76: The Devouring Emperor's quirk: even treasure vaults need dog holes!

After pocketing those three jars of "drunken immortal brew," which were said to be made with Jade Lake Holy Water and buried for a hundred thousand years, Su Chen felt that his life had reached absolute Perfection.

He patted his belly contentedly, his face overflowing with the joy of the harvest.

Carrying the pig and holding the wine jars, he swaggered out of the Hall of the God of Food, waving to the three people who were still dazed on the spot, seemingly not having recovered from the "pig-stealing operation."

"Let's go, let's go! Next stop, the Central Pagoda! Everyone, move quickly!"

Ye Linghan, Liu Ruyan, and Ling Qingzhu looked at this man with a pig in his left hand and wine in his right with complex expressions, as if they were looking at a prehistoric creature. They felt that their worldviews had been repeatedly crushed and reshaped countless times tonight.

They truly couldn't understand why a Divine Son from a Long-lived Family would be so obsessed with a single bite of food to such an appalling extent.

Could it be that this was the legendary "The Great Dao is simple, returning to the basics"?

Returning all desires to the most primitive eating and sleeping?

Filled with confusion and a sense of absurdity, the three followed Su Chen and arrived at the core area of the Myriad Dao Merchant Guild's treasury—the Central Pagoda—without any obstacles.

This pagoda was ninety-nine stories high, forged entirely from an unknown divine gold, with dense Emperor-level Dao patterns engraved on its surface. At the top of the pagoda, a mass of Chaos-colored thunderclouds slowly rotated, and from time to time, destruction divine lightning as thick as a bucket struck down, emitting a terrifying aura sufficient to annihilate the Divine Soul of even a Great Sage.

This was the place where the most precious treasures of the Myriad Dao Merchant Guild were stored.

"This is it." Ye Linghan could clearly feel that the Origin Emperor Qi belonging to the Heaven Swallowing Demonic Art came from the top floor of this pagoda!

Her Devilish Qi surged, and she prepared to use brute force to break through the pagoda's defenses, just as she had done before.

Su Chen, however, grabbed her, his movement so fast it was as if he had expected her to do so.

"What's the rush?" Su Chen gave her a sidelong glance and pointed to an extremely inconspicuous corner next to the pagoda. "Didn't you see the VIP passage?"

Everyone followed his finger and saw that on the indestructible base of the pagoda, there was actually a... dog hole that only one person could pass through.

The dog hole was also surrounded by a layer of extremely hidden Dao patterns, which were incompatible with the Emperor-level grand array of the entire pagoda, yet perfectly integrated in an uncanny way.

Ye Linghan: "..."

The corner of Liu Ruyan's mouth under her mask twitched violently.

Ling Qingzhu's cold and pretty face also showed a hint of numbness.

[Just how much does this Heaven Swallowing Great Emperor... love crawling through dog holes?!]

The same absurd thought popped into the three women's minds once again.

Su Chen didn't care what they thought. He was the first to bend down, stuffing the pig and the wine jar in first, and then skillfully crawled in himself.

"Hurry up, don't dawdle! Space inside is limited, first come, first served!"

The three looked at each other, but eventually suppressed the urge to dig up the Heaven Swallowing Great Emperor's grave to find out why, and followed him in one by one.

Inside the pagoda, it was a whole different world.

Each floor was its own Small World, filled with various rare treasures seldom seen in the outside world. However, Su Chen ignored them all; he had a clear goal and headed straight for the top floor.

Soon, the four arrived at the ninety-ninth floor of the pagoda.

This place was empty, with only a simple stone platform. On the platform, a head-sized piece of strange metal floated quietly; it was pitch black, yet seemed capable of swallowing all surrounding light.

It was exactly the void immortal gold!

"It's this!" Ye Linghan's figure flickered as she moved forward to claim the immortal gold for herself.

"Wait!" Su Chen spoke again, stopping her.

"What is it now?" Ye Linghan's voice carried a hint of impatience and chilling killing intent. "Didn't you say this thing belongs to me? Are you going back on your word?"

"I wouldn't go as far as going back on my word." Su Chen curled his lip and looked at her as if she were a total fool. "I just wanted to remind you, are you stupid?"

"This stone is contaminated with the Heaven Swallowing Great Emperor's Origin Emperor Qi, mixed with the saliva and endless resentment he left behind when he used it as a table leg back then. If you take it away directly, it's equivalent to tying a super-sized GPS tracker to yourself."

[So ignorant,] Su Chen complained wildly in his heart, [The Karma attached to this thing is terrifyingly huge. Taking it is like inheriting the Heaven Swallowing Great Emperor's entire enemy package, and it's the deluxe upgraded version. I don't want to be dragged down by you and have it affect my sleep at home.]

"When the time comes, not just the Heaven Swallowing Great Emperor's successors, but even the descendants of the dog he raised back then will be able to follow the scent to find you and hunt you to the ends of the earth. Do you think... that's fun?"

Su Chen's words were like a bucket of ice water, instantly extinguishing the heat in Ye Linghan's heart. Her expression changed. Indeed, Su Chen had a point. Although the Emperor Qi was tempting, the Karma it contained was equally terrifying.

Although she wasn't afraid of trouble, she didn't want to become a living target for the entire continent. That would be too tiring and not cool at all.

"Then what do you say we do?" Ye Linghan asked coldly, her tone unconsciously weakening a bit.

"What to do? Just handle it." Su Chen walked to the stone platform and lightly brushed his hand over the void immortal gold.

"Buzz—"

The Great Void Technique within him operated frantically. A profoundly mysterious spatial Dao rhythm transformed into billions of invisible Law scalpels, wrapping around the entire immortal gold. Then, he performed an action that left everyone present dumbfounded.

He was actually like a person using the most precise instrument to perform separation surgery on cells, carefully "scraping" a thin light membrane condensed from pure black Emperor Qi from the surface of the void immortal gold!

This light membrane contained the most original and pure Dao and principles of the Heaven Swallowing Demonic Art, yet it perfectly stripped away all the Karma imprints belonging to the Heaven Swallowing Great Emperor himself! This technique was simply miraculous!

Liu Ruyan's beautiful eyes behind the mask widened: [My god... what is he doing? Is he performing a property division notarization for the Emperor Qi and the immortal gold? This is more exciting than listening to a story!]

Ling Qingzhu was deeply shaken: [He... can actually strip away the Emperor's Karma?! Is this to purify the evil nature of the Demonic Technique? He Mingming could have kept it all for himself, yet he chose to help this Demoness... As expected, he is compassionate.]

"Alright, I've taken out the core part for you." Su Chen held the ball of black light membrane in his palm and tilted his chin toward the still-dazed Ye Linghan. "As for this stone itself... it's just a relatively hard stepping stone, not worth much. Just throw it away."

After saying that, he actually tossed it aside casually. The void immortal gold, which could make the entire Xuan Yuan Continent fight to the death, was thrown into a corner like a hot potato with a dull "thud."

Ye Linghan was completely stunned. She looked at the extremely pure Origin Emperor Qi in Su Chen's hand, then at the discarded "stepping stone" in the corner, feeling that her demonic view of life had suffered an unprecedentedly violent shock.

However, what happened next made her brain freeze even more.

Su Chen did not hand the Emperor Qi directly to her. Instead, he extended a finger and lightly sliced the light membrane.

Chila.

That complete mass of Origin Emperor Qi was actually... nonchalantly split in two by him!

He pushed one half in front of Ye Linghan.

Then, he kept the other half for himself with a clear conscience.

"Alright, half each, fair and square."

Su Chen clapped his hands, a proud smile appearing on his face, as if saying, "I'm truly an ordinary little Genius at dividing loot."

[Just kidding, this thing's energy is so explosive; what if there's a trap? Let her try first; if something happens, she'll take the brunt! Risk-sharing is the way to go! This is called... sharing Emperor Qi, win-win cooperation! I'm simply too smart!]

Ye Linghan stared blankly at the half-mass of Emperor Qi floating in front of her, then at Su Chen's matter-of-fact face, which even seemed to say "hurry up and praise me."

Sharing... Emperor Qi?

What kind of operation was this? And it was the purest half, with all Karma risks removed?

Why?

What exactly did he want to do?

Ye Linghan felt her CPU was about to burn out under the impact of overloaded information and incomprehensible emotions.