Chapter 2403: Chapter Twenty-Five: The Contaminated World Seed

Gru's plan could succeed mainly because of the 'Contaminated World Seed'; the emergence of this thing has extremely harsh conditions.

First, there must be an extremely evil existence that suddenly appears in this world; although the world has no self-consciousness, it can still sense the danger, and at this moment the World Seed will condense.

After the World Seed grows into a towering giant tree, it will bring changes to the life of this world, granting these living beings the qualification to deal with that extremely evil existence.

The extremely evil existence that suddenly appeared in this world is the ancient god in Misfortune Town; that ancient god did not destroy the World Seed, nor did it even pay attention to this thing.

Even so, the World Seed was still contaminated by the ancient god's power, appearing in Misfortune Town, and Gru and his predecessors used this 'Contaminated World Seed' to launch their plan.

This thing possesses both the characteristics of this world and strong erosive power; once activated, it will affect the living beings of this world, that is, eroding them into the Treefolk.

The 'life characteristic' of the Treefolk comes from the World Seed, so their bodies are withered, and they concentrate their vitality within; tree giants are easier to understand, as they are merely more severely eroded.

A normal World Seed brings good influence to living beings, while the 'Contaminated World Seed' is a combination of good and bad.

Emperor Okaz also visited Misfortune Town and knew of the 'Contaminated World Seed'; to be safe, he expended extravagant resources and established the 'Light-Dark Array Junction' beneath the imperial capital, to prevent anyone one day obtaining the 'Contaminated World Seed' and attacking the imperial capital; the former imperial capital is now Ango City.

To ensure absolute safety, Emperor Okaz also built an underground city beneath Ango City and told his descendants that when one day their souls are eroded, they should have the people come to Ango City; this advice has been passed down generation after generation until the fall of the Four Kingdoms.

Gru has always wanted to control the old councilman, precisely to learn the location of the 'Light-Dark Array Junction' through him; that thing might even be in an alternate space, and only councilmen of the Holy Realm lineage know the location of the 'Light-Dark Array Junction'.

In the imperial language, 'Holy Realm' can also be translated as 'Guardian', so Gru dared not let the old councilman die, trying every means to control him, just to make the old councilman open the 'Holy Realm' and destroy the 'Light-Dark Array Junction' inside.

"Basically just like that, satisfied your curiosity?"

Su Xiao tossed a Soul Crystal (small) into his mouth; the feeling of weakness had already faded, and he now needs a safe place to completely master the Azure Shadow King, at which point the Azure Shadow King will undergo changes and can also level up normally.

It is not consuming Soul Crystals, nor is it Paradise Coins; the method to enhance the Azure Shadow King is currently only one: consuming Golden Skill Points.

Previously, Su Xiao could not use Golden Skill Points to enhance the Azure Shadow King because he had not yet fully mastered this ability; the Blazing Shadow state fundamentally cannot be enhanced, as it is not a combat state, but rather first lets his body gradually adapt to the Azure Shadow King; otherwise, if he were to immediately master the Azure Shadow King upon awakening, Su Xiao would undoubtedly die.

"Meow~"

Benny licked the back of her paw, indicating she understood Gru's plan; the curious cat spirit, having her curiosity satisfied, was very pleased.

Benny looks cute and is the team's mascot; during her long treasure-hunting journey, her treasure-finding ability remains dazzling, and sometimes she herself is embarrassed to produce the 'treasures' she finds.

Once Benny produced a urine pot from over seven hundred years ago, she still thought it was a crown or something similar; although the shape was a bit peculiar, she was certain it was a treasure; after spending Paradise Coins to verify it, she learned it was a urine pot, and Xiang Ignoring Ignoring Ignoring Ignoring Ignoring Bubu Wang almost laughed himself into shock.

Even so, Benny's ability to find people is growing stronger.

In the previous world, Benny, through Crimson Tasha, found the storage location of the condensed spatiotemporal force, and afterward found the Misty Village, that is, the location of the Foreign King.

And in this world, Benny, relying on the few clues provided by Xiang Ignoring Ignoring Ignoring Ignoring Ignoring Bubu Wang, dragged out this old schemer Gru; this is not the Eastern Ze Kingdom, nor is it Gru's hometown, but rather the palace of the Yuexi Kingdom; Su Xiao truly did not expect Gru to hide here.

Time flies; an hour is approaching, and Su Xiao feels the spatial dragging sensation.

"Benny, don't go to Misfortune Town."

"Meow."

Benny solemnly nodded her head, meaning she is preparing to search for treasure nearby; if she needs to find someone, she will just fire a signal flare, and she will come when called.

A strong dragging sensation appeared; a few seconds later, Su Xiao walked out from a spatial rift, returning to the battlefield outside Ango City.

Before his eyes lay corpses scattered across the ground, broken swords plunged into the earth, and behind the broken swords were soldiers who had knelt on one knee and died in battle; until death, they continued to tightly grip the throat of a Treefolk.

The battle lines had already pushed outward, because after Gru's bodily death, the 'Contaminated World Seed' lost its energy supply and could no longer draw ancient god power from Misfortune Town; this caused the Treefolk's combat power and physical vitality to drastically decrease.

The Treefolk were too strong; in just a few days, they had developed complete self-awareness and strong bodies, and through intra-clan combat, the victors devoured the losers, thus becoming stronger.

Such rapid birth and growth inevitably come with weaknesses; there is no sudden strength in the world, and now the Treefolk are suffering the consequences of this; they not only cannot mutually devour each other, but their own vitality is also draining, and of course they are no match for the soldiers, who gained their current strength through sweat and tenacious will.

As they fought, the soldiers became somewhat dazed; the previously strong withered monsters suddenly could not withstand blows, and the more they fought, the weaker they became.

The soldiers fought on and grew braver, until finally they actually slaughtered the Treefolk into dispersal.

King Lei Man ordered all soldiers to immediately retreat to Ango City; the war had gone too smoothly, so smoothly that King Lei Man felt chills and alarm, always believing this was a trap set by the enemy.

When Su Xiao returned to Ango City, the atmosphere inside the city was clearly different; the first battle had been won, and if they continued like this for a few more days, they could reclaim vast territories, at which point everything would be available.

Xiang Ignoring Ignoring Ignoring Ignoring Ignoring Bubu Wang ran over from the street, still followed by Ba Ha and Am.

"Boss, what did Gru say before he died?"

"He didn't die, or rather, he died one-third."

"Woof."

Xiang Ignoring Ignoring Ignoring Ignoring Ignoring Bubu Wang's mood was clearly good; after all, he had just resolved the major threat Gru, and the opponent could no longer come out to act arrogantly; having been schemed by that old schemer for several days, to perfect the plan, he had endured it all.

"Xiang Bubu, and also Misfortune Town; listen to this name—maybe there are wronged souls, drifting about like that."

Ba Ha made a ghostly gesture; seeing this, Xiang Ignoring Ignoring Ignoring Ignoring Ignoring Bubu Wang let out a whimper from her throat, tucked her tail between her legs, and cowered.

Misfortune Town certainly has no wronged souls; if wronged souls came there, they would be scared into urination; the immortal, the resentful orphan—who could not treat such things as snacks?

Su Xiao walked toward the direction of the two-story building; having not walked far, he saw the Rose Councilman leading people over.

"Bai Ye, I have a question I hope you can answer; I am willing to pay appropriate compensation for this information."

"No interest."

Su Xiao walked past the Rose Councilman; Ango City had already stabilized below, and afterward would be about reclaiming territory and reconstruction, which has nothing to do with him.

"Alchemical materials and formulas, not bad, right?"

"..."

Su Xiao stopped his steps; in this regard, he indeed felt interested.

"I only have one question: what exactly was Gru's purpose?"

"To prevent either humanity or the hyena-wolf clan from going extinct."

Su Xiao naturally knew Gru's purpose; Gru wanted to reclaim the secret patterns mainly because he feared the secret patterns would be overdeveloped, thus provoking the origin of the secret patterns, that is, the ancient god in Misfortune Town; already one civilization had paid the price for this.

"This doesn't make sense."

The Rose Councilman was not satisfied with Su Xiao's answer.

"I need the materials; Asazaz will come to get them from you."

Su Xiao walked toward the distance; the Rose Councilman's dissatisfaction grew even stronger.

"Woman, we could kill Elvis Gru, and we could also kill you, so don't break your promise; my boss hates people who break promises, oh, by the way, this skull I'm sending you is Gru's head, hehehe."

Amid Ba Ha's weird laughter, the Rose Councilman's pupils rapidly constricted; she picked up the cloth bag on the ground, opened it, and saw Elvis Gru's head.

At this moment, Councilor Rose felt no joy, only dread; cold sweat soaked through the thin clothing on her back. What monster had they placed inside Ango City? The Kingdom Destroyer, Gruel, had died just like that—how terrifying he was, Councilor Rose knew all too well. Whoever could kill him...

Su Xiao returned to the two-story building; as soon as he pushed open the door, he saw Pri sitting there with a frown, this acting councilor worrying needlessly every day—his heart was in the right place, but he could do little.

"Ah, I've only just realized how useless I am."

Pri let out a long sigh, his face full of helplessness.

"Don't worry about it."

Asaz spoke to comfort him.

"Asaz..."

"Pri, you've been useless for so long we're used to it—don't worry, no one will blame you."

"I, you you you."

A mouthful of poisonous chicken soup went down his windpipe; Pri on the spot began to doubt life.

Su Xiao ignored the master and servant, stepped upstairs, and now needed a quiet room to fully master the Shadow King. He could feel that the Shadow King was not an ability requiring 'warm-up'; Shadow Flame was not the true form of the Shadow King.