Chapter 1063: Firefly
Prince Yu was relying on his strength to be shameless here.
After all, he was the oldest prince and almost certainly the representative of the Yan Huang Tribe in the Ancient Soul Tower.
Wu Yu could understand his intentions. He knew that Prince Yu and the Ancient Emperor had a unique relationship. This relationship was definitely stronger than Prince Le and the Ancient Emperor's.
He had cultivated for close to 500 years. If he failed to get through the final two dao calamities within a century, he would die and his dao would return to the earth. His hundreds of years of hard work would be in vain.
He could now smell the taste of death. Therefore, his craving for the Yan Huang Golden Bead would only be more intense. However, he did not have confidence in himself as he felt that the Ancient Emperor had never shown him real concern. On the other hand, there were obvious signs that Prince Le was getting all the attention from the Ancient Emperor.
Considering his standing and the fact that he was willing to put himself down in an attempt to follow Prince Le and pick whatever remained, this was a testament that he was willing to sacrifice everything for the Yan Huang Golden Bead.
Facing a person like him directly would be extremely dangerous.
After Prince Yu was done with his words and when Wu Yu and the group turned around to leave, he seemed to have vanished into thin air. He had the strength of an eighth tier Dao Querying cultivator and many of his dao techniques were at the pinnacle of their kind.
When he concealed himself to follow the group, only Wu Yu could notice his presence with his Eyes of Fire and Gold. However, he was elusive and changed rapidly and unpredictably. It was hard to locate him for long. In a way, this was a peak ability, and just as Wu Yu had said, they couldn't possibly shake him off.
After experiencing a drastic increase in strength and yet having Prince Yu followed so closely behind, Prince Le and the group naturally felt annoyed. Initially, they wanted to focus fully on searching for the Yan Huang Golden Bead. Now, with Prince Yu around, the Yan Huang Golden Bead would never be theirs.
"Do you have any way to shake Prince Yu off?"
"Don't get your hopes up. Although we have made huge improvements and made several breakthroughs, we still aren't a match for Prince Yu, who could be our grandfather in terms of age.
"Shaking him off while he has his eyes on us would be harder than ascending to heaven, especially when we have so many people on our end."
Qu Haoyan and the rest were a little dejected. They were in high spirits after being through the metamorphosis. Who knew they would suffer a setback right away?
"Regardless, let's stick with our initial goal to reach the third level of the Ancient Soul Tower first. What do you think, Wu Yu?" Prince Le had made his decision.
From his consulting tone, he was actually asking Wu Yu to make the final decision.
"Please give me another day before heading to the third level of the Ancient Soul Tower," Wu Yu answered.
Although he didn't know what Wu Yu was planning, Prince Le chose to trust him. He could also continue loitering around the flaming world in the meantime and might find something for himself.
At the very least, he could find out if any major incidents had taken place over the last twenty-odd days.
When Prince Le agreed, they were shocked to realize that the Wu Yu around them was no longer the same as before. He had been replaced with the white-haired, red-eyed Heaven Devouring Avatar. The current Wu Yu was wearing a black outfit and looked evil but good-looking. He had a colder demeanor that was more similar to the Full Moon of Nanshan, like a demon. Compared to the Full Moon of Nanshan, he didn't possess a frivolous and flamboyant disposition, but had a more sinister look and expression.
All of them felt weird to have this Wu Yu following them. He was just like a different person. Only when he spoke did they know that this was the same Wu Yu as before.
As for Wu Yu's main body, he had entered the Floating Dreams Pagoda.
His objective this time was to challenge the puppet in the Floating Dreams Pagoda.
The Heaven Devouring Avatar was still lingering at the fourth tier of the Dao Querying Realm and wouldn't be a match for the new puppet. Therefore, Wu Yu had chosen to let the main body come in to challenge it alone.
The reason why he had requested for a day from Prince Le was because of this. In fact, it wouldn't take a full day. This was because a day outside would be five days in the Floating Dreams Pagoda. Five days was sufficient time for him to challenge stronger puppets.
Initially, Wu Yu was a little nervous. Being at the 10th tier of the Primordial Spirit Transformation Realm, the Floating Dreams Pagoda would have nine puppets if it was the same as previous times. The strongest would be equivalent to an eighth tier Dao Querying cultivator, or someone at the level of Prince Yu. In a way, it could be considered as an extremely rare supreme expert in the entire Jambu Realm.
If there really was, it would prove that the value of the Floating Dreams Pagoda was extremely high. Even at this current level, the Floating Dreams Pagoda showed no intention of truly submitting to Wu Yu. Up to this point, everything was still shrouded in mystery.
A dao treasure that had a puppet equivalent to an eighth tier Dao Querying cultivator or even more would have a way higher value than an ordinary seraphic dao treasure.
Obviously, Wu Yu's target of challenge wouldn't be the puppet equivalent to an eighth tier Dao Querying cultivator. He knew himself well, and his ability to challenge opponents eight tiers above him lied on his physical strength and mystiques. His physical strength and mystiques hadn't made any improvements, he had just enhanced his Violet Kingdom Primordial Energy. And considering he would be challenging this puppet with just his main body, it would be a wiser choice to only challenge the puppet equivalent to a sixth tier Dao Querying cultivator.
He relaxed soon after.
This was because after he chose to challenge the puppet, there were puppets in all nine spirit designs. The final black and white spirit designs held the puppets equivalent to seventh and eighth tier Dao Querying Realm puppets.
At this point, Wu Yu couldn't help but question, "If I raise my cultivation level by two more tiers, will there be a 10th tier Dao Querying puppet? That's the level approaching an immortal! Anything above would be a true immortal. In other words, the limits of the puppets in the Floating Dreams Pagoda might very well be the limits of a mortal!"
Obviously, Wu Yu wouldn't be so naive to believe there would be immortal-level puppets. This was simply impossible. An immortal couldn't be created by other immortals. Even if the master of the Floating Dreams Pagoda was an immortal, it wouldn't be possible.
However, if the limits were the limits of a mortal, the value of the Floating Dreams Pagoda would exceed all seraphic dao treasures. It might just be a divine dao treasure with 1,000,000 spirit designs that only existed in the legends!
Harboring excitement and a strong desire for battle, Wu Yu skipped the fifth tier Dao Querying puppet to challenge the sixth tier Dao Querying puppet in the purple spirit design. Although he used to challenge puppets in the white spirit design and had reverted back by two levels now, Wu Yu wasn't particularly concerned. This was a sign that his weakness was getting mitigated. As for the improvements in his physical body and mystiques, he had never worried about them.
Piercing through the glow of the spirit design, he could vaguely see that the puppet within the fifth tier Dao Querying spirit design was a little similar to the Seven Stars Iron Winged Bug. It was also a bug, and its appearance was similar to a praying mantis, slender and razor-sharp.
In the next purple spirit design, there was another source of light within the spirit design. When Wu Yu chose to challenge this puppet, the light glowed brighter and the other spirit designs vanished. When the spirit design intensified in luminosity, the glow didn't dissipate but changed abruptly into a ball of green light.
Wu Yu was a little shocked by the appearance of the puppet.
"Firefly?"
First the Seven Stars Iron Winged Bug and then the puppet that resembled a praying mantis in the fifth tier Dao Querying spirit design... The stronger sixth tier Dao Querying puppet was surprisingly a species of firefly.
Taking a closer look, other than the glowing end of the firefly, the other parts were similar to the Seven Stars Iron Winged Bug. They were made up of metal. In terms of materials, it would likely be better than the Seven Stars Iron Winged Bug. The spirit designs fashioned over the firefly were also a lot more complicated and numerous than the Seven Stars Iron Winged Bug. It was especially so around the glowing tail area, which was clearly the amalgamation of various spirit designs. Although the firefly didn't look as impressive as the Seven Stars Iron Winged Bug, the firefly was one to two tiers above it.
One would easily expect the existing puppets spirit design to be more unique and tightly packed. In the very moment, the firefly launched attacks towards Wu Yu without hesitation. The first transformation was sufficient to shock Wu Yu. This was because it seemed to be creating clones of itself....
First, some spirit designs were triggered. The light on it started glowing more intensely, shrouding the entire body. Shortly after, the entire firefly became a beautiful, glittering, faint, green orb. After which, the green fluorescent orb rapidly doubled. When it did, the light didn't fade and only the number increased....
Immediately after, the two fluorescent orbs doubled, tripled, quadrupled, and quintupled consistently. After roughly ten breaths of time, the interior of the Floating Dreams Pagoda was densely packed with the fluorescent orbs. This was a breathtaking scene. Other than painting a beautiful scene, the fluorescent orbs didn't appear to be anything special. However, Wu Yu could feel that through the series of changes, the countless clones of the glow encompassed terrifying power.
Wu Yu naturally wouldn't dare to drop his guard. With his current vast Violet Kingdom Primordial Energy, he used the Lawful Embodiment of Heaven and Earth in the first instant and became a giant under the green fluorescent orbs. Immediately after, he used the Immortal Ape Transformation and held the Infernal Sky Pillar of Nine Fetters in his hand. At this point, Wu Yu released the full strength of the Infernal Sky Pillar.
When he got prepared, it was just as he had expected. The fluorescent orbs suddenly smashed towards him like meteorites. The seemingly gentle glows released unbelievable destructive force at the points of impact. The destructive forces didn't cause loud booms, they looked more like simple taps. But the immense impacts forced Wu Yu to use the Immovable Nine Palaces Design to protect himself. However, Wu Yu soon found his Immovable Nine Palaces Design unable to take the barrage of attacks and was gradually destroyed.
Even with his vast and powerful Violet Kingdom Primordial Energy to sustain it, the Infernal Sky Pillar was still breached within ten breaths of time.