Tribulation of Myriad Races

“What do you think?” asked Great Zhou King.

Su Yu thought about it and said, “The celestial chasm race is the more appropriate target. They are too mysterious, and they might be connected to the Death Realm. In my opinion, the celestial chasms are more dangerous to attack than the dragons.”

Great Zhou King nodded and asked, “So you believe the dragon race is the better target?”

“No. The celestial chasm race is the better target.” Su Yu thought about it and said, “They are mysterious. Thus, a sudden attack is the best way of dealing with them. Also, we are better off removing them now. That way, we won’t have to worry about their curses in future wars. Invincibles don’t fear their curses much, but those below the Invincible Realm are too susceptible to their curses. They have a lower number of experts, but they are capable of far more destruction than the dragons.”

“Not because of Ye Batian?” Great Zhou King asked with a laugh.

Su Yu chuckled and said, “I’ll be frank. Do I even know Ye Batian? My choice is unrelated to Ye Batian. This race is too dangerous to keep around. They even have the ability to form agreements with death sovereigns.”

Su Yu was being honest here. He did not make this choice due to Ye Batian. He simply viewed the celestial chasm race as a bigger threat than the dragon race.

The dragons could be very strong, but they weren’t secretive or mysterious enough. Meanwhile, the celestial chasms were still shrouded in mystery. They were capable of threatening everyone with their curses and ability to form agreements with death spirits.

“Yes.” Great Zhou King nodded, “You are correct.”

Su Yu inhaled in shock. Were they really doing this? Were they really making a move against the celestial chasm race?

How brazen. How decisive!

They would be in deep trouble if they were blockaded inside the Celestial Chasm Realm before they could leave.

Furthermore, that was a race with a Daofuse. Sure, they had a relatively low number of Invincibles, but a Daofuse wouldn’t be weak. Additionally, that was an ancient race. An ancient race would most definitely be a race with some useful trump cards hidden away.

“The cost of failure for this is too high,” said Su Yu.

Great Zhou King chuckled and said, “We have to face them one day, right?”

“True. We might as well seize the initiative and make the first move. Everyone believes that the human race does not have the courage to upset the status quo. But if we do proceed with this plan…”

Su Yu shook his head. The consequences wouldn’t be light either. It could very well trigger a major battle. And this would be a battle targeting humanity as a whole, not him alone.

Great Zhou King said, “So be it. War might not necessarily be a bad thing. With a war, the indecisive fools will stop dreaming.”

“Why does it sound like you’re talking about yourself?”

Su Yu laughed and asked, “Aren’t you a member of the pro-peace faction?”

Great Zhou King laughed. He said, “Perhaps. Maybe I’m doing this to force myself into making a decision.”

Su Yu asked, “So you want me to…”

“Firstly, we need you to attract everyone’s attention. Secondly, we need your cooperation. Those guardians of yours might encounter some fake versions of us. Strong as they are, they might see through the disguise. Cover for us. Thirdly, the Human Realm might face an attack if we do end up trapped in the Celestial Chasm Realm.”

Great Zhou King said, “We won’t leave the Human Realm completely devoid of combat force, but humanity might not be able to resist the attack of the myriad races. At that time, I need you to help and save humanity.”

“Me?” Su Yu laughed and said, “That’s not a job I’m capable of doing.”

“You can.”

Su Yu smiled, but he said nothing.

Great Zhou King stopped talking as well. The two continued their travel. After some time, a large city appeared ahead of them.

Su Yu frowned and asked, “Beiyuan?”

“Yes. Beiyuan City.”

Great Zhou King said, “There is a ruin here. The legacy inside was inherited by Tianyuan. That was how he affirmed his dao. The artificial character production is being carried out in the ruin. This place is secure enough to remain hidden from all prying eyes.”

A ruin!

The ruin of Beiyuan.

Su Yu nodded. He had heard that there were four yuans in the Human Realm, each in a different cardinal direction. The other three yuans were with a ruin each, but Nanyuan (South Origin) was the exception.

Perhaps there used to be one there. It had merely been emptied long ago. Or perhaps…the Nanyuan ruin was the one located in Starfall Mountain. That could be considered a part of Nanyuan, right?

After all, the current Nanyuan was too small. If it had the size of the other yuans, it would probably include Starfall Mountain within its borders as well.

Great Zhou King said, “The four yuans used to be the territories of ancient past experts. They were the four extremities of the Human Realm, and they used to be the fiefs of four human kings. Beiyuan (North Origin) used to be the fief of the ancient Martial King, and Nanyuan used to be the fief of the ancient Culture King.”

Su Yu blanked out slightly before asking, “Culture King?”

“Yes!” Great Zhou King smiled, “Are you surprised? It’s not surprising at all. As humans, they were all based in the Human Realm. The Luminous Domain Mansion was merely a palace they built after conquering the Myriad Realms.”

Su Yu frowned. Was Nanyuan really the fief of the ancient Culture King?

And Beiyuan was Martial King’s?

“What about Dongyuan (East Origin) and Xiyuan (West Origin)?”

Su Yu asked curiously, “Of the four cardinal directions, the east is generally considered the head.”

“You’re wrong.” Great Zhou King said, “During the ancient past, the south was the head. The defeated to the north. That was a popular saying in the ancient past. It was said that Culture King and Martial King loved fighting each other in the ancient past. And with Martial King being the one to lose all the time, he gained the north while Culture King gained the south.”

Was that so? Su Yu wasn’t too bothered. It was normal for tradition to change after a hundred thousand years.

“The east belonged to Radiant King (Ming King) while the west belonged to Control King.”

Su Yu’s heart thumped. Was that essentially the four strongest ancient human kings? How strong was Radiant King? He was certain Control King was strong. A weakling wouldn’t have dared to go against Culture King, even if the conspiracy against Culture King’s legacy had only started after Culture King’s disappearance.

Su Yu wasn’t surprised to hear that Control King was one of the four. But he was very surprised to hear that Radiant King was one of them.

“Was Radiant King strong?”

“Yes.” Great Zhou King said, “We still have some records of the ancient past. What was the meaning behind the Radiant in his title? Radiance. He was the manifestation of the sun and moon. Heavens above, down below, he was the sole radiance. Even the sun and the moon could only bow to him.

“Of course, there is no guarantee that the ruins of the four yuans came from the four kings. Their ancient residences must have been destroyed long ago. These ruins were probably something built by those who came after. Thus, the ruins we inherited are not necessarily the ruins of the ancient past. Perhaps they came from the previous epoch, or some other earlier epochs.”

While speaking, Great Zhou King ripped the space in front of him apart, revealing a unique space behind the opening. When Su Yu followed Great Zhou King through the opening, he noticed the density of the heavenly source qi in the air. However, the density wasn’t anything special for him.

The so-called ruin was laid bare before him, and he was not impressed. The so-called ruin was merely a space with some ancient buildings. In Su Yu’s opinion, the buildings in the fake Nanyuan ruin looked a lot better than these buildings.

However, he did see something surprising. There was a large platform in the ruin. His attention wasn’t on the platform. Rather, his gaze was attracted by the countless corpses surrounding the platform.

Su Yu’s expression changed.

Corpses. Or to be precise, bones.

He looked at Great Zhou King.

Great Zhou King calmly explained, “These were all our research subjects. Most of them were cultural researchers. Some were humans, and some were non-humans.”

“Humans?” Su Yu was shocked.

Great Zhou King said, “These were all heavy criminals and cultists.”

“Humans are not allowed to experiment on humans!” Su Yu declared solemnly.

Great Zhou King nodded, “Yes. There is such a rule. Thus, we stopped. These corpses were from the early period of this era.”

Su Yu said nothing, but his brows remained furrowed.

Great Zhou King looked at the platform and said, “In truth, our research on artificial character production wasn’t too deep, but we still managed to produce some powerful characters. Do you know why?”

“Why?”

“That platform is the answer.”

Su Yu approached the platform. Great Zhou King followed behind him. When Su Yu reached the platform, his heart skipped a beat. He seemed to have sensed something. When he took another step forward, his heart thumped.

“Myriad art!”

A broken fragment was on the platform. And two characters were on it: myriad and art.

Su Yu hurriedly took his record character out and looked at Great Zhou King. With the same nonchalant expression, Great Zhou King said, “Previously, I was unaware of this. But when Heavenly Overseer Marquis took the Heavenly Hunt Index out previously, and when the record and visual characters appeared, I finally understood that this fragment was a part of the complete Heavenly Hunt Index. The real name of the Heavenly Hunt Index might be the Myriad Art Catalog.” (record + visual = catalog)

Su Yu was stunned. He recalled the words of Heavenly Overseer Marquis. There were three fragments out there, with the final fragment being the most important. When the three became one, even the Heavenly Hunt Index might fall under the influence of the fragments.

The marquis hinted at knowing the location of the third fragment. It was located somewhere he couldn’t reach. If this was really the third fragment…Great Zhou King must be the reason for his inability to retrieve the third fragment.

“Myriad Art Catalog.”

Su Yu recalled that Soy Bun once said that Culture King had forged a counterfeit Book of Time. And the Book of Time was also known as the book of myriad arts. Thus, the combination of visual and record was not the full name of his creation.

The full name was Myriad Art Catalog.

Great Zhou King said, “Myriad Art…these two characters have the ability to combine the myriad arts. How are we producing our artificial characters? At first, we had no idea. One day, we killed a myriad race cultural researcher. The character fragments of that cultural research dropped onto the fragment accidentally. Surprisingly, a character was produced from that.

“That was the start of a deeper level of research on our part. But the more we learned, the more shocked we were. These two characters are miraculous in what they can do.”

Su Yu muttered, “A combination of the myriad races…character reconstruction…artificial characters…no, the laws are at work here. The two characters are capable of gathering the power of laws left on these characters before reconstructing them.”

Understanding dawned on Su Yu. He finally understood why the golden book had the ability to convert the cultivation methods of the myriad races into human cultivation methods. That was also a form of law manipulation.

Twisting and manipulating the laws of the myriad races into a version suitable for human cultivation.

The counterfeit forged by Culture King probably had a similar ability as well. It was capable of taking in the characters of the myriad races or the human race before twisting them into new characters.

He came to understand many things. This fragment was indeed a part of the Heavenly Hunt Index. Or to be precise, it was a crucial part of the index.

The Heavenly Hunt Index, also known as the Heavenly Hunt Directory, was originally known as the Myriad Art Catalog. It was capable of gathering the auras of the myriad races, and it might even have the ability to kill the myriad races and devour everything about them before twisting their laws into different laws.

In short, like the Mark of Civilization, it was a demonic weapon. A realization dawned on Su Yu. Both the Mark of Civilization and Heavenly Hunt Directory were merely replicas of the Book of Time.

However, the Heavenly Hunt Directory was more powerful since it was forged by Culture King. As for the Mark of Civilization, it was much weaker since it was forged by Su Yu.

Suddenly, the record character started resonating with the two characters on the platform.

Naturally, Great Zhou King pretended he saw nothing and said, “This fragment is very powerful. As long as enough willpower and character fragments are provided, it will be able to consume the character fragments before producing a new and powerful character with multiple abilities mixed into the character. Back then, you were right. Shan Xiong’s character is a form of reconstructed character.”

Su Yu said, “This is a reconstruction of laws. I understand now. Shan Xiong…is merely a test subject. If I’m understanding this correctly, you should understand what characters represent. You must be trying to perfect or improve a certain law. You wish to achieve that through the fusion and manipulation of laws to go beyond Daofuse. Is that the case?”

Great Zhou King said, “It’s not possible. I was simply trying to ascertain if such artificial characters can help humans achieve dao affirmation. The path beyond Daofuse was never in my consideration. I was simply trying to mass-produce Eternal cultural researchers through this experiment.

“Unfortunately, reality has proved that this is impossible. After the reconstruction, a character will become a lot less flexible than before. Shan Xiong’s character was an accidental product. It was unique and the sole exception. Among the artificial characters, it is the sole character capable of further growth. Shan Xiong is an accident we can’t replicate.”

Artificial characters.

So this was how artificial characters were produced.