Chapter 3: Dead End
Closing the announcement from the Void Tree, once this notice was released, it couldn't be said that it was a thunderbolt from a clear sky for all contractors across the major paradises, but most low and mid-rank contractors were certainly filled with unease. Just the name "Abyss Campaign" gave people the feeling that something major was about to happen.
As for the high-rank contractors, they were already numb, and deeply so. They received far more various notifications, the most important being which war zone they were assigned to and which defensive line they were responsible for.
The situation was now clear. The invasion and spread of the Abyss was definitely not limited to the Void as a single war zone. The major Transcendent Realms were likely the main battlefields, while many mid and high-rank worlds served as numerous secondary battlefields.
For someone like Su Xiao's rank, he was certainly responsible for the several main battlefields and the core battlefield of the Void. As for the secondary battlefields, although the cost of their fall was significant, it couldn't compare to the core battlefield and the main battlefields.
If various secondary battlefields fell, it would at most cause the Abyssal forces to invade the core battlefield and main battlefields from multiple directions. Simply put, it would increase the difficulty of defending the core and main battlefields.
A more intuitive description would be that the current Abyss invasion primarily radiated through this Abyss Gate in the Void, causing Abyss Gates to appear in the several Transcendent Realms in the Star Realm closest to the Void. The main Abyssal force invasion came from these Abyss Gates.
However, if all secondary battlefields were lost, it would mean the middle and lower parts of the Star Realm were overrun by the Abyss. At that point, the core battlefield and the main battlefields would not only have to face the offensive from the Abyss Gates but also endure the occasional swarms of Abyssal creatures, bizarre entities, and dark alien beings pouring out from the Abyss Passages.
If the notarization were completely relaxed and several high-rank contractors were sent to defend low and mid-rank worlds, it wouldn't be feasible. First, there was the problem of potentially destroying the world in battle. Second, the rank suppression of the Void Tree, which served as a limit on combat power, also made low and mid-rank worlds exceptionally sturdy.
This way, the enemies of the Abyss faction couldn't use various world-destroying methods to break these worlds and take the opportunity for Abyssal invasion.
Therefore, one should not look down on low and mid-rank contractors. Although they had nothing to do with dominating the battle situation in this fight, without them, the pressure on our main battlefields would certainly be greater.
Moreover, these high, mid, and low-rank worlds all had native inhabitants. As long as the native forces weren't extremely brain-dead, they would inevitably cooperate with the contractors in their world to resist the Abyss.
Regardless of what stance these native forces took, whether ruling their world or seeking some benefit, there was always one prerequisite: their world still existed. If their world was invaded by the Abyss, any scheming would be a foolish and laughable delusion.
After learning this information through his own authority, Su Xiao suddenly thought of one thing: why the Watchful Paradise had fallen silent, and why it had weakened to such an extent before its silence.
The contractors of the seven major paradise factions each had their characteristics. The Reincarnation Paradise had strong combat power and high intelligence as lone wolves. The Apocalypse Paradise had top-tier resource acquisition. The Dawn Paradise had strong combat power and high intelligence as violators. The Sanctuary Paradise had a divine system, rarely had lone wolves, and mostly consisted of large groups. Every time there was a world war, the Sanctuary Paradise was definitely the most united.
The Holy Light Paradise needed no further explanation; healers and other support classes were famous far and wide.
The Watchful Paradise was famous for its tank system. This could easily lead to misunderstanding: whether the silence of the Watchful Paradise was because tank systems faced higher risks during their growth, ultimately leading to this outcome. The truth was not so. The decline of the Watchful Paradise was due to the "Abyss Campaign" corresponding to the regimental commander's battle against the contemporary Lord of the Abyss during the Second Era.
In that Abyss Campaign, too many top-tier tank powerhouses from the Watchful Paradise were killed or wounded, leading to a resource overdraft for the paradise faction. Therefore, after entering the Third Era, the Watchful Paradise had always been the last place, the sixth. Now, the silence of the Watchful Paradise was actually not a bad thing but a period of re-accumulation.
When the Watchful Paradise revived in a subsequent era, it would likely return to the top few positions.
Su Xiao arrived at the main entrance of the "Void Great Library." Just as he walked in, he saw several figures using space-property curiosities to gather a large number of ancient texts. One of them, seeing Su Xiao's arrival, showed fear in his eyes and said urgently:
"I am of the Feather Race..."
Before this person could finish, Su Xiao's hand had already pressed on the sword hilt at his waist.
Clang!!
In an instant, there was not a single living creature left in the entire "Void Great Library," but not a single one of the ancient texts on the rows of hundred-meter-high bookshelves was damaged in the slightest.
Su Xiao took out the [Library Badge] and activated it in reverse. Silver energy surged from the badge, forming a teleportation array on the ground ahead.
After a moment, the array was activated from the other side. The Second Prince of the Elves, also known as the Elf Supervisor of the Soul Library, Little Elf Boboli, appeared.
"Hmm? What is this?"
Little Elf Boboli looked around suspiciously. He was very familiar with this place. As one of the several major libraries in the Star Realm, the "Void Great Library," he had visited it many times. Now, being summoned here by his old friend, the Law Destroyer, was truly... too fantastical.
"Bai Ye, why are you here? And you summoned me? Ah no, thank goodness you summoned me. Hurry up and retreat with me. This is the territory of the spellcasters. Quick!"
Little Elf Boboli was full of anxiety.
"Appraise this library."
"Huh?"
Little Elf Boboli was even more confused. Appraising the "Void Great Library"? What a niche term.
"This... would the spellcasters of Arcane Eternal Star agree to this transaction?"
"There is no more Arcane Eternal Star. This place is about to become a dead star depleted of elemental power."
"Huh?"
Little Elf Boboli sincerely felt that his old friend's words were even more niche than the previous sentence about appraising the "Void Great Library."
"This, I, ah, this~"
Little Elf Boboli was completely dumbfounded. He ran out of the library on his short, quick legs. Seeing the endless ruins and the occasional bones of spellcasters among them, he understood that Arcane Eternal Star had been destroyed.
Running back into the great library, Little Elf Boboli hid behind Su Xiao's legs and said, "Bai Ye, did the major forces of the Star Realm besiege Arcane Eternal Star? How did they manage to defeat it? They're so dangerous. You need to protect me."
Little Elf Boboli didn't seem to realize that the apocalyptic scene outside that had frightened him was caused by the person in front of him alone. More specifically, it was one person with one sword.
The little elf was indeed professional. It didn't take him long to gather all the ancient texts, totaling an estimated 1.96 million library silver coins.
In fact, given that the "Void Great Library" surpassed the "Golden Library" in scale, it should have had a higher appraisal price. However, this was not based on the value of knowledge but on the price of knowledge that the "Soul Great Library" did not possess. Duplicate ancient texts, while still valuable, were not as highly priced.
Su Xiao's current library silver coins were enough to exchange for a "Covenant Object" from the "Soul Great Library." There was even a saying that this object was likely the strongest covenant object in the entire Star Realm.
After leaving the great library, Su Xiao checked the team channel and saw Baha's findings inside. Bubu Wang, Baha, and Beini had succeeded and returned to the exclusive room.
Seeing this, Su Xiao took out a communicator to contact Kaisa. As long as Kaisa didn't have any problems here, then his other plan would begin.
This time, he had to try to deal with Shenfu. Shenfu had not shown himself, which could only mean one thing: while Su Xiao was clashing with the spellcasters, this old fellow had secretly obtained the object crucial to his plan.
If he didn't deal with Shenfu this time, this old fox, who had sensed the danger, would inevitably disappear without a trace. This would make subsequent confrontations with powerful enemies like a fishbone stuck in the throat. It wasn't that he was afraid of the old fellow personally making a move, but he had to guard against his secret scheming.
This feeling was like being targeted by an old poisonous snake wearing round-rimmed glasses, hiding in the shadows, occasionally flicking its tongue. The bite of this snake was not actually a great threat, but its venom could never be underestimated.
The communicator connected, and Kaisa's voice came from the other end:
"My dear friend, Kaisa has let you down this time."
Hearing this, Su Xiao didn't speak. Even if Kaisa rarely failed, it was still a loss in terms of profit, which was within acceptable limits.
"I cleaned out the Arcane Treasure Vault, but out of the 16 secondary treasure vaults, someone else got their hands on one. This is unacceptable. My dear friend, we lost one percent of this haul's profit. How could I have made such a mistake..."
Kaisa began to mutter incessantly. It was clear that Kaisa, who had failed to achieve a grand slam, was deeply distressed and anguished. After all, losing 1 Soul Coin was like cutting flesh from Kaisa's heart, let alone losing an entire secondary treasure vault.
However, Su Xiao's initial expectation was to secure the core treasure vault, the Arcane Treasure Vault. As for the secondary treasure vaults, getting one-fifth of them would have been a rich harvest.
Knowing that Kaisa had succeeded, Su Xiao was about to hang up the communicator when Kaisa on the other end said:
"My dear friend, there is a special treasure vault that is in an absolute locked state. There is only one chance to try. I was in a hurry to get to the Arcane Treasure Vault at the time, so I didn't try it. Do you want to try your luck? I have three lock-picking combinations here, which are..."
Kaisa explained all three combinations. This special treasure vault seemed easy to open, but that was from Kaisa's perspective. For others, these combinations were not three but trillions. Now, Kaisa had used all sorts of shameless abilities to pierce it down to only three. It was precisely for this reason that few treasure vault doors could stop Kaisa.
Arriving at the treasure vault location Kaisa had mentioned, Su Xiao knew why Kaisa had given up on it. The reason was that this treasure vault was located near the ruins of the "Zhongshi Academy," close to the battle site.
Casually pushing aside a giant rock over ten meters in diameter, a downward staircase came into view. Due to the collapsed passage, it was barely wide enough for one person. A chilling sensation greeted him. Going all the way down, Su Xiao was blocked by a ghost-faced metal giant door.
Sensing someone approaching, the ghost-faced metal giant door opened its eyes. The next second, the ghost-faced metal giant door felt a blur before its eyes. The familiar scene it had seen for over a thousand years suddenly changed. It looked around and found itself in a place shrouded in ghostly aura, with a sky of ghostly green representing the Netherworld. No matter how it looked, this place seemed like the legendary Underworld.
"Hmm?"
The ghost-faced metal giant door was stunned.
Did living beings go to the Underworld after death? There was such a probability, but it was so small it could be ignored. Only those dead objects with intelligence and living characteristics, whose causal origin was the Underworld, would have their consciousness pulled back to the Underworld after being destroyed.
The ghost-faced metal giant door had no idea what had happened. Before suddenly arriving in the Underworld, it vaguely saw a figure seemingly kicking it straight in the face.
...
The shattered ghost-faced metal giant door curled inward. Su Xiao walked into the treasure vault. The scene before him consisted of various types of armor or weapons, as well as arm guards, rings, and necklaces with strange powers. Simply put, this was the treasure vault where Arcane Eternal Star stored various equipment.
Picking up one of them, the quality was very high, but a sentence in the equipment's attributes reduced its price to the extreme.
[Tip: As this equipment is under transaction mortgage, you must first release its contract mortgage before you can obtain it through notarization and conduct subsequent transactions.]
All the equipment here was in this state. After thinking it over, Su Xiao understood what was going on.
These equipment with contract mortgage characteristics were definitely collected by the Goblin Merchant Guild. Such equipment could not be traded between contractors, or in the Great Gathering Place or the trade markets of the major paradises. But what if a contractor abandoned it and a merchant from the Goblin Merchant Guild picked it up? Then there was no such thing as notarization acquisition.
As long as there was enough profit, even if the operation was troublesome, many people would still do it. Of course, the Goblin Merchant Guild could not trade these equipment to contractors from the various paradise factions.
However, they could sell them to the spellcasters of Arcane Eternal Star at a price 35% lower than the market price. One party was willing to sell, and the other bought them for use without any hindrance. Couldn't they be notarized traded? The spellcasters didn't care about that at all. Moreover, more than ninety percent of them would never receive a notification from the Void Tree in their entire lives.
Looking around, Su Xiao had a way to maximize the profit from the current situation. He took out the [Endless Ring].
As he activated the [Endless Ring], the ring, slightly larger than a gold coin, floated up and transformed into a black hole over ten meters in diameter above. The astonishing suction force, like a long whale drinking from a river, began to suck the thousands of pieces of equipment here into the black hole one after another.
In just two minutes, the treasure vault was empty except for the display racks. Even the inward-curling ghost-faced metal giant door at the entrance was swallowed by the [Endless Ring]. The [Endless Ring] shrank back to its original size, fell down, and was caught by Su Xiao. He checked its attributes.
[Endless Ring is upgrading...]
Just then, Bubu Wang ran into the treasure vault. He had already sent the Black Maple Tree back to the exclusive room and returned. Also returning were Baha and Beini, along with Amu, whose body was slightly emitting black smoke.
"Moo."
Amu mooed, meaning he was hungry again.
No other changes were immediately apparent, but his height was indeed over four and a half meters. It seemed that this simpleton had indeed eaten and drunk his fill in the Abyss's near zone.
Walking out of the underground treasure vault, Su Xiao looked up at the dim sky. Arcane Eternal Star had already begun to decline.
This was partly because the Mad King had consumed too much natural element during the battle, and also because the causality here was withering. Generations of spellcasters had transformed this place into a vast region most suitable for spellcasters to live and cultivate, even separating it from the Void's overall environment.
Now that the spellcaster faction had fallen so suddenly, such an abrupt causal fluctuation caused this region, which was independent of the Void and as large as a planet, to begin a rapid decline.
For Arcane Eternal Star to be in such a situation, one could only say that Shenfu was very unlucky in this round.
Ding!
Su Xiao flicked a Soul Coin. The Soul Coin flew to its highest point and began to fall. The next second, a hand grabbed the Soul Coin mid-fall and, with particular naturalness, tucked it into an inner pocket of its clothes.
"My dear friend, is this about to begin?"
Kaisa appeared. For this commission of 50,000 ounces of Space-Time Power, he would naturally go all out.
Let's put it this way: give Kaisa 200 to 500 ounces of Space-Time Power, and general operations were no problem. For 3,000, even relatively difficult operations could be handled.
If it was 10,000, then Kaisa would have to bring out the Fraudster Trio Set. If it was 20,000 ounces, you would see Kaisa wearing the [Abyssal Jar] on his head. For 30,000, it would be Kaisa with the [Abyssal Jar] completely covering his head. As for paying 50,000, Shenfu? Forget Shenfu, as long as it existed in causality, everything could be arranged.
Su Xiao took out the [Book of Original Sin] and [Fate Reversal]. He carefully felt his own fortune. After mobilizing his fortune, his index finger tapped the "Underworld" character on [Fate Reversal], which represented the Underworld God.
Kaisa pulled out all sorts of strange and bizarre items. Seeing the slightly deformed shoe emitting a murky, yellowish smoke, Su Xiao instinctively took half a step back. Remember, when he fought the Underworld God, he didn't retreat even a single step in terms of momentum.
Bubu Wang, Amu, and Baha all retreated in succession. Beini ran directly to a distant place.
Kaisa hummed a tune while taking out a large cauldron. He lit a pitch-black fuel that looked like solidified petroleum. After ignition, its temperature was no less than that of top-tier Solar Flame. This made one think that the seemingly ordinary large cauldron might be some rare treasure. However, any treasure in Kaisa's hands had an inexplicable counterfeit aura.
He poured a viscous, yellowish liquid into the cauldron. Just seeing it caused a mental dry heave. No one knew where this foul liquid came from. After the foul liquid boiled, Kaisa began adding ingredients to the boiling cauldron, such as his self-fermented smelly shoes and socks, the rotten intestinal fat-like substance of a dead evil god, and... ugh~, just describing it made one feel that their eyes and brain were dirty.
Soon, this perhaps most foul boiling liquid in the Star Realm began to emit terrifying gurgling bubbles. Seeing this, Su Xiao silently put on a specially made alchemy gas mask before continuing the operation.
He and the Underworld God had previously joined forces to kill the Old One. At that time, the Old One was being parasitized by the "Old One's Eye." Logically, the "Old One's Eye" should have chosen between Su Xiao and the Underworld God. Unfortunately, neither was a good choice.
After Su Xiao killed the Underworld God, the causality between them and the "Old One's Eye" all converged on Su Xiao. Under normal circumstances, this was a very terrible thing. The problem was that the "Old One's Eye" didn't want to have anything to do with Su Xiao. The six kindred in the [Book of Original Sin] really wanted the "Old One's Eye" to share the hardship. The "Old One's Eye" had a deep understanding of this.
If Su Xiao did nothing afterward, the "Old One's Eye" would find another host, and the causality between him and the "Old One's Eye" would naturally fade until it completely disappeared. However, now, only a few days had passed since he killed the Underworld God, and the causality between him and the "Old One's Eye" was still in a very strong phase.
Su Xiao pressed one hand on the [Book of Original Sin]. The next second, six strands of original sin aura—dark gold, dead gray, scarlet, gold, ghostly green, and black-red—emerged from within. These original sin auras formed threads, all winding onto one causal thread, the one connecting Su Xiao and the "Old One's Eye."
A buzzing sound rang in Su Xiao's mind. It felt like someone had violently pulled a nerve.
With a rumble, the sky became eerie. Countless tentacles hung down. Countless eyes appeared in the sky, crowding and squirming, replacing the sky itself.
A colossal, blood-red eye appeared in the sky. Its aura signified death, fear, despair, pain, and all negative emotions. The mind began to mutate, and the soul split the skull from the middle, beginning to twist wildly in aberration.
However, this terrifying blood-red eye began to retreat the moment it descended. This was not a terrible disaster descending; it was clearly a scam, and it was retreating in haste.
But it was too late. Under the six strands of original sin aura—dark gold, dead gray, scarlet, gold, ghostly green, and black-red—the "Old One's Eye" transformed from a terrifying, colossal eye in the sky into the size of a fist, being pulled toward the [Book of Original Sin].
If it were anyone else, even with the [Book of Original Sin], they would inevitably be counterattacked and killed by the "Old One's Eye" on the spot.
The problem was that Su Xiao was currently the fourth strongest existence in the Star Realm. Even when facing original sin objects directly, he no longer needed to be as cautious as before.
It wasn't that he had lost his reverence; he still had it. But his strength was there, coupled with a fortune of -20,000,000, not to mention that within the [Book of Original Sin], there was a Daddy-level original sin object, the "Fortune Gold Coin," which didn't want Su Xiao to die from original sin counterattack.
Under these premises, coupled with the "Old One's Eye" being targeted by the six major original sin objects, it really couldn't do anything to Su Xiao.
The "Old One's Eye," which had always been the perpetrator, now had to face a choice. Or rather, Su Xiao only gave it these three options.