Tribulation of Myriad Races

Bang! Bang! Bang!

Su Yu was drenched in sweat as he worked on Uncle Liu's weapon without saying anything.

This earth weapon must have been forged by a powerful weaponsmith in the past. Its quality was pretty high. Even with such heavy damage dealt to it, its core remained fine. But because of its excellent quality, it was also very hard to repair.

Su Yu worked seriously. Liu Wenyan watched silently while thinking about numerous things.

Teacher and student maintained their silence. None took the initiative to speak. It was as though they had returned to the past. Back then, Su Yu would study while Liu Wenyan watched silently by the side. But things were no longer the same. Back then, Su Yu could ask for Liu Wenyan's guidance when he encountered any problem. But now, Liu Wenyan wouldn't be able to answer even if Su Yu asked him something about weaponsmithing.

Time passed slowly as the stripes on the earth weapon shone one after another.

Seventy-three stripes, seventy-four stripes...

Repairing was easier than forging a new weapon. Before they knew it, all eighty-one of the golden stripes were shining brightly again. To qualify as a middle earth weapon, it required at least eighty-two stripes. But Su Yu had stopped.

"This is as far as I can go. There is a risk of destroying this weapon if I attempt to restore it fully. For now, it is at the very peak of the early earth grade." Su Yu tossed the weapon to Uncle Liu and said, "If you are patient, perhaps you can wait until I officially become an earth weaponsmith. After forging a few earth weapons, I can fully restore this weapon for you."

Uncle Liu nodded and said, "This is good enough. I'm only a Mountainsea. I might not be able to control it properly if it is fully restored. Thank you...Master Cui."

Su Yu answered, "You're welcome. But as we agreed, the two of you need to help me the moment I need assistance. Don't forget that."

Uncle Liu blanked out in confusion. Liu Wenyan understood what Su Yu was getting at. He nodded, "No problem. We aren't criminals serving our sentence here. We can leave at any time."

Su Yu nodded, "I'm aware of that. The student your lucky self managed to accept in the past offended the entire Great Xia for the sake of getting you pardoned. Brother Liu, remember to be grateful to that excellent student of yours. Don't scold him all the time."

"..."

Liu Wenyan cursed inwardly. This damn brat was praising himself again. Was he not tired of that?

Liu Wenyan pretended like Su Yu hadn't said anything and smiled, "Master Cui, you did us a huge favor helping us with our weapons. The Vanguard Regiment might be filled with coarse and murderous individuals, but we still know gratitude. Feel free to look for us if you encounter any trouble during your travels in the Allheaven Battlefield. If the two of us are too weak to help, you can look for Deputy General Cao and the others."

Su Yu nodded at the reminder and said, "I understand."

Liu Wenyan took one final look at Su Yu, inhaled deeply, and said, "In that case, we'll be taking our leave here."

"Next."

Su Yu looked down, refusing to look at Liu Wenyan.

Liu Wenyan and Uncle Liu left silently. Behind them, the next visitor started fawning right after entering the room, "Master Cui, you are truly incredible. You can even repair earth weapons?"

"Cut the bullshit. You’re not getting a discount."

The newcomer's expression turned awkward. He wasted no time and took out his weapon.

***

Vanguard Regiment. Command Center.

Deputy General Cao was looking at the group of military officials seated below him. His black helmet had been removed, revealing his pale face. The cold and stern face looked very young.

After scanning the group, he indifferently said, "These days, the Vanguard Regiment has suffered heavy casualties. General Qin has requested help from the main headquarters. But since he's not back yet, I'm afraid there is no good news for us."

A woman with a scar on her face sneered and said, "The main headquarters are more than happy to see all of us dead. Why would they help us? General Qin is merely looking for humiliation with this action of his."

The woman had an unfeeling expression. From the way she spoke, she clearly didn't have a good opinion of the headquarters. She said, "We don't need their help. We will just fight until the end. Fight until we die. We're a bunch of criminals, anyway. What difference does it make if we die back home instead of here?"

Deputy General Cao looked at her and calmly said, "As the deputy general, I still wish to see more of us return alive. I wish to see more of us live on. Live on without the tag of a criminal."

He looked at the crowd and continued, "I already sent a request to the headquarters. The situation is getting more and more intense. There are too many skirmishes. I asked for a fifty percent reduction in the sentence of everyone here and an increase of thirty percent in our benefits."

Hong Du asked, "Would they agree?"

After a short silence, Deputy General Cao replied solemnly, "Yes. If not, that would be the same as telling us to throw our lives away. If there is no hope of survival, why should we keep fighting? Some of the brothers here still wish to return alive. We need all sorts of support, including weaponsmiths, pillmasters, talisman masters, beast tamers, and so on. But all those professions are too rare."

"Didn't we catch a pseudo earth weaponsmith back recently?"

The woman laughed, stretching the scar on her face, making her look scarier than before.

"That fellow is still young. He's very promising. It's a matter of time before he becomes an earth weaponsmith. Just keep him with us." Deputy General Cao shook his head, "We can't force him to stay. He has the backing of several Sunmoons. Forcing him to stay will turn him against us. There is no need for that."

He moved on from the topic and said, "I called all of you here today for a different matter. Recently, a lot of human geniuses have entered the Allheaven Battlefield. Similarly, numerous myriad race geniuses have gathered in the Plain of Desires right across the Eastrift Valley.

"According to the higher-ups, we should keep watch over the Eastrift Valley. Some of our geniuses might try to cross the Eastrift Valley to face the gathered myriad race geniuses. We will serve as their lifeline. With us there, our geniuses will be able to retreat rapidly to a safe location when they encounter danger."

The woman coldly said, "They're doing this again? Every single time! Every single time! Some of those so-called geniuses would provoke some powerful opponents they couldn't deal with before returning behind the Eastrift Valley. So many of our brothers have perished because of those so-called geniuses. Why must we be the ones to take care of their mess every single time?"

Deputy General Cao said, "This is an order. For the higher-ups, all of us combined are worth less than a few of these geniuses. Stop complaining. This is a military command. I only hope that those fellows won't create too big of a trouble this time. More importantly, I hope they will be the ones to kill the myriad race geniuses instead of becoming the prey of those geniuses."

"Pfft!" The woman sneered, "Whatever. They should just die beyond the Eastrift Valley. That way, their deaths won't be our responsibility."

Deputy Cao did not say anything about that. After giving the military officials a few other reminders, he dismissed everyone. He kept Hong Du in the room.

After thinking for a bit, he said, "Is Cui Lang preparing to cross the Eastrift Valley?"

"Yes."

"Remind him that it's getting very dangerous over there recently. Things have changed this year." Deputy General Cao said, "He repaired over a dozen high-grade weapons for us over the past two days. But he hadn't even received that much payment for his work. Just give him a reminder to show our gratitude. If he insists, give him a detailed map of the Plain of Desires. Give him a list of the myriad race geniuses that might be there as well."

"Alright." After thinking for a bit, Deputy General Cao added, "Give him the location of a few of our safe houses. Tell him to go there if he needs help. The Vanguard Regiment always repays our favor."

"Yes!" Hong Du said, "Deputy General, why don't we try to persuade Cui Lang to stay?"

"There's no point. All geniuses are incredibly arrogant. They will only realize that the Allheaven Battlefield is not the stage for them to gain fame after suffering some hardships. Instead, this is a mass graveyard of geniuses.

"He will leave after ending his repairs tomorrow. Try to get him to repair more before leaving. He loves blood essence, right? We still have the blood essence of some powerful races in our storage. Send them all over and have him work through the night."

"Yes!"

Hong Du left.

***

Before long, Su Yu received a batch of blood essence from Hong Du.

He didn't plan to work during the night, but he had to change his plan. That was too big of a payment. Some of the blood essence was completely new to him. Thus, he had no choice but to work.

And thus, he started burning the midnight oil. One weapon after another was repaired by him. While he was working, there was a minor battle at the Eastrift Valley. But he did not care as he was too busy. During his time here, he had also learned about the gathering of geniuses in the Plain of Desires and the human geniuses crossing the Eastrift Valley to meet them.

"Only when there are enough geniuses would things be fun."

Su Yu thought about all sorts of things as he worked on the weapons. As for Hong Du's reminder and the safe houses he was told about, he kept those words in mind without making any remark.

He might really need to look for help when encountering a powerful opponent he couldn't defeat, so that was something worth remembering.

***

By the end of the third day, Su Yu had repaired a majority of the weapons the Vanguard Regiment needed repairing.

Night of the third day.

Su Yu did not leave. Instead, he started forging something for himself. He wanted to forge himself a pair of shoes. It would be even better if he could form a speed-related character as well before leaving.

He was no longer helping anyone with their repairs. After several days of repairing all sorts of weapons, his comprehension of the dao of weaponsmithing had deepened considerably.

His vibrate character had grown. Even his Soul Expanding Hammer had grown.

He worked alone. That night, banging sounds rang out unceasingly. Nobody disturbed him. He had announced that he was no longer accepting commissions. Instead, he was forging something for himself. DIsturbing a weaponsmith when he was in the middle of work was not a wise thing to do.

When morning arrived, Su Yu had a look of exhaustion. Seventy-two golden stripes could be seen on the pair of shoes in front of him.

"Even if I succeed in making an earth weapon, it will probably be of garbage quality. And it is very tiring. Perhaps, I can try forging seventy-two and a half stripes. That will give me a pseudo earth weapon but it will be a lot less exhausting. The difference with an actual earth weapon won't even be that big."

Su Yu started contemplating. But at times, pseudo earth weapons could be harder to forge than actual earth weapons. But he had some experience working on something like that since this was what Zhao Li had forged in the past.

Su Yu had observed the entire process when Zhao Li worked on his weapon. If he succeeded, his weaponsmithing skills would reach the same level as Zhao Li's back when he made his first attempt at forging the earth weapon.

***

A long time passed.

Su Yu was finally done.

There were no seventy-three stripes on it. But since the seventy-third stripe was semi-formed, this pair of shoes was much stronger than regular peak profound weapons. He hurriedly refined the shoes before putting them on. His body flashed as he tested his new speed.

"My movement speed has increased by at least thirty percent."

He was overjoyed. As for the fact that he had not advanced into an earth weaponsmith, that wasn't too big of a deal. It would be too draining for him to use an actual earth weapon so early anyway.

A thirty percent increase!

Even without any characters and the Time technique, he was already as fast as some seventh-stage Cloudbreaches. With his Time technique, he was probably as fast as some Mountainseas. If he could form a speed or a spatial character as well, his speed would be further boosted. Alas, the only speed-related character he had thus far was the slow character.

"July seems to have arrived."

If he remembered correctly, it was the 1st of July. It was time for him to leave. He hadn't even crossed the Eastrift Valley after arriving in the Allheaven Battlefield for some time. That wouldn't do.

"Time to leave!"

He had met his father. He had also met his teacher. And he had forged himself a new pair of shoes. He had met all his goals excluding the goal of getting a new character. The time had arrived for him to cross the Eastrift Valley and experience the real Allheaven Battlefield.