Tribulation of Myriad Races

Bountiful Treasure said helplessly, “Marquis, don’t just sit there and sneer. We need to survive! Who among us is better than the other? Yes, yes, you are slightly better. You’re a marquis, while I’m only a general. But both of us are now rats. We are the same.”

Heavenly Overseer Marquis took another sip of his tea and said indifferently, “The humans are very strong. Su Yu is very talented. He is also loved by luck. He might have more trump cards hidden away. Not long ago, I observed humanity’s fortune. It has reached a terrifying level. The Death Realm has stayed completely silent until now. Something must have happened there as well. That is not all. I also saw the fortune of the other races declining. This is an epoch where humanity might really make a comeback.”

“In that case, why don’t you join me and surrender to the humans?”

“Surrendering to the humans?” Heavenly Overseer Marquis said, “You won’t understand even if I explain. Forget it. You can submit to humanity, but that is not an option to me.”

“Do you intend to fight them until the very end?” Bountiful Treasure said with surprise, “The Heavenly Hunt Pavilion’s grudge with humanity isn’t so deep that peace is not possible. Su Yu dislikes you, but that’s because you’re standing against him. With your strength, he might not necessarily refuse your submission. You have not killed any major human experts so far.”

Bountiful Treasure couldn’t understand this decision. He thought about it and said, “Are you worried that humanity will lose when the Upper Realm opens? You don’t need to worry about that. Nobody can say for sure that humanity will lose. Even if they do end up defeated, there is no guarantee that we can actually live long enough to see that if we continue to stand against humanity right now.”

“You don’t understand.”

Heavenly Overseer Marquis shook his head again.

Bountiful Treasure asked doubtfully, “Just why?”

After taking another sip of tea, Heavenly Hunt Pavilion smiled and said, “Do you know why among the many spirits Culture King nurtured, I was the only one handed an official position?”

“Because you were strong?”

“No, that dog was probably stronger than me. But he did not receive any position.”

Heavenly Overseer Marquis smiled and said, “Because I was the luck spirit. As long as I remained, a new Emperor would never emerge.”

Bountiful Treasure was confused. What?

Heavenly Overseer Marquis said, “Forget it. You won’t understand. Initially, I didn’t understand either. But eventually, I understood. Su Yu will never spare me. He might not understand now, but a day will come when he reaches the same conclusion. How can he become a true Emperor without killing me?”

Heavenly Overseer Marquis laughed and said, “I spent my entire life living in fear of Culture King. I am terrified of him even after a hundred thousand years. And in the end, I still can’t free myself of his scheme. True enough, all scholars are treacherous schemers.

“With me alive, humanity will suffer another defeat. But things will be uncertain with my death. If I do die, I can only pray that Su Yu will encounter Culture King one day and give Culture King a taste of his own medicine.”

Heavenly Overseer Marquis started laughing. After a while, he said, “I won’t die anytime soon. But you, on the other hand, need to be careful. Perhaps you should find a chance to surrender to them. Don’t do anything stupid like spending your time around me because of your blind trust in my luck. You overestimate the power of luck.”

Bountiful Treasure looked sheepish. He had been exposed. Why had he survived from the ancient past? Apart from his abilities, he had also spent a lot of time latching onto Heavenly Overseer Marquis’ luck. He had always followed Heavenly Overseer Marquis’ choice, believing that it would be the right choice.

That was how he had survived until now. By following the path of luck, he could avoid losing even in situations where he couldn’t win. How many ancient marquises were there during the ancient past? And how many were still around? Meanwhile, a mere titled general like him had survived for so long. That, in itself, was a very impressive feat.

Bountiful Treasure was unwilling to give up. He asked again, “Are you really unwilling to surrender with me? Together, we can watch over each other while we’re with the humans. I don’t feel confident going alone. I have followed your path for a hundred thousand years. Apart from the first epoch, when I was injured by He Tu due to my bad luck, I have been fine until now. Together, I doubt Su Yu will refuse us.”

“Idiot.” Heavenly Overseer Marquis laughed and said, “As I said, you don’t understand. Just go and surrender. Humanity has a bright hope for this epoch. Even if they do end up defeated, they will have the chance to rise again so long as Su Yu is still around.”

Heavenly Overseer Marquis thought about it and said, “Su Yu has his eye on my Heavenly Hunt Index. According to the rumors about the pen, ink, paper, and inkstone daos, I hold the paper dao. Unfortunately, Culture King was unwilling to hand me this legacy. Forcing it is pointless.”

After sighing with regret, Heavenly Overseer Marquis laughed again and said, “In a way, both of us are old friends. You need something to prove your loyalty before joining the humans. You can have the Heavenly Hunt Index. Offer it to Su Yu. Even if he still dislikes you after that, he won’t do anything to you in the future.”

Then, a golden booklet flew toward Bountiful Treasure. Bountiful Treasure was stunned.

“This…”

Was this guy being serious? He was greatly surprised. This was the most precious treasure of Heavenly Overseer Marquis. And he had actually given that treasure out so easily. Was this a scheme? Bountiful Treasure found this unbelievable.

Heavenly Overseer Marquis laughed again and said, “You don’t understand. The moment Su Yu inherits the pen dao, I can no longer inherit this thing. Culture King would never allow an outsider to control one of his daos. It is impossible. I was blinded by my greed. Culture King’s dao may be powerful, but it is not my dao. Why should I pursue it stubbornly?”

With another sigh, Heavenly Overseer Marquis continued, “Hand this to Su Yu for me. Consider this the end of our long relationship. Tell Su Yu to bring it on if he wishes to kill me. But he needs to do it personally. Anyone else might fail.”

Bountiful Treasure frowned and said, “Marquis, is there really a need for this?”

“As I said, you don’t understand.” Heavenly Overseer Marquis said impatiently, “It’s not that there is no hope for me. I might not be the one to die. If Su Yu dies, I will be able to break free and start anew. However, the two of us can never exist together. Even if I do submit to him, it might be a bad thing for both of us.”

Bountiful Treasure ceased his persuasion. He picked the Heavenly Hunt Index up and noted that it was still as unfathomable as ever. Before leaving, he couldn’t resist saying, “I don’t understand what you’re saying exactly, but I can guess that it is related to luck. Won’t your luck worsen without the Heavenly Hunt Index?”

“Perhaps this is a good thing for me.” Heavenly Overseer Marquis said, “Destiny has its plans. This thing has blinded me for many years. Perhaps without it, I will reach the level of a heavenly king before long.”

With the Heavenly Hunt Index gone, Heavenly Overseer Marquis seemed slightly more carefree than before. He laughed and said, “Me, the old turtle, or even Tiangu have all reached a limit. Su Yu believes that Tiangu is still hiding his strength, but I don’t think so. Like me, Tiangu is too stubborn. Of course, there is hope for him to succeed, while there is no such hope for me.

“Tiangu has been stubbornly and obsessively pursuing the immortal emperor dao for too many years. Back during the ancient past, he was a boundlessly talented genius. That was why he was so famous back then. Alas, his stubbornness caused his many years of stagnation…

“The old turtle is the same. He was unable to see through the truth of his dao. But with Su Yu around, I reckon he will be able to glimpse the truth soon.”

With a short pause, Heavenly Overseer Marquis said, “Tell Su Yu that if he wishes to kill me, he had better do it before Hundred Battle King’s return. He is a smart man. Pass these words to him and he will understand. Prior to this, humanity has not been able to produce Daofuses in this epoch. That does not make sense since humanity is the pet of the Myriad Realms. The daos are not the answer for everything…”

Then, the entire Heavenly Hunt Pavilion vanished, leaving a group of people behind.

Heavenly Overseer Marquis’ voice rang out from afar, “South Chamber head, West Spire head, and the various humans of the Heavenly Hunt Pavilion are hereby returned to humanity. Do not overthink this. Do not suspect anything. Henceforth, I sever all my karma with you. The time for Heavenly Hunt Pavilion to make an exit has arrived.”

“Marquis!”

Bountiful Treasure called out, but no response came. Heavenly Overseer Marquis had left. Only some unconscious pavilion members and the Heavenly Hunt Index were left behind.

An indistinct sigh rang out in the air, “Over a hundred thousand years. Only today did I know who I am. How lamentable. How regrettable. I suppose it is not a bad thing to be stupid. Bountiful Treasure, I envy your stupidity.”

“…”

Bountiful Treasure was rendered speechless. Why was that guy insulting him before leaving? Was he really that stupid? How could he have survived this long if he were truly stupid?

Was this a joke?

Heavenly Overseer Marquis seemed incredibly abnormal today. Perhaps he had indeed understood something. This must be his act of severing his karma. With the Heavenly Hunt Index in hand, Bountiful Treasure General had an intense desire to keep it for himself.

A powerful dao!

The paper dao!

That was a major dao.

But it was also something even someone as smart as Heavenly Overseer Marquis had relinquished. Bountiful Treasure greatly suspected that greed here would only shorten his lifespan.

“He actually gave up on this thing…”

Bountiful Treasure was feeling very doubtful. Would Heavenly Overseer Marquis really grow stronger by giving up on this thing? That would be impressive if true.

“Su Yu must be the one to kill him?”

Numerous thoughts emerged in his mind. Ultimately, he decided to stop thinking. He couldn’t see through the truth. Since Heavenly Overseer Marquis had decided, he would go forth as well. Perhaps he might really live longer doing this.

After grabbing all the unconscious humans around him, Bountiful Treasure started heading toward the Allheaven Battlefield. It was time for him to look for Su Yu. Would the Heavenly Hunt Index be good enough to display his sincerity?

When he tried to surrender previously, the humans had actually rejected him. He had never seen such an arrogant version of humanity. Even during the ninth epoch, humanity had been happy to accept the surrender of Daofuses. Su Yu was truly even more arrogant than Hundred Battle King.

***

Su Yu was still unaware of all that.

The humans had sent several messages to him regarding Bountiful Treasure’s surrender, but they received no response from him. He was too busy. He visited one minor realm after another, planting his pages in one dao after another to steal from them.

He had 1,480 pages in total. Thus, he could steal from 1,480 races. The Myriad Realms were filled with minor races. Some races were so insignificant that they couldn’t even enter the Allheaven Battlefield. These were the races that had yet to even discover the entrance to the Allheaven Battlefield.

At the moment, Su Yu was inside one such realm.

It was very weak.

There wasn’t even a Mountainsea in the realm. The strongest expert there was a Cloudbreach. Even when Su Yu was standing right before him, the Cloudbreach remained oblivious.

Yet such a realm had its own unique dao. Evidently, this might be a relatively new race while the dao belonged to some extinct race of this realm.

There was a precedent of this happening. For example, the fire hog race had become the ruler of its realm after the extermination of the previous ruler of that realm. As the locals of that realm, the fire hog race was able to dominate the dao of that realm. However, it was still incapable of producing too many Eternals. The main reason for that was the incompatibility between the fire hog race and that dao.