The Eighth Floor

The eighth floor. Su Yu had come here once before, but he hadn't ventured deep inside. After killing Blood Fire, he had quickly departed. Now, Su Yu had ascended once more. This time was different from the last, for Marquis Tongtian was escorting them all up together. The moment they entered the Reception Hall of the eighth floor, Marquis Tongtian swept his gaze over the group and announced, "The three guardians possess level five clearance! In life, Hetu was a miscellaneous general of the Tianhe Guard, granting him level six clearance! Marquis Lanshan was enfeoffed as a marquis posthumously, granting level four clearance! Tianyue, as a division minister of the Heaven Inspection Pavilion, holds level five clearance! The Human Lord, bearing the Human Lord Seal, possesses level three clearance!" Su Yu's clearance was only one tier higher than last time. During his previous visit, he had possessed level four clearance because he carried the Tombstone of Civilization, which effectively gave him the status of Marquis Shouwen, granting clearance equal to an enfeoffed marquis. Now, bearing the Human Lord Seal, he had advanced one tier. Level three clearance. In the ancient era, this belonged to Human Kings and the Half-Emperors of various races, carrying immense authority. It was exceptionally high! Su Yu felt a distinct sense of relief as he stepped onto the eighth floor. He felt far more relaxed here, as the Martial Emperor's manifest will didn't seem to reach this level. Hearing Marquis Tongtian's announcement, Su Yu chuckled and asked, "What practical purpose does clearance actually serve? Last time, I heard someone say that even if an area's clearance requirement was three tiers higher than your own, it wouldn't cause problems—for instance, someone with level four clearance could still wander around a level one clearance area..." Marquis Tongtian explained, "As the Human Lord noted, you can merely wander about. Walking the paths is permitted. But if you try barging into a Human King's mansion with level four clearance, you will be struck down on the spot! Human Kings generally possessed level three clearance, while a few held level two. Now that the Human Lord possesses level three clearance, you may pay formal visits to their residences. Even if the master isn't home, you can... discreetly investigate the premises. You are all peers, after all; in the ancient era, that wasn't considered an overstep!" Su Yu nodded slightly. At his side, Tianmie curled his lip and grunted. "The eighth floor... The eighth floor has far too many rules, all concocted by those old fogies. It's infuriating! I hate coming to the eighth floor the most!" Noticing Su Yu look over, Tianmie explained, "This place used to be where the Council Hall was located, so the rules were ironclad! What normal person would want to live here? Everyone who did only stayed out of necessity. In any case, I never lived here..." Yunxiao sneered. "That's because you didn't have a residence here! You weren't qualified! Titled generals were almost all entitled to live here, along with a select few miscellaneous generals. You were just an ordinary miscellaneous general—where would you get a residence from?" Tianmie snorted. "That's only because I didn't want one! Otherwise, would some titled generals have been any match for me?" His strength had not been weak during that era. Enfeoffed marquises were all in the Dao Integration realm, as were a small number of titled generals, while the majority of titled generals were at the ninth stage of the Eternal Realm. In truth, most of them couldn't have defeated Tianmie. With Tianmie present, things could never stay quiet; the man simply couldn't sit still. Su Yu didn't mind. He led the group out of the hall. This time, the way forward was no longer shrouded in boundless darkness. Ahead, the grand doors of the hall swung open. Marquis Tongtian took the lead, speaking as he walked: "Human Lord, the eighth floor has lain vacant for countless ages, yet the mansions of that era remain intact..." Su Yu cut straight to the point. "Have you been guarding this place the entire time?" "Yes." "Then how exactly did the ancient era fall?" "I don't know." "Hm?" Su Yu turned to look at him sideways. He didn't know? Marquis Tongtian had been stationed right here all along! Seeing Su Yu's gaze, Marquis Tongtian replied with absolute earnestness, "I truly don't know! All I know is that King Wen disappeared first. Sometime after his disappearance, King Wu seemed to set off to track him down, and he never returned either..." "With King Wen and King Wu vanishing one after another, the entire Star Residence Mansion grew quite restless in that era!" Marquis Tongtian sighed. "The Human Sovereign, King Wen, King Wu, the Prison King, and King Ming—the five great pillars of the human race! Suddenly, two were gone... No, the Prison King had already been punished and cast out by King Wen earlier, leaving only the Human Sovereign and King Ming! The Myriad Races Council grew restless. At first they were cautious, but later they became utterly brazen..." Marquis Tongtian recalled the circumstances and added, "All I know is that the disappearance of the ancient era was remarkably quiet! In the late ancient era, an assembly of the myriad races was convened. That day, an order was decreed across the Star Residence Mansion: anyone at or above the Eternal Realm had to attend the council..." Marquis Tongtian reminisced, "In any case, on that day, countless Eternals entered the Council Hall. Afterwards, it seemed they all proceeded to the ninth floor for the assembly. In my view, it was actually a coup to force the Human Sovereign's hand!" "The disappearance of the ancient era is deeply intertwined with the Human Sovereign!" He shrank his neck slightly. "Though the Human Sovereign rarely showed his face or spoke much, he was terrifying! At the time, the council attempted to force his hand, seeking to rebel against human rule while the powerhouse human experts were absent. And after that... they all vanished!" "All vanished?" Su Yu furrowed his brow. "What do you mean, they all vanished?" Marquis Tongtian bared his teeth. "I mean they completely disappeared! They seemed to go to the ninth floor, and then... there was no 'then'! The winds died, the waves settled, and in utter tranquility, the ancient era vanished! Every single Eternal in the Star Residence Mansion was wiped out in one fell swoop! Not a single one remained!" He sighed. "A few individuals below the Eternal Realm were left behind, but soon the mansion was rocked by cataclysmic upheavals that shook heaven and earth. Vast numbers of those below the Eternal Realm died, and those who survived couldn't leave because they didn't know how to operate the teleportation formations! Later, a huge number starved or perished from isolation! In the end, it came to this. Everyone was finished, and I was the only one left!" Marquis Tongtian said awkwardly, "I wasn't required to attend the assembly. I was the sole exception, because I am a gate; all I have to do is guard the entrance! There's no reason a gate would need to attend an assembly. Besides, even if they were holding a meeting, someone still had to watch the door... and that was me!" Su Yu looked at him in surprise. The ancient era had vanished in such silence! In a single day, the halls emptied, everything ceased to exist, and only this single gate remained! Could this... could this be considered the only living being left in the entire Star Residence Mansion? No, there was still the Martial Emperor! Tianmie and the others also drew sharp breaths. "Iron lump, are you saying the ancient era was wiped out in a single instant? That's... impossible! How many members sat on that council? Every one of them was at least in the Dao Integration realm! Back then, the Human Sovereign needed the cooperation of King Wen, King Wu, and the others to suppress them all. And yet... you're saying the Human Sovereign slaughtered them all on his own?" Marquis Tongtian shook his head. "That, I cannot say. Plenty of people certainly died. For a period afterward, the Great Daos trembled constantly! In fact, I caught a vague glimpse of an enormous hand manifesting from the ninth floor, wiping out several Great Daos along with the beings attached to them! It was likely the doing of His Majesty the Human Sovereign, executing those who refused to obey!" Fear and trepidation lingered in his voice. "Back then, I was frightened out of my wits! Fortunately, they probably saw that I was merely a gate and that someone still needed to guard the entrance to the eighth floor, so no one bothered me. As long as I acted according to the rules, I was fine. Over all these years, I have performed my duties with utmost diligence..." He looked at Su Yu. "Human Lord, I have guarded the gateway with tireless devotion! When I caused the portal to vanish earlier, that was also in accordance with the rules. Whenever uncontrollable factors arise, I must seal the gate to avoid disturbing the eighth floor." Su Yu gave a faint smile. "No matter!" The Contrarian Gate's expression instantly changed! At that moment, having no idea what thought had struck him, he looked at Su Yu in terror. It's over! I'm dead! *No matter!* He understood the subtext. It was over, completely over—this was the preamble to settling scores. As expected, I knew I was in for disaster. At first, Su Yu paid it no heed. But hearing no further response from Marquis Tongtian, he glanced sideways and found him wearing a look of dread and resignation, mixed with indignant sorrow. Seeing Su Yu looking at him, the Contrarian Gate sighed. "I understand. Human Lord, please just state what my punishment shall be. I anticipated this all along. In the end... I cannot escape this fate!" "Perhaps it is time for me to join those ancient friends of mine!" "..." Su Yu stared at him, and the others did the same. As the realization dawned on them, everyone was utterly speechless. Were you... were you actually being serious, or was this a joke? Earlier, when he was bantering with the Eastern Heavenly King, everyone had assumed he was intentionally provoking the dead spirit king. Yunxiao nudged Tianmie with her foot and transmitted her voice: *"Tianmie, you're relatively familiar with this fellow. Has he always been like this?"* Tianmie replied via voice transmission: *"How should I know? What familiarity could I possibly have with him? I've only met him a handful of times. Nobody ever bothered talking to him. Who in their right mind would chat with a gate all day long? Wouldn't that make them a lunatic?"* Su Yu shot the gate a glance, and after a long pause, he said, "Your punishment is to shut your mouth! From now on, speak only when I ask you a question. When I don't ask, don't say a word!" "As expected!" The Contrarian Gate sighed again. "The Human Lord is truly just like King Wen. King Wen also once ordered me to shut my mouth! King Wu never did that; King Wu simply beat me up..." "..." The group fell silent. The Contrarian Gate added, "Actually, I speak very little these days. As the Human Lord has seen, I have barely said a few sentences up to now. I have been exercising restraint the entire time, choosing my words with extreme caution. I know my words are not pleasing to hear, alas!" The group was speechless once more. The Contrarian Gate continued, "Rest assured, I understand. In the future, whenever I see the Human Lord, I shall speak even less!" "Why has everyone gone quiet?" Su Yu felt a wave of exhaustion. Was this fellow... inherently incapable of stopping his chatter? You call that barely speaking? Inventing elaborate internal melodramas all day long—don't you get tired? Whatever, I can't be bothered to argue with you. Marquis Tongtian—indeed, his tongue ran as freely as if an aperture straight to heaven had been opened in his head. Su Yu strongly suspected that this title had a deeper origin than just "Reaching the Heavens." Su Yu asked, "Who bestowed your title upon you?" "Ah, that! Speaking of which, there is quite a story behind it!" The Contrarian Gate instantly grew animated. "In the 369th year of Yong'an, I gained consciousness and transformed into a spirit! Initially, I was not enfeoffed as a marquis. But during the second round of enfeoffments in the 380th year of Yong'an, someone noted my diligent and distinguished service, arguing that I deserved the rank of marquis. The proposal was swiftly approved. Before long, word came down that King Wen had personally singled me out, conferring upon me the title of Marquis Tongtian and declaring that what I guarded was the Gate to Heaven!" Marquis Tongtian! King Wen! Su Yu raised an eyebrow, his tone laden with meaning. "King Wen was quite right. This gate of yours truly is an endless passage to the heavens!" The name carried far too many layers of meaning! His words poured out endlessly, non-stop. Moreover, the area he guarded was right by King Gong's mansion. One was King Gong—the Reverent King—and the other was Marquis Tongtian—the Gate to Heaven. It felt very much as though King Wen had been mocking both of them with veiled sarcasm. Su Yu asked again, "Who bestowed King Gong's title?" "The Human Sovereign and the others, of course!" Marquis Tongtian explained, "The titles of the Human Kings were all deliberated and decided by the Human Sovereign and King Wen. A small fraction of the marquises were also designated by them, while the rest either applied for their titles or received them from the council!" With that, he beamed with pride. "I am one of the few marquises whose title was personally conferred by King Wen!" Su Yu asked, "How many years did the ancient era last? Yong'an was the Human Sovereign's reign title, correct?" "Yes, the ancient era lasted over thirty thousand years. Around the 35,000th year of Yong'an, King Wen and the others disappeared. In less than a thousand years, the entire ancient era was completely obliterated!" Over thirty thousand years! It sounded like an immensely long span of time! Yet to figures of that caliber, thirty thousand years might not have been terribly long. The imperial court of the human race, which had once unified the heavens, collapsed just like that. From then on, the myriad races sought the extermination of humanity through ten tides, each spanning ten thousand years, with humanity suffering defeat after defeat! None of the ancient glory remained! Su Yu recalled something else. Old Turtle seemed exceedingly ancient; that old turtle had likely been born even before the ancient era. He truly was old! Perhaps he had even lived through the primeval era! To be so ancient and yet only in the Dao Integration realm... Well, it was hard to say anything disparaging. Indeed, sometimes one's upper limit was simply capped by circumstances. As they conversed, the group walked out of the Reception Hall. Beyond the doors, the sky was bright and the scenery picturesque. Sprawling mansions stood in every direction, separated by considerable distances. The flora and fauna remained, and broad avenues of white jade crisscrossed the entire eighth floor! They formed concentric rings encircling the Myriad Races Council at the center. Outside the council, ninety-nine grand gateways stood erect. Even from here, those towering portals were faintly visible. Ninety-nine councilors, represented by ninety-nine gateways. Marquis Tongtian added, "The outermost perimeter consists of the residences of miscellaneous generals. Any miscellaneous general granted a mansion here was an apex expert among their rank, just shy of receiving a formal title!" "Next, the inner ring contains the mansions of titled generals, followed by the residences of enfeoffed marquises. Beyond that lie the quarters of councilors, Half-Emperors, and Human Kings. Further in are the residences of several apex Human Kings, and at the very center stands the Myriad Races Council!" After listening for a moment, Su Yu asked, "Aren't councilors and Half-Emperors... the same thing?" Marquis Tongtian gave him an odd look. "The same? Not at all! A councilor is a councilor, and a Half-Emperor is a Half-Emperor. All councilors were Half-Emperors, but not all Half-Emperors were councilors! Nearly every race had a Half-Emperor, but only ninety-nine formidable Half-Emperors gained entry into the council! The others never made it!" Su Yu pondered this and nodded slightly. He understood the broad picture now! Half-Emperors—the powerhouses of smaller races might only have been in the Dao Integration realm or even the Eternal Realm, yet they could still be called Half-Emperors. However, they lacked the strength to enter the council and become councilors. Su Yu suspected that those who became councilors were likely all at the level of Rule Masters. After all, they had established rules of their own! "How many Human Kings were there in the ancient era?" Su Yu asked further. Marquis Tongtian answered promptly, "There were forty ancient Human Kings: the Four Polar Human Kings and the Thirty-Six Kings of the Heavenly Dipper, corresponding to the number of the Heavenly Dipper! There were 360 Human Marquises, corresponding to the number of the heavenly cycle! Afterward, unless someone fell, no additional positions would be created, and no new Human Kings or Marquises would be enfeoffed! In addition, there were ninety-nine councilors... The myriad races fell under the council's jurisdiction, and the council had ninety-nine seats, representing the supreme nine. Beneath the council were 720 enfeoffed marquises, corresponding to the number of the Great Heavenly Cycle!" Su Yu drew a sharp breath. "So many?" This was the first time he learned that the ancient era had possessed so many marquises! "Is that many?" Marquis Tongtian wanted to argue, but after a moment's thought, he swallowed his retort. Still, he explained, "It really isn't that many. Take the council—only 720 marquises in total. That didn't even average one per race! Some minor races waged war almost daily just to secure a single enfeoffment!" With that, he said rather cheerfully, "I was enfeoffed as a marquis, though sadly my race consists only of me... Well, gates are a specialized race, categorized under the spirit race. But the spirit race mainly consists of spirits of vegetation, mountains, and rivers. Even among the spirit race, I am exceptionally unique!" Marquis Tongtian, this ancient door-guarding relic, knew the ancient circumstances like the back of his hand. Through him, Su Yu had now gained a thorough understanding of the ancient era. In that era, the human race had unified the world. The Human Sovereign held supreme dominion over heaven and earth, with the Four Polar Human Kings appointed beneath him to oversee the realm. Below the Four Polar Human Kings, the thirty-six Human Kings and ninety-nine councilors governed the myriad races. Beneath them were 1,080 marquises, and below them were countless titled and miscellaneous generals. All of these were considered part of the ruling tier. Anyone below them was not even considered management. Su Yu said softly, "In other words, in the ancient era, there were fully 140 Rule Masters—or at least experts possessing the might of Rule Masters! Not to mention that certain marquises might have been extraordinarily powerful as well!" Forty-one from the human race, and ninety-nine from the myriad races! It was no wonder the human race had unified the heavens. With so many Rule Masters, they nearly equaled half the total number of the myriad races combined, and several among them were peerless combatants. They didn't need to outnumber their opponents; possessing half their numbers was enough, as no single race could stand against them. The myriad races were not a monolithic entity! However, it was also exceedingly difficult for humanity to wipe out the myriad races entirely. It could only be described as mutual deterrence: humanity was the hegemon, and beneath them was a coalition of subordinates capable of banding together in defense. "That, I wouldn't know," Marquis Tongtian said. "In any case, that realm is beyond my ability to perceive." Su Yu nodded. Remembering something, he asked, "As for Senior Hongmeng, I heard that King Gong wanted to enfeoff him as a marquis, and the same was said of Tianmie once he reached Dao Integration. Aren't the marquis positions fixed in number?" This time, without waiting for the Contrarian Gate to explain, Tianmie spoke up: "Some of the 720 marquises of the myriad races had already died during that era, retaining their titles in name only! Later on, replacements could be appointed to fill their vacancies!" Yet Su Yu caught an unusual detail. "So even when humanity unified the world, the myriad races and the human race were still locked in conflict? People were still dying?" Tianmie replied as though it were obvious, "Of course! Overt battles grew rare, but covert struggles were rampant! Some experts would die under murky circumstances from time to time—it was completely normal! Dying while exploring the endless void, dying of old age, or dying from cultivation deviation—there was always an excuse! During the Yong'an era of the ancient times, grand wars were gone, but minor skirmishes were frequent. Furthermore, the human race would secretly instigate and back certain minor races or rising powers to challenge the established giants..." Su Yu looked at Tianmie, who adopted an innocent expression. "What? That's just how it was! The human race definitely did such things, and they even got exposed a few times. For example, during the ancient era, they supported the Giant Whale race in a war against the Dragon race. In the end, the Giant Whales were defeated, and the Dragons uncovered clues proving it was the humans' doing! The Giant Whale patriarch had been forcefully fused with a Great Dao by someone of immense power just to battle the Dragon Emperor... That single war claimed the lives of seven or eight Dragon marquises!" Marquis Tongtian nodded in agreement. Yunxiao and Xinghong also seemed to recall the incident, nodding along. It was nothing out of the ordinary! A common occurrence! During that era, humanity didn't want to wage total war again, but neither did they want the other races to grow too large to control. Since they couldn't completely suppress the myriad races forever, instigating conflicts was a regular tactic. Backing mid-tier powers to provoke the great races and spark wars was entirely commonplace. Weakening the council's strength was an ongoing endeavor. Had King Wen and the others not vanished, another few tens of thousands of years might have seen the myriad races entirely broken and reduced to human vassal clans. King Wen and his peers had intended to spend tens of thousands of years completing the true unification of the heavens. It had been a magnificent grand design. Alas... it had been cut short! The Myriad Races Council had noticed this and felt the pressure. That was why they had chosen to take the risk, growing restless and plotting rebellion in the absence of several Four Polar Human Kings—only to be wiped out entirely by that ruthless figure, the Human Sovereign! This was Su Yu's assessment and conjecture! The Human Sovereign had likely realized that King Wen and King Wu were not coming back, or perhaps other factors made it impossible to wait for their return. To resolve the hidden danger once and for all, he simply seized the opportunity to take everyone down together! If that was truly the case... then the Human Sovereign, an overlord seldom spoken of, was truly terrifyingly ruthless! Since the grand design could no longer be completed, he flipped the board entirely to prevent catastrophic turmoil later, slaughtering everyone in one fell stroke! With these thoughts running through his mind, Su Yu stepped onto the white jade avenue. At that moment, the Heavenly Gate manifested on his forehead. The next instant, his aura shifted subtly. Within his sea of will, a brilliant, snow-white aperture flew like a great star toward the depths of his sea of will, where a portal seemed to stand—the Heavenly Gate! It was what Su Yu referred to as the origin spirit aperture! Aperture convergence! All apertures would ultimately be drawn into the Heavenly Gate, which aligned with the hypothesis Su Yu and his companions had conceived in the past. Originally, human apertures might have been just a single whole. Only later had they fractured and scattered. Origin and spirit uniting into one; apertures fusing into one. After returning to singularity, one cultivated only a single aperture! That was true aperture fusion! The moment the divine aperture flew into the Heavenly Gate, all of Su Yu's origin apertures also merged into one, soaring toward the Heavenly Gate! Union of origin and spirit! *Boom!* The Heavenly Gate erupted with dazzling radiance. Nearby, the experts turned to look at Su Yu in surprise. A sharp gleam flashed through Su Yu's eyes before quickly receding, his aura growing noticeably stronger. They had merged! However, it was still short of completion—it lacked the connecting cultivation method. Within the Heavenly Gate, a sun-like aperture represented the origin apertures, while a softer, less glaring star represented the divine apertures. Now, the sun and moon needed to merge into one! A cultivation method was required to serve as the bridge between them! The Great Heavenly Circulation method! Yet the Martial Emperor had only provided the method for connecting 715 apertures. To achieve complete union, the remaining five apertures had to be tested one by one. If an attempt failed, it would likely result in self-inflicted blast injuries! In truth, it was exceedingly dangerous. Because all 720 apertures resided within the Heavenly Gate, if the Heavenly Gate were blown apart, it could leave Su Yu severely injured or even dead! Su Yu already had a vague premonition! Once his apertures converged into one and were linked by the method, the power previously bolstered by the Heavenly Gate would fully transform into his own strength. Previously, he had merely borrowed the energy stored within the gate; the Heavenly Gate was essentially the outer shell holding his unified apertures! In the future, the Heavenly Gate would no longer grant any amplification, because none would be needed—its power would be Su Yu's own! Marquis Tongtian looked at the miniature portal on Su Yu's forehead and gasped. "The Heavenly Gate has unified! The Human Lord is truly formidable! Since the fall of the ancient era, it seems no one has ever accomplished the grand feat of unifying the Heavenly Gate! Even during the ancient era, very few achieved Heavenly Gate unification—rumor has it that only the Four Polar Human Kings and the Human Sovereign managed it!" Beside him, Tianmie curled his lip. "More than that! I heard there were others!" Marquis Tongtian retorted, "Then name an example!" "The Time Master!" Tianmie wore a triumphant expression. Previously, he hadn't known about the Time Master, but now he did! How about that! Marquis Tongtian's face fell. To think he had been refuted! Very well! He quickly said, "Have you ever seen the Time Master? How do you know the Time Master opened the Heavenly Gate? Even if she did, how do you know she achieved unification? Even if she achieved unification, how do you know whether it's true or false? Nearly everyone who ever saw the Time Master is dead—do you know anyone who survived?" Tianmie choked with annoyance, then suddenly sneered. "Fine, setting aside the Time Master, the Martial Emperor opened it too!" "Hah! The Martial Emperor is a figure of the primeval era, while I was speaking of the ancient era!" Tianmie was left speechless. That was true. In the ancient era, had anyone else opened the Heavenly Gate aperture and achieved unification? He racked his brain, and before long, his eyes lit up. "Figures like the Immortal Emperor and Demon Emperor must have opened it as well!" Marquis Tongtian scoffed with contempt. "Have you seen it yourself?" "I haven't, but I know that when humanity fought those races, it was no easy task. They definitely opened it!" "Do you have proof?" "Then do you have proof that they didn't?" "I don't. But do you have proof that they did?" "I don't either, but you don't have proof..." "..." Su Yu glanced back at the two of them. Two fellows with far too much time on their hands! Tianmie had turned into a chatterbox as well! At this moment, Su Yu couldn't be bothered with them. He was studying the layout of the eighth floor. Through his eyes, the world now appeared different from what others saw, bearing a resemblance to what the little white dog could perceive. He saw something extraordinary! Faint, shimmering Great Daos blanketed the entire eighth floor like a colossal net! "Rules!" Su Yu murmured. The eighth floor was completely draped in rules! No wonder they said the rules here were ironclad! He also saw that far in the distance, high above the council, a towering silhouette seemed to suppress eternity and hold down the council. That was not a real person, but a manifestation of rules—densely packed Great Dao rules encircling and suppressing the entire assembly! That was likely the Great Dao rules woven by the human race! Meanwhile, the ninety-nine council portals also seemed to be weaving threads of Great Dao rules, pushing back against that silhouette to keep from being crushed! At this moment, having opened the Heavenly Gate, Su Yu seemed capable of seeing many things invisible to ordinary eyes. He had not come to the eighth floor to hunt for treasures; he merely wanted to find a way to restrict the Martial Emperor. Of course, if there were treasures to be found, so much the better! Many Eternals on the human side currently needed to transition their Great Daos, and it would be best to have enough carriers to cultivate the weapon fusion method! The flaws of the weapon fusion method were glaringly obvious, as demonstrated in their recent battle. Once separated from their weapons, their combat power plummeted drastically. However, with weapon in hand, they were indisputably far stronger than ordinary cultivators who advanced via the past, present, and future method! Another issue was the sheer resource consumption! It required a vast number of carriers. Ideally, one would possess a primary weapon and fuse other carriers into it to empower oneself. The eighth floor ought to have plenty of carriers, wouldn't it? These were the residences of top-tier experts; it was inconceivable that they contained no treasures at all. 1,080 marquis mansions... Perhaps not quite that many remained. Su Yu had seen some marquis mansions on the seventh floor earlier. Even if each mansion yielded just one carrier, there would still be over a thousand! "Carriers, primary weapons, and a method to restrict the Martial Emperor!" These were Su Yu's objectives for this excursion. As for the rest, there was no need to delve too deeply into them. Why the ancient era fell, or whether the Human Sovereign was dead or alive—none of that mattered right now! He wasn't even in the Dao Integration realm yet. Why should he concern himself with Rule Masters? "Both of you shut up, let's go!" Su Yu barked. Tianmie and the Contrarian Gate had turned into broken records, stubbornly demanding proof from each other over and over. Weren't they exhausted? Tianmie felt helpless and slightly wronged. He sent a voice transmission: *"Su Yu, it's bad enough that I can't beat them in a fight, but now I can't even win an argument! I want to go back to my old nest!"* How suffocating! He couldn't win in combat, and he couldn't win in a quarrel. Life was simply unbearable. Su Yu was speechless. It was indeed rather pathetic, but the real question was: why on earth would you pick a fight with a gate? Su Yu had barely interacted with Marquis Tongtian, but after just a few exchanges, he had already grasped the fellow's temperament. He was plainly the sort who would argue with you to the bitter end. Only someone bored out of their mind would keep bickering with him! He didn't waste any more breath and continued forward along the white jade avenue. The avenue was saturated with rule power, but as soon as Su Yu approached, the crown atop his head radiated a faint glow, causing the rule power to part before him. His clearance was exceedingly high! Su Yu carefully observed both sides of the avenue. Every certain distance stood a mansion. The layout was quite intriguing: if a mansion belonging to the god race stood on the left, the one on the right might belong to the demon race or the human race, but rarely to the god race again! Different sectors were dominated by different races, but they were interspersed with the residences of experts from other races. This served to disperse their collective strength! The allocation of these mansions had clearly not been random. As Su Yu walked, he began connecting the apertures within the Heavenly Gate. He already knew the method to link the first 715 apertures. With a stroke of luck, completing the remaining connections in one attempt would allow him to fully open every aperture throughout his body! The next instant, the 716th aperture lit up... *Boom!* The Heavenly Gate shuddered! A mouthful of blood sprayed from his lips. The others turned to look at him in alarm. Su Yu maintained a calm façade, but inwardly he cursed violently! Something was wrong! Why did his luck completely vanish whenever it came to circulating cultivation methods? A five-to-one choice for the first aperture, and he had actually chosen wrong! He had genuinely felt that was the right aperture! It had aligned so smoothly. Cultivation methods worked like that: if the apertures lit up and linked awkwardly, the likelihood of error was high. This link had felt completely natural—so why had it failed? And that was only the very first one! Marquis Tongtian and Tianmie stopped their squabbling and turned their attention to Su Yu. Yunxiao asked, "Su Yu, are you circulating a technique? Why did you make yourself cough up blood? You didn't pick up a fake method, did you?" Su Yu was speechless and found it hard to explain. Just terrible luck! The destiny of the human race draped over him seemed utterly useless at this moment. "I'm fine!" Su Yu replied. Catching sight of a mansion ahead, he twitched his nose slightly. The Human Lord Seal flew out, instantly dispersing the rule power hovering above the residence. Su Yu reached out toward one of the buildings inside! *Boom!* Rule power erupted, clashing violently against Su Yu's massive hand! With a low shout, Su Yu crushed the rule power and swiftly snatched inward. In the blink of an eye, a medicinal cauldron was drawn out into his grasp! Su Yu retracted his hand and opened the cauldron. Inside, a golden medicinal pill was hovering and spinning. Su Yu sniffed its fragrance and swallowed it whole. The Heavenly Gate aperture that had just been injured began healing rapidly! The others stared at Su Yu in astonishment. What an incredible nose—he had actually smelled the medicinal fragrance from outside! Su Yu stored the cauldron into his civilization chronicle. It was a fine item, easily capable of serving as a carrier. As expected, the residences of these ancient experts were not lacking in good things. Opening an ordinary titled general's mansion at random had yielded a respectable pill and a medicinal cauldron comparable to a carrier. Last time, he had obtained an even more formidable cauldron. Su Yu continued forward without stripping the place bare like a swarm of locusts. He knew full well that pillaging too aggressively might trigger a violent backlash from the rule power. He needed to check the situation at King Wen's mansion first. As for whether he could get in, that was a matter for later. Last time, Liu Hong had mentioned that entering King Wen's mansion seemed to require a key, but Su Yu hadn't taken it seriously. Liu Hong couldn't get in because he was Liu Hong, not Su Yu. Su Yu possessed the Time Booklet, a belonging of King Wen's sister. Would the mansion turn away the master's own sister? He possessed the Tombstone of Civilization, the bearer of King Wen's inheritance Dao. Would the mansion bar the master's successor from entering? In any case, these should be far more reliable than any key. Who knew whether Liu Hong had been telling the truth or not? If any place held a method to constrain the Martial Emperor, three locations were the most likely: King Wen's mansion, King Wu's mansion, and the Human Sovereign's mansion! He didn't aspire to subjugate the Martial Emperor; keeping the old rogue locked inside so he couldn't leave would be enough, so long as he didn't ruin Su Yu's plans. With this thought, Su Yu advanced along the avenue while continuing to test the cultivation method. For the 716th aperture, there were only five possible connections. Having failed the first attempt, four possibilities remained. Su Yu didn't believe he could be so unlucky as to succeed only on the fifth try! That was impossible! In reality, he wouldn't need over a hundred attempts at all. The first aperture had five possibilities, the second four, the third three, the fourth two, and the final aperture wouldn't require a choice at all! Fourteen attempts at most, and Su Yu would be done! As for telling the Martial Emperor it would take several hundred tries, that was under the assumption that the other 715 apertures had not been established. Since they were already locked in, he only needed to follow the established configuration! Just fourteen tries! He had already failed once, leaving thirteen attempts at most! Su Yu was in good spirits. He was confident he could resolve the issue within five tries! That idiot Martial Emperor thought he could outplay him! *Boom!* Another muffled explosion rang out. "*Cough, cough, cough...*" Blood trickled from all seven facial orifices. The others turned to stare at Su Yu once more. Had he... failed again? Su Yu maintained an impassive expression while inwardly cursing up a storm. Another failure! He had genuinely felt this aperture was the most probable one! Why? Was he truly fated to succeed only on the fifth try? Each blast was excruciating! The Heavenly Gate trembled violently, and the other seven hundred-plus apertures shuddered along with it. Each failure felt like taking a heavy hammer strike straight to the forehead. It hurt like hell!