Chapter 2202

Three pieces of equipment were obtained. Su Xiao equipped 【Sky Walk】 directly, hanging it at his waist. 【Sky Walk】 was small in size, consisting of a black cord with a pale cyan gemstone tied to it. The cyan gemstone was the main body, and this item could be fashioned into an earring, or hung from a sleeve or waist.

Su Xiao did not have the habit of wearing earrings. Once, while locked in a life-and-death struggle with a male contractor from Apocalypse Paradise, the opponent had been wearing a single earring, which Su Xiao had ripped off before decapitating him with a single slash.

As for 【God's Judgment】, it was a ring—a plain, unadorned ring.

【God's Judgment】

Origin: Reincarnation Paradise

Quality: Legendary (Growth-type equipment)

Category: Ring

Durability: 30/30

Equipment Requirement: None

Equipment Effect 1: Soul Life (Passive). For every point of Soul Strength, the wearer gains 80 HP and 0.5% neural reflex speed.

Current Soul Strength: 150 points.

HP Increased: 12,000 points.

Neural Reflex Speed Increased: 75%.

Growth Condition: After killing an extremely evil deity, this equipment can absorb the deity's energy to grow. The growth magnitude depends on the rank of the evil deity killed (Extremely evil deities are mostly Ancient Gods).

Rating: 530 points (Legendary quality equipment rating is 400–530 points).

Introduction: Live on, and let the evil deities taste despair.

Price: Cannot be sold after equipping.

Seeing the attributes of 【God's Judgment】, Su Xiao converted 【Hunter's King】 from its ring form into its firearm form to be carried as a secondary weapon. This was the characteristic of 【Hunter's King】; it could transform between firearm, ring, and necklace forms.

Su Xiao put on 【God's Judgment】. Instantly, he felt a change in his body; his vitality surged, and the world around him slowed down—a result of the increased neural reflex speed.

However, the world soon returned to normal. This was not the first time Su Xiao had increased his neural reflex speed, and he was long accustomed to this sensation.

The effect of 【God's Judgment】 was quite powerful—no, it was exceptionally suited for Su Xiao. He possessed 150 points of Soul Strength, gained through his talent, Soul Eater.

Without such high Soul Strength, 【God's Judgment】 would only be considered decent. It should be noted that before consuming Soul Fruits, Su Xiao's Soul Strength had been only 8 points, even when he was already a Tier 4 hunter.

As a Tier 4 hunter, Su Xiao had only possessed 8 points of Soul Strength. Had he not consumed Soul Fruits and awakened his Soul Eater talent a second time, his current Soul Strength would have been just over a dozen points.

In that case, 【God's Judgment】 would only have increased his HP by a little over 1,000 points and his neural reflex speed by less than 10%.

But now, the boost 【God's Judgment】 provided to Su Xiao was immense. Furthermore, his Soul Strength would continue to rise, steadily increasing by 30 points per world.

Moreover, as growth-type equipment, the bonuses provided by 【God's Judgment】 would only become more potent as its quality improved.

As a melee fighter, Su Xiao faced danger at every moment in battle. HP was tied to vitality; possessing greater vitality gave Su Xiao more options when fighting in close quarters.

For example, if an enemy's attack was not fatal, Su Xiao could choose to tank it, seizing the initiative to suppress the enemy and ultimately secure victory.

There is a saying among the lone wolves of Reincarnation Paradise that holds much truth: if you don't have the survivability of a tank, then stop being a lone wolf and go find an adventure group.

Stowing away the last piece of equipment, 【Electric Walk】, Su Xiao walked out of the semi-open cave. He had only delayed for a dozen minutes. There were still over 6 hours remaining. If he could not destroy the Space-Time Hub device before then, Death Paradise would send Punisher Knights, which would be troublesome.

Crossing the vegetation-covered mountain, a vast forest of maples came into view. Red maple leaves drifted through the air, mixed with cotton-like plant seeds.

Whoosh—

A breeze blew through the maple forest. There were no birds or beasts here; this was the territory of a powerful creature, and ordinary lifeforms dared not approach.

Su Xiao walked along the gentle slope of the mountain and soon entered the maple forest. The maple trees were not densely packed, and clearings were frequently visible, with the ground carpeted in maple leaves.

The scenery was beautiful but harbored murderous intent. Just after entering the forest, Su Xiao saw a skeleton.

This skeleton was sitting against a maple tree, its left ribs completely severed, with two intersecting slash marks on its skull.

Judging by the surrounding traces, these remains had been here for over a century without weathering, indicating the individual had been quite powerful in life.

Continuing forward for a dozen meters, another skeleton appeared, half-buried in the soil, with the bones of its right side completely missing.

From a preliminary observation, Su Xiao determined it had been blasted apart by energy; the individual's strength in life must have been formidable.

A massive stone slab was slanted into the ground, bearing several lines of writing, clearly left by different people.

"To be able to fight her, though I die, I have no regrets. — Ike Noel."

"Los, I'm sorry, I couldn't die by your hand. — Iwell."

"Abyss Snake, Source Snake, hateful, yet they fulfill my lifelong wish. — Moon Wolf Duke, Dick Howe."

Seeing these inscriptions, Su Xiao frowned. He continued deeper into the maple forest. Every dozen meters or so, another skeleton would appear.

Strangely, the fatal wounds on these individuals were not caused by the same weapon or ability. Based on the weapon types alone, Su Xiao identified over a dozen varieties.

Assuming all these people were killed by the Abyss Snake, the Abyss Snake was proficient in over a dozen types of weapons and possessed dozens of different ability characteristics.

Iwell also possessed numerous abilities, but all of hers were interrelated.

Based on Su Xiao's observations, if these skeletons were indeed all killed by the Abyss Snake, the Abyss Snake's abilities were so chaotic that it should have been impossible for it to defeat such powerful experts.

Abilities are not necessarily better in greater numbers. Take Su Xiao, for example: he specialized in swordsmanship, with all other abilities serving to support his blade.

If one were to say the Abyss Snake was a summoner-type, it might barely make sense, yet there were still many inconsistencies.

Just as Su Xiao had penetrated less than two kilometers into the maple forest, a slithering sound characteristic of snakes reached his ears. Just by the sound, he knew a massive creature was approaching.

Scales scraped against maple leaves. Hearing this, Su Xiao placed his hand on the hilt of his blade.

Large branches were snapped, emitting crisp cracking sounds. A black giant snake, over three meters thick and of indeterminate length, crawled out from between the maple trees. One of its eyes had been slashed blind; the hideous scar indicated it had been wounded by a long weapon.

"Hiss—"

The black-scaled giant snake stopped a few dozen meters away. Its single eye watched Su Xiao. There was no coldness typical of snakes in that gaze; perhaps it was an illusion, but the eye held a sense of vicissitudes—the kind that only comes from witnessing countless ages of history.

This was the Abyss Snake, the culprit behind the extinction of the gods and the origin of many tragedies.

Su Xiao had not come to crusade against the Abyss Snake; the two had no enmity, merely differing stances. If the other party considered him to be on the side of evil, he couldn't be bothered to argue.

"Roar!"

The Abyss Snake let out a roar and charged directly at Su Xiao.

Clang!

A blade flash erupted, slashing directly onto the Abyss Snake's head.

Snake blood sprayed violently. The Abyss Snake's body twisted, crushing a large swath of maple trees, sending wood chips and shredded bark flying.

Su Xiao stopped his forward charge abruptly. His intuition was warning him: he must not get close to the Abyss Snake right now. Approaching the creature recklessly would lead to dire consequences.