Chapter 4125: Unexpected

Elemental light soared into the sky. The sky of the Star Fall Continent was brighter than ever before, giving the impression that this world was recovering to normal. However, the root of the world remained unchanged; this world would not return to normal.

The elemental light pillar expanded from a few dozen meters in diameter to several hundred. At first, it surged from bottom to top, but before long, the elemental power gathered in the upper atmosphere and began to pour downward instead.

Boom!

The first wave of elemental power poured down, causing this elemental light pillar, which stood between heaven and earth and was several hundred meters thick, to develop a continuous downward ring-shaped bulge, which then slammed into the array diagram at the very bottom.

With a boom, Aina, who was on the array diagram, was sent flying. Having long known this would happen, Green Gillian caught the incoming Aina. The impact made Green Gillian's body ache; this body of Green Wei was still too weak, and besides, she was only borrowing it, not possessing everything.

Boom! Boom...

Wave after wave of elemental surges crashed down. After withstanding six waves, the Wandering Hunter Ross, who was on the array diagram, nodded at Su Xiao, signaling that he had reached his limit and the rest was up to Su Xiao. Once this array diagram lost its controller, it would collapse in the next second, leading to failure. As for when they would be able to summon the Eye of Elements again, who knew how many years it would take.

With another elemental roar, only Su Xiao remained on the elemental array diagram. He looked up at the firmament. For others, enduring such an impact was undoubtedly a huge test, but for him, a practitioner of the Extreme Realm, this was not difficult. Moreover, under the intense natural elemental impact, a strange sensation appeared in his right arm.

As wave after wave of elemental impacts fell, by the twenty-fifth impact, his right arm was completely numb.

Drip, drip~

A pure black liquid dripped from Su Xiao's fingertips. This "Abyssal Origin Power" remained stable under such dense elemental power; after all, it was the origin power of the previous Abyssal Lord.

Back when Su Xiao fought the Abyssal Guard Chief, he had originally fallen into a losing position, but he turned the tables through 【Dark Wriggle】. This thing was actually part of the brain matter of the previous Abyssal Lord. The Abyssal Guard Chief had swallowed this thing along with Su Xiao's right arm and ultimately died from the rampage of the high-level power.

Curiously, through a series of coincidences, Su Xiao's right arm fused with the part of the previous Abyssal Lord's origin energy within 【Dark Wriggle】, which also allowed him to suppress the Blade Demon Spirit whose intensity was soaring.

Now, situated on the elemental array diagram, his body enduring this elemental tempering, the power within his right arm that did not belong to Su Xiao—which appeared to have fused with his right arm—began to detach from his right arm under the bombardment of power of the same tier.

This was not his power after all; being able to fuse with it briefly was already a stroke of fate. Forcibly keeping it might eventually breed evil consequences.

With a boom, another elemental impact fell. The last trace of Abyssal origin energy within Su Xiao's right arm was stripped away. Twelve more elemental impacts crashed down, and the elemental technique subsided.

The "Eye of Elements" did not appear immediately, but the summoning of the "Eye of Elements" this time had largely succeeded. Now, they only had to wait for the feedback from the distant "Elemental Core Land" after this elemental impact. What they were doing now was like throwing a pebble; the pebble was still in flight, so of course, one could not see ripples on the water's surface.

But it was not without risk. Before the "Eye of Elements" appeared in the world, the Shelter City could not sink into the Dark Sea again, or it would interrupt this technique. As for the current safety of the Shelter City, not to mention Su Xiao's presence, those peak powerhouses outside the Shelter City would not allow it.

Inside the roofless building, things calmed down. The elemental aura on Su Xiao's body dissipated. He took out a sealed metal container and put part of the "Abyssal Origin Energy" into it. After waiting for a moment, the remaining "Abyssal Origin Energy" aggregated inside.

"Last time we waited for five hours, but I feel this time will be faster."

Green Gillian's words made everyone breathe a sigh of relief; it was not all for nothing. As for the reward, Green Gillian had already promised it, and Marvin Waltz had prepared it all.

One had to say, the unscrupulous mentor was truly unreliable in small matters, left medium matters to fate, but never disappointed in major ones.

"Bai Ye, shall we talk here?"

The Wandering Hunter Ross spoke.

"..."

Crystal layers spread under Su Xiao's feet, extending upward to form a roof over two meters thick, and also forming two chairs and a small round table in the middle beside him. He sat down. Seeing this, the Wandering Hunter Ross sat opposite him at the small round table and said:

"I deep-dived for less than ten days, but my goal was clear. I basically found all the 'Soul Energy Crystals' at the bottom of the abyss..."

As the Wandering Hunter Ross said this, Green Gillian frowned and walked over, saying: "How is that possible? Marvin and the old man had Wandering Hunter friends at that time too. They helped deep-dive more than once and had long since searched the entire bottom of the abyss. I believe you could find one or two that slipped through the net, but how many did you find?"

"10."

Hearing this, Green Gillian asserted: "There is absolutely no such possibility. Those seven Marvin had were leftovers from our faction's former treasury. Something is wrong, very wrong. There is a problem here."

Green Gillian's words made everyone fall into thought, but the weak Aina said: "Is there such a possibility? The treasury left by your Law-Extermination faction, after the sealing ritual collapsed, had everything inside that wasn't hard destroyed by the rifts. Those that were sturdy fell along the rifts into the Chaos Interlayer Zone.

Plus, the elemental layers passed through wouldn't block objects, and then they fell to the even lower Abyssal layer. Calculated this way, continuous falling just happened to sink to the bottom of the abyss. Added to the irregular dark tides at the bottom of the abyss, no one knows where these falling objects would be washed to."

Su Xiao understood Aina's words. Abyssal Studies had aspects of this. Simply put, high-level treasuries, in order to achieve absolute anti-theft in a spatial sense, were located in the rifts between the "Star Realm" and the "Elemental Layer." They could continue to exist because they had solidified this area through a sealing ritual.

Green Gillian, whose brain had never been polluted by this kind of knowledge, frowned and looked at Su Xiao, meaning: Bai Ye, is this really possible?

Su Xiao didn't speak, but the meaning was obvious: it wasn't just possible, it was 99.9% the case.

Seeing this, Aina imitated Green Gillian's posture of touching her chin with one hand just now, and imitating her tone, said: "Something is wrong! Very wrong! There is a problem here."

After finishing the imitation, Aina, who was sitting against the wall, began to laugh heartily, but soon, she could no longer laugh. Green Gillian stepped to her side, pressed one hand onto the top of her head, leaned over with her head tilted, and looked at her with a dangerous smile in her eyes.

Ignoring the internal conflict of the Green family, Su Xiao continued his trade with the Wandering Hunter Ross. The Wandering Hunter Ross took out a wooden box, and after opening it, there were ten 【Soul Energy Crystals】 on a red soft-padded base, which had also undergone abyss-removal processing, after all, they had been buried at the bottom of the abyss for so many years.

Su Xiao took out a rectangular refrigeration device that had a heavy, iron-black appearance. After opening it, as the cooling pressure was released and cold air surged out, there were a total of 12 custom-made permanent buff potions, to be drunk once a week.

The Wandering Hunter Ross touched the refrigeration device on the table, and the attributes of the 12 permanent buff potions appeared before his eyes one after another.

Both sides were silent, then nodded almost simultaneously. It was obvious that both sides were very satisfied with the harvest this time and both felt they had profited.

The trade was successfully completed. Su Xiao opened his storage space. The place where he kept 【Soul Energy Crystals】 now had a total of 18 【Soul Energy Crystals】. In a situation where only the first-generation Law Breakers could condense 【Soul Energy Crystals】, the fact that there was still such a large stock after so many years indicated that the production of this item was not low back then.

Of course, there was another possibility: the first-generation Law Breakers knew their destined end in advance, so they saved a large number of 【Soul Energy Crystals】 for the Law Breakers of later generations. It seems the most reliable Law Breaker is no longer Star-Swallowing Arcas, but this one.

If Su Xiao's "Law-Breaking Talent: Shadow Hunter" could also condense 【Soul Energy Crystals】, wouldn't that mean he could raise all the abilities of the Law-Breaking system to the absolute limit? He might even have a huge surplus of 【Soul Energy Crystals】.

A question appeared in Su Xiao's mind: how did the first-generation Law Breakers, without being of the Extreme Realm system, absorb such a massive amount of soul energy themselves and use the Devouring Core to convert it into 【Soul Energy Crystals】? Even a single 【Soul Energy Crystal】 contained a terrifyingly high density of buff energy. Condensing a small amount was something the body could withstand, but long-term, large-scale condensation would certainly be unbearable for the body.

Or perhaps, the first-generation Law Breakers were actually of the Extreme Realm system too, but in the First Era, were there really that many "Astral Origin Powers"? Plus, that was the period just after inheriting the ancient era, when Extreme Realm secret arts were most widely passed down. It was a case of "Astral Origin Power" being scarce, but there were many peers in the Extreme Realm system.

This is why the "Domain system" of the Second Era gradually grew stronger, becoming the mainstream by the mid-Second Era.

Taking Su Xiao's current situation, he was very certain that if he did not have the powerful physique of the Extreme Realm system, he would not be able to withstand the increasingly high burden of the "Law-Breaking Talent: Shadow Hunter."

Physique, Extreme Realm system.

A conjecture appeared in Su Xiao's thoughts: who decreed that the Extreme Realm system must rely entirely on "Astral Origin Power" to improve itself?

The so-called Extreme Realm system is essentially about constantly strengthening oneself. If one were to use 【Soul Energy Crystals】 to continuously upgrade an ability within the Law-Breaking Shadow system that could improve one's physique and had a high enough ceiling, wouldn't that also be improving the Extreme Realm system?

A bold idea appeared in Su Xiao's mind: could he both improve his physique through "Astral Origin Power" and use "Soul Energy Crystals" to improve the "Law-Breaking Passive" that could buff his Supreme Attributes?

Previously, he had already seen that ability on the Awakening Tablet. The problem was that the Supreme Attribute it provided was too low, and the risk of mastering it was the highest among all the abilities on the Awakening Tablet.

Now he finally knew why this ability, which seemed to have low buffs, had such risks and was located at the very top of the Awakening Tablet.

All of this was still just a conjecture. For now, he had to wait for this battle for the "Eye of Elements" to end before considering anything else.

Green Gillian took out a crystal, threw it on the ground, and with a 'pop', as the crystal shattered, a teleportation array spread across the ground, actually forming a small "World-Tier Teleportation Array." Even Green Gillian herself clicked her tongue in wonder, saying it was truly a good item; it seemed to be an item provided by the Leader.

"Alright, everyone who needs to withdraw, withdraw. In a few hours, this place will become a chaotic brawl."

As Green Gillian spoke, she hoisted the groggy Aina up. Aina had just started to call for help when she received a punch from her:

"Your strength isn't much, but you're quite happy to mess around. Is the Meteor Star somewhere you can come to right now? You two little ones over there, hurry up and follow."

As soon as Green Gillian finished speaking, Yelo Ilia and Wood's sister, Mi'erwei, who were peeking and looking around at the door, walked over somewhat reluctantly.

"It's not your era yet, don't be in a hurry."

Green Gillian had a meaningful smile on her face. After she stood on the teleportation array and waited for the others to stand in place, she activated it.

"Wait—"

Before Gulu could finish her sentence, the teleportation array activated. The spatial coordinates on it scrambled themselves. This was a World-Tier Teleportation Array that could be used multiple times and was anti-tracking; no wonder even Green Gillian said it was a good item.

Seeing this, Su Xiao stepped forward and began to adjust the spatial coordinates. After he finished, Gulu stood on it with some confusion and asked, "Where am I going?"

"The Myriad Races World."

"A Transcendent World? I'm not going, it's too dangerous."

"The rewards are high."

"High rewards won't work either."

Seeing this, Baja, who was perched on Su Xiao's shoulder, spoke for him: "Dummy, the Myriad Races World is a newly promoted Transcendent World. Right now, anyone who shows their face at the gathering spot with a World Key to the Myriad Races World gets killed instantly. Moreover, the Myriad Races World has a difficulty span from Tier 7 to the Peak Realm; it's the largest top-tier open-world. If you defeat a small boss of the same tier there, the rewards are 5 to 6 times the normal amount. You'd go through a normal world progression, and the rewards would be roughly the sum of your past 6 or 7 world progressions."

"Send me there immediately!"

Gulu's gaze became firm instantly. Whether there were benefits or not didn't matter much; the main thing was that she could temper herself, so she had to go!

Su Xiao's gaze turned to the Wandering Hunter Ross. The Wandering Hunter Ross smiled and said, "Then many thanks."

He was polite with his words, but his actions were not slow at all. The Myriad Races World—which powerhouse from any Paradise faction wouldn't want to go there now?

The teleportation array activated softly. After everyone had left, Su Xiao took out the 【Path to the Peak】 scroll he had obtained earlier. He had already mastered the knowledge on it and was not worried about losing it.

"My dear friend, this matter... is very dangerous."

Caesar rubbed his hands with a sly smile.

"500 ounces."

"How is that possible! At least 80,000."

"3,000."

"No, no, 50,000 is the minimum."

【In the version where every look is error-free!】

"10,000."

"Deal."

Su Xiao immediately determined that he had given too much again. Recently, he had been quite wealthy in terms of Space-Time Power, and his haggling with Caesar hadn't been extreme enough. He estimated that Caesar would have agreed between 9,800 and 9,900 ounces.

Caesar took the 【Path to the Peak】 scroll. Without Su Xiao needing to say anything else, he already understood the situation; otherwise, he wouldn't have said this matter was dangerous.

With a 'bang', all the Aoge crystals shattered, and this place turned back into a roofless building. Su Xiao summoned the Lord Train, let Xiang Bubu Wang control the train, and took Baja and Amu to leave this place temporarily. The subsequent melee was too dangerous, and this was different from fighting a strong enemy.

Moreover, the three of them needed to reach the "Hidden City of Yarg" at the fastest speed. Once another peak powerhouse died, the "Abyss Eye Ritual" would be activated, and when the "Heart of the Abyss" appeared, it had to be obtained at the first opportunity.

"Woof."

Xiang Bubu Wang barked, meaning that the matter would definitely be handled properly.

A moment later, only Su Xiao remained on the elemental array. He sat cross-legged in the center of the array, his brows furrowing slightly. At a time like this, his Sword Master ability was actually showing signs of being wrong, which was not good news.

And this feeling became increasingly obvious. Until half an hour later, Su Xiao felt a brief stinging pain in his heart. Afterward, the Sword Master ability stabilized, and it was completely and thoroughly solidified, more integrated than ever before. This was because the "Extreme Realm: Astral" ability had detached from the Sword Master ability and become a separate ability.

The reason this happened at this juncture was that the elemental power impact just now had caused the Abyss Origin ability integrated into his right arm to be completely stripped away. Without the influence of this external power, the "Extreme Realm: Astral" ability, which should have been stripped away separately long ago, immediately began this step.

A blessing in disguise; the "Extreme Realm: Astral" had not been stripped away separately until now, but the several previous large-scale upgrades to Sword Master had also allowed "Extreme Realm: Astral" to be upgraded along with it, raising it from the initial stage to the exclusive trait stage.

Everyone's "Astral Ability," besides the inherent ability of Astral Stasis, often has its own traits. Su Xiao's trait is Domination. He also didn't know what the trait of the Supreme One's "Astral Ability" was.

【Extreme Realm: Astral: Lv. MAX (Transcendent Tier · Active)】

Skill Effect: You fully release the might of your Technique Master, affecting the operation of the Astral within a 20,000-meter radius, causing it to enter an "Astral Stasis" state for 5 seconds. During this period, you can "Limitedly Dominate" this area, thereby permanently seizing one ability of a strong enemy (any ability except for Peak Abilities), and through the Astral conversion of this area, transform their ability into your temporary "Life Core." Furthermore, after "Astral Stasis" ends, the enemy whose ability was permanently stripped will fall into an "Absolute Weakness" state for 2 to 3 seconds.

Hint: When the target within "Astral Stasis" is not a strong enemy and their comprehensive tier is lower than yours, they will have all their abilities permanently seized. This action will cause an extremely high probability of immediate death, or you can perform "Absolute Domination" on such targets through the "Limited Domination" of the Astral area. Targets subjected to "Absolute Domination" will definitely die after 48 to 72 hours...

Hint: This ability can only be used once per natural day; this is the ultimate usage interval derived from this trait.

As long as the "Extreme Realm: Astral" ability was stripped away separately, things would be easy. Su Xiao immediately consulted whether "Extreme Realm: Astral" could be upgraded and the conditions for upgrading it, using his Hunter Lv. 103 authority.

【To upgrade the "Extreme Realm: Astral Lv. MAX" ability, you need to consume 1 Star Brilliance Stone.】

Very good, a resource he had never heard of appeared, but it was not a big problem. With the 【Void Tree Storage Application Authority?? (80% to?? % off)】 from the "Abyss Mission: Gift of Death," he could try to see if such a resource existed in the Void Tree's inventory.

Time passed in a flash. Three and a half hours later, a crack appeared on the elemental array where Su Xiao was located with a 'click'. Immediately, the entire array began to shatter and peel off, floating upward and forming a broken array a few meters from the ground.

A seven-colored vortex appeared in the center of this broken array. The array rotated with the vortex, and after reaching its limit, it shattered with a boom, along with the vortex. An elemental shockwave spread out. Almost simultaneously, the Sanctuary City sank toward the dark sea below, about to leave this place.

When the aftermath of the elemental shockwave dissipated, a translucent, fist-sized original core appeared in front of Su Xiao. Inside this original core was a rich, substantial natural elemental power. At a glance, it indeed looked like an eye, and the substantial elemental power inside was like a pupil.

Su Xiao's crystal left hand grasped this "Eye of Elements."

【Hint: You have obtained the "Eye of Elements." This item also possesses a strong Astral aura. You must wait 24 hours for the Astral aura of this item to dissipate before it can be placed into your storage space.】

Zheng~

His long sword was unsheathed. Su Xiao stood on the boundless, flat rocky ground with his long sword in one hand and the "Eye of Elements" in the other. This was the large-scale environmental change caused by his clash with the Deer God last time.

At this moment, multiple peak powerhouses were either standing in mid-air, standing on the head of a demonic beast, or were themselves tens of thousands of meters tall, with octopus-like heads and tentacles hanging down from their beards, still twitching slightly.

The one with the strongest aura, however, was not these tens of thousands of meters tall figures, but the one sitting on the ten-thousand-meter-high bone throne.

This figure was over five meters tall, humanoid in appearance, with no skin on its body, but rather scattered exoskeleton. The exoskeleton on its face made its chin sharp, looking very serious. The exoskeleton on the top of its head was like a raised crown of sharp horns.

Those dark red vertical pupils did not have the "looking down on all living beings as ants" attitude of other Ancient Gods; they were purely cold. This was clearly the true form of the Pluto God. There was not a single sign of Ancient God tentacles on its body, nor was it an indescribable appearance; it even had a sense of powerful coordination of blood and bone. Yet, just by sitting there, it had an unparalleled sense of oppression.

More importantly, behind the throne where the Pluto God sat, two weapons were stuck. On the left was a blade disc about two meters in diameter, with sharp blades all around the edge and no place to hold it; it was definitely a flight-type weapon.

On the right was a long-handled feather sword. This was actually a silver-white greatsword, over three meters long in total, with the hilt occupying one-third of the length. The greatsword's guard was like spread wings, and the blade had feather-scale decorations. This feather sword was exceptionally sharp; just by being stuck in the bone throne, it caused cutting marks to appear in the surrounding world.

From the killing intent of this feather sword, it was certain that this was definitely not a decoration. The Pluto God was extremely skilled in close combat; this strongest Ancient God had no weaknesses.

The lineup of peak powerhouses present this time was quite spectacular: the Pluto God, Deep Sea Sovereign Ubo-Sathla, Soul Master, Sword Demon, Demon Old Hag, Lord of the Underworld, Crimson Beast Di Luo, Goblin Elder Maza-Bia-Dorty, Fish Family Second Elder Diknuja, and the Fish Family First Elder.

This was the strength of the Fish Family, or rather, the strength that could grow by being empowered by the "Origin Clan Badge." It was no wonder Madam Spider joined the Fish Family; improving in the Peak Realm took too much time, and with the assistance of the Fish Family's "Origin Clan Badge," this process could be significantly shortened.

The Deer God did not come. Before summoning the "Eye of Elements" this time, Su Xiao had already notified the Deer God, the Moon Witch, and the Crimson Beast Di Luo not to come here to compete.

The Deer God and the Moon Witch did not come, but Di Luo did. That meant there was no need for further words; they were already enemies. From the way Di Luo stared at Su Xiao, it was clear that their cooperation had ended here.

Ka ka ka~

The bone throne gradually disintegrated. When the bone throne was only a few dozen meters high, the Pluto God stood up, walked down step by step from the skeleton stairs in front of the throne, and walked toward Su Xiao. Seeing this scene, the others did not act rashly, having already prepared to watch the strongest Ancient God fight the Law Breaker.

Su Xiao and the Pluto God stood more than ten meters apart. Just when everyone thought they were in a standoff, Su Xiao suddenly raised his hand and tossed the "Eye of Elements" in his hand to the Pluto God.

"Huh?!!!"

Di Luo's eyes widened. The Goblin Elder Maza-Bia-Dorty, who was preparing to fish for some benefits during the chaotic battle nearby, had his expression change drastically, his whole body rising with ghostly green smoke. The Lord of the Underworld, a seven-meter-tall figure in black armor, suddenly felt that things were not looking good.

The Pluto God caught the "Eye of Elements" very calmly, as if it had expected this to happen. Why?

The reason was that before the "Eye of Elements" descended, Su Xiao had Caesar take the "Path to the Peak" to find the Pluto God. Although Su Xiao could not be trusted by the Pluto God, and Caesar even less so, the fairness from the Void Tree could be trusted.

And the content of the fairness was that this promotion secret art, which had its most critical part hidden but still showed its power, combined with the fact that this promotion secret art required the "Heart of the Abyss" + "Eye of Elements" to proceed with the promotion, proved its extraordinary nature to the greatest extent.

Knowing the existence of this promotion secret art, the Pluto God would definitely no longer just use the "Heart of the Abyss" to seal its way to the Supreme Realm. Then, everything would be simple.

The Pluto God held the "Eye of Elements," and Su Xiao held the "Path to the Peak Secret Art" + "Heart of the Abyss." This ritual had always been led by him; the "Heart of the Abyss" was summoned, and of course, it fell into his hands at the first opportunity.

If Su Xiao or the Pluto God killed each other, they could obtain everything. This made the problem simple all of a sudden. Before that, shouldn't they kill all the other peak powerhouses or clear them out of this world?

At that time, the two sides would engage in a life-and-death battle, and the winner would obtain everything.

With a boom!

A figure landed between Su Xiao and the Pluto God. Blood-red eyes, tattered robes, a long sword rising with black smoke—yes, it was the Sword Demon.

This was the truth behind summoning the "Eye of Elements" this time: the combination of Su Xiao + Sword Demon + Pluto God, temporarily named the Demon God Team. After seeing the attitude of the three, many other Supreme powerhouses gave birth to the idea of retreating.

Soul Master, standing in mid-air, had an ugly expression. Of course, their Arcane Eternal Star was plotting against the Pluto God, but they hadn't expected the change in Deep Sea Sovereign Ubo-Sathla to make the Fish Family suspicious.

The next second, a situation that made Soul Master feel even worse appeared, because Su Xiao, the Sword Demon, and the Pluto God all looked at Soul Master without distinction of priority. There was no need to confirm with their eyes; the three decided to kill this one first. The reason was none other than that this one had grudges with all three of them.