Chapter 3934: Missions and Friends

Royal Palace Inner Sanctum · Secret Chamber.

The skill upgrade pod before him appeared somewhat aged, with deep-sea rust on its surface. It seemed that when it fell into this world, it had landed on the ocean floor. By some stroke of fortune, the Three Elders had obtained it and studied it for a long time, yet they were never able to activate this Paradise facility.

Su Xiao pressed one hand against the pod's door. As the Samsara Paradise's notarization began, the skill upgrade pod showed signs of operation. The door gradually opened. Compared to its exterior, the interior was in much better condition. On the right wall of the pod, a string of small characters was engraved.

"Xiketu, my love, we will surely win, even if our opponent is the Tuanzhang. The dawn will guide our way."

Su Xiao had previously thought the skill upgrade pod was damaged, which was why it hadn't been notarized by the Tree of Void as spoils of war. Now it seemed this was a skill upgrade pod exclusive to a certain Dawn Paradise Qiyuezhe.

This did not affect Su Xiao's usage. The only difference between an exclusive skill upgrade pod and a general one was only slightly apparent when using it to improve abilities. All he needed was the notarized environment within the skill upgrade pod.

Su Xiao attempted to activate the skill upgrade pod, and relevant prompts appeared.

【Prompt: Detected that your current location is not within a Paradise environment. Activating Paradise facilities in this environment will increase the consumption of Space-Time Power by a "massive" amount, consuming 216 ounces of Space-Time Power per hour.】

The environment within the Paradise faction was unique; this was not unexpected. Even so, for the Paradise faction to maintain the operation of so many basic facilities, they must consume a massive amount of Space-Time Power every day.

Samsara Paradise could naturally bear this consumption, or rather, Samsara Paradise gave people the feeling that Space-Time Power was the faction's specialty product. Winning World Contests time and again allowed Samsara Paradise to have notarization rights over more worlds.

These worlds naturally operated every day, creating a surplus of Space-Time Power. Generally speaking, this Space-Time Power would drift into the lifeless zones of the Astral Realm. Once a world was notarized by a Paradise, this Space-Time Power, which should have drifted into the lifeless zones, would be stored by that Paradise faction.

In fact, every World Contest, which seemed to be eight matches from Tier 2 to Tier 9, was not actually so. Every tier had simultaneous World Contests. The lower the world tier, the more simultaneous matches there were. For example, for Tier 4 World Contests, each round of Tier 4 World Contests involved nearly 120 to 140 matches conducted simultaneously.

With the massive number of Qiyuezhe in the low-to-mid tiers of the Paradise faction, supporting this many matches in Tier 4 was simply a daily routine. It was just that at that time, the tier was still low, and even if one wanted to understand this aspect, one could not obtain the relevant permissions.

The number of simultaneous Tier 4 contests was this high, so the numbers for Tier 2 and Tier 3 could be imagined. However, every Tier 9 World Contest basically consisted of only one or two matches; most were one, and a small number of cases involved two matches conducted simultaneously.

After all, over so many years, those Tier 9 worlds capable of being contested basically already had notarizing parties. Those worlds newly promoted from Tier 8 were the main targets for Tier 9 contests.

Added to this was the fact that not all worlds notarized by the Paradise faction allowed their subordinate Qiyuezhe to enter. For instance, in the Samsara Paradise faction, at least 21.85% of the worlds it notarized prohibited Qiyuezhe from entering.

Such worlds either had unstable world systems or fragile ones that could not withstand the "troublemakers," namely the Qiyuezhe.

More intuitively, the number of worlds notarized by each Paradise faction was as follows:

Worlds notarized by Samsara Paradise: 175,236 (Tier 1 to pre-transcendent worlds).

Worlds notarized by Death Paradise: 106,430 (Tier 1 to pre-transcendent worlds).

Worlds notarized by Apocalypse Paradise: 86,220 (Tier 1 to Tier 9).

Worlds notarized by Sanctuary Paradise: 75,400 (Tier 1 to Tier 9).

Worlds notarized by Holy Light Paradise: 38,662 (Tier 1 to Tier 9).

Worlds notarized by Watcher Paradise: 7,260 (Tier 1 to Tier 9).

……

The amount of Space-Time Power consumed by the Paradise faction daily was unimaginable to Qiyuezhe. However, there was a question: among the six great Paradises, how did Watcher Paradise maintain its Space-Time Power consumption?

Holy Light Paradise, ranked second to last, was barely maintaining itself, occasionally having to trade materials for Space-Time Power with Samsara Paradise. Furthermore, the number of Qiyuezhe in Holy Light Paradise was only one-third of the upstream Paradise factions like Samsara Paradise, Death Paradise, and Apocalypse Paradise.

At the level of Sanctuary Paradise, the Space-Time Power income support was relatively balanced; at the very least, there was no need to trade materials for Space-Time Power with Samsara Paradise.

Apocalypse Paradise's wealth had always been that its Space-Time Power was weaker than Samsara Paradise's, but its wealth in certain resources exceeded that of Samsara Paradise.

Death Paradise was the eternal runner-up. Although this title didn't sound good, its number of notarized worlds, number of Qiyuezhe, and Space-Time Power income/expenditure ratio were all very strong.

Su Xiao sat cross-legged inside the skill upgrade pod. As he paid 216 ounces of Space-Time Power, the skill upgrade pod began to operate.

【Prompt: The current skill upgrade pod is damaged and cannot be used to improve your mastered abilities by paying Soul Coins.】

Su Xiao didn't care about this. He opened his skill list and flipped to the Law-Extinguishing system skills. At the very top was:

"Law-Extinguishing Skill Points: 17 points."

First, one had to know how Law-Extinguishing Skill Points were formed; this was derived from the Law-Extinguishing exclusive talent.

【Hunter Shadow】

Category: Law-Extinguishing Shadow · Unique Talent (Not yet awakened)

Level: S (After completing one awakening, it can reach SSS level).

Talent Effect (Passive): After killing an enemy, your Devouring Core will absorb the enemy's un-dissipated origin energy, converting it into Soul Energy. When Soul Energy reaches 100%, you will gain 1 Law-Extinguishing skill point.

Prompt: This skill point is reflected after notarization by Samsara Paradise and can be used to improve Law-Extinguishing system abilities.

Current Law-Extinguishing Skill Points: 17 points.

……

Su Xiao could gain 80 Law-Extinguishing skill points in one world progress, which was not because he could only hunt that much "origin energy." Just thinking about it, this was unreasonable. In the previous world, he defeated the Beast God, the High Tower Knight Commander, the Nun, the Incarnation of Gods, the Last Blazing Sun Monarch, and the First Sun King. No matter how one looked at it, it was more than 80 points; even gaining 160 points felt like too little.

The reason for this lay in the storage limit of Law-Extinguishing skill points. If stored in Su Xiao's body, 30 points was the limit. After he obtained the 【Origin Container】, he only used this exclusive equipment to absorb origin energy, then used the Devouring Core ability to convert the origin energy inside into Soul Energy, constituting Law-Extinguishing skill points stored within it.

The maximum capacity of the 【Origin Container】 was 80 points. As for why not store them in his own body, no matter what, Law-Extinguishing skill points were a type of origin energy that permanently enhanced oneself. Storing them in his own body, once a problem occurred, would trigger an extremely serious and irreversible chain reaction.

If storing Law-Extinguishing skill points in one's own body were safe enough, the predecessors of the Law-Extinguishers wouldn't have painstakingly manufactured the 【Origin Container】. Although the predecessors of the Law-Extinguishers didn't use Law-Extinguishing skill points inside a skill upgrade pod, every time they entered an area where the Abyss was spreading, they had to wait a long time before they could return to the Law-Extinguishing Hall, and there were also cases where the 【Origin Container】 was not large enough.

There was no help for it; the materials for the 【Origin Container】 were expensive, and the manufacturing process was so absurd it left one speechless. The predecessors of the Law-Extinguishers and the Silintis Dwarves had both worn masks of pain for this.

At present, Su Xiao had temporarily solved this problem, which was to gain Law-Extinguishing skill points while using them. It was precisely this line of thought that made him feel he could raise the "Green Shadow King" ability to the maximum level during this contest.

The current "Green Shadow King" was at Lv. 19. Considering this was the ultimate move of the Law-Extinguishing system, if the maximum level was calculated as 100, it would be Lv. 100 + Lv. 10 from the 【Origin Stone · World】 raising the cap, which was Lv. 110 - Lv. 19 = Lv. 91.

Raising "Green Shadow King" by 1 level required 3 Law-Extinguishing skill points, totaling 273 Law-Extinguishing skill points. In the first round, "Plant Kingdom · Yagowa," there was definitely no chance to gain that many Law-Extinguishing skill points. The second round, "Lord Continent," held great hope.

The known first three rounds were "Contest," "Legion," and "Survival." The one currently underway was the first round, Contest. Then, the original plan for the second round, the Legion theme, had to be changed. Don't forget one point: the Priest knew about Su Xiao's Demon Zerg, so he would definitely take precautions in this regard.

Added to this, after experiencing the Eternal Light world, the strength of the Demon Zerg had undergone a qualitative change, but the Zerg Mother Nest was fixed in the Eternal Light world. This was the price for surviving the impossible test of Eternal Light, and it was also a crucial hidden trump card for facing absolute desperation in the future.

Su Xiao attempted to raise the "Green Shadow King" ability. The familiar feeling appeared, and the Law-Extinguishing skill points stored in the 【Origin Container】 were consumed rapidly. A moment later, only 2 points remained.

【Green Shadow King ability has been raised to Lv. 24.】

Checking the Green Shadow King after the upgrade and confirming the strength increase was fine, he attempted to pause the activation of this skill upgrade pod, only to find that once activated, it could not be terminated. It seemed it was more cost-effective to save up more Law-Extinguishing skill points before activating the skill upgrade pod again.

Opening the pod door, Su Xiao attempted to store this skill upgrade pod in the team storage space. Just then, a knock came at the door. It was Fenny outside the secret chamber. Baha cast a glance at Su Xiao, asking whether to open the door.

After Su Xiao signaled to open the door, Amu opened the secret chamber door. Fenny was not wearing her gold-white robe, having changed into cooler summer attire. Seeing the tall machine in front, her eyes revealed suspicion as she asked:

"This machine, it looks very familiar."

Fenny frowned slightly. She was certain she had seen this tall machine, but she just couldn't remember what it was. Suddenly, she thought of something and said with some astonishment:

"This seems to be a... skill upgrade pod?"

"Correct. Want to experience it?"

"Really?"

Fenny's eyes lit up. She had never improved her abilities within a mission world.

"Of course, but this thing requires self-funded activation: 216 ounces of Space-Time Power per time."

Hearing this number, Fenny was no longer curious: "That's robbery! I've never even saved up that much Space-Time Power. I can't help but spend it all once I save a few dozen ounces, and that's after saving for a long time."

Fenny puffed out her cheeks. It could be seen that compared to the vigilance she had when she first joined the team, she was now in her normal state. Although cautious by nature, she had a moderate curiosity about everything.

Ignoring Fenny, who was observing the skill upgrade pod, Su Xiao finally had time to check the gains from killing the Three Elders. These were three relatively unique boss-level units.

【You have killed the Three Elders.】

【You have gained 6,800 Soul Coins.】

【You have gained 0% World Source (World Source cannot be obtained in the current world).】

【You have gained Eternal-level Treasure Chest · Twisted Parasitic Soul.】

【You have gained Eternal-level Treasure Chest · Rotten Giant Tree Soul.】

【You have gained Eternal-level Treasure Chest · Resentful Curse Poison Soul.】

【After obtaining all three treasure chests above, you can choose to open them for directed gains. Choosing this method to open them, you will definitely gain "Twisted Parasitic Soul," "Rotten Giant Tree Soul," and "Resentful Curse Poison Soul," thereby performing a rough synthesis or finding a synthesis method yourself.】

……

Obviously, defeating the Three Elders triggered the prerequisite conditions for a certain mission, and in the notarization, the Three Elders were notarized as a single boss unit. This could be seen from the Soul Coin acquisition, and 6,800 Soul Coins still carried some weight.

Looking at the three treasure chests floating in front, Su Xiao opened them all.

【You have gained Twisted Parasitic Soul.】

【You have gained Rotten Giant Tree Soul.】

【You have gained Resentful Curse Poison Soul.】

Su Xiao did not choose the default synthesis method. He took out the 【Ring Stigma】, which came from the Soul Great Library and was the strongest synthesis means he mastered. As the 【Ring Stigma】 closed in, the three negative souls gathered together. After half an hour of synthesis, a prompt appeared.

【You have gained Cursed Index Finger.】

【Cursed Index Finger】

Origin: Cursed Land.

Category: Cursed Object / Index Finger.

Effect: Open the mechanism of the Cursed Land · Rotten Blood Sea · Secret Island...???

Introduction: There are always those who harbor luck, thinking that as long as they escape the Cursed Land, they can escape the price equivalent to gaining power, not knowing that they have already become the key to opening the curse.

……

Compared to the gains from this synthesis, Su Xiao was more concerned about the prompt Apocalypse Paradise gave when he obtained the three negative souls, which read:

【Prompt: You have obtained three negative souls. You have activated the hidden mission · Curse Origin.】

【Hidden Mission · First Ring: Synthesis Secret Method.】

Difficulty Level: Lv. 92.

Mission Introduction: Go to the "Rain Land" in the southern region, find the High Priest of the Elk Horn Tribe, Narsank, and complete the synthesis of the three negative souls to obtain the Cursed Finger. The details of the Cursed Finger are as follows:

Cursed Finger · Little Finger: 20% probability to open the mechanism of the Cursed Land · Rotten Blood Sea · Secret Island.

Cursed Finger · Ring Finger: 50% probability to open...

Cursed Finger · Middle Finger: 70% probability to open...

Cursed Finger · Thumb: 90% probability to open...

Cursed Finger · Index Finger: 100% probability to open...

Prompt: Which Cursed Finger you ultimately obtain will depend on the amount of reward you give to High Priest Narsank and your negotiation method with this neutral unit.

Mission Deadline: 3 natural days.

Mission Reward: Cursed Finger ·??

Mission Penalty: -650,000 Soul Coins.

……

Seeing this penalty, Su Xiao had some suspicion in his eyes. It was his first time seeing a penalty involving the deduction of Soul Coins, and the amount deducted was truly high.

However, the mission introduction above immediately made one feel that this penalty was not high at all. This wasn't a mission introduction; it was fundamentally the mission's completion process. Su Xiao estimated that if this were a mission notarized by Samsara Paradise, the mission introduction would definitely be "Complete the synthesis of the negative souls."

As for the southern region, Rain Land, Elk Horn Tribe, and High Priest Narsank, since Samsara Paradise's mission introduction didn't have an introduction like "Complete the synthesis," it was already described clearly enough.

Opening the team list, Su Xiao shared this mission with Fenny. Up to now, Fenny's performance had been that she hoped her team would win and had done her best for it. In the situation where they were besieged by the Plant Tribe just now, she didn't use any life-saving items to escape, showing that she was indeed a reliable healer, not some high-level cannon fodder.

In such a situation, if there was a mission, it should naturally be shared. When teaming up, the more members who accept the same mission, the more generous the mission reward.

Fenny studied the mission information for a moment. The gains from this mission must be considerable, but the corresponding risks made her worry. In normal times, this would be nothing, but this time they were clashing with a large group of rule-breakers. So, in her cognition, her team no longer had the energy to complete anything else. But she felt it inappropriate to say it directly, so she said tactfully:

"Bai Ye, this mission..."

【Prompt: Detected that you have obtained Cursed Finger · Index Finger.】

【Hidden Mission · Curse Origin · First Ring (Completed).】

【This mission is a multi-stage hidden mission. You can claim mission rewards after each stage or accumulate mission rewards to claim them upon completing the final stage.】

【Warning: This accumulation characteristic is different from Samsara Paradise's relevant notarization. Each time you choose to accumulate gains, the difficulty of the next stage of the mission will increase.】

……

Su Xiao looked at Fenny beside him: "What did you say?"

"Uh~, I just said..."

Fenny was completely stunned, but this was normal. Let alone in Apocalypse Paradise, even in Samsara Paradise, only a very small number of people would complete a mission like this.

【Hidden Mission · Second Ring: Preliminary Purification.】

Difficulty Level: Lv. 94.

Mission Introduction: Go to the Central Water Source of the Dense Royal Capital, sneak into the very bottom of the Central Water Source, obtain a sufficient amount of "Origin Water," find???, and through the help of???, preliminarily cleanse the curse power within the "Cursed Index Finger."

Mission Deadline: 2 natural days.

Mission Reward: Accumulating...

Mission Penalty: -850,000 Soul Coins.

……

This belonged to gains delivered to one's door. Normally, this mission indeed had a difficulty of Lv. 94. The problem was, Su Xiao had just beheaded the Three Elders, and the new leader of the Plant faction, upon seeing him, was like seeing a living Yama. Therefore, for him to go to the Plant faction's forbidden area, the Central Water Source, was as simple as going to the morning exercise square.

Su Xiao had a habit: he never just looked at a mission's introduction and then followed it blindly to execute the mission. Thinking and summarizing before doing a mission was a habit he had trained after a long time of doing Samsara Paradise missions. After all, Samsara Paradise's mission information was too sparse and must have sufficient cognitive extensibility.

First, the framework of this hidden mission was not complex: 1. Trigger the prerequisite to obtain the key; 2. Forge the key; 3. The final stage is to go to the "Cursed Land · Rotten Blood Sea · Secret Island" to find or defeat something.

First is the key-finding stage. Based on Su Xiao's experience, this matter must have an initiating NPC. The other party is the start of this mission. This initiating NPC would talk to the mission executor in a vague way about the curse, rot, and secret island, without mentioning it too deeply, to facilitate subsequent development.

With the groundwork laid, the main act follows. The initiating NPC would tell the protagonist team how bad the Three Elders who occupied the water source were, and that each of the Three Elders possessed something related to the world's fate. After some cajoling, the protagonist team, either having their sense of justice awakened or for the sake of profit, would decide to deal with the Three Elders.

When the protagonist team defeated the Three Elders and obtained the three negative souls, the initiating NPC would likely appear and, after some cajoling, set the protagonist team on the path to synthesizing the Cursed Finger.

"Xiang Bubu, observe targets acting suspiciously within a few kilometers."

"Woof."

Xiang Bubu Wang released a swarm of bees, totaling over 100,000 movement detection units. In less than five minutes, they locked onto an old man wearing tattered gray clothes and leaning on a wooden staff wrapped in rags. This old man had dull eyes and was blind. A decorative pendant that emitted sound waves when walking hung from his right ear, clearly judging the surrounding environment and terrain based on the diffusion of sound waves.

Su Xiao was certain this was the initiating NPC. The other party had already discovered someone was detecting them but was very calm, walking toward the outside of the detection range with slow but steady steps.

"This is?"

Fenny poked her head out curiously to look.

"The initiating NPC for this mission."

"This... how did you judge that?"

Fenny's growth in all kinds of strange knowledge today was such that her eyes were a bit dazed.

"Baha."

"Boss, I'm here."

"Go kill this old thing."

"Got it."

"??!!"

Fenny almost cracked. This was the initiating NPC for the hidden mission! Who kills the initiating NPC while doing a mission?

"Wait... wait, shouldn't we be steady?"

Fenny knew Baha definitely wouldn't listen to her words, so she was speaking to Su Xiao. She already had a preliminary understanding of this captain. Simply put, although this captain was murderous and violent, as long as one sincerely assisted him and didn't court death or act presumptuously, the captain would consider and adopt effective suggestions proposed by team members.

However, Fenny's suggestion this time was not adopted. A few minutes later, she began to receive warning prompts one after another, roughly saying that the team member she was in was attacking an important NPC for her ongoing mission. But Fenny could only say that she had no choice, and she was also in despair.

As for why Apocalypse Paradise didn't give Su Xiao a large number of warning prompts, it was both because he was a Samsara Paradise Hunter and because it was useless; Su Xiao definitely wouldn't listen.

When Fenny finally received the prompt that the current mission NPC had been killed, she could only force a smile, because she really couldn't use a corresponding expression to describe her current mood.

Su Xiao sat on the crystal chair. He looked at the "Cursed Index Finger" floating in front. The reason he had to kill this initiating NPC was that the old guy's initial purpose was to cajole others.

This brings us to the second stage of the mission: purifying the curse power within the "Cursed Index Finger." From the mission process, a single purification couldn't achieve this. This content should involve the third, fourth, and even fifth rings of the mission.

The initiating NPC's purpose was nine times out of ten to absorb the curse power cleansed from the "Cursed Index Finger." When it was absorbed to a certain degree, this guy would reveal his true face, using the power gained from absorbing the curse power to ambush the protagonist team executing the mission, thereby seizing the purified "Cursed Index Finger."

First, let's talk about the order of this contest: Plant Kingdom → Lord Continent → Cursed Land → Undead Kingdom → Dawn Outskirts (Ruins Outskirts) → Dawn Ruins.

It seemed one had to experience four worlds notarized by Dawn Paradise to enter the Dawn Outskirts. However, from the situation of this hidden mission, the Plant Kingdom, Lord Continent, and Cursed Land were medium-sized worlds connected to each other, and the fourth round, "Undead Kingdom," didn't look like it could support the scale of a medium-sized world on its own. This should be a buffer zone before entering Dawn Paradise.

In this way, the formal worlds in the first few rounds were actually only the Plant Kingdom, Lord Continent, and Cursed Land, which just happened to correspond to the content of the hidden mission.

Complete the fusion and preliminary purification of the "Cursed Finger" in the Plant Kingdom.

Complete multiple comprehensive purifications of the "Cursed Finger" in the Lord Continent.

Use the "Cursed Finger" in the Cursed Land to welcome the final stage of the mission.

Looking at it this way, the most time-consuming part of this mission was the process of purifying the "Cursed Finger." During this period, one might have to contact several mission NPCs, running errands for them and helping them solve inexplicable troubles. If this step could be omitted, it would be equivalent to saving over 90% of the mission's execution time.

To be honest, purifying the curse within this "Cursed Finger" was very difficult. If it were only Su Xiao, he really couldn't do it. But if an old friend assisted, then...

Added to this, the rule-breaker faction they were dealing with this time was indeed tricky. Plus, the team had two more spots. Wasn't one of them reserved for the old friend, Nicholas Caesar? It's just that I don't know what situation will arise when Apocalypse Paradise's notarization encounters Caesar.

Thinking carefully, when facing Samsara Paradise's notarization, Caesar would lie on the ground and collapse three feet. If he were temporarily notarized by Apocalypse Paradise, then Caesar... wouldn't he take off!

There was a problem: in this team, there could only be one Hunter/Qiyuezhe from Samsara Paradise, Su Xiao. Although Caesar was an Arbiter, he was, after all, from the Samsara Paradise faction.

Su Xiao looked at Fenny beside him, who had 42,860 points of reputation in Apocalypse Paradise and 41,990 points in the Tree of Void. Fenny, who was thinking about subsequent plans, suddenly shivered. Then she discovered that her captain was looking at her with a smile. At this scene, Fenny went numb—scared numb, even though her captain's smile was still considered kind.

"I, I suddenly have an urgent matter to go out for, I'll be back in a while."

Fenny was just about to get up and slip away to avoid her captain's kind plan when a hand was already pressed on her shoulder.

"Fenny, you have disappointed me too much. You actually became a rule-breaker."

"???"

Fenny was completely confused.

"However, you have abandoned evil and followed good, willing to repent and become a temporary Arbiter of Samsara Paradise to atone for your sins. I am very gratified."

"Ah?!!"

Fenny almost burst into tears. She didn't know what was going to happen, but she felt this would definitely increase her strange knowledge by a "massive" amount. ===== CHAPTER 3935 =====