Tribulation of Myriad Races

Chapter 3: Myriad Race Compendium

Outside the registration center.

After taking several steps forward, Su Yu suddenly turned around and asked in astonishment, "Why are you still following me?"

Chen Hao was confused. "Aren't we going to class?"

"No."

"No? Where are you going then?"

Chen Hao felt wronged. Su Yu was the one who had said that he wanted to go to school earlier. Why was he changing his mind now?

"Library." Su Yu said indifferently, "I don’t have to attend any of the classes here anymore. The instructor gave me permission to skip my classes. As for you...are you intending to get your parents invited to the school by skipping classes?"

"..."

Chen Hao felt terrible hearing that. He ran away while covering his face. Yes, Su Yu no longer needed to attend any of the classes. The instructor had personally given him the permission for that. But that wasn't the case for Chen Hao.

Su Yu was exempted even from the cultivation class. He was already a third-stage Source Opening cultivator. As far as the teachers were concerned, that was enough for him. None of them saw him joining a war academy, so nobody would push him to cultivate more.

...

Looking at the departing Chen Hao, Su Yu shook his head and laughed. Chen Hao's father was old friends with his father. Meanwhile, Chen Hao and him were classmates close enough to be considered best friends. However, Chen Hao was a raucous person, so it could be rather tiring to hang around that fellow at times.

...

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Library.

As Su Yu was a frequent visitor here, he was quite close with the librarian. He would frequently spend an entire day in the library. After several years of doing so, it was only understandable that the two of them were able to cultivate a close relationship.

"Su Yu, you’ve already mastered over ten different languages. You should be taking this time to relax a bit. Why are you still studying so hard?" teased the librarian. In Nanyuan Secondary School, Su Yu could be considered a small celebrity.

For the majority of the students, they only needed to master the divine and devil language, the demon language, and the common language. Those languages alone were taxing enough to learn that they wouldn't be able to learn more languages. Su Yu, on the other hand, had been learning even the lesser known languages.

Su Yu merely smiled, not saying anything. He went straight to the third floor. As the classes were still ongoing, the library was devoid of people. A few teachers were there for research, but barely any students could be found in the library.

In any case, most students would rather bitterly cultivate than spend their time studying those indecipherable handwriting. For these youngsters, there was no point using their brain for issues that could be solved with force.

The teachers noticed Su Yu, but none bothered him. Everyone was silently immersed in their readings. Su Yu did not bother anyone in the library either. Walking a familiar path, he headed toward the bookshelf that he had frequented most. After looking over the shelf, he pulled out a massive book.

Ox-Faced Fish.

That was a Myriad Race Compendium. Over the years, humanity had made a compilation of the races they knew into books that served to educate the human race about the myriad races. Su Yu was holding one such book in hand.

The so-called Myriad Race Compendium referred to a series of books instead of a single book. Su Yu had no idea how many books there were in the series. After all, access to some of the books were restricted to only a select group of people.

There were thirty-nine of these books in Nanyuan Secondary School, detailing thirty-nine different races. The contents of these books included the appearance of these races, their habits, customs, languages, unique cultivation methods, combat preferences, hunting guide, and so on.

None of these were what Su Yu wanted to learn at the moment. He was looking at the title page, the page where the illustration of the race in question could be found. Ox-faced fish sounded like some sort of fish, but that wasn't the case. Looking at the illustration, Su Yu noted that this was a race similar to an ox with the tail of a snake and a pair of wings on its back.

As for the reason for this race to be known as the ox-faced fish, it was because this was an amphibious race capable of living both on land and underwater. In terms of combat strength, this race was stronger underwater than when on land.

Despite having a pair of wings, this race was incapable of flight. The pair of wings functioned similarly to chicken wings that would allow them to jump higher instead of actually soaring into the sky.

Flesh of ox-faced fish, capable of expelling poison, an excellent antidote.

Living in the Mount Root Realm, a realm filled with mountains and bodies of water. The ox-faced fish hibernate during winter before waking up in summer. Be very cautious entering the Mount Root Realm during summer as the danger rating would increase exponentially during that time.

A neutral force at the Allheaven Battlefield. Do not kill without reason or explicit permission.

Su Yu skimmed through the contents of the book. He had read all these before, but he had not learned the ox-faced fish language. That was an extremely difficult language to learn, especially since it was such an obscure language. There was also the fact that the ox-faced fish wasn't even the dominant race of the Mount Root Realm.

Su Yu wasn't here to see all that. He was mainly here for the illustration of the ox-faced fish.

"Ox-faced fish..."

Su Yu muttered as he recalled his nightmare the night before. Was that the monster chasing him in his dream last night? When he was younger, he wouldn't read too much into these nightmares. But as years went by and he grew older, he started analyzing the nightmares, trying to learn more about them.

What manner of beings were these monsters that had been chasing after him in his nightmares? Did these monsters exist in real life? Over the years, people had come to view him as a genius that was willing to put in the hard work to learn the languages of the myriad races, reaching the point of mastering eighteen languages and putting others to shame with his hard work.

In truth, he had only been working so hard to learn about the myriad races due to his nightmares. As he spent more and more of his time researching the myriad races, he eventually started learning more languages to understand the myriad races better.

"The dream world is too blurry. I can't be sure if it was an ox-faced fish. But the monster in the dream last night did have a pair of wings. I think it even mooed like an ox."

Su Yu wondered to himself. As things were very blurry in the dream, he wasn't sure if the monster last night was really an ox-faced fish. However, he had managed to pinpoint several races that matched some of the monsters that had appeared in his dreams in the past. Thus, Su Yu felt that he was on the right track. The monsters in his dreams were the myriad races that existed in reality.

It had been over ten years, over four thousand nights. He had encountered thousands of different monsters in his dreams. From the sheer variety of the monsters that had appeared in his dreams, he couldn't imagine them existing if they weren't actually the myriad races that existed in reality.

"Myriad races, you guys sure look very highly upon me to come after me in my dreams..."

Su Yu smiled bitterly. ?He was just a normal human being. Was there a point for the myriad races to invade his dreams? At that thought, Su Yu gnashed his teeth in fury. He didn't even know them! He had never even met any of them! Why would they haunt him so? Was it fun to torture an ordinary person like him?

"But why exactly are these dreams happening?"

Su Yu couldn't understand. He could accept being tortured by these monsters in his dreams if he had actually met them. But he had never even left Nanyuan City his entire life. The only connection he had to these monsters was the fact that he had read about them in books. How would that establish a connection with these monsters?

After identifying the monster that he had seen in his dream last night, Su Yu placed the book back on the shelf. There were some things that he still couldn't investigate too deeply into for now. Shortly after, Su Yu walked away from the bookshelf. Apart from identifying the ox-faced fish, Su Yu still had some other business at the library today.

A short while later, he reached a different section of the library: Source Opening Section.

This was the section housing the reading materials regarding the Source Opening Realm. For the human race, their initial cultivation method was the Source Opening Codex. Someone who had yet to open their nine acupoints and were incapable of sensing source qi. However, source qi was present everywhere.

Anyone could take in the ambient source qi in the air and gradually open their nine acupoints before stepping into the Great Strength Realm to start their physical cultivation. Opening the nine acupoints was a lengthy process. A human cultivator would start cultivating the Source Opening Codex at a young age. Progress could only be made one step at a time.

The world of cultivation followed the law of the jungle. Geniuses would be able to rise abruptly upon starting cultivation. With a better talent in cultivation, one would naturally be able to cultivate faster. Su Yu was not completely clueless about cultivation. He was aware of all that. He knew that the Source Opening Realm wasn't a realm that could be rushed through. Progress would only happen passively. Not even hard work could accelerate the process.

Even knowing all that, he still wanted to look around and see if he could find a way to accelerate his cultivation. Unfortunately, he wasn't able to find anything even after spending some time in the section. He frowned. Was that information not available here? If that was the case, he probably wouldn't be able to reach the fourth-stage before the entrance examination.

"Su Yu, what are you looking for?"

A short-haired girl who was reading nearby couldn't hold her curiosity and asked. She had been reading in the same section for quite a while. Although the two weren't classmates, they were both frequent visitors of the library. As time went by, they naturally came to know each other. Su Yu had an apologetic look. He seemed to have disturbed her peace in the library.

"I'm trying to look for something related to increasing the speed of Source Opening cultivation but I can't find anything."

"Increasing the speed of Source Opening cultivation?"

The short-haired girl muttered to herself before saying, "There are several methods to accelerate the speed of Source Opening cultivation, but that is not recommended for humans. The Source Opening Realm is the foundation of cultivation. The opening of nine acupoints is a process where your foundations are built.

“This is a realm where stability is the priority. There is a reason the first realm was named the Source Opening Realm. It is the realm where you open the source of cultivation. Su Yu, I thought you're applying for the cultural research academies? This is not something they would test you on. Don't tell me you're actually trying to accelerate your cultivation."

The girl was getting worried. "You can't mess up your foundations. It is very dangerous. Even if you really managed to safely accelerate your cultivation, it will still negatively affect your future cultivation."

Su Yu smiled, "I know. Don't worry, I'm not stupid. I only wanted to check if there is a safe method. If I can't find any, so be it."

"Is that so..."

The girl gave it some thought before pointing at a bookshelf at the corner. "There are a few books about cultivation acceleration there. However, some of the recorded methods are too extreme. Su Yu, you better don't attempt any of those. Otherwise, it will be very troublesome. You might even die from it."

"During the early years of the Anping Calendar, some humans did attempt these methods. At that time, they were left with no choice. The world was a much dangerous place back then. However, none of those seniors had managed to reach the apex of cultivation. In fact, most of them had perished at a young age due to their unstable foundations during the Source Opening Realm."

"Thank you. I know." Su Yu smiled and nodded. The girl was Liu Yue, a final year first class student.

Su Yu did not know much about her, but she was a frequent visitor of the library like him. He had heard that she had also mastered a large number of languages. However, he was unclear as to how many languages she had actually mastered. He wasn't a busybody that would go around asking about that. She would probably be applying for the cultural research academies. That was why she did not seem to care about her cultivation level. Su Yu did not say more to Liu Yue. He went to the corner and started looking for the books Liu Yue mentioned.

Source Opening Acceleration Method, My Opinions on Source Opening, Importance of Foundations...