Chapter 997: Source Qi Nine Transformations, Underwater Topsoil (2)
"Just how much will the transformation change my source qi?"
Su Yu was unsure. More importantly...
He had 360 acupoints! But only 144 of his acupoints were undergoing the first transformation. What was he supposed to do with the rest? After the transformation, was he a first-stage Cloudbreach or a Skysoar in physical cultivation?
Su Yu was feeling quite troubled. He would grow stronger, but that might also lead to an imbalance between his acupoints and a drop of control over his own strength. That would be very troublesome. To avoid this, he had to transform all his acupoints.
"More importantly, my 144 acupoints are using Prefect Xia's saber qi for the first transformation. If I want to transform my other acupoints as well, I need to look for treasures of a similar level as the base if I want to maintain the balance between my acupoints..."
Su Yu felt like coughing blood. Holy shit! In that case, did he need to find something as powerful as Xia Longwu's saber qi to act as the base? Wasn't Xia Longwu basically a pseudo Invincible already? So if he wanted to open the acupoints he opened through the cultivation method of the divines, he had to absorb the power of a pseudo Invincible divine?
And the same for his devil acupoints? He had 360 acupoints, and he had opened them through the cultivation methods of almost all the major races. Was he supposed to absorb the power of so many pseudo Invincibles? Was that a joke?
Of course, he had another option if he wanted to keep his balance: give up on the transformation.
That was always an option. But could he do so? He wasn't willing to do so. He felt like his source qi would be a lot stronger after the transformation. Would he still be a genius if he didn't cultivate the best cultivation methods, forge his body as many times as he could, and undergo the strongest transformation possible for his source qi?
"Whatever. I'll worry about it in the future."
There was no rush. He had yet to even complete the transformation. It wasn't like he would have no way of remedying the imbalance after the transformation. First, he had to see just how much stronger the 144 acupoints would grow after the transformation. If the growth was small, there wouldn't be any need to worry about finding treasures of similar level to serve as the base for his other acupoints.
Su Yu stopped worrying and continued his absorption of Xia Longwu's saber qi. Slowly, the source qi in his 144 acupoints grew. The process continued. And as time passed, Su Yu started getting the feeling that his source qi was about to break out of a cocoon and undergo rebirth. That signified that the transformation was on the verge of completion.
Su Yu was still grumbling inwardly. He had yet to even complete his body forging. Why was his source qi transforming already? Also, why were only 144 acupoints transforming? Why leave out the rest? Was this a prank?
Also, was this an indication that he could actually work on both body forging and source qi transformation at the same time? In that case, would he reach the ninth-stage Cloudbreach Realm the moment he completed his body forging?
And he only needed to focus on acupoint fusion to enter the Mountainsea Realm after that? Su Yu sank into thought.
That could very well be the case. In that case, the boundary between realms would be blurred for him. He could be both a Skysoar and a Cloudbreach at the same time, instantly reaching the final stage of the Cloudbreach Realm upon completing his cultivation of the two realms.
"More importantly, I need to transform the source qi of all 360 acupoints. Otherwise, with 144 of them being stronger than the rest, even acupoint fusion will be impossible."
In fact, even in his current state, the semi-transformed acupoints were already giving him trouble. He had fused his 360 acupoints into 9, allocating 40 basic acupoints to each fused acupoint.
As for the 144 semi-transformed acupoints, they weren't split evenly among his fused acupoints. Thus, he was feeling a strong sense of imbalance.
"I'm only here to strengthen my body..."
Su Yu felt more and more helpless.
But it also seemed like he was complaining even after gaining such a huge advantage. Then again, this was how things were for geniuses. Often, opportunities would simply fall into their laps out of nowhere.
He had never intended to start his transformation so soon yet it happened. Could he be blamed for this? He had no choice but to blame his talent. He was so talented that his cultivation seemed to be rushing forward without his control. He couldn't stop progressing even if he wanted to.
After spending a long time, he was finally done absorbing all the saber qi in the corpse. His 144 acupoints had grown much stronger than before. The transformation had yet to reach completion, but he could feel that these acupoints had grown at least 10 percent stronger. How strong would they be after the transformation?
Naturally, only the 144 acupoints had grown. The rest had remained at the same level of strength. All his acupoints had also been strengthened by his body forgings. With this semi-transformation, he felt as though the 144 acupoints had completed the 28th forging ahead of all the other acupoints.
Su Yu did not think too much about it. A growth of 10 percent was no big deal for him. He started reversing his source qi circulation. Death qi flooded his body as he started processing the corpse with it.
The corpse was extremely durable, and it even had a tiny amount of blood essence left. Thus, the processing was progressing very slowly. Su Yu could only remain patient as he worked on the corpse, paying special attention to the face to ensure nobody could recognize this corpse.
It would be awkward if some divine skywings recognized the corpse when he was trying to sell it off.
***
While Su Yu was working on the corpse with his death qi.
Deep underwater.
An ancient city could be seen. The submerged city was completely devoid of activity.
Su Yu did not notice the city as it was too deep underwater, but it was actually located directly below him. At that moment, a stone statue in the city abruptly opened his eyes. The stone statue looked up. Suns and moons swirled in his eyes as his gaze penetrated time and space to reach Su Yu.
"Death spirit..."
The statue in the form of a sea lion stared at Su Yu in astonishment. Was that a death spirit out in the wild? What was going on? Was this one of those sentient death spirits? Wait, this death spirit seemed a tad bit too intelligent.
Where did this death spirit find the corpse of an eighth-stage Sunmoon? And what was the death spirit doing to it? Death spirits...weren't supposed to be able to leave ancient cities. How did this death spirit leave the city?
The stone statue remained confused for a while. Perhaps it was because he had not awakened for too many years. It took some time for the haze in his mind to be fully cleared. Finally, the eyes of the stone statue turned cold.
Death spirit!
His eyes shone as he prepared to attack and kill the loose death spirit. Right at that moment, Su Yu's tribulation character pulsed madly. He was surprised. What was going on? At the same time, the miniature person in Su Yu's heart opened his eyes.
Holy shit!
What the hell was happening?
The miniature man was able to instantly determine what was happening. With a furious curse, he started walking through time and space to reach the bottom of the sea with Su Yu none the wiser.
The miniature man did not take long to reach the main gate of the city. The stone statue instantly noted him.
"He's not a death spirit."
The miniature man spoke. The stone statue looked up again. Suns and moons spun in his eyes as time started rewinding. Before long, the sight of Su Yu's transformation into a death spirit appeared before him.
Finally, his gaze returned to the miniature person. With an extremely unique voice, he spoke slowly, "I can sense the aura of Heavendoom and Empyrean Cloud on him..."
"Yes. He visited their cities not long ago."
"He's...alive..."
The stone statue muttered to himself before looking at the miniature man with astonishment, "Is this your descendant?"
"No. I picked him up somewhere."
The stone statue asked with disbelief, "Someone like that can be picked up randomly?"
How many times had it been? Had the world changed so much that such talented individuals were everywhere now? Incredible!
"Grand cycle acupoints and Five Elemental Art...and also an ancient body forging method of the iron devourers...Is this how everyone cultivates nowadays?"
The stone statue had remained in slumber for too many years. There was no helping it. This was an underwater city. It was as good as a dead city. It had been submerged since the ancient times. Thus, the stone statue had remained in slumber all this while.
Over the years, some Invincibles might have noticed him while passing by. But none would bother to even start a conversation with him. These ancient cities were the last place any Invincible wanted to be.
The stone statue was confused. Had the world changed so much while he was in slumber? In the ancient times, very few people were capable of achieving grand cycle acupoints.
In fact, the rarity of such individuals was the reason why anyone succeeding in doing so would receive a congratulatory message from the ancient Emperor himself.
This was a treatment only accorded to the greatest of geniuses.
The miniature man asked doubtfully, "How long have you been asleep?"
"How long?" The stone statue blanked out. Suns and moons spun in his eyes again. After a long while, he muttered, "Too long. I think...the last time I met Heavendoom and the others...was eight thousand tides ago?"
He wasn't sure. That was merely a rough estimate. It was hard for him to make an accurate judgment since he had been asleep. Perhaps it was nine thousand tides instead? He had no idea.
"The next tide...is near." The stone statue murmured as he looked up again.
The miniature man finally understood what the statue was talking about. He said, "Next tide...are you referring to the opening of the Luminous Domain Mansion? In that case, you must have been asleep for eighty or ninety thousand years."
Each tide referred to an opening of the Luminous Domain Mansion. Since the mansion would open once every ten years, the statue had probably been in slumber for eighty or ninety thousand years.
It had indeed been a very long time. This was also the very first time the miniature man learned how old these ancient cities were. No, the ancient cities might even be older than that. This person was talking about his last meeting with the others. Perhaps the ancient cities had existed long before that as well.
He wanted to ask more, but the stone statue said, "I'm returning to sleep. Remind that human to avoid using death qi too much. For now, the death qi in his body is still weak. But when it grows strong enough, it might create a portal directly connected to the Death Realm. Without the suppression of a holy city, he will be directly exposed to the death spirits."
Then, the stone statue returned to slumber. The miniature man had no choice but to end the conversation and return. But he was left completely speechless when he returned to his previous spot. Su Yu had actually vanished somewhere with the corpse. His conversation with the stone statue hadn't even lasted that long.
That kid sure was fast at running. The kid had an impressively keen smell of danger. He had actually fled hundreds of kilometers away in such a short time. Fortunately, the miniature man had taken root in Su Yu's heart. He could still sense Su Yu despite the distance between them.
He started moving through time and space again. And soon, he caught up with Su Yu who had transformed into water. Noiselessly and tracelessly, he returned to Su Yu's heart.
***
As for Su Yu, he was still busy fleeing, completely oblivious to the miniature person. He only knew that his tribulation character was going crazy to warn him of an impending disaster. Thus, running was the only right thing to do.
He only stopped after moving hundreds of kilometers away. He reverted to his human form and gasped for breath. Holy shit. What was that?
The danger felt terrifyingly intense. It was so intense even his heart nearly stopped beating. That was horrifying. His tribulation character was pulsing so madly that he felt like it was going to shake itself apart.
"Invincible?"
Su Yu's heart was still beating heavily. That was most definitely an Invincible. Did an Invincible notice him earlier? And the Invincible even thought of making a move against him?
His senses wouldn't go so crazy if the Invincible merely noticed him. After all, he had been fine even when he was in the presence of three Invincibles. The tribulation character would remain calm if the Invincible did not harbor any malice toward him. Clearly, the Invincible earlier was thinking of killing him.
Holy shit!
Who was that?
Was that an enemy Invincible?
Why?
Also, why did the Invincible stop? Was he too fast for the Invincible? What a joke. He might still be able to run from Sunmoons, but there was nothing he could do to avoid an Invincible. All his disguises or tricks would be ineffective against Invincibles.
Of course, the premise for that was to have the Invincible actively examine him. Otherwise, not even an Invincible would notice his disguise with a casual glance. Thus, the previous Invincible must have paid close attention to him.
"Just who was it?"
Su Yu felt like crying. He survived, but he did not enjoy catching the attention of Invincibles. Most people might not be able to encounter even one Invincible in a lifetime. But for some reason, he had encountered quite a number of Invincibles. Back in the Human Realm, he had encountered at least three Invincibles.
Great Qing King had probably noticed him when he first entered the Allheaven Battlefield as well. He was unaware that he had also caught the gaze of Great Xia King, Great Ming King, the big furball, and several stone statues. Thus, he had actually encountered more than ten Invincibles thus far.
Su Yu waited for a bit and confirmed that his tribulation character was finally calm again. He sighed and decided to stop here. It wasn't like he could run any further. If the Invincible was still spying on him, there was nothing he could do.
Perhaps the corpse had caught the Invincible's attention. After all, that was the corpse of an eighth-stage Sunmoon. The corpse was still in his storage ring. He had successfully caused the face of the corpse to rot away with his death qi. He was also able to leave some dark spots on the corpse. But that was not enough. The corpse did not look ancient enough.
Su Yu was not done processing the corpse. But it didn't matter. He could continue his work later. And when he was done with that, he needed to find a suitable cesspit and bury the corpse in it for a few days.
Since it was an ancient corpse, it naturally needed to smell a tiny bit.But he was unsure if he could even find a cesspit out here. It was unlikely for him to find one here, but he was also willing to settle with burying the corpse in some mud instead.
It was clear he held zero reverence toward a Sunmoon from the divine race. He was almost done with the corpse. The ancient weapon, character, clothings, and everything else were more or else done as well.
Next, he had to start looking for an ancient spatial pocket on the verge of collapse. He could then lure a bunch of people to go on an exploration with him. Naturally, he needed a suitable disguise for that. For origınal chapters go to N0veI.Fiɾe.net
"Time to visit Ninestar Island. I need to capture a genius there. I heard Tianduo is there. The little golden dragon has been sighted there as well. Well, I guess I'll have to capture one of them. The Dragon Realm is too near so Tianduo will be the best target."
In truth, Topsoil Spirit was a good choice as well. But Su Yu had not heard any rumors of that fellow's arrival. Since that fellow was an earth elemental, it was unlikely for that person to come here. The geography here was simply too unsuitable for that fellow.
Su Yu wasn't too worried about it. He would plan further after capturing one of them. Otherwise, it would be hard for him to escape after carrying out the scam. He also had to keep his victim alive. Otherwise, the name of his victim would disappear from the index. That wouldn't do as he still needed to borrow the identity of his victim.
Killing his victim wouldn't be a good idea anyway since that might attract the attention of the Invincible behind his victim. Most of these geniuses were Invincible descendants.
***
While Su Yu was thinking about all that.
Ninestar Island.
A random hill on the island suddenly started shrinking, shocking the experts exploring the hill. Before they could react, golden spikes shot out of the ground and penetrated all their bodies.
Next, the hill transformed into an earth elemental. After killing so many people, a heavenly reward had appeared above Topsoil Spirit. Just as he was about to absorb his reward, his senses tingled. He looked around cautiously. Why was he feeling jittery all of a sudden? Was someone scheming against him?
Proper features slowly appeared on his initially blank face, revealing an odd expression. He had entered the Sea of Stars secretly. Whose attention did he catch even when he was being so secretive?
He felt a tiny sense of crisis. Whatever. He decided to move away instead of staying and worrying. Everyone knew he was an earth elemental. To deal with him, they would naturally try to do it on land. Thus, he was going to go underwater instead. Nobody would be able to guess that an earth elemental would actually go underwater, right?
As for the guesses Mo Duona made previously, it didn't matter. Nobody could be sure of his abilities as long as he admitted to nothing.
"I'm an earth elemental in water. I won't encounter anyone who's out for me underwater, right?"
As he comforted himself that way, he started flying in the direction of the sea. As of late, a lot of fortuitous encounters had appeared in the sea so this wouldn't be a bad thing for him. Perhaps he would be lucky enough to stumble upon a five elemental tree, right? That would be perfect for his source qi transformation.
The fellow who had discovered the ancient dragonblood tree not long ago was truly dumb for selling the tree. Topsoil Spirit grumbled that if he found something like that as well, he definitely wouldn't sell it. That was such a treasure.
Then again, if the price was actually tempting enough, he wouldn't mind selling it either. But the person who had discovered the ancient dragonblood tree had sold it for such a cheap price.
Those from minor races were truly pitiful. If he was the one with the tree, nobody would dare to force him to accept such a bad deal. After all, he also came from a race with Invincibles. And when the five elements were finally reunited, they would be able to gather more than a dozen Invincibles.
Unfortunately, the five elements had yet to reunite. Nevertheless, Topsoil Spirit was still confident that he wouldn't be bullied thanks to his background.
Just look at what happened previously when he was trapped in the ancient city. An Invincible from his race arrived. That was not a treatment any random Invincible descendant could get. For example, Tianduo had been completely ignored by the Invincible of his race despite being an original devil. Luckily for him, Mo Duona was in the city as well.
After knowing that an Invincible was willing to move for him, the experts of the various races would exercise more restraint when dealing with him.
Of course, that did not apply to other young geniuses. There was no need for them to hold back against him. A genius must face other geniuses to grow. And a genius who was killed by a different genius would be reduced to someone unworthy of further support from their race.
If one couldn't even prevail over those from the same generation, how could one even be called a genius? No race would entrust its fate to such a person. When Topsoil Spirit reached the sea, he turned into a water elemental and vanished into the water.
Time to flee!
It was too dangerous to stay on land.
It was very likely that his old nemesis, the stone golem had arrived. That bastard was too strong on land, but that would change completely in water.
Chapter 998: I Have My Eyes On You (1)
Su Yu was heading toward Ninestar Island. The nearer he got to Ninestar Island, the denser the ambient source qi became. Additionally, the entire place had a bloody aura to it. Evidently, a lot of blood had been spilled as of late.
Suddenly, Su Yu heard booming sounds coming not far ahead of him. When he focused, he saw two Cloudbreach experts in a fight against each other. One of them was a dragon while the other was a devil. Both glanced at Su Yu when they sensed his arrival.
Devilish qi overflowed out of the devil while the massive dragon coiled grandly in the sky.
As of late, many battles had broken out between the devils and the dragons. The truly powerful experts had remained uninvolved, but the lackeys had been constantly engaged in fights. The main reason for this hostility was the exorbitant price the devils were trying to charge the dragons for the ancient dragonblood tree.
"Audacious! How dare you sneak around us. Are you trying to ambush us?"
Perhaps the two had not been able to decide on a victor even after a long battle. When they saw someone else appearing, they both decided to take their anger out on the newcomer without a word to each other.
Su Yu was left completely speechless. Who the fuck was ambushing them? Seriously! This was crazy. Did they decide to go with that narrative because he looked like a weak second-stage Cloudbreach they could easily bully?
Oh well. Since they were eagerly throwing themselves at him, he would gladly do them this favor and introduce them to the afterlife. This was a great opportunity for him to test his newly strengthened Sky Sundering Saber. How kind of them to volunteer as his test subjects.
A saber appeared in his hand. Instantly, the saber-shaped source qi from his 144 acupoints flowed into the saber.
"Sky Sundering!"
A roar rang out. Both the dragon and devil were alarmed to hear that. Was this someone from Great Xia? Huang Teng? No. This wasn't right. They were sure Huang Teng wasn't here. That fellow was still busy fleeing from the blood fire devils.
That was where all thought processes ended for them. First, they saw a dazzling blade appearing before them with a flicker. Next, the world spun as they saw each other's severed head. That was the last thing they saw. With a single strike, two Cloudbreaches of major races had been killed.
Su Yu himself was surprised by the might of his saber. He had only exerted his physical strength for that swing. Then again, his physical strength was already comparable to that of a Mountainsea. Coupled with his heaven-grade Sky Sundering Saber, it wasn't surprising for him to kill two Cloudbreaches with one strike.
He stored the two corpses away and started clearing all the auras left in the area. Before long, he was gone. Since he had killed the two major race Cloudbreaches, he had to leave as soon as possible to avoid any unwanted attention.
***
Su Yu continued moving toward Ninestar Island.
While moving, he extracted the blood essence from the two corpses before burning them into nothingness. He did not waste any time stopping as he needed to look for Tianduo and the little golden dragon on Ninestar Island.
His calm character was constantly active to minimize the chances of anyone noticing him. He was still maintaining the form of a mountainbreak bull. He needed to maintain a low profile. The mountainbreak bull race was the best choice for this. This was a race strong enough to enter the top 100 with an Invincible leading them. But they also weren't too strong. Basically, this was not a race feared by many. But at the same time, this was also a race people wouldn't underestimate for the most part.
Suddenly, Su Yu's expression changed again. Did he catch someone's eyes again? Was someone here to supply him with blood essence again? A Cloudbreach was trailing him while hiding underwater. Was that an aquatic beast? His senses weren't too clear, so he wasn't sure.
***
At the same time.
Underwater.
Topsoil Spirit was looking up at the mountainbreak bull in the air. This...was great! He was very pleased with this encounter. The blood essence of the mountainbreak bulls was quite valuable. It was popular for both body forging and foundation building as it had a good quality-price ratio.
What a pity that the mountainbreak bull above him was quite weak. Only a second-stage Cloudbreach. Well, since he was already here, he might as well reach out and grab the flying money above him.
Through his senses, Topsoil Spirit concluded that this wasn't a dangerous opponent. In fact, this felt like it was going to be an easy opponent. But for some reason...he was getting a sense of familiarity from that bull. He wondered if that was a bull he had met before. He couldn't recall.
The five elemental race was known for its unique abilities. For example, Su Yu had once witnessed a water elemental easily discovering the main body of an enemy hidden amid illusions.
And the secret behind that was actually quite simple. Those from the water elemental race were extremely sensitive toward the liquid in the body of any living being. Thus, when a water elemental encountered someone they had met before, they would be able to somewhat recognize that person even if the appearance of the person had changed.
Topsoil Spirit had naturally met Su Yu before. But some time had passed since then, and he had been involved in a lot of fights recently. Therefore, he was unable to fully recognize Su Yu. Furthermore, he was still an earth elemental, not a water elemental. Thus, he did not suspect anything when he saw Su Yu. He only thought that this was a mountainbreak bull he had met before.
"I could use some beef to nourish myself."
At that thought, Topsoil Spirit started moving toward the surface. It was common knowledge that a certain phenomenon was unique to the Allheaven Battlefield. Su Yu had also learned about this on his first day in the Allheaven Battlefield.
For some reason, young geniuses could very easily encounter each other in the Allheaven Battlefield. For example, two geniuses who were initially tens of millions of kilometers away from each other could accidentally step on unknown teleportation formations at the same time and end up encountering each other after the teleportation.
And the current situation was the perfect demonstration of that unique phenomenon. It hadn't even been that long since Topsoil Spirit left the island he was on previously, but he had already encountered Su Yu.
***
Topsoil Spirit was preparing to treat himself to a meal of roasted beef.
As for Su Yu, he was first surprised to notice a Cloudbreach tailing him. Then...his tribulation character started pulsing. This signified that this encounter might get dangerous. Was that a joke?
At this point, very few Cloudbreaches could pose a threat to Su Yu. What did that signify? A genius Cloudbreach? Yes, that was possible. Genius Cloudbreaches could still be very strong.
Both of them had discovered each other.
Su Yu was wondering about the identity of this new opponent. As for Topsoil Spirit, he was wondering how he should cook the beef to make it tastier. Should he roast it or boil it?
Slowly, Su Yu deviated from the direction toward Ninestar Island in order to move somewhere without any other people.
Topsoil Spirit was naturally more than happy to see that.
***
A short while later, they reached somewhere with no other people.
Su Yu remained silent.
His mysterious tail was moving closer and closer to him. In fact, that person was getting so confident that he was only staying about a hundred meters behind him. For an expert, that was no distance at all. They might as well be hugging each other. To be precise, his mysterious tail was hiding under the water right below him.
Suddenly, a wave that was bigger than the others rose from the sea. Rising together with the wave was a unique stream of water, surging straight toward Su Yu. A water elemental?
Su Yu was very surprised. Did he encounter a water elemental? His surprise was understandable. Those from the five elementals were very rarely seen. At the very least, that was the case for him. Topsoil Spirit was the only member of the five elemental race he had met in the Allheaven Battlefield so far.
And now, he had finally encountered a water elemental. No wonder he felt like his tail was very good at concealment. So it was a water elemental. The water elementals were even more at home in water than the dragons.
Seventh-stage Cloudbreach Realm? That was Su Yu's judgment after sensing the incoming attack. He did not hesitate to throw his punch out.
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A deafening explosion rang out. While stepping on the water surface, Su Yu took several steps back as intense waves of water rippled out around him. Inwardly, he was astonished.
So strong.
His body was comparable to a Mountainsea's. But instead of killing this opponent with a punch, he was actually forced to take several steps back.
At the same time, Topsoil Spirit was greatly shocked as well. What the hell was happening? So strong! Was this really a second-stage Cloudbreach?
Bullshit! More like a second-stage Mountainsea!
But he was a genius. He could even punch above his weight to fight Mountainseas. But this was the issue. He wasn't too afraid of actual second-stage Mountainseas. It wasn't like he had never fought one before.
It would be much more terrifying if this opponent was really a second-stage Cloudbreach. That would be a truly scary possibility. A second-stage Cloudbreach with the strength of a second-stage Mountainsea was very different than an actual second-stage Mountainsea with the same level of strength.
After a single exchange, numerous thoughts rose in Topsoil Spirit's mind. Which second-stage Cloudbreach was capable of fighting against second-stage Mountainseas? Several names appeared in his mind. And the moment he thought of those names, he started fleeing underwater without any hesitation.
He had not suffered any disadvantage during the previous clash. But it wasn't a good idea to keep fighting an opponent like this. The mountainbreak bull race definitely did not have such a genius. That was absolute nonsense.
Something was wrong with this encounter.
Run!
His fear intensified when he thought of a certain individual. Or to be precise, a certain human. He cursed inwardly, hoping that he wouldn't be unlucky enough to encounter that fellow again. That fellow was an expert at disguise.
As for Su Yu, he was both shocked and surprised. That was especially true when he noticed the brownish color of the so-called water elemental he was facing. Suddenly, he thought of something.
Was this...someone he met before?
Holy shit!
This was no water elemental! At that thought, he hurriedly turned into water and dove into the sea as well. And thus, a pursuit between two streams of water began in the sea.
Chapter 999: I Have My Eyes On You (2)
"Holy shit! It's really him!"
When Topsoil Spirit noticed his opponent turning into water, he felt like his head was going to blow apart from sheer anger. It was really that guy!
Su Yu! Why was he so unlucky? He had only gone into the sea after noticing the danger of staying on land. But Su Yu had to be the first person he encountered after leaving the island. There were so many people looking for Su Yu. Why did he have to be the one to find that lunatic?
Behind Topsoil Spirit, Su Yu was also feeling very shocked. Topsoil Spirit! He finally recognized who this person was. It was actually Topsoil Spirit! That fellow was actually capable of transforming into water! And more importantly, that fellow was actually this strong!
His punch at the level of a second-stage Mountainsea had actually failed to injure that fellow. He was even pushed back slightly. This was actually one of his preferred targets, but he had not expected to actually see Topsoil Spirit here. And Topsoil Spirit had probably discovered who he was as well.
Su Yu did not dare to slow down. Although voice transmission talismans didn't work very well here, that fellow could still shout loudly or create a massive commotion to draw more attention to them.
Holy shit!
What a chance encounter. Su Yu was entirely unprepared for it. He had thought that he was only facing a regular genius. But he was so wrong. Topsoil Spirit was also surprisingly decisive. Just look at how that fellow had decided to flee after a single exchange.
Su Yu consumed a drop of blood essence. He was confident he could handle Topsoil Spirit with only his own strength. But he needed to end this fast. He had to do everything he could to capture this opponent promptly. The blood essence he consumed came from a sixth-stage Mountainsea of the cloud tiger race.
The cloud tigers were known for their speed. Even when he was moving underwater, the blood essence was still able to grant him a boost in speed.
Boom!
His powerful aura spread ahead. And the powerful aura was actually slowing Topsoil Spirit down.
Topsoil Spirit was alarmed. That was the strength of a sixth-stage Mountainsea! He did not hesitate to send numerous golden rays behind him, each ray carrying incomparable sharpness.
While doing so, he spoke through voice transmission, "Brother Water, no, Brother Su, we can both mind our own business. There is no need for us to fight to the death..."
Boom!
Mountaindrill Technique!
Su Yu couldn't be bothered to say anything and attacked with the mountainbreak bull's racial ability. Topsoil Spirit hurriedly shot out of the water.
Boom!
A massive explosion erupted from the surface of the sea. Topsoil Spirit stopped hoping to end this amicably. When a genius encountered another genius in the wild, it was pointless to say anything before a fight.
He was no pushover. He was entirely capable of fighting back. Thus, he soared into the air before unleashing a storm of gold toward Su Yu.
Su Yu responded with a palm attack mixed with his powerful willpower. Alas, the five elementals specialized in willpower cultivation as well. Thus, Topsoil Spirit was pretty strong in willpower as well. The gold and the palm collided, creating a massive explosion.
The impact of the clash sent tremors through Su Yu's sea of willpower. The same was happening to Topsoil Spirit. But he immediately transformed into a mountain before slamming down on Su Yu. After the mountain, he turned into a sea of flame and boiled the sea below him.
In the blink of an eye, the two exchanged dozens of moves. Su Yu might have gained a boost in strength due to the blood essence he consumed, but his opponent was a cultural researcher. And cultural researchers had always been extremely tricky to deal with.
Wind, water, metal, fire...
After witnessing the mastery his opponent held over the various opponents, Su Yu snorted. This fellow must have hidden his strength before this. How could someone this strong remain at the bottom of the Earth Index? This fellow was probably strong enough to deal with Mountainseas at the fourth or fifth stage already.
In fact, this person felt no weaker than even Qin Fang. Annoyed by the constantly changing elements, Su Yu roared. Five elements? He was well-versed in the five elements as well! Next, two golden beams clashed and started twisting around each other in the sky. Since Topsoil Spirit had already seen Su Yu's ability to transform into water, it wouldn't be an issue for him to see more. What could he say if Su Yu insisted that his transformations were due to unique characters? Who could know for sure?
Both of them were fighting with the strength of Mountainseas. But since Su Yu had the advantage of physical strength, the clash forced Topsoil Spirit back into his original form. On top of that, he even coughed a stream of soil out of his mouth.
He had finally been injured. Inwardly, he was greatly alarmed. He was also cursing endlessly.
Holy shit!
This fellow was too strong! He had been quite confident in his strength. In truth, he was confident he would be able to survive an encounter with Mo Duona even if he couldn't actually win the fight.
But before he even had the chance to meet Mo Duona in battle, he encountered Su Yu, someone actually capable of suppressing him in battle.
Not wanting to fight anymore, Topsoil Spirit transformed into water again and fled. He did not forget to burn the stream of soil he coughed out earlier, not leaving anything related to him behind.
Su Yu did the same, releasing a wave of flame and burning all traces of his presence in the area. Popping sounds rang out as the two erased all traces of battle while moving rapidly.
Rumble!
The two were incredibly cautious. They did not forget to constantly erase their traces even in the middle of an intense battle.
Su Yu was doing so to avoid exposing his whereabouts. As for Topsoil Spirit, he was clearly doing that to prevent anyone from figuring out that he was actually capable of transforming into multiple elements. It was easy for anyone to guess, but nobody could be sure without solid proof.
Noticing what Su Yu was doing, Topsoil Spirit hurriedly sent a voice transmission, "Both of us are trying to hide our secrets. Let's stop here. I still have more trump cards. If we continue fighting, someone else might notice us. For example, the people from the Heavenly Hunt Pavilion. That won't benefit either of us."
"You sure are good at hiding your real strength." Su Yu said, "Why don't we find a suitable battleground and fight to the death."
"Su Yu, don't push it too far. Do you think I'm really afraid of you?"
Topsoil Spirit roared and turned around.
"Five Element Purgatory!"
Countless streams of water surged toward Su Yu. At the same time, vines took form amid the water and surrounded Su Yu. Slowly, a cage appeared around him. Inside the cage, water turned into fire.
The look in Su Yu's eyes changed. Interesting. If he could kill Topsoil Spirit, he might receive an unexpected gift. This fellow seemed to have fused the five elements.
"Five Element Purgatory?"
After observing the attack form a bit, Su Yu casually clawed at the shrinking cage. With a crack, the golden light dissipated, the vines snapped, and the water receded.
Topsoil Spirit was alarmed.
"Impossible."
No matter how powerful the five elemental characters of humanity could be, they shouldn't be able to tear through his Five Element Purgatory so easily. He was using the origin power of the five elements. And Su Yu's willpower was even weaker than his.
"Metal!"
Whoosh!
Countless golden blades shot toward Su Yu. As a response, he activated the Sky Sundering Saber and swung his saber. The effect of the blood essence he consumed earlier was still active. With a single swing of his blade, the sea was cut apart.
Topsoil Spirit turned into water to avoid the slash, but the blade was still able to cut him into pieces. However, his severed pieces were able to rejoin with each other unharmed.
"You can't kill me."
Once again, Topsoil Spirit sent a voice transmission, reminding Su Yu that there was no killing him.
Su Yu said nothing. Bullshit. Did Topsoil Spirit think that he was dumb? The willpower of Topsoil Spirit had definitely suffered some damage when he was cut apart in the water transformation state.
The battle continued.
At that point, Su Yu could already sense that some people had noticed the battle. To be precise, a fifth-stage Mountainsea was approaching rapidly.
Topsoil Spirit noticed it as well. He said, "Do you want to expose both of us? Let's split up and run..."
"Run?"
Su Yu said, "Let's join hands and kill the newcomer. Don't even dream of running. There is no escaping me."
"I—"
Topsoil Spirit was going mad. Damn it! Why was he so unlucky? Why must he be the one to encounter this guy?
Next, the aura of Sky Sundering Saber surged into the sky. At the same, the Five Element Purgatory was recreated. The fifth-stage Mountainsea who was flying toward them suddenly found himself trapped in a cage of elements. With a roar, he punched the cage. But he was unable to break free. And next, Su Yu's blade descended.
Combined with the vibrations of the Soul Expanding Hammer and the Sky Sundering Saber at the level of a sixth-stage Mountainsea, the expert was cut in half with only one strike. Blood rained down from the sky.
The corpse transformed to its original form: a large serpent. The expert didn't even know how he died. Everything had happened too fast.
He could sense that the two individuals were Cloudbreaches. They felt quite strong, but since they were busy fighting each other, they might not notice him. Thus, he intended to hide nearby and wait for an opportunity to perhaps benefit from the fight. But alas, he had died before he could even react.
With a curse, Topsoil Spirit continued fleeing. That slash of Su Yu had cut his Five Element Purgatory apart as well. He naturally wouldn't wait around for Su Yu to cut him down. Neither of them bothered to spare the corpse even a glance.
Left with no choice, Topsoil Spirit said, "Go collect the corpse or our secrets will be exposed. Let's put a pause to our fight and clean the area first..."
That made a lot of sense! Su Yu wanted to kill this opponent, but this was a really slippery opponent. Thus, he collected the corpse and started cleaning the traces of combat around them again. Above them, shining clouds appeared. Both of them had been rewarded for the kill. But upon seeing the cloud, Topsoil Spirit cursed.
"He landed the last hit, not me. Why am I getting a reward as well?"
At the same time, his rank on the Heavenly Hunt Index started climbing. No longer was he lingering at the bottom.
5th on Earth Index, Topsoil Spirit, five elemental race, seventh-stage Cloudbreach.
Past accomplishments: Assisted in the killing of a fifth-stage Mountainsea.
Topsoil Spirit did not even bother to look at his index copy, but he was still cursing when he sensed the vibrating index copy. He didn't want to climb the rank. At the very least, he didn't want to climb the index now. Damn it. He had been very careful to only kill the weaker opponents and avoid the stronger opponents. But his rank had still increased.
At the moment, Soulcurse of the celestial chasm race still held the first place on the Earth Index, followed by Liu Wenyan, Qin Fang, and Huang Teng. And Topsoil Spirit was ranked just behind them.
In fact, his rank had even exceeded Long Zhan and Long Wuyou, dragons who had killed a Sunmoon before.
Topsoil Spirit shouted in frustration, "Su Yu, are you going to keep going? Before long, everyone will know I'm in combat. With an index copy on me, my location will be exposed soon. Are you trying to die alongside me?"
"Throw the index copy away."
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Topsoil Spirit took his index copy out and continued running while shouting, "Not only am I not throwing it away, I'm going to notify the others through my index copy. Su Yu, if you keep chasing after me, I will attract everyone and drag you down with me!"
Su Yu returned to his human form and gave Topsoil Spirit a deep look before saying, "You're very strong. Even if you can't defeat seventh-stage Mountainseas, you are strong enough to deal with sixth-stage Mountainseas. You're probably stronger than even Qin Fang. He's only capable of handling Mountainseas in the fourth or fifth stage for now."
Qin Fang was already a seventh-stage Cloudbreach. But Topsoil Spirit might actually be stronger. And when someone like that was in an environment so advantageous to him, he would indeed be very difficult to kill. But difficult was not the same as impossible.
With a cold snort, Su Yu opened his yang acupoint halfway.
Saber qi surged around him.
Chapter 1000: I Have My Eyes On You (3)
Alarmed, Topsoil Spirit hurriedly said, "We are not enemies. We can always talk things out. Su Yu, there is no need for us to fight to the death. That's pointless. The five elemental race and the human race have never been enemies..."
Su Yu said, "Be my prisoner. Throw the copy index away. If you agree, I will consider leaving you alive."
What the fuck was that? No genius would volunteer themself as a prisoner. That would be the same as handing the entirety of their fate in the hands of others. That was something they wouldn't do unless they had absolutely no chance left.
Topsoil Spirit said, "Don't be too excessive! I have already established a connection with the Heavenly Hunt Pavilion. Even if you can kill me, you won't be able to do that in one strike. Countless people are looking for you. Do you think you can kill me before I expose your whereabouts? Will you have enough time to escape your pursuers by the time you finally kill me?"
The two were still moving rapidly while speaking to each other. Topsoil Spirit was moving astonishingly fast even underwater.
With an odd look in his eyes, Su Yu asked, "How did you obtain control over the five elements?"
"The five ancestors of the five elements each left a brand in my body. Su Yu, do you think you can kill me? I am the hope of the five elemental race. Killing me will incur the wrath of Invincibles. I guarantee you that."
"You're overestimating yourself." Su Yu coldly said, "Once you're dead, you'll cease being their hope. Any genius will stop being a genius the moment they are dead. Their value will vanish completely."
That was true as well. Topsoil Spirit cursed. But he was not dead yet, right? So at the moment, he was still the hope of the five elemental race.
He took out an item. The moment the item appeared, it started emanating tremendous pressure. It was a wooden stake.
Topsoil Spirit aimed the stake at Su Yu.
"Su Yu, you asked for this!"
The wooden stake felt extremely powerful.
Alarmed, Su Yu roared and mustered the strength of his semi-opened yang acupoint. At the same time, he consumed a drop of seventh-stage Mountainsea blood essence. His skin started tearing from the sheer power of the blood essence. Even so, he consumed a second drop of blood essence before swinging his saber.
It was as though a river of light had streamed out of the saber, collapsing upon Topsoil Spirit. That was an incomparably powerful attack. But as the price, Su Yu's skin tore apart. His body was still incapable of withstanding such a level of power.
At the same time, Topsoil Spirit stabbed his wooden stake forward.
Boom!
Intense power of wood erupted and instantly covered the saber light. Next, the saber light exploded. Topsoil Spirit's expression changed as he cursed inwardly.
Holy shit!
This fellow was too scary. Seventh-stage Mountainsea! That fellow had actually mustered such a level of strength. But that was still not enough to deal with his wooden stake. The wooden stake continued shooting toward Su Yu.
Even with the physical strength of a seventh-stage Mountainsea...
Su Yu's eyes widened in focus as he stared at the incoming attack and made numerous calculations rapidly. Inside his heart, the miniature man woke up again. Holy shit! What was it this time?
But Su Yu was still unprecedentedly calm. This was still something he could deal with. In fact, he had multiple ways to deal with this.
Firstly, he could fully open his yang acupoint and consume a drop of Sunmoon blood essence to go wild against the wooden stake. That might result in the destruction of his body, but he could survive.
Secondly...using the Five Elemental Art. He could feel the dense power of life coming from the wooden stake. He was no stranger to this power. This was the power of the five elements. And similar to Jiu Xuan's talisman, this wooden stake was most likely something created by an Invincible.
"Perhaps...the Five Elemental Art can deal with this."
That power felt too familiar. Should he destroy his body to fight it or take a gamble? Naturally, he decided to gamble.
The Five Elemental Art originated from the five elemental race. One would always be bolder when one had the ability to back one up. Furthermore, there was also a golden book in his sea of willpower. This stake could be considered a willpower attack. But not even the peak Sunmoon characters of Ye Batian could contend against the golden book. He was confident his golden book could handle this wooden stake as well.
Having reached a decision, he activated the Five Elemental Art. All 180 of his apertures linked with each other to form a net. A burst of five elemental power surged out of his sea of willpower and wrapped itself around the wooden stake.
Whoosh!
The two willpower attacks started clashing with each other. With a roar, Su Yu wrapped his five elemental power around the stake and dragged it into his sea of willpower. Right after it entered his sea of willpower, his 180 apertures lit up intensely.
Whoosh!
The entire sea of willpower shook as Su Yu started absorbing the massive life force coming from the stake and converted it into his own. In the blink of an eye, powerful life force flooded his body and even started leaking out. The source of this content ɪs n͟o͟v͟e͟l͟f͟i͟r͟e͟.net
The injuries he had sustained previously healed instantly. And with a rumble, his body also completed its twenty-eighth forging.
Topsoil Spirit's expression changed drastically. What the fuck was that? Did Su Yu eat his stake?
He was just about to resume fleeing when Su Yu appeared before him with a flicker. With a curse, Topsoil Spirit took a small sword out and said, "Why must you insist on mutual destruction? Do you really think you can take another attack of the same caliber? The Wood Ancestor will sense the activation of the wooden stake soon. Do you want to be hunted by an Invincible?"
Su Yu was quite shocked to see the sword in Topsoil Spirit's hand. He gave Topsoil Spirit a deep gaze and said, "You sure are very loved by your race. A normal Invincible descendant will be happy to get one of these Invincible treasures, but you actually have more than one of them."
After saying that, Su Yu abruptly released all the power he had just absorbed. Aquatic plants started growing wildly all around them. That was an extremely powerful attack. But this battle had caused too much commotion. An Invincible would be able to easily locate him through this power.
Thus, he fled immediately. At the same time, he turned into death spirit and started clashing against the life force in his body with his death qi. Through the clashes, he tempered his body.
The power he had just obtained was something that originated from an Invincible. And it was also the power of life, the perfect opposite of the power of death. Thus, the intense conflict was able to temper his body rapidly. In mere moments, a rumble rang out as Su Yu completed his twenty-ninth body forging.
With both the life force and death qi weakened, he returned to his human form. The death qi in his body vanished as he released a clump of flame to burn all traces of his presence before vanishing deep into the sea.
***
Meanwhile, Topsoil Spirit was wiping the nonexistent sweat from his forehead. He was greatly alarmed by what he witnessed. He was holding tightly onto the sword. That was a treasure he received from the Metal Ancestor, a weapon meant to protect himself during emergencies.
He was no longer confident he could deal with Su Yu. That was too terrifying. An item given by an Invincible for self-protection was naturally incapable of killing Invincibles. In fact, it would have a hard time even killing Sunmoons. But for the most part, the wooden stake was powerful enough to either kill or injure even a third-stage Sunmoon.
But that was not the case with Su Yu. How was he able to swallow the power of wood? Not daring to stay there any longer, Topsoil Spirit hurriedly tossed his index copy away before vanishing far away. That was too terrifying.
Su Yu was too scary. Topsoil Spirit felt like he could kill even seventh or eighth-stage Mountainseas with the tricks he had. But he had failed to kill Su Yu even after losing the wooden stake.
Sure enough, geniuses were the hardest of all existences to kill. Not one genius on the Heaven Index was a pushover.
While he was fleeing, a voice came from nowhere and rang out in his mind, "Topsoil, do you still need assistance?"
That was the Wood Ancestor. The Wood Ancestor had used an unknown method to bypass realms and communicate with him.
Topsoil Spirit replied, "No. The opponent fled. Ancestor, your wooden stake failed to kill my opponent."
"It's not that easy to kill Sunmoons. Just be careful. I can't even track your opponent anymore since your opponent has erased the aura of wood. Try not to provoke Sunmoons. I saw from the index that you killed a fifth-stage Mountainsea. That's fine. But don't grow so ambitious that you're setting your eyes on Sunmoons as well. Even if you manage to kill a Sunmoon by borrowing an external power, it won't be that easy to get on the Heaven Index..."
Topsoil Spirit felt like crying.
Bullshit. The ancestor actually thought that he was fighting a Sunmoon. What nonsense. That was only a Cloudbreach, not Sunmoon!
"Ancestor, he's not a Sunmoon..."
"Yeah, I know. A peak Mountaiinsea from races like divine and devil will probably be quite a tricky opponent..."
"No, it's a Cloudbreach. First on Heaven Index, Su Yu..."
"..."
The connection was severed abruptly. Perhaps the ancestor couldn't maintain the connection for too long. Or perhaps he was so shocked he accidentally severed the connection.
Topsoil Spirit coughed a mouthful of blood. His entire sea of willpower was roiling madly. A conversation across realms had placed massive pressure on him even though he wasn't the person initiating it.
And Wood Ancestor would probably remain in the Five Elemental Realm. Since Topsoil Spirit was not dead, there was no reason for the ancestor to leave.
"The ancestor was probably dumbstruck as well."
Topsoil Spirit continued grumbling. He was promised that the wooden stake could kill Sunmoons. But the damn thing had failed to kill even a Cloudbreach. Maybe the ancestor was busy doubting life itself at this moment.
Topsoil Spirit was extremely cautious. He did not stop moving. What rotten luck. Not only had he gained nothing, he had even lost the wooden stake. Each ancestor of the five elementals had given him one such treasure. When he finished all five treasures, he would be out of trump cards. It was very unlikely for Invincibles to actually interfere on his behalf unless other Invincibles were the ones trying to kill him.
For the most part, all these young geniuses would be left to their own devices unless other Invincibles were involved. After losing the wooden stake, he was left with only four ultimate trump cards.
He had roamed the Allheaven Battlefield for quite a while and encountered numerous enemies. This was actually his first time using one of the five treasures. But the result had strayed massively from his expectations.
"What shitty luck!"
Topsoil Spirit's heart was aching intensely from the massive loss. Why must it be that fellow? He was nearly killed. That was so dangerous. He was actually forced to sacrifice one of his five treasures just to survive the encounter.
***
While Topsoil Spirit was wallowing in grief, Su Yu was frowning with displeasure. What a difficult opponent to kill.
Damn it! Every one of these Invincible descendants was filled to the brim with trump cards given by their seniors.
Naturally, he was completely neglecting the fact that he had also used the characters of Ye Batian to achieve the feat of killing Sunmoons. That could also be considered a power inherited from his seniors.
"But that has been helpful as well. That power actually helped me complete two whole body forgings."
Su Yu comforted himself that he had not left empty-handed. At the very least, he had completed two body forgings. This was actually a decent harvest.
Thanks to the life force from the wooden stake, he had even healed all the injuries he suffered from opening his yang acupoint halfway and consuming high-stage Mountainsea blood essence.
"Unfortunately, Topsoil Spirit now knows my secret."
Su Yu frowned. That would be troublesome. He reckoned Topsoil Spirit would have even more trump cards given by Invincibles.
"Five Elemental Art..."
Su Yu's eyes flickered as he thought of something. It was very likely that Topsoil Spirit still had four such treasures. In that case, he would have no choice but to keep an eye out for Topsoil Spirit from now on. If one such treasure could complete two body forgings for him, he could probably complete eight more body forgings with the remaining four.
In fact, he had been in too much of a rush previously. Thus, part of the power had been wasted. Otherwise, he could have forged his body even more.
"I won't be able to absorb more than one at the same time as that will blow me apart. But I can handle one just fine. The Five Elemental Art seems very compatible with the power of the five elemental race."
This was Su Yu's first time making use of the Five Elemental Art in this manner. He was quite satisfied with the result.
"Topsoil Spirit can help me complete at least eight more body forgings."
That was basically a treasure trove. Su Yu licked his lips with anticipation. Topsoil Spirit would be his new target! Since that fellow still had so many treasures and lacked the ability to kill him, he naturally had to make that fellow his new target.
Chapter 1001: Ninestar Island, I'm Here! (1)
"Topsoil Spirit!"
Su Yu muttered that name. That fellow had been maintaining quite a low profile. He had to be careful lest his secrets were exposed by that fellow. He felt quite regretful at his failure to capture or kill Topsoil Spirit.
But there was nothing he could do about it. Not everything would progress smoothly in life. There would eventually be some regrets here and there as one went through life. Despite his feelings, Su Yu decided to accept and deal with it when possible. At present, that fellow would certainly be much more cautious than before. It wouldn't be easy for him to track that fellow.
"Let's focus on Tianduo and the little golden dragon for now..."
He had missed his best chance to capture Topsoil Spirit. With their recent encounter, Topsoil Spirit would be on extreme alert against him, making further actions against Topsoil Spirit extremely difficult. Furthermore, that fellow was quite a slippery opponent.
"Between the little golden dragon and Tianduo, the golden dragon probably has a lot of trump cards as well. Tianduo might be the easier target."
Su Yu would certainly not underestimate that dragon. He had even heard that an Invincible had recently moved for that golden dragon. The little golden dragon had an Invincible grandfather who was also the grand elder of the golden dragon race.
Meanwhile, Tianduo was about seventeen generations apart from a devil king. He might be an Invincible descendant as well, but he was quite distant from the Invincible in his family. The divines and devils enjoyed long lifespans. Thus, they would inevitably produce numerous descendants across generations.
By Tianduo's generation, one would very rarely get the chance to even meet their ancestor Invincible unless one was exceptionally talented. That was not surprising at all. Nevertheless, his identity as an Invincible descendant was still quite useful at times.
"Tianduo will remain my main target..."
The golden dragon could very well have a way to directly contact the Invincible in his family. Furthermore, the Dragon Realm was not that far away. This place was practically their territory. Thus, it would be very dangerous to set his eyes on the little golden dragon here.
The fight with Topsoil Spirit had served as a good wake-up call for Su Yu. He was not that strong yet. He had merely relied on trickery and coincidences to kill Sunmoons. The fifth principal's characters had played a great role as well. He was still not a Sunmoon. Nor was he actually capable of killing more Sunmoons. At most, he could only handle seventh-stage Mountainseas. And seventh-stage Mountainseas were ants before Sunmoons.
Su Yu reminded himself that like those Mountainseas, he was merely an ant. He should reign himself in. This region was filled with Sunmoons. He should never overestimate himself. He warned himself repeatedly to stop acting rashly.
He had grown increasingly confident after killing some Mountainseas and Sunmoons. He was even starting to look down on all the other geniuses. But reality had given him a good slap in the face. A mere Topsoil Spirit had nearly killed him. And there were numerous geniuses far more dangerous than Topsoil Spirit out there.
In Su Yu's mind, even though Topsoil Spirit was still not good enough to enter the Heaven Index, that was most certainly someone stronger than Huang Teng. Could Huang Teng kill fifth-stage Mountainseas? Unlikely.
After repeating those warnings in his mind, Su Yu transformed into an iron-winged bird. He had thought that the identity of a mountainbreak bull was low-profile enough for him. But he found that he was wrong. The blood of the mountainbreak bulls was too popular. He was not the only person who enjoyed harvesting mountainbreak bull blood. In fact, his disguise as a mountainbreak bull was probably the main reason Topsoil Spirit had decided to target him.
No wonder he had not encountered a single mountainbreak bull after entering the Sea of Stars. He couldn't find even one of them on Red Clouds Island. It was likely that these bulls did not have the courage to travel alone. What about the iron-winged birds, then? This race was unpopular enough, right? A Cloudbreach iron-winged bird was decently strong with relatively inexpensive blood essence. With this disguise, nobody would set their eyes on him anymore, right?
Su Yu exhaled in relief after putting on his new disguise.
Remain low-key!
He didn't know if Topsoil Spirit would start spreading words of his appearance. He could never be too careful.
***
Ninestar Island.
This island was far larger than Red Clouds Island.
Nine realm entrances were spread over the island, splitting the island into multiple administrative regions. One should never underestimate the size of this place just because it was called an island. It could very well be larger than even an entire prefecture in the Human Realm.
Numerous cities could be found on Ninestar Island. Among these cities, each of the nine realms had its own personal city. Additionally, the nine realms had also joined hands to erect a city in the center of the island. The city was away from each of the nine realm entrances, and it was named Ninestar City.
There was also an ancient city on this island. Naturally, the ancient city was much less popular than the other cities. Nevertheless, it wasn't like this city enjoyed zero traffic. It was still a good place of refuge for people escaping their enemies.
The island was densely populated. Due to its vicinity to the Luminous Domain Mansion, the source qi density on the island was much higher than the source qi density in the nine realms. Thus, numerous natives of the nine realms lived on the island instead of their own realms.
Every ten years, the island's population would peak. Geniuses from numerous realms would congregate there. This place was also different from the Plain of Desires. There, a majority of the geniuses were Skysoars. Meanwhile, apart from a lack of Invincibles, even Sunmoons were common sights on Ninestar Island.
As of late, battles had been erupting all over the island, providing the locals with numerous topics to gossip about. From what they could see, the next opening of the Luminous Domain Mansion would probably be a very eventful one. What they were experiencing currently was merely the warm-up for the coming event.
Apart from the young geniuses popular in the Allheaven Battlefield, the myriad races still had a lot of young geniuses to offer. Some of them had merely remained in their native realms, but that did not mean that they were weak. In fact, some of them had already started conquering large swathes of lands in their native realms.
As the next opening of the mansion drew near, these geniuses were starting to appear. The geniuses of the ancient races had also exited seclusion one after another. At present, nine levels of the Luminous Domain Mansion had been discovered. There might be even more undiscovered levels.
A majority of those exploring the mansion would be Skysoars. Cloudbreaches would be the main leaders of the numerous forces, with a small number of Mountainseas entering the mansion alongside the Skysoars and Cloudbreaches.
The stronger a genius was, the higher the level they could enter. But the higher the level, the more dangerous it would be. Additionally, the danger in the mansion also corresponded directly to one's age and strength. Thus, the younger geniuses would have an easier time in the mansion compared to the older geniuses.
The mansion was one of the best sources of opportunities in the Allheaven Battlefield. Some had stumbled upon a massive fortuitous encounter in the mansion, fusing all their apertures and entering the Sunmoon Realm in one day.
Some had discovered heaven weapons in the mansion. With these weapons, they killed the exploring Sunmoons to obtain the resources they required to grow further. Some had encountered valuable source qi transformation treasures in the mansion, instantly completing their nine transformations.
***
With the opening of the Luminous Domain Mansion drawing near, countless experts of the myriad races were starting to congregate around Ninestar Island. Originally, the crowd would only start to swell at the end of the year. But this year, the crowd had started swelling earlier than normal. That was all thanks to Su Yu. No, more like that was due to Mo Duona. He was the first person to notify all the Heaven Index geniuses about Su Yu's potential whereabouts. Otherwise, all those geniuses would have taken longer to arrive.
And due to the unique phenomenon where geniuses could encounter each other more easily in the Allheaven Battlefield, even the geniuses who initially did not plan to come had somehow changed their minds. With so many geniuses heading over, how could they miss out on the fun? ᴛʜɪs ᴄʜᴀᴘᴛᴇʀ ɪs ᴜᴘᴅᴀᴛᴇ ʙʏ novel•fire.net
On his way, Su Yu stumbled upon numerous fights. And sure enough, disguised as an iron-winged bird, he had attracted far less trouble. It was pointless to target weaklings. Those from the weaker races were simply unworthy of even being killed. Nobody could say if this was fortunate or unfortunate for them. For many geniuses, they disdained the act of targetting the weaker races.
Eventually, Su Yu reached Ninestar Island. Even on the island, battles were breaking out everywhere. Naturally, he did his best to avoid all the chaos. The number of Sunmoons he sensed also increased massively once arriving at the island. He could sense at least twenty Sunmoons of the various races. Even late-stage Sunmoons could be sensed, such as Qin Hao and the master of the hawk he encountered previously. And most of them were gathered in Ninestar City.
Most of the other cities were partially enveloped by the power of the nine realms. Thus, these cities felt rather uncomfortable for these Sunmoons due to the existence of realm suppression. Furthermore, it was also rather unsafe to stay right in front of a realm entrance.
Some of the nine realm entrances were even guarded by ninth-stage Sunmoons, with some of them enjoying the presence of multiple ninth-stage Sunmoons. When such existences fought near the entrance of their respective realms, they might even be able to unleash the combat strength of Invincibles. Thus, foreign Sunmoons did not enjoy visiting these places unless absolutely necessary.
Naturally, a certain level of order was still maintained on the island. For example, Ninestar City was under the direct management of the Thousand Region Alliance.
The nine realms of Ninestar Island were members of the Thousand Region Alliance as well. Thus, peace still prevailed within Ninestar City. Generally, the visitors would try to hold back out of respect for the Thousand Region Alliance. No matter what, this was an alliance of hundreds of races. They might not be fully united, but they were still able to rapidly come together when they were threatened by the major races.
After all, the price of disunity in such a situation was the potential fall of their realms. Almost all the minor realms in the eastern, southern, western, and northern sectors of the Allheaven Battlefield had already been conquered by the major races.
That was one of the contributing factors to the rapid rise of the Thousand Region Alliance. The only thing this alliance lacked currently was the backing of their very own Invincibles. They still lacked power projection, but they could protect themselves well when they were in their own territories.
Su Yu had learned about all that before this. Thus, he was already quite familiar with Ninestar Island even though he had never been there. At the moment, he wasn't traveling alone. After paying a hundred drops of source qi liquid, he had joined a group of travelers. Or to be precise, this was one of the teams specializing in providing a unique escort service to all visitors.
Apart from Ninestar City, their service also covered the other cities on the island. They only required an affordable fee for their services. They would ensure the safety of those visiting the island. Most of the people in these escort teams were experts of minor races and the nine realms.
They would also deal with any inconveniences one might encounter during one's travel on the island. The escort team Su Yu had hired was led by a sixth-stage Mountainsea. Also in the team were two first-stage Mountainseas and ten Cloudbreaches.
They had been waiting near the shore for customers. Including Su Yu, thirty customers had purchased their service, allowing them to earn three thousand drops of source qi liquid for the job. If everything went smoothly, they could make the trip to Ninestar City in only one day. Thus, this was actually quite a profitable job.
Three thousand drops of source qi liquid were worth around ten thousand human merit points. Shared among thirteen individuals after deducting the necessary payments to the higher-ups of the Thousand Region Alliance, each of them would be entitled to a share of about five hundred merit points.
Through Su Yu's calculation, if they made a trip every three days, each of them could earn thousands of merit points per month. Not even the academy elders back in Human Realm could earn that much.
Then again, this was also a high-risk job. After all, danger was everywhere in the Allheaven Battlefield. And this business was only viable once every ten years. There wouldn't be enough visitors to sustain this business at any other time.
Chapter 1002: Ninestar Island, I'm Here! (2)
Most of the people in Su Yu's group came from the minor races.
Some were Skysoars and some were Cloudbreaches. There were no Mountainseas in the group. Mountainseas could travel alone without much issue as long as they stayed out of trouble. Thus, they did not require the service of these escort teams.
Surprisingly, there was even an Infinite Strength cultivator in the group. Outside of the various armies, Infinite Strength cultivators were very rarely seen in the Allheaven Battlefield. That was especially true in the Sea of Stars.
An Infinite Strength cultivator might still be able to survive elsewhere with enough luck. But it was very puzzling for an Infinite Strength cultivator to be in the Sea of Stars. Su Yu even suspected this was a fake Infinite Strength cultivator.
Su Yu was not the only one with that thought. The leader of the escorts, a Mountainsea from the skyhawk race, was also glancing at the Infinite Strength cultivator with suspicion every now and then.
The Infinite Strength cultivator noticed all the gazes on him and helplessly said, "Seniors, please stop looking at me like this. I'm really not hiding my strength. If I want to do so, I'm better off pretending to be a Skysoar or a Cloudbreach. Nobody would disguise themselves as an Infinite Strength cultivator in the Sea of Stars. That's even more conspicuous than being a Mountainsea. I'm a member of the ox-faced fish race from the Mountain Root Realm. A few days ago, some experts stumbled into the realm while fighting each other. People near the entrance like us were forced to flee the realm to escape getting dragged into the fight..."
The skyhawk asked in surprise, "Mount Root Realm? Who are the combatants?"
The entrance of the Mount Root Realm was not on this island, but it wasn't that far away. More importantly, that realm entrance was guarded by a Sunmoon. Where was the guard?
The ox-faced fish youth shook his head, "I don't know. They are very strong. Even the expert guarding the entrance ran after seeing them. But...I think one of them is a human. The other combatant is probably a devil. Both of them are late-stage Sunmoons. That's a guess because the expert guarding the entrance is a late-stage Sunmoon as well. But someone like that had actually fled out of fear..."
That piqued the interest of the others in the group. One of them said, "The Mount Root Realm is not weak. The ox-faced fish race does not have an Invincible, but there are multiple races in the Mount Root Realm. That is a realm capable of fielding several ninth-stage Sunmoons. Who's brazen enough to bring their fight into that realm?"
"A human...Was it Lord Qin Hao of Great Qin?"
"A devil with the courage to fight Qin Hao...could it be an original devil? Or a blood fire devil?"
"Is the fight over?"
"Did anyone die?"
"..."
Everyone discussed the matter spiritedly. Su Yu was quite surprised as well. He knew about the ox-faced fish race. He read about this race before as this seemed to be one of the races that had killed him in his dreams as well. This was a race of people with the tails of cows and wings growing on their backs. This was a neutral race rarely seen outside of Mount Root Realm.
So they had been forced to flee due to some experts fighting inside their realm? How pitiful. Then again, he had yet to consume the blood of the ox-faced fish. He wondered if they had any useful abilities. But he reckoned that their abilities wouldn't be too powerful. But the flesh of the ox-faced fish was known to be the cure for many poisons, so this wasn't a completely unpopular race.
Since everyone was talking about the same topic, Su Yu took the chance to join in. "I heard the original devils and dragons are in the middle of a conflict for an ancient dragonblood tree. Looks like the devils are not only in conflict with the dragons. Instead, they are provoking enemies everywhere. The devils are indeed as overbearing as rumored."
The Mountainsea leading the group instantly berated him, "Don't talk drivel. The devils are strong. A passing devil might overhear you. Any other devil might not care, but what if the passing devil is a blood fire devil?"
The blood fire devils were crazy. Was this person tired of living?
Su Yu smiled fawningly and said, "Forgive me, Lord. I didn't mean anything. I was only saying that out of my admiration for the prowess of the devils. Lord, a lot of devil geniuses must have arrived as well. I'm especially interested in Lord Mo Duona. That's a boundlessly valiant cultivator, someone who has reigned at the top of the Heaven Index for a long time. Have you seen him before, Lord?"
At the mention of Mo Duona, all the other conversations ended. Everyone looked at the Mountainsea, waiting for an answer.
A look of dread appeared on the Mountainsea's face when he heard Mo Duona's name. He answered softly, "I was lucky enough to meet him once. He is indeed strong. I might be a sixth-stage Mountainsea, but before Lord Mo Duona, I can't even muster the courage to fight. He felt like an insurmountable opponent."
Su Yu cursed inwardly. Was this fellow exaggerating things? He had seen Mo Duona as well, even if he had only seen Mo Duona from afar. But Mo Duona did not feel as powerful as described by this Mountainsea.
But Mo Duona wasn't the person he really wanted to ask about. Tianduo was his actual target. However, Tianduo was much less interesting to talk about in comparison. Thus, he had to guide the conversation toward Tianduo. ᴛʜɪs ᴄʜᴀᴘᴛᴇʀ ɪs ᴜᴘᴅᴀᴛᴇ ʙʏ novel(ꜰ)ire.net
After a short wait, Su Yu sighed and said, "The original devils are indeed good at producing powerful experts. I wonder if I'll get lucky enough to see some of these experts in the city. I'm a big fan of the original devils. I wonder if the other geniuses of the original devil race are as amazing as Lord Mo Duona as well..."
"The original devil race is a powerful race. It is only natural that they have numerous geniuses. Apart from Lord Mo Duona, Lord Tianduo is probably the most active original devil genius in the Allheaven Battlefield."
Su Yu had the urge to clap. Well done. This person was following his direction nicely.
Su Yu continued the same line of conversation and said, "Lord Tianduo...yes, I heard of him before. He is also someone on the Earth Index. But...his rank is quite low. Previously--"
Someone interrupted him, "That's in the past. His latest rank is quite high. Just a few days ago, he climbed to the twelfth rank. That's pretty amazing."
"Twelfth on Earth Index?" Su Yu exclaimed in admiration, "It has been quite a while since I last checked the index. Wow."
"Yeah. Lord Tianduo killed a second-stage Mountainsea a few days ago. Furthermore, many previous index geniuses have died recently. Thus, Lord Tianduo was able to rise rapidly."
That was true. Of the seventy-two geniuses in the Earth Index, Su Yu had killed a few of them. For example, people like Jiu Xuan and An Mintian. Dao Cheng had previously entered the Heaven Index before dropping out of it again. However, Su Yu had not been paying much attention to him.
It was worth noting that the top rankers of the Earth Index were mostly people he knew. However, the first-ranked name on the Earth Index was actually someone he had never met before, Soulcurse.
So Tianduo had actually climbed to the twelfth place. That was quite a rapid rise. It would seem like that fellow had been quite busy lately.
"Is Lord Tianduo in Ninestar City as well?"
"Yes. But he'll leave every few days. Also, he's staying in the Devil Consulate. You won't be able to meet him even if he's there..."
Su Yu nodded. Thanks for the information. His target was residing in the Devil Consulate. And his target would leave the city every few days. Thanks for this information as well. Well, this was easy. But there was no guarantee that everything he heard here would be accurate.
Su Yu spoke with an envious tone, "Lord Ying Jun, are there a lot of Sunmoon experts in Ninestar City? Do you think any of them are accepting disciples?"
The Mountainsea was left quite speechless. He said, "Stop dreaming. Plenty of people have the same dream, but those experts are too busy to entertain people from minor races like us. As for your question, there are a lot of Sunmoons in the city. There's even a third-stage Sunmoon from my race in the city. But even someone like me is not qualified to meet him."
A third-stage Sunmoon from the skyhawk race. When Su Yu heard that, he recalled the hawk he encountered when he first reached the Sea of Stars. The hawk had nearly eaten him, and an incomparably powerful expert was standing atop the hawk at the time.
Su Yu hurriedly asked, "A third-stage Sunmoon? Lord, so your race has a Sunmoon stationed in Ninestar City as well? How lucky..."
The Mountainsea shook his head, "Don't think too much. Yes, there are Sunmoons in my race. But the Sunmoon in the city...forget it. I can't say we're related to him. Your iron-winged bird race also has experts serving the divines as well, but can you actually form a connection with those divines through them?"
"No..." Su Yu spoke gloomily, "I see. So that senior is also the follower of an expert? But he's a third-stage Sunmoon. Which expert is worthy of a follower like that?"
The Mountainsea sighed, "Of course there are such experts out there. For people like us, a third-stage Sunmoon is the sky. But for those standing at the top, that's nothing. The person that senior follows is an expert on the Dao Affirmation Ranking, Lord Ancient Mountain of the primordial giant race."
"Primordial giant race!"
This was a race Su Yu knew about. It was an ancient race of giants. These primordial giants were incomparably powerful. And Su Yu had met a giant before. Of the three Mountainseas Hong Tan had captured, one of them was a giant. Or to be precise, that was a member of the mountain giant race.
Compared to the primordial giant race, the mountain giant race was far weaker. Even so, the mountain giant race was still ranked quite high among the myriad races. And when all the giant sub-races were classified into a single greater giant race, it would become an incomparably powerful entity.
In fact, they wouldn't be weaker than the five elemental race. With this, Su Yu finally learned more about the person on the hawk. So that was a primordial giant. Ancient Mountain, a member of an ancient race and a super expert at the ninth-stage Sunmoon Realm.
As for the so-called Dao Affirmation Ranking, it was most likely the same ranking maintained by the Allheaven Treasure House.
Su Yu asked curiously, "Lord, just how many experts are there on the Dao Affirmation Ranking? When I asked the Allheaven Treasure House previously, they refused to sell me the list, claiming that I was unqualified to buy it..."
Su Yu had a depressed look as he said that.
The Mountainsea laughed, "That's not surprising. Unless you're a Mountainsea or an index genius, you won't have access to their ranking. After all, that is a ranking involving a bunch of super experts on the verge of dao affirmation. It's not wise to spread the ranking too widely as that might incur the displeasure of super experts unhappy about their ranks. In fact, the Allheaven Treasure House had already been attacked multiple times before by Sunmoons unhappy with their ranks."
Those were super experts on the verge of dao affirmation. If they decided to ignore the Allheaven Treasure House, all would be fine. But the moment one of them decided to do something about it, the Allheaven Treasure House would suffer massive losses. If it wasn't for the powerful backing it enjoyed, the Allheaven Treasure House would have been demolished long ago just because of this single ranking.