Chapter 3611: Uses of the Origin Stone

The contact with the Sun Sect went smoothly. Originally, they had agreed to meet at noon at the "Palm Hotel," but by the morning, the place had been sealed off, and it was closed before noon.

Seeing this, Baha could only reschedule with them at a nearby restaurant. As for why the first meeting between the two sides wasn't held at the Asylum or the Sun Sect's church—talking in a restaurant versus talking in those two places were two completely different concepts.

As it turned out, before noon even arrived, that restaurant was also sealed off. It was practically telling the Sun Sect outright not to get involved in this confrontation.

In the past, the Sun Sect would not have easily offended Vice Dean Yesinger and the Dawn Sect. Although these Sun fanatics had been annoyed with those religious hypocrites for a long time, there was no need to offend them.

But this time it was different. The Bishop, who had full authority to represent the Sun Sect, immediately stated that they would head to the Dusk Asylum tonight to discuss with Dean Bai Ye about replacing the monastery as the new correction and rehabilitation department for the criminals.

This Sun Bishop's claim was not fabricated. The members of the monastery were actually ascetics; they truly wanted the criminals to turn over a new leaf, but the process was a bit creepy. Right now, these ascetics wanted to go to a remote place to continue their asceticism. If not for the Old Dean's repeated requests for them to stay, they would have left long ago.

With the change in Dean, the monastery brought this matter up again, meaning their members were too few to fulfill the function of correcting and rehabilitating the criminals.

Whether it was Su Xiao or those Sun Bishops, neither would cooperate without a reason. The Council was not just for show, and this reason was the most suitable one right now.

Su Xiao checked the time; it was only noon, still a few hours away from the agreed-upon 8:00 PM. He checked the prompt that had appeared earlier regarding the mission situation.

【Prompt: Your Main Mission · Start Hunting · First Ring (Completed).】

【You have obtained Origin Stone (Common).】

【You have triggered Main Mission · Second Ring.】

【Main Mission: Bounty (Second Ring)】

Difficulty Level: Lv. 80–Lv. 85.

Mission Brief: Successfully hunt two or more enemies (limited to enemies on the bounty list).

Mission Deadline: 10 natural days.

Mission Reward: Origin Stone × 2.

Prompt: After promoting to the Ninth Tier, the main mission reward for the first world will definitely be Origin Stones. The specific quantity will be determined based on mission difficulty, completion rate, and other factors.

Mission Penalty: Forced execution.

……

After seeing the prompt below the mission reward, a bad premonition suddenly surged in Su Xiao's heart. He held a "let's try it and see" attitude and checked the attributes of this common Origin Stone. He discovered that its attributes were similar to the common Origin Stone he had obtained before. He checked whether the Origin Stone had other uses besides being a strange object, and the answer he got made him realize why he had a bad premonition.

Besides carrying it on one's person to enjoy the attached effects, the common Origin Stone had another use: it was used to strengthen Origin-level weapons.

Su Xiao suddenly remembered why, after obtaining common Origin Stones in the past, he could sell them on his stall for 5,000 Soul Coins in no time. It turned out this thing was a rare consumable after reaching the Ninth Tier.

After checking the relevant data, Su Xiao found that the situation was not as bad as he had imagined. Strengthening weapons in the Paradise was not like in a game where only the materials became high-level while the strengthening method remained the same.

Compared to the strengthening of Immortal-level weapons, the strengthening of Origin-level weapons followed a different principle. Immortal-level weapon strengthening involved hard-stacking Immortal Power, which meant that +1 required 1 Immortal Stone, +2 required 2 Immortal Stones, and so on.

Once reaching the Origin level, the hard-stacking strengthening method was no longer possible. The strengthening method for Origin-level weapons was a metamorphic increase: using a certain amount of Origin Power to trigger the Origin Power within the equipment, thereby completing a quantitative change with the assistance of the equipment strengthening machine.

In plain language, now, for Origin-level weapons from +1 to +10, each strengthening requires one Origin Stone. The corresponding risk is that the base success rate is lower. For example, the success rate for an Immortal-level +8 is about 30%; at the Origin level, it might only be about 17%. This is the risk corresponding to the metamorphic increase.

Su Xiao felt that this strengthening method was inexplicably unfriendly to him. Although theoretically, going from +1 to +10 only requires 10 common Origin Stones, that only stays in theory.

Su Xiao still had a good grasp of his own luck. A high-EQ way of saying it is that his luck had allowed him to endure more trials along the way, giving him a firmer heart.

Don't know how many tough guys have fallen on the strengthening of Origin-level weapons. However, what is gratifying is that most Origin-level equipment and armor can still be strengthened in the Equipment Strengthening Hall using Soul Coins, it's just that the cost is a bit high.

Compared to using common Origin Stones to raise an Origin-level weapon from +1 to +10, an Origin-level weapon above +10 is a fatal blow to the wallet.

If you are satisfied with an Origin-level weapon strengthened to +10, that's fine. If you are not satisfied, go find or buy those rare Origin Stones with suffixes, such as "Origin Stone · Fragmented," "Origin Stone · Silver Queen," "Origin Stone · Chaos Fire," etc.

The more superior the rare Origin Stone used, the higher the success rate of this strengthening.

Of course, if Su Xiao is willing, "Origin Stone · World Fragment" can also be used as a strengthening material for +10 and above, and it is guaranteed to have a 100% success rate, even if it is a fragment.

Every time Su Xiao thinks of "Origin Stone · World," he simultaneously thinks of that brother who inlaid an "Origin Stone · World" onto a mining shovel.

Although this matter "topped" the "Apocalypse Paradise Top Ten Brain-Aneurysm Events of the Year" list, one has to say, that brother was actually quite witty. No matter how good a supreme treasure is, being coveted by others is a root of disaster. So that brother used the "Origin Stone · World" as a gemstone. Plus, the inlay characteristics of Origin Stones are different from gemstones; there is no such operation as stripping an inlay. The inlay of an Origin Stone is actually melting into the inlaid part.

In this way, no one would covet it to rob it. First, it involves investigation and tracking costs; second, even if robbed, it's useless; finally, one can't afford to lose face. If one really succeeded, it would most likely top the "Apocalypse Paradise Top Ten Silly Events of the Year" list.

Su Xiao closed the mission list. The second ring of the main mission gave a ten-day deadline, which made his subsequent plans more flexible.

However, there was one thing to deal with right now: whether to immediately go and save the Old Dean's family who had been kidnapped.

On the surface, the Old Dean ceded his position to Su Xiao, so he should naturally go to the rescue immediately. The problem is, was the Old Dean's ceding of his position really out of kindness?

Judging from various clues, it represented that it was not. First, talk about the monastery. The ascetics there seemed to want to live in seclusion in the deep mountains. The problem is, they hadn't lived in seclusion for so many years, but chose to do so at the critical moment when the Old Dean stepped down and the new Dean took office. Isn't this giving the new Dean a hard time?

A force like the monastery, which is not recognized by the Alliance, wouldn't do such a suicidal thing. Then there is only one other possibility: the monastery is wary of someone, and that person is Vice Dean Yesinger.

More accurately, the Old Dean's stepping down was not because he wanted to, but because he really couldn't fight Vice Dean Yesinger anymore. These two old guys had fought each other for most of their lives. In their later years, they didn't reach a relationship of mutual recognition or becoming friends-enemies; instead, whoever stepped down from their position would be dealt with in minutes.

Because of the Dawn Sect matter, the Old Dean had a strained relationship with the Council. Losing the Council's support meant the Old Dean had practically lost power. Under such circumstances, his retirement was an inevitable result.

But this old guy was very smart. He knew that once he stepped down, Vice Dean Yesinger would kill him. So he used his remaining connections and authority to cede the Dean's position to a strong person who had strength but no connections—which was the identity Su Xiao replaced when entering this world.

In this way, Vice Dean Yesinger had to choose one of two: deal with the newly appointed Su Xiao, or the Old Dean who had just stepped down. With Vice Dean Yesinger's steady and ruthless style, he wouldn't deal with both at the same time, which would lead to Su Xiao and the Old Dean being forced to cooperate. If things went wrong, Su Xiao might end up with both powerful strength and most of the Old Dean's connections. In that case, Su Xiao would be Vice Dean Yesinger's formidable enemy.

Vice Dean Yesinger's choice was to deal with the Old Dean who was on the run. After dealing with the Old Dean, he would naturally come to find Su Xiao, preparing to use his scheming methods to snatch the Dean's position from Su Xiao, a guy with powerful combat strength but average strategy.

Vice Dean Yesinger's process of dealing with the Old Dean went smoothly. But when he was preparing to clean up Su Xiao, he suddenly found that things were a bit wrong. Before he could even make a move, Su Xiao had actually joined forces with Tessa, the leader of the Hunter Troops, to eliminate the Abyss-spawned creature that had been trapped in the third level of the dungeon for many years.

Vice Dean Yesinger certainly understood Tessa. He knew clearly that Tessa didn't have the means to do this; otherwise, Tessa, who wanted to ascend to the position of Grand Councilor, would have done this long ago.

In Vice Dean Yesinger's view, it must have been Su Xiao who eliminated the Abyss-spawned creature and gave the credit for this matter to Tessa, in order to cooperate with her.

Precisely because of this, in Vice Dean Yesinger's speculation, the Asylum and the Hunter Troops must have reached a cooperation they had never tried before. This was undoubtedly a provocation to the Council.

In the past, Vice Dean Yesinger wouldn't have thought Tessa would make such a choice, but the current situation was too subtle.

This involved why the Council, which had always supported the Old Dean, suddenly stopped supporting him. The cause of this matter was the Dawn Sect's preparation to expand within the Alliance.

As one of the four recognized religious sects in this world, the Dawn Sect's headquarters was in the Saint Lan Kingdom, and over 80% of its believers were civilians, nobles, and royalty of the Saint Lan Kingdom.

In the past, if the Dawn Sect dared to develop towards the Alliance, it would be purely asking for a beating. This was the territory of the Golden Sect.

The Alliance, Saint Lan Kingdom, and Desert Kingdom of this world all had prevalent religious sects, except for the Northern Empire. The folk customs there were fierce, and the risk of going there to preach was relatively high.

Within the Alliance's territory, the Golden Sect was the most prosperous; the Saint Lan Kingdom was inseparable from the Dawn Sect; and the Desert Kingdom was dominated by the Sun Sect. This was destined by geography and climate.

As for the Dark Sect, its members roamed between the Alliance, Saint Lan Kingdom, and Northern Empire, but never went to the Desert Kingdom, mainly because the Sun fanatics were generally better at fighting, and one couldn't get any advantage there.

The Golden Sect members within the Alliance territory did not believe in a god, but in an idea: constantly breaking through oneself, thereby giving birth to Golden Power. That is, asceticism—no, it should be a physical-refining religious sect. The monastery was actually one of the oldest branches of the Golden Sect.

These guys who liked to refine their bodies often did things that made people jaw-dropping. Over time, the Council became increasingly annoyed. They found that the religious factions within the Alliance were either body-refining fanatics, Sun fanatics, or wandering Dark Sect members. Look at the Dawn Sect; isn't it good to peacefully believe in a god?

Interestingly, among the four religious sects, the only one that truly believed in a god was the Dawn Sect. The other three: the Golden Sect believed in Golden Power, the Sun Sect believed in the Sun, and the Dark Sect believed in the Abyss.

This time, the Alliance allowed the Dawn Sect to preach, but they actually had no good intentions. The Alliance high-level officials never thought of letting the Dawn Sect develop within the Alliance, but were prepared to let it clash with the Golden Sect and the Sun Sect, thereby consuming the power of the Golden Sect and the Sun Sect within the Alliance territory.

Directly attacking the Golden Sect would violate the four-sect contract established at the beginning, so they adopted this method. It seemed like inviting a wolf into the house, but in this room, there was more than one wolf—the Dawn Sect.

The Old Dean of the Asylum had too close a relationship with the Golden Sect. This meant that if the Council wanted to suppress the Golden Sect and support the Dawn Sect, they were destined to first make the Old Dean lose power and let someone who could represent the Dawn Sect within the Alliance stand in a high position.

This high position could not be in the Council. The Alliance high-level officials never thought of letting the Dawn Sect touch the Alliance's rule. Letting the Dawn Sect preach within the Alliance territory was entirely because the members of the Dawn Sect were normal.

The Hunter Troops wouldn't work either; that was the most combat-capable department in the Alliance. Finally, they chose the Asylum. Just as they were about to make a move, the Old Dean took the initiative.

Originally, the Alliance didn't pay much attention to this move by the Old Dean, but when the Alliance was preparing to act, they were "surprised" to find that the newly appointed Dean of the Asylum seemed to be better at fighting than the one in the Hunter Troops.

Therefore, on the surface, it was a confrontation between Su Xiao + Sun Sect and Vice Dean Yesinger + Dawn Sect, but in fact, there were undercurrents surging below, and the interest relationships were intricate and complicated.

Su Xiao always had an idea: compared to dealing with Dawn Sect members and bishops, he would rather go find the Dawn Sect's god, the "God of Radiance," and deal with that god. Wouldn't that solve the problem from the root?

Dealing with a Ninth-Tier god-type, Su Xiao still had a lot of advantages. The Nine-Star combat-type title 【Hunter】 was not just for show, with a maximum 30% extra true damage bonus, plus the high amount of true damage from Su Xiao's Blue Steel Shadow ability, even a god couldn't withstand it.

Su Xiao recently needed God's Source Blood very much. He estimated that this God of Radiance's God's Source Blood would not be little.

Compared to these infightings, Su Xiao had one thing to deal with first: whether to go save the Old Dean. This old guy ran away after ceding his position, so he definitely had no good intentions. It was typical that he wanted Su Xiao to be a scapegoat. But conversely, before leaving, this old guy left a key to a storage box of the Merchant Alliance Bank in the office safe, which was obviously leaving a benefit.

Su Xiao's idea was, if this benefit was enough, he would save the Old Dean and demand the mental damage compensation he deserved for being a scapegoat.

Saving the Old Dean was not a difficult task. One didn't need to think to know that although kidnapping the Old Dean's family was Vice Dean Yesinger's idea, the group of people who actually did this thing definitely had nothing to do with Vice Dean Yesinger. Such a handle, Vice Dean Yesinger would definitely not leave behind.

Coming to the bedroom, Su Xiao looked at the Holy Snake floating above the 【Bad Luck Statue】. The Holy Snake had already absorbed a lot of bad luck. He didn't plan to let the Holy Snake continue to absorb bad luck. It was time to let this 【Bad Luck Statue】 exert its due effect, which was to give it to his enemy.

Sending the 【Bad Luck Statue】 directly to Vice Dean Yesinger, the probability of it reaching Vice Dean Yesinger's hands was slim, but it didn't matter. Su Xiao had a way to make Vice Dean Yesinger's people take the 【Bad Luck Statue】 voluntarily.

Leaving Amu to watch the house, Su Xiao took Xiang Ignoring Bubu Wang and Baha out. Xiang Bubu drove. After the vehicle drove out of the Asylum, it headed straight for the commercial district in the city center.

When Su Xiao arrived near the Merchant Alliance Bank in the commercial district, he found there were several other banks here, such as the Saint Capital Bank, Golden Bank, etc.

The gold in this world was not the same thing as gold in other worlds. Because of the prevalence of the Golden Sect in this world, the gold referred to here was a rare metal with excellent activity. Whether for the Golden Sect or other forces, this was a rare resource. The catalyst for gravity alloy was made of this active metal.

Su Xiao looked at a couple at the entrance of the Golden Bank. These two seemed intimate, but they were actually observing the surroundings, which was very suspicious.

Su Xiao had been an Iron Hand, a Deputy Corps Commander of the Execution Agency, a God Hunter, and a Deputy Corps Commander of the Containment Agency in the past, so he had some grasp of judgment in this regard. He guessed that these two were keeping watch, and a group of stupid thieves had set their sights on the Golden Bank.

The reason for calling this group stupid thieves was that smart people really couldn't do this. The Golden Bank was a financial institution directly under the Alliance, and the financial institution was the Council's money bag. Anyone with a brain wouldn't choose the Golden Bank as a target. Even if they robbed the Saint Capital Bank next to it, they wouldn't rob the Golden Bank.

However, this had nothing to do with Su Xiao. His current duty was to keep criminals imprisoned in the Asylum's dungeon. This kind of petty thief didn't need him to manage.

Su Xiao took Xiang Ignoring Bubu Wang and Baha into the Merchant Alliance Bank diagonally opposite. After showing the storage box key to the bank clerk, the manager of the Merchant Alliance Bank came to receive him in person after a while.

More than ten minutes later, Su Xiao stood in front of an inlaid metal cabinet and opened the storage cabinet with the key in his hand. As the storage cabinet opened, the first thing that caught his eye was 15 Soul Crystals, as well as some unique art pieces. He picked up one of the strangely shaped metal cups.

【Holy Grail of Light】

Origin: Shadow World.

Quality: Valuable Item.

Item Effect: Appreciation (Passive). An object full of historical sense, left behind by the first civilization of this world. It has existed for a long time. Because it was worshipped under a god statue for a long time, the precipitation of thousands of years has made this object different. Appreciating this object can make one's mood slightly calm and has a certain effect of seeking advantages and avoiding disadvantages.

Prompt: Because the corresponding god has fallen, this item can only be sold as a valuable item.

Price: 2,680 Soul Coins (Valuable item acquisition price; selling to Reincarnation Paradise or Tree of the Void can maximize profit in most cases).

……

Seeing this thing, Su Xiao was quite surprised. He had seen "valuable items" before, but this was the first time he had seen one so valuable.

There were two other valuable items in the storage cabinet. Counting the Holy Grail of Light, the total value was over 8,000 Soul Coins. Plus the 15 Soul Crystals, this was a considerable gain.

Su Xiao had just put away all the valuable items when he found a note at the bottom of the storage cabinet. It was in the Old Dean's handwriting, which read:

"Come save me and my family. I have stored wealth equivalent to five times this amount in the safe of the Golden Bank opposite."

If one multiplied the gains this time by five, it would be 75 Soul Crystals + over 40,000 Soul Coins. Obviously, that old guy had prepared a backup plan long ago.

"Baha, go tell Silver Face to find out within five hours which force kidnapped the Old Dean."

Su Xiao crushed the note between his fingers into powder, then put the 【Bad Luck Statue】 into the storage cabinet, locked it, took the key, and went to the counter to handle the deposit business. Finally, he paid a considerable amount of Gulang.

Everything Su Xiao did fell into the eyes of a man behind the curtains on the third floor across the street. Beside him floated an unfolded notebook and a quill pen. The quill pen was writing by itself, recording the fact that Su Xiao had deposited things in the Merchant Alliance Bank's storage cabinet.

Sending the 【Bad Luck Statue】 to Vice Dean Yesinger's side voluntarily, that side would definitely be suspicious. But if Su Xiao deposited the 【Bad Luck Statue】 in the bank's storage cabinet, Vice Dean Yesinger's subordinates responsible for monitoring Su Xiao would definitely try every means to steal the 【Bad Luck Statue】, and after confirming that there was nothing wrong with it, send it to Vice Dean Yesinger.

As for whether Vice Dean Yesinger's subordinates would discover the bad luck effect carried by the 【Bad Luck Statue】, the probability was very low. This thing was a product of the Soul Crown. If it weren't for checking its attributes with the brand's notarization, even Su Xiao wouldn't have felt that there was anything wrong with this thing.

Furthermore, who would suspect that a treasure stolen with great effort was dangerous? People generally tend to believe their subconscious judgment more.

Su Xiao took Xiang Ignoring Bubu Wang and Baha and left the Merchant Alliance Bank, letting the gold-medal bodyguard Dre escort the storage cabinet key and hand it to a Sun Bishop.

As a result, in less than 20 minutes, the storage cabinet key escorted by the gold-medal bodyguard Dre was stolen. This was actually the result Su Xiao wanted to see. If he really hoped that the storage cabinet key would be safe and sound, he wouldn't have let Dre deliver it.

Half an hour later, the Merchant Alliance Bank caught fire, but it was quickly extinguished. It seemed like just an accident, but in reality, a certain storage cabinet in the bank had already been opened.

Two hours later, in a luxurious villa of a manor, the 【Bad Luck Statue】 was placed on a small table. An old man with sunken eye sockets and a serious, somewhat gloomy aura was examining the 【Bad Luck Statue】. This person was Vice Dean Yesinger.

Yesinger looked at his trusted subordinate. The subordinate nodded, indicating that the 【Bad Luck Statue】 had been checked. This thing was neither poisoned nor had the possibility of exploding; it was a very safe and rare object.

Seeing this, Yesinger picked up the 【Bad Luck Statue】 and waved his hand, letting his subordinates retreat. Yesinger examined the 【Bad Luck Statue】. He had already seen the extraordinariness of this thing, but he couldn't figure out why Su Xiao wanted to secretly gift this thing to the Sun Bishop, and in order to cover up, he even used the Merchant Alliance Bank's storage cabinet as a transit point.

"Strange."

Yesinger, wearing dark-colored robe pajamas, frowned. In this matter, behaviors that he couldn't understand were revealed everywhere.

Yesinger subconsciously picked up his teacup. Just after taking a sip, he felt that he couldn't catch his breath and choked heavily on the spot. This caused him to cough repeatedly. He subconsciously reached out to support the small table, but ended up knocking the therapeutic medicinal oil on it onto the floor.

Yesinger, who was choking and coughing, took two steps back to avoid slipping on the medicinal oil on the floor. Born without extraordinary power, his physique was only slightly better than an ordinary person's. But this step back was not good; he happened to trip over the stool leg, which caused him to fall backward immediately. This was still not the main point; because he was holding the 【Bad Luck Statue】 in his hand, this thing had already been flung up. After spinning a few times and stabilizing, it fell straight towards Yesinger's face.

Yesinger raised his hand to block. Bang, bang, two sounds. The first sound was the 【Bad Luck Statue】 hitting his right forearm, and the second sound was his subordinate bumping open the door.

"Don't move, it's broken."

Yesinger spoke, and his subordinate stopped immediately.

After a while, Yesinger sat up from the floor by himself. He narrowed his eyes, and the ruthlessness in his eyes made his several powerful subordinates feel cold.

"A bad luck ornament that causes bad luck to people? You really have your ways, Bai Ye. However, is your method only to this extent?"

Yesinger looked at his slightly deformed right forearm and didn't pay much attention to it. But just at this moment, he suddenly heard the sound of wind. It was his several trusted subordinates who had already surrounded him, protecting him in the center.

"How..."

Boom!

A loud noise came, the villa's glass shattered, and the wall was cracked inch by inch by the shockwave. Just when Yesinger thought that a powerful assassin had arrived, everything gradually calmed down.

In the ruins of the villa filled with dust, Yesinger's face was gloomy. He asked: "Is it someone sent by Bai Ye?"

"No... no, my lord."

The masked subordinate spoke. Seeing him stuttering, Yesinger felt suspicious.

The masked subordinate deliberated and said: "My lord, it was a meteorite, not very big, that fell into the manor."

"What?"

Yesinger suddenly realized that the situation seemed more serious than he had guessed. ===== CHAPTER 3612 =====