Chapter 3632: Trial

The Storm Flame Dragon, Dis, flew among the clouds and mist. Su Xiao sat cross-legged on the dragon's back to meditate. Recently, he had a feeling that his meditation ability was about to reach a certain bottleneck. Checking its level, the Heart Meditation ability had reached Lv. 89.

The reason why the Heart Meditation ability grew so rapidly was that Su Xiao had obtained the 【Soul Book: Soul Imprint】 in the previous world progress. This secret technique required soul strength to reach above 600 points to master, and its effect could be imagined.

After Su Xiao constructed the "Soul Imprint" using the method recorded in the 【Soul Book: Soul Imprint】, his meditation efficiency had an extremely exaggerated improvement. In the High Wall City of the previous world, the level of Heart Meditation was Lv. 73, and now, this ability had reached Lv. 89.

At this moment, Su Xiao could clearly feel that when he continued to meditate, although he still had the feeling of meditation, he himself no longer had any improvement. As for how to break through this bottleneck, he naturally knew. With the knowledge accumulated for so long, especially in the "Void Great Library" and the "Soul Library," he had paid relatively more attention to this aspect.

Wanting to raise the Heart Meditation ability to Lv. 90 was both simple and complex. To put it mystically, it was to realize; to put it bluntly, it was to consume a certain amount of World Power to meditate.

The biggest characteristic of World Power was that it was difficult to obtain, but if one were to talk about preciousness, there were not many places where this thing could be used. People who purely developed combat abilities had no possibility of using this thing. Even as an alchemy master, it was extremely rare to use this thing. This also led to this resource being both difficult to obtain and having no one willing to buy it.

Su Xiao took out the 【Ring Stigma】. This object was obtained by him in the Dead Silence City, and its function was to synthesize items. Of course, not everything could be synthesized. For example, soul crystals could not be synthesized with this thing, synthesizing multiple soul crystals (large) into a soul crystal (complete).

Activating the 【Ring Stigma】, a dark golden ring appeared in front. Su Xiao took out three pieces of 【World Core (Fragment)】. If this thing was a single piece, except for inserting it into the soil around the Black Maple Tree to let the Black Maple Tree absorb it, no other function had been discovered for the time being.

But if they were to be synthesized, it would be different. Su Xiao held the 【Stigma of the Ring】 in his cupped hands, his soul energy flowing into it to serve as the energy to activate the 【Stigma of the Ring】.

This made Saint Poetry, who was on the side, cast a curious look. However, Saint Poetry didn't ask much and continued to read an ancient book; this was knowledge about gem explosions.

This type of knowledge, Su Xiao had seen in the Soul Library. This was a powerful small-system ability. The so-called small system was that there were very few people developing this aspect of ability, mainly because they couldn't afford to develop it. Saint Poetry naturally didn't worry about this aspect. As a ninth-tier contractor of the Holy Light Paradise, what she lacked the least was gems, just like the Apocalypse Paradise didn't lack mineral resources.

Developing this aspect of ability to a high tier was truly something no one was willing to provoke. Not to mention that contractors with this type of ability could use gems as explosives, the stronger the gems, the stronger the explosion power, and they would also provide different explosion damage consumption according to different characteristics. What made people hate it the most was that fighting with people with this type of ability, even if one won in the end, the gems embedded in one's own equipment would also be blown up.

That's right, developing this ability to a high tier could detonate the gems embedded in the opponent's equipment. Not to mention the damage caused to oneself by the explosion of gems on one's own equipment, equipment embedded with gems was basically bound to be damaged. This caused fighting with this type of enemy, even if one won, to be particularly annoying, and every time one thought of this, one would be so angry that one couldn't eat.

The 【Ring Stigma】 closed, forcibly squeezing the three pieces of 【World Core (Fragment)】 together, emitting a crisp crackling sound.

【Prompt: This synthesis failed.】

Seeing this prompt, Su Xiao was not surprised at all. He just wanted the synthesis to fail. Opening the 【Ring Stigma】 and putting it away, a crystal block about the size of an apple, covered in cracks, fell into Su Xiao's hand. He took out a glass column as thick as an arm, crushed the crystal block, and poured the fragments into the solution in the glass column.

Before long, the crystal fragments emerged with wisps of energy in the solution, which were absorbed by the intake device at the bottom of the glass column. These energies stored up were World Power.

Su Xiao discovered that the 【Ring Stigma】 had this wonderful use when he tried to use it to synthesize soul crystals. A single piece of 【World Core (Fragment)】, because of its stable structure, even if smashed, could not extract World Power.

And using the synthesis of the 【Ring Stigma】, the squeezing stance formed during the synthesis could destroy this stable structure, making it easy to extract World Power subsequently.

Collecting about 10 ounces of World Power, Su Xiao used the Proud Song ability to construct a hollow crystal container, put the obtained World Power into it, and then while consuming this World Power, meditated.

Su Xiao didn't consider himself a genius in terms of realization. Letting him realize the opportunity for the Heart Meditation ability to promote to Lv. 90, he estimated that he really might not be able to figure out this mysterious thing. But it didn't matter; if realization wasn't enough, knowledge + resources would make up for it. The so-called realization was actually absorbing a tiny amount of World Power floating in the air bit by bit, and then reaching resonance with the world.

Since he didn't have talent in this aspect, Su Xiao absorbed high-concentration World Power to reach resonance with the world. A genius only needed to absorb 0.001 ounces of World Power to complete this resonance, so he would absorb 10 ounces at a time. If 10 ounces weren't enough, then 100 ounces.

If that still didn't work, Su Xiao would rely on the knowledge he mastered to construct an array map, using this array map to achieve a forced resonance effect with the world, and then he would sit on this array map that was forcibly resonating with the world while absorbing World Power. He didn't believe he couldn't break through this so-called bottleneck.

Perhaps the world perceived Su Xiao's thoughts and didn't give him the chance to set up an array map. After about 9 ounces of World Power were consumed in meditation, Su Xiao felt, as if with a crisp sound, his meditation state, like breaking out of a cocoon, expanded from a meditation circle with a diameter of tens of meters to hundreds of meters. He could even faintly sense the elemental power around him and the trace amounts of Abyss energy in the earth veins.

What was wonderful was that the thin Abyss energy in the earth veins didn't give him the feeling it had in the past. After the Abyss energy reached such a trace amount, it actually had a feeling of being slightly cold but nourishing all things.

【Prompt: Heart Meditation ability has been raised to Lv. 90.】

【Your real willpower is permanently increased by 10 points.】

【The upper limit of blood energy ability tolerance is increased by 175 points.】

【Blade technique potential increased by 10%.】

【Mental toughness slightly increased.】

【Mana recovery speed slightly increased.】

【"Iron Will" permanent state slightly increased.】

Su Xiao stabilized his breath. When knowledge accumulated to a certain degree, the way to break through this type of bottleneck was just this simple and unadorned. Spending months or even years to carry out so-called realization was really not as good as using this time to master more knowledge.

Night fell quietly at some point. Su Xiao looked at the full moon above; he wouldn't be able to enjoy this coolness tomorrow.

The further he flew to the west, the higher the temperature. In the end, the clouds and mist around him disappeared, representing that this area was very short of water. The sun scorched the earth, vegetation withered, and faint white smoke drifted from the ground.

Looking down from the dragon's back, the surface presented a yellowish-brown color. The skeleton of a giant beast was half-submerged in the sand, and under the shade it blocked, animals like snakes and lizards were hiding.

A caravan with dozens of camels moved slowly on this scorching Gobi beach. A teenager in the caravan was so thirsty that his lips were white and cracked. He pulled out the soft stopper of the leather water bag, carefully poured a mouthful of water into his mouth, held it for a while to nourish his mouth, and then slowly swallowed it. The water droplets dripping from the dead skin of his lips just wetted a small piece of sand, and it evaporated in the blink of an eye.

This was the Desert Kingdom. However, lack of water didn't mean there was no water at all. There was a two-month rainy season here every year, plus taking groundwater through deep wells, and four huge freshwater lakes, which made the water resources here barely enough. What was truly difficult was the dry season that lasted for more than a month every year. During this period, groundwater was somewhat exhausted.

The average temperature of over 40 degrees was indeed hot, but for a transcendent with ninth-tier strength, it was completely within the acceptable range, and even, they wouldn't feel hot.

"Are you here to find the Sand King?"

Saint Poetry spoke. Other than that, she couldn't think of any other place in the Desert Kingdom that could threaten Su Xiao.

In fact, that was not the case. Su Xiao only brought Saint Poetry here to go deep into the "Scorching Desert," which some also called the "Molten Iron Desert."

The reason for this name was because of the "Molten Iron Town" next to the "Scorching Desert." This small town only had a hundred households, but it had produced several forging masters.

The terrain resources of "Molten Iron Town" were too good. This small town, which was close to the "Scorching Desert," only needed to set up a sufficiently stable gathering spell to gather some of the Sun Flame diffusing in the "Scorching Desert" for forging. The weapons it created naturally carried extreme fire characteristics.

At noon that day, when the Storm Flame Dragon lowered its flight altitude, a small town built of steel came into view. Blackened steel buildings and towering chimneys were people's first impression of Molten Iron Town.

Su Xiao didn't intend to go to Molten Iron Town. He let the Storm Flame Dragon lower its flight altitude on the White Stone Plain behind Molten Iron Town, and he leaped down from the dragon's back.

The white stones under his feet were honeycomb-shaped. If one was not careful, one would step through and leak down, stepping into the magma under the rock layer. Precisely because of this, even the residents of Molten Iron Town rarely came here.

Su Xiao walked on the rock layer. Without taking a few steps, he stepped through the rock layer, and one foot was submerged by magma.

【Prompt: You are suffering from the erosion of extreme flames. If you continue to suffer this judgment, you will suffer 20 to 35 points of burning damage per second.】

Compared to the terrifying high temperature in the Scorching Desert, Su Xiao could still withstand this level of temperature.

After continuing to move forward for half a kilometer, a barrier that faintly revealed orange-red stood in front. This barrier was like a wall of heaven, standing in front, and behind the barrier was the Scorching Desert.

At this time, it was noon, and the scorching sun in the sky was extremely strong, which also led to the Scorching Desert behind the barrier in front, where it seemed that semi-transparent invisible flames were slowly burning in the air.

Su Xiao took out a handful of iron beads and threw them forward. These iron beads passed through the heaven wall barrier without any obstruction, but as soon as they entered the Scorching Desert, these iron beads naturally turned into molten iron, and before they landed, they evaporated into a gaseous state. At this speed, no matter how one looked at it, the Scorching Desert was not just 7000 to 9000 degrees.

Seeing this scene, Saint Poetry behind him had a stiff face. She suddenly had a very ominous guess and asked tentatively: "The desert you mentioned before wouldn't be here, would it?"

"Yes."

"Oh! I understand. You want me to add all the buff states to you, and then you go deep into this desert yourself, is that it?"

As Saint Poetry spoke, her gaze gradually became serious. That look was almost explicitly saying, if you let me enter here with you, I will fight you to the death here.

"..."

Su Xiao didn't speak. He found a towering stone hill and sat on it to meditate. He brought Saint Poetry here for two reasons: first, the other party's survival ability was strong, even if the body was burned by high temperature, the other party's soul body could continue to survive, and the use of various abilities would not be affected. This point was vividly displayed in Gulu's encounter.

The second is that no one can guarantee that the Sun Flame won't suddenly spread in the Scorching Desert at night. If such a situation really occurs, plus the black-tech tent that resists scorching heat fails, then with Saint Poetry's continuous healing, Su Xiao can also rush out of the Scorching Desert.

Su Xiao took out a glass column 10 cm thick and 50 cm high. In the solution inside, semi-transparent tentacles were distributed, as dense as the root system of a tree.

"If you 'die', the soul body enters here."

Su Xiao threw the glass column to Saint Poetry, which made Saint Poetry smile even more "gently." She said: "You are, really, thoughtful."

Saint Poetry hesitated for a while, but finally decided to carry this thing with her. In a situation where only she and Su Xiao were present, if she "died", the soul body indeed couldn't invade Su Xiao's consciousness space like she invaded Gulu's consciousness space. It wasn't that Saint Poetry had extra concern for Su Xiao; she was worried that if her soul body invaded Su Xiao's consciousness space, her soul body would be suppressed.

In fact, Saint Poetry was overthinking. If she did that, her soul body wouldn't be suppressed, but would evaporate in a short time.

Time passed second by second. When the sun gradually fell below the horizon, the Scorching Desert behind the barrier in front began to show changes visible to the naked eye.

The diffusing invisible Sun Flame retreated rapidly. Looking at the appearance, it was gathering toward the depths of the Scorching Desert. Before long, the temperature of the Scorching Desert dropped sharply, from the high temperature of nearly ten thousand degrees to about 120 to 150 degrees. Compared to the rumored 40 degrees at night, it was much higher, but it was acceptable.

When Su Xiao was at a low tier, he couldn't go deep into the Scorching Desert at night. Now it was different. It was just a high temperature of over a hundred degrees. If he couldn't even withstand this, then when facing a fire-type contractor, he would be burned to ashes in a short time.

Walking through the barrier, Su Xiao seemed to hear a wave of empty ringing. After stepping on the sand on the surface, he felt a sinking feeling. After all, this was not sand in the true sense.

【Warning: You have entered the Forbidden Zone of Living Beings: Land of Meteor Fire.】

【Warning: This is a high-risk area.】

【Warning: This area is divided into two environments: Day/Night.】

【Land of Meteor Fire (Day): Being in this area, you will be burned by the "Real Flame", suffering 5% of maximum health + 970 points of real flame burning damage per second, equipment durability consumption +3000%, and you will suffer from the flame serious injury effect.】

【Flame Serious Injury: Potion healing, aura healing, equipment healing effects reduced by 78%, specialized recovery ability healing effects reduced by 15%.】

【Warning: Being in the Land of Meteor Fire (Day), you will stack one layer of "Real Burning" effect every 1 second, and this effect can stack up to 100 layers.】

【Prompt: Every time you stack one layer of "Real Burning" effect, you will suffer a physical judgment. If the judgment is not passed, the "Real Flame" burning damage you suffer subsequently will increase by 8 to 12 times.】

【Warning: When your "Real Burning" effect stacks to 100 layers, you will immediately suffer an unexemptable Sun Slash.】

【Warning: If you move at high speed in the Land of Meteor Fire (Day), the intensity of the "Real Flame" damage you suffer will increase rapidly (increasing according to your movement speed). When the speed exceeds the critical value, you will stack 10 to 30 layers of "Real Burning" effect per second. If you move at a constant speed, the damage you suffer will tend to be stable.】

【Land of Meteor Fire (Night): Being in this area, you will suffer 500 points of real scorching damage per minute (i. e., 30,000 points of real scorching damage per hour), and you will suffer from the flame serious injury effect.】

【Warning: If you move at high speed in the Land of Meteor Fire (Night), the real scorching damage you suffer will increase rapidly.】

【Prompt: In the 24 hours of each day in the Land of Meteor Fire, 14 hours are day, 10 hours are night.】

【Prompt: This area completely suppresses perception, you cannot release perception power.】

Seeing these prompts, Su Xiao knew that the Scorching Desert, which was the Land of Meteor Fire, was not just a problem of high temperature. The "Real Flame" diffusing here was a more terrifying threat. Fortunately, only during the day did the "Real Flame" exist. This thing should be determined according to the sun; it appeared when the sun rose and hid when the sun set.

At this time, Saint Poetry, who had just walked through the barrier, said: "Bai Ye, based on my experience, we enter this dangerous area, we should first get a 'ticket'. Forcibly bearing the environmental damage to go in, it is very likely to die."

"No need to worry."

"It's not worrying, I am considering our life safety."

"The environmental damage at night is not high, it's not a big problem."

"Ah?"

Saint Poetry was stunned. She glanced at the 30,000-plus points of real scorching damage per hour at night. This value itself was relatively terrifying, and it was still real damage. This was called damage not high?

Su Xiao didn't say anything else, just told Saint Poetry to heal herself well, plus follow behind.

Seeing this, Saint Poetry sighed helplessly. She had gone deep into dangerous areas several times, and she truly felt that not getting a "ticket" to exempt environmental damage was too risky.

Just taking a few steps forward, Saint Poetry felt the blood in her whole body heating up. The environmental energy caused her body to feel scorching pain everywhere every moment. After adapting for a while, she barely ignored this feeling, but even so, she was still a bit dizzy.

Saint Poetry determined that once she walked in this desert during the day, she wouldn't last more than 1 minute before dying here. Thinking of this, she gathered golden-green energy in her hand and pressed it on her abdomen to heal herself.

The Land of Meteor Fire at night was not dark. The sand on the ground would emit orange-yellow faint light, making this place reveal a warm color tone with a sense of heat. Along with it was the scorching energy diffusing in the air.

【Warning: The Hunter will enter the high-risk area, Land of Meteor Fire, without shelter.】

Su Xiao ignored this prompt. Even at the most dangerous moment, he had a way to retreat. First, slash Saint Poetry with one knife, then let the other party's soul body enter the soul vehicle, and then Su Xiao would take this vehicle and use the Floating Bait. As for why he had to 'kill' Saint Poetry first and let her enter the soul body state, the reason was that the Floating Bait was a single-person judgment prop.

"Bai Ye, I have a strange feeling."

Saint Poetry, who was walking on foot, spoke.

"Speak."

"From just now, why do I always feel like you will suddenly give me a knife, but I can't sense malice from you? This is too strange."

"Your illusion."

"But... my perception warning equipment has been warning, the warning prompt has already flooded the screen."

"Malfunction."

"Alright~"

Saint Poetry was speechless. She truly had experienced such a wonderful healer for the first time.

Su Xiao moved forward at a walking speed. Although moving forward like this was slower, it was the way to consume the least health. If moving fast, the health drop speed would soar. It seemed faster to rush, but actually calculating it, for the same distance, one had to bear 7 to 10 times the environmental damage of walking.

After moving forward for half an hour, Su Xiao felt the blood in his whole body become scorching. He took off his long leather coat and the tight-fitting clothes inside, walking with his upper body bare. But soon, he found that it was even more scorching. He took out bandages, wrapped them carefully on his body, and finally took out a solution with stable characteristics, poured it on his body, and let the bandages wrapped on his body always maintain a moist feeling. In this way, it was indeed more comfortable.

Su Xiao continued to move forward, and Saint Poetry, two meters behind him, healed herself every ten-plus minutes. When time passed for more than an hour, Saint Poetry's gaze began to be wrong.

When the two walked deep into the Land of Meteor Fire for more than two hours, Saint Poetry finally couldn't help but say: "Bai Ye, my body energy still has a lot left, you don't need to hold on like this, I'll help you recover?"

Hearing this, Su Xiao's footsteps paused. He checked his remaining health, still 90.2%, which was in a very safe category, and he didn't need the other party to give him a heal.

"No need, you keep your physical strength sufficient, and provide me with buff states after encountering enemies."

"There will be enemies in this ghost place? By the way, give me your health viewing permission. Whether it is now or later when you fight strong enemies, I must have this permission."

"..."

Su Xiao didn't speak, choosing to open this permission to Saint Poetry. The fact was indeed so. Later when fighting the Sand King or the traitor, the other party indeed needed to provide him with sufficiently timely healing effects.

When Saint Poetry saw that Su Xiao still had more than 90% health, and in the health status bar, there was no temporary potion resistance or other recovery states brought by equipment after drinking potions, she was confused.

"You have... more than 600,000 health?!"

"Oh."

"I have never seen a boss unit with so much health before."

Saint Poetry felt that she had lived long enough to see everything. She truly found it difficult to imagine how one could stack up more than 600,000 health. At this moment, she suddenly felt that Su Xiao not completing the tasks related to this place to get a ticket seemed to be a wise choice. This could indeed save a lot of time.

【Prompt: Your temporary teammate, Saint Poetry, has shared her skill display with you.】

【Soul Fury (Ultimate Skill Ability Lv. 42): Can be used on oneself or a single friendly target. After use, the target will recover 20% of maximum health per second for 15 seconds, and remove all debuff states currently suffered.】

【Prompt: This ability has priority and ignores healing suppression effects.】

Seeing this ability, Su Xiao felt that Saint Poetry being called the strongest healing system of the eighth tier indeed had no exaggeration component.

After seeing this ability, Su Xiao suddenly had an idea, but whether this idea could be realized depended on Saint Poetry's acting skills.

Unknowingly, they had gone deep into the Land of Meteor Fire for more than 5 hours. Su Xiao continued to move toward the depths of the Land of Meteor Fire. The scenery he saw, except for sand slopes one after another, had nothing else. It seemed that the entire Land of Meteor Fire was like this, plus this place couldn't release perception, everything had to be seen with eyes and heard with ears.

"Ouch~"

Saint Poetry behind him slipped and almost fell.

"Bai Ye, there is something here."

Saint Poetry knocked on a protrusion exposed in the sand. This protrusion had a metallic texture, and the whole body presented a dark golden color.

After clearing the sand nearby and exposing the upper part of this object, the more Su Xiao looked at this object, the more familiar he felt. No matter how he looked at it, this thing looked like a very large piece of Fire Gold, but the size was really too big, so big that people didn't dare to believe it was a piece of Fire Gold, plus the purity of this Fire Gold was too high, so high that in the Reincarnation Paradise, it was very difficult to exchange for it with permission. Of course, perhaps it could be exchanged, but it required an outrageously high permission.

"Can't check the attributes, it's an unnotarized material, need to use space-time power to notarize."

After Saint Poetry discovered this point, she was not very interested in this object.

"This is Fire Gold, a rare material. You discovered it, name a price."

"You're being too polite, it's yours."

"..."

Su Xiao didn't speak. After pondering for a moment, he asked: "Are you sure?"

"Even if this thing is worth tens of thousands of soul coins, but notarizing it with space-time power in the Holy Light Paradise is also very losing. I have some impression of Fire Gold, notarizing it, I might even lose money."

"..."

Su Xiao took out a savings card worth 10,000 soul coins, threw it to Saint Poetry, and began to continue clearing the sand around this large piece of Fire Gold. Monopolizing it is indeed cool for a while, but it is not a long-term solution.

Because she picked up a large piece of Fire Gold and got 10,000 soul coins, Saint Poetry didn't walk for a while before looking around everywhere. Then two hours later, she found the second piece of Fire Gold. This time it was equally outrageous. She didn't even see this piece of Fire Gold. It was also a slip under her feet. After pushing away the sand, another large piece of Fire Gold appeared. This time it had to be at least 2000 kilograms.

"This..."

Saint Poetry looked at the 20,000-denomination soul coin savings card in her hand, feeling a bit embarrassed. As for returning the money, she was almost poor to the undead system for improving her abilities, so naturally, she couldn't return the money.

A truly strong healing system's resource consumption was only slightly less than that of the undead system and the technique type. This was also why the higher the tier, the fewer the powerful healers, and they all started to develop toward poison milk.

Continuing to move forward, when Su Xiao moved in this desert for 10 hours, the first sun on the horizon began to rise. It was time to avoid the "Real Flame" that was about to strike.

Su Xiao took out a device 2 meters wide and 1 meter high. After activation, this device expanded rapidly, building a sturdy tent on the spot. Rather than calling this a tent, it was more appropriate to call it a thick shelter in the shape of a tent.

The door gate of the small shelter opened, and wisps of refreshing white cool air drifted out. Saint Poetry, who had long been dizzy from the heat, immediately walked into it. Sitting in the shelter that was only 5 square meters and 1.4 meters high, Saint Poetry exhaled comfortably, feeling that she had come back to life. The wisps of cold air around made her body temperature gradually return to the normal level.

Outside the small shelter, Su Xiao looked at the sky. Even if the distance was very far, he could still see the invisible flames surging over. The next second, a wave of heat struck.

【Prompt: You have not used any healing potions or been treated by healing abilities in the previous 10 hours.】

【You have triggered the Sun Trial.】

【Trial Content: Arrive at the core area of the Land of Meteor Fire without using any healing potions or healing abilities.】

【Complete this trial, you will obtain the Origin-grade Inscription: Supreme Blazing Sun, and obtain the qualification to enter the Sun Temple.】 ===== CHAPTER 3633 =====