Tribulation of Myriad Races

Once again, Su Yu visited the inner hall.

Grandstar opened his eyes.

He noted that Su Yu would grow noticeably each time he took his attention off the kid for a few days.

He would usually not say anything about it, but he decided differently this time as he said, “Your heaven acupoint is incomplete. You can’t stop it from absorbing death qi. If this continues, you will fully transform into a death spirit.”

Wow. Such a knowledgeable old fellow.

Heaven acupoint. So that was the name of that acupoint. Su Yu was impressed at the breadth of knowledge this old fellow possessed.

“Heaven acupoint?” Su Yu said, “I named it the yang acupoint, with its counterpart being the yin aperture. Together, they are called the source soul acupoint.”

Grandstar considered that name and said, “That is a suitable name.”

“Do you know this acupoint, Lord?”

“Yes.” Grandstar explained, “I have only heard about it, so I don’t know too much. Even during my era, this acupoint was rarely opened.”

Su Yu nodded and asked, “Lord, since I’ve yet to fully open the acupoint, is there a way to shut it again?”

The acupoint had been getting more and more annoying to handle. Each time he fed it with death qi, he would drift dangerously close to becoming a real death spirit. But if he fed it with source qi, he would find the demand too challenging for him to meet.

“I’m unsure. I suggest you think of something soon. After all, you’re not a real death spirit.”

Grandstar advised, “When this thing you call yang acupoint becomes fully saturated with death qi, an eruption of death qi will happen. That will instantly turn you into a death spirit. For now, you can only rely on the capacity of this acupoint. There is a limit to every acupoint.”

Su Yu nodded in agreement. After spending so much time with the yang acupoint open, he had noticed that there was a limit to it. Of course, it would be quite a while before it reached the limit.

Just look at the old man from Bai Family. He had been feeding his yang acupoint for so many years yet the acupoint had yet to explode. Clearly, the capacity of the yang acupoint was quite high.

Su Yu moved on to a different topic and asked, “Lord, I wish to reorganize the thirty-six cities. But I’m worried that not everyone will accept my proposal. Do you think I’ll be successful, Lord?”

Grandstar asked, “What is the purpose of the reorganization? Turning all residents into your subordinates? What is the point of having some weaklings as subordinates? I’m not against it, but I don’t see the point.”

Su Yu laughed and said, “Uhm…Lord, we have a saying to describe your attitude toward this suggestion. It’s easy to speak from a privileged position. You are an Invincible. An ancient Invincible. Such a power is naturally incapable of attracting your attention. But this is very important for us mayors.” “When we work together, we can probably contend against at least ten Invincibles. Since there is hope for me to gain control over such a power, I’ll naturally not give up on it. And I hope to gain our support for this.”

Grandstar gave it some thought and pronounced, “One does not become a guardian for power.”

Su Yu nodded, “I understand. Your mission…probably involves guarding the world from the dead. Or to be precise, you’re tasked to counteract the death qi with the living. Regardless of whether one is a resident or a regular living being, everyone needs to cultivate. That process will counteract the death qi leaking out of the Death Realm. Without this process, death qi will spread uncontrollably, eventually covering the entire Myriad Realms. Am I right?”

Grandstar said nothing. That was correct.

Su Yu continued, “But you are also unwilling to seek help from the outsiders. Or to be precise, you distrust the outsiders. You have to stay wary of the myriad races lest some of them decide to release the death spirits. Thus, all the guardians have mostly ignored the management of the ancient cities while focusing only on the tunnels over the years.

“In my opinion, the alliance will attract more help. We will be able to invite more people into the cities. With more people, we will be able to better counteract the death qi. That will only strengthen your defense against the Death Realm…”

Grandstar said, “Su Yu, do you know that you’re not the first person to propose this idea? A long time ago, someone proposed the same thing. As you know, there are thirty-six holy cities in existence. But one is completely empty. Why? Because the mayor of that city had the same idea a long time ago. In fact, he was even more ambitious than you. He dreamed of controlling death spirits and ruling the Myriad Realms through the holy cities. Alas, things ran out of control and he got himself killed.”

“…”

Su Yu blanked out slightly.

Grandstar continued, “This happened a very long time ago. It was so long ago that I have almost forgotten it. That mayor was exceptionally talented. Like you, he had a way of easily handling the death qi in his body. He managed to receive the backing of several guardians. These guardians were hopeful that he would be able to strengthen their defense against the Death Realm. But…a tragedy befell. He wanted to dominate the Allheaven Battlefield. He wanted to turn all death spirits into his subordinates. Things ran out of control. Too many death sovereigns appeared in the city, covering the entire Sea of Stars with death qi. Eventually, he died. After that incident, his city sank into the bottom of the sea.”

Su Yu frowned. So his idea wasn’t original? Did that mayor know the same reversal art he knew?

Su Yu asked, “How did he die?”

“Killed by his guardian.”

Grandstar answered emotionlessly. In his petrified form, his true expression couldn’t be seen either.

Su Yu stared at the stone statue in shock. Grandstar continued, “Our mission, or to be precise, the purpose of our existence is to guard the tunnels and prevent the spread of death spirits or death qi. He lost control of the death spirits he released, breaking the laws imposed upon us. Thus, he must die.”

Understanding dawned on Su Yu. After some hesitation, he asked, “Do you mean if I were to allow the death spirits and death qi to spread beyond my control, I would be considered the breaker of laws instead of a mayor?”

“Yes.” Grandstar answered, “Thus, I need to warn you about your ambitions lest you follow the footsteps of the mayor who failed.”

Su Yu nodded. He wasn’t too concerned. It would be pointless since he had no way to control any of the death spirits anyway.

After thinking about it, he said, “Lord, does this mean that I will have your support as long as I can ease the burden of death qi on you?”

“Yes.” Grandstar said, “That is the core of our mission. When you assist us with the mission, we are allowed to accord you some support. For example, I did not kill those Eternals for you because you allowed me to leave the city. Rather, I helped you because you helped with my mission.”

Nonsense! Su Yu rolled his eyes inwardly. He was certain Grandstar was more pleased by the prospect of leaving the city than anything else.

“Lord, will I gain the support of the other lords in my attempt to reorganize all the cities?”

Grandstar considered the question before answering, “That’s hard to say. Each guardian is a living being with their own feelings and emotions. Some guardians might have developed some attachment to their mayors after spending many years together. Even if what you do is helpful to their mission, why should they help you? You can help me with my burden. But can you do the same to all of them? You are only the mayor of Grandstar City, not all the cities.”

Su Yu nodded. That was understandable. The stone statues were living beings as well. It wouldn’t be surprising for any of them to have a preference.

Grandstar said, “Of course, as a mayor of Grandstar City, you will have my support.”

Su Yu nodded. This was the only assurance he could secure. The stance of the other stone statues would remain unknown.

He asked, “Lord, what if I become the mayor of multiple cities at the same time—”

Grandstar cut him off, “Don’t do anything stupid. I am familiar with the speed of your death qi reversal. But there is a limit to that. I doubt you can take on the burden of more than three or perhaps five cities. You also need to leave some space for your own cultivation. Are you supposed to spend all your time reversing death qi and doing nothing else?”

“True.”

Su Yu nodded and sighed. He was still too weak to take on too much death qi anyway.

At that thought, he asked, “Lord, if I wish to convert my Xing Yue back into a living being, is that possible?”

“That…” Grandstar said, “It won’t be easy. She’s a death sovereign. You are only able to absorb so much of her death qi through your heaven acupoint. And you are only absorbing, not reversing the death qi in her body. When you drain her completely, she will die. To convert her back, you need to convert everything about her, including her death qi and sea of willpower. The difficulty of that is extremely high. It is beyond your current ability.”

“Each death sovereign is connected to the Death Realm. Even if you can reverse the death qi in her body, she will constantly produce more death qi. There is no guarantee that your reversal speed will surpass her production speed. You might be able to kill her, but converting her back to life is nearly impossible.”

Understanding dawned on Su Yu. In short, it was very difficult.

“Will it be possible for me to kill her just by absorbing her death qi, then?”

Grandstar remained silent.

Su Yu spoke with excitement, “Will the laws assign me a stronger death sovereign when that happens? In truth, Xing Yue feels a tad bit too weak for my liking. What if I can get a stronger death sovereign such as a Pseudo Emperor? That will allow me to summon a Pseudo Emperor death spirit when I’m in danger!”

Grandstar had a very strong urge to roll his eyes. He could feel the intense tremors coming from the tunnel under him. In fact, the temperature of the entire inner hall was dropping.

Xing Yue seemed to have spent a lot of time near the tunnel entrance recently. Her voice suddenly rang out, “Su Yu, you are welcome to try.”

Wait, she heard him? Well, this was awkward. Why didn’t Grandstar stop her from listening in? How annoying.

Su Yu laughed and said, “That was a joke, Lord Sovereign. I would have turned into a death spirit long before that. I don’t wish to die yet.”

“Hmph!” With a cold snort, Xing Yue said, “You can try. Do you really believe that a death sovereign can’t produce death qi faster than your absorption speed?”

No matter what, she was an Invincible. She had only suffered a loss previously because she had entered the city and the ambient death qi wasn’t dense enough for her usage. Otherwise, her production speed would be far faster than Su Yu’s absorption speed.

Unknowingly, the way she viewed this had changed. She had started to consider this matter from the perspective of Su Yu failing to kill her through absorption. Normally, she would be considering it from the perspective of her converting Su Yu into a death spirit.

Su Yu didn’t seem to mind her fury. He laughed again and said, “Lord Sovereign, let’s move on from this topic for now. I’m very curious about one thing. Apparently, my death qi connection will be severed in the Luminous Domain Mansion. At that time, will I lose the ability to absorb your death qi?”

Yes! Xing Yue was actually pleased to hear that. She didn’t even know why she was so pleased to hear that. She snorted again, cursing Su Yu to die in the Luminous Domain Mansion. She was becoming more and more supportive of severing her connection to Su Yu. She was finding Su Yu a nuisance.

That was especially true since he was still so hale and lively even after absorbing so much of her death qi. So he was going to enter the Luminous Domain Mansion soon? Good!

Cheered by that thought, Xing Yue said, “The Luminous Domain Mansion will open in no more than six months. There are countless treasures and opportunities waiting inside—”

“I’m not entering.” Su Yu smiled, “I have no lack of opportunity. I’m more worried of losing my connection to you after entering. That would be annoying. According to what I understand, I’ll need to spend a month there. I’m afraid a month without the sustenance of your death qi will kill me. Forget it. I won’t be entering.”

“…”