Tribulation of Myriad Races

After a while, Su Yu regained his consciousness. His fire character had advanced. Third-tier character! This wasn’t an offensive character, but Su Yu had comprehended a lot of things from its advancement, including the usage of character techniques, switching and formation of different character techniques, and deeper understanding on his existing characters. He opened his eyes and looked at Wu Lan.

She calmly said, “What are you looking at? I succeeded. It’s a twenty-character template. Am I amazing?”

Su Yu nodded, “Yes. Is it first principal’s template?”

“I don’t know.” Wu Lan drooped her head and said, “I only know that it has a lot of characters. How am I suppossed to know that? I need to form more characters before I can take a better look at this character technique. I still don’t know how it works.”

But she soon turned excited again, “It doesn’t matter. It must be an amazing character technique regardless of whether it is the first principal’s template!”

It was a twenty-character template! That was already incredible enough!

“Su Yu, how many characters does your character technique have?”

“Two nines.”

“…”

Wu Lan stared at him in astonishment. Why did he put it that way? What was the meaning of two nines? Ninety-nine? Eighty-one? Eighteen?

“Just how many characters do you need? Don’t tell me you only need eighteen characters. In that case, you’re not even as good as me!”

Su Yu laughed, “It doesn’t matter. You need to focus on forming twenty characters first. Without twenty characters, your character technique will be useless.”

“I can use the disassembly method!”

Right. Su Yu was left speechless. That was true. The disassembly method had given new multiple character faction cultivators more leeway. They were no longer required to form all the characters before the Skysoar Realm.

Wu Lan asked, “Su Yu, do you think I can start forming characters at the Skysoar Realm? There’s no rush anyway. It’s too troublesome to start now since I need to open more apertures as well.”

“It’s up to you as long as you open enough apertures.”

Su Yu did not intend to interfere in her path of cultivation. That was something for her to decide. It wasn’t like she was a clueless fool in cultivation.

“Alright. You can resume your cultivation. I need to get busy as well.”

With a wave of his hand, the Character Technique Stele shrunk and flew into Su Yu’s hand before vanishing into his sea of willpower. Yes. This stele could be kept in his sea of willpower. Only now did he realize just how valuable this thing was.

“Right. You better not expose your character technique to outsiders. Even if you do expose it, say that you learned it from Great Ming’s stele, not mine.”

“Sure.”

Wu Lan nodded. She knew why. That wasn’t an issue.

***

After leaving the room, Su Yu returned to his cultivation room. He had a tiny sense of urgency. His body forging was progressing too slow for his liking. Even with Life Trigger, the speed was still too slow even with the greatly increased cost of cultivation.

He did not have much heavenly source qi left. He only had enough to complete around two or three additional forgings. After spending two hundred thousand merit points to purchase a batch of blood essence, he only had some mountainbreak bull blood essence left. This batch of blood essence would only last him until the completion of his sixth or seventh forging.

He was essentially spending around thirty thousand merit points per forging. To complete seventy-two forgings, he would require over two million merit points. Strictly speaking, that wasn’t too big of a sum. It was still affordable for Su Yu.

But it would be total bullshit to claim that it was a small sum. To put things into perspective, two million merit points were enough to support an army of ten thousand Skysoars for about a year.

“And if I want to cultivate faster, I’ll need to spend even more money. After all, time is more valuable than money.”

Su Yu did not hesitate to release his remaining heavenly source qi into the room after sealing the room with shadow barriers. The fire character also lit up while he used the Life Trigger to accelerate his body forging.

Shan Xiong? Since that fellow was visiting, he should stay in Great Ming forever. Su Yu was determined to kill Shan Xiong.

In terms of physical body, he was stronger. But he wasn’t necessarily that much stronger than Shan Xiong. In terms of willpower, Shan Xiong had crushed numerous multiple character faction cultivators. Su Yu wouldn’t arrogantly believe that he could crush Shan Xiong with his willpower.

Sure, he had a lot of characters and apertures, but Shan Xiong wasn’t so weak that he could be crushed. At most, Su Yu was as strong as Bai Feng during the fight against Xia Yuwen. Or slightly stronger than that.

How was Shan Xiong compared against Bai Feng? Su Yu didn’t want to belittle his own teacher, but he honestly believed that Bai Feng was probably weaker than Shan Xiong in combat. After all, Shan Xiong was already a ninth-stage Skysoar.

Since they were probably about even in willpower cultivation, Su Yu decided to rely on his physical superiority to defeat this opponent. Golden light covered his entire body.

He was putting on a confident front against this opponent, but he would definitely not underestimate this opponent. He would take this opponent very seriously, not giving Shan Xiong any chance to make a comeback.

***

While Su Yu was in seclusion.

Great Ming.

City gate.

One young genius after another arrived, led by their respective elders. They had traveled from all over the Human Realm.

“So this is Great Ming?”

“It doesn’t feel any different from our place.”

“Teacher, Great Ming is quite weak, right?”

A certain old man had just arrived with a young man and a young woman. Some other experts were also arriving with their young students.

Meanwhile, the people of Great Ming did not seem to care too much about these arriving experts. Some of them even rode their gigantic rapid transit beasts over to scare a few of the visiting youngsters before leaving smugly. They wondered where these bumpkins came from. Did they not know that Great Ming had recently killed five Sunmoons? It had just happened a few days ago. How dare these people say that they were weak?

What a joke.

Shan Xiong’s fight with Su Yu was a major news in the Human Realm. That was the fight between the two greatest geniuses of the single and multiple character factions. As Skysoars, they were no longer insignificant figures. Thus, this battle had attracted a lot of experts.

Cloudbreaches and Mountainseas could be seen arriving from all over the Human Realm. That was not all. Suddenly, a massive dragon appeared amid the clouds in the sky.

But right at that moment, numerous cannons in the city took aim at the dragon. A Mountainsea commanded, “Get on the ground and report your name. Flight is prohibited for all outsiders in Tiandu.”

That massive dragon was about to roar domineeringly when an even bigger golden dragon appeared from the city. From afar, the golden dragon released his aura and spat a golden clump of flame at the sky. This was Zhu Tiandao’s personal mount.

At the same time, someone yelled, “Audacious! Are you challenging us? I don’t care if you’re from the War Shrine or the Knowledge Seeking Realm. I also don’t care if you’re a member of an Invincible family. Whoever you are, get on the ground!”

The numerous cannons of the city started releasing source qi undulations.

Instantly, the dragon surrendered. He landed on the ground as demanded. An old man leaped off the dragon and gloomily said, “We’re from the Knowledge Seeking Academy. According to our past agreement, those from the Knowledge Seeking Academy can remain mounted in the city…”

He was telling the truth. There was really such an agreement. Holy shit! Why were these Great Ming fellows so fierce? Why were they threatening to kill right off the bat?

Someone in the city coldly said, “That agreement is only applicable for horses. This is a dragon. How impudent of you to ride a dragon into Tiandu!”

Next, a Mountainsea flew over under the lead of a Sunmoon.

The leader was a commander from the military. When he saw the old man and the students seated atop the dragon, he curled his lips and said, “As per the prefect, all guests from the two holy lands will rest at the Talent Fostering Bureau. This dragon must assume a human form during the stay.”

The dragon was unhappy. He said, “There is a dragon here as well…”

Hearing that, the distant golden dragon sneered. How dare this dragon use him as a comparison? He was the mount of the prefect! They were different! The golden dragon smugly flew around the sky for a bit, showing off his might and elegance before happily returning to the prefect’s residence.

The Sunmoon commander was also left speechless. After a long silence, he said, “That’s the prefect’s mount. He’s patrolling the capital on behalf of the prefect.”

The dragon was helpless. He had no choice but to bow since he was now in their city. It would seem like the Knowledge Seeking Realm’s name wasn’t too useful here in Great Ming. A short while later, the dragon turned into a middle-aged man after all the students got off his back. He looked depressed.

At this moment, yet another massive beast arrived. That was a tiger, the flying sky tiger to be precise. It was emitting the aura of a Sunmoon. Flying sky tiger, the strongest among the tiger races.

As a Sunmoon, this flying sky tiger could be considered a top expert. He was also carrying a bunch of youngsters and several old men on his back. They had probably noticed the predicament of the Knowledge Seeking Academy members so they dismounted from far away.

One of the old men laughed and said, “The War Shrine Academy is visiting. Brother Jiang, it has been a while.”

The Sunmoon commander nodded, “Yes. It has indeed been a while. The people from the two academies of the two holy lands are actually here. You guys are rare guests.”

Most of these students were the descendants of Invincibles. These two academies would mostly accept the descendants of Invincibles and Sunmoons as their students. For example, Hu Qiusheng and Wan Mingze of Great Xia were actually given the opportunity to study in the holy land as well. They had merely rejected the opportunity.

With the arrival of the members from the two holy land academies, a lot of surrounding senior cultivators greeted them. The students led by these senior cultivators also started paying attention to the students of the two academies.

These youngsters might be students, but some of them were already Skysoars. But every one of them looked incredibly young.

While they were exchanging greetings, a large white dragon arrived. The aura of this dragon did not appear too powerful. But the moment the white dragon appeared, the Knowledge Seeking Realm’s dragon shrunk fearfully.

Even the flying sky tiger who had transformed into an old man furrowed his brows before lowering his head.

The surrounding people whispered, “Where did this white dragon come from? I’ve never seen him before.”

“I see you’re quite ignorant. This dragon came from Great Xia. He is the mount of the Great Xia Cultural Research Academy’s second principal.”

Realization hit everyone. This was a super expert. A seventh-stage Sunmoon. Even those from Great Xia were here? Wasn’t Great Xia in chaos? Why were they here?

According to the rumors, Bai Feng had encountered numerous troubles on his way back. Several massive battles had erupted. Since they had a seventh-stage Sunmoon who was idle, why was this dragon here instead of there with Bai Feng?

While everyone was thinking, the white dragon landed and transformed into an old man. He had a crooked back with a crutch in hand.

“Greetings, Senior.”

The Sunmoon commander of Great Ming greeted the dragon. Since this was a high-stage Sunmoon, he had to be polite. The white dragon had not arrived alone. One student after another landed on the ground.

The person leading the group was a familiar face: Elder Qi of Great Xia Cultural Research Academy. Xia Huyou was also among the group.

The old man nodded and said nothing. He glanced at the Knowledge Seeking Realm’s dragon and nonchalantly nodded. The Knowledge Seeking Realm’s dragon lowered his head in embarrassment, not saying anything.

At this moment, the golden dragon rose to the sky again. But the moment he saw the white dragon, he hurriedly returned to the ground before vanishing. He had appeared after sensing the aura of another dragon. But when he saw that it was the old dragon from Great Xia, he hurriedly hid himself.

This white dragon had joined the human race much earlier than them. After submitting to the second principal, he had fought in the Allheaven Battlefield for many years. He might look gentle, but he was as much of a butcher as the others from Great Xia. Back then, he had slaughtered numerous enemies in the Allheaven Battlefield.

This old dragon had remained in seclusion for many years. Thus, they were surprised to see him here. Those dragon hatchlings were terrified to see him. Yes. Compared to him, Zhu Tiandao’s golden dragon was but a hatchling.

They were surprised to see the people of Great Xia here, but it was also perfectly understandable for them to be here. As the root of the multiple character faction, they would naturally be here to witness the fight between the greatest geniuses of the single and multiple character factions.

The white dragon remained silent. Elder Qi was the one doing the talking. “Principal Wan and the others are too occupied to come. I’m here to let some of our students broaden their horizons. Am I welcomed, Commander Jiang?”

“Of course you are.” The commander said, “Your presence brings light to our humble prefecture. Great Xia and Great Ming have been neighbors for so many years. It is never a bad thing for us to get together more.”

Suddenly, everyone’s expression changed. A massive golden bird was approaching from afar. Golden peng race!

“The people from Great Zhou are here.”

“I thought they were not sending anyone here? Shan Xiong is supposed to come alone, no? Wait, there’s also that little princess from Great Shang. Why are others from Great Zhou here?”

“They must be worried that Su Yu would kill Shan Xiong.”

“I don’t think Su Yu can defeat Shan Xiong.”

“You never know.”

More and more people had arrived to watch the show. Even those from Great Zhou were here. Those who had thought that Shan Xiong would be alone were quite surprised. A short while later, the golden peng landed on the ground.

It transformed into a delicate young man clad in golden robes. He looked even more imposing than the old white dragon. He was also impressive in terms of strength as he was a fifth-stage Sunmoon.

Behind the golden peng was a long-haired middle-aged man clad in yellow robes. While stroking his beard, he said, “Old Jiang, it has been a while. Is my junior brother here yet?”

Hearing that, the surrounding people started whispering among themselves.

“Jiang Tao, first student of Zhou Polong, a peak Mountainsea on the cusp of entering the Sunmoon Realm.”

“Shan Xiong’s eldest senior brother!”

“If even he is here, Great Zhou is definitely placing a lot of importance in this fight.”

“From the looks of it, Su Yu might not be able to kill even after winning. With this person here and that Sunmoon peng…”

Commander Jiang frowned. Great Zhou sure was taking this seriously. They had actually sent someone like Jiang Tao here. Sure, Jiang Tao wasn’t a Sunmoon, but he was the first student of Zhou Polong. His mere presence brought a message with it.

Strictly speaking, Commander Jiang was actually weaker than the Sunmoons gathered around him. Oppressed by the aura of these Sunmoons, he was starting to feel unwell.

But right at that moment, the sense of oppression vanished as an old man walked over. Niu Baidao looked as ethereal as ever. From afar, he laughed and said, “Wow, look at all these kids gathered here. You guys are truly rare guests. The prefect is busy so this old man will be welcoming you on his behalf. Old Hou was out partying so nobody knows when he will be back. Our Talent Fostering Bureau is now without a leader.”

“Isn’t this Little Jiang Tao?” Niu Baidao laughed heartily and said, “Look at you. I feel like I’ve just blinked and you have grown into such a big boy. I still remember how I used to change the diapers of your dad. But even you are already such a big boy now.

“Oh, is that Little Qi? You have grown into a big boy as well! This…are you Little Xie from the Knowledge Seeking Academy? You must be Xie Daofu’s son. Wow, you’re such a big boy now. You look even older than me!

“And you…you must be Little Dai from the War Shrine Academy? I know your grandpa. Why do you look so old? Good heavens, time is truly merciless.”

“…”

Silence descended. Niu Baidao had arrived. He alone suppressed all the Sunmoons present. He did that not with his strength. Rather, he used his seniority. He was from the same generation as the founding kings.

In fact, his seniority was even higher than some of the younger founding kings. He was merely not lucky enough to enter an Invincible ruin back then. Otherwise, he would have been one of the founding kings as well.

He was over five hundred years old. Very few people his age who weren’t Invincibles were still around. People like Hu Qi were also from the same generation, but due to their limited lifespan, they had reduced their public appearances.

Niu Baidao was the sole exception as he had remained active in Great Ming for 351 years. And he had remained the principal of the academy since its founding.

Not only was he active, but he could be frequently seen at various social events and brothels. In fact, he was renowned for his love for beautiful women. He seemed to only become more energetic as he grew older. Despite being a seventh-stage Sunmoon, he lived the life of a retired, rich grandpa.

Niu Baidao laughed heartily and looked at the old dragon who was also a seventh-stage Sunmoon. “Little Dragon, looks like you’re getting old as well.”

The old dragon was left speechless. He used to be the mount of the second principal. Yes. Second. His seniority was lower. After all, even the second principal had to address Niu Baidao as martial uncle. Niu Baidao’s seniority was simply too high.

“Greetings, Principal Niu.”

This time, the old dragon was no longer coughing like a feeble old man. Strictly speaking, he was older than Niu Baidao. But age calculation was different between humans and dragons. As a human of about five hundred years old, Niu Baidao could be considered a super ancient dragon of over five thousand years old.

And this old dragon was naturally not that old. Thus, it was inappropriate for the old dragon to be coughing in front of someone like this. Even his crutch had vanished since Niu Baidao’s arrival.