Hatred Knows No End

Su Yu prepared to make his escape, activating the jade talisman. As for the stone statue contemplating revoking his talisman's traversal ability, Su Yu naturally remained oblivious to that. Even if he had known, he probably would not have cared too much. He might have shed a tear or two, but he was still capable of turning into a dead spirit. Moreover, Ming He was now heavily injured, so she might not have been able to catch him anyway. Having severed Ming He’s arm with a single blade strike, Su Yu did not bother trying to take it with him, wary that the female Immortal was not dead and might use it to track him down. Having destroyed three divine characters in succession, his sea of will had suffered immense trauma as well. He had to leave! Inside the city, several prodigies were fleeing for their lives. Su Yu did not pursue them. By now, the Sun Moon dead spirits within the city numbered close to twenty. If those youths managed to survive this, it would only be through heaven-defying fortune. Even if he wanted to hunt them down, he might not succeed. And if they could not survive, let them be buried in this ancient city. At that moment, rays of mysterious light of heaven and earth shone brilliantly over his body. It was not just the mysterious light; he had slaughtered a vast number of Shanhai and Lingyun experts, along with two Sun Moon powerhouses. Under such circumstances, the benefits he harvested were naturally astronomical. Watching him warp through the ancient city, on the verge of vanishing, Ming He let out a ferocious, contorted roar! She had actually been dismembered by a mere Lingyun! "Su Yu!" With that shrill cry, Su Yu almost instinctively opened his mouth to reply. It was not intentional, but an involuntary reflex. Yet right at that juncture, his "Jie" character shuddered violently—shivering with an unprecedented intensity, shaking so hard it felt on the verge of shattering. Su Yu felt as though his skull would split open, and the compulsive urge to respond evaporated in an instant. Cold terror gripped his heart! *Holy shit!* Looking back at Ming He, he saw her eyes glowing with an eerie glint, her lips trembling as though invoking some secret technique. "Su Yu!" Her voice pierced his ears like a demonic chant! Su Yu broke into a cold sweat. What would have happened if he had answered her earlier? He had no idea! Yet it certainly would not have ended well. Never underestimate these top-tier experts at any moment. Su Yu admitted to himself that he had been careless. "Fuck you!" With an angry curse, Su Yu roared at the top of his lungs, unleashing one last thunderous slash just before his departure. "Why the fuck are you calling your daddy?!" *Pfft!* A spray of fresh blood erupted. Ming He stared at him in utter shock and disbelief. It was impossible! Her Heart-Beguiling Art had failed! Not only had it failed, but she had also suffered the technique's backlash! "How could this be..." she murmured in a daze, yet Su Yu’s silhouette had already completely vanished. Ming He stared blankly in the direction he had disappeared, then glanced around at the surging tide of Sun Moon dead spirits bearing down on them. A bitter mix of grief, rage, and helplessness filled her face. They were in deep trouble! The ancient city had unleashed its wrath! At that moment, the Sun Moon dead spirits across the entire ancient city exceeded twenty in number. Screams echoed relentlessly as waves of powerhouses who had entered the city were slaughtered. This was purgatory! In the distance, a Heavenly Dragon roared, sending several Sun Moon dead spirits flying with a resounding crash. "Ming He, Na Dazhi, Lei Huo!" the Heavenly Dragon roared. "Rally together! Hold an ancient house, quickly, or we will all die!" Four high-stage Sun Moons! If they could hold a single building, there was still hope of holding out. Once scattered, even high-stage Sun Moons risked being butchered by such an overwhelming swarm of Sun Moon dead spirits. There were simply too many! Right as he shouted, a figure gradually coalesced in the sky above the Castellan Manor. ... In the rear hall of the Castellan Manor. The stone statue opened its eyes once more, gazing up at the floating Sun Moon dead spirit, and abruptly spoke, "Go back!" Above, the dead spirit looked down upon it. "Go back!" the stone statue growled in a low voice. "What is the Dead Spirit Realm trying to do?" "My brethren are being slaughtered!" To everyone's shock, this dead spirit actually spoke! Indeed, it spoke. A dead spirit was actually talking! The hovering dead spirit looked down at the stone statue again. "According to the ancient laws, when our race is slaughtered, we are naturally permitted to emerge from the Dead Spirit Realm to eliminate the invading enemy! Do you dare obstruct me?" The stone statue stared at it. "It is not yet time for you to appear. Those who fell were merely early- and mid-stage Sun Moons. You have no business showing yourself!" "The culprit hides his tracks and will not show himself. I will uncover him personally!" The dead spirit was shrouded in pitch-black darkness, its death qi held strictly within. For now, its death qi only seeped across the grounds of the Castellan Manor. In the front hall, Tianhe’s expression grew grave as he gripped his wine cup with trembling fingers. His heart was equally shaken. A top-tier powerhouse of the Dead Spirit Realm! It was likely not an Invincible, but it was certainly not weaker than himself—a dead spirit at the Sun Moon Ninth Layer, or perhaps even at the peak. The stone statue's eyes flickered with shifting light. In the next moment, a beam of radiance shot straight toward the dead spirit! "I do not wish to repeat myself. Return, or... I will execute you!" In midair, the dead spirit was entirely unable to dodge the ray of light. With a wet puncture, the beam pierced straight through its form, causing vast quantities of death qi to spill outwards. The dead spirit's figure shuddered and wavered, deeply shocked by the stone statue's sheer power. Far too strong! He was at the peak of the Sun Moon Ninth Layer. Even if he were to run into a true Invincible, he would not be rendered so completely helpless, especially being a native of the Dead Spirit Realm, where his rich death qi gave even Invincibles pause. Yet right now... the stone statue had routed him with trivial ease. The dead spirit ceased pressing the matter, speaking coldly, "So be it, I shall retreat! But with so many fallen here, I believe Eternals from the myriad races will arrive soon enough. If they stay outside, so be it, but the moment an Eternal crosses the threshold, the one who emerges will no longer be me!" "Or, if those living beings slaughter the high-stage Sun Moon commander dead spirits, I shall come once more. When that time comes... you will have no justification to stop me!" "Go back!" The stone statue offered no other words, only that icy bark. If it was not your time to emerge, save your breath! What a nuisance! The dead spirit spoke no further and drifted back toward the grand hall. Inside, beneath the stone statue, a passageway opened, bursting with dark energy. The dead spirit said nothing more, vanishing directly into the void. The passage closed shut. The stone statue shut its eyes, guarding the passage just as it always had. What a headache! These people were all trouble. Back then, Xia Longwu had barged right in and nearly brought about his own demise, and now this Su Yu had slaughtered heaps of dead spirits and slain Sun Moons, triggering an upheaval in the Dead Spirit Realm. Trouble, endless trouble! The stone statue washed its hands of the matter. Let them slaughter one another. If they truly dragged out those monstrously powerful dead spirits, they would be weeping tears of blood. Right at that moment, Tianhe, who had never exchanged a word with it, suddenly sent a voice transmission: "Respected ancient powerhouse, chaos now grips the city. Do you require me to do anything?" Tianhe had entered the city a hundred and eighty years ago and served as the puppet castellan for just as long, yet he had never communicated or interacted with the statue. Yet today, he took the initiative to speak. The stone statue had not intended to pay him any mind, but after some thought, it opened its eyes. "I cannot leave this place, nor do I wish to move. I am merely a petrified carving; the Sacred City exists for eternity! How you all choose to make trouble is none of my concern. But remember one thing... If any of you dare borrow my power, or the power of the Dead Spirit Realm, to slay an Eternal, you shall pay with your lives!" Having said its piece, the stone statue closed its eyes once more, ignoring him entirely. Consider it a modest warning! Whatever schemes he and Xia Longwu were hatching were none of its business; none of the guardian stone statues would meddle. But the moment they attempted to use them to butcher an Eternal... they would have to die as well. When that time came, every last one of them would be executed! Let them weigh the consequences before making their move! Tianhe nodded and said no more. This was his very first interaction with the stone statue. Though he had long known of its presence, the statue had never sought him out, and he had never dared disturb this ancient monolith whose exact era of origin remained unknown. It was unfathomably strong, and that was all that mattered! ... Though that formidable dead spirit had vanished, Tianmie City at this moment had plunged into absolute frenzy. Slaughter ran rampant as countless dead spirits surged forth, cutting down one prodigy after another and bringing ruin to powerhouse after powerhouse. Certain dying experts, unwilling to accept their fate, struck down the dead spirits in their final moments! One Sun Moon powerhouse was surrounded and assailed by three dead spirits. In his dying breath, he let out a furious roar and swept his spear outward. With a deafening boom, his spear snapped, and his life was extinguished! Yet the three dead spirits were annihilated alongside him! *Boom!* In the void, six more Sun Moon dead spirits materialized, among them mid-stage entities. The Blood Fire Demon powerhouse cursed furiously. "Fuck!" "Guoerqi, you absolute bastard!" Even he could not help but scream in rage, let alone the others. Yet the man was already dead! The fallen Sun Moon, still clutching his broken spear, looked back toward them with a grin spreading across his dying face. What was the point of cursing him? He was going to die anyway. How could he accept dying without a fight? He was a Sun Moon! Was he supposed to stand there, watching them butcher him, without raising a hand in resistance? As for what happened after his death... who gave a damn! At the very least, the dead spirits that had taken his life had been dragged down with him! At least he had slain his murderers, slain the dead spirits that felled him. Nearby, Lei Huo of the Thunder God race bellowed in fury, "Bastards, none of you are to kill the Sun Moon dead spirits! Damn it all, slaying them will only summon even more dead spirits!" Someone shouted back hysterically, "Then protect us! Protect us, damn you! Lei Huo, Ming He, Long Dou... you only look out for your own skins! What about us? If you won't protect us, we refuse to die in vain! Even if we die, we'll slaughter every dead spirit we see and drag you all down with us!" Madness! If we are doomed to die, do you think you can walk away unscathed? If you won't protect us, we'll unleash a massacre of our own! When dead spirits come to butcher us, are we supposed to sit around waiting for death, letting them slaughter us like cattle? In your dreams! Lei Huo was beside himself with rage, but Long Dou of the Heavenly Dragon race bellowed, "Everyone, rally together! Get over here, and stop this reckless slaughter!" Now was not the time to point fingers. They truly had to shield them! Otherwise, pushed to the brink and seeing no way out, these people would go entirely berserk and slaughter anything in sight. Dead spirits of the same cultivation tier were generally no match for them, being mindless husks after all. Yet what good did killing them do? Slay one, and two took its place! There was no end to them! If this kept up, an even more terrifying presence would be drawn out, and then everyone would truly meet their end. Meanwhile, the heavily wounded Ming He spat out a mouthful of blood and began chanting under her breath! Soon, a shimmering mirror surfaced in the void. Her face pale as a sheet, Ming He pleaded, "Teacher, the dead spirits are in an uproar! We are trapped, and Dao Cheng is trapped as well! Teacher..." She was calling for aid from the Dao King! The Dao King, one of the paramount kings, held a revered status and commanded formidable might. At that moment, a massive eye appeared within the mirror. The eye seemed to pierce through the void, gazing toward this realm... The instant that eye manifested, its oppressive aura causing the entire city to fall momentarily still, a beam of death light suddenly erupted from the Castellan Manor! *Pfft!* "Hmph!" A muffled grunt echoed as both the eye and the mirror shattered into fragments. Ming He was horrified! She looked down toward the Castellan Manor. Without anyone noticing, that formidable dead spirit from earlier had materialized in the sky above the manor once again. Tianhe’s voice drifted out from the city depths: "Do not act recklessly. If you summon the power of an Invincible, the ancient city will summon a powerhouse of matching caliber. Do you... wish to seek your own deaths?" Ming He’s gaze flickered with sudden realization, and she frantically shouted, "Tianhe, send us out! You have the power to do so! We will reward you handsomely! The god, demon, immortal, and dragon races will shower you with great rewards! Or let us enter the Castellan Manor for refuge!" Cultivator after cultivator rushed toward Long Dou's position, and Ming He did the same. The plan to seek aid from the Dao King had ended in failure! That eye belonged to the Dao King, but separated by an unfathomable distance—with the Dao King perhaps still in the Immortal Realm—it would take time for him to arrive, time they simply did not have! Besides, even if the Dao King arrived, could he truly breach the ancient city? And even if he did, what if it summoned an Invincible-tier dead spirit? They would all perish! Having reached this juncture, pleading with Tianhe was their best recourse. Tianhe replied indifferently, "As the master of this ancient city, I have no authority to interfere with the actions of the dead spirits. As for the Castellan Manor... it cannot protect you either. My apologies, gentlemen, but you will have to find your own place to hide!" Su Yu was truly ruthless! Together with Liu Wenyan, he had detonated Ye Batian’s divine characters, wiping out so many Sun Moons. Good thing Ye Batian was dead, or he would probably climb out of his grave just to curse his descendants for their lack of filial piety! Those divine characters of his had been prepared specifically for his ascension to Invincible. Yet in the end, his disciple and grand-disciple had blown them to pieces! All just to orchestrate a trap for a pack of Sun Moons! Back in the day, when not a single one of these Sun Moons had reached the Sun Moon Ninth Layer, Ye Batian could have slaughtered them all with trivial ease. There would have been no need for such drastic measures. Yet between Su Yu and Liu Wenyan, they had detonated seven of his divine characters! By now, even Liu Wenyan was left with only seven divine characters. To pay such a steep price just to slaughter this bunch... Tianhe did not even know if it was worth it. Regardless, the master and disciple had done it, and having done so, they had fled, leaving these unfortunates in a catastrophic bind. Sun Moons were falling one after another! The Sun Moons who had entered the city originally numbered close to twenty: four high-stage Sun Moons, along with fifteen other Sun Moons from various races, totaling nineteen. And now? Su Yu had personally killed two, Liu Wenyan had slain one, and the dead spirits had butchered six—nine Sun Moons had already perished! Suns and moons plummeted! It had been many years since the All-Heavens Battlefield had seen so many Sun Moons perish in one go. To find a comparable slaughter of so many at once, one would have to look back several decades—and that did not even account for the fallen dead spirits. If those were counted, Xia Longwu had slaughtered plenty back in his day. Outside the city, Bing Hong had fallen as well. Mo He was currently being besieged by multiple Sun Moons. This was likely the heaviest casualty count the battlefield had witnessed in fifty years. Worse still, hordes of prodigies had been massacred—An Mintian of the god race, Lan Ying of the demon race... Though Tianduo of the Primordial Demon race had fled, he was currently being hunted by dead spirits across the city, his survival far from guaranteed. With so many geniuses being butchered, names on the Heaven Hunting Ranking were dimming in rapid succession. One after another! Over the past few days, the number of fallen prodigies on the Heaven Hunting Ranking had surpassed thirty! ... Meanwhile. The outside world was shaken to its core. The Heaven Hunting Ranking was shifting! At this moment, massive upheavals took place! First on the Heaven Ranking: Su Yu! Battle Record: Slew a Sun Moon Fourth Layer! First on the Earth Ranking: Liu Wenyan, Lingyun First Layer, age 72, Human, native of the Great Xia Prefecture. Battle Record: Slew a Sun Moon Fifth Layer; slew a near-death Sun Moon Seventh Layer. Indeed, a Sun Moon Fifth Layer—Liu Wenyan had slain a dead spirit at that stage. He was advanced in years, yet despite his age, his true cultivation was merely Lingyun First Layer, having just broken through by forcefully shattering his divine characters. Yet he had slain an expert of the Sun Moon Fifth Layer! Crossing so many cultivation tiers, he had claimed a spot on the ranking at the ripe age of seventy-two! First on the Earth Ranking! It was only because of his age that he was placed there; otherwise, he would have taken the top spot on the Heaven Ranking. The Heaven Hunting Ranking already possessed his aura, so there was no need to collect it again; Liu Wenyan had been listed decades ago. A human in his seventies making the ranking—this was likely a historic first! The all-heavens were truly shaken! A Lingyun slaying a Sun Moon? And not just a Sun Moon First Layer! Of course, there were certainly details unknown to the public—whether it involved traps, ambushes, or schemes, a Lingyun putting Sun Moons in their graves was unprecedented nonetheless! ... Across the myriad realms, inquiries flooded into the Heaven Hunting Pavilion through various channels. Soon enough, answers were provided. Su Yu and Liu Wenyan had lain in wait within the ancient city, detonating Ye Batian’s divine characters to slaughter Sun Moon powerhouses and trapping Ming He and her cohort inside. By now, vast numbers of Sun Moons had fallen! From confirmed reports alone, the tally of dead Sun Moons had reached ten. Among them, Bing Hong of the Ice Snow God Race had fallen outside the city walls. As for who killed him... that was still under investigation, seemingly the work of a group of unknown origin. The Heaven Hunting Pavilion was still assessing the situation, not daring to draw too close, as multiple high-stage Sun Moons were locked in fierce combat in that sector. However, the actions of Su Yu and Liu Wenyan were easily deduced—that axe of theirs was simply too conspicuous. Su Yu had wielded the axe to kill, and so had Liu Wenyan. With minimal deduction, the conclusion was obvious: the two of them had detonated Ye Batian’s divine characters. Otherwise, their strikes could never have possessed such devastating power. Pure madness! Who among them did not covet Ye Batian’s divine characters? Yet now, they had been blown to pieces by these two prodigal wastrels. Truth be told, even after learning that numerous Sun Moons had died, the prevailing reaction among the onlookers was to curse them for the colossal waste! If you gave those divine characters to an Invincible or a Sun Moon Ninth Layer, two or three of them would have been more than enough to hire two or three Sun Moon Ninth Layer experts to do the killing for you! A single divine character from Ye Batian was surely worth the price of hiring a Sun Moon Ninth Layer, was it not? If you had the currency, someone would do the killing for you! Yet these two had simply blown them up! What a waste! Lunatics! And now look at them: they were likely heavily wounded, if not dead already... Well, probably not dead, given their names still remained on the ranking. In short, few of those reviewing the results felt any pity for the fallen experts. Instead, they cursed the pair for being utter wastrels. Had they completely exhausted Ye Batian’s divine characters? Among the human race, Ye Batian’s divine characters were arguably the strongest! At that moment, even King Daqin at the border was cursing up a storm! "Lunatics!" "Fools!" "If they wanted to kill someone, handing over Ye Batian's characters would have easily persuaded others to act... Why did they have to blow them up to do the deed?!" Even as he cursed, he felt helpless and deeply moved. The multiple divine character faction was truly ruthless. Yet that ruthlessness also laid bare their complete lack of trust in anyone else. Since no one was willing to help me, I will do the killing myself. As for Ye Batian's divine characters, if they blow, they blow—as long as the enemy dies! King Daqin sighed in resignation, his voice booming across the four directions: "All those in seclusion, come out! We have work to do!" "Xia Wushen, return!" "Zhu Dizhu, get over here!" "Someone send word to Wang Hu and Liu Han—have them rush here from the Human Realm at once!" "..." He had no choice but to issue the summons! With so many powerhouses slaughtered and hordes of experts trapped within the ancient city, they had to safeguard the human territory at all costs. Otherwise, a massive swarm of foreign experts might lay siege to the human race. Besides, no one yet knew where Su Yu and Liu Wenyan had gone! Beams of Invincible aura pierced through the heavens! In the Eastern War Zone, human Invincibles stirred from their secluded cultivation, some still bewildered. Had an all-out war erupted? Soon, one Invincible after another flew toward the perimeter defensive lines. Armies began mobilizing, marching toward their designated sectors in preparation for war. ... While the Human Realm braced for an impending war, Su Yu had already slipped outside the city. Outside the walls, the battle still raged. High in the air, a demonic god swept across the battlefield, sending one Sun Moon flying with a single punch and obliterating another with the next... Incomparably dominant! Mo He of the Primordial Demon race! An entity bordering on the Sun Moon Eighth Layer. Even facing a coordinated siege by multiple Sun Moons, the besiegers had paid a heavy price. One Sun Moon expert had his physical body blasted to pieces, and had An Ying not intervened in the nick of time, he likely would have perished on the spot. Yet Mo He had also suffered a sword thrust through his skull, Yuan Qi violently erupting as his head blew apart. "The Primordial Demons are invincible!" Mo He roared in sheer madness! He was destined to attain the Dao and become an Invincible; how could he fall here? He refused to accept it! Yet there were simply too many foes. Too many Sun Moons had gathered. An Ying and Ye Hongyan were both peak experts, pillars of the Great Ming Prefecture, and working in concert with the other Sun Moons to form a battle array, they had driven this Primordial Demon powerhouse at the peak of the Sun Moon Seventh Layer to the brink of death. "The Demon King will descend! Moduona is still inside the city!" he roared. The Demon King of the Primordial Demon race would surely come, for their race’s foremost genius was still trapped within the city walls, alive and not to be abandoned. Just as the humans would never abandon Qin Fang. Ye Hongyan and An Ying paid him no heed! Die first, then talk! At that moment, they sensed Su Yu’s presence. Ye Hongyan barked, "Leave, quickly! Invincibles will descend here shortly. Get out of here and return to the Human Realm!" What a ruthless kid! Now she understood why Su Yu had been so confident about trapping and slaughtering those Sun Moons. With the city locked down and death qi saturating the air, they had already witnessed nine Sun Moons plummet from the heavens! Just as that thought crossed her mind, a thunderous crash resounded as another Sun Moon collapsed! Ten! Ten Sun Moon powerhouses had fallen inside the city, and a high-stage Sun Moon had died outside as well... Utterly ruthless! Aside from Ye Batian’s fall, the past several centuries had never witnessed so many Sun Moons dying in a single engagement, especially including high-stage Sun Moons. Watching from afar, Su Yu asked, "Can we kill him? Can I deliver the finishing blow to grab some benefits...?" Ye Hongyan snapped, "Piss off! Watch out for his death throes!" Were they out of their minds?! Liu Wenyan had wanted to steal a kill, and now you wanted to as well? Did they truly think a Primordial Demon at the peak of the Sun Moon Seventh Layer was easy prey? A dying counterattack from him was terrifying; one of their Sun Moons had just had his physical body destroyed. Su Yu did not waste words. Looking at a hovering speck of light in midair, he said swiftly, "Senior, come over here for a moment..." The Sun Moon whose body had been obliterated was extremely feeble, his willpower barely maintaining a humanoid shape. "Me?" "Yes!" The Sun Moon Shadow Guard said nothing more, flying over rapidly. Su Yu traced through the air, producing a drop of blood that instantly settled upon the speck of light to reconstruct his physical form. In the blink of an eye, a body took shape. Incredibly weak! Possessing merely the strength of the Qianjun Realm! Frighteningly feeble. Su Yu called out, "Senior, do you know the Opening Apertures Art?" "I do!" the newly remade expert replied instinctively. Su Yu commanded, "Circulate your technique and open your apertures!" The Sun Moon was caught off guard, but before he could speak, Su Yu produced an immense quantity of Heaven Yuan Qi, instantly cloaking his body! "Senior, I impart to you the method of the Tiangang Thirty-Six Casts to reforge your physical body! Open your apertures; Heaven Yuan Qi makes opening them easiest!" The Sun Moon expert was at a loss for words. Consuming vast quantities of Heaven Yuan Qi, he began reforging his body. This Heaven Yuan Qi was exceptionally gentle, distinct from ordinary Heaven Yuan Qi. It was comparable to a Heaven Yuan Fruit—a single fruit was enough to open five or six apertures. Right now, one portion of Heaven Yuan Qi was depleted, then a second, a third, a fourth... In the blink of an eye, more than ten portions had been consumed! The Sun Moon was aghast. "Enough, that's enough! I will cultivate slowly once I return to the Human Realm!" Even after accumulating resources for years, the Great Ming Prefecture did not possess this many Heaven Yuan Fruits! He had consumed the equivalent of more than ten fruits in a single breath, yet he had only opened sixty apertures! To complete the entire Opening Apertures Art would require just as many fruits again. Su Yu ignored him entirely, continuing to pour in vast amounts of Heaven Yuan Qi. Since you came to rescue me, why would I be stingy with such trivial items? If you had to re-cultivate your shattered body on your own, how long would that take? He refused to owe too heavy a debt. He channeled in wave after wave of Heaven Yuan Qi! The Sun Moon had no idea what to do, left with no choice but to absorb, open apertures, absorb, and open apertures... After consuming the equivalent of nearly thirty fruits, every aperture across his body finally resonated! The Opening Apertures Art was complete! Inconceivably fast! The price: burning through thirty Heaven Yuan Fruits just to produce a Qianjun Ninth Layer! "Now open the apertures for the Twin Wu Aperture Fusion Art!" "No need, there really is no need..." "Listen to me!" Su Yu barked. "Don't waste time! That bastard is about to die. Your body is too weak—how will you flee later? You wouldn't even survive the turbulence if a Sun Moon carried you!" Helpless, the Sun Moon could only begin opening apertures again—the apertures required for the Twin Wu Aperture Fusion Art! Su Yu continued pumping in copious amounts of Heaven Yuan Qi, causing apertures to pop open in rapid succession. In the blink of an eye, the apertures for the Twin Wu technique were unlocked, consuming another seven or eight fruits' worth of qi. What a waste! It broke his heart! The Sun Moon expert felt physical pain from the extravagance—it was simply too wasteful! All of this, just to reconstruct a body! Just give them to me, and I'll cultivate slowly back home; these are priceless heavenly treasures! Yet Su Yu gave him no chance to speak. Cultivate! Open apertures! Fuse apertures! With both the aperture fusion art and the aperture opening art mastered, he swiftly broke through into the Wanshi Realm. That way, once he returned, with his prior Sun Moon experience and sea of will intact, he would recover in no time, having bypassed the time-consuming process of opening apertures. Su Yu helped him open several more apertures, then tossed a storage ring to this Sun Moon who had just stepped back into the Wanshi Realm. "Inside is the method for the Tiangang Thirty-Six Casts. Senior, you can open more apertures to cultivate top-tier Heaven rank arts, several sets of which are included inside. I have also prepared one hundred Heaven Yuan Fruits for you. I hope Senior can smoothly forge a formidable body and step into the Sun Moon Realm once more..." The Sun Moon stared blankly at him, unable to utter a word because his mind had gone completely blank. How many? One hundred? Did you rob the Heaven Yuan Fruit orchards of the Immortal and god races? Right at that moment, a colossal explosion resounded as another sun and moon plunged from the sky! Ye Hongyan swiftly collected the corpse and barked, "What are you waiting for? Move, hurry!" An Ying flew over rapidly as well, glancing at Su Yu before turning his gaze to the Sun Moon Shadow Guard, utterly dumbfounded. "An Liu, you... you're in the Wanshi Realm?" During the intense battle, they had possessed no leeway to pay attention to this side. Hadn't his body just been obliterated? How had he reached the Wanshi Realm already?! Damn it, had it not been broken after all? Even if it hadn't, he wouldn't be at merely the Wanshi Realm! What in the world was going on? Now that Mo He was dead, it was time to run. Invincibles could descend at any second! Su Yu offered no lengthy explanations, speaking hurriedly, "Seniors, please make your exit. I am taking my leave as well!" "Eh?" An Ying blurted out frantically. "You're not coming with us...?" "No!" Su Yu gritted his teeth. "If I return now, the myriad races will inevitably pressure the human race to hand me over! I am not afraid, and I trust that Manor Head Zhu will not surrender me. But if that happens, the Great Ming Prefecture will earn the enmity of many, including certain human Invincibles! I have no wish to put everyone in a bind. I shall continue to roam the All-Heavens Battlefield! I will not drag down the Great Ming Prefecture!" "If I return, my fate will rest in the hands of those Invincibles. If I do not, even if I die, my fate remains mine to command. Even in death, I will have no regrets!" "My thanks to all seniors, my thanks to the Great Ming Prefecture, and my thanks to Manor Head Zhu!" Su Yu clasped his hands. "The mountains are high and the rivers long. Safe travels to you all, seniors! I will return, but... not now!" "Farewell!" With those words, Su Yu dissolved into a gentle breeze and vanished in an instant. He was gone! Even if he were to return, now was not the time. If he returned at this moment, the Invincibles of the myriad races would certainly apply pressure, demanding his surrender! To hand him over or not? The Invincibles would be torn! The Great Ming Prefecture would be torn! Why put them through that? Why place his fate in the hands of others? He would continue wandering this All-Heavens Battlefield. He would return, but... not now. Su Yu had departed! Ye Hongyan and the others watched his receding path. Before long, Ye Hongyan sighed and gritted her teeth. "Move, hurry! Kill all onlookers! He is right—if he goes back now, his fate might be even worse. Once the Invincibles demand his surrender... not even the Great Ming Prefecture will be able to shield him! Let's go!" Such a genius, yet the human race might not necessarily protect him! He was simply too adept at stirring up catastrophe. This incident would surely send shockwaves through the myriad races. At a mere Lingyun, he had brought about the deaths of dozens of Sun Moons and dozens of racial prodigies. Unless he died, the myriad races would know no peace! An Ying’s expression contorted with inner turmoil. In the next moment, he let out a thunderous roar, moving with boundless speed as he instantly slaughtered the experts hiding in the surrounding area! The Sun Moons rapidly swept the vicinity. Earlier, the peak Shanhai Shadow Guards had killed many, but a few lingering witnesses remained. An Ying personally caught a white-masked powerhouse, crushing him to death before the man could even utter a word! A member of the Heaven Hunting Pavilion! He didn't care; kill first, destroy all traces, disturb the Yuan Qi, and obliterate the corpses! Ye Hongyan and the others acted in kind, swiftly executing anyone who had managed to conceal themselves. A moment later, they reconvened. Ye Hongyan retrieved a jade talisman and barked, "You all go first. I will disrupt the spacetime here, making it difficult even for Invincibles to retrace time. Hurry!" The thirteen Shadow Guards said nothing, taking the Sun Moon who had just recovered to the Wanshi Realm and fleeing rapidly. When they arrived, they had prepared to fight to the death. Upon leaving, they had slain two high-stage Sun Moons, while only one of their own had his body shattered... Yet that man showed not a shred of grief. Carried by An Ying, he whispered, "Commander, Su Yu gave me one hundred Heaven Yuan Fruits and several sets of Heaven rank techniques to repair my body once we get back. I even consumed several dozen fruits earlier. This is the first time I've ever realized cultivation could be this easy..." An Ying was speechless! To hell with you! You're actually bragging now? "Useless trash. Seven against one, and you still managed to get your body blown to bits. When we get back, you're sharing some of those goods with me..." Too extravagant! He felt somewhat sour inside. The Shadow Guards... hadn't made a name for themselves! Fine, leave that aside. This fellow had just lost his body—couldn't he act a little distressed instead of speaking in such a boastful tone? Was getting your body shattered some kind of badge of honor? Blowing through over a hundred Heaven Yuan Fruits—what a maniac! Those remaining hundred fruits definitely couldn't be squandered like that; it was far too wasteful! The thirteen moved with extreme speed, vanishing from the area in the blink of an eye. After they departed, Ye Hongyan gave a low shout and cast down a jade talisman, throwing space and time into chaotic disarray so that Invincibles would struggle to track them, preventing them from uncovering Su Yu’s trail. That boy Su Yu had still been too careless! Invincibles could trace the direction in which he fled! She believed Su Yu had been negligent, yet Su Yu, who had initially fled westward, had long since pivoted northward. Not only that, but along the way, Su Yu burned his aura and erased his tracks as he ran. He had never underestimated Invincibles! Furthermore, when he came across spoils of war that were overly precious, he discarded them! All to prevent any powerhouse from using them to divine his location. Aside from his personal belongings, he destroyed any corpses and flesh he possessed. As for those bodies, he swiftly extracted their source blood before burning the remains. He did not need the physical corpses! Once the source blood was extracted, though the corpses were precious, he abandoned them. After extracting the source blood, he consumed it and cleansed his aura! As for the Sun Moon corpses he could not currently process, Su Yu gathered them together, intending to find a hiding spot to bury them and retrieve them when time permitted, rather than risk being tracked. Soon, he produced a storage ring. Looking around, he realized he had drawn close to Heaven-Severing Valley once again. Su Yu changed direction, dashed into Heaven-Severing Valley, dug a pit in a secluded spot, and buried the storage ring! Everything he could not process at the moment was stashed inside! This included the two Sun Moon corpses he had slain at the city gates, the peak Shanhai corpses, and various treasures seized from Jiu Xuan and An Mintian. He would come back for them when time allowed; if they were discovered, he would simply consider them lost. Su Yu was never comfortable carrying items that were not truly his own. Next, after getting his bearings, Su Yu bolted toward the central region, heading for the Sea of Stars. With the demon factions fractured and divided there, it would be far easier to remain hidden than in other directions. As for Liu Wenyan, Su Yu did not contact him again. They had agreed beforehand: once the killing was done, each would find his own way out. Liu Wenyan had stated himself that Su Yu need not worry about him; he would make his own arrangements. Meanwhile, vast reservoirs of the mysterious light of heaven and earth were pooled inside Su Yu's body. He had to find a secure location to cultivate in peace. As for how many died within the ancient city, or whether every last one of them perished, that was no longer his concern! ... Shortly after Su Yu and the others made their escape, several more suns and moons collapsed within the ancient city! Adding the two outside the city, twenty-one Sun Moon powerhouses had gathered, including six high-stage Sun Moons. By now, fourteen had perished! Only seven Sun Moons remained alive within the ancient city. The four high-stage Sun Moons had not died, but the remaining three were in dire straits. Ming He was on the verge of death as well, having been grievously wounded by Su Yu detonating two divine characters! In a single battle, fourteen Sun Moon powerhouses had fallen! Outside the ancient house they defended, over thirty Sun Moon dead spirits besieged them with frenzied ferocity. The massive influx of death qi caused even the high-stage Sun Moons to rot and fester continuously! A dead end! Despair! Ming He was swallowed by despair, and Long Dou and the others felt no different—they had been utterly ruined! They had assumed this would be an effortless task, but instead, the two prodigals from the multiple divine character faction had detonated numerous divine characters belonging to Ye Batian, slaying Sun Moons and unleashing a catastrophic swarm of dead spirits. They were finished! Even if Invincibles arrived, they could scarcely survive this! "Su Yu!" One venomous shriek after another rang out; every expert who fell cursed his name before drawing their final breath! Su Yu, you monster! His bloodlust far surpassed that of Ye Batian or Xia Longwu. To slaughter them, the bastard had discarded even Ye Batian’s divine characters! Those were treasures that held the hope of attaining Invincible! Anyone else would have cherished them beyond measure. It was not as though Su Yu had been forced to kill them; since he possessed the means to break out of the city, he could easily have left long ago. It was entirely possible he had deliberately re-entered just to orchestrate this! And Liu Wenyan’s appearance... practically confirmed it! He had already escaped, fetched Liu Wenyan, and borrowed Ye Batian’s divine characters! Just how deep was his hatred toward them to make such a choice?! Long Dou and the others could not fathom it. You had already escaped—why come back and pay such a staggering price just to kill them? Was it truly worth it? Ming He coughed up blood continuously, her blood having turned pitch black. She shrieked in agony, "Su Yu must die! He is far more ruthless and far more talented than Xia Longwu ever was! If he does not die, the moment he attains Invincible, the calamity of the myriad races... will begin!" This was a calamity for all races! That young man’s murderous nature was simply too terrifying—so terrifying that it chilled her to the bone even now. When he could have easily escaped, he had detonated two of Ye Batian’s characters to cripple her, even risking his life to linger long enough to slash her with his blade... If such a ruthless monster was allowed to live, true disaster would befall them all! In Su Yu’s eyes, she had seen only hatred and icy detachment, devoid of any emotion. This person had to die! *Pfft!* Another mouthful of black blood spurted out. Ming He was filled with regret. She... likely would not survive much longer. *Su Yu, you are truly vicious. Was it worth spending two divine characters just to inflict a mortal wound on me?* At that moment, she turned back toward the heavily injured Dao Cheng, sending a grim voice transmission: "I cannot hold on much longer. In a moment... kill me! Avenge me—you must kill that monster!" Dao Cheng’s eyes trembled violently! "Kill me!" Ming He transmitted. "Dao Cheng, you must slay him! If he does not die, you will! I have foreseen a sea of blood, a mountain of corpses... Slay me, empower yourself, and avenge me... avenge Jiu Xuan!" *Cough, cough, cough!* Black blood spilled outward once more. Dao Cheng’s expression was tangled, his eyes dim with grief! Ming He of the Sun Moon Seventh Layer! She was half a mentor to him. His grandfather had little time to instruct him, so for most of his life, it was this disciple of his grandfather who had guided his cultivation. And now... she wanted him to kill her with his own hands! "Teacher..." Dao Cheng had executed Yin Kai without batting an eye, but right now, despair gripped his heart. He did not want this! Ming He barked via transmission, "Hurry! The stronger I am, the greater the harvest you reap from slaying me! Otherwise... how will you ever rival the others? You fall short of Moduona, short of Zhan Wushuang, short of Xuan Wuji, and short of Su Yu... If you do not kill me, you will never be able to avenge us!" Dao Cheng gritted his teeth. Suddenly, his fist slammed into her skull. With a sickening crunch, her head burst apart! One strike after another! The onlookers around them were struck dumb with horror. Dao Cheng’s fists were drenched in blood, his entire body soaked in crimson, pounding away like a madman, blow after blow! Yet Ming He did not fight back, nor did she raise a hand to defend herself, allowing him to smash her to pieces with strike after relentless strike! *Boom!* A radiant sun shattered into oblivion! "Ahhh!" A shrill, soul-tearing wail of grief echoed through the ancient city! Like a raving lunatic, Dao Cheng fell to his knees, clutching her mangled corpse and screaming at the heavens. He had killed his own teacher with his bare hands! "Su Yu!" His agonized howl tore through heaven and earth. *Su Yu, you killed my beloved and forced me to butcher my own teacher with my bare hands! This hatred knows no end! This vendetta will never die!* Ming He had fallen!