Tribulation of Myriad Races

Su Yu’s feelings aside, Old Wan was indeed showcasing the air of a grandmaster right now.

He seemed boundlessly talented. Countless Wan Tianshengs were reading. He had only lived for a hundred years, yet his life experience seemed even richer than that of someone who had lived ten thousand years. He seemed like a refined, scholarly gentleman. Perhaps this was the real Wan Tiansheng.

Su Yu also had the refined air of a scholar, but his was more fake. He had only spent ten or so years studying, and he had indeed learned a lot from books. But he could replicate Wan Tiansheng’s scholarly aura.

Wan Tiansheng’s dao pioneering had taught Su Yu some new things. Initially, he had thought that dao pioneering was simply a process of opening a tributary by force. But no. It was a process of expanding one’s dao through one’s knowledge and understanding. Brute force alone was not sufficient to expand a tributary.

As Su Yu observed, the human dao continued growing rapidly. Naturally, it was not as big as some of the more impressive daos Su Yu had seen. But this was a completely original dao, one Wan Tiansheng had created himself. The water flowing into the tributary was the power of laws.

When the power of laws was in the River of Time, one couldn’t make use of it. But upon flowing into the tributary, it would transform into a compatible power one could control.

Wan Tiansheng’s aura continued growing.

His main body had a gratified expression as he turned to face Su Yu and said, “Culture King’s blockade isn’t an entirely bad thing. Over the past ten years, I have learned many new things. I killed Eternals, encountered Daofuses, witnessed the myriad daos, and experienced the Myriad Realms.”

He smiled and said, “If I were to start pioneering my dao ten years ago, I would have been stuck long ago. My created dao wouldn’t have been as strong.”

Su Yu smiled and said, “Principal, your rich accumulation will eventually result in success. It is only a matter of time.”

Wan Tiansheng smiled and said nothing else. Slowly, the number of miniature Wan Tianshengs started declining, signifying that Wan Tiansheng had nearly exhausted all his accumulation. Rumbling sounds rang out as the tributary continued growing.

And finally, Wan Tiansheng’s aura reached an unprecedented level, as though he had reached the level of a Daofuse. Of course, for dao pioneers, Daofuse was not a realm per the terms of the ancient past.

A dao pioneer would remain an Eternal.

According to the white dog, dao pioneering was filled with uncertainties. One would never know one’s final destination. Thus, one’s cultivation level couldn’t be determined properly. Thus, a dao pioneer wouldn’t know if they had reached the Daofuse Realm of their dao.

At most, one could only compare one’s strength against others to determine where one stood. But a dao pioneer would remain an Eternal. However, Su Yu could feel that Wan Tiansheng might already have the combat strength of a Daofuse.

Not even Su Yu knew much about Wan Tiansheng’s cultivation.

A short while later, all the miniature Wan Tianshengs were gone. Wan Tiansheng had not used a weapon for his dao pioneering. One could say that he had opened the tributary with his body alone.

With a flicker, he appeared before Su Yu. He had left his tributary.

Looking at the dao he had created, he sighed and said, “My accumulation and experience still aren’t enough. My experience and comprehension can’t support further expansion.”

He smiled and continued, “There was once a legend of a character cultivator who could traverse a boundless range in a day. By day, he was a farmhand. By evening, he ascended the emperor’s hall. I feel like I can somewhat understand this feeling. You can be considered an emperor now. Am I ascending your hall?”

Su Yu laughed and said, “Yes. But you should feel pressured as your competitor is Lan Tian.”

Instantly, Wan Tiansheng sank into silence, his previous carefree aura vanishing completely. He merely gave Su Yu a silent stare. With that single remark, Su Yu had dragged him down from the high of his previous achievement.

Su Yu looked at the tributary and asked, “Principal, are you stopping here?”

“I’m at my limit.” Wan Tiansheng explained, “The limit is there. I will need to accumulate more to grow further. Each battle fought, each book read, each person met, everything is a part of my accumulation. All my past accumulation has been exhausted for now.”

“Do you believe you can be a match for Daofuses now?”

“Daofuse?” Wan Tiansheng laughed and said, “I won’t know before fighting one.”

Su Yu nodded and asked, “So are we done here?”

He added, “You have opened your own dao. The laws might not allow it. You might need to face a tribulation later.”

Wan Tiansheng nodded and said, “Not necessarily. The laws only cover the area their daos cover. There are still some daos here, but if we go further, I doubt we will find any other daos. With no daos, there are no tribulations.”

Wan Tiansheng looked upstream and shook his head, “No, we can’t keep going further. Forcing our way upstream is the same as attempting to force our way to the past. Time flows constantly. Breaking the passage of time is nearly impossible.”

He gazed into the distance and said, “I have a feeling that…something is waiting for us ahead.”

Su Yu sank into a long silence before saying, “Perhaps. Perhaps a disaster is waiting ahead. Perhaps it is a world-shaking battle. Where are the ancient Human Emperor and the others? Beyond the boundless void? Or somewhere within this river? Who knows?”

Perhaps all of them were still in the past. But the passage of time for them was different. Essentially, they were located in a different dimension. Perhaps when the passage of their time finally caught up with the present, they would meet.

Wan Tiansheng nodded. He could feel it as well. He smiled and said, “If we were to fight someone here right now, three or five years here might be the same as thirty or fifty years outside. Or even longer, like three to five hundred years. Everyone would assume that we are dead. By the time we won and returned through the river, perhaps over a thousand years would have passed.”

Wan Tiansheng sighed and said, “Perhaps this is the truth. I don’t understand. Why didn’t they move downstream instead of staying where they were, fighting each other while fighting against the current?”

If they had moved downstream, their timeline would overlap with that of the Myriad Realms. Why didn’t they do so?

Su Yu laughed and said, “The answer for that is simple. Someone is refusing to let them through. What if someone did what Culture King did and erected a blockade there? They would either have to kill the other party or break through the blockade.”

Wan Tiansheng listened pensively as he said, “True. You have a distinct view about this matter.”

Su Yu laughed and said, “It’s not a hard conclusion to reach. If some of the things I know are true, then Human Emperor and the others are probably blocking the return of those people. The overlap will happen soon. Perhaps it will happen in this era. And I might know that point of overlap.”

Wan Tiansheng gave Su Yu a long stare before saying, “The ninth level.”

Su Yu nodded, “Yes. That was their entry point. Definitely. When the overlap happens, they will also leave through that point.”

Su Yu asked, “What do you think, Principal?”

Wan Tiansheng thought about it and nodded, “Yes. There might be an entrance there. We might also need to enter through that point if we wish to look for them. Or perhaps we only need to go against the stream and go far enough to meet them.”

“Forget it.” Su Yu chuckled and said, “There are a bunch of Masters of Laws there. Even after countless years in combat, these are not the opponents we can afford to provoke. I would be more than happy to see them trapped there forever.”

Wan Tiansheng laughed and moved on from the topic. He said, “Let’s go. It’s time for us to return. This is where I stop for now.”

Then, he removed the character he had embedded into Su Yu’s Heaven Gate.

With that, he lost his ability to directly see the tributaries and other daos. He could only feel them with his senses. He focused and immersed himself in the sensation for a long while before saying, “The Heaven Gate is a good thing, but it is also a bad thing.”

Su Yu raised his brow.

Wan Tiansheng explained, “That sense of exploration will be gone. It’s the same as getting the answer to a question directly. The pleasure of discovery is gone. The joy of adventure is not there anymore. You can’t experience the high of having suddenly realized something. And when this goes on for long enough, you might lose the ability to explore entirely.”

“This isn’t necessarily a good thing.”

He continued, “The River of Time is a mysterious place. But due to your Heaven Gate, you no longer give the river the respect it deserves. For you, the various daos are nothing but a river and its tributaries. The world will eventually grow dull on you.”

Dull world.

Su Yu had a thoughtful look.

Wan Tiansheng added, “The act of pioneering a dao is an act of moving on your interest and desires. An understanding of what you know and need, an understanding of what you can do. It’s not the same as picking a random powerful spot to open a tributary.

“I suggest you use your Heaven Gate in combat, but shut it when comprehending the daos. By seeing the very nature of the various daos, you will neglect the process. Have you seen the end of the pen dao? Does it feel ordinary to you? Does it seem too achievable because you can see it there? In such a situation, you will only focus on reaching the end without learning anything. But in such a scenario, can you really reach the end?

“It’s essentially the same as receiving the answer to a question and focusing only on the answer. Perhaps you can find the correct steps to reach that answer after enough tries, but how well will you understand the answer itself?

“How well do you know the process? Do you even know the meaning behind the process? Yes, you know the correct answer. But so what? Try shutting your Heaven Gate and looking at the river again. Perhaps you might find an entirely new experience.”

After some thought, Su Yu shut his Heaven Gate. Instantly, the tributaries vanished from his vision. Even the water of the river seemed a lot more murky than before. Su Yu had an illusion that he had suddenly gone blind.

No, it was more like a shortsighted person losing their spectacles. Everything he saw was blurry.

“Where is the pen dao?”

Su Yu focused on his senses. Since they were on the way back, they should pass by the pen dao before long. Shortly after, he trembled slightly. He looked to the side. He saw nothing, but the pen dao should be there. He could see the water undulating there, and he could feel his characters jumping in excitement, telling him to enter and go further.

Su Yu shook his head. Prior to this, he could see ahead. But now, he couldn’t see anything. He only saw the stretch he had occupied, about thirty percent of the entire tributary. Even the thirty percent he saw was very blurry to his eyes.

He looked at Wan Tiansheng with a thoughtful expression and said, “Principal, you can probably see the entirety of the dao you created, right?”

Wan Tiansheng nodded.