Tribulation of Myriad Races

It was the middle of March, and Bai Feng’s group was on the way back to Great Xia.

Su Yu had done all he could before resuming his cultivation. The heavenly source qi he had extracted after spending two hundred thousand merit points previously was being used up at a rapid pace.

He had extracted around 150 portions of heavenly source qi. He had given some to Hu Qi, used some for his body forging, and wasted some to create the fake phenomena during his public breakthrough. He did not have much left.

18th of March.

This was the day Su Yu completed his fourth body forging. Over twenty days had passed since his breakthrough. It had taken him that long to reach the fourth forging. For many people, this was an unimaginable speed of growth. But for Su Yu, this was not enough. He felt greatly pressed for time.

He had also finished reading one of his Invincible notes. It was quite difficult to comprehend the notes of Invincibles, but he had still learned something from it. The first notebook he read was the one from Great Han King.

Those notes gave a simple introduction to Great Han King’s philosophy in cultivation. He walked the path of a traditional character master, a path that was neither the single or the multiple character faction. Rather, he walked the path of combination, a path the single character faction had been working on recently.

Great Han King focused on the concept of strength. His main character was the strength character. According to the notes, Su Yu guessed that Great Han King was not using only a single strength character. Rather, he had formed the strength characters of multiple races before weaving them into a system that could boost each other’s strength.

Of course, all current human Invincibles were strictly speaking, physical Invincibles. Great Han King was actually stronger than some of the more ordinary warrior Invincibles thanks to his strength characters.

Su Yu had guessed all that from the notes, but he had no way of confirming his guesses. Through Great Han King’s writings, he had formed a strength character as well. This was a rather common character. Su Yu remembered that even Liu Hong had one such character.

And the writings of an Invincible were indeed incredible. Right after formation, the strength character reached the second tier. With that, Su Yu’s number of characters reached eighteen.

The blood, lightning, deceit, and tribulation characters had all reached the third tier while the rest were at the second tier. He now had enough characters to form an 18-character saber if he wanted. At his current level, his cultural weapon was starting to fall behind.

He was still using the same peak yellow-grade cultural weapon he got from Zhao Li back then. It was comparable to a profound-grade cultural weapon in strength, but it was not good enough. His willpower had reached the upper bounds of the second tier with 18 characters and 180 apertures. In fact, he was already no weaker than Bai Feng when he defeated Hu Wensheng with one hit.

Of course, that was only in terms of brute strength. He was probably not as skilled in his usage of characters. Nevertheless, his pure offensive strength had probably exceeded what Bai Feng had back then. One ought to remember that he also had a few third-tier characters.

***

While Su Yu was cultivating in seclusion.

Chaos started spreading in the Human Realm.

First, a high-ranking military official was killed at the Rising Sky Sea. Then, a Mountainsea cultural researcher was killed in Great Tang. This was a prefecture that had been relatively silent, but it was absolutely not weak.

The death of that Mountainsea angered several Sunmoons of Great Tang. A massive subjugation of the Myriad Race Cult within Great Tang was carried out. There were proof that the Mountainsea’s death might be related to the Six-Winged Divine Sect.

The eight families of the Knowledge Seeking Realm received a torrent of curses. Everyone was calling them garbage. They had eight Sunmoons in pursuit of the Six-Winged Divine Sect, yet the sect was still able to freely move around and commit murder. Zhu Tiandao had given them a limit of one month to eliminate the Six-Winged Divine Sect, and they were nearing the end of the time limit.

Great Han King had extended the time limit to three months, but it was likely that these people wouldn’t achieve anything even after three months.

Of course, the eight Sunmoons weren’t really so useless. They had destroyed dozens of Six-Winged Divine Sect strongholds and killed nearly a thousand cultists in the process. However, they had been failing to contain the upper echelons of the sect, including the Sunmoon which they had been pursuing.

In the past, most Sunmoons would spend their time in seclusion. But that had changed as Sunmoons were getting more and more active. The upper echelons of humanity could sense the impending storm.

And what was the source of all the chaos? Great Xia. Specifically, Great Xia’s multiple character faction and people like Hong Tan.

***

While all that was going on.

To the south of Great Shang was a road leading to Great Ming.

A slim and lonesome figure walked that path.

Clad in a green robe, that person had a resolute look on his somewhat boyish face. He was twenty years old, a year older than Su Yu.

He was Shan Xiong, the most outstanding character master of his generation in the single character faction. With his incredible strength, he had defeated numerous multiple character faction experts. Currently, he was on his way to Great Ming.

As the youth walked, sounds of galloping mounts rang out behind him. When he looked back, he saw a group of mounted soldiers. When they reached him, the leader took off her helmet, revealing a delicate and beautiful face.

“Must you go?”

The beautiful young woman leaped off her horse and anxiously said, “You might not be his match. He is exceptionally cruel in combat, with the habit of killing for no reason whatsoever. His hands are soaked in blood. Almost all his enemies from Great Xia have died.”

With a calm smile on his face, Shan Xiong said, “The world is filled with capable heroes. I wish to meet as many of them as I can. The struggle between the single and multiple character factions has existed for a very long time. It should end at our generation. If I lose, it will serve as proof that the multiple character faction is better. If I lose, no single character faction member in the same cultivation level will be able to contend against him. That will bring this conflict to an end.”

The young woman gnashed her teeth and stubbornly said, “No! You can’t go! You’re going to be all alone there! My dad said that Prefect Zhu Tiandao of Great Ming is a cunning fox. You won’t be able to kill Su Yu there even if you can win. Meanwhile, Zhu Tiandao won’t stop Su Yu from killing you if he manages to defeat you. And even if you do manage to somehow kill Su Yu, you won’t be able to leave Great Ming with your life.”

Great Ming was basically a tiger’s den.

In the young woman’s eyes, Su Yu was the biggest villain in existence. Meanwhile, Shan Xiong was a heroic youth who was challenging the villains of the world alone. He might die in the event of defeat. And a victory also wouldn’t guarantee a safe departure from Great Ming.

The young woman said, “I know you’re very sad about Grandpa Shan’s death. I know you want your revenge. But…Liu Wenyan should be the one paying for that. And Principal Zhou should be the one doing that, not you. Even if you manage to defeat Su Yu, what’s the point? He can find countless excuses for his defeat, such as a lower cultivation level, his identity as a researcher instead of a combat specialist, or even his age. Winning won’t give you anything while losing will lose you everything.”

Shan Xiong sank into a long silence. Finally, he spoke, “You should return. Don’t get involved in this. The struggle between the single and multiple character factions mainly involves Great Xia and Great Zhou. Go back.”

“I refuse!” The young woman tearfully pleaded, “Don’t go! Su Yu is a narrow-minded person! Do you think he will respect you like how heroes respect each other? You’re mistaken! My dad said that Su Yu is realistic and vicious. He is the perfect example of a hypocrite. Back when he was weak, he was very modest and kind. He would even heal his injured opponent. After gaining a strong backing, he started killing everyone who had ever offended him. Di Feng and Zhou Pingsheng of Great Xia were the perfect examples of that!

“Even after deciding to leave Great Xia, he did not forget to take his revenge on them. My dad said that it was very unlikely for Principal Jin Yuhui and all those experts to be colluding with the cult. Instead, Su Yu had intentionally lured them out alongside the cultists before killing them all together.

“Don’t go! You’re different from him. You are only doing this for your dao and your belief. He is willing to do anything to achieve his goals. He is a lowly peasant from the streets. My dad said that during the rise of someone like that, he is willing to eliminate everyone standing in his way.”

Shan Xiong had a pensive look. He slowly said, “Your father has quite a high evaluation of him.”

Yes. A high evaluation. The father of this young woman was the crown prince of Great Shang and the grandson of Great Shang King. He was from Xia Longwu’s generation. Of course, he was nowhere as strong as Xia Longwu. Currently, Great Shang was helmed by the grandfather of this young woman.

And such an individual had actually described Su Yu as a ruthless, vicious, unscrupulous, and talented individual. Those might seem like derogatory terms, but they could also be viewed as compliments on his pragmatism and ability to seize all opportunities to protect and better himself.

Before Great Xia descended into chaos, Su Yu had escaped and killed a bunch of enemies before seeking shelter in Great Ming. He had also won the support of the Zhu Family. Only someone truly capable could do that.

The father of this young woman had not given Shan Xiong a high evaluation. Instead, Su Yu was the one receiving such a high evaluation. The young woman’s father was probably aware that she was here. Perhaps the crown prince was trying to keep him from throwing his life away.

After all, this trip to Great Ming might really be a one-way trip as Su Yu was indeed harboring the desire to kill him. This much was clear enough when Su Yu made a fight to the death with him previously. It was also obvious that Su Yu was confident in victory. At that point, Su Yu wasn’t even a Skysoar yet. And now, he was already a Skysoar.

While Shan Xiong was thinking about all that, the young woman begged again, “Don’t go! Can you stay? If Great Zhou blames you for this, I’ll talk to my dad and get my grandpa to speak for you. Principal Zhou should go after Liu Wenyan himself. Why is he forcing you to fight Su Yu instead?”

“Nonsense.” Shan Xiong sternly said, “Don’t talk badly about our elders behind them.”

“Shan Xiong.” The young woman anxiously said, “Can you stay? If you go, I’ll go with you! And if you die, I’ll challenge Su Yu to a fight!”