Tribulation of Myriad Races

A newborn tempered by lightning.

Marquis Lanshan, who was nearly dead again after being struck by lightning, was roaring in pain. But at the same time, she was rejoicing in the pain she was feeling.

At times, the life of a death spirit was quite sorrowful. They couldn’t feel anything. Even the world in their eyes was black and white. And now, Marquis Lanshan could finally feel alive again.

She was alive. She had returned to life!

The lightning in the sky was seemingly the heavens telling her that she was alive again. The pain was intense. But it was worth it.

Done with roaring, Marquis Lanshan calmed down and said, ”Your Majesty, I used to cultivate the sword dao, but there is no sword dao available anymore.”

”...”

Did she only think of this now?

Su Yu was left speechless. She never cared about that when she was a death spirit. At the time, Su Yu was quite touched about it. He had thought that she hadn’t bothered to ask because she trusted him fully. But now, it was clear that she had forgotten about it previously. A dao like the sword dao was too popular, and Grandstar had snatched the one in Su Yu’s world.

For the sake of that dao, Grandstar was willing to even attack Empyrean Cloud.

”Take the truncheon dao.”

Marquis Lanshan blinked and said, ”But Your Majesty, I don’t know that weapon...”

”What nonsense. You wield your sword like someone would wield a truncheon. You only need to swing it around. What difference does it make if it’s a sword, truncheon, or a saber dao?”

”...”

Such a strong argument.

Left with no choice, Marquis Lanshan could only compromise. ”Fine. I’ll pick the halberd dao instead. At the very least, I have seen that weapon in action before. Truncheon is too rare. I don’t even know what it looks like.”

”...”

Su Yu had nothing to say about that. Sure.

A gigantic halberd manifested in the sky. Noticing the halberd, the overjoyed Marquis Lanshan started fusing with it. As for her comprehension with the dao of halberd, these martial daos were quite similar in nature.

Furthermore, she could mostly wield a halberd like a sword, just like how she could wield an axe like a sword.

Su Yu continued observing. Ignoring the giant, he spread the powers of life and death into his world through the ink dao. He was personally guiding the two powers to trigger a conversion. At the same time, he was paying close attention to Marquis Lanshan, worried that something might go wrong.

After a while, he reached several conclusions. It was true that these people could no longer return to the River of Time. The River of Time rejected them. The lightning tribulations from Su Yu’s world and death spirit dao were nothing compared to what the River of Time was capable of. A tribulation from the River of Time was probably capable of killing Marquis Lanshan right away.

Secondly, the issue of lifespan. Through his observation, Su Yu noted that someone who had died in battle while young would regain their previous lifespan. The time they had lived as a death spirit would be voided completely.

Marquis Lanshan was still quite weak when she died. She had died long ago, before the Human Emperor’s Court was even established. Thus, she was only about a thousand years old at her death.

She was among the younger Daofuses back then. She still had a lot of lifespan remaining. There was no worry that she would die of old age right after resurrecting.

Next, there was the issue of strength.

Prior to her death, Marquis Lanshan was a Daofuse. But after death, she had nearly reached the level of a heavenly king. After fusing with her essence, she had advanced fully into the level of a heavenly king. She had even surpassed that level, climbing toward the level of a Venerable.

Her aura remained strong after her resurrection, but she had weakened slightly compared to how she was right after she was done fusing with her essence. In short, strength erosion was something they needed to worry about as well.

Then again, she was still much stronger than she was before absorbing her essence. From her aura, she was now a peak heavenly king. But it was unknown how strong she would be outside his world. Perhaps she would also drop a level, stabilizing at the strength of a tier-two Daofuse.

Su Yu frowned. The improvement in strength was lower than expected. Then again, he had to acknowledge that he was to blame for this. Not Marquis Lanshan. His dao was too weak, restricting Marquis Lanshan as well. Otherwise, Marquis Lanshan would be able to maintain the strength of a peak heavenly king who was not far away from a Venerable.

Right at that moment, Fat Ball howled. He was much stronger after turning into a black dog. However, the giant’s trident was still able to stab through both him and his shoe, causing him to howl in pain.

It was too painful.

The giant was growing stronger and stronger as it stepped forth, looking like it was about to stab March and the others to death as well.

”Continue!” Su Yu glanced at them and said, ”Next.”

The three Venerables were clearly no match for the giant. One ought to know that the three Venerables were all quite powerful, and Fat Ball alone was actually as good as two. The three of them had been able to put up a good fight against even four Venerables earlier, but now, they were being pushed back by this giant.

Evidently, the giant had surpassed Su Yu in strength. Su Yu could feel that his world had grown yet again. Down below, a large number of experts were bombarding the death spirit dao to weaken it.

Originally, Su Yu’s world was only ten thousand meters wide. After so many experts fused with it, it had grown more than ten times. With the inclusion of Marquis Lanshan, it had grown even further. Thus, Su Yu was able to continue encroaching upon the territory of the Death Realm.

Resurrection.

Everyone looked at Marquis Lanshan. Even Marquis Lanshan herself was shocked. After fusing with the halberd dao, her resurrection was complete.

Everyone could see it.

A heroic woman was floating in the middle of Su Yu’s world with a halberd in hand. Clad in red armor and a red cape, she looked rather impressive. And she looked quite youthful as well.

Many had to admit that when she was standing there silently, she looked quite good.

Alas, that was not what she was doing. With a halberd in one hand and the other hand on her hip, she was roaring with laughter.

”Hahaha!”

”Hahahahahahahahaha!”

She was wild with joy. She was the first death spirit ever to resurrect successfully.

She was feeling immensely smug.

”Your Majesty, does this attire of mine look good? It’s an outfit reserved for marquises.” Marquis Lanshan said, ”Martial King himself delivered it to me back then. If I were to become a king in the future, could you grant me a king’s attire?”

Su Yu glanced at her and said nothing. He couldn’t be bothered to give a reply. After her resurrection, Marquis Lanshan was a lot more expressive. Her smugness was written all over her face.

The giant looked down at her and said, ”King’s attire, I doubt Su Yu has the chance to grant you something like that. But I believe you can still get a mourning attire.”

The giant’s aura was still growing. It looked around and asked, ”Are the rest of you going to insist on disobeying me?”

It was addressing the peak death spirit experts.

North Heavenly King, Death Imperator, and Dragonblood Marquis.

Were they going to disobey him?

Death Imperator shut his eyes and gave no response. He was smart enough to know that he shouldn’t say anything now. Su Yu and the giant could fight among each other, but he wouldn’t participate.

Su Yu wouldn’t blame him for not helping, as it was only natural that he didn’t help. As for the giant, the giant wasn’t even the actual Master of Death. There was nothing for him to fear. As for the actual Master of Death, well, his help would no longer be required anyway if the Master of Death were actually here.

***

Elsewhere, North Heavenly King was still watching over his Daofuse subordinates.

The death spirits were all shaking with fear.

What now?

They were quite scared of fighting Su Yu. After all, even Dizhiluo and all those super experts had died doing so.

But it was also impossible for them to help Su Yu.

It did not seem likely that they would be resurrected. In that case, they would continue remaining under the mercy of the death spirit dao. It would be unwise for them to go against the death spirit dao.

North Heavenly King had complicated feelings about this. A large number of death spirit experts had died, and a large number of the survivors were going to be resurrected.

Only North Heavenly King, Dragonblood Marquis, and Death Imperator would remain true death spirits. However, all of them had disobeyed the will of death, even if this was an incomplete will.

The Death Realm was no longer a pure world of the dead.

Su Yu’s arrival had thrown everything into chaos.

Suddenly, North Heavenly King looked at the Daofuses around him and sighed. ”Why don’t you follow the giant now? Be careful and you might still survive this battle. Or you can also join Su Yu now. You might not be resurrected, but Su Yu will need more death spirits to maintain his rule over the Death Realm. After all, most of the death spirits under him will be resurrected soon.”

One of them asked, ”What...what about you, Lord?”

”Me?” North Heavenly King had a self-mocking smile as he said, ”I have never been a decisive one. All this wouldn’t have happened otherwise. That was how I was before my death, and it resulted in my eventual death. Even dead, I’m still the same. When East Heavenly King invited me to join him, I refused. When West Heavenly King recruited me, I refused. I refused South Heavenly King as well.

”To stand with or against humanity. Both are valid choices. However, I have been trying to stand alone without the strength to truly do so. I lack the courage to grab the opportunity before me. I am what people call someone ambitious but untalented.”

He stood against both Su Yu and the myriad races. But he didn’t do so because he wanted to become their enemies. He merely did so because he wanted to maintain his independence. That was all he ever wanted. To be left alone.

However, he lacked the talent or ability to make that happen. Even independence required strength. And he lacked that.

”Make your own choices. I won’t stand in your way. As for me...” He looked at the river hanging in the sky. With a smile, he said, ”I wish to return to the river and enter seclusion, but I don’t know if that’s still possible. There is no longer any place I can call home in the Death Realm.”

Not even the Origin Land was safe anymore. Su Yu was already here. And the Death Imperator would be free soon. What else could he do?

But suddenly, he coughed a mouthful of blood. Behind him, Dragonblood Marquis slowly appeared. ”Lord, everything has changed. Leave and find peace, Lord.”

The surrounding Daofuses were alarmed. Wrapping his hand around North Heavenly King’s death imprint, Dragonblood Marquis started devouring the imprint. He gazed into the distance and smiled, emanating a rather demonic presence.

”What a show.”

When the Daofuses attempted to flee, he easily caught them before plucking their death imprints out of their bodies.

With a grin, he said, ”Yes, truly a great show. Everyone has either died or returned to life. Very few true death spirit powerhouses remain.”

Clarity started fading from North Heavenly King’s eyes, but he continued gazing into the distance in silence. Suddenly, he said, ”Dragonblood, this is an era where many grow overconfident. But many will ultimately realize that they are nothing but playthings of the truly strong.”

Dragonblood Marquis said, ”Are you talking about me, Lord?”

He continued devouring North Heavenly King’s death imprint.