Tribulation of Myriad Races

The dark devil dragon had perished.

Su Yu did not feel too strongly about it. He was too busy hiding in an empty building while reversing his death qi. The death qi was growing too quickly.

Furthermore, with the waves of death qi seeping into the building, he could feel that the death spirit was still outside. It was staying out there while releasing death qi into the building.

The death qi was spreading all over his body, turning his complexion dark. In fact, darkness was engulfing his entire body. The death qi was moving rapidly toward his heart.

He resisted without caring about the cost. With his heavenly source qi, he withstood the erosion. He even used a large amount of heavenearth profound light to keep growing stronger even as he was dealing with the death qi.

An intense struggle commenced between Su Yu and the death qi in his body.

Any other resident, the dark devil dragon included, would have died by now. But Su Yu persisted. He had only provoked these Sunmoon death spirits because of his perceived immunity toward death qi. But the death spirits he had spawned this time seemed to be far stronger than expectation.

Suddenly, his mask shook.

“Profound Nine, what happened? How did the dark devil dragon die? It was the dark devil dragon, right?”

“…”

First Profound sent a series of questions over.

***

Heavenly Hunt Pavilion.

First Profound, with his faceless mask, was greatly shocked. He spoke to the other elders, “Profound Nine is in the city. I’m trying to find out the truth. I’m not getting any replies, but he’s still alive. He might have been affected by the event and can’t reply for now.”

“According to those outside the city, some powerful death spirits seemed to have appeared. The dark devil dragon fought the death spirits before dying due to death qi erosion.”

“…”

A different elder said, “First Profound, get Profound Nine to investigate the situation and give us a report.”

“Alright.”

Silence descended as the elders sank into thought. The dark devil dragon had perished. In short, Grandstar City was now without a mayor. That was an extremely important ancient city due to its proximity to the Luminous Domain Mansion. With the position of the mayor empty…

They hurriedly stopped thinking too much about that. This was still not the time to explore that possibility. At the moment, Grandstar City was still way too dangerous. Almost every living being in the city had died.

No, to be precise, the sole living being remaining in the city was a certain earth elemental. A month had yet to past, so Topsoil Spirit was still stuck in a sealed condition. Since his name was still on the index, they knew that he was still alive. They wondered if he would suspect that he had somehow transmigrated to an alternate reality after he was released.

The world was still a very different place before he was sealed. Only a month had passed yet everything seemed to have changed. As a matter of fact, it would be more normal for everything to remain the same in the Allheaven Battlefield after only one month.

***

While dealing with the death qi in his body, Su Yu was reading the incoming messages. The elder wasn’t the only person asking him questions. Even those from the Yellow Department were doing the same.

Through the mask, he replied, “Elder. This information is exclusive to me. Who will be credited for the profits made from selling this information?”

“You can make your choice according to our rules. You can agree to get a ten percent share depending on the total sales of the pavilion. Or you can choose to make a one-time deal with the pavilion for one hundred heavenly hunt points.”

A hundred heavenly hunt points were equal to a hundred thousand merit points. Su Yu was left speechless. A hundred heavenly hunt points? A hundred thousand merit points? That was actually a lot of points.

But the damn Heavenly Hunt Pavilion was still too greedy. According to his previous transaction with them, a drop of first-stage Sunmoon blood essence was worth fifty thousand merit points. With his member discount, he could only buy slightly more than three drops with a hundred thousand merit points.

Thus, he could earn about three drops of Sunmoon blood essence with the one-time deal. That was actually quite a good price. But would he receive more if he picked the first option?

With the vast network of the Heavenly Hunt Pavilion, even if they only sell the information to a few hundred races at a price of one drop per race, they would still receive hundreds of drops of Sunmoon blood essence. Through the ten percent share, he would receive a much larger amount than what he could get through a one-time deal.

At that thought, he said, “I’m picking the first option.”

He was not interested in the tiny bit of money he could get from the one-time deal.

First Profound wasted no time and asked, “Sure. Tell me. What happened?”

Su Yu asked, “Elder, can I tell you directly? Don’t I need to report this to the Yellow Department instead?”

“Either is fine.”

The elder was feeling quite suspicious. But since this fellow was happily chatting away with him, was it possible that the mayor’s death had nothing to do with Su Yu?

Su Yu said, “With my choice, I’m entitled to 10 percent of the total profit. As for the 90 percent that will go to the pavilion, am I still entitled to 0.1 percent of that as my commission?

“Yes.”

Good. This was acceptable. The share was still small, but it was better than nothing. He was able to leisurely communicate with the Heavenly Hunt Pavilion even as he was reversing his death qi and forging his body. He wanted to see if the death qi could really outlast him.

Inside his body, death qi and source qi were engaged in a bitter battle near his heart. This would be a battle of endurance.

“This was what happened. I was on the way to deliver heavenly source qi to the mayor. But the evil Su Yu suddenly showed up…no, wait, that’s wrong. This was what happened…”

Su Yu adjusted his story.

First Profound was left speechless. So this bastard was selling fake news as well? Su Yu and Profound Nine were the same person!

“Profound Nine, think properly before you say anything. There are other residents in the city. They might know the truth as well. You need to understand that the Heavenly Hunt Pavilion prides itself on its reliability. This is the source of our confidence. If you’re found selling fake news, you’ll be in a lot of trouble.”

Fine, fine.

Su Yu gave it some thought and retold the story. He kept everything close to the truth. According to him, Profound Nine was tangled with a Sunmoon death spirit. The mayor was forced to provide assistance when…Su Yu appeared and tossed an item to the mayor. An explosion erupted, triggering the death qi in the mayor’s body.

Next, Su Yu took the chance to detonate a character and killed a Sunmoon death spirit. Three death spirits that were possibly late-stage Sunmoons appeared. No, those death spirits felt even stronger than late Sunmoons. They were probably at the very peak of the Sunmoon Realm.

One of the death spirits pursued Su Yu while the mayor was corroded to death by two other death spirits. As for Su Yu, his fate was unknown.

Perfect! He had barely changed anything. Only one additional character had been added to the story.

According to his story, the incident affected him as well. Fortunately, he wasn’t the main character in that story so he was ignored, giving him the chance to hide in a building while shivering in fear.

“Su Yu’s fate is unknown?”

First Profound was rendered completely speechless. He gave it some thought. As a whole, it was acceptable. The addition of Su Yu in the story indicated that Profound Nine was the culprit. But this was still an acceptable story.

But he still questioned, “There is no reason for the mayor to provide assistance to you, a member of the Heavenly Hunt Pavilion.”

Su Yu answered, “He wasn’t trying to help me. He only did it for the sake of the heavenly source qi in my hand.”

“Su Yu detonated a character to kill the death spirit. Does he still have any of Ye Batian’s characters in his possession?”

“How am I supposed to know?”

Once again, First Profound was rendered speechless. Who else apart from him could know the answer? The elder was suspicious. So did Su Yu still have more of Ye Batian’s characters? How many of them had been detonated so far? How did Ye Batian end up with these students and grandstudents? He left such a massive wealth behind for them, but look at what they did with his wealth.

Yes. The elder suspected that Ye Batian’s character was the answer. After all, Su Yu was still a Cloudbreach. First Profound would not believe that Su Yu was already strong enough to kill a Sunmoon, even if the Sunmoon was a dumb death spirit.

After going over the story one more time and confirming that it was fine, he said, “So is Su Yu dead? What’s his status?”

Wasn’t the answer obvious? Su Yu rolled his eyes.

“No idea. He escaped, but the death qi around him was exceptionally dense. He will probably die soon.”

The elder asked something else instead, “How about you? What’s your current status? Are you confident you can snatch the mayor’s medallion?”

“Hmm?”

Noticing Su Yu’s surprise, First Profound said, “With the dark devil dragon’s death, Grandstar City is now without a mayor. If you can become the mayor, you will receive massive support from the pavilion. Your status in the pavilion will rise greatly, and perhaps you might even be promoted to an elder before long.”

“But with my cultivation, even after becoming the mayor, I’ll be facing constant challenges, right?”

“Of course.” First Profound said, “There is no doubt about that. Any ancient city mayor can be considered a tyrant of a region. People might say that mayors are puppets, but these mayors have a lot of power within their cities. It is natural for this position to be highly coveted.

“But as a solution, you can simply hide in the mayor’s residence. That way, they won’t be able to do anything to you. But I need to remind you about one thing. If you wish to become the mayor, you need to refine the mayor’s medallion. And that is not easy. That is why all the mayors are ninth-stage Sunmoons. You have to be careful lest someone kills you during the process.”

Su Yu said, “But nobody can enter the city…”

First Profound said, “Don’t be careless. Have you forgotten about the residents? There might be Sunmoons among them. The death of the mayor has caused such a big commotion. Do you think nobody noticed? Just because they have been hiding indoors does not mean that they’re all dead.”

That made a lot of sense. Su Yu had completely forgotten about those people. Yes. They were residents as well. It was only natural that some would wish to become the new mayor. If it wasn’t for the powerful death spirits who were still lingering outside, the residents would have started fighting over the medallion already.

Su Yu thought about it and asked, “Will the pavilion support me after I become the mayor?”

“Yes. Provided you’re Profound Nine.”

What he left unspoken was the mayor couldn’t be Su Yu. After a slight hesitation, Su Yu shook his head. It was far better for Su Yu to become the mayor. Everyone knew he was in the city. And everyone knew that he wouldn’t die so easily.

It would be way too eye-catching for the previously unknown Profound Nine to suddenly become the mayor. A mayor was someone everyone would focus on. If Profound Nine became the mayor, that identity would become useless before long. He was sure of that.

He still wanted to keep that identity around.

“I understand. Thanks for the advice.”

This was such a nice elder. Thanks to the elder, he was reminded of the fact that there might be some powerful experts among the residents. These people would remain mostly unaffected even if Su Yu kept the city sealed.

Previously, they were merely hiding because it was safer that way. But with the mayor’s death, they would definitely appear to fight for the mayorship. At this moment, the heavenly reward for the mayor’s death finally appeared. But since the mayor was already dying before his meddling, he was only given a small reward for his contribution: one strand of heavenearth profound light.

Holy shit!

That was a ninth-stage Sunmoon! Why was the reward so small? Clearly, even the heavens felt that his contribution was too small in the death. He wasn’t even able to get the last hit.

“I should have tried to get the last hit.”

Su Yu cursed inwardly. That was a massive loss. He did not even bother with the mayor’s corpse. The corpse would become a death spirit. There wouldn’t even be any source qi leaking out of the dead mayor. He knew this because he had personally witnessed the previous Profound Nine’s transformation into a death spirit.

Thus, he had not expected to profit from the mayor’s corpse. Why would there be no leak of source qi? Because every bit of source qi would be converted into death qi. That way, the strength of the newly formed death spirit would be guaranteed.