Chapter 1427: Massive Harvests (1)
The old turtle was greatly surprised.
He Tu had somehow appeared in the Luminous Domain Mansion. And he was on the lower levels. Even so, he shouldn't have been able to kill indiscriminately.
All that was pointing toward a certain fact.
He Tu...had not entered the mansion through a normal death tunnel. He had entered the mansion through some other means.
"Wasn't he away to recruit help against me?" Fresh chapters posted on NoveIꜰire.net
The old turtle sank into thought. Was that related to He Tu's appearance in the mansion? Who did that guy recruit?
As the old turtle took his time pondering, the ancient expert asked again, "Brother Grand Dream, is He Tu gone from the tunnel?"
Only then did the old turtle remember that he had a question to answer. He said, "No. He has a tendency to leave randomly. I don't know where he's at."
At that answer, the sky trembled as multiple powerful projections manifested.
One of them asked, "He's not there? Is he really in the mansion? How did he enter? Even if he did enter, he shouldn't have appeared on the lower levels. There have been very few deaths on the seventh level. Meanwhile, a disastrous number of people have died on the lower levels."
If a death sovereign was in the mansion, it wouldn't be a surprise for some of the people inside to die.
In fact, these Invincibles believed that even more should have died if there was really a death sovereign in there. However, how had He Tu entered the mansion?
"Could it be that...there are entrances to the Luminous Domain Mansion in the Death Realm as well?"
"That's impossible! If that's really the case, why has this never happened before? It's not like the Luminous Domain Mansion has never opened before."
The manifestation of so many ancient existences caused the very air of the Allheaven Battlefield to turn frigid. Even more of these ancient geezers had revealed themselves. The expressions of the various Invincibles changed drastically. Just how many of these ancient fossils were still alive? Were the nine epochs not enough to kill them all? fr eewe(b)nove.l.co\m
***
At the same time.
Great Xia King blanked out before sending a voice transmission, "Old Zhou, since these ancient races have so many surviving old fossils, does the human race have some?"
These fossils were essentially the main characters of the past epochs. Did the human race not have even one of these fossils?
Great Xia King held no hope that any human fossils from the ancient past would still be around. All those people were dead. If they were still around, the myriad races wouldn't have found the chance to rise in prominence.
But what about the experts that had emerged during the past nine epochs? Were they all dead? The likes of Great Xia King were essentially the experts of the tenth epoch. Would all of them die by the end of this epoch? If they could somehow survive to the next epoch, they would join the ranks of the living fossils.
Great Zhou King answered, "That's unlikely. Firstly, the human race has a far shorter lifespan. Secondly, the human race does not have an Eternal cultural researcher. The lifespan of warriors has always been shorter in comparison. Most of these fossils are cultivators of both paths. Thirdly, the human race was the main character of the nine epochs. Each time, the epoch would only end after humanity was completely exhausted."
One could say that the human race had lost nine times in a row. There were several epochs where they had nearly won, but...they had still failed. The fossils would never allow that to happen.
Great Zhou King continued, "Don't underestimate these fossils just because they have been keeping a low profile. I suspect that they were involved in the defeats of humanity during the past nine epochs."
Great Xia King nodded as the look in his eyes turned solemn. That was perfectly understandable. These fossils would most certainly not allow the human race to reconquer the Myriad Realms.
They had merely been inactive this epoch because the time had yet to come for them to act. Nobody wanted to be the first to act and shoulder all the losses for the myriad races. In fact, many of these fossils had perished against humanity during the course of the nine epochs.
Since humanity was exceptionally weak during the tenth epoch, the fossils had seen no need to act. After all, the longer one lived, the more one was afraid of death. Thanks to the lessons they had learned in the course of the past nine epochs, they weren't too keen on fighting the humans unless absolutely necessary. Additionally, the involvement of existences such as these fossils could very well trigger an unexpected change among humanity. Since the myriad races had the upper hand this time, there was no need for them to act.
***
The old turtle ignored everyone and shut his eyes again.
He was more concerned about his disappearing little He Tu. Little He Tu had entered the Luminous Domain Mansion. In that case, there must be a backdoor to the Luminous Domain Mansion in the Death Realm.
"Was that the insurance you guys left for yourself? For you to return one day in the event of a defeat?"
The old turtle didn't know how to feel about this. The backdoor was most certainly the handiwork of the humans. This signified that even after nine defeats, humanity had yet to fully exhaust all their trump cards from the ancient past. How terrifying.
Upon death, all would enter the Death Realm. It didn't matter that the death tunnels would be guarded. They had other alternatives, such as the backdoor to the Luminous Domain Mansion. Was this an insurance to allow them to reawaken in the Luminous Domain Mansion and reclaim their authority in the Myriad Realms?
During the past nine epochs, ancient human experts had emerged to guide humanity. In fact, some true ancient past human experts had even appeared during the first three epochs.
It was now the tenth epoch. Not one of those people remained. If they had indeed become death spirits, would they still consider themselves humans? At the very least, He Tu did not seem to care about the fact that he used to be a human.
He was a descendant of a human king. Even someone like him had stopped caring about humanity after becoming a death spirit. After becoming a death spirit, he had essentially transformed into a different race. He was no longer a human. His past memories were akin to the memories of someone else. The visions of his past were more akin to a work of fiction to him. He no longer considered himself a human.
While the old turtle was deep in thought, someone spoke, "Brother Grand Dream, since you are in charge of suppressing the Death Realm, could we trouble you to investigate the Death Realm for any recent changes?"
The old turtle said, "I don't have the time for that. I don't feel like doing it either. If you're really so interested, you are welcome to suppress this city for me. I have the authority to appoint new guardians. After becoming a new guardian, I won't stop you from taking a look inside the Death Realm."
"..."
Silence descended.
What joke was that? They were most certainly not interested in becoming guardians.
This was no longer the ancient past. During the ancient past, with the Human Emperor and the Myriad Race Assembly around, the guardians could rotate out of the job. But the masters of the heavenly laws were no longer around. The heavenly laws would remain the same for eternity. The moment one became a guardian, one would remain one forever.
Things would remain so until a new supreme expert emerged to surpass the Human Emperor and shatter the heavenly laws, replacing them with a new set of heavenly laws.
Otherwise, one would still be helpless against the heavenly laws even if one managed to conquer the Myriad Realms. One needed to have the power to surpass the heavenly laws enough to change how things worked in the Myriad Realms.
If one decided to ignore the heavenly laws upon conquering the Myriad Realms, the heavenly laws would promptly teach one some humility.
The old turtle continued, "If you're unwilling, so be it. I'm too busy to investigate the Death Realm. How about this? You guys can take this chance to enter through my death tunnel while He Tu is absent. Of course, I won't promise you'll be able to leave the Death Realm alive after entering."
Yes. Living beings were not prohibited from entering. But there was no guarantee that one would be able to leave after entering. For example, Xia Longwu had once entered the Death Realm. However, he hadn't strayed far from the tunnel. He had also departed in a timely manner. Otherwise, not even someone like Xia Longwu would be able to leave the Death Realm alive.
The presence of living beings would be too eyecatching to those in the Death Realm. Before long, one would catch the attention of countless death spirits.
After a short silence, an ancient fossil spoke, "Brother Grand Dream, you're still as funny as ever—"
"I never joke." The old turtle said, "I am nobody's subordinate. Do not question me. This includes you, Heavenly Overseer Marquis. Just stick to your own business. If anyone believes you can replace me as the Spirit Suppression General, I welcome you to try."
He was way too lazy to do them this favor. They should be thankful he was kind enough to even respond to their questions.
Ever the chaos lover, Heavendoom shouted, "Tsk. You, you bastard! How dare you provoke us? I remember you! You used to be an untitled general under the Flatearth General. Do you think you're a hotshot now that you have achieved Daofuse? Do you want to have a taste of my staff?"
"..."
The ancient fossil didn't even know how to respond to that. How should one respond to the words of a lunatic? He had merely asked a question. Why was that guy escalating this into a fight?
He remained calm and said, "Brother Heavendoom, you used to be an untitled general as well. Who are you trying to insult here?"
Heavendoom's voice dripped with contempt as he replied, "Even so, I am different. We're here to guard the tunnels alongside our boss. Back then, I was promised the title Spirit Battling General at the end of my term. I was also promised the title Spirit Battling Marquis after achieving Daofuse. Alas, the damn ancient past collapsed only a thousand years after the start of my tenure. What could I do about this?"
Heavendoom started cursing furiously, "How can a garbage untitled general like you compare against me? What are you before me?"
"..."
Everyone ignored Heavendoom's outburst, including the other guardians. None of them felt like talking. Why? Because they were also untitled generals. They were all nobodies.
Heavendoom was different. He had indeed been promised a promotion. Alas, the ancient past had collapsed before he could receive his promotion. Everything had changed. Heavendoom was still a guardian while some of the juniors from back then had achieved Daofuse.
Noticing the awkward silence, Heavendoom continued swearing to hide his awkwardness, "Bountiful Treasure, you're truly useless. How did a garbage untitled general achieve Daofuse before you? At least I have an excuse for my stagnation since I was stuck as a guardian. What excuse do you have?"
Bountiful Treasure was a titled general.
How could he be so useless?
How was he still not a Daofuse?
Chapter 1428: Massive Harvests (2)
The chubby Bountiful Treasure General was not offended by those words. He said, "Brother Heavendoom, I spent a majority of my time recovering from my injuries, so it's not like I'm that much better than you. During the first epoch, He Tu targeted me for my wealth. After spending multiple epochs in recovery, I'm finally out of seclusion. Why is he the first person I encounter right after leaving seclusion?"
He sighed helplessly.
During the first epoch, countless super experts were active. He Tu was not the strongest human during that era, but he was most certainly the most ruthless human of the era. In face of a losing battle, he had transformed into an ancient city mayor in desperation and started conquering the Myriad Realms with an army of death spirits behind him.
What Su Yu saw was merely the fragments of He Tu's past. During that era, He Tu had performed admirably. With his army of death sovereigns, he had killed quite a number of ancient fossils. Even Bountiful Treasure had nearly died in his hands.
Someone said, "It's no longer the first epoch. He Tu is dead. How much of his past can he still remember? As a death spirit, how capable is he compared to the previous him? Now, he is probably weaker than even Dao King."
Dao King frowned.
Why was he being used as an example?
No matter what, he was a seventh-degree Eternal. He had merely been unlucky to lose a tri-life body to the old turtle. He wouldn't have been so wary of these fossils otherwise. Yes, they were strong. But not all of them were Daofuses. A lot of them were still Eternals.
A devil king frowned and said, "Enough about that. You are free to talk about your glorious past at a different time. Now, we can finally establish contact with those inside the mansion. However, we still don't know if this He Tu is the same He Tu from the Death Realm. How should we deal with this crisis? All of us have some people in there, including the humans. Humans, do you think He Tu will spare the humans in there just because he used to be a human?"
Great Zhou King replied, "We don't know that. But it's clear that the human race has suffered a much lower number of casualties. Perhaps that's due to the little affection He Tu still holds toward the human race. This isn't our problem. You are free to deal with it as you see fit, but we won't be involved in it."
He did not care whether He Tu was the culprit behind all these deaths. However, he could see that the human race had suffered the fewest casualties. Thus, even if He Tu was really the culprit, he could only assume that He Tu had shown mercy to the humans. In that case, why should he care about the fate of the others in the mansion?
***
Outside the mansion, everyone was busy discussing ways to solve the crisis and send more messages inside. Alas...Su Yu had not bothered to reopen the connection. The various index copies in the mansion were still shaking, attracting the attention of the survivors in the mansion. However, no messages were coming through.
"Heh."
Su Yu sneered with satisfaction. The connection was fully in his control. Without his permission, they could dream of sending anything in and out of the mansion. After confirming that those outside could only send messages into the mansion while Old Zhou was raging, Su Yu tossed the matter to the back of his mind.
He still had more things to do on the third level.
Treasure collection.
The smiling mouth lotus and riversand.
After killing a new batch of people, the Mark of Civilization had grown even stronger than before. In fact, the 146th golden stripe was slowly taking form. According to the old turtle, the smiling mouth lotus was a type of natural treasure greatly attracted to beautiful scenery.
And what was the spot with the best view on the third level? Su Yu looked around and concluded that it might be the waterfall in front of him. It was a waterfall falling from the sky. This was most definitely a scenic spot.
Of course, the sight would seem even prettier if he could ignore some facts. After going through Wu Lan's notes, the look in his eyes turned odd. Bile?
"How creative."
Su Yu mumbled to himself. How did she reach this conclusion? Not even Su Yu himself had reached such a conclusion. Did Wu Lan dissect someone for her research before?
"You never know."
Su Yu was very suspicious that Wu Lan had indeed done that before. This wasn't a conclusion a normal person would draw easily. After all, this was a waterfall that had existed since the ancient past. And she was calling it bile. Tsk tsk. She might be ridiculed for this even in the ancient past.
"According to Wu Lan's hypothesis, the liver might be up there. Is this supposed to be a joke?"
Su Yu grimaced. If he dared to harvest the liver...wouldn't Old Zhou go crazy? Old Zhou would try even harder to kill him. Harvesting this treasure would be a bad idea.
"This is a hard decision. I wonder if there's a gallstone there. If there's one, I can consider harvesting it instead. After staying inside the liver for so many years, it can be considered a treasure as well, right?"
Su Yu was not inclined to harvest the liver. But the gallstone would be an entirely different story. And he might be able to find it at the origin of the waterfall.
"Riversand...it can probably be considered a type of calculus, right?"
When he saw Wu Lan's note, he found that she referred to the riversand as the bile salt. Su Yu searched his brain for a very long time before remembering the function of the bile salt. Fortunately, he was quite a well-read person. He wouldn't have known otherwise.
"What a terrifying woman. She must have dissected someone for her research in the past."
Wu Lan had a surprisingly wide base of knowledge. For example, he had discovered the treasure vault in Starfall Mountain previously thanks to her. She seemed to know a little bit of everything. Through some plants, she had deduced the location of the treasure vault for him.
Having reached a decision, Su Yu inhaled deeply and prepared to act. He had to complete his harvest before He Tu was here.
***
Boom!
When Su Yu stepped under the waterfall, he finally understood why everyone would avoid going into the water directly. It was incomparably painful.
The water had the ability to dissolve one's body. Even after completing his seventy-two body forgings and a layer of barrier around his skin, he still felt a sharp pain upon stepping under the waterfall.
"Holy shit!"
Su Yu started cursing. Anyone under the seventh-stage Sunmoon Realm could forget about doing this. More importantly, no seventh-stage Sunmoon would be transferred into the first three levels.
And descending the levels was almost impossible. As he waded through the knee-deep water, he felt as though both his legs were going to be corroded into nothingness. If people like Wu Lan attempted this, they would probably be reduced to nothing immediately. No wonder so many people were content with gathering the riversand around the waterfall.
"How terrifying."
As he took another step forward, allowing the waterfall to smash down upon him, his bones started creaking.
Spluuurt!
He coughed a mouthful of blood and cursed again. But then, he had to admit that this water was actually a treasure as well. When it flowed backward, it would start being corrosive. And this was precisely what was happening.
Normally, bile was meant to balance out the gastric acid in one's body. Thus, it was normally alkaline yet not corrosive in nature.
This corrosive nature must have emerged due to the reverse flow. In other words, Old Zhou had indeed been stabbed upside down into the ground, with his head puncturing through the Death Realm.
How terrible.
How cruel of Tai Shan. How cruel of the Human Emperor. How cruel of the person who had built the Luminous Domain Mansion. Then again, all three of them might be the same person. In any case, they had treated Old Zhou cruelly.
Su Yu thought that he was a lot kinder. He would keep all his victims inside his Mark of Civilization. In such a manner, Su Yu joked with himself while approaching the cliff behind the waterfall. Was the cliff a part of Old Zhou's body as well?
Su Yu couldn't be bothered to contemplate this matter. He continued walking while gathering the riversand in the water. The amount here was quite big. Perhaps that was because it had been allowed to gather here for a long time.
Su Yu had a very strong impression of the riversand. Back then, this was the treasure needed to activate the Secret Character Grotto. Those from the single character faction had exhausted all the riversand in their possession to open the grotto only once. Generally, the Secret Character Grotto would remain quite useless.
But the moment it was fed with sufficient riversand, it would transform into a holy land. At the very least, it would be a holy land for cultural researchers. Even now, Su Yu couldn't forget the pure willpower he had absorbed during his time in there.
"Is a sack of riversand enough?"
Su Yu had gathered quite a lot of riversand. However, the water was torturing him too much. As he resisted the pain, he continued looking around in search for the smiling mouth lotus. He was unsure if it was here. He could only keep searching.
That wasn't something he wanted to miss out on. If he really couldn't find it, he would have no choice but to settle with only some riversand. After some time, his legs were starting to feel weak. He hurriedly climbed onto a nearby boulder to take a short break.
Just as he was about to leave, he blanked out.
Boulder?
Why would there be a boulder here?
He stared down for a long time before blanking out again. Holy shit!
Riversand?
"A...giant grain of riversand?"
Had anyone seen something like this before? Each grain of riversand was supposed to be tiny. Even one the size of a broad bean was already considered big. But this boulder...what was this?
"Holy shit! Why is it so big?"
Su Yu was dumbfounded. How many openings of the grotto could this thing support?
"Probably a thousand times?"
In his opinion, the single character faction had probably gathered only about a catty or two of riversand before. Meanwhile, this riversand here was probably about a thousand or two thousand catties in weight. He hurriedly reached out and lifted it only to inhale in shock. The lower half of the boulder was even larger. It was probably over ten thousand catties in weight.
"What...is this? If I only need a catty to open the grotto for a day, this boulder here will be enough to keep the grotto open for ten thousand days!"
Su Yu was greatly shocked. He hurriedly looked around for similar boulders. And sure enough, he found some. He gnashed his teeth and dove into the water. He suspected that at the bottom of the river, endless riversand could be found. Would the water corrode the riversand away?
After a short moment, he emerged from the water. His entire body was smoking and emitting hissing sounds. He was holding onto a large amount of riversand.
"Holy shit! There's so much!"
He exclaimed in astonishment. However, he had also ascertained that the bottom of the river was not purely riversand. Rather, he saw something similar to flesh.
"If there is so much here, what's the point of looking for the source?"
Su Yu dove into the water again. With the riversand collected here, if he could borrow the grotto from Great Xia, it would be immensely helpful. He could even produce an instrument of similar effect to make use of the riversand. This would supply him with an endless supply of pure willpower.
Pure willpower was something him, Zhao Li, and Liu Wenyan lacked greatly. Or to be precise, pure willpower was something every cultural researcher lacked. A cultural researcher who did not lack pure willpower did not exist.
Su Yu was no longer calling riversand garbage. He started collecting as much riversand as possible. As of this moment, he found the riversand even more attractive than carrier treasures. What could he even do with carrier treasures? He did not lack carrier treasures. No, no, he corrected himself. He wouldn't mind gathering more carrier treasures, but he wouldn't be able to do much with them. Googlᴇ search ɴovelfire.net
Meanwhile, the riversand was different. With enough riversand, he would be able to gather pure willpower from blood essence, willpower texts, and many other things. Willpower was extremely important for cultural researchers.
Su Yu might be stronger in his physical cultivation, but it did not signify that cultural researchers were weak.
For example, the various abilities of his characters were extremely helpful. Without those characters, he would only be the same as a regular Sunmoon. Without his characters, he wouldn't have the powerful Mark of Civilization as his weapon. Without his characters, he wouldn't have been able to put up a disguise that could fool even Invincibles.
Without his characters, who would remind him of all incoming danger? Without his characters...he wouldn't have survived until today.
His physical cultivation had outpaced his willpower cultivation, but he had never given up on his willpower character. After all, his characters were why he had been able to survive so well in the Allheaven Battlefield.
That was why he had grown all his characters to the fourth tier. Two of them had even reached the fifth tier.
That was how he gained the ability to defeat those with similar combat strength. If he had only his physical cultivation to rely on, victory against these opponents would have been much harder.
Su Yu continued gathering the riversand in the river. He did not intend to leave before He Tu was here. He would stay here until the very last moment.
Chapter 1429: Massive Harvests (3)
About an hour later.
Su Yu was grimacing while grinning.
"I must have gathered about thirty thousand catties of riversand by now, right?"
He was in a great mood. Everyone else would only count their harvest here in the number of grains. Meanwhile, he was measuring his harvest in weight.
"Heh..."
Su Yu laughed in joy. He would feel exceptionally good whenever he looked at the gigantic boulder stored in his book. If anyone dared to lecture him about how rare riversand was in the future, he would smash them down with his boulder.
He still remembered how mad Bai Feng had grown back when he had stealthily absorbed a tiny bit of willpower in the laboratory previously. The thought of wasting riversand almost caused Bai Feng to cry.
Su Yu wondered if Bai Feng would start frothing from sheer excitement after seeing the giant riversand.
"I can't call it riversand anymore. I should call it riverstone instead."
After storing all the riversand he had gathered, he started rushing toward the back of the waterfall. While gathering the riversand in the river, he had noticed something behind the waterfall. Perhaps that was the smiling mouth lotus he had been looking for.
***
A short while later, he emerged from the other side of the waterfall. His entire body was red from resisting the corrosive power of the water.
A quiet peace and calm enveloped the area behind the waterfall.
A small pond could be found there.
Beside the pond was a stone table. Looking at the table, Su Yu felt like he could see someone sitting here, playing a game of chess while sipping tea many years ago.
Blooming lotuses filled the pond.
It was a beautiful sight.
Su Yu blanked out as he stood there appreciating the sight. Eventually, he felt as though the lotuses were smiling at him. ᴛʜɪs ᴄʜᴀᴘᴛᴇʀ ɪs ᴜᴘᴅᴀᴛᴇ ʙʏ N0veI.Fiɾe.net
"Smiling mouth lotus!"
Su Yu was pleasantly surprised. The lotus was really here!
This was most certainly a place one could reach easily.
He was in no rush to start his harvest. Rather, his gaze settled on the stone table again. Two stone stools rested by its side. Countless years ago, this might have been the spot for incomparably powerful experts to sit in leisure while admiring the waterfall and the lotuses.
Then again, this was only the third level. The so-called experts wouldn't be comparable to the ones on the higher levels. Perhaps this was merely a place of leisure for some Sunmoons or Invincibles, not Pseudo Emperors.
Su Yu approached the table and focused his senses on it. After a while, he shook his head, "This table must have belonged to a broke guy. The table isn't even at the level of a carrier treasure. It's only good enough to serve as material for heaven weapon forging. But it is large enough to be forged into a heaven weapon good enough to serve as a carrier treasure."
It wasn't like Su Yu had no heaven weapons in his possession. He had two heaven weapons suppressed in his book. He had obtained them from his victims earlier. The two weapons were also of decent quality.
A weapon would only be considered a heaven weapon with at least 109 golden stripes. But such a weapon would only be an early heaven weapon. Generally, such weapons wouldn't be strong enough to serve as carrier treasures. At 118 golden stripes, a heaven weapon would reach the middle tier. That would be strong enough to serve as a carrier treasure.
Of the two heaven weapons in Su Yu's possession, one came with 120 golden stripes while the other came with 109 golden stripes. In other words, one of them could serve as a carrier treasure.
"I'll be sure to dismantle them later. Both seem to come from Invincibles. There might be traps in them. I'm better off melting them down before forging them into my book."
Done with his musings, Su Yu collected the table and the stools and stored them away. He did not feel much from this as he had collected way too many treasures as of late. Then, he looked at the pond beside him.
Numerous bright lotuses bloomed on the pond.
What a beautiful sight.
It felt as though countless beauties were smiling at him from the pond.
After only a short moment of staring at them, Su Yu hurriedly shook his head.
What treasures.
These were incredible treasures.
"According to the old turtle, the lotus seeds are highly toxic, the lotus roots are great healing treasures, while the flowers themselves are good for nothing except being pretty. However...the flowers themselves are the real treasures here!"
If people would confuse the smiling mouth lotus with the nine-leaf skylotus even during the ancient past, what about the current era? How many people could still differentiate the two? He had to sell these lotuses at the price of nine-leaf skylotuses.
Of course, he had to keep a low profile while selling them. That way, he could sell the same product to multiple buyers, convincing each of them that they were the sole buyer. In any case, this wasn't something one would show off after buying.
Tsk tsk. It would be reasonable to sell each for a carrier treasure, right?
He looked at the pond again and inhaled in shock. "There are...188 of them here! Holy shit! How am I supposed to find 188 buyers? That is the biggest challenge here. But this isn't something any Invincible can resist. It won't be hard to find 188 Invincibles across the Myriad Realms, but it will be quite hard to find one that won't think of killing and robbing me."
Su Yu was certain that even at a price of one carrier treasure, everyone would fight to buy the lotus from him. More importantly, how should he fool his customers into believing that he had obtained the real nine-leaf skylotus? Otherwise, it wouldn't be easy to carry out this scam.
Only with the real deal in hand would he be able to convince everyone that he wasn't selling a fake product.
"Well, let's harvest them first before thinking more."
He took out numerous jade cases and started gathering the lotuses. He was quite surprised at how tough these lotuses were. They were already comparable to profound weapons in toughness. Of course, for the old turtle, they were still useless. After all, not even earth weapons could impress someone like the old turtle.
Su Yu started studying one of the lotuses. It had nine beautiful blades of leaf on it, with beautiful golden veins on each blade of leaf. As said by the old turtle, the veins were rather chaotic.
Meanwhile, the veins on a true nine-leaf skylotus would be arranged in an orderly manner. Of course, not all nine-leaf skylotuses would be so beautiful. Some of the uglier ones would probably come with some disorderly veins as well.
"Amazing!"
Su Yu did not leave any of the lotuses behind. When he was done with the lotuses, he dove into the pond and harvested their roots. The roots were small, but they were sparkling and translucent, akin to crystals.
"Amazing!"
Su Yu exclaimed in admiration. He wondered if these were natural plants or yet another part of Old Zhou's body.
"They are probably natural plants, right?"
He couldn't think of a body part resembling these lotuses.
Perhaps someone had planted them here after the mansion was built. That was the only thing Su Yu could tell himself. After all, these roots were things he needed to consume. Convincing himself that they were natural plants would make it far easier for him to actually shove them down his throat.
After cleaning one of the roots, he bit down on it. Instantly, he inhaled in shock.
Holy shit! It tasted wonderful!
It was sweet, cool, and refreshing. When he swallowed it, the refreshing sensation spread throughout his body. All his injuries started healing. At the same time, his aura started growing at a rapid pace.
"Good heavens...these roots can basically serve as divine pills. Each lotus is probably comparable to a legendary heaven pill."
Su Yu swallowed and took a second bite. This felt great. It could even help with his recovery. By the time he was done with the root, he had nearly fully recovered from his previous injuries.
"How terrifying. With this thing around, I don't even need to worry about losing my body in the future. I can always eat it to regrow my flesh."
He had harvested hundreds of them. His mood improved even more. The third level was truly a treasure trove.
He had gathered a decent number of treasures at the level of carrier treasures on the first level. He had collected the ancient dragonblood tree on the second level. And on the third level, he had gathered a large amount of riversand and lotuses. The Luminous Domain Mansion was truly filled with treasures. NovelFire
He had a sparkling and translucent lotus seed in hand. It looked exceptionally beautiful, but it was highly toxic. It was perhaps strong enough to kill even Sunmoons. Su Yu was not interested in testing it on his own body. He could save it for some myriad race Sunmoons instead. He wondered if he could fool someone into eating it.
"What a big harvest."
After gathering even more riversand, he started flying upward. He wanted to see if he could get a gallstone as well. But halfway up, his eyes started twitching. He instantly changed his plan and fled without any hesitation.
He decided to forget about the gallstone. As for the liver itself, he did not dare to harvest it. More importantly, he could sense the approach of an intense danger.
He Tu was coming.
"Thank you, He Tu. Thank you for coming so late."
Su Yu felt greatly thankful toward He Tu. Not only had He Tu given him sufficient time to harvest the treasures here, He Tu had even kindly shouldered the blame for him.
He reminded himself to be more polite the next time he met He Tu. For now, he had to leave. With a flicker, he vanished.
***
Some time after Su Yu vanished into the entrance to the next level, He Tu arrived.
By this point, he had gathered over three hundred death spirit subordinates. The moment he arrived, he frowned. The third level...was quite empty.
But that did not matter. The people here were probably dead or gone to the higher levels. There was nothing surprising about that.
But why did he feel a vague sense of discomfort when he arrived? It felt as though someone was plotting against him. And he felt as though more than one person was plotting against him.
He stared at Dummy suspiciously. Had this guy been pretending to be dumb all along? Was this guy plotting against him after recovering more memories? Was that the case?
As he stared at Dummy, Dummy stared back at him blankly. He Tu snorted. Dummy could stop dreaming about scheming against him. It wouldn't succeed. He would be keeping a close eye on Dummy!
For now, it was time for him to sweep through the third level.
At that thought, his mood switched completely. He even started roaring with laughter as he said, "Dummy, go guard the entrance. I'll sweep the third level clean!"
Before long, He Tu's death qi swept through the entire third level. He was in no rush. He wanted to first torment the people here with fear before killing them.
"The fellows outside must be losing their minds by now. Do they enjoy losing so many people? I bet none of them have seen this coming!"
He Tu was feeling very smug. Nobody would expect this. And nobody would know it was him. Why? Because not even he himself had seen this happening. In that case, how would anyone else know it? Those outside must be so confused. After all, he had killed hundreds of people. Were their hearts aching from all the deaths? Hahahaha!
Of the 3,600 people that had entered the mansion, he had killed over 300 of them! He was completely unaware that Su Yu had killed nearly 600 of them. Nor was he aware that the blame had all been thrown his way.
Outside, the various Invincibles and Pseudo Emperors were dying to kill him. He was too hateful. How could he kill so many people?
Even now, the tunnels were still collapsing nonstop. Alas, they had not been able to receive any reply from those inside. That was understandable. The Heavenly Hunt Index was still damaged. Even with the return of its missing pieces, it was no longer whole.
***
"Damn you, He Tu!"
A furious roar rang out.
Even after dying, He Tu was still bringing them so much trouble. As of this moment, the myriad races found He Tu even more hateful than Su Yu.
Chapter 1430: Death List (1)
Fourth level.
The moment Su Yu stepped onto the fourth level, he felt a unique sensation.
The five viscera were akin to an oven, and the bowels were burning.
Su Yu inhaled deeply, sensing the power of the five elements in the air. In the path of cultivation, it was always said that the five viscera corresponded to the five elements. A certain understanding dawned on Su Yu. He must have arrived at the five viscera and six bowels of Old Zhou. Or to be precise, the fourth to the sixth levels were most likely the torso of Old Zhou. The navel would also be somewhere on these levels.
"What about the arms?"
Su Yu suddenly recalled that he had not seen anything resembling an arm. If Old Zhou had really been planted on the ground upside down, his arms might be drooping to the ground. In that case, were the arms in the basement?
Did Old Zhou's arms reach the Death Realm as well? That was possible. As for the fourth level, the source qi in the air was unimaginably thick.
"Are the lungs and heart here?"
The heart was an important organ for any cultivator. Even someone like Su Yu might die when his heart was damaged enough to prevent his body from regenerating. Or to be precise, his physical body would be dead.
In such a situation, his sole option was to preserve his sea of willpower and recultivate his body from scratch. But if the heart was still around, he could always regrow his body. It might be weaker, but his cultivation level would remain.
"If the heart is really here, I can't miss out on it."
Su Yu looked down, his eyes flickering. He Tu was clearly sweeping through every single level. A calamity was coming for all of them for real. Sure, he had killed a lot as well. But he wouldn't wipe every level clean. That was not the case for He Tu. Not a single survivor would be left on any level that he had visited. Su Yu guessed that a large number of people must have perished by now. Perhaps over a thousand people had died so far.
"Tsk tsk. The explorers of this opening sure are unlucky."
Su Yu shook his head. They couldn't blame him for this. Or at the very least, the humans couldn't blame him for this. He was not responsible for the deaths of those humans. With him killing so many myriad race experts, the humans in here should have obtained an upper hand against the myriad races.
Alas, He Tu had arrived as well. And He Tu would not spare anyone. At this rate, the weaklings would need to start joining hands regardless of race. After all, they wouldn't have the option of fleeing to the higher levels.
After all, the higher the level, the more dangerous it would be. Even on the fourth level, Su Yu could feel a burning sensation in the air. A weakling would not be able to last long here.
"Wu Lan and the others are very weak..."
Su Yu frowned. Those people were only Skysoars. They could survive on the bottom three levels. But just staying on the fourth level would be a form of torture for them.
"How many people are there on the fourth level? Are there any Sunmoons here?"
This was a level where he could perhaps start encountering Sunmoons. The younger or weaker Sunmoons would most likely be here, including people like Liu Wenyan. Of course, this was already the fourth day. They might have moved on to a higher level by now.
***
The fourth level was framed on the two sides by two massive mountains that were visible throughout the level. At the point where the two mountains joined, a V-shaped canyon could be seen. From the shape of the terrain here, Su Yu would most likely conclude that this was the location of Old Zhou's lungs.
At the moment, people could be seen all over the two mountains.
The lungs were meant for breathing. This was the place where both air and source qi would pass through when entering and exiting the human body.
Compared to the other levels, the fourth level was rather peaceful. That was because the environment here was extremely beneficial for cultivation. Cultivating at the peaks of the two mountains would greatly strengthen one's body. The effect of a single breath taken there would surpass the effect elsewhere by a hundred or even a thousand times. Google seaʀᴄh novelFɪre.net
The fourth level was the world of the five viscera and six bowels. It was the place where the flame of the internal organs burned. But if one could survive this environment and cultivate on the two peaks, a refreshing sensation would envelop them, protecting them from the burning sensation of the fourth level.
Thus, the fourth level was a popular place for many to further strengthen themselves. At the moment, almost all the surviving experts below the Sunmoon Realm were gathered on the fourth level. After all, those on the lower levels had all died.
There were about 2,200 survivors left in the mansion and about 1,500 of them were gathered on the fourth level. Even the human race had over three hundred people on the fourth level.
The group led by Xia Huyou had joined up with the other humans not long after their arrival. They had taken over the mountain to the east. There were about three hundred of them. These were all the remaining human survivors below the Sunmoon Realm.
The rest, including those who had fled the first and second levels earlier, had perished as well.
***
At the moment, a group of humans was cultivating while listening to Xia Huyou's story about what had happened on the lower levels.
As they listened, their wariness grew.
Death spirits had entered the mansion.
Invincible death spirits.
The strongest among this group of humans was Zhu Guangshen, the child of Zhu Tiandao and the father of Zhu Hongliang. He was a first-stage Sunmoon, so he had been staying on the fourth level.
Listening to Xia Huyou's story, he frowned and said, "Junior Huyou, are you saying that the death spirit killed hundreds of people instantly with a book emitting a saintly power?"
"Yes."
Xia Huyou nodded. Inwardly, he was wondering if this guy knew about Su Yu's book. A weaponized book was extremely rare. But it was not rare enough that one would never see one in action.
As for Su Yu's book, many had seen it during its forging. But they had only seen the projection of the book. None of them knew its actual appearance. Furthermore, it was still an earth weapon back then.
Meanwhile, the book that had killed so many people in the mansion was incomparably powerful. It was at least a heaven weapon.
Zhu Guangshen asked again, "And that death spirit was capable of speech. He even claimed that He Tu is coming?"
"Yes."
"He Tu..." Zhu Guangshen sank into thought.
A confused cultivator asked, "Prince, who is this He Tu?"
"Who's He Tu?" Zhu Guangshen took some time to rearrange his thoughts before answering, "I don't know much about him. But didn't Su Yu mention him briefly not long ago? He threatened to learn from He Tu if the myriad races continued pushing him. After that incident, humanity performed an investigation on He Tu." NovelFire
After a slight hesitation, he continued, "I only heard this from my uncle..."
That attracted a lot of attention. As the former head of the Yellow Department, very few people in the Myriad Realms knew as much as Zhu Tianfang.
"He Tu was a human expert during the first epoch."
Zhu Guangshen said, "Between our era and the ancient past, there were nine epochal wars. The so-called epochal war is a war involving the entire Myriad Realms. At the end of each war, the Allheaven Battlefield would shut its connection to the various realms. And He Tu was a human expert during the first epochal war. Including the time the Allheaven Battlefield was shut, each epoch would last about ten thousand years.
"Thus, He Tu was someone from about a hundred thousand years ago. For his legend to survive until today, it is clear he was one of the greatest individuals in the first epoch.
"Born after the great collapse, he descended from a supreme expert of the ancient past. During the first epoch, He Tu made his name in the Allheaven Battlefield. He was...akin to Su Yu..."
"Looking at the other humans, he laughed bitterly and said, "Yes. He was very similar to Su Yu. He was freakishly talented. He was able to grow rapidly. In a short time, he became an Invincible. Like Su Yu, he was excellent at causing trouble. Before long, he became a wanted figure of the various Pseudo Emperors. Desperate, he resorted to becoming the mayor of Grand Dream City to protect his life."
"This...is indeed very similar to Su Yu's path."
The others couldn't help but nod with surprise.
Zhu Guangshen inhaled deeply and continued, "Subsequently, he vanished from the public eye for a while. By the time the middle period of the era arrived, everyone had nearly forgotten about him. They had discounted him because he had bound himself to the ancient city.
"However, He Tu was unwilling to accept such a fate. He was unwilling to remain a side character of that era. He was unwilling to live the rest of his life like that. Thus, near the end of that era, he returned. He returned with an army of death spirits, sweeping through the Myriad Realms and triggering a war that lasted hundreds of years.
"Eventually, he lost control of the death spirits, forcing the guardian to seal the death tunnel and sever his source of death qi and death spirits before personally killing him. That was how the final war of the first epoch ended."
At that, Xia Huyou asked, "How did he lead the death spirits outside the ancient city? Also, weren't the ancient cities bound by the heavenly laws? Why did they not stop him in the beginning? Why did they wait until the very end?"
"I don't know." Zhu Tiandao shook his head, "It has been too long. Not even the Heavenly Hunt Pavilion has too many records from that era. I heard that since then, He Tu had remained in the death tunnel of Grand Dream City. Since he had consumed the life death fruit before, he had been able to retain some of his memories. Thus, he never gave up on invading the world of the living. But after so long, he has returned."
Someone exclaimed in excitement, "He's a human!"
Zhu Guangshen smiled, "He was a human. Do you believe that he will spare your life just because he used to be a human?"
What was this guy thinking?
Zhu Guangshen added, "Even if he's not dead, do you think a ruthless overlord like him will care about bugs like us? He Tu was one of the main figures of the first epoch. He had waged war across the Myriad Realms and taken countless lives, including the lives of Invincibles. Why would he care about the lives of insignificant beings like us?"
At that, the expressions of many changed.
"He's already on the third level. What...should we do now?"
Some of them would not be able to survive climbing another level. Sure, there were many experts on the seventh level, including some Invincibles. But could they survive the climb? Furthermore, that place would be even more dangerous. The human Invincibles were greatly outnumbered by the myriad race Invincibles. Up there, any carelessness could kill weaklings like them.
With how strong He Tu was back then, the Invincibles in the mansion might not be a match for him. Could they even handle He Tu?
Someone asked, "Prince Huyou, is the messenger death spirit an Invincible as well? Only Invincible death spirits can speak. Since the death spirit was a human, and he even helped you, can we negotiate with He Tu through him?"
Xia Huyou shook his head, "That's unlikely. In any case, I don't have the courage to face him again. If you're feeling brave, you can try meeting him. Death spirits might retain some of their past memories, but that does not mean that they will consider themselves the same person. The messenger felt...too sinister to me. I won't be attempting further contact with him. Do not place your hope on negotiations. Negotiations will only work when both parties are similar in strength. When the gap is too big, attempting a negotiation is the same as delivering yourself to them."
The more they listened, the more anxious they felt. A different person said, "Prince Zhu, what do you think about the book mentioned by Prince Huyou?"
"That might be He Tu's weapon." Zhu Guangshen explained, "The weapon He Tu used back when he made his name was a book as well. Perhaps he had forged himself a new weapon after dying."
"No wonder it felt so sinister."
Xia Huyou was unsure if this was the truth or if Zhu Guangshen was simply playing along to cover for Su Yu. However, that did not stop him from making use of this opening to say more. "No wonder the book felt both saintly and demonic at the same time. If that's He Tu's lifebound weapon, then its strength is understandable."
A youth in the group said, "It's pointless to talk about all that now. Everyone, what should we do now? The fourth level is the best place for cultivation. The higher levels will be a lot more dangerous. However, staying will also spell our death."
Zhu Guangshen looked at a certain spot on the same mountain peak. They were not the only ones here. Many people were here, including a group of immortals.
As for the divines and devils, they had converged on the other peak. Altogether, there were about seven to eight hundred people on both peaks.
Zhu Guangshen could be considered a senior of theirs. Furthermore, he was a Sunmoon. After thinking about it, he said, "The fifth level is dangerous, but this is a crisis for all of us. We might need to consider joining hands with the others to face the crisis."
"Joining hands with these people?" Someone protested, "Just leave them here to die. We're better off challenging the fifth level by ourselves."
Zhu Guangshen laughed and said, "You won't be able to keep this a secret from them for long. Not all survivors of the third level are humans. I saw a few from the other races as well."
That was true.
Not long after the arrival of Xia Huyou's group, some other survivors had arrived on the fourth level as well. At the time, Su Yu was busy harvesting his treasures to kill those people. Thus, they had been able to escape.
Therefore, the group of immortals on the same mountain appeared quite alarmed as well.
Chapter 1431: Death List (2)
Words started spreading.
Soon, even those on the other peak and those in the canyon heard about the death spirits as well. A suffocating atmosphere enveloped everyone.
An Invincible.
The strongest experts on the fourth level were merely some Sunmoons who had yet to even reach the middle stage. With such strength, even a high-stage Sunmoon was enough to slaughter them all.
The fourth level was truly a great place for cultivation. Many had achieved breakthroughs after cultivating for only three days here. Unless absolutely necessary, nobody wanted to leave.
Alas, Invincible death spirits were climbing the levels as well. If they remained, they might die.
Staying was definitely out of the question. But how should they leave? Who should they leave with? Should they leave alone? These were the questions the various races had to consider.
It would be safer for them to leave together. But the hatred between them was too big for them to accept working together. However, the entrance to the fifth level wasn't a safe place. Some of the weaker cultivators wouldn't even survive the transference without the protection of someone stronger.
***
Just then, Su Yu reached one of the two mountains. He was strolling leisurely while cultivating his breathing technique. In truth, he hadn't been using the breathing technique much nowadays. But when he tested it on this level, it was surprisingly effective.
"The spine acupoint is probably in one of the middle levels. I need to look for this acupoint and find out how it works..."
According to Su Yu's judgment, the mountain he was on was most likely a lung.
"The spine acupoint shouldn't be too far from here. Is the heart here as well? If not here, it will probably be on the fifth level. And in that case, the spine acupoint might also be on the fifth level."
That was Su Yu's conclusion after comparing the terrain with the anatomy of the human body. He needed to figure out the operational method of two more acupoints: the spine acupoint and the Heaven Connecting Acupoint.
The location of the Heaven Connecting Acupoint was rather awkward. It was most likely on the seventh level. The spine acupoint could be here or the next level.
Unfortunately, he would need to call Tai Shan's name upon encountering the acupoint. But doing so would allow those outside to contact those inside. That was not what he wanted to see.
"When I shout, the tremors will be the strongest on the same level. In that case, the message from the outside world will most likely reach only those on this level instead of those on the higher levels..."
Su Yu started thinking while cultivating the breathing method. Before long, he reached the waist of the mountain. After spreading his senses around, he grinned. The divines and devils made up the majority of the cultivators on this mountain.
There were so many of them here. It was likely that almost all the people below the Sunmoon Realm were here, excluding the geniuses who had left for the higher levels and those who had perished on the lower levels.
In fact, there were even some ancient race members here. Some of them were members of races Su Yu had never encountered before. He hadn't even forged the pages for these races. Perhaps he would need to add even more pages to his book. The existing 301 pages might not be enough to store his harvest on this level.
"There are about seven to eight hundred of them. They won't be so easy to kill anymore."
Even Su Yu wouldn't dare to lightly challenge such a group. Any carelessness might allow them to make use of their trump cards like heaven weapons and Invincible blood essence. That would not be good.
With how peaceful things were on the fourth level, it wouldn't even be easy for him to find a chance to assassinate them separately. ɴᴇᴡ ɴᴏᴠᴇʟ ᴄʜᴀᴘᴛᴇʀs ᴀʀᴇ ᴘᴜʙʟɪsʜᴇᴅ ᴏɴ novel fire.net
While deep in thought, Su Yu concealed himself and approached a random person nearby. When he was a few hundred meters away, he stopped. His mood instantly improved upon hearing them talking about He Tu.
Someone nearby said, "Previously, the index copies shook repeatedly. Did anyone feel that? Are the people outside trying to contact us?"
"We need to inform them about He Tu's arrival. We need the Invincibles from the upper levels to do something about this. It's far too dangerous for us to climb the levels. It would be much better if a few Invincibles could come down and deal with He Tu instead."
Sure enough, they had noticed the reaction of the index copies earlier. However, Su Yu doubted that those from the upper levels could come down so easily or someone would have done so by now. Someone even started suggesting an alliance with those on the other mountain to enter the next level together.
"I guess I have to face them head-on if I want to kill them."
Su Yu decided to disguise himself as a death spirit before attacking them head-on. He doubted that they would stay and fight upon seeing a death spirit. It was more likely that they would all turn tail and flee.
It wouldn't be a bad idea to let them spread this news to those on the fifth and sixth levels. After learning about the arrival of death spirits, everyone would be too occupied to look for Su Yu. He could even borrow their mouths to send more messages to the outside world, further validating the fact that He Tu was indeed the culprit.
Naturally, Su Yu only needed to keep his involvement hidden while he was still in the mansion. It would stop mattering when he was out of the mansion. Back in his ancient city, he would have nothing to fear.
***
Su Yu reached a decision.
He would fight them head-on and kill as many of them as he could. It wouldn't hurt him to scare everyone off the fourth level. It was pointless to think too much about this. He had to act before someone started doubting the fact that He Tu was in the mansion.
He looked around and noticed many familiar faces. Those he could recognize would either be experts or cultural researchers. Very good. He was in need of cultural researchers for their blood essence. These people would be his priority target.
Su Yu stopped hesitating and sent his book into the void. Then, he reversed his acupoints and shrouded himself in death qi.
Instantly, several Sunmoons sensed something. Some looked up doubtfully while some frowned. Abruptly, one of them shouted, "Leave!"
They had to leave now. The crisis seemed to have arrived. They were out of time. f r\eeNovelFire.c(o)(m)
Right at that moment, a massive book appeared in the sky. He Tu's name could be seen on the cover of the book. The two characters were quite faint. Only the top experts could see them. And upon seeing the two characters, they all paled.
"Leave! Now!"
The Sunmoons started fleeing after grabbing the people under their charge. He Tu had arrived! Or perhaps this was merely the messenger of He Tu.
"Join the death spirits, gain eternity." Shrouded in death qi, Su Yu stepped out of the void and declared, "Only death is eternal."
Boom!
The book descended and consumed dozens of experts. The others started fleeing. They felt nothing except fear. Nobody dared to consider resisting. After all, that was an Invincible death spirit. This was not something they could handle. Even if this death spirit wasn't an Invincible, his appearance was still a signal that He Tu was arriving soon.
"Heed Lord He Tu, join the kingdom of death, gain eternity..."
Su Yu continued mumbling as he walked on thin air while spreading death qi everywhere. Anyone his death qi touched, he would stun with his hammer stealthily before swallowing them with his book.
The sight of that merely served to further increase the panic of the others.
Too strong! Correct content is on NovelFire
After all, even peak Mountainseas had been instantly consumed by Su Yu through this method. The divines, devils, and dragons were Su Yu's priority targets.
If they had joined hands to face him, he might not have been able to defeat them. However, they were too frightened by the prospect of facing an Invincible death spirit. Thus, they could only flee while Su Yu took them down one after another.
***
Not far away.
The distance between the two mountains was quite big. Even so, someone on the other mountain still noticed something. He exclaimed in alarm, "That...run! Run now! The death spirits are here!"
He then fled with his team without bothering to say more. And thus, those on the second mountain started fleeing as well. There were hundreds of them. However, they were feeling both alarmed and relieved at the same time. Fortunately, the death spirits had picked the other mountain to assault first.
Numerous people could be seen fleeing in the direction of the entrance to the fifth level. Behind them, Su Yu was starting to sweat from exhaustion. There were too many people to kill. And all of them were fleeing. Thus, killing them was a tiring task.
Eventually, Su Yu sneaked a drop of seventh-stage Sunmoon blood essence into his mouth and swallowed it. With that, both his strength and aura grew, allowing him to stride forward and pluck lives from the escaping individuals with the Book of Death in hand.
Once covered by the book, escape would be impossible. That was the conclusion the fleeing people had reached. They must not allow the book to cover them.
Those who had caught sight of He Tu's name on the book found themselves growing even more terrified of the book. The name itself was akin to a death sentence, and a mere gaze at it would seemingly show them their past and future lives.
Run!
Everyone fled in panic and fear.
The fourth level had turned into hell.
In their rush to escape, some of the weaker cultivators were unable to keep suppressing the burning effect on the fourth level. Eventually, they died to the burning of their five viscera and six bowels. Whenever Su Yu stumbled upon such corpses, he would sigh with regret at their incomplete state.
Chapter 1432: Death List (3)
Outside.
More tunnels collapsed.
Thirty, fifty...
Both Su Yu and He Tu were killing simultaneously.
There were quite a lot of survivors on the third level when Su Yu left. Su Yu might be efficient in killing, but he had not bothered to search for them. As many of them were spread all over the level, many had survived by the time he was done. Meanwhile, that was not the case for He Tu.
This was already the fourth day.
Even more tunnels were collapsing.
From 3,600 tunnels, the number dropped to 2,100. And before long, it dropped to 2,000.
After some time, it dropped to 1,900.
In less than half an hour, about 300 people had died.
An Invincible roared furiously, "Is there no solution for this? Are we going to wait until He Tu reaches the higher levels and starts killing the Sunmoons?"
For now, most of the deaths only involved those below the Sunmoon Realm. But when He Tu reached the higher levels, could those Sunmoons stop him? The Invincibles were all on the seventh level. There was no guarantee that they knew what was happening.
Many of the Sunmoons were Invincible descendants. They had all entered the mansion to gather treasures for their seniors. The Invincibles couldn't help but feel anxious about this.
Someone said, "Is the Heavenly Hunt Pavilion still incapable of sending a message inside? Tell everyone to flee. Flee to the seventh level. Tell those on the seventh level to stop fighting among themselves. Unless they can handle He Tu, all of them will die. Back then, He Tu was already near the Daofuse Realm. Even after dying, he is no weaker than a seventh-degree Eternal. How many of the Eternals in there can deal with him?"
The scholar from the Heavenly Hunt Pavilion still looked calm. He said, "He Tu won't be able to achieve victory on the seventh level."
After all, the Heaven Department head was in there as well.
That was someone only a step away from achieving Daofuse.
The scholar was more confused about the failure of the Heavenly Hunt Index to send more messages into the mansion. Previously, they had received the message containing He Tu's name right after he made the attempt. After giving it some thought, he said, "There is no way to send any messages in there for now. We need the White Jade Gate to shake. That is the only opening to send a message inside. We also need to inform those inside that contact can only be maintained when the White Jade Gate is shaking."
A realization came to everyone. That was indeed the case. When they received the message previously, the White Jade Gate had been shaking. In that case, when would the gate shake again? f r\eeNovelFire.c(o)(m)
Helplessness sank in. Previously, they were worried about the shaking gate. Now, they had to start praying for the gate to shake again. At this rate, everyone inside would die. It was only the fourth day. And half of the people inside were already dead. This was a heavy loss for many.
This was especially true for the divines and devils. In the latest round of deaths, very few immortals had died. However, the divines and devils had died in swathes. Some of the Invincibles were going mad after losing all their people inside.
"Damn it!"
"He Tu! I won't forget this!"
Meanwhile, Dao King was sneering inwardly. Were they finally worried now?
Were they finally angry?
He had calmed down significantly. Three of his people were still alive. A seventh-stage Sunmoon, a ninth-stage Sunmoon, and his grandson, Dao Cheng.
Of the thirteen he had sent inside, ten had died. Previously, he felt terrible. But now, he wasn't feeling as bad anymore.
After all, some divine and devil kings had lost everyone inside. But that was mostly limited to those who could only send those below the Sunmoon Realm inside. The slaughter inside the mansion continued, but the speed had slowed down considerably. It wasn't that Su Yu had stopped. Rather, many had fled to the next level.
***
Entrance to the fifth level.
Only those at the Mountainsea Realm or beyond could open this entrance. And even Mountainseas would find this a dangerous entrance to brave. With the raging flames around the entrance, any carelessness could kill them.
Even so, they still braved the danger without a second thought. The weaker cultivators started stepping into the entrance under the protection of the stronger cultivators. From afar, Su Yu saw that some had even started fighting among themselves for the right to enter the entrance first. He also saw that some of the humans and immortals had departed, but some were still in the middle of leaving.
Suddenly, he sent a voice transmission, "Wait."
Amid the crowd, Yellow Nine's eyes flickered. When she looked behind her, she saw Su Yu standing far away from the crowd. The moment she saw him, she cursed inwardly.
This guy was a butcher through and through.
There were about seven to eight hundred divines and devils on the mountain. Over two hundred had been killed by him. Even now, he was still killing. The number of deaths was starting to reach three hundred. However, she had to obey due to the presence of the little furball in her head.
She silently slowed down and engaged a random person nearby in combat. By the time Xia Huyou and the others turned to look for her, she had moved far away from them. Xia Huyou opened his mouth to speak, but he suddenly stopped as he thought of something. Then, he gnashed his teeth and said, "We go. She will cover our retreat."
Everyone knew that the death spirit behind them was incomparably dangerous. But Xia Huyou knew that there was no danger. Since Yellow Nine was not leaving, she must have received a message from Su Yu.
As the other humans started leaving, Qin Fang shouted, "Don't give up on anyone! I'll stay and watch our backs! How can you leave a woman behind to die?"
Xia Huyou and the others merely looked at him like they were looking at a fool. This guy...well, he was kind. But this was pointless.
Left with no choice, Xia Huyou said, "Come with us. You're a Qin. We still need your guidance on the upper levels. Things will only get more dangerous. Come with us! Hundreds of people are relying on you!"
Qin Fang had an unsightly expression. After letting out an indignant roar, he joined them.
He had to go.
This was his responsibility to shoulder.
Before leaving, he roared again, "Comrade, if you survive this, even as a cripple, I'll take you as my wife and take care of you for the rest of your life!"
***
Far away from the group, Yellow Nine curled her lips and rolled her eyes.
The Qin Family?
Who would want to marry a dumb guy like that? As time passed, fewer and fewer people remained.
Nobody was willing to stay behind. Everyone was terrified of the death spirit.
***
It took a while for Su Yu to finish killing those unable to leave on time.
Yellow Nine had also killed a few individuals who had stood in her way.
When silence returned, Yellow Nine asked, "Yes?"
Su Yu did not bother saying much. He tossed her a storage ring and said, "It's dangerous up there. It doesn't matter if you die, but I'm worried that Wu Lan and the others won't survive. There are some treasures here. Hand it to them and have them consume these treasures. I have treasures capable of regrowing flesh and bones from nothing in there as well. Tell them to grow as soon as possible. He Tu is really here. I don't know how long it will take him to climb to the higher levels."
Yellow Nine indifferently sent her willpower into the storage ring. Instantly, she froze. She stared at Su Yu with disbelief. This guy...was truly generous at times.
She saw many treasures in there. Some of them were the treasures she had been eyeing earlier. However, Su Yu had not given her the chance to harvest anything.
Su Yu said, "Furball, keep an eye on her. Remember to hand these treasures to them. If you hand even one less item to them, you die. One more thing. Don't be in a rush to enter the seventh level. Hollow might be there. Without me around, you might fall for their tricks."
That was his message to the little furball.
The little furball emerged from Yellow Nine's head and said sulkingly, "Can I eat her now? I want to stay with you."
Su Yu laughed with amusement and said, "Enough about that. Go. Don't drag this out or the others might start suspecting you."
He looked at Yellow Nine and said, "My Teacher Liu might be on the fifth or the sixth level. But he's definitely not on the seventh level. Remember to verify your bloodline with him when you see him." Follow current novᴇls on N0v3l.Fiɾe.net
Yellow Nine said nothing.
Su Yu looked around, exhaled, and said, "Go. I will be staying here for a bit."
Yellow Nine left without saying anything.
Peace returned to the fourth level.
A decently large number of people had died before the rest could flee. According to Su Yu's estimate, about half of the people here had died.
"There are probably fewer than two thousand survivors in the mansion now."
As for the Mark of Civilization, the 110th golden stripe was on the verge of fully appearing. It might appear fully after a few more kills. With the growth of the book, the projections from the pages had also grown much stronger.
That was especially true for the divine, devil, and immortal pages. The projections in those pages had grown to second-stage Sunmoons. Even those pages looked much shinier than before. Each page was already at the level of an earth weapon. Some were already starting to evolve into the next tier.
"By the time I'm done, each page will probably be a heaven weapon while the book will be a divine weapon..."
At that thought, even Su Yu inhaled in shock. He couldn't help but wonder about the grade of the book forged by the previous Time Sage. Was the golden book in his head the Mark of Civilization of the previous Time Sage?
"The Heavenly Hunt Index is related to my golden book, but what's the relationship? When the Heavenly Hunt Index attempts to establish contact with those inside the Luminous Domain Mansion, the golden book reacted..."
Su Yu sank into thought. Was that a connection between the page of a book and a book? Was the golden book in his mind incomplete?
"The Heavenly Hunt Index is capable of ranking and listing the strength of the various experts. It's more like a catalog..."
Su Yu had forged a proper book instead of a catalog. But he started wondering if the previous Time Sage had forged a catalog instead of a proper book. Were the ranks and gathering of auras merely a way to assist the Time Sage in corpse collection?
"Right! Corpse collection!"
At the Time Sage's level, collecting regular corpses would probably be a waste of time. Only geniuses and experts were worth collecting. The Time Sage would most likely be a picky corpse collector. View the correct content at NovelFire
"No way...are those so-called genius rankings...merely a list of corpses to be collected?"
Understanding dawned on Su Yu. Right. If he were the Time Sage, he would most likely forge something like that as well. Unlike him, the Time Sage would not be desperate enough to collect any corpse available for collection. Someone at the level of the Time Sage could afford to be picky.
"Heavenly Hunt Index? Heh, it's merely a death list."
Su Yu curled his lips with disdain. Why was he so proud in the past for topping the ranking? That would only make him a priority corpse for the Time Sage to collect.
Chapter 1433: Level After Level (1)
Finally, the truth behind the Heavenly Hunt Pavilion was exposed before Su Yu. It was essentially the caretaker of a list. A list of corpses to be collected.
"What ruthlessness."
Su Yu was not talking about himself. Rather, he was talking about the previous Time Sage. Wasn't that crazy? That mysterious Time Sage had created a catalog covering the entire Myriad Realms, recording the presence of every single expert and genius in existence.
Normally, the Time Sage could spend his time sleeping or picking up girls. Whenever the catalog uwas pdated, he would go out and harvest some corpses. Of course, the harvest was probably not something to be done frequently or the Time Sage wouldn't have been able to remain so mysterious.
Even so, the previous Time Sage had most definitely harvested a lot of corpses. Su Yu greatly suspected that back then, anyone on the list would die. It was only a matter of time.
"Hehehe...Isn't sowing chaos across the Myriad Realms the number one mission of the Heavenly Hunt Pavilion? That's very understandable. Without chaos, it would be hard to explain the deaths of so many geniuses."
"Heavenly Hunt Pavilion..."
Su Yu wondered if sowing chaos had truly been the mission of the pavilion during the ancient past.
Little did Su Yu know, he was wrong here. Back during the ancient past, the Heavenly Hunt Pavilion did not exist for the purpose of sowing chaos. That had only become its mission after the ancient past collapsed, as chaos was what the scholar required.
***
At the same time.
With most people having escaped or been killed, the tunnels stopped collapsing.
About half the people who had entered the mansion were left. There were roughly 1,800 of them. With the recent wave of deaths, even more auras vanished from the Heavenly Hunt Index. These were the auras of those who had died in the mansion.
Inside the Heavenly Hunt Pavilion, the scholar frowned. A lot of index geniuses had died. But something felt off this time.
Looking at the shaking Heavenly Hunt Index, he frowned and muttered to himself, "Why...does it feel the same even after so many deaths?
The Heavenly Hunt Pavilion was an ancient past organization meant to supervise the Myriad Realms. Back then, it was officially known as the Heavenly Supervising Pavilion. The Heavenly Hunt Pavilion was merely its unofficial name.
After being the Heavenly Overseer Marquis for so long, the scholar knew that each time an index genius died, the Heavenly Hunt Index would receive some benefits. Each death would provide the index with a burst of power which could be used to repair the index.
However, something felt off this time. The Heavenly Hunt Index had received nothing even after so many deaths.
"Why? Is it due to the chaos in the Luminous Domain Mansion? Was He Tu so strong that his victims couldn't leak anything back to the index?"
The scholar sank into thought.
Upon death, one's willpower and source qi would scatter and return to nature. The Heavenly Hunt Index would be able to absorb a portion of the dispersed energy as long as the person who had perished was an index genius.
The scholar had personally defined that energy as the power of luck.
Yes. Luck.
Every index genius was someone blessed by fortune. When such a person died, their luck would return to nature. The scholar wasn't exactly sure about the nature of the power the Heavenly Hunt Index was absorbing, but he knew that the index had indeed been repairing itself through the dispersed energy of dead index geniuses.
Thus, he had defined that unique power as luck.
Luck. Imperceptible and enigmatic.
During the previous openings of the Luminous Domain Mansion, the Heavenly Hunt Index would still benefit from the deaths of the index geniuses in the mansion. It wasn't happening this time.
"Why?"
Once again, the scholar sank into thought. After a long while, he gazed at the distant city. Grandstar City. His eyes flickered.
Su Yu had forged a book. He had triggered the blood tribulation of the assembly. The scholar was highly suspicious of that book. This was also the case with Tiangu and the others. Was that...the Book of Time?
The scholar frowned. During the ancient past, any weapon resembling a book would remind everyone of the Time Sage so long as the weapon was powerful enough. That was why some had once suspected that his direct superior was the Time Sage.
His direct superior was not the Human Emperor. However, that was a supreme expert second only to the Human Emperor. That supreme expert was also the true master of the Heavenly Hunt Index.
The Heavenly Hunt Index did not resemble a book too much. It was merely a list. But it was too powerful that it once attracted a lot of suspicion.
"Lord Culture King, are you back?"
The scholar was unsure.
In the ancient past, the Human Emperor conquered the Myriad Realms. During the conquest, he was accompanied by his two best friends. After the conquest, the Human Emperor started conferring titles to the various experts in existence. Ranked second after him was the Culture King, with the Martial King ranked third after him.
The two were ranked even higher than the various Pseudo Emperors. Both were incomparably powerful.
There were even rumors claiming that they were no weaker than the Human Emperor. However, the Culture King enjoyed keeping a low profile while the Martial King was extremely barbaric. The Martial King once said in private that the Culture King was stronger than he was. The Culture King might even be stronger than the Human Emperor.
Numerous thoughts emerged in the scholar's mind, but he quickly suppressed those thoughts. He couldn't help but recall the appearance of the Culture King. That smile. That gentle disposition.
The sheer thought of the Culture King caused the scholar to shiver all over.
"Sigh."
The scholar sighed. No. The Culture King was long dead. Nobody knew how he had died. Some claimed that he had encountered an obstacle in cultivation. Some claimed that he was the Time Sage who had met his end in the hands of the assembly. Some also claimed that his prestige was so high that the Human Emperor killed him after feeling threatened.
In any case, his death had severed the legacy of the cultural researchers. The so-called Culture Tomb was none other than his tomb. It was a tomb the various human cultural researchers had erected in remembrance of him.
Not long after the Culture King's death, chaos returned to the Myriad Realms. Perhaps his death was the trigger for everything.
The scholar was not an important individual during the ancient past. Thus, he did not know too much about the collapse. But he knew that if the Culture King had been around, the collapse might not have happened.
The Culture King was dead. The Martial King was missing. The Human Emperor...
The scholar muttered to himself again, "Was it Su Yu? If it was him, has he obtained the legacy of my lord?"
The scholar was unsure. He didn't even dare to think too much about his unfathomable superior. He was terrified of his superior. He didn't even fear the barbaric Martial King that much.
The Culture King would always carry himself with a gentle air of indifference, as though nothing in the Myriad Realms could trouble him. Yet someone like him had died. Nobody knew how he had died.
Once again, the scholar looked at the Heavenly Hunt Index. Without its master, the index had weakened significantly. It had further weakened after it was broken apart. Over the many years, it had repaired itself somewhat, but it was still a shadow of its former self.
The scholar couldn't think of an answer for all that had happened today. He had been trying to refine the index into his personal ownership for many years, but he had yet to succeed. It belonged to the Culture King. Even with the Culture King dead, it couldn't be taken away from the Culture King so easily.
"Is the great chaos upon us? Will things be different in the tenth epoch?"
He looked outside, looking at the various ancient fossils that had returned as of late. Like him, they must have sensed the incoming change. His instincts had been shouting at him that a major change was coming.
Something major would happen soon. It was likely that these fossils had also sensed something similar: a threat to their very being. People at their level were extremely hard to kill. The ancient past was no more. In this era, Daofuse was the ceiling. How could people like them still die?
Take the Devil Emperor as an example. Even a weakling like him was able to survive the attack of the two soul devourers. If even someone like that was so hard to kill, real ancient Daofuses would be much harder to kill.
At that, the scholar started thinking about Soy Bun. That was someone...with an unusual relationship with the Culture King. For some reason, he had produced a descendant. And the said descendant had joined Su Yu. Was this a sign?
The scholar couldn't stop thinking about all that.
Standing atop the Heavenly Hunt Pavilion with his hands clasped behind him, the scholar sank into melancholy. After surviving for so many years, was it time for him to meet his reckoning?
He looked at all the old fossils floating in the sky. These were all nobodies back then. Now, they were the rulers of the Myriad Realms. Would they allow humanity to reconquer the Myriad Realms?
Could Su Yu...do it?
To do so, he had to get through these fossils. Just look at He Tu. Even someone like him had turned into a death spirit.
Suddenly, the White Jade Gate trembled.
Instantly, someone shouted, "Send the message! Do it now!"
***
Fourth level.
Su Yu was quite disappointed to find that there wasn't anything interesting to harvest on the fourth level. He had merely strengthened his acupoints slightly after cultivating his breathing technique here.
Unwilling to accept this result, Su Yu decided to look around for the heart. The heart shouldn't be too far from the lungs, right? Alas, he found nothing. Was the heart on the fifth level? Or had the heart been destroyed during Old Zhou's defeat?
Helpless, Su Yu could only return to the entrance. He was unsure if the entrance was also the spine acupoint. After shouting Tai Shan's name, he stood there observing the entrance while Old Zhou raged. NovelFire
After some time, he confirmed that this wasn't the spine acupoint. In that case, the spine acupoint would be on the fifth level. The sixth level would probably contain the One Hundred Openings. Fınd the newest release on NoveI~Fire.net
Su Yu had also taken the opportunity to send some confusing messages out while Old Zhou was raging.
"Save...death spirit invasion...help..."
That was all. Naturally, that was the message he had sent from one of his index copies. He had also sent several other confusing messages through the other index copies, making it look as though all these messages had been sent in a rush. Before long, every index copy in Su Yu's hand received the same message.
"Go to the seventh level. Everyone on the seventh level, stop all infighting. Defend the seventh level and kill He Tu. Contact us again when the mansion is shaking."
Yes. That was the sole message sent from the outside. Everyone was told to enter the seventh level. Those on the seventh level were told to stop infighting and focus on killing He Tu first. That was their sole priority.
If He Tu was not dealt with, they would lose even more.