Chapter 4012: Operation

Empress City · District 1, a few kilometers away from the pharmacist workshop.

As Lady Scorpion's butler, Burgil was responsible for this siege and was one of the main forces. Burgil no longer had his previous submissive flattery but had a chilling viciousness. If one talked about the ability to endure, Burgil was one of the best in the Ducain family.

A dozen Ducain family members with different shapes and pitch-black eyes were standing or lying nearby. These Abyssal race members, two of whom resembled humans, the rest were more like dark beasts, or the forms they were born in. There was a law: the more Abyssal race members contacted intelligent races, the closer their forms were to humans.

"Burgil, is there really a Law-Breaker in the pharmacist workshop?"

A black snake, shaped like a giant python and coiled up, spoke. Its body was as thick as a water bucket, and its scales were full of bright red barbs. Combined with its pitch-black metallic scales, it had a sense of horror.

"How many years has it been since I heard the title Law-Breaker."

A worm ball formed by a large number of black thread worms spoke. The worm ball was surging, and something seemed to be greedily peeking out from the core.

"Mr. Snake, please freeze the space in this area in a moment."

Burgil spoke. The Abyssal race member called Mr. Snake didn't commit. It wasn't originally a member of the Ducain family but an 'Immortal Abyssal Creature'. But after the death-match between Ducain and the Law-Breakers, there was finally a vacancy on the 'Origin Clan Badge'. After imprinting its 'Causal Destiny Source' on it, it formally became a Ducain.

However, because it was a new member who joined a few hundred years ago, its seniority was far inferior to other family members. Naturally, it had to bear more hard work, and it was originally a powerful entity in the dark space system.

Mr. Snake's huge body stretched out a bit, biting into the empty space. Ice-blue cold poison spread in the space, causing the surrounding space to begin to freeze with a 'clatter'.

Finishing this freezing, Mr. Snake let go, nodded to Burgil, and said: "I used the cold that I had accumulated for a hundred years. This time, I want an extra share."

"Can."

Burgil's dry reply made the vertical snake pupils of Mr. Snake have a hint of a smile. But just then, it suddenly felt a chill down its spine, as if something violent, powerful, and massive was rushing from the space ahead. The space it had frozen shattered with a 'clatter', and then this massive and powerful thing 'rolled over' it.

With a 'pfft', Mr. Snake sprayed the feces it only passed once every few years out of its rear door. Its giant snake mouth opened, and all kinds of strange organs were squeezed out. Mr. Snake's appearance at this time was like an earthworm placed on a railway track, run over by a steel train, except its body was too tough to be crushed into meat paste, and it wasn't dead yet.

Burgil took an internal organ bath on the spot. Compared to it, the few Ducain family members behind Mr. Snake were miserable.

Clearly, under the crushing of the 'Law-Breaker Teleportation Array', Mr. Snake's proud spatial freezing didn't have any use. Or rather, the 'Law-Breaker Teleportation Array' and the conventional teleportation array weren't the same thing at all.

Blocking spatial teleportation was like blocking pedestrians; the blocking means might be a fence, a lasso, or a higher-level wooden door, or a particularly high-level iron door, ensuring all pedestrians were blocked. But this thing didn't block trains. Driving a train and crashing into it was quite shameless.

The key was, who could have imagined that walking through space with chaotic spatial tides was equivalent to walking on a road paved with huge rocks? A slight carelessness would lead to injury. On this road condition, a steel train speeding at full speed rushed over. Who wouldn't be stunned?

Just then, the rotten red aura spread. In this spreading poison mist, Lady Scorpion walked over gracefully, followed by a worm-man composed of milky-white maggots, over three meters tall.

Lady Scorpion didn't speak, just looking at Burgil. This made Burgil, who had been confident just a moment ago, have an increasingly unnatural expression, cold sweat soaking his back. He opened his mouth to explain something, but finally only said:

"Empress, I have nothing to defend. It is my responsibility."

"You have already done very well. Our goal has been achieved, hasn't it."

Lady Scorpion looked at Burgil gently, which made the heart-gouging feeling of being unworthy of the Empress's trust, which Burgil felt after lowering his head, even more intense.

"Empress, do we just let this Law-Breaker leave? If the Council Head pursues this..."

Burgil said this, only to find that in Lady Scorpion's hand, a pitch-black mark was floating. Seeing this scene, he felt a bit surprised and asked: "That Law-Breaker didn't remove the dark mark, and he dared to escape? Truly... seeking death."

"He removed it, at least, he thought he removed it."

Lady Scorpion's seemingly weak hand gripped the 'Dark Mark' without doubt. This mark turned into a heart and was crushed with a 'snap'. Blood flowed down between the fingers of Lady Scorpion's fair hand. This hand was beautiful, and combined with the cruel blood, it produced a cruel beauty.

Su Xiao's heart was crushed? Of course impossible. The one branded with the 'Dark Mark' by Lady Scorpion was the avatar he had constructed using 【Self Power】. It should have been the avatar that died, but would the real situation really be that simple?

At this moment, Empress City · District 20, a luxurious manor. In the hall on the first floor of the villa, on a semi-circular sofa, Su Xiao, Caesar, Xilin, Pain High Priest, and even Black Leech were present. Even the exploration captain · Afia from Shelter City and Dark Bishop · Charles had rushed over through the teleportation array. As for the problem of Shelter City's defense being empty.

Shelter City was never guarded by the few supreme-tiers on the surface, otherwise, it would have been razed to the ground by the Ducain family long ago.

This operation against Lady Scorpion was conducted by Su Xiao and Caesar, and no one else had a share. However, everyone was very curious about how the Law-Breaker and the Fraudster dealt with Lady Scorpion.

Su Xiao leaned on the sofa and closed his eyes to rest. In front of him stood a figure wrapped in a large number of contract parchment papers, looking like a special mummy, with a very mysterious style. This was exactly the avatar created by 【Self Power】.

Just then, the self-avatar suddenly fell to the ground. Its chest was dented, and black liquid seeped through the contract parchment papers from inside. Seeing this scene, Su Xiao and Caesar both knew that this round was won.

This was a matter planned long ago. The whole process of what Su Xiao had to do wasn't complicated.

1. Use 【Self Power】 to create an avatar. It was best if the avatar was held hostage by Lady Scorpion by some means, and even better if Lady Scorpion could kill this avatar by this means at any time.

2. Formulate a large number of potions, making Lady Scorpion's wealth multiply several times in a short period. And, her wealth all passed through the Goblin Chamber of Commerce, or rather, Lady Scorpion had no choice.

Those willing to do business with the Abys

3. Su Xiao breaks free from Lady Scorpion's control, preferably provoking Lady Scorpion to a certain extent, causing her to trigger her restraint means and kill the avatar (if Lady Scorpion doesn't take action, then initiate backup plan D).

The plan went quite smoothly. Lady Scorpion chose to trigger the restraint means, or rather, Lady Scorpion at that time was backed into a corner. So many Dokain family members went to surround and kill Su Xiao, only to be left behind by him in a way that was almost like riding in their faces, and the most miserable one, Mr. Snake, had the shit beaten out of him.

Under these circumstances, if Lady Scorpion didn't show some means, those Abyss descendants would inevitably have some thoughts. After all, the recent large-scale sale of secret medicines from the Empress City couldn't be hidden from these Dokain family members.

The avatar quickly lost its life aura. It had to be said that Lady Scorpion's strangulation means were truly quite strong. This scene attracted everyone's attention. The Dark Bishop, Afiya, Xilin, and others all gathered around. Black Leech had originally wanted to continue being aloof, but since everyone else had come forward, and he was indeed a bit curious, he also came forward.

Everyone saw the black liquid emerging from the sunken chest of the avatar, rapidly infecting and wrapping around the contract parchment papers on the avatar. What was this? The answer was the "Revenge Contract" drafted by Su Xiao.

"Revenge Contract" was a powerful but narrow-application contract, so narrow that it could only be used on oneself. The effect was that it could sign a contract with a target that had harmed oneself, thereby carrying out small-scale restrictions and setting contract content. As the severity of the injuries increased, the binding force of the contract would extend.

The strongest binding force was when the drafter of the Revenge Contract was killed. If it were against other targets, Su Xiao really wouldn't have been able to draft this Revenge Contract. The key was that this was his "Self Avatar," which was why he could draft the "Revenge Contract."

For things like contracts, the greater the restriction on oneself and the greater the price paid, the stronger the binding force would undoubtedly be. And the restriction of the "Revenge Contract" was that it was used on oneself, and the price was death. The two combined almost maxed out the contract's power.

Su Xiao's previous contracts with others had all relied on small-scale contract power, or even weak contract power. But this time, simply put, in all the contract drafting he had done, he had never been this wealthy.

Threatening Lady Scorpion with a contract to make her hand over all her assets? Of course not. Su Xiao never doubted that Lady Scorpion, who seemed gentle but was actually ruthless, was prepared to go down with him.

Next, it was Caesar's turn to appear.

After Su Xiao solidified all the contracts, he handed them to Caesar. Caesar put the "Abyss Jar" over his head, took the contracts, and took out an old POS machine—that is, the 【Endless Greed Old POS Machine】.

Caesar 'fed' all the contract parchment papers to this POS machine. The old POS machine seemed to turn into a paper shredder, and all kinds of contracts were shattered.

After doing all this, Caesar took out a large pile of authority badges and began to pick out the ones notarized by the Void Tree. Seeing such a large pile of authority badges, Xilin's eyes gradually widened. She had never seen as many authority badges in her life, from the first tier to the supreme tier, as Caesar had taken out at once.

"Owe money and don't pay! Void Tree, please uphold justice for me!"

Caesar let out a miserable howl and threw himself onto a tree-stump-like object made of a large number of Void Tree authority badges, crying his eyes out.

Seeing this scene, Xilin, the Dark Bishop, Afiya, and even the poker-faced Pain Priest and the aloof Black Leech all took a step back together. The reason was that they were truly afraid that Caesar would suddenly turn around, hug their legs, and blackmail them.

Almost at the same time, in the No. 1 urban area thousands of miles away, Lady Scorpion, who had just returned to her bedchamber and was considering how to proceed with the promotion ceremony, suddenly felt an inexplicable palpitation. She said:

"El, help me predict the upcoming attack."

Hearing this, the worm-man El, composed of milky-white worms, raised his hand to gouge out his right eye and swallowed it. Flowing light representing causal fate appeared in his left eye. A moment later, the worm-man El shook his head, indicating that there was no attack coming.

"No attack, then..."

Just as Lady Scorpion said this, she suddenly felt a sense of teleportation. The worm-man El, who was guarding a few meters away from her, threw himself forward regardless of everything, turning into white worms to wrap Lady Scorpion inside. Not only that, Ehao instantly appeared by Lady Scorpion's side. His black fat surged all over his body like a semi-fluid liquid, wrapping the worm-man inside to protect Lady Scorpion, who was in the innermost layer.

The activation speed of this teleportation wasn't fast; it was even slow, taking a full 10 seconds to fully activate. However, this teleportation had an unstoppable, absolute majesty.

When the fluctuations of the teleportation dissipated, Lady Scorpion had arrived in the No. 20 urban area, inside the building where Su Xiao and the others were. Both sides were stunned for a moment.

Just as Afiya and the Pain Priest were preparing to take action directly, the notarization belonging to the Void Tree arrived. The Dark Bishop, Afiya, the Pain Priest, the worm-man, and Ehao were all repelled outside this building, and this building also shattered with a boom due to the explosion of the aura of the few people just now.

A house-sized cube emitting pale golden light shrouded Su Xiao, Caesar, and Lady Scorpion inside. Lady Scorpion had already lost her gentle smile and graceful temperament. The next second, all three parties received a prompt from the Void Tree:

【Hint: Abyss descendant · Scorpion Empress officially signed a loan agreement with Nicholas Caesar 5 natural days ago.】

【During this period, Nicholas Caesar provided sufficient supplies to the "Abyss descendant · Scorpion Empress" to complete the promotion of the "Abyss descendant · Scorpion Empress." During this period, the "Abyss descendant · Scorpion Empress" must not sign any form of interest agreements, contracts, oaths, etc., with other parties. If this rule is violated, the "Abyss descendant · Scorpion Empress" will immediately fulfill the "Repayment Agreement."】

【The Repayment Agreement is as follows: According to Nicholas Caesar's loan agreement, which is "Goblin Compound Interest," you must repay the principal while simultaneously repaying an additional amount equivalent to principal × 32.9% + Nicholas Caesar?? interest.】

Seeing this "additional amount equivalent to principal × 32.9% + Nicholas Caesar?? interest," there was clearly a bit of disbelief on Lady Scorpion's face, because she truly didn't understand what principal × 32.9% + Nicholas Caesar meant. Could this be a unique mathematical calculation method from some world?

In fact, saying it this way wasn't wrong; this "Goblin Compound Interest" was simply one of Caesar's shameless abilities.

Before Lady Scorpion could figure out what was going on, she received a follow-up prompt from the Void Tree:

【Hint: The resources you currently have in the "Void Tree · Personal Vault" have all been used as a deduction for debt repayment.】

【Because the interest you need to repay far exceeds the total amount of assets you have stored in the "Void Tree · Personal Vault," Article 153679 of this "Loan Agreement," which is "Caesar's Mercy," has been triggered.】

【Loan Agreement · Caesar's Mercy: If the debtor is unable to repay all funds, Caesar will grant a merciful exemption, but in return, the debtor will have their "Void Tree Reputation" deducted by the corresponding amount of debt to ensure punishment for not repaying the debt.】

【Nicholas Caesar's passive skill "Public Expense Reimbursement" has been triggered.】

【According to the effect of this skill, the "Abyss descendant · Scorpion Empress," as the core unit of this judgment, will undergo this "Public Expense Reimbursement" ability judgment based on the faction with you as the core.】

【"Public Expense Reimbursement" effect: Fairly distribute the required cost expenditures to every member of the faction, completing this reimbursement through their wealth.】

【Because the debt amount of the "Abyss descendant · Scorpion Empress" is too large, and the members of the faction under her command have not actively applied for notarization to the Void Tree, according to the initial regulations, in such cases, the Void Tree will not give forced execution.】

【As compensation, resources will be extracted from the corresponding treasury of the "Faction Store" of this faction to compensate for the resources not executed this time.】

【All treasury resources of this faction have been extracted and will be used to repay the debt of the "Abyss descendant · Scorpion Empress."】

【After this notarization is completed, if the "Abyss descendant · Scorpion Empress" is dissatisfied with this result, she can appeal to the Void Tree.】

【Hint: Because there are many transit paths for this notarization judgment, the success rate of the "Abyss descendant · Scorpion Empress" appeal is 99.99%.】

That's right, this was the operation of Su Xiao and Caesar. Don't forget one thing: Caesar had previously disguised himself as the General Manager of the Goblin Chamber of Commerce, Jinguwo. This meant that every bit of income from Lady Scorpion's sale of potions had to pass through Caesar's hands.

How could Soul Coins that passed through Caesar's hands belong to anyone else? This was the first trap Lady Scorpion stepped into.

In other words, every bit of potion sales income Caesar handed to Lady Scorpion was essentially a loan judgment, and it was the kind notarized by the Void Tree.

The truly exquisite point of this loan was that the content of the loan had no problems at all, and was even equivalent to a gift. A judgment of the "peaceful characteristic" of a gift would, of course, not trigger the Void Tree's warning prompt. Coupled with the fact that Lady Scorpion only had the authority for Void Tree notarization, rather than having a Void Tree brand or the like, the authority to trigger prompts was low to begin with.

This loan gift was fine, but once there was a breach of contract, then try the taste of the "Goblin Jump." As for how Lady Scorpion breached the contract...

The pile of contracts Lady Scorpion signed when she killed Su Xiao's "Self Avatar" was the process of her breach of contract. These contracts with particularly strong contract power didn't harm Lady Scorpion. There were a total of 30 main contracts, and the content was very simple. Each one was a compensation repayment contract for Lady Scorpion, 100 Soul Coins each time.

Contracts could never be "hexagon warriors," but conversely, when the contract content was loose, the contract enforcement would be particularly strong.

A total compensation of 3000 Soul Coins, using the "contract power" of the Revenge Contract to execute revenge, was truly ridiculously loose. Correspondingly, the contract enforcement would reach its limit.

The key point was right here: in the loan agreement between Lady Scorpion and Caesar, it was clearly written that during this period, she must not sign any form of interest agreements, contracts, oaths, etc., with other parties.

At this moment, Lady Scorpion, opposite Su Xiao and Caesar, had her gentle smile completely gone. She looked coldly at the two people opposite her:

"This is meaningless, other than making me angry."

The reason Lady Scorpion said this was that this seemingly exquisite trap was actually a failure. She only needed to wait for this round of Void Tree rulings to end, and she could immediately file an appeal to the Void Tree to get back all her losses from the above judgment.

Just at this moment, Su Xiao received a prompt:

【According to the cooperation distribution you established with Nicholas Caesar, you will receive 50% of this debt repayment.】

【The "Personal Vault" notarized by Lady Scorpion at the Void Tree has been emptied.】

【The faction treasury of the faction ruled by Lady Scorpion has been emptied.】

【According to the prior agreement between you and Nicholas Caesar, among the 50% of the proceeds you receive, there will be more resources needed to improve your own abilities.】

【You have obtained Soul Crystal Essence × 2580.】

【You have obtained 3.5 million Soul Coins.】

【You have obtained Abyss Origin Quality × 35.】

Seeing these prompts, Su Xiao knew that Lady Scorpion had used most of the proceeds from this potion business to purchase 【Abyss Origin Quality】 through the Goblin Chamber of Commerce. This was one of the two top-tier "Supreme Origin Qualities." Presumably, it was also what Lady Scorpion needed to be promoted to Council President.

Presumably, the Goblin Chamber of Commerce had contacted major chambers of commerce in the Star Realm to gather so much 【Abyss Origin Quality】, and they must have made a huge profit from it. Selling these 【Abyss Origin Qualities】 later would mean Su Xiao's expenses for promoting his technique abilities would have some hope.

"These riches do not belong to you."

Lady Scorpion said in a deep voice. As she spoke, she chose to file an appeal to the Void Tree to get back the resources that had just been taken away. However, the prompt she received was:

【Hint (Void Tree): Your Void Tree reputation is too low to file this appeal.】

Seeing this prompt, Lady Scorpion's expression almost couldn't hold up. The resources she had accumulated for so many years were all lost in just a few rounds of judgment and notarization?!

Clearly, Lady Scorpion had just overlooked one point: Article 153679 of the "Loan Agreement," "Caesar's Mercy."

With Caesar's various loan agreements, the amount of interest Lady Scorpion had to repay must be particularly astonishing, far from what the resources in her "Personal Vault" at the Void Tree could offset. This meant that "Caesar's Mercy" would cause Lady Scorpion to have a massive amount of "Void Tree Reputation" deducted. The calculation method was: Lady Scorpion's unpaid debt amount × 15.5 = Void Tree Reputation deducted.

A death loop appeared here. Lady Scorpion now had a massive amount of negative "Void Tree Reputation." Before her "Void Tree Reputation" reached a positive number, she couldn't submit an appeal to the Void Tree.

If Lady Scorpion wanted to quickly restore her "Void Tree Reputation" to a positive number, there was a way: just repay the debts she hadn't repaid yet, and her "Void Tree Reputation" would be restored. Then she could file an appeal to get back the large amount of resources lost this time.

The problem was, assuming the amount of resources Lady Scorpion lost this time was 1 million, she would need to repay Caesar 50 million in resources to restore her "Void Tree Reputation" to a positive number. This created an unsolvable situation where she had to pay 50 million to get back 1 million.

After knowing all this, Lady Scorpion felt relieved. She let out a long sigh and decided to...

No, very wrong. Lady Scorpion suddenly thought that her method of using force to take back the losses wouldn't work either. The Law-Breaker in front of her had defeated the Beast Master one-on-one when the Beast Master came to her door, without any underhanded tricks or calculations. And she couldn't beat the Beast Master, so she couldn't beat this Law-Breaker even more.

After remaining silent for at least half a minute, Lady Scorpion thought of a possibility, which ignited a last glimmer of hope. She chose to report these two guys who played with contracts and regulations to the Void Tree. Her "Void Tree Reputation" was negative, so she couldn't appeal, that was correct, but she could always report them, right?

【Hint (Void Tree): Your report this time is successful.】

【Report target: Hunter · Kuku Lin · Bai Ye, Arbiter · Nicholas Caesar.】

【Report content: Profiting by using contracts and regulations.】

【Because the prerequisite for this report is a conflict between three parties located in the Transcendence Realm, according to the initial regulations, the Void Tree cannot use forced means to rule on such situations.】

【Judgment method this time: Super-massive deduction of "Void Tree Reputation"!】

【This judgment failed.】

【The reason is:】

【Arbiter · Nicholas Caesar Void Tree Reputation: -???】

【Hunter · Kuku Lin · Bai Ye Void Tree Reputation: -????】

These prompts almost made Lady Scorpion vomit blood from anger. She raised her index finger and pointed at Su Xiao: "You, you..."

Seeing this scene, Baha, who was squatting on Su Xiao's shoulder, had his eyes light up. This was his home field, and Baha tried to send a "sparring" request.

Lady Scorpion had already closed her eyes and taken a deep breath. Now she couldn't out-calculate them, couldn't out-rule them, couldn't beat them, and what was even worse, she couldn't even out-curse them.

PS: (Tomorrow is Sunday, taking a day off. My apologies to all readers.)