Chapter 3507: Invasion

The spatial fluctuations within the main hall gradually subsided. Although the Necronomicon had vanished, it left behind three items: a large chunk of flesh and blood, a mass of divine blood floating in mid-air, and finally, a bone eyeball.

These were the remains of the Dark Demon Hash and the Black Pharaoh, who had been imprisoned within the Gray Realm and subsequently dealt with by the Necronomicon.

The flesh and the fallen divine blood came from the beast-like Evil God, the Dark Demon, while the bone eyeball came from the Black Pharaoh.

Su Xiao had not received kill rewards for these two Evil Gods, which was actually quite normal. Su Xiao had known for a long time that kill rewards did not appear out of thin air; rather, they were extracted from the enemy's existing possessions after they were killed, with Reincarnation Paradise acting as the notary. Su Xiao was not privy to the specific details, but he assumed he would be able to access such information once his tier was higher.

To put it simply: if Su Xiao had killed the Dark Demon himself, the Necronomicon and the Abyss Jar would not have been able to extract anything from the Dark Demon's divine remains. Whatever could be extracted had already been collected as kill rewards. What Su Xiao ultimately obtained—such as the 【Spirit of the God: Progenitor】 and the 2 Golden Skill Points—all came from this process.

The Necronomicon did not swallow all the gains from killing these two Evil Gods; it left behind a large chunk of flesh, a mass of fallen divine blood, and a bone eyeball. Among them, the bone eyeball was the most valuable, far exceeding the other two.

Su Xiao grabbed the bone eyeball floating in mid-air and tossed it to Caesar. Caesar caught it with a sly grin, blew on it, and rubbed it against his clothes to make it shine.

The remaining Evil God flesh was preserved in ice. It turned out to be a large piece of tenderloin. Upon discovering this, Xiang Ignoring Bubu Wang and Baja both swallowed their saliva. If Amu were here, he would surely give a rare, honest smile; they were in for a treat this time.

The Evil God fishing ended. Morey and the Moon Apostle walked stealthily toward the wall, preparing to slip away.

The two disappeared shortly after. The Host landed outside the main hall. Su Xiao, Xiang Ignoring Bubu Wang, and Baja sat inside the Host. Caesar did not join them; he had to return to the Platinum Capital of the Company.

The journey back was smooth. When Su Xiao returned to the base camp, two more Brutal Turrets had risen from the ground, bringing the total number of turrets to 77.

Su Xiao had just returned when he received good news: their plasma giant cannon had finally been successfully developed. To be precise, it was not a Zerg building, but a super-giant Zerg combat unit, named the Titan Behemoth.

The incubation nest behind the Mother Nest had expanded significantly, and a Titan Behemoth was located there. Its appearance reminded Su Xiao of a miniature version of Kara.

The lower half of the Titan Behemoth's body was supported by multiple chitinous legs, while the upper half was a massive plasma sac. Overall, it looked circular, with a nozzle at the top. Inside was plasma, and the exterior was a highly extensible biological structure. When attacking, the plasma sac would expand, and then use its contraction force to blast out the plasma cannon.

The Titan Behemoth's plasma cannon fired about once every 5 minutes. While the rate of fire seemed slow, it was a trump card used only against super-large enemies.

In addition to the plasma cannon, the Titan Behemoth was covered in biological tentacles. The tips of these cable-like tentacles contained electrical particle energy organs, capable of firing small plasma missiles. Each Titan Behemoth had hundreds of these tentacles, each tens of meters long.

Su Xiao looked at the Titan Behemoth. This big guy was over 70 meters tall and was one of the core guards of the Mother Nest.

That's right, the Titan Behemoth's main purpose was to guard against enemy aerial attacks on the Mother Nest. At critical moments, the Titan Behemoth could blast an electromagnetic shock net into the sky, killing any enemy daring to attack the Mother Nest from above. That electromagnetic shock net was terrifying; even if Barbados survived one hit, it would be near death. Because of such a powerful attack, the Titan Behemoth had to remain silent for 24 to 30 hours after use.

Plasma missiles, plasma cannons, and electromagnetic shock nets—all three attack modes were excellent. Furthermore, the Titan Behemoth was a mobile unit. Its movement speed was not fast, but it was much faster than the extremely slow movement of the Brutal Turrets.

With such a weapon of mass destruction, Su Xiao didn't even want to build more Brutal Turrets if he could help it; he would rather cultivate Titan Behemoths. Alas, the cost to cultivate one was 1 million biological energy points.

At this stage, cultivating 5 to guard the Mother Nest was the limit. To set up a defensive perimeter and hold the base camp, he still had to rely on surrounding it with Brutal Turrets. Moreover, the missiles fired by the Brutal Turrets were much cheaper to replenish than plasma. Using Titan Behemoths to guard the home would truly lead to bankruptcy.

The development of the base camp was on the right track. Before he knew it, night had fallen. Various Zerg buildings emitted their unique fluorescence, keeping the base camp from being dark.

Inside the wooden building, Su Xiao sat cross-legged on the floor, having just finished his daily meditation. According to the information Caesar had provided earlier, the Nether forces would attack Pan Duola Star around the 10th day. It was currently the night of the 7th day, meaning the Nether would strike in at most two days.

With their current production capacity of life ore, in two days, the Brutal Turrets would barely reach 200. As for the Titan Behemoths, if he thought of a way, he should be able to get 400,000 units of life ore from the Empire or the Company.

Thinking of this, Su Xiao took out his communicator and directly contacted Monarch Aldin of the Empire. The other party had already arrived at Pan Duola Star and was currently located in New Star City, where 50 million Imperial citizens had just moved in, making the situation inevitably volatile.

The communicator was answered after just a few rings. A slightly weary but majestic voice came through:

"What is it?"

As Monarch Aldin spoke, there was the sound of a dinner plate being taken away; it seemed he had interrupted his meal.

"I want to make a deal with you."

"What kind of deal?"

Monarch Aldin's tone was clearly piqued. Then, as if thinking of something, he smiled and said: "How much do you need?"

"400,000 units."

"That's a bit much. My weapons also need No. 9 ore."

The No. 9 ore Monarch Aldin mentioned was life ore.

"Let's build an interconnected spatial device between our two sides. Tomorrow afternoon or the morning after, I'll send someone to deliver the No. 9 ore. That's it. We'll contact each other if there's anything else later."

With that, Monarch Aldin hung up the communicator.

Su Xiao looked at the communicator in his hand. Monarch Aldin was too generous. Regarding the deal he mentioned, the other party hadn't even asked what he needed before agreeing to provide the life ore. This was clearly a sponsorship.

Or perhaps, there was another meaning: after the Nether forces invaded, if neither the Sun Sanctuary nor New Star City could hold out, they would retreat to the other side.

Another point was that the Empire was a super-rich tycoon. Imagine, this powerful force, which originally had tens of billions of people, had shrunk to tens of millions. While tragic, the per capita resources were enough to make anyone jealous. This was originally an autocratic country, and all resources were stored at the center of power on "Okai Star." It was simple to bring these resources along while fleeing.

Su Xiao was quite relieved to have a wealthy teammate. Just as he was thinking this, the sensor tower issued a warning: someone was approaching the base camp.

Half an hour later, on the second floor of the wooden building, Su Xiao was still sitting on the floor on a fur rug. Standing in front of him were three people: Morey, the Moon Apostle, and Hao Mei, who had left not long ago.

"I already let you leave. Are you provoking me by coming back now?"

Su Xiao's tone was casual; he didn't even want to act, it was just a formality.

Hearing Su Xiao's words, Hao Mei was very angry, but she could only keep a smile on her face and said: "Mr. Bai Ye, you made the three of us wanted criminals by the Empire and the Company. Now that everyone knows the Nether forces are invading, we can't get into New Star City or the Platinum Capital. What do you suggest we do? Should we just come here and pay you obediently?"

As Hao Mei spoke, she gritted her teeth until they clicked. She hated this feeling of being completely manipulated.

"What are you talking about?"

Su Xiao looked at Hao Mei with 'suspicion.' Just as Hao Mei was about to continue, she received a notification.

【Notification: You have successfully joined the Sun Faction. Until you take any action to betray the Sun Faction, you will not be attacked by Zerg units belonging to Zerg Dominator Jira.】

【Your faction reputation has been unlocked. Current faction reputation: Friendly.】

Almost at the same time, the Moon Apostle also received this message. As for Morey, she had always been the 'legal representative' of the Sun Sanctuary, just without any real power. Naturally, she wouldn't receive this notification about joining the faction.

Morey and the Moon Apostle looked at each other, a bit stunned. This kind of good thing, like a pie falling from the sky, had actually happened to them.

"This... you, who are you?"

Hao Mei and the Moon Apostle both looked at Su Xiao with vigilance. They both suspected whether Su Xiao had been possessed or taken over by something. Although that was impossible, the current situation was too abnormal.

"As members of the Sun Faction, the heavy burden of protecting the Sun Sanctuary when the Nether invades will depend on the three of you."

Su Xiao said this calmly and peacefully, but to Morey and the others, it sounded like the voice of a devil.

Morey and the others weren't stupid; they naturally understood Su Xiao's subtext. He might as well have said: if you don't pay, the three of you will go to the front line as cannon fodder. You don't want to? Learn the price of disobeying the faction leader's orders.

"Just name your price."

Hao Mei almost said this with tears in her eyes. Her original plan was to bargain even if she really had to pay, but now it seemed there was no such opportunity.

"30,000."

Su Xiao named his price.

"Hey~"

Morey, the Moon Apostle, and Hao Mei all smiled. 30,000 sounded like a lot at first, but split among the three, it was a piece of cake.

"Each."

As soon as Su Xiao said "each," the smiles on the faces of Morey and the others vanished immediately. Even for the Apocalypse sisters, coming up with 90,000 now was very difficult. After all, they had previously been wanted by the Hall of Valor, and Morey had already paid out 20,000 Soul Coins.

After a bitter struggle, Morey and the others finally reached an agreement: the three of them would pay a total of 50,000 Soul Coins to seek refuge in the Sun Sanctuary. During this period, they wouldn't need to help defend it. Of course, if the situation became dire enough that they had to join the defense to survive, they would have to join the front line. If the Sun Sanctuary were breached, they wouldn't have a good ending either.

【Notification: You have obtained 50,000 Soul Coins.】

A large sum of Soul Coins had been credited. Counting the 20,000 Morey had paid earlier, the total gain was 70,000 Soul Coins. Su Xiao was very satisfied with this. The upgrades for "Basic Passive: Awakening" and "Basic Passive: Spirit Resilience" finally had a path forward.

After paying, the Moon Apostle and Hao Mei immediately went downstairs to sleep in Morey's previous bedroom. The bedding didn't even need to be changed; it was still the set Morey had been using. As for Morey, she had nothing to do. She had been sleeping for the past few days, and now she was as energetic as a night owl.

Su Xiao took out an old-fashioned rotary phone. This old phone was covered in barnacles, and black tentacles had grown in some places, giving it quite a Great Old One style. This was the contact method left by the Priest.

Su Xiao picked up the receiver of the old phone and listened quietly for a while. The sound of dripping water came through. Since this morning, the Priest had been out of contact.

There were two possibilities: the Priest was trapped somewhere, or the Priest had joined the Nether forces.

Su Xiao listened to the dripping sound in the receiver for a while. Just as he was about to hang up, static noise appeared. This static sounded like signal interference and lasted for about 2-3 seconds before disappearing. With his hearing, he immediately realized that something was wrong with the static.

Su Xiao tore off the electrode patch on the side of his face. This thing was a recording device. He handed it to Xiang Ignoring Bubu Wang, who lay down in front of the mobile terminal and began to operate it.

Before long, the static was broken down, and the extracted sound was amplified.

"Nether... bottom... Nether... great bottom."

It was the Priest's voice. Morey, who had been so bored she was almost rolling around, had been listening with her ears pricked up. After hearing this, she analyzed:

"I get it. The Priest is trapped, and he's trapped in a place called the Nether Great Bottom. He wants you to save him."

"Save him? You must have never died before."

Baja almost laughed out loud as he spoke.

"Aren't you teammates?"

"It's precisely because we're teammates that it's so creepy. Do you know how tricky the Priest's backstabs are?"

Baja still had lingering fears when he said this.

Morey shrugged and spread her hands, indicating that she didn't understand the world of old schemers.

Su Xiao ignored Baja and Morey. He was weighing whether the Priest was still trustworthy and what the other party's intention was in doing this.

The Priest was different from the Gray Gentleman. The Gray Gentleman's style was not to put all his eggs in one basket; the targets he revealed were definitely not his trump cards.

The Priest had a different style. This old guy could be beaten everywhere and seem to be constantly getting hammered, but in the end, you'd find that he had somehow already stood on the side of the winner, enjoying the spoils of war together.

It was the same last time. The Priest seemed to be conspiring with the Gray Gentleman, but in reality, he had always been on Su Xiao's side. In the end, Su Xiao won, and this old guy not only got rid of the Necronomicon but also gained quite a few benefits, ultimately exiting the scene very low-key.

The "Nether Great Bottom" in the Priest's message sounded a bit strange, but if you slightly changed the pronunciation to "Nether Great Emperor," it made much more sense.

The ruler of the Nether forces was called the "Nether Great Emperor." The Priest leaving this message was a double-sided bet.

The current situation was nothing more than a decisive battle between the Nether and Pan Duola Star. If the Nether forces won, the Priest would be a beneficiary, after all, the current assumption was that he had already joined the Nether forces.

If the Nether lost and their side won, the Priest would still be a good guy. He could completely say that he was trapped by the Nether forces while collecting intelligence on "Okai Star," and he only had time to pass on the last piece of intelligence, which was to tell Su Xiao about the existence of the Nether Great Emperor.

In this way, no matter who won, the old guy Priest would be safe and sound. He had already stood on the side of the winner, even if the winner hadn't been decided yet. It could only be said that he was worthy of being from the Sanctuary Paradise.

"The old guy is really cunning."

Su Xiao said in a low voice. Morey looked over in confusion.

"You can't even see that?"

Baja gave a 'contemptuous smile' with the attitude of a wise man, and then he quickly typed in the team channel: 'Boss, what's going on? Explain it to me, I want to act cool.'

Before long, Morey looked at Baja with a grin and said: "Did you secretly ask in the team channel? You're clearly not smarter than me."

"Damn it~"

Baja flew to the side and ignored Morey.

Regarding the Priest's situation, Su Xiao remained indifferent. He had already left a backup plan, which was giving the other party the Parasite. Who knows, that might be the key to the final victory.

Checking the time, Su Xiao went to the bedroom on the inner side of the second floor to rest. When he woke up, the sky was bright.

The Empire's mechanical troops had arrived. Inside their base camp, they built a metal platform more than 20 meters in diameter. The internal structure of this device was precise; it was a spatial device, which meant that the channel between the Sun Sanctuary and New Star City had been opened.

The Empire's mechanical troops soon withdrew. This was Su Xiao's territory, and as an active combat unit, it wasn't suitable for them to stay here for long.

Not long after the teleportation device was set up, Xiang Ignoring Bubu Wang and Baja went to New Star City to scout. They said they were scouting, but when they returned, they were so full they could barely walk. Amu was very envious.

That afternoon, the 400,000 units of life ore supported by the Empire were delivered. As a reward, Su Xiao took out a mechanical structure diagram for the "CU·Stinger·949·Particle Ship Cannon." This was a mechanical structure diagram he had obtained a long time ago, and since it was useless to him, he used it as a favor.

Su Xiao prioritized cultivating four Titan Behemoths. The incubation nest was under quite a bit of pressure to cultivate such super-giant Zerg units, and it could only cultivate one at a time.

In the evening, the setting sun looked like blood. People from the Company came to the door, also to build a spatial teleportation device.

Su Xiao naturally wouldn't refuse this. If something went wrong in New Star City or the Platinum Capital and the enemy wanted to attack through the teleportation device, they could just destroy it.

On the endless Gobi Desert in the west, sandstorms raged, and visibility was less than a few meters.

A figure draped in tattered robes, nearly 4 meters tall, walked through the sandstorm. His skin was rough, and he carried a long-handled blade hammer over 3 meters long on his back. This rugged weapon was stained with black, oil-like blood. It was precisely because it was stained with these human evils that the weapon had become extraordinary.

That's right, this figure nearly 4 meters tall was the last surviving fanatic. All the fanatics from the Sun Sanctuary seemed to have received a summons from this world. They chose the strongest among them by killing each other and absorbing each other's power—this was the Sun Saint, Wager. It was unclear if it was a coincidence, but a Sun Warrior from the original Sun Kingdom was also named Wager.

Wager looked at the setting sun on the horizon. In the sandstorm, wearing a head bucket, he struck a pose praising the sun.

Night fell before anyone knew it. The eighth day passed both peacefully and predictably. At this juncture, whether it was the Sun Sanctuary, the Empire, or the Company, they would all keep a low profile. Even if they had conflicts, they would downplay them.

Su Xiao sat cross-legged on the roof of the wooden building, checking the Mother Nest's data. 127 Brutal Turrets had been built. Now, between each Brutal Turret, a city wall nearly 45 meters high was connected. These city walls, composed of biological tissue, were about 15 meters thick. Even if they were pierced, they could consume biological energy to repair themselves.

Looking down from above, the scale of the base camp was already astonishing. Those towering Brutal Turrets and the impenetrable city walls gave a full sense of security.

The eve of the Nether invasion was quieter than expected. Before he knew it, it was noon the next day.

By this time, Su Xiao could feel a clear abnormality. The sun in the sky seemed to have lost its temperature.

In this suffocating, false peace, the night of the ninth day arrived. When it was 3:00 AM, the 200th Brutal Turret had been successfully built. From then on, they stopped cultivating combat Zerg or building Zerg structures, instead saving biological energy. For a defensive battle, whether it was missiles or plasma replenishment, a large amount of biological energy was needed.

It was a sleepless night. The first ray of morning light shone through the window. The morning, which originally represented hope, gave a cold sense of loneliness, as if the world were about to end.

It could be said that this was one of the reasons why the Nether invasion was so terrifying; it would cause the living beings in the invaded area to feel despair in advance. Every time before a Nether invasion, many people on the invaded side who couldn't bear the pressure would choose to end their own lives.

The tenth day had arrived. Today was sunny, with not a cloud in the sky—a rare good day.

Su Xiao naturally wouldn't be affected by the pressure of the impending Nether invasion. After eating breakfast as usual, he came to the window and looked up at the sky.

On the horizon, in the east, Su Xiao saw a black dot. That was the direction of the Platinum Capital.

"Xiang Bubu."

As Su Xiao spoke, he leaped out of the window. Barbados spread its dragon wings, and Su Xiao slid along the wing onto its back.

Xiang Ignoring Bubu Wang, carrying the black feather cloak in his mouth, also leaped out and stood steady on the dragon's back. Barbados spread its wings and flew, heading straight for the Platinum Capital.

The wind whistled in his ears. Barbados flew at full speed. When Su Xiao arrived a few kilometers from the Platinum Capital, he saw the Platinum Capital, which had already built steel city walls around it. Magnetic conduction cannons had finished charging and could fire at any time.

On the dragon's back, Su Xiao looked up at the sky. A black hole appeared diagonally above, directly over the Platinum Capital.

This hole was a few meters in size, but for some reason, it suddenly expanded, its diameter instantly exceeding several kilometers.

Inside the Platinum Capital below, Company guards were operating magnetic conduction cannons, aiming at the sky. They were nervous and covered in cold sweat. Company major shareholders like Aiteqi Fuke and Peidi, along with other high-level Company officials standing on the steel city walls, were equally nervous. They hadn't expected the Nether forces to choose the Platinum Capital as their priority target.

The Nether attack came too fast. Reinforcing the Platinum Capital was no longer possible. In the sky, within the black hole several kilometers in diameter, viscous, dark green liquid dripped down, followed by wails.

The first Corruptor fell from the black hole. Its flesh and blood were mutated to pitch black, its dirty, blackened clothes were tattered, its teeth were sharp, its hands had claws, and its fluffy, messy hair floated on its own.

This Corruptor began to free-fall. Immediately, hundreds of Corruptors leaked out from the black hole above, screaming as they fell. Those pairs of dark green eyes, looking to devour people, made one's scalp tingle.

Boom! Boom! Boom...

Inside the Platinum Capital below, magnetic conduction cannons and various weapons fired, blasting the ten thousand Corruptors falling from the sky into pieces.

This falling-style attack lasted for about ten minutes. The flesh and blood of the Corruptors blasted apart burned many buildings in the Platinum Capital below into black-red, mixing the smell of blood with gunpowder smoke.

No more Corruptors fell from the black hole in the sky. Seeing this, the Company officials in the command post gradually relaxed their expressions. Their Platinum Capital had withstood the first wave of the Nether attack; this was worth celebrating with champagne.

The morale of the defenders in the city was clearly much higher. Before the Nether invasion, they were so scared they couldn't sleep well. After seeing it for themselves today, was that it?

Drip, drip~

Dark green liquid continued to drip from the black hole in the sky. No one noticed a thick black membrane covering the black hole, and this thick membrane was currently dissolving.

Pop~

The membrane sealing the black hole shattered. The next second, a continuous screeching sound came, and countless Corruptors fell from the sky, forming a pouring cylinder several kilometers thick. The number of Corruptors was impossible to calculate. Dark green smoke poured down with them. The scene was both spectacular and gave one an instinctive sense of trembling and fear.

Faces filled with hatred and resentment stared fixedly at the Platinum Capital below, locking onto the aura of the living inside the buildings. These Corruptors hated the living extremely and would indiscriminately slaughter all living beings.

In front of the window on the top floor of the command post, Company major shareholder Aiteqi Fuke watched this scene in a daze, not even noticing the cigar falling from his fingers.

20 minutes and 32 seconds later.

The Platinum Capital, fallen. ===== CHAPTER 3508 =====