Tribulation of Myriad Races

Before long, one Heavenly Hunt Pavilion member after another started yelling in dismay, “Elders, things are getting bad. Divine King Hao said that if Zhan Wushuang dies from this, he will kill a hundred Heavenly Hunt Pavilion Sunmoons as the offering for Zhan Wushuang…”

“Dao King and Xuan King are warning us that if Dao Cheng and Xuan Wuji die from this, they will make reprisals on us…”

“Three dragon kings are starting to pick fights with us…”

“The five ancestors of the five elemental race are messaging us…”

The elders looked at each other in dismay yet again. The negotiation had yet to even start. For the sake of earning money, they had somehow gotten themselves in huge trouble.

Holy shit!

They were feeling immense regret.

They greatly regretted making that extra remark earlier. If they hadn’t, Su Yu wouldn’t have known about the profit they were making off the negotiation.

Great. Ten heavenly source fruits were clearly not enough to tempt Su Yu.

Inside an ancient building.

Su Yu snorted coldly. Heavenly Hunt Pavilion…this damn organization had earned a lot off him. They sure were good at doing business. Even now, they were still trying to profit off him. One drop of Sunmoon blood essence per participant?

That was too profitable.

Su Yu wasn’t bothered about the fact that the myriad races were being made to pay. He was bothered about the fact that he was not given a share of the profit. That was his biggest issue.

He was the core of this whole thing. The Heavenly Hunt Pavilion was merely an intermediary for the negotiation. Why were they getting so cocky? How dare they forget about his share of profit?

He would be more than happy to profit together with them. But since he was not getting a share, he couldn’t be bothered to entertain them.

Soon, White One’s voice rang out again, “Su Yu, there was a misunderstanding. The Heavenly Hunt Pavilion has to exhaust a large amount of energy connecting the various parties involved in the negotiation. We have no choice but to accept the fee to cover the cost…”

It was only natural that a large amount of energy was required for what they were doing. That was something Su Yu could believe.

But it was complete nonsense for the cost to be as high as a drop of Sunmoon blood essence per person. He had been in communication with the Heavenly Hunt Pavilion numerous times. Had the Heavenly Hunt Pavilion actually spent hundreds of drops of Sunmoon blood essence just communicating with him alone? There was no way that was true.

A short while later, White One spoke again, “Even if we wish to give you the Sunmoon blood essence now, we don’t have any way of bringing it into the city. If we give it to Principal Niu, you won’t find out if you refuse to keep an index copy on you. What about this? I’ll leave fifty strands of heavenearth profound light beside the index copy…”

Su Yu remained silent.

After some time, perhaps the Heavenly Hunt Pavilion was forced to compromise from the massive pressure on them. White One said, “A hundred strands. That’s the limit of what we can offer. There really aren’t that many participants.”

Su Yu was totally not buying that. But that was quite a decent offer. The Heavenly Hunt Pavilion was indeed rich.

He waited a while longer. Finally, White One spoke again, “Two hundred strands. That’s really the highest we can go.”

A short while later, Su Yu’s clone reappeared. After picking up the index copy, he wrote on it, “Is Principal Niu here?”

“Yes.”

“How many moles are there on Cui Lang’s face?”

“…”

Yet another suffocating silence descended. That was clearly a question to verify Principal Niu’s identity. But…what manner of a question was that?

Outside the city.

Niu Baidao was stunned as well. After a while, he replied with a troubled expression, “I don’t remember. I don’t think I’ve ever noticed that.”

“How many students are there in the academy?”

“Uhm…too many. Including those from the previous batches who have yet to graduate, we have 31,890 students.”

“How many cubs did Big Ball give birth to?”

“Three!”

“How many beds are there on Heart Paradise Island?”

“One!”

“…”

After asking dozens of questions, Su Yu was finally sure this was the principal. He was also out of questions. If he wanted to keep asking, he would have to ask really private questions like the color of Principal Niu’s underpants and such.

The myriad race experts were all left speechless. That was such a boring section of the broadcast.

“Principal Niu, I’ll ask you a question each time you say anything. That way, we can prevent someone from taking over your role halfway through the negotiation. The Heavenly Hunt Pavilion is definitely capable of that. Also, to prevent the Heavenly Hunt Pavilion from distorting my words or altering what I’m trying to say, we’ll communicate in a secret code. Do you have the Long Life Art I gave you? We will use that as the basis for our secret code.”

He hurriedly added, “If the Heavenly Hunt Pavilion dares to alter my current statement in any way, this negotiation will end immediately. I will find out while communicating with Principal Niu through the secret code.”

“…”

This was driving the Heavenly Hunt Pavilion members crazy. Damn it! That damn fellow sure was thorough in his considerations. Not even they had considered that option, yet the damn kid had actually thought of it. Sure enough, the kid was a natural swindler. They couldn’t help but admit that this…had been rather inspiring for them.

Of course, that also further increased the vigilance of the myriad races toward the Heavenly Hunt Pavilion. They were reminded that unless absolutely necessary, they shouldn’t communicate through the Heavenly Hunt Index. There was a possibility that the Heavenly Hunt Index might alter the contents of their messages to mess with their plans.

Suddenly, Su Yu cursed, “What is the meaning of this, devils? Ten strands of heavenearth profound light for Mo Duona? Is Mo Duona’s life so cheap?”

“…”

Silence descended.

What was going on?

The devil representative asked, “Su Yu, what are you talking about?”

“Huh? Thirty strands?”

“…”

The reply was completely nonsensical. Seeing that, the devil representative questioned furiously, “Heavenly Hunt Pavilion, what is the meaning of this?”

“…”

Meanwhile, the Heavenly Hunt Pavilion elders were in total confusion. One of them said, “What’s happening? Investigate!”

The masked individuals started their investigation. Moments later, one of them reported, “Elder, no issues detected. This shouldn’t be happening. This is a real-time communication channel…”

One of the elders realized something. “He’s doing this deliberately! He’s stirring trouble to make the myriad races believe that we’re tampering with the conversation…”

At this moment, Su Yu sent a new message, “Oh, that was a test to see if the messages are going through smoothly. Alright. I’m done checking. Everything is fine.”

“…”

The elders were on the verge of emotional collapse. One of them warned, “Su Yu, stop playing these petty tricks. With Heavenly Hunt Pavilion’s prestige on the line, I promise that we will keep the communication active at all times without any tampering. If we mess with the negotiation in any way, may Heavenly Hunt Pavilion meet instant destruction.”

He couldn’t take it anymore. This human was too cautious. More importantly, after this little episode, the myriad races would grow even more wary of the Heavenly Hunt Pavilion. Of course, the myriad races had always been hesitant to use the Heavenly Hunt Pavilion’s communication channel unless it was absolutely necessary.

But that did not mean that they would completely avoid using the Heavenly Hunt Index’s communication channel. Their current situation was one such example. When they were trapped in locations where talisman communication was not possible, they would have to rely on the Heavenly Hunt Pavilion.

The communication channel of the Heavenly Hunt Pavilion would only stop working on extremely rare occasions. And the Heavenly Hunt Pavilion had always charged an extravagant price for these services.

After what Su Yu did here, even this business of theirs might be adversely affected.

***

Su Yu smiled. He wasn’t too concerned.

Prestige? That was worth nothing.

“Hand two hundred strands of heavenearth profound light to Principal Niu first. We’ll continue after that.”

Niu Baidao said, “Kid, I’m worried that I won’t be able to return alive with such riches on me. I’ll probably die on the way back. Maybe I should get an Invincible to keep these things for you. But we probably need to pay that Invincible if we wish to solicit their service, right?”

“…”

Su Yu was left quite speechless. Getting the help of an Invincible? Who? Great Ming King? If Old Niu was already reacting this way because of a puny amount of wealth like this, how were they supposed to continue the negotiation?

Su Yu couldn’t be bothered to entertain that suggestion. He went straight to the point and said, “Since everyone is here, I won’t waste anyone’s time. You want me to stop killing and allow the city to reopen, right? Sure.

“Nine hundred strands of heavenearth profound light per ninth-stage Sunmoon, eight hundred strands for per eighth-stage Sunmoon…and so on. It’s very cheap. That’s almost the same price of a corpse with the same cultivation level. As for the geniuses, the price depends on their ranks. A thousand strands for the first rank, nine hundred strands for the second rank…and so on. Beyond the top ten, it’s a hundred strands per person. Yes, that’s right. They are so worthless I can’t be bothered to make things complicated for them.

“If you agree, let’s do it. If not, forget it. Furthermore, I won’t deal with each race individually. I will only deal with everyone at once. So make sure everyone agrees. I can release them, but I’ll only do it for all of them or none of them. You can also try your luck with the moat. If you’re lucky enough to survive that, I’ll have nothing to say.”

“Because of you, I’m now a living dead. My cultivation will no longer grow. My heart will eventually be filled with death qi. I’ll transform into a death spirit. This is the only way I’ll agree to release all of you. Don’t bother talking about anything else. I don’t care anymore. A death sovereign personally converted me into a resident. Nobody can survive the conversion of a death sovereign for long.”

It was that final statement of his that shocked everyone.

Someone from the Heavenly Hunt Pavilion clarified, “A death sovereign personally converted you?”

“Yes. Death Sovereign Xing Yue.”

“…”

Absolute silence descended.

Niu Baidao’s expression changed. The expression of every single person paying attention to this negotiation changed.

A lot of people had limited understanding of these ancient cities. But that did not apply to the top Sunmoons and Invincibles. They all had a rough idea about the ancient cities. Generally, each resident would be converted by a death spirit of corresponding strength.

Meanwhile, a mere Cloudbreach like Su Yu required an Invincible to convert. What did that signify? That signified an astonishing level of potential. Even the death sovereign was placing great importance to him. The death sovereign had personally converted him to turn him into a subordinate as soon as possible.

There was no surviving this. No wonder this fellow had been acting so crazy. He was a person with zero hope. It was unlikely for him to lie about this. At his cultivation level, he wouldn’t know too much about the inner workings of ancient cities. Thus, he would only know about it after experiencing it himself. He might not even know about the existence of death sovereigns otherwise.

Niu Baidao’s expression turned incredibly complicated. He wrote, “Su Yu, is that true? A death sovereign?”

“Yes.”

He was not using any code. When he spoke of using a secret code early, he was merely doing it to tease the Heavenly Hunt Pavilion. Niu Baidao didn’t know what to feel anymore.

He had thought that there was hope for Su Yu to reverse this. Su Yu was too talented to fall like this. Even if the converter was a Sunmoon death spirit, Su Yu should still be able to do something.

But a Sunmoon was very different from an Invincible. Su Yu had actually caught the eye of an Invincible death spirit. Such an existence had personally converted him. In that case, he wouldn’t even live for long as a resident.