Chapter 2357: Su Yu Takes Charge (1)

Great Zhou King could be meritorious, or he could be wrong. That depended on perspective.

The true victim in all that was Liu Wenyan. He was the actual number one genius of that era. As someone who was not even a Skysoar, he carried the character of a Sunmoon inside his sea of willpower without dying. That was something not even Su Yu had tried to do. It was likely that not even Su Yu would succeed in something like that.

During that golden age, even someone as talented as Xia Longwu was merely a background character before Liu Wenyan. That was an era where numerous people revolved around the genius that was Liu Wenyan, including the likes of Marquis Xia.

Initially, Great Zhou King planned to have Liu Wenyan inherit the pen dao. That was obvious enough from how Liu Wenyan had been allowed to inherit so many powerful characters. But ultimately, Liu Wenyan had failed to fulfill Great Zhou King's expectations.

As such, he became an abandoned chess piece. In his disappointment, Great Zhou King had given up fully on Liu Wenyan.

Su Yu was Liu Wenyan's student. A student Liu Wenyan had spent five years teaching. Even so, Su Yu was in no position to forgive Great Zhou King for Liu Wenyan. Su Yu could only forget everything. He didn't know how he should handle this.

Was Great Zhou King meritorious?

Yes.

At the very least, he had succeeded in protecting humanity during this epoch. Without him, humanity might have been wiped out before Su Yu could even appear.

The defeat of the ninth epoch had turned Great Zhou King into a much more cautious person. At the same time, his ruthlessness had also increased. He opted to sacrifice a small number of people to save a bigger number of people. And Liu Wenyan was among the small number of sacrifices.

Su Yu said nothing. Human Emperor and the others sank into silence as well. Su Yu was one of the involved parties in this whole thing. Great Zhou King and Su Yu's teacher were involved parties as well. It was hard to say if one was right or wrong here.

A long time ago, Bai Feng asked Su Yu if it was worth sacrificing a hundred people to kill an enemy powerhouse. At the time, Su Yu said yes. Next, Bai Feng asked if the answer was the same with Su Yu's father among the hundred.

At that, Su Yu instantly changed his answer. He would kill anyone daring to make that sacrifice.

Such was human.

***

Seeing that the mood was turning somber, Human Emperor coughed and said, "Come here, Su Yu. I have something else to discuss with you."

That was his way of dispersing the heavy atmosphere.

The two walked elsewhere.

There, Human Emperor sighed and said, "Sorry."

Su Yu said, "Why?"

Human Emperor said, "Ultimately, I am at fault for all this. Culture King's departure was a ploy. My departure with the myriad races was a ploy as well. Others plotted against us, but we also took the chance to plot against others. But we had clearly done something wrong somewhere, resulting in the disaster of the ninth epoch."

Culture King had departed to save his little sister, but at the same time, that was also part of their ploy against the Heaven Gate. Unfortunately, his opponent inside was too strong. As a result, Culture King remained stuck until now.

Human Emperor had swept the myriad races upstream to suppress the three gates. He had pushed for the rebellion to happen or it might not have happened so soon. Martial King's departure was actually an arrangement of Human Emperor. Everything was a part of his plan.

From Human Emperor's perspective, he was only doing the right thing. However, now all plans would succeed. Something had gone wrong with his arrangements in the Myriad Realms. And Su Yu had suffered for that. He had to take the blame for that.

Su Yu said indifferently, "That is far behind me. I am long past the period of blaming others for the bad things happening to me. I am long past the period of blaming the world for being unfair. I can only say that I suffered because I was weak. Thus, I grew strong to change everything.

"Perhaps Great Zhou King didn't do anything wrong. At the very least, he made me desperate enough to grow as much as possible."

Su Yu sneered and said, "From the day I begged for help and nothing happened, I told myself that I can only rely on myself. My fists. My brain. I can only resolve my troubles myself."

Human Emperor sighed. After a long while, he said, "True. There is no need for me to placate you. You are far stronger than I can imagine. For you, any attempt to comfort you is a joke."

Human Emperor chuckled and said, "So be it. I was worried that you would hold a grudge over this, but you won't. You might have guessed the truth long ago. You could have done something about it long ago if you wanted."

He suddenly found that it was pointless to comfort Su Yu.

Su Yu was young, but Su Yu was not an ignorant child. He had a strong heart. No setback could crush him.

Human Emperor asked doubtfully, "You're only twenty-something, and you have not encountered too many defeats..."

Su Yu laughed, "No, not at all. I have experienced many defeats. I have to thank the Time Sage. She taught me that losing is nothing. Even death is nothing. As long as you last long enough, you win."

Human Emperor's eyes flickered as he asked, "That cookbook of hers?"

That suddenly reminded him of something he had neglected. With an odd expression, he asked, "How old were you when you inherited her cookbook?"

"Six."

Six!

Human Emperor's expression changed as he said, "The cookbook is very powerful. Even a tiny ripple of its power is far beyond a six-year-old."

"The powers of a myriad daos were sealed in the cookbook. Sealed and with enough damage, the book might cease being a threat to your physical well-being. But some willpower remnant should remain. Did you...suffer from nightmares in the past?"

Human Emperor's eyes flickered as he said, "You created a world with thousands of daos...I think...I understand how."

Understanding was dawning on him.

Su Yu's talent was out of the ordinary. Human Emperor gasped as he continued, "Each appearance of a willpower remnant is essentially the appearance of a dao remnant. And each time this dao remnant damages your willpower, a trace of the dao in question will be left in your mind. Therefore, the comprehension of the myriad daos comes easily to you. The myriad daos aren't so easy to comprehend. Or to be precise, most people do not have enough lifespan to comprehend so many daos."

Yes, Su Yu had solicited a lot of external help in his creation. Nevertheless, he still needed his own comprehension of the myriad daos to actually start the process. Thus, Su Yu had truly comprehended numerous daos, even if his comprehension was actually quite shallow for some of these daos.

And his comprehension did not come from nowhere. It wasn't due to his supreme talent or something like that.

Rather, it was because he had been immersed in the power of the various daos since childhood. That was also why he was able to easily form characters once he started his cultivation. It wasn't due to his talent alone. Rather, those daos already existed within him. He had merely been learning to use what was already available to him.

Characters were laws.

Laws were characters.

Su Yu had already gathered a large number of pseudo laws by the time he met Bai Feng. And as he started cultivating, he became an exception to the norm. Everyone else would slowly form a character one stroke at a time.

Meanwhile, Su Yu would form a complete character instantly. Why? Because others needed the time to slowly comprehend the dao of the character they were drawing. Meanwhile, that process wasn't necessary for Su Yu. A tiny spark of inspiration was all he needed to give form to the dao comprehension that was already inside him.

Human Emperor could understand the sheer amount of pain and suffering Su Yu had gone through to gain this supreme talent he seemed to have.

Su Yu was too young. And too weak. He wasn't even old enough to cultivate when he started suffering the torture of the myriad daos. Only now did Human Emperor understand just what this young man had endured.

Human Emperor asked, "Did you not despair and think of giving up?"

To die and end the suffering.

If Human Emperor was being honest with himself, he didn't even know how he would survive such a childhood. Suffering every moment of the day, tortured by nightmares even in sleep. Such despair. Such hopelessness. Would he opt to end it all?

Su Yu laughed, "Despair? Yes, I did feel that. At first, I despaired. It was so scary. I even tried avoiding sleep. I wanted to stay awake my entire life. I longed to become a powerful cultivator so that sleep was no longer necessary. I feel like I have actually achieved that desire of mine."

Many years had passed since then. Su Yu couldn't recall the last time he had a proper sleep after six. Even when the frequency of his nightmares dropped significantly during his time in the academy, he became too busy with his cultivation to actually sleep.

He couldn't remember what a proper sleep felt like anymore. It had simply been too long. After growing strong, the thought of getting a proper sleep did cross his mind. But he had too many things to worry about. He couldn't sleep. His previous experience with death was the chance for him to finally sleep, but even that sleep was interrupted by Culture King and Martial King. Then again, that wasn't enough time for a proper sleep even without their interruption.

Human Emperor stared at Su Yu silently.

It was only now that he finally understood Su Yu somewhat. After a long silence, he said, "People often say that Su Yu is blessed with an insane level of talent. But perhaps...your talent is ordinary.

"The cookbook allowed you to experience the various daos in advance while protecting you from dying due to the exposure to these daos. This is essentially a form of tempering, as though you're a piece of metal and not a living, breathing being. Such suffering is probably bearable for a powerhouse. But for a child, it is too cruel."

The Book of Time had essentially smashed Su Yu's willpower apart before repairing it repeatedly. That was a cruel process. It wouldn't kill Su Yu, but it could drive him mad.

Human Emperor continued, "I doubt even Wen Yu expected her treasure to fall into the hands of a child..."

With a bitter smile, he said, "It shouldn't have been inherited by you."

Su Yu laughed, "I should thank Star for this. Oh, that's your ancestor, by the way."

Su Yu had mentioned this before. Now that he was mentioning this again, Human Emperor sank into silence. After a while, he said, "And perhaps this isn't a blessing to you, after all. As for Star, that might be an ancestor of mine, but there is no actual relationship between us. He doesn't matter to me."

A gate stood between them. An entire era stood between them.

Human Emperor looked at Su Yu and asked, "Have you never collapsed mentally from all the torture?"

In response, Su Yu merely stared at Human Emperor with a wide smile. Human Emperor blanked out. After a while, he reached his own conclusion.

Yes.

That was not all. That mental collapse had probably lasted until...now.

This white-haired youth had long collapsed mentally. He had long sunken into madness. But unlike everyone else, he was able to keep everything inside. All his madness was kept deep inside.

"Wen Yu..."

Human Emperor muttered. Wen Yu must not have expected this. She was the one who had granted Su Yu his current status and power. She was also the one who had ruined Su Yu. She would never imagine that she had created a madman. A total madman.

Someone completely mad yet calm.

Like Zhou Ji, Human Emperor finally realized that Su Yu was already utterly mad. But this seemed to be an era only a madman could save.

As Human Emperor gave Su Yu a deep stare, Su Yu asked, "Why are you staring at me like that? Don't tell me you're harboring some indecent thoughts toward me."

Human Emperor laughed. But after a while, he spoke nonchalantly, "You might need the three gates open..."

Su Yu stared silently.

But Human Emperor was already walking away instead of saying more.

Su Yu might need the three gates open. Why? Because he needed war. The overwhelming pressure of war could suppress all his negative emotions. That overwhelming pressure was the only thing holding his mind together. Human Emperor couldn't imagine what Su Yu's madness would lead to without the pressure of war.

Would he fall apart completely?

Or would he recover slowly?

There was no answer.

But he could guess, no, he could see that Su Yu was already on the verge of a full collapse. Perhaps a tiny lull would be enough for him to finally fall apart. Or maybe not. After all, Su Yu was also surprisingly resilient.

That was the very reason why Zhao Li had decided to make Su Yu his successor from their very first meeting. He was simply too resilient.

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