Chapter 349: Transcendent Items and Misunderstandings
Translator: RaidenTL
Chapter 349: Transcendent Items and Misunderstandings
"Hehe... calculating the time, my main body should have finished activating the sacrificial ritual. Ah... I can smell the scent of flesh and blood even from here. How delightful. Once the channel to the Abyss opens and I bring this back, my mission will be just about finished."
The Dream Demon toyed with a Transcendent Item that looked like a work of art. The white crystal had sealed a Luck Seed at the very last moment before it could dissipate. She couldn't imagine what kind of ritual had been performed in that split second to give birth to such a miracle.
This was a Transcendent Item related to Luck!
Although she still didn't know its specific effects or the price of using it, if this Transcendent Item could affect the Luck of more than just the Main World...
No, no. The Dream Demon shook the thought away. Such matters weren't for her to worry about. She only needed to bring this Transcendent Item and the Main World's Luck back to the Abyss.
"I've arrived... Oh? Has that blood sphere already condensed to such a size? What is the main body doing? Hurry up and open the channel already."
Stepping off the elevator, the Dream Demon gazed at the massive blood sphere beneath the distant dome. For some reason, an uneasy feeling rose in her heart.
When she finally processed the scene, she realized that several nodes of the sacrificial ritual had actually been destroyed!
"What's going on? What is the main body doing? She shouldn't be so overwhelmed that she can't handle things for even this long, right?"
If she had just sacrificed a little flesh and blood essence to create a few more sisters to guard those ritual nodes, this never would have happened.
The Dream Demon cursed under her breath and hurried toward the sphere with a frown, completely failing to notice that the Transcendent Item she had tucked away was now emitting a faint, blood-red glow.
* * *
Meanwhile, beneath the blood sphere.
"Please, step aside~ So many people are waiting for my answer. Do you really intend to stop me?"
The Dream Demon had returned to her previous, infuriatingly smug self. Although she didn't dare raise her voice at me now, her tone was still incredibly grating. The people nearby looked terrified that I might lose my temper and slaughter her on the spot.
"So, your claim that crushing this anchor point would open a summoning channel was also a lie," I said, looking at the Dream Demon coldly.
"Opening the channel is real, of course. But there must be enough energy to sustain it."
"Heh..."
I let out a soft chuckle. I had been caught off guard by an information gap earlier; otherwise, this Dream Demon wouldn't have had the chance to act so smug in front of me.
However... the fact that these outsiders had defaulted to using the lives of half the residential district as disposable energy was something the original inhabitants of the Underground District would find hardest to accept.
Perhaps ordinary people couldn't understand what was being discussed here, but if they knew, they would surely risk everything to fight us.
Indeed, they were terrified of the Dream Demon, the culprit behind it all. But they would not hesitate to point fingers at the outsiders who had helped them once those outsiders did something like this. Knowing them, I was certain they were capable of such a thing.
Because the outsiders wouldn't hurt them, but the Dream Demon would.
I stopped looking at her, my gaze drifting toward the Underground District's elevator.
I felt something there—or rather, I saw the abstract connection and source of Luck approaching.
Unfortunately, Luck would not answer my doubts in any tangible form. Even the Luck currently protecting me had only entered into a simple "transaction."
This Luck didn't belong to me, and I preferred it that way.
While everyone else's eyes were fixed on the Dream Demon, they were also on high alert. This was a massive gamble—they were betting their lives on an answer, the answer they desperately hoped for.
I looked into the distance. Since mysteriously gaining the power of Body Cultivation, my five senses had become incredibly sharp. This was likely what Sister Bai meant by the "Five Senses Cultivation Method" within Body Cultivation.
It seemed to have a significant effect on Spirit Vision. Perhaps Spirit Vision was, to some extent, closely linked to physical sight.
"It's here..." I whispered, my voice so low that only Sister Bai beside me could hear.
"What?" Sister Bai followed my gaze and soon spotted a figure rushing toward us. "That's..."
"A straggler. One of the lesser Dream Demons responsible for setting up the sacrificial ritual. She's coming from the elevator. It looks like she went to the surface and has now returned." As the source of the Luck drew closer, my smile widened.
"And it looks like she's brought something extraordinary."
"Xiao Han, you knew?" Bai Yu clearly didn't understand what was happening. Was everything unfolding exactly as Xiao Han had anticipated?
How did she suddenly realize something was approaching? How did she confirm it was a Dream Demon? How could she describe the creature's movements, and even... know what it was carrying?
She almost wondered if Xiao Han possessed some kind of prophecy or divination spell.
"When you have enough information, many things can be deduced. You just haven't been paying much attention to the current events, Sister Bai. Don't worry about it; I'm the one who dragged you into this."
I turned to look at Sister Bai and offered a comforting smile before instinctively glancing back at that Dream Demon.
The timing of the Dream Demon coming from the elevator was far too coincidental. I had to verify whether this was some kind of trump card or a planned part of their scheme.
Furthermore, she had brought the source of Ninglan New City's Luck. Even I hadn't realized that the city's Luck could be physically moved; I had assumed it existed within the city in some abstract form.
If the Luck hadn't completely abandoned Ninglan Qiuyu and chosen me as a temporary bearer, I wouldn't have known the source was coming here.
And at such a critical moment, no less.
"Are you leaving?"
"Yes." I nodded. The other Dream Demon was very close now. From the looks of it, these Dream Demons didn't have any way to communicate or sense each other.
Just as I moved to leave, a sudden ripple of spatial fluctuations erupted behind me. The gathered flesh and blood energy seemed to find an outlet and exploded. The first Dream Demon had made her move.
The phenomenon was so jarring that no one noticed my departure.
I leaped across the buildings with high speed. My terrifying physical control allowed me to perform these movements with ease, my subconscious power techniques constantly making optimal corrections.
"Found you."
The moment I spotted the second Dream Demon, my voice made her jump.
"Who... who! It's you!"
"Correct."
While she was looking around wildly to find me, I reached out from her visual blind spot and clamped my hand around her throat.
Previously, I would have needed a combination of Binding Spells and Body Strengthening Spells to pin someone like this. Now, I didn't need them. A double grip on both dream and reality instantly rendered her immobile.
At that moment, something fell from her person.
As the object dropped, the Luck on my body shivered.
"What is this?" I hooked the object with my toe, flipping it into the air before catching it.
It felt like a warm, smooth crystal—not the temporary warmth of body heat, but a natural property of the object itself.
When I looked down, my pupils contracted.
It was... a Luck Seed!
I had seen this thing too many times—inside Tan Han, inside Archie, inside Yu Mengrui. I had seen every variation, so I recognized it instantly. This seed-like object was undoubtedly a Luck Seed!
And Spirit Vision didn't lie; the information it fed back was identical to that of a Luck Seed.
In that instant, a dozen possibilities flashed through my mind, but I dismissed them one by one.
I remembered Teacher Ji Niang telling me that Luck Seeds couldn't be transferred. It seemed they couldn't be transferred, but that didn't mean they couldn't be extracted. This was a perfect example.
However, I still had one question: Luck Seeds weren't supposed to have physical forms. They were abstract conceptual aggregates; one could only perceive them through the information feedback of Spirit Vision.
Yet... this white crystal in my hand, which looked like a piece of art, held a physical seed within it. Without a doubt, it was a Luck Seed.
"You... let go..."
"Hmm?"
The Dream Demon's struggling interrupted my thoughts. I realized I might be overthinking. The world was vast and full of wonders; I should try to accept things as they were rather than guessing wildly without a foundation. I could just ask when I got back. I was sure Teacher Ji Niang would have the answer.
"Tell me what this is, and I might let you go." I watched her struggle violently, as if I weren't holding a crystal, but her very life—though her life was indeed in my hands as well.
Since this was a Luck Seed, and it seemed to be the source of Ninglan New City's Luck... and since I knew the Dream Demons' primary goal was to seize Luck...
A conclusion was easy to reach.
The Dream Demons had discovered this object's existence in Ninglan New City and immediately began plotting to steal it. The whole business with the changing City Lord and the Luck Plundering Ritual were all just smoke and mirrors.
"Give it... back to me!"
"I know what this is even if you don't tell me."
"Hmph... you know it's a Transcendent Item and you're still asking me?"
"A Transcendent Item?"
"You didn't know? Then what exactly do you claim to know!?"
"What is a Transcendent Item?" I ignored her interrogation and pressed further.
I had heard the term "Transcendent Item" before, but I'd never looked into it. I had once lumped it together with alchemy items and ignored it, but now it seemed they were not the same thing at all.
At the very least, I saw no obvious traces of artificial runes or rituals on this "Transcendent Item."
Instead, its very existence seemed to embody some unknown, incredibly complex ritual. It was perfectly natural, exquisite, yet eerie.
"You think I'll tell you?"
"Then you're of no use to me." Just as I was about to put it away and teach the Dream Demon a lesson, the crystal suddenly erupted with a powerful force as it neared my storage equipment, breaking free from my grip.
"What the—"
I watched in surprise as the so-called Transcendent Item escaped my control and hovered before me.
It emitted a surge of blood-colored energy. This energy was very similar to the flesh and blood energy being drawn by the Dream Demon's sacrificial ritual, but it felt purer.
In the next heartbeat, it streaked past me like a meteor, flying straight toward the massive sphere of flesh and blood energy nearby.
"Damn it, what's happening!"
Faced with this unexpected turn of events, my first instinct was that the Dream Demon was behind it. But the Dream Demon in my hand was clearly just as confused as I was.
However, the crystal was heading straight for the other Dream Demon!
At that moment, that Dream Demon was using the flesh and blood energy to draw a ritual at the anchor point, opening the summoning channel.
"Damn it... this isn't a channel to summon Dream Demons at all. They're using this method to swallow Ninglan New City's Luck as fast as possible!"
Connecting all these coincidences, this was the only logical conclusion.
Otherwise, I couldn't explain why that Dream Demon was so obsessed with opening the "summoning channel," or why this other demon had brought this object here. Wasn't she supposed to take it away?
I immediately gave chase. The object stopped at the massive blood sphere and... began to suck the energy out of it!
"You! What is this! Are you trying to break our agreement?!"
The first Dream Demon was focused on positioning the anchor and setting up the ritual. As the flesh and blood energy poured in, the channel to the Abyss was about to open. But at this critical moment, a mysterious yet vaguely familiar object suddenly intruded, nearly shattering the stability of her ritual!
How could she not be furious?
And seeing the witch following right behind the object, she instinctively assumed the other party had gone back on their word.
"I should be asking you that!" I leaped up and grabbed the white crystal. But the power it released was so violent that even with my grip, it remained nearly immovable.
"You Dream Demons certainly have a lot of tricks up your sleeves. You almost pulled it off." I glared at her, gritting my teeth.
"What are you talking about?! If you want to kill me, just do it! Don't make up some ridiculous excuse to blame me!"
"This... you Dream Demons know what this is, don't you!" Although I was currently powerless against the white crystal and the Luck Seed, I could still shove it in her face.
"That! How did you get that?!"
She knew exactly what it was. She had seen it when she went with Ninglan Qiuyu to see the old City Lord. She hadn't had the chance to take it then and had planned to wait for the right moment. When the time came, she had sent a lesser Dream Demon up to retrieve it.
How could it be in the enemy's hands now?
When did they intercept it?
She realized she probably wouldn't be able to take the largest portion of Ninglan New City's Luck with her.
"You do know. It seems I didn't wrong you after all." My expression darkened. I ignored the bewildered looks of everyone else present; they truly had no idea what was happening.
But if it was something that made me this serious, it couldn't be a small matter.
Right then, the Transcendent Item's blood-red light flared brilliantly. It began to drain the flesh and blood energy so aggressively that it started to overwhelm the Dream Demon's ritual to open the Abyssal channel.
"What did you do! What have you done?! You're destroying my masterpiece!"
"Shut up! If I knew what this was, would I be asking you?"
I was forced to let go. The energy erupting from the Transcendent Item had exceeded the limits of what my body could withstand; even I had to retreat from the brunt of it.
The others were blinded by the ripples of energy, unable to open their eyes even though they were still within the dream.
After taking a moment to stabilize my physical state, I looked back at the white crystal. An illusory figure was slowly beginning to condense there...
"What... is that?"