Tribulation of Myriad Races

Zheng Yuming sighed with acceptance.

After a moment, he nodded, “Master Cui, I can agree with this arrangement. But…I hope you will keep the characteristics of my character secret.”

“Cut the crap. Every field has its own rules. I naturally know what to do. Do you want to repair your weapon or not?”

Inwardly, Su Yu was getting excited. Back when he was still a student in the academy, this person was so far above him. But now, the same person had no choice but to bow before him.

This was a perfect chance to take a look at Zheng Yuming’s character. His previous characters had been broken by Wan Tiansheng. Su Yu wanted to see the result of that.

Wan Tiansheng seemed to have crushed even his main character. So what characters was he cultivating now? And how was he cultivating them? Was he able to cultivate a new fourth-tier character in such a short period of time? Was he focusing on human characters?

According to Su Yu’s memories, Wan Tiansheng had left Zheng Yuming’s human characters alone. Zheng Yuming did not have a choice. If he refused to repair his cultural weapon now, it wouldn’t last much longer. After some hesitation, he materialized his character.

Suppress. It was a human character.

Su Yu’s eyes flickered as he asked, “You’re cultivating human characters?”

“Yes.”

“Won’t it be impossible to enter the Sunmoon Realm with human characters? Are you cultivating this as your main character? What are your plans?”

“That…” Zheng Yuming awkwardly said, “I’m experimenting with something new. Nowadays, a lot of myriad race character cultivators are stuck at the peak Mountainsea Realm. I want to try and see if advancement is easier with human characters.”

Su Yu nodded and reached out to the character. Zheng Yuming wanted to move by sheer instinct, but he stopped himself from moving. With the character in hand, Su Yu mused that he could heavily injure this fellow just by crushing the character in his hand. Of course, there was no need for him to do that. Harming a member of the Vanguard Regiment right in the middle of their base was the same as courting death.

After studying the character for a bit, Su Yu said, “Is this a character specializing in suppressing your opponents?”

“Good eyes, Master!”

Su Yu ignored the praise. He spent more time studying the character before saying, “Something feels different about this character…”

He looked at Zheng Yuming and solemnly said, “It feels unique.”

“Unique?”

Zheng Yuming laughed awkwardly and said, “Are you feeling that way because it’s a human character?”

“No!” Su Yu said, “From my senses, this character feels somewhat unstable. It feels…like a product of induced growth.”

Su Yu muttered, “Induced growth…is this a character that has been artificially grown? How was it made? Where was it made?”

He looked up at Zheng Yuming again. There was an uncomfortable expression on Zheng Yuming’s face.

Zheng Yuming smiled and squeezed a calm expression onto his face, “Good eyes, Master. I was injured gravely previously, but subsequently, I absorbed a large amount of willpower to forcefully grow this character to the fourth tier. Thus, it feels quite hollow and unstable.”

Su Yu nodded, “I knew it. But you need a lot of willpower to forcefully upgrade a characrer to the fourth tier. I am actually trying to find a way to get more willpower. Do you have any suggestions?”

“No. The willpower I used was what I saved and purified over a long period of time. I don’t have any left.”

Su Yu nodded. Bullshit. How did he have the ability to purify willpower?

Also, Zheng Yuming’s explanation was most likely not the full truth. This character was rather unstable since its growth was artificial rather than natural. But it would slowly stabilize after a while. It did not seem like something Zheng Yuming had formed himself.

It felt more like…an inheritance. Yes, an inherited character! Did someone transfer his character to Zheng Yuming? Some new thoughts surfaced in Su Yu’s mind, but he was unable to grab hold of those thoughts.

He spent more time sensing the character. Abruptly, he asked, “Is this character…part of a set?”

“Huh?”

“I’m referring to character combinations.” Su Yu frowned and said, “It doesn’t feel like something that should exist alone. I am quite sensitive toward characters. This character probably originated from a set of characters. Am I right?”

“You have sharp eyes, Master.”

Zheng Yuming might be smiling, but he was cursing inwardly. What a troublesome weaponsmith. The request had been fulfilled. He had allowed this weaponsmith to study his character. Why was this guy asking him so many questions?

But there was no doubt that this weaponsmith had very sharp eyes. This weaponsmith might be young, but he seemed to really know a lot.

As for Su Yu, he was greatly shocked inwardly. A part of a set. A fourth-tier character that had been artificially grown to that level…

Numerous thoughts rose in his mind. After a long while, a certain conclusion took form. Could it be that…some people were actually manufacturing characters? Was that possible? How were they doing that?

And how were they transplanting these manufactured characters into the cultural researchers that were supposed to use them?

Zheng Yuming had lost his original characters not long ago, yet he had obtained a new fourth- tier character in such a short period of time. He might even have more than one fourth-tier character. Something was off about this.

Zheng Yuming and Zhou Mingren had a close working relationship with Great Zhou. Was it possible that this was a technology unique to Great Zhou? Character manufacturing and transplanting? If that were the case, Great Zhou would truly be a terrifying existence.

“Great Zhou…”

Su Yu was unable to stay calm. If there was really such technology in Great Zhou, did this not signify that they had already produced a large number of characters they could transplant into others at any time? Was this a preparation they made to gain more characters or was this done to nurture more experts? Growing characters had always been a difficult task.

Su Yu did not ask any other questions. If he continued asking, Zheng Yuming would probably go crazy. Earth weapons weren’t easy to repair. Su Yu took out his hammer. When Zheng Yuming saw the hammer, a look of discomfort appeared on his face. This was a familiar hammer. It resembled Zhao Li’s Soul Expanding Hammer.

He had asked around before coming here and learned that this fellow had helped Zhao Li before. Thanks to that help, Zhao Li had successfully entered the Mountainsea Realm. Su Yu started working on the weapon.

Booming sounds rang out as Su Yu started hammering the weapon. As he worked, he started thinking of a way to leave something extra in the weapon. It was inconvenient for him to actually do anything to Zheng Yuming right now, but there was still a need for him to prepare a trump card for himself.

Zheng Yuming was the one who had visited him for a weapon repair. How could he resist leaving a backdoor on the weapon? Su Yu activated his characters as he worked on the weapon, causing the seventy-four golden stripes to shine brightly. The powers of his metal and fire characters started seeping into the weapon.

A majority of the powers were concentrated into the golden stripes before he compressed, refined, and sealed them. With this backdoor, he gained the ability to easily cause this weapon to explode if they were to go against each other in the future.

Su Yu worked at a rapid pace. Zheng Yuming kept a close watch on the process, but all he could feel was the fiery aura of the fire character and the sharp aura of the sword character. It was not out of place for either of them to be here so he didn’t notice anything suspicious. After all, weaponsmithing was not his forte.

The process took a very long time. When it was late in the evening, Su Yu finally stopped. At that point, he was already sweating all over. While handing the weapon over, he said, “The difficulty is high, but it is more or less fully repaired now. Some of its attributes have waned, but you can fix that by nurturing the weapon more in your sea of willpower.”

“Thank you, Master Cui.”

Zheng Yuming was overjoyed. He checked the weapon and found nothing suspicious. In fact, it felt even sharper than before. After expressing his gratitude, he left. After Zheng Yuming’s departure, a look of doubt appeared on Su Yu’s face.

Something was off about that person’s character. What a pity that he knew too little to further investigate this matter.

***

The first day of repairs lasted until late at night. During the day, Su Yu repaired eight peak profound weapons and two early earth weapons. He might only be repairing weapons, but this was also a good chance for him to expand his horizons. He was able to witness the styles of different weaponsmiths, deepening his understanding of the path of weaponsmithing.

The second day proceeded in the same manner He continued repairing weapons while chatting with the members of the Vanguard Regiment. Thanks to these chats, he learned even more about all sorts of topics. He also received some unique cultivation methods, treasures, and blood essence.

Excluding his fire character that had advanced to the fourth tier, his other five elemental characters had also grown reasonably while he was working on all those weapons. As he worked on more and more weapons, the name Cui Lang became more and more popular in the Vanguard Regiment.

Late at night on the second day, Su Yu finally saw the person he had been waiting for.

Liu Wenyan!

Liu Wenyan was here with his uncle. His uncle was also the one needing a weapon repaired.