Tribulation of Myriad Races

After determining the coordinates of the four realms, Su Yu waited for his subordinates to gather. At the same time, he started organizing the assembly tokens he had gathered. He had received six from Immortal Battle Marquis. Through killing the various myriad race experts such as the golden peng, spirits, and celestial chasms, he had also gathered some. Or to be precise, a lot of them were the spoils from his previous battles. All had been handed to him after the battles.

When Su Yu checked, he noted that he had gathered fifteen so far. The allied races still had their own tokens, and he had not bothered to ask for these tokens. He could probably get five or six more from them if he were to make the request.

Xia Longwu and the military were in the midst of attacking the myriad races. Some of the older races with no Daofuses might also have some. Perhaps they would be able to gather some as well.

And through eliminating the four realms, Su Yu was confident he could get at least four more. Some races would also have more than one in possession. Back then, there were ninety-nine ancient races. But a lot of these races had been exterminated. As a result, their tokens had fallen into the hands of the other races.

“Perhaps I can gather about thirty after this.”

Su Yu suspected that there were more than fifty of these tokens in the Lower Realm. Back when Empyrean Cloud had gone against the laws, the old turtle had forced the myriad races to scatter the tribulation with the tokens. At the time, over forty tokens had been used.

With the addition of the six by Immortal Battle Marquis, Su Yu was certain there were now more than fifty of them down here. Done with reorganizing his assembly tokens, Su Yu started observing the death spirit dao while waiting for his subordinates. In truth, this was also a dao he could cultivate.

Su Yu had discovered with surprise that he had actually developed some comprehension of the death spirit dao. When he studied it, he actually felt a sense of closeness with it. Perhaps he could really pursue this dao with his identity as a pseudo death spirit.

It was very likely that he was the first human lord who was also a pseudo death spirit in ages. In truth, he had discovered that there were actually more advantages than disadvantages to being a pseudo death spirit.

“Life and death, yin and yang…”

Su Yu sank into contemplation. Perhaps the creator of the Death Realm had the right idea. Since the world of the living could be created, why couldn’t the world of the dead be created as well?

But why was the Death Realm incomplete? Was the creator not strong enough? And why weren’t there any tributaries on the death spirit dao? Numerous thoughts emerged in Su Yu’s mind.

“Is there an end to the death spirit dao? Most likely.”

After all, this was no River of Time. It also wasn’t as powerful.

Su Yu had the urge to actually step onto the death spirit dao and take a closer look. He was also curious about the ink dao, the sole tributary of the death spirit dao. Just how had Culture King created a tributary on the death spirit dao?

Su Yu might have grown rapidly recently, but he was still unhappy with the speed. According to his personal classification, he was a tier four Daofuse.

He had split the Daofuse Realm into seven tiers. Thus, being a tier four Daofuse was actually quite impressive. It was already comparable to some of the older Daofuses. However, Su Yu was not happy with this. How was he supposed to rule the myriad races with this level of strength?

How was he supposed to conquer the Myriad Realms? How was he supposed to contend against people like Martial Emperor? There were plenty of tier three Daofuses in the upper Realm. Even tier one or two Daofuses could be found there. There were probably pseudo kings there as well.

Quantity would not determine everything. With enough quality, such as the appearance of ten heavenly kings, Su Yu’s side might not necessarily be a match.

He looked at the death spirit dao with his Heaven Gate open. He saw a massive dao spanning the entire Death Realm. It was very similar to the River of Time, but it had no tributaries. All its power was concentrated in a single stream.

All cultivators of this dao would derive their power from the same main branch. At that thought, Su Yu started wondering about the number of the sealed death spirits.

Before long, he said, “South Heavenly King, can you watch over this place for me? I wish to take a look at the dao. When Great Zhou King and the others arrive, tell them to wait.”

South Heavenly King frowned and asked, “Which dao are you talking about?”

“Death spirit dao.”

“That’s too dangerous!” South Heavenly King said, “The death spirit dao is different from the other daos. Even the River of Time itself isn’t as dangerous as the death spirit dao. That’s because the River of Time is inclusive in nature, but the death spirit dao rejects all outsiders. No matter what, you’re not a proper death spirit. This is too risky.”

Su Yu smiled and said, “I’m worried about the risks as well, but in cultivation, how can one forge the path forward if one is fearful of everything and constantly hesitates to advance?

“When cultivating the dao, one can’t avoid the unknown forever. The path of cultivation is the path of truth-seeking. This is an experience all dao-pioneers will need to go through. If one falls during the exploration of the unknown, one can only blame oneself for being too weak. It is what it is.”

Su Yu continued, “If I only do what’s safe, my defeat is all but certain the moment the Upper Realm opens.”

Su Yu might look confident, but he knew his situation well. He sighed and asked, “Just when can our side produce a heavenly king as well? When will we produce someone comparable to a Master of Law? The pen dao isn’t my own dao. Even with my heavenly talent, can I master it in five years? I don’t even know if I still have five years.”

He muttered softly, “The myriad races are no fools. The immortals, devils, and divines are not stupid. I told them I’ll attack in five years, but they will prepare for an attack in three years. In that case, I must surprise them even more. One year!”

Su Yu’s eyes firmed as he said, “I will grow enough to thoroughly dominate the myriad races in one year! A new year is coming. The first year of the new calendar. I hope to wrap things up in the Lower Realm by the end of the first year and fully unify the Myriad Realms.”

Everyone was alarmed. One year! Wasn’t that too much of a rush? Su Yu was already a Daomeld with the pen dao. But was the Daofuse Realm really so easy to reach? The pen dao was an incredibly difficult dao to master.

With a look of admiration, Marquis Lanshan said, “You will succeed, Emperor! Back then, the Human Emperor spent a thousand years conquering the Myriad Realms! Under your lead, humanity has embarked on another conquest! And this time, we will do it faster!”

Su Yu chuckled and said, “Things are different. At the time, there were Masters of Laws in the various races. In such a situation, tt was already very impressive that the Human Emperor could conquer the myriad races in a thousand years.”

“You will do better than that!”

Once again, Marquis Lanshan declared with unwavering confidence. Su Yu was simply too talented and young. The myriad races were no longer the same. Sure, humanity had also declined considerably. But this also presented them with a unique opportunity.

Su Yu laughed and said, “Thank you for the confidence. But there is no need to talk about this too much. Everyone, I’ll be entering the death spirit dao now. I don’t want to say anything demoralizing, but if anything happens to me, I hope you can stay united against the myriad races. It is likely that they won’t dare to do anything unless they’re willing to pay a large price for their action. Together, you can put up a fight. Apart, you will be defeated.”

“Emperor…”

Su Yu waved his hand and said, “I’m confident that it will be fine. But I have to leave some words behind just in case, right?”

Su Yu laughed and continued, “Originally, I wanted to do this after taking down the four races. But I’m worried that I’m not strong enough to handle them properly. Now that I have comprehended something new, I should take this chance to take a look at the dao. Everyone, this is all. Wait. I will come back soon.”

With the Heaven Gate open, Su Yu stepped forward.

Suddenly, South Heavenly King said, “Culture King explored this dao back then as well. He once said that this dao might be strong, but all daos are the same. They share the same essence.”

Su Yu stopped. With a pensive look, he asked, “Did he say anything else?”

South Heavenly King sank into thought. After a long while, she said, “That’s all. After all, that was Culture King. He only met me several times back then because I was a heavenly king. Even so, I was unqualified to interact much with him.”

Su Yu nodded and said nothing else. He tore a rift in space and stepped through it.

With Su Yu gone, South Heavenly King sighed and said softly, “This is how most powerhouses of humanity are. We can be stronger, but our longing for the dao will never be as strong as these people.”

Longing for the dao.

Longing for the truth.

Su Yu’s longing for the dao was much stronger than hers. He was unwilling to accept his current state. With any new discovery, he would advance bravely.

For South Heavenly King, this was an extremely precious trait to have.

Over the countless years, she had seen countless people. But very few of them came with enough ambition and the courage to pursue those ambitions.

Marquis Lanshan stared at the sky silently. After a long while, he said, “Therefore, they are the rulers while we are the soldiers. Emperor Yu will definitely recover the glory of the ancient past or even surpass it.”

Surpassing the ancient past. That was a thought very few dared to entertain. This would be an extremely difficult task.

The ancient past was an era where humanity had over a hundred Masters of Laws and numerous marquises. There was no comparison between the current humanity with the ancient humanity.

***

At the same time.

Su Yu was faced with a river with raging currents. He felt as though he was looking at a river, but at the same time, he also felt as though he was looking at the essence of the death spirit dao.

It was a straight river spanning the entire Death Realm.

It had no tributaries.

Thus, the liquid death qi in the river could only flow forward.

The person who had created this dao was truly a terrifying individual.

After taking only one step, Su Yu felt his entire being invaded by death qi. Boundless death qi entered his body, suppressing his life and vitality. It was as though the river was trying to fully convert him into a death spirit.

“My dao is unyielding!”

With a roar, he opened his Heaven Gate again. Then, he started writing on thin air with his pen. As he wrote, layer after layer of barriers appeared atop his Heaven Gate, protecting him against the invasion of the death qi.

He was protecting his heart from the corrosion of death. At the same time, the Mark of Civilization appeared. All the pages receded except for one page: the death spirit page.

That page had reached the level of a divine weapon as well.

Su Yu had fed his book quite a lot of death spirits. Parts of the page was empty, but parts were filled with writing. If one focused, one could see a tiny death spirit dao being nurtured on the page. However, it was extremely weak.

With his page, Su Yu started writing a death spirit cultivation method. Or to be precise, he was writing down the reversal method to further improve this page. Slowly, the page was filled with more writing.

Done with writing the reversal method, Su Yu wrote down his observations of the death spirit dao, attempting to describe what he knew and saw while copying from the river before him.

At the same time, a character manifested.

Death.

It appeared weaker than before, as much of its power had been drained to power the pen dao previously. It remained, but it was weak. Gnashing his teeth, Su Yu fused the character into the page.

He was doing the same thing as he did when he fused the culture and radiance characters to the book previously. At the same time, he crushed numerous strands of hair he harvested from Martial Emperor and used them as the material to further strengthen the page.

Instantly, the page that was on the verge of being destroyed by the river shone brightly. Eventually, a dark figure appeared on it. That was the phantom of a death spirit expert, created by the death spirit Su Yu had fused into the page previously.

With a snort, Su Yu blasted the phantom apart. Then, he dripped his own blood essence onto the page. In the blink of an eye, another phantom appeared. This time, it resembled Su Yu somewhat.

“To fuse with a dao. To pioneer a dao. To pioneer my dao. To fuse with my dao. No matter how strong a dao is, the dao of others will not be truly mine.”