Chapter 39 - 39

Chapter 1009: An Ancient Invincible Corpse Has Appeared! (3)

Despite his efforts, Su Yu had not been able to find an ancient spatial pocket. He had no choice but to fake that as well. His alternative? A character. Yes. He could shatter a spatial-related character to produce the same result. And his beast character was one such character. That was something only beastmasters were supposed to have. Su Yu didn't even know how such a character took form in his sea of willpower.

That was a character with its own storage space. Thus, shattering this character could probably produce undulations similar to what would appear when spatial pockets were shattered. That character had reached the third tier.

And since ancient spatial pockets were quite fragile, the undulations generated should probably similar in strength to a peak third-tier character. Since the undulations wouldn't last for long, he didn't need to worry about anyone performing a deeper investigation on them.

Su Yu cursed.

This was his first time crushing his own character. So be it. His plan seemed to be getting more and more expensive as he had to sacrifice a peak third-tier character for it as well. This would be a massive loss if he failed to earn a profit large enough from his scam.

He continued diving deeper. And the fake battle continued around him. None of the spectators had the courage to approach the two combatants. They were very amazed at the strength and stamina displayed by the two. Even after such a long time, they were still able to maintain the combat strength of Mountainseas. They were truly worthy of being called geniuses.

Abruptly, a series of spatial undulations came from deep underwater. The undulations weren't intense, but they were obvious enough for everyone to notice.

At the same time.

A roar rang out from under the sea, "That's mine!"

It was Tianduo's voice.

"Topsoil Spirit, you dare? Devil's Descend!"

Boom!

The projection of an ancient devil descended from the sky. Next, an incomparably powerful burst of devilish qi erupted.

"Tianduo, how dare you monopolize this discovery alone?"

Right at that moment, a powerful pressure spread out.

Tianduo's voice rang out again, "This...Invincible...no, pseudo Invincible..."

All the surrounding experts started fleeing madly. What was that? What a powerful aura. What a heavy presence. While everyone was fleeing, a massive figure appeared in the sky. It was Tianduo. Dragging a gigantic corpse behind him, he roared and threw a punch.

The sea roiled violenty. Deep underwater, an indistinct earth elemental was revealed as the water around him started evaporating.

After coughing a mouthful of brown blood, he roared, "Tianduo, don't even dream of monopolizing this yourself! Everyone, listen to me! Tianduo has obtained an ancient Invincible corpse! Also on the corpse is an ancient heaven weapon! I even saw an ancient cultivation method and ancient character on the corpse..."

Boom!

Up in the sky, Tianduo threw more and more punches at the sea. Then, with a roar, he squeezed the corpse into his storage ring and started fleeing without any hesitation. He was fleeing underwater.

And down below, a stream of water moved rapidly to give chase. That seemed to be Topsoil Spirit. A furious roar rang out, "Leave the Invincible corpse! Tianduo, you won't be able to escape!"

In the blink of an eye, the two vanished without a single trace. Everyone who was present earlier had clearly sensed the powerful pressence emitted by the corpse. With the two combatants gone, one figure after another appeared and dove into the sea.

Deep under the sea, a small spatial pocket was spinning rapidly, creating violent currents of water around it. At a closer look, water was actually madly streaming into the spatial pocket. The spatial pocket was collapsing, and one ancient item after another was being thrown out of it.

"Heavens!"

"Ancient spatial pocket!"

"That corpse earlier...did anyone feel its aura?"

"Yes. It was very powerful. Even after so many years of death, its presence was still as strong as a late-stage Sunmoon..."

They were greatly shocked. An Invincible corpse? The cultivation method of an Invincible? And a heaven weapon? The battle between Tianduo and Topsoil Spirit had actually caused the collapse of an ancient spatial pocket. Suddenly, someone exclaimed in surprise after picking up a quiver. A large number of people instantly appeared around him.

Noticing their gaze, that person hurriedly explained, "This is probably an ancient quiver..."

He hurriedly removed the lid of the quiver...

Several crude and simple arrows revealed themselves. Someone said, "Quick, check the grade..."

The person with the quiver hurriedly sent some source qi into the arrow. Immediately, eighty-two golden stripes appeared on the arrow. But after a split second, ten of the stripes shattered...

Only seventy-two golden stripes were left. All the people there were stunned. They were greatly shocked. This was an ancient weapon. A middle-tier earth-grade weapon. Was this a joke?

This was an arrow. A one-use item. Heavens! What did this signify? In short, this ancient expert was someone who had used earth-grade consumables. Sure, after so many years, the arrow had dropped to the profound grade. But it was still extremely valuable.

There were four arrows in total. Combined, they were probably comparable to an actual earth weapon in worth.

One ought to remember that earth weapons were rare for even Mountainseas. Not every Mountainsea could afford earth weapons. But here, something comparable in value had appeared.

The Mountainsea who had picked up the quiver said nothing and fled without hesitation. He had never expected that he would get something like this out of nowhere.

At that moment, a different voice rang out, "That corpse earlier...a bow was hanging on its back..."

Great shock rippled across the crowd.

If even the arrows were middle-tier earth weapons, what about the bow? Was that an ancient expert archer? Was that an Invincible? That must be the case, right? Not even Sunmoons would be willing to actually use earth weapons as consumables.

Some of them started pursuing the person with the quiver. The rest started searching the area for other treasures. They were picking up anything they saw regardless of what it was. One of them even found an ancient city medallion. It wasn't an inner-ring medallion, but that person was still overjoyed. He hurriedly fled with the medallion.

"Chase him!"

"The most valuable treasure of this collapsing spatial pocket is the corpse, but it has been taken away by Tianduo."

"Tianduo has an ancient Invincible corpse in his possession!"

"..."

Rumors started spreading. The people who had failed to get anything from the collapsed ancient spatial pocket started heading toward Ninestar Island. An unbelievably massive opportunity had appeared.

Heaven weapon. Ancient cultivation method. Invincible corpse. And many other treasures. Tianduo of the original devil race had obtained all those items. As for Topsoil Spirit, he had fled after his battle with Tianduo before vanishing deep under the sea.

***

Before long, the entire Ninestar Island went wild.

During a battle between Tianduo and Topsoil Spirit, an ancient spatial pocket had collapsed. A complete ancient Invincible corpse was discovered. According to the witnesses, that corpse was still able to emanate an incredibly powerful presence even after so many years of death.

That was the corpse of an ancient master archer with a heaven-grade bow. Even the arrows used by the ancient master were earth weapons. A lucky individual had discovered the arrows before fleeing with them.

One of the witnesses swore solemnly, "That might be an ancient divine skywing expert, the same expert from the myths that had killed an Invincible with an arrow."

"When the spatial pocket collapsed, the sky itself changed colors. Even after so many years, the corpse's presence was still more powerful than a ninth-stage Sunmoon's..."

"The heaven weapon seemed to still be inactive, yet it was able to release an alarmingly intense killing intent."

"I also sensed the aura of a character. The character of that ancient expert might still exist. The sea of willpower of that ancient expert has yet to fully collapse..."

"..."

Rumors started spreading all over Ninestar Island.

One original devil expert after another appeared. The experts of the various races could be seen soaring into the sky before vanishing. They had to prevent the original devils from laying their hands on all those treasures.

An ancient Invincible corpse?

In truth, over the years, not a single ancient Invincible corpse had been discovered. This was applicable to all the races in existence. Even with the numerous ancient ruins in the Human Realm, not a single ancient human Invincible corpse had been found.

***

Thus, even the human race was stirred into action by the rumors.

Zhu Guangshen gave his order, "Investigate. Track Tianduo."

"We need to get that corpse. Even if it's not the corpse of an Invincible, it is most definitely the corpse of a super expert."

People on Ninestar Island, people on Red Clouds Island, people from everywhere near the area started heading toward the place where the corpse was discovered.

It was very likely that the corpse would show one a clear path toward dao affirmation. That was an ancient Invincible. Even if no other treasures were found apart from the corpse and the heaven weapon, this discovery was still something worth fighting to the death for. ᴛhis chapter is ᴜpdated by NoveI[F]ire.net

***

At the same time.

Su Yu took out Tianduo's index copy. It was vibrating intensely.

"Tianduo, sell your discovery to the Heavenly Hunt Pavilion. We're offering a hundred drops...no, three hundred drops of sunmoon profound yellow liquid for it!"

Su Yu tossed the index copy away. He laughed in amusement. Wow. They sure were rich. That price was enough to purchase nine hundred strands of heavenearth profound light. But it was very likely they would be able to discover that this was a scam. Thus, he refused to deal with them.

The Heavenly Hunt Pavilion was too mysterious. He would rather not take this gamble. He continued moving rapidly. He was going to disappear for a bit and let everyone simmer for a bit before reappearing.

Chapter 1010: Finding Topsoil Spirit (1)

Somewhere amid the boundless sea.

One big loophole remained with Su Yu's plan.

Topsoil Spirit!

His biggest regret was his failure to capture Topsoil Spirit. This was the biggest loophole in his plan. If Topsoil Spirit showed up and exposed him, he would be in grave danger. Thus, while hiding from all the people looking for him, Su Yu started thinking of solutions for this issue.

He didn't have the courage to go ahead with the next step of his plan before dealing with this loophole. Of course, since everyone knew that Topsoil Spirit was Tianduo's opponent, they might doubt his words. But he only needed to claim that Tianduo was Su Yu. That would be enough to get those people investigating.

"Topsoil Spirit!"

Su Yu cursed inwardly. How troublesome. Great wealth was just ahead of him. But he didn't dare to reach out and grab it.

"This is so annoying."

He kept shaking his head. Even before starting the plan, he was already aware of this loophole. But he had no choice since he couldn't find Topsoil Spirit. That fellow seemed to have vanished completely.

Suddenly, he sensed something.

Before he could move away, a loud voice rang out behind him, "Tianduo, where's Topsoil Spirit?"

A massive figure was rapidly moving toward him, creating violent rumbles with every step he took.

Shi Zun.

Shi Zhun was surprisingly fast. He had been on the hunt for Topsoil Spirit, but instead, he found Tianduo. When he noticed that, he roared furiously, "Where is he? Damn it! Why is he so fast? Just two days ago, he played a trick on me. I thought he was hiding in Grandstar City, but he had actually left the island. And now, he is missing again!"

"..."

At first, Su Yu wanted to run away. But hearing that, he asked, "Shi Zun, you fought Topsoil Spirit recently?"

Shi Zun grumbled, "That shameless scoundrel was too fast. I managed to force him into the ancient city, but he actually escaped. How did he do that?"

Shi Zun was very puzzled. The gates of ancient cities were located in fixed locations. Did he somehow miss Topsoil Spirit when that fellow escaped through the gate? That was possible.

He furiously said, "That shameless bastard has finally revealed his ambition. He's trying to fuse the five elements. No wonder he tried to snatch my stone core previously. He must be trying to perfect his five elemental core."

Wow. Su Yu finally understood why Shi Zun harbored so much hostility toward Topsoil Spirit. But he had to admit that Topsoil Spirit was indeed quite an ambitious one.

Perhaps his five elemental core was incomplete. As a remedy, he tried snatching Shi Zun's stone core. Strictly speaking, the stone golem race could be considered a part of the earth elemental race. According to rumors, this was a race of mutated earth elementals. But Su Yu was unclear if the rumors were true.

The stone golem race was very strong despite not being an ancient race. It was also a top 100 race with at least one Invincible.

Instantly, Su Yu latched onto several pieces of information. Firstly, Topsoil Spirit had fought Shi Zun previously. Secondly, Topsoil Spirit might still be hiding in the sole ancient city on Ninestar Island.

Thirdly, Shi Zun was here to look for Topsoil Spirit. He did not care about Tianduo, and it was likely that he didn't even care about the Invincible corpse. Or perhaps he simply wasn't sure he could defeat Tianduo so he had been holding back.

Topsoil Spirit was hiding in an ancient city.

Su Yu's eyes flickered as he pretended to be indifferent, "Yeah, that fellow is a very annoying opponent. You might not be his match."

Shi Zun said, "I counter him. Why should I be afraid of him? As an earth elemental, his strongest earth movement, earth defense, and earth offense are all ineffective against me. Even after fusing the five elements, his main element will still be earth. I don't need to fear him."

There was no reason for him to fear Topsoil Spirit.

It wasn't like he hadn't fought Topsoil Spirit without holding back several times before. Topsoil Spirit might be strong, but he was immune to most of Topsoil Spirit's tricks. Instead, Topsoil Spirit was the one running away from him each time they met. In short, his race was the bane of the earth elemental race. That would not change even with the fusion of five elements.

After looking around, Shi Zun spoke with disappointment, "Tianduo, remember to notify me when you see him. I'll continue my search. He won't be able to escape me."

After saying that, Shi Zun turned around to leave.

Seeing that, Su Yu hurriedly said, "Shi Zun, were you nearby when I fought him earlier?"

"What about it?"

Shi Zun complained, "You were too useless. Why did you let him off for a dumb ancient corpse? If you managed to keep him busy a tiny bit longer, I would have been able to arrive in time and help you kill him. Won't the reward for killing Topsoil Spirit be better than some useless ancient items? What a fool!"

Leaving those words behind, Shi Zun left.

These were his unspoken words, proven through his actions: I saw the ancient corpse, but I don't care. Your daddy only wants to kill Topsoil Spirit!

For him, nothing was as important as killing Topsoil Spirit.

Su Yu was speechless.

He had thought that Shi Zun had not seen the corpse. But that was not the case. He simply didn't care about anything except killing Topsoil Spirit. Was this...true love? Well, this wasn't a bad thing.

Su Yu did not want to attract more trouble than necessary. But at that moment, he thought of something else. It would seem like his fate would be entangled with yet another ancient city. Topsoil Spirit could very well be hiding in an ancient city.

If that was the case, he had to enter the ancient city as well. Getting rid of that fellow was still his best course of action.

Even if he couldn't kill that fellow, he had to keep that fellow trapped in the city. It was likely that Topsoil Spirit did not have any index copies on him. It wouldn't be easy for him to contact anyone as long as he remained trapped.

Su Yu only needed to keep Topsoil Spirit in an ancient building during the duration of the scam, making it impossible for that fellow to send any messages out. At that thought, he took out a black robe and covered his entire body with it. This would help with his concealment for now.

Suddenly, a voice transmission talisman within Tianduo's storage ring started vibrating. Su Yu took the talisman out and frowned. This would be quite troublesome. To use each voice transmission talisman, one needed to know its frequency. Without the frequency, one wouldn't be able to send any messages out of it. ɴᴇᴡ ɴᴏᴠᴇʟ ᴄʜᴀᴘᴛᴇʀs ᴀʀᴇ ᴘᴜʙʟɪsʜᴇᴅ ᴏɴ novel{f}ire.net

Fortunately, he did not need the frequency to read the incoming messages. And there was still no need for him to contact anyone through this talisman. After taking a look, he noted that the quality of a voice transmission talisman manufactured by the devils was actually quite high.

It had the ability to store all previous messages, allowing him to leisurely browse all of Tianduo's messages. Soon, he noticed a message sent by someone called Dawo.

Dawo?

Su Yu recognized that name. This was the same devil he had seen fighting a dragon when he first reached Ninestar City. Dawo, an original devil expert at the seventh-stage Sunmoon Realm.

"Tianduo, where are you?"

That was Dawo's message.

Su Yu couldn't send a reply. That would require the frequencies of both this talisman and the talisman of the recipient. This was a built-in security service to prevent an enemy using the talisman of those they kill to entrap the allies of the dead. And that was not information Su Yu had.

Voice transmission talismans were very convenient to use. But in the past, they had been used to lay out all sorts of traps for the allies of the original owners of these talismans. Because of that, the security of modern voice transmission talismans had improved significantly.

"Dawo..."

Su Yu decided to ignore Dawo. But at that moment, the talisman shook once again.

"Tianduo, return to Ninestar City as soon as possible. None of us intend to snatch your discovery, but you're advised to hand it over to the higher-ups. You're not strong enough to monopolize the discovery."

Mo Duona!

Su Yu was quite surprised to see the name of the sender. He had thought that Mo Duona and Tianduo were not on speaking terms.

With a frown, Su Yu said to the little furball, "Try to get the frequencies from Tianduo. If you manage to do that, I'll give you something yummy."

If he could reply through Tianduo's talisman, his disguise would be even more believable. Sure, it would be perfectly logical for Tianduo to ignore all messages after discovering something so valuable. But it was much better for Su Yu to further improve this disguise.

Clad in the same black robe, Su Yu started moving toward the ancient city while waiting for the little furball to get the frequencies from Tianduo. Clearly, the devils were attaching a rather heavy importance to this discovery. Even Mo Duona was trying to persuade him to hand the discovery over.

Since Su Yu was not replying, a second message came from Dawo.

"Tianduo, a lot of experts are looking for you. You're in a dangerous situation. Come back and we will protect you. It doesn't matter if you want to sell it to the higher-ups or offer it to Devil King Lade. Either option is much better than having your discovery snatched by someone else."

Devil King Lade was Tianduo's ancestor. Either of the two options was acceptable for the devils. They only cared about keeping the discovery within the devil race. That would be a true loss for them.

An ancient Invincible...or to be precise, a suspected ancient Invincible corpse...This might be the sole ancient Invincible corpse in existence. Even if that corpse was not an Invincible, it would be a pseudo Invincible.

As the first-ever discovered corpse of an ancient Invincible, its research value was unimaginably high. Furthermore, it came with an ancient character, ancient heaven weapon, and some other ancient items. This corpse might even contain some ancient secrets. In short, it was extremely important.

Thus, everyone was looking for Tianduo. Some people were also looking for all the people who were present during the battle. And some were in search of the individual who had found the ancient arrows.

Even the site where the fake ancient spatial pocket had appeared was under the investigation of numerous experts.

***

Deep underwater.

Numerous experts had arrived at the previous battleground.

Many of them were Sunmoons.

Among the Sunmoons was a masked individual in white and an expert shrouded in dazzling gold. One was a member of the Heavenly Hunt Pavilion while the other was a member of the Allheaven Treasure House.

The whirlpool generated by the collapsed spatial pocket could no longer be seen, but some spatial undulations could still be felt in the area.

After spending some time investigating the place, an expert said, "There are traces of shattered space here, but perhaps the spatial pocket was too old. Its effects did not spread too far."

With a casual swing of his hand, his immediate surroundings became completely devoid of water while a badly damaged armor appeared in his hand.

He studied the damaged armor for a bit and said, "This is an ancient armor. It should originally be at the earth grade, but it must have been ruined during the spatial collapse."

He sighed, "Time knows no mercy. Even inside a perfectly sealed spatial pocket, an earth weapon can not avoid destruction without anyone taking care of it."

A different expert spoke, "I can sense some death qi here. That ancient expert must have been undergoing the transformation into a death spirit, but the process was stopped before it could reach completion..."

A devil spoke up in astonishment, "So the ancient experts had a way to stop the transformation? The Devil Emperor once speculated that the ancient Invincibles might have all been transformed into death spirits, including the corpses of the ones who had perished. Was the corpse found here someone who was halfway through the transformation?"

Why had all the Invincible corpses gone missing? Or to be precise, why had the myriad races failed to find even a single Invincible corpse throughout the years? According to some of the oldest living cultivators, the ancient Invincibles might have all been transformed into death spirits. Not all of the ancient Invincibles could be found in the Death Realm, but a small number of ancient Invincibles had actually been discovered in their death spirit forms there.

People like Devil Emperor and Divine Emperor had actually entered the Death Realm several times for the purpose of reviving some of their dead ancient Invincibles.

Chapter 1011: Finding Topsoil Spirit (2)

"Is it possible that this is not the corpse of an Invincible?" ɴᴇᴡ ɴᴏᴠᴇʟ ᴄʜᴀᴘᴛᴇʀs ᴀʀᴇ ᴘᴜʙʟɪsʜᴇᴅ ᴏɴ noᴠelfire.net

"Even if it's not an Invincible corpse, it will be a pseudo Invincible corpse. According to the witnesses, the instant the spatial pocket collapsed, waves of aura at the level of a late-stage Sunmoon spread out. Imagine that. An ancient corpse still capable of emitting an aura of that level."

"..."

The experts made one conclusion after another.

At this time, the masked individual from the Heavenly Hunt Pavilion spoke, "Traces of Tianduo's aura can be found here, but Topsoil Spirit's aura is nowhere to be found. That little guy is very cautious. And both of them have thrown their index copies away so it won't be easy to track them."

It was pointless to speculate here before finding Tianduo.

A devil coldly said, "And what will you do after finding Tianduo? That's a genius of the original devil race, also a descendant of Devil King Lade. Are you trying to challenge the devils?"

How brazen.

But at that moment, a dragon chimed in, "The moment Tianduo loses the corpse, it will no longer belong to the devils. Dawo, by your logic, that ancient dragonblood tree is rightfully ours as well. You should return it to us."

That was a stupid logic. The ownership would naturally go to anyone capable of snatching and keeping it. Dawo snorted coldly. Inwardly, he was quite furious. These people would hold nothing back in their attempts to snatch the corpse. Of course, if Tianduo was willing to return to them, that would no longer be an issue.

Were these people going to attack their base for the corpse? That would be a declaration of war. Unfortunately, Tianduo was missing. And if he was killed after he was found by someone else, there wasn't even anything the devils could do.

He had sent multiple messages to Tianduo. Since the transmission was successful, Tianduo was certainly still in the region. But Tianduo had ignored all his messages.

That fool!

Dawo cursed inwardly. Tianduo was a descendant of Devil King Lade. No devil would snatch the corpse from him. He could even offer the corpse to Devil King Lade for more benefits.

But instead, that damn kid had gone missing. What was happening? Was he trying to monopolize the corpse? What even was the point? A mere Cloudbreach would not be able to digest the benefits an Invincible or a pseudo Invincible corpse could offer.

And the value of the corpse was far higher than any other Invincible corpse. After all, that was an ancient corpse. The secrets it carried could be much more valuable than the corpse itself.

While cursing inwardly, Dawo continued ordering the other devils to search for Tianduo. They had to prevent any other experts from discovering Tianduo before them. Tianduo's life did not mean much to them, but losing the corpse would be a massive loss. One expert after another started leaving the place.

When most of the people were gone, the golden expert from the Allheaven Treasure House laughed and said, "You, the guy from the Heavenly Hunt Pavilion, can't you guys track him through your index copies? Is that not working?"

"Are you deaf?"

The masked individual replied, "Did you not hear what I said earlier? Both of them had thrown their index copies away."

The golden expert sneered, "Looks like the Heavenly Hunt Pavilion won't be able to profit this time. Who knows? Maybe the Allheaven Treasure House will be the one to profit from this."

After saying that, he vanished.

The masked individual couldn't be bothered to entertain the golden figure. He continued scanning the area. After a while, he frowned. He took out a book and started writing on it, "Spatial collapse has been verified. Ancient items have been discovered. The collapse was limited in intensity. Due to the interference of seawater, there is no way of further investigation on the ruins. The spatial fragments have all dissipated."

A row of words appeared on the book.

"Can the identity of the corpse be verified?"

"No." The masked individual replied, "Traces of an aura with the strength of an eighth-stage Sunmoon can be found. Traces of death qi are present as well. The corpse might have been eroded by death qi at one point. According to the eyewitnesses, a bow hung on the back of the corpse."

"Is there any information on the style and color of the bow?"

"We did not ask the eyewitnesses in detail. According to them, the bow is black in color with a length of around nine meters..."

Soon, a reply came, "Track Tianduo and Topsoil Spirit. If they are willing to deal, you have the authority to offer them a high price. We will start checking the ancient records to verify the identity of the corpse. Since we know that it was a bow user, we should be able to find out the identity of this expert."

This was a bow user that was either a pseudo Invincible or an Invincible. And it was also likely that this was someone from the divine skywing race. These clues were enough for them to investigate the identity of the corpse from their records. Of course, the final result would rely on the completeness of their records.

The masked individual asked, "Should we kill Tianduo to snatch the corpse if we manage to find him?"

"Kill if there is an absolute guarantee that nobody will find out. Otherwise, proceed to trade with him."

The Heavenly Hunt Pavilion was naturally not comprised of kind souls. Violence was naturally the best option if secrecy was ensured. And if that wasn't possible, commerce was naturally the better option.

After all, their services included information pedding, assassination, and the trade of precious items. Reputation was quite important for them. In truth, this was an open secret among the myriad races.

But that did not matter. Most of the time, Heavenly Hunt Pavilion was still quite reliable. It wasn't like anyone could prove anything even if they were aware of what the Heavenly Hunt Pavilion was doing.

At the very least, Heavenly Hunt Pavilion was a lot more reliable than some of the other smaller organizations. There was no need to worry about their ability to pay once an agreement was made.

The masked individual left and began the search for Tianduo and Topsoil Spirit. As of late, the act of throwing their index copies away seemed to have gotten quite popular.

***

At the same time.

Inside a palace hovering amid the boundless void, the faceless elder said, "It's fine. Stop all your other work for now and focus on checking our records. Look for an ancient bow user between the ninth-stage Sunmoon Realm and the Eternal Realm. There is a possibility that this was a divine skywing expert with a heaven-grade bow and earth-grade arrows."

With the faceless elder's order, the masked individuals started going through their records.

After a while, one of them spoke, "Elder, as of now, six matching profiles have been found.

"First match, Feather King, divine skywing race, Eternal Realm, user of a heaven-grade bow, but he was also a user of heaven-grade arrows.

"Second match, Heavenly Arrow King, sixth patriarch of the divine skywing race, Eternal Realm, user of a divine-grade bow who had once killed an Eternal. This is not a perfect match, but there is a possibility that the bow has dropped in grade.

"Third match, Skysplit King, a mixed-breed with the bloodline of the divine skywing race and the human race...

"Fourth match..."

A list of matches was reported to the faceless elder. After going through all of them, the elder frowned, "No, this isn't right. I know some of these names, so we can remove them from our list. Continue going through the rest of our records."

"Yes."

The search continued. After thinking for a bit, the faceless elder shook his head. So be it. They had to take their time with this search. At worst, they could continue their search after getting the corpse.

Where would Tianduo be hiding? Would he leave the Sea of Stars and return to the Devil Realm? Or would he remain in the Sea of Stars?

After some thought, the elder said, "Pay close attention to the movement of the devils. Since Tianduo is still missing, it is likely that he will try to monopolize the finding. The devils might try tracking him through the blood essence of his family."

Tianduo was not someone without a family. Perhaps before long, someone from Devil King Lade's faction would arrive to track him through blood essence. The Heavenly Hunt Pavillion had to prevent the contact between Tianduo and the devils.

After all, he was still an Invincible descendant of the devil race. The moment contact was established, it would be very difficult for others to get the corpse.

***

Everyone was busy searching for Tianduo, not knowing that they were actually searching for Su Yu. Meanwhile, Su Yu was on his way to the ancient city on the island. He still viewed these ancient cities as safe houses.

Grandstar City was the nearest ancient city, so that was the only ancient city Topsoil Spirit could be in.

Su Yu was able to move rapidly even while hiding his tracks. When night arrived, the massive ancient city finally entered his vision.

It was quite similar to the other ancient cities in design, but there were also slight differences. For example, there were no moats around Heavendoom and Empyrean Cloud. But there was actually a moat around Grandstar City.

And the moat actually gave Su Yu an extremely dangerous sensation. The moat was actually filled with death qi. It felt like the death qi in this city was actually far thicker than what he had seen in the other ancient cities.

Was it because the death spirits of this city were stronger? Or was it due to some other reasons? When Su Yu landed in front of the gate, a bunch of armored individuals stared at him silently.

Inwardly, he was calling these people the living dead. Why? Because the death qi in their bodies was incredibly dense, giving off the feeling that they were going to turn into death spirits soon.

He had seen a lot of ancient city guards before. For example, Tian Men, the commander of Heavendoom City. But these people still felt like they were alive despite the death qi in their bodies. But the guards of Grandstar City felt like they were already dead.

Su Yu had also gathered some information about this city. The mayor was a ninth-stage Sunmoon from the dragon race. And this expert was not an ordinary dragon. Rather, the mayor came from an extremely rare draconic race, the dark devil dragons.

It was rumored that this was a hybrid race of dragons and devils. This was a small race, and it was rather disliked among the greater dragon race. Many years ago, the mayor of this city had fallen out with the greater dragon race and left to become the mayor of this city. Over the years, the dragons had left the mayor alone.

Su Yu also learned that the guards of this city were actually quite overbearing. They had killed outside the city before, something rarely seen among the guards of the various ancient cities. It was rumored that this behavior was mostly due to the mayor as well. Evidently, the mayor was a rather overbearing individual.

Thus, he had to be very careful during his time here lest the mayor decide to kill him. That would be troublesome to deal with.

There weren't a lot of visitors to this city. And since it was night, the city looked even emptier than normal.

Apart from the guards, Su Yu was the only person near the gates. As he entered the city, some people passed by him. These were the visitors who were rushing out of the city as they could no longer stand the death qi.

They noticed him as well, but none of them showed any reaction. There would always be some brazen individuals entering during the night. That was not too surprising to see, and they had nothing to say about that.

***

After visiting two ancient cities in the past, Su Yu was already quite familiar with these ancient cities.

If he was Topsoil Spirit, he wouldn't hide in the outer rings. Thus, he wouldn't go wrong starting his search from the eighteenth ring.

And the search wouldn't even be too difficult. He only needed to look for occupied buildings with blank boards hanging in front of them. And the number of such buildings wouldn't be too high if he started his search from the eighteenth ring.

"Topsoil Spirit isn't weak, but he won't go too deeply. He will probably stay in the inner rings. He can only go deeper if he becomes a resident, but that might not necessarily be beneficial for him."

That was Su Yu's judgment. These ancient buildings were extremely mysterious. Not even his Perception Jade could penetrate these buildings. Otherwise, it would be much easier for him to locate Topsoil Spirit.

But he was sure Topsoil Spirit was in one of these buildings. Since Shi Zun claimed that Topsoil Spirit was not seen leaving the city, it was very possible that Topsoil Spirit was still here.

After all, it hadn't even been that long since Shi Zun departed. A lot of people were probably looking for him. Dawo had sent numerous messages to him, but he had ignored all the messages. Meanwhile, Mo Duona had gone silent after sending only one message over.

Now that Su Yu had entered an ancient city, the connection of the voice transmission talisman was starting to get unstable. He reckoned even a slightly higher level of death qi density would completely sever the connection.

"The moment the messages stop getting through, the devils might conclude that I'm in an ancient city. Or they might conclude that I've gone too far away for the messages to reach..."

In any case, some other experts might start appearing here. He had to look for Topsoil Spirit and deal with that fellow as soon as possible. Each time he saw a death spirit, he would move out of the way. Each time he sensed approaching guards on patrol, he would also take a detour to avoid any conflict.

"Buildings with five elemental race architecture..."

Such a building might be more suitable for Topsoil Spirit.

Su Yu continued his search. He was especially courageous due to his numerous trump cards. Since it was night, the streets were practically empty. This was a great environment for him to conduct his search.

He was also planning to transform into a death spirit to deal with Topsoil Spirit. That would make things easier for him. He only needed to be careful about attracting the mayor's attention.

Soon, he found a place completely devoid of people. With his Perception Jade and tribulation character active, he confirmed that nobody was spying on him. Only then did he start his transformation into a death spirit.

Chapter 1012: Finding Topsoil Spirit (3)

At the same time, inside the mayor's residence.

A stone statue in the inner hall awakened from slumber.

The moment that happened, a miniature man walked over with a helpless and irritated expression.

"Passing by. Not a death spirit. Special cultivation method."

The stone statue stared at the miniature man silently for a long while before speaking, "Is this Troublemaker Su Yu from Heavendoom?"

"You know him, Senior?"

"I can hear everything in the holy city. Not long ago, some people spoke of that incident in the city."

The stone statue expressionlessly warned, "Heavendoom has a good temper, but my temper isn't that good. Don't stir up trouble or I'll punish him."

The miniature man thought for a bit and said, "The Pseudo Emperor of the soul devourers told him to do that. The Pseudo Emperor wanted to lure some delicious cultural researchers out. He also wanted to temper his junior with some hardships."

Hearing that, the stone statue's gaze penetrated Su Yu's sea of willpower and landed on the little furball who was lazily sprawled atop the Soul Expanding Hammer. This human was acting on the orders of the soul devourer Pseudo Emperor?

And the statue was able to sense a faint trace of Heavendoom's power on the little furball. Clearly, Heavendoom had once acted to protect this little fellow. So they were doing this to lure some delicious food for the Pseudo Emperor?

After a short silence, the stone statue asked, "Who are you? I've never seen you before."

"It's normal for you to not know everyone, Senior..."

"Your willpower clone is on the verge of dissipating away. You won't be able to stop me if I really want to do something."

The miniature man nodded, "Yes. I won't be able to stop you even at my peak. But I'm acting on orders of Great Qin King, Great Xia King, Great Ming King, and Great Zhou King to protect this human. He is the disciple of Silk Destroying King and Heavenly Forge King."

After mentioning a long list of Invincibles, the miniature man paused slightly and added, "He has also inherited the teachings of Great Song King, Great Han King, and many other human kings..."

The stone statue slowly scanned Su Yu. And indeed, he was able to sense faint traces of powers originating from numerous Eternals. And among them, a certain saber qi was exceptionally powerful.

"His es from Xia Longwu?"

"Yes."

The stone statue sank into silence. That saber came from Xia Longwu, not Xia Wushen. He had met both those people before, so he could differentiate their sabers. This was a very troublesome human. A human with the inheritances of numerous Invincibles.

The statue warned again, "Don't create trouble for no reason."

After saying that, the statue shut his eyes again.

Forget it.

He couldn't be bothered to say anything else.

This would be very annoying to deal with. There was also the soul devourer Pseudo Emperor. That Pseudo Emperor was ancient. That fellow had lived for so long that...the stone statue sank into thought, wondering if the Pseudo Emperor was the same person from back then.

If that was really the case, then this Pseudo Emperor would be terrifyingly old. If even Heavendoom had to help, then this must be the same person from back then. That fellow had actually produced a descendant at old age. How surprising.

Was that fellow on the verge of dying? Was that why a little fellow had been produced? The stone statue couldn't understand.

Meanwhile, the miniature man returned to Su Yu's heart. Since he had been forced to appear repeatedly in such a short period of time, he was on the verge of dissipating due to a lack of energy. He felt quite helpless.

This little bastard was too good at stirring trouble. Just how many stone statues had he met recently because of that little bastard? How long had it been since the little bastard left the Human Realm? If this happened one or two more times, the miniature man would run out of energy and cease existing.

And Su Yu was no longer the same person. It would be much harder to leave another mark on him without being detected.

***

Su Yu was unaware of the conversation between the miniature man and the statue.

In any case, he had never met a statue before apart from that one time when the statue had stayed completely silent. He had thought that it was merely a fortuitous encounter. As a death spirit, Su Yu continued his search for Topsoil Spirit.

He was still searching the eighteenth ring. The residents could be ignored. But even so, there were sixty-two occupied buildings for him to go through. Clearly, there was actually a decently large number experts in the city. To reside in the eighteenth ring, one needed to at least be as strong as a Mountainsea. In short, there were no less than sixty-two experts staying here.

"For the most part, these people won't be able to stay for more than three days. And when its daytime again, some of them will come out. I can continue narrowing the possibilities then."

With that, he wouldn't need more than three days to greatly narrow down the scope of his search. But that was too long for him.

"Topsoil Spirit...damn it. He's so troublesome."

Su Yu felt very unhappy that he had failed to kill Topsoil Spirit during their previous encounter. It would be way too risky to proceed with his plan before dealing with Topsoil Spirit.

"Maybe that fellow will stumble upon an opportunity in one of these buildings and end up spending a week or two here to digest the discovery."

If that happened, he could happily leave without worry. A week or two would be more than enough for him to complete his scam. He was only worried that Topsoil Spirit would appear out of nowhere during the middle of his scam.

Whatever. For now, he had to continue the search. As a death spirit, he started knocking on some of the doors. Some ignored him, and some shouted at him. Some experts even opened their doors, but when they saw a death spirit outside, they hurriedly shut the door. What was this death spirit doing? Whatever.

Time passed.

When the night was about to end, Su Yu found an empty building and transformed back into Tianduo. When it was finally day, he left and continued his search, taking note of the occupied buildings that had turned unoccupied and the buildings that remained occupied.

Outside the city, everyone was still looking for Tianduo. Meanwhile, Su Yu was continuing his search in an unhurried manner. During the day, he completed his search over nineteen buildings, leaving him with only eleven buildings.

If Topsoil Spirit was really in this ring, then he would be inside one of these buildings.

***

And indeed, Topsoil Spirit was within one of these buildings.

He was feeling quite restless. For some reason, his senses were telling him that danger was approaching. Fresh chapters posted on N()velFire.net

"What's going on? Is Shi Zun here? I'm hiding inside an ancient building. Is that lump of rock smart enough to find me?"

Topsoil Spirit was feeling greatly jittery.

Annoying!

Furthermore, he had not been able to find the so-called opportunity in this building. Was he supposed to leave? But that might be even more dangerous as both Su Yu and Shi Zun were looking for him.

"Is the danger coming from Su Yu?"

Topsoil Spirit was in denial. That shouldn't be the case, right? That fellow wouldn't be able to find him so quickly, right? Nobody knew he was in an ancient city.

Still restless, Topsoil Spirit almost left the building several times. But each time, he dispelled that thought. No. He should keep waiting. At that moment, he heard some noises outside his building. He hurriedly ceased all movement.

Outside, Su Yu was softly clawing on the door. There was no response. But he was sure this building wasn't empty. He had completed his search over six more buildings earlier. This was the seventh building. Of the six buildings, he had verified that Topsoil Spirit wasn't in four of them. Like this building, he had not received any response from the other two.

He had four more buildings in the ring to go through. Thus, Topsoil Spirit was most likely hiding within one of the seven uncleared buildings. Su Yu continued clawing at the door.

Inside the building, Topsoil Spirit was greatly alarmed. What was happening? Was someone outside? Or was something outside? He was very nervous. He still remembered how he had nearly died in an ancient city not long ago.

After a while, the noise stopped. He exhaled in relief, but he still didn't dare to open the door.

But after about half an hour, the same noise returned.

Su Yu had returned. Of the seven remaining buildings, the inhabitants inside three of them had opened their doors out of curiosity after he left. Su Yu had stayed nowhere near them. Instead, he had observed them through his Perception Jade.

The moment the doors were opened, he was able to perform a scan on them. None of the three was Topsoil Spirit. That left him with only four buildings.

He only needed to keep harassing them. Eventually, the people inside would open their doors to check. Even if they didn't do it immediately, they would wait until they feel safe before doing so. That helped Su Yu narrow his search further.

Inside the building, Topsoil Spirit was growing irritated. What was this? Why was this happening again?

"Who is this?"

Finally, Topsoil Spirit spoke up.

Was some bastard playing a prank on him? He was the future leader of the five elemental race. He was not so easily scared! Was the prankster tired of living? A small golden sword appeared in his hand while his expression turned ferocious.

Outside, Su Yu stopped.

His mouth curved into a smile. A death spirit was smiling.

He had finally found Topsoil Spirit. That fellow was really hiding here. The voice was slightly different from what he remembered, but he could still recognize it.

Su Yu exhaled in relief. This fellow must have been hiding here all this while. Thus, his scam had yet to be exposed. In fact, this fellow was probably still unaware of the fact that he had stolen Tianduo's identity.

"Found you, Topsoil Spirit..."

Su Yu grinned. It was time for him to deal with the final loophole.

Chapter 1013: Everything Is Ready, Auction Begins (1)

Topsoil Spirit's voice could be heard inside the building.

Su Yu was overjoyed. This was the biggest weakness of his plan. After dealing with Topsoil Spirit, he would no longer have any other worries apart from the arrival of Invincibles. But Invincibles did not tend to appear on Ninestar Island unless something massive was happening.

Bang! Bang! Bang!

Su Yu knocked on the door. Inside, Topsoil Spirit grew more and more irritated. Again? Was there no end to this?

"Who is this? What are you doing? Are you trying to die?"

He roared in annoyance. With his golden sword in hand, he wondered if he should let this unknown person taste the tip of his blade.

Killing inside an ancient city was not the smart thing to do, even for Sunmoons. Thus, he did not wish to do so unless absolutely necessary. But someone was knocking on his door. And that was rather terrifying as at the end of the day, this was still a city of the dead.

Su Yu stopped knocking. Instead, he took an ancient city medallion out. He had a decent number of medallions, but the best among them was only enough to open the doors in the sixteenth ring.

Fortunately, Topsoil Spirit had decided to hide in the sixteenth ring. Since that fellow was refusing to open the door, he would open it himself. Trapped in the building, he would be able to do anything he wanted to Topsoil Spirit. He proceeded to send some death qi into the medallion, creating a small opening on the incorporeal barrier around the building. Inside, Topsoil Spirit's sense of crisis intensified.

Even though Su Yu was constantly keeping his calm character active, he couldn't prevent Topsoil Spirit from feeling greatly threatened. He continued gathering power in the sword he was holding.

And when he noticed the door moving, he shouted, "Who are you? Are you courting death? Can you withstand the attack of an Invincible?"

Fuck!

Someone was attempting to open his door with force. In that case, the person outside would either be a strong death spirit or someone with a high-level medallion. However, Su Yu suddenly slowed down as he thought of a new idea. Perhaps...this would be a good chance for him to get another one of the five elemental treasures from Topsoil Spirit? But he was worried that he wouldn't be able to withstand the attack. It should be fine, right?

His Five Elemental Art was pretty strong, and it had the same origin as Topsoil Spirit's treasures. And he already used it once to consume Topsoil Spirit's wooden stake before. It should probably work this time as well. But he was still worried because the distance between them was too short. He might not be able to fully absorb the attack before it started damaging him.

But after a short hesitation, he steeled himself. Either way, he had to enter this building.

He reminded the little furball, "If I fail to absorb the incoming attack, help me out. That attack can be considered willpower as well. You can eat it as well. Do you understand?"

"Smells nice...but feels dangerous..."

The little furball murmured. The thing beyond the door smelled great, but it also felt very dangerous. That was why he hadn't dared to eat anything when Su Yu absorbed the wooden stake previously.

"Do you need any other reason? If it smells good, just eat it. Dying while stuffing yummy food down your throat is better than dying to an attack, right?"

The little furball's face turned pensive as he nodded his entire body in agreement. Yes. That was a perfectly logical argument.

And with that, Su Yu continued opening the door. Eventually, the door swung slightly open. Right at that moment, a powerful attack burst out of the tiny opening. Topsoil Spirit was unwilling to waste his sword yet, so he was trying to attack with a random water attack.

Su Yu ended his death spirit transformation and pushed the door fully open before throwing a punch forward.

Boom!

At almost the same moment, he stepped inside and shut the door behind him. Finally, they were both trapped in the same room. He was very familiar with this. After all, this was what he had done to some of his victims in Heavendoom City.

Instantly, Topsoil Spirit unleashed his Five Element Purgatory. The familiar five elemental cage reappeared around the intruder. This intruder felt very strong, but not too strong for him to handle. The moment he trapped the intruder in his cage, he recognized who the intruder was.

"Tianduo..."

No. Something wasn't right.

With the intense devilish qi, the intruder resembled Tianduo. But as an elemental who had fought Su Yu before, he was able to quickly determine the identity of this intruder. He cried out in alarm, "Su Yu!"

Holy shit!

It was this fellow! How did this fellow find him? He pulled his sword out unhesitatingly. Su Yu's eyes sparkled upon seeing that. But next, a tiny clump of fire appeared, followed by a clump of soil. These were all the unique talismans Topsoil Spirit had received from his ancestors.

Su Yu's excitement turned into wariness. Holy shit! Had this guy gone mad? Why was this guy using all those things at the same time? Sure, it wasn't like he had not considered this possibility. He had no choice but to take out his countermeasure. A powerful corpse appeared before him.

Yes. He was using the eighth-stage Sunmoon corpse as the shield. The Sunmoon might be dead, but this was still the corpse of a super expert. It was probably good enough to withstand an attack or two for him. In fact, this corpse was much more durable than even some regular earth weapons.

The moment the corpse appeared, a heavy pressure descended upon Topsoil Spirit, giving him the urge to drop to his knees. Fear gripped his heart.

Holy shit!

What the fuck was this?

He aimed all his trump cards at Su Yu and shouted, "What do you want? Do you want to die that much? Do you think a mere corpse can stop me?"

Su Yu frowned. After a short silence, he said, "Why did you take all those things out together instead of using them one by one?"

"..."

What the fuck was that? Topsoil Spirit cursed inwardly. He was no fool. After losing his wooden stake to this fellow previously, would he still use only one of these treasures when he knew who he was facing? What if the same thing happened?

After checking to make sure that all three of his trump cards were still aimed at Su Yu, he said, "Even with this corpse, it won't be able to stop more than two of my talismans. And apart from these three, I have one more to spare. Are you sure you can survive my final talisman? Su Yu, do you really want to pursue a path of mutual destruction?"

After his previous encounter with Su Yu, he was left with only four of these talismans. Naturally, he was unwilling to exhaust all of them for this one encounter. He wasn't even sure if he could kill Su Yu with all four of them.

Su Yu was simply too unique an opponent. This fellow wasn't too crazy in terms of strength, but somehow, this fellow was capable of countering his talismans. Or to be precise, this fellow was capable of absorbing his talismans.

Topsoil Spirit really didn't know what to say about that. Were Su Yu's five elemental characters really so special? Topsoil Spirit found himself in a very difficult situation. But that was also the case for Su Yu. This damn fellow was not using the five elemental talismans one by one. That would complicate things.

Taking great care to ensure the corpse remain in front of him, Su Yu smiled and said, "Topsoil Spirit, let's talk. I will stop bothering you if you give me two of them."

"..."

"Su Yu, do you think I'm stupid?"

Topsoil Spirit wanted to ask if he really looked so dumb. Also, why in the world was this fellow pretending to be Tianduo? Standing less than ten meters from each other, the two were in a stand-off. Su Yu was wary of Topsoil Spirit's talismans while Topsoil Spirit was wary of failing to kill Su Yu even after exhausting his talismans. Both hesitated to move.

Inside his sea of willpower, Su Yu asked, "Furball, can you eat one of them?"

If the furball could eat even one of them, Su Yu would have a much bigger confidence to deal with Topsoil Spirit.

"Will burst apart!"

The little furball refused. That was too powerful.

Su Yu felt very helpless. Why was this ancient race so useless?

"Silently eat all his willpower. He needs willpower to activate those talismans. Without his willpower, he won't be able to do anything..."

No talisman could activate by itself. Manual activation with willpower was necessary. Perhaps the little furball could help him in this manner. The little furball considered the solution and thought that it was worth trying.

Eat his willpower! No, eating only the willpower surrounding those talismans would be enough!

Su Yu said, "Just eat the willpower around those talismans. Make it so that he can't instantaneously activate them. Move fast and we can deal with him together."

"Okay." ɴᴇᴡ ɴᴏᴠᴇʟ ᴄʜᴀᴘᴛᴇʀs ᴀʀᴇ ᴘᴜʙʟɪsʜᴇᴅ ᴏɴ novel-fire.net

The little furball decided to take this risk. If he succeeded in this gamble, he would be able to dine on the finest of food! With that, the human and furball reached an agreement.

Su Yu opened his mouth, "Relax, Topsoil Spirit. There is no guarantee that you'll be able to kill me. And I'm also not confident I can handle you. I'm only here to discuss something with you."

"I'm not interested. Leave." Topsoil Spirit remained wary, "I already contacted the Invincibles of my race. They will be here soon. Don't try anything stupid, Su Yu!"

Su Yu smiled, "This is an ancient city."

Even during the previous incident, all those Invincibles had not dared to enter the ancient city. According to what he heard, they had only stayed outside the city. This was an ineffective threat.

Topsoil Spirit gloomily said, "Just why are you targetting me? What do you want from me?"

"I want to work with you."

"Work with me?"

"Yes. You see, I'm trying to trap Mo Duona and kill him. I need your help."

Nonsense! Topsoil Spirit had the urge to cough some blood. What bullshit was that? Then again, if this fellow still had more of Ye Batian's characters, that might really be doable. But why in the world would he even want to do that? Was there a big grudge between this fellow and Mo Duona?

Most of the time, geniuses would only rely on their actual ability to kill their fellow geniuses. Using external power to do so was pointless as each genius could draw on external power from all sorts of sources in spades if they really wanted to.

Even if Su Yu managed to kill Mo Duona with Ye Batian's character, what was the point? The heavenly reward wouldn't be as good, and he would even provoke the devil Invincibles to move out against him. While the two were conversing, the little furball moved out noiselessly.

Suddenly, Topsoil Spirit's heart skipped a beat. He roared and attempted to activate his talismans without any hesitation. He had a very sharp intuition toward danger. The moment the little furball moved, he sensed the incoming danger. Even though he didn't know what the danger was, he knew something was coming.

Whoosh!

An incomparably sharp sword qi appeared, followed by a wave of violent flames…

But when Topsoil Spirit tried to activate the lump of soil, he was alarmed. Activation had failed! Fear gripped his heart as the water talisman in his sea of willpower pulsed and shrouded him in a layer of water. Next, he threw a punch, blasting the little furball out into reality.

Finally, the lump of soil activated and transformed into a patch of yellow soil. In an extremely helpless manner, Topsoil Spirit dove into the patch of soil.

Soil and water combined.

Meanwhile, Su Yu was too busy to care about that. With his Five Elemental Art and the physical strength of an eighth-stage Mountainsea, he blocked part of the attack. His entire body lit aflame from the attack he failed to block. With a roar, he released a large amount of heavenly source qi.

He started regrowing his flesh rapidly, attempting to outgrow the rate his body was being damaged. He also forcefully absorbed a part of the sword qi. The absorbed sword qi was going crazy in his sea of willpower.

Chapter 1014: Everything Is Ready, Auction Begins (2)

Topsoil Spirit was too sharp. He had turned into a slab of concrete. He had never said that all five of his talismans were offensive in nature. The water and earth talismans were actually defensive in nature.

He would have taken all four of them out otherwise. After activating both the water and earth talismans, he had produced a concrete-like slab with him hiding inside. This was something he would only do when he was left with absolutely no choice. He had solidified himself alongside the two talismans.

With that, even if Su Yu was able to survive the two offensive talismans, Su Yu would still be unable to harm him. Only high-stage Sunmoons could damage this slab. The ancestors would be able to sense the activation of all those talismans as well. Perhaps they might even head over to help him. But since he was inside an ancient city, there was a chance his ancestors wouldn't come.

With a helpless feeling, Topsoil Spirit looked toward Su Yu. He wanted to see if Su Yu was dead. Were two of those talismans really not enough to kill that fellow? He refused to believe that. But next, he was forced to believe that.

Yes. Su Yu had survived. The fire was constantly burning Su Yu's flesh away, but he was also constantly regrowing his flesh. Next, he stepped out and shut the door, isolating part of the flame from his body.

Outside, Su Yu started absorbing the two powers ravaging him with the Five Elemental Art active. The 180 apertures of the Five Elemental Art started working madly. The little furball had also returned to Su Yu's sea of willpower. He looked rather sad. That punch from Topsoil Spirit had been quite painful.

When he saw the flame around Su Yu, he stealthily took a bite. But next, he started rolling around. The flame was incredibly yummy, but it was also incredibly painful. After a moment, Su Yu entered the building again. He couldn't stay outside as he didn't want to attract any attention by causing a commotion with the power concentrated around him.

The sword qi and fire constantly attacked his body and sea of willpower. Meanwhile, his 180 apertures started growing brighter and brighter. The process continued. He processed the two attacks, generating a large amount of willpower for himself. At one point, even some of the new apertures he discovered from the immortal race were starting to open.

With the flame burning his flesh, his body was also constantly growing in strength due to the tempering. But he needed a large amount of heavenly source qi to accomplish that. Since he had been using a lot of heavenly source qi recently, he was going to run out of it soon.

Meanwhile, the slab of concrete lay on the floor silently. Topsoil Spirit had sealed himself in the concrete to protect himself. This time, no ancestor spoke to him.

That was because he was located in an ancient city. Not even Invincibles could establish a connection across realms into an ancient city. To contact him, they had to be present physically.

***

After about two hours.

Su Yu opened his eyes and smiled. Looking at the slab of concrete on the ground, he spoke with a hoarse voice, "You have failed to kill me."

A face appeared on the slab as Topsoil Spirit sighed, "You're not relying on five elemental characters. Rather, you know a unique cultivation method that might be related to the five elemental race. Am I right, Su Yu?"

He lost. From the start, Su Yu had never relied on five elemental characters. Rather, he had relied on an incredibly unique cultivation method. As Su Yu circulated the cultivation method repeatedly, Topsoil Spirit was able to see something. This cultivation method might be related to the five elemental race.

He didn't have much to say. Su Yu was quite heavily injured, but those injuries weren't fatal. And now, he was the one in trouble.

Nevertheless, he was unwilling to give up so easily. He said, "You can't kill me. If you kill me, the Invincibles of the five elemental race will kill you. Killing me won't benefit you. It will only incur the wrath of the five elemental race. I am the hope of my race. I believe you can see that..."

He couldn't resist asking, "Just why do you have such an obsession with killing me?"

Was there such a big grudge between them? This fellow had taken such a big risk to deal with him. Was this guy really so petty?

Su Yu thought about it and spoke with the same hoarse voice, "I don't care about killing you, but there is a risk that you might expose my disguise."

"..."

Holy shit!

Screw this fellow! Topsoil Spirit was going mad. Was this guy serious? All this...because of that? He felt incredibly wronged. Was this a joke?

"Are you not targetting my five elemental core?"

"What's that?"

Topsoil Spirit was going crazy. This fellow didn't even know about the five elemental core.

"Are you jealous of my talent?"

"Heh."

"Perhaps you envy my good looks?"

Su Yu decided to not entertain those questions. This guy must have lost his mind.

Envious of this guy? Him? No, he was only doing this to protect his disguise.

Inside his sea of willpower, the two elemental powers were still going wild, but they had been greatly weakened by him. The eighth-stage Sunmoon corpse had also been damaged significantly, but it would recover automatically since it was the corpse of an eighth-stage Sunmoon.

Su Yu wasn't too bothered. In fact, these damages to the corpse were good for him. They could further hide the real fatal wound on the corpse left by Xia Longwu. With this, he only needed to process it further and it would look even more believable.

His body did not obtain as much of a growth from this. After all, these two powers were different from the wooden stake which was filled with life force. Rather, his main gain was the growth of his sea of willpower.

Of the thirty-two new apertures he found from the immortal race, he managed to open sixteen of them. And even his previously opened acupoints had grown considerably stronger.

Also in his sea of willpower were two powers: sharpness and fire.

Naturally, he had to fully process the two powers to prevent the ancestors of the five elemental race from tracking him through them. In short, he had gained a lot in terms of willpower cultivation. But his sea of willpower had also suffered some damage, and he would need to take some time to fully recover. As for his body, apart from completing the thirtieth forging, he had not gained anything else.

Su Yu came to a realization that he had been too optimistic. Unless Topsoil Spirit could take out more wooden stakes filled with life force, his body wouldn't benefit as much anymore. Of the five elements, the wood element was probably the most beneficial for body forging.

Thirty forgings...

With this, he had finally surpassed thirty thousand acupoints in strength. Unfortunately, this was lower than his expectations. Of the four remaining talismans, Topsoil Spirit had only used two on him. The other two had been used for defense.

Of course, his willpower would become much more powerful than before after it fully recovered. Previously, his sea of willpower was only comparable to a peak Cloudbreach's. But after this growth, it had actually reached the level of a Mountainsea.

His willpower had probably reached the same level as Zhao Li's pre-advancement willpower. That was a level Zhao Li had only reached after many years of hard work.

Su Yu spent a short time absorbing the remaining powers in his sea of willpower. Then, he stood up and threw a punch at the slab of concrete. But it did nothing.

Su Yu wasn't too surprised. Instead, he looked more curious as he said, "Topsoil Spirit, you've trapped yourself here while the Invincibles will never come because this is an ancient city. Isn't this a dead end for you?"

Topsoil Spirit remained silent. What about it? Damn it! If it wasn't for this damn guy, would this even happen?

He said, "What did you use to consume my willpower? A character? Or a beast?"

That was extremely bizarre. He had activated all his talismans right after sensing the arrival of crisis. If he had been even a tiny bit slower, he could have lost the ability to activate his talismans.

Being stuck was better than being dead. At the very least, Su Yu wouldn't be able to damage the slab he was hiding in. Su Yu ignored the question and kept trying. He started using his five elemental characters on the slab of concrete, but he still wasn't able to damage it. Then, he tried to absorb the two powers forming the slab with his 180 apertures. But he failed again.

Topsoil Spirit calmly said, "I know you might have the ability to absorb my powers. Thus, I used both water and earth to seal myself, mutating both powers from their original nature. You won't be able to do anything to me."

Su Yu laughed, "You sure have a lot to say. Why are you still so cocky even when you're in such a situation? From my observation, this seal is not something you can remove yourself. And it won't last for long. It will fade away by itself in about a month or so."

Topsoil Spirit remained silent. But Su Yu was right. The seal would remove itself after one month. And that was enough time for the experts of the five elemental race to arrive. Even if Invincibles couldn't enter the city, Sunmoons could.

Su Yu sneered, "What a beautiful dream. I can simply deliver you to a dangerous place before the experts of your race are here."

"Dangerous place?" Topsoil Spirit appeared unbothered, "You won't be able to take me out of the city as the five elemental Invincibles will be able to reach us quickly if you do so. And how are you supposed to send me to a dangerous place without leaving the city?"

"Thank you for asking." Su Yu grinned, "I'll send you to the mayor's residence. The dark devil dragon there is quite an overbearing one. If I throw you at him like a brick, what do you think he'll do to you?"

Topsoil Spirit remained calm, "You don't have the courage to do that. And this isn't something you will do. Su Yu, you have been relentlessly hunting me because you're afraid that I might expose your identity. But don't forget that this seal does not work on my voice. If you take me out, everyone will know you're Su Yu. Not even the dark devil dragon can kill me before I let everyone in the city know about you."

Su Yu nodded. That was right. This fellow was still as difficult to deal with as always. This was troublesome. He could neither damage nor take this fellow away. But trapping this fellow inside this building was acceptable for him as well.

With the door shut, not even the experts from the five elemental race could enter. He only needed to watch out for the possibility of someone using an ancient city medallion. Perhaps...he could send this fellow to a building in a much deeper ring.

At that thought, he asked, "Topsoil Spirit, do you want to die or live?"

"You can't kill me." Topsoil Spirit turned wary upon hearing that question. Thıs text ıs hosted at novel⁂fire.net

With a smile, Su Yu asked, "Are you sure? I still have a fifth principal's character with me. Are you sure about that?"

"..."

Fine. Topsoil Spirit was no longer sure. Topsoil Spirit felt very helpless. He believed that Su Yu was out of those characters, but he couldn't be sure about that.

After a short silence, he asked, "Just what do you want?"

Chapter 1015: Everything Is Ready, Auction Begins (3)

"I want nothing. I only need you to stay in seclusion for a short period of time." Su Yu said, "You're a person loved by fate. Someone supported by the workings of luck. Someone like you can't be killed so easily. I can clearly feel that. Killing you might provoke the entirety of the five elemental race. I can feel that as well. The five elemental race will come for you, but they won't be able to enter the building. Thus, you can only rely on yourself. You can easily open the door and leave when the seal fades away. From what I can see, even death qi can't easily penetrate this seal, right?"

Topsoil Spirit was doubtful. Was this all? He only needed to stay hidden for a bit? Just what was Su Yu thinking?

Su Yu said, "I'll move you to an inner ring building. I will place a seal around you to prevent your voice from leaking out while we're traveling there. Don't even dream of shouting for help. It's pointless. If you want to live, be obedient this one time. What do you think?"

Topsoil Spirit said, "Su Yu, there has never been a grudge between us. You have been the one to keep coming after me. If you don't intend to die alongside me, I naturally wish to survive as well."

"That's good to hear. As I said, killing you has never been my objective. I only need you to stay in seclusion for a month."

Su Yu smiled. Inwardly, he was still somewhat wary. There was still a risk to this plan. What if this fellow was somehow able to remove the seal earlier? From what he could see, Topsoil Spirit had no way of removing the seal after activating it. But who knew if this was merely an act?

In truth, the best option was to have the little furball guard this fellow. But the little furball was carrying Tianduo's sea of willpower in him. That might make it easier for the devils to notice that something wasn't right.

Ultimately, Su Yu decided to add a few layers of seals around the slab of concrete instead. At the very least, his seals would ensure that Topsoil Spirit would be stuck here for a few days.

That would be enough time for him to complete his scam. At that thought, Su Yu formed a Five Element Purgatory around Topsoil Spirit. Then, he added a layer of shadow barrier. He continued using the numerous tricks he knew on the slab.

When he was done with this, he would move this fellow deeper into the city. That way, even if those from the five elemental race were here, they wouldn't be able to reach him. If it had been so hard for him to actually locate this fellow, the five elemental race wouldn't have been able to locate this fellow so easily either. That would waste even more of their time.

Su Yu was certain Topsoil Spirit was a child of destiny. Even in such a situation, this fellow had survived. Someone like that was extremely difficult to kill. This would probably be the same for people like Mo Duona as well. Each of these young geniuses was someone with numerous life-saving trump cards.

But Su Yu wasn't too worried. Yes, these people were difficult to kill. But that also depended on the person attempting the kill. No Cloudbreach or Mountainsea would be too difficult to kill for an Invincible.

In the end, it boiled down to strength. If he was strong enough, he could simply remove the seal and slap that fellow to death. Why would he need to go through all these troubles?

Before long, the slab had been transformed into a big, black ball. Carrying the big ball, Su Yu left the building and rushed deeper into the city. Since it was night, the streets were empty. Nobody paid him any attention even though he wasn't being exactly silent when moving.

Soon, he reached the first ring.

He started pushing the doors of the unoccupied buildings one by one. When one was this deep into the city, not every unoccupied building could be entered easily. As for the buildings that one could enter, these were mostly the buildings others had stayed in before. Thus, there were no opportunities to be found inside these buildings.

In short, death qi was the only thing these buildings had to offer. For most people, these buildings weren't worth entering. After trying to open dozens of doors, one of them finally opened.

As long as he shut the door with Topsoil Spirit inside, nobody would be able to open the door from outside unless one had a first ring medallion.

After placing the big ball deep inside the building, Su Yu proceeded to place some simple traps around the ball. He also placed some weapons in the area. The moment the black ball was broken apart, the damage would hit these weapons and alert him about it.

That way, he wouldn't be completely clueless even if Topsoil Spirit managed to escape. With the shadow barrier around the slab, Topsoil Spirit couldn't even send his voice outside anymore. He felt extremely helpless. Just what was that fellow doing?

He didn't even know where he was anymore. Also, that fellow had been fighting him while pretending to be Tianduo. There was also that powerful corpse used as a shield earlier. Just what was up with that?

He was furious. He vowed inwardly that after escaping this, he would run without any hesitation in all their future encounters. Also, the talismans of the five ancestors were not as reliable, after all.

In hindsight, offensive talismans were much more useful. Previously, he had thought that defensive talismans were better. But he was regretting that decision. If all four of his talismans earlier were offensive in nature, perhaps they would have been enough to kill Su Yu.

Then again, like how Su Yu believed that Topsoil Spirit was extremely hard to kill, Topsoil Spirit also believed that Su Yu wouldn't die so easily. Perhaps not even four offensive talismans would be enough.

How troublesome.

There was also the unknown trick Su Yu had used to swallow some of his willpower. What was that? He recalled a certain myth, but he was still unsure. Was that race...actually still around?

Had a successor of that race appeared after so many years? And that successor had somehow linked up with Su Yu?

Topsoil Spirit couldn't think of anything other than the soul devourer race that was capable of consuming one's willpower undetected.

He grew even more wary when he thought of that possibility. That race was the bane of the five elemental race. After all, the five elemental race was comprised of purely cultural researchers. Even the five ancestors would have no choice but to flee when facing a soul devourer Invincible. The five elementals would be completely helpless against soul devourers of the same cultivation level.

***

Su Yu was unaware of what Topsoil Spirit was thinking. Before long, he was done with his arrangements. With a slightly helpless feeling, he left the building and shut the door. With this, not even he could enter the building anymore. Previously, the building was unoccupied. But that had changed.

"Everything is ready."

Su Yu inhaled deeply. All the potential loopholes had been dealt with. He could now go ahead with his plan. He had to complete everything and flee before Topsoil Spirit was out.

"It has been two days. The matter has probably simmered enough."

Since the Heavenly Hunt Pavilion and Allheaven Treasure House branches could be found in this city, perhaps this would be a good place for him to carry out the auction. In fact, this was a good place since nobody could kill in here. Previously, he had not considered carrying out his auction in an ancient city. But after thinking about it, he couldn't help but admit that this place was his best option.

***

Morning arrived.

Very few people cared about what had happened the night before. Anything could happen in an ancient city during the night. Thus, nothing could surprise anyone. But something happened during the day that shocked the entire ancient city.

Tianduo was seen openly walking through the city gate. And some of the people taking shelter in the city saw him. Everyone on Ninestar Island was looking for him. But this person had actually appeared in the ancient city. Was he here to seek refuge as well?

The moment Su Yu revealed himself, there was no need for him to contact anyone. Those from the Allheaven Treasure House, Heavenly Hunt Pavilion, and Thousand Region Alliance arrived one after another. Tʜe source of this ᴄontent ɪs novelꜰire.net

He wasted no time and coldly said, "Let everyone know that I'm going to auction the Invincible corpse off. The cultivation method, ancient character, and ancient heaven weapon will be auctioned off as well. I don't accept anything apart from valuable resources and precious materials. The auction will start in this city the day after tomorrow. If anyone believes they can kill me even though I'm in an ancient city, they are free to give it a try."

A masked individual in white asked, "Is that really an ancient Invincible corpse?"

Su Yu replied, "That's something for all of you to determine. But I need to make something clear. The corpse isn't even the point. For me, the ancient cultivation method is a much bigger discovery. I found a massive secret in it. The cultivation method of this ancient Invincible does not require acupoints. It is something that can be cultivated across races without modification..."

"Ancient breathing technique?"

Someone exclaimed in alarm.

Breathing technique! When the others heard that, their expressions changed as well. Immediately, some of them rushed out of the city to notify their respective superiors.

The long-disappeared ancient breathing technique had resurfaced.

Even Su Yu was surprised. What was this reaction? Were breathing techniques not a secret, after all? Well, that was probably better for him.

He inhaled deeply. The coming auction would determine everything.