Tribulation of Myriad Races

Su Yu looked at the crowd and sighed. Could he even blame these people for making this choice? Even he himself thought that he would agree if those people weren’t related to him. Why should he expect others to make the choice he himself wouldn’t make?

“Multiple character faction…Great Xia’s multiple character faction is not the multiple character faction of humanity!”

Su Yu finally comprehended this fact. He had been too naive. He had been thinking that the Invincibles were dumb for failing to see why the myriad races were terrified of the multiple character faction. But he realized that they knew everything.

However, Great Xia’s multiple character faction was not humanity’s multiple character faction. Perhaps…in everyone’s eyes, they were the outliers. As that realization hit him, his tribulation character started showing signs of advancement. If it succeeded, it would be his first fourth-tier character.

He gazed at Bai Feng, Hong Tan…and finally, Marquis Xia. Bitterness enveloped his heart. He realized a lot of things he didn’t realize in the past. There were things that one couldn’t see until it was time for one to make a choice. He also realized that the Xia Family was an ally of the multiple character faction, after all.

Suddenly, Marquis Xia said, “The Xia Family does not wish to get too involved in this. I need to make one thing clear. Our first priority is Longwu’s dao affirmation. As for everything else, just don’t push things too far.”

“…”

Su Yu blanked out. What was Xia Xiao’er trying to do here? Was he giving up without a fight?

Someone suddenly gave him a light kick. When he looked over, Xia Huyou smiled and sent him a voice transmission, “The blade of Xia Family is getting blunt. A blunt blade is harmless. Everyone will have the courage to come and take a look at this harmless blade. If we grind our blade right now, it will be too sharp. Everyone will go back in hiding out of fear.”

Su Yu gazed at Xia Huyou silently.

Xia Huyou grinned and continued speaking with another voice transmission, “Let me tell you a story. There used to be a tiger. At its prime, it was incomparably ferocious. Everyone was afraid of it. Nobody dared to provoke it. They only focused on avoiding this ferocious tiger. Eventually, the tiger grew old. Its claws and fangs started dropping. But its reputation remained. When someone tried to challenge it, the tiger roared fiercely and scared the challenger away.

“One day, a brave hunter arrived. He believed that the tiger was old, so he wanted to try his luck. The old tiger roared fiercely before telling the hunter to leave while gasping for breath. The tiger said that it was not old yet and it should not be provoked. Brother Cui, in this situation, do you think the hunter would leave or proceed to fight the tiger?”

Su Yu replied, “Fight the tiger.”

“Exactly. But the hunter was still slightly afraid. Thus, he gathered ten nearby hunters before challenging the tiger again. The tiger roared fiercely before telling everyone that it was very strong while panting for breath. If you were the hunter, what would you think?”

Su Yu thought about it and answered, “False bravado. The tiger could no longer fight. Everyone should join hands and slay the tiger before sharing the profits.”

Xia Huyou’s smile grew wider as he said, “Exactly. A tiger with false bravado. Thus, everyone gained the courage to challenge it. But if the tiger had merely silently stared at you, would you dare to try your luck against it?”

“No.”

“Yeah. Thus, the tiger needed to roar loudly. That way, everyone would gain the courage to slay it.” Xia Huyou said, “Also, the tiger was also protecting a great treasure. What would you do if you were the hunter?”

“I would observe and wait for more hunters to arrive. It would be even better if someone else moved forth to test the tiger’s strength. If it was proven that the tiger was already weak, I would work with everyone to kill it and split the treasure among ourselves.”

Xia Huyou asked, “At that time, would there be a lot of hunters around?”

“Definitely. Those interested to slay the tiger would all be around.”

“But if the tiger suddenly regained its claws and fangs right before its death, what would happen?”

“…”

Su Yu sighed and said nothing else. He finally understood what the Xia Family was planning. They were playing the role of that tiger.

False bravado and loud threats without any action to back their words. They were waiting for all the hunters to arrive. Right before its death, the tiger would kill all those hunters. That way, the tiger cub or the treasure it protected might be able to stay safe.

Su Yu finally understood everything. He finally knew why the Xia Family had been so loud yet helpless at the same time. They were trying to tell everyone that they were weak. They were fishing.

They seemed very experienced in this. New anglers enjoyed reeling in the catch right after they felt something, but most of the time, they would end up with a broken fishing rod with nothing to show for it.

Experienced anglers knew to be patient and only reel the catch in slightly before letting it go again. All this was for the sake of sinking the hook deeper into the fish. The fish had taken the bait. But the hook was not deep enough yet.

Furthermore, there were more fish in the vicinity. If the angler wanted to catch all the other fish, they had to be patient with it. It would be even better if they reel the catch in after all the fish took the bait.

But would the bait, fishing rod, and line be durable enough for this?

***

Su Yu sank into thought.

Marquis Xia’s threat sounded strong, but it also gave off a feeling of weakness.

After issuing the threat, Marquis Xia spoke impatiently, “No matter what, this is Great Xia. Feng Ji is a part of Great Xia. Think carefully before casting your vote. Also, Chen Yong is not a criminal. Zhou Pochong, stop passing your judgment on him. That’s all I have to say. Let’s stop wasting time and proceed with the vote.”

Then, he wrote something on his jade talisman. Nobody saw what he wrote. He had actually written “one” on it. Yes. He had voted to perform a soul search on only Feng Ji. When Silk Destroying King received the vote, he gave Marquis Xia a deep look.

Marquis Xia had actually voted for the first option: to search Feng Ji’s memories!

At this time, Great Ming’s representative walked toward Hu Qi and said, “Elder Hu, the prefect said that you may vote for Great Ming.”

Hu Qi blanked out. What? But immediately after, she understood Zhu Tiandao’s meaning. The prefect wanted her to ask Su Yu for his choice before casting the vote. But She believed that there was no need to ask. He would naturally vote for the second option: investigate the eight families.

“Is the prefect using this chance to sell the kid yet another favor?”

Hu Qi was quite speechless. The prefect was truly not letting go of any chance to sell Su Yu a favor.

She sent a voice transmission to Su Yu and said, “I’ll be voting for the second option. The prefect might have…guessed something.”

She did not tell the prefect about Su Yu’s departure. But she also knew that Zhu Tiandao was very smart. He must have guessed the truth. Zhu Tiandao wouldn’t have sent the representative to her for the vote otherwise.

After a short hesitation, Su Yu replied, “Please wait a moment.”

Hu Qi blanked out.

Numerous thoughts appeared in Su Yu’s mind, including Xia Huyou’s words. He looked at Marquis Xia and saw that the marquis was constantly looking around, as though he was observing everyone’s reaction. The marquis met Su Yu’s gaze for a short moment, but he looked away again after a smile.

“Casting the bait…and catching the fish…”

While Su Yu was deep in thought, Xia Huyou sat beside him with a calm smile, as though he was completely unaware of the crisis the Xia Family was in.

“A fierce tiger…won’t be able to catch a big fish!”

Suddenly, Su Yu looked at Feng Ji before lowering his head again. His martial uncle was the one who had sent Feng Ji back. Back then, his martial uncle had easily landed Di Feng and Huang Qifeng in big trouble by creating a witness to testify that they were the ones spreading the rumor. He was even able to force Zhou Mingren to resign as a vice principal with that ploy.

“Would this work against Invincibles?”

Su Yu was able to guess his martial uncle’s plan. Feng Ji would have his mind searched to prove his innocence. It was actually a good thing for him as that was the only way he could obtain true freedom.

“Senior Hu, please vote for the first option.”

Hu Qi’s heart skipped a beat. First option? Why? Su Yu was not voting to have the eight families investigated. What was the meaning of that? Zhu Tiandao had given Su Yu the choice. Why?

If he only wanted to sell Su Yu a favor, he could have picked the second option directly. There was no need to ask Su Yu about it. Numerous thoughts filled Hu Qi’s mind. Finally, she stopped thinking and wrote “one” on the jade talisman.

***

Yuan Qingdong and his colleagues were feeling incomparably nervous.

Zhou Pochong walked over and spoke through voice transmission, “What are you afraid of? We will win the vote. Who would offend the eight families for the sake of Feng Ji? Don’t forget that we have eight Invincibles behind us.”

“Start contacting the various prefectures. Qindong, contact Great Yuan. Zhang Ying, contact Great Liang.”

After making some arrangements, Zhou Pochong walked toward Great Zhou’s group. Of the forty votes, the Knowledge Seeking Realm had one vote. Out of the thirty-nine remaining votes, they only needed to secure nineteen votes for victory.

Of course, this voting session would not only determine the fate of Feng Ji and some other people. It might even show the future trend of the entire Human Realm. Numerous voice transmissions were being sent as everyone discussed among themselves.

One jade talisman after another was submitted to Silk Destroying King.

He casually tossed all the jade talismans onto the table in front of him with a smile on his face. Suddenly, Great Han King asked, “Silk Destroying, what’s your vote?”

Silk Destroying King said, “Me? I’m here to watch the show. I’ll be staying neutral by voting the third option.”

Great Han King gave him a deep look and asked nothing else.

But at this moment, Silk Destroying King asked, “How about the two of you?”

They represented the stance of two prefectures.

Great Song King smiled and said, “I’ll be picking the third option as well. Sigh. There are things that are better off left alone.”

He glanced at Hong Tan and Zhou Pochong before continuing, “We’re old friends. Back then, we once fought side by side in numerous bloody battles. But now, we have to walk our separate ways due to some issues. I…don’t know who’s right or wrong.”

Who was right? And who was wrong? He didn’t have an answer to that. His emotions were rather complicated.

Silk Destroying King smiled and continued collecting the votes. After some time, he said, “Everyone, you need to hurry up. Twenty-eight votes have been collected. There are twelve votes left. The result better not be a tie or it would be boring.”