Tribulation of Myriad Races

The suspense was rising. The two elders grew increasingly curious.

Spatial crack?

What did he find beyond the spatial crack?

“I have never seen a ruin before, so I can’t be sure of what I saw. But there is an independent space inside. I saw a lot of buildings, and I also saw some ancient characters. And one character, in particular, was very prominent. Culture.”

“Culture?”

The two elders were greatly shocked. Was that the name of the ruin? The Culture Ruin?

“Yes. Culture. I couldn’t see the other things clearly, and I didn’t dare to push further since I didn’t want to provoke a reaction. But I did see a floating white jade stele in the air.”

“White jade stele?”

“Yes.”

“Any special characteristics?”

“That’s…not easy to describe. But the most obvious trait are the two characters on it: Culture Tomb.”

“What?”

Before the eighth elder could react, the third elder exclaimed in shock, as though he had recalled something. He hurriedly said, “What did you see?”

“A white jade stele with Culture Tomb written on it. But I’m not sure if that’s a tombstone…”

“Culture Tomb?”

The third elder’s voice turned excited. Su Yu couldn’t see the third elder, but from the reaction, he could sense the elder’s excitement.

“Profound Nine, are you sure?”

“Yes.”

“Where’s the entrance?”

“Calm down, Third Elder. This is the Human Realm. We’re in Great Xia, a city where countless Sunmoons have gathered. Are you thinking of monopolizing the ruin? Is the pavilion ready to fight the human race or even the myriad races as a whole?”

Su Yu interrupted the elder to calm him down. Why was the elder so excited? Was the elder thinking of monopolizing it? Stop messing around. This was his turf. Even the information was provided by him. The elder should stop dreaming.

“My apologies. I was too excited.”

Soon, the third elder calmed down. But he still sounded impatient as he said, “Profound Nine, are you sure about that? Are those actual ancient characters that were similar to willpower text?”

“Are you referring to the characters we see in the ancient cities?”

“Yes. Are those the characters you saw?”

“Yes.”

“Did…you see anything else on the stele?”

Su Yu paused slightly and said, “I wasn’t able to get a good look. But I could see some floating figures.”

“Yes! That’s it!”

The third elder grew excited again. Meanwhile, the eighth elder remained silent. He had no idea what that was, but he could see that this was big.

“Anything else?”

After another pause, Su Yu said, “I only pried inside through a tiny strand of source qi. I couldn’t see anything else clearly. But I did manage to sense the presence of some sunmoon profound yellow liquid inside. There is probably a large amount of heavenly source qi inside as well. It felt like the entire ruin was filled with it.”

“That’s normal.” The third elder did not seem to care about that. He asked again, “Anything else?”

“Anything else?”

Su Yu knew what the elder was asking about, but as a normal person, he wasn’t supposed to know about carrier treasures.

“It was unclear, but I also caught a glimpse of a lump of metal fighting a piece of jade inside…”

“Fighting?”

This time, both elders exclaimed at the same time. Both seemed to have reached the same conclusion. It was very normal for something at the level of a carrier treasure to form a certain level of sentience.

Su Yu said, “I suspect I saw wrongly. It was too deep inside that space so I wasn’t able to get a good look. I couldn’t push further since I wanted to avoid any detection.”

“Very good.”

“Well done, Profound Nine. Don’t be in a rush to release this information. Let us check the ancient records and see what we can find. Even if we do decide to release this information, don’t release everything. Don’t worry. You will receive a fair compensation for this.”

“Remember, don’t leak any information…”

Su Yu stopped them, “Yes, I understand. I’ll leave a copy of the information on someone I trust. If I were to die, that person would release everything. Elders, I’m by no means distrusting the two of you. I’m only doing this to ensure this information won’t be lost with my death.”

Holy shit! What could this be if not distrust? The two elders were furious. Wasn’t he clearly distrusting them? Fine, fine. He was actually doing the right thing. After all, a fleeting thought of actually silencing Su Yu and splitting the ruin between the two of them did cross their minds. But upon further thought, that would be unwise. This was too dangerous a choice to make.

The moment there was a leak of information, the pavilion would not let them off. Furthermore, this wasn’t worth risking the status they had built over many years of hard work in the Heavenly Hunt Pavilion.

Soon, the conversation ended and a secret meeting was held between the two.

“Old Eighth, you heard what Profound Nine said. There must be a carrier treasure in there.”

“Yes. I believe there are at least two of them in there.”

The eighth elder replied, “Third Elder, just what is that Culture Tomb he mentioned?”

He could feel how excited the third elder was at one point.

“We’ll talk more after we actually meet up. For now, we need to notify the headquarters immediately. Perhaps even our Invincibles will enter the Human Realm personally.”

“Invincibles?” The eighth elder was shocked, “That’s too risky.”

“They don’t need to come with their main bodies. They can send their tri-life bodies or character clones. At the very least, there will be an Invincible taking over the operations here. Old Eighth, you don’t understand. The Culture Tomb is a very big deal. Back then, those in the headquarters speculated that the character stele in Su Yu or Chen Yong’s hands was the Culture Tomb. But that is clearly not the case. Perhaps the character stele is merely a regular inheritance stele. It might also be valuable, but it is not comparable to the Culture Tomb.”

The eighth elder was greatly shocked. The Invincibles would get involved personally. All that because of what Profound Nine discovered.

“Profound Nine is preparing to sell this information. What now, Third Elder?”

“I don’t know. We’ll wait for a reply from the Invincibles.”

“Fine.”

“…”

The two wasted no time and started moving toward each other while notifying the headquarters. It was quite difficult to transmit messages across realms, but this wasn’t that much of an issue for the Heavenly Hunt Pavilion. The various index copies spread in the Human Realm could actually be used to directly contact the headquarters.

Before long, the latest report was sent.

***

At the exact moment.

Amid the boundless void.

Several gold masks appeared inside the Heavenly Hunt Pavilion.

“Culture Tomb. Has everyone seen the latest update?”

“Yes.”

“Culture Ruin…Culture Tomb…and carrier treasures. It is likely that this ruin used to be the residence of a multiple character Eternal.”

“Is there any mention of this residence in the ancient records?”

“We’re still in the middle of investigation. We don’t know everything in the ancient records.”

“…”

The gold masks started going through the ancient records. Since they had a large accumulation of ancient records, not even these gold masks could actually go through all of them.

After some time, one of them said, “There is a mention, but it’s unclear. During the ancient times, an expert residing within a Culture Manor invited numerous individuals to talk about the dao in the manor…”

“Is there any mention of the Culture Tomb?”

“There are only some sparse mentions of the Culture Tomb. You all know this. The start of culture, the inheritance of culture, and the true secrets behind culture might still be hidden behind the Culture Tomb. This also includes some potential ancient cultural researcher treasures. Apart from that, all the other mentions are too vague or brief. But there is no doubt that Culture Tomb is extremely important.”

“Is it possible to pinpoint the master of that ruin by linking the manor and the Culture Tomb together?”

“That won’t be easy. We only know that the master of that manor was an ancient cultural researcher. Or perhaps that cultural researcher was only one of the leaders there. Otherwise, the Culture Tomb won’t be present there. Perhaps we should awaken the East Chamber master and the Heaven Department head. The two of them are the most long-lived among us. Perhaps they know more.”

“There is no need for that. We shouldn’t disturb their slumber for something like this.”

“For now, we only know that this ruin is very important. Everyone, do we sell the information or get the ruin for ourselves?”

“That won’t be possible. The ruin is inside the Human Realm. There are only six of us. But even if we can get ten more experts of the same level to act with us, we might still all perish during the attempt. Furthermore, that attempt will also inform the myriad races just how important that ruin is.”

“Are we supposed to just give up on it?”

“If we can’t get it, we might as well sell the information for an exorbitant price. Our motto is reaping chaos amid chaos. The moment this information is released, the myriad races will be shaken. The resulting chaos might also give us an opportunity to fish in troubled water.”

“Is the information accurate?”

“The source is quite solid. It was discovered by Profound Nine, the same person who had caused multiple massive issues previously. He detected the ruin through his death qi. But he didn’t dare to investigate further. I believe this information is highly reliable. The term Culture Tomb isn’t even known to that many people. And Profound Nine is not one of those people.”

“…”

After a while, they reached a decision. The Heavenly Hunt Pavilion alone might not be enough to monopolize the ruin. In that case, they shall fish in troubled water.

“Have the Human Realm branch sell the information. Set the price at ten drops of Sunmoon blood essence. Additionally, let them know that an Invincible will enter the Human Realm personally soon.”

As for whether that Invincible would be a main body or a tri-life body, that was not information those in the Human Realm needed to know. In any case, they had concluded that the enforcer elders were no longer sufficient to lead their Human Realm operations.

“Profound Nine…will be assigned a big merit for this contribution. He will be rewarded heavily. After he returns from the Human Realm, the pavilion will help him reach the late-stage Sunmoon Realm. He will also be promoted to an elder of the Profound Department. We will also assist him with the removal of his identity as an ancient city resident.”

The Invincibles all reached a resolution to reward Profound Nine heavily. That fellow was a very capable member. It almost felt like he was the only pavilion member doing his job in the Human Realm. If it wasn’t for his lack of strength, they would have instantly promoted him to the overall commander of their Human Realm operations. Not even the elders were as capable of Profound Nine.

“All the elders are to gather in Great Xia and await further instruction. Stop all they are doing at the moment. We will focus on Great Xia.”

“Agreed.”

And thus, the Invincibles started issuing their orders. Great Xia should be their main focus for now.