Published at 29th of October 2026 6:01 am

Chapter 2356: Living In Memories (3)

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When King Yue opened his mouth to argue, Human Emperor smiled and said, "It's fine. Everyone can see your courage. I heard that you guarded the opening for a hundred thousand years after devouring your dao. Sigh. I failed you. I won't be able to stop feeling this guilt if you continue following me."

King Yue said, "I did not fight for you. But we are fellow comrades-in-arms. Someone must stay behind and watch the rear in battle. I was only doing my duty."

Human Emperor did not say more. He knew how King Yue returned. And he did not want to get into a conflict with the petty Su Yu for something this minor. When his gaze landed on the book spirit, his expression turned odd, but he said nothing. Finally, his gaze landed on Great Zhou King, who was looking down with shame.

Great Zhou King had failed to complete the task given to him by Human Emperor.

Human Emperor gave Great Zhou King a long stare before sighing, "I heard about what you did. You didn't perform too well, but you didn't fail. You managed to keep humanity around long enough for Su Yu to emerge. It has been hard for you. You have sacrificed so much watching over my body over the years..."

Great Zhou King's head was still lowered as he said with shame, "I can't face Your Majesty. Because of me, the Torchbearers are no more."

He sighed and continued, "If it weren't for Emperor Yu's rise, I would have been too ashamed to see you again, Your Majesty."

To the side, Su Yu merely enjoyed the show with a smile. Human Emperor said nothing. He patted Great Zhou King's shoulder with complicated emotions. How had this leader of his secret guard performed?

Nobody could say for sure. It wasn't actually a success since Great Zhou King had failed to remove the restriction and send reinforcements upstream even after a hundred thousand years.

But it wasn't actually a failure either since humanity had survived long enough for Su Yu to appear. The Torchbearers were in charge of ensuring the continuity of humanity. Strictly speaking, Great Zhou King had completed his mission.

He had wasted a hundred thousand years of his life for this mission. It wouldn't be appropriate for Human Emperor to complain about his accomplishment after such a huge sacrifice.

Great Zhou King had complicated feelings about this. He had countless words to say, but he didn't know how to say them. After a long silence, he said, "Your Majesty, I failed, but I also didn't fail."

He smiled and continued, "I failed to lead the required reinforcements upstream. But I did one right thing over the past hundred thousand years..."

At that, he turned to look at Su Yu before carefully saying, "I produced a grand-student, or great grand-student. This great grand-student is quite impressive."

Human Emperor blinked before looking at Su Yu.

Su Yu remained completely expressionless. Was that the case?

Somewhat.

He knew. He had long guessed the truth.

Not far away, Wan Tiansheng walked over and gave Great Zhou King a long stare before asking, "Are you finally admitting to it?"

Great Zhou King looked awkward. He wanted to smile, but he couldn't bring himself to smile.

And as Su Yu stared at him silently, his awkwardness grew. After a while, he coughed and said, "Back then...back then...I tried to produce some powerhouses through the crisis...and...and...I succeeded..."

Su Yu said, "Yes, you succeeded. But you ruined the life of my Teacher Liu. This is one of the reasons I keep making things difficult for you. You understand this. Your guilt is why you have been so reluctant to admit this. Now that you're standing before Human Emperor, you're feeling confident since you believe you finally have a backer. Is this why you're finally speaking the truth?"

After a short silence, Great Zhou King said, "Back then, I believed that Liu Wenyan was the hope...but...I did not expect that..."

Su Yu asked, "Why were you so scared of admitting the truth?"

Great Zhou King said bitterly, "It...went wrong. I...was too ashamed to admit it. I had been keeping a close watch over Control King's lineage, but Fiery Sea took advantage of my distraction..."

"Took advantage of your distraction?" Su Yu said, "Are you sure? Perhaps you believed that Liu Family's extermination might be the correct factor to trigger the rise of Teacher Liu. Alas, he stumbled instead of rising. Were you disappointed?"

Great Zhou King sank into silence. At that point, the smart ones could already guess what they were talking about. As for the less bright ones, they remained confused. More and more people gathered around them.

Some were not in a position to say anything about this matter. Some were. One of them said, "In short, Great Zhou King is my so-called martial uncle. Is that so?"

Xia Longwu's saber qi surged out as he continued, "Is there a point in going that far?"

Great Zhou King sank into silence.

Wan Tiansheng sneered and said, "Of course there is a point. For him, we're nothing. As long as he can produce a true powerhouse, the process does not matter. He only cares about the result, not the process."

Wan Tiansheng said with a cold voice, "A single Ye Batian threw the world into chaos for over fifty years. Humanity would have been at peace without Ye Batian. The myriad races would not have targeted humanity so much. Everyone would happily wait for the connection to the Upper Realm to be restored. But Ye Batian's appearance changed everything. But a true hero can only be produced in a crisis. Am I right?"

His eyes turned colder as he said, "You could have denied this until the very end. I could keep pretending that Ye Batian is dead. But since you have admitted the truth, you need to pay for what you did."

Great Zhou King said nothing.

Wan Tiansheng stopped briefly to breathe before continuing, "The impact on me doesn't matter. The impact on the others doesn't matter either. Your cruel methods to grow the multiple character faction can also be forgiven. But tell me. Did Fiery Sea really lose his mind himself? Or was that triggered by you?"

Great Zhou King answered solemnly, "I did nothing to him. At the time, Control King's lineage was trying to spread their influence among humanity. I wouldn't trigger the betrayal of a human Eternal during such a time." "Without the Torchbearers around, I couldn't take control of everything. Fiery Sea was an unforeseen variable..."

"Hmph!" Wan Tiansheng snorted, "That does not make sense. You need to understand that Ye Batian was first ambushed by Fiery Sea. Since you're Ye Batian, you should know about Fiery Sea's change long ago. Liu Family's extermination only happened after. Don't tell me that you remained unaware of Fiery Sea's betrayal even after his ambush."

Great Zhou King sighed and said, "I knew about his betrayal, but I was keeping him for you..."

"Hmph!" Once again, Wan Tiansheng snorted. With a sneer, he said, "Before this, you refused to admit this. But now, you're admitting it out of nowhere. You clearly know that both His Majesty and I won't pursue the matter so long as you remain silent about it. So why are you admitting to it now?

"Ye Batian could have remained in our memories as a bright talent who had died in the hands of a traitor. But you shattered that fantasy for all of us. What are you trying to do?

"Are you trying to prove that you have actually succeeded? Because His Majesty rose to power after joining the multiple character faction? Are you trying to claim the credit for this accomplishment?"

With this, everyone finally understood what they were talking about. Or to be precise, those on Su Yu's side all understood. As for those on Human Emperor's side, they had heard about Ye Batian as well. And now, all of them were listening with odd expressions.

The legendary Ye Batian was also the culprit who had thrown humanity into numerous crises for the past fifty years. Then again, he was also someone who had contributed greatly to humanity.

Without the chaos triggered by Ye Batian, the Upper Realm would probably open at around the same time Human Emperor and the others returned. At that point, Su Yu would no longer have any room to grow.

From the perspective of the big picture, Great Zhou King had succeeded. But from the perspective of the ones actually involved, Great Zhou King was hateful. Clearly, he had decided to take a radical approach after sinking into desperation about fifty years ago.

Regardless of the process, the fifty years of chaos had indeed produced someone like Su Yu.

Su Yu wouldn't have emerged in a peaceful time. People like Wan Tiansheng and the others wouldn't have emerged. It was true that heroes would only emerge when the world was in chaos.

Once again, Great Zhou King sank into silence. After a long while, he said, "I'm not trying to prove that I did the right thing. In truth, I only wish to present the truth to both Human Emperor and Emperor Yu."

He pretended to be Ye Batian...no, it would be more accurate to say that he had created the persona of Ye Batian. He wasn't wrong in doing so as his ultimate goal had been achieved. As far as Su Yu was concerned, the only wrong he did was the sacrifice of Liu Wenyan's family.

But for many, that was a worthy sacrifice to produce someone like Su Yu. Otherwise, more would die. Everyone sank into silence. It wasn't appropriate for them to say anything about this matter.

With a sigh, Human Emperor said, "This is a result of my arrangements..."

He had to take the blame for this.

"I will give you and your teacher a satisfactory answer..."

Su Yu said, "There is no need for that."

Human Emperor said, "Su Yu, I understand that—"

Su Yu cut Human Emperor off with a wave of his hand before looking at Great Zhou King. After a long stare, he said, "You're saying all that right after you're here. I believe there is a deeper reason for that. Be honest and say what's in your mind."

Great Zhou King sank into a long silence. Finally, he faced Human Emperor and dropped down on one knee. "Your Majesty, I have completed the task you assigned me back then. Emperor Yu is here. It has been a hundred thousand years. With the completion of my mission, I wish to...take this chance to...resign from the Torchbearers...and the imperial court..."

With a complicated expression, Human Emperor said, "You..."

Great Zhou King said, "Your Majesty...I believe...perhaps...Emperor Yu's court is more suitable for the present me."

Human Emperor sighed, "You...true. I gave you a difficult task..."

He looked at Su Yu and said, "Place the blame on me. When the war is over, I will give you an answer for all that."

"It's fine." Su Yu looked at Great Zhou King and said, "I can't be bothered to go on and on about this matter. You can talk to my Teacher Liu about this instead. Ye Batian...heh."

Su Yu curled his lips and said, "Do you think my Teacher Liu is completely clueless about this? He has his guesses as well. When your identity as the leader of the Torchbearers was exposed, when the secret about how you had secretly pushed for the rise of Great Qin King and the others was exposed, my Teacher Liu started suspecting the truth as well.

"He has merely been unwilling to bicker about this. The death of his teacher had remained the knot in his heart. But since his teacher isn't dead, the knot has naturally vanished."

Great Zhou King didn't know what to say.

He had spoken the truth because he wanted to tell Human Emperor that his mission was over. He wanted to leave the imperial court and join Su Yu's court instead. Was this his way of paying for what he did?

Su Yu did not know. He didn't want to know. He did not want to get involved in this matter. This was a matter between Great Zhou King and Liu Wenyan.

Wan Tiansheng sneered and said, "So be it. The relationship between us is long over. If you were dead, I don't mind calling you my senior brother. Since you're not dead, you're nothing. I can't be bothered to waste more time on you."

Great Zhou King had a bitter expression. He knew that the moment his identity was exposed, the smart ones like Su Yu and the others would be able to guess the truth. But everyone had somehow reached an unspoken agreement to be silent about it. And now, Great Zhou King became the one to speak up.

He had complicated feelings. He had completed his mission. In fact, one could argue that he had performed beyond expectations. But...he had still wronged some people in the process.

After suppressing the emotions he was feeling, Su Yu said, "Enough. I'll pretend I don't know this. My great grandteacher can remain a hero in my heart. Nothing else is related to me. You're not my great grandteacher, Great Zhou King. Don't even dream of trying to get close to me through this method."

Great Zhou King nodded bitterly and said nothing. That wasn't even what he was trying to do. He only wanted to make things clear. It felt rather uncomfortable to have everyone know the truth yet pretend not to know anything. This was one of the reasons why Su Yu had been causing trouble for him endlessly.

Behind Su Yu, everyone had odd expressions. However, nobody said anything since it was inappropriate. Even Heavendoom and Heavenbridge were keeping silent about this. Strictly speaking, this was an internal conflict of the multiple character faction.

In truth, some of them were already suspecting the truth. However, nobody had said anything since it was inappropriate.

After all, with someone like Great Zhou King around, it was unlikely that a talented genius like Ye Batian, one with the potential to inherit Culture King's legacy, to die to a traitor like Fiery Sea. It did not make any sense.

The story made some sense before Great Zhou King's identity was exposed. But it made zero sense after his identity was exposed.

If one focused, one would notice that almost all the recent top talents of humanity had survived. That was all thanks to Great Zhou King. As such, how would the most talented of them all die under his watch? Something was definitely fishy with Ye Batian's death.

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