More Solutions Than Problems

The Human Realm. Heaven and earth shuddered as swarms of devouring locusts swept through. Soon, however, all the devouring locusts were slain, leaving the skies clear and bright. The darkness receded. The Emperor Yu Hall, sealed for many days, opened once more. Ever since the return of Hundred Battles, Su Yu had yielded the Emperor Yu Hall and had scarcely set foot in it again. Even during normal times in the Myriad Realms, he would remain in his own heaven and earth; besides, he had never had the leisure to indulge in imperial pomp within the Human Realm. Today, the Emperor Yu Hall was packed with people. One Ruler of Rules after another stepped into the grand hall. Within the hall, Su Yu sat high upon the throne, flanked by the Human Sovereign and the Lord of Dead Spirits on either side. Seeing such seating arrangements, everyone was faintly shaken. In terms of strength, the Lord of Dead Spirits was the strongest. In terms of prestige and status, the Human Sovereign might well surpass Su Yu by a notch. In terms of age, anyone present could call Su Yu their grandson. Yet under these circumstances, the one seated upon the throne was Su Yu. An outcome beyond expectations, yet entirely reasonable. For Su Yu was the mediator binding these diverse factions together, much like the Human Ancestor—except that compared to the Human Ancestor, Su Yu was far more integral, playing a much greater role. One Ruler of Rules after another entered. There were no chairs for them; all lined up on both sides, standing within the great hall. Not just Rulers of Rules—soon, Dao Integration cultivators, Eternity cultivators, cultivators who had vanished from sight, and cultivators long forgotten also appeared one by one, filing into the hall. Looking at the silent powerhouses up above, the entire hall was hushed. Tianmie, who usually loved causing a ruckus, remained quiet today. Even making a scene depended on the place and time. With the opening of the Earth Gate and the Heavenly Gate, hordes of cultivators from the previous era were flooding into the Myriad Realms, and the devouring locusts were multiplying rapidly. The peril of doomsday loomed directly before them, weighing heavily on everyone's mind. High above in the hall, Su Yu toyed with the Human Lord Seal in his hand, remaining silent. Only when nearly everyone had arrived did Su Yu look down at the crowd, smiling faintly. "Why is everyone so quiet?" With that, he looked toward Xia Huyou at the very back of the gathering. Now that the strong were away at the frontlines, the one overseeing the Human Realm had become this obscure minor figure, a cultivator who had only just stepped into Dao Integration. Xia Huyou had only managed to step into the Dao Integration Realm with Su Yu's help; otherwise, he would still merely be in the Sun and Moon Realm. "Xia Huyou!" "Your subject is here!" Xia Huyou hurriedly stepped forward from the back of the crowd. Su Yu asked flatly, "When Zhou's heaven and earth roiled, what were the losses in the Human Realm?" Xia Huyou said in a heavy voice, "Turmoil gripped the Human Realm, tearing the earth asunder, with tsunamis and collapsing mountains. Though Senior Lan Tian intervened to suppress the fallout, the upheaval still claimed tens of thousands of lives in the Human Realm. Vast tracts of fertile land were destroyed, panic spread among the populace, and countless towers collapsed across the thirty-six prefectures. The damage is immense..." He continued, "Furthermore, of the millions of Human Realm soldiers garrisoned in the other realms, reports have come in that rogue cultivators from the Heavenly Gate and ancient beasts have infiltrated several domains, inflicting heavy casualties! In the Tianma Realm, an ally of our human race, several thousand garrison troops fell, and the Tianma race suffered grievous losses, though they repelled a Ruler of Rules... "The vacated Iron Eater Realm and Hou Realm were overrun by rogue cultivators and ancient beasts. The Destiny Realm suffered turmoil and casualties as well when the barrier of the upper realm shattered..." Bad news arrived in an endless stream. "At present, only the Tianyuan Realm has been spared and remains safe for now, because it lies buried deep beneath the Human Realm, bordering the dead spirit realm, and those invaders dare not rashly intrude into the dead spirit realm!" Even the Human Realm had sustained considerable losses, but fortunately the Tianyuan Realm sat right at the boundary between the Human Realm and the dead spirit realm, leaving it undamaged this time. Su Yu nodded slightly, glanced around, and spoke again: "Within the Heavenly Gate and the Earth Gate, there are weaklings and powerhouses alike. Leaving aside the top-tier combatants, there are quite a few Rulers of Rules! At present, the Myriad Realms possess only around a hundred Rulers of Rules, whereas those two places previously had over a thousand. Although they've suffered significant losses now, I can't say for sure exactly how many remain!" Regardless, many were still left. Inside the Heavenly Gate, had Su Yu not wiped out a vast number of rogue cultivators, there would have been even more. Of course, Su Yu's side currently had plenty of Rulers of Rules as well. When he mentioned around a hundred, he was referring to the native Myriad Realms; he had also brought back many Rulers of Rules, such as Blade Master and the others! Down below, the Lord of Dead Spirits frowned slightly. "Su Yu, these are all trivial matters!" They needed to discuss actual business! Su Yu smiled. "No, they are not trivial! Just as the Human Sovereign said, this era is far too distant for you. Having been away for a hundred thousand years, you've long lost any lingering attachments! But to me..." Su Yu pointed outside and said calmly, "Every single person out there is connected to me! Take the soldier standing guard outside this door: he could be one of my father's comrades-in-arms, or a citizen of my Great Xia Prefecture, or a relative of my teachers and friends..." In this era, there was no one who was unrelated to him! Yet to the Lord of Dead Spirits and the others, none of this concerned them. The Lord of Dead Spirits said nothing more. Su Yu looked at them, then at the Lord of Dead Spirits, and then at Qiong. "They have nothing to do with you, and I have no reason to demand that you do anything for their sake. There's no need for that." The Lord of Dead Spirits said calmly, "It makes no difference to me! Whether you protect them or abandon them is your choice!" He did not care about Su Yu's choice; he only cared about how to resolve the crisis before them. Su Yu looked at him instead. "I once heard that with the descent of the three gates, you were confident you could compress the River of Time and devour it! I speculated a bit earlier—did you make any arrangements regarding the Earth Gate and Human Gate among the three?" The Lord of Dead Spirits shook his head slightly. "Back then, my thought was to enter the Heavenly Gate. For the Earth Gate, having a few contingencies in the Myriad Realms was enough. As for the Human Gate, it was far too enigmatic and impossible to enter, so no arrangements were needed." Su Yu nodded, then looked back at Xia Huyou. "Soothe the populace and keep things in order! As for living or dying, this is no era of peace—everyone should have been prepared long ago. For five hundred years of warfare, ever since I was a child, I knew the All-Heavens Battlefield was a meat grinder. I believe that throughout these five hundred years, humanity has contemplated the day of its own destruction. So no matter how many die, even if the Human Realm is wiped out entirely, everyone should be braced for it. All we can do is our utmost!" Xia Huyou nodded slightly. "Understood! The Human Realm has not fallen into chaos. Many retired soldiers are organizing relief efforts on their own initiative! From large cities down to single households, every family is helping one another!" This was reassuring. The organizational capacity of the Human Realm was formidable, for over the past five hundred years, nearly every household had sent able-bodied men to the army. In the small Nanyuan City where Su Yu had grown up, with a population of under a million, there had been tens of thousands of active soldiers and tens of thousands of veterans. One could say that one out of every ten people had served. And that was merely the conscription rate of the Great Xia Prefecture; the Great Qin Prefecture's was even higher. Even in the Great Ming Prefecture, which had fewer, at least one or two out of every hundred had served on the battlefield. Therefore, when a crisis like this struck, the Human Realm mobilized quickly. No chaos would break out. Now that the All Races Sect was gone, these disasters had only caused tens of thousands of deaths—nothing more than the casualties from a single battle on the frontlines. "That's all for the situation in the Human Realm for now!" Xia Huyou stepped back. Su Yu looked toward the rest of the gathering. "War has erupted, doomsday has arrived, and the aura of destruction sweeps across heaven and earth. The Human Gate is an enemy, and the Heavenly and Earth Gates are also enemies! To us, there is no distinction between priority or sequence! The Heavenly and Earth Gates claim they want to deal with the Human Gate, but in truth, in their eyes, we are far more important than the Human Gate..." Su Yu sneered, "If they don't kill us, how can they grow stronger? If they don't kill us, how can they break through their bottlenecks? In the previous era, the Human Gate was merely sealed away by the Heaven-Opening Era. Will the Human Gate even appear in this era? Nobody has ever seen the Human Gate make a move! So to the Heavenly Gate and their ilk, since the Human Gate didn't act last era, it might not act in this one either... We, on the other hand, are the prime meat in their eyes!" Everyone wanted a bite of them! "And their strength is indeed greater than ours!" The crowd nodded once more. Everyone had witnessed the enemy's might: the Heavenly Gate, the Earth Gate, Ji Tian, Jing Tian, the Prison King, the Human Ancestor, the pair of Shi and Kong, and the two generals Ri and Yue—they were all considerably stronger than the human camp. Down below, Tianmie declared with fiery passion, "Your Majesty, no matter how strong they are, we'll fight them to the bitter end!" Su Yu chuckled. "You go kill them then? If you kill a thirty-six-Dao powerhouse, I'll throw you a victory banquet!" "..." Tianmie was instantly deflated, feeling powerless. Well, obviously I can't beat them, or I'd bloody well do it! Su Yu said calmly, "Earlier, they had only just emerged and just joined forces. Combined with their forced revival, their power was unstable and they hadn't returned to their peak, which was why they chose to compromise! We won that round, but that doesn't mean we're stronger than them! Quite the contrary: they see themselves as jade and us as common clay, unwilling to smash against us! "Give them a little time to consolidate their strength and recover from their injuries, and we likely won't be able to match them anymore!" Qiong spoke up at this moment. "We know all that! But summoning all these cultivators below Unity is utterly useless! Not to mention the trash at Dao Integration or even below—what good will they do?" "..." Many looked toward Qiong, feeling stifled, yet his words were the truth. Qiong added, "Calling so many people here—are you trying to show strength in numbers? It's not of the slightest bloody use! A waste of time!" He didn't understand. With things so critical, why had Su Yu summoned so many people? Was there any point to it? Better to spend time figuring out how to handle the Earth Gate and the rest. Su Yu smiled. "Why would it be useless?" Su Yu said with a chuckle, "This is an opportunity—an opportunity for everyone!" He looked at the crowd below. "The destruction of an era is a crisis, but it is also an opportunity! Slay someone from the Earth Gate, and you strengthen your origin! Slay someone from the Heavenly Gate, and you strengthen your Great Dao! Once your origin grows stronger, bolster your Great Dao; once your Great Dao grows stronger, strengthen your origin... Aren't they meat for us to feast upon?" Su Yu smiled radiantly. "Right now, you might only be at Dao Integration. But kill a Dao Integration cultivator from the Earth Gate, kill one from the Heavenly Gate... and with three Daos united into one, you might just become a Ruler of Rules! As for Great Daos... I have them, King Wen has them, Wen Yu has them, the Human Sovereign has them, the Lord of Dead Spirits has them... Do we lack them? Not at all! "It's mutually reinforcing. You strengthen their Great Daos, and they provide you with powerful Great Daos... These are all opportunities! "What do we have that they don't? We have opened more heavens and earths, we have more people, and we have more people we can trust!" The crowd vaguely grasped Su Yu's meaning. Drown the enemy in numbers! The silent Human Sovereign spoke up: "You mean to send everyone out to hunt those people down, merge the three Daos into one, and then connect to the Daos of our heavens and earths to expand them?" "Precisely!" Su Yu nodded. "It's a mutually reinforcing process, and it is the advantage of Heaven-Openers like us! Where does our advantage as Heaven-Openers truly lie? Right here!" Su Yu continued, "On the other side, the Heavenly Gate, the Earth Gate, the Prison King, and the Human Ancestor have all opened worlds, yet those bastards are stingy and unwilling to open their worlds for others to settle in! Why?" If there were Great Daos within a heaven and earth, they could be linked to. Why didn't they have people doing so? Su Yu looked toward the Lord of Dead Spirits, who had essentially done the same in the past. Seeing Su Yu's gaze, the Lord of Dead Spirits said in a deep voice, "This move has pros and cons. The benefit is rapid growth in strength; the drawback is that once these people die, it will cause the heaven and earth to destabilize and the Great Daos to snap! In other words, you become bound to them! Do you really think people like us would pin our hopes on weaklings?" Not everyone was like Su Yu, who disregarded even basic safety in pursuit of power! The fall of powerhouses within a world would trigger violent upheavals within that world. Once a powerhouse fell in battle and their Great Dao snapped, much of that Dao power could never be recovered, resulting in a permanent loss. If enough of them died, the collapse of the entire heaven and earth would be entirely normal. That was why even King Wen and the Human Sovereign hadn't done such a thing in the past. Yet when Su Yu opened his heaven and earth, in order to gain strength rapidly, he chose to live and die alongside these people. He had even stated that if all these people died, he wouldn't care if his heaven and earth collapsed. Still, Su Yu could not demand that everyone act as he did! Su Yu considered this and nodded. "Fair enough! Then do as you please; it doesn't matter if you refuse to accept them! I won't force anyone in this matter!" The Lord of Dead Spirits looked at Su Yu. "Let's set that aside for now. The Earth Gate and the Heavenly Gate are already near revival. I doubt it will take long for them to recover to their peak. How do you intend to deal with them? "If we risk our lives right now, we might still have a chance. At present, the Earth Gate or Heavenly Gate's strength is only comparable to mine. Once they recover... I doubt I could rival either one!" This time, the two gates hadn't wanted an all-out fight, and neither had Su Yu. So after compromising with each other, they had chosen a truce. However, a truce was not particularly advantageous to Su Yu's side. Everyone was waiting for Su Yu's decision. Su Yu's record of being victorious in every battle had given them plenty of confidence. Yet now, Su Yu was only babbling about trivial details, leaving the Lord of Dead Spirits somewhat disappointed. If this continued, what difference would it make even if everyone else reached Ruler of Rules? Did a Ruler of Rules with one or two Daos of power make any difference to beings like them? Qiong also spoke up: "Aren't you silver-tongued? Both you and Xingyu are masters at conning people. I think we might be able to trick Kong and Shi over to our side." He offered his own suggestion. If those two could be duped into joining, Su Yu's side would possess considerable strength. Su Yu chuckled. "Not everyone is like you..." Qiong's face darkened. "...so sensible and reasonable!" Su Yu finished. Only then did Qiong refrain from cursing. If you dared say I'm naive and easy to trick, I'd have words with you! Down below, King Wen spoke up: "If all else fails, have Wen Yu give up her heaven and earth and merge it into yours!" King Wen sighed. "Wen Yu's path is similar to yours! If you absorb her heaven and earth, you might reach thirty-eight Daos. That way, you'd have a bit more certainty!" At those words, everyone looked at Wen Yu. That was indeed a solid option. A thirty-eight-Dao Su Yu would at least inspire far more confidence than he did now. Wen Yu curled her lip and said nothing. Though unhappy with the idea, she realized that at thirty-four Daos, she truly couldn't turn the tide. If that was what it took, she could accept it. "No rush!" Su Yu smiled. "We haven't reached that point yet! "The enemy's advantage lies in the Heavenly Gate and Earth Gate. Without those two, we wouldn't lag far behind them!" Well obviously—it was precisely because those two gates were so powerful that everyone felt helpless! Su Yu continued, "Let's not dwell on that for now. This is everyone's opportunity!" Su Yu addressed the others: "Before the two gates recover from their injuries, the enemy won't care or intervene if we hunt down some weaklings! So moving forward, Martial Emperor, you and the others will lead teams to hunt down those rogue cultivators and ancient beasts! "There are strong individuals among the rogue cultivators and ancient beasts, but they can still be dealt with..." Su Yu looked at several others. "We still have top experts on our side. Sword Venerable, Mingtu, you are all powerhouses. Each of you will lead a division, sweeping outward in all directions with the Human Realm as the center, slaying those experts and stripping away their Great Dao power..." Su Yu made swift arrangements. The others had no idea what he was truly planning, so they couldn't say much for the moment. "Xia Huyou, your people only need to watch over the Human Realm; don't concern yourselves with the rest!" Command after command was handed down, and soon everyone sprang into action. The Human Sovereign and a few others wanted to speak, but Su Yu added, "Those of you who just advanced, go back and stabilize your realms! As for King Wen and your group... find a way to enter thirty-six Daos. I don't know the exact method, so consult among yourselves! Lan Tian and Wan Tiansheng, stay behind. Everyone else, dismissed!" "..." Qiong and the others were left speechless. That was it? Nothing more? You aren't going to give us any confidence or grand plan? Seeing this, Qiong couldn't hold back: "Su Yu, if you don't have any plan at all, that's just suicide. If we run when the time comes, don't blame us!" Su Yu nodded with a smile. "Rest assured. If you feel uneasy, you're free to leave. An alliance plagued by doubt is no better than the Earth Gate's lot—powerful on paper, yet tying their own hands. Better to break up then!" Fine! Qiong muttered internally that he would trust him for now; after all, this fellow Su Yu truly produced miracle after miracle. ... Before long, the crowd departed one after another. Only Su Yu, Lan Tian, and Wan Tiansheng remained where they stood. Su Yu looked toward Lan Tian. At this moment, Lan Tian seemed somewhat normal, yet at the same time not quite right. Lan Tian's strength was not exceptionally high—merely around twenty-odd Daos—but his terror lay in his madness! A crazed willpower! Even the spirits of heaven and earth could not endure his mental onslaught. Now that everyone else had left, Lan Tian smiled faintly. "Fellow Daoist Su, you sent all the powerhouses away. What are you keeping us weaklings around for?" Su Yu glanced at him and chuckled. "Can you still hold a normal conversation?" "Of course!" "That's good!" Su Yu chuckled and nodded. "You aren't normal right now; your mind is quite chaotic—I can tell! Tian's will still had an impact on you!" Lan Tian smiled and said nothing, silently acknowledging it. While he had battered Tian's mind, during their fusion, Tian had naturally impacted him as well. Su Yu continued, "Remember what I asked the Lord of Dead Spirits just now?" "What?" "Devouring the River of Time!" Su Yu said calmly, "The Lord of Dead Spirits harbors this idea, but I believe he has almost no hope! Even I am not suited for it. The only one truly suited, I believe, is you!" Lan Tian paused, startled. "What do you mean?" "Back when you opened your Dao, it was the Dao of the River of Time, extending through the river from beginning to end. Your Dao of Common People is the same even now, linked to the Dao of the river! You call it opening a heaven, but it is somewhat different from ours! Yours is a heaven within a heaven—a heaven of the river!" Su Yu looked at him and said, "The others, including the Human Sovereign and his companions, might be willing to fight alongside me, but if we truly reach the final moment, knowing defeat is certain... the Human Sovereign and his group might fight to the bitter end, or they might not..." Su Yu smiled faintly. "As I said, this era belongs to me, to us! This era no longer belongs to them. They have lost much and cast aside much. Take the Lord of Dead Spirits: he has no attachments here; what he pursues is merely power! "If pushed to the very end, for the sake of power, he might discard many things as well... No one can say for sure that he won't become the next Earth Gate or Heavenly Gate! "Only we... cannot abandon this era! "'Duty has an expiration date'—that is what the Human Sovereign taught me!" Su Yu murmured, "Our limit may well end with this tide! When this tide is wiped out and we become old relics... we might end up just like them. What would the next era or the next tide have to do with us?" Duty had an expiration date—that was the greatest revelation the Human Sovereign had given him. Thus, Su Yu understood the minds of these ancient relics all the better. Lan Tian nodded slightly, looking at Su Yu. "So what are you proposing?" "The Lord of Dead Spirits and the others might not be willing to accept people into their worlds, so upon reflection, you are the most suitable—even more suitable than me!" Su Yu gazed at him. "If the others cultivate and attain the Dao directly within the river, and you are the heaven within a heaven of the river, then ultimately I hope they can merge with you as one! And if you can devour the river... you will instantly become a top-tier powerhouse! "Here is my plan: let everyone cultivate in the river first to seize control of it, and combined with you, we might fully wrest the entire river away... allowing you to devour it! Even if it's only the stretch within the Myriad Realms, it will be more than enough to stuff you full!" Lan Tian's Dao of Common People was the best fit for this path! Su Yu did not think much of the Lord of Dead Spirits' ambition to devour it. The clash of attributes was simply too severe! Lan Tian was lost in thought. Su Yu added, "There is another crucial point: the various wills within the river are chaotic and conflicting. If the Lord of Dead Spirits devoured it, I fear he would be driven mad. You, on the other hand, already have a chaotic consciousness... yet I believe there remains a sliver of clarity within your will—fighting for this era!" Lan Tian chuckled. "No, not for this era! Only for a few people, a small circle of individuals..." Su Yu nodded. "It amounts to the same thing!" Lan Tian said no more, and Su Yu continued, "So, I want to use this opportunity to let everyone else grow stronger. Whether they can attain the Dao or not doesn't matter, as long as they seize control of more power of rules... When you devour the river, they can lend you a hand, giving you a chance to complete the devouring!" "But once it's devoured, the Human Gate will appear—it might even be unsealed!" Lan Tian looked at Su Yu. Su Yu chuckled. "So what if it comes out? The Human Gate only wants to be unsealed; does it necessarily have to destroy the world? Once the river is gone and it is unsealed, why would it need to destroy the world? At that time, everyone will live inside your world or mine. What would that have to do with the Human Gate? Besides, it might be even better if the Human Gate comes out..." Su Yu was completely indifferent toward the Human Gate! It was just a fellow nobody had ever laid eyes on! Lan Tian nodded again, glancing sideways at Wan Tiansheng with a chuckle. "Could this guy be the Human Gate?" Beside them, Su Yu looked at Wan Tiansheng as well, smiling. "If the director is the Human Gate, that would be ideal. How about working together?" Wan Tiansheng sighed. "The Human Gate? Does cultivating the Dao of Seven Emotions and Six Desires mean I have to be the Human Gate? "Others can question me, but you two are questioning me as well?" Wan Tiansheng thought for a moment and said, "Actually, it makes sense that you'd think I'm the Human Gate! The Human Gate's goal is to be unsealed. In that case, rather than letting the Heavenly and Earth Gates grow powerful, it's better to have figures like you emerge to resist them. Besides, look at you now—you're even having Lan Tian devour the river... In truth, everything we're doing is working toward unsealing the Human Gate! "From that perspective, if I were the Human Gate, I should support you!" At least their objectives aligned! The Human Gate wanted to destroy the Myriad Realms; according to Ji Tian and the others, its primary objective was to break the river of the Myriad Realms. Only then would victory be achieved! Su Yu and Lan Tian both nodded, but Wan Tiansheng gave a wry smile. "Yet I am not the Human Gate. If the Human Gate were as weak as I am, that would be truly pathetic!" Lan Tian laughed. "Still putting on an act with us? If you aren't the Human Gate, how could you cultivate the Dao of Seven Emotions and Six Desires? Even if you aren't the Human Gate itself, you must be related to it!" "Piss off!" Wan Tiansheng gave him a dark look and cursed, then turned to Su Yu. "Although I am not the Human Gate, after devouring half of the Dao of Grief and a whole Dao of Anger, I vaguely sensed something..." Su Yu raised an eyebrow. "What did you sense? The reason I didn't absorb them myself and instead chose to strengthen your Dao of Seven Emotions and Six Desires was actually a gamble that you have some connection to the Human Gate... Of course, I trust you, Director, unconditionally and without needing a reason!" Indeed, whether Wan Tiansheng was the Human Gate or not, Su Yu trusted him! Not only that, Su Yu added, "If you truly are the Human Gate, Director... who says the Time Master had to be the good guy? I can help you unseal yourself and we can kill the Time Master together! Truly, even if you are, it's no big deal, and there's no need to hide it! I, Su Yu, give my word that I won't turn against you over this." Wan Tiansheng rolled his eyes. "I really am not! And even if I were, I know your character—aside from wanting to keep your friends and family alive, you don't give a damn about anything else!" He thought for a moment and explained, "I really am not the Human Gate, but I might indeed have a connection to it!" Well, obviously! Wan Tiansheng continued, "This 'Human Gate' is not the same as that 'Human Gate'!" Lan Tian said speechlessly, "Speak human!" Wan Tiansheng explained, "When people say 'Human Gate,' one referent is the sealed entity everyone talks about, and the other is the actual physical gateway! The two are currently equated, but they might not be the same thing. Do you understand?" Su Yu looked thoughtful. "One is a person, and one is an artifact—is that what you mean, Director?" "Right!" Wan Tiansheng nodded. "For example, the Human Gate entity has a name, or we can just give him a name: Old Seven!" Su Yu grinned, and Lan Tian chuckled slyly. Old Seven! Because of the Dao of Seven Emotions and Six Desires? "And the true Human Gate, let's call it the Gate of Sealing!" "Then I might be connected to the Gate of Sealing!" "An artifact spirit?" Su Yu looked at him, but Wan Tiansheng shook his head again. "No! I don't think so; I don't have that feeling! My ability to cultivate the Dao of Seven Emotions and Six Desires only came after I shattered my future body. If I were an artifact spirit, I shouldn't have been unable to do so from the beginning! "According to what you've said, the future body draws upon the power of the Human Gate, borrowing power from the future! "Then after I shattered my future body... and later stopped cultivating a future body altogether, I could still roam freely through the River of Time... the River of Memory, the River of Origin!" Wan Tiansheng hesitated before saying, "I suspect that by accident, I cultivated the Dao of the Gate of Sealing! And the Dao of Seven Emotions and Six Desires is the Great Dao of the Gate of Sealing!" It was complex. Su Yu furrowed his brows slightly. "You mean that the moment you detonated your future body, you might have established a connection with the Gate of Sealing and anchored your Dao to it, which is why what you cultivate is a Gate Dao!" "Yes!" Wan Tiansheng explained, "Just like Tongtian. The Dao Tongtian cultivates is very unique, anchored somewhat to the Heavenly Gate and Earth Gate, whereas mine might be anchored to the Gate of Sealing! "I've observed the Daos of those Great Saints from the Human Gate. Their Daos are self-contained and exist independently, perhaps anchored to something, somewhat akin to the Dao of weapon fusion, yet not entirely identical! "One person, one Dao; one object, one Dao!" After a moment of thought, Wan Tiansheng spoke again: "So I suspect the Gate of Sealing is actually a Great Dao in itself—an independently existing Great Dao. And Old Seven is not necessarily identical to the Gate of Sealing!" Su Yu pondered. "Like the relationship between me and the Human Lord Seal? My Human Lord Seal is the core of my world, but I am not the Human Lord Seal, and the Human Lord Seal is not me... something like that?" "Right!" Wan Tiansheng nodded. "That's roughly the idea! For example, your Human Lord Seal gathers countless Great Daos within it. But if one day the Human Lord Seal were lost, or you abandoned it, or you died while the seal remained, and someone accidentally connected to the Daos inside your seal, they could inherit your Daos. But that wouldn't mean they were Su Yu!" Su Yu raised an eyebrow. "Many people cultivate a future body, and you weren't the only one to detonate it. Why would you be the one to connect with the Gate of Sealing?" Wan Tiansheng was somewhat at a loss for words. "There are countless cultivators in the world, so why are there only a handful of you who opened worlds? You, Su Yu, have immense karmic fortune, so why can't I have any? Who can say for sure how these things work! But when I devoured those Great Daos, I truly felt something—I caught a vague glimpse of a gateway... which was likely the Gate of Sealing!" Wan Tiansheng added, "Rest assured, there's no reason for me to deny it. If I truly were Old Seven, I would simply admit it and have you find a way to destroy the River of Time to completely unseal me. I believe you would help me... If I truly were him, I wouldn't deny it in the slightest!" He had no need to deny it! As far as things stood, the Human Gate had no conflict with Su Yu. Su Yu nodded, yet frowned. "Then according to you, you are merely an inheritor of the Gate of Sealing's Dao. Where did the real Old Seven go? Could it be that he doesn't exist at all?" Did this magnificent entity, so deeply dreaded by all, truly exist, or not? Wan Tiansheng shook his head and sighed. "I wouldn't know. Maybe he exists, maybe he doesn't... devil knows! But the Gate of Sealing definitely exists, because everyone has seen it! Therefore, the essence of the Gate of Sealing should be a mighty Great Dao—the Dao of Seven Emotions and Six Desires! This Dao lies inside the gate! What I've touched so far is likely just scratching the surface!" Su Yu raised an eyebrow. "You mean that if we snatch the actual Gate of Sealing, you might be able to inherit it?" "Mm, there's a chance!" Wan Tiansheng nodded. "However, I'm not certain! Furthermore, I cannot confirm yet whether Daos from before the opening of the heavens existed independently! Although it feels like the Great Saints of the Human Gate are all like that, I haven't been able to verify it completely! If there is evidence proving that pre-heaven-opening Daos existed independently, then a Great Dao might very well reside inside the Gate of Sealing!" "That's simple enough—we can just ask someone from before the opening of the heavens..." Simple, my foot. Entities from before the opening of the heavens were exceedingly rare now. Kong and Shi were indeed figures from that era, but on Su Yu's side, neither the Lord of Dead Spirits nor Qiong was from that time. Wan Tiansheng continued, "Lan Tian, your idea is for him to devour the river! As for me, I want to devour the Gate of Sealing! But what about yourself? You said it yourself: those fellows won't necessarily keep fighting alongside us to the end... So how will you improve your own strength? Right now, you possess thirty-six Daos, which is certainly formidable, but compared to the Earth Gate and Heavenly Gate... you're still far behind! Another point: if Old Seven and the Time Master exist, how will you deal with them?" Su Yu was the core! If Su Yu couldn't advance, that was where the real trouble lay! Su Yu explained, "On my end, it's still the path of fusing the myriad Daos! The road is clear enough, but fusing them is tremendously difficult!" Yet Wan Tiansheng shook his head. "Not necessarily!" "How so?" Wan Tiansheng pondered and said, "Perhaps you should ask the Great Zhou King about this." "Hmm?" Su Yu's eyes flickered. Wan Tiansheng chuckled. "Fusing the apertures yourself is indeed quite difficult! But what if someone like the Great Zhou King, who controls multiple Great Daos on his own, fused his Daos together? For instance, his Daos are dispersed across sixteen of your apertures—what if he fused those sixteen apertures together? "Not just the Great Zhou King. I might break away from your world, but besides the Great Zhou King, there are quite a few who wield several Daos. Don't constantly try to fuse them on your own. Give them a chance... let them attempt the fusion!" Wan Tiansheng added, "And once they fuse them to the end, you can figure out a way to merge them together!" Su Yu's eyes gleamed. "Director, you mean..." "Didn't you fuse Yun Chen and Nan Wujiang together?" Su Yu raised his eyebrows. Wan Tiansheng continued, "Then have everyone give up their physical bodies and become Dao spirits within your heaven and earth! Then, let these Dao spirits attempt to fuse the Daos! When you win, you can naturally rescue them! What you need to do is simple: the only crucial requirement is ensuring their consciousnesses aren't merged together, lest they become another Lan Tian! "And for this, you'll need help from many people. For example, Doubao—he has always been a Dao spirit and might be of assistance! In addition, there's the Lord of Dead Spirits: you can ask him how, when so many dead spirits gather into a single Great Dao, they can still regain their lucidity! At first, dead spirits lack clear consciousness, their minds somewhat scrambled and mixed, but later they can all recover their memories... which means their origins eventually separate!" Wan Tiansheng advised, "Right now, your mind is solely fixed on making yourself stronger, forgetting the essence of cultivation! Su Yu, you must learn to solve problems with the methods of civilization! "That includes your teachers. They might be weak, but they have always been devoted to research. They might not understand overly convoluted things, but complex matters can be simplified! Bai Feng was previously trying to transform into a Dao spirit, so he must have considered how to preserve his own will from being assimilated! "You cultivate myriad Daos—do you really have to master every single one yourself? Do you have to force yourself to fuse them all alone?" It was too difficult! Su Yu didn't have the time. If he had time, he could work on it slowly. Wan Tiansheng added, "If you're bold enough, you could even learn from Lan Tian, blending countless wills into a new Su Yu! Only this Su Yu would be a new Su Yu forged from the collective wills of everyone in your world... and once you defeat your foes, you can attempt to separate them back out!" Su Yu arched an eyebrow. "Director, you certainly dare speak your mind!" Wan Tiansheng scoffed. "Why wouldn't I? You have no other path right now! If you take any other path, you've run out of time! Only this path is the fastest! The prerequisite is that you trust everyone, and everyone trusts you! Only with mutual trust is there any hope of success! Otherwise, who else can you count on?" He continued, "There's one more thing: you must equalize all the Great Daos in your heaven and earth! Do you get what I mean?" Su Yu nodded. "You mean I should use King Wen's method to balance out all the Great Daos in my world, right?" "Yes!" Wan Tiansheng nodded again. "Your strongest Dao might be the physical body Dao or some other Dao... You must balance these powers throughout your heaven and earth, even if you lose a portion of it in the process! Divide it evenly into 720 shares! Your strength might drop a bit, but only by doing so will you have any hope of fusing all 720 Daos!" "You considered all of this long ago, Director?" Wan Tiansheng nodded. "Yes, but back then, things hadn't come to this pass! After all, too many things must be factored in. It's not just a test for you, but for everyone!" This was not something Su Yu could accomplish alone! Wan Tiansheng sighed. "Unless driven to a dead end, this path is honestly terrible. But when you are at a dead end, it is hope! The real terror is that at the critical juncture, someone might harbor second thoughts, unwilling to let you remain the primary body! That would cause internal chaos!" Su Yu arched an eyebrow. "A good option!" Indeed, it sounded rather promising! Wan Tiansheng said no more, while Lan Tian gave an eerie chuckle. "An onslaught of hundreds of wills—can you take it? You aren't me, after all..." Su Yu nodded. "Of course, I'm far more resilient than you. I won't occasionally lose control and turn thoroughly coquettish. I believe I can always preserve my true self!" Lan Tian was speechless. Who are you looking down on? I don't believe you're really tougher than me! At this moment, Su Yu laughed. "The director's words have truly opened my eyes. As expected, one person's strength is limited after all! However, at a time like this, I must choose the candidates very carefully!" Wan Tiansheng nodded. That was crucial! Otherwise, disaster would strike!