Tribulation of Myriad Races

Zhao Li continued hammering the weapon silently. A Sunmoon character was much more valuable than an earth weapon. He started wondering if he was forging a weapon or burning money for fun here.

“T-teacher, c-can they s-sense th-this?”

Su Yu was afraid of the trouble that would arise after the people outside sensed this. After all, a Sunmoon character was very rare. Exposing this character could very well end up exposing his actual identity as well.

“It’s fine. I can seal the grotto. But think carefully if you want to do this…”

“It’s not worth much.” Su Yu said, “I already c-crushed o-one to cultivate m-my ch-change character previously.”

“@#&#%$!”

Zhao Li cursed under his breath in the language of a minor race. Su Yu didn’t know that language, but from the tone, he could feel that Zhao Li was scolding him. Zhao Li was probably calling him something like a wastrel, a fool, or something similar. Su Yu did not mind. He merely grinned.

Since Old Zhao said that it would be fine, he would proceed with the plan. But suddenly, the little furball shot out of his head and flew straight toward the character. That was a masterless character, so the furball was able to bite it without any resistance. Before anyone knew it, the character cracked.

The little furball was about to start absorbing the willpower and character intent leaking out when he was chided by Su Yu. He gazed at Su Yu pitifully, but he didn’t dare to continue. This smelled so good, but Yummy was not allowing him to eat. He felt greatly wronged. This was an abuse!

Meanwhile, Zhao Li sighed. He could no longer say anything. Perhaps he could bring more benefits to this kid than the character if he could succeed, but the price of failure had also increased significantly.

The willpower and character intent of the Sunmoon character was kept within the tiny grotto. Zhao Li started recovering while hammering the weapon. His recovery speed increased significantly.

Su Yu also started devouring the willpower in the air at a speed that was far faster than Zhao Li’s absorption speed.

After consuming about a third of the willpower and character intent in the grotto, the vibrate character broke through to the second tier. He returned to work and found that the vibrations felt much weaker than before. His willpower was also rapidly recovering.

Both Zhao Li and Su Yu benefited considerably from the destruction of the Sunmoon character. Even though they couldn’t recover fully, they were able to recover to about seventy percent of their peak capacity. One ought to note that prior to this, Zhao Li was on the verge of emptying his willpower.

Boom!

The booming sounds became much clearer than before. Zhao Li smiled. This one Sunmoon character had boosted their success rate from thirty percent to fifty percent. After recovering a large portion of his strength, he could continue much longer.

Prior to this, he had never considered recovering with a Sunmoon character. That was too wasteful. Something like that had never crossed his mind. After all, that was a Sunmoon character. Destroying something like that was the same as destroying a grotto.

Outside.

As a storm of source qi converged around the grotto, someone exclaimed in alarm, “Are they near completion?” There were already seventy-two golden stripes on the hanging hammer. It would reach the earth grade at seventy-three stripes.

Furthermore, from how the environment was changing, everyone felt like a phenomenon was on the verge of forming. Were they going to succeed? It was already the night of the 29th. The 30th was going to arrive soon.

The earth weaponsmiths stood up with serious expressions. One of them said, “This cultural weapon can already be considered an earth weapon. Or to be precise, this cultural weapon is a freak among profound weapons capable of punching above its class to challenge earth weapons. It is now up to Zhao Li. If he is willing to stop at seventy-three stripes, it is very likely that he will succeed. But if he stays stubborn and insists on forging an embryonic heaven weapon, the success rate will still be as low.”

According to this weaponsmith, Zhao Li would be able to easily complete the weapon if he was willing to stop at the earth grade. But making it an embryonic heaven weapon would require dozens of incomplete golden stripes. That would greatly increase the difficulty.

Someone said in shock, “Is Master Zhao too ambitious? Is he not satisfied with a powerful earth weapon?”

Why must he insist on forging an embryonic heaven weapon?

Hu Qi was also standing. She softly said, “His character has become one with the weapon. The moment he completes the embryonic heaven weapon, he might obtain the combat strength of a Sunmoon. A regular earth weapon will only help him reach the Mountainsea Realm. He is aiming for the skies.”

The others looked at each other blankly. Was that possible? Prior to this, they weren’t aware that this was an option. Not long after, lightning flashed and thunder rumbled in the sky above them. More and more source qi converged in the area. The seventy-third golden stripe was slowly taking form.

“Teacher!”

Su Yu was greatly shocked. Was a heavenly phenomenon appearing? He didn’t even know it was possible to create a phenomenon through weaponsmithing.

Zhao Li also looked up. The grotto was supposed to be preventing them from looking outside, but at this moment, he was able to look right at the sky outside the grotto.

When he saw the lighting in the sky, he smiled, “It’s fine. When a freak among earth weapons tries to break through, it might generate a heavenly phenomenon. This is a good thing. Even the heavens are supporting me. If the phenomenon ends up rewarding us with source qi or willpower, it will allow us to last longer. Hahaha! This attempt has a much higher chance of succeeding than my attempt all those years ago!”

He was overjoyed. If the phenomenon came with a reward, he might be able to last longer. And that would naturally increase the chance of success.

Su Yu was very happy as well. Heavenly phenomenon and its reward! He was very familiar with this! The little furball had generated one before. He had generated one before as well. But he didn’t know if it would be a willpower reward. For what they were currently doing, a heavenly source qi reward would be less useful.

That thought had barely crossed his mind when he felt a powerful recoil. Then, the seventy-third golden stripe took form. A clump of cloud appeared out of thin air and entered the grotto directly.

Su Yu and Zhao Li were overjoyed to see that. But immediately after, Zhao Li cursed, “Fuck! Are the heavens trying to kill me?”

“…”

Even Su Yu turned pale with fright. The cloud was filled with incomparably powerful willpower. But instead of dropping toward Su Yu or Zhao Li, it entered the weapon they were forging directly.

This was a reward for the weapon. They had forgotten that the weapon was the one breaking through here, not them. Or to be precise, they did not have the experience to take note of this.

They had been so excited, but the reward wasn’t for them. The newly advanced earth weapon suddenly erupted with strength and formed three natural stripes. Instantly, the total number of golden stripes reached seventy-six.

The recoil from the weapon became incomparably powerful.

Su Yu spat a mouthful of blood out as his skin cracked. The skin between Zhao Li’s fingers was also torn as he raised his head and cursed at the heavens. This was infuriating. He did not want an earth weapon with seventy-six stripes. He did not want that. He wanted the reward to help him recover, not boost the strength of the weapon out of nowhere.

Holy shit!

He was going mad. He had thought that the reward was meant for him. But it was actually for the damn weapon! Sure, that would benefit him as well since the weapon could now be considered his main character. But this wasn’t part of the plan!

Su Yu also felt like crying. This was too crazy. What the fuck was wrong with the heavenly laws? Why was the weapon rewarded instead of them? They weren’t even given the chance to intercept the cloud before it entered the weapon.

And the weapon did not stop at forming three natural stripes. The fourth stripe was also showing signs of appearing.

In his anger, Zhao Li thought of something. He gnashed his teeth and said, “Give me some heavenly source qi. I need to advance into the Mountainsea Realm. My main character has recovered. Hurry up, I need to enter the Mountainsea Realm before I can continue with this forging! Damn the heavens! I thought the reward was for me! I thought I could enter the Mountainsea Realm with it!”

Damn it!

This was such a big blunder. Why was he so stupid? He should have thought of that. Su Yu hurriedly took out a large amount of heavenly source qi. With a roar, Zhao Li started dragging the earth weapon into his sea of willpower. The moment it entered, it would serve as his main character. He could then start his advancement.

Previously, he had counted on his existing strength to easily take the earth weapon into his sea of willpower after forging seventy-three stripes. After all, he had grown significantly since his previous attempt. But the weapon had suddenly formed additional stripes, surpassing his ability to take it in. And the seventy-seventh stripe was in the midst of forming. Damn it! This was driving him crazy. The heavens must be toying with him!

Outside the grotto.

The sky changed drastically.

Thunder rumbled and lightning flashed in the sky as everyone saw a cloud entering the grotto. Almost immediately after, the seventy-sixth golden stripe appeared on the hanging hammer.

Inside the prefect’s residence, Zhao Tianbing stood up in alarm and kicked the table beside him in fury, “Damn it! Damn it! How could the heavens reward the weapon instead of the weaponsmith?”

Not even he had seen this coming. Why? Because this wasn’t something he had experienced before.

“Lords, I hope you can help later!”

Zhao Tianbing was losing his calm. He was very happy when he saw the weapon successfully reaching the earth grade. This had happened way faster and much easier than he had expected. But he had not imagined that a phenomenon would suddenly appear to create trouble.

At any normal time, a phenomenon would be welcomed with open arms. But this weapon contained Zhao Li’s main character. After the reward, it would grow beyond Zhao Li’s ability to control. How was he supposed to enter the Mountainsea Realm?

It might even cause his sea of willpower to burst apart. Suddenly, yet another golden stripe appeared on the hammer. Despair covered Zhao Tianbing’s face. This heavenly reward had turned into poison. His junior brother was too pitiful.

At that time, Zhao Li was roaring madly. Just how many stripes was this weapon going to form? Was it trying to kill him? He tried to forcefully drag the weapon into his sea of willpower, but he kept coughing blood. His entire sea of willpower was trembling violently.

Yes, it was very stable after being tempered by him so many times, but this weapon was a lot more stubborn than he had imagined. After the sudden advancement, the difficulty in absorbing the weapon had increased by more than thirty percent.

While Zhao Li was roaring, Su Yu clenched his teeth and took out another character. That was his last Sunmoon character. He crushed it unhesitatingly.

“Teacher, start absorbing!”

After saying that, he took out a large portion of the heavenly source qi he had and wrapped Zhao Li in it. What should they do? The earth weapon was too strong, to the point where it was beyond Zhao Li’s ability to control. But thanks to the second Sunmoon character, Zhao Li’s condition improved somewhat. The weapon continued struggling intensely.

Su Yu suddenly thought of something and furiously said, “Teacher, my Soul Expanding Hammer originated from you. Take it back and fuse it into your hammer. Beat this damn weapon up and make it obedient!”

That reminded Zhao Li. He yelled, “Help me! Hurry up! Send your hammer into my sea of willpower!”

“Teacher, you can just take it yourself…”

“Cut the crap!” Zhao Li said, “With your participation, it will be stronger. Hurry up!”

Su Yu nodded and said nothing else. He was aware that he could participate as well, but he had to intrude upon Zhao Li’s sea of willpower to do so. Zhao Li would remain completely defenseless against him. And that was extremely dangerous.

This would rarely happen between cultural researchers even if it was a pair of father and son. Even Su Yu himself wouldn’t dare to rashly allow anyone into his sea of willpower.

At that moment, he thought of something else. He yelled, “Little Furball, come with me. Teacher, I’ll take this fellow with me. He won’t leak your secrets…”

“Get moving!”

Zhao Li could no longer afford to worry about anything else. He had to first suppress this earth weapon. A hammer appeared in front of Su Yu. This was the Soul Expanding Hammer that had fused with his character technique. Powered by twenty-two characters, it was extremely powerful. The little furball also hopped onto the hammer and entered Zhao Li’s sea of willpower together.

Su Yu attached his consciousness to the hammer. His eyes blurred as he instantly entered a massive world with raging waves. Rather than a world, he had arrived in a sea of willpower. The willpower inside the sea was roiling about violently like the waves of a stormy sea.

One character after another appeared in Zhao Li’s sea of willpower. With one look, Su Yu noticed the earth weapon that was being surrounded and attacked by the characters and a Soul Expanding Hammer.

They were unable to suppress it. The sea of willpower continued trembling violently. Su Yu wasted no time and sent his hammer flying over. And thus, a battle between three hammers erupted inside Zhao Li’s sea of willpower. They had to beat this earth weapon to submission or it wouldn’t stop until Zhao Li’s sea of willpower was destroyed.

Everything had happened noiselessly. Of the three combatants, Su Yu was the weakest while the earth weapon was the strongest. But since it was two against one, the two parties were somewhat evenly matched.

As this happened, Zhao Li’s sea of willpower started transforming. It expanded and strengthened. In the empty space above the sea, the shiny apertures started fusing. The advancement had begun.

Zhao Li shouted, “I’ll be able to suppress it after becoming a Mountainsea. Keep it busy for me, kid.”

“Alright.”

The giant hammer continued resisting. This was Zhao Li’s main character. Unfortunately, it was currently out of control. But that did not matter. So long as it was within the sea of willpower, Zhao Li would be able to attempt an advancement. And upon a successful advance, he would be able to suppress it.

Outside, many people saw the hanging hammer trembling violently.

They were confused as to what was happening. Only a small number of people knew what was happening. They all had solemn expressions, wondering if Zhao Li could succeed. The price of failure was the destruction of his sea of willpower.

Elder Chen helplessly said, “The heavenly reward has actually turned into poison. Sigh…I guess this can serve as a reminder for the future generation. The heavenly reward from such a situation is meant for the weapon itself, not the weaponsmith.”

The others looked terrified when they heard that, but Hu Qi’s calm voice rang out, “Don’t worry. People like us will never be able to forge a weapon that can generate a heavenly phenomenon. Why are you worrying over nothing? How ridiculous.”

“…”

Those were hurtful but true words. The surrounding earth weaponsmiths lowered their heads helplessly. Yes. That was the cruel truth. They would never be able to forge something like this. Why bother worrying?