Tribulation of Myriad Races

Hundred Battle King strolled across the Human Realm with an entourage behind him. However, nothing felt the same anymore. He could feel that he was unwanted in the current Human Realm.

He could sense the emotions of the thirty-six prefects behind him. Indifference, fear, indignation, hatred, and fury. They were too weak to hide their emotions from him. Perhaps they were annoyed by his return now.

He was supposed to be sealed six thousand years ago.

He was supposed to be dead.

Now that a new human lord had emerged, why did he return?

In fact, the people around Hundred Battle King had sensed those emotions as well. They could even hear what the common people were talking about.

Some were asking about the purpose of this old human lord’s return after so many years.

Some were saying that he was supposed to be dead.

Southbrook Marquis, the strongest subordinate of Hundred Battle King, heard those words as well.

With a complicated expression, he said, ”Your Majesty, these are ignorant fools. Ignore them. They know nothing. If victory was possible back then, why would we have taken such a drastic action? We only did that because we didn’t want to ruin the entire human race.”

After shooting a glance at Xia Huyou and the others, he spoke after a slight hesitation, ”Back then, we wouldn’t have made that choice if victory against the myriad races and Control King’s lineage was possible. You might have learned something about what happened back then, but our defeat was necessary for the preservation of the human race.”

Nobody replied. Not satisfied, he continued, ”Things might have seemed difficult for humanity after that, but His Majesty has been paying close attention to humanity. Primordial Giant King wouldn’t have agreed to help at a single request from Zhou Tian previously, otherwise.”

He had learned about that battle from Cloud Water Marquis.

Southbrook Marquis added, ”Primordial Giant King only helped for the sake of His Majesty. He wouldn’t have bothered to get involved in that mess otherwise.”

With a wide smile on his face, Xia Huyou nodded. ”Yes, Senior Southbrook Marquis. We understand.”

Southbrook Marquis frowned. There was zero sincerity in those words. He couldn’t accept this. It seemed like not even he could disregard the opinion of these people he considered weaklings.

With a gloomy tone, Southbrook Marquis said, ”Are you the descendant of Battle King? You’re already a prefect at your age. I understand that you’re a close friend of Su Yu.”

With the same smile on his face, Xia Huyou said, ”Senior, I heard that...by the way, this is only hearsay. I heard that you were saved by Emperor Yu.” ”He faced heavenly kings to save you. You might be a senior of ours due to your age, but Emperor Yu is the tenth human lord. It is inappropriate of you to address him by his name. You seemed to have met him in the Upper Realm as well. This isn’t proper, Senior.”

Southbrook Marquis blanked out slightly before sinking into silence with a complicated expression.

To the side, Riversea Marquis’s cold voice rang out. ”Do you know who you’re talking to? Even during the ancient past, your ancestor, Battle King himself—”

Xia Huyou interrupted with the same smile on his face. He spoke earnestly, ”Yes. Even my ancestor wouldn’t have dared to speak to you like this. I suppose he needed to kowtow to all of you and address you all as grandpa every time you met in the past.”

”...”

Silence descended.

Nobody said anything.

Suddenly, Hundred Battle King spoke without looking back. ”Alright. Calm down. Don’t be so tense. We are not enemies. Riversea, speak less.”

”Your Majesty!”

Riversea Marquis was furious. As a direct subordinate of Conflict King, he was different from others. He was furious at how much these people rejected them. His Majesty’s return would only benefit humanity. Back when His Majesty still ruled, he was famed for how much he loved his people. Everyone from the ninth epoch could attest to that. They loved him with all their hearts.

Even Great Zhou King had acknowledged that Hundred Battle King might have failed his allies, but he had not failed humanity. Of course, that could only be said when excluding the final battle of the ninth epoch.

Xia Huyou merely smiled without saying anything. He didn’t want to provoke them so much that they decided to cut him down or something. He was still too weak.

He had merely said something because Southbrook Marquis had addressed Su Yu’s name directly. He reminded Southbrook Marquis that the marquis owed Su Yu his life. He couldn’t show Su Yu such disrespect.

Southbrook Marquis sighed and said, ”You’re right. He saved me.”

Riversea Marquis disagreed. ”That is incorrect. If he hadn’t caused all those troubles in the Upper Realm, the myriad races wouldn’t have performed a detailed search over the Dao Origin Land. Southbrook, do you really believe that we owe him? No, we don’t. None of that would have happened if he hadn’t gone to the Upper Realm.”

He did not think he owed Su Yu anything. He was in the middle of a seclusion when he was forced out by the myriad races. In fact, he was blaming Su Yu for the premature end of his seclusion.

Southbrook Marquis said nothing.

To the side, South Suppression Marquis frowned slightly and said, ”Enough, Riversea. You’ve just returned. His Majesty must be tired. Why don’t you all take a short rest before meeting the experts of the various prefectures? Emperor Yu--cough. Human Lord Su left his previously built palace behind. You can stay here for now, Your Majesty.”

Hundred Battle King nodded. ”Sure. South Suppression, your physical injuries are quite heavy. I’ll help with your recovery later. You might be able to reach the level of a pseudo king after your recovery.”

”Thank you, Your Majesty.”

South Suppression Marquis bowed. Hundred Battle King looked at Wen Qi and smiled, ”Even Wen Qi has grown into a Daofuse. Well done.”

”All thanks to your good fortune, Your Majesty.”

”Clearly, you’re still as good at talking as ever.”

Hundred Battle King looked up at the sky. After a long pause, he said, ”I’ll try to recover Shadow and Mountain Mist later. Only a few of us are still missing.”

As for the other ancient humans, he no longer considered them his subordinates.

While moving toward Emperor Yu’s Court, Hundred Battle King asked, ”You’re Xia Huyou, yes?”

”Yes. What orders do you have, Human Lord?”

Xia Huyou followed the entourage with a genial smile on his face.

”I hear that you’re quite close to Su Yu.”

Xia Huyou answered, ”We have a normal relationship. He is high and mighty. I am but a nobody. Do not misunderstand, Human Lord.”

”We have quite a slippery one here.” Hundred Battle King chuckled. ”Don’t worry. I’m not doing anything to the ones left behind. You can reject me, and you can hate me. I understand that the moment I left six thousand years ago, I became a part of the past. But I hold no malice toward humanity. After all, we have the same origins.

”Su Yu left because he did not wish to serve under me. I don’t want to serve under him either. His departure is merely a result of our free choices.

”This is not the time for us to get into an internal conflict. We have different ideologies and paths, but we are all humans.

”Primordial past or ancient past, our choice does not change the fact that we’re both humans. In truth, primordial past and ancient past are never two different eras. Both are a part of the same era. As someone who has defected to chaos, Control King is the only actual traitor among us.

”I might have erred, but I have never betrayed humanity.”

There was no need for him to explain himself. These people were weak enough that he could disregard them. But he had still opted to explain himself. After seeing how much the Human Realm had changed, he believed that he needed to say something.

Between him and Su Yu, he represented the primordial past while Su Yu represented the ancient past. That was their difference. But strictly speaking, it wasn’t a big difference. Both Human Ancestor and Human Emperor belonged to the same era.

One continuous era.

Control King was the one who had truly betrayed humanity.

Xia Huyou nodded with the same smile on his face. ”You’re right, Your Majesty. Emperor Yu said the same thing before leaving. According to him, you won’t mistreat humanity.” ”From what I know about him, he wouldn’t have abandoned the Human Realm if he didn’t believe in you. If the Control King’s lineage or the myriad races were the ones coming instead of you, he would have fought to the death instead of leaving.”

That was true.

And Xia Huyou understood Su Yu well enough to know that. Su Yu believed that Hundred Battle King wouldn’t harm humanity. He wouldn’t have left so easily otherwise. A tacit understanding had formed between Su Yu and Hundred Battle King even though they had never met.

It didn’t matter if Hundred Battle King wanted to develop his own power base among humanity. Humanity would remain humanity. They were all humans. None of them was a traitor.

They merely differed in their ideologies. Su Yu did not agree with Hundred Battle King’s ways. Hundred Battle King might not agree with Su Yu’s ways either.

Hundred Battle King laughed. ”True. In that case, I should actually be happy about this. In truth, this isn’t an urgent matter. We have other matters of higher urgency to deal with. Human Emperor and the others might start returning soon.

”Upon their return, peace would end. And that isn’t even the scariest of what we need to face in the future. The beings behind the Hell Gate are the true challenge for us. They might emerge soon as well.”

Hundred Battle King sighed. ”The more you know, the more helpless you feel. That was why I lost all hope six thousand years ago. In my despair, I picked a different option.”

Xia Huyou knew a little about the past as well, but he didn’t know everything. He asked cautiously, ”Human Lord, why didn’t you choose to fight it out back then? Perhaps things weren’t that helpless. After sealing yourself for six thousand years, your strength is still the same. What exactly is the point of going away for six thousand years?”

Southbrook Marquis and the others had odd expressions. This was...such a blatant attempt to gather information.

Hundred Battle King laughed. ”My strength is naturally no longer the same. Six thousand years. It’s impossible for nothing to change. I have been spending the past six thousand years accumulating strength.”

Xia Huyou’s smile grew wider as he asked, ”In that case, you must have gained a large number of Venerables under you. That’s good! Humanity is blessed to see you return!”

Hundred Battle King chuckled.

To the side, Southbrook Marquis coughed.

Xia Huyou was still trying to gather information from them.

Hundred Battle King said, ”I’m still unsure of the exact number of Venerables I have. I left a group of people behind six thousand years ago. They were told to focus on comprehending the dao in hiding. Nobody can predict the result of that. After all, six thousand years have passed. Perhaps they can produce five or six Venerables if we’re lucky? Who knows?”

Five or six?

Xia Huyou noted that in his mind. There was no need for Hundred Battle King to lie about something like that. Perhaps Hundred Battle King was even using him to pass the message to Su Yu.

Suddenly, Xia Huyou felt like his status as a friend of Su Yu was quite useful. Coupled with his status as Battle King’s descendant, Hundred Battle King had been treating him with courtesy.

Xia Huyou hurriedly said, ”Human Lord, do you think we’re now good enough to defeat Control King’s lineage?”

”It’s not hopeless.” Hundred Battle King nodded and said, ”But it would be better for the myriad races and Control King’s lineage to fight each other first. Otherwise, any victory we can achieve will be a pyrrhic victory. In fact, Human Emperor’s return won’t improve things. Their return will only make things worse.

”Don’t place your hope on Human Emperor. Firstly, humanity never had more Masters of Laws than the myriad races. After so many years, humanity might have lost even more. The myriad races definitely hold the advantage in this aspect.” ”Secondly, the Hell Gate might open soon. Access to some other places might open soon as well. This will be the start of a nightmare for humanity.

”Therefore, a pyrrhic victory is not what we can afford. That will spell the end of humanity. We need to ensure that humanity is the one producing new Masters of Laws, or perhaps make it so that humanity produces more.”