Published at 20th of May 2026 6:26 am

Chapter 2031: Unyielding Torchbearers (3)

This chapter is updated by JustRead.pl

Sixteen sets of formations.

Su Yu started distributing the mobile formations among his people.

As for the ones who had not received any formations, including Heavendoom, Su Yu opened his Mark of Civilization and said, "The rest of you aren't strong enough. Just hide in here for a bit. We need to stay hidden until the very end. We're going to do something big this time."

They seemed unwilling. Both Heavendoom and Grandstar were among the ones asked to hide inside the book. Initially, Heavendoom was feeling quite bad. But when he saw that Grandstar was being treated the same way, he smiled as his mood went through a miraculous recovery. He was too weak to get one of these formations, but this guy wasn't any better off than him!

Apart from Su Yu and Lan Tian, Heavendoom, Grandstar, September, Great Qin King, and Great Xia King were the ones without a formation. It did not matter to Su Yu and Lan Tian as they had their own ways to avoid the detection of the ancient beasts.

Everyone else, including Snow Orchid General and the others, was given a mobile formation each. Su Yu said, "Let me repeat myself, everyone. Obey all orders regardless of the circumstance. Even when you're in the middle of an intense battle, do not hesitate to carry out your order."

"Yes!"

Most of them answered unhesitatingly. Snow Orchid General and her group appeared rather uncomfortable with this, but they still answered, "We will naturally follow your orders, Human Lord Su."

Su Yu nodded, "That'd better be the case."

Su Yu continued, "When I ask you to fight to the death, do it. When I call for a withdrawal, do it. When I tell you to self-detonate, do it. You may leave your sea of willpower behind. I'm not asking you to die. Just detonate your body. That will do. You can still come back from such damage."

"I hope everyone will truly follow my orders this time. Keep this in mind, Snow Orchid General, and the three of you."

Su Yu solemnly said, "I have killed my way from the Lower Realm to the Upper Realm. I have a perfect string of victories. I don't want to ruin my streak because of your disobedience. A defeat can very well result in death. Remember this."

Su Yu looked at Great Zhou King and said, "For the coming battle, luring our enemies out will be our first priority. Killing whoever we can will be the second priority. As for the third priority, we will make the myriad races believe that we have sustained heavy losses from this battle. When needed, detonate some of your characters to feign some death phenomena."

Great Zhou King nodded, "Don't worry. I'll do it properly."

Su Yu said, "Remember, I need you to feign death, not die for real."

He looked at Lan Tian and said, "Gather your clones up. Your strength will be weakened with them scattered everywhere."

Lan Tian said grudgingly, "What if all of them die? It's too dangerous to gather them all up."

Su Yu said, "You will survive. Don't you trust me? Have I ever failed before? Come on, get started now. In any case, your other clones will be exposed when you lose your main bodies anyway."

"Fine." Lan Tian grumbled, "I have to withdraw all my plants. What a waste of time and effort."

Great Zhou King suggested, "Perhaps we should skip this part? We can keep some of Lan Tian's clones in the Upper Realm to gather information for us."

Su Yu said, "There is no need for that. After this battle, we will pull back and focus on defending. Lan Tian will be far too weak with his clones scattered. That won't look right for the chaos lineage and the myriad races."

Great Zhou King had more to say, but ultimately, he decided not to argue since Su Yu seemed firm.

Su Yu said, "They have a Venerable with them. And that's a powerful Venerable. Fat Ball, can you handle their Venerable?"

While lazily swaying his tail about, Fat Ball asked anxiously, "Can I handle that Venerable?"

Su Yu chuckled and said, "You can do it. I trust you. Just stomp him to death with Culture King's shoe."

Fat Ball answered with resignation, "Fine."

Su Yu laughed and continued, "Fat Ball will handle the Venerable. As for the six heavenly kings, the seven heavenly kings on our side will handle them. Victory is already guaranteed. We also have nine tier-two Daofuses with us. They might have a lot of Daofuses, but nothing too worrying. We have plenty of Daofuses waiting to advance. They have about thirty Daofuses, but they only have three or four tier-two Daofuses."

Su Yu laughed and declared confidently, "We will give them a good fight. Heavenbridge Marquis will teleport us right to their base and we will kill some random Daofuses before focusing on their stronger experts. They will never see that coming."

Su Yu continued arrogantly, as though he had grown overconfident, "We will show our might through this battle. We will force them to seek reinforcements. If we can force them to call another Venerable over, we will consider this operation a success. The myriad races will come to learn just how powerful they are. This is also our chance to kill the required number of experts and redeem Giant Axe Marquis from the myriad races."

Everyone listened silently. Nobody doubted him. It sounded dangerous, but it also seemed absolutely doable. Fat Ball only needed to keep the Venerable busy, and the rest of them would have an advantage over the other enemies, even if they did not have the numerical superiority.

Even the weakest among them, September and Heavendoom, were tier-four Daofuses. Meanwhile, there were probably tier-five or even tier-six Daofuses among their enemies.

But Great Zhou King couldn't help but feel uneasy about the plan. He said, "Emperor Yu, are you certain they only have one Venerable there? We don't fear additional heavenly kings, but the addition of even one Venerable will be very dangerous. Even a weak Venerable is good enough to handle two heavenly kings. A strong Venerable is more than capable of handling five heavenly kings..."

Su Yu laughed and said, "Do you doubt my Heaven Gate? Nothing can hide from my Heaven Gate. They won't have more than one Venerable unless it's a new Venerable who has arrived while we're making our preparations. But the time is so short that it seems unlikely for that to happen."

He added, "Don't worry. Venerables are very rare. We won't encounter one so easily. If anything dangerous were to happen, I'd withdraw with everyone. Don't worry."

Heavendoom laughed, "We have full trust in you. This time, I'll try to kill a few experts. How am I supposed to advance without killing anyone? Remember to release me the moment the battle starts, Emperor Yu."

"Of course!" Su Yu said, "Definitely. Don't worry."

Nobody said anything else. Everyone was still fully confident. Everything was fine.

Su Yu stood up and said, "Heavenbridge."

"Here!"

As Heavenbridge Marquis stepped forth, Su Yu said, "I will give you a set of coordinates later and you'll teleport us over as fast as you can. I will handle the spatial fluctuations for you. Make sure to drop us down right above them."

"No problem." Heavenbridge Marquis said, "I attained my dao as a gate. No place is unreachable for me. The moment I become familiar with the Upper Realm, this place will be the same as my personal playground. I can go anywhere I want."

"Hahaha! A good goal to have!" Su Yu nodded and said, "Get ready, everyone. Remember, obey my orders."

Once again, Su Yu repeated himself. Great Qin King and the others believed that he was only saying that for the benefit of the four who had just joined them, so they were unbothered.

The rest of them were already used to operating under Su Yu's lead. They knew what to do even without all these reminders. As for whether the new guys would really obey him, that was none of their business.

However, Great Zhou King couldn't help glancing at Su Yu doubtfully. Why was he repeating himself so many times? If he was really so worried about the new guys, he should have left the new guys behind.

Entering a battle with allies he couldn't trust was the same as courting trouble. He couldn't understand what Su Yu was thinking. In Great Zhou King's opinion, they were being too rash. Their enemies wouldn't stay together forever. They would inevitably split up over time. It wasn't a good idea to face such a group of enemies head-on since the difference in the strength of both sides wasn't too big. Why should they face these enemies head-on? They still held the advantage of anonymity.

However, Su Yu did not doubt himself.

He sent Lan Tian a voice transmission, "Leave a clone behind. I'll keep that clone in the Mark of Civilization."

Lan Tian merely nodded without saying anything. Noticing Lan Tian's nod, Su Yu noiselessly removed the vine wrapped around his wrist and tossed it into the Mark of Civilization.

Then, he looked at the others. Most would obey him, but Heavendoom would probably go wild. With that in mind, he said, "Heavendoom, don't mess around. Withdraw the moment I call for it. I won't spare you if my plan is ruined because of you. You will embarrass the entire guardian faction."

Heavendoom's head emerged from one of the pages in the Mark of Civilization with a helpless expression and said, "Am I that terrible? That won't happen. I used to be a soldier as well. I was a soldier of the Spirit Suppression Army. I know how to obey my orders during combat! Emperor Yu, you're underestimating me too much!"

He had the expression of a wronged child as he said all that. He had no problem obeying orders. Why was Emperor Yu singling him out like this?

Su Yu chuckled and said, "Sure. Forget what I said. You're a soldier. You know what to do."

"Of course!"

Heavendoom started sulking. He didn't feel like saying much to Su Yu anymore. Had this guy forgotten how nice he was back when the guy was still weak? Why was this guy doubting him now?

Su Yu stopped talking. He had done all he could. He had repeated himself again and again. As long as they obeyed him, all of them might survive. Otherwise, the addition of one Venerable to the ranks of their enemies would be disastrous. Thus, these people had their fate in their own hands.

"Teleport."

The moment Heavenbridge Marquis received the coordinates, he started the teleportation process. With Xing Yu's token in hand, Su Yu suppressed the generated spatial fluctuations.

***

At the same time.

On a certain mountain.

A group of people had gathered around Yue Hao.

With a deep frown, Yue Hao said, "We need to withdraw. This place has been exposed. It is no longer a suitable forward outpost. We can switch to a different mountain."

An old woman frowned and said, "Yue Hao, we have just finished setting up our many formations here. It's a waste to withdraw from this place so soon. So what if this place is exposed?"

The old woman was the second Venerable in their group. That was why she had been addressing Yue Hao by his name directly.

She disagreed that this was something they should worry about. "You're saying that someone found us. Is it the Torchbearers? Even if they know we're here, would they dare to come? How strong are they? How many Venerables do they have? How many pseudo kings do they have?

"In fact, it isn't a bad thing for them to be courageous enough to come. They will be delivering their lives right into our hands. We're not that far away from our people. Even if they have two or three Venerables, they will lose as long as we can drag the battle out. They can never win."

Yue Hao inhaled deeply and said, "Don't forget the myriad race Venerables out there..."

"Will the myriad race Venerables act when everything is still so unclear? The Chaos Mountain is dangerous. They won't enter rashly..."

In her opinion, Yue Hao was being overly cautious.

She said, "At worst, we can invite the ancestor out and all danger will be swept away like nothing."

At that, Yue Hao frowned. "Yue Qin, you're wrong there. If a desperate battle does happen, the myriad races aren't that helpless. Furthermore, maintaining the current status quo is actually advantageous to us, and our advantage will only grow the longer we drag this out."

Yue Qin didn't know what to say anymore. Why was he so cowardly? Would the Torchbearers even dare to come? Why should they abandon this outpost for such a trivial reason? They had done a lot of work here, dumping a considerable amount of resources to this place.

Were they supposed to repeat this each time their new outpost was discovered? She didn't know what to say about that. Noticing that some of the people were unconvinced with his argument, Yue Hao frowned.

Then again, he also agreed that the Torchbearers wouldn't dare to come. However, one couldn't be too careful, right?

After all, the moment their outpost was found, their enemies would be the ones in the dark while they became the ones out in the open. The chaos lineage was more used to being the one in the dark. Thus, the idea of having the roles reversed gave him a sense of unease.

The enemies had spied on them several times. Toward the end, they were starting to do the spying openly. This was not a good thing. But it wouldn't be easy to convince these people that they needed to move. Yue Hao sank into thought. Should he insist?

Suddenly, he frowned. "Yue Qin, are you sensing the spatial fluctuations?"

The old woman rolled her eyes and asked, "Yue Hao, have you been working too hard recently?"

She sounded annoyed as she complained, "You are getting very paranoid about everything"

Mid-sentence, she blanked out. She could...feel some faint spatial fluctuations as well. The heavenly kings had yet to sense anything. Yue Hao was the first to sense something, followed by the old woman.

The two exchanged gazes. Yue Hao's heart thumped. No way...right? Yue Qin was greatly shocked. How was this possible?

"Enemy attack!"

With a roar, the two sent an attack into the air.

"Die!"

At the same time, the sky split open, revealing a gate. With a roar, Su Yu stabbed his pen forward.

"Die!"

With another roar, twenty-three experts emerged and attacked immediately. The white dog wastedno time and took Culture King's shoe out before stomping down at Yue Hao with it.

Boom!

The world shook as intense shockwaves rippled everywhere. A massive battle had erupted out of nowhere. It was so sudden that Yue Hao and the others couldn't even process their shock.

An attack? Just like that?

***

At the same time.

The entire Chaos Mountain shook.

Instantly, the auras of over sixty Daofuses surged into the sky.

Outer region of the Chaos Mountain.

The hearts of the Venerables thumped.

What was going on? Was that the Torchbearers? What madness was this? A head-on attack? So soon after their agreement? Was this faction really so brazen?

Heavenly Fate Marquis focused slightly before gasping in shock, "Three Venerables and thirteen pseudo kings."

That shocked everyone around him.

Venerable Desolate's expression changed as he exclaimed, "So many of them? Are the Torchbearers attacking with their full strength? Or is the chaos lineage using its full strength?"

"Or maybe both are still holding back."

Those words alarmed everyone.

Three Venerables, more than ten pseudo kings, and even more Daofuses. This was such a crazy number of super experts.

The myriad race Venerables were greatly shocked. They had only expected a small skirmish, but this...did not seem like a skirmish. The Torchbearers shouldn't have so many experts.

Thus, they were greatly shocked to learn about the number of experts involved in this clash. Just as they were about to suggest that this was an act, fireworks bloomed in the sky.

Dead.

The first Daofuse death of the day.

The battle had barely started.

"A desperate battle."

They looked at each other. This was definitely not an act. They were fighting seriously. One could say that this was a battle to the death. A Daofuse had died right after the battle began. None of the Venerables had expected the Torchbearers to be so decisive. They had only expected a small ambush or something similar.

"Die!"

"Fight with all you have! Death to all traitors! All Torchbearers shall die without regret! For the flame of humanity!"

A desperate wail spread everywhere.

Boom!

That was followed by a deafening rumble.

Suddenly, March flew toward the location of the ongoing battle. Before the other Venerables could protest, he said, "Take this chance to kill a few of them! Are we supposed to let go of such a great chance?"

The Venerables frowned slightly, but soon, they set off as well.

Since the Torchbearers had taken the initiative to start such a huge battle, this could be their chance to wipe everyone out. The Torchbearers and the chaos lineage were too strong, far surpassing the expectations of the myriad race Venerables.

Share