Chapter 4104: Arrival and Truth

The scenery outside the train flashed by. The Eye Princess's nose was pressed against the train window. Although she grew up on Meteorite Star, she knew very little about the outside world. She had always been in the "Hidden City of Yargul" and later, due to changes, was taken to "Innsmouth" by ancient god scholars.

Now that she knew she was returning to "Innsmouth," Eye Princess Loris, although she didn't say it, still had some resistance in her heart. She looked like she was enjoying the scenery, but in reality, she was thinking about how to open her mouth to ask more tactfully.

"Before you lose your utility value, I won't abandon you."

Su Xiao spoke in a calm tone while maintaining the Zhan Checking Zhan Long Shan on the table in front of him.

These words clearly didn't sound good, but Eye Princess Loris felt at ease after hearing them. The more unpleasant these words sounded, the more they fit reality.

"I am of course very valuable. Don't forget, I have activated the 'Abyss Eye Ritual' once. The reason why that old man Edro saved me was because I am still useful in the subsequent rituals, although I don't know why they stopped the ritual after it was activated last time."

The Edro mentioned by the Eye Princess was Great Scholar Edro, the one who was stuffed into a sandbag and beaten by Grin Giliang.

"Oh?"

Su Xiao's hand movement paused, and he asked: "How long was the ritual activated last time?"

"Hmm—probably a few days. I don't remember clearly. After all, after activating the ritual, I almost died. I was unconscious more than I was awake."

After speaking, the Eye Princess shrugged to show helplessness.

This was good. The Eye Princess had started to take the initiative to reveal some secrets she knew. It seemed that the "Rice-Eating Person Plan" of the past few days was very effective.

How to make a target who needs protection and is extremely distrustful of one's own side gradually develop trust? That was... to do nothing special and treat them normally. This was the easiest way to make people relax their vigilance.

Su Xiao had not been out of the near-Abyss region for long. He needed to sleep now. At the speed of the Lord Train, it would take about 10 hours to reach "Innsmouth." Meteorite Star was indeed too vast. If he teleported directly, the risk of teleporting to an unknown location was too high.

A few hours later, Su Xiao, who was leaning back and resting, suddenly opened his eyes. He looked at the trajectory on the terminal. The destination was not far away.

He stood up, and at the same time, the Zhan Checking Zhan Long Shan was inserted into his waist. The train slowed down. He didn't wait for the train to stop and jumped out of the opened train door.

The train behind him drove away. Su Xiao's hand pressed on the hilt of the knife. A wind-breaking sound came from ahead, and a golden meteorite fell down.

Boom!!

Golden power surged like a tide. The Deer God, holding a war club, had pale golden flames rising all over his body. The flames dripped along the ends of his slightly long hair, showing how abundant his golden power was.

The earth suddenly trembled and then recessed downward. Su Xiao and the Deer God disappeared from the spot at the same time.

With a "clang," the long knife and the war club slashed at each other. After a very short silence, there was a deafening roar. The space within a radius of a hundred kilometers around instantly collapsed.

A black curved blade greatsword spun and flew over. Su Xiao and the Deer God retreated at the same time, dodging the incoming Abyss weapon. The black greatsword was inserted obliquely into the ground. The next moment, a figure appeared and casually gripped the hilt of the black greatsword.

The blade of this Abyss weapon was jagged, like the sharp teeth of a beast. The blade part had curved dark red meridians, and the handle of this greatsword had centipede-like tentacles spreading out, which would entangle the arm of the wielder. The only feeling this weapon gave people was fierceness.

That's right, the person who came was the Red Beast Di Luo. Coincidentally, his rebirth location was not far from where Su Xiao and the Deer God were fighting this time.

As soon as the three parties gathered, the surrounding world began to show rejection reactions. The reason was nothing else. Whether it was the death battle between Su Xiao and the Deer God, or the three-way death battle, what bore all this was not only the area where they were being "remodeled," but Meteorite Star also had to mobilize a massive amount of world power to repair the damaged world areas.

The problem was that Su Xiao, the Deer God, and the Red Beast Di Luo added together, the volume of the three parties' causality and destiny was too huge. The world's rejection of this volume of causality was indeed difficult to shake, so the world's rejection only lasted for a moment and then gradually dissipated.

At this moment, Innsmouth.

This was a cold and damp city. Various buildings were strange, as if they had been soaked in the deep sea for ten thousand years. These strange buildings had one common characteristic: the walls were covered with a large number of barnacles, and they faintly emitted a pale green light. Looking down at "Innsmouth" from the sky was like looking at a city located in the deep sea.

However, compared to the eerie appearance, the residents of "Innsmouth" were still lucky. Of course, this was a relative statement. They didn't need to worship ancient gods, nor would they be polluted by eeriness, or die from indescribable things.

The reason why this was so was because the residents of "Innsmouth" had unique mutations. Among them, more than 70% had scales, gills, and other characteristics of marine life.

In fact, the reason why they were not polluted by the eeriness of this world was that their ancestors had been polluted by an ancient god who controlled the ocean a long time ago. After generations of reproduction, they had resistance to this ancient god's pollution. More importantly, that sea ancient god had died, and his bones were buried in the "Dead Sea" of this world, also known as the North Sea.

Relying on the mountains to eat mountains, relying on the sea to eat the sea, 60% of the food source of the residents of "Innsmouth" came from foreign trade, and 40% was from the ocean.

Yes, this ghost place of "Innsmouth" actually had foreign trade. What was even more peculiar was

Actually, come to think of it, if "Innsmouth" were truly that kind of region—utterly chaotic and indescribable—how could the "Second Asylum" even exist? If the whole city were full of lunatics, why bother locking them up? Furthermore, the Arcanist School would never have established its headquarters here.

This move by the Arcanist School was quite brilliant. Leveraging their knowledge, they resolved the lifelong localized pain in the souls and bodies of Innsmouth's residents caused by the "Ocean's Gift," and significantly reduced the high probability of deformities in the descendants of Innsmouth's residents.

Currently, the status of the Arcanist School in "Innsmouth" is no longer below that of the "Municipal Council."

Inside the seventeenth floor of the Municipal Council building, the oil lamp was burning brightly. City Lord Hercules set down his fountain pen. His half-white hair was a testament to how much he had labored for "Innsmouth" over these years. Developing a city of madness and indescribable horrors into what it is today was the successful result of the efforts of several generations of city lords, including himself. Because of this, he could not let these achievements go to waste.

"What on earth has happened to the Meteorite Star?"

City Lord Hercules spoke with deep emotion. He had already learned through intelligence channels that multiple peak powerhouses had come here, but knowing about such a major event brought him no gains, only further anxiety.

"City Lord, since the birth of this transcendent world, has it ever shown any goodwill toward us sentient beings?"

The female secretary wearing rimless glasses to the side spoke with a hint of mockery.

"Indeed."

City Lord Hercules sighed. He capped his pen, looked at the visitor across the desk, and asked:

"Mr. Aedro, what brings you here this time?"

City Lord Hercules found this great scholar a headache. He had long since experienced the man's arrogance, but his contributions to "Innsmouth" were truly beyond reproach. Who doesn't have a few flaws? Besides, given the man's abilities, he was indeed qualified to be arrogant.

"Mr. City Lord, I have come to remind you that the promise you made..."

Great Scholar Aedro's words had only reached this point.

Boom!!!

The entire building shook, and many of the barnacles of various sizes attached to it were shaken off, showing the intensity of the impact.

City Lord Hercules felt a buzzing in his brain. At that moment, he felt as if the apocalypse had arrived. After recovering slightly, he looked out the floor-to-ceiling window and saw only golden light erupting at the horizon, along with dark red blood energy surging into the sky. That blood energy seemed to form a blood beast that blotted out the sky and sun, fiercely pouncing downward.

Boom—!!

The earth trembled again. Before long, a powerhouse from "Innsmouth" rushed into the office. This supreme powerhouse's face was somewhat pale, and the green fish scales on his arms were standing on end due to inner tension and fear. He whispered into City Lord Hercules's ear.

"What? Over two thousand eight hundred kilometers away? Are you joking? We aren't even that far from Dream Fortress..."

City Lord Hercules stopped mid-sentence, suddenly realizing something. He swallowed hard and asked:

"Is Dream Fortress still there?"

"It fled."

The green-scaled powerhouse said something he himself could barely believe. One can imagine how spectacular the expressions of City Lord Hercules, Great Scholar Aedro, and the female secretary were at that moment.

"What on earth happened!"

City Lord Hercules felt both cold and angry in his heart.

"It seems that the Law Breaker Bai Ye, the Deer God, and the Crimson Beast Di Luo fought near Dream Fortress. Dream Fortress was very angry, but after taking a blow from the Deer God's staff, it left in a rage."

Speaking of this, the green-scaled powerhouse felt both secretly pleased and terrified. In his life, he had suffered too many losses near Dream Fortress.

Hearing this reply, City Lord Hercules's head was buzzing. He pressed further:

"Are those the two peak powerhouses who wiped out the "Soul Graveyard: Aiso Desert"?"

"Yes, not long ago, the three of them also wiped out the "Wild Stone Mountain Range"..."

The green-scaled powerhouse's voice grew lower and lower. It wasn't that he feared the City Lord, but rather that he respected this City Lord from the bottom of his heart. He remembered all too clearly what kind of life he had lived as a child; it was under the leadership of several generations of city lords and the efforts of many people that "Innsmouth" had reached where it was today.

Actually, the City Lord was overthinking it. In this chaotic battle, Su Xiao would not let "Innsmouth" be destroyed, and as one of the three main protagonists of this deathmatch, he could naturally control this aspect appropriately.

The office was very quiet. All the high-level figures of "Innsmouth" had arrived one after another. Over the subsequent eight hours, the twenty-plus people in the office were all terrified; after all, the world they were in would shake from time to time, making people feel personally the fear of an apocalyptic catastrophe, as if the world were collapsing.

When everything finally calmed down, everyone felt the joy of surviving a disaster. However, this also served as a warning to the Municipal Council to invest more in city defense. In recent years, "Innsmouth" had rarely faced external enemies, relying on its reputation as a city of madness.

Everyone simply held a meeting in this office throughout the night. When the first rays of the next morning's sun rose, they finally confirmed that "Innsmouth" had successfully survived this catastrophe, which, though not dangerous to them, had kept them on edge.

"Finally, it's over."

Financial Officer Mr. Elvie spoke. He was over fifty and had a stout figure, but as the "God of Wealth" for "Innsmouth," his status was very high.

Suddenly, the office door was pushed open in a hurry. The council high-ups, who had been terrified all night, looked displeased, but upon seeing it was Dragon Scale Hailard, they didn't show it.

However, Dragon Scale Hailard could no longer care about such things. His face twitched, and he said urgently: "My Lord City Lord, the Law Breaker Kuku Lin Bai Ye is heading toward our 'Innsmouth City' on a beast train. I estimate that in a little while, he will arrive outside the city."

Once Dragon Scale Hailard said this, the sky collapsed for everyone present, including City Lord Hercules. They had assumed that those three peak powerhouses had already decided life and death, and even the winner would have returned to recuperate. Who would have thought that only six hours after the battle ended, one of them would be heading toward "Innsmouth."

However, compared to the council high-ups, Great Scholar Aedro's mood was even worse. Hearing that the Law Breaker was coming, some very unpleasant memories quickly flooded his mind.

Half an hour later, outside the city.

The Lord Train stopped. Su Xiao, whose severe injuries had not yet healed, had just stepped off the train when he saw the tightly closed circular city gate slowly moving to both sides. A group of people walked out from the hundred-meter-tall massive gate. Leading them was a middle-aged man with half-white hair and a tall stature. This person's strength was not powerful, but his presence was not weak.

"Mr. Law Breaker, welcome to Innsmouth."

City Lord Hercules spoke with a smile. From the moment this Law Breaker stopped the train and stepped off, he had roughly judged that the other party likely had no malicious intent; otherwise, he wouldn't be so polite—of course, excluding some psychopathic fellows.

Baja flew over and landed on Su Xiao's shoulder, saying: "We have some matters to resolve here."

"Oh? If we can be of any help, please feel free to ask."

"We want the Heart of Madness from the 'Second Asylum'."

Under Su Xiao's instruction, Baja stated one of their purposes.

Hearing this, City Lord Hercules was stunned, and the council high-ups on both sides were also stunned. Among them, a little old man was the most excited, as he was the director of the "Second Asylum." He stepped forward a few paces and asked:

"Is this true?"

"That's for certain."

Baja saw that the situation was somewhat peculiar, so he answered very straightforwardly.

"Gentlemen, please, by all means, take the Heart of Madness. Whatever conditions you have, just name them."

When the old director said this, he was almost moved to tears.

"..."

Su Xiao, Baja, and Bubu Wang did not express their stance, because the development of the situation seemed to have become quite strange.

The famous city of terror, "Innsmouth," had actually become hospitable today. However, since the guest was a Law Breaker at the peak realm, everything seemed reasonable.

After entering the city, following some pleasantries, City Lord Hercules left with the council high-ups. Although this was very risky, it was also a wise move; appropriately showing sincerity made it less likely to invite malice.

The others took the opportunity to withdraw, but the old director did not leave. If he weren't worried about being slashed to death, he would have already tightly grabbed Su Xiao's sleeve, fearing that this Law Breaker might change his mind.

The train drove into the city and, under the old director's guidance, headed toward the "Second Asylum." With nothing to do, Baja asked:

"Why is it the Second Asylum? Is there a First Asylum?"

"Of course there is."

The old director's tone was heavy, and his face was full of stories.

"Looking at your appearance, were you the director of the First Asylum before?"

"That's not it. Before that asylum was burned down, I lived there too. It was truly an unforgettable time."

The old director sighed, and Baja stopped there, not asking further.

The scene outside the train window was unique, making Su Xiao feel as if he had arrived at the bottom of the deep sea without water. The residents here all possessed power similar to an Ancient God's curse—though weak, it was stubborn.

What was miraculous was that these deep-sea curses in a dormant state protected them from being invaded by the treacherous environment of this world, meaning they were born with resistance to this world.

After the train passed through a very long alley, the view ahead suddenly opened up, and the buildings became sparse. An asylum like one from a horror movie came into view. Through the spiked metal fence, one could see the main building of the asylum. In the dim atmosphere, the oil lamps on both sides of the main entrance looked like two eerie orange eyes.

The gate was unguarded. After driving into the courtyard, they startled a large flock of red-eyed crows. The group got off the train, and the Princess of Eyes moved behind Su Xiao, seemingly having already sensed the danger here.

Before even opening the metal gate, one could hear the sound of banging on doors from within the rooms, along with strange laughter or incoherent muttering.

One could imagine the old director's mood on his way to work every day. He took out his key to open the door.

Creak.

The metal door opened, revealing a corridor three meters wide and dozens of meters long. On both sides were metal doors. Hands reached out from every possible opening in the metal doors—some arms were withered, some covered in black scales, some revealing ghastly white bones, and others sprouted tentacles as thin as hair, which twisted wantonly.

Tap—

Su Xiao's hand pressed against the end of his waist sword's hilt. The next second, the noisy and chaotic corridor suddenly became so quiet that a pin drop could be heard. Seeing this, the old director very much wanted to hire this person to work here, but he immediately dismissed this absurd thought.

As for why these lunatics weren't completely sealed in their rooms, please don't question it; it was the choice of an asylum that had been maintained for decades. If these lunatics were completely sealed off, they would do even more terrifying things.

The group successfully passed through the corridor and arrived at the first basement level. There were fewer rooms here, but those imprisoned were generally not humanoid. These fellows were all very quiet. The group descended all the way to the nineteenth basement level, all safe and sound.

The nineteenth level was very spacious. Just after walking into this place, Su Xiao felt as if he had arrived inside the chest cavity of a giant beast. The surrounding walls were rough and dark red, with a slight sense of peristalsis.

It gave the feeling that the entire asylum was a huge living thing, and the massive heart beating ahead was its core.

Seeing this huge heart and the dense array of techniques surrounding it, Su Xiao felt a sense of admiration. This must have been the work of some ritual master. The other party had made the entire asylum half-alive, and it would continuously absorb the madness of the beings it contained.

In other words, the Second Asylum was not the terrifying prison one might imagine. As long as the lunatics of "Innsmouth" were imprisoned here, their madness would gradually weaken, and eventually, there was a high probability they would return to normal. Even if they couldn't recover, they would change from extremely dangerous, mindless lunatics to merely somewhat neurotic and bad-tempered individuals.

The problem now was that the madness absorbed by this asylum had reached its limit. That ritual master had long since considered this, but unfortunately, that master had likely gone on a long journey or simply passed away.

This had led to the formation of this "Heart of Madness." As a result, the lunatics sent to the "Second Asylum" not only couldn't recover but would become increasingly severe.

Su Xiao understood the difficulty of Bounty 1. If one were to violently remove this Heart of Madness, it would nine times out of ten explode, causing severe consequences. At that time, this entire city district would fall into madness, and Bounty Task 1 would fail.

After observing for a moment, Su Xiao felt that with his knowledge of techniques, he indeed had no way, but he could compensate in other aspects. After pondering for a while, he took out a contract parchment, drafted the content on it, handed it to the old director, and asked:

"Are you the owner of this asylum?"

"Yes."

While answering, the old director looked at the contract content in his hand. Although the content was normal, he still broke into a cold sweat; the contracts of the Law Breaker Bai Ye were already famous.

"Sign it, and it might be possible to continue."

After Su Xiao finished speaking, he waited for the old director to make a decision.

"Alright!"

The old director showed a fierce look; he had had enough of the situation in this asylum.

The moment the old director successfully signed the contract, the contract parchment suddenly transformed into 60 layers, and branch contracts were formed one after another. Thousands of contracts appeared, which made the old director, who had been looking sleepy, widen his eyes in shock.

The reason Su Xiao had the old director sign the contract was to use the power of the contract to leverage the state of the "Heart of Madness" through the causal link between the old director and this asylum.

A large number of contract techniques clung to the "Heart of Madness," which was two meters in diameter ahead. When the time was right, Su Xiao pressed one hand onto the "Heart of Madness," and the contract techniques on it were rapidly converted into sealing techniques.

Su Xiao was not skilled in the "Absorber Technique" here, but he was skilled in contracts and seals.

With a sealing construction speed of 3900 layers per second, after a few minutes, the "Heart of Madness" was firmly sealed. Proud Song crystals spread under Su Xiao's feet, forming a crystal heart in the original position of the "Heart of Madness."

Because he didn't understand the "Absorber Technique" well, Su Xiao chose to use a simplified Devouring Core inscription instead. Anyway, the asylum was a huge whole, and this crystal heart was just a part in the center, serving to absorb and store slightly, with its core function being to store madness.

Su Xiao chose to submit Bounty 1: Heart of Madness. This bounty tested not the ability to fight into the asylum, but the flexible application of knowledge.

Snap—!

All the contracts signed by the old director shattered, and Su Xiao walked out of the asylum.

Just as he exited the main gate of the asylum and arrived in the courtyard, Su Xiao saw a tall scholar in a white robe, slightly bald, and with a beard, already waiting by the train. Upon meeting, the other party introduced himself:

"Hello, I am Sawyer."

The visitor was the legendary wizard Sawyer, introduced by the Chief Cleric Bergman, the father-in-law of Sin Aisi.

Both sides had their own needs; one needed to awaken the "Abyss Eye Technique," and the other possessed such knowledge but had never practiced it. So, without wasting words, they boarded the Lord Train and headed toward legendary wizard Sawyer's personal laboratory in the city.

On the train, legendary wizard Sawyer looked at the Law Breaker opposite him. He frowned and pondered for a moment, then asked:

"Your Excellency, forgive my presumption, how many of the peak powerhouses who came this time have already died?"

Hearing this, Su Xiao's brows furrowed, and a very ominous premonition appeared.

"What do you mean?"

"Yes, Your Excellency. Last time, after Great Scholar Aedro awakened the 'Abyss Eye Technique,' the Underworld Temple could not continue. To make this technique effective, it is necessary to fill its technique container. This requires the source blood of peak powerhouses. Plus, after this technique is activated, it will quietly shroud the entire Meteorite Star. As long as a supreme peak powerhouse dies on the Meteorite Star, their source blood will be collected by this technique container. Last time, Great Scholar Aedro's estimate was that it would require the source blood of five peak powerhouses to fill the container."

This statement by legendary wizard Sawyer solved all of Su Xiao's doubts, namely why the news that the "Heart of the Abyss" would appear in this century was released. Since the Underworld God already had the ritual to construct and awaken the "Abyss Eye Technique," quietly obtaining the "Heart of the Abyss" was the optimal choice.

It wasn't that the Underworld God didn't want to do this; it was impossible to achieve. Right now, over a dozen supreme peak powerhouses were gathered in this world, which was exactly what the Underworld God wanted to see.

Upon learning this news, Su Xiao's first thought was to immediately form a temporary alliance with the supreme peak powerhouses he was not hostile toward. However, before that, he had to break the "Original Sin Causality."

The "Original Sin Causality" would erupt in 20-plus days. One might ask, which supreme peak powerhouse in this world would cooperate with a Law Breaker who was about to die from an erupting "Original Sin Causality" and held six "Big Daddy" level Original Sin items?

Furthermore, he had indeed fought to his heart's content with the Deer God and the Crimson Beast Di Luo in the past few days, which led to his reputation in this world being less than ideal...

The current situation was that, let alone other supreme peak powerhouses cooperating with the current Su Xiao, even the Underworld God, who had a grudge against him, hadn't come to seek revenge during this period.