The Method of the Heavenly Cycle Emerges!

The fifth floor blazed with heart fire. Su Yu could no longer be bothered with treasures. There weren't many people left on the fourth floor, and Hetu might come up at any moment. By now, hardly anyone remained on the fifth floor either. Those who had received the warning had already fled. Those who hadn't were either from minor races or solitary cultivators, few and far between. Time to find the spine aperture. It should be on this floor. Any lower and it would be right near the buttocks—what kind of spine aperture would be down there? Su Yu sped straight toward the border of this realm. Along the way, he spotted several treasures that would fetch good money outside, but he didn't care much. At his current level, if something wasn't at the level of a carrier, it could hardly catch his eye. Too rich! Nothing could be done about it! Sprinting at full speed, Su Yu was burning with urgency. That fellow Hetu had arrived too quickly; otherwise, Su Yu had planned to comb through each floor slowly for treasures. Now, Hetu's advance made him too afraid to visit many spots lest he waste time. Only when he reached the seventh floor, where Hetu would face true opposition, could he halt his pace and catch his breath. "The news has probably spread. People might already be guarding the entrance on the seventh floor, so I have to blend into the crowd before everyone disperses. I can't kill any more. If I kill more, too few people will be left, and my presence will stick out like a sore thumb!" At this point, Su Yu refrained from killing. Nor was he in a rush to fight his way to the sixth floor. Besides, high-stage Sun Moon experts were definitely on the sixth floor, and taking them down would be too difficult. No rush—the mansion remained open for a month, and less than five days had passed so far. Tracing clues and probing along the way, Su Yu soon found a location. It was at the boundary barrier of the realm. Su Yu looked around. This wasn't a passage, but a towering mountain resembling a ridge, piercing straight up into the sky. *The spine?* Su Yu murmured inwardly. He vaulted into the air and slapped his palm against the ridge, but it didn't budge in the slightest. Inconceivably sturdy! *If I blasted through it... could I exit the Star Residence Mansion?* All right, scrap that idea. Leaving aside how powerful Old Zhou's physical body had been, the master who forged the weapon had likely incorporated other materials, making the forged Star Residence Mansion even stronger than Old Zhou's original physique. To break out, not even an Invincible could manage it—no, perhaps even Dao Integration experts couldn't. "Where is the spine aperture?" Su Yu searched all around, pinpointing positions by referencing the proportions of his own body. He should refrain from shouting "Taishan" without good reason; Old Zhou seemed on the verge of losing his mind with rage. Shouting it too much might trigger an eruption, and what if he self-destructed? Though a dead man might not be able to self-destruct. Calibrating his bearings, Su Yu quickly locked onto a patch of void just in front of the ridge. Su Yu circulated his spine aperture, and sure enough, a faint resonance pulsed in the void, though it did not manifest. *This is the place!* It seemed that at critical moments, he still had to provoke Old Zhou. "Taishan!" Su Yu shouted in a low voice. *Boom!* Sure enough, the fifth floor shook violently. In his mind, Old Zhou's roars turned hysterical. "I will kill you, kill you!" "I will definitely kill you!" "Who are you?" "You aren't Taishan... Who are you?" Su Yu: "..." A chill ran through Su Yu, his scalp prickling with numbness. In that instant, he felt as if the will of an entire world were glaring down at him. "You aren't Taishan... Where did you hide Taishan... Hand Taishan over..." The voice was utterly deranged, roaring continuously and crashing against Su Yu's mind. Su Yu was thoroughly appalled! *How can this be?* *The man is dead—why is this happening?* *Why can he tell I'm not Taishan?* *Old Zhou should only be a remnant thought. Can a remnant thought still think?* He had no time to dwell on it. Su Yu hurried to observe the hollow cavity that had just manifested. The vortex within was spinning rapidly. Meanwhile, Old Zhou's voice in his mind grew even more frenzied. "You aren't Taishan... You aren't... Where did you hide him..." "Who are you?" "Who on earth are you?" "What is your relationship to Taishan?" "..." Su Yu's hairs stood on end! *Holy crap, he can even deduce things logically now? He actually reasoned that I must have some relationship with Taishan... Is this really a remnant thought, or is he not dead yet, still clinging to a sliver of life with only his consciousness scrambled?* *Could a mere remnant thought ask about my relationship with Taishan?* Su Yu felt terrified and didn't dare reply. Clenching his teeth so hard that blood seeped from between them, he stared unblinkingly at the vortex. He needed to extract the cultivation technique; as for anything else... put it aside for now! He had to stop calling out Taishan so much. If he kept yelling it, he feared Old Zhou might genuinely revive. The more he shouted, the sharper Old Zhou seemed to become. *Is he dead, or isn't he?* A shiver ran down Su Yu's spine! *Could it be that Old Zhou never died, and they turned a living being into the Star Residence Mansion, forged him into a weapon?* *Is that why the Star Residence Mansion has been able to keep running all this time?* The more Su Yu thought about it, the more horrifying it became. If this entity was alive... letting him out would tear the skies of the myriad realms apart. Even wounded, even crippled, surely he could take on Dao Integration experts? Bloody terrifying! He kept staring at the vortex until the vibrations subsided. Su Yu mastered it. Just as he was about to seal his apertures, a murmur—far less tyrannical than before—sounded in his ears: "You aren't Taishan... You aren't... Taishan isn't this weak, not this weak..." Su Yu instantly sealed his apertures, shutting out the voice, and fell to one knee, drenched in cold sweat. With great difficulty, he arrived at a conclusion... Old Zhou wasn't dead! "He isn't dead. He's only crippled and sealed. He isn't dead!" Su Yu trembled all over. *We are inside someone's body right now, and this person is alive!* "Taishan" was like an incantation. An incantation to awaken this fellow, an incantation to unseal him. *Holy crap!* *I seem to have done something terrible...* Su Yu swallowed hard. After a long pause, he gritted his teeth. "What's terrible about it? The myriad realms aren't under my rule right now anyway—the gods, demons, and Immortals dominate. If he really gets unleashed... humph!" Su Yu's eyes flickered. If Old Zhou really broke loose and plunged the heavens into chaos, what did that have to do with him? The myriad races across the heavens were trying to kill him anyway! If complete chaos erupted, that would actually be a good thing. Thinking this, his earlier dread dissipated by seventy percent. Su Yu stood up and wiped the sweat from his forehead. At this moment, he had grasped one vague truth: Old Zhou... might genuinely not be entirely dead. A sliver of vitality might still remain! Su Yu's expression shifted uncertainly. Wasting no more time on idle thoughts, he began attempting to circulate his apertures. This time, he didn't call out Taishan. Opening all his apertures, the chaotic murmurs still echoed in his ears: "Why kill me?" "Why?" This was similar to before. When he didn't shout "Taishan," Old Zhou's emotions remained relatively stable. But once shouted, it acted like an incantation, driving Old Zhou tyrannical and manic. If he kept yelling it, Su Yu worried he might actually shout the man back to life. *What a terrifying guy!* Su Yu silently noted. Soon, he began circulating aperture after aperture. Blood seeped continuously from his mouth; biting off a piece of lotus root, Su Yu pressed on. One aperture after another lit up. 330, 340... More and more! The glabella aperture and spine aperture were both linked into the pathway. Right up to the 350th aperture—*bang!* Ignoring the searing agony, Su Yu glanced around and hurriedly swallowed some lotus root, repairing a certain exploded spot. "Holy... shit!" Su Yu cursed under his breath! Fortunately, no one had seen it. Still, it was lucky that the Sky-Piercing Aperture had blown up; if the glabella aperture or spine aperture had detonated, that would have been truly dangerous. When the Sky-Piercing Aperture blew up, the danger wasn't severe—it was just that the exploded location was rather indecorous. That was also why Su Yu dared to experiment. However, this attempt had clearly failed. In truth, only the final ten apertures remained. If he kept testing, several hundred attempts might be enough to figure it out. No matter how the ten apertures circulated, underlying laws governed the flow. Arranging ten apertures in entirely random sequences yielded countless permutations, but when constrained by cultivating principles, the possibilities shrank drastically. *Maybe... after blowing up a few hundred times, I can master it all on my own?* Su Yu grumbled inwardly, rubbing the certain spot that had just detonated and was now healing. Too unsightly! Utterly unbefitting the temperament of a Civilization Master! If someone saw this, he would die of shame. Civilization Masters cared about saving face. And naturally, the face down below mattered too. *Better to look for the Sky-Piercing Aperture first. If I can't find it, or run out of time, I'll deduce it myself...* At this moment, Su Yu deeply missed the past. He missed a person: Zhou Hao. Zhou Hao was a genius too. More importantly, that fellow definitely hadn't opened 360 apertures. Now, anyone who hadn't opened 360 apertures didn't even qualify to serve as Su Yu's guinea pig. Only someone who had opened them could serve the role. The problem was, knowing where the 360 apertures were didn't mean one could open all 360. How many apertures Zhou Hao had opened by now, Su Yu wasn't quite sure. Maybe around two hundred? "Sigh!" Leaving him without a single test subject! Having an important figure like himself personally undertake the butt-blasting tests was utterly humiliating. *If the Sky-Piercing Aperture is on the seventh floor, I might not even get the chance to go up... And even if I go up, I might not be able to get close. The Invincibles are up there!* *Doesn't that mean... I still have to experiment myself?* Carrying these thoughts, Su Yu flew toward the entrance leading from the fifth to the sixth floor. As he flew, he couldn't resist wanting to try. What if he guessed right on the first try? *Bang!* The sound of an explosion rang out again. Su Yu looked all around and hurriedly took a bite of a lotus root. Delicious! Truly delicious! Using food to ease the awkwardness. "I took several hundred segments of lotus root... and I deduced that a few hundred attempts should crack the correct circulation pattern..." At that moment, Su Yu's expression changed. *Was it fated by heaven that I should deduce it myself?* Besides, if he kept shouting Old Zhou's name and brought him back to life, what then? Several hundred segments of lotus root... sacred healing medicine! Heal wherever it blows up! "No, no, no... that's not it. It's all a coincidence!" This wasn't fated. Su Yu glanced in every direction once more, probing and locking onto his surroundings, terrified someone might spot him. He couldn't afford the shame! Even if he wasn't currently "Su Yu," even if he wore a wolf's head, it still wouldn't do! *But... if I grasp the circulation method of the Zhoutian Apertures in advance, I can complete the Nine Transformations early!* *Otherwise, if I get the treasures for the Nine Transformations but run out of time, what then?* "Should I... give it a shot?" Su Yu asked himself. Try it! Nobody was watching anyway! And if someone did see, he'd just kill them to silence them. With that mindset, Su Yu tried another circulation pathway. *Bang!* ...A mangled mess of flesh and blood. Quickly eat the lotus root! His clothes were unharmed; underneath, Su Yu was wearing an Earth armament-grade pair of undergarments. No fear there! Next time, he'd switch to Heaven armament-grade! At this moment, Su Yu truly yearned to master the technique quickly. It was an obsession with cultivation arts, a devotion to the dao of cultivation... Su Yu consoled himself. "I am dedicating myself to a great cause!" "Dedicating myself to the lost Method of the Heavenly Cycle across the myriad realms!" "A great researcher never fusses over trivialities. When necessary for research, one could even taste shit!" "..." Hypnotizing himself, Su Yu felt like a saint in this moment! So compassionate! So benevolent toward all living beings! He even moved himself! When a person sacrificed and dedicated himself to a great cause, to perfecting a cultivation art lost for a hundred thousand years—what noble sentiment! Yes, he made this choice solely to restore the art. For the inheritance of civilization across the heavens! At this very moment, in his long-dormant sea of will, a divine character was actually taking shape! "Saint"! Yes—saintly, holy, a saint who gave his all for the world, for love... In this instant, the power of light manifested around Su Yu. Radiance poured from him in all directions. Like a saint descending upon the mortal realm to enlighten humanity. "As expected... this is my true heart!" Su Yu murmured. The way of the saint was the reflection of his true nature. Everything he did was for everyone, for the Dao! A divine character had condensed just like that! A naturally born divine character, born at Tier 2. This was Su Yu's twenty-ninth divine character! "Saint"! When Su Yu commanded the divine character and sensed its trait... he was somewhat speechless. It had no flashy characteristics, no attack power, no lethality—only affinity... Yes, the moment he activated this divine character, others would feel he was warm, trustworthy, the gentlest, warmest man under heaven. It was an auxiliary divine character, naturally born. It boosted affinity! Su Yu's eyes flickered, and suddenly he broke into a grin—an extraordinarily radiant smile. Right, as a Civilization Master, he truly needed a divine character like this. True, it seemed rather useless on the surface. However... it increased people's trust in him. Former enemies might even be converted and touched by grace. And if they couldn't be enlightened spiritually, he could always physically deliver them to the afterlife. "The way of the saint: sacrificing one's own buttocks..." Su Yu chuckled, no longer finding exploding his buttocks unacceptable. Not bad at all. His talent was truly astonishing; a casual stir of emotion was enough to sketch out a divine character. Excellent! His twenty-ninth. Perhaps the thirtieth would emerge soon. Through his continuous space traversal, combined with having detonated the "Beast" spatial divine character earlier, Su Yu had felt a deep affinity for space recently. Moreover, his civilization chronicle contained vast spaces, and he had even sliced space himself. After so many experiences, Su Yu felt he might soon comprehend a naturally born spatial divine character. As he circulated the technique, he munched on lotus root to heal, simultaneously swallowing treasures to strengthen the newly formed divine character. A Saint Dao divine character! He wanted everyone who looked at him to feel like he was their father. That way, who would dare attack him? To tell the truth, if cultivated to the extreme, this character would be terrifying—maybe anyone who saw him would call him Daddy! Su Yu laughed heartily, already envisioning the scene. The moment he appeared with a saintly smile, old relics like Tiangu would burst into tears upon seeing him, dropping to their knees to call him Daddy and beg forgiveness for their mistakes! *Tsk tsk!* What an impressive divine character—no wonder it was naturally born. He didn't possess many naturally born divine characters, but each had a unique purpose. Such as the Fire of Inheritance, the "Calamity" divine character, the two characters "Civilization," and today's "Saint" Dao divine character. Naturally, he once again overlooked an inconspicuous character. "Yin"! That wasn't naturally born; he had simply sketched it unintentionally. With a smile on his face, munching on lotus root, Su Yu's backside repeatedly blew apart into a bloody mess... It was an utterly bizarre scene. Anyone witnessing it would think they had seen a ghost or a madman! Yet how could Su Yu care about that? The key was that nobody was around. Just as he was thinking this, a figure emerged from a cave and looked at Su Yu with a strange expression. Clearly, this person had just finished treasure hunting. Seeing Su Yu sporting a wolf's head, appearing to be of the same race, he was about to call out a greeting... The thought had barely crossed his mind when his head dropped off. The booklet manifested, and the wolf fell into it. Su Yu maintained his gentle smile and sighed, "You saw what you shouldn't have seen!" Indeed, the classic line of a villain. Yet coming from his mouth, it sounded entirely natural—that wolf had indeed seen what it shouldn't have seen, so it had to die. Su Yu continued adjusting the cultivation method. Gradually, after blowing up again and again, he grew accustomed to it. Detonating this spot didn't actually affect much—it wasn't as if he needed to use the privy anyway. "This pathway isn't right..." "If I, Su Yu, ever teach the Method of the Heavenly Cycle to the outside world, I will never teach the circulation method for this aperture. I swear!" Su Yu smiled through gritted teeth as he thought. Definitely! Without a doubt! Not only that—if he found anyone who dared teach the circulation method for this aperture, he would settle scores with them! No one was exempt, no one was permitted! Just that domineering! Even if an ancient powerhouse resurrected and taught it, they wouldn't be allowed to teach this Sky-Piercing Aperture circulation method! In any case, it wouldn't kill anyone. Even without treasures to heal, one would be vigorous again after a month of cultivation! Those capable of opening the Zhoutian Apertures were no mortals; perhaps they wouldn't even need a month to recover quickly. Besides, as a cultivator, how could one attain greater strength without thoroughly experiencing this kind of suffering? "If I ever get to set the rules... forbidding the transmission of the Sky-Piercing Aperture method will be law!" Su Yu gritted his teeth fiercely. Despicable! He was having it too rough! Under normal cultivation methods, no matter how bitter, exhausting, or agonizing it was, he wouldn't complain. But this particular aperture—he truly loathed it. "Seventy-seven variations, seventy-seven explosions!" Su Yu muttered, continuing to swap pathways. By now, he had reached the entrance to the sixth floor. He didn't head up right away, nor did he hunt for treasures. The "Calamity" divine character was pulsing faintly, and he had no idea when Hetu would arrive. "The Method of the Heavenly Cycle should align with the great trend of heaven and earth. It shouldn't trigger a tribulation, right?" Su Yu pondered. Back when he learned the Five Elements Divine Art, he had triggered a lightning tribulation. Later, when forging armaments, he had faced another tribulation. Surely cultivating the Method of the Heavenly Cycle wouldn't do the same? "Will the Parliamentary Blood Tribulation appear?" "Would the Ancient Parliament dare forbid people from cultivating the Method of the Heavenly Cycle? Impossible. Those who cultivated it were all descendants or disciples of supreme figures, not universally reviled figures like the Time Master. I doubt the Parliament would dare—or perhaps the parliamentarians were cultivating it themselves..." With this deduction, Su Yu felt much more at ease. Not bad! No lightning tribulation, keeping the commotion small—that was ideal. "Ninety-two..." Su Yu kept eating lotus root, letting out a burp that smelled sweet and fragrant. The exploded wound constantly regenerated, mending in no time. "My luck isn't great!" Su Yu mused, continuing to make adjustments. By now, he could connect 356 apertures, but whenever he linked into the Sky-Piercing Aperture, it tended to blow up. He couldn't fully integrate these apertures. Only a few remained—why wasn't it working? Musing on this, specks of light manifested before him. He quickly connected the projected light nodes representing his apertures. Cultivation arts possessed an innate aesthetic sense when viewed with the naked eye. If a technique lacked this visual beauty at first glance, it wasn't a good technique. Now, examining it closely, he furrowed his brows slightly and began making tweaks. By this point, Su Yu had almost forgotten Hetu's existence. Deep down, he loved conducting this sort of deduction. Even if built on another's foundation, completing and perfecting it on his own brought Su Yu immense satisfaction. To this day, his proudest technique was the Twin Wu Aperture Fusion Art. Because he had deduced it step by step entirely on his own. Combining multiple arts, locating thirty-six apertures, discovering the patterns, and finally deducing it piece by piece to create this aperture fusion method. The second was the Five Elements Divine Art, which he and Old Zhao had gradually merged from five arts into one through meticulous deduction. Now, as Su Yu devoted his focus to deducing the Method of the Heavenly Cycle, he found genuine joy in it, nearly forgetting that he was inside the perilous Star Residence Mansion. Until... some blind fool shouted from afar, "Out of the way! I'm heading up to the sixth floor—don't block the path!" *Bang!* The illusory diagram before him shattered. Su Yu frowned, reached out, and with a single slap, smashed this Shanhai into bloody fragments! *Dammit, even a Shanhai dares act this arrogant?* Su Yu cursed inwardly, rather irritated. Having squashed this annoying shrimp, he realized considerable time had passed. Hetu was probably about to ascend, as the "Calamity" divine character was throbbing quite violently. He frowned. The character throbbed harder than before... Danger? Time to pull back. No recording this time. Su Yu vanished from the spot at once. Shortly after he disappeared, Hetu ascended quickly. He wasn't smiling; he needed to keep a low profile. Flashing across the void, he soon reached the entrance to the sixth floor. This time, he intended to personally seal the entrance. He wasn't sure whether Daidai had deliberately let some people escape, but he suspected his presence might have leaked! Thus, he had come to seal it in person. Arriving at the entrance, he caught a whiff of blood. He also sensed a faint trace of blood qi lingering in the void. Brow furrowing, he reached out and snatched a coalescing drop of blood. "Died just moments ago?" Hetu muttered, feeling somewhat disappointed. A Shanhai, too—if only he had arrived earlier. Now he was down one Shanhai subordinate. He was in no rush to head up to the sixth floor. First, search the fifth floor. The drop of blood circled in his palm. Whoever killed his prospective Shanhai minion would need to be taught a lesson later. He pinched the blood droplet, shattering it, and a scene quickly materialized. In the vision, a wolf seemed to be sitting cross-legged in cultivation. Hetu didn't pay it much mind at first, but then something caught his eye. His gaze shifted, and zooming in to inspect closely, he saw what appeared to be a starlit sky spread before the wolf. Hetu was stunned. Looking closer, his brow furrowed. The image wasn't very clear, as he was only viewing through the eyes of the deceased. It was blurry, merely a rough star chart. Yet Hetu found it strangely familiar. He murmured, "***... Which family's *** is this?" He studied the chart closely, watching for a while before murmuring to himself, "No, it's not perfected yet. It's wrong! At least three apertures are misplaced..." As he stared at it, he sank into deep contemplation. Scenes forgotten for countless years resurfaced in his mind. That was when he was young... so far back that he had long forgotten all of it. That year, he had been cultivating. His father had told him that in antiquity, the most powerful technique was the Method of the Heavenly Cycle, and their ancestor was a Human King of antiquity—a figure of supreme stature, highly regarded by the Human Sovereign, who had received the inheritance of the Method of the Heavenly Cycle... His family possessed the inheritance. From that day on, he cultivated painstakingly, opening apertures, opening more apertures—until his peers had all reached the Shanhai Realm, while he was still opening apertures in the Qianjun Realm! Until he opened 350 apertures and could progress no further. His father told him that he was not fated to cultivate ***... He refused to accept it; he did not believe in fate! And so, a Qianjun with 350 apertures opened, a Qianjun of considerable age while his peers were already in the Shanhai Realm, set out to roam the heavens! No matter how powerful a Qianjun was, he was still only a Qianjun. He encountered countless crises, battled countless powerful foes, slaying Wanshi and butchering Tengkong—perhaps the first genius across the heavens to enter the Heaven Hunting Ranking as a Qianjun! Never before seen! Refusing to step into the Wanshi or Tengkong Realms, he fought on the All-Heavens Battlefield as a Qianjun for three years. Three years later, after fighting and slaying a top-tier Tengkong, on that day, he opened his apertures. He opened the final ten apertures! Fusing the apertures in a single day, he stepped directly into the Tengkong Realm, receiving the blessings of the Human Sovereign! The moment he stepped into the Tengkong Realm, he fought and killed Shanhai cultivators! Peers who had entered the Shanhai Realm were struck dead by him on the spot. He, Hetu, was number one in all the heavens! At this moment, many memories suddenly surged in Hetu's mind. He seemed to recall the past, recall those distant days. "The glory of the human race..." Murmuring softly, he remembered his father's dying words: "Hetu, remember, you are destined to shine across the myriad realms. You will surely restore the golden age of the Human Sovereign!" Back then, that era was not yet called antiquity. Because back then, not much time had elapsed since the fall of antiquity. "The golden age of the Human Sovereign..." Murmuring, Hetu shook his head, a headache throbbing within. He looked toward the entrance to the sixth floor. An impulse surged within him—he wanted to see that wolf-headed fellow... A fake; that was a human! Without a doubt, a human! This was the human race's Zhoutian Aperture chart! Non-humans could almost never grasp it. "Who was it?" "Su Yu?" Hetu muttered, *Did I just see Su Yu!* Su Yu, disguised as a wolf, wasn't he? *Wretched brat, leaving just before I arrived—did he know I was coming?* "Are you afraid?" "Did you know I was coming?" "Did you know I was going to blow you to pieces and settle scores with you?" Hetu muttered. Moments later, Daidai appeared beside him, asking blankly, "Who are you going to... blow to pieces?" Hetu laughed. "Blow an annoying human brat to pieces! But... I'll let him know that at the same cultivation stage, I'm invincible too! I'll beat him to pieces at the same stage!" "And... what if you can't?" Daidai didn't know why he asked this, but he asked nonetheless. Hetu laughed. "Then I'll cripple him first, and *then* beat him to pieces at the same stage!" "..." An unassailable answer! Daidai remained wooden, feeling something was amiss yet unable to put his finger on what, and said no more. Hetu laughed, his voice booming out grandly: "My boys, slaughter them! Search—comb through every inch for me, don't let a single one escape!" Having spoken, Hetu looked up again and laughed. "Su Yu... I hold grudges. Everyone who offended me ended up dead!" "You're quite a genius... I'm actually growing fond of you..." He had noticed that Su Yu was deducing the Method of the Heavenly Cycle. Good heavens, he was actually deducing it himself. Even if much of it seemed already perfected—perhaps obtained by Su Yu through sheer luck—perfecting the Method of the Heavenly Cycle was still an unfathomable feat. At this moment, he was certain that person was Su Yu! Don't think pretending to be a wolf will stop me from recognizing you! "Humph, this lord will hunt down every member of the wolf race! Are you human, or a human-wolf half-breed? Could you really have a wolf's head?" Hetu wasn't entirely certain; a half-breed might also be capable of cultivating human arts. Hetu thought no further. As long as Su Yu was inside the Star Residence Mansion, he wouldn't escape! ... Meanwhile, Su Yu ascended to the sixth floor, his brow furrowing slightly. The "Calamity" divine character was still throbbing! *What the hell? Is Hetu skipping the search on the fifth floor and heading straight up?* Su Yu frowned. Around him stood several figures. Seeing Su Yu emerge, a Sun Moon expert barked, "Fellow of the Dark Fiend Wolf race, how is the situation below?" Nervousness laced the speaker's tone. They had been posted to watch the passage, but they were scared to death of a dead spirit monarch showing up. Yet someone had ordered them here, and they didn't dare disobey. Right now, the entrance from the sixth to the seventh floor had not yet opened, and they were anxious. The people working to open the entrance were anxious too! With no other choice, they had stationed people here on lookout. Su Yu looked around. Just four individuals: one Sun Moon and three Shanhai, all looking extremely tense. Even the Sun Moon was merely at the first stage of the Sun Moon Realm; stronger experts wouldn't dare or deign to come. They weren't from major races, but minor ones. Su Yu smiled. "Not much of an issue. Hetu just entered the fifth floor..." "That's good..." As he spoke, the Sun Moon expert felt something was off. *You're awfully bold, and far too disrespectful toward me!* Just as the thought crossed his mind, dozens of Sun Moon behemoths swiped out, instantly sweeping all four of them into the book. Su Yu didn't kill that Sun Moon. Killing him would trigger an atmospheric anomaly. The person who stationed him here surely had the same calculation—if a Sun Moon died, everyone would know a powerhouse had arrived. That might work to detect dead spirits, who didn't care about such tricks, but against him, it was useless! Su Yu paid no heed to anything else and continued experimenting. He sensed he was on the verge of completing the deduction. 358! Su Yu felt a burst of joy. His backside exploded once more, but it didn't matter. He had connected 358 apertures—only the final two apertures remained, leaving just two possibilities! It was merely a matter of which one to link first! "Let me be lucky just this once! Just once—if I succeed on the first try, I won't have to blow up again!" Su Yu prayed. Just spare him one explosion! A fifty-fifty choice—was that asking too much? At this moment, he was more nervous than during the previous hundred-plus explosions! The next instant, the apertures lit up again! *Boom!* Su Yu's face turned livid. Where had his luck gone? Why did he manage to blow up even on a fifty-fifty choice! "Humph! Hetu! It's all your fault!" Su Yu huffed. You arrived too quickly, forcing me to come up. Otherwise, on the fifth floor, I might have suffered one less explosion! Yet his smile soon returned. At this moment, his smile was exceptionally radiant. I... seem to have succeeded! All in all, only 138 explosions! The next instant, Su Yu circulated it, executing the final remaining possibility! Aperture after aperture lit up! One, two... 300... 359! The final aperture: the Sky-Piercing Aperture! *Boom!* This was not an explosion, but a resonant reverberation. In this moment, all 360 apertures resonated within his body like a furnace! *Rumble!* Fierce tremors thundered through his body. Outside Su Yu, copious amounts of tainted blood were expelled—accumulations from his recent injuries. The blood was purged! Not only that, cloud after cloud descended from the void, in boundless numbers... Su Yu cursed under his breath, *Holy shit!* *Such a massive commotion?* *There are even rewards?* *This works too?* *Damn it, won't people notice me now?* He swept up all the clouds in an instant and vanished on the spot. Shortly after he left, several Sun Moon experts appeared where he had been. All were high-stage Sun Moon cultivators, their faces heavy. "What's going on?" "A reward from heaven and earth?" "Where is Fuhu? Why are they gone? He shouldn't be dead yet, or there would have been an atmospheric anomaly... It wasn't a dead spirit; dead spirits don't receive rewards for killing... If Fuhu wasn't killed, could someone have killed the other three Shanhai and received a reward?" "..." The Sun Moon experts were exceedingly solemn. What on earth was going on? Who had arrived? Who just came up from the fifth floor? More importantly, Fuhu was at least a first-stage Sun Moon, yet he had vanished without a sound. And why had that person received a heaven-and-earth reward? Even though they hadn't arrived in time, they could still sense the immensely potent power of the descending clouds. The Sun Moon cultivators exchanged glances, utterly grim. The sixth floor wasn't safe either! They had to reach the seventh floor immediately. Before the threat of Hetu had even been resolved, another unforeseen variable seemed to have cropped up. ... Meanwhile, Su Yu trembled continuously as aperture after aperture pulsed into him. Invigorating! Cleansing and resounding, his entire being was like a furnace! All 360 apertures were undergoing transformation. The origin qi inside the apertures was actually absorbing the heaven-and-earth reward from just now. That heaven-and-earth reward was an extraordinarily unique type of origin qi—Su Yu didn't even know what it was, only that it was assisting him in completing a transformation! The Nine Origin Qi Transformations had officially begun! The heaven-and-earth reward seemed poised to help him complete one origin qi transformation! Was this the reward? The saber qi residing in 144 of his apertures was actually scattered and washed away at this moment! Su Yu sensed the faint trace of the power of rules! The reward's power likely had something to do with the rules. ... Meanwhile. The seventh floor. Xia Longwu froze slightly. *Su Yu?* *Not too far from me?* *No... wait, that brat seems to have... seems to have dispelled my saber qi!* He knew Su Yu had completed a simple origin qi transformation long ago, seemingly entering the Lingyun Realm yet not quite. But today, Su Yu appeared to have broken through his saber qi! *He... actually looked down on my saber qi?* Xia Longwu's gaze went slightly blank. *I, Xia Longwu, a powerhouse who attained the Dao, a figure who has slain Invincibles—even before attaining the Dao, my saber qi reigned supreme under heaven. When someone used my saber qi to complete an origin qi transformation, I thought the kid had boundless nerve. Yet today, that fellow actually dispelled my saber qi!* "How arrogant!" Xia Longwu barked softly. *If you won't use my saber qi to transform, do you think my saber qi is weak?* *That brat... he actually sneaked in!* *Not only did he sneak in, he dispelled my saber qi right in my vicinity!* *Insolent brat, how arrogant. Don't let me run into you! The trouble is... now that he's dispelled my saber qi, I might not even be able to find him!*