A Bountiful Harvest!

Having obtained Xia Chen's promise allowing him to take the Sea of Consciousness Mystic Realm, Su Yu seemed to recall something and asked again, "Senior Xia, will your memories still fade now?" "Not for now. With the King Wen Token protecting me, there shouldn't be much of an issue!" Xia Chen replied. Su Yu said in delight, "Then can Senior stay here with Xingyue permanently?" "Hmph!" From above, Xingyue sat impassively upon her throne, her earlier curiosity for gossip vanishing in an instant as she said coldly, "My domain does not permit outsider monarchs to enter!" "We're on the same side—" Xingyue gave another cold snort. Even so, it was unacceptable! Xia Chen gave a small smile and soon said, "Probably not. I... fear I must leave." "Leave?" Su Yu asked in surprise, "To look for King Wen Manor?" "No." Xia Chen shook his head, pondered a moment, and said, "Someone is likely coming from the other side of the River of Dead Spirits! I have a feeling... someone will probably arrive soon. I must cross over... From what I understand, the dead spirit realm is likely divided between inner and outer domains. I may have to go to the other side." Hearing this, Hetu said dismissively, "What's there to fear? We'll just go attack the Old Turtle's territory. Whoever comes won't make a difference!" When trouble arose, go attack the Old Turtle's turf! This had been his experience over countless years! In his furious wrath, the Old Turtle would sweep across all directions, potentially wiping out his own enemies along with the rest. Hetu had indeed experienced this firsthand. Xia Chen chuckled. "Hard to say. Senior Hongmeng belongs to King Gong's lineage, after all. I am different..." Hetu opened his mouth as if to speak, but held back and said nothing. That Old Turtle hadn't exactly been an angel all these years, but he had technically helped Hetu out several times. Sometimes Hetu even wondered whether the Old Turtle had killed him back then because his hand had been forced. But... some things belonged to the past. He was a dead spirit now; murderous intent would always hold sway. At that thought, Hetu narrowed his eyes and turned to Su Yu. "Be careful. Don't go opening dead spirit passageways for no reason recently. I've actually realized something. When I summoned dead spirit monarchs back then, the ones that came through might have been bastards from across the River of Dead Spirits! Now that they know you can open them too... if you open a passage again and no one below is there to receive you... watch out for someone exploiting the opening!" With that, he added, "Your death qi is too thick. Watch yourself. Even if you don't want to open one, it might open passively! The major races won't let you off easily. In all likelihood, they will try to contact the dead spirit realm! Since they could obtain a Dead Spirit Guiding Token, it means they have ways to communicate with the dead spirit realm. Once they force you to open a dead spirit passageway, that might be your death knell! And not just yours—it could be the Old Turtle's and the other guardians' as well..." Just like himself all those years ago! The Old Turtle had only two choices: kill him, or let the guardians be killed! Now, Su Yu was hard to kill, and the guardians were hard to kill. Reenacting the events from a hundred thousand years ago was their best option. The Old Turtle would be forced to make a choice again, just like back then. Either execute Su Yu for breaking the rules, or endure the retribution of the rules alongside Su Yu, waiting for the rules to annihilate them all! At these words, Wan Tiansheng also warned, "There is a strong possibility of this. Su Yu, your hidden cards have all been exposed this time! Once they find an opportunity to assassinate you and force you to mobilize massive amounts of death qi, the passageway could open passively even if you don't do it intentionally. Once that passageway opens... if several dead spirits emerge and slaughter indiscriminately, it will cause immense trouble!" Su Yu nodded. "True. After all, the warning lesson from the past is right here!" That phrase... made a certain dead spirit rather unhappy! What did that mean? Who was he taking a jab at? Su Yu didn't dwell on it. It was the truth—the precedent was right before them. Caution was indeed necessary: beware of surprise attacks, assassinations, sieges, or being cornered somewhere where he had no choice but to open a dead spirit passageway. When you tried to escape... only to discover that you didn't recognize the dead spirits below, and not only did you not recognize them, but they would try to kill you, or simply rampage outside and slaughter everyone—then you would be done for! If the major god and demon races truly plotted, they might target not just Su Yu, but also those guardians. After all, the guardians had posed a serious threat to them this time. Once a dead spirit crisis erupted and Su Yu, the chief culprit, hadn't died... while the rampage spiraled out of control, what about the Old Turtle and the others? Su Yu froze slightly! He suddenly asked, "Lord Hetu, if you hadn't died back then and Lord Hongmeng hadn't killed you, what trouble would have followed?" "Trouble?" Hetu thought it over. "Dereliction of duty as guardians, punished by the rules! The parliamentary tribulation descending... The Old Turtle probably wouldn't have survived it either, right?" Su Yu frowned. "Then by that logic, if I open a dead spirit passageway and then hide somewhere where Lord Hongmeng and the others can't find me, and dead spirits run rampant, they would all be punished. Would I be punished too?" "Both of you would!" Su Yu drew in a breath. "Holy crap! That means I'm a critical factor! If someone captures me alive, forces open a dead spirit passageway, and the dead spirits rampage beyond control, wouldn't both the guardians and I be finished?" "Yes!" Hetu nodded. "There are pros and cons to everything. Every action comes with a price!" "If Lord Hongmeng and the others die, will anyone actually take over guarding?" "They will!" Hetu said casually, "Major races like the gods, demons, and immortals will dispatch people to guard! They're unwilling right now only because the General of Spirit Suppression is the Old Turtle. If the Old Turtle dies too... the position of guardian actually comes with plenty of perks!" Hearing this, Su Yu felt a tremor in his heart. Honestly, with their reminder, Su Yu suddenly realized that he was profoundly important! If he really opened passages recklessly, countless people might die! Once the dead spirits spiraled out of control... he wouldn't be the only one dying. "Whew!" Exhaling, Su Yu said in a heavy voice, "You know what, I think the various races really might have such plans!" "Completely normal!" Hetu scoffed. Wan Tiansheng also said softly, "They certainly have such intentions. The moment you leave the ancient city, countless eyes will be watching you! On the Allheaven Battlefield, the guardians can come over, but what if you're in a minor realm? Or in the Human Realm? At that point, the guardians might not be able to cross over. Even if they could, the passageway wouldn't be easy to suppress... If you're besieged, open a passageway, and then get captured while the passageway remains open and dead spirits pour forth endlessly, causing horrific slaughter... your doom will have arrived!" "Of course, probably not right now!" Wan Tiansheng added, "Right now, they haven't figured out the full situation yet and won't dare act rashly. Once they figure out what's happening in the dead spirit realm, it will be a different story!" Su Yu hesitated. "The passages are under my control. Even if their people were city lords before, I control them now, and the guardians won't casually let anyone enter or exit the passageways..." Mid-sentence, Su Yu narrowed his eyes. "Tianyuan!" "Hmm?" Su Yu took a deep breath. "The Tianyuan race! I know of them—they can contact the dead spirit realm! The Tianyuan Realm is situated right on the barrier between the dead spirit realm and the living realm. Strictly speaking, the Tianyuan Realm is an actual barrier layer between the underworld and the mortal realm! An abyss! There, even some weak dead spirits can crawl out and communicate with them!" He began to understand how the major races communicated with the dead spirit realm! Without a doubt, it had to be connected to the Tianyuan race. Hetu agreed, "Indeed, the Tianyuan race! Among the myriad races, two realms are remarkably mystical: one is the Tianyuan Realm, and the other is the Destiny Realm! Hooking upward to destiny, connecting downward to dead spirits—the Tianyuan and Destiny races actually share a connection... As far as I know, the Tianyuan race was originally a traitorous branch of the ancient Destiny race, but later degenerated into the Tianyuan race..." Su Yu interrupted, "Hooking upward to destiny?" Hetu smiled. "Understood?" Su Yu drew a breath. "Understood. The old geezers emerged from there?" "Sort of!" Hetu gave a vague answer. Some matters could not be spoken of too freely, partly out of fear of rule suppression, and partly because speaking too much could easily invite inexplicable trouble. The Tianyuan race, the Destiny race! There was too much in these myriad realms that he didn't know. Sure enough, what he knew was only a tiny sliver. No wonder the Destiny and Tianyuan races hadn't been wiped out over all these years! Hetu added, "These myriad realms are far more complex than you imagine! Did you think the allheaven myriad realms were just a joke?" Hetu smiled. "To say nothing else, take the Five Elements race. The Five Elements race was once a great race with Half-Emperors. Now they have none... primarily because the five elements were split apart, and they could never merge again after that..." "Split apart?" Su Yu asked curiously, "How split apart? One person chopped into five pieces?" He laughed as he said it! Yet Hetu nodded. "Exactly. The Five Elements Patriarch was split into five parts: metal, wood, water, fire, and earth were separated. From then on, every Five Elements individual born possessed only a single attribute! You should know that the Five Elements race was once a single unified race, with each member wielding all five elements! Later, they were torn apart, and due to the constraints of the rules, the five elements could no longer be combined!" "..." Su Yu was dumbfounded! Holy crap! I was only joking, and you took it seriously! Hetu chuckled, "What, you don't believe it? It's true—my father told me..." In the distance, Xingyue sneered, "Baseless rumors! Aren't you afraid of being laughed at? The issue with the Five Elements race does have something to do with the Five Elements Patriarch, but not entirely. It was caused by a powerhouse severing the realm origin of the Five Elements Realm into five portions, making them unable to merge again! What nonsense about the Five Elements Patriarch being sliced into five pieces—a joke! The Five Elements Patriarch simply had his Five Elements origin stripped away..." "..." Hetu stared at her, mouth agape. After a long while, he mumbled sullenly, "My father told me! You hear that? My father! He was a fourth-generation grandson of King Gong, and he lived in the ancient Star Residence Mansion back then... What do you know!" Xingyue scoffed repeatedly, "A bunch of nobodies spreading baseless rumors, and you actually believe it!" "Impudent!" Hetu flared up in anger. "I am a descendant of King Gong, direct lineage of a Human King! Even this Xia Chen is at least a descendant hundreds of generations down from the War King, while I am fifth generation! You dare call me a nobody?" Xingyue looked disdainful and couldn't be bothered with him. Su Yu ignored their bickering and asked curiously, "The realm origin severed? What does that mean?" Xingyue said indifferently, "The birth of the Five Elements race is peculiar; they are nurtured naturally by heaven and earth. The Five Elements Realm was suited to giving birth to such spirits. However, because they are nurtured naturally by heaven and earth, they rely all the more heavily on their home realm's source of power and attributes—the realm origin of the Five Elements Realm! Back then, the Five Elements Patriarch offended an important figure and had his Five Elements origin stripped... Much like how your divine character battle technique or your 360 acupoints might be sealed..." "With the Five Elements Patriarch crippled and the Five Elements Realm's origin split apart, from that point on, only single-attribute spirits of heaven and earth could be born. Consequently, the Five Elements race fragmented completely into five distinct races. Prior to that, the Five Elements race was no weaker than great races like the dragon race, and was perhaps even more adept at battle!" Su Yu asked in surprise, "Was the Five Elements Patriarch powerful?" "A Half-Emperor!" Xingyue remarked indifferently, "Certainly stronger than the Half-Emperors of today!" "Then how was he crippled? Who crippled him?" Su Yu thought of something. "Was the cultivation art they practiced back then the Five Elements Divine Art?" "Yes!" Xingyue said calmly, "Later on, the Five Elements Divine Art was classified as a forbidden manual. The ancient parliament seemed to have established a rule forbidding anyone from practicing the Five Elements Divine Art, under threat of punishment." Su Yu came to an understanding! Right! He had encountered it himself! That lightning tribulation couldn't be called overwhelmingly powerful, but weak... honestly, only Su Yu could have endured it. Anyone else who had just entered the Soaring Realm would have perished long ago against such a tribulation! That thing could strike an ordinary Lingyun cultivator dead without trouble! Su Yu was exceptionally strong, so he hadn't felt much, but he could imagine that if members of the Five Elements race cultivated it and succeeded... heh, ninety-nine out of a hundred would be struck dead! The remaining one would be left half-crippled! Out of a thousand, perhaps only one could fully withstand it—and even that was an overestimation. Su Yu pondered and said, "Wait, that's not right. I know a guy who seems to be merging the five elements, and can even utilize the power of all five!" "Hmm?" Xingyue was surprised, and Hetu also asked in surprise, "How come I didn't know?" "A nobody, a young fellow named Foutuling!" A nobody? Hetu felt relieved, but soon added, "The Five Elements race was split apart by the power of rules. Wielding the power of all five elements... isn't that unlikely?" Unless he could resist the rules! Xingyue pondered and said, "Not necessarily. There are two possibilities! First, he was born near the Five Elements Realm's origin and absorbed the five elemental powers, so after birth, he might be able to wield the power of the five elements! Second, it is related to the Five Elements Patriarch. When the Five Elements Patriarch was stripped of his Five Elements origin... that stripped origin seemingly wasn't taken away, but was left in the Five Elements Realm. So he might have been born directly from that Five Elements origin, effectively making him the Five Elements Patriarch reborn!" "..." What did that mean? Su Yu quickly asked, "Is the Five Elements Patriarch dead?" "He didn't die at first. By now... in all likelihood, he is dead!" Xingyue said nonchalantly, "Having had his Five Elements origin stripped, he didn't die immediately, but his strength declined. After so many years, he is almost certainly dead! If he is dead, then rebirth from the Five Elements origin becomes possible! Rebirth through destruction!" Su Yu's eyes flickered. Rebirth through destruction—Foutuling! "So that means Foutuling could be the Five Elements Patriarch?" Xingyue said indifferently, "He's already dead, so how could he count as the Five Elements Patriarch? At most, he could be considered... a son? Or a daughter? The Five Elements race has no distinction of gender; they are nurtured naturally by heaven and earth, all the same!" Su Yu drew in a sharp breath. "Even putting it that way, he counts as direct first-generation bloodline of the Five Elements Patriarch—the bloodline of an ancient Half-Emperor?" "Barely, I suppose!" Su Yu clicked his tongue. That status was extraordinarily noble! No wonder! No wonder that grandson Foutuling enjoyed such a high status in the Five Elements race. Whenever something happened to him, Invincibles showed up one after another to rescue him! Invincible talisman seals were handed out several at a time! Whether that guy was born near the Five Elements Realm's origin or reborn from the Five Elements Patriarch's origin energy, he was the hope of the Five Elements race! It all made sense now! Last time, Foutuling had hidden among Jin Rui's celestial soldiers—it wasn't as if Su Yu hadn't noticed. But that grandson had known his place, and Jin Rui was the first foreign elder to join the battle, so Su Yu hadn't bothered to hassle Foutuling. Thinking of this now, he suddenly looked at Liu Hong and said, "Teacher Liu, if I remember correctly, when you bamboozled Foutuling last time, you tricked him with the Five Elements Divine Art, didn't you?" Liu Hong asked blankly, "What of it?" Su Yu sneered, "You sure know a lot! Even I didn't know the Five Elements race craved the Five Elements Divine Art the most, yet you knew!" "Wait, the Five Elements race would obviously want the Five Elements Divine Art..." Liu Hong said aggrievedly, "You could tell just from the name!" Su Yu sneered, "Is that so? I came up with the name 'Five Elements Divine Art' myself..." Liu Hong was at a loss for words. "It's such a common name! Even if I made something up off the top of my head, I'd have to make up 'Five Elements Divine Art.' What else would I call it—the 'Six Elements Divine Art'?" Fair enough! Su Yu couldn't be bothered to argue further. In his view, this fellow had simply known all along and deliberately used it to deceive Foutuling, which was why Foutuling had fallen for it so easily! "So the Five Elements Divine Art was lost to the Five Elements race?" "Mm." Xingyue gave an affirmative hum. "Most likely. No one in the Five Elements race ever cultivated it afterward." "Who did the Five Elements race offend? The Human Sovereign?" "Doesn't seem like it..." Xingyue pondered and said, "As for details, I don't retain much memory regarding this. It seemed... seemed to be related to the five elements! Perhaps the Five Elements Patriarch was too arrogant and offended a powerhouse proficient in the power of the five elements. Exactly who... hard to say." Su Yu nodded. "If your Ladyship doesn't know, then the Five Elements race probably doesn't know either. I've got it—the immortal race! The ancient Immortal Emperor was truly vicious!" "Huh?" Xingyue looked utterly baffled. The Immortal Emperor? You know? How come I don't! Hetu was blank at first, then came to realize what was going on. Wan Tiansheng remained completely calm. Needless to ask, this kid was brewing some sinister plot! Su Yu wore a look of indignation. "The Five Elements Patriarch offended the ancient Immortal Emperor! Because the Patriarch flaunted his mastery over the five elements, and the Immortal Emperor was also proficient in five-element Dao techniques, the Five Elements Patriarch acted far too arrogantly and provoked the Immortal Emperor, claiming the immortal race's five-element arts were a joke! Afterward, in a fit of rage, the Immortal Emperor defeated the Five Elements Patriarch and stripped him of his Five Elements origin. Still unsatisfied, he wielded his authority in the ancient parliament to kick the Five Elements race out of the council and even severed the realm origin power of the Five Elements Realm! Later, he even established a rule that the Five Elements Divine Art must never reappear in the world! In ancient times, every expert who knew the Five Elements Divine Art was struck dead by lightning tribulations, causing the Five Elements Divine Art to be lost forever!" Xingyue was left dazed! Hetu bobbed his head in amused amazement. Xia Chen fell into deep thought, Wan Tiansheng stroked his chin in contemplation, and Liu Hong clapped in praise: "Brilliant! The logic flows seamlessly without a single flaw! As long as someone wasn't an insider back then, they would never suspect this was fake. Absolutely brilliant!" He gave Su Yu a thumbs-up! In just a split second, you've fleshed out an ancient lost secret history from start to finish, complete with head and tail, without a trace of awkwardness! A true master! Su Yu said calmly, "The Five Elements race has over ten Invincibles, and who knows if they have hidden ones—if they do, they might even have twenty Invincibles! That's a major force. Frankly, they might not lag far behind the dragon race!" "Will they avenge this ancient grudge?" "Even Lord Hetu didn't know, which clearly means those from the First Tide didn't know the truth either. Lord Hetu's father was the great-great-grandson of King Gong and an ancient aristocrat, yet even he didn't know the exact details... which means Tiangu and the others might not know for sure either!" "When it comes to secrets involving ancient Half-Emperor-level powerhouses, I imagine only a few Human Kings or Half-Emperors knew, and they are all gone... So no one can expose us, can they?" Su Yu chuckled, "The Five Elements race... Foutuling! How interesting. If it were ordinary members of the Five Elements race, dealing with them would be difficult. But Foutuling? I know him well! A smart guy, flexible, blessed with abundant fortune—someone like him is someone we can talk business with!" This race was still quite formidable. And in the Five Elements race, Foutuling was the key figure linking all five sub-races! To think he would hear such a secret piece of history here! Pondering this, Su Yu asked again, "By the way, do your Lordships have any secret lore about other races?" See if any of it could be exploited! Today he had done nothing but listen to gossip, but it had felt great and was genuinely useful. Xia Chen had talked for ages, but only the intel about the traitor had been of much use. Xingyue and Hetu were ancient enough to have the real goods! Thinking of this, Su Yu grew somewhat curious about Xingyue's identity. "Lady Xingyue, do you truly not remember your identity from the ancient era?" Xingyue said coldly, "What is there to remember? But even if I don't remember, I was definitely far nobler than Hetu. He was merely an insignificant figure!" Hetu sneered back, "Give you an inch and you take a mile! Ever since I was alive in the First Tide, I saw you in Xinghong Ancient City, and all the way until now, you're still here, still at this strength—how can you not be embarrassed!" Xingyue glared at him icily. Was he mocking her lack of strength? "When I died, you were still alive, and now you're about to die a second time!" Xingyue snorted coldly. She simply didn't like going out hunting. The so-called hunting naturally meant hunting other dead spirit monarchs and devouring their dead spirit marks. But she rarely devoured them. Su Yu had gifted her one earlier—a seventh-stage Eternal mark. If she devoured it... her strength would likely improve! Su Yu didn't want to listen to their bickering, hoping only that they might let slip some gossip while arguing. Seeing that they weren't revealing anything, Su Yu had no choice but to ask himself, "Then what is the deal with the God-Devouring race? Do either of you know?" The God-Devouring race? Hetu frowned slightly and shook his head. "Not very clear. That race... doesn't really qualify as a race. I only faintly heard rumors that it might be connected to King Wen." Xingyue also said, "It's not very clear to me either. I only recall that Doubao... should belong to King Wen's manor." Though they didn't know, Xia Chen knew a bit and chimed in, "Doubao? Speaking of that, our tomb-guarding lineage actually has some records. At first, I thought it was food. Hearing you mention it, is that the God-Devouring Half-Emperor?" "Yes!" Xia Chen quickly said, "Then I do have some impression. Doubao... Doubao was indeed related to King Wen. Doubao... is very likely a being naturally nurtured by heaven and earth, just like the Five Elements race, or perhaps even a creature formed from the mutation of one of King Wen's divine characters..." "Nonsense!" Right as he finished, the little fur ball popped its head out. "Impossible! My Dada is so amazing—how could a single divine character of King Wen be so strong? Besides, if my Dada is a divine character, then what am I?" Xia Chen glanced at it, somewhat intrigued. "This is... a little God-Devourer?" "I'm not little!" The fur ball huffed in anger. You're the little one! Xia Chen's expression grew even more peculiar as he looked at Su Yu. "Did your divine character mutate too?" "..." Su Yu was speechless. What kind of talk was that! Xia Chen chuckled, "Your Dada... you mean Half-Emperor Doubao? If it mutated from a divine character, then you must be too, nurtured by heaven and earth. But given the era, it might treat you as its descendant." "Impossible! I was born from my Dada!" The little fur ball was furious! No, it wasn't like that—I was given birth by Dada! Su Yu suddenly recalled some rumors he had heard, and his expression turned strange. "I heard that your Mama went out to keep watch over Tiangu, and has been keeping watch for hundreds of years... Fur Ball, how old did you say you were last time?" The fur ball thought it over, calculated again, and said dejectedly, "I'm twelve!" By human reckoning, it was twelve years old. Refusing to yield, it said furiously, "I was born from Dada!" Su Yu was also rather curious. "How do you know you have a Mama? Isn't your Mama outside?" "I just know!" The fur ball puffed up, genuinely getting annoyed. Su Yu consoled it, "Then that settles it. You were born of Dada and the other. Your Mama gave birth to you by making a quick trip back to deliver you in her spare time, then left right after to continue watching Tiangu. Makes total sense!" The fur ball thought about it and nodded. True, she could take some spare time to pop back and give birth! Makes total sense! With that, it felt much more relieved and ducked back in to hide. The crowd watched Su Yu swindle the fur ball as if duping a fool... and were all left speechlessly amused! Were you serious? Popping back in her spare time to give birth? Fine! You win. It was impossible to refute anyway—unless one asked the parties involved, who knew what had really happened! Having chatted this much, Su Yu had asked everything he needed to ask. Wan Tiansheng couldn't stay here for too long either. Soon, Su Yu stood up and said, "Then we shall take our leave. Senior Xia, cultivate here for now. If any issues arise, feel free to call upon Lord Xinghong or Lady Xingyue to pass word to me..." Xia Chen nodded slightly. Hetu, on the other hand, chimed in, "Focus on raising your own strength first! I ask for nothing else; I only want resurrection! Resurrection faces two great hurdles: first, completely reversing all my death qi; second, resisting the rules!" "Rising from death to life will inevitably incur punishment from the rules!" "Heaven and earth cannot tolerate it!" Hetu said with a grim chill, "Don't go dying too fast. When I was alive, I was near Dao Integration. If you want to resurrect me, there will likely be a Dao Integration Tribulation! If I don't warn you and you resurrect me blindly, you'll harm both yourself and others!" Dao Integration Tribulation! Su Yu took a light breath. That wouldn't be easy to handle. "What about resurrecting Lady Xingyue?" "There will be a crisis of at least the eighth or ninth stage of Eternal... Deal with that first before talking. Besides, you can't reverse it instantaneously right now anyway! Su Yu, all schemes and plots ultimately come down to strength in the end!" Hetu spoke these words with genuine feeling! In the First Tide, he had simply been too weak. Though he had approached Dao Integration, he hadn't reached it in the end, which was why he had easily been schemed against and killed. Even though he had slain many enemies and even battered Dao Integrators, because he hadn't achieved that realm himself, he was still struck down. Had he possessed the power of Dao Integration back then, he could have stirred up an even greater storm! Su Yu laughed, "Of course I understand! My physical body will soon step into the Sun Moon Realm. As for willpower, reaching the peak of the Shanhai Realm won't be difficult, though the Sun Moon Realm is tricky to enter..." A group of people had been discussing Invincibles, Dao Integrators, Human Kings, and Human Sovereigns... ...and Su Yu tossed out that he would soon enter Shanhai and Sun Moon! For a moment, the crowd felt a bit dazed. Shanhai? Sun Moon? What distant designations! Su Yu continued with a smile, "I have my own path right now. For the physical body, my path is clear for the time being: keep strengthening it! For divine characters, I'll first temper them all to the Sun Moon stage, and then outline new characters to form a divine character battle technique. My current multi-character setup isn't very reliable..." "Hmm?" Xia Chen asked in surprise, "You haven't formed a divine character battle technique yet?" "Nope!" "Then how do you count as multi-character..." Su Yu laughed, "First Prefect, you're a bit behind the times. My mentor once deduced the disassembly art. Even if you don't outline a complete structure before the Soaring Realm, you can subsequently add disassembled divine characters!" "Your mentor?" Xia Chen asked blankly, "What is his cultivation? Eternal?" "No, he's in the Lingyun Realm!" "..." Silence. Xia Chen looked completely at sea. A Lingyun! That worked too? "Then how many divine characters have you outlined now..." "Thirty." "Then how have you still not formed a divine character battle technique..." Su Yu shrugged. "The battle technique has too many character base-nodes." "Too many?" "Yes, a huge number!" "More than thirty?" "Of course!" Xia Chen took a soft breath. "I was wondering why your divine characters seemed frail despite your astonishing talent. Turns out it's because you haven't outlined a complete divine character battle technique yet!" Xia Chen said urgently, "Then you should outline it as quickly as possible. Once a divine character battle technique is formed, your combat power will grow vastly stronger! According to my past hypotheses, outlining purely human divine characters..." Su Yu chimed in, "That's old news. Everyone knows that now. Only by outlining solely human divine characters can you avoid conflicting powers and smoothly advance to Sun Moon, or even Invincible! That's why mine are all human divine characters!" Xia Chen was helpless. Have I really been dead for so long? I feel so out of touch with the times! Su Yu added, "Back then, my mentor also had some theories that the human race possesses innate racial skills. When divine characters merge into one, an innate skill might emerge. Senior Xia, do you know anything about this?" "Innate racial skills?" Xia Chen furrowed his brows. Hetu asked in surprise, "Where would humans get innate skills from?" Su Yu was even more surprised. "Even the ancients didn't have them? But all the myriad races have them. Why wouldn't humans? That doesn't make sense!" He had been looking forward to the day his divine characters merged into one, hoping a formidable innate skill would appear! This had been Bai Feng's original hypothesis. Bai Feng wasn't really researching this much anymore, mostly because full unification was exceedingly difficult. He had pivoted to researching blood essence and willpower alongside Wu Lan instead. His mentor was undeniably brilliant at research, but the problem was that he dropped projects almost as fast as he started them, bouncing around like a dabbler! Hetu said blankly, "Ancient humans didn't have innate skills either. Humans simply never had them!" Su Yu immediately looked toward Xingyue. Hetu was half-baked too; he had to rely on the even older Xingyue. Xingyue frowned at him and, after a long pause, said uncertainly, "Human innate skill... The human race might truly have none! If one must speak of it... I faintly remember a rumor that whenever a Time Master appears, piercing through past and future... walking through time itself might be a sort of innate skill!" Xingyue hesitated. "I can't confirm whether it's true. Furthermore, the effect of this innate skill... might be related to time and space, piercing the barriers of time-space? I only vaguely recall someone mentioning it, but I don't know the details!" Related to time and space? Holy crap, amazing! Su Yu thought to himself, then quickly said, "Forget it, never mind for now. Once my divine characters merge in the future, I'll find out!" This concept had been proposed by Bai Feng. Others seemed to have studied it in the past, and all concluded that humans had no innate racial skills. Only Bai Feng argued that when human divine characters united into one, an innate skill might be born. But no one had accomplished it—at least not in the present era. Beside them, Wan Tiansheng spoke up, "Your physical strength is immense right now, but your divine characters are lacking, and your grasp of the power of rules is also deficient. If you don't understand laws, you won't even be able to flee! If you encounter a truly insurmountable expert, you won't stand a chance of escaping! Your raw power might overwhelm a seventh-stage Eternal, but in a true one-on-one duel, you couldn't kill them; instead, they would eventually grind you down, weaken you, and slay you!" Su Yu nodded and sighed gloomily, "I didn't want it to be like this either, but I really don't understand them yet!" Wan Tiansheng pondered. "Let's discuss it once we go back up. I'll see if I can offer you some pointers. You should be able to see the River of Time by now, right?" "I can see a sliver..." "That's enough!" Wan Tiansheng smiled, "Being able to see it is good. It means your power has reached that level. With absolute strength and sharp comprehension, you might soon grasp the power laws of time and space!" Hopefully! Su Yu said no more. Just as they were leaving, he noticed Liu Hong quietly edging toward Xia Chen. Su Yu grabbed him by the collar, and Liu Hong instantly cried out in grievance, "Su Yu, I helped you! I saved you! You're crossing the line here!" "I wasn't planning to kill you!" Su Yu scoffed, "I want to discuss some business with you—pull off a massive deal. But I'm worried the plan isn't thorough enough, so you're going to help me polish it!" "What deal?" "Sell Nine-Leaved Heavenly Lotuses!" Walking as he spoke, Su Yu said, "Selling dozens or even a hundred of them. Tell me, I just offended all the myriad races across the heavens, so they won't be easy to sell! The myriad races won't believe I'd aid my enemies either!" "How many?" "Around a hundred. What of it?" "Nine-Leaved Heavenly Lotuses?" Liu Hong was utterly stunned. Su Yu nodded and produced a Nine-Leaved Heavenly Lotus. One look made Liu Hong dizzy with shock, even if he had never seen one in person before: "It really is a Nine-Leaved Heavenly Lotus?" Behind them, Hetu and the others were also surprised and looked over at Su Yu. Hetu remarked in surprise, "It truly is!" Xia Chen also asked in bewilderment, "Where did you get so many? King Gong Manor only had nine; even if you took them all, there wouldn't be anywhere near that many!" Xingyue, however, seemed to recall something and asked hesitantly, "Smiling lotuses?" Su Yu smiled. "Nine-Leaved Heavenly Lotuses!" "Smiling lotuses!" Xingyue snorted cold disbelief. Other people's words might be trustworthy, but Su Yu was definitely lying! Hetu seemed to recall something as well and frowned, "Smiling lotuses? I seem to have some vague impression... but that stuff went missing, didn't it? Where did you find them?" "The third floor!" "Good luck!" Hetu nodded. "Still, you've offended every powerhouse out there. Are you going to sell them to the Iron-Eating race and the human race? Otherwise, why would foreign races ever believe Su Yu would sell such treasures to them?" Su Yu nodded and sighed, "Yeah, that's why these aren't easy to offload now! If I price them too high, nobody will buy; if I price them too cheap, nobody will believe it! Everyone knows I have them, but handling them right now is tricky!" He said regretfully, "If we hadn't had that massive battle earlier, maybe I could have sold them! Pulling off a scam would have worked, but now it's tough!" Though Su Yu called it tough, Liu Hong scoffed, "What's so hard about it? The bustling world pursues nothing but profit! Just look at the Human Realm: the Myriad Races Cult used to do business with the major prefectures of the human race, and they were mortal enemies!" "As long as there is profit to be had, a deal can always be struck!" "However, you have to sell them in pieces—petal by petal. Selling whole flowers won't do!" "A whole flower can birth a Dao Integrator. A single petal, on the other hand, is harmless! At most, it repairs one of their three bodies. And right now, experts missing their bodies could form a line stretching to the horizon!" Liu Hong quickly explained, "The difficulty isn't actually that high. As long as you have the nerve, whether you want to pull off a big deal or a small one, it can be done!" "What do you mean?" Su Yu looked at him. Truly, he might not always come up with the cleverest schemes on his own, but having someone offer suggestions was quite useful. "A big deal is simple!" Liu Hong smiled, "It will require Lord Hongmeng's help—secretly hunting down Warden Tianhou into the endless void so he can't get out. Then we impersonate Warden Tianhou, leverage the Hunting Heaven Pavilion's credibility, and directly contact major figures for an auction!" Su Yu frowned. "I had a falling out with him. Why would the Hunting Heaven Pavilion auction my goods?" Liu Hong smiled, "Why wouldn't they? If the Hunting Heaven Pavilion offers what you need—well, it's business, nothing is impossible. What do you need the most right now?" Su Yu thought for a moment. "I'm not lacking much, except for a circulation technique for the Great Circumference Divine Acupoints!" "Does Warden Tianhou have it?" "How would I know!" "Did King Wen have it?" "A Civilization Master, King Wen... in all likelihood, yes!" As Su Yu spoke, his gaze shifted. "He was King Wen's subordinate, so he has it? Impossible. Why would King Wen pass that down to him!" "Not necessarily! Even you aren't certain—how would the myriad races know? In that case, the transaction can be staged!" Su Yu still shook his head. "Even if Warden Tianhou had it, he wouldn't sell it to me!" "True!" Liu Hong laughed, "Still, with longer planning, it can be accomplished!" Su Yu shook his head. "That won't do. It takes too long, and I can't afford delays! I'll think of something myself... If all else fails... you do have a point; exploiting people is still viable!" Su Yu stroked his chin. "Find an enemy to collaborate with, to exploit... Would Foutuling work? Or Zhan Wushuang and Moduona? If word spreads from my mouth, nobody will believe it. If it spreads from theirs... that's a different story! Of course, we'd also have to play on the time lag..." Speaking, Su Yu's eyes gleamed. "We'll see! Aside from the Great Circumference Divine Acupoint art, I lack one other thing: carriers!" Not just lacking—desperately lacking! I'm running dangerously short! He had only integrated twenty-some carriers into his book! Wan Tiansheng asked in puzzlement, "You still lack carriers?" Didn't this kid have plenty? Su Yu suddenly remembered this and quickly turned to Xingyue: "My Lady, having slain so many Invincibles this time, were there any carriers left behind?" Xingyue said impassively, "There are. The others didn't care for them, but I gathered them up! If you render merit, I shall naturally bestow them upon you later!" Dead spirits didn't care much for such things either. Knowing Su Yu wanted them, Xingyue had indeed collected a few. "My Lady, how many?" "Nine. The rest were shattered!" What a pity. Eighteen Invincibles should have yielded at least thirty-six, yet so many were shattered, leaving only nine. Dead spirits truly didn't treasure these items; some might have dropped out only to be smashed to bits by them! Nine was still quite a lot! As for the Invincibles killed outside, Su Yu had collected a few himself—not many, just three. In the heat of battle, who had time to scavenge! All told, that was twelve. He had already fused twenty-seven, so this brought him to under forty in total. Thinking of this, Su Yu sighed, "A long road lies ahead. My civilization chronicle, including these, will have integrated fewer than forty carriers, and I'm planning to gather ten thousand!" "..." Wan Tiansheng stared at him woodenly. Beside him, Liu Hong was speechless. Forty! What a monster! An Invincible needed two—that was enough for twenty Invincibles to achieve Dao confirmation! What a brute! Lan Tian had only been talking, but you're actually damn well doing it! Wan Tiansheng was also lost for words. Su Yu paid them no mind and quickly said to Xingyue, "My Lady, I will come collect them when I have time. Bestow them upon me first, and next time I'll bring your Ladyship delicious food!" Xingyue looked at him coldly. "Render merit first!" Su Yu thought about it and nodded. "No problem! When I return, I'll go hunt down a few dead spirits and trade their dead spirit marks with your Ladyship!" Xingyue ignored him. That works! Wan Tiansheng actually really wanted to interject: Give those nine carriers to me, and I can help you kill dead spirits too... Forget it, no use competing with this kid! Besides, this dead spirit might not even pay him any attention. Su Yu chuckled and said no more. A decent harvest—time to leave! Strengthen himself, examine King Zhi's memories, and find a way to pull off another scam!