Published at 11th of May 2026 5:56 am

Chapter 2013: Favor For Repayment (3)

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Great Bamboo Marquis nodded, "Yes. Yue Gang was a fierce general. After Royal Consort Qi's execution, he kept a low profile for some time. Then, he led a group of ancient marquises and triggered the final battle of the third epoch. Dozens of Daofuses died in that battle. Many ancient marquises died, and the myriad races suffered a heavy loss. Yue Gang himself died in that battle as well."

Bitterness covered Qi Rong's eyes as she said, "He must have planned for that long in advance. I knew he would resort to that. Alas, he failed."

Su Yu chuckled and said, "What a mess. Looks like the human lord isn't a fun position to have. A human lord is like a slave. I guess that's to be expected. Of the previous nine human lords, only Hundred Battle survived. Each epoch only ends when the human lord dies. What a sorrowful fate."

The war would only end when the human lord was dead. That was how each epoch ended. Hundred Battle King was the exception as he was too strong to be killed. Even so, he had been sealed for over six thousand years.

Su Yu said, "Clearly, human lords are meant to die. So many of these ancient marquises are still around yet most human lords are dead. How pitiful."

It was hard for him to judge the morality of this matter. After all, the previous nine human lords were all chosen and trained by these old fossils.

No, the first human lord was different. That was Martial King's son, but he was too much of a brute. In the end, he got himself killed. Otherwise, he could have remained human lord until today. With the large number of subordinates still loyal to Martial King, he wouldn't even be relegated to a puppet.

Su Yu said, "Good thing those old fellows are all dead in my era. The survivors are all in the Upper Realm. I grew without relying on them, so I am free to ignore their feelings."

Qi Rong sighed and said, "Yes, I can see that. You wouldn't have sealed me immediately otherwise. From how you're treating me, I can see that you do not have a good impression of the older experts."

Yes, she had a vague idea of Su Yu's identity and stance. That was why she had dared to come clean about her identity. She was not stupid. From how Su Yu was treating her, she could judge how Su Yu felt about the ancient experts.

When Su Yu said that Stable Army Marquis was still alive, she had called him trash to Su Yu's face. But Su Yu did not seem bothered. Someone who was loyal to or controlled by these old fellows wouldn't have reacted that way.

Qi Rong was still quite observant, even if she had been in deep slumber for so long.

She could see how Su Yu was seated nonchalantly while people like Great Bamboo Marquis, Lan Tian, April, and the others were standing. One ought to know that Great Bamboo Marquis and Lan Tian were both pseudo kings. This wasn't something any regular human lord could do.

During the third epoch, Yue Gang would be the one standing in the presence of the ancient experts. The difference between Su Yu and Yue Gang was clear.

Hearing her words, Su Yu laughed and said, "Don't try to incite disharmony between my people and me. I still have quite a lot of ancient experts among my people, such as Stable Army Marquis, Shadow Marquis, and Cloud Fire Marquis. I am quite respectful toward these old fellows."

"Kekekeke..."

Su Yu glared at Lan Tian, who was laughing with an odd sound.

Respectful?

Lan Tian decided to pretend he was deaf.

Even Great Bamboo Marquis had an odd expression. Respect his ass! How was he saying that with a straight face? Su Yu had zero respect for those old fellows. In fact, Su Yu respected the experts of their allied races more than the ancient human experts.

Qi Rong said, "Human Lord...you seem perfectly in control?"

Su Yu said, "Thank the heavens for Hundred Battle King, the ninth human lord. He screwed humanity badly during his time and got most of the ancient experts killed. Only a bunch of unimpressive old fellows survived. With enough strength, I naturally have no fear of them. Of course, I am a kind man. Thus, I still treat them with respect. We have to respect the elderly, right?"

"Heh—"

With a glare from Su Yu, Lan Tian shut his mouth. Su Yu's face fell as he said, "Go out!"

Lan Tian had a helpless expression. He couldn't resist it. How was Su Yu saying all that without blushing? Even Great Bamboo Marquis and the others were rendered speechless by Su Yu's shameless words.

Qi Rong thought that it was pointless to continue talking about this matter. Thus, she hurriedly said, "Previously, you asked me about my job. Back then, I was only in charge of one task. It was a very simple task."

She looked at Su Yu and said, "Produce our very own loyal subordinates. The fake daos play a big role in this task. Back then, I planned to switch real daos with fake daos. I even aimed to kill the real dao cultivators and replace them.

"Therefore, their desire to kill me was understandable as I was planning to kill them as well. I wished to produce some fake dao cultivators before descending to the Lower Realm to snatch their real daos, replacing the seniors with those loyal to us."

Su Yu gasped, "How ruthless."

Great Bamboo Marquis and the others appeared confused, but Su Yu understood what she was saying. He said, "You wanted to gradually replace the old fellows without weakening humanity as a whole. Is that what you're saying?"

Qi Rong nodded, "Yes. Take North Pacifying Marquis as an example. He cultivated the spear dao. I could produce a fake spear dao cultivator. Then, I could descend and seal North Pacifying Marquis, allowing the fake dao cultivator to devour his dao or even fuse with his dao."

This explanation was straightforward enough for Great Bamboo Marquis and the others. Instantly, their expressions changed.

What a ruthless woman.

They hurriedly forced themselves to calm down. They did not dare to imagine what would happen if Qi Rong had succeeded. But would such a plan work? The fusion needed to be possible for the plan to work.

Qi Rong said, "You might think that I was too ruthless. But Yue Gang was already the human lord. Why must they make him a puppet? They sent him on the most dangerous of missions without giving him actual power and authority. I couldn't accept it. Unfortunately, the plan leaked before I could carry it out. I believe the plan has been forgotten since then. Things would have progressed differently otherwise."

Su Yu rubbed his chin and said, "I doubt you'd start your plan without any confidence. So how were you so confident that you could fuse the fake and real daos?"

"The answer is very simple." Qi Rong answered, "I tested it on someone. Great Bamboo Marquis might know this. At the time, a peak Daofuse of the human race vanished."

"Vanished?" Great Bamboo Marquis thought about it and said, "Marquis Wushan?"

"Yes." Qi Rong said, "I am no saint. I will never call myself that. Wushan was disrespectful toward Yue Gang. He shouted at Yue Gang, a human lord, all the time. Subsequently, I had him captured in secret before getting a fake dao cultivator devour him and fuse with his dao."

How ruthless.

At first, Su Yu had assumed that this woman was some sort of researcher, but no. She was crazy.

"The person who had devoured Wushan had not only accepted Wushan's dao, but he also advanced one step further. He even gained the potential to become a pseudo king in the future."

Great Bamboo Marquis asked, "Was that Yue Ji?"

Qi Rong nodded.

Great Bamboo Marquis exclaimed in shock, "Really? During the final battle Yue Gang triggered, Yue Ji was there beside him. At the time, he was already a pseudo king. He was one of the most trusted subordinates of Yue Gang. I see now. Back then, I was curious at how Yue Ji had grown so strong at such a young age."

He added regretfully, "Unfortunately, he died in the final battle as well."

Qi Rong said, "I guessed that as well. With Yue Gang dead, he's most likely dead as well. He was Yue Gang's nephew. He was a lot more trustworthy than the others. He was also my only success case before I was forced to enter deep seclusion."

After all, her plan was exposed after that. She no longer had the chance to continue with it.

Yue Gang might have saved her during her execution, but she had encountered some issues during her dao switch. Thus, she was forced to enter deep seclusion. By the time she emerged, everything had changed.

Such a plan would be quite a massive scandal. No wonder it hadn't been mentioned after that. That was essentially a plan to kill off all the older experts.

Su Yu smiled and said, "That's quite interesting. But I don't have suitable targets here. Who am I supposed to replace? Cloud Fire Marquis? No thanks. They are quite obedient. This doesn't seem too useful for me. By the way, can a human take the dao of someone from a different race through this method?"

"If the essence of the daos is similar, it should work. After all, the fake daos in the Upper Realm are different from the daos in the Lower Realm. There are no racial limitations."

Su Yu nodded, "True. By the way, are you saying that we can have someone cultivate a fake physical body dao and replace Hundred Battle?"

Su Yu said with an amused smile, "I'll try to find someone suitable to cultivate a fake physical body dao before having that person eat Hundred Battle up. What do you guys think about this?"

Qi Rong couldn't resist asking, "Is the ninth human lord...strong?"

Su Yu answered, "Yes. Excessively strong. He's near the level of ancient human kings."

"..."

Qi Rong had nothing to say. The tenth human lord seemed too crazy. He was actually targeting someone as powerful as the ninth human lord.

Suddenly, Su Yu asked, "I have a question for you. Since fusion and replacement is possible, is repair possible as well?"

Qi Rong blanked out, "Repair?"

"Yes. I suspect humanity's physical body dao is damaged, or there might be some other issue with it. Otherwise, someone like Hundred Battle King alone wouldn't have been enough to block the path for everyone else. Is it possible for a fake physical body dao cultivator to repair the real physical body dao?"

"That is possible." Qi Rong said, "But repairing that dao will only benefit others..."

Su Yu laughed and said, "Not at all. Most of the physical body dao cultivators are my people. When they grow strong, the forces under me will grow strong. This will benefit me as well."

"..."

All of them were his people?

Qi Rong couldn't help but wonder if this person had truly gained full control over the human race. In that case, he was doing much better than Yue Gang. But how? He was only about as strong as Yue Gang.

Su Yu continued, "Interesting. How truly interesting. Dao repair. To be honest, nobody is good at everything. It's not something I can do, and I have been thinking about this matter for some time. And now, you have appeared." "I'm not interested in replacing any daos, but I don't mind testing it out. I am more interested in repairing the dao or fusing the various different daos. You seem to be very proficient in the matter of dao fusion."

Back then, Great Zhou King's attempt to fuse two daos had been an extremely exhausting attempt. Yes. That could be considered a fusion of sort.

But the fusion of fake and real daos probably followed the same theory. This gave Su Yu a lot of ideas. He even wondered if he could fuse Great Qin King and Great Xia King back to humanity's physical body dao.

They were already strong. Fusing back to humanity's physical body dao might grant them more strength, allowing them to compete against Hundred Battle King in the share of the dao.

Su Yu rubbed his chin and sank into thought.

After a while, he looked at Qi Rong with a wide smile and said, "Honestly, I don't like strong combatants. I prefer researchers with smart brains. I used to be a researcher, you know. And I greatly respect good researchers like you. Royal Consort Qi, Yue Gang is dead. Perhaps I can try to look for his death spirit and reunite the two of you. But I need you to help me with some tasks. That won't be an issue, right?"

"Death Realm?" Royal Consort Qi blanked out.

Su Yu said, "Yes. The Death Realm is under my control. I can try to look around for you, but only if you're actually interested."

Qi Rong asked, "Can you really find him?"

"I'm not sure." Su Yu said, "He has been dead for so many years. Maybe he's not there. Maybe he's somewhere in the Celestial River of Death. I can't promise anything."

Qi Rong inhaled deeply and asked, "What will my fate be if I refuse?"

Su Yu laughed and said, "Why are you talking like I'm some sort of villain? If you refuse, so be it. At most, I'll lock you up like Wen Qi for a few years before deciding what to do with you. I'm not going to kill you guys."

"..."

Qi Rong tried asking, "Human Lord...are you unwilling to set me free?"

Su Yu chuckled, "What are you saying? You owe me a life debt. It is only natural for one to repay one's debt. Since I saved you once, you now owe me your life. How can I let you go before I get my repayment? Don't underestimate me like that."

After a long silence, Qi Rong said, "If Yue Gang had your courage back then...things could have ended differently..."

Just look at how he was saying all that with a straight face!

Qi Rong couldn't help but admit that this wasn't an ordinary human lord.

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