Chapter 33: Unexpected Turn
Elemental light surged skyward, the sky of Doom Star brighter than ever before, almost giving the appearance that this world had returned to normal. Yet the world's root remained unchanged; this world would not recover.
The elemental pillar expanded from dozens of meters in diameter to several hundred meters. Initially, it erupted from below upward, but soon, elemental force gathered in the upper atmosphere and began to pour downward instead.
Boom!
The first surge of elemental force crashed down, causing the several-hundred-meter-wide pillar standing between heaven and earth to form a continuous ring-shaped bulge descending, finally striking the formation below.
With a roar, Aina on the formation was blasted away. Green Gillian, who had anticipated this, caught the incoming Aina. The impact sent aches through Green Gillian's body—this body of Green Wei was still too weak, and she was merely borrowing it, not fully possessing it.
Boom! Boom...
Wave after wave of elemental force hammered down. After enduring six waves, the Wandering Hunter Ross on the formation nodded to Su Xiao, signaling that he had reached his limit and the rest was up to Su Xiao. If the formation lost its conductor, it would collapse in the next second, resulting in failure. Summoning the Elemental Eye again would take who knows how many years.
Another elemental roar sounded, and only Su Xiao remained on the elemental formation. He looked toward the sky. For others, enduring such impact was a tremendous trial, but for someone of the Extreme Realm like him, it was no difficulty. Moreover, under the intense natural elemental assault, his right arm felt a strange sensation.
As wave after wave of elemental impact fell, after the twenty-fifth, his right arm was completely numb.
Drip, drip~
Pure black liquid dripped from Su Xiao's fingertips. This Abyssal Source Power remained stable even under such dense elemental force—after all, it was the source power of the previous Lord of the Abyss.
Back when Su Xiao fought the Abyss Guard Captain, he had been on the verge of defeat but turned the tables with Dark Writhing. That substance was actually part of the previous Lord of the Abyss's brain matter. The Abyss Guard Captain swallowed it along with Su Xiao's right arm and ultimately died from the rampage of superior power.
Strangely, through a series of coincidences, Su Xiao's right arm had fused with part of the previous Lord of the Abyss's source energy from Dark Writhing, allowing him to suppress the rapidly intensifying Demon Spirit of his Blade Demon Spirit.
Now, standing on the elemental formation and enduring this elemental tempering, the power within his right arm—which didn't belong to him and only seemed fused—began to separate under the bombardment of equal-tier force.
This was ultimately not his power. Being able to briefly fuse with it was already a stroke of fortune. Forcibly retaining it might eventually breed disastrous consequences.
Boom! Another elemental impact struck, and the last trace of Abyssal Source Power was stripped from Su Xiao's right arm. Twelve more elemental impacts followed before the elemental technique subsided.
The Elemental Eye did not appear immediately, but the summoning was already mostly successful. All that remained was to wait for feedback from the distant Elemental Core Land after this elemental surge. This was like throwing a pebble—the pebble was still in flight, so no ripples on the water could be seen yet.
But there were risks. Before the Elemental Eye manifested, Sanctuary City could not sink into the Dark Sea, or the technique would be interrupted. As for Sanctuary City's safety now, setting aside Su Xiao's presence, the peak-level powerhouses outside the city would not allow it.
The roofless building fell silent. Su Xiao's elemental aura dissipated. He took out a metal sealed container, stored part of the Abyssal Source Power inside, waited a moment, and let the rest of the Abyssal Source Power converge into it.
"Last time we waited five hours, but I feel it'll be faster this time."
Green Gillian's words let everyone breathe a sigh of relief—at least the effort wasn't wasted. As for compensation, Green Gillian had already promised it, and Mawen Hua'erzi had prepared everything.
It had to be said, the unreliable mentor was truly unreliable in small matters, left medium matters to fate, but never disappointed in big matters.
"Bai Ye, discuss it here?"
Wandering Hunter Ross spoke.
"..."
Crystal layer spread beneath Su Xiao's feet, extending upward to form a ceiling over two meters thick, along with two seats and a small round table beside him. He sat down. Seeing this, Wandering Hunter Ross sat across from him and said:
"I deep-dived for less than ten days, but the target was clear. The Soul Energy Crystals at the bottom of the Abyss were mostly found..."
As Wandering Hunter Ross spoke, Green Gillian frowned and walked over, saying, "Impossible. Mawen and the Old Immortal had Wandering Hunter friends back then who deep-dived multiple times and searched the entire Abyss bottom. I'd believe you found one or two stragglers, but how many did you find?"
"Ten."
Hearing this, Green Gillian asserted, "Absolutely impossible. Mawen's seven were from our faction's old treasury. Something's off, very off. There's a problem here."
Green Gillian's words set everyone thinking, but the weak Aina said, "Is it possible that after your Law Destruction faction's treasury's sealing ritual collapsed, the non-durable items were destroyed by the fissures, while the sturdy ones fell through the fissures into the Chaotic Interlayer Zone? And since the Elemental Layer doesn't block objects, they fell further to the lower Abyss layers. Calculating this, they would keep falling until they sank to the bottom of the Abyss. Plus, with the irregular Abyss bottom currents, no one knows where these fallen items would be swept."
Su Xiao understood Aina's explanation. Abyss studies covered this. Simply put, high-level treasuries, for absolute spatial anti-theft, were located in the fissures between the Star Realm and the Elemental Layer. They could continue to exist through sealing rituals that stabilized the area.
Green Gillian, whose mind had never been polluted by such knowledge, frowned and looked at Su Xiao, as if asking: Bai Ye, is this really possible?
Su Xiao didn't speak, but his meaning was clear—not just possible, but 99.9% certain.
Seeing this, Aina mimicked Green Gillian's earlier gesture of stroking her chin with one hand and imitated her tone: "Something's off! Very off! There's a problem here!"
After the imitation, Aina, leaning against the wall, burst into laughter. But soon, she couldn't laugh anymore. Green Gillian walked over, placed a hand on her head, bent down with a tilted head, and looked at her with dangerous amusement in her eyes.
Ignoring the internal conflict of the Green family, Su Xiao continued the transaction with Wandering Hunter Ross. Ross took out a wooden box and opened it. On a red velvet cushion lay ten Soul Energy Crystals, which had also been treated to remove Abyss contamination after being buried at the Abyss bottom for so many years.
Su Xiao took out a rectangular, iron-black cooling device. Opening it released cooling pressure, and cold air surged out, revealing a total of 12 bottles of custom-made permanent enhancement secret medicine, to be consumed one bottle per week.
Wandering Hunter Ross touched the cooling device on the table, and the attributes of the 12 bottles of permanent enhancement potions appeared before him one by one.
Both sides were silent, then nodded almost simultaneously. Clearly, both were satisfied with this transaction and felt they had profited.
The deal was completed smoothly. Su Xiao opened his storage space. The location for storing Soul Energy Crystals now held a total of 18. Given that only the First Generation Law Destroyer could condense Soul Energy Crystals, having this many still in existence after so many years indicated that the output back then was not low.
Of course, another possibility was that the First Generation Law Destroyer had foreseen his destined fate and stored a large number of Soul Energy Crystals for future Law Destroyers. It seemed the most reliable Law Destroyer was no longer Star-Swallowing Akas, but this one.
If Su Xiao's Law Destruction Talent: Shadow Hunt could also condense Soul Energy Crystals, wouldn't that mean he could raise all his Law Destruction abilities to the absolute limit? And even have a massive surplus of Soul Energy Crystals.
A question arose in Su Xiao's mind: how did the First Generation Law Destroyer, without being an Extreme Realm practitioner, absorb such a vast amount of soul energy and use the Devouring Core to convert it into Soul Energy Crystals? Even one Soul Energy Crystal contained a terrifying density of enhancement energy. A small amount of condensation, the body could endure, but long-term, large-scale condensation would certainly be unbearable.
Or perhaps, the First Generation Law Destroyer was actually an Extreme Realm practitioner. But in the First Era, was there really that much Star Realm Primordial Force? Plus, that era had just inherited the ancient times, when Extreme Realm secret techniques were most abundant. The situation was: Star Realm Primordial Force was scarce, but there were many Extreme Realm practitioners.
This was also why the Domain System gradually grew in the Second Era and became mainstream by its middle.
Given Su Xiao's current situation, he was very certain that without the powerful physique of an Extreme Realm practitioner, he could not bear the increasing burden of his Law Destruction Talent: Shadow Hunt.
Physique, Extreme Realm.
A conjecture appeared in Su Xiao's thoughts: who said that Extreme Realm practitioners must rely entirely on Star Realm Primordial Force to enhance themselves?
The essence of the Extreme Realm was to continuously strengthen oneself. If, within the Law Destruction Shadow system, there was an ability that could enhance one's physique with a high enough ceiling, and one used Soul Energy Crystals to continuously upgrade that ability, wouldn't that also be enhancing the Extreme Realm?
A bold idea emerged in Su Xiao's mind: could he both enhance his physique through Star Realm Primordial Force and use Soul Energy Crystals to upgrade the Law Destruction passive that could boost supreme attributes?
Previously, he had seen that ability on the Awakening Stele. The problem was that its supreme attribute boost was too low, and the risk of mastering it was the highest among all abilities on the stele.
Now he finally understood why this seemingly low-boost ability had such risks and was located at the very top of the Awakening Stele.
All of this was still conjecture. For now, he had to wait until this Elemental Eye competition ended before considering other matters.
Green Gillian took out a crystal, threw it to the ground, and with a crack, as the crystal shattered, a teleportation formation spread on the ground, forming a small Realm-Level Teleportation Array. Even Green Gillian herself looked at it with admiration, muttering that it was a good item—clearly provided by Tuanzhang.
"Alright, those who need to leave, go. In a few hours, this place will turn into a free-for-all."
As Green Gillian spoke, she hoisted the drowsy Aina onto her shoulder. Aina was about to cry for help but got a punch:
"Not strong enough, but you sure know how to have fun. Doom Star is no place for you now. You two little ones, hurry up and follow."
As Green Gillian finished, Yelo Ilya and Wu De's sister, Mi'erwei, who had been peeking from the doorway, reluctantly walked over.
"This isn't your era yet. Don't rush."
Green Gillian's smile was meaningful. She stepped onto the teleportation array, waited for the others to get on, and activated it.
"Wait~"
Gulu's words were cut off as the array activated, and the spatial coordinates scrambled automatically. This was a reusable, anti-tracking Realm-Level Teleportation Array—no wonder even Green Gillian called it a good item.
Seeing this, Su Xiao stepped forward and began adjusting the spatial coordinates. When finished, Gulu stepped on with some confusion and asked, "Where am I going?"
"Ten Thousand Races Realm."
"A Transcendent Realm? I'm not going. Too dangerous."
"High rewards."
"Still no."
Seeing this, Baha, perched on Su Xiao's shoulder, spoke for Su Xiao: "Idiot, the Ten Thousand Races Realm is a newly ascended Transcendent Realm. World keys to enter it are snatched up the moment they appear in the Great Gathering Place. And the Ten Thousand Races Realm has a difficulty span from seventh rank to peak realm. It's the largest open-class world. If you defeat a same-tier mini-boss there, the rewards are five to six times normal. Going through one world progress there is like the total rewards of six to seven normal world progresses."
"Send me there now!"
Gulu's gaze became resolute. It wasn't about the benefits—it was about self-improvement. She had to go!
Su Xiao looked at Wandering Hunter Ross, who smiled and said, "Then many thanks."
Politely spoken, but his actions were swift. The Ten Thousand Races Realm—which powerhouse from any Paradise faction didn't want to go there now?
The teleportation array activated softly. After everyone left, Su Xiao took out the Peak Path scroll he had obtained earlier. He had already mastered the knowledge within, so there was no risk of losing it.
"My dear friend, this... is dangerous."
Kaisa grinned slyly and rubbed his hands.
"500 ounces."
"Impossible! At least 80,000."
"3,000."
"No, no, 50,000 is the minimum."
After a back-and-forth—
"10,000."
"Deal."
Su Xiao immediately felt he had overpaid again. He had been too rich in Space-Time Power lately and hadn't haggled hard enough with Kaisa. He estimated Kaisa would have agreed at 9,800 to 9,900 ounces.
Kaisa took the Peak Path scroll. Without needing further explanation, he understood what to do—otherwise, he wouldn't have called it dangerous.
Bang! All the Aoge crystals shattered, and the place became a roofless building again. Su Xiao summoned the Lord's Train, had Bubu Wang pilot it, and took Baha and Amu to temporarily leave. The ensuing chaos was too dangerous, different from fighting a powerful enemy.
Moreover, the three of them needed to reach Hidden City: Yalgu as quickly as possible. Once another peak powerhouse died, the Abyss Eye Ritual would activate, and the Abyss Heart would manifest. They had to get it first.
"Woof."
Bubu Wang barked, meaning the task would be done.
After a while, only Su Xiao remained on the elemental formation. He sat cross-legged at its center, frowning slightly. At this moment, his Blade Grandmaster ability felt off. This was not good news.
The feeling grew more pronounced. Half an hour later, Su Xiao felt a brief sting in his heart, and then the Blade Grandmaster ability stabilized—completely and utterly stable, more unified than ever. This was because the Extreme Realm: Star Realm ability had detached from the Blade Grandmaster ability and become a separate ability.
The reason it happened now was that the earlier elemental force impact had completely stripped the Abyssal Source Power fused into his right arm. Without this external influence, the Extreme Realm: Star Realm, which should have detached long ago, immediately underwent this process.
A blessing in disguise. Extreme Realm: Star Realm had been delayed in detaching, but the previous significant boosts to Blade Grandmaster had also enhanced it, raising it from its initial stage to a unique trait stage.
Everyone's Star Realm ability, besides the inherent ability to freeze the Star Realm, had its own traits. Su Xiao's trait was Domination. He wondered what the Supreme Being's Star Realm ability trait was.
[Extreme Realm: Star Realm: X (Transcendent Level: Active)]
Skill Effect: You fully release your Technique Grandmaster's might, affecting the Star Realm's operation within a 20,000-meter radius, putting it into a Star Realm Freeze state for 5 seconds. During this time, you can Limited Dominate this area, permanently seizing one ability from a powerful enemy (any ability except peak abilities). Through the Star Realm's transformation in this area, convert that ability into your temporary Life Core. After the Star Realm Freeze ends, the enemy whose ability was permanently stripped will fall into Absolute Weakness for 2-3 seconds.
Tip: If the target within Star Realm Freeze is not a powerful enemy and their comprehensive rank is lower than yours, all their abilities will be permanently seized. This action has a very high probability of causing their immediate death, or through the Limited Domination of the Star Realm area, you can perform Absolute Domination on such targets. Targets under Absolute Domination will die within 48-72 hours...
Tip: This ability can only be used once per natural day. This is the ultimate usage interval derived from this trait.
...
Now that Extreme Realm: Star Realm had been detached, it was manageable. Su Xiao immediately used his Hunter Lv.103 authority to inquire whether Extreme Realm: Star Realm could be upgraded and what the conditions were.
[To upgrade Extreme Realm: Star Realm X, you need Starry Sky Glimmerstone x1.]
Excellent. A resource he had never heard of appeared. But it wasn't a big problem. With the Abyss Task: Death's Grant's Void Tree Vault Access Permission (8-??% discount), he could try to see if the Void Tree's vault had this resource.
Time flew. Three and a half hours later, a crack appeared on the elemental formation beneath Su Xiao. Then, the entire formation began to shatter and peel away, floating upward to form a broken formation a few meters above the ground.
A multicolored vortex appeared at the center of this broken formation. The formation spun with the vortex until it reached its limit and exploded, along with the vortex. An elemental shockwave spread out. Almost simultaneously, Sanctuary City began sinking into the Dark Sea below, about to leave this place.
When the elemental shockwave dissipated, a semi-transparent, fist-sized primal core appeared before Su Xiao. Inside the core was dense, tangible natural elemental force. At first glance, it really did look like an eye, with the tangible elemental force resembling a pupil.
Su Xiao's crystal left hand grasped the Elemental Eye.
[Tip: You have obtained the Elemental Eye. This item still has strong Star Realm aura. It can only be stored in your storage space after 24 hours, when the Star Realm aura dissipates.]
Clang~
The longsword was drawn. Su Xiao held the blade in one hand and the Elemental Eye in the other, standing on the endless flat rock ground—the result of the large-scale environmental change from his previous battle with the Deer God.
At this moment, multiple peak-level powerhouses stood either in midair, atop giant demon beasts, or were themselves tens of thousands of meters tall, with octopus-like heads and tentacle-like whiskers that writhed slightly.
But the most imposing presence wasn't the tens-of-thousands-meter-tall figure, but the one seated on a ten-thousand-meter-tall bone throne.
This figure was over five meters tall, humanoid in form, with no skin on its body but scattered exoskeletal plates. The facial exoskeleton gave it a sharp, serious chin, and the upward-extending exoskeleton on its head resembled a crown's sharp horns.
Its dark red vertical pupils held no ancient god's contempt for mortals—only pure coldness. This was the true form of the Underworld God. It had no ancient god tentacles or indescribable appearance, even possessing a certain blood-and-bone coordination. Yet just sitting there, it exuded unparalleled pressure.
More importantly, behind the Underworld God's throne were two weapons. On the left was a two-meter-diameter circular blade with edges all around—no grip, so it must be a flying weapon.
On the right was a long-handled feather sword, actually a silver-white greatsword over three meters long, with the grip taking up a third of the length. The crossguard resembled spread wings, and the blade had feather-scale patterns. This feather sword was exceptionally sharp; just being stuck in the bone throne caused cutting marks in the surrounding world.
From the killing intent of this feather sword, it was clearly not decorative. The Underworld God excelled in close combat. This strongest ancient god had no weaknesses.
The lineup of peak-level powerhouses present was spectacular: Underworld God, Deep Sea Dominator Ubo Sala, Soul Lord, Blade Demon, Demon Old Hag, Underworld Lord, Crimson Beast Dilo, Goblin Elder Maza Biya Dorty, Fish Clan Second Elder Diknuga, and Fish Clan Great Elder.
This was the Fish Clan's strength—or rather, the strength to grow through the Ancestral Clan Emblem's power. No wonder Spider Lady had joined the Fish Clan. Advancing to the peak realm took too much time, and the Fish Clan's Ancestral Clan Emblem could greatly shorten the process.
The Deer God hadn't come. Before summoning the Elemental Eye, Su Xiao had informed the Deer God, Moon Witch, and Crimson Beast Dilo not to compete here.
The Deer God and Moon Witch didn't come, but Dilo did. That said enough—they were now enemies. From Dilo's gaze fixed on Su Xiao, the cooperation was over.
Crack, crack, crack~
The bone throne gradually disintegrated. When it was only a few dozen meters high, the Underworld God stood up, walked down the bone steps in front of the throne, and approached Su Xiao. Seeing this, the others didn't act rashly, ready to watch the strongest ancient god fight the Law Destroyer.
Su Xiao and the Underworld God stood a dozen meters apart. Just as everyone thought this was a standoff, Su Xiao suddenly raised his hand and tossed the Elemental Eye to the Underworld God.
"What?!"
Dilo's eyes widened. The nearby Goblin Elder Maza Biya Dorty, who had been planning to profit from the chaos, changed expression drastically. The seven-meter-tall, black-armored Underworld Lord sensed trouble.
The Underworld God caught the Elemental Eye calmly, as if expecting this. Why?
Because before the Elemental Eye descended, Su Xiao had Kaisa take the Peak Path to the Underworld God. Although Su Xiao was untrustworthy in the Underworld God's eyes, and Kaisa even more so, the fairness of the Void Tree was reliable.
The fairness content was: this hidden, most crucial part of the advancement secret method, which still showed its power, combined with the fact that it required the Abyss Heart + Elemental Eye for advancement, proved its extraordinary nature.
Knowing this advancement secret method existed, the Underworld God would certainly no longer use only the Abyss Heart to seal the Supreme Realm. Then, everything became simple.
The Underworld God held the Elemental Eye, Su Xiao held the Peak Path Secret Method + the Abyss Heart. He had been leading this ritual. When the Abyss Heart was summoned, it would naturally fall into his hands first.
If either Su Xiao or the Underworld God killed the other, they would get everything. This simplified the problem. Before that, shouldn't they kill or expel all the other peak powerhouses from this world?
Then, they could have a life-or-death battle, and the victor would take all.
Boom!
A figure landed between Su Xiao and the Underworld God—blood-red eyes, tattered robes, a longsword emitting black smoke. Yes, it was the Blade Demon.
This was the truth behind summoning the Elemental Eye: the combination of Su Xiao + Blade Demon + Underworld God, tentatively named the Demon God Team. Seeing the three's attitude, many of the other peak powerhouses began to retreat.
Soul Lord, standing in midair, looked grim. Arcane Eternal Star had been scheming against the Underworld God, but they hadn't expected the Deep Sea Dominator Ubo Sala's unexpected turn to make the Fish Clan suspicious.
The next moment, an even worse situation for Soul Lord appeared. Su Xiao, Blade Demon, and Underworld God, without any signal, all looked at Soul Lord. Without needing to exchange glances, the three decided to kill him first—because he had a grudge with all three of them.