Yunxiao Ancient City.
Inside a modest old house, situated in the outer district during daylight hours, death qi was scarce and posed almost no threat to Su Yu.
After days of relentless turmoil, Su Yu finally found a moment of respite.
Sitting cross-legged on the bluestone floor, he pondered for a while before casting his thoughts aside and beginning his cultivation in earnest.
It was time to digest his gains!
The first thing to process was naturally the Heaven and Earth Profound Light. It possessed an exceptional effect on casting the body, and having been obtained from killing Sun Moon cultivators, he held a total of twenty wisps—a haul of immense value.
For an ordinary cultivator, a single wisp was enough to complete an entire cast.
Unfortunately, Su Yu was anything but ordinary.
At present, he had completed twenty-two casts and was already close to finishing the twenty-third.
His twenty-two casts were far more formidable than those of regular cultivators—more powerful even than the thirty-six casts of God and Demon warriors—and consequently, his consumption was astronomical.
Even though he had already been on the verge of the twenty-third cast, he still burned an entire wisp of Heaven and Earth Profound Light before successfully completing it.
His physical body shuddered!
Cycling his breath, Su Yu noticed that this breathing technique seemed even more useful for body casting than the Immortal race's Longevity Art. If he didn't need the Longevity Art to accelerate his absorption of Heaven Yuan Qi, this breathing technique was easily the better option.
The Longevity Art had one major drawback—it was humiliating!
His Heaven Penetrating Aperture sprayed non-stop!
It was fine while cultivating in secret, but doing so around others was embarrassing to the extreme.
The breathing technique he had learned from the stone statue, however, was an entirely different story.
It felt completely natural and seamless!
Among the arts Su Yu had learned, two stood out as particularly extraordinary, both acquired during this ordeal: the breathing technique and the Dead Spirit Yuan Aperture Reversal Art.
Neither required specific aperture alignments. They were exceedingly rare, almost as though any species among the myriad races could practice them.
In this era, universal cultivation arts were virtually nonexistent.
Yet this time, Su Yu had acquired two of them.
The techniques he had studied before were arts he had converted into human versions on his own; they were never truly universal.
Obtaining two such techniques in an ancient city brought Su Yu no small measure of joy.
Of course, even as he tempered his body, he wondered: did every ancient city possess such a stone statue?
If so, Yunxiao Ancient City had one as well.
Did forging here yield rewards too?
In Tianmie Ancient City, he had probably claimed far too many benefits, but here, he hadn't taken anything yet.
"Forget it, keep a low profile!"
Su Yu silently warned himself to remain discreet and not push his luck.
Right now, Invincible experts were likely searching for him. He couldn't afford to be reckless. The ancient city wasn't going anywhere anyway; if there were truly benefits to reap, coming back later wouldn't be too late.
He resumed his cultivation!
Wisps of Heaven and Earth Profound Light steadily vanished alongside large amounts of Heaven Yuan Qi. He had expended a great deal of Heaven Yuan Qi recently, gifted plenty to that Shadow Guard Sun Moon expert, and absorbed a substantial share back in the main hall.
By now, Su Yu only had a hundred-odd portions left.
Still, he possessed a generous stockpile of blood essence, which could always be refined.
He wasn't in any rush. Now that he was in the All-Heavens Battlefield, why worry about lacking Heaven Yuan Qi?
What a joke!
If push came to shove, he could slaughter a squad of Gods or Demons, and Heaven Yuan Qi would be his in abundance.
Failing that, finding an encampment of Mountain-Breaking Oxen and wiping out a herd would do the trick; their value-to-effort ratio was remarkably high.
Su Yu remained unperturbed.
His physical body continued to temper.
Pairing the shock method with the breathing technique, he shook his flesh and bone, scouring every impurity from his form.
Shortly after finishing the twenty-third cast, roughly an hour went by. Su Yu consumed three more wisps of profound light and completed the twenty-fourth cast, leaving sixteen wisps remaining.
A staggering expenditure!
Far greater than an ordinary cultivator's.
Su Yu wasn't surprised in the slightest. For a body this potent, burning through that much was only natural; consuming less would have been abnormal. If the remaining sixteen wisps could push him through five more casts, that would already be a monumental blessing.
……
Time ticked away.
Darkness fell over the realm.
At this moment, by the human calendar, the date officially reached July 16 of the year 351 in the Anping Era.
Nearly two months had passed since Su Yu left the Great Ming Prefecture.
When he set out from Great Ming, his body had been at eight casts, and his willpower had merely reached the Airborne Realm.
Now, his physical body had achieved twenty-six casts and was pushing into the twenty-seventh.
A muffled roar resonated!
Inside the room, the faint death qi dispersed.
Within Su Yu's sea of will, the Heaven and Earth Profound Light was completely drained. Falling short of the twenty-eighth cast he had envisioned, he barely managed to conclude the twenty-seventh before exhausting every last trace. Each step forward grew exponentially harder!
His body officially reached twenty-seven casts!
From here on, finishing a single cast would require nearly five wisps of Heaven and Earth Profound Light.
Su Yu shook his head.
The cost was astronomical!
Five wisps, by the Heaven Hunting Pavilion's rates, was worth five drops of Sun Moon blood essence. Could killing one Sun Moon cultivator really only yield two body casts?
You had to be joking!
He still had forty-five casts left to go, and the later stages would demand even more. He would need to slay at least twenty or thirty Sun Moons—and that was assuming first-stage Sun Moons... Well, to be fair, he had actually killed that many this time around.
Even if he hadn't delivered the final blows himself.
When calculated that way, it didn't seem all that unreasonable!
Su Yu gave a self-deprecating laugh. If everyone followed his example, the myriad races would run out of Sun Moon experts!
If completing one's body tempering required slaughtering dozens of Sun Moons, butchering every Sun Moon in the myriad realms would probably only suffice for a handful of people.
"Sigh!"
In truth, tempering gradually was also an option; Heaven Yuan Qi was quite effective on its own. But Su Yu couldn't afford to wait!
He needed to grow stronger rapidly!
For now, he had only reached twenty-seven casts.
Even so, his strength was terrifying. His physical burst capacity had already soared past twenty-three thousand apertures of force.
Nearly twenty-four thousand!
Factoring in the activation of his Yang Apertures and the amplification from his "Strength" divine character, he could approach roughly thirty thousand.
Strictly speaking, this level of power was not far off from a weaker third-stage Shanhai cultivator.
In pure physical might, Su Yu was confident he could match them.
Yet in the myriad realms, weak Shanhai cultivators were never the benchmark he and his peers measured themselves against!
Take Modona, for instance: his physical strength was at least a hundred thousand apertures of force, and that was back when he was only at seventh-stage Lingyun. What about now?
Moreover, a hundred thousand was merely the absolute floor. Modona could slay seventh-stage Shanhai opponents; had he slain the weakest among them?
Would there conveniently be the weakest possible adversary waiting around just to get killed?
Where would one even find so many bottom-tier seventh-stage Shanhai experts casually strolling about, eager to offer their necks?
Judging capability against the weakest denominator was inherently flawed.
"The gulf between Shanhai cultivators is vast as heaven and earth!"
"And the gap among Sun Moons is even more horrifying!"
Su Yu shook his head. Consider Ming He, a seventh-stage Sun Moon: two peak Sun Moon divine characters had detonated against her, and even when Su Yu erupted with the combat power of a sixth-stage Shanhai and struck with his saber, he had only managed to sever her arm.
Even grievously wounded, with roughly ninety percent of her strength stripped away, Su Yu's full-force burst still couldn't take her life.
Just how terrifyingly strong was Ming He?
She was frightfully formidable, pure and simple!
A physical burst of nearly thirty thousand apertures of force might have felt immense to Su Yu in the past, but now... it was merely decent.
Without Sun Moon divine characters, if he encountered Modona today, he would likely be pulverized even if he consumed sixth-stage Shanhai blood essence. His power simply could not rival Modona's.
In fact, on the Heaven Ranking, Su Yu probably couldn't defeat a single one of them.
Including Dao Cheng!
Dao Cheng had slain a fifth-stage Shanhai back in the Lingyun Realm. Now that he had reached third-stage Shanhai, even if his foundation was somewhat unstable from advancing too fast, his strength had undoubtedly leaped forward.
Of course, Su Yu was unaware that Dao Cheng had already made the ranking.
At present, he wasn't carrying that item.
The Heaven Hunting Pavilion's sub-ranking was handy, but it was a vicious trap that tracked your location endlessly, which he found thoroughly repulsive.
Having absorbed the Heaven and Earth Profound Light, Su Yu didn't stop. He proceeded to assimilate the Heaven Yuan Qi, willpower, and divine character resonance, taking the opportunity to repair his sea of will, which had suffered severe trauma when he shattered the Sun Moon divine characters earlier.
Fortunately, tempered by the Mind Expansion Hammer and anchored by the golden atlas, his sea of will was sturdy enough to prevent catastrophic damage.
After taking in a vast surge of willpower alongside the divine character resonance, Su Yu spent the entire night finally digesting all the spoils granted by heaven and earth.
His cultivation officially stepped into the second-stage Lingyun Realm.
His willpower could no longer be suppressed!
Su Yu hadn't actually wanted to advance; he had intended to keep tempering it. But after spending half the night compressing it to no avail, his willpower broke through to second-stage Lingyun.
Fair enough!
Willpower served immense utility: disguising identity, fending off investigative probes, and manipulating divine characters all required tremendous mental force. Without sufficient willpower, even self-detonating a divine character was impossible.
This time, he had lacked the sheer mental strength to wield peak Sun Moon divine characters properly. Had his willpower been adequate, holding two peak Sun Moon characters would have allowed him to execute Ming He cleanly.
As his willpower grade rose, several of his divine characters advanced as well.
At this moment, Su Yu possessed a grand total of twenty-five divine characters.
Blood, Thunder, Break, Battle, Kill, Yin, Wind, Change, Beast, Death, Tribulation, Stillness, Merge, Strength, Fight, Slow, Saber, Suppress, and Shock, alongside the five elements characters and the Fire of Inheritance.
Apart from a select few still lingering at the second or third tier, the vast majority had advanced to the fourth tier.
Su Yu's willpower and the structural resilience of his sea of will were already bordering on the Shanhai Realm.
Now, the characters he relied on most frequently had reached tier four.
A few had even caught up from behind.
The "Stillness" character from King Dazhou, the innate "Tribulation" character, the later-outlined "Change" character, and the "Yin" character that had been advancing without fanfare had all stepped into tier four.
All twenty-five belonged to the human race.
Instructor Jin Sheng from the Great Ming Prefecture had once remarked that the more human divine characters one possessed, the stronger they became and the greater their amplification. Su Yu had felt this firsthand. None of his characters were weak; they didn't fall behind the divine characters of Gods and Demons in the slightest and felt even more powerful.
"It's just that my divine character battle skill is still far from complete. With seventy-four characters missing, I can't form the complete skill. A battle skill formed from twenty-five characters just isn't as formidable as I'd hoped..."
Su Yu murmured softly. Perhaps this was the shortcoming of human divine characters: incomplete, they lacked ultimate supremacy.
Would incorporating divine characters from other races make it stronger?
Su Yu merely pondered the thought; in any case, he couldn't outline divine characters of other races right now.
Having digested his latest harvest, Su Yu's combat power had surged significantly.
He soon turned his attention to his other spoils.
Along the way, he had swallowed several drops of blood essence and unlocked more pages in his atlas, verifying a few earlier hypotheses. Unlocking the atlas was indeed fascinating.
Right now, the page corresponding to the Immortal race showed clear changes.
It was far more complete!
He had consumed Immortal blood essence before, but the page had remained fragmentary. Now, it finally felt fully realized.
"Immortal Race (Seventh-Stage Lingyun):
Racial Skills: Immortal Power Vesting, Vitality Stimulation, Flesh Regeneration (unlocked via blood essence; same below)
Basic Yuan Art: Immortal Yuan Art
Basic Cultural Art: Immortal Aperture Heavenly Net Art
Basic Body-Casting Art: Thirty-Six Celestial Immortal Casts
Basic Nine Transformations Art: Nine Transformations of the Ancient Immortal"
This was the brand-new, substantially refined page revealed after Su Yu consumed Jiu Xuan's blood essence. It now featured a basic cultural art as well as the basic nine transformations art.
Neither had been present before.
As expected, Su Yu's earlier suspicion was correct: Civilization Masters unlocked different facets than warriors.
Now, he was certain!
They truly differed. If nothing else, the presence of a basic cultural art proved it.
Warriors and Civilization Masters were distinct paths; only when unified did they create a truly complete page.
This time, he had slain an Immortal Civilization Master—Jiu Xuan.
And from her came the *Immortal Aperture Heavenly Net Art*.
Su Yu felt a faint flicker of anticipation. He wanted to see whether the divine apertures unlocked by the Immortal cultural art overlapped with his own—completely, or only in part?
The Five Elements race was unique, opening 180 divine apertures with zero overlap.
What about the Immortals?
Su Yu swallowed another drop of Jiu Xuan's Immortal blood essence.
He had processed it beforehand; Jiu Xuan's blood essence was the only high-tier racial essence he kept on his person. His other reserves were not taken from the powerhouses slain in the ancient city, all saved precisely for this moment.
Swallowing the drop, the atlas swiftly absorbed it.
Moments later, a pattern outlining divine apertures manifested within his sea of will.
108 divine apertures!
Superior to the art humans previously practiced. The human cultural art only opened seventy-two apertures, whereas the Immortal art opened 108.
Su Yu inspected it rapidly, his heart leaping with delight!
It really was different!
They didn't overlap entirely. After counting, thirty-two divine apertures were distinct, meaning he had discovered thirty-two new apertures!
The seventy-two divine apertures opened by the traditional human cultural art had completely overlapped with the Five Elements Art. Su Yu didn't dwell on what that implied—perhaps there had been a shared lineage between humans and the Five Elements race in antiquity.
Regardless, uncovering thirty-two new divine apertures proved his earlier deduction correct.
There had to be 360 divine apertures in total!
Last time, he had only opened half of them, making it impossible to circulate the art naturally, discover the Yin Apertures, or unveil the complete Origin Divine Apertures.
"I was right after all!"
Su Yu's eyes gleamed with shifting light. In that case, his next targets ought to be Civilization Masters of the God race, the Demon race, and various other lineages!
By obtaining their basic cultural arts, he could unearth all the divine apertures.
Then, by opening every single one and allowing the art to cycle naturally, he could forge an entirely new cultural art.
"Civilization Masters..."
They were so rarely seen!
Su Yu sighed. He had spent a fair bit of time on the All-Heavens Battlefield and encountered many geniuses from diverse races, but Civilization Masters were few and far between. The two Immortals had been rare exceptions.
Most prodigies of other races were warriors; the few Civilization Masters among them were weak.
After killing one previously, Su Yu had consumed their blood essence and obtained a cultural art, only to find it utter garbage—every aperture overlapped with his Five Elements Art.
"Still, there are races known for Civilization Masters."
"From what I know, there are the Fire Crows, the White Civets, and the Shadow race also has numerous Civilization Masters..."
Su Yu mused to himself. He had killed a member of the Shadow race before, but that one hadn't been a Civilization Master.
The majority of that race pursued the civilization path; the one he met last time was likely an outlier. Had he known earlier, he would have extracted a drop of blood essence from the shadow he left behind in the Great Ming Prefecture.
"Fortunately, there's no rush. When I'm only missing a handful of divine apertures, I can hunt down Civilization Masters from various races to experiment."
Su Yu reflected on why he perceived Civilization Masters as weaker than warriors. It was likely because he had opened fewer divine apertures than yuan apertures. He had opened all 360 yuan apertures, which made his physical body extraordinarily strong!
Relying purely on willpower and divine characters, Su Yu estimated he could only match an eighth- or ninth-stage Lingyun. Against a weak Shanhai, he might put up a fight using arts like the Expanding Will Art, but his ability to cross realms was limited.
The warrior path was entirely different; he could cross massive divides.
"Nowadays, the civilization path has been relegated to support, while the warrior path has become my main weapon!"
He currently relied on his physical body far more in battle. Of course, the civilization path offered incredible utility, and his versatile mastery of divine characters was a primary reason his arsenal was so diverse.
Evaluating his overall prowess, Su Yu placed his civilization cultivation somewhere between ninth-stage Lingyun and first-stage Shanhai.
His warrior cultivation sat between second-stage and third-stage Shanhai.
Combined, defeating a third-stage Shanhai should be manageable, while a fourth-stage Shanhai would pose a challenge.
This was without burning blood essence.
And the comparison applied only to weaker Shanhai combatants.
If he consumed blood essence, he was now capable of handling sixth-stage Shanhai essence. While erupting with it took a physical toll, it granted him the combat strength of a sixth-stage Shanhai—and not from a weak race, but from a mid-tier race.
In terms of raw combat power, his ceiling approached seventh-stage Shanhai, though he would most likely lose against one.
"Without the Fifth Generation's divine characters, slaying a Sun Moon... is pure fantasy! My true strength only lets me contend with a sixth-stage Shanhai!"
Against a seventh-stage, his only option was to run.
After thoroughly digesting his substantial harvest, Su Yu's combat power had experienced a tremendous leap.
Compared to when he first left the Great Ming Prefecture, he was far stronger.
Now, Su Yu truly possessed the capability to fight Shanhai opponents head-on.
He no longer had to scheme relentlessly and rely on surprise ambushes.
Taking a deep breath, Su Yu smiled.
Not bad at all!
This was already remarkable!
Moreover, nestled within his mind were ten drops of Sun Moon Xuanhuang Liquid—another priceless treasure!
It was meant for the Sun Moon Realm, but those below Sun Moon... weren't necessarily barred from using it!
It could strengthen apertures!
Cultivators below Sun Moon refrained from using it out of fear that their apertures would become too resilient to fuse later on. Su Yu shared that concern, but in a dire crisis, it could instantly bolster his strength, even if it made aperture fusion harder down the line.
"I have about a hundred portions of Heaven Yuan Qi left, and around three hundred thousand human merit points..."
At this point, Su Yu had exhausted most of his liquid assets, keeping the rest safely hidden away.
In addition, he still had some Shanhai blood essence.
The largest portion came from the Cloud Tiger race!
The Great Xia Prefecture had nearly wiped out the Cloud Tigers, forcing the survivors to seek shelter under the Flying Tiger race to avoid total annihilation of their domain. Later, during Xia Huyou's trades with Su Yu, he had supplied plenty of Cloud Tiger blood essence.
Su Yu had used the lower grades to refine Heaven Yuan Qi, but he had kept the Shanhai-tier essence.
All told, he possessed nearly a hundred drops, spanning from first-stage to ninth-stage Shanhai.
"First- to third-stage aren't very useful; I'll refine them into Heaven Yuan Qi later. Only fourth-stage and above have real utility for erupting with power..."
Now, Su Yu could barely bring himself to care about early-stage Shanhai blood essence.
Taking stock of gains, digesting spoils, and enhancing strength—these were essential skills for geniuses surviving the All-Heavens Battlefield.
Every battle was meant to prepare you to be stronger for the next!
Any fight that didn't make you stronger was largely redundant and pointless!
If not for extracting Heaven Yuan Qi, Su Yu wouldn't even bother killing opponents below Shanhai, unless they were exceptional prodigies whose blood essence he required.
This validated why Modona hadn't bothered killing him before: Su Yu couldn't offer him anything of value.
Likewise, if killing a weak God or Demon yielded no benefit, Su Yu wouldn't waste his time on them either.
Unfortunately for them... they did offer him something: blood essence, which could be turned into Heaven Yuan Qi.
Therefore, whenever he ran into them, they were fair game.
He flexed his body, dispersing the blood qi clinging to his form.
Su Yu now had a way to erase traces of blood qi!
Previously, he had needed to visit the Great Jin Prefecture to cleanse it, but not anymore!
Su Yu reversed his yuan apertures!
Death qi corroded inward!
In an instant, all his yuan qi transformed into death qi, and the blood qi clinging to his body was thoroughly consumed!
Su Yu realized this was also an exceptional method for shaking off pursuers!
Death qi was inherently the foulest energy.
When dead spirits slaughtered the living, how could they ever be stained with blood qi?
In Su Yu's hands, death qi took on a paradoxical new function: purification. Yes, using death qi to purify himself seemed completely contradictory!
Yet he was genuinely using death qi to cleanse his person!
Death qi rejected nearly all racial energies, naturally repelling them!
This would also prevent anyone from planting tracking markers on him.
However, there was one place Su Yu refrained from converting.
His heart!
The heart was the ultimate proof of life. If he reversed his heart into death qi as well, he feared he might truly perish and transform into an actual dead spirit.
He reasoned that his heart should be safe, shouldn't it?
Under normal circumstances, even if an enemy wanted to track him, they wouldn't plant a trace directly in his heart. If they had that kind of access, they could just detonate his heart; why bother tracking him?
Thus, Su Yu refrained from allowing death qi to corrode his heart.
What he didn't know was that the moment that thought crossed his mind and death qi swirled outside his heart, the tiny figure slumbering within raised a hand and wiped its forehead in an uncannily human gesture, as if breaking into a cold sweat.
Soon, the tiny figure returned to its deep slumber. Without external shock or mortal peril, it would not awaken.
Just now, it had sensed acute danger.
Having wrapped up loose ends, cleansed the blood essence residues with death qi, and incinerated lingering auras with flame, Su Yu finished putting everything in order and breathed a sigh of relief!
Caution was paramount!
The All-Heavens Battlefield teemed with powerhouses from every race, employing every conceivable method. Ming He had nearly ensnared him simply by calling his name a few times. In a place like this, no amount of caution was excessive.
"My strength has grown, and every race probably wants my head. Where should I head next?"
Su Yu fell into contemplative silence. He planned to venture into the monster race's territory, toward the Sea of Stars.
Yet he knew very little about the situation there.
Rushing in blindly was far too dangerous.
Securing intelligence beforehand was ideal!
The Heaven Hunting Pavilion was an obvious choice, but... that organization was perilous. Su Yu dared not get too close; finding another intelligence broker would be much safer.
"Could the All-Heavens Battlefield really have no other intelligence agencies, leaving the Heaven Hunting Pavilion with a total monopoly?"
Su Yu guessed there had to be other networks.
Otherwise, if the Heaven Hunting Pavilion chose to fabricate lies, would everyone just take them as absolute truth?
Furthermore, what was happening in Tianmie Ancient City right now?
Su Yu urgently wanted to know the outcome, whether Invincibles had appeared, and which ones had shown up.
Outside, the sky remained dark.
Su Yu chose not to leave. Stepping out of the ancient house at night was far too conspicuous. He needed to keep a low profile!
"Twenty-seven casts still isn't enough!"
Peering at the night sky, Su Yu cracked the door open slightly, glanced down the empty street, and quickly shut it again. He sighed. At only twenty-seven casts, he was technically merely at fourth-stage Airborne!
I'm still too weak. A fourth-stage Airborne warrior can only tangle with early-stage Shanhai.
The road ahead was long and arduous!
A massive upheaval would inevitably erupt in the Great Xia Prefecture, and his current strength was far from sufficient.
Even if he couldn't control the chaos this time, he needed enough power and confidence to stand by Bai Feng, Hong Tan, and the others—at the very least, to preserve their lives!
"First thing tomorrow morning, I'll figure out how to obtain precise intelligence, then set off for the Sea of Stars."
With that decided, Su Yu wasted no more time.
He resumed his cultivation!
Channeling Heaven Yuan Qi to temper his body, he cycled his breathing technique.
Having tasted the speed of Heaven and Earth Profound Light, cultivating with Heaven Yuan Qi felt agonizingly slow. Still, he had to make do. The later casts grew progressively harder; using Heaven Yuan Qi, finishing one cast every two to four weeks was still achievable!
It would have to suffice for now!
Su Yu felt helpless. It was just like getting used to flying, only to be forced back into crawling; the sudden drop in speed was unbearable. But he had to make the best of it!
Heaven Yuan Qi didn't taste nearly as sweet as it once had.
And he wasn't the only one who felt that way—the little fur ball in his mind agreed completely.
……
While Su Yu cultivated and waited,
Outside Tianmie Ancient City,
Several Invincibles received the surviving prodigies of their respective factions.
The Dao King looked at Dao Cheng. Seeing him remain head-down and silent, the king chose not to press him. Turning toward Modona's ancestor, Demon King Moge of the Primordial Demon race, he asked, "Moge, what is your stance regarding Su Yu?"
Moge replied coldly, "The Eternal Realm does not meddle in such affairs!"
The Dao King nodded. "I know. Under normal circumstances, even for prodigies, even peerless talents like Xia Longwu back in the day, we never intervened. If Eternals engaged in wanton slaughter, the myriad realms would have fallen into chaos long ago. Besides, the Immortal and Human races are still allies... But Su Yu's significance does not lie in his slaughter. It is not about killing Jiu Xuan, nor about causing the deaths of so many Sun Moons. Orchestrating the downfall of so many Sun Moons is simply a testament to his capability..."
The Dao King spoke with relative impartiality. Below the Invincible Realm, they did not interfere.
Unless someone was about to attain the Dao!
Yet Su Yu was different. Back then, Xia Longwu had slaughtered countless Sun Moons, and no Invincible had targeted him; only when he neared Dao attainment did Invincibles fix their gaze upon him.
Su Yu, however, bore another identity: a genius of the multiple divine character faction, the successor to the Fifth Generation.
Moge pondered for a moment before speaking. "I understand your meaning. You seemed to have contact with Qin Guang when you arrived. What did he say?"
"He wants to protect him, naturally. But... Su Yu is not yet worth the collective protection of every Eternal in the human race. Therefore, if we hunt Su Yu down now, Qin Guang will at most intervene covertly here and there; an all-out war will not break out."
Moge fell silent for a few breaths, then stated, "Su Yu must be slain; on that, I agree! We do not fear humans gaining a few more Eternals, but we cannot allow their domain suppression to be unlocked. If that happens, their vengeance for our past invasions into the Human Realm will swiftly follow, and every realm will suffer their retaliation!"
Humans were notoriously petty!
The myriad races were well aware of this.
Right now, humans were simply outmatched and had no choice but to swallow their pride.
Given the vindictive nature of King Daqin and his peers, remember how many they slaughtered and how many smaller realms they rampaged through the moment they discovered they could ignore domain suppression? They had run rampant, killing and plundering without restraint.
The dire straits the human race faced today were partly their own doing.
Several smaller races had been terrified by their slaughter!
Not a single one of the Invincibles who founded the prefectures was a saint.
Seeing his agreement, the Dao King smiled and nodded. "Then we coerce the human race into handing Su Yu over!"
Nearby, Modona suddenly spoke up. "If I were Su Yu, I would not return to the human race! Never place your life in the mercy of others!"
Addressing the Invincibles with calm composure, he offered a faint smile. "Senior Dao King, if I were Su Yu, I would choose to remain wandering the All-Heavens Battlefield. Failing that, I would hide in a smaller realm. In short, returning to the Human Realm is a terrible choice! I have not interacted with Su Yu much—or rather, I have only sensed him a few times without meeting face-to-face—yet I am certain that were I in his shoes, I would never return to the human race!"
The Dao King mused briefly before smiling. "Well said. He is a genius, after all; he will make his own choices. Modona, where do you think he will go?"
Modona considered it and said, "The Sea of Stars, the Demon Realm, or one of the smaller realms... The Demon Realm is chaotic, where might reigns supreme! The monster race is fractured, a tumult of a myriad tribes! Smaller realms offer even greater safety."
In short, the probability of him fleeing toward the eastern theater of the Human Realm was minuscule.
Venture into the territory of the Immortals or Gods? Equally unlikely.
Beside them, the previously silent Dao Cheng spoke in a low voice. "Grandfather, your divination arts are profound. Can you divine his current location?"
The Dao King shook his head. "Divination without a source anchor is exceedingly difficult! It would be best to have his blood, hair, or personal belongings to trace him."
Even so, he made an attempt.
A divine character coiled across the palm of his hand.
Moments later, the character trembled, and the Dao King shook his head. "I cannot deduce it. Furthermore, the spacetime here has been disrupted, and the city interior is inaccessible, making divining Su Yu even harder!"
Spacetime reversal was impossible!
Nearby, another Demon King remarked indifferently, "Is that not simple? Su Yu still has living kin. Capture his father and trace him through the bloodline. If that fails, employ spacetime reversal to see if we can eliminate Su Yu nineteen years in the past! He is young, after all; through spacetime reversal, there is a genuine chance of executing him..."
The Dao King shook his head. "Spacetime reversal should never disrupt the timeline that has already transpired. Otherwise... it risks triggering a total collapse of spacetime, and the powerhouse executing the reversal might well perish. That is a desperate, terminal measure, not something to be wielded lightly! Capturing Su Yu's father to trace him via bloodline is indeed feasible, but the human race will not hand him over easily..."
For now, the best strategy was indeed finding Su Long and using his familial link to track Su Yu down.
The Invincibles conferred briefly, spoke no further, and dispersed. However, secret orders were swiftly dispatched across every faction.
Scour the Sea of Stars, the Demon Realm, and the Monster Realm for traces of Su Yu. If any extraordinary prodigies or unusual experts appeared, report them immediately. A person like Su Yu would never stay dormant for long.
As Invincible experts and veteran geniuses of the past, they understood this truth all too well!
If he truly stayed in hiding forever, there would be no need to care about him anyway, for he would have no opportunity to grow stronger. A genius like Su Yu could only rise through upheaval and strife.
Chapter 403