Tribulation of Myriad Races

Everything would start anew in the new year.

The Anping Calendar reached its end.

That year, humanity obtained a massive victory over the myriad races.

It dominated the Myirad Realms.

As the end of the year arrived, humanity started preparing for the numerous celebrations, welcoming the arrival of the new calendar.

Celebrations were held in all the human prefectures.

The various major realms were sealed, allowing humanity to sweep through the Myriad Realms. The various races were forced to either submit or face elimination, and countless resources were transported to the Human Realm.

With the constant flow of resources, a large number of human geniuses emerged. Xia Longwu and the others were taking it slow in the wars against the minor realms. Instead of attacking the stubborn races with their main armies, they sent the younger geniuses to these realms for tempering.

This was understandable as the military leaders like Xia Longwu and Qin Zhen were individuals who had killed their way up from the very bottom. They did not want their juniors to grow up in a greenhouse.

Thus, even the likes of Qin Fang and Xia Huyou were sent to the various battlefields for tempering. As of late, the most famous junior was not Qin Fang. Rather, it was Zhou Hao. After opening 360 acupoints and completing sixty body forgings, he continued tempering himself. As such, his combat strength had been growing steadily.

He might still be a Skysoar, but like how Su Yu was back then, he could kill even Sunmoons. And Zhou Hao was not alone. Some of the juniors from Su Yu’s age group were also shining brightly.

This was an era where, as long as one had the courage to fight and the ability to survive the fight, one would receive countless resources.

Sunmoon profound yellow liquid, heavenearth profound light, and many other treasures that Su Yu once risked his life to gain were now provided endlessly to these geniuses. Or to be precise, they were still hard to obtain, but the difficulty level had dropped significantly.

Thus, these human geniuses only required both courage and talent to grow rapidly.

***

Great Xia.

With the coming of a new year, the entire place bustled with excitement.

A large number of soldiers had also returned from the front lines. Even the myriad races were relieved to see the offense of humanity slowing down for the new year. To celebrate the new year, most battles had stopped apart from some crucial battles that couldn’t be paused.

Great Xia Cultural Research Academy.

This once glorious academy had slowly declined after Su Yu’s escape back then. And with Wan Tiansheng’s slaughter and escape, it declined further. But next, Su Yu’s ascension, Wan Tiansheng’s return, and the rise of people like Liu Wenyan, Nan Wujiang, and Yun Chen had caused the academy to regain its vitality.

First principal, Xia Chen. Third principal, Nan Wujiang. Sixth principal, Wan Tiansheng. All of them were incredible experts. Even Lan Tian, the lunatic feared by many was a genius produced by this academy.

As a large number of geniuses returned for the new year celebration, the academy bustled with activity as well. But at the same time, a repressive atmosphere enveloped the academy.

Countless students, instructors, and researchers were behaving with utmost caution. Each of them was extremely careful to not cause any issue.

Why? Because early in the morning, a piece of news was spread in the academy. This was the day when Su Yu and a large number of experts produced by the academy would return.

The countless legendary names in the list of returning experts filled the students with excitement.

New Domain Calendar.

Even the new calendar was started by Su Yu, an ex-student of this academy. Unfortunately, the slackers from Great Ming Cultural Research Academy loved fighting over Su Yu with those from Great Xia. They loved claiming that Su Yu was theirs, not Great Xia’s.

The most infuriating part about this was that nobody could deny them. Su Yu had indeed escaped Great Xia and joined the Great Ming Cultural Research Academy.

Fortunately, Su Yu had chosen to return to Great Xia Cultural Research Academy instead of Great Ming Cultural Research Academy. Perhaps this was something they could brag about in the future.

***

In front of the Great Xia Cultural Research Academy.

Marquis Xia stood in wait, followed by Xia Huyou, Ji Hong, and the other experts and geniuses of Great Xia. Even people like Huang Teng and Zhou Hao were present. Some were waiting in excitement, while some were waiting with complicated emotions.

Back then, nobody had imagined that Su Yu would one day return as the overlord of the Myriad Realms.

A short while later, Marquis Xia’s voice rang out, “Silence.”

Instantly, the sounds of discussion ceased. Then, a beam of light dropped from the sky. A fully armored Xia Longwu emerged and said, “Emperor Yu, Director Wan, and the others are arriving. Remember, they are only here today to reminisce about the past. Do not mention anything unnecessary.”

Numerous heads nodded. Marquis Xia said, “Be smart. I fought a lot with that damn Zhu Tiandao over this matter. It hasn’t been easy for me to secure this visit. Do not do anything embarrassing!”

He was not lying. Due to this matter, he had argued endlessly with Zhu Tiandao. The two had nearly fought because of it. Ultimately, he won.

Zhu Tiandao felt extremely helpless. He did not consider this his loss to Marquis Xia. However, Su Yu’s entourage consisted of people like Wan Tiansheng, Zhao Li, Liu Wenyan, Nan Wujiang, and many others from Great Xia Cultural Research Academy.

Thus, Su Yu had to take many things into consideration before deciding on a place to visit. After all, even he himself was born in Great Xia. This was his root.

Everyone waited solemnly.

***

Meanwhile, the situation on Su Yu’s side was much less solemn.

He had just finished his weaponsmithing before he was persuaded by Great Xia King and Zhao Li to pay Great Xia a visit to celebrate the dawn of the new calendar. In truth, he much preferred to head into the Allheaven Battlefield instead. He was in a rush to further perfect his Mark of Civilization.

But with so many of his seniors persuading him to return, including Wan Tiansheng, he had no choice but to return with them. He felt like his return was no big deal. The bigger deal was that he had a large entourage with him. An entourage of Lan Tians. He was also a student of Great Xia Cultural Research Academy. And any place with Lan Tian would forever be filled with people.

In the beginning, Su Yu had kept a rather small entourage with him. After all, he did not require an honor guard to escort him around. But Lan Tian alone was the same as an honor guard. The soldiers pushing ahead as the vanguard, the scouts moving around the entourage, the hidden guards protecting the entourage, and even the curious onlookers around them were all…

Lan Tian.

Su Yu was losing his mind.

He was not alone. Great Xia King, Wan Tiansheng, and the others were losing their minds as well. They were tired of this. This was supposed to be a normal return trip, but Lan Tian had made everything weird.

Looking at the countless clones who were busy working, conversing, and even arguing with each other, Su Yu sent a voice transmission, “Principal, has he gone mad?”

Wan Tiansheng was feeling very helpless as well. He replied, “No. Recently, he has been trying to research a way to control over ten thousand clones at the same time. You gave him this idea! In the past, he had a lot of clones as well. But never this many. Recently, he has developed so many new clones that he started losing control over them. He’s spreading so many of his clones around us to have us control them for him.”

Su Yu had a sheepish look. That was merely a random suggestion, but Lan Tian had actually taken him seriously. Lan Tian had actually produced so many clones that he was losing control over them.

Su Yu thought about it and said with resignation, “I guess I need to take him on a trip to the River of Time later. I honestly have no idea what dao he’s pursuing. But I suspect his path is similar to mine.”

Yes. It was quite similar. Su Yu intended to remake the myriad daos and fuse them into one, creating a completely new dao of himself. As for Lan Tian, he pursued the path of fusing the myriad races, creating a myriad clones, fusing the myriad bodies, and fusing the myriad daos. This was indeed quite similar to Su Yu’s path.

For Su Yu, each page represented a dao. Meanwhile, Lan Tian represented each dao with a clone. He was crazier as he had split his very body for his path, while Su Yu was doing it through his pages.

Perhaps there was a similarity between all supreme freaks. All paths would ultimately converge. The destination would be the same.

Su Yu had seen some similarities in the paths of Time Sage, Lan Tian, and even Wan Tiansheng. As for his own path, it still seemed so far away. Just how did Lan Tian’s path look like?

Su Yu was very curious about that.

Wan Tiansheng sent him a voice transmission, “Lan Tian’s dao is different from yours. I understand part of what you’re thinking. As for Lan Tian, the essence of his path isn’t really the myriad daos. There are similarities, but I feel like the essence of his dao lies in clones.”

Clones? That felt disappointing to hear. It seemed a lot less impressive. Of course, that was Su Yu’s personal opinion. In truth, that was also a terrifying dao, even if it couldn’t compare to the path of myriad daos.

“I’ll take a look when I have the opportunity.”

Su Yu smiled before looking at a nearby girl. The girl looked to be about seven or eight, and she was happily eating a lollipop while staring at him curiously. The sight of that girl caused Su Yu’s expression to turn helpless again. Yet another Lan Tian.

He did not say anything else. The truth would be unveiled after a trip to the River of Time with Lan Tian.

Su Yu did not have many plans for this visit. He only intended to see some of his old friends, including those from the Mutual Aid Club and some teachers who had helped him like Old Nie, Old Huang, and Wu Yuehua.

This might be his last chance to have this gathering with them as he would be very busy moving forward. He reckoned that this would be his final return in a long, long time.

***

That day, Su Yu did not meet with a lot of people. He merely hosted a small banquet with some of his old friends in the Source Soul Research Center, formerly Lan Tian Research Center.

They drank, laughed, and conversed. They talked about cultivation, talked about research, and talked about the future.

Su Yu rarely drank.

He would usually avoid drinking unless he reached a level where he needed liquor to alleviate his worries. But today, he drank a lot. He didn’t even remove the alcohol with his source qi, allowing the alcohol to work its effect on him.

In his tipsy state, he observed the many familiar faces before him.

***

Eventually, the feast ended.

Liu Wenyan, who was already drunk, approached Su Yu and draped his arm around Su Yu’s shoulders. His usual elegance was nowhere to be seen.

Rather, he dragged Su Yu to a silent corner and said bitterly, “I have been proud for an entire life, but in truth, I am a coward. I failed many people. I failed you as well.

“Back then, I only accepted you into the multiple character faction due to my selfless desires. I might have spoken like everything was done for your own good, but that wasn’t the case. Back when you told me about your nightmares, I realized that you were someone with a unique fortuitous encounter.”

He was no fool. Thus, he noticed something special about Su Yu early on. Eventually, he even reported it to Xia Longwu and the others, claiming that Su Yu might have encountered a fortuitous encounter or even a ruin in Nanyuan.

“Thus, I attempted to recruit you into the multiple character faction. And I succeeded.”

Liu Wenyan sighed and said, “Now, humanity are doing well in the Myriad Realms. But I know that things will be even harder in the Upper Realm. Every step you take there will be filled with danger. I have no way of sharing your burden. You have been working very hard, fighting everywhere without a chance to rest. I am the origin of all your troublees.”

Su Yu laughed and said, “You’re wrong, Teacher. My fate changed the moment I received the Book of Time. At the very least, I now control my own fate. You worry too much, Teacher. This is a good thing. The multiple character faction was why I grew so rapidly. Without the multiple character faction, I wouldn’t have reached my current level.”

Liu Wenyan smiled bitterly and said, “Perhaps. But you have been struggling since you joined the academy. You never stopped fighting. Meanwhile, I spent decades with no accomplishment. I enjoyed fifty years of peace.”

Suddenly, Liu Wenyan’s smile turned even more bitter than before as he continued, “That’s not the point here. The point is, I influenced you too much when you were young. I failed you. I’m not worried about anything else, but I’m worried that you will die before even getting yourself a woman. Little Yu, my greatest mistake was those misleading words I said to you back then. I can accept you dying in a battle, but I can’t accept you dying without ever holding a woman’s hand.

“I was wrong. Why don’t we make up for that tonight? There are many outstanding women here tonight. Wu Lan? Wu Qi? Xia Chan? Ji Xiaomeng? Your senior sister, Wu Jia?”

Su Yu noticed that as of that moment, silence had descended as everyone was focused on them.

Liu Wenyan continued, “No matter what, leave your bloodline behind. At the very least, this will serve as a hope for humanity to rise in the future in case the worst happens. If you lose, and if we manage to survive, we will support your descendant in the next epoch, to do battle against the myriad races again…

“Even the barbaric Hundred Battle King knew the importance of leaving his bloodline behind. You’re smarter than him, right?”

“…”

Su Yu was completely speechless. Holy shit. So this was their true goal here? What were they doing? He had been curious about how everyone had been trying to make him drunk tonight. What were they thinking?

Women were scary. There was also Lan Tian running around. No way!

Su Yu shivered.

He hurriedly said, “No thanks. I can win, Teacher. Just deal with your issues yourself. Now that the meal is over, I’ll have to excuse myself. Farewell, everyone.”

With a flicker, he vanished into the River of Time.

Silence enveloped the hall.

After a long while, Wu Lan muttered, “See, I told you. He was a lunatic with zero interest in women. You didn’t believe me. Now you know!”

Wu Lan curled her lips and said, “Come on, Teacher Bai. Let’s go. It’s time to return to our research.” And thus, they started leaving helplessly.

Great Xia King and the others could only shake their heads with resignation.

This was indeed their goal. They were trying to make Su Yu leave his bloodline behind. If humanity suffered another loss, and if they survived the defeat, they were willing to support Su Yu’s descendant for the next epoch.

Numerous people glared at Liu Wenyan furiously.

Bastard!

It was all this bastard’s fault! As a young man, Su Yu wouldn’t have been so uninterested in women if it weren’t for this bastard!

And then, they looked at Lan Tian as their resignation deepened. These two had played a massive role in Su Yu’s aversion toward women.

“Fine, fine. We will fight like this is the last epoch. Don’t even think of the next epoch anymore.”

Great Xia King laughed and drained a glass of liquor before smashing the glass on the ground. “Emperor Yu refuses to leave behind a bloodline. He is using himself as an example that this is our final epoch. Do not place our hope in the uncertain future. We do our best now.”

Everyone raised their thumbs. What a good interpretation of Su Yu’s action. That was the only way they could interpret it.

“Friends, this is our final epoch. Victory or destruction. These are our only choices.”

With that, everyone drained their glasses before leaving. They had given up all hope of making Su Yu leave a bloodline behind.

Outside, fireworks filled the sky.

The first year of the New Domain Calendar had arrived.