Chapter 4013: Deterioration

Lady Scorpion now has two choices. The first is to end this notarization, meaning everything is settled. In that case, she will be teleported back by the Tree of Void to the Empress City headquarters where she was just moments ago.

The second is to resist this notarization. Of course, this will not change the notarization result in the slightest; it only means she will no longer enjoy subsequent free teleportation, which means she will be left here to fight Su Xiao and the others to the death.

Lady Scorpion is currently a bit dizzy with rage, but she is not stupid. Instead, she looks at Su Xiao with a half-smile and says:

"I hope your luck is good enough; otherwise, everything you have gained will have to be returned in full."

After saying this, Lady Scorpion is teleported away.

Empress City, District 1, inside the Empress's bedchamber, the teleportation shimmer fades. Lady Scorpion and her two confidants appear there. Among them, the insect-man El remains silent, while Ehao walks toward the outside of the bedchamber with a face full of fury.

"Ehao, within one month, you are not allowed to leave Empress City without my permission."

"But..."

Ehao is just about to say something in anger, but upon meeting Lady Scorpion's eyes, it becomes like a deflated giant ball, muttering: "Empress, this is your accumulation of many years, just like this..."

"There is still a chance."

As Lady Scorpion speaks, she takes out a scarlet treasure chest. This object is somewhat similar to the treasure chests of the Paradise faction, but there are some slight differences. If Su Xiao were present, he would see at a glance that this is a treasure chest notarized by the Tree of Void.

"It is said that opening this kind of strange object requires very good luck, Bojier."

Lady Scorpion summons Bojier, who is waiting respectfully outside the bedchamber, and orders:

"Go and bring Ayesha here."

Hearing this, Bojier, dressed as an old butler, hesitates to speak. This causes Lady Scorpion, whose heart had just calmed down a little, to feel a surge of anger once again. She says, slightly gritting her teeth:

"Speak."

"Empress, the daughters of the hotbed, Ayesha, she... has disappeared."

Hearing this, Lady Scorpion closes her eyes for a few seconds before opening them again: "I know, you may go."

However, Bojier does not immediately withdraw; instead, he wears an even more hesitant expression.

"Speak~!"

Lady Scorpion almost loses her composure. It is not that she lacks self-restraint; if it weren't for the long years she has lived, anyone else experiencing what she has today would already be flying into a rage.

"All the criminals in our prison have..."

"All run away? I know, you may go."

Lady Scorpion waves her hand with a sense of weariness, signaling Bojier to leave.

Bojier remains standing in place, his old face looking incredibly bitter.

"Bojier, next time you have something to say, tell me clearly all at once, don't spit it out one piece at a time!"

"Yes, yes, yes."

Bojier is submissive. He says with lowered eyes: "Actually, it is like this, my lady Empress, that ancient prison of ours has disappeared entirely."

"What?!"

Lady Scorpion almost loses her composure, but she quickly calms down and signals Bojier to leave. Bojier exits the bedchamber as if escaping death.

One might ask, why does Lady Scorpion have such an expression? The answer is that the ancient prison itself is a strange object, created by the Second Era Alchemy Civilization for the Law-Extinguishing faction, used to imprison various powerful or bizarre existences. After storing a batch, they were collectively banished to the Eternal Light World. Speaking of which, the Abyss Archbishop was once a resident there.

Su Xiao had Xiang Ignoring Bubu Wang and Baja go to the secret prison of Empress City to rescue Delona/Ayesha. At first, Xiang Ignoring Bubu Wang was full of confidence, thinking, isn't it just infiltration? But he discovered that it was impossible to infiltrate that prison at all; it was a separate space.

This stumped Xiang Ignoring Bubu Wang, but Baja had an idea. It discovered that the space of this secret prison and the surrounding area looked more like an inlay—no, it should be like fitting together building blocks.

Someone had hollowed out this piece of space, deliberately leaving the shape of this secret prison, and then used some means to transfer this secret prison over. In this way, the fitting was completed. Entering the secret prison from the outside did not require crossing spatial levels—that is, no teleportation or the like was needed; one could simply walk in.

Baja can now move with a large area of different space. Its idea was whether it could wrap this secret prison with a different space and then move with the different space, thereby carrying the secret prison away.

Even if the different space could not hold the secret prison for long, as long as it left Empress City District 1, the enemy's headquarters, subsequent operations would be easier.

After Baja tried to wrap the secret prison with a different space, it was astonished to find that this secret prison could actually adhere tightly to the different space. If it had previously been stuck in a spatial gap like a building block, now it was as if it had been welded into the different space.

Good news: Baja directly moved the different space and took the secret prison away.

Bad news: The secret prison and Baja's No. 1 different space had almost merged together; even Baja itself could no longer enter the No. 1 different space.

After Baja was promoted to a Supreme Follower, it had opened up a total of three different spaces. Now that one had been forcibly occupied, Baja was not feeling well at all.

Inside the bedchamber, Lady Scorpion looks at the scarlet treasure chest in her hand, lost in thought. For some reason, she suddenly has a feeling that perhaps one day, she too will visit that "spatial prison." Immediately dismissing this thought, Lady Scorpion attempts to open the scarlet treasure chest in her hand.

With Lady Scorpion's notarization level, of course, no treasure chest prompt appears; instead, the scarlet treasure chest opens and dissolves directly. When the scarlet light fades, a strictly sealed potion appears in Lady Scorpion's hand. She attempts to apply to the Tree of Void to view the characteristics of this item, only to find that this item is already a notarized item.

Lady Scorpion thinks for a moment and determines that this is a notarization brought by a "Paradise" so powerful that it is incomprehensible. She checks the attributes of this potion.

【Ancient Dragon Secret Potion (Peak)】

Origin: Reincarnation Paradise, Saint Flame Pharmacist.

Quality: Eternal, Rare.

Type: Permanent buff potion.

Effect: Permanently increases lifespan limit by 20%, permanently increases health points by 400,000.

Peak Grade Bonus: After drinking, additionally increases lifespan limit by 15%, and is effective on long-lived species!

Rating: 6000+++++++++ points.

Introduction: The proud work of the Saint Flame Pharmacist, submitted for dual notarization by Reincarnation Paradise and the Tree of Void, ensuring this potion has no side effects, but any individual can drink at most one "Ancient Dragon Secret Potion."

Price: Relevant permission not obtained, unable to view this characteristic.

Seeing the attributes of this potion, Lady Scorpion knows that this time it is a crushing defeat, but she is not left with nothing. The best luck would have been to snatch that "Blade of Law-Extinguishing," in which case that Law-Extinguisher would certainly be willing to pay a huge price to redeem that blade.

Regarding why Lady Scorpion had the cognition that the "Scarlet Treasure Chest" could contain the Dragon Flash, this involves the prompts of the Tree of Void and an attribute of 【Power of Self】, which is:

"Prompt: Due to the characteristics of this mimetic avatar, he uses a different judgment method than clones and normal avatars. If an enemy kills this mimetic avatar, they will receive a complete, real kill prompt corresponding to you, and will obtain a scarlet treasure chest. The items that can be opened from this scarlet treasure chest will be determined by you (must be determined according to the opening mechanism of the scarlet treasure chest; if the recipient chooses to draw equipment from this scarlet treasure chest, you must submit a piece of equipment you have worn after making the choice)."

If Lady Scorpion were a contractor, Su Xiao could only choose a piece of equipment he had worn and put it into this scarlet treasure chest. The problem is, Lady Scorpion simply does not have this relevant notarization.

As such, Su Xiao only needs to determine the contents of the "Scarlet Treasure Chest," and the Tree of Void prompt received by Lady Scorpion clearly indicates that this is the price to be paid for Su Xiao's avatar's death. This is not the Tree of Void misleading Lady Scorpion, but the characteristic of 【Power of Self】.

One might ask, why did Su Xiao choose to put the 【Ancient Dragon Secret Potion (Peak)】 into this "Scarlet Treasure Chest"? This brings up the predecessor of the 【Ancient Dragon Secret Potion (Peak)】, the 【Evil Dragon Potion】.

In the last world, that is, during the Paradise Contest, Su Xiao traded with the Evil Heart several times. In the second trade, the Evil Heart provided Su Xiao with a clue to the 【Old Dragon Soul (Special Item)】.

After obtaining the 【Old Dragon Soul】, Su Xiao naturally had to use it as the main ingredient to formulate a potion. Upon this formulation, the Evil Heart's trap was completely exposed.

【Old Dragon Soul: After use, permanently increases health points by 120,000, permanently decreases willpower attribute by 20 points.】

At first glance, the 【Old Dragon Soul】 is a strange buff item with a price. The original location of the 【Old Dragon Soul】 was in a pitch-dark cave deep in the "Ash Land," inside the body of an old dragon that had been dead for several years, or rather, it was the heart of that dragon.

For a dragon of this strength, within a dozen years after death, dragon blood and soul essence will not decay. This process only gradually begins after 16 to 19 years.

But in most cases, before the dragon blood can decay, it attracts beasts with keen senses to devour it. The pitch-dark cave in the "Ash Land" has a special terrain, forming a natural dark environment, which is why this 【Old Dragon Soul】 has survived until now.

At first glance, the existence of this 【Old Dragon Soul】 is very reasonable, but the facts are not so.

Su Xiao is certain that the origin of this thing is not ordinary at all. It might even be the remains of some dragon-like "Void Alien Existence," similar to existences like the Frenzy of Growth, the Candle Woman, or the Lord of the Old Days. It was swallowed by that old dragon and gathered in its heart. And this is the real reason why that old dragon died in the pitch-dark cave.

The reason he discovered this was when Su Xiao was using the 【Old Dragon Soul】 to formulate a potion, trying as much as possible to amplify the potion's health-increasing characteristic. At that time, he was striving for 8 million health points.

For materials of the same tier, the potential characteristic for health points is roughly between 50 and 70. Su Xiao formulated the 【Old Dragon Soul】 according to a potential of 70, but as he formulated it, he found something wrong; the potential of this thing was far more than 70.

Discovering this situation, he raised the potential expectation to 200, but he still found that this was not the limit of the 【Old Dragon Soul】.

Holding a wait-and-see attitude, he raised its potential to 500,000, but it still hadn't reached the end. However, he could not continue to raise it, because this material gave him the feeling that it was about to come back to life. After that formulation, he obtained:

"Evil Dragon Potion: Permanently increases lifespan limit by 10%, permanently increases health points by 300,000, permanently decreases current willpower attribute by 30% + 150 points, and is highly likely to cause the willpower attribute to continue to slide for a period of time afterward."

Previously, Su Xiao used a contract method to determine the characteristics of this unknown existence, which were:

Writhing, Erosion, Parasitism, Precept.

This last "Precept" is the reason Su Xiao dared to continuously strengthen and formulate this potion. "Precept" means that as long as one is not greedy enough to want to drink this potion, nothing will happen.

Even at the stage of the "Evil Dragon Potion," Su Xiao vaguely felt that the existence had somewhat revived and had noticed him, and to a certain extent, approved of and cooperated with the potion formulation.

In the potion workshop of Empress City, Su Xiao had a large amount of free potion materials, among which there was certainly no lack of strong drugs with intense side effects but powerful effects. He added them all to the formulation of the "Evil Dragon Potion" and finally obtained the 【Ancient Dragon Secret Potion (Peak)】.

Regarding the introduction of the 【Ancient Dragon Secret Potion (Peak)】, it says that this potion was notarized by the Tree of Void and Reincarnation Paradise, with no side effects. Please look at the attributes of other potions Su Xiao formulated:

【Vitality Stock Solution (Perfect)】

Origin: Reincarnation Paradise, Saint Flame Pharmacist...

Introduction: To be determined (Hunter can determine freely)

Price: To be determined (Hunter can determine freely)

Yes, that introduction was written by Su Xiao himself. As the formulator of the potion, he certainly has the qualification to write the "introduction content." Didn't you see the origin is "Saint Flame Pharmacist"? If a high-tier contractor saw this origin, they would immediately know that the introduction was written by the potion formulator himself.

As for the true attributes of the 【Ancient Dragon Secret Potion (Peak)】...

【Ancient Dragon Secret Potion (Peak)】

Origin: Reincarnation Paradise, Saint Flame Pharmacist.

Quality: Eternal, Rare.

Type: Permanent buff potion.

Effect: Permanently increases lifespan limit by 20%, permanently increases health points by 400,000.

Peak Grade Bonus: After drinking, additionally increases lifespan limit by 15%, and is effective on long-lived species!

Side Effect: Permanently decreases current willpower attribute by 85% + 350 points, and every natural day, a willpower judgment will be conducted every two hours. If the judgment is not passed, one will enter the "Evil Joy" state, permanently decreasing willpower by 1%, sanity by 3%, and self-cognition by 5%. "Evil Joy" can be triggered repeatedly.

Warning: If the current willpower attribute is negative, the triggered "Evil Joy" will automatically convert into "Evil Pleasure," permanently decreasing willpower attribute by 50 points, sanity by 5%, and self-cognition by 10%.

Prompt: The "side effects" of this potion and the warnings and prompts related to the side effects have been specially processed by the potion's formulator and Nicholas Caesar, causing the font of such attributes to be reduced by a super large margin, requiring viewing through a "Shimmer-level ultra-long-distance microscope."

Rating: 6000+++++++++ points.

Introduction...

With Su Xiao and Caesar's methods, they indeed could not remove the "side effects" from a potion's data, so they took a different path. When the font is small to a certain degree, and the enemy cannot see it, doesn't it mean it doesn't exist? Regardless of anything else, you tell me, is this side effect written on this attribute data or not?

Lady Scorpion looks at the 【Ancient Dragon Secret Potion】 floating in front of her. She guesses that this is a secret potion formulated by that Law-Extinguisher after obtaining some strange object in the Ancient Dragon Treasury? But the Ancient Dragon Treasury has been sealed for so many years, can there really still be active strange treasures left?

However, thinking again, the Council Chairman's "Ancient Dragon Blood Heart" still has vitality to this day. That old immortal can live until today without dying of old age before the Abyss "Revival" is because of that

"Ancient Dragon Blood Heart." Thinking this way, the possibility that the Ancient Dragon Treasury contains highly active strange treasures is still very high.

Lady Scorpion has seen many strange objects that increase lifespan limits, but she has seen one that is effective on "long-lived species" and has such a strong effect for the first time.

A thought gradually emerges in Lady Scorpion's mind. She seems to have a way to recover some of the losses from this time. That old immortal Council Chairman who is about to die of old age before the Abyss "Revival" would certainly be willing to pay a huge price for this top-tier secret potion.

Looking at the time, it is nearing evening. The news of the Beast Lord's death has long alarmed the Ducain Family Council. A meeting is to be held tonight. Lady Scorpion decides to take the opportunity to let the Council Chairman know that she has accidentally obtained such a strange object, and let that side take the initiative to name a price, so as to maximize the benefits.

Lord Train, inside the bedroom at the rear of the train.

"Boss, how are you sure that Lady Scorpion will sell the Evil Dragon Potion to the Council Chairman?"

Baja's wings scratch its head like hands.

"I'm not sure."

Su Xiao, sitting in front of the alchemy table, places Amu's blood under the microscopic device to observe. Amu's situation is more serious than estimated.

"Then didn't we lose a bottle of... dangerous and high-priced potion?"

"..."

Su Xiao glances at Baja and continues to turn to observe Amu's blood, but he still answers Baja: "I feel that thing is about to come back to life."

"Boss, you say, is that thing really some kind of Void Alien Existence?"

"Hmm."

"How strong is it?"

"Not as good as the Growth, the Old Days, or the Candle Woman, but only a notch weaker. It is not defeated and silent, but more like it is in the process of promotion. A whole era of silence allows it to perhaps be only a fraction away from the Candle Woman and the others after its revival."

If it were anyone else, Su Xiao certainly would not explain in such detail, but the one asking this question is Baja.

"Oh~, so that's how it is."

"How is the research on that spatial prison going?"

"Cough~, well, um, Boss, you know, the origin of this thing must be very large..."

"Keep working hard."

"Okay."

Baja lands on the back of the seat, closes its eyes, immerses its spirit in the No. 1 different space, and continues to study the mysterious prison.

Su Xiao observes Amu's blood for a while longer and finds that Amu's blood already has signs of Abyss erosion. Previously, the Abyss energy was only eroding Amu's stomach, but now, for some reason, it has begun to spread to all parts of its body.

An even worse situation is that Amu's current attribute data contains a permanent negative attribute: "Abyss energy eroding."

To solve Amu's problem, there are only two ways.

1. Cut it off forever.

2. Increase the dosage.

The so-called "cut it off forever" is to use the triple soul-slashing characteristic of Su Xiao's swordsmanship to cut off Amu's stomach. Given the ferocity of the triple soul-slashing, Amu will highly likely permanently lose the causal existence of the stomach. For the situation, refer to the Abyss Archbishop's left arm.

In this way, the source of the Abyss energy erosion is eradicated. Subsequent Abyss energy removal is all that is needed to solve Amu's crisis, and then have Xiang Ignoring Bubu Wang build Amu a semi-mechanical, semi-biological stomach.

The problem is, losing the causal existence of the "stomach," Amu's sense of taste, appetite, eating, enjoyment of taste buds, satiety satisfaction, etc., will certainly be affected by this causal stripping. But Amu's two greatest joys are "following Su Xiao" and "eating things."

Letting Amu lose the joy of "eating things" is actually not much different from letting it die halfway. Looking at it this way, one can only choose the other possibility: increase the dosage.

Originally, this could not be chosen, because bringing in more Abyss energy to erode Amu's stomach and causing it to undergo a qualitative change like Su Xiao's right arm is an act with particularly high risk. But now there is "Abyss Source Quality," and there are 35 portions of it. Letting Amu drink one portion has a not-low possibility of letting Amu complete the qualitative change process and keep the risk within a controllable range.

Looking at the snoring Amu, Su Xiao decides that when this silly cow, which even eats the flesh of Abyss-nourished creatures, wakes up, he will increase its dosage. Before that, Su Xiao still has some things that have been backlogged for several days that need to be dealt with. He opens the prompt list, scrolls up, and quickly finds:

【Prompt: You have killed Ducain Councilor, Beast Lord (Abyss lineage).】

【You have obtained 85,000 Shelter City reputation.】

【You have obtained 30,000 Hunter Gold Coins.】

【You have obtained Abyss Treasure Chest, Man.】

Su Xiao's Shelter City reputation has successfully reached just over 100,000, but compared to the Soul Master's 3.57 million, it is far behind. And this time returning to Shelter City, the situation will be somewhat different.

Besides this, the Blade Spirit has devoured all the "Abyss-series source energy" of the Beast Lord and converted it into magic spirit energy.

Su Xiao activates the "Magic-Devouring Constitution" ability.

"Magic-Devouring Constitution: When the magic spirit devours 'Abyss-series source energy' and obtains magic spirit energy, you can use the Devouring Core to seize 50% of the magic spirit energy obtained by the magic spirit this time, and use the Devouring Core to convert it into 'permanent buff energy' that your own constitution can absorb, thereby permanently increasing your 'base health points' and 'Abyss resistance'."

According to convention, Su Xiao seizes 50% of the magic spirit energy each time, but this time, he increases the intensity of driving the "Magic-Devouring Constitution" and forcibly seizes some extra from the Blade Spirit, about 10% of the total this time.

The reason this happens is because a few days ago, the Blade Spirit devoured the "Abyss-series source energy" that the Dark Woman had accumulated for a month, almost clearing out all the immortal Abyss-nourished creatures in the surrounding area of "Shelter City Doan," which increased the Blade Spirit's intensity by 820 points.

Added to the fact that Su Xiao had invested a large number of Golden Skill Points into "Magic Spirit Awakening" earlier, this also increased the magic spirit intensity by quite a bit. Added together, the current Blade Spirit feels somewhat overstuffed, belonging to the category of 'indigestion' regarding "magic spirit source quality" in the near future.

This also led to the "magic spirit source quality" that originally belonged to its share inevitably being backlogged. Su Xiao's seizure changed the original five-five split into a four-six split.

It is still the original process. After Su Xiao obtains a kind of permanent buff energy through the dual filtering and conversion of "Magic-Devouring Constitution" + "Devouring Core," he absorbs it with his own physique. Compared to increasing the "all potential limit tiers," the speed of increasing "base health points" at the moment is obviously much faster.

Several hours pass. Su Xiao opens his eyes and exhales a breath of turbid air. At the same time, he feels that his original life force has become particularly powerful. Added to the fact that what is increased by "magic spirit source quality" has no hidden characteristics and is completely Su Xiao's "base health points," this feeling is even more refreshing.

【Your maximum health points are permanently increased by 600,000.】

【Your Abyss resistance is permanently increased by 11 points.】

Su Xiao's health points reach 8.11 million. He vaguely feels that if he continues to maintain this purity of life force, that is, only increasing life force through means of increasing "base health points," then when his "base health points" reach over 10 million, it might be a qualitative change.

Su Xiao thinks to this point, and Amu wakes up. Just after waking up, Amu lets out a dry retch. It presses its large hand against its chest. Amu, who usually doesn't change its expression except for major repairs, has a face full of cold sweat due to the severe pain in its chest and abdomen at this time.

After re-evaluating Amu's situation, Su Xiao comes to the formulation table. For others, wanting to formulate a potion that deeply awakens Amu, whose stomach vitality has been severely eroded by Abyss energy, can be described as difficult as ascending to heaven, but the combination of Pharmacy Lv. 99 + "Extreme Burning and Refining, Four Times, Full Potential" 【Peak Work】 title, understand it.

When Amu is in such pain that its whole body is trembling and its forehead is pressed against the ground, the potion is formulated.

"Drink it."

Before Amu can get up, Xiang Ignoring Bubu Wang carries the potion over, while Baja has already pulled open Amu's mouth and pours a large amount of potion into Amu's mouth.

A few minutes later, Amu's pain intensifies, like a large fish on the shore. Seeing this, Su Xiao knows the time has come.

"Give it a drink."

Su Xiao throws out a portion of "Abyss Source Quality." This thing is semi-fluid in a transparent container. After Baja pours it into Amu, Amu flops around for a while before calming down.

Half an hour later, Amu gets up from the ground, a bit dazed, and scratches its head even more confusedly.

"Amu, hungry."

Hmm, very good, the three words Amu is best at, this time it said them all at once. Rare indeed.

Su Xiao steps forward to observe, presses one hand on Amu's shoulder to sense. A moment later, he stares at Amu for a few seconds, causing Amu, who was preparing to get up to forage, to sit there shrinking its head and playing dead out of guilt and fear.

"..."

Su Xiao takes out another portion of "Abyss Source Quality." Seeing this thing, Amu gulps and bites its saliva.

"Drink."

As Su Xiao speaks, he has already decided that from now on, he must let Xiang Ignoring Bubu Wang keep an eye on Amu and not let this silly cow eat everything.

Amu takes the "Abyss Source Quality," opens it, and drinks it in a few gulps. You must know that "Abyss Source Quality" and Abyss energy are completely two different things. "Abyss Source Quality" is a top-tier buff strange object that is hard to find with ten thousand gold. It cannot be said that it has absolutely no side effects, but the side effects are very small. The latter is far greater in erosion and assimilation than the buff it brings.

After the second portion of "Abyss Source Quality" goes down, the Abyss aura at Amu's stomach position is still unstable, ready to turn from buff to erosion at any time, so it can only continue.

The 3rd portion, 4th portion, 5th portion...

Portion after portion of "Abyss Source Quality" goes into Amu's stomach. This foodie's state can be described as getting better and better. When the 32nd portion of "Abyss Source Quality" is drunk by Amu in one gulp, Amu lets out a burp of unprecedented satisfaction, and then, as if in a coma, falls straight down from a sitting position and begins to snore loudly.

(End of chapter) ===== CHAPTER 4014 =====