Tribulation of Myriad Races

“We are newcomers…”

Before North Heavenly King could say more, Dragonblood Marquis solemnly said, “North Heavenly King, are you scared of those sealed fellows? Do you know that when we went there previously, Dizhiluo contacted us in secret to kill you and join them? You don’t wish to provoke them, but they never intended to spare you.”

North Heavenly King’s expression changed.

Dragonblood Marquis continued, “I doubt I was the only person they attempted to recruit. I believe a lot had received the same offer, but none bothered to report it to you. I reckon something will happen if you keep staying low like this, Lord. I am blunt. But I also know that with you dead, things might not end well for the rest of us unless we can produce another heavenly king. But is that possible?”

He sneered and asked, “Lord, are you still worried about provoking those fellows after learning about this?”

Once again, North Heavenly King’s expression changed. Dizhiluo had attempted to collude with the marquises under him. That was understandable. But none had actually bothered to inform him about that. This was terrifying. He would still remain in the dark about this if it weren’t for Dragonblood Marquis.

He had fourteen marquises under him, but only one had bothered to inform him of this. This…was a bad sign.

Clearly, his patience, the prowess of humanity, and the prowess of the sealed death spirits had shaken the belief of his subordinates. They had all tacitly agreed to keep the matter a secret. They might even be preparing for their eventual betrayal.

North Heavenly King gave Dragonblood Marquis a long stare before laughing, “What nonsense. Dragonblood, I am already aware of this matter. In fact, I have received several reports about it. But it is pointless to make such a matter public.”

“Why are you making it seem like everyone is preparing to prepare me? Do not do this again. Since you intend to personally expand our territory, so be it. Fifty-seven sovereigns had followed us here. With one dead, we are left with fifty-six. You only have three under you. I’ll allow you to recruit one sovereign from each marquis to join you in this endeavour.”

Inwardly, he was cursing. In the end, only a brute like Dragonblood was willing to be honest with him. In response, he was weakening the forces under their control. A sovereign would be conscripted from each marquis. With that, Dragonblood Marquis alone would control sixteen sovereigns while he had eight under him.

Of fifty-six sovereigns, the two of them controlled twenty-four. That was a rather considerable number. He refused to believe that these marquises would have the courage to deny him right now. No matter what, he was still a heavenly king. They wouldn’t resist unless they were ready to rebel now. Sure enough, the marquises did not protest.

Some mere looked at Dragonblood Marquis while cursing inwardly. Silence did not mean that they intended to betray North Heavenly King. They were merely keeping a door open in case of emergencies. After all, the Sealed Region had a far higher number of experts.

Thus, everyone had reached a tacit understanding to keep silent about this. In the future, they could even use North Heavenly King as the token of their loyalty to win the favor of the Sealed Region. And if those from the Sealed Region couldn’t break free, they could continue following North Heavenly King.

But Dragonblood had ruined this for all of them. What a fool! Did he think that fawning upon North Heavenly King like this would get him any substantial benefits? They were furious. North Heavenly King was no longer the same heavenly king with the North Heavenly Domain.

He was still strong without his domain, but without the support of the heavenly laws, he couldn’t face five or six marquises at once. In his domain, he could handle at least eight marquises at once.

They were all rendered speechless by the stupidity of Dragonblood Marquis. However, Dragonblood Marquis merely sneered. He was completely unbothered.

Very good.

Sixteen sovereigns. What a beautiful number. He had even driven a wedge between North Heavenly King and the other marquises. He could already picture the scene where he joined hands with North Heavenly King to kill a few of these marquises.

This wedge would grant him the perfect excuse to kill these marquises. North Heavenly King would most likely not hesitate to kill traitors.

“But before that, I need to prove my loyalty to him. I need to be ruthless when handling the subordinates of those sealed fellows. This will win North Heavenly King’s trust. Those fellows will remain sealed for quite some time. For now, North Heavenly King still reigns supreme here.”

Dragonblood Marquis started drawing up a plan. For the first time after becoming a death spirit, he was filled with excitement. His ambition was swelling without stopping. North Heavenly King? Experts of the Sealed Region? They were all food!

But since he wasn’t strong enough yet, he needed to be patient. He would do more upon reaching the level of a heavenly king.

He said, “Lord, I will gather the experts and eliminate the people in our path. Dizhiluo, what a clown. He can talk big after breaking free, but not now.

“They are merely prisoners. Who knows if we’ll still be around when they break free? Some fools believe that the human lord and South Heavenly King are easy to handle. Can those sealed fellows be relied upon when another war breaks up? How laughable. For now, we can only rely on North Heavenly King.”

Dragonblood Marquis had never felt so sensible to North Heavenly King before.

Yes. Those sealed fellows were merely a bunch of prisoners. They might remain sealed even when Su Yu’s attack arrived. At that time, these marquises would still need to rely on him!

A bunch of fools!

He was furious, but he didn’t show his anger. His view of Dragonblood Marquis had changed completely. Dragonblood Marquis might seem like a brute, but he was actually quite smart. Sure, he might have killed a sovereign in his anger earlier, but that was no big deal.

A mere sovereign. So be it.

Dragonblood Marquis said, “Lord, I’ll be taking my leave now. Please wait as I conquer a new kingdom! We might lose some people in the process, but it is inevitable. In our current situation, we can’t afford to worry too much.”

And then, he flew away. After a moment, he shouted at the death sovereigns, “You, and you, and you, come with me! A war is coming!”

He was supposed to conscript only thirteen death sovereigns and command sixteen death sovereigns in total, including his original subordinates. But he had left with twenty death sovereigns. Two of them were even the direct subordinates of North Heavenly King, sovereigns near the Daofuse Realm.

The others were displeased by this. Just as someone was about to speak, North Heavenly King said, “Let him be. Since he’s willing to fight for our expansion, this isn’t a bad thing for us. This is an unfamiliar and dangerous place for all of us. Of course, any of you are free to join him. Perhaps you can kill a marquis or two and reduce the number of our enemies for us.”

Nobody said anything. They decided to let the barbaric Dragonblood Marquis do as he wished. They were certain the subordinates of the sealed fellows were nearby. The marquis who had ambushed them previously was no weakling. Thus, leaving their current territory to conquer more territories was a relatively dangerous task.

Since Dragonblood Marquis was volunteering for such a task, so be it. And just like that, Dragonblood Marquis departed with twenty death sovereigns and nearly a million regular death spirits. He was filled with excitement. He finally had the perfect excuse to distance himself from North Heavenly King and the others.

It would be perfectly normal for him to lose some sovereigns in a war of conquest. Everything would be fine as long as he had the results to show, such as the deaths of some powerful enemies. He could also borrow the power of the death spirits under him to kill the subordinates of the sealed fellows. In fact, he would be more than happy to trigger a massive war between both sides. That way, he would be able to take advantage of the chaos to pursue his own agenda.

***

Su Yu could feel all that.

He felt like laughing in amusement. His little friend was an ambitious person. And with ambitions, even a death spirit could change rapidly. Due to his ambitions, this death spirit had seemingly grown smarter.

Su Yu had a rough idea of who that death spirit was.

Dragonblood Marquis.

The stronger the death spirit page became, the better Su Yu could sense Dragonblood Marquis’ actions and thoughts. Others might find it hard to guess what Dragonblood Marquis was plotting, but it was not an issue for Su Yu. After all, he was the culprit for Dragonblood Marquis’ change.

“Everything is within control.”

A certain thought crossed Su Yu’s mind. Since everything was in control even with a fake dao, what about the master of the River of Time? If there were such a master, would every cultivator of the River of Time be under that master’s control as well?

And would all death spirits in existence fall under the control of the death spirit dao’s master? What about the cultivators who had fused with the various daos instead of creating their own daos? Would they be fully under the grasp of the masters of these daos?

Just who was truly in charge in this world?

Who?

Who was the enemy Culture King and the others were facing?

Why did Culture King separate himself from the pen dao? Was it only because the dao was too weak? Or did he simply lack confidence in it? Regardless of how strong it was, it was still something on the River of Time.

“The Myriad Realms hold far more secrets than I know.”

At this point, not even the Upper Realm was a mystery for him anymore. A better question to ask was whether the disappearance of the ancient past was related to this.

“Things are getting more and more interesting.”

Su Yu smiled. The opening of his Heaven Gate had allowed him to discover many new things, while the Book of Time had allowed him to understand many new things.

***

Su Yu ended his recovery session. His injuries weren’t that bad to begin with. By now, he was already almost fully healed.

Comprehending the dao was not something one could do just by cultivating in silent meditation. Combat, scheming, experiencing something new, and seeing something new. All these would contribute toward the comprehension of the myriad daos. Only cultivating through seclusion was nothing but a joke. One could spend a hundred thousand years meditating in seclusion only to grow a tiny bit.

For example, people like the old turtle had spent a long time in seclusion. What was unknown to them in the beginning would still remain unknown to them. Even after over a hundred thousand years, they had not grown much in strength. In Su Yu’s opinion, this was the biggest flaw of cultivating only through seclusion.

Before long, he reappeared in the sky.

This time, the old turtle had arrived as well. Looking at Su Yu, the old turtle said, “Emperor Yu, I won’t be entering these realms as the suppressive force will work on me. But if you encounter any trouble, you can force them down the Death Realm. As long as it’s in the Death Realm, I can contend against even a heavenly king.”

He added, “Great Ming King has achieved Daofuse, but the phenomenon was quite big. The myriad races might have noticed it.”

Great Ming King had finally reached the Daofuse Realm as well.

Su Yu smiled and said, “It doesn’t matter. The myriad races can’t do anything about it. This isn’t a bad thing. If they know, so be it. They will only fear us more.”

Su Yu was very happy to hear that Great Ming King was finally a Daofuse.

Great Xia King and Great Ming King were among his biggest supporters. Unfortunately, Su Yu knew nothing about formations. Thus, he hadn’t been able to help Great Ming King. Instead, he had only helped Great Qin King and Great Xia King with his mastery over physical cultivation.

If physical cultivation was also suitable for Great Ming King, he would have pushed Great Ming King into the Daofuse Realm as well. Fortunately, Great Ming King had achieved a breakthrough by himself.

Thank the heavens for West Royal Consort!

That formation of hers had benefited Great Ming King greatly. Without that formation, Great Ming King’s progress of comprehending the dao would have been much slower. His fast progress was proof that he had learned a lot about the dao from the formation.

At that thought, Su Yu was reminded of the sealed West Royal Consort. In truth, not much time had passed. It had only been about one month since she was captured.

That was nothing. For an expert at West Royal Consort’s level, such a short imprisonment would be viewed as an attempt by Su Yu to temper her attitude. That was what she believed. Even now, she was waiting expectantly for Su Yu to recruit her. She believed that she had behaved well recently, showing an unyielding yet soft side of hers, mixing indignation with resignation, slowly transforming the resignation into submission.

She was confident such a performance would be enough to tempt Su Yu, who she was certain was observing her in secret.

Little did she know, Su Yu had only checked on her twice. Both times, he had only checked to ensure that she was still clueless about the latest happenings in the Death Realm. He couldn’t risk having her kill herself.

He wouldn’t allow that to happen. She was still very useful to him. In fact, he even intended to use her as bait for some big fish from the Upper Realm. In fact, Su Yu had been considering whether he should find some time to visit and placate her. He had to give her the hope of survival. He couldn’t allow her to lose hope and kill herself. She was too valuable for that.

“Great Ming King’s advancement is a good thing. With the various realms sealed, it is unlikely that they will notice what we are doing as long as we stay away from those realms.”

With a smile, Su Yu said, “Senior Grand Dream, send a message to the guardians. Have them contact Director Wan and tell him to gather the Iron Devourer Pseudo Emperor, the two soul devourers, the book spirit, and the tea plant before heading into the boundless void. There, they will hunt for the Heavenly Overseer Marquis and Bountiful Treasure. Keep those two busy in the boundless void lest they return and mess with my plans. Even now, the two are still hiding somewhere out there.”

“Yes!”

The old turtle did as told and passed on the message through the guardians. Before doing anything, they had to keep those two away.

“Tell Great Ming King to head toward the Phoenix Realm. He is to lay down a formation the moment he senses something. If not, remain on standby.”

“Yes!”

After sending the message, the old turtle asked in excitement, “Is the Phoenix Realm our first target?”

“Yes!”

Su Yu smiled and said, “Phoenix Realm, followed by the Ape Realm and the Kunpeng Realm. We will save the Dragon Realm for the last.” The Celestial Dragon Marquis was the strongest among his targets. Something unexpected might happen in a battle against him. Thus, Su Yu was leaving him for last.

Nobody objected. This was a good arrangement.

Great Zhou King couldn’t help but feel that Su Yu was a very pleasant person to work with. He would consider any possibility one might think of, and he would also consider the possibility one would not think of.

This felt way better than working with Great Qin King. And this also felt better than working with Hundred Battle King.

At the very least, even when Su Yu was weak, he would give one the impression that he would succeed in everything. He was simply too smart. He had the ability to pick the best course of action at the snap of a finger.

Su Yu inhaled deeply and said, “Only success is acceptable. I do not accept failure.”

They had dozens of Daofuse to handle only one Daofuse. If they couldn’t even win with such an overwhelming advantage, they should kill themselves in shame. Naturally, the greatest difficulty of this task was to capture the Daofuse alive. That was an integral part of the plan.

“Great Zhou King, be sure to push your patience dao to its limits.”

Su Yu said, “It will play a crucial role in our attempt to capture this Daofuse. South Heavenly King and Marquis Lanshan will focus on breaking Phoenix Pseudo Emperor’s body and imprison his sea of willpower. Great Zhou King will prevent him from taking any drastic actions. I will enter the River of Time and find a way to seal the power of his dao, preventing him from doing something like self-detonation.”

“Yes!”

They were taking this very seriously. This was an opponent they could definitely kill. But the mission was made a lot more difficult by the requirement to capture the target alive.