Published at 2nd of May 2026 6:08 am

Chapter 1996: Everything In Place (1)

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"Greetings, Spacebreak Marquis."

Su Yu was back to his original form, a smile on his face as he greeted.

Spacebreak Marquis had naturally not crushed Hollow to death. She returned the greeting. "Spacebreak Marquis greets the human lord."

After a short observation, Spacebreak Marquis noticed several familiar faces.

Such as Soy Bun, Cloud Fire Marquis, and others.

Spacebreak Marquis looked around and said, "It is unwise stay here for long. Shall we speak in my residence?"

After all, they were currently out in the open. This wasn't a good place for a proper conversation. Nobody would dare to spy on a dao center rashly, not even Venerables as that was simply too inappropriate.

"Sure."

Su Yu agreed with a smile. With a casual wave of her arm, Spacebreak Marquis created a portal before them, revealing the dao center behind it. It was as though she had removed the distance between two points, allowing one to directly reach the other side.

To the side, Great Zhou King praised in admiration, "Spacebreak Marquis' accomplishments in the dao of space have reached an unimaginable height."

"Thank you."

Spacebreak Marquis smiled. Great Zhou King was speaking the truth. Then again, that was as expected for the spatial beast race. How could one be a spatial beast without being good at space manipulation?

Su Yu said nothing and stepped through the portal. Noticing his nonchalance, Spacebreak Marquis raised her brow. But she said nothing. This human lord sure was brazen. But upon thinking about it, this was perfectly normal. With so many experts on his side, the human lord would be able to survive even Venerables. What was there to fear?

***

Inside the large residence.

The residence wasn't exactly luxurious, but it was spacious.

Incredibly spacious.

The original form of the spatial beast race was large. Thus, their residences needed to be large to accommodate their size. For the most part, their residences would also be empty as any furniture or decoration would simply be crushed by their sheer size when they returned to their original form.

Spacebreak Marquis was a straightforward individual. After entering their residence, she invited them to sit down and said, "Human Lord, are you here for our teleportation gates?"

"Yes." Su Yu nodded, "So there are really teleportation gates here?"

"That is only natural." Spacebreak Marquis did not bother to hide anything since Su Yu was already here. She said, "Those gates were built through countless sacrifices as we explored one danger zone after another. Over the years, we have lost many Daofuses to this endeavor. We have lost even pseudo kings before. These gates were meant to serve as our final escape, ensuring the continuation of our race when the worst happens."

Su Yu nodded, "It is right to have such contingency in place. What is the price if I wish to borrow one of these gates?"

"Which gate do you have in mind? Where do you want to go?"

"Inner region of the Chaos Mountain."

Su Yu focused on Spacebreak Marquis. Was there such a gate? Spacebreak Marquis frowned. She did not reply immediately. But that alone was enough to prove that there was such a gate.

Su Yu was surprised as that realization hit him. There was really such a gate!

Finally, Spacebreak Marquis spoke, her voice solemn, "Back then, a pseudo king of our race sustained heavy injuries for the sake of opening this tunnel. He succumbed to his injuries and died not long after."

That was a massive price to pay. Even Su Yu was shocked to hear that. A pseudo king had died. In that case, the price to borrow this gate wouldn't be low.

Noticing his silence, Spacebreak Marquis gave it some thought and said, "A massive war is coming. The three major races are going to sweep through the Upper Realm. All the teleportation gates we planted will probably be useless soon enough. The Chaos Mountain is the sole place that will remain free from their influence for the foreseeable future. This will be the sole lifeline of my race."

After so many sacrifices to create all those teleportation gates, all of them would be scrapped before they could even use them. Spacebreak Marquis mourned this loss. But there was nothing she could do about this. The gate to the Chaos Mountain could probably be their final lifeline.

And that was the gate Su Yu wanted to borrow. There was no guarantee that he would return it. There wasn't even a guarantee that the gate would remain a secret by the time he was done with it.

Su Yu thought about it and said, "Do you have a request for me, Spacebreak Marquis? If it is something I can fulfill, I will do my best to help."

"Request?" Spacebreak Marquis glanced at Hollow and said, "My people in the Lower Realm have joined you. That old fellow down there is my dao companion. We are one. There is no separating us."

She sighed helplessly and said, "Our race has always been neutral. The old fellow believes that you can be the second Emperor, but I don't know you well. I don't know if that's really the case.

"Now, the three major races are gathering everyone on the Human Mountain. I doubt I can take these gates with me. In that case, you can have them as a favor. As for my request, I only need you to win. That will be the best you can do for us. No request of mine can replace the importance of your victory."

She shook her head. What request could she make? It was pointless. At present, she could only try to survive. Everything was still unclear. Nobody knew who would emerge as the final victor.

Su Yu had a respectable number of pseudo kings on his side. In fact, he was definitely comparable to any one of the three major races in strength if only pseudo kings were considered. Including March, he could probably contend against one of the three major races at its full power. But that was only one, not three.

Then again, Su Yu had been growing at an unbelievable speed. Many of the experts on his side were still growing rapidly. Meanwhile, most of the myriad race experts were old fossils who had been stuck for many years. Su Yu's side definitely had the advantage in potential.

After a short consideration, Spacebreak Marquis said, "We can hand all these gates to you. My only ask is that you can eventually emerge from hiding and show enough strength to contend against the three major races openly. Before that, the spatial beast race will never declare our support to you openly.

"Thus, do not expose your relationship with my race before the connection between the Upper and Lower Realms are open. I will only help you voluntarily. Threatening me with the Lower Realm spatial beasts will not work. Cooperation through threat is not what I want to see."

Su Yu clarified, "In short, the Upper Realm spatial beasts will stay aligned with the three major races for now."

"Yes." Spacebreak Marquis nodded, "The spatial beast race is no match against the three major races. The iron devourers have Venerable March, but we don't even have a Venerable. How can we stand against them?

"When you emerge from the dark, I will naturally declare my support openly. But before you have the ability to declare your presence openly, please spare us. We need to survive."

After saying all that, she stared at Su Yu silently. That was her only request. If Su Yu could agree to that, she would allow him to have all their teleportation gates. In any case, most of these gates would be useless soon. It was pointless to keep them to herself.

Su Yu asked, "What if I were to suffer defeat? Wouldn't the stance of the Lower Realm spatial beasts affect the fate of the Upper Realm spatial beasts as well?"

Spacebreak Marquis gnashed her teeth and said, "At that point, losing half our people is preferable to extinction. Since the old fellow has joined hands with you, he will be the one to seek the forgiveness of the three major races. He will hand himself over to them. Our race is good at spatial manipulation. We can still find a way to survive, albeit at a reduced form."

Su Yu chuckled. His feelings were mixed about this. In the end, everyone was only doing their best for the survival of their race. The weaker races could only compromise for the sake of survival. The spatial beasts weren't exactly weak, but still, they weren't free to do what they wanted.

Su Yu nodded, "I won't ruin your peace before gaining enough strength to contend against the myriad races and the Chaos Mountain's faction. Hollow will stay with you. The myriad races won't notice the addition of one Eternal among your ranks."

"Emperor Yu..."

Su Yu interrupted Hollow with a wave and said, "Just stay here. I won't be returning to the Lower Realm anytime soon anyway. Contact the iron devourers if you wish to return. I'll take you back. For now, things are very dangerous since the myriad races are going to sweep through the Upper Realm. It's safer for you to stay with Spacebreak Marquis."

Hollow could only nod helplessly. This was the only thing he could do since he was too weak. Seeing that Su Yu had agreed to her request, Spacebreak Marquis did not say much. She already knew about Su Yu's background from Hollow. There was nothing for her to ask.

As someone who had achieved domination in the Lower Realm, Su Yu wasn't someone who would break his promise so easily.

As she sent a ripple of her dao power out, a portal appeared. "The gates are inside. Do you want to take a look, Human Lord?"

"Let's go."

Su Yu invited the rest to enter with him as well. He was quite surprised since he hadn't detected anything even after standing in this room for so long. Yes, he had not bothered to search the place with his Heaven Gate, but still, his senses couldn't be fooled so easily.

***

Before long, all of them were in the maze.

Everyone gasped with shock. So many of them. There were at least a hundred gates here. At first, Spacebreak Marquis looked proud. But soon, she grew dispirited. Most of these gates would be rendered useless before long.

With a sigh, she started her introduction, "This gate is connected to the Divine Fire Mountain. The experts of my race had explored that place before Cloud Fire Marquis was even there. On a follow-up check, we found that Cloud Fire Marquis had taken over the secret base we left there. This gate has been rendered useless since then."

Cloud Fire Marquis blanked out. When he looked at Spacebreak Marquis, she said, "Cloud Fire Marquis, you used to hide in the forty-seventh mountain of the Divine Fire Mountain. When you first discovered that place, did you note that it was an excellent hiding place, with a relatively flat empty space that could hold a lot of people?"

Cloud Fire Marquis asked with shock, "Spacebreak Marquis, are you saying that...your race created that hiding place?"

Spacebreak Marquis sighed and said, "No, but we did discover that place before establishing a spatial tunnel there. When we learned that you had hidden in the Divine Fire Mountain as well, we wondered if you had picked the same place. When we checked, we noted that it was indeed the case. So we had to give up on that place."

Cloud Fire Marquis said, "If...you informed the myriad races about us back then, we would have..."

Everything would be over for them.

Spacebreak Marquis said indifferently, "These gates are our trump cards. How can we tell anyone about them so easily? How will we benefit from getting you killed?"

Cloud Fire Marquis was suddenly feeling very lucky. He hurriedly said, "But when I searched that place back then, I did not notice a spatial tunnel."

"How can a spatial tunnel built by my race be discovered so easily?" Spacebreak Marquis said, "Our race has a unique method of building spatial tunnels. We will first dig the tunnel before filling it with spatial power again. Even when you rip space apart to check for spatial tunnels, you won't find anything apart from regular spatial fluctuations. You won't be able to follow the tunnel back to us."

As the race most proficient in space manipulation, Spacebreak Marquis was worthy of her pride.

"This is the gate to the Brightmoon Flower Valley, but it is not usable as well. The Brightmoon Flower Valley is no longer suitable."

Su Yu said with surprise, "We didn't notice anything at the Brightmoon Flower Valley."

Spacebreak Marquis smiled and pointed at the other gates, "This is the gate to the Line Gorge. This is the gate to the Heavenly Hole Range. This connects to the Floating River. This leads to the Cloudmist Mountain. This leads to the Fallen Devil Valley. This goes to the Buried Soul Mountain."

She pointed at the gates, naming one danger zone after another, shocking everyone present. It was as though the spatial beast race had drawn a large spiderweb across the entire Upper Realm.

Su Yu asked, "Do you have any spatial tunnels near the dao centers of the major races?"

"Yes." Spacebreak Marquis coughed and said, "That is only natural. But we have never used them."

"So during the attack against the nether race, you could have reached there through an existing tunnel?"

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