Chapter 43 - 43

Chapter 1037: Su Yu Is Dead? (1)

The mayor was going to offer everyone shelter? Su Yu's eyes flickered. Perhaps this would be a chance for him. Were there any lone experts in the city? He needed one that was not too strong. A Mountainsea or even a Cloudbreach would do.

There were still quite a lot of people in the city. Apart from the experts who had arrived because of him, there were also a lot of unaffiliated cultivators who had been inside the city prior to the auction. All of them were currently hiding inside the ancient buildings all over the city.

Due to the high number of death spirits in the city, they were unlikely to have the courage to step out. Would they finally find the courage to come out with the mayor's offer?

Suddenly, a different voice rang out, "Lord Mayor, does the offer extend to people from minor races like us?"

That was a Mountainsea. He had opened the door of his shelter to ask that question. Nervousness and despair could be seen all over his face. They had concluded that they might die alongside Su Yu in this disaster. The Invincibles would not hold back for their sake when killing Su Yu.

In fact, the Sunmoon death spirits in the city had already killed some of them earlier. If they remained, the death spirits would increase in number and open more of these occupied buildings. They would all die. The mayor's residence was the sole haven.

A different voice protested, "That is unacceptable! Su Yu is good at disguises. If he hides amid the crowd, things might get troublesome."

"Why?" A different person asked in despair, "This is a conflict between the divines, devils, and humans. Why must we die for your conflict? Why must we suffer the consequences for something completely unrelated to us?"

That was a voice filled with despair and indignation. As members of minor races, it hadn't been easy for them to reach their current cultivation. Even so, they were still among the weakest of the same cultivation levels in the Allheaven Battlefield. And now, they even had to die in a conflict unrelated to them. This was injustice!

A different voice roared with desperation, "My race has a large number of Sunmoons as well! Today, you can sacrifice all of us. Tomorrow, our Sunmoons will view all of you with hatred! The major races might be strong, but if all the minor races join hands, we can also flip the sky upside down!"

"Heh."

A member from a major race sneered. How dare people from weak races without even a single Invincible make such a statement? Join hands? What could they accomplish without any Invincible?

The Thousand Region Alliance was strong, right? But they could only protect themselves with great difficulty. Apart from that, they were incapable of achieving anything else. They would still be left at the mercy of the major races. As minor races, they were fated to end up as either vassals or slaves.

These major race experts couldn't even be bothered to give any reply. Nobody would care if all those weaklings were to die here. It was more important for them to prevent Su Yu from slipping into the mayor's residence alongside the crowd.

Some of the crueler ones even thought that if these weaklings were really allowed to enter, they should kill all of them instead. Better safe than sorry. They would not be able to sleep well knowing Su Yu was still alive out there. To kill Su Yu, they were more than willing to sacrifice these weaklings.

"Stop being noisy."

"Just hide indoors. You might survive if you're lucky." An expert coldly said, "And if you're unlucky, just pray."

"Damn it!"

Someone roared furiously upon hearing that. This person was standing inside his building with only the door open. But before he could say more, a beam shot through him and ended his life. He was a Mountainsea.

At the same time, the seventh-stage Sunmoon from the divine skywing race withdrew his bow with an indifferent expression. He had easily killed the Mountainsea from far away. Naturally, the death spawned a Mountainsea death spirit. But the Sunmoon showed no fear. It wasn't like this was the first Mountainsea death spirit to appear today.

Silence finally returned.

Despair, fury, and fear filled with city.

Yes, it was hard for these Sunmoons to kill Su Yu. But that was simply because he was too good at hiding. They would have no problem killing these Mountainseas and Cloudbreaches. Leaving their doors open was the same as courting death.

Countless doors slammed shut again. They were only protected by death spirits when they were standing inside their buildings, but that did not apply to the living when their doors were open.

Their anger did not matter. There was nothing they could do. That was how things had always been. If the major races found you noisy, they wouldn't even waste their time saying anything. They would simply silence you through death.

***

Inside his building, Su Yu snorted lightly.

These people were willing to do anything to get him killed. Then again, he did not pity those from the minor races who were caught in the crossfire.

This was the type of era they were living in. The weak would be the prey to the strong. If one was weak, one would be helpless. If one was really afraid, one should just stay out of the Allheaven Battlefield.

The moment someone decided to step into the Allheaven Battlefield, one would either kill or be killed. The hands of these minor race experts were definitely stained with blood. They wouldn't have been able to reach their current cultivation levels otherwise.

If they didn't want to die, their only option was to grow strong. Su Yu's belief in the importance of his own strength grew even stronger. He would only be truly safe when he grew strong enough to kill anyone trying to kill him.

As his belief strengthened, his willpower firmed. His sea of willpower stabilized, further strengthening the foundation of his cultivation.

This was how things were for cultural researchers. When one strengthened one's belief, or when one was inspired by something, one's willpower cultivation would be affected.

At that moment, Su Yu stepped into the seventh-stage Cloudbreach Realm after fully draining his third Invincible note. His body was also on the way toward completing the fortieth forging.

If he killed someone yet again, the Heavenly Hunt Index would take his new cultivation level into consideration. There was even a possibility of him dropping from the first place due to his increased cultivation level.

After all, his feat of killing Sunmoons previously was not achieved through his own strength. His increased cultivation might weaken the weight of that feat, resulting in a drop in rank. But that was only a possibility.

Su Yu was in no rush. For him, the ranks on the Heaven Index did not matter. After seeing these late-stage Sunmoons and Invincibles, the Heaven Index was nothing. As far as he was concerned, even the Dao Affirmation Ranking was more prestigious.

Inside his sea of willpower, his characters shone brightly while his apertures were strengthened to the absolute limit. Before long, ten drops of sunmoon profound yellow liquid were consumed. This was a large amount even for actual Sunmoons.

Inside Su Yu's sea of willpower, the apertures shone resplendently, akin to multiple suns on a single sky. Suddenly, twenty-five of his characters came together to form a saber. The saber manifested in his hand as he swung it forward.

Whoosh!

His willpower rippled out and collided against the walls. After a short moment, his body completed the fortieth forging with a rumble. Only a day and a night had passed yet he had completed ten body forgings. He had exhausted 140 drops of heavenearth profound light for this. The expenditure was actually slightly lower than expected, but there was no denying that this was a scarily expensive cultivation session.

At that moment, the strength of his body had surpassed eighty thousand acupoints. Subsequent body forgings would be even harder, slower, and more expensive. He opened his door slightly and noted that a constant stream of experts could be seen flying toward the mayor's residence.

There were major race experts and some minor race Sunmoons among them. The major race experts could kill minor race Mountainseas easily. But that was not the case for Sunmoons.

The minor race Sunmoons stayed in a group with solemn expressions. They did not dare to approach the major race experts, but they still remained near the mayor's residence. At this point, even the Sunmoon death spirits were starting to die. If they remained outside the mayor's residence, death could be very possible.

None of them wanted to die. Not when they had worked so hard for their current cultivation levels.

Su Yu spied on them in silence. He had grown a lot stronger, but he was still weaker than these Sunmoons. Nevertheless, he had probably grown strong enough to consume the blood essence of Mountainseas at the eighth or even the ninth stage without any issue.

If he opened his yang acupoint, he could probably consume even the blood essence of first-stage Sunmoons. He started wondering if he should kill some Sunmoons. The difficulty would be high.

Or perhaps he could kill some peak Mountainsea death spirits to spawn more Sunmoon death spirits. Perhaps this would keep those experts busy and prevent them from entering the mayor's residence.

While thinking about all that, he left his building and transformed into a death spirit. He started moving toward the mayor's residence. At the moment, a large number of death spirits were heading there as well.

Before long, Su Yu arrived near a group of divines. There were three divine experts in this group. They consisted of Zhan Wushuang and two late-stage Sunmoons.

While the three were flying toward the mayor's residence, they did not forget to inspect the death spirits around them. They even killed some of the death spirits nearby. Since they were going to be taking shelter in the mayor's residence, they were no longer worried about increasing the number of death spirits in the city.

Compared to the experts during the Heavendoom City incident, they were a lot more relaxed. There were simply too many experts in the city. The death spirits were unable to threaten them. Up until now, only a single middle-stage Sunmoon death spirit had appeared. That was still not enough to harm these powerful Sunmoons.

Su Yu did not dare to get too near. After observing them in silence for a bit, he left. There was no hope of success. Ignoring the two high-stage Sunmoons, just Zhan Wushuang alone might be more than a match for him. That was someone who had once killed a Sunmoon.

Su Yu started moving toward the devils instead. But after a single glance at them from afar, he gave up and moved away instead. This group of devils was even more powerful than the group of divines.

Mo Duona had even shot him a glance. Alarmed, he could only hurriedly distance himself from them.

Meanwhile, Mo Duona was looking at the mass of death spirits with a frown. In truth, there was a sort of vague connection between these top geniuses. Just moments ago, something among the death spirits had triggered Mo Duona's senses.

Was it Su Yu? He was unsure, but he said nothing. If he said something, Su Yu would most definitely die in the hands of a Sunmoon. That would have nothing to do with him. Since it would have nothing to do with him, why bother?

Meanwhile, the two Sunmoons beside him did not feel anything. That was mainly because Su Yu still couldn't threaten them yet.

Shortly after, Su Yu arrived near the dragons. Similarly, he found no opening. At that point, he could already see Qin Hao, who was standing in front of the mayor's residence. He also saw Zhu Guangshen and the other humans, but he couldn't say anything.

There was no way to use voice transmission undetected in the presence of so many experts. More and more experts gathered in front of the mayor's residence. That greatly increased the pressure on Qin Hao and the others. Thıs content belongs to Nov3lFɪre.ɴet

Even Ancient Mountain stepped forth and said, "Qin Hao, this is pointless. I'm not worried about dying myself, but if this continues, your group will have to fight everyone in the city."

He was indeed not worried. He was essentially an Invincible in waiting. Regardless of his rank, his name was still on the Dao Affirmation Ranking. These were all peak Sunmoons. They wouldn't die so easily.

In fact, Ancient Mountain only wanted to enter the mayor's residence out of curiosity. He wanted to take a look at the stone statue in the residence.

Chapter 1038: Su Yu Is Dead? (2)

Before Qin Hao could say anything, Zhu Guangshen laughed, "Senior Ancient Mountain, you may enter. In fact, apart from those from the divine, devil, immortal, dragon, five elemental, nether, celestial chasm races, everyone can enter."

Ancient Mountain blanked out. The other experts also had odd expressions. So...they could enter? Understanding dawned on them.

Qin Hao also looked at Zhu Guangshen with understanding. It was pointless to stop everyone. They only needed to stop those from the major races. That would be enough to give the Invincibles outside some pause.

After all, almost each of the major races had two late-stage Sunmoons here. And most of them were also here with the young geniuses of their races. It would be too big of a loss if all these people died.

By excluding the other races, Zhu Guangshen could also reduce the pressure on them. Ancient Mountain laughed.

"Sure. Have fun. I'll be going in, then. These death spirits are indeed quite annoying. They smell terrible. I feel like throwing up in their presence."

He was uninterested in playing around with these people. For him, even if every single person in the city were to die, he would be the second to last to die. As for the person who would die last, that would naturally be the mayor, but that was understandable, right?

In that case, there was no need for him to waste his time with the quarrel of these people. The other experts were also tempted. Tʜe source of this ᴄontent ɪs novel⦿fire.net

Meanwhile, the expressions of those from the mentioned races changed. They could forcefully exert some pressure on the minor races.

But there were also a decent number of top 100 races and ancient races here. It would be too troublesome to go against all of them. These were all races with Invincibles.

Further away, Su Yu smiled. The Zhu Family was indeed filled with smart people. It was pointless to stop everyone. They would only create more enemies for themselves. They only needed to stop a few people. That was sufficient. Still, this wouldn't be an easy task.

With a frosty expression, Zhan Wushuang said, "General Qin, is there a need for this? Can you really stop us alone?"

He then looked at Zhu Guangshen and asked, "Is the Zhu Family finally going to stop staying passive? It hasn't been easy for the Zhu Family to accumulate strength. How many late-stage Sunmoons have you produced? There are three of them here. Losing all of them will be massive for Great Ming."

Zhu Guangshen smiled, "Zhan Wushuang, why don't we both take a step back? We can stop fighting. Just wait until the city is unsealed and we can all leave. We will take Su Yu with us and imprison him for life in Great Ming. What do you think about that?"

"No thanks."

Xuan Wuji interrupted, "The words of humans are worth nothing."

Zhu Guangshen said, "Xuan Wuji, we're allies. How can you say that? You're helping outsiders instead of your allies. In the Human Realm, we call the likes of you traitors, turncoats, double-crossers..."

Xuan Wuji ignored those words. He was not interested in getting into a war of words. At this time, the other experts were starting to enter the mayor's residence. As for the mayor, he merely looked at them silently from inside the residence.

He had already shown enough respect to the Invincibles outside with this gesture. He would not make a move against Qin Hao and the others. Great Xia King and Great Ming King were still outside the city. He didn't want to provoke the two super experts too much.

More than ten Sunmoons were locked in a standoff outside the mayor's residence. Of the seven races mentioned by Zhu Guangshen, the celestial chasm race only had a late-stage Sunmoon here. That was also the case for the nether race. Thus, they had a total of twelve late-stage Sunmoons on their side. As for the humans, they only had four late-stage Sunmoons.

But since two of the late-stage Sunmoons were from the five elemental race, the humans only needed to worry about ten Sunmoons. The other two Sunmoons only wanted to drag this out as much as possible. They were in a deadlock.

It wasn't like there was no hope of victory. Since they outnumbered the humans, they were still capable of killing the humans. But some of the unlucky ones among them might die. They weren't even from the same races. Nobody wanted to die for the other races. And thus, they were stuck.

After giving them one last look, Su Yu left. Fortunately, the humans weren't stupid enough to try stopping everyone. That would be a lot more troublesome. This was a much smarter choice.

***

At the same time.

One Invincible after another arrived. Their heavy presence suppressed the very air itself. Some of them looked at the city with their eyes shining brightly. However, none of them could see anything due to the thick death qi. But they still knew what was happening inside thanks to the Heavenly Hunt Pavilion.

The Heavenly Hunt Pavilion had profited massively from this incident.

WIth Qin Hao and the other humans stopping the geniuses and Sunmoons of the major races from seeking shelter, should they still carry out their plan? Would this be worth it? Nobody could answer that question. But there was no doubt that this wouldn't be a smart exchange.

Zhan Wushuang, Xuan Wuji, Mo Duona, Ming Yue. Dao Cheng...

Trading the lives of so many geniuses and those late-stage Sunmoons for Su Yu, Qin Hao, and the other humans. No matter how one looked at it, this was not a worthy trade.

Beside Divine King Ping Yu, a white-haired divine king said, "Great Xia King, must we continue this? I have an offer. After killing Su Yu, I promise to not interfere with Xia Longwu's dao affirmation. Ping Yu will not interfere as well..."

Since this was an offer made by a divine king, it was still believable.

A devil king from the original devil race said, "I'll also agree to not interfere if Su Yu dies here."

"Same here."

Multiple Invincibles joined in. As long as Great Xia King stayed out of this matter, at least four or five Invincibles would stay neutral during Xia Longwu's dao affirmation. Originally, these were the Invincibles that would definitely interfere with his dao affirmation. That would greatly increase his chances of succeeding.

However, Great Xia King merely stayed silent.

The white-haired divine king spoke impatiently, "Great Xia King, you will still be the one to concede in the end. Why bother wasting everyone's time? Let me be frank. Seven divine kings are already on the way to Eastrift Valley. Invincibles of the devil, dragon, nether, and heavenly chasm races are going there as well. They're all there to have a chat with Great Qin King..."

In short, he was threatening to attack the Human Realm if Great Xia King remained stubborn.

Great Xia King felt extremely helpless. He was very strong. But he wasn't strong enough to kill all the Invincibles here. These races were starting to join hands against them. And internally, some Invincibles would also start complaining about this. The humans were not united. On top of that, they still had a traitor to deal with. If a war broke out, they might even lose an Invincible or two.

Losing the lives of Invincibles for Su Yu...if he could really advance into the Invincible Realm in the future, this might still be slightly worth doing. But if he failed his future advancement, this would be a massive loss.

Great Xia King's silence gave them hope. Some of them were already starting to smile. They would pressure him one step at a time. Conceding was only a matter of time.

His grandson was on the verge of dao affirmation. And a crisis was brewing at the border of the human territory. If he remained stubborn, he would only invite criticism from his fellow humans.

They were already annoyed by the troubles caused by his grandson. And now, he was going to bring even more troubles their way for a single Su Yu. There was no doubt that they wouldn't stay silent about this. But Great Xia King remained silent.

Suddenly, Great Ming King smiled, "How about me? Are you not offering me any benefits as well? I'm actually pretty strong myself. And Su Yu is now a citizen of Great Ming. How can you kill my people just like that?"

The white-haired divine king said, "Great Ming King, are you trying to buy time? What's the point?"

"Nope." Great Ming King said, "It has been so long since our last meeting. I'm just trying to have a longer chat with you. What if you die after this? This might be our last conversation, White-Haired King."

The white-haired divine king did not feel like lowering himself to Great Ming King's level.

He was not White-Haired King. But it didn't matter what Great Ming King wanted to call him by. Su Yu would not survive this incident. There were twelve Invincibles here, but only two of them were humans.

It was very rare to see so many Invincibles gathered in one place. The two human Invincibles wouldn't be able to change the will of the majority. And the humans wouldn't even be able to send more Invincibles over as their border would be filled with myriad race Invincibles right about now.

These two only had themselves to rely on. They were both among the five strongest human Invincibles. If even more human Invincibles were sent away, they might as well give up on their defenses.

Great Ming King was just trying to drag this out as much as he could. He was truthfully feeling very helpless. It did not seem like they would be able to save Su Yu. The best they could do was buy more time, hoping that Su Yu would be able to find a way to save himself with the extra time.

***

Inside the city.

Su Yu continued roaming the streets while forging his body with heavenearth profound light.

Barely any living beings could be seen on the streets. Not even the connections to the moat were being watched anymore.

But could Su Yu leave now? The moment he left, he would need to face multiple Invincibles. The moat was no longer an alternative. He did not think that he could avoid the detection of the Invincibles even if he remained in the moat. He would much rather stay in the city.

"Is there really no other alternative?"

Su Yu sighed. Must he really wait inside the city? Was he supposed to wait until the Invincibles started attacking the city before converting into a resident? That could very well be his sole option.

"So be it."

He also wanted to tell Qin Hao and the others to stop. He did not want to owe them too much. Things were getting dangerous. They might get themselves killed if they continued helping him.

Naturally, a battle had yet to break out. That wouldn't happen so soon.

Right that at moment, the voice of an Invincible rang, "Qin Hao, stop being stubborn. In two days, we will proceed with our attack. If you refuse to enter the mayor's residence, all of you can die together."

Finally, the Invincibles lost their patience. They didn't want to wait any longer. This was not a surprising result.

The Invincible continued, "Two days later, we will attack the city. Five days later, all of you shall leave the mayor's residence and search every occupied building in the city. At that time, the death spirits would have retreated. Get late-stage Sunmoons to watch over every single building occupied by a non-resident."

He made their plan clear. Two days later, they would attack the city and spawn a large number of death spirits. The death spirits would slaughter every living being in the city.

Five days later, the death spirits would withdraw. Very few survivors would remain. And they only needed to focus on the few remaining survivors. If Su Yu was still alive, he would be one of them. There was no escaping.

As for his ability to disguise himself as a death spirit, that was pointless. The powerful death spirits spawned by the attacks of Invincibles would be different from the ordinary death spirits.

They would be able to see through his disguise with one look. Since his disguise did not work on living Invincibles, his disguise would naturally not work on death spirit Invincibles as well.

There was no way for him to survive this. The Invincibles were giving their ultimatum to the people in the city.

Neither Great Xia King nor Great Ming King said anything. Su Yu wasn't disappointed. In fact, he was relieved. Good. Their silence could only mean that they could no longer stop the other Invincibles.

Their silence was also a message to Qin Hao and the others to give up. There was nothing they could do. If even someone as prideful as Great Xia King remained silent, the humans must have encountered something extremely difficult to overcome.

It wasn't even difficult for Su Yu to guess the difficulties the humans were facing. The myriad races were probably threatening the human borders and using Xia Longwu's coming dao affirmation as the bargaining chip.

Su Yu wasn't the least bit surprised. His personal safety was incomparable to the safety of the entire human race. He was not disappointed. Rather, he only felt gratitude toward the ones who had arrived to help him.

If it wasn't for the two human Invincibles, the other Invincibles might have attacked right after arriving. At the very least, the two had bought him some extra time.

"Two days?"

Su Yu smiled. Fine. He would continue cultivating. During this time, he would also convert himself into a resident. Five days later, the buildings they searched would most likely exclude the buildings of the residents.

As for the trouble he might face after becoming a resident...that no longer mattered. Before long, he entered a random building.

Chapter 1039: Su Yu Is Dead? (3)

Su Yu stopped thinking about anything else and focused on only one thing: his cultivation.

Every bit of strength mattered.

Three hours later, he completed his forty-first body forging after using eighteen strands of heavenearth profound light.

After five hours, he consumed twenty strands of heavenearth profound light to complete his forty-second body forging.

The consumption was rising at a terrifying rate.

Eight hours later, he completed the forty-third body forging with twenty-two strands of heavenearth profound light.

He had consumed sixty strands just to complete three forgings. And this number would only increase the stronger he grew.

Twelve hours later, he completed the forty-fourth body forging with twenty-four strands.

A total of twenty-eight hours had passed. He had only completed four forgings with eighty-four strands. Including what he consumed during his previous cultivation session, he had consumed almost half of what he had.

All in all, he had completed fourteen body forgings since the auction. He was quite satisfied with this growth. His physical strength had reached the level of 120,000 acupoints.

At this point, Su Yu had probably surpassed the previous Mo Duona, who was a seventh-stage Cloudbreach before his recent breakthrough. In fact, Su Yu's current physical cultivation was sixth-stage Skysoar Realm while his willpower cultivation was seventh-stage Cloudbreach Realm. He was actually similar in level to the previous pre-breakthrough Mo Duona.

And he still had a decent amount of heavenearth profound light left. But since he now needed more than twenty strands per body forging, he probably only had enough for ten forgings or even less. But it didn't matter. He still had a lot of other treasures.

Furthermore, he also had a large amount of sunmoon profound yellow liquid. He could even purchase some from the Heavenly Hunt Pavilion if needed. If he was given a thousand strands of additional heavenearth profound light, he could definitely complete his body forging. He would even have some left.

He had scammed a lot of resources through the auction, including what he needed for his future nine source qi transformations.

There were still about ten hours before the attack of the Invincibles. He could probably complete up to his forty-fifth body forging before then. He wasted no time and continued forging his body. But that was not all he did. He was doing something else as well.

Night arrived.

Once again, Su Yu tossed a bloodstained talisman out of his building.

Shortly after, a death spirit appeared. The death spirit started drawing outside, but something unexpected happened. While drawing on the signboard, the death spirit exploded.

Su Yu's eyes flickered. Moments ago, he felt a large amount of death qi entering his body from the building, but the death qi seemed to have failed to fully convert his body. The death spirit had actually exploded while trying to convert him.

Su Yu was very surprised.

What was that? Before he could think more, a second death spirit appeared. This time, it was a Mountainsea death spirit. The death spirit picked up the bloodstained talisman and started drawing on the signboard. After some time, a wave of even stronger death qi entered his body.

For some reason, Su Yu's body seemed to be very resistant toward death qi. He even had the nine spheres he had obtained from Heavendoom City on him, making the death qi's job harder. The death qi he generated through source qi reversal did not count as that was something he had produced internally, not something from external sources.

Rumble!

The Mountainsea death spirit exploded as well. Su Yu was completely dumbstruck. What the fuck? This couldn't be considered his kill, right?

This was his third bloodstained talisman. This should be the night when his conversion was completed. One only needed to toss three bloodstained talismans out to complete the conversion. It did not matter if one stopped for a few days before resuming. Thus, there shouldn't be any issues with his conversion.

A short moment later, an early Sunmoon death spirit appeared. It shot Su Yu a glance before taking over the job. It started drawing on the signboard, but for some reason, it seemed to be having a very hard time.

***

At the same time.

In the mayor's residence, the stone statue opened his eyes. His gaze landed on Su Yu.

Converting into a resident?

This was probably the first ever number one Heaven Index genius to convert into an ancient resident in history. He saw a Sunmoon death spirit drawing on the signboard in front of Su Yu's building. The stone statue watched silently while contemplating what he should do.

At this time, a death spirit appeared from under the statue. The eyes of this death statue seemed extremely lively. The death spirit looked in the same direction and said, "Interesting. Is this...a super genius? Someone like that is choosing to convert? How interesting. How amusing. According to the ancient agreement, he will be watching over us while alive and join us after death."

The stone statue remained silent.

The powerful death spirit looked outside the city and laughed, "How interesting. A war between the Eternals of the myriad races is probably going to break out soon. Even such a genius was forced to enter the holy city and become a living dead. What a pity. Even someone like me can see how much of a loss this would be."

Looking at the stone statue, the death spirit said, "Guardian Grandstar, don't even think of stopping this. This is his own choice. We did not force him to do this. The holy city is allowed to suppress us, but we will also be allowed a sliver of opportunity. That is the ancient agreement. Am I wrong?"

After a long silence, the stone statue spoke, "He won't be a death spirit before dying. You are not allowed to kill him and expedite the process. I will interfere if you try something like that."

"Of course." The death spirit laughed, "He will live. But I can see the thick death qi in his body. The death qi is already on the verge of reaching his heart. It won't be long before he becomes a true death spirit. Grandstar, this is my territory. After he dies, he will become my subordinate. Worry not. I will take good care of him. By the way, is he on the Heaven Index?"

"First on Heaven Index."

"Good heavens..." The death spirit roared with laughter, "That's understandable. His body is terrifyingly strong. How many body forgings did he complete to reach this level of strength? Oh my, he has even opened the grand cycle acupoints. A genius like this was rare even in the ancient past. I can't believe how lucky I am!"

Grandstar ignored the death spirit.

The death spirit smiled, "The fellows outside are talking about attacking the city. You hear that as well, right? The moment they start their attack, I will be able to leave. It has been such a long time since I last caught some fresh air outside. I might be a death spirit, but the Death Realm is such a boring and terrible place to stay. This is great. I'll take this chance to kill some living beings and replenish the ranks of my subordinates. I've lost a lot of them recently..."

Grandstar shut his eyes and ignored all that. The Invincibles outside were creating a future disaster for themselves.

Su Yu had decided to convert into a resident. With his talent, he might be able to preserve his memories even after his death. Sure, the chances weren't high. But with his talent, he could probably become a death sovereign before long. And as a death sovereign, he would have a second chance at regaining his past memories.

When that happened...the death spirits might break free from the holy city. All these people would die. He did not try to stop the conversion. He was a lot colder than Heavendoom. He had his laws to obey. He was merely acting in accordance with the laws. Since this was Su Yu's own choice, he wouldn't interfere. At the very least, Su Yu would remain alive for now.

He couldn't do anything. Nor was he interested in doing anything. From now on, the world of the living would lose a shining genius.

After becoming a resident, Su Yu might survive for hundreds of years. Or he might survive for only a few years. Ultimately, he would die to death qi erosion. The stone statue was aware of Su Yu's ability to convert source qi into death qi, but he wasn't positive that would do anything to prevent Su Yu's death.

***

The Sunmoon death spirit was still busy drawing on Su Yu's signboard. After a while, the death qi around the death spirit started shaking, as the death spirit was reaching its limits. Finally, the death spirit exploded as well.

Right at that moment, a different death spirit appeared. The death spirit shot Su Yu a glance, instantly causing Su Yu's heart to beat heavily. Those...were not the eyes of death spirits. There was wisdom in those eyes.

The newly arrived death spirit ignored Su Yu and started drawing on the signboard. A storm of death qi appeared around Su Yu. Instantly, he was covered from head to toe. The death qi also covered his internal organs, spreading everywhere, except his heart.

This was the state of the living dead. When the heart was fully covered as well, Su Yu would complete his conversion into a death spirit.

The death spirit then glanced at Su Yu's heart. A slightly doubtful look appeared in its eyes, but it did not think too much about it. With a smile, it vanished. Yes. It smiled. A smiling death spirit.

Right at that moment, a voice that felt like it had arrived from the ancient past sounded beside his ear, "I will personally welcome you during your death."

Su Yu's heart thumped as he heard that. Follow current novᴇls on novel•fire.net

It spoke! A speaking death spirit! This death spirit would personally welcome him during his death? What was the meaning of that? Welcome him...into the ranks of death spirits? Countless questions appeared in Su Yu's mind.

What was the strength of this death spirit? Invincible? Or a peak Sunmoon?

He started reversing the death qi in his body into source qi, but found that the reversal rate had dropped considerably. But he was still relieved to see that it was not completely irreversible.

Inside his heart, the miniature man sighed. This seemed...troublesome. All hope would be lost the moment Su Yu's reversal rate became slower than the death qi's rate of growth.

Sigh.

The miniature man felt very helpless. But this was perhaps the sole option here. This was truly an act of pursuing death for life.

When the conversion into a resident was completed, Su Yu was shocked yet again. His body was no longer being damaged by death qi. However, the death qi inside his body was still growing. He would no longer suffer from death qi no matter how long he stayed in the city.

He tried walking out without transforming into a death spirit. When the death spirits saw him, they acted as though he wasn't there. In fact, some of the weaker death spirits would even move aside from him, seemingly fearful of him. In their senses, he seemed to be even higher ranked than them in the hierarchy of death spirits.

Despite all that, Su Yu was feeling quite empty inside. Was he now...a living dead? Even though he had already thought of this scenario before, he still couldn't help feeling dispirited.

He...had become an ancient city resident. A living dead.

At that moment, every single index copy holder in the Myriad Realms was alarmed. Their index copies were shaking violently.

The name at the very top was slowly turning dim before growing bright again. But that didn't last as the name would start dimming again before long. After a few repetitions, the name finally vanished from the index.

Everyone was stunned.

Everyone was shocked.

Su Yu...was dead?

Impossible!

Never before...or to be precise, in recent centuries, no index genius had ever converted into an ancient city resident. Thus, nobody knew that one's name would leave the index after becoming a resident.

And nobody thought of that possibility. They only knew that Su Yu's name had vanished.

Mo Duona was once again at the top. There were 630 names on the index, but not one of them was Su Yu.

The various realms were shocked.

Even those at the Heavenly Hunt Pavilion were shocked. Su Yu was dead?

How? The attack had yet to start, right? How did he die?

This...was unbelievable!

Chapter 1040: Prelude To Chaos (1)

Su Yu's name was gone from the Heavenly Hunt Index.

Surprise. Shock. Disbelief.

A storm of emotions rippled across the Myriad Realms.

***

Outside the city.

Great Xia King and Great Ming King received the latest update before long. Their expressions turned ugly, but they were also feeling doubtful. Dead?

How? Eroded to death by death spirits? Killed by one of the traps within those buildings with opportunities?

It was unlikely that the killer was a living being. Killing someone like Su Yu would result in a massive heavenly reward. As the number one genius on Heaven Index, even Sunmoons would get rewarded by killing him.

And if there was such a reward, the killer wouldn't go unnoticed by the people inside the city. Even now, nobody had reported seeing a heavenly reward in the city. Was he really dead? Everyone might dislike the Heavenly Hunt Index, but everyone also had to acknowledge its accuracy.

The white-haired divine king was also frowning. He looked at the nearby faceless elder. A faceless elder of the Heavenly Hunt Pavilion was present as well. He was not an Invincible, but these elders were all late-stage Sunmoons.

"Heavenly Hunt Pavilion, what's going on? Is Su Yu dead?"

After a slight hesitation, the elder replied, "There are two possibilities. Firstly, he's dead. Secondly, he has converted into an ancient city resident."

"Hmm?"

The elder said uncertainly, "It has been many years since something similar happened. I'm not too sure. But one thing is certain. It is over for Su Yu."

He sighed.

The white-haired divine king blanked out. "Converted into a resident?"

After a slight hesitation, he added, "Will he...make such a choice? With his talent, he will die even faster than the other residents..."

Yes. The more talented one was, the faster one would die after becoming a resident. This was one of the few facts people knew about the ancient cities. The Death Realm always seemed impatient to have these geniuses die. Thus, the death qi spread in the bodies of these geniuses would always be far faster than normal.

In other words, even if Su Yu was still alive, he wouldn't stay alive for long. His future had been completely severed. In order to resist the spread of death qi, further cultivation was almost impossible for a resident. Thus, most residents would remain at the same cultivation level until death.

In that case, what should they do now? If he was dead, this would end here. If he had transformed into a resident...death spirits would not lay a hand on the residents no matter how strong the death spirit was. If they still wanted him dead, they would need to send someone to do it. But there were so many residents in the city. How were they supposed to even find him?

Even an Invincible would die from the consequences of destroying all the buildings in the city. The Invincibles started hesitating. They had previously agreed to attack the city, but there was no longer any need for that. That would no longer change anything.

But while they were hesitating, a massive blade flashed forward and struck the city wall, causing a large part of the wall to crumble. But moments later, the wall repaired itself. Great Xia King merely swung his blade once more.

Boom!

A death spirit with a black cloak appeared. Its face was covered by death qi, but its eyes were shining brightly.

A powerful layer of death qi appeared and covered the entire city. Then, the death spirit gazed at the Invincibles silently.

Great Xia King coldly said, "I'm not interested in peace. Let's kill everyone in the city."

"..."

The expressions of the other Invincibles changed. Great Xia King had gone crazy!

With the death of Su Yu, or with his conversion into a resident, Great Xia King had decided to give up on Qin Hao and the others. He wanted to turn all those Sunmoons and geniuses into the offering for Su Yu's fall. The roles were reversed, with the myriad races being the ones not willing to attack the city now.

Sure, the humans would lose four late-stage Sunmoons and two geniuses, but the myriad races were most certainly not willing to pay such a huge price for their lives. That was absolutely not worth it.

Beside Great Xia King, Great Ming King cursed inwardly.

Holy shit!

He said nothing and rushed toward the city, trying to force his way in.

Right at that moment, a second powerful death spirit appeared and said with a smile,"Xing Yue, "I'm here to help you."

The first death spirit coldly said, "Stop wasting time. Just kill them all."

At that, the second death spirit flew in Great Ming King's direction. Yet another layer of death qi appeared around the city. Two death sovereigns had appeared.

While ramming into the layer of death qi, Great Ming King roared, "Qin Hao, Guangshen, come here immediately. Ignore everything and kill everyone in your way!"

He had to act fast. As for Great Xia King, he remained outside the city and struck the city repeatedly with his saber. At this point, what was there to fear?

Rumble!

The walls kept crumbling before repairing themselves while more and more death spirits appeared in the city, with Sunmoons and even Invincibles among their ranks.

Meanwhile, the first death sovereign, the one called Xing Yue, stared at Great Xia King coldly.

Finally, the other Invincibles recovered from their shock. Their expressions changed as they all rushed into the city as well. One of them roared, "Everyone in the city, come out here! Do not delay!"

Damn it!

Great Xia King had gone crazy! But were they right? Was Great Xia King truly doing the wrong thing here? Of the people trapped in the city, a vast majority of them were not humans. If everyone in the city died, the humans would not be the ones to suffer the biggest loss. Since these Invincibles were changing their mind about attacking the city, Great Xia King decided to do it for them instead.

Furthermore, Great Ming King was very strong as well. There was still hope that he would be able to get Qin Hao and the other humans out of the city in time. But that was not the case for the other Invincibles.

One death sovereign after another appeared.

As the auras of the Invincibles started spreading everywhere, the Sunmoons of the nine realms were alarmed. One of them roared in panic, "Retreat! Retreat to our own realms!"

Some of the kinder ones also warned the others, "All living beings on Ninestar Island, leave immediately!" Official source ıs novel-fire.net

The ground started cracking. Even the sky above seemed to be cracking and shattering. Time and space were thrown into disorder. Even the death qi in the city was starting to spread out of the city to cover the whole island.

Meanwhile, Great Xia King was still striking the city repeatedly with a detached expression. Su Yu was dead. Or to be precise, he was as good as dead. The human race had lost an exceptional genius.

He didn't know if his previous choice was right. He didn't know what he should say and feel about this. He couldn't be bothered to talk anymore. Since the human race had lost a super genius, all those experts and geniuses shall be the offering for Su Yu's fall from grace.

Boom!

The white-haired divine king launched an attack at Great Xia King while shouting, "Stop him!"

He was asking for help to stop Great Xia King. If Great Xia King was allowed to continue, things would get very troublesome.

Meanwhile, Great Xia King merely shot him a cold glance before asking, "Are the divines trying to start a war right now? We're not doing this for Su Yu. I'm attacking an ancient city while you're attacking me, an Eternal of the human race and a leader of the War Shrine. This is an official declaration of war."

A young genius was still a youngster. And there was no comparing a young genius with an Invincible. Great Xia King was one of the three strongest experts among humanity. Attacking him was basically the same as declaring war against humanity.

At that point, it no longer mattered if the other human Invincibles were happy about war or not. They had to participate in the war as they couldn't set a precedent of abandoning their own Invincibles. Otherwise, the same might happen to them in the future and they might find themselves completely alone. Su Yu's death would not affect them personally. But if the myriad races wanted to kill Great Xia King, they had to react intensely and violently.

Hearing those words, the expression of the white-haired divine king changed repeatedly. Great Xia King continued, "I had not attacked you yet you attacked me. If war is what you want, so be it."

"Great Xia King...you..."

"Shut up!" Great Xia King said, "Even if I attack this city, so what? Do the ancient cities belong to the divine race?"

"..."

The divine king had no answer. Once again, a shining blade appeared in the sky.

Meanwhile, one Invincible death spirit after another appeared in the city. One of them roared with laughter, "Hahaha! Let's kill! Kill all these invaders! Let's party! Great Xia King of the human race...hahaha! Thank you for this!"

They were all incredibly excited at the chance to leave the Death Realm yet again. The entire city sank into chaos.

Intense shockwaves tore the sky apart. Spatial and time turbulences erupted everywhere. A chaotic battle between more than ten Invincibles broke out. Reality itself seemed to be breaking apart as these Invincibles fought.

Again and again, the ancient buildings crumbled apart before repairing themselves. As for the living beings inside these buildings, they were not as lucky as these buildings. The moment they died, they would not come back to life. It did not matter if one was a resident or a visitor. It was worth noting that the deeper inside the city, the sturdier the buildings would be.

A large number of experts started moving toward the city gates from the mayor's residence. All of them were panicking. How did things escalate to such a level out of nowhere? Not one or two Invincibles had entered the city. Rather, a much larger number of them had entered.

"Topsoil Spirit!"

The voice of the earth elemental Invincible spread everywhere. It was as though his voice was coming from the boundless void itself. As the sound waves spread throughout the city, even the ground was quaking.

That attracted the attention of an Invincible death spirit. A battle broke out between the two. They constantly flipped between reality and an unknown dimension before flipping back into reality again. All around them, the buildings that not even Sunmoons could damage crumbled apart.

Naturally, any living being caught in their crossfire would die instantly. And such a scene was unfolding all over the city. The entire city was flooded with death spirits.

Boom!

Finally, a half-moon dropped from the sky. A living Sunmoon had perished.

At the same time, Great Ming King was displaying his incredible might. The death spirit facing him was forced to retreat repeatedly. When he saw Qin Hao's group, he shouted, "Get over here! We need to leave immediately!"

That damn Xia Wushen was being so ruthless because his kids were not the ones stuck in the city! But that was not the case for Great Ming King. Zhu Guangshen was his grandson. He had to act.

The shockwaves from the various battles swept through the entire ancient city. The innermost three rings were still relatively fine, but the other buildings in the city had been damaged in one way or another. At the same time, death spirits were still constantly appearing in the city. Suddenly, yet another Invincible death spirit appeared before Great Ming King.

This death spirit was none other than the first death sovereign to appear, Xing Yue. Looking at Great Ming King, Xing Yue coldly said, "Don't even dream of saving anyone in our presence."

A wave of death qi burst out, followed by a punch. Unlike the regular death spirits who would mostly attack by corroding their opponents with death qi, the death sovereign's punch caused the entire city to shake. Numerous buildings crumbled apart before repairing themselves again. But the attack did not end with a single punch. Instead, an endless stream of punches was raining down upon Great Ming King.

With a curse, Great Ming King manifested one character after another. The characters combined into a ring before shooting toward the two Invincible death spirits.

Boom!

Chapter 1041: Prelude To Chaos (2)

At this time, yet another half-moon fell from the sky. The experts of the various races sank into despair. Weren't they supposed to be safe with the mayor's protection? Then again, the mayor's protection would only be effective as long as the Invincibles stayed out.

However, more than one Invincibles had entered the city. Even the mayor himself was completely stunned.

Death spirits who were only a step away from the Invincible Realm were starting to appear as well, and these death spirits were also slightly intelligent. When they looked at the mayor, some hesitated while some scolded, "Audacious! How dare you provide shelter to living beings. You deserve death!"

And then, they started attacking the mayor's residence. These were no regular death spirits. Not even eighth-stage Sunmoon death spirits would lay a hand on the mayor's residence. But these peak Sunmoon death spirits were different.

Inside the mayor's residence, the stone statue watched coldly. He did not provide any assistance to Su Yu, nor would he provide anyone else with help.

Yes, this dark devil dragon was the puppet mayor he had picked himself. But this fellow had caused the appearance of even more death spirits with his act of offering shelter to so many living beings. The mayor naturally had to bear the consequences of his own actions.

Things might not have escalated to this level if the mayor had not offered all those people shelter.

The stone statue watched silently as chaos engulfed the city. After some time, a faint wave of aura rippled out and covered some of the buildings in the city. He could not be bothered to interfere with the battle between the death spirits and Invincibles.

But protecting the city residents was a part of his responsibilities. As the guardian, he could choose to help or not help the weaker residents. But the more powerful residents could be considered his citizens. Thus, he was obligated to help. The death sovereigns would all avoid the buildings covered by the stone statue's aura. They understood that this was the guardian's move to protect the residents.

At this time, an Invincible from the nether race ignored the aura and blasted one of the protected buildings apart with a punch. Next, a fist appeared. The moment it appeared, it overshadowed reality itself, as though it was the only existence of worth. That was the fist of the stone statue.

Heavens above, earth below, time and space, nothing seemed capable of resisting that fist. The fist dropped down. With a rumble, a massive hole appeared on the Invincible's body.

At that moment, one of the Invincibles roared, "Stop damaging the buildings!"

Up in the sky, one ancient city after another appeared, seemingly capable of ignoring the concept of space itself.

Heavendoom, Empyrean Cloud, Earthshaker, Sea Burial...

Above the ancient cities, one stone statue after another appeared. First, they all looked at the Invincible nether coldly. Then, they looked at Grandstar. Ignoring all the newcomers, Grandstar threw another punch, blasting a Sunmoon apart. With yet another punch, he blasted a Sunmoon death spirit apart.

Dead or living, as long as one touched the buildings under his protection, none were spared.

Even Great Xia King was alarmed. He hurriedly warned, "Old Zhu, don't touch those buildings!"

He was greatly shocked. The ancient cities had appeared. The stone statue of Heavendoom City could also be seen floating above the city, but in truth, that was only a projection. The statue itself was still inside the city. Even the city itself was still at its original location. But with his projection here, it was as though the stone statue himself was here.

He glanced at the city, but Su Yu was nowhere to be found. He wasn't bothered. Since this was not his city, he couldn't see through the buildings here. Instead, he looked at Grandstar and smiled, "Are you in trouble?"

Grandstar ignored Heavendoom and continued killing those who had damaged the buildings under his protection. Even as he was doing this, the number of buildings under his protection continued increasing.

Innermost three rings, four rings, five rings, six rings...

His aura covered more and more buildings. Anyone below the Invincible Realm would die at the slightest contact of his fist. As for the Invincibles...well, the nether Invincible who was punched earlier was busy fleeing.

Not only was an Invincible death spirit focused on him, but his body had nearly fallen apart from that one punch. That punch reminded him of an old story. Many years ago, an Invincible once tried to invade an ancient city only to die.

Stone statue...those stone statues were terrifyingly strong.

After throwing yet another punch at the escaping Invincible, Grandstar frowned and coldly said, "The Holy City of Grandstar has been invaded. Requesting assistance from the thirty-six holy cities to kill all invaders."

Boom!

Instantly, fists, palms, and legs dropped down from the sky toward the Invincibles. The guardians of the thirty-six holy cities attacked one after another. It was as though the world was ending.

The entire Ninestar Island started splitting apart as well. The experts of the nine realms started fleeing in panic as the various cities on the island collapsed. Countless lives were lost.

A large number of experts were also madly fleeing away from the island. Miserable yells filled the island. Some of the escaping experts looked back only to see a boundlessly powerful expert losing his head to a punch, his body stomped into mincemeat, his sea of willpower penetrated by a sword, and so on.

That was a nightmarish scene. What exactly were these ancient cities? These people were not strong enough to see more. They only saw an incredibly powerful expert they suspected to be an Invincible dying in a miserable manner. That was the Invincible from the nether race.

"Retreat!"

An Invincible roared, "This can't go on! All Eternals need to leave the city. Everyone else hides indoors!"

They seemed to have stirred the hornet's nest.

Twelve death sovereigns had appeared. Even the real masters of these holy cities had appeared. Some had arrived through projections, but some had actually appeared in their true bodies. There were too many Invincibles in the city. No matter how impeccable their control was, no Invincible could guarantee that they wouldn't damage any building in a battle between Invincibles.

Due to Su Yu's death, Great Xia King had attacked the city. With Great Xia King's strength, he was able to cause the appearance of death sovereigns with his attacks. To add salt to the wound, Great Ming King charged into the city, causing even more death sovereigns to appear. Ultimately, the guardian was forced to act.

The various Invincibles were still embroiled in a chaotic battle. Time and space were shattered everywhere. As for the nether Invincible, he roared and reversed time, turning into a younger version of himself with zero injuries. Then, he fled without any hesitation, ignoring the nether race genius left in the city.

At the exact moment, a corpse with the same appearance as him appeared where he was. His future body had died. Orıginal content can be found at novel✦fire.net

Past, present, and future. These were the essence of an Invincible.

During his first death, he lost his future body. During his second death, he lost his current body. If he died again, he would die for real. This was a disastrous loss for him.

Not only was he fleeing, but he was also fleeing while igniting drop after drop of blood essence to increase his speed. With a slap, he sent the death sovereign standing in his way flying away before vanishing into thin air.

He was in massive trouble. He might still be alive, but with such heavy losses, he would be weaker than all the other Invincibles. He was in an extremely vulnerable state. In fact, he didn't even dare to return to the Nether Realm anymore.

The ancient city guardians did not give chase. Otherwise, the nether Invincible wouldn't have been able to escape.

With the departure of the nether Invincible, they switched to a different target: Great Ming King.

Great Ming King had just grabbed Qin Hao and the others with a massive palm before noticing that. His expression instantly changed.

"Sky! Seal!"

Two characters manifested, but they were instantly smashed apart by the numerous incoming attacks.

Right at that moment, a blade streaked over and pushed those attacks back, giving Great Ming King the chance to flee.

Prior to this, Great Xia King had already cut the space beside him apart. Right after Great Ming King stepped beyond the opening into the spatial tunnel, Great Xia King stepped inside as well.

He turned to look at the city that was in an eternal cycle of falling apart before repairing itself with complicated eyes. Suddenly, he said, "If you're still alive...I'll think of something."

Leaving those words, he fled with Great Ming King.

Not even the two of them could match all these experts. Right after they vanished, a punch descended and blasted the spatial tunnel apart. Inside the city, Grandstar did not pursue after the two fled.

Instead, he moved on to other targets. Every single person who had damaged the buildings under his protection was attacked. No special treatment was given to anyone. The geniuses and experts were in complete despair.

One of them hurriedly landed on the ground and rushed into a random building. Moments later, Grandstar's spreading aura covered that building as well. Someone else noticed that and roared in excitement, "We can take shelter in the buildings! Hurry up!"

Only then did they realize that the so-called protection from the Invincibles or the mayor was useless here. In an ancient city, only these ancient buildings could be relied upon.

Meanwhile, the earth elemental Invincible had fled right after he witnessed the bloodbath. What could he do? Perhaps Topsoil Spirit was being protected inside one of these buildings. But if he remained any longer, he would definitely die.

Alas, leaving wasn't such an easy feat. He faced numerous difficulties in his attempt to leave. Suddenly, the sky above him split open. Several elemental Invincibles reached out and dragged the earth elemental Invincible into the opening with a roar.

Next, more and more openings appeared in the sky as help arrived to evacuate the other Invincibles. As of that moment, the entire Ninestar Island was no more. Only a single ancient city and nine shining dots were left. The nine dots were the nine realm entrances.

Grandstar and the other stone statues did not give chase to any of the fleeing Invincibles. The fleeing Invincibles were all riddled with injuries and shrouded in death qi. Invincible corpses were also raining down from the sky. All these were either future and present bodies.

Even as this was happening, the Sunmoons in the city were still dying one after another. They were unable to flee in time. Moons were also falling from the sky alongside the Invincible corpses.

Meanwhile, the city instantly returned to how it was. Apart from the slightly large number of death spirits, it was as though nothing had changed.

With the battle coming to an end, Grandstar coldly said, "All death spirits, return."

Twelve death sovereigns hovered in the sky and stared at Grandstar without moving. As a response, the gigantic stone statues floating around the city opened their eyes and glared at the death sovereigns.

The death sovereigns exchanged gazes and complained, "Those Eternals are still alive."

Grandstar couldn't be bothered to answer. He merely repeated his words, "All death spirits, return."

All the other stone statues opened their mouths as well, "Return!"

Even the twelve death sovereigns felt a great sense of threat. Thus, eleven of them vanished with a flicker, leaving only one behind.

Death Sovereign Xing Yue, the death spirit with the black cloak, remained. Grandstar did not say anything about that as this was the death sovereign assigned to the Death Realm entrance beneath this city.

"Grandstar..."

Heavendoom suddenly asked, "Is that fellow dead?"

"Nope."

"Did he convert into a resident?"

"Yes."

Heavendoom sighed, "What a pity. I was hoping he would be fine so that he could trouble—cough, cough, help more people."

Before the other stone statues could say anything, he vanished into thin air. Seeing that, the other stone statues vanished one after another as well.

Chapter 1042: Prelude To Chaos (3)

Finally, peace returned.

Silence enveloped the entire city. Outside, only a boundless sea could be seen. After all, the Ninestar Island had been destroyed. Not a single person appeared from the nine realm entrances. They had likely sealed their realm entrances from the other side.

Thus, peace had returned to not only the ancient city, but the entire region as well. Not a single living being could be seen in the area. The auras of the Invincibles who were present earlier were still around.

Meanwhile, the various realms were shocked. ɪꜰ ʏᴏᴜ ᴡᴀɴᴛ ᴛᴏ ʀᴇᴀᴅ ᴍᴏʀᴇ ᴄʜᴀᴘᴛᴇʀs, ᴘʟᴇᴀsᴇ ᴠɪsɪᴛ novelꜰire.net

The Heavenly Hunt Pavilion started selling the latest update.

According to the Heavenly Hunt Pavilion, the Invincibles had charged into Grandstar City. A large number of death sovereigns appeared. Ultimately, nine Sunmoons died alongside the tri-life bodies of the Invincibles.

Additionally, several names had vanished from the Heavenly Hunt Index. Not a single Heaven Index genius had died, but a decent number of Earth Index and Profound Index geniuses had perished.

The trigger for that disaster was the disappearance of Su Yu's name from the index. Of the two human Invincibles, one had gone mad and started attacking the city while the other had charged right into the city, forcing the other Invincibles to rush inside as well.

That triggered the appearance of the guardians, bringing the Invincibles incomparably close to death. With the departure of the Invincibles, the city had been sealed yet again. A large number of geniuses and late-stage Sunmoons were still trapped in the city. However, it was unlikely that any Invincible would have the courage to save these people anymore.

Losing Sunmoons and geniuses was better than losing Invincibles. It had been too many years since someone mustered enough courage to attack an ancient city. The story about the Invincible who had died in an ancient city had basically turned into a myth. But this incident had reminded all the Invincibles that these ancient cities were not to be provoked lightly.

If they really wanted to do that, they needed at least thirty Invincibles working together. The appearance of the thirty-six stone statues had greatly shocked numerous Invincibles. With this, they were finally certain that all these ancient cities were related to each other.

The relationship between the stone statues and the death spirits also seemed very complicated. Not once had the death sovereigns attacked the stone statues nor would the stone statues attack the death spirits unless rules were broken.

The entire incident caused by Su Yu had attracted the attention of the entire Myriad Realms.

Ninestar Island had ceased existing.

Numerous lives were lost on the island, including Sunmoons and Mountainseas. But...was Su Yu really dead?

Nobody knew.

***

Su Yu was naturally still alive.

He had been hiding inside a first ring building. These were the sturdiest buildings in the city, as well as the buildings to first receive the stone statue's protection. But like everyone else, he was also in a state of shock and fear.

Holy shit! That was too terrifying.

In truth, the battle between the Invincibles had only lasted a very short time. All of them had also been holding back during the battle. Even so, they couldn't avoid damaging the buildings in the city. Countless buildings were destroyed, alongside the living beings inside.

He even saw nine Sunmoons dying. How was he so sure? Because he saw nine moons falling from the sky. One of them was even a late-stage Sunmoon as one of the moons were almost a full moon. But nobody even cared about that. Everything else was even more shocking.

Su Yu's heart was still thumping madly. Holy shit! The sense of loss from having converted into a resident was no more. The only thing he felt was shock. As for his conversion to a resident...it wasn't really a big deal.

He could reverse death qi back into source qi. The speed might be slow, but it didn't matter. In any case, the death qi in his body wouldn't be able to kill him anytime soon. And when he grew stronger, his speed of death qi reversal might even increase. He could further boost the speed with a large amount of heavenly source qi.

In short, he wasn't really too worried about his conversion. Previously, he was only disgruntled at how he was forced to take such a step. But now, his mood had improved significantly.

He was more shocked by the two human Invincibles. Those two were...truly unreliable.

Extremely unreliable.

He heard everything. Great Xia King was the one who had attacked the city. Great Ming King was the one who had first entered the city. That was the real trigger for everything that had happened subsequently.

He thought of something and left the building unhesitatingly. The brave would feast while the cowardly would starve! He was already in such a state. He no longer had anything to lose. That weird death spirit had offered to personally welcome him during his death, but he was still alive, right?

In that case, why was he leaving the building? Why else? The corpses!

The city was filled with Sunmoon corpses. There were even Invincible corpses...no, all the Invincibles seemed to have survived. According to the stories he had heard, the death of even one Invincible would create a massive commotion. No such thing had appeared, so they had probably escaped alive.

Also, there were probably a lot of ancient city medallions on the ground. A lot of death spirits had died during the chaotic battle earlier.

And thus, Su Yu started moving among the mass of death spirits. In truth, the residents could already leave their buildings. Their lives wouldn't be in danger, but nobody had the courage to do so.

As for those who weren't even residents, they naturally lacked the courage to stay outdoors as well. Everyone was hiding.

Meanwhile, Su Yu had nothing to fear. After becoming a resident, external death qi would no longer have any effect on him. Instead, his body seemed to be producing death itself. This was the death qi that would slowly kill him and turn him into a death spirit.

"I'm rich!"

Su Yu hurriedly pushed a death spirit aside while cursing. Before him was a massive Sunmoon corpse. This Sunmoon was a shark, but its massive head had been destroyed. Meanwhile, its entire body was filled with death qi.

But it did not matter. For Su Yu, this was still a treasure. Since everything had happened so quickly, the storage ring of this expert was probably still around as well. After putting the corpse away, Su Yu picked up the nearby medallions. He was in a great mood. He was basically picking up money from the ground.

Sure, he was already rich before this, but nobody would say no to more money. That was the corpse of a Sunmoon between the second and the third stages. Even without a head, this was still quite a bountiful harvest.

Then, he continued striding forth, pushing aside any death spirits in his way without any fear. He was acting like this was his home. He had grown a lot more brazen than before. As a resident, what was there to fear?

Since he was a resident, wasn't the city as good as his? From now on, this place would have to play by his rules. This was his new home. As for the death spirits, they were naturally his beloved city guards.

His mood became exceptionally good. Thanks to his optimism, he was having the time of his life while roaming the streets. The mass of death spirits felt extremely pleasing to his eyes. He even patted one of them on the head, muttering something like: Good guard! Nice work!

***

Mayor's residence.

Death Sovereign Xing Yue observed Su Yu for a while before saying, "He is born to be a death spirit."

Holy shit!

Xing Yue had never seen such a bold resident before. That fellow had left his building to pick up the spoils on the ground while there were still so many death spirits around. He even patted the head of one of the death spirits, stunning that death spirit with his bold action.

Had anyone ever treated a death spirit like this before? These death spirits were the incarnation of death They were not kittens or puppies. Grandstar did not feel like saying anything. This was the most unique resident he had ever seen.

After looking at the badly injured mayor, Xing Yue said, "Are you not going to make Su Yu the next mayor?"

Grandstar remained silent. The dark devil dragon was nearly killed during the previous incident. He was still alive, but his death qi was starting to enter his heart. At this rate, he would turn into a death spirit before long.

Perhaps...he really needed to start looking for the next mayor. But was Su Yu really a suitable choice? Would that fellow bring even more trouble to the city after becoming a mayor?

Grandstar was unsure. He did not know what he should do with this human.

He didn't even know what to say about the chaos that had erupted out of nowhere.

Chapter 1043: Past And Future Bodies (1)

Su Yu was overjoyed. He was getting rich! He had just picked up his second Sunmoon corpse. The first Sunmoon was a shark while the second Sunmoon was a late-stage Sunmoon.

This was a large monkey with some golden fur on its head. Or to be precise, this was a heavenly spirit ape. This was the overlord of the ape races, akin to the status of the first divines among the divines.

Previously, Su Yu had bought an ancient trident from a heavenly spirit ape. A late-stage Sunmoon. This race was ranked twelfth, so it could be considered a powerful race. A late-stage Sunmoon of this race had actually died.

After studying the corpse for a bit, an odd look appeared in Su Yu's eyes. This did not seem to be the work of any death spirit. Rather, it was a living being.

Su Yu was unable to determine who the killer was. But he didn't care. At the time, the situation was too chaotic, with Invincibles and death sovereigns running wild in the city. Anyone could be the killer. This ape must have offended someone and died to this person during the chaos.

Additionally, Su Yu had also collected a large number of ancient city medallions. As of now, he still wasn't sure what he could do with these medallions. But he was lucky enough to pick up a third ring medallion as well. It was most likely dropped by a seventh-stage death spirit who had probably been killed by an Invincible.

This was a great find. With this medallion, he would be able to forcefully enter the occupied buildings up to the third ring. That was an impressive function.

Eventually, he collected about a dozen Mountainsea corpses and dozens of Cloudbreach corpses. The rest of the corpses must have been destroyed during the chaos as he couldn't find more of them.

He continued roaming the city. After a while, he noticed a group of death spirits gathering together. He approached the group out of curiosity. He noticed a few powerful death spirits among them. These were probably late-stage Sunmoons.

As he approached, the powerful death spirits turned to look at him. He merely flashed them an awkward smile. They seemed to be slightly intelligent...but they were family now, right?

"Uhm...Lords, I'm a resident here. What are you looking at?"

Yes. He was getting more and more brazen. His courage had been further boosted by the fact that not a single death spirit had attacked him so far. The death qi of these death spirits had not harmed him much either. Even the death qi of Sunmoon death spirits would only slightly accelerate the growth of the death qi in his body.

Thus, he wasn't too afraid of the late-stage Sunmoon death spirits. But he did maintain a distance with them out of wariness. He squeezed into the center of the group, pushing aside the heads of the death spirits blocking his view. Finally, he saw the item all these death spirits were surrounding.

It seemed to be a book, but it also didn't look like one. Was it a treasure? The death spirits were merely staring at it, but none touched it. Was this really a treasure? He was tempted. He loved nothing more than treasures.

The death spirits ignored his greeting. It was unknown if they couldn't speak or if they simply didn't feel like replying. This was probably the bravest resident to ever exist. Even the mayor would feel very uncomfortable in their presence and try to stay as far away as possible from them.

Su Yu was relieved to see that even the powerful death spirits were ignoring him. This book before him...might only be a plank or something else. But it seemed to be quite valuable. And some nether qi could be felt on it.

He could clearly feel that nether qi was slightly different from death qi. Was this something dropped by the nether Invincible? He did notice what happened earlier. Something in the ancient city had punched through the nether Invincible's body. Was this thing related to that nether Invincible?

"If this is related to that Invincible, then it is definitely a treasure."

Su Yu was tempted to pick it up. But the Sunmoon death spirits were still here. He was worried that he would provoke them by picking it up. Just because they had been ignoring him did not mean that they couldn't do anything to him. Who could predict what they would do?

But Su Yu was very tempted. What should he do about this? Suddenly, a death spirit wearing a cloak appeared. Noticing the uniquely fashionable death spirit, Su Yu hurriedly lowered his head and turned around.

Fuck!

That might...be the same death spirit who had spoken to him previously! This might be an Invincible! Finally, he knew fear.

He wasn't able to get a good look at the battle between Invincibles, but he did overhear some of the conversations. This death spirit...was likely to be the one called Xing Yue. It wasn't a good idea to stay anywhere near such an existence.

He might be very brave now, but he still didn't want to turn into the dead from the living dead. Just as he was about to leave, the death spirits around him prostrated on the ground. Or to be precise, only the more powerful ones did so while the weaker ones continued floating around blankly.

Xing Yue wasn't even facing Su Yu. It was staring at the item on the ground with its back to Su Yu. However, its voice still rang out in Su Yu's mind, "Do you know what this is?"

Su Yu's heart thumped.

He didn't dare to make any noise. That fellow wasn't talking to him, right?

Xing Yue's voice rang out again, "This is a valuable treasure, meant to bear one's past and future. Do you know the meaning behind the term Eternal?"

Su Yu's eyes flickered.

"Past, present, and future. Joint as one, achieving eternity."

Su Yu's heart skipped a beat. Eternal?

Was this the truth of the Invincible Realm?

"Past, present, future..." After muttering to himself, Su Yu lowered his head and spoke deferentially, "Lord, is this something left behind by an Eternal?"

The death spirit replied, "This was the treasure bearing the future body of that Eternal from the nether race. With such a treasure, one can search the future for the strongest future body in the River of Time. To achieve eternity, one needs to carry the future body with the treasure and become one with it. The future and present bodies of that Eternal have perished, leaving him with only the past body. He might still be an Eternal, but he's basically crippled. He is still an Eternal. But the past will forever remain in the past. He will no longer be capable of growth. He no longer has a present and a future."

Su Yu couldn't really understand what the death spirit was saying. He only knew two things. Firstly, this plank was a treasure. Secondly, that nether Invincible seemed to have suffered grave injuries, with no possibility of future growth.

Past body?

Were all Invincibles required to play with all those complicated concepts?

Su Yu asked, "Lord, what is the level of strength an Invincible can muster? To be precise, what is the value of an Invincible's strength converted into the number of acupoints?

"Acupoints?" Fresh chapters posted on nοvelfire.net

The death spirit did not answer. For Invincibles, the strength of acupoints was pointless.

After a long moment, Xing Yue said, "I'll tell you after your death."

"..."

What the fuck was that? Su Yu didn't even dare to think too much in the presence of this person. This fellow here was basically waiting for him to die.

But for some reason, this fellow did not try to kill him. Perhaps this fellow was restrained by something unknown. At this point, Su Yu was starting to grow brazen again. It wasn't that he no longer feared Invincibles. Rather, he realized that it was pointless to be scared in front of an Invincible as he would be completely helpless anyway.

Seeing that the death spirit was speaking to him again, he took the chance to ask, "Lord, what...can this treasure do?"

"Bear the weight of the future body." The death spirit did not hide anything, "With this treasure, you can fish for your strongest past and strongest future in the River of Time. After capturing your past and future bodies from the River of Time, you can fuse with them to achieve eternity."

After a slight pause, the death spirit continued, "That is the most valuable function of this treasure. Of course, it can also be used for weaponsmithing, but that's a waste of material."

Understanding dawned on Su Yu. So that was how it was. In short, it was useless. Or to be precise, it was useless for the present him. Thanks to this explanation, his understanding of the Invincible Realm grew. He thought of Xia Longwu. Was that what Xia Longwu needed to do as well?

While he was deep in thought, the death spirit continued, "The so-called Pseudo Invincibles are generally people who have fused with either their future or the past bodies. The strength of one's past body will be quite limited, but a Pseudo Invincible who has fused with the future body can even be stronger than Invincibles at times."

"..."

Su Yu was stunned. Was that...possible?

The death spirit said, "But of the three bodies, the past body is more important than the future body. After all, you need to have a past to have a future. The death of the past body might result in total death."

Without a future, one would only suffer a complete stop of growth.

Without a past, one might cease to exist.

Once again, understanding dawned on Su Yu.

After thinking for a bit, he asked, "In that case, won't the enemies of Invincibles be completely helpless if the Invincibles decide to return to the past and kill them?"

"Return to the past?"

The death spirit sneered.

"The so-called time rewind can be split into two categories. The first category is a true rewinding of time. But not all Invincibles can do that. Only an extremely powerful Invincible with great proficiency in the dao of time can do so.

"The second category is much simpler. It is simply the rewinding of memories. Everything you see is simply a reenaction of the past. The first category is the only way to kill someone in the past. The second category is incapable of changing anything."

Su Yu was enlightened yet again. In that case, not all Invincibles were capable of time manipulation.

The death spirit added, "Furthermore, it is a very bad idea to interfere with the past. You might end up dying to the power of time during the attempt. If it is so easy to interfere with the passage of time and the Myriad Realms...all the Eternals would have died long ago."

Simply put, this was an extremely difficult feat to accomplish. Even an Invincible had a past. Even an Invincible was once weak.

Technically, since each Invincible was someone who had fused with their past and future, it was almost impossible to kill their past anyway. In practice, even the past of a Sunmoon couldn't be killed so easily.

Once again, Su Yu nodded. This seemed incredibly complicated. Suddenly, the death spirit shook.