Tribulation of Myriad Races

At the third hour, Su Yu finally produced his forty-sixth golden stripe. His weapon had reached the middle profound grade. This time, he had reached that stage smoothly. As of this moment, he had fully digested all the experience he had gained in the pagoda.

Zhao Li did not tell him to stop, so he continued striking the saber. Eventually, the forty-seventh golden stripe appeared. And after about half an hour, the forty-eighth golden stripe appeared.

At this point, Su Yu was greatly exhausted. He was starting to find it hard to keep the change character active. His face started warping as he did not have enough willpower to maintain his disguise.

Zhao Li glanced at him and coldly said, “Fool. Are cultural researchers the only ones capable of forging weapons? Do you think that warriors can’t do the same? Wrong! Warriors can forge weapons as well! Willpower can be used as energy, but can’t source qi be used for the same purpose?”

“Heavenly Forge King’s teachings only utilize willpower because he knows too little. Our Zhao Family’s teachings utilize both willpower and source qi. You have a powerful source qi cultivation without knowing how to utilize it. How idiotic.”

Su Yu was greatly tired, but he continued striking the saber. He slowly spoke, “Teacher…it’s the problem of continuity. The moment I stop channeling willpower and switch to a different type of energy, the forging might fail immediately…”

Zhao Li said, “That’s because you lack experience. The moment a new golden stripe appears, there will be a window for you to switch your energy. That will not affect the formation of the next golden stripe. This way, you can constantly switch between source qi and willpower.”

A smile formed on Zhao Li’s face as he said, “How many days do you think I lasted back when I attempted to forge an earth weapon as a Cloudbreach? I only lasted so long through switching between the two different types of energy. Of course, I still ran out of energy in the end and failed the forging.”

“Earth cultural weapons were rarely forged by even Mountainseas. Most people can only forge one at the Sunmoon Realm. Why the Sunmoon Realm? Because of their strength. After fusing their acupoints and apertures, they are able to rapidly recover their source qi and willpower.”

“…”

Zhao Li said, “Keep going until you complete your fiftieth golden stripe before switching energy to forge your fifty-first golden stripe. Of course, the more golden stripes you form, the greater the effort required. Switching energy recklessly will also result in failure. But it doesn’t matter. You’re rich so feel free to waste your materials. Since you have returned, don’t think of leaving before forging a truly powerful cultural weapon.”

At the fifty-fifth golden stripe, the weapon would reach the high profound grade. Su Yu thought that this was impossible for him. He still didn’t have enough strength, experience, and skills for that.

But since Zhao Li was making such a request, he decided to try his best. Failure did not matter. It would only ruin this weapon. Sure, middle profound cultural weapons weren’t cheap, but anything that could be bought with money wouldn’t be something truly valuable.

As Su Yu continued, he slowly entered a unique state. This forging session felt free and unrestrained. When he was weaponsmithing in Great Ming, he had been paying close attention to all the tricks he learned from the pagoda, resulting in a rather inflexible mindset.

The teachings left in the pagoda were rather unsuitable for him. But he had no choice but to learn it. The pagoda would not teach him something uniquely suitable for him as the teachings of the pagoda were already fixed.

He could feel that he was on the verge of fully emptying his willpower reserve. Suddenly, his body shook as a large amount of heavenly source qi appeared and wrapped around his body.

Zhao Li blanked out when he saw that. He couldn’t help cursing that this kid was too wasteful.

Holy shit!

What the fuck was this kid using to regenerate his energy?

Heavenly source qi?

Did the kid rob a family of their heavenly source fruit trees?

“Body forging!”

He instantly absorbed the heavenly source qi and started recovering, forging his body, and forging the weapon at the same time. He was rich enough to act wantonly like this. He lacked a lot of things, but money wasn’t something he lacked at the moment.

Forging a weapon was also a way of cultivation. Most weaponsmiths had rather powerful bodies. That was because when forging a weapon, the sharpness and five elemental powers of the weapon would constantly fight back against the weaponsmith, tempering the body of the weaponsmith.

As Su Yu’s body turned gold, he completed his fiftieth golden stripe. Instantly, he switched to source qi. Right after the switch, the first part of the fifty-first golden stripe took form. But when he struck the weapon next, it exploded. That created a chain reaction that resulted in the destruction of the weapon. Su Yu was blasted away.

Zhao Li did not seem too surprised. This was very normal when weaponsmithing, just like how pillmakers would sometimes cause their cauldrons to explode when making pills. The kid had failed to switch his energy properly, but it was fine as long as the kid was still alive.

Su Yu cut a sorry figure with grime and soot covering his face. Zhao Li ignored Su Yu and picked up the broken weapon. After taking a look at it, he said, “You were too hasty during the switch, resulting in violent source qi. You need to slow it down and reduce the power of your source qi by about half. Only increase the intensity progressively, not all at once.”

“I understand.”

“What are you waiting for? Continue.”

Su Yu had a helpless expression. He wanted to tell his teacher that he had been forging for eight hours in a row right after arriving. Even if he was a puppet, he wouldn’t be able to keep going.

Zhao Li coldly said, “Aren’t you thinking of helping me with the earth weapon? You’re still not good enough. With this tiny bit of ability, why dream of completing an earth weapon? Also, do you think I can fail an earth weapon so easily?

“Do you think I’m going to settle with forging some garbage earth weapon? That weapon was also prepared for my future advancement into the heaven grade. Do you know what heaven grade means? That is a weapon with at least 108 golden stripes. Do you know why I failed? I was too ambitious. I tried to create semi-completed stripes from the 74th to the 108th stripes. That would allow the earth weapon to grow by itself. And upon reaching sufficient cultivation level, my weapon could be directly pushed into the heaven grade. Thus, I needed to forge the initial 73 golden stripes and the subsequent 35 incomplete golden stripes.

“You’re a weaponsmith as well. You understand how difficult the forging process will be the higher the level. The countershock from the weapon will keep growing. I was too greedy. Thus, I failed. If I don’t want to destroy that incomplete weapon, I need to reforge the 35 incomplete golden stripes.”

Su Yu was very surprised. This was the first time he learned about this. He couldn’t resist asking, “Teacher, why didn’t you look for Zhao Tianbing to help?” Since he was so ambitious, he should have looked for Zhao Tianbing.

Su Yu previously thought that his teacher would probably forge only an early earth cultural weapon. Thus, he believed that he could help. But instead, his teacher wanted to forge the embryonic form of a heaven weapon.

“Him?” Zhao Li said, “Why should I look for him? Sure, he will be able to help, but that’s not my goal. With his help, he will be the main weaponsmith while I’ll be the assistant. In that situation, can I still call myself the creator of this weapon?”

“You’re different. You’re my student with my teachings. You’re also weaker than me. You’re also a user of the Soul Expanding Art. A cultural weapon forged with your help will be more compatible with me.”

Su Yu nodded. He could only stand up and take out a large pile of materials. He was going to keep trying.

Zhao Li said, “Since you’re back, don’t be in a rush to leave. Since you want to help me with my earth weapon, you will need some time to practice. When you gain the ability to forge a high profound cultural weapon, we can consider trying. You also need to increase the durability of your willpower so don’t be in a rush to enter the Cloudbreach Realm. Temper your willpower more with the Soul Expanding Art.”

“Teacher, I wish to take a look at Martial Uncle Feng Ji. He was captured. They’re going to trial him publicly.”

“I heard about this from your Senior Brother Wang.”

Zhao Li was aware of this matter. He had merely been ignoring it previously. He said, “You want to enter the Cloudbreach Realm so that you can maintain your disguise before Invincibles? The difficulty will be high. And it’s not like you can do anything apart from spectating the trial.”

He paused to think before saying, “But since you’re already here, I doubt anyone can change your mind. In that case, the best option is to delay the trial for a bit.”

“Delay?”

That was a trial held by Invincibles. How were they supposed to delay it? Every single Invincible was incomparably mysterious and hard to see. Since the Invincibles were coming personally, it was unlikely that they would take things slow. Su Yu estimated that the trial would be held in a few days.

Zhao Li sneered, “You only need to think of a way to do so. Why is it not possible? It’s simple. If you can reach the high profound grade before the trial, I’ll announce an attempt to complete my earth weapon.”

Su Yu stared at his teacher silently. He wanted to say that his teacher had overestimated himself. Forging an earth weapon…wasn’t big enough of a deal. Would those Invincibles delay their plan just to witness the forging process?

Mountainseas and Sunmoons were the main users of earth-grade cultural weapons. For them, these weapons were treasures. But for Invincibles, only heaven-grade cultural weapons were worthy.

“Fool. Do you think I’m forging a regular earth weapon?”

Zhao Li proudly said, “If I only cared about being an earth weaponsmith, I would have done so decades ago. But that’s pointless. Just watch. I guarantee even the Invincibles won’t have the mood to launch the public trial after my announcement.”

After saying that, he looked at the back of the room. That was where he stored his incomplete earth-grade cultural weapon.

He smiled and said, “After your advancement, come with me to the Source Qi Secret Grotto. No, scratch that. I’ll move the grotto here. For this forging attempt, we will do it in the grotto. It will create quite a big ruckus. You might be able to advance during the process. In the event of success, you will receive even more rewards from the weapon itself during completion. Even your body forging will improve. And after the forging, you can leave the grotto as a high or even a peak profound weaponsmith. At that point, very few people will dare to spy on you. I can also publicly praise you for your potential to become a heaven weaponsmith in the future.

“A heaven weaponsmith is equivalent in status as Invincibles. In fact, you can say that heaven weaponsmiths are basically the Invincibles of weaponsmiths. And a heaven weaponsmith will be even more popular than a regular Invincible. I have been very stingy with my praise. Thus, they will have no choice but to believe in your potential. They will no longer dare to spy on you as they wish due to your newly elevated status. After all, nobody knows if they will need the help of a heaven weaponsmith in the future.”

It would be very hard for Su Yu to hide from Invincibles with his own ability. As far as Zhao Li was concerned, if one lacked both strength and status, one would be completely helpless before an Invincible. The Invincible would be able to perform a scan on someone like that at any time.

But if one lacked strength yet had sufficient status, even Invincibles would hold back out of respect. After all, this was someone who might become a heaven weaponsmith in the future. Did that Invincible still want a weapon or not?

At present, Heavenly Forge King was the sole heaven weaponsmith of humanity. Zhao Li was still not an earth weaponsmith, but if he succeeded in the forging, he would definitely reach that level. Furthermore, his senior brother was a peak earth weaponsmith. If someone like him claimed that Su Yu had the potential to become a heaven weaponsmith, quite a lot of people would believe it.

Su Yu nodded before helplessly saying, “But…I don’t think I can grow so quickly. I feel like I have reached my current limit with fifty golden stripes.”

“Anything is possible.” Zhao Li ignored Su Yu’s protest and said, “Keep working hard. I’ll get some people to move my grotto over here before taking my incomplete earth weapon out of the vault. After that, you will be the only person I’m waiting for. The weapon is currently sealed and it can only be taken out once. If we don’t complete it after I take it out, it will turn into scrap iron, alongside my main character. Decide for yourself what you want to do.”

“…”

Su Yu grimaced. He was really not confident. If they failed, Zhao Li would lose his main character and suffer a heavy injury. With his advanced age, he would be in big trouble. Was there a need to be in such a rush?