Chapter 1850.1: Marvelous Bulls.h.i.+t
The Shapes.h.i.+fting death art operated in a flawless manner since the death arts had reached great perfection. Yun Yi would never locate Lu Yun given that there were none of the customary ripples of a combat art to go off from, especially as the supreme remained isolated in the Firmament Prison. The s.p.a.cetime tide prevented him from observing events taking place outside.
……
Lu Yun’s words made the surroundings quiet down. No one dared make a peep and many drew near him instead. As the disciple of a supreme, he should theoretically be the strongest out of them all. What he said earlier gave them hope that they’d survive the spatial tide, making him the pillar of their strength.
They did need a leader, given current circ.u.mstances.
Countless treasures floated in the void, rising and falling with the ebbs and flows of each pale blue wave. However, no one so much as glanced at the baubles that would normally send them into a frenzy. While treasure was right there in front of them, they needed to be able to walk out alive with whatever they claimed. Previous tides had been fraught with danger, but there was still hope. If they put their life on the line, they stood a chance of emerging with what they wanted.
Only darkness lay ahead of them now. There was nothing in their future apart from death. But even more frightening than death? The absence of hope.
“Everyone, choose one item that you can use. Take note, you can only choose one. Throw away whatever you obtained before and pick a new one!” Lu Yun shouted.
“What?!” The crowd blinked at his instructions, but did what he said. A flurry of activity rustled through the scene as everyone selected only one treasure. Everything they’d claimed before, including what they’d seized from others, was casually tossed into the void.
“What about you?” Liang Ruyue suddenly said. “You have a piece of empyrean crystal in your hand.”
Lu Yun cast a sharp glance at her before throwing the crystal away. He reached out randomly and grabbed a piece of empyrean crystal the size of a head—three times bigger than the one he had before.
“The treasures on you guys have been tainted with too much blood and the karma of this area. If you continue to carry them on you, you won’t make it out of here alive.” Lu Yun swept a calm gaze over the remaining one-hundred-some thousand cultivators.
That induced many to fish out their personal treasures and throw them away.
“Will Sir Lingyan lead us out of here?” a young man asked agitatedly. He was twenty-ninth level sequence and looked slightly juvenile. Plainly, he was a young genius out on his first trial. He’d come alone when he heard of the spatial tide occurring ahead of time, but hadn’t thought that he would be trapped here instead.
“Yes,” Lu Yun nodded. “If I can’t, I won’t be worthy of being the Myriad Spirit Supreme’s disciple.” He made sure to add the last line to enhance Myriad Spirit’s reputation. The latter and his sister were his only partners in the chief worlds. The greater their reputation was, the better it was for Lu Yun as well.
“All of you will listen to me and do as I say. Otherwise, don’t blame me if you die.”
Heads bobbed up and down in the crowd. He’d already obtained their trust when he told them to throw away their treasures and take only one. After all, the great supreme’s disciple had done the same thing with his empyrean crystal!
The ident.i.ty of a supreme’s disciple was as if a candle in the darkness, an instant beacon of hope to the a.s.sembly.
“There’s still one hundred breaths left for you to make another choice. You can search out the treasure that you need the most and swap it for the one in your hand. Remember, you cannot fight or take it from each other. No killing allowed!
“Remember, just one!” Lu Yun reminded sternly.
The crowd started, but didn’t question him. They quickly sought out what they most truly wanted in the field of treasures and threw away what they’d picked up earlier. One hundred breaths was more than enough time for twenty-ninth, thirtieth level sequence cultivators.
“You can also trade with each other, but you cannot take by force,” Lu Yun added after fifty breaths had pa.s.sed.
Another small disturbance rustled the a.s.sembly as mystified cultivators still did as they were told. Most of their hostility and wariness of each other had dissipated after these rounds of selection and trade. A tense atmosphere suffused with violence and lingering echoes of bloodl.u.s.t fully faded away.
Everyone had what they wanted after one hundred breaths. Of course, they wanted more. If possible, they wanted everything on the premises. But no one dared do so when faced with the prospect of life and death. They proceeded according to Lu Yun’s instructions.
“The next wave is about to arrive, be ready for it,” Lu Yun said. “Again, take only one thing. Make sure it’s what you need the most. No one is allowed to claim more than one or take someone else’s treasure!”
Prudence was the word of the day when faced with attention from one million headless heavenly soldiers.
Another ripple of blue arrived with vivid radiance. Treasures appeared in front of cultivators like sh.e.l.ls washed ash.o.r.e. They quietly searched for what they needed the most and carefully put it away.
There were many treasures available and all of them immensely valuable. On the flip side, there were only three hundred thousand people present and more than half of them were dead. The number of treasures far outweighed the number of cultivators.
A third, fourth, and fifth tide arrived on the backs of ripples. Each time, the cultivators limited themselves to only one item.
In the end, each cultivator claimed more than ten treasures. It was enough to send some people’s hearts racing and their faces flush. They never dreamed that they could one day own ten treasures from a spatial tide!
One had to know that in the past, making it out alive with just one treasure indicated that one had the potential to access thirty-one levels of sequence! Now they had ten treasures each! Everyone looked at Lu Yun; he remained empty handed apart from the initial piece of empyrean crystal he’d claimed.
“Sir Lingyan, we have our treasures… but how do we escape from the headless soldiers?” Liang Ruyue asked haltingly.
By now, the one million soldiers had multiplied into more than one hundred million. Their existence weighed on everyone’s minds like a ponderous mountain. If it wasn’t for Lu Yun constantly exhorting them to shop for treasures, some of the weaker willed would’ve already collapsed.
There were certainly more than one hundred million supremes in the chief worlds. In fact, there were more supremes than could be denoted by the hundred million units. But all of them gathering together in one spot, and headless to boot?
This was the first occurrence of its kind in the chief worlds.
“Don’t worry,” Lu Yun grinned. “There’s no killing intent coming from them. They won’t do anything to you. What could kill you was never them, but yourselves.” He breathed out more easily. “Ten treasures each is an absolute fortune. All of you now have the potential to access thirty-one levels of sequence, or even higher!”
The a.s.sembly blinked when they heard Lu Yun.
“Will they… really not move against us?” the previous young man asked with trepidation.
“If they were to, you’d already be dead. Would you be able to take your pick of treasure like this?” Lu Yun shook his head. “The s.p.a.cetime tide is mixed with the orders of s.p.a.ce and time. They’re kept to their side and can’t make it over to us.
“Besides…” His lips curved upward. “In our eyes, we’re just scavengers rooting through trash. Kill us? That’d dirty their hands.”
He chuckled softly as the cultivators stirred. A strange emotion grew in their hearts.
Inferiority.