Tribulation of Myriad Races

“I refuse to believe this!”

Su Yu cursed stubbornly. He picked a technique with 12 shining points instead of looking for a better option. But the same thing happened. He was on the verge of taming the character technique when it was smashed into pieces by the book.

“Damn it! What are you trying to do exactly?”

Su Yu was furious. If this continued, he wouldn’t be able to tame any technique. Was he going to fail?

While Su Yu was raging, the golden book pulsed again. This time, something completely unexpected happened. The book actually flew out of his sea of willpower. Then, it erupted with a blinding light.

All around Su Yu, one technique after another shattered. Dozens of nearby techniques were destroyed by the book. Before Su Yu’s dazed eyes, all the techniques were destroyed, leaving only the independent shining points behind.

Then, the book started looking over the shining points like it was shopping. Some of the destroyed techniques had several shining points picked. Some only had one. Some had none.

Even the shining points left by the techniques that had been destroyed after entering his sea of willpower were picked as well. Su Yu noted that of the shining points of the first character technique he had picked, only one was chosen by the book.

What was going on? Slowly, one shining point after another gathered before him before coming together to form a new character technique. The new technique was filled with countless shining points.

Su Yu was completely dumbfounded. So it turned out that his golden book had merely destroyed all those techniques because it looked down on them? It had decided to assemble an even better technique for him?

While Su Yu was thinking all that, the new character technique finished taking form. It was a tiny saber that resembled the cultural weapon he had obtained from Zhao Li.

Su Yu counted a total of 99 shining points in that character technique. Did he get something wrong? He counted for a second time. Yes, there were 99 shining points.

The destroyed character techniques had left hundreds of shining points behind. However, the book had only picked 99 of them to form this saber.

“99 points…is the book crazy?”

Su Yu wasn’t happy at all. On the contrary, he was furious and dumbfounded. What was the meaning of this? Was the book telling him to form 99 Divine Characters before the Skysoar Realm? Was the book trying to kill him? Could his willpower even withstand such a heavy load before breaking through?

Other cultivators could enter the Skysoar Realm after forming only a few Divine Characters. And he had to form 99 Divine Characters? He might even need to form more in case some of the Divine Characters were incompatible with the character technique. That book was obviously trying to kill him!

If Su Yu’s real body was in that space, he would most definitely have an ashen expression right now. This was a character technique with 99 Divine Characters. It was most definitely a powerful technique.

But…did he have the time to form so many Divine Characters? Did he have enough willpower to nurture all those Divine Characters? He would probably be stuck below the Skysoar Realm even after all his peers had reached the Mountainsea Realm. The book was obviously trying to destroy his future.

“I reject this! I don’t want it!”

Su Yu raged. What was wrong with that garbage book today? Has it gone mad?

Couldn’t it stay silently in the sea of willpower?

Why must it come out and create trouble for him?

That thought had barely crossed Su Yu’s mind when all three of his Divine Characters pulsed before they flew into the saber.

Su Yu’s willpower pulsed as he tried to pull his Divine Characters back, but he failed.

“What now? What in the world is going on?”

Su Yu was stunned. Why had his three Divine Characters betrayed him? In this case, would he lose all three of his Divine Characters if he rejected this saber? What the fuck?

Unlike Su Yu, the three Divine Characters seemed completely at ease and comfortable in the saber. They swam freely in the saber, seemingly trying to showcase how satisfied they were with their new home.

Su Yu was so angry he felt like his clump of consciousness was going to have a heart attack. He really couldn’t understand what was going on. Wasn’t his book supposed to be a mere tool? Did it have its own consciousness as well?

“99 Divine Characters…”

Su Yu was in disbelief, but he had no choice but to start comforting himself. He only needed 99 Divine Characters. That was nothing. Yeap. That was nothing. He could form one character reading a willpower text once. He would only need to read 99 willpower texts. If he read once per day, he would only need 99 days to complete his goal. No, he only needed 96 days since he already had 3 Divine Characters.

“But it would be expensive since I need to read a lot of willpower texts…”

Su Yu didn’t know if this was a good thing or a bad thing. He was finding it hard to accept that he would need to form 99 Divine Characters.

“But it has 99 Divine Characters! It would be very powerful! Definitely!”

Once again, Su Yu comforted himself. Since there was nothing he could do about it, his only choice was to accept it.

All the stars near him had already been destroyed. He would need to spend more time if he wanted to find a new character technique. And even if he found one, it would end up being destroyed by his book anyway. That would be pointless.

Su Yu could only helplessly wrap his willpower around the saber and drag it into his sea of willpower. The saber did not resist while the book returned to the sea of willpower. As for the three Divine Characters, they seemed incredibly pleased with their new home. Before long, the saber vanished and reappeared in Su Yu’s sea of willpower. This time, the book left it alone.

“99 Divine Characters…I doubt Teacher would believe this even if I tell him.”

Su Yu had no idea what he should tell his teacher. Were there even supposed to be a character technique with 99 Divine Characters in this wall? He doubted so.

…

When Su Yu opened his eyes again, he had the expression of someone who had lost all hope. When Bai Feng saw that, he exclaimed, “He failed— ”

But he suddenly realized that this was quite a familiar scene so he hurriedly changed his tune, “Did you form a bad character technique?”

This kid would usually have completely unexpected reactions. His current reaction could very well be due to his dissatisfaction with his character technique.

Su Yu hesitated to speak. It wasn’t that he had formed a bad character technique. The issue was that his character technique was too good.

If he told his teacher he had formed a character technique with 99 Divine Characters, would his teacher believe it?

Su Yu opened his mouth to speak, but no words came out. After a while, he finally asked, “Teacher, who holds the highest record of required Divine Characters for a character technique?”

“Hmm?” Bai Feng gave it some thought before saying, “Either Martial Uncle Liu or the fifth principal, I guess.”

Chen Yong looked at Su Yu doubtfully and said, “It’s the fifth principal. He formed a character technique with 22 Divine Characters. Martial Uncle Liu formed one with 18 Divine Characters. As for our teacher and your grandteacher, he formed one with 14 Divine Characters. Of course, those walking the path of offense would have a harder time. Most of the time, someone specializing in offense would only need 10 Divine Characters to contend against a defense specialist with 12 Divine Characters.

“The fifth principal was someone on the cusp of the Invincible Realm. Martial Uncle Liu was the greatest genius 50 years ago. The two of them were terrifyingly strong. Generally, for offense specialists, even 10 Divine Characters would be enough to make you a powerful expert.”

Bai Feng said, “That’s right. That path of offense is far more difficult. But it is also far stronger. Although I only have 12 Divine Characters, I am stronger than my teacher. He is definitely not my match if we’re both in the same realm…”

Chen Yong glared at his junior brother.

Bai Feng asked, “Did you form a character technique with too few Divine Characters? Don’t be discouraged. It doesn’t matter. Even 10 Divine Characters is good enough. Of course, that’s not as good as me, but it’s more than enough to bully people like Hu Wensheng…”

Bai Feng started comforting his student. Everything would be fine as long as the character technique was formed successfully. As for the number of Divine Characters, it really didn’t matter that much. Even 10 Divine Characters would be enough to make one a top genius that could defeat everyone in the same cultivation realm.

Su Yu found himself out of words. He was really worried. What should he do? Even a super genius like the fifth principal who had slain an Invincible expert before had only formed one with 22 Divine Characters. But Su Yu’s character technique required 99 Divine Characters.

He was basically four fifth principals combined into one. Or more than that. And since the fifth principal could kill an Invincible expert, he probably needed to be able to kill at least four.

Would Bai Feng be terrified to hear that?

Would Bai Feng believe that?

Would Bai Feng beat him up for lying instead?

Su Yu really didn’t want to lie to his teacher, but after some struggle, he said, “Uhm, my character technique…has…”

“How many Divine Characters?”

Bai Feng was getting anxious. What was this brat doing? Was the brat not aware that being so hesitant would only make them more anxious?

Su Yu sank into silence. He decided to tell the truth since he was an honest man. He clenched his teeth and said, “Two nines.”

“…”

Bai Feng blanked out for a bit, but his shock was soon replaced with anger. Why couldn’t the brat say eighteen instead of being all fancy and saying two nines? Did he think he would look more incredible saying that? Then again, that was really incredible.

Chen Yong exclaimed in shock, “18 Divine Characters? That’s a lot. This…should be a good thing. But you need to form 18 Divine Characters during the Mental Tempering Stage. In other words, you might end up needing more Divine Characters than that after including incompatible Divine Characters. This won’t be easy.”

But there was really no denying that this kid was really a genius for forming a character technique with 18 Divine Characters. That was a very powerful character technique. But it would also be much harder to cultivate. Chen Yong was worried. Could Su Yu complete the technique?

Su Yu did not say anything. He wasn’t the one who had said the number eighteen! He had clearly said two nines! He hadn’t lied. In the future when they found out about it, they couldn’t blame him for lying. They were the ones who had misunderstood him.

Just look at their reaction after concluding that he needed 18 Divine Characters. They were acting like he was in big trouble. How would they react if they knew that he needed 99 Divine Characters? Would they sink into despair?

Su Yu was also worried that he would be abandoned if they learned the truth. After all, 99 Divine Characters could very well mean that he would be stuck below the Skysoar Realm for life. At the very least, that was how it looked like for these two.

Furthermore, it would be very hard for him to explain things related to his golden book. It wasn’t like he had lied to them. They were the ones who had misunderstood his truth.

“I guess I’ll need to keep a low profile from now on. I’ll just report one Divine Character for every five that I form. In that case, everything would look reasonable…”

Su Yu started making his plans. He could no longer tell Bai Feng everything.

By reporting one out of five Divine Characters he formed, he wouldn’t need to worry about explaining his progress to them.

“18 Divine Characters…”

Bai Feng and Chen Yong were no longer paying any attention to Su Yu. The two looked at each other. Bai Feng whispered, “He needs the same number of Divine Characters as Martial Uncle. How long did Martial Uncle take to form all his Divine Characters?”

“Three years.” Chen Yong answered, “Almost three years.”

“Would this kid be comparable with Martial Uncle? Even if that’s the case, he would need at least three years to get into the Skysoar Realm.”

Bai Feng looked at Su Yu again and exhaled in relief. It wasn’t that bad. This brat was quite fast in terms of forming Divine Characters. Even if he needed three years to reach the Skysoar Realm, that was still very fast. He would only be slightly slower than Bai Feng.

From what Bai Feng had observed, he didn’t think that Su Yu would be slower than his martial uncle.

At that thought, Bai Feng even started to get excited. This was good. If the brat had only formed a character technique with 10 Divine Characters, he would probably need only a year or two and ended up advancing faster than Bai Feng. That would be too embarrassing for Bai Feng as the teacher.

“18 characters…looks like we will need to spend a lot of money in the future.”

Bai Feng was already thinking about something else. Meanwhile, Su Yu was looking down silently.

99 Divine Characters. That would require a lot of willpower texts. He started wondering if his teacher would really be able to afford having him as a student.