Tribulation of Myriad Races

Chapter 1018: Refuge (3)

The conversion would last three days. And Su Yu would carry out the auction the day after tomorrow. If he failed to escape after the auction, he could stay in the city for a night and finish the conversion. After conversion, he would be able to hide in the city as long as he wanted.

Death spirits would no longer go after him. And there were a decently large number of residents in the city. It wouldn't be hard for him to hide among them. Even if the visitors started searching the buildings for him, they wouldn't search the buildings of the residents. That would be a waste of time since there were too many residents for them to get any useful information even if they wanted to interrogate the residents about him.

They would also risk provoking the death spirits if they touched the residents. As far as everyone was concerned, no genius would willingly convert into an ancient city resident. That would be the end of the genius. The genius would be bound to the city forever. Even after dying, the genius would continue serving the city as a death spirit.

"There's no harm in trying. The process won't be completed in just two days. I still have a chance to stop the conversion if I manage to escape after the auction..."

With that decision made, Su Yu waited silently for night to arrive. He did not find the prospect of becoming a resident fearful. So what if he had to become a resident? Those mayors were residents as well, right?

If even ninth-stage Sunmoons could be forced to make such a decision, why must he be so stubborn about it? The biggest issue for a resident was the continued existence of death qi in their partially transformed body. This death qi would eventually take their life. But this was not a concern for Su Yu. He had numerous tricks to deal with death qi.

Even if he didn't have something as useful as the reversal art, he could still extract a large amount of heavenly source qi from blood essence to deal with the death qi in his body. This was not an option for anyone else.

Late at night, Su Yu opened the door of his building. Nobody was around. Perhaps they had hidden themselves, or perhaps there was really nobody in the area. Su Yu started roaming the city while paying close attention to his Perception Jade.

Nobody was monitoring him?

Impossible!

Su Yu was feeling very doubtful. Were those people really not trying to monitor him? Or perhaps they were all staying outside the radius of his Perception Jade? It was also possible that they were simply watching the gates.

That alone would be enough to prevent Su Yu from escaping. By staying just outside the gate, they didn't even need to worry about death qi. Su Yu started moving toward one of the gates while concealing himself. Before long, he reached the gate.

And the moment he was there, he clicked his tongue in amazement.

Holy shit!

These people were crazy.

Eight dots of light could be seen on his Perception Jade. Each of them was a Sunmoon, and all of them were staying outside the city. In short, eight Sunmoons had been deployed to watch the gates.

No wonder nobody was bothered with monitoring him in the city. This way, they could both reduce his wariness and avoid encountering death spirits. With so many Sunmoons on guard duty, it wouldn't be easy for him to leave through the city gates.

He started moving to several different spots in the city. These were the spots connected to the moat. He noted that these spots were not under any supervision. But the death qi there was terrifyingly dense. Even Sunmoons might not survive this.

"This...feels so dangerous."

Su Yu shook his head and moved into a nearby building. Shortly after, he tossed a bloodstained talisman out. Before long, a death spirit appeared. As usual, the death spirit picked the talisman up and started drawing on the signboard in front of the building.

Su Yu stared at the death spirit, but the death spirit ignored him.

After a while, half a Su Yu appeared on the signboard. Yes. It was his real appearance, not Tianduo's appearance.

Su Yu's eyes flickered. How did this death spirit see through his disguise? Just how was the death spirit doing this? This felt so mysterious.

Su Yu said nothing. He waited until the death spirit left and transformed into a death spirit himself. Then, he started altering the appearance on the signboard with death qi so that it stopped resembling him.

Nobody would expect this either.

When he was done, he ended his transformation and entered the building again. Suddenly, his entire body shivered.

A large amount of death qi started entering his body from the building. He was completely unable to stop it. In the blink of an eye, his body was flooded with death qi. But amid death, a tiny spark of life could be found.

His body was terribly eroded, but it was also somehow not fatal. An odd look covered Su Yu's eyes as he looked around curiously. Where was the death qi coming from? The death qi was transforming his body, turning it into something that was closer to a death spirit.

A new idea appeared in his mind as he transformed into death spirit again. Death qi was still entering his body, but the newly entered death qi appeared lost. But before long, it merged with the death qi Su Yu had produced through his acupoint reversal.

Then, he transformed back into a human, getting rid of the majority of the death qi in his body. He also consumed some heavenly source qi to deal with the remaining death qi in his body.

But a short while later, yet another wave of death qi erupted and continued the transformation of his body. Clearly, the building had detected his untransformed body, so it attempted to transform his body yet again.

Su Yu smiled with amusement.

Interesting.

In that case, he would be fine if he left the city. But if he remained in an ancient city, the city wouldn't stop trying to transform his body. At that thought, he performed more tests. Sure enough, when he dissolved the death qi in his body yet again, even more death qi was released by the building to transform his body.

Su Yu grinned. The reversal art was still effective against death qi even in this state. The reason for the conversion into a resident to take three days was most likely because that was the amount of time needed for one to be transformed into a pseudo death spirit.

Yes. Su Yu had reached a conclusion that these ancient city residents were basically pseudo death spirits.

After dying, all these people would transform into death spirits.

"I might be able to revert this process."

And now, all he had to do was wait for the third day to arrive.

If he could escape, he would leave. If not, he would complete his conversion into a resident and wait here.

"No...I might even be able to stop the conversion and still stay in the city..."

Su Yu muttered as he recalled something. Like the death spirits, he could draw on these signboards as well. In that case, why did he even need to convert into a resident? Then again, conversion would still be an option if he lacked blood essence he could extract into heavenly source qi.

He could totally draw a portrait on the signboard outside his building and pretend to be a resident. That wouldn't be suspicious, right?

He continued planning. Even a crafty rabbit would create three burrows. Thus, he also needed multiple backup plans. He could try to alter about a dozen signboards in the city, preparing multiple hiding places for himself in advance. And if something went wrong with the plan, he would simply complete the conversion.

***

When Su Yu was done with all he had to do, he returned to his previous building.

Nobody bothered him.

He could do anything he wanted as long as he remained in the city. On the second day, a large number of experts started entering the city, including Sunmoons. Numerous people visited Su Yu, attempting to make a deal with him in advance. The Heavenly Hunt Pavilion also sent him an index copy as they wished to make a secret deal with him.

Su Yu did not hesitate to accept the index copy. Since he was going to be staying here for now, he did not mind being tracked. He could always throw it away when he was going to run. That day, numerous Sunmoon auras could be felt in the city.

Su Yu even received an invitation from Zhu Guangshen to talk. Zhu Guangshen even claimed that Great Ming was very rich in the invitation, hinting that they could purchase the corpse at a good price. Su Yu was left quite speechless.

Was this a joke? Those Great Ming fellows should piss off. He would never sell the corpse to them. The devils, divines, and immortals were also trying to make a secret deal with him, but he ignored them all. But he did ask about their offers to get an idea about the price everyone was willing to pay.

The second night arrived peacefully. Once again, Su Yu tossed a bloodstained talisman outside. He was getting more and more brazen. This was an experiment nobody dared to attempt, but he was going to carry it out. He wanted to see if he could revert the conversion even after fully becoming a resident. If he could, this might serve as the chip he could use to reach an agreement with the mayors of these ancient cities.

Of course, the reversal art was not something he would reveal unless absolutely necessary. As far as Su Yu was concerned, these ancient cities were the best safe houses he could ask for.

And before anyone knew it, the third day arrived. It was the day of the auction.