yield a large amount of "World Source."
Su Xiao and Kaiser's hypothesis was: if "World Force" was contaminated by Abyss energy, and then this special Abyss energy was added to a powerful being, would killing that being yield "World Source"?
Su Xiao's pocket watch ticked away. When five hours had passed, thick black smoke surged from the dark ritual ahead. After a unique spatial fluctuation, a circular, downward-facing dark space hole appeared ten meters above. The Beast Moraki, accompanied by dense, liquid-like Abyss energy, fell from the space hole.
After landing, the Beast Moraki was briefly dazed. It raised one hand, and the black spear was immediately attracted to it, which it caught with a powerful bang. Still feeling somewhat confused, the Beast Moraki immediately noticed the man holding a long sword standing opposite. Related memories flashed through its mind like a fast-forwarded movie.
However, just as it realized what kind of technique grandmaster this person was, a long sword was already slashing toward its face. The sword hadn't arrived yet, but the powerful slashing pressure came first. The feeling of death approached.
When the Beast Moraki's consciousness began to stir again, it found itself in an endless expanse of liquid darkness. A dark force enveloped its consciousness, connecting it to the nearby "Ancestral Clan Emblem." This told the Beast Moraki that it had returned to the Abyss for rebirth.
Now, the Beast Moraki's situation was: what to do when your respawn point is camped.