Chapter 423: Truly Bold

"What on earth is this bead!"

Forcibly cutting off the outflow of his internal energy, Shen Yu hurriedly threw it into the Mountain and River Map, still feeling a lingering fear as he looked at the power within his own body.

At this look, Shen Yu's expression turned somewhat gloomy. In such a short time, more than half of the power in his body had already been devoured; this bead was practically poisonous.

He even suspected that this bead was targeting him. Clearly, when this broken bead was in Su Ye's hands, nothing happened, so why did it become so famished the moment it reached his own?

If he had reacted even a moment later just now, he feared he would have been sucked dry.

Just at this moment, Shen Yu suddenly felt as if he were being watched. He raised his head to look around, pushing his Super Perception to the maximum, yet he never discovered anything unusual.

Logically, that shouldn't be; this feeling of being watched shouldn't be wrong. Could it be some old monster?

That didn't seem right either. Just before, when Mu Zishan left, didn't he wipe out all those surviving old monsters in one go? Could it be that there were still fish that slipped through the net?

But what Shen Yu did not know was that in the void, there was a pair of greedy eyes that opened when the light of that bead shone, seemingly looking toward this side.

Its whole body was hidden in endless darkness, with only a pair of eyes whose outlines could be vaguely seen; around these eyes, space was constantly twisting and collapsing.

It was as if a power had reached its extreme, to the point where space could no longer contain it.

Even everything that approached it seemed to be absorbed by this power, to the point that nothing remained around it.

"Where do you think you are going? Go back!" When these eyes moved, a figure blocked its path. If Shen Yu were here, he would certainly recognize that this was the Mu Zishan who had already departed.

At this moment, there was not a shred of emotion in Mu Zishan's eyes; even when facing such a powerful being, he was not the least bit afraid. The two confronted each other in the void.

After a long while, those eyes glared fiercely at Mu Zishan and then vanished, and the void seemed to return to calm.

Looking back, Mu Zishan sighed leisurely, "That this thing could be found—it seems this world is destined to be in chaos after all. I don't know if it can continue to exist or if it will be destroyed right here!"

Afterward, he continued to sit quietly in the void. Before him, it was as if pairs of eyes were quietly watching, just waiting for him to reveal a moment of weakness so they could eat him up and devour him completely.

However, Mu Zishan was completely indifferent to this; he sat upright in the void and closed his eyes.

He had already experienced such a posture for a hundred years before, only previously it was in a Forbidden Land, and now it was above the void, though to him, there was no difference.

He did not need friends now, nor did he have a lover. Perhaps such loneliness was his ultimate fate.

Yet he had no regrets or wavering; a person must always do something meaningful, so as not to have lived in vain.

At this time, Shen Yu, who was carefully observing this bead, felt that it seemed to contain a powerful force.

It was a power that absolutely transcended his own, so strong that just by peeking at it, he felt a sense of vast boundlessness. It was as if this were not a bead, but an entire starry sky.

"Sir, this..." Standing not far from Shen Yu, Su Ye did not quite know how to speak.

This bead had been passed down through so many generations in their hands, and they had never heard of such terrifying phenomena occurring after touching it.

That beam of light just now had pierced through the void, as if brewing with infinite power, making one feel as small and humble as an ant just by looking at it.

Past Sect Leaders had all felt that there was a secret hidden within this bead, yet they were never able to fathom it, nor had they ever seen the power within.

Thinking of this, Su Ye gave a bitter smile. What so many of their generations had never witnessed, this person had encountered the moment he took charge.

It seems this bead truly did not belong to them; in their hands, it was a pearl covered in dust. Perhaps only a person like Sir Shen could unleash its true utility.

Valley's End

"Su Ye!"

"Sir?"

"Where did you get this bead?" After looking for a long time, Shen Yu didn't see anything special, and he didn't dare to try again easily, fearing he would be sucked dry by this bead.

He turned his head to look at Su Ye, hoping to get some useful information from him.

"Sir Shen, to tell you the truth, this is a supreme treasure that our sixth-generation ancestor obtained by chance while traveling the world, and it has been passed down from generation to generation."

"Its greatest function is that it can transfer internal energy to another person."

Speaking of this, Su Ye gave a sheepish smile. The greatest function of this bead was clearly not transferring energy; it was just that all their past generations had assumed it to be so.

Now it seemed they had never grasped the true purpose of this bead at all.

"Being able to transfer energy to others—this alone is enough to attract countless covetous gazes!"

Think of the past Sect Leaders and experts who, before dying, passed their lifetime of energy to their juniors, allowing them to instantly increase their strength.

As long as the juniors weren't too trashy, their sect could continue to flourish, with talented successors generation after generation, endless and unceasing.

However, it was clear that their inheritance had a gap; otherwise, it wouldn't have reached the point where they were bullied like this by a Luo family.

"Energy transfer, a medium!" Pondering carefully, it was hard to say just how many functions this bead had, but it was definitely more than just that.

Directly creating a clone, Shen Yu had his main body step back, turning instead to use the clone to try holding the bead in its hand.

Staring closely at the bead with his eyes, Shen Yu pushed his perception to the maximum, wanting to investigate something from within it.

It was just that the previous eruption seemed to have consumed quite a bit of the bead's energy, as if it had fallen into a deep sleep. Now, no matter how Shen Yu perceived it, he could not detect anything unusual.

Seeing Shen Yu's obsessed appearance, Su Ye on the side hurriedly whispered, "Sir, be careful. This bead can bewitch the mind; you must not stare at it for too long!"

"Oh? You even know this bead can bewitch the mind?"

"This, this..." This slip of the tongue directly attracted Shen Yu's gaze, and for a moment, Su Ye didn't know how to explain it.

"Sir Shen, to tell you the truth, my late master had always wanted to fathom the secrets within, but after many years of seclusion, he achieved nothing, and eventually, he inevitably became a bit impatient."

"In the end, my master stared at this bead from morning till night; his mind gradually became damaged, and eventually, he even became insane."

"Fortunately, everyone thought my master was in seclusion, so no one noticed anything, but afterward, my master's temper became increasingly irritable and impatient."

"In the end, my master wanted to swallow it in one gulp to forcibly refine it, but he suffered a backlash, and in his mental confusion, he killed the senior brother who went to stop him."

"Originally, my master actually intended to get rid of me as well, but unexpectedly, my master suddenly exploded and died at that moment, and that is how I managed to save my life."

"So that's how it is!" Nodding silently, Shen Yu then asked with some confusion, "Since this is the truth, why didn't you say so just now? Why didn't you defend yourself?"

"Sir Shen, family scandals should not be made public. If I had said these things, my master's lifelong reputation would have been ruined by my hands."

"Then you really are your father's 'great son'!" He protected his master's daughter with his life, and he cared so much about his master's reputation that he was willing to let people misunderstand him.

In this day and age, there really aren't many people like this left.