Chapter 4025: Response

"Talk? What else is there for us to talk about?"

Lady Scorpion spoke. She appeared calm, but she was suppressing her rage so she wouldn't attack directly. As for the fact that she couldn't win if she did attack, let's not worry about those details.

Click, click, click~

A crystal layer spread, forming a crystal chair. Su Xiao sat in front of Lady Scorpion's large bed, took out a pocket watch, set it for 5 minutes, and pressed the countdown with a click.

The pocket watch began its countdown, emitting a mechanical ticking sound. It sounded pleasant, but after listening for a while, one would feel an inexplicable sense of panic.

"You have already taken all my wealth. What else do you want?"

When Lady Scorpion said this, her gaze couldn't hide her anger.

"..."

Su Xiao remained silent. The atmosphere passed second by second in this eerie silence. Until there was one minute left, Su Xiao looked at the pocket watch in his hand and then at Lady Scorpion, reminding her:

"Your time is running out."

Hearing this, Lady Scorpion almost attacked in anger, but the spirits of the Beast Lord and the Twin Kings in heaven made her calm down once again.

"You come to me, give me a time limit, and make me impress you. Aren't you bullying people too much?"

Lady Scorpion's gaze narrowed slightly. If it truly came to the worst situation, she had means to make this Law-Breaker pay the price.

"Compared to you Dukains, I am very reasonable."

"You..."

Lady Scorpion subconsciously wanted to angrily curse "you're full of crap," but she successfully held it back. She was certain that as soon as this sentence was spoken, there would be no need to talk about anything else. This Law-Breaker would make her die here today.

And from the beginning, Lady Scorpion felt that this Law-Breaker gave her an unprecedented sense of oppression, as if this Law-Breaker had some ability that could thoroughly kill Abyssal descendants.

"You just said I'm not reasonable."

"Yes."

"Then, have you ever been reasonable with those residents of various worlds who were made into 'Source Life Crystals'?"

As soon as Su Xiao finished speaking, a massive Blood Beast phantom suddenly appeared behind him. The Blood Beast's claws grabbed Bergil with a boom, squeezing him extremely cruelly. Crystal blood thorns formed within the Blood Beast's claws and pierced into various parts of Bergil's body. Each one was structured like a "Thorn of Mercy."

The Alchemy Civilization had invented many things that benefited the creatures of the Astral Realm, and also developed many terrifying abilities. The Thorn of Mercy was a means for alchemists to bring extreme pain to their enemies.

A black crystal core slipped from Bergil's hand. It was bound and held by the giant Blood Beast claws and brought in front of Su Xiao.

"I am naturally soft-hearted."

Su Xiao pinched the black crystal core that Bergil had been holding just now with his index finger and thumb, and continued:

"So I can't bear to see others suffer. If you pull any more little tricks, I will make an exception and allow Amu to chew you alive and swallow you."

Su Xiao said these words, which made the Abyssal descendants, secondary descendants, and others present feel hair-raising, in the calmest tone.

The Blood Beast phantom vanished. Su Xiao looked at Lady Scorpion with a kind smile: "Where were we just now?"

"We were talking about..."

Lady Scorpion was about to say they were talking about whether they were reasonable, but after seeing Su Xiao's kind smile, she felt inexplicably terrified and changed her words:

"We were talking about each of us proposing conditions. You go first."

Lady Scorpion's step of retreating to advance was quite brilliant. Actually, one shouldn't think Lady Scorpion wasn't strong. Among the three Dukain family councilors, the Beast Lord and the Twin Kings were dead, and only Lady Scorpion was still alive and living quite well. This itself was a kind of soft power.

"We were talking about how the 300+ districts of Empress City will become the largest friendly camp force in this world. You suddenly felt that controlling Empress City was too tiring for you, so you decided to choose a City Lord who hadn't been controlled by 'Dark Corruption,' and officials from major districts..."

Just as Su Xiao said this, Lady Scorpion interrupted word by word: "Im, pos, si, ble!"

All of Lady Scorpion's hard work was in Empress City. This was also why she didn't flee this world after witnessing Su Xiao slaughter the Corrupt King City with Green Shadow King.

"If I did that, how would other Abyssal descendants look at me? Not the Dukain family—I know this family is declining and dying—but there are other Abyssal descendants, such as the Azguk clan of the Wind Sea Continent, the Rune family, the Bronze, the Aggregates. How would they look at me? In the future, when I go to the Black Castle in the Abyssal near-zone for a banquet, how can I hold my head up?"

"Black Castle? Banquet?"

Su Xiao immediately captured the key point. Lady Scorpion remained silent. Seeing this, Su Xiao snapped his fingers, and Baha flew over from outside the palace. After the initial deterrent stage, to truly negotiate, Baha had to come.

Su Xiao was only good at physical persuasion. For example, just now, he persuaded Bergil, this old thing. Look, he had already convinced him with virtue. This old thing didn't make a sound. As for why he was lying by the wall, the old man was old, so sleeping for a while was good for him. Why was he twitching like he was in shock? Maybe he was having a nightmare.

"Cough~"

Baha cleared his throat and said particularly politely: "Beautiful Lady Scorpion, hello, I am Baha. Let the two of us complete the subsequent negotiations. This is also for your personal safety. After all, if any of your words anger my boss, you'll be gone."

Hearing Baha say this, Lady Scorpion's eyes narrowed slightly. For some reason, she always felt that this guy wasn't a good bird.

"Lady Scorpion, you seem to have misunderstood one thing. This time, it's not us asking you, but you actively, positively turning Empress City into what we want to see."

Baha's words made Lady Scorpion laugh in anger. Baha also laughed, and he continued:

"It's funny, right? Then let me tell you something funnier. First, thank you for helping us get rid of the Beast Lord. Don't rush to refute. Without you secretly standing by and watching, we might not have been able to slay the Beast Lord."

These words made Lady Scorpion fall silent.

"And then thank you for standing by and watching the Corrupt King City. Don't rush to refute. Your Empress City has the largest world-level teleportation array in this world. If you really wanted to, you could have sent people to secretly notify the Arcane Eternal Star. If the Soul Lord had arrived here, we would have died. But you didn't.

Because you clearly knew that if you really brought the Soul Lord of the Arcane Eternal Star here, your end might not be better than dealing with us. At least we haven't directly killed you yet."

Baha's words made Lady Scorpion fall even more silent, and her face began to look ugly.

"Also, you helped us sell that bottle of 'Evil Dragon Secret Medicine' to Council Chairman: Ergubaya. The Void Alien Existence inside that thing—oh, you Abyssal descendants call them Astral Alien Existences—that Astral Alien Existence won't make Ergubaya feel good. Guess who that old guy wants to kill the most right now?"

Baha looked at Lady Scorpion with a smile. Lady Scorpion could be described as silent and broken.

"Oh, right, you also gratuitously sponsored us with more than 60 portions of Abyssal Source Matter, as well as a large amount of other resources."

"You..."

Lady Scorpion almost couldn't hold back and completely broke down.

"You helped us deal with our own people, helped us hide from the Arcane Eternal Star, and gratuitously provided resources. Tsk tsk tsk, we're our own people now, what are you still blindly considering?"

Baha's "we're our own people now" truly made Lady Scorpion completely break down.

"Shut up."

Lady Scorpion was angry, but she was also considering the current situation. She said with a gloomy face:

"I am no longer a Dukain councilor, and even, no longer a member of the Dukain clan."

Hearing this, Su Xiao wasn't surprised. Before, during the death battle with the Twin Kings, the other party had also wiped out his "Causal Life Source" from the Dukain family's "Origin Clan Badge."

This made Su Xiao feel puzzled. Was this Dukain identity so easy to give up? That "Origin Clan Badge," no matter how one thought about it, wouldn't be so tolerant of clan members, not to mention that Lady Scorpion was still a Dukain family councilor.

Su Xiao didn't need to give a look; Baha knew what to ask. He asked: "Your 'Origin Clan Badge' has no control over you at all?"

"It used to."

"And now?"

"Now? You might as well ask the Law-Breaker you serve."

Lady Scorpion sneered. Seeing Su Xiao still silent, she said: "It was my negligence. That was what the Law-Breakers of the Second Epoch did..."

Through Lady Scorpion's narration, Su Xiao knew what was going on. Back then, when Dukain clashed with the Law-Breakers, the truly tragic price Dukain paid wasn't that clan members died batch after batch; it was that Shiman Achid broke into the Dukain family's dark holy land in the "Abyssal near-zone" and caused irreversible damage to the Dukain family's "Origin Clan Badge."

After that, the restriction of the "Origin Clan Badge" on family members dropped to almost nothing. Correspondingly, the Dukain clan also lost many abilities endowed by the "Origin Clan Badge."

First, consciousness resurrection. The Dukain family's resurrection method would make people misunderstand that all Abyssal descendants were like this. Actually, it wasn't. This was the physical rebirth caused by the damage to the Dukain family's "Origin Clan Badge," but the causal consciousness/soul resurrection was incomplete.

This led to the Dukain family members resurrecting, but the resurrected body sprouted a new consciousness in the Abyss, and was influenced by the previous consciousness. It was still an individual with part of the former personality, but the behavioral method was significantly different. It was truly not as good as having a pure new consciousness appear.

Conversely, the resurrection of the Azguk, Rune, and Bronze—these three Abyssal descendants—was truly resurrection, a comprehensive resurrection of body, causal consciousness/soul.

Besides this, the damage to the Dukain family's "Origin Clan Badge" also caused Dukain clan members to resurrect particularly slowly after death in the Abyss. Normal "Origin Clan Badge" resurrection of Abyssal descendants took half a month at the longest and a few days at the shortest. Good guy, Dukain "Origin Clan Badge," every resurrection took a few years.

Even so, having fought the Law-Breaker camp to that extent and existing to this day, the Dukain family was quite remarkable.

Also because of the situation of the Dukain family's "Origin Clan Badge," combined with the current situation, Lady Scorpion so decisively gave up the identity of a Dukain family member. For this, she paid a great price, but in the dark, she had a feeling that if she continued to delay, she would definitely be doomed.

Lady Scorpion began to consider this matter. At the moment when this world was about to undergo a huge change, the choice at this time might determine life and death.

"What can I get?"

"One-tenth of what you can get in Empress City now. If our estimation is correct, you will still be the owner of Empress City in the future, but not the ruler. The income won't be less, and it will be stable."

Baha's words made Lady Scorpion even more hesitant. Her ideal situation was to maintain the status quo, but she also knew this was a delusion.

"I have two conditions, which are also the long-cherished wish of the previous generation of my causal consciousness. If I don't complete this matter, the residual trace of the former Dukain Red Scorpion Empress will always hinder me from thoroughly possessing this body."

The Dukain Red Scorpion Empress mentioned by Lady Scorpion was the previous owner of this body, but she died in the slaughter with the previous generation of Law-Breakers. Such a powerful person, if she kept hindering Lady Scorpion from thoroughly possessing this body with residual intent, even if another thousand years passed, Lady Scorpion wouldn't get what she wanted.

"Under the influence of her soul residue, this has also become my wish. Help me do this, and I will agree to your request."

After Lady Scorpion said these words, she felt relieved.

"Speak."

Su Xiao prepared to temporarily delay Lady Scorpion's request. He could naturally see that the other party was looking for a way out, and this way out was not something that could be done in a short time. Temporarily agreeing was fine.

"The Red Scorpion Empress had a close friend, who was also an Abyssal descendant, but she didn't belong to any family. She was an independently existing Abyssal descendant, and her immortality was very... terrifying. Hmm, that's how it can be described."

Hearing this, Su Xiao frowned slightly. It wasn't because Lady Scorpion's request was outrageous; it was that the more he heard, the more familiar it sounded.

"Looking across the Astral Realm, this matter, perhaps only you, as a Law-Breaker, can do it. She was trapped by the Law-Breakers of the Second Epoch in a certain area of the Blazing Sun Star. Help me rescue her..."

Just as Lady Scorpion said this, Su Xiao interrupted: "Eternal Night Empress."

"Hmm?"

Lady Scorpion was very surprised. A moment later, she asked suspiciously: "You have already been to the Blazing Sun Star?"

"..."

Su Xiao didn't speak, but Lady Scorpion knew this was an acquiescence. She asked seriously: "You wouldn't have already slain her, would you?"

"Not yet."

"Then she is still on the Blazing Sun Star?"

"..."

Su Xiao took out the "Book of Original Sin." Seeing this object, Lady Scorpion, who had been lazily leaning on the oversized bed, stood up from the bed. It wasn't that she lost her composure; anyone seeing the "Book of Original Sin" would have a similar reaction.

"You, what is in your hand?"

"Book of Original Sin."

"Inside, sealed an Original Sin Object?"

In Lady Scorpion's view, only those in the tier of the Abyssal Jar, the Collector, and the Book of the Dead were true Original Sin Objects. Things like the Origin Magic Mirror were at most secondary Original Sin Objects, or peculiar Original Sin items that had the possibility of becoming Original Sin Objects.

"Hmm."

Hearing this, Lady Scorpion asked: "Then, did you seal the Collector inside?"

"It is one of them."

Hearing Su Xiao say this, Lady Scorpion quietly swallowed her saliva. She tentatively asked: "You, how many Original Sin Objects did you seal?"

"Temporarily six."

"Gulp~"

Lady Scorpion couldn't hold back and swallowed her saliva audibly. She just thought that she was an Abyssal descendant and had to pay attention to her dignity. But then she thought, after stripping the life source from the Dukain "Origin Clan Badge," wasn't the price gradually losing the power of an Abyssal descendant?

Suddenly, Lady Scorpion felt unprecedentedly relaxed. No longer an Abyssal descendant, no need to estimate the dignity of an Abyssal descendant, letting monsters like Rune and Bronze know, and suffering terrible punishment and strangulation.

Silent for a few seconds, Lady Scorpion sat on the edge of the bed. Her attitude could be said to be much more respectful. It really wasn't because Su Xiao was powerful; it was because sealing six Original Sin Objects—let alone Lady Scorpion, even among the Abyssal descendants, the most serious and cold Bronze clan, facing Su Xiao who was an enemy but sealed six Original Sin Objects, would also give respect. Of course, they wouldn't be soft-hearted when it came to killing.

"Wait, you mean, the Eternal Night Empress was locked in here by you?"

Lady Scorpion's eyes widened a bit.

"..."

Su Xiao didn't answer; it was still an acquiescence.

"I agree to your request. Immediately, right now, let her out."

"No."

"Why..."

As soon as Lady Scorpion said this, she felt that her question was truly stupid to the extreme. One didn't need to think to know that the meeting between the two on the Blazing Sun Star must have been unpleasant, plus being sealed to be neighbors with six Original Sin Objects...

"How long has she been sealed?"

"..."

"Will her consciousness and spirit have problems?"

"..."

"How about this, you let her out first, and I'll try to soothe her."

"..."

Su Xiao dragged the "Book of Original Sin" with one hand. The "Book of Original Sin" flipped to the eighth page, and the sealing technique corresponding to this page opened.

A figure with long hair made of black mist gradually emerged. She gradually condensed her form: pale complexion, no whites of the eyes, completely bright red eyes, and those pale, sharp-fingered hands.

The Eternal Night Empress's black long hair flew. This black long hair was several meters long. Combined with her floating in mid-air, she had a kind of eerie beauty. And after being sealed, her aura didn't decrease but increased. Now she had recovered to the Supreme Tier. Come to think of it, if she weren't Supreme, why would the previous generation of Law-Breakers have gone to seal her?

The Eternal Night Empress's blood-red eyes looked at Su Xiao. This made Lady Scorpion say urgently: "Eternal Night, it's me. Have you forgotten me?"

Lady Scorpion's figure made the Eternal Night Empress's raised hand pause. She turned her gaze toward her. Seeing Lady Scorpion, there seemed to be some confusion in the Eternal Night Empress's eyes. This made Lady Scorpion feel joy in her heart:

"It's me. We were back then, no, you were together in the Void..."

Just as Lady Scorpion said this, the Eternal Night Empress had already raised her hand toward her, her sharp-fingered hand grabbing at the air.

"Strangulation."

An invisible force field in the shape of a braid enveloped Lady Scorpion. The next instant, it was about to strangle her. Su Xiao ignored this scene. Not to mention that even if Lady Scorpion lost the identity of a Dukain family councilor, her own strength was not weak; she had just been hiding it all along.

Just as the "Strangulation" force field was about to take effect, the Eternal Night Empress suddenly stopped. Her hand pressed on her head. The intense headache made her fall into a daze. She stared at Lady Scorpion. This time, Lady Scorpion no longer believed she could awaken the Eternal Night Empress's memories. She waved her hand, and the Eternal Night Empress vanished.

"I will ensure that she won't come to trouble you in the future. Then let's talk about the second condition."

Lady Scorpion's mood could be described as turning from sunny to cloudy. She even felt a kind of lightness throughout her body. That stubborn soul power that had been hindering her was slowly dissipating.

"My second condition is very simple. Return that spatial prison to me. I know it once belonged to the Law-Breaker camp, but I bought it from the Goblin Chamber of Commerce at a high price. I limit you... return it to me within ten years."

Lady Scorpion's emotional intelligence was not low. She gave a very long deadline, meaning that in the future, when it wasn't needed, it must be returned to her.

"Return it to you now."

Su Xiao signaled Baha to return the spatial prison to Lady Scorpion. This time, it made Lady Scorpion feel a bit embarrassed. After Baha opened the No. 1 alien space, he returned a colorful spatial sphere to Lady Scorpion.

Seeing Lady Scorpion's confusion, Baha coughed and explained: "Hmm, its appearance, indeed, has changed a bit, but the essence is still the same."

"?"

Lady Scorpion looked at the spatial prison and then at Su Xiao. She also wanted to say that she wanted to change her request, but the words had already been spoken.

"My dear friend, I didn't come late, did I?"

Caesar appeared. Seeing Su Xiao and Caesar at the same time, Lady Scorpion felt an inexplicable anger rising in her heart. It was these two guys who joined forces to cheat her out of all her assets.

"Not late," Su Xiao said, then looked at Lady Scorpion and asked: "You can still control secondary descendants?"

"Using this, temporarily I can."

Lady Scorpion raised her hand. There was a black ring on her index finger.

"Now, Empress City doesn't need the existence of secondary descendants."

"Are you sure? Empress City has 300+ districts, each district has the land area of a kingdom in another world, and the total population is counted in the tens of billions. If there are no such Abyssal descendants to manage..."

"Not needed. Except for being your lackeys and looting benefits for you, they are not important to the maintenance of Empress City."

Su Xiao was naturally not speaking nonsense. Empress City's 300+ districts seemed to be managed by secondary descendants, but those who truly handled the city affairs of each district were the low-to-middle-level officials of each district. They were all ordinary people who hadn't been controlled by "Dark Corruption."

Come to think of it, Lady Scorpion, in order to ensure the stability of Empress City's power system, only allowed ordinary people to become low-to-middle-level officials. This, by mistake, increased the stability of Empress City.

Simultaneously mastering power and strength made it easy to become exceptionally arrogant and conceited. Just like many low-to-mid-tier supernatural worlds, 70% of their rulers were ordinary people without supernatural power. This was a lesson forced to be accepted in historical evolution.

Lady Scorpion hesitated. She remained silent for half a minute before taking off the black ring and crushing it with a snap.

"Madam, you have made a wise choice. This is your reward."

Caesar took out a golden "ψ" status badge. This clearly came from the Tree of the Void. To be more precise, this was a blank brand of the Tree of the Void.

After Lady Scorpion received the Tree of the Void brand, she hesitated for a moment and chose to accept it. The next second, Su Xiao received a notification:

【Notification (Tree of the Void): The Hunter has facilitated the key figure of this world, Lady Scorpion, to leave the Dukain family and accept the Tree of the Void brand.】

【Detected that Lady Scorpion possesses the largest population gathering place in this world: Empress City.】

【Because Lady Scorpion already possesses the Tree of the Void brand notarization, re-fixing the notarization of this world...】

【This world adds a new core notarization area: Empress City!】

【Total core notarization areas in this world: two (Shelter City: Doan, Empress City).】

【The Empress City-related reputation camp has been reactivated and included in the core lineup of this world.】

【Checking the Empress City lineup situation...】

【No Abyssal descendants found to have rule over Empress City, no Abyssal descendants/secondary descendants/Fallen, etc., found to hold important positions in Empress City.】

【Empress City current lineup: Neutral (biased toward chaos, will be re-determined according to the development in the next 600 natural days).】

That's right, Su Xiao and Caesar had lived to create a second core area in this world. This meant that even if Shelter City: Doan were destroyed the next second, the main missions of all contractors/hunters/battle angels, etc., in this world wouldn't fail, because there was still the core city area of Empress City.

This move of pulling the firewood from under the cauldron was to prevent the Priest and the Soul Master from destroying Shelter City: Doan. If that happened, it would be equivalent to Su Xiao falling into defeat before even clashing.

Su Xiao didn't know how the Priest and the Soul Master operated over at Shelter City: Doan, and how they made the Silver Empress leave without saying goodbye. It was highly probable that the other party encountered a fatal danger and chose to run away using emergency means. Considering the reward paid to the other party, the other party was still very profitable coming this time.

And, the millions of points of Shelter City reputation Su Xiao had before were all cleared. The reason was that he was expelled from Shelter City: Doan, which was taking out the 【Flame Core】 for nothing. This was clearly the operation of the Soul Master and the Priest.

Was Su Xiao at a loss? Actually, he wasn't. In order to complete the plan, the Priest sacrificed hundreds of golden skill points. Of course, it was also because Su Xiao obtained two 【Golden Statue Fragments】. The Priest was certain that Su Xiao wouldn't give up this 【Golden Statue】, so he chose to directly take out the mission-critical item, using this mission with a rich reward to thoroughly drag Su Xiao down.

For Su Xiao, hundreds of golden skill points + "Divine Soul" that could be sold to the Apocalypse Three Sisters—this business was extremely profitable. The key was the "Divine Soul" that could be sold to the Apocalypse Three Sisters.

This matter truly had many coincidences. It was estimated that if the Priest had known this point early on, he would never have made such a trade-off.

【Notification (Tree of the Void): Given that the Hunter is the main planner for Empress City completing notarization, you have obtained 5.6 million points of Empress City reputation.】

【Because this is core camp reputation, it can participate in the world evaluation settlement of this world, but the maximum value is 200,000 points.】

【Because Empress City is a core city area of this world, Empress City reputation points can also participate in this reputation leaderboard.】

First place: Soul Master (Samsara Paradise), 8.52 million points of Shelter City reputation.

Second place: White Night (Samsara Paradise), 5.6 million points of Empress City reputation.

Third place: Priest (Dawn Paradise), 4.82 million points of Shelter City reputation.

Fourth place: Aurora (Holy Light Paradise), 1.25 million points of Shelter City reputation.

Fifth place: Moen (Death Paradise), 67,159 points of Shelter City reputation.

Sixth place: Black Demon (Dawn Paradise), 12,308 points of Shelter City reputation.

Seventh place: Celine (Apocalypse Paradise), 9,558 points of Shelter City reputation.

Eighth place: Silo'er (Death Paradise): 8,242 points of Shelter City reputation.

Ninth place: Bee (Samsara Paradise): 5,200 points of Shelter City reputation.

At first glance, the alliance of the Soul Master, the Priest, and Aurora had already secured victory. But the problem now was that Caesar was already the camp administrator of Empress City, responsible for issuing camp reputation-related missions, etc. In a sense, this was very terrifying.

Besides this matter, Su Xiao also had to resolve another matter as soon as possible. On his Lord Train, there was still a temporary "Skill Upgrade Warehouse." And after activating the Green Shadow King ability and slaughtering in the Corrupt King City, the 【Source Container】 was full, which meant that another 30 points of Refined Law-Breaker skill points were about to be obtained.

The most ideal situation was to use these Refined Law-Breaker skill points to upgrade Green Qing Qing Gang Ying, then go to the "Absolute Dark Zone" again as soon as possible to fill the 【Source Container】 one more time. He wanted to try, if the Green Qing Qing Gang Ying ability reached Lv. 155, how outrageous the true damage would be. ===== CHAPTER 4026 =====