Alone and Infinite.

Chapter 590 The Final Main Quest

The idea that the message the Tree of Origin was sending to the Hall of Light was tampered with or intercepted seems absurd, and may even be just a conjecture by Li Xia.

Just like what Li Xia told the three little ones, it was also just Li Xia's conjecture based on all the information he knew. He didn't know whether it was true or not, but it was undoubtedly the most logical.

The birth of the Little Knight is undoubtedly related to the Pale King. Li Xia also witnessed the Pale King transform into an Apostle of the Void. In fact, even without the Little Knight, Li Xia felt that he could easily defeat the Pale King.

His apostle-like power over mages was simply too overwhelming. His energy resistance and demigod-like physique made spells feel like mere tickles to him. As for the Pale King transforming into an apostle of the Void...
It actually switched its specialty, from mage to melee. Has the Pale King ever wielded a greatsword? No!

The attributes have improved slightly, but the melee experience is almost zero.
The three children found it hard to recall the battle scene—it was a massacre.

"But no matter what..."

After pondering for a while, Aowu realized that this was indeed the explanation that made sense for everything. He sighed and recalled the scenes he had seen in his dream:

"These apostles are really amazing, they actually came up with the idea of ​​creating a 'Pale Spirit'!"

"Isn't this a huge profit?"

They really made a killing. How common are avatars at the fourth tier? Almost everyone has one. Even the weaker apostles will get a low-level avatar with a coefficient of 0.8.

The avatar objectively greatly enhances the survivability of fourth-tier apostles, but it also weakens them.

Li Xia was quite certain that the mage had definitely become weaker. In the arena, the mage actually dared to stand still without dodging, relying on his avatar to try and take the hits head-on. That's how brave he was.

But once their avatars break, they go from being extremely brave to extremely timid, becoming hesitant and fearful, completely different from their lower-level state, where most of the lower-level apostles truly fight using their brains.

Li Xia's brows furrowed more and more. Those who could achieve this level in the Seeking Light World must be the Eight Greats, and it's very likely that all eight of them were involved. There's really nothing more to say about that.

The 'breeding' and 'slaughtering' that drove the Pale King to his demise had no psychological burden on the apostles.

The Apostles are like the Trisolarans; to them, the inhabitants of the Hive Kingdom are truly just 'insects'.

Forget about them mass-producing 'Pale Spirits' by catching insects; even if they actually destroyed the insects, these apostles would only coldly remark: 'What does destroying you have to do with you?'

But what Li Xia cared about even more was that to accomplish something like this, such as removing the part about the Void Abyss from the information given to the Hall of Light from the Tree of Origin, there must have been agents behind them doing it.

So the question is—why would someone act as a proxy to do such a thing?

While selling 'Dawn' at the fourth tier is a lucrative business, allowing one to amass a large number of Hall Points, the market size at the fourth tier is limited, relying solely on fourth-tier apostles who have advanced to the next tier to purchase it.

Or perhaps it's about upgrading and changing the avatar; with such a small pie, how much can you possibly divide?
Even if you spend hundreds of millions on a temple, is it useful to act as a proxy?

Absolutely not!

Just like the platform for reserve officers to communicate, the hunters above the ninth rank provide intelligence to the fifth-ranked Blackfire who is about to advance. Is there a regular currency unit for the transactions between the two parties?
They used divine power crystals!
In other words, the Hall Points have no trading value in the eyes of these high-ranking apostles, let alone their proxy status.

unless----

"Boss, there are a lot of secrets in this world. Could it be related to the schemes of those agents?"

In the team chat, Awoo whispered:
"The input and output are completely disproportionate, unless there are things involved that the agent cares about?"

"Yes, that's what I think too, there's a problem."

Li Xia nodded. Since it involves the agents, it's best not to touch it for now, since the agents of the Hall of Light are really bad!

"Let's put that aside for now and focus on completing the mission."

Li Xia stood up and brought up the task panel.

[Executioner, you have obtained 'Tears of Regret']

The third round of main quests has been completed.

[Main quest being updated.]

[Main quest has been updated!]

[Final Main Quest: The Primal Light]

Mission objective: Proceed to the summit of the white mountain and complete the ritual (please refer to the instructions for the ritual yourself).

Task rewards: Distributed based on completion rate
Task Difficulty: SS-SSS
Task period: 10 days

Mission failure penalty: Dawn of Dawn (Orange) *1 — Dawn of Dawn (Orange Ultimate) *1
The faint light of dawn? Or is it predominantly orange?
Li Xia and the three little ones stared intently at this unprecedented penalty for failing the mission.

This shows what?
This means that even if you fail the mission, as long as you survive, the Temple of Light believes you should be rewarded.

So just how difficult is this task?
"This this."

Awoo swallowed hard, his dragon whiskers almost trembling.
"We didn't even get this kind of treatment when we fought the Old Gods, did we? Is this quest even harder than fighting the Old Gods?"

Black Charcoal stared wide-eyed, his gaze lingering on the SSS-rank difficulty; even the Old Gods were at this level of difficulty.

This means that there is no hope of completing the task; if it were completed, there must have been external factors at play.

Just like fighting the Old Gods, without the Star Gods, the Stone Golems, and the Seven Arcane Arts of Demon Prison Star, Li Xia definitely wouldn't have been able to defeat the Old Gods.

"No, that's not how it's calculated."

Li Xia shook his head and pointed to the SSS rating above, saying:

"The SSS+ we face in the Ascension Battle refers to the incarnation of the Old Gods. The mission given to us by the Temple of Light is also the incarnation of the Old Gods. I guess in His calculations, if I help Collins kill the Divine Heir first, and then gather all the remaining forces of the Church of Nature, the Church of Burning Heart, and the Church of Divine Prophecy, it is possible to defeat the incarnation of the Old Gods."

After all, the only requirement is to kill an avatar of an ancient god once. Killing an ancient god already exceeds the limits of what difficulty can be described, which is why the reward is so generous.

The rewards for killing the Old Gods were so generous that Li Xia reached the peak immediately upon entering the fourth tier, and his demigod body was universally applicable to the ninth tier. Even if the opponent at the ninth tier did not possess divinity, they could only inflict half the damage on him.

Not to mention the high-quality communication platform and corresponding privileges enjoyed by reserve officers.

"Therefore, from the perspective of the Hall, this should be about the same difficulty as the Incarnation of the Old Gods, or slightly easier. But this reward..."

Li Xia looked at the extremely generous reward for failure and fell into deep thought.

"Meow?"

Black Charcoal suddenly called out softly and offered his idea.

Li Xia and Xiao Long's eyes lit up immediately, and they felt a sudden sense of enlightenment:
"Yes, that makes sense!"

"Yes, that should be it!"

The kitten put it simply: this is a test, not a task that must be completed. And Shenguang had also mentioned 'going to the Tree of Origin to undergo a test,' meaning that the advancement battle is something that must be experienced, but the test is not mandatory.

That's why there are situations where people receive a reward even if they fail the test but survive.

But this also shows that the mortality rate of this test was extremely high!
Interesting. Li Xia was genuinely intrigued by this challenge. He took out a special map and searched for the location of the white mountain peak.

Surprisingly, it wasn't far from where they had arrived, meaning they still needed to travel to the border.

Li Xia closed the map, just in time.
He also wanted to talk to old Oss.

It is lamentable that even though the Pale King is completely dead, the insects are still not awake; they are utterly dead.

The entire Zergling Kingdom was almost completely wiped out. Even though the plague in the dream had disappeared, it would probably be a very long time before this land became lively again.

The Pale King easily achieved the goal of destroying the entire nation, but the Apostles' work is probably still ongoing, because Dawn is still available on the market, perhaps as stock, or perhaps they have found a substitute for the insects.

This is unknown to most people.

The railcar trembled slightly as it traveled along the tracks into the darkness. The little knight lowered his head and sat obediently in the chair.

It entered this state after killing the Pale King.

The little knight was somewhat bewildered, because according to the voice in its mind, its mission was to defeat the Pale King and seal the Pale King's consciousness within its own body until the next little knight appeared to take its place, thus freeing it from this pain.

It is a container, it is the Hollow Knight.

That's what the voice in my head said.

But what happened next was not like that. His 'comrades' easily annihilated the Pale King, leaving not even a trace of his life.

Its mission ended without warning, leaving the little knight feeling lost and confused.

What should I do next?
Should we continue wandering the wasteland?

Can.
The little knight lowered his head, but his empty eye sockets were filled with images of his previous trip with the three little ones.

It didn't want to be a wanderer anymore; it wanted companions.

Unbeknownst to the little knight, the three little ones were also chattering away at that moment:

"We're leaving, won't the little knight be left here alone? I quite like this little guy."

Sighing, there weren't many people that Grandpa Dragon could like. The Star God and His Stone Clan were one, the Holy King was another, and that was it.

"Meow"

Black Charcoal nodded. It really liked this little knight who could communicate with it without any problems. Before this, there weren't many knights that could understand its meows.

Xiaotian tilted its head and stuck out its tongue. It just wanted a TV watcher because its older brothers didn't like watching TV with it, saying that the Paw Patrol was too stupid.

"Taking the little knight away will be a bit difficult—"

Li Xia pondered for a moment, mainly because the little knight's abilities were very strong, and the shadows he summoned were also bug-level skills.

However, the problem is that bringing a follower back from the original world is not so simple. Just like when Li Xia brought back Kuroko, it was in exchange for the 'contribution' of Monster Hunters. This was still a derivative world, and Kuroko, as a Palico, is not an important character in Monster Hunter.

The little knight is different; he's a thief!

It is the place where the destiny of a world is concentrated. Trying to take it away is like trying to take away the egg of the Seeking Light world. No wonder no one would agree to that.

There are only two methods.

Li Xia looked at the little knight and slowly said:
"First, like Collins, we will designate Little Knight as a special field agent. From now on, Little Knight will probably have to travel to various worlds, and this loneliness will be even greater than it is now."

The apostles' loneliness far exceeded what normal people could imagine. The feeling of being a traveler, wandering between different worlds, unable to stay or rest, and forever on a journey, was as deep as the sea.

Therefore, the apostles either band together for warmth and establish anchor bonds with their kind, or they wrap themselves in indifference and avoid any emotional connection with the people in the world.

Everything in the world is a passerby, a fuel to fill one's own furnace. In order to become stronger and reach the end, one can be ruthless and heartless, burying all living beings.

The apostles' madness is not an isolated case, but rather something that will happen over time; only by remaining as solid as wood or stone can one endure.

Li Xia follows a path of experiential learning that few others take. He refuses to use the world as fuel, nor does he want to use indifference as armor.

What he wanted was not something as enduring as wood or stone, but rather to treat what he saw as scenery along his journey, so that when he reached the end, it would naturally be a long, beautiful painting.

The journey never ends.

“That definitely won’t work. This little guy is already lonely enough. It’s better for him to continue wandering this world.”

Aowu shook his head. The three little ones didn't care much. As long as they were with their leader, that was home. As long as they could walk together, that was enough.

"Yes, so there is a second method."

Li Xia glanced at the world and said hesitantly:
"Similar to the Black Star, once divine power accumulates to a certain level, it can strengthen itself and enhance its divinity. With higher divinity, it can designate more familiars."

Hmm? That's a good idea. Insects have a habit of building statues for worship, so replacing the Pale King with Li Xia wouldn't be a bad idea, especially since the Insect Hive Kingdom has just been destroyed.

Letting newly born insects become your kin is like starting a blank canvas from scratch, which is good and avoids creating conflicts of belief.

More importantly, insects can reproduce! The number of stone men is very small; they can't possibly be as prolific as insects!

With a larger quantity, the speed at which divine power accumulates will naturally increase, even significantly.

"There is only one key issue: this world—the world of the Primal Tree—should be quite important, and the Temple of Light or the Primal Tree may not allow this to happen."

Li Xia was also considering this issue. The key was the source of the Apostle's important incarnation. However, he had only designated the clan and had not specified this planet, so it should be fine.
"Forget it, let's put this issue aside for now and deal with it later."

Li Xia stood up and stretched his body. The shaking of the track car gradually stopped, and its speed also decreased.

Familiar buildings came into view, and under the dim lights, nothing seemed to have changed.

This is a forgotten crossroads, not far from the border.

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1. Monthly pass 2. Recommendation vote

(End of this chapter)