Su Yu was unbothered about what the others were thinking.

He had picked Martial Emperor as his first target not because Martial Emperor was too handsome or something. Rather, he needed to get a clear measure of his new strength. These ancient fossils were probably the only ones he could use for this purpose.

And Martial Emperor was clearly a suitable person for the job. He was very powerful. He was also experienced enough. People like Hundred Battle King were too young. They had never witnessed true Masters of Laws, and they had never faced the truly powerful beings.

As for the chaos dragon from earlier, Su Yu already had a good estimation of his strength.

Before this, Su Yu was far weaker than the chaos dragon. But things had changed. He had grown stronger while the dragon had been injured. He had a feeling he could even kill that dragon if he wanted to.

***

Su Yu moved rapidly.

In the blink of an eye, he arrived near the tunnel to the seventh level. This was also the place Martial Emperor was using to maintain his connection with the Death Realm.

"Martial Emperor!" Su Yu's voice boomed out. "Come on out, old friend."

In the blink of an eye, Martial Emperor appeared at the entrance of the tunnel. He gazed at Su Yu coldly. Finally, Su Yu had arrived.

"I have been waiting for you."

Martial Emperor had a frosty expression. He knew it. He knew that was a trick. Su Yu would definitely return to kill him. He had been Su Yu's target since the beginning. But wait, where were those subordinates of Su Yu?

Suddenly, his eyes flickered as he exclaimed, "Your strength..."

Something seemed to have changed.

As Martial Emperor was still sealed, he was still facing Su Yu with a clone. Thus, his eyes were less sharp than usual. He had a feeling that Su Yu had grown stronger, but he couldn't sense Su Yu's exact strength.

Slowly, Su Yu walked forth with a smile. "Martial Emperor, how much of your strength have you recovered?"

"Enough to kill you." Martial Emperor snorted.

Su Yu frowned slightly, but soon, he unfurrowed his brows. "Empty boast."

Then, he raised his palm. The gigantic palm seemed capable of covering the entire world. Myriad daos manifested in that palm, with the powers of life and death being the most conspicuous of all. Black and white interweaved, seemingly assuming the form of Taiji, as the palm descended.

The palm descended right into the seventh level.

Boom!

Instead of pulling back, Martial Emperor met the palm with a punch.

With a rumble, the clone was slapped deep under the ground. A human-shaped hole was left on the surface of the ground.

With a step, Su Yu reappeared inside the seventh level.

A short while later, a slightly dizzy Martial Emperor emerged from the ground. At first, he stared at Su Yu with confusion. But soon, his confusion faded, replaced by fury. "You're courting death! How dare you ambush me!"

"..."

Su Yu was rendered speechless. How was that an ambush?

Whatever.

"Here I come, Martial Emperor."

Not waiting for Su Yu to finish talking, Martial Emperor threw a punch. This clone of his was quite powerful. It did not quite reach the level of a Venerable, but it was definitely at the level of a heavenly king.

"Down!" Su Yu roared. "I'm telling you to go down. Are you not listening?"

Boom!

A gigantic dao manifested in the sky and descended like a mountain. Martial Emperor punched, but it did nothing as he was pressed right onto the ground.

Boom!

With a rumble, he was pushed onto the former site of Devote King's Residence.

"Roar!"

Martial Emperor roared with fury, generating a storm in the seventh level as a large amount of dao power entered his body.

Instantly, the clone's strength skyrocketed.

Boom!

He threw another punch, blasting the mountain atop him apart before soaring into the sky. With a solemn expression, he asked, "How did you grow so strong so fast?"

His clone had never been weak, but it had been suppressed so easily.

Su Yu smiled. "Interesting. Looks like you have removed a large portion of the seal on you. Cut the chatter and show me your current limit."

Su Yu was definitely not a match for Martial Emperor's actual body. After all, Martial Emperor was considered a powerhouse even among his fellow Masters of Laws. But how much of his strength had he recovered?

"Five Element Purgatory!"

The gigantic palm turned into a cage of five elements as it continued its descent.

Martial Emperor was furious.

"Mount Tai Collapses!"

With a roar, he threw another punch. The punch shot up, its mere presence projected a scene from the past. A scene where Martial Emperor blasted a massive mountain in the chaos many years ago.

The moment the punch appeared, a storm raged across the seventh level. As the cage swallowed the punch, a violent explosion erupted, causing the cage to shake. However, the explosion did not manage to break through the cage.

Martial Emperor's expression changed.

"Impossible!"

He looked at Su Yu with an unsightly expression and said, "How can you grow so quickly? This isn't the pen dao! This is definitely not the pen dao! You're using the five elements! A fused version of the five elements! The same version used by the Five Elemental Ancestor back then!"

This wasn't right.

A Heaven Gate appeared on Martial Emperor's clone. It was incomplete as this was only a clone, but it was good enough for him to take a good look at Su Yu's dao. He looked at the sky above Su Yu instinctively, but the moment he looked up, he was stunned.

Holy shit!

Where was the dao tributary?

Where was it?

Why wasn't he seeing anything?

When he finally lowered his head to look at Su Yu, he was dazzled by the blinding brightness.

The Su Yu in his current vision had seemingly transformed into a gleaming celestial being. A singular dao formed of countless daos could be seen on his back instead of above him.

First, Martial Emperor blanked out. Then, his jaw dropped as he thought of something. "Y-you...your dao...did you pioneer a dao?"

Did Su Yu pioneer a dao?

Noticing the Heaven Gate, Su Yu knew what Martial Emperor was looking at. He smiled and asked, "What's the problem? Come on, Martial Emperor. Your clone is too weak. Use more strength. Let me test my new strength."

Martial Emperor gnashed his teeth and said, "You're courting death! You actually pioneered a dao separate from the River of Time! Your dao will be rootless. It will never be stable. How dare you pioneer your dao amid chaos? You are a total madman, Su Yu. You are truly courting death."

He could see that there was a connection between Su Yu's dao and chaos. Was Su Yu tired of living? How long could a rootless dao like this last?

Su Yu laughed. "Are you trying to say that I don't last?"

That was true. There was a major weakness with his current condition. He was lacking in energy. His dao would automatically absorb the chaos power around it before slowly accumulating energy.

But due to the limited size of his dao, its accumulated energy would be rather limited as well. In a prolonged battle, he would weaken considerably once he ran out of energy.

Martial Emperor said, "You're crazy. Why did you do this if you knew? A rootless dao without the support of the River of Time won't allow you to battle for long. You are worthless in a prolonged battle."

Su Yu chuckled. "How can a summer insect understand the concept of ice? River of Time? Do you think the energy in the River of Time is endless? Do you think the River of Time came with so much energy from the very beginning? It is an independent dao as well. It, too, converts chaos power into its own energy.

"Martial Emperor, your Heaven Gate is wasted on you. How can you be so ignorant with something like the Heaven Gate?"

Su Yu said, "Battles between true powerhouses will always end quickly. Even if my dao is still weak and even if it lacks energy, it is enough to last me an hour in active combat. What manner of enemy can survive an hour against me? When I encounter such an enemy, I can simply flee long before I run out of energy."

A weakness? That was no big deal. Fully charged, his dao was enough to support him for an entire hour. If he were to remain against an enemy he couldn't defeat after an hour of combat, he would probably die even before running out of energy.

Of course, he wouldn't be able to fight someone with similar strength for a long time. That was indeed a weakness. And such an enemy could always stick to him stubbornly while he was fleeing. Things would be very disadvantageous to him in such a situation.

But all in all, pioneering this dao would grant him enough benefits to offset the weakness. That was enough. He wouldn't have been able to reach his current level so soon without his new dao. Without his own dao, surpassing some people would be impossible.

Su Yu couldn't be bothered to say more. It was a waste of time to converse with an ignorant person like this. What an unambitious man. Martial Emperor was someone with a Heaven Gate as well, but he lacked the ability to see or go further.

Su Yu had seen Martial Emperor's dao before. It wasn't even as strong as the pen dao, yet Martial Emperor had happily stuck to it for so many years.

Meanwhile, his fellow Heaven Gate users like Culture King and Human Emperor had pioneered their daos. It was unknown if Martial King had pioneered a dao as well, but Su Yu was certain the others wouldn't be weak even if they hadn't pioneered their daos.

In any case, they were definitely stronger than Martial Emperor. And after spending over a hundred thousand years sealed, the gap between Martial Emperor and these people would have grown even bigger.

"Stop wasting time. Let's fight. Don't worry, I won't kill you."

Su Yu laughed.

A weakness?

So what if Martial Emperor knew his weakness?

"Mountainbreak!"

A punch shot forth, threatening to shatter the world itself.

"Sky Sunder!"

A saber shot forth, threatening to slice reality itself apart.

With an unsightly expression, Martial Emperor snorted and pulled something out. It seemed to be...a hammer.

Probably.

Then, he pulled another hammer out.

Dual hammers.

"Su Yu, don't overestimate yourself. Die!"

With the appearance of the two hammers, Martial Emperor's clone grew larger while dao power converged around him.

Rumble!

The two shot toward each other and clashed intensely. This time, Su Yu faced Martial Emperor head-on instead of using any tricks. Sword, saber, spear, halberd, fist, and palm were all used as he unleashed a series of close-combat moves against Martial Emperor.

It was too boring to face Martial Emperor with sealing methods or other similar tricks. After all, the battle would end the moment Martial Emperor was faced with something he couldn't break through with brute force.