Outside the registration office.
Su Yu took a few steps, then suddenly turned around in surprise. "Why are you still following me?"
Chen Hao looked blank. "Aren't we going to class?"
"I'm not going."
"Not going... Then where are you going?"
Chen Hao felt aggrieved. You just said you were going to class; why the sudden change of mind?
"The library."
Su Yu replied calmly, "I don't need to attend the other classes anymore. The supervising instructor already gave his permission, so it doesn't matter if I skip. But if you skip... are you planning on having your parents called in at a time like this?"
"..."
That cut right to the bone!
Chen Hao covered his face and fled. It was true—Su Yu had special permission from the supervising instructor not to attend classes, but he certainly didn't.
As for the cultivation classes, Su Yu being at the third layer of Kaiyuan was already more than enough. None of the teachers had ever expected him to test for a war academy, so naturally, no one pushed him to cultivate.
...
Watching Chen Hao dash off, Su Yu shook his head with a faint smile.
Chen Hao's father was an old friend of his own father, and since Chen Hao was his classmate as well, the two were practically inseparable best friends. Still, the guy was always so loud and excitable; spending too much time around him gave Su Yu a headache.
...
Inside the library.
The librarian was very familiar with Su Yu. Su Yu came here often to read, often staying for half a day at a time, making it impossible not to get to know him after several years.
"Su Yu, you've already mastered over a dozen languages of the myriad races. Shouldn't you take it easy right about now instead of studying so hard?"
The librarian teased him. Su Yu was something of a minor celebrity at Nanyuan Secondary Academy.
Aside from the three mandatory languages—Immortal-Demon, Yao, and the Common Tongue—most students didn't have the spare energy to learn any others. Su Yu, on the other hand, had picked up quite a few minor languages.
Su Yu offered a polite smile without saying much.
Stepping into the library, he headed straight for the third floor.
Classes were in session, so the library was largely deserted. Aside from a few teachers reading or looking up reference materials, there were almost no students.
Most students would rather grind through arduous cultivation than stare at bizarre squiggles all day. When problems could be solved with brute force, teenagers had little patience for using their brains.
The teachers reading their books glanced at Su Yu but didn't greet him.
Everyone here was accustomed to the silence, lost in their own worlds.
Su Yu didn't disturb anyone either. Familiar with the layout, he walked over to the bookshelf he visited most often. After browsing for a moment, he pulled out a thick tome:
*—Lu Fish*
This was part of the *Illustrated Guide to the Myriad Races*, an encyclopedia compiled by the human race that documented and cataloged information on all encountered or discovered races for humanity to study and understand.
Of course, this was merely one volume.
The *Illustrated Guide to the Myriad Races* was not a single book, but an entire series. Su Yu didn't know the exact number of volumes; some were classified secrets reserved for select groups.
Nanyuan Secondary Academy held only thirty-nine volumes, covering thirty-nine different races.
These guides contained a wealth of information, detailing the creatures' appearances, habits, customs, and languages, as well as specific battle techniques, combat styles, and strategies for killing them.
Right now, Su Yu wasn't interested in those details. Instead, he flipped to the frontispiece. The first page of every volume featured an illustration of the featured race.
The Lu fish sounded like an aquatic species, but that was hardly the case.
Opening the book, Su Yu stared at the illustration for a while. It depicted a creature shaped like an ox.
Naturally, it didn't look entirely like one; it had a tail resembling that of a snake, and a pair of wings that an ordinary ox lacked.
As for why it was called a "fish," it was said to be an amphibious species capable of living in freshwater or oceans, and its combat prowess in water far exceeded its strength on land.
Though it had wings, that didn't mean the Lu fish could actually fly. The wings resembled chicken wings—good enough for flapping around, but incapable of carrying it into the air.
"The flesh of the Lu fish, when ingested, expels toxins; it is a sacred remedy for detoxification!"
"Inhabits the Dishan Realm, an expanse dominated by rolling hills and vast bodies of water. The Lu fish hibernates in winter and wakes in summer. When entering the Dishan Realm during the summer months, exercise extreme caution; danger level is exceptionally high!"
"Stance on the All-Heavens Battlefield: neutral. May not be slain without cause..."
Su Yu skimmed through the text. He had actually read this material before. He hadn't studied the Lu fish language, of course—it was difficult and obscure, as the Lu fish were not the dominant race of the Dishan Realm.
His focus wasn't on the text anyway; it was primarily on the illustration.
"Lu fish..."
Su Yu murmured softly to himself, his thoughts drifting back to the nightmare from the previous night.
Was the beast hunting him down last night... a Lu fish?
When he was young, he hadn't thought much about his dreams. But after having them so often, and as he grew older, he began trying to analyze the dreams and cross-reference them with records.
What were those monsters that hunted him in his dreams?
Did they really exist in the waking world?
Over the years, others assumed he was a prodigy who possessed the grit to study the languages of the myriad races, picking up eighteen of them through sheer diligence that put everyone else to shame.
The truth was quite different. Su Yu had only developed an intense interest in the myriad races because of his dreams.
He spent years poring over various materials, and in order to learn more, he had poured vast effort into studying the languages and scripts of the diverse races.
"The dream was too hazy, so I can't be certain it was a Lu fish. But the beast in my dream definitely seemed to have wings, and its roar sounded like an ox's..."
Su Yu muttered internally. Because the memory of the dream was blurred, he couldn't be entirely sure.
Yet over the years, he had gradually found fragments of information, occasionally spotting features on the nightmare monsters that matched the myriad races across the heavens.
Extrapolating from that, Su Yu felt his guess was likely correct: the things hunting him in his dreams were indeed creatures of the myriad races!
For more than a decade across four or five thousand nights, he had dreamed of at least several thousand distinct monsters.
If they weren't creatures from the myriad races of the heavens, could there really be that many unknown beasts left in the world?
*You lot certainly give me a lot of credit—hunted across my dreams by the myriad races of the heavens...*
Su Yu laughed bitterly in his heart. It was far too much honor.
He was just an ordinary nobody. Was it really necessary for the myriad races of the heavens to hunt him down in his sleep?
Soon, Su Yu gritted his teeth. *I don't even know you or have ever met you. Why the hell do you want to kill me? Is tormenting an ordinary human that entertaining?*
"Still... why do I have dreams like that in the first place?"
Su Yu remained baffled. If he had encountered these races before or had some past interaction with them, he might understand.
Yet he had never once stepped outside Nanyuan City, having at most read about some of these races in books. How could he possibly share a connection with those monsters?
Having roughly identified the creature from last night's dream, Su Yu returned the volume to its shelf.
There were some questions he had no way of investigating further right now.
Moments later, Su Yu walked away from the bookshelf. He hadn't come to the library just to check on the Lu fish; he had other business.
Before long, he reached another section—the Kaiyuan section.
The books in this area dealt entirely with cultivation in the Kaiyuan Realm.
When humans first began their cultivation, they practiced the *Kaiyuan Art* as their primary technique.
Before opening their nine apertures, they couldn't perceive origin qi. Origin qi, however, was ubiquitous. By absorbing faint wisps of origin qi to temper the body, one could gradually unblock the nine apertures, ultimately stepping into the Qianjun Realm to begin refining the physical flesh.
Opening the nine apertures was a lengthy process. Humans began cultivating the *Kaiyuan Art* at an early age. It was a gradual journey, but also a ruthless process of natural selection.
Genius could rapidly distinguish itself during this period.
Those blessed with superior talent would naturally pull ahead of their peers.
Su Yu was no fool when it came to cultivation. He had read many of these books and understood that the Kaiyuan Realm relied mainly on letting nature take its course; one couldn't force a swift breakthrough through bitter effort alone.
Even so, Su Yu wanted to check today whether any methods existed to accelerate cultivation.
After searching through the shelves, he still couldn't find what he was looking for.
Frowning slightly, he wondered if there was truly nothing here on the topic.
If that was the case, his hopes of reaching the fourth layer of Kaiyuan before the exams would be slim.
"Su Yu, what are you looking for?"
Just then, a short-haired girl who had been reading nearby couldn't resist asking.
She had been here for a long time, quietly reading until now.
She recognized Su Yu. Although they weren't in the same class, the regulars at the library were always the same few faces; over time, they had become somewhat familiar with each other.
Su Yu gave an apologetic look, realizing he had disturbed her reading.
"I'm looking for records on ways to accelerate cultivation in the Kaiyuan Realm, but I haven't found anything."
"Accelerate cultivation?"
The short-haired girl pondered for a moment before speaking up. "Methods do exist, but humanity strongly advises against using external shortcuts during the Kaiyuan Realm. The Kaiyuan Realm is the foundation—opening the nine apertures is about laying groundwork. Stability is paramount at this stage. After all, 'Kaiyuan' means opening the origin of one's cultivation!"
"Su Yu, aren't you applying for a civilization academy? None of this will be tested. You're not looking for these because you actually want to rush your cultivation, are you?"
The girl looked somewhat concerned. "You can't mess with your foundation, or things will go wrong fast. Even if you manage to open your apertures smoothly, it'll have severe consequences later on."
Su Yu smiled. "I know. I'm not stupid. I just wanted to see if there were any safer methods. If there aren't, I'll drop it."
"Is that so..."
The girl thought for a moment, then pointed toward the bottom shelf in the corner. "There are a few books on the subject over there, but some of the methods are extreme. Su Yu, you'd better not try them, or it'll cause serious trouble—people have even died from them."
"Back when the Anping Calendar began, some powerful human experts tried those methods because time was pressing and they had no alternative. But in the end, none of those seniors managed to walk the path of invincibility. On the contrary, because they mishandled their Kaiyuan stage in their youth, they perished prematurely."
"Thanks, I understand."
Su Yu nodded with a smile. The girl's name was Liu Yue, a student from Prep Class One.
Su Yu didn't know much about her, but she frequented the library, and rumor had it she had mastered quite a few languages of the myriad races as well. Exactly how many, Su Yu had no idea; he wasn't one to pry into such matters.
Barring any surprises, she was likely applying for a civilization academy, which was why she didn't seem overly preoccupied with advancing her Kaiyuan realm.
Without lingering in conversation with Liu Yue, Su Yu quickly found the books she had mentioned in the corner.
*Methods to Accelerate the Kaiyuan Realm*, *My Views on Kaiyuan*, *On the Importance of Laying Foundations*...
Chapter 3