Tribulation of Myriad Races

“You have arrived.”

An ethereal voice rang out in Su Yu’s ears.

After a long while, Su Yu answered solemnly, “Senior Culture King?”

“I must not be around anymore.” Just as Su Yu was about to say something else, the white silhouette continued, “This is a memory imprint I left on the penblade.”

“My students must have passed this penblade down as an inheritance. I am sure of this since those students of mine are incapable of handling this dao. The dao of penblade is the strongest among the four daos of pen, ink, paper, and inkstone. It is also the hardest to control.

“Since you are seeing this, it signifies that you might have the ability to slightly grasp this dao. This is an extremely powerful dao. I did not create this dao myself. Rather, it is a natural dao. However, it is of little use to me these days. However, this was the dao I used to establish my status in the Myriad Realms. Who in all of existence can block a single jab of my pen?”

Culture King’s silhouette continued speaking, facing Su Yu with only its back. But while listening, Su Yu suddenly had a brave idea. He wanted to take a look at the front of this silhouette.

And he did so unhesitatingly. Yes. He wanted to look at Culture King’s face. He was very good at posturing as well. Showing one’s back was indeed a good way to appear all mysterious.

He wanted to get a good look at Culture King’s face. But when he stepped in front of the silhouette, he blanked out. It was yet another back. He started moving around the silhouette, but after circling the silhouette hundreds of times, he started collapsing emotionally.

“I—”

Holy shit!

Culture King was truly impressive! He had only left his back in this imprint. It didn’t matter how one tried, and it didn’t matter from which angle one was looking at it. One would only see the back of this silhouette.

How creative. How amazing.

Truly a trick worth learning!

Su Yu couldn’t help but feel admiration for Culture King’s ability to act cool. Was there a hidden meaning behind this action as well? Was this a way to say that nobody would be able to surpass him? All would stay behind him forever. Or was this a way to say that he was unqualified to see Culture King’s face?

Ignoring Su Yu, the silhouette continued speaking.

“Since you are here, you must have encountered some trouble. If you are here, even the imperial court must have collapsed. I know. After my departure, the myriad races will definitely stir. The imperial court will fall into crisis. However, I must leave. There is someone I must save.

“I have no choice. Thus, I am leaving four legacies behind. Controlling even one of the four daos will grant you the strength of a Master of Law. You will be comparable to an assembly member, or even stronger. The dao of penblade is a dao that threads the martial and cultural path. It is incomparably sharp, capable of killing a regular Master of Law instantly.”

To Su Yu, that sounded like bragging. Yes, Culture King was strong, but he wasn’t here. This was merely a silhouette. Su Yu couldn’t even be bothered to say anything anymore. This was merely a recording. It was incapable of replying.

“Your purpose here does not matter. Perhaps you have encountered trouble. You are here for help. Or perhaps you are here to commemorate a respected senior like me. Since you are here, I consider you a guest of my home. Who knows? Perhaps you might really grow into the founder of a new era.

“I can’t leave irresponsibly. Thus, I left some contingencies behind. I don’t know if these contingencies are still around by the time you’re seeing this, and I don’t know if they can still be used. Perhaps this recording will only be seen countless years later, when my era is nothing but a legend.

“The dao of penblade can only be inherited by humans. Your presence here signifies that you have grasped parts of this dao. Since you can enter my residence, you must be a human. Perhaps you don’t need what I have prepared, but I might as well say it.

“There are four rooms in my residence, each corresponding to the daos of pen, ink, paper, and inkstone. Each item can only open one of the rooms. Of course, you can open all these rooms without these items with enough strength. But you will need to surpass me to do so. If you possess neither the strength nor the inheritance item to open these rooms, accept that your fortune is lacking.

“Some items are left in each room. What are they? You may find out for yourself. As for the other treasures in the residence, if the residence still stands, please do preserve it for me. Do not damage it. After staying here for so many years, I have developed an attachment to it.

“Finally, if you see my younger sister, please tell her that I went looking for her. If she’s back, tell her to wait at our old home. Don’t run away anymore. Don’t go looking for me.”

At that point, the silhouette started fading. “Don’t worry. This is the sole imprint left on the penblade. There are no traps on it.”

Su Yu watched silently as the silhouette fully faded away. Then, the Culture Tomb returned to his hand. He studied the Culture Tomb with a helpless expression. So be it. What could he do even if there were more imprints left on the Culture Tomb? After all, Culture King was once the master of this dao.

Pen, ink, paper, and inkstone. Four daos, and four rooms.

One legacy per room.

Su Yu had the pen, the inkstone, and half the paper. In that case, would he be able to open two of the rooms? He might be able to open the third room as well, but opening the fourth room would be impossible.

Rooms…

Su Yu followed the path in the courtyard. Before long, he saw the aforementioned rooms. There were indeed four of them, located on both sides of the small path from the rear courtyard. They were quite conspicuous due to their unique designs.

One of them stood tall, shaped like a pen.

One was shaped like a book, most likely the room for the paper inheritance.

With the unique shape of each room, there was no need to worry about getting the rooms wrong.

Su Yu was curious about one thing. Was that imprint only left for the pen legacy? Or were there similar imprints on the other three legacies as well? But if that was the case, why wasn’t his inkstone reacting?

“Four rooms…”

Su Yu started approaching the pen-like room, wondering if he could find any records about Martial Emperor in there. According to the Culture King, he had left some trump cards behind. Was Martial Emperor one of these trump cards?

If that were the case, it would be mentioned somewhere. And the likelihood of these records appearing in the pen room would be quite high. After all, that was a legacy personally passed on by his students. Furthermore, only humans could pursue this dao.

As for the inkstone, it originated from an ancient demonic beast. All races could pursue this dao. Thus, it was unlikely that a trump card like Martial Emperor would be left on this legacy.

Su Yu was unsure about the ink legacy.

The paper legacy had been left for Heavenly Overseer Marquis prior to Culture King’s departure. And that was not a human. Meanwhile, Martial Emperor was a human. It was unlikely that Culture King would allow a non-human to restrict a human Master of Law.

“Thus, the records about Martial Emperor can only appear in the pen room if Martial Emperor is one of these contingencies.”

After reaching such a conclusion, Su Yu continued walking forward with anticipation. As long as he could find something to check Martial Emperor, he wouldn’t even mind missing out on the inheritances in the other three rooms.

***

Before long, he was standing before the pen room.

There was a padlock on the door. It had a keyhole the shape of a pen.

Noticing that, Su Yu transformed the Culture Tomb into a pen before inserting it into the keyhole and giving it a twist. The padlock snapped open and started falling. After catching the padlock, Su Yu stepped forth, only to blank out momentarily.

He stopped, raised the padlock, and looked at it.

Law…

A power of law!

“Materializing a law into a lock. This is a dao as well!”

It wasn’t that the padlock itself was a dao. Rather, a lock-related dao was under Culture King’s control, and he had utilized the power of that dao to materialize this padlock.

Su Yu inhaled with shock. Why did Culture King know all these weird daos?

Su Yu felt like this padlock alone could probably provide him with a new character so long as he could fully absorb all the power in it. Furthermore, it would also grant him a high chance of stepping onto this dao as well.

“Impressive.”

After muttering a praise, Su Yu stuffed it into his sea of willpower unhesitatingly. It was now his! The padlock was basically a treasure. Even if he didn’t want to comprehend this dao, he could also use it to strengthen his existing characters.

Upon stepping into the room, the first thing he saw was a small, square desk. A case rested atop the desk.

After picking the case up, Su Yu gasped and said, “This alone is enough to make this trip a major profit for me. This case is also manifested by a certain law. Is this something capable of sealing time? This must be a way to preserve the contents of this case, right?”

With his keen eyes, he was able to easily guess the function of this case.

Culture King. What an impressive man. While everyone else was using materials to forge their items, Culture King was using the various laws to forge his items. How luxurious. Su Yu decided that when he grew strong enough, he would do this as well. This was the easiest way to impress others and show just how special he was.

He opened the case, revealing a golden piece of paper and a small token. Something was written on the paper. There were no traps or trials. There was simply no need. Culture King was confident enough in himself not to require such pointless measures. Furthermore, such measures would also be pointless against someone capable of forcefully breaking into this place.

First, Su Yu picked up the paper and read the contents written on it. Instantly, a look of joy covered his face. Sure enough, his guess was right. It was related to Martial Emperor. It wasn’t that the ancient experts couldn’t kill Martial Emperor. Rather, they had deliberately kept him around.

As Su Yu read, he started frowning. Culture King was quite straightforward in the explanation. After giving a short explanation regarding Martial Emperor, Culture King mentioned that this could be considered one of his trump cards, but at the same time, it also wasn’t a trump card.

According to Culture King, Martial Emperor was too cruel. During the era of war, he had killed numerous people, including the innocent. That was why Martial King had acted against him. Culture King had not bothered to stop Martial King even if he knew that Martial Emperor wasn’t the actual killer of the experts Martial King was accusing him of killing.

Eventually, they forged the Luminous Domain Mansion with Martial Emperor’s body. That was also deliberate. Various reasons were given for that, but no detailed explanation was given. Some methods to handle Martial Emperor were also written on the paper.

According to what was written, Martial Emperor would not willingly serve anyone. That was perfectly logical. If one were too weak, attempting to control Martial Emperor would be tantamount to suicide.

The token in the case wasn’t too useful. Its sole function was to suppress Martial Emperor’s wrath during one of his episodes. However, the power left in the token was rather limited in amount. In truth, it was very similar to a character Su Yu had.

Saint.

It could pacify Martial Emperor several times, forcing him to calm down for a short period of time.

Culture King also stated that the true key to subduing Martial Emperor was to gain full control over the pen dao.

After reaching this point, he would be able to locate Martial Emperor’s dao and carve something onto it to restrict Martial Emperor. Of course, there was a risk of backlash when doing so. That was an unavoidable risk.

As Su Yu read, he grimaced. This…did not seem achievable for him right now. Also, by the time he mastered an entire dao, would he still need Martial Emperor? Well, perhaps the answer was yes. After all, that was a Master of Law.

The token felt quite useless, but Su Yu couldn’t be sure. That was something capable of calming even Martial Emperor. For example, this token would save his life the next time he lured an enemy into the mansion. Or perhaps it would save him after Martial Emperor escaped from the mansion.

Or maybe it could be used to kill Martial Emperor. He could simply calm Martial Emperor down before killing him…

“I guess this isn’t that useless, after all.”

Unfortunately, this was below his expectations. It wasn’t something he could use to fully control Martial Emperor. Then again, that dao of penblade was very enticing since it was capable of subduing even someone like Martial Emperor. It was much stronger than expected.

Su Yu had thought that since this was one of the four unwanted daos of Culture King, it would probably not be too impressive. But with what he learned here, he realized that this dao could very well be the strongest of the four.

Right at that moment, the characters on the paper started fading away. They could only be read once. Clearly, this was a precaution to ensure that the contents of this paper would not be read by unwanted individuals.

After a short thought, Su Yu stowed the token, the case, and even the paper away. All of them were treasures. While on his way out of the room, he turned around and took even the desk away. This desk itself was sturdy enough to serve as a carrier treasure.

After some thought, Su Yu took even the sole chair in the room away as well. Yes. Even the chair was sturdy enough to serve as a carrier treasure. That was something he greatly lacked right now.

Clearly, Culture King was a rich man.

“Token of Sanctification.”

That was the name of the token. As Su Yu thought about it, he grimaced. Culture King had clearly formed a large number of characters and mastered an impressively large number of daos. More importantly, Culture King seemed to think the same way as him. He had a saint character as well.

He had a feeling that the token would be very useful even if it wasn’t used on Martial Emperor.

“Since it can calm even Martial Emperor, what about a regular Daofuse?”

Su Yu grinned, imagining the scene of a Daofuse kowtowing and calling him daddy the moment he took the token out. What a terrifying item. Since it worked against even Masters of Laws, it should work against Daofuses easily.

More importantly, he could use it several times. He didn’t even feel like using it against Martial Emperor anymore. He was better off using it against the other Daofuses. It seemed even more useful than the white dog’s dao of biting.

“Tiangu, the three heavenly kings, and Heavenly Overseer Marquis…”

Those were the names crossing his mind when he thought of using the token. Would it work against them? After all, these were the most annoying opponents he had to date.

“This is jackpot!”

A wide smile formed on Su Yu’s face. It felt as though he had won the lottery. And he had only explored one room. The inkstone room was still waiting for him. Filled with expectation, he headed toward the other room.