Tribulation of Myriad Races

Six Venerables had arrived at the Dao Origin Land.

They flew to the end of the Dao Origin Land right away before splitting into three groups for their sweep.

Each of them was radiating an incomparably powerful aura. As they moved, Venerable Scrape’s cold voice echoed in the air, ”All living beings in the Dao Origin Land are to gather at the Myriad Race Mountain to the west.”

”From today onward, the Dao Origin Land is sealed. Entry is forbidden for everyone.”

His voice echoed repeatedly, spreading far and wide, creating numerous dao fluctuations in the air. The six were not here to kill. They were willing to cooperate with anyone except humanity.

Nevertheless, they wouldn’t hesitate to kill if anyone dared to challenge their order.

Just then, an expert soared into the sky. This expert was likely uninformed of the recent changes as he looked rather furious. ”Venerable Scrape? Is the devil race trying to take over the Dao Origin Land?”

Venerable Scrape couldn’t be bothered to say anything. Far away, Venerable Desolate said, ”The myriad races have reestablished the Myriad Race Assembly. Battleant Marquis, you have been in seclusion for too long. The time has arrived for you to take a good look at the world around you. Today, the divine, devil, immortal, primordial giant, fate, and iron devourer races are here to notify you of this decision. You can voice any objection you have at the Myriad Race Mountain.”

As they spoke, another group of people arrived.

Evidently, the six Venerables were not here alone. Each had arrived with an entourage of elites from their respective race. There were multiple heavenly kings and more than ten Daofuses among these elites.

These elites were here to assist the six Venerables during the sweep. Their powerful auras rippled far and wide, announcing their presence.

Immortal Battle Marquis spoke, ”Fellow Daoists, a crisis is upon the myriad races. Humanity has returned. We are in imminent peril. Please head to the Myriad Race Mountain at the west. The experts of the various races are there, including several Venerables. The Dao Origin Land is no longer safe.

”To eliminate the human threat, the Myriad Race Assembly has decided to perform a sweep through the Upper Realm and force all humans out of hiding. We are doing this for our future. Please understand.”

***

As one expert after another spoke, several Daofuses soared into the sky before flying away with resignation. Clearly, they could no longer stay here. This was a decision made by the major races. They would not allow anyone to hide behind them and enjoy the peace while they were fighting on the front lines.

By forcing these people to gather at the Myriad Race Mountain, they were essentially forcing these people to participate in the coming war as well. This order was enforced by six Venerables, multiple heavenly kings, and numerous Daofuses. No single race could refuse this order.

The six Venerables did not bother to say more. They continued moving toward the very end of the Dao Origin Land.

There, a curtain of light with even thicker power of laws could be seen. However, this place was also far more dangerous than any other place in the Dao Origin Land as the power of laws here would stir randomly, damaging the daos of anyone caught in the chaos.

***

Su Yu and Lan Tian did not bother to follow the Venerables.

Both were observing the Venerables from the dark. The Venerables had yet to start their sweep. They wouldn’t do that before ensuring that all paths of escape had been blocked.

When all the Venerables were gone, Lan Tian asked, ”Emperor Yu, do we follow them?”

They had spent around two days searching this place, but they had mostly focused on the fake dao cultivators during that time. They had yet to discover any real dao cultivator.

Lan Tian added, ”Maybe there are more humans hiding in here. Should we ask that skeletal guy about it? He is old enough to know more, even if he has been in deep seclusion for so long.”

”There’s no rush.”

Su Yu looked in a certain direction where numerous powerful auras were rippling away in the air before looking around, noting the Daofuses who were in the process of leaving the Dao Origin Land.

”We’ll retreat to the outer region as well.”

The Dao Origin Land was large enough that it would take the Venerables some time to finish the search. That was especially true since they would be performing a detailed search to dig out all hidden experts in the area.

Not all the Daofuses in the Dao Origin Land were leaving. Some were also waiting to see if everyone would leave. It would be too unfair for them to leave, only for some people to be allowed to stay.

If someone succeeded in disobeying the order, the others wouldn’t mind lending their support and doing the same. After all, this was a holy land of cultivation. It was only natural that they wouldn’t want to leave. A deportation of this scale had not happened even when humanity was still in power.

***

Before long, Su Yu and Lan Tian were both in the outer region.

Their immediate surroundings were empty, but a group of Daofuses could be seen further away from them. They were clearly here to see if anything else would happen in the Dao Origin Land.

Su Yu was uninterested in these Daofuses since they felt too weak to his senses. With a pat on the Mark of Civilization, a skeletal figure emerged from it.

The moment the skeletal figure emerged, he asked, ”Who are you? Since you are humans, why did you capture me?”

Su Yu couldn’t be bothered to explain anything. It was unnecessary since revealing more about himself might result in unexpected trouble in the future.

He said, ”Focus. Can you feel this?”

The skeletal figure blanked out slightly. What was he supposed to feel? But soon, he felt it. Numerous powerful auras were sweeping through the inner region of the Dao Origin Land. Six of them, in particular, were above the rest.

He exclaimed in surprise, ”These are...peak pseudo kings?”

”They are now known as Venerables.”

Su Yu said, ”Six Venerables, no, nine Venerables are working together with multiple pseudo kings to sweep through the Upper Realm to eliminate all surviving human experts. Skeleton, I saved your life. Without us, you would have died in their hands.”

”Sweeping through the Upper Realm?” The skeletal figure appeared greatly shocked. ”Has humanity...lost the Upper Realm?”

Lan Tian smiled, ”Of course. As we said, a human lord lost the majority of human experts a few thousand years ago. There are very few human experts left up here.”

”But you—”

”We’re from the new generation, not from the past.” Su Yu cut the skeletal figure off.

The skeletal figure stared blankly. Just what had happened during his slumber? How did the powerful human race decline to the point where they lost their hold over the Upper Realm? The skeletal figure could sense the powerful auras slowly moving through the inner region of the Dao Origin Land.

This used to be the territory of the human race. And now, the myriad races were able to walk all over it. Next, the skeletal figure looked around, noting the nearby Daofuses who had not bothered to hide their auras. Not a single one of them was a human.

Back then, humanity had enough Daofuses to rival the total number of Daofuses the myriad races had. But now, the only two human experts he could feel were the two by his side.

Su Yu interrupted the contemplation of the skeletal figure and asked, ”Skeleton, do you know about any human experts who are still cultivating deep inside the Dao Origin Land?”

”I don’t—”

Su Yu laughed, ”Sure. You are free to lie. I don’t care. With the ongoing sweep, they won’t be able to live for much longer anyway. I know old fossils like you. You lot can be very stubborn, and you believe too much in your superiority. You believe you will never need the help of others. So be it. I can’t be arsed to help anyway. I’ll just enjoy the show.”

The skeletal figure sank into silence.

Lan Tian beamed and said, ”Perhaps he’s really clueless. After all, he is a fake dao cultivator. A human from all those years ago wouldn’t have cultivated a fake dao unless absolutely necessary. This was probably an unimportant individual back then despite being a pseudo king.”

Back then, a human would only cultivate a fake dao out of desperation, or perhaps this was simply an unimportant individual back then.

Then again, the skeletal figure had mentioned a bunch of powerful humans and a human lord right after awakening. There was a possibility that he wasn’t exactly a nobody. He was probably untalented. Thus, he was forced to cultivate a fake dao upon reaching the end of his lifespan.

Even so, that did not explain why he had stayed in deep slumber for seventy thousand years. Was there a hidden story here? Since he could stay alive for seventy thousand years, he should have regained enough of his lifespan after cultivating the fake dao to not enter a deep slumber back then.

How odd.

The skeletal figure remained silent. He looked around, noticing the various changes to the place. Seventy thousand years were indeed a long time. That was enough time for even the Dao Origin Land to undergo massive changes.

”The myriad races...have a lot of Daofuses...”

He muttered to himself.

Lan Tian laughed and said, ”You call this a lot? No, this is nothing. There are only ten or so of them here. Including those in the inner region, there are only thirty or so of them. Is this really a lot?”

Su Yu chimed in as well. ”No, you need to understand. During the ninth epoch, humanity and its allies had over a hundred Daofuses while the myriad races had the same number as well. And that was an era where humanity was at its height of power. I believe the number of Daofuses was probably lower during the third epoch. For Brother Skeleton here, thirty or so Daofuses are quite a lot.”

The skeletal figure was out of words. After a long silence, he asked, ”Are there...a lot of Daofuses nowadays?”

”Of course.” Lan Tian answered, ”I believe the myriad races have about three hundred of them. There are probably a hundred or so in the Chaos Mountain? Including the Death Realm, the Lower Realm, and the ancient beasts, I reckon there are about five or six hundred of them altogether. Oh, if we include the ones who had died recently, there would be six or seven hundred of them instead.”

The skeletal figure asked with shock, ”That is a large number. And...are all that...the Daofuses of the myriad races?”

”Yeah.”

”Is humanity...extinct?”

The skeletal figure was feeling very doubtful. How did humanity survive when their enemies were so powerful? Furthermore, the two in front of them were clearly quite strong as well.

Instead of answering, Lan Tian asked, ”Brother Skeleton, how were things during the third epoch? Were there fewer Daofuses around?”

After a short silence, the skeletal figure answered, ”Yes. At the time, humanity had about fifty Daofuses. The myriad races had slightly more, at about sixty or seventy...or maybe a hundred.”

Clearly, the number of existing Daofuses had been steadily increasing over the years.

However, the existence of the fake daos and the defeat of humanity had also played a big role in the growth of the myriad races. With humanity out of the way, the myriad races could grow freely. It had been many years since they lost a significant number of experts.

The final battle of the ninth epoch was the turning point. Prior to that, battles between a large number of Daofuses would happen every now and then, keeping the number of Daofuses contained.

”That is indeed a small number.”

Lan Tian nodded. The current humanity was already strong enough to contend against the myriad races of the third epoch. Alas, they were no longer in the third epoch.

”You...”

Lan Tian interrupted the skeletal figure again and said, ”Don’t bother to ask. Many things have happened over the years. We can’t explain everything in a short time. Knowing part of the story will only cause you more distress. Try to survive and perhaps you will have the time to slowly learn about everything that has happened.”

The skeletal figure thought about it and nodded. That was true. It had been too long since his era. Seventy thousand years, to be precise. Too many things had happened since then. It would take him quite some time to learn about all that had happened.

Once again, he looked at the depths of the Dao Origin Land, noting that the various powerful auras were spreading through the area. Clearly, the white-haired youth was right. The myriad races were performing a sweep through the Dao Origin Land.

After a long silence, he asked, ”You must have some questions for me since you’re letting me out.”