Tribulation of Myriad Races

By the time Su Yu was back among the iron devourers, it was already the end of the fourth day given for them to migrate.

Instead of storing their people inside a weapon, over ten thousand iron devourers were moving together while carrying numerous massive mountains with them. Yes. The iron devourers were migrating with their mountains.

One bamboo mountain after another could be seen moving atop the swarm of iron devourers. The bare Human Mountain was too boring for them. Thus, they had decided to migrate with some of their local specialties. However, they were worried that bamboo couldn’t grow on the Human Mountain. Ultimately, they had decided to move their mountains as well.

The younger iron devourers were all still frolicking around on those bamboo mountains without a care, as though they weren’t being forced to migrate. Even the older iron devourers appeared indifferent as they were all treating this as a holiday.

Atop the biggest mountain they were carrying, the large bamboo palace was visible. Yes, the iron devourers had carried even their palace with them.

***

At the moment, both Great Bamboo Marquis and April were present.

Both were relieved to see Su Yu and Lan Tian’s return. Great Bamboo Marquis hurriedly asked, ”Earlier, a number of experts died in the Dao Origin Land. Was that you, Emperor Yu?”

Su Yu answered with a smile, ”An opportunity came to get rid of a few experts so I grabbed it.”

Great Bamboo Marquis was so tense he could no longer maintain his trademark innocent smile. Instead, he spoke with a look of lingering fear, ”There are many Venerables there. You need to be careful. That was too risky!”

Since he had decided to join Su Yu, he naturally had to start worrying about Su Yu’s future. He did not want to see Su Yu take unnecessary risks.

Su Yu said, ”Don’t worry. I understand. But at our current point, we can’t fully avoid risks. Right now, we need to take high risks for high returns.”

Su Yu exhaled and continued, ”But I’ll be reducing the amount of risk I take moving forward. By the way, did anyone come to investigate your group during our absence?”

Great Bamboo Marquis said, ”With me here, they wouldn’t dare. They only came to urge us to move faster. Even Sacred Source Marquis sent someone here to urge us on once. Most of the races are already there while we’re still halfway there.”

Yes, all races were given ten days to complete the migration. But they should have been able to complete it much earlier. However, the iron devourers were taking their own sweet time.

”Ignore them.”

Next, Su Yu released a skeletal figure. Right after she was released, Qi Rong scanned her surroundings warily. Her heart skipped a beat as she noticed that she was among the iron devourers.

Shortly after, she focused on Great Bamboo Marquis, a familiar face among the various iron devourers. However, Great Bamboo Marquis did not seem to know who she was. Instead, he asked curiously, ”Is this someone from the skeletal race?”

”...”

Su Yu laughed and explained, ”No, this is a human. But she was in deep seclusion for so long she nearly died. Do you know her, Great Bamboo Marquis? This is Qi Rong, a woman.”

At that, Lan Tian blanked out slightly before his expression returned to normal. Clearly, that was a surprise to him as well. Great Bamboo Marquis did not have much reaction to the gender reveal. Instead, he searched his memories for that name. Alas, he couldn’t recall anything.

April looked at Qi Rong doubtfully and said, ”Qi Rong...I’ve never heard of this name.”

Qi Rong looked at them in silence.

Su Yu laughed and said, ”You’re an expert capable of reaching the level of a heavenly king through a fake dao, so you shouldn’t be nameless. Looks like you’re unknown to many, Qi Rong.”

”I have always worked behind the scenes...”

Su Yu said, ”It doesn’t matter. I don’t care about your real identity. So, you asked to meet the highest-ranked leader of humanity, right? Since we’re in the Upper Realm, we can’t return to the Human Realm to verify anything. But instead, Great Bamboo Marquis and the others can serve as the witnesses here.”

Understanding dawned on Qi Rong.

After a short silence, she asked, ”Are you...The current human lord?”

Su Yu nodded. He took Xing Yu’s token out and released its suppression on her before saying, ”This is the token of the Human Emperor, the token he used before the conquest. Can you recognize it?”

A look of alarm covered Qi Rong’s eyes. After a long silence, she nodded, ”I’ve heard of it before. No wonder...no wonder you could influence the fake dao cultivators in the Dao Origin Land. Was it due to this token?”

Su Yu smiled, ”Perhaps.”

Then, he opened his Heaven Gate. A look of overwhelming shock covered Qi Rong’s face as she exclaimed, ”You...opened the Heaven Gate?”

”Yes.” Su Yu asked, ”Are these enough to prove my identity? If not, you can wait until our return to the Lower Realm before checking with those in the Human Realm.”

With a sigh, Qi Rong bowed slightly and said, ”I believe you. Xing Yu’s token and the Heaven Gate are more than enough. Even if there are other human lords around, nobody can deny your claim as Human Emperor’s successor.”

Su Yu laughed, ”No, that’s not accurate. I have not inherited anything from Human Emperor.”

Instead of elaborating, he said, ”You said that you can only say more to the highest-ranked leader of humanity. Can you start talking now?”

After a short silence, Qi Rong said, ”Allow me to introduce myself. Qi Rong is indeed my name. But I have an official title as well.”

Everyone looked at her. Why was she acting all enigmatic? They had seen quite a number of ancient marquises. Just who was she?

Qi Rong inhaled deeply and said, ”I am Consort Qi of Yue Gang, the human lord of the third epoch.”

”...”

Everyone stared at each other silently. After a long while, Great Bamboo Marquis asked, ”You’re Royal Consort Qi?”

His eyes were widened in shock.

Noticing that the others were looking at him, he hurriedly explained, ”The human lord of the third epoch was Yue Gang. A human lord is equivalent in rank to a human king. Royal Consort Qi was his dao companion. But it was rumored that she had died long ago. You...”

Qi Rong explained, ”I didn’t die. I had merely retreated behind the scenes to do something. Eventually, I encountered a problem in my cultivation and entered seclusion. Since everyone thought I was dead, only Yue Gang knew about my seclusion.”

With a sorrowful tone, she said, ”But...Yue Gang died.”

Dead.

The moment she saw Su Yu, she had asked him about Yue Gang. And Su Yu had answered that Yue Gang was dead. That was her dao companion, also a human lord. Since he hadn’t met her before his death, she knew that his death must have been quite sudden.

The sorrowful expression on her skeletal face faded away soon after as she said softly, ”Qi Rong greets the human lord.”

Su Yu returned the salute and said, ”Forgive me for the slight. I was unaware that you’re a royal consort.”

He was quite curious. This was his first time seeing a human royal consort. The other consort he had seen was the consort of the Divine Pseudo Emperor.

Suddenly, Great Bamboo Marquis recalled something as his expression changed drastically.

To the side, April’s expression changed as well. He exclaimed, ”You faked your death?”

Qi Rong nodded.

Still in shock, April said, ”This doesn’t seem right. Weren’t you...executed back then? How did you fake your death in an execution?”

”...”

Su Yu blanked out. Execution?

What?

Great Bamboo Marquis explained, ”I seem to recall that back then, Royal Consort Qi was accused of betraying humanity. Thus, Yue Gang personally gave the order to execute her. Back then, this caused quite a ruckus. She was the first royal consort to have suffered such a fate.”

”Betrayal?”

Qi Rong spoke with a self-mocking tone, ”Why would I even betray humanity? My husband was the human lord, the highest-ranked human in existence. Why would I betray humanity? But what could I do when someone wanted that to happen? Human lord? Nothing but a puppet.

”I was unwilling to see Yue Gang remain a puppet. Because of that, I was perceived as a threat and was removed as a result. Fortunately, my husband understood that I meant well, even though he was a stubborn pedant. He secretly saved me, but it was true that my dao was severed. I wouldn’t have switched to a fake dao otherwise.”

Su Yu raised his brow. What a major gossip!

Or perhaps it was more a tragedy than a gossip?

Su Yu clarified, ”In short, you were set for execution with betrayal as the reason. Yue Gang gave the order personally and severed your dao. Then, he rescued you in secret before helping you connect to a fake dao?”

”That’s right, Human Lord.” Qi Rong sighed and said, ”It has been so long, so it’s pointless to talk more about the past. I can see that you don’t have those old fossils around you. Perhaps the removal of the old isn’t a bad thing. At the very least, you are not a puppet.”

As for Great Bamboo Marquis, who was an old fossil as well, he wasn’t a human. Thus, he didn’t count. Qi Rong had only said this much to Su Yu after noticing the lack of ancient experts around him.

Su Yu said, ”Puppet...are you saying that Yue Gang was greatly restricted during the third epoch?”

Qi Rong said, ”Restricted? Strictly speaking, Yue Gang was more a valiant general than a human lord. He was sent as the vanguard for all dangerous battles. Those people claimed that they were training a human lord, but they were merely training a competent general.

”After all, only Human Emperor had their loyalty. They were all waiting for Human Emperor’s return. They would not allow anyone to replace Human Emperor.”

Su Yu laughed and said, ”How interesting. I believe that was the case with Hundred Battle as well. But at least he was strong. How was Yue Gang’s strength?”

”About similar to you.”

In short, he had the strength of an early pseudo king. Such a strength was far from enough to control humanity during the third epoch. That was a time when many ancient fossils among humanity were still around. They had plenty of pseudo kings and even Venerables among them.

”Were you wrongly accused?”

After a short silence, Qi Rong said, ”I wouldn’t say so. Their accusation wasn’t completely wrong.”

Su Yu frowned.

She claimed that she was innocent, yet she was also saying that they hadn’t accused her wrongly. She was contradicting herself.

Royal Consort Qi explained calmly, ”Let me put it this way. At the time, I was unwilling to see Yue Gang reduced into a mere hitman of theirs. Thus, I did something in the dark. I had some people cultivate fake daos, tried to help Yue Gang grow further, and even told Yue Gang to find a chance to kill some human experts to set an example.”

Su Yu asked, ”And you were discovered after doing all that?”

”You can say so.” Qi Rong sighed and said, ”We were too weak. There were too many informers around us, including those we trusted.”

She continued helplessly, ”With the plan exposed, the old fogeys were furious and demanded my life. Yue Gang begged for mercy, but it was useless. Eventually, he had to carry out the execution personally.”

With a laugh, Qi Rong lamented, ”Is that not sad? A human lord without the ability to protect even his dao companion.”

She sighed and said, ”Therefore, I’m not surprised to hear about his death. He was a mere hitman, a mere thug. How could someone like that survive for long? When I asked about him during our first meeting, I was merely asking out of a tiny bit of hope. But I had guessed about his death since he hadn’t visited for so many years.”

Great Bamboo Marquis said, ”Yue Gang died tens of thousands of years ago. A large battle erupted at the third epoch. May’s son died in that battle.”

Su Yu recalled hearing about that before.

He also recalled many other matters. He said, ”Many things happened during the third epoch. May’s son died in battle. The Torchbearers made their first public appearance. According to Great Zhou King, Bing Ku emerged during the third epoch. The third epoch was also the epoch where the Torchbearers abandoned their passage to the Upper Realm.”