Chapter 3620: Fusion

A large number of prompts appeared. Su Xiao checked them and knew that this was because of the positive feedback brought about by solving the nightmare area and eliminating the Abyss-derived creature before. This also represented one point: there was the existence of world consciousness in this world.

Su Xiao had experienced similar situations and had a rough understanding of world consciousness. In general, world consciousness would not actively favor which living creature, nor would it punish living creatures that did evil, but would give positive feedback after living creatures made behaviors beneficial to the state of the world, no matter what purpose these living creatures did these things for.

For example, in Su Xiao's current situation, he eliminated the nightmare area and eliminated the Indestructible-characteristic Abyss-derived creature, not to get feedback from the world consciousness of this world, but to achieve his own goals.

Having feedback was always a good thing. The last time Su Xiao received similar feedback was in the Wizard World. He checked the several gains obtained this time.

Luck was temporarily increased by 10 points, which could be considered useful. The Luck attribute reached 70 points, which was indeed very bluffing. If it were detected by other contractors, they would definitely exclaim, "Holy shit! This guy is a Luck-specialized Hunter who mainly improves the Luck attribute. If he is not a Causality-type ability, he is a Fate-type ability. Must be guarded against."

The main attribute of the Causality-type and Fate-type contractors was the Luck attribute. There was no doubt that the strength of these two types of contractors was average in the early stage and stronger in the later stage.

However, Su Xiao basically hadn't encountered Causality-type and Fate-type contractors from the 1st tier to the 9th tier. The reason was that the contractors of these two types would not fight head-on with the enemy. They observed in the dark and then acted quietly.

The problem lay here. In fact, Su Xiao had encountered Causality-type and Fate-type enemies before. However, after these two types of enemies activated their abilities on Su Xiao in the dark, their psychological changes were basically as follows:

Activate ability → Invalid → Doubt → Use ability again → Still invalid → Very doubtful → Activate ability for the third time → Still invalid → Confused → Started to doubt their own abilities → Looked at Su Xiao far away in disbelief → Quietly walked away and never met again.

Su Xiao continued to flip down the prompts. Besides increasing the Luck attribute, the treasure chest drop rate increased by 21%.

Seeing this gain, Su Xiao suddenly remembered three people, namely Mo Lei, Moon Apostle, and Hao Mei. Once, when he caught the three of them, he didn't know why, but Xiang Bubu Wang and Xiang Bubu Wang chatted with the three of them about whether the treasure chest drop rate under different Paradise notarizations was also different. When talking about the treasure chest drop rate of killing leader-level units, the three of them had big doubts in their eyes.

At that time, all three of them wanted to say one sentence, which was: "Isn't killing leader-level units a guaranteed drop of treasure chests? What's the point of talking about the treasure chest drop rate?" But because Xiang Bubu Wang secretly shook its head and Xiang Bubu Wang had a bad smile, the three of them secretly glanced at Su Xiao and finally swallowed the words they wanted to say, pretending nothing had happened.

Ignoring the gain of the treasure chest drop rate, Su Xiao continued to check down. World Reputation +45 points, this was quite useful. Checking down further, 35-point negotiation correction judgment, this was useless.

Closing the prompt, Su Xiao had arrived in front of the ancient tree cultivated by the Nightmare King. At this moment, this ancient tree was only ten meters high, withered to the point that cracks were all over the trunk. The 【Bloodthirsty Battle Armor】 climbing on it no longer revealed scarlet meridians, representing that it had completed absorption.

Su Xiao could feel that the 【Bloodthirsty Battle Armor】 at this moment was no longer a dead object. To be precise, the origin of this thing was greater than the Ancient Mask.

This thing was initially an extremely powerful Abyss-derived creature. Its combat power was only one notch weaker than the Eternal God in his peak period. After being defeated by the Eternal God, the God Sect of the Dark Continent suppressed it under the temple for an era. Later, to prevent it from being suppressed, it was forged into a battle armor, which was the Bloodthirsty Battle Armor.

Other sets were each equipment benefiting each other, but the set of the Bloodthirsty Battle Armor was another matter. The other five pieces in the six-piece set were all used to seal it. At this moment, the Bloodthirsty Battle Armor absorbed the ancient tree, and the other four pieces of the set in the team storage space had already exploded. The last piece, 【Wolf's Will (Immortal-level, cloak)】, was already full of cracks, and shattering was just a matter of time.

The biggest change was the Bloodthirsty Battle Armor itself. This thing was no longer a set, nor did it have equipment quality. This was clearly heading toward a "quasi-Daddy-level" item. Because its foundation was a powerful Abyss-derived creature, the speed of moving toward the "quasi-Daddy-level" was faster than the Ancient Mask.

Su Xiao had obtained 【Abyss Bud (Abyss-level item)】 by eliminating the Indestructible-characteristic Abyss-derived creature before. He estimated that if he let the Bloodthirsty Battle Armor absorb this thing, maybe this world progress would end, and the strength of the Bloodthirsty Battle Armor would catch up with the Ancient Mask.

Why it was so rapid was because the "Abyss characteristic" contained within the 【Abyss Bud (Abyss-level item)】 was important. Don't forget, "Daddy-level" items like the Abyss Jar and Ancient Mask were called 【Abyss Items】 in the Paradise's notarization. From this, one could imagine how important the "Abyss characteristic" was to items like the Bloodthirsty Battle Armor and Ancient Mask.

In the process of creating the Ancient Mask, the stage with the highest return was the early stage when the Ancient Mask

This is the harvest period for creating "quasi-daddy-tier" items, where one can use these "quasi-daddy-tier" items without cost. Once this stage passes, the "quasi-daddy-tier" item enters the detachment period—which is the current stage of the Ancient Mask—always wanting to slip away from Su Xiao to find an opportunity to take that step toward becoming a "daddy-tier" item; this is the most difficult step.

In other words, continuing to invest resources into the Ancient Mask is a very unwise choice. As for how many more times it can be used, that depends on fate. If it slips away during this period, there is no need to force it to stay.

Conversely, for the Bloodthirsty War Armor, if it is allowed to absorb the 【Abyssal Seed (Abyssal-tier item)】, this thing might enter the early "quasi-daddy-tier" stage in the next world progress, which is the stage where it can be used without cost.

Su Xiao took out the 【Abyssal Seed (Abyssal-tier item)】. The next instant, the Bloodthirsty War Armor climbed onto Su Xiao's right arm, and scarlet meridians resembling blood vessels extended out, surrounding Su Xiao's clenched right hand.

Su Xiao loosened his hand, holding the 【Abyssal Seed】 in his palm. The meridians of the Bloodthirsty War Armor wrapped around the 【Abyssal Seed】, rolling it into the interior of its semi-biological, semi-metallic tissue to wrap it up and absorb it.

Seeing this, Su Xiao put the 【Abyssal Seed】 into the team storage space and took a look at the situation inside; the 【Wolf's Will (Immortal-tier cloak)】 had completely shattered.

Su Xiao looked around and found that the area was still filled with deep purple dense fog. This large nightmare zone would not disappear for at least another month. After the Nightmare King died, there were no other dangers here. There was one thing Su Xiao wanted to know: would there be mineral deposits within the nightmare zone?

This place was safe enough. Even if Beast Hunter groups came here later, the possibility of them exploring underground from the start was very low. Thus, leaving the Silent Servant and the Tunneling Servant here to mine underground was a good choice.

There would be no need to pick them up later. As long as Su Xiao could leave this world, these two mining brothers would naturally be teleported back to Su Xiao's exclusive room. Returning with them would be the minerals in the large alloy box on the Silent Servant's back.

Thinking of this, Su Xiao activated his brand and summoned the two mining brothers. After the Silent Servant and the Tunneling Servant were summoned, the Silent Servant began to survey. Before long, it chose a location, and the Tunneling Servant began to dig underground.

In less than an hour, the ground returned to its original state, while hundreds of meters below, the Tunneling Servant was still digging downward. Seeing this, Su Xiao walked toward the three-masted bone ship at the island's edge.

Upon reaching the coast, Su Xiao found that Xiang Bubu Wang had already put on several mechanical prosthetic limbs and started modifying the bone ship, mainly to install a sufficiently powerful propulsion system to return to Skull Island as soon as possible.

As for being attacked by sea beasts, it had already been proven on the way here: after the auras of Su Xiao, Platinum Bishop, and the others were released, the sea beasts in the Dark Sea were merely violent, not suicidal.

Not letting Xiang Bubu Wang modify this bone ship on the way here was to give Angry Shark, who had defected to the Nightmare King, a chance to show off his acting skills. Otherwise, both Angry Shark and the Nightmare King would inevitably grow suspicious.

And returning directly to the Alliance from here via a teleportation array was certainly feasible. The problem was that activating a space teleportation array in an area that had been invaded by the Abyss was unwise. It was safer to wait until reaching Skull Island, at the very edge of this region, to set up the teleportation array.

With a 'plop', a dead Beast Hunter group member was thrown into the sea by the Beast Knight. This was one of the dozen or so Beast Hunter group members hired on Skull Island for 50 Pirate Gold Coins on the way here. In fact, these dozen people were all pirates and former subordinates of Angry Shark. This time, they disguised themselves as Beast Hunters with the goal of coming to Nightmare Island together, and after Su Xiao and the others landed, they would sail the bone ship away, leaving Su Xiao and the others with no way back.

The result, however, was that after Amu and Baham went deep into Nightmare Island, they split up. Amu, who triggered the Stray War Bull, saw his strength greatly increase, while Baham turned back and assassinated these dozen pirates.

Su Xiao walked on the frozen path on the sea surface. After reaching the vicinity of the bone ship, he leaped onto the deck and began to sit cross-legged on top of the captain's cabin to meditate. Before long, the Red-Eyed Woman also jumped up, imitating Su Xiao's posture to meditate. After a while, Drai also jumped up and began to meditate.

An hour later, Drai couldn't help but scratch his face and couldn't sit still. Before long, he lit a cigar and sat at the edge of the captain's cabin smoking it.

In less than two hours, the Red-Eyed Woman's aura became calm. However, judging by those even and comfortable nasal breaths, she hadn't entered a meditative state; she had entered dreamland.

Boom!

The entire bone ship lurched forward. A few seconds later, Xiang Bubu Wang ran to the bow, jumped onto the newly installed driver's seat, and with full power, the bone ship began to sail at high speed, heading straight for Skull Island.

The voyage went smoothly, but even with the auras of Su Xiao, Platinum Bishop, and the others fully released, one sea beast still attacked the bone ship, eventually becoming everyone's lunch.

Xiang Bubu Wang's modified bone ship was much faster than a giant shark pulling the ship. Even though they went in the wrong direction midway, by dusk, they had still arrived near Skull Island.

Before docking at Skull Island, Su Xiao first had Xiang Bubu Wang dismantle all the modified structures added to the bone ship in the coastal area before docking at the pier.

Returning to the inn where they had temporarily stayed, Su Xiao had Drai, Silver Face, and Amu go find the seller of this bone ship again to sell the bone ship back. They bought it for 4,600 Pirate Gold Coins and sold it back for 4,000 Pirate Gold Coins.

Although the ship merchant felt bewildered and checked the bone ship multiple times to ensure there were no problems, he decided to buy the ship back for 4,300 Pirate Gold Coins. It wasn't that this old pirate was kind-hearted; it was mainly because he felt that Silver Face and Amu were both very difficult to provoke, even though neither of them had said a word the whole time, and Drai had done all the negotiating.

Counting the remaining Pirate Gold Coins from before, there were a total of over 6,000 left. After Su Xiao kept 20, he divided the rest into nine portions. Xiang Bubu Wang, Amu, Baham, Drai, Silver Face, Veronica, Platinum Bishop, the Red-Eyed Woman, and the Beast Knight each received an equal share of 660 Pirate Gold Coins.

In the guest room on the third floor of the inn, past nine in the evening, Baham flew in from the window and said, "Boss, the underground market here is quite lively. Aren't you going to take a look?"

"..."

Su Xiao exited his meditative state and checked the time. Seeing this, Baham landed on Su Xiao's shoulder. Under its guidance, Su Xiao first went from the back door of a tavern into a back alley that was blocked at both ends, then followed the stairs downward, passed through a large iron gate guarded by three burly men, and arrived in an underground space. This was the largest underground market in the area.

The lighting was somewhat dim, adding a mysterious atmosphere to the place. People here were either sitting on the ground setting up stalls or selling goods from small wooden carts.

With nothing better to do, Su Xiao began to stroll in front of the stalls one by one. There were indeed good things here; he even saw an unnotarized Immortal-tier piece of equipment, but unfortunately, he only had 20 Pirate Gold Coins on hand and couldn't afford it.

As for why he didn't keep more Pirate Gold Coins: this time coming to Nightmare Island, although Platinum Bishop, Silver Face, and the others didn't do much, only clearing out some of the Nightmare King's subordinates, they still came. Choosing to come to Nightmare Island was an attitude in itself. In Su Xiao's view, they deserved sufficient compensation.

After strolling for a while, Su Xiao stopped in front of a stall. Sitting behind this stall was a thin old man with graying beard braided into a beard-braid, and his pale eyes had no pupils.

This blind old man's wrinkled skin was bluish; this was a characteristic of the Soul Ghost race. Just as Su Xiao arrived at the blind old man's stall, the blind old man said:

"Dean Bai Ye, I've been waiting for you for a long time."

Hearing this, Su Xiao didn't speak; he had already vaguely guessed who this blind old man was.

"I declined Platinum's invitation, not because I was afraid to go to Nightmare Island, but because if I went now, I would only bring you misfortune."

"Oh? Did you divine what would happen on Nightmare Island?"

Su Xiao looked the blind old man up and down. If the other party had really divined everything that happened on Nightmare Island, there was no doubt that this was the strongest fortune-teller he had ever encountered, bar none—stronger than the predictions of the Dangerous Object S-001.

One must know that both the Candle Woman and the Lush Frenzy had descended onto Nightmare Island. During this period, Su Xiao had also taken out the Soul Crown. The intensity of the causality involved was shocking.

Su Xiao had already guessed who this blind old man was. Before going to Nightmare Island, Platinum Bishop said he was preparing to find a friend to go to Nightmare Island together, and also revealed that his friend was a fortune-teller. Now it seemed it was this blind old man. According to Platinum Bishop, those who knew this blind old man called him the Ghost Prophet.

"Of course I have no way to divine what happened on Nightmare Island; it had almost become a vortex of causality. But I can divine whether Dean Bai Ye can return to this place."

The Ghost Prophet's method of divination was very peculiar; he didn't care about the process, but rather bypassed the process to peek at just a tiny bit of the result.

"Purpose."

Su Xiao didn't believe that the Ghost Prophet in front of him would come to help him for no reason, bypassing Platinum Bishop.

"My purpose is to make the Sand King pay the price. I saw... I can't say. If I speak of this vision of the future, it will no longer appear. The future is like countless threads connected to the present; no one can rashly determine where it will truly lead. We fortune-tellers only see one of the threads; how dare we claim to foresee the future."

The Ghost Prophet was different from most fortune-tellers; at the very least, he didn't speak in riddles.

"However, Dean Bai Ye, there is one thing you must be prepared for: it is going to find you. After its previous owner died, it is going to find you. I helped you block it temporarily, but I can't block it for long."

The Ghost Prophet used the wooden blind cane in his hand to point at the 【Misfortune Statue】 on the stall. It was precisely the 【Misfortune Statue】 that Su Xiao had previously given to Vice Dean Yesinger.

"Much obliged."

With a 'ding', Su Xiao flicked a Pirate Gold Coin to the Ghost Prophet. After the Ghost Prophet grabbed the coin, he was first puzzled, then understood. This coin was not a reward of any kind, but a coin of causality. When the Ghost Prophet could no longer block the 【Misfortune Statue】, he would use the causality of this coin to make the 【Misfortune Statue】 find Su Xiao.

"I have a question to ask you."

"Please go ahead, Dean Bai Ye."

"Where is the burial ground of the Stealer?"

Su Xiao was looking for the Stealer's burial ground in order to obtain the other party's soul fragments, thereby erasing the Stealer's name from the kill list and obtaining the corresponding bounty.

"Dean Bai Ye, before I die, I will give you the answer. We will meet in the Saint Lan Kingdom."

After the Ghost Prophet finished speaking, the stall cloth he had laid on the ground rolled itself up. Before long, the Ghost Prophet disappeared among the pedestrians.

"Boss, could this guy be..."

Baham stopped halfway through his sentence, meaning, could the Ghost Prophet be an enemy?

"Unlikely."

Su Xiao walked toward the outside of the underground market. If the Ghost Prophet were an enemy, it was unlikely he would show up in this manner. A hidden fortune-teller was a much greater threat than one who had exposed himself.

Conversely, if the Ghost Prophet had foreseen that both sides had the same enemy, plus Su Xiao's current status and position, the possibility of the Ghost Prophet taking the initiative to find him was very high.

Su Xiao didn't return to the inn where he was staying, but instead came to the wilderness near the port town and began to set up a one-time teleportation array. The advantage of this kind of teleportation array was its low construction cost; the disadvantage was that the teleportation experience was relatively poor.

To use an analogy, if the teleportation experience of a perfect Demon Teleportation Array is -30, then the temporary Demon Teleportation Array's teleportation experience can reach about -50.

Su Xiao waited for less than half an hour before Platinum Bishop and the others arrived one after another. Among them, Drai, Veronica, and the Red-Eyed Woman were in good spirits, but when they saw the teleportation array in the night, their expressions stiffened somewhat. Veronica, in particular, was preparing to sneak away, but was caught by Silver Face.

A moment later, everyone stood on the teleportation array, and Su Xiao activated it.

The surrounding scene rotated, twisted, and blurred. When everything became clear again, Su Xiao had returned to his bedroom on the third floor of the asylum in Kuss City, Alliance.

"Everyone, turn right out of the office, and the restroom is ten meters away. Although the teleportation experience this time was a bit poor, it can help you improve your spatial resistance."

Baham landed on the door. It wasn't spouting nonsense; using this Demon Teleportation Array did indeed improve spatial resistance, especially the first few times it was used, when spatial resistance would surge.

The office lights were turned on, and Su Xiao sat behind the desk. Dealing with the Nightmare King this time was overall very smooth. The main reason was that the Nightmare King could not leave Nightmare Island, and Su Xiao used this to put the Nightmare King to death.

Taking out the 【Golden Can】, Su Xiao studied it for a moment but couldn't figure out how to open it. There must be some trick to this thing. If he really couldn't discover it, he would try to forcefully pry open the lid of this can.

Su Xiao also took out the 【Azure Melting Furnace】. The azure flames inside were still burning. The world's three-piece set had initially fused; it was time to add some rare items to enhance this fusion.

He first took out the 【Mechanical Core (Half-Damaged)】, which was obtained from killing the Steel Apostle. After activating the 【Azure Melting Furnace】, he threw this core into it. The next second, the core melted, turning into a stream of energy that fused into the azure flames.

Su Xiao pondered for a moment and took out the 【Blood of Fate (World-tier item)】, adding it to the mix. The Blood of Fate did not melt but instead directly submerged into the fusing world's three-piece set.

Su Xiao had originally planned to take out this Blood of Fate during the Dominator Hegemony Battle. Now it seemed that adding it to the fusion of the world's three-piece set, and then taking out the fused piece of equipment as the prize for the second stage of the Dominator Hegemony Battle, was a better choice.

The benefit was that this wasn't like the 【Blood of Fate (World-tier item)】, which couldn't be retrieved after being used; this was equipment and could be retrieved.

Searching in the storage space for a while longer, Su Xiao took out five 【Precipitated Glaze】, preparing to give this piece of equipment a slight Abyssal characteristic. 【Precipitated Glaze】 was a product of the Abyss, but its Abyssal characteristic wasn't considered strong and was relatively easy to accept.

Finally, Su Xiao took out the 【Source Blood of the Gods (World Ink)】, added it to the 【Azure Melting Furnace】, and finally closed the furnace again, letting it continue the fusion.

World's three-piece set + Blood of Fate + Precipitated Glaze + World Ink—Su Xiao couldn't quite estimate what this would ultimately fuse into.

Thinking about it this way, the gold content of this second-stage prize was a bit too high. However, that was fine; the subsequent Dominator Hegemony Battle would likely revolve around this piece of equipment.

Compared to this, Su Xiao had one more important thing to do. He looked out the window. The Storm Flame Dragon he had nurtured by investing a large amount of resources was about to wake up. At the moment, he didn't know whether this Storm Flame Dragon was a Ninth-Tier Lord-level creature or an Overlord-level one.