Tribulation of Myriad Races

Ignoring their shock, Su Yu said, “Stable Army Marquis is residing in the Brightmoon Flower Valley. That is also a danger zone. We’re not familiar with that place. If he manages to escape us…”

Su Yu rubbed his chin and continued, “Things will get very troublesome.”

Lan Tian grinned and asked, “Is escape even impossible for him? According to Zhao Chuan, he is probably around Fallen Star Marquis in strength. I can instantly subdue him with Great Zhou King by my side. Where can he go?”

In fact, Lan Tian could even defeat Stable Army Marquis alone. But accidents might happen. With Great Zhou King, not even accidents could happen.

Su Yu laughed and said, “Don’t underestimate the experts up here. That’s even more so for the humans who have survived for so many years. Ignoring everything else, they are very good at preserving their lives.”

Lan Tian beamed and said, “You’re around as well, right? No matter what, we won’t have much issue capturing him.”

Su Yu nodded, “Yes, but only if the information we have is accurate. He has over twenty Eternals under him and about a thousand experts below the Eternal Realm. If there are no other Daofuses in his faction, it won’t be too hard to subdue him.”

They had a decent number of Eternals. Over twenty of them. And prior to this, they had also deployed a decent number to the Lower Realm. In short, just Stable Army Marquis alone was already capable of deploying as many Eternals as the Lower Realm humans could. Then again, this wasn’t too surprising.

The Lower Realm humans had only restarted their cultivation for hundreds of years. Meanwhile, the Upper Realm humans enjoyed an uninterrupted continuation from the ancient past.

Unfortunately, the weaker Upper Realm humans were declining in number. As they had to keep running everywhere from the myriad races, they couldn’t propagate as freely. Furthermore, the weaker ones could easily drag others down in intense battles. They would usually be the first to die.

Thus, an imbalance where the number of top experts was high while the number of weaker cultivators was low came into existence. At this rate, the Upper Realm humans would lose all their non-Eternal humans. And eventually, they would suffer extinction. After all, a race couldn’t be continued with only a handful of elderly experts, right?

While rapping on the armrest of his chair, Su Yu smiled and concluded, “In that case, let’s subdue Stable Army Marquis first.”

Liu Shan hurriedly said, “Lord, there is no need for that! If you really represent humanity, we can simply inform the marquis about this. He will definitely treat you with utmost respect! There is no need for conflict between us!”

He couldn’t understand it. Since they were fellow humans, why were these people insisting on attacking the marquis? Wasn’t this something one should only do to one’s enemies? Were they really on humanity’s side?

He was starting to grow doubtful. And as his doubt grew, his nervousness grew as well. Just who were these people?

Emperor Yu?

Great Ming King?

Great Zhou King?

There was no Emperor among the current humanity!

Su Yu chuckled and said, “I’ll first subdue them before talking to them. It’s safer that way. Don’t worry, I won’t do anything to Senior Stable Army if he’s not a traitor. But I need to be cautious. After all, you never know what someone is thinking deep inside…”

The safest method to handle the Upper Realm humans was to view every single one of them as a traitor. To first subdue them before talking to them.

Su Yu looked up at the sky, exhaled, and said, “We’re decided, then. We don’t need too many people for this mission. After all, we’re not there to conduct mass slaughter. Senior Grandstar, you’ll stay here with September. Everyone else will remain in the encampment. Great Zhou King and the others, you’ll go with me.”

Liu Shan couldn’t stay still. He hurriedly said, “Lords, we are fellow humans. A conflict between us can easily cause unintended damage among ourselves. Why must we resort to this?”

He was worried about his marquis. He was also worried that these people would slaughter his people wantonly.

Su Yu did not bother to explain anything. With a wave of his hand, they lost their ability to talk. Two incorporeal shackles appeared in his hand, shackling their power of dao. He had noticed that the power of the various daos was much easier to utilize up here.

Su Yu couldn’t understand it. He had been looking around since arriving, but the River of Time was nowhere to be seen. Perhaps it would be visible further away, signifying that the River of Time’s influence had also spread to the Upper Realm. But perhaps that would only be a small part of the river.

Even with a tiny bit of access to the River of Time, these people were able to somehow able to cultivate the numerous daos of the River of Time. This did not make sense. However, this was not the time to further investigate the matter.

Cultivation in the Upper Realm also felt easier. Due to the weak influence of the River of Time, the suppression on one’s cultivation was also much weaker. Whether one was fusing with a dao or pioneering a new dao, one would normally be faced with the suppression of the River of Time. But that suppression was clearly weaker here.

In fact, Su Yu and the others felt a lot lighter up here, as though their daos had been released. He finally understood why so many experts wanted to come up here instead of remaining in the Lower Realm.

But was it really better to relocate up here? Su Yu was still doubtful. Those in the Upper Realm might be able to unleash more power from their daos. But their power also felt somewhat empty, or ungrounded, in a way.

“Is it due to the lack of tempering from the River of Time? But cultivating here is indeed easier. This is a good place for someone attempting a breakthrough. But it is not all sunshine here…”

There were pros and cons to cultivating up here.

With all that in mind, Su Yu looked at the guardians and said, “Before my return, don’t attempt to break through even when it feels possible. The dao suppression here is too weak. Any breakthrough will create a massive phenomenon.”

He finally understood the reason for there to be no new human Daofuses up here. In the Upper Realm, any breakthrough was akin to lighting a candle in the dark. Due to the weaker dao suppression up here, any breakthrough would be extremely conspicuous.

“Yes!”

Everyone answered.

Finally, Su Yu looked at Great Zhou King and said, “Let’s go.”

“Okay.”

With that, Su Yu, Lan Tian, Great Zhou King, and Great Ming King vanished. Su Yu was taking Great Ming King along because he needed Great Ming King to lay down some concealment formations during the battle to prevent the leak of any information.

***

Brightmoon Flower Valley. One of the danger zones of the Upper Realm.

True to its name, this was a place with countless flowers. It wouldn’t be an exaggeration to say that there was a sea of flowers here. As for the other part of its name, some of the flowers here would bloom like bright moons at night. However, anyone exposed to the light of these flowers would be poisoned.

The poison of these flowers was extremely powerful, capable of killing even Daofuses. In a way, the Upper Realm could be considered an undeveloped world. Thus, it was filled with numerous environmental dangers.

Even after so many years, many of these environmental dangers remained. That was mainly due to the lack of Masters of Laws up here. Some of the danger zones were dangerous enough to kill even heavenly kings.

And with the passage of time, some of these danger zones became areas everyone would avoid. The Upper Realm humans had only picked these areas as their hiding places due to sheer desperation.

To survive, they had to go wherever it was the most dangerous to break free from the pursuit of the myriad races. The myriad races might have spent countless years hunting the Upper Realm humans, but they hadn’t been able to kill too many of these humans. Most of the surviving humans were hiding in the danger zones where the myriad races could easily provoke some unwanted dangers, forcing them to retreat each time they attempted to wipe these humans out.

Nevertheless, life was hard for these humans. They would still lose some people in each battle. The places they could reside in had been steadily decreasing over the years.

Brightmoon Flower Valley.

Night had arrived, and countless shining flowers could be seen. Each flower was gigantic. Some were even as big as mountains. Some were blooming, and some weren’t. But all of them were glowing. As they glowed, the radiance they released converged to form a moon in the sky.

Within one of these massive flowers, numerous humans resided. This was the hideout of Stable Army Marquis. Even if the myriad races wished to attack him, they would need to first locate the right flower amid the sea of flowers.

Even after discovering the right flower, they had to be careful of the aggression from the nearby flowers to reach the flower. And upon reaching the flower, they still needed to be careful of the aggression of even stronger flowers during their battle.

Clearly, this was an extremely dangerous place. In fact, Stable Army Marquis had spent countless years and lost numerous people exploring this place. In fact, even he himself had suffered several injuries before he managed to locate a flower suitable for inhabitation. He had picked a flower with petals that could be freely opened or shut.

At night, he would have the petals shut, protecting the humans residing inside from the radiance of the other flowers. The space inside the flower was large enough to fit over a thousand people. This had been Stable Army Marquis’ base for over eighty years. Thus, a tiny town had been built in it.

As per their regular protocol, they would need to switch to a new place when a hundred years were up. After all, that was enough time for the myriad races to figure out everything about their hiding place. In fact, there were times when they would switch their location after only fifty years. And each migration would also be a time of massive losses.

Thus, they wouldn’t relocate for a hundred years if possible. Even late at night, people were still moving on the streets of the small town in the flower. Some were old, and some were young.

After eighty years here, they had managed to produce some youngsters. Stable Army Marquis was very happy about this. For the current Upper Realm humans, the appearance of new lives was more precious than the appearance of new Eternals.

Back when the ninth epoch ended, he still had hundreds of thousands of humans in his faction. After a few thousand years, only a thousand or so of them were left.

Thus, his biggest worry was no longer the lack of new experts. Rather, he was worried about the lack of new lives. Even after over eighty years of staying here, they had only produced roughly eighty new lives. Stable Army Marquis was greatly worried about this.

At this rate, the myriad races didn’t even need to hunt them down anymore. They would simply die off by themselves given enough time.

As of late, the activities of the myriad races in the area seemed to be increasing. As a result, his worry intensified. That was why he had proceeded to send a team of people to the Lower Realm. That was an act of desperation on his part.

He could only hope that those in the Lower Realm could really do something to distract the myriad races. As for the progress of that mission, he had no idea. He only knew that the myriad races that had been active in the area had withdrawn as of late.

According to his limited sources of information, something seemed to have happened down there. The myriad races had lost a lot of experts, and that had angered the ones up here. Thus, they had been focused on the Lower Realm humans as of late.

Night had arrived outside.

But it was still bright in the valley thanks to the many shining flowers.

Clad in his battle armor, Stable Army Marquis walked along the street. To the two sides of the street, some simple houses could be seen. Luxury was not what they pursued in their current situation. They only needed a place to stay and cultivate in peace.

Several individuals were following behind him on this patrol. This was something he would do every single day. Firstly, doing this could maintain the confidence of his people. Secondly, this was also a good chance for him to do a quick headcount of the people still in the town. Thirdly, this was a way to show everyone that Stable Army Marquis was still around and well.

Of the three, performing daily headcounts was extremely important. They had to be careful of any humans who might defect from all the hardships they were experiencing. It wasn’t like something like that had never happened before.

After undergoing so many hardships, some failed to hold on and decided to leave. Normal desertions weren’t that bad, but defection would be disastrous for them.

During the early period preceding the ninth epoch, some of the human experts had not taken this matter seriously. As a result, quite a number of human experts had died due to the betrayal of these defectors.

Stable Army Marquis did not dare to forget the mistakes of the past. Due to the small size of the town, he was able to complete the headcount quickly. Nobody was missing.

He exhaled and muttered softly, “I wonder how things are in the Lower Realm.”

The experts following him were also ancient fossils like him. Each of them looked perpetually worried. One of them, a white-haired old man, replied, “Do not worry too much, Marquis. Since the myriad races are trying to handle the humans down there right now, it is clear the humans down there are still around.”