Published at 3rd of October 2026 6:14 am

Chapter 2304: Fake Smile (2)

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Su Yu raised his brow, "Severing her path just by killing some chaos beasts? Was Culture King underestimating her desire too much?"

Would Culture King be so simple-minded?

Human Emperor smiled helplessly and said, "Culture King was a lot more ruthless than me. He intended to get Control killed. If she took the chance to open the Earth Gate, Culture King would have an excuse to kill her. But Control knew it, so she did her job well and guarded the gate without stepping out of line."

Understanding dawned on Su Yu.

Tsk tsk.

Culture King was ruthless indeed.

They were old comrades-in-arms. It wouldn't be appropriate for him to attack directly. After all, Control King had not openly declared her desire to open the gates. And thus, Culture King, the old fisherman, sent Control King away to fish for a reason to kill.

But Control King was too smart to fall for that.

Eventually, Culture King was forced to leave before he could deal with Control King. And next, Control King was pulled back from guarding the Earth Gate.

Basically, this was entrapment on Culture King's part. How utterly ruthless. He showed no quarter even toward an old comrade-in-arms. In fact, that was his way of accounting for their past relationship. He would have attacked directly otherwise.

Su Yu was able to easily deduce all that from what Human Emperor told him. When he looked at Human Emperor, Human Emperor nodded, "Yes, that was indeed Culture King's plan."

He knew that Su Yu would understand what he was saying without really saying. With a smile, he said, "After all, we fought together for tens of thousands of years. Control was an old comrade-in-arms who had founded the empire alongside us. Thus, I ended her punishment after Culture King's departure."

Su Yu frowned, "But Control committed a lot of sin after that. Many lives were lost..."

"I know a bit about that."

Human Emperor shook his head, "Back then, she did not do anything drastic. Toward the end, our opinions differed. I wanted to drag the myriad races upstream and face the danger head-on. She wanted to withdraw behind the Earth Gate. I rejected her plan. When she protested, I personally sealed her behind the Earth Gate. I did not expect her to leave some arrangements behind. At the time, I did not pay too much attention to her people."

In truth, those arrangements were too minor to be worth his attention. Zhou Tian alone should be enough to deal with them. But instead, they spent so many years hiding. Before Great Zhou King could learn much about them, Hundred Battle King messed everything up for him.

Prior to that, Control King's lineage never dared to cause too much trouble.

Su Yu reached the same conclusion and said, "In short, Great Zhou King was too unreliable. He trusted Hundred Battle and lost everything."

"Hundred Battle..." Human Emperor had never seen Hundred Battle King. But he smiled and said, "There must be a reason for him to catch Zhou Tian's eye. But according to you, he cultivated the Human Gate. Perhaps his mind was influenced by that."

Su Yu exclaimed, "Can the three gates influence us?"

"Yes." Human Emperor nodded, "There are only some ancient beasts behind the Earth Gate, so the influence of the Earth Gate isn't that big of a deal. At most, some of the beasts can escape through the cultivated Earth Gate. I don't know the Human Gate too well. It is too mysterious. As for the Heaven Gate..."

He chuckled and said, "The Heaven Gate can influence its cultivator as well. Of course, its influence isn't that big on you since you're only utilizing it as a dao viewer and nothing else. That's a good way of utilizing it."

Su Yu blinked and asked, "Your Majesty, are you saying that I'm...wasting the potential of my Heaven Gate?"

"Is that not the case?"

Human Emperor laughed. He could see that with a single gaze.

He said, "If you know the proper way of utilizing the Heaven Gate, it shouldn't look like this. The three gates share one ability: sealing. Generally, it is capable of sealing any powerhouse at the same level of cultivation. Can your Heaven Gate seal a tier-two?"

Uhm...no. Su Yu had never used it that way. All along, he had only used his Heaven Gate to observe the dao.

Human Emperor continued, "First, Heaven Gate can be used to seal. Second, it can be used to borrow power. Can you do that?'

Su Yu blinked again. Nope. How was he supposed to do that?

"Basically, some of the beings behind the Heaven Gate might cultivate a similar dao as yours. In that situation, you can borrow some of their strength."

Basically, it was somewhat similar to the Book of Time.

But Su Yu instantly noted the disadvantage of this practice. "Won't this allow the power of the other party to seep out of the gate? Eventually, that being might be able to even take control over the borrower."

"Exactly." Human Emperor nodded, "Therefore, it's not a bad thing that you don't know it."

Su Yu gasped, "No, that's not right. You mean that if I borrow too much power, the other party might be able to send a projection or something out of the gate through me, right?"

"Yes."

Su Yu grimaced, "Isn't this perfect for fishing? In the past, there was a need to worry about opening the Heaven Gate accidentally. But that is no longer a concern now, right? This is perfect! You need to teach me this method, Your Majesty!"

Su Yu grew excited. "I will borrow their strength, and they will send their projection over through me. Or they might even emerge personally. Tsk tsk...Imagine catching a few tier-twos through this method...or even a tier-one! It's not like we stand no chance against tier-ones! Was this what Martial Emperor did?"

Uhm...

Human Emperor was left speechless. Damn it! Sure enough, this was a scumbag! A scoundrel!

He smiled. Instead of advising against it, he said, "Nothing is certain about this. Things might still get very dangerous if you somehow connect to a supremely powerful being while borrowing power. You might even lose your body to willpower possession. Of course, that isn't that big of a worry, as the chances are minuscule. For the most part, nothing beyond the second tier can get through the gate before it opens fully. And tier-twos are no threat."

It almost sounded like he was bluffing, but he was strong enough to say that despite his injuries.

"Back then, this was a bad idea as we didn't want to give the Heaven Gate even a tiny bit of opportunity."

Only now did Su Yu realize that the Heaven Gate could do so much more.

Human Emperor continued, "The Heaven Gate can do more things, but you need to discover them yourself. Your usage of the Heaven Gate is limited, but that isn't a bad thing."

Su Yu inhaled deeply and nodded.

Perhaps.

No wonder he felt like his Heaven Gate was less impressive than the Human Gate and Earth Gate. He had only been using it to observe daos. He had not explored its other functions. Then again, that was understandable. Before this, Martial Emperor was the only person with the Heaven Gate apart from Su Yu himself. And Martial Emperor was certainly not the type to share his knowledge.

"Therefore, you mean that Hundred Battle might have been influenced by the Human Gate?"

"That's not surprising." Human Emperor seemed unbothered.

Su Yu added, "He seemed to have lost his courage after witnessing Human Ancestor's dao weapon."

Human Emperor considered it and said, "It must have been a stacked influence. But the Human Gate had probably played a bigger role in that. He must have been influenced by the Human Gate before he was exposed to Human Ancestor's influence. Such a person…"

After a slight hesitation, Human Emperor said bluntly, "Is quite worthless. So be it. It doesn't matter anymore. Someone incapable of resisting even a tiny bit of willpower influence would never amount to much. Someone truly capable would not be affected."

And then, he stared at Su Yu silently. Did the kid get it? Someone truly capable. Someone like him. Hundred Battle was influenced, signifying that he was mere trash. Would this kid feel inferior after hearing that even the great Hundred Battle was mere trash?

However, Su Yu merely nodded matter-of-factly, "That makes sense. Hundred Battle was trash. Influenced by Human Gate's projection? Worthless. Even if the original three gates were standing right before me, I would smash them all apart before feeding them to Heavenbridge. Then, I would lock those who were disobedient, yet I didn't feel like killing behind Heavenbridge.

"In truth, I believe that the three gates are useless. What's the point of sealing things away? Just kill all your enemies. Why make things so complicated?"

He grinned and asked, "Am I right, Your Majesty?"

"..."

Human Emperor was left speechless. There was some sense to those words, but something seemed off about how the kid was looking at him. It felt as though the kid was telling him that nobody would be spared if they were disobedient, including Human Emperor himself.

This was truly no pushover! But next, Human Emperor chuckled. Perhaps this was a good thing. He could already see that this was an unruly and unconventional human lord.

Su Yu laughed as well. Human Emperor was a fountain of knowledge. He very much enjoyed this conversation with Human Emperor. Many of his questions had been answered. After rearranging his thoughts, he returned to the present, "Your Imperial Majesty, do you have any standing plans against the myriad races?"

"The myriad races..." After a short silence, Human Emperor continued, "Yes. But it might not work."

"Tell me about it."

Su Yu wasn't here to go through the motions. He was truly here to win the fight. He wanted to hear about Human Emperor's plan.

"We need to take risks." Human Emperor said, "We can simply wait. Wait until we drift back to the Myriad Realms naturally. The three gates will open, and the world will be thrown into chaos. The myriad races and we will be too busy to care about each other. Of course, the myriad races might eventually submit to the forces behind the three gates. That would be disastrous for us."

Su Yu shook his head, "I'm not keen on waiting."

That was not a good choice. If he were willing to wait, he wouldn't have bothered coming upstream. Human Emperor chuckled. He expected this. Sure enough, this little shit was not someone who was willing to stay idle.

"The second plan is...take a risky gamble." Human Emperor said, "The myriad races are actually quite cowardly. They lack the courage to fight with their lives on the line. But their courage will grow exponentially when something happens to me. Thus, I need to bet on their courage.

"We have benefited from their cowardice, as we only lasted so many years because of that. But it is also a bad thing, as most tricks and traps are ineffective against them since they will simply refuse to step forward."

In short, cowardice could be helpful at times. It wasn't like Human Emperor had never tried setting up traps for them. But what could he do when they simply refused to step forth? Was he supposed to launch a decisive attack or something?

Su Yu's eyes flickered as he said, "Your Majesty, do you mean that we lure the myriad races in with the fact that you're heavily injured?"

"Yes!" Human Emperor smiled, "Normally, they won't have the courage to believe in something like this. But it has been too many years since I last fought. My projection has been floating there staring at them for many years. They are starting to suspect that something has happened to me, but they lack an opportunity to make a move. They need this opportunity to find their courage."

Su Yu smiled as well. "So how do you plan to reel them in this time? What will be our goal for this plan? What will our ultimate goal be? How should we do it? Do you mind telling me?"

Human Emperor looked at Su Yu and sank into contemplation.

After a while, he said, "You need to understand that the myriad races aren't stupid. The moment I do this, they will understand that I am truly heavily injured. The moment our trap fails, the burden on you will be far heavier than you can imagine.

"As for our goal, it's simple. Kill some people to weaken their overall strength. Equalize the strength of the two sides with the lowest price possible. Weaken them enough that by the time we drift back to the Myriad Realms, they will no longer be able to defeat us."

"What, exactly, is the plan?" Su Yu asked.

Human Emperor smiled, "Lure them deep into our lines, separate them, and eliminate them."

Luring them over.

Su Yu sank into thought. After a while, he said, "It won't be easy for me to lie in wait while they're being lured in. Am I supposed to hide under the water?"

As for the way to lure the enemies in, Su Yu rubbed his chin and suggested, "If you're willing to take a risk...I have a much simpler method. The myriad races won't dare to fully believe that you're heavily injured. But you can make them believe. For example, a badly damaged body can return for a final fight just to eliminate their strongest powerhouses.

"When the myriad races learn of that, they will definitely separate into two groups. One to eliminate your physical body and the other to eliminate your sea of willpower."

It wasn't actually hard to separate the myriad races. It merely depended on Human Emperor's risk tolerance. The separation of the physical body and sea of willpower signified that their union would allow him to kill tier-ones. The myriad races would naturally try to remove him before he could unite his body and willpower.

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