Chapter 20: Reversal
The long blade returned to its sheath. Su Xiao exhaled some poisonous mist, and his emerald-green health bar gradually returned to bright red. This battle with the Spider Empress had not only allowed him to experience the profound depth of these old-school powerhouses who had reached the pinnacle realm one or two eras ago, but also made him realize just how difficult it was to kill a peak powerhouse.
If the situation had been one of life or death, where both sides had to determine who lived and who died, Su Xiao, who had raised all his Supreme attributes to 500 points, would have certainly won more easily than now. The problem was that the Spider Empress had no fundamental motivation to fight to the death with Su Xiao. In fact, observing from the shadows was more advantageous for her. Therefore, during the first 80% of the battle, her thoughts were focused on how to retreat.
Moreover, the Spider Empress was simply too difficult to kill. Su Xiao's battle strategy was essentially: use "Extreme Realm: Starry Sky" to control her, then unleash a fierce combo to make her lose one or two lives, chase after her, and then activate "Extreme Realm: Starry Sky" again for another round.
Su Xiao now understood why two peak powerhouses wouldn't easily fight to the death. When both sides had "Life Cores," unless it was a situation where one must die, the side whose "Life Core" shattered first would consider retreating, and the other side would find it difficult to stop them. As for the "Extreme Realm: Starry Sky" ability, it was so absurdly powerful that even peak powerhouses found it outrageous.
Beyond that, Su Xiao discovered a massive advantage he had against Abyss Descendants. Just a few days ago, during the battle between Deer God, Su Xiao, and Di Luo, most of Di Luo's attacks were aimed directly at Su Xiao.
Furthermore, Di Luo died twice. The first time, when attacked by both Su Xiao and Deer God, he chose to shatter his Life Core rather than die and be reborn in the Abyss. However, the second time, facing Deer God's attack, Di Luo's aura clearly indicated he still had a Life Core, yet he chose to swallow it with his own causality before "Abyssal Rebirth," which led to him being killed directly by Deer God.
Don't think that dying back to the Abyss came without a cost for Abyss Descendants. It would cause a loss of certain causal fate. Even if they could gradually recover later, they couldn't act too recklessly.
The only reason Di Luo avoided dying at Su Xiao's hands was that Su Xiao, who had completely annihilated the Abyss Descendant Dukain Clan, posed a strong deterrent to other Abyss Descendants.
Additionally, his "Causal Severance" ability, derived from the Demon Blade, showed no outward signs when used. More importantly, anyone who had witnessed this ability had perished forever.
This battle with the Spider Empress further confirmed this for Su Xiao. One by one, the Spider Empress's Life Cores shattered, yet she never chose the Abyss Descendants' "Death Return" to escape, because she didn't know whether dying at Su Xiao's hands would still allow her to be resurrected through the "Primordial Clan Emblem."
The unknown brought fear, fear caused hesitation, and hesitation led to defeat.
Su Xiao felt this was excellent. Although "Causal Severance" could only be used twice per world progress, once used, it provided endless deterrence. Who said Di Luo was reckless and foolish? This peak team cooperation was initiated by Di Luo, and the first person he invited was Su Xiao, who could completely kill Abyss Descendants.
A sound of breaking wind came from afar, and with a rumble, the Crimson Beast, Di Luo, landed. Black battle intent rose from his entire body as he prepared for a deadly battle. But upon arrival, seeing the Spider Empress's headless corpse, he was momentarily stunned and subconsciously asked:
"You killed her?"
"..."
Su Xiao didn't speak, implying, "Then what was the purpose of coming here?"
"How did you kill her?"
Di Luo didn't approach the Spider Empress easily. After all, killing her in less than a quarter of an hour was somewhat fantastical.
"By cutting off her head, she died."
"Hmm?"
Di Luo looked as if he thought Su Xiao was fooling him. He pressed on: "How did you break through the 'World-Annihilating Poison Web'?"
"What?"
Su Xiao looked at Di Luo suspiciously, which made Di Luo even more confused: "How could the Spider Empress fight without using the 'World-Annihilating Poison Web'..."
Suddenly, Di Luo thought of something. He looked at the dead Spider Empress and said with admiration:
"White Night, the strongest Technique Grandmaster of the Second Era wasn't actually from your Law Destruction Faction. It was an old fellow who died at the hands of the Spider Empress. After that, she was considered the bane of Technique Grandmasters. Her 'World-Annihilating Poison Web' truly countered them too much."
As for the "World-Annihilating Poison Web" that the Crimson Beast Di Luo mentioned, Su Xiao had never seen it. He also knew why. The three-second "Extreme Realm: Starry Sky" upon meeting had drained the Spider Empress's bodily energy. This powerful ability simply couldn't be used unless the Spider Empress thought she was dying too slowly. Burning life force to use abilities was indeed feasible, but there was a prerequisite: if an ability required 10 points of bodily energy, she would need to burn at least 50 to 70 points of life force to use it.
For an ability like "World-Annihilating Poison Web," if the Spider Empress dared to burn life force to use it, her health bar would visibly plummet.
Although the Azure Steel Shadow ability no longer dealt true damage after the enemy's mana was depleted, cutting the enemy's mana to zero with a few strikes was itself an exceptionally powerful ability. Not to mention the corresponding Azure Shadow King, whose single strike dealt over 30 million true damage. That was the main reason the Spider Empress stopped trying to escape, because her causal fate had begun to crack. Not only did she have no means of survival, but she couldn't even move a muscle.
Calculating this way, the gap between Su Xiao and these veteran peak powerhouses had further narrowed. However, one must not overlook that Su Xiao had only been at the peak realm for a little over a month, while the Spider Empress had accumulated and settled at this rank for an entire era.
Su Xiao didn't have a combat-oriented "Peak Ability," but he had the X-ranked Azure Steel Shadow, which allowed him to prevent enemies from using such abilities.
Su Xiao had always been stacking passives, and at the Supreme Peak, all peak powerhouses did the same. At this realm, they optimized and consolidated their numerous abilities, then continuously enhanced themselves through passive-type abilities. Fortunately, Su Xiao had never stopped in this regard.
In terms of Supreme physique, Su Xiao feared no one. Against those peak powerhouses who had accumulated for one or two eras with extremely deep foundations, he relied on this to level the playing field.
More crucially, the "Extreme Realm: Starry Sky" ability was indeed too useful. Although it dealt zero damage, it also had infinitely high damage potential. Whether it was "Azure Shadow King" or "Selfless Realm," when linked with "Extreme Realm: Starry Sky," saying it was 100% guaranteed to hit was slightly exaggerated, but it was 99% unavoidable.
As the saying goes, one trick is enough to conquer the world. If "Extreme Realm: Starry Sky" were granted by equipment or other means, he wouldn't rely on it so heavily.
But this ability was the result of his "Blade Grandmaster" reaching its limit. By possessing the "Origin Stone: World," he met the prerequisites to master this ability, allowing his Blade Grandmaster to successfully bloom into this power. In other words, even if he lost the "Origin Stone: World" right now, his "Extreme Realm: Starry Sky" ability wouldn't be affected in the slightest.
To put it more clearly, Su Xiao was certainly not the only one throughout history to master this strongest system. But for him personally, this was the "Ultimate Ultimate Move" that sprouted from his Blade Grandmaster, nourished by the accumulation of his ability system, and grew and blossomed.
Su Xiao couldn't afford to spend an era, or even two eras, developing various "Passive Abilities" that perfectly suited him. Developing passive abilities was time-consuming, but this suited other peak powerhouses, as the peak realm granted a very long lifespan.
As compensation for this, Su Xiao's solution was: