Tribulation of Myriad Races

Before long, Su Yu reached the 3rd floor. The trial was still related to weaponsmithing. He was given the exact same materials as what he had received on the 2nd floor. In short, the pagoda wanted him to learn from his previous mistakes and forge the same weapon.

“Interesting. Is this a way to improve the rating of my creation?”

He didn’t know the exact rating of his previous garbage weapon, but since he had been allowed to progress, the pagoda had accepted it. Thus, it shouldn’t be too bad. Nevertheless, it didn’t matter since that weapon was at such a low level that it didn’t even have a grade assigned.

Learning from his previous session, he moved according to the guidance he had received on the previous floor and took note of his heat control. After a short while, a dagger was completed.

This dagger looked sharper than the previous dagger he forged. And once again, he passed the trial.

Once again, the pagoda gave him a review: “A top-tier ungraded weapon. Good enough to be traded for a few steamed buns.”

“…”

Su Yu blanked out slightly. Was this really the pagoda’s review or was it something left by the weaponsmiths involved in forging the pagoda back then? This weapon was only worth a few steamed buns?

Was this a joke? This weapon would be worth several thousand dollars if he sold it in the open market. Which steamed bun was so expensive? He decided to not waste his time and moved on to the next floor.

On the 4th floor, he was given the same materials and furnace. Again, he had to forge a martial weapon.

***

Outside the pagoda, Elder Yun was feeling curious.

Did Su Yu really change his name to Zhou Podao? More importantly, no new name had appeared. After looking around, he stealthily took out a mirror and took a peek. He saw Zhou Podao on the 5th floor, currently ranked 987th.

“987th rank and 5th floor? Did the kid decide to take a nap in there or something?”

The first twenty floors were meant to test those in the Mental Tempering Stage. With Su Yu’s strength, how was he ranked so low on the 5th floor? Just how terrible must his performance be to be ranked so low? Was he deliberately wasting time in there?

What was the point of that? It wasn’t like he could start receiving bonus rewards so early. Elder Yun shook his head and decided to stop thinking about it. All geniuses would think differently than others. Who knew what was in Su Yu’s mind? As for what trial Su Yu was taking, he couldn’t see. Perhaps only the actual master of the pagoda would be able to see that. As for who the master was, nobody knew.

There were rumors that it was Great Ming King, but he had never cared about the pagoda. Some also said that it was Zhu Tiandao, but during the times when the prefect used the pagoda, his compatibility with the pagoda wasn’t too high. Was it one of the weaponsmiths involved in forging the pagoda back then?

Not even Elder Yun, the person in charge of the pagoda knew that information. In any case, he hadn’t been required to do much apart from maintaining order all these years here.

Elder Yun wasn’t too bothered. Since he could stay here for hundreds of years, he had enough patience to wait. Eventually, he would know what Su Yu was doing.

Time passed slowly.

After a few hours, Elder Yun checked the mirror again. This time, he was completely speechless. Su Yu had reached the 10th floor after several hours. Not bad. That was the speed of a mid-tier Mental Tempering Stage student. Was Su Yu not bored with this? Whatever. It didn’t matter how long the kid decided to stay in these low levels.

***

At the same time.

Su Yu had just passed the 10th floor’s trial. He was still given the same materials and made to forge the same weapon. After learning from all the previous floors, he had managed to forge a low-tier yellow-grade martial weapon.

“Holy shit. This place is too amazing.”

Su Yu was very surprised. Based on what he knew, these materials were only good enough to forge ungraded weapons. But following the instructions of the pagoda, he was able to forge a yellow-grade weapon with those materials.

Sure, such a weapon was so useless for the current Su Yu that he might not even deign to pick one up when he saw one on the ground. But he was still amazed as he had done the impossible.

“The teachings here definitely came from a grandmaster weaponsmith.”

Previously, he had thought that the weaponsmiths taught by the pagoda would be stiff and lack creativity. But when he thought about it again, who was he to make such a remark? He knew nothing.

Meanwhile, learning from this pagoda was the same as receiving direct teaching from a grandmaster. Even a tiny bit of what the grandmaster knew was enough to benefit him greatly. Who was he to be picky about what he learned here?

“The expert who had left these teachings behind was most definitely a peak earth-grade weaponsmith or even a heaven-grade weaponsmith.”

Currently, there was only one heaven-grade weaponsmith among the human race, the Heavenly Forge King. He was not a prefecture founder as he had only advanced into the Invincible Realm after the founding era.

Generally, only Invincibles would use heaven-grade cultural weapons. Of course, some lucky peak Sunmoons might be able to get heaven-grade weapons from the Heavenly Forge King as well.

Apart from Heavenly Forge King, heaven-grade weapons could also be forged if several peak earth-grade weaponsmiths worked together. After passing the trial on the 10th floor, he received a bonus reward.

This time, the reward was different. An old man appeared before him. It was only a projection, but it looked lifelike. This experience greatly resembled what one would feel when reading a willpower text.

“Weaponsmithing is actually very simple.”

A furnace appeared before the old man. A pile of materials also appeared. These were the same materials Su Yu had used earlier.

“This is especially true for martial weapons. It’s too easy. A martial weapon only needs to be durable and sharp enough, with the ability to withstand the might of source qi and amplify the power of its wielder to be considered a good weapon. This is very different from cultural weapons where the characters of the user must be taken into consideration as well.”

The old man said, “Watch and learn.”

Su Yu opened his eyes wide. Just how amazing could a weaponsmithing session be? The old man moved at a moderate speed, allowing Su Yu to see every move clearly. The steps and movements of the old man were rather similar to what Su Yu did, but they were a lot more smoother performed by the old man. From start to finish, the entire process was butter smooth, without even a single pause.

Every new material would be added without any delay, as though the old man knew the process perfectly. And each material would instantly blend with the other materials, allowing the forging process to continue without interruption.

Su Yu would take around fifteen minutes to complete a weapon. Meanwhile, the old man had forged his weapon in the exact same order yet he only took twelve minutes. A thin sword appeared in the old man’s hand.

Su Yu noted that there were three golden stripes on the sword. Like cultural weapons, martial weapons were also graded according to their golden stripes. There were three on the sword.

Meanwhile, Su Yu had only managed to form one golden stripe during his best attempt. A weapon with any number of golden stripes below nine stripes could be considered a low-tier yellow-grade weapon.

But even the weapons in the same tier and grade would differ in quality. After completing the weapon, the old man vanished.

In Su Yu’s mind, the moves of the old man were repeated numerous times as he muttered, “The inheritance of a top-tier weaponsmith.”

A top-tier weaponsmith had left his legacy in the Hundred Dao Pagoda. But it was unknown who this person was. The old man had not introduced himself before forging the weapon.

Su Yu started growing excited. If this was the reward for the 10th floor, something similar would probably appear on the 20th floor. At the 40th floor, he could start resetting the level again. As for what he could gain for that, perhaps he would be able to witness the weaponsmithing process a few more times.

He wasn’t sure. Even if that was all he got, it would still be acceptable. After all, the old man was a top-tier weaponsmith. The projected process was akin to a real process, as though a grandmaster was personally demonstrating the process in front of him.

“Since I need to forge a low-tier yellow-grade weapon on the 10th floor, do I need to forge a middle-tier weapon on the 20th floor? Subsequently, I’ll have to forge top-tier yellow-grade weapon on the 40th floor, middle-tier profound-grade weapon on the 60th floor, top-tier profound-grade weapon on the 80th floor, and middle-tier earth-grade weapon on the 100th floor?”

Was that enough to reach the 100th floor? But there was a middle-tier earth-grade weaponsmith in the academy. That person was Hu Qi. Zhao Tianbing was a peak earth-grade weaponsmith. Had he not challenged the Hundred Dao Pagoda before?

Su Yu decided to stop worrying. He honestly wasn’t asking for much. He only needed to improve enough to forge profound-grade weapons. As for the earth grade, that was still too far away from him.

He continued his climb.

On the 11th floor, the materials and furnace provided finally changed. The materials provided were also suitable to forge shields and other defensive equipment.

Floor after floor, Su Yu absorbed the teachings of the pagoda.

The further he went, the more valuable the pagoda was in his eyes. For him, this pagoda shouldn’t be treated as a weapon. Rather, it was supportive in nature. It would be a crime to accidentally damage the pagoda while using it as a weapon. In fact, he believed that this pagoda played a massive role in the current prosperity of Great Ming. It would seem like Great Ming King was truly a person of vision.

***

2nd of April.

A day passed.

While yawning, Elder Yun peeked at Su Yu with his mirror again. Well done. Zhou Podao had reached the 20th floor with a rank of 178. Not bad. The climb must have been hard for Mr. Zhou Podao.

Any other Skysoar would take only twenty minutes to climb that high. Meanwhile, Mr. Zhou had taken an entire day. Just what in the world was that kid doing in the pagoda? What could he even learn in the trials meant for Mental Tempering Stage cultivators?

“Don’t tell me he’s polishing his supportive skills.”

The elder laughed that thought off. Su Yu wouldn’t have the time to pursue a side path. Was it possible that the kid was practicing weaponsmithing? He had heard that the kid was quite close to Zhao Li. But that kid shouldn’t have the time to practice weaponsmithing, right?

The elder remained patient. He was in no rush. Since Su Yu wanted to keep playing around in the pagoda, so be it.