Chapter 3719: Cunning

Sea Clan Main City - Bottom City.

If you look down at the ancient city of Ato from above, you can only see the external prosperity of this main city. In fact, it has two parts. One part is naturally what people see, and the part located below this giant land, that is, the part submerged in the sea, is actually also a big city.

Different from the ancient city above, the Bottom City has more Sea Clan style. Although the layers of city buildings are a bit messy, after being combined, they are like a giant pillar standing in the sea, supporting the land above.

Countless diving boats float in the surrounding sea. Although these diving boats have mechanical structures, they are genuine sea creatures. They are not enslaved by the Sea Clan. The metal structures on their bodies are because of metal cells. To be precise, these semi-mechanical sea creatures have a generational cooperation and feeding relationship with the Sea Clan.

Glug, glug~

The speed of the diving boat in the water is not fast, giving people a leisurely feeling. Su Xiao sits on a soft cushion. It can be seen that the feeder of this diving boat still loves this old partner passed down from the grandfather's generation, and is reluctant to put a hard seat into its inner cavity, although this can charge extra fees.

Through the translucent film above, Su Xiao sees the sunlight reflected by the sea water. Not long after, the diving boat arrives at a place similar to an underground port. Windows and other positions here have a film-like layer, and outside is sea water. The Sea Clan naturally doesn't care about being in the sea water, but this is a trade port, so it naturally has to consider the situation of other clans arriving here.

After Su Xiao strolled in the underground port for a while, he came to the water curtain like a film at the exit. From time to time, Sea Clan members enter and exit from the water curtain like a film. This is the characteristic of the Sea Clan's Bottom City. One-third is a water-free area, and the rest of the positions are in the sea water.

"【Deep Sea Slumber (Immortal Grade Ornament): Can obtain underwater breathing ability...】"

In specific occasions, this immortal grade ornament is exceptionally practical. Su Xiao put it on, walked directly out of the water curtain, and the sea water rushing from the surroundings was isolated at a distance of less than 0.5 cm from his skin. The invisible air film allowed him to breathe freely...

The scene of the underwater city is unique, and unlike the dimness and damp cold imagined, the surroundings are not only bright but also have a suitable water temperature. The algae attached to the outside of the building sway with the water flow. With a 'whoosh', several Sea Clan teenagers riding on the backs of spotted sharks swept past, bringing up large bubbles.

Because the road is long, Su Xiao chose to take the submarine train. When he got off the train, he had arrived at the water-free area. This naturally had to be changed back to "Wolf Blood - Moon Ornament" to ensure that he could instantly kill the rule-breaker later.

Sunlight reflects from above, which makes Su Xiao a bit surprised. He looked up and found that the sun in the sky is in the shape of a ring. Although it is not a real sun, the sunlight released is the same as the sun.

Walking toward the target point all the way, when Su Xiao arrived two kilometers away from the target point, he found that this is a commercial area, with several pedestrian streets, as well as luxury tourist hotels, etc.

From the scenery in

In the end, Su Xiao confirmed that the target was located inside the Sea Heart Grand Hotel of the Sea Clan; this was the most luxurious grand hotel in this world, and its security was very strong.

This hotel had over 190 floors and was a building that pierced through the Lower City. Its upper third already towered into the Ancient City above, making it the building with the second-highest altitude, surpassed only by the Sea God Temple.

Floors 1 to 20 of this hotel were a casino, floors 22–50 were banquet halls, restaurants, bars, spas, etc., floors 53–80 were entertainment areas, and floors 100–190 were all guest rooms.

From the geographical location of this grand hotel, one could tell its background, and given that this place was truly too large, finding five Qiyuezhe inside was by no means an easy task.

Su Xiao walked into an antique shop on the side of the street. After giving the shopkeeper an exaggerated reward of 100 gold coins, he had the other party close for the day, and under physical sleep assistance, the antique shop owner fell into a dream.

Pushing open the door to the back room, the furnishings inside were antique and elegant, and a faint scent of incense permeated the air. Before long, a summoning array was set up; to strengthen its power, this was Su Xiao's improved advanced summoning array.

First, he summoned Xiang Ignoring Bubu Wang and Baja. After two muffled thuds, Xiang Bubu and Baja were both ejected from the summoning array, one slapping against the ceiling and the other hanging from the chandelier.

Finally, it was the irritable little sprite, Diagu. As Su Xiao activated the summoning, he heard a sound of wind breaking, followed by a 'clack'—the sound of a sharp weapon nailing into the ceiling and vibrating; that was the irritable little sprite's cone spear. As for the sprite himself, he was nailed to the side.

A moment later, Xiang Ignoring Bubu Wang, Baja, and the irritable little sprite Diagu were either standing or sitting in a row, all facing Su Xiao, waiting for Su Xiao to arrange the plan.

The plan was simple: first, determine which floor Beverly was staying on and who exactly her teammates were. These detailed intelligence points had not been investigated previously because the irritable little sprite Diagu was worried about alerting the enemy.

Xiang Ignoring Bubu Wang, Baja, and the irritable little sprite all had no problems with infiltration capabilities, and as for Su Xiao, he was currently in the 【Qiyuezhe】 disguise state. The appearance he had randomly selected was that of a Qiyuezhe who had died in this world several world progressions ago.

Xiang Ignoring Bubu Wang tested several wave-free earphones. Although called earphones, this thing was actually a dental guard, fitted onto the inner molars, transmitting sound to the cochlea via bone conduction. Each wave-free earphone was an independent transmitter that could communicate with each other. This was manufactured by Xiang Ignoring Bubu Wang, but it had to be used in conjunction with its small Xiang Bubu satellite to transmit accurately.

One hour later, Su Xiao, under the guidance of an attendant, walked into the Sea Heart Grand Hotel. Upon entering, it wasn't the lobby, but a window for selling chips. To avoid attracting attention, Su Xiao bought 1000 gold coins' worth of chips.

There were quite a few people in the first-floor casino, and a faint smell of tobacco mixed with alcohol permeated the air. Su Xiao completely restrained his own aura. After strolling around various gambling tables a few times, he did not find any Qiyuezhe on this floor.

Meanwhile, the irritable little sprite Diagu and Baja followed the elevator shaft to the 189th floor. Their mission was to patrol from top to bottom, with Baja being able to keenly sense the aura of Qiyuezhe, followed by tracking by the irritable little sprite Diagu.

Xiang Ignoring Bubu Wang went to the 20th floor to patrol upwards from there. It could blend into the environment, and it could both sense and perform risk-free close-range investigation after sensing an enemy.

Overall, the patrol team's ability allocation was very reasonable, but the personality configuration was not very reasonable. After Baja and the irritable little sprite Diagu started working together, the audio communication channel was almost ruined; one could only hear the two of them greeting each other. What was even more outrageous was that when these two guys were greeting each other, it didn't delay them from doing their real work.

Su Xiao stepped into the elevator. A Sea Clan female demon diagonally in front cast a glance and said with a hint of a smile, "Traveler?"

"You could say that."

Su Xiao's tone was casual and lazy, gradually entering the state of the disguise he had previously assumed as the Saint Flame Pharmacist.

"Want to go have a drink?"

"Later."

"Alright~"

The Sea Clan female demon smiled. Being politely rejected, she naturally wouldn't feel embarrassed or anything of the sort.

Ding~

The elevator opened. Just as Su Xiao was about to get off the elevator with several gamblers, an aura flashed and vanished diagonally above. That feeling was roughly around the 19th or 20th floor, which was the VIP hall. Regrettably, Su Xiao did not have the membership qualifications to enter those two floors. His gaze turned toward the Sea Clan female demon, the smile on his face becoming increasingly kind.

Ding~

The elevator opened once again. This was the VIP public area on the 19th floor. There were far fewer gamblers, but they were all either wealthy or noble. The Sea Clan female demon wearing an evening gown walked out of the elevator somewhat reluctantly. If one observed carefully, one would find a Spirit Shadow Line, so thin it was difficult to perceive, embedded into the back of her neck, right between the only two fine, colorful scales on her nape.

"Don't be impulsive. If there's anything you need, we can discuss it. This isn't worth it."

The Sea Clan female demon appeared calm and elegant, but from the hand tightly gripping a stack of gold chips, one could see that she was actually quite nervous.

"..."

Su Xiao stepped up to a gambling table. This table was not large and could accommodate five gamblers playing at once. Currently, three had already lost and left. Among the last two, a fat-headed, big-eared Octopus Clan member was slowly rubbing open its cards. Upon seeing the hole cards, it looked like a deflated ball, threw down the cards, and left in low spirits.

Only one man wearing a black formal suit and smiling remained at the gambling table. This person was named Shadow Scorpion, a notorious Qiyuezhe in the Ninth Tier. Unlike the Gray Gentleman or the Priest, who were old schemers, this guy had stooped to being notorious, taking pleasure in torturing Qiyuezhe or native inhabitants of mission worlds who were weaker than himself.

Su Xiao estimated that this was unlikely to be Beverly's teammate. Beverly was indeed a female lunatic obsessed with hunting down hunters or enjoying being hunted by hunters, but she wouldn't look down on a teammate like Shadow Scorpion.

Su Xiao sat down opposite Shadow Scorpion. Because he sat down, the Sea Clan female demon, though somewhat reluctant, also sat down and casually put down the stack of chips in her hand.

Tap, tap, tap~

Soul coins fell from Su Xiao's hand, stacked into a pile. Shadow Scorpion opposite saw this, lit a cigarette, threw down his lighter, and teased with a smile, "Brother, no need to gamble so seriously, right?"

"..."

Su Xiao didn't answer, just materialized 50 soul coins and, with a clatter, threw 25 of them to Shadow Scorpion opposite.

"Cherish every word you can still say."

Baja landed on Su Xiao's shoulder. Seeing Baja, Shadow Scorpion opposite showed suspicion in his eyes, as if he felt it looked familiar. He frowned and pondered for a few seconds, and suddenly, he seemed to think of something.

"Magic Eagle..."

"Shh~, cherish every word you can still say."

One of Baja's wings made a gesture of an index finger held in front of its mouth, telling Shadow Scorpion opposite to keep quiet.

Shadow Scorpion, whose face was ugly to the extreme, had a gloomy gaze, but for the sake of his life being more important, he didn't choose to suddenly stand up and rush to the window to jump out, but sat there honestly.

The reason for this was that the strength gap was too obvious. If one had to position Su Xiao in the Ninth Tier, he, the Ruthless Brother, and the Magic Scythe Teride were basically all approaching the limit of the Ninth Tier. The Ruthless Brother was the most extreme, while Su Xiao and Magic Scythe Teride were still one step away from the most extreme.

As for the Ninth Tier top-tier echelon facing these three, let's just spare the Ninth Tier top-tier echelon; it wasn't easy for them to raise their strength to today's level.

Not to mention, Shadow Scorpion was relatively dangerous even when facing the Ninth Tier top-tier echelon. This time, Shadow Scorpion came to the Wind Sea Continent because after the Mark Contention Battle started, the boat ticket to the Wind Sea Continent was relatively cheap, so he hitched a ride here. He never thought about contending for the Initial Mark; otherwise, he wouldn't be at the Sea Heart Grand Hotel now.

Realizing the desperate situation he was in, Shadow Scorpion immediately wanted to contact those Qiyuezhe on the top floor of the hotel to get out of the current predicament amidst the chaos, but a scene that shocked him occurred: all his contact methods had failed.

"Don't bother trying. Within 10 minutes, you can't contact anyone. I heard you like playing life-and-death games; today we'll play one with you too. See these 25 soul coins? This is your stake. Within 10 minutes, win all 25 soul coins from my boss, and we'll let you go."

Baja spoke, its sharp black-blue pupils making Shadow Scorpion feel a faint stinging pain in the back of his neck, as if this Magic Eagle could appear behind his head at any moment and rip his head off along with his spine.

Not to mention, the Spirit Shadow Line was currently wrapped around Shadow Scorpion's neck and arms. With Su Xiao's current sword art level, adding Blade's Edge to the Spirit Shadow Line was naturally no problem, plus the energy cutting power provided by the Blood Gun Grandmaster, the Spirit Shadow Line was enough to sever Shadow Scorpion's neck.

"Don't say why you should believe us; do you have a choice?"

Hearing Baja's words, Shadow Scorpion took out a deck of cards commonly used within the Paradise. Although he didn't dare to cheat now, he was still relatively confident in his card skills.

Swish, swish, swish. After dealing the cards, Shadow Scorpion discovered that his hand was actually three Aces. He looked at his hole cards: Ace, King, King. According to the rules of the game, this was the highest hand. This made his expression freeze. He really hadn't cheated; it was just a randomly dealt hand.

"How about we don't count this round?"

"You're talking nonsense; you want to go back on your word just because your hand is bad?"

Although Baja's tone was full of killing intent, it tilted its head with some anticipation to look at Su Xiao's hand. Suddenly, the smile on its face disappeared. If they were playing Fight the Landlord and he went first, this hand could play a "Spring." Pair of 3s, pair of 4s, pair of 5s—the problem was, this wasn't Fight the Landlord.

"You cheated."

Baja threw the cards down. Upon hearing this, Su Xiao's right hand's five fingers curled, and the Spirit Shadow Line wrapped around Shadow Scorpion's neck, arms, and other positions tightened.

"I... I didn't!"

Shadow Scorpion's tone was exceptionally agitated. Although it looked like he had cheated now, he really hadn't this time.

"Giving you one last chance: which floor are Beverly and the others on?"

Baja spoke.

"It should be the 185th floor."

Shadow Scorpion confessed without hesitation. As fellow Qiyuezhe, and all staying in the same grand hotel, he naturally guessed the approximate floor of those few people.

"Who is with Beverly?"

"Giant Hand, Ice Mage, Dream Maker."

Shadow Scorpion only mentioned three people, which meant there was still one Qiyuezhe who had never left that guest room, and thus their tracks hadn't been exposed.

"I've told you everything you wanted to know, so, can I go now..."

Shadow Scorpion's words were only half-spoken when he discovered that Su Xiao was holding a "Corruption Bomb." This was something Shadow Scorpion had quietly set in a space gap earlier, intending to find an opportunity to detonate it to escape, or perhaps take the chance to blow up this hunter opposite. Although he knew the probability wasn't high, Shadow Scorpion still held a glimmer of hope.

Su Xiao placed the "Corruption Bomb" on the table. Just at this moment, the lights in the gambling hall flickered, and all the gamblers had their attention attracted by this.

Su Xiao stood up and left. Shadow Scorpion, who had been sitting opposite, had already disappeared. A smear of blood remaining in the air was quietly sucked into an opened different-dimensional crack, and that "Corruption Bomb" also disappeared without a trace.

Through this Qiyuezhe named Shadow Scorpion, Su Xiao had already tested the performance of the 【Qiyuezhe】 title roughly. Title Effect 3, the Killing Disguise ability, was harder to complete than expected, and there was a disguise delay; it took about 15 to 20 seconds to complete the disguise replacement.

And Title Effect 4, Absolute Fear, was better to use than imagined. As long as one successfully "Will-Fears" a lone Qiyuezhe, not only could it seal all the other party's contact methods, but if Su Xiao wanted, he could also make the other party temporarily lose the ability to speak.

Although he had successfully found Beverly's exact location, there wasn't just Beverly in that guest room on the 185th floor, but also her four temporary teammates. If he wasn't mistaken, among these four teammates, three were combat-types and one was a perception-type.

Given the alertness of Ninth Tier Qiyuezhe, luring them out to defeat them one by one was impossible, and disguising as a room service waiter was even more unreliable. After pondering for a moment, Su Xiao went to the restroom. When he walked out again, he had changed his clothes and appearance; this was a Qiyuezhe who had died in this world over a dozen world progressions ago.

Su Xiao no longer restrained his aura. After transferring elevators twice, he finally arrived at the 185th floor. He stopped in front of a guest room with four different auras inside. There should have been five people in this guest room, but after all, he wasn't a perception-type; beyond a 10-meter range, he couldn't sense the existence of that perception-type.

Knock, knock, knock.

Su Xiao knocked on the door. Even through the door, he could sense the four increasingly tense auras inside. One of them was the coldest, like the aura of a living corpse frozen for a thousand years, gradually approaching the door. The other party said coldly, "Who!"

"The Priest knows you're here. If he comes directly, both sides will be a bit awkward, so he sent me."

The reason Su Xiao said this was because he was certain of one point: Beverly, a person like her, would never be a pawn for the Priest. Not only that, the cooperation between the two sides had perhaps reached a precarious level, even to the point of being about to turn against each other.

The reason he said this was because if the cooperation between the two sides were still solid, then the 8.75% "Initial Mark" held by Beverly would certainly have been handed over to the Priest, and then both sides would be hiding in the shadows, sitting and waiting to reap the benefits.

The situation at this moment was not like that. It appeared the Priest was helping Beverly hide, but in reality, the Priest just didn't want Su Xiao to find Beverly before he did.

This 8.75% "Initial Mark" in Beverly's hands could be given to anyone else, but it absolutely could not fall into the hands of Su Xiao and the Ruthless Brother; that was the only possibility for the Priest to lose.

Now that the Ruthless Brother was unable to free himself in the Eternal Frozen Plains, the Priest only needed to guard against Su Xiao.

The Ice Mage inside the guest room, hearing that it was someone from the Priest's side, relaxed his tense nerves somewhat, but did not let down his guard. However, the spatial fluctuations inside the room gradually subsided.

This was the opportunity Su Xiao wanted. All teleportation arrays had one characteristic: attempting to activate them, but stopping halfway, would result in a brief unavailable phase. Even if this phase was very brief, it was enough.

"You are not welcome here..."

Puchi!

A long sword pierced through the door panel and into the skull of the Ice Mage inside. This strike was simply too fast and too sudden, and since the Ice Mage was half a magic-type, he was killed instantly on the spot.

The guest room suddenly fell into dead silence. While Su Xiao dispelled his disguise, he withdrew his long sword from the door panel. Facts proved that this time the situation couldn't be a game of Werewolf with the Qiyuezhe; that required a relatively large environment, and the Qiyuezhe team was in a moving state. Currently, several Qiyuezhe were guarding one place, so there was no opportunity to bring out the strength of the 【Qiyuezhe】 title.

Su Xiao entered the guest room using the Dragon Shadow Flash ability, seeing the four people standing on the teleportation array, which had already been activated.

The tank-type Giant Hand was exceptionally decisive. Regardless of the teleportation risk, he punched Beverly beside him, forcing Beverly, who was on the teleportation array, to take a few steps back and out of the teleportation range.

Giant Hand and the other three Qiyuezhe disappeared from the spot. Ninth Tier Qiyuezhe were all very cunning. After confirming that it was Su Xiao who had come, they immediately sold out their teammate. All three of them knew one thing: the beheading Night was here for Beverly, and relying on this broken teleportation array under their feet to shake off a hunter with the Old Hunter title was simply a joke.

"Three cowardly bastards."

Beverly was full of annoyance and bad luck. Wearing a black tank top, she, who had a strong tomboy aura, deliberately looked at Su Xiao with one eye larger than the other and said, "Hunter, let's make a deal?"

"..."

Su Xiao didn't speak, his long sword pointing obliquely at the carpet, the blood on it dripping down.

"Tch."

Beverly took out the 8.75% "Initial Mark," making a gesture to crush it, but Su Xiao remained silent.

"Aren't you afraid I'll destroy this piece of 'Initial Mark'?"

Beverly's eyes narrowed slightly. She felt a huge loss at this moment; if she had known, she wouldn't have raised the price and sold this thing to the Priest.

"The Priest not getting this piece of 'Initial Mark' is more important to me."

Su Xiao spoke. Hearing this, Beverly's gaze became even gloomier. She had thought as much, which was why she hadn't directly crushed this "Initial Mark."

"Little Ge was suddenly so generous before, I knew there was no good news. Sure enough, in your contest with the Priest, this 'Initial Mark' is very important."

"..."

"You name a price, no matter how low. Although being hunted by a hunter is tense and exciting, being hunted by you, I'm afraid I'm going to be finished."

"..."

Su Xiao picked up a piece of candy from the table and tossed it over.

"Deal."

Beverly grinned and laughed. After tossing the "Initial Mark" in her hand, she leaned back and fell, crashing out the window and disappearing into the gale at high altitude.

After Beverly retreated, the long sword in Su Xiao's hand returned to its sheath. He pulled out a contract parchment from thin air. This Qiyuezhe, Beverly, was also a contract expert, but she still couldn't threaten Su Xiao.

Su Xiao could sense that the security personnel of the Sea Heart Hotel had already rushed to the corridor outside the door. He took out a soul crystal core covered in engravings and threw it on the ground. A Demon Teleportation Array appeared. Xiang Ignoring Bubu Wang and Baja both appeared and stood on the teleportation array. As for the irritable little sprite Diagu, the other party had his own means of retreat.

When the spatial fluctuations subsided, Su Xiao had already returned to the Lord's Manor. This time, being able to seize Beverly's "Initial Mark," the 【Qiyuezhe】 title could only be considered a small test of his skills; the role it played was not critical. The main thing was the advantage brought by combat power, plus Ninth Tier Qiyuezhe were one more slippery than the other. Straightforward Qiyuezhe like those in the Sixth or Seventh Tier who would fight him head-on were already hard to encounter. Now, the ones he encountered were one faster at running than the other.

Because he had just locked onto the Qiyuezhe with his aura, Su Xiao hadn't had time to check the prompts that appeared. Now that he had leisure time, he chose to check the prompt list.

【Prompt: Your Beast Clan Legion has captured the "Crystal Forest."】

【The Winter Territory has gained a new output: Crystal Fat.】

【The territory evaluation of the Winter Territory has been promoted to S-rank (this is the highest territory evaluation).】

Seeing this prompt, Su Xiao knew it was time to go and have a life-and-death showdown with the Old Beast King.

PS: (Tomorrow is Sunday, taking a day off to prevent the old illness from recurring. My apologies to all the readers.)