Published at 27th of December 2025 7:20 am

Chapter 1743: Advancements (1)

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Luminous Domain Mansion.

Seventh level.

A large amount of power descended from the sky. The power was akin to the power of nature filtered by nature itself, leaving only the essence behind. East Heavenly King was an incredibly powerful Daofuse. The reward for killing him was massive.

Su Yu was the main recipient. He madly devoured the descending power of laws. Firstly, he was using the power to heal himself. Secondly, he was using the power to strengthen his sea of willpower and apertures.

This would help in fusing his apertures into one. After the fusion, he would further strengthen both his aperture and acupoint before taking them into the Heaven Gate. Then, he could circulate the Grand Cycle Method inside the Heaven Gate to fully clear the path inside, bringing both source qi and willpower together.

Before long, Su Yu had recovered enough to talk. He roared, "Heavendoom and the rest of you who are already Daofuses, pull out after healing your injuries! Empyrean Cloud and Grandstar! Pull out after achieving Daofuse. Lanshan, you are a death spirit. Absorb East Heavenly King's remains. He Tu, you shouldn't absorb more. Gather the remains of the death spirit marquises and let Lanshan devour them. Your growth has been sealed by Grand Dream. That will help in your resurrection. It's pointless for you to grow too strong before then."

He Tu had an unhappy expression. He knew this would happen. No wonder. No wonder he wouldn't grow strong no matter how much he ate and cultivated. Damn that old bastard! Resurrection?

Was the old turtle even capable of resurrecting him? Why did the old turtle seal his growth without any confidence in resurrecting him? What a bastard! Damn that old turtle!

The helpless He Tu didn't know if he should feel happy about this. He could no longer grow unless he could break through the seal itself. That wasn't impossible. The old turtle might be strong, but there were many experts around him. With their help, the seal wasn't unbreakable.

But...no.

He Tu swore repeatedly. So be it. Without the seal, he could have reached the ninth degree from this battle alone. He started gathering the death imprints and death blood of the marquises. Apart from him, Lanshan was the sole death spirit here. These things were very helpful for death spirits.

Everyone else was busy absorbing the power from the sky. Even the little furball was doing so. After locating his mouth again, he was in an excellent mood. He could finally eat again!

Even while absorbing the power, Su Yu remained wary. He sent a voice transmission, "Heavenbridge Marquis, be ready to enter the eighth level at any moment."

They shouldn't forget that something even more dangerous was here.

Martial Emperor.

Su Yu had never expected Martial Emperor to communicate properly with him or even help him. That wasn't possible. Thus, his goal had been to make use of Martial Emperor since the very beginning. Unfortunately, Martial Emperor had regained his clarity of mind, rendering that impossible. That was why Su Yu had subsequently switched to using lies instead. In any case, he had never planned to negotiate properly with Martial Emperor.

Su Yu believed that Martial Emperor had never intended to negotiate properly either. Why would he negotiate with those hailing from the lines of the people who had reduced him into this...mansion? How was that possible? Putting himself in the same position, Su Yu would definitely unleash his wrath upon all of existence upon regaining his freedom.

As everyone absorbed the descending power, Su Yu healed rapidly. The reward was incredibly rich, which was understandable as the expert they had killed this time was simply too strong.

At the same time, he was fully alert of his surroundings. He was aware that Martial Emperor wanted him dead. He knew it very well. After all, Martial Emperor could have opened the death tunnel and allowed them to escape even if he didn't want to fight. But he had not done so. Clearly, he didn't want to see them escape safely.

Ultimately, they had won. The white dog was the biggest contributor to this victory, while Lanshan's contributions came second. Yes, it was her, not Su Yu. If she hadn't killed two marquises prior to this, the battle might have ended differently. The addition of two marquises could change everything.

One could only say that she might have picked the wrong option while escaping, but her mistake had somehow helped them as well. Su Yu had misjudged while making this plan. Martial Emperor had regained his clarity of mind earlier than expected.

With the addition of two marquises, Su Yu might not have the luxury to save his final drop of blood essence until very end. And because of that, killing East Heavenly King would be a lot more challenging.

Suddenly, Martial Emperor's voice rang out in his ears, "Little Bug, you are a crafty one. And a ruthless one as well. Were you not afraid that all your followers would die?"

He was still surprised at how Su Yu had waited until the very last moment before making a move. Any carelessness might result in the deaths of his people. For example, Marquis Lanshan was already on the verge of death during the battle. Yet Su Yu had refrained from acting. If Tian Yue hadn't appeared, Marquis Lanshan would have died. Furthermore, Heavenbridge Marquis' appearance had also been very helpful.

"To seek life, one must pursue death."

Su Yu did not mind the conversation. This was a good way to drag things out. He said, "This is war. The essence of war is to gain the biggest harvest at the lowest cost possible, defeating the superior with inferior strength. Am I supposed to assemble an army of similar strength before each battle? If I am weaker, I'll have to win through tricks. If I am stronger, I will simply sweep through the opposing side without giving them the chance to turn things around. We were the weaker side here, so I had to do this."

Martial Emperor sank into silence, as though he was deep in thought.

After a long while, he said, "What if that gate and that dumb white-haired guy didn't join the battle?"

"I had other contingencies in place. If nobody appeared to help, and if you had refused to help as well, I was not without options. You did not seal the River of Time in here. Rather, you only covered it. Since I was here before, I believe I could still escape through the River of Time. I might lose my way there, but it is what it is."

Su Yu took this chance to flatter Martial Emperor somewhat. "Ultimately, you left us a way out."

The River of Time. The same place Tian Yue had arrived from. The same tunnel behind the nine-leaf skylotus back then. Nobody knew where that path led, so there were a lot of uncertainties. They might end up lost in there. By the time they found their way back, perhaps tens of thousands of years had passed.

Traveling back in time was not possible, regardless of how strong an expert was. But traveling to the future was still possible. This shouldn't be called proper time travel. Rather, it was the difference in the passage of time. One might feel like it had only been a short time in the River of Time, but a long time had passed outside.

"A way out? Heh. I merely forgot about it."

Martial Emperor sneered and said, "Little Bug, you have always been ready to flee. I see now. Why act so righteous and indifferent, then? Sure enough, you're a hypocrite. Just like those bastards."

So there had always been a way out for Su Yu. Even if the way out led toward an unknown location. He had never planned to face his death here.

Su Yu laughed and said, "Hypocritical? No, I am merely trying to survive. Survival is something everyone pursues. Since I can live, why die? What can I get from dying? You are so powerful and mighty. You are so proud. Why don't you die, then? Why are you still trying to survive? Just kill yourself right now. Why still seek freedom after being trapped for so many years? This is double standards in action. For seeking survival, I am a hypocrite. For seeking survival, you are righteous. Martial Emperor, what do you think about this?"

Su Yu spoke confidently even as he absorbed the power of laws from the sky. At this point, his injuries had fully healed. His nine apertures were slowly coming together.

He spoke unhurriedly, "Martial Emperor, you promised me the complete cultivation method. Is it time to pay your debt?"

"You dare to ask for it from me?"

Su Yu replied, "Why wouldn't I?"

After a short pause, he continued, "I know you're very strong. You can easily kill all of us. But your clarity of mind doesn't come easily. Do you want to lose it so soon? I guarantee that I won't awaken you again in the future if you do attack. In this era, I am the only person with 360 acupoints open. I am the only person capable of waking you up."

Su Yu said, "I am no fool. I believe you aren't a fool either. We all know what's going on here. If you feel insulted by my words, feel free to try attacking. Are you sure you can kill us without your clarity of mind? The moment you fail, you can fall into slumber again. Who knows? Someone with 360 acupoints opened might appear again after a hundred thousand years. Your salvation will come again."

Martial Emperor coldly said, "Little Bug, do you think I'll allow myself to be threatened by your words?"

Su Yu laughed coldly and said, "No, not at all. But I believe I can survive your attack. Without your clarity of mind, you couldn't even kill Blood Fire. At worst, I'll escape with heavy injuries. But I can still escape. That is enough."

Martial Emperor sank into silence. Su Yu was threatening him! Su Yu was arrogant. Or it would be more accurate to say that he was well aware that saying anything else was pointless.

This was a supreme expert. One that was filled with anger and resentment toward Culture King and the others. The current humanity hailed from the lines of Culture King and his companions. It would be naive of one to expect Martial Emperor to be reasonable with them. That wasn't possible. The survival of humanity? His duty as a fellow human? None of that meant anything to him.

Su Yu was well aware of all that. Thus, he did not waste his time and went straight to the point. He made it clear that attacking him would throw Martial Emperor's mind into chaos yet again. Without him, it was unlikely that Martial Emperor would be able to wake up again anytime soon.

Just then, Grandstar roared and soared into the sky in his massive original body. Up above, a massive dao shook. His vitality surged.

As the dao twisted and rolled in the sky, Grandstar howled with laughter, "I have achieved Daofuse!"

He had finally completed his advancement.

Right after that, Empyrean Cloud roared as well. Up in the sky, a gigantic sword-shaped dao danced. Like Grandstar, Empyrean Cloud walked the dao of sword as well. However, there was a slight difference between their dao. Su Yu was unable to determine the exact differences between the two daos.

But that wasn't an issue. He merely smiled in relief upon seeing their breakthroughs. All three guardians who had followed him out this time had achieved Daofuse.

Of the three, Heavendoom was the first guardian he knew. Grandstar was the guardian of the first ancient city he controlled. And Empyrean Cloud was the first guardian to fight with her weapon for him. All of them were his old friends.

And today, all three had completed their advancements. After a hundred thousand years of duty, they had finally achieved Daofuse. Upon breaking through, the two pulled out of the area. Heavendoom and Tian Yue pulled out as well after they were done healing up.

Meanwhile, Heavenbridge Marquis was still having the time of his life absorbing the power of laws. After a while, he noticed Su Yu staring at him. At that, he transformed back into his humanoid form and said, "I'm done healing. I'll be taking my leave."

Then, he left as well. Inwardly, he was certain that Su Yu was displeased because he had absorbed too much of the reward.

So be it. He didn't want to withdraw, but he had to do it. The human race was not to be trifled with. In fact, he was quite terrified of the human race. That was especially true for a human like Su Yu. Even during Su Yu's first entry into the mansion, he was already aware that Su Yu was no pushover.

After all, that was someone who had entered the eighth level just to kill someone before leaving. Su Yu had shown zero hesitation despite the potential treasures he could gain on the eighth level.

Someone like that might seem friendly, but he had an incomparably firm mind. Heavenbridge Marquis had lived for a very long time. He knew that Su Yu was the last type of person anyone should provoke.

Su Yu said nothing. The gate had misunderstood him. He was quite generous. Since the gate had helped in the battle, he wouldn't mind sharing the spoils.

Five Daofuses waited around him. He looked at them in silence. This time, he had entered the Death Realm without a single Daofuse. And now, he was surrounded by five Daofuses. No, that was not all. There was also Marquis Lanshan.

At the moment, Marquis Lanshan was devouring the remains of East Heavenly King while absorbing the power of laws. She had absorbed a much higher amount than the others as she needed a large amount of power to repair her dao body.

A dao body was similar to carrier treasures. It acted as the vessel for one's power of laws, serving as the intermediary between a cultivator and the dao. Thus, it could only be repaired by the power of laws. One could say that they had gained massively from killing East Heavenly King.

Slowly, Marquis Lanshan's aura rose. Finally, a dao of death spirit manifested above her with a rumble. She had finally completed the repair of her dao body.

Just as she was about to pull away, Su Yu said, "Continue absorbing and strengthening yourself. East Heavenly King is dead. The East Heavenly Domain will be thrown into chaos. The other three heavenly kings will not stay idle. As a death spirit, I need you to keep watch over our new territory. Without sufficient strength, how can you protect yourself here?"

Marquis Lanshan would remain in the Death Realm after this. She would be tasked with the duty of ruling the East Heavenly Domain for Su Yu. Naturally, the old turtle would also be around to assist. However, it still wouldn't be easy for a regular marquis to rule the domain. Any other heavenly king would have more than ten marquises under them.

Perhaps they would still hold back for now out of wariness, but it was only a matter of time before their greed propelled them into action. The East Heavenly Domain was too attractive a target for them to ignore. It was likely that the Death Realm would see many wars over this territory.

Hearing those words, Marquis Lanshan shut her eyes and continued absorbing the power of laws. Su Yu said, "After returning, take over the East Heavenly Domain and try to gather all death spirit human marquises in the East Heavenly Domain. Of course, you need to ensure your rule. All marquises will only be allowed to remain as your subordinates. And I am the only person you can listen to.

"If you encounter any difficulties, you can seek Senior Grand Dream's help. Additionally, you can also gather the death spirits from the iron devourer, hou, spatial beast, and primordial giant races. Before long, all these races will fall under my rule in the world of the living."

Su Yu gave a series of orders to Marquis Lanshan. She was a valiant general in war. But she lacked the wisdom to serve in any position requiring strategic insight. Thus, she must be given clear instructions lest she do something wrong again.

Marquis Lanshan listened in silence. While giving Marquis Lanshan her instructions, Su Yu was paying close attention to Martial Emperor. At the moment, Martial Emperor was remaining silent. As for the complete cultivation method he promised, it was nowhere to be seen.

Su Yu did not know what Martial Emperor was planning. Or perhaps Martial Emperor was still in deep thought. But it didn't matter. Even without the complete method, he already knew enough to complete the method himself.

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