Not far away.
Dao Cheng was performing a quick divination. A Yellow Index genius had died. This was no minor matter. The death had been completely silent. How did it happen?
Shortly after, he frowned at the lack of results. The only discovery was the fact that Mo Erba's death might be related to death qi. Did he die to death qi? Did he get himself killed while exploring the ancient buildings or was it a death spirit?
Dao Cheng couldn't figure all that out through divination. If one died from death qi in an ancient city, further investigation was almost impossible.
Beside him, Final Armor was frowning as well. "Looks like some people are taking advantage of the chaos in the city. Even a devil genius died. The Heavenly Hunt Index is truly...sigh."
The Death Index might be a better name for it. Just how many days had it been? So many index geniuses from multiple races had died in such a short time. The mystic armor race was also a victim of this. After all, they had lost both their index geniuses recently as well. They weren’t too bothered about Mo Erba’s death. After all, Mo Erba was not one of them.
Final Armor glanced at Flame Armor, who was covered in death qi, and Silver Armor before saying, "Su Yu might have brought a large amount of heavenly source qi here. We don't know how long this will take. I'll stay here. You can take a break outside the city for one day. Return tomorrow."
Dao Cheng looked at Jiu Xuan and said after some thought, "Since Jiu Xuan still has some heavenly source qi on her, she will be staying here. Things might be just as dangerous outside the city. As for Commander Silver Armor, I guess you have to leave now to get rid of the death qi in your body. We will need to take turns doing that."
He looked at Final Armor and said, "I will provide some heavenly source qi to you as well, Brother Final Armor. We need you to remain here as long as possible. We can't give Su Yu a chance to slip off."
Final Armor nodded.
Silver Armor looked at the others and asked, "Am I the only person leaving?"
"Yeah."
Final Armor said, "You're a sixth-stage Mountainsea. You can either go now or go on the same rotation as Brother Dao Cheng. That way, you can all watch this place together when I'm not here. You might not be able to stop Su Yu alone."
Splitting them into two groups would be the most optimal choice. He would be alone, while the others would be together.
The death qi on Flame Armor's body was getting thicker and thicker. He said, "I'll stay. After tossing a talisman out tonight and another talisman tomorrow night, I'll turn into a resident. After that, I will be able to stay as long as I need."
With a sigh, Silver Armor looked at Dao Cheng and Jiu Xuan, "Shall we go together?"
No matter what, he had to leave now as he was already at his limit.
After a short contemplation, Dao Cheng nodded, "Alright. We'll stay outside for a day. Su Yu won't be leaving so soon. We'll be troubling you in the meantime, Brother Final Armor."
"Don't worry about it."
The departure of the three wouldn't change much for him. And by the time they returned, it would be his turn to take a break outside the city.
Shortly after, the three departed. Su Yu, who was roaming nearby, cursed inwardly. Why were those three moving together? Fuck! How was he supposed to kill them?
He had gained some benefits from killing Mo Erba earlier. He had also taken the chance to hide inside that building and revert to his human form and remove some death qi from his body. After the short break, he returned and stumbled upon the three who were leaving the city.
This was so annoying. Two death spirits were following him around, as though they were his little brothers. But that couldn't be further from the truth. The two death spirits had appeared after he killed Mo Erba.
But when they failed to find the culprit, they started following Su Yu around in confusion. He was quite surprised to see that. A new idea rose in his mind. Perhaps he could kill more people to get even more little brothers.
As for the previous batch of death spirits, they were still surrounding the building the little furball was in. How dumb. Just how did their brains work? Was it because his aura in that building was still quite strong, so they were all staying there?
"Killing Mo Erba alone is not enough. Why aren't the others moving alone as well?"
Su Yu kept cursing inwardly.
At that point, night had arrived again. Noticing something, Su Yu flickered and reappeared in front of Final Armor's building. There, he picked up a bloodstained talisman. At the same moment, a new death spirit flickered into existence beside him.
The death spirit was confused to see someone else doing its job. Alas, it did not have any intelligence and was merely moving according to its instincts. Thus, it started roaming the area aimlessly.
With the bloodstained talisman in hand, Su Yu moved forth and started drawing on the board again. He had to draw Flame Armor's portrait, and fortunately, the death spirits weren't too accomplished in the art of drawing. Thus, there was no pressure for Su Yu to actually do a good job at it. In fact, it would actually be suspicious if the portrait he drew looked too nice.
Final Armor and Flame Armor did not suspect anything. In their eyes, every death spirit looked the same, just like how every mystic armor looked the same to Su Yu. In fact, he could only differentiate them from their cultivation levels and colors. As for the death spirits, they were even harder to differentiate. The thick death qi constantly surrounding them would always interfere when one tried to pry on these death spirits.
After completing about half of the drawing, Su Yu left. As for Final Armor, the death qi in his body was still increasing. He was starting to feel a constant sense of discomfort. But he wasn't too worried. This was his first time experiencing the conversion process. Thus, he assumed that this was normal. In any case, he had never heard of a failed conversion before.
Perhaps the conversion was a rather painful process. He ignored the death qi as it corroded his body. It didn't matter. After tossing the final talisman out tomorrow, he would no longer need to worry about the death qi.
Meanwhile, Su Yu was starting to look at Flame Armor with pity. That fellow was being corroded by so much death qi that even his sea of willpower was on the verge of getting tainted. His strength wasn't anything impressive either. One more day and he would die without even someone killing him.
How pitiful. How dumb of him to allow the death qi to invade his body without resisting. That brain of his...was truly remarkable. None of them suspected anything. Then again, it was supposed to be impossible for a living being to transform into a death spirit.
Who would have imagined that this ironclad rule would change today? A lot of experts were in the area, and they all saw what was happening to Flame Armor. Nobody suspected anything.
Even Final Armor did not think too much when he saw Flame Armor's look of suffering. He merely sighed and said, "One more day and you'll be a resident. Perhaps after a few years, we can try to find a way to free you from the city."
"Thank you, Lord!"
Flame Armor did not say anything about his suffering. He was doing this voluntarily. Meanwhile, Su Yu could only watch helplessly as Jiu Xuan and the others left without splitting up.
Once again, he started roaming the streets. He was looking for more people to kill. It was necessary for him to move further away from the eighteenth ring. After all, not everyone could resist the death qi density there. In fact, a lot of the newly arrived visitors who were here to watch the show were staying outside the eighteenth ring.
Since they were here to watch the show...Su Yu concluded that none of them was an absolutely innocent person. Thus, he wouldn't feel guilty for killing any of them.
In fact, his thoughts greatly resembled Xia Longwu's thoughts. Back when he talked to Liu Wenyan about Wan Tiansheng's move to start accepting foreign students, he had voiced his approval of Xia Longwu's policies.
"Yes, Lord." The old man asked with shock, "Are we sealing the city?"
"Yes." Tian He coldly said, "Seal the city. Something will happen soon. Death will be unavoidable. Perhaps...there will be a lot of deaths."
"Lord..." The old man also sensed something different in the air. He said, "The death qi in the city seems to have grown a lot thicker."
"Yes. It is at least thirty percent thicker than before. If this continues, an ancient death spirit will appear soon." Tian He inhaled deeply and said, "Ignore all of them. Seal the city. Since they are courting death, what can I do about it?"
With the sharp increase in death qi density, he knew that something major was going to happen soon. He guessed that some people had been killing death spirits. But these people should be aware that it was taboo to kill death spirits in ancient cities. What were those fools doing? Since they wanted to die so much, he wouldn't stop them.
"Lord, should we notify the people in the city? With the increase in death qi density, a normal visitor might not be able to stay even three days in the city anymore."
"No." Tian He said, "The cowardly ones would have fled by now. The ones that are still here do not fear death. Since they don't fear death, well, they can have fun dying."
"Yes!"
The old man rushed off to carry out his newly received orders.
***
Before long, the number of death spirits in the city rose to a terrifying level.
It reached a point where even the experts hiding in the ancient buildings could clearly sense the increase in death qi density. Beside Final Armor, Flame Armor felt like he was going to die.
This was odd. With the increase in death qi density, he was suffering even more. What was going on? Was this pain required for all conversions? He felt as though his entire body was going to rot away soon.
But he was already two-thirds through the conversion process. Why was he still suffering so much?
"Lord..."
Final Armor, who was scanning their surroundings, turned to look at Flame Armor. The light in Flame Armor's eyes was starting to grow dim as he said, "Lord, this conversion process...is very painful. Back then, did Black Armor and the others suffer this much as well?"
Final Armor frowned and stepped forth to check Flame Armor's body. The arm he used was instantly corroded by death qi, assaulting him with sharp pain. He said, "This...how is this possible? Some rotting will happen during conversion, but it shouldn't be so serious."
Something wasn't right. The rot was too serious. Also, there were more and more death spirits outside. The death qi density had reached a terrifying level. Just what was going on? Not even leaving was a good idea anymore. Flame Armor had gone through two-thirds of the conversion. If he left now, the conversion might fail, and the accumulated death qi would kill him directly.
"Flame Armor, hang in there. By tomorrow night, you will be fine."
There were a terrifying number of death spirits out on the streets. Final Armor was feeling more and more anxious. Just what was happening? Why were there so many death spirits in the city?
Damn it! This was too worrying.
The others were also starting to sense that something was off. Tiando and many others stepped out and looked at the sea of death spirits roaming the streets. One of them fearfully said, "Why are there so many death spirits? Is the arrival of too many experts triggering the appearance of more death spirits as well?"
There were so many of them! Just on this street in front of them alone, there were more than ten death spirits. What about the city as a whole?
Little did they know, what they saw was nothing. Su Yu had more than thirty death spirits outside his building. The death qi density in his immediate surroundings had reached a terrifying level.
Tianduo and the others started moving toward the outer rings. The death qi in the eighteenth ring was getting too dense. Even when they were hiding indoors, they were reaching their limits.
Qin Fang, An Mintian, Long Zhan...all of them were moving outward.
They couldn't stay there anymore. They all assumed that Su Yu wouldn't be able to last much longer. The death qi density was simply too high. They had originally assumed that this would last between three to five days. But at this rate, it would probably end in a day or two. That wouldn’t be enough for the human reinforcements to arrive.
Suddenly, a howl rang out behind them.
"Flame Armor!" Final Armor was holding onto Flame Armor while shouting in desperation, "How are you feeling?"
As he grabbed onto Flame Armor, the death qi started corroding his body as well.
The pain forced him to let go. Slowly, Flame Armor's body rotted away. His eyes turned dim as he said, "Lord...I...c-can't...l-last...any l-longer..."
"No, no. You'll be fine!" Final Armor was alarmed. This was not supposed to happen.
"You're in the middle of conversion. You won't die. This won't happen..."
Grief assaulted Flame Armor. He had no idea why this was happening. Even his sea of willpower was starting to collapse from the corrosion.
Final Armor was feeling both grief and helplessness.
He was a Mountainsea.
An expert.
But so what? He was completely helpless here.
A short while later, under everyone's look of disbelief and Final Armor's furious roar, Flame Armor's body broke apart. His sea of willpower crumbled, and death qi rippled out of his body. He was dead.
A Mountainsea had died a clueless death. Even during his final moments, he was still completely clueless. He was in the middle of conversion. He was on the verge of success.
Why...did this happen?