Tribulation of Myriad Races

After a long search, Su Yu and Great Ming King started digging.

There was a tightly sealed underground tunnel in the middle of the hill. It was covered so perfectly that one could barely notice the existence of the tunnel. After traveling long enough to probably reach the center of the space inside the hill, Su Yu and Great Ming King finally saw some light.

The light came from a small piece of glowing jade. This place was the core of the barrier around the hill. Just as Su Yu was about to step forward to get a better look, Great Ming King reached out and stopped him.

After a detailed observation, Great Ming King said, “Don’t touch this thing. It’s the foundation of the formation. I finally understand why the formation was left here.”

“Why?”

Great Ming King said, “They must have performed a test here before. This jade is the original vein of this hill. Simply put, this is the core of the hill. Removing it might cause the collapse of the hill and attract more attention than necessary.

“The collapse of a hill might be enough to trigger something unwanted. Thus, they decided to leave this thing behind. In any case, very few people have the ability to detect this formation. I wouldn’t have noticed it either without your reminder.”

Great Ming King gave a short explanation. Everyone had something they were good at. Su Yu was an absolute layman in talismans, formations, and pills. However, he was an expert in weaponsmithing. Thus, he didn’t really know what he was looking at here. He could only see that the jade was the origin of the barrier and an important component of the formation.

“In other words, this very hill is the core of the formation instead of a treasure?”

“Yes.” Great Ming King nodded, “Yes. This is actually quite impressive. It’s a good idea. Even a regular hill that has existed here for many years can also be a treasure. This jade should be called a jade essence. It is acting as the foundation for this formation, making this a sort of natural formation.”

Great Ming King said, “The Control King lineage is exceptionally good at formations. With their skills, they can probably lay down large concealment formations without much effort.”

Su Yu nodded in agreement. This was not a weak lineage at all.

He asked, “Can we reduce the size of this formation? Make it small enough that we can carry it in person. That way, we will be able to avoid the suppression of the chaos power in the air. Otherwise, fighting here will easily trigger the rejection of the Chaos Mountain, attracting the surrounding ancient beasts to attack us.”

When fighting here, one would feel that everything was fine. Sure, there was a suppression from the chaos power, but its effect wasn’t too strong. But with enough time, one would be rejected by the Chaos Mountain itself. By the time one noticed that, it would be too late.

A large number of ancient beasts would arrive and kill the outsider. The presence of outsiders in active combat would essentially cause discomfort to the ancient beasts here.

The rejection was barely perceptible, to the point that most would neglect it and consider the arrival of ancient beasts as bad luck. But in truth, the ancient beasts wouldn’t even care about them if it weren’t for the rejection of the mountain itself.

Su Yu had been constantly observing the nearby hills. He saw no reaction from the ancient beasts there.

There were also weaker beings living in the mountain range, and these weaker beings would also engage each other in combat. However, they had never triggered a reaction from the stronger beasts. That was because these weaker beings were also natives. Their combat would not trigger a rejection from the mountain, causing the stronger beasts discomfort.

Great Ming King sank into thought.

After a while, he said, “In that case, we need to study this thing properly. Even if that’s possible, I’ll need more jade essence. We need the raw materials to recreate something similar. As for the piece here, we can’t remove it.

“Removing it might cause a collapse of the hill and attract more attention. Both the ancient beasts and Control King’s lineage might notice us and give us trouble. It’s not that bad to deal with the ancient beasts, but those from Control King’s lineage will think of the jade essence the moment they see the collapsed hill. They can easily deduce that someone has discovered their formation.”

Su Yu nodded. True.

After thinking about it, he asked, “Can this jade essence only be found on these hills?”

“I doubt so.” Great Ming King said, “And we don’t even need to focus on jade essence alone. For example, the bones, teeth, horns, or other body parts of the ancient beasts work as well. As long as these beasts are powerful enough, their body parts can be used. Since the beasts are natives here, they naturally have a way to avoid suppression.”

Understanding dawned on Su Yu. “So the best solution is to kill more ancient beasts?”

“Yes. And since you wish to cover the fluctuations of Daofuses, you need to kill Daofuse beasts or our formation will break the moment the Daofuses start fighting.”

Su Yu inhaled deeply and nodded, “I understand now. Strictly speaking, using a jade essence is better since every hill is something that has existed for countless years. Is this correct?”

“You can say so.” Great Ming King said, “For example, this jade essence here is enough to allow a Daofuse to fight at full power without worry.”

Su Yu did a short calculation and grimaced. He had quite a lot of Daofuses on his side. How many pieces of jade essence would he need to gather to allow all of them to fight freely? In that case, he needed to start hunting some ancient beasts.

“We’ll see.”

Su Yu smiled bitterly. Perhaps he could put this matter aside for now. After all, killing wasn’t his main goal up here. He was here to scout and gather information. Even now, he had gained significantly from his journey to the Upper Realm. He had learned more about the Control King’s lineage.

His comprehension of the dao had also increased considerably. However, he had yet to find the River of Time in the Upper Realm so he couldn’t walk his pen dao another time. He had a feeling that the next time he walked his pen dao, he would be able to cover even more distance than before.

It wasn’t that he couldn’t improve without the River of Time, but progress would be much slower.

With all that in mind, Su Yu said, “You can stay here and study the formation for now. I’ll be taking my leave.”

“Sure.”

Great Ming King did not mind that. He enjoyed researching formations. As far as he was concerned, the formations of Control King’s lineage were a lot more interesting than their sealing dao. Of course, formations and sealing were often similar in nature as the two shared many similarities.

“After defeating Control King’s lineage in the future, I hope that you can take me on a trip to their formation dao. I suspect their formations followed a completely different path than the current art of formations in the Human Realm.”

Great Ming King smiled expectantly.

Su Yu nodded. He had not helped Great Ming King much, but Great Ming was actually much closer to him than Great Qin. Since Great Ming King believed that Control King’s formation dao was helpful to him, Su Yu wouldn’t mind helping.

***

Inside the cave.

Su Yu returned soon after.

At this point, the cleanup was done. Everyone was waiting leisurely.

Noticing Su Yu’s return, Grandstar spoke before everyone else, “Emperor Yu, there are so many of us. Are we going to just wait here? The Daofuses can move alongside you. As for those below the Daofuse Realm, there is no need to keep them by your side.

“I suggest that we have Sunray and the other guardians operate independently. There are plenty of battles to be fought in the Upper Realm.”

Seeing that Su Yu wanted to speak, he hurriedly explained, “Don’t worry. Guardians like us have been inactive for too long. Many people only know our boss and Heavendoom for some reason, but very few know the rest of us.”

He continued, “Take yourself as an example. As a Daofuse, will you pay any attention to the subordinates of the other Daofuses?”

Su Yu chuckled. He understood what Grandstar was saying. At first, he was worried that the guardians would be recognized. But according to Grandstar, the old turtle and Heavendoom were the ones who were too high-profile. The rest of them had remained relatively unknown. Furthermore, they had spent countless years existing as statues. It was unlikely that they would encounter someone who would recognize them here.

Xia Longwu spoke up as well, “Emperor Yu, I am of the same thought. We’re not here on a holiday or stick together all the time. I believe we should split up and seek for opportunities independently. We can also gather information while we’re at it. That’s much better than hiding here together. I can feel that the daos are easier to comprehend in the Upper Realm. When we’re discovered, we can simply pretend to be the surviving subordinates of the dead Heavenly Sun Marquis as per our previous plan.

“The Upper Realm is very big, and there are only a small number of Daofuses around. A Daofuse can’t be encountered so easily. Daofuses might seem common for you right now, but that’s because of your level. At your level, you will naturally encounter more people of the same level.”

That was true as well.

Daofuses were very common for Su Yu because he was already strong enough to kill Daofuses. He would also encounter weaker cultivators frequently, but he had grown so strong that they didn’t even register in his mind anymore. His personal experience did not signify that the Upper Realm was filled with Daofuses.

Back before Su Yu was strong enough to contend against Eternals, even Eternals felt incredibly rare. But upon reaching that level, Eternals suddenly became common while the weaker ones stopped catching his attention.

He had brought several humans to the Upper Realm. Of those below the Daofuse Realm, there were Xia Longwu, Silk Destroying King, Nan Wujiang, Yun Chen, Junior Zhou King, and Hu Xiansheng.

Hu Xiansheng was the most pitiful of all as he was only a peak Sunmoon. Then again, he had also been improving rapidly. He hadn’t even been a Sunmoon for that long. He had been pushed to that level through the sheer amount of resources Su Yu had provided him. That was necessary since he was one of the few humans proficient in spatial manipulation.

Su Yu had indeed brought these people up here to help them grow more.

However, he still said with a frown, “Acting independently is too dangerous…”

Xia Longwu solemnly said, “Emperor Yu, we are warriors. Not children. We’re not here to pick up some benefits while following behind you. We wish to find competent opponents to temper ourselves and grow through life and death battles. We can no longer find such battles in the Lower Realm. Down there, the top-level battles are too much for us since those battles involve Daofuses. But all the Eternals are hiding in fear.”

Xia Longwu continued, “We are fighters! We are geniuses as well! We are not regular soldiers who only need to follow orders. We have our own paths to walk. We have the desire to reach a higher level.

“I am Xia Longwu! Xia Longwu, one who had killed Eternals as a Sunmoon. I am the Carnage King. One whose dao affirmation was feared by the myriad races. Please grant me this, Emperor Yu.”

He was a genius. He was the brightest star of the generation before Su Yu’s. He was younger than many top experts. He was the public enemy of the myriad races before Su Yu. He wasn’t that big of a target to them compared to Su Yu, but he was still the star of an era.

And now, he had ascended to the Upper Realm to seek more growth. He did not want to follow behind Su Yu and stay protected all the time.

To the side, Nan Wujiang and Yun Chen had complicated expressions as well. Nan Wujiang softly said, “Allow us to seek our own opportunities. You can’t grow true powerhouses from a greenhouse.

“No matter what, we are the stars of our era. We might have fallen behind now, but we do not wish to stay behind forever.”

Beside Su Yu, Great Zhou King smiled and said, “Emperor Yu, let them go. An eagle needs to soar in the skies. Excessive protection won’t allow them to grow.

“In terms of combat experience, Xia Longwu has plenty as a general who has fought for decades on the battlefield. As a general, he is ever victorious. Tianyuan had stayed in the Heavenly Hunt Pavilion as a spy for many years, and he had faced plenty of danger as well. Nan Wujiang was able to hide his identity as First Profound for many years. Yun Chen was the First Divine Sect master for many years.”

He listed their accomplishments one by one and said, “You have clearly brought them up here to let them grow. You are also someone who has grown through countless slaughters. Why worry so much about these seniors of yours?”

Seniors?

Hearing that, Stable Army Marquis hesitated slightly before sending September a question, “Friend from the iron devourer race, can I ask you one question? How old is this Emperor Yu?”

“Twenty-two, I think.”

September wasn’t too sure, but he recalled what he heard before.