Chapter 247 Kin and the Spirit of Water (6600, Part 1)

The Immortal Dragon Scale can indeed block the internal elemental imbalance caused by elemental stagnation. To put it simply, it's wasteland environment resistance +90% and wasteland habitability +60%.

After Su Zhou confirmed this through multiple practical tests, he informed the professionals of Nesser City.

"This is a reagent extracted from my blood, produced by the Ferranel Alchemy Workshop. It's very crude, but after injecting it, your skin can enter the 'dragon scale state' for a short time. Choose a few brave people who aren't afraid of death, inject this reagent and see if it can block elemental stagnation."

In the square, after the residents of Nesser City gradually emerged from the shelters and began to repair their homes with the help of local professionals, Su Zhou summoned some of the leading professionals who had finished their work.

The huge wingless dragon pointed its claw at the table, which was about the size of its palm. On the table was a bottle of cyan-purple potion that emitted a hazy, starlight-like glow.

Pointing to the potion, Su Zhou said solemnly to everyone: "I want to state in advance that I myself don't know what effect this potion will have on humans. However, the magical beasts caught in the maze didn't die after eating it, and it did indeed increase their elemental resistance."

The 'Immortal Dragon Scale Potion' was a special potion created by the alchemists in Nesser City using Su Zhou's blood, imitating magical drugs like Dragon Force Potion and Bull Strength Potion, which are made using materials from extraordinary creatures.

In theory, by using the method of injecting through blood vessels, absorbing this refined essence of Su Zhou's dragon blood, one can obtain some of the characteristics of Su Zhou's true form in a short time, acquiring affinity for the four attributes of wind, lightning, fire, and water. Of course, the most important thing is the resistance of the dragon scale state.

For Su Zhou, who weighed three or four thousand tons, the blood in his body was truly like water. One drop of blood could create thousands of potions. Moreover, Nesser City's city inventory was open to him. He could eat as much as he wanted. If that wasn't enough, he could hunt magical beasts in the maze. That would always be enough for him to eat, and it wouldn't be considered that the people of Nesser City were getting his blood for free.

Su Zhou's prestige in this city was such that he could call a stag a horse without fear of contradiction. The professionals gathered in the square looked at each other. They could all understand the importance of this matter, and there was no need to repeat to them how significant it was to be able to resist elemental stagnation. They also understood why Su Zhou had approached them—ordinary people were not transcendents and could not sense how obvious elemental resistance was in detail.

And this 'Dragon Scale Potion'... if it really had the effects that Su Zhou said it did, then for the residents of Nesser City who had now lost the protection of the elemental array, it was undoubtedly as important as life itself—the professionals were fine, they could survive in the outside world for a long time with their strength, but ordinary people simply couldn't adapt to the current apocalyptic environment. Only a day had passed, and some people had already shown signs of internal elemental imbalance.

"I'll go first."

The speaker was a city guard, who stepped forward.

This city guard was a middle-aged man in his forties. He was one of the members who was observing the situation on the city wall when the flood came. He had personally witnessed how Su Zhou had blocked the waves, and then how he had fought the Water God. His trust in Su Zhou was now almost fanatical.

The city guard first saluted Su Zhou, then unhesitatingly picked up the potion and, under the guidance of a nearby potion master, used a needle to inject it into his blood vessels.

"Ugh..."

In the first few seconds, the city guard did not have any abnormal reactions. Cyan-purple light patterns spread along the blood vessels from the place where the needle was inserted, spreading throughout his body.

To this, he only grunted, indicating that his whole body was heating up. The potion had an unusual stimulating sensation and heat, as if he had been smeared with chili water.

But soon, his face suddenly turned pale, and he lay on the ground, groaning in pain.

"It hurts! It itches! Ahhh—"

This city guard was not someone who had never experienced battle. He often went to the maze with adventurers to explore, and had even had his chest cut open by magical beasts. He was the kind of person who was very tolerant of pain. But he still couldn't stop scratching his whole body, even tearing off his flesh: "Something, something is crawling in my flesh... ahhh!!!"

The surrounding professionals rushed forward and held down the city guard who was frantically tearing at his flesh, preventing him from continuing to hurt himself.

And Su Zhou's eyes also dimmed, and he sighed softly, preparing to help the other party. He wasn't going to sit idly by and watch someone die in front of him. However, if the potion failed, then who knew how to succeed? This potion was already the most theoretically perfect type. If he wanted to optimize it further, he would need a lot of actual data.

But soon, the city guard stopped struggling—everyone thought he was dead, because there were no longer any spiritual power fluctuations coming from his body.

Even Su Zhou subconsciously thought that this person was dead, but soon, a faint voice came: "Don't press me, don't press me, I feel much better..."

This immediately made all the people who had been holding him down retreat in unison, their faces showing horror at seeing a dead person speaking... and the city guard who stood up at this time also no longer had obvious spiritual power fluctuations on his body, or rather, they were very weak, like the sound of someone speaking through a soundproof wall.

It could be seen that a layer of fine gray-white scales had emerged on his body, and the flesh that he had torn open himself had also been regenerated.

The city guard looked in surprise at his hand, which had grown scales. He concentrated and felt the magic power in his body and the elements outside... then, he shouted loudly in surprise: "It really is! It's isolated!"

"No, it's not isolated, but it has almost no effect! The elemental stagnation outside has almost no effect on me!"

He laughed heartily, stroking the dragon scales on his body back and forth, his excitement beyond words. The eyes of all the professionals who had been watching before also returned to brightness, and the faces of the alchemists and potion masters who had been working overtime to produce the potion next to Su Zhou also regained their glory, their joy unable to be suppressed.

Su Zhou also nodded slightly. Pain was not a big problem, effectiveness was the most important thing—in this era, there was no leeway to make deworming medicine taste very good, like on Earth.

The duration of the potion's effect was one hour. After one hour, the power contained in the potion dissipated, the dragon scales on the city guard's body gradually disappeared, and the flesh that he had torn open himself had also healed—it seemed that this potion also had some regenerative effects.

However, according to the city guard himself, he felt that the effects of the potion had not completely receded, and there was still a little bit of power remaining in his body, which had increased his resistance to elemental stagnation a lot.

This brave soldier applied for another bottle of potion, and after enduring the difficult potion activation time and waiting for the scales to dissipate again, the power remaining in his body did not increase.

"In other words, it's only effective the first time it's injected, right?"

Su Zhou wasn't surprised. Many magic potions were like this. Drinking it for the first time would bring a certain degree of permanent attribute increase, but drinking it a second time would not. And the permanent effect of the Dragon Scale Potion seemed to be a certain elemental stabilization ability, which could increase resistance to elementally stagnant environments.

Even a little bit was precious enough to turn an environment where ordinary people 'would die' into one where they only felt 'uncomfortable'.

"In that case, I can also start the second step of my plan."

Seeing that the potion was taking effect, Su Zhou immediately prepared to strike while the iron was hot and pass down the related Imitation Dao cultivation method in Nesser City.

Of course, not something too complicated like the Dragon Transformation Art, nor something with too much freedom like the Spore Art, which ordinary people would learn and find useless. What Su Zhou planned to pass down was the most ordinary 'Immortal Dragon Scale' cultivation method—having only one scale wouldn't make the difficulty too high. Moreover, if there was a potion to introduce them, letting them personally experience the feeling of dragon scales once, cultivation would not be difficult at all.

Even ordinary people, after cultivating for a few years, would probably have a permanent Immortal Dragon Scale effect.

And this was also the method Su Zhou had been thinking about to help ordinary people in the Tartarus world. After all, he might not be able to find the Avatar of the Lonely Lord, and stopping the end of the Era would probably be beyond the ability of someone who had just advanced to Commander. And after that, he would have to go find the traces of the Wind God, and he probably wouldn't have much time to stay here.

It's better to teach a man to fish than to give him fish. Distributing Dragon Scale Potions was only temporary. The Imitation Dao cultivation method was what Su Zhou wanted to popularize.

Just as Su Zhou was directly in the square, beginning to pass down the Imitation Dao cultivation method to the representatives of the professionals present, Yala chuckled in his soul space: "You guy, you're actually starting to create kin at the Commander level."

"Although it's still very basic, very simple, strictly speaking, it's not really kin, but it's really no different from creating kin."

"Kin?" Su Zhou asked back in confusion in his heart: "Me?"

"Yes, a race with you as the apex of the ecological niche."

Yala didn't mind answering Su Zhou's doubts in this regard. He talked eloquently: "To give you an example—humans are the kin of the sun. The vast majority of life on Earth is the kin of the sun."

"Why do flowers and plants have branches and leaves? Why do rivers flow? Why do most fish live in shallow seas? What is the original source of the energy of human activities? Everything is the glory of the sun. The sun's light and heat created your Earth's ecosystem, allowing all things to grow."

Most natural life is the kin of stars. Of course, the multiverse is full of wonders, and there are always many exceptions, but both Su Zhou and Yala are very clear that exceptions cannot be used as examples.

And the kin that Yala was talking about was essentially life that was dependent on a powerful existence—that powerful existence was the ultimate goal of the kin. The entire ecosystem existed because of that powerful existence. All things existed by borrowing Their power, and all living beings were born because of Their power.

And this realm, in the Universal Seventh Order, had a very clear name, and was also the highest level in the Universal Seventh Order.

Its name was the 'Creator' realm.

"Generally speaking, only when you reach the Creator realm can you have kin. At that time, even if you unintentionally leave a little power, that power will give birth to a race, and you will be the origin of that race."

Yala laughed when he said this, as if he had thought of something happy: "Observing them is a very interesting thing... I'm getting off topic. Su Zhou, your current actions are actually deliberately creating a race related to you."

"Although these Earth People do not take you as the source of everything, if they lose your blood, then they will lose their ability to resist the outside world. Your existence is the foundation of their lives—in this respect, they meet the definition of kin."

"Hey." After hearing this, Su Zhou thought of the Banyan Undying Tree, as well as the Wood Centipede and a series of creatures that depended on the God Tree, and immediately understood the relationship. He just smiled: "I thought it was something, anyway, it's not a beneficial thing, just think of it as me helping others for fun."

——But it's very cool, it sounds very impressive. He thought secretly.

But Yala shook his head: "No benefits? If there were really no benefits, then why would almost all powerful beings have kin... You will understand."

At this time, in the square, Su Zhou was teaching the representatives of the professionals, but the entire square was not only filled with professionals, but also many ordinary people.

It wasn't that Su Zhou didn't want to teach ordinary people, but that he didn't have that much time and energy to teach the entire city of millions of people the Imitation Dao cultivation method. So he first taught some transcendents, and then let these transcendent representatives teach their friends and disciples, and then teach the other civilians. Therefore, if there were ordinary people with relevant transcendent knowledge who could understand the teaching and wanted to learn, he would not refuse them.

However, most of the residents of Nesser City did not come to learn, but to worship from afar the broken remains of a long knife placed on a stone tablet in the center of the square.

The remains of the Nirvana Blade were picked up by Su Zhou, but after losing the lightning strike wood and the Buddhist relic handle, this divine sword lost part of its power and only had the metal blade left. And Su Zhou's feelings for the Nirvana Blade were not just to regard it as a weapon, but as a witness to the adventure in the God Tree World, so he did not discard it, but seriously found a place to place it outdoors.

The reason why it was placed outdoors was because Su Zhou vaguely felt that this long knife, which was soaked in the blood and flesh of the Water God and had also damaged His crown crystal, was not completely damaged. This was originally a powerful weapon forged with the method of 'Qi Forging Divine Weapon', and had its own method of connecting with the world.

Moreover, now it seemed that a wonderful change had occurred.

Around the Nirvana Blade now, there were always layers of mist lingering, and then a fiery power would turn it into high-temperature steam.

Because of this phenomenon, coupled with the fact that the residents of Nesser City had also learned from Su Zhou's words that this knife was the key to killing the Water God, some people came to worship this divine knife day and night, which was also a way to increase the city's cohesion.

In this way, several days passed, and after the professionals of Nesser City began to spread the Imitation Dao cultivation method throughout the city and issue the Dragon Scale Potion in order.

Elias, woke up.

When Su Zhou, who had received the news, arrived at the Alchemy Workshop, the young Grand Duke was lying in bed, looking at the scales on his body with great interest.

His hair was snow-white, and his gray pupils faintly showed signs of vertical pupils. Compared with the ordinary blue-haired human teenager before, he already had some of the temperament of a different species, and all of this was due to the influence of Su Zhou's blood.

At this time, Elias was poking at the gray-white Immortal Scale with his fingers, and manipulating some Water Ball magic to attack himself—and this level of magic naturally could not break through the defense of the Dragon Scale. They were converted into spiritual power of other attributes, counteracting each other.

"Be careful."

Squatting outside the window, even so, Su Zhou, who could only look down at the Alchemy Workshop, said: "This thing will explode, and it hurts when it explodes."

"Ah, it's Mr. Su Zhou!"

Relying solely on his aura, Elias, who was startled, quickly understood that the huge wingless dragon outside the window was Su Zhou. He wanted to get out of bed to salute, but because Su Zhou was too huge, for a time, this little Grand Duke didn't know what to do and became entangled.

And just as Elias was tangled, Su Zhou shook his head, stopping the other party: "Now that Elias you have woken up, it's almost time to fulfill your responsibilities and continue to manage this city—I have done everything I can do. Next, it all depends on your follow-up handling, whether you can lead them to continue to survive in this apocalypse."

The meaning in Su Zhou's words was very clear, and it immediately made Elias, who had been somewhat happy to see Su Zhou, feel a little down: "Are you leaving?"

"Yes, I'm going to find the truth behind this world, the Era Reincarnation, and the traces of the Wind God."

Su Zhou nodded. On his huge dragon head, a 'serious' expression could be clearly seen: "But now is not the time to really say goodbye—before that, I will first go to the bottom of the Nesser Maze to take a look. This time, I think I can find the Water God Temple. After I leave the information I have gathered from the Water God Temple to you, I will set off and leave."

"Of course, I will often come back to see you. After all, if I really can't find the truth about reincarnation, then with the Immortal Dragon Scale, you may be able to survive the huge conversion of the Era Transition and live to the second Era."

Obviously, among the believers of the Water God, there was a part that had survived from the previous Era by transforming their form. The Thousand Lake Country was obviously the remnants of the power of the Water Era in the past, and the mermaids and mermen living there were a remnant of the Water People.

Of course, they did not transform their form, but survived because of the medium of water. The Earth People were not so lucky. Although they lived on the earth, they could not survive the Era Transition by burying themselves in the earth.

"...I will do it well."

To Su Zhou's words, Elias was silent for a moment. He nodded slightly and said firmly: "Protecting the people of Nesser City is my responsibility!"

"The people in your world all have a good sense of responsibility... That's right, if there wasn't this sense of responsibility, the shelter cities wouldn't have been able to exist for thousands of years in the apocalypse."

After sighing with emotion, Su Zhou bid farewell to Elias and went to the maze.

In the beginning, some adventurers and civilians had hid in the maze, but the Water God stirred up the water of the Three Lakes and poured it into the maze to search for the location of his temple... Their endings were naturally not very good. Most of them drowned in the raging flood, and the surviving part suffered from severe hydrophobia and were now recuperating in the city.

Just a light sentence, and it was nearly ten thousand lives again. Thinking of this, Su Zhou sped up his actions, and the huge wingless dragon broke through the atmosphere and moved at subsonic speed.

Advancing to the Commander level and transforming into his true form, Su Zhou's physical strength was more than a thousand times stronger than before. However, moving at supersonic speed was too physically demanding. After all, his strength had become greater, and his body and mass had also become greater. The Great Circulation Azure Armor could not possibly drive a behemoth weighing several thousand tons to fly at supersonic speed like a rocket. Subsonic cruise movement was already the limit in this form.

But even so, it was already very terrifying. In this form, almost no missile could accurately lock onto Su Zhou, and before the other party hit him, Su Zhou would have already run out of the blast range—and ordinary large-scale artillery coverage was not an attack worth mentioning for Su Zhou's dragon scales. In contrast, one breath from him could destroy a skyscraper. If it was a full-force breath like when he was facing the Water God, it could even flatten a small town if it swept across.

Apart from nuclear bombing, there was already nothing on Earth that could kill Su Zhou in his current form. This was indeed worthy of the title of Commander in Tartarus, the 'near-divine power'.

Su Zhou skillfully went deep into the maze, and on the way, he took out the Water God's remnant soul.

This was something that looked very gorgeous and dreamlike, so beautiful that it didn't seem like something that could appear in reality. It could be completely called a work of art. One half of it was as dark as the dim sea in the deep night, and the other half was as bright as the bright waves under the sun. The sea of light and the tide of dark night alternated in reincarnation.

Su Zhou silently stared at this remnant soul, and then he began to think about how he should use the spoils left by this powerful enemy.

"Ocean Current Heart, is the power to control water. An enchanted weapon, any attack will add a lot of water element damage, which will cause many negative statuses such as 'suffocation' 'slowdown' 'ice condensation' and 'loss of water element control'—but this enchantment, I don't need it, it repeats with my own water control ability, and I don't have any weapons to use right now."

"'Nine Seas · Torrent Scepter', this soul weapon, represents the Water God's power to control the power of water. Holding this scepter in the sea, you can use rituals to stir up huge destructive waves, create torrential rain hurricanes covering the surrounding heaven and earth, and even form huge whirlpools large enough to swallow aircraft carrier fleets—placed on Earth, this is considered a strategic weather weapon, but this thing is a bit subtle..."

"And the inheritance of the Water God's power is probably the Water God's self-cultivation method... um, although I'm very tempted, I already have the Minghong Dragon Transformation Art, both are water attributes, and the Water God's cultivation method may not take human form into account like the Minghong Dragon Transformation Art... Let's not talk about the fact that I think the Heavenly Pool Dragon King is stronger than the Water God in a complete state, and this thing is obviously not a very common cultivation method."

Su Zhou looked around and found that, on the contrary, directly swallowing it could greatly increase his water-based spiritual power affinity, as well as the effect of 'water assistance', which was more in line with his interests: "I already have the Minghong Dragon Transformation Art, which can control the weather, water assistance can help me speed up the cultivation of this method. In the middle and late stages, it can completely replace these enchantments, soul weapons and inheritance, and the benefits are greater."

As for the early stage, to be honest, it really can't compare. It's normal for the late-stage boss to be carried by the support who throws skills in the early stage.

However, right now, what Su Zhou needed to be most wary of was the battle with the Wind God, and the possible Lonely Lord's avatar. Whether he was dealing with anyone, controlling water flow was obviously useless. This world wasn't full of lakes and oceans everywhere. Only a few shelter cities like Nesser City were surrounded by three lakes.

Once he made a choice, he didn't hesitate. Su Zhou directly threw it into his mouth, and his huge dragon mouth closed, his sharp teeth rubbing.

Gulp, swallowed into his stomach.

The taste of the Water God's remnant soul was like iced soda in summer. He couldn't say exactly what it tasted like, it was just purely cold, refreshing, and there was a burst of stinging stimulation. If he had to describe it, it was a bit like iced ginger ale. It turned into pure and refined spiritual power, seeping into Su Zhou's whole body, greatly improving Su Zhou's talent in all water attributes.

Incidentally, Su Zhou also ate the remnant souls of the other Water God believers before—compared to the taste of the Water God's remnant soul, the taste of these remnant souls was a bit boring, feeling a bit like bland soda water.

At this time, Su Zhou had already arrived at the seventh level of the maze.

There is a part 2, ask for a monthly ticket at the end of the month~