Tribulation of Myriad Races

“But why is there so little heavenly source qi in the Human Realm compared to the other major realms?”

“In the past, there was a leakage of heavenly source qi in the Human Realm…” After a short pause, Niu Baidao continued, “Furthermore, hundreds of years ago, a large number of humans had affirmed their dao at the same time. That exhausted a lot of heavenly source qi in the Human Realm. Meanwhile, the other major realms are controlling their usage, allowing their heavenly source qi to recover naturally. At the time, humanity did not have the luxury to do so. Back then, we had more than two locations with heavenly source qi. But for the survival of our race as a whole, humanity had squeezed all those places dry.”

“In fact, even the myriad races were doing the same in the Human Realm. There was no need to hold back since this wasn’t their home. They had also squeezed a lot of our holy lands dry during that time.

“Back then, the Human Realm had a decent amount of heavenly source qi, including what we found in the ruins. But after so many years of exhaustion, we don’t have much left. In fact, the two holy lands used to be among the worst back then. That was why those two places had avoided destruction during that chaotic era.”

Su Yu was rather speechless. No wonder.

Niu Baidao asked, “How much heavenly source qi does one person need to complete the cultivation and increase their lifespan?”

Su Yu replied, “You need to open a lot of new acupoints for this cultivation method. And it is a lot more difficult for Sunmoons to open new acupoints. It is better if you can link your acupoints with heavenly source qi. Each cultivator will need at least twenty portions of heavenly source qi to complete the cultivation. Subsequently, they will need to absorb more heavenly source qi to remove impurities and generate some vitality in their body. The stronger one is, the more heavenly source qi they will need. And the worse one’s injuries are, the higher the exhaustion will be.

“Most of the experts near the end of their lifespans are suffering from serious injuries. Thus, for a proper recovery, each person will need at least a hundred portions of heavenly source qi. That is the minimum amount.”

“…”

Niu Baidao’s expression changed repeatedly.

Holy shit! Was the requirement really so high? In truth, that wasn’t that big of an amount. There wasn’t that much heavenly source qi in a single heavenly source fruit. A hundred portions would only have enough for nine forgings of the Skysoar Realm.

Was that really a big amount if one could heal a Sunmoon with it? Not at all. But the issue was that the two holy lands couldn’t even produce much heavenly source qi. The two holy lands would only produce enough for one or two Sunmoon in one year. Healing only one or two Sunmoons per year was far from enough.

Su Yu made his own calculation. To extract a hundred portions, he would need around a hundred thousand merit points. That was actually not expensive at all. One ought to remember that even Sunmoons would have a hard time getting one of the quotas to the holy lands.

But he naturally wouldn’t make it known that he could supply them with heavenly source qi. He had given Hu Qi enough for her to complete her cultivation and extend her lifespan by a little bit. But he had not given her enough to fully heal her injuries or push her body to the peak condition.

In short, he had provided enough to guarantee her life for the time being. He had to leave some for himself.

He had other plans in mind. Seeing Niu Baidao’s difficult expression, he softly said, “In truth, there might be a treasured land of heavenly source qi in my ruin…but I’m not too sure yet.”

The look in Niu Baidao’s eyes changed. After a long while, he asked, “Do…you really have a ruin?”

What nonsense. But would they believe it if he denied having one? Su Yu was feeling quite speechless. Would anyone even believe it?

“Cough, cough. Principal, that’s my secret. Don’t tell anyone. As for your old friends…I’m still suffering from my injuries. I’ll see. If it’s needed, I’ll have to take a trip out of Tiandu. But I’ll need you to cover for me. Otherwise, leaving is the same as courting death for me. I can’t get anyone else to go for me. I’m the only one that can enter the ruin.”

Niu Baidao was feeling very touched.

“Are you going to take the heavenly source qi in there?”

Was Su Yu doing this to help those old friends of his? Niu Baidao was even starting to feel embarassed by the kindness.

Su Yu smiled, “The more you know me, the more you will understand that I am someone who repay kindness tendfold. Both you and the prefect have been protecting me. How can I disappoint you?”

“That…”

Niu Baidao sighed. Su Yu was indeed a loyal friend. In fact, he had realized that long ago. Su Yu could have easily abandoned Bai Feng and Liu Wenyan to live a good life, but he had not done so. For example, he could have insisted on taking Shan Xiong’s character after the previous match. Or he could also ask for a large amount of treasures. Zhou Polong would definitely agree.

But instead, he had used that chance to erase the grudge between Zhou Polong and the multiple character faction.

A lot of things Su Yu had done, such as scheming so many experts to death and exposing so many of his secrets were for the sake of helping Bai Feng and the others. Through his actions, he had killed the people who had once wronged Bai Feng and the others. He had even gotten them pardoned with his own efforts.

“You—”

He wanted to refuse the offer, but he couldn’t bring himself to do so when he thought of his dying friends. After a long while, he said, “I won’t waste any time saying words of gratitude. They still have some time to live. Feel free to let me know about anything you need. If you really must leave, I can make the arrangements for you. Since everyone knows you’re injured, I can cover your absence from even the prefect. Nobody will know you’re gone.”

He was confident he could do so within the academy. Unless Su Yu himself leaked his departure, nobody would find out.

Su Yu nodded, “I’ll spend some time healing up before making the trip. I also need to make my preparations so that nobody will notice my absence.”

“Sure.” Niu Baidao clenched his teeth and said, “Since you’re even taking out the treasure within your ruin, I’ll make sure that my old friends won’t let you down. Don’t worry. I’ll only introduce the reliable and loyal ones to you. When you need help in the future, they will be willing to risk even their lives helping you.”

Su Yu was happy to hear that. These were the type of people he wanted to help. The principal sure was an understanding person.

Su Yu was quite confident in Niu Baidao’s guarantee. After all, the principal had lived for hundreds of years. That was enough time for him to gain a deep understanding of those people.

***

After the conversation with Niu Baidao, Su Yu started preparing for his departure. He still had a few things to do outside Great Ming. Firstly, he needed to help his Teacher Zhao Li complete the cultural weapon.

Secondly, he wanted to visit his Teacher Bai Feng and find out what was happening. Something felt off about Great Xia recently. Thirdly, he also wished to meet his father.

It had been a year. He had exchanged messages with his father a few times with the help of others, but they had not met even once. He didn’t even know if his father was really still alive and free.

One of his main motivations to cultivate was to ensure the safety of his father. But instead, he had created so many enemies. That might negatively affect his father as well. He wouldn’t dare to openly go to the Allheaven Battlefield as that would create even more trouble.

Thus, he also needed to create an alternative identity for himself. It would be even better if that was an identity he could use during his dao affirmation in the future. That way, his advancement would be much safer.

And he couldn’t rely on anyone for either of those tasks. Yes. He was already preparing for his future dao affirmation.

Perhaps he might not even reach that height in the future, but Su Yu also believed that if even he was not talented enough to affirm his dao, then nobody else would be able to do so as well.

He wouldn’t follow the fifth principal’s footsteps and face the myriad races during his advancement before dying miserably and leaving numerous troubles for his successors. He also wouldn’t follow Xia Longwu’s footsteps and slaughter so many people that advancement became almost impossible for him.

And he naturally wouldn’t follow Zhou Polong’s footsteps and compromise with the myriad races just for a successful advancement. If he did that, he would become the same type of person as them. The anger he had displayed toward them would be reduced to a joke. Nobody was more reliable than himself.

“I’ll leave after recovering and completing eight forgings.”

That was the limit he had set for himself. With eight body forgings, he would reach the peak of the first-stage Skysoar Realm. He would be strong enough to start his travel. Anyone else would be able to even travel the Allheaven Battlefield with this level of strength. With eight forgings, he would have the strength of around four thousand acupoints. He would no longer be a weakling.

“I need to visit the Hundred Dao Pagoda once before leaving. I can ignore everything else, but I need to improve my weaponsmithing skill.”

After making up his mind, he entered seclusion and focused on his recovery. As for the chaos of the outside world, that had nothing to do with him. He was no Invincible. The burden of protecting humanity did not lie on him. He would talk about that after becoming an Invincible himself. For now, those Invincibles could shoulder that burden.