Chapter 1074: Promotion (2)

It had always been said that inside an ancient city, a mayor would be able to contend against an Invincible as a ninth-stage Sunmoon. However, Su Yu had never gotten such an impression from the mayors he had seen. Finally, he realized something.

When needed, a mayor could form a connection with the Death Realm through the mayor's medallion and fuse with a death spirit of similar strength. In a way, that was similar to the act of fusing with a tri-life body.

But it would still be an exaggeration to claim that one could evenly match an Invincible through something like that. But the mayor was someone who had already fused with a tri-life body before, this process might indeed grant the mayor the strength to contend against an Invincible.

This was how the rumors about mayors being capable of contending against Invincibles came into existence.

Then again, if an Invincible attacked, the mayor wouldn't even need to do anything. The death sovereign would naturally appear to do all the heavy lifting. The stone statue might interfere as well. Most of the time, a mayor wouldn't face anyone stronger than Pseudo Invincibles.

Thus, a mayor wouldn't need to worry about getting killed in the city. Invincibles wouldn't enter. As for non-Invincibles, the mayor would be more than capable of dealing with them. That was especially true considering the fact that the outsiders would need to be extremely wary about killing the mayor while the mayor did not need to worry about that. A mayor wouldn't be penalized for killing invaders.

Furthermore, a mayor also needed to avoid interfering with the natural operations of the city. For example, protecting those the death spirits wanted to kill. A fight between death spirits and the living had nothing to do with the mayor. The mayor could interfere if they wished, but they shouldn't be too biased toward anyone.

A mayor also needed to ensure a sufficient number of residents within the city. These residents were meant to share the burden of withstanding the death qi leaking out of the tunnel under the city. Without sufficient residents, the mayor would need to shoulder a larger part of the burden.

And if the burden was too much for the mayor, or if the mayor was dead, the stone statue would have to take on the burden.

Little did Su Yu know, there was an ancient city out there with zero residents. When he was traveling underwater not long ago, he had come very close to that city. The stone statue of that city was terrifyingly strong. Alone, he shouldered the entirety of the death qi in that city.

Clearly, that stone statue was far stronger than the other stone statues. Even during the battle involving Invincibles not long ago, that stone statue had only appeared as a projection. The actual body of that stone statue might still be deep underwater.

Naturally, Su Yu was unaware of all that. Through all the information flowing into his mind, he finally understood why outsiders were not prevented from entering these ancient cities. Without visitors, how would these ancient cities gain more residents?

The more residents there were, the lighter the burden would be on all the residents of the city. Unfortunately, the number of people willing to become residents had always been low. Most people wouldn't consider that option unless no other alternatives were available.

Furthermore, cities like Heavendoom, Empyrean Cloud, and Grandstar didn't even have that many visitors, making recruitment a rather difficult task.

In fact, one of the reasons the dark devil dragon was in such a grave condition was the deaths of the residents during the chaos. Due to a drop in the number of residents, he had to bear a much heavier burden of death qi than before.

Su Yu started cursing. He could clearly sense a stream of powerful death qi entering his body ceaselessly. He finally understood why the previous mayor had died so easily. Taking this into consideration, shutting the city wasn't a good idea, after all.

If this continued for a prolonged period of time, he would eventually succumb to death qi erosion. No wonder these ancient city mayors did not have the habit of shutting the city gates as they wished.

No wonder they allowed organizations like the Heavenly Hunt Pavilion to operate in their cities for free. Charging a fee would only lower the flow of traffic into the city, resulting in a lower number of conversions as well. That would most certainly not be a good thing for the mayor.

"I see."

Understanding dawned on Su Yu. But the mayor also enjoyed a unique benefit of higher chances to stumble upon benefits when entering the ancient buildings in the city. However, he had never encountered any of these so-called opportunities before. Thus, he did not give much thought to this benefit.

He also learned that the mayor's medallion could exercise a certain amount of influence on the other medallions of the city. For example, the city gate medallion, the granary medallion, the commander's medallion, and so on. All of them could be influenced by the mayor's medallion.

The biggest point to note was the ability to distribute some of the death qi burdening the mayor to the holders of these medallions.

Previously, Su Yu had noticed a much higher level of death qi erosion in the guards here compared to the ones in Heavendoom City. He finally knew why. That was all thanks to the dark devil dragon. To relieve the burden on himself, he had forced his subordinates to take a larger share of the burden.

With that in mind, one ought to admit that Mayor Tian He of Heavendoom City was actually quite kind. The guards under him were subjected to a rather light burden. Tian He himself was shouldering a larger portion of the burden.

Naturally, the holders of the other medallions could also enjoy some benefits. For example, the medallion would increase their resistance to death qi, allow them to control death spirits, unlock the ancient buildings, and so on. A regular resident would not enjoy these benefits. Thus, these positions could still be attractive to some experts.

Additionally, some mayors would charge an entrance fee to all visitors, and the collected fees would be shared with the subordinates of the mayor. This source of income would be very helpful for their cultivation.

After all, ancient city residents couldn't stay away from their respective ancient cities for too long. Gathering cultivation resources would be quite difficult for them. With a higher-ranked medallion, a resident could actually stay outside the city for a longer period of time.

This was why the dark devil dragon had been able to lead his subordinates out of the city to kill some experts in the past.

At the moment, all these medallions were left unattended in the mayor's residence. These medallions could be rewarded to the subordinates of the mayor. There wasn't even a need to worry about betrayal. In the event of betrayal, the mayor could simply distribute a larger portion of death qi over and get the traitor killed without lifting a finger.

Time passed as Su Yu refined the medallion while reversing the death qi in his body. He found the burden bearable. Strictly speaking, the growth of the death qi within his body had increased by about one-third in speed. Previously, he could achieve balance after spending an hour reversing death qi. But now, he would need around one and a half hours.

That would increase if the number of residents in the city dropped further. That was inevitable as the city was right above the tunnel to the Death Realm. The stream of death qi leaking out of the tunnel would never stop.

To prevent the death qi from further spreading, it had to be neutralized. And that would happen through the residents. As they cultivated, their source qi would grow. The death qi would clash against the source qi, neutralizing any growth in the cultivation level of the residents.

This was the true purpose of these residents. This was also why one would hardly grow in cultivation after becoming a resident.

"I see..."

In life, they served the living against the dead.

In death, they served the dead against the living.

The ancient cities and the death spirits were not on the same side. Su Yu was able to see that. But the two were also greatly involved with each other. There must be something he still didn't know.

"In that case, am I supposed to bear all the death qi alone when all the residents die?"

Su Yu grimaced.

Holy shit!

He couldn't kill blindly! He should have spared the Sunmoon red toad earlier! As a Sunmoon, the red toad would be able to share quite a large part of the burden. The stone statue would need to take over the burden if the mayor was dead.

Thus, one could say that the mayor and the stone statue complemented each other. In truth, the stone statue had always been shouldering more than half of the burden. But with the dark devil dragon's death, the burden on the stone statue had increased significantly.

After Su Yu completed the refinement of the mayor's medallion, the stone statue opened his eyes slightly. He looked at Su Yu in surprise. He had thought that he would need to bear an even larger part of the burden with a weak mayor like Su Yu.

But the very instant Su Yu became the mayor, the burden on the stone statue had actually dropped significantly. Su Yu alone had shouldered almost all the burden that was previously shared between the dark devil dragon and the dead residents.

The stone statue was very surprised. Was Su Yu really capable of withstanding so much death qi? Just what exactly was that death qi reversal art?

It seemed rather impressive.

Could...he learn it?

Yes. The stone statue was actually tempted to learn Su Yu's art. If he knew the art as well, wouldn't he be able to suppress the tunnel better?

After all, he was under an immensely heavy burden. All the death qi of the entire Death Realm was leaking out of the thirty-six tunnels. The thirty-six guardians had been suppressing these tunnels for countless years. In fact, they had only turned into stone to better withstand the death qi erosion.

Even so, some of them were already nearing their limits. If a day when they could no longer maintain their petrified state arrived, a crisis would befall the world of the living. That would signify that their petrification had been defeated by the death qi.

One could say that when these stone statues ceased being stone, the war between the living and the dead would start. Why? Because the guardians could no longer guard the tunnels.

Why wasn't this made public to recruit more residents against the dead? The answer was very simple. Becoming a resident was the same as severing one's future. Nobody would take this step unless one was out of options.

As for the threat of the dead...nobody would take it seriously. For too many years, the dead had not threatened the living. Nobody would take the words of these guardians seriously.

***

Inside the main hall, Su Yu had finally completed the refinement of the mayor's medallion.

With a thought, the medallion vanished. Next, a death spirit appeared before fusing into his body. The death qi in his body surged madly, pushing his strength to a new height. Sensing the strength in his body, he threw a punch.

"Trash."

But he started cursing right after. What the fuck was that?

𝐟𝕣𝗲𝕖𝕨𝗲𝐛𝗻𝗼𝐯𝗲𝚕.𝗰𝚘𝐦

An eighth-stage Cloudbreach death spirit had appeared. That was the level of his willpower cultivation. And yes, it had greatly increased his strength. But...that damn strength wasn't even stronger than what he would gain from consuming blood essence.

How useless. So the mayor's medallion was totally useless for him.

Su Yu nearly coughed blood from sheer anger. He had thought that he would become as strong as an Invincible with the mayor's medallion. But the truth was that even with the medallion, he would still be a piece of trash.

Sigh.

What could an eighth-stage Cloudbreach death spirit even do for him? It would even stir the death qi in his body, forcing him to put some effort into calming the death qi again. This wasn't helpful at all!

With great disappointment, Su Yu expelled the death spirit from his body and sent it flying with a kick.

But at this moment, he discovered another benefit he enjoyed with this medallion. He could actually summon death spirits inside the mayor's residence. Previously, even when using these ancient city medallions, he couldn't make any death spirit enter his building. Naturally, this did not include the more powerful death spirits.

"How useless."

Su Yu was feeling very gloomy. After thinking about it, he ran into the inner hall.