Entering the Dead Spirit Realm

The seventh floor was deserted at this moment, and Su Yu had no intention of calling out to the people inside the barrier. Yun Chen was there; he would come out when the time was right. For now, aside from the volatile factor that was Old Zhou, everything was relatively safe. Once anyone stepped outside, they would still have to beware of dead spirits emerging from the passageway. When this place settled down, if no rule power descended to suppress it again, the seventh floor would become a dead spirit paradise! "However, there's little chance of reaching the eighth floor—there's a gatekeeper guarding it!" Lost in thought, Su Yu soon arrived at the seventh-floor entrance. Tearing open the passage once more, he flew toward the sixth floor. Tearing through the passageway required strength, and Su Yu's current power was clearly more than sufficient. …… On the sixth floor. When Su Yu tore open the passageway and stepped through, the people recuperating nearby turned toward the entrance with guarded expressions. Who had arrived? Soon, they caught sight of Su Yu, clad in snow-white robes, as well as Xingyue, around whom death qi roiled. A few shared odd glances. Su Yu's relationship with this dead spirit was astonishingly good. The other dead spirits had all departed, yet this one remained. Was this Monarch Xingyue, the one who had converted Su Yu? Since when could the living and the dead get along so harmoniously? Amid the curious looks, Zhu Tianfang soon streaked through the air and landed before Su Yu, asking with a smile, "Is Blood Fire dead?" "Yes!" Su Yu smiled and cupped his hands. "His death was fairly clean. Going by the commotion, that figure from the Heavenly Division might not be dead, but I didn't spot him on the seventh floor, nor did he seem to be on the eighth. I don't know whether he entered the Dead Spirit Realm or vanished into the passage of time. Either way, he won't be returning to the myriad realms anytime soon!" No matter which path he took, returning to the myriad realms would be no simple feat. Especially through the Dead Spirit Realm—unless he used an ancient city passageway. The crux was that he would need Su Yu's permission! If Su Yu refused, where could he possibly go? Without lingering, Su Yu soon flew toward King Daqin. King Daqin was currently seated cross-legged. He opened his eyes to look at Su Yu. Saying nothing unnecessary, Su Yu took out the medicine cauldron and opened it, sending eight pills spiraling into the air once more. The rich medicinal fragrance drew the covetous gazes of every expert present. King Daqin's eyes flickered. Su Yu smiled. "Consider this my gift to the backbone of humanity! These eight pills should be enough to restore Your Majesty's remaining incarnation substantially—perhaps even back to the ninth tier. With the Guiyuan Saber to aid you, you won't necessarily be much weaker than before! The only drawback is that you have lost two opportunities for resurrection..." With that, Su Yu added, "I hope Your Majesty does not follow the Demon Emperor's path! Before he died, Blood Fire told me that the rise of any race, the rise of any powerhouse, is never built upon sacrificing the next generation!" "If even the demons understand that truth, I trust Your Majesty does as well!" Su Yu caught the eight pills, sealed them, and handed them to King Daqin. Bowing slightly, he said, "Consider this my modest contribution to our race. I hope these treasures are used for the sake of our people, rather than for personal benefit." The race, and the individual. King Daqin was an individual, yet he also represented humanity. Su Yu's meaning was crystal clear: because King Daqin represented the race, this was a tribute honoring his defense of humanity. If he ever strayed from that original purpose, he would have no right to keep the treasure. King Daqin looked at him in silence for a moment before reaching out to take the pills. He said calmly, "Set your mind at ease." Su Yu said no more and turned to leave. Right at that moment, the void shuddered. Su Yu whipped around, his eyes narrowing slightly. In the distance, an enormous ancient beast materialized. Its body was semi-translucent! Kongkong rarely revealed his true form, yet Su Yu recognized him at a glance: it was Kongkong of the Ancient Space Beast race. He was about to attain the Dao! Surprised at first, Su Yu quickly understood as he spotted Huang Jiu standing nearby, looking intensely anxious. Huang Jiu had not even paid attention to Su Yu's arrival. Su Yu could understand and took no offense. The grace of upbringing outweighed the grace of birth; in Huang Jiu's heart, no one in the myriad realms—not even the Liu family—could compare to Kongkong. Because Kongkong had treated her exceptionally well! Su Yu did not interfere, choosing instead to watch Kongkong attaining the Dao in the void. He chose not to leave just yet, wanting to see whether watching an Ancient Space Beast attain the Dao could assist his own comprehension of a space-attribute divine character. In the void, a massive river of time manifested! From this river of time stepped an enormous Ancient Space Beast. That appeared to be his future-life incarnation, looking remarkably powerful. Fusing the future first, the future incarnation instantly merged into Kongkong's true body. Yet within Kongkong's massive pupils lay a trace of gravity. The next instant, an overwhelmingly formidable power surged forth as another figure stepped out from the river of time. This figure was completely different from the first. It was exceptionally strong! Thick immortal qi radiated from it, discernible even from afar. Alongside the immortal qi was an intensely rich aura of heaven yuan qi. At this moment, everyone understood. This past-life incarnation had utilized the coffin lid! Tiangu's coffin lid was considered a peak Heaven armament. Moreover, Tiangu had used it for countless years, imbuing it with lingering dao resonance. Curious, Su Yu asked, "How did he steal Tiangu's coffin lid? Did Tiangu not keep it on his person?" It was a peculiar situation! Beside him, King Daqin glanced at Kongkong and explained, "It had something to do with humanity. Back then, several of us ventured into the Immortal Realm to scout the situation and alarmed Tiangu. Tiangu was in the middle of cultivation, which he abandoned halfway through to scour the world for us. Kongkong seized the opportunity to infiltrate Tiangu's lair and snatch his coffin lid. As for the coffin itself, Tiangu had already refined it, so Kongkong couldn't take it. As for the lid, because it was part of a matching set, Tiangu hadn't refined it separately..." Su Yu had to admit that Kongkong had been exceptionally audacious. His timing had also been impeccable! Su Yu continued, "Your Majesty has been to the Immortal Realm to investigate, and even seized the Ancient Heaven Yuan Tree. In my view, the Immortal Realm might harbor the greatest number of ancient relics. Is Tiangu truly the oldest among them?" "Hard to say!" King Daqin said solemnly, "The Immortal Realm hasn't deployed many forces over the years. The gods, demons, humans, and dragons have all suffered losses, while the Immortals lost the least. Had multiple immortal kings not been slain this time, the Immortal race would have gone over four hundred years without losing a single Eternity! During the previous tidal changes, some old relics of the Immortal race likely survived!" He added, "During the last tidal change, humanity's ultimate defeat might have been linked to the Immortals as well!" Su Yu asked, "How much does Your Majesty know about the previous tidal changes?" King Daqin fell silent for a moment before suddenly sealing off their surroundings. He whispered, "Not much. The only thing I know for certain is that no matter how powerful humanity became, no matter how fast we rose, humanity always met with defeat in the end! We either retreated or were wiped out... without exception! Across nine tidal changes, countless human powerhouses were unable to alter that outcome. The waters of the myriad realms run far deeper than what we see!" He looked toward Su Yu. "I've read records of the last tidal change. Humanity was exceptionally strong! The ninth tide was perhaps humanity's most powerful, second only to the first. Nine is the ultimate limit; logically, humanity should have either achieved total victory or suffered total annihilation, leaving no chance for another tide! Yet halfway through the ninth tide, an unforeseen disaster struck. The Human King of that era was slain, and humanity collapsed..." Su Yu nodded. "You mean that at the critical juncture of every tidal change, a force has always suppressed humanity, preventing us from rising again!" "Precisely!" King Daqin said grimly, "It could be ancient survivors, something else entirely, or perhaps related to the Ancient Council! Yet humanity was never eradicated, which clearly shows we retained a few backup plans of our own! Having failed nine tidal changes, it remains to be seen whether humanity can endure this time—whether it ends here, or we hold out until the next tide!" He added, "You might want to ask those old relics in the ancient cities. They may know a thing or two." Su Yu nodded and fell silent, quietly observing Kongkong's Dao attainment in the void. Attaining the Dao through the three incarnations was neither inherently difficult nor easy; it relied heavily on opportunity and luck. If one's fortune was poor and the three incarnations refused to merge into one, attaining the Dao was impossible. At this moment, Kongkong's three incarnations were fusing rapidly. Su Yu could sense that his current incarnation had likely consumed a Nine-Leaf Heavenly Lotus to bolster itself, barely bringing the three into equilibrium. Originally, Kongkong's past incarnation was the strongest, followed by the future, with the current being the weakest. Both past and future had already reached the Invincible level, while his current incarnation had remained at the quasi-Invincible stage. Now, with the aid of the Nine-Leaf Heavenly Lotus, all three had barely attained the Invincible level. As the three incarnations began to merge, space fluctuated throughout the void. This race's Dao attainment was intimately connected to space. Su Yu watched and felt the changes in silence. While he did not understand the Dao of Space deeply, he had continuously studied and contemplated it. Beside Zhu Tianfang stood another figure: Hu Xiansheng. This master of the spatial Dao was watching Kongkong with burning eyes, noticeable spatial ripples drifting around him. Su Yu's mind stirred. He divided his attention between watching Kongkong and studying Hu Xiansheng. Hu Xiansheng had also entered a state of comprehension. His hands moved rhythmically, sending ripples through the entire space with the lightest tap. One had to remember that this environment could withstand battles between Invincibles; even an Invincible would find it somewhat difficult to tear open the space here. Hu Xiansheng had only recently broken through to the Sun Moon Realm and was merely at the second tier, yet a gentle tap from him caused the space to fluctuate. His mastery over space was already profound. *Space... traversing, point-to-point, another dimension...* Su Yu had once possessed a divine character that touched slightly upon the spatial domain—the character 'Beast'—though it had merely formed a small beast space rather than being a true spatial divine character. Even so, he had dabbled in the subject, having previously severed space and experienced its nuances. He watched Kongkong's fusion while observing Hu Xiansheng. Sensing Su Yu's gaze, Hu Xiansheng slightly slowed down his originally swift motions, allowing Su Yu to observe more clearly. In his hands, space was like pliable clay. Hu Xiansheng manipulated space at will. Before long, a tiny spatial black hole formed, exerting a gravitational pull. Hu Xiansheng slid one hand into the black hole, and suddenly, his arm emerged a hundred meters away. A point-to-point piercing! "The Dao of Space isn't particularly difficult. Outside our immediate space lie dimensions of different levels; that is how secret realms came to be! Storage rings, secret realms, teleportation arrays, teleportation gates... all of these involve the spatial domain, including the heavy spatial compression within your book..." "In truth, vanishing and appearing in an instant is simply entering another dimension and compressing space. Take your book's pages, for example: a thousand meters of space compressed down to a single meter, allowing you to cross it in a single step!" "Extending that concept further, if ten thousand meters are compressed down to one meter, I can instantly appear ten thousand meters away! Thus, in the Dao of Space and teleportation, how far you can travel depends on your strength! It is the compression of another spatial dimension..." "To put it more plainly, spatial traversal is like bending a steel rod! For an ordinary person walking along a straight, thousand-meter steel rod, you have to walk the entire thousand meters to reach the other end! What we do is bend the rod into a circle until the two ends touch, allowing us to cross from one end to the other in an instant..." Hu Xiansheng explained this for Su Yu's benefit, aware that Su Yu had repeatedly attempted to outline a spatial divine character without success. Perhaps this time, he could gain some insight. After all, Kongkong was currently attaining the Dao! Kongkong's Dao attainment proceeded swiftly. He had long been capable of it, held back only by the imbalance among his three incarnations. Now that the three were of comparable strength, their fusion was rapid. The persistent spatial ripples in the void provided Su Yu with an ideal opportunity. Su Yu ignited the Fire of Inheritance, continuously absorbing insights. He truly lacked a natural affinity for this particular path; while he usually outlined divine characters with great speed, this proved far more difficult. After an indeterminate amount of time, Kongkong let out a thunderous roar that echoed through heaven and earth! *Boom!* A cloud manifested in the void—a heavenly reward bestowed upon talents and powerhouses of Kongkong's caliber, carrying rules tied to space. At that very moment, in Su Yu's eyes, space contracted violently, exploded, contracted again, and exploded once more! Within his sea of will, a divine character gradually took shape. His thirtieth divine character manifested! Faint spatial ripples stirred around Su Yu as well. Inside his mind, the character formed with great difficulty, but a moment later, it coalesced into being. *Traverse!* It was not 'Space', nor anything else, but 'Traverse'—the character for shuttling and traveling through space! Su Yu shifted his body. It was not mere speed; he had truly vanished, only to reappear awkwardly over ten meters away after a brief pause. Hu Xiansheng's eyes flickered, and he remarked, "Too slow, and too short!" Su Yu nodded. The traversal speed was too slow, and the distance too short. Crossing a dozen meters made no difference to true powerhouses. Yet it was an excellent start! Su Yu felt a surge of joy! If his mastery over space grew stronger, a major headache would be resolved: he would no longer have to endure attacks passively. At the very least, if his spatial dao became potent enough, he could evade or strike against Invincibles and keep up with them! Of course, opponents also wielded time power to strike at past and future incarnations, which remained a grave issue, but that had nothing to do with speed. At worst, Su Yu could simply run. He would no longer face the dilemma of taking a hundred punches without being able to return a single blow. "Too weak..." It was only at Tier-2! A Tier-2 divine character was far too weak—the equivalent of the Soaring Realm. To match an Invincible, he would need at least a Tier-5 character! "Traverse, and Slow!" Both divine characters needed to be strengthened. Traversing space, slowing the opponent's speed, and arresting time... In truth, the 'Slow' character possessed a measure of temporal power, derived from the time technique of King Miecan. Strengthening these two characters would patch up one of Su Yu's greatest current shortcomings. "My willpower isn't strong enough... Advancing my willpower to the Shanhai Realm might pull my divine characters along with it!" "Therefore, I must unseal my Yin apertures..." Thoughts flashed through Su Yu's mind, filling him with satisfaction. *I had considered killing Kongkong just to see how to comprehend spatial power, but luck was on my side—I managed to comprehend it on my own.* He glanced at Kongkong. Kongkong had essentially completed his Dao attainment, though it would take a bit more time for his transformation to conclude. Su Yu said nothing more. Bowing slightly to Hu Xiansheng, he vanished from the spot. He traversed through space as he departed! Each leap covered merely a dozen meters. Soon, however, it expanded to thirty meters, fifty meters, a hundred meters... Only when a single leap carried him several hundred meters did Su Yu stop increasing the distance. Instead, he continuously blinked forward, depleting his willpower while thoroughly enjoying the process as he made his way toward the seventh-floor entrance! The onlookers watched him repeatedly vanish and reappear. After a long silence, Zhou Polong murmured, "A monster!" A true monster! Comprehending innate divine characters was as effortless to him as drinking water. A few hundred meters of spatial movement was negligible right now—some demon beasts were larger than that, making a shift of that distance meaningless against a swat of their paws. However, this was merely the beginning. Hu Xiansheng nodded slightly. "He possesses one massive advantage: spatial traversal demands a robust physical body to withstand the tearing forces of space. His physical body is exceptionally powerful. Once his divine characters advance, he won't need to worry about distance. Unlike me, whose physical body is somewhat frail, if he had the same divine character tier as mine, he could traverse ten thousand li in an instant where I could only manage ten. That is the difference." He then asked, "Just how strong is his physical body right now?" Earlier, Su Yu had seemed capable of battling Invincibles, though that had appeared to involve consuming an Invincible's blood essence. His body might not have reached the Invincible level, but rather the quasi-Invincible stage. What about now? Zhou Polong and the others remained silent. King Daqin looked in the direction of Su Yu's departure without a word. Just how strong was his body? Immense, without a doubt! Su Yu's control over his newfound strength had still been unpolished, allowing some power to leak out. King Daqin had sensed it: his physical strength was likely on par with a mid-tier Eternity. Around the fifth tier? Almost certainly! A third-tier Eternity possessed around forty million apertures of force, and a fourth-tier typically reached fifty million... Yet just now, Su Yu had given him the impression of being even stronger than Xia Longwu physically. Most modern Invincibles followed the warrior's dao, so measuring their power by aperture force was largely accurate. Setting aside time manipulation and extreme speed, Invincibles no longer held any significant physical advantage over Su Yu. "A terrifying lad!" King Daqin remarked inwardly. Looking at the eight pills in his hands, each radiated immense potency. Without a word, he swallowed one directly. With a thunderous boom, his blood qi surged violently, his flesh casting a brilliant golden radiance. King Daqin felt the effects silently. A truly extraordinary pill! He wouldn't need all eight; at most five would restore his past-life incarnation to peak condition. However, a past incarnation was naturally slightly weaker than the current and future ones. Even at its peak, it would only reach the threshold of the ninth tier of Eternity. Still, a past incarnation had its perks—at the very least, it made him look younger, didn't it? King Daqin chuckled inwardly. He was currently taming and refining the Guiyuan Saber. Once he returned to early ninth-tier Eternity, complemented by the saber, he wouldn't necessarily be weaker than before. The Guiyuan Saber might have been more suitable for King Daxia. However, it was an external artifact rather than an innate path; King Daxia was better off treading his own dao. As these thoughts crossed King Daqin's mind, he looked once more toward Su Yu's receding figure. That youth was indeed shockingly generous at times. Anyone else would have hoarded such precious medicines as family heirlooms for their descendants. "The eighth floor..." The eighth floor held both opportunities and peril. Blood Fire had encountered peril, while the opportunity had fallen to Su Yu, likely claimed by slaying Blood Fire at great personal risk. "Rest assured, I can hold the line for a while longer!" King Daqin said to himself. Humanity still needed a banner, and Su Yu was not yet ready—at least, he could not yet suppress everything. Even if he could, now was not the time. Every generation of Human Kings faced mortal peril. He had to draw out those hidden dangers first! *Boom!* King Daqin's aura erupted with terrifying force. A great saber materialized in his grasp, and a slight swipe tore open the void. Nearby, Zhu Tianfang and the others were overjoyed! Not far away, the Invincibles of the Five Elements race and Fate race inhaled sharply. Humanity's fortune was astonishingly prosperous. Given wounds as grievous as King Daqin's, anyone else would have been fortunate simply to survive. Yet King Daqin... no, Su Yu had tossed out treasures one after another, forcibly reversing the grim situation where King Daqin had lost two of his three incarnations! As a result, the damage to King Daqin's combat prowess remained very limited! By displaying his strength and revealing the Guiyuan Saber before them, King Daqin had made his intentions clear: whether they spoke of it or not no longer mattered much to him. Weighing the pros and cons, silence was their wisest choice. The expert of the Five Elements race quickly offered a flattering smile. "Congratulations to King Daqin on recovering your strength and ascending to even greater heights!" A congratulatory word signaled that they understood his message. King Daqin managed a somewhat stiff smile. "It is nothing. My thanks!" "You are too modest..." They smiled, their thoughts turning to Su Yu's departing words. Once outside, the message was simple: Su Yu had done it all! He did not fear retaliation! Anyone seeking revenge was welcome to come at him! …… On the seventh floor. Following behind Su Yu, Xingyue asked in confusion, "Why did you give those precious medicines to King Daqin? Even if they couldn't advance your cultivation realm, a single pill could heal all your injuries if you were severely wounded!" Su Yu chuckled softly. "It was all for your sake, My Lady. I cannot afford to grow any stronger right now. For your sake, I had to give those treasures away, lest I fail to resist the urge and forcefully advance myself." Xingyue regarded him with deep suspicion, clearly unconvinced. Su Yu smiled. "My Lady, let us not speak of that. Your strength seems somewhat diminished... Does a dead spirit only need to devour large amounts of death qi to grow stronger?" "No..." Xingyue replied stiffly, "Death qi is merely one component. There are also dead spirit imprints, and one must enter the Dead Spirit Heavenly River..." "Is that so?" Su Yu smiled. "My Lady, is the Dead Spirit Realm dangerous?" "Very." "If I convert into your subordinate, will there be danger?" As he spoke, the vitality on Su Yu's body began to dissipate, quickly transforming into death qi. He asked, "My Lady, can you tell that I am a living being like this?" Xingyue looked him over and shook her head. "No. However..." She pointed at Su Yu's chest. "There... there is blood qi. Dead spirits possess no blood qi, only death qi! You can seal your heart, but your strength will likely drop somewhat afterward." The heart was the central hub supplying blood qi. Su Yu nodded. Sealing his heart would indeed cause his combat strength to decline slightly. No matter! He would simply seal it! If anyone saw through him when he unsealed it, he would kill them to silence them. Slaying a few dead spirits was hardly a big deal! Entering the Dead Spirit Realm without disguising oneself as a dead spirit was sheer suicide! Soon, Su Yu shifted his form. His entire body turned pitch-black, and his heartbeat ceased entirely. After a moment's consideration, a cloak draped over his shoulders. He had initially considered white, but abandoned the flashy idea and settled on black. Now clad in a black cloak, he stood beside Xingyue, who wore red. She shot him a peculiar look. *Why are you imitating me?* Su Yu ignored her and made a few more adjustments. Before long, the book in his hand transformed into a staff. He asked with a smile, "My Lady, do I look like a dead spirit summoner?" "..." Xingyue could not be bothered to respond. By now, the two had reached the dead spirit entrance on the seventh floor. The Prince Gong Mansion had vanished, leaving the dead spirit passageway desolate and quiet, faint rule power coalescing around it. After assessing it, Su Yu shook his head. "Without human intervention, this meager rule power cannot stop dead spirit monarchs. This place will soon become a dead spirit dominion. But after I leave, do not return here, My Lady! This place is dangerous—not only because of that formidable entity, but because perils linger on the eighth floor as well. Furthermore, this place opens once every ten years, yet anyone who lingers behind always meets a grim end. I suspect that during every closed period, someone comes to sweep the Star Residence Mansion clean..." "Sweep?" Xingyue asked in confusion, "Sweep what?" Su Yu smiled. "Like sweeping trash. Any outsiders lingering past the designated time are considered trash, and trash must naturally be cleared away!" With that, he glanced toward the entrance leading to the eighth floor. It was visible once more. Su Yu raised an eyebrow and transmitted his voice, "The eighth-floor entrance closes when danger looms and reappears once the danger passes. Such adaptability can hardly be achieved by rigid rules alone! Only living beings—living rules, like Lord Xinghong and the other stone statues—could make timely adjustments like that!" Since ancient beings like the stone statues existed in the ancient cities, it was hardly surprising that similar beings resided here! Xingyue showed little interest in the matter. Looking toward the dead spirit entrance, she asked with some confusion, "Did they all die?" Many dead spirit monarchs had arrived! A fair number had been present initially, and many Invincibles had fallen afterward, summoning a monarch with each death. In the final moments, nearly thirty dead spirit monarchs had gathered. Had they perished? Or were they still alive, simply too terrified to return? "They certainly didn't all die!" A few had undoubtedly perished, but Old Zhou had not charged into the Dead Spirit Realm, meaning some monarchs must have fled. Dangers would still await them upon entering. Su Yu quickly instructed, "Once we enter, tell them I am a quasi-Invincible dead spirit you converted!" "Understood!" Xingyue gave a straightforward nod. Su Yu then asked, "Is this place far from Xinghong Ancient City?" "Not too far. Cross thirty-two dead spirit monarch domains, and you will reach my domain!" Xingyue's voice carried a sudden hint of pride! "My domain is exceedingly powerful!" Su Yu nodded perfunctorily. *Who are you trying to fool?* *Exceedingly powerful? As if I'd believe that!* *When the Flame Demon invaded last time, your domain was utterly useless!* The crux was thirty-two domains... She was truly something. How had she even made the journey? "Did you encounter any danger on your way here, My Lady?" "It was manageable!" Xingyue declared proudly, "I possess formidable strength and merely borrowed their paths. Those weaklings dared not obstruct me!" *Is that so?* *You must have fought several bloody battles along the way!* Having gathered a basic understanding of the Dead Spirit Realm, Su Yu took a deep breath and stepped into the dead spirit passageway. It was time to take a look! At the very least, he needed to find Hetu. Without Hetu, Su Yu had no idea where the teleportation array was located. If he couldn't find Hetu, tracking down Daidai would suffice as well—assuming Daidai hadn't perished. Su Yu wasn't entirely certain. Moreover, Daidai seemed very familiar with King Daqin, suggesting he might be a human powerhouse from this very tidal change. Having consumed the Life and Death Fruit, there was no telling whether he had regained a shred of his humanity. Furthermore, if he found Hetu, they could discuss how to convert a dead spirit back into a living being. Right now, Xingyue was of diminishing help to him. Should he help convert Xingyue? Yet Su Yu knew the risks. Hetu had known the method in the past, but had never been seen converting anyone. Before dying, Hetu had reached the ninth tier of Eternity, certainly no weaker than Su Yu was now. If even he hadn't managed to convert any dead spirit monarch into a living person, could Su Yu pull it off? Thus, Su Yu refrained from acting rashly. He would ask around first! Stepping into the Dead Spirit Realm, death qi surged around him. Su Yu looked up at the murky gray sky. Far in the distance, a vast river seemed to span across the heavens, bisecting the realm. That was likely the Dead Spirit Heavenly River! …… At that very moment. Several hundred li from the dead spirit passageway, several dead spirit monarchs were staring into the distance, their hearts fluttering with terror. Even now, they had yet to fully recover from their fright. One monarch whispered, "Tuofa, are we going back?" It was far too dangerous! They had never known that such a horrifying entity resided on the other side of the passage. They had thought the Guiyuan Saber was the greatest peril! Only now did they realize that a terrifyingly peerless existence lurked inside the Star Residence Mansion. Tuofa grunted sullenly, "Wait a bit longer! We don't know whether Xingyue survived. She seems connected to those humans, and that terrifying existence appeared to have been provoked by them. If Xingyue isn't dead, we can ask her whether it's safe to return!" This was their home territory; if they couldn't return, they would be reduced to wandering aimlessly through the Dead Spirit Realm. Just as they were pondering this, a faint chuckle sounded by their ears: "If you truly have nowhere to go, the Kingdom of Hongmeng welcomes you as guests!" Hetu! He had come to recruit! No, he had come to hoodwink some thugs! In the distance, Hetu strolled toward them with refined composure, a pleasant smile across his dark face that appeared thoroughly trustworthy. Yet the dead spirit monarchs glared at him with furious eyes—because earlier, Hetu had fled faster than any of them!