Tribulation of Myriad Races

Finally, Liu Wenyan was back in Nanyuan.

Su Yu and the other pavilion members continued their wait somewhere further away from the city.

Su Yu gazed at Nanyuan with complicated emotions. After a long while, he said, “Elder, for the sake of dao affirmation, some people are willing to give everything up. Is dao affirmation really worth such sacrifices?”

First Profound thought about it and shook his head, “Don’t ask me. This isn’t an easy question to answer. Some will say yes. Some will say no. But some will do anything as long as they can hide it. Abandoning their significant others and children, killing their children and parents…There are too many living beings in existence. All sorts of people exist. Someone like Zhang Qi might not even be that rare. Perhaps there are more people like him out there that you’re simply not aware of.”

Su Yu nodded. He asked again, “Elder, do you think he deserves death?”

“Yes. But…” First Profound paused slightly and added, “He can’t be killed. He is the son of an Invincible. Unless you can prove his betrayal, you don’t have the right to kill him. His father had fought for humanity. He had fought for humanity as well. If they’re not traitors, what right do you have to take his life?”

Su Yu sank into silence. But suddenly, he recalled something.

Su Yu’s heart skipped a beat. A certain someone had claimed that he might obtain boundless infamy after this whole incident. Was that person…going to do what Su Yu was thinking of?

Had that person foreseen everything? If so, that person would most definitely be someone of boundless infamy after he was done. At the very least, he would be rejected by the whole of humanity.

Sorrow gripped Su Yu’s heart. Was that person…thinking of doing what he wanted to do as well? So many people had been lured here. Had that person…been waiting for this all along?

Su Yu looked toward northward. There, the capital of Great Xia stood.

Heart Cultivating Pavilion.

Wan Tiansheng was looking southward. His gaze penetrated the massive distance between the capital and Nanyuan to directly observe everything that was happening there.

When Zhang Ying was killed, a smile bloomed on his face.

And when he heard Zhang Qi’s proposal, his smile grew wider.

“Emotions…human nature…”

With the same smile on his face, he withdrew his gaze and looked at the sky, in the Allheaven Battlefield’s direction.

They had too many misgivings.

They had too many shackles around them.

In that case, he shall assume the role of the cleaner. He alone shall cleanse the world of darkness. He alone shall bear all the blame and hate. Hopefully, the slayer would be able to complete the slaying.

Heroes…shall remain heroes. He would complete the dirty task for them.

“The gathering in Nanyuan. The deaths in Nanyuan. Nanyuan…what a good place.”

He returned to his rocking chair, flipped a book open, and started reading as his chair slowly rocked back and forth. Under the ray of sunlight, he appeared like a frail old man, yet he had an expression of pure bliss and contentment.

Let the sunlight disperse the darkness.

***

Nanyuan.

With Liu Wenyan’s arrival, Great Xia started gathering its forces in Nanyuan. More and more of their experts entered the city.

Mayor’s manor.

Marquis Xia was rapping on the desk while deep in thought. After a long time, he asked, “When will the ruin emerge?”

Hong Tan replied, “Roughly three days.”

Marquis Xia nodded, “Everything has been made clear. I am clearly trying to lure him out. And he…might be observing attentively. No, he is definitely observing attentively.”

Marquis Xia laughed and said, “Tell Chen Yong to return and break through into the Sunmoon Realm. I want to let the traitor know that if he remains idle, it is only a matter of time before the multiple character faction finds him and takes him down.”

“Fine.”

Hong Tan nodded, “Do you think the traitor will really show up?”

“Yes. If Liu Wenyan can really step into the late-stage Sunmoon Realm instantly, or even the middle stage, it will work. I’m only afraid that he won’t be able to do that. I also need you to start spreading the disassembly method. I want to turn all cultural researchers of humanity into multiple character cultivators. Today, you will teach the Skysoar disassembly method. Tomorrow, you will move on to the Cloudbreach Realm. The day after, the Mountainsea Realm…”

“It still doesn’t work for Mountainseas.”

Marquis Xia rolled his eyes and said, “If I say it works, it works.”

“Fine.” Hong Tan said, “I’ll start teaching the public. Does the Xia Family have any other preparations? I’m afraid that the traitor will be too wary to show up if the Xia Family does not show more of its preparations…”

“Yes.” Marquis Xia grinned, “Of course we have. How can we do something like this without a trump card that can handle an Invincible? Don’t worry. The traitor will learn of our trump card. Everyone will learn of it.”

Hong Tan smiled as well, “That’s good to hear.”

The two stopped talking and looked in the direction of Su Yu’s house. Liu Wenyan was there, and it was unknown how long he would take to reach the Sunmoon Realm. None of them had bothered to talk about Zhang Qi after Liu Wenyan entered the city. It was pointless.

As for whether the Xia Family would really give him a carrier treasure if they could seize one, Marquis Xia’s answer was yes. But…Zhang Qi had to be alive to actually receive the treasure, right?

Someone like Zhang Qi would bring more harm than help to humanity as an Invincible. At worst, they would throw their reputation away. Why should they care about something like reputation when they were ready to throw even their lives away for this plan?

***

Heavenly Hunt Pavilion.

Su Yu had returned to their temporary base of operations.

Liu Wenyan had successfully entered the city so there was no longer any need for him to keep a close eye on Nanyuan.

At this point, they were almost ready to launch the finale of the plan. In truth, there wasn’t that big of a role for Su Yu to play anymore. The smartest thing for him to do was to return to the Allheaven Battlefield.

But…would he? Could he?

Nope.

Liu Wenyan, Bai Feng, Hong Tan, Chen Yong, Xia Huyou, Marquis Xia, Ye Hongyan…

Too many people. Some were close to him. Some weren’t. But these were the people who had once helped or protected him. When all these people were preparing to face death, he couldn’t bring himself to leave. Would the plan work?

Su Yu had no idea. What if the traitor remained in hiding? All their hard work would go to waste. Could people like Ji Hong and Chen Yong really ascertain the identity of the traitor through what they had been doing?

Su Yu wasn’t too optimistic about that. Even if they could reduce the list of suspects, they wouldn’t be able to do anything without proof.

“Why did he kill Ye Batian? To avoid the activation of Human Realm’s suppressive force? Or was it merely due to a personal grudge?”

Nobody knew the answer apart from the traitor. They could only hope that the traitor would feel threatened enough by Liu Wenyan to show up. But what if that wasn’t enough?

“The biggest genius of the multiple character faction isn’t Teacher Liu. It’s me.”

Su Yu smiled. Yes. It was him. He was the multiple character cultivator with the biggest potential to eventually affirm his dao. If Teacher Liu wasn’t enough for the traitor, what about him?

Would he be enough? Definitely. Just how long had it been since he started cultivating? How much had he achieved in such a short time?

He was constantly under pressure of death qi. What if he could contend against late-stage Sunmoons despite that?

“If I fully open the yang acupoint, it will start devouring source qi without any limit. I don’t have enough source qi to feed it…but I have a limitless amount of death qi! At that time, it probably can’t be called the yang acupoint anymore. It will be more apt to call it the death acupoint. Will I get myself killed with this reckless attempt?”

Su Yu grinned with madness in his eyes. He reversed his source qi into death qi and started pumping death qi into the yang acupoint. The bright yang acupoint instantly darkened as it became filled with death qi.

“Sure enough, it can accept death qi as well.”

The smile on his face grew wider. What would happen if the yang acupoint was fully opened?

Bai Tianhao of Bai Family had killed a seventh-stage Mountainsea as a ninth-stage Cloudbreach with a fully opened yang acupoint. This was a feat very few people could achieve.

Was that ancestor of Bai Family even a super genius? Did he open 360 acupoints? Did he forge his body beyond thirty-six times?

No, he didn’t.

Yet even someone of mediocre talent like him could achieve that feat with a fully opened yang acupoint. One could only imagine how big of a boost a fully opened yang acupoint would grant.

All along, he had refrained from fully opening it as he would lose control of it without the yin aperture to serve as a counterbalance. But now, he had thought of an alternative. A very interesting alternative. He seemed to have an unlimited supply of death qi.

In that case, would the yang acupoint drain the source of death qi dry first or would the death qi fill the yang acupoint to its limit first?

Which among the two would prevail?

Su Yu laughed.

What an interesting question.

He wasn’t anywhere near locating the yin aperture, but he was in no rush. Perhaps this would be a good chance for him to kill more cultural researchers of the myriad races and obtain the locations of more apertures.

As time passed, the yang acupoint continued opening up. Death qi was flowing into the yang acupoint endlessly. He could feel his strength continuously growing stronger. He felt…very powerful. Much more powerful than before when the yang acupoint was only half-opened.

***

At the same time.

Grandstar City.

At the other end of the tunnel under the city was an incomparably massive world. Inside the world was a palace filled with death qi. Inside the palace, Xing Yue was suddenly roused awake.

The death qi in its body was flowing out endlessly. And the volume was only growing. An incorporeal channel was constantly transferring the death qi out of its body.

A certain someone was taking in death qi like a bottomless pit.

It was happening at an alarming rate.

It, no, she, stood up and instantly vanished before reappearing at the entrance of the tunnel. There, she asked, “Where’s Su Yu?”

Her gaze landed on the city in search of Su Yu. Grandstar ignored her question. He kept his eyes shut.

But suddenly, he sensed something and opened his eyes, “You…your death qi…is stirring violently.”

“Where’s Su Yu?” Xing Yue asked coldly, “Where is he? He’s not in the Allheaven Battlefield anymore. Where did he go?”

Damn it!

What was the little shit doing? The little shit was madly absorbing her death qi at an astonishing rate. She had no idea what the little shit was doing.

Grandstar was surprised as well. What was Su Yu doing? It felt as though he was madly devouring Xing Yue’s death qi. Was the kid using that special reversal art again? Why waste his effort? What could he possibly achieve by doing this?

He should stop upon reaching a balance. It wasn’t like he could sever his connection with Xing Yue. There would be no end to the death qi going into his body. Was he perhaps dreaming of draining a death sovereign of death qi? Was that a joke?

A death sovereign was an Invincible. Had the kid forgotten what his cultivation level was? Wow…just look at how energetic the kid was. Grandstar started regretting not spending more time outside the city. Ignoring Xing Yue, Grandstar suddenly moved away.

Xing Yue was stunned when she noticed Grandstar moving away from the entrance of the tunnel. The moment Grandstar moved away, a large amount of death qi entered his body as backlash.

But almost immediately, all the additional death qi vanished. Grandstar did not even need to do anything. Xing Yue was stunned.

“Are you…trying to kill him?”

Why would Grandstar shift so much of the death qi to Su Yu otherwise? Grandstar ignored the question. He was merely experimenting. That kid was too energetic. Since the kid was working so hard to drain Xing Yue’s death qi, the kid might as well take more of his burden as well, right?