Chapter 40 - 40

Chapter 1016: Refuge (1)

It was as though a rock had been thrown into a calm lake.

Tianduo was auctioning off the Invincible corpse in Grandstar City. Words about the auction spread all over Ninestar Island, and numerous people started heading toward Grandstar.

Inner ring.

In front of a large ancient building, a masked individual in white said, "Lord Devil Tianduo, even if you're not willing to sell the corpse to the Heavenly Hunt Pavilion, we are willing to auction it for you. We will definitely be able to get a better price for you."

Beside him, an expert in gold said, "Devil Lord Tianduo, let the Allheaven Treasure House handle the auction for you. We won't need much time to complete it. We can gather a large number of experts to this city and auction it for a good price in no more than one month."

Time as needed.

Two days were not enough. This was not how an auction should be carried out. Even Invincibles needed time to reach this place from their respective realms. Furthermore, each Invincible needed to communicate with the nine realms before stepping onto the island.

Tianduo was rushing this too much. A lot of experts wouldn't be able to arrive in time. That wouldn't be conducive to getting a good price for the corpse. Sure, the representatives of the various experts would be present, but they wouldn't be able to offer as good of a price as those experts themselves.

Inside the building, Su Yu looked at the experts around the building and said, "It's fine. I need to complete it as soon as possible. If I drag it out, I'm afraid I won't even be able to sell it anymore."

Some people couldn't understand what he was trying to say. Suddenly, a powerful individual arrived. A powerful wave of devilish qi spread out.

"Tianduo." The expert was a devil with green pupils. Looking straight at Su Yu, he said, "Why are you selling it? Devil King Lade has commanded that you return to the Devil Realm."

Dawo!

Su Yu knew who this person was. This was the same person he saw fighting the dragon previously, also the same person who had sent him numerous messages.

Dawo was furious. He was also feeling very gloomy. Why did Tianduo decide to put the corpse up for auction without any discussion with them?

Su Yu frowned and said, "I'm selling something I found myself. Lord Dawo, this is an opportunity I found without any help."

Dawo was furious. He looked around before looking at the door that was wide open in front of him. He wanted to talk inside the building, but Su Yu was standing right behind the door, ready to shut it the moment anyone moved.

Dawo didn't know what to say. Left with no choice, he decided to speak through voice transmission instead, "Do you know just how valuable ancient breathing techniques are? Do you understand how important this ancient corpse is? You can either sell it to the Devil Realm or offer it to Devil King Lade. Both choices will reward you satisfactorily. Tianduo, why must you pick the option that will offend your own people?"

Su Yu's eyes turned cold, "Lord Dawo, how satisfactory is satisfactory? If I wish to reach Mo Duona's level, will the devils provide me with enough resources and opportunities? So what if this will offend the devils?"

Su Yu coldly said, "As long as I grow to become the next Mo Duona, my ancestor and the devil race will forget the offense. They will continue embracing me. Lord Dawo, am I right?"

Dawo was left speechless. Was this fellow trying to compete with Mo Duona? He knew that the devils of the younger generation were very ambitious, but...that seemed hopeless.

He sent another voice transmission, "This corpse is very important to the devils. Tianduo, name your price. If it's reasonable, we will purchase it. That's better than letting it fall into the hands of a different race."

After a short silence, Su Yu replied, "A thousand strands of heavenearth profound light, five hundred drops of sunmoon profound yellow liquid, nine treasures suitable for the nine transformations of source qi..."

Dawo's expression changed. "You're crazy. Don't tell me you're trying to recultivate your body and transform your source qi all over again!"

The things Su Yu wanted were very helpful for body forging and source qi transformations. But these things weren't really that helpful for advancement into the Mountainsea Realm. Then again, sunmoon profound yellow liquid was very helpful for strengthening the apertures of Sunmoons.

He was asking for too much. That was a crazy price.

Su Yu said, "You should be glad. That's a discounted price for fellow devils. If you can't fulfill even such a price, I will have no choice but to sell the corpse to the races capable of affording it."

Dawo cursed and said, "The people from your Lade Family will be here soon. Tianduo, I know I can't change your mind. But consider the consequences if you remain stubborn when those from the Lade Family are here." Official source ıs novel[f]ire.net

Would he refuse the deal even when those from his family were here?

Su Yu ignored the threat and spoke to everyone, "For the auction, I will prioritize treasures such as sunmoon profound yellow liquid, heavenearth profound light, and nine transformation treasures. Additionally, the devils will receive a ten percent discout if they are interested in joining the auction. This is my way of showing my fellow devils some respect. If the devils can't afford the price, I don't mind selling the corpse to someone else."

Dawo sighed. There was nothing else he could say. Tianduo had publicly announced a ten percent discount for the devils. What else could he say? It wasn't like there weren't cases of young geniuses betraying their races for the sake of strength. What could the devils do if Tianduo insisted on selling to a different race?

He could also understand why Tianduo was doing this. Mo Duona had been suppressing him for so many years. He was desperate to surpass Mo Duona. Each of these geniuses was someone with their own fortuitous encounters.

It was very likely that Mo Duona had forged his body more than thirty-six times. And it was also possible that he had opened more acupoints than what the public knew. Even for his nine transformations, he would probably perform it with the best treasures there were.

Thus, he would remain far stronger than his peers even if they came from the same race and cultivated the same cultivation methods. This was how these geniuses would differ from each other.

Meanwhile, it was likely that Tianduo had not aimed for thirty-six body forgings. It was likely that he wouldn't be able to complete his nine transformations with the best materials possible. Dawo himself didn't know about the materials required by these top geniuses too much.

Perhaps Tianduo wanted to get enough treasures to recultivate his body. Nobody knew what his actual goal was.

Su Yu coldly said, "To maintain order during the auction and prevent the appearance of individuals calling random prices they can't afford to interfere with the auction, each participant will be required to pay an entrance fee to attend the auction."

Someone in the crowd asked, "Fee? And how much will the fee be?"

Su Yu said, "I'm not accepting money. I only need each party to send a sealed Mountainsea as the deposit before attending the auction. If anyone attempts to snatch or steal the corpse from me, I'll kill the sealed Mountainseas. If I'm going to suffer a loss, we will suffer together. Of course, something like that won't happen if everyone behaves."

"Tianduo..."

Su Yu did not allow anyone to argue, "Shut up. If you disagree, piss off. I don't need you in my auction. I need security, not the so-called rules and trust between races. In the Allheaven Battlefield, even those from the same race might backstab each other. Trust is worthless here. I will carry out the auction in two buildings. The sealed Mountainseas will enter the building I'm in. The participants will be attending from a different building. Nothing will happen if the auction concludes smoothly. If anyone tries to mess with me, don't blame me for dragging everyone down with me."

"..."

Silence descended. This guy was too ruthless. What a crazy guy. He was basically saying that if anyone tried anything, he would kill all those Mountainseas and spawn a large number of Mountainsea or even Sunmoon death spirits. If the city ended up sealed like Heavendoom City, this would be yet another disaster.

Using Mountainseas as tickets.

That was such a crazy thing to ask.

At that moment, someone asked, "Are there any restrictions on the races of these Mountainseas? Can the Mountainseas of other races be used instead?"

Su Yu said, "It doesn't matter. Race does not matter. I won't do anything stupid and cause the appearance of death spirits if nothing happens."

Suddenly, an overbearing voice rang out, "Tianduo, if you wish to conduct the auction in my city, I'll be collecting rent. Thirty percent of your auction proceeds will be mine."

An individual clad in a black robe flickered into existence atop one of the nearby buildings. Thirty percent of the proceeds as the rent. That was the mayor of the city.

A large number of guards appeared in the area. All of them were shrouded in thick death qi. Some of the visitors cursed when they saw the mayor and the guards. Why were these people getting involved as well?

Su Yu frowned and asked, "Lord Mayor, isn't thirty percent too much?"

"Too much?"

The mayor coldly said, "If you think so, you are free to move the auction somewhere else. Be grateful you're the descendant of Devil King Lade. You would have lost your life for being brazen enough to question me otherwise."

Su Yu cursed inwardly, but he didn't even dare to curse too much lest the mayor somehow sense his hostile thoughts.

After a long pause, he clenched his teeth and said, "Fine. But in that case, I need you to provide me with enough heavenly source qi. I need to stay in the city for some time but I don't have that much heavenly source qi remaining. I won't leave the city after the auction. Instead, I'll enter seclusion in one of the ancient buildings here. It is too dangerous for me to leave after the auction. If you are willing to guarantee me safety after the auction, I'll accept your price."

The mayor laughed, "Deal."

Then, the mayor tossed a storage ring over.

Su Yu did not dare to accept the ring with his hand. Rather, he caught it with his willpower from afar. Something must be wrong with this ring. His tribulation character was pulsing. After checking the ring, he confirmed that some heavenly source qi could be found in it. But unlike the gentle heavenly source qi one could get from heavenly source fruits, it was quite unruly. But this was normal for naturally formed heavenly source qi that was not obtained from heavenly source fruits.

Su Yu started grumbling that the mayor sure was stingy. There were less than twenty portions in the ring. It was true that he was running out of heavenly source qi. But it didn't matter. He still had some blood essence on him. He could just extract some from his blood essence.

He only needed to keep the mayor agreeable temporarily. The mayor wasn't worried that Su Yu would renege on the agreement. Could Su Yu escape him in the ancient city? As Su Yu said, leaving after the auction would be too dangerous. It was perfectly normal for him to stay after the auction.

It was very likely that he would end up robbed right after leaving the city. Thus, the mayor was sure Su Yu couldn't escape him.

The mayor wasn't too interested in snatching the corpse instead. The corpse had caught the attention of too many experts. It would be too difficult to keep it in the city. It wasn't like the mayor was an Invincible. Sure, he could borrow the power of death spirits to contend against Invincibles in the city, but at the end of the day, he was merely a puppet of the city. It was pointless to offend the major races for something he couldn't even keep.

Chapter 1017: Refuge (2)

News about the auction spread everywhere.

What he asked for, how he was going to carry out the auction, and his requirements were all being spread.

While on his way to Grandstar City, Zhu Guangshen cursed and said, "Umbra, go catch some Mountainseas. Why is that fellow being so troublesome about this?"

Umbra asked, "Prince, are we joining the auction?"

What he wanted to ask was if they could even afford it.

Did they have any heavenearth profound light? Did they have any sunmoon profound yellow liquid? Did they have enough to participate in the auction? What a joke. The human race was too poor.

Their cultivation history was far too short, resulting in far lesser accumulation as well. Sure, they had a lot of ancient ruins. But they had exhausted most of their discovered ruins. They wouldn't have been able to produce so many experts in such a short time otherwise.

Great Ming might be relatively wealthy, but their wealth was only in regular items. Strategic resources like the heavenearth profound light and sunmoon profound yellow liquid were rare even in Great Ming.

Zhu Guangsheng spoke in a helpless tone, "No matter what, we need to try our luck. Even if we can't afford it, we need to make things harder for the other major races. I've heard of ancient breathing techniques before. An ancient breathing technique can be used across races regardless of talent. Its main purpose is to strengthen one's talent, body, and even willpower. Someone with only enough talent to complete nine body forgings might be able to reach eighteen body forgings after cultivating the breathing technique. Basically, breathing techniques were the talent unlockers during the ancient times..."

One couldn't just forge one's body as many times as one wished. And one couldn't just open as many acupoints as one wished. For many people, there was a limit to their potential. Of course, Su Yu was not very familiar with this so-called limit. That was why he was known as a genius.

This was why most of these young geniuses were known as geniuses. Otherwise, one could simply become strong just by having a good background. Which Invincible descendant would lack cultivation resources? In the end, talent and potential were still important in cultivation.

Zhu Guangshen said, "I wonder what's the attribute of this breathing technique. There are all sorts of breathing techniques. Some are capable of strengthening the internal organs, some are good for strengthening the body, and some are good for strengthening one's willpower. Breathing techniques capable of strengthening one's willpower are the most valuable of all breathing techniques."

Umbra was unaware of all that. He asked curiously, "Prince, where did you learn about all that?"

Zhu Guangshen smiled, "My grandpa. He once encountered an expert with a breathing technique. Naturally, that expert isn't a human. Rather, it's a super expert from an ancient race."

"So such breathing techniques exist among the ancient races?"

"Yes." Zhu Guangshen nodded, "They're very rare, but they do exist in some ancient races. But these breathing techniques have never been transmitted to outsiders. This is one of the reasons for the ancient races to be so strong."

"Do the original devils and first immortals know any breathing techniques as well?"

Those two could be considered ancient races. It was likely that they had their own breathing techniques as well.

"Probably. But not everyone will be granted access. Perhaps the direct descendants of their Pseudo Emperors are allowed to learn these breathing techniques. But I doubt the regular devil kings and divine kings are in possession of these breathing techniques as well."

Breathing techniques were legacies from the past. The devil kings and divine kings who had emerged in recent times were unlikely to have access to these ancient legacies. Umbra nodded in understanding. In that case, this corpse would indeed be extremely valuable.

A breathing technique was capable of increasing one's potential. Just imagine how valuable it would be. For example, someone like Huang Teng might be cultivating an art capable of completing thirty-six body forgings. But that did not mean that he had actually completed thirty-six body forgings. Generally speaking, a ninth-stage Skysoar with thirty-six body forgings should have the strength of around 11,000 acupoints.

Such a ninth-stage Skysoar would be comparable to some of the weaker Mountainseas. But that was not the case for both Huang Teng and Qin Fang. They had never achieved the feat of killing a Mountainsea as a Skysoar.

Perhaps they had never gotten the opportunity to do so. Or they were simply not strong enough to do that. Only after entering the Cloudbreach Realm and starting their qi transformations did they gain the ability to kill Mountainseas.

Naturally, the number of body forgings these geniuses had completed was a secret. It was likely that some of these geniuses would be stuck after reaching thirty-three body forgings. But with a breathing technique, these people would be able to strengthen their foundation and complete more body forgings.

Meanwhile, it was very likely that Mo Duona had truly completed thirty-six body forgings or more. Nobody knew for sure, but he wouldn't be so freakishly strong otherwise.

***

While Zhu Guangshen was heading toward the ancient city, numerous other experts were doing the same.

The experts of the nine realms were rushing over. The experts of the clearbright birds from Red Clouds Island were also rushing over. Even the experts who had been wandering the region were rushing over.

Even if they couldn't participate in the auction, they still wanted to be there to partake in the bustle of the event. After all, even modern Invincible corpses were extremely rare, not to mention ancient Invincible corpses.

***

Words continued spreading everywhere.

Eventually, even those outside Sea of Stars learned of this. Humans, divines, devils, immortals...the major races started receiving news of the auction. Tianduo of the devil race was going to hold an auction in Grandstar City.

The asking price was astonishingly high. But the offered product was also astonishingly valuable. According to Tianduo, an ancient breathing technique and an ancient character could be found on the corpse.

***

As peace returned to Heavendoom, it started attracting visitors again. And some of them were talking about the coming auction as well.

Inner hall of the mayor's residence.

The stone statue was as calm as ever. But this was only natural. Everything in the city was perfectly under his control. Nothing in the city could hide from him. When he overheard the conversations about the auction, he thought of something.

A certain someone...seemed to have learned an incomplete breathing technique from him. He latched onto the keywords such as ancient city, breathing technique, and ancient Invincible corpse. He couldn't help but think about a certain expert troublemaker.

"Breathing technique...ancient Invincible corpse..."

What nonsense!

Ancient Invincible corpse? There was no such thing.

As for ancient breathing techniques, they weren't exactly rare, but they weren't common either. Even during the ancient times, most breathing technique cultivators were Invincibles. He was one such breathing technique cultivator. Yes, he was a breathing technique cultivator!

The stone statue sank into thought. Something felt off about this. This couldn't be true, right? Tianduo...he knew who Tianduo was. That was the young devil who had nearly died in his city not long ago. Someone like that had found an ancient corpse?

"Grandstar City..."

He was familiar with Grandstar. But it had been too many years. In fact, so many years had passed that he had nearly forgotten that name. Perhaps it was Grandstar City's turn to sink into chaos this time?

The more the stone statue thought about it, the more amused he felt. Good. Since he had experienced the chaos once, it was only fair for Grandstar to experience the same chaos as well. That way, he would be able to proudly claim that the previous chaos was not due to his incompetence. Instead, a certain human was simply too good at troublemaking.

***

Nobody knew what the stone statue was thinking.

It was extremely rare for these stone statues to communicate with anyone. In fact, not even all the puppet mayors knew that these stone statues were sentient. Some Invincibles were aware of the stone statues, but they were unwelcome in these ancient cities. Thus, there weren't even that many people these stone statues could talk to.

***

Experts and young geniuses started converging in the ancient city. Google seaʀᴄh novèlfire.net

Meanwhile, Su Yu remained in his ancient building with the door shut. He ignored all attempts to communicate with him. He was busy thinking of a way out. His previous plan might not be perfect enough.

He also took the chance to extract more heavenly source qi as a backup. He might really need to spend some time in the city before escaping.

"I'm sure a lot of people are interested in buying. The things I have to offer are too attractive. Not even the devils can resist the temptation. Those from the Lade Family are coming..."

Numerous thoughts rose in his mind.

If there were a lot of participants, he would receive a large number of sealed Mountainseas. He could kill those Mountainseas and create chaos. But without a teleportation talisman, how was he supposed to leave when the city was sealed?

Was he supposed to remain as a death spirit until the entire thing was over? He felt very helpless. It would be great if he had a teleportation talisman. That would grant him a lot of flexibility.

What a pity that the mayor here did not seem very friendly. It was unlikely that this mayor would allow him to enter the inner hall. Even if the mayor did allow him entry, he would most likely be under constant monitoring during his time there.

He might even need to watch his back against the mayor if he went to the mayor's residence. Sure, killing him might cause some death spirits to appear, but that might not be an issue for the mayor.

"If I kill all the sealed Mountainseas, can I get Sunmoon death spirits to appear? Even if they appear, if there aren't enough of them, they won't be able to threaten those experts."

One or two early Sunmoon death spirits wouldn't be able to pose any danger to those super experts even if the city was sealed for three days. Then again, Su Yu wasn't trying to kill anyone this time. He only wanted to create an opening for him to escape.

So how should he accomplish that? This was so troublesome. Sure, he could remain as a death spirit until everyone was gone. He only needed to be patient. But death spirits were very rare during the day. Most of them would disappear automatically when it was daytime.

It would be way too conspicuous for him to remain as the sole death spirit when all the others had disappeared. In that situation, even a fool would notice that something wasn't right.

He could also hide in a building during the day and pretend to be a death spirit during the night. But what if those experts remained outside the city gates?

"There's a mota..."

Su Yu recalled a different alternative he had thought of earlier. Unlike the other cities, there was a moat filled with death qi around this city. Previously, had considered jumping into the moat to make his escape.

There must be a direct connection between the city and the moat, allowing the death qi from the city to flow into the moat. Previously, he had scouted the city and confirmed that there were indeed several spots in the city connected to the moat.

But...the moat seemed extremely dangerous. In fact, he had tried entering the moat the night before. However, the death qi erosion reached an unbearable level before he could even fully enter the moat. And that was the case even after he transformed into a death spirit. That was understandable since he was not a real death spirit.

Then again, the moat was only one of his options. He had other options as well. For example, he could convert himself into a permanent resident. That would allow him to stay in the city for a prolonged period of time. After becoming a resident, his body would start undergoing a transformation by the death qi in the city.

He had always been curious about one thing. Would the reversal art work after he became a resident? Would the art help him revert whatever transformation his body was subjected to? Nobody would expect him to actually become an ancient city resident. What if he did the unexpected?

"Perhaps I can give it a try tonight."

Chapter 1018: Refuge (3)

The conversion would last three days. And Su Yu would carry out the auction the day after tomorrow. If he failed to escape after the auction, he could stay in the city for a night and finish the conversion. After conversion, he would be able to hide in the city as long as he wanted.

Death spirits would no longer go after him. And there were a decently large number of residents in the city. It wouldn't be hard for him to hide among them. Even if the visitors started searching the buildings for him, they wouldn't search the buildings of the residents. That would be a waste of time since there were too many residents for them to get any useful information even if they wanted to interrogate the residents about him.

They would also risk provoking the death spirits if they touched the residents. As far as everyone was concerned, no genius would willingly convert into an ancient city resident. That would be the end of the genius. The genius would be bound to the city forever. Even after dying, the genius would continue serving the city as a death spirit. Chapters fırst released on N0v3l.Fiɾe.net

"There's no harm in trying. The process won't be completed in just two days. I still have a chance to stop the conversion if I manage to escape after the auction..."

With that decision made, Su Yu waited silently for night to arrive. He did not find the prospect of becoming a resident fearful. So what if he had to become a resident? Those mayors were residents as well, right?

If even ninth-stage Sunmoons could be forced to make such a decision, why must he be so stubborn about it? The biggest issue for a resident was the continued existence of death qi in their partially transformed body. This death qi would eventually take their life. But this was not a concern for Su Yu. He had numerous tricks to deal with death qi.

Even if he didn't have something as useful as the reversal art, he could still extract a large amount of heavenly source qi from blood essence to deal with the death qi in his body. This was not an option for anyone else.

Late at night, Su Yu opened the door of his building. Nobody was around. Perhaps they had hidden themselves, or perhaps there was really nobody in the area. Su Yu started roaming the city while paying close attention to his Perception Jade.

Nobody was monitoring him?

Impossible!

Su Yu was feeling very doubtful. Were those people really not trying to monitor him? Or perhaps they were all staying outside the radius of his Perception Jade? It was also possible that they were simply watching the gates.

That alone would be enough to prevent Su Yu from escaping. By staying just outside the gate, they didn't even need to worry about death qi. Su Yu started moving toward one of the gates while concealing himself. Before long, he reached the gate.

And the moment he was there, he clicked his tongue in amazement.

Holy shit!

These people were crazy.

Eight dots of light could be seen on his Perception Jade. Each of them was a Sunmoon, and all of them were staying outside the city. In short, eight Sunmoons had been deployed to watch the gates.

No wonder nobody was bothered with monitoring him in the city. This way, they could both reduce his wariness and avoid encountering death spirits. With so many Sunmoons on guard duty, it wouldn't be easy for him to leave through the city gates.

He started moving to several different spots in the city. These were the spots connected to the moat. He noted that these spots were not under any supervision. But the death qi there was terrifyingly dense. Even Sunmoons might not survive this.

"This...feels so dangerous."

Su Yu shook his head and moved into a nearby building. Shortly after, he tossed a bloodstained talisman out. Before long, a death spirit appeared. As usual, the death spirit picked the talisman up and started drawing on the signboard in front of the building.

Su Yu stared at the death spirit, but the death spirit ignored him.

After a while, half a Su Yu appeared on the signboard. Yes. It was his real appearance, not Tianduo's appearance.

Su Yu's eyes flickered. How did this death spirit see through his disguise? Just how was the death spirit doing this? This felt so mysterious.

Su Yu said nothing. He waited until the death spirit left and transformed into a death spirit himself. Then, he started altering the appearance on the signboard with death qi so that it stopped resembling him.

Nobody would expect this either.

When he was done, he ended his transformation and entered the building again. Suddenly, his entire body shivered.

A large amount of death qi started entering his body from the building. He was completely unable to stop it. In the blink of an eye, his body was flooded with death qi. But amid death, a tiny spark of life could be found.

His body was terribly eroded, but it was also somehow not fatal. An odd look covered Su Yu's eyes as he looked around curiously. Where was the death qi coming from? The death qi was transforming his body, turning it into something that was closer to a death spirit.

A new idea appeared in his mind as he transformed into death spirit again. Death qi was still entering his body, but the newly entered death qi appeared lost. But before long, it merged with the death qi Su Yu had produced through his acupoint reversal.

Then, he transformed back into a human, getting rid of the majority of the death qi in his body. He also consumed some heavenly source qi to deal with the remaining death qi in his body.

But a short while later, yet another wave of death qi erupted and continued the transformation of his body. Clearly, the building had detected his untransformed body, so it attempted to transform his body yet again.

Su Yu smiled with amusement.

Interesting.

In that case, he would be fine if he left the city. But if he remained in an ancient city, the city wouldn't stop trying to transform his body. At that thought, he performed more tests. Sure enough, when he dissolved the death qi in his body yet again, even more death qi was released by the building to transform his body.

Su Yu grinned. The reversal art was still effective against death qi even in this state. The reason for the conversion into a resident to take three days was most likely because that was the amount of time needed for one to be transformed into a pseudo death spirit.

Yes. Su Yu had reached a conclusion that these ancient city residents were basically pseudo death spirits.

After dying, all these people would transform into death spirits.

"I might be able to revert this process."

And now, all he had to do was wait for the third day to arrive.

If he could escape, he would leave. If not, he would complete his conversion into a resident and wait here.

"No...I might even be able to stop the conversion and still stay in the city..."

Su Yu muttered as he recalled something. Like the death spirits, he could draw on these signboards as well. In that case, why did he even need to convert into a resident? Then again, conversion would still be an option if he lacked blood essence he could extract into heavenly source qi.

He could totally draw a portrait on the signboard outside his building and pretend to be a resident. That wouldn't be suspicious, right?

He continued planning. Even a crafty rabbit would create three burrows. Thus, he also needed multiple backup plans. He could try to alter about a dozen signboards in the city, preparing multiple hiding places for himself in advance. And if something went wrong with the plan, he would simply complete the conversion.

***

When Su Yu was done with all he had to do, he returned to his previous building.

Nobody bothered him.

He could do anything he wanted as long as he remained in the city. On the second day, a large number of experts started entering the city, including Sunmoons. Numerous people visited Su Yu, attempting to make a deal with him in advance. The Heavenly Hunt Pavilion also sent him an index copy as they wished to make a secret deal with him.

Su Yu did not hesitate to accept the index copy. Since he was going to be staying here for now, he did not mind being tracked. He could always throw it away when he was going to run. That day, numerous Sunmoon auras could be felt in the city.

Su Yu even received an invitation from Zhu Guangshen to talk. Zhu Guangshen even claimed that Great Ming was very rich in the invitation, hinting that they could purchase the corpse at a good price. Su Yu was left quite speechless.

Was this a joke? Those Great Ming fellows should piss off. He would never sell the corpse to them. The devils, divines, and immortals were also trying to make a secret deal with him, but he ignored them all. But he did ask about their offers to get an idea about the price everyone was willing to pay.

The second night arrived peacefully. Once again, Su Yu tossed a bloodstained talisman outside. He was getting more and more brazen. This was an experiment nobody dared to attempt, but he was going to carry it out. He wanted to see if he could revert the conversion even after fully becoming a resident. If he could, this might serve as the chip he could use to reach an agreement with the mayors of these ancient cities.

Of course, the reversal art was not something he would reveal unless absolutely necessary. As far as Su Yu was concerned, these ancient cities were the best safe houses he could ask for.

And before anyone knew it, the third day arrived. It was the day of the auction.

Chapter 1019: So Fake You Have To Believe It (1)

5th of August, human calendar.

On this day, the Multiple Character Faculty was reopened. On the same day, Su Yu started his scam.

The seeds had been sown. It was time to reap the harvest.

Also on the same day, several Sunmoons from the five elemental race arrived. Of course, they needed time to pinpoint Topsoil Spirit's exact location.

Su Yu wasn't too bothered when he sensed their presence. He would only start worrying when they found Topsoil Spirit. It was only a matter of time before the five elemental race came to him. After all, according to the public, he was the last person to face Topsoil Spirit in combat. And Tianduo was also in the same ancient city.

It was very likely that Tianduo was the reason for Topsoil Spirit to use all his talismans. Of course, the five elemental race was also guessing that Su Yu was in the same city as well. After all, Topsoil Spirit had used his first talisman against Su Yu.

Inside the third ring.

Today, the doors of two large buildings were left open, with a street separating the two buildings. One building was meant for Su Yu while the other was meant for the people participating in the auction.

Su Yu had arrived.

He looked high-spirited, with his long hair fluttering in the air.

One expert after another strode over on the street. Among them were several clearly furious individuals. These individuals were shrouded in thick devilish qi.

"Tianduo." A middle-aged man with long, white hair and a flame symbol on his forehead said furiously, "Tianduo, the ancestor has ordered you to return with us. Why did you refuse to meet us yesterday? What are you trying to do?"

Su Yu didn't even know who that person was. But it didn't matter. He could guess who this person was just from those words.

This was someone from the Lade Family.

The middle-aged man wasn't alone. He was surrounded by several experts. Standing in the middle was the middle-aged man, a Sunmoon, with a Mountainsea and two Cloudbreaches around him. Four members of the Lade Family had arrived.

A youth behind the middle-aged man frowned and said, "Tianduo, return with us. The ancestor has left seclusion..."

Su Yu glanced at them and indifferently asked, "Why should I return? After entering the Allheaven Battlefield, how can I return before making a name for myself?"

That further infuriated them.

The youth berated, "Tianduo, are you going to disobey the ancestor?"

Su Yu nonchalantly said, "The ancestor can talk to me himself. You guys...are not qualified to talk to me in this manner."

They were furious. Had Tianduo gone mad? How dare he disobey the ancestor?

Beside the devils, Dawo looked rather helpless. It was obvious Tianduo was determined to not sell the corpse to the devils. Or to be precise, he was not going to offer the corpse to the devils and auction it off instead.

Someone else among the crowd laughed, "This is Tianduo's fortuitous encounter. He has the right to decide what he does with it. Are the original devils going to rob him of his own fortuitous encounter? In that case, why should the other original devil geniuses remain loyal to them? Mo Duona has also obtained numerous fortuitous encounters. Should he offer them all to the original devils as well?"

What a joke. How were they supposed to fight over the corpse if Tianduo was allowed to offer the corpse to the devils? Wouldn't that benefit the devils?

The devils had Dawo, a seventh-stage Sunmoon, and a newly arrived eighth-stage Sunmoon with them. As for the Sunmoon from the Lade Family, he was only a first-stage Sunmoon, so the other races weren't too concerned about him.

If Tianduo offered the corpse to the devils, were the others supposed to kill the two late-stage Sunmoon devils for the corpse? Late-stage Sunmoons weren't so easy to kill. The previous fight between Ye Hongyan's group and Mo He of the original devils was the perfect example of this.

There were seven Sunmoons in Ye Hongyan's group, with two of them being seventh-stage Sunmoons. That was how they had been able to kill Mo He. If the people here wanted to kill these original devil Sunmoons, they would need more than five late-stage Sunmoons.

But a battle of such a scale would only force the Invincibles to interfere. Such an escalation was not something they wanted to see. In comparison, competing with money was much more preferable.

Almost all of the more powerful races had sent multiple Sunmoons over. A lot of these Sunmoons were at the late stage. That was the only way to guarantee that they would be able to leave safely after purchasing the corpse. As for the Sunmoons who had arrived alone, they would either be in the eighth or ninth stage. Clearly, the various powerful races had attached a heavy importance to this matter.

Then again, there weren't actually that many races here. Only the powerful races would participate in the auction. The weaker races knew had wisely decided to not bite off more than they could chew.

In fact, most of the races that had arrived to participate were either the powerful top 10 races, the mysterious ancient races, or the unique races that could join hands for more power like the five elemental race.

Very few of the other top 100 races were present. It was worth noting that the nine local races of Ninestar Island had sent nine Sunmoons over to attend the auction on behalf of the Thousand Region Alliance. Since this was their home ground, it wasn't that much of an issue for them to participate.

The dragons, immortals, divines, devils, humans, five elementals, celestial chasms...

The experts of one famous race after another arrived. Things seemed even more tense than the previous Heavendoom City incident. Back then, only several late-stage Sunmoons had arrived at Heavendoom City. But this time, over twenty late-stage Sunmoons had arrived here. Thɪs chapter is updated by novel(ꜰ)ire.net

With so many top experts around, it would be much harder for Su Yu to generate enough chaos in the city to kill all of them. Thus, he did not even consider the possibility of killing these Sunmoons.

That would be a waste of time. Even an expert on the Dao Affirmation Ranking had arrived. This was terrifying. That expert was someone Su Yu knew. Ancient Mountain, an expert of the primordial giant race, and likely the first expert on the Dao Affirmation Ranking to arrive in the city.

Even the mayor feared such an expert. Sure, the mayor might be a ninth-stage Sunmoon with the backing of the ancient city, but he was ultimately not a Dao Affirmation Ranking expert.

If he encountered Ancient Mountain outside the city, there was no chance of victory. He might be able to put up a fight against Ancient Mountain inside the city, but he still didn't want to provoke someone like that. The primordial giant race was filled with experts.

The mayor had also arrived to attend the auction. A large number of guards were also present. They were here both to maintain order and to prevent Tianduo from running without paying the mayor his share of the profit.

Apart from those attending the auction, nobody was allowed to enter the building. Su Yu couldn't even be bothered to say more to those from Lade Family. That would only increase the risk of exposure. Staying silent was the most optimal choice. Su Yu believed that a genius like Tianduo would not place much importance on even those from Lade Family, All geniuses were proud. There was no doubting that.

Standing behind his opened door, Su Yu said, "Everyone, please hand over your tickets. Those not planning to pay or here to cause trouble can leave. A lot of experts are present. If the auction is ruined by some blind fool, don't blame me for not keeping my word."

Right after those words were said, a divine tossed something over. The look in Su Yu's eyes changed. That was actually a human expert.

At that moment, the projection of a massive spear appeared in the sky. The expression of the divine changed slightly as he looked behind him. Qin Hao, who was clad in a set of black armor, had arrived with Qin Fang.

Shooting the divine a cold look, Qin Hao sneered and tossed a head over. The head belonged to a divine. The wound on the neck of the head had been sealed, preserving the life of the divine

"This is a living seventh-stage Mountainsea. Is this acceptable?"

The divines were using a human expert as the ticket while the humans were using a divine expert as the ticket. Both these experts were decently strong.

The divine with only a head left was still alive and conscious. When he saw the divine experts, he hurriedly shouted, "Lord Wu Sheng, save me..."

The divine expert turned to look at Qin Hao and coldly asked, "Qin Hao, what are the humans trying to do?"

Qin Hao grinned, "What are you trying to do? Since you're using a human as your ticket, why can't I use a divine as my ticket? Wu Sheng, if you wish to fight, bring it on."

Killing intent started filling the area.

A spear appeared in Qin Hao's hand as he asked, "So? Are we fighting or not?"

Things were getting intense. Right at that moment, a devil laughed and tossed someone over. It was yet another human. The look in Qin Hao's eyes changed. But next, Zhu Guangshen arrived and flashed the crowd a smile. Beside him, Umbra casually tossed a devil over. All the Mountainseas were piling up in front of Su Yu's door.

"The Knowledge Seeking Realm is participating in this auction as well."

The humans were participating as two parties. Qin Hao was the representative of the War Shrine. Or perhaps he was merely representing Great Qin. Su Yu was unsure, but he wasn't interested to find out.

In any case, he wouldn't sell the corpse to the humans. The humans were simply too poor to afford it. The atmosphere was tense, but a fight did not break out.

As for the dragons, they couldn't be bothered to participate in this ego-measuring contest. They tossed a shivering demonic beast out. This was most likely a beast they had captured randomly while on their way here.

The other participants also started tossing their captive Mountainseas over. No other members of major races were used as the captive Mountainseas. Even the immortals were merely using a random captive Mountainsea. After all, the immortals and humans were still allied officially. It would be too unbecoming for them to use a human as their ticket as well.

In the blink of an eye, over twenty Mountainseas had piled up in front of Su Yu. Some were crippled, some were as good as dead, and some were heavily injured. In short, none of the participants had used their own people as the ticket.

Suddenly, a human with the color of the soil walked over. This was an earth elemental who had assumed the human form. The earth elemental asked, "Tianduo, Topsoil Spirit of our race has disappeared in this city the night before your arrival. Where is he?"

Su Yu frowned and said, "I don't know. Don't bother me with this."

"Tianduo."

The earth elemental released a powerful burst of aura and said, "If you tell us his location, we will thank you generously. We won't create any trouble for you."

As a response, Su Yu nonchalantly remarked, "Looks like the Lade Family is indeed unworthy of respect. So what if this is the family of a devil king from the original devil race? Even someone from the five elemental race dares to threaten someone from this family..."

He glanced at Dawo's group.

There, the Sunmoon from the Lade Family frowned. He looked at the earth elemental and coldly said, "Earth elemental, is this a threat? A late-stage Sunmoon threatening an index genius of our race. Is this a declaration of war?"

The expression of the earth elemental changed instantly.

The original devils might be unhappy with Tianduo, but they had a reputation to uphold. If they allowed a Sunmoon to threaten Tianduo without reacting, they would start suffering the same fate as the humans. The other races would no longer refrain from killing their young geniuses. They might even start pushing the devils to hand over their young geniuses as compensation the moment a conflict broke out.

The five elemental race wasn't even a top 10 race. There was no need for the original devil race to fear them.

The Sunmoon from Lade Family snorted coldly and continued, "Even though Tianduo has refused to offer the corpse to the devils, he is still a genius of the Lade Family, a genius second only to Mo Duona among the devils. What are the five elementals trying to do for the sake of a mere Topsoil Spirit? Tianduo has no idea where he's at, but even if Tianduo has killed him, so what? What can the five elementals do?"

The devil with long, red hair beside Dawo was also the strongest devil in the group. The aura of an eighth-stage Sunmoon rippled out of this devil as he coldly said, "The five elementals are getting gutsy nowadays. Perhaps you should have some fun with the blood fire devils."

"..."

Holy shit!

Chapter 1020: So Fake You Have To Believe It (2)

Even Su Yu was stunned. He had not paid much attention to them, but that was indeed a blood fire devil. Why was a lunatic from that race here? It hadn't even been long since they lost Na Dazhi, a seventh-stage Sunmoon. And now, yet another late-stage Sunmoon from the blood fire race had appeared before Su Yu.

Even the original devils had only deployed a single late-stage Sunmoon here. What were the blood fire devils doing? Why were they even here? Did they think that the original devils would share the corpse with them after obtaining it?

Everyone present looked annoyed when they saw the blood fire devil. It was another one of those lunatics.

The blood fire devil race was the biggest culprit for the bad reputation of the devil race as a whole. It wouldn't be an exagerration to describe them as a race of lunatics. Nobody would be surprised if they decided to challenge the major races in succession. Something like that was perfectly normal for them.

Naturally, they were also extremely strong. They were often times the vanguard of the devils during battles. There wasn't even a need to force them into that position. They loved being in the thick of the action. In fact, they would be offended if they weren't offered the position of the vanguard.

The original devils both hated and loved the blood fire devils. They hated the blood fire devils for their ability to cause trouble. But they also loved the usefullness of the blood fire devils in wars.

The moment the blood fire devil spoke, the earth elemental shut his mouth with annoyance. This was the benefit of being a member of a major race. Regardless of their internal conflicts, they would stand together against all external powers.

This was applicable to both the devils and the divines. In fact, this was also somewhat applicable to the humans and the immortals.

However, the separation of factions within the human and immortal races was quite extreme. For example, if someone from Great Ming encountered a member of Great Xia in danger, they might not help even though they were fellow humans. That was also the case for the immortals, with their factions split between different immortal kings.

Su Yu smiled. This was why Tianduo's identity was so useful. With this identity, everyone would behave during the auction. The devils were the only ones who might not play by the rules. For example, they could win the auction with a high bid only to refuse to pay him after the auction was over.

Thus, Su Yu was not too inclined to sell the corpse to the devils either. After winning the auction, they could very well tell him to go back home to receive the payment. In that situation, it was very likely that he would receive nothing. But the other races wouldn't be able to make such a request.

Su Yu moved his attention away from the Sunmoons and focused on the young geniuses instead. A decent number of them had arrived. Qin Fang, Dao Cheng, Long Wuyou, Long Zhan, and some other high-spirited youths could be seen. Some of them were faces he had never seen before, but it wasn't too hard to guess the identities of these unfamiliar faces.

Mo Duona was present as well. He looked especially conspicuous beside the blood fire devil with his purple hair. Despite not being a Sunmoon, he was standing side by side the the other Sunmoons. With his hands clasped behind him and a calm smile on his face, he glanced at Su Yu doubtfully. But he ultimately didn't think too much about it.

Meanwhile, Dao Cheng was standing behind a young immortal. That young immortal was most likely the famed Xuan Wuji. As for the divines, their group was actually led by a white-haired youth instead of a Sunmoon. This youth was probably the famous Zhan Wushuang. Thɪs chapter is updated by ɴovelfire.net

Su Yu's gaze was especially attracted to two black-robed individuals. One of them was a Sunmoon and the other was Soulcurse, the number one Earth Index genius, a third-stage Mountainsea.

Both Zhan Wushuang and Xuan Wuji were eighth-stage Mountainseas as well.

Fourth on the Heaven Index was Ming Yue of the nether race. She was present as well. This was a young lady with a dark aura around her. The dark aura felt similar to death qi, but when Su Yu focused, he noted that unlike death qi, her dark aura did not reject everything.

A decent number of Heaven Index geniuses had arrived. Even Dao Cheng was also a Heaven Index genius, but he was maintaining a low profile. With the top ranked Heaven Index geniuses present, Dao Cheng's presence did not attract too much attention.

Unknown to everyone, the top six geniuses of the Heaven Index were all present, since Su Yu himself was ranked first on the Heaven Index.

While Su Yu was observing the young geniuses, they were observing him as well. Some viewed him with disregard, but some frowned when they looked at him.

Out of nowhere, Soulcurse said with a frown, "You're Tianduo? I dislike you."

That was a feeling that had emerged out of nowhere the moment she laid her eyes on Su Yu. She didn't even know why she was feeling that way. The Sunmoons did not seem to have noticed anything, but these young geniuses were different.

All of them felt faint traces of dislike toward the fake Tianduo before them. For some reason, this fake Tianduo was giving them a sense that he was the same type of existence as them. This was a feeling each Heaven Index genius would feel when encountering a different Heaven Index genius.

But Tianduo was not a Heaven Index genius. Soulcurse might have fallen from the Heaven Index, but she was still a top genius.

Before Su Yu could say anything, someone looked at Soulcurse and nonchalantly said, "I dislike you as well, Soulcurse. You better learn to stay low profile in my presence."

Soulcurse sank into silence. In fact, all the other Heaven Index geniuses sank into silence as well. Why? Because Mo Duona had spoken.

Mo Duona, a ninth-stage Cloudbreach.

Even Zhan Wushuang, someone who had killed a Sunmoon before, said nothing. He might be an eighth-stage Mountainsea, but could he really defeat Mo Duona? Mo Duona was too monstrous of a genius.

He had killed a seventh-stage Mountainsea as a seventh-stage Cloudbreach. Now that he was already a ninth-stage Cloudbreach with two additional source qi transformations, each of his transformations might grant him as much boost as what a Mountainsea could gain from an advancement. It was likely that he was already strong enough to kill peak Mountainseas.

In fact, Mo Duona was probably strong enough to kill a fellow geniuses several stages above him. That was an extremely terrifying feat, much more terrifying than killing a regular cultivator who was a realm above him.

Su Yu smiled and looked at Mo Duona. Mo Duona was also looking at him. No words were exchanged.

But Mo Duona grew even more doubtful. In the past, Tianduo's eyes would be filled with despair and grief each time they met. At times, some hatred could be seen in his eyes as well. But all those feelings were no longer present. Tianduo seemed to have changed considerably after encountering the ancient spatial pocket.

After a short silence, he sent a voice transmission to the Lade Family Sunmoon, "Lord Zhaiyue Lade, try to track Tianduo through your bloodline."

The Sunmoon was slightly stunned. Tracking Tianduo? What was the point? Tianduo was right before them. But the person who had spoken was Mo Duona, someone respected by even their ancestor. Thus, he produced a drop of blood at the tip of his finger. Immediately, several death spirits appeared in the area. But those death spirits were instantly chased off by the guards. Nobody said anything.

The drop of blood shook slightly. Noticing what was happening, Su Yu's eyes flickered. Inside his sea of willpower, the little furball rolled once. Inside the little furball, Tianduo's sea of willpower shook slightly.

That seemed to be the response Zhaiyue was looking for. He absorbed the blood back into his body and sent a voice transmission to Mo Duona, "This is Tianduo. To be precise, this is a member of the Lade Family."

He had no way of confirming whether this was Tianduo, but this was definitely a member of the Lade Family. Furthermore, there were so many high-stage Sunmoons here. It was impossible for them to not notice anything if this was a fake Tianduo. Zhaiyue believed that Mo Duona was being too overly cautious.

Mo Duona nodded and said nothing else. A check had been done. So be it. He was only curious about the changes with Tianduo. He didn't care about anything else, including the so-called ancient breathing technique.

The others weren't bothered, but Su Yu knew what happened. With a sneer, he looked at the Lade Family Sunmoon and coldly said, "Did Mo Duona tell you to perform a check on me? So you would rather trust Mo Duona than me. I'm not aware that the Lade Family has turned into Mo Duona's vassal."

Zhaiyue said, "Tianduo, you always think too much. Mo Duona is the number one genius of our original devil race. He has always been generous with the other geniuses of our race. That is the behavior befitting of someone destined to rule. As for you..."

Su Yu's eyes turned red with bitterness as he spat, "Destined to rule? It's only a matter of time before I surpass him!"

He stared at Mo Duona and channeled his bitterness at facing so many enemies all by himself out here mixed with the satisfaction he felt from the prospect of scamming all these people, pushing all those emotions into his face and voice. While gritting his teeth, he said, "Mo Duona, I will surpass you! I will!"

The look in his eyes was the same look Mo Duona was familiar with.

Yes. This was the same look Tianduo would always have in his presence. Indignation, fury, desire to kill, and a tiny bit of satisfaction that was probably coming from the thought of his recent harvest.

WIth a smile, Mo Duona said, "I will be more than happy to see you surpass me. The devil race will not stay strong relying on any single individual."

Su Yu was left speechless. What the fuck?

Whatever. He couldn't be bothered to waste more time on this person. Before long, this fellow would realize whether he would really be doing any surpassing. Naturally, the person doing the surpassing would be him, a human by the name of Su Yu, not Tianduo.

With a cold snort, Su Yu looked at the others and said, "I don't care where you come from. In an auction, the product will only go to the highest bidder. The payment must be completed on the spot. Don't even think of playing any tricks. Also, the mayor will be acting as the host. Lord Mayor, I hope you can maintain order and prevent anyone from messing with the auction. After all, you're entitled to a third of the proceeds."

The mayor nonchalantly answered, "Don't worry. We're in an ancient city."

He wouldn't dare to be so confident outside the city. But inside the city, who would dare to mess with him? Sure, he might not be a match for Invincibles even inside the city, but he was capable of making things very difficult for Invincibles if they pushed him too hard.

He was most certainly not going to miss out on such a massive profit that had fallen into his lap out of nowhere.

At that time, a masked individual from the Heavenly Hunt Pavilion spoke, "Devil Lord Tianduo, we're here with our entrance tickets. Isn't it time for you to let us inspect the product we're here to buy?"

Everyone looked at Su Yu upon hearing that. With a frown, Su Yu pulled the piled of sealed Mountainseas into his building. He also examined their actual condition, checking their injuries and confirming that they were really sealed.

When he was done, he coldly said, "Enter the opposite building. I'll stay here. You can inspect the corpse with your willpower, but no contact is allowed before you purchase it."

The masked individual said, "Without physical contact, our inspection might not be accurate..."

Su Yu said, "Nobody is forcing you to buy. Shoulder the risk if you wish to buy. What am I supposed to do if someone snatched it during inspection? You're all Sunmoons. If you feel doubtful, just refrain from buying. It's fine."

The masked individual said helplessly, "It's not that I doubt you. But if we're not allowed to get in contact with the corpse, we might not be able to offer as high of a price."

Su Yu sneered, "If the price is too low, I'll simply cancel the auction. But I'm confident in my discovery. You won't be able to hold back from buying."

The masked individual said nothing else. They all entered the opposite building. It was a large building. Numerous chairs had been prepared in the courtyard. One after another, the experts sat down. Some entered with their juniors while some entered alone. All in all, around thirty different groups were participating in the auction.

With everyone seated, the mayor said, "Tianduo, time to show your product."

Su Yu smiled, "One step at a time. Let's take a look at the weapon first."

A longbow appeared. The moment it appeared, a powerful yet ancient aura swept out.

Numerous strands of willpower shot over, but Su Yu hurriedly shouted, "Don't try anything stupid. My senses are quite sharp. If I sense anything offensive in nature, the auction is canceled. You are only allowed to keep the strength of your willpower at the level of a Mountainsea. Don't think that I'm a fool."

"..."

Fuck! He sure had a lot of requirements.

The experts were left quite speechless. When they tried inspecting the weapon, they received a slight backlash from the weapon. One of them frowned and said, "This isn't a backlash from the weapon itself. It's an ancient formation...this is not enough to prove that it's a heaven weapon..."

Meanwhile, the masked individual took a piece of paper out and drew the appearance of the bow on it. Shortly after, the appearance was sent back to the Heavenly Hunt Pavilion.

Su Yu said, "There is a way of proving it."

He threw a punch at the weapon. With a rumble, the weapon shook. One stripe after another lit up as the weapon started absorbing the ambient source qi in the air to release a backlash toward Su Yu.

One stripe, two stripes...

In the blink of an eye, 116 golden stripes appeared.

Su Yu sneered, "Can you see this? 116 stripes, a peak early heaven weapon. Of course, it's up to you whether you believe this or not."

"..."

Chapter 1021: So Fake You Have To Believe It (3)

The experts started conversing with each other through voice transmissions. Among the divines, a divine skywing had arrived as well. Zhan Wushuang asked the expert through voice transmission, "Are there any records about this weapon in the divine skywing race?"

"That..."

The divine skywing expert was a Sunmoon as well. He answered uncertainly, "It's hard to say. We don't have a lot of records from the ancient past. Most of the records we have only provide general explanations about the past. There are no detailed records. After all, no expert will easily reveal everything about their weapon to others. But since it's a heaven-grade longbow, it might really be the weapon of choice for an ancient divine skywing expert."

Numerous gazes landed on an old man amid the crowd. Someone asked, "Master Divine Forge, what do you think?"

The old man came from a top 100 race that wasn't too powerful, the ironforge race. The old man was one of the few earth weaponsmiths active in the Allheaven Battlefield.

The old man carefully inspected the weapon with his willpower while answering, "The materials of this weapon are decent. The weapon has the durability of earth weapons, but it doesn't feel as durable as heaven weapons. But that might be due to the age of this weapon and the lack of maintenance. There is a rather high possibility that this is an ancient heaven weapon..."

Then, he started inspecting the golden stripes. Shortly after, he added, "These are genuine ancient stripes..."

But soon, he frowned, "Some of them are hard to judge. They are too unstable, as though they're on the verge of falling apart..."

Those were the fake stripes added by Su Yu. All these fake stripes felt extremely frail, as though they would fall apart at the slightest impact. Master Divine Forge did not dare to use too much of his willpower on them as they were too frail. If he accidentally caused a collapse, the devils wouldn't spare him.

But from its outer appearance alone, this weapon seemed genuine. Master Divine Forge concluded, "From its outer appearance, this is an ancient weapon. I can't send my willpower deeper since an ancient formation is preventing that from happening. That's an ancient counter-strike formation. As for the stripes, some of them are too frail. I can't be sure if those are genuine or not. But a majority of the stripes are indeed ancient stripes."

That much was enough. It was already quite impressive of him to reach such a detailed conclusion without getting in contact with the weapon. Some of the experts started nodding after inspecting the weapon. They were convinced that this was an ancient weapon.

Su Yu asked, "Are you done? If you are, let's move on to the next item."

Next, a corpse appeared. Seated in the lotus position, it emitted an incomparably powerful aura. Faint traces of death qi could also be felt on the corpse. Nevertheless, the death qi couldn't erase the powerful presence of the corpse.

The face of the corpse had rotted slightly, and some healed wounds could be seen on its body. However, it was obvious that this expert had received incredibly powerful attacks before dying. All the experts present were shocked when they inspected the corpse.

"This expert is no weaker than the eighth-stage Sunmoon Realm prior to death..." ᴛhis chapter is ᴜpdated by NoveI~Fire.net

"Nonsense. This expert has died long ago and has even suffered the erosion of death qi yet still possesses the presence of an eighth-stage Sunmoon. This expert was definitely a pseudo Invincible or even an Invincible prior to death."

"From the wounds, traces of an Invincible's aura can still be felt. Was the killing blow dealt by an Invincible?"

"This expert might have been killed by multiple Invincibles."

"None of that is the point. Check the sea of willpower..."

Boom!

Right at that moment, a powerful backlash erupted from the sea of willpower when these experts tried inspecting it. This was the work of the counter character. Through Su Yu's hard work, the character was restored to the Sunmoon Realm.

Some of the experts grunted in pain. The aura of an ancient character appeared for a split second before withdrawing into the corpse.

"Ancient character!"

Someone stood up and exclaimed in shock. Was that really an ancient character? Why was it still so powerful? How terrifying. Even after such a long time, this character still possessed the might of a Sunmoon. It was most likely no weaker than the seventh-stage Sunmoon Realm originally. And nobody knew if this was merely the weakest character in this ancient expert's possession.

Ancient character!

Some of the people grew excited. This was actually an ancient cultural researcher. Of course, this might also be a warrior or someone who had cultivated both paths. After all, the body of this corpse was clearly quite powerful as well. Sure, the corpse was slightly rotting, but in the eyes of these experts, the rot was proof that this was an ancient corpse.

Then again, it would be weird for the corpse to not rot after it was processed by Su Yu with death qi. In fact, it was quite impressive for him to be able to cause an eighth-stage Sunmoon corpse to rot.

Su Yu indifferently said, "I don't care about any of these. I have no way of utilizing both the corpse and the weapon. As for the ancient character, I was only able to find one. Due to the counter-striking properties of the character, I couldn't go deeper into the sea of willpower. For me, the ancient cultivation method is the biggest discovery."

A slightly damaged jade talisman appeared in his hand. This was an actual ancient talisman he had bought recently.

He said, "I'll show you the early parts of the cultivation method. You can judge for yourself whether it is legitimate. Of course, I'll also perform a little demonstration of this cultivation method."

Then, a row of characters written in a similar language to the characters used in ancient cities appeared in the air. The experts hurriedly read the revealed text. Even though the text was short, for some reason, they felt like the very truth of creation was contained within those characters.

Their eyes sparkled at that discovery. Suddenly, Su Yu's entire body shook as he inhaled deeply, taking in a large amount of source qi. Waves of powerful devilish qi rippled out of his body. Then, he threw a punch, shattering space and creating a loud rumble.

"Hah!" Finally, he exhaled, releasing a mouthful of source qi mixed with some dark qi. With a smile, he said, "Did you see that? This cultivation method is nameless. I named it the Tempered Body Breathing Art."

"..."

The experts started cursing inwardly. What bullshit name was that? But that wasn't the main point. Everyone's eyes sparkled as they were finally shown an actual breathing technique, a technique from the ancient past.

Breathing technique, ancient heaven weapon, a corpse no weaker than ninth-stage Sunmoon Realm, an ancient character no weaker than the seventh-stage Sunmoon Realm...

At this point, nobody would believe that this was a scam. There was absolutely no way for this to be a scam. This would be way too expensive a scam to pull off. Only an absolute fool would invest so much into a scam.

What a joke.

This was impossible. Every single thing they had seen so far was something even major races would keep as a treasured collection upon discovery. Meanwhile, the masked individual was still busy writing and drawing,

***

Amid the boundless space, several faceless elders of the Heavenly Hunt Pavilion were gathered in a room. All of them were paying close attention to the live updates from the masked individual.

One of them exclaimed in astonishment, "Tempered Body Breathing Art...a breathing technique capable of tempering the body and removing the impurities within one's body through breathing. There is no doubt this is a breathing technique. Check our records for known breathing techniques with these abilities."

Shortly after, someone said, "It's hard to pinpoint any single breathing technique. There are several breathing techniques in our records with similar abilities, such as the Lightning Breathing Art, the Body Forging Breathing Art, the Heavenwar Breathing Art..."

"How about the ancient character? Are you able to determine its origins?"

"It's very difficult. Through our searches, we only know of one ancient divine at the seventh-stage Sunmoon Realm with such a character. But that expert was a trident user, not a bow user. He was known for his counter-striking abilities..."

"This ancient expert was most definitely stronger than that. According to White One, the corpse still feels like an eighth-stage Sunmoon. There are traces of death qi in the corpse. This expert wouldn't be weaker than the ninth-stage Sunmoon Realm in the past."

"..."

The elders continued their discussion. It was too hard to find an expert fitting all the descriptions. Sure, they had a massive database, but after so many years, it was inevitable that some records would be lost. The elders felt quite helpless.

"So? Should we buy it or not? Is Tianduo actually lucky enough to encounter something like this?"

"From what we can see, there are no issues. Tianduo himself has learned the breathing technique so it should be real. But...it's hard for us to reach a proper conclusion without knowing the identity of this ancient expert."

"So this is still risky."

"It doesn't matter. It's better for us to get our hands on this corpse. We might be able to find more valuable information from this corpse."

"Just the breathing technique, ancient heaven weapon, and ancient character are already incredibly valuable."

"..."

Even the Heavenly Hunt Pavilion, with its business spread all over the Allheaven Battlefield, wasn't sure if this discovery was real. But they were inclined to believe that the discovery was legitimate.

They were only hesitating because they couldn't pinpoint the exact identity of that expert. Silence descended. Even a fool would know that this wouldn't be a cheap purchase. After all, the breathing technique had been verified to be real.

Apart from the breathing technique, they also believed that the corpse, the character, and the weapon were real as well. Their only doubt was the identity and the actual strength of this ancient expert.

Why was Tianduo the one to make such a discovery? They could only conclude that he was also a child of destiny. He was blessed by fortune, and he could very well be the next Mo Duona. Fortune, as a concept, was extremely ethereal and vague. But nobody could deny that all the young geniuses were individuals with incredible luck.

Chapter 1022: End Of Auction (1)

Grandstar City.

Numerous strands of willpower were busy inspecting the corpse.

All the experts were shocked.

One of them said, "Tianduo, have you learned the breathing technique?"

Su Yu nonchalantly replied, "Seeing is believing. This technique is both difficult and easy to learn."

"Is it possible for us to extract a drop of blood from this corpse for inspection?"

Su Yu did not say anything. He merely threw a punch at the corpse. Instantly, a counter-force erupted from the corpse. Even after so many years, this corpse was still capable of unleashing such a powerful counter-force. This was truly a shocking sight.

Su Yu ignored the counter-force and continued punching the corpse. After a short moment, when everyone's faces were starting to twitch, some rotten blood seeped out of the corpse's arm.

The experts hurriedly inspected the blood. One of them frowned, "The blood has been ruined by death qi. I'm afraid the value of the blood won't be too high."

But even the presence of blood in such an old corpse was already a piece of good news. They could all see that there was very little blood left in the corpse. Perhaps most of the blood had failed to survive the passage of time.

Su Yu said, "This isn't my fault. This was the state I found the corpse. I don't know the origin of the death qi in this corpse."

Nobody said anything, but they guessed that this expert might have been exposed momentarily to the Death Realm after death. They wanted to know the reason for that as well, but a deeper investigation was required to find out about that.

A divine skywing said, "Can I take a look at the palms of this corpse?"

Su Yu raised the arms of the corpse and showed the palms. Thick calluses could be seen on the fingers. But the fingers had also suffered some damage from death qi erosion.

After taking a close look at the palms before inspecting the rotten blood yet again. Then, he sighed inwardly and sent a voice transmission to the other divine experts, "This is a senior from the divine skywing race."

He was certain that this expert was a divine skywing. This was an extremely powerful senior. The divine skywing himself was only a seventh-stage Sunmoon. Meanwhile, this senior was still capable of emitting such a powerful aura so many years after his death. This was most definitely a super expert during the ancient past. Judging from the strength of this senior, the divine skywing race must have enjoyed a glorious past as well.

What a pity that the remains of a senior from their race had actually fallen into the hands of a devil. Furthermore, the devil was actually openly auctioning the corpse before the myriad races. This was an insult to the divine skywing race. But at this point, there was nothing they could do about it.

With this, the divines were finally certain that this was the corpse of a senior from their race. They didn't know the exact identity of this senior, but the ancient character in the sea of willpower was most likely a character of the divine race as well.

As for the ancient articles of clothing on the corpse, they were already badly damaged. Even the body itself had suffered a lot of damage due to death qi erosion. In fact, the corpse was starting to smell.

Strictly speaking, if this was a modern corpse, it would not have much value as the death qi on the corpse would be very hard to deal with. Just the cost of removing the death qi would be massive. This corpse was only so valuable since it was supposed to contain some unknown ancient secrets.

At this point, most of the experts had concluded that this corpse was the real deal. Unfortunately, the corpse was too old for them to accurately judge the exact strength of this expert.

Suddenly, someone claimed, "This is only the corpse of a ninth-stage Sunmoon, not an Invincible."

It didn't matter if that was true. This was the argument they would present. The corpse would be way too expensive if they agreed that it was an Invincible corpse.

Su Yu protested, "How is that possible? It has been so many years yet it still has such a powerful aura..."

"That's most probably because the ancient spatial pocket had preserved the corpse well."

Su Yu's voice turned cold, "You're free to fuck off if you don't want to buy. I'm not even counting on the value of the corpse. The breathing technique is the real treasure here. As far as I'm concerned, the corpse does not matter that much."

He was being unreasonable. Someone cursed inwardly. If this was really an Invincible, then it would be invaluable. How could it be not important?

Su Yu grew impatient as he said, "You've seen all you can. I believe all of you are already aware of the authenticity of this corpse--"

Someone interrupted him, "Tianduo, apart from all these, did you discover anything else from the spatial pocket?"

Su Yu replied, "That is none of your business. Even if there are, I'm not selling them. Do I not have the freedom to do that? These are the only things I'm selling. If you're not interested, you can simply refrain from buying."

"..."

There was nothing they could say about that. From Tianduo's words, he was likely hiding something as well. But that wasn't surprising.

Zhu Guangshen smiled, "Tianduo, must you sell it for heavenearth profound light or the other treasures you mentioned? There are a lot of things just as valuable as those treasures..."

Su Yu coldly said, "Don't waste my time, human. We all know how poor the humans are. If you can't afford my price, don't bother participating in the auction."

"..."

Zhu Guangshen cursed inwardly. But what could he say? The divines, devils, and immortals had always been looking down on the humans for being poor. That was common knowledge. Meanwhile, the divines, devils, and immortals smiled upon hearing those words. Yes. The humans were uncompetitive here.

Su Yu said, "To prevent anyone from blindly raising the bid to ruin the auction, I'll add one extra rule for the auction. Before calling out a bid, you're required to pay ten drops of Sunmoon blood essence as the deposit. Those ruining the auction will lose the deposit."

Zhu Guangshen protested, "Why didn't you mention this earlier?"

Su Yu said, "I only remembered this after seeing humans here. The humans are so poor. Can you guys even afford this? Everyone knows that the humans are crafty. What if you decide to blindly raise the bid to waste my time so that you can find an opportunity to steal the corpse?"

He looked at the others and said, "I'm adding this rule for everyone's sake. Ten drops of Sunmoon blood essence are nothing. With this, the price will remain at a reasonable level. Without this rule, you might need to pay more than that just to secure the bid. As for those who are too poor to participate, you should leave and stop wasting everyone's time."

The divines, devils, and immortals nodded with happy smiles. Yes. This was how the auction should be conducted. If there was no mechanism in place to prevent anyone from bidding maliciously, the price could easily go out of control. And the humans were indeed known for their tendency to play dirty. No matter what, ten drops of Sunmoon blood essence were still quite valuable. If the humans decided to play dirty yet again, they would have to pay a price for it.

Su Yu said, "If the winner of the bid fails to pay on the spot, the item will go to the second highest bid. The winner will lose the deposit while the rest of the bidders will receive their deposit back. Similarly, the second-highest bidder will also lose the deposit if they can't afford to pay while the item will go to the third-highest bid."

Everyone nodded. That was reasonable.

This was a good idea to prevent malicious bidders.

Even Zhaiyue of the Lade Family was nodding in agreement. When he looked at Su Yu, admiration filled his eyes. This was indeed a genius of their family. Even when conducting an auction, he was able to think so far ahead. With this limitation, he would be able to guarantee the sale even though the price would probably be lower.

Su Yu said, "Is the deposit too expensive for anyone here? You can also use heavenearth profound light or sunmoon profound yellow liquid of equal value as the deposit if you don't have enough Sunmoon blood essence. Since I've announced in advance that these are the resources I'm accepting for this auction, you can consider leaving if you can't even afford the deposit."

Some of the people cursed inwardly upon hearing that. It was clear they had to pay a price if they wanted to create trouble during the bid. Some people would definitely be unhappy about the deposit, but those truly here for the auction wouldn't mind it. Compared to the things being auctioned here, ten drops of Sunmoon blood essence were nothing. Thɪs chapter is updatᴇd by novelꞁire.net

In fact, some of them even believed that the deposit was too low. For an auction of this scale, the deposit should be no lower than one hundred drops of Sunmoon blood essence. Then again, that was probably too crazy. Some people would find that too hard to accept. Ten drops of Sunmoon blood essence were a lot more reasonable.

Su Yu proceeded to stare at the crowd silently, waiting for them to make their payment. Nearly thirty groups were present. None of them withdrew from the auction. Some of them didn't have enough Sunmoon blood essence, but they merely paid with other resources of equal value. Before long, a large amount of valuable resources were gathered in Su Yu's hands.

Su Yu was careful to inspect what he received to prevent anyone from using their own blood essence as the deposit.

It didn't matter if the Sunmoon was dead. But alive, a Sunmoon was capable of regrowing from a drop of blood. He had to be careful lest someone tried to use such a trick to catch him by surprise.

But the venue was also quite helpful in this aspect as the blood essence of someone who was still alive would cause the appearance of death spirits. Meanwhile, no death spirit would appear if the blood essence belonged to someone dead. He looked around, confirming that no powerful death spirit had appeared.

Su Yu was greatly pleased. He had received an assortment of resources worth around 270 drops of Sunmoon blood essence. This was actually massive as one would need to kill 27 Sunmoons to get this much blood essence. Sure enough, his scam would be a lot more profitable if he could gather all the major races together.

As for the fact that these resources were deposits that had to be returned...well, that wouldn't happen. Su Yu couldn't help but feel some pity for Zhu Guangshen and Qin Hao. The human race was too poor. This was most definitely a significant amount of wealth for them. But what could he do about it? He couldn't spare them as that would look too suspicious.

Done with the prelude, it was time to move on to the main show. Su Yu said, "Let's not waste any time. Heavenearth profound light will be used as the basic currency for the auction at the value of three strands per drop of sunmoon profound yellow liquid. As for any other resources you wish to use as your bid, we will value them according to Heavenly Hunt Pavilion's exchange rate. I trust the Heavenly Hunt Pavilion will not ruin its reputation for a single auction. The starting bid will be a hundred strands of heavenearth profound light."

That was most definitely not a low starting bid. Then again, the corpse was definitely worth that price.

Suddenly, Zhan Wushuang asked, "To make things clear, are we bidding for everything you showed us earlier?"

Su Yu said, "Of course. The breathing technique, heaven weapon, corpse, and character will go together. They're only worth that much together."

Zhan Wushuang nodded. That was acceptable.

Dawo asked, "Will the devil receive a ten percent discount?"

Su Yu nodded, "Yes. After all, I'm a devil. I won't offer the corpse to the devils for free, but I am willing to concede this much. But the payment must be made on the spot. If not, the corpse will go to the next highest bidder."

The devils said nothing else. Tianduo was already giving them an advantage over the other races. It was pointless to say more. The other races did not protest either. This wasn't surprising at all since he still needed to rely on the backing of the devils in the future.

Naturally, the divines were the most determined to obtain the corpse. Since the corpse belonged to an ancient divine skywing, it might be a lot more useful to them.

The moment the auction started, Zhan Wushuang of the divines called out, "Three hundred strands."

The price tripled with a single bid. This way, they could keep the poorer parties from participating and save some time.

Right after, Dawo called out, "Five hundred."

"..."

The look in many eyes changed. Everyone was cursing inwardly. They were talking about heavenearth profound light, not source qi liquid. But these people were calling out hundreds of strands like they were talking about water. How were the others supposed to participate?

The divines and devils were indeed worthy of their hegemonic positions among the myriad races. Heavenearth profound light was a resource only Sunmoons or stronger could harvest amid the boundless void at the edge of the Allheaven Battlefield.

At times, a Sunmoon would need to spend years to harvest only a single strand. To obtain hundreds of strands, at least ten Sunmoons needed to stay in the boundless void for ten years. Then again, the divines and devils did not lack Sunmoons. So perhaps this was no big deal for them.

Furthermore, due to the long history of these races, it was reasonable for them to accumulate a large number of strands after so many years. Additionally, they had also been increasing their supply from the minor realms they had conquered over the years.

This was a price some minor races could never afford. Five hundred strands of heavenearth profound light were equal in value to about five hundred drops of Sunmoon blood essence. Fifty Sunmoons needed to die to gather this much blood essence. And some minor races didn't even have fifty Sunmoons. Even Su Yu was greatly shocked.

How rich!

Holy shit!

The divines and devils were indeed wealthy. Just look at how easily the bid had reached five hundred strands. Initially, he had thought that he would only be able to make around a hundred strands from this scam. But he couldn't be more wrong.

In truth, Su Yu's pockets had been feeling quite light after the massive investment he made in the scam. He was nearly out of heavenly source qi. Recently, he had extracted more heavenly source qi to tide him over. He was also running out of other resources. He had also purchased some ancient items and destroyed one of his own characters for this. Why had he invested so heavily in this? To earn an acceptable level of profit.

Clearly, his investment was paying off. He was going to earn massively. Despite the value of an eighth-stage Sunmoon corpse, his total investment couldn't even reach a hundred strands of heavenearth profound light in value.

Meanwhile, the divines and devils had instantly pushed the bid to five hundred strands. That was truly crazy. The divine skywing looked at the devils with a frown while the devils remained completely relaxed thanks to the ten percent discount they were enjoying.