Chapter 580: Pushing the Responsibility Around

"[Arclight Descension]!" Li Feng waved his left arm, around which a torrent of light-attuned genetic energy was gathering. It took the form of a gigantic dragon's claw, bearing down on Zhang Lie like a beam of light.

"[The Boundless Blade: Shark Horde]!" White mist swept over the sura as hundreds of translucent sharks attacked them.

The result of the battle was, of course, a full victory for the forces of Renhuang. They had killed over fifty million sura and countless sura kings, turning the tide of war against the sura for good.

Amidst a battlefield filled with slime, the alien races let out ear-splitting cries. Morale reached its peak; the atmosphere was joyous.

The sura monarchs convened a meeting at their headquarters.

The monarch of the sun slammed a palm on the table in rage, causing it to cave in. Fiery-red cracks spiderwebbed from the point of impact and caused the table to split into pieces. In a flash of red light, the table was incinerated.

The monarch of the moon glanced at the monarch of the sun coolly. "There's no reason to be so angry. The outcome of that battle can't be changed."

The monarch of the sun roared, "What would you have me do?! Let those arrogant pieces of trash be?"

The monarchs' intention was to overcome Renhuang with a massive army. By making use of the traitors in their midst, the sura would gain the upper hand and decimate Renhuang's forces in a pincer-style attack. Even if they couldn't destroy it all, they would force Zhang Lie to show his hand.

In the end, not only had they not managed to force Zhang Lie out, their entire army had been destroyed.

The monarch of the sky's face was dark. "None of us could have anticipated that Renhuang would have had such an ace up their sleeves."

If they had known, they would have destroyed that poison at any cost.

The monarch of the sun's eyes glinted with flame. He was unable to rein in his aura any longer; a sun appeared by his back. "Despicable scum. Not only has Renhuang developed a poison that specifically targets the sura, they've also come up with these monstrosities. Just where did they learn of such malicious tactics?"

The monarch of the moon said, "We should focus on how to deal with the Renhuang army."

The monarch of mountains snorted. "More and more of these alien races are joining Renhuang after their victory. They're completely ignoring out dominion, and they're even spreading into sura territory."

After the disastrous results of the last battle, the sura were unable to resist the human incursion any longer. The forces of Renhuang rushed into sura territory and claimed a large quantity of their land by conquest.

"At its core, Renhuang's army is controlled by the members of Team Zenith, those odious humans," the monarch of the sea pointed out. "As long as we kill them, we won't have to worry about the army as a whole."

"Indeed, we can't allow them to spread any further," the monarch of mountains replied. "Even if the sura are to perish, we have to destroy Renhuang's core."

Renhuang was far too dangerous a threat, able to create poisons and lifeforms that were specifically tuned against the sura.

The monarch of the sun nodded. "This is a matter of life and death for the sura," he stressed. "If we don't defeat Renhuang, we'll perish."

The monarch of the sky rolled his eyes. "You don't have to state the obvious."

"Onto the specifics, then," the monarch of the moon suggested. "Are the three of you going to strike at Renhuang yourselves?"

A silence dragged on. The monarch of the sea, mountains, and the sun were silent.

None of them could guarantee success.

Not only did they have to deal with the threat of the governor of Renhuang, who still hadn't made an appearance, they wouldn't easily be able to handle the refined Yeluo poison or the members of Team Zenith.

According to the few sura who had managed to escape from the culling, even sura kings fell prey to that poison. In that case, they couldn't be confident that they, as sura monarchs, wouldn't suffer the same fate.

That said, the only opportunity they had to test that hypothesis out was to go onto the battlefield themselves, but they would have to put their lives on the line to do so.

The monarchs all looked at each other, waiting for one of them to take the lead.

The monarch of the moon was the first to speak up. "I don't feel that these lifeforms can be all that strong. After all, science still obeys basic principles. The original version of the poison was only effective against ordinary sura fighters, with significantly reduced effect on sura kings. It's very likely that this biological lifeform follows the same principles, but one level more advanced."

The monarch of the sky nodded. "A very reasonable analysis—it might be effective against sura kings, but not sura monarchs. Sura kings are quite a bit weaker than sura monarchs, after all. In that case, why don't you test the effects of this poison for yourself?"

The monarch of mountains clapped his hands. "A very reasonable suggestion. Moon, you're confident in your analysis, aren't you? If you lead a charge against Renhuang's army, I'm sure you'll be able to take them all down in no time at all."

The monarch of the sea gave him a thumbs up. "Indeed, Moon!"

𝑓𝘳𝑒𝑒𝓌𝘦𝘣𝘯ℴ𝑣𝘦𝑙.𝘤𝑜𝑚

None of the sura monarchs were idiots, and none of them wanted to risk their lives without any certainty.

The monarch of the moon immediately shook his head. "Oh, no, I couldn't. I haven't been feeling very well lately, you see. Why don't we have Sun take the lead? He's the strongest among us all, as well as the ruler of the strongest sura kingdom. I'm sure his strength will cause the humans to cower."

"Enough!" the monarch of the sun shouted.

The other four sura monarchs all shut up.

The monarch of the sun scowled at the four monarchs. "Have you forgotten that our common enemy is the humans, not each other?"

The four sura monarchs lowered their heads.

The monarch of the sun waved an arm. "No one need go. None of us know what Renhuang is hiding—we didn't know of their poison then, and we didn't know of these lifeforms now. Who knows if Renhuang might have even more trump cards up their sleeve?"

The silence dragged on. In the past, while they had spies in Renhuang, they would have been able to obtain information quite readily, but now that all their spies had been rooted out, the sura monarchs were entirely blindsided.

The monarch of the sun made a final proclamation. "None of you will have to test the waters, and neither will I."

The monarch of the moon's eyes widened. "In that case, are we to do nothing against the human incursion?"

The monarch of the sun shook his head. "Just because we won't test the waters doesn't mean no one will."

"Y-You want to wake him up?!" the monarch of the sky's eyes bulged in shock.