Tribulation of Myriad Races

Research center.

Student and teacher continued chatting for a while before Bai Feng recalled something and furiously asked, “Where’s the tea?”

Su Yu laughed. His teacher was still thinking about tea? Bai Feng was finally happy after Su Yu served him a cup of tea. While sipping on tea, he sank into thought.

After a while, he said pensively, “Do you still remember the activated acupoints when you used the soul devouring bug ability?”

“Yeah.”

“Soul devouring bug…soul devouring bug ability…source qi alteration…” Bai Feng muttered, “Is the alteration due to the ability itself or is it due to the source art of the soul devouring bugs? Too bad you don’t know their source art…”

Su Yu thought about it and said, “Teacher, I think their source art and racial ability probably utilizes similar acupoints. I have a feeling we can even derive their source art from the ability. After all, the acupoints of the ability are basically almost the same as the acupoints of their source art.”

Generally, racial abilities and foundation source arts would come in pairs.

A good example would be the War God Art and Skybreak Technique. Racial abilities were essentially the martial techniques that the myriad races innately knew.

The War God Art required 108 acupoints while the Skybreak Technique required 96 acupoints. But most of the acupoints overlapped. Thus, one only needed to open 12 additional acupoints to cultivate the Skybreak Technique.

“That makes sense.” Bai Feng nodded, “If the source art of the soul devouring bugs can really alter one’s source qi, giving it the abilities to burn and corrode willpower, then this cultivation method would be a very big deal for all warriors.

“Generally, warriors would need to close in to cultural researchers to harm them. But if they could burn the willpower of the cultural researchers from far away, a lot would change. Perhaps we can use this to gain the support of some powerful warriors.”

Su Yu stared at his teacher, his expression changing.

Bai Feng indifferently asked, “Why are you looking at me like that? We’re not strong enough. It is perfectly normal for us to look for more supporters. But my research is still stuck at the Great Strength Realm. Is that the highest level of the ability you have tried using as well?”

“Yeah.”

“It’s fine. That is enough. Our main goal is to figure out the required acupoints.”

Bai Feng continued sipping on his tea while thinking.

This was a cultivation method capable of altering source qi and harming willpower. Were there similar cultivation methods out there? The world was massive. Everything could exist.

In fact, similar cultivation methods might already exist in the Human Realm and had merely been kept secret. As far as Bai Feng knew, there was no such cultivation method among the publicly known methods.

In Great Xia, apart from the Xia Family, the other warrior families probably wouldn’t have something like that.

Suddenly, Bai Feng smiled, “If we really trade this cultivation method to some warriors, would we be known as the traitors of cultural researchers?”

Su Yu thought about it and answered, “No. The ones scolding us will be the actual traitors. We are sharing the cultivation method to strengthen our warriors, to help them kill more enemies in the battlefield. Why should human cultural researchers fear that cultivation method if they don’t intend to betray humanity? Isn’t it good for humanity to grow stronger? Thus, anyone daring to think that way is a traitor trying to destabilize humanity from within.”

“That makes sense. But…” Bai Feng sneered, “Cultural researchers are very proud. All cultural researchers believe that warriors are incomparable to them. And when you provide warriors with a method to harm cultural researchers, they will feel threatened.”

There were far fewer cultural researchers in existence compared to warriors. And one could only reach the Eternal Realm through physical cultivation. Even so, cultural researchers were still incomparably proud.

Even though the overall strength of the cultural research community was lower than the warrior community, they still believed that they were better. In truth, this thought was shared across the myriad races.

Su Yu shook his head, “That is not a good reason to keep important research results hidden. Should we prevent humanity from growing stronger just to preserve the status of cultural researchers?”

Bai Feng replied, “Of course not. But the premise for doing anything is strength. If you’re an Invincible, even if you decide to preach about the dao publicly in the Allheaven Battlefield, nobody would dare to say anything.”

Bai Feng exhaled and said, “We need to act carefully. Kid, since you want to get involved in research, this will be your first task. Deduce the Soul Devouring Art out of their racial ability.”

Inwardly, Su Yu thought that the job was already done. He already knew the Soul Devouring Art. There was no need for him to deduce anything. Of course, he couldn’t tell Bai Feng that.

It was still understandable if he could extract abilities out of blood essence. After all, a lot of people were also researching blood essence. But if he could also learn the cultivation method of other races through their blood essence, then he would be too much of a threat. Bai Feng would probably go crazy if he knew the truth.

Just look at his reaction after learning about Su Yu’s ability to activate racial abilities.

Suddenly, Bai Feng stood up. When he saw that Su Yu was still sitting there blankly, he said, “What are you waiting for? I thought you wanted to start doing research?”

“Teacher…now?”

“Of course.” Bai Feng frowned, “Are we supposed to wait until tomorrow?”

What an odd kid. Why would he think that?

“Kid, why are you so lazy? Back when your grandteacher first agreed to let me enter the lab, the only thing I wanted was to enter immediately. Why are you trying to avoid entering the lab instead?”

Su Yu was speechless. How was he trying to avoid entering the lab? He was merely caught unaware by Bai Feng’s impatience. He said nothing and silently followed Bai Feng to the third underground floor.

Main laboratory.

This was Su Yu’s first visit. The first thing he noticed was the thick and heavy-looking door of the laboratory.

Pointing at the door, Bai Feng explained, “This door was made of a material good enough to forge earth-grade weapons…”

Before Bai Feng could finish, Su Yu’s expression changed as he exclaimed, “Flaming devil steel! A special product of the Flaming Devil Realm. It can be used as the main material for weapon forging. We are using this as a door?”

“Exactly. It’s good that you know about it. if we need to, we can easily take it off and use it as an earth-grade weapon.” Bai Feng proudly said, “And it won’t even be an ordinary earth-grade weapon. A large piece like this is valuable enough to buy several high-tier earth-grade martial weapons.”

A weapon at that level was good enough for even Mountainsea cultivators. Su Yu could see just how rich this research center used to be.

Su Yu estimated that this door could easily be sold for 5,000 merit points. This was only a material for martial weapons. If it was a material for cultural weapons, it would have a much more terrifying value.

Bai Feng wasted no time and summoned a small sword. The sword turned into a key before unlocking the door.

“Come on.”

Su Yu hurriedly followed his teacher inside. He was utterly shocked by what he saw. Countless devices could be seen all over the main hall. And all around the hall, countless smaller rooms could be seen.

This place was much larger than the secondary laboratory of the research center. And it also had a lot more devices in it.

Suddenly, the look in Su Yu’s eyes changed as his gaze landed on a room with transparent walls. What was that?

Countless floating books were visible in the room, and those books look rather familiar to Su Yu.

Noticing Su Yu’s gaze, Bai Feng said, “Do they look familiar? Those are Marks of Culture. They were all formed of Mountainsea Divine Characters.”

“Teacher…” Su Yu said in astonishment, “There are so many of them.”

Bai Feng nodded, “These are all the spoils of war your grandteacher had obtained from the battlefield. Over the years, he had visited the battlefield several times. He had killed six Mountainsea experts in total. Three of them were cultural researchers. Your grandteacher had stripped a total of 16 Divine Characters from them. Three were main Divine Characters while the rest were secondary Divine Characters. All these characters have been preserved here.”

Su Yu was greatly shocked.

Six Mountainsea cultivators?

One ought to know that Mountainsea cultivators were extremely rare. And generally, each battle between two Mountainsea cultivators would be an extremely dangerous fight. The only exceptions were situations where one party was much more powerful, such as the gap between Wan Tiansheng and Zheng Yuming.

And his grandteacher was actually able to go hunting for Mountainsea cultivators in the Allheaven Battlefield. His grandteacher must be really strong.

Bai Feng said, “These things can’t really be called Marks of Culture. Proper Marks of Culture are left behind by deceased human cultivators that had decided to pass down an inheritance before dying. They do so with the hope that one day, the future generation would be able to inherit something from what they left behind. That was the origin of the name Mark of Culture.”

Su Yu asked curiously, “Teacher, can the Divine Characters in Marks of Culture be passed down as well?”

“No.” Bai Feng shook his head, “When a Mountainsea cultivator dies, all their Divine Characters will start dissipating. These characters can only be preserved through unique methods. But even preserved Divine Characters are semi-dissipated Divine Characters. And they won’t exist forever. Thus, each Mark of Culture can only last for about 100 years.”

He sighed.

Each Mark of Culture signified a deceased Mountainsea cultivator. Yet even this final imprint of them would eventually disappear.

Bai Feng said, “But there are unique circumstances, such as some peak Mountainsea cultivators with stable main Divine Characters. Before their death, they can use their life itself as the price to turn their Divine Characters into semi Eternal characters. Such characters can be kept longer as they will be closer to actual Eternal characters.”

Su Yu nodded in understanding.

He asked, “Teacher, aren’t there some Eternal characters in the academy? So these characters can actually still be used?”

All the grottos of the academy were made of Eternal characters. And the academy had a decent number of grottos. Most of these characters were left behind by the past Sunmoon cultivators of the academy.

“Use?” Bai Feng looked at Su Yu, “You mean letting someone use those characters like they were normal characters?”

Su Yu nodded, “Yeah. If those Eternal characters won’t dissipate, can’t we take them in and put them to use?”

He had suddenly thought about the book in his head. Thus, he was curious if Eternal characters could be taken into one’s sea of willpower and be put to use.

Bai Feng shook his head, “That won’t work. Simply put, it’s an issue of compatibility. For example, you are someone who has formed a blood character. I’m not. After you’re dead, I might not be able to use your blood character even after getting it from you.”

“…”

Su Yu had an odd look on his face. Teacher, those words were…somewhat unkind. Why must he be the one to die? Bai Feng sure had a way to give an example.

“In that case, can these Eternal characters even be compatible with anyone?”

Su Yu asked.

“Yes.” Bai Feng nodded, “My martial uncle and some other people are compatible with some Eternal characters. The compatibility might not be 100 percent, but they were compatible enough to actually take the characters into their seas of willpower. That is very rare. Generally, only geniuses can do so. Because these are the characters that these geniuses might end up forming by themselves anyway.

“Don’t even think of doing this. You’re a Mental Tempering Stage cultivator. How big of a burden an Eternal character would be to your sea of willpower? Can you imagine it? Your sea of willpower might burst apart the moment you take one in. You will only survive if you are really a super genius with an incredibly powerful sea of willpower while the Eternal character is also highly compatible with you. Only then would you have a tiny chance of succeeding.

“This would be even harder for the single character faction. For our faction, we have numerous characters and a character technique. Thus, we can still forcefully use the character technique to suppress the Eternal character. Meanwhile, subduing an Eternal character would be extremely difficult for the single character faction.”

Su Yu nodded. But he was actually busy thinking about something else.

Bai Feng said that his martial uncle was one such person. And when Su Yu recalled what Bai Feng had said in the past, he suddenly asked, “Teacher, has Teacher Liu received one such inheritance as well?”

“Yeah.” Bai Feng couldn’t be bothered to hide anything, “The fifth principal left a character behind. That character was eventually taken away by Martial Uncle. Maybe he has already absorbed it into his sea of willpower. Maybe not. I don’t really know either.

“Your Teacher Liu used to be an extremely talented freak of the academy. But he eventually ended up crippled. This character might be related to that. Personally, I have a different guess. That might be more than a single character. Instead, an entire racial ability character has been passed down by the fifth principal.”

Su Yu blinked. Racial ability character? Was that really the case? Their research center had not even completed the research on that. Had the fifth principal formed one such character back then?

If that was the case, then the fifth principal would really be the person closest to entering the Eternal Realm through willpower cultivation.

Bai Feng started walking again. He pointed at a large machine and said, “This is the centrifuge. We use it to separate components of blood essence. Generally, when a drop of blood essence takes form, it is almost impossible to split that drop. This machine is the only way we can do so.”

“This is a willpower examination machine…”

Su Yu was very interested in this machine. Willpower examination machine? The machine was basically a small room. How did it work? When Bai Feng saw Su Yu’s reaction, he smiled and walked into the room. Inside the room, a burst of willpower erupted.

On a screen connected to the room, some words appeared.

Willpower grade: Peak second grade

Opened soul apertures: 30 – 40

Number of Divine Characters: 15 – 25

Overall evaluation: Ninth-stage Skysoar Realm

What was that?