Tribulation of Myriad Races

Talking. And listening.

Su Yu was in charge of talking, Wu Jia was in charge of laughing and cheering, while Bai Feng and Hong Tan would ask some questions every now and then. The atmosphere was joyous.

At the end, Su Yu spoke about the reason for his return.

“I’m back to do something big!”

Su Yu clenched his teeth, “Grandteacher, Teacher, our line has been bullied for too many years. Everyone wants to kill us. It’s hard to deal with the myriad races since there are too many of them. But we can kill all our enemies internally first!”

“How boorish.” Bai Feng berated, “Who did you learn this from? Why are you killing all the time? As a cultural researcher, you’re acting like a brutish warrior. Us cultural researchers don’t use the term kill. Instead, we say we send them to the afterlife.”

“Teacher is right!”

“Martial Uncle is right!”

Hong Tan was left speechless. What was this?

But when he looked at the group, he couldn’t help but smile. They were too young. In his eyes, even Bai Feng was but a mere child.

Looking at Wu Jia who was in a much better mood and Su Yu who was eager to do something big, Hong Tan said, “There is no rushing some things.”

He turned solemn as he continued, “The actual person targeting our line, or to be precise, targeting the entire human race, is not any of the numerous Mountainseas and Sunmoons. Rather, it’s the hidden Invincible. That Invincible is the sole reason we have been patient for so many years.”

“And because the traitor is an Invincible, many human Invincibles don’t know what they can do about it. They don’t know how they should deal with such a traitor.

“Why? Because nobody knows who he is. He might be Great Zhou King, Great Ming King, Great Xia King, or Great Qin King. Who knows? Anything is possible. Thus, nobody dares to act rashly. Everyone is too suspicious to stay in the same place with only one other Invincible.”

Hong Tan sighed, “A single traitor among the Invincibles is acting like poison, destroying the unity of all human Invincibles. His existence is much more dangerous than his strength.”

If it was an enemy one could see, the human Invincibles did not fear one extra Invincible enemy. But everyone was afraid of an unknown enemy by one’s side. One traitor was much more dangerous than ten open enemies. It could also destroy the unity of an entire race.

Su Yu nodded, “True. But if it’s really only one Invincible, it won’t be too difficult to deal with. At worst, just lure him to the ancient city and have the stone statue kill him!”

He made it sound so easy.

Hong Tan rolled his eyes. Why was the kid speaking like Invincibles were worth nothing? Why was the kid speaking like the stone statue came from his family?

Then again, the kid was now the mayor of Grandstar City. In a way, the stone statue could probably be considered his family.

Su Yu said, “Grandteacher, what is Great Xia trying to do? What’s their plan? Who are the targets? Are they doing this for the sake of capturing the unknown Invincible?”

He added, “If I start creating trouble, will that affect anything?”

At that question, Hong Tan looked at Wu Jia and Bai Feng without answering. Bai Feng gloomily said, “Why look at us? Are we not qualified to listen?”

Hong Tan thought about it and nodded, “Take Jia out. The two of you are too weak. Your thoughts can be too easily sensed by others.”

“…”

Bai Feng could almost hear his heart shattering from his heartbreak.

He looked at Su Yu, who smiled sheepishly and said, “Teacher, my willpower is near the Mountainsea Realm. Not even Invincibles can actually read my thoughts.”

Inwardly, Su Yu thought that his teacher was weak in both body and mind. It was only natural that they were hiding this from him. Bai Feng felt like coughing blood. Initially, Wu Jia was quite unhappy about being excluded. But that feeling had since vanished. If even Martial Uncle was too weak to learn it, what was there for her to be unhappy about?

Bai Feng was losing his mind.

Holy shit!

His teacher wasn’t too weak to listen. He was. This…was too embarrassing!

***

Bai Feng left gloomily with the cheerful Wu Jia in tow. While leaving, she teased, uhm, no, she consoled her martial uncle.

When the two were gone, Hong Tan shut the door of the room.

Hong Tan thought for a bit before answering, “The Xia Family and the academy have indeed planned something. Of course, I don’t know the full plan. I only know that the Xia Family and Principal Wan are trying to lure that traitor out.”

“They tried the same thing a few times before, but that traitor is too cautious. Even my senior brother’s previous arrival at the capital was for the purpose of luring the traitor out. But the traitor only sent a few clones over instead of appearing personally.”

“As long as the traitor remains alive, humanity will never achieve unity. Also, there is a risk of more traitors appearing if we can’t punish the first traitor.”

Su Yu nodded, “So the opening of the Multiple Character Faculty and the promotion of the disassembly method are all for the sake of giving that traitor more reasons to show up?”

“Yes.” Hong Tan nodded, “Yes. But the reasons aren’t strong enough. Back then, the traitor schemed my teacher to the death before proceeding to target our entire line. Thus, he must die. These reasons aren’t enough to make him show up. We need to give him more reasons. Thus, we did something in Nanyuan.”

“Additionally, we also did a lot of other things. The myriad race students, the important juniors of the various families, Heavenly Hunt Pavilion, the convergence of the myriad races…all these are serving as the reasons for the traitor to show up.”

Su Yu nodded pensively, “I get it somewhat now. But does the traitor not suspect anything? He might be able to see that this is a bait.”

Hong Tan sighed, “He might. Thus, we need to give him more reasons until he feels the risk is worth taking. Until he feels forced to take the bait. We need to make him feel that he might end up exposed even if he remains inactive while making a move won’t be as risky. It is a balancing act.”

Su Yu nodded, “What’s the purpose of these myriad race students?”

“By attracting the attention of more experts, the traitor might feel that the chaos is something he can take advantage of. He might believe that the chaos is beyond what Great Xia can fully handle. For example, if dozens of Sunmoons arrive from the myriad races, if even myriad race Invincibles are sneaking into the Human Realm…”

Su Yu frowned, “Invincibles? Can Great Xia really handle something like that?”

“It’s hard to say.” Hong Tan was unsure as well. He smiled, “It doesn’t matter. By the time we’re done, that traitor will be revealed for sure. As long as he makes a move, even if we fail to kill him, we will be able to force him out of the human race. This way, the other human Invincibles will no longer need to suspect each other anymore. When they meet the traitor in the future, they will know clearly who the enemy is instead of watching out for a stab in the back by an ally. Everything will be out in the open.”

Su Yu thought about it and nodded. True. Great Xia might not expect to actually kill that traitor. But just luring the traitor into action was enough. Upon exposure, that traitor would be left with only one choice.

“But…” Su Yu was still worried. He said, “What if there are more than one traitors?”

“…”

Hong Tan shook slightly. After some time, he said, “No. There’s only one. The Invincible Realm stands at the very top. In the human race, an Invincible enjoys an incomparably high status. It is hard to imagine the appearance of even one Invincible before the race itself is exterminated.”

“But what if there are more than one?”

“There won’t be.”

“What if there are?”

What was this insistence? Hong Tan cursed inwardly. He only gave that answer to console himself. Couldn’t this little shit see that?

Yes, they did consider that possibility. But that would be too troublesome to deal with. That was what everyone feared the most, including the Invincibles. What if there were more than one Invincible traitors? What could they do, then?

Su Yu said, “The Knowledge Seeking Realm is very suspicious. The eight families have been making a lot of stupid decisions while running the Knowledge Seeking Realm. Are their Invincibles really unaware of that? Why are they staying silent? I suspect the traitor is one of them. Or maybe multiple of them.”

Hong Tan said, “That’s not necessarily true. The eight families might be targeting us only because they have been secretly training their own multiple character cultivators.”

Su Yu said, “Even so, there is still a need to appraise how they have been acting.”

Hong Tan said nothing about that.

Su Yu asked, “What can I do?”

Hong Tan thought about it and said, “You can create some trouble and kill some myriad race experts to lure the myriad races into sending more experts to Great Xia.”

He added, “In short, stir chaos and throw everything into a mess. You’re good at that. At the moment, Great Xia is not afraid of chaos. The more chaotic things are, the better it is. The more chaotic things are, the easier it is for someone to fish in troubled water. As the third party, the Heavenly Hunt Pavilion can get involved and expand the chaos. That will also lessen the suspicion on Great Xia. Make everyone believe that Great Xia is not deliberately allowing all the chaos. Rather, there are too many factors out of Great Xia’s control at play.”

Su Yu nodded in understanding. Sure enough, everything boiled down to this specialty of his: stirring trouble.

The more chaotic things became, the better it would be. As for whether things would get out of hand, Su Yu thought that this wasn’t a concern. With Wan Tiansheng around, things would probably remain under Great Xia’s control.

“How about Prefect Xia…”

“They will handle that.” Hong Tan said, “Ignore that matter. Prefect Xia…might act at the same time as us, capturing even more attention and giving that unknown traitor more chances to act. When Xia Longwu attempts his dao affirmation, all the human Invincibles will be kept very busy, including Great Xia King. Wouldn’t this be the perfect opportunity for the traitor to act? All the Invincibles will act independently to deal with the various issues that might arise during the dao affirmation. The traitor will be able to act independently like how it was back then. He might have the chance to pretend he’s fighting a myriad race Invincible and act during the so-called battle…”

Understanding dawned on Su Yu.

Great Xia would be carrying out two main operations.

In the Allheaven Battlefield, Xia Longwu would keep the various Invincibles occupied.

In the Human Realm, they would lure the traitor into Great Xia.

Xia Longwu’s dao affirmation would be an extremely rare opening for the traitor to act again. During the chaos, the traitor would be able to fade into the background without catching the attention of the other Invincibles.

“In that case, the prefect…”

Su Yu felt like this would place Xia Longwu in too much danger. Even Great Xia would be in great danger. If the traitor arrived with a myriad race Invincible, could Wan Tiansheng deal with two Invincibles at the same time?

He finally understood the reason behind Xia Huyou’s actions. Xia Huyou was doing all that out of despair.

Great Xia might suffer a complete loss.

Xia Longwu could fail in his dao affirmation. The entire Great Xia might be destroyed.

The Xia Family and Wan Tiansheng were probably ready to die with the traitor when they decided on this plan. This might not even be a mere trap anymore.

Even if the traitor knew that this was a trap, Great Xia was staking everything on this plan. And the stake was so big the traitor had to act even knowing it was a trap. This was a massive gamble in hope of changing the status quo and opening a path forward for humanity.

Su Yu sighed inwardly. He finally knew what the Xia Family was planning. The Xia Family was still the same Xia Family. They had never intended to compromise.