Tribulation of Myriad Races

Celestial River of Death.

The four stared at the hanging river in the sky. This was Su Yu’s first time looking at this river from such a near distance. He could even hear the sound of flowing water coming from the river.

“So this is the Celestial River of Death.” Su Yu said with some hesitation, “Why does it look so similar to the River of Time?”

Grandstar nodded and said, “According to the rumors, a supreme expert attempted to create his very own River of Time back then. But he walked the path of life and death as he aimed to shatter the barrier between life and death to achieve true immortality. Even at the event of death, he wanted the ability to cycle endlessly between life and death. But from how things are here, it’s clear that the expert did not fully succeed. He mastered the death part, but not the life part.”

Su Yu gasped in shock and said, “Are you saying that this entire place was created by a super expert?”

“I’m not sure. That was an event from the primordial past.”

Grandstar shook his head and said, “We only came in contact with the Death Realm after the conquest. At the time, the Death Realm was already conquered by the Martial King and the others.”

Su Yu did not ask more. Instead, he soared forward and stepped onto the dark river in the sky.

Boom!

Instantly, a claw shot up from the river. He responded by gripping the incoming claw and pulling at it, dragging a fish-headed death spirit out of the river. The water on his arm was extremely corrosive as it was essentially the liquid form of death qi.

Surprisingly, the entire Celestial River of Death was formed of liquid death qi. The death spirit caught by Su Yu wasn’t too strong. It was only a Sunmoon. It did not even seem to be sentient. Instead, it had merely attacked instinctively.

Behind him, Grandstar explained, “There are countless death spirits here, and their strength varies. Be careful. Some top experts might have remained in slumber for many years. They might awaken at the tiniest stimulation. That would be troublesome to handle.”

Su Yu nodded and looked ahead. The river was wide enough that he couldn’t even see the other side from where he was. Nevertheless, he wasn’t worried. Marquis Qishan had proven that the river could be crossed.

Just then, Grandstar took a token out and said, “This is a suppression seal. With this, you can suppress some death spirits. It might help when crossing the river. Our boss’ token is even more useful as it can manipulate even the power of laws slightly.”

Su Yu laughed and said, “I’m aware. I hear that East Heavenly King’s token can control the power of laws as well.”

“As a heavenly king, that is only natural. This was a power granted to them by the ancient imperial court.”

Su Yu nodded and looked around as his eyes shone. When he looked down at the river, he saw countless submerged death spirits. Even on the surface, numerous floating death spirits could be seen. The floating death spirits were clearly weaker than the submerged ones.

After a while, he saw one of the floating death spirits being washed off the river by a random wave. There, the death spirit stood up blankly before roaming off into the distance.

That was a Sunmoon death spirit. At times, over a thousand death spirits would be washed ashore in a similar manner. This was essentially the origin of the numerous death spirits populating the Death Realm.

Right then, Su Yu reached out and grabbed a large draconic death spirit. He said in surprise, “A dragon?”

The gigantic death spirit stared at Su Yu with confusion and fear in its eyes. It replied with a stiff voice, “Who…you…”

Su Yu frowned, “Why do you look familiar?”

Su Yu looked at Grandstar. Noticing Su Yu’s glance, he smiled and said, “What a coincidence. I remember that guy losing his entire body to you. How did he awaken so soon?”

“Who is it?” Heavendoom asked in confusion.

Empyrean Cloud rolled her eyes and said, “Don’t you ever pay attention to the affairs of the various cities? This was Grandstar’s previous mayor, that dark dragon.”

“Oh.” Heavendoom shrugged indifferently, “We will lose a mayor every few centuries. After going through so many mayors, who would care? I lost track when Grandstar’s mayor was still a bull. When did he get himself a dragon mayor?”

Grandstar ignored Heavendoom and continued staring at the death spirit. After a while, he shook his head and said, “I doubt it’s the same guy. As a mayor and half a death spirit, that guy might really awaken much earlier than a regular death spirit after dying. But I doubt this is the same guy. They merely look similar.”

Su Yu smiled and said, “It doesn’t really matter.”

His Mark of Civilization appeared and swallowed the dead dragon.

Su Yu said with a smile on his face, “Anyone who has offended will be killed once alive and killed again dead.”

“…”

How ruthless.

What could be more ruthless than killing one’s enemies twice?

For Su Yu, just being a dragon was enough for this death spirit to die. Why? Because of the Dragon Pseudo Emperor’s participation in the battle against him.

“What now? Do we keep going ahead?”

Heavendoom looked at Su Yu.

Su Yu stared into the distance and said, “That is East Heavenly King’s home ground. It is definitely a lot more dangerous over there. And I don’t even know Marquis Lanshan. It’s hard to predict how she will react to our proposal…”

Then, he chuckled and created a character clone. Back then, Fiery Sea King was strong enough to do something like this. At Su Yu’s current strength, he was naturally capable of doing the same.

That was a character clone manifested from the patience character. Su Yu sent a strand of his willpower into the clone. Then, he took a tiny token out. It was his crown, also the holy token forged during his coronation. Instead of keeping it in its crown form, he had transformed it into a token before handing it to the clone.

“Go, look for the East Heavenly Palace, and try to meet Marquis Lanshan. Tell her that the current human lord wishes to meet her.”

Heavendoom hurriedly asked, “Are you really sending only a clone? What if it lost the token?”

Su Yu said, “It’s fine. I’m the only one capable of using it. That is a symbol of my identity, but it’s no big deal if it’s lost. Nobody can make use it. I can simply retrieve it in the future.”

Su Yu was the sole person capable of using it. Each generation of human lord would have their own token. After putting the token away, the clone rushed off.

It moved noiselessly. As the patient character, it was naturally good at infiltration.

Even so, it was still not free from the harassment of the random death spirits in the river. Following behind the clone as an escort was the Mark of Civilization. It would consume every aggressive death spirit without mercy.

The Mark of Civilization escorted the clone all the way to the other side of the river before returning. At worst, Su Yu would lose a character doing this. But he wasn’t too concerned.

That was a character originating from Great Zhou King. If it wasn’t for the sheer usefulness of the calm character, Su Yu would have crushed all of Great Zhou King’s characters long ago.

Thus, he was fine with losing the patience character. He could easily form more in the future by converting techniques and abilities after linking both his source qi and willpower.

***

East Heavenly Domain.

East Heavenly Palace.

The massive palace stood alone under the dusky sky. Inside the palace, numerous death spirits could be seen moving about for different tasks.

The main hall was also East Heavenly King’s throne room. Dozens of side halls surrounded the main hall, acting as the residences of the death spirit marquises. At its peak, the East Heavenly Domain was home to dozens of death spirit marquises. Many had died, and only ten were left.

Thus, only ten of these side halls were still occupied. One of them was the Lanshan Hall.

The residence of Marquis Lanshan.

Unlike the other busy halls, Lanshan Hall was rather bleak and dead. Only a small number of death spirits could be seen in it, including a few death sovereigns. These were all human death spirits.

The death spirits there were in a heavy mood. Recently, Darkmoon Marquis had reported to the heavenly king that due to Marquis Lanshan’s collusion with the Spirit Suppression General, Marquis Qishan and the others had perished. In his rage, the heavenly king whipped Marquis Lanshan’s dao body three hundred times, leaving her with heavy injuries.

The death spirits walked solemnly for a while before arriving before a large room. Seated in the center of the room was Marquis Lanshan. She had her back to the entrance, and she was staring at a painting hanging on the wall.

“Lord!”

A death sovereign entered the room and reported, “The East Heavenly King held a meeting earlier and decided upon an attack on the Spirit Suppression Domain to capture He Tu. Your subordinates were appointed as the vanguard, with me serving as the leader of the vanguard.”

Marquis Lanshan turned around and said, “Does he really not care about the imperial court anymore?”

The death spirit sighed and said, “Lord, the ancient past…is no more. The imperial court is no more as well. The East Heavenly Domain has become a playground of East Heavenly King. Lord…there is nothing we can do.”

In the past, their position wasn’t as weak since there were several human death spirit marquises here. But after several epochs, Marquis Lanshan was the only one left.

She had maintained a low profile and stayed patient for many years. Alas, she had finally lost patience recently and acted. But due to that one action, their position had turned even harder than before.

After a short silence, Marquis Lanshan said, “Just obey the order, then.”

“At this rate, something will happen to you as well. Why don’t you flee, Lord?”

Marquis Lanshan did not reply. Fleeing? Why had she stayed patient for so many years? Because with her around, she could still care for these human death spirits! The moment she left, there wouldn’t be a single human marquis left. There was no doubt that with her absence, all the human death spirits would also cease to exist.

Would the other marquises give the human death spirits the space to grow? Over the years, Marquis Lanshan had gathered over a thousand human death spirits. There were Sunmoons and Eternals among them. Without her around, these human death spirits would have been devoured by the other death spirits long ago.

With her around, the others still needed to hold back slightly against the human death spirits. If she were to leave…

Marquis Lanshan sighed inwardly. She couldn’t. Leaving would be the same as giving up on even the tiny bit of hold humanity had over the East Heavenly Domain.

Just then, her eyes flickered as she stared into the distance. She muttered, “I seem to have…sensed something.”

She walked out of the door and stared ahead. She could sense something approaching. Something incredibly important. What could it be? It felt familiar, but she couldn’t recall what it was.

But suddenly, her expression changed. As a death spirit, her change of expression wasn’t too obvious. Even so, the death sovereign behind her noticed it. He asked, “Lord, what is it?”

“Nothing.”

She turned to look at the main hall. After a while, she looked outside again. At present, it was too hard for her to move around. Thus, she said, “Yusheng, take some people and pick a fight with Darkmoon Marquis’ people. Just claim that you don’t want to be the vanguard. Try to occupy their attention.”

“Yes!”

The death sovereign left without asking anything. Shortly after, he headed toward a different hall with a group of death sovereigns.

Shortly after…Boom!

Yusheng’s voice rang out, “Why must I be the vanguard? Why are bastards like you staying behind?”

That attracted the gazes of numerous marquises.

At the same time, Marquis Lanshan sent a strand of death qi out with a wave of her hand. Instantly, that strand of qi vanished outside the palace.

***

Before Su Yu’s clone could reach the palace, it heard a voice, “Leave! Go further away!”

With a blank expression, the clone followed the strand of death qi away.

After moving far away from the palace, the strand of death qi turned into an indistinct silhouette. It looked at the clone and asked, “Who are you?”

“The clone of the current human lord. Are you Marquis Lanshan?”

“Human lord?”

The silhouette flickered slightly before asking, “What…does the current human lords…need from me?”

“Turn against the East Heavenly Domain, kill a marquis, and flee into the Spirit Suppression Domain. This is the order of the human lord.”

Then, the clone took a small token out.

“This is the holy lord’s token. Marquis Lanshan, do you accept?”

Hearing the request, the silhouette flickered even more. Betraying the East Heavenly Domain and fleeing into the Spirit Suppression Domain. What about the others in the East Heavenly Domain?

After some hesitation, the silhouette spoke, “But there are still many human death spirits here…”

The clone said with the same blank expression, “The human lord knows what to do. Marquis Lanshan, do you accept?”

Marquis Lanshan had mixed feelings about this. The current human lord was quite a domineering one. He expected her to accept his command without providing any explanation.

“What other orders does the human lord have?”

After a long silence, the clone spoke, “This is an extremely dangerous mission. You may think it through before deciding. If you are willing, please act as soon as possible.”

The silhouette said, “But if I leave, the human death spirits might all be killed…”

“It won’t happen instantly. They won’t do anything before first ensuring your death.”

The clone repeated, “Marquis Lanshan, do you accept?”

Staring at the seal, Marquis Lanshan saw the maps of the thirty-six prefectures on it. She saw the current map of the Human Realm. This was an indication of humanity’s support.

The current human lord.

And the token of the current human lord.

She did not know Su Yu. She had never seen Su Yu. Or to be precise, she had seen Su Yu when he killed Wisdom King as she wasn’t that far away. But they had never met properly.

After a short silence, the silhouette said, “Lanshan…accepts!”

At that, the clone handed the token to her and said, “This token can’t be lost. Return it to the human lord upon meeting him. With this token, he can track you at all times.”

Then, the clone left with a flicker. Looking down at the token in her hand, Marquis Lanshan’s emotions grew even more complicated. She held the human lord’s token in her hand.

The human lord was…so overbearing.

If she refused the order, would the human lord come personally to retrieve the token?

At that thought, Marquis Lanshan laughed. Perhaps…this was the type of leader the current humanity needed.

“Leaving the East Heavenly Domain…”

After taking a glance at the East Heavenly Palace, the silhouette vanished with a flicker.