Tribulation of Myriad Races

Wu Lan nodded, “Exactly. But there must be an intermediary to enable that process. It must be the source soul acupoint you mentioned back then. Have you opened this acupoint?”

“Yes.”

The overjoyed Wu Lan shouted in excitement, “Good! Let us study you for a bit!”

“…”

Su Yu was rendered speechless.

Bai Feng was also growing excited, but he coughed to hide his excitement and said, “Uhm…dear student, just be kind and let Wu Lan study you. She’s so weak. She won’t hurt you. Don’t worry. I’ll keep an eye on her for you.”

In short, he wanted to study Su Yu as well.

Su Yu was tired of this conversation.

These two had gone mad. They were starting to view him as a test subject. But to experiment on him, they had to be strong enough, right? Even if he were to relax himself completely, they wouldn’t be able to do anything to him. How were they supposed to study him?

Liu Wenyan and the others chuckled in amusement. After a short moment, Liu Wenyan said, “I’ll have a chat with your old man and grab a drink with him. It has been a while since we last met.”

“Go ahead.”

With that, Liu Wenyan and the others left.

The moment they left, Wu Lan impatiently said, “Come on! Show us your source soul acupoint! Explain how it works! Su Yu, this research can help you freely convert between source qi and willpower! This will also help your characters grow rapidly!”

Su Yu thought about it and started explaining, “Characters are actually laws. Do you know what laws are?”

He began with the basics, telling them about laws, characters, and the Heaven Gate. Wu Lan and Bai Feng listened attentively, interupting now and then to ask some questions.

After a while, Su Yu blanked out slightly. Why did it feel like he was the teacher here? He had never been a teacher before.

Finally, Bai Feng muttered, “So the racial ability I proposed back then might really exist! No, racial ability isn’t an accurate term. It’s a manifestation of the power of laws upon pushing one’s characters to completion.”

Su Yu nodded.

But soon, Bai Feng said, “No, that’s wrong.”

“How is it wrong?”

Bai Feng said, “Back then, I proposed that the fusion of all characters will manifest the racial ability. But according to your theory, every character is a law in itself. Something doesn’t fit. I believe a single law might produce numerous characters. There are many facets to a single law. And there are many forms of similar characters. Only the fusion of all the characters of a single law can produce a complete law.”

His eyes lit up as he continued, “Character techniques…yes! I finally understand! Character techniques are simplified forms of laws! Su Yu, I bet every character technique represents a complete law! They only differ in strength!”

Su Yu furrowed his brows as he sank into thought. After a short moment, he took the Culture Tomb out.

“Teacher, are you saying that this thing is filled with embryonic laws?”

“No, no, no!”

Bai Feng’s eyes flickered as he said, “I understand now. You said that a character of Culture King might be found in the Culture Tomb, right?”

Su Yu nodded.

Bai Feng said, “I see. There might not have been so many character techniques in the Culture Tomb initially. But eventually, that character developed numerous character techniques autonomously…”

Su Yu was still confused.

Bai Feng grew annoyed and said, “I mean…this Culture Tomb itself is a law. If you doubt me, try to reassemble these character techniques. I dare say that every single character technique can be reassembled into the same template.”

What was this?

Su Yu sank into thought.

As Wu Lan thought about it, a slight understanding dawned on her as she said, “Teacher Bai, are you suggesting that we stack all the templates inside this thing and note down the overlapping nodes? Through these nodes, we will be able to form a real character technique, a character technique representing the true law behind the Culture Tomb. Is that so?”

Bai Feng nodded, “Yes! Exactly!”

His excitement grew as he said, “According to this theory, we will be able to obtain a character technique directly corresponding to a complete law through this method!”

Su Yu asked, “Are you sure? If you are sure, I suspect my character technique might be the completed form.”

Bai Feng considered it and nodded, “Yes, there are ninety-nine nodes in your character technique. Give it a try, Su Yu. Make a copy of as many templates as you can from the Culture Tomb and stack them up. You don’t need all of them. You only need enough of them. Stack them up on top of your character technique. If there is a large number of overlaps, our theory will most likely be correct.”

Was that really the case?

Su Yu was unsure.

He decided to give it a try.

He sent his willpower into the Culture Tomb. Having grown much stronger than before, he was welcomed by a large number of templates right after entering.

He started moving deeper, recording every single template he saw.

After recording over a thousand of them, he was slightly exhausted. Thus, he withdrew.

***

After withdrawing from the Culture Tomb, he said nothing and started stacking the templates.

As he stacked the templates, he also adjusted their size accordingly.

Slowly, a new template took form. After removing all the unnecessary lines and nodes, something remarkable appeared before him. Sure enough, a majority of the nodes overlapped with each other.

The number of nodes wasn’t as high as one would expect, but they did overlap. The more templates he stacked on top, the fewer nodes there were as the overlapping nodes were smaller in number than the total nodes of the stacked templates.

Eventually, a template with over sixty nodes took form.

Next, Su Yu drew a template with ninety-nine nodes beside the new template. Upon comparison, the two were nearly identical. At that, the three looked at each other silently. They were both surprised and not surprised.

Bai Feng gasped and said, “Incredible. Culture King was indeed incredible. Anyone with the ability to gather enough of these templates before reassembling them into one will be able to walk Culture King’s old path.

“Su Yu, you might instantly gain control over an entire law by simply filling all ninety-nine nodes of your character technique. That character hidden in the Culture Tomb might be the essence of this law. By simply filling the ninety-nine nodes, you might be able to instantly rise to a level beyond others.”

This clearly differed from Su Yu’s previous theory. He had assumed that he needed to follow ninety-nine daos, but Bai Feng was saying that his ninety-nine daos could be combined into a proper grand dao. Culture King had left the inheritance of an entire grand dao in the Culture Tomb.

Suddenly, Su Yu recalled some rumors and said, “Some say that the Culture Tomb can help a Pseudo Emperor transcend…”

Understanding dawned on him.

Yes. The Culture Tomb could indeed do so. But that Daofuse needed to be smart and strong enough to make use of the Culture Tomb. The Daofuse also needed to have the ability to reassemble character techniques.

He seemed to have solved the mystery behind the Culture Tomb by complete accident. More importantly, the secret was right in front of him all along. He had already gained the complete template.

The Book of Time had helped him form the complete template. A question appeared in Su Yu’s mind. Was Culture King really not the Time Sage? Were the two really not the same person? Why would the Time Sage know Culture King’s dao so well otherwise?

“The relationship between the Time Sage and Culture King is definitely not simple! Either they are the same person or a couple! Or siblings! Or best friends closer than family! One copied the other’s Book of Time while the other knew about the great dao hidden in the Culture Tomb…”

Even replication would be almost impossible if the two didn’t know each other well enough.

While Su Yu was still deep in thought, Bai Feng lost interest and said, “Is the Culture Tomb a mere inheritance device of a great dao? Is that it? How boring.”

“…”

Su Yu was dumbfounded. Had Old Bai forgotten that he was only a Cloudbreach? Above him, there were the Mountainsea, Sunmoon, Eternal, and Daofuse Realms to cross before the Great Dao Realm! All those people could kill him with a mere sneeze.

Noticing Su Yu’s gaze, Bai Feng explained himself, “This legacy is too easy to unlock. The Culture Tomb isn’t even as mysterious as I thought. This puzzle is too simple…”

Su Yu was speechless.

Was it simple?

No, right?

He had never even considered this angle before.

Those from Xia Chen’s line had guarded the Culture Tomb for countless years, and not one of them had considered this angle either. That was a line that had stayed with the Culture Tomb for ten epochs without solving the puzzle.

The legacy of a great dao.

That was what the Culture Tomb was.

Su Yu wondered if this great dao was under Culture King’s control.

Perhaps it was formerly under his control, but he had subsequently renounced his control.

Or perhaps Culture King was really dead and this great dao was now masterless.

Numerous possibilities emerged in Su Yu’s mind.

After a while, he pushed the matter aside. He was still far from considering a question like that. He could always try forming all ninety-nine of his characters and staking a claim on the great dao before thinking more.

Bai Feng said, “If the Culture Tomb is really the legacy of a great dao, your character technique might be the most compatible technique with the tomb. You can try fusing your character technique with the tomb and use it as your cultural weapon. Your current cultural weapon is a Mark of Civilization, but it doesn’t look sturdy enough. It also isn’t an offensive weapon. I believe the Culture Tomb will make for a good weapon for you.”

As of late, Su Yu had been forced to use the Sky Sundering Saber with his bare hands.

His heart thumped.

Yes. He had never considered that possibility. Could he turn the Culture Tomb into his personal weapon?

Or more importantly…was the Culture Tomb a weapon?

Su Yu did not wait. This would be his first attempt. What would happen? And thus, he manifested his character technique and formed a blade with it. Then, he pushed the Culture Tomb into the character technique.

The end result was a saber. An ancient saber that had been sheathed for countless years.

The moment the saber took form, Su Yu’s sea of willpower shook violently. Then, it was emptied of willpower to form a saber qi composed mainly of willpower. The saber qi shot out.

Boom!

The sky itself was split into two by that saber qi.

***

Far away.

Great Xia King looked behind him in surprise and muttered, “Willpower blade? How powerful!”

Su Yu’s willpower cultivation was nothing impressive. At most, it was comparable to the willpower of a regular Sunmoon. But that blade felt like the attack of an eighth-stage Sunmoon.

What was the kid doing now?

Was he still venting his anger over the incident with Great Yuan King?

How…petty.

Why was the kid still so angry even after giving Great Yuan King such a terrible beating?

***

Su Residence.

Su Yu looked surprised as well. He said, “This…might really be a weapon! A weapon of this legacy!”

He had never considered using the Culture Tomb as a weapon before.

Was it safe to assume that apart from the Mark of Civilization, he had gained a second weapon he could use? This seemed like quite a powerful weapon!

Su Yu’s eyes flickered as he thought of something else. Next, the saber turned into a pen.

He raised his other hand and manifested the Mark of Civilization above his palm.

Book and pen?

He had always thought that his character technique was a saber. After all, it had a slightly wider tip and a straight body…

But why couldn’t this shape be…a pen?

A writing brush, to be specific. But it could also be considered a pen. A tool meant for writing.

While rubbing his chin, Su Yu looked at Bai Feng and asked, “Teacher, does my character technique resemble a saber or a pen more?”

“Pen?”

Bai Feng blanked out slightly before saying, “Saber, I guess? A type of long saber…”

“But isn’t the body too straight to be a saber? And the body is also too long.”

Hearing that, Bai Feng sank into confusion as well. He shook his head and said, “Isn’t this up to you? It depends on how you use it.”

“No, that’s not what I mean.”

Su Yu smiled. Interesting. Had he misunderstood something all along? The great dao passed on by Culture King was actually a pen. And the legacy passed on by Time Sage was a book.

What a…perfect combination.

At this point, Su Yu was already certain that the two were related.

Previously, Soy Bun had claimed that Culture King and Time Sage were different people. He had also claimed that Time Sage was a woman. Thus, Su Yu became absolutely certain that the two were a couple. There were simply too many coincidences to point otherwise.

Soy Bun was unaware of the actual relationship between the two, but that was probably because Culture King did not want him to know.

Furthermore, Su Yu also knew that Culture King had disappeared not long after Time Sage’s disappearance. Clearly, he had gone looking for the missing Time Sage.

Su Yu was now certain.

No wonder. No wonder so many people suspected that Culture King was also Time Sage. The two were essentially family, so it was reasonable for so many people to be suspicious. While playing with the pen in his hand, Su Yu wondered what would happen if he wrote something on the real Book of Time with this pen. Could he kill someone simply by writing?

Just how long would it be before he could take the book out of his head?