Death Wherever He Goes

At the entrance to the second floor. It was a colossal vortex. Su Yu arrived with the others, slightly furrowing his brows as he observed the surroundings. It truly was the location of the glabella aperture. "Going up?" Xia Huyou asked. Are we heading up right now? Su Yu ignored him, instead rising into the air to survey the perimeter of the vortex. At this moment, he felt a flicker of hesitation. How was he supposed to benefit from this glabella aperture? How should he temper it? Or rather, how could he discover the circulation pathway of this aperture—which apertures it connected with, and in what manner? That was something he hadn't seen earlier. Once he figured out the circulation patterns of a few special apertures, the rest would be much easier. "Glabella aperture... circulate!" Su Yu's mind stirred. Suddenly, he reached out and grabbed Huang Jiu and the others. Xia Huyou blinked in surprise but said nothing, while Huang Jiu and Huang Teng both turned pale. Su Yu, however, gave them no chance to react. With a swipe of his hand, they tumbled into a space enveloped in dense mist. Ignoring them, Su Yu trapped them within and turned his full attention back to studying the vortex. A moment later, Su Yu unsealed the closed aperture. "Taishan!" Su Yu barked in a low voice. Heaven and earth spun once more. Perhaps having heard it multiple times today, Old Zhou was enraged, and the entire first floor violently convulsed. In Su Yu's mind, voices echoed unceasingly: "Taishan, why do you want to kill me?!" "I refuse to accept this!" "I die with regrets!" "..." Blood seeped from Su Yu's lips, but he paid it no heed, letting the mental shockwave batter him. Right now, he watched the glabella aperture with laser focus. When Old Zhou flew into a rage, his cultivation art would inevitably circulate. Su Yu wanted to see exactly how this expert operated the glabella aperture. Sure enough, as Old Zhou rioted, the glabella aperture spun rapidly, gathering vast amounts of origin qi and causing the entire passageway entrance to tremble. *** In the distance, outside the barrier. Hetu felt as though he had spotted someone! More than one person, in fact—several figures. He had never seen Su Yu, though he had heard Su Yu's voice. Right now, he couldn't make out anything clearly. His heart twitched with alarm. What immense fluctuations! What was happening? The Star Astral Mansion was rioting! Could it be because... the material used to forge this place was a person? He didn't dare pursue that train of thought, nor did he dare make a move. Immense problems seemed to plague the interior of the first floor, making it exceedingly perilous. It was better not to step outside just yet; he would go in and look around once the upheaval subsided. At this moment, his curiosity about the Star Astral Mansion burned brightly. He had been here before, but it had never been like this. Beside him, Daidai stood motionless, also gazing at the scene within the barrier. As he watched, his eyes remained glazed, somewhat dazed. *** Meanwhile. Across the myriad realms, above the Sea of Stars. The White Jade Gate violently churned once more. This was the third time! The first had been violent, the second comparatively mild, but this third time... it was rioting continuously without pause! Every Invincible wore a grim, sunken expression. With each upheaval, people inevitably perished. The first had claimed the most. Whether the second had been an accident or a coincidence, a few had still died then. Now, during this third riot, more conduits snapped, which meant more deaths. Dammit! And those dying weren't weaklings, but top-tier Sun Moon powerhouses. In the distance, the Dao King wore an impassive face, no longer flying into a rage. Out of 13 slots, 11 people had entered, and 7 were already dead. Such was his luck. Only 4 remained! With luck like this... he felt as if the entire world was conspiring against him. Utterly abominable! "There are still 3,080 people left... not bad." Someone murmured. It was acceptable—only five hundred or so had died. Two days were almost over, which worked out to a little over two hundred deaths a day. Nearby, several Invincibles were rendered speechless. You call this "not bad"? Sigh! Who knew what in the world was happening this time? The Star Astral Mansion kept convulsing relentlessly, and the endless tremors had everyone on edge. If this continued and everyone was wiped out, no race could bear such catastrophic losses. *** Seventh floor of the Star Astral Mansion. Fierce battles raged without pause as numerous powerhouses converged on the area. Xia Longwu cleaved a Sun Moon expert to death with a single blade strike, exhaled a breath, and swiftly fled. Fortunately, the Star Astral Mansion had convulsed just then; otherwise, he would have nearly been surrounded by Invincibles from the myriad races. As he fled, Xia Longwu surveyed his surroundings. The seventh floor was perilous, packed with powerhouses, including over twenty Invincibles. Meanwhile, the long-anticipated Nine-Leaved Heavenly Lotus was faintly visible in plain sight, slowly blooming within the void. Yet if you reached for it, you could neither touch nor grasp it! According to what Xia Longwu had gathered, one had to wait! Only when it fully blossomed would it manifest, shifting from ethereal illusion to tangible reality. Currently, the various factions were clearing out small fry while certain experts cordoned off the seventh floor, barring anyone else from entering. Farther away, a great battle erupted. Xia Longwu cast a backward glance. That seemed to be the man from the Zhu family. Zhu Tianfang! That fellow was exceptionally formidable as well. Xia Longwu didn't linger to watch, retreating swiftly. This time, four Invincibles from the human race had arrived: Xia Longwu, Zhu Tianfang, Zhou Polong, and Qin Zhen. As for the other races, quite a few had arrived as well. By Xia Longwu's estimation, there were roughly twenty-two of them, perhaps even more. Furthermore, below the seventh floor, there might be other old eccentrics lingering, though those might only be three-life embodiments. However, most of those he knew of and had seen had descended with their three bodies fused as one. If you didn't fuse your three bodies here, you were most likely sending yourself to an early grave. Surrounded by a swarm of Invincibles, bringing a single embodiment made you barely stronger than a Quasi-Invincible. Against a true Invincible, cutting you down wouldn't take much effort at all. As he fled, a spear vaulted across the heavens in the distance. Qin Zhen's furious roar rang out, "Immortal race, fuck your immortal ancestors! I'll poke you to death with one spear thrust!" Over there, Qin Zhen had clashed with an Invincible of the Immortal race. Xia Longwu glanced over and paid it no further attention. Qin Zhen was remarkably strong, just rather unlucky. Xia Longwu had sensed that in less than two days, the man had already fought six times! Under normal circumstances, direct clashes between Invincibles were rare at this stage. Yet this guy was unbelievable—he accounted for thirty percent of all Invincible battles on the seventh floor. Pondering this, Xia Longwu's brows knitted slightly. This particular tremor had lasted extraordinarily long. Only after quite a while did the violent shaking subside. Suspicion filled everyone's hearts. Where on earth did these tremors come from? It had happened several times now! *** At this moment, Su Yu was continuously coughing up blood. He coughed so much that he had grown used to it. No big deal! Old Zhou was only roaring, battering his sea of will. Fortunately, the Civilization Tombstone shielded it. Though the assault was uncomfortable, it remained bearable. Right now, a flame mark flared at his glabella. Under Old Zhou's wrath, the glabella aperture was circulating at high speed, and Su Yu finally detected something unusual. He observed attentively while continuing to spit blood. It was fine! What was a little injury? This time, he had to thoroughly figure out the glabella aperture no matter what. A moment later, his glabella aperture began to circulate—his own aperture, linking to others as light flared across his body point by point! 250 apertures lit up, then 260, 270... These apertures quickly formed links. Su Yu was merely conducting a preliminary test, adjusting continuously. Normally, a natural circulation through all 360 apertures would take him at least a full day. Now, by actively stimulating them, the circulation proceeded much faster. Apertures inevitably circulated in corresponding pairs or sets. Knowing one often revealed two. Soon, 320 apertures were illuminated... Puff! A thick gout of blood sprayed out. An aperture violently destabilized, and Su Yu's complexion changed, blanching instantly. "Not right!" Su Yu barked in a low voice. A mistake! The circulation path he had just deduced for that aperture was incorrect! It didn't circulate like that! At this moment, casting caution aside, he pulled out a drop of Sovereign Saliva. Just as he was about to swallow it... he paused. Swallow what, exactly? Topical application would do! At his level of cultivation, why bother ingesting it? Su Yu cursed inwardly: *I've really lost my mind!* He had nearly forgotten! A drop of spit... no, Sovereign Saliva quickly landed on his flesh. The aperture on the verge of rupturing instantly restored to perfection. Not only that, but while his physical body had sustained significant injuries earlier, a stream of exceptionally pure power now seeped inside, healing the majority of his wounds in the blink of an eye. Su Yu was secretly astonished. What potent efficacy! His physical body rivaled that of a Sun Moon, yet more than half his injuries had healed in an instant. This stuff felt not a shred inferior to a Demon God Fruit—in fact, it was slightly stronger. The crucial part was... he had taken an entire pool of it! There had to be several thousand drops, right? Truly terrifying! Sighing with wonder, Su Yu swiftly readjusted the previous aperture. The erroneous pathway had nearly blown it apart. He tuned it once more. Right now, he had no time to find someone else to experiment on; besides, no one else had opened all 360 apertures, so he had to do it himself. After adjusting for a while, the glabella aperture successfully linked. Su Yu breathed a sigh of relief. It worked! Apertures continued to light up. Soon, the circulation reached his spine. With a loud bang, Su Yu spat out another mouthful of blood! His spine was fracturing! Su Yu rapidly applied a drop of Sovereign Saliva to his body to mend the cracked vertebrae. His expression shifted, and he promptly halted the circulation. No good! The spinal apertures couldn't link smoothly; there was a problem. He couldn't blindly experiment with this. Before finding the trick, reckless attempts could easily blow his entire body to pieces. Su Yu sealed the aperture, and the tremors ceased. With a wave of his hand, Xia Huyou and the others in the distance opened their eyes and looked at Su Yu. At this moment, Su Yu still bore the head of a wolf, yet even that wolf head looked frail and pale, with what appeared to have been a bloody puncture at the center of his brow. Xia Huyou knew Su Yu had been testing something and didn't hold it against him for hiding it earlier. Furrowing his brows, he asked, "Are you alright?" "I'm fine!" The first floor had quieted down. Su Yu looked at the vortex again, took a deep breath, and said, "Let's go. Time to head up!" That was enough. The circulation method for the glabella aperture was almost certainly correct. Just now, he had linked over 300 apertures with hardly any issues. Once he located a few more corresponding apertures, he would be able to complete the Zhoutian Method! Once completed... his nine physical transformations might very well be achieved right here in the Star Astral Mansion. With the nine transformations accomplished, aperture fusion at the Shanhai Realm... Su Yu suspected he might finish it in an instant. Of course, none of that was certain yet. If everything went smoothly this trip, he might soon step into the Shanhai Realm—or even peak Shanhai. "Going up?" Xia Huyou looked around the first floor and sighed emotionally. "It's only been two days, and you've thrown the first floor into such chaos that not a soul is left. I heard that in previous years, the first floor always had the most people." Right now, there might still be survivors on the first floor, but they were pitifully few, probably hiding in some forgotten corner. One careless mistake and you were dead! The entire first floor had almost been wrecked by Su Yu. Su Yu claimed the tremors weren't his doing, but as if Xia Huyou would believe that! If it wasn't him, pigs could fly! "Then let's head to the second floor!" He had no objections. He would follow Su Yu to get a share of the meat first; once Su Yu went to higher floors, he might not necessarily follow. Without further words, Su Yu stepped through the void and flew straight toward the vortex. Xia Huyou and the others hurriedly followed. Once they disappeared into the passage, a barrier opened in the distance. Hetu emerged, accompanied by Daidai. Hetu glanced toward the glabella aperture without paying it much heed; what piqued his curiosity was why such massive upheavals were occurring in this place. "Hey, dummy, do you know what's going on?" Hetu asked. The dull dead spirit said nothing, eyes blank. With his memories shattered, there were many things he simply couldn't recall. Hetu sighed helplessly! An idiot dead spirit! Then again, if he weren't an idiot, he wouldn't be so easy to fool into serving as a thug. "Feels like almost nobody is left on the first floor!" Hetu chuckled. Having no one around was great; he could investigate freely. Both he and Daidai were immensely powerful. At this moment, the two strode through the void, surveying every corner. After a while, Hetu arrived at the center of the Blood Plains and sighed with nostalgia. Long ago, he seemed to have visited this place and taken away some Sacred Spring water. Now, he had returned! Alas, he was no longer among the living. "My ancestor... back in the day, he was an exalted figure dwelling on the eighth heaven!" Sighing, Hetu saw that Daidai remained silent and smiled. "Don't understand, do you? The Star Astral Mansion is divided into nine floors. The Human Sovereign resided on the ninth floor, while the eighth floor housed the residences of peerless powerhouses. My ancestor was one of the Human Kings of the ancient human race. Do you know what a Human King is?" Daidai looked at him. After a long pause, he rasped, "Human King... Dao Integration... peak Dao Integration..." Hetu wasn't surprised; clearly, the fellow had recovered a tiny sliver of memory. He chuckled and said, "Indeed, peak Dao Integration! By today's standards, that would be the strongest among Half-Emperors! What a pity... my ancestor fell... I don't even know if he's in the Dead Spirit Realm. Those old geezers from the ancient era, even in death, don't revive so easily. "So strictly speaking, I share a karmic bond with this Star Astral Mansion. Too bad... when I entered back then, I didn't get many benefits. I couldn't make it to the eighth floor; the gatekeeper wouldn't let me in..." Speaking of this, he sneered, "That old bastard from the Hunting Heaven Pavilion sure knows how to stay alive! I heard he even has his own mansion on the eighth floor, though it seems he can't go back now either, drifting outside all day long!" Roaming about, acting like the master of the place, he explained with a grin to Daidai, "Know who the master of the Hunting Heaven Pavilion is? Marquis Jiantian! In truth, his status was lower than my ancestor's. My ancestor was a Human King, a paramount figure of the heavens. Marquis Jiantian... ranked a step below him! Still, his standing was higher than Old Turtle's. Old Turtle was merely the ancient General of Spirit Suppression. Mind you, Old Turtle is exceedingly strong, just too lazy to vie for rank; otherwise, becoming Marquis of Spirit Suppression wouldn't have been an issue!" Daidai remained silent. Having nothing better to do, Hetu surveyed various spots while chatting leisurely: "Don't know the ancient hierarchy? Aren't you an ancient dead spirit? But your strength is quite impressive. If you aren't an ancient dead spirit... could you be from my generation? In the ancient era, the Human Sovereign reigned supreme. Beneath him were the Half-Emperors of the various races and the Human Kings... In terms of rank, Human Kings were on par with the Half-Emperors of other races. Beneath them were the various marquises... Marquis Jiantian held decent standing, perhaps the highest-ranking survivor from the ancient era. But if the ancient order were ever restored, he'd be the first to meet his doom! As Marquis Jiantian, he failed his duty of surveying heaven. Back when he took refuge, he even ruined the Heaven Hunting Ranking. Heh... had this been the ancient era, his head would have rolled long ago!" He soon arrived at Twin Dragon Gorge. With a casual wave, he transformed a little fellow hiding here into a dead spirit. That expert of the God race, having narrowly survived the earlier catastrophe, became a dead spirit in the blink of an eye and trailed behind him. Hetu didn't even bother to say anything to him. "This is Twin Dragon Gorge... the nostrils... If this place was truly formed from a person, that's utterly terrifying!" Hetu rubbed his chin. "I've never heard of any ancient powerhouse being slain and forged into the Star Astral Mansion. Could it just be built in a similar shape?" He couldn't make heads or tails of it either. As Hetu spoke, a strange sensation washed over him. "Vaguely, it feels like someone is calling my name. Did you hear that?" "..." Daidai looked at him with a strange expression and rasped, "No..." "No?" Hetu frowned, muttering, "None? Ah, I suppose that's how it is when you're dead—your senses grow dull." In life, he had opened all 360 origin apertures. Su Yu didn't know this, though Su Yu had once speculated about it, because Hetu could also cultivate the origin aperture reversal method and seemed to have once reversed death qi to release dead spirits. Yet that was in life. With death and the dissipation of his Dao, everything from his past had become history. With the past gone, all things vanished, starting anew from scratch. Dead spirits had no concern for such things. Hetu had genuinely heard faint voices, but they were indistinct, which only heightened his curiosity about what had transpired on the first floor. Soon, leading Daidai and the newly made weak dead spirit, he entered Twin Dragon Gorge. Countless Coiling Dragon Woods swept toward him, yet compared to the colossal pillars back on the scalp, these nostril hairs seemed rather feeble. *** With a blur before his eyes, Su Yu appeared on the second floor. Surprised voices reached his ears: "There are still people from the first floor? Is that one of the Demon Wolf race?" "He didn't die down there? He must have looted plenty of treasures..." Su Yu didn't even bother opening his eyes. Flipping his booklet out with a flick of his wrist, by the time he opened his eyes, six Lingyun experts and one Shanhai expert had vanished into the booklet. Looters camping the entrance! Such people were all too common. The first floor had suffered immense upheaval, but it also offered immense opportunities. Most had fled up here by now, though perhaps some living souls remained below. These people guarded the entrance precisely to murder and plunder. Su Yu showed them no mercy. Regardless of whether there were humans among them, anyone seeking to kill him for plunder would be slaughtered. Human or not made no difference—though he hadn't spotted any humans anyway, likely because the human race was being targeted again. By the time Xia Huyou and the others opened their eyes, nothing was left. They had heard the voices, but opening their eyes revealed empty air. For a second, they wondered if they were hallucinating. Yet when they saw Su Yu retrieving his booklet, their hearts jolted. Not a hallucination! Those people were dead! Slain by Su Yu in a split second! *** Outside, at this moment, someone frowned slightly. Seven had died all at once! On which floor did they die? Given their strength, probably the second or third floor? Still, seven deaths were within acceptable limits. Encountering an upper-stage Shanhai could result in an instant wipeout, which was quite different from the first floor where dozens or hundreds were wiped out in a single breath. Not only did those seven die, but people were also dying on the first floor. The lingering survivors on the first floor crossed paths with Hetu. He didn't slaughter them; he simply converted them into dead spirits at whim. After all, inside the Star Astral Mansion, he seemed exempt from the usual rules. Normally, coming out through a passage, he would still be bound by rules and couldn't convert living beings indiscriminately. Otherwise, Xingyue would have forcibly converted Su Yu long ago! "Nearly twenty more dead!" An Invincible sighed. Exactly 3,000 remained; one-sixth had perished. Someone chuckled, "The previous upheavals weeded out some weaklings, but most of the powerhouses are still alive. Don't be so pessimistic. For weaklings who enter, death is only natural." Not many top powerhouses had died earlier—only a few Sun Moons. That was tolerable. The vast majority of the fallen were Soaring and Lingyun cultivators. *** "This is the second floor?" Having instantly annihilated those ambuscaders, Su Yu looked around. The second floor differed from the first—not just different, but an entirely different world! The entire second floor resembled a land of magma. Flames roared everywhere, magma fields stretched as far as the eye could see, and blood-colored fire permeated the air. Huang Jiu said in a low voice, "The second floor, Flame Mountain. Legend has it that in ancient times, a powerhouse from the Blood Fire Demon race and a powerhouse from the Fire Spirit race of the Five Elements race fought a colossal battle here, leaving behind this Flame Mountain realm." Su Yu chuckled. "Just blood vessels on a neck, and you make it sound so real—an ancient battle between powerhouses!" What nonsense! Looking around, even though there wasn't the slightest clue at first glance, and without the comparison to the first floor it truly seemed like a world of fire as Huang Jiu claimed, Su Yu's deduction from the first floor told him that those crisscrossing chasms of magma were formed from blood vessels. The neck had plenty of blood vessels. Producing such a landscape was only natural. Huang Jiu fell silent. If Su Yu's theory held true, this floor truly could be the neck, but... no one dared contemplate that. Because it was terrifying! An unimaginably powerful ancient expert slain by the Human Sovereign, who seized him by the legs, plunged him upside down into the earth, snapped his neck, thrust his hair into the Dead Spirit Realm, and forged the Star Astral Mansion around him... The more one thought about it, the more spine-chilling it became! Of course, at this moment, they hadn't thought of the hair yet, having not seen it. Su Yu ignored them, turning his thoughts to his own affairs. First floor: Kaiyuan. Second floor: Qianjun. The Qianjun Realm held no great mystery—it was simply about opening apertures. Open enough apertures, and you were set. Open apertures, strengthen your qi and blood, lay the foundation with blood essence—that was the Qianjun Realm. Was this second floor related to Qianjun? Hunting for treasure required seeking the finest treasures, not just grabbing whatever caught the eye. Sharpening the axe didn't delay cutting the firewood; Su Yu was in no rush. The treasures out in the open were out of reach anyway, already claimed by others. To find treasures, one had to seek what others could not see. "Taishan!" Su Yu unsealed his aperture and called out casually. His voice wasn't loud, and he muffled it so Xia Huyou and the others couldn't hear. With that call... Boom! Flames erupted! Old Zhou seemed utterly furious: "Where is Taishan?!" "Where?!" "..." Earlier on the first floor, the head had heard it, so the first floor had erupted violently. Now on the second floor, Old Zhou's remnant will seemed to sense that Taishan was on the second floor, sending him into an instant frenzy! Mountains crumbled and the earth split! Flames surged! The entire realm instantly turned into a sea of fire, and copious amounts of magma erupted as if his blood vessels were bursting from fury. Taishan was on his neck? Riding on his neck! That was probably Old Zhou's thought. Remnant wills were foolish, driven only by lingering obsessions while all else had vanished. Now, flames on the second floor erupted with deafening rumbles! The shockwaves shook the surroundings! In the distance, someone leaped into the air with a bloodcurdling scream, instantly turning into fire and burning into nothingness. Xia Huyou and the others stared at Su Yu. Xia Huyou couldn't help swallowing hard: "Th-this... our people might be here too! Su Yu, you..." *You're conducting indiscriminate slaughter!* Su Yu laughed. "Nothing to do with me. Just a natural eruption!" As for their people on the second floor? Were his teacher and the others on the second floor? Probably hardly any humans were here! The reason was simple: once people from the first floor fled up, humans on the second floor would be ostracized and pressured. Under normal circumstances, they would have banded together and fled. That was Su Yu's assessment. Anyone who stayed wouldn't be weak. In that case, the probability of them dying was low. Besides, he wasn't a babysitter; he couldn't look out for everyone. Calling out "Taishan" had lifted Su Yu's spirits considerably. Nice, it worked on the second floor as well—blood vessels rupturing, flames soaring, wonderful! That had wiped out quite a few, hadn't it? "What a waste!" Su Yu suddenly remarked. He couldn't shout it anymore. If everyone burned to ashes, where was he supposed to collect corpses? He still had to do some civilized corpse collection! He shouldn't kill off the Civilization Masters; he was counting on them to perfect his divine apertures. Arriving on the second floor, treasures weren't the priority. The priority was killing enemies, collecting corpses, extracting blood essence, and incidentally perfecting his divine apertures. With Su Yu's arrival on the second floor, seven had died right off the bat, and with a single shout, another twenty to thirty unlucky souls were instantly incinerated by the erupting flames and magma. The total head count plunged below 3,000. *** Second floor. A place where flames surged. Dao Cheng let out a sigh, divine characters circling in his palm. After a moment, he spoke, "Let's go to the third floor! Trouble has arrived on the second floor. A great terror from the first floor has likely surfaced and entered the second floor!" Beside him, Xuan Wuji frowned. "Dao Cheng, are you certain it's a terrifying creature and not a natural upheaval?" Dao Cheng replied gravely, "It's man-made! Earlier I wasn't certain, but now I'm a hundred percent sure! When the first floor suffered its upheaval, the second floor experienced disruptions, but nothing this severe! Now the second floor has abruptly erupted into chaos—this is definitely no simple natural disaster! I performed a divination... an omen of doom! Let's go. We cannot linger any longer, or we will all die! Our best move is to reach the seventh floor and seek protection. This expedition is exceedingly dangerous!" Xuan Wuji furrowed his brows and nodded. He placed some trust in this divination. Still, he muttered in a low voice, "However..." He glanced toward a small blood-red tree faintly visible within the flames ahead and exhaled. "Are we giving up on this Dragon Blood Fruit Tree? This one is even larger and more ancient than the one that circulated outside previously. As long as we disperse the surrounding blood fire, we can secure it..." "Let's go!" Dao Cheng said softly. "Resolving this fire will take at least three days!" Three days wasn't long. If they could disperse the flames and claim this more ancient Dragon Blood Fruit Tree to sell to the Dragon race, it was easily worth at least one carrier. This tree was stronger and more ancient than the previous one. The crux was that over three days... too many variables could arise. Xuan Wuji was truly reluctant to part with it, and the surrounding Immortal race experts were equally loath to abandon it. Someone's eyes flickered as he suggested, "Why don't you and Dao Cheng go ahead? We'll stay behind, secure the treasure, and then rendezvous with you!" Dao Cheng knew they were reluctant; when had he ever wanted to give it up himself? It was practically within reach! This was the paramount treasure they had discovered on the second floor. His grandfather desperately needed a carrier right now; securing this item would make everything worthwhile. Yet... divine characters spun around his fingertips again—bang! The divine character cracked. Dao Cheng's face paled! Supreme doom! Immeasurably perilous, even more so than before. Three days? He feared he wouldn't even survive a single day! "Do as you please, then. I have already told you this place is fraught with peril. I will not waste another breath!" Saying nothing more, Dao Cheng swiftly flew toward one direction! Retreat! He felt the suffocating crisis of death. Seeing Dao Cheng leave without hesitation, Xuan Wuji frowned slightly. After a brief hesitation, he tore through the air and followed. Once they left, a Shanhai expert among the remaining Immortals sneered, "Dao Cheng's guts are shrinking by the day! Ever since Jiu Xuan was killed and he was frightened out of his wits by Su Yu, he's never been the same! Never mind that he still hangs on the Heaven Ranking—if you ask me, with such a lack of backbone, he doesn't deserve a spot on the Heaven Ranking at all!" An Immortal maiden giggled, "He's just deeply sentimental. Jiu Xuan's death broke his heart, making him a bit eccentric. Honestly, it's quite charming..." "Then why don't you marry him?" "He'd have to fancy me first!" "..." A dozen or so Immortals bantered amongst themselves. As for the earlier eruption of magma, it had subsided now. None of them were particularly worried; this wasn't the first time the Star Astral Mansion had rioted. From yesterday until now, it had been convulsing repeatedly. Right now, everyone turned their eyes toward the Dragon Blood Fruit Tree in the flames, laden with numerous fruits. The Shanhai Immortal said covetously, "A genuine treasure! A pity it doesn't quite suit our Immortal race. Still... I don't think we even need to trade it; the tree itself can serve as a carrier!" The fruits were treasures, but not quite compatible with them. No matter—as long as the tree was usable, that was all that mattered! It had likely only been exposed due to the recent violent upheavals; otherwise, those who came before would have discovered it long ago, leaving nothing for them. This was an opportunity! Those two fellows, Dao Cheng and Xuan Wuji, had actually fled. How foolish! Then again, it was good that they ran! Otherwise, with those two around, dividing the spoils would have been troublesome. The Immortal maiden who spoke earlier said with a radiant smile, "Gu Zhu, once we get it, you must share some with us. You can't swallow it all alone. You possess the bloodline of the Immortal Emperor and enjoy an exalted status. If you eat the meat, you should at least let us drink some soup." Gu Zhu—that very Shanhai Immortal—laughed immediately. "Rest assured! It's merely a carrier. It hasn't reached the point where my Ancient Immortal clan would discard all honor for its sake. I'm not Dao Cheng; his grandfather is desperately in need of one." Saying that, Gu Zhu quickly added, "Alright, let's not waste time. Dao Cheng's divination predicted supreme doom. While we can't believe it blindly, we shouldn't dismiss it entirely either. There have been many upheavals lately, so stay alert. Retrieve this treasure quickly, and we'll leave the second floor immediately as well!" A group of Immortals swiftly set up a formation, pouring out origin qi to suppress the flames surrounding the ancient tree. Without Xuan Wuji and Dao Cheng's help, it would take at least three to four days. With those two gone, everyone did feel a sliver of unease. Yet they simply couldn't suppress the greed in their hearts! It was too precious! A carrier was a paramount treasure to anyone. They weren't like Su Yu, who had enough carriers on hand to count on both hands. *** In the distance. Dao Cheng flew rapidly. Xuan Wuji caught up quickly, asking in a low voice, "Is it truly that dangerous?" "Yes. Otherwise, I would have seized that ancient tree no matter what. My grandfather needs it!" Dao Cheng said solemnly, "Fly faster!" "What about Gu Zhu back there..." Dao Cheng said coldly, "It doesn't matter. Let him test the waters. He carries the bloodline of the Immortal Emperor after all, and likely possesses Invincible blood essence... If even he dies, then it truly is supreme doom. In that case, we won't linger on the third floor either—we'll head straight to the seventh!" With that, a strand of hair appeared between his fingers, twining around them. He said grimly, "This is Gu Zhu's hair. Once this hair burns, Gu Zhu is dead, and we must flee this damned place as quickly as possible!" "When did you get that?" Xuan Wuji was surprised. Cultivators attached great importance to their hair and blood, never letting them fall into outside hands easily. "During the earlier upheaval," Dao Cheng replied casually, his voice calm. "Let's go. Don't overthink it. I don't know curses, and even if I did, they'd be useless—cursing a Shanhai to death isn't that easy!" Xuan Wuji said nothing more, though an extra layer of wariness crept into his heart. Working with Dao Cheng required caution. This guy might be weaker than him in combat strength, but ever since Su Yu nearly killed him, he had grown far more somber and brooding. Nowadays, Xuan Wuji could hardly fathom what Dao Cheng was thinking. Soon, the two reached the entrance connecting the second floor to the third. *** At this moment, Su Yu strolled leisurely through the void. Soon, surprise flashed across his face as he looked into the distance. Was that a treasure? A Dragon Blood Fruit Tree? A Dragon Blood Fruit Tree far larger than the one he had obtained last time! "Is this... a tree growing out of a blood vessel? Does it count as a body hair?" Su Yu didn't know if that counted. Many things in the Star Astral Mansion were related to the human anatomy, yet others had been planted by later generations; not everything was born naturally. Now, he finally understood how this Dragon Blood Fruit Tree had grown! It had taken root in a blood vessel, absorbing the power of the blood to flourish. No wonder people regarded it as a paramount treasure. "Dragon Blood Fruit Tree... what nonsense. It should be called the Old Zhou Fruit Tree!" Su Yu glanced across the distance at the Immortals surrounding it: fifteen of them, four at the Shanhai Realm, and nearly all the rest at the Lingyun Realm. Quite formidable. Divine radiance flickered in his eyes as he looked toward them again. Soon, he clicked his tongue in wonder. His "Calamity" divine character actually gave a throb! Inside the leading seventh-tier Shanhai fellow, there was an exceptionally dazzling drop of blood essence. Su Yu's teeth ached. *Holy crap, whose scion is this?* *What lavish generosity!* That was the blood essence of an Invincible! Naturally, it was a measure reserved for mutually assured destruction. Even so... it was still terrifying. If the fellow ignited that blood essence in a dire moment, even Sun Moons would likely turn tail and run. He felt like someone best not provoked. "Invincible blood essence... Even ordinary Invincibles wouldn't be this generous... Could he be from Tiangu's clan?" Su Yu clicked his tongue. He suspected he had run into someone from Tiangu's lineage. Unfamiliar, someone he had never met before. Whether the fellow was on the Heaven Hunting Ranking or stepping outside the Immortal Realm for the first time, Su Yu's interest was piqued instantly. A big shot! His bloodline had to be extraordinary. Once integrated into his booklet... *Tsk, tsk.* Su Yu was delighted. It would surely bolster the power of his booklet by quite a margin!