Su Xiao stood on a huge rock by the coast. The sun was setting, and seawater crashed against the rock, sending spray high into the air.
After Katakuri led his people away, Su Xiao fulfilled the requirements for the third stage of the Promotion/Main Quest and successfully activated the fourth stage—the final stage of the Promotion/Main Quest. Once he completed this quest, he would be promoted to a Tier Four Hunter.
Promotion to a higher tier would not directly increase his strength, but it would allow him to enter higher-tier worlds. The higher a world's difficulty, the more generous the rewards. That was the difference between a Tier Four Contractor and a Tier Three Contractor.
Under normal circumstances, after being promoted to Tier Four, Contractors only needed to experience two or three Derivative Worlds before they could easily crush Tier Three Contractors. However, there were exceptions. For example, Su Xiao was currently the strongest Tier Three Contractor. After those Contractors advanced to Tier Four, they might still be hung up and beaten by Su Xiao even after experiencing five or six worlds. That was the difference in accumulated strength.
Su Xiao absolutely had nothing to fear from average Tier Four Contractors. If they were above average, however, they would be somewhat difficult to deal with. As for the peak Tier Four Contractors, Su Xiao was not their match for the time being.
That was precisely why Su Xiao had never considered engaging Tier Five Contractors like Kutu in a direct confrontation. There was also something that puzzled him greatly. Based on his estimates, Tier Five Contractors should not have been inferior to Big Mom and Kaido. Why had they not taken the opportunity to kill Big Mom and the others?
If Kutu and the others had killed Big Mom earlier,