Tribulation of Myriad Races

When Su Yu returned to the research center again, he relaxed.

He felt relieved, but at the same time, he also felt somewhat melancholic. The events of the day had developed slightly outside his expectations. While he was measuring his gains and losses for the day, his vision suddenly swam. Then, he appeared at a completely different location.

He was inside a building. In front of him was a human silhouette.

“Su Yu, why don’t you come to the Heart Cultivating Pavilion and have a chat with me when you have the time?”

Su Yu was completely stunned. He had clearly been in the research center. That research center was the territory of a Mountainsea expert. Had someone actually penetrated the defenses of the building without being detected?

“Principal?”

“Yes, it’s me.” Wan Tiansheng’s voice drifted around randomly as he said, “We can have the chat here too, but your willpower won’t be able to last too long. It’s better if you visit me in person some other day.”

“Principa, I…”

Before he could finish, his vision swam again. He was awakened by a sharp pain in his head. He was still sitting on the couch, but his willpower had been completely drained. He felt incomparably tired. Shock covered his face.

Wan Tiansheng had easily broken through Hong Tan’s defenses and brought his willpower out for a conversation. What was that? That was too powerful. Was the gap between different Mountainsea cultivators so big?

Su Yu was shocked, but a different thought also appeared in his mind. He had to be even more careful from now on. That was too scary! Suddenly, he felt like there was no privacy in the academy. Everything was fully under the principal’s control.

In that case, was the principal aware of the trick he pulled on the single character faction? Was the principal aware of that little club he had established with Hu Zongji? Was the principal aware of all the resources he had bought from Xia Huyou? More importantly, was the principal aware of the book in his mind?

He felt as though all his secrets had been seen through. Someone had been observing everything he had done. He swallowed. The principal could bring his willpower out even when he was inside the research center. But could the grottos block the principal’s gaze?

“Maybe not…Zhou Mingren was obviously within a grotto earlier yet he had immediately noticed when Zheng Yuming was injured. In that case, not even grottos can obstruct their willpower. A chat with me? What does he want to talk about?”

Su Yu was greatly troubled. What was happening here?

Suddenly, Wan Tiansheng felt like a villain to him. The principal had been staying in the academy for a very long time. Did the principal spend all his time spying on everyone in the academy?

“I really need to grow stronger.”

Su Yu cursed inwardly. He was still too weak. He was so weak that even within his own base of operations, the principal could still take his life without any trouble if the principal so wished.

At the same time.

Heart Cultivating Pavilion.

Wan Tiansheng smiled and took a sip of tea before muttering, “Multiple character faction…no, would the cultivators of human Divine Characters rise into prominence because of you?”

That was what he had seen from his glimpse into the future. That might not necessarily be the true future. That was merely one of the countless possibilities that could happen in the future. But he still wanted to give it a try.

Sun and the moon swam within his eyes. His hair alternated between white and black. Strand after strand of white hair fell off his head. After a while, he waved his hand, causing all the fallen strands of hair to disappear. Softly, he muttered to himself, “A hundred years of lifespan…is that worth it?”

He shook his head and stopped thinking about that.

“Sunmoon, Eternal…”

Su Yu was merely a small part of the future he glimpsed, not the major part. Thus, there were a lot more things he needed to take into consideration.

Suddenly, his eyes flickered as he nonchalantly said, “I have merely destroyed his divine and devil characters. This might be another opportunity for him. Old Zhou, you don’t have to keep pleading for leniency from me. The rules exist to be obeyed.”

Outside the building.

Zhou Mingren gloomily said, “Yuming mainly cultivates divine and devil characters. Without those characters, sending him to the Allheaven Battlefield is the same as killing him.”

Wan Tiansheng indifferently said, “Without destruction, there can be no rebuilding. He has not entered the Mountainsea Realm for long so there is still hope for him to reinvent himself. If he is already at the peak of the realm, it would be much more troublesome to destroy his characters.”

“Fine. I won’t say anything else about that. I only wish to ask for one character for Yuming.”

Wan Tiansheng raised his brow and said, “That does not belong to me. Neither does it belong to you.”

“I know. But those people are already dead. The Divine Characters have accompanied them to their graves. Is that really the correct choice?”

Wan Tiansheng said, “I don’t know, but that’s their own choice. You reap what you sow. If we hadn’t expelled them back then, perhaps those Divine Characters would still remain in the academy. But since we had chosen to expel them, there is nothing we can do now. Zhou Mingren, you can choose to dig the grave of a deceased for the sake of your student today. What if tomorrow, the multiple character faction regains their former strength and comes looking for revenge? At that time, don’t blame me for not helping you.”

“I’ll face all the consequences myself. I don’t want to do this either, but I can’t just watch as Yuming is sent to his death. You are the principal. Since you asked for him to kill a Mountainsea enemy, I won’t object. I’ll follow your rules. But as his teacher, I need to find a path of survival for him.”

Wan Tiansheng said nothing.

Zhou Mingren also said nothing else and walked away. After Zhou Mingren left, Wan Tiansheng sighed and shook his head. You reap what you sow. Today, he could dig the grave of one of them. One day in the future when those people returned, they would naturally look for him to settle scores.

“Liu Wenyan, Xia Yunji…”

Wan Tiansheng muttered. Was there still hope for those people?

“Someone is going to dig the grave of one of you. Can you guys…remain patient?”

Wan Tiansheng shut his eyes and returned to his cultivation.

Research center.

Su Yu rested in silence. After a long while, his willpower finally fully recovered.

It was already the night of the 3rd.

It should be the day he fed the creatures in the prison zone again, but he was in no mood to do so. It had only been three days anyway. They wouldn’t starve so easily so there was no rush.

Thus, he stood up and pressed a button on the wall. After a short while, sounds of footsteps came from below. A Bai Feng with a messy stubble, heavy eyebags, and messy hair appeared. He looked at Su Yu with a somewhat blank look in his eyes.

“Yes?”

Su Yu felt a headache coming. Just how did his teacher turn into someone like this? He no longer looked carefree and confident. He was no longer the refined and elegant cultural researcher Su Yu remembered.

“Teacher, I wish to start doing research.”

“What?” Bai Feng asked blankly, “Research?”

“Yeah.”

“But…” Bai Feng scratched his head and said, “Before reaching the Skysoar Realm, you should focus on cultivation instead…”

Research was very time consuming. It wasn’t a good idea to start wasting time on research before even reaching the Skysoar Realm. Even Bai Feng himself had only switched his focus to research after reaching the Skysoar Realm.

Su Yu thought about it and said, “Teacher, didn’t our research center produce a drop of soul devouring bug blood essence? Because of that drop of blood essence, I think we are being targeted. Therefore, we need to come up with the actual production method of soul devouring bug blood essence…”

Bai Feng was completely confused. What the hell was Su Yu talking about? Bai Feng understood the words spoken by his student, but he couldn’t understand the sentence formed by those words.

When did their research center produce a drop of soul devouring bug blood essence? He looked at Su Yu blankly.

Su Yu helplessly said, “Teacher, didn’t you promise to become my scapegoat? You told me to claim that any racial ability I use is a product of your research. Recently, I used the racial ability of the soul devouring bugs. And then…well…I’ll be needing your services as a scapegoat.”

“…”

Bai Feng was still blanking out.

Damn it! He had only been in seclusion for a few days. The moment he left, the kid gave him such a massive trouble to solve. Was this kid deliberately trying to make his life difficult?

Bai Feng finally recovered somewhat from his daze. He rubbed his head and said, “It’s the fault of that blood character again? You used their racial ability after consuming some soul devouring bug blood essence and was found out. Others think that we have produced blood essence capable of affecting willpower and are now targeting you?”

“Pretty much.”

Su Yu nodded. Wow. His teacher sure was smart. Just look at how easily his teacher had understood the messy explanation he had given. How smart. This smart teacher better have a way to solve this problem.

Bai Feng was somewhat speechless. He said, “That racial ability is not a willpower ability. It can only affect the outer layer of one’s willpower by applying a burning and corroding force to the outer layer. It is still a source qi ability. Are those people so stupid that they can’t differentiate between willpower and source qi abilities?”

“…”

Su Yu looked at Bai Feng, surprised. He was aware of that because he had used the ability before. But Bai Feng was aware of that as well? One ought to know that even Chen Yong thought that this was a willpower ability.

“Teacher, how did you know that?”

Bai Feng said, “What stupid question is that? I’ve experimented on so many different types of blood essence over the years. The soul devouring bug is such a unique species. How can I not experiment on their blood essence as well? Your grandteacher used to have some soul devouring bugs locked up. I had personally experienced having my willpower corroded by the soul devouring liquid. It is a source qi attack.

“If this ability can be developed to the point that warriors can use it, then it would be a nightmare for cultural researchers. This ability allows one to alter one’s source qi and greatly reduce the difficulty of defeating a cultural researcher.”

Su Yu nodded. His teacher was right. He was very surprised. His teacher was actually quite knowledgeable.

Bai Feng sat down and stared at Su Yu for a while before pointing at the empty teapot in front of him. What a dumb student.

Su Yu laughed and hurriedly ran off to brew a fresh pot of tea.

Bai Feng yawned and continued speaking, “I once spent several months researching the soul devouring bug. Back then, I tried to discover the way of changing this ability into a martial technique. I wanted to see if I can open the acupoints required for this ability and alter the nature of my source qi…”

He then shook his head, “But it was too hard. The soul devouring bugs are a species of bugs. Their body structure is too different from humans. Even after dissecting dozens of them, I wasn’t able to discover anything.”