Chapter 1900: Control King's Lineage (1)

Chaos Mountain.

Su Yu named the little hill he was on the Dao Origin Hill.

The origin of dao. The name might be impressive, but it was only an ordinary hill among the countless hills here. The only thing special about it was the barrier around it.

***

At the moment, Su Yu was exploring the hill with Great Ming King.

He needed to investigate the origin of the barrier.

If it were a formation, Great Ming King could learn it and lay down more of such formations around the numerous hills in the mountain range. That would change the mountain range into a headquarters of humanity. After all, this was a place where the myriad races couldn't even display their full power or fight properly.

If the barrier were produced by a treasure, it wasn't a bad thing either. A treasure would be mobile and he could redeploy it elsewhere easily.

Su Yu continued searching with his Heaven Gate open. Behind him, Great Ming King was studying their surroundings to determine if there was really a formation there. Was this barrier an artificial product? Or was it here naturally?

As an expert who had attained Daofuse through the path of formations, Great Ming King was not to be underestimated in formations. After searching around for a bit, his face slowly turned unsightly.

And after a long while, Great Ming King said, "Emperor Yu, I have something to say."

"What is it?"

"This might be a formation, but it is a formation relying on an unknown treasure to act as the foundation."

Su Yu nodded. Great Ming King inhaled deeply and continued, "This isn't the point. The point is...this formation looks familiar."

"Familiar?"

"Yes." After a deep exhalation, Great Ming King said, "When I attained Daofuse, I relied on that fellow from Control King's lineage. Or her formation, to be precise. Her attainment in formations isn't anything special, but that formation is incredibly impressive. It was powerful not because of her, but because of its amazing design. She had merely deployed what was already designed. She might only know how to deploy that formation, but not the concepts behind it."

Su Yu's face changed.

Great Ming King continued, "And the more I look at this place, the more it resembles that concealment formation she deployed. Of course, there are differences as well. However, the core concept behind the design should be similar."

Su Yu asked solemnly, "Are you saying that this might be a formation deployed by the Control King's lineage?"

"Yes. Wasn't Control King here before?"

Great Ming King said, "I'm wondering if this was something the Control King left behind back then. That isn't the worst-case scenario. But what if...there are more experts in this lineage, and they are residing in the Chaos Mountain as well?"

The look in Su Yu's eyes changed.

Great Ming King said, "We have been saying that Control King was the traitor for a while. But there are four human factions left in the Upper Realm, excluding the Shadow Marquis. That is too few.

"South Suppression Marquis, Cloud Fire Marquis, Cloud Water Marquis, and Brave Martial General. It would be too conspicuous for Control King's lineage to hide among them since there are so few of them."

Su Yu had a pensive look. Great Ming King continued, "Thus, I can't help but wonder if Control King's lineage is really among them. If not, where can they be?"

"Also, it's too conspicuous for them to exist as an independent faction." Great Ming King continued, "Is it possible that...this lineage has also established their headquarters in the Chaos Mountain? Is it possible that they have a large number of humans under their rule as well? Perhaps there is a faction of humans living somewhere in the Chaos Mountain. They might be the descendants of some of the human survivors from back then."

Su Yu frowned again.

Great Ming King asked, "What is the goal of Control King's lineage for their betrayal? Elimination of humanity? Or to block the return of Culture King and the others? Or the unification of humanity under a new ruler?"

Su Yu sank into deep thought. After a long while, he said, "So you're saying that if there is a faction of traitors, and if their main goal isn't the elimination of humanity, they might have gathered a bunch of humans. And these humans are currently living in the Chaos Mountain.

"This is a place where the daos are in chaos. This is a place where neither the myriad races nor the humans dare to explore. They can easily cultivate to the Sunmoon Realm here thanks to the thick source qi in the air. But dao affirmation won't be easy here."

"Yes. But Emperor Yu, is dao affirmation something they must do?" When Su Yu blanked out, Great Ming King added, "Do the ancient beasts need to affirm their daos?"

Su Yu said, "You mean..."

"They can simply strengthen their bodies endlessly. Or maybe they can simply follow the chaotic daos here, or perhaps we can call it the chaos dao. This is also a path they can follow to grow rapidly and gain great strength. It's not like there is only one path in cultivation.

"Or they can simply reach the peak Sunmoon Realm here before affirming their daos elsewhere. For now, we only need to figure out their true goal. Of course, I might be entirely wrong and they only want to eliminate humanity. If eliminating isn't their ultimate goal, my speculation might be true."

He focused on the incorporeal barrier nearby and said, "I doubt this formation was even something deployed by Control King. It's too far from the depths of the mountain range.

"Even during Control King's exile here, it did not make sense for Control King to deploy such a formation on a random hill at the outer reach of the mountain range. I believe the formation here is more like an experiment. The experts of Control King's lineage might have conducted an experiment here in the past."

Through the formation, Great Ming King was able to make numerous deductions.

Once again, Su Yu sank into thought.

Great Ming King continued, "If my speculation is correct, all the humans out there are mere abandoned chess pieces. These humans are being used as bait by Control King's lineage while they develop silently in here. They might have recruited or trained numerous experts in secret while the humans out there have the attention of the myriad races.

"This lineage has been a traitor since the very beginning. According to what you said in the past, they should have been trying to eliminate the lines of Battle King and Culture King since the very beginning. Clearly, they know about the pen dao. And they don't want it to return. Their betrayal did not start from the previous epoch. However, humanity only discovered their betrayal this epoch. What had they done during the first ninety thousand years after the collapse? How did they keep their betrayal hidden for so long?"

Great Ming King smiled and said, "We can only conclude that they spent the first ninety thousand years in hiding, building up their power in secret. Here, they have no lack of resources. The Upper Realm is also a good place to comprehend the daos. If this lineage has continued uninterrupted from the ancient past, they might have produced enough number of Daofuses to contend against the Daofuses of the humans outside. During the previous epoch, humanity had around a hundred Daofuses. What about Control King's lineage?

𝘧𝓇ℯ𝑒𝓌𝑒𝑏𝓃𝘰𝘷𝘦𝘭.𝒸ℴ𝓂

"This is the lineage of a Cardinal King with complete inheritance. It might even have the inheritance of the Devil Pseudo Emperor as well. The inheritances of two supreme experts...should be comparable to even the inheritances of the major races such as immortals and divines, right?

"Back then, Control King might have known about the coming collapse of ancient past in advance. He might even be one of the core players in causing the collapse. In that case, he must have left numerous contingencies and legacies behind as well.

"We have been treating Control King's lineage as another faction of humanity. But we might have been wrong. We should consider them an entirely separate race. An incomparably powerful race backed by two supreme experts. If we follow the classification of the ancient past, they are probably the second most powerful race after humanity."

Su Yu's heart thumped. He gave Great Ming King a long, deep stare. Great Ming King was right. He had been viewing Control King's lineage as a faction of humanity. How many Daofuses would they have?

Ten?

Twenty?

But Great Ming King was telling him that they might as well be an entirely separate race. The backing of two supreme beings was enough to grant them the strength to contend against the immortals and divines.

If Control King had played a part in the collapse...

Even Human Emperor and the others had left numerous contingencies behind prior to the collapse. What about Control King, who had anticipated the collapse?

Su Yu's expression changed repeatedly. The West Royal Consort was someone at the level of a heavenly king. Previously, Su Yu had thought that she was probably the strongest expert of this lineage. But was that really the case?

If she were really the strongest, would she really be left in the Lower Realm as a spy? These were all the speculations Great Ming King thought of through the formation. Prior to this, everyone believed that Control King's lineage was hidden among the other humans.

But Great Ming King changed his mind after observing Stable Army Marquis' situation. How miserable. There were only a thousand or so people in the entire faction. Was that lineage really hidden among them?

As long as one wasn't blind, one could easily investigate these people one by one. It wouldn't be too hard for one to drag the Control King conspirators out. Even if the other human factions had about ten thousand people each, there would only be around forty to fifty thousand humans in the Upper Realm.

Was that even a large number?

Nope. It was small.

Hiding among such a small number of people could easily expose them. Since a formation of Control King's lineage was here, there was merit to Great Ming King's guess. Control King was once stationed here for about a thousand years. It was likely that those from Control King's lineage were quite familiar with this place.

This place was both dangerous and safe. It was also a good place to hide. Nobody would enter this place unless absolutely necessary.

Great Ming King said, "Or perhaps they are spread among the various factions, but that will most likely be only a small part of their forces. Even more of them must be hidden somewhere in here. Of course, this formation must be theirs for this assumption to be correct."

With this formation, they could block out the chaos power in the air and allow the weaker cultivators to live normally. With such a formation, they could even avoid the detection of the ancient beasts here. Perhaps with a stronger formation, they could even fully mask themselves from the ancient beasts.

Take West Royal Consort's formation as an example. It was impressive. It could hide the fluctuations from a battle between two powerful Daofuses so thoroughly that the myriad races didn't even notice anything.

The core of this formation was still nowhere to be found, but Great Ming King's speculations were starting to give Su Yu a headache. He said, "According to your guess, this lineage must have formed an entirely separate faction. You are right. With the bloodlines of Control King and Blazing Flame Devil Pseudo Emperor, they are more than capable of something like that."

Su Yu asked, "Blazing Flame Devil Pseudo Emperor. Was this a Pseudo Emperor during the ancient past as well?"

Was Blazing Flame the name of the ancient Devil Pseudo Emperor?

Su Yu had never paid much attention to such matters since the ancient past had ended long ago. Furthermore, it was a sort of taboo to mention the names of such supreme beings.

"Probably." Great Ming King was unsure as well. He said, "The names of these experts are rarely mentioned, just like how we don't know the actual names of the Human Emperor and Four Cardinal Kings."

Su Yu wanted to say that he knew that Martial King was called Tai Shan. But he indeed didn't know the names of the others. He only knew their titles.

Su Yu frowned and said, "Forget about their names for now. According to your guesses...we can view Control King's lineage as a separate race. In that case, they might be even stronger than the immortals, devils, and divines. Yet they have remained hidden for a hundred thousand years, only scheming here and there in the dark with their minor tricks..."

"No, not minor at all." Great Ming King said, "What if they were the reason for the previous epoch's defeat? During the ninth epoch, the myriad races and humanity lost nearly a hundred and fifty Daofuses combined. Is this minor? Not at all. Perhaps they lacked the ability to conquer everyone prior to that. But after the ninth epoch, they finally have enough strength."