Mystery: The Stranger

Chapter 29 Use the cheat if you have it

Snow drew the blade of the Dark Empire, flicked it with his fingertips, and the filthy blood on the blade turned into specks of black beads, which splashed onto the stone floor of the basement, making a sizzling, corrosive sound.

He bent down and picked up the Sequence 5 Extraordinary Ability. It was cold to the touch, but he could clearly feel the surging energy within it—it was a wildly flamboyant black crystal cluster. The tips of the cluster stretched out in all directions, baring their fangs and claws. Each crystal contained countless illusory and transparent faces, with expressions that were either ferocious, painful, insane, or confused.

Feeling the immense power contained within the ability, Snow smiled with satisfaction and turned to look at Xalatas, who was licking his lips with lingering enjoyment: "It's up to you now."

He had no intention of directly absorbing this extraordinary property.

Although he had obtained the details of the Sequence 5 Apostle of Desire's ascension ritual from the fragments of the Mirror Demon's soul—a ridiculously complicated series of murders.

Each murder is part of a ritual, after which the victim's internal organs must be consumed, plunging the individual into a state of rage and bloodlust until the next killing satisfies their desire. There must be at least a three-day interval between murders, otherwise the ritual is highly likely to spiral out of control; however, the interval cannot exceed nine days, otherwise the ritual will be completely reset.

The minimum number of people required to be hunted is thirteen, and the maximum is forty-nine. The more people killed, the more complete the ritual and the higher the success rate of the advancement.

Snow felt that this process was flawed.

He didn't bother to delve into the exact connection between killing and the desire for advancement as an apostle, but wasting nearly forty days on such inefficient killing was nothing short of a desecration of life.

This is outrageous, absolutely excessive. This is a way to release desires, and the release of desires cannot be satisfied immediately. It has to be delayed for a full 40 days. It's pure self-torture.

Does playing this kind of minimization game reduce the risk of losing control, or does it entice people to lose control?

He simply swallowed the trait directly—killing a Sequence 5 Apostle of Desire and eating all its internal organs, is that not as good as killing thirteen ordinary people and taking only a portion of their internal organs each time?

Logically, it makes perfect sense.

The only potential problem is that this is an extraordinary characteristic of the descendants of the Beria family, and it cannot be eaten indiscriminately.

The Sequence 2 of the Abyss Path, "Blood Duke," inherently wields some authority over "malice" and "body," with its core abilities closely related to blood, bodily fluids, fear, and malice.

If the Mirror Demon's ancestor planted a seed of malice within it, Snow's direct absorption of the characteristics would be no different from contracting AIDS—both would result in the end and failure of his life. Therefore, for safety's sake, when it's necessary to use a condom, one should never be lazy.

"Let's see what good stuff is hidden inside this little fruit."

Xalatas clearly hadn't anticipated the strange thoughts swirling in Snow's mind. She drifted over in a shadowy form, her fingertips lightly touching the black crystal cluster. Void energy, like a fine spiderweb, instantly seeped into the extraordinary properties, beginning a meticulous screening process—the principle was quite simple, similar to the logic of the gray fog space automatically cleaning up high-level pollution, only the effect was far less miraculous than that of the gray fog.

She used her own void energy to try to contaminate the property: if she was not contaminated in the reverse after screening, the property was safe; if the void energy was corrupted by a force that did not belong to the Sequence 5 category, then the property was a poison coated with sugar.

Although this method is clumsy, it is the safest approach they can think of at the moment.

If it were a family of angels with a deep foundation, they could pray directly to the angel ancestor or use a level 0 sealing artifact to shatter the extraordinary characteristic. Impurities such as spiritual imprints and seeds of malice would naturally dissipate. Once the characteristic re-condenses according to the "law of immortality of extraordinary characteristic aggregation," it could be safely devoured.

Unfortunately, neither Snow nor Saratas possessed that level of power.

All they have to offer is their social standing.

"My dear, guess what I found?" Not long after, Xalatas wagged his illusory tail, his tone tinged with excitement, "Such intense malice, but it's still far from comparable to the Dark Titan."

The Void is extremely sensitive to the negative emotions of the living. The seeds of malice buried by the Abyss Grand Duke may be able to deceive others, but they will never escape Xalatas's perception.

"Then you can eat it," Snow said casually, his tone indifferent. "It should be quite nutritious."

"Hehe, my dear, of course I'll eat it." Xalatas laughed even more seductively, the Void Energy enveloping the Seed of Malice hidden deep within its properties, which she swallowed whole. "With this Seed of Malice as a cover, you now also have the shadow of an angel behind you."

She was not afraid at all of the power and desire contained in the seed.

She has existed for countless ages, destroying countless intelligent planets, her body stained with blood and malice. The Abyss Grand Duke here, though powerful, is not even worthy to carry Xalatas's shoes when it comes to malice, desire, and the blood she has stained.

This is a limitation imposed by the times and environment.

No matter how powerful the demons of the abyss are, they dare not leave Earth, let alone slaughter an entire planet.

The extremely closed environment limited the extent of evil deeds committed by the abyssal demons and other high-ranking individuals, making their atrocities incomparable to those of Xalatas.

This seed of desire and malice, which Xalatas could eat at will, could also be used to disguise himself as an angel and mimic some of the aura of the Abyss Grand Duke.

"You're so amazing."

"The better you perform, the less likely you are to escape from the seal."

Snow sheathed the Dark Empire Blade in his hand into the black lines of his palm, making no attempt to conceal his true thoughts about Xalatas.

Just kidding, there's absolutely no need to hide it.

If Xalatas emerges from the seal of the Dark Empire's Blade, then what use is he?

He's the first one we need to take down.

The only outcome will be that Snow will be torn to pieces first, then Xalatas will easily become a god, his outsider identity will be exposed, and he will be made into a second Genie.

Oh, perhaps it's even worse. No matter what, the genie is still a native, ancient spirit, unlike these extraterrestrial evil spirits.

"Heh, you always say such unpleasant things." Xalatas showed no anger whatsoever. The seed of malice she had just swallowed was brimming with desire, making her feel completely refreshed. Devouring countless mortal souls couldn't compare to the satisfaction brought by this high-purity desire. In such a good mood, she didn't bother arguing with Snow. She transformed into a black shadow and disappeared back into the Dark Empire's Blade. "Continue to fear me, continue to depend on me, and I will forgive your repeated little offenses."

Damn it... I can't get any stimulation...

The seductive laughter faded away, and Snow rubbed his temples, strongly suspecting that the woman had just had some fun.

She's become too agreeable, sometimes even more troublesome than speaking harshly to someone.

Of course, the team is still in its growth phase, and economic growth can mask all internal problems.

Snow stopped thinking about it, raised his hand and brought the cleaned black crystal cluster to his mouth, then picked up the Mirror Demon's internal organs—still warm and smelling of blood, extremely foul—and stuffed them into his mouth as well.

His taste buds were instantly assaulted by an indescribable stench, like rotten mud mixed with the pungent smell of sulfur. Snow suppressed the urge to vomit and forced himself to swallow the mess.

The next second, a surge of immense energy erupted within him like a volcanic eruption!

His body began to transform uncontrollably, turning into a viscous black liquid formed from various emotions and desires, as if it had gathered all the most wicked and shameful desires in people's hearts, churning and surging in the basement in a way that polluted everything.

The madness and malice brought about by the promotion assaulted his mental defenses like a tidal wave.

Immediately afterwards, the entire body transformed into a phantom, viscous black liquid formed from various emotions and desires, as if it were a collection of the most wicked and shameful desires in the human heart. The madness that should have had an effect on the mind was real.

This is a complete set of Sequence 9 to Sequence 5 extraordinary traits, which means he swallowed the entire set of low-to-mid sequence traits in a short period of time. The mental burden on him is unimaginable.

Countless chaotic malices and twisted desires surged wildly in his consciousness, attempting to completely devour his sanity. But Snow's face remained expressionless, not even a furrow of his brow.

It doesn't matter at all.

The dark patterns on his palm suddenly lit up, and the sealing power of the Dark Empire's Blade was instantly activated. Like a bottomless black hole, it drew out all the uncontrollable desires and malice within him and fed them to Xalatas inside as a snack through the sealed passage.

This is practically cheating.

This is cheating!

So-called willpower training and mental tempering are utterly meaningless in the face of absolute cheat codes.