Immortal Martial Emperor

"Conditions?"

The smug look on Xue De’s face slowly faded. His brows furrowed slightly as he stared at Hong Yu.

His expression was hard to read—or perhaps, indecisive.

Although he hadn’t known Hong Yu for long, Xue De had already suffered several losses in their few encounters. This made him extremely wary of the conditions Hong Yu suddenly proposed.

Hong Yu curled his lip. "If Elder Xue doesn’t dare to agree, then forget it. Just find someone else to explore Mist Canyon!"

Xue De’s expression flickered.

He appeared contemplative on the surface, but inwardly he was calculating, ’What is this Hong Yu up to? Is he just putting on an act, trying to bluff me?’

At this thought, Xue De snorted coldly. "Fine. State your conditions. Chairman Tie and I will definitely agree!"

"No, no, no, Elder Xue, you’ve misunderstood!"

Hong Yu shook his head and said, "The Tie Family has already paid me enough. I don’t need another Gold Coin from them. The Guiyuan Sect, on the other hand, hasn’t given me any benefits at all."

Xue De frowned. "Are you trying to extort me?"

Hong Yu shrugged, his expression nonchalant. "Hey, ’Elder Lack-Virtue,’ if you can guarantee the Guiyuan Sect won’t use the path I clear, then I won’t ask for a single Gold Coin from them. Can you guarantee that?"

"My surname is Xue, not ’Lack-Virtue’!"

Xue De’s eye twitched violently.

"Close enough, don’t be so picky!"

Hong Yu waved his hand. "So are you going to agree to my reward or not? If not, then you can go by yourself!"

"Bastard..."

Xue De flew into a rage. Primordial Gang’s Power surged from his raised palm, and he looked ready to strike Hong Yu down at any moment.

An oppressive pressure and a torrent of Primordial Gang’s Power, rolling like thunder and lightning, crashed down on Hong Yu.

Facing this absolute power, Hong Yu narrowed his eyes. Xue De’s strength was truly immense. Even with his own recent improvements, Hong Yu would have a hard time being his opponent.

Unless... he could break through to the Late First Layer of the Primordial Gang Fighting Technique.

Then, he could complete the First Layer of the Heaven-Swallowing Divine Technique, which would be enough to use the Second Stage of the Flying Thunder Divine Skill. Only then could he fight Xue De.

Otherwise...

With his current strength, he was no match for Xue De at all!

Just as Xue De’s attack was about to land, Tie Heng finally made his move. An aura no weaker than Xue De’s rippled out, like a swirling storm that shattered and dispersed Xue De’s chilling killing intent.

The two Primordial Core Realm experts locked eyes. Their intense battle intent condensed into tangible energy fluctuations, creating fierce sparks as they clashed in mid-air.

During the standoff with Tie Heng, Xue De’s eyes darted about. ’Now is not the time to fall out with the Iron Soldier Pavilion. Hmph, Hong Yu, oh, Hong Yu. You want a reward, do you? Fine, I’ll give you a reward... After this, you can forget about ever returning to Qin Royal City. So what if I promise you the world?’

’You’re destined to be buried in the Tianmu Mountain Range. You’ll be alive to take the reward, but not to spend a single cent of it.’

At this thought, Xue De snorted coldly and retracted his aura. "Hong Yu, what will it take for you to go in?"

Tie Heng frowned slightly and looked at Hong Yu.

Tie Tongtian and the others all looked at him.

Hong Yu grinned. "First, I want half of the Guiyuan Sect’s share of this mining vein. Second, if I can lead everyone safely through Mist Canyon, the Guiyuan Sect must give me 100 billion Gold Coins afterward. Third, the Guiyuan Sect’s treasury must be opened to me in the future, allowing me to pick any three Treasures!"

"What? You’re delusional!"

Xue De stared at Hong Yu, dumbfounded, and roared in disbelief.

This vein was likely the largest Elemental Ore vein ever discovered in the history of the Qin Kingdom. For Hong Yu to ask for half of the Guiyuan Sect’s share, didn’t that mean he wanted a quarter of the entire vein?

These were simply unacceptable conditions.

As for the second and third demands, they were just as outrageous.

One hundred billion Gold Coins, and any three Treasures from the treasury... even if Xue De agreed, Wang Ba would never allow such a thing to happen.

Hong Yu sneered. "What’s the matter? Isn’t the Guiyuan Sect supposed to be rich and powerful? How can such a small wager scare you?"

"You shut your mouth."

Xue De snorted coldly, hesitating.

Qi Tianbao, however, stepped forward and whispered in his ear, "Elder Xue, what does it matter if you agree? He can only collect on these things if he makes it back alive. The outermost part of this Mist Canyon is full of Blast Earth Poison Mushrooms, and who knows what else is deeper inside. It’s questionable whether he’ll even survive."

"And what if he gets lucky and passes through alive?" Xue De asked with a frown.

Qi Tianbao grinned, his eyes glinting with a sinister confidence. "Elder Xue, have you forgotten? Before we left, Senior Sister Wang Fei gave me *that thing*! Heh heh, with it in my hands, forget Hong Yu being only at the Celestial Soul Realm—even if he broke through to the Primordial Core Realm, he would still die for sure!"

’That’s right, how could I have forgotten about that thing?’

Xue De’s eyes lit up.

He cleared his throat, turned to Hong Yu, and said, "Fine. I agree to your terms!"

Hong Yu frowned. ’What are Xue De and Qi Tianbao plotting?’

After a moment’s thought, he couldn’t figure out their scheme. Hong Yu decided not to dwell on it. He would just deal with whatever came his way.

He took out a piece of paper and a long brush from his robes and, with swift, flowing strokes, wrote out a contract.

Hong Yu signed it first, branding it with a trace of his Elemental Power, then tossed it to Xue De. "Elder Xue, leave your mark on this contract!"

"Fine!"

Believing that Hong Yu was a dead man walking, Xue De naturally didn’t care about these formalities.

After both parties had signed the contract, Hong Yu carefully put it away.

He took a deep breath and walked toward Mist Canyon.

Tie Tongtian’s face was full of worry. "Younger Brother Hong, you have to be careful!"

Hong Yu chuckled. "Don’t worry, Brother Tie. A few measly Blast Earth Poison Mushrooms won’t stop me!"

With that, Hong Yu stepped into the mist...

As they watched Hong Yu’s back disappear into the mist, the crowd behind him grew anxious.

Chen Mu frowned. "Chairman, what’s this young man’s background? Does he really have a way to deal with the Blast Earth Poison Mushrooms?"

Tie Heng shook his head. "From Ancient Times until now, there has never been an effective way to deal with Blast Earth Poison Mushrooms. The most effective method to date has been to use human wave tactics, sacrificing enough people to wear down the mature mushrooms, then incinerating them with fire before they can produce more spores. I imagine that’s the method you were thinking of before, right?"

Chen Mu nodded. "At first, I didn’t know the exact scale of the mushroom patch, so I did consider that method. But after sacrificing more than a hundred men without even seeing the edge of the colony, I gave up."

"We can only pray that Hong Yu can really work a miracle!"

Tie Heng said faintly.

Hearing this, Elder Xue, who was standing to the side, had a mocking look on his face. "You and I are both Primordial Core Realm experts, and even we would face certain death if we entered that mushroom colony. Let alone this kid..."

Qi Tianbao sneered. "I’d guess he’ll last twenty or thirty meters!"

"I’m really looking forward to seeing the so-called number one new genius of the Qin Kingdom get his head blown off by a Blast Earth Poison Mushroom!"

"Heh heh, how dare he try to extort our Guiyuan Sect. He truly overestimates himself!"

But Hong Yu didn’t hear the discussions happening behind him.

At this moment, he had already entered the mist. With the help of his left Cyan Eye, the scenery within a hundred-meter radius was clearly visible.

Beyond a hundred meters, everything became extremely blurry.

Hong Yu rubbed his nose and looked at the ground.

His vision clearly picked up the distribution of the Blast Earth Poison Mushrooms on the ground. They were incredibly small, hidden in the soil like the roots of hair just beneath the skin of a freshly shaved head.

Without looking for them carefully, even a Primordial Core Realm expert would likely fail to notice them!

’The Divine Medicine Scripture records that wherever Blast Earth Poison Mushrooms grow, there must be a giant root system deep underground. If you want to pass through their growth area safely, you have to find their main root, sever it, and coat yourself in the juice from within to avoid the attacks of the Blast Earth Poison Mushrooms!’ Hong Yu thought to himself.

Blast Earth Poison Mushrooms were strange, bizarre, and even terrifying. They were also exceedingly rare.

Ordinary experts had no idea how to deal with them.

Even common texts from Ancient Times rarely mentioned their existence.

Only the Divine Medicine Scripture was all-encompassing. It contained detailed records of not just the Blast Earth Poison Mushroom, but even rarer and more exotic herbs and treasures.

The Blast Earth Poison Mushroom was one of them!

The moment he discovered Blast Earth Poison Mushrooms on the outskirts of Mist Canyon, Hong Yu had already started consulting the Divine Medicine Scripture and found all the information on them.

This was precisely why he had stood up so resolutely to Elder Xue’s provocation.

It wasn’t because he had fallen for a taunt, nor was it a fit of pique against Elder Xue...

Everything was the result of a calculated move on Hong Yu’s part!

’The Divine Medicine Scripture says that the way to determine the location of the main root is to analyze their growth pattern.’

His sharp gaze swept over the dozens of corpses on the ground.

An image of a Seven-Star Array formation appeared in Hong Yu’s mind. Analyzing it according to the method recorded in the Divine Medicine Scripture, his eyes suddenly lit up.

’It should be right here!’

The Godslaying Spear appeared in his hand. With a flick of his wrist, the spear unleashed a vast, golden Spear Aura.

It swept out in a torrent of golden light.

As the torrent of light swept by, a large chunk of earth was torn from the ground. The vibrations sent the deadly spores of the Blast Earth Poison Mushrooms flying into the air.

They swirled toward Hong Yu like a blizzard of snowflakes.

"Hahaha, that idiot is actually trying to break through the Blast Earth Poison Mushrooms like that? How naive!"

"If that method worked, would the Blast Earth Poison Mushrooms have such a terrifying reputation?"

"He’s dead for sure!"

"He’s digging his own grave!"

The experts from the Guiyuan Sect all wore mocking expressions.

However, what happened next made their expressions change completely.

At the same time Hong Yu sent the soil and spores flying, he dove headfirst into the ground, digging frantically forward with his bare hands.

After advancing about ten meters, he suddenly stopped.

BOOM! That patch of earth exploded. Hong Yu leaped high out of the ground, the Godslaying Spear lifting a pink, fleshy ball. A stream of white liquid poured down over his body.

At that moment, the swirling spores also landed on him.

But when the terrifying Blast Earth Poison Mushroom spores touched Hong Yu, they all turned into wisps of green smoke and vanished.

This made the faces of the Guiyuan Sect experts outside Mist Canyon, who had been expecting Hong Yu’s head to explode, turn stiff.

Watching the smiling young man walk out of Mist Canyon carrying the pink, fleshy ball on his spear, Xue De’s face alternated between green and white. He finally realized that Hong Yu had known how to deal with the Blast Earth Poison Mushrooms all along.

Thinking of the wager he had made with him, Xue De’s face flushed with anger as he roared, "You bastard! Hong Yu, you dare to trick me?!"

Hong Yu winked at him and retorted without showing any weakness...

"Damn right I tricked you! Not happy? Come and bite me!"