Tribulation of Myriad Races

Su Yu was too busy to pick up One-eye and the others. They weren't going to die staying away for a bit so even if he remembered, he wouldn't be too worried. He was focused on extracting heavenly source qi.

He constantly consumed blood essence and used his book to extract the heavenly source qi. The aura of blood on his body was also growing thicker and thicker. The extraction from a drop of early Skysoar blood essence would take around three minutes. A drop of middle Skysoar blood essence would take him five minutes while a drop of late Skysoar blood essence would take him no less than ten minutes.

It took him from the night of the 17th until the morning of the 18th to finish the extraction from 300 drops of mountainbreak bull blood essence. That was a lot of time spent, but he had gained a lot as well.

The ball of shadow in front of him was growing larger and larger. Countless strands of heavenly source qi were swimming inside it. With 300 drops of Skysoar mountainbreak bull blood essence worth 23,000 merit points, he had extracted 30 heavenly source fruits worth of heavenly source qi. But that was not enough for him.

He started consuming Cloudbreach blood essence. With his current strength, he could easily withstand the pressure of early Cloudbreach blood essence.

Late that night, he finally finished extracting heavenly source qi from the 100 drops of early Cloudbreach blood essence. He did not touch the remaining middle and late Cloudbreach blood essence.

Instead, he switched to the cloud tiger blood essence. The cloud tiger race was a weak race. But Xia Huyou had provided him with a large amount of cloud tiger blood essence. In terms of quality, the cloud tiger blood essence was similar to the iron-winged bird blood essence.

From cloud tiger blood essence worth 87,000 merit points, he extracted 90 heavenly source fruits worth of heavenly source qi.

Excluding the remaining mountainbreak bull blood essence, Su Yu concluded that he could probably get 150 heavenly source fruits worth of heavenly source qi by the time he was done. This should be enough.

At this point, the aura of blood on him was so thick that he had almost turned into a man of blood. The blood character constantly absorbed the bloody aura on him, but not even that was enough to remove the aura from him.

***

The 20th arrived.

Su Yu had yet to finish extracting heavenly source qi from the cloud tiger blood essence.

At this time, on the Heart Paradise Island.

Zhu Tiandao had arrived with the three beasts. All three of them were trembling with fear. They had been seeing way too many Sunmoons recently. Why were Sunmoons everywhere?

In the past, they never felt that they were weak as Mountainseas. But in Great Xia and here in Great Ming, they were constantly in the presence of Sunmoons.

Heart Paradise Island.

Zhu Tiandao did not bother putting any seals on the three beasts. He casually tossed them out and let them do whatever they wanted on the island. After casually drinking from his cup of tea, he looked at Niu Baidao and said, "What has Su Yu been doing for the past few days? It has been so silent I thought he was challenging the pagoda again."

"No, he didn't."

Niu Baidao laughed. Fortunately, that hadn't happened. It would be quite troublesome if the kid decided to challenge the pagoda again.

Niu Baidao said, "It's simply a seclusion. Stop focusing only on him. You're a prefect. Don't you have anything else to do?"

"By the way, we have some results for the Super Sensory Jade. Do you want to take a look?"

"Oh?"

Zhu Tiandao was overjoyed, "Let's go!" After spending so many years and so much money, they had finally produced something. The two wasted no time and soared into the sky before vanishing.

The three beasts were left staring at each other in confusion.

One-eye cautiously said, "I think they really left. We've been left alone."

Had they been forgotten so easily? Were they not going to be watched anymore?

Bloodmoon asked, "Should we...run?"

Great Mountain said, "Are you dumb? Where can you go? Be careful lest they are fishing. At least right now, Su Yu still owes us a promise to free us. If we run...that promise no longer counts. This is clearly a ploy."

He was sure of that. Those people were definitely fishing. He still remembered what happened at the Starfall Mountain. One-eye and Bloodmoon sighed. They agreed. Humans were too crafty.

Since it wouldn't be a good look to break promises, the humans had intentionally left them an opportunity to run. If they took the bait, they would give the humans an excuse to kill them.

The three beasts looked at each other bitterly. They decided to keep waiting. Since they weren't leaving anytime soon, they might as well stay patient.

***

Zhu Tiandao and Niu Baidao were naturally too busy for that. Fishing? What? They had truly forgotten about the three beasts. For them, the three beasts were not that important at all. They weren't worried that the three beasts would escape their clutches so they couldn't be bothered to waste too much time on the three.

Clearheart Hall.

This was the place of retirement for the Sunmoons of Great Ming Cultural Research Academy. It was rumored that there were four or five Sunmoons enjoying their retirement here. Only those of an extremely advanced age could retire here.

The Clearheart Hall was located on a small island in the middle of a lake. The environment here was even better than the Heart Paradise Island. Birdsongs and fragrant flowers filled the place, giving it the look of a hidden paradise.

As this was a place for the retired Sunmoons, this place did not receive a lot of visitors. The moment Zhu Tiandao and Niu Baidao arrived, an old man appeared in front of them.

With his white hair and crooked back, the old man smiled, "You're here. Good. We're just about to start another test. Come on in."

Zhu Tiandao said, "Elder Li, is it working well?"

"We tested it a few times before. It's decent."

The old man said, "We need to first place down the Heavenlocking Formation to prevent anyone from detecting the next test."

Zhu Tiandao said nothing. He tossed out a jade talisman. The talisman flew into the sky before vanishing. An indistinct barrier appeared around the barrier. This was the same formation that had appeared at the Starfall Mountain. A formation made by an Invincible.

Done with that, they headed toward a large building on the island. After going through the door, they continued walking for a while. As they walked, the old man constantly activated the formations all over the building. All of these were defensive formations. After about four minutes, they arrived at the large underground hall.

The hall was filled with people.

The Clearheart Hall was known as the retirement home for Sunmoons, but in truth, more and more elderlies had entered the Clearheart Hall in recent years. If there was one thing Great Ming didn't lack, it was elderlies. They had at least a hundred people like Jin Sheng, who had lived for hundreds of years. And each of them had contributed greatly to their respective fields of expertise.

Over the years, these people had gradually withdrawn from the public eye to enter the Clearheart Hall. Nobody suspected anything as these people were indeed quite old. Some of them were already near the end of their lifespans.

Great Ming had spent a large amount of resources to extend the lifespans of these elderlies. Thus, some of the people the world believed to be dead were actually still alive here. They might not be strong in combat, but Zhu Tiandao still valued them greatly. These people were the true treasures of Great Ming.

When Zhu Tiandao and Niu Baidao entered the hall, an old woman walked over. She was a Sunmoon, but she was so old that she no longer had her teeth.

Sunmoons were supposed to be more long-lived. But these people had the habit of performing random experiments on themselves. As a result, their health was affected.

When Zhu Tiandao saw the old woman, he hurriedly bowed. Looking at the old woman's aged appearance, grief welled in his heart as he said, "Teacher Hu...you should rest more."

"It's fine." The old woman smiled and beckoned at him, "Stop talking so much. After so many years of hard work, we have finally produced something. We're doing our final calibrations. Come take a look."

Zhu Tiandao sighed and followed her deeper into the hall. At the end of the hall, a large mirror appeared before him. A large number of people were already there.

Numerous people were working on the large mirror. The old woman grinned and said, "Little Zhu, we spent a lot of time and resources on this thing. I don't know how well it works. Can it escape even the detection of Invincibles? But we're sure it can avoid the detection of Sunmoons."

She continued her explanation, "Each color represents a different cultivation level. You can choose to filter out these colors if you wish. For example, you can set the mirror to only show those in the Mountainsea Realm.

"I suggest using red, orange, yellow, green, azure, blue, and purple for Source Opening, Great Strength, Infinite Strength, Skysoar, Cloudbreach, Mountainsea, and Sunmoon Realms. The deeper the color, the stronger the cultivator.

"This jade requires source qi and willpower to run. Each activation will use up a large amount of energy. But like the Hundred Dao Pagoda, it is also capable of automatically absorbing the ambient energy in the air. But if you wish to keep it running at all times, you will need at least a million merit points per year. And the coverage does not go beyond Tiandu."

Zhu Tiandao nodded, "That's still acceptable. It's expensive, but it's within our limits. With this thing, our defenses will be even stronger."

Zhu Tiandao asked, "Can we set a specific individual as the target and perform a search with it?"

"Yes. But the chance of detection is higher when doing that. We don't suggest doing so." The old woman paused to let out a cough before asking the others in the room, "Everyone, are we ready?"

"Everything is fine at the first position."

"Everything is fine at the second position."

One reply after another came. The old woman said, "Good. Let's start the test run. Limit the coverage within the academy. Let's see if Old Wang and the others can detect us."

"Alright."

The others smiled and got to work. The mirror trembled, using up a large amount of source qi liquid and willpower. A beam of light rose from the mirror. Fortunately, the entire island had been veiled by an Invincible formation. Otherwise, the activation alone would attract the attention of numerous people.

Zhu Tiandao only had a vague sensation of something sweeping through him. A wave of light swept outward before vanishing completely. Then, numerous dots of light appeared on the mirror.

The coverage continued spreading. Eventually, the entire academy was covered.

***

Su Yu was still busy extracting heavenly source qi.

Suddenly, his tribulation character shook. He opened his eyes and looked around suspiciously. What was it? But after spreading his senses around and even using his Perception Jade, he found nothing.

"Is the tribulation character going to break through?"

Su Yu was confused. That was way too fast, right? Wouldn't it be a third-tier character if it broke through again? Whatever. He would be done with his extraction after a few hours. Thus, he tossed the matter to the back of his mind and returned to work.

***

At the Beast Taming Faculty, Dumbo was busy eating bamboo sticks when he suddenly raised his head to look around. A look of doubt covered his eyes. Who spied on him earlier? How shameless. Why spy on him? Or was he mistaken? He scratched his head, tossed the matter to the back of his mind, and returned to his food. Perhaps Great Ming King had returned?

***

At the moment, those with powerful cultivation levels or strong senses were able to sense something happening. But the sensation was too vague and only lasted for a split second.

Clearheart Hall's underground hall.

Numerous dots of seven different colors could be seen in the mirror.

A three-dimensional map appeared on the mirror. That was the map of the academy. The map was a replica of the academy, with the only difference being that the people on the map had been replaced by dots of light.

Zhu Tiandao ignored everything else and focused on the purple dots. Those signified Sunmoons. There were seven purple dots in the Clearheart Hall, signifying that there were seven Sunmoons there.

They were comprised of Zhu Tiandao, Niu Baidao, and five of the elderlies in the Clearheart Hall. This was an extremely powerful group of people. Somewhere in the academy, there were three more purple dots. This was a terrifying number of Sunmoons.

"That's Old Wang..."

One of the dots could be seen at Faculty Head Wang's place. As for the other two, one was at the Beast Taming Faculty.

Noticing that, the old woman frowned, "Prefect, is this the iron devourer?"

Zhu Tiandao nodded, "He's a peak Mountainsea, but his physical body is at the Sunmoon Realm so maybe the mirror is treating him as a Sunmoon. This is reasonable as that fellow is basically a Sunmoon."

Someone with the defensive prowess of a Sunmoon could be viewed as a Sunmoon.

The old woman smiled, "This Super Sensory Jade relies on willpower and source qi undulations to determine the strength of different individuals. This way, the room for error will be smaller."

Next, everyone looked at the final purple dot. All of them had odd expressions. Zhu Tiandao and Niu Baidao exchanged gazes speechlessly.

"That's...Old Hu?"

Zhu Tiandao was unsure. That final purple dot was located within the Multiple Character Faculty. And a Mountainsea dot was missing from that faculty. Thus, who else could the purple dot be if not Hu Xiansheng?

Niu Baidao exclaimed in astonishment, "Old Hu is being displayed as a purple dot. The light is dim, but...this fellow is only a seventh-stage Mountainsea. How is he this strong?"

Old Hu did not look that strong at all! According to the intensity of the light, Old Hu was as strong as a first or second-stage Sunmoon. But he was clearly a Mountainsea!

With a frown, Old Zhu said, "Old Zhu, can you take a look? What if Old Hu is dead and replaced by Lan Tian?"

"Impossible." Niu Baidao laughed, "If this is Lan Tian, the purple dot would be very bright. But fine. I'll take a look."

Niu Baidao's body vanished.

Shortly after, at the Multiple Character Faculty.

Inside the faculty head's office.

Hu Xiansheng was painting something with a bored expression. Suddenly, he looked to the side and said, "Old Niu, did you spy on me earlier?"

Niu Baidao couldn't even be bothered to say anything. He reached out to grab Hu Xiansheng. But he missed. Above him, space warped as the sound of glass shattering rang out. Niu Baidao's willpower swept out, causing the air to shake constantly.

With a rumble, Hu Xiansheng reappeared a few meters away. With a frown, he asked, "Old Niu, what are you doing?"

He looked cautious. Was this fellow here to pick a fight?

Niu Baidao flashed a bright smile and asked, "Old Hu, do you think you're strong enough to defeat a Sunmoon in combat?"

"Bullshit. How am I supposed to win?"

Niu Baidao said, "Forget it. But I do have to admit that your teleportation ability is truly incredible. Not only is it good at life preservation, it seems pretty good offensively as well. You...are truly good at acting."

"Absolute nonsense!"

Hu Xiansheng denied vehemently, but Niu Baidao was already gone.

"Fuck!"

Hu Xiansheng cursed. Was Niu Baidao sick? Why did he pick a fight out of nowhere? Old Niu was not young anymore. Perhaps he had gone senile?