Tribulation of Myriad Races

Beilian City.

This was a large city of Great Ming near Starfall Mountain. After going past the Starfall Mountain and traveling a few hundred kilometers, one would reach Nanyuan City of Great Xia.

Teahouses and restaurants were always the places where rumors and information were exchanged. Great Ming did not lack storytellers. Even with the existence of televisions, this form of entertainment was still popular in Great Ming. After all, the shows in television were boring and repetitive. Meanwhile, these storytellers were much more interesting.

In Great Ming, storytellers shouldered a heavy responsibility as well: dissemination of gossip.

At the moment, within a teahouse in Beilian. Su Yu was seated comfortably in a private room with one leg over the other while drinking tea and listening to the storyteller.

The storyteller’s voice filled the restaurant, “Just last night, a Mountainsea elder of Great Yuan was killed! The criminals are getting more and more brazen! Great chaos is coming!”

“Let us do a little calculation here. Just how many experts have perished over the past few months? First, a Mountainsea official was killed at the Rising Sky Sea. Then, a Mountainsea was killed in Great Tang. Next, a Mountainsea was assassinated in Great Qi. Last night, a Mountainsea was assassinated in Great Shang…”

The storyteller continued with an agitated voice, “Four Mountainseas in a row have been assassinated over the past few months. All of them were important individuals. Through our analysis, these assassinations were carried out by the same group of people. They are too audacious!”

Someone asked in astonishment, “Great Shang is not far from us. Has the chain of assassinations spread to even Great Shang? I thought the Six-Winged Divine Sect was the culprit. But all their Mountainseas were dead while their Sunmoons were in hiding. How are they finding the courage to continue these assassinations?”

The storyteller sighed, “Who knows? All sorts of people are appearing to do whatever they want nowadays. This is sign of great chaos. The various prefectures have increased their security measures. Great Ming is actually doing quite well. Five Sunmoons attacked us not long ago but all of them were killed, scaring anyone else that might also harbor evil designs against us.”

“Sigh. These are troubled times. These criminals are actually brazen enough to start assassinating Mountainseas. This is too scary.”

Someone asked curiously, “Why kill these people? What’s special about them? There are so many Mountainseas around so why are they the targets?”

The storyteller smiled, “You asked the right person. It is said that these experts all used to be commanders in the Allheaven Battlefield. They were all individuals with great military contributions. They were brave and good at war. I suspect that the myriad races might be planning to restart the war against humanity. The first step of their plan is to assassinate the fierce commanders of humanity.”

An anxious look covered the storyteller as he said, “This is so troublesome. The commanders who have retired from the frontlines need to be careful. Great Ming might not enjoy fighting in wars that much, but we also have a few retired commanders as well. If something happens to them…sigh.”

Inside the private room.

Su Yu had a pensive look. Four Mountainseas of four different prefectures. All were former military commanders in the Allheaven Battlefield.

Were the myriad races really preparing for a war? In his opinion, the storyteller’s analysis made sense. But that also seemed too brazen. Several Mountainseas had been killed in a row. Were the assassins the myriad race Sunmoons hidden in the Human Realm?

While he was thinking, a different voice rang out, “I can accept that the others were fierce commanders. But I know that dead Mountainsea from Great Shang. Back then, the army he led was stationed not far away from our Heavenly Dao Army. How is he a fierce commander? Sure, I won’t deny that he had killed some myriad race enemies, but he is definitely not a good man. I heard that he loved to send a squad of cultural researchers out on a lone mission before each battle. And he would always wait until everyone was dead before sallying out to kill the weary enemies.”

“Is that so? How are we not aware of this? Don’t make up stories. His reputation was quite good.”

“You are free to believe what you want. I heard this from a different person from Great Shang. We would occasionally meet each other when we were rotated back to the main headquarters.”

The storyteller asked. “Is that true? I have never heard of that. His reputation was quite good. Even if you’re right, that might be a strategic move. We can’t deny that he was a fierce commander just because of this. Old Huang, don’t talk drivel. We should respect the dead. You don’t want to get misunderstood as a cultist, right?”

The other person nodded and said, “We’re in Great Ming, right? I wouldn’t have dared to say that in Great Shang.”

He was merely joining in on the gossip. As for proof, well, this was merely a hearsay. How was he sure if this was true or not?

Inside the private room.

Su Yu looked at the person who had spoken as a different thought appeared in his mind. Sending a small squad of cultural researchers out and only sallying out to kill the exhausted enemies after the cultural researchers were all dead. In short, that was a fishing operation.

Cultural researchers…myriad races…

Bait…the multiple character faction cultivators were perfect baits. Qin Zhen of Great Qin once told Su Yu that he had used multiple character faction cultivators to catch several whales, including some Sunmoons.

Out of nowhere, Su Yu had a feeling that those dead cultural researchers were probably those from the multiple character faction. But he wasn’t sure since it was only a hunch. Since even the culprit was already dead, Su Yu did not think too much about it.

There was no denying that a lot of multiple character faction cultivators had died over the years. The faction was already small in the first place, so when they start losing large number of members, it was inevitable that the faction would start declining.

Those from the multiple character faction also enjoyed going to the battlefield as they could be considered the combat faction of the cultural research field. Thus, it actually wasn’t surprising that they would have a comparatively higher rate of casualty.

While Su Yu was thinking about all that.

Great Xia City.

Talent Fostering Bureau.

Ji Hong was reading some information about the four dead commanders.

After a long while, he sighed, “Chen Yong…you are stepping on the path of madness.”

The others had yet to notice anything, but that wasn’t the case for Ji Hong. Some links could be found between these four and the multiple character faction. Some of the links were minute, but after checking the other information he had gathered, he noted that wherever these people were stationed, multiple character faction cultivators would either go missing or fall in battle.

“The dead cultural researchers at the Rising Sky Sea were not actual members of the multiple character faction, but they were the ex-members who were expelled by Chen Yong back then.”

Of course, they had not all died at the same time. Rather, one would die every three to five years. Thus, the entire matter didn’t look suspicious. After all, the Rising Sky Sea was filled with demonic beasts. It wasn’t too surprising for some moderately strong cultural researchers to die every now and then.

But if one compiled all the information, one would notice that all the dead cultural researchers were related to Chen Yong one way or another. And the day that the commander was killed, Chen Yong was also nearby.

He was probably also nearby during the deaths of the Great Tang and Great Qi commanders. Ji Hong still lacked information about Chen Yong’s whereabouts during the death of the Great Shang commander. That was mainly because the two Sunmoons of the Six-Winged Divine Sect had fled, leaving Chen Yong completely unobserved.

“Killing four Mountainsea commanders in a row…”

Ji Hong had a complicated look in his eyes. That was a capital crime. Chen Yong would definitely die once he was caught. Did Chen Yong have any proof of their wrongdoings? Even if he had proof, the proof was definitely not strong enough. Otherwise, he could have exposed them to Great Xia. With strong enough proof, Great Xia would not be afraid to do something about it.

Since he had not done so, his proof was clearly not strong enough. Thus, he had decided to take things into his own hands. If he was discovered, he wouldn’t be able to escape death. Even the cult rarely did something like assassinating military officials of the human race.

Ji Hong sighed and went through the information about the four Mountainseas yet again. There must be something linking all four of them together. Had they been carrying out the orders of the hidden Invincible? Or were they secret cultists?

Ji Hong had been investigating this matter since half a year ago, including the list of dead multiple character faction cultivators on the battlefield, their location of death, time of death, and the armies they served during the death.

Even the deaths of the multiple character faction cultivators in the Human Realm had been investigated. He was slowly arranging all the information he had obtained. With his eyes shut, he sank into thought. Gradually, he found a certain direction all the information was pointing toward.

“He’s not doing this for a personal grudge. There is no need for that Invincible to kill so many multiple character faction cultivators for something like that.”

Ji Hong finally had a direction, but he still couldn’t be sure who the culprit was. But in truth…he already knew enough to make some things very clear. The dead commanders had not interacted with each other much. They only shared a single similarity. They had once served in the Allheaven Battlefield at the same period of time.

Thus, the Invincibles stationed there during that period of time were the most likely ones to get in touch with all these people. Between seventy to fifty years ago, all these people were serving at the Allheaven Battlefield.

Twenty years.

Someone might have recruited them over that period of time. Who was that person? Who were the Invincibles stationed there at that time?

Humanity had quite a lot of Invincibles, and the whereabouts of most of them were unknown. Great Qin King was the sole exception as he had never stopped guarding the frontlines. The other Invincibles would be stationed at the Allheaven Battlefield after a certain period of time. Each Invincible would be rotated out after at least ten years.

At any given time, there would be more than ten human Invincibles stationed at the eastern sector. Which Invincibles were there between seventy to fifty years ago? It would be quite hard to get a concrete answer.

But it wasn’t impossible. If this line of thought was correct, then that Invincible would be one of them. After all, not even Invincibles could freely go everywhere and recruit everyone they wanted. After all, the Invincibles of the other prefectures would always be on the watch.

Thus, only when one was stationed on the same battlefield would one have the opportunity and time to perform some recruitment. An Invincible would never recruit someone for no reason. That Invincible must have noticed something during their time there to reach a conclusion that these people could be recruited.

As for the recruited commanders, they had probably agreed to join because the Invincible had met them personally. Otherwise, it wouldn’t be so easy to push Mountainseas into action.

“How terrifying.”

Ji Hong had a clear direction to pursue. He only needed to figure out the list of Invincibles stationed there during those years. One of them would be the traitor. Sure, he still didn’t have a clear answer, but the scope of the investigation had been greatly narrowed down.

He didn’t know the exact number of Invincibles in the War Shrine and Knowledge Seeking Realm. But the number wouldn’t be lower than thirty. And with this new clue, two-thirds of them could be cleared of suspicion.

“Chen Yong…”

Things would get even more dangerous for Chen Yong. That fellow was too crazy. All the people he killed must be the ones that had been recruited by the unknown Invincible. By killing them, he was basically telling the Invincible that he had caught onto the Invincible’s tail.

“He is risking himself. The moment his actions are exposed, that Invincible can get him killed openly without risking exposure.”

Ji Hong sighed with regret. After a while, he shut his eyes and tried to calm his mind. He needed to be more careful as well. In the course of his investigation, he had gathered a lot of information, including some military secrets. That might have attracted some attention as well.

“Chen Yong…since you’re attracting all the attention, I’ll be the one to hide in the shadows.”

He could only pray that Chen Yong would be safe.