Su Yu started his search at the severed end of the river. With Xing Yu's token in one hand and Lan Tian to his side, he started moving forward bit by bit.
Each tributary was essentially a fake dao. He only needed to follow the thread of each tributary and check if it was connected to someone in the Dao Origin Land. If it wasn't, that would mean that the cultivator had left. Otherwise, the cultivator would still be somewhere in the Dao Origin Land.
He could also see the fusion rate of these tributaries. Those with a low rate of fusion belonged to Eternals, signifying that he wouldn't need to pay much attention to them. He only needed to focus on those with a far higher rate or near mastery.
These people would either be Daofuses, heavenly kings, or Venerables. Su Yu did not fear fake dao Venerables. In fact, he could even win against a fake dao Venerable after suppressing the dao of the Venerable. Thus, he had nothing to fear.
After a while, he reached his first fake dao. He tore a rift in space and stepped out with Lan Tian. But after a quick search, he shook his head and said, "Gone. This is probably a Daofuse, but the Daofuse is not here anymore. The dao is being projected to somewhere near the Chaos Mountain."
This fake dao cultivator, in particular, had departed the Dao Origin Land.
Su Yu continued his search.
***
Second fake dao. Third fake dao. They were all the same. The owners had all departed the place.
As for the fourth and fifth fake daos, both were too weak. The owners would barely be Daofuses or even weaker. He couldn't be bothered to pay much attention to the two. The two were weaker than even Great Zhou King's patient dao. It was unlikely that they belonged to heavenly kings.
And finally, Su Yu stopped. Before him was a relatively powerful tributary.
He exited the river with Lan Tian yet again.
***
They appeared on an ancient mountain.
After a look around, Su Yu frowned and sent a voice transmission, "Someone is here. That someone isn't dead, but the connection to the dao is cut off. This person might still be in deep slumber."
He looked at the mountain below him. It didn't look different from the other mountains in the Dao Origin Land.
A powerful being could be slumbering somewhere down below.
"Let's go down and take a look."
An expert who had cut off their connection to their dao would need some time to restore the connection. Su Yu did not fear such an expert. Both Su Yu and Lan Tian were capable of earth traversal. With a flicker, both dove underground.
The deeper they went, the firmer the ground was. This was a place where one might not find water just by digging deep enough. One might end up finding a large stone, or one might end up finding the realm barrier instead.
After an indeterminate amount of time, both Su Yu and Lan Tian withdrew their presence fully. Deep underground, a small stone room appeared before them. Inside the room, a humanoid being was seated cross-legged. The being looked withered, as though this were a corpse. No life could be felt from the being. In fact, a rotting aura surrounded it.
"A room built from sealing stones, capable of concealing one's presence. This is an expert in deep seclusion." That was Lan Tian's conclusion.
Su Yu focused on the unknown being for a while before saying, "Not a human. A divine, I think. I can feel some divine aura on him. He has cultivated the fake dao to the limit. At full strength, this person has the strength of a heavenly king."
A divine expert.
One who had remained in seclusion for an unknown amount of time.
"Do we make a move?" Lan Tian looked at Su Yu and asked, "You can suppress him with Xing Yu's token. He is cut off from their dao, and he isn't even awake. Under suppression, he will only be as strong as an Eternal. We can easily defeat someone like this."
In truth, a suppression in such a situation would reduce this divine into a Sunmoon. But as a heavenly king, even after being suppressed into the Sunmoon Realm, they would be able to fight with the strength of an Eternal.
"Why should we?" Su Yu smiled, "A fake dao cultivator who is desperate enough to enter deep slumber is not a threat to me. But for anyone else, someone like this is a true heavenly king.
"The three major races are sweeping through the Upper Realm, right? Let me add something to his dao. Something that will drive him crazy the moment he reconnects to his dao. What will he when Venerable Moon discovers him? Will Venerable Moon kill someone from his own race who has gone mad? But can he even afford to spare a mad heavenly king?"
"You're such a baddie!" Suddenly, Lan Tian's voice turned soft, causing Su Yu to shiver. Damn it! Why was this guy doing this now?
Ignoring Lan Tian, Su Yu moved up again. Halfway, he stopped and left some power of laws around before saying, "I'm giving them a full service here. With this, they won't miss this person during their search.
"Venerable Moon will definitely be happy to sense some divine qi here. After all, this might be a forgotten powerhouse of his race. How happy will he be to find a missing heavenly king of his race out of nowhere?"
"Big Brother Yu is such a baddie!" Once again, Lan Tian spoke with the same gentle voice, giving Su Yu the urge to punch his head apart. Ignoring Lan Tian, Su Yu continued moving upward.
Behind him, Lan Tian asked, "What if they decide to suppress this person instead of killing him?"
Su Yu said, "Do you think I'll ignore this possibility? I'll add something to his dao. If they do suppress him, he will detonate himself. It's time for the myriad races to have a taste of madness."
"Will this work?"
"Don't bother asking. This won't work in the Lower Realm, but this will definitely work here."
Xing Yu's token was his biggest guarantor. The slumbering divine was already cut off from his own dao. Su Yu only needed to suppress the dao with Xing Yu's token and he would be free to do anything to this dao without discovery.
Unfortunately, this wasn't possible in the Lower Realm or he would have used this ability to openly steal from the myriad daos long ago.
***
Before long, Su Yu was back in the river. After suppressing the fake dao with Xing Yu's token, he started his work on the fake dao.
Madness. Confusion. Slaughter.
Su Yu had access to many forms of power. He was able to use them all without much trouble.
After a while, Su Yu stepped back and looked at his handiwork with satisfaction. Now, he only needed to wait. He prayed that the Venerables would be here faster. Strictly speaking, a heavenly king and a Venerable were both on the same level of cultivation. This could potentially result in a very good show for them.
***
After marking the place down in his mind, Su Yu resumed his search.
Before long, he found the second slumbering Daofuse. The slumbering Daofuse felt like a tier-three Daofuse to his senses. In short, this was a weakling. So weak that Su Yu couldn't even be bothered to mess with the fake dao of this Daofuse.
The myriad races had a lot of fake dao experts, but most had left the Dao Origin Land.
***
After nearly a day in search, Su Yu finally found the second heavenly king.