Chapter 2198: Son of the Ancient Dragon and the Fat Giant

Faint light shrouded the stone forest above, the stone forest was very quiet, and there were no Tianba tribe guards here, there was no need for that at all.

The only valuable thing in the stone forest was the source water, as for outsiders coming to steal the source water, the Tianba tribe would let the thieves go even if they saw them.

Drinking the source water does grant power, but not everyone can drink it; if one's physical constitution is not strong enough, plus their willpower is not firm enough, the moment they drink the source water they will turn into a monster, and afterward the 'source' within their body will instantly detach and return to the source pool.

The Tianba tribe residing in Eternal Moon City begin ascetic training in their youth, this is not only to temper the body but also to forge the will.

And all this is in preparation for drinking the source water; on average, out of a hundred people, only one Tianba can be selected, that is, the warrior of the Tianba tribe.

On the day a Tianba comes of age, they will come alone to the Abyssal Serpent Manor to witness all this, and after that, this newly adult Tianba decides whether to drink the source water.

After drinking the source water, one does not necessarily gain the power of Qin and Ni; out of ten Tianba, roughly four can awaken Qin and Ni.

And among these four, about three are Ni attribute (ranged), one is Qin attribute (melee).

Ordinary Tianba who drink the source water will be eroded by the source into monsters in about 10 to 13 years, and before turning into monsters, they will come to the Abyssal Serpent Manor.

Ni-attribute Tianba, roughly, will be eroded into monsters in about 8 to 9 years.

As for Qin-attribute Tianba, on average they will completely turn into monsters in 3 to 5 years; they are the strongest individuals among the Tianba, some even shatter the limit of master-level melee and reach grandmaster level.

During this period, the more frequently one uses source power, the faster the source erosion speed; some Qin-attribute Tianba may even turn into monsters within 1 to 2 months.

Tianba eroded by the source are not doing so because they crave power; they are using their own bodies to nurture the 'source' within them; assuming their source energy was 10 points when they first drank the source water, then before they turn into monsters, their source energy reaches at least 20,000 points or more.

Qin-attribute Tianba are even more exaggerated, nurturing their internal source energy to over 50,000 points.

The one who needs source energy is the Abyssal Serpent, its use is temporarily unknown.

Aobo sat among the stone pillars, chewing food in his mouth; at this moment he was no longer afraid of Su Xiao, in simple Aobo's view, as long as he wasn't hit and was given food, that basically made one a good person.

"Aobo."

"Mm, Aobo is here, Bai Ye, are you hungry too."

Aobo spoke with a muffled voice, grinning foolishly as he handed over the food Su Xiao had given him.

Although Aobo's oversized clothing was somewhat worn, the craftsmanship was fine, obviously made by the Tianba tribe.

"What are you waiting for in front of the Divine Ritual Hall?"

Upon hearing Su Xiao's words, Aobo's foolish smile vanished from his face, instead he scratched his large bald head.

"Aobo is waiting for Luo Si, it was agreed that Luo Si would definitely come to find Aobo, Luo Si is Aobo's best friend."

Aobo began to smile foolishly again, but he did not know that the Son of the Ancient Dragon, Luo Si, had long been dead at the hands of Yi Wei Er, his skeleton lying within the Divine Ritual Hall.

The friend he had waited for hundreds of years, his corpse lay near the place where Aobo was waiting.

【Hint: Hunters may choose to inform Aobo that the Son of the Ancient Dragon, Luo Si, is dead, or conceal this fact.】

Su Xiao closed the hint from the Reincarnation Paradise, leapt onto a stone pillar above and sat down.

"Luo Si is dead."

"Luo Si……died?"

Aobo was somewhat at a loss, soon he curled up into a squatting posture, hugging his head with both hands.

"Luo Si was the gentlest, Luo Si would not die, no one would kill Luo Si."

"He died, his skeleton is within the Divine Ritual Hall, you can go see it yourself."

"Wow!"

Aobo cried so hard it shook heaven and earth, fist-sized tears rolled down.

"Luo Si will not die, we agreed, Aobo and Luo Si will go to the Northern Continent to see the frozen mountains……"

Aobo cried until tears burst forth, but soon he covered his large mouth.

"Aobo will attract the Tianba, Bai Ye is not a Tianba, the Tianba will kill Bai Ye."

Aobo sniffled, after all Su Xiao had just given him some food, kind Aobo did not want to harm Su Xiao.

"Are you guarding the source pool?"

"Mm, Aobo made a pact with the serpent, as long as Aobo guards here, Luo Si will not be harmed; Luo Si died, died."

"Serpent?"

"Very big, very big serpent."

Aobo stretched out his arms, but his expression remained tearful; he was not stupid, having waited hundreds of years for Luo Si with no appearance, he had actually already guessed Luo Si met misfortune.

"Kukulin wants to go find the serpent?"

"Of course."

"No, without 'dragon blood', one cannot go find the serpent."

Leaving these words, Aobo stood up and walked toward the outside of the stone forest, heading into the abyss to search for Luo Si's corpse; at the same time, Su Xiao received a hint from the Reincarnation Paradise.

【Hunter has successfully triggered the main quest·Sixth Loop.】

【Main Quest: Source's End (Sixth Loop).】

Difficulty Level: lv. 49～lv. 65

Quest Info: Obtain 'Ancient Dragon Blood' and pour it into the source pool, thereby breaking the seal at the pool's bottom.

Hint: Ancient Dragon Blood is sealed somewhere within the Abyssal Serpent Manor.

Hint: One can also obtain Ancient Dragon Blood from the key guide Yi Wei Er.

Quest Time Limit: 8 natural days.

Quest Reward: Based on quest completion degree.

Quest Penalty: Forced execution.

……

The Sixth Loop quest was successfully activated, but the required Ancient Dragon Blood, Su Xiao fundamentally had no way to obtain it, and moreover this quest's difficulty span is extremely large; if mishandled it could become a seventh-loop difficulty, while the lowest difficulty lv. 49 is simply finding Yi Wei Er, after all Su Xiao has interacted with Yi Wei Er.

The Sixth Loop quest is very difficult, but this kind of quest is what Su Xiao excels at.

Ancient Dragon Blood can be obtained in two ways: one is searching within the Abyssal Serpent Manor, two is obtaining it from Yi Wei Er; the former carries great risk, the latter requires consuming a lot of time, and whether one can find Yi Wei Er remains unknown.

Under the circumstances where normal communication with the Tianba tribe was impossible, finding ancient dragon blood in the Abyssal Serpent Mansion was nearly impossible, and even if Xiang Ignoring Ignoring Ignoring Ignoring Ignoring Bubu Wang could blend into the environment, searching for ancient dragon blood would still be like looking for a needle in a haystack.

As for the one obtained from Yiweier, Yiweier currently doesn't know where he is hiding to recover from his injuries; he nearly died in the Front Guard Village before, and finding him is equally difficult.

Su Xiao is certainly not stubborn; the mission information told him to look for something, and he just stared at it intently. As long as he could achieve the ultimate goal, the process didn't really matter.

"Bubu."

Su Xiao took out Xiang Ignoring Ignoring Ignoring Ignoring Ignoring Bubu Wang's diving gear from his storage space, and Xiang Ignoring Ignoring Ignoring Ignoring Ignoring Bubu Wang quickly put it on and blended into the environment.

About ten minutes later, Xiang Ignoring Ignoring Ignoring Ignoring Ignoring Bubu Wang, wearing a sealed diving suit, returned. Earlier, using the concealment from blending into the environment, he had dived into the Source Pool.

By reviewing the footage recorded by Xiang Ignoring Ignoring Ignoring Ignoring Ignoring Bubu Wang, Su Xiao saw that the Source Pool was about ten meters deep, with a blue crystal at the bottom blocking the pool.

The ancient dragon blood needed for the mission was meant to destroy the crystal layer at the bottom of the pool, so finding ancient dragon blood wasn't the key point—destroying the sealing layer at the bottom was.

Su Xiao pinched a blue crystal between his fingertips; this was what Xiang Ignoring Ignoring Ignoring Ignoring Ignoring Bubu Wang had collected from the bottom of the Source Pool, and this was what was sealing the pool's bottom.

Su Xiao held the blue crystal in his palm, gradually exerting force with his hand.

Crack crack crack...

After gripping it with all his strength, Su Xiao opened his palm; the blue crystal in his palm showed no damage. This material was extremely hard. Given Su Xiao's swordsmanship, forcibly destroying the blue crystal with Dragon-Slaying Flash was not impossible, but it would be a major undertaking, and the resulting noise would certainly alert the Tianba tribe inside the Abyssal Serpent Mansion.

Su Xiao took out several metal devices from his storage space, connected them together, and placed the blue crystal in his hand into the transmogrification chamber.

As Su Xiao operated the device, three green lights lit up on the metal apparatus. Alchemy was not merely mixing bottles and jars; it was the analysis of mysticism, not bound by old methods—whatever method was practical, that was the one to use.

A few minutes later, Su Xiao took out the blue crystal from the transmogrification chamber.

"Tai Ding Ji Li Que, a rare composite crystal."

Su Xiao exerted force with his two fingers, and with a crack, the blue crystal in his hand split open. Searching for ancient dragon blood? There was no need for that. Fundamentally, ancient dragon blood contains a substance that can dissociate the molecular structure of "Tai Ding Ji Li Que"—it may seem fantastical, but it is simply molecular dissociation.