Chapter 2294: He’s Here(1)

Inside the River of Time.

Before long, Su Yu and his group reached a certain point in the river. He knew where this was. This was the entrance to the ninth level of the Luminous Domain Mansion. Under him, a Master of Law stood vigil even in his death. King Yue. This time, Cloud Fire Marquis was not present.

Su Yu looked down in the direction of the entrance silently. After a while, he said, "This will be their point of return. The moment they drift down here, their timeline will finally overlap with Myriad Realms' timeline.

"When we go far enough upstream, the flow of time will slow. A day there will be equivalent to a much longer time in the Myriad Realms. Thus, those staying behind might start surpassing us soon. Therefore, do not grow complacent in your cultivation."

The over thirty powerhouses behind him nodded.

However, Martial Emperor seemed rather dismissive of that. Just as he was grumbling to himself, Su Yu's eyes turned cold. Looking at Martial Emperor, Su Yu said, "I don't normally care about what you do. Are you feeling quite brave now that you're a tier-two? Allow me to remind you, Martial Emperor. Here, we operate as a military unit. Any command I give is to be obeyed as a military command. Commit any mistake deserving of death and you won't be spared."

Martial Emperor's heart jolted.

He had reached the second tier. Here, Su Yu was not inside his world. Thus, they were quite similar in strength. But when Su Yu turned all grave and solemn, he couldn't help but feel some fear.

Su Yu would not hesitate when he needed to kill. After all, he had a history of first killing the troublemakers before a battle.

Su Yu gazed ahead of them again. If they were to create too much of a disturbance while going upstream, they might end up triggering a decisive battle with the myriad races in advance.

This was a relatively large group, but even combined with the ones in Human Emperor's camp, they would only have around eighty Masters of Laws. Meanwhile, the myriad races had over a hundred Masters of Laws.

With Human Emperor weakened, this was the worst time for them to fight a decisive battle. It might result in Human Emperor's death, which would trigger a complete collapse in the power structure of humanity.

Why? Because Su Yu was still incapable of taking charge of the Masters of Laws under Human Emperor. Those were all ancient powerhouses who had battled alongside Human Emperor for countless years. They were not people just anyone could control.

If even Great Zhou King, who knew Su Yu so well, would pick Human Emperor over Su Yu, there was no doubting the choice of the other ancient powerhouses.

Thus, those people would sink into disorder the moment Human Emperor was gone. Su Yu would not be able to keep things in order. In any case, there were definitely people among them who were stronger than Su Yu.

At the very least, Radiant King, who was a tier-two all those years ago, would have reached the first tier or more by now. What about the likes of Battle King? Nobody could say for sure.

Similarly, the myriad races would definitely have their own tier-one powerhouses as well. The traditionally powerful races such as the immortals, devils, divines, dragons, and nethers would have produced some tier-ones among their emperors after so many years. They would need to be trash to fail at something like that. And the myriad races were clearly not trash.

In fact, the only thing holding them back was their disunity. All of them were busy plotting against both humanity and the other races. They would only come together properly when it was a matter of survival. For example, Tiangu was only accepted as the leader back in the Myriad Realms when the myriad races were on the brink of destruction. Without this disunity, humanity would never be a match for the myriad races.

Su Yu continued moving upstream, and he moved at a relatively slow speed. As he moved, he was also slowly spreading the influence of his world into this part of the river. He had discovered that the further it was from the Myriad Realms, the harder it would be for the influence of his world to reach.

For now, he could still draw some support from his world. But he could feel that he would be completely cut off from his world before he even reached Human Emperor's location. In short, beyond a certain point, he would be an ordinary tier-two. The others had grown significantly recently, but they were essentially still a bunch of regular tier-fours.

Yes. Only tier-fours. 𝘧𝓇ℯℴ𝓂

That was the case even after the fusion with their past bodies. Some could already reach the third tier inside Su Yu's world, but all of them were stuck at tier-four outside his world. In fact, quite a lot of them were at tier three inside his world. Some might have even grown stronger than the third tier.

Su Yu had reminded everyone to not rely on his world too much. However, he was also constantly determining the exact point where the support of his world would be cut off. Liu Hong was acting as a connector, but Liu Hong was also limited by his own strength. Thus, he wasn't able to spread the influence of Su Yu's world too far into the River of Time. His reach would only grow with his growth in strength.

The group continued moving ahead in complete silence. Nobody minded the slow speed. After all, a bitter battle awaited them.

Naturally, some of them were unused to such silence. Before long, Heavendoom grinned and said, "Your Majesty, we have so many Masters of Laws here. Do we have more than Human Emperor? Should we snatch power after arriving?"

Grand Dream snapped, "Shut your mouth!"

Su Yu appeared completely nonchalant as he answered, "No. It's pointless. But we won't be following them blindly either. Just remember that you will only follow my commands there. That is all. I don't care who you served in the past. From now on, you can only listen to me. Southbrook, South Suppression, Brave Martial, and Giant Axe. I understand that you used to serve the different human kings. I'm not telling you to betray your former lords.

"There won't be a serious conflict between Human Emperor and me. However, we are still different. His policies and his mindset might not be the same as mine.

"We have the same ultimate goal, but we might differ in how we wish to achieve it. Thus, be sure to obey only me instead of switching to obey Human Emperor's orders when we're there."

Su Yu was uninterested in snatching power. And Human Emperor would most likely not bother to snatch Su Yu's power over the modern humans either. However, both of them were leaders of their respective people. Perfect alignment would not be possible.

Both of them would need to change into completely different persons for that to happen. Thus, minor clashes might erupt between the two parties.

Who would lead the overall war efforts?

Who would have the final say?

Who would lead the charge in battle?

Who would bring up the rear?

There might be some disputes regarding all that. Su Yu did not mind it. He was willing to negotiate and discuss things with Human Emperor. He only needed those under him to not mess things up for him.

Thus, he had to make things clear before their meeting with Human Emperor.

Heavendoom promised with a big smile, "Don't worry, Your Majesty. We'll only listen to you. After all, we're only Masters of Laws because of you. Besides, all our daos are in your world."

Heavendoom followed with a declaration, "Whoever dares to disobey will have their legs broken by me!"

At times, people like Heavendoom were required for a leader. Someone like Longbrow would do as well. Yes, these people were annoying. But at times, they were exceptionally useful at saying what a leader couldn't say personally.

Su Yu said nothing, but his silence was a form of acknowledgment.

Next, Wan Tiansheng smoothly moved the topic to something else, "Your Majesty, won't things be troublesome if a battle breaks out right as we arrive? Should we stop before the frontlines and get in contact with Human Emperor's people beforehand? We need to come to a sort of understanding with them if we don't want to fight a battle in confusion."

Su Yu nodded, "Yes, that will be necessary. That's not all. We can even think of a way to lay down a trap for the myriad races."

Su Yu looked around and continued, "When we tear a rift in the stretch of the river within the reach of the Myriad Realms, we can exit to the Myriad Realms. What about here? Will tearing a rift here lead to chaos? But the myriad races would have escaped long ago if that were the case. I have been curious about one thing. Why have they spent so many years in a standoff instead of simply tearing a rift and leaving? Is there a special reason for this?"

Perhaps when they were far enough that they could no longer tear a rift in the river. Or perhaps the corresponding area outside was too dangerous.

Su Yu did not know the answer for that, so he didn't dare to tear a rift here either. It would be terrible if he were to die to something unknown. None of the others had an answer. After all, they had never gone so far upstream.

Su Yu was also thinking about something else. Xing Yue.

It wasn't that he was hoping for her to do something major to help him. But she was the core of his world. She controlled the life and death daos. And for some reason, the power of the two daos had remained connected to her all along.

In that case, could he use her as a medium to extend the reach of his world? Xing Yue was a unique existence. She was connected to Su Yu's life and death daos. At the same time, she also controlled the life dao of the River of Time. Thus, she was somewhat capable of acting as a connector like Liu Hong and Lan Tian. And she was much stronger than the other two.

As for Su Yu himself, he had only fused with a tiny bit of the physical body dao. If he had to rely only on his physical body dao, he would probably be weaker than even Liu Hong. Thus, his connection to the River of Time was too frail to extend the reach of his world so far upstream.

Of course, Su Yu had the human lord's token with him. When needed, he could forcefully summon his world upon them. But each summon would greatly damage the token. Thus, he wanted to avoid this if possible.

Numerous thoughts occupied Su Yu's mind. As time passed, the breathing of the people in the group grew heavier. This was partially because of exhaustion, but at the same time, it was also due to their nervousness and excitement.

Whether it was the ancient marquises or new-age humans like Xia Longwu, people like Human Emperor and the others were legendary figures. Thus, they were quite excited to finally be able to meet these figures. However, they were also worried that they wouldn't be able to get along well.

Meanwhile, Su Yu was busy thinking about Human Emperor's strength. Just how did he drag so many powerhouses so far upstream back then?

The further Su Yu went, the bigger the pressure he felt. One ought to know that at this point, the battlefield had drifted enough that it would overlap with the Myriad Realms soon. Back then, Human Emperor had gone much deeper upstream with so many people. How did he accomplish that?

Su Yu was filled with curiosity toward this legendary Human Emperor. He was curious about Human Emperor's strength. He was also curious about Human Emperor's excellent scheming abilities, even if his schemes were frequently ruined by those around him.

Su Yu was also filled with respect toward Human Emperor's sense of responsibility. That was something Su Yu himself could not compare with. Sure, he felt responsible for humanity as well, but he was more biased toward those he felt worthy of his protection. Meanwhile, Human Emperor offered his grace toward all of humanity.

Human Emperor.

Su Yu felt both excited and helpless. He prayed that this wouldn't be a second Hundred Battle. Or to be precise, he did not want the image in his mind to shatter. In his mind, Human Emperor was powerful, kind, and benevolent. This was the type of person Su Yu could never be. It was too tiring to live like that. But he did not deny that the world required such a person.

Su Yu did not want to be disappointed after meeting Human Emperor.

"I hope...you're worthy of your title."

Human Emperor. The emperor of humanity.

Su Yu believed that this emperor wouldn't be that terrible. He only hoped that there would be fewer schemes between them. Of course, he did not expect Human Emperor to be someone incapable of scheming. He wouldn't have been able to lead humanity for so many years otherwise.

At this point, even Su Yu was starting to grow nervous. A bunch of Masters of Laws were following him. Many of them had only opted to participate in this battle out of their trust toward him.

Su Yu wanted to see all of them return from this battle alive. He wasn't willing to lose even one of them.

While thinking about all that, Su Yu sent a tiny ripple through the daos of life and death, telling Xing Yue that he had arrived.