Chapter 11: Ascension in Progress
From the previous battle, Su Xiao had sensed that he did not possess the kind of unsolvable abilities that the Crimson Beast·Diro or the Deer God had. In contrast, he had obtained the [Peak Ability] that could supremely enhance his own physique.
Su Xiao was certain that whether it was the Crimson Beast·Diro devouring others' Primordial Life Force to strengthen himself, or the Deer God's undying battle intent and self-immortality, these were all [Peak Abilities]. The peak abilities he had seen before were generally in their initial state, which was why they were merely powerful, not yet appearing so outrageous.
As a peak ability, [Power Source]'s development direction was naturally to continuously enhance one's own physique. Therefore, Su Xiao needed an ability to compensate for the shortcoming caused by this peak ability lacking combat power.
[Azure Shadow King] could obviously take on this role. From the moment he came into contact with this ability, in all records of the Law Destruction Faction, it was one of the strongest abilities of the Law Destruction system. But to be honest, [Azure Shadow King] had never been top-tier in strength. Even the current version of [Azure Shadow King] was only strong in the early to mid stages of the Supreme rank when facing a siege.
The current [Azure Shadow King] ability mainly provided recovery effects. Its bonus of "all main attributes increased by 45%" could not enhance Supreme attributes. Su Xiao had originally thought that the qualitative change in [Azure Shadow King] would be completed using 10 [Soul Energy Crystals]. Now it seemed that was not the case. The [Second Heart Core] formed from overflowing Supreme mana was the true opportunity for [Azure Shadow King]'s qualitative change.
[Azure Shadow King] was the superior ability of the core ability [Azure Steel Shadow]. The true power of [Azure Steel Shadow] was only manifested after Su Xiao fully awakened it upon advancing to Supreme Peak.
As a superior derivative of [Azure Steel Shadow], [Azure Shadow King] most likely had a similar situation.
The only problem now was how to confirm mastering [Ultimate·Azure Shadow King] without dying. Continue to increase some Supreme attributes? Absolutely not. The one-time all-attributes +100 points had already made Su Xiao faintly feel that exceeding this limit would cause problems with his ability system.
Go to the Abyss near-zone first, then go find the Deer God for another fight? Although feasible, there was a high probability of being beaten to death by the Deer God in his current state.
Having fought two life-and-death battles with the Deer God, Su Xiao had a certain understanding of his abilities. For a period after the Deer God died and revived, his combat power skyrocketed. However, as time passed, this combat power peak would decay, eventually permanently stabilizing at about 2-3% stronger than his previous peak combat power. This was the part of permanent strengthening.
Even so, it was still an exaggerated ability. No wonder the Deer God was known as the Star Realm's honey badger — indifferent to life and death, ready to fight at any provocation. This one grew stronger with each battle. Even so-called War Gods had to admit this one was the real big brother.
Use [Fate Advance]? That was also not appropriate. Unless encountering a situation like [Original Sin Cause and Effect], one should not easily borrow the power of [Fate Advance].
Speaking of which, the Bed Daughter·Delona had already set off for [Eternal City·Or]. The purpose was naturally to contact the Devourer Squad. The five Devourers were the starting point for Su Xiao to break the [Original Sin Cause and Effect]. As for how many would ultimately survive, even if they all died, what harm would it do?
Compared to relying on external things, Su Xiao trusted himself more. He walked out of the [Exclusive Skill Upgrade Pod] and came to the mixing table. He planned to mix a potent [Life Secret Medicine] for himself. The effect was to make his life force extremely vigorous in a short time, preventing him from dying during the process of mastering [Ultimate·Azure Shadow King].
First, the storage time of this potion was directly lowered to E (potion strength characteristics ranged from E to S). The side effect cancellation aspect was also lowered to E. The side effects were concentrated on the burning of [Primordial Life Force]. Su Xiao's current overflowing [Primordial Life Force] was 34.08 million points. As long as it didn't affect the [Life Core], it was a small problem.
Never think that after reaching Supreme Peak, [Supreme Health Points] were easy to improve. According to Su Xiao's observations, the Deer God only had two [Life Cores], while the Crimson Beast·Diro only had one.
It wasn't that these two weren't strong enough; it was that their racial systems made it difficult to accumulate Life Cores. The Deer God was a divine system. To accumulate Life Cores, he not only needed [Primordial Life Force] to overflow by 50 million points but also needed to inject [Divine Marrow], a top-tier resource that had rarely appeared in an entire era.
And as an Abyss Descendant, the Crimson Beast·Diro's difficulty in accumulating [Life Cores] was probably ten times harder than the Deer God's.
In the Second Era of the Star Realm, a faction that relied on intelligence as its lifeblood once calculated that among all races, the difficulty for the Human Race to accumulate [Life Cores] was at T4 tier (difficulty ranged from T5 to T0).
The Divine System was probably T1.5 to T1, while the Abyss Descendants were solidly T0 difficulty.
All things in the Star Realm were balanced at certain times. The Human Race had no immortality, no resurrection ability. In contrast, when accumulating [Life Cores], once [Primordial Life Force] was sufficient, condensation could be completed. Precisely because there were no such immortality or resurrection abilities, it was purer, without burdens.
Because it was purer, the comprehensive ability of the Human Race's [Life Cores] was solidly T0. Take the Crimson Beast·Diro as an example. When its Life Core shattered, it only restored a large portion of its health, without immediately removing the erosion of Su Xiao and the Deer God's [Azure Steel Shadow] and [Golden Force].
This also meant that to this day, although Su Xiao could not die and revive, as a Human Race [Supreme Peak], he was also very hard to kill. Especially since he could continuously improve his Supreme Stamina, which would make his number of Life Cores even more astonishing.
When there were enough Life Cores, reaching five, or even seven or eight, even if the enemy's attack was very terrifying, enough to bring his health to zero in one hit, he might be able to withstand the current number of Life Cores + 1 hits.
Speaking of which, along Su Xiao's journey, because the enemies he faced were too strong, he generally could only withstand a few attacks from the enemy. As for the power of his attacks, ahem~, with such a fragile body, wasn't it reasonable for his attack power to be a bit stronger?
After equipping the [Peak Masterpiece] title and pulling the potion effect to S+, Su Xiao began mixing the potion.
In less than an hour, the first bottle of [Life Secret Medicine] was completed. After checking its attributes, upon discovering that drinking it would permanently lose 210,000 health points, he decisively abandoned it. Although his current [Primordial Life Force] was indeed abundant, every point was precious.
He raised the side effect cancellation to D and began mixing the second bottle. This time, it took over two hours, and the result was very good. It could recover 3.5% of maximum health per second for the next few hours, but it required being immobile and without external attacks. As for the side effects, drinking it would permanently reduce 83,260 health points. This was acceptable.
The [Life Potion] emitted an enticing bright red color, with golden light particles slowly flowing inside. Just seeing it made one want to drink it in one gulp, as if doing so would grant endless life.
Su Xiao immediately drank the [Life Potion] because this thing could only be stored for less than 5 minutes at room temperature.
Getting off the train, he came before the [Awakening Stele]. After placing one hand on the [Awakening Stele], he looked at Ayesha beside him.
"Mm."
Ayesha gave an affirmation. There was no external risk this time. As for the risk from the [Awakening Stele], judging from Ayesha's eyes that had turned pitch black, it was not optimistic.
Baha flew out of the Grand Cathedral and began circling above Sanctuary City as a warning. Bubu Wang behind Su Xiao went to activate all the defensive devices inside the Grand Cathedral.
Su Xiao calmed his mind. His Azure Steel Shadow energy gradually activated. On the [Awakening Stele] in front of him, a section of ability inscription lit up with deep blue light. This was the inscription content of [Ultimate·Azure Shadow King].
[Detected that you are attempting to master the corresponding advancement of Azure Shadow King, the Supreme Passive. You can simultaneously perform an adaptive ascension of the current Azure Shadow King ability. This ascension carries risks and requires payment of 238,000 ounces of Space-Time Power. If you abandon this ascension, your Azure Shadow King ability will need to be ascended through the secret transmission techniques of the Law Destruction Faction.]
[You have chosen to pay Space-Time Power to proceed with this ascension.]
[You need to select one body attribute as the core attribute of Azure Shadow King. While Azure Shadow King is enhanced by this attribute, it will also bring a unique feedback bonus to this body attribute. You must choose carefully.]
...
Supreme Strength, Agility, and Stamina attributes were very important to Su Xiao as a Blade Grandmaster. Even if this Azure Shadow King ascension brought back attribute bonuses that were strong but did not match his current blade technique system, it would be a catastrophic weakening. In contrast, the Supreme Intelligence attribute was not afraid of this.
For Su Xiao, the main function of Supreme Intelligence was to provide sufficient body energy, i.e., mana. The Azure Steel Shadow ability's mana consumption of 141,000 points per minute was indeed too astonishing.
With his current 30 million mana points, he could only maintain the Azure Steel Shadow ability for a little over 200 minutes, less than four hours. This even accounted for mana recovery during that time.
More critically, the current mana consumption was not the limit of the Azure Steel Shadow ability. This ability was already at Lv.215 and could still be further improved. For all of Su Xiao's other abilities to reach Lv.110 was already remarkable. Reaching Lv.120 would be a solid Supreme top-tier ability. This Lv.215...
Actually, as a Soul Severing Shadow, Su Xiao should develop in Strength, Agility, Stamina, more precisely:
Soul Severing Shadow develops into: Strength, Agility, Stamina, Blood (Health), Soul.
The Intelligence attribute was required for Space-Rending Shadow.
Space-Rending Shadow develops into: Strength, Agility, Stamina, Blue (Body Energy), Will.
When Su Xiao inherited this system, there was no clear choice. Reincarnation Paradise directly gave a default selection, which was Strength, Agility, Stamina, and Intelligence all together. Now it seemed that this was a blessing in disguise from a certain angle. If he hadn't developed Intelligence, his body energy would definitely be insufficient.
Now, if he could use the Azure Shadow King ability to turn the Supreme Intelligence attribute into an ability that greatly benefited him, that would be a huge win.
Feeling that the effect of the [Life Secret Medicine] had entered its peak, Su Xiao chose to master [Ultimate·Azure Shadow King]. The next second, the Azure Steel Shadow energy throughout his body completely went berserk.
With Su Xiao as the center, the overflowing and surging Azure Steel Shadow energy even pierced through the surrounding space. Seeing this, Ayesha raised her fair little hand and smoothed out all the holes in the space from a distance.
What was the specific experience of upgrading [Ultimate·Azure Shadow King]? This was indeed a blind spot in Su Xiao's knowledge, because within five seconds of choosing to master [Ultimate·Azure Shadow King], he was successfully sent to dreamland.
...
Eternal City·Or, District 035.
The style here was very similar to the early to middle period of the electrical age. Horse-drawn carriages could still be seen on the streets. Or rather, the entire Eternal City had this style.
It wasn't that this place had never had technological development; it was that it couldn't develop. This world itself was filled with treachery and mystery. The World Consciousness was not friendly to technological creations. For example, when Bubu Wang took out a technological creation, it could indeed be used, but after a while, its exterior became gray and hazy. The usage wear and tear was more than a hundred times that of a normal environment.
A light rain drizzled down. A burly figure over three meters tall, wearing a dark green raincoat, walked on the cold, rainy street at night. He raised his hand and looked at his right palm. A face the size of a goose egg appeared.
"Very close."
The face spoke with its eyes closed. Upon hearing this, the burly figure put his black leather gloves back on. Yes, the burly figure was Dark Sun from the Devourer Squad.
After Dark Sun left District 035, he immediately felt the prying eyes from the strange buildings around him. These buildings seemed as if they could open their eyes at any moment. However, since his origin was from the [Eye Ritual], which was of the same source as these strange things, he was not attacked, provided he did not actively provoke these strange things.
The entire [Eternal City] was filled with treachery and the unknown. Not only because this place was the lair of the Underworld God Cult, but also because this place was the direct manifestation of [Doom Star]. The birth of this Transcendent Realm could be described in four words:
'The Evil of Ancient Gods.'
Most worlds were suitable for living beings to live in, or at least to survive in. The reason was that regardless of the race of living beings, living beings brought cause and effect. Cause and effect were like a world's lubricant, preventing the world from becoming lifeless and eventually withering toward collapse.
Doom Star did not need the cause and effect of living beings. Generally speaking, worlds did not have individual consciousness. Doom Star did. Not only did it have one, but it was also very evil and treacherous.
After leaving District 035, the rain turned gray-black and became highly toxic. This caused white mist to rise from Dark Sun's body. Thanks to the gift from his creator, his Sun characteristics made him immune to this toxic gray rain.
The surrounding scenery became increasingly indescribable and dim. Dark Sun stopped. He took off his leather gloves again. After a series of facial contortions, the face on his palm spoke in a hoarse, halting voice:
"Your fate is inside. Only one chance. You have ten minutes left."
"Hm?"
Even though Dark Sun's brain wasn't the sharpest, he felt something was wrong. He asked in a deep voice:
"What happens after ten minutes?"
"After ten minutes, the enemy will come."
Hearing this, Dark Sun no longer hesitated. He charged into the ancient mansion ahead.
Bang!
Dark Sun broke through the door. Crystal Ji, who had been tracking Dark Sun from the shadows, almost slapped her own forehead. She muttered under her breath: "This idiot. Why did the divine oracle choose him?"
"Maybe it's because he's stupid and easy to control."
Boiling Red·Elisa stood with her arms crossed. Her head full of boiling red hair was loose. If not for the crimson hair curling and flying on its own, it would have grown long enough to drag on the ground, like a grand banquet dress.
"It could also be a trap."
Sun Apostle, wearing round-rimmed glasses and with gray-white short hair, spoke with a smile. As he spoke, he pushed up his glasses. Actually, as things had developed, he was already starting to have second thoughts. The reason was that everything had been too smooth so far.
From defecting from the World of Paintings, apart from some internal disagreements, there was almost no resistance. The smoother it was, the more fear grew in Sun Apostle's heart.
So he proposed moving closer to the source of their birth, the Eye Ritual. At first, he had thought about defecting to the Yargul School, but unfortunately, those Ancient God scholars or wizards were equally dangerous.
If they knew that they were born from the Eye Ritual, they would definitely welcome them with shining eyes. The subsequent outcome was predictable — either soaked in huge glass pillars or undergoing inexplicable ritual tests.
Therefore, at Sun Apostle's suggestion, the few of them defected to the Underworld God Cult. At first, the Underworld God Cult couldn't be bothered with them. But after learning that they had betrayed the Law Destroyer·White Night, the Underworld God Cult welcomed them.
Subsequently, whether it was arriving at Doom Star or going to the giant hall set up with the Eye Ritual to break free from all the restraints of their creator, everything went smoothly. The divine oracle enlightenment they had just received was something that other Eye Ritual system practitioners dreamed of.
When Sun Apostle learned that Dark Sun had received the divine oracle enlightenment, his only feeling was a creeping dread. He wanted to flee immediately, but an intuition told him that he couldn't escape. The seemingly dangerous Eternal City was their safe haven. That blood-soaked madman who slayed demons and gods had already arrived in this realm.
That was something Sun Apostle absolutely did not want to face, nor dared to face. Unlike Black A's constant confidence, Sun Apostle was very clear about the chasm-like strength gap between himself and his creator. As for winning through strategy, forget it. Last time, he was schemed by this madman and the Priest to the point of not even knowing how he died. If not for his Sun characteristics, there was no way he could have revived.
"You're afraid."
Black A, wearing a tattered black robe and carrying the [Abyss Doom] greatsword on his back, spoke. His pitch-black eyes had dark red pupils, showing no emotional fluctuation.
"Of course I'm afraid. I'm very timid. I'm scared to death right now."
Sun Apostle spoke with a smile. The other three thought he was joking, but in reality, he was telling the truth.
Inside the ancient mansion, Dark Sun, who had been breaking through walls, reached his destination at the fastest speed. This was a room engraved with worn-out techniques. Dark Sun took a deep breath and punched the ground.
With a boom, the floor shattered. Dark Sun fell with the broken stone layers into the underground palace below. Guided by the face on his palm, Dark Sun's Sun embers scattered everywhere, forcing back the howling vengeful spirits and ghosts that attacked him, and rushed to the core area of the underground palace.
There was a huge stone coffin here. The soul-type undead creatures surging from all sides were as numerous as a tide.
"Blazing Sun!"
Dark Sun roared. His eyes turned brilliant gold. Sun Flame surged with a whoosh, temporarily forcing back the undead rushing in from all directions like a tide.
Bang!
Dark Sun forcefully pried open the stone coffin. Inside, there were no bones, only a pitch-black stone slab. The moment he looked directly at this object, Dark Sun seemed to see eyes opening on it one by one.
Ignoring everything else, Dark Sun's large hand grabbed the pitch-black stone slab and charged out of the underground palace. Because he was very effective at restraining the surging undead, it only took a few minutes for Dark Sun to break through the encirclement, leap back into the basement of the old mansion, and rush back to the ground along the stairs.
As soon as he returned to the first floor of the old mansion, Dark Sun found that the mansion seemed about to come alive. Rumbling sounds came from all around. The walls dissolved. The ceiling gradually turned into black tentacles. A fear from the depths of his heart made Dark Sun rush out of the mansion.
The moment he left the mansion's courtyard gate, Dark Sun felt the drizzling rain again.
Almost simultaneously, three of the Underworld God Cult's twelve archbishops hidden in the surrounding area, along with four hunting brigades of the Wizard Hunting Group, quietly withdrew. The reason was that they had all received an order from one of the Four Original Sins, Slaughter·Richmond. In the Underworld God Cult, this one was second only to the Underworld God.
Slaughter·Richmond not only had the three archbishops withdraw but also issued a second order: to have Archbishop·Sauro personally come forward and make the Devourer Squad immediately leave [Eternal City·Or].
Why did Slaughter·Richmond do this? The reason was that, just now, with Dark Sun's touch, the multiple seals sealing the black stone slab had shattered.
Slaughter·Richmond immediately sensed what was sealed inside the black stone slab. After careful observation, the intense Original Sin aura made Slaughter·Richmond think of a possibility.
What was sealed inside this pitch-black stone slab was the [Book of Original Sin] held by that Law Destroyer.
The Underworld God Cult was very powerful, that was true. But if they were targeted by a few Original Sin objects inside the [Book of Original Sin], it would be enough to make the Underworld God Cult shed a layer of skin. To this day, all major forces in the Star Realm could not understand how this Law Destroyer managed to seal so many Daddy-level Original Sin objects.
The answer was actually simple and unexpected: maintain reverence and have sufficiently strong sealcraft as support.
...
Sanctuary City Grand Cathedral, third-floor room.
Su Xiao sat before a silver magic circle, waiting. The silver magic circle was about five meters in diameter. The little spirit from the Soul Library, Popoli, had just been here. The book Su Xiao wanted to borrow had finally had its seal removed. It would be teleported here shortly.
As for why Su Xiao didn't go to get it himself as before, it was because this thing couldn't leave the [Soul Library] through ordinary means. First, the Soul Elder of the Great Library had to remove its seal, and then the Ancient One had to banish it here.
As he was thinking, the magic circle in front of him emitted a buzzing sound of gold-white light. A half-meter-tall metal book gradually rose from within the magic circle. The book was entirely made of metal. On the cover were three metal faces. The left face was a furious middle-aged man, the middle was an old man, and the right was a cold, proud woman's face.
This was the [Wisdom Codex] sealed in the [Soul Library]. While it contained powerful knowledge, it also carried great risk.
99.9% of the time, the Soul Library would not lend out this codex. However, because Su Xiao's situation was indeed special, as the sealer of six Original Sin objects, the risk of the [Wisdom Codex] was obviously within an acceptable range for him.
After a moment, the [Wisdom Codex] floated in mid-air. The magic circle below dissipated. For this, Su Xiao paid 200,000 Library Silver Coins. Of course, if he returned the [Wisdom Codex], he could retrieve the temporarily deposited 200,000 Library Silver Coins.
The content recorded in the [Wisdom Codex] was divided into three major categories. The first was Dark Knowledge, the second was Magic Circle Technique Knowledge, and the third was Sealcraft, which was also the most profound sealcraft in the current Star Realm.
However, all of this required a prerequisite: gaining the approval of the Three Sages on the [Wisdom Codex]. Only then could he learn the Star Realm's strongest sealcraft from the elderly face above, the [Silent Sage].
The three faces on the [Wisdom Codex] awakened. [Forbidden Sage (Male Face)], [Silent Sage (Elderly Face)], and [Mind Sage (Female Face)] all looked at Su Xiao. The most critical test phase had arrived.
"You." ×3
The Forbidden Sage, Silent Sage, and Mind Sage all spoke at the same time, then fell silent.
Seeing this, Su Xiao felt a sense of dread. Wasn't there supposed to be a test? Could it be that the negotiation with the Three Sages was going through a Charm attribute check? In that case, with his -36 Charm attribute, the Three Sages saying "you" and then nothing else was indeed a normal but unacceptable result.
Su Xiao raised his hand and tried to awaken the elderly face in the middle, the Silent Sage. As a result, he awakened the other very easily.
"Law Destroyer, your current situation is not suitable for mastering the knowledge I carry. You need a sufficiently stable environment. This place is not suitable."
The Silent Sage's voice was serious, but between the lines, it expressed that he was very willing to teach Su Xiao the Star Realm's most top-tier sealcraft.
Obviously, Su Xiao had inexplicably passed the test. Why was that? The answer was that the Three Sages' test was not to make things difficult for the possessor, but to determine whether their fate could bear these either cursed or overly powerful knowledges. Su Xiao's -13 million luck already represented everything.
Moreover, as the holder of [Origin Stone·World], with this fate volume, the Three Sages chose to ignore the so-called test because it was meaningless.
Su Xiao tried to store the [Wisdom Codex] into the team storage space. After a slight spatial fluctuation, the [Wisdom Codex] disappeared. The team storage space could not store things that were alive in the existential sense. Now it seemed that the Three Sages were special existences.
After doing this, Su Xiao sat on the crystal seat, placed one hand on his chest, and felt his own condition. He had successfully mastered [Ultimate·Azure Shadow King].
[Tip: Your Azure Shadow King ability has completed its ascension.]
[Current Azure Shadow King Energy: 0/100 points.]
[Detected that the current Supreme mana overflows by 8.2 million points. Do you want to convert it into Azure Shadow King Energy upper limit?]
[This conversion has been performed. Your [Azure Shadow King Energy Upper Limit] has been permanently increased by 820 points.]
[When [Azure Shadow King Energy] is full, you can enter the Azure Shadow King state at any time. In this state, 1 point of [Azure Shadow King Energy] is consumed per second.]
[Detected that you have selected the Supreme Intelligence attribute as the enhancement attribute for Azure Shadow King. The current Supreme Intelligence attribute is 402 points. A corresponding intensity enhancement has been applied to the Azure Shadow King ability.]
[The Azure Shadow King ability will bring a unique feedback bonus to this body attribute. You can choose one of the following bonuses.]