Published at 16th of May 2026 6:19 am

Chapter 2023: Trade, Investigate (1)

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Great Zhou King was showing an ample amount of good faith to the myriad races.

After considering the offer, the Venerables agreed that this was a good deal for them. They would gain significant benefits without paying that high a price. They only needed to release some human experts to force the Torchbearers to start fighting the chaos lineage openly. This was a good thing for them.

With the general direction of the agreement determined, it did not take them long to iron out the finer details of the agreement. It was agreed that Southbrook Marquis and the others would be released shortly.

Giant Axe Marquis would remain with the myriad races before the Torchbearers completed the task of killing two pseudo kings and two peak Daofuses. The Torchbearers could also kill a Venerable instead to secure his release. Toward the end, they started talking about the details of the release.

At that moment, Su Yu interjected, "Just send them out side the Line Gorge and leave. We will have our people collect them."

Line Gorge was the former hiding place of Brave Martial General. The Venerables started wondering if the Torchbearers were basing themselves there. However, that seemed quite unlikely.

It was more likely that they were merely making use of Line Gorge's terrain to break free from their monitoring after collecting the released humans.

Venerable Moon really wanted to find their hiding place, but he did not refuse the suggestion. He wasn't that desperate to know their location. As long as he could make the Torchbearers fight the chaos lineage first, he could tolerate something as minor as this.

Su Yu added, "Also, your people killed some ancient beasts not long ago. Please hand the corpses to us."

Su Yu spoke earnestly, "In order to keep hidden from the ancient beasts, we have avoided killing them. But we need these corpses to produce the concealment formations we need to operate inside the Chaos Mountain."

Venerable Moon smiled and said, "Those are Daofuse corpses. They are very valuable."

Su Yu nodded, "Yes, they are very valuable. But without enough formations, we will have to first deal with the ancient beasts before we can even start facing the chaos lineage. That will expose our presence and cause unnecessary complications."

Venerable Moon really wanted to say that this was exactly what he wanted. He wanted the Torchbearers to face the chaos race head-on and show all their strength.

Su Yu continued, "Also, we will be stuck at the outer region, dealing with all those ancient beasts. This will attract the chaos race's attention and send them on alert. They might even suspect that we're trying to produce these concealment formations. Why would we be targeting the ancient beasts otherwise? That would end up revealing our plan to them."

That would affect even the myriad races. After all, it would be too easy for the chaos race to suspect that the Torchbearers were cooperating with the myriad races since the myriad races were leaving the Torchbearers alone while they were fighting the ancient beasts.

After some thought, Venerable Moon said, "Fine. You can have two of the four corpses in our possession."

Su Yu nodded in agreement. That was all for their current stage of cooperation. They would only proceed to the next stage after Su Yu had killed the required chaos race experts. After receiving the method of laying down the concealment formation from Su Yu, the nine Venerables left without wasting any time.

***

The moment the nine left, Su Yu and Great Zhou King looked at each other and started burning their bodies without a word to each other. Before long, all traces of them were gone. Both clones were character clones. And each character was an embryonic law.

Without a doubt, each character was incomparably valuable.

Yet the two had nonchalantly sacrificed a character each just to prevent the myriad races from tracking them down.

***

Outside.

In the sky.

Disappointment flickered in several pairs of eyes.

Venerable Dao said, "They are very cautious. They burned their clones without any hesitation. It won't be so easy for us to track them."

"Let's go. The nearby ancient beasts have discovered our presence."

With a flicker, they vanished. Yes. Their main bodies were all hiding up in the sky. With their strength, they were still capable of concealing themselves from the ancient beasts for a short time.

They were here in their main bodies hoping that Su Yu would be her ein his main body as well. Unfortunately for them, Su Yu was only here as a clone, and the clone had been destroyed right after the meeting.

There was nothing they could do now.

***

After a short while, the Venerables were back outside the Chaos Mountain.

Looking toward the Chaos Mountain, Venerable Dao inhaled deeply and said, "From what we can see, the Torchbearers are truly trying to cooperate with us. Of course, that's only because the chaos race is to powerful. Unfortunately, we know too little about the chaos race. Since they are volunteering as vanguards, we can let them fight it out and observe the strength of the chaos race before deciding whether we should continue this cooperation."

If the chaos race were weaker than expected, there would be no need for them to continue this cooperation. Naturally, if the chaos race were strong, cooperation would be necessary.

Celestial Devil Marquis said, "Are we really releasing those humans?"

He did not feel like doing so.

"Yes." Venerable Moon said, "Two pseudo kings are powerful combatants, but we will be keeping Giant Axe Marquis with us. The Torchbearers won't do anything rash. To kill the same number of experts as the humans we release, they might need to pay a great price. This will force both the Torchbearers and the chaos race to reveal more of their strength. This won't be a loss for us."

The other Venerables thought about it and nodded in agreement.

Venerable Moon continued, "I'll be sending those people to Line Gorge. Fellow Daoist Heavenly Fate, please join me. Perhaps you can detect something during the handover."

Heavenly Fate Marquis nodded with complete indifference.

***

Outside the Dao Origin Land.

Giant Axe Marquis and the others were still being detained. They were all waiting silently for something to happen. All of them looked dejected.

They had been in seclusion for so many years. Right after emerging from their seclusion, they were captured. The Venerables had ignored them since their capture, and they had not seen a single human since their capture.

As time passed, despair seeped in. They were being held in an unknown ravine, guarded by numerous myriad race experts.

After taking a look at their surroundings, Giant Axe Marquis sent a voice transmission, "Snow Orchid, we need to find a way to flee. Even if we need to pay a great price for it, we need to let at least one of us flee. We can't sit here helplessly and wait for them to kill us off."

Unlike Qi Rong, who had emerged as a skeletal figure, Snow Orchid Marquis looked a lot healthier. In fact, she looked as youthful and beautiful as before, if her deep eyes and white hair were ignored.

She replied, "How do we flee? All of us are sealed. We are weaker than even weak Daofuses. We have several pseudo kings watching over us..."

Giant Axe Marquis looked rather agitated as he said, "I can still put up a fight with my physical strength alone. I don't walk the physical body dao, but I did train my body extensively back then."

Someone with impressive physical strength would remain strong even with their dao sealed. Hundred Battle King was a prime example of that. Even with his dao sealed, he could still kill Venerables with just his body alone. The other captive humans joined the discussion as well.

After a while, Snow Orchid General said, "Giant Axe Marquis, you have the highest hope of escaping among us. If we do make an attempt to escape, you will be the priority. Flee without us. It's not possible for all of us to escape together."

They had concluded that if anyone should flee, it should be Giant Axe Marquis. They were desperate enough that they were willing to accept such a compromise. Suddenly, their expressions changed as several powerful auras approached.

"Venerable!"

"Lord!"

The surrounding experts greeted respectfully as several Venerables appeared.

Venerable Moon descended into the ravine and looked at the captive humans with a smile as he said, "How have you been doing, my friends?"

Giant Axe Marquis gnashed his teeth with an unsightly expression and said, "You're finally here, you fuck! Just kill us already! Do you think I'm scared of you?"

However, Venerable Moon continued smiling as he said, "We will be spending a long time together, Giant Axe Marquis. Don't be so hasty."

He looked at Snow Orchid General and the others before saying, "Alas, I'm not sure if I'll have much opportunity to see Snow Orchid General and the others after this. We knew each other from way back then. It's truly a pity we don't have the chance to catch up before we need to part again."

Giant Axe Marquis' expression changed as he asked, "What do you want?"

Were they going to start killing?

Venerable Moon said, "It's nothing. Southbrook and the others, come with me. I'll send you off."

Once again, Giant Axe Marquis' expression changed.

He roared furiously, "If you want to kill someone, kill me! Don't even dream of killing anyone before me, Eclipse Moon!

His aura surged, looking like he was on the verge of pouncing on Venerable Moon. His dao might have been sealed, but he still had a relatively powerful combat strength.

At his anger, Venerable Moon merely laughed. "Giant Axe, I'm not killing them. I'm only sending them away. Instead of worrying about them, you should be worrying about yourself."

What was the meaning of that?

Giant Axe Marquis continued glaring furiously.

Venerable Moon said, "They have been redeemed by some humans at a high price. As for you, well, you're too expensive for humanity to afford right now. I'm afraid you'll be staying here for quite a while."

"..."

The humans blanked out. Redeeming them? What was going on?

With a mocking tone, Venerable Moon said, "Are you still confused? We only captured you to sell you off. Unfortunately, Giant Axe Marquis is too expensive for them to afford. As I said, you should be worrying about yourself, Giant Axe."

Why was this guy worrying about others? He should worry about himself instead. They were going to be released soon. He was the one who would remain locked up.

First, Giant Axe Marquis blanked out. Then, he said with a look of disbelief, "Are you...saying that you sold Snow Orchid and the others? Who bought them? Humanity...is humanity still around?"

Venerable Moon answered, "Of course. But I won't be telling you too much. Snow Orchid and the others will understand soon. As for you, just calm down and remain here."

Giant Axe Marquis' expression changed.

Southbrook Marquis and the others had odd expressions as well. Snow Orchid General said, "Eclipse Moon, are you saying that we will have our freedom soon while Giant Axe will remain here?"

"Yes. That's what I'm saying."

Venerable Moon said, "He is now a Venerable. How can we release him easily? Giant Axe, do you regret your high cultivation level now? With a lower cultivation level, you would be released with everyone else as well."

Giant Axe Marquis' expression changed repeatedly. Was he a victim of his own strength? What...was going on here?

Venerable Moon said, "Of course, it's not like the humans really want to see you back. You're too strong and hard to control. At present, Venerable is the highest cultivation level one can reach. They don't want to waste their resources on someone they can't even control.

"I gave them two choices, you know. And I offered them the same price for both choices. Either they buy the other four or you alone. And they picked the other four. It didn't even take them long to reach this decision."

Giant Axe Marquis snorted. Snow Orchid General frowned and sent him a voice transmission, "Don't listen to this nonsense. Giant Axe, calm down. Don't allow him to influence you with lies."

She was worried that Giant Axe Marquis would allow these words to influence his state of mind. Warriors like Giant Axe Marquis were known for their bad temper.

"I understand. Don't worry." Giant Axe Marquis replied, "He's clearly trying to provoke me. But still, this doesn't feel good. I need to stay here while everyone else is free to go."

Venerable Moon said, "Come on, Snow Orchid and the others. You will have your freedom soon. But before that, I have something to say to you. We can also take this chance to talk about the current situation out there."

With a wave of his hand, he wrapped the four in a transparent bubble before taking them away under Giant Axe Marquis' furious gaze.

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