Tribulation of Myriad Races

The five ancestors were overjoyed at the appearance of the Five Elemental Art. As for the tribulations, Su Yu had promised to take care of them. Thus, the five elemental race didn’t even need to worry about the potential casualties anymore.

Then again, they weren’t sure if Su Yu was really capable of handling all those tribulations. These tribulations wouldn’t be weak. Sealing the realm. That was Su Yu’s request, also what the five ancestors had in mind.

They would seal the realm and start disseminating the Five Elemental Art among their race. Their geniuses and some of their older members would be able to complete the cultivation of the Five Elemental Art.

***

The five ancestors wasted no time and left to make their preparations.

As for Su Yu, he remained in the Five Elemental Palace. He did not bother to get anyone to accompany him. Rather, he went to the courtyard and lied down to observe the five elemental dao in the sky.

Five elemental dao.

Five elements as one.

Since opening the Heaven Gate, he could see a lot more things. This five elemental dao was one of them. He was able to get a much better look at it in the Five Elemental Realm. After all, this was a dao local to this race.

The very beginning of this dao had been split into five, making it seem like the dao had transformed into five independent daos. But in truth, there was still a connection between the five.

Su Yu was observing and deducing a way to link the split dao and allow the five elementals to fuse their dao in combat. This was a task that required some thought. At the same time, Su Yu was also deepening his understanding of this dao while observing it.

The five elemental dao was a rather wide dao. In fact, it was among the widest of the daos he had seen thus far. By this point, Su Yu had observed quite a lot of daos.

“Five elemental characters…my elemental characters are actually based on five different elemental daos. They are different from the five elemental dao.”

Su Yu observed silently.

The five elemental race was also a race with racial abilities. From what he could see, these racial abilities were also based on the split dao. If they continued growing in this trajectory, perhaps there might really be a future where they were truly separated from each other.

At the time, their potential would drop significantly.

“How interesting. Did that expert back then split this dao due to their inability to break it? Or was this deliberate?”

It wouldn’t be surprising for someone to be unable to break this dao. The dao was powerful, but breaking the dao was not the only method to kill someone. One could erase all connection between an opponent and the dao. That could kill as well.

“Wood begets fire, fire begets earth, earth begets metal…”

Su Yu was deep in contemplation. After a while, he tore a rift in the air and vanished inside. He wanted to take a closer look at the five elemental dao.

Recently, most of the racial abilities he was more familiar with had transformed into characters. At present, he had gained eight new characters from these racial abilities. As for the remaining racial abilities, he wasn’t familiar enough with them.

Studying these daos would be a good way for him to familiarize himself with more racial abilities.

***

Su Yu traversed the gigantic five elemental dao like a lone boat in a massive ocean.

After some time, he sat down cross-legged and sank into contemplation.

A super expert who was traversing the River of Time at this moment might be able to see Su Yu there. A super expert of the past might be able to see the Su Yu of the future as well, but that would signify that this expert had traversed very far in the River of Time to reach such a far future.

While deep in contemplation, Su Yu considered a question. If he continued traversing the River of Time following the flow of the river, would he appear in the future? But would that be an actual time travel? Or had he simply spent long enough in the River of Time to make it seem like a time traversal?

“Interesting.”

Su Yu muttered to himself as he wondered about the Human Emperor. Where was Human Emperor? Where was Culture King? Were they…doing battle somewhere in the River of Time?

“Their disappearance will be a lot more reasonable if they have been fighting in the River of Time. Instead of fighting for a hundred thousand years, they have merely battled while traversing downstream of the river. By the time they emerge, they will arrive in the future.”

Traveling downstream in the River of Time was akin to the pursuit of time. After only spending a day in the River of Time, a year might have passed outside. And while one was going upstream, a day in the river might be an hour outside.

The more Su Yu thought about it, the more convinced he was. He opened his eyes, gazing upon the massive river before him.

What if…Human Emperor had taken countless experts into the River of Time a hundred thousand years ago, tying them down in an endless battle while moving downstream. For them, only hundreds of years had passed. But in truth, they were moving alongside time itself. Outside, a hundred thousand years had passed.

“Is this possible?”

Su Yu looked behind him, toward the so-called past. Perhaps they were still moving toward the future. But to encounter them, he would need to move to the past.

Su Yu stood up and continued gazing toward the past. He even wondered if one day, Human Emperor and the others would appear here, still in the middle of their endless battle. Perhaps they were still under the impression that only a few hundred years had passed.

“That would be truly interesting. Is it the same case with Culture King? Have they always been fighting in the River of Time, but they are fighting further upstream in the past? Will we only meet when they finally break through a certain barrier to step into the present?”

Su Yu blanked out.

The River of Time was truly interesting. At that moment, a new character took form in his sea of willpower. It was not a character converted from a racial ability. Rather, it was a character that had appeared due to his increased understanding of the river. It was the fast character.

One could say that it paired nicely with the slow character he formed previously. That was his ninety-second character. He was not surprised. After all, he was currently comprehending the dao at the origin of all daos. A new comprehension here would naturally be sufficient to grant him a new character.

“Fast and slow, both are the embodiments of the passage of time. Meanwhile, Junior Zhou King’s time acceleration is an acceleration of speed, unrelated to time…”

Naturally, fast and slow were insufficient to embody the profudunties of time. This was merely Su Yu’s personal understanding. Before long, he returned his focus to the five elemental dao.

He continued observing and studying it. Inside his sea of willpower, the book spirit continued reading to him, as though he was receiving the enlightenment from nature itself.

“Five elements as one, metal, wood, water, fire, and earth…no, there are more elements to the world. Wind, lightning…no, yin and yang should be considered a part of nature as well. Life and death.”

Yin and yang. Life and death.

The five elemental dao had further enlightened him. Since he had formed the death character, he should form the opposite as well. Life.

Boundless life.

All living beings.

His study of the five elements even gave him some new ideas. Were the five elements the only elements capable of coming together? What if all the basic elements of nature were to come together? It would result in something before creation. What would it be?

Would it be yet another dao? But before creation, when everything was in chaos, what manner of dao could exist?

“Cosmos!”

Cosmos as a concept was an old one. It was formed of two characters, domain and eternity. Domain for the material world, eternity for the passage of time. The void was filled with nothing but primal chaos. It had no concept of time. Thus, it should be the embodiment of domain.

The material world.

“Domain!” (Yu)

Su Yu blanked out. Domain…what an interesting character.

It was said that the Luminous Domain Mansion (Xing Yu Mansion) was related to the Human Emperor.

And he was also the self-proclaimed Emperor Yu. Alone, this character did not seem special. But when one started contemplating the dao, one would realize just how vast this character was.

The entire material world could be encompassed by this one character. Eternity was just as vast in concept. It represented time. At the beginning of creation, time did not exist. When the passage of time came into existence, the concept of eternity emerged. Thus, one could view it as a concept a tier below the concept of domain.

“In short, everything is foreordained. The entire material world should be mine. Because I am Su Yu.” (Yu = domain)

Su Yu grinned.

A certain comprehension was crystallizing within him, as though a character was about to take form. He had a feeling it would be the domain character. But something seemed to still be lacking. It still couldn’t fully take form.

“Life and death, yin and yang. I have yet to comprehend all these concepts.”

A certain idea emerged in his mind. Long ago, he learned the Life Trigger technique of the immortal race. As he activated the technique, his heart skipped a beat. Perhaps…the immortals were so powerful because their dao was related to the concept of life.

The dao of life would most certainly be a powerful one. The immortals represented life. Thus, they were blessed with a rich vitality and long lifespan.

“In that case, the opposite dao would be the Celestial River of Death. The daos of life and death. The difference between the two is massive. The strength of the Immortal Pseudo Emperor can’t be underestimated. Yet even such an expert submitted to Culture King back then…”

There were records of Culture King’s conquest of the Immortal Realm. He had broken several of their daos, forcing their Pseudo Emperor to submit. Since Culture King was strong enough to break several of their daos, why did he leave the Immortal Pseudo Emperor alive?

Perhaps…because the Immortal Pseudo Emperor was simply too hard to kill. Also, it was mentioned that several daos were broken. But were those daos truly broken, or had Culture King simply killed several Masters of Laws?

“The ancient past is…truly interesting.”

At that moment, yet another character took form in Su Yu’s sea of willpower. The life character. His ninety-third character.

“This is not enough. Not enough for the domain character.”

His understanding was still incomplete. But he had indeed learned a lot from observing the five elemental dao. This session of skygazing had been a bountiful one. He had obtained more clues for his path forward. Still deep in thought, he took the Mark of Civilization out. That was his dao weapon.

“Culture and radiance (civilization), life and death, yin and yang, five elements…”

Su Yu muttered to himself, “The creation of a new world. A new creation. Would I be able to create a new River of Time by creating a new world?”

“Perhaps this was what Time Sage realized. That was the reason for her to forge her Book of Time. That must be the case! She was attempting to recreate a new world! But she wasn’t able to complete her task…”

Numerous ideas emerged in Su Yu’s mind as he focused on comprehending the techniques and abilities related to yin and yang. He knew too many abilities and techniques. It didn’t take him long to pick a few that were suitable for this task. For now, his priority wasn’t the strength of his characters. Rather, he needed to prioritize reaching ninety-nine characters.

Seated atop the River of Time with his legs crossed, he started practicing the various techniques. Numerous silhouettes danced atop the River of Time. After an indeterminate amount of time, two characters took form in his sea of willpower. Unlike characters that had arisen from pure comprehension, the characters converted from techniques and abilities would be powerful from the start.

“Yin and yang.”

He had formed both characters at once. He had now reached ninety-five characters. Life and death. Yin and yang. All were already present, yet the domain character was still nowhere to be seen.

“Right, there’s still the heaven and earth.”

The domain embodied the material world. How could a world without the heaven and earth be complete? Heaven and earth. Life and death. yin and yang. Five elements. This would mark the completion of the domain character.