Tribulation of Myriad Races

The curtain had indeed risen for the show.

That night, the Venerables on Human Mountain were furious.

They didn’t mind giving some benefits to Su Yu to secure him as their muscle. However, he was demanding a sendoff according to the ancient etiquette from them. That was something they couldn’t accept. Some refused vehemently, but some actually agreed.

For example, Venerable Nether did not seem to care as he said, ”This is a trivial matter if he’s willing to fight. It’s merely a show. Just satisfy his vanity and send him to the battlefield. Won’t it benefit us to see him clash against Control King’s lineage?” It wasn’t like they would lose anything from it.

Venerable Dao protested, ”This is unacceptable. Do you know what you’re saying? We have been resisting humanity for countless years. And now, we’re going to send him off as the servants of the ancient imperial court. Are we bowing again? What of our resistance for a hundred thousand years? Won’t everything turn into a joke?”

”And he’s actually asking us to wear our ancient uniforms. That is not happening!”

The Venerables started arguing with each other.

However, not everyone was arguing. Some remained silent, such as Thunderstorm and Heavenly Fate Marquis.

Thunderstorm hadn’t said anything after giving them Su Yu’s message.

He was still busy thinking about Su Yu. That was indeed a terrifying individual. From a tiny clue people would barely notice, he was able to deduce numerous things. That was an incredibly impressive performance.

Thunderstorm even started comparing Su Yu to Hundred Battle King. Who was better between the two? He was comparing them on numerous aspects instead of strength alone.

Even after a long internal debate, he wasn’t able to reach a conclusion. He only knew that the pressure he felt from Su Yu was much bigger than Hundred Battle King’s. Perhaps that was because Hundred Battle King was a lot more subdued in his scheming.

***

Su Yu was unbothered about the arguments between the Venerables.

He was having March collect all the iron devourers into a weapon. This would prevent Venerable Dragon from taking his anger out on them while Su Yu and the others were absent.

Of the iron devourer race, only Great Bamboo Marquis and March were left outside. The rest, April and May included, had all been taken inside a weapon space.

Su Yu, Fat Ball, March, Giant Axe, Snow Orchid, Heavenbridge, and Great Bamboo. Four Venerables and three heavenly kings. This was the group Su Yu would fight with. All of them were top-tier combatants. Heavenly kings were beings not even Venerables could kill easily.

It wouldn’t be wrong to say that this was yet another migration of the iron devourers. After storing all the iron devourers into a weapon, March handed the weapon to Su Yu.

When Su Yu’s gaze landed on him, March flashed an innocent smile and said, ”It’s safer for this weapon to be with you than me.”

Su Yu continued staring at March. Was the weapon really safer with him?

Not necessarily.

But he did not say anything about it and accepted the weapon. ”We might encounter powerful enemies in our coming battle. We might even encounter a newly emerged Master of Law. Be very careful, everyone.”

Su Yu continued, ”As usual, you only need to obey your commands. Regardless of what my orders are, follow and there will be chance of survival for everyone. If you end up dying after disobeying your orders, you will have nobody to blame.”

This time, there was no contest to his words. Everyone nodded readily.

After a short calculation, Su Yu said, ”The sinned lineage might have more than five Venerables. Be very careful about this as well. The myriad races’ intelligence network is worthless. Their intelligence has always been outdated.”

The others laughed at that. Giant Axe said, ”Isn’t that a good thing for us? It would be troublesome if their intelligence system is capable of collecting accurate information all the time.”

Su Yu smiled and nodded in agreement.

Instead of speaking out loud, he proceeded to send everyone voice transmissions, ”Remember, if you can injure your opponents, take it. There is no need to be too obsessed with killing them. Often, you need to pay a far higher price to kill opponents of this level.”

Everyone was surprised to hear that. Wasn’t Su Yu here to kill some powerful enemies?

”We can start killing when everyone is in my world.” Su Yu decided to offer them an explanation to prevent them from doing something reckless. ”Injure them and try to force them deep into the Chaos Mountain if possible. Have them discover our world themselves instead of having the world manifest before them.”

In short, Su Yu was trying to make everything seem natural.

Opportunities? A new world? Tea plant? Nope. None of them came from him. Instead, these were the fortuitous encounters they had discovered after untold hardships. The others nodded again. They had long learned that they only needed to listen when they were with Su Yu. He could do the thinking for them.

”Lan Tian!” Su Yu said, ”The eight-winged tiger and chaos dragon might not act immediately. We can’t trust them fully. Even their goal of killing the Master of Law might be a lie. Perhaps they are planning to join hands with that Master of Law instead. That tiger knows a lot about us. Inform Principal Wan and the others that they should withdraw immediately the moment the tiger joins hands with our enemies. Don’t engage even if an opportunity appears right before them.”

Su Yu would naturally not trust the two chaos beasts fully. He only trusted them partially. He would never trust anyone apart from those on his side. This was an era where trusting others easily would be fatal. After all, everyone was too good at scheming.

After a short pause, Su Yu said, ”If you encounter danger, and during critical moments, everyone in the world will obey...Great Zhou King.”

Everyone was stunned to hear that, including Lan Tian. Of the powerhouses in Su Yu’s camp, Lan Tian, Fat Ball, Wan Tiansheng, South Heavenly King, and Lanshan were more trusted than Great Zhou King. In terms of strength, Great Zhou King wasn’t even a Venerable. He was weaker than even Wan Tiansheng.

But Su Yu was placing command in his hand. Why was that? Nobody understood. Su Yu did not explain. Great Zhou King? That was an old fellow who was still wrapped in enigma even now. He used to be a secretary of Human Emperor, and he knew too much. Was the existence of Hundred Battle King’s son a top secret? Yes.

But Great Zhou King somehow knew about it. He had even spoken of it lightly, as though it were some trivial gossip. One ought to know that the myriad races had not learned much about it even after six thousand years.

The giants had been hiding this secret well, yet Great Zhou King had spoken of it like it was some sort of minor gossip. They wouldn’t have known about it if it weren’t for Great Zhou King. Thus, this matter was indeed a top secret.

Su Yu had not placed much thought into Great Zhou King’s status as Human Emperor’s secretary. But upon learning about the secrets of Hundred Battle King, Su Yu started to suspect that Great Zhou King had deliberately released that information to him. More annoyingly, Great Zhou King loved speaking in riddles instead of being clear.

He used to say that Hundred Battle King was capable, loyal, talented, and constantly victorious before his final defeat. At the time, Su Yu had cursed at Hundred Battle King for being useless.

In truth, Great Zhou King had shared a lot of secrets with Su Yu through casual conversation. Perhaps everything was deliberate on his part. However, Su Yu had not thought much of it at the time.

”Even his strength is still a secret.”

Su Yu muttered to himself. In truth, he hadn’t helped Great Zhou King much in terms of cultivation, yet Great Zhou King was always capable of keeping up with the rest of them.

He was an Eternal when everyone became Eternals.

He was a Daofuse when everyone became Daofuses.

He was a heavenly king when others started becoming Daofuses.

He wouldn’t fall behind, but he wouldn’t go beyond everyone else either. He would remain just strong enough to be helpful.

When Su Yu spoke of Human Emperor’s dao, that fellow knew of it.

When Su Yu discovered the tunnel at Buried Soul Mountain, that fellow knew of it as well.

In short, Su Yu had a feeling that Great Zhou King still had some contingencies hidden away. Perhaps these contingencies weren’t too powerful. If it were truly all-powerful, Great Zhou King would have stepped forth long ago. However, this trump card of his probably involved forcefully ending this epoch to drag things to the next epoch.

If humanity suffered another defeat during the tenth epoch and Human Emperor was still nowhere to be seen, would there be an eleventh epoch?

***

While Su Yu was deep in thought.

Inside Su Yu’s world.

Underground.

Lan Tian proceeded to transmit Su Yu’s message. Great Zhou King would take charge in critical moments.

Numerous gazes landed on Great Zhou King. Wan Tiansheng and the others were smiling at him.

Great Zhou King had an awkward expression as he said, ”Uhm...Principal Wan, I don’t know what His Majesty is thinking. How can I carry such a heavy burden? My strength is meager. Principal Wan is better suited for this task.”

Wan Tiansheng said, ”His Majesty has the final say. Why are you being so humble, Great Zhou King? In terms of scheming, I am naturally inferior to you.”

”What are you saying?”

Wan Tiansheng laughed. ”Is that not the case? I kept a low profile in the academy and waited many years. However, you had everything under control all along. Many believed that I was only a Mountainsea, but you probably knew the truth all along.”

Wan Tiansheng sighed and said, ”I only have one question. Do you mind having a chat with me, Great Zhou King?”

Great Zhou King raised his brow and smiled. ”Sure.”

”This way, please.”

Wan Tiansheng walked off, and Great Zhou King hurriedly followed.

They moved somewhere with no other people.

***

When they were finally alone, Great Zhou King smiled and asked, ”What question do you have, Principal Wan? Ask away! I will be perfectly honest as long as it’s something I know.”

Wan Tiansheng looked at Great Zhou King and said with a perfectly calm expression, ”It’s nothing major. I only wish to ask about the relationship between my Senior Brother Ye and you, Great Zhou King.”

Great Zhou King said doubtfully, ”Ye Batian? No...there is no relationship between us.”

”Are you sure?” Wan Tiansheng said, ”In that case, allow me to ask something else. Did Xia Chen emerge from Culture King’s inheritance ground this epoch?”

”Yeah.”

”Why did he not emerge in the previous epochs?” Wan Tiansheng asked, ”What is so special about this epoch? Why did Culture King’s legacy emerge in this epoch? That’s not all. Too many things have appeared in this epoch. The ink dao appeared, inherited by Liu Hong. The pen dao appeared, inherited by His Majesty. The inkstone dao was stored in Culture King’s Residence, but it also emerged during this epoch. The same goes for the paper dao.

”All four daos of Culture King appeared in this epoch. Martial Emperor regained his consciousness in this epoch, ultimately leading to the appearance of Xing Yu’s token. That allowed access to Culture King’s Residence.

”The inheritances of Culture King and Human Emperor are probably the biggest trump cards left behind by the ancient past. Both appeared in this epoch instead of Hundred Battle’s epoch.

”Nine is supreme. With Hundred Battle’s talent, he should have obtained these legacies. However, these legacies had only appeared during Su Yu’s era. Perhaps someone considered releasing them during Hundred Battle’s time, but when that someone discovered Hundred Battle’s true intention, when that someone discovered the crisis the Torchbearers were in, that someone decided to move to the tenth epoch instead.

”I don’t really care about all that. I only want to know about my Senior Brother Ye. When you look at it, Senior Brother Ye was the biggest variable of all. The events surrounding him were the trigger for all that had happened subsequently.

”He might be weak compared to the strength we have right now. But thanks to him, everyone learned of how powerful the multiple character faction is. Xia Chen and Nan Wujiang had failed to attain the same level of fame. The multiple character faction wasn’t as well-known in the beginning.

”The myriad races only started fearing the multiple character faction after Senior Brother Ye’s rise and death. Only then did the multiple character faction become a place only top-tier geniuses could join.

”Great Zhou had directly or perhaps indirectly suppressed the multiple character faction, subjecting it to a state of constant crisis. Only then did His Majesty appear.

”Otherwise, things could have remained calm even after His Majesty inherited Time Sage’s legacy. Things might remain tense, but a lot of battles would have erupted much later. If he had joined the single character faction since the very beginning, things would have remained calm in the Myriad Realms until now.

”But how long could this calm last? Human Emperor and the others are returning soon. Someone might have sensed that. Due to that sense of urgency, this someone decided to trigger everything in advance.

”I spent a lot of time searching the Death Realm and the Celestial River of Death. But I never found my senior brother. Do you know where my senior brother is, Great Zhou King?”