The aftereffects of the massive battle engulfed the world.

Even now, the numerous fireworks in the sky remained, giving the Chaos Mountain a dreamlike atmosphere. However, such a beautiful sight was created through the deaths of numerous Daofuses, more than ten heavenly kings, and one Venerable.

Deep inside the Chaos Mountain.

This was an unimaginably vast region dotted with towering mountains.

At the peak of a certain mountain.

A figure stood with his hands clasped on his back while overlooking the world beyond. The blooming fireworks in the sky sank him into recollection. The winds around the mountain whistled violently, but he was completely unaffected. As his golden robes flapped in the wind, he looked incomparably carefree.

"Your Majesty!"

Several individuals appeared behind him. All of them stared at his back with both sorrow and joy.

Cloud Water Marquis looked up with boundless admiration on her face and spoke, her voice shuddering, "Shadow and the others...are dead."

The person who had brought them all there was a woman of incomparable beauty. With a gentle smile on her face, she gazed at the man before her. The back of that man was akin to an unyielding mountain, one that was so dependable and admirable.

"I see."

The man continued staring into the distance. After a long while, he chuckled and said, "It's fine. I can visit the Lower Realm when I have the time and search the River of Time. Perhaps some of their remnants still remain there. I can try to fish them out."

At that, Cloud Water Marquis exclaimed with the same shuddering voice, "Your Majesty, you..."

Finally, the man turned to face everyone, revealing a melancholic and complicated smile as he said, "I will never allow my people to die for nothing. However..."

He swept his gaze over them and asked, "Why did such a big battle erupt out of nowhere?"

"Your Majesty..." Cloud Water Marquis explained, "The current human lord reached an agreement with the myriad races. With the return of Snow Orchid General and the others, he decided to kill some experts from the chaos lineage. However, he made a mistake during scouting and missed an additional Venerable in the group. As a result, he was forced to fight a desperate battle with them."

The man sank into thought.

After a long while, he asked, "What do you think of the current human lord?"

"Immense talent, ordinary strength, overbearing, arrogant, and obstinate."

The man laughed, "Ordinary strength? It's quite decent, if you ask me."

He turned and stared into the distance again. After another long pause, he spoke, "Yue Luo. Isn't this a familiar scene?"

The smiling woman stared into the distance as well. Looking at the blooming fireworks, she said, "Yes. It is so similar to what we saw back then, but the sight back then was a lot more beautiful than this."

Cloud Water Marquis' expression changed slightly as she asked, "Your Majesty...are you saying..."

"Merely a guess." The man laughed again, "How interesting."

Very interesting. He felt as though he was looking at himself from all those years ago.

He said, "Come on. We can no longer stay in the Upper Realm. Let's go to the Buried Soul Mountain and wait as we observe the changes of the world. The two sides are similar in strength. A conflict between the two will be very interesting."

The beautiful woman asked, "What about me?"

"Stay."

The man turned again, his face gentle and dignified as he said, "You can't leave. Your departure will be too problematic."

He looked at Cloud Water Marquis and asked, "Is South Suppression in the Lower Realm? I can't sense him anymore."

"I believe so. He lost his physical body to self-detonation..."

"Don't worry about it." Hundred Battle King spoke with perfect calm, "It's merely the loss of a body. It will be hard for others to recover from something like this, but the physical body dao is mine. I can easily help him recover."

"Your Majesty, the Lower Realm is the territory of the new human lord. Are we—"

Hundred Battle King interrupted Cloud Water Marquis with a wave of his hand and solemnly said, "Wrong. The Lower Realm belongs to nobody. If it must belong to someone, it can only belong to me. Also, the new human lord might have departed even the Lower Realm with his people."

Cloud Water Marquis was shocked to hear that.

Yue Luo smiled and said, "What are you saying?"

"The ones you found are all my people." Hundred Battle King asked, "What about his people? Are they all dead?"

Cloud Water Marquis answered, "All his people are unbelievably obedient. They detonated themselves with a single order from him. Fat Ball, the sole survivor, escaped the battle with him."

Hundred Battle King sank into thought. After a short moment, he laughed again.

"Let's walk as we talk. Tell me more about him. I'm curious about the new human lord."

"Yes!" Cloud Water Marquis said, "By the way, he has Human Emperor's dao painting in his possession. He also has Xing Yu's token with him."

Hundred Battle King nodded, "Xing Yu's token...I tried to look for it back then but I failed. Clearly, my destiny does not align with that token. So be it. That won't change much for me."

"But..."

"Don't worry." Hundred Battle King interrupted her again, "Even Human Emperor wasn't undefeatable. Since he wishes to inherit Human Emperor's line, so be it. Humanity and the myriad races do not belong to Human Emperor alone. And even Human Emperor himself came after the Human Ancestor. Human Ancestor is superior to Human Emperor."

Hundred Battle King appeared completely indifferent to what Su Yu had inherited.

Cloud Water Marquis said, "He had also inherited the pen dao...but he might have broken his inheritance."

"Pen dao?" Hundred Battle King said, "The pen dao can't be broken so easily. That isn't a weak dao. How can a mere pseudo king break such a powerful dao? He merely broke his connection to that dao, not the dao itself. He can easily reconnect with it in the future. This is only temporary for him."

A dao like that wouldn't break so easily. One ought to know that the pen dao was a dao fit for a legendary being like Culture King.

As Hundred Battle King strode forward, he said, "Let's go. The Upper Realm will be in chaos soon. We can't stay here and risk getting discovered by them."

Behind him, Southbrook Marquis said, "Your Majesty, Giant Axe Marquis is still with them..."

"March is there. With the coming chaos, he will probably try to set Giant Axe free."

Hundred Battle King added, "In any case, I don't recall Giant Axe submitting to me fully. We can ignore him for now."

"Yes!"

Southbrook Marquis said nothing else.

Before long, the five of them vanished with a flicker.

***

At the same time.

Dao Origin Land.

Su Yu had once again returned to this familiar face. He was deathly pale, but a smile hung on his face as he turned and stared westward.

The Dao Origin Land had been fully emptied after the sweep.

Fat Ball looked distressed with his severed tail and blood-soaked body. He said sadly, "Su Yu, I can't beat that guy. See? I told you! We lost!"

Defeat.

They had suffered a disastrous defeat.

Yes, they had killed a lot of people. But this was still a defeat for them. Su Yu had lost all the strength he had gathered over the years.

"A loss?" Su Yu laughed. "Only the final winner matters. This is merely a temporary result. It doesn't matter."

"You're clearly trying to comfort yourself." Heavenbridge Marquis mumbled, "We lost. It was a defeat. There is no denying that."

How pitiful. They were so confident and high-spirited when they first ascended to the Upper Realm. And now, they would return to the Lower Realm with barely anyone surviving.

Truly pitiful.

It was clearly a defeat.

Su Yu gazed at Hundred Battle King and asked, "Are you close to Hundred Battle King?"

"I don't even know him that well."

"True." Su Yu nodded, "You have been stuck in the Luminous Domain Mansion for so many years, and I doubt Hundred Battle King is a frequent visitor of that place. It's only natural that the two of you don't know each other well."

"I have never met him before." Heavenbridge Marquis said, "But I can't promise anything. He might have entered under a disguise I don't know."

True.

Su Yu laughed again and said, "Perhaps."

"How can you still laugh?"

Heavenbridge Marquis concluded that Su Yu was hiding his sorrow by forcing himself to laugh.

That was too sad.

As an illustrious human lord, he had been slapped right back to the ground when he had barely started to fly. It was quite impressive that he was still able to stay calm after such a terrible event.

He said, "We could have escaped when we first discovered the second Venerable. We wouldn't have suffered such a disastrous defeat if we had escaped then and there."

They had lost so many heavenly kings and Daofuses from a single battle. They were left with only one dog. As for Heavenbridge Marquis himself, he viewed himself as nothing but a gate, so he didn't count. He wasn't even a tier-two Daofuse.

Poor Su Yu. Heavenbridge Marquis even had the illusion that perhaps even he could start bullying Su Yu now.

Truly pitiful.

"A hero has fallen. Sigh." 𝙛𝒓𝒆𝙚𝒘𝒆𝓫𝙣𝓸𝙫𝓮𝒍.𝒄𝒐𝓶

Heavenbridge Marquis continued his lamentations. He reckoned that this disaster would be enough to destroy Su Yu's confidence. How pitiful. Even if Su Yu had more Daofuses in the Lower Realm, he wouldn't be able to do anything with his crushed confidence.

The Upper Realm was filled with Venerables. There were even individuals suspected to be Masters of Laws up there. Meanwhile, Su Yu was left with a dog and a turtle.

"I think you should stop talking." Su Yu shot Heavenbridge Marquis a threatening gaze and said, "If you have nothing good to say, shutting your mouth is always an option."

Heavenbridge Marquis was just about to say that Su Yu was now so weak that there was no longer any need for him to obey. But right at that moment, his gaze landed on Fat Ball. At that, he did the smart thing and shut his mouth. Su Yu still had a dog. And the dog was stronger than him.

Fat Ball asked with the same dispirited tone, "What now, Su Yu? Can we still help Master after this defeat?"

What a terrible defeat.

"Soy Bun and the others are all dead..."

Su Yu laughed and said, "Why do you think they're dead? Don't worry. It's no big deal. In fact, we won. We won massively. This is worthy of celebration."

Yes. It was a massive victory. Through the battle, he was able to get many of his questions answered.

Su Yu said, "Previously, we have been growing too much, to the point our foundation feels shaky. That battle was merely a chance for us to get rid of unwanted elements and strengthen our foundation. This is a good thing. Let's go back to the Lower Realm first. We will take everything we need before leaving the Lower Realm itself."

With a smile, Su Yu said, "He's not wrong, but I'm not wrong either. However, it was rude of him to plant his people among those under me. It was also rude of him to make me his bait. I will settle scores with him in the future."

Su Yu sneered and continued, "Everyone is playing games. Let's see who's the better player. He might be stronger than me, but not excessively so. He would have unified the Myriad Realms long ago if he were strong enough. He is still lacking. At the very least, he's not good enough to face the other two sides alone."

Heavenbridge Marquis stared blankly. What was Su Yu talking about?

Hundred Battle King?

That seemed to be the case.

These humans sure were complicated.

"Why is this guy acting like he won even after being beaten like a dog?"

At that, the white dog asked curiously, "What's that about a dog? I have always been a dog. What are you talking about?"

Heavenbridge Marquis: "..."

Awkward.