Chapter 43: Limit Breakthrough
Land of All Beings, Tenth Layer.
Su Xiao stood on a dugout canoe, gazing into the distance. Around him was an endless ocean, the seawater a translucent blue. Scooping some up, the viscous, silky liquid flowed down his fingers—this was an ocean formed from liquefied Soul Crystals.
As Su Xiao slashed out with his blade, the 525,000 soul avatars standing on the sea surface, all bearing the "Visage of the Gods," simultaneously struck out with their own blades...
Cultivation was like this—tedious and repetitive. Yet without such arduous training as a foundation, how could one qualify to fight life-and-death battles against formidable enemies like the God-Slayers and the Ancestral God?
When fighting the Ancestral God, even Xiao, a top-tier assassin of the Star Realm, watched with a pounding heart, even developing the illusion that since Bai Ye could clash head-on with the Ancestral God for so many rounds, surely he could hold out for one round himself.
The result was both realistic and cruel. After the deadly battle ended, Xiao, with faint traces of blood on his cheek, looked at Su Xiao with a somewhat gloomy gaze. The meaning was clear: if today's events were not spread, they could continue as good partners for cooperation. But if leaked, it would mean eternal enmity.
Su Xiao estimated that Xiao's subsequent strength improvement should proceed smoothly. For now, the other party had secured a seat among the Supreme in the only Transcendent Primordial World of the Third Era. In the judgment of the newly born World Consciousness of the Ten Thousand Races Realm, Xiao was clearly one of the main powerhouses who defeated the Ancestral God and allowed this world to transcend. While the world's favor wasn't maxed out like Su Xiao's, at the very least, in the eyes of the Ten Thousand Races Realm's World Consciousness, Xiao was an extremely important powerhouse of this world.
Although cultivation was dull, once immersed in it, it was a time killer. When Su Xiao felt a sense of exhaustion, he realized a day had passed. Fortunately, he had permanent usage rights to the "Land of All Beings: Tenth Layer." Otherwise, the "Space-Time Power" consumed in this single day would have been a considerable expense.
After the teleportation sensation faded, Su Xiao had returned to the teleportation platform in the Trial Grounds Hall. He headed toward his Exclusive Room. Passing by Xia's restaurant along the way, he stopped, took out a key, and opened the door. Perfect—it was lunchtime, and Xia wasn't in the restaurant. She must have gone out to buy ingredients again.
After sitting down, Su Xiao sent Xia a message with the image of Amu pretending to walk into the kitchen. A few minutes later, hurried footsteps sounded outside the shop. Xia pushed open the door, panting, only to find Su Xiao alone in the restaurant.
"Damn it, tricked again."
Xia muttered as she carried ingredients into the kitchen. Inside, while tying up her hair, she asked, "What do you want to eat?"
"Rice, meat, mushrooms, fish."
"You're the pickiest eater. It's like you predicted it—I just happened to buy Wugu fish today. Steamed, I guess. Any other cooking method would be a waste of this fish. Where are Bubu and Beini?"
"They've already eaten."
"Oh, right, Bai Ye, my good friend—you definitely won't remember the name—it's the bespectacled girl who often comes to play games with me."
"Mm."
Su Xiao ate some pre-meal fruit while browsing recent reports from major Void news outlets via his terminal.
"She's really curious to know what rank you are? Of course, if it's inconvenient to say, just pretend I didn't ask. It's not me who's curious—well, I generally don't have much curiosity."
With that, Xia placed the prepared Wugu fish into the steamer.
"12th rank."
As soon as Su Xiao finished speaking, a dull thud came from the kitchen, followed by Xia crouching down, holding her head, and letting out a soft cry of pain.
"Isn't the highest rank 9th? How could you be 12th? I'm a worker, sure, but I'm not that easy to fool."
"..."
"Is there really a 12th rank?"
Xia rubbed her head, leaned over to check the heat of the mushroom broth, and turned it down a bit.
"Yes."
"Then the enemies you face must be really strong, right? The kind that terrorizes a region, making an entire kingdom live in fear as a boss?"
"..."
Su Xiao was stumped, because the few ordinary Supremes he had killed in the Ten Thousand Races Realm already exceeded that level. As for the Ancestral God, this was someone who intended to dominate a Transcendent Primordial World and use it as a lair, making the other thousand worlds in that region of the Star Realm know how terrifying and brutal the majestic rule of the former gods was.
In the territory of the former gods, most worlds were breeding grounds for raising intelligent races. Many parts of the gods' large war machines required high-quality, resilient intelligent beings as components, fixed inside the war machines.
Beyond manufacturing these war machines requiring massive flesh-and-blood parts, later maintenance and upkeep also involved replacing those parts.
Those super-massive war machines, tens of thousands of meters tall, emitted a sense of despair just by approaching them. Even though all the flesh-and-blood parts had undergone lobotomies, they still suffered greatly—the pain and torment of the soul.
And this was just the tip of the iceberg of what the gods did. Their most infamous punishment, "Ultimate Bliss," caused both physical and psychological discomfort just by learning about it.
"Mm, something like that."
"Why 'something like that'?"
Xia's voice approached as she set down a platter of steamed fish. As she lifted the lid, the entire spines of all five Wugu fish were pulled out together, leaving the fish in the dish perfectly intact.
"Tsk~, 0.25 seconds off, but I guess it barely counts as a success."
"..."
Su Xiao took a bite of the steamed fish—fresh, fragrant, smooth, and tender. The belly meat was especially memorable. After one bite, his hand holding the chopsticks seemed to have a mind of its own, already reaching for another.
After the meal, walking back to his Exclusive Room, Su Xiao's thought was: what a pity that Wugu fish was so rare. Otherwise, he would steam at least ten at a time. After eating four, he'd still crave this Void specialty ingredient.
Returning to his Exclusive Room, Su Xiao saw Amu fiddling with his collection of antique clocks, but looking distracted. He was clearly still worried about Baha's safety. Bubu Wang, who should have been out causing trouble by now, was also at home, occasionally sighing.
Opening the adventure group channel, Baha's avatar was still lit. Calculating the time, the trial over there should be at a critical juncture.
Entering the planting area, Su Xiao immediately noticed the Black Tiger Bee colony gradually taking shape in the nearby artificial hive. A few days ago, after the Black Tiger Bee Queen had her fill of Black Maple Tree sap, within just over half an hour, her condition improved dramatically. That same noon, she began laying eggs.
It was highly likely due to the Black Maple Tree sap. The queen's condition was not only good but her size had increased. By the evening of the next day, the colony had begun to take on some scale.
During Su Xiao's promotion to "Supreme Peak," the Black Tiger Bee colony thrived. The queen, worker bees, drones—all were present. The original artificial hive had been abandoned by the colony; they had rebuilt a new one on a nearby tree.
All Black Tiger Bees adhered to one principle: the queen came first, followed by the Black Maple Tree.
These fierce creatures had a very strong protective instinct toward the Black Maple Tree. They even cleared the dry fallen leaves on the ground around it. If any birds in the planting area dared approach the Black Maple Tree, they would swarm together, vowing to protect it with their lives.
Of course, these Black Tiger Bees also had people they feared. They feared Su Xiao the most, followed by Amu. Originally, they weren't afraid of Amu, but after he approached the Black Maple Tree and they prepared to attack, only for Amu to eat a few of them, they chose to submit under the deterrence of the "Original Sin of Gluttony."
Moreover, this Black Tiger Bee Queen possessed a hint of intelligence, somewhere between an insect and a spirited wild animal. Under her mental commands, the colony seemed to understand that the Black Maple Tree they depended on for survival belonged to this powerful human. So they could only harvest its sap and, in return, offer the "Maple Honey" they produced.
These clever little creatures were cunning enough to know that most of the "Maple Honey" should be produced in the artificial hive. Of course, this was also related to the first time they tried to harvest honey, when Amu came with his hammer and cracked their hanging nest.
A moment later, Amu collected about 10.5 liters of "Maple Honey" and brought it to the Alchemy Laboratory. Upon arriving, Su Xiao saw the Alchemy Maid, who had just woken up not long ago. After returning to Reincarnation Paradise, she had fallen into a deep sleep.
The newly awakened Alchemy Maid frowned at the mess in the Alchemy Laboratory, wanting to clean it until it was spotless. But before that, she first had to serve as Su Xiao's pharmaceutical assistant.
Using this "Maple Honey" to concoct the top-tier nourishing product "Maple Color Milk Cream" wasn't difficult. The main challenge was the scarcity of the raw material "Maple Honey." Su Xiao sat before the mixing station and began replicating the "Maple Color Milk Cream" that was all the rage during the Second Era.
In truth, Su Xiao could develop something better, but that would require promotion and later marketing. Directly concocting "Maple Color Milk Cream" could reduce the profit cycle by 99.99%.
Speaking of which, the most brilliant marketing of "Maple Color Milk Cream" was that the commercial forces under the "Alchemy Faction" positioned it as a skincare product. But in reality, this stuff nourished "Primordial Life Force" from the outside in. The improvement in skin condition was just one of many feedbacks—and the most noticeable one.
When expectations were only for better skin, but the result was a complete improvement from the inside out, transitioning from a 40-plus-year-old body state to a vibrant 20-year-old state—the joy from such a huge gap was indescribable in just a few words.
After more than twenty trial-and-error attempts, Su Xiao concocted a semi-solid, golden-white pharmaceutical product. He checked its information—excellent.
[You have obtained "Maple Color Milk Cream (Concentrated Type)."]
Being able to pass certification by default meant this was a 100% replication. If Alchemy Lv.99 couldn't achieve this level, then concocting various top-tier potions would be impossible.
First, to test the feedback on this product, Su Xiao scrolled through his Reincarnation friends list. After a thorough search—excellent. He couldn't find the target audience for this item. The audience for this was ladies from wealthy or noble families without supernatural talent. He took out his communicator and dialed the Holy Maiden's Seat.
"Hmm~?"
The Holy Maiden's Seat's drowsy voice came through—clearly sleeping and woken by the call.
"I have a batch..."
Su Xiao roughly explained the situation with "Maple Color Milk Cream." A moment later, steady breathing came from the other end. He paused for a few seconds, then said:
"I've been promoted to Supreme Peak."
After saying this, Su Xiao handed the communicator to the Alchemy Maid and had her step back a few steps.
"What?!!!"
The high-pitched shriek from the communicator made the Alchemy Maid turn her head, her eardrums stinging a bit.
"How is that possible? On what grounds? You thief who stole my fortune! Ah!! How did you do it? Teach me! I'm stuck at Absolute Strength..."
After the Holy Maiden's Seat rambled incoherently for a while, her voice came through again:
"I'll send someone to the Great Gathering Place to pick it up. I'll give you feedback within two hours at the latest."
The Holy Maiden's Seat sounded drained, as if she had been beaten from afar.
"So fast?"
"I'm from the Gilurius family, right."
"Mm."
"Our Gilurius family is very wealthy, ranked fifth in the Star Realm, right."
"Right."
"Our family preserved 'Maple Color Milk Cream' since the Second Era. A few years ago, the last batch was used by my aunt. So, I just need to give this to my aunt, and that's it."
"Yes."
"So, how will you thank me?"
"Help you advance to Supreme."
"Really? Will... will I die?"
"No."
"Then what's the price?"
"It might not be you who succeeds."
The information density in Su Xiao's words was considerable. The Holy Maiden's Seat on the other end shivered. Finally, she sighed:
"I really was too stubborn. I forgot how I reached the pinnacle of Absolute Strength. It seems I need to accept this. Thanks, Bai Ye. One last thing—tell me, how did you reach Supreme Peak?"
"By making a world transcend."
"Excellent. Absolutely excellent. I'm completely and utterly dead inside now. Bai Ye, I admit, you will always be stronger than me from now on. However..."
At this point, the Holy Maiden's Seat's tone shifted, a hint of laughter returning: "You're a Technique Supreme. Your abilities are all money-devouring beasts. You must be very poor. I still win in terms of wealth. Ahahaha~"
The Holy Maiden's Seat mimicked the laughter of a crazy friend.
"..."
Su Xiao didn't respond. The Holy Maiden's Seat on the other end said smugly, "What's wrong, Supreme Peak? Hurt by my financial power?"
"Mm."
"You... don't just answer directly. I'm suddenly a bit panicked. We're both members of the Starry Sky Seat. No forced sharing of wealth."
"Alright."
Su Xiao's reply made the Holy Maiden's Seat snort, then she hung up.
The rapid development of the Black Tiger Bee colony was an unexpected blessing. Originally, Su Xiao would have had to pay more of his treasures to master the "Peak Skill."
The process wasn't complicated: select a branch room of the Exclusive Room, submit a permission request to the Void Tree, pay 100,000 ounces of Space-Time Power, and the "Inscribed High Stele" would be teleported to that branch room for 12 hours.
Usually, 10 to 11 hours were enough to master one "Peak Ability."
While waiting for feedback from the Holy Maiden's Seat, Su Xiao sat cross-legged on the plush carpet, sensing his current state. After a period of cultivation in the "Land of All Beings," his ability system had stabilized. It was time to continue improving.
[Supreme Peak·Extreme Realm Trait Enhancement 3: The current limit strength of your "Blade Grandmaster," "Melee Grandmaster," and "Blood Spear Grandmaster" is increased by 300%. Your core technique ability "Heavenly Edge Shadow Slash" will be enhanced by 85% without any change in skill level.]
Previously, when promoted to Supreme Peak, this prompt hadn't activated simultaneously. Now, as he activated this epic enhancement to his technique abilities, the next instant—
Drip~
Like a droplet falling onto an endless, pitch-black sea. Light, accompanied by ripples from the droplet, rapidly spread outward. The boundless, calm ocean was illuminated. After a brief silence, the sea began to tremble. Mountains rose from the sea, and in the blink of an eye, towering peaks replaced the ocean.
Snowflakes fell. It seemed like a moment, or perhaps a thousand years passed. This mountain, piercing the clouds, was covered in pristine snow. A figure was climbing toward the summit. Snow howled, and golden realm thunder surged through the sky.
Su Xiao, climbing, looked up and saw, at the peak, a figure amidst the howling snow. The figure looked down, and Su Xiao met its gaze.
Boom!
The mountain, the snow swirling in the sky, even the world itself collapsed.
Su Xiao, sitting cross-legged on the plush carpet before the large bed in his Exclusive Room, opened his eyes. He had seen the figure at the supreme peak—the one he must face and challenge.
His hand instinctively rested on the hilt of his blade at his waist.
Clang!
Slashing strikes appeared all around. Bubu Wang, who had been sleeping lazily, jerked upright but, due to recent failed weight management, let out a muffled grunt and fell back, unfortunately landing squarely on Beini.
Bubu Wang quickly moved away. Beini, the young lady who had been startled awake from her nap, was stunned.
"Woof!"
Bubu Wang pointed at Amu. Amu, who was eating, suddenly froze, his chewing stopping.
Amidst a flurry of barking and scuffling, Su Xiao checked his current Blade Grandmaster ability.
[Blade Grandmaster: X (Technique·Passive)]
Skill Effect: Blade weapon damage rank +3000 (increased by 1700), Blade weapon slashing judgment rank +3000 (increased by 1700), Blade weapon armor-breaking judgment rank +3000 (increased by 1700).
Soul Severing Strength: 170 points (increased by 90 points).
Extreme Blade Heart: 1/1.
Tip: When HP falls below 1%, each Extreme Blade Heart can block one "Fatal Attack."
X Ultimate Ability: Extreme Realm·Star Realm (Transcendent·Passive). You fully release your Technique Grandmaster's might, affecting the Star Realm's operation within a 1000-meter radius (increased by 500 meters), causing it to enter a "Star Realm Stasis" state for 8 seconds. During this time, you can move within this range at 70% of your speed and slash at full speed.
Warning: This ability can only be used once every 3 natural days.
...
Since Su Xiao was promoted to Supreme Peak via the "Extreme Realm System," he could now resist instant death and slashing effects except for those with "Causal Slash" characteristics. Thus, in this enhancement, the "Blade Heart" of Blade Grandmaster had undergone adaptive improvement.
It had become a skill that could block one "Fatal Attack" when HP reached 1%. This was definitely a better life-saving divine skill than the former "Blood Controller."
"Blood Controller" seemed to last a few seconds, but that was against attacks within a bearable range. If Su Xiao faced an attack from an enemy of the same level—a Supreme Peak powerhouse—the protection of "Blood Controller" would be instantly shattered.
"Extreme Blade Heart" didn't have this problem. Although it only blocked one "Fatal Attack," if used properly, the probability of turning the tables on the spot was very high. Especially since Su Xiao was a Technique Grandmaster, very skilled in this regard.
In other aspects, "Blade weapon damage rank +3000" was pure power. As for "Extreme Realm·Star Realm," gaining an additional 2 seconds this time was somewhat unexpected. The difficulty of increasing this ability's duration grew progressively. Starting at 3 seconds, if the difficulty to raise it to 4 seconds was 100, raising it to 5 seconds would be 500—the further, the harder.
[Melee Grandmaster: X (Technique·Passive)]
Skill Effect: Kick damage rank +3565 (increased by 3200), Physical toughness increased by 100% (increased by 1%).
Power Penetration·Kick Enhancement: Total 20 times (increased by 8 times).
X Ultimate Ability·Power Penetration·Kick 20x Enhancement (Supreme·Passive): The power of your "Kick" will be boosted by your "Primordial Supreme Life Force Volume," "All Supreme Main Attributes," and "Soul Strength."
Warning: Do not attempt to attack any infrastructure within Reincarnation Paradise using this method. Otherwise, depending on the extent of damage, your Reincarnation Rank will be deducted!
...
He didn't yet know how powerful a straight kick would be, but he could test it on the first enemy encountered in the next world progress.
[Blood Spear Grandmaster: X (Passive)]
Skill Effect: Blood Qi attack rank +1800 (increased by 1553). Any Blood Qi-based attack will reduce the enemy's total defense by 95%.
Blood Qi Strength: 4530 points (increased by 3000 points).
Basic Effect: When your HP drops to a near-death state, all your melee attack damage increases by 80% (increased by 10%).
X Ultimate Ability: Annihilation Blood Spear (Supreme·Passive). Consume 80% Blood Qi to quickly construct an "Annihilation Blood Spear" with an attack strength equal to current base Blood Qi strength × (Supreme Strength + Supreme Stamina + True Willpower + Soul Strength). The flight attack speed of this blood spear will be determined by your Supreme Agility attribute. You can attack enemies in the following ways:
Melee Grip: In this state, the "Annihilation Blood Spear" will be boosted by your technique abilities, gaining the "Absolute Pierce" characteristic and can be detonated.
Warning: Detonating the "Annihilation Blood Spear" in grip state has a 98.55% or higher probability of destroying your left arm, causing "Devouring Annihilation" level permanent damage.
Soul Control: In this state, the "Annihilation Blood Spear" has a maximum attack range of 20 kilometers. Beyond this range, the "Annihilation Blood Spear" will self-destruct.
Tip: The closer the "Annihilation Blood Spear" is to you, the faster its flight attack speed.
...
[Heavenly Edge Shadow Slash, Lv.88 (Extreme Realm Technique·Passive)]
Basic Effect: Total technique ability comprehensive strength increased by 431% (increased by 198%).
Skill Effect: Extreme Blade (Exclusive Passive)...
Current Extreme Blade·Foundation Strength: 158 points.
Extreme Realm Effect 1: Heavenly Edge Shadow Slash (Extreme Realm·Exclusive Passive)...
Extreme Realm Effect 2: Selfless Realm (Extreme Realm·Exclusive Passive). Enter the "Selfless Realm," briefly forgetting all past blade techniques, retaining only the one blade technique currently in use, thereby elevating it to its extreme.
Current Selfless Realm Enhancement Limit: 6.5 times technique power.
...
Su Xiao could clearly feel that his technique abilities had improved too much in a short time. His ability system showed signs of instability. To address this, he left his Exclusive Room and headed to the Land of All Beings: Tenth Layer in the Trial Grounds.
Two days later, at the main entrance of the Trial Grounds, Su Xiao walked out, exhausted. Just then, a prompt appeared.
[Your follower Baha has completed this "Despair Trial."]
[Trial Score: SSS (E~SSS).]
[Trial Cost 1: Loss of left eye at the causal level (cannot be restored by any method).]
[Trial Cost 2: One-third of the soul devoured (can be restored, but with extreme difficulty).]
[Trial Cost 3: Bearing the "Malicious Demon Heart."]
[Trial Cost 4: Completely devoured the "Heart-Devouring Evil Demon Intent."]
[Trial Cost 5: Due to bearing the "Malicious Demon Heart" + devouring and overcoming the "Heart-Devouring Evil Demon Intent," Baha has become the new "Heart-Devouring Evil."]
...
Baha had risked his life to achieve the best outcome of this trial, and the costs were clearly visible.
When Su Xiao returned to his Exclusive Room, he found Bubu Wang, Amu, and Beini all in the Alchemy Laboratory. Entering, he saw Baha inside a glass column filled with solution, in a peculiar state. After observing for a moment, he realized this was a process of merging power.
"Woof?"
Bubu Wang barked, asking with concern.
"He's already merging the power."
Hearing Su Xiao's words, Bubu Wang, Amu, and Beini all visibly relaxed.
Baha would probably take a while to wake up. Su Xiao went to the planting area, where the Lord's Train was parked. Boarding the train and sitting in his exclusive seat, he opened the drawer containing communicators. His fingers swept over each one, finally stopping on a golden communicator with a goblin avatar.
He dialed. A few minutes later, the communicator connected. A solemn voice came through, even with a hint of baritone:
"Hello."
This steady baritone immediately conjured an image of a tall, steady, reliable figure.
However, the last time he met the guy on the other end, he was a goblin with a shifty expression, running while carrying a Scepter of Life, looking like a thief who had just succeeded, inwardly ecstatic but outwardly nervous.
That's right, the other party was the former chairman of the Goblin Merchant Guild, now a salesperson, Berge Gold Crown. As for why he didn't contact the general manager of the Goblin Merchant Guild, Kingold, it was because Berge Gold Crown needed the opportunity more now. This also meant he could offer a higher price for the upcoming deal.