Tribulation of Myriad Races

Chapter 1055: Ancient City’s Calm (1)

With the negotiation over, it was time to wait.

Su Yu was using time to wear down the patience of the experts and geniuses. He would allow them to wallow in pain and distress. With the sliver of hope he was showing them, they would not be willing to risk their lives.

He had been very careful when asking for the ransom from the people trapped in the city. If the amount exceeded what they could gather and those outside decided that they didn’t want to pay, he would end up with nothing.

He might have claimed that he would get everything just by waiting for them to die anyway. Dream on. Unless one was killed before one could react, which of these people would willingly leave their belongings behind to be plundered?

A true expert would ensure that nothing was left for plunder even after their death. Someone like that would rather destroy their own corpse than let others have it.

After careful consideration, Su Yu had decided that five thousand strands of heavenearth profound light was an acceptable ransom. Even the ones trapped in the city could afford it. The major races had entered the city with at least two thousand strands worth of treasures.

Of course, the divine were probably the exception since he had emptied their pockets. But the devils and dragons were probably still quite rich. As for the other groups, he also had a good estimate of their wealth from their bids during the auction.

Most had given up after the bid reached a thousand strands. Thus, five thousand strands were still affordable for them. That was around just the right amount to empty their pockets.

As for White One from the Heavenly Hunt Pavilion, that was the only person Su Yu couldn’t get a good read on. The Heavenly Hunt Pavilion was too mysterious. Perhaps their agents could simply wait for deliveries instead of carrying those treasures on them.

Basically, Su Yu was aiming to milk all these people dry. Killing was not his goal here. Yes, these people were strong. But they weren’t Invincibles. To be perfectly honest, killing anyone below the Invincible Realm was pointless in the grand scheme of things. Su Yu was confident he would become an Invincible earlier than all these people. So what was the point of killing them?

Yes. He was still confident despite being a living dead. What was there to worry about? He hadn’t even tried to deal with the death qi in his body seriously. If he wanted, he could reverse the death qi all day long. At present, he had only been doing it an hour or two each day. Even that was already enough to slow the growth.

As for the reason for this…what nonsense. Why should he? He had learned about the removal of his name from the Heavenly Hunt Index. If he tried too hard and converted himself back into a non-resident, his name would reappear on the index. Everyone would start viewing him as a threat again. That would be extremely troublesome.

No thanks. He would keep himself covered in death qi. He would let everyone believe that he was dying. Would anyone wish to take a massive risk and suffer a massive loss just to kill him?

Wouldn’t it be much better to wait for him to die naturally? As far as everyone was concerned, he would probably die in a few months. Meanwhile, the loss one might suffer in the process of killing him might take much longer to recover from.

Su Yu called this strategy. He had a feeling that if he tried really hard, he could probably fully reverse the death qi in his body in no more than three days. But…he might reappear on the index. Also, he was trying to figure out the conditions for one to be removed from the index.

Why was his name not removed when he transformed into a death spirit previously? Since his name had been removed after becoming a resident, would it reappear? He needed to learn more.

But he did not want to test anything yet. What should he do if his name really reappeared during the test? The Invincibles would probably try killing him again. After surviving something like this, they would view him as an even bigger threat.

“From now on, I’m half a death spirit.”

Su Yu smiled. This was a good thing. Who would be willing to push someone who was already in the deepest pit of despair? He would have a thick layer of death qi around him at all times. Anyone would be able to see that he wouldn’t live for long. Would they be willing to risk their lives to kill someone like that? It was simply not worth it.

“Sure enough, you need a good brain to do well in the Myriad Realms.”

Su Yu couldn’t help but think about his childhood friend, Chen Hao. In the same position, Chen Hao would probably try his best to prove that there was still hope and instantly start reversing the death qi in his body.

“I wonder if I can really get the ransom. If I do get it, how many actual strands of heavenearth profound light will I get? And what other treasures will I get as the substitute?”

During his previous deal with the divines, he had only received 500 strands of heavenearth profound light when the deal itself was worth 2,300 strands. The rest had been substituted with other treasures of equal value. But he didn’t mind that.

After all, the heavenearth profound light was only good for body forging. It was not too effective for the nine transformations of Cloudbreach Realm, the acupoint fusion of Mountainsea Realm, and the strengthening of the Sunmoon Realm.

He started thinking of a way to safely receive the ransom. Before long, he thought of something.

He dragged the little furball out. While yawning, the little furball grumbled, “Yummy, you’re starting to smell. Can you clean your sea of willpower? It’s starting to smell real bad.”

Some death qi had intruded upon his sea of willpower as well. Fortunately, the amount was still quite small. The little furball had been hiding at the untarnished parts, but the place still smelled terrible. Thus, he had been in a terrible mood. His favorite sleeping spot was one of the smelly spots. As of late, he could only fall asleep on characters, surrounding himself with the scent of characters.

“Apart from sleeping and eating, what else are you good for?”

Su Yu snorted, “Two days later, make a trip for me. Collect a storage ring and check the contents. Make sure there are no traps before hiding in a random ancient building.”

“Huh?”

With a timid expression, the little furball asked, “Am I going as a lone ball?”

“…”

He was scared of going alone. It would also feel lonely.

“Yes. Alone. I need to stay hidden to keep them in check. They won’t dare to try anything as long as I’m still hidden.”

Su Yu narrowed his eyes, “Do you think they’ll be willing to pay up if I show up in front of them? They won’t do anything even if they notice you.”

If they really attacked, that might lure father furball over. Perhaps that would be even better. The little furball seemed to know what Su Yu was thinking. He rolled over unhappily before returning to sleep atop a character.

Yummy was so mean! There was no promise that Dada would come! Dada must have fallen asleep! The little furball returned to sleep.

Su Yu started thinking again. He wondered if he should scam them a second time. After thinking about it, he decided it wouldn’t be a good idea. If he did that, the major races would pester him endlessly. This did not fit his plan to keep a low profile for a period of time. He wanted to spend some time to further forge his body.

He would release them before killing death spirits to seal the city again. That way, he would be the only living being left in the city. No, there would be a certain living ball alongside him. Oh, right, there was also that living lump of soil…

Su Yu suddenly remembered Topsoil Spirit. That fellow had yet to show himself. According to his previous words, he would remain sealed for a month. That fellow would remain stuck in the city for some time. The five elemental race wouldn’t be able to leave with him. There were two of their Sunmoons in the city, but they had no way of opening the door of Topsoil Spirit’s building.

Su Yu laughed in amusement. They couldn’t blame him for that, right?

And thus, he reached a decision. After releasing the hostages, he would kill a peak Mountainsea death spirit every three days. The entire city would become his personal fief. He would be able to do whatever he wanted in here. Wait, there was also a mayor in the city.

With the mayor around, it would be hard for him to exercise control over the city. He couldn’t guarantee that his plan would proceed smoothly with the mayor around.

Su Yu frowned. The mayor was very strong. Yes, the mayor seemed to have been injured, but that fellow was still very strong. As a ninth-stage Sunmoon and the support of the city coupled with some other trump cards, this was not an opponent Su Yu could deal with. Would the mayor go after him after recovering?

He wasn’t worried about the other residents. There weren’t that many Mountainseas among them. He doubted that there were any other Sunmoons among them. Even if there were some, he was confident they wouldn’t be stronger than the early Sunmoon Realm. And that was not the kind of people he would fear. After forging his body a few more times, he would be strong enough to kill such opponents without even consuming blood essence.

According to Qin Fang, the weaker early Sunmoons would only have the strength of around 300,000 to 500,000 acupoints. Meanwhile, Su Yu would gain a massive increase in strength with each body forging. Thus, he predicted that it wouldn’t be too long before he was strong enough to face early Sunmoons.

After deciding on a plan, he continued body forging while waiting for the people trapped in the city to reach a decision.

Unfortunately, he had to leave the index copy behind since the damn Heavenly Hunt Pavilion was capable of tracking him through that thing. That thing would have been quite useful otherwise.

At the same time.

The various races were in discussion about the ransom.

Five thousand strands. That was not a small amount, but shared among so many people, it wasn’t that big of a burden. They could still afford it. Furthermore, it wasn’t like their decision mattered anymore. Those trapped inside the city would most definitely pay regardless of what those outside decided.

“Why don’t we get the kings to try their luck again…”

“Sure. Why don’t you suggest this to the kings? Between paying and coming again, they will prefer paying. They will only come if Su Yu remains stubborn. But he has agreed to compromise. There are ten races involved. If we share the cost, each race will only need to pay an average of five hundred strands. Are you going to tell the kings to risk their lives for five hundred strands of heavenearth profound light?”

Dream on. Did this fellow think that those Invincibles were his servants who would be at his beck and call? They might consider coming if there were no other options. But the price Su Yu gave was still acceptable even if it was also quite expensive.

With such an offer on the table, the Invincibles would not move out. These ancient cities were as good as restricted zones for them right now. They would only make a move if they were prepared to deploy all their manpower for it.

To deal with a single ancient city, they would need to face thirty-six stone statues and countless death sovereigns. They needed to have at least double the number of Invincibles to minimize loss. For example, if they only had sixty Invincibles against fifty Invincibles, they would probably lose half their Invincibles just to secure a victory. Who would be willing to pay such a price?

The ancient cities were even harder to deal with than the humans. If they had enough strength to take down these ancient cities, they might as well use it on the humans. Why waste it on the eternally neutral ancient cities?

Furthermore, the stone statues were extremely strong. For now, they still remained in a petrified state. The moment they left that state…it would be disastrous. And thus, the experts and geniuses decided to pay. They even contacted their Invincibles and received silent agreements.

The deal was on.

Those stuck in the city could decide what to pay themselves. Those without enough resources to make the payment could take a loan from the other races and repay the loan after leaving the city.

This was decided mainly in consideration of the divines in the city, or to be precise, the scam victims. That was the only way they could afford the ransom.

At the mention of the scam, the divines outside contacted the divines inside again. However, they still weren’t sure what the scam was. But the Heavenly Hunt Pavilion did give them an unverified answer.

The ancient corpse…might not be ancient, after all. Previously, they had believed that it was an ancient corpse due to the death qi on it. That was something nobody could manipulate. But…that might not be the case, after all.

Furthermore, the divines also had a rough guess of who this eighth-stage Sunmoon was. Not long ago, an eighth-stage Sunmoon of the divine skywing race had died in the Human Realm. It was very likely that this was the corpse of that dead expert instead of some ancient expert.

In short, this was the corpse of a modern divine skywing with its blood essence extracted. After paying such a large price, the divines could do nothing except bury it. If they dared to do anything else to the corpse, the divine skywings would probably turn hostile against them.

They had essentially bought a Sunmoon character and an ancient heaven weapon for 2,300 strands of heavenearth profound light. But soon, they learned that something might be wrong with the weapon as well.