Tribulation of Myriad Races

After a short chat with Niu Baidao and the others, Su Yu noticed the tables, chairs, and food in front of the pagoda. He even saw some people preparing for another bonfire party. He had entered on the 12th. It was now the 14th, and night was arriving soon. He had stayed inside for around two and a half days. Little time had passed, but he had gained a lot.

He was in an excellent mood. As for these students, he was already immune to their antics.

Yeah, yeah, enjoy the bonfire party.

He still had a lot of things to do, so he bid the old men farewell before walking toward Zhu Tiandao who was beckoning at him from afar.

Zhu Tiandao looked Su Yu from head to toe.

After a while, he smiled, "Did you gain a lot?"

"It's alright." Su Yu smiled as well, "Prefect, Great Ming King is truly a great man. This Hundred Dao Pagoda is such a treasure."

"It's alright." Zhu Tiandao gave the same reply. He said, "My old man wasn't the only one who had constructed it. Back then, a lot of experts had participated in the construction. All those people were the top experts in their respective fields."

Zhu Tiandao stared at Su Yu for a bit before asking, "You're not at the Skysoar Realm yet?"

"Soon." Su Yu explained, "I've yet to decide on a body forging art. I'll break through after that. I will push both my body and willpower to the Skysoar Realm at the same time. That way, I'll be able to forge my body more times."

Zhu Tiandao nodded. This was something a lot of people aimed for.

For example, Zhan Hai, the previous first-ranked student in Great Xia Cultural Research Academy, was aiming to do the same. By breaking through on both paths at the same time, one would be able to use the willpower breakthrough to temper one's body before forging the body again through physical cultivation. That way, one would be able to strengthen one's body twice.

After thinking about it, Zhu Tiandao said, "With the strength of your body and your willpower, if you want to push both into the Skysoar Realm at the same time, you need to pick a good place. Don't just break through at any random place. Be careful lest you run out of willpower and source qi in the middle of breakthrough."

Su Yu nodded pensively. True. He would definitely require a large amount of source qi and willpower for his breakthrough.

Zhu Tiandao said, "Not only that, you might also need a good environment with ambient heavenly source qi to help forge your body..."

When Su Yu heard that, he looked at Zhu Tiandao expectingly. Was the prefect offering such a place?

"Actually, the Divine, Devil, and Immortal Realms are the best breakthrough locations."

"..."

Su Yu was left completely speechless.

Zhu Tiandao laughed and said, "That was a joke. You also have two other options. War Shrine and the Knowledge Seeking Realm. You can find a small area like this in either of those places. Do you want me to take you to the Knowledge Seeking Realm for your breakthrough?"

Su Yu frowned and asked, "Prefect, is that possible?"

Zhu Tiandao nodded, "Of course. The holy land does not belong to the people there alone. The Zhu Family holds some ownership too. Of course, since we don't have the habit of producing massive geniuses, we have never sent our geniuses there before. If you're interested, I can take you there."

Su Yu hesitated, "Is the heavenly source qi and willpower there thick?"

"Yes." Zhu Tiandao nodded, "The heavenly source qi, in particular, is very good for body forging. In fact, everyone uses blood essence because of the heavenly source qi in it. Why is the blood essence of the divines and devils so popular? Because they have thick heavenly source qi in their blood essence. The other races can't compare. For example, the blood essence of a weak race might only have one percent heavenly source qi. It won't help much even if you take a hundred drops at the same time. You might even end up polluting your own acupoints and bursting your body apart from overdose."

Su Yu had recently reached the same conclusion himself. He nodded, "I've discovered the same as well. Prefect, is nobody extracting the heavenly source qi within blood essence for body forging?"

"That's not possible." Zhu Tiandao shook his head, "A lot of people in Great Ming are trying, but the heavenly source qi in the blood essence has essentially become one with blood essence after being absorbed into one's body. After extracting it, the blood essence will be ruined. But with the ruination of the blood essence, the heavenly source qi will be gone as well. This is something nobody has been able to overcome."

Su Yu nodded. Suddenly, this felt a lot more difficult. He asked, "How about the heavenly source qi in the heavenly source fruits? How are these fruits preserving the heavenly source qi?"

"Nobody knows. But if you're in need of heavenly source fruits, I can send you one or two later."

So the Zhu Family had more? Su Yu was surprised. When he asked Zhu Hongliang previously, Zhu Hongliang had said that there were none in their storage.

Zhu Tiandao said, "These fruits can be found in large numbers in the Divine, Devil, and Immortal Realms. There are some in the Human Realm as well. As I said, there are such places within the War Shrine and Knowledge Seeking Realm. In these places, a small number of these fruits are growing. Us Invincible families will be entitled to a share each harvest.

"A heavenly source fruit tree will bloom every 3 years. The flowers will bear fruits after 3 years, and the fruits will take 3 more years to ripen. Thus, each harvest takes place after 9 years. Each tree is capable of producing 36 fruits at a time. There are two in the Knowledge Seeking Realm and three in the War Shrine. Every 9 years, we will receive a harvest of 180 fruits.

"Some of the Invincibles with fewer descendants can't even be bothered to take their share. Thus, those stationed within the two holy lands will receive a bigger share. The Zhu Family has a share of 2 fruits every harvest."

Even an Invincible family would only receive 2 fruits. That was actually a very small number. Then again, Great Ming had been founded for hundreds of years. They had probably received around 60 or 70 of them after all these years.

At that thought, Su Yu asked, "Have these heavenly source fruit trees been existing for a long time?"

"Not really. Over 300 years ago, Great Qin King and Great Zhou King worked together to snatch some from the Immortal Realm before planting them in the Human Realm."

"..."

Su Yu was stunned. Why the Immortal Realm? Wasn't that a neutral race? Why didn't they take from the divines and devils instead?

Having guessed Su Yu's thoughts, Zhu Tiandao explained, "In truth, that attack was a test. As for the reasons behind it, well, it isn't something I should talk too much about. Also, the immortal race's existence is both an advantage and disadvantage to the human race. They are the reason the divines and devils have been delaying their attack on the human race for so many years. But the immortals aren't doing it out of kindness. Their leader is slightly weaker than the leaders of the divines and devils. He has been in seclusion to catch up for many years. The immortals are probably trying to drag things out."

Su Yu nodded and asked, "Prefect, are their leaders all Pseudo Emperors? Just what is the cultivation level of a Pseudo Emperor? Since there are Pseudo Emperors around, are there Emperors as well?"

"Nope!" Zhu Tiandao explained, "Pseudo Emperor is merely a title humans use. Those races do not acknowledge this title. Then again, some ancient races acknowledge this title as well. According to the records of some ancient races, there used to be an Emperor among the human race. That Emperor was so strong that all the leaders of the other races could only be called Pseudo Emperors, not Emperors."

Zhu Tiandao said, "The human race was very strong. Everyone acknowledges that. From our ancient ruins, that much is obvious. We had unfortunately faced some sort of calamity, resulting in a massive drop in strength. The Emperor and Invincibles from the past had gone missing all of a sudden. Perhaps they had died. Or perhaps they had left to explore the unknown..."

Zhu Tiandao clearly knew more than Su Yu. At that, he sighed, "Those people might have been faced with a sudden crisis. But they didn't leave without doing anything. At the very least, they sealed the connection between the Human Realm and the Allheaven Battlefield. Unfortunately, the seal broke apart around 300 years ago, leading to the crisis that nearly drove humanity to extinction."

Su Yu nodded. He had heard of this theory before. The human race once enjoyed a glorious age. At the time, they were the center of the universe.

It was theorized that this was also the reason for the lack of suppression on other races in the Human Realm. It wasn't that the realm did not come with the suppressive force. Rather, humanity had removed it to transform the Human Realm into the center of all realms. That way, all the other races would not be subjected to the pressure while paying tribute to the human race.

Alas, the glorious era did not last.

Su Yu decided to move on to the next topic. He said, "Prefect, I'm not interested in visiting the War Shrine or the Knowledge Seeking Realm. I want to avoid more trouble if possible. If you have some extra heavenly source fruits lying around, I only need one for my research."

"Alright."

Zhu Tiandao did not try to force the issue. After all, taking the kid to the Knowledge Seeking Realm would indeed be a tricky task. Heavenly source qi was too rare. And that place was the best cultivation spot the younger generation could ask for. There wasn't even enough to share between the various Invincible descendants.

Meanwhile, Su Yu was merely an outsider. Taking him there might really cause some disturbance.

Done with the serious discussion, Zhu Tiandao gave Su Yu a reminder, "Be careful when you take that furball around. If you have to enter the Allheaven Battlefield, try your best to not leave the eastern sector. This little fellow has a strong backer."

In fact, with this little fellow's background, it would be the safest to not take him out of the Human Realm.

Su Yu nodded. Inside his head, the little furball showed no reaction whatsoever. He was sprawled atop the hammer while staring at the depths of the sea of willpower hungrily. He couldn't see the golden book, but he could smell something extremely delicious there.

In fact, he was salivating just imagining himself eating that thing. He swore to not leave before eating it. He was greatly determined.

Su Yu did not forget to ask about his recent profits during his talk with Zhu Tiandao. Recently, the Source Soul Cultural Art had been distributed everywhere. Over 40,000 people had purchased the first part. And around 10,000 people had purchased the second part.

That was a common practice for many people. They would buy cultivation methods one part at a time. At 50 merit points per copy, a total of 2.5 million had been made. Su Yu was entitled to 40 percent of that. Thus, he was now owed a million merit points. Sure enough, creating cultivation methods was the fastest way to make money.

If no new cultivation method appeared to replace it, Su Yu would be able to continue earning money from the same cultivation method for many years. A million merit points. That was a terrifying sum of money.

Zhu Tiandao said, "But a long process is involved when selling these copies. Thus, we won't be getting all your money anytime soon. If you're in need of money, we can pay you with our own money first."

Su Yu waved his hand, "It's fine. Just settle the bill altogether at the end of the year. I'll need to collect from Great Xia as well. We once agreed that for each copy of the fusion art they sell, I would be given one merit point. They have probably sold over a million copies. Thus, they owe me a million merit points as well."

Marquis Xia might have stayed silent about that, but Su Yu would not forget his money.

He was already being very generous by asking for only a merit point per headcount.

He didn't know the market condition back then so he had given the cultivation method to the Xia Family at a price so cheap it was almost free. The amount Marquis Xia had earned was definitely more than ten times what Su Yu was getting. And he could even earn more selling the distribution rights to the other prefectures.

Warriors eclipsed cultural researchers in terms of numbers. Thus, something meant for warriors could stand to earn a lot of money. It was about time Su Yu received his share. He suddenly realized that money was not something he lacked at all. His money was simply still on the way to his account.

Zhu Tiandao smiled and said, "True. Xia Xiao'er has earned a lot from your fusion art. But...this is probably the end of his profiteering. He does not have the right to the best version. The value of the previous two versions will drop significantly with the release of the third version."

Su Yu said nothing. It wasn't like the value of the first two versions would drop too badly. The first version only required 18 acupoints while the better version required 36 acupoints. And not everyone could open that many acupoints. At times, a simple cultivation method was a good cultivation method. He really needed to collect his money from Marquis Xia.

If he didn't take the initiative, that fellow might continue acting the fool forever. Su Yu had heard about how poor the Xia Family was. But they also needed to support their large military. Thus, Marquis Xia would try to save as much money as he could elsewhere.

As for what Su Yu was going to do with his money, well, he was naturally going to buy a lot of blood essence. And from the blood essence, he would extract a large amount of heavenly source qi.

He would extract more than he could use. Even so, he would not stop extracting as the leftover heavenly source qi could be used to nurture his own people. To build a power base, he needed resources, right? Right, he also had a pet. That little furball was extremely expensive to raise.

At that thought, Su Yu recalled the three Mountainsea beasts and said, "Prefect, can I trouble you to tell Great Xia to deliver those beasts over as soon as possible? I promised to send them to the Allheaven Battlefield after their help. Even if that can't happen immediately, I won't go back on my words."

He would definitely send them away as promised. It was only a matter of time.

"Sure. I'll remind Xia Xiao'er. I can take the chance to talk about the Source Soul Cultural Art as well. We have yet to reach an agreement on that cultivation method. I reckon he will demand to talk with you about it."

In fact, an agreement had reached for most places in Great Xia except the three cultural research academies. This wasn't something Marquis Xia could ignore. An agreement must be reached.