Tribulation of Myriad Races

After the talk about the top experts in the mansion, the three started talking about cooperation. Fourth Heaven did not mind the proposal. This would be their chance to get something valuable before the nine-leaf skylotus bloomed.

***

About an hour later.

The three appeared before a dilapidated building. There, Fourth Heaven said, “This is the current encampment of the mountainbreak bulls. There are two of them in there, a fifth-stage Sunmoon and a seventh-stage Mountainsea.”

Pan Hu smiled, “We’re getting lucky. They only have three slots prior to this, right?”

“Yeah.”

Fourth Heaven nodded. They had lost only one person prior to this. But that would change soon.

Just as Pan Hu was about to make a move, Fourth Heaven said, “Wait. I can feel more people nearby.”

At that, Su Yu vanished and started searching their surroundings. This was the task that had been assigned to him since Ling Heng was good at scouting. And Su Yu was naturally capable of what Ling Heng could do.

After some time, Su Yu returned and said, “Yes, there are a few people nearby. I found three dragons hiding in the void. A sixth-stage Sunmoon and two fifth-stage Sunmoons.”

Clearly, the dragons had the same plan as well. One couldn’t help but admit that the mountainbreak bulls were quite popular.

Hearing the report, Fourth Heaven looked at Pan Hu. After a slight hesitation, Pan Hu said, “I’ll deal with the dragons and force them to leave. The two of you will deal with the mountainbreak bulls.”

He only aimed to scare the dragons away instead of killing them. This proved the importance of backers. Since there were Invincible dragons on the level as well, Pan Hu did not think of killing them. Fourth Heaven nodded without saying anything. Before long, they finalized a plan.

***

Inside the building.

The two mountainbreak bulls, who had assumed human forms, were feeling jittery.

The fifth-stage Sunmoon was pacing the room uneasily as he said, “Why is this happening? Why are we here? The seventh level is not safe for us…”

The Mountainsea said, “Lord, everyone is focused on He Tu. They might not…”

“What nonsense.”

The Sunmoon cursed. How simple-minded. Just by being mountainbreak bulls, they would be attractive targets for the others. The others would most certainly target them. Things wouldn’t be so bad if they could remain on the lower levels. Now that they were on the seventh level, things would grow troublesome.

He felt unsafe, but there was nowhere to go. There was no safe spot on the seventh level for them. He sighed. Abruptly, his expression changed. A slender and invisible sword stabbed toward his heart. Just as he was about to move away, Su Yu appeared behind him. Immortal qi swirled around Su Yu’s body as he stabbed his sword out as well.

Whoosh!

Unable to flee, the mountainbreak bull’s heart was stabbed through and crushed by Fourth Heaven’s sword. Next, his body fell apart. Finally, a ball of light appeared and attempted to flee.

That was his sea of willpower. He had decisively given up on his body to preserve his sea of willpower. However, it wouldn’t be so easy to flee a seventh-stage Sunmoon who was holding the upper hand.

With a wave of Fourth Heaven’s hand, a transparent cover appeared and caught the sea of willpower. A projection emerged from the sea of willpower and roared furiously, “You! Why are the major races so overbearing? It is only a matter of time before you follow in the footsteps of humanity…”

Boom!

The cover shattered as the mountainbreak bull self-detonated in fury. As for Su Yu, he cut the Mountainsea into two with a swing of his sword before destroying his target’s sea of willpower. Looking at the falling moon in the sky, he frowned.

Fourth Heaven’s tired voice rang out, “I underestimated his decisiveness. This is creating more commotion than we need. Let’s leave.”

The two hurriedly collected their spoils before leaving. Not far away, Pan Hu was forcing the dragons to stay still with his powerful aura. Upon noticing the falling moon in the sky, the dragons looked at each other and left.

There were more experts here. It was pointless to fight the immortals here. For now, everyone was targeting the minor and ancient races. Thus, the major races would continue holding back against each other.

Before long, Su Yu and Fourth Heaven returned to Pan Hu. Su Yu said, “Not bad. Ignoring the blood essence, they have a violetwood tree. It is only slightly less valuable than the blood reishi I found previously.”

Pah Hu was pleased to hear that, “Not bad at all.”

He looked at Fourth Heaven and said, “Fourth Brother, let us do the split at the end of this. Do you agree?”

Fourth Heaven said, “I don’t mind that as long as you don’t think of killing me when we’re done.”

Pan Hu laughed and said, “You kid. I doubt I’m your match, Brother Fourth. We have known each other for so long. Something like that won’t happen between us.”

After a short banter, they noticed a falling moon further away from them. They looked at each other understandingly. The other major races had started hunting as well. As for the identity of the latest victim, it was still unknown for now.

***

At the same time.

Numerous humans were gathered inside an ancient residence. Their numbers had reduced significantly as a lot of them had opted to explore the seventh level instead of hiding in their safe house.

Bai Feng was feeling very gloomy. His experience inside the Luminous Domain Mansion had not been too enjoyable. He had been chased all the way to the seventh level by Su Yu and He Tu before he could even do much.

And as a mere Cloudbreach, he was completely useless on the seventh level. He had been reduced to nothing but Wu Lan’s research assistant.

“Sigh.”

Bai Feng sighed helplessly and said, “It hasn’t been easy for us to get the slots for the mansion. Are we really here for a stroll and nothing else?”

Wu Jia, who was busy helping Wu Lan with her research, looked at Bai Feng with a cheerful smile and said, “Martial Uncle, just be grateful you’re not dead. We’re only Skysoars and Cloudbreaches. We’re too weak. If we leave this building, we will only drag the others down.”

“…”

Such hurtful words. Why was she grouping Skysoars alongside Cloudbreaches? Bai Feng wanted to shout that the difference between the two was large. He wanted to shout that he was different.

Wu Lan was completely unconcerned about Bai Feng’s mood. While working on her tools, she said, “Teacher Bai, since you’re so free, you should focus on helping me. Fighting and killing are not the things researchers like us should do. Why are you still thinking about violence when we have so many research materials here? You have forgotten that you’re a researcher.”

Bai Feng argued, “You research willpower. I’m not proficient in that subject. I’m more focused on blood essence, characters, and character techniques. What can I even help you with?”

“Looks like you have lost your inner peace, Teacher.” Wu Lan sighed regretfully, “You are no longer the focused researcher I knew. Back then, I only wished to become your student because of your dedication toward research. Back then, you stayed in Wentan Research Center all the time. You used to be the most elite of my sister’s generation. You have changed.”

Bai Feng swore inwardly. Had he changed? How had he changed? He hadn’t been able to find anything suitable to research. Even the disassembly method had been pushed to a level suitable for Mountainseas. He was not strong enough to push it to the level of Sunmoons yet.

As for his blood essence research, he had also reached its limits for now. In that case, what else could he research? He had not been able to find any interesting subjects to research. He was only interested in his student. He had been wanting to dissect his student for quite a while.

Wu Lan was aware of his thoughts. She beamed and said, “Teacher, forget about that guy. Actually…I found a big secret. This might be a suitable subject for you.”

“What is it?” Wu Lan switched to voice transmission and asked, “Teacher, have you discovered anything odd about this mansion?”

“Everything about it is odd.”

“That’s not what I’m talking about. The first level is the Human Face World. The second level is filled with lava. You can find the riversand on the third level. There are two mountains on the fourth level. The heart fire will appear on the fifth level. The sixth level is a maze. As for the seventh level, it is a flat world…”

Bai Feng nodded, “Yes, I noticed all that as well. The mansion resembles the human body. A lot of people know this. I suppose the architect of the mansion was someone with an odd fetish…”

“Why can’t the mansion be a real human?” Wu Lan asked.

Bai Feng laughed, “How is that possible? What are you thinking? Can you imagine a human like this? How strong would such a human be? Nine worlds in his body? Could someone like that even exist?”

“Not now, but what about the ancient past?”

“That’s not possible.” Bai Feng argued, even as his expression started changing, “How is that possible? Lass, why are you thinking all these random thoughts when you know nothing? How can this be a human? If it is…well…I think…it’s not possible…”

The more he spoke, the more his expression changed.

Wu Lan did not mind his words. She continued, “Perhaps. But I did manage to extract something out of the second, third, fourth, and fifth levels. I’m calling the fifth level the Double Lung Mountains. I have also gathered some samples from the sixth level…”

Then, Wu Lan handed Bai Feng a report she had made. After going through the report, Bai Feng frowned, “This…isn’t accurate. There are a lot of speculations in there. You don’t have any actual proof.”

“Yeah.”

Wu Lan did not deny that. If solid proof could be found so easily, someone else would have unraveled the mystery behind the mansion long ago.

“This is merely a guess, but I believe the mansion will either be a human or something built in accordance with certain characteristics of a human body.”

Wu Lan continued, “In that case, where is the blood? In fact, I found traces of blood from the lava on the second level.”

Bai Feng’s eyes started flickering as Wu Lan continued, “Also, have you noticed that there is a realm barrier on each level? The barriers are incomparably firm. You’re a researcher as well. Try to imagine the barriers many times smaller. You will discover something special about them.”

At that, a picture appeared in Bai Feng’s mind. When he did as told and shrank the size many times smaller, his eyes flickered.

“Cells?”

“You can say so.” Wu Lan continued, “Regardless of whether the mansion is a real human body or an imitation, there must be blood essence in it, right? In that case, how should we extract it? Is that even possible? Can we find any memories from it?”

Bai Feng sank into thought. After a short moment, he looked up at Wu Lan and sent a voice transmission, “Find someone to send us to the realm barrier. We need to think of a way to cut if open. You might be right. We might really be able to extract the blood essence of this building. A single drop of blood can contain unimaginable power. A single drop might be sufficient for us to complete our body forging and transformations. And we might be able to extract some memories from the blood as well…”

Wu Lan said, “It’s too dangerous out there. Who do we ask?”

Bai Feng looked around, looking for a suitable person. The weaker ones would be unacceptable. The Invincibles would be too busy to entertain them.

Suddenly, his gaze landed on someone. “Yun Chen…”

Wu Lan stared at Bai Feng, wondering if he was sure. Bai Feng nodded in affirmation. They had not talked to each other, but he knew that Yun Chen had been paying close attention to them since their arrival. Clearly, Yun Chen wanted to ease the tension between them.

“Are you not going to ask Teacher Liu about this?”