Tribulation of Myriad Races

As they moved, faint traces of light swirled around Su Yu. That was not due to his anger. Rather, that was merely the power of laws.

He was dispersing the weaker power of laws in the area to strengthen the grasp of the human lord’s token over this place. With this, those from his side would have an easier time fighting in the Death Realm.

“You are growing stronger and stronger, Your Majesty.” Marquis Lanshan praised with admiration. She could feel that Su Yu had grown much stronger than before.

Furthermore, Su Yu was feeling more and more like Culture King…no, at the same time, he was feeling more and more unlike Culture King. This was a very complicated sensation.

In the past, Su Yu greatly resembled Culture King. And now, he resembled Culture King even more. But at closer scrutiny, he would look completely different. His very disposition had taken a turn toward a different direction, one that was different from Culture King’s disposition.

He felt more overbearing than Culture King, and less gentle than Culture King. Before long, the Celestial River of Death was visible before them. The gigantic river spanned across the Death Realm in a circle. But at a closer look, that wasn’t the case. When Su Yu looked up, he had a feeling that the river was more like a tent than a circle.

The unseen parts of the river covered the entirety of the Death Realm, as though it were connected to every corner of the realm.

“Tent…no, it is more like a bowl. A square bowl.”

Not an upside-down bowl closing down upon the Death Realm. Rather, an open bowl spreading to the edge of the Death Realm, reaching to the world of the living in order to bring the dead to the Death Realm.

The more Su Yu looked at the river, the more he was alarmed. His comprehension of the various daos had grown considerably since his previous visit here. He could see that the creator of this river was also the creator of the death spirit dao. That was an individual who had truly tried to create a new world. Would a powerhouse like that truly die?

Who could even kill such an individual? It was likely that even the master of humanity’s physical body dao would not be as strong. With those thoughts swirling in his mind, Su Yu stepped onto the river.

Countless corpses floated on the surface, but even more were submerged within the river. Golden light spread out beneath Su Yu, causing the smarter death spirits to instinctively move away from him.

As for the empty-minded death spirits, they would simply melt away upon contact with the golden light.

***

At the same time.

North Heavenly Domain.

A massive token floated above the domain. That was North Heavenly King’s token. It was shining with a dark radiance, enclosing a majority of the domain in its embrace. Outside, the experts from the South Heavenly Domain and East Heavenly Domain were pressing in.

Slowly but surely, they were reducing the reach of North Heavenly King’s influence. Suddenly, North Heavenly King appeared in the sky and looked in a certain direction. Far away, South Heavenly King looked in that direction as well.

A tiny dot of golden light had appeared far away. South Heavenly King’s expression changed slightly. Had the new human lord arrived?

With a complicated expression, North Heavenly King said, “South Heavenly King, the human lord must have arrived. Like I said, I only have one request. I only want to continue ruling my domain. Inform the human lord of how difficult it will be for him to conquer the North Heavenly Domain. If the living continues interfering in the affairs of the dead, the entire Death Realm will stir. He can kill me, but he won’t be able to maintain his grip over the Death Realm.”

The separation of the living and dead. This was the source of North Heavenly King’s confidence. No matter how powerful the human lord was, he couldn’t afford to further provoke the Death Realm. If the white dog from before were to come one more time, things could get out of control.

North Heavenly King continued, “We can keep fighting, and one of us will die. But with that, a few new heavenly kings might emerge from the river. Can the human lord guarantee that these new heavenly kings will submit to him?”

South Heavenly King coldly said, “The human lord will not tolerate your disobedience.”

North Heavenly King replied, fury seeping into his voice, “Conquer the Myriad Realms first before talking like that. I am willing to make concessions. I have been clear about that. Humanity has declined for nine epochs. If the Death Realm stands behind the current humanity, further chaos might arise upon humanity’s defeat.”

In truth, South Heavenly King understood North Heavenly King. He simply didn’t want to bow again. Could humanity really win? It did not seem too likely. The current humanity looked powerful, but the Upper Realm was still sealed away.

The moment the connection to the Upper Realm was restored, balance would shift. Could the human lord handle it? But South Heavenly King did not harp on the issue. Instead, she continued looking toward the distant golden light. The human lord must be heading toward the East Heavenly Domain. Should she be there?

Marquis Lanshan thought highly of the human lord, but South Heavenly King knew that the new human lord wasn’t too strong. If he were as strong as Culture King, he could have suppressed North Heavenly King with a casual wave of his hand. They would not be in their current difficult situation.

In South Heavenly King’s eyes, Culture King and the others were far stronger than Su Yu. Regardless of what Marquis Lanshan said, this new human lord was insufficient.

***

East Heavenly Palace.

Su Yu stepped into the seemingly dead main hall of the East Heavenly Palace. It wasn’t that the place was empty. The place was simply filled with death spirits. The guardians behind him were feeling quite alarmed.

There were nearly a hundred death sovereigns here, and standing before them were three marquises. Human marquises, to be precise. Including Marquis Lanshan, there were four marquises here.

All the death sovereigns and marquises focused on Su Yu. None said anything. Meanwhile, Su Yu strode straight toward the throne without looking around.

When he took the seat, Marquis Lanshan and He Tu shouted, “We greet the Emperor!”

The death sovereigns dropped to their knees, followed by the marquises after a slight hesitation. They were unfamiliar with this human lord. But both Marquis Lanshan and He Tu had been brainwashing them as of late, telling them endless stories of how great this human lord was. Thus, they didn’t dare to take this human lord lightly.

Su Yu’s gaze landed on the three marquises. All three were men.

Wavecloud Marquis, Oceanwave Marquis, and Puresolar Marquis.

All ancient marquises.

Of the three, two were posthumous marquises like Marquis Lanshan. Puresolar Marquis was the exception, someone who had died a marquis during an ancient battle. The rest had died earlier. The other marquises and Masters of Laws had vanished alongside the Human Emperor.

While Su Yu was observing them, they were also observing him. He was the first human lord to expand his influence to the Death Realm in ten epochs. That was not to say that the humans of the previous nine epochs had never thought of subduing the Death Realm, but they simply lacked the ability. Or perhaps the Death Realm was never their focus. Even Hundred Battle King had given up after a few battles with East Heavenly King.

Then again, it was understandable. He was a pure living being while Su Yu was a pseudo death spirit.

After a while, Su Yu broke the silence, “The three human marquises had contributed significantly to the previous battle. He Tu, grant each of them a marquis death imprint.”

“Yes!”

The three bowed again and expressed their gratitude.

Su Yu asked, “Since the three of you have joined the East Heavenly Domain, do you have any questions for me? Or anything you wish to say to me?”

The three remained silent. But after a while, Puresolar Marquis said with some hesitation, “Human Lord, how many Daofuses does humanity have in the world of the living?”

“Four.”

Only four!

They frowned. That was too small a number.

“The Upper Realm…”

Su Yu gave a nonchalant reply, “I lack information, so I’ll pretend the Upper Realm doesn’t exist for now. I don’t know the situation there well enough.”

Helplessness filled them. No way. Marquis Lanshan had claimed that the current humanity had a huge advantage over the myriad races in the world of the living.

Puresolar Marquis said, “Human Lord, do you mean to utilize the power of the living and the dead against the Upper Realm?”

Su Yu chuckled and said, “I’m not sure yet. We’ll see. Things can change instantly in war. Nothing is ever set in stone.”

“What is your current strength, Human Lord?”

“Daomeld.”

Puresolar Marquis sank into silence.

Wavecloud Marquis said, “Have you considered that your act of slaughtering the myriad races blatantly right now might invite disaster upon the opening of the Upper Realm? Excessive slaughter will ruin the chance to even ease humanity’s relationship with the myriad races.

“During the past epochs, even when humanity held the upper hand, the human lords would not slaughter the myriad races blatantly. That would only worsen the relationship between humanity and the myriad races…”

“Therefore, they all lost.” Su Yu remarked indifferently, “They lost completely. Worsening relationship? What a joke. Has our relationship with them ever been good? We were already hostile since the very beginning.”

Wavecloud Marquis argued, “We can’t be so absolute in our judgment. If we push things too far, the myriad races will also escalate things and aim for the extermination of humanity—”

“They have been trying to do that since the beginning.”

Su Yu interrupted the marquis and said, “Do you understand me? Humanity endures not because of its kindness. No. We are still here due to the contingencies left behind by our predecessors. The myriad races have been trying to exterminate us. They have simply failed. Their position will not soften just because we decide to soften our position. This is a wrong belief to hold.

“How can you believe that as ancient marquises? How laughable. The ancient past is no more. We don’t need to rule the myriad races and make them a part of us. This was the strategy of the ancient Human Emperor. He failed.

“That is no longer our pursuit. We aim to exterminate them, to erase all threat. You can doubt my strength. You can doubt my future. But I won’t change my direction because of your doubts. Living? Dead? All must follow me. That is the only thing I ask of the people following me. You can curse at me. You don’t have to like my choice. I won’t change.

“Don’t bother telling me about the previous nine epochs. I am not interested in the strategy of losers. If I were to lose, if there were another epoch, you could tell the next human lord about how Su Yu had failed everyone. But for now, I am firm in what I want to do.”

The three marquieses listened helplessly. Fine. There was no need to say more. This human lord would never listen. He would not care. As far as he was concerned, the humans of the ancient past and the previous nine epochs were all losers.

Puresolar Marquis did not harp on the same issue. He said with some doubt in his voice, “Allow Puresolar to be presumptuous and ask you this question. What will humanity do when the Upper Realm opens if we’re still not a match for them?”

Su Yu said, “If we’re not a match, we’re not a match. Are we a match now? Why don’t you ask Hundred Battle King a different question? Ask him why he lost nearly a hundred of our Daofuses.”

“…”

That resulted in an awkward silence.

Su Yu continued, “Don’t ask me what I’ll do if we’re not their match. That is a pointless question. Without me, humanity would have fallen by now. Don’t bother talking about the future with me. Only the victor is qualified to talk about the future. I am not the cause for our current weakness. I am not taking the blame. You can whip Hundred Battle King’s corpse all you want, but you don’t have the ground to talk to me about this. I am not to blame for humanity’s current weakness.”

The three marquises smiled sheepishly. There was nothing they could say to that. But that had to admit that this new human lord was indeed overbearing. They couldn’t even question him.

No, they weren’t even questioning him. They were merely voicing their worry. Then again, he was right. If they weren’t a match, they weren’t a match. It wasn’t like they were a match now. The previous epoch was the reason for that. It was pointless to talk about that now.

Su Yu said, “It is pointless to talk about the future. You asked the wrong question. I understand. You are too old. You have been away from the world of the living for too long. You know what you should be asking instead? You should ask about the North Heavenly King. What are we to do with him? What are we to do after we handle him? The Upper Realm is not something we should worry about now.”

“…”