Tribulation of Myriad Races

This was Su Yu’s first time hearing about Zhao Li’s background.

As the fourth principal’s son, Zhao Li definitely had a high status in the academy.

Su Yu recalled something and asked curiously, “Martial Uncle, Teacher said that the first, third, and fifth principals were from the multiple character faction. How about the fourth principal? Was he from the weaponsmithing faction?”

“No.” Chen Yong smiled, “The fourth principal was in the single character faction. He majored in Divine Characters and he had formidable willpower. Because he hadn’t formed any character technique prior to the Skysoar Realm, he wasn’t considered a member of the multiple character faction despite having formed many Divine Characters during the late stages of his cultivation. As for the second principal, he was from the taming faction. Back then, he managed to train a powerful beast beyond the Mountainsea Realm.”

Chen Yong proceeded to give a simple introduction of the two principals.

Su Yu had a lot of questions. He cautiously asked, “Martial Uncle, our multiple character faction used to be so powerful. We even have three ex-principals. Do we not have any experts anymore?”

Where were the remaining members of such a powerful faction? Was the effect of the incident 50 years ago really that big?

Chen Yong’s expression turned downcast as he softly said, “Some things are a lot more complicated than you know. The fifth principal, my grandteacher, was the leader of the multiple character faction. He was someone who had truly walked beyond the Mountainsea Realm. During his era, the multiple character faction reached its peak. More than 50 years ago, the fifth principal was on the cusp of reaching the Invincible Realm.”

Chen Yong paused to take a deep breath before saying, “Invincible Realm…the multiple character faction has never produced one such expert before. None of the Invincible experts that had emerged over the past several hundred years were from the multiple character faction. Although the multiple character faction has a long history, its cultivation system early on was incomplete. It can’t be called a true fusion faction.”

“Most of our early experts were stuck at the Sunmoon Realm…”

“Sunmoon?”

Su Yu blanked out.

Chen Yong explained, “The realm after the Mountainsea Realm. They are also commonly known as Supreme experts. Beyond the Mountainsea, one could peak at the sun and the moon. Beyond the sun and the moon, one could grasp eternity. The Invincible Realm is the unofficial term for that realm, but it is officially known as the Eternal Realm. Of course, that isn’t really that important.”

Those were merely the names of the realm. Invincible or Eternal, they were the same. Both represented the peak of cultivation.

Chen Yong did not linger on that topic. He continued, “Prior to the fifth principal’s time, the leaders of our multiple character faction would mostly stop at the Sunmoon Realm. The fifth principal was the first multiple character faction expert to demonstrate the potential of reaching the Invincible Realm.

“Around 50 years ago, the fifth principal perished during his attempt to advance into the next realm. Back then, a large number of experts from the multiple character faction volunteered as his dao protectors. Some were Sunmoon experts, some were Mountainsea experts…”

Chen Yong sighed, “The fifth principal walked the path of offense. He was known as the strongest Sunmoon back then. The moment he broke through, humanity would gain another super expert.

“But in the end…he encountered great trouble during his breakthrough. On that day, Great Xia King, Great Zhou King, Great Ming King, Great Shang King, and many other Invincible experts were attacked and held back by the experts of the myriad races. That day, rivers of blood flowed in the Allheaven Battlefield. During the battle to stop the advancement of the fifth principal, more than three Invincible experts perished.

“The multiple character faction was forced to face two Invincible experts without help. The fifth principal joined hands with the experts of our faction and used his life as the cost to kill an Invincible expert. Ultimately, he fell short of success and perished. Many other experts perished alongside him. Great Xia King had rushed over immediately after beating back his opponent, but he was too late…”

Su Yu swallowed and asked, “Killing an Invincible?”

“Yes.” Chen Yong nodded, “As a Sunmoon, he killed an Invincible.”

“If the fifth principal was so strong, even after the heavy losses, why would the multiple character faction decline so much?”

Chen Yong smiled bitterly and said, “In the beginning, things weren’t that bad. The fifth principal might have perished and we might have lost a lot, but we still have our previous accumulation with us. But the geniuses of that era, the successors of the fifth principal’s generation, all of them encountered trouble. It was really sad. I’m not going to say much about it. It won’t change anything.”

“As for the multiple character faction experts, of course we had some left.” Chen Yong explained, “In truth, most of the initial multiple character cultivators of the Human Realm came from Great Xia. Eventually, our teachings were spread all over the Human Realm. The main branch of the faction was located in the Great Xia Cultural Research Academy, but there are other multiple character cultivators in the other academies and the military.”

“However, those in the military won’t get involved in factional struggles. As for those from the other academies, the position of the multiple character faction was greatly weakened after that incident. Even now, those people are barely surviving. Add to the fact that most of our experts from the Great Xia Cultural Research Academy were dead…”

Su Yu finally understood, but he was still slightly doubtful.

He asked hesitantly, “Since we were once so great, to the point where we had proven that we are strong and have the potential to reach the Invincible Realm, shouldn’t we receive more support? After all, the fifth principal had killed an Invincible. Why would the academy…”

At this question, Chen Yong looked somewhat awkward as he said, “How do I say this? The generation before us had offended too many people. We had exhausted countless resources for our cultivation, using countless willpower texts, source qi liquid, blood essence, and so on. All those resources were used like water. Because of our excessive spending, the other factions had a hard time surviving…”

Chen Yong spoke fairly, “Our faction had exhausted too many resources. The fifth principal himself had emptied the academy’s coffers for his advancement. Even so, there were still countless students trying to walk the path of multiple characters…If the fifth principal had succeeded, if Martial Uncle and his peers had successfully broken through, everything would naturally be fine.”

“Alas. They all failed.” Chen Yong regretfully said, “Not one or two of them, but all of them failed. The academy could no longer tolerate us as it was on the verge of shutting down. At that time, Principal Wan stepped forth and assumed the position of the sixth principal. He expelled Martial Uncle and his peers and reallocated the academy’s resources. That was the start of our faction’s decline.

“Eventually, some other factions started rising to prominence. The academy found that nurturing a single Mountainsea of a different faction would take only a third of the resources a multiple character Mountainsea would need. Some even need as little as one fifth of what we need. We were viewed as a faction who needed a lot of resources without being able to provide the academy with sufficient benefits. Slowly, our resources were cut down…”

At this point, Bai Feng interrupted, “Their actions during the early years were understandable. After all, the academy had suffered a lot during that time. The failure of Martial Uncle and his generation had also left a stain on our reputation. A lot of geniuses were starting to fear our faction because of that.”

“Therefore, Martial Uncle and the others did not resist. They accepted the academy’s arrangements silently. They agreed that they had brought the crisis upon the academy, nearly causing the academy to shut down. But after the academy recovered from the damage dealt by that incident, things started to change.”

Bai Feng sneered, “The academy discovered that there were more Mountainsea experts in the academy than before. With the same amount of resources, they could produce more Mountainsea experts than before. In that case, why should they continue supporting the multiple character faction? Thus, our life became more and more difficult.”

.

Chen Yong softly said, “You can’t blame them for everything. We need to take some of the blame as well. We can’t provide the academy with enough benefits yet we require far too much resources. In that scenario, we will naturally be viewed as a threat to the benefits they have been getting.”

He looked at Su Yu and advised, “Do not focus on hating anyone. A lot of things they do are reasonable. After all, we have too few experts. We can’t provide too many benefits to the academy. A lot of the resources of the academy are obtained by our elders from the Allheaven Battlefield. People naturally won’t agree if you want to take more without giving more.”

Bai Feng disagreed, “You’re right. But the truth is that we never tried to get too much. Both Great Xia and the Knowledge Seeking Realm would allocate some resources to the academies at fixed intervals. Are those resources meant only for them? We should have our share, right? Be honest. How much of the resources we currently use are given to us by the academy? We have been earning our own resources for quite a while now.”

“Take Teacher’s research center as an example. A majority of our resources were earned by Teacher himself. Only a small amount of the resources were allocated to us by the academy. In return, hadn’t we provided the academy with some valuable research results?”

Bai Feng indignantly said, “Also, we’re not only facing the issue of resources. The issue is that they are trying to completely exterminate us from the academy. We have been keeping silent about our lack of resources. We have been making do with whatever we can get and cultivate by ourselves. Had we tried to take from them?

“Furthermore, they can’t deny that a lot of the things left in the academy had been obtained by the predecessors of our faction. But those people are the ones using those things while we are stopped from using those things. That does not make any sense.”

Bai Feng sneered and said, “For example, this books depository. Most of the texts here were left by the past experts of our faction. Why can’t we use a little bit of these texts? Why must they stop us from using it? Over the years, they have used a lot more of these texts than us…”

Chen Yong stopped Bai Feng with a gesture and frowned, “Stop saying all that. It’s pointless to turn fully aggressive against them. This is how things are. The Great Xia Cultural Research Academy is the root of our faction. Are you going to leave the academy? If you do leave, then you can forget about reclaiming our past glory.”

Bai Feng curled his lips with contempt, but he didn’t say anything else. It wasn’t like they would do any better at the other academies. As for the option of leaving and cultivating independently, their growth would be even slower without the grottos and willpower texts of the academy.

It would be too difficult for a Mountainsea expert and a few other people to cultivate by themselves. At the very least, they would still have a backer if they remained in the academy. There was still hope that they could recover in the future.

Chen Yong looked at Su Yu and said, “Your current priority has nothing to do with all that. Let your seniors handle all that. Your only mission is to cultivate. Before the Skysoar Realm, ignore everything else. Do not take part in anything.”

Su Yu nodded. It wasn’t like he would be able to do anything even if he wanted.

“Come on. Let’s go to the First Fusion Hall.” While walking, Chen Yong introduced, “The First Fusion Hall was supposed to be a private property of the multiple character faction. There are many precious texts in that room. Those texts are extremely suitable for the cultivation of the members of our faction. Members of our faction need to form many Divine Characters during the Mental Tempering Stage and pick a path of our character technique. Generally, that choice will be made in that room.”

…

They went downstairs. The First Fusion Hall was located on the ninth floor.

When they reached, they saw Zhou Pingsheng leaving with a group of people. Chen Yong acted like he didn’t see them. Zhou Pingsheng had a dark expression, and he didn’t even bother greeting them. He silently left with the group of curious students.

“A bunch of clowns.”

Bai Feng looked at Su Yu and said, “Even if we allow them to use the First Fusion Hall, they wouldn’t be able to do anything with it. They would only waste their time.”

Su Yu did not say anything. There really wasn’t anything he could say in this situation.