The Last Chance, the Torchbearers Will Step In

【You stood up and pretended not to know You Keqing.】

【“Human, you claim to have a way to defeat the battle corpse? Let’s hear it.”】

【You Keqing cupped his fists and smiled.】

【“Whether I tell you or not isn’t important, because only my old friends and I can carry out this method.

I came here today hoping that, once we’re gone, if your army truly unifies the entire Blazing Star, you’ll remember that we helped you. Please don’t cross the river and tear down the bridge. Show the human race some mercy.”】

【Hearing those words, and seeing the moisture in You Keqing’s eyes, you immediately realized that they intended to sacrifice themselves.】

【And they had already made up their minds.】

【After all, appearing openly today would expose his identity as a member of the Torch Society. Yet he had still come, which clearly meant he had nothing left to worry about.】

【You asked calmly.】

【“Is there really no other way?”】

【You Keqing looked at you and smiled as he shook his head.】

【Your heart sank, but you remained expressionless and slapped the ground with your dragon claw.】

【“Good! Then go ahead and do it without worry!

Don’t worry. Once the world is unified, our Dragonkin will stand supreme. We’ll need someone to rule over, won’t we?

Once all the other races have been wiped out, naturally we’ll keep the humans, who have the largest population, and make them our subjects for all eternity!

We’ll have the humans grow our crops, mine our ore, build our palaces, and serve us as loyal attendants!

Meanwhile, we Dragonkin can simply lie around at home!”】

【The Dragonkin in the tent, along with the races on friendly terms with them, all burst into laughter after hearing this.】

【They liked the sound of that promise, too.】

【In truth, what you were really thinking was:】

【That promise would indeed keep the Dragonkin content for a while.】

【But what would happen to the humans of Blazing Star once they were freed from pressure on all sides by the myriad races, leaving them with nothing but a Dragonkin race that knew only how to indulge itself?】

【Just think about the Dragonkin’s pitiful reproductive capacity.】

【Once the human population began to explode, and the number of draws from the “blind boxes” increased, the odds of obtaining a hidden prize would rise as well.】

【Once the strength of human cultivators caught up…】

【By then, who ruled Blazing Star would no longer be up to the Dragonkin.】

【On any planet in the Material Realm, a single alien race could never suppress humanity.】

【The human race had never been able to rise because countless alien races had been suppressing it in unspoken coordination.】

【The Heavenfiend Sect was immersed in its beautiful dream of unifying the world, unaware that what it was doing was actually clearing the obstacles standing in the way of Blazing Star’s human resurgence.】

【You Keqing also understood the meaning behind your words: everything was proceeding according to plan. The uprising would surely succeed!】

【You Keqing smiled, then left the Heavenfiend army tent.】

【Several days later.】

【You Keqing and more than a dozen members of the Torch Society’s committee arrived at the battlefield.】

【The Heavenfiend army held the rear while more than a dozen human cultivators stood at the very front.】

【Quite a few alien soldiers were deeply displeased by this sight.】

【“Why do we have to rely on human cultivators for help?”】

【“We are the mighty Dragonkin, the superior race! How can we hide behind lowly humans? What a disgrace!”】

【“Exactly! If word of this got out, wouldn’t the world think that we’re inferior even to humans?”】

【The commotion among the troops was suppressed by the junior officers.】

【After all, you had already issued an order: no one was to cause trouble for You Keqing and the others today. Anyone who did would be dealt with according to military law.】

【The rank-and-file soldiers were still blindly worshipful of you, believing that you could overcome anything.】

【But the senior officers and the elders of the various factions all knew that even you could not break the combination of the battle corpse and the Golden Wheel. As for whether the few humans who had come to help could do it, they were uncertain themselves.】

【“Sect Master, can these humans really do it?”】

【Yadada and several elders were feeling extremely uneasy.】

【By now, their logistical supplies were already stretched to the limit.】

【The entire army had mobilized today to surround Green Hill Mountain once more. If they still failed to achieve victory, the army would no longer have the strength to continue the stalemate.】

【This was their final chance.】

【“They aren’t ordinary human cultivators.”】

【“Indeed. Our people investigated them. These few are probably members of the Torch Society.”】

【You remained calm and spoke indifferently.】

【“Do we really need an investigation? I could tell the moment he appeared in the army tent. But since they have a method, let them give it a try.”】

【“Sect Master, if they really succeed, will you truly agree to their conditions?”】

【That Grand Elder was a sly old fox. He was actually still probing your identity.】

【You let out a cold laugh.】

【“What a joke. Humans are fit only to be our slaves! Once the world is unified, we’ll discard them as soon as they’ve served their purpose. We’ll kill every human cultivator and forbid humans from practicing cultivation!”】

【Upon hearing this, the Grand Elder and the others wore relieved expressions.】

【Regardless of whether this Sect Master’s identity was genuine or not, as long as he stood on their side, that was all that mattered.】

【But your true plan was this:】

【The moment the war ended, you would slaughter all the senior alien leaders and replace them with trusted subordinates whom you had promoted during the war.】

【Although these trusted subordinates were aliens as well, they obeyed your every command.】

【By then, you would be able to implement policies favorable to humanity.】

【But all of that could wait.】

【Ahead of you, more than a dozen elderly human men and women—members of the Torch Society—walked toward the battle corpse with somewhat unsteady steps.】

【Their faces showed none of the solemn grief of people marching to their deaths. Instead, they looked relieved, even happy.】

【“It must be that thing, right?”】

【“There’s no mistaking it. That unique majesty can only belong to it.”】

【“We searched for so many years. We never imagined that the Green Hill Sect had been hiding it all along.”】

【“They had no choice but to hide it. They couldn’t use it themselves. Hahaha…”】

【“Today, we old fellows will reclaim what belongs to humanity and return it to the human race!”】

【“Chairman You, are you certain you want to give it to Chen Dong?”】

【“Although it will be difficult for him to use it as well, I believe he can find the rightful person capable of wielding it.”】

【After a brief exchange, the dozen or so people suddenly accelerated. Their afterimages streaked through the mountain forest, while several who had comprehended flight-type divine abilities even rose into the air.】

【They no longer concealed their cultivation levels.】

【The weakest was at the mid-stage of the Absolute Realm, while the strongest was at the late stage of the Heaven-Ascending Realm!】

【The elders of the Heavenfiend Sect were utterly shocked when they sensed their auras.】

【“There are actually two Heaven-Ascending Realm cultivators?!”】

【“Humanity has been hiding its strength incredibly well!”】

【“They’d better die to the battle corpse today. Otherwise, we absolutely cannot let them leave this place alive!”】

【The aliens’ instinctive hostility toward humanity had flared up again.】

【A flash of killing intent passed through your eyes.】

【Hold it in. Wait until we’ve gotten every last bit of use out of them before finishing them off.】

【You Keqing and the others charged toward the battle corpse. You noticed that none of them were carrying magical weapons or spirit treasures.】

【They were even using divine arts to withstand the Golden Wheel’s scorching heat.】

【Although the Torch Society was poor as an underground organization, there was no way the members of its committee possessed nothing useful at all.】

【“They left their inheritances for the others…”】

You quickly figured this out.