Chapter 1534: Grand Cycle Apertures (3)

He Tu continued, "Do you know about those who are still alive? Just where are they right now?"

He gnashed his teeth and said, "Is there really a connection between the world of the living and the world of the dead? Back when I opened the death tunnel in the world of the living, the death spirits emerging out of it weren't the local death spirits. Where did they come from? There were a lot of them, and they were all incredibly strong. Did someone stab me in the back?"

At the end of the first epoch, he had gained a massive advantage over the myriad races. Ultimately, he failed because of the death spirits. Due to the line he crossed, the old turtle was forced to deal with him on behalf of the heavenly laws.

He did not hate the old turtle for that. Back then, he had reached an agreement with the old turtle. Alas, he had courted the fury of the heavenly laws. If the old turtle allowed him to continue, the thirty-six guardians would be affected as well. Because they would take the blame for their failure in stopping him.

The thirty-six guardians were at a real risk of death. To protect the guardians, the old turtle was forced to kill him. With his death, the first epoch ended with the defeat of humanity.

Over the years, He Tu had been paying close attention to the world of the living. Alas, he was unable to leave due to the old turtle. He saw a lot of things, but he couldn't be sure since he was merely a bystander in many of the things he noticed.

Did Xing Yue know anything?

Xing Yue remained silent.

"Su Yu will be the second me." He Tu said, "It is only a matter of time. We are too alike. Like me, he is an ancient city mayor. Like me, he borrows the power of the Death Realm. Like me, he intends to wage war with an army of death spirits. Without knowing more, he might end up dying to the old turtle as well. For the old turtle, Heavendoom and the others are a lot more important than Su Yu."

Going against the laws would result in the deaths of the thirty-six guardians. They could avoid the punishment by killing Su Yu. In such a situation, the old turtle would most certainly opt to side with his fellow guardians.

𝚏𝕣𝕖𝚎𝚠𝚎𝚋𝚗𝐨𝐯𝕖𝕝.𝕔𝐨𝕞

With a frown, Xing Yue said, "I don't know! I'm dead! How am I supposed to know? But I do know that the Death Realm is not masterless."

He Tu narrowed his eyes and asked, "You even knew about the Death Realm prior to your death?"

"No, I only knew a little..."

After a slight hesitation, Xing Yue switched to voice transmission, "The Death Realm has a master. The Human Emperor might have appointed a Death King back then. I don't remember more than that."

She looked at He Tu and asked, "You have been roaming everywhere all these years. Have you not discovered anything?"

"I discovered nothing major." After thinking about it, He Tu said, "When some people awaken from the Celestial River of Death, a strand of death qi will vanish from each of them. Someone must have harvested the death qi for recording. Someone might be gathering the information of all experts in the Death Realm.

"Secondly, to the east, we will reach the end of the region. The Celestial River of Death acts as the wall. I once tried crossing it, but I failed since the violent waves of the river nearly killed me. I suspect that the other side is still a part of the Death Realm.

"Thirdly, a hundred thousand years have passed from the first epoch until now. However, the number of awakened fellows is far lower than expected, as though some people have vanished completely.

"Fourthly, thanks to the life death fruit I consumed and the old turtle's leniency in letting me keep my body, I was able to transform into a death spirit directly with some of my past memories. I was able to hide under the Grand Dream City, but none of the main characters of the other epochs could be found in the Death Realm."

He Tu was not someone who had awakened from the Celestial River of Death. Rather, he had transformed directly in his own body before becoming the master of the region beneath Grand Dream City.

"Thus, I once speculated that those people might not be in this region. That's especially true for the main character of the ninth epoch, someone near the realm of the ancient human kings. The arrival of someone so powerful at the Celestial River of Death would create a massive scene, but no such thing happened."

Humanity had produced a hegemon during the ninth epoch. That hegemon was incomparably powerful, but he still ended up dead. However, he was nowhere to be found in the Death Realm. It had been ten thousand years since then.

Even Xia Chen had awakened. Where was that man? The stronger one was, the harder it would be for one to awaken. But there should be some traces of his presence if he was really around, right? However, He Tu had not encountered too many Dafouses in the Death Realm.

Xing Yue blanked out for a long while before saying, "I'm not sure as well. In that case, is this region merely a small part of the Death Realm?"

"Yes." He Tu nodded, "Those fellows who had caused my failure back then might not have originated from this region at all."

He continued, "One more thing. During the previous epoch, the previous Devil Pseudo Emperor entered the Death Realm before dying from serious injuries. But how many people here had the ability to do so? It was said that he only died after entering the Celestial River of Death. He was injured by the powerful death spirits there. But you have been there before as well. Did the powerful existences there ever attack you?"

"Rarely."

He Tu said, "Thus, the death of the Devil Pseudo Emperor is one big mystery. He might not have been injured by the death sovereigns from our region. Rather, he was injured by an outsider."

Xing Yue said nothing. She wasn't too interested in this.

He Tu said, "Don't think that this is unrelated to you. Yanmo might be a good opportunity. The previous Devil Pseudo Emperor must have tried to resurrect someone before failing and settling on Yanmo since he was already here. The devils have been trying to resurrect him. And how are they doing it? Su Yu might need to pay them a visit if he really wants to start resurrecting death spirits."

Xing Yue's eyes flickered slightly. Perhaps. Yanmo wasn't even that strong. He was roughly a sixth-degree Eternal. However, he was definitely stronger before his death. Upon resurrection, he might regain his previous strength. Thus, he would be quite a useful target to resurrect.

However, he might not be the main target. The devil race might be planning something else, such as resurrecting the previous Devil Pseudo Emperor.

That was a truly impressive expert. The ninth epoch had produced countless top experts. Blood Fire Devil King was one of them, but even he was merely a side character in the ninth epoch. If even a side character was a ninth-degree Eternal, one could only imagine how powerful the ninth epoch was.

He Tu did most of the talking as the two continued conversing.

Time passed slowly.

The pile of treasures before Su Yu kept reducing in size. Eventually, he was starting to use even dragonblood fruits to supply himself with willpower. He was also using the solidwater pearls, Emperor's Saliva, and anything he could get his hands on.

He would squeeze every bit of willpower he could from these treasures before purifying the willpower with the riversand. Clearly, he was in great need of willpower. He was willing to exhaust his treasures in a completely inefficient manner just to supply himself with more willpower.

Anyone else would cry from the sight of such wastage. But Su Yu knew one thing well. His treasures would only be his when he was strong enough. If he were weak, he would die and all his treasures would be others. Thus, nothing was more important than strength.

At this point, there were 350 shining stars in his sea of willpower. He was left with only ten. However, he was almost out of treasures.

He sank into hesitation.

Suddenly, he formed a hand with his willpower and dragged the little furball, who was busy licking the two characters in the book, out. The little furball blanked out. What was it this time?

Was Yummy killing the ball?

Was Yummy still thinking of this after witnessing how strong his dada was?

"Spit some willpower and power of laws out."

"Ah?"

"Stop pretending." Su Yu rolled his eyes and said, "How much can you digest with this tiny body of yours? I know your capacity well. Each time, you will eat more and store some as snacks. Do you think I don't know that? Stop wasting time. Spit some out. When I grow strong enough, I'll kill Tiangu and let you eat him. Not even your dada can kill Tiangu, but I can. Come on. Stop wasting time."

"I...I only have a little bit left..."

The little furball spat some power of law out. Su Yu hurriedly absorbed the power. With a rumble, his 351st aperture opened. Then, he stared at the little furball silently.

With a greatly sorrowful expression, the little furball spat a bit out and declared, "This is all I have."

Boom!

The 352nd aperture opened.

"I'm really out..."

Eventually, the little furball spat a tiny bit out again while sulking. Next, Su Yu opened his 353rd aperture.

Slowly but surely, the little furball was emptied of his savings.

When the 358th aperture opened, the little furball started crying loudly.

"I'm really out! No more! Really! Yummy, I don't have any left!"

He cried pitifully.

Yummy had emptied him!

Yummy was so mean!

He had transformed into a beggar ball from a rich ball.

In truth, Su Yu was quite alarmed at how much the furball was capable of hiding. The furball had hidden enough to open eight of his apertures. No wonder. No wonder the little fellow had seemed rather disinterested in his treasures as of late.

So the little furball had hidden his own treasure pile away. Was that really all?

Seeing that the little furball was crying so sorrowfully, he tossed a few characters over and said, "Go lick them at the side. The fuck are you crying for?"

"Wuwuwuwu!"

The little furball continued crying even as he licked the characters with a sorrowful expression. He was greatly saddened. He wouldn't have agreed without the promise to feed him Tiangu.

Meanwhile, Su Yu was feeling troubled over his two remaining apertures. He was so near. Where else could he get more willpower? He searched his storage space. Soon, his eyes landed on some other items. He gnashed his teeth and decided to use them as well.

These were the Invincible notes he had received previously. After burning a few of them previously, he was left with a few. He also had the Time technique written by Silk Destroying King and the Sky Sundering Saber written by Xia Longwu with him.

These were the willpower texts written by top experts. He had decided to burn them all. He only needed enough to open his two remaining apertures. As he burned the books, one more aperture opened.

After more time, when Su Yu ran out of all his treasures, his final aperture started to open.

Su Yu was overjoyed. Damn it! He had finally succeeded! The final aperture was opening! He was unsure if the heavenly laws would send him some rewards from the Human Emperor here as well. If that happened, it could only signify that the Human Emperor's rule extended to even the Death Realm.

That would be truly impressive.

Ruling over both the living and the dead.

Just then, one shiny cloud after another appeared above them. He Tu and Xing Yue blanked out. Heavenly rewards? This was extremely rare in the Death Realm. Had Su Yu...succeeded?

***

At the same time.

Inside a certain hall, the death spirits opened their eyes again. On the mirror, numerous dots of light were undulating. One of them said doubtfully, "The power of laws is reacting intensely. What's happening? Are the laws transferring someone? Is a powerful death spirit awakening?"

"Should we send some scouts over?"

"It's too far. It will take too long..."

"We still need to do it. He Tu is right there. Back then, he entered the Death Realm from the world of the living instead of rising from the river. He is rather hard to control. We need to keep an eye on him."

"It won't be easy. The Spirit Suppression General has been interfering with our monitoring there."

"That old bastard..."

They felt helpless at the mention of the Spirit Suppression General. He might be known as a general, but he was probably as strong as a marquis.

Even during the ancient past, someone like that could be considered a top expert. And He Tu was under his protection. Yes. His protection. With He Tu in his territory, any death sovereign would need to think twice before trying anything against He Tu.

After all, the old turtle was as strong as an ancient marquis. In fact, he would have been appointed a marquis if the ancient past had not collapsed. Now that the descendant of Devote King was staying in his territory, nobody would dare to try anything funny.

"Sigh."

The death spirits sighed helplessly. They still had to do their job. They simply had to avoid provoking the old turtle.