Tribulation of Myriad Races

“Don’t do anything rash.”

Wan Tiansheng rolled his eyes and said, “Doing this would only lose you the support of Great Qin King and the others. They wouldn’t give you the chance to perform your investigation. Those who were supportive of you would be forced to stand against you. Even if you did manage to drag the traitor out, the other Invincibles would still be displeased at the manner with which you had conducted the matter. This concerns the dignity of a race. Don’t do anything stupid.”

Some of the older Invincibles cared a lot about that. They could accept an investigation about the traitor. They could even bow to Su Yu if he was strong enough to achieve that by giving all of them a beating personally. No matter what, he was a human.

But forcing them to take action with a bunch of non-humans would not create a favorable result even if that was done for humanity’s best.

They couldn’t allow the precedent to happen. What if a different human were to return with a bunch of immortals some other day? Were they supposed to relent as well?

Su Yu thought about it and nodded, “You’re right, Principal. I didn’t think things through. At times, it might not be a good thing to use too much force.”

“Exactly.”

When the two reached Grandstar City, Wan Tiansheng added, “I’ll give you a simple lesson in the manipulation of laws. I won’t teach you more. I can only open the door for you. As for your future path, that relies on yourself. Remember. All treasures, all supports, all external power, are not comparable to your personal strength in reliability.”

He looked at Su Yu and solemnly said, “You have a strong foundation. A terrifyingly strong foundation. However, you growth has also been too rapid. You have not gotten the chance to properly accumulate and digest experience. From your physical strength alone, you are already comparable to some sixth or seventh-degree Eternals. With that source soul acupoint, you can even contend against eighth or ninth-degree Eternals. You are better than me in all this. But do you believe me if I say that in a fight to the death, I have a far higher chance of winning against you?”

Su Yu nodded and said, “Physical strength won’t matter if I can’t even land a hit. You only need to land enough attacks on me to slowly kill him. But I have the Death Realm. I can escape there at any time and you won’t be able to do much to me there.”

Wan Tiansheng rolled his eyes. What was the point of mentioning that?

Su Yu grinned and added, “Also, you are still not strong enough to kill me with one hit. You probably require around a thousand or so hits to kill me.”

Ads by PubRev “Heh.” Wan Tiansheng sneered and said, “That’s your assumption. Your body is strong. What about your willpower? Regular cultural researchers are helpless against you, but do you think I’m the same? I can always avoid your body and deal with your sea of willpower.”

Su Yu shrugged, not bothered to continue. A victor would not be decided by talking. It was pointless. Wan Tiansheng stopped as well, but he cursed inwardly that Su Yu was too rude to deserve a teacher.

***

Before long, Wan Tiansheng started his class.

There were several students in the class. Su Yu, the little furball, Senior Wang, Old Man Bai, and Liu Hong. Yes. All of them were allowed to attend the class.

Wan Tiansheng wasn’t stingy with his knowledge. This was no big deal. In any case, he was still a teacher deep inside. When he first became the principal of the academy, he had also spent some time teaching personally.

“I won’t be going through the basics.” Wan Tiansheng said, “Today, I’ll talk about the River of Time. What is the River of Time? Any answers?”

Su Yu said, “A passage through time and space.”

“Bullshit.” Wan Tiansheng said, “Most people share the same belief, but as far as I’m concerned, that is incorrect. Time travel? That’s complete nonsense.”

“Hmm?”

Everyone was surprised to hear that. But wasn’t time travel possible through the River of Time?

“The so-called time travel has always been a joke.” Wan Tiansheng asked, “Have you seen anyone arriving from the past or future to kill someone? Was the Human Emperor strong? He could have traversed from the past to the present time to become unrivalled. Who in this era could stop him?”

“But…” Su Yu said, “I saw time travel in action before. You were the one who had shown me that. You brought me to see Lord Grandstar through this method. The little furball’s old man used the same method to contact Lord Grandstar as well.”

Wan Tiansheng shook his head, “I do not consider that true time travel. That is merely a manipulation of will. For example, when I took you to Grandstar City, only our will had arrived. Senior Grandstar was strong enough to detect our will and receive our message. A regular person wouldn’t have been able to receive our message.”

Wan Tiansheng asked, “Have you heard of any weakling claiming to have met an expert from the River of Time?”

“No.”

Su Yu shook his head.

Wan Tiansheng said, “Perhaps my understanding is still flawed. But I am only here to teach you my own comprehension of this topic. Perhaps you can develop your original ideas in the future.

“For me, the River of Time is a simple spatial tunnel. Step on it and you might be able to see some scenes from the past. But those scenes are merely what you already have in your memories. Isn’t it difficult to see the past of others while your past is much easier to see? Also, when you try to see the future, you can only see a faint and uncertain future. That so-called future is merely one of the many future possibilities you can think of.

“Naturally, there’s something called time recall you can do to see the past of others. But that is merely a reenactment of a previous scene from one’s memories. It is merely a magic trick. The Silk Destroying King is proficient in this so I won’t be spending too much on this topic. Today, I am focusing on something else. How to utilize this in combat. How to increase your speed. How to flee. How to handle attacks from different layers of reality.”

Su Yu was greatly interested in this topic. Killing in the future or the past? He had zero interest in that. He only wanted to know a way to move faster and actually land his hits.

“The key is still the manipulation of one’s will.”

That was the core of Wan Tiansheng’s understanding. What was will?

Wan Tiansheng gave an explanation of his view as Su Yu listened attentively. After a while, Su Yu said with a frown, “Principal, do you mean that when Invincibles kill in the past and future, that is merely an illusion? Or an illusion that can come true?”

“You can understand it that way.” Wan Tiansheng said, “If you firmly believe that you’re currently in the past and you are killing someone in the past, your opponent will firmly believe it as well. In that scenario, one is essentially killing through will alone.”

Su Yu said, “In that case, I will firmly believe that nobody can kill my past and future. Are you supposed to be undying just by being confident enough?”

“Strength matters a lot. You can refuse to believe it, but an opponent can lead you into a surprisingly believable scenario, making you believe it. Upon dying in that scenario, you will die for real.”

The two continued exchanging their thoughts. Wan Tiansheng had his own unique way of comprehending the laws. He did not force anyone to accept his understanding. After all, everyone could understand the same thing differently. He was merely here to pass on what he knew as a point of reference for them in their cultivation.

While listening to the lesson, Su Yu activated his fire of inheritance. Thanks to that, even those around him were able to gain deeply from the lesson. It was undeniable that this character was incredibly useful. It could constantly stimulate one’s brain, helping one to even recall some of the knowledge one had forgotten in the past.

Noticing that, Wan Tiansheng chuckled before resuming his lesson.

Toward the end of the lesson, Su Yu attempted to rip space apart and reveal the River of Time. Surprisingly, he succeeded. A tiny River of Time flowed out, shrouded in the power of laws. The others had also learned many new things from this lesson.

Not far away, Liu Hong was in deep focus. After a long while, he remarked, “In truth, comprehending characters is the start of the process of comprehending the laws. Is that the case, Principal?”

When Wan Tiansheng looked at Liu Hong, he continued, “I recalled Su Yu’s blood character. It carried the ability to create illusions as well. From what Su Yu mentioned earlier about illusions coming true, I started wondering if all cultural researchers are essentially the researchers of different natural laws. The so-called characters are merely the simplified form of these laws.”

Liu Hong added, “Thus, the dao affirmation of cultural researchers is much harder than the dao affirmation of warriors. Because the cultivation of cultural researchers involve the comprehension of laws. The more laws one comprehended, the harder one’s dao would be to affirm.

“The fusion of all characters into one Su Yu mentioned previously might be a state of completion for these laws where everything one understands about the laws is unified, becoming the so-called racial ability…”

When Su Yu spoke of the racial ability in the past, Liu Hong was there. Thus, he was able to reach this conclusion.

“Perhaps the difficulty of affirming one’s dao through willpower cultivation is due to the sheer height you need to reach to achieve that. Perhaps affirming your dao this way will directly take you to the level of the ancient top experts at one go.

“We can all see that some of the laws from the ancient past still remain. But what are these laws? I believe these laws were merely the additions by the ancient experts. Simply put, when you affirm your dao through willpower cultivation and gain enough strength, you will be able to attach your own laws on top of the existing laws as well.”

At that, Wan Tiansheng’s eyes shone. Su Yu’s eyes flickered as well.

Characters. Laws. Attaching his own laws on top of the existing laws.

Was this how the current heavenly laws came into existence?

Was that why cultural researcher Invincibles could activate the suppressive force of the Human Realm? After all, the suppressive force had been lifted by Culture King’s laws in the first place. But the suppressive force itself was also a result of the laws.

Su Yu felt as though many of his previous questions had been answered.

When Su Yu looked at Liu Hong, Liu Hong smiled shyly and said, “I am merely sharing my random understanding about this. Don’t look at me like that. Everyone can understand this differently. I am merely sharing my own conclusion. After all, we’re currently in the middle of an academic discussion. It is only fair that I share my views as well, right?”

Su Yu said nothing. He was wondering if this was really Liu Hong’s own understanding or if this was something he already knew before.

Wan Tiansheng was also deep in thought. After a long while, his eyes brightened as he muttered, “Perhaps…I have found my future path!”

Su Yu inhaled deeply and decided to forget about his desire to give Liu Hong a beating. But he was certain that Liu Hong was still hiding things from him.