Drain, Drain, Drain

Xia Longwu had broken through to the Dao, and Xia Xiao'er had sprung forth with a bloodline transposition—something no one had anticipated. Nor had anyone imagined that Marquis Xia possessed such a technique. Evidently, it was no spur-of-the-moment whim. He had planned it long ago! Wan Tiansheng once said that Ye Batian's lineage valued sentimental bonds above all, starting from Ye Batian himself. No, he had deliberately overlooked one person: himself. Himself, Xia Longwu, Marquis Xia, Liu Wenyan, Hong Tan... All of them were the multiple divine character practitioners of those one or two generations. Xia Longwu was his student, and Marquis Xia could be considered half a student of Ye Batian. At this moment, Marquis Xia's physical body shattered, and his sea of will began to crumble. Carrying his final unwillingness and despair, he harbored only the single wish that his nephew would succeed. He cursed Liu Wenyan under his breath! Yet right at that instant, amidst his daze, he seemed to actually catch sight of Liu Wenyan—that insufferable pest, that bastard. *Even in death, you won't let me die in peace?* "Junior Brother..." A sigh resonated within Marquis Xia's consciousness. "Master left you nothing. I'll make the call: his final divine character goes to you..." At that exact instant, a heaven-spanning River of Time materialized. Coughing up blood, Wan Tiansheng stepped out of the river. He looked into the distance toward Xia Longwu and smiled. *Let me indulge my willful impulse just this once!* *You are, after all, my student.* *After today, there will be no Wan Tiansheng, no Ye Batian, no multiple divine character faction.* The very last divine character Ye Batian had left behind in this mortal world detonated with a thunderous roar! This was the final divine character of Ye Batian that Liu Wenyan possessed. He had detonated all the previous ones, keeping only this single character that allowed him to contend with quasi-Invincibles—and it was Ye Batian's core divine character. Now, this divine character exploded with a catastrophic boom! The River of Time surged into reality as Wan Tiansheng pulled Liu Wenyan along, emerging from the depths of time. Originally, they had come to support Xia Longwu. Yet unexpectedly, at the crucial juncture, the one in peril had become Marquis Xia. Guiding the remnants of the sea of will, Wan Tiansheng stepped toward the River of Time. As the River of Time interfered with the present, it immediately began to tremble and fracture into destruction. The Demon race Half-Emperor had once walked out of the River of Time to retrieve Lade. He was a Half-Emperor! Wan Tiansheng was not. Yet at this moment, Wan Tiansheng had stepped out, coughing up blood continuously. And the instant Liu Wenyan detonated Ye Batian's core divine character, the shockwave rippled out in all directions, momentarily stalling the Invincibles. Coughing blood as well, Liu Wenyan laughed. "Xia Longwu is about to succeed! Why waste time killing us? Go kill Xia Longwu..." At the final moment, these experts of the multiple divine character faction had arrived. Wan Tiansheng, who had turned into a demon, could not abandon his student. Liu Wenyan, left with that single core character of Ye Batian, could not abandon the reticent Xia Longwu either. He owed Xia Longwu, and he owed the Xia family; had it not been for them, Xia Longwu would never have needed to carve out a persona of slaughter without equal. And so, they had come. Wan Tiansheng had warned Su Yu not to mount a rescue. Yet he himself had come! Because this was his student, his disciple. Even knowing full well that once he came, escaping would be nearly impossible, he came anyway. He had merely never anticipated that through this bizarre twist of fate, the one saved would not be Xia Longwu, but this frivolous, unreliable marquis. The Invincibles needed no reminding. Over a dozen of them tore through the air toward that direction. Yet their hatred toward Wan Tiansheng, Liu Wenyan, and Xia Xiao'er ran just as deep—they deserved to die, ought to be killed, had to be eradicated! Multiple divine characters! It was this lineage once again! Marquis Xia was from it, Xia Longwu was from it, Liu Wenyan was from it, Wan Tiansheng was from it, and Su Yu was from it too! Hardly anyone was left in this lineage. Not a single Invincible remained among them. Yet right now, this very lineage had repeatedly sabotaged their grand plans and ruined their golden opportunities! This lineage deserved to be slaughtered across all the heavens! Wan Tiansheng's River of Time was shattered and severed by several Invincibles. His physical body began to fissure with cracks. He cultivated neither the past nor the future; once this body died, it meant utter demise. Wan Tiansheng, however, appeared tranquil and composed. He had told Su Yu not to be foolish and not to expose his life-saving trump cards, yet he himself had laid bare his own River of Time—a mighty River of Time piercing through the heavens. And Liu Wenyan had come as well, offering up his most precious final divine character inherited from his master. From this day forth, everything Ye Batian had left in this mortal realm would dissipate into smoke. There would be no more Ye Batian! The grievances and debts of fifty years ago, the conspiracies of fifty years ago, and everything entangled right down to the present day ought to come to an end. It began with Ye Batian; let it end with Ye Batian. At this moment, these two powerhouses of the multiple divine character faction surrendered their final possessions: the River of Time and that divine character. Originally, these were meant for Xia Longwu. Clutching Marquis Xia's sea of will, Liu Wenyan let out a sigh. "Why did it have to be you, fatso? You're not worth it..." He spoke with lingering emotion and sorrow. *Damn fatso, who would have thought?* *You actually had another trick up your sleeve!* With the River of Time severed, their retreat was cut off. Wan Tiansheng remained calm and composed, but on the outer periphery, someone was screaming hysterically. "You lied to me! You lied to me! You said we would roam all the mountains and rivers together... You lied to me..." Wan Tiansheng looked toward the distance and smiled. Lan Tian, that fellow, was growing crazier by the second. Coming here with Liu Wenyan was nothing short of a suicide mission. They had saved Marquis Xia, but they had merely delayed the inevitable by a few breaths while throwing two more lives into the bargain. If Su Yu had done this, Wan Tiansheng would have scolded him without mercy. *Idiot!* Yet humans were simply like that: I can lecture you, I can instruct you, and you must obey me... and yet, I can still go ahead and do it myself. Utterly contradictory! Wan Tiansheng had taught countless people, preaching that the greatest taboo in battles across the All-Heavens Battlefield was precisely this: when your friends or kin were dying in battle or surrounded, you had to retreat, you had to run! Preserve your life for future purpose, and seek your vengeance later! Do not act like a fool, wailing and charging blindly toward death—that was sheer idiocy! He had cursed so many people as morons! Knowing full well it was certain death, charging in only added another head to the tally, so why throw your life away? So what if your friend died? So what if your kin died? Get revenge later! He had taught students for an entire lifetime, yet in the end, he was the one who could not let go. What had he come here to do? To die? Was it not merely one student? Xia Longwu had escaped; the current Xia Xiao'er was not even his student, so why intervene? Let him die! And yet... he had still intervened. The multiple divine character faction valued emotional bonds far too much—a fatal flaw, a colossal defect. He knew this, yet he could not change it. That was why he told Su Yu, the hope of their faction: *Do not do this. We have been wrong our entire lives; do not repeat our mistakes, because everyone knows your weakness and will exploit it against you.* Yet here he was. Wan Tiansheng chuckled and glanced at Liu Wenyan. Liu Wenyan was equally serene. Without Ye Batian's divine character, he was merely at the third level of the Sun Moon Realm. At this moment, crushed by the suppressive aura of the Invincibles, his flesh and blood were fracturing, yet he held firmly onto the orb that was Marquis Xia's sea of will. Fifty years of lying low had yielded nothing, and dying like this seemed hardly worth it, but none of that mattered anymore. He looked down and caught sight of Su Yu. Su Yu was looking up at them as well. The instant Marquis Xia appeared, Su Yu had seen it all—Marquis Xia's body exploding, his sea of will on the verge of collapse. He was shocked. He was astonished to see Wan Tiansheng, astonished to see Liu Wenyan. Su Yu smiled! And as he smiled, tears fell. He truly wept—not for Marquis Xia, but for these two idiots. *Why doesn't anything you taught me apply to yourselves?* *You said not to throw our lives away, not to act like a mantis trying to stop a chariot, not to die pointlessly. You said even if our fathers were killed right before our eyes, we should turn and run! Is Xia Xiao'er your father?* *If not, why the hell did you step in?* At that moment, an ancient city descended between them. Su Yu was not counting on the stone statue to intervene. The statue had to abide by the rules. But when it came to rules... Su Yu was intimately familiar with them. With a furious roar, he instantly hammered an ancient city resident—a late-stage Sun Moon Realm cultivator who had been converted during the last incident—into obliteration! It was the Sun Moon expert from the Nether race, the son of the Nether River King. *Your father is already dead, so why should I keep you around?* *To wait for you to take revenge on me?* With a late-stage Sun Moon cultivator slain, in the blink of an eye, a figure emerged from the ancient city—no, a dead spirit, Monarch Xingyue. She looked toward Su Yu, her gaze chillingly cold. Su Yu had slaughtered a resident at the late Sun Moon Realm. According to the ancient rules, she, as a dead spirit monarch, had to manifest. Killing an ordinary Sun Moon cultivator might summon a quasi-Invincible dead spirit, but executing a late-stage Sun Moon ancient city resident guaranteed her personal appearance. Yet did this fellow actually think she would help him block those Invincibles? You were the one who killed someone; according to the rules, the one who should be executed was you! "Enter the city!" Su Yu bellowed furiously! He knew that under normal circumstances, those two would never enter, because entering would place Su Yu in grave peril. The stone statue cared about rules! The rules dictated that even if Invincibles entered the city, nothing would happen as long as they refrained from killing anyone. Even if they did kill a few, only corresponding dead spirits would manifest. Su Yu was somewhat special and difficult to kill, but that did not mean he was unkillable. And now that the dead spirit monarch had appeared, according to the ancient city's laws, she had to execute Su Yu. Wan Tiansheng let out a heavy sigh. *What reckless folly!* If they did not enter, this dead spirit monarch would target Su Yu... could Su Yu withstand her? If they did enter, those Invincibles would inevitably force their way into the city as well. The stone statue would not violate the rules. Wan Tiansheng tasted bitterness. *Fools! Everyone in the multiple divine character faction is this kind of fool! It's a miracle we haven't gone extinct already!* A bunch of utter fools! Yet in this world, there would always be such a group of fools, wouldn't there? If not for that... why would he himself have lingered in nostalgia? The multiple divine character faction... deserved to fall! How could such a faction avoid ruin? Kill one of them, and a whole swarm rushed in to die alongside them; all his teachings had gone to waste. Wan Tiansheng smiled wryly, and Liu Wenyan looked just as helpless. Dragging Liu Wenyan along, Wan Tiansheng swung his sword. His arm blew apart from the backlash, and they plummeted straight into the ancient city. The dead spirit monarch manifested. Xingyue looked coldly at the group, then shifted her gaze to Su Yu. *Did you truly believe I wouldn't kill you?* *You violated the rules yourself!* Before, when Su Yu killed people and slaughtered dead spirits, he had survived not because he was unkillable, but because she felt that once Su Yu reached the Sun Moon Realm, converting him into a dead spirit might prove far more advantageous. Now that Su Yu was actively seeking death, she would gladly oblige him. In any case, with his current strength, he was already capable of battling Sun Moon cultivators. She might as well take this opportunity to finish him off. It would save a world of trouble! Lately, being drained of death qi by Su Yu had annoyed her to no end. Like a leech, he sucked qi from morning to night. How was she supposed to attend to anything else? The dead spirit realm had its own share of turmoil. At this moment, Xingyue struck. Up in the void, the Invincibles all began to sneer. Xia Longwu had slipped away, which infuriated them, but this was buy one, get three free! Su Yu, Wan Tiansheng, Liu Wenyan, and even Xia Xiao'er thrown in for good measure... this entire faction was an absolute joke. Truth be told, was there much difference between killing Xia Longwu and killing Wan Tiansheng? No matter how formidable Xia Longwu was, he had never slain an Invincible. Wan Tiansheng had butchered two! Su Yu was the castellan of an ancient city! Liu Wenyan was Ye Batian's successor and held Ye Batian's divine characters. The combined weight of these individuals surpassed Xia Longwu. And now, without expending the slightest effort, they could wipe out the entire lot. Su Yu, this castellan, had courted his own doom by summoning an Invincible-tier dead spirit. The Invincibles did not enter the city. Instead, they watched as Xingyue brought a colossal palm crashing down toward the battered, crippled group. At this moment, the castellans of the surrounding ancient cities shook their heads and retreated back inside their domains. This Su Yu... this multiple divine character faction... were all out of their minds. At a critical juncture like this, every survivor was a victory. Yet they were lining up to deliver their heads! Wan Tiansheng and Liu Wenyan turned helpless gazes toward Su Yu. Did you summon us in here just so we could all get flattened by a palm together and keep each other company on the road to the underworld? Of course not! Xingyue was a dead spirit monarch; fighting her head-on was impossible. However, I know the rules. I understand how the rules work! "Into the house..." Xingyue could breach houses; Su Yu knew this. But it didn't matter. In that split second, he reversed his origin apertures and reversed his yang aperture, instantly dissolving a vast surge of death qi. In the blink of an eye, he inverted back into a dead spirit, devouring a tremendous torrent of death qi once more! All of it belonged to Xingyue! Xingyue was Su Yu's converter; she had to sustain the death qi inside Su Yu and keep it suppressed. It was a bidirectional link. The moment Su Yu reversed and dissolved it, the palm of death qi she was slamming down instantly weakened. Su Yu bellowed, reversing, reversing, and reversing again! Dissolving, dissolving, and dissolving again! By the time the palm of death qi slammed down... Wan Tiansheng met it with a strike and actually shattered it to pieces. In that instant, heaven and earth went dead silent. Su Yu stared at Xingyue, and Xingyue stared back at him. When a fellow possessing the combat strength of an eighth-tier Sun Moon cultivator rapidly reversed seven or eight times within an instant, draining your death qi seven or eight times—on top of having leeched off you continuously for days—are you certain you still possess the full strength to swat a powerhouse like Wan Tiansheng to death? Even a heavily crippled one! Xingyue felt as though her mind had frozen! She realized an extraordinarily severe problem—one so grave it defied description! Su Yu's speed in reversing death qi was vastly faster than she had imagined. Incredibly fast! If Su Yu did not die... should she ever be waging war in the dead spirit realm and this fellow reversed several dozen times while she was facing a formidable enemy, Su Yu might survive, but she would be utterly doomed. A look of deathly resolve flashed in Xingyue's eyes! Su Yu had to die. He absolutely must die! He had become a catastrophic threat! Meanwhile, the ancient city was now sealed. The Invincibles outside were momentarily stunned. They looked down at Su Yu, then at Wan Tiansheng piercing right through Xingyue's palm of death qi. An Invincible dead spirit—so weak? It defied belief! How could that be! An Invincible dead spirit was undeniably terrifying; a single palm strike should have left the severely wounded Wan Tiansheng dead or completely crippled. Yet now, there was hardly any power behind it. It was casually popped by Wan Tiansheng. Even Wan Tiansheng was left bewildered. What was going on? The death qi channel existed in the ethereal void; it possessed no physical form. They could not see it. All they saw was Su Yu roaring repeatedly, turning into a living man one second and a dead spirit the next, alternating seven or eight times in rapid succession... and then nothing else! Su Yu was overjoyed. It truly worked. Yes, these were the rules! *Xingyue converted me, but by the same token, I am restricting her!* "Into the house!" Su Yu growled, constantly reversing, crazily inverting his apertures. Had he been alone, Xingyue could have annihilated him while he was busy reversing. But he was not alone! He had a half-crippled Wan Tiansheng beside him. At his peak, Wan Tiansheng would not have feared Xingyue in the slightest. Even half-crippled, he was more than capable of fending off a Xingyue whose death qi was being violently and repeatedly depleted by Su Yu. Su Yu roared with laughter! Indeed, it really worked. Death qi was continuously drained, reversed, absorbed, depleted, and dissolved by him... Xingyue's eyes grew colder and colder! She could clearly feel her strength plummeting. *Damn it!* *This bastard!* She was furious! …… In the rear hall of the castellan manor. The stone statue was also momentarily taken aback. *You can actually play it like this?* *Is he planning to play Xingyue until she's utterly crippled?* Just moments ago, he had been agonizing over whether to intervene. Xingyue was about to swat them to death, which was dictated by the rules—ancient rules that he was not supposed to breach. He had been deeply hesitant! Yet when Su Yu pulled off this absurd display with death qi and collaborated with Wan Tiansheng to drive Xingyue to the brink of collapse, Xinghong was dumbfounded. *If Xingyue really gets played to death... won't that cause trouble?* *Won't it destabilize the ancient city?* Yet this, too, adhered to the rules. He had to uphold the rules; all guardians had to obey them. So now... what should he do? Just ignore it? The ancient city had sealed itself. This time, it wasn't Su Yu's doing; Xingyue's manifestation automatically triggered the lockdown according to the ancient rules. Outside, the cluster of Invincibles looked on in sheer bewilderment, their brows furrowed as they glared like predators. The rules! The ancient city could not be breached. Breaching it meant violating the ancient city's laws. Earlier, had Su Yu stepped out of the city or attacked them, killing him would have been entirely justifiable. But what now? Xinghong looked toward Su Yu. After a long moment, he finally grasped what Su Yu intended. Indeed, Su Yu was playing by the rules. The one he was currently dealing with was Xingyue, and all of this remained within the bounds of the rules. If those Invincibles outside attempted to force the city open, Xinghong wouldn't even need to intervene—a massive swarm of Invincible dead spirits would manifest to deal with them. Of course, Xinghong could also intervene at that point, which would equally conform to the rules. When it came to initiating trouble, the stone statue had no desire to help Su Yu cross that line. However, if the Invincibles assaulted the city... there would be no need to hold back. At that time, whether he helped Su Yu or not wouldn't matter, because an equal number of Invincible dead spirits would emerge to slaughter those Invincibles. The castellans of the other cities watched the scene in utter shock. Truly, a dead spirit monarch was being played to ruin by Su Yu. They couldn't quite fathom the underlying mechanics. All they could see was that dead spirit monarch glaring viciously at Su Yu, her death qi erupting in fury only to be effortlessly blocked by Wan Tiansheng. And Wan Tiansheng was looking at Su Yu with disbelief. *Damn it!* *What kind of situation is this?* *Are dead spirit monarchs this weak?* No, he slowly caught on. She was being drained by Su Yu! This fellow was frantically absorbing Xingyue's death qi. At this point, Su Yu couldn't care less about anything else. *Drain! I drain! I'll drain you madly!* *I reverse, reverse again, and keep reversing!* *I will drag Xingyue down with me!* *You want to hit me? If you fail to kill me within three days, you'll have to leave. Forget three days—maybe I'll beat you to death today! Of course, that's assuming that killing Xingyue won't summon an even more terrifying dead spirit.* *Forget it, I can't kill Xingyue.* *If she dies and another dead spirit monarch appears, that will be real trouble; I don't have an established channel with any other dead spirit monarch.* He yelled, "Prefect, don't kill her! Just stall her!" Xingyue: "..." Wan Tiansheng: "..." *Are you serious?* A dead spirit monarch had manifested to slaughter a few half-crippled cultivators, and now, Su Yu was shouting not to beat her to death lest it cause trouble. The situation instantly turned bizarre. The Invincibles outside were suddenly at a loss. What should they do? Forcefully breach the city? In the past, they would have done it without hesitation—shattering the city from the outside. The dead spirits couldn't leave, and the people inside would be doomed! However, ever since Xinghong ventured out and pulverized the three incarnations of numerous Invincibles with a single punch, the Invincibles harbored deep dread. If they attacked the city from outside and provoked that monster into emerging—or worse, summoned dozens of ancient Invincible stone statues—what then? The dozen or so Invincibles present wouldn't even be enough for him to warm up on. A portion of their forces had already gone to hunt down Xia Longwu. Right as they hesitated, a roar filled with boundless wrath resonated across the world from afar. "Second Uncle, I will make all the myriad races accompany you in death!" Radiant auroras illuminated the All-Heavens Battlefield! When Zhou Polong broke through to the Dao, there was only an aurora. The same went for Zhou Potian and Qin Zhen—the auroras merely swept across several thousand li, an omen of heaven and earth witnessing their ascension to the Invincible Realm. Yet at this moment, Xia Longwu achieved the Dao. The aurora illuminated several thousand li—spreading to over ten thousand li! Not only that, but vast clouds coalesced in the void, showering immense quantities of Heaven Yuan Qi to forge Xia Longwu's physical body, while copious drops of Sun Moon Xuanhuang Liquid tempered and fortified his apertures. More than that, at this very moment, blood-red clouds gathered with a thunderous roar, blanketing thousands of li. Within the Demon Realm, tremors shook the heavens once again. A Demon King had been slain by his hand! Xia Longwu had gone mad—utterly, violently berserk. Brandishing his blade across the River of Time, he had forcefully cleaved through the enemy's River of Time, battling and slaying the opponent's three incarnations directly within the temporal currents. The spectacle left Niu Baidao staring with his jaw dropped. *Madness!* *When this madman of the Xia family goes wild, he's truly not human.* *He doesn't care about his life at all!* To dare plunge straight into the River of Time for a life-or-death brawl—shattering the temporal currents made it terrifyingly easy to lose oneself within, disrupting past and future and getting oneself killed. Yet Xia Longwu cared nothing for that! He was crazed; he was drowning in regret! He had never imagined his second uncle would do this. He had thought that he himself was almost certain to die, and that stalling for as much time as possible—whether to help others or fulfill his master's wish—was the only meaningful thing he could do. Had he known his second uncle would do this, he never would have agreed! Nor would he have delayed until his second uncle arrived at the All-Heavens Battlefield! Xia Longwu roared and bellowed as his River of Time expanded, growing broader and broader. He charged toward the Invincibles flying toward him, his screams tearing through the skies. He had succeeded in breaking through! Yet he felt no joy, not the slightest hint of elation. He wanted to butcher these bastards! Even if he couldn't kill many, he would butcher one or two as an offering to his second uncle. Like a moth diving into a flame, he hurled himself toward the gathering Invincibles. Even though the enemies vastly outnumbered him. At this moment, the incoming Invincibles actually felt a pang of dread. This fiend of slaughter had successfully achieved the Dao! And from the look of things, he intended to fight to the bitter end? Behind him, Niu Baidao clicked his tongue in wonder, using the opportunity to... break through to the Dao himself. *I, Niu Baidao, have finally hit my lucky streak!* *Damn it all, today when I attempt my Dao breakthrough, no one is actually stopping me! No, there was one Invincible, but he was torn to shreds alive by the rampaging Xia Longwu.* Seeing Xia Longwu hurtling like a moth into flames toward the enemy, Niu Baidao shouted while merging his Dao: "Don't go! If you throw your life away, how can you face Xia Xiao'er's sacrifice?" As he spoke, he suddenly paused, startled, and yelled in alarm: "Come back! The death omen for Xia Xiao'er never appeared..." Xia Longwu, whose eyes were bloodshot and brimming with tears as he charged to slaughter the Invincibles, suddenly looked into the far distance. The death of a quasi-Invincible produced a heavenly omen. A falling sun! Was there one? He hadn't died? Stunned for a brief second, Xia Longwu's expression shifted drastically. Without another word, he spun around and bolted! Before him, the dozen or so Invincibles who had just been intimidated by his suicidal fervor came back to their senses and immediately gave chase! *Kill him!* This fellow had butchered an Invincible right after his breakthrough—he was a god of slaughter. If he did not die, he would soon become the next King Daxia, the next King Daqin! Meanwhile, Niu Baidao, having just breathed a sigh of relief after yelling that sentence, suddenly froze. *Holy crap!* Over a dozen Invincibles were flying right in this direction. *Is my luck truly that abysmal?* Cursing under his breath, he veered off and bolted as well. *Damn you, Xia Longwu, don't run toward me!* Fortunately, Xia Longwu did not head his way; noticing that Niu Baidao was undergoing his breakthrough, Xia Longwu instantly altered his course. Yet among the pursuing Invincibles, one still broke off and charged toward Niu Baidao. Niu Baidao cursed furiously! He knew it—he knew his luck could never be that good. What was meant to come could never be avoided. Fortunately, while Xia Longwu broke through nearby, immense quantities of treasures and Heaven Yuan Qi had descended with the heavenly omens. Niu Baidao had absorbed a hefty portion in passing. That killing maniac Xia Longwu had focused entirely on slaughtering enemies and hardly absorbed any of it, gifting Niu Baidao a massive windfall. Having fought bitterly in the Human Realm for so long, tempered himself, and accumulated four hundred years of foundation, today was the day he would see results. An aurora blossomed from Niu Baidao's body—the beginning of merging the bodies into the Dao. He was about to formally achieve the Dao, uniting his three incarnations into one! Yet he remained utterly baffled: *Xia Xiao'er isn't dead?* *Could he have been captured by the myriad races to threaten the Xia family?* The distance was too vast; even Invincibles couldn't see clearly, nor did they have the time to look. …… One bolted left, the other right. Back at the ancient city, everyone saw it clearly: the breakthrough omen, the blood clouds gathering, and the palpable sensation of an Invincible perishing. Xia Longwu had slain an Invincible. That unfortunate Invincible had simply happened to be standing right next to the crazed Xia Longwu. Over on Su Yu's side, Su Yu saw it too, but he had no time to dwell on it. He had to keep rapidly reversing and devouring death qi. Xingyue was already on the verge of flying into a frenzy! No! She was a dignified dead spirit monarch, yet while dealing with a handful of crippled remnants, she was actually being restrained by a living person. Just how much death qi was this madman Su Yu planning to swallow?! "Damn you!" Xingyue hissed in rage! She lashed out with another palm strike. Wan Tiansheng countered with a punch, shattering the blow... Wan Tiansheng's expression turned exceedingly strange. *I... I barely put any strength into that. Did Su Yu truly suck this dead spirit monarch until her knees went weak?* Outside, the Invincibles were growing frantic. *Fuck!* *Is this dead spirit monarch a counterfeit?!* At best, she possessed the strength of a quasi-Invincible! Even if she were slightly stronger than a quasi-Invincible, the margin was negligible. And a half-crippled Wan Tiansheng was no weaker than a quasi-Invincible either. What kind of farce was this? The Invincibles rapidly converged before the ancient city. Someone sent a mental transmission: "Do we breach the city? This... damn it all, Xia Longwu succeeded in his breakthrough! Are we just going to watch these bastards escape death too?" Fury boiled over! They had assumed Su Yu was a dead man. And Su Yu, by executing a late Sun Moon resident to summon Xingyue, had indeed intended to use Xingyue's presence to deter the Invincibles from entering the city immediately. Otherwise, had an ordinary Sun Moon dead spirit appeared, the Invincibles would certainly have followed Wan Tiansheng and the others into the city before the gates sealed. Instead, Xingyue appeared, making the Invincibles believe their targets were doomed, which made them hesitate just long enough to miss the window of entry. Now, if they wanted to get in, they had to breach the city. "Should we breach it?" A group of Invincibles hesitated. Xinghong stepping out of the city was an image still fresh in their minds. Lade had died a miserable death, and so had the Nether River King. Both had perished because of Xinghong, their three incarnations thoroughly crushed. Who would willingly see their own three incarnations destroyed? Yet now, those people were inside the city, and from the look of things, they weren't going to die anytime soon. What were they supposed to do? Boundless rage simmered! Outside, nearly twenty Invincibles remained. Were they supposed to just stand by and watch them toy with a counterfeit dead spirit monarch? An Invincible roared furiously in exasperation: "Useless trash! Are all dead spirit monarchs this pathetic?!" He was genuinely outraged! When attacking a few crippled individuals, why was your palm of death qi as fragile as water, shattering at the slightest touch?! Inside the city, flames of fury erupted in Xingyue's eyes. *Trash?* *I am trash?!* *I've been drained of copious amounts of death qi back and forth by a bastard, and even under such conditions, I've kept these people suppressed—yet you dare call me trash?!* She was incandescent with rage! Even angrier than those Invincibles! On one hand, she was enraged by Su Yu's vile antics; on the other hand, she was furious at these worthless living beings—dozens of them, yet they couldn't even stop people from slipping inside, and now they dared insult her as trash! She was a dead spirit monarch! If she chose not to kill Su Yu, she could simply give up right now. *You bastards, do you believe I won't just walk away right this second?!* Xingyue was fuming! The Invincibles outside were equally enraged. Should they breach the city or not? Someone transmitted: "Breach the city from outside! With so many of us, if everyone strikes with full power once and retreats immediately, we will be on guard against the stone statue. Last time, we were caught unprepared, but this time is different..." If they prepared properly, a synchronized strike from everyone would awaken seven or eight dead spirit monarchs to play with Su Yu. There was no way they wouldn't die! They refused to believe that every dead spirit monarch was a useless counterfeit. Yet... some hesitated. If Xinghong stepped out and everyone fled, what if he intercepted one of them? Wouldn't whoever got caught be completely finished? As for a dozen Invincibles ganging up on Xinghong—nonsense, he wasn't the only one. There were sixteen stone statues present on the scene! Some Invincibles were on the brink of losing their minds. Were they supposed to just watch? Did dealing with a few crippled non-Invincibles have to be this humiliating? An expert roared toward the sky: "We implore the Emperors of all races to step forward and slay Xia Longwu! Slay Su Yu and the others!" Where were the Half-Emperors? Not a single one had emerged; were they expecting the Invincibles to handle everything alone? They truly feared the stone statues. Surely the Half-Emperors wouldn't be as intimidated, would they? …… Meanwhile, over at Xinghong's side, he was currently conversing with others. "Xinghong, if they attack the city, will you intervene?" "Indeed, Xinghong. If you intervene, even though our true bodies are right here, we cannot step out; these castellans won't be able to hold them off. By the way, Xinghong, this little castellan of yours is quite something—even a dead spirit monarch can't suppress him. How about lending him to us for a bit?" "Looking at the speed at which he absorbs death qi, clearing the death qi of three to five cities would be child's play for him!" "Just lend him to us; we'll return him as soon as we're done!" "..." "Quiet down, all of you!" Tianmie chimed in at this moment. "Su Yu already agreed to serve as castellan in Tianmie City for a term. He counts as half a disciple of mine; I passed down my cultivation technique to him..." Tianmie was green with envy! *Damn it, I finally understand why Xinghong could wander around so casually. This Su Yu really isn't human.* His speed of absorbing death qi was a hundred times that of an ordinary ninth-tier Sun Moon cultivator! *Useless Tianhe!* *Fought for half a day to no avail. Look at this kid—so effortlessly driving a dead spirit monarch to the brink of insanity. If she gets angrier, who knows if she'll even count as a dead spirit anymore.* Inside the city, Su Yu naturally could neither hear nor see any of this. Only a single word occupied his mind: *Drain!* Drain Xingyue dry! Buffeted by the violent fluctuations of her depleted death qi, Xingyue traded blows with Wan Tiansheng for a while longer, glared bitterly at Su Yu, let out a furious snort, and instantly vanished from the ancient city. She wasn't going to stick around to be laughed at! It was a monumental disgrace! A dead spirit monarch, having her strength drastically stripped away by a living dead spirit she had converted herself—if word got out, she would never be able to hold her head up in the dead spirit realm again! The ancient city fell quiet. Su Yu was still draining. He didn't even realize Xingyue had left, nor did he have the leisure to check. He simply kept draining! Wan Tiansheng and Liu Wenyan exchanged dumbfounded glances, then looked at Su Yu, and finally up at the Invincibles in the air... would those enemies breach the city? A hopeless, fatal impasse! Yet Su Yu had thoroughly disrupted it. He hadn't even called upon the stone statue to intervene; he had simply drawn out a dead spirit monarch and forcibly drained her until she fled. What kind of outcome was this? Was this still the terrifying, perilous ancient city? Was that still the dead spirit monarch that made everyone blanch in terror?