Harvest

Nanyuan City had triumphed, and post-battle mop-up operations began throughout the city. At the very same time. Just as the All-Races Sect cultists in Nanyuan City were completely wiped out, outside the Great Xia prefectural city. Duantou Mountain. Atop a peak that looked like a severed head, Xia Longwu brought his saber down, lopping off the head of the last God Race powerhouse. With a resounding crash, the five-meter-tall corpse collapsed heavily to the ground. "Mercy!" At this moment, five corpses of the God Race lay sprawled around the peak. Someone was still alive! Not a member of the God Race, but a human. The sect master of the Tianyi God Sect! A formidable figure whom humanity had relentlessly hunted and tried to eradicate, yet had never managed to bring down—a terrifyingly powerful man! Yet right now, this mighty sect master was on his knees, shivering violently, loudly crying out, "Mercy!" Xia Longwu raised his long saber, expressionless. After studying him for a moment, he said flatly, "Your masters are dead. You should be buried alongside them." "No... My Lord, I'm still useful!" Prostrating on the ground, the sect master trembled as he pleaded, "I'm still useful! I can lure more of the God Race here for you, My Lord! I can rally the members of the Tianyi God Sect! I can even help you infiltrate the All-Races Sect to locate the strongholds of other cults... My Lord, keeping me alive will benefit the human race!" Begging for mercy was useless; he had to demonstrate his value. Xia Longwu was far too strong! He had definitely already taken that step! They had been mistaken—wrong from the very beginning. The Tianyi God Race had suffered far too catastrophic a loss this time: five peerless experts dead in the Human Realm, dead in the Great Xia Prefecture! The Tianyi God Sect was finished as well. The cultists attacking the various cities of the Great Xia Prefecture today were undoubtedly wiped out. The sect master knew it was over! Yet he didn't want to die. Reaching his current stage of cultivation had been unimaginably difficult. He had hope of stepping into that realm. He had even forsaken the opportunity to convert into a member of the God Race for this very reason, believing he still had a shot at it on his own. Xia Longwu looked down at him from above, eyeing him coldly. After a long pause, Xia Longwu gave a faint smile. "Anything else?" "Yes... yes! The Tianyi God Sect still has many treasures, immense wealth hidden within a secret realm! I've been to the territory of the Tianyi God Race, I know their layout! I can guide the experts of the human race to launch surprise attacks on their powerhouses..." "My Lord, I can also go to the All-Heavens Battlefield to fight for humanity, as long as you spare my life..." Trembling, the sect master rapidly rattled off his uses. He didn't want to die. They had lost! Six supreme experts had ambushed Xia Longwu together, only for the five God Race experts to be slain in rapid succession. Their deaths had terrified him down to his bones. "Where is the secret realm?" Xia Longwu asked, his tone bone-chillingly cold. "My Lord, as long as you spare me..." "Where is the secret realm?!" Xia Longwu asked again, laden with thick murderous aura. He wanted an answer, nothing else. "My Lord..." *Pfft!* A swing of the blade, and the head rolled. Xia Longwu snorted coldly. Too much nonsense! If he wouldn't say, so be it. He would have his men turn the ground three feet deep. If they couldn't find it, whatever; if they did, it would be pure profit. A traitorous beast dared to bargain with him! Hoping to live? Delusional! With that, all six great experts were completely wiped out. Xia Longwu began collecting the corpses. The corpses of the God Race were valuable treasures, and there were five of them here! As he was clearing the battlefield, a figure abruptly appeared atop a nearby peak. Without even glancing over, Xia Longwu continued tidying up the battlefield. *Clap, clap, clap!* Applause rang out. Atop the peak, a middle-aged man clapped and laughed, "Xia Longwu, looks like you didn't need my help after all." Xia Longwu ignored him. "Are all geniuses this arrogant?" The middle-aged man gave a hearty laugh. "Then again, reaching this step at your age is truly beyond anyone's expectations. I had originally thought it would take my intervention today to keep these God Race members from getting away, yet you hacked them all down by yourself." "By the way, why didn't you spare Yun Hao just now?" Yun Hao—sect master of the Tianyi God Sect, a peerless expert. "Scum like that has no reason to live!" Having finished packing up the spoils, Xia Longwu turned his head to look at the man and said coolly, "Zhu Tiandao, I didn't invite you to the Great Xia Prefecture. What are you doing here?" "Look at you. I'm of your uncle's generation after all, yet you call me by name. Sigh..." Zhu Tiandao sighed, but quickly smiled again. "Just because you didn't invite me doesn't mean no one did. Those old fellows asked me to come before they left. What, is that not allowed?" Xia Longwu said nothing more. Clearly, someone in the prefecture hadn't felt comfortable leaving him to face the enemy alone. Zhu Tiandao dropped the subject and smiled. "You haven't taken that step yet, have you? Seems to me you're still a bit short, just about where I am. Aren't you feeling stuck, unable to advance another inch? Pretty miserable feeling, isn't it?" "If you had already stepped through, you could have killed these fellows in the blink of an eye instead of fighting until now. I happen to have an opportunity that could help us take another step forward, or at least let us see the path ahead..." Xia Longwu said flatly, "No need. I know my own path; I saw it clearly long ago! In some days, I will go to the All-Heavens Battlefield to slay a king, and I shall surely step into this realm! I am not you!" Zhu Tiandao's words hitched, and he silently cursed. *Who are you trying to provoke?* "You think you can pull it off? You won't be able to kill them. The kings of the all-races are cunning as devils now. The moment you show up on the All-Heavens Battlefield, they'll join forces to kill you and crush your ambitions for good!" "Besides, there is a world of difference between having taken that step and not having taken it..." "I don't need you to remind me!" Xia Longwu couldn't be bothered to entertain him. It wasn't as if he had never seen an Invincible powerhouse before—his grandfather, the King of Great Xia, was an Invincible realm powerhouse of that very tier. Zhu Tiandao said helplessly, "You're really not interested in hearing me out?" "Not interested!" Xia Longwu turned to head down the mountain. "If it really worked, you wouldn't be this weak. If your elder brother were still alive, there would still be hope of stepping into that realm. Compared to your brother... you're far inferior!" "I..." Zhu Tiandao fumed in annoyance. "Boy, you'd better only say that to me! If you come to the Daming Prefecture, watch out or someone will beat you to death! Besides, my brother perished when he was only nine years old. How do you know he was stronger than me..." "Because he was the human race's first genius to reach Qianjun at age nine!" "I..." Zhu Tiandao had no retort. Yes, his brother had been a genius—Qianjun at age nine—but he had practically become a cautionary tale for the entire human race. Bathed in the blood of gods and demons, stepping into Qianjun in a single day at age nine. The legitimate son of King Daming! Nowadays, ten to a hundred times more people in the human race knew of his brother than knew of him. Yet coming from Xia Longwu, the remark felt entirely like mockery. Yet Xia Longwu hadn't meant it as mockery at all. As he walked, he said, "At least he had the guts to try! If you had gone to the All-Heavens Battlefield a hundred years ago to clash with the kings of the all-races, you would likely have become an Invincible by now. Why would you be trapped at this step?" "I won't follow your example. You are not worthy of being imitated!" "..." Zhu Tiandao was speechless. Only after a good while did he say, "Easy for you to say. Xia Longwu, I'd like to see if you can actually slay an Invincible in battle before the myriad races! That's suicide. You have a real chance at the Invincible Realm, so why rush to your death..." "If you die, who will prop up the Great Xia Prefecture? Your grandfather? No one even knows where your grandfather is right now..." Xia Longwu's steps paused slightly, but he soon said, "No matter. My second uncle is still alive; I can just have him come back!" "Him? He's a notch weaker than me! When that happens, your Great Xia Prefecture won't be one of the Human Realm's top three prefectures anymore!" "Doesn't matter. It won't be your Daming Prefecture taking our place anyway." "..." Zhu Tiandao realized there was simply no communicating with Xia Longwu. Both amused and exasperated, he watched him about to leave and hastily said, "Three years from now, the Xingyu Mansion will open. The Daming Prefecture has ten quotas, and you have twenty. How about we join forces then..." "You're too weak. I won't team up with you." "Xia Longwu!" Zhu Tiandao was exasperated. "I traveled tens of thousands of li to reinforce you, and this is how you treat a guest from afar? How is my Daming Prefecture weak? Three years from now, the Daming Prefecture will send its strongest generation to the Xingyu Mansion! If you won't join forces, then according to the rules, since I came as reinforcements, give me one of the God Race corpses!" "..." Xia Longwu's expression shifted slightly. "Otherwise, we join forces!" Xia Longwu turned back, stared at him for a moment, and couldn't help cursing, "Shameless!" "How is that shameless?" Zhu Tiandao said helplessly. "Joining forces isn't making you bleed resources. Your Great Xia Prefecture may be strong, but we aren't weak either..." "Hmph!" Xia Longwu let out a soft snort. After a moment, he said flatly, "Fine! But if the people from your Daming Prefecture turn out to be too weak, I'd rather give you a God Race corpse! The weak have no right to ally with my Great Xia Prefecture!" With that, Xia Longwu soared into the air and flew off. Zhu Tiandao watched him leave, cursed under his breath for a bit, then broke into a grin. "This kid... sigh, he really is strong!" Sighing, he knew Xia Longwu was truly on the verge of taking that step. He might seem roughly equal to Xia Longwu on the surface, but in reality, he was far behind. He had been at roughly this level a hundred years ago, without making an inch of progress since—and a hundred years ago, this kid hadn't even been born yet. Every time he saw the guy, he had made progress. No wonder he had dared to take the risk of confronting the God Race in the Great Xia Prefecture, slaying five God Race powerhouses in a single battle. Even as mighty as the Tianyi God Race was, they would cough up blood this time. Not only had they lost five supreme experts, but the Tianyi God Sect had also been completely uprooted. ... No one knew about the battle in the Great Xia Prefecture. Only a few people were aware of the deaths of the five God Race experts and the sect master of the Tianyi God Sect. That level was simply too high, far beyond what ordinary people could know. Powerhouses like the city lord and Liu Wenyan were discussing mop-up operations against the All-Races Sect remnants outside the city, but none of that had anything to do with Su Yu. At this moment, Su Yu was huddled in a corner with Chen Hao, inspecting their haul. "A-Yu, did we strike it rich?" Chen Hao looked at the spoils laid out before them, rather excited. "A-Yu, why do you think these people carry so much stuff with them when they go out?" "In the All-Races Sect, no one trusts anyone else. They migrate constantly and have no fixed dwelling. Naturally, they carry their best belongings on them. It's nothing unusual." Su Yu found nothing strange about this. When it came to the All-Races Sect, killing higher-ups sometimes yielded very little because higher-ups usually had permanent residences and lurked deep under cover. The lower ranks, however, had no fixed homes. They were here today and elsewhere tomorrow. Killing them often meant seizing everything they owned. "Two cultivation manuals, two martial techniques, and five drops of blood essence—no idea what kind of blood essence it is, but we can just ask around and find out..." Chen Hao continued counting, grinning from ear to ear. "There's also a bottle of body-tempering pills, though there are only five left. These are a huge help for cultivating in the Qianjun Realm." "Sixteen Anping gold coins. Each one is worth ten thousand Anping coins..." "This is the first time I've ever held gold coins. My dad has some, but he won't give them to me..." Gold coins were worth a pretty penny. Members of the All-Races Sect sometimes didn't dare deposit Anping coins in banks, nor was it convenient to carry piles of paper currency, so they usually exchanged them for gold coins to keep on hand. As for debit cards, they didn't dare use those either, fearing their accounts would be frozen if their identities were exposed. Thus, killing the two cultists yielded quite a bit of gold coins. Sixteen coins—a hundred and sixty thousand! For two high-stage Qianjun Realm cultivators, a hundred and sixty thousand wasn't an astronomical sum, but it wasn't small either; after all, they had their own cultivation expenses. "A-Yu, do we have to hand these in?" Chen Hao was rather reluctant, but said nonetheless, "After killing these people, the spoils are supposed to be handed in together." That was the rule, since they weren't the only ones who had taken part in the battle. "Hand them in..." Su Yu pondered for a moment. "Let me think. Handing them in means admitting we killed two All-Races Sect members. But we're so weak, so how could we have killed them? Haozi, don't tell anyone outside that I killed them. You know what I mean." "Yeah..." Chen Hao nodded, then lowered his voice. "A-Yu, how did you suddenly become so terrifyingly strong? The Qianjun Realm! I heard the instructors say the attackers were all experts at the seventh stage of Qianjun or above. How did you breach their defenses and kill them?" "Don't ask. Even if you ask, I won't tell you." As Su Yu spoke, he looked at two small black badges. These were the emblems of the All-Races Sect. Normally, members wouldn't carry them to avoid blowing their cover. However, this had been a large-scale operation, and they were supposed to scatter and retreat afterward. To identify each other when regrouping later, nearly all the invading cultists had brought these badges along to prove their identities. Hence, the two boys had also seized two badges. These could also serve as proof of military merit! Su Yu thought it over, tossed one badge to Chen Hao, then took out a cultivation manual, a martial technique, two drops of blood essence, and six gold coins, throwing them all over to Chen Hao. "If you want to get into the War Academy, hand these in to prove you killed an All-Races Sect member." Chen Hao grew excited, but quickly deflated. "Maybe we shouldn't. It'll be hard to explain. You killed a guy at the seventh stage of Qianjun—they'll definitely investigate it thoroughly..." He did want to get into the War Academy, but turning this in might expose Su Yu's secret. Su Yu smiled. "It's fine. It's not like someone in the Qianjun Realm is unkillable! Of course, we can't report the second one. I crushed that guy's heart bare-handed. But the first one isn't a big deal—he was cut down with a saber. If someone has enough strength, hacking him to death isn't impossible." "Just go report it. Say he was careless and you caught him off guard, cutting him down in a single blow." "A-Yu, will that really work?" Chen Hao asked uneasily. "How about you report it instead? Didn't you say you wanted to get into the War Academy too?" "Me? I don't need to." Su Yu said calmly, "I can kill Qianjun cultivators. Do you really think getting into the War Academy will be hard for me? Oh, I forgot to mention, I broke through to the fourth stage of Kaiyuan a few days ago, and I think the fifth stage won't be long either." "..." Chen Hao felt a sharp stab to his pride once again. *For real?* *That fast?!* Yet Su Yu had killed a Qianjun cultivator; Chen Hao had no choice but to believe it. Chen Hao looked at him with an aggrieved expression. *Are all geniuses this freakish?* *You weren't this freakish before!* Ignoring him, Su Yu packed up the remaining items, stuffed them into his clothes against his chest, and whispered, "The merit can be yours, but... you have to give me the rewarded merit points! Also, that secret stash of over ten thousand you saved up—you have to give that to me too, as payment for buying this kill off me. Got it?" "..." Chen Hao wore a pitiful look. A-Yu was such a stingy miser! After raking in such a huge haul, he was still eyeing Chen Hao's private stash! Had it been easy for him? It had taken him so many years to save up that money, and A-Yu was taking all of it? "What are you looking at? When you hand this stuff in, you'll get a reward too..." "But the academy's reward is merit points!" Chen Hao looked aggrieved. *Do you take me for an idiot?!* You just said the merit points all belong to you, which means I'll be flat broke! "At least you'll have a shot at getting into the War Academy, won't you? It's just ten thousand-odd coins versus getting into the War Academy—which do you choose?" Chen Hao's head spun a bit, and he nodded. *Seems true.* Getting into the War Academy for just over ten thousand coins seemed like a fantastic deal! "Then it's settled. When you report it, you can say I assisted you, but you delivered the finishing blow." "What if they examine the wound? That slash wasn't something mere strength could produce. What do I say then?" Chen Hao asked hastily. He wasn't completely clueless; an expert would be able to tell. "It's fine. I checked earlier—the corpses have all been gathered up and prepared for cremation. Wait until they're burned to ashes before reporting it. Dead men tell no tales, what are you afraid of?" "But..." "Then should we forget about it? It's not like I'm the one who needs this merit to get into the War Academy." As soon as Su Yu said that, Chen Hao fell into a dilemma. "Fine, I'll go report it! Don't worry, I definitely won't sell you out. If they really want to investigate, let them investigate me! What's wrong with being a bit stronger than average!" Chen Hao gritted his teeth. He still wanted to attend the War Academy. This was his best chance! Su Yu paid him no more mind. The academy was unlikely to conduct a deep investigation. Naturally, there would be some doubts, but with the bodies burned, no one else would claim the kill. If Chen Hao stepped forward to claim it, the academy would at most pay a little more attention to him in the future. It was only someone in the Qianjun Realm, not the Wanshi Realm. It wasn't entirely impossible for someone in the Kaiyuan Realm to hack such an opponent to death by fluke. "Ten gold coins, three drops of blood essence, five body-tempering pills, one cultivation manual, one martial technique..." Su Yu felt in high spirits as he tallied up today's harvest in his mind. He had expended one drop of Ironwing Bird blood essence and gained more than ten times the return. Excellent. At last, he didn't have to worry about running through his father's savings and having nothing left to eat. Once he got back, he would properly inspect these drops of blood essence to see what kind they were. Maybe they could even unlock the second page of the album!