Chapter 49 - 49

Chapter 1078: Great Xia's Scheme, Topsoil Spirit Exits (3)

At the same time.

Heavenly Hunt Pavilion's Grandstar branch.

Su Yu, who had entered the branch before the divine and devil experts had even arrived, was in the middle of reading when he raised his head and look in a certain direction. His mouth curled into a smile.

Topsoil Spirit was out.

What a lucky guy.

When the Invincibles were fighting and numerous ancient buildings were destroyed, his building survived.

When a slaughter was carried out in the city, he survived.

When the other geniuses were suffering from death qi erosion, thanks to his sealed state, he survived.

Was this guy really going to grow into the master of five elements in the future? But with how weak this guy was, that would probably take a very long time. Su Yu felt like Topsoil Spirit's luck was better than even the likes of Mo Duona.

"You're lucky I'm trying to hide my identity. Otherwise, I would have allowed you to learn about how evil one could be."

How was he going to do that? Naturally, he could break into the building and wait beside that slab of concrete. Topsoil Spirit would naturally learn how evil one could be when the first person he saw after coming out was Su Yu.

Behind the white mask, Su Yu smiled in amusement. So be it. He wasn't too bothered. He had just completed his fiftieth body forging not long ago. He started wondering if anyone on the index could still be his match.

Could Mo Duona still be his match? What about Zhan Wushuang and Xuan Wuji?

Those two were eighth-stage Mountainseas. Perhaps they would reach the ninth stage soon. But they probably wouldn't be stronger in combat than first or second-stage Sunmoons.

As for Su Yu? His physical strength had surpassed 210,000 acupoints. It was very likely that he could defeat them after consuming a drop of blood essence. These people were still existences who had defeated Sunmoons before. Thus, he still needed to consume blood essence to defeat them.

When fighting against these top geniuses, one should always try to finish them off in one fell swoop. Dragging the fight out was not a good idea as each top genius was someone with countless trump cards.

Any one of them could very well be someone with Invincible talismans in possession. Or they might have some other powerful trump cards.

"For now, I need to complete my seventy-two body forgings. I'll need to stay low until then."

Thus, he withdrew his attention. His body forging was his current priority. Since he wasn't actually hiding in the mayor's residence, he was naturally still free to move around. He could take this chance to observe the situation. If he discovered someone worth killing, he wouldn't mind sealing the city again.

This ancient city had basically turned into his personal fishing pond. And he wouldn't act unless it was a big fish.

***

Meanwhile, Topsoil Spirit was completely oblivious to what Su Yu was thinking. He walked toward the door joyfully. But when he reached it, he hesitated. Were there any dangers outside? It should be safe, right?

In truth, someone was waiting outside for him. The five elemental race would not give up on him. Upon hearing the sounds of movement inside the building, the expert outside spoke, "Topsoil Spirit, is that you?"

This Sunmoon had arrived right after the city gates reopened. He knew it was dangerous, but he still took the risk of coming. Fortunately, things had been quiet for the past few days.

Inside, Topsoil Spirit blanked out slightly before answering, "Elder Red Soil?"

"It's me."

Red Soil was overjoyed. It was really Topsoil Spirit!

But Topsoil Spirit was still feeling suspicious. Previously, Su Yu had tricked him by pretending to be Tianduo. Thus, he asked, "Elder Red Soil, how's your grandson, Clod Soil?"

"..."

Red Soil was left somewhat speechless. He answered, "I have no grandson. Topsoil Spirit, it's me. Red Soil. I'm not the bad guy."

After thinking about it, Topsoil Spirit said, "Elder Red Soil, when did we first meet?"

Red Soil was rendered speechless yet again. But for some reason, this scene felt so familiar. Wait...wasn't this the same thing Su Yu did to verify Niu Baidao's identity not long ago?

He did that by asking question after question. Why were all these geniuses so suspicious?

Su Yu was like that, and even Topsoil Spirit was like that as well. It was as though they were paranoid of disguises.

"When you were born."

"When was our second meeting?"

"The day after you were born."

"When was our third meeting?"

"Shut your fucking mouth. I took care of you until you reached the Skysoar Realm. Before that, we met every single day."

"..."

Finally, Topsoil Spirit was slightly convinced that this was really his elder. Probably.

While he was thinking, Red Soil furiously said, "When you were little, a girl from the water elemental race peed on you and almost washed your entire body apart. Is this enough?"

"..."

It was Topsoil Spirit's to be rendered speechless. He already decided to trust this elder. Why did the elder mention that? He hurriedly opened the door.

Seeing that it was really Elder Red Soil, the overjoyed Topsoil Spirit turned into his elemental form and said, "Elder! You're finally here!"

He looked around and lamented, "I have to admit the fresh air out here feels much better. Wow, these ancient cities sure are safe. It has already been a month, but nothing seems to have changed..."

Sure enough, these ancient cities were reliable safe-havens. Look at how everything was still the same.

Then, Topsoil Spirit asked, "Elder, is Su Yu gone or dead? Or is he in the middle of running from his enemies?"

Red Soil answered with an odd expression, "Nope. He's right inside this city."

"Hmm?" Topsoil Spirit was surprised, "He's not dead?"

"Yes."

"In that case, why isn't anyone hunting him down? Why is the city so calm?"

"He's trapped."

"Oh. Good to hear." Topsoil Spirit exhaled in relief and asked, "Where? Maybe I should go and watch the show. That fellow kept me sealed for a month! I won't let this be!"

Since that fellow was trapped, there was nothing to fear.

"Mayor's residence."

"Mayor's residence?"

Topsoil Spirit blanked out.

"Yes. He's the new mayor. The dark devil dragon died. He took over the position."

"..."

Complete stupefaction.

What the hell was happening?

The ninth-stage Sunmoon dark devil dragon died, replaced by the Cloudbreach Su Yu? So he was standing on that fellow's turf all this while?

"How is that possible? He's only a Cloudbreach. How can he become the mayor?"

The elder said, "Of course that's possible. He got the previous mayor killed, sealed the city, and killed the Sunmoon trying to snatch the mayorship. After doing all that, he naturally became the mayor."

How simple.

Anyone could become a mayor by doing the same thing.

One only needed to kill the existing mayor, seal the city, and kill the competitor. After that, one only had to survive refining the medallion. Then, one could become the mayor.

"This...wait...he became a resident?"

Suddenly, Topsoil Spirit thought of something. His expression changed yet again.

Red Soil nodded, "Yeap. A lot happened during the time you were sealed away. For your sake, the grand elder came once and lost his future body. He is now far weaker than before..."

Shock covered Topsoil Spirit's face.

The grand elder was here before?

"Yes. The Invincibles of many races were here. A battle between dozens of Invincibles broke out not long ago. All to kill Su Yu. But instead, multiple Invincibles lost their tri-life bodies. Read complete versıon only at N0velFire.ɴet

"Even after that, Mo Duona and the others remained trapped. Zhan Wushuang, Xuan Wuji, and all these geniuses were locked in the city with a bunch of late-stage Sunmoons. All of them nearly died because of Su Yu. Two of our late-stage Sunmoons were here as well. Ultimately, we were forced to pay five thousand strands of heavenearth profound light as the ransom for their freedom.

"Oh, there's more. Before that, Su Yu disguised himself as Tianduo and scammed 2,300 strands of heavenearth profound light from the divines. That was the start of this whole incident..."

Red Soil asked, "Did you find out about his disguise? Was that why he trapped you?"

Topsoil Spirit's mouth was wide agape for a very long while before he could speak, "Yeah. When he came after me, he was already disguised as Tianduo. What was that again? He scammed the divines? Are they dumb?"

"Shhh! Watch your mouth!" Noticing Topsoil Spirit's shock, the elder said, "He fooled all of us. He organized an auction. He even faked a battle with you. There was no fight between you and him under the Sea of Stars, right? During that fake battle, a fake ancient spatial pocket appeared."

"No." Topsoil Spirit said, "How was I supposed to fight him if I was sealed? Our people should know that I was already sealed, right?"

Wow. They sure were dumb if they fell for Su Yu's lies so easily.

Red Soil shook his head, "No. The fake battle happened before you were sealed."

The fake battle had happened when Topsoil Spirit was hiding inside an ancient city.

Topsoil Spirit was quite speechless. He said, "That guy sure is brazen."

If he had left at the time, wouldn't Su Yu's lies be exposed immediately? No wonder Su Yu was so determined to kill him. So that was why. The more Topsoil Spirit learned from the elder, the more shocked he became. What a scary guy.

Soon, he sent his elder a voice transmission, "Elder, that's not important for now. I found that he's capable of absorbing the power of the five ancestors. He was even able to imitate the Five Element Purgatory I used. His version did not feel like the creation of a character. Rather, it felt very similar to our legendary cultivation method, the Five Elemental Art."

Red Soil was so alarmed that he turned from normal soil into gray soil. Topsoil Spirit hurriedly said, "Elder, keep calm!"

Red Soil hurriedly recovered and asked, "Are you sure?"

"Of course. I'm quite confident. There is no way a character can do that. He's capable of absorbing even the power of the five ancestors." The elder solemnly said, "We need to notify the ancestors immediately. Let's go to the Heavenly Hunt Pavilion's branch. I don't have an index copy, but you can get one as an index genius. Use it to contact the ancestor."

"Alright."

Topsoil Spirit nodded in agreement. An index copy would be useful. He felt as though everything had changed in only one month. He also had to notify the ancestors about Su Yu and try to get more talismans from them. He felt very insecure without those talismans on him.

Chapter 1079: Cornered Su Yu (1)

Heavenly Hunt Pavilion's branch.

Su Yu was no longer the sole person in the branch. A few residents were also there as part-time workers.

This had always been how these branches worked. Each branch would only have one or two official members assigned. Some branches would only be run by several black masks assisted by more rainbow masks. Most of the time, these members preferred to act alone.

During Su Yu's previous visit to Heavendoom's branch, the catgirl serving him was a part-time worker as well. One might be an ancient city resident, but one still needed to make a living, right?

A resident needed income to cultivate. And a resident needed to cultivate to withstand their death qi erosion. For most people, their cultivation speed would be similar to the growth of their death qi. That was how a resident could stay alive.

With the lockdown removed, the hired residents returned to work. He didn't even need to do much. They already knew what to do, and there was even a supervisor running the store. Su Yu only needed to serve as the connection to the headquarters and watch over the storage. These were his main tasks. The employees would handle everything else.

In fact, Su Yu had been quite surprised when they first returned to work. But he didn't show it. Before long, operations returned to normal. After spending some time in the branch, he finally figured out how the branch worked.

He had quite a lot of free time in his hands. He only needed to apply for the required products from the headquarters, keep the storage stocked, and handle some of the transactions. Since the inventory was low when he first arrived, he did not bother robbing the branch.

The kind First Profound Elder taught him that. The inventory was too low to be worth robbing. Doing it too frequently would risk exposure. He was better off waiting for the inventory to fill up before robbing it.

The branch was a two-story building. The first floor was meant for business while the second floor was his personal living space. Of course, he still needed to handle some customers personally, such as the stronger experts or index geniuses. That was part of his job scope.

At the moment, he was leisurely cultivating while looking at the view outside through the window. Generally, one shouldn't even open one's windows as that would be viewed as opening the door. It would allow uninvited guests to enter.

But since the door was already open for the purpose of doing business, it no longer mattered if he kept the windows open.

Soon, his eyes flickered.

Interesting.

Was that guy visiting the Heavenly Hunt Pavilion?

Topsoil Spirit!

Beside him was a Sunmoon earth elemental. Su Yu judged that this was a late-stage Sunmoon. He did not have to scan the expert personally, but a row of words appeared in front of his mask: Earth elemental, seventh-stage Sunmoon.

The mask only did a surface scan, but even that was sensed by the elder. Instantly, the elder looked in Su Yu's direction.

When he saw the blurry white mask behind the window, he withdrew his gaze. A member of the Heavenly Hunt Pavilion.

Topsoil Spirit also sensed something, but when he looked in the same direction, he wasn't able to see anything. He might be a five elemental, but his senses did not seem to be working. Previously, he would still be able to sense some simple things about Su Yu such as the water composition in his body.

Su Yu had grown a lot warier than before. He knew the abilities of the five elementals, so when he learned that there were five elementals in the city, he had altered even these minor details to prevent any detection.

Even if they managed to sense his water composition, they wouldn't be able to easily determine that he was Su Yu.

Red Soil ignored the masked individual and spoke through voice transmission, "Later, we will send the message with our secret code. Our code is based on the Floating Mountain Compendium of the five elemental race. Don't forget that. Remember to use this code the next time you send any messages through the Heavenly Hunt Pavilion. Never send anything directly."

Topsoil Spirit nodded and replied, "I've been wanting to suggest this long ago. But those geezers were too stubborn. Why did they change suddenly?"

"Su Yu."

"Oh."

Topsoil Spirit didn't know what to say. Those stubborn geezers were only willing to change after suffering at the hands of others. They would rarely need to send messages through the Heavenly Hunt Pavilion, but rare did not mean it wouldn't happen.

No matter how powerful a talisman was, it still couldn't send messages across realms. Thus, they had to rely on the Heavenly Hunt Pavilion in these unique situations. Of course, the index copies could only be used in the Allheaven Battlefield, but most races had some people stationed near their realm entrances to accept and send messages. And some of these people would be equipped with index copies.

Through this method, it was still possible to communicate rapidly across realms. Even if the Heavenly Hunt Pavilion only focused on providing communication services, they would still be able to earn massive profits.

The two entered the branch while deep in thought.

Before the part-time worker could say anything, Su Yu's voice rang out, "Invite the two earth elemental friends to the second floor."

Shortly after, the two were led to the second floor by a bunny girl.

***

Second floor.

Inside the lounge.

Floating in front of the entrance, Su Yu spoke, "Welcome."

The two earth elementals looked quite nonchalant. One could say that these two were also individuals of considerable status. It wasn't surprising for them to receive special treatment like this. Those who were weak and poor would not have the chance to step foot on the second floor.

"Congratulations, Lord Topsoil Spirit for leaving seclusion."

Topsoil Spirit said, "There is no need to congratulate me. I lost a lot of face because of that embarrassing incident."

Su Yu had the urge to correct Topsoil Spirit and change losing face to losing soil. But he held back. After inviting the two to sit down, he looked at them silently, maintaining a mysterious air about himself.

The two earth elementals weren't bothered. After a short moment, Red Soil said, "Deliver a message for us. You only need to deliver it to the earth elemental elder stationed at our realm entrance."

Su Yu nodded, "That is doable. Do you need anything else?"

"I need an index copy."

Topsoil Spirit made his request.

Su Yu nodded. That was something he could provide. Two days ago, someone from the Earth Department delivered a batch of index copies to this branch. As of late, these geniuses seemed to have gotten addicted to throwing their index copies away. Thus, they had to keep a healthy stock of index copies to better serve these geniuses.

After receiving an index copy, Topsoil Spirit took a look and sighed, "Sure enough, his name is gone."

He was speaking about Su Yu. He looked up from the index copy and said, "Does the Heavenly Hunt Pavilion have any new updates about Su Yu?" Thıs text ıs hosted at novᴇlfire.net

"What do you wish to know?"

"Strength, cultivation level, and his date of death."

Su Yu grumbled inwardly that he would still be alive long after this damn soil was dead.

He calmly answered, "You may check through the index copy. I don't have access to that information."

"Forget it, then."

With Topsoil Spirit done, Red Soil spoke again, "We need you to deliver this message...no, wait. We'll do it ourselves. What's the fee?"

With an index copy, they could compose the message before having it delivered. There was no need for them to get the Heavenly Hunt Pavilion to compose the message as well.

Su Yu did not mind. As of late, everyone had been using secret codes for their messages anyway. Those messages were basically indecipherable. It was pointless to read these messages.

"You can work on the message first. I'll get the price from the headquarters."

"Alright."

The two started composing the message. Or to be precise, Red Soil was doing it. Clearly, Topsoil Spirit still wasn't too familiar with their secret code. Inwardly, Su Yu was rolling his eyes. Why were they acting so shifty? What manner of secret were they going to talk about?

Before long, he received a reply from the Yellow Department. They would be charged three drops of Sunmoon blood essence for this service. What a terrifyingly expensive price.

A drop of Sunmoon blood essence was worth 50 heavenly hunt points. For this service, they had to pay a price worth 150 heavenly hunt points. This price was possible thanks to the monopoly the Heavenly Hunt Pavilion held over this service.

Why were these two willing to pay for this service instead of going back with the message themselves? Were they planning to stay? Su Yu was quite surprised. They were actually staying? Were they trying to die? So Topsoil Spirit had not suffered the cruelty of reality enough?

While Su Yu was wondering, Topsoil Spirit asked, "Can Heavenly Hunt Pavilion track Su Yu's current position? Is he really trapped in the mayor's residence? This seems way too easy. Is the mayor's residence merely a smokescreen? Maybe he has long left the residence. He might be hiding somewhere else in the city."

Su Yu was very surprised. Holy shit! What a smart guy! How did he get it right straight away?

Regardless of his thoughts, he replied calmly, "A lot of people have been asking the same thing for the past few days. But Su Yu does not have an index copy on him. There is no way of tracking him. I've also received the mission to track him. If you have any new updates about him, do consider selling the information to the Heavenly Hunt Pavilion."

Topsoil Spirit sighed, "Forget it. By the way, do you still have any heavenly source qi in stock? Get me a hundred portions."

"A thousand heavenly hunt points."

Su Yu quoted a price. The Earth Department had restocked their inventory of heavenly source qi as well. The Heavenly Hunt Pavilion was selling it at ten heavenly hunt points per drop. This was equal to ten thousand human merit points. What an excessive price.

And he didn't even need to worry that it wouldn't sell due to the price. There were plenty of buyers around. The worth of five portions was the same as one drop of Sunmoon blood essence or one strand of heavenearth profound light. Even at such a price, there wasn't a lack of buyers.

Converted to human merit points, each portion of heavenly source qi was worth ten thousand human merit points while each strand of heavenearth profound light was worth fifty thousand human merit points.

In terms of usage, a strand of heavenearth profound light was slightly better than five portions of heavenly source qi. More importantly, heavenearth profound light was extremely limited in availability. Then again, heavenly source qi was also limited in availability to a certain extent.

These were the things that you could hardly purchase with only human merit points. Most sellers were only willing to sell for Mountainsea or Sunmoon blood essence.

Basically, the Mountainseas and Sunmoons of the human race would all turn into paupers in the Allheaven Battlefield. The 7,300 strands of heavenearth profound light he made not long ago were only worth about three hundred million human merit points. Only three hundred million...fine, fine. This was probably a sum of money no single human could take out at one time.

Chapter 1080: Cornered Su Yu (2)

In truth, Su Yu was already extremely wealthy from selling his cultivation methods previously. He could make around a million each year. Even so, he would need hundreds of years to make as much as he had made not long ago. Not even Invincibles could accumulate wealth in such a manner since they had their own cultivation expenses and their family members to worry about.

While thinking about all that, he asked, "Are you paying with heavenly hunt points, blood essence, or other treasures?"

"Blood essence."

Red Soil took out a decent amount of Mountainsea blood essence from various races. Clearly, this guy had done a fair share of killing as well.

Shortly after, Su Yu retrieved a hundred portions of heavenly source qi from storage.

While handing it over, he asked, "Are you planning to stay in the city for a period of time?"

"See, this is what I hate about the Heavenly Hunt Pavilion. You guys will always try to gather any information you can get your hands on. As a branch manager, you're from the Profound Department, right? Why are you snatching the job of the Heaven Department?"

Topsoil Spirit complained, showcasing his familiarity with the Heavenly Hunt Pavilion.

Meanwhile, Su Yu started wondering if this guy was a member as well. He had been told that a lot of geniuses were members as well. There were a lot of benefits to that. Firstly, one would be relatively immune to tracking. Secondly, one would enjoy a discount when buying from the pavilion.

Su Yu said, "If you don't wish to say anything, it's fine. I'm only asking because a lot of experts have decided to stop in the city lately."

"The Luminous Domain Mansion is opening soon. This is normal. This will last between half a year to one full year. Ninestar Island is the nearest island to the Luminous Domain Mansion, after all—"

Red Soil interrupted Topsoil Spirit and said, "Ninestar Island no longer exists."

"..."

Topsoil Spirit was left somewhat speechless. Damn it! Why did everything change while he was away? Even an island that had existed for countless years was gone. The two did not say more. They didn't have anything to say to the Heavenly Hunt Pavilion anyway.

Soon, they left.

As for their message transmission, they could now do it through the index copy. Meanwhile, Su Yu started guessing about the message they were sending. Shortly after, he contacted First Profound.

"Elder, when can I start getting involved in message transmissions like those from the Yellow Department?"

He wanted to get more information about the index copy holders.

***

Heavenly Hunt Pavilion.

First Profound was left speechless yet again. Soon, he answered, "That will never happen unless you join the Yellow Department and become an elder there. Otherwise, even the Yellow Department members will only have access to the information about their own customers."

"In that case, won't we be at the mercy of the Yellow Department? They can easily get us killed by providing us with fake information."

Su Yu said, "For example, they can send us on a mission that is actually a trap. What if there are also traitors in there?"

"Don't use the word also."

Yes, this kid was a traitor himself, but he should really stop using the term "also", as though the pavilion was filled with people like him.

The elder said, "The Yellow Department is only in charge of communication. You are the one to decide if you want to accept the mission or not. If it really ends up as a trap, you can naturally hold them responsible after the mission."

Then, the elder asked, "Are you really suitable for your current position?"

He kept feeling like this was improper. This damn brat kept harboring bad intentions toward the pavilion. He had been worrying endlessly as of late. If the damn brat ended up creating a massive mess, he would be held liable as well since he was the elder in charge of this kid.

Su Yu ignored the question and said, "One more question, Elder. Can the Heavenly Hunt Pavilion know the identity of the person communicating with them through the index copy? For example, someone might lose their index copy and someone else might pick it up instead. How does the pavilion judge the identity of the person using the index copy?"

For example, the pavilion had remained completely oblivious when he had his ball talk to them previously.

The elder explained, "For the most part, only the index geniuses, those who were once on the index, and experts can get our index copies. And most of these experts have also been on the index before. Thus, we can determine their identities with relatively high accuracy. Also, we keep detailed records on the history of each index copy."

"If that's true, why did the pavilion fail to determine the identities of some people previously?"

This damn brat was probably talking about himself.

The annoyed elder said, "The ancient cities are filled with death qi, and that naturally interferes with our detection. Furthermore, your...I mean Su Yu's ancient beast is an extraordinary entity that has never been on the index before. That resulted in an error of judgment in the Yellow Department."

"What about those whose names have vanished from the index? Or those who have never been on the index? Will the pavilion recognize them through an index copy?"

First Profound was feeling more and more exhausted of talking to this brat. Wasn't it clear that the brat was asking about himself? Why beat around the bush? Just be straightforward about it!

"Yes. As long as your aura has been recorded before, the pavilion will recognize you through the index copy. But it's fine. You have an ancient beast with you, right? Its aura has never been recorded before. You can give it an index copy and get it to communicate with the pavilion on your behalf. With that, there is no worry of exposure."

Understanding dawned on Su Yu.

He said, "Elder, the inventory has been emptied of heavenly source qi. Can I sell my own stock to the next customer? And if I sell it directly instead of through the pavilion, do I still need to pay the fee of ten percent?"

"Of course. You can't skip the pavilion as long as it's a customer directed your way through the pavilion. The Yellow Department will first verify with you if the transaction can be completed before relaying it to the customer."

So that was how it was.

Su Yu nodded, "If I buy all the stock through through the forty percent discount available for members of my level, I can sell it at the original price and still earn thirty percent even after giving the pavilion its share of ten percent, right?"

"..."

Why was this little shit so obsessed with milking the pavilion dry?

First Profound replied, "Yes. But there is one thing I forgot to inform you previously. There is a limit to discounted internal purchases. For example, a white mask can only make a thousand heavenly hunt points worth of purchases with the discount each year."

What the fuck was that?

Su Yu cursed inwardly.

He had been finding this generosity suspicious. So he was right. The loophole was simply too big. He could simply purchase everything in the inventory and sell it instead. So it wouldn't work that way.

Su Yu said, "Elder, if I wish to purchase a few hundred thousand heavenly hunt points worth of items, will the Earth Department deliver them all here?"

"Yes. But forget about it. The Heaven Department will personally deliver these high-value purchases. The Profound Department won't be in charge of it."

This damn little shit was thinking of robbery again, right? Nope. Dream on! This was such a tiring subordinate to have. What a troublemaker. First Profound wondered if this was the right thing to do. If he had known about this earlier, he wouldn't have recruited Su Yu.

The elder lost his patience and asked, "Profound Nine, just what are you trying to do? Can't you calm down a little?"

Su Yu replied promptly, "I'm not planning anything. I only wish to stock up before sealing the city. No, I'm not doing this to kill. I'll only seal the city to force everyone to buy my stuff. I'll be so rich if I can pull this off!"

Su Yu continued, "The Heavenly Hunt Pavilion's main goal involves creating chaos and getting rich, right? Grandstar City is too peaceful at the moment. I suggest that we have Su Yu seal the city. At that time, the people in the city will be forced to buy our stuff. We'll be rich!"

"..."

Wow. What an amazing plan. First Profound couldn't help but be tempted. With the city sealed, some people would definitely not have enough heavenly source qi to survive. This was actually feasible! Heavenly Hunt Pavilion had always been good at war profiteering. It might not be easy to pull this off in any other city, but Grandstar City was different.

"We can do this once or twice, but not too frequently as people will start suspecting us."

"I understand."

Su Yu nodded. He was right. The Heavenly Hunt Pavilion was indeed a lover of chaos and calamity.

He had been quite free as of late so he might as well do something. He wasn't even doing this because he wanted to kill more people. Rather, he wanted to force more people to convert into residents. This wasn't something he would consider previously, but he was already a mayor, right? He naturally had to be responsible for his new position.

He might not fear death qi, but he still wouldn't mind reducing the burden on him if possible. Having more residents would only benefit him.

Those residents could help share the burden of the death qi. Additionally, he also believed that he needed some strong subordinates. Just look at the pitiful state Grandstar City was in. Even now, it still didn't have any guards, commanders, or night patrollers.

He didn't even have anyone to collect the entrance fees from all the visitors. This was too miserable.

He also needed to get the people blockading the mayor's residence killed. Otherwise, everyone would be encouraged to do that. He needed to preserve his dignity as the mayor. He had to tell the myriad races to stop provoking him. Anyone with the courage to form a blockade around him would die.

Why hadn't anyone dared to do this when the dark devil dragon was the mayor? Why hadn't anyone dared to do this to Tian He? They were clearly bullying him for being weak!

He only needed to kill some people and they wouldn't dare to do so anymore. He had killed a lot of people before, but he had relied on all sorts of tricks instead of killing with his own two hands. Strictly speaking, the red toad was the sole Sunmoon he had killed with his own hands.

He had to leave no doubt that this city was his. Any visitor would need to be obedient in his city. He could take advantage of the Luminous Domain Mansion's opening to make a large amount of money.

With that thought, he started gathering information about all the visitors. That way, he would be able to find a way to kill those people. He had to teach them all that he did not kill for no reason. He would only kill those attempting to blockade him in the city. He had to be rational when killing lest he scared off all future visitors.

Profound Nine's identity would be perfect for information gathering. After all, the Heavenly Hunt Pavilion was an information peddler.

Furthermore, there were actually some other Heavenly Hunt Pavilion members operating in the city. For example, some Heaven Department members were gathering information in the city.

"Perhaps I can further spread my influence. Those ten black mask underlings need to be put to work as well..." Latest content publıshed on novel✶fire.net

He needed to spread his influence in all aspects. It would be even better if he could make all the black masks into the residents of his city. That way, he would have a tighter grip on them. He had recently learned that the resident of an ancient city would not be able to survive long in a different ancient city. Thus, each resident would be bound to the city they had converted at.

"I need a large number of experts to convert into my citizens. Kill, establish my prestige, and spread my influence. Even better if I can travel around with the city and use the stone statue as my personal club. That way, my territory will be wherever I'm at."

Only then would his security be guaranteed. Having made up his mind, Su Yu did not delay. He walked out of the branch to start his work. Outside, the sky was slowly turning dark. He did not mind. Soaring into the sky, he flickered and vanished like a specter as he headed toward the mayor's residence.

Chapter 1081: Cornered Su Yu (3)

A few minutes later.

The gate of the mayor's residence was still tightly shut. The doors of several nearby ancient buildings were left open. And several Sunmoons were seated cross-legged inside those buildings, keeping watch over the mayor's residence.

Furthermore, an expert radiating powerful nether qi was seated right in front of the gate.

Su Yu was not surprised to see someone from the nether race here. Why was the nether race even more enthusiastic about this than the devils and divines? He heard that a nether king had been crippled by a stone statue during the previous chaos. From a veteran Invincible, that expert had lost his future and present bodies. It was highly unlikely that he could recover to his previous height.

With a past body, he would still be strong. But he would be forever stuck at the level when he first advanced into an Invincible. If he lost even the past body, he would die. Furthermore, carrier treasures were incredibly rare. Thus, even catching a new future body wouldn't be an easy task. More importantly, that expert had lost his present body as well. There was no future without present. Recovery would be extremely difficult. Su Yu had learned all that recently. Thıs text ıs hosted at N0v3l.Fiɾe.net

Thus, a descendant of that nether king had personally arrived to deal with Su Yu. That nether king had hidden away due to his current weakness.

Additionally, this nether expert was also here to avoid any other troubles that might arise from the weakening of his nether king. After all, not even his enemies would dare to rashly kill inside an ancient city.

Su Yu was unbothered. He started taking note of all these experts.

One eighth-stage Sunmoon from the nether race. Very strong.

One eighth-stage Sunmoon from the divine race. Very strong.

One...holy shit! Ninth-stage Sunmoon from the devil race. Very, very strong. And this damn devil was even a blood fire devil. Holy shit! Were they ever going to run out of Sunmoons? So many of them had died recently.

There was also a seventh-stage Sunmoon from the immortal race. Clearly, the immortal race wasn't trying as hard this time.

Oh, Red Soil of the five elemental race was here as well. What the fuck was he doing here? Was he joining the blockade as well?

There was even a seventh-stage Sunmoon from the dragon race here. What was the dragon race doing here? Su Yu couldn't recall causing the deaths of any dragons recently.

No, wait. He recalled someone called Long Dou, a seventh-stage Sunmoon from the dragon race. That fellow was killed in Heavendoom City because of him. Wow, so he had turned even the dragons into enemies?

And that was not all. A seventh-stage Sunmoon from the silkwyrm race was here as well. How brave. Were they not afraid of Silk Destroying King anymore? Surprisingly, nobody from the mystic armor race was here. Had they finally learned to feel fear?

And...there was also a monkey there. Someone from the heavenly spirit ape race was present.

Su Yu was very surprised. Why were they getting involved as well? But soon, he recalled that he had once picked up the corpse of a big monkey at the seventh-stage Sunmoon Realm before. That must have offended them.

Even now, that corpse was still in his storage ring. How terrifying. There were eight late-stage Sunmoons, including someone at the ninth stage. The myriad races were truly placing a lot of importance on this.

Did they think that everything would be fine if they kept him trapped in the mayor's residence? These experts were probably operating in shifts. After all, even Sunmoons needed to take some break from death qi every now and then.

Su Yu wondered if this could be a contribution to the human race as well. Thanks to him, there were eight less late-stage Sunmoons for the human to face. Just how many enemies had he eliminated for humanity as of late? Why hadn't the human race awarded him for his services?

Previously, he had been rewarded a hundred merit points for each first-stage Skysoar he killed. The reward for Cloudbreaches was a thousand points per head, and ten thousand points per Mountainsea, right?

Su Yu started recalling what he learned in the past. The human race would reward their people for each kill on the battlefield. Was the reward a hundred thousand merit points per first-stage Sunmoon killed?

Su Yu couldn't remember the details too well, but he reckoned he was right. Then, shouldn't he be rewarded nine hundred thousand merit points per ninth-stage Sunmoon killed? Through his calculation, he concluded that he was owed a lot of money.

Including the dark devil dragon, he had gotten eight late-stage Sunmoons killed. As for early and middle Sunmoons, he had caused dozens of them to die. If he was given an average of three hundred thousand per head, he should still get at least ten million merit points.

"Yes, I can't forget this. This is too much money to write off. I'll be sure to demand my money when I return. I can even give them a discount and write off the money they owe me for the dead Mountainseas, Cloudbreaches, and Skysoars."

He wouldn't settle for less than ten million merit points.

While he was thinking and moving around the mayor's residence, he also observed the other parts of the city.

As the Luminous Domain Mansion was going to open soon, there were quite a lot of people in the city. He noticed almost thirty Sunmoons in the city, but there weren't that many young geniuses. As of late, these young geniuses had been avoiding ancient cities. Su Yu must have traumatized them with his troublemaking.

That was especially true for people like Mo Duona and others who had been trapped in more than one ancient city by him.

"There are around thirty Sunmoons, but I can't get an accurate number since some are keeping their doors shut. There are a lot of Mountainseas as well."

What about the situation outside the city? Su Yu moved toward the city walls. He was greeted by an interesting scene. Some people were actually trying to rebuild the island. The land reclamation was being carried out by numerous experts. It was likely that these were the members of the Thousand Region Alliance.

The cities of the nine realms had been destroyed by the previous disaster, leaving their realm entrances completely naked in the middle of the sea. This was very dangerous. Their realm entrances had essentially been rendered completely defenseless.

Previously, they could slowly spread the suppressive force of their realms into the cities under their control. But with their cities gone, they couldn't do so anymore. The Sea of Stars itself would reject this spread. Thus, they were trying to reclaim the land around their realm entrances.

Su Yu wasn't too bothered about that. This wouldn't be an easy task, and there was no guarantee that the land they reclaimed would even remain for long. With that, he was done observing the situation inside and outside the city.

He reached a conclusion that it wouldn't be easy for him to kill anymore. That was mostly due to the high number of experts present. He was also quite wary after what happened previously. Three incomparably powerful death spirits had appeared after he killed one Sunmoon death spirit.

"In that case, I'll directly seal the city with the mayor's medallion. Everyone will need to convert into residents to survive. Maybe I can consider releasing some of them to show that I'm a good and kind man."

Even if he told the others to leave, the ones blockading the mayor's residence would stubbornly stay. There was no doubting that. Thus, they wouldn't be able to blame him if they ended up suffering after that.

"Sealing the city with the medallion will only result in a death qi backlash. That's not an issue. Yes, it's definitely doable."

He was a bit afraid of killing death spirits right now so he decided to not do that. Yes. It was about time he started acting like a civilized man. Only brutes would use violence to solve everything.

***

With a plan made, Su Yu returned to the branch.

How should he spread this news and promote his kindness?

Should he start shouting that he was going to seal the city?

Should he tell them to run or he would kill them all?

Would those people doubt his courage? After all, they knew that mayors would suffer a backlash from sealing or unsealing the city forcefully. That was why most people didn't place much hope on the mayors unsealing the cities when they were trapped as that was the same as telling the mayors to kill themselves.

These people probably believed that he was in such a grave situation that he wouldn't be able to survive any backlash. That was why they could confidently form a blockade around his mayor's residence.

Suddenly, Su Yu took out the mayor's medallion. Previously, the dark devil dragon had been able to spread his voice all over the city without even opening the gate of the mayor's residence. Was that one of the functions of the medallion?

Should he give it a try? He started recalling all the information he received when refining this medallion. Soon, he reached a decision.

***

Grandstar City was still as calm as ever.

Su Yu had been very quiet as of late, as though he had accepted his fate. With him trapped in the mayor's residence, everyone was relieved. Very few people had the courage to kill death spirits. Furthermore, there were other experts in the city. Anyone daring to create trouble in the presence of these experts would not be spared.

Normalcy was slowly returning to the city. That night, a loud voice suddenly rang out in the entire city.

"I'm Su Yu, the mayor of Grandstar City. You are all given one day to leave the city. This mayor does not wish to kill the innocent. No guarantee of safety will be given to those who are still in the city after one day."

His voice spread everywhere. It seemed as though the voice originated from the mayor's residence, but nobody was too concerned about it.

The nether expert seated in front of the mayor's residence coldly said, "Su Yu, talk is cheap. Just stay obediently inside the mayor's residence. You might be able to live longer that way."

"A nether? Don't force me to seal the city. If I seal the city for one full month, all of you will suffer."

The nether expert coldly said, "Sure. Let's see who can last longer. Su Yu, don't treat everyone as fools. In your current condition, you will die three days after sealing the city. All of us can survive that long."

That confidence was why they had the courage to come. As late-stage Sunmoons who were already prepared for this, they could survive even a month in the city. As long as no Invincible death spirits appeared, they had nothing to fear.

"Remember this! You forced me! Don't regret this if you remain stubborn!"

Those words did not inspire confidence at all.

The nether expert merely sneered. The other experts exchanged glances and laughed as well. One of them said, "He's at his limits. This is a good thing."

Was this the final struggle of a caged beast? Was this his final fight?

Su Yu had caged himself. He couldn't blame others for this. It would have been much harder for them to locate him if he remained as a random resident. But after becoming a mayor, everyone knew he was in the mayor's residence. He had basically delivered himself to them.

The experts laughed with amusement. Sealing the city? If Su Yu was not afraid of backlash, he was free to try it. It wasn't like no mayors had attempted this before.

Guess what happened to them?

They ended up dead before their enemies were dead. Only a fool would do something like this.

Chapter 1082: Satisfied Grandstar (1)

At the same time.

When Topsoil Spirit heard those words, he turned around and said without the slightest bit of hesitation, "Elder, let's go."

"Hmm?"

Red Soil stared with stupefaction. Why? What was there to fear? Su Yu was already a turtle in a jar. There was nothing to fear. Did Su Yu leave a trauma in this genius of their race? This wasn't a good thing for them.

Red Soil spoke with the tone of a wise elder, "Topsoil, you need to stand up from where you fall."

A single defeat was nothing. He only needed to stand back up. Perhaps witnessing Su Yu's death would help with the removal of this trauma.

As a response, Topsoil Spirit spoke in the tone of a wise elder as well, "Elder, it's fine to underestimate someone once. It's even fine to underestimate someone twice. But it is foolish to underestimate the number one genius on Heaven Index repeatedly. Otherwise, you will no longer have the chance to stand up after falling."

Topsoil Spirit couldn't understand what these people were thinking. Even after suffering so much in the hands of Su Yu, these people were still trying to go against him? What even was the point?

Running was the right thing to do. He didn't care how many days Su Yu was going to keep the city sealed. Others could stay and enjoy Su Yu's hospitality. Why should they take the risk as well? They could simply wait for the result outside.

Red Soil frowned, "Are you not afraid that this trauma will stunt your growth?"

"Nope." Topsoil Spirit said, "Losing one or twice is not scary. The scarier thing is the failure to learn anything even after multiple defeats in the hands of one person."

Then, he started walking away. How many times had these people suffered in Su Yu's hands? Why couldn't his elder learn from this?

An existence like Su Yu should never be underestimated as long as he was alive. Furthermore, he still had the ancient city as his backer. He wasn't completely helpless yet. Why bother?

Red Soil had no choice but to leave as well. Inwardly, he was convinced that Su Yu was done for. This was the end of the road for that madman.

What a pity that Topsoil Spirit still had confidence in Su Yu. What could he do in this situation?

***

Before long, Topsoil Spirit was out of the city. And he was not the only person doing so. For many people, Su Yu's condition did not matter. It was still safer to leave first. This was a conflict between Su Yu and the major races. Even if the experts of the major races could survive this conflict, it didn't mean that the experts of the minor races could survive as well.

Not everyone could survive staying in a sealed ancient city for three days. And what if the city ended up sealed for more than that? ɴᴇᴡ ɴᴏᴠᴇʟ ᴄʜᴀᴘᴛᴇʀs ᴀʀᴇ ᴘᴜʙʟɪsʜᴇᴅ ᴏɴ novelfire(.)net

As time passed, more and more people departed the city. But there were still some courageous ones left. Some were staying behind in hope of taking advantage of the coming conflict.

And some were simply staying behind to try their luck. Seeing to many major race experts around, some minor race experts were hoping that they could leave a good impression on these major race experts by staying behind.

Su Yu was unbothered. He had already given them a chance to leave. He even suspected that he was the kindest person in existence for being so generous with them. He had decided to seal the city the moment the second morning arrived.

This time, he would not unseal the city in advance anymore. As far as he was concerned, he only needed enough wealth for his usage.

Through his previous endeavors, he had earned plenty of resources for his cultivation. He would no longer accept a second deal to release these people as well. If those Invincibles were so amazing, they were free to invade the city. He would be more than happy to see more Invincibles lose their tri-life bodies.

The stone statues and death sovereigns were no pushover.

***

In the blink of an eye, the second morning arrived.

With a rumble, the city gates swung shut. Once again, the city was sealed.

After doing that, Su Yu hid in a random building and started dealing with the death qi in his body. As for the Heavenly Hunt Pavilion's branch, it would remain open for business, but he wouldn't be there in person to lower the risk of exposure.

Inside an ancient building.

With a large amount of heavenly source qi, Su Yu started forging his body. He had discovered that the clash of death qi and heavenly source qi was very helpful during body forging.

It was capable of accelerating the process.

Good!

This was the main reason he wasn't too afraid of a tiny bit of backlash. He took the new death qi in and started the reversal process. Unknown to him, Xing Yue opened their eyes once again in annoyance. Again? Could that fellow calm down already?

It hadn't even been that long since the flow of death qi to that fellow was increased. Why was that fellow creating trouble again? Fine. He asked for it. He better not regret this.

A massive amount of death qi was sent to Su Yu through a unique channel. As governed by the ancient laws, an incorporeal connection existed between Su Yu and Xing Yue due to their identities as the converted and the converter.

Xing Yue increased the volume of death qi flowing through the connection in anger. That fellow enjoyed creating trouble, right? Sure. Have fun with this!

Xing Yue had been trying to let that fellow survive until the Sunmoon, but that damn fellow lacked the ability to appreciate the little breathing space granted to him.

***

Su Yu was alarmed to notice the sudden surge of death qi in his body.

This was more than heavenly source qi alone could handle. Only hard work could deal with this. Originally, he only needed half an hour of reversal to reach a balance in his body. But this increased intensity required him to work at least two hours to achieve balance.

Wow. So he had to really hold back a little. Just look at this sudden escalation of intensity. If this happened more, wouldn't the intensity eventually grow beyond his ability to handle? He hurriedly worked on the death qi.

At the same time, he was still using heavenearth profound light to help with his body forging. He was not satisfied with only fifty forgings. Forced to hide indoors, he had plenty of time to cultivate. He was also well-stocked with cultivation resources. He had twenty-two body forgings left to complete with over a thousand strands of heavenearth profound light remaining.

***

First day of lockdown.

Everyone lived in peace and harmony.

There were no death spirits in the city nor had the death qi density increased. Even a regular cultivator could stay in an ancient city for three days, so there was no doubt that these Sunmoons would have no issue surviving in such an environment for three days. In fact, even the Skysoars were perfectly fine.

This was nothing they couldn't handle.

The Sunmoons were very pleased with themselves. They reckoned that Su Yu must be suffering from the intense backlash at that moment.

***

At the same time.

News of what happened started spreading to other ancient cities.

Su Yu had sealed the city again.

What a crazy guy. He was going to die soon. Wasn't it great to continue living even if the life was a pathetic one? Why was he in such a rush to become a death spirit?

Heavendoom City.

Mayor's residence.

Tian He shook his head and sighed as he said, "That guy is only making things difficult for himself. Only us mayors understand just how powerful the backlash can be. To make things worse, Grandstar City has lost a lot of residents recently. At this rate, he will have to shoulder the burden alone. The backlash on him will be even worse than what we know."

The old man in the room said, "He probably knows the Long Life Art he gave you previously. That's probably what he's relying on."

"That's a decent art, but it requires a lot of heavenly source qi. At most, it can only help him counteract about ten percent of his death qi."

That was far from enough.

Even with that art, there was still the remaining ninety percent to deal with. Furthermore, Su Yu was converted by a death sovereign. He wouldn't be able to last more than a few days. Even with the art, he would only last five or six days. But that wasn't enough to get those Sunmoons killed.

These people must have prepared before entering the city. They would have no lack of heavenly source qi. Su Yu would not be able to outlast them.

How foolish.

Sigh.

Why must he go against them just because they angered him? He wasn't strong enough to defeat them head-on. What was the point of shutting the gates? This wouldn't do anything to those late-stage Sunmoons.

Tian He sighed again.

The old man hesitated slightly and asked, "Lord, will you lend him a hand?"

"Me?"

The old man said, "If you want, it's possible, right?"

After a short silence, Tian He said, "Yes. The mayors can actually gather the ancient cities together. When that happens, the other mayors can take some of the burden off him. However..."

He shook his head.

After a long while, he sighed, "This is improper. Very few people are aware of this ability of ours. If we exhaust ourselves too much doing this, we might fail to pull off our plan. I can help him any other time, but not now when we're so close to starting the plan."

"Is the plan related to Prefect Xia?"

Tian He glanced at the old man and spoke slowly, "Yes. You've been with me for many years, so you should be able to guess what we're doing. I hope you don't disappoint me after learning about this."

The old man said, "Don't worry, Lord. I would have died long ago if it wasn't for you." He added, "If you're really at your limit, you can share some of the burden with me. I can try to withstand some of the death qi for you."

"No."

Yes, mayors could share some of the burden with their subordinates. Unfortunately, all the guards of Grandstar City had perished. In other words, Su Yu was all alone. As for the existing residents, they were considered the regular citizens of the city. Unless they held any of the unique medallions, Su Yu had no way of increasing the burden on them. Even if he could, it would be pointless if the residents weren't strong enough.

Suddenly, something flashed in front of Tian He. Then, a person appeared. The newcomer glanced at the old man before proceeding to ignore the alarmed old man. Tian He merely waved his hand, telling the old man to leave.

After the old man left, Tian He asked with a frown, "Why are you here again?"

Chapter 1083: Satisfied Grandstar (2)

"Is Su Yu in trouble?"

"He did it to himself."

After a slight hesitation, Xia Longwu said, "Give him some help. Take some of the burden off him..."

"Have you gone mad?" Tian He said, "The moment we do that, we will expose ourselves to the myriad races. Everyone will know that I'm on your side or at the very least, on the human race's side. Your plan will fail before it begins. What will happen to me, then?"

"Maybe my grandpa can help you with this."

Tian He replied coldly, "Great Xia King? Yes, his saber is strong. But his saber is also ruthless. He might end up severing me before he could even sever my death qi. I only agreed to work with you because I trust you. If you act rashly like this, you won't be able to keep our confidence. Xia Longwu, you've contacted more people than me. Isn't that so? Su Yu is seeking death himself. Why must you ask us to seek death alongside him? We only work with you to stay alive. It makes no sense for us to throw our lives away working with you."

After a short silence, Xia Longwu nodded, "I was too rash. I'll take a look at Grandstar City."

"You're going?" Tian He frowned, "Everyone is already aware that you're in the Allheaven Battlefield. Everyone has their eyes on that place. If they discover you there, even Invincibles will move out to take action against you."

It wasn't like they could only kill Xia Longwu while he was attempting dao affirmation. That was merely the best chance to do so. Previously, they had sent assassins after him. But all the assassins had been easily defeated. That only stopped because his enemies wanted to avoid further losses.

But now, he was going to deliver himself right into their hands. Was he courting death?

"It's fine. I'll just watch from afar."

After saying that, he vanished with a flicker.

In the inner hall, the stone statue opened his eyes and glanced at Xia Longwu. In his eyes, a silhouette had fused with Xia Longwu. The stone statue said nothing about that. Was that the future body? Googlᴇ search NoveI-Fire.ɴet

The future body might bring him more strength, but without the past body, he was still vulnerable to the severing of his past. Simply put, he would be more vulnerable without fusing with the past body.

Just look at the nether Invincible. Even after losing his future and present bodies, he was able to stay alive. He only lost some strength, but there was no threat to his continued existence.

The stone statue wondered just how strong this future body Xia Longwu had captured was.

Amid the countless futures, it was very possible that one might end up capturing a weaker future. For example, a future when he was gravely injured, or a future when he was approaching the final stretch of his life.

After fusing with a body, a switch would be extremely difficult. Firstly, one needed to get another carrier to capture a new body. Secondly, the act of traversing the River of Time to capture the future body was also extremely difficult. Any carelessness could result in death. This was how many ninth-stage Sunmoons had met their end during secluded cultivation sessions. Ȓ₳ŊȪꞖΕ𝒮

Meanwhile, this fellow was busy running everywhere instead of focusing on his past body after getting a future body. What a crazy guy. Or to be precise, these damn humans were all crazy. It was as though they all had a phobia toward calm life.

Xia Longwu should have spent more time looking for a suitable past body. A lot of people preferred capturing a past body from a single moment before. It was more likely for this to be the strongest past body they could capture.

But nothing was certain in the River of Time. Even the act of capturing a past body from a single moment before might be interfered with. The stone statue decided to stop worrying about this. That Su Yu was starting to stir up trouble again. Fortunately, Su Yu wasn't in his city anymore. He wondered how Grandstar was feeling.

That troublemaker had sealed the city yet again. Was this a good thing or a bad thing? If Su Yu ended up dying, Grandstar wouldn't be able to find a replacement anytime soon. He would need to shoulder more of the burden, and the most certainly wouldn't be fun.

But that might also be a good thing as Su Yu was too weak to take on that big of a burden anyway. With him out of the way, Grandstar could look for a more suitable mayor.

***

While Heavendoom was thinking about all that.

Grandstar was completely calm.

He felt zero increased pressure.

Su Yu was surprisingly durable. No matter how much death qi Xing Yue sent his way, he was able to handle it well. Not a tiny bit of death qi had leaked out of him.

Just this alone was enough to turn Su Yu into a suitable mayor in Grandstar's eyes.

What a good mayor.

There was no comparing the dark devil dragon with Su Yu. Previously, some death qi would leak out of the dark devil dragon every now and then, forcing Grandstar to take on more burden.

Meanwhile, this was not a concern with Su Yu as the mayor. It was as though the concept of overflow did not exist for Su Yu. Each time one believed that he would reach his limit, he would give a resounding no as the answer. He would show that he was still not at his limit.

The current situation was the best example. Wave after wave of death qi rushed into Su Yu's body, but he merely sat there cultivating like this was just a normal cultivation session. He showed no reaction whatsoever toward the increase of death qi.

In fact, he even had some attention to spare as he was still reading while cultivating. Yes. He had been reading a lot as of late in his attempt to form more characters. At the moment, he had only formed twenty-five characters. That number was too small. He had been using his characters a lot recently, but they could only play supportive roles.

The days when he could smash his opponent to death with a single hammer strike were long gone. Back then, he had relied on his willpower heavily during combat. First, he would stun his opponent with a hammer strike. Then, he would cut the opponent down with his saber.

Now, he could still stun early Mountainseas with his hammer, but what even was the point when he could blast them apart with one punch? Then again, his characters had also proven to be extremely helpful. For example, the calm, tribulation, deceit, and change characters.

Without these characters, it would be much harder to kill those with a similar level of combat strength. When facing an opponent with similar strength, using characters was akin to cheating.

At the moment, the long-dormant fire of inheritance was activated yet again.

Su Yu was in the middle of studying the death character he had formed recently. He had rarely used it after forming it.

Finally, he tried using it. And the moment he tried, he sighed. He had actually been overlooking something so useful. This was a great character. It was actually capable of absorbing death qi to grow.

What did he lack? Well, he believed that he lacked everything except death qi. Thanks to the ancient city, he had an unlimited supply of death qi. And that just happened to be the food for this character. Good character!

With the death character absorbing his death qi, he was able to reduce his death qi at a faster pace. And as time passed, the death character started growing. Before long, the character upgraded into the second tier.

At this point, Su Yu deliberately slowed his reversal speed. After all, he had to keep enough food to feed this character, right?

Su Yu was very impressed.

What a nice character. With this character, he could incorporate death qi into his attacks without transforming into a death spirit. This character would also serve as the perfect cover for his ability to transform into a death spirit.

Not bad at all. He decided to try pushing this character to the fourth tier as well. He did not forget another one of his new characters, the patience character he received from the notes of Great Zhou King the old turtle. This was a rather useful character as well. Since he had so much free time, he might as well work on it as well.

Su Yu was in a leisurely mood. He continued cultivating, forging his body, reading, and growing his characters. He did not look a tiny bit like someone tormented by death qi backlash. In fact, he even had to worry about the speed at which he was reversing the death qi. What if he accidentally reversed himself back into a non-resident? Wouldn't that be unfortunate?

How big of a shock would it be if his name were to suddenly reappear on the index? Yes. He absolutely must control his speed.

***

Second day of lockdown.

The calm and harmony persisted.

No death spirits had appeared. Only a small number of death spirits would appear during the night, but this was normal for an ancient city. Everyone was still busy minding their own business without any worry. It was only the second day.

***

The third day was just as peaceful.

On that day, Su Yu completed his fifty-first body forging. His body forging was taking more and more time to complete. He needed a few days to complete one, and he also needed a lot more resources. After completing the 51st forging, he was left with 1,240 strands of heavenearth profound light.

From the 30th to the 51st forging, he had exhausted 460 strands. But after this, he would probably need more than 50 strands per forging. That was a terrifyingly high number. That was much more expensive than even 250 portions of heavenly source qi.

Back then, he had estimated that he would only need about ten portions per forging. But reality proved that he had been too naive. The resources required for body forging would not remain constant at every level.

As one grew in strength, so would the requirements. One should also remember that apart from forging his body, he had also been consuming heavenblood fruit to help his life force keep up with the growth of his body.

He was burning resources at a terrifying level for his cultivation. But as a result, his strength was also growing at a terrifying pace. Each additional body forging represented a massive increase in strength. In short, both his life force and physical body had been growing without stop.

At this time, Xing Yue was numbly increasing the flow of death qi to Su Yu. Wow. Amazing. He had grown yet again. The flow of death qi to Su Yu had reached a level that was completely comparable to that of a Sunmoon.

In short, transforming Su Yu into a death spirit required as much effort as transforming a Sunmoon.

But Su Yu...was only a Cloudbreach!

Just how much longer would that damn fellow remain a Cloudbreach?

Strictly speaking, Su Yu was only a Skysoar in physical cultivation. He had yet to even finish his body forging.

72-Forged Iron Devourer...could he really complete this art?

Xing Yue greatly doubted that.

Could someone with grand cycle acupoints really complete the 72-Forged Iron Devourer?

Xing Yue could count as well. The more acupoints one opened, the harder body forging would be. According to Xing Yue's judgment, Su Yu would be stuck after reaching about fifty body forgings.

As someone who had opened grand cycle acupoints, how could he further forge his body? Was the concept of limit not applicable to him? Could talent really reach such a level?

Talent determined the upper limit of an individual. Resources had nothing to do with that. Just because one had resources, it didn't mean that one could open acupoints or forge one's body unceasingly. Eventually, one had to stop.

Just what was wrong with Su Yu? Could humanity really produce such an incredible level of talent after the ancient collapse? After the ancient collapse, the human race was dragged down from the very top.

The Human Realm was no longer a realm filled with treasures and heavenly source qi. The current Human Realm was poorer than even the realms of some regular top 100 races. How could humanity produce a monster like this with such a living environment?

There was a reason for the divines, devils, and other major races to occupy so many spots on the Heavenly Hunt Index. The quality of the source qi in their realms was far higher than what the Human Realm had. Furthermore, heavenly source qi was also much more common in their realms. This was why those born in these races would be stronger than humans at birth.

They were born into the Great Strength Realm. Some of the more powerful individuals could even produce descendants at the Infinite Strength Realm. Meanwhile, humanity needed to deal with the Source Opening Realm, including even the descendants of Invincibles.

Xing Yue was feeling very helpless. Whatever. No matter how strong Su Yu could grow, there was no escape. It was only a matter of time before he became their loyal subordinate as well.

Chapter 1084: Satisfied Grandstar (3)

Fourth day.

Some people were finally reaching their limits.

Some of the minor race experts were starting to regret this. It was already the fourth day. Why was nothing happening? Why were the gates still shut? The city was catching more and more attention.

In Great Xia, some people were feeling very gloomy. Just what was going on? People were finally starting to pay attention to Great Xia again. But that did not last long at all. Everyone was ignoring the Multiple Character Faculty and focusing on Su Yu again.

Then again, that was understandable. The faculty character had yet to produce anything tangible while the so-called Nanyuan ruin was still nowhere to be found. Thus, everyone decided to put these aside for now and focus on Su Yu first. At the very least, they had to witness his death, right?

It wouldn't take that long, anyway.

***

Fifth day.

Some people were getting desperate and started buying heavenly source qi from the Heavenly Hunt Pavilion. The pavilion took the chance to double the price.

Su Yu also dismissed all the part time workers as he was afraid of robberies. He would only show up every now and then to deal with the accumulated orders.

Sales were good! He had been selling the Heavenly Hunt Pavilion's own stock. He had applied for a restock from First Profound previously.

Business was very good. Over a period of five days, he had sold about five hundred portions of heavenly source qi while suppressing his death qi. That was all the heavenly source qi in the inventory. Not even the Heavenly Hunt Pavilion had an unlimited supply of heavenly source qi.

Five hundred portions were worth five thousand heavenly hunt points. That was the regular price. Since price had doubled thanks to this crisis, the number of his sales had reached ten thousand heavenly hunt points.

Every three years, Su Yu needed to make a thousand points worth of sales to get through his assessment. In the blink of an eye, he had completed thirty years worth of assessments. Meanwhile, he only received ten heavenly hunt points as commission. He was very dissatisfied.

Fortunately, he was only selling the stock provided by Heavenly Hunt Pavilion so he wasn't really losing anything here. It wasn't like he hadn't earned more than these transactions. For example, when payments were made in blood essence, he would swap the blood essence of powerful races with weaker races.

The Heavenly Hunt Pavilion only accepted its payment based on the level of the blood essence instead of the races the blood came from.

When some desperate individuals with only blood essence of powerful races in their possession bought from Su Yu, he would not allow the Heavenly Hunt Pavilion to benefit from this desperation. Instead, he would swap all the blood essence with the blood essence of weaker races in his possession, such as the blood essence from the iron-winged bird and sky tiger races.

Through this method, he had actually profited quite a lot. He had even thought of a way to further milk the pavilion. At the moment, he was casually talking to the First Profound Elder to carry out his new plan.

"Elder, I have obtained a decent amount of blood essence recently, but I'm running out of heavenly source qi. I found an expert in the city wishing to sell me his heavenly source qi for blood essence. But the price is quite high. He's selling for nineteen heavenly hunt points, but we can sell for twenty heavenly hunt points. We can still make a profit of one point per portion. So should we do this business?"

"..."

First Profound cursed inwardly. That so-called expert in the city was Su Yu himself, right? Even the elder was impressed. Wasn't Su Yu trapped in the city? How did he still have the energy to make money and do business? Was this a dream? Holy shit!

The elder wondered if this was all a dream. Profound Nine was actually not Su Yu. Or maybe the mayor was not Su Yu.

Just the fact that Su Yu was still able to continue completing the sales during the past few days was already greatly shocking to the elder. In the elder's mind, Su Yu should be dying from death qi after sealing the city.

But that was not the case at all. With this, absolutely nobody would suspect that Profound Nine was Su Yu. Why? Because Su Yu was the one suffering the backlash to seal the city while Profound Nine was happily doing business in the city. 𝖗à₦ƟBÈS

Su Yu should not have the time or energy to deal with all those transactions. In fact, the Heavenly Hunt Pavilion itself would be the first to protest if anyone dared to claim that Su Yu was Profound Nine. That was simply too illogical. How could one be unreasonable enough to make such an absurd claim?

Just what Su Yu had been doing so far was impressive enough. But he was not satisfied. He was even trying to milk the pavilion dry. First, he would sell a product to the pavilion for nineteen points. Then, he could sell the product for twenty points. That way, he would both earn a massive profit and further improve his work performance.

As greedy as the Heavenly Hunt Pavilion was, it would only sell heavenly source qi at a price of ten points per portion normally. Raising the price in such a situation was actually perfectly understandable.

If any other person was selling heavenly source qi in such a situation, the others might be too wary of tricks to buy. Meanwhile, this was not the case with Heavenly Hunt Pavilion. Regardless of what others might say about them, they still had a decent reputation in term of doing business.

But the people in the Heavenly Hunt Pavilion also knew that their stock in the city was limited. They were just worrying about the unfulfilled orders in the city when Profound Nine stepped forth with such a solution.

This offer of Profound Nine was actually not profitable for the Heavenly Hunt Pavilion taking into consideration the cost of maintaining the communication network. But this was still worth doing as it would further strengthen the reputation of the pavilion.

Before long, Su Yu received a reply from First Profound, "You can do this, but you need to notify the Yellow Department first. Just tell them that you encountered a mysterious expert. That way, there will be a record internally and nobody in the pavilion can blame you if anything goes wrong."

"Alright." Su Yu laughed, "Elder, will we receive bonus rewards for completing a large number of transactions?"

"Yes. This will also help with your future promotion into an elder."

"Is that so? In that case, I can only hope that I'll gain the qualifications to become an elder as soon as possible."

The elder wasn't too bothered about this little scheme. The more sales Su Yu made, the more commission he would receive. Thus, this would also benefit him. It was worth noting that with this plan, Su Yu could benefit from each transaction twice.

Each purchase and sale was considered a single transaction. Since he would first complete a purchase before making a sale, he would complete two transactions per portion. And he was entitled to a commission per transaction. Thus, he would receive his commission twice per transaction. As the direct superior of Su Yu, the elder would also benefit from this.

This was why he had allowed Su Yu to exploit all those loopholes as long as no rule was directly broken. Su Yu was free to go even crazier if he could find even more loopholes to exploit. Nᴇw ɴovel chaptᴇrs are published on ⓝovelFire.net

***

That day, the Heavenly Hunt Pavilion's name resounded in the city yet again.

The Heavenly Hunt Pavilion had made a declaration that anyone running out of heavenly source qi could purchase more from them. The price would be fixed at twenty points per portion. The supply was limitless.

Heavenly Hunt Pavilion used this chance to prove that there was nothing it couldn't do. Meanwhile, Su Yu started extracting heavenly source qi from blood essence. What was the cost of extracting a single portion?

Roughly 1,000 human merit points, or 1 heavenly hunt point. By selling his heavenly source qi to the pavilion at 19 heavenly hunt points per portion, he could earn 18 points, a profit of 1,800 percent. And this wasn't even including his commission.

Of course, this was only applicable to him. The Heavenly Hunt Pavilion's cost per portion was probably triple his cost. Including the commission, the communication and transport costs, and everything else, their profit margin was much lower.

Even so, they could still earn a lot even with a price of ten points per profit. But there was no comparing their profit with Su Yu's profit. With the city sealed, demand would skyrocket. This gave him a chance to make even more profit. All the minor race experts started buying from him.

He could reach a sales volume of about five hundred points each day. By the time the eighth day arrived, even the major race experts in charge of blockading the mayor's residence were starting to buy from him.

In this manner, Su Yu continued doing business while keeping the city sealed. He intended to milk them dry. Keeping these people in the city was also beneficial for him as they would also take some of the burden off him.

Yes. Any living person could help withstand the death qi in the city. This did not apply to only the residents. With their usage of heavenly source qi, they could help counteract even more of the death qi.

Even the stone statue was stunned to see this. He found that at some point, even the burden on him had dropped.

Originally, the people in the city would take on twenty percent of the burden, Su Yu would take ten percent of the burden, and the stone statue would take seventy percent of the burden. But now, the people in the city had taken on thirty percent of the burden while Su Yu's burden remained. Meanwhile, the stone statue only needed to take on sixty percent of the burden.

Noticing that Su Yu still had the energy to spare to run around making money, the stone statue made a decision. He gave ten percent of the burden on him to Su Yu. With this, he only needed to take on half the burden.

Since this new mayor was so energetic, the stone statue decided to give him more trust. What a useful mayor. Yes, keep doing this. Go on. The stone statue's burden had never been this light before.

He was very pleased with his new mayor. He had received the service of dozens of mayors before, but none of them had been as helpful as Su Yu.

Meanwhile, Su Yu alone could take on the burden of two mayors. With the lightening of his burden, the stone statue was in a good mood.

Wow. Heavendoom was right. Su Yu might be good at troublemaking, but he was also very reliable! Just look at the good job he was doing as the mayor. Initially, the stone statue was worried that twenty percent would be too much for Su Yu, but he soon realized that his worry was pointless. Su Yu still looked perfectly fine.

***

Meanwhile, Su Yu was greatly alarmed inwardly.

What?

While he was happily counting his money earlier, the death qi inside him had suddenly erupted in intensity. Previously, he had to spend two hours per day to neutralize the death qi in his body. But suddenly, that had increased to three hours.

With this, he had to spend three hours cultivating per day just to maintain a balance of death qi in his body.

"Three hours!"

Su Yu was trembling with fear. What happened?

What did he do?

Was the intensity increasing because he had kept the city sealed for too long?

That was too terrifying.

If this continued, would he eventually be forced to cultivate ten hours just to maintain the balance? In that case, he would have very little time to actually increase his own cultivation. And if this trend continued, eventually reaching twenty-four hours, wouldn't he be the same as all the other residents? His cultivation would no longer grow as all his effort would go toward dealing with the death qi.

Su Yu was terrified. Three hours later, he was finally done with his death qi for the day. Meanwhile, the stone statue looked at him approvingly. Amazing. So he was able to deal with it so quickly? Did this not mean that he could take even more of the burden?

Grandstar had concluded that he had encountered the most precious mayor ever. This felt great! Should he...add another ten percent to the burden?

"No, that would be too obvious. I can't..."

After thinking about it, the stone statue decided to wait for a bit. He would increase the burden the next time the kid did anything big. That way, the kid not suspect anything. The stone statue was very satisfied with his new mayor.

He was not going to let this mayor go no matter what. Nobody could take this mayor from him. What a nice and responsible mayor. Would Heavendoom regret sending this kid away?

Grandstar had the urge to tell Heavendoom about this. He had the urge to show off to the other stone statues. Look at all of them pitifully struggling with their death qi while his mayor was doing most of his job for him.

Ahhh, this felt great!

***

Alas, Su Yu wasn't feeling so great. He was feeling greatly terrified.

He wondered if he should keep the city sealed.

Finally, he was scared. The sudden increase of death qi was too scary. It had happened out of nowhere. He even started considering reversing himself back to a normal human and escape the city's grip. This felt so dangerous. In fact, even his tribulation character had pulsed earlier.