Tribulation of Myriad Races

Su Yu smiled, “Teacher, your willpower has been compressed numerous times. In terms of durability, your willpower is probably comparable to the willpower of a Mountainsea. But are 72 apertures enough to support your willpower that is clearly beyond the level of a regular Cloudbreach?”

Zhao Li rolled his eyes and asked, “And?”

“I’m wondering what would happen if you could open more apertures. Maybe a dozen or two. Would that make you stronger?”

Zhao Li smiled, “You’re thinking of teaching me your foundation cultural art?”

Zhao Li shook his head, “There is no need for that. At my current level, opening new apertures is a very difficult task. And the apertures of your art will belong to an entirely different system from what I’m currently cultivating. Even after opening them, they won’t really be that big of a help to me. If the overlap is high, I might not even have that many new apertures to open. For example, out of the 18 apertures of your art, maybe 15 of them overlap. In that case, the 3 additional apertures won’t really do much for me.”

He was someone with 72 apertures. Opening a few extra apertures wouldn’t help him that much. Foundation cultural arts were much more helpful to students below the Skysoar Realm.

At the Skysoar Realm, one could naturally choose to open more apertures. But if one used a different art with a lot of overlap, one would only gain a small number of new apertures. And those new apertures would be separated from the main system one already formed. Independently, these apertures wouldn’t really be that helpful.

It would only grant someone a slightly stronger and more robust willpower. For someone who had tempered his willpower countless times like Zhao Li, that was nothing for him. His willpower was already as strong as a Mountainsea’s. The only thing holding him back currently was his problematic main Divine Character.

…

Su Yu looked around and asked, “Teacher, will our conversation be spied on?”

“…”

Zhao Li glared at Su Yu. What a stupid question.

No matter what, he was someone with willpower as powerful as a Mountainsea’s. Spying on him? What a joke.

Su Yu reminded, “Cough, cough. This is quite important. I’m still worried. After all, we have a certain individual in the Heart Cultivating Pavilion who is very strong.”

He suspected that the principal would frequently spy on the activities of everyone in the academy. After all, the principal was even aware of the fact that his character technique required a lot of characters even though they had not met before.

How had the principal found out about that? During their meeting, Su Yu had not once thought about his character technique. And most of the things he had thought about were unrelated to the principal. Those thoughts shouldn’t have been sensed.

Zhao Li’s expression turned odd as he looked at Su Yu, “You sure are gutsy. You actually have the galls to suspect even the principal?”

But that fellow…was really very strong. The kid was right.

One of Zhao Li’s character flickered and formed a layer of incorporeal energy around the room. With that done, Zhao Li smiled, “Is this good enough? This is an anti-spy formation built into the entire research center. Nobody can listen in to us unless they break through the formation with brute force.”

Su Yu nodded in relief.

He wasted no time and took out a large sheet of paper before spreading it on the desk. Then, he started writing and drawing on it.

Zhao Li walked over and took a look at the paper. He frowned slightly. Su Yu was drawing an acupoint diagram? But slowly, he noticed that something was off. This wasn’t an acupoint diagram. Was this…a replica of a sea of willpower?

It was a sea of willpower filled with numerous dots of light. One red dot after another was drawn out by Su Yu. He stopped at 36 dots. He then drew a line connecting all 36 dots, linking all of them into a system following a complicated pathway.

This was the most important part of a system: the way to link all the apertures or acupoints together.

One could link 36 apertures into numerous different systems through countless pathways. But that did not mean that one could randomly join these apertures together and they would work.

Linking different apertures or acupoints together would result in different effects. And the pathway one chose when linking them together would also result in different effects. For a cultivation method to be considered complete, the acupoints or the apertures were important. But the way to link these apertures or acupoints up was even more important.

Su Yu was the best example. He might have opened 300 acupoints, but he was unable to utilize all of them in a single system. That was because he lacked the method of linking all of them together.

…

Zhao Li frowned.

Was this a cultural art?

Why was Su Yu writing out his foundation cultural art? It was clearly a powerful cultural art. It allowed one to open 36 apertures and could be cultivated at the Mental Tempering Stage.

This was Zhao Li’s first time actually looking at a foundation cultural art. It was not a willpower text, so he couldn’t get a deeper experience from reading it. In fact, it wasn’t even a manual. To be precise, it was merely a diagram. But even a mere diagram like this was enough to teach Zhao Li something new.

The more Zhao Li looked at the diagram, the more surprised he was. There was actually very little overlap with the Myriad Text Sutra. This signified that this cultural art would allow him to open dozens of new apertures if he cultivated it.

An aperture or two wouldn’t do much for him. But dozens of apertures would most certainly be helpful for him. After linking the 36 red dots together, Su Yu paused slightly before drawing even more red dots.

Zhao Li frowned. What was the meaning of this? Was the kid drawing random apertures now? One red dot after another was drawn. Before long, another set of 36 red dots could be seen on the paper. Like before, Su Yu started linking all the dots up.

And when Zhao Li saw that Su Yu was going to continue drawing, he said, “Don’t mess around. Is this still a sea of willpower? Don’t label random positions as apertures. If you open an aperture incorrectly, you might end up punching a hole through your sea of willpower.”

True soul apertures were things that were sealed when they were supposed to be open. These were the nodes in one’s sea of willpower that could be opened. If one attempted to do the same at a spot without an actual aperture, one would be opening a hole instead. And opening a hole in one’s own sea of willpower was the same as suicide.

Su Yu smiled, “Don’t worry, Teacher. Be calm.”

Only two systems had been drawn out. What was the rush? He still had three systems to draw!

Zhao Li frowned, “Are all of these apertures?”

“Yeah. Just keep watching. You’ll see.”

Zhao Li frowned, “The two systems are slightly similar. If you aren’t randomly drawing things, then these two are two cultural arts with not a single overlap in apertures. But the composition of these two systems are quite similar to each other. Are they actually part of a single cultural art that has been separated?”

Zhao Li muttered, “These two are very likely to be a single art that has been split apart. Is that the case? You’re trying to get me to repair these two arts and merge them back into a single art?”

Su Yu smiled. Sure enough, this was a reliable old man. With one look, Zhao Li was able to see that the two belonged together.

Zhao Li stopped asking questions. He focused fully on the 72 red dots. This was a single cultural art that had been taken apart. Su Yu was trying to restore the original version. Or perhaps these two were parts of a single set of cultural arts and there was an issue somewhere preventing them from being linked together?

He continued studying the diagram. After a while, he walked away and took out his hammer. With the hammer, he started hammering at thin air.

Su Yu turned around to look at Zhao Li. As he was only drawing an ordinary diagram instead of writing a willpower text, his diagram was actually not too clear.

Meanwhile, Zhao Li was forging a replica.

A sea of willpower replica.

He was a weaponsmith. It was boring to look at a diagram. He much preferred looking at a replica.

…

Slowly, something spherical took shape.

One red dot after another appeared in the empty sphere.

And one line after another appeared.

While rubbing his chin, Zhao Li said, “Take a look at this. Is it accurate? I don’t have enough time to forge a puppet today so I’ll settle with a model of a sea of willpower. Sure, seas of willpower are intangible, but there is still a way to properly represent them physically.”

At the mention of a puppet, Su Yu recalled the puppet that had chased after him during his meeting with Marquis Xia. Puppets could actually be quite powerful when forged correctly. He walked up to the sea of willpower replica and looked at it before nodding.

The old man’s memory was quite good. He was actually able to make such an accurate replica after a single look at his diagram. All 72 of the apertures had been marked at the correct positions.

“Teacher, this isn’t enough…”

“Hmm?”

“The apertures…” Su Yu said, “Teacher, can you enlarge this replica? I need a really big replica. A replica big enough for us to walk around inside.”

“Sure. But why do you need it to be so big? This thing can actually be considered a cultural weapon. You can change its size as you wish. You only need to add some materials into it…”

It felt really good to talk about forging with a weaponsmith. That was especially true when it was a grandmaster weaponsmith. A series of hammer strikes rang out. Soon, a massive hovering replica appeared.

After walking a circle around the replica, Su Yu pointed at a certain point and said, “Teacher, one here.”

“Here.”

“And here…”

Zhao Li continued adding red dots with a look of surprise.

80 dots…90 dots…

120 dots…

130 dots…

At this point, Zhao Li’s expression had turned completely solemn. Finally, 144 dots appeared. He was looking at 4 different cultural arts with not a single overlap in apertures. And all four of them seemed to operate similarly.

At that moment, Zhao Li was completely stunned. Top-tier heaven-grade cultural art! One art. These four arts most definitely belonged to a single art!

Holy shit!

Top-tier heaven-grade cultural art!

Was this real?

Was it possible for something like this to exist?

Where had Su Yu obtained something like this?

This was a single cultural art with 144 apertures that had been split into 4. Holy shit. This thing would drive the Myriad Realms crazy if it was leaked.

Immediately after, Zhao Li’s willpower spread out. The entire room was covered. He started scanning the room inch by inch. He was trying to find out if anyone was spying on them. He even started scanning Su Yu’s body. He was worried that someone had planted some spying characters on Su Yu’s body.

Suddenly, his expression changed. There seemed to be something in Su Yu’s heart. His face fell as he immediately sent his willpower into Su Yu’s heart.

While Zhao Li was scanning Su Yu’s heart, Su Yu paled slightly. What was going on?

After some time, Zhao Li’s expression returned to normal. He looked at Su Yu silently. After a while, he exhaled and said, “It’s fine. I was only being cautious. After this, I’ll give you a detection cultural weapon that can detect any attempt to spy on you. Nowadays, there are characters capable of spying, eavesdropping, and tracking. You can never be too cautious. Also…”

He looked at the replica and frowned, “You shouldn’t have asked me about this. You shouldn’t have asked anyone about this. Keep it hidden and slowly study it when you grow stronger.”

This was a cultural art with 144 apertures.

Zhao Li reckoned that even Invincibles wouldn’t have something like this.

Perhaps only cultural researcher Invincibles would have such a cultural art in possession.

Su Yu smiled, “Teacher, in my eyes, your Soul Expanding Art is just as valuable. In all honesty, without linking all of them into a system, this thing really isn’t that valuable. The four systems might resemble each other, but with my intelligence, I might take decades to combine them all.”

After a short thought, he said, “Actually, I still have another system. All five systems belong to the same art.”

“…”

Zhao Li’s expression turned incomparably grave.

“Divine art.”

“What?”

“This is a divine art.” Zhao Li solemnly said, “Cultivation methods and martial techniques are generally classified into heaven, earth, profound, and yellow grades. And above that is the divine grade. I believe there are some divine-grade martial arts in existence. The Sky Sundering Saber cultivated by Great Xia King himself is probably at that level. Of course, only the heaven or lower grades of the art will be taught to others.

“A single slash of Great Xia King’s saber has a power far beyond what the power 144 acupoints can provide. At the Sunmoon Realm, cultivators will fuse all their acupoints into a single acupoint. But that single Sunmoon acupoint will vary between individuals. For example, if you only cultivate a martial art with 144 acupoints, even after fusing 300 acupoints, there will still be a difference between you and someone cultivating a martial art with 300 acupoints. You will understand when you reach the Mountainsea Realm yourself.”

Zhao Li stopped talking. He looked at Su Yu for a very long time before saying, “Do not show me the final system. They are all very similar. If we can merge the four systems here, you will be able to merge the fifth system yourself.”

Zhao Li then started studying the replica again. After a while, he said, “I will be staying here for a few days. You will be staying here as well. We will try to join all these apertures together. If the aperture locations are all correct and the pathways are also correct, we only need to worry about joining them safely.”

Su Yu nodded silently.

Zhao Li did not ask him about the origin of these systems. And he had not told Zhao Li about it either. That was a very sensitive topic to ask. Even without asking, Zhao Li could guess the origin of something like this. Something like this could only come from an ancient ruin.

It was very likely that Su Yu had inherited the legacy of an ancient ruin. And that ruin could very well be a rare cultural researcher legacy. It might even be something left behind by a cultural researcher Invincible.

It would be better for both of them to not talk about such a matter. It was too sensitive and would bring great trouble to both of them.

While walking around the replica, Zhao Li said, “The Myriad Text Sutra is incomparable to this art. Be very strict with who you teach this art to. Even if you’re going to teach someone, I suggest that you only teach the version with 108 apertures. Even such a version is already enough to give you a lot of trouble.”

“It would be even better if you only teach the version with 2 systems. You can allow someone to start opening apertures at the Mental Tempering Stage. With 72 apertures, even this version is enough for someone to cultivate all the way to the Mountainsea Realm.

“Of course, opening so many apertures might not necessarily be a good thing. Can you even fuse all these apertures at the Mountainsea Realm? The Soul Expanding Art alone is already delaying your advancement. If you open so many apertures, your growth will be slowed down even more. You might even be stuck at the ninth-stage Cloudbreach Realm for decades or even a hundred years. Of course, there is also the option of advancing through physical cultivation first…”

Suddenly, he cursed.

Fuck!

This damn kid had opened a terrifyingly high number of acupoints as well! Did the damn kid intend to spend his entire life at the Mountainsea Realm?

“Kid, don’t mess around. Your cultivation methods are too powerful.”

“…”

He didn’t even know what to say anymore. Looking at the innocent expression on Su Yu’s face, he said, “It would be too big of a waste if someone like you doesn’t enter the Invincible Realm. You will be spending a lot of time and resources for your cultivation. If you can really enter the Invincible Realm, you will definitely become a super expert among all Invincibles. Someone like you…can probably skip levels to fight Invincibles in the future.”

What a crazy kid.

Even someone as crazy as Zhao Li was feeling that Su Yu was crazy. The kid had opened hundreds of acupoints. On top of that, the kid had also opened 180 apertures. Was the kid not afraid of being stuck at the Mental Tempering Stage and Infinite Strength Realm for life?

Of course, the moment someone like him advanced, he would become a terrifying cultivator. He would be able to rapidly surpass the Cloudbreach Realm and enter the Mountainsea Realm before he was faced with yet another bottleneck.

Zhao Li said nothing else. Perhaps a true freak that would shake the Myriad Realms would once again emerge from the Great Xia Cultural Research Academy. For now, his top priority was the combination of these systems into a single art. This art would be far less impressive without joining all the systems together.

“This is supposed to be a job for a couple of Invincibles or Sunmoons. Sigh. Forget it. I suppose it’s time for me to start using my brain again.”

Zhao Li had no choice but to sigh and do it himself. Sure, those experts could do the job better, but leaking this art could also bring them more trouble. This damn Su Yu was really too gutsy. Why had the kid shown him this art? Was the kid not afraid of being silenced?

Even with Wan Tiansheng around, Zhao Li would most likely only end up exiled to the Allheaven Battlefield instead of being killed after silencing Su Yu. Then again, he was also very gratified at the amount of trust Su Yu was showing toward him.

Sure enough, he had not been mistaken about this kid. Just look at how he was the first person the kid had visited for guidance. What a pity that the kid wasn’t his direct student. How was Hong Tan worthy of being this kid’s grandteacher?

Su Yu had totally been scammed into joining that declining faction. But if Su Yu really abandoned the multiple character faction, he would only be viewed as a cold-hearted individual. By staying with the faction, he had instead demonstrated his loyalty. A child with such loyalty was very rare nowadays.

Zhao Li continued sighing. If Su Yu really decided to abandon the multiple character faction, he might end up feeling disappointment in the kid instead. Nevertheless, he still couldn’t resist cursing inwardly. He really didn’t know what to feel.

That bastard Liu Wenyan had misled his great student!

Without Liu Wenyan, the kid would have become his direct student long ago! What a pity.

“This student of mine is a future Invincible.”

The more he thought about it, the more regretful he was. Even if Su Yu managed to enter the Invincible Realm in the future, he would be an Invincible of the multiple character faction, not the weaponsmithing faction. Zhao Li felt like someone was stabbing his heart with needles. He reminded himself to give Bai Feng a beating the next time he saw that rascal.