Tribulation of Myriad Races

Brave Martial General had created a complete story in her mind. And that was an extremely reasonable story. That was a story she made based on Su Yu’s age and strength. It was very reasonable. Great Zhou King was here to monitor him. He was clearly a puppet ruler.

Brave Martial General continued, “Su Yu, from your age, I can see that you have decent talent. Cease your delusions. Stop dreaming about subduing Hundred Battle after his return. Don’t even dream of making him your subordinate. That won’t happen. Youngsters tend to grow overconfident. But this is simply a joke. If I were you, I would drag things until the very end instead of taking the initiative to help Hundred Battle.”

Su Yu nodded, “That is a fair suggestion.”

Brave Martial General was relieved to see Su Yu nod. She looked at Great Zhou King cautiously and said, “This is not a good man.”

Su Yu nodded, “Yes. He’s not what one will traditionally consider a good man.”

Great Zhou King said helplessly, “My…loyalty has never wavered. How am I not a good man?”

They were supposed to be here to subdue her. Why did it turn into a session to criticize him and Hundred Battle King?

Su Yu smiled and said, “Perhaps you’re right. Therefore, I’m in dire need of support. How am I supposed to contend against these people without support? Brave Martial General, please consider leaving your seclusion and lend me a hand. Do your part in preventing humanity from falling into the hands of Hundred Battle King again.”

Different people needed to be handled differently.

Brave Martial General looked at him before looking at Great Zhou King again. She solemnly said, “With this snake around you, you won’t be able to develop your own support base.”

Su Yu smiled and said, “Therefore, I truly need your support. Yes, Great Zhou King is deceitful. But he has been bought off by me. Now, he will turn a blind eye to some of the things I do. He won’t interfere in everything. There is still hope. After all, Hundred Battle has yet to return.”

Brave Martial General frowned and asked, “How many experts do you have under you? How many pseudo kings?”

“Pseudo king…”

Su Yu did a quick calculation. Fat Ball, South Heavenly King, and Lan Tian. Wan Tiansheng, the old turtle, and Great Zhou King were still slightly weaker than that. But the old turtle was near.

With a smile, he answered, “Three for now.”

“Is any of them truly supportive of you?”

Brave Martial General said, “That is actually a decent number. Far higher than I imagined. Do you have any supporters among them? Do I know them?”

Pseudo kings would not sprout out of thin air. Perhaps those were her old friends. She needed to know if there were Hundred Battle supporters among them.

“I naturally have my supporters among them.” Su Yu grinned and said, “I wouldn’t have ascended to this position otherwise, right? Two of them are probably strangers to you, but one of them is probably a familiar name. South Heavenly King of the Death Ream. Does that name ring a bell?”

“South heavenly King?”

Brave Martial General blanked out. A death spirit?

She said, “Don’t tell me that’s your supporter. But I understand why. Since she’s from the world of the dead, she doesn’t know the world of the living much. However, her support is too limited. She can’t leave the world of the dead.”

Su Yu laughed and said, “But she’s still a pseudo king, right?”

True.

Su Yu continued, “Apart from you, are there any ancient human Daofuses who are also not supportive of Hundred Battle? I can only fight back with your support. I don’t want to become a puppet. Brave Martial General, I am now the human lord. I am now the leader of the countless humans down there. I have the legitimacy. There is hope. If I give up, even that tiny bit of hope will be extinguished. The moment Hundred Battle returns, he will regain control over humanity. And humanity will be in deep trouble.”

Brave Martial General frowned. After a long silence, she said, “Your strength is also important. Without enough strength, your struggles will be pointless.”

Su Yu smiled and said, “I am near the level of a pseudo king. Perhaps I will reach that level in a few months. By the time Hundred Battle King is back, I will be strong enough to compete against him.”

Brave Martial General sank into hesitation.

Su Yu added, “Without enough support, I’ll have no choice but to concede and hand the fate of humanity to Hundred Battle…”

“No!” Brave Martial General protested vehemently, “Hundred Battle can serve as a soldier, but not a leader! Under his leadership, humanity will suffer yet another defeat!”

She continued struggling. After a while, she gnashed her teeth and said, “I can help you. But my people must stay. They will continue living here. Also, South Suppression Marquis, Stable Army Marquis, Shadow Marquis, and Cloud Fire Marquis are all loyal supporters of Hundred Battle. Those men are all fools. They can only speak with their fists. Cloud Water Marquis is different. I can try to persuade her for you. She dislikes that barbaric Hundred Battle as well. Actually, she’s a supporter of Culture King!”

“…”

Su Yu shot Great Zhou King an odd gaze.

Look at that. Stupid men like them were all supporters of Hundred Battle King. Meanwhile, women like Brave Martial General were the actual smart ones who were not supportive of Hundred Battle King.

A realization dawned on Su Yu. It would seem like he would gain a bunch of female subordinates before long.

South Heavenly King and Marquis Lanshan were all supporters of Culture King. Clearly, Culture King had a lot of fangirls.

And it was clear that his fangirls would all look down on the likes of Hundred Battle King. Wow. Poor guy. Was he that terrible? Su Yu couldn’t help but start feeling bad for him. How did he earn the ire of so many women?

Was a barbarian not deserving of loyalty?

Just look at Brave Martial General. Initially, she was unwilling to leave her seclusion. But the moment she heard that it was for the sake of stopping Hundred Battle, she wavered. She was willing to start taking initiatives, and she even offered to persuade Cloud Water Marquis for him.

In short, he was getting two for the price of one. Why? Because she did not want to see humanity follow Hundred Battle again.

Great Zhou King rolled his eyes inwardly.

After a long while, he sent Su Yu a voice transmission, “Emperor Yu, you were right. All women were obstacles.”

Su Yu laughed. He replied through voice transmission as well, “What are you talking about? I think women are all smart and well. They are far more reliable than stinky men like you.”

Screw that!

Great Zhou King cursed inwardly. This guy was only saying that because she was willing to support him. If she was a stubborn supporter of Hundred Battle King, this guy would react differently.

Noticing that the two were conversing through voice transmissions, Brave Martial General grew wary and said, “What are you doing?”

Su Yu said, “He’s trying to persuade me to not fall into an attempt to incite disharmony. He’s saying that Hundred Battle isn’t an enemy. He’s telling me to not trust you.”

Brave Martial General’s voice turned frosty as she said, “Sure enough, he’s trying to interfere. This is why we can’t allow Hundred Battle to return to power. Su Yu, I can help you. But I have a term.”

“What is it?”

“When Hundred Battle returns, I will leave if I find that you’re unable to keep your grip over humanity.” She coldly said, “I am not interested in throwing my life away for nothing. Hundred Battle knows nothing except punching his enemies to death. Either beat his enemies to death or he dies. That is his sole strategy. But is he capable of beating everyone to death? Under his lead, humanity will suffer another defeat.”

Su Yu nodded, “That is acceptable. If I’m not a match for Hundred Battle when he returns, you may leave.”

Brave Martial General was relieved to hear that. “At the very least, you’re sensible.”

She added, “No matter what, you have the title of the current human lord. Things are not completely hopeless for you. Take this time when Hundred Battle has yet to return and develop your own support base. Suppress all dissenting voices. Only then can you stand a chance against him.”

Su Yu nodded, “Yes. I deeply agree with that.”

Finally, Brave Martial General smiled. She found this human lord a lot more pleasant than Hundred Battle. At the very least, this was someone who was willing to take in outside opinions.

Meanwhile, Hundred Battle was an obstinate, self-opiniated, and barbaric brute. He was incapable of taking in any advice. Or to be precise, he was unwilling to listen to her. But he was willing to listen to those old men. He was a total fool.

She continued cursing Hundred Battle inwardly.

Human lord…

She looked at Su Yu again. Hopefully, this human lord wouldn’t be a fool.

She could no longer remain in seclusion.

In fact, an invitation by a human lord was enough to make her exit seclusion. She had merely resisted because she wanted to fight for some voice under this human lord’s camp. And had seemingly worked well.

She truly didn’t want to follow a stubborn fool again. Since this human lord was not such a person, it was acceptable for her to serve him.

“Give me some time to settle my people. Wait for me outside. I’ll be there in two hours.”

Brave Martial General said, “After leaving, I can take you to see Cloud Water Marquis. As for the others, I suggest that you ignore them. Those are all bothersome fellows. They will drag you over to help with their attempt to free Hundred Battle. That’s the same as throwing your lives away.”

Su Yu said, “We’ll see. For now, we might need to use any power we can gather. With your support, I can perhaps restrain them somewhat lest they start messing with our plans, right?”

“Perhaps.”

Brave Martial General couldn’t be sure either. Perhaps they could be put to use temporarily.

Su Yu smiled and said, “In that case, we’ll wait outside.”

He did not stay for long. In fact, it might not be a bad thing for her to leave her subordinates behind. This was still a relatively safe hiding place. It would be safer for those subordinates to remain here.

***

Shortly after, Su Yu and Great Zhou King reappeared outside the Line Gorge.

Right after they were outside, Great Zhou King asked speechlessly, “So what was that?”

Su Yu laughed and said, “What’s the problem? Is Hundred Battle so perfect that everyone will support him? If you ask me, that was a perfectly normal reaction. Previously, I have been wondering about their intellect for supporting him even after such a massive defeat. But clearly, it’s not that he has no critics. Rather, most of his critics are probably dead.”

Great Zhou King nodded and said, “When Brave Martial General learns that we are all supportive of you, she will no longer be so wary. We can’t convince her with words alone. She will understand how things are after spending some time with us.”

At times, words alone wouldn’t work. The more they tried to explain things, the more she would believe that Su Yu was a fool who was fully under their thumb. In that case, they might as well not explain anything.

Su Yu nodded and said, “Time will prove everything. This isn’t bad for us.”

He was in a great mood. He had thought that every single ancient fossil he met would be a loyal supporter of Hundred Battle. But no. He had encountered someone different.

***

Brave Martial General arrived after more than an hour.

She glanced at Great Zhou King, but she couldn’t be bothered to say anything to him. Instead, she looked at Su Yu and said, “I’ll take you to Cloud Water Marquis’ place, but the two of you should stay outside. Let me talk to her first. That’s especially true for this Zhou Tiansheng. He shouldn’t show his face to her.”

“I have known Cloud Water Marquis for many years. I can probably convince her, but…”

She looked at Su Yu and warned, “Do not appear too soft or you won’t be able to win her respect. You need to work hard yourself if you want our help. The two of us are far from enough to stop Hundred Battle.”

With a smile and a pat at his robes, his entire presence transformed. His previous gentleness vanished, replaced completely by complete overbearingness. Brave Martial General blanked out. The change…was so sudden.

One’s temperament was an accumulation of experience. It wasn’t something that could change so easily. But Su Yu had transformed from a soft and gentle young man to a boundlessly domineering man in a flash. What was this?

She regained her calm shortly after and nodded, “Yes. This is it. As the human lord, the ruler of humanity, how can you be so soft? You need to be domineering as well.” This was acceptable for her.

Perhaps this new human lord was really not as soft as she thought. This was a good thing. It would be far too hard for her to help a soft human lord.

Su Yu smiled and said nothing. He wouldn’t mind winning the support of Cloud Water Marquis and Brave Martial General so easily. That would leave him with only South Suppression Marquis, Cloud Fire Marquis, and Shadow Marquis to handle.

Su Yu believed that Shadow Marquis was a smart man. A smart man would know the right choice to make. He was also a well-informed individual. He knew a lot more than Brave Martial General, who had been isolated from the outside world for too long.

In that case, only South Suppression Marquis and Cloud Fire Marquis were left to handle. Cloud Fire Marquis owed him a favor. Yes. Su Yu had not forgotten how he had saved Cloud Fire Marquis from the encirclement of the myriad races.

As for South Suppression Marquis, he would worry about that later.