The Divine Nine-Dragon Cauldron

Pow!

Su Yu crushed the pearl with one hand, and a lambskin scroll full of characters of both human and ghost languages was revealed from within it. Etched on it was Zheng Qinglong’s signature, along with that of the Heavenly Knife Region Master and the Ghost Race’s representative.

This was enough evidence to land the Heavenly Knife Region Master in deadly trouble! The people who would come to punish him would certainly be prominent figures such as one of the Prefecture Kings.

“Young Lord Su, I advise you to hand this account to Mo Tianxuan and stay out of this matter,” Zheng Qinglong said solemnly. “This involves secrets that are way out of our reach. Only the Prefecture’s Kings can handle them! It could even take more than one Prefecture’s King. The current situation is far worse than we expected!”

“Although I have not participated in any direct negotiations with the Ghost Race, from the years of resources and help given to them, I can predict that the number of ghosts hiding in Jiuzhou is far beyond our imagination! Worse still, the great gates to the Ghost Prison are highly likely to have been opened by now!”

“The resources provided are ten times greater than the past, especially over the course of the past year. This sudden increase is enough to explain certain events. It must be the case that ten times the usual number of ghosts have arrived in Jiuzhou!”

Su Yu’s heart convulsed in shock as he listened. All the while, he had thought that those ghosts currently active in Jiuzhou were merely the crippled soldiers and defeated generals from a hundred years ago.

But now…

Su Yu fell into a long silence. He couldn’t help but open up the ledger and begin analyzing the amount, quality and grades of resources received by the Ghost Race over the years. The more he studied it, the more stunned he became. The resources hidden in the treasure cavern in Zheng Qinglong’s mansion were only the tip of the iceberg!

The transaction of resources recorded in the ledger’s account was a shocking string of enormous digits! It was the total of the resources possessed by the Heavenly Knife Region over the last hundred years! For a century, the Heavenly Knife Region had been preparing resources for the Ghost Race.

The most disturbing part was that no one had ever noticed it, and the culprits had not left the slightest trace or a single clue behind. They had been gathering materials and resources for the Ghost Race for a hundred years! How could they not have left even a trace?

Jiuzhou was very sensitive about the Ghost Race, and the people of the continent had a more profound fear of it than the faraway Demon Race. How could it have gone completely unnoticed all this time?

The only explanation was that there was an invisible, enormous influence that was manipulating things behind the scenes, covering up all traces. There was only one person who had such power and was willing to assist the Heavenly Knife Region Master: the Central Prefecture’s King!

The others might not be aware, but Su Yu knew about Shen Yichen’s cause of death years ago.

The Central Prefecture’s King had a previous conviction for colluding with the Ghost Race, so it was totally plausible that he had commanded the Heavenly Knife Region to reserve resources for the Ghost Race for the past hundred years!

And Su Yu couldn’t help but suspect that the Heavenly Knife Region wasn’t the only party that played a part in this. Among the five regions of the Central Prefecture, apart from the Blessed and Heavenly Lands, all other regions were under suspicion.

“What a troubled time it is! As if the emergence of the Glittering Jewel Mortal Fairy hasn’t been troublesome enough, now there’s the Ghost Race to contend with.” Su Yu had a deep frown between his brows.

From the ledger, he could estimate that the Ghost Race had been hoarding their armies somewhere on the continent, waiting for the appropriate time to strike again.

Having lost the Royal Beast State, Jiuzhou was far less powerful than it was a hundred years ago. Everything was pointing to a great disaster.

To make matters worse, the Glittering Jewel Mortal Fairy would not give up this chance to wreak havoc all over the world. She would take her time to devour the hearts and souls of mankind.

Su Yu felt a heavy burden wedged in his chest. Was Jiuzhou really going to end in destruction?

Su Yu planned to hand the account ledger to Mo Tianxuan right away and inform all the Prefecture’s Kings about it. This matter was even more complicated than that the Glittering Jewel Mortal Fairy!

However, just as he closed the ledger, Su Yu caught a glimpse of the ghost’s signature. He was startled for a moment, and he paused to look at the signature up close.

Su Yu was proficient in many languages including the ghost language. In human language, the ghost’s signature would translate to…

“It’s him?” Su Yu’s pupils shrank. He was slightly stunned but also relieved at the same time. “I see. If this is the case, then all of it can be explained.”

Zheng Qinglong scowled as he listened. “Young Lord Su, have you found out something?”

Su Yu tapped his finger on the ghost’s signature in the account book. Concerned, he said, “Yes, this ghost who signed could be an old acquaintance of mine…” The time when they had joined forces to attack the Glittering Jewel Mortal Fairy was still fresh in his memory.

Right at that moment, countless cracks suddenly appeared all over their surroundings.

The crack right in front of them was the most enormous of all. From within, a pitch-black ship made of bones flew out. An elegant youth in a golden mask was standing on the deck with his hands on his back.

“It seems like Brother Su has found out, after all,” the golden-masked man said with a smile. Behind him were 80 bronze corpses, each of them possessing the power of a Stage One All Creations.

There was more than just one skeletal ship! More than ten ships flew out, one after another, from every direction!

Each ship shook with turbulent ghostly energy, and amidst the ghostly energy, bronze corpses could be seen standing on the ships! There were more than a thousand of them! Moreover, on the deck of every ghost ship was a living creature that sat with its legs crossed making space for the ghost ship.

Su Yu raised his eyebrows when he caught sight of a very familiar figure!

“Manor Master Zhang!” Su Yu stared at him, feeling surprised. Now it all made sense. “Or should I call you the Blood Bone Great Soldier?”

Manor Master Zhang opened his eyes slowly, gleams of ferocious cruelty shining in them. “Hehe, it’s been a while! You still remember me.”

In the past, Su Yu was the one who exposed him, leading to his escape from the Yuling Mountain.

Su Yu chortled nonchalantly and turned to look behind the Blood Bone Great Soldier at another familiar, handsome man.

“I haven’t seen you in a long time either… Senior Brother Renyao.” Su Yu stared at the man, complex emotions filling his eyes.

Tian Renyao was one of the four great demons of Demon Mountain. He had disappeared during his mission with Bai Shanliang after they were ambushed by ghosts.

Thinking about it now, that ambush had been very suspicious. Apart from Mo Tianxuan and themselves, no one knew their route, but the ambush was done with great accuracy.

Bai Shanliang had said that there was a traitor among them. He suspected the elders who accompanied them but had never thought that Tian Renyao could be the one who had betrayed them! It was thought that he had died in the tragic accident, but now it seemed as though the rather unexpected truth was finally being revealed.

“You knew that I was the traitor all along, didn’t you?” There was a rather sorrowful look on Tian Renyao’s handsome face.

Su Yu replied calmly, “In that case, Senior Sister Tianyu’s message has been delivered to you.”

“Yes, Sister has passed the message to me. Thanks for being caring, Junior Brother,” Tian Renyao said as if it was just an ordinary matter.

Tianyu was in fact, his sister!

The two of them seemed totally unrelated. Who would have thought they shared such a tie?

In fact, when he first met Tianyu, Su Yu had started speculating. Tian Renyao was a man who only liked men, and Tianyu was only fond of women. Both of them had the surname Tian! If they weren’t related, it would be too much of a coincidence.

When Tianyu rebelled that day, Su Yu had fathomed that there must be some ulterior motive behind the ambush encountered by Tian Renyao and Bai Shanliang. All of it made sense now!

“Haha, I see many familiar faces,” Su Yu chuckled. But he didn’t quite recognize the people on the rest of the skeletal ships.

Zheng Qinglong did. His gaze swept across the people, his eyes filled with bitterness. “Aside from the Great Deputy Master, all of the Deputy Region Masters of my Heavenly Knife Region are gathered here, am I right?”

The people sitting at the decks turned out to be the other Deputy Region Masters!

The Great Deputy Region Master, however, was the mysterious one, who did not show himself all year round. Even the rest of the Deputy Region Masters seldom got to see him.

“Brother Su, you’re a man of talent, like a comet streaking across the continent. If a genius like you joins our Ghost Prison, you’ll be guaranteed a bright, prosperous future! Why should you have to succumb to a fallen Jiuzhou?” Bi Lingtian advised him gently, admitting to his real identity as a member of the ghost race. He also indirectly admitted that he was the owner of the ghost’s signature on the account, Bi Lingtian!

It was no wonder that despite being a pupil of the Heavenly Knife Region Master, there seemed to be a barrier between him and Qian Feng’s gang. He was only a fake pupil, and it was all for the sake of convenience, wasn’t it?

“People vary according to their environments. After joining the Ghost Prison, will I still be human, or will I become a ghost?” Su Yu faced the suffocating great army undaunted.

Bi Lingtian was wearing his usual warm smile. “That will be a pity! If Brother Su hasn’t checked the ledger yet, I don’t mind letting you leave. Our Great Emperor always admires talents like you, but too bad, it’s all too late. Are you really not considering joining the Ghost Prison?”

Su Yu was silent.

“You just fought in a great battle and even used your trump card, the Tri-Solar Sword Formation. You don’t have any energy left for another fight with us, do you? Why force yourself?” Bi Lingtian sighed.

Powerful enemies surrounded him. Despite being their focus, Su Yu was calm and composed. He shook his head lightly. “I have made up my mind. I’m going to take the account with me, and I’m going to leave!”

Bi Lingtian cast his deep gaze on Su Yu. “Do you think you can get away?”

“Why do you think that all I have right now is what I had before when we haven’t met in half a year?” Su Yu flashed a confident smile, and an enigmatic aura floated around him.

A wine-red, colossal eye appeared in the heavens above him! The eye was so enormous that it occupied several hundred thousand miles of the perimeter. Standing beneath it, one could hardly perceive the real size of the eye. It was an unforgettable, spectacular sight.

Even Zheng Qinglong was stupefied.

“This is your Divine Path?” Bi Lingtian asked hesitantly. This eye was much bigger than the one he had seen in the Glittering Jewel Wonderland, and this one gave off a whole different aura. The previous one had only seemed mildly destructive; this one was an entirely different story.

“Space Vortex,” Su Yu uttered placidly.

All of a sudden, a pitch-black vortex the size of a sesame seed appeared right at the center of the humongous eye’s pupil. It was the kind of vortex that was produced after space had been torn apart.

Once taken into it, one would most likely be carried to some far away place.

Initially, they had no idea why the faint vortex even existed. Only when the edge of the vortex expanded endlessly, to a size that occupied a tenth of the eye, did they realize the imminent crisis.

“Is he trying to form a space vortex that covers a hundred thousand miles?” the fourth Deputy Region Master asked as he stared at the quickly expanding vortex in disbelief.

“Not very likely… Could such a huge vortex be created just by relying upon Peak Pure Divine Decree?”

As if answering their questions, the vortex expanded to a size that covered thirty thousand miles in the fraction of a second!

As they looked up, the sky appeared as if someone had blown an enormous gap into it, and it was on the verge of crumbling.

The shocking, uncanny phenomenon made their scalps go numb with fear.

Watching as the space vortex expanded ceaselessly, they finally became anxious.

“Is he serious about this? If this goes on, aren’t the lands within a hundred thousand mile radius going to be engulfed?”

As the vortex kept closing in, great mountains that had been standing for eternities were sucked into it, Countless winding rivers were rolled into it like silver-white dragons. No one could sit still anymore.

Accompanied by the sounds of mountains crumbling and lands shattering, the scenery on the continent in the nearest hundred thousand miles separated from the Jiuzhou domain and was absorbed by tremendous space power as they floated away from the center of the vortex.

The ten skeletal ships were also dragged and pulled by the stupefying space vortex, spiraling into the center like a piece of leaf that had no control.

The passengers on the ships were petrified and helpless, doing all they could to steer the skeletal ships and stabilize them. They were completely vulnerable in the face of the fully formed space vortex that covered the heavens and a hundred thousand miles!

From afar, a pitch-dark void hole with the shape of an eye had appeared in the sky. It couldn’t be depicted as a space seam anymore, but a gap in the heavens! A gap had appeared in the heavens!

The phenomenal sight felt like a dream to them!

“Jump off the ship now!! Quick!” On the skeletal ships, they finally scampered in all directions in extreme dread, abandoning the ships one by one in haste as they strove to get away from the vortex using brute force.

Weren’t they kind of arrogant and dignified just now? In the face of a powerful opponent, all of them scurried away in the blink of an eye like rats in an effort to escape the area of the space vortex.