Chapter 2376: Three Gates (2)

Human Emperor nodded, "Yes. I encountered a powerful being. To avoid exposing the location of my Heaven Gate projection, I stopped trying after that attempt. I suspected that my projection was right inside that fellow's territory. I did not have the attention to spare anyway."

"You wish to save Wen Yu...That lass...loved stirring trouble back then. But I'll be happy to see you save her. However, don't force it if you still can't do it. Wen Number Two can struggle for a bit longer."

Su Yu's main body shouldn't enter. He might end up trapped in there as well, and everything might go wrong after that. But what could a mere clone accomplish?

Nevertheless, Human Emperor had no good reason to actually stop Su Yu from doing this. It was true that Wen Yu's Book of Time had helped Su Yu massively. If Human Emperor was being honest, he could indeed see the shadow of Wen Yu within Su Yu's world.

Su Yu took this chance to learn more about Time Sage. He asked, "Do you know more about Time Sage? How strong was she? Since she didn't complete her creation, what dao did she cultivate?"

"Wen Yu..."

Human Emperor smiled as he sank into recollection. "That was a hyperactive lass. Back when I waged war everywhere with Wen Number Two, she was the playmate of Xing Yue. She was the younger of the two, but she was a far bigger troublemaker. Xing Yue had a gentle nature, but Wen Yu was different. She could never sit still.

"When we fought outside, we would leave the two girls at Wen Number Two's place. Xing Yue could stay inside patiently, but Wen Yu would always sneak out. We killed quite a lot of chaos beasts from the Earth Gate. After tasting those beasts, she grew gluttonous and started harboring the ambition of gathering her own ingredients and becoming a chef..."

Su Yu's face twitched. Was that the true origin of the cookbook?

Human Emperor continued, "Like Wen Number Two, she was exceptionally talented. At first, we intended to have her walk the contemporary path of cultivation. But she ended up creating the so-called Book of Time while messing around with her cookbook."

"She already found her path then." Human Emperor sighed and continued, "She was very talented. Perhaps her vision had widened due to our influence, but she never followed the traditional path in cultivation. The two major paths were dao pioneering or dao fusion, but she claimed that the River of Time was basically a big ranch. The master of this ranch was free to eat all the livestock in this ranch. Thus, she aspired to open her own ranch."

Su Yu's eyes flickered.

Human Emperor smiled as he said, "I know these words will make you think more, but don't overthink things. Just think about your own world. Do you view it as a ranch?"

Su Yu sank into thought.

Human Emperor continued, "Eventually, she started perfecting her cookbook with the goal of creating a new world. We were supportive of that. After all, we were thinking the same thing as well. But unlike her, we aimed to first pioneer a dao before creating a world."

"Wen Yu, on the other hand, refused. She wanted to jump straight to creation."

Su Yu nodded, "Time Sage was capable and decisive enough to go straight for creation. The Book of Time is an impressive item."

Human Emperor laughed, "Yes, but she was too much of a troublemaker. She ran everywhere to collect corpses for her book, forcing both me and Wen Number Two to claim ignorance. At the time, we had just completed the conquest. Her actions could easily force the various races to rise in revolt, so she didn't dare to expose her identity as well. Eventually, everyone started calling the mysterious corpse collector the Time Sage, and she accepted the title tacitly."

"How strong was she since she had not created a world?"

Human Emperor thought about it and answered, "She was not weak. At her peak, she was near tier-one when using her Book of Time."

Noticing Su Yu's look, Human Emperor chuckled and said, "What? Are you actually disappointed?

"Think about it. At the time, how many tier-ones were there in the entirety of the Myriad Realms? Even Wen Number Two, Martial King, and I had barely crossed into the first tier at the time. Radiant King was only a peak tier-two. With that strength, she was one of the ten strongest in the Myriad Realms at the time."

Human Emperor sighed and continued, "As she completed her work on her Book of Time, she started considering creation. And she was very ambitious. We had been advising her to start her creation for a while, but she refused. She was unwilling to do so before she collected all daos and accumulated enough comprehension. She wanted to surpass both Wen Number Two and me at one go."

Even Su Yu gasped, "That is...truly ambitious. Well, I already fused with her Book of Time. It didn't feel like that book would actually grant her that much strength after her creation. But it would indeed be enough to push her into the first tier."

That would still make her strong, but not as strong as her goal.

Human Emperor laughed, "How are you sure that the Book of Time she sent back was the original book?"

Su Yu blinked. What?

Human Emperor said, "The bulk of Wen Yu's strength was all within that book. She would have dropped to the Sunmoon Realm after the damage the book suffered when you obtained it. And she would have died long ago. It is likely that the copy you received was merely a copy."

Su Yu blanked out. Was that the case?

Human Emperor explained, "Wen Yu has always been mischievous. She is not the type to cry for help. Rather, she was the type to climb out of the hole she dug. She will never place all her hope on someone else. Your Book of Time is likely a copy. You said that Star followed the book out back then, right?"

Su Yu nodded.

Human Emperor smiled and said, "But how was that possible? If Wen Yu had truly opened a crack on the Heaven Gate in a moment of desperation, she would have done it while she was in the middle of an intense battle with a powerful opponent. How could a weakling like Star take advantage of a battle between such powerful combatants?"

Su Yu blinked. That was a fresh perspective. He was also quite impressed at how much contempt Human Emperor was showing his distant ancestor.

Human Emperor continued, "Therefore, that lass must be plotting something as well. She might truly be in danger, as she wouldn't have sent the book out otherwise. But since Wen Number Two is still alive, it is likely that Wen Yu won't die so easily either."

Su Yu raised his brow, "In short, Time Sage has arranged her own contingencies as well."

"Definitely." Human Emperor laughed and said, "You are this contingency, isn't that so?"

"Me?"

Human Emperor said, "Are you not her contingency? Have you not risen in power after receiving that book?"

Su Yu smiled helplessly. True.

"But when I accessed her imprinted memory, she was crying..."

Human Emperor sighed and said, "And why is that so surprising? Have you not heard that the crying baby gets the milk? I'll have you know that she was crying even when she was running everywhere collecting all those corpses. It was all a performance. She wept for the corpses, but she never hesitated when eating those beasts."

"..."

Su Yu grimaced.

Good heavens!

Was that the case?

A performance?

No way, right?

He was rendered speechless. Only after a long while did he speak again, "Could it be that she is actually living very well right now?"

"I doubt so." Human Emperor laughed, "She's definitely not living a good life, but she's also definitely not suffering that much either. Therefore, don't allow yourself to be misled by her."

Once again, Su Yu was left speechless.

Sure enough, this was an era of actors. He had actually believed that Time Sage was dying. He had actually fallen for that performance because she wept.

"Of course, this is only a guess. Perhaps she's really in great trouble. Who knows?"

Human Emperor had to give a disclaimer in case he was wrong.

Su Yu rolled his eyes. Of course this was a guess. What else could it be?

***

As they spoke, they reached the Myriad Realms.

Moments later, they stepped into the Upper Realm.

Human Emperor's golden world entered Su Yu's vision. Some powerhouses were staying guard in the Upper Realm.

Empyrean Cloud and the others were relieved to see that it was Su Yu and the others. Empyrean Cloud rushed over and said, "That was so scary, Your Majesty. Your world shook so intensely earlier. Heavenly Overseer nearly died from that. Is everything fine?"

"Everything is fine."

Su Yu smiled. He looked at Human Emperor and said, "In that case, let's split here. You'll need to stabilize your world, and I'll be doing the same with my world. Get the heavenly kings and Venerables to complete their fusion with your world as soon as possible. As for my world, I don't need any new cultivators for now."

Human Emperor nodded. "Sure. Remember to inform me before entering the Heaven Gate. Don't just vanish suddenly. That can easily cause unwanted mishaps."

"Sure."

And then, Su Yu stepped into his world.

Just as the others were about to follow, Empyrean Cloud's astonished voice rang out, "Stable Army, what are you doing? You have a new home. You're with Human Emperor now."

"..."

Stable Army Marquis felt like coughing blood.

But when he thought about it...wait. He now cultivated a dao from Human Emperor's world. What even was the point of entering Su Yu's world? Those from Su Yu's camp who had joined Human Emperor's world were all feeling quite annoyed about it.

Both Radiant King and Battle King were feeling quite annoyed as well. Everything was in a mess. It was as though those from the two camps were being forcefully mixed together. More annoyingly, they were still quite unfamiliar with Su Yu. At the same time, they still had some tasks in Human Emperor's camp.

Many of them were feeling lost, not knowing where they should go for now.

***

That was not something Su Yu was worrying about.

He had sustained heavy injuries from the recent battle. He had to focus on recovery and further stabilizing his world. Since it had not collapsed during the battle, he was not about to let it collapse now that the immediate crisis was over.

Previously, he had only considered allowing it to collapse because he was out of options. He was willing to send everyone to Human Emperor's world. He had killed a lot of people in the previous battle, but the gains were much smaller than expected.

However, there were some notable gains as well. For example, Martial Emperor and Great Zhou King had reached tier one while Radiant King and Battle King had fused with his world.

With the addition of several tier-ones and the comprehension of veteran cultivators, Su Yu would have grown stronger by a few daos if it weren't for the heavy damage his world had sustained. Stepping into the human lord's token, Su Yu started his recuperation.

He was prepared to enter a prolonged seclusion this time. He might even need to spend an entire month in seclusion. An entire day had passed upstream, and about three months had passed in the Myriad Realms. Previously, he had declared that he would finish dealing with the myriad races in three months. And it seemed like he had succeeded.

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