Tribulation of Myriad Races

”I think I understand now.” Su Yu’s eyes gleamed as he slapped a random Eternal to death. As the Eternal returned, he observed the river and muttered, ”The separation of three bodies. Three bodies and three essences...In short, the Three Body Method is a gamble. A gamble with every trace of your being, walking a path of cultivation with everything you have without leaving anything behind.”

In fact, everyone would have at least two lives as long as one did not cultivate the Three Body Method. Why? Because there was the Death Realm. Even death spirits could be brought to life.

No, perhaps even a regular person would have three lives like the three body cultivators. As for how they would return after the second death...it was still unknown.

While deep in thought, Su Yu slapped another Eternal to death. ”I need to observe more. If I manage to understand before going through all of you, all of you will be alive with at least one body left. But if I can’t understand before then, you might need to start dying.”

At that, the Primordial Giant King finally understood what Su Yu was doing. He was researching the trash cultivation method. There wasn’t a need for someone at Su Yu’s level to lie about something like this.

After killing the second body of the second expert, Su Yu’s eyes flickered as he moved on to the third expert. He went through the Eternals one after another.

After some time, he started muttering again, ”Three bodies and three deaths. The three deaths are also opportunities to comprehend life and death.

”How interesting. Comprehending life and death before undergoing rebirth. A pity that Hundred Battle didn’t cultivate the Three Body Method. He probably wouldn’t have despaired after a single setback if he experienced a few deaths early in his life...”

Cultivating this method was a way for one to experience death.

Su Yu continued observing while muttering to himself and slapping one expert after another to death. Death Imperator was observing as well, but he couldn’t see as much. However, he was still able to sense something after so many deaths.

***

After an indeterminate amount of time.

Suddenly, Su Yu’s eyes gleamed, as though he had finally understood something.

About seven or eight Eternals were no longer present. Only five or six of them remained. All of them stood before their king, ensuring that Su Yu would not hit their king before them. These were all their final bodies.

The Primordial Giant King was filled with despair, but then again, they were here to die in the first place. Death alone wouldn’t give them such despair. Rather, the despair only started rising after the little hope Su Yu gave them earlier.

Suddenly, Su Yu smiled, ”You’re quite lucky. There are a few survivors. Well, I’m a man of my word. You won’t die here.”

Then, he vanished with a flicker. His research had produced an initial result. With Su Yu and Death Imperator gone, the Primordial Giant King and the others panted heavily. Both the joy of surviving and despair at their losses flickered on their faces.

Nevertheless, this was still much better than expected. Su Yu had not exterminated their race, and not all of them were killed.

”Seal the realm.”

Primordial Giant King had a look of self-ridicule. Yu...Zhou Ji...sigh. When Tiangu and the others fled, they fled with their people. Meanwhile, Yu and Zhou Ji had not bothered to even negotiate about the giants before fleeing.

Between the two, one only cared about Human Ancestor and the other only cared about his dao. The giant race was never their concern. If Zhou Ji had bothered to negotiate, it was likely that Su Yu wouldn’t mind letting the giants leave with them as well. Alas, Zhou Ji had not bothered.

Sorrow engulfed Primordial Giant King. Those two were definitely not good leaders. Or to be precise, they were unworthy of being the leaders of a race.

”They only care about their personal pursuits. They lack something very important. The sense of responsibility...”

The more Primordial Giant King thought about it, the more sorrowful he felt.

So be it.

Perhaps this was a good thing.

From then on, they could give up their delusions on those two. They would no longer place their hope on those two, even if those two could return from the Hell Gate one day.

People like Tiangu, Divine Consort, Su Yu, Human Emperor, and even Hundred Battle might not necessarily abandon their people even when they were forced to flee. No, perhaps Hundred Battle was an exception to that. He had abandoned humanity six thousand years ago.

Then again, Hundred Battle never considered himself a human. Countless thoughts emerged in the mind of the heavily injured Primordial Giant King. As they returned inside their realm, the realm shut down fully with a rumble.

The two who had abandoned them would no longer be welcomed. They were unworthy to lead.

***

At the same time, Su Yu was muttering with excitement, ”Three bodies, three essences. Collecting all traces from the River of Time, concentrating everything on oneself. That is the essence of the Three Body Method.”

”Of course, there is a major disadvantage to this. One can no longer return as a death spirit after dying.

”In short, everyone is capable of cultivating three bodies. Everyone has their traces in the River of Time, including me.

”The Three Body Method is the cultivation of one’s true self. Without the Three Body Method, one will only be cultivating a third of one’s essence. The rest of one’s power will remain dormant in the River of Time.”

At that, Death Imperator spoke, ”Your Majesty, are you saying that the past and future bodies are always there. These so-called bodies are merely the manifestation of one’s split essence?”

Su Yu nodded. He gasped, ”Who created the Three Body Method? That would be quite an incredible personage. This person is essentially doing what we’re doing to the Celestial River of Death. All living beings are sharing their essence with the River of Time, even if it’s not as apparent as the relationship between death spirits and the Celestial River of Death.”

As Su Yu thought about it, his eyes flickered as he muttered, ”This person might be related to Human Emperor and his people. After all, it was under their watch that the natural laws transformed, forcing everyone to cultivate only the Three Body Method.

”This is an act of forcing every future cultivator to reclaim their essence from the River of Time, preventing the river from growing even stronger.

”This person is either a Creator with their own schemes or an enemy of Master of Time and Master of Death. Could this person be Human Emperor?”

He was unsure. How impressive. Three Body Method. The so-called trash method. What if even someone who had pioneered his own dao like Su Yu cultivated the three bodies as well? He would gain two copies of similar strength for free.

”Past and future. It’s fine to remove the past, but removing the future is the same as severing the foundation of the river.”

Su Yu licked his lips. He felt like he had discovered a massive secret. The creator of the Three Body Method might be plotting something major. Something incredibly major, with a few specific targets.

Or perhaps this method was truly something created by accident. Even so, the creator of this method must be someone who had done in-depth research on the essence in the river. This wasn’t something anyone could understand. Even Su Yu had only gained some understanding after a grand feat like resurrecting the dead.

Simply put, this method would allow everyone to do what Su Yu had been helping the death spirits accomplish recently. They would be able to reclaim their essence from the River of Time, preventing the River of Time from benefiting from their cultivation.

The power of the essence still belonged to the cultivators. However, the River of Time was milking its cultivators, albeit with more restraint than the Celestial River of Death.

Understanding dawned on Death Imperator as he asked, ”Your Majesty, are you saying that if we can help others find their past and future bodies, they will be able to gain an immediate boost in strength like the death spirits after resurrection?”

That...would be such a terrifying prospect. How much stronger could Su Yu and those under him grow from this?

Su Yu shook his head, ”That won’t be easy. This might not be something everyone can do. Those who had lost their past or future bodies before, those who had switched their daos, I doubt these people can do so again.”

In short, this method wouldn’t be feasible for people like Great Qin King.

They had long reclaimed their essence from the river. They would not be able to find anything from the river anymore. However, nothing was certain. There were countless iterations of the past and future. They might not have fully exhausted the possibilities.

The overlapping method mentioned by Old Wan back then was essentially an act of gathering the scattered essence from the river through repeated attempts. Perhaps even the former three body cultivators had plenty of essence left in the river.

Su Yu licked his lips with excitement and said, ”I’m curious about one thing. Has Human Emperor and the others collected their past and future bodies from the river as well? If not, this might present them with a new opportunity. Then again, the past and future bodies can’t be found so easily either.”

Su Yu suddenly discovered that the Three Body Method could very well be their chance to change the situation around. As for whether his speculation was right, he would know after giving it a try.

If it worked, he would be able to grow, resulting in further growth of his people, which would result in even further growth for him as well. It would greatly strengthen Su Yu’s camp in a short time.

Then again, this method would not be available for the former death spirits. They had already collected their essence. Right, Martial Emperor was most likely unaware of this, even if Human Emperor and the others might know.

Thus, Martial Emperor could grow even further in a short time. Of course, he had to hold back the information from Martial Emperor temporarily. That fellow might decide to turn against him after growing even stronger.

”I need to ensure I’m always capable of suppressing him.”

Su Yu couldn’t suppress his excitement. Would this really work? One ought to know that this was supposed to be a phase all Sunmoons of this era needed to go through, but he had long surpassed that level.

”Not really...I’m collecting my essence. My cultivation level shouldn’t matter that much here...”

In his excitement, Su Yu wasted no time and vanished with a flicker. If this worked, he would have enough strength to head upstream right away.