Tribulation of Myriad Races

A certain term appeared in Su Yu’s mind.

Lan Tian cultivated all life. Old Wan cultivated the expressions of life. But Su Yu himself cultivated something similar as well, especially if he considered the pages of the Mark of Civilization as his clones. He, too, cultivated all life and the expressions of life to assemble his myriad daos.

Both the demonic and the holy existed within his path.

”Sure enough, when all daos are brought together again, the result will be similar.”

Just a simple look at the human dao gave Su Yu numerous inspirations.

There were many facets to an entity referred to as a person. Evil. Kindness. Good. Bad.

That was life. What one was as a person depended on how much one tilted toward these facets.

Nobody was a saint at birth.

Even someone like Old Wan harbored evil within him. That was Su Yu’s thought as he looked at an evil Wan Tiansheng who was busy bullying the weak.

Then, he saw a kind Wan Tiansheng who was saving all living beings.

He even saw a brutish Wan Tiansheng who was charging forward in a battlefield.

What the fuck?

Su Yu was rendered quite speechless. Was he truly looking at Wan Tiansheng’s history? Or were these scenes imagined by Wan Tiansheng?

According to Old Wan, his dao was his experience, his life.

In that case, these were all things Old Wan had done before.

How terrifying.

Sure enough, one should never judge a book by its cover.

Before long, Su Yu saw a Wan Tiansheng shrouded in death, turning into a being similar to a death spirit. In truth, Wan Tiansheng had not experienced death prior to this. Thanks to their recent battle, Wan Tiansheng had finally experienced death for real.

Su Yu sank into thought as he looked at the dead Wan Tiansheng. Perhaps...this was Wan Tiansheng’s remnant will.

He was dead.

But he left his death spirit behind, one that would return to life through death.

Looking at the death spirit who was staring blankly, Su Yu infused his voice with dao itself and roared, ”Wake up!”

Even after falling back into the Sunmoon Realm, Su Yu’s voice still contained the profundities of the myriad daos due to his deep comprehension. It might seem like he had severed his dao, but that wasn’t the case. He had only severed an external dao. His true dao had always been the Mark of Civilization.

The death spirit’s eyes snapped open. Death flickered in those eyes. Suddenly, a furious Wan Tiansheng charged toward Su Yu. A sad Wan Tiansheng stared at Su Yu sorrowfully. A joyful Wan Tiansheng clapped. A greedy Wan Tiansheng looked at Su Yu with desire.

But next, all the Wan Tianshengs overlapped with the dead Wan Tiansheng.

From death, life seeped out.

Slowly, life force replaced death qi.

The entire human dao trembled, and it started growing again. Some time passed, and finally, only a single Wan Tiansheng remained. A normal Wan Tiansheng.

This Wan Tiansheng had an empty look in his eyes, but soon, clarity filled those eyes. He looked at Su Yu and said expressionlessly, ”Let’s go.”

Su Yu looked at the slightly unfamiliar Wan Tiansheng and sneered, ”Sure, sure, keep acting. I saw everything. You cultivate all expressions of life, including sex. Stop pretending to be all sagely and wise. Your image in my mind has shattered.”

At that, the indifferent Wan Tiansheng turned into a furious Wan Tiansheng, ”Shut your mouth if you have nothing good to say! Do you think anyone will trust you even when you talk about this outside?”

Wan Tiansheng was furious. Not only had Su Yu spied on him, but Su Yu had seemingly seen something private!

He continued speaking in rage, ”Do you think I’m the same as you? Unlike you, I don’t automatically assume every woman I meet is Lan Tian. Since the heavens allowed men and women to exist, it is only natural that we come together! You! You are a sorrowful existence!

”Stay jealous of me! This is a joy you can never experience due to the trauma Lan Tian left in your heart. I have nothing to fear! When I first started getting close to women, Lan Tian had yet to be born! I am thirty years older than him! By the time he was born, I was already focused solely on cultivation.”

”But you! May every woman you encounter be Lan Tian! In my youth, there was no Lan Tian!”

”...”

Su Yu’s face turned green from fury. But he couldn’t find any retort to those words.

Inwardly, Wan Tiansheng was feeling smug. Was this kid trying to play that game with him? Dream on! He had been very tolerant of Su Yu, but that did not mean that he couldn’t win in a verbal spar.

If Su Yu really wanted to have a go with him, he had nothing to fear. What was there to fear from someone who would be single forever?

And then, Wan Tiansheng patted himself down and said, ”Let’s go. It’s not a good thing to stay here for too long. When we leave this place, we can forget about this little episode. This is no big deal.”

Su Yu was in a bad mood. For some reason, this gossip did not seem so interesting to him anymore.

”Principal, were you really dead?”

Seeing that Su Yu was talking about something else, Wan Tiansheng exhaled with relief. He said, ”You can say so. I managed to comprehend a tiny part of death, to seek life amid death. When Lan Tian pioneered his dao, he discovered the lack of death. Subsequently, I discovered that I lacked the same thing in my dao.”

”What you call the expressions of life is essentially emotion. Life, death, joy, fury, sorrow, everything is an emotion. A dao of emotions will remain incomplete without death.

”When the master of death spirit dao stripped the dao of death from the River of Time, not all death was stripped from the myriad daos. I have a feeling that death still exists in the myriad daos.”

Su Yu nodded.

So be it. He decided to forget about Old Wan’s gossip and said, ”So...are you now existing as a sea of willpower?”

”No.” Wan Tiansheng shook his head and said, ”I am now an existence similar to the soul devourer race. I am the dao, the dao is me. Abandoning my flesh and seeking life amid death. I was already planning to do this before, but due to your plan, I managed to experience death in advance. Death is a valid path to free myself from the shackles of the flesh. Of course, having a physical body has its benefits. As for me, I currently exist in a special state.”

Su Yu frowned and said, ”So is this good or bad for you?”

”There is no right answer.” Wan Tiansheng said, ”There are more benefits to having a proper body of flesh. I’m not weak in my current state, but I’ll be in trouble when I encounter anything that is a direct counter to my dao.

”For example, in a place where the power of dao is sealed or restricted, you remain strong with your physical body. But sealing my dao is the same as sealing my very person. I will be completely worthless. Thus, I won’t stay in this form for too long. I’ll look for a way to restore my body.”

Su Yu nodded, ”I saw that from your comprehension of death, your dao has grown even more. Have you reached the level of a Venerable?”

”No.” Wan Tiansheng shook his head, ”Prior to this, I was a weak heavenly king. I was barely in that level. Now that my comprehension has deepened, I am stronger. But I’m definitely still weaker than a Venerable. I might now be as strong as the older heavenly kings, but it’s not so easy to reach the level of a Venerable.”

Su Yu said, ”True. Looks like death in itself is a sort of birth. This has been quite inspirational for the resurrection I’m attempting soon.”

Wan Tiansheng nodded and said, ”Of the death spirits under you, I believe He Tu is the easiest to resurrect. After all, he still has his physical body from his time as a human. You can use him as a test subject. I doubt he will be too hard to resurrect.”

He Tu’s transformation into a death spirit had been assisted by the old turtle, allowing him to transform with his entire body after dying. He had stepped into the Death Realm from the world of the living without going through the Celestial River of Death.

Wan Tiansheng said, ”If you ask me, He Tu feels more half-dead than fully dead. You can try resurrecting him and accumulating more experience before trying on others.

”The two of us and Lan Tian are walking a dao with both life and death. I suggest that you first pioneer your dao before attempting any resurrection. Your comprehension will be lower before pioneering your own dao. The difficulty of resurrecting someone before pioneering your dao is greater.”

Su Yu thought about it and nodded, ”True. Perhaps it’s really time for me to pioneer a dao. Previously, I planted my fake daos into the various daos. I can’t risk having Hundred Battle notice them after returning to the Lower Realm. In that case, I might as well collect all my fake daos and prepare for my dao pioneering.”

Suddenly, Su Yu laughed and said, ”I have a good idea to steal more dao power. I’m off, Principal. I need to spend some time repairing and recultivating the pen dao. After that, I will strip the part I mastered from the pen dao into the Mark of Civilization. With that, I will have a powerful pen page in my book. Yes, that’s such a good idea.”

Wan Tiansheng nodded, ”Good idea indeed. But I worry that you will destroy the pen dao doing that.”

”It doesn’t matter. That’s a dao Culture King has abandoned.”

And then, the two stepped on Heavenbridge Marquis to leave the tributary.

Heavenbridge Marquis stared at the two blankly.

Holy shit!

What was going on?

Wasn’t Wan Tiansheng supposed to be dead?

How did a living being like him hide in his dao for so long?

What in the world was going on?

Heavenbridge Marquis felt his worldview collapsing.

Nothing seemed impossible anymore.

Su Yu was an abnormal monster, but clearly, Wan Tiansheng was one such abnormal monster as well.

Were there nobody normal in the human race?

As the two started leaving, Heavenbridge Marquis rushed over and shouted, ”Wait, wait, take me with you! Slow down a bit!”

Su Yu continued at the same speed, ignoring Heavenbridge Marquis. He was losing patience due to his curiosity. He wanted to know if he could really repair, recultivate, and draw the pen dao into his Mark of Civilization.

Shortly after, they reached the pen dao.

There, Su Yu suppressed the tributary with Xing Yu’s token, repaired the calmed tributary, before starting his fusion with the dao again.

***

At the same time.

Amid the boundless darkness, a man in white blanked out. ”Huh?”

How many years had passed? Why did he feel like his successor had just lost the dao not long ago? Had a new successor emerged so soon? Had a new era arrived, resulting in a new successor?

How odd.

Before the man in white could recover from his confusion, he blanked out again. ”Huh?”

The dao was severed yet again.

What the fuck?

***

After fusing with a tiny bit of the pen dao, Su Yu madly withdrew the power under his control before stuffing it into the Mark of Civilization.

Slowly, an arrow appeared on one of the pages.

Su Yu was overjoyed.

It worked!

Holy shit! This signified that he could feed the page with the entire pen dao! Sure, it might cause the pen dao to collapse, but why should he care about that?

***

Somewhere enveloped in boundless darkness.

Once again, the man in white blanked out. How many years had it passed?

Yet another successor had appeared.

And shortly after, the dao was severed again. Did another successor die?

Again.

And again.

”Ahhhhhhhh!”

The man in white was losing his mind. What in the world was going on? Had his senses turned inaccurate? That wasn’t possible. Fuck! What was going on? Were millions of years passing by outside with every breath he took in here?

”This is crazy. How many of my successors have died?”

He roared. What was going on out there?

Just how big was the difference in the flow of time between this place and the Myriad Realms?