Tribulation of Myriad Races

Great Qin King asked, “And? Was he killed in the end?”

Great Zhou King inhaled deeply and said, “I don’t know. We did not participate in the final battle. Or to be precise, we only fought in the side battles, not the core battle. The core battle only involved Hundred Battle King and the Upper Realm experts. Tiangu and the others were there as well. With his boundless strength, he set off with over a dozen Daofuses, with multiple ancient marquises in their ranks. Alas, he did not return.”

Everyone frowned.

“Dead?”

“I don’t know.” Great Zhou King said, “We don’t know if he’s dead or not. At the time, the various daos shook violently, including our physical body dao. It must have suffered heavy damage during that battle. From the damage to the physical body dao, he might be dead. But when Tiangu and the others left the battlefield, they did not announce his death. They only declared the defeat of humanity.”

Great Zhou King sighed and continued, “And thus, we suffered our ninth defeat. Prior to that, many of our ancient marquises had perished. Many of our older Daofuses had died in battle as well. All our accumulation over nine epochs was cleaned in one battle.

“A small number of them retreated to the Upper Realm. Almost everyone still in the Myriad Realms was killed. I was lucky enough to be one of the survivors. Ultimately, the Allheaven Battlefield went inactive again, and I slumbered for about five hundred years before waking up to the arrival of the tenth epoch.”

Great Ming King coldly asked, “Were you aware of Heavenly Seal’s betrayal? Were you aware of his father?”

Great Zhou King explained with a tired voice, “I’m not a god. Don’t assume that I know everything. At the time, I was fighting in the Allheaven Battlefield. How was I supposed to know everything? I only learned of his fight with Xia Chen after it happened. At the time, he was already dead. Xia Chen himself had died as well. I had no way of knowing that the traitor had left a descendant behind.”

The cold expression on Great Ming King’s face vanished, replaced by a smile as he said, “I have a question. Were the two ruins I found a result of your secret allocation?”

“No.” Great Zhou King said, “None of these ruins came from the ancient past. They all came from the first to the ninth epochs. These were the trump cards left behind by some experts as contingencies. Many had remained inactive for several epochs. I activated some of them, and Xia Chen activated some as well. Perhaps there was an overlap when we were doing the allocation, with both of us ending up allocating a ruin to you each. That was how you received two.”

“Oh.”

Great Ming King said, “I see. So I got lucky. Were all of us under your observation?”

Great Zhou King nodded, “You can say so.”

At this time, Silk Destroying King asked, “Why didn’t I receive a ruin back then?”

“…”

Great Zhou King was rendered speechless. After a short pause, he answered with a frown, “Back then, you were still a child. Why would you need a ruin?”

“…”

Child his ass! Silk Destroying King cursed inwardly. This guy deserved to be suppressed by Su Yu. How dare this guy exclude him from the first batch?

“What…what’s Emperor Yu doing with Xia Longwu?”

Someone asked curiously.

Great Zhou King looked up and answered, “No idea. Dao searching, I suppose.”

“Dao searching?”

They sank into thought. Would that work?

They didn’t want to question Great Zhou King too much. They were unhappy at being deceived for so many years, but he was also a comrade who had fought alongside them for many years.

***

At the same time.

Su Yu was indeed searching for dao with Xia Longwu.

Apart from looking for a suitable dao for Xia Longwu, he was also looking for a suitable dao for himself. His saber character was leading the way toward a saber dao suitable for humans.

Spear of Qin and blade of Xia.

Su Yu intended to let both Great Xia King and Great Qin King pursue the dao of the heavenly desolate beast. But their spear and blade must be inherited.

Qin Zhen and Xia Longwu would do. But he wondered if this dao was already under someone’s control. Was the master a human? If there was really a master, was the master dead? But for now, that was not something he needed to worry about.

For the current humanity, any dao other than the damaged physical body dao would work for the purpose of reaching the Daofuse Realm.

Under their feet was the torrential river, and boundless darkness enveloped the entire river. Xia Longwu couldn’t see well here, but he knew that Su Yu could see more. Even so, he couldn’t help feeling nervous to be at this unfamiliar place.

“Su…Emperor Yu…”

He changed the way he addressed Su Yu awkwardly and asked, “Are we going to continue straight forward?”

“Yeah.” Su Yu looked ahead at the nearly exhausted saber character and said, “Release your saber qi and try to sense your surroundings. There must be a spot that is suitable for you. When you find a spot that resonates with you, fuse with that dao. Abandon the physical body dao. It’s a crippled dao.”

Xia Longwu shut his eyes. Instantly, his entire presence turned sharp, as though he had transformed into a saber. With the support of his saber qi, Su Yu’s saber character received a boost of power and continued onward.

As they traveled, Su Yu observed their surroundings. Even after traveling a long stretch, they had yet to leave the territory of the physical body dao. That was a truly massive dao. Compared to the other tributaries, it might as well be an ocean.

No wonder it was capable of supporting the cultivation of so many people. The master of this dao would be an unimaginably powerful individual. Su Yu felt like not even Culture King would be as strong as the master of this dao.

According to Su Yu’s personal ranking, the master of the Celestial River of Death was the number one expert to ever exist. The master of the River of Time did not count. Time Sage had yet to succeed in establishing a new River of Time. Human Emperor’s dao was still unknown to him. As for Culture King, his dao was still unknown as well. But from what Su Yu had seen thus far, he ranked the master of the physical dao as the second strongest expert to ever exist.

Human Ancestor?

Suddenly, Su Yu recalled a legendary figure. It was said that the physical body dao had existed for countless years. It had been around even before the time of Culture King and the others.

Was its master Human Ancestor, the legendary progenitor of humanity? That was likely. It occupied a majority of humanity’s section on the River of Time. It would be perfectly logical for it to be Human Ancestor’s dao. That would also explain why it was so excessively powerful.

Meanwhile, Xia Longwu was starting to reach his limits. Even his body was starting to shake. It was simply too energy-intensive to traverse the River of Time.

“Persevere!” Su Yu said, “Only by persevering would you stand a chance at finding your own dao. One that is truly compatible with you. You have an extremely strong talent in saber dao, but like the others, you can’t see the nature of the myriad daos. Thus, you fused with the physical body dao upon your dao affirmation. In the primordial past and ancient past, this was an incomparably powerful dao. But in our era, it is merely a crippled dao. You won’t reach Daofuse with this dao.”

“I understand.”

Xia Longwu gritted his teeth and persisted. Suddenly, Su Yu grumbled, “Prefect Xia, I have always thought that you’re stronger than Principal Wan. Looks like…you are quite far behind him.”

“…”

Yes. He was complaining about Xia Longwu’s strength.

Xia Longwu helplessly said, “That’s not surprising. He’s my teacher.”

He decided not to bicker about it since Su Yu was praising his teacher.

Su Yu thought about it and nodded. “True. Principal Wan is truly impressive. Before this, I never understood just how amazing he is. But now, I understand. He has somehow glimpsed the true nature of the myriad daos. He must already be pursuing a unique dao, but the laws are restricting his advancement. Furthermore, he lacked the Heaven Gate to get a clearer look at the nature of the myriad daos. Otherwise, he would most likely be the first non physical dao human Eternal of this era.”

“Great Zhou King…”

“He’s unlikely to be someone from this era.” Su Yu said, “From what I can see, he has been a Daofuse for quite a while. The progress of a new Daofuse won’t be so fast. He can’t hide this from me.”

Xia Longwu didn’t know what to say. Should he praise Su Yu or something? In any case, he couldn’t see what Su Yu was talking about. After suppressing yet another wave, the saber character started shaking. When Su Yu focused with his Heaven Gate, he saw something. There seemed to be a tributary ahead of them.

“Someone has already opened this dao.”

Su Yu frowned. But soon, he unfurrowed his brows and said, “I guess it doesn’t matter for now. Fusing with an existing dao grants you faster growth. Becoming a Master of Law in the future will be an issue, but this will also increase your likelihood of becoming a Daofuse. You will be able to grow much faster than before. It’s not that surprising that the saber dao has been opened by someone else.”

After all, the saber was a popular weapon. This didn’t come as a surprise to Su Yu. At the very least, they had found it.

Unsurprisingly, the saber qi on Xia Longwu started surging. He exclaimed in joy, “Yes! I can feel it! A very comfortable aura is ahead, seemingly calling out to me!”

He wouldn’t have been able to explore this far if it weren’t for Su Yu. One ought to remember that he had already affirmed his dao. It would be even harder for those Sunmoons to reach this far.

From this, one could conclude that walking any dao other than the physical body dao would be extremely difficult for humanity. In the past, the physical body dao was a solid dao to pursue. But now, it had become the biggest stumbling block of humanity.

Su Yu looked over and said, “Go. Give it a try.”

Su Yu continued onward. Shortly after, they stepped onto the tributary. There, he was granted a better view of the tributary.

Suddenly, a realization dawned on him. Why were carrier treasures required? Why were weapons required? Because there was a tiny gap between the tributary and the main river. While crossing, Xia Longwu might fall into the gap.

Fortunately, Su Yu had caught him before he could fully fall into the gap. If he had been allowed to fall, things might have ended badly for him.

“I see now.”

Su Yu could see clearly. A bridge was needed. This was where the carrier treasures and tri-life bodies would play a role.

Su Yu knew that the tri-life bodies were essentially the act of using two bodies as stepping stones. It was unstable. That was why one would be in trouble whenever one lost a tri-life body. The Weapon Fusion Method was more reliable since it was more durable.

Of course, there were also other solutions for this.

With the ability to see the true nature of the myriad daos, Su Yu understood many things. He smiled and said, “Your body and willpower are too weak. Otherwise, you could have stepped right through with your own body as the bridge. There wouldn’t be a need for carrier treasures or weapons. External items can never be as reliable as yourself. In truth, blood, characters, and many other things can also be used as the bridge.”

As Su Yu explained, he came to understand more things. He could feel it clearly. His saber character was seemingly trying to enter the gap, acting as a bridge for Su Yu. This was the law of saber in action.

This saber character was essentially a part of this tributary. Thus, it could fill in the gap, allowing someone to step through it. This was why one could also affirm one’s dao through one’s characters.

This was Su Yu’s first time taking someone on a tour to the River of Time.

After thinking about it, Su Yu said, “Let’s go back first. For this dao, I suggest the Weapon Fusion Method. But you require an intermediary. Something compatible with this dao. The Source Return Blade is a decent option.

“It can serve as the bridge to pave the way forward for you. Upon crossing, you might even be able to fuse with fifty or sixty percent of this dao. Even becoming a seventh-degree Eternal won’t be out of reach if you progress further.”

Xia Longwu was already quite powerful. Even when he first started fusing the physical body dao, he had been able to travel a large stretch at the very start.

Xia Longwu said, “No, that’s Great Qin King’s weapon…”

Su Yu smiled and said, “Don’t worry. I have new arrangements for them. The Qin, Xia, and Zhu Families were the first to support me. I won’t disappoint them. Don’t think that this is unfair. Absolute fairness does not exist. Since you were the first to support me, I naturally need to prioritize you people. Am I supposed to help Great Zhou King instead?”

“…”

It would be too inappropriate for Xia Longwu to say anything about that.

“The Source Return Blade is a divine weapon. It will do well as your intermediary.”

Then, the two started returning.

A short while later, they were back at their starting point. After tearing an opening in the air, Su Yu said, “Great Qin King, hand me the Source Return Blade. I have a need for it.”

Great Qin King, who was waiting outside, did not hesitate. Su Yu was the one who had given him the Source Return Blade. He did not have any issue with returning it. In fact, he didn’t even like the weapon that much.

After catching the blade from midair, Su Yu vanished again. Everyone continued waiting in silence.