Chapter 3138

【Prompt: You have successfully sealed the Abyss Hole.】

【Main Quest: Second Ring - Abyss Hole (Completed).】

【You have obtained Soul Crystal (Core) x3.】

【Main Quest: Third Ring pending activation. This quest will be activated after returning to the Southern Continent.】

【Warning: An ancient existence has been awakened.】

……

Su Xiao closed the prompts. Just as he had anticipated, the main quest was not limited to just two rings. The other prompts were nothing special, but the last one caught Su Xiao's attention.

He couldn't figure out what this "ancient existence" referred to for the time being; the information he had was too limited.

"Let's go, Baha."

Su Xiao turned and walked back into the black mist. He had only taken two steps when the ground beneath his feet shook, as if an earthquake were occurring.

【Announcement (Tree of the Void): The war in the Western Continent has subsided. The Western Continent faction has been annihilated.】

Su Xiao grabbed Baha's eagle talons. He began to ascend, and before long, he returned to the giant crater.

Just as he returned to the crater, Su Xiao saw several figures walking quickly toward him, one of whom was Major Ge Wei.

"Mr. Bai Ye, the war is over. We have won."

Major Ge Wei's face was filled with joy; no one wanted to fight a war, and he was certainly no exception.

"Hmm."

As Su Xiao walked forward, the ground beneath his feet shook again, making him wonder if the Western Continent would sink into the sea.

Under normal circumstances, after the war ended, those four old fogies from the Alliance would immediately issue an official document to strip Su Xiao of his military command.

In reality, they did not do so. Instead, they wanted to maintain the temporary alliance to jointly develop the resources of the Western Continent, even though it was already quite barren.

Everywhere he looked, the soldiers were relaxed and smiling. Su Xiao returned to the command post located in the outer perimeter. Sitting in front of the sand table, he issued an order: dissolve the temporary alliance.

This news reached the ears of the four old fogies in the Alliance very quickly, and they immediately sent an envoy via a teleportation array.

Inside the command post, Xiang Ignoring Bubu Wang was fast asleep on the bed, occasionally kicking his hind legs and making snorting sounds.

"Commander, have you really decided to do this?"

The envoy, dressed in formal attire, stood beside the sand table and politely took the coffee handed to him by Goya.

"Yes."

Su Xiao leaned back in his chair. He just wanted to sleep now; he had expended a lot of mental energy over the past three days, and commanding over a dozen legions in battle was no simple task.

"Then... I can only respect your wishes."

After bowing, the envoy left the command post quickly.

Half an hour later, Major Ge Wei walked into the command post, holding an exquisite wooden box in his arms. Without saying much, Major Ge Wei left the box and departed.

Su Xiao opened the wooden box, and Soul Crystals (Complete) appeared before his eyes.

【You have obtained Soul Crystal (Complete) x69.】

Nearly 70 Soul Crystals (Complete) were a windfall for Su Xiao at this moment; this was a gesture from the four old fogies of the Alliance.

The war was over. If Su Xiao held tightly to the military power in his hands, neither the Southern Alliance nor the Eastern Alliance would have a good way to deal with him. He was not only the commander of the temporary alliance but also the head of the Institution.

Su Xiao showed his stance by dissolving the alliance, and they immediately sent their sincerity. This was the benefit of working with old schemers.

The core of the temporary alliance was not the "alliance," but the word "temporary." As long as they achieved their respective goals, they had to exercise restraint. For instance, the Alliance never mentioned the number of casualties in this war.

The affairs of the Western Continent had been handled. It was time to return to Gaman City in the Southern Continent. Su Xiao needed to resume his position as the Legion Commander of the Institution to prevent others from taking advantage of the situation.

Just as Su Xiao was about to stand up, the skinny monkey Xili rushed into the command post, saying urgently: "Sir, something terrible has happened."

Xili's face was pale, and his expression was somewhat twisted.

"Speak."

"The headquarters has been attacked, the containment... the containment vault has been blown open, and Prison No. 9 in the suburbs has also been attacked."

"……"

Su Xiao didn't speak, and a faint blood aura seemed to appear around him. He asked: "Were S-001 and S-005 taken?"

"Not exactly."

As soon as Xili said this, he wanted to slap himself. He explained: "Dangerous Object S-005 wasn't taken; she ran away on her own."

"Damn it, what's the difference?"

Baha glared at Xili. Xili nodded and said: "There's a big difference. Also, sir, there's one more thing: S-001 has become active. It might be because of the war in the Western Continent; S-001 has started to foresee the future again."

After saying this, Xili put down a portrait and stepped aside.

Su Xiao felt the situation becoming increasingly confusing. The mystery of the Western Continent hadn't been solved yet, and now the Institution's headquarters had been attacked.

With the headquarters attacked, other than Dangerous Object S-005, the other losses were within an acceptable range. This incident was very likely caused by someone related to Su Xiao, taking advantage of his preoccupation with the war in the Western Continent to achieve some goal.

Su Xiao picked up the portrait on the table. It was a portrait of a woman wearing a long dress that seemed to be formed from light particles, with a train trailing several meters behind.

It was Xian Ji. Su Xiao hadn't seen Xian Ji in person, but Xiang Ignoring Bubu Wang had. She had arrived in the Western Continent yesterday, and Xiang Ignoring Bubu Wang had witnessed a conversation between Xian Ji and the Tyrant, learning her identity.

For this reason, Su Xiao had even left a generous gift for Xian Ji: the ancient war beast of the War Lord. Unfortunately, even after he had punched through the Western Continent, he hadn't directly confronted Xian Ji.

Xian Ji had left the Western Continent and gone to the Institution's headquarters in Gaman City, launching a surprise attack while the defensive forces there were thin.

Setting aside Xian Ji's motives for a moment, she might not have had a very clear goal, simply fishing for World Source. It was worth noting that Su Xiao's current World Source ranking was higher than Xian Ji's. If she didn't do something, the top-place reward, 【Tree Bud】, would belong to Su Xiao.

Su Xiao began to rack his brain, thinking about the Western Continent and Emperor Taiyatu. He basically understood the situation before the modern era. What he couldn't figure out was why Emperor Taiyatu didn't use all the Parasite Warriors to launch an effective counterattack.

Not only that, but under the baptism of repeated artillery fire, the other party never left the Imperial Palace, and didn't even stand up from the throne.

Or rather, it wasn't that Emperor Taiyatu didn't want to leave the Imperial Palace, but that he couldn't. He couldn't even stand up from the throne until Amu, the Transcendents, and a large group of veterans rushed into the Imperial Palace and broke some kind of barrier during the battle, allowing Emperor Taiyatu to stand up and leave the Imperial Palace.

The three knights under Emperor Taiyatu had defected to Kingsley, only to be tricked to death by him. This could be seen from the attitude of the three knights: Emperor Taiyatu was already deserted by his followers.

This made sense: Emperor Taiyatu didn't want to build up his forces to engage in a protracted war with the temporary alliance, but simply couldn't. He was trapped in the Imperial Palace with no one to use, and even the three knights no longer listened to his orders.

If Emperor Taiyatu had only besieged the Moon Wolf, he wouldn't have been deserted. From the perspective of the Taiyatu civilization, the Moon Wolf was an outsider—an outsider so powerful that one could only look up to it. Even if Emperor Taiyatu's actions couldn't gain the support of his people, he wouldn't have ended up like this.

The key lay in the fact that because of Emperor Taiyatu, all living beings in the Western Continent were parasitized by nematodes. This was the main reason he was deserted.

The Parasite Warriors in the Western Continent were a mess; despite being very strong, they were wiped out in just three days.

The Western Continent felt like a breeding farm—a giant breeding farm for Parasite Warriors. Parasite Warriors with low alienation were on the surface, and once their alienation reached a certain level, they hid in the underground of the Royal City.

This looked like accumulating power. When the Western Continent was attacked, its master wasn't there, which was why the Parasite Warriors were leaderless?

The most critical question was: where did the nematodes of the Western Continent come from? The answer was that a thousand years ago, a meteorite from outer space fell, containing a nematode. This was the main body of all nematodes.

This nematode main body had once devoured Abyss power in other worlds, allowing it to undergo metamorphosis. Afterward, it split into sub-bodies, leading them to devour the living beings of many worlds before moving on to others, until this nematode main body encountered the Moon Wolf.

This nematode main body was so formidable that even the Moon Wolf was wary of it. After a decisive battle, the Moon Wolf was severely injured; one could imagine its level of danger.

Assuming... this thing wasn't completely dead—most of it was destroyed by the Moon Wolf, and only a portion survived—then many things made sense.

It was worth noting that after the meteorite fell, it was Emperor Taiyatu who took the nematode inside. Not long after, the Moon Wolf fought a decisive battle with that nematode, after which the Moon Wolf was severely injured. Emperor Taiyatu took advantage of the Moon Wolf's severe injury to besiege and kill it.

A bolder conjecture was that the nematode had most of its body killed by the Moon Wolf, and only a small portion survived, parasitizing Emperor Taiyatu.

Emperor Taiyatu conquered the Western Continent with tyranny, which meant he wasn't someone without ability. Would he really lose his mind and send troops to besiege an existence that was previously unreachable? The answer was: as long as he had a shred of sanity, he wouldn't dare do so. Who gave him the courage?

Unless he knew the Moon Wolf was weakened to the limit. But even that wasn't enough; taking risks without reward was an extremely stupid choice.

Unless Emperor Taiyatu had seen how powerful an existence one could become by absorbing pure Abyss power. Wasn't the surviving nematode main body residing in his body, and currently dormant, the best proof? This was an existence capable of confronting the Moon Wolf head-on, even if it was currently dormant.

As a tyrant, would Emperor Taiyatu not crave power? Even if the price was turning his people into monsters.

With that kind of powerful strength, ruling more subjects was just a matter of time. Therefore, Emperor Taiyatu took action, and the doomsday for the civilians of the Western Continent arrived.

Emperor Taiyatu succeeded, and he also failed. The power he obtained was far from what he had imagined, and the surviving nematode in his body had awakened.

The Moon Wolf was dead, and the surviving nematode main body didn't think much of Emperor Taiyatu at all. It was actually surprised that Emperor Taiyatu had gone to besiege the Moon Wolf. The battle with the Moon Wolf made the nematode main body realize that this world was not to be trifled with. Its original plan was to leave this world after sleeping for a period of time. The Moon Wolf was severely injured, and it had lost over 80% of its body; it couldn't afford to fight anymore.

The nematode main body never expected that Emperor Taiyatu would actually go to besiege the guardian of this world. It specifically asked Emperor Taiyatu why he did so, and how he used its sub-bodies to turn his subjects into Parasite Warriors, thereby obtaining uncontrollable power.

The nematode main body fought the Moon Wolf because it needed to devour the living beings and Abyss power of this world, otherwise its life cycle would shorten. The Moon Wolf was the guardian of this world, so hostility between the two was inevitable; this was a battle of survival and oaths.

Upon learning the reason, the nematode main body imprisoned Emperor Taiyatu. It went to the ice fields of the Far South to see the opponent it held in such high regard, the Silver Moon Wolf. But it only saw a stone tablet, which made the nematode main body decide to hide and recover.

Assuming that one day someone discovered the death of the Moon Wolf, Emperor Taiyatu would be the perfect target. After all, he was tempted by greed, power, and authority.

On the ice field where the Moon Wolf resided, there stood a stone tablet, the content of which was:

"The territories bathed in my glory all submit to me; there is no need for beasts to guard them—Emperor Taiyatu."

Emperor Taiyatu was ambitious, intending to hold the entire world in his palm. Unfortunately, after besieging and killing the Moon Wolf, the situation completely spiraled out of his control.

Actually, it wasn't accurate to say Emperor Taiyatu was deserted by his followers. Previously, there was a primitive tribe loyal to him that even helped him capture Dangerous Object 006 (Mermaid), hoping that after Emperor Taiyatu devoured the mermaid, he would try to break free. As a result, the clash between Su Xiao and Kingsley accidentally blew that primitive tribe away.

Assuming someone in this world discovered the death of the Moon Wolf and was filled with a sense of justice, wanting to avenge it, the normal procedure should be to first infiltrate the Western Continent, then avoid the Parasite Warriors, and finally kill Emperor Taiyatu.

At least in the plan of that existence, things would develop in this direction.

The current situation didn't follow that existence's expectations. Su Xiao turned all the power it had accumulated in the Western Continent into ashes and incidentally dealt with Emperor Taiyatu.

Thinking about it, that existence must be very heartbroken. The highly alienated Parasite Warriors it had accumulated under the Royal City for so long had all turned to ashes, and the Abyss Hole guarded by them had also been destroyed by Su Xiao. It was a total loss.

It could be said that that existence's plan succeeded; Emperor Taiyatu did indeed become a target, but Su Xiao dealt with the target too ruthlessly, not only smashing the target to pieces with one punch but also turning the things behind the target into ashes.

As Su Xiao pondered, the ground beneath his feet shook. He frowned; this time he had used too much force, not only turning the things behind the target into ashes but also causing the Western Continent to sink.