Tribulation of Myriad Races

Done with explaining everything to March, Great Bamboo Marquis said, ”March, the myriad races are telling us to attend the assembly. What should we do about this?”

”What choice do we have?” March shook his head and sighed, ”Venerable Scrape and the other old farts have been keeping an eye on me. I can’t even stay in the Dao Origin Land anymore. That was why I decided to leave. Here, those old fellows will leave me alone for now. But if we ignore the assembly, they will come after us again.”

How troublesome. He had been minding his own business in the Dao Origin Land, but those people had been keeping such a close watch on him recently that he had to leave. It would be too uncomfortable otherwise.

They had most likely been provoked by his action of approaching the battleground during Su Yu’s attack. It was understandable that they were wary of him since he had approached right after Hundred Battle King was free.

Heavenly Fate Marquis, who had been ignoring the entire battle, was left completely alone even after the incident. He had been keeping a low profile for so long that they would probably ignore him even if he stayed completely silent during the assembly.

Just as March was about to say something to September, his eyes widened as his head snapped in a certain direction. Slowly, his expression turned solemn. Great Bamboo Marquis did the same.

Moments later, April did the same.

That was followed by May.

Then, September did it. Finally, Full Moon did it as well.

All six iron devourers were staring with their eyes wide open. March asked, ”What is this?”

The others looked nervous as well.

Great Bamboo Marquis muttered, ”Are the myriad races...surrounding us?”

That seemed a tad too fast. They hadn’t even refused to attend the assembly.

Why were they here already?

Full Moon whispered in confusion even as she was staring in the same direction with wide eyes, ”What’s happening?”

”...”

September looked at her and muttered to himself that his Full Moon sure was adorable. Why was she staring like the rest of them if she didn’t know what was happening?

At that moment, May coughed awkwardly and asked, ”What’s happening?”

September was rendered speechless. But next, he asked the same question, ”What’s happening?”

Well, he had failed to sense anything as well.

But since March was staring with his eyes wide, they had to do the same, right? This wasn’t embarrassing since April and May had done so before them as well. March was not in the mood to entertain them. Rather, he continued staring solemnly.

He could see a faint concentration of extremely powerful auras approaching. Great Bamboo Marquis was only able to sense them vaguely, but March could sense the approaching auras clearly.

A group of experts.

There were at least five pseudo kings among them.

Was this an encirclement of the myriad races? Or something else? Such a group was powerful enough to wipe out their race even with him here.

As a Venerable, he was powerful. But a Venerable was still not a Master of Law. Hundred Battle King was an exception where he could face multiple pseudo kings at once. Any other Venerable would not be able to handle more than three pseudo kings alone. The strongest among them would probably be able to face five at once.

As for March, he could only face three or four at once, but not more than that. To make things worse, the approaching group had more than that. Apart from the pseudo kings, there were many other top experts in the group as well.

March looked around solemnly. The Bamboo Mountain was the foundation of the Upper Realm iron devourers. However, it was clear that they wouldn’t be able to escape in time.

Just as he was about to order the regular iron devourers to start hiding, a voice rang out, ”Su Yu of the human race is here to visit Senior March. Apologies for the sudden visit.”

”...”

They all blanked out. Then, September said, ”Ancestor, it’s Emperor Yu. Uhm...you don’t need to be so nervous.”

Why was his ancestor so nervous? Wasn’t this ancestor supposed to be amazing? Wasn’t he a Venerable? Why was Emperor Yu’s approach enough to shock him so much? His eyes was opened so wide it almost felt like his eyeballs were going to pop out soon.

Finally, Great Bamboo Marquis was able to sense the approaching auras clearly. He sent March a voice transmission in a hurry, ”They didn’t have so many people previously. There was only one pseudo king in the group during their previous visit...”

The two looked at each other with shock. Where did they gather so many experts? Just then, the air warped as a group of people emerged before them. At the exact moment, a formation rippled out and concealed everything.

Su Yu, who was standing at the head of the group, cupped his hands at March and Great Bamboo Marquis. ”Su Yu is here. Forgive me for the delay. Is this Senior March? Greetings, Senior. Your strength is as impressive as the rumors.”

March said nothing and observed the newcomers in silence.

Eighteen of them.

Six pseudo kings and seven peak Daofuses.

What did Great Bamboo tell him previously? One pseudo king?

No, Great Bamboo said that Su Yu might have reached the level of a pseudo king as well. With that, they would have two. In that case, why were there six standing before him? Suddenly, he noticed Soy Bun and Fat Ball.

At the moment, Soy Bun was sleeping on Fat Ball’s head in his miniature form while Fat Ball was looking around while wagging his tail. He looked curious, but that was understandable since it had been too long since he last left his home.

Noticing March’s gaze on him, the white dog gave him a smile before looking around again.

But seeing that March was still staring at him, Fat Ball asked curiously, ”Why are you staring at me?”

That woke March from his stupor. He inhaled deeply and looked at Su Yu. ”March greets the human lord.”

Then, he looked at Fat Ball again.

Su Yu smiled and said, ”Why don’t we head back down there and have a chat. Senior March, do you know Fat Ball?”

Why was March staring at Fat Ball? Did they know each other? But Fat Ball did not seem to know him.

March inhaled deeply and asked, ”Is this...the one from Culture King’s Residence?”

Fat Ball asked, ”Have we met before? I don’t remember you.”

”No, we never met.” March explained, ”But when my old man was still around, he said that Culture King once asked him about the devouring dao. He was trying to find a suitable dao for his dog. And when I saw Soy Bun, I guessed that this was the same dog.”

”Oh.”

At that, Fat Ball lost interest. Soy Bun, who had just awakened from his sleep, looked at March blankly before looking at the other iron devourers. He muttered in confusion, ”I think I’m seeing things.”

They all looked the same.

March ignored him. Why was the furball saying that? The soul devourers looked the same as well.

March forced himself to calm down and said, ”This way, please. Excuse us for not going out to welcome you. Were you the one who had spied on me in the Dao Origin Land previously?”

Su Yu smiled. ”Yes. My apologies. I was scouting the place and you just happened to be in the area.”

”No wonder. So it was the Heaven Gate.”

March sighed with admiration. No wonder. Not everyone could notice him when he was hiding himself. As he spoke, he glanced at the others. Cloud Fire Marquis was a familiar face. He also noted that Cloud Fire Marquis had reached the level of a pseudo king as well.

As for Wan Tiansheng and Lan Tian, these were unfamiliar faces to him. Between Soy Bun and Fat Ball, he knew Soy Bun and he could guess Fat Ball’s identity. When his gaze landed on Great Zhou King, he felt a sense of familiarity, but at the same time, he couldn’t recall who this was.

When he looked at the others, he noted that each of them was quite strong. Oh, there was also a monkey among them, but the monkey was weaker than the rest.

He stared at the monkey for a while before asking, ”Is this Heavendoom, the one under Fellow Daoist Grand Dream?”

Heavendoom glanced at March and decided that this was also someone stronger than him. Thus, he replied obediently, ”Yes.”

”Congratulations!” March said, ”You are finally retired from your position as a guardian. Back then, you were promised the position of a marquis after a thousand years. I was wondering if Fellow Daost Grand Dream could keep you under control with you as a marquis. Alas, a thousand years became a hundred thousand years.”

He sighed. He saw quite a lot of familiar faces among them, including Heavenbridge Marquis. He did not say anything to Heavenbridge Marquis, but he was quite curious about it. Why was Heavenbridge Marquis here as well?

He still remembered how talkative that fellow was, so he decided not to greet that fellow.

***

They landed on the ground before entering the main hall.

At that point, March had already regained his calm. With a wave of his hand, two chairs appeared. He smiled and gestured, ”Please take a seat, Human Lord.”

He transformed into an honest-looking middle-aged man and took the seat to the right, leaving the left seat to Su Yu. With a smile, Su Yu sat down on the left chair. With Su Yu seated, the others sat down as well.

With his trademark innocent smile, September started pouring tea for everyone. Inwardly, however, he was feeling greatly shocked. Clearly, Emperor Yu had arrived with almost everything he had.

So many of them had arrived. Furthermore, many of them had grown much stronger than before. No wonder the ancestor had opened his eyes so wide earlier. He was shocked. That was why.

”I heard about the agreement between you and Great Bamboo. That was ridiculous on Great Bamboo’s part. If we had known that things would get so dangerous...”

Su Yu laughed it off. ”It’s fine. Great Bamboo Marquis only tasked me to kill a few Daofuses for fun. I only took the chance to kill a few people in the Dao Origin Land since I needed an excuse to expose Zi Yan’s lineage after capturing her. I only killed all those pseudo kings in passing.”

In passing.

March was rendered speechless. Those were some arrogant words. But he also had to admit that it was well done. The myriad races suspected nothing. Even March himself had believed that the chaos race was the actual culprit.

Looking at the numerous experts who had arrived with Su Yu, he asked, ”Human Lord, I believe some introductions are in order, right?”

Su Yu smiled, ”That is only natural. I shouldn’t have forgotten about this. You already know Fat Ball and Soy Bun. They came from Culture King’s residence.”

”You know Cloud Fire Marquis better than I. This is Great Zhou King, a former attendant of Human Emperor and one of the three leaders of the Torchbearers.” ”This is Director Wan Tiansheng, also the principal of the academy I studied in. This is Deputy Director Lan Tian, a senior of mine during my time in the academy.”

As he introduced them one after another, March’s heart thumped repeatedly.

He was shocked at the varied backgrounds of these people. He was even more shocked to learn about Lan Tian and Wan Tiansheng. He asked, ”May I know the age of Director Wan and Deputy Lan?”

Both felt rather young.

Su Yu gave the answer, ”Director Wan is older. He’s about 102 in human years. Deputy Lan is younger. He’s seventy-something in human years.”

”...”

March didn’t know what to say anymore. Older? Was that the correct term to be used here? In front of people over a hundred thousand years old like them? He didn’t know what to say. Humanity had produced several monsters in this era. All of them had reached the level of pseudo kings at such a young age.

Was humanity not supposed to stop producing Daofuses with Hundred Battle King sealed? Had the myriad races gone through the trouble of sealing Hundred Battle King for nothing? If they had known about this earlier, they would have gathered all their strength and killed Hundred Battle King long ago. What was the point of keeping him sealed if that wasn’t doing anything?

March continued looking at the crowd in shock.

After a while, he calmed himself and said, ”Human Lord, did you return to the Lower Realm before coming back up?”

Su Yu nodded, ”Yes. That day, I was pursued by two Venerables. I wasn’t their match so I could only flee to the Lower Realm before returning with more people.”

He spoke as if one could easily move between the two realms.

Su Yu continued, ”Since you’re here, Senior, I won’t waste our time and go straight to the point. Is the iron devourer race willing to enter an alliance with Emperor Yu’s Court?”

”Emperor Yu’s Court?”

Noticing something, March asked, ”Is there a difference between Emperor Yu’s Court and humanity?”