Chapter 3: At Least Master "Advanced Abyssology, Lv.80" or Above
Abyssology is divided into five major tiers: Beginner, Elementary, Intermediate, Advanced, and Top-tier. Each major tier has 100 minor levels. Raising "Beginner Abyssology" to Lv.100 allows it to be promoted to "Elementary Abyssology."
Meeting the above three conditions allows one to roughly understand the meaning of the massive thoughts emitted by the "Unshadowed Eye" through the Eye Ritual. The problem is that these massive thoughts are filled with scorching, high-heat madness, twisted chaos, and spiritual infectious diseases.
This requires simultaneous strength of body, mind, and spirit to endure. A True Stamina of 2000+ meets the "body" threshold, a Soul Strength of 1500+ meets the "spirit" threshold, and a True Willpower of 2000+ meets the "mind" threshold.
Yet even so, communicating to a certain extent with the "Unshadowed Eye" through the "Eye Ritual" would still be very harried. During the process, bleeding from the five orifices, intermittent unconsciousness, etc., could all occur. Su Xiao's [Absolute Will (Semi-Awakened State)] allowed him to remain composed during this negotiation.
This also gave others the illusion that communicating with the "Unshadowed Eye" wasn't too dangerous.
Bang!
A loud noise came from one of the Three Pillar Gods, the Spirit God·Oswald, whose head had exploded.
"Amu."
As soon as Su Xiao spoke, Amu stepped forward and kicked the Spirit God·Oswald, who was spewing orange-yellow contaminated divine blood, off the ship.
Primordial Origin·Harota didn't stop it. A mass of flesh grew from its large hand, fell to the ground with a splat, quickly surged to the ship's railing, adhered like a suction cup, and extended to wrap around the Spirit God·Oswald, who had fallen into the orange-red sea.
Once the Spirit God·Oswald stopped spewing divine blood with intense contamination, it was pulled back onto the ship. The other two Pillar Gods stepped forward and dragged the Spirit God·Oswald toward the cabin belonging to the Divine Cult. Before leaving, the Blood God·Ashaga looked down at Amu. Its shell, over five meters tall, was a head taller than Amu.
"Moo!"
Although Amu was usually simple-minded in the Dawn Team and often disciplined by Young Miss Beini, he was genuinely hot-tempered with outsiders. He made a move to embed the Dark War Axe in his hand into the Blood God·Ashaga's head, creating a handle for the other while also teaching it a lesson.
"Amu."
"A, sha, ga."
Su Xiao's voice and Primordial Origin·Harota's mechanical, hollow sound came almost simultaneously. Currently, they were in the "Sea of Life," so internal conflict was not allowed. Of course, they couldn't show any weakness in attitude either. So Su Xiao's attitude was that Amu did the right thing, but there was no need to continue for now.
"Exchange? Exchange with what?"
The Clock Tower Master·Silgoff was very interested in trading with the "Unshadowed Eye."
"With your skull."
Hearing this, the Clock Tower Master·Silgoff fell silent for a moment. After a few seconds of thought, he inserted his index finger into the gap between his right eye and the nasal bone, hooked it onto the brow bone, and pulled his skull out alive.
Miraculously, only the skull was pulled out; the brain, eyeballs, and other organs remained intact in his head.
Bubu Wang slyly sidled up to Su Xiao, as if saying: 'Master, I want to poke this old monster's current head to see if it's springy.'
The Clock Tower Master·Silgoff tossed his skull to Su Xiao. Catching it, Su Xiao immediately noticed the 11 spiritual holes emitting blue light on the skull, as well as the 12th crack. It seemed the Clock Tower Master·Silgoff was challenging the limit of the number of spiritual holes.
Someone had once truly opened 12 spiritual holes but only lived for 6 seconds before dying from a soul explosion, causing all matter within 1200 kilometers to be devoured by the spiritual impact, forming a annihilation black hole that swallowed that world. It was unknown whether an "Origin Stone" was formed.
Su Xiao placed Silgoff's skull on the "Eye Ritual." The skull was wrapped and swallowed by orange-yellow light. Then... nothing happened.
Seeing this, the Clock Tower Master·Silgoff was ready to take back the chips he had just offered. But the next second, orange-yellow light appeared again on the ritual formation. This time, the light was so dense it became liquid, replacing the eye ritual formation. On the ship's deck, an elliptical orange-yellow light hole formed. Surrounded by orange-yellow flesh, a skull with 13 brain holes was squeezed out of the light hole.
Seeing this skull, Su Xiao confirmed one thing: the Clock Tower Master·Silgoff was indeed the founder of the Soul Clock Tower, but he might not be the originator of "Ultimate Sublimation," i.e., the "Brain Hole Secret Art."
It was very likely that the Clock Tower Master·Silgoff was merely an improver of the "Brain Hole Secret Art."
The problem was that the Clock Tower Master·Silgoff was a powerful figure from the mid-First Era. There were no records of such a soul system in the early First Era. So, did this indicate something?
Before the First Era, there was an even more ancient Star Realm period. This "Brain Hole Secret Art" was actually a power secret method from the ancient era. Then the historical view of the Star Realm would be:
Ancient Era → First Era → Second Era → Third Era.
This made sense. The problem was, if the Star Realm truly had an ancient era, why did all related records only go back to the early First Era? Including the Soul Library, a secretive force that had existed for eternity.
The current Third Era was about to face the Abyss Catastrophe. Was it possible that at the end of the ancient era, it also faced such a catastrophe?
But if it was the Abyss Catastrophe, then in the early First Era, there should have been many remnants of the Abyss receding. In the Soul Library, not only were there no records of this, but there was a clear record that the early First Era was the era with the most abundant natural elemental power...
Abundant natural elements?!
Excessive Abyss would lead to the Abyss invading. Similarly, excessive elemental power would also trigger disasters. The Eternal Light World was a case in point.
If the entire Star Realm was in a state of excessive elemental abundance, then only extra-worldly beings like the "Unshadowed Eye," and Star Realm anomalies like the Flourishing Madness, Candle Woman, and Lord of the Old, could survive this "Elemental Catastrophe."
The early First Era wasn't without remnants after a world-ending catastrophe. The abundant elemental environment was like puddles left after a tsunami receded, disappearing over time.
Along with them disappeared the civilizations of the ancient era, all wiped out by the elemental disaster, along with their diverse power systems and technological products.
The Soul Library might have records of this, but they were stored very secretly. Perhaps the Ancient One was an existence from the ancient era.
Ninety-nine percent of things from the ancient era were annihilated by the elemental disaster. Most of the remaining things disappeared in the river of time over subsequent eras. This skull with 13 spiritual holes was a remnant from the ancient era.
Su Xiao picked up the ancient skull, looked at the Clock Tower Master·Silgoff, and said:
"It seems every era has its developers of ultimate sublimation."
With that, Su Xiao tossed the ancient skull to the Clock Tower Master·Silgoff. Silgoff directly stuffed the ancient skull into his head. As a transcendent ascetic, replacing body parts was routine. His generations of choosing successors were all for better body parts.
From the First Era to now, except for his brain, all of Silgoff's other body parts had been replaced several times.
"Heh, yes, just like every era has its Law Destroyers."
As the Clock Tower Master·Silgoff spoke, 11 brain holes gradually appeared on his head. This skull indeed had 13 brain holes, but it only provided an upper limit. Silgoff's brain holes still had to be opened one by one.
"White Night, can I make other trades with this one?"
"You can."
Su Xiao spoke with a smile, causing the Clock Tower Master·Silgoff's heart to sink.
"What's the price?"
"Being swallowed half of your existence."
"Controlling inner greed is also part of soul cultivation."
The Clock Tower Master·Silgoff leaped to the cabin roof, sat cross-legged, and clasped his hands together, like an old monk in meditation. From the shape of his head, it looked even more so.
"My dear friend, Kaiser wants to make a deal with this ancient existence."
Hearing this, Su Xiao continued to negotiate with the "Unshadowed Eye" through the "Eye Ritual." The result was that the "Unshadowed Eye" didn't want to trade with a fraudster. This made Su Xiao wonder: could there have been fraudsters in the ancient era as well? Then he learned that the "Unshadowed Eye" wasn't completely closed off to external information.
For example, it knew Su Xiao was a Law Destroyer, disliked Reshma but wasn't ready to be hostile to Reshma. It also didn't like the Priest, because in the previous era, it was eroded by the Initial Death, turning it into a dead fish eye for a time.
The more one communicated with the "Unshadowed Eye," the more one realized it was an existence without active malice but with maximum passive malice. It wouldn't actively harm anyone. During communication, it could even be described as friendly. But its existence, the area it affected, was a natural, ultra-high-risk disaster zone.
In short, the "Unshadowed Eye" was an existence that, with the gentlest will fluctuations, killed countless beings.
The reason the "Unshadowed Eye" recognized Kaiser was that not long ago, a goblin came here. This goblin had the ability to communicate with all things, and one of his carried treasures prevented him from being passively contaminated and killed by the "Unshadowed Eye."
This information made Su Xiao think of something. Was the one who came here a while ago the chairman of the goblin merchant guild that Kaiser had tricked?
In the end, Primordial Origin·Harota and Ancient Patriarch·Hatu each completed a trade with the "Unshadowed Eye."
For these three trades, the "Unshadowed Eye" showed joy. It had slept for too long and hadn't experienced such interesting things in a long time. As the negotiator, the "Unshadowed Eye" conveyed the meaning that Su Xiao could trade with it twice. Only when he tried to trade a third time would it begin to take Su Xiao's "existence."
These ancient beings seemed to follow some rules unknown to outsiders. Su Xiao took out a sealed sphere, stuffed it into the orange-yellow light ring. After a moment, the light ring closed, and the "Unshadowed Eye's" will fluctuations sank and faded away.
Seeing this, the Priest seemed to think of something and asked casually, "White Night, what did you trade with the 'Unshadowed Eye'? It looks like it didn't pay you."
"It did."
"What payment?"
"Our safe arrival at the end of the 'Sea of Life.'"
As soon as Su Xiao said this, everyone's gaze unconsciously turned to the Clock Tower Master, or the Ancient Patriarch, or Primordial Origin·Harota.
Although no one said it outright, the atmosphere clearly said: 'Look, this is vision.'
Don't forget, these three were all former "Supreme Peaks," rivals from the same era. They naturally cared about face, especially with subordinates present, as well as Reshma and the Priest. Moreover, the old woman was an ancient existence. Not showing something would indeed be a loss of face.
"This, originally, belongs to, you. Now it should, return to its rightful owner."
Primordial Origin·Harota formed a right arm, stabbed it into the space beside it, causing the space to fluctuate while being assimilated into a flesh form. This flesh assimilation was spreading.
Primordial Origin·Harota pulled out a sky-blue crystal from the surging flesh space and tossed it to Su Xiao. Catching it, a prompt appeared.
[You have obtained "Soul Energy Crystal."]
[Soul Energy Crystal]
Origin: Shadow of Law Annihilation·First Generation Law Annihilator.
Effect: Can be used for deep enhancement of the Law Annihilator abilities currently mastered by the Shadow of Law Annihilation.
Warning: This item is limited to Law Annihilators/Silver Moon Wolves. Others using it will suffer severe backlash.
Rating: -- (Due to the extremely high information rank of this item, additional payment of Space-Time Power is required for certification to display its tier, rating, etc.)
Introduction: ??? (Insufficient permissions)
...
Seeing this "insufficient permissions," Su Xiao narrowed his eyes. He had Lv.103 brand permissions, and he was the Shadow of Law Annihilation closely related to this item. Moreover, he was the only living Shadow of Law Annihilation.
He tried to mildly activate this [Soul Energy Crystal], and a prompt immediately appeared.
[The following abilities of yours can be ultra-limit enhanced through the "Soul Energy Crystal."]