Tribulation of Myriad Races

Chapter 2020: Cooperation Established (1)

Heavenly Measure was gone.

But not before giving Su Yu a knowing smile.

Clearly, he was mentioning Endless Passage and September to show that he was aware of Su Yu’s group in the Upper Realm. Since Endless Passage had returned to the fate race, what about September?

***

Su Yu maintained the same expression. So what if they knew? What could they do if he insisted on feigning ignorance? Soon, he tossed the matter to the back of his mind.

He would be cooperating with the myriad races for now. At worst, he would withdraw upon exposure. With the chaos lineage around, the myriad races would not be willing to sacrifice too much to take him down.

***

Once again, he returned to the iron devourers.

They had settled down on the third level.

The three major races had settled on the second level. In truth, the second level was better for only one race as it would be too cramped otherwise. And it wasn’t like there weren’t better locations other than the second level. But none of them was willing to take a lower level when one of them was taking a higher level. That would give the other races the impression that the race at the higher level was superior to the others.

And thus, all three of them had decided to settle down on the second level.

The third level was left for the races with Venerables. The fate race had picked a location not far from the iron devourers. Great Bamboo Marquis was busy setting the boundaries of their new territory when Su Yu returned.

The moment Su Yu arrived, he asked, “How was it?”

“Many missing experts were found. Five humans, with one being a Venerable. All of them were captured.”

Great Bamboo Marquis’ expression changed. Were all of them captured? Then again, that was understandable. As they had been cut off from the outside world, they did not know what was happening. They would have emerged long ago otherwise. And in their confused state, escape would be too difficult.

Su Yu continued, “The three major races intend to assemble nine vanguard teams to serve as cannon fodder…no, bait, to be precise. Great Bamboo Marquis, time to start recruiting. The more people you can find, the better it is.”

Su Yu gave Great Bamboo Marquis an explanation of what had happened. Great Bamboo Marquis was taking it very seriously. They already had a pseudo king on their side. The nine-headed bird would be the pseudo king of their team.

But in such a situation, nobody would say no to more pseudo kings. Great Bamboo Marquis wasted no time and flew away to start the recruitment process.

***

At the same time.

Venerable Moon and the others were finally done sweeping through the Dao Origin Land. After the search, their group had grown bigger. The five human experts had all been detained.

After walking out of the curtain of light covering the Dao Origin Land, Venerable Moon looked at the other Venerables, including the clones of Venerable Nether and the others. He said, “Let’s talk.”

Ignoring the two Venerables from the dragon and phoenix races, the rest of them had actually gone through a long discussion earlier. All of them had agreed to negotiate with the Torchbearers.

The dragon Venerable was still unaware of the matter, or he might have objected to it. After all, Su Yu was the one who had nearly caused the extinction of the dragon race.

Venerable Nether said, “I agree that we need to negotiate with them as long as we’re sure that they weren’t the culprits behind the attack against the nether race.”

The Torchbearers had denied involvement in that attack, but nobody could be sure if it was a lie.

Venerable Moon nodded and said, “We will verify this before coming to a decision. With enough bargaining chips in our hands, we can finally negotiate with them. We were too disadvantaged during our previous negotiation with them since we lacked information.” “But now, we have one Venerable, two pseudo kings, and two peak Daofuses to serve as our bargaining chips. This should be enough for us to make our demands.”

Previously, Su Yu held the advantage since the fate of over a hundred fake dao experts was under his control. But things had changed. Were the five human experts important enough to offset that advantage on Su Yu’s side?

Of the gathered Venerables, Venerable Dao was the oldest. However, he still looked as youthful as ever. With a smile, he said, “Don’t fear them too much. Even if they can influence fake dao cultivators, I believe it isn’t something that can be done freely. But we also can’t deny that this is a weakness. However, we can talk it out since we need each other.”

Venerable Scrape agreed, “In that case, let’s talk. We need to demand the attendance of their leader. Even if the leader can’t arrive in person, we need to see the clone of the leader.”

The others exchanged gazes before nodding. At the very least, they needed to know the identity of their leader.

Venerable Moon, who was looking around, suddenly roared, “Audacious!”

The rest were confused. What? Who? They saw no one! After the shout, Venerable Moon flew away at a rapid speed. At the same time, a humanoid stone emerged from a nearby mountain and flew toward Venerable Moon.

The sight of that further confused the other Venerables. What was going on?

***

Atop a mountain.

Venerable Moon stared at the humanoid stone before him with a frown. After a short moment, he unfurrowed his brows and said, “Yet another clone. I thought you would plant some actual spies around me.”

Lan Tian’s stone clone had an honest expression as he nodded, “Yes. We don’t have anyone here.”

“…”

Venerable Moon didn’t know what to say about that, as the words of the stone humanoid before him only caused him to grow even more suspicious. He decided to toss the matter aside.

“We need to meet your leader for a proper negotiation. Our previous meeting was more akin to a greeting. We need to have a formal discussion before the war. If we can reach an agreement, we can cooperate in the coming war against the chaos lineage.”

Venerable Moon continued, “Remember, we have a decent number of human experts in our hands. None of them is dead. Take this into consideration and show some sincerity. Don’t dream of fooling us into doing your bidding. If an agreement is reached, we are even willing to release these humans to your side, including the Venerable.”

Lan Tian’s clone said, “We will take this seriously. Let’s meet at the Dao Origin Hill three days later.”

“Dao Origin Hill?” Venerable Moon frowned, “I’ve never heard of that place.”

“Somewhere in the outer region of the Chaos Mountain.”

Venerable Moon’s face fell.

Lan Tian said, “Don’t worry. It’s only the outer region. You can even come with your clones if you’re worried. It’s not a clone. We only picked this place because it’s safer for both sides.

“There is a concealment formation around this hill. The ancient beasts won’t be bothering us there. This is also an opportunity for you to witness the formation in action. As long as you move fast enough, you can reach this place in a split second right after entering the outer region. Cut off your connection to your dao and not even the ancient beasts will bother you while you’re on your way.”

With a wave of his hand, Lan Tian projected a map before them. He pointed at a small hill on the map and said, “Here. This was also the former base of the North Pacifying Marquis.”

After noting down the location, Venerable Moon narrowed his eyes and asked, “Are your people staying in the Chaos Mountain?”

Lan Tian smiled and said, “Some are there to investigate the chaos lineage. We don’t like to fight someone we don’t know.”

Venerable Moon frowned. But soon, he smiled and said, “Sure. We’ll meet three days later. I hope we can reach an agreement this time. By the way, a dragon Venerable has returned. Do consider what you’ll say to this Venerable when the time comes.”

Lan Tian chuckled and said, “We’re enemies, not friends. What is there to say? This is your internal matter, not a problem for us to deal with. It is your job to shut their mouth. There only needs to be one voice in the Myriad Race Assembly, not seven voices. If you can’t even do that much, I believe your side will be the first to lose in the coming conflict.”

Venerable Moon gave the stone humanoid a deep stare before vanishing with a flicker.

Next, Lan Tian’s stone clone exploded, leaving nothing behind.

Right after the stone exploded, the Venerables appeared around it. Venerable Dao said, “Interesting. This isn’t a regular cloning technique. Rather, it seems to be a unique method to turn any clone into the main body. It is something accomplished through the partition of the soul. The soul of this person has been cut into many pieces to create all these clones.”

Venerable Desolate frowned and asked, “Is there a way for us to discover his real body?”

Venerable Dao said, “As I said, this isn’t a proper clone. In that case, there is no such thing as a real or main body. There are stronger clones, but these clones can serve as main bodies as well. This person will be very difficult to kill.

“The best way to go about this? Have him gather the majority of his strength in one body before killing that body. This will greatly reduce the number of clones he can produce. Then, we can keep all his remaining clones trapped in one region before slowly combing through that region to kill enough of his clones to render him useless.”

“Is he really that difficult to kill?” The others frowned.

Venerable Dao laughed and said, “That’s not necessarily difficult.”

He looked at Heavenly Fate Marquis and said, “Fellow Daoist Heavenly Fate has the ability to spy on the heavens. With his ability to observe the fortune of others, he stands a chance at locating every single clone of that person.”

Heavenly Fate Marquis said, “Only after he’s heavily injured. Right now, each clone is only accompanied by a small strand of fortune. The strand is too small. Spread over the vast Upper Realm, it will be almost impossible for me to find all of them. Injure him enough to destabilize his fortune and I might be able to start tracking him.”

The others thought about it and nodded. As long as there was a way to deal with that person, it would be fine. However, they couldn’t fully trust Heavenly Fate Marquis either. Thus, they started thinking of alternatives. After all, someone with countless clones that could be instantly switched into main bodies was simply too terrifying an opponent.

“Dao Origin Hill…at least it has a good name. Let’s meet them three days later.”

Venerable Dao smiled and said, “He’s right about one thing. If the Myriad Race Assembly can’t even establish a proper command structure, how are we supposed to contend against them? I suggest that for the negotiation, there can only be one voice from our side. The others can state their opinions, but only one person can make the decision.”

He looked at the others and said, “As for the decision maker…Venerable Moon can do it for us.”

Venerable Moon hurriedly said, “No, Fellow Daoist Dao is more suitable.”

Venerable Dao smiled and said, “No, I agree that Venerable Moon should do it. These days, the immortal race is falling behind the divine race. It is only right that you take the lead.”

At that, Venerable Moon cursed inwardly. This was what they were getting at in such a roundabout method.

Not wanting to keep bickering about that topic, he talked about something else, “For the negotiation, we need to be cautious. If possible, only send your clones over. We can never be too careful.”

The rest nodded at that. Even March was nodding with his usual innocent expression, but inwardly, he had numerous thoughts in his mind.

Su Yu had somehow gotten these guys to talk.

How brazen!

***

“Three days later. Dao Origin Hill.”

Lan Tian was reporting back to Su Yu. He asked, “They are demanding to meet the leader. What now?”

They didn’t have a Torchbearer leader.

After thinking about it, Su Yu laughed and said, “Have Great Zhou King send a clone over. Who else but him can be this Torchbearer leader? I’ll send my clone over as well. It’s pointless to go with my actual body. It’s fine to risk it once, but I’m not brave enough to risk it twice.”

“Even so, you need to be careful about the possibility of them tracking you through your clone.”

Su Yu nodded, “I understand. I’ll be careful.”

Since five human experts were on the line, this would be a meeting worth attending.

Before long, a character clone appeared. After handing the clone to Lan Tian, Su Yu said, “Try to send this clone to Dao Origin Hill. I’ll notify Great Zhou King and get Heavenbridge Marquis to help deliver his clone over as well.”

Lan Tian asked, “Should I disguise myself as Great Zhou King instead?”

“That won’t be necessary.” Su Yu said, “We need a little bit of honesty in our dealings with them, right? We can lie about everything. What if they know Great Zhou King? That old fellow knows a lot of things that we don’t know. They might see through the disguise through a simple conversation. We shouldn’t risk it.”

Lan Tian did not argue further since Su Yu already had a plan. In any case, Su Yu would only be sending his clone over so it would be fine.