Chapter 584: Three Days' Time

Before the monarch of the sun could finish speaking, the asura understood everything.

"You pieces of trash!" The asura's words were accompanied by pressure that made the five sura monarchs feel as though a mountain was pressing down on their backs. They began to vomit blood. "If you can't even protect our land, what's the point of keeping the five of you around?!"

𝗳𝗿𝐞𝕖𝘄𝗲𝕓𝗻𝚘𝚟𝕖𝐥.𝚌𝕠𝕞

"No, please, my lord! We've tried our best to stop the onslaught, but our opponents are dastardly and wicked!"

The five monarchs pleaded for their lives. The asura didn't respond. With a snap of his fingers, the five sura monarchs all lost a part of their body. Before they could scream, the asura stepped forward, piercing the boundaries of space as he appeared atop Renhuang.

After their massive victory and the subsequent withdrawal of the sura, the forces of Renhuang had been able to lay claim to city after city. Renhuang's territory grew to ten times its original size, until it was larger than even the average sura empire.

When the asura appeared out of thin air, space began to distort and the earth began to crack. The space around Renhuang seemed like an apocalyptic nightmare. The asura's strength was much like Zhang Lie's strength after having swallowed the disaster-grade core in the first realm. Just his presence alone was sufficient to affect the entire realm.

However, the will of the world wasn't trying its hardest to send the asura out of the realm, for two reasons. First, the asura's effect was localized around a rather small region; and second, the will of the world didn't have the strength to counter an asura.

The second realm was large and robust, and it was mostly able to sustain the asura's strength for the time being. He had slumbered in the world for millennia, and the realm had had time to get accustomed to his presence.

The asura's gaze swept across the city, his eyes seeming to wander into past and present. "Zhang Lie, is it? Interesting."

A guard of Renhuang walked up to the asura. "Who are you?"

With a casual wave of his arm, the asura sent a tsunami of energy toward Renhuang. The walls fell; the guards were sent flying. Half of Renhuang was destroyed in a mere instant, turning into nothing more than a pile of ruins.

By the time the citizens of Renhuang reacted, there was a deep abyss scarring the borders of Renhuang. The force that had struck the walls of Renhuang proper was, shockingly, only a side effect of the asura's attack.

The asura continued calmly, "I'll give you three days to find this so-called Zhang Lie. If he doesn't appear by that time, all of humanity will go extinct."

The asura, a god among men, didn't spare a single glance for the human sentries scampering about in the aftermath of the attack as he departed.

When word of the terrifying event spread to the real world, the hunters' forums immediately exploded.

"Just what is this asura? He's more frightening than anything I've seen to date in the second realm!"

"Oh, I know, I know! I saw it in a history book once. This looks to be an asura, one of the gods of the sura."

"What?! Isn't that a myth, nothing more than a legend?!"

"The legendary asura are apparently able to make the heavens quake when they breathe out and the seas tremor when they breathe in. When they raise their arms, they can crack heaven and earth, tearing the very space apart. It looks as though there's some merit to this description, doesn't it?"

"Do the asura truly exist? And they've even made an appearance in Renhuang? We're doomed, we're doomed, Renhuang's doomed!"

When Amurong learned of this news, he raised his head to the sky and laughed madly. "Very good, very good! Spread the news immediately. We have to target Zhang Lie and Hong Tianqi now!"

On Amurong's command, countless people took to the forums and began besmirching Zhang Lie and Renhuang's reputation.

"Zhang Lie thinks that amassing a coalition of alien races will be sufficient against the sura, does he?"

"If nothing else, the sura have ruled over the second realm for millennia. Now that they've awakened their god, Renhuang is bound to fall."

"Renhuang's far too ambitious to think that the humans alone can overturn the sura's tyranny!"

"No one has been able to accomplish anything against the sura, not us, not hundreds or thousands of races before us. Who do you think you are?!"

"Renhuang's army is nothing but a joke. Do you really think that the sura can be vanquished with nothing more than a few limit-breaking potions?"

"The culprit behind this entire affair is Zhang Lie. If he hadn't sparked such conflict, matters wouldn't have deteriorated to this extent."

"In my opinion, no one should enter the sura realm for the moment. In fact, we might as well leave it for good!"

Amurong's crude tactics were stunningly effective.

"I was shocked to learn that Renhuang was amassing forces against the sura, so shocked my hands and legs turned cold. Does Zhang Lie really think that being able to take down a sura empire means that he can take down the entire sura race, too?!"

"Look at what he's done. Because of Zhang Lie, none of us can enter the second realm—he's blocked off all our access to the second realm, and we won't be able to grow stronger as hunters!"

The ordinary hunter hadn't been able to reap any rewards from Zhang Lie's successes, but his perceived failure had certainly saddled them with penalties. As a result, Zhang Lie's reputation came crashing down again.

"It's all Zhang Lie's fault! Now look at what he's done..."

"Damned bastard! Now it's not just the humans who can't enter the second realm, but all of us!"

"You humans were the ones being persecuted by the sura, not the rest of us. If you want to overthrow the sura, leave us out of it!"

Protesters even staged demonstrations outside the Zenith Dojo, which was fortunately well guarded by the Chinese military.

"Come out here and face us!"

"Zhang Lie, you wretched bastard, get out here!"

"You don't speak for the entire human race. How dare you drag us all down with you!"

Meanwhile, Hong Tianqi and his faction were deep in the midst of their planning.

"Are we ready?"

"Everything's ready," his trusted aide confirmed. "But sir, are you really going to do this?"

One of his allies advised, "Martial Sage, you'll have to pay too heavy a price to return to the second realm..."

"And yet it's a price I must pay. No one in the second realm can stop an asura. All of Renhuang will perish, and what Zhang Lie has reaped will go to naught. More importantly, the entirety of the Milky Way will be barred from advancing into the third realm."

The soldiers standing behind Hong Tianqi glanced at his back with respect.

"But if Zhang Lie were to return, all these problems would be solved, surely?"

Hong Tianqi shook his head. "I'd prefer for him not to return."

"Ah?"

"Zhang Lie has more potential than any other fighter I've seen. At worst, I'll lose much of my combat ability upon returning to the second realm—but if Zhang Lie were to face the asura himself, China and all of mankind might lose their hope for the future."

Hong Tianqi had always viewed Zhang Lie as the hope for the next generation, but even he didn't think that Zhang Lie would be a match for the asura.