Published at 20th of April 2026 6:18 am

Chapter 1972: Reward (1)

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"Emperor Yu!"

"Your Majesty!"

When Su Yu returned to the eighth level, everyone greeted him with excitement. Clearly, the harvest was good.

After looking around, Su Yu's gaze landed on the Radiant King's Residence and raised his brow, "Is Great Ming King not out yet?"

"No." Great Zhou King answered, "I checked, but the residence is protected by formations. I couldn't enter."

Su Yu soared up and flew toward Radiant King's Residence. As he approached, a large formation rose from the residence.

Su Yu raised his brow and swung his arm. At that, the human lord's token descended from the sky. When he focused, he sensed that the human lord's token was receiving a large amount of fortune from Radiant King's Residence.

Su Yu smiled and said, "I believe there is a fortuitous encounter in there. This isn't a bad thing. Since Great Ming King is receiving something from his ancestor, he should be fine. Let's go. We'll leave first. Martial Emperor has agreed to open a path for us to leave and exit directly from the eighth level. There is no need for us to wait here."

He still had many things to do. He had to return to the Upper Realm as well. He couldn't predict when the war in the Upper Realm would start. He wanted to be there personally to stay updated at all times.

Great Zhou King asked with surprise, "A path? You mean..."

"A path allowing Heavenbridge to spread his power over the various levels of the mansion. After all, the mansion is Martial Emperor's body. He can exert some control over it."

Great Zhou King gasped. How did he do that? Wasn't Martial Emperor hostile toward humanity? How did Su Yu get him to agree?

The ancient humans looked shocked as well. How did that happen?

Su Yu did not bother to explain. He asked, "Heavenbridge, can you teleport us out directly?"

Heavenbridge Marquis focused for a bit before nodding his head, "I think so. I can sense the outside world now. However, we need to go through the Death Realm first. I'll try to skip that in the future."

He could already sense the death qi somewhere at the edge of his range. That was understandable since there was a death tunnel in the seventh level.

Su Yu nodded, "Sure. We can do that for now."

Heavenbridge Marquis said nothing and transformed into a gate. The gate swung open, revealing the dark world behind it.

***

Su Yu and the others stepped through the gate.

The space around them warped, bringing them all directly into the Death Realm.

And with their arrival, the Death Realm reacted to the presence of living beings and started stirring. With a casual wave of his hand, Lan Tian masked all of them with a thick layer of death qi. On top of that, Su Yu released his human lord's token and further covered their auras.

They had to keep the Celestial River of Death calm as it had been producing quite a lot of powerful death spirits as of late.

Not long after they arrived, several powerful death spirit auras approached from afar. Stable Army Marquis and the others were instantly on alert. This was the Death Realm. As far as they knew, this was an incomparably dangerous place. Su Yu had claimed that this was his territory, but

Well, there was no need to finish that line of thought.

Even from afar, Marquis Lanshan's excited voice rang out, "Your Majesty!"

In a flash, she appeared before them and dropped down on one knee, "Greetings, Your Majesty! When did you return?"

"Lanshan?"

Someone exclaimed in surprise. When Lanshan looked over, she gasped in joy, "Brave Martial? You're not dead?"

Brave Martial General looked happy as well. She said, "Previously, I heard that you were in the Death Realm. I thought..."

Marquis Lanshan said, "It has been a while, Brave Martial. Have you joined His Majesty as well?"

"..."

Brave Martial General was instantly rendered speechless. This was their reunion after countless years. Why was she talking about work right after? How boring.

Marquis Lanshan returned her attention to Su Yu and said, "Congratulations, Your Majesty, for gaining more capable generals! Back then, Brave Martial was a brave general as well. Unfortunately, luck wasn't on her side and she was stuck below the Daofuse Realm. Because of that, she wasn't able to receive a promotion into a marquis. I suppose she could have died and received a posthumous promotion like me instead."

"..."

Something sounded wrong about that. Was she saying that Brave Martial was only qualified to receive a promotion by dying?

Brave Martial General grumbled gloomily, "Lanshan, why are you mentioning these ancient affairs?"

Marquis Lanshan smiled and said, "No, I have to tell His Majesty about this. Back then, you were brave and capable. Unfortunately, you did not receive any promotion. Your Majesty, please do consider promoting Brave Martial into a marquis if she does end up contributing to your future conquest. It has always been her dream to become a marquis."

Su Yu chuckled and said, "Is this the first thing you have to say after seeing me? Asking for promotion on behalf of someone else?"

Marquis Lanshan said, "Well, I'm excited to see my old friend. We never served in the same army, but Brave Martial was renowned for her battle prowess. We were equally famous in the ancient past. I'm very happy to see her again."

Su Yu laughed and said, "Sure. For your sake, I won't forget to reward her for her contribution in the future."

"Thank you, Your Majesty."

Then, Marquis Lanshan stared at Brave Martial General. In her confusion, Brave Martial General said, "Thank you, Emperor Yu."

Su Yu smiled and said nothing.

Marquis Lanshan glanced at the others as well, but she said nothing. There wasn't any special reason for that. She was simply unfamiliar with the rest of them. Yes, they were fellow ancient experts. But there were numerous experts in the ancient past. It was impossible for them to all know each other well.

Shortly after, a few other death spirit marquises arrived.

Puresolar Marquis was quite familiar with Cloud Fire Marquis and the others.

In such a manner, the old friends started chatting with each other in excitement.

Ahead of them, Su Yu conversed with Marquis Lanshan and He Tu.

***

He Tu had zero interest in those ancient antiques. Rather, he was talking about something else in excitement, "Your Majesty, we might have found several of Culture King's students! But they are all newly awakened, so they are still quite confused. They are quite similar to how Dummy was previously. They must have awakened due to the recent stirrings of the river. After some time and cultivation, they can probably regain their nature and memories."

Su Yu nodded, "Good. Protect them well."

Su Yu placed a lot of importance on these students of Culture King. He was in a good mood. He said, "These people were talented enough to split even the pen dao. Their dao comprehension must have been quite high. They will be very helpful for my uture dao pioneering. We sorely lack researchers in this era."

For Su Yu, the strength of Culture King's students wasn't that important. He only cared about their brains. He would attempt his dao pioneering soon. Since he pursued the path of myriad daos, it wouldn't be easy. During his previous research on the chaos dao with Lan Tian and the others, there were still a lot of unknown components among the chaos dao.

He needed more time and understanding to unveil these unknown components. But he was too busy to focus on research. Thus, he required the assistance of Culture King's students. It would be even better if he could bring them all back to life.

After a short while, South Heavenly King arrived as well. Unlike Marquis Lanshan, she was a lot more prideful. She only gave Brave Martial and the others a glance before ignoring them and stepping forth to converse with Su Yu.

***

"South Heavenly King!"

The ancient humans were conversing among themselves through voice transmission. Brave Martial complained unhappily, "That fellow is too arrogant. She didn't even smile when she saw us."

"Are you expecting someone dead to smile all the time?"

Stable Army Marquis joked before adding, "She is strong, and her status is high. Strictly speaking, a death spirit heavenly king has the same rank as a living human king. Ancient marquises like us are one rank lower than her. As for a titled general like you, you're two ranks lower. Why should she smile at you?"

Brave Martial argued, "Didn't you hear what His Majesty said previously? After the future conquest, I'll become a marquis as well!"

"Even after becoming a marquis, you'll be one rank lower than her."

Stable Army Marquis continued speaking the truth. Brave Martial was unhappy, but there was no arguing against the truth. Her mood sank.

Shadow Marquis did not bother to continue that topic. Instead, he spoke about something else, "What a surprise. So the human lord has really conquered the Death Realm. In the previous epochs, no living being could move freely through the Death Realm like this."

That had been the status quo for a hundred thousand years. But Su Yu had changed everything. They had remained relatively silent about what they saw here, but they were actually greatly surprised by what they were seeing.

Fortunately, Su Yu had accomplished the feat of killing eight heavenly kings prior to this. That served as a sort of buffer to reduce the amount of shock they would feel when witnessing his other feats.

Once again, Cloud Water Marquis looked at Brave Martial. The rest of them were looking at her with odd expressions as well. Where was the pitiful human lord? Where was the puppet? Just look at how all those powerful death spirits were revolving around him.

Just look at how South Heavenly King, Marquis Lanshan, and the others were taking great care to always remain a step behind Su Yu while walking. Even someone as prideful as South Heavenly King was being incredibly obedient before Su Yu.

Once again, Brave Martial was rendered speechless. Why were these bastards looking at her like that? How was she supposed to know the truth earlier?

***

"How are things in the Origin Land?"

At that question, South Heavenly King answered, "Chaos. Things are very chaotic over there. Some conflicts have seemingly arisen between North Heavenly King and some of the sealed experts there. The death spirits under the control of the sealed experts are clashing against North Heavenly King.

"Some of the newly awakened experts I expelled from the river have joined the conflicts there as well. I need to report on one thing. Dragonblood Marquis, a favourite subordinate of North Heavenly King, led several of the battles on North Heavenly King's side. He has been growing rapidly. About five or six death spirit marquises have perished from these battles so far.

"I'm afraid this Dragonblood Marquis is already as strong as Lanshan. At this rate, I suspect he will grow into a new heavenly king before long."

Su Yu raised his brow and asked, "Is North Heavenly King ignoring him despite his rapid growth?"

"There is nothing North Heavenly King can do." South Heavenly King shook her head and said, "North Heavenly King isn't doing very well himself. All his other subordinates are apparently in contact with the sealed death spirits. He has no choice but to rely heavily on Dragonblood Marquis. Things are getting extremely dangerous in the Origin Land. I believe a battle between heavenly kings will erupt there before long. I'm worried that they will return to the Four Heavenly Domains after gaining enough strength."

Su Yu smiled and said, "It's fine. With you here, they will be suppressed the moment they step into the Four Heavenly Domains. They won't be invading anytime soon."

South Heavenly King nodded and said, "But we still need to be ready for them."

Su Yu nodded and asked, "With several marquises dead, can you grow further?"

South Heavenly King sighed and said, "It won't be easy. I have already grown slightly after the deaths of West and East Heavenly Kings. I will reach a level just a step below a Master of Law upon further growth. But to achieve such a growth, I need a few more heavenly kings to die and make way..."

Su Yu said thoughtfully, "That might happen, you know. We shall see. Perhaps you can reach the level of a Venerable after the deaths of several heavenly kings."

"Venerable?"

"Hundred Battle's level."

"Oh." South Heavenly King nodded, "Yes, that is possible with the deaths of three or perhaps even five heavenly kings. But that will only happen if I don't have any competition vying for the freed space."

"There is hope. Even if we don't have enough heavenly kings to die, we only need enough marquises to die. It will result in the same thing." Su Yu grinned.

Well done, Dragonblood Marquis!

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