Xuan Jiu of the Heaven Hunting Pavilion

The city was sealed once more! This time, Su Yu stepped out of the old house. Even though there was hardly a living soul left in the city, he still reversed his cultivation to turn into a dead spirit. A disguise! There was no other choice; Hei Mo was still in the city. That bastard was probably itching to kill him. One could never be too careful. Better to disguise himself first. At that moment, wandering the empty streets, Su Yu finally felt the invigorating thrill of a bird soaring in an endless sky! If it weren't for Hei Mo, this massive ancient city would belong to him. What a shame! Because of that fellow, he was forced to disguise himself to keep from being discovered and killed by Hei Mo, which would be a catastrophic loss. "So comfortable!" The streets swirling with death qi didn't affect him in the slightest. Su Yu was in high spirits—exceptionally high spirits. As he walked, he would occasionally pat some of the weaker dead spirits, feeling like a general inspecting the troops under his command. Too bad dead spirits didn't wear clothes; otherwise, Su Yu would have loved to straighten their collars to show how warm and approachable he was! Xinghong Ancient City was a wonderful city. This place truly was fantastic. It wasn't the first time Su Yu had marveled at it, and he figured he would marvel at it many more times to come. He wasn't in a hurry to find the little fur ball. Instead, he headed toward the Castellan Manor. At present, the manor remained tightly shut. Hei Mo hadn't emerged, nor had any of the guards inside the manor. He didn't know whether they were all dead or what. Most likely, a good number had died! Earlier, a Quasi-Invincible dead spirit had barged in to kill Hei Mo, triggering a fierce battle. Even Hei Mo had been severely wounded, let alone the guards. Su Yu watched for a while; the Castellan Manor was deathly silent. *Is he healing?* Su Yu made an assessment. Hei Mo was definitely heavily corroded by death qi, perhaps even on the verge of transforming into a dead spirit. Since the other party wouldn't open the gates, he had no way of entering the manor. Forget it. Su Yu paid him no more mind. Soon, he resumed his patrol outward from the Castellan Manor. Ring by ring, Su Yu spared no effort, checking house after house to see how many residents were currently in the ancient city, what their approximate strength was, how many were in the inner three rings, and how many were in the outer rings. He had to take complete control of everything in the ancient city! Otherwise, if outsiders sneaked in, he wouldn't even know how many there were. Just like Hei Mo—if that fellow had conducted a census this time, it would have been effortless to find Su Yu. Look at that. That was the downside of failing to conduct a census. There needed to be registrations and household records! Even for residents, it would be best to issue identification, and their registrations should be canceled upon death. Sure enough, beasts were just beasts. Su Yu realized that the castellans of these ancient cities were thoroughly irresponsible, not even knowing the resident population of their own cities. Total chaos! Under such conditions, it was naturally easy for outsiders to hide. Once everyone was registered and recorded—including a rule that forbade switching houses once settled—one could prevent people like him from hiding away in random rooms where enemies couldn't find them. When it came to administrative capability, the Human race truly had the upper hand. "This is a tremendous amount of work. I can't oversee all of it alone!" By this point, Su Yu was genuinely treating himself as the castellan. Looking out over the vast city, he felt a bit helpless. The ancient city was truly massive, and the farther out one went, the larger the area became. The inner three rings had roughly three thousand houses. From the fourth ring to the eighteenth ring, there were more than thirty thousand houses. And in the outer eighteen rings, there were over one hundred thousand houses. The entire ancient city had at least a hundred and fifty thousand houses. Calculating by three people per household, during ancient times, the permanent population of this city likely exceeded five hundred thousand. It wasn't overly massive, but small... it certainly wasn't small! One couldn't compare it to cities in the present Human Realm, which had high-rises. In this ancient city, aside from the Castellan Manor and a few select houses with two stories, everything else was a standalone detached building, even the small houses in the outer rings. If they all built up to six stories, the permanent population could easily break three million. Build a bit higher... and it could house tens of millions. Not bad at all! Su Yu offered his critique. It was a fairly large city, decent enough, but the administration was truly abysmal. He wasn't particularly skilled at management either, but he at least felt superior to Hei Mo. As castellan, how could he let his ancient city become such a mess? Look at that—factions like the Heaven Hunting Pavilion and the All-Heavens Myriad Treasures Tower had opened branches here, but had they paid any fees? Had they paid taxes? Had they obtained permission to sell intelligence here? Had the strong divine and fiend races applied for approval before establishing outposts? Utterly disordered! "Right, the Heaven Hunting Pavilion has a branch in the ancient city!" Su Yu's mind stirred. He searched around and soon located the Heaven Hunting Pavilion's branch in the twenty-second ring. It wasn't small—a detached two-story building covering quite a large plot of land. At the moment, signs indicated there was someone inside: a resident. He didn't know whether a resident had taken it over, or if a member of the Heaven Hunting Pavilion had transformed into a resident. Su Yu leaned toward the latter. For a faction permanently stationed in the ancient city, it was impossible that none of their members had turned into residents. The Heaven Hunting Pavilion! That organization was certainly no force of good. Earlier, Su Yu had demanded five hundred drops of Sun Moon vital blood from them, but they were only willing to offer two hundred strands of Heaven and Earth Profound Light in the end. Su Yu had told Niu Baidao to collect it, but whether he actually received it... Su Yu hadn't checked the Heaven Hunting Ranking afterward, so he wasn't sure. Whether it was collected or not, he didn't care too much. In truth, he was somewhat worried that if Niu Baidao did receive it, some danger might follow. Two hundred strands was no small amount, and someone might set their sights on him. "The Heaven Hunting Pavilion!" Standing before the entrance of the Heaven Hunting Pavilion's branch, Su Yu wondered whether he should go in, grab a sub-ranking to examine, and interact with the Heaven Hunting Pavilion a bit. Being tracked didn't matter much right now, though the main threat was still Hei Mo! Su Yu realized Hei Mo was becoming an obsession of his! Without Hei Mo, he wouldn't fear the Heaven Hunting Pavilion tracking him at all. If they had the ability, let them come. They were welcome to enter the ancient city. Could any Heaven Hunting Pavilion member who had turned into a resident inside the city possibly be overpoweringly formidable? Su Yu didn't believe it for a second! Did they really think Sun Moons grew on trees? The death of two Sun Moons had already pained the Heaven Hunting Pavilion to death. "The Heaven Hunting Pavilion branch... I wonder if there are any good things left... Most likely not." After all, Bai Yi had been inside the city, and that fellow wasn't an idiot. When leaving, there was no way he hadn't cleaned out the valuable items from the branch. Su Yu watched the doorway for a while. There was definitely a sub-ranking inside! It could definitely communicate with the outside world! He didn't know if other residents in the city had sub-rankings. That was hard to say. The probability of ordinary residents having one was low, as the Heaven Hunting Pavilion typically only granted them to geniuses and formidable experts. The residents of the ancient city were neither, with the exception of Hei Mo. "Time to cut off your eyes and ears!" Su Yu produced his Third Ring Token and directly forced open the doorway. The doors swung wide, revealing a massive reception hall inside. At that moment, there was only one person within, wearing a white mask. Upon seeing Su Yu, the masked individual sighed and spoke. "Greetings, Lord Su. I am Xuan Jiu, a member of the Xuan Department of the Four Departments! I am the head of the branch stationed in Xinghong Ancient City. I knew you would come, my lord. Please forgive my lack of hospitality!" Su Yu looked at him, slightly surprised. "You knew I would come?" "I did!" Xuan Jiu said calmly, "Across the entire ancient city, there are only two places capable of communicating with the outside world. One is the Heaven Hunting Pavilion branch, and the other is the Castellan Manor. Castellan Lord Hei Mo also possesses a Heaven Hunting sub-ranking. Your sealing of the city once more, my lord, clearly indicates you do not wish to expose anything about yourself. Eradicating our branch was an inevitability!" Su Yu observed him. The other's cultivation wasn't overwhelmingly strong, but it certainly wasn't weak either: Shanhai Realm seventh layer. Such strength, when not involved in a war between races, made one an overlord on normal days. Su Yu hadn't thought much of it only because the level he had been engaging with was far too high. He had been dealing with the Invincibles of all races! The mainstream of the All-Heavens Battlefield was actually Tengkong and Lingyun; Shanhai were not abundant. Having a seventh-layer Shanhai presiding over the branch counted as formidable strength. Moreover, within the ancient city, ordinary Sun Moons wouldn't make a move against him. Seeing Su Yu looking at him, Xuan Jiu spoke again. "I am the only one left in the entire branch! The others are either dead or merely residents hired from outside who are not members of the Heaven Hunting Pavilion. I am the sole official member!" He produced a sub-ranking, and soon after brought out an illustrated catalog, saying, "This is the sub-ranking for communicating with the Heaven Hunting Pavilion, along with the inventory left behind by Lord Bai Yi. They are all rather cheap items, which you might not fancy, my lord!" Xuan Jiu presented them with both hands. "You may kill me, my lord. The pavilion's wish is that you can re-establish communication with the Heaven Hunting Pavilion. The pavilion guarantees upon its heritage that in the future, your whereabouts will never be leaked!" Su Yu was surprised, but soon laughed. "Guarantee upon your heritage? I'm a dying man. Is it necessary to go so far for me? Or are you planning to claim my inheritance after I die? After all, it looks like I still have a fair bit left." "You misunderstand, my lord!" Xuan Jiu said in a low voice, "The pavilion bears no ill will toward you. It is merely that you were reversed by a dead spirit monarch. The pavilion hopes you can provide some intelligence regarding dead spirit monarchs, the Dead Spirit Realm, and the Dead Spirit race. At present, only you have had the deepest contact with the Dead Spirit Realm." "Surely not?" Su Yu chuckled. "A major faction like yours has never had contact with dead spirits?" "We have, but due to the constraints of the rules, we cannot learn more." Xuan Jiu explained, "The passages to the Dead Spirit Realm are exceedingly difficult to open, all suppressed by ancient stone statues..." When he mentioned ancient stone statues, Su Yu grew interested and asked, "What exactly are those stone statues? Are they alive or dead? Or are they just puppets?" "Unclear, but the stone statues are exceedingly powerful and possess intellect." "..." Su Yu stroked his chin. Possessed intellect... possessed intellect... Had he courted death once before? Back in Tianmie Ancient City, he had actually hammered that stone statue! Was that statue alive or dead? During the battle against the Invincibles this time, Su Yu had felt a bit horrified. He hadn't seen much, nor had he seen the stone statue strike, but he had heard a voice. It seemed the stone statue in the city had spoken. Now that was terrifying! If that was the case, the stone statue in Tianmie Ancient City might also be alive, exceptionally strong, capable of fighting Invincibles... and he had beaten that statue up and even taken many benefits. In that case, the person who gave him the shuttle talisman last time might not have been some ancient mechanism, but the stone statue itself! The stone statue with a tail! How terrifying! He had beaten it so badly, yet it still gave him benefits. What was the deal with those stone statues? If it were Su Yu, someone who beat him would only get benefits if they were his son or grandson... Otherwise, he would beat them to death! Xuan Jiu knew no more. Su Yu gave him a glance, and Xuan Jiu spoke again. "Furthermore, the pavilion's elders invite you to become a member of the Heaven Hunting Pavilion, replacing me as the new branch head stationed in Xinghong Ancient City..." Su Yu smiled faintly. "Are there benefits?" "Yes!" Xuan Jiu answered candidly, "Take me, for instance. Every year, I can receive resources worth around thirty thousand human merit points from the Heaven Hunting Pavilion—anything I want! Additionally, the Heaven Hunting Pavilion evaluates performance. If the branch performs well, one can take a tenth of a percent of the total revenue as a commission. Over a year, under normal circumstances, a branch's revenue exceeds ten million merit points at minimum, so each year I can receive resources worth nearly fifty thousand merit points." "That is the material compensation. Furthermore, we can learn powerful cultivation techniques, obtain higher clearance levels, acquire top-secret intelligence, and receive protection from the Heaven Hunting Pavilion..." "Protection?" Su Yu laughed despite himself. "What protection do you offer? When your people are killed, I haven't seen the Heaven Hunting Pavilion protecting you." Xuan Jiu shook his head. "You misunderstand, my lord. In truth, the Heaven Hunting Pavilion does provide us with protection! It's just that... it depends on equivalent value! For a genius like you, the Heaven Hunting Pavilion would provide tremendous protection. For example, last time on the Desire Sea Plain, a member received protection from an Invincible, who personally stepped in to escort him away." Su Yu recalled that incident; that did seem to be the case. Raising his brows slightly, he asked, "How are the specific departments, positions, and ranks of the Heaven Hunting Pavilion divided?" "You haven't had much contact with the Heaven Hunting Pavilion, my lord, or you would have known long ago. The Heaven Hunting Pavilion consists of the Four Departments of Heaven Hunting, the East and West Pavilions, and the South and North Towers. The Four Departments are responsible for gathering intelligence and conducting external transactions. The four departments form a unified whole, but are divided into Tian, Di, Xuan, and Huang, representing different levels of strength and status, similar to the Four Heaven Hunting Rankings." "The East and West Pavilions are responsible for exploring ancient secrets, infiltrating various realms, disguising identities..." "The South and North Towers are responsible for assassinations, rescues, and protection..." The division of labor was fairly clear. The South and North Towers were the assassination division, as well as rescue and protection—essentially a formidable security branch. The East and West Pavilions were responsible for unearthing top-secret information, while the Four Departments operated primarily across the All-Heavens Battlefield. Su Yu roughly understood. "Additionally, beneath the Pavilion Masters, Tower Masters, and Department Heads, there are Elders. Only those in the late stage of the Sun Moon Realm qualify as Elders." "Below the Elders, there are several grades: First-grade White Masks, Second-grade Black Masks, Third-grade Colored Masks, and Fourth-grade Half Masks." "Hold on!" Su Yu said in surprise, "Aside from white masks, there are other masked people?" Damn it, he had only ever seen white masks! Xuan Jiu said in a low voice, "You are different, my lord. From the moment you emerged, you rapidly fought your way onto the Heaven Ranking, so those who interacted with you were all First-grade White Masks. That includes me as well; as a branch head, I am also a White Mask." In other words, from the very beginning, Su Yu had been interacting with the upper echelons. The upper echelons of the Heaven Hunting Pavilion. He had never seen the other masked members because their ranks were too low. Those responsible for liaising with Su Yu were all powerful experts, White Masks of relatively high standing. Su Yu nodded. He now had a decent grasp of their structure. He asked again, "Why didn't you run? If you ran, took off your mask in the ancient city, I wouldn't have known you were from the Heaven Hunting Pavilion. You're a resident, and I'm not crazy enough to slaughter every single resident." Xuan Jiu lowered his head. "I represent the Heaven Hunting Pavilion's sincerity. Furthermore... the recent sealing of the city caused my death qi conversion to accelerate. I can barely hold out much longer. Fleeing would only lead to death anyway, so I might as well act as your introducer, inviting you to join the Heaven Hunting Pavilion!" "I'm a dying man as well. What use is there in inviting me?" Su Yu smiled. "How about the two of us fight? See if you can kill me. If you kill me, maybe the Heaven Hunting Pavilion will save you..." "You jest, my lord." Su Yu shook his head. "I'm not joking. I dislike enemies pretending to act cowardly and offering themselves up to die before me; it's meaningless! The Heaven Hunting Pavilion... has betrayed me before. Therefore, I don't trust the Heaven Hunting Pavilion, nor do I wish to deal with you. How about this: let me witness the strength of the Heaven Hunting Pavilion's experts. If your seventh-layer Shanhai cultivation is strong enough to defeat me, I'll consider joining. How does that sound?" He wanted to test his combat power. At this moment, Su Yu had closed the entrance to the Heaven Hunting Pavilion, so he wasn't worried about this fellow selling him out and exposing his location. It didn't matter; at worst, he would simply enter seclusion in this old house. If someone sold him out now, the only one who could come to kill him was Hei Mo. Hei Mo was welcome to wait outside! Yet Xuan Jiu made no move to fight, speaking again. "I cannot kill you, my lord. You must be very strong..." Though he said that, in his heart he felt that if they truly fought, Su Yu might not be able to kill him. He was at the seventh layer of the Shanhai Realm! Su Yu had killed Sun Moons, but the Heaven Hunting Pavilion knew that his killing of Sun Moons came from detonating Ye Batian's divine character, not Su Yu's own true ability. Su Yu being able to kill a second- or third-layer Shanhai was already impressive. At absolute best, he could only trade blows with a mid-stage Shanhai. Su Yu laughed. "Won't even try? If you kill me, I have treasures worth six to seven thousand strands of Heaven and Earth Profound Light on me. Even Invincibles would be tempted. Now that the door is shut and it's just you and me in the room, if you kill me, no one will ever know. The city is sealed; you can just say you never encountered me, and that'll be that, won't it?" Xuan Jiu shook slightly. "I'm not on the ranking anymore, and no one knows whether I'm alive or dead, do they? If I truly die, you can just say I succumbed to death qi corrosion. Who would know you did it?" Su Yu continued smiling, looking at Xuan Jiu. Xuan Jiu's attitude of resignation, letting himself be killed, bored Su Yu. Many people killed members of the Heaven Hunting Pavilion; the organization wasn't benevolent, and the South and North Towers also accepted assassination contracts. They had also sold intelligence on Su Yu, which was a crime in itself. Yet having a guy show up who passively resigned himself to death... that wasn't what Su Yu wanted to see. It held little value. Now, as Su Yu spoke these words, Xuan Jiu raised his head, his tone growing somewhat hurried. "My lord... please do not deliberately provoke me like this. I fear I might not be able to resist. Such temptation is far too great!" Treasures worth several thousand strands of Heaven and Earth Profound Light! It truly was overwhelmingly tempting! Killing Su Yu might grant him a chance to survive, delay the spread of death qi, allow him to force a breakthrough, and let him live on... Thought after thought flashed through Xuan Jiu's mind. Su Yu looked at him, feeling quite surprised. A person on the brink of death was still remaining loyal to the Heaven Hunting Pavilion. What kind of magic did the pavilion hold to make someone walk willingly to their death? Was an organization that only cared about profit worth dying for? "What benefits did the Heaven Hunting Pavilion give you to let yourself be killed by me? No matter how many benefits they offer, they're useless once you're dead. Could it be that they've taken your family hostage?" "No, I have no family!" Xuan Jiu said in a low voice, "All of this is of my own free will!" "Of your own free will?" "Indeed!" Xuan Jiu took a deep breath. "Of my own free will, because the Heaven Hunting Pavilion is our home. How do you think we members are recruited? Are we the chosen geniuses of the myriad realms? No, we are all abandoned beings! Some of us come from small realms, or carry deep-seated blood feuds, or were begging on the streets on the verge of freezing or starving to death, or were fighting to survive on the All-Heavens Battlefield only to almost perish..." "We had no backing, no background. Sometimes even getting a bite to eat was difficult. It was the Heaven Hunting Pavilion that gave us an opportunity, gave us life!" "They allowed us to seek vengeance, to witness a more magnificent world, a grander and more majestic myriad realms, to stand alongside heaven's chosen, to behold the majesty of Invincibles... All of this was bestowed upon us by the Heaven Hunting Pavilion!" Su Yu understood. So that was it! That was where the members of the Heaven Hunting Pavilion originally came from. The next moment, Xuan Jiu said in a low voice, "Lord Su, join the Heaven Hunting Pavilion. You will not regret it. The Heaven Hunting Pavilion might be able to save you!" Right then, he removed his white mask. Revealing the pale face beneath! He wasn't human, nor of any race Su Yu recognized. His face bore no prominent racial traits, except for his eyes, which were somewhat peculiar, carrying a faint fiery glow. "I come from the Fire Pupil race!" Xuan Jiu looked at Su Yu, holding the white mask in both hands. "Put on this mask, my lord, and from this moment on, you will be Xuan Jiu of the Heaven Hunting Pavilion! This mask prevents anyone below the Invincible Realm from probing your appearance, conceals your aura, and allows communication with the Heaven Hunting Pavilion... Paired with your own arts of aura concealment and shape-shifting, even Quasi-Invincibles will be unable to see through you! If you can become an Elder one day and don an Elder's mask, not even Invincibles will be able to discern your identity..." Su Yu's mind stirred slightly. "Can this be snatched at will?" "No!" "If the person lives, the mask remains; if the person dies, the mask shatters! Of course, it can be voluntarily gifted to you, my lord. The Heaven Hunting Pavilion has a record on file, so the pavilion will know your identity, but others will not!" The Heaven Hunting Pavilion truly had a lot of good stuff! Su Yu mused to himself. He indeed couldn't see through this white mask. The masked figures he had encountered before would be unrecognizable to him if he met them again now; they all seemed the same unless they announced their names. And this was merely a white mask. What about an Elder's mask? No wonder the Heaven Hunting Pavilion was so mysterious! Perhaps these fellows all held other identities in reality, but once they wore their masks, no one could tell who was who. For the Elders, not even Invincibles could see through their appearances and identities, which was terrifying. Perhaps some among them were even experts of the Human race. Today had granted Su Yu a deeper understanding of this organization known as the Heaven Hunting Pavilion—mysterious, powerful, and crucially, possessing the Heaven Hunting Ranking. That thing was what made them truly frightening. Xuan Jiu looked at Su Yu, a flicker of struggle appearing in his eyes. He had indeed been tempted! He truly had wanted to kill Su Yu! To fight for a slim chance of survival for himself... Yet, thinking of the Heaven Hunting Pavilion, he ultimately let out a sigh and spoke. "My lord... you are a good person!" "Huh?" Su Yu was taken aback, genuinely stunned. He had actually been handed a good-person card? What the hell, unbelievable! He had actually been called a good person? How many people had he killed? How many experts had died because of him? He was practically considered a fiend at this point, yet someone was calling him a good person—and a member of the Heaven Hunting Pavilion, no less! Xuan Jiu smiled, death qi beginning to emanate from his body. He sighed, "Seeing me yield without resistance, you were unwilling to strike, my lord. Perhaps... this is the pride of a genius. Or perhaps, deep down, you are still kind-hearted... I still hope you can accept this mask, my lord, and take up the name of Xuan Jiu. The Heaven Hunting Pavilion might be able to bring you a glimmer of hope to purge the death qi..." With those words, death qi corroded his entire body. He no longer suppressed it, no longer controlled it, letting the death qi consume him completely. He sighed, "Lord Su, this is the fate of being corroded by death qi, the fate of total conversion. The Heaven Hunting Pavilion is utterly sincere, genuinely inviting you to join and become one of us. Aren't you... also spurned by the Human race? In that case, why not join the Heaven Hunting Pavilion..." Su Yu said calmly, "My apologies, but neither side is in any position to criticize the other. The Heaven Hunting Pavilion is hardly made of saints either. What's the point of saying all this?" "True enough!" Xuan Jiu was completely consumed by death qi. Su Yu did not intervene. Xuan Jiu gasped for breath once more and said, "Then I still hope you can take the sub-ranking, my lord. This is my final mission. My life was saved by the Heaven Hunting Pavilion, and in the end, I die carrying out a mission. I have no regrets... I only beg of you to help me once, to complete my final mission. "All... all I can do for you, my lord, is demonstrate the outcome of being completely corroded by death qi..." Boom! A muffled roar echoed, and the next moment, Su Yu heard the sound of a sea of will collapsing. Xuan Jiu was dead! Su Yu didn't entirely understand his persistence. Of course, Xuan Jiu had already been on the verge of death; Su Yu could see that much. He just didn't understand why the man insisted on having him take the sub-ranking. What use was there in it? At that moment, changes occurred within the old house. Xuan Jiu was entirely engulfed by death qi! Inside the old house, death qi billowed as immense quantities surged continuously into Xuan Jiu's body. Xuan Jiu's flesh gradually turned black, his clothes corroded away into nothingness, and in the blink of an eye, Xuan Jiu became a corpse radiating dense death qi. After another moment, even Xuan Jiu's facial features were corroded beyond recognition. A short while later, Xuan Jiu suddenly stood up. At this moment, he had become a dead spirit! Su Yu was thoroughly astonished! Abruptly, Xuan Jiu walked toward the doorway, pushed the door open, and stepped outside. Outside, a dead spirit at the peak of the Shanhai Realm stared blankly at Xuan Jiu. The next instant, it led Xuan Jiu away, vanishing from the street in a flash. That was the dead spirit guiding him! Su Yu's mind stirred. Leaving the door wide open and disregarding the white mask and sub-ranking for the moment, he swiftly gave chase. The appearance and disappearance of dead spirits were always peculiar, often appearing and vanishing in an instant. Of course, Su Yu knew that those at or above the Sun Moon Realm emerged from the Castellan Manor. Dead spirits seemed to be divided into ancient dead spirits and modern dead spirits, representing two different systems. Su Yu tracked them swiftly for a distance, his eyes narrowing slightly. Xuan Jiu and that Shanhai dead spirit had completely vanished, not by traveling elsewhere, but by disappearing into the ground. Underground? Su Yu's thoughts raced. One couldn't perform earth-fleeing techniques in the ancient city, nor was there any way to burrow. Could it be that these dead spirits actually resided underground? So they could appear at any time? Xuan Jiu had entered the underground instead of the Castellan Manor. What did that signify? Did it mean Xuan Jiu hadn't reached the Dead Spirit Realm, but remained within the ancient city? Could residents who died nowadays only move about beneath the ancient city? One question after another surfaced in his mind. Just then, a flash of light flickered, and the next moment, the little fur ball appeared in Su Yu's sea of will. Su Yu was speechless, sending a voice transmission, "How did you find me?" "Smelly, but with a bit of fragrance—that has to be you!" Those were the little fur ball's words. Even though Su Yu was currently disguised as a dead spirit, he hadn't managed to fool this little fellow, because it didn't track Su Yu by appearance or aura, but by sensation—a fragrant sensation! Even though Su Yu smelled foul right now, it was a foulness laced with fragrance. Su Yu was rendered speechless! A dog's nose wasn't even as sharp as yours! "Where are the items?" As soon as Su Yu asked, the little fur ball spat out a storage ring for him, quickly explaining, "They shortchanged you and didn't give that many treasures. I was very angry, but I couldn't beat them, and then they ran away..." Su Yu stared blankly. *Do you really think I'll believe that?* He opened the storage ring and inspected it. The 1,200 strands of Heaven and Earth Profound Light were not missing, nor were the 800 drops of Sun Moon Xuanhuang Liquid... When Bai Yi made his announcements, Su Yu had been listening. The Ancient Dragon Blood Tree was there, as were the 200 drops of Sun Moon vital blood. The only thing missing was from the Fiend God Fruits Bai Yi had mentioned... There were only 4! There were supposed to be 5 in total! And they weren't cheap; they were exceedingly expensive. Five fruits were valued at 300 strands of Heaven and Earth Profound Light—60 strands per fruit. In other words, one had to kill six early-stage Sun Moons and extract their vital blood just to trade for a single fruit! Even if Su Yu didn't know their exact purpose, he knew they were supreme treasures. Now, one fruit was missing! "A fruit is missing!" "I can't count. Maybe they tricked me!" The little fur ball looked thoroughly aggrieved! It put on an indignant display. "They bullied me because I don't know how to count!" Su Yu remained silent. *You don't know how to count?* *Who are you trying to fool!* When counting divine characters, it counted with supreme precision. His twenty-five divine characters had been counted by it countless times. Did it think he didn't know? He couldn't be bothered to say more. Forget it, if it ate it, it ate it. With this, the resources currently in Su Yu's possession were frighteningly abundant. 1,380 strands of Heaven and Earth Profound Light, 1,100 drops of Sun Moon Xuanhuang Liquid, 50 Five Elements Spirit Fruits, 4 Fiend God Fruits, one Dragon Blood Fruit Tree, along with 470 drops of Sun Moon vital blood and several Heaven Blood Fruits... In addition, there were 9 drops of eighth-layer Sun Moon vital blood! With such wealth, most Invincibles... no, almost no Invincible of the Human race could produce this much; their accumulation history was far too brief! Of the 470 drops of first-layer Sun Moon vital blood, 270 drops had come from the previous auction deposits. The Zhu and Qin families from the human side had both paid up; Su Yu had handed over their hostages, but hadn't returned their vital blood. Without counting, he hadn't realized, but tallying it up, Su Yu discovered he was truly rich! Moreover, he had 7 texts of will from Invincibles! Along with plenty of Shanhai vital blood, which he intended to use to extract Heaven Yuan Qi. "Let's head back to the Heaven Hunting Pavilion to see..." He returned swiftly, arriving back at the previous Heaven Hunting Pavilion branch. At this moment, only three items remained. A sub-ranking, an illustrated catalog recording various items, and a white mask. Xuan Jiu was already dead, instantly transformed into a dead spirit by the old house and guided away by another dead spirit. This was the first time Su Yu had witnessed a person being transformed into a dead spirit, and many thoughts and reflections welled up in his mind. Picking up the mask, Su Yu fell into contemplation. After a long while, Su Yu placed the mask over his face. Perhaps... he could make use of it. Yet an unprompted thought suddenly arose: Was this mask clean? Had Xuan Jiu spat on it every day or something? Should he take it off and disinfect it or something? Putting on a mask used by someone else right after they died... wasn't that a little improper? All sorts of bizarre thoughts surged in his mind.