Chapter 625 - 421: Transaction [2]

On the surface,

its reasoning was quite sound.

And there were no apparent flaws based on what the Celestial Destiny Core had previously shown.

It all aligned with what it had said.

But upon closer inspection,

it wasn’t hard to find quite a few holes in its story.

There were three main points.

First, the power it displayed was highly questionable. It wasn’t that it was too strong—on the contrary, it was far too weak.

Considering the strength of this world’s laws, for a world will—even a mere collective consciousness—it shouldn’t be this weak.

Second, its words suggested it knew a lot about his reason for being here.

Third,

was the Scroll.

That thing felt completely out of place in this world.

It was the power of a Contract, and it gave him the feeling that it contained a trace of the Great Dao’s power.

’That bastard is treacherous. It’s definitely hiding a lot from me.’

’If I foolishly honor the deal, I’ll probably die without even knowing how.’

As he thought this,

Hu Qi casually summoned his panel, his gaze falling on the status column.

[Status: Abnormal (Restrained by Unknown Oath Rule) △]

...

[Modification Points: 126,800 (13%)]

’Crimson, modify and remove the negative status!’

Without hesitation, Hu Qi’s eyes focused on the Triangular Rune next to it.

HUM!

The Crimson panel vibrated slightly as his Modification Points were consumed.

Hu Qi immediately felt the subtle sensation of being bound vanish completely.

He looked at the panel again.

[Status: Normal]

...

[Modification Points: 121,310 (13%)]

Seeing this,

Hu Qi nodded in satisfaction.

’Of course, I’m not the kind of person who goes back on my word.’

’I’m definitely not doing this to pull some underhanded, backstabbing stunt.’

’I, Hu Qi, am not that kind of man.’

’I just don’t like being bound by this thing. That’s all.’

’For now, it seems the deal can continue. At the very least, with its help, it should be easier to acquire that thing.’

’But before that, I need to deal with the other outsiders.’

A glint appeared in Hu Qi’s eyes.

He thought about what Black Erosion had told him later.

He wasn’t the only outsider in this world.

This made him wonder if other True Gods had also arrived here.

The Bottomless Realm was boundless, containing an unknown number of worlds.

Over the infinite course of time, the number of True Gods that had accumulated in the Spirit Realm was actually not small.

And that was with True Gods being killable.

Otherwise, there would be even more.

The possibility of encountering another True God in the same world was small, but not zero.

However, according to what it had said,

there were seven outsiders this time.

This was somewhat incredible.

If they were all True Gods, Black Erosion wouldn’t have chosen to cooperate with him, nor would it have given him information about them.

Therefore,

Hu Qi prepared to go and see what was going on.

He didn’t want someone else swooping in to reap the rewards of his labor.

...

"Damn it! How did Zhao Ying turn into this? Even if the plot changed, it shouldn’t have changed this much!"

「Iron Rock Star, the Sunken Zone Z.」

This zone was near the Dark Realm and was more chaotic than other areas.

Criminals ran rampant, gangs were everywhere, and rules and order were practically nonexistent.

Arson, murder, and robbery were almost daily occurrences.

Strangely, however,

the streets in the southeastern section were eerily quiet today.

A single glance revealed that the thugs and criminals who usually roamed the streets had all been turned into mutilated, charred corpses.

Those who survived were cowering in buildings, trembling like quails.

Meanwhile, in a dark warehouse, several figures hid in a corner.

Upon closer inspection, it was Xu Shu and his group.

However, of the original seven, only four remained.

They were the middle-aged man with glasses, Xu Shu; the twin-tailed Lolita-style girl, Lumina; and the young couple.

As for the young man with the buzz cut, Wang Xiang, and the two newcomers, they were nowhere to be seen.

Furthermore, compared to before, the four of them were in extremely bad shape, looking utterly wretched.

The one who had just spoken was the beautiful woman from the couple.

Her condition was the worst of the four.

One of her arms was severed at the shoulder. The stump was scorched black, and the residual power on it suppressed her Vampire Bloodline’s self-healing Ability, while continuously burning her nerves, causing her face to twitch in pain.

Hearing her words, the other three fell silent.

At first, this mission had been relatively normal.

The only change was that Zhao Ying, the girl who was supposed to be frail and have a leg disability according to the original plot, had become a two-meter-tall being built like a bear.

Although surprised, they still followed the requirements of Mission 1 and worked hard to raise her favorability rating.

Favorability starts at zero for strangers.

A rating of thirty percent didn’t even qualify as a friend; it was merely slight goodwill, like an acquaintance, a colleague, or a classmate whose name you knew.

But they never expected that raising Zhao Ying’s favorability would be so difficult.

Even gaining a single point was extremely hard.

However, the group consisted of seasoned veterans.

After nearly two or three months of effort, they were finally seeing some results.

Xu Shu, in particular, had managed to raise her favorability to over twenty percent.

Just as they were about to complete Side Mission 1, Zhao Ying, for some unknown reason,

had a sudden change in attitude.

Not only did the favorability they had built with tremendous effort instantly drop to zero,

but she also tried to kill them outright.

The terrifying power she displayed effortlessly obliterated three of their companions on the spot, leaving only the four of them to escape.