Chapter 530: Unreliable Rumors

The monarch of the sky cleared his throat. "We have not, regrettably, found an antidote. Even with our five empires working together, we haven't been able to get beyond a preliminary analysis."

The sura were not particularly skilled at herbalism and potion-making, and the only sura empire that had excelled at science and research was the empire of stars. The five surviving empires together didn't even have half its research capacity.

If the empire of stars were still around, it would have found at least some countermeasure to the Yeluo poison. Unfortunately, it was one of the first casualties of Renhuang's ascent. It would take at least one or two years before the five empires' research would bear any fruit, and twice that for the production of any promising antidotes.

However, Renhuang was almost right at their doorstep; they didn't have the time to wait any longer. The sura monarchs had no choice but to find a more expedient approach.

The monarch of mountains was a man filled with muscles that shook when he moved. "No matter how potent this poison is, Renhuang's method of tossing it from the skies is easy to defend against.

As long as we avoid touching the poison, everything will be fine."

The monarch of the sea was a svelte, handsome sura. "At this gathering, we will disseminate a technique that allows all sura to summon a flame. If you see poison approaching you, activate this technique and burn the poison away before it can land."

The monarch of the sun added, "Once we disseminate this technique, you should teach it to all your sura fighters—and better yet, all the sura you govern."

This wasn't a foolproof technique, but it was an effective countermeasure.

The sura kings glanced at each other, smiling in relief at having attended the gathering.

The monarch of the moon added, "We have another technique prepared. It forms scabs of blood from foreign blood, which both grants you some defense and prevents poison from entering your body. Any source of blood suffices: your enemies', genetic lifeforms', or even your own."

𝒻𝑟𝘦𝘦𝘸ℯ𝒷𝑛𝘰𝓋ℯ𝘭.𝘤𝘰𝘮

"That said," the monarch of the sea cautioned, "we don't know whether it'll prevent the poison if you use your own blood, and we don't recommend trying that on the battlefield."

The sura kings marveled at the intelligence of the five sura monarchs for having come up with two countermeasures so quickly.

The monarch of the sun continued, "We must also focus our attention on the unusually strong hunters that have emerged from within Renhuang. Some are as strong as sura kings."

When did humans grow so strong? This was a question that the sura kings had been asking themselves repeatedly. Not only that, their strength seemed to have come out of nowhere, without giving the sura any time to prepare.

The sura kings gritted their teeth. Having such a rapidly developing enemy wasn't a good sign; they had to take down the humans at any cost.

The monarch of the moon took out two portraits that were nominally of Li Feng and Fang Yi.

One man was covered in brilliant flame, radiating so much light he could eclipse the sun himself. Scales crept up his arms and feet, and he looked half-draconian. The other was wreathed in wind and thunder, with the aspects of a tiger and a dragon.

There were only portraits of Li Feng and Fang Yi because the only sura to have escaped came from the raiding parties that had encountered the two hunters.

Shouta's forces had all died. Shicang's were corpses. Suiyue's had all perished in an attempt to save their liege from being taken away as a baby. Gaoyuan's syphilis had been so potent that it had claimed the lives of all his own forces.

The portraits were made following the descriptions provided by those sura that had escaped from Renhuang, and were somewhat unreliable to begin with given the circumstances. As a result, the finished portraits were so embellished that even Li Feng and Fang Yi would be hard-pressed to recognize them as themselves.

"According to reports we received from within Renhuang, the hunters who killed the allied invasion forces are part of this 'Team Zenith', and their strength is on par with the strongest sura kings. They're the elites of Renhuang," the monarch of the moon explained.

The sura kings had found it hard to believe that mere humans had been able to take down a sura monarch, but after looking at these portraits, everything seemed to make sense. These weren't humans—they were basically peak-grade lifeforms!

Indeed, it made sense that only such monstrosities would be able to take down sura kings.

Those sura who had escaped from the battle had, to some extent, exaggerated the humans' capabilities intentionally. It was embarrassing to have lost to humans, but far less so to lose to monsters in human guises.

The monarch of the moon continued, "According to our sources in Renhuang, the man on the left is known as Li Feng, and that on the right is Fang Yi."

The monarch of the sky added, "Although Li Feng looks like a human, he transforms into a half-draconian form in battle. He's said to possess the bloodline of an arclight dragon, and he has frightening capabilities."

The sura's sources weren't particularly accurate; even in Renhuang, they would have to sift out fact from fiction, exaggeration from lie.

Some of the sura kings gasped. "A peak-grade dragon's bloodline? Surely this Li Feng isn't a half-breed!"

Beside him, another sura king rolled his eyes. "That's impossible. Don't you remember the monarch of stars' experiments? He's tried it countless times, and it hasn't ever succeeded. Members of different species might still be able to have sex with each other, but their biology doesn't allow for interbreeding.

"If you have the time, you should have a look at the science magazine series distributed by the empire of stars. The monarch of stars came up with the idea himself in order to improve the sura's understanding of the world as a whole, and it includes details of many experiments that the monarch of stars conducted."

In truth, the monarch of stars had distributed this magazine in order to find useful research assistants—this was how he had found Fenghe. However, Fenghe was his lone success from this venture. Most of the sura preferred physical, rather than intellectual, domination.

"Could the humans have found a way to perform this interbreeding, then?"

"It's very likely. You know of Fenghe, the monarch of stars' godson, don't you?"

The sura kings nearby shuddered; no one thought highly of mad scientists.

"Surely half-breeds are just the next step up from Fenghe's creations—it's not strange at all."

The monarch of the moon held the portraits in his hands up high. "We monarchs agree with this sentiment. It's very likely that the humans' breakthrough had to do with combining their own bodies with those of genetic lifeforms to produce superpowered mutants.

"This Li Feng might be an exception, but how about Fang Yi? All our eyewitnesses report seeing him transform into a dragontiger with dual elemental attunements in wind and thunder. I've never heard of such a beast, but it's clearly peak-grade or higher."

The sura kings nodded earnestly as they glanced at the portrait of Fang Yi.

The monarch of the sky warned, "We suspect that there are far more of these mutants than were reported to us. At the very least, the six members of Team Zenith are all such mutants."

The sura kings became even more serious. They couldn't treat the humans in Renhuang like humans; they were mutants, a new race in their own right.

Of course, if Li Feng and Fang Yi were to hear of such a conjecture, they would fall over laughing...