Chapter 2235: No Way Out

Putting down High Priest Nuer's notes, Su Xiao was thoughtful. According to his guess, the Luyang Continent should be a native world, and High Priest Nuer came from there.

The participants of the death game chosen by the Death House were not just from the Void. As for the "profaning death" mentioned in the notes, there were too few clues to draw a conclusion.

High Priest Nuer was a "Dead" within the Death House. The Dead were not dead people; they were also alive.

Many visitors had come to this wooden house. Initially, High Priest Nuer interacted friendly with these people, exchanging knowledge, etc. One person even became his friend. Before leaving the Death House, that person took a huge risk to return here to visit High Priest Nuer one last time.

Unfortunately, the friendly interaction didn't last long. Upon learning that obtaining a Shadow Stone could lead to leaving this wooden house, High Priest Nuer began to trap and kill visitors.

After killing the first person, High Priest Nuer was shackled by the iron chains on the wooden wall. At that time, the chain was still long, and he could move freely in the room.

As High Priest Nuer killed more and more visitors, the chain imprisoning him became shorter and shorter, until when Su Xiao arrived, the chain was only three meters long.

Killing visitors not only caused the chain to shorten, but more terrifyingly, it caused a decline in intelligence. By the mid-to-late stage, High Priest Nuer had forgotten who he was. Strangely, he still remembered the knowledge in his head and the phrase "truly degenerate."

Su Xiao had wondered before why High Priest Nuer was so stupid. His door-opening-and-closing strategy had many loopholes, but High Priest Nuer acted like a bugged boss, stifling his abilities after closing the door and accumulating them again after opening it.

High Priest Nuer's abilities were similar to those of a Necromancer. Most of his abilities required energy accumulation, commonly known as "casting time."

The funny thing was, as soon as Xiang Ignoring Bubu Wang closed the door, this guy would stop "casting," and as soon as it opened, he would restart "casting," which led Su Xiao to think he was feigning death after killing him.

Being restricted in movement range was desperate enough, but the decline in intelligence was even more terrifying.

And what was even more "terrifying" was that this Dead named Nuer was very poor. This guy hadn't recorded the knowledge in his head, and the books on the bookshelf were all biographies, which had no value.

The candlelight flickered. Su Xiao's gaze turned to the candlestick, where a small flame burned on the candle. Coming to the candlestick, he touched the candle with his index finger.

【You have obtained "White Fat Candle."】

【Hint: White Fat Candle can be used for illumination for over 90 years. If used to disperse "Dark Fog," it will accelerate the melting speed, with a time limit of 20 minutes.】

Su Xiao pulled the White Fat Candle off the candlestick and blew it out. In an instant, the wooden house plunged into darkness—a darkness so thick one couldn't see their own hand.

"Woo-ooh!"

Xiang Ignoring Bubu Wang let out a miserable howl.

"You're not blind."

"Wang?"

Under Xiang Ignoring Bubu Wang's puzzled gaze, Su Xiao lit the White Fat Candle in his hand, and the darkness was rapidly dispersed.

Su Xiao walked out of the wooden house. As soon as he stepped out, the door slowly closed, emitting a harsh friction sound.

The black fog wall surged, and the wooden door on it was gradually swallowed, eventually disappearing completely.

Su Xiao stood before the black fog wall. Not far in front of him, spatial fluctuations emerged, and a wooden house appeared—the very one he had just been in.

This wooden house had faint black fog drifting from it; this was its only difference from other wooden houses.

Looking around, there were at least hundreds of wooden houses in the open space ahead. What this represented needed no further explanation.

There shouldn't be too many Dead within the Death House now, but the Death House had existed for too long. During this period, no one knew how many Dead had died here. The wooden houses they lived in during their lifetimes would all appear in this open space, accumulating over time to reach such a large number.

Su Xiao had previously learned information through Shadow Stone data: there were two types of Dead—those who could be interacted with and those who could not.

The Dead who could be interacted with should be those without chains on their necks who hadn't killed death game participants, while those with iron shackles on their necks were those who had killed death game participants. The shorter the chain, the more people they had killed.

Whether all such Dead who couldn't be interacted with had their intelligence declined was unknown. High Priest Nuer's strength could only be considered average; even if he weren't restricted by the chain, Su Xiao could still handle him.

The wooden houses ahead were not worth exploring. These wooden houses had long been searched many times by other participants of the death game. Searching here was a waste of time.

Su Xiao glanced at the White Fat Candle in his hand, thought for a moment, and then brought it close to the black fog wall.

As soon as the White Fat Candle approached the black fog wall, the black fog was dispersed in a small area, forming a passage two meters high, one meter wide, and less than half a meter deep.

A drop of wax oil dripped from the White Fat Candle, and the melting speed of the White Fat Candle was accelerated.

To continue exploring forward, the White Fat Candle was a necessity. Su Xiao's guess was that there should be other wooden houses within the black fog, and he needed to disperse the black fog to search within it.

Su Xiao blew out the White Fat Candle in his hand. There were three sides of black fog walls in this area: front, left, and right were black fog walls, while behind was a gray fog wall.

Su Xiao didn't plan to go deep into the black fog for the time being. He wanted to search and see if he could find another wooden door on the black fog wall to obtain a second White Fat Candle.

Walking among the wooden houses, Su Xiao moved at full speed. He encountered no danger along the way and reached the black fog wall on the left side of the wooden house area.

Lighting the White Fat Candle, a strange thing happened: the black fog was not dispersed. As soon as the White Fat Candle approached the black fog wall, it went out.

Seeing this, Su Xiao headed straight for the black fog wall on the right side of the wooden house area. Although this was a waste of time, he was already the last one to head into the black fog, so this bit of time didn't matter.

After some experimentation, Su Xiao discovered that the black fog walls on the left and right could not be dispersed with the White Fat Candle. As for the gray fog wall returning to the banquet hall, it was already sealed at this time.

The black fog above could also not be dispersed. The only one that could be dispersed was the black fog wall in front of the wooden house area.

Returning to the vicinity of the black fog wall in front, Su Xiao began to patrol along the black fog wall. Soon, he found three wooden houses still drifting with black fog.

Xiang Ignoring Bubu Wang began to track scents, auras, footprints, etc., and soon found the directions in which Mengde, Nita, and others had entered the black fog wall. Dilin was more cautious, covering the traces left along the way.

Su Xiao didn't plan to track other participants. He chose a section of the black fog wall that no one had entered, lit the White Fat Candle, and the black fog ahead was dispersed, creating a passage.

Su Xiao held the White Fat Candle in front of him and began to move forward. Xiang Ignoring Bubu Wang followed behind him, while Baha walked at the very end with a sneaky gait. Its flying and walking were two extremes: when flying, it was an overlord of the sky; when running, it looked like a vulture that had just stolen a bird egg—that gait was as flamboyant as could be.

The black fog ahead was dispersed by the White Fat Candle in Su Xiao's hand. Because the speed of dispersing the black fog was not fast, Su Xiao could only walk. Once he accelerated, he would immediately crash into the black fog.

Su Xiao held a wooden board in his hand, which he had dismantled from a wooden house. This type of wooden board was quite tough, with a hardness no less than metal, while still retaining the resilience of wood.

He threw the wooden board into the black fog beside him.

*Hiss... *

The wooden board cracked rapidly, and a black-purple liquid appeared on it, eventually eroding the wooden board into slag, which dissipated.

Seeing this, Su Xiao continued forward, but just as he had moved forward for more than ten meters, the black fog behind slowly gathered together, sealing the rear.

Going deep into the black fog was a one-way trip. He could only move forward; retreating would waste the White Fat Candle. Without the White Fat Candle to open the way, Su Xiao would stop at the second round of the Strongest Contest.

But if he kept moving forward, when the White Fat Candle burned out, Su Xiao would be eroded by the black fog. At that time, the probability of his survival would be slim to none. ===== CHAPTER 2236 =====