Chapter 2382: Welcoming More Heaven Gate Powerhouses (2)

Upper Realm.

Human Emperor and Su Yu appeared together. Before long, the others received the order to gather in Su Yu's world. Between the two of them, they had a large number of Masters of Laws under them.

The number of Masters of Laws under Human Emperor had increased compared to before. Of the fifty or so he had before, eight died and four defected from the myriad races. The number had dropped under fifty, but there were more than sixty now.

As for Su Yu, even with two dead, there were more than forty of them. Altogether, the number had surpassed one hundred. Naturally, some were left behind to guard the River of Time.

Even so, more than sixty were gathered in the Upper Realm. When everyone arrived, they focused on Su Yu.

Su Yu's gaze landed on Return, who was trying to hide among the crowd. Everyone followed his gaze and landed on Return as well.

With a helpless look, Return said, "Your Majesty, what can I do for you?"

Su Yu smiled, "Tell me. Your friends should be ready by now, right? They can cross over in their main bodies, right? Tell us about their strength and style of combat."

Return said, "To betray my friends..."

"Forget it, then."

"Wait!"

Return was very cowardly. He hurriedly said, "According to the classification of the Myriad Realms, two of them are tier-ones, and three are tier-twos. The tier-ones are similar to me in strength, while the tier-twos are peak tier-twos."

Return added, "These are my good friends in the gate..."

Everyone stared at him with disdain. And here he was, stabbing the backs of his good friends. Return felt like rolling his eyes. What was he supposed to do, then? Sure, he could kill himself. His imprint left inside the gate would dissipate, and those inside would be able to notice it.

In short, he could use his own life to warn them. That was the only way.

Return ignored the disdainful gazes and said, "Your Majesty, can they...share my fate? They can give out their daos and connect to different daos out here to serve under your banner."

No matter what, those were his friends. Thus, Return tried pleading for their mercy. It was either that or death. As long as they could stay alive, there would still be hope in the future. Yes, the five were strong. But so what? There were over sixty Masters of Laws here. Good heavens. Over sixty!

Su Yu and Human Emperor were tier-ones. There were also some scary fellows staying at the front lines. Furthermore, there were quite a lot of tier-twos here as well.

It hadn't taken Radiant King long to reach the second tier again. After all, he was a veteran tier-one before this. There was also Xing Yue, who was a peak tier-two. She had barely fought, but with her around, everyone could instantly recover from minor injuries.

There were also a few tier-twos on Human Emperor's side, including Martial King's wives. However, Battle King, who was originally a peak tier-two, was stuck at the third tier. Just how were those friends of Return supposed to handle so many powerhouses?

Su Yu smiled, "Sure, I can consider that. I can sense their daos, but not too clearly. Tell me more about their daos."

Return said, "Of the two tier-ones, one is called Jade, an unaffiliated cultivator following the spear dao. The second is Tomb, cultivating the heavenly tomb dao."

"Wait." Su Yu asked curiously, "What is this heavenly tomb dao?"

He had never heard of this before.

Return explained, "In combat, Tomb will manifest a coffin and trap the opponent within. It's basically a form of domain. His combat strength is quite impressive. His dao is similar to something that can seal the daos of others.

"But his dao is also somewhat limited compared to regular sealing daos. For example, regular sealing daos can seal others with a lot of flexibility, but Tomb's dao can only work when the target is within the coffin."

Human Emperor smiled and explained, "There are actually quite a lot of such unique daos out there. You can view it as a form of mutated dao. Or you can also call it a result of its cultivator's inability to further expand on it. Take Control as an example. Originally, her hell dao was similar in nature. It only worked for those within her domain. But eventually, she expanded upon the dao and transformed the dao qualitatively."

Understanding dawned on Su Yu. He asked, "Is there anything specific making one an unaffiliated cultivator?"

Return said, "The world within the Heaven Gate is filled with emptiness, but there exist some forbidden zones in there. These forbidden zones are the worlds created by some supreme beings to shelter their factions. Like Human Emperor and Emperor Yu, they can suppress their opponents and boost themselves within their territories. But not all of them are Creators. Some of these forbidden zones are merely created by some special treasures or weapons of supreme cultivators.

"These ancient factions have complete legacies. Not all inside the Heaven Gate are those from the Creation Era. Some are powerhouses who were born toward the end when one can argue that the era was already over. But the masters of these forbidden zones were all supreme beings from the early Creation Era."

Su Yu asked, "Can't any of the younger powerhouses become a master of a forbidden zone by completing creation as well?"

"Yes, that's possible." Return said, "But it's so difficult it might as well be impossible. Growth is extremely difficult in a sealed era. Cultivators of the forbidden zones can remain strong through their complete legacies and accumulation, and these are considered the orthodox cultivators in there. Everyone else is unaffiliated."

"Simply put, one is either an unaffiliated cultivator or someone from a forbidden zone."

Su Yu asked, "How strong are these forbidden zone masters?"

"All of them are either peak tier-ones or beyond."

Return explained, "What you call tier-one is a term unique to the Myriad Realms. Inside the gate, we classify strength with the number of daos. Those people are at least thirty daos in strength. I'm not sure how high they can reach, but I know that each forbidden zone master is a terrifying being."

Human Emperor said, "What's so terrifying? Back when I was at my peak, I sent a projection into the gate and fought one of these forbidden zone masters. I wasn't too disadvantaged even when fighting through a projection. I could have killed that guy with my main body. What a pity."

Return shivered slightly. How terrifying. Just how did someone cultivate to such a level? How? As for the possibility of this being a lie from Human Emperor, there was no need for Human Emperor to lie about this.

Su Yu seemed to know a bit about that as well. He asked, "Do you know the identity of that guy?"

"Not really, but he called himself the master of the Heavenly Dome Mountain."

The moment Return heard that, his expression changed. At that, Su Yu's gaze landed on him again. He grimaced and said, "Heavenly Dome Mountain. I know this place. This is one of the strongest forbidden zones in the Heaven Gate. Its master once swept through several nearby forbidden zones. What a surprise that...Human Emperor once fought him."

In fact, that person was so strong that Return was starting to wonder if Human Emperor was actually lying, after all. Human Emperor claimed that he could kill this opponent with his main body. That was not something Return could believe easily.

Human Emperor was astute enough to guess Return's thoughts with a single look. He smiled and said, "I noticed that he was at most thirty-five daos in strength. Are you saying that this is the strongest tier of cultivators in the Heaven Gate? I was no weaker than that at my peak."

When Su Yu looked over with a doubtful expression, Human Emperor transmitted, "Why are you looking at me like that? I was truly not weaker than that guy at my peak. At his peak, Wen Number Two was around thirty-two daos in strength. But I doubt he can maintain the same strength in the Heaven Gate. I also don't know if he has grown at all over the years."

"With this strength, you were beyond tier one. Why were you so helpless against the myriad races?"

Su Yu was rendered speechless. That was way too useless of Human Emperor.

Human Emperor raged, "What do you know? I told you! It wasn't that I couldn't win. I was simply unwilling to pay the price. Also, I did all that to keep the three gates suppressed. The myriad races were never my target. But just as I was about to start making a move against them for real, well, accidents happened."

"It's still your fault."

Su Yu did not pity Human Emperor. In the end, it was still Human Emperor's fault. He was the one who had refrained from acting when he could. By the time he wanted to act, the opportunity had passed. Multiple factors came together to push him to the brink of death. He should count himself lucky to actually survive until now.

Su Yu was uninterested in continuing this line of conversation. He asked, "What about the other three?"

"A fire cultivator, a destruction cultivator, and a staff cultivator."

Just then, someone's eyes widened. Those eyes even started shining.

"I—"

Just as Heavendoom started shouting, Su Yu shut him up with a glare. Even so, Heavendoom still couldn't contain his excitement.

Ignoring Heavendoom, Su Yu looked at Return and said, "These are rather common daos. Apart from the tomb dao, all the other daos are decent options."

Return smiled dryly, but he said nothing. Heavendoom and the others grew more and more excited. Five daos! They had seen how Martial Emperor had shot to the first tier directly. The daos inside the gate were extremely helpful for growth. Who would benefit from the five daos?

The spear dao was quite popular. For example, Stable Army, Great Qin King, and even Extreme Martial were spear cultivators. But Extreme Martial did not react much to this since he knew he wouldn't be the one to receive that dao.

That was a tier-one dao. And there were plenty of spear cultivators among them. The staff dao was very popular as well. As for the fire dao, there were Heavenly Fire and Cloud Fire Marquis.

The dao of destruction was a top-tier offensive dao, so there were a lot of similar daos out there. For example, someone cultivating the spacebreak dao could cultivate this dao as well. Thus, the crowd started stirring. Everyone wanted those daos, but they were too shy to say it. Heavendoom was shameless, but not all of them were as shameless as him.

Su Yu looked at the crowd and said, "Usually, I am a practitioner of favoritism. But since we're at war, I am switching to meritocracy.

"Those interested in these daos are free to compare notes against each other. The victors will receive them. Multiple individuals can receive a singular dao. If you think you're worthy, register yourself. For example, March, Great Bamboo, Extreme Martial, Heavendoom, and even Great Qin King and Battle King are actually compatible with the staff dao.

"Make your own choices, register yourselves, and challenge each other to determine the victors. The winners will take all. I'm not going to do something like fair distribution. The capable will take everything. If you're capable enough, you can even defeat everyone else and claim the five daos for yourself."

Everyone's heart thumped.

This...

"This offer is open to even those under Human Emperor. Feel free to join the fight if you're interested. Strength will decide everything for now. I'll start recording everyone's contributions. In the future, your contributions will decide what you get.

"I don't want to see a repeat of history where we suffer similar damage to the myriad races even when we have the advantage. I only accept the best of the best. Those who are ordinary should consider entering retirement. You have done enough. Do not stay and waste our resources."

And then, Su Yu glared at Heavendoom and said, "Some people are always full of energy, but they never win in fights."

"..."

Heavendoom had a helpless expression. Wasn't this the same as mentioning him by name? What could he do if he was weaker than his opponents? Return was left quite speechless as well. His friends were still inside the gate, but these people were already splitting the spoils.

Sigh.

His poor friends.

***

Su Yu looked at Human Emperor and said, "Our response will depend on what happens next. If they leave one by one, things will be simple. I can capture them one after another. But if they leave together, I'll deal with a tier-one, you'll need to deal with the other, and the rest can handle the other three."

Human Emperor nodded.

He laughed and said, "This isn't a sustainable deal, by the way. Sooner or later, the area around your gate projection will be completely devoid of people, just like my gate projection."

Ahh, so Human Emperor had done something similar before.

Su Yu looked at Radiant King. What about that guy?

Su Yu transmitted, "Hey, did you kill Radiant King's contractor as well?"

Human Emperor smiled and waited to keep the suspense before answering, "Not me. Wen Number Two did it. That guy has always been dark-hearted. He did this many times way back then. How did his world reach such a high level of completion in such a short time? By feeding on those fellows from inside the gate. He's lucky those inside are still unaware of this, or they would have ganged up on him long ago. The powerhouses near Radiant King's gate have long been fished empty by Wen Number Two."

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