Harvest

Nanyuan City had won, and the city began its postwar cleanup.

At the same time.

Just as Nanyuan City wiped out the Ten Thousand Races Cult, outside Great Xia Prefecture's capital.

Broken Head Mountain.

Atop a mountain peak that looked as though its head had been severed, Xia Longwu swung his blade and cut off the last divine race member's head. With a thunderous boom, the corpse over five meters tall crashed to the ground.

"Spare me!"

At that moment, five divine race corpses lay scattered around the mountain peak.

Someone was still alive!

Not a divine race member, but a human.

The Tianyi Divine Cult's cult leader!

A man the human race had been pursuing and trying to exterminate all along without success. He was immensely powerful!

Yet at this moment, this powerful cult leader was kneeling on the ground, trembling like a leaf as he shouted, "Spare me!"

Xia Longwu raised his long blade. Expressionless, he looked at him for a while before saying flatly, "Your master is dead. You should accompany him to the grave!"

"No... my lord, I'm still useful!"

The cult leader prostrated himself on the ground and said shakily, "I'm useful. I can lure more divine race members here for you, I can gather the Tianyi Divine Cult's followers, and I can help you infiltrate the Ten Thousand Races Cult and locate other cults' strongholds... My lord, keeping me alive would benefit the human race."

Begging for mercy was useless. He had to demonstrate his worth.

Xia Longwu was too powerful!

He had surely already taken that step!

They had been wrong from the very beginning. The Tianyi Divine Race had suffered devastating losses this time. No fewer than five supreme experts had died in the Human Realm, died in Great Xia Prefecture.

The Tianyi Divine Cult was finished too. The cult followers attacking the various cities of Great Xia Prefecture today had surely been killed or wounded to the last.

The Tianyi Divine Cult's cult leader knew it was over!

But he did not want to die. It had been far too difficult for him to cultivate to this point. He had hoped to step into that realm. He had even given up the chance to convert into a divine race member because he believed he still had a chance.

Xia Longwu stood above him, looking down at him.

After a long while, he smiled faintly. "Anything else?"

"Yes... yes... The Tianyi Divine Cult has many treasures, many precious items, hidden in a secret realm. I've been to the Tianyi Divine Race's territory and know their situation. I can guide human experts there and ambush Tianyi Divine Race experts..."

"My lord, I can also go to the Battlefields of the Heavens and serve the human race, as long as you do not kill me..."

The cult leader trembled as he rapidly listed his uses.

He did not want to die.

They had lost!

Six great experts had surrounded Xia Longwu, yet five divine race experts had swiftly perished, dying so miserably that it filled him with terror. He was utterly terrified.

"Where is the secret realm?"

Xia Longwu asked in an icy tone.

"My lord, as long as you spare me..."

"Where is the secret realm!"

Xia Longwu asked again, his voice thick with Baleful Intent. He wanted only an answer.

"My lord..."

Splat!

One slash fell, and the head dropped.

Xia Longwu snorted coldly. What a lot of nonsense!

If he would not say it, then forget it. He would have people scrape the ground three feet deep. If they could not find it, so be it; if they did, it was a profit.

A beast dared haggle with him!

Wanted to live?

Wishful thinking!

The six great experts had now been completely wiped out.

Xia Longwu began collecting the corpses. Divine race corpses were good stuff, and there were five of them here!

As he cleaned up the battlefield, a figure abruptly appeared atop a mountain peak not far away.

Xia Longwu did not even glance over and continued clearing the battlefield.

Clap! Clap! Clap!

Applause rang out. On the mountain peak, a middle-aged man clapped and smiled. "Xia Longwu, it seems you did not need my help after all."

Xia Longwu ignored him.

"Are all geniuses this arrogant?"

The middle-aged man laughed heartily. "But then again, at your age, reaching this step is truly beyond all expectations. I had thought I would need to intervene today to keep those divine race members here, yet you simply hacked them all to death."

"By the way, why did you not keep Yun Hao alive just now?"

Yun Hao, the Tianyi Divine Cult's cult leader, was a supreme expert.

"Trash has no need to live!"

Having finished gathering everything, Xia Longwu turned his head toward him and said coldly, "Zhu Tiandao, I did not invite you to Great Xia Prefecture, did I? What are you here for?"

"Young man, I'm from your elders' generation. You call me by name just like that? Sigh..."

Zhu Tiandao sighed, then quickly smiled. "You did not invite me, but that does not mean no one did. Those old fellows invited me here before they left. Is that not allowed?"

Xia Longwu said nothing more. Clearly, someone in the prefecture had been worried about him facing the enemy alone.

Zhu Tiandao did not continue on that subject either. Smiling, he said, "You have not taken that step yet, have you? I think you are still a little short, about the same as me. Does it feel like you are stuck at this step, unable to advance any further? That feeling is unpleasant, isn't it?"

"If you had stepped into it, you could have killed those fellows in the blink of an eye. You would not have had to fight until now. I have an opportunity here that could let us advance further—or rather, let us see the road ahead..."

Xia Longwu said flatly, "No need. I know my own path and have long seen it clearly! In some days, I will go to the Battlefields of the Heavens and kill a king. I will definitely step into that realm! I am not you!"

Zhu Tiandao's voice caught in his throat as he cursed inwardly!

Who was he trying to provoke?

"You think you can succeed? You cannot kill them. The kings of the myriad races are all sly as ghosts now. The moment you appear on the Battlefields of the Heavens, they will surely join forces to kill you and make you abandon that thought!"

"Besides, the difference between taking that step and not taking it is enormous..."

"I do not need your reminder!"

Xia Longwu could not be bothered with him. It was not as though he had never seen Invincible experts. His grandfather, King Daxia, was an Invincible expert in that realm.

Zhu Tiandao said helplessly, "You really have no interest in hearing me out?"

"No interest!"

Xia Longwu turned and headed down the mountain. "If it truly could succeed, you would not be so weak. If your brother were still alive, he might have had hope of entering that realm. Compared to your brother... you are far inferior!"

"I..."

Zhu Tiandao said angrily, "Brat, you only dare say that to me. Be careful not to get beaten to death if you come to Great Ming Prefecture! Besides, my brother died at nine. How do you know he was stronger than me..."

"Because he was the human race's first genius to reach the Qianjun Realm at nine years old!"

"I..."

Zhu Tiandao was rendered speechless. Yes, his brother had been a genius, reaching the Qianjun Realm at nine, but he had nearly become the entire human race's cautionary tale.

Bathed in the Blood of Gods and Demons, he entered the Qianjun Realm in a single day at the age of nine.

The direct son of the King of Great Ming!

Among the human race, the number of people who knew his brother now outnumbered those who knew him tenfold, even a hundredfold. Yet when Xia Longwu said it, it always sounded like mockery.

Xia Longwu truly had not meant it that way. As he walked, he said, "At the very least, he had the courage to try! Had you gone to the Battlefields of the Heavens a hundred years ago and fought the kings of the myriad races, you might already have become Invincible. Why remain trapped at this step?"

"I will not learn from you. You are not worth learning from!"

"..."

Zhu Tiandao was speechless. After a long while, he said, "You make it sound easy, Xia Longwu. I would like to see whether you can cut down an Invincible before the myriad races! That is suicide. You have hope of reaching the Invincible realm, so why rush to throw your life away..."

"If you die, who can Great Xia Prefecture rely on to hold it up? Your grandfather? No one even knows where your grandfather is now..."

Xia Longwu's steps paused slightly before he quickly said, "It does not matter. My second uncle is still alive. Just have him return!"

"Him? He is even a notch weaker than I am. By then, your Great Xia Prefecture will no longer be one of the Human Realm's three great prefectures!"

"It is fine. In any case, Great Ming Prefecture will not be the one replacing us."

"..."

Zhu Tiandao discovered that there was simply no way to communicate with Xia Longwu. Not knowing whether to laugh or cry, he saw Xia Longwu about to leave and hurriedly said, "The Star Mansion opens in three years. Great Ming Prefecture has ten slots, while you have twenty. How about we join forces then..."

"You are too weak. I will not go with you."

"Xia Longwu!"

Zhu Tiandao grew angry. "I came from thousands of miles away to support you, and this is how you treat a guest from afar? How is Great Ming Prefecture weak? In three years, Great Ming Prefecture will send its strongest generation into the Star Mansion! If you refuse to join forces, then according to the rules, since I came to support you, you give me one divine race corpse!"

"..."

Xia Longwu's expression changed slightly.

"Or we join forces!"

Xia Longwu turned around, stared at him for a while, then could not help cursing, "Shameless!"

"How am I shameless?"

Zhu Tiandao said helplessly, "Joining forces does not mean making you bleed. Great Xia Prefecture may be strong, but we are not weak either..."

"Hmph!"

Xia Longwu snorted. After a moment, he said flatly, "Fine! But if the people from Great Ming Prefecture are too weak, I would rather give you a divine race corpse! The weak are not qualified to join forces with Great Xia Prefecture!"

With that, Xia Longwu soared into the air and left.

Zhu Tiandao watched him depart, cursed for a while, then soon smiled. "That brat... sigh, he really is strong!"

With a sigh, he acknowledged that Xia Longwu was truly on the verge of taking that step.

He might appear to be about equal to Xia Longwu, but in truth, the gap between them was vast.

Because he had already been roughly at this level a hundred years ago. He had not advanced an inch in a century, while that brat had not even been born a hundred years ago.

Every time he saw Xia Longwu, the man had improved.

No wonder he had dared take such a risk this time, facing the divine race in Great Xia Prefecture and killing five divine race experts in a single battle.

No matter how powerful the Tianyi Divine Race was, they would be coughing blood this time.

Not only had five great experts died, but even the Tianyi Divine Cult had been uprooted entirely.

No one knew of the battle in Great Xia Prefecture.

Few people knew that five divine race experts and the Tianyi Divine Cult's cult leader had fallen.

That level was too high. It was beyond what they could learn of.

The city lord, Liu Wenyan, and the other experts were discussing the extermination of the Ten Thousand Races Cult's remaining forces outside the city. These matters had nothing to do with Su Yu either.

At this moment, Su Yu and Chen Hao were hiding in a corner, examining their spoils.

"A-Yu, did we get rich?"

Chen Hao looked at the haul before them, somewhat excited. "A-Yu, why did these people carry so much stuff when they went out?"

"No one in the Ten Thousand Races Cult trusts anyone else. They often relocate and have no fixed abode, so naturally they carry their valuables with them. It is nothing strange."

Su Yu was not surprised by this at all.

Among the Ten Thousand Races Cult, killing high-ranking members sometimes yielded little, because the higher-ups generally had fixed residences and hid themselves deeply.

But the low-ranking members had no fixed abode. Here today, there tomorrow. Killing them often meant taking their entire worldly possessions.

"Two cultivation manuals, two martial skills, five drops of essence blood. No idea what kind of essence blood it is, but we can ask and find out..."

Chen Hao continued counting, grinning broadly. "There is also a bottle of body-tempering pills. Unfortunately, only five are left. These are very helpful for Qianjun Realm cultivation."

"Sixteen Anping gold coins. Each one is worth ten thousand Anping Coin..."

"This is my first time getting gold coins. My dad has some, but he will not give me any..."

Gold coins were worth a great deal.

People from the Ten Thousand Races Cult sometimes did not dare deposit Anping Coin, and carrying it was inconvenient, so they generally exchanged it for gold coins to carry with them.

As for bank cards, these fellows did not dare use them either, fearing their identities would be exposed and their accounts frozen.

Thus, after killing two cult followers this time, they had gained quite a few gold coins.

Sixteen coins, one hundred sixty thousand!

For two high-level Qianjun Realm cultivators, one hundred sixty thousand was neither much nor little. After all, they had to cultivate too.

"A-Yu, should we turn them in?"

Chen Hao was reluctant, but he still said, "After killing these people, we are supposed to hand over the spoils together."

That was the rule, after all. More than one person had participated in the battle.

"Turn them in..."

Su Yu thought for a moment and said, "Let me think about it. Turning them in means we killed two Ten Thousand Races Cult followers, but we are so weak. How did we kill them? Haozi, do not tell anyone that I killed them. You understand what I mean."

"Mm..."

Chen Hao nodded, then whispered, "A-Yu, how did you suddenly become so powerful? The Qianjun Realm! I heard Instructor say that those who attacked this time were all experts at the Qianjun Seventh Level or above. How did you break through their defenses and kill them?"

"Do not ask. Even if you ask, I will not tell you."

As Su Yu spoke, he looked again at two small black badges. These were the Ten Thousand Races Cult's insignia. To avoid exposing their identities, cult followers generally did not carry such things.

But this had been a large-scale operation, and they would need to scatter and retreat afterward. To identify one another when gathering later, nearly all the cult followers involved in this attack had carried these items as proof of identity.

Thus, they had also seized two badges.

These could represent battle achievements too!

After some thought, Su Yu tossed one badge to Chen Hao. He then took out one cultivation manual, one martial skill manual, two drops of essence blood, and six gold coins, tossing them all to Chen Hao.

"If you want to attend the War Academy, turn these in and prove that you killed one Ten Thousand Races Cult follower."

Chen Hao was somewhat excited, but he soon slumped. "Maybe forget it. Otherwise, it will be hard to explain. You killed someone at the Qianjun Seventh Level, so would they not investigate it thoroughly..."

He wanted to attend the War Academy, but turning these items in would expose Su Yu's situation.

Su Yu smiled. "It is not as though Qianjun Realm cultivators cannot be killed! Of course, we cannot report the second one. I crushed that fellow's heart and killed him barehanded. The first one is not much of a problem. I cut him down with a blade. If your strength is a bit greater, there is nothing strange about cutting him to death."

"Just report it. Say the other party let his guard down, and you suddenly cut him down with one slash."

"A-Yu, can that work?" Chen Hao asked uneasily. "Then why not let you report it instead? Did you not say you wanted to attend the War Academy too?"

"I? I don't need it."

Su Yu said calmly, "I can kill someone in the Qianjun Realm. Do you think getting into the War Academy would be difficult for me? Oh, I forgot to mention—I broke through to the Kaiyuan Fourth Stage a few days ago. I think the Fifth Stage is coming soon too."

"..."

Chen Hao felt another stab through the heart. Was that true?

So fast!

But Su Yu had killed someone in the Qianjun Realm. He had no choice but to believe it.

Chen Hao looked at him resentfully. Were all geniuses this freakish?

You weren't this freakish before!

Su Yu ignored him, packed up the other things, and stuffed them against his chest. In a low voice, he said, "You can take the battle record, but... the Merit Points from the reward have to be for me to use! And you bastard have more than ten thousand in secret savings. Hand all of that over too. Consider it payment for buying this from me, got it?"

"..."

Chen Hao wore a pitiful expression. Su Yu was too stingy. They had gained so much this time, yet he was still eyeing his secret stash.

Had it been easy for him?

He had saved it up over all these years, and Su Yu wanted to take it all away?

"What are you looking at? You'll get rewards for turning these things in too..."

"But the academy rewards Merit Points!"

Chen Hao looked aggrieved. Did Su Yu take him for an idiot?

You just said all the Merit Points would go to you. That meant he would be broke.

"At least you now have a chance to enter the War Academy, don't you? It's only a little over ten thousand. Which would you choose—the money or the War Academy?"

Chen Hao's head felt a little muddled, but he nodded. That seemed right.

A little over ten thousand to get into the War Academy—it actually seemed like a bargain!

"Then it's settled. When you report it, you can say I assisted you, but you were the one who swung that blade."

"But if they inspect the wound, that cut wasn't something mere brute strength could make. What am I supposed to say?"

Chen Hao hurriedly asked. He was not completely clueless; an expert would see through it.

"It's fine. I checked earlier. The bodies have all been collected and are going to be burned. Go report it after they've been cremated. Dead men tell no tales, so what are you afraid of?"

"But..."

"Then forget it. It's not like I'm the one who wants to enter the War Academy and needs this battle record."

The moment Su Yu said that, Chen Hao hesitated.

"Fine, I'll report it! Don't worry, I definitely won't betray you. If they really investigate, let them investigate me. So what if I'm a little stronger than usual!"

Chen Hao gritted his teeth. He still wanted to enter the War Academy.

This was his best chance!

Su Yu stopped paying attention to him. The academy was unlikely to verify it too closely. Of course, they would definitely have some doubts, but the bodies would all be burned. No one would falsely claim such a battle record, and since Chen Hao had stepped forward to claim it, at most the academy would pay him a little more attention from then on.

It was only someone in the Qianjun Realm, not the Ten Thousand Stones Realm.

Under a fortunate coincidence, it was not impossible for someone in the Kaiyuan Realm to hack such a person to death.

"Ten gold coins, three drops of essence blood, five Body-Tempering Pills, one secret manual, one martial skill..."

Su Yu thought over today's gains, and his mood improved.

He had paid one drop of Iron Winged Bird Essence Blood and gained more than ten times that in return. Not bad.

At last, he no longer had to worry about spending all of his father's savings and having nothing to eat afterward.

When he got back, he would examine them carefully and find out what kind of essence blood these drops were. Perhaps they might even open the second page of the illustrated codex.