Tribulation of Myriad Races

Su Yu was back at Grandstar City.

As for Grandstar, he returned to his position as a stone statue above the tunnel.

Inner hall.

Liu Hong, who was still sealed on the ground, hurriedly signalled Su Yu with his eyes when he saw Su Yu return. He was trying to make Su Yu release him.

However, Su Yu ignored Liu Hong and bowed slightly at Grandstar, “Lord, did Culture King leave any legacies behind?”

“Legacies?” Grandstar thought about it and said, “Yes, but his legacies have been severed. They did make multiple appearances during the first three epochs, but they have gone missing completely after that. All the legacies must have been severed.”

He looked at Liu Hong and asked, “Are you asking about him?”

“Yeah.”

“It’s hard to judge.” Grandstar thought about it and said, “He’s…far too weak for someone with Culture King’s legacy.”

Liu Hong did not look like one. An inheritor of Culture King shouldn’t be this weak.

Su Yu nodded and released Liu Hong with a wave of his hand. He softly said, “Teacher, have you found a probable excuse?”

Liu Hong was left speechless. How was he supposed to answer that?

After giving it some thought, he said, “I got really lucky and picked up the token somewhere…”

Su Yu asked, “Do you even know about the Culture King? I dare say that most people nowadays have no idea what that means. And you know about him?”

Su Yu took the token out and said, “Show me. Is Culture King written here? How did you even know what this token is? Teacher, must you make me kill you and extract your blood essence?”

After a long pause, Liu Hong explained helplessly, “Su Yu, this is my fortuitous encounter. You have your own fortuitous encounters as well. Why bother stealing my encounter?”

Su Yu said, “I don’t care about treasures or encounters. I’m not trying to take your encounter. I only want to know the relationship between the Culture King, the Culture Tomb, the first principal, and the fifth principal. How much of that do you know?”

Liu Hong shook his head, “I know nothing.”

A book appeared. Su Yu said, “In that case, I’ll have to invite you on a trip to my Mark of Civilization.”

“…”

Liu Hong shivered. He could feel an intense danger approaching.

He said, “I’ll say it. I won’t tell you everything, but I can give you a simple description of what I know. Some of what I know are my personal secrets. Is this fair enough for you?”

“Yes. Go ahead.”

Liu Hong said, “It’s not that complicated. I found my fortuitous encounter in the Great Xia Cultural Research Academy. I picked it up on the ground. You might not believe me, but that is the truth. Even my character technique was obtained in the academy. I know little. I only know that Culture King was an ancient expert. An incredibly strong ancient expert. But he ultimately died. Each generation, a Gravekeeper would be appointed to watch his grave. The previous Gravekeeper stole the Culture Tomb while carrying out his duty.

“My Culture King’s token came from the previous Gravekeeper. He left some things behind in the academy, and I found them through sheer luck. I’m entering the Death Realm for the same reason. It is related to some of the things I found…”

He paused shortly and continued, “According to what I discovered, a Culture King’s Residence can be found in the Death Realm. Some supreme treasures were left there. With the Culture King’s token, I might be able to inherit all these treasures. Thus, I have been planning to enter the Death Realm.”

Su Yu asked, “Is that all? Where did you find these treasures?”

“The willpower grotto.” Liu Hong explained, “I’m telling the truth. It’s really that simple.”

“You are a living being. Are you not scared of death spirits?”

Liu Hong said, “I’m now a living dead. My life force has weakened considerably. Combined with the Culture King’s token, I will be fine unless I’m unlucky enough to encounter death sovereigns.”

Su Yu gave Liu Hong a deep look and asked, “Anything else?”

Liu Hong said helplessly, “No. That’s all. Oh, by the way, the previous Gravekeeper left some words behind…”

Su Yu said, “Think carefully before you say more. The previous Gravekeeper was Xia Chen, the first principal. I met him in the Death Realm. He’s currently staying right below this city. If you lie, I’ll take you to him to verify your words.”

“…”

Liu Hong’s jaw dropped. He stared at Su Yu blankly. Was this a joke?

Su Yu asked coldly, “Do you think I’m lying to you? Is there a point? If I want to do something to you, I can easily kill or take you into my book. Teacher, don’t disappoint me too much or the tiny bit of friendship we built during our time in the academy will evaporate into nothing.”

Liu Hong raised his head with an even more helpless expression and said, “Fine, fine. I’ll say everything. Everything I told you was true, but I hid something. There is a Culture King’s Residence in the Death Realm, but there are no treasures there. There is only a key. A key to Culture King’s Residence in the Luminous Domain Mansion. According to the Gravekeeper, the multiple character faction can’t develop in the world of the living. If possible, the multiple character faction should pursue development elsewhere.

“The Gravekeeper also warned not to keep the Culture Tomb. All holders of the Culture Tomb will die. The so-called Culture Tomb must be the character stele in the academy. Also, all who learn from the Culture Tomb will die as well. Additionally, there must be another traitor among humanity. The traitor is probably very strong.”

Liu Hong shrugged and said, “The traitor will remain idle most of the time, but he will emerge whenever the multiple character faction starts growing. He is only here to keep an eye on the multiple character faction. Fiery Sea King was merely a tool, not the true traitor. That is my own conclusion. Back when Fiery Sea King revealed himself as the traitor, I believed he was the sole traitor. But upon learning more, I judged that he wasn’t the real traitor. There must be another traitor, or to be precise, a spy out there.

“That person must have appeared after the Gravekeeper. You can try to pay more attention based on these clues. Prior to that, there was a different spy. However, the previous spy was killed by the Gravekeeper. Perhaps they had both perished during that battle. If the Gravekeeper was the first principal, then the previous spy must have been killed by the first principal.”

Liu Hong analyzed, “The Gravekeeper left some vague words behind. According to him, someone had been paying attention to him the moment he left the grave. That person was residing among the humans. He must have discovered the spy and killed them. I don’t know more since I don’t have the ability to find out more.

“The Gravekeeper disappeared after that. I guessed that he had perished alongside the previous spy. Eventually, a new spy appeared. This is one of the reasons for the multiple character faction to be suppressed for so many years.

“Knowing about the traitor, I never have the courage to call myself a multiple character cultivator. I can only claim that I know the disassembly technique instead of a proper character technique from the character technique stele or I’ll be in deep trouble. The traitor does not seem to care about those who have not learned their character techniques from the stele.”

Su Yu listened silently.

When Liu Hong was done, Su Yu slowly spoke, “Therefore, you have formed your character technique long ago. You were simply unwilling to join the multiple character faction because you were wary of the unknown traitor.”

“Exactly.”

Liu Hong did not seem embarrassed by that. He said frankly, “Isn’t it normal to be scared? From the words left by the Gravekeeper, this seems to be a complicated matter. In fact, I’m so scared I don’t feel like staying in the world of the living anymore. I’m planning to follow the Gravekeeper’s advice and pursue development in the Death Realm instead.

“With the Culture King’s token, I will look for the residence and take the key there. According to the message of the Gravekeeper, there aren’t too many treasures there, but I believe the treasures there should be enough for my cultivation, right? I only need to stay there until I’m a Sunmoon or an Invincible before entering the Luminous Domain Mansion to inherit the belongings of Culture King. And then…well, I guess all that is now nothing but a dream. Now that I’m in your hands, none of that is happening anymore.”

Su Yu sank into thought.

Grandstar, who had been listening in silence, said, “He might not be lying. Culture King died before the great collapse, about a thousand years before then. Or to be precise, he went missing…”

“Missing?”

Su Yu looked at Grandstar. Missing, not dead?

Grandstar explained, “When someone reaches Culture King’s level, everything about them will be shrouded in mystery. Nobody can investigate further, including the status of his life. The death of someone like that will create a massive phenomenon, but someone capable of killing that must be a supreme expert as well. The laws are basically toys for such existences. Thus, someone like that can also hide the phenomenon. A phenomenon is a manifestation of laws. And the laws are the manifestation of the supreme experts.”

All the phenomena one would see when Invincibles and Sunmoons died were essentially a product of the laws. But the laws were helpless against the creator of laws or the destroyer of laws.

People at Culture King’s level were the creators of laws. Someone capable of killing him would have the ability to suppress the appearance of any phenomenon.

None would be the wiser.

Thus, Grandstar specified that Culture King was missing instead of dead, even if he was likely dead.

“After Culture King went missing, rumors about his death started appearing. After some time, some inheritors of Culture King despaired for an unknown reason and built a grave for him. That was how the Culture Tomb came into existence. Eventually, the ancient past collapsed.”

Grandstar continued, “Culture King’s death was too sudden. It is normal for some people to keep an eye on the Gravekeeper. I don’t know much about this. I have only heard a little about it before. After Culture King died, his good friends and students picked a line of Gravekeepers for him. The Gravekeeper even received a conferment from the Human Emperor. Any Gravekeeper will also be the Culturekeeper Marquis. I don’t know anything else. Some people must have started monitoring the line of Gravekeepers in secret.”

He was truly unsure. After all, he came from a different line. Furthermore, he was already a guardian at the time. He didn’t have the time to care about too many matters. During the ancient past, each human king represented an entirely different line. Grandstar belonged to Devote King’s line. And Devote King reported directly to the Human Emperor.

Thus, their line did not have much interaction with those from Culture King’s line. Sure, there were some contacts here and there, but Culture King was too highly ranked for anyone below the marquis rank to know much about him. Nobody would bother to tell people like Grandstar about the affairs of the Culture King.

Su Yu nodded. He looked at Liu Hong and asked, “Anything else to say, Teacher?”

Liu Hong said helplessly, “No. I only know that you’re in grave danger. You definitely have the Culture Tomb. I know that smart ones will usually die early as well. I have to ask you if you want to flee. Just flee to the Death Realm with me. No holder of the Culture Tomb has ever met a good end. Just look at Nan Wujiang and Yun Chen. They fled in time or they would have died long ago. The fifth principal once held the Culture Tomb. Thus, he died early. I doubt his dao affirmation is the only reason he died. Look at Liu Wenyan and Hong Tan. Are they doing very well?

“There are rumors saying that the Culture Tomb can help one become an Emperor. Perhaps that has something to do with the Culture King, but I’m not sure about that. I only know that the Culture Tomb is very likely to be in your hands.”

Su Yu said nothing.

Grandstar interjected, “You can ask Heavendoom about this.”

“Hmm?”

Su Yu was surprised to hear that. What did that mean?

Grandstar explained, “Back then, Heavendoom had a good relationship with those from Culture King’s line. In fact, he was there when the Culture Tomb was forged. Even if he didn’t know too much, he should know something. At the time, the laws weren’t as stiff. Thus, he was able to run around all the time. I remembered him coming back from a trip and saying that forging the Culture Tomb was as good as severing the Culture King’s inheritance.”

Su Yu was very surprised to hear that.

Heavendoom?

A relationship with those from Culture King’s line?

Su Yu was unaware that.

The first thing Heavendoom noticed when he saw Su Yu back then was the Culture Tomb. That was something he had seen previously. In fact, he was one of the few who knew how the Culture Tomb looked like.

Naturally, he had not bothered to tell Su Yu anything. There were many things that these old fossils wouldn’t bother mentioning unless they were asked about it. Some had simply forgotten about these things or some were merely unwilling to talk about them.