"Terrifying!"
Having flown out of the Human Realm, Su Yu quietly let out a breath.
Truly terrifying.
No wonder they had insisted on his returning to the Great Xia Prefecture. Those people were downright unhinged—they were actually trying to arrange descendants for him! Fear struck his heart, pure and simple!
Su Yu turned back toward the Human Realm and chuckled.
*Leave descendants to fight for another tide?*
*Forget it!*
His own life was bitter enough. Why burden future generations with quelling chaos? It made no sense.
If he could resolve these issues by fighting this tide himself, so be it. If he couldn't, there might not even be a next tide.
"Off to nurture Daos!"
With a laugh, Su Yu swiftly vanished from the spot.
***
Mountain-Breaking Ox Realm.
Su Yu was exceedingly familiar with this race, though he had never actually visited their realm.
Their innate racial skill was the Mountain-Breaking Strike. Su Yu had used it plenty of times and had even outlined a divine character based on it.
At this moment, Su Yu was sneaking into the realm covertly.
The human race had not conquered the Mountain-Breaking Ox Realm yet.
However, that day was fast approaching!
Once the new year passed and the great war erupted anew, this race was bound to be finished. Of course, they might surrender. Quite a few races were surrendering now. The few hardliners refusing to submit only held out because of the excessive blood they had spilled fighting humans in the past.
Su Yu tore open the River of Time and melted into the void.
The sole Eternal Realm expert of the Mountain-Breaking Ox Realm soon arrived. Glancing around nervously, his heart skipped a beat.
*Don't tell me the humans have come to my realm?*
Lately, the human race had been sweeping across the myriad races, plundering resources, slaughtering countless foes, and producing wave after wave of newly risen experts, making life utterly miserable for smaller realms.
It was truly an eye for an eye and a tooth for a tooth.
The Mountain-Breaking Ox race had also waged war against humans. Right now, this Eternal was gripped with immense dread, yet completely powerless.
Humans suffered no realm suppression when crossing borders, leaving the other races entirely helpless if attacked.
"I hope the fighting reaches our realm a bit later!"
Fraught with anxiety, the Eternal looked around once more in unease before swiftly departing.
By this point, Su Yu had already stepped into the River of Time.
This was the River of Time territory corresponding to the Mountain-Breaking Ox race. Under normal circumstances, a human could not step in at will, as each race entered through their own specific nexus.
However, while within the Mountain-Breaking Ox Realm, Su Yu could see their Great Dao, and knowing the Mountain-Breaking Strike allowed him to tear open this race's stretch of the River of Time.
Treading cautiously, Su Yu soon approached a tributary.
He wanted to steal the Great Dao power of this race!
He would have their experts nurture the Dao for him.
Handling them one by one was impractical, and this race possessed far too few Eternals. Su Yu considered an alternative: could he embed a page directly into the Great Dao to siphon its power?
Otherwise, for races that lacked experts altogether, how would he steal their strength?
*Switching tactics and directly merging the page into the Great Dao might just work!*
With that thought, Su Yu decided to use the Mountain-Breaking Ox race as an experiment.
Standing within the River of Time, Su Yu began to perform his martial forms!
Mountain-Breaking Strike!
This was the cultivation technique and innate skill of the Mountain-Breaking Ox race. As Su Yu threw punch after punch, a divine character manifested—the "Break" character, capable of shattering all things.
A page gradually materialized.
The divine character merged into the page, upon which a figure seemed to be practicing martial arts.
At that moment, the Mountain-Breaking Dao of the Mountain-Breaking Ox race trembled faintly, as if drawn to him, eager for Su Yu to merge into it. Su Yu rejoiced internally. It truly worked!
If this was viable, all he had to do next was learn the techniques of the myriad races, outline their divine characters, integrate them into his myriad-race book, and then use the pages to steal their Great Dao power.
"The only catch is that I have to rely on myself. Merging seeds into other people's Daos and letting them nurture it for me is still far more satisfying!"
Every approach had pros and cons.
For instance, with the seeds embedded into the Daos of Marquis Longxue and the others, people nurtured them on his behalf without Su Yu needing to worry. However, they could easily see through it or even inflict a backlash upon him.
Relying on his own comprehension to outline divine characters and merge them amounted to a pseudo-Dao integration.
Moreover, the progress would not be particularly rapid; he could only integrate slowly.
Siphoning Great Dao power!
"Each method has its trade-offs. With these minor races, there's no other choice anyway—they don't even have a single Dao Integrate expert, so their progress would be slower than my own comprehension."
Su Yu was helpless on that front. The Daos of minor races were easy to merge into and easy to pilfer.
Yet a minor race also meant a lack of powerhouses. Even if he planted a seed into their Dao, the speed at which a single Eternal nurtured it might not even match Su Yu's own insights.
He was, after all, a peerless genius. A pathetic Eternal like the Mountain-Breaking Ox patriarch couldn't hold a candle to him.
"Small stone... I'm counting on you to pull through!"
Stealing power did not mean genuinely integrating his own Dao, which would cause severe conflicts.
Su Yu's plan was to use the small stone to pacify and suppress the Great Dao, then smuggle his page across, letting it blend seamlessly into the Dao without a sound.
He drew the small stone from his robes.
Looking at the Great Dao before him, he gritted his teeth. It had to succeed.
The small stone possessed the ability to suppress Great Dao power.
Taking a deep breath, Su Yu tossed the stone toward the tributary. The originally churning waters seemed to sense something; Great Dao power surged, the water boiled, and violent ripples rolled across the surface.
Suddenly, the small stone erupted with dazzling brilliance!
The turbulent tributary instantly grew calm.
Su Yu was overjoyed!
Crossing physically in a single stride into the tributary, he unhesitatingly cast the page into the flow. He carefully located a spot to conceal it, wary of detection by top-tier powerhouses.
Although it was virtually invisible to anyone who hadn't opened the Heavenly Gate, precautions were still necessary—the Martial Emperor, for instance, had opened his.
If that bastard noticed and stole the page, what then?
After tossing the page in, Su Yu beat a swift retreat and snatched the small stone back.
The moment the stone was retrieved, the tributary Dao suddenly shuddered with a thunderous rumble.
It seemed to sense a foreign presence within its waters—yet at the same time, it felt as though nothing was there!
Right now, Su Yu's page was like a burglar lurking quietly within, siphoning Great Dao power rather than undergoing a normal integration.
Had Su Yu forcefully shoved the page in, the Great Dao would have struck back.
Yet because he had suppressed it with the small stone for a fleeting moment, the Dao failed to detect the smuggled intruder. Furthermore, the page inherently carried insights aligned with Dao integration, making it seem naturally at one with the flow as it slipped inside.
Su Yu secretly breathed a sigh of relief!
He pulled back quickly, wanting to step outside and see if this counted as Dao integration. If it did, he ought to face some form of tribulation penalty,
which would mean the Great Dao's power had actually detected him.
If not, it meant the infiltration was a complete success, unnoticed by the Dao itself.
Su Yu stepped out of the River of Time. Probing his surroundings, he detected nothing amiss.
No lightning tribulation descended.
Su Yu was ecstatic!
Nothing happened!
Excellent. This meant he truly could siphon Great Dao power this way.
Opening his Heavenly Gate, he peered up into the sky. There, he could faintly discern a Great Dao—the Dao of the Mountain-Breaking Ox race—with several lesser paths winding around it.
Evidently, this race possessed more than one Eternal!
However, in all likelihood, the others were in the Upper Realm; only a single Eternal ox remained in this realm.
Su Yu paid them no mind and began searching for his page. Pushing the Heavenly Gate to its limit, he searched for a long time before finally spotting a faint, microscopic page perched atop that Great Dao, nearly imperceptible.
Unless one possessed Su Yu's resonance and deliberately searched for it, practically no one would ever notice.
"The only ones I need to watch out for are those who have opened the Heavenly Gate!"
"Without the Heavenly Gate, even if the Great Dao senses a slight anomaly, no one will ever imagine that someone smuggled an item in to steal Dao power!"
"The Martial Emperor..."
Su Yu muttered the name again. *Damn it, I really want to silence that guy for good.*
He was genuinely worried that bastard of an emperor might spot something. But if exposed... *It probably wouldn't make much difference,* Su Yu mused. If exposed, the myriad races would want him dead; if unexposed, would they spare him? Hardly!
Really now!
Putting the thought aside, Su Yu gazed at the Great Dao power in the void, sensing a faint connection to the page. Delighted, he decided to let the Mountain-Breaking Dao nourish his page with power for a while before retrieving it.
He could try this across all the myriad races!
Every single one of them!
That way, once the civilization chronicle unified again, it would be formidable to a terrifying degree.
"Once the civilization chronicle grows strong enough, I'll integrate the Time Book. By then, I will possess ample strength and sufficient foundation to pioneer my own lesser Dao!"
How to open it?
Su Yu already had an idea: rather than opening it within the River of Time, he would open it independently!
Of course, he had another thought as well.
He could open it on the River of Time, but ideally, like the Ink Dao on the River of Dead Spirits, he would secretly establish a tributary to steal the River of Time's power. At a critical juncture, he could sever the connection directly while keeping his own Dao intact!
"The River of Time... the River of Dead Spirits... All transformations return to the source; the two are interconnected... The River of Dead Spirits ushers in dead spirits..."
In truth, Su Yu had a faint hunch.
The River of Dead Spirits might not be entirely severed from the River of Time!
Perhaps there were still lingering ties between them.
The powerhouse who originally opened that Dao back in the day might have also stolen the River of Time's power before cutting the connection to cultivate his own Dao as the main trunk.
Su Yu said "also" because that was precisely what he intended to do!
*If so, the immense power of the Dead Spirit Dao makes total sense. Its master stole the River of Time's strength!*
*And why has no one stepped into the Rule Master realm for all these years... Could it be that the River of Time siphons Dao power to repair itself? Or could it be that those Rule Masters are all still alive?*
These were merely Su Yu's conjectures, which he set aside for now.
He had plenty of tasks ahead.
Visiting realms one by one required caution.
Even visiting ten races a day, covering a thousand would take a hundred days.
Time was of the essence.
Thus, Su Yu had no interest in interacting with the powerhouses of these minor realms. Even for the realms the humans had already conquered, he couldn't be bothered to show himself and waste precious time.
***
Outside.
The Xinyu Calendar had officially begun, entering its First Year.
Across the myriad realms, battles between Eternals had virtually ceased.
Within the boundless void, a grand hall drifted through the darkness.
Atop the hall's highest pavilion, Marquis Jiantian sat sipping tea, lost in thought, his white robes as pristine as snow.
Those who spent substantial time around King Wen often picked up this habit. As a Fortune Spirit, he had been influenced most deeply by King Wen, becoming the first—and perhaps only—non-human under King Wen's command to go out and hold the title of a marquis.
A corner of the void was manually torn open.
Duobao poked his head out cautiously and said with a smile, "Marquis Jiantian, enjoying some tea?"
"Scoundrel of a rat," Marquis Jiantian glanced at him and uttered a cool insult.
Duobao didn't take offense in the slightest. Chuckling, he replied, "A rat I am indeed—a Treasure-Passing Rat is still a rat! If I weren't timid and cautious, how could I have survived until today?"
Still grinning, Duobao quickly added, "Marquis, the human race reigns supreme now. You and I are like rats scurrying across the street with everyone shouting to beat us! The humans come to purge us every few days, and even though I want to surrender, I can't find a way in!"
He continued with a wheedling tone, "Marquis, you're a veteran from under King Wen's banner, and you know Doubao—old friends, right? The God-Devouring race is on good terms with the humans. Why don't you step forward and have Doubao act as a mediator to negotiate with them? Once the Upper Realm opens, the humans won't hold the advantage anyway. Why must they drive us to utter ruin?"
Marquis Jiantian scoffed in disdain.
Duobao smiled coaxingly. "Don't be like that, Marquis. Don't you want to surrender? We can't beat them, so why march to our deaths? Ever since Su Yu became the Human Sovereign, things change by the day. Human strength grows by leaps and bounds; Dazhou, Daming, Daxia, and Daqin have all achieved Dao Integration! If this continues, I worry the humans will produce several more... That Su Yu fellow isn't merciful either; he's not someone to provoke."
Marquis Jiantian gave a cold, contemptuous chuckle.
Duobao said helplessly, "Marquis, don't just sneer. We have to survive! Neither of us is nobler than the other. Fine, you're slightly more distinguished as a marquis, while I was merely a general. But right now, we're both down on our luck, aren't we?"
Marquis Jiantian took another sip of tea and said calmly, "The humans are formidable, and Su Yu is exceedingly gifted and blessed with fortune! Not everything has come to light yet. A few days ago, I observed the human race's fortune... It was terrifyingly prosperous! The dead spirit realm has shown zero movement to this day; something may have happened there as well."
He chuckled softly. "More than that, looking at the fortune of the other races, all are in decline. This tide, the humans might truly turn the tables."
"Then why doesn't the Marquis join me in defecting to them?"
"Defect to the humans?"
Marquis Jiantian replied flatly, "Even if I explained, you wouldn't understand... Never mind. You can surrender to them, but I never will."
"You intend to fight to the bitter end?"
Duobao was taken aback. He quickly said, "The Hunting Heaven Pavilion shares no irreconcilable blood feud with the humans! Su Yu dislikes you solely because you opposed him. You possess immense strength, inferior to no one. If you seek refuge with him, he might not hold past grudges against you—after all, you haven't slain any human experts."
Still puzzled, Duobao thought for a moment and added, "Are you worried that once the Upper Realm opens, the humans will fall and cut off your retreat? If so, there's no need! Putting aside whether the humans are doomed to lose, even if they are, the two of us wandering the void might perish in a few years before the Upper Realm even opens."
"You do not understand!" Marquis Jiantian shook his head.
"Why?" Duobao asked, bewildered.
Sipping his tea, Marquis Jiantian gave a light laugh. "Do you know why, among the numerous beings under King Wen that gained sentience, I alone was appointed as Marquis Jiantian to oversee the Hunting Heaven Pavilion and monitor the heavens?"
"Because of your great strength, Marquis?"
"No. That dog was probably stronger than me, yet King Wen never made it Marquis Jiantian."
Marquis Jiantian smiled. "Because I am a Fortune Spirit! King Wen... heh, he calculated everything long ago. If I... if I do not die, how can a new sovereign emerge in these heavens?"
Duobao grew even more confused. What did that mean?
Taking another sip, Marquis Jiantian smiled. "Forget it, I said you wouldn't understand! To be honest, I didn't understand at first either, but later I did! Su Yu will never spare me! Perhaps he doesn't realize it now, but sooner or later, he will! If he doesn't kill me, how can he become a sovereign?"
His smile turned brilliant. "I spent a lifetime fearing King Wen, and even after he has been gone for a hundred thousand years, I fear him still. In the end, I remain unable to escape his machinations. Scholars—not a single one of them is any good!"
He cursed with a laugh. "If I don't die, the humans... will still face defeat! If I do, then it's hard to say! Should I perish, I only hope Su Yu meets King Wen one day and wipes the floor with him!"
After laughing for a moment without giving a clearer explanation, Marquis Jiantian quickly said, "In the short term, I won't die! You, however, had better be careful. Find a chance to surrender to the humans! And stop trying to be clever by tagging along with me day in and day out, assuming that sticking by my peerless fortune means you'll never make a wrong move. You're overthinking it."
Duobao looked embarrassed.
That was... entirely true.
Surviving from ancient times to this day, his greatest skill above all else was clinging to Marquis Jiantian's coattails. He had kept his eyes on Marquis Jiantian, siding wherever the marquis leaned.
He had always ended up on the winning side!
Even when he didn't win, he never lost.
How many ancient marquises had there been?
How many remained alive today?
Yet he, a titled general, had survived to the present—that alone was testament to his skill.
Still somewhat unwilling, Duobao pressed, "You truly won't join me in surrendering? Together, we could look out for one another. Without you, I have no confidence! I've tagged along with you in secret for a hundred thousand years, and aside from that bit of bad luck in the first tide when that bastard Hetu severely wounded me, I've been safe and sound. That's thanks to your credit. If we go together, could Su Yu really turn us away?"
"Idiot," Marquis Jiantian laughed. "I told you, you wouldn't understand! Just go surrender obediently. This tide, the chances of a human victory aren't small. Even if they lose, as long as Su Yu lives, hope remains!"
Pondering, Marquis Jiantian continued, "Su Yu still has his eyes on the Heaven Hunting Ranking in my hands. Going by the lore of the brush, ink, paper, and inkstone... I govern the Paper Dao! Unfortunately, King Wen was unwilling to grant it to me. Forcing it yields no purpose."
With a sigh, Marquis Jiantian smiled faintly. "We can be considered old friends. If you go to the Human Realm, you can't arrive without a pledge of loyalty! I might as well give the Heaven Hunting Ranking to you. Present it to Su Yu, and even if he dislikes you, he won't move against you!"
With those words, a golden tome drifted toward Duobao.
Duobao froze, completely stunned.
"This..."
*Are you serious?*
He was utterly shocked. This was Marquis Jiantian's most prized possession, yet he was simply giving it away. Could there be some scheme at play?
Duobao found it unbelievable!
Marquis Jiantian gave a gentle smile. "You don't understand! Ever since Su Yu appeared and inherited the Brush Dao, it was decreed that this item would never be refined by me! Would King Wen ever permit an outsider race to govern his Great Dao? Impossible! It was my own mind that was clouded over these past few tides! No matter how formidable King Wen's Dao is, it remains his. Why pursue it so stubbornly?"
Sighing, Marquis Jiantian smiled again. "Giving it to you to deliver to Su Yu will serve as the closure of our years of camaraderie! Tell Su Yu that if he wants to kill me, he must come do it himself! If anyone else comes, none of them will stand a chance!"
Duobao furrowed his brows and said in a heavy voice, "Marquis, why must it come to this?"
"I said you wouldn't understand!" Marquis Jiantian said impatiently. "It's not as though I have no chance! It's not guaranteed to be me who dies. If Su Yu falls, I'll have the hope of breaking free from everything and starting anew! But he and I are destined never to walk the same path. Even if I surrendered to him... it would only end in disaster for both of us!"
Duobao said nothing more. Holding the Heaven Hunting Ranking, he felt its unfathomable mystery and couldn't resist asking, "Though I don't fully understand, I can sense that it's connected to fortune! By discarding the ranking now, won't your luck decline even further?"
"Perhaps it will be even better!" Marquis Jiantian chuckled. "Everything is predestined. This object has clouded my vision for years. Without it, perhaps... I may soon step into the Heavenly King realm!"
Marquis Jiantian let out an airy laugh, carrying a touch of nonchalance. "Whether it's me, Old Turtle, or Tiangu, all of us have reached a bottleneck! Su Yu believes Tiangu is hiding his strength, but I don't think he is; rather, Tiangu is just like me, far too obstinate! Of course, he might yet succeed, whereas I... am destined to have no hope!"
"Tiangu has obsessed over the Immortal Emperor Dao for far too many years! Back in ancient times, his talent swept across the world; otherwise, his name wouldn't have been known to everyone. Alas, for all these years, he has remained trapped in that obsession..."
Chuckling, Marquis Jiantian added, "The same goes for Old Turtle—he hasn't seen through it either. But with Su Yu around, perhaps he will soon!"
At this point, Marquis Jiantian instructed, "Go tell Su Yu that if he wants to kill me, he had better do it before the Hundred Battles King emerges! He is a clever man. If you relay my words today, he should understand! In this tide, the humans have long failed to produce a Dao Integrate expert and their strength has been constantly suppressed. The human race is the darling of the myriad realms, so how could this be? Certain matters do not hinge on the Great Dao..."
With that, the Hunting Heaven Pavilion vanished into thin air, leaving a group of people behind.
Marquis Jiantian's voice echoed from afar: "The West Pavilion Master, the South Tower Master, and all human members of the Hunting Heaven Pavilion are hereby returned to the human race! Harbor no doubts or suspicions. From this day forward, they have nothing to do with me! It is time for the Hunting Heaven Pavilion... to disappear!"
"Marquis!" Duobao called out.
Yet within the dark void, Marquis Jiantian was already gone.
Only a group of unconscious Hunting Heaven Pavilion members remained, alongside the Heaven Hunting Ranking that Marquis Jiantian had pursued for a hundred thousand years.
Faintly, a soft sigh from Marquis Jiantian could be heard: "Over a hundred thousand years, and only today do I realize who I am. How lamentable, how sorrowful. It is truly better to be a fool. Duobao, I truly envy simpletons like you!"
"..."
Duobao was speechless. *Insulting me even as you leave! Am I stupid?*
*If I were stupid, could I have survived until today?*
*What a joke!*
Marquis Jiantian was acting very strangely today. He seemed to have genuinely seen through something. Had he summoned Duobao just to sever their years of camaraderie?
Holding the Heaven Hunting Ranking, General Duobao felt a fleeting urge to pocket it for himself.
A Great Dao!
The Paper Dao!
This was an entire Great Dao.
Yet even an intellect like Marquis Jiantian had chosen to abandon it. If Duobao took it... he feared he might have the life to take it, but not the life to enjoy it!
*He actually discarded it...*
Doubts churned in Duobao's mind. Could relinquishing this truly make Marquis Jiantian stronger?
If so, that would be astonishing.
*Su Yu must be the one to kill him...*
Thought after thought arose in his mind. *Forget it.* There were things he couldn't see through clearly. Since Marquis Jiantian had made this choice, he would simply follow suit.
Perhaps it really would save his life.
Sweeping his large hand to gather the unconscious people, Duobao flew toward the Allhead Battlefield.
To find Su Yu!
Delivering the Heaven Hunting Ranking surely counted as a pledge of loyalty, right?
When he had offered to surrender earlier, the humans had actually turned him away! He had never seen such arrogant humans. In the ninth tide, when a Dao Integrate expert surrendered, the humans would gladly accept. Su Yu was truly even more overbearing than the Hundred Battles King!
***
Su Yu was still unaware of all this.
Even though Duobao had come to surrender, the human side's repeated transmissions to Su Yu had sunk like stones into the sea, met with absolute silence.
At present, Su Yu was far too busy.
He continuously infiltrated minor realms, smuggling page after page into various racial Daos to siphon their power.
One thousand four hundred and eighty pages!
That meant he could siphon power from 1,480 races.
There were countless minor races across the Allhead Battlefield. Some were so obscure their very existence went unnoticed because they were utterly feeble—so weak their people had never even stepped outside their home realm.
They might not have even discovered their own realm pass.
At this moment, Su Yu was inside just such a realm.
It was pitifully weak!
The entire realm lacked even a single Shanhai Realm practitioner; the strongest was merely in the Lingyun Realm. When Su Yu walked right past this realm's paramount powerhouse, the latter remained completely oblivious.
Yet remarkably, this realm actually possessed Great Dao power.
Evidently, this was likely a newly emergent race. The Dao did not necessarily belong to them, but was left behind by a former powerhouse of this realm.
The Fire Porcine race was a similar case: in the previous tide, the overlord of the Fire Porcine Realm was wiped out, and in this tide, the dim-witted Fire Porcines became the realm's masters. As native creatures, they occupied the realm's Dao, but the chances of producing an Eternal were minuscule,
because the Dao was ill-matched to their race.
Su Yu observed this newly discovered race. He had only found them by tracking Great Dao power; otherwise, discovering a minor realm in such a godforsaken corner would have been nearly impossible.
They looked somewhat like apes and possessed their own rudimentary racial civilization.
Ruins and traces left behind from the previous tide or even earlier eras dotted the landscape, indicating past prosperity. But the original race had perished, leaving it unclear whether these apes were newly spawned or remnants of the original inhabitants.
Su Yu had little interest in such details.
If the human race were wiped out, years later, the scene might be identical: a newly risen race occupying the Human Realm, ignorant of the past, unaware of ancient glory.
Civilization would start from scratch, step by tiny step.
Perhaps discovering ruins would accelerate their progress onto the path of cultivation, but without proper inheritance, they would end up just like this realm, where a handful of Lingyun cultivators ruled as world sovereigns.
Ignorant of the mighty outside world, unaware of the myriad races' teeming powerhouses.
When the heavens trembled, they would likely view it merely as the wrath of heaven—a natural disaster rather than man-made strife.
"It looks tragic, yet when one thinks about it: you are not a fish, so how do you know the fish's joy?"
Su Yu chuckled. Perhaps for them, this was a blessing.
Oblivious to the myriad realms, living their quiet lives. If the myriad powerhouses discovered this realm, they would likely react just as he did—not bothering in the slightest.
Lacking resources and lacking experts, who would care about such a realm?
"Embedding into this realm's Dao exhausts my remaining pages... Time elapsed: three months!"
This was likely the longest Su Yu had ever spent focused exclusively on a single task.
Three months!
Outside, it was already late in the third month of the First Year of Xinyu!
"One thousand four hundred and seventy-seven seeds planted, awaiting the harvest!"
Like an orchardist, Su Yu embedded the final page. Of course, three pages remained that he couldn't plant—Gods, Demons, and Immortals would have to wait for now.
"Finally finished!"
Su Yu felt tired enough to collapse and sleep. Three months without rest, traveling across over a thousand realms, continually tearing into the River of Time, contending with Great Daos, smuggling, and siphoning had thoroughly drained him.
At his peak, he had visited thirty realms in a single day!
Weaving in and out of the River of Time had, if nothing else, vastly deepened Su Yu's comprehension of Great Daos. Now, even without opening his Heavenly Gate, a single glance was enough to discern where a Great Dao lay, what kind of power it held, and what general rules it governed.
His horizons had broadened. Experiencing the rule power of various minor realms, observing diverse races, and grasping different cultivation methods made every smuggling venture a masterclass in comprehending Great Daos.
Embedding over a thousand pages meant personally grasping the fundamentals of over a thousand Daos before integrating them.
All of this required deep insight and sheer talent.
The Martial Emperor likely couldn't pull this off even if he had the idea.
Not that Su Yu looked down on him—the man simply lacked his talent.
"Walking the Brush Dao again should trigger an explosive leap!"
Su Yu smiled. This had been a rare and precious journey. Crossing over a thousand realms, performing over a thousand techniques, and witnessing over a thousand races—if he showed no progress after all that, it would be downright shameful!
After a brief rest, Su Yu tore open the River of Time once more.
He intended to comprehend the Brush Dao and elevate his strength before returning to the Human Realm.
From now on, the Brush Dao would serve as his public disguise.
Openly cultivating the Brush Dao while covertly cultivating myriad Daos.
As Su Yu journeyed toward the location of the Brush Dao, he thought with amusement: *If I ever run into King Wen, I'll show him the Brush Dao. King Wen will think, 'Oh, just the Brush Dao, too weak—I can seize it back anytime.' And the moment he does, I'll suddenly unleash my myriad Daos... smack him until he's bawling his eyes out. Now that would be entertaining.*
"A brilliant idea!"
"Must execute it to the end!"
"How can a scholar survive without hidden cards and alter egos?"
"And that Marquis Longxue—truly impressive. Just how many dead spirits has he devoured? I feel like my Dead Spirit Dao is almost stronger than my Brush Dao!"
It had only been three months, yet a brief probe left Su Yu astonished.
Had Marquis Longxue in the dead spirit realm gone completely mad?
Su Yu felt that if he reclaimed the dead spirit seed Dao and used it himself right now, it might be even stronger than his current self. Had Marquis Longxue, that chosen child of the dead spirit realm, already approached the Heavenly King realm?
Smiling faintly, he reflected that ambition truly was the supreme catalyst for producing powerhouses.
Previously, Marquis Longxue was at best a Fourth-Class Dao Integrate expert, on par with Su Yu.
Now, Su Yu estimated he was approaching Second-Class, likely no weaker than Marquis Lanshan, perhaps even stronger.
The number of dead spirits he had devoured had to be staggering!
***
While Su Yu was contemplating these matters,
in a distant expanse of dark void,
a figure clad in white stood out starkly against the surrounding gloom. He was gasping violently for breath, utterly exhausted, yet wore a faint smile. Suddenly looking back, he chuckled softly. "The inheritor of the Brush Dao... seems... to be wishing nothing good upon me..."
He carried an indescribable air of elegance. Even drenched in sweat, even with his white robes stained with blood, his face remained adorned with a smile.
"He has only inherited the Brush Dao for a short while... As expected, countless eras have produced nothing but fools, leaving me as the sole genius!"
A soft laugh carried an air of looking down upon the world.
Over endless ages, someone had finally inherited his Brush Dao—what useless weaklings.
Alas, it was too late.
Having only just inherited the Brush Dao... Formidable as it was, it wasn't exceedingly powerful. Even if that person swiftly mastered it, it would likely be too late.
"Too late... To step through the threshold of my Brush Dao proves extraordinary talent, but... what a pity!"
The white-robed man chuckled. Mastering it years earlier might have offered a chance, but now was far too late.
"Back then, it took me one hundred and seventy years to pioneer the Brush Dao to that pinnacle... Can this person even compare to me?"
He smiled faintly.
From opening the Dao to forging it into an overpowering force had taken one hundred and seventy years. Even among Rule Masters, the Brush Dao could slay the vast majority of weaker practitioners.
Yet this newcomer had only merged into the Dao recently.
Who knew what year or month he would truly master it?
Even if he did, he would only be an ordinary Rule Master—too weak to make a difference.
As he pondered, he suddenly paused.
He seemed to sense something faint.
Strange. The person appeared to have experienced a sudden epiphany. He faintly perceived that the Brush Dao had abruptly fallen mostly under that person's control!
How bizarre!
Aside from the rapid progress on the day of Dao integration, there had been no movement since. Why this sudden surge of insight today?
"Could it be that he left my Brush Dao completely untouched, only remembering it today to do some integrating? Impossible... He must have encountered a tremendous stroke of fortune and gained profound insight."
The white-robed man smiled and paid it no further mind.
No matter!
Too late!
Too slow!
One could only say this new master of the Brush Dao was down on his luck, appearing only at this late hour. Had he emerged years earlier, there might still have been hope.
"Across these myriad realms, none possess greater talent than I. It took me one hundred and seventy years to pioneer this Dao; even if he merely integrates rather than pioneers, mastering it in less than a century will be an uphill battle!"
With a light laugh, the man strode through the void. Sweat poured down like rain, and blood slowly dyed his robes crimson.
Fighting for so many years had left him weary and drained.
That fool Taishan had dragged him down terribly this time. Teaming up with fools and pig teammates truly proved disastrous.
"Martial meathead... useless trash!"
A low chuckle echoed through the darkness.
It carried an indescribable arrogance, mingled with an equally indescribable helplessness. Even useless trash was still a teammate, and having one was better than none.
***
At that exact moment, Su Yu stepped physically into the Brush Dao.
All manner of insights crystallized in his heart as he advanced smoothly without the slightest hindrance.
Back when he first merged into the Dao, his integration was around thirty percent, placing him barely at Eternal Stage Four.
Today, however, he advanced by a massive leap in an instant. His "Brush" divine character blanketed the Great Dao—thirty-five percent, forty percent, fifty percent...
Su Yu's aura surged with mounting power!
His three-month journey through the myriad realms had finally borne fruit.
Only when his coverage of the Great Dao exceeded sixty percent did Su Yu finally halt. Laughing, he turned and stepped out of the tributary Dao.
Eternal Stage Seven!
By tier classification, Su Yu had stepped into Eternal Stage Seven. In terms of combat strength, if he had previously been Fourth-Class, he was now at least at the peak of Third-Class.
He was no weaker than King Daqin and the others!
Reaching Second-Class would place him alongside Tiangu's cohort, albeit likely at the tail end.
Still, Su Yu was in no rush.
The Great Dao was a matter of comprehension. His talent far outstripped others, his discernment was exceptionally sharp, and his horizons were vast. Sooner or later, he would surpass those old fogies!
"Right now, even if I encounter Tiangu alone, I can put up a fight. I might lose, but at least I have the strength to battle!"
Su Yu laughed and stepped out of the River of Time.
One more round of accumulation and insight, and he might formally step into that upper domain.
"At seventy percent, I should possess Second-Class Dao Integration strength. At eighty percent, Heavenly King combat power? At ninety percent, a Quasi-King? And beyond ninety percent, can I contend with some of the ancient Human Kings who walked the Physical Body Dao?"
Su Yu raised an eyebrow. If so, the Brush Dao was genuinely formidable. Even if inferior to the Physical Body Great Dao, it was still impressive.
This was merely his own estimation, but Su Yu felt it wouldn't be far off.
"King Dazhou and the others transmitted several messages about Duobao defecting. Such a trivial matter—was there really a need to keep pestering me?"
Su Yu shook his head. He cared little about Duobao's surrender; why obsess over a Fifth-Class or Sixth-Class Dao Integrate expert?
Besides, back then, Su Yu had explicitly stated he would beat Duobao to death!
"Time to head back!"
Su Yu cared nothing for Duobao; his real concern lay with the Upper Realm.
After several months, there should be news regarding the passage.
Upon his return, that was what mattered most.
Clad in white robes as pure as snow, weary yet brimming with vigor, Su Yu tore through the realm barrier with effortless grace!
Time to depart!
Chapter 703