Tribulation of Myriad Races

Su Yu cursed inwardly. Then again, Liu Hong had also helped him accidentally. As for whether this interference would interfere with the dao heart of these guardians, it wouldn’t. That was an accident.

An accident was different than having a nanny take care of them. This was something that had caught even Su Yu by surprise. He started wondering if the ink dao would affect the other death spirits as well.

After all, the ink dao was a parasite on the death spirit dao. Previously, South Heavenly King said that the ink dao was crucial for the resurrection of a death spirit. Su Yu wondered if the ink dao could really remove the minor dao connecting a death spirit to the death spirit dao.

If that were the case, Liu Hong would transform into a professional death spirit killer. He would be the best counter to death spirits.

“But…just what is he doing? I keep feeling like he has his own secret goals.”

Su Yu tossed the matter to the back of his mind and returned his attention to the guardians. He was relieved to see all of them alive. This was a great result. It was as though destiny itself was helping him.

Cangshan Nether actually had his dao stolen in the middle of an important battle, resulting in a loss of his senses. In a fight to the death, losing one’s senses would be the same as dying.

Looking at a broken death imprint nearby, his eyes flickered as he said, “Generals, can I share the remains and death imprint of Cangshan Nether with the death spirits?”

Openmountain, who was in the middle of recuperation, opened his eyes and said, “Of course. Do as you please, Emperor Yu. You were the one who had given us this opportunity.”

“Thank you.”

With a wave of Su Yu’s hand, a translucent imprint appeared in his hand. With another wave of his hand, the Mark of Civilization appeared and gathered the black blood, death qi, chunks of dao body, and other remains of Cangshan Nether.

Before long, the remains were compressed into three drops of blood essence. One death imprint and three drops of blood essence from a heavenly king. Su Yu also had a drop of blood essence from East Heavenly King and a drop from West Heavenly King.

He looked at He Tu and Marquis Lanshan. Marquis Lanshan wasn’t weak anymore, but her aptitude felt rather bad. He Tu had a great aptitude. He would be able to maximize his gains through these items.

Even if he couldn’t reach the level of a heavenly king, he could probably reach the level of a third or second-tier Daofuse. Growth was quite easy for death spirits.

As for Marquis Lanshan, her strength was similar to Su Yu’s current level. She was stronger than some marquises, and she should be equal to someone at the upper fourth tier. She was likely slightly weaker than Great Qin King and Great Xia King. Who should receive these remains?

Su Yu could always keep them for himself. But he preferred having the two before him grow stronger and snatch more space on the death spirit dao, preventing North Heavenly King and the others from growing too strong.

After a slight hesitation, he handed everything to Marquis Lanshan and said, “After absorbing all this, you will be near the level of a heavenly king. As long as you deepen your comprehension of the death spirit dao, you will become a peak Daofuse.”

He stole a glance at He Tu and noted that He Tu did not seem to mind.

Marquis Lanshan was not that big a fool. After a short silence, she said, “You should grant these things to He Tu. He has a much better aptitude, and he can grow faster than I can. It won’t take him long to become a heavenly king…”

Su Yu said, “Do not question me. He Tu will get his own opportunities. Eat them all. Stop wasting time. Occupy more space on the dao while it is still shaking so intensely. We still have many battles ahead of us. This is merely the beginning of our war.”

Marquis Lanshan continued hesitating, but ultimately, she accepted the imprint and blood essence. She asked, “Why don’t you keep some of the blood essence?”

Su Yu smiled and said, “There is no need for that.”

“Then…”

“Eat, cultivate, and don’t talk.”

“Understood.”

With that, Marquis Lanshan sat down cross-legged and started her cultivation.

Neither He Tu nor Su Yu said anything else about that. Heavenbridge Marquis, who was beside them, thought about it and said with a smile, “Emperor Yu is truly wise! He Tu is clearly too crafty to be trusted! Marquis Lanshan is a bit slow, so she is a lot more loyal!”

“…”

Su Yu looked at the gate, wondering if he should remove the mouth on that face. Heavenbridge Marquis appeared sheepish. He only said that to ease the tension in the air. Did he fail? Or perhaps that was the truth?

He decided not to expose the petty guy and started placating He Tu instead, “Young He Tu, don’t worry. Your chance will come next. Your ancestor, Devote King, will be glad to see your current accomplishment. By the way, he used to love chatting with me. We could spend an entire year doing nothing but chatting. Why don’t we become neighbors in the future after Emperor Yu’s conquest?”

“…”

He Tu’s face was twitching. He didn’t feel like talking to this guy. Could this guy shut up already? His ancestor loved to chat with this guy? His ancestor must have been truly bored to resort to that.

Just then, the daos of some guardians started shaking as a surge of power of laws converged around them. A short while later, Openmountain healed completely from his injuries. Above him, a dao manifested.

Openmountain’s power on that dao started spreading, occupying more space on it. In the blink of an eye, it broke through a bottleneck. Instantly, his aura changed. He had achieved Daofuse.

The moment he achieved Daofuse, he moved out of the beam of light and stopped absorbing the heavenly reward. He flew toward Su Yu and bowed, “Openmountain of the Spirit Suppression Army greets the emperor. I have achieved Daofuse. Thank you for your favor, Your Majesty.”

Su Yu smiled.

“There is no need to thank me. You were the ones who had killed Cangshan Nether. That was why your reward was so bountiful. Not even Heavendoom and the others had received so much power of laws during their advancement. They weren’t able to kill a heavenly king back when they were trying to break through.”

Openmountain said nothing, but that was a completely different situation.

Su Yu looked at the other guardians and asked, “How many of them do you think can achieve Daofuse from this?”

Openmountain looked over and said, “Apart from me, I believe five more can achieve Daofuse. The ones who have been stuck at the ninth degree for a long time. The rest of them have newly advanced to the ninth degree. It won’t be so easy for them to break through again in such a short time.”

Su Yu nodded. Apart from Openmountain, there were Earthshaker, Battledome, Eternity, Shadowfrost, and Desolate Silence. These were the original ninth-degree Eternals among the guardians.

According to Openmountain, these five were the ones most likely to achieve Daofuse this time.

With some regret in his voice, Openmountain said, “Eternal Serenity isn’t here. Both Eternal Serenity and Sea Burial are at the ninth degree as well. They aren’t that far from the Daofuse Realm.”

Of the five departed guardians, two were at the ninth degree as well. If they were here, they would have a high likelihood of advancing as well.

Su Yu said nothing. Everyone had their own goals in life. Sure, they could achieve Daofuse and grow stronger. But strength and danger came hand in hand. Upon growing stronger, they would also need to face stronger opponents.

He waited silently. Things progressed as expected. The rest of the guardians only managed to further stabilize their cultivation level at the ninth degree instead of advancing. The five mentioned all broke through. For one Cangshan Nether, he had gained six Daofuses. This was quite a worthy trade.

At this point, the faction of guardians alone could provide ten Daofuses and twenty-one ninth-degree Eternals. As for South Heavenly King’s faction, apart from South Heavenly King herself, there were ten marquises under her.

He Tu could be grouped with Marquis Lanshan. Including the three marquises and the two newly captured human marquises, there were seven marquises on their side if He Tu was counted as one as well.

Of those in the Death Realm, there were eighteen death spirits at the level of a marquis, including South Heavenly King. No, Xia Chen must have broken through as well. Thus, there were nineteen of them.

As for the humans, there were Great Zhou King, Great Xia King, Great Qin King, and Tian Yue. Su Yu also believed that Great Ming King wasn’t far from a breakthrough. Before long, humanity would be able to produce five Daofuses.

The two furballs, Fat Ball’s group, the spatial beast, the hou, September, June, and the primordial giant. There were ten of them. If the big tree in Culture King’s Residence could gain sentience as well, including the Heavenbridge Marquis, there would be two more Daofuses.

With such a calculation, Su Yu would have forty-four Daofuses under his command. Of course, not all of them had the flexibility to fight for him at all times. For example, Heavenbridge Marquis was trapped in the mansion. As for the death spirits, it would be too hard to deploy them in the world of the living.

Despite the limitations, Su Yu was still quite impressed. In the beginning, there were hardly any Daofuses on his side. But his forces had swelled considerably since then. There was still a gap with the Upper Realm, but things no longer looked so hopeless.

Of the twenty-one guardians who were still Eternals, more Daofuses might appear. After all, they still had some captured marquises waiting. The five elemental race did not have a proper Daofuse, but they could assemble two teams capable of matching one Daofuse each.

At that thought, Su Yu said, “Try to catch more marquises. The heavenly rewards for killing captured marquises are fewer, but we can still give it a try. There is no need to share the kills. We will let one person have all the kills and try to push one more guardian to the Daofuse Realm. We can even feed the death imprints of these dead marquises to Marquis Lanshan. Maybe we can even push Marquis Lanshan to the heavenly king level while we’re at it.”

Su Yu was feeling quite optimistic about this plan. Previously, the guardians had requested for an intense battle to comprehend the dao amid danger. That requirement had been satisfied, right? It should be fine to feed them with marquises now, right?

Before long, Su Yu left the mansion. He returned shortly after. As of late, the Luminous Domain Mansion was feeling like home for him. He could come and go as he wished. In truth, Martial Emperor did not want him in there, but Martial Emperor was on his best behaviour after seeing the Token of Sanctification. Thus, he had opted to ignore Su Yu.

Since Su Yu was planning to keep draining the power of laws in the mansion, so be it. The more the power was drained, the more of his power Martial Emperor would be able to utilize.

***

And thus, the killing resumed.

A guardian named Battle Bandit was picked this time. Previously, he was at the eighth degree. After killing some death sovereigns, he reached the ninth degree. He had also benefited much from killing Cangshan Nether.

But even after killing three marquises, he did not break through. That was mainly because these captured marquises had all been injured, so the rewards weren’t too rich. Then again, it was normal as the marquises would resist while being captured.

Upon killing the fourth marquis, he finally made his breakthrough. But he clearly felt slightly weaker than the likes of Openmountain. Noticing that, Su Yu decided to stop here. In any case, capturing too many death spirits might result in the awakening of powerful death spirits. This wasn’t worth the trouble.

Just like that, his newly formed plan was destroyed. The rest of the guardians could only rely on themselves for further growth. Then again, this wasn’t a completely bad thing. He had still gained one more Daofuse out of this.

One could say that this was a good result. But after the battle with Cangshan Nether, none of the guardians had their petrification anymore. They could no longer stay in the Death Realm for a prolonged period of time.

Su Yu did not want to further provoke the Celestial River of Death and throw the Death Realm into chaos again.