Chapter 2865

Su Xiao stood before the iron-barred prison door, looking at the skeleton inside emitting a white fluorescence. The skeleton was quite complete, with hand bones raised holding a metal cup shaped like a goblet, and around this metal cup, a ring of white gemstones was inlaid.

"What is this?"

The priest also stopped before the iron bars, looking at the skeleton inside the cell.

"I don't know."

Su Xiao, through the Azure Steel Shadow branch's Arrogant Song ability, formed a pale blue crystal spike in his hand and threw it into the cell.

Hiss~

The crystal spike was quickly 'corroded' and finally dissipated in midair. Seeing this, Su Xiao narrowed his eyes, pulled open the prison door, then took out a metal rod from his storage space and threw it into the cell.

The metal rod was still flying in midair when it was quickly 'eroded'. Seeing this, Su Xiao turned and walked away, with Bahar closely following, leaving only the priest behind.

The priest pondered for a moment, ultimately deciding not to enter the cell to investigate. The 'Painful Prison' was fraught with danger—some seemingly insignificant things could be lethal. Having been wounded by the Sun Warrior earlier and already used up a large amount of recovery items, he could not afford to take risks now.

The priest also walked away, and the skeleton emitting a milky white glow remained motionless.

In fact, there was no actual danger in this cell. The crystal spike was something Su Xiao had touched himself, and the metal rod he threw in afterward was a compound-type Intensity Oxidizing Metal.

When this metal contacts oxygen, it triggers a strong oxidation reaction. It was created by Su Xiao to detect whether the air contains oxygen and whether there are toxic substances—an alchemical product.

Compared to the priest's theological knowledge, Su Xiao is far inferior. As for alchemy, the priest is suffering from lack of education.

Su Xiao did this precisely to prevent the priest from learning about the existence of the 'Soul Skeletons'. He felt that the 'Soul Skeletons' in the Holy Land should be one of the channels through which he could gain profit, and moreover, a very important one.

This secret must absolutely not be exposed to the priest. The priest is an enemy—this has never changed from beginning to end. Their temporary cooperation is only because the Holy Land of Chiriad is too dangerous.

Su Xiao is not in a hurry to activate this 'Soul Skeleton' for now. The terrain of the Painful Prison should not be complex. To get through here, he must fight his way through all the way.

Once he advances to a certain extent, he can settle things with the priest once and for all. Then, upon returning, activating the 'Soul Skeleton' would be a better choice.

Su Xiao walked through the narrow passage. Behind the iron bars on both sides were withered corpses turned black.

At this moment, Su Xiao noticed that one bottle of 【Sun Potion (Perfect)】 was missing from the team's storage space—it had been taken out and drunk by Ignoring Ignoring Ignoring Ignoring Ignoring Bubu Wang.

This let Su Xiao know a piece of information: Ignoring Ignoring Ignoring Ignoring Ignoring Bubu Wang's location was not far from him, and Xiang Ignoring Ignoring Ignoring Ignoring Ignoring Bubu Wang had already completed tracking and was now returning. He might not have to wait long before they could meet up.

After advancing about a hundred meters, an iron-barred door appeared ahead, behind which was a turn.

Ding.

A short sword slashed through, shattering the chain binding the iron-barred door into several pieces, which fell to the ground.

With a creak, Su Xiao pushed open the rust-covered iron-barred door, looked past the turn to the right, and still saw no enemy.

After passing the turn, Su Xiao walked forward about ten to twenty meters, when a particularly spacious cell appeared on the left.

Before this cell was not sealed with iron bars, but by thick iron pillars as thick as thighs, completely sealing off the cell—no door was left at all.

A pair of dark gold eyes opened in the darkness. Seeing these eyes, Su Xiao knew that inside was imprisoned a Sun Warrior—a very strong one, far stronger than the Sun Warrior he had encountered before, not even on the same level.

"Aduye Yeyeska (unknown language)."

Inside the cell, the Sun Warrior sat in darkness, with a two-handed greatsword planted nearby. The blade bore the insignia of the Gonglu Dynasty.

Su Xiao locked eyes with the Sun Warrior inside the cell. After a moment, the Sun Warrior closed his eyes and continued to sink into silence in the darkness.

"Weiji, Basuoqi... (unknown language)."

The Sun Warrior inside the cell said something else, but Su Xiao could not understand it at all.

"He warned us to be careful—there are very strong enemies ahead."

The priest suddenly spoke at this moment. He seemed to understand some of the language here. This was clearly an attempt to continue cooperation. The priest meant that he understood some of the local language, but as payment for his translation, Su Xiao would have to provide Sun Potion.

The Sun Warrior inside the cell has high negotiation value. He is the first Sun Warrior to see Su Xiao and company without immediately attacking. Though imprisoned, he still possesses a weapon.

Su Xiao said nothing, choosing to continue forward. There is no trust between him and the priest. When the priest translates the Holy Land's language, even a single word's meaning being off could lead to serious consequences.

The priest did not insist. After glancing at the Sun Warrior inside the cell, he also moved forward.

Su Xiao passed one cell after another. Inside were basically desiccated corpses turned black. After advancing for about ten to fifteen minutes, the passage became much wider—this was due to many cells on both sides being destroyed, leaving rubble and broken iron bars scattered everywhere.

Firelight appeared ahead. Su Xiao flashed sideways and hid behind a half-collapsed stone wall, then peered toward the firelight.

It was a bonfire made from several withered corpses piled together. Beside the fire sat over a dozen figures.

Their eyes were dull and unfocused, pupils very cloudy. Their gray-black clothing was rotted and clung to their bodies. Their withered skin was dull in color, appearing grayish-white.

The Apostle's Eye floated beside Su Xiao. After entering the Holy Land of Chiriad, he detected enemy information for the first time. These were the prison guards of this place—appearing half-dead, but in fact, the solar power within their bodies made them living beings.

Su Xiao had just finished reviewing one-third of the guards' data when, over ten meters away by the fire, a guard suddenly turned his head and grabbed the large cleaver beside him. This weapon looked like a kitchen knife enlarged and lengthened—about 1 meter long and 20 centimeters wide, covered in dried blood and flesh fragments.

One guard was startled, and the remaining twelve immediately stood up. They held heavy hooked blades or large single-edged axes, etc.

"Roar."

After the guards bellowed hoarsely, they revealed dry yellow flat teeth in their mouths. They charged forward at full speed. Though their bodies swayed left and right, appearing as if they might collapse at any moment, their speed was extremely fast.

'Blade Path Saber · Azure Demon.'

A cyan-blue blade light slashed out. The seven guards in the front jumped up or threw themselves down, successfully dodging the Azure Demon strike.

Bahar saw this, his bird eyes widening. These 'small fry' in the Holy Land were truly absurdly strong.

The Azure Demon strike cut through the six guards behind, directly slicing them in half. They fell to the ground and remained motionless.

【You have killed the Painful Prison Guard.】

【You obtained 7 Soul Coins.】

Killing six guards yielded a total of 43 Soul Coins. These guards are not hard to kill, but there is a precondition: never let them get close. Being approached by 1–3 guards is not a problem, but being approached by 5 or more guards is very dangerous.

Su Xiao leapt backward, arriving before a relatively intact cell door. He pulled it open, entered, and with a bang, closed the door.

Just as the door shut, the seven guards stopped staring fixedly at Su Xiao and instead turned their gaze toward the priest.

A giant mouth full of sharp teeth appeared behind one guard, which swallowed him whole, chewing with crunching sounds.

With a bang, a long-handled hammer was thrown, flying straight toward the priest's head. Black tentacles surged from the priest's body, wrapping around the incoming hammer.

As the black tentacles touched the hammer, the priest's expression changed slightly. He pressed one hand against his chest. Almost simultaneously, six guards lunged at him.

Great cleavers, large single-edged axes, and heavy hooks rained down repeatedly, chopping the black blood of the ancient god's tentacles into splatters—some were even severed. These guards were nothing but a pack of mad dogs.

The priest's health plummeted sharply. He shoved forward with one hand, and with a boom, the six guards flew out—three of them shattered in midair.

Jing, Jing,

The intersecting blade flashes swept past, and the three jailers who had not yet landed were chopped to pieces by Su Xiao, their severed limbs splattered with blood falling to the ground; as soon as they hit the ground, the high temperature of the blood scorched the surface, making it hiss.

The jailers are easy to kill, their vitality is mediocre at best, but never let them surround you, for the solar power within their bodies is extremely violent, a pure killing trait.

Moreover, these guys have a special technique: after fully releasing the solar power within their bodies, their entire body ignites in flames and lunges at the enemy, dealing up to 5900 points of fire explosion damage.

This is not the end—once hit by their explosion, you will suffer from fire vulnerability, and for the next few minutes, your resistance to fire will be greatly reduced.

The battle had just ended when Su Xiao felt something lightly bump his leg; Ignoring Ignoring Ignoring Ignoring Ignoring Bubu Wang, blended into the environment, appeared in his line of sight.

Thump-thump-thump~

Ignoring Ignoring Ignoring Ignoring Ignoring Bubu Wang's hind legs trembled, looking utterly shaken; from its frightened little eyes, it was likely that in the central area of the holy land, it had encountered a ghost-like enemy.

"Woof."

Ignoring Ignoring Ignoring Ignoring Ignoring Bubu Wang barked, its paw pointing at the priest, meaning they must quickly shake off the priest and no longer act together, as it was extremely dangerous.

ps: (Today continues with four more chapters, the next three will come soon.)