Chapter 3683: Chapter Twenty-Two: Countermeasure

Smoke and dust filled the crater, this earth-shaking blow looked terrifying, but for Su Xiao, who had drawn down realm lightning multiple times, it was at most a superficial injury from being shaken into a daze.

Within the drifting smoke and dust, the dazed Xian Lu Lu barely recovered from the spatial shock, she urgently said:

"Bai Ye, how are you, you..."

Xian Lu Lu's tone shifted from worry to confusion, then gradually became bewildered; as Su Xiao's assistant, she naturally sensed his condition and confirmed he had taken that blow rather than dodged it, but the fact that his vital signs had dropped by less than 0.5% truly left her stunned.

"The enemy is over there, I've locked onto his aura, target is human, law-system, lightning-system, and soul-system abilities; from his energy fluctuations, he seems not to want to continue attacking, he hesitated, he wants to flee!"

Xian Lu Lu spoke extremely fast, and using her own energy, condensed a gold speck the size of a bead, pointing toward the enemy's position.

With a whoosh, Su Xiao transformed into a blood shadow and darted out; Xian Lu Lu, hanging on him, was naturally carried along at the same speed—this beyond-limit speed caused her feline pupils to contract to the smallest, and her entire cat instantly ignited.

"Wahaha, still trying to run? Die, you despicable mage who only knows sneak attacks."

Following Xian Lu Lu's shout, Su Xiao had already burst out of the crater; he saw a man in a robe with white long hair, located 2.5 li away, hands clasped together activating spatial equipment.

A blood-red phantom appeared above Su Xiao, taking a blood spear over three meters long as an arrow, the soul great bow drawn; from manifesting the blood phantom to firing the blood spear, the entire process was merely an instant—this was the result of Su Xiao practicing this thousands, even tens of thousands of times in the Realm of All Beings, achieving such exaggerated fluidity.

Bang!

The blood spear shot out—this was a spiral blood spear, hollow inside, riddled with wind holes; its effect: sacrificing some attack power for extreme flight speed.

In an instant, the blood spear reached 2.5 li before Lightning God Aegis; yet Aegis, as if foreseeing, maintained his clasped hands activating spatial equipment while shifting his body to dodge.

With a whoosh, the blood spear narrowly grazed Aegis's ear, blowing his white long hair and robe hem, making him look dashing and ethereal—but the next moment, the blood spear that had just passed his ear exploded.

Thud!

Aegis tumbled sideways, blown dozens of meters away, he stabilized himself by kneeling on one knee, but before he could catch his breath, blood spears came one after another.

Bang! Bang!

Two blood spears struck where Aegis had been 0.1 seconds prior, then blood energy exploded, dirt flying everywhere; the shockwave from the blood spear explosions caused Aegis, who had just completed two "instant" movements, to feel his blood and qi surging.

Clearly, Aegis had fast spatial movement ability, but in practice, activating fast spatial movement meant short distances, while long-distance spatial movement required at least three seconds of charging—of course, this does not include life-saving items.

After dodging several blood spears, Lightning God Aegis felt anger rise; as a law+lightning+soul system, he was strong at medium to long range, yet now he was being pressured at range by a melee fighter—truly bullying too much.

As for escaping immediately, Aegis had already tried—no chance to activate spatial equipment; using life-saving items to retreat, for some reason, he had a feeling that even if he used such items to displace a hundred li away, he couldn't escape; the assistant cat on his opponent clearly had ultra-long-range tracking, plus this was a Hunter, naturally skilled at tracking, combined with that cat, it was utterly hopeless.

As the saying goes, since you can't dodge, then fight to the death; Aegis, who had climbed to this strength tier, certainly lacked neither the resolve nor courage to fight to the death.

"Soul Thunder Prison."

In Aegis's eyes, soul lightning seemed to surge—this was one of his killing moves, extremely effective against melee systems.

A hundred meters away, Su Xiao, charging at full speed and firing blood spears from his blood phantom, suddenly felt numb all over; the next second, he was enveloped in blue-white lightning, blue-white arcs crackling with a piercing sound, even scorching cracks into space.

Noticing this, Su Xiao increased his assault speed further, yet found he couldn't break out of the lightning domain—instead, the surrounding lightning grew stronger; he realized this Soul Thunder Prison centered on him and moved with him; from outside, it looked like a giant lightning ball hundreds of meters in diameter.

Actually, the trouble with this "Soul Thunder Prison" goes further—this ability could be called a teammate killer: besides the target taking 700–1500 lightning damage per second plus 5% max HP as lightning, law, and soul damage, nearby allies suffered similarly, and if too close, there was a chance to trigger "Thunder Prison Static," suffering single-instance, high-damage lightning chain damage.

At first glance, this ability's damage is strong, with percentage damage judgment; but percentage damage judgment isn't invincible—it still faces corresponding resistance reduction, and worse, if resistance is high enough, percentage damage can be reduced to 0%.

However, at the eighth level, Lightning God Aegis had used this move to nearly instant-kill an eighth-level medium adventurer team from Watcher's Paradise.

Now, this "Soul Thunder Prison" ability almost embodied all of Lightning God Aegis's hope; his gaze pierced through the lightning domain's arcs, locked firmly on Su Xiao; if Su Xiao had a way to reduce damage taken in a single instance, using it to reduce the damage from that profound technique thunder spear, then Aegis still had a chance.

Within the lightning domain, after the surrounding soul lightning briefly charged, the next instant it surged toward Su Xiao like a swarm, terrifying arcs raging, momentum astonishing—but Su Xiao had multiple ways to exempt Aegis's damage, totaling as follows:

1. Demon-Immortal Physique (passive): immune to 40–60% magic damage (about to be fully stacked).

2. Up to 544 lightning resistance (massive reduction of lightning damage).

3. Sword Sect Master·Soul Blade (passive): immune to 20–50% soul damage (based on enemy level and ability strength, minimum soul damage immunity not below 20%).

4. Up to 710 soul strength (super-massive reduction of soul damage).

5. Berg's Heart (equipment): during combat, increases wearer's corresponding resistance by 62–80 points based on enemy traits (adaptive).

6. Xian Lu Lu's temporary boost of 1–70 extra lightning resistance (increases gradually after taking corresponding trait damage).

7. Defense boosts derived from various "basic passives."

8. Su Xiao's bodily defense, the final layer of damage reduction.

……

After passing through these layers of reduction, upon activation of "Soul Thunder Prison," Su Xiao immediately took up to 12 points of mixed damage; and due to Aegis's core passive, this damage was not triggered once per second, but 3–9 times per second, as some realm lightning traits determined trigger frequency based on both sides' fortune.

Thinking this way, Aegis's "Soul Thunder Prison" is indeed terrifying—after all, base damage is 700–1500 per second plus 5% max HP as lightning, law, and soul damage; at 9 times per second, instantly killing the enemy is no problem.

Fortune judgment completed instantly—correct, Su Xiao immediately triggered the 9-times-per-second damage burst frequency; his body crackled with terrifying electric arcs, then he took 12, 10, 11, 10, 8, 5, 7 points of continuous mixed damage, damage prompts filling the screen.

Possessed Xian Lu Lu froze on the spot; she swore that aside from very low levels, she hadn't seen single-digit damage prompts in battle for a very long time.

When Lightning God Aegis saw these prompts, he involuntarily donned a painful mask, for he felt the enemy he faced today was simply his ultimate nemesis—high lightning resistance, strong law resistance, and soul strength off the charts.

Yet deep down, Aegis still had a thought: such enemies, with such abnormal resistance and HP, and that terrifying charge speed—perhaps their attack power isn't strong, maybe they rely solely on Sword Sect Master to tank damage, other abilities purely defensive?

This was Aegis's last guess to keep fighting without mental collapse—just then, wind pressure hit his face, blowing his white long hair; he clasped his hands, law, soul, and lightning system shields and defenses all appeared, totaling over a dozen layers of various shields; a lightning pattern clung to his skin, providing high damage reduction while also, to some extent, consuming mana to replace lost vitality.

Crack!

The gleaming blade tip pierced layer after layer of shield, stopping two centimeters before Aegis's brow; this blow made Aegis fully don the painful mask—this enemy's attack power was equally outrageous.

Half an hour later, on the earth pitted with holes, the tattered-robed Aegis lay in a dirt pit, he turned over, blood-soaked hand propping the ground, but in the next second, a long blade slashed from the base of that arm, cutting clean through at the shoulder; Aegis couldn't rise, he rolled on the ground, lay face up staring at the sky, finally exhaled deeply—he had lost, not due to strength difference or abnormal performance, but because he was countered to the point of doubting life.

"Go ahead, don't even think of taking a single soul coin from me; before coming to find you, I already prepared myself mentally to die by your hand—we contractors are just like that."

Though facing certain death, Aegis did not lose composure; instead, he spoke with a hint of a smile.

"..."

Su Xiao looked at Aegis, said nothing; he always felt the other was too calm, calm about life and death to an abnormal degree.

From Aegis's words and deeds, one could see he wasn't a cold person; strong ones of this style, though unafraid of fighting to the death, still cherished their own lives and would do everything to preserve them.

Aegis's current abnormal behavior had only one possibility: he was certain he wouldn't die; mere life-saving items couldn't give such confidence, but if it were the life-saving permit from Blessing Paradise, then it would be different—knowing, a battle angel like Aegis of this strength is rare, having the corresponding permit is no surprise.

As for whether Reincarnation Paradise has such life-saving permits—actually it does, but the chance to obtain is very low; even if completing such a reward-scale task, Reincarnation Paradise gives rewards mostly boosting one's own combat power—this also caused our contractors' life-saving method to be choosing to kill the enemy, as long as the enemy dies, naturally safe.

Recalling how Aegis didn't even use life-saving transmission items earlier, one could guess he felt he couldn't escape this time, so chose "wait for death" to trigger that life-saving permit.

Su Xiao estimated that permit wasn't as perfect as imagined; such permits, though strong, have many limits; in Aegis's life-saving permit, there might be a clause: death by self-abandon cannot trigger it, only death at enemy's hands on the causal level can normally trigger it.

Thinking this, Su Xiao's thoughts cleared instantly; he flicked his hand, a hollow crystal spur pierced Aegis's shoulder—just an instant, Aegis found his body below the neck numb, his gaze turning solemn, the earlier calm gone.

"Name your price."

Aige's attitude took a sharp turn, as if the one who just said he wouldn't take out even a single soul coin wasn't him.

"I have three questions."

Su Xiao finally spoke up; seeing this, Aige secretly breathed a sigh of relief in his heart—having something to talk about makes things easy.

"Just ask."

"First, do we have any grudges between us?"

"No."

"Second, if someone with no grudge against you suddenly strikes you with lightning, what would you think?"

"I would... be very angry."

As Aige said this, the smile on his face carried a hint of embarrassment.

"Third, if you were struck by lightning for no reason dozens of times, and then the person who struck you with lightning, after being defeated, tells you that contractors are always like this, what would you think?"

"Um... well."

Aige was completely speechless and finally just fell silent, waiting to die.

Three "Merciful Thorns" slid out from Su Xiao's sleeve, piercing Aige's neck with swift force, even penetrating his bones; Aige straightened up on the spot, his vision instantly plunging into darkness, and before fainting, he felt every cell in his body wailing as if in lament.

Seeing this, Xianlulu on Su Xiao's shoulder felt a little afraid, but then suddenly recalled the three questions Su Xiao had just asked—this time, it was indeed the other party who struck first. Thinking this, the benevolent Xianlulu found her acceptance of the scene increased somewhat.

Su Xiao picked up the unconscious Aige and stepped toward the farm warehouse he had previously chosen, but as soon as he lifted his foot, he remembered that Aige had blown up the entire farm into a large pit.

Su Xiao took out his communicator, contacted Piru, who quickly found out whose farm this was, and after letting Piru give the farm owner sufficient compensation, Su Xiao had Piru find a building nearest to this place with sparse population nearby.

An hour later, Su Xiao pushed open the door of a granary; the stone-paved floor inside had plenty of straw. After tidying up briefly, he threw Aige into a corner and shut the door, through which cold wind kept rushing in with a howling sound.

In the dim granary, Su Xiao took out the 【Dark Writhe (Abyss·Ritual Item)】, as well as the 【Fallen Flesh】 and 【Ritual Blood】 and other materials. He mixed the crushed 【Fallen Flesh】 into the ritual blood to use as a medium, then drew the ritual diagram on the ground. Xianlulu beside him watched more and more anxiously, her voice weak as she asked: "What are we doing?"

"Summon an evil god."

"?"

In Xianlulu's big, watery eyes, there was great confusion and bewilderment; she seemed to feel she had misheard, and still doubtful, she uttered an "ah?" sound.

Everything was ready except for the sacrificial bait. Su Xiao had originally planned to use the mixture of 【Fallen Flesh】 and 【Ritual Blood】 as bait, but now that someone had come forward voluntarily, he naturally couldn't let them come for nothing.

Su Xiao pulled out the three "Merciful Thorns" from Aige's neck; Aige woke up after a few seconds, the constant twitching at the corners of his eyes indicating that during this brief unconsciousness, he had undergone an unforgettable experience.

"You name your price—no need to continue."

Aige was utterly convinced; though he had a life-preserving permit, today's matter was no longer about losing his life.

"500,000 soul coins."

"You're dreaming!"

Aige jumped up again; even with his wealth, directly producing 500,000 soul coins would be utterly absurd.

Su Xiao said nothing more, kicked Aige in the face, sending his subsequent greetings flying back, then dragged him to the center of the diagram and poured the dark red mixture over him.

After doing all this, Su Xiao activated the ritual with the 【Dark Writhe (Abyss·Ritual Item)】; the situation inside the granary changed dramatically, being disguised as a dim, evil-styled great hall.

Ritual candles filled the ground, the walls bore strange magical patterns, black-robed believers crawled on the floor, and the blood-soaked Aige was disguised as fallen on the altar, while a girl in pure white robes stood nearby.

From Aige's gaze, furious to the extreme, one could see his current state of mind, but the next second, a magic spirit entered his body and began temporarily controlling his actions.

As the diagram activated, a vague murmuring voice appeared in the air; in the few minutes after the ritual was activated, besides the eerie atmosphere, other aspects changed little—but when a wicked and powerful will responded to this sacrifice, the atmosphere here underwent a drastic change.

A thick, turbid gray evil aura spread out, and a massive door made of flesh and blood appeared above the diagram.

This door opened like a giant mouth, even revealing sharp teeth; within the flesh-and-blood door, a hand covered in eyes extended outward, the eyes on it scanning left and right, confirming no problem before a breath seeped out from within the blood-and-flesh door.

"Ant, kneel, offer the sacrifice."

Hearing that voice, which made one's heart ache with pain, coming from within the flesh-and-blood door, behind it was a hundred-meter-tall giant figure, composed of giant heads and arms, looking extremely terrifying—this is the evil god of this world, the Corrupted Ancestor.

Under the terrifying pressure of the Corrupted Ancestor, the disguised Aige was controlled into holding up a basketball-sized large heart, still beating with a thumping sound, the evil fluctuations on it very strong; for the evil god, this is an irresistible treasure, and even if directly absorbed, it could greatly enhance his primordial divinity.

At this moment, in his disguised state, holding the giant heart, Aige's mindset shattered—because, in others' sight and perception, he was indeed holding a giant heart, but he himself knew that what was in his hand was not a heart at all, but an ancient book made of various kinds of leather paper, only a few dozen pages thick, yet that chilling feeling in his heart made him certain this thing was definitely an Abyss·Original Sin item.

Aige guessed correctly; this object is called the "Book of the Dead," and even among Original Sin items, it ranks among the top few as a great elder.

But at this moment, the evil god, the Corrupted Ancestor, did not know the giant heart was a disguise; the disguise property of the 【Dark Writhe (Abyss·Ritual Item)】 is extremely strong—this is what Su Xiao obtained from defeating the Abyss Archbishop, having such an effect is no surprise; furthermore, this disguise was enhanced by the "Book of the Dead."

Inside the flesh-and-blood door, a giant hand of the evil god, the Corrupted Ancestor, extended out, grabbed the giant heart, and with that earth-shattering voice said: "Ants, I am very satisfied with the sacrifice you have offered..."

The Corrupted Ancestor's words stopped abruptly here, because the giant heart in his hand had already reverted to the Book of the Dead; the semi-transparent tendrils spreading from the Book of the Dead each sank deep into the Corrupted Ancestor's large hand, and many more semi-transparent tendrils sank into the flesh-and-blood door behind, merging into every part of the Corrupted Ancestor's body; some of the exposed semi-transparent tendrils were still writhing wildly.

After a chilling wail, the Corrupted Ancestor's large hand retracted back into the flesh-and-blood door; unfortunately, this could not free it from the Book of the Dead. After the flesh-and-blood door disappeared, faint wails and roars could still be heard lingering in the air, though now the roars could no longer be heard as majestic or evil, but rather as outwardly fierce and inwardly weak.

Su Xiao put away the 【Dark Writhe (Abyss·Ritual Item)】 and wiped away all traces inside the granary, lest innocent people accidentally touch these dangerous remnants. He looked around and found Xianlulu curled up in a corner, her big, watery eyes staring wide, full of shock and fear.

Pulled out from the wooden barrel in the corner, Xianlulu, perhaps too frightened, simply burrowed into Su Xiao's clothes, her head poking out from his collar; if Beeni saw this, Beeni would surely explode with anger, thinking: "Poop-scooper, you actually have another cat outside."

Su Xiao came to the fallen Aige's side and asked: "Still okay? If your condition is still good, we'll continue after the Book of the Dead returns."

Hearing this, Aige's cheeks twitched, and he asked, as if his cognition had been refreshed: "You're... deliberately fishing for the evil god?"

"Pretty much."

"You... often do this kind of thing?"

"Occasionally."

Hearing Su Xiao say "occasionally," Aige's eyes filled with disbelief; judging from Su Xiao's familiarity with setting up the diagram and so on, it didn't look like occasional at all.

Su Xiao took out the injector, pressed the medicine bottle into it, and said: "Don't worry, this is a recovery medicine."

After saying that, Su Xiao prepared to inject, to help Aige recover his condition.

"Brother, I'm convinced, utterly convinced—500,000 soul coins really aren't there, but I only have 200,000."

"Deal."

Su Xiao agreed without hesitation; Aige subconsciously thought: 'The price was set too high.'

"How about 150,000? At least give me a chance to counteroffer."

"..."

Su Xiao took out the syringe he had just put away, and Aige hurriedly said: "20, 200,000, I was just joking."

Upon hearing this, Su Xiao took out a contract and displayed it to Aige, whose face turned pale; he gritted his teeth and said: "Bai Ye of the Reincarnation Paradise, Wood of the Void, the priest of the Holy Domain, and the deceased Grey Gentleman—your four contracts are all very famous."

"I have taken your soul coins, so I must let you go; therefore, your revenge must be guarded against."

Upon hearing this, Aige felt terrible; he could now be certain that as long as he produced the soul coins, Su Xiao would truly act as if nothing had happened before—the problem is, he truly dare not sign this contract.

"Rest assured, I guarantee this contract in the name of the Extinction Law—there is no problem with it."

"This..."

Aige frowned in thought; he had of course heard of the Shadow of the Extinction Law, a faction with considerable legendary color, though it has declined, many of its deeds are still passed down, and more importantly, Aige felt he truly had no choice now—this is the key point.

Finally, Aige pressed his palm print onto the contract and took out two soul coin storage cards from the Apocalypse Paradise, each with a limit of 100,000.

Shortly after, Su Xiao stood at the granary door, watching Aige limp away into the distance; the immortal dew on his shoulder muttered: "This guy got lucky—see if he dares to ambush again next time, but Bai Ye, you actually really let him go—I still thought..."

Before Xian Lu Lu could finish her words, the sheepskin contract floating before Su Xiao suddenly transformed into forty layers, each as thin as a cicada's wing, yet each displaying different contract contents.

"What do you think?"

"No, nothing."

Xian Lu Lu stared in shock at the contract sheepskin now transformed into forty layers, her spirit struck by a tremendous impact.

(End of chapter)

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