Chapter 961: A Guest Arrives

The gray-haired young man suppressed his pleasure and said, “Shopkeeper, might I ask just who purchased the Three Stones of Rebirth?”

At the Dark Market, the value of a single such stone was comparable to a peak Profound Dao Elixir. Ordinary Emperors might empty out their coffers and still fail to purchase a single piece.

Yet now, someone had swept through the Dark Market and bought up every last one of the Three Stones of Rebirth. This was utterly shocking!

Just how much wealth would someone need to achieve this?

“Customer, that question is against the rules,” warned Elder Mo. “In the Dark Market, nothing causes greater offense than rashly investigating others’ backgrounds.”

The gray-haired young man laughed. “I naturally won’t violate the Dark Market’s rules, but would you believe me if I told you I was certain I could figure out who that customer was?”

Elder Mo was stunned, and inwardly, he found this rather amusing.

So what if you figure it out? Would you dare become enemies with His Excellency Kaiyang?

However, when he met the gray-haired young man’s whirlpool-like gaze, his heart inexplicably palpated with terror, and a chill coursed down his spine.

“This works too. So long as I find the person in question, I won’t need to trouble myself searching for the Three Stones of Rebirth one piece at a time.”

As the youth muttered to himself, he turned and left.

Elder Mo watched him leave, his expression shifting and uncertain.

He’d experienced his fair share of wind and waves, and he’d already realized that the gray-haired young man’s origins were extraordinary. It was even entirely possible that he was a hidden, terrifying existence!

Actually, I’d just love it if you dared duke it out with His Excellency Kaiyang,

Elder Mo muttered to himself.

……

Inside a courtyard, beneath an ancient tree.

Su Yi sprawled out in his wicker chair and relaxed completely.

He’d sat in a lot of chairs, but the only one that relaxed every last inch of him was the wicker chair he’d built and refined with his own two hands.

“Since when were you so softhearted that you can’t even bear to kill a woman?” The Timekeeper’s raspy voice emanated from within the main hall.

“A clone, that’s all. What would be the point of killing her?” said Su Yi distractedly. “Besides, our grudge doesn’t run particularly deep, and I’m not the type to kill lightly.”

The Timekeeper’s voice resounded once more. “The Netherworld King is unwilling to deal with her sectmates, so you’ll have to do it in her place, Fellow Daoist.”

Su Yi rubbed his forehead and sighed. “You and the Night Watchman really are disciples of the same sect. Do you really think me omnipotent?”

The Night Watchman had recently asked him to clean up the Mysterious Netherworld Divine Court.

Now, the Timekeeper wanted him to take out Hong Ying and the other members of the Nine Heavens Pavilion.

History was repeating itself, and Su Yi found this a bit frustrating.

He was obviously just in the Spiritual Revolution Realm!!

“Fellow Daoist, you might not be omnipotent, but dealing with the forces of the Nine Heavens Pavilion should be well within the bounds of possibility,” the Timekeeper said with a hint of laughter. “You said it earlier: the Laws of Heavenly Prayer they’ve mastered are enough to counter and suppress the source power of the City of Eternal Night. If they fight their way into the city to target Liu Changsheng, I’m afraid it will be difficult for me to stop them.”

Su Yi said no more.

During today’s first visit to the Timekeeper’s courtyard, the two of them conversed.

Su Yi reached three rough conclusions as a result.

First, not long ago, the Mad Sword Netherworld Sovereign had done the Timekeeper an enormous favor. Now that Liu Changsheng was in danger, the Timekeeper wouldn’t just sit back and watch.

And Fourth Executioner Hong Ying of the Nine Heavens Pavilion had already made himself perfectly clear: if he didn’t see Liu Changsheng outside the city within three days, he’d fight his way into the City of Eternal Night.

With his power, Hong Ying truly had no need to fear the suppression of the city’s source.

𝘧𝓇ℯℯ𝑤ℯ𝘣𝓃ℴ𝓋𝑒𝑙.𝑐𝘰𝑚

Were something like this to happen, who knew how much harm it would bring to the city’s populace?

The Timekeeper had requested Su Yi’s aid to ensure that this didn’t happen. In exchange, he agreed to help Su Yi gather Threelives Rebirth Stones.

When Su Yi and the Netherworld King conversed earlier, he really did want to borrow the Netherworld King’s power to take down Hong Ying and company. Alas, the Netherworld King refused.

The second thing Su Yi had realized was about the Night Watchman.

When Su Yi left Snowy Skies City, the Night Watchman gave him a bronze box and said that if he gave it to the Timekeeper, he could acquire a treasure in exchange.

And that this treasure would be wondrously useful when Su Yi reached the Burial Ground of the Dao.

Su Yi had already given the bronze box to the Timekeeper and acquired the Immortal-Beating Mallet in exchange.

It wasn’t like Su Yi had never explored the Burial Ground of the Dao before. Still, this was his first time learning that the Timekeeper’s Immortal-Beating Mallet could neutralize and oppose the taboo powers dispersed throughout the Burial Ground of the Dao.

More importantly, even if he got himself trapped in the Burial Ground of the Dao, he could use the mallet to break free!

The third thing was connected to the black Netherworld Vessel.

According to the Timekeeper’s deductions, the past few years’ changes to the Sea of Bitterness were all inextricably connected to the Netherworld Vessel.?The ship was full of strange, taboo, inauspicious power, and no one knew its origins.?However, the Timekeeper said that the Netherworld Vessel was most likely an “entrance”!

In other words, the Netherworld Vessel was like a moving spatial tunnel. It sent any living thing it encountered, no matter their cultivation, to an unknown location—and this unknown location was almost certainly somehow connected to the Burial Ground of the Dao.

Of course, this was merely the Timekeeper’s hypothesis.?He’d lived for so long that he’d lost track, but this was his first time hearing of such a strange ship too.

All of this only made Su Yi view the matter with even greater importance.

Furthermore, this led Su Yi to realize something else.?It seemed that Cui Longxiang, the Old Rooster, and Old Ghost Coffin-Bearer’s disappearances were all connected to the Burial Ground of the Dao.

And the Burial Ground of the Dao had an extraordinary meaning to Su Yi. In his past life, it was in the Burial Ground of the Dao that he’d gotten one step closer to the secrets of reincarnation!

Over the past few years, as the ancient ruins long buried in the depths of the Sea of Bitterness resurfaced, it drew countless gazes from throughout the world. This resulted in countless waves.

Four of Pi Mo’s disciples had already led a group of cultivators to the Burial Ground of the Dao, but that wasn’t all. Even the forces of the Heavenly Prayer Star Realm’s Nine Heaven’s Pavilion had appeared in the Sea of Bitterness! In addition, it?seemed likely that the peak orthodoxies of the Netherworld were also involved.?Even Su Yi couldn’t help but take this seriously.

Just what happened in the Burial Ground of the Dao??Don’t tell me someone discovered the Platform of Rebirth??Or did something happen in the most dangerous, mysterious part of the ruins, the Divine Cave of the Six Paths?

Su Yi sank into silent contemplation.

“Master, Little Green, I’m back.”

A fat orange cat whooshed into the courtyard.

When it saw Su Yi seated beneath the ancient tree, it stiffened, then thudded to the ground, its hair standing on end.

As if it had encountered its natural enemy.

“How many of the Three Stones of Rebirth did you gather?” Su Yi asked with a smile.

The orange cat lowered its head and said uneasily, “Your Excellency, there weren’t many of them available in the Dark Market. I did everything I could, but I only gathered sixty-three. Is that… Is that enough?”

Su Yi was briefly stunned. Then, he laughed. “It’s more than enough.”

The orange cat instantly felt a massive weight lift from its shoulders. It hurriedly climbed to its feet, cautiously drew closer to Su Yi, and swiped its claws through the air. A massive jade box appeared out of nowhere.

“Please accept them with a smile, Your Excellency,” the cat said meekly.

Su Yi naturally wouldn’t refuse out of politeness. He opened the box, and beneath the dazzling, surging misty lights, he saw a pile of colorful stones.

There were nineteen Divine Spirit Nirvana Stones, twenty-three Profound Enlightenment Stones, and twenty-one Blood-Cleansing Sones.

Add that to the piece of Divine Spirit Nirvana Stone he already had on him, and he had sixty-four in total.

“Not bad,” Su Yi said with satisfaction.

Strictly speaking, it was only after all three types of Xiantian stone were combined that they became true Threelives Rebirth Stones.

This was enough treasure to condense twenty Threelives Rebirth Stones!

When used to break through, these divine treasures could help a cultivator’s mind, soul, and body realize a shocking transformation akin to nirvanic rebirth. In this way, their foundations in the Grand Dao could give rise to Xiantian Profound Qi!

Su Yi thought to himself,

Twenty Threelives Rebirth stones is enough to ensure that when I prove my Dao and become an Emperor, I’ll be able to condense the purest possible Xiantian Profound Qi. If anything, it’s… an overabundance!

Xiantian Profound Qi was a wondrous, Xiantian power of chaos. It was unbelievably useful, both when slaying enemies and when contemplating the Grand Dao.

In his past life, by the time Su Yi gathered Threelives Rebirth Stones, he was already at the peak of the Imperial Apex Realm, and they were no longer of any use to him. Instead, he gave them to his sixth disciple, Ye Luo. They proved unbelievably useful when he broke into the Profound Serenity Realm.

Su Yi closed the jade box, then immediately made a decision. “Two days from now, have Liu Changsheng leave the City of Eternal Night.”

The Timekeeper’s voice resounded from within the main hall. “Do you plan to use Liu Changsheng as bait to lure out his enemies?”

“That’s right.” Su Yi nodded, then gazed at the jade box. “I already accepted all these treasures from you; I naturally have to chip in.”

“Fellow Daoist, with your help, I can finally rest at ease,” said the Timekeeper. “Little Green, go fetch another jug of wine for our Fellow Daoist.”

Whoosh!

A green bird shot forth, and a jug of wine appeared on the table in front of Su Yi.

The orange cat couldn’t hide the longing in its gaze.

Every last wine his master kept in reserve was a rare, unmatched vintage!

Just as the cat was thinking about how much it’d like some wine, Su Yi undid the jug’s stopper and filled two cups. One, he took for himself. The other, he left for the orange cat. “Here. Consider this your reward.”

The orange cat was instantly mad with delight. It meowed and leaped onto the tabletop, then stretched out its fluffy front paws and “clasped its fist” in respect. “You have my utmost gratitude, Your Excellency Su!”

It then drained its cup, and its eyes instantly shone with intoxication.

But it was then that the formless power fluctuations of the Laws arose around the courtyard.

Immediately afterward, someone knocked on the door.

Thud! Thud! Thud!

Exactly three knocks.

The orange cat was furious, and it muttered, “I wonder what scoundrel came calling? They sure don’t know how to time their visit!”

Su Yi laughed.

According to the Timekeeper’s rules, anyone strong enough to knock on his door three times was qualified to become his guest.

Indeed, shortly after, the green bird shot out and unlocked the courtyard gates.

A moment later, they saw a tall, thin, gray-haired young man standing alone just outside the doors.