Tribulation of Myriad Races

Human Mountain.

Or perhaps this mountain should be called Myriad Race Mountain now. Su Yu was unbothered about the name change. This was the eighth day after the second assembly of the myriad races. The iron devourer race had arrived after eight days. The mountain was filled with people.

The Upper Realm wasn’t as big as the Lower Realm. That wasn’t surprising. After all, the Upper Realm was incomplete. It might be known as the Upper Realm, but its laws weren’t as complete as the laws of the Lower Realm. Apart from the thicker ambient power of laws, there was nothing good about the Upper Realm.

Most of the inhabitants of the Upper Realm came from the Lower Realm. Initially, only a small number of experts had migrated over. Thus, the number of people in the Upper Realm was still quite low even after a hundred thousand years of reproduction.

That was the case when the various races were separated. But when they came together, the number was actually quite respectable.

Even the races that were extinct in the Lower Realm had shown themselves. There weren’t a lot of them, but they still existed in the Upper Realm. Su Yu mused to himself that perhaps the Upper Realm could serve as some sort of endangered species protection land.

A lot of the extinct races still existed in the Upper Realm. Before Su Yu’s attack, there were millions of dragons in the Upper Realm.

As for the three major races, their number was even higher. There were probably tens of millions of them here, even when their number here was far lower than their number in the Lower Realm. With a casual glance, Su Yu guessed that there were about fifty to sixty million people gathered here.

Over half of them were those from the three major races. This wasn’t surprising. The three major races were wealthier and stronger. They had vast territories, and they could also procreate at a decent speed. Thus, it wasn’t surprising that their population was half of the total population in the Upper Realm.

Fifty to sixty million people. This number paled in comparison to even the number of people in a minor race down in the Lower Realm.

However, due to the thick ambient source qi in the Upper Realm, most people weren’t weaker than the Skysoar Realm apart from the newborn. As a whole, the Upper Realm was far stronger than the Lower Realm.

***

”So many people.”

The iron devourers were staring around with their eyes open wide. They were all behaving like some country bumpkin out in the big city for the very first time. To be fair, almost everyone was behaving the same way apart from the three major races. This was probably the first time they saw so many people at the same place.

Su Yu had to resist the desire to laugh. The Upper Realm was superior in strength, but that was all. In the Lower Realm, a random war could involve millions of people fighting at the same time. A single prefecture of the Human Realm could field over a million soldiers for a single engagement. The entire humanity had over thirty million soldiers in active duty at any time. At its peak, humanity had maintained even fifty million active soldiers at once.

And humanity wasn’t even the race with the biggest army. The biggest army naturally belonged to the fire hogs. After all, they were extremely good at reproduction. Even the fire hogs themselves used their people as cannon fodder because there were simply too many of them. In fact, this was a way they kept their own population under control.

Meanwhile, the people of the Upper Realm were scattered. Most people would spend the majority of their time in their respective dao centers. Gatherings were rare. Thus, those below the Sunmoon Realm would mostly be similar to Stable Army Marquis’ daughter. They could spend an entire life not leaving their dao center once.

The smaller dao centers could have a population as low as three to five thousand residents. Thus, some people would spend their entire life not seeing more than five thousand people. Thus, this gathering was an opportunity for many to widen their horizon.

Compared to the minor races, the iron devourers could already be considered a large race. The youngsters of these minor races were all staring around with astonishment. They had never seen such a large crowd before.

Sure, they had heard of the other races from their seniors, but they had never seen any living being outside of their races.

”Are those iron devourers? Look at the black spots around their eyes! Do they all have insomnia?”

Standing atop one of the bamboo mountains, Su Yu took in the discussion around him. He was left quite speechless upon hearing that remark. Why must they be insomniacs just because they had dark circles around their eyes?

Then again, Su Yu himself was also looking around curiously. Standing between Great Bamboo Marquis and April, he looked at a group of massive beasts. There weren’t a lot of them, but each of them was incredibly big. In fact, they looked even bigger than the true forms of the dragons.

He asked curiously, ”What race is that?”

Just like the country bumpkins around him, he was growing curious as well. He had never seen that race before.

Great Bamboo Marquis looked at where Su Yu was looking at and answered, ”Giant space beast. They might look big, but they’re weak. Each of them has an empty space in their stomach, making each of them a convenient mobile residence. They are commonly used for transportation during the ancient past. Eventually, spatial rings were created so their importance dropped. And with the exploration of the spatial dao, they continued declining in importance. But during the ancient past, this was a big race.”

Su Yu nodded and looked elsewhere before asking, ”What about those people?”

There, a group of giant nine-headed birds could be seen.

”Nine-headed birds. They aren’t weak, but they are extinct in the Lower Realm. This is an extremely ferocious beast race. They were exterminated in the Lower Realm during the third epoch by Yue Gang. As the members of this race enjoy eating corpses, they consumed a large number of human corpses. As a result, they caught humanity’s attention and were wiped out. Right now, they have a pseudo king in the Upper Realm.”

Just then, a large nine-headed bird turned and looked in their direction with eighteen ferocious eyes. It was as though he had noticed the gazes on him.

Nine mouths spoke at the same time, ”Giant Bamboo, it has been a while since I last ate the corpse of someone from your race. When are you sending me some?”

Great Bamboo Marquis flashed his usual innocent smile and said, ”Eating corpses?”

Suddenly, a gigantic pillar of bamboo descended from the sky.

Boom!

A deafening rumble rang out.

The nine heads reacted instantly, some spouting flames, some spouting water, and some even spouting swords. But all the attacks were swept away by the descending bamboo stick.

Boom!

With another rumble, a head was smashed apart.

Great Bamboo Marquis might be massive, but he was very agile as well. In the time it took the bamboo stick to land, he had appeared right in front of the nine-headed bird. With a smile, he said, ”You love eating? Kids, gather your weapons and wipe them out! The iron devourer race is currently one of the five major races, one of the five policymakers of the assembly. Provoking us is the same as provoking the five major races.”

With a roar from him, over ten thousand iron devourers drew their bamboo sticks. Several rumbles rang out as they released their grips on the bamboo mountains they were carrying before charging forth.

As they charged, Great Bamboo Marquis roared, ”Kill! The nine-headed birds have betrayed the myriad races and colluded with the human race! They are attempting to kill a leading race of the assembly! March of my race is still working hard for the myriad races in the Dao Origin Land yet this race is already trying to revolt against us!”

”...”

Su Yu was completely dumbfounded. How did that happen? How was a fat, furry bear like that so good at twisting one’s words? Then again, he didn’t mind having some fun in the chaos.

Next, his body glowed as he activated the 72-Forged Iron Devourer and charged forward. He crashed ahead like a crazy bull. Dozens of nine-headed birds were sent flying away before bursting into clouds of blood in the air.

”Stop!”

A roar rang out as several figures soared into the sky. With an unsightly expression, Sacred Source Marquis ordered, ”Audacious! Stop this instance!”

Great Bamboo Marquis roared as well, ”Audacious! How dare you provoke the five major races! Are you looking down on the five major races? How can we trust people like you when we’re attacking the Chaos Mountain? How dare you disobey the five major races! This is clearly a revolt!”

”...”

At that, Sacred Source Marquis’ expression changed.

The gigantic nine-headed bird, who had lost three heads to Great Bamboo Marquis by now, stepped back and transformed into a middle-aged man. He glared at Great Bamboo Marquis with an unsightly expression.

”Sacred Source Marquis, Great Bamboo—”

”Enough!”

Sacred Source Marquis did not give the three-headed bird the chance to finish. Then, he looked at Great Bamboo Marquis and spoke with a grave tone, ”Great Bamboo, since the iron devourer is here, go ahead and look for a suitable place of encampment for your people. The Myriad Race Mountain has been divided into eighteen levels. The top level is the assembly hall. The next two levels are available. You may pick a suitable spot there to settle your people.”

The Human Mountain was actually shaped like a terraced cake, splitting the mountain into separate levels. This was a deliberate design by the human race back then. With such a design, people of different strengths could be assigned to different levels. This would avoid the unknown suppression of the weaker cultivators by the stronger cultivators.

Seeing how Sacred Source Marquis was trying to smooth things over in such a blunt manner, Great Bamboo Marquis returned to his usual innocent smile and said, ”Sure. Will do. By the way, the nine-headed birds have challenged the five major races and the assembly by extension. How should we punish them? Since the myriad races are coming together once again, we need proper rules. Without rules, what even is the point of having certain races act as the policymakers? Am I right, Sacred Source Marquis?”

Standing there with an innocent smile on his chubby, furry face, Great Bamboo Marquis did not look like a complicated person. But in truth, he was extremely shrewd and calculating. He wouldn’t have given Su Yu such a mission before promising an alliance otherwise.

Since an opportunity for him to make a fuss had appeared, he would naturally not care about how Sacred Source Marquis was trying to smooth things over. He would not let this opportunity go.

This was also a good chance for him to establish the iron devourer race as one of the five leaders of the assembly. They would assume a managerial role instead of going to the field as cannon fodder. Even if they couldn’t be the highest leader, they would definitely not serve as grunts. They did not have enough numbers to survive being used as grunts and cannon fodder. Thankfully, the nine-headed bird had given him the perfect chance right after his arrival.

Sacred Source Marquis frowned and asked, ”What’s going on, Nine Absolute Marquis?”

With the same unsightly expression, the nine-headed bird said, ”Sacred Source Marquis, he deliberately picked a fight with us.”

Great Bamboo Marquis denied, ”Nonsense. Everyone heard you. You wanted to kill my people and eat their corpses. How dare you deny that?”

The nine-headed bird said, ”I only said those words because you targeted me with your aura.”

”Nonsense.” Great Bamboo Marquis argued, ”I had just arrived and was looking around curiously. How did I target you with my aura? There were so many different races around us. Why did I target you for no reason? See, Sacred Source Marquis! He admitted to it! I didn’t lie!”

Great Bamboo Marquis continued, ”He dares to provoke even a race with a Venerable. This is so disappointing. If the assembly lets this slide, nobody would be willing to serve the assembly anymore.”

At this point, Sacred Source Marquis already understood what was happening. He narrowed his eyes as he gave Great Bamboo Marquis a long stare before saying, ”Nine Absolute Marquis erred first. But you already punished him...”

Before Great Bamboo Marquis could say anything, he continued, ”Let’s do this. In the coming operation, Nine Absolute Marquis will be under the command of the iron devourers. We are picking the first batch of people to enter the mountain. The five major races will lead the five vanguard forces. All five teams will advance from five different locations at the same time. As one of the five major races, the iron devourer race will need to establish its own vanguard team. Nine Absolute Marquis is a pseudo king. He is the type of talent everyone will fight over. Since he has erred, we shall put him under your command.”

This time, Great Bamboo Marquis remained silent.

Vanguard team?

Putting Nine Absolute Marquis under his command? That did not seem to be something good.

To the side, Nine Absolute Marquis’ eyes flickered as a certain understanding dawned on him. He said, ”That is acceptable for me. Since Great Bamboo Marquis believes that I have offended him, I shall take my punishment. I will not ruin the unity of the assembly.”

Great Bamboo Marquis curled his lips and said, ”Whatever. I can’t be bothered with busywork like this. April, take charge.”

To the side, April flashed an innocent smile and said, ”I can’t do this as well. May, take charge!”

May, or to be precise, Su Yu.

With an unwilling expression, Su Yu grumbled, ”Full Moon—”