Chapter 126 The King's Troubles

When Lily woke up, she untied the ropes that bound her in just a moment, as if by magic.

This is the realm of her mysterious skill, "Silk Thread Control".

Because [binding] is one of the many secrets of spider silk. To Lily, the threads and ropes are like extensions of her limbs, controllable and reliable, without interfering with her.

This body was much stronger than her own, so her heartbeat became much stronger.

In the pure darkness, she sneaked in silently. Lily stood in the corner of the room, slightly closing one eye.

While she was distracted by the task requirements that appeared before her eyes, she used her other closed eye to perceive the surrounding environment.

——In her perception, the world around her turned into black and white.

With each beat of Lily's heart, clear white outlines emerged in the dark world of her perception, then they gradually faded and became clearer after the next heartbeat.

But not far from her, there were two human silhouettes fading much more slowly.

In Lily's [Spider Sense], the position of their hearts seemed to burst forth with a profusion of silk threads. The faint vibrations of their heartbeats mirrored the ground, forming a spiderweb-like network. In just a few breaths, the outline of a human figure was clearly defined.

After they woke up and realized their situation, their heartbeats suddenly accelerated. The most intuitive feeling was that the rhythmic spider webs on the ground had become larger and faster.

"Is anyone there?"

One of them couldn't help but yell, "Help me!"

The other person's heartbeat suddenly slowed down.

A faint amber light flashed across his body, and the ropes that bound him were partially petrified and lost their elasticity. He struggled to break free from the ropes and shouted, "I'm coming to help you - who are you?"

"I am the king... who are you?"

"I'm Deerhorn."

The man who had used petrification to untie himself replied, "There should be another person in the room... Can you tell us your name?"

Lily coughed lightly to indicate that she heard it.

"So it's the gentleman who adapted to the Tao."

Deer horns reacted immediately.

This is not good, Lu Jiao thought after reading the requirements of this ritual mission.

None of the allies he had previously gathered appeared beside him. Instead, this taciturn adaptor and the botanist with little combat power appeared with him.

The profession of botanist is somewhat different from the alchemist in the traditional sense.

While alchemists weren't particularly adept at combat, they could at least provide various potions... Botanists, on the other hand, were skilled at nurturing, magically transforming, and controlling various plants. High-level botanists could even awaken enormous ancient trees, transforming them into powerful treants.

In a forest environment, the "King" would be very powerful, but in this enclosed environment, the botanist is basically useless.

And they appear in the same place, which basically means they are temporary teammates.

The most important thing is... since the king appears here, it means that the most powerful "Aleister" will appear somewhere else.

Although the combat power of the demon possessed by the Shadow Demon is definitely not the same as that of the Shadow Demon... but even if it only obtains one tenth of the power from the Shadow Demon, no one else can resist it in this ritual.

——This is terrible.

Obtaining the Holy Spear would allow others to lock onto his location, and achieving victory through killing would be even more difficult for him, a low-level transcendent on the Path of Dusk.

Lujiao judged that after seeing the quest requirements, Aleister would probably choose Killing to Win. This meant that he could obtain a large number of corpses - there was no conflict between them.

His tasks in this ritual were not difficult, including "resurrecting corpses in the cauldron". Each corpse was worth 800 points. If he could resurrect himself and survive until the end of the ritual, he would get 1500 points.

In addition, he also had the "Close the Door" mission... Using the petrification technique to petrify the keyholes of some doors, he could earn 500 points for each door. At this height, he could petrify but not unpetrify, which meant that each time he closed a door, the space for all ritualists to move around would be reduced.

But this might also be a way to kill people - after making a sound to attract the giants, they can use the trap door to seal them out. And the pre-sealed door can also be used as a trap.

If he were to come into contact with the Holy Spear, he could petrify it, sealing its power. This would prevent the person holding the Holy Spear from using it against the Titans... and he would receive 1,000 points. If the person holding the Holy Spear died, he would receive another 500 points.

With this calculation, he had a guaranteed score of 5,000 points. It would be very easy to win by points.

Now Lu Jiao is already a senior transcendent.

He was very clear about one thing: the task itself was the hint.

— Considering this quest, the cauldron should only be able to be revived once. And anyone can use it, not just the giants. The fact that the escape from the house quest gives so many points suggests it must be incredibly difficult and tedious.

Considering the one-hour time limit, perhaps time was insufficient. If his temporary teammates were more reliable, he could still give it a try, but now all he could do was to restrict the others and prevent them from escaping.

And this is also very simple.

All he had to do was find and seal the gate—make sure no one else could escape, so they wouldn't get those two thousand points and overtake him.

In order to achieve this condition...

Seeing that Deer Horn was taking a long time to untie his rope, the king gradually understood.

After a brief moment of thought, he suddenly spoke, breaking the deadlock: "Then kill me."

The king's words made the other two look at him.

Lujiao asked with concern, "Is this okay?"

"So hypocritical," Lily scoffed.

The king, however, was very open-minded: "To be honest, I never planned to get promoted.

"If the ceremony happened to be held in a forest setting, I might have given it a try. But in this environment, I think it's better to just give up. This ceremony is a New Moon Ceremony, and I won't be able to advance without sufficient strength."

"You happen to be my big client—so I want to give you my opportunity."

He meant what he said. With his vast experience, Lujiao immediately determined the king's true attitude.

When someone voluntarily withdrew, Lujiao breathed a sigh of relief. This way, the deadlock could be broken.

Instead, Deerhorn crouched down, groped his way forward, and then removed the ropes from the king, allowing him to sit up in a more comfortable position.

Then, Lu Jiao asked, "If you don't plan to be promoted, why do you want to participate in the promotion ceremony?"

"I'm here to sell goods. Business hasn't been good lately."

The king sat up and said calmly, "Anyway, no one will die in this stage of the promotion ceremony. At most, they will be weak for half a month. And those who will participate in the ceremony are all extraordinary people near me, and they are only at the first energy level... I didn't expect that these two recent times would be dragged into Avalon.

"I can only say that Xingti has been too chaotic recently and can't even gather a group of promoted people."

"What's wrong with Xingti recently?" Lujiao asked with concern.

"The Rosicrucian Society and the Royal Alchemist Association are at loggerheads. The necromancers didn't mediate, but instead watched from the sidelines. As a result, the situation has escalated. Two months ago, a famous alchemist was cursed to death. Now, demonologists are being savagely attacked in the newspapers, but the Rosicrucian side hasn't made a move."

The king sighed and complained, "For some reason, the price of finished alchemical mixtures has risen significantly recently, while the price of raw materials has actually fallen. I feel like a war might be coming. That's why I came to the promotion ceremony to sell goods."

"The alchemy workshops that previously bought materials from me kept asking for discounts or they would refuse to buy from me. How could I indulge them? My materials aren't those low-quality materials diluted with water. Each tube contains a sufficient amount of essential oil!

"...But they seem to have made an agreement. As a result, all workshops will no longer purchase from me, and they want to lower the price to 70% of the purchase price. - Let me be honest, Mr. Shikaku. The 30% discount I gave you was the wholesale price I previously gave them. He's asking for 30% of my 30% discount, so I really won't make any money. I don't want to be a laborer for those alchemists."

The king shook his head. "If I had been promoted to the third level a few years earlier, perhaps things would have been better. A third-level botanist can also perform alchemy, and I could sell the finished products myself. But I've been busy making money for the past few years... incense, essential oils, perfumes, seeds, and so on. I've been making money for several years."

"Forget it now. I'm old, and I have a wife and daughter to support... I don't have the energy to study alchemy again. I might as well go to the Ascension Ceremony and sell some goods."

At this point, he grabbed the hand holding the deer horn and said earnestly, "I'll give you this chance to advance. You can use my body as you please, regardless of the number of kills you get... but please remember our order!"

"Don't worry."

Lujiao nodded, revealing a majestic aura. "I'm a big shot in Avalon, and I won't default on my debt. When I get back, I'll immediately send the deposit to your address—the deposit is half. You can make the products after receiving the payment, and then batch them in two batches. This way, you won't suffer any loss... How do you think?"

"You are such a good person!"

The king thanked him.

(End of this chapter)