Tribulation of Myriad Races

Goldwing’s death had put an end to Su Yu’s effort to learn more about the unknown Invincible. But he was in no rush. With Great Xia’s plan in play, the Invincible would still be forced to appear in the end. Hong Tan had broken through. Before long, Xia Yunji and the others would break through as well. Liu Wenyan’s return would most likely be the final push needed for that Invincible to make an appearance.

The thought of Liu Wenyan reminded Su Yu of the time. November had arrived. It hadn’t even been half a year since the crazy feat they pulled in the ancient city, yet a lot had happened. Su Yu wondered how Liu Wenyan was. Had he entered the Sunmoon Realm? As long as he was willing to crush Ye Batian’s characters, he would be able to grow quickly.

***

A few days passed as the Human Realm remained in chaos.

Unsurprisingly, Xia Yunji broke through not long after Hong Tan. This genius from over fifty years ago had finally stepped into the Sunmoon Realm. After countless tribulations, he had became the second Sunmoon of Great Xia’s multiple character faction.

This breakthrough shocked even more people. Was this a coincidence or was that Culture Tomb really so effective? Just a tiny bit of leaked aura from it was already capable of helping both Hong Tan and Xia Yunji with their breakthroughs. That seemed a tad bit too impressive.

One ought to note that the Sunmoon Realm wasn’t so easy to reach. Yet Xia Yunji had stepped into that realm after being stuck for decades.

During the past few days, the Heavenly Hunt Pavilion had also been extremely active.

Or to be precise, Profound Nine had gone mad. Leading a group of white and black masks, he had been killing people everywhere. His entourage included the sect masters who had submitted to him. He acted fearlessly, targeting as many cultists as he could.

The cult had a decent number of Sunmoons. Among them, four were late-stage Sunmoons. They were respectively the sect masters of the Earthfire Sect, Titanic Strength Sect, Original Devil Sect, and First Divine Sect.

Apart from them, there were also the two sect masters of the Six-Winged Divine Sect and two other sect masters who had also joined Su Yu. Additionally, the cult also had more than ten middle-stage Sunmoons. If Poison Venerable and the others who had been killed by Su Yu recently were included, the cult would have more than twenty of them.

As Su Yu started rooting out the cultists, a Sunmoon sect master was killed within three days. Two more Sunmoon sect masters were forced to surrender to him. With this, the cult was only left with four late-stage Sunmoons and two or three Sunmoons who had been remaining in hiding.

***

Underground.

Once again, a meeting of the Myriad Race Cult was held. Previously, there would be more than ten Sunmoons and dozens of Mountainseas attending such meetings. But now, only a few of them were left.

The current meeting was attended by seven Sunmoons. Four were late-stage Sunmoons and three were middle-stage Sunmoons. These were the only remaining experts of the cult in the entire Human Realm.

The cult, built over hundreds of years, had seemingly come crashing down in only a few days.

Silence enveloped the room.

After a long time, a sect master said in a defeated manner, “I once thought that the cult could face even a prefecture if we came together as long as no Invincibles were involved. We could even establish our own prefecture and become a respectable local power. But now…I finally understand how naive I was.”

That had indeed been too naive. A year before, the cult counted over twenty Sunmoons in its ranks. This year, only seven were left. This was a massive loss.

A different Sunmoon sect master said in fury, “The various prefectures don’t even know that much about us. Silverwing and the others are the truly hateful ones. They know us too much. Through their help, the bastards from the Heavenly Hunt Pavilion were able to kill Profound Nether Sect master and the others.”

A fortress was the easiest to break from within. As fellow cultists, even if they were in different sects, they still knew each other well. For example, the stronghold of a sect might be known to other sects. Even scarier was the fact that some sect masters had even been betrayed by their vice sect masters.

Thanks to the cultists who had joined the pavilion, Su Yu was able to kill a Sunmoon and persuade two more Sunmoons to defect. Of the four late-stage Sunmoons, Lan Tian and the First Divine Sect master remained silent.

The burly man from the Titanic Strength Sect gnashed his teeth and said, “We can’t continue like this. We’re in a difficult position. The human race wishes to kill us while the myriad races wish to control us. Back then, we agreed to join hands against the human race and the myriad races. But now…that promise seems like a joke.”

He looked at the First Divine Sect master and Lan Tian before continuing, “Are the two of you going to watch and do nothing as the cult declines? We have only grown to our current size after many years of hard work. All that hard work just to end up as a vassal of the Heavenly Hunt Pavilion?”

Everyone present looked at the two. Some of them couldn’t accept this, while some only wanted more freedom instead of turning into white masks and black masks. And only these two could do something about their current situation.

Lan Tian grinned and said, “The solution is simple. Become my subordinates and receive my protection. This is no big deal.”

That further annoyed the others.

The Earthfire Sect master said, “Talk about that after slaughtering an entire city filled with people first. Lan Tian, the Original Devil Sect is a devil sect, not a holy sect. Are you really believing that you’re a saint?”

Lan Tian laughed, “How idiotic. Can killing solve anything? Apart from turning everyone against you, that won’t achieve anything. What’s the point? Do you remember our goal? We are doing this to save humanity and establish an era of eternal peace…”

Not this again! Lan Tian’s ideals were too annoying to deal with.

Most of them were only in the cult to make some profit. Very few of them cared about such ideals. Meanwhile, Lan Tian was a madman who fully believed in these ideals. He would speak about world peace all the time, giving one the impression that his devil sect would turn into a holy sect soon. Just how were the original devils tolerating someone like that representing them in the Human Realm?

“First Divine Sect master, what do you think about this?”

The First Divine Sect master was as calm as ever. He replied, “I have no opinion. Xia Longwu is going to attempt his dao affirmation soon. I am thinking of taking this chance to make my attempt as well. I don’t care about anything else.”

Lan Tian was surprised, “You caught your tri-life bodies?”

“Guess.”

“No thanks. That’s boring.” Lan Tian laughed, “First Divine, you sure are calm. Profound Nine has been running around killing our people recently. I’m impressed with how calm you are. Perhaps you’re actually from the pavilion as well?”

“I think you’re Wan Tiansheng’s spy.”

First Divine Sect master said, “Lan Tian, there are rumors claiming that you’re very close to Wan Tiansheng. Are you from Great Xia?”

Lan Tian laughed, “Yeap. That’s why I have nothing to fear! I have an alternative. Even if the entire cult is destroyed, I can return to Great Xia. But this is not an option for you all!”

The sect masters grimaced. They were completely at a loss about what to do with Lan Tian. Sure, some might claim that he was a spy. But…that didn’t seem too logical as he was simply too crazy. He would rarely kill, but his ideals were too crazy and convincing. He had managed to brainwash a large number of people to work alongside him for world peace.

And how exactly did he intend to accomplish that? Simple. He preached that the borders of the Human Realm should be opened. A settlement should be built on a piece of land to accommodate all visitors. Eventually, the settlement should grow into the trade center of the Myriad Realms.

He had actually managed to convince quite a lot of people to follow him. Truth be told, many of his fellow sect masters felt that compared to him, they were all regular people while he was the one true cultist. Most of them couldn’t do anything more damaging than killing. And that was not something humanity feared. This was especially true for those from Great Xia.

But the Original Devil Sect had been preaching everywhere, spreading their ideals to all who would listen. Somehow, they were able to gain quite a lot of followers. Their teachings were too infectious. In fact, some prefectures even found their teachings so agreeable that the government would actually turn a blind eye to their activities.

Thus, it was quite unlikely for someone like him to actually be a spy from Great Xia.

The Earthfire Sect master didn’t even deign to say anything about that. He looked at the other sect master and said, “First Divine, I know this isn’t something you care about. But even if you do manage to complete your advancement, you still need subordinates, right? Do us a favor today. In the future, we might consider following you when you choose to rise up in the future…”

First Divine Sect master replied, “It’s fine. I don’t need anyone following me.”

“First Divine, are you really going to watch as we die?”

“Just surrender to the Heavenly Hunt Pavilion.”

First Divine Sect master said, “They need experts. Silverwing and the others have joined them. Titanic Strength, Earthfire, both of you are seventh-stage Sunmoons. You might even get promoted into elders if you join them.”

The two mentioned Sunmoons were displeased. At their level, they were not willing to become the subordinate of others.

Any late-stage Sunmoon would start thinking about dao affirmation. But upon joining the Heavenly Hunt Pavilion, they would fall under the control of their Invincibles. Would they really be allowed to complete their dao affirmation in the future?

Silverwing and the others were different since they were still not strong enough to consider dao affirmation. They still had a lot of growing to do. It wouldn’t be too late for them to worry about dao affirmation in the future.

Furthermore, the two sect masters were already used to life as big shots. Even the myriad races would treat them with relative respect due to their cultivation level. Could they really accept joining the Heavenly Hunt Pavilion and becoming subordinates again?

Big shots would naturally consider things differently than small fries.

First Divine Sect master remained completely indifferent as he said, “If you have to, just follow Lan Tian’s suggestion and join him. He’s an eighth-stage Sunmoon as well. Working together, you might be able to put up quite a fight. Even the Heavenly Hunt Pavilion must consider properly before going after you.”

A different Sunmoon said, “First Divine, we only trust you. Lan Tian…is too hard to trust.”

Lan Tian spoke up, “My friends, this isn’t right. How do you know First Divine is a good guy? Perhaps he’s taking a step back now just to advance later. He’s pretending to not care so that he can get all of you to submit to him willingly. This is merely an act. Perhaps he’s the actual spy from Great Xia. Be careful with him. I tried investigating his past before. He has a mysterious past, but I did manage to find out that he was slightly related to Great Xia. In fact, I’m suspecting that he’s Nan Wujiang, the third principal of Great Xia Cultural Research Academy.”

Lan Tian grinned as he continued, “Nan Wujiang’s so-called death was simply too suspicious. After spending years in Great Xia Cultural Research Academy, I found out that the third principal was very different from the other previous principals. Regardless of whether it was the first or the second principal, the trajectory of their lives could be traced clearly all the way to their deaths. Meanwhile, the third principal seemed to have disappeared suddenly one day. The only proof of his death was an eye-witness claiming to have seen him dying while fighting a Pseudo Invincible from the divine race. He only left his main character behind, the character that would eventually become the Devil Battling Field, one of the grottos in the academy that is still around even today.”

“Is Nan Wujiang dead? I doubt so. When did First Divine first appear? Around the same time as Nan Wujiang’s death, right? How did he become the master of the First Divine Sect? I heard that the previous sect master had suddenly promoted him before dying. A lot of people challenged that promotion, but they were all killed. This is too suspicious. This guy had appeared out of nowhere before becoming the sect master. Someone so strong shouldn’t be someone with no history.”

The First Divine Sect master said nothing. An uncomfortable silence enveloped the room.