Chapter 3325

The world introduction vanished before his eyes, and Su Xiao found that everything around him was like paper gradually being burned, disappearing bit by bit, turning to ash, as spatial fluctuations surged, dragging him downward.

Darkness once again filled his vision, but from the images he had seen earlier and the information given by the world introduction, Su Xiao understood the general situation of "Sael Star."

First, this place was originally a world of low mystery and high technology, but after researching nuclear weapons and conducting test explosions, everything changed.

Before this, one of the peak creations of the Second Era·Alchemical Age, that half-metallic/half-biological celestial body, by chance, became liquid and appeared above Sael Star.

With technological development, people naturally studied this iron-black liquid, but due to differing knowledge systems and vast civilizational gaps, Sael Star's scientists always believed this iron-black liquid was harmless, grouping it with many unknown natural substances and naming it "Dark Yin," classifying it as a natural phenomenon.

People also accepted this, because this iron-black liquid had existed since early in the cold weapon era, so to them, the scattered black cloud-like masses of "Dark Yin" in the sky were very common and ordinary.

The test explosion of the first nuclear weapon transformed "Dark Yin" into "black rain," bringing "mechanical pollution"; without all this, nuclear weapons would have brought peace soon enough.

After "mechanical pollution" appeared, it became the post-apocalyptic era, and then several hundred years later, the various forces and races had basically stabilized.

Overall, the forces in this world are few: humanity, the clans split from humanity, and the mutated beasts.

These three sides have not achieved balance; the clans' overall strength is greatest, they are hostile to humanity, but in recent years, as the war between the two sides has ceased for over a decade, and with major powers entrenched within both tribes, they are not eternally estranged, but occasionally trade.

Mutated beasts, that is, aberrant beasts, when their numbers reach a certain level, do not interfere with humanity or the clans; but when their total numbers reach a certain level, the false peace is shattered, they gather together, and assault the major fortresses.

The leaders of the aberrant beasts are very clever; they know that when the aberrant beasts' numbers reach a certain level, food resources will become scarce, raising survival costs, and the lowest-tier aberrant beasts, along with the ordinary wild beasts that survived the apocalypse, will see their numbers sharply decline due to predation, ultimately leading to multiple vicious cycles.

Conversely, gathering the aberrant beasts from the middle, upper, and top of the food chain to assault humanity's and the clans' major fortresses can reduce their own foragers' numbers while also suppressing humanity's and the clans' numbers, preventing those two sides from overwhelming through reproduction.

Compared to aberrant beasts, the internal forces within the clans and humanity are far more complex; the clans' three major fortresses are each a power, and besides this first tier, the second-tier clan forces below are even more numerous.

Further down, the clan forces are so numerous they are hard to calculate; one could say each mobile fortress is an independent force plus a mobile population gathering, each with its own leader.

The clans are not a monolith; the native humans of this world defeated by them are certainly not united, and during the period of full-scale war with the clans, humanity's civil war never ceased.

In this world, many of the clans, humans, and aberrant beasts have metallic skeletons, flesh-and-blood bodies, and normal organs, while many others have partially metallic bodies.

This metallicization is not cold, industrial metal, but living metal, which can be understood as flesh and skin evolving toward metal, with blood still flowing inside.

Su Xiao pondered these questions in his mind as the spatial fluctuations enveloping him dissipated; first came a warm, damp sensation spreading outward, then the foul, stagnant smell in the air—like a slaughterhouse kept warm year-round, never properly cleaned, allowing blood and filth by the walls to rot and stink in the heat.

Su Xiao opened his eyes; he was sitting in an iron cage embedded in the wall, with damp, oppressive brownish-black walls on all sides—left, right, up, down, and behind—only the iron cage door ahead let in a dim yellow light.

The height of the wall-mounted cage was about 1.3 meters; Su Xiao sitting inside without standing would not hit his head, and it was actually rather spacious, but he saw that the upper wall had been worn smooth and shiny, with traces of reddish blood on it.

This clearly indicated that large-bodied creatures were often imprisoned here; from the polished marks left by them, this was a humanoid creature 2.0 to 2.4 meters tall, with thick skin and no hair on their heads—Su Xiao could not immediately guess what kind of creature this was.

For Su Xiao, this initial entry point was already familiar—not because he had been here before, but because he often started in prison.

This time entering the world, Su Xiao did not wear the 【Heaven-Seizing Storm Surge】 title, entering via invasion into a world undergoing a world-contention war; wearing that title here to gain a higher initial identity would be somewhat overreaching.

Wearing the 【Heaven-Seizing Storm Surge】 title upon entering the world makes one an enemy of the World's Child; do not think the World's Child is easy to deal with—those who style themselves as justice, flirting with girls worldwide like a bulldozer World's Child, Su Xiao has killed several of them; what he truly fears is the Nameless Captain, or the God-King·Os·Tobias.

When encountering any such World's Child and becoming enemies, one should not think of doing anything else; in this world's progression, being able to mortally contend with such a World's Child is already quite good; diverting attention to participate in the world-contention war, or to seek knowledge and items related to alchemy within this world, is courting death.

Starting in prison is nothing new for Su Xiao; based on his rich experience in this regard, he decided to temporarily not escape prison, but to observe.

Xiang Bubu was in a wall-mounted prison cage 30 meters away, with no particular danger; Am and Baha's positions were unknown, Bei Ni had activated "Orphan Mode" and sent an email, but due to the distance from Su Xiao, the email appeared with about a one-hour delay.

Bei Ni's mission this time was arduous; she was responsible for monitoring the battle status of the contractors of Dawn Paradise, Holy Light Paradise, and Hope Paradise, transmitting information back via delayed email.

Su Xiao looked out through the gap in the iron cage door; the room was overall long and narrow, with wall-mounted prison cages on both sides, the central passage about three meters wide, the dark gray floor often washed, but water stains on it never dried.

A bloodstain nearly half a meter wide dragged across the passage; from the remaining blood volume, the victim had not died; the fine bloodstain dragged by five fingers showed misalignment, indicating the victim had been dragged by an iron hook or other sharp tool, having clenched their fists in pain, they could move but did not violently struggle, rather seeming resigned, awaiting death—or perhaps they/it had already been tamed.

Squeak, squeak~

The sound of cart wheels rubbing came over; Su Xiao occasionally heard the clanging of metal being struck—this was using a long-handled large spoon to pour semi-fluid food into an iron tray, then pushing the flat iron tray along the ground, through the gap beneath the iron cage door into the wall-mounted prison cage.

A few minutes later, a food cart arrived ahead; following the gap in the iron cage door, Su Xiao first saw the food cart carrying three large barrels, their rims stained with a ring of yellowish viscous substance, with a wooden-handled large spoon inserted inside; a stack of long-unwashed, repeatedly used iron trays piled together, placed on the cart's right side.

The "person" pushing the cart was about 2.3 meters tall, appearing somewhat obese, but this was not mere obesity—it was stalwart; beneath a not-thick layer of fat lay very enduring muscle, appearing sturdy yet possessing both endurance and explosive power.

The "person's" brown long pants were severely worn, the work jacket on their upper body so dirty the original color could not be seen; their fingers were thick but not short and stubby, the skin on their arms not like a human's, but rougher and thicker.

Most surprising was the "person's" skull: they had a pig's skull, a protruding nose, pig-like ears, the only difference being that their pig head was somewhat anthropomorphized, with eyes closer to human.

This was a pig-headed person; their right ear had been cut off halfway, and they wore a nose ring; from the thickness of the nose ring, it was clear this was not decoration, but used to control them when disobedient, inflicting greater pain.

Seeing this pig-headed person, Su Xiao immediately recalled from the world introduction that the clans, through postnatal hybridization, used two or even several species to crossbreed for manual labor.

This pig-headed person should be a new species bred by the clans from a humanoid creature and a pig species; these new species are not slaves, but more direct private property; if the clans wished, they could even slaughter and sell this private property.

Clang!

Su Xiao, whose fingers were wrapped in a crystalline layer, tapped the iron bars ahead; the pig-headed person, using a long-handled large spoon to ladle "pig feed" into the tray, showed no reaction.

"Where is this?"

Su Xiao asked, caring less about the answer and more about how the pig-headed person would respond next, and how their expression would change.

The pig-headed person remained silent, eyes dull, they pushed the tray holding the semi-fluid food into the wall-mounted prison cage, their gaze slightly shifted, while keeping head and body still, they used peripheral vision to check whether there were any guards in the long, narrow passage behind.

Confirming no guards were present, the pig-headed person raised their index finger to their lips, making a gesture for silence, then opened their mouth, letting Su Xiao see their tongue had been cut off.

The pig-headed person was telling Su Xiao: do not speak randomly, or else you will end up like me, with your tongue cut off by the overseers.

The pig-headed person's gaze remained dull and stiff; occasional glimmers of spirit in their eyes indicated their bestial nature had not yet been fully tamed; even if whipped, had their tongue cut, and lost most of their right ear, they had still not been completely broken.

The pig-headed person slightly lowered their head toward Su Xiao, as if nodding, then continued pushing the food cart forward.

In the darkness of the wall-mounted prison cage, Su Xiao sat cross-legged, a faint blue light flickering in his eyes.

Pa.

A flame appeared; a cigarette was lit in the darkness, after drawing deeply on it, the smoke exhaled gradually formed the shape of a skull, a skull that seemed to be grinning wickedly.