Chapter 3363

Descending to the second floor and watching the Evolution Nest for a while, Su Xiao arrived at the residential area at the rear of the fortress, which was inside the hollowed-out mountain. He first checked the hygiene of the collective dormitories and other areas, then took a stroll through the back kitchen.

With more people, all kinds of oddities could appear. Su Xiao wouldn't sit in the command center forever; he would occasionally come to the residential area to take a look.

Taking the elevator down to the mine, Su Xiao passed through a mine tunnel. After descending diagonally for a hundred meters, he arrived at an underground space of over a thousand square meters.

All kinds of facilities were available here, even a kitchen. The surrounding furnishings made people forget they were underground. There was no sense of oppression at all; instead, it felt safe.

Morey had returned to being a salted fish, sitting cross-legged on the sofa holding a controller playing games. Her mission this time was to protect Moon Apostle, while Moon Apostle was contemplating life.

Su Xiao returned to the first floor of the fortress, took Xiang Bubu Wang, Baja, and Dorothy out of the fortress, and headed straight for Warehouse No. 2, a few hundred meters away. With the help of the large teleportation array in Warehouse No. 2, he arrived at Warehouse No. 1 in Free City.

8:00 PM that night, Free City, District 2.

There were many pedestrians on the street, but no vehicles. District 2 was the wealthy area of Free City. After 7:00 PM, vehicles were prohibited from entering these streets. Of course, for a small number of people, this ban was as good as non-existent.

Su Xiao walked among the pedestrians, confirming the address by the house number. He pushed open the door and walked into a mechanical prosthetic limb shop.

The interior of the mechanical prosthetic limb shop seemed a bit crowded. On one side was a glass display case, and on the other wall hung various models of cheap mechanical prosthetic limbs, as well as gunpowder-powered firearms.

The owner of the mechanical prosthetic limb shop was a burly middle-aged man. His left arm was a mechanical prosthetic limb, and his right hand held a cigar between his fingertips. He was wearing only large shorts, and the exposed skin, except for his face, was covered in tattoos. He was reading a newspaper with his legs crossed.

This was Caesar's business partner, a member of the Iron Brotherhood in the city, the former deputy leader, Old Mo.

Counting Caesar's business partners in Free City, there wasn't a single good one. Slave trader Azba and Old Mo didn't even need to be mentioned; one was a human trafficker, and the other was a spy sent by the Human side.

Old Mo's gaze remained focused on the newspaper, as if he hadn't seen Su Xiao and the others arrive. He stubbed the cigar in his hand into the center of the ashtray. After triggering a certain mechanism, the device hidden under Su Xiao's feet activated, and spatial fluctuations appeared.

When the spatial fluctuations stabilized, Su Xiao arrived in a room that was completely sealed off. It was about 20 square meters, with a square table in the middle and a chair on each side.

Su Xiao sat on one of the chairs. Opposite him at the table was a human wearing a black robe, wrapped in black cloth strips. He raised his hand to press on a metal plate on the side of his neck and said in a particularly hoarse voice:

"Meeting in this way is a last resort. This is, after all, the Kin's territory."

The black-robed person's throat and vocal cords had been injured, so he could only speak by pressing on the metal plate embedded in the side of his neck. When he spoke, he had to swallow saliva frequently.

These characteristics could not satisfy the identity of a diplomatic envoy. Obviously, this was a high-level official from the Human side.

Why would Su Xiao meet with a high-level Human official in Free City, the Kin's territory? The answer was that he wanted to get rich quickly. Currently, the best means was to sell 100% pure 【Cataclysm Solution】 to the Human race.

Su Xiao completed this matter as a joint venture with Caesar. Last time, they obtained two copies of the 【Cataclysm Solution】 formula, with Caesar funding one.

After the 100% pure 【Cataclysm Solution】 was formulated, Su Xiao gave Caesar a bottle. After Caesar obtained the 【Cataclysm Solution】, he didn't sell it but gifted it to the high-level officials of the Human faction through secret channels.

Initially, that high-level Human official didn't pay much attention. There was no such thing as a free lunch in the world. However, a T5 fortress wasn't considered a precious thing to such a person, so he used a T5 mobile fortress to conduct an experiment.

The result was predictable. The Human race discovered that after the T5 fortress was injected with 【Cataclysm Solution】, the path to promotion became smooth. Currently, the Human side had already promoted that fortress to T1 rank, and there was no doubt about the effect of 【Cataclysm Solution】.

Saying that 100% pure 【Cataclysm Solution】 could change the existing landscape was not an exaggeration.

Su Xiao's purpose this time was to sell the copy of 【Cataclysm Solution】 he had just formulated.

The black-robed person opposite was not good at talking. Judging from his aura, this was a strong person who had climbed to a high position through his own strength.

In this transaction, the representative of the Human side had actually explained a lot. It was clear that they wanted to test Su Xiao's strength. If Su Xiao's strength exceeded a certain level, they would continue the transaction.

If it didn't exceed that level, they would start an investigation, then snatch the 【Cataclysm Solution】 formula, and silence him.

Danger was everywhere. Only by being strong oneself was the most reliable guarantee.

The black-robed person opposite said: "Let's discuss the price. What resources do you want?"

"Active ore."

"Regarding active ore, our inventory is not very large, but your side's generosity last time made this old man feel ashamed. We will continue to cooperate in the future. 10,000 units of active ore is the highest price I can offer."

The black-robed person's offer made one's heart beat faster. 1 unit of active ore = 100 kilograms of active ore. 10,000 units meant 1,000,000 kilograms of active ore.

For purchasing 【Cataclysm Solution】, this price wasn't high, but for the Human race, which had just been defeated, this price was already not low. They had been driven out of the most fertile areas of active ore veins.

"Deal."

"I have a premonition that we will cooperate again in the future. See you later."

The black-robed person stood up, hunched his figure, and walked into the darkness behind him. The spatial device in the room activated.

A large expanse of colorful colors appeared before his eyes. When Su Xiao's vision recovered, he had already returned to the prosthetic limb shop. Old Mo behind the glass display case was still reading the newspaper, but the iron gate outside the shop had already been lowered.

Su Xiao exited the prosthetic limb shop through the back door. Caesar, who had been waiting for a long time in the back alley, hurried up to meet him.

"My dear friend, how did the talk go? What was the offer?"

"10,000..."

"What! Those misers."

Caesar was so angry he gritted his teeth and glared. An offer of 10,000 kilograms of active ore was ridiculously low in his view.

"10,000 units of active ore."

"I really didn't misjudge them. They are all generous people."

Caesar smiled slyly, his entire face as bright as a blooming chrysanthemum.

"Are you going to handle the payment?"

As he spoke, Su Xiao took out the 【Cataclysm Solution】 from his storage space.

"No problem."

Hearing Caesar say this, Su Xiao tossed the 【Cataclysm Solution】 to him and stepped out toward the back alley.

If Caesar couldn't handle the subsequent transaction, it meant the Human side had no sincerity in trading. At that point, he would lose at most the cost of the materials. It was absolutely impossible for the other side to snatch the 【Cataclysm Solution】 by force.

Su Xiao didn't plan to stay in Free City for too long. On the quiet back street, he stopped, and Dorothy, who was following diagonally behind him, also stopped.

"Use this for now."

Su Xiao took out the 【Amulet Gloves】 and tossed the bone-material gloves to Dorothy. This was something Su Xiao obtained in the Dark Star world, a weapon developed by the Kodo School.

Besides the 【Amulet Gloves】, Su Xiao also took out many amulets, such as "Strength Amulet," "Defense Amulet," "Howling Amulet," "Pride Amulet," "Blade Girl Amulet," "Bai Yin Heart Amulet," etc., totaling 10 amulets, which could be freely combined through the "Bai Yin Heart Amulet."

"【Bai Yin Heart Amulet: After activating this amulet's effect, the other four amulets loaded onto the Amulet Gloves will all be activated, and according to different characteristics, they will combine into different abilities (e. g., Metal + Blade Girl + Strength + Pride = Killing Angel. This amulet can only be used once per day. After use, the duration of the ability will be determined by the characteristics of the four resonated amulets).】"

Su Xiao kept the 【Amulet Gloves】, originally intending to use them to deal with thugs blocking his way.

Later, he discovered that he couldn't encounter those brainless thugs who came to provoke him at all. Even if they weren't strong, those small thugs weren't unintelligent. They had their own way of surviving. After encountering Su Xiao, they would hide if they could, and if they couldn't, they would nod with a smile and hurry away.

"This is my..."

Su Xiao was just about to say this was his reserved 'toy,' but upon second thought, that didn't sound right, so he changed his words:

"This is my family's heirloom weapon. I'll leave it to you to use from now on."

"I... can I?"

Dorothy changed to holding the 【Amulet Gloves】 with both hands, feeling a bit moved in her heart.

"Of course you can. I believe in you. Even if the opponent is the Xin Clan, the one who wins in the end will be you."

After saying this, Su Xiao patted Dorothy on the shoulder to show encouragement.

"Lord Bai Ye, I didn't expect you to care about me so much. Why don't you come with me to find the Xin Clan? We'll wipe them out together, and then I'll be your little lackey wholeheartedly. That would be more efficient."

Dorothy had an expression that was both moved and expectant. Seeing this, Baja almost laughed out loud. Although Dorothy was a bottomless pit, she was very clever. She lost her mother when she was young and refused to be raised by her father. In Free City, she hugged the thigh of an old lady and lived by swindling with other accomplices. With such a childhood experience, it was impossible for Dorothy not to be clever.

"Get out of my sight within 10 seconds."

Su Xiao took out his pocket watch and started timing. Seeing this, Dorothy ran away quickly.

After Dorothy left, Su Xiao sat on the steps by the back street. Ten minutes later, footsteps emerged from the alley opposite. It was pitch black inside, and a figure could vaguely be seen.

"So you are the one who hired me to kill my own legitimate son."

An aged voice came from the darkness of the alley. The person who came was the leader of the Xin Clan. He stood in the darkness, making it impossible to see his appearance clearly.

"..."

Su Xiao lit a cigarette. The reason the leader of the Xin Clan came here was that he had contacted the Xin Clan through slave trader Azba and entrusted them to kill someone, and that person was Xin Yuge.

There was intelligence stating that Xin Yuge was the youngest son of the Xin Clan leader. Even so, Xin Yuge's age was over 40.

After the Xin Clan learned that someone had hired them to assassinate their own clan member, they immediately came to the door. This time, Su Xiao had just arrived in Free City when he felt he was being watched.

Now that the leader of the Xin Clan had appeared in person, it was nine out of ten that the person who had been following Su Xiao earlier felt unable to confront Su Xiao, so he contacted the strongest person in the clan.

The leader of the Xin Clan was named Xin Dizong. In the past, more people called him Xin Ghost. It was said that when he was young, after entering a combat state, he was like an evil ghost that wanted to devour people. Only after getting married and having children did his actions become smoother.

Don't be deceived by him. This old guy was still a grumpy old man, just not showing it usually. The meaning was roughly: "This old man hasn't killed anyone for three days. Why are you forcing me?"

"As my legitimate son, Xin Yuge is an heir I am satisfied with. If you want to hire this old man to assassinate him, the reward must be increased by 70%."

Dizong's words were shocking. That's right, this was the Xin Clan. As long as the employer paid, they would even assassinate their own offspring, but whether it would succeed was uncertain. On the surface, they accepted such commissions, but the final result was basically the employer dying first and the commission becoming invalid.

"Xin Yuge accepted my creation, Dark Sun."

Su Xiao spoke. He could perceive that Dizong, standing in the darkness opposite, was very strong. That old guy gave people the feeling that he was usually in a shell, hiding his 'Xin Ghost' self inside.

"I have seen that thing. That was Yuge's own choice. I won't comment."

Dizong's voice was calm, with no intention of attacking.

"Dark Sun is the third-generation Devourer I developed. The second generation before it was named Boiling Red. You will be very interested in the host of Boiling Red."

"This old man will be interested? Tell me, who is it?"

"Li Xiniwei's daughter, Dorothy."

As soon as Su Xiao finished speaking, a crackling sound came from the narrow alley opposite. An old man walked out of the narrow alley. He was leaning on a cane nearly 90 centimeters long with one hand, wearing loose robes, with gray hair, and ceramic-like cracks all over his face. These cracks were rapidly becoming dense. The true appearance of the Xin Clan leader, Dizong, was about to be revealed.

Dizong had a characteristic: the fingertips of all ten fingers were black.

"Not good! Grandpa is angry, retreat."

Several figures darted out from ten meters away, leaping between buildings, quickly distancing themselves.

Su Xiao looked at these members of the Xin Clan. With his eyesight, he immediately discovered that the fingertips of these Xin Clan members were all black, like obsidian black.

This was a characteristic of the Xin Clan, not intentionally dyed nails, but caused by some power of bloodline inheritance.

Regarding this point, Su Xiao was 90% sure that his perception was not wrong; dyed black nails wouldn't be this natural.

Before contacting the Xin Clan, Su Xiao had learned through slave trader Azba that the Xin Clan had the characteristic of black fingernails.

"Grandpa, please calm down. This is Free City, not our territory."

A black-haired girl spoke. She said so on the surface, but her eyes were full of anticipation. She actually really wanted to see what her grandfather would look like after getting angry.

Su Xiao sat up from the steps and pulled out the long knife at his waist while stepping forward.

Clang~

The blade rang softly. The next second, the two auras of pitch black and blood red collided, making a loud boom.

The two auras collided, and the entire street surface of the back street cracked and rose. Cracks quickly appeared on the buildings in this area. The black-haired girl who was caught in the wake of the two auras leaned against the wall behind her, her small face gradually flushing, and her smile becoming increasingly joyful.

"A losing business."

The cane in Dizong's hand pressed against the ground. His aura gradually dissipated, and Su Xiao no longer released blood energy.

"I was calculated by you, kid. I will remain on the sidelines regarding this matter. If you have time in the future, come to my Xin Clan's territory for tea."

The cracks on Dizong's face gradually recovered, returning to his previous appearance. He turned and walked into the dark narrow alley.

Seeing this, Su Xiao walked toward the end of the back street. In fact, he had deliberately sent the third-generation Devourer to the Xin Clan.

As for why he did this, it was interesting. From the moment Su Xiao met Dorothy, she had been wearing black soft cloth gloves.

When implanting the Devourer Boiling Red, Dorothy was naked in the bathtub. Facing Su Xiao, she seemed unnatural and had a stiff expression of shame, but Dorothy just wouldn't take off her black gloves. This behavior could no longer be explained by being an oddity.

After the fortress arrived at the Border Area, Su Xiao discovered the reason Dorothy didn't take off her black gloves: her fingernails were black, like obsidian black.

This was very interesting and convoluted. After learning that the characteristic of the Xin Clan was black fingernails, Su Xiao immediately sent the Devourer there through slave trader Azba.

What Su Xiao didn't expect even more was that the Devourer Dark Sun was accepted by a man named Xin Yuge as soon as it was sent over.

Xin Yuge became the host of the third-generation Devourer, while Dorothy was the host of the second-generation Devourer.

When hearing that Dorothy was the host of the second-generation Devourer, the reaction of the Xin Clan leader, Dizong, was intriguing.

What was most puzzling was that the Xin Clan was actually the murderer who killed Dorothy's mother, but from the current situation, Dorothy looked very much like a member of the Xin Clan.

The things inside were a bit messy, and Su Xiao couldn't sort out the clues yet, but that didn't matter. He had already sent Dorothy out, letting her follow her heart and go seek revenge on the Xin Clan.

As for the next things, let the members of the Xin Clan, as well as the leader Dizong, the host of the third-generation Devourer Xin Yuge, and Dorothy, solve them slowly.

Su Xiao estimated that among these people, there didn't seem to be any outsiders; they were all of the same bloodline. A family, ethical, combat, and suspense drama was about to be staged. Xiang Bubu had already set up miniature listening equipment on Dorothy. Su Xiao could eat melons and watch the show when he had free time later.

What Su Xiao wanted most was the data on the strengthening and combat of the second-generation Devourer and the third-generation Devourer, to learn from it and cultivate a perfect Devourer.

Not only did Su Xiao want to watch the show, but that old guy Dizong was also prepared to watch the show. The attitude he just displayed was more like showing it to the younger generation to avoid losing face.

After handling everything, Su Xiao arrived at Warehouse No. 1 on the edge of Free City, returned to Warehouse No. 2 in the Border Area through the teleportation array inside, and then returned to the Doomsday Fortress.

In the command center on the top floor of the fortress, Su Xiao leaned on the sofa, waiting for news from Caesar.

10,000 units of active ore, of course, weren't all Su Xiao's own. Caesar had invested in the early stages. The first bottle of 【Cataclysm Solution】 obtained by the Human side was given for free by Caesar. With this beginning, this transaction was facilitated.

The proceeds this time were split 40/60. Although Su Xiao didn't contact the buyer or operate the channels, and didn't run around, the 【Cataclysm Solution】 was formulated by him.

Su Xiao didn't have to wait too long. At 1:00 AM, Caesar walked into the fortress with his head held high and his hands behind his back. He brought 6,000 units of active ore.

Su Xiao originally didn't expect this windfall to be so fat. This windfall was enough for him to push the fortress directly from T3 to a top-tier T0 fortress, and there would still be leftovers to produce a large wave of troops.

PS: (Two updates today, 8,000 words. My neck is slightly uncomfortable. I'll work hard again tomorrow.)