Su Yu handed the Green Lotus to Yan Ruyu, his expression utterly calm, without a trace of greed or reluctance.
Chapter 67: Singing of the Void, Praising Hengyu in Verse
"Hum!"
A faint, fresh fragrance of vegetation filled the space. The boundless life essence of heaven and earth transformed into streams of light, surging into the Green Lotus Emperor Weapon like a mighty tide. The veins on its verdant lotus leaves also shone with brilliant green divine radiance. Holy azure light filled the sky, so gentle that it made one feel comfortable from head to toe.
The Emperor Dao divine patterns on it seemed to come alive, trembling slightly. All of them had gained sentience, and an Extreme Dao presence capable of crushing the heavens flowed through them. Waves of incomparably pure and noble demonic power flickered, like a universe of stars in turmoil!
Dressed in white, Yan Ruyu gently held the Green Lotus Emperor Weapon in her delicate hands. Excitement filled her eyes, and her graceful body trembled slightly. Su Yu felt it quite clearly.
The thing in his hand seemed to be jumping, enough to show how unsettled its owner was.
"Ancestral... weapon..."
Yan Ruyu's beautiful eyes were veiled in mist, as though tears were about to fall. Bathed in azure light, with rosy radiance flowing over her body, she had an incomparably mysterious presence. She grew ever more ethereal, as though she might ride the wind away and leave this world behind.
The moment the Emperor Weapon touched Yan Ruyu, it connected with her divine sense.
At that moment, the Green Lotus Emperor Weapon in Yan Ruyu's hand, the Demon Emperor's Heart in her Bitter Sea, and the Green Lotus mark on her thigh all emitted beautiful halos. Intricate and strange bloodline divine patterns stirred upon them, thoroughly connecting the three.
This was a master-recognition ritual, far superior to Su Yu's earlier method of claiming the weapon with a drop of blood. It was a true bloodline pact. Even if the Emperor Weapon were lost, it could be summoned back through the imprint of one's true blood. Unless it was sealed by another Extreme Dao Emperor Weapon, not even a Quasi-Emperor could stop its return.
The bond between Su Yu and the Devouring Heaven Demon Jar was not so close. After all, he was not a descendant of the Ruthless One.
But his Chaos Body was now nearing completion, his divine sense and true blood were both imprinted on the Devouring Heaven Demon Jar, and the Emperor Weapon's deity had acknowledged him as well.
In all of Shrouding the Heavens, apart from the Ruthless One, or Ye Fan and Xiao Nannan joining forces, no one could contest his ownership of the Devouring Heaven Demon Jar.
"Thump!"
As she successfully refined the Emperor Weapon, Yan Ruyu's presence grew ever stronger, ethereal and holy. She remained flawless and untainted, a peerless beauty.
A rumbling sounded as the Green Lotus woman became translucent and crystalline. The blood in her meridians thundered like a surging river and churned like a vast ocean. Her thin divine blood, containing fragments of the Emperor Dao, constantly evolved and grew purer, charging into the Gate of Potential in an extremely short time!
The illusory image of an Emperor's Green Lotus blossomed, making Yan Ruyu look extraordinarily transcendent. This was the bloodline concentration of a fifth-generation Emperor descendant. A fallen scion had shed her old self and ascended to heaven in a single step.
Su Yu breathed a sigh of relief as he watched. The Azure Emperor Weapon acknowledging Yu'er as its master was the best possible outcome. The Azure Emperor had left his descendants in a pit for more than ten thousand years, and his conscience had finally awakened.
That was also why he had deliberately kept it from the old demon.
The Azure Emperor's nineteenth-generation descendant was no longer the demon on the verge of death he had once been. He had received Su Yu's Divine Spring from the Desolate Ancient Forbidden Land, and Su Yu had used the Devouring Heaven Demon Jar to seal his physical body.
Compared with him, Yan Ruyu held no great advantage.
After all, Yan Ruyu's Green Lotus bloodline had not reached the level of an Ancient Emperor's child, and her cultivation was still at the Dao Palace. She could not compare with her granduncle in the Immortal Platform Realm.
If the Green Lotus Emperor Weapon acknowledged the latter as its master, he might develop other intentions and cause who knew what sort of trouble. Caught in a dilemma, Su Yu would face many needless complications... so he had nipped everything in the bud.
"Yu'er..."
Seeing tears stream down the beauty's face and mist cling to her eyelashes, Su Yu found her a picture of loveliness and pity. He began to withdraw the Devouring Heaven Demon Jar's presence from his body and embraced the princess of the Orthodox Green Lotus Banner in the quiet little space.
At that moment, the direct descendant of the Orthodox Devouring Heaven Banner had a perfectly flawless face and a crystalline body. Holy radiance shone around him, and a rain of light fluttered through the air. Like a divine being, his robes billowed and his long black hair fell loose, its ends entwined with the beauty's locks. Su Yu gently wiped away the tears at the corners of her eyes and said softly, "The ancestral weapon has returned. You should be happy, Yu'er. Why are you crying?"
Yan Ruyu drew the Green Lotus Emperor Weapon into her Bitter Sea, where it connected with the Demon Emperor's Heart, then nestled against Su Yu.
She said nothing. Only she could understand this feeling.
No one would have imagined that, after more than ten thousand years, the Azure Emperor Weapon would return... With this Emperor Weapon alone, her lineage was now a true Extreme Dao power. Everything would change.
Su Yu kissed Yan Ruyu's fair forehead, savoring the moment.
He was the greatest winner. Her person and her heart, the Emperor Weapon and the Demon Emperor's Heart, were all his.
At the same time, he secretly counted himself lucky. He had not expected the Azure Emperor to tell Yan Ruyu about the Emperor Weapon the day after the two of them had joined together.
One day later, and the outcome would not have been the same!
An Extreme Dao Emperor Weapon as a dowry was something without precedent or equal throughout the Dharma-Ending Age...
With matters here concluded, Su Yu saw that Yan Ruyu's tears would not stop and knew the beauty urgently needed tenderness. He waved his silver-and-gold tapestry sleeves and used divine power to activate the Devouring Heaven Demon Jar. Ripples immediately spread through the void, divine light spilled in every direction, and the Dao patterns beneath their feet glowed faintly. Divine radiance rippled as the two crossed the void and departed.
At the same time, a wisp of Chaos Qi descended from the sky with an exquisite jade pagoda. Amid the rain of light filling the sky, it transformed into a young Daoist eight feet tall, handsome and distinguished, with a longsword on his back. The cultivators around him were locked in a chaotic battle, yet they looked straight past him as though he were invisible.
Su Yu walked at a leisurely pace. The Dao force beneath his feet shifted, and in the blink of an eye he was already a hundred paces away. His divine sense covered this stretch of sky as he walked toward the ruins ahead.
This was a special characteristic of the Chaos Body!
His Chaos avatar possessed seventy percent of his true body's strength. No one in the First Heaven of the Immortal Platform could stand against it, and it also carried a damaged Saint Weapon...
By this time, Ye Fan had already picked up a fragment of the Source Cauldron of All Things. The fragment was of little use to Su Yu, and he did not want to become entangled with Emperor Zun, of whom he was deeply wary.
He was the first Mortal World Immortal of the Shrouding the Heavens era, the first being to gather all Nine Secrets, and the second Extreme Dao supreme being of that era to forge an immortal weapon-the first was the Tribulation Crossing Heavenly Venerable.
No matter how one looked at it, there was an enormous scheme involved.
In "Shrouding the Heavens," Emperor Zun had met a hasty end, besieged by four Mortal World Immortals and brought to a miserable finish.
Su Yu thought that ending was good and had no desire to interfere. Otherwise, an ancient hidden mastermind would appear out of nowhere, and there was no telling how the timeline would change.
Just then, the fat Daoist Duan De appeared and rushed toward Ye Fan. His whole body seemed to be burning as he reached the limit of his speed and arrived before Ye Fan in an instant. His face was full of excitement as he asked, "Where's that piece of scrap copper?"
"Boundless fucking Heavenly Venerable! Why couldn't I keep my damn hands to myself? I had it in my hands, and I threw it away..." The fat Daoist's face was ashen, full of regret and frustration, a far cry from his smiling appearance not long ago.
Ye Fan's heart tightened. He felt that the unscrupulous Daoist now had the urge to kill. His eyes shifted slightly as he used the scant divine power in his Bitter Sea to control his sentient weapon, ready to unleash a thunderous strike at any moment.
The other man had previously robbed him of several external weapons, but he had swallowed his anger, unwilling to stir up trouble over them.
But if this fat Daoist wanted to capture him and search his soul for that piece of Green Copper, he would not let himself be taken without a fight or lie down to be slaughtered.
Just as dark clouds threatened to crush the city, a Daoist walked over. He was handsome, exceptionally graceful, cheerful and upright, and quite extraordinary. He sang of the void and praised Hengyu in verse, carrying a transcendent Dao charm.
"Fellow Daoist, please wait!"
Chapter 68: A Fox Borrows a Tiger's Might
Both Ye Fan and Duan De turned to look. Duan De in particular pinched his chin with a fat hand and looked at Su Yu with an unfriendly expression.
He had lost the greatest treasure of the Eastern Wasteland's human race today, and he was in a terrible mood!
He had been about to press the dishonest young cultivator for answers when someone unexpectedly came to interfere.
Ye Fan, meanwhile, was astonished. "Fellow Daoist, please wait" reminded him of Investiture of the Gods, though he did not connect the other man with a visitor from Earth. After all, the phrase was not particularly distinctive.
Su Yu stroked his beard, and the jade pendant on his azure robe swayed slightly. Clouds rose beneath his feet as he crossed dozens of meters in one step, moving before the two men.
He looked at Duan De with a warm smile, and a few pleasantries rolled readily off his tongue.
"You must be Daoist Master Duan De. Your name is known throughout the Eastern Wasteland, Master Duan. Even in the Northern Region, I have heard of your illustrious reputation."
Duan De's eyes darted about, his expression uncertain. A damaged eight-trigram disc in his Bitter Sea trembled slightly, and a dangerous presence came from the man before him.
Looks like he's a tough one. But for the treasure, I'll stake it all.
All this passed in an instant. Duan De's face immediately broke into a brilliant smile, and he laughed. "You flatter me, you flatter me. I have only a little reputation, thanks to the generous praise of my fellow Daoists. This little thief took one of my treasures, and I was just getting it back. Please don't interfere, fellow Daoist!"
Before Su Yu could reply, Ye Fan heard the fat Daoist's slander and could no longer contain his anger. This shameless Duan De really had abandoned all virtue. Not only had he robbed him of three sentient weapons, but he was also lying through his teeth.
"Daoist Master Duan, you examined that piece of scrap copper over and over for a full quarter of an hour, then threw it on the ground yourself. And now you claim I took your treasure?"
Hearing this, Duan De again remembered how the Eastern Wasteland's greatest treasure had slipped through his fingers, and his face turned ashen. An uncanny light shot from his eyes as he stared straight at Ye Fan, trying to plunge directly into his sea of consciousness.
Ye Fan tensed and hurriedly concentrated, but before he could put together an image in his mind-
A gentle breeze suddenly brushed past him. His soul seemed to have been cleansed, and his whole body felt incomparably light. The sensation was much like the transformation his body had undergone after he drank the Divine Spring in the Desolate Ancient Forbidden Land.
He came to his senses and saw Su Yu looking at him with a smile, as though he were gazing at a peerless beauty.
"Young friend Ye Fan, it has been many days. You have also set foot on the path of cultivation, fellow Daoist. That is truly cause for celebration."
Feeling the unusual movement of the white jade pendant on his body, Ye Fan showed a trace of joy. It really was Daoist Master Su Yu.
Since coming to the Big Dipper Ancient Star, he had experienced many things. In particular, many people kept their distance from him because of his constitution.
At Spirit Ruins Paradise, apart from Elder Wu Qingfeng, most people bore him ill will. Elder Han in particular made no attempt to hide his desire to refine him into a divine pill.
These things had made him understand Daoist Master Su's goodwill toward him.
Although the sacred fruit and Divine Spring of the Desolate Ancient Forbidden Land were extremely precious, he and Pang Bo had been only two mortals with no real ability to resist.
Yet Su Yu had seen those rare treasures without a greedy thought, and he had also saved Ye Fan once on Mars, keeping him from ending up in the mouth of the demon beneath the Great Thunderclap Temple...
Although Ye Fan had recognized Su Yu, he did not say so. He was meticulous, and since Daoist Master Su had appeared with a different face this time, he surely did not want anyone to reveal his true appearance.
Su Yu saw the excitement in Ye Fan's eyes and gave him a slight nod, saying nothing more.
Then his tone changed, and he demanded with an unfriendly expression, "Daoist Master Duan, you actually used a divine-sense secret technique to bully a little cultivator in the Bitter Sea Realm? Young friend Ye is an old acquaintance of mine. What do you propose to do about this?"
As Su Yu's words fell, a trace of divine power surged from him. The pressure of the Immortal Platform Secret Realm made Duan De's expression change drastically, and he stared at Su Yu in astonishment.
"Boundless Heavenly Venerable, I only came out for one trip, and I ran into a monster like this. How is that possible? A half-step great power so young." Bitterness filled Duan De's heart. Seeing Su Yu's unfriendly expression, he pulled an emerald-green dagger from his robes with a look of intense pain. Azure radiance curled around it, and it was incomparably sharp, giving off waves of chill.
When Ye Fan saw the weapon, his eyes went wide. Without standing on ceremony, he acted every bit the lackey, snatching the sentient weapon straight from the fat Daoist's hand. Then he stood beside Su Yu and presented the treasure.
"My lord, I obtained three sentient weapons earlier and meant to present them all to you, but this damn fatty intercepted me on the way..." Ye Fan looked at Duan De with green eyes.
Su Yu glanced at Ye Hei. His nature of climbing a pole the moment it was offered really had not changed.
In the original story, the Old Madman had received this treatment. Ye Hei had borrowed the Old Madman's tiger skin, claiming to be the disciple of that Ancient Saint. He had given the great holy lands a terrible fright and played the fox borrowing a tiger's might for a long time.
Su Yu had not expected to experience such treatment himself.
But Su Yu said nothing. After all, the Tribulation Crossing Heavenly Venerable had a vast family fortune and estate; even a single hair plucked from him surpassed a Saint Weapon. He surely would not care about these little trinkets.
"I... I mistook you for someone else just now."
Duan De stammered his explanation, his eyes red and his face full of bitter grievance. Forcing out a smile uglier than a crying face, he took out the other two sentient weapons.
Two faint flashes of light passed, and the two sentient weapons changed hands, landing in Ye Fan's possession.
Seeing Duan De's expression, as though he had swallowed a dead baby, Ye Fan felt immense satisfaction. This damn fatty had robbed him three times before, and now he had finally run into someone he could not afford to offend.
Su Yu stared at Duan De with interest. His Immortal Platform Realm divine sense was incomparably powerful, and he could see Duan De through and through. Suddenly, a flash of golden light appeared in the other man's Bitter Sea and forced his divine sense back.
Duan De staggered back two steps. Seeing Su Yu gazing at him so affectionately, he could not help feeling a headache coming on. Of course he knew why the other man was doing this.
The damaged eight-trigram disc in his Bitter Sea had also been disturbed by the other man's probing divine sense.