Tribulation of Myriad Races

After formulating a new plan on how to preserve heavenly source qi, Su Yu started reading willpower texts in his attempt to form some characters suitable for storage. He was also trying to get some spatial characters. In fact, he had been trying to do that for a while. Recently, he had been reading some related willpower texts.

The Time technique, in particular, was probably the willpower text with the highest probability of giving him a spatial character. After all, that was the martial technique of an Invincible.

He had also talked to Director Hou about Feng Ji's matter. Director Hou had agreed to help, but since he was unsure about Feng Ji's actual location, he could only promise that he would try his best.

Su Yu did not ask for the help for free. He gave Director Hou a cultivation method for the trouble. It wasn't a particularly powerful cultivation method, but it was a healing cultivation method. Director Hou could choose to cultivate it himself or give it away as a gift. Su Yu did not mind.

12th of February.

Almost a month had passed since Su Yu entered the Great Ming Cultural Research Academy. He had been busy for the entire month. Today, he finally had some free time. After walking out of his research center, he noted that spring had arrived.

Beside him was Wu Lan, who had been dragged out by him. She was even more of a hermit than him. He would still go out occasionally, but she had been staying cooped up in the research center almost all the time. And it wasn't like he had assigned her any tasks. He had no idea what she was so busy with.

"Where are you going?"

Wu Lan glanced left and right as she asked. At first, she was unhappy about being forced to leave. But when she saw all the blooming flowers all over the academy, her mood improved.

Su Yu smiled, "I have some matters to take care of. First, let's visit the ninth prince. Then, we'll pay the Hundred Dao Pagoda a visit."

"Ninth prince? Zhu Hongliang? Why are you looking for him? He's weaker than Fatty Xia."

Wu Lan did not have a high opinion of Zhu Hongliang.

"Fatty Xia..." Su Yu laughed and said, "Well...Huyou is not as fat as him, right?"

Wu Lan laughed in amusement.

Su Yu said, "I heard he has a Mountainsea beast with incredible defensive prowess. Not even Sunmoons can kill that beast. I wish to take a look."

He was very interested in that beast. He had experienced the cultivation methods of the divines and devils. The 36-forge arts of the divines and devils were very impressive. But Su Yu had a feeling this iron devourer's forging art was probably even better.

After all, the iron devourer had survived the attack of someone a realm higher unscathed. He was even able to resume his meal like nothing had happened after the attack. That was quite impressive.

Everyone specialized in something. Perhaps in the aspect of body forging, the iron devourers were better. Since he had the book in his head, he should properly make use of it, right? He would not let go of the chance to gather the specialties of the myriad races for himself.

Su Yu intended to pursue the pinnacle of every single path. Even if that would take some time, he would also benefit greatly in the future.

Walking through the academy, Su Yu felt slightly envious seeing the carefree students of the academy.

What a bunch of slackers. These people would spend more time sunbathing than cultivating. What a good life.

After asking a few individuals for directions, Su Yu finally found the Beast Taming Faculty. He felt quite helpless during the process as everyone would look at him like an exotic animal whenever they saw him.

***

The moment Su Yu stepped into the Beast Taming Faculty, he was reintroduced to what the word "bustling" meant.

"Mess him up!"

"Kick his ass!"

"Pee on him!"

"..."

A group of people were gathered in a circle, each of them shouting madly. All of them appeared incredibly agitated.

Su Yu and Wu Lan walked over. There, Su Yu patted the shoulder of a random person and asked, "Student, what's happening here?"

"Don't you have eyes—"

That person turned around and noticed that it was Su Yu. Instantly, an awkward look covered his face. This was a psychopath. He had nearly offended the psychopath.

"Cough, it's nothing important. Bai Junsheng is here to challenge the Mountainsea beast. They're fighting a duel."

At this point, Su Yu had noticed what was happening as well. A duel? Duel his ass!

He saw a plump black and white beast sitting comfortably on the ground while chewing on a bamboo stick. Behind him was Zhu Hongliang, who was standing there proud as a peacock. In front of the beast was Bai Junsheng.

At that moment, Bai Junsheng was unleashing a barrage of attacks on the beast. But the beast was showing no reaction whatsoever. He continued chewing on the bamboo stick. Occasionally, he would lift his head to look at Bai Junsheng reproachfully, as though he was complaining that the massage was too soft. Bai Junsheng was left flustered and exasperated.

After a short while, he cursed, "What bullshit is this? Zhu Hongliang, if you're a man, get over here and face me. Why are you using this fellow as a shield?"

"That's my tamed beast. I'm a beast tamer. Am I supposed to fight myself instead of using my beast?"

"That's right!"

The surrounding students roared with laughter. Someone said, "Bai Junsheng, do you expect beast tamers like us to fight character masters like you ourselves? If we do that, we won't be beast tamers anymore."

"That's right. Bai Junsheng, you're already a Skysoar. But you can't harm even a single strain of hair on Dumbo's body. Why are you still here?"

"That's right. We didn't expect you to win. It's not like we expect you to actually win. But if you can at least leave some damage on Dumbo's fur, we'll acknowledge that you're strong."

"Hahaha, he's worse than a strand a hair!"

"..."

Everyone was laughing at Bai Junsheng. He had entered the Skysoar Realm through physical cultivation, but this was a cultural research academy. So nobody cared about that. His willpower cultivation was still at the Mental Tempering Stage so he was still considered a student. Thus, none of the students were holding back against him.

The dignity of a Skysoar was not present at all in Bai Junsheng. He furiously said, "If you're so great, why don't you try it? This damn Dumbo has a thick skin. Nobody can do anything to him."

While Bai Junsheng was shouting in fury, the iron devourer glanced at him turning against him. The iron devourer said nothing, but he was clearly telling Bai Junsheng to give him a back massage.

Bai Junsheng's face turned unsightly. This was pointless. He would only feel good beating Zhu Hongliang up, not Zhu Hongliang's pet. But Zhu Hongliang had avoided fighting him ever since he had entered the Skysoar Realm.

Instead, he was forced to fight the iron devourer. Unfortunately, his hands were already starting to swell yet he couldn't even leave a mark on the iron devourer's body.

Su Yu was focused on the iron devourer.

Beside him, Wu Lan exclaimed in surprise, "This is so interesting. It's even more interesting than the little furball!"

Su Yu didn't know what to say. What was so interesting about this? Instead of being amused, he was excited as he studied the iron devourer. This was an extremely strong beast.

It wasn't that he had never seen Mountainsea beasts before. One-eye and the others were all Mountainseas. But this iron devourer felt a lot more dangerous than them. He was definitely not as naive as his appearance suggested.

The tribulation character was pulsing in his sea of willpower, warning him that this was a dangerous individual.

Su Yu had recently discovered the unique functions of the tribulation character. Apart from scaring others, it could also warn himself of dangers. He was facing an extremely dangerous fellow. Was this a beast Zhu Hongliang had tamed himself? Nonsense! Su Yu would find it easier to believe if someone told him that Zhu Hongliang was the tamed beast instead..

This was probably a dao protector Zhu Tiandao had assigned to Zhu Hongliang, like how Xia Huyou had Xia Wen and Xia Wu serving as his dao protectors. In terms of strength, this beast devourer might even be stronger than Xia Huyou's dao protectors.

Noticing Su Yu's gaze, the iron devourer glanced at him before returning to his bamboo meal.

Zhu Hongliang finally noticed Su Yu as well. He smiled and said, "Su Yu, why are you here? Are you visiting me?"

Bai Junsheng noticed Su Yu as well. He opened his mouth to speak, but he stopped himself before he could say anything. He wanted to call Su Yu his nephew, but he was afraid of being beaten up.

Su Yu seemed to dislike this form of address. But Bai Junsheng strongly believed that Su Yu was deceiving himself.

The other students also turned to look at Su Yu upon hearing his name. When their gazes landed on him, they all started studying him like an exotic animal.

Su Yu smiled nonchalantly and said, "Prince, can we talk somewhere private?"

"Sure. Dumbo, let's go."

The iron devourer stood up and followed the two away while still chewing on his bamboo sticks. Bai Junsheng wanted to follow as well, but he was chased away by Zhu Hongliang.

A short while later, Su Yu and Zhu Hongliang walked into a small pavilion. There were a lot of such recreational pavilions in the academy. Meanwhile, the iron devourer sat down and continued chomping on his food.

The fearless Wu Lan walked up to the beast devourer and started teasing him. When Zhu Hongliang saw Su Yu looking over, he smiled and said, "It's fine. Dumbo is very gentle. He never harms anyone. But nobody can harm him as well."

Su Yu nodded. He looked at the iron devourer and asked, "Senior, can you speak the common language?"

"Nope." Zhu Hongliang replied helplessly, "Dumbo is very silly. I tried teaching him, but he never succeeded in learning it. But he understands us. He's simply too lazy to speak. I honestly don't know if he really doesn't know the language or if he simply can't be bothered to speak."

Su Yu thought to himself that it was more likely that the iron devourer simply didn't want to talk to Zhu Hongliang.

He was certain that this iron devourer was tamed by the Zhu Family instead of Zhu Hongliang. He was carrying out his duty as a dao protector, but that did not entail conversing with Zhu Hongliang.

Zhu Hongliang asked, "So Su Yu, why are you looking for me?"

Su Yu took a moment to arrange his thoughts and said, "The iron devourer race has an unrivaled defense. My physical cultivation is near the Skysoar Realm so I'm trying to understand how their body forging works."

"It's pointless. Even if you have their forging art, you won't be able to use it. This thing relies on acupoints, but human acupoints are different."

"It's fine. I only want something as a reference."

Looking at the iron devourer who was still eating, Su Yu asked, "Senior, are you a Mountainsea?"

The iron devourer glanced at him before ignoring him again. This kid was harboring bad intentions. He decided to ignore the kid.

Su Yu was speechless. Was he such an unpleasant person? He personally believed that he was a very lovable man.

Thus, he changed the smile on his face into one of gentle sincerity and said, "Senior, do you have any juniors in Great Ming? Is it possible for me to obtain a drop of blood essence from them for my research? Don't worry, I won't be taking it for free. I can trade for it with first divine or original devil blood essence. What do you think?"

Zhu Hongliang swallowed. The offer was so attractive that even he was tempted. Alas, he did not have the blood essence Su Yu wanted.

"If that doesn't work, we can continue talking about the terms..."

At this point, Zhu Hongliang was forced to say something, "No. He's the only one of his race here. We don't have other iron devourers in Great Ming."

Su Yu was greatly disappointed. He still couldn't withstand the blood essence of a Mountainsea. It would seem like he could only give up.