Tribulation of Myriad Races

Shan Xiong frowned. He looked at the soldiers behind the young woman and said, “I’ll have to trouble you guys to escort the princess back.”

The young woman snorted and said, “They are my people, not yours. Shan Xiong, you might not even be able to reach Great Ming safely without me. With me around, you will have the backing of Great Shang and Great Zhou. Zhu Tiandao will have to think twice before playing any dirty tricks.”

“Speak cautiously!” Shan Xiong said, “It’s fine for you to say this here. But if you say it to Prefect Zhu’s face, not even your grandpa and father can protect you from the repercussions.”

“I’m not scared!” The young woman said, “We’re agreed, then. I’ll go with you. Why did Principal Zhou not send any experts to protect you? What if something bad happens to you? Recently, the cult has been causing chaos everywhere. The Human Realm is getting more and more dangerous. You are the top genius of the single character faction. You need to be careful.”

“It’s fine. Nearly all the Sunmoon and Mountainsea cultists in and near Great Ming have been killed. Things aren’t that dangerous.”

“I disagree! You still need to be careful!” The young woman said, “Get on the horse. We’ll go together. I won’t stop you from fighting Su Yu. But if you die, I’ll find a way to kill Su Yu before joining you in the afterlife.”

Shan Xiong smiled helplessly as he asked, “Are you so sure that I won’t be his match?”

Everyone was competitive in a way. If he wasn’t competitive, he wouldn’t have traveled the Human Realm to challenge so many experts. He initially planned to challenge Su Yu’s teacher, Bai Feng. But Bai Feng had essentially crippled himself fighting Xia Yuwen. He had to challenge Bai Feng’s student instead. Surprisingly, a lot of people weren’t optimistic about it.

Su Yu was a fresh Skysoar while he had recently left seclusion in Great Shang as a ninth-stage Skysoar. He was growing rapidly. Just a year ago when Su Yu first heard of him from Bai Feng, he was still a fresh Skysoar. At the time, he had killed a fifth-stage Skysoar at the Allheaven Battlefield, solidifying his status as a genius youth. He did not disappoint everyone and proceeded to reach the ninth stage in only one year.

One could say that he was among the most talented youths to have emerged in many years. Not even Liu Wenyan had grown so quickly back then. Of course, Shan Xiong had not done something like killing Skysoars as a Mental Tempering Stage student, so it was hard to really compare the two. The main reason for that was the sheer speed at which he had reached the Skysoar Realm. He didn’t spend much time in the Mental Tempering Stage at all.

He felt somewhat helpless to see how worried this young woman was, but he was also looking forward to it.

Su Yu! The top genius of the multiple character faction. Wasn’t this the kind of opponent truly worth challenging?

Shan Xiong had defeated a seventh-stage Skysoar of the multiple character faction when he was still a sixth-stage Skysoar. And now, he was a ninth-stage Skysoar. His cultivation was much higher than Su Yu’s.

Even so, a lot of people still believed that he might die during his fight against Su Yu. That only served to stoke his desire to face Su Yu in combat.

The young woman said, “Get on the horse. Compared to Su Yu, you’re lacking in luck. If you could cultivate the Source Soul Cultural Art earlier, you would have reached the Cloudbreach Realm long ago. Su Yu would be nothing. In talent alone, he is definitely not comparable to you. In terms of experience, you went to the Allheaven Battlefield and killed a genius divine before. Has Su Yu done any of that?”

To make her sweetheart look better, the young woman was constantly belittling Su Yu, claiming that he was lucky instead of talented. It wasn’t like she could say anything else about him.

“In terms of talent, people like Huang Teng are still better. But they are warriors. Among the younger generation of cultural researchers, I’ve always believed that only Wu Qi of Great Xia is worthy of being your rival.”

Wu Qi was an extremely ruthless cultivator. Back when she was at the Mental Tempering Stage, she killed a Skysoar devil and bathed in the devil’s blood to complete her advancement.

That painted quite a terrifying image. She had earned her fame with her very own hands in the Allheaven Battlefield. It was pointless to only be popular in the Human Realm. People like Su Yu and Bai Feng weren’t that well-known in the Allheaven Battlefield. And Su Yu had never even stepped into the Allheaven Battlefield before.

Thus, the likes of Huang Teng, Qin Fang, and Wu Qi were the actual young geniuses every young cultivator yearned to be. Even Xia Yuwen was considerably well-known in the Allheaven Battlefield. However, his reputation had suffered as of late after his defeat in the hands of Bai Feng.

Shan Xiong smiled and leaped onto the horse. The young woman moved to the back and allowed him to get the front seat before wrapping her arms around his waist. She smiled and said, “Before fighting Su Yu, the best course of action is to provoke him to refrain from using his physical cultivation. Make him fight with only his characters and willpower. He is an arrogant brute. It probably won’t be hard to provoke him into handicapping himself.”

Shan Xiong asked, “Do you think that will work? My physical cultivation isn’t too shabby either. I’ve completed eighteen forgings. He has only broken through recently. Is his physical body even stronger than mine?”

Shan Xiong cultivated a powerful body forging art as well. That was a thirty-six forging art personally picked for him by Zhou Polong. He was also someone with past fortuitous encounters.

Previously, he had used Great Zhou’s slot to forge his body in the Knowledge Seeking Realm. Not long after his advancement into the Skysoar Realm, he completed twelve body forgings and reached the third-stage Skysoar Realm. Only then did he leave the holy land.

That practically put him on the same level as people like Huang Teng and Qin Fang who had forged their bodies in the War Shrine. Even the cultivation method he cultivated was a top-tier one. He cultivated Great Zhou’s Heavenly Return Art. This art was previously known as the Black Storm, but it didn’t matter as Invincibles had the habit of randomly renaming their cultivation methods. That was a top-tier cultivation method with 144 acupoints.

He had entered the Infinite Strength Realm after fusing sixteen acupoints, making him a genius in physical cultivation as well. With eighteen body forgings, he was capable of unleashing the strength of two thousand acupoints. Strictly speaking, if Su Yu did not fuse at least forty acupoints, he might not be Shan Xiong’s match in physical cultivation unless he completed a far higher count of body forgings.

Shan Xiong believed that even if Su Yu did advance with forty fused acupoints with two or three body forgings completed, they would still be evenly matched in physical cultivation.

The young woman giggled and said, “His physical cultivation isn’t necessarily stronger, but there is still such a possibility. After all, he is greatly loved by Great Ming. Maybe he has received a lot of benefits from them. Maybe he has entered the Skysoar Realm long ago and the public breakthrough was merely a farce. After all, even Zhu Tiandao himself claimed that the phenomenon was fake.”

“Also, he has his ability blood essence!”

The young woman gnashed her teeth, “Using that is the same as cheating! He can use Cloudbreach ability blood essence to gain the strength of a Cloudbreach. That will be very troublesome for you!”

Shan Xiong nodded. He agreed that ability blood essence could be very troublesome to deal with. That was one thing he shouldn’t overlook.

He had also seen the videos of Su Yu’s fight with Zhou Pingsheng. During the fight, Su Yu had used numerous abilities with his ability blood essence before eventually killing Zhou Pingsheng who was a seventh-stage Cloudbreach.

“That’s not cheating. In a fight, we naturally need to use all we have. And I’m even a year older than him with a far better family background.”

Shan Xiong said, “We both have been lucky in our own ways.”

“Big Brother Shan Xiong, you’re already very good. My dad said that as long as you keep working hard, you will definitely become a Sunmoon. Even the Invincible Realm might not be out of reach for you.”

“Invincible?”

Shan Xiong did not remark on that. That was easier said than done. Just how many people could guarantee that they would be able to step into that realm? Even the fifth principal had failed. Then again, physical advancement was much easier than the willpower advancement the fifth principal pursued.

But for Shan Xiong, going through a physical advancement as a cultural researcher was disgraceful. Thus, those Invincibles in the Knowledge Seeking Realm would rarely mention this matter. There might be two holy lands in the Human Realm, but humanity was still ruled by warriors. They still didn’t have an actual Invincible cultural researcher.

The two continued moving with a group of soldiers following behind them. None of these soldiers were weak. Even the weakest among them was a Skysoar. There were several Cloudbreaches and even a Mountainsea in the group.

Looking at the two youths in front of him, the Mountainsea couldn’t help but acknowledge that this was truly a match made in heaven. Shan Xiong had captured the heart of their young miss right after arriving in Great Shang.

And now, their young miss was even personally escorting him to Great Ming. It was obvious that their prefect and crown prince also intended to bring these two together.

Shan Xiong himself did not have that impressive of a background. His grandfather was a dead Mountainsea. Sure, there were other Mountainseas in the Shan Family, but the biggest backer of Shan Xiong was his teacher, Zhou Polong. And Zhou Polong was an expert on the cusp of becoming an Invincible.

Generally, a cultural researcher who had advanced through physical cultivation would be stronger than a pure warrior Invincible thanks to their willpower. That would only change against warriors who had also cultivated their willpower.

Looking at the two youths ahead of him, the Mountainsea recalled the genius in Great Ming. Su Yu was very famous, but most of the fame came from his cultivation methods. Because of that, a lot of people had neglected his combat strength.

Nevertheless, he was someone who had killed Zhou Pingsheng at the Mental Tempering Stage. Could one really afford to look down on him? It did not matter what one thought about his ability blood essence. That was still part of his strength.

The Mountainsea’s head started aching the moment he thought of the fight between Su Yu and Shan Xiong. It was too hard to kill Su Yu.

But Su Yu would also need to pay a great price to kill Shan Xiong. In that situation, this Mountainsea might not be able to stop Su Yu from killing Shan Xiong. After all, the fight was going to happen in Great Ming, not Great Shang.

***

On the 18th of March, Shan Xiong departed Great Shang to head toward Great Ming. On that same day, Su Yu completed his fourth forging.

Traveling alongside Shan Xiong was Shang Tianjiao, the princess of Great Shang.

All sorts of news started flying everywhere. Bai Feng’s return, Shan Xiong’s travel, Hong Tan’s Multiple Character Faculty, and the Great Tang Mountainsea killed by the Six-Winged Divine Sect.

Every one of these events seemed connected to the multiple character faction in some fashion. Once again, the multiple character faction returned to the limelight.

For those of the younger generation, they were mainly focused on the upcoming fight between Su Yu and Shan Xiong. In fact, some of the geniuses from the younger generation were already starting to travel toward Great Ming.