Tribulation of Myriad Races

Everyone was talking about Su Yu and his weapon.

Zhao Li was also growing increasingly nervous. He said, “Su Yu, the tribulation might descend at the ninety-first stripe. Be careful.”

“Got it.”

Su Yu gnashed his teeth and pushed on. The eighty-ninth golden stripe was slowly taking form. The projections of numerous beasts emerged from the book and attacked Su Yu. Up above, the crimson clouds continued gathering.

Su Yu’s tribulation character was starting to pulse.

Things were getting dangerous.

Suddenly, Su Yu shouted, “Teacher!”

Instantly, Zhao Li stepped in and brought his hammer down. At the same time, Su Yu shot up. In the sky, the crimson clouds had transformed into a human. That one human shot down at Su Yu. It had the strength of a fifth-stage Sunmoon.

Su Yu swore madly.

The heavens were playing dirty! If his tribulation character hadn’t warned him, he wouldn’t have known that the tribulation would attack at the eighty-ninth golden stripe.

“Fuck!”

Su Yu started cursing while fighting the crimson man in the sky. Down below, Zhao Li brought his hammer down. With a rumble, the recoil washed over him, causing him to curse as well.

What madness was this?

Even the heavenly laws were capable of playing dirty?

Fine, fine. Nobody had promised that the tribulation would descend at the ninety-first golden stripe. It was merely an assumption they had made. They were not the only ones caught by surprise. The experts around the city were just as surprised.

Holy shit!

That was enlightening.

Instead of waiting for the next breakthrough, the tribulation could choose to descend at a random time. Was that terrifying?

Everyone had assumed that the tribulation would wait until the next breakthrough in the forging. But the tribulation had surprised everyone by attacking earlier. Impressively, Su Yu was able to react in a timely manner. And he also had someone taking over for him temporarily. Otherwise, the forging would have failed by now.

“Die!”

With a roar, Su Yu punched the crimson man repeatedly, forcing it to retreat again and again. After three minutes, Su Yu cut the crimson man apart with his bare hand. Then, his blood character flew out and absorbed the remnant energy in the air.

Down below, Zhao Li was coughing blood while hammering the book repeatedly.

Su Yu hurriedly dove down before taking over again. Zhao Li, who was coughing blood, stepped back and started consuming the treasures provided by Su Yu to recover. While recovering, he shouted, “Zhao Tianbing, help repair my hammer! Now!”

Zhao Tianbing started swearing. Why was his junior brother ordering him around like that? Couldn’t his junior brother ask nicely instead? Whatever. Since he had raised his junior brother like his son, he decided to be forgiving. The other weaponsmiths stepped forth as well. All of them started repairing the hammer.

Su Yu was simply too strong. That was why he had been able to withstand the recoils from the forging. That was not the case for Zhao Li, who was still a Mountainsea. He had only taken over for three minutes yet that had nearly killed him.

***

Su Yu was finding the forging to be more and more difficult.

Without Old Zhao around, he would have failed during the previous tribulation.

He couldn’t help but admit that he was still lacking. He had overestimated himself. He had also underestimated the heavenly laws’ capacity of shamelessness.

He hadn’t even fused his characters into the weapon. He was starting to worry that the fusion of characters would draw an even more powerful tribulation.

Perhaps he should put his body forging on hold until then.

Boom!

Once again, more crimson clouds converged in the sky. Su Yu was incredibly wary, paying close attention to the sky lest the heavenly laws decide to launch another sneak attack.

After a long time, the ninetieth golden stripe took form.

That pushed the weapon to the peak of the middle earth grade.

At the ninety-first golden stripe, it would become a high earth weapon.

At this point, about half of the prepared pages had been added to the book. Only 140 of them were left. Perhaps these pages would only be enough to add about seven or eight more stripes to the weapon. At that time, it would be up to luck whether the weapon would end up at the peak earth or a different grade.

That was no longer something Su Yu could worry about. He was already near his limits. At this rate, it wouldn’t be surprising if he couldn’t push the weapon to the heaven grade. He was willing to settle for an earth weapon for now. In that case, he would need to add some incomplete stripes to the weapon as well to open the possibility of future improvement.

To reach the divine grade, the weapon needed more than 144 golden stripes. He was still far from that.

Yet again, the heavenly laws did something unexpected. Instead of waiting and accumulating, it attacked immediately. With a curse, Su Yu threw a ball at the tribulation.

Blood tribulation was something the target must face alone. Nobody could help with it.

However, the little furball was a unique existence. He felt more like Su Yu’s character than an independent living being. He had been residing in Su Yu’s sea of willpower like a character for quite some time. Thus, he was the sole exception to this. As Su Yu tossed the furball out, he shouted, “Furball, eat it!”

“Ahh! It’s so strong!”

The little furball grimaced. What was Yummy thinking? This thing was too strong to be eaten!

“It’s merely the power of the heavenly laws. You can do it!”

Old Zhao had yet to recover while he was too busy to deal with the tribulation. Thus, he could only assign the little furball to the job.

The little furball screamed in frustration. This was bullshit! Alas, he had no choice but to do it. He opened his mouth wide and his body started swelling.

Fine, fine. He would eat it. If this killed him, so be it. With one bite, he swallowed the crimson man.

Immediately, the little furball swelled even further, to the point it felt like he was going to burst apart. With crimson qi leaking all over his body, he wailed miserably while flying all over the sky, “I can’t! I’ll explode soon!”

“Just digest it. You can do it!”

Su Yu merely offered the little furball a little encouragement before forgetting the matter. He wasn’t worried that the little furball would die form this. If the furball was really so fragile, he wouldn’t have tossed the furball out there.

At most, the furball would only suffer from some indigestion. It would be fine. Apart from the encouragement, he also tossed his blood character out to help the little furball. Then, he returned his focus to his forging.

***

Outside the city.

The crowd was dazzled by the unfolding events. How did a weaponsmithing session turn into a battle of wits with the heavenly laws?

“The ninetieth stripe is here!”

“It’s now a peak middle earth weapon. Can Mayor Su be considered a middle earth weaponsmith now?”

“This is crazy!”

“…”

Meanwhile, those familiar with weaponsmithing had a much smaller reaction. They weren’t too surprised. They could only say that the excessively valuable materials used were one of the reasons for this weapon to reach such a level.

Su Yu might not be able to push a weapon to such a level with regular earth weapon materials. Thus, he still couldn’t be considered a proper middle earth weaponsmith.

“An even bigger trouble is waiting for him at the ninety-first stripe. That might be where this ends.”

“Yeah. If he’s already forced to toss the soul devourer out, he’s probably already at his limits.”

“…”

The weaponsmiths conversed among themselves. None of them bothered to converse with the laymen. It was pointless. Only the less skilled weaponsmiths bothered with giving the layman some explanations.

Before long, a rumble rang out as source qi converged madly in the area yet again. The ninety-first golden stripe was about to appear. This was a weapon that could be used by even late-stage Sunmoons.

Crimson clouds converged in the sky before turning into a crimson man. Unlike the previous crimson man, this crimson man was equipped with a crimson helmet.

Zhao Li’s expression changed drastically as he hurriedly said, “I’ll take over! Go deal with the tribulation!”

Su Yu gnashed his teeth and glanced at Zhao Li. He saw that Zhao Li was still heavily injured. There was no helping it since Zhao Li’s physical cultivation was too weak.

Su Yu started considering forging his body now.

Seemingly having guessed his thought, Zhao Li said, “Wait. Wait for a better timing.”

Then, he brought his hammer down on the book.

Zhao Li could still help. If Su Yu were to start his body forging now, he would most likely hit his limit immediately. In that case, the book would probably not surpass the peak earth grade. To go further, he should start his body forging when the book was already a peak earth weapon.

With his teeth clenched, Su Yu pulled out and shot into the sky. He consumed a drop of blood essence and erupted with the strength of a seventh-stage Sunmoon. The new crimson man was cut apart by Su Yu before it could do anything.

“Hmph!”

How dare the heavenly laws play dirty with him? Did the heavenly laws believe that he was really a Cloudbreach?

He, too, could fight as a late-stage Sunmoon!

After the continuous feast, the blood character was starting to show signs of breakthrough. Su Yu was quite alarmed to notice that. Would this be his first fifth-tier character? How interesting.

This was his first character, but it had seen much reduced usage lately. However, it had been able to continue growing rapidly.

At this rate, it would really grow into Su Yu’s first fifth-tier character. He had a lot of characters. The blood character did not enjoy any advantage over any of the other characters. How surprising would it be for the blood character to be the first to reach the fifth tier?

With such musings in his mind, Su Yu dropped down from the sky. He still had the strength of a seventh-stage Sunmoon.

When Su Yu returned to the book, Zhao Li did not pull back. Instead, he said, “We’ll forge together. Your strength has increased too abruptly. You might not be able to control your strength well enough. There is too much room for mistakes.”

Su Yu nodded. Old Zhao was right. In fact, this was why he had not consumed any blood essence up until now. With his increased strength and the assistance of Zhao Li, the forging felt much easier than before. And finally, the ninety-first golden stripe took form.

The minor advancement of the book gave both Su Yu and Zhao Li some gains in their weaponsmithing skills, but it also increased the pressure on them. Numerous ferocious beasts emerged from the book again and attacked them.

Su Yu could easily smash these beasts apart, but Zhao Li was having a much harder time. Before long, he was bloodied all over. He merely gnashed his teeth and pushed on. He was not the main weaponsmith here. As an assistant, he could only help Su Yu maintain a stable tempo. This was the best way to increase the compatibility between Su Yu and the book.

An hour later, the ninety-second golden appeared.

This time, Su Yu withdrew immediately. Old Zhao took over forcefully and hammered away while coughing blood. In less than one minute, Su Yu returned after smashing yet another crimson man apart.

***

Ninety-three stripes. Ninety-four stripes.

More and more golden stripes appeared on the book. Fewer and fewer pages were left to add.

Of the three hundred pages, only less than eighty were left. Perhaps they would run out of pages after about four or five more stripes.

Su Yu inhaled deeply. He must persevere until the ninety-ninth stripe. Then, he could start his body forging or fuse his characters inside to further improve the book. After so many tribulations, both Su Yu and Old Zhao were on the verge of collapsing.

Weaponsmithing wasn’t easy.

As of this moment, Zhao Tianbing and the others could only help with the repair of Zhao Li’s hammer. His hammer was constantly being damaged as the book was already stronger than his hammer.

One ought to remember that the hammer was Old Zhao’s dao weapon. It was a weapon with his main character inside.

Su Yu said nothing. He did not try to get Old Zhao to leave. This teacher of his had decided to help him with this dao weapon. This stubborn teacher would not leave after making a decision. Thus, he could only prepare himself to start his body forging when his teacher couldn’t last any longer.

While thinking of all that, Su Yu continued adding pages to the book. At the same time, he continued defeating the tribulations descending upon him from the sky.

At this point, the tribulation had reached the level of a sixth-stage Sunmoon. This had exceeded his initial expectation.

He had never imagined that he would need to face such powerful tribulations when he was only forging a weapon.

Ninety-eight stripes.

Ninety-nine stripes.

Finally, all the prepared pages had been added to the book.

The book had officially reached the very peak of the high earth grade. It was one step away from becoming a peak earth weapon.

Zhao Tianbing and the others heaved a sigh of relief. They all believed that this would be the end. The forging would be completed here. This was what they had expected. At 99 stripes, this book was actually even stronger than a regular 108-stripe weapon. This was an acceptable result.

But right at that moment, Su Yu gnashed his teeth after a slight hesitation and pushed two characters into the book.

Culture. Radiance. Together, they became civilization.

Immediately, a deafening rumble erupted.

The book resisted violently.

Su Yu was attempting to fully enslave it.

In the blink of an eye, the golden stripes increased. 100 stripes. 101 stripes. 102 stripes…

Crimson clouds started converging in the sky again. They did not descend as a new tribulation. Rather, they continued converging as the aura they emanated grew in power. Sixth-stage Sunmoon. Seventh-stage Sunmoon.

Eighth-stage Sunmoon.

Zhao Li paled.

“Give up! Now!”

The tribulation was increasing in strength too rapidly. Su Yu had once fought with the strength of an eighth-stage Sunmoon, but this was different.

Su Yu was quite surprised to see the rapid increase of golden stripes. The two characters were simply too compatible with the book. In the blink of an eye, the golden stripes on the book had reached 105.

He looked up and regarded the still converging crimson clouds. He inhaled deeply and decided that he would need the old turtle to help him again after this. He had to reopen his yang acupoint to deal with such a tribulation.

Instantly, the seal on his yang acupoint shattered.

Inside the death tunnel, Xing Yue cursed in rage.

Not this again! Damn it! Damn that bastard! That bastard was sucking her again!

“Lord Sovereign, please work hard! I’ll reward you upon success!”

Reward his ass!

Why would she care about his reward?

Nevertheless, Xing Yue still acted and channeled a large amount of death qi to Su Yu. She had decided to fill him to the point of bursting. Perhaps that would be enough to kill him!