Novel Full Chapter 2025: Trade, Investigate (3)
Chapter 2025: Trade, Investigate (3)
Outside Line Gorge.
Heavenly Fate Marquis’ remained expressionless, but inwardly, his heart skipped a beat. It was found!
He had slipped some fortune-related dao power into the four humans, but it had been discovered so soon. He was now certain that the Torchbearers were in possession of at least one Heaven Gate.
“Is this the Emperor Yu mentioned by Endless Passage?”
However, Heavenly Fate Marquis wasn’t too bothered. This was merely a minor attempt. If they could be traced through such a small trick, it would prove that they weren’t people he should worry about.
Naturally, that would also prove that they weren’t worthy of a change in his stance. Since his little tracker had been discovered, it served as proof that these people were actually quite capable and cautious.
Beside him, Venerable Moon asked, “What are you thinking about, Fellow Daoist Heavenly Fate?”
“Nothing much. I just can’t resist wondering if we will lose even more old friends in the coming war.”
Venerable Moon merely smiled without saying anything to that.
***
Once again, Heavenbridge Marquis took them through a spatial tunnel. This time, Su Yu helped keep the fluctuations to a minimum with Xing Yu’s token. A short while later, they saw the light at the end of the tunnel. They had arrived at their destination.
They were inside a surprisingly bright cave. It was also quite spacious. That was understandable as this was one of the escape hiding places the spatial beasts had prepared for themselves. It needed the size to accommodate their large sizes.
Snow Orchid General and the others hurriedly took in everything in the cave. They shook slightly. There were quite a lot of experts around them. Snow Orchid’s gaze landed on a certain white dog. The white dog had just returned with Wan Tiansheng. As he sniffed the air, he gazed at Snow Orchid General.
With a doubtful look, the dog asked, “I think I saw you before.”
Snow Orchid General said, “Yes, a long time ago. Are you…Fat Ball?”
“It’s me.” Fat Ball wagged his tail a few times as he searched his mind. Then, he asked with a doubtful tone, “Did you visit before with…Snow King?”
Snow Orchid General’s heart thumped as she exclaimed, “It’s really you! Is…Culture King back?”
“Nope.” Fat Ball shook his head. Noticing Su Yu’s gaze, he explained, “She visited Master’s place with Snow King once.”
Su Yu nodded.
As the daughter of a human king, it wasn’t surprising that she had visited Culture King’s place before. Then again, it had happened a long time ago. With their return, the people in the cave quickly surrounded them.
“Emperor Yu!”
“Your Majesty!”
Su Yu nodded at all the greetings. Noticing how wary Snow Orchid General and the others still seemed, he wasted no time and said, “I won’t waste your time talking about feelings or friendship. For your release, we need to kill two pseudo kings and two peak Daofuses. On top of that, we have to hand over a formation capable of protecting them against the rejection of the Chaos Mountain. We even need to promise to leave their fake dao cultivators alone.
“This is a great price to pay. I don’t intend to secure your loyalty. I don’t have the time to slowly win your respect. Just be sure to make this worth our sacrifice. After paying back your debt, you are free to leave or stay. I don’t care.”
Not giving them the chance to say anything else, Su Yu continued, “Let’s start with self-introductions. Tell us what you’re good at.”
Snow Orchid General and the others looked at the ancient humans in the group. These were all familiar faces. They were quite surprised to see so many familiar faces here. But for some reason, these old friends were acting rather subdued, to the point that they hadn’t even exchanged greetings with the four.
While thinking about all that, Snow Orchid General said, “I am Snow Orchid, daughter of Snow King, a pseudo king proficient in the dao of frost.”
Southbrook Marquis was next to go, “Southbrook, pseudo king, subordinate of Radiant King. Proficient in tracking, a scout commander under Radiant King back then.”
“Mountain Mist, subordinate of Cloud King, specializing in the dao of mist, a peak Daofuse.”
“Riversea, subordinate of Conflict King, physical body dao, good at spears, peak Daofuse.”
They were the subordinates of different human kings.
After hearing Riversea’s introduction, Su Yu raised his brow. He looked at the burly, middle-aged man and asked, “A subordinate of Conflict King?”
“Yes.”
Riversea had a doubtful expression. Why was this guy looking at him like that?
Su Yu was not alone. The others were also looking at him with odd expressions.
Su Yu said, “Hundred Battle King is a descendant of Conflict King. Are you familiar with that name?”
Riversea blanked out slightly. After a while, he said, “Yes, Eclipse Moon Marquis told us about him. The human lord who had lost over a hundred Daofuses during the ninth epoch…”
Was that a descendant of Conflict King? No wonder everyone was looking at him like that.
Just as Riversea was about to say something, Su Yu waved his hand and said, “Fine. Let’s forget about that.”
He looked at the four and said, “You are free to ask the others about anything you want to know. I don’t have the time to stay and explain.”
He then looked at the others and said, “The myriad races are still taking their time with their preparations. They won’t be attacking the Chaos Mountain anytime soon. At this rate, the connection to the Lower Realm might be restored before they start their war against Control King’s lineage.”
Su Yu inhaled deeply and said, “Control King’s lineage is aware of our presence as well. They are probably as happy as the myriad races to drag things out as that might benefit them as well. It is likely that they even have connections to the Death Realm and those in the Origin Land. They can create more trouble for me with the Lower Realm open to them.
“Therefore, we will snatch the initiative and get everything started. We need to accelerate the pace and force Control King’s lineage to expose their strength. We also need to get Giant Axe Marquis as soon as possible.
“Putting aside the issue of whether we can actually win against them, we need to make any victory seem difficult. We can’t win too easily and have the myriad races underestimate Control King’s lineage and grow warier of us.”
Wan Tiansheng raised his brow and asked, “So we’re really going to fight?”
Su Yu nodded, “Yes. I am certain that Control King’s lineage is very strong. I’m still considering how we should do this, but we definitely can’t expose our full strength. We also need to lose some people.”
Losing some people. Everyone gasped upon hearing that.
Su Yu looked at Great Zhou King and smiled, “Great Zhou King, is that possible?”
Great Zhou King frowned and asked, “Are you saying that we need to create fake phenomena without actually losing any people?”
Su Yu nodded, “Yes. You have been doing this for Eternals. Can you do it for Daofuses?”
“The difficulty will be high.”
Wan Tiansheng interjected, “I discovered a base of the chaos lineage not long ago, but it’s extremely dangerous.”
Wan Tiansheng explained solemnly, “I went with Fat Ball. Even after cutting off our connection to our daos and activating the concealment formation, they noticed us after a few gazes from afar. There might be a Venerable in there.
“There are quite a lot of people there, and each of them is a formidable expert. It’s too dangerous to attack. Like us, they are also good at spying on daos and concealment. They might have a way of noticing any dao fluctuation near them.”
Su Yu nodded. The ability to see dao fluctuations was indeed dangerous. He understood just how hard it was for anyone to ambush him. For him, any ambush would be nothing but a joke.
With his Heaven Gate, he could see everything around him clearly. The surrounding experts had to cut off their connection to their daos to hide from him, but that would allow him to kill them before they could even finish reconnecting to their daos.
“We lack information about their ability to see dao fluctuations.”
Su Yu sank into thought. During Zi Yan’s death, he had gathered some of her blood essence. She might not be able to get all her memories through that, but he could get some. Could he find out more from her memories?
Prior to this, he had been too busy to check her memories. Furthermore, some of her blood essence had been mixed with the blood essence of two other heavenly kings. He was worried that the memories would end up mixed up due to that.
So be it. He had to grab this chance to learn more about the chaos lineage.
Su Yu said, “Get ready, everyone. I will lead the surprise attack against them. Heavenbridge, find a way to send May and Full Moon back. It’s good to have all of the iron devourers present during our attack. That way, the myriad races won’t get too suspicious of them.”
Heavenbridge Marquis nodded.
The others started growing nervous. Would they start their first proper clash against the chaos lineage soon? The chaos lineage knew little about them, but they also knew almost nothing about the chaos lineage.
Both sides lacked information about the other. The myriad races, being the only party out in the open, was the party they knew more about.
Then, Su Yu looked at the four recently released humans with a slight frown. Should he take them along in their first clash against Control King’s lineage? What if these people were related to Control King’s lineage back then? Or would they cause trouble by being disobedient during battle?
However, it was also true that they were very useful, what with the two pseudo kings among them. He did not enjoy the thought of missing out on such a big fighting force on their side. But it was also risky to take them on such a dangerous mission. Su Yu couldn’t make a decision. He didn’t even know if he had done the right thing in securing their release.
At times, having more people was not necessarily a good thing. These old fossils weren’t exactly kind seniors or something like that. The many previous human lords wouldn’t have been relegated to puppets otherwise.
Su Yu was in a dilemma. He wanted more experts on his side. But at the same time, he worried that these experts wouldn’t cooperate well with him. Disobedient allies would be more burden than help.
The coming battle was their opportunity to gather more information about the chaos lineage. If Wan Tiansheng hadn’t discovered a base of theirs, Su Yu would have started planning a scouting mission deeper into the Chaos Mountain to look for them.
Shortly after, he made up his mind and said, “This time, killing won’t be our main goal. Rather, we will prioritize luring their experts out. The more experts we can lure out, the better it is. If we can lure five or even six Venerables out, it will be worthy of celebration. That is your priority. Additionally, prioritize not dying.”
Killing was unnecessary for their first clash against the chaos lineage. It was pointless. They only needed to lure some experts out and show the myriad races just how powerful the chaos lineage was.
“Cloud Fire Marquis, chat with Snow Orchid General and the others. Principal Wan, let’s go to scout around one more time.”
Su Yu gave them their orders without bothering to say anything about the seals on the four recently released humans. He even sent a voice transmission to Fat Ball, “The moment they try anything funny, eat them all up and withdraw with the rest.”
Fat Ball merely gave Su Yu a glance while wagging his tail. That was his way of saying yes.
Then, Su Yu wasted no time and left with Wan Tiansheng and one of those concealment formations. Prior to leaving, he tossed two ancient beast corpses to Great Ming King. He could take the time to produce more of these formations while they scouted around.