Tribulation of Myriad Races

40th level.

A raging fireball filled the room. The furball was on the verge of advancement. Su Yu wasn’t even given the chance to do anything before space trembled and thunder rumbled.

At the same time.

Outside the Hundred Dao Pagoda, the sky suddenly turned dark. The air warped and a golden cloud appeared before dropping down on the Hundred Dao Pagoda.

“What the hell?”

“Heavenly phenomenon?”

The change only covered an area several meters wide, but that was enough to shock countless people.

Niu Baidao smiled and said, “The 40th level. Su Yu is truly a genius. Thus, the prefect has personally bestowed this reward to congratulate his accomplishment. Many thanks, Prefect.”

Zhu Tiandao, who had just arrived, suppressed his shock and laughed, “Hahaha. This is truly worthy of celebration. Su Yu is a genius researcher, but he is also a genius cultivator. What a surprise.”

After saying that, a rain of source qi liquid started falling from the sky. All the students cheered in joy.

“Long live the prefect!”

Zhu Tiandao laughed heartily as he waved his arm, sending even more source qi liquid toward the sky. Finally, the source qi liquid gathered in the sky and turned into a few additional golden clouds.

After doing that, Zhu Tiandao said, “Students and teachers of the academy, remember to continue working hard. In Great Ming, we do not revere combat strength above everything else. But I do hope that all of you will reach for the skies in your respective fields.

“Do not forget that any dao you pursue is something that can be potentially affirmed in the future. As a Mental Tempering Stage, Su Yu has punched two realms above him, reaching the 40th level meant for Cloudbreaches. His unrivaled talent is there for all to see. I hope that nobody will be prejudiced against him just because he’s from Great Xia. All humans are family. We are the same.”

While he was uttering all those generous words with his mouth, he was madly asking with voice transmission, “What happened? Did Su Yu break through or was it something else? This felt like the advancement into the Cloudbreach Realm. And it also…felt like the advancement of an ancient race.”

“It might be that little furball. I sensed his presence on Su Yu when he entered the pagoda.”

“Holy shit. So it’s really an ancient race. Wait, a race like this might even have a living Pseudo Emperor! Fuck! This advancement might even attract the attention of that Pseudo Emperor! Fuck!”

Zhu Tiandao was greatly alarmed. “This is definitely a race with Invincibles. But the question is, what is the level of their Invincibles? The Invincibles of ancient races are not weak.”

Pseudo Emperor was the title while Eternal was a cultivation realm. This realm was also known by humanity as the Invincible Realm. The strength of the different Pseudo Emperors varied, but nobody would dare to take on that title without being an Invincible.

A mere advancement into the Cloudbreach Realm had actually generated a heavenly phenomenon. This was a clear indication of strength.

It proved that not only was the little furball strong, but his race was also strong. Otherwise, a heavenly phenomenon wouldn’t have appeared. Basically, the appearance of the phenomenon signified that the Pseudo Emperor had learned of the little furball’s breakthrough. The golden cloud was basically the blessing bestowed upon the furball by the Pseudo Emperor.

Yes. That was a blessing that had been sent across realms. Zhu Tiandao cursed inwardly. Which ancient race was this? Why had he never heard of them? Was it really the race his father mentioned in the past? The super expert who had appeared once hundreds of years ago and vanished after sucking an Invincible dry?

Fuck!

That was too terrifying. That monster wouldn’t come to Great Ming, right? Yeah, probably not.

The human race had a lot of Invincibles as well. That Pseudo Emperor probably wouldn’t be brazen enough to try something so crazy. Sending Sunmoons into the Human Realm was a risk worth taking, but it was too dangerous to send Invincibles.

***

At the same time. Amid the boundless void.

A picturesque small realm was floating in the middle of nowhere. A large tree could be seen. Hanging on the tree were countless heavenly source fruits.

Under the tree, a massive furball opened his eyes. Time started rewinding, showing him a scene from a year ago. At the time, he was sleeping. Suddenly, a spatial tunnel appeared in the air.

The little furball, who was sleeping on his head, noticed the tunnel. With a curious look in his eyes, he glanced at the big furball before flying into the tunnel. A short moment later, the tunnel disappeared.

Since this was a playback, the scene was quite blurry. The big furball saw more things, but he wasn’t able to get a good look. The playback continued. After a while, another scene appeared. Someone was hammering the little furball with a hammer. And the little furball was burning.

“Natural character…”

The little furball had swallowed an extremely important natural character. And that hammer…was that a unique soul technique? The playback ended there.

The big furball stared at the sky for a long while before muttering in an extremely complicated language, “Cloudbreach?”

That was fast. The big furball felt like he had just taken a nap and the little fellow had grown so much. He had never cared about that tunnel, but the little fellow had actually left through that tunnel.

“Human Realm. The Land of Pilgrimage. Natural character.”

After muttering to himself for a bit, the big furball plucked a heavenly source fruit from the tree with his mouth. Then, he sank into contemplation. This was a process that might…last decades.

He was contemplating whether he should take the little fellow back. As for those human Invincibles…he was there to look for his son. Who would dare to stop him? If he was willing to speak politely, they would probably be understanding.

The big furball continued his contemplation.

Nobody knew how long this would take.

***

40th level.

After the loud rumble, a golden cloud dropped down from the sky. Under Su Yu’s shocked gaze, the cloud started melting into pure source qi and willpower.

Holy shit!

Heavenly source qi!

After getting in contact with the qi, he realized that it was heavenly source qi, not ordinary source qi. He started madly absorbing the heavenly source qi.

“Mine!”

The furball protested. He knew that this was his!

“But you sucked mine earlier!” Su Yu countered. He asked in shock, “How did you generate a heavenly phenomenon with a breakthrough?”

“Don’t know.”

All the little furball knew was that this golden stuff was yummy. Nothing was more important than eating this yummy golden stuff. One human and one ball started absorbing the heavenly source qi and willpower provided by the golden cloud.

Since Su Yu had yet to decide on a body forging art, he merely absorbed the heavenly source qi to nourish his body without circulating any art. His flesh trembled, his blood coursed fiercely through his vessels, and all his acupoints were cleansed. This felt great!

Su Yu felt completely refreshed even though he had only absorbed a tiny portion of what the golden cloud had provided. The little furball had absorbed most of the cloud. In the blink of an eye, the furball had swallowed almost half the cloud. After another blink of an eye, not much of the cloud was left.

Su Yu was left speechless. He asked, “Why are you eating even heavenly source qi?”

“Yummy.”

“Did you break through?”

“Don’t know.”

The little furball had no idea. He only knew that he was still a furball. But he seemed to have grown slightly bigger. Previously, he was small enough to fit into a palm. Now, he was the size of an apple.

Before long, the entire cloud was gone. Su Yu felt refreshed. Even the greatly damaged fire character had recovered considerably. He had only absorbed about a tenth of what the furball had consumed. That little fellow was simply too good at eating.

The heavens would need to be really unfair if the little furball was still not a Cloudbreach with such an ability. Nevertheless, Su Yu could feel that his body had grown a lot stronger than before. Even his apertures were shining much brighter.

He had opened 180 apertures, but 36 of them remained unlinked to the others. Those were also the ones that were the dimmest among the 180. He was in no rush to link them all. He was afraid of accidentally entering the Skysoar Realm after doing so. That wouldn’t be nice. At the very least, he would wait until his fire character was fully recovered.

At this point, Su Yu was starting to wonder if he would jump straight into the Cloudbreach Realm after his breakthrough. For cultural researchers, the difference between a Skysoar and a Cloudbreach was the tier of their willpower, characters, and number of apertures.

Su Yu was sure that his characters would be at the third tier by the time he reached the Skysoar Realm. He also had enough apertures. But he wasn’t sure if he could push his willpower to the third tier as well.

If he could, wouldn’t he jump straight into the Cloudbreach Realm? That was such a terrifying thought. Yes, it was excessive enough to scare even Su Yu himself. Whatever. He decided to stop worrying for now.

There weren’t too many benefits to entering the Cloudbreach Realm. The higher the cultivation, the harder it would be to form characters. He wanted to take it slow and form more characters. At the very least, he aimed to form more at the Skysoar Realm. He certainly didn’t want to enter the Cloudbreach Realm with only 11 characters.

A short while later, he finished digesting what he absorbed. The little furball was done as well.

But before Su Yu could say anything, a pop sounded and the little furball dropped onto the ground, turning into a flat ball.

Su Yu: “…”

Little furball: “…”

Su Yu asked speechlessly, “Are you tired of living?”

That fellow had actually tried sneaking into his sea of willpower. The book instantly released a golden burst of light and blasted the furball away.

The furball was nearly turned into a cookie from a ball.

The little furball said with a pitiful voice, “More yummy now.”

He couldn’t control himself. And he had just gotten stronger, so he was feeling very confident. Alas, he had failed yet again.