It was time to fish Old Wan out of the river.

Su Yu knew the location of Old Wan's dao. So long as he could fish Old Wan out of the dao, Old Wan would be able to return. With that, he would regain all his people. As for the ones who had left, so be it. Nobody cared.

At present, everyone on his side looked incomparably sorry. They were all floating around as balls of light, as though they had transformed into a sort of wisp-shaped ghosts.

Su Yu reminded everyone, "Stay here. Don't go anywhere. I'll be back shortly. Senior Grand Dream and Fateless, stay here and watch over everyone. Don't let anything happen. Hundred Battle might appear suddenly and wipe everyone out. That would be bad."

At that, everyone shivered.

Heavenbridge Marquis couldn't resist saying, "Emperor Yu, I believe in jinxing things with words, especially when you talk about bad things. Allow me to go with you. Perhaps I will become the final survivor from your faction. We can't allow your faction to go extinct."

Only now did he know that everyone had survived.

No wonder Su Yu was still so calm even after receiving such a terrible defeat. Suddenly, Heavenbridge Marquis felt intensely insecure. Humanity was too treacherous. The safest place was Su Yu's side.

"You?" Su Yu blanked out. Why should he take that guy for this task?

But after thinking about it, he laughed and said, "Sure. Since my dao has snapped, traversing the river will be quite troublesome for me. You can help with it."

At that, Heavenbridge Marquis shivered. Was that a wrong choice?

Was he wrong in offering to go with Su Yu?

"Let's go."

Since the Celestial Chasm Realm had yet to fully sink into the Death Realm, they could still access the River of Time directly from the realm. Their entry point did not matter as they would still need to go a long way to reach Old Wan's dao.

***

The moment the rift to the River of Time was opened, Su Yu vanished.

Only a bunch of shiny balls were left behind, with a few odd fully living beings mixed among them.

Suddenly, Qi Rong asked, "Fateless and Grand Dream. Will you stop me if I leave now? He's gone."

The two looked at him.

Grand Dream frowned and said, "Are you thinking of leaving, Royal Consort Qi?"

After a slight hesitation, he added, "Why don't you wait until he's back. You can tell him about your intention to leave. I believe he won't stop you..."

Qi Rong said, "I already asked to leave before this. He said that I can't leave before repaying my life debt to him."

"..."

Well, in that case, there was nothing they could do about it.

Grand Dream coughed awkwardly and asked, "Why do you want to leave, Royal Consort? I don't think you can find anyone willing to take you in anymore. You are the dao companion of the third human lord. Hundred Battle King might not welcome your presence. I can't think of anywhere you can go."

After a short silence, Qi Rong said, "It's not that I must leave, but I want to look around to see if the things I left behind are still around."

"What are those things?" Grand Dream said, "If you don't mind, I can collect these things for you."

Qi Rong gave Grand Dream a long stare before saying, "Old Turtle, back when I sought you out to help Yue Gang, you rejected me repeatedly. You claimed that you were bound by your ancient duty. But now, you're following the new human lord loyally, even when he is the weakest of all the other human lords. Was Yue Gang worse than him?"

Grand Dream sank into thought. After a long while, he nodded, "That seems to be the case. Yue Gang...was somewhat lacking." 𝙛𝓻𝒆𝒆𝒘𝙚𝓫𝙣𝙤𝒗𝙚𝓵.𝙘𝙤𝙢

"Why do you say that?"

Grand Dream said, "Yue Gang was very talented. In fact, no human lord can be untalented. But Yue Gang was not as ruthless as Su Yu, and not as strong as Hundred Battle King. He was not firm enough. No matter what, he was like a house pet, not a beast grown in the wild."

Qi Rong frowned.

The old turtle sighed and elaborated, "In the same position, Su Yu could have done many things in the third epoch. Rather than executing you, he would have fled with you or even defected from humanity to establish his own faction.

"In the same position, Hundred Battle King might have been forced to fake your death like Yue Gang. But after that, he would definitely think of a way to get all those old fellows killed. He wouldn't have thrown his life to the myriad races at the very end like Yue Gang."

The old turtle shook his head and said, "Yue Gang would always be indecisive when it mattered. As a result, he missed numerous opportunities. He loved to plan everything to the dot before making his move. Any changes would result in the termination of his plan. He lacked the courage to take risks.

"If you wish to seek Yue Gang, or even his death spirit to help him rise and compete for the Myriad Realms again, forget it.

"Allow me to be brutally honest. With Hundred Battle King and Su Yu around, everyone has plenty of options to choose from. Of the ten human lords, even if the current two were removed from the equation, we would rather pick Martial King's son than Yue Gang.

"Even if you could find Yue Gang's death spirit, I suggest you give up on thoughts of future domination. You should worry about yourself. For now, you are useful to Emperor Yu. He might be tolerant of you right now. But the moment you stop being useful to him, and if you remain indecisive, you will be promptly abandoned like Shadow Marquis and the others."

An odd expression appeared on Qi Rong's slightly frail face as she looked at the two before saying with a sigh, "So was Yue Gang so worthless in your eyes?"

"No." The old turtle shook his head and said, "Each human lord was an incredible genius in their own way. Each of them was the elite of an era. Each managed to reach the level of a heavenly king in a short time, or even the level of a Venerable. The ancient marquises were nothing in comparison. How could a human lord be truly useless? But some stood out, overshadowing the others."

Not a single human lord was truly useless.

Each of them was the best of the best.

Qi Rong had nothing to say. After a long silence, she looked at Grand Dream and said, "Please do allow me to leave temporarily. I will return. I'm only going to retrieve some things."

Grand Dream frowned. Why didn't she say this while Su Yu was around? What was he supposed to do? What if she decided to go and leak their secret before coming back with a bunch of experts? They still had a bunch of weakened experts waiting for recovery here. Su Yu would probably go crazy if he lost all these people in one go.

"What do you wish to retrieve?"

After a short silence, Qi Rong replied with a tired voice, "Some fake daos."

"Hmm?"

Grand Dream frowned. What was she talking about?

Qi Rong said, "Some fake daos I gathered back then. I need to collect all of them if I don't want to lose them. But I don't even know if they're still around. If they're still around, I can produce some fake dao experts. These fake daos are all quite powerful as I personally nurtured them back then."

These fake daos were far better than the fake daos gathered by Su Yu. The fake daos Su Yu gathered were still relatively new. And even fake daos needed care to grow strong.

However, Grand Dream didn't know if this was a decision he could make. When Su Yu was not around, Wan Tiansheng would usually be the one to make the choices for him. But not even Wan Tiansheng was around to make this choice.

Suddenly, Grand Dream looked at Fat Ball, who was busy playing with Soy Bun, who had turned into a ball of light.

"Fellow Daoist Fat Ball, Royal Consort Qi wishes to leave. What do you think?"

Fat Ball was just about to bite down on Soy Bun when he heard that. He looked up in confusion and asked, "What?"

"Royal Consort Qi wishes to leave and collect some of her things. What do you think about this? Can she leave?"

"..."

Fat Ball was stunned. How was he supposed to know that?

Why was this guy asking him?

After a short thought, Fat Ball said, "Sure. I'll go with her."

"..."

Qi Rong looked at Fat Ball and Grand Dream before cursing inwardly.

Damn them all!

Grand Dream beamed and sent Fat Ball a few reminders through voice transmissions. Next, Fat Ball left with Qi Rong while wagging his half-grown tail.

With Qi Rong gone, Fate Pseudo Emperor said, "Did Royal Consort Qi leave some contingencies behind? She claimed that she's collecting her fake daos, but I feel like she's probably going to search for her own dao. Or maybe Devote King's dao."

According to Su Yu, she cultivated the petrification method. And this was the dao Devote King walked. Furthermore, Devote King also had a powerful Source Return Blade. It was unknown if Qi Rong had her own arrangements regarding that blade.

Grand Dream wasn't too worried about that. He had something else to worry about as he said, "I wonder if Principal Wan can return. If not, this will result in a big grudge against them."

Who was this them he was talking about? Hundred Battle King and the chaos race would all be subjected to this grudge. Nobody said anything. Everyone floated around aimlessly as balls of light.

Without their bodies, none felt like saying anything.

***

At the same time.

Su Yu was moving deep into the River of Time with Heavenbridge Marquis.

Heavenbridge Marquis kept grumbling, seemingly unhappy to go this far, but Su Yu ignored him.

After a long while, they finally reached the pen dao. Su Yu noted that the part he had assimilated previously had all been damaged. About eighty percent of the dao was currently in chaos.

He could actually fuse with this dao again, but he had to first return order to the chaotic dao. That would be time-consuming, but Xing Yu's token would make the job a breeze. After all, this was a dao he had fused with before. His comprehension of the dao was still there.

"I can probably finish it in half a month and become a pseudo king again."

Strictly speaking, he was still an Eternal even after fusing with eighty percent of the dao. But the pen dao was powerful enough to grant Su Yu the combat prowess of a pseudo king, even if he wasn't actually at that level. Ordinarily, someone would only reach the level of a pseudo king after fusing with ninety-five percent or more of their dao. In fact, some would only reach that level after fusing with ninety-nine percent of their dao.

However, the pen dao was impressive enough to push one to that level at only eighty percent. At ninety percent, one could probably reach the level of a Venerable. And at ninety-five percent, one would reach Hundred Battle King's level, the level of a weak Master of Law.

Su Yu had many options. However, he was unwilling to choose these options.

"Pen dao..."

Su Yu chuckled. He wasn't averse to regaining control over this dao. After all, there still wasn't a pen dao in his Mark of Civilization. He did not stop for too long. Shortly after, he continued forward.

After some time, he finally found Old Wan's dao.

With his Heaven Gate, he could see that Old Wan's dao was akin to a living person. The other tributaries looked like smaller branches of a river, but Old Wan's dao was akin to a vine that had wrapped itself around the river.

Looking at the tributary with a smile, Su Yu looked at Heavenbridge Marquis and said, "It's time for you to work. Old Heavenbridge, help me with this. Lie down and act as my bridge toward this tributary."

Yes. He was using the gate as a bridge. No matter what, this was Old Wan's dao. Not his own dao. Due to his lack of familiarity, he might not be able to enter the dao so easily. Thus, Heavenbridge Marquis would be quite useful here.

Heavenbridge Marquis asked gloomily, "Are you going to step over my face, Emperor Yu?"

How evil!

Su Yu coughed and said, "Well, you can have your back facing upward...

"That will make me the same as Martial Emperor!" Heavenbridge Marquis was furious, "That is not acceptable! You can't insult me like that!"

"..."

Su Yu was rendered speechless. Was that an insult?

Was that so humiliating?