Tribulation of Myriad Races

After a while, Su Yu finally saw a black hole in front of him. It was floating below the Celestial River of Death. Some weak death spirits were roaming blankly in the vicinity.

He Tu pointed at the black hole and said, “That’s the black hole. Previously, a whirlpool formed in it out of nowhere. When I came to check out of curiosity, I was transferred toward the mansion entrances.”

He looked at Dummy with an odd expression and said, “This guy seemed familiar with the way. Was he here before?”

Su Yu was surprised to hear that. Was Xian Chen here before? No way, right?

“Senior Xia Chen, were you here before?”

Dummy stared at the black hole blankly. After a long while, he said, “I…know…know this…place…”

Then, death qi covered his eyes, removing the tiny bit of clarity he had. Su Yu felt very helpless. This was annoying. Dummy did not have the ability to explain anything clearly. He didn’t know what to say anymore.

So be it. He decided to give up and focus on the 360 apertures for now. He wasted no time and soared into the sky after a short pause.

He Tu and Xing Yue followed behind him.

A short while later.

After going through the long, dark tunnel, Su Yu finally saw light again. A starry sky unfolded before him. He had to admit that seeing such a view in a place as desolate as the Death Realm was a form of pleasure.

Hundreds of stars floated in the sky.

After looking at the sky and comparing the stars with his apertures, he became wild with joy.

This was indeed the aperture chart. He was certain. Sure enough, his guess was right. This was a chart depicting the locations of all 360 apertures.

At the moment, all the stars were dim.

They were inactive. Since they were inactive, they would naturally not display the correct circulation route. But that did not matter.

Su Yu was gasping in excitement. He only needed to open all his apertures. The moment that happened, he might be able to enter the Mountainsea Realm directly. He could finally fuse his apertures.

Previously, his acupoints had fused automatically, with each forty basic acupoints fusing into one.

If the same thing happened with his apertures as well, he would be able to become a ninth-stage Mountainsea in willpower. There was a difference between willpower and physical cultivation.

The lack of a proper aperture cultivation method would not matter too much for the moment. It would only affect him at the Sunmoon or Invincible Realms.

“Will I be fine with only thirty characters?”

The disassembly method had been developed enough to work for Mountainseas. They were starting to experiment on Sunmoons as well. He should be fine advancing without sufficient characters. He could still fill his character technique with more characters as a Sunmoon.

Su Yu had recently shifted his focus to natural characters.

While Su Yu stared at the sky with joy, He Tu focused on the sky and nodded, “I didn’t pay attention previously, but this is indeed a chart of the aperture locations. Back then, I didn’t open too many of my apertures…”

He paused and frowned, “What’s the point of leaving the aperture chart here? Only the dead can reach this place. What can this do for the dead when the dead can’t cultivate their acupoints and apertures?”

Su Yu speculated, “Perhaps this was prepared for the living as well. Or perhaps back then, the living could be found in the Death Realm as well.”

He Tu did not say anything. He couldn’t be bothered to speculate. It was of no interest to him.

He looked at Su Yu and asked, “Are you sure you can open all 360 apertures?”

That was the biggest question.

Su Yu inhaled deeply, looked at the sky, and said, “I’ll try. I have opened 290 apertures so far. It won’t be easy to open the remaining apertures. I’ll try to open ten per day and finish it in seven days.”

Then, he took out a pile of treasures, including a large amount of riversand. All these were willpower treasures. He Tu said nothing and flew toward one of the stars before stepping on it. He wasn’t worried about being transferred into the mansion again.

After inspecting the star for a bit, he shook his head, “It’s not working anymore. It seems to lack energy. Maybe it will be active again when the month is up.”

If not, they would need to wait ten years for the next opening.

Su Yu was unconcerned about that. He only cared about the apertures. As for the mansion, he wouldn’t mind even if he couldn’t enter it again anytime soon.

“As long as I can open all my apertures, I can find my yin aperture. With a completed yang acupoint, I’ll be able to freely open or close it.”

Even so, he needed an energy supply during the process of opening his apertures. Xing Yue…seemed to be insufficient in this aspect. If he had to rely only on himself, it would take too long. Before long, Su Yu stopped thinking and sat down cross-legged. After taking another look at the stars in the sky, he started opening his apertures.

Inside his sea of willpower, 290 apertures shone brightly. Some were stronger than the others.

Su Yu took a look at them and frowned. He might not be able to smoothly fuse them. Back then, he had consumed some sunmoon profound yellow liquid, strengthening some of his apertures. Thus, there was an imbalance between the strength of his apertures. He could only achieve balance if he could consume more sunmoon profound yellow liquid.

“There’s no rush.”

His apertures were still far too weak in comparison with his acupoints. He wasn’t even too bothered about his willpower advancement. He only wanted to open his yin aperture.

“Don’t cause trouble.”

Su Yu pushed the little furball to the corner of his sea of willpower and said, “Go play with yourself. Don’t disturb me when I’m opening my apertures.”

The little furball did not seem to mind. He flew into the Mark of Civilization and lay atop the culture and radiance characters instead. With the Mark of Civilization as an alternative, he was no longer so concerned about Su Yu’s sea of willpower. The two characters in the book were very yummy as well.

When Su Yu saw the furball lying atop the two characters, he blanked out slightly.

Right!

The little furball had always said that the golden book smelled nice. Su Yu himself had concluded that the golden book was a weapon of the Time Sage. And the little furball had never shown any interest in weapons.

In that case, there might be some hidden characters in the golden book as well.

Su Yu’s eyes flickered. That might be the case.

The Time Sage might have planted some characters into the golden book like him.

Characters…

Su Yu exhaled. He rarely used the golden book nowadays. He would only use it on special occasions, such as when he obtained some valuable blood essence. Perhaps he could find a chance to fuse the golden book with his Mark of Civilization…

Just as that thought crossed his mind, the golden book trembled slightly.

Noticing that, Su Yu narrowed his eyes.

Interesting.

What an incredible weapon. It had gained a tiny bit of sentience. Like the cauldron he found previously, it had the ability to sense some of his thoughts.

Whatever.

Su Yu started absorbing the willpower in the pile of treasures before him.

During his Cloudbreach transformations, he had absorbed some power of laws. Some was still left even after feeding the little furball. The remaining power of laws would be the best power supply for opening more apertures.

What a pity that he didn’t know the locations of these apertures before this. He could have used the power of laws to open them all even if he had to delay his transformations.

The more apertures one opened, the harder it would be to open more apertures. But the power of laws was powerful enough to overcome that difficulty.

Boom!

Suddenly, a new star lit up in his sea of willpower. That was the 291st aperture. This was an impressive speed. With his eyes shut, Su Yu continued opening more. 292, 293…

One aperture after another lit up. One treasure after another was crushed to supply himself with energy. It didn’t even matter if these treasures were suited for this purpose. Wastage was not a concern for him right now.

Some of these treasures were better for acupoint opening, but Su Yu did not care. He would extract all the willpower from these treasures before purifying the willpower with the riversand.

300…310…

As Su Yu opened his apertures, time passed.

He Tu and the others waited in silence.

For death spirits, the time Su Yu needed to open his apertures couldn’t even be considered a long time. Thus, they could easily stay patient.

After a while, He Tu sent Xing Yue a voice transmission due to his boredom, “Are you not taking this chance to kill him? He has grown to a point where you can no longer fully convert him. After opening the heaven acupoint, he won’t even need to absorb your death qi anymore. But that might change when he’s in a difficult battle. It is only a matter of time before he sucks you dry.”

Xing Yue answered with a cold glare.

He Tu laughed and said, “Are you thinking of being resurrected by him? Let me be honest. It is extremely difficult. Back then, I attempted to resurrect the death sovereign who had converted me. Alas, he burst apart. He died before the process could be completed. I didn’t even want that. I wanted him to stay alive. I wanted him to leave the Death Realm and help me for real. But he died. Su Yu has zero experience with this. You will be the first person he attempts to resurrect. And for a first attempt, the likelihood of failure is extremely high.”

Xing Yue glared at He Tu for a long while before giving a short reply, “Fool.”

He Tu blanked out slightly. Then, he asked furiously, “Did you scold me?”

Xing Yue ignored him. Yes. What about it? Would he dare to hit her? It wasn’t like she was scared of him.

Xing Yue couldn’t even be bothered to say anything else. She continued absorbing the death imprint while thinking…thinking…this was something she hadn’t done for a very long time. She loved this feeling. Thus, she enjoyed it in silence.

What did He Tu know? All death spirits had died once. What was the big deal about dying again? At the very least, Su Yu would allow her to feel many new emotions, such as fury, excitement, surprise, deep contemplation, and so on.

Su Yu’s existence had reminded her that she was no longer a death spirit ruled only by her desire to kill. He had reminded her that she had other emotions as well. He made her feel…alive again.

He Tu only cared about life and death, about benefits, and nothing else. As for Xing Yue, she considered a lot more than that. She enjoyed all the different sensations she was feeling now.

He Tu would never understand this. How could someone who only cared about hegemony understand this? Slowly, some old memories returned to her.

Xing Yue spent a long time immersing herself in her memories. Suddenly, she said, “The moment he opens his heaven acupoint, he will no longer suffer from the restrictions. He can open and close it at any time. When he finishes fusing all his acupoints and apertures, the heaven acupoint alone will be a manifestation of his strength. He will no longer require external power to support himself.”

“Hmm?” He Tu blanked out slightly and asked, “You know about the heaven acupoint?”

The heaven acupoint was not something any regular person could open. It required the completion of soul apertures and source acupoints. Someone capable of doing that was extremely rare even during the ancient past.

Xing Yue replied coldly, “Why can’t I know about it? It’s not like nobody has ever opened the heaven acupoint in the ancient past.”

“Just who are you?” He Tu asked curiously, “You know Martial King, and you even know about the heaven acupoint. I suspect that you’re not a nobody prior to your death.”

Xing Yue ignored him. She knew more than he could imagine. She was simply unbothered to tell him more.