Tribulation of Myriad Races

Su Yu noticed Great Zhou King and the others holding their laughter in, but he couldn’t be bothered to say anything. He returned his focus to the absorption of his essence. His body continued tearing apart before regrowing. After a while, he shook his head.

”I can’t take in more bodies even though I believe I have more essence out there. My body is at its limit. I can only proceed with the human lord’s token for my future body. I’ll keep the future body with me when I need it and throw it aside when I don’t need it. When my body grows strong enough, I can kill the future body and eat it as well.”

The others shivered as they listened to how unbothered he was when he spoke of killing himself.

After some thought, Su Yu said, ”The future doesn’t need to be too strong. It only needs to be similar to my current strength. Such a future is a lot more rooted in reality. A strong yet fickle future is unreliable. I’ve always believed that the future body is the most unreliable of the three bodies. The source of power from the future is the most imaginary. It might even be...a power credit of sorts.”

That caught everyone’s attention. Wan Tiansheng asked, ”Are you suggesting that by fusing with the future body, one is essentially borrowing the power from a moment in the future?”

Su Yu nodded, ”Yes. For example, my future body might come from a certain moment when I reach the first tier in the future. Everything feels fine now, but when I actually reach that moment in the future, I might experience a sudden weakness.”

”Power can’t appear from nothing.” Su Yu said, ”For instance, the past body I captured had essentially drained the Book of Time of its power. That was why the Book of Time remained weak for so many years in my head.

”The future body I catch can’t be too strong or I’ll be taking too much from the future. I might end up sending myself to my grave in the future. Therefore, it is a bad idea to fuse with the future body. One should only do so in a limited capacity.”

Everyone sank into thought. Wan Tiansheng said, ”In that case, I can fuse with my future from a second later. Will that result in a moment of weakness after one second?”

Su Yu thought about it and said, ”Maybe. We can test it out. Most people will pick the strongest future they can get instead of the future one second later.”

Su Yu smiled and said, ”In fact, I can try it right now. I might weaken next, and I don’t even know how long I’ll stay in this weakened state. If you’re interested, you can also try doing the same.”

They had some free time in their hand, so they could afford to give this a try. It wasn’t like they would be going upstream immediately. Su Yu wasted no time after reaching the decision to try it. He took his token out.

He stayed near the rift to the river of memories and reached downstream before randomly grabbing a version of himself from the future. That version of himself was almost identical to his present version. Instantly, the future body was fused into the human lord’s token.

Then, the token transformed into a powerful Su Yu. In an instant, the future body fused with the present body. Su Yu did not bother to smash this body apart since he couldn’t take in too much power with his present body anymore.

This future body was by no means weak. It was similar to the present Su Yu in strength.

In fact, Su Yu’s strength was still growing from absorbing the past body. He was slowly reaching the level of Martial Emperor, a level not far from the second tier. And one ought to know that he was currently outside his world.

Inside his world, he would probably be at the higher end of the second tier, but not enough to reach the first tier. That was without the future body.

The moment the future body fused with the present body, Su Yu’s aura skyrocketed. With a rumble, the entire river shook, throwing Su Yu’s group out of it. As of that moment, Su Yu grew far more powerful than before. Even Great Zhou King gasped when he sensed Su Yu’s new strength.

He had reached the second tier after fusing with the future body. To be precise, he was at the second tier outside his world! Did this mean that he would reach the first tier inside his world? How terrifying. It hadn’t even been that long since he completed his creation as a Sunmoon.

Su Yu smiled and said, ”I know what you’re thinking. This isn’t enough to push me to the first tier inside my world. The gap between the first and second tiers is very big.”

He could already feel it. There was a clear boundary between each tier set by Culture King and the others. Now that he had grown strong enough, he could sense the presence of that boundary.

Even inside his world, he couldn’t surpass it. However, he would be at the very peak of the second tier inside his world. Outside, he would be at the lower end of the second tier.

Shortly after, a Su Yu flew out of Su Yu’s body. Instantly, his aura dropped down to peak tier-three.

Su Yu shook his head, ”Nothing too impressive.”

Two peak tier-threes could combine into a single tier-two. But Su Yu found his future body an eyesore. He hated those similar to him. He much preferred to be the only smart guy around. Essentially, the so-called future body was an imprint similar to the Master of the Perished. It might develop its own free will, turning into a different yet similarly sly Su Yu.

With such a future body around, Su Yu had to be careful of a potential betrayal from himself. He still remembered how some people had gone mad due to a clash of their three bodies back then.

The moment the future Su Yu appeared, he smiled and said, ”Fellow Daoist--”

He was greeting the present body.

Before he could finish, the present Su Yu threw a punch. The future Su Yu answered with a punch as well. But right at that moment, the human lord’s token shook and dispersed the power of the future body.

With a smile, the present Su Yu grabbed his future self and shook his head, ”Damn. Even myself from the next moment in the future does not wish to be the second me. Rather, he wishes to become the sole me. This idea is too deeply rooted in my being. This can’t be changed, and this guy might stab me in the back at any time. This is so unreliable.

”Therefore, the Three Body Method is something you can cultivate, but it is definitely a bad idea to keep these past and future bodies around. They should all be smashed apart to feed the main body.”

Wan Tiansheng was left quite speechless as he said, ”Your future body is too rebellious. We once had our future bodies as well, but none of our future bodies was this rebellious.”

A future body that had rebelled against the main body right after appearing. The future body was essentially another version of Su Yu. And all versions of him stubbornly believed that there could only be one of him around. He was unique and unmatched.

Su Yu’s wasn’t too surprised as he said, ”This is perfectly normal. I never wanted to have a second me running around, so the second me definitely believes the same. I don’t even need to think to know that this guy is probably still thinking of a way to remove me. Fortunately, there is one benefit to the Three Body Method. The present will forever remain the primary body. The past and future bodies will forever remain secondary.”

Next, the present Su Yu squeezed the future Su Yu into a ball before stuffing him into the human lord’s token. Then, he said, ”This guy can serve as a power supply for now. When my body is strong enough, I’ll blast him apart and eat him. He has been sealed. Nobody will be able to communicate with him. I have to be careful lest you fall for his lies.”

Everyone had odd expressions, but they actually agreed. The future Su Yu was definitely as good as the present Su Yu at lying.

With the future body sealed, Su Yu’s aura dropped, but he was prepared for it. He smiled and said, ”See, I knew this would happen. How surprising that it’s happening so soon. So the so-called future body is truly borrowing from the strength of the future. I wonder how long this weakened state will last.”

This was happening even when he had only captured the closest future body he could. Most people would capture one from the distant future.

With a sigh of relief, Su Yu said, ”Fortunately, my future self is already sealed. He would have taken the chance to kill me the moment I entered this weakened state while he’s still at full strength. Wouldn’t that be terrible?”

Su Yu started walking away as he said, ”This is too big of a weakness. In fact, I would even suggest that one skips the future body entirely. It’s too dangerous. First, the future body might turn on you. Second, you might experience a sudden drop in strength during an unknown moment in the future. It might happen while you’re in active combat, and that will be the end of you.

”I only captured the future body from the near future, but I have no clue how long this weakened state will last. It might last long. If so, this will be very troublesome. I also worry that each usage of the future body will result in another weakened state in the future.

”For example, I can keep utilizing the strength of my future body from the next moment in the future, but I will forever be weaker in the next moment.

”This is a bad thing. Earlier, I only drained the power of the future for about a minute. But that has resulted in an indeterminate period of weakness. In the future, I might end up using my future body for twenty minutes before entering a weakened state for twenty minutes or more.”

Wan Tiansheng asked, ”But why had this never appeared to us before this?”

Su Yu laughed and said, ”The future bodies all of you picked were the bodies far in the future, such as ten years or even a hundred years ahead. You might not live that long, and even when you live long enough to see that day arrive, you won’t even attribute that sudden weakness to your future body. You might suspect that you’re suffering from a cultivation deviation instead.”

At that, Great Zhou King blinked before exclaiming, ”That happened before! Back then, we speculated that there were disadvantages to cultivating the Three Body Method. Cultivation deviation was one of the disadvantages we listed. At the time, someone lost all their strength out of nowhere. They believed that it was a cultivation deviation. And then, they died to self-detonation after losing control over their strength due to their intense emotional state.”

Su Yu shrugged, ”That’s not even surprising. Imagine losing all your strength out of nowhere. You will probably consider killing yourself from sheer frustration. But since that person died to self-detonation, they probably lost control after a sudden return of their strength.”

Su Yu shook his head, ”Therefore, the future body is extremely unreliable. No, even the past body is similarly unreliable.”

Su Yu warned, ”In conclusion, don’t cultivate the Three Body Method unless you’re ready to smash your past and future bodies apart.”

Suddenly, Su Yu blinked and asked, ”Do you think Human Emperor and the others knew this? Was that why they didn’t encourage everyone to cultivate this method when they were still around?”

The others nodded in agreement. That could very well be the case.

Su Yu’s eyes flickered as he transmitted to Great Zhou King, ”Are you sure Human Emperor is injured and not in a weakened state instead?”

Was Human Emperor actually in a weakened state from the power he borrowed in the past?

Great Zhou King blanked out slightly before replying, ”He’s injured. He’s heavily injured. As for what you’re referring to as the weakened state, it might have come and gone. This weakened state might be the reason for Human Emperor to suffer his heavy injuries. I can’t imagine Human Emperor suffering such heavy injuries in his normal state.”

Su Yu rubbed his chin. That could be true. Human Emperor was strong. He wouldn’t risk himself needlessly as he knew very well just how important he was. Since it had happened, it was likely that not even Human Emperor had expected his strength to weaken suddenly when he was in active combat.

He must have extracted his future power many years ago, never imagining that he would suffer the backlash from his action back then after so many years.

”A pity.”

Su Yu started sympathizing with Human Emperor. It was very likely that this was how everything had gone down. When borrowing power, a day would come when the debt was settled.

The past was fixed; the future was fickle. Thus, Su Yu was very wary of borrowing from the future. He only dared to borrow from the next moment in the future. With that, his weakened state would arrive when he expected it.

At the moment, he had dropped to the fourth or even the fifth tier. If he had been in active combat against a powerful moment when it happened, he would have died by now.

”I doubt that Human Emperor wouldn’t be smart enough to realize that he would need to return what he borrowed in the future. Rather, he didn’t expect that it would happen at such an inconvenient moment.

”Principal Wan, the rest of you can try fusing with your past. It’s much safer, but be sure to don’t pick a past stronger than your body can handle. Pick one your physical body is strong enough to contain.

”As for the future body, you require a carrier treasure. Furthermore, the future is too unpredictable. I suggest skipping the future. In any case, can you even find carrier treasures at the level of Masters of Laws?”

Wan Tiansheng said, ”But it’s very hard for me to enter my river of memories in my current state.”

Su Yu laughed, ”That won’t be hard to solve. When opening a rift to the River of Time, keep thinking of a moment in the past. After that visit, I understand the river of memories more. It is essentially the summoning of our essence in the River of Time.

”A Sunmoon cultivating the Three Body Method can automatically enter the river of memories. But beyond that, you will have to work to enter the river of memories.

”Even skipping the future, you can grow considerably from fusing with a suitable past body. At the very least, you can potentially jump another tier forward after the fusion.”

Of course, the stronger one was, the harder advancement would be. Su Yu was in no rush. For now, he had to focus on getting through his weakened state and strengthening his body.

Only then could he smash his future body apart and absorb the power of the future body. At that point, he could probably fully reach the second tier.