Tribulation of Myriad Races

Human Emperor had separated his spirit from his body. His physical body was heavily injured. It was likely that his sea of willpower was injured as well.

He was practically an empty shell.

Su Yu felt quite helpless upon learning that. He had been placing his hope on Human Emperor, but clearly, Human Emperor had also been waiting for his help. How disappointing. That guy was so good at acting tough in front of others, but deep inside, he was crying for help.

How sad.

Su Yu had thought that with the addition of ten or so Masters of Laws, Human Emperor could probably defeat the myriad races. After all, he had been able to keep the balance for so many years. But nope. It had been one big bluff all along.

And thus, Su Yu wallowed restlessly despite the major victory he had just won. Just when would this end?

Thanks to the new information, he realized that he couldn’t go upstream rashly anymore. Things would get very troublesome the moment the myriad races felt desperate enough to trigger the final battle in advance. That empty shell of Human Emperor must remain standing.

”After getting screwed by Culture King and the others, you’re doing it to me. Is that it?”

”Sigh.”

A bleak sigh rang out.

***

Su Yu went nowhere. He stayed right in front of the Hell Gate.

He was waiting with the chaos will in his hand.

Perhaps he would get lucky and a fool would burst out of the gate.

Many people had died here recently, and Su Yu had left the ambient energy alone. He had left the ambient energy from the corpses of Yue Zhan and the matron dragon alone. In fact, even the ambient energy from Yu Qing’s corpse had been left untouched.

The energy of so many dead powerhouses should be enough to release several Masters of Laws from behind the gate, right?

Heavenbridge Marquis was there as well. He was staring at the silent gate.

After a short while, he said, ”Your Majesty, there is indeed a small opening on this gate, allowing passage through it. It’s easier to enter and harder to leave. It might look like a regular gate, but complicated layers of space stand between the two worlds. The chaos will is basically a marker. Through it, one can navigate their way through these layers to leave the gate.”

He continued, ”However, Yu Qing’s death must have been detected by those behind the gate. I doubt anyone will have the courage to blindly leave.”

Su Yu said, ”Anything is possible. The relationship between Control’s lineage and the chaos beasts might not be as harmonious. Control’s people will be too wary to leave, but the same can’t be said about the chaos beasts.”

Heavenbridge snickered, ”True, true. Your Majesty is right.”

”What about you?” Su Yu looked over and asked, ”You devoured some Hell Gate projections before. Did you gain anything from that?”

Heavenbridge answered awkwardly, ”There is no meaningful growth. Those gates were insufficient. Your Majesty, why don’t you kill Martial Emperor. With him dead, I guarantee you I can step into the level of a Master of Law.”

Su Yu didn’t deign to entertain that request with a response. He gazed at the distant Human Mountain. The abandoned mountain stood imposingly amid the heaven and earth. As for the nearby Hell Gate, it looked like a completely ordinary gate.

After that strike from the Human Mountain, the Hell Gate no longer felt as unfathomable as before. That was supposed to be an incomparably powerful entity, yet a single strike from the Human Mountain had seemingly sent it into slumber.

Su Yu laughed.

Human Mountain. The mountain of the human race. Anyone staying on it for an extended period of time would find themselves developing a sense of belonging and responsibility toward the human race.

How interesting.

The mountain had stood tall for countless years, and it had always been an extremely conspicuous feature of the Upper Realm. Yet nobody had been able to damage it.

Su Yu did not persist in that train of thought. Before long, he set the matter aside. Ignorance was bliss. At times, ignorance was essential. Knowing too much might lead to one’s doom. After all, one would end up doing too much after knowing too much before dying to exhaustion. Meanwhile, fools could enjoy a long, blissful life. Just look at the likes of Martial Emperor.

”How do you seal the gate to prevent those inside from coming out?” Su Yu asked.

Heavenbridge Marquis thought about it and answered, ”It’s actually quite simple. This opening can’t be shut so easily, but you can destroy the chaos will and expel the energy around the gate. Without the marker and the energy supporting the opening, the pace of those trying to leave will slow down significantly. Take the sinned lineage as an example. They needed to plot so many years just to release Yu Qing, and even that was mainly helped by the fact that an opening had appeared naturally on the gate.”

Heavenbridge Marquis was quite knowledgeable on this subject. After a short thought, he offered, ”I can repair the opening somewhat and drag things out.”

”How long can you slow it down for?”

”I’m not sure.” Heavenbridge Marquis said, ”Without the attack of super powerhouses, it can probably last a few more years. But when super powerhouses are involved, nothing can be certain.”

”Will you be able to sense the attack?”

”Of course.” Heavenbridge Marquis nodded.

Looking at the ordinary-looking gate, Su Yu asked, ”Are you capable of eating the main body of this gate?”

”No!” Heavenbridge Marquis said, ”Don’t underestimate this gate because of how ordinary it looks. It is currently sealed, or slumbering, to be precise. The moment it awakens...with an era sealed inside it...I will die after consuming it.”

What joke was this? This guy was overestimating him. If he were truly capable of eating the Hell Gate, he would have done so long ago.

Heavenbridge Marquis added, ”Unless I’m a tier-one Master of Law, there is no hope for that.”

Su Yu’s eyes narrowed.

Tier one.

The level of Human Emperor during the ancient past.

What a surprising answer from Heavenbridge Marquis. What a sobering answer. Then again, that was reasonable. How could a weak gate seal an entire era behind it? Just where did this gate originate from? Who built it?

The Hell Gate...was essentially the Earth Gate (Hell = di yu, earth = di). And this was the sole gate they knew about.

Suddenly, Su Yu started approaching the gate. Noticing that, Heavenbridge called out urgently, ”Be careful, Your Majesty! This gate is currently slumbering. It can easily swallow someone before sealing someone inside when it’s awake.”

Su Yu nodded. He stopped nearer to the gate and focused. The gate was as dark as hell itself. No wonder it was known as the Hell Gate.

Just as Su Yu was about to touch the gate, Heavenbridge cried out again, ”No! Your Majesty, a touch from a powerhouse of your level might be enough to awaken it! The moment it awakens, it might swallow you. That will be disastrous!”

Su Yu frowned and pulled his hand back. If he were alone, he would really like to take a look inside. What was there to fear? But that wasn’t something he could do for now.

After a short silence, Su Yu said, ”Is this gate really so powerful? To the point even a being like Human Ancestor can’t break free from it?”

Heavenbridge Marquis explained, ”Your Majesty, the gate is not the sole power at play here. The shackles around the sealed and the power of annihilation born from the end of an era are all preventing their escape.”

Su Yu nodded.

Heavenbridge Marquis added, ”Also, those behind the gate might not necessarily want to leave now.”

”Hmm?”

Heavenbridge Marquis stopped to gather his words before saying, ”Not everyone inside was forced to enter. Some had entered voluntarily. Even people like Zhou Ji might not be willing to leave now. They are all waiting for a better time to leave. I have a feeling that the gates will open naturally in the near future. That also signifies that the opportunity they have been waiting for is finally here.”

”Opportunity?” Su Yu muttered, ”Everyone has been talking about this opportunity. But just what opportunity is it? What manner of opportunity is worthy of being pursued by even the likes of the Master of Time and Master of Death?”

He looked up at the sky that was bare of the River of Time and sank into silence. Perhaps it was related to the River of Time. The mysterious first Creator was the most mysterious and strongest entity to ever walk the Myriad Realms.

Was everything related to him?

Gates, Creators, sealed eras, and the erosion of chaos...

Su Yu stopped questioning and waited silently for chaos beasts to emerge from the gate. He would first kill a few to strengthen his world. And when these chaos beasts stopped emerging, he would seal the gate away. The gate couldn’t be allowed to open in the near future. He needed more time.

***

Nothing happened on the first day.

But on the second day, perhaps those behind believed that things had calmed down, or perhaps they believed that this was too rare a chance to miss, or perhaps someone had been instigating the others to exit. In any case, the still gate suddenly shook.

Or rather, a voice suddenly came out from behind the gate. Or to be precise, it wasn’t even a speech. Rather, it was a weak wave of willpower carrying a message.

”Is any living being out there?”

The willpower asked.

Su Yu remained silent. He told himself that he was no living being. He was the great granddaddy of all living beings. What even was the point of asking this dumb question? His world reappeared around the gate. However, he kept an isolated space around the gate itself to avoid triggering the gate.

Anyone emerging from the gate would end up in his world regardless of which direction they opted to go. With a wave of Su Yu’s hand, South Heavenly King and the others appeared. With another wave of his hand, the tea plant appeared.

Su Yu transmitted to her, ”Transform back to your original appearance.”

The tea plant did as told.

Su Yu transmitted again, ”We did not end up using our previous plan against the sinned lineage. In that case, we might as well use it on the chaos beasts. We don’t want to kill them too quickly lest those behind notice something.”

”Five of them. That will be our target.”

Su Yu transmitted, ”Seal the gate the moment five are out and kill them all. If we can’t gather five within one day, seal the gate anyway and kill them all.”

With that, the tea plant rooted herself on the ground. She even gave herself a somewhat withered appearance. The others vanished under the tea plant.

The only mission Su Yu gave the tea plant was to sell information. To sell information to the first chaos beast to emerge. As fellow members of the chaos lineage, it was normal for them to exchange information, right?

With another wave of Su Yu’s hand, their surroundings turned into chaos. A scene of devastation covered the entire Upper Realm, as though the warring factions had killed each other in a moment of desperation.

The nearby kingdom of Control King was left alone. Everyone at the Sunmoon Realm and above was dead. As for the rest, many had died to the shockwaves of the intense battle earlier. The few remaining survivors had been moved away by Great Zhou King and the others. However, these people were not relocated to the Human Realm.

Since there were currently plenty of empty realms in the Lower Realm, they had been temporarily relocated there. Su Yu couldn’t be bothered to slaughter the common people. For the most part, these conflicts would generally end when the powerhouses were dealt with. The only exception was a war of extermination. Control King’s lineage was Su Yu’s enemy, but he couldn’t be bothered to vent his anger on the common people.

Most of them were regular people who didn’t even know about the Myriad Realms. At Su Yu’s position, he didn’t mind the existence of these people. They had all been moved to a different realm. Perhaps after enough time, they would no longer identify as people of the so-called holy race. He did not need to do anything about them.

Done with his preparations, Su Yu vanished with a flicker.

The door continued shaking. Those inside found that the world outside seemed to have been destroyed. Only a badly damaged corner was left of the Upper Realm, and only a single tea plant remained. Surrounded by devastation, the tea plant was struggling to survive.

Su Yu did not even need to change much to present the scene of devastation. The entire Human Mountain was still filled with blood and corpses from the previous battle. The battlefield had yet to be cleared out.

The entire Upper Realm was empty.