Mingguang City was vast.
The moment one entered the city, a wave of clamor washed over.
"Weapon used by an ancient Invincible, excavated from the depths of the Sea of Stars! Priceless treasure, selling for only fifty thousand drops of yuan qi liquid!"
"Maps of the Star Astral Mansion! Complete maps of all nine floors, come quick!"
"Fragments of an Ancient Sovereign's cultivation method! Anyone interested?"
"..."
Past the gate, both sides of the street were packed with people... no, with creatures of every imaginable race.
Setting up their stalls right at the city gate was clearly premeditated. Everyone coming and going had to pass through here, and there were bound to be some clueless newcomers—prime targets to be swindled.
Once people entered the city and learned the ropes, pulling off a scam would be much harder.
Su Yu casually glanced toward one spot—the stall hawking the ancient Invincible's weapon. It was an ape-type demon beast. Humans typically referred to such non-humanoid creatures simply as demons.
The ape held a fork-like implement aloft, resembling a trident or fish spear.
It appeared fairly antique. As Su Yu swept his gaze across it, a divine gleam flashed in his eyes. Right at that moment, the fork abruptly shot out a ray of dark light!
Boom!
Su Yu's sea of will trembled slightly. The ape snapped its gaze toward Su Yu and sneered, "Mountain-Breaking Ox? What, don't believe me? When I say this is a weapon used by an ancient Invincible, I'm certainly not making it up! See that? A treasure with a spirit that retaliates on its own—that's the hallmark of a Heaven armament!"
"..."
Su Yu felt somewhat surprised and puzzled. It was true that only Heaven armaments possessed enough spirituality to retaliate on their own.
Like the Pavilion of a Hundred Dao!
Was this thing really a Heaven armament used by an ancient Invincible?
Come on!
Fifty thousand drops of yuan qi liquid was no small sum—converted, it came out to over a hundred thousand human merit points, more expensive than ordinary Earth armaments. But could a Heaven armament, an ancient one at that, really be this cheap?
Then what was with that retaliation?
He had merely sent a probe to examine it.
He covertly observed the surrounding stallholders. His dad had always said that if you didn't understand something, it didn't matter as long as the people around you did. It was like when his dad went to buy groceries; he hadn't known anything either. When he had first returned to raise Su Yu, the groceries he bought were always the worst quality.
Later, his dad caught on. It was simple: just follow a bunch of aunties whose families looked decent—middle-class, but visibly picky.
The rich didn't necessarily know good produce.
The poor just bought the cheapest stuff.
Middle class, plus picky, plus older—nine times out of ten, whatever they picked was solid.
Right now, Su Yu didn't understand either.
But he could learn from others!
He observed the stallholders nearby. Some curled their lips, some showed utter disdain, and others simply ignored the ape.
Among the customers, some looked amazed, while others wore amused, knowing expressions.
Seeing this, Su Yu understood!
There was definitely a catch!
Where was the trick?
As for the weapon itself, Su Yu was certain the ape hadn't tampered with it. He was a master armamentsmith after all; even with an ancient weapon, he could still tell if someone had rigged it.
Entering the city had piqued Su Yu's interest.
He walked straight toward the ape. Its cultivation wasn't weak either—peak Lingyun Realm.
Su Yu glanced over it and was slightly startled. He hadn't noticed earlier, but now he spotted a small tuft of golden fur atop the ape's head. This was a Heavenly Spirit Ape, a rare branch of the ape race.
This race was quite formidable.
At the very least, they were stronger than the Mountain-Breaking Ox race. Apes had many branches forming a major category. The Heavenly Spirit Ape branch seemed to have two or three Invincibles, and the ape race as a whole possessed quite a few Invincibles, ranking twelfth among all races.
Not in the top ten, but not far off.
Seeing Su Yu scan the top of its head, the ape's face took on a haughty look. "What are you looking at? Thinking of robbing me? I'll thrash you with no problem!"
Su Yu was speechless. Did I ever say I wanted to rob you?
"Can I look at that weapon?"
Su Yu pointed at the fork. The ape sneered, "Can you afford it?"
"Does looking mean I have to buy?"
"If you can't afford it, scram!"
This monkey was arrogant. Su Yu furrowed his brows. "If it's truly a good item, I will naturally contact my race's experts. If it's fake and a scam, am I supposed to disturb the elders of my clan over a piece of trash?"
"Scam you?"
The ape's eyes narrowed with displeasure. "Would my Heavenly Spirit Ape race stoop to scamming you?"
Su Yu fell silent, then said again, "I just want to inspect the goods. Can I look or not? If not, forget it!"
"Look, look all you want!"
With that, it handed the fork to Su Yu.
Su Yu reached out to take it... halfway through, he paused and said, "Set it down first. I'll pick it up myself!"
A look of exasperation crossed the ape's face. It set the fork on the ground, which was covered by a beast pelt of unknown origin serving as a stall mat, strewn with various miscellaneous items that all looked quite ancient.
Only then did Su Yu slowly pick it up and feel it with his hands. Upon feeling it, his brow creased slightly.
The material is lackluster!
His standards were high. The item was actually decent, with a sturdiness approaching an Earth armament, but he could forge things like that himself, so naturally he didn't think much of it. Feeling it, it wasn't even as strong as the boots he had crafted.
His initial impression wasn't great.
"Can I channel yuan qi into it?"
"Go ahead!"
Su Yu channeled yuan qi, and the fork gleamed. The next instant, another wave of dark light lashed out toward his sea of will.
Gripping the fork, Su Yu felt a subtle stir in his heart.
He noticed faint patterns of light flashing on the fork and swiftly probed them.
Before long, he uncovered a few clues.
Soon enough, Su Yu reached a conclusion.
'It is an ancient weapon... Any nonsense about an ancient Invincible is pure garbage. By tier, it's probably an ancient peak Profound rank weapon. And that dark light... is an inscribed formation!'
Thoughts flickered through Su Yu's mind. Interesting. Ancient forging techniques differed greatly from modern ones.
This weapon had formations attached to it!
Ancient formations!
This thing wasn't a mighty weapon at all, nor was a treasure spirit retaliating. It was simply the formation rejecting foreign energy. Even though its original master was dead, the formation was remarkably still operating, actively repelling unfamiliar auras.
'Formations...'
'Adding formations to weapons...'
Ideas sparked in Su Yu's mind. This forging technique wasn't unstudied; people had proposed and researched it before. But research showed that embedding formations yielded poor results and often caused conflicts with the weapon itself.
The human race had Divine Array Masters as well.
In the past, armamentsmiths had invited Divine Array Masters to collaborate on forging, but the outcomes were mostly disappointing.
This weapon held substantial reference value.
For an ancient formation to remain functional to this day—that was what was truly rare!
If a weapon's materials were good and well-preserved, remaining usable after so many years was nothing remarkable.
But for a formation to still operate meant it hadn't collapsed and likely still possessed a power source. What could that power source be?
There had to be something within the weapon powering it.
Su Yu inspected it closely for a while until the ape grew impatient. "Done looking yet?"
Su Yu looked up at it, thought for a moment, and said, "An ancient Profound armament. If an ancient Invincible used this weapon, they'd have been hacked to death long ago. Are you sure an Invincible wielded this?"
"..."
Irritated, the ape snapped, "Are you buying or not? How do you know it's a Profound armament? Ancient weapons aren't like modern ones. You think you can tell just by looking? Are you an Earth armamentsmith or a Heaven armamentsmith?"
Su Yu frowned. "Are you sincere about selling? If you are, I'm interested. If not, never mind!"
Right now, he was indeed intrigued by this weapon.
There were several key points: First, the forging technique.
Second, the working principle of the formation.
Third... the power source!
To maintain operation for countless years, identifying its master's aura, the power source of this formation was very likely the original master's blood essence!
Yes, that was Su Yu's theory.
Or perhaps the original master's divine character!
The Human Forging Method!
Just like Zhao Li, the original master might have integrated one of their own divine characters into the weapon, which was why this aura-recognizing formation continued to function.
An ancient divine character or ancient blood essence...
Fascinating stuff!
"Fifty thousand drops of yuan qi liquid! Take it or leave it!"
The ape huffed, "Even if it isn't a Heaven armament, it's at least an Earth armament! You say it's a Profound armament, but that's only because its rank dropped over countless years without absorbing enough yuan qi and being properly nurtured..."
At those words, Su Yu's heart stirred. Right, he had almost forgotten!
After all, countless years had passed!
If it was still at the peak of Profound rank today, it might genuinely have been an Earth armament back then—and not a weak one either.
With proper nurturing, it might truly recover to the Earth armament rank.
Of course, because the weapon housed an active formation that repelled anyone other than its original master, ordinary people wouldn't be able to nurture it anyway.
Had no armamentsmiths among the myriad races examined this?
Any armamentsmith who saw this ought to be interested to some degree. Low-level ones aside, high-level smiths like Earth armamentsmiths would usually find it intriguing.
Su Yu looked at the ape and said, "Earth armaments aren't priced that high! For a low-tier Earth armament, ten thousand drops of yuan qi liquid is definitely enough. Mid-tier goes for twenty thousand, high-tier for thirty to fifty thousand... You demand fifty thousand right off the bat. Do you really think this thing is worth more than a powerful Earth armament?"
The ape furrowed its brows and looked at him. "You're interested? What's your offer then?"
Su Yu hesitated. Given his current guise as a Lingyun Realm cultivator, producing too many resources wouldn't be appropriate.
After pondering, Su Yu offered, "Ten drops of first-stage Shanhai blood essence..."
"Get lost!"
The ape roared in fury!
First-stage Shanhai blood essence wasn't worth all that much unless it came from gods, demons, or formidable races.
A thousand merit points at most!
And even then, few people would buy it. Weak race Shanhai blood essence had limited demand, unlike god or demon essence. When someone just said "Shanhai blood essence" without specifying a race, it implied it wasn't from a top-hundred race.
Otherwise, one would specify something like Mountain-Breaking Ox Shanhai blood essence.
Ten drops amounted to at most ten thousand human merit points, or around three thousand drops of yuan qi liquid.
Naturally, the ape was displeased!
Su Yu rose to his feet and shook his head. "That's my price. That's enough to buy a top-grade Profound armament! I've inspected this thing, and in all likelihood, it's unusable. But it's an ancient weapon after all, so some of its forging techniques might be of reference to armamentsmiths. It could have some utility."
These words struck a chord with the ape.
Somewhat sullenly, it said, "It really is a treasure! I excavated it from a minor spatial pocket! That pocket realm definitely belonged to a mighty expert who passed away in meditation—at least at the Sun Moon Realm! Those other bastards just don't know goods... An armamentsmith I asked earlier said it was worth at least fifty thousand drops of yuan qi liquid!"
Su Yu chuckled. "Then why didn't he buy it?"
The ape grumbled angrily, "He said he was going to gather the money so he wouldn't take advantage of me. But then... he never came back! He definitely ran into trouble and died! Otherwise, it would've been sold long ago!"
Su Yu weighed its claim and judged it half-true. Such a person might have existed, but as for being worth fifty thousand drops of yuan qi liquid, Su Yu still didn't think so.
Besides, even if an armamentsmith really wanted it, they wouldn't voluntarily offer such a high price.
Su Yu replied, "Even if such a person existed, they were probably scamming you on purpose so you'd set the price too high and never sell it. Besides, looking at your stall, you haven't just started selling this today. Otherwise, you wouldn't still have it."
The ape went silent. After a moment, it said, "Your offer is way too low. It's fine for a modern Profound armament, but this is an ancient Profound armament... maybe even an Earth or Heaven armament..."
"A first-stage Shanhai from a weak race? I can kill one myself!"
It wasn't entirely boasting; the ape could very likely manage it.
Still, fighting above one's realm to kill a Shanhai carried some degree of danger.
Su Yu could kill them too, but was he supposed to go hunting Shanhais every single day?
"That's my final offer. If you won't sell, forget it. I'll look around elsewhere!"
By now, Su Yu had taken quite an interest in these roadside stalls. He had actually encountered a real ancient weapon; sure, there was exaggeration, but the item was authentic.
Perhaps he could find other good things.
As for discernment, his was sharp enough that he wouldn't be swindled. He could easily tell the quality of cultivation methods and armaments.
Watching him get up to leave, the ape felt helpless.
Ten drops of Shanhai blood essence—should it take it?
The price had dropped by more than tenfold!
What it had said was true: an armamentsmith had indeed claimed he was willing to pay fifty thousand drops of yuan qi liquid, but didn't have enough on hand, and then... vanished!
Unless that bastard really had been tricking it!
Of course, it had suspected as much beforehand. That old swindler might well have been conning it. It had run into other armamentsmiths who made offers, and their prices hadn't even matched Su Yu's.
The human race had only around thirty-odd Earth armamentsmiths.
Across the myriad realms, few races possessed more Earth armamentsmiths than humanity.
Across all races, Earth armamentsmiths combined might not even outnumber Invincibles. Running into an Earth armamentsmith was often rarer than encountering an Invincible, because Invincibles roamed outside, while Earth armamentsmiths were treated as treasures and rarely stepped into the open.
The smiths it had met generally weren't of high rank.
The ape cursed inwardly. Should it sell or not?
Some harvest was better than none!
It couldn't even use this damned weapon, and it didn't suit it anyway—who on earth fought with a pitchfork?
"Sigh!"
The ape cursed that old scoundrel again for deceiving it. Otherwise, it would have sold the thing long ago instead of waiting around until now.
...
Meanwhile.
Near the boundary passageway of the Xuan Armor Realm.
An old man twitched his nose and gazed toward the Sea of Stars. What deep resentment! Who was cursing him so persistently? It was probably someone connected to him.
After pondering for a while, something clicked.
"That monkey?"
The old man reflected. Was it that monkey?
Right! That monkey's fork was quite good, but the monkey had a screw loose and insisted on yuan qi liquid. Who the hell carried so much yuan qi liquid on them? Wasn't he planning to borrow some from Qin Guang before going back to buy it?
Who could have known that Su Yu's mess would blow up midway, forcing him to come stake out the Xuan Armor Realm again?
"That monkey hasn't sold it, has it?"
The old man thought, Surely not?
Nobody should have bought it, right?
Before leaving, he had specifically told it not to sell for a drop less than fifty thousand!
"That fork... is actually quite good. It should contain an ancient divine character, probably Sun Moon tier, constantly sustaining the formation... Fifty thousand drops of yuan qi liquid is quite a bargain..."
The problem was, he didn't have yuan qi liquid!
What Eternal cultivator still used that stuff?
The old man grumbled in his heart: 'Stupid monkey! I offered to trade you an Earth armament, but you had no eye for quality and insisted it was fake! Damn you!'
If not for his friendship with that old ghost from the Heavenly Spirit Ape race, he would have smacked it dead with a single slap long ago.
"Whatever. Even if it's sold, ordinary Earth armamentsmiths wouldn't be able to dismantle it."
The old man put it out of his mind; he would check back if an opportunity arose.
The next moment, a formidable willpower swept forward, causing the unmanned passageway ahead to tremble violently!
Moments later, a cold voice emerged from the passageway: "Tianzhu, what exactly do you want?!"
The old man said lazily, "Nothing much. Just peel off your hide so I can try forging a Divine armament! I've always felt your shell is the finest material for forging a Divine armament. To this day, I haven't forged one yet purely because I lack materials. Xuan Armor, think it over!"
"Tianzhu, do you truly believe you can run rampant without consequence?"
"Not at all!"
The old man chuckled. "With so many mighty experts among all races, how could I run rampant? Those from the Origin Demon Race, Primordial God Race, and Ancient Immortal Race are far stronger than me. How could I do as I please? But... Xuan Armor, dealing with you is well within my means. If you don't believe me, step outside and see if I don't forge you into a Divine armament today!"
Inside the passageway, King Xuan Armor was silent for a moment before his icy voice rang out: "Su Yu slaughtered geniuses of my race, killed our Shanhais and Sun Moons, and so did Zheng Ping! It has been my people who suffered losses all along! Must you push things this far?"
King Tianzhu replied indifferently, "You brought it on yourself! Of all the people to provoke, you chose humanity! Did you really think the Immortals, Demons, and Gods would stand up for you? Xuan Armor, the rafter that sticks out rots first! If you want to die, I'll gladly oblige!"
King Xuan Armor sighed. "Don't push me. If you push too far, I truly will defect to the Immortal race. Don't regret it when that happens!"
"Regret?"
The old man laughed. "I won't regret it. If you join the Immortal race, I'll slaughter my way into your Xuan Armor Realm and forge your entire race, young and old, into weapons! As it happens, humanity is short on sturdy armor—natural armor suits us nicely! If you don't defect, I might consider killing only you!"
Inside the passageway, King Xuan Armor sighed again and ceased responding.
There was nothing left to say!
Not only had they suffered devastating losses this time, but they were also having their door barred by this madman.
For the foreseeable future, the Xuan Armor race could forget about stepping out of their realm.
Hong Kai and the others... had lost their minds.
Why did they have to provoke the humans?
Didn't they know Tianzhu had always wanted to forge him into an armament?
Now, they had handed him the perfect opportunity and excuse. The fellow was camping here every day. Were it not for some lingering hesitations, he would have stormed right in to forge King Xuan Armor on the spot!
Within his own realm, he didn't fear King Tianzhu.
Once outside the Xuan Armor Realm, however, deprived of the realm's empowering force, he was no match for him.
...
Su Yu had no idea what was happening over at the Xuan Armor Realm.
Just as he was about to head to the next stall, the ape behind him gritted its teeth and snapped, "Come back! I'll sell it to you!"
"I don't want it anymore..."
Just as Su Yu spoke, the ape bared its fangs, glaring ferociously. "Are you buying or not? You negotiated the price, and now you won't buy? You looking for death?"
"Mountain-Breaking Ox, you think I can't do anything to you?"
The ape's eyes flashed with malice. You dare play me?
Su Yu offered a dry chuckle. "I'll buy, I'll buy! I just feel... honestly... ten drops of Shanhai blood essence... is a bit of a loss..."
In business, you had to keep the other party on the hook.
If he agreed too readily, who knew what tricks this fellow might try to pull!
Su Yu turned around and produced ten drops of first-stage Shanhai blood essence.
From the Ironwing Bird race!
A trash race!
The ape also looked somewhat disgusted and cursed inwardly. Dammit, truly trash. Even it was confident in taking down a first-stage Shanhai of the Ironwing Bird race.
Whatever!
If it stayed stuck in its hands, it was useless. At least Shanhai blood essence had some value.
This fork really couldn't be used.
It had already wasted several days; there was no need to waste any more time on it.
Taking the blood essence, it tossed the fork to Su Yu and said crossly, "You got lucky! If that old con artist hadn't died, I would've sold it long ago!"
Damn that old swindler—he was definitely dead, having deliberately quoted an absurdly high price!
He had even tried to con it into trading for an Earth armament.
What kind of junk was that? A staff that felt light as a feather in hand! When it told him to reveal the inscriptions, the old fraud insisted that his forged weapons concealed their inscriptions, and they would only emerge once bound with blood essence.
To hell with that!
Swindler!
Trying to trick it into dripping blood—it was probably some curse technique meant to screw it over!
If it hadn't been unable to see through that fellow's strength, and if the old guy hadn't been wary of its peak Lingyun power, a fight might have broken out.
Su Yu didn't care about any of that; he was secretly delighted.
Scoring a good treasure right upon arrival—how rare!
It was only ten drops of trash Shanhai blood essence!
Leaving aside everything else about this ancient weapon, just studying the forging technique made it worth the price. And if his theory proved correct—that it was powered by the blood essence or divine character of an ancient powerhouse—he had struck it rich!
It might genuinely be worth fifty thousand drops of yuan qi liquid.
At this moment, as an armamentsmith snapping up a bargain for the first time, Su Yu felt being an armamentsmith was pretty great. At least armaments were among the most actively traded goods.
As for the fact that he was already essentially an Earth armamentsmith, Su Yu didn't give it much thought.
Advancing to the Earth rank had been so effortless for him that he habitually forgot just how few Earth armamentsmiths truly existed.
Strictly speaking, his status as an Earth armamentsmith was far more valuable than an ordinary Sun Moon.
...
Having picked up a bargain right after entering the city, Su Yu was in good spirits and continued browsing the other stalls.
When he examined the cultivation method of the stallholder claiming to sell an Ancient Sovereign's art... Su Yu felt like cursing his mother!
Screw you!
Do you take me for an idiot?
Su Yu had mastered far too many cultivation methods. With just a brief look at the opening lines, he identified it. This was damn well a method from the Earth Ginseng race! They were a very weak race, but somewhat peculiar—when cultivating their techniques, faint glowing mists would radiate outwards.
In reality, the technique was meant for attracting mates! Truly ridiculous—was it supposed to attract a bunch of female Earth Ginsengs for fun?
He dared to use this kind of trash to swindle people!
Su Yu thought for a moment... Damn, even I could forge fake methods far more convincing than his to scam people.
Truth be told, his counterfeiting ability was definitely leagues ahead of this guy's.
Maybe... he could actually give it a try!
Not just cultivation methods, but armaments as well. Faking them was actually simpler for him than for others. Although Su Yu hadn't forged an Earth armament yet, he felt he possessed the ability to do so.
As for inscriptions, those were easy to fake too.
Just make them superficial rather than solid!
The inscriptions could be real, but flimsy—ready to shatter upon impact.
Or use a grafting method!
Splice two Profound armaments together and sell them as an Earth armament!
Rubbing his chin, Su Yu fell into contemplation. Maybe... he really could give this a shot.
Con a massive pile of heavenly treasures, then make a run for it?
'It might actually work... With the opening of the Star Astral Mansion fast approaching, crowds are gathering here, and people might have genuinely picked up valuable treasures outside... Fishing in troubled waters, I might really pull off a massive heist!'
Scamming... Su Yu was a professional.
His starting capital had been swindled.
He had conned Zhou Pingsheng and the others!
On his very first scam, Su Yu had earned tens of thousands of merit points—an amount many might never accumulate in a lifetime.
Right now, there were countless experts from all races gathered here, all wealthy. Perhaps... he could revisit his old trade!
Su Yu lacked nothing else at the moment, but his eyes were set on certain things, such as the Mystic Light of Heaven and Earth!
The Heaven Hunting Pavilion sold it, but it was astronomically expensive!
Even Su Yu couldn't afford it!
He had Sun Moon blood essence—part of it hidden in Heaven-Severing Valley, and inside his storage ring, he had secretly kept the corpse of an eighth-stage Sun Moon Tianyi God.
Yet those weren't easy to liquidate, nor was Su Yu willing to part with them.
He still needed Sun Moon blood essence himself.
'How about... I start by running a scam?'
Su Yu rubbed his chin. Counterfeiting was something he was very good at.
The key was: how to sell, and to whom?
How to win their trust?
After pulling off the scam, how to get away?
'Forging cultivation methods or armaments—either works. Trash methods and trash weapons aren't worth anything, but if I fake a Heaven armament or Heaven-rank cultivation method... preferably an ancient technique, or simply a breathing method... it would definitely fetch an astronomical price!'
Who to sell to?
The geniuses, of course!
Geniuses were wealthy!
As for the mighty experts, forget it. If they were too strong, Su Yu worried they might spot the flaws.
With weapons, without an Earth armamentsmith present, it would be very difficult to see through him.
The only fear was that if the forged weapon looked too impressive, it might draw suspicion from an Earth armamentsmith...
'Wait, no...'
Su Yu looked at the fork in his hand. He actually wanted to dismantle it to take a look, but dismantling it felt wasteful.
What if he dismantled it... and reforged the materials in a furnace?
'What if I use authentic ancient weapon materials to forge a new ancient weapon...?'
Su Yu murmured in his heart. That might actually work! Even an Earth armamentsmith wouldn't necessarily be able to tell.
'Ancient weapon, ancient cultivation method, ancient divine character, ancient corpse... If I can bundle them into a complete set, I might reap even greater profits!'
Su Yu licked his lips. What if... he threw in an inner ring ancient city token as well!
Holy crap!
Flawless!
An expert from the ancient era, carrying an ancient city token, perished somewhere, leaving behind his weapon, cultivation method, ancient city token, and even his divine character—how much would such a find be worth?
If it belonged to an ancient ninth-stage Sun Moon powerhouse, selling it for a few million human merit points would be trivial!
No, pricing in human merit points looked down on the experts of the myriad races!
I must demand Mystic Light of Heaven and Earth!
Starting at a hundred strands!
Su Yu grinned inwardly. If his strength wasn't enough, he could just swindle them. Scamming those bastards from the myriad races carried zero guilt. It would be best if Dao Cheng and his ilk were the buyers!
'Putting on an act alone isn't enough. It'd be best to take a few people out to sea, stumble across a collapsed ancient spatial pocket, have infighting break out, kill my comrades, but spare one survivor. I let him go, then take the loot to sell, while that survivor reappears... Now that's authentic!'
Idea after idea popped up in Su Yu's mind!
When staging a play, one had to go all the way!
If he could really swindle a hundred strands of Mystic Light of Heaven and Earth, tempering his physical body fifteen times would be no problem at all, right?
That was an average of over six strands per temper!
By then, his physical body would have reached over forty tempers!
If he truly reached forty-two tempers, his physical strength... He swiftly calculated... Holy crap, it would definitely approach the power of a hundred thousand apertures!
Su Yu's heart raced!
How many Sun Moons would I have to kill to get that much Mystic Light of Heaven and Earth?!
Buying it from the Heaven Hunting Pavilion would require killing ten first-stage Sun Moons!
A hundred drops of Sun Moon blood essence in exchange for a hundred strands.
Rather than going out to hunt ten Sun Moons, why not stage a grand con? If my strength falls short, my con skills can make up the difference!
'If this succeeds, I'll be rich!'
Su Yu plotted in secret. In the process, he could lure some enemies over and also investigate the situation here to find out why so many experts had gathered.
'Maybe... it's related to me!'
At this point, having seen his own wanted posters at the gate, how could Su Yu not suspect it?
It might well be his own doing that had drawn so many powerhouses here.
There were probably plenty of people eager to kill him.
'How about... heading to Nine Stars Island!'
Su Yu's eyes flickered. 'There's an ancient city on Nine Stars Island. Holding an auction there, and while I'm at it... setting a trap to kill a few people?'
Quite a few of his enemies had come this time.
And even those who weren't prior enemies were mostly here to hunt him down.
'Forget it. An ancient city is too conspicuous; they might suspect me... But an auction in an ancient city would be exceptionally safe...'
Various thoughts swirled through Su Yu's mind.
Because he had purchased an ancient weapon and seen someone selling a bogus Ancient Sovereign art, Su Yu had suddenly remembered his old trade!
Swindling!
As for cultivation methods, Su Yu was confident he could forge one so well that nobody could detect it. Besides, when selling an art, you couldn't let them read the whole thing anyway, or there'd be no value left in selling it.
As for armaments, old wine in new bottles—modifying an authentic ancient shell slightly—how many people could possibly see through that?
It would be best to transplant the ancient formation from this fork into it to create an automatic retaliatory effect. Even Su Yu had nearly been fooled earlier.
'This plan is definitely worth considering!'
He had come here to grow stronger, not because he was obsessed with killing.
As long as he grew stronger, the method didn't matter. The other fellows probably assumed he came here to slaughter people. No, I won't kill; I'll con!
Did they take him, Su Yu, for a fool?
Who knew how many eyes were watching right now!
'Score a massive haul, and then... I leave this place and temper my body to over forty stages! By then, I'll be able to wrestle with seventh-stage Shanhais!'
'No, once I reach that point, my physical body will be immensely powerful, rivaling a seventh-stage Shanhai. I should be able to consume ninth-stage Shanhai blood essence, or even first-stage Sun Moon blood essence. I might even be able to clash with some bottom-tier Sun Moons!'
Thought after thought arose once more.
The blueprint of his plan took shape in his mind.
A con!
'There will definitely be plenty of sharp-eyed individuals. For cultivation methods, I don't have to show them everything. As for the weapon... if an Earth armamentsmith of high rank or peak rank shows up, that could be tricky!'
'Also, the ancient city tokens—are they all identical?'
'It had better match the style of that era!'
'Maybe... I'll need some ancient garments too. That shouldn't be difficult; I saw plenty on the street stalls.'
'Best of all, an actual collapsed ancient spatial pocket... Right! Didn't that ape mention earlier that it dug this weapon up from a collapsed spatial pocket?'
Su Yu glanced around. He needed to find a place to rest, calculate his moves, and flesh out his plan!
A hundred strands of Mystic Light of Heaven and Earth wasn't something ordinary people could produce!
And he had to be careful not to lure an Invincible over!
Big factions would have to buy it!
Massive factions... like the Gods, Demons, Immortals, Dragons...
'Furthermore, this ninth-stage Sun Moon expert had better be a critical figure. For instance, the cultivation method they practiced should be universal, or something like Yuan Aperture Inversion, or a breathing method...'
Su Yu's heart stirred. He had the means to forge such things!
Otherwise, ordinary ancient cultivation methods weren't necessarily something others lacked!
"Yuan Aperture Inversion, breathing methods..."
Su Yu's eyes gleamed. That suited his objective nicely.
"Then shall I pull off the greatest scam in the myriad realms?"
Su Yu murmured in his heart: If this succeeds, won't whichever race got scammed hunt me to the ends of the earth?
Who cares!
Chapter 407