Tribulation of Myriad Races

In the middle of the eighth level was the assembly hall. Ninety-nine doors surrounded the assembly hall. Even from the reception hall, one could see the towering doors. Ninety-nine doors for ninety-nine assembly members.

Heavenbridge Marquis said, “The outermost region is comprised of the residences of the untitled generals. The untitled generals with residences here were all incredibly strong. They were the nearest to the titled generals.

“The inner region contained the residences of the titled generals. Deeper inside, you can find the residences of the marquises. And if you keep going deeper, you will reach the residences of the human kings. Only then can you reach the Myriad Race Assembly.”

Su Yu asked, “Were the assembly members not the same as the Pseudo Emperors?”

Heavenbridge Marquis said doubtfully, “The same? No. Assembly members were assembly members, while Pseudo Emperors were Pseudo Emperors. Each assembly member must be a Pseudo Emperor as well, but not all Pseudo Emperors were assembly members. There were more than ninety-nine Pseudo Emperors among the myriad races, but there were only ninety-nine assembly members. These were the strongest among them.”

Su Yu thought about it and nodded. He now had a rough idea as to how things worked here.

Some of the smaller races might only have Daofuses or Eternals leading them. At the time, these leaders might also be called Pseudo Emperors. However, they were definitely not strong enough to enter the assembly. Su Yu believed that to become an assembly member, one needed to be a Master of Law.

That was the conclusion he had reached after recalling the various heavenly laws put in place by the assembly.

“How many human kings were there during the ancient past?”

Heavenbridge Marquis answered, “Forty. They were known as the Four Cardinal Human Kings and Thirty-Six Heavenly Dipper Kings. They corresponded to the number of the heavenly dipper. There were also 360 human marquises, corresponding to the number of a full cycle. These numbers would not change. New members would only be appointed when someone died. As for the Myriad Race Assembly, there were ninety-nine assembly members, corresponding to the number nine. There were 720 myriad race marquises, corresponding to the number of the grand cycle.”

Su Yu inhaled in shock, “So many of them?”

This was his first time learning that there were so many marquises in the ancient past.

“Is that a lot?”

Heavenbridge Marquis wanted to argue, but he resisted and provided an explanation instead, “That’s not many at all. Just take the assembly. With only 720 marquises, not every race could get a marquis. Some minor races were so desperate for a title that they would wage war repeatedly.”

He said smugly, “I am a marquis. Unfortunately, I am the only person in my race. What a pity. Oh well, the gate race is a special race. I am considered a spirit. However, the main members of the spirit race are plants, mountains, and rivers. I am special even among the spirits.”

As an old fossil from the ancient past, Heavenbridge Marquis knew a lot about that era. Through him, Su Yu was able to get a clearer picture about the ancient past. In the ancient past, humanity unified the Myriad Realms.

Human Emperor ruled over the empire, and he appointed four kings to assist in ruling the empire. They were the Four Cardinal Human Kings. The thirty-six human kings and ninety-nine assembly members ruled over the myriad races. Below them were 1,080 marquises. And below the marquises were the numerous titled and untitled generals.

One could say that all these people were part of the management of the ancient imperial court. All below them were the managed ones.

Su Yu said, “In other words, there were 140 Masters of Law or people with the same level of strength during the ancient past. This doesn’t even include some of the marquises that might be as powerful as these human kings and assembly members.”

Forty-one of them were humans and ninety-nine of them were from the myriad races. The human race alone had nearly half the number of top experts the myriad races combined could produce. This wasn’t surprising. After all, humans were the ones who had conquered the Myriad Realms.

With half the number of the myriad races and several supreme experts like the Four Cardinal Human Kings among them, humanity was more than capable of completely suppressing the myriad races.

After all, there were politics even among the myriad races. They wouldn’t be truly united. However, humanity could also not fully eliminate them as they were strong enough to resist. In such a manner, they could only check each other, with neither side dominating.

“I don’t know.” Heavenbridge Marquis said, “I had no way of prying into the affairs of people at that level.”

Su Yu nodded. He asked, “I heard that Senior Grand Dream was promised a marquis title by Devote King. Even Heavendoom was promised a marquis title upon his breakthrough into a Daofuse. But how was that possible since the number of marquises was fixed?”

This time, Heavendoom could provide the explanation. He said, “Not all of the 720 myriad race marquises were alive. Some occupied the position even after dying. Thus, these positions were available for the living.”

From those words, Su Yu learned of something he found unusual. He asked, “Are you saying that even after the conquest, humanity and the myriad races were still engaged in a struggle against each other, and people were still dying?”

Heavendoom said, “That is only natural. Open battles dropped significantly after the conquest, but battles in the dark continued as usual. Every now and then, some experts would die for no reason and nobody would bat an eye.

“Maybe they died while exploring the boundless void. Maybe they died from old age. Maybe they died from cultivation deviation. There was no end to the ways one could die. During the Yong’an Era, major battles stopped happening, but minor skirmishes raged on. Back then, the humans would also instigate and support some of the weaker races against the stronger races.”

Noticing Su Yu’s gaze on him, Heavendoom said, “Why are you looking at me like that? That was what the humans did. They were even caught doing so a few times. For example, they once supported the giant whale race against the dragon race. Ultimately, the giant whale race lost and the dragon race discovered the truth.

“Humanity was the culprit behind that battle. The leader of the giant whales had been forcefully fused into a dao by an unknown human, allowing him to fight a desperate battle with the Dragon Pseudo Emperor. During that battle, about seven or eight dragon marquises died.”

Heavenbridge Marquis nodded in agreement. Empyrean Cloud and Grandstar were nodding as well after recalling the past. What was so surprising about that? That was completely normal.

At the time, humanity did not want to start another war, but they also couldn’t allow the major races to further grow. Thus, they resorted to schemes. They would support some smaller races to challenge the established major races, keeping the major races in check.

Humanity had never stopped its attempts at weakening the assembly. If it weren’t for the disappearance of Culture King and Martial King, humanity might have succeeded in completely defeating the myriad races after tens of thousands of years through this method. Clearly, Culture King and the others had intended to slowly solidify their rule over the myriad races.

Unfortunately, things had developed in an unexpected direction. The Myriad Race Assembly had noticed the weakened strength of humanity. That was why they had decided to take the risk and overthrow humanity in one fell swoop. Ultimately, reality had also deviated from their plan. All of them had been eliminated by the ruthless Human Emperor.

This was Su Yu’s guess. Perhaps Human Emperor believed that Culture King and Martial King wouldn’t return anymore. Or perhaps there were some other reasons. Ultimately, he decided to die with all the myriad race experts to eliminate this threat for humanity.

If that was truly the case, one could only imagine just how decisive the Human Emperor was, even if he was considerably less well-known compared to the likes of Culture King. Since pursuing their long-term goal was no longer possible, he decided to flip the table and take everyone out.

While thinking about all that, Su Yu stepped onto the White Jade Avenue. On his forehead, the Heaven Gate appeared. The moment that happened, his aura underwent a slight shift. An incomparably bright aperture in his sea of willpower flew toward the depths of the sea of willpower. There, an indistinct gate awaited. The Heaven Gate. Also known as source soul acupoint.

It was time to bring all his acupoints and apertures together.

Everything would be taken inside the Heaven Gate. In a way, Su Yu had predicted this with his young friends way back then. They had speculated that there was only one original acupoint in a human body.

Eventually, it had been separated into countless acupoints and apertures. After bringing everything together, one only needed to cultivate that one acupoint. This would be the truest form of the fusion of acupoints and apertures.

At the same time, the sole remaining acupoint flew into the Heaven Gate as well.

The unity of source and soul!

Boom!

The Heaven Gate erupted with dazzling light, attracting the gazes of the surrounding experts. A sharp radiance erupted from Su Yu’s eyes, but it only lasted for a split second before fading away. It seemed as though nothing had changed, yet Su Yu’s aura had grown stronger than before.

The fusion was complete. He now lacked only a proper cultivation method. Inside the Heaven Gate, a fiery and blinding sun burned. That was the acupoint. Opposite the sun was a gentle yet radiant moon. That was the aperture.

All that was left for him to do was to bring the sun and the moon together. But this required a proper cultivation method.

The Grand Cycle Method, to be precise.

Unfortunately, Martial Emperor had only given him the cultivation method with 715 acupoints and apertures. To truly bring the sun and the moon together, Su Yu needed to experiment with the remaining five acupoints and apertures.

Each failure would result in an explosion within his body. Thus, this would be quite a dangerous experiment to attempt.

As of this moment, all 720 of his acupoints and apertures had been stored inside the Heaven Gate. An explosion powerful enough to destroy the Heaven Gate might leave Su Yu with heavy injuries or even kill him.

Even now, he could start feeling what the complete fusion would do to him. He could feel that after fully linking everything together with the proper cultivation method, all the power inside the Heaven Gate would be truly his. Prior to this, he had merely been borrowing the power stored in the Heaven Gate. One could say that the Heaven Gate was essentially the shell for his fused acupoints and apertures.

In the future, Heaven Gate would no longer provide him with any boost in strength. Or to be precise, his boosted state would become his natural state.

Looking at the tiny gate on Su Yu’s forehead, Heavenbridge Marquis sighed and said, “The fusion is complete. The human lord is impressive indeed. You are the first to accomplish this feat since the collapse of the ancient past. Even during the ancient past, this was an extremely rare feat. Supposedly, only the Four Cardinal Human Kings and Human Emperor had done this.

Heavendoom rolled his eyes and said, “Are you sure? I heard there were more.”

Heavenbridge Marquis argued, “Try naming them, then.”

“Time Sage.”

Heavendoom had a smug look as he said that. Previously, he didn’t know much about Time Sage. But that had since changed.

Was this answer good enough? Heavenbridge Marquis had an unsightly expression. He had actually lost a verbal spar? He shall remember this.

He said, “Have you met Time Sage? How do you know that? Even if Time Sage really did open the Heaven Gate, how are you sure that Time Sage had completed the fusion as well? Even if it was claimed that the fusion was complete, how are you sure that it wasn’t a lie?”

Heavendoom was furious. But before he could start raging, he recalled something else. With a sneer, he said, “Sure. We won’t talk about Time Sage. Martial Emperor had accomplished the same as well.”

“Pft. Martial Emperor was a figure from the primordial past. I’m talking about those from the ancient past.”

Heavendoom was rendered speechless. That was a valid argument. Were there really no other people who had done the same in the ancient past?

He sank into thought. After a while, his eyes lit up as he said, “Immortal Pseudo Emperor, Devil Pseudo Emperor, and the others must have done the same as well!”

Heavenbridge Marquis snorted and asked, “Did you see their Heaven Gate with your own eyes?”

“No. But I know that when humanity attacked those races, they were faced with great difficulty. Only people with Heaven Gate opened could pose such challenge to humanity back then!”

“And what proof do you have?”

“What proof do you have that they didn’t open their Heaven Gates?”

“I don’t have any. But do you have any proof that they did open their Heaven Gates?”

“I don’t have any. But you don’t have any proof either…”

“…”