Chapter 3308

Su Xiao pondered for a long time, deciding to undertake this main quest. First, there were 2–3 days of rest time, and he prepared to rest for about 2 days. During that time, the blade spirit of Dragon-Slaying Flash would end its dormancy, and the magic blade ability would naturally become usable.

The Dark Blood quest would only activate after entering the fourth inner painting world, with a 1-day quest duration, indicating the quest content is not complex. At this stage, the quest has not yet activated, so it is not urgent.

Su Xiao got up and walked toward the corridor, went up to the second floor, returned to his room, and fell asleep immediately.

This sleep, Su Xiao woke up naturally. Looking at the time, he had slept a full 16 hours. Aside from cooperating with Old Yin Bi in other aspects, everything was fine—except he had to constantly guard against betrayal from teammates.

Even if he remained vigilant, he was still backstabbed by Sinias. Su Xiao still hasn't confirmed when Sinias attached those parasitic insects to his clothing.

It likely happened during the life-and-death battle with the blood-qi monster, when Sinias, to shield Su Xiao, was hammered into explosion once, and bloodstains splattered onto Su Xiao's clothing.

After washing up, Su Xiao took off the 【God's Severance】 ring from his hand. This ring had finally advanced to Immortal grade.

【God's Severance】

Quality: Immortal Grade

Type: Ring

Durability: 75/75 (Increased by 25 points)

Equipment Requirement: Having slaughtered an extremely evil divine spirit (requirement greatly exceeded)

Equipment Effect 1: Soul's Life (Core·Passive). For each point of soul strength the wearer has, increase 100 HP and 0.3% neural reflex speed.

Current Soul Strength: 530 points.

Increased HP: 53,000 points (this equipment can increase up to 60,000 HP at most).

Increased Neural Reflex Speed: 159% (this equipment can increase up to 200% at most).

Equipment Effect 2: God's Devour (Passive). After slaughtering an extremely evil divine spirit, this equipment will, based on the slain evil spirit's traits, grant a passive buff-type ability. The strength of this ability will be determined by the wearer's soul strength.

Obtained Ability from Slaying Gods (Passive): None (after slaughtering an extremely evil divine spirit, gain ability based on the slain evil spirit's traits).

Tip: If the wearer slays a new evil spirit, the Slaying Gods ability will be forcibly replaced by the ability derived from the new evil spirit's traits.

Equipment Growth: 0%

Equipment Growth Condition: After slaughtering an extremely evil divine spirit, this equipment can absorb divine spirit origin energy to grow. Growth magnitude will be determined by the rank of the slain evil spirit (extremely evil divine spirits are mostly ancient gods).

Rating: 1500 (Immortal-grade equipment rating is 1000–1500 points).

Introduction: Survive, then……hunt.

Price: Cannot be sold.

……

The enhancement of the God's Severance ring is significant. Although the bonus ratio of soul strength to HP and neural reflex speed has greatly decreased, the upper limits of both have increased.

Originally, the God's Severance ring could at most increase HP by 40,000 points and neural reflex speed by 150%. Now the upper limit reaches increasing HP by 60,000 points and neural reflex speed by 200%. For Su Xiao, who can steadily increase his soul strength, this is a major gain.

The newly appeared ability of the God's Severance ring is interesting. This ability itself has no attribute; it only appears as a passive ability based on the evil spirit's traits after slaying an evil spirit.

For example, if Su Xiao wears the current God's Severance ring and slays the Moon God, the second ability of the God's Severance ring might derive into an ability that increases soul damage.

If wearing the God's Severance ring to slay the Feather God, one might possibly gain a passive buff in the mental aspect.

Such passive gains obtained from slaying gods will stack one over another. The specific strength of the gain is both according to the strength of the slain evil spirit and according to Su Xiao's own soul strength.

After putting the God's Severance ring back on, the feeling of exceptionally vigorous vitality in his body appeared. Everything around him seemed to slow down by 0.5 seconds—this is due to the sudden increase of 159% neural reflex speed. It recovered the next second. Su Xiao had long been accustomed to the feeling of wearing the God's Severance ring.

After eating lunch made by the maid Anas, Su Xiao began meditating, both to recover his state and to heal the bodily injuries left over from his battle with Sinias.

Benny and Am, after finding the 【Pure White Blood】, were both exhausted to near death. What is 【Pure White Blood】? Using this substance for a period of time grants immunity to madness from this world, i. e., it suppresses the decline of sanity.

Benny discovered the existence of this substance through spider silk and horse tracks inside the ancient fortress, and found that it was prepared by the fortress doctors commissioned by the royal heirs. Originally intended to solve the beastification syndrome, the result was that 【Pure White Blood】 can only completely resist the invading madness for a certain period of time.

After preparing three portions of 【Pure White Blood】, the dynasty's already impoverished finances nearly collapsed in one breath. This current portion of 【Pure White Blood】 is a limited edition item. Fortunately, this substance has no expiration date; its core is a special-type energy.

During meditation, time passed quickly. Su Xiao's condition gradually returned to peak. If he could temporarily return to the Cycle Paradise and reconnect the left arm inside the life-support device, that would be even better.

After a little over two days passed quickly, the magic blade ability recovered. Su Xiao, in meditation, opened his eyes, and led Ignoring Ignoring Ignoring Ignoring Ignoring Bubu Wang, Am, Bahar, and Benny out of the room.

"Guest from the outer world, do you wish to leave?"

The maid Anas spoke.

"Yes."

"You haven't eaten lunch yet."

"Not hungry. I'll eat again when I return with my life."

After saying this, Su Xiao left. He glanced at the silver-gray infirmary door, then exited the refuge hall, went downstairs, and arrived before the fourth inner painting.

The fourth inner painting was tightly wrapped in iron chains. Between the chains, they were fused shut, unwelcoming to outsiders. Upon noticing Su Xiao stopping before the fourth inner painting, the Young Lady's cold voice came:

"Besides ink traces, there is nothing there."

"Oh."

Su Xiao pressed one hand against the fourth inner painting. With a crack, chain after chain shattered and spread outward, like blooming steel flowers. The appearance of the fourth inner painting unfolded before Su Xiao's eyes.

Inside the scroll was a magnificent royal city. Above the royal city, dark clouds spread. The gaps between the clouds were illuminated by sunlight into a pale gold. The buildings within the royal city were very ancient, weathered into a dark black, with wall surfaces peeling in layers.

Decay and grandeur merged. The former prosperity left only a lingering glow. A sense of desolation arose spontaneously. Initially, the dynasty, the royal heirs took pride in being the offspring of the God King Os·Tobai'e, disciplined themselves strictly. At that time, the dynasty was united as one, striding boldly toward prosperity.

An era is like a tree: when it reaches its peak prosperity and becomes a towering giant, the tree heart gradually rots. That is the royal heirs—those initial heroes have already turned to yellow earth. Their descendants are born with noble status, born noble. To maintain their original heart is already difficult; to have their hearts connected to all spirits is even harder.

People only see the deformities and illnesses of the final royal heirs. But if one were in their position, experiencing the same things they did, one might not necessarily do better. People always like to say afterward, "I could have done better than them." In truth, if one became the party involved and faced a completely bewildering future, most people would feel confusion and anxiety.

Aside from other things, simply the fact that the final royal heirs established an underwater capital shows that, aside from their deformities and illnesses, they actually possessed considerable ability.

Su Xiao pressed his hand against the fourth inner painting. A suction force came from his hand, spatial fluctuations surged, and his vision plunged into darkness.

Wind howled in Su Xiao's ears. He opened his eyes and found himself in a piece of ruined wasteland. Most buildings here had collapsed, leaving only a few walls stubbornly standing, but even those would fall with a kick. The streets had turned into soft dust. Stepping on them would kick up a small cloud of dust.

With sunlight shining from behind, the clouds in the sky appeared earth-gray. Looking into the distance, one could faintly see spired buildings standing in the haze.

【Tip: You have arrived at the royal city.】

This was once the power center of the dynasty. Gazing into the distance, one could faintly see a stone statue several tens of meters high. This is the statue of the God King Os·Tobai'e.

Su Xiao's purpose in coming to the royal city is to find the Trace Kings. There are seven Trace Kings in total. Excluding Trace King Lumuman, the remaining six Trace Kings are all within the royal city.

After Bahar conducted aerial reconnaissance for a moment, he discovered that although the royal city is not small, its structure is not complex. Most buildings have collapsed, some unable to withstand the corrosion of time, turning into dust.

The only structure still relatively intact was the "Traces King Hall" and the "Painting Tower" located in the rear-west side of the royal city; the royal descendants had shown full respect to the Traces King and the Painters, and although the palace had collapsed into ruin, the Traces King Hall and Painting Tower remained largely intact.

In the royal city, there was not even a rat to be seen—let alone danger—here, only two kinds of beings could survive: 1. those who lived by eating earth, 2. those who could live without eating anything at all.

"Meow. Meow meow!"

Benny was gesturing on a stone pillar several meters high; she had previously been in charge of treasure hunting and logistics, rarely operating with the team, but this time she appeared especially excited.

Ignoring Ignoring Ignoring Ignoring Ignoring Bubu Wang, acting out of character, no longer quarreled with Benny as usual; in fact, it was holding back mischief, and based on Bubu's experience, this eerie place either had no enemies, or if one appeared, it would be so strong as to make one's scalp tingle.

Sitting on the road where broken stone slabs and dust had merged, after passing a long stone bridge whose riverbed had dried up, Su Xiao arrived before the Traces King Hall and entered its wind-leaking interior.

The sight before him made Su Xiao's heart sink: within the vast Traces King Hall stood seven red stone seats, five of which were occupied by corpses, all wearing dull-colored crowns; some were small in stature, others had large frames, but all were emaciated to skin and bone, and some had a single horn protruding from their pale hair atop their heads.

Su Xiao stepped forward to examine them, and a smell of iron rust entered his nostrils; he lifted the torn blanket covering the upper body of one corpse and saw that its chest had been hollowed out, the cavity empty, all flesh and blood within dried up, not a single drop of blood remaining.

After checking the remaining five corpses in turn, Su Xiao confirmed they were all Traces Kings; the dull golden crowns they wore on their heads were identical in form to the one worn by the Traces King Rusuman.

Just as Su Xiao was about to turn and leave, a withered hand grabbed his arm; though the Traces King on the stone chair before him was clearly dead, it now opened its eyes—his eyes were no longer pitch black, but gray-white and covered in cracks.

"He will take, all dark blood."

After the deceased Traces King spoke these words, his breath vanished completely, he was truly dead; essentially, the Traces King exists between life and death, and only in this state can he bear what living beings cannot endure.