Beating the Disobedient Ones

All twenty-seven guardians had advanced to the ninth stage. Before departing, he had provoked the Martial Emperor a little. Su Yu would have liked nothing better than to drive the fellow completely mad. Now that the guy was lucid, he had even learned how to rile Su Yu up. If you want to fight, let's fight—who's afraid of whom? "Hah!" Stepping out of the teleportation array, Su Yu let out a cold sneer. The Martial Emperor... was formidable indeed. But wait until he actually got out! As long as he remained trapped, who feared him? The guardians and monarchs around him had no idea what Su Yu had just done. At that moment, they were all rather perplexed; Su Yu looked as though he was feeling triumphant, yet also somewhat disgruntled. How complicated! Hetu paid no heed to this and asked quickly, "Your Majesty, now that Shanqi and the others have advanced, are we going to wage war on the Northern King?" In their current state, defeating the Northern King was a certainty. The only question was how heavy the casualties would be. Su Yu had waited for all the guardians to advance precisely to wipe out the enemy without incurring losses, but in battle, no one could predict the outcome with total certainty. Su Yu remained silent, glancing toward the nearby Dead Spirit Heavenly River. He had already sensed danger. Su Yu was no fool. He naturally knew dead spirit marquises had appeared within the river, likely biding their time. The moment battle broke out with the Northern King, those fellows might surge forth to reap easy gains. Just how many there were remained unclear. "Move!" Su Yu offered no further explanation. First head over! In an instant, the group flew across toward the far side of the Dead Spirit Heavenly River, their powerful auras roiling. Beneath the surface of the river, dead spirit marquises were indeed watching them. Su Yu caught vague traces of their presence and sneered inwardly. *You want to take advantage of me?* *Keep dreaming!* Amidst the crowd, Hetu received a sound transmission and swiftly peeled away, flying toward Hongmeng City. …… The Northern King grew increasingly uneasy! Damn it all—after just this short while, he felt as though Su Yu had returned! The Northern King shot into the air, looking toward the Dead Spirit Heavenly River region of the Northern King Domain. Soon, his expression shifted, and he muttered, "Guardians!" He seemed to see those guardians! At that moment, the other dead spirit marquises flew out one after another, all staring in that direction. In the distance, a golden light flickered—it was Su Yu! The dead spirit marquises paled. Su Yu had brought the guardians here? The Northern King quickly said in a low voice, "Don't worry! Tianmie and the other Dao Integration guardians haven't come, and Hongmeng won't leave either. Only some Eternal guardians have arrived!" Don't be afraid! He placated the dead spirit marquises: don't worry, it'll be fine. Yet his own unease had spiked to the extreme! The guardians—this group of guardians seemed somewhat stronger than before. Though they were no match for a Dao Integration expert individually, several joining hands could hold off one Dao Integration expert. This was major trouble! Had Su Yu lost his mind? He had taken away all these guardians without fearing that the outside world would notice? Or could it be... that the idiots outside had had their guardians swapped by Su Yu without even knowing? That was the only possibility he could conceive! Otherwise, it was virtually impossible for so many guardians to leave at once. *We might have to flee!* The Northern King understood the situation in his heart, feeling helpless and aggrieved. If all else failed, he would just flee. Once Su Yu arrived with his forces, fleeing would become difficult. He wasn't the only one thinking this; the other dead spirit marquises were no fools either. At this moment, similar thoughts crossed all their minds. Far away, Su Yu's booming voice reverberated through heaven and earth: "Are you still attempting stubborn resistance? As for executing rebels, my previous words still stand! Northern King, disperse your Dao now and you still have a chance. Once we strike, you will die without question!" The booming declaration echoed across the Northern King Domain. Within the domain, all the sentient monarchs were terrified. From the other side, the Southern King's icy voice rang out, "Northern King, will you not surrender yet? Do you wish to be executed?" At this moment, the Northern King felt as though he had reached the end of the line! He glanced at the dead spirit marquises beside him, then down at the monarchs below. In truth, he still had a chance. Flee now! The Southern King would have trouble catching him. He could flee to the Dead Spirit Heavenly River, or even to the Land of Guixu. Given his strength, he wouldn't necessarily come to harm even if he fled to the Land of Guixu. Su Yu had never intended to fight a bloody war of attrition with him; he merely wanted to use overwhelming military might to force a surrender, or sweep through the Northern King Residence with supreme posture to minimize his own casualties. Should he flee? Abandon the Northern King Residence he had built over countless years, only to become an ignorant dead spirit wandering the wilderness once again? In life, it had been like that. Must it be like that in death as well? The Northern King looked toward the Dead Spirit Heavenly River and suddenly laughed. "Su Yu!" The Northern King's laughter shook the sky. "In the end, you are nothing but a weakling! You can rely on the Southern King to suppress me, but you cannot suppress the world! Sooner or later, this world will rebel! In ancient days, when the Human Sovereign, King Wen, and King Wu walked the world, who dared disobey wherever they went?" "You... are simply too weak in the end. Be it the living or the dead, who willingly submits to you?" "No matter how many helpers and allies you have, you cannot conceal the fact that you yourself are weak!" "The stronger your forces, the more entertaining it will be when the backlash hits!" "Even if you defeat me, you cannot win this world!" The Northern King laughed heartily. He sensed the violent turbulence in the Dead Spirit Heavenly River. After all, he was one of the apex powerhouses on the Dead Spirit Dao, and he could tell that a vast number of powerhouses in the Dead Spirit Heavenly River were eager to emerge. Not just him—the Southern King sensed it too, her expression changing slightly. The Northern King bellowed with laughter! He roared fiercely, "Powerhouses of the Dead Spirit Heavenly River! The human race desires to unite the myriad heavens once more—anyone who refuses to submit will die! If you still possess intellect, you should know that when the lips are gone, the teeth are cold! If I die, will any of you in the Heavenly River have the strength to stand against them?" "Only by joining forces can we deter the human race, or even wipe them out!" The Northern King saw an opportunity—a chance of survival. He could not wait. Waiting until his side was slaughtered and then letting those fools come out to scavenge would be idiocy; that would merely feed Su Yu and his subordinates piece by piece! Mid-flight, Su Yu glanced back at the Dead Spirit Heavenly River. Within the river, pairs of eyes seemed to surface, watching in their direction. Su Yu sighed inwardly! Plans never kept up with changes! There were too many variables. These fellows simply refused to be subdued, suppressed, or slain in an orderly fashion. They just had to stir up some nonsense before they'd be satisfied! In the distance, the Northern King shouted furiously once more, "Do you in the river still fail to grasp the situation? The Eastern King is dead, the Western King is dead, and now it is my turn! If I am slain, even if one or two Heavenly Kings and dozens of dead spirit marquises emerge from among you, you will share the exact same fate!" "My greatest regret is that I did not join forces with the Eastern King and the others back then to eliminate the Southern King beforehand!" He roared for a time. Indeed, he felt some regret. He did not regret rebelling; he regretted that he had taken things too lightly back then and had not wiped out the Southern King. Back then, he should have joined forces with the Western King, the Western King's Consort, and the Eastern King's Consort to kill the Southern King, and then kill Hongmeng, rather than sitting around waiting to die like this! "Are you done shouting?" Su Yu gave a cold snort. The Northern King sneered back, "Today, you cannot kill me! Su Yu, dare to strike, and powerhouses from the Heavenly River will surely come to my aid!" "I waited until now only because I didn't want to squander the lives of the experts under my command without cause!" Su Yu wore a stony expression. He had waited until now not because he couldn't take down the Northern King, but because he hoped to keep casualties to a minimum. Instead, those fellows in the Dead Spirit Heavenly River wanted to make trouble. He could already sense several dead spirit marquis auras emerging behind him. Evidently, the powerhouses in the Heavenly River were aware of the situation and also wanted to join forces with the Northern King to intimidate Su Yu's faction. "Since they're already reviving, I'd like to see just how many powerhouses can awaken in that river!" The plan had been flawless, yet they wouldn't behave. Since it has come to this, go ahead and keep reviving! Worst case, turn this entire place into a chaotic mess! "Be good and hide in the Heavenly River, and there might still be a path to survival. I hope you don't seek your own destruction!" With a cold huff, Su Yu flew toward the Northern King once more. The Northern King looked grave. "Su Yu, do you insist on mutual destruction?" "So what if it's mutual destruction?" The baleful aura on Su Yu surged abruptly. He sneered, "Giving you face, and you take it for weakness? I've fought battles of mutual destruction more than once! This time, I merely wanted to smoothly flatten your Northern King Residence. You have enormous audacity—I gave you opportunities, and you squandered them time and time again!" Ferocity erupted across Su Yu's face. In the next moment, he barked, "Southern King, tie him down at all costs! Spirit Subduing Army, charge with me!" The Spirit Subduing Army was momentarily stunned, because Su Yu had turned right around and dashed away. He ran? Even the Northern King froze. But Su Yu tore through the void in an instant, shuttling through empty space to arrive at the Dead Spirit Heavenly River in a flash. He let out a low cry: "Die!" A brush stroke sweeping through heaven and earth! Stupid dead spirits, hovering near the surface of the Dead Spirit Heavenly River with your Great Dao fluctuations—did you take me for blind? Did you think my Heavenly Gate was opened for nothing? That I couldn't see you at all? Playing hide-and-seek with me? I'll butcher you first! Su Yu's roar resounded in all directions: "Southern King, pin them down at all costs! Once I've swept through the Dead Spirit Heavenly River, I'll return to assist you!" Only now did the Southern King snap back to her senses, and the Northern King as well. Both were thoroughly shaken! Has he gone mad?! Su Yu... actually led the Spirit Subduing Army to actively attack the Dead Spirit Heavenly River! *Boom!* Turning around without warning, Su Yu launched an immediate ambush. Without even looking down at the river, he pinpointed a dead spirit marquis. In the void, a gigantic brush spanned heaven and earth, jabbing downward with a sharp crack! On the Dead Spirit Dao, an integrated Dao was struck by this abrupt brush stroke, nearly snapped in half! In the river, death qi burst out in an instant as half of a dead spirit marquis's Dao body suddenly shattered. Drowning in utter bewilderment: *How did he find me?* Little did he know that in Su Yu's eyes, these dead spirits were like torches in the dark. Too conspicuous! The likes of you dare ambush me? Dare hope to scavenge? What were you thinking?! The single brush stroke had nearly severed the opponent's Dao. This sudden, lethal strike left the lurking scout of a dead spirit marquis severely wounded in a fraction of a second! In the next heartbeat, Su Yu shuttled through the void directly above. The Human Lord Seal emerged and slammed down with a deafening rumble, suppressing the void! The moment that dead spirit marquis was grievously wounded, the brush transformed into a saber, executing the Heaven-Cleaving Slash! *Boom!* It happened so blindingly fast—so fast that the Northern King's forces had not even engaged, and Shanqi and the others had not caught up. With one brush strike, one seal strike, and one saber strike—three swift moves—Su Yu slaughtered a dead spirit marquis right on the spot! *Boom!* The explosion echoed along the Heavenly River! The civilization chronicle swept across. In that instant, all non-Eternal dead spirits across this stretch of the Dead Spirit Heavenly River vanished at once, swallowed by the civilization chronicle. Even the corpse of the dead spirit marquis was swept up and collected by Su Yu in a single motion. In an instant, this reach of the Heavenly River went silent! Not a sound remained! Tens of thousands of dead spirits vanished in an instant. Only at this moment did everyone finally process what had happened, waking up with faces full of shock. A dead spirit marquis died? This... was too fast. Su Yu had actually ignored the Northern King and actively charged into the Dead Spirit Heavenly River! It was unbelievable! Even the Northern King froze in disbelief. *Fuck, this lunatic—he picked a fight with the Dead Spirit Heavenly River on his own initiative!* How was that possible?! …… The impossible was precisely what he wanted! Rather than guarding against them, striking preemptively was superior. Having already sensed their presence, why would Su Yu ever give them a chance to backstab him? He was no fool. What was more, in the next instant, an enormous Old Turtle tore through the void. "Emperor Yu..." The Old Turtle called out, bewildered and surprised. War with the dead spirits in the Heavenly River? This was not in the plan! "Have King Daqin and the others arrived?" "Standing by on call..." Su Yu barked, "Have them all enter! Doesn't reviving take time for dead spirits? As long as we kill faster than they can revive, I won't let a single one in this damned place awaken!" The moment those words were spoken, living auras suddenly erupted in the distance! *Rumble!* King Daqin and the others charged in! Opening his Heavenly Gate, Su Yu linked the Old Turtle's eyes with his own. The turtle seemed to see line after line. Su Yu roared, "Every line you see connects directly to a dead spirit marquis! Go and kill! Pinpoint and slaughter! Doesn't the Dead Spirit Heavenly River rely purely on stealth and concealment? Are they truly that formidable? I, Su Yu, don't believe it! Kill them all!" "Understood!" In an instant, King Daqin and the others entered. The entire Dead Spirit Heavenly River churned violently as countless dead spirits were stimulated, beginning to awaken. Yet as Su Yu had declared, as long as they killed faster than the powerhouses could revive, there was nothing to fear! The Old Turtle shuttled across the void, appearing along one of the lines. He hadn't actually sensed a powerhouse here. Yet having been endowed with some traits of Su Yu's Heavenly Gate, he saw the line. He cast aside his doubts—trusting Su Yu was enough! Without a second thought, his turtle shell transformed into a mountain, crushing downward! In the river below, only weak dead spirits were visible; even now he had not laid eyes on any powerful entity, but that didn't stop him from placing his faith in Su Yu. This strike was delivered with full force! *Boom!* With a colossal blast, the Great Dao quaked, and a dead spirit marquis shot outward—only for its dead spirit body to be crushed into pieces by the Old Turtle's mountain, leaving only its Dao body fleeing! The Old Turtle was stunned! *Holy shit!* *He was really here?!* This was terrifying! The Dead Spirit Heavenly River's greatest asset was its mystery and unpredictability, the fact that no one knew what terrifying dead spirit powerhouses lurked below. Unfortunately, at this moment, these powerhouses were all preparing to strike, their Great Daos actively connected. Alternatively, they could remain completely dormant without stirring their Daos, but in that case, they wouldn't be primed for an instantaneous attack. Shocked though he was, the Old Turtle was a top-tier powerhouse! With the dead spirit marquis grievously wounded and its position locked onto, how could it possibly match him? The turtle-shell mountain came crashing down once more! *Boom!* The fleeing dead spirit marquis was pulverized directly beneath the mountain! The Great Dao trembled! Never had the Old Turtle felt slaying a dead spirit marquis could be so easy. In the distance, Su Yu continuously channeled the Heavenly Gate, casting miniature Heavenly Gates above the heads of each arriving guardian and onto the foreheads of King Daqin and the others. "Wherever you see a line, a powerhouse lurks! Kill without exception!" "Understood!" King Daqin and the others instantly saw numerous lines. Without needing Su Yu to say another word, they scattered in all directions in the blink of an eye. Across the Dead Spirit Heavenly River, a massive war erupted! *Rumble!* Dead spirit marquises flew out continuously, filled with shock and incomprehension. What was going on? In an instant, Su Yu and the Old Turtle had each slain a dead spirit marquis before anyone could react. Partly it was that Su Yu was unimaginably daring to lead forces straight into the Dead Spirit Heavenly River; partly it was that these people somehow knew exactly where they were hiding! …… The Northern King Residence. The Northern King and his subordinates were bewildered, completely thrown off by Su Yu. Su Yu hadn't come to attack the Northern King Residence, but had instead rushed off to assault the Dead Spirit Heavenly River! Earlier, they had even contemplated fleeing into the Dead Spirit Heavenly River if defeated. And now... The Northern King was an officially enfeoffed Heavenly King after all. His expression flickered as something occurred to him. The Heavenly Gate—yes, Su Yu had opened the Heavenly Gate! He immediately roared, "He has opened the Heavenly Gate! Your concealment is useless! Do not expose your Dao power—" *Boom!* The Southern King charged forward, her expression frigid as she shouted, "Since the Human Lord cannot come, we shall do the killing! Fool, if they don't expose their Dao power, they'll die even faster—do they dare?" The Northern King faltered! In the next moment, he let out a furious roar as a great saber materialized. Kill! "Kill her!" The Northern King bellowed, "The Dead Spirit Heavenly River holds countless powerhouses! Su Yu and his people cannot take the river, and living beings entering the realm will only cause even more dead spirit marquises to awaken!" Su Yu's hope to suppress the Dead Spirit Heavenly River with this method would never work! Let's see how many you can kill! …… How many could he kill? Su Yu didn't know. Ghost only knew how many powerhouses lay inside the Dead Spirit Heavenly River, how many slept, and how many waited for an opportunity to revive. At this moment, King Daqin, King Daxia, King Daming, and Tianmie—along with the Book Spirit, the Tea Tree, and the Old Turtle—had all entered! Ten Dao Integration experts! Nine could not conceal their living auras; only the Old Turtle did not need to. The presence of life stimulated massive numbers of dead spirits to begin reviving! The lines increased continuously! Those were powerhouses connecting to the Great Dao. Meanwhile, King Daqin and King Daxia swept across the surroundings. Instead of separating, the two joined forces, sweeping through everything in their path. A dead spirit marquis hiding comfortably was battered out into the open by the Heaven and Earth Inkstone, smashed into pieces in an instant! With a resounding crash, its Dao body burst. A saber and a spear struck simultaneously, dispatching the foe in a flash. How strong could a freshly revived dead spirit be? No matter how mighty a Dao Integration expert was in ancient times, right after reviving, they were merely mediocre! Right at that moment, an incomparably formidable entity in the distance growled, "Everyone, gather around me!" Damn it! This was that mighty entity, Cangshan Ming. He had just finished conferring with those dead spirit marquises, having finally persuaded everyone. They had intended to wait for the battle to erupt before ambushing from behind. Who would have guessed that this generation's Human Lord would charge straight in! In the blink of an eye, four or five dead spirit marquises scattered throughout the Heavenly River had already been taken down! It was too fast! So fast that even Cangshan Ming was at a loss, caught off guard! Damn it, how did it come to this? He had just reached an agreement with over a dozen dead spirit marquises, yet four or five were wiped out in an instant. …… Su Yu's sudden pivot to strike the Dead Spirit Heavenly River truly caught everyone off guard. Everyone thought he would guard against them, never imagining that instead of defending, he would lead his forces straight in to slaughter them! At this moment, several people followed behind Su Yu. Su Yu casually tossed out a dead spirit imprint, saying in a low voice, "Hetu, eat it!" Hetu had just delivered the message to fetch the Old Turtle. Without waste of words, seeing that this was the dead spirit marquis imprint from the one Su Yu had just slain, he swallowed it! He was a dead spirit; unlike the guardians, he did not need to kill within the Star Residence Mansion to absorb gains. Swallowing the imprint, Hetu's aura strengthened noticeably. Su Yu's gaze flickered, and his brush jabbed into the void once more. *Boom!* Deep within the riverbed, a dead spirit marquis spat black blood. Without uttering a word or showing his face, he instantly retracted all his Great Dao power, his aura plummeting in the blink of an eye. Disregarding everything else, he fled through the river in frantic retreat! Too terrifying! Before Su Yu's eyes, the Great Dao power the opponent had connected to vanished. That fellow could now only muster Sun Moon realm power at best, or at most a fraction of Eternal power, not daring to tap into his Great Dao. The Heavenly Gate was the ultimate weapon against these hidden powerhouses! Hide? Where could you possibly hide! Unless you refrained from using rule power altogether! Further away, the Old Turtle clashed with Cangshan Ming, fighting fiercely. Another peerless powerhouse, likely at the Heavenly King level as well. Su Yu paid it no mind; having a Heavenly King-tier entity awaken was hardly surprising. He couldn't afford to worry about so much right now. Letting these fellows assemble would be the real trouble. Striking them down while they were freshly revived, still groggy, their true minds not yet stabilized, unaware of fear and death, was the optimal moment! The civilization chronicle blanketed the sky! Devour! Countless dead spirits were directly devoured into the civilization chronicle. Across the Heavenly River, where swarms of dead spirits had floated earlier, everything before Su Yu was cleared in the blink of an eye! Death qi surged violently upon the pages of the civilization chronicle. Massive numbers of dead spirits were slain by Su Yu! He gazed toward the Northern King Residence from afar. Over there, the battle had also erupted. Both sides were evenly matched, each possessing one Heavenly King and fourteen dead spirit marquises; deciding victory or defeat would be difficult in the short term. It all depended on his side! Su Yu was thoroughly incensed. His plan had been solid, yet these pieces of trash had disrupted everything. Reviving out of nowhere was bad enough, but daring to plot to scavenge off him? Keep dreaming! Even if he couldn't kill the Northern King today, he would slaughter every last one of these bastards! *Rumble!* Battles raged everywhere! Ten Dao Integration powerhouses had arrived, joined by twenty-seven guardians, Su Yu, and nearly a hundred dead spirit monarchs. Such a formidable force charging into the Heavenly River stirred up monstrous waves! Since the ancient conquests, no one had ever invaded the Heavenly River! In everyone's eyes, the Heavenly River was mysterious, powerful, perilous... Yet Su Yu had charged right in! Instead of following everyone's expectations—besieging the Northern King first and waiting for hidden powerhouses to strike from behind—he refused to play along and launched an assault straight at them! Not only that, but in the next breath, Su Yu bellowed, "Abandon the Northern King Domain! Southern King, Lanshan, lead your forces to the Heavenly River—I am going to flatten this river!" "..." Locked in combat with the Northern King, the Southern King froze. *What on earth?* Even the Northern King was stunned. You're not fighting me anymore? You're going to fight the Dead Spirit Heavenly River instead? This... what should I do? Go help them? Su Yu had gone on a mad killing spree, even mobilizing a large contingent of living Dao Integration experts, and now he was abandoning this front entirely, as if the powerhouses in the Dead Spirit Heavenly River were far more abominable. What should he do? The Southern King frowned. Just as she was about to speak, Marquis Lanshan repelled a marquis with a strike and shouted, "To the Dead Spirit Heavenly River!" "Stop them!" The Northern King bellowed. Now it was his turn to tie down the Southern King and her forces. He couldn't let them leave—if they truly flattened the Dead Spirit Heavenly River, things wouldn't go well for him either. Yet at this command, the dead spirit marquises under his banner grew reluctant. To be frank, Su Yu, that slaughtering fiend, had charged straight into the Dead Spirit Heavenly River and summoned a large group of living powerhouses. They were deeply worried. That dog hadn't even shown up yet! Just how many powerhouses were waiting in the living realm? Furthermore, Su Yu was far too vicious! Even dead spirits didn't dare rashly enter the Heavenly River, yet Su Yu had charged right in! Following the Northern King felt like taking a beating with no way out. One misstep, and they'd all be finished. Now that the Southern King and her forces had no heart to prolong the battle, shouldn't they seize this chance to flee, or what? Flee to the Land of Guixu! Though dangerous, it felt safer than staying here. While they were still debating, the dead spirit marquis dueling Marquis Lanshan was suffocating with frustration. Marquis Lanshan's strength had surged considerably, completely suppressing him and battering him to pieces. His strength was inferior to Marquis Lanshan's! Now that Marquis Lanshan was fired up with killing intent, eager to aid Su Yu, her explosive power rose even higher, beating her opponent back at every step! How could they keep fighting? The Northern King frowned repeatedly as he entangled the Southern King, whose killing intent soared to the skies. Yet among his own subordinates, fighting spirit was lacking. Previously, believing they were trapped, they had fought with back-to-the-wall bravery. Now that the Southern King's side intended to withdraw, morale plummeted instantly. Several dead spirit marquises kept glancing toward the Northern King. Must we still intercept them? Better to let them go—perhaps they would all perish in the Dead Spirit Heavenly River! "Heavenly King, why not give up the interception? Once they leave, whether we retreat or stay, we will have a way out!" The Northern King's heart jolted! Trouble! At this juncture, his side had suffered no casualties, yet morale had evaporated in an instant. The resolve to fight to the death was gone. The marquises of the God, Demon, and Immortal races shared this sentiment. How about... not stopping them? Marquis Lanshan and her allies were exceptionally fierce, cloaked in thick murderous intent. No one knew how many powerhouses lay in the Dead Spirit Heavenly River; why not let them clash while we sit back and watch tigers fight? They weren't acquainted with the powerhouses in the Dead Spirit Heavenly River anyway! Why risk their lives stopping powerful enemies on their behalf? "Heavenly King, countless powerhouses dwell in the Dead Spirit Heavenly River. If the Southern King and the others wish to seek death, why should we hinder them and throw away our own lives for nothing..." *Boom!* Right then, Marquis Lanshan ran her sword straight through her opposing dead spirit marquis! Seeing this, the other dead spirit marquises grew even more frantic. "Heavenly King, if we keep blocking them, some of us will fall! Why not preserve our strength and join forces? Even in the Land of Guixu, we could carve out a foothold!" "Indeed, Heavenly King! With you leading us and fourteen Dao Integration experts, we have nothing to fear even in the Land of Guixu! Before, we were surrounded, and breaking out would cost lives. But now they are leaving!" Several marquises truly couldn't hold back any longer. Some even harbored thoughts that if the Heavenly King still refused, they would... defect! Before, encircled without escape, fleeing would inevitably cost lives. Now that the Southern King's forces didn't want to fight them, why wouldn't they flee? Were they waiting around to die?! *The momentum is lost!* The Northern King felt bitter grief inside! He had not lost, nor had his subordinates; not a single dead spirit marquis had died, and he had even suppressed the Southern King. Yet... he knew the momentum was gone! The Northern King Domain could not be held! He didn't know whether Su Yu had done this intentionally. If Su Yu had called off the siege for no apparent reason, these marquises wouldn't dare scatter recklessly. Yet now, Su Yu was locked in battle with the Dead Spirit Heavenly River! The powerhouses under his command saw it, knew it! Knowing that Su Yu currently lacked the bandwidth to pursue them, their morale collapsed instead! What... what kind of tactic was this? Defeating an enemy army without fighting? Losing the Northern King Domain meant that once Su Yu unified the Four King Domains, there would be almost zero hope of returning to reclaim it, as they would lose legitimacy along with the power of rule suppression. Furthermore, from then on, replenishing troops would become exceedingly difficult, and they would be unimaginably distant from the entrance to the living realm. For a moment, the Northern King felt truly desolate. More desolate than suffering outright defeat! He hadn't lost, Su Yu hadn't even attacked him, yet his subordinates' will to fight had completely dissipated. He wanted to roar: *If we hold off the Southern King and the others right now, Su Yu's forces might actually be defeated!* Just as he was about to shout, Su Yu's voice thundered from afar: "Hear my command! Take my warrant and conscript the Dao Integration experts of the myriad races to wage war in the dead spirit realm! Summon an army of hundreds of millions to flatten this realm! I refuse to believe the living cannot vanquish the dead!" "Understood!" Soon, affirmative shouts rang out, and several dead spirit monarchs in the distance scurried toward the various guardian domains. Hearing this, the dead spirit marquises under the Northern King grew even more terrified. "Milord, let us flee! This man has lost his mind! If he truly conscripts the Dao Integration experts of all races to attack, even if he suffers heavy losses and stumbles in the Heavenly River, he still has a retreat path. But we... we have no way out!" The military heart was shattered! Below, some dead spirit monarchs had even started fleeing toward the Land of Guixu. In the next moment, the Northern King let out a soft sigh, imbued with unspeakable desolation and powerlessness. What was this situation! Su Yu attacked the Dead Spirit Heavenly River, adding to his own enemies, yet the Northern King's side collapsed first! *Fuck!* "Make way!" The Northern King uttered a low command, choosing to yield! There was no other choice! The Southern King was slightly taken aback. *They're yielding the path?* *They aren't blocking us anymore?* The dead spirit marquises had spoken via sound transmission, so the Southern King hadn't overheard them. Surprised, she worried it was a stall tactic, but Marquis Lanshan paid no heed, ignoring the Northern King entirely as she shouted, "To the Heavenly River to aid in battle!" "Understood!" A host of dead spirit marquises, along with the monarchs below, broke off from their opponents and flew toward the Heavenly River! The Southern King hesitated for a moment, then relented. Fine! She couldn't fathom the human thought process. She was speechless too: they had agreed to strike the Northern King, so why turn around and attack the Dead Spirit Heavenly River? With no other choice, she followed along! This time, no one blocked their way! Watching them depart, a dead spirit marquis looked toward the Northern King and urged hastily, "Heavenly King, let us retreat!" The Northern King looked down at the Northern King Domain below... a silent sorrow welling within. Retreat! He hadn't lost; earlier, he had successfully held the Northern King Domain. Yet now... he had to abandon it? He truly was unwilling to accept this! Yet these dead spirit marquises cared for none of that. If they didn't retreat now, were they supposed to wait until Su Yu and his side won and returned to slaughter them? Regardless of who won or lost, everyone felt that remaining here was courting death. The Northern King sighed, utterly exhausted, and said, "Retreat!" To the Land of Guixu! These bastards under his command were a disorganized rabble—no wonder they couldn't rival the human race back then. Damned scoundrels! He had been dragged along by their panic, yet he had no choice. If he didn't retreat with them and stayed alone, Su Yu would probably laugh his head off! At this moment, the Northern King abandoned all hesitation. Taking advantage of the Southern King's departure, he swept his great hand across the realm, scooping up countless dead spirits. A colossal palm blanketed heaven and earth; if he was retreating, he would take a host of elites with him! Otherwise, he might have no way to replenish troops in the Land of Guixu! Powerhouses were born from among the weak; he understood this principle well enough. The other dead spirit marquises also gathered their elite dead spirit armies. In the blink of an eye, the entire Northern King Residence was cleared out. Filled with boundless anger and sorrow, the Northern King took one last look at the Dead Spirit Heavenly River. As the Southern King and her forces charged in, heaven and earth lost color. With fifteen powerhouses surging in, two or three more dead spirit marquises were slain in an instant! The Northern King hesitated no longer and barked, "Go! To the Land of Guixu!" A black gust swept past as fifteen powerhouses, along with vast numbers of dead spirits, fled rapidly toward the endless darkness of the Land of Guixu! Not a single person had died! It was something worth celebrating, yet... no one could muster any joy. At the moment of flying away, the Northern King cast a final glance at the Dead Spirit Heavenly River. He wanted to know: had Su Yu foreseen this? Had calling the Southern King and the others to reinforce him been done specifically to shatter the morale of his own side? If so, then losing was no disgrace! If not, then this defeat was a terrible mockery. …… In the Dead Spirit Heavenly River. Su Yu roared, "Capture the dead spirit marquises alive! Take them alive whenever possible!" As for the Northern King fleeing, wasn't that only natural? Even if he didn't flee, the dead spirit marquises under him would run anyway. Whether they would engage in a fight to the death against a lunatic like him or seize the opportunity to escape—Su Yu could guess that with his eyes closed. It counted as Su Yu's strategy. Yet in truth, this wasn't the outcome Su Yu had originally desired. He had wanted to conquer the Northern King Domain and slay the Northern King. Instead, forced into using this method to drive them away, he could only compensate for the shortfall by slaying powerhouses in the Heavenly River! Wiping out the Northern King without alarming the Heavenly River's powerhouses had been the superior strategy. The Dead Spirit Heavenly River erupting into riot only after the Northern King was dead would have been the middling strategy. Now, attacking the Dead Spirit Heavenly River and letting the Northern King and his cohorts flee was, in Su Yu's mind, the worst possible outcome. It wasn't that the Northern King absolutely had to die, but dead spirits like him could potentially collude with the outside world. Possessing higher intellect, they were far more troublesome to deal with than the freshly awakened powerhouses in the Heavenly River! The dead spirits in the Heavenly River, even at the Heavenly King level, seemed terribly foolish to Su Yu. Freshly revived, how much intellect could they possess? Did they know anything about what had happened over the past hundred thousand years? What could such people possibly use to fight him? Su Yu paid them no heed. Once Marquis Lanshan arrived, he quickly led several marquises to sweep through the Dead Spirit Heavenly River, relentlessly slaughtering and felling dead spirit marquises—or shattering their Dao bodies to take them captive whenever possible! Sweeping the Heavenly River! Other directions were the same, filled with unending slaughter! Farther off, the powerful Cangshan Ming was utterly dazed. The Southern King had charged in! The Southern King and the Old Turtle joined hands, battering him until he repeatedly unraveled. He fled swiftly, yet pursued jointly by two titans, he had nowhere to run. He couldn't understand! Why? He truly didn't understand. He had only revived recently, gathered a band of powerhouses, and hadn't even emerged from the Heavenly River. How could things have turned out like this? Why had that so-called Northern King fled? Hadn't he yelled with absolute conviction earlier that when the lips are gone, the teeth are cold? Curse me for buying your bullshit! He had genuinely planned to join forces against the human race, but instead, they ran! With fifteen newly arrived Dao Integration experts, that made a full twenty-five Dao Integration-level powerhouses, plus twenty-seven guardians and Su Yu—such a formidable force was equivalent to forty ordinary Dao Integration experts! And Cangshan Ming knew that he had only rallied around fifteen marquises beforehand, six or seven of whom had already been slaughtered! Although dead spirits continued to revive, they couldn't keep pace with how fast this group killed! Some unlucky freshly revived wretches subconsciously tapped into their Great Dao power, exposing themselves in an instant. In the distance, King Daxia and King Daqin were having the time of their lives, shattering another newly revived dead spirit marquis with a single blow! Having slain the fellow, King Daxia's expression shifted slightly. "A human marquis?" The one he had just beaten to death seemed to have a human form? Could he... have accidentally killed a human dead spirit marquis? Even though freshly awakened dead spirits might not consider themselves human, if given enough time, a dead spirit marquis had a chance of stabilizing their true mind. King Daqin was startled as well. He carefully inspected the blasted corpse and soon breathed a sigh of relief. "No, likely a God race marquis! Old Xia, be careful—prioritize live captures! Don't go killing human dead spirit marquises!" "Understood!" King Daxia felt a lingering fright. He had been killing with such gusto that he'd nearly slain the wrong person. He quickly asked, "Old Qin, feels good, doesn't it?" King Daqin bared his teeth, remaining silent. It felt great! But I won't say it aloud! It was truly exhilarating. Here, slaughtering with wanton abandon, dozens of powerhouses on the human side swept through the feared Dead Spirit Heavenly River—something seen only in ancient times! Yet today, Su Yu was leading them in an unrestrained slaughter right here! Of course it felt good! In these recent battles, they were always the ones encircling and hunting others, rather than being encircled. They consistently held the initiative instead of the past, where in every major clash, the human race was forced into a desperate, miserable stance—fighting one against two, or even one against three, always taking the field with the grim resolve of mutual destruction! Playing a steamroll match like this was naturally far more exhilarating! Dead spirits were reviving, but not as fast as they could kill. Just as Su Yu said: as long as I kill faster than you can revive, what good does your reviving do? Under normal circumstances, they couldn't detect reviving dead spirits and would only know once they were fully awake. But now, they could see—lines appeared before their eyes, showing exactly where powerhouses were awakening! Consequently, their killing became even faster! As the slaughter went on, the dead spirit powerhouses grew fewer and fewer! …… By this time, Su Yu had also fought his way over to Cangshan Ming's location. Seeing Su Yu approach, the Southern King urgently transmitted her voice: "We cannot kill anymore! If we keep slaying them, what awakens next won't be dead spirit marquises or Heavenly Kings! I can already feel my strength advancing rapidly!" Advancing in strength was a good thing! Yet it also signified that too many had been killed—so many that huge swaths of the Great Dao were being vacated, enough to support the birth of another Human King-level entity! Meanwhile, the dead spirit monarchs led by Su Yu were also swelling with powerful auras. The Southern King quickly sent another urgent voice transmission: "Kill no more! Feed the slain dead spirit marquis imprints to them so they can advance and seize positions on the Great Dao! Those who can advance must do so immediately to fill the vacancies! Have the living withdraw; we will pin this man down and spare his life for now!" Killing Cangshan Ming might truly trigger the birth of an entity surpassing the Heavenly King realm! Su Yu's expression changed slightly, and he promptly shouted, "Regroup! Living beings, withdraw!" As he spoke, several guardians arrived from behind. Some had indeed captured newly awakened dead spirit marquises alive, while others carried dead spirit imprints. Su Yu looked at Hetu and ordered swiftly, "Give the dead spirit imprints to Hetu!" He added quickly, "Hetu, hurry and advance to Dao Integration!" Claim the territory! He shouted again, "Lanshan, devour everything and find a way to enter the Heavenly King realm!" Lanshan was too dull; she had consumed the Eastern Heavenly King, eaten part of the Western Heavenly King, and absorbed plenty of dead spirit marquis imprints earlier, yet she was merely stronger than ordinary marquises and hadn't attained the Heavenly King level! Marquis Lanshan didn't overthink it. *More for me to eat?* *I'm almost embarrassed!* *Oh well, His Majesty commanded it, so I'll eat some!* Hetu, on the other hand, vaguely understood the implications. Looking at Su Yu, his heart stirred slightly. Without another word, he quickly devoured the dead spirit imprints. As he devoured them, he remarked, "That blockhead Xia Chen ran off; otherwise, he could have seized this chance to integrate with the Dao as well..." Just as he spoke, far in the distance, a Great Dao trembled slightly. Su Yu glanced in that direction as well. *Xia Chen?* *He achieved Dao Integration?* *Is it Xia Chen?* *It certainly seems like him!* …… At the same time. In a distant place that could already be considered the Land of Guixu, within a manor, Xia Chen had indeed advanced. It had been effortless! Even he hadn't anticipated that today would be so easy. With just a bit of cultivation, he had broken through! On the other side, Liu Hong was surprised as well. Soon, the aura around him flashed and faded, and he remarked with an odd expression, "Fighting outside again? Why do I feel like my Dao fusion speed has increased significantly?" "Did the Dead Spirit Dao quake?" Liu Hong was utterly surprised. Xia Chen didn't comment on that, instead asking in a low voice, "What is the situation on your end exactly?" Liu Hong bared his teeth and said, "I only recently fused with the Dao. This Ink Dao is a bit of a trap!" "Hmm?" Liu Hong said helplessly, "I think I've been set up. The Ink Dao... is eroding the Dead Spirit Dao! King Wen might have created this to counter the Dead Spirit Dao. With my scrawny arms and legs, he expects me to contend against the Dead Spirit Dao?" He felt depressed as well! It was far more of a trap than expected! The Ink Dao was powerful, yet it possessed dead spirit characteristics, clearly intended to usurp the Dead Spirit Dao. King Wen was such a trickster—did he intend for someone to master the Ink Dao and wage war against the Dead Spirit Dao? Even you yourself might not necessarily pull that off! Liu Hong felt exhausted to his core! *He truly overestimated me. If I'd known, I would've just given this thing to Su Yu and let that lunatic duke it out with the Dead Spirit Dao!* Besides, fusing with the Dao had been much easier today. Had the Dead Spirit Dao been thrown into turmoil? Did Su Yu do this? Aside from Su Yu, he couldn't think of anyone else.