Published at 4th of May 2026 7:00 am

Chapter 2000: Bone Picking (2)

This chapter is updated by JustRead.pl

Su Yu continued moving around while gathering his people who were spread all over the Upper Realm.

Great Bamboo Marquis was also helping with that. With Lan Tian's clones serving as trackers, it wasn't exactly hard for him to locate these people.

Junior Zhou King was the second person he found. It had only been a short while, but Junior Zhou King's aura had grown significantly stronger. It even felt like he was going to surpass Silk Destroying King, who was nearly a seventh-degree Eternal, soon. They weren't that far from the seventh degree.

Next, Su Yu found Nan Wujiang and Yun Chen, who were moving together. Both were heavily injured. In fact, they were being pursued when Su Yu found them.

***

One person after another rejoined the group.

The guardians returned one after another as well. Finally, Hu Xiansheng and Yue Xi were sent back by Great Bamboo Marquis. After finding Xia Longwu as well, Su Yu did a quick headcount. It was then that his expression changed slightly.

"What about it?"

Great Bamboo Marquis asked curiously.

Su Yu frowned, "Someone is missing."

"Dead?" Great Bamboo Marquis consoled him, "It's normal for people to die up here..."

"Not dead. Just missing."

When Su Yu looked at Lan Tian, Lan Tian frowned and said, "Yes. Missing. My clone vanished suddenly as well."

"Who?" Xia Longwu, who had rejoined the group with a far stronger aura, asked, "Is it Silk Destroying King?"

"No." Su Yu shook his head, "Endless Passage vanished."

Endless Passage of the fate race. Even Skyeater had rejoined the group, but Endless Passage had vanished.

"Endless Passage?"

Xia Longwu's expression changed slightly. "Did he turn against us?"

After a short silence, Su Yu shook his head, "We can't know for sure. Maybe someone else found him instead."

Su Yu narrowed his eyes and said, "Previously, Heavenly Measure came to me with a message from Heavenly Fate Marquis. Heavenly Fate Marquis knows a lot. He seems to have seen through something, including what we're doing. As a genius of the fate race who is also carrying the token of the Fate Pseudo Emperor with him, it is not surprising for Endless Passage to be discovered by him as well."

He suspected that Endless Passage had been found by Heavenly Fate Marquis. Heavenly Fate Marquis was supposed to be busy moving the mountain with the Venerables, but Endless Passage wasn't even a Daofuse. A simple clone by the marquis would be enough to deal with him. Apart from Endless Passage, everyone else had been collected safely.

Su Yu exhaled and said, "So be it. At this point, there is nothing we can do about him."

Great Bamboo Marquis asked solemnly, "What if he's not with the fate race? Rather, some other race has captured him. Won't that expose many of our secrets?"

Su Yu shook his head, "That won't be enough. I plant some power of laws in all their seas of willpower. Nobody can force the information out of them, but they can betray the information voluntarily if they want. If that's the case, there's nothing we can do about it.

"I am no longer connected to that strand of power. I can't even track him anymore. This is the work of an expert. No regular person can block my detection."

Endless Passage was missing. Was Su Yu worried? Slightly. But he suspected that this was the work of the fate race. After all, Heavenly Fate Marquis was incredibly cunning. Perhaps he had guessed something and taken Endless Passage away in advance. Or perhaps he had taken Endless Passage away to learn more.

To the side, a frowning Lan Tian said, "Emperor Yu, we can bet everything on fate race's willingness to help us. Heavenly Fate Marquis might choose to inform the myriad races about our plans and stab us in the back after learning more about us from Endless Passage. We can't discount this possibility."

They couldn't be too trusting. Things had changed. Back when they had nothing, they had to take massive gambles in everything they did. Now, they had to play it safe.

"At worst, they will learn about what we did in the Lower Realm."

"Endless Passage knows the location of the passage." Lan Tian said, "That is very important."

It didn't matter if the myriad races learned about the Lower Realm. It wasn't like they could go down there anytime soon. Lan Tian was more worried about the exposure of the passage at Buried Soul Mountain.

The contingency Su Yu placed back then only guarded against forced memory search. It did nothing against the voluntary release of information.

Su Yu raised his brow before smiling, "I have a little trap there. I will know when someone discovers the passage. When that happens, we can simply return to the Lower Realm through the river and wipe out the fate race."

"But that would be too late."

"Too late for what?" Su Yu laughed, "At worst, we will fight a war down there. Generally, nobody will focus on the weaklings before dealing with all the experts. Yes, the myriad races can kill all the weak humans before going after us. But are they ready to have us hide in the shadows and kill their weaklings every now and then in return?"

This was how things had always been in the Myriad Realms. The weaklings would mostly be left alone before all their experts were dead. Thus, the extermination of a race was actually quite rare. That would only happen when a race lost all its experts.

Lan Tian said nothing else, but his eyes gleamed coldly. A clone of his had been eliminated. If it was really the Heavenly Fate Marquis, this was something he wouldn't forget.

As for Su Yu, he forced himself to calm down again. The disappearance of Endless Passage was quite annoying.

If this were the work of some other race, he could only be sure that no memory search had been performed since the power of laws he planted in Endless Passage's mind was still intact. However, he had no way of knowing if Endless Passage had voluntarily revealed anything.

But if this was the work of the fate race, then it would be very likely for Endless Passage to talk voluntarily. As a result, the passage at the Buried Soul Mountain would be exposed to the fate race.

Su Yu admitted that he had been too careless here. He had not taken everything into consideration. He had neglected the fact that everyone who had arrived at the Upper Realm with him knew the location of the passage.

Nobody was perfect. Not even Su Yu could predict everything. Furthermore, he trusted these people enough to not view them with suspicion at all times. He wouldn't have bothered to take them with him otherwise.

But after a short thought, he laughed again. "So be it. If they found the passage, we fight. We will teach anyone with the courage to enter the Lower Realm a lesson they can never forget. It's not like that is the only way I can return to the Lower Realm."

Lan Tian laughed as well. "True. We have nothing to lose while they have everything to lose. What is there for us to fear?"

"Alright. Enough about this." Su Yu looked at Xia Longwu and the others. "Enter the Mark of Civilization for now. I can see that some of you are on the verge of a breakthrough, but now is not the time. Great Bamboo Marquis, you can get started on the migration. Try to cover for our absence for a bit."

With that, Great Bamboo Marquis departed. Xia Longwu and the others entered the Mark of Civilization.

With everyone gone, Su Yu looked eastward and smiled, "Let's head to the Dao Origin Land. Since the Venerables are still busy moving the mountain, we can take this chance to search the area. I can finally search it openly with my Heaven Gate without holding back."

Nine Venerables had appeared so far. How many more experts would the Dao Origin Land hide? With most of the experts gone, this was his perfect opportunity to search the Dao Origin Land.

***

Dao Origin Land.

As usual, the place was shrouded in a mysterious curtain of light from the sky. Countless heroes were buried here. Some had died from old age, while some had entered deep slumber after failing to break through.

A hundred thousand years had passed. It was likely that those who were already near the end of their lifespans during the end of the ancient past had long died somewhere in this place. Even a Daofuse would only have a lifespan of roughly a hundred thousand years.

In fact, that was Su Yu's original lifespan before he burned most of it to help with Lan Tian's dao pioneering. And it was likely that he wouldn't be able to increase his lifespan any further before becoming a Master of Law.

The ancient past had collapsed for a hundred thousand years. Some of the surviving experts of the ancient past had already lived for tens of thousands of years by the end of the ancient past. Even if they could continue increasing their strength, many of them had reached the limit of their lifespan.

This was the case for many of these ancient fossils. This was why so many of these fossils were emerging now. They were left with no choice. They had to emerge from their slumber to take one last gamble.

A hundred thousand years ago, dying to something as insignificant as lifespan was a joke. That was something they never had to worry about. Or to be precise, that would cease being a concern the moment one became an Eternal. Most would die in battle before dying to old age. At most, only Sunmoons would die of old age.

But they were in a new era. Dying of old age was very possible, even for heavenly kings. The heavenly kings Su Yu had fought in the Dao Origin Land were clear examples of that. Each of them was already rotting away, signifying that they would probably to old age in a few hundred years.

***

Su Yu was back in the Dao Origin Land yet again.

As usual, he calmed the curtain of light with Xing Yu's token before stepping inside. Unlike during his previous visit, the Dao Origin Land now felt empty and deserted. After all, a large number of experts had been forced to withdraw from this place.

The recent deaths of several heavenly kings in the Dao Origin Land had alarmed them. That, coupled with the recent order to withdraw, had resulted in the departure of most of the experts here.

Not long after Su Yu's arrival, a powerful aura surged not far away. A powerful being emerged from the ground and roared in fury, "Damn it! Fuck the assembly. Why should we even migrate? Is this a joke? We have established ourselves in the Upper Realm for countless years. How can we migrate so easily?"

Clearly, this was an old fossil who had just awakened. At the moment, he was leaving under the accompaniment of a Daofuse.

Su Yu looked on from afar with his brow raised.

"A heavenly king."

Lan Tian nodded, "Yes. This...seems to be a member of the fabled taotie race."

Su Yu glanced at the departing figure and said, "Yes, he resembles a taotie of the legends. I don't think this race exists in the Lower Realm anymore, right?"

"Yeah. They went extinct during the third epoch. Some survived in the Upper Realm, but there aren't a lot of them around."

"I see."

This was quite a coincidence. They did not expect to encounter a heavenly king right after arriving. However, Su Yu did not intend to do anything to this heavenly king. There was no point.

This race wasn't too powerful in the Upper Realm. Perhaps this old taotie would give the three major races some drama or trouble after awakening. Su Yu only needed to enjoy the show.

As the Heaven Gate appeared on his forehead, Su Yu chuckled and said, "If the myriad races are willing to let me help with the sweep, I can dig everyone out for them. No matter how strong someone is, there is no hiding from me."

Lan Tian laughed. But would that happen?

After taking a look around, Su Yu raised his brow and said, "A lot of people are gone. Previously, I could see several Daofuses with a casual glance. But now, there is only one Daofuse in the area. No wonder things were so calm earlier when the heavenly king emerged."

In the past, the awakening of a heavenly king would attract the attention of numerous Daofuses. Or to be precise, these Daofuses would take a look to satisfy their curiosity, but none would be stupid enough to provoke the heavenly king.

Lan Tian merely smiled. He did not seem to care. With that, Su Yu started scanning the area. He was quite curious about this place as well. Were there more hidden experts here? Previously, he couldn't perform a detailed scan here due to the presence of the nine Venerables. But now, he had nothing to fear anymore.

With his Heaven Gate active, the world in his vision was different from the world everyone was seeing. As a heavenly king himself, Su Yu could probably spy on even heavenly kings undetected through his Heaven Gate.

However, the Dao Origin Land was truly massive. He wouldn't be able to complete the search anytime soon.

After a short thought, Su Yu said, "Let's take a look at river and see if there are more fake dao experts around."

True dao cultivators would be harder to detect. As for fake dao cultivators, he could easily find them even if they were in deep slumber. As long as one cultivated a fake dao, even when one's connection to the dao was cut off, it would continue existing on the river. And the Human Emperor's river was short enough to search. Su Yu could easily discover all these daos with a little patience.

Lan Tian did not offer any opinions since this was Su Yu's area of specialty. Before long, Su Yu was back in the river.

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