Chapter 4094: Tease

The train sped across the gloomy wilderness, and on the train, the Eye Princess sat rigidly, her hood pressed down low, her beautiful amber eyes scanning the surroundings.

Since Bahar, the best negotiator in Su Xiao's team, hadn't arrived yet, and the Eye Princess didn't understand Wang Xing, this negotiation could only be handled by Su Xiao.

"Sit."

Su Xiao spoke, and the Eye Princess sitting diagonally opposite nodded.

"Sit here."

Su Xiao pointed to the seat opposite, and the Eye Princess immediately stood up and hurriedly sat down in the opposite seat.

"The following question is very important."

Hearing Su Xiao's words, the Eye Princess obediently nodded and murmured an affirmation, though in her heart she had already begun considering how to escape this grasp.

"If you try to escape, I don't mind canning you."

Upon hearing this, the Eye Princess looked puzzled, clearly not understanding what it meant to have her soul state soaked and sealed inside a container.

The canned ghost sister, the bottled hunter Tiffany—these were precedents; the Eye Princess's safety determined the success or failure of Su Xiao's main mission, and if she kept thinking of escaping, the difficulty of protection would skyrocket.

"..."

Su Xiao took out a bottle of specially made vitamin C, saying nothing else—just the packaging and the tablet's production made it look especially precious; regardless of its actual nature, looking precious was enough. He poured out one tablet and placed it in the porcelain dish on the table.

"I will protect you later. To avoid your possible foolishness, eat it."

"What... what is this?"

The Eye Princess glanced at the tablet in the porcelain dish, then at the man opposite, and for a moment, she felt utterly uncertain.

"It's a chronic poison. After taking it, you need to drink 100 to 120 milliliters of suppressant every 16 hours, or you will suffer poisoning."

"?"

The Eye Princess was completely bewildered—not only because of her current situation, but also because the man opposite kept speaking in a kind and sincere tone while saying terrifying things, like extracting souls for canning or slow death by poison.

"I... I can choose not to eat it?"

"Of course."

As Su Xiao spoke, he lifted the thick glass container from under the table onto the table—his meaning was clear: if you don't eat it, you'll be bottled.

The Eye Princess's gaze darted between the slow poison and the bottle for a while, then she shook her head firmly and said:

"You must also want me to awaken the ritual—you're just threatening me. My life is worthless to you powerful ones; only my ability to awaken the ritual is what you need."

"..."

Su Xiao remained silent—the Eye Princess had spoken wrongly. Whether her awakening ritual was important or not, her life was still very important to Su Xiao.

The protection mission clearly stated: after rescuing the Eye Princess, she must be kept within 150 meters at all times for 24 hours; if she exceeds that distance, the protection timer resets to 24 hours.

"Alright."

As Su Xiao spoke, he had already stood up. Seeing this, the Eye Princess secretly breathed a sigh of relief—she had won this small game of wits, but she decided to yield in the following events, unable to continue defying this powerful being, who looked like a top-tier villain from the evil faction; just facing him gave her a hidden sense of trembling.

"Since you chose bottling."

Su Xiao pressed one hand onto the glass pillar container, and the Eye Princess opposite immediately picked up the vitamin tablet from the table, tossed it into her mouth, closed her eyes, tilted her head back, gulped it down with a glug, then opened her mouth to show she had swallowed it.

This max-level survival skill after being captured—seeing how she had been caught by various major factions, it was routine for her, so she instantly judged that after her hard defiance, the powerful one truly intended to act.

In the Eye Princess's mind, she had already begun to chuckle, for her physique, transformed since childhood by the Argu Academy, could exempt her from 99% of poisons, but to be safe, she decided to inquire about this person's identity to determine the level of poison they had produced.

"Sir, can you tell me who I should obey from now on? At least let me know who you are."

"Everyone calls me the Lawbreaker; you can call me that too."

"Lawbreaker·Bai Ye?"

"Huh?"

Su Xiao felt slightly surprised—he hadn't expected the Eye Princess to have heard of him.

The Eye Princess opposite suddenly froze—she had of course heard of Lawbreaker Bai Ye, and she knew him very well; as one of the top alchemists in the Star Realm, the several important potions she had drunk in the past at Argu Academy were all Holy Flame Potions bought through void channels by Argu Academy.

This made the Eye Princess, who had been chuckling due to her physique exempting her from poison, immediately stop chuckling.

Pa~

Su Xiao snapped his fingers, and shortly after, the alchemy maid brought various dishes one after another. Earlier, the Eye Princess had just boarded the train and had been secretly sniffing nonstop—this was clearly her catching traces of leftover lunch aroma.

Moreover, from the information provided by Sin As, we knew the Eye Princess had been softly confined by the Argu Sect since childhood; whether or not the Argu Sect had high-level chefs, looking at where Argu Academy currently resides—"Yinmi Maos"—it might be hard to find even a few proper cooks.

The Argu Sect certainly wouldn't let the Eye Princess starve, but at most they would give her enough filling food with relatively ample nutrition; it might even be that all kinds of ingredients are boiled into mush, mixed with appropriate oil and salt, and as for taste—sometimes it's barely edible, most of the time hard to swallow, after all, the "chef" responsible for the Eye Princess's meals is primarily a secret potion preparer.

Please don't confuse the alchemist with them—the secret potion preparers of the Eye Sect, 99% of their secret potion preparation involves putting a big pot, adding special solution, then first adding the main ingredients—namely, various eyeballs.

You guessed correctly—what usually cooks food for the Eye Princess is that secret potion preparation pot passed down for dozens of generations; thus, the rare non-toxic food in the Fallen Star, after passing through that big pot, inevitably carries an indescribable strange taste.

Speaking of which, if Caesar saw that pot, he would surely show a greedy, thief-like gleam in his eyes.

In the train, the Eye Princess, who had grown up eating various strange-tasting porridge-like foods, upon seeing the table full of colorful, fragrant, delicious food, though her face remained calm, her heart had already changed her mind—at the very least, she wanted to finish this meal before escaping.

"Are you going to eat?"

The Eye Princess spoke, her gaze shifting awkwardly toward the roasted chicken; in fact, for someone who had long endured dark cooking, the Eye Princess wouldn't particularly pay attention to high-difficulty cuisines.

But this chicken, cut up with the drumsticks placed on top, had greater visual impact, and moreover, fine dining should unfold gradually to open the curtain—only then would the Eye Princess be less willing to leave the lord's train.

"This is your lunch."

Upon hearing this, the Eye Princess felt slightly surprised; she tentatively asked: "You guys, aren't you eating?"

"We've already eaten. Don't be polite."

"Then... well."

The Eye Princess immediately reached for the drumstick, picked it up, took a big bite, began to savor the food, and as she ate, she couldn't help but tears stream down her face, because her intuition told her this was what food should truly be like and taste like—she had previously lived what kind of hellish life.

"Winiya will be responsible for your meals in the coming days; if you're hungry, tell her."

Su Xiao raised his hand, pointing with his thumb toward the alchemy maid Winiya in the train kitchen behind.

"Mmm mmm mmm."

The Eye Princess ate while nodding, speaking somewhat unclearly: "You knight (you actually), step surge give you oh block (don't give me poison), all sails just star (just give me food)."

"Oh?"

Su Xiao's gentle smile on his face faded a little.

"Actually, the ancient god scholars at Aruge Academy don't like me much, but I have nowhere else to go besides there."

The Eye Princess ate her yogurt buns, her eyes shining brighter; she decided to unleash her ultimate move—sincerity.

She ate quickly, and in no time, over ninety percent of the food on the table was gone. After the alchemy maid cleared the dishes and let the Eye Princess wash her hands, the Eye Princess finally sat back down opposite Su Xiao.

The sated Eye Princess leaned back contentedly, patting her belly. She hesitated, then asked:

"Mr. Bai Ye, you captured me also to have me awaken the ritual, right?"

"More than ninety percent correct—for now, it's just to make sure you don't die."

Su Xiao didn't deceive the Eye Princess, because there was no need. Though this girl isn't exceptionally bright, her survival instincts after being captured are absolutely maxed out. She's experienced all kinds of captive lies and schemes, but if over ninety percent of what I say is true, she'll soon be dazed—this really is a harsh rebuttal to her knowledge blind spots.

Don't let the Eye Princess's current composure fool you; in fact, she hasn't even realized it herself, but she's shifted from single-mindedly trying to escape to beginning to probe what the anti-magic wielder opposite her actually wants.

The train slowed, the doors opened, Bahu flew in, and as the doors closed, the train sped up.

Throughout Su Xiao and the Eye Princess's negotiation, Ignoring Ignoring Ignoring Ignoring Ignoring Bubu Wang projected via hologram to Bahu, who was rushing over, so Bahu could slip in smoothly for this scheme.

Exactly—it's still a scheme. As for sincerity, it truly is a killing move, but it can also be used to dig pits. Nine truths and one lie—that's the most dangerous.

"You can try to escape."

Su Xiao spoke, needing no communication—Bahu already knew what would come next. But before Bahu could speak, the Eye Princess said:

"Knowing you are the anti-magic wielder Bai Ye, I've given up that plan. I heard those ancient god scholars discuss that you are a hunter from the strongest echelon of the Star Realm."

"Is that so."

Su Xiao noticed this Eye Princess knows quite a bit about the outside world, so the follow-up will be easy.

"Of the nearly ten top-tier peak powerhouses who came this time, ninety percent won't kill you..."

"What-what-what?"

The Eye Princess couldn't get her words out properly—after all, at her age, having to endure being contested by nearly ten top-tier peak powerhouses is indeed too much pressure. As the saying goes, if you feel life's pressure is high, just look at the current Eye Princess.

Bahu gave a light cough and told the Eye Princess just how astonishing the lineup of top-tier peak powerhouses who came to capture her this time was. As she listened, the Eye Princess went numb. She had originally thought she was being controlled by either the Death God or the Night Mother faction, but now it seems the newly promoted Night Mother peak powerhouse obviously has to step back.

"Actually, there's an even worse problem~"

Bahu spoke with a nasty smile, successfully taking over the subsequent negotiations.

"What."

The Eye Princess looked warily at Bahu.

"Let me be frank with you—we won't kill you, and you're surely certain of that. The problem is, our grudge with the Arcane Eternal Star is a deadly enmity between anti-magic wielders and spellcasters. You represent a clue to the 'Heart of the Abyss,' and this time, the Soul Lord who came can't obtain the 'Heart of the Abyss,' but she definitely can't let my boss get it either. You're not stupid at all—what does this mean? You can understand."

Bahu's nasty smile grew thicker; his gaze at the Eye Princess was like looking at half a corpse.

"Will the Soul Lord... kill me?"

"Yep, but you can try to escape from our hands—I think my boss should have given you that slow poison already?"

Bahu looked at Ignoring Ignoring Ignoring Ignoring Ignoring Bubu Wang, and Ignoring Ignoring Ignoring Ignoring Ignoring Bubu Wang nodded to confirm.

"If you can find someone who can dispel the alchemy slow poison, then congratulations—you've successfully escaped. If not, are you afraid of pain?"

"No, not afraid."

"Then that's fine. I'll tell you, when that poison acts up, it's awful—tsk tsk tsk~"

Bahu looked like he couldn't bear to remember, and the Eye Princess gulped. Seeing this, Bahu probed:

"Eye Sis, if you activate that ritual, will you die?"

"No, but I'll be severely injured."

"Great."

Bahu clapped his wings together, like clapping hands.

"Well... well, fuck that—I'll have my body split open with cracks. Last time I activated the ritual, I almost died."

"Idiot, besides being able to concoct poisons, what else can my boss do? Of course—he can make recovery potions. When the time comes, I'll give you to drink and prepare enough recovery potions, and they'll be custom-made. The process should be painful—this can't be avoided—but it can maximize your chance of not dying."

After hearing Bahu's words, the Eye Princess's eyes lit up, and Bahu continued to pour oil on the fire:

"Think about it—now nearly ten top-tier peak powerhouses are coming to seize the 'Heart of the Abyss.' Your activating the ritual is inevitable unless you die, so it's certain. After you survive the first time, your body should have left behind hidden dangers, right?"

After Bahu mentioned the hidden dangers, the Eye Princess clenched her small fists under the table. She resisted being taken by the top-tier peak powerhouses precisely because she feels she can't survive a second ritual activation.

"You almost died the first time you activated the ritual—so using your current body for a second time, you will definitely die, Eye Sis!"

Bahu's words grew more and more sincere, then suddenly she shifted gears and said:

"If—I say if—you are definitely going to activate the ritual, then beforehand, a top-tier pharmacist treated your body with various medicines to nurture it, and during your ritual activation, you'd drink in advance the strongest healing potion, and prepare the recovery potion to drink after activation. Think about it—would you still die?"

"This..."

The Eye Princess's gaze wavered; she was clearly considering. Based on her own estimate, she feels that if she activated the ritual under last time's conditions, she would die, but if she followed the above process, she would have a ninety-nine percent chance of not dying—because this is far safer than her first ritual activation.

"..."

Su Xiao said nothing. He raised his hand, and a tiny wound appeared on the Eye Princess's hand, a few drops of blood flying out. He stood up and went to the bedroom carriage at the back. At the preparation counter, in no time, he finished custom-mixing the secret medicine for the Eye Princess. Its function is to partially heal the other's bodily dark injuries.

Returning to the main carriage, Su Xiao tossed the medicine to Bahu, who said: "Eye Sis, you've already been poisoned with the alchemy slow poison, so you don't need to worry about getting poisoned again—drink it."

The medicine crystal bottle was placed before the Eye Princess. She hesitated for a few seconds, chose to pick it up and drink it, but as soon as it entered her mouth, she almost couldn't hold back and spat it out—it was too bitter, so bitter her scalp went numb and tingly.

As for why it's so bitter, Su Xiao did it on purpose. This secret medicine is something the Eye Princess easily obtains, and people are always suspicious of things easily obtained. So we need to make the drinking process questionable—a medicine so hard to drink it makes one doubt life—will make the Eye Princess feel she drank it only after exhausting all her strength and nearly fainting, not that it fell from the sky like a free pie.

"Ah~!"

The Eye Princess almost turned into a marmot in the valley, letting out a high shout, but half a minute later, she suddenly froze, because she felt her breathing had become smoother. The previously withered left lung lobe had miraculously undergone near-regenerative recovery and was gradually joining the breathing work.

Not only that, but changes in other organs were also very noticeable. Her only feeling now is lightness—so light she wants to sleep beautifully. Her long-term severe insomnia seems to have already healed.

The train stopped, the doors opened afterward, and Bahu placed a bottle of half-transparent medicine on the table with a slap, saying firmly:

"This is the antidote. During our escort, we need to protect you, but if you don't cooperate, protecting you becomes too difficult—we might as well let you go to other peak-level factions, and then we'll seize the activated ritual."

This speech really left the Eye Princess stunned, but she only froze for a few seconds before snatching up the half-transparent medicine, standing up, retreating near the door, squinting her eyes and asking:

"You really let me go?"

"Of course, because we suddenly realized that besides following us and having a chance to live, following any other peak powerhouse means you will die."

Bahas words made the Eye Princess, who was holding the medicine bottle, grip it so tightly her hand turned slightly white.

After weighing her options, the Eye Princess returned to her seat, slumped down weakly, put down the antidote, and suddenly said:

"Besides staying alive, what else can I gain?"

Upon hearing this, Su Xiao and Bahas both knew the matter was settled—once the Eye Princess had this thought, she would shift from hostage to accomplice.

When in danger, a hostage might cause trouble out of self-preservation, but if she were an accomplice, she would share the same hatred for the enemy; not only would she not cause trouble, but at the first sign of trouble, she would surely shout aloud what was wrong, thereby alerting her fellow accomplices.

"Without unexpected issues, we can send you to the Myriad Races Realm."

"The Myriad Races Realm? What is that?"

It is normal for the Eye Princess not to know of the Myriad Races Realm, after all, it has only recently transcended; her understanding of the outside world through ancient god scholars is not timely.

"A transcended realm."

Upon hearing "transcended realm," the Eye Princess's gaze dimmed; seeing this, Bahas added:

"A transcended realm without ancient gods—there, as long as you follow the rules and don't court death, with your karmic magnitude, you will surely live well; you can do what you like and want to do."

"You're not deceiving me?"

"Sign a contract?"

"No signing."

The Eye Princess said this, then secretly glanced at Su Xiao; she did not know which ancient god scholar had such a loose tongue, even mentioning matters like the contract of the Extinction Law·Bai Ye to her.

"Very good, then we have happily agreed—we are now in a cooperative relationship, not coercion; you must clearly understand this, so you may drink this."

Bahas pointed with his wing to the semi-transparent potion; the Eye Princess hesitated, then picked it up and drank.

"Very good, then tell me, who are your enemies?"

"I have no enemies; since I gained awareness, I have been trapped in the Algu Academy of Yinmimos, so how could I have enemies? Still, it is true that someone is hunting me."

As the Eye Princess finished speaking, she suddenly clapped her hands over her ears; in her perception, the surroundings began to faintly vibrate, and a buzzing sound filled her ears without cease.

"They're here."

Boom—

Heavy footsteps came from atop the train, followed by continuous stomping sounds.

Su Xiao rose from his seat and walked toward the carriage exterior; his pupils' centers faintly revealed a sinister red glow. Having advanced to peak strength, he greatly wished to encounter a worthy opponent, for after all, martial artists cannot merely improve endlessly—they need to intersperse sufficient real combat in their progress to make the subsequent path clearer.

After stepping off the train, he discovered that nearby were already over a hundred hunters whose bodies were forged with hunting armor, their beastification highly developed; if he guessed correctly, these must be the Wizard Hunting Squad.

Opposite, several dozen meters away, stood a figure five meters tall, resembling a werewolf but with fine whisker-like hairs covering its entire body—the hunting squad's leader, named Elmu.

Hunting Squad Leader Elmu lowered his gaze to survey Su Xiao; upon learning the Eye Princess had been seized from Beast Town, he knew an opportunity had arisen—the Algu School had come to ransom her, but after pursuit, he found this group did not resemble ancient god scholars, and moreover, their leader, though not weak in aura, had not reached a dangerous level; this sensation felt more like encountering a somewhat weaker peer tier.

"Quick battle, quick decision."

As Hunting Squad Leader Elmu spoke these words, suddenly, the face before him resembled, somewhat like, a certain divine judgment painting in his memory—yes, the more he looked, the more alike it seemed.

"Withdraw!!"

Clang!

Too late—Su Xiao's hand had already pressed onto the hilt at his waist; in an instant, dense slashing strikes spread across the surrounding area; the Wizard Hunting Squad members, whose aura had been ruthless a second prior, suddenly froze motionless.

Their bodies gradually shattered into sugar-cube-sized fragments, falling mid-air, where, due to "Bloodfire Ember," they turned into ash, burning out before hitting the ground; for a moment, embers scattered everywhere.

Su Xiao gripped the hilt with one hand, drew his long blade.

Clang~

As the long blade was drawn, the teeth in Hunting Squad Leader Elmu's mouth emitted a clack-clack-clack sound; he felt a vast sea of blood rushing toward him, very much wanting to turn and flee, yet he was certain that if he dared to flee, he would surely die.

Hunting Squad Leader Elmu, as a peak powerhouse, erupted his aura violently, breaking free from the pressure of the field, he suddenly lunged to within less than three meters of Su Xiao, gathering claws of ultimate darkness to tear at Su Xiao; wherever this claw touched, everything would vanish at the karmic level—this was his ultimate technique, Dark Devour.

The long blade lightly swept past; Hunting Squad Leader Elmu suddenly felt numbness in his right half-body; when the numbness faded, he discovered his right arm had vanished; just as he prepared to use another killing move, the Heaven-Shattering Mallet, he suddenly felt himself growing taller and continuously rising; lowering his gaze, he saw his own headless corpse spraying blood.

Hunting Squad Leader Elmu could not comprehend why his regenerative power had failed, nor why his immortal god's blood had shown no use at all.

With a bang, Hunting Squad Leader Elmu's head hit the ground; Su Xiao glanced at this heavy, massive skull, basically confirming that beneath the peak, only "Super·Top-Top Peak Powerhouse" could be killed in one strike.

At this moment, a figure five meters tall yet possessing an aura of fifty-meter magnitude appeared from afar, clad in tattered beast hide, bearing a pair of elk antlers.

Seeing this figure, Su Xiao knew the peer-tier opponent he sought had arrived.