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Chapter 4064: Soul Stone

~22 min read 4,222 words

Su Xiao decisively ignored the third bounty. If he hadn't guessed wrong, the reason for the formation of this "Sea of Life" was this so-called "Eye of No Darkness."

The Astral Realm was too vast. Moreover, there was an endless Abyss further outside. In this endless Abyss, there were many unknown places. This "Eye of No Darkness" perhaps originated from such an area.

6.4 million Space-Time Power could indeed make one's sanity continue to drop, but if it were a certain-death situation, there was no need to consider it at all.

The eyes of different sizes that appeared in the surroundings just now should have come from the "Eye of No Darkness." There was no hostility or malice in the gaze of those eyes, which made Su Xiao roughly guess that the "Eye of No Darkness" should belong to the neutral type if not provoked, and once provoked, the good-evil sequence would immediately slide to chaotic evil.

No wonder the three giants were so cautious about the journey to the "Sea of Life." Not to mention that they had been suppressed to the point of losing their "Peak Supreme" rank, even if they were at their peak, they wouldn't choose to provoke the "Eye of No Darkness." It wasn't worth the gain.

"So, the entire Sea of Life is its eye fluid?"

Su Xiao spoke. Hearing this, although Zhong Ta Master Xier Gofu remained calm on the surface, he felt disappointed in his heart. The "Eye of No Darkness" was one of the ways he prepared to send this Law-Breaker away after destroying the "Causal Lock Ring."

"Do not mention it directly; it will affect your sanity. Even more, do not look directly at its main body, as that will evaporate your consciousness in a short time due to intense heat."

"..."

Su Xiao didn't speak. He sat cross-legged on the deck, took out an ritual carving knife, formed a crystal layer in front of him, and as if drawing for fun during the voyage, began to carve on it.

Discovering that Su Xiao suddenly had no response, Zhong Ta Master Xier Gofu, who was on the top of the ship's mast, leaped down gracefully. He frowned and looked at Su Xiao's carving on the crystal layer.

"What are you... doing?"

"Communicating with it."

Hearing this, the Three Pillar Gods, Minister William, Mentor Loich, and others who were already paying attention to this side all approached. Due to Su Xiao's indifferent and murderous style, they all kept a certain distance to show respect.

"Communicating?"

Zhong Ta Master Xier Gofu was in the same tier as Su Xiao and of course wouldn't be like the others around him. He stepped forward a few steps, with his hands behind his back, and tilted his head to observe the formation on the ground.

"This is... an Ancient God formation?"

"Eye Ritual."

"Oh, the 'Eye Ritual' of the Meteorite Star. I've heard of it. Could it be that they developed this system through the existence of the 'Eye of No Darkness' system?"

"Not clear."

"What did it say?"

"It said it really hates bald, old things with holes in their brains."

After Su Xiao finished speaking, he looked at Zhong Ta Master Xier Gofu. The others around had their expressions twisted. They indeed couldn't laugh; they would die. Don't look at Zhong Ta Master Xier Gofu eating humble pie in front of Bai Ye; if they dared to laugh, they would experience how powerful the flying sorcerer with 11 "Soul Holes" really was.

"This is important."

Zhong Ta Master Xier Gofu suppressed his anger and spoke in a deep voice.

"It did say it really hates bald, old things with holes in their brains."

"Pfft~"

The Gray Dog brothers almost couldn't help it. They were a bit straightforward and brainless, but they weren't stupid.

"Bald, holes in the brain, old things? To it, are they all old things?"

Zhong Ta Master Xier Gofu's expression changed. He had been puzzled just now why the usually serious Law-Breaker Bai Ye would suddenly say this. Now it seems this was indeed what the "Eye of No Darkness" expressed.

"It collected the skull of that old thing. If you want it, you can exchange it with it."

As Su Xiao spoke, the ritual carving knife in his hand was always against the formation of the Eye Ritual, which gave everyone present a vivid experience that knowledge is power.

The three major forces of this world had been tossing and turning for so many years, trying every method to avoid this existence, but it was actually possible to communicate to a certain extent. As for the basic threshold for communicating with it:

1. Formation Studies Lv. 90 or above (Alchemy automatically comes with the same level of Formation Studies).

2. Proficient in the Eye Ritual and having conducted in-depth research (In the alchemy laboratory in Su Xiao's exclusive room, there was always a place for the Eye Ritual).

3. At least master "Advanced Abyss Studies, Lv. 80" or above.

Abyss Studies were divided into five major levels: Entry, Primary, Intermediate, Advanced, and Top-Tier. Each major level had 100 small levels. Raising "Entry Abyss Studies" to Lv. 100 would allow it to be promoted to "Primary Abyss Studies."

Achieving the above three conditions would allow one to roughly understand what the massive intent released by the "Eye of No Darkness" meant through the Eye Ritual. The problem was that this massive intent was full of intense heat, crazy madness, twisted frenzy, mental infectious plague, etc.

This required simultaneous strength of body, mind, and soul to withstand. Real Stamina 2000+ could reach the threshold in terms of "body," Soul Strength 1500+ reached the threshold in terms of "soul," and Real Willpower 2000+ could reach the threshold in terms of "mind."

But even so, communicating with the "Eye of No Darkness" through the "Eye Ritual" would appear very embarrassed. During the period, bleeding from the five senses, intermittent coma, etc., might appear. Su Xiao's 【Absolute Will (Semi-Awakened State)】 allowed him to appear calm in this negotiation.

This also gave others an illusion that communicating with the "Eye of No Darkness" didn't seem very dangerous.

Bang!

A loud noise came, the sound of the head of Spirit God Oswal, one of the Three Pillar Gods, exploding.

"Amu."

As soon as Su Xiao's voice fell, Amu had already stepped forward a few steps and kicked Spirit God Oswal, who was spraying orange-yellow polluted divine blood, off the ship.

Leader of the Gods/Origin of All Things Harota didn't stop it. A group of flesh and blood grew out of its giant hand, which landed with a thud, surged rapidly to the ship's rail, adsorbed on it like a sucker, and the other end stretched out, entangling Spirit God Oswal who had fallen into the orange-red sea.

After Spirit God Oswal stopped spraying the intensely polluted divine blood, it was dragged back to the ship. The other two Pillar Gods stepped forward and dragged Spirit God Oswal toward the cabin belonging to the God Religion. Before leaving, Blood God Ashaga lowered its head and looked down at Amu. Its shell height was over five meters, a head taller than Amu.

"Moo!"

Don't look at Amu being silly in the Dawn Squad, often being cleaned up by Miss Benny, but facing outsiders, Amu was a genuine hot-tempered person. He made a gesture to embed the dark battle axe in his hand into Blood God Ashaga's head, giving the other party a handle while also letting the other party learn a lesson.

"Amu."

"A, sha, ga."

Su Xiao's voice and the mechanical hollow sound of the Leader of the Gods/Origin of All Things Harota came almost at the same time. Right now, they were on the "Sea of Life" and couldn't have internal strife. Of course, in terms of attitude, they couldn't be cowardly either. So the attitude Su Xiao showed was: Amu did the right thing, but there was no need to continue for now.

"Exchange? What to exchange with?"

Zhong Ta Master Xier Gofu was very interested in trading with this ancient existence.

"With your skull."

Hearing this, Zhong Ta Master Xier Gofu was silent for a while. After thinking for a few seconds, he stabbed his index finger into the gap near the nasal bone of his right eye, then used this finger to hook the brow bone, and just like that, alive, pulled his own skull out.

What was magical was that only the skull was pulled out, while the brain, eyeballs, and other organs were still perfectly fine in his head. 【4064-

Bubu Wang leaned against Su Xiao in a cheeky manner, as if saying: "Master, I want to poke this old monster's head now to see if it's bouncy."

The Bell Tower Master, Xiergefu, tossed his own skull to Su Xiao. Upon receiving the skull, Su Xiao immediately noticed the 11 soul holes emitting a blue glow on it, as well as a 12th crack. It seems the Bell Tower Master, Xiergefu, intended to challenge the limit of the number of soul holes.

Someone had indeed once opened 12 soul holes, but they only lived for 6 seconds before dying from a soul shockwave. This caused all matter within a 1,200-kilometer radius to be devoured by the soul impact, subsequently forming a black hole of annihilation that swallowed that world. It is unknown whether an "Origin Stone" was formed.

Su Xiao placed Xiergefu's skull on the "Eye Ritual." This skull was wrapped and engulfed by an orange light, but afterward... nothing happened.

Seeing this, the Bell Tower Master, Xiergefu, was prepared to take back the chips he had just given. However, the next second, an orange light emerged on the ritual formation again. This time, the light thickened into a liquid state, replacing the Eye Ritual. On the ship's deck, it formed an oval-shaped orange light hole. Surrounded by orange flesh and blood, a skull with 13 brain holes was squeezed out from within the light hole.

Seeing this skull, Su Xiao confirmed one thing: the Bell Tower Master, Xiergefu, was indeed the creator of the Soul Bell Tower, but he might not be the creator of the "Ultimate Sublimation," also known as the "Brain Hole Secret Technique."

Very likely, the Bell Tower Master, Xiergefu, was merely an improver of the "Brain Hole Secret Technique."

The problem is that the Bell Tower Master, Xiergefu, was a powerful figure from the mid-First Era. The early First Era had no records of such a soul system, so does that imply something?

Before the First Era, there was an even more ancient Astral period. This "Brain Hole Secret Technique" is actually a secret power method from the ancient era. Then, the historical view of the Astral Realm would be:

Ancient Era → First Era → Second Era → Third Era.

That makes sense. The problem is, if the Astral Realm truly had an ancient era, then why do all relevant records only go back to the early First Era? This includes the Great Soul Library, such an existence of eternal hidden power.

The current Third Era is about to face the Abyss Catastrophe. Is there a possibility that at the end of the ancient era, it also faced such a catastrophe?

But if it were the Abyss Catastrophe, then in the early First Era, there would certainly be many remnants of the Abyss retreating. In the Great Soul Library, not only are there no records of this, but there is a clear record that the early First Era was the era with the most abundant natural elemental power...

Abundant natural elements?!

Excessive Abyss leads to Abyss invasion, so excessive elemental power would obviously also trigger disaster; the Eternal Light World is a case in point.

If the entire Astral Realm were in a state of excessively abundant elements, then only extra-boundary existences like the "Eye of No Darkness," as well as Astral alien existences—the Frenzy of Growth, the Candle Lady, and the Lord of the Old Days—could survive this "Elemental Catastrophe."

The early First Era was not without remnants after the world-ending catastrophe. That abundant elemental environment was like water puddles left behind after a tsunami receded; it didn't take long before they disappeared with time.

Disappearing along with them were the various civilizations of the ancient era that were completely wiped out by the elemental disaster, as well as the blooming power systems and technological products.

The Great Soul Library might have relevant records, but they are stored very secretly. Even the Ancient One might be an existence from the ancient era.

Ninety-nine percent of the things from the ancient era were annihilated by the elemental disaster. Most of the remaining remnants vanished in the river of time of the subsequent eras. This skull with 13 soul holes is a relic from the ancient era.

Su Xiao picked up the ancient skull, looked at the Bell Tower Master, Xiergefu, and said:

"It seems every era has developers of the Ultimate Sublimation."

After speaking, Su Xiao tossed the ancient skull to the Bell Tower Master, Xiergefu. Xiergefu directly stuffed the ancient skull into his head. As an Ascension Warlock, replacing body parts is routine operation. Isn't his purpose in choosing successors generation after generation to replace them with better body parts?

From the First Era to now, except for his brain, Xiergefu's other body parts have basically been replaced several times.

"Hehe, yes, just like every era has Law-Breakers."

As the Bell Tower Master, Xiergefu, spoke, 11 brain holes gradually appeared on the top of his head. This skull indeed had 13 brain holes, but that only provided the upper limit; Xiergefu's brain holes still had to be opened one by one.

"Bai Ye, can I trade with this one again?"

"Yes."

Su Xiao spoke with a smile, which made the Bell Tower Master, Xiergefu, feel a jolt in his heart.

"What is the cost?"

"Half of your existence will be swallowed."

"Controlling the greed within is also part of cultivating the soul."

The Bell Tower Master, Xiergefu, leaped to the top of the ship's cabin, sat cross-legged with his hands clasped, looking like an old monk in meditation; judging by his head shape, it was even more so.

"My dear friend, Caesar wants to make a trade with this ancient existence."

Upon hearing this, Su Xiao continued to negotiate with the "Eye of No Darkness" using the "Eye Ritual," only to learn that the "Eye of No Darkness" did not want to trade with a trickster. This made Su Xiao wonder if there were tricksters in the ancient era too. He then learned that the information the "Eye of No Darkness" had about the outside world was not completely closed off.

For instance, it knew Su Xiao was a Law-Breaker and that he disliked Leishma, but it was not prepared to be hostile toward Leishma. It also did not like the Priest, the reason being that in the previous era, it had been eroded by the Initial Death, which gave it dead fish eyes for a period of time.

The more one communicates with the "Eye of No Darkness," the more one realizes that this is an existence with no active malice but maxed-out passive malice. It will not actively harm anyone, and during communication, it could even be called friendly. However, its existence and the areas it affects are natural, ultra-high-risk disaster zones.

In short, the "Eye of No Darkness" is an existence that harms countless living beings with the gentlest fluctuations of will.

The reason the "Eye of No Darkness" recognized Caesar was that not long ago, a goblin came here. That goblin possessed the ability to communicate with all things, and one of the goblin's personal treasures prevented it from being passively polluted and killed by the "Eye of No Darkness."

This information made Su Xiao think of something: was the person who came here a while ago the chairman of the Goblin Chamber of Commerce who was scammed by Caesar?

In the end, the Origin of Myriad Phenomena, Harota, and the Ancient Patriarch, Hatu, each completed a trade with the "Eye of No Darkness."

Regarding these three trades, the emotion fed back by the "Eye of No Darkness" was joy. It had slept for too long and hadn't experienced such interesting things in ages. As the negotiator, the "Eye of No Darkness" gave the mental meaning that Su Xiao could trade with it twice; it would only start to seize Su Xiao's "existence" upon the third trade.

Such ancient existences seem to follow certain laws unknown to outsiders. Su Xiao took out a sealing sphere and stuffed it into the orange light ring. A moment later, the light ring closed, and the mental fluctuations of the "Eye of No Darkness" sank and moved away.

Seeing this, the Priest seemed to think of something and asked casually: "Bai Ye, what did you trade with the 'Eye of No Darkness'? It doesn't look like it paid you a reward."

"It paid."

"What reward?"

"We safely reached the end of the 'Sea of Life'."

Once Su Xiao said this, everyone's gaze subconsciously turned toward the Bell Tower Master, the Ancient Patriarch, or the Origin of Myriad Phenomena, Harota.

Although no one said it explicitly, the atmosphere was clearly: 'Look, this is what you call stature.'

Don't forget, these three were once "Peak Supremes" and rivals from the same era. Of course, they all care about face, not to mention that their subordinates, Leishma, and the Priest were present, let alone ancient existences like the old woman. If they didn't show something, it would indeed be a loss of face.

"This, originally, belongs to, you, now it should, return to its owner."

The Origin of Myriad Phenomena, Harota, formed a right arm and stabbed it into the space beside it, causing this space to fluctuate while also being assimilated into a flesh-and-blood form, and this flesh-and-blood assimilation was spreading.

The Origin of Myriad Phenomena, Harota, pulled a sky-blue crystal from the flesh-surging space and tossed it to Su Xiao. After Su Xiao caught it, a prompt appeared.

【You have obtained "Soul Energy Crystal."】

【Soul Energy Crystal】

Origin: Shadow of the Law-Breaker · First Generation Law-Breaker.

Effect: Can be used for deep enhancement of the Law-Breaker abilities currently mastered by the Shadow of the Law-Breaker.

Warning: This item is limited to use by Law-Breakers/Silver Moon Wolves; others who use it will suffer severe backlash.

Rating: -- (Because the information tier of this item is extremely high, additional Space-Time Power must be paid for notarization to display its grade, rating, etc.).

Introduction:??? (Insufficient authority)

Seeing this "insufficient authority," Su Xiao's eyes narrowed slightly. He currently has Lv. 103 imprint authority, and he is the Shadow of the Law-Breaker closely associated with this item. Not only that, he is also the only living Shadow of the Law-Breaker.

He attempted to lightly activate this 【Soul Energy Crystal】, and a prompt immediately appeared.

【Your following abilities can be super-limit enhanced through the "Soul Energy Crystal."】

1. Time Dominator (Each enhancement requires 5 "Soul Energy Crystals").

Prompt: After this ability completes a certain degree of super-limit enhancement, it will serve as a buff-type bonus, sacrificing itself to significantly enhance your currently mastered "Extreme Realm · Astral" ability.

2. Shadow of the Blue King (Each enhancement requires 10 "Soul Energy Crystals").

3. Soul Severing Shadow (Each enhancement requires 8 "Soul Energy Crystals").

4. Devouring Core (Each enhancement requires 3 "Soul Energy Crystals").

5. Magic Spirit Awakening (Each enhancement requires 3 "Soul Energy Crystals").

6. Magic Spirit Summoning (This ability can only be super-limit enhanced once; requires 5 "Soul Energy Crystals").

7. Magic-Devouring Constitution (This ability can only be super-limit enhanced once; requires 5 "Soul Energy Crystals").

Prompt: When both your "Magic Spirit Summoning" and "Magic-Devouring Constitution" have completed super-limit enhancement, the two abilities can be re-aggregated into one to reveal their true form.

8. Combat Prosthetic (Each enhancement requires 2 "Soul Energy Crystals").

9. Power of Adaptation (Each enhancement requires 2 "Soul Energy Crystals").

10. Magic-Immune Constitution (Each enhancement requires 2 "Soul Energy Crystals").

11. Dragon Shadow Flash (Each enhancement requires 2 "Soul Energy Crystals").

Obviously, the "Soul Energy Crystal" is a very important resource for Law-Breakers. However, since Marvin Waltz and the old Law-Breaker never mentioned it before, there is only one possibility: this non-renewable resource had already become so scarce by the Second Era that it was difficult to find.

After the Second Era, with multiple "Peak Supremes" searching the Astral Realm, "Soul Energy Crystals" basically only existed in records.

It is no surprise that the Origin of Myriad Phenomena, Harota, has one. As a powerful figure from the early First Era, it likely kept this item as a collection.

But for Su Xiao, there is no lack of opportunity to obtain more 【Soul Energy Crystals】 in the future. In fact, he has a higher probability of obtaining this resource than the previous generation of Law-Breakers, because the Void Tree and the six major Paradise factions might have this resource unique to Law-Breakers.

The Origin of Myriad Phenomena, Harota, took out this item to compensate for Su Xiao's contribution to the fleet. The Bell Tower Master, Xiergefu, and the Ancient Patriarch, Hatu, took their subordinates back to their respective ship cabins.

Su Xiao lightly leaped to the top of the giant monster skull at the bow of the ship and sat cross-legged on it. He had two trading opportunities just now. The first was indeed using the 【Finger of Suffering】 to exchange with the "Eye of No Darkness" for a course that could safely reach the end of the Sea of Life.

Besides that, for his second trade, he took out the 【Magical Universal Key】, a strange item he originally didn't want to take out but had to.

【Magical Universal Key】

Origin: Second Era · Alchemy Civilization · Forbidden Item Sealing Facility.

Category: Misfortune Item.

Durability: -/- points (Because it has devoured Astral Power, after this item is shattered, it will re-gather somewhere in the Astral Realm after long ages).

That's right, this is a product of the Second Era's Alchemy Civilization. It wasn't much before, but after entering the "Sea of Life," this item became increasingly sinister.

This equipment has five debuff effects. After entering the "Sea of Life," the debuff magnitudes of "Directional Genius," "Amazing Charm," and "Swimming Expert" began to skyrocket.

First, regarding "Directional Genius": at the beginning, Su Xiao only felt that the storage rooms in the bottom of this large ship were hard to find, but not long after, he began to feel that the No. 5 cabin belonging to his own team was hard to find, until he turned his head and couldn't find the direction of the main mast behind him.

And "Directional Genius" wasn't even the most outrageous one; the most outrageous was "Heaven's Chosen Pet."

【Equipment Debuff 5: Heaven's Chosen Pet (Passive), within 12 hours after using this key, there is a 33.33% probability every hour of being struck by a Boundary Thunder.】

As he entered the Sea of Life, the intensity of this thing began to skyrocket. First, the probability increased; after the probability reached 100%, it began to shorten the trigger time, as well as the intensity of the Boundary Thunder. Just before Su Xiao sent this key away, the Boundary Thunder it drew down was not much weaker than the one he drew down using "Heaven's Wrath · Boundary Thunder Fall."

Moreover, after using this thing, it cannot be sold, traded, discarded, etc. It's not that he would be punished by the equipment's notary, Reincarnation Paradise, for violating this; for example, if he traded it, the moment Su Xiao handed the key to the other party, the thing would return to his hand in the next second. This isn't a trade; it's initiating a duel.

Originally, Su Xiao intended to destroy this thing. Now, he attempted to trade it with the "Eye of No Darkness," explaining in advance that this item had causal entanglement and might not be transferable. The "Eye of No Darkness" was very interested in such items.

It only cares about what is interesting and doesn't care whether an item is powerful or precious, because in the Astral Realm, the number of things that can threaten it is less than a handful, and only one person can truly kill it.

The result was that the trade was a success. The "Eye of No Darkness" severed the causal connection between the 【Magical Universal Key】 and Su Xiao. In the next second, Su Xiao saw that the price column in the attributes of the 【Magical Universal Key】 had changed to "tradable."

In return, Su Xiao gained an item. According to the "Eye of No Darkness," this was a god with the most powerful vitality it had ever seen. During its intermittent beast-like madness, it took its crown, and this gemstone came from that crown. This item is:

【Eternal Gemstone (Eternal-grade Gemstone)】

Origin: Dark Continent · God of Eternal Life.

Quality: Eternal-grade.

Category: Gemstone.

Inlay Effect: Maximum lifespan limit permanently +800%.

Usage Effect: Open the final seal of 【Soul · Coronation of the King (Armguard)】, completely releasing the power of the "Source of Dead Silence"!

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