Chapter 2990: Plan B

Inside the guest room on the third floor of the inn, Su Xiao sat cross-legged on the bed. Through the scene just now, he guessed one thing: Melos had kidnapped the previous Goddess, and it was highly probable that it wasn't because of infatuation or wanting to force a marriage with the other party.

Being able to guard the "Kodo School Branch" in the Old Royal Capital for so many years, Melos's background wouldn't be simple. This was also the reason Su Xiao was cooperating with him.

A background that isn't simple means there might be trouble, but what's the use of cooperating with someone with a simple background? Risk and opportunity coexist.

When they first met, Melos first recounted his experience of kidnapping the previous Goddess, and only then said that the current Goddess also knew where the King of Light was.

First showing that he had experience in kidnapping a Goddess, and then saying the Goddess knew where the King of Light was—this was clearly purposeful. The other party just hadn't explicitly said one sentence: "If you want to successfully kidnap the current Goddess, it's best to take me along."

Su Xiao didn't care much about what Melos's goal was. He only looked at the results: successfully kidnapping the Goddess, plus the Goddess indeed knowing where the King of Light was—that was enough.

There was no need to ask what Melos wanted to achieve. No one was a fool. Why would anyone risk their life to help a stranger kidnap a Goddess?

If one didn't even have that much tolerance, then nothing could be accomplished, worrying every day about whether there was a trap or a snare.

Maintaining sufficient caution was necessary, but one couldn't be tied hand and foot. As an alchemist, Su Xiao wasn't afraid of Melos suddenly stabbing him in the back.

The door was pushed open, and Melos walked in. This old guy was radiant, as if he had ushered in a second spring. The hand he was holding against his lower back contained many meanings.

"Truly old, hahaha."

Melos sat down, took out a map from his bosom, and said sternly:

"The Goddesses of the Kodo School are not simple. They are born with a constitution that senses the power of the Ancient Gods, and can even borrow this power to a certain extent. Although it doesn't reach the level of being able to fight, it is still the power of the Ancient Gods."

As Melos spoke, he pulled up the sleeve of his left arm. On his somewhat withered forearm were gullies, and in some places, signs of woodification had appeared.

"More than 30 years ago, I was bitten on the arm by the previous Goddess, so one must be careful when coming into contact with them."

Melos's eyes were full of wariness. He pointed to the map on the table and continued:

"This is the headquarters of the Kodo School. We don't need to go there. What we need to do is lure the Goddess out."

"How to lure?"

Baja tossed an apple to Melos. Melos caught it, took a bite, his brow relaxed, and he continued:

"Use the power of the Ancient Gods to lure. I investigated more than 30 years ago. The reason living beings are corrupted is because they are invaded by the power of the Ancient Gods in their brains. Crystal Fat can curb this process to a certain extent. As long as..."

According to Melos's narration, Su Xiao learned the other party's plan: once the power of the Ancient Gods in a certain area became concentrated to a certain degree, the Goddess would sense it, and this held a great temptation for them.

Because the power of the Ancient Gods in this world was too powerful, it was impossible to collect or store it with artifacts. To absorb the concentrated power of the Ancient Gods, only the Goddess could go in person and absorb it by virtue of her special constitution.

In fact, this was also the reason they were honored as Goddesses. They had status, but they weren't the leaders of the Kodo School. The Kodo School didn't have an absolute leader; it was composed of multiple factions.

To put it bluntly, the Goddess was actually another kind of special container. Their bodies could absorb and store Ancient God energy, while the Kodo School needed to study Ancient God energy.

This represented one thing: if someone dared to touch the Goddess, the Kodo School would immediately fly into a rage.

The Goddesses of successive generations had another ability, which was that they could sense where the King of Light was.

Ancient God energy came from the Ancient Gods. The container sealed the Ancient Gods. The King of Light represented the soul chains of the human race, wrapped outside the container, and was almost connected to the Ancient God energy. It was normal for a Goddess who could absorb Ancient God energy to sense the location of the King of Light, or rather, they could not only sense it, but also achieve ultra-long-distance communication with the King of Light.

The so-called Goddess was actually someone whose mother was corrupted during the birthing process. In this situation, the newborn had a 99.99% probability of also being corrupted, and the remaining 0.01% lucky ones survived—a one-in-ten-thousand probability.

It just so happened that the mother was corrupted during childbirth; this probability wasn't high, and then there was the one-in-ten-thousand survival rate. To have a Goddess appear was truly too difficult.

Su Xiao was certain that the Goddess was deliberately created by the Kodo School. The lucky ones were all female; how could there be such a coincidence? Too many coincidences added together meant man-made inevitability.

Melos's plan was to lure the Goddess to a certain location by gathering some Ancient God energy, then eliminate the guards protecting the Goddess, and abduct the Goddess.

"You have a way to gather the power of the Ancient Gods?"

Su Xiao took a bite of the Soul Crystal in his hand. Hearing his words, Melos, whose complexion was somewhat abnormal, said:

"I have a way to gather it. Compared to this, the thing you are eating, is it a Soul Stone?"

Melos's body tensed up, looking like he might jump out the window and run away at any moment.

"It is not. Soul Stones cannot be eaten."

As he spoke, Su Xiao sent the last small piece of Soul Crystal into his mouth, chewing it crisply.

Su Xiao naturally also had a way to gather Ancient God energy, but he wanted to see what method Melos used, from which he could judge whether what the other party had said before was true or false.

The sky outside the window gradually darkened. Su Xiao sat cross-legged on the bed meditating. The plan had been discussed, and they would act at 11 o'clock at night.

Night fell, and a full moon hung in the sky. At the edge of the full moon, a black halo could be vaguely seen. This halo was very faint and hard to notice if one didn't look carefully. This was the unique scene after the world had been sucked dry.

Southeast of "Dank City," inside a main sewer channel more than ten meters wide, several rusty ladders were distributed on the stone walls. This main sewer channel was a full 30 meters deep, and there were several metal pipes nearly a meter thick on the surrounding stone walls, from which sewage flowed, gathering in the main sewer channel.

On the right side of the main channel was a raised stone platform, a foothold left for workers to deal with the sludge at the bottom of the main channel. Normally, no one would come down here; the stench was overpowering.

"Bai Ye, the time has come."

Melos, standing on the stone platform, shouted. It was already midnight, and coupled with the stench emitted by the main sewer channel, no residents would live nearby.

Above the main sewer channel, Su Xiao stood on a row of iron racks. This place was originally used for hoisting sludge, but due to the regression of civilization, the production cost of parts to maintain this hoisting equipment was too high, and these machines had also been abandoned.

"We're going in first. You guys get ready for the ambush."

Leaving this sentence behind, Melos, who had changed into crude leather clothes, walked into the pitch-black sewer, with Baja accompanying him.

Su Xiao sat on the iron rack. This place was more than ten meters above the ground. As long as he restrained his aura, the possibility of being discovered wasn't high, and he could just wait here.

After more than half an hour, a fluctuation came from diagonally below, from the depths of the sewer. Melos's side had begun to gather Ancient God energy.

At the same time, at the Kodo School headquarters, in a bedroom on the seventh floor, the soft bed reflected some moonlight. Golden-brown long hair was draped open, and a smooth velvet blanket covered a graceful body.

"Gathering again, is it?"

A pair of amber eyes opened. In the darkness, these eyes were very bright, captivating. That's right, this was the Goddess of the Kodo School.

The Goddess sensed for a moment and then lost interest. Too few Ancient Gods were gathered. Noble as she was, she wouldn't be attracted by such a small amount of Ancient God energy.

An hour later, in the pitch-black and stench-filled sewer, several rats ran along the wall.

"Old Mo, I'm asking if you can do it. It's been an hour and you still haven't fished out the Goddess. How about I do it?"

"Be patient. Trust my experience."

Two hours later.

"It's already two in the morning, damn it. I'd better do it. Move aside, I'm going to show off."

Baja's wings spread. Melos could indeed gather Ancient God energy, but the method of gathering was too inefficient. Melos's method could be described as frantically testing the waters between life and death.

When consciousness relaxed, one would be corrupted. Melos's method was to borrow a few pieces of Crystal Fat from Marcia, string them into a necklace to wear around his neck, and then, by virtue of his unique method, intermittently enter a negative state, actively attracting corruption.

Melos was an extraordinary person; he wouldn't be instantly corrupted, and coupled with the Crystal Fat blocking it, as well as him only being somewhat negative, he wouldn't be infected by corruption.

Constantly repeating this process, the Ancient God energy around Melos would of course be more concentrated. This was his clever plan to gather Ancient God energy.

Inside the sewer, Baja opened a scroll, on which was covered with black-red alchemical array diagrams. This was drawn with Ancient God blood. Homologous divine blood and energy were easier to attract each other.

The array diagram on the scroll was activated. Before long, a wisp of black energy appeared. Baja stopped transmitting mental energy into the array patterns; it couldn't be gathered too exaggeratedly.

Because there was no completely homologous carrier, the wisp of Ancient God energy above the scroll drifted away at a speed that wasn't fast. Looking at it, it would probably completely dissipate in about half an hour.

"You had this thing, why didn't you take it out earlier?"

Melos glared at Baja. He had been jumping back and forth between life and death, and the Ancient God energy gathered couldn't be seen at all, but Baja had just taken out the scroll and injected mental energy, and the gathered Ancient God energy could actually be observed with the naked eye.

Having been busy for more than three hours, Melos, with sweat on his forehead, was very angry.

"Fart, I just said it seven or eight times. Speak with your conscience."

"When did you say it? It must be that you remembered it wrong. Cough, it must be."

Melos felt awkward for a while. Thinking about it carefully, wasn't that the case? Baja had said it seven or eight times just now, and he had found it annoying and told the other party to be quiet. He had always thought that Baja wanted to learn from his method, but this method was too dangerous; except for him, outsiders had better not try it.

"Wait for it. If the Goddess doesn't come again, we'll execute Plan B."

"What is Plan B?"

"Blow up the headquarters of the Kodo School."

"Hahaha, you bird really know how to joke."

Melos gradually couldn't laugh anymore. For some reason, he felt that Baja was serious.

Kodo School headquarters, in the bedroom on the seventh floor, a pair of amber eyes opened. The Goddess sat up from the bed. Noble as she was, she wouldn't easily leave the Kodo School headquarters unless too much Ancient God energy gathered. ===== CHAPTER 2991 =====