Killing Grounds of Gods and Devils

“At least based on your current condition, it could be construed as such. The vitality of you humans is simply too frail, however, we of the fifth lifeform have an almost inexhaustible amount of life force, the amount of life force you use up each day is merely a drop within an ocean to me, of course, there are still limitations to this…… I will need to be fully incubated and pass the period of weakness from being recently birthed. Of course, if you exceed the area within my power, my ability will not have its effect and won’t be able to prevent the loss of your life force.”

Su Yu forced himself to calm down: “Besides this, are there any other methods to prevent the loss of life force?”

“There is a way, you have to absorb crystals containing life force, it can replenish the vitality within you that has been lost, such crystals are known as ‘Time Coins’.

“Time coins…….” Su Yu sucked in a breath of cold air as he thought of the black clothed male Situ Wuya, he had found several black copper money-like objects, back then Xiao Wei had called them ‘Time Coins’ but Su Yu finally understood what Xiao Wei meant by buying time.

Absorbing ‘Time coins’ to extend one’s life, could this not be considered ‘buying time’?

It was clear that Xiao Wei had already known about the loss of life force as well as the existence of time money, all this was a reality and what the voice said was all true.

“I understand.” Su Yu seemed to become weak in the knees, he now realised that there was actually a price for the strange energy, this price was terrifying and one was actually using up their life force in order to gain it. It was fortunate that they met with the fifth lifeform, otherwise, they would have died without even knowing why.

This sort of exchange via thoughts might seem like a lot but it merely took a few seconds, Su Yu opened his eyes as he looked at the people surrounding him with faces of concern.

“Xiao Wei, after acquiring strange energy, are we speeding up the process of using up our life force?” Su Yu immediately looked at Xiao Wei as he asked.

The group were stunned as they looked in shock at Xiao Wei, Zhang Zhongmou could not help but speak up: “Su Yu, are you having a fever? Why are you talking about the loss of life force?”

Hearing Su Yu’s question, Xiao Wei was unflustered as she nodded: “That’s right, it will speed up the loss of life force by a huge amount, a normal person who acquires strange energy will die from old age in two to three months.”

The group were aghast as they exchanged glances, Su Yu said in a solemn voice: “Why didn’t you say so earlier?”

Xiao Wei scrunched her cute little nose: “Big brother Su, even if I said it earlier, you wouldn’t necessarily believe it right? Remember me mentioning about Time Money? Time Money is used to deal with that situation, by absorbing Time Money, one can live for a longer time.”

Su Yu retrieved the six time coins which he had acquired from Situ Wuya: “Are these the ones?”

Xiao Wei continued: “This is the most inferior kind, each one can extend a person’s lifespan by one hour, also, each person can only absorb one piece a day, absorbing this type is really quite useless, only by exchanging thirty of these will one be able to obtain a piece with ‘Heaven’ written on it, those would be useful, one can live for a full day more, that is why I said that Situ Wuya was very poor.”

Su Yu bitterly smiled.

Ma Ziye asked: “Su Yu, what’s going on?”

Su Yu continued: “I’ve only just learnt of this, it was the fifth lifeform which informed me. Our strange energy can also be termed as the power of evolution, from the moment of acquiring strange energy, we could be said to have unlocked the key to evolution, allowing us to continually evolve but the price of this is immense, for each day that passes, we use up one year of our life force, that means under normal circumstances, after two to three months we will all die from old age. As for the Time Money which Xiao Wei mentioned, it contains life force which we require, absorbing it will allow us to live for a slightly longer period of time……. Xiao Wei said that this item could buy time, it was actually real……. Ha…….. Time Money? Buying time? Really such apt naming.”

Su Yu had a bitter smile as he lamented.

The bodies of the others began to violently tremble, at this moment, everyone clearly understood what he was talking about as they exchanged shocked glances, Zhang Zhongmou said in a raspy voice: “Then what should we do? Where can we go to acquire Time Money? That’s right, Xiao Wei, you should definitely know.”

Su Yu said in a heavy voice: “Besides Time Money, there is another method, that is forming a soul contract with the fifth lifeform. The fifth lifeform can provide us with large amounts of life force, preventing us from ageing any further, to the extent that those who have already aged can actually regain their youth.”

As he said this, a voice rang out within his mind: “That’s wrong, one needs to be by my side to allow me to supply you with the vitality needed each day, you cannot regain your youth, this means that if you are already thirty, by staying by my side, you can constantly remain at thirty but you cannot return to how you were at twenty. You can’t mess this up, however, if I advance to a higher state, that would be a different story. Also, Time Money is definitely useful, it can allow a person’s outer appearance to recover to when they first acquired strange energy.”

Su Yu grunted before turning to the group: “Everyone, do not be nervous, as long as everyone forms a soul contract with the fifth lifeform, you can temporarily stop worrying about the loss of life force.”

Zhang Zhongmou trusted Su Yu as he immediately questioned: “How do we form a soul contract with it?”

A voice immediately sounded within his mind as he nodded: “Relax your bodies and release your mind, do not resist.”

“Okay.” Zhang Zhongmou closed his eyes as his entire body relaxed, Su Yu willed it as small balls of black flames flew forward, directly entering the forehead of Zhang Zhongmou before disappearing.

“Alright, it’s done.” Su Yu said this as he felt the black cocoon within him make a noise filled with satisfaction, it seemed that acquiring a second soul companion gave it a relatively large nourishment.

Zhang Zhongmou opened his eyes as he began to move his body: “That’s it? It doesn’t feel like anything?”

Su Yu replied: “It hasn’t been fully incubated yet, once it’s birthed, soul companions can gain unique abilities, who else is willing?”

Ma Ziye and Jade hurriedly stood out, they trusted Su Yu as they immediately formed soul contracts. The others were also left without a choice, Qin Jiagui, Zhao Shichang, Lei Rui and Zhou Birong were quite trusting of Su Yu as well and they formed soul contracts without any complications.

When Li Dong attempted to form a soul contract, it actually failed several times, Li Dong was extremely nervous when faced with Su Yu and his heart had set up a guard, causing it to be unsuccessful. Su Yu began to frown but Li Dong finally calmed down as he said in a shrill voice: “It will work now, it will definitely succeed.” before he closed his eyes to relax.

Su Yu sent a ball of black flames flying forward, this time it successfully entered Li Dong’s forehead as the soul contract was established.

At this moment, including Fang Jiong and Xiao Wei, another fifteen people had successfully formed soul contracts, together with the addition of Li Dong, the voice of the fifth lifeform rang in everyone’s minds: “Within ten days, the number of people with soul contracts must reach twenty, if this goal isn’t reached, I would die from the lack of nourishment and fail to hatch and die. When I die, all those who have formed soul contracts with me will die as well.”

“F***!”

“Ehh?!”

“What?!”

“What’s going on?!”

As this voice resounded, the reactions of the group were mixed as they began to shout, Su Yu could not help but angrily reply: “What’s going on? You didn’t mention this earlier, why must there be twenty people who form soul contracts with you within ten days? You will actually die after ten days if the quota isn’t reached?”

“Once the road of evolution has been activated, there is no backing away. If one fails to evolve, one will die. Although our fifth lifeform is the closest existence to the perfect existence, our criteria for living is also the most stringent, once we form a soul contract with other lifeforms and begin our path of evolution, we have no retreat, either successfully evolve or die trying, there is no third option. The most frightening thing about evolution is this restraint of time.”

As the voice resounded within Su Yu’s mind, only Su Yu could communicate with it, the others were merely secondary companions and did not have such abilities.

“However, you can rest your mind, once the number of companions reaches twenty, my requirement for incubation would have been reached. Once successful, there aren’t too many restrictions.”

Su Yu was silent for a moment, things had already reached this state and lamenting was useless, there was still time and they needed to find five more people to form soul contracts with ‘it’, it should not be that difficult.

Thinking of this, Su Yu’s heart calmed down as he bitterly looked towards Xiao Wei: “Little lass, you’ve really sabotaged us, within ten days we have to find five people to form soul contracts with this fellow otherwise we will all die.”

Xiao Wei earnestly replied: “Big brother Su, I didn’t harm any of you, I’ve also formed a soul contract with it. I’m not afraid, father has said that within this world, we need to have a challenging spirit, if one constantly retreats they won’t live for long.”

Su Yu’s heart trembled: “Xiao Wei, it seems your dad was quite an impressive person.”