Chapter 1058: Heavenly Hunt Pavilion's Profound Nine (1)

The city had been sealed yet again.

Even though most of the outsiders were already gone, Su Yu still kept his death spirit transformation when he was outdoors. He had to maintain his disguise. After all, the mayor was still in the city. That fellow was probably harboring a great hatred against him.

He could never be too safe. Thus, he maintained his disguise. He roamed the empty streets, feeling incredibly free and refreshed. If only the mayor was dead. What a pity. Because of the damn mayor, he had to keep his disguise. If he ended up killed after going this far, it would feel way too terrible.

"This feels great!"

The streets were still flooded with death qi, but it did not affect him whatsoever. He was in a great mood. As he roamed the city, he would occasionally pat some of the weaker death spirits on their shoulders, acting like a great general visiting his subordinates.

What a pity that these death spirits were all unclothed. Otherwise, he would probably help tidy up their collars as well, showcasing his genial side to his subordinates. In his impression, this was what those great generals would do while visiting their subordinates.

Grandstar City. What a great city. Su Yu kept praising the city inwardly. And he felt like he wasn't going to stop praising the city anytime soon. He was in no rush to look for the little furball. Rather, he headed toward the mayor's residence. The gates of the mayor's residence remained shut. The mayor was nowhere to be seen, and not a single guard could be seen either. He wondered if those guards were all dead. He reckoned that a lot of them had died during the chaos earlier.

Earlier, a Pseudo Invincible death spirit had attacked the mayor. A massive battle erupted, and even the mayor was gravely injured. It was unlikely that the guards could survive well. Su Yu observed the mayor's residence for a bit and noted that the building was exceptionally quiet.

"Is the mayor still in the middle of recuperation?"

Su Yu guessed that the mayor had probably suffered a massive level of death qi erosion during the short battle earlier. The mayor could very well be in the final stages of his transformation into a death spirit right this moment.

But since the mayor was leaving the residence locked, Su Yu had no way of entering. Whatever. He resumed his patrol. He checked building after building, trying to determine the number of residents left and judge their strength from the buildings they were staying in.

He had to know everything about the city. That way, he would not remain clueless when some outsiders sneaked into the city. If the mayor had done a census on the city's population prior to this, he would have been able to detect Su Yu easily.

Su Yu clicked his tongue disapprovingly. This was why population census was important. Everyone in the city needed to be registered. As for the residents, they should be issued identity cards if possible. Even their deaths had to be recorded. Sure enough, you should never expect too much from the intelligence of these demonic beasts.

𝙧𝙚𝙚𝔀𝒆𝓫𝓷𝙤𝓿𝒆𝙡.𝒄𝙤𝓶

Su Yu had discovered that these ancient city mayors were incredibly irresponsible. They didn't even know the number of population in their cities. That would only make it easier for unwanted elements to sneak into their cities.

If every resident was registered and a restriction was placed on the change of residence, the order in these ancient cities would be improved significantly. Situations where anyone could enter an ancient city and hide from everyone would drop significantly. In terms of city management, it was clear that humanity was better than these brutes.

"But the workload is too heavy. I won't be able to do it alone."

Yes. Su Yu was already seeing himself as the mayor. He felt helpless when he looked at the massive city. And the further it was from the center, the larger the rings would be. In the three innermost rings, there were roughly three thousand buildings.

From the fourth to the eighteenth ring, there were more than thirty thousand buildings. Beyond that, there were more than a hundred thousand buildings. There were at least a hundred and fifty thousand buildings in the entire city.

If each building could be occupied by an average of three residents, there were probably more than five hundred thousand residents in this city during the ancient past. It wasn't a mind-blowingly large population, but it was most certainly not small either.

It would be foolish to compare this city with modern human cities. Those human cities were filled with high-rise buildings, resulting in a much larger population in each city. But here, apart from the mayor's residence and a few other buildings, most buildings were only one-story tall. If all these buildings could be expanded to six-storey buildings, the city could probably accommodate three million residents.

Su Yu concluded that the city was definitely decent in size and potential, but the management was truly poor. He wasn't an expert in city management by any means, but he believed he would be much better than the dark devil dragon.

How could a mayor allow his city to sink into such chaos? Also, look at the outside forces such as the Allheaven Treasure House and Heavenly Hunt Pavilion. They were happily doing business here, but did they pay for business permits? Were they even taxed? Had they obtained the mayor's approval before doing business here? Had the races with bases of operation in the city obtained the mayor's permission to operate here? What terrible management.

"Right, the Heavenly Hunt Pavilion has branches in these ancient cities."

Reminded of that, Su Yu started looking around. Soon, he found the Heavenly Hunt Pavilion's branch in the twenty-second ring. The building was rather large. It was a two-story building with quite an expansive space.

According to the signboard outside the building, it was occupied by a resident at the moment.

It was unknown if a resident had taken over the building or if a Heavenly Hunt Pavilion member had simply converted into a resident. Su Yu believed that it was more likely that the member was also a resident. This was the most logical action for an organization wishing to base itself long-term in an ancient city.

Heavenly Hunt Pavilion!

As far as Su Yu was concerned, this was an organization of scumbags. Earlier, he had demanded five hundred drops of Sunmoon blood essence from them. But they were only willing to pay him two hundred strands of heavenearth profound light. Niu Baidao was supposed to accept the payment on his behalf, but he wasn't sure if the payment was ultimately made since he had yet to check the index copy.

But he wasn't too bothered about the payment. He was more worried that Niu Baidao would fall into danger after receiving such a large payment.

"Heavenly Hunt Pavilion."

Staring in front of the building, Su Yu sank into thought. Should he get an index copy? He could get the latest updates and get in contact with the Heavenly Hunt Pavilion. He no longer feared tracking. But he had to remain wary of the mayor.

At this point, he realized that the mayor was starting to cause him anxiety. Without the mayor around, he would no longer need to care about the Heavenly Hunt Pavilion's tracking. Those outsiders were free to enter the city for him if they had the guts to. As for the Heavenly Hunt Pavilion member who had converted into a resident, would someone like this be overly strong?

Su Yu highly doubted that. Despite what his recent encounters might suggest, Sunmoons weren't that common. Even losing two Sunmoons might be a terrible loss the Heavenly Hunt Pavilion would weep over.

"A branch of Heavenly Hunt Pavilion...is there anything good in there? I guess not..."

After all, White One was in the city previously. That fellow was no fool. He would have grabbed any good things left in the branch before leaving. At the very least, there should be some index copies inside.

Su Yu would be able to reconnect with the outside world through this branch. He wasn't sure if the other residents had index copies in their possession. But it was quite unlikely. Most of the time, only young geniuses and experts would be given these index copies. And the residents in the city were neither of those. The mayor was probably the sole exception.

"Let's blind you in the city as well."

With a third ring medallion, Su Yu unlocked the door forcefully. The door swung open, revealing an expansive lobby. Only one person was inside. A person with a white mask.

When the masked man saw Su Yu, he sighed and said, "Greetings, Lord Su. I'm Profound Nine, a member of the Profound Department, one of the Four Departments of the Heavenly Hunt Pavilion. I'm also the branch leader of the Grandstar Branch. I knew you would come. Forgive me for the poor reception, Lord Su."

Su Yu asked with surprise, "You knew I would come?"

"Yes." Profound Nine spoke in a calm manner, "There are only two places in the city that are still connected to the outside world. One of them is this branch and the other is the mayor's residence. The mayor has an index copy as well, so that's understandable. Since you've sealed the city yet again, you clearly wish to keep more of your secrets hidden. But for that, you also need to get the Heavenly Hunt Pavilion branch under your control."

Through Su Yu's observation, he judged that this person was not strong, but certainly not weak either. This was a seventh-stage Mountainsea. Someone with this level of strength could easily enjoy life as a regional overlord as long as they stayed away from the conflicts involving the major races.

Su Yu was only this indifferent because his worldview had been completely skewed by the sheer number of experts he had seen. Not even Invincibles were that rare to him anymore. In truth, the bulk of the people in the Allheaven Battlefield were Skysoars and Cloudbreaches. Even Mountainseas were quite rare.

A seventh-stage Mountainsea was more than enough to lead a branch in an ancient city. Here in an ancient city, most Sunmoons would avoid attacking someone with this level of strength unless absolutely necessary.

Noticing Su Yu's attention on him, Profound Nine said, "I'm the only one left in this branch. The others have either died or are the part-timers hired among the residents. I'm the only proper member left."

He took out an index copy and a catalog as he explained, "This is the index copy you can use to contact the Heavenly Hunt Pavilion. This is a list of the items left behind by Lord White One. Only some cheap items are left behind so you'll probably find them boring."

Offering the two items to Su Yu, Profound Nine continued speaking, "You may kill me, Lord. The pavilion wishes to reestablish contact with you. We are willing to swear on our heritage that we will never expose your whereabouts anymore in the future."

Su Yu was surprised, but he laughed and said, "Swearing on your heritage? I'm merely someone who will die soon. There is no need for you people to try so hard. Or perhaps you're waiting for me to die so that you can get everything I have? After all, I seem to be quite rich."

"You misunderstand, Lord." Profound Nine explained, "We do not bear any ill will toward you. The pavilion is more interested in what you know about the death spirits and Death Realm since you were converted personally by a death sovereign. After all, you are the person with the deepest connection to the Death Realm alive."

"I doubt so." Su Yu laughed, "Don't tell me that a major power like your organization has never tried studying the death spirits."

"We did try, but due to the limitations of the laws, we weren't able to learn more." Profound Nine explained, "The death portals are very hard to open either. Each of them is watched over by an ancient stone statue..."

At the mention of the stone statues, Su Yu asked curiously, "Just what exactly are those stone statues? Are they dead or alive? Are they mere puppets?"

"We're unsure. We only know that they are both sentient and incredibly strong."

"..."

Su Yu rubbed his chin. Sentient...

Did he...court death unknowingly that one time? He once hammered the stone statue in Heavendoom City. So was that statue dead or alive?

In truth, he had been quite terrified during recent the battle between the Invincibles. He wasn't able to see anything, nor had he been able to see the stone statues. But he did hear something. The stone statue of the city seemed to have spoken during that incident.

That was why he was so terrified. If he was right, the stone statue in Heavendoom City might be alive as well. And each stone statue was incredibly strong. Strong enough to fight Invincibles. And he...had given such an existence a beating with his hammer. He had even obtained so many benefits from that statue.

In that case, those talismans had probably been given to him by the stone statue instead of some bullshit opportunity. Yes. That tailed stone statue. How terrifying. After receiving a beating from him, the stone statue had given him so many benefits instead of punishing him. What was up with that stone statue?

Su Yu thought that if he had to reward someone with benefits after receiving a beating from that person, that had to be his own child or grandchild. Otherwise, he would simply return the beating.