Tribulation of Myriad Races

Boom!

Booming sounds continued revebrating everywhere.

Fifty-five golden stripes had formed on the hanging weapon in the sky. This speed was much slower than usual as this was an earth weapon, with higher requirements for the formation of each stripe.

The more golden stripes there were, the longer it took for the next stripe to appear. At the same time, the booming sounds also grew louder and louder.

Inside the grotto.

A large amount of source qi filled the area. Both Su Yu and Zhao Li were leaving their upper bodies bare. With a hammer in hand, both were sweating heavily. The booming sounds intensified as they struck the weapon repeatedly. Even with Su Yu’s physical strength, he was near his limit.

The weapon they were forging were still in the profound grade. Even so, it was emanating a powerful pressure that felt very repressive for Su Yu. This weapon was much stronger than a regular profound weapon. The reforging process had greatly increased its prowess.

Fifty-six golden stripes, fifty-seven golden stripes…

Su Yu was on the verge of coughing blood. As for Zhao Li, he was inwardly alarmed. This was much harder than his previous attempt. It was much more difficult to reforge than to forge a new weapon from scratch.

He glanced at Su Yu and felt quite helpless. The success chance was low. He estimated a thirty percent chance of success. Yes. The possibility of failing was much higher.

Nevertheless, if the kid could assist him up to the seventy-second golden stripe, forging a peak profound weapon would be much easier for the kid in the future. This would be a very helpful experience. As for earth weapons, it would depend on luck.

As for the growth of Su Yu’s physical strength, that was nothing for Zhao Li. As far as he was concerned, Su Yu should focus on learning and absorbing everything about weaponsmithing for now.

Boom!

The two hammers moved up and down repeatedly.

Seeing that Su Yu’s willpower was greatly drained, Zhao Li said, “Switch to source qi. I will keep watch and stabilize the golden stripe while you’re doing so.”

Su Yu said nothing. As the golden stripe slowly took form, he hurriedly switched. During the switch, Zhao Li dissolved all the vibrations heading his way. After the switch, he continued hammering the weapon with his source qi that was incomparably pure.

In fact, his source qi was a lot purer than that of regular Skysoars. He was constantly using the Pure Source Art and the Source Soul Life Art to keep a low level of impurity in his body.

With all 360 of his acupoints active, his entire body was wrapped in a layer of heavenly source qi. Even Zhao Li and the weapon they were forging were also wrapped in a layer of heavenly source qi.

The heavenly source qi was being drained at a rapid rate. But that was the last thing on Su Yu’s mind. In truth, if one was rich enough, one could buy an earth weapon for tens of thousands of merit points. But now, the materials and heavenly source qi they had used were far more valuable than a mere earth weapon. But neither of the two cared about that. They continued their work.

Sixtieth golden stripe, sixty-first golden stripe…

Time slowly passed. Eventually, the 29th of May arrived. Sixty-three golden stripes could be seen on the hanging hammer in the sky. It was on the verge of reaching the very peak of the profound grade. However, the aura around the hammer gave one the illusion that this was already an earth weapon.

Outside.

More Sunmoons had arrived. Different types of people gathered in different groups. There were groups of experts, groups of geniuses, groups of Invincible descendants, and so on.

Heart Cultivating Pavilion’s area.

Inside a large building.

Yuan Qingdong was looking in the direction of the hanging hammer. A few people were grouped around him. They were of similar age and strength as him. They were all looking in Zhao Li’s direction as well. After a while, a woman indifferently said, “Zhao Li sure has picked a great time to start his forging. The entire Great Xia is focusing on him. He’s not even an earth weaponsmith yet even Invincibles can only wait and see as he forges an earth weapon. Who does he think he is?”

A youth with white eyebrows smiled and said, “He’s trying to delay it, but there is no rush. We can wait.”

Great Xia was trying to delay it. Zhao Li was trying to delay the trial. Even the three Invincibles were doing the same. Nobody knew what the Invincibles were thinking.

What were they delaying? Feng Ji’s public trial! And they wouldn’t be able to declare Chen Yong a criminal without a trial. At the moment, Chen Yong was still an elder. Nobody could legally arrest him.

The longer they waited, the further Chen Yong could run. Perhaps he had already sneaked into the Allheaven Battlefield.

The woman unhappily said, “After killing so many military officials, we can’t let Chen Yong off. Otherwise, how are we supposed to face the soldiers of humanity? That might shake the morale in the military and result in chaos.”

Yuan Qingdong nodded, “If Chen Yong is really the culprit, he naturally can’t escape punishment. Not even Invincibles can go against this rule. Tens of millions of soldiers are still watching on the front line. Chen Yong has insulted the Human Realm by assassinating military officials and causing a disturbance in the military. If we spare him, the cult will try to do the same as well. And that will result in great chaos.”

Army morale. With this as an excuse, nobody could shield Chen Yong from punishment.

The woman smiled, “Qingdong, you sure have turned a lot more cautious nowadays. Why are you using the word if? It is Chen Yong. There is no if. What is the confusion here?”

Yuan Qingdong said nothing. He ignored her. He had learned one thing after arriving in Great Xia. Before actual confirmation, one should be cautious when speaking.

Using the word “if” was fine since he was still speculating. Using the word “is” would show that they were already sure of the fact.

Without sufficient proof to declare Chen Yong a traitor, he would be blamed for slander. And he would also need to pay a price for that. For example, when he previously slandered Su Yu as a defector, he had paid a large price for his words.

Thus, he was a lot more careful with his words nowadays. These days, he had a lot of patience when dealing with people like Hong Tan and Zhao Li. Sure, they would still greatly anger him, but he was able to quickly calm down and stop himself from doing anything rash.

Ignoring his colleagues around him, he looked at the sky again and said, “There is a reason the Invincibles are placing so much importance on this. This is not an ordinary earth weapon Zhao Li is forging. It carries the hope of an entirely different path of weaponsmithing, a path of fusing the character and the weapon. The moment this succeeds, the earth weapon itself will become Zhao Li’s main character. It can take the place of a simulated aperture, and with this weapon, his combat strength will surpass the Mountainsea Realm at the Mountainsea Realm.”

The others nodded when they heard that. But the woman shook her head and said, “The success rate is too low. Also, the more golden stripes there are, the bigger the backlash will be when he fails. It has reached sixty-three golden stripes now. If Zhao Li fails now, he won’t die. But at seventy-two or more golden stripes, the backlash will destroy his sea of willpower.”

The others also nodded. True. The stronger the weapon was, the stronger Zhao Li’s main character would become. And thus, the backlash of its destruction would also become much stronger.

“Zhao Tianbing went straight to the prefect’s residence. He’s probably there to beg the Invincibles for their help. But at failure, even Invincibles will have a hard time stripping his character from the weapon. Thus, Zhao Li will either die or become a cripple upon failing.”

As Sunmoons, these people had keen eyes.

With a smile, Yuan Qingdong changed the topic, “That Cui Lang is quite interesting. Clearly, Zhao Li is teaching that kid like a student. The kid will probably get to learn the Soul Expanding Art. That will increase the number of Soul Expanding Art users to three. And this Soul Expanding Art is a very powerful art.”

The others nodded in agreement. Zhao Li’s father was the one who had laid the foundations for the Soul Expanding Art. He was a peak Sunmoon. Subsequently, Zhao Li had worked on the foundations and improved the art. The fifth principal had also helped with this.

Su Yu’s arts might be powerful, but they were also foundational. The Soul Expanding Art, on the other hand, was a powerful offensive soul technique.

The youth with white eyebrows said, “Qingdong, what are you trying to say?”

“We can try to rope him in. If Zhao Li fails, we can forget about roping Su Yu in. That fellow is extremely troublesome. Cui Lang is a far better candidate. He hails from a small family so roping him in won’t be as hard. He will benefit a lot from this and he might be fine even upon failure. He still has the potential to become an earth weaponsmith in the future. And he might already know the Soul Expanding Art.”

The others sank into thought. True.

Cui Lang!

As for Niu Baidao and Cheng Mo, one was an unofficial teacher while the other one was honestly a stranger to Cui Lang. As for the matter between his granddaughter and Cui Lang, that was a matter of the younger generation.

They stopped talking. Why? Because the sixty-fourth golden stripe had just appeared on the hanging weapon in the sky. The instant that stripe appeared, source qi undulated in all directions.

Yuan Qingdong exclaimed in surprise, “This…is a prelude to a heavenly phenomenon. A phenomenon should only appear for heaven weapons, not earth weapons, right?”

“If a weapon is powerful enough, it can generate a phenomenon regardless of grade.”

The youth with silver eyebrows said, “This is the same as cultivation. An earth weapon is equivalent to the Mountainsea Realm and a heaven weapon is equivalent to the Sunmoon Realm. Most people won’t generate a phenomenon when advancing to the Mountainsea Realm. But geniuses and freaks will generate a phenomenon during breakthrough.”

For example, someone like Xia Longwu. In fact, an earth weapon could be viewed as a Mountainsea. Then again, earth weapons were less spiritual in nature than heaven weapons. Take Great Ming’s Hundred Dao Pagoda. It was a very spiritual weapon, capable of activating and working by itself. And it had the strength of a Sunmoon.

Of course, that was partly also due to how high the Hundred Dao Pagoda’s level was even among heaven weapons. But even regular heaven weapons, including those that had barely entered the grade, would be as strong as a weak Sunmoon. In terms of combat potential alone, these weapons weren’t that much weaker than the Hundred Dao Pagoda since the pagoda was mainly a supportive weapon instead of an offensive weapon.

“If the phenomenon appears for real, then the success chance will be much higher. This weapon might really become an offensive heaven weapon.”

They stared at the hanging hammer silently. At this time, the woman’s voice broke the silence, “This is a cultural weapon, not a martial weapon. An offensive heaven-grade cultural weapon is comparable to a Sunmoon in power. Should we try to get someone to forge some heaven weapons for us as well?”

“Who? Who is capable of this? Or perhaps you want to make the attempt yourself? Are you tired of living? Are you even capable of that?”

Yuan Qingdong said, “Forget about Zhao Li. You should get ready for the trial and pay more attention to Feng Ji. Zhao Li is a weaponsmith. Not everyone can be a weaponsmith. He walks an entirely different path from us. How much do you even know about weaponsmithing?”

It was pointless to set their eyes on Zhao Li. That was someone walking an entirely different path. Even if a Sunmoon was provided with a manual and the materials to forge a weapon, could they actually complete the forging?

Apart from the Soul Expanding Art, Zhao Li didn’t have anything that was worth coveting. Even if he was able to complete this weapon, it was a cultural weapon, a weapon tailor-made for him. Nobody apart from him could utilize that weapon.

The conversation ended there.