In the original story, some people died at the hands of the Crocodile Ancestor's descendants.
Su Yu felt little for those people. He had intervened this time entirely in accordance with his state of mind.
Kill when he wished to kill, bestow when he wished to bestow!
That was the state of mind he sought: supreme freedom and boundless ease...
When Su Yu returned to the giant Bronze Coffin, the scene was much as before. Liu Zhiyun, Li Changqing and the others in the minor villain group, who had grown arrogant and overbearing after obtaining Buddhist artifacts in the original story, were now cautious and dared not stick their necks out.
Although they resented the fact that Ye Fan, Liu Zhiyun's sworn enemy, had obtained the most wondrous ever-burning ancient lamp, they could only suppress their greed. Extraordinary Buddhist artifacts like the Vajra Pestle allowed them to disregard their other classmates, but they were nothing compared to that immortal.
They did not know just how powerful the divine light that had cut across the entire sky was. Clearly, even ten of them were no match for the immortal, so how would they dare act out the little conflict from the original story?
Su Yu sat quietly on the meditation cushion, seemingly cultivating with his eyes closed, but he was actually trying to deduce the location of the Great Accomplishment Sacred Body's Divine Thought. There were too many people, however, and he could not tell which one it had possessed.
"It seems a few unlucky bastards in this group are destined to die." Su Yu's expression remained calm, and he paid it no mind.
The Five-Colored Altar beside the giant Bronze Coffin shone.
Rumble.
The hazy canopy of light overhead melted away, and the storm outside rumbled like rolling thunder. The whole earth seemed to shake.
As the Five-Colored Altar's light grew more brilliant, the hazy canopy gradually dimmed.
The Nine Dragons Pulling the Coffin set off once more...
Chapter 15: The Secret Coffin's Scripture, the Plucking Character Secret
In the dim space, everyone whispered and talked among themselves. Though they had been classmates together for four years, divisions had now appeared among them.
Those who had obtained damaged Buddhist artifacts had formed groups of their own. Among them, the small groups led by Liu Zhiyun and Zhou Yi stood out, with four or five people possessing Buddhist artifacts. Ye Fan and Pang Bo had the inextinguishable Bronze Lamp and the enormous Buddhist plaque respectively, so no one dared provoke them for the time being.
Suddenly, Zhou Yi and Lin Jia walked up to Su Yu together and directly asked to become his disciples.
Zhou Yi's gaze was resolute. He adapted quickly, and after seeing Su Yu's godlike and demonic bearing, he could no longer hold back what was on his mind.
He had previously thought Su Yu too young and had not intended to seek him as a master, but now he had made a new decision. With the divine might he had displayed earlier, this immortal would be a Great Power in his own right even in the cultivation world. His bearing was extraordinary, like an Exiled Immortal untouched by the slightest speck of dust, with a spotless, ethereal Dao charm detached from the world. Zhou Yi might as well make his intentions clear early.
Lin Jia went even further. Her beautiful, captivating eyes looked straight at Su Yu. She leaned forward slightly, tilting her head up to look at him like a woman awaiting a king's favor. Unfortunately, Su Yu was unmoved by her charms. He merely glanced at her before looking away.
This woman would make use of anything that benefited her, and the bearing Su Yu possessed also deeply captivated her. He was a highly desirable prospect.
A haven of tenderness was a hero's grave, and it was not yet time for Su Yu to indulge himself. Once he could roam unchecked through the Eastern Wasteland and stride like a tiger through the Central Province, he could travel with beauties at his side and cultivate the Joyous Zen...
The people who had once been united were now divided into small groups. Some of those without Buddhist artifacts watched coldly as class divisions began to emerge.
Longing showed in Li Xiaoman's eyes. Kaide, who stood beside her, said something, though it was unclear what. Even Ye Fan was somewhat tempted, his gaze burning as he looked at Su Yu.
Su Yu's expression remained calm. He saw through everything as clearly as a fire.
He was only at the Four Extremes First Heaven himself. Why would he be willing to take disciples?
Lin Jia could warm his bed, but even that was too much trouble right now. Why would he give himself a weakness for no reason...
As for Ye Fan, though he was not as outrageous as Wang Lin-Wang Lin was a lone star under a baleful fate, bringing calamity to kin and friends, losing his son and wife and even dooming his father-Ye Hei's ability to stir up trouble was unrivaled throughout the Big Dipper...
"The path lies beneath your feet. Why seek a master?"
Su Yu replied coldly. His voice carried a faint thread of divine power's pressure, making everyone feel as though they stood before an abyss of hell. All manner of inexplicable feelings rose in their hearts, leaving them wary and bewildered.
Hearing those plainly rejecting words, disappointment flashed in both their eyes. Lin Jia in particular gave Su Yu a resentful look.
The two then bowed respectfully and returned to the crowd.
Quite a few people looked at them with faint mockery, and some whispered about Lin Jia with disdain on their faces.
Su Yu said nothing. The Devouring Heaven Demon Lid above his head grew ever darker and more imposing, shedding endless dim light. A verdant Bodhi Leaf floated beneath the Demon Lid, its Dao patterns manifesting in the air, constantly twisting and changing...
Ye Fan held the Bronze Lamp in his left hand and gripped the Bodhi Seed tightly in his right. The seed gave off waves of pure Qi that cleared his mind, and gradually, a strange voice began to sound in his heart.
The voice grew ever more grand, like the heavenly sound of the Great Dao, yet also like a profound and wondrous truth.
"The Dao of heaven takes from what has excess and supplements what is lacking..." The first line of that mysterious voice came from the Dao De Jing, but what followed was a profound scripture Ye Fan had never heard before. Even he struggled to understand its meaning.
He closed his eyes and listened carefully for the source. It came from the Bronze Coffin. The immortal had been sitting beside that coffin from the beginning. Was it for the scripture within?
Ye Fan carefully walked to a spot not far from Su Yu and sat cross-legged. Closing his eyes and focusing his mind, he tried to hear the mysterious scripture clearly.
Those vast, mysterious and profound sounds seemed to pierce through space and time from the Primordial Desolation of ancient times. At the same time, they rang beside Ye Fan's ears like the great bells of heaven, resounding in his heart.
With the aid of the Bodhi Leaf, Su Yu also heard those waves of immortal sound.
The two stood there motionless, like bright moons reflected in a still lake.
An air of unworldly transcendence rippled from them. They looked graceful and otherworldly, like Exiled Immortals who had no need of mortal food and might ride the wind away at any moment. They seemed like ancient cultivators who had broken free of the River of Time to appear before the crowd.
The heavenly sound of the Great Dao was like an abyss and a sea, profound and boundless. Each word rang out like the sea collapsing and an abyss splitting open, echoing between heaven and earth. Before long, Su Yu had forcibly committed the hundreds of immortal characters in the immortal scripture to memory. Though it was only a few hundred characters long, it contained the principle that the Great Dao was supremely simple: when all splendor fell away, the plain returned to the true.
When he tried to use it to comprehend the Dao, that majestic heavenly sound vanished again, fading into the ethereal void without a trace.
Beside him, Ye Fan's bearing grew ever more unworldly. He sat there quietly as the divine sound rang like a bell, distant and vast, obscure and difficult to understand. He could not grasp its meaning at all.
Another strange sound came from the Bronze Coffin. Though so faint as to be almost inaudible, it shook the mind! Drums seemed to sound from distant space and time, muffled and full of sorrow. Then a bell rang out, spreading grief, ethereal yet real, as though it had passed through the coffin wall.
Blue-green light also began to flow across the walls of the giant Bronze Coffin.
Then divine radiance poured down, and the Buddhist artifacts in everyone's hands began to shine. They were not regaining their divine power, however. Their light was draining away as though they were nearly exhausted.
Tens of thousands of streams of divine radiance flowed out, rushing toward the walls of the giant Bronze Coffin and sinking into the ancient bronze carvings.
Everyone walked over to the bronze carvings...
"It looks like we'll reach the Big Dipper soon." Su Yu glanced again at Ye Fan beside him, who looked as though he were about to become an immortal, and felt somewhat helpless. This was blatant preferential treatment!
Was this the difference between a stowaway and a son of the plane?
The baptism that followed was aimed at the soul.
He could feel Ye Fan's soul gradually growing stronger and tougher. Such a benefit was exceedingly rare. There were many methods for improving the body, but even in the whole of the Big Dipper, there were not many for improving the soul.
He had concentrated completely this time to no avail, and the Great Accomplishment Sacred Body's Divine Thought had not appeared either. Keeping the Devouring Heaven Demon Lid activated had consumed quite a bit of Source. It seemed the first thing he needed to do after reaching the Big Dipper was find the Source Heaven Book.
Su Yu did not care about the curse that befell Source Heavenly Masters in their later years. He wanted to carve out a path to immortality for himself, so what was there to fear?
The Bodhi Leaf beneath the Devouring Heaven Demon Lid had also exhausted its essence and turned into a withered leaf. Su Yu put it away carefully; it was still useful. He then began cultivating the Indestructible Heavenly Art.
Countless strands of Flying Immortal Power and Chaos Qi danced within his body, and his body gave off a faint glow. The godlike sight of him cultivating astonished everyone once again.
Ye Fan only awoke from his Dao comprehension when the Nine Dragons Pulling the Coffin landed on the Big Dipper. He stared blankly, still murmuring, "The Dao of heaven takes from what has excess and supplements what is lacking..."
"Ye Fan, are you sick?" Liu Zhiyun asked with feigned concern. Seeing that Su Yu, the immortal, paid no attention to worldly affairs, this early-stage minor villain had begun making trouble again.
"I'd say your whole family is sick." The hot-tempered Pang Bo immediately shot back.
"Enough, Pang Bo. There's no need to stoop to his level." Ye Fan was still pondering the mysterious scripture and had no desire to clash with Liu Zhiyun.
Suddenly, everyone felt the world spin around them. They knew the Nine Dragons Pulling the Coffin was finally about to reach its destination: the Big Dipper Star Domain the immortal had spoken of.
At that moment, the Desolate Antiquity bronze carvings on the coffin walls released divine radiance, raising a hazy curtain of light that counteracted an unimaginable impact. The giant coffin finally began to steady.
With one final thunderous jolt, the Bronze Coffin's lid shifted out of place and slid heavily to one side, and the coffin overturned on the ground.
When they saw the soil, flowers and grass, everyone cheered, delighted to see the light of day again.
As the Nine Dragons Pulling the Coffin came to an end, a thread of unusual blue-green light emerged from the Three Lifetimes Bronze Coffin and was absorbed by the Ghost-Face Jade Jue.
Su Yu rubbed the jade jue in his hand, wanting to know how his golden finger had changed. But the jade jue had fallen dormant again, and no matter how he called to it, there was no response.
Although he had not found a way to use it, Su Yu did not dwell on it. He still knew little about the purple jade, but even if it could only reflect him, it was a priceless treasure. After all, it was his only link to his previous life.
This time, Su Yu did not fly straight out. Now that he was on the Ruthless One's turf, he had better show some respect.
This time he needed to use the Plucking Character Secret, following Ye Fan to his sister's home to pick up a few things...
Chapter 16: "Emotional Intelligence" and "Interpersonal Relations"
When they walked out of the giant coffin, Ye Fan looked back and suddenly noticed that the silver-robed Daoist had disappeared. Something seemed amiss. Having undergone the baptism of the immortal characters in the Bronze Coffin, his spirit far surpassed that of ordinary people, and he sensed that something was wrong.
But the joy of stepping onto the soft, damp soil made him set his doubts aside. After all, the man was a cultivator, and they were mortals. They had never belonged to the same world, so it was only natural for him to leave without saying goodbye...
In fact, Su Yu had been standing beside him the whole time and had even summoned the Devouring Heaven Demon Lid. Although the Empress was unlikely to make things difficult for a minor cultivator, he was somewhat worried that the Great Accomplishment Sacred Body would not let him obtain the Desolate Antiquity spiritual spring and the Immortal Tree's fruit. He could only bring out this half of an Extreme Dao Emperor Weapon and release the Indestructible Heavenly Art's distinctive Qi.
When the Great Accomplishment Sacred Body fell in battle in the original story, Ye Fan learned that he had only been allowed to take the Sacred Fruits back then with his permission. Knowing this, Su Yu was somewhat worried that the man would intervene and stop him from obtaining the Divine Spring and Sacred Fruits.
He had brought out the Devouring Heaven Demon Lid and released the Indestructible Heavenly Art's Qi to establish his identity as the Ruthless One's successor.
Su Yu followed Ye Fan all the way to a spiritual spring without incident. Sure enough, he had not lost track of him. It seemed there was no problem.
That made him breathe a sigh of relief. He only wanted "a little bit," so there probably would not be a problem.
"There's a spring pool over there!" Pang Bo shouted. The two starving men perked up at once.
A few dozen meters ahead, several ancient vines as thick as buckets encircled a clearing. In it was a spring pool a meter across, bubbling away like a Divine Spring of sweet dew.
Beside the pool grew more than a dozen small trees, each over half a meter tall. Their broad leaves were a lush green and shaped like human palms, making them look like little figures with many arms standing there. A bright red fruit hung from the top of each tree, shaped like a cherry but as large as a chicken egg.
Just as they were about to rush over and gorge themselves, Su Yu lifted the secret technique concealing him. Three thousand strands of Chaos Qi wreathed his body, and countless intricate, strange runes appeared before the two men.
Pang Bo was delighted to see Su Yu. After all, if Su Yu had not stopped that monster on Mars, many of them might have died. He had saved their lives.
Ye Fan had no doubts either. The man was a cultivator, after all, so it was perfectly normal for him to have arrived before them. He had also reached the ancient temple on Mars before they had.
He was, however, somewhat worried that the man would not let them go over. In this lawless world, people were more frightening than wild beasts.
But he also remembered what had happened on Mars. Though this Daoist was cold, it seemed possible to reason with him...
"Daoist, you're here too! That's wonderful. We thought you'd left."
"Daoist!"
Seeing Pang Bo's enthusiasm, Su Yu gave a slight nod, and Ye Fan also took the initiative to bow.
Then... the two sides fell silent, as though they had mounted a tiger and could not get off.
Don't just stand there. Come over here! Su Yu was speechless. He grumbled inwardly, feeling a bit of a headache coming on. If this Forbidden Zone Heir with the greatest backing did not come over, he would not even dare pick up his chopsticks.
After the stalemate had lasted more than ten breaths, Ye Fan finally spoke with a smile, cautiously approaching the subject from the side, hoping to steer the conversation toward the fruit trees.
Heavenly Emperor Ye played "emotional intelligence" and "interpersonal relations."