Tribulation of Myriad Races

Xia Trade Company. A trade company founded by the ruling family of Great Xia, the Xia Trade Company was the largest trade company in the prefecture. A five-storey building at Nanyuan's commercial district housed the Nanyuan branch of Xia Trade Company.

The first floor engaged in the sale of pills, the second floor engaged in the sale of weapons, the third floor engaged in the sale of cultivation methods, the fourth floor engaged in the sale of the various products related to the myriad races, and the fifth floor engaged in high value transactions.

...

Su Yu went straight to the Xia Trade Company after leaving his home. He had visited the place with his father before. After all, Su Long was a Great Strength cultivator. Due to the low density of ambient source qi in Nanyuan City, he needed the assistance of external cultivation resources to continue cultivating.

The fourth floor was further divided into several sections such as the Unknown Cultivation Method Section, Demon Flesh Section, Broken Tool Section, Natural Treasure Section, and so on. Of course, since this was only a branch of a small city like Nanyuan, most of the products being sold were at the level of the Great Strength Realm. Rarely any products at the level of Infinite Strength Realm could be found here.

Demon Flesh Section.

A beautiful and well-trained young woman flashed Su Yu a warm smile and asked, "How may I help you, sir?"

"Iron-winged bird blood."

"Iron-winged bird..." The woman gave it a thought before asking, "Regular blood or blood essence?"

An iron-winged bird was massive, so it would have a large amount of blood in its body. But only several drops of blood essence could be extracted from one iron-winged bird. The rest of the harvest would be regular blood that did not have much uses, unlike the blood essence that was quite useful.

Su Yu did not know what he needed either. After a slight hesitation, he said, "Can you show me both?"

"Sure thing!"

The woman did not question him. Iron-winged birds weren't a rare race. They were commonly utilized by the various races at the Allheaven Battlefield as an air force. If Su Yu was looking for the blood of a more powerful flying race instead, he might not be able to find any in Nanyuan. Shortly after, a male employee took out two glass bottles from a glass shelf and offered it to them.

"This is the regular blood and this is the blood essence. Both originated from a Great Strength iron-winged bird."

Looking at Su Yu who was staring intently at the bottles, the woman smiled and explained, "If you require the blood of an Infinite Strength iron-winged bird, you won't be able to find it at the Nanyuan branch. You can only find some at the capital."

"This will do."

Su Yu wouldn't be able to make use of the blood from an Infinite Strength iron-winged bird. Even if he could use it, he wouldn't be willing to spend the money for it.

"What's the price?"

"Five thousand dollars for a bottle of regular blood. It's very cheap. As for the blood essence, it is slightly higher in price. After all, less than ten drops of blood essence can be extracted from an adult iron-winged bird. We're selling them at fifty thousand dollars a drop."

Su Yu frowned. That was expensive.

"Great Strength combatants are basically cannon fodder at the Allheaven Battlefield. A large number of them will die every single day. Why is one drop of blood essence from a cannon fodder so expensive?"

The woman maintained the same smile on her face and said, "You're right, sir. But transporting the blood essence from the Allheaven Battlefield to Great Xia is an extremely expensive endeavor. We need to deal with numerous procedures such as extracting, conserving, selling, taxation, and so on. Fifty thousand per drop is really not that expensive, all things considered."

"The blood essence of a Great Strength iron-winged bird is naturally not worth much at the Allheaven Battlefield. It is common enough that you might even be able to randomly stumble upon some if you're lucky enough. However, this is not the Allheaven Battlefield."

Su Yu sank into silence. She was right. Blood essence of Great Strength beasts was of little value at the Allheaven Battlefield. More importantly, who would have the time to go around harvesting blood essence during a battle? And even if one could harvest some, how would one deliver the blood essence back?

Only a trade company like the Great Xia Trade Company with a powerful backing was capable of transporting materials obtained from the battlefield back to Great Xia. With the amount of effort required for transportation, it was understandable that the materials would be expensive.

"Give me a bottle of regular blood...and a drop of blood essence!"

It was very difficult for Su Yu to part with his wealth. He was fortunate that his father wasn't around. Otherwise, he would probably suffer an intense whooping from his father for wasting so much money for some blood.

"Sure thing! Card or cash?"

"Card!"

Su Yu's expression remained the same, but inwardly, he was feeling terrible. 55,000 dollars had been spent in total! Just like that, about one sixth of the money his father had spent so many years saving was gone.

"This is only a guess. If the blood doesn't work...then this would be a massive loss."

At that thought, Su Yu hurriedly asked, "By the way, do you buy back the blood you sold here?"

The woman blanked out slightly before replying with a smile, "Yes, we do. A thousand per bottle of regular blood and ten thousand per drop of blood essence."

"I-- "

Su Yu had the urge to curse. What a greedy business! Even if the Great Xia Trade Company was owned by Xia Longwu's family, he still couldn't resist cursing it. Buying back at one fifth the price? What a scam! Su Yu decided to let it go. The employees here were only doing what they were told. It was not like they were the decision makers. It was pointless to argue with them.

After swiping his card, Su Yu was given a box with two glass bottles inside. In one of the bottles, a drop of golden blood could be seen. It was as though the drop of blood was constantly swirling in the bottle, and if one looked carefully, one could even see the vague image of a soaring iron-winged bird in the drop of blood.

So that was the so-called blood essence!

The blood essence of these demonic races could more or less be helpful for one's cultivation when consumed. For example, the blood essence of an iron-winged bird would enhance the physical body of a Great Strength cultivator upon consumption.

For the human race, only after progressing beyond the Source Opening Realm would one be considered a proper cultivator. The realm after the Source Opening Realm was the Great Strength Realm, a realm focusing on the cultivation of one's physical body.

Blood essence might be helpful for Great Strength cultivators, but it was useless for Source Opening cultivators. In fact, it might even be harmful for those in the Source Opening Realm. The cases of bodies exploding after bathing in the blood of divines and devils wouldn't have happened otherwise.

Before opening the nine acupoints, one would be unable to circulate the source qi within one's body. Blind accumulation without circulation was the same as consuming poison. A natural treasure like the Heavenly Source Fruit was born out of pure heavenly source qi, so it was rather mild in effect, unlike regular source qi that was much harsher to digest.

While Su Yu was deep in thought, the woman reminded him, "Sir, if you're not at the Great Strength Realm yet, you can't use the iron-winged bird blood essence. It would be too dangerous."

"I know. Thanks." Su Yu casually asked, "Do you have Heavenly Source Fruits here?"

"What?" The woman blanked out before quickly recovering. "My apologies. We don't. In fact, I've never heard of that fruit before."

Su Yu did not mind. There were countless races in existence, and that was also the case for the natural treasures that could be found in the various realms. It would be unfair to expect a salesperson to know about every single treasure in existence. For them, it would be good enough to know about the products they were selling.

"What about source qi liquid?"

"We don't have that as well. Source qi liquid is quite hard to store as it can dissipate very easily. The cost of storage is too high," said the salesperson. "You can get some at the capital. In fact, we used to sell it here a few years ago. However, sales were low due to the high pricing, so we stopped restocking."

"Oh? What's the price of source qi liquid?"

"At the capital, you can get them for 100,000 per drop, but I'm not sure if the price has changed recently." The salesperson went on to suggest, "Sir, are you trying to accelerate your Source Opening cultivation? In truth, we have many treasures and pills here that might be helpful for that. For example, we have fire suckling blood, source opening pill..."

Su Yu rolled his eyes. Did she really think that he was some clueless fool? Sure, those things were helpful, but they were only a tiny bit helpful. If one's original cultivation speed was quantified at a hundred points, then using these things would probably increase the speed by one point. He was already aware of those methods, but only a fool would waste their money on them.

After spending tens of thousands on those methods, he would probably only gain an equivalent of one extra day of cultivation after a whole month. It wasn't like he was so rich that he didn't know what to do with his money.

Naturally, there were still people that would buy those things. Otherwise, production would have ceased a long time ago. In fact, those things were actually quite popular as they weren't too expensive if bought in small quantities.

Su Yu did not ask more and left with his box. He had successfully obtained the blood he was there for. However, he did not know if it would be useful. He could still resell the blood if it proved useless provided that he still had some left. Granted, he would suffer a great loss doing so, but that was still better than losing his entire investment.

...

Back at the neighborhood, below the apartment.

Chen Hao was waiting downstairs for Su Yu. When he saw that Su Yu was also returning home so early in the morning, he asked curiously, "Yu, where did you go?"

"I went shopping."

"Oh. Let's go to school-- "

"No."

"..."

Indignation spread across Chen Hao's face. "No?"

Wasn’t Su Yu the one who had insisted on going to school the day before? Why had he changed his mind?

"I'm going to self-study at home." Su Yu smiled. "Go ahead. Remember to cultivate well at school. Try to reach the fourth-stage as soon as possible."

Like Su Yu, Chen Hao was also a third-stage Source Opening cultivator. Unfortunately, Chen Hao was incapable of entering the cultural research and scientific research academies. If he failed to enter a war academy as well, he would be forced to enter an internal affairs academy.

"I-- "

Su Yu stopped Chen Hao from nagging and expended quite a lot of effort before he finally managed to convince Chen Hao to leave.

...

In the living room.

Su Yu was staring at the two bottles of blood with a deep frown. He had the blood with him. But how was he supposed to use them?

"Should I swallow them? The blood of a beast at the Great Strength Realm won't cause my body to explode, but it will still harm my body. Or should I wait for the iron-winged bird to appear in my dream again? But it had only appeared once over a period of over ten years. Am I supposed to wait ten more years for a second appearance?"

Su Yu was troubled. He had been full of excitement before purchasing the blood. It hadn't been easy for him to get a clue about his dreams. He had already decided to even swallow the blood if he had to, but now that he had the blood in hand, he started hesitating. If the blood really ended up injuring him, it would hurt badly.

"Or should I be smearing the blood over my skin?"

Su Yu immediately gave it a try. There shouldn't be any problem as long as he didn't swallow the blood. Opening the bottle of regular blood, he dipped a finger inside before smearing the blood on the back of his hand. Then, he sat there waiting.

A few minutes later, Su Yu started frowning. Nothing was happening. The blood smeared on his skin was slowly drying out. This blood was five thousand dollars per bottle. If one consumed a tiny amount of it on a daily basis, it would help with improving one's health. It would be too much of a waste to just let the blood dry away.

"If this isn't working...maybe I should try consuming some?"

He licked the blood on the back of his hand and sat waiting once again. Alas, nothing happened as well.

"Is the regular blood not doing anything or am I using it wrong? Or have I completely misinterpreted the dream?"

Su Yu was vexed. He had spent tens of thousands of dollars for this. Had he been too rash? But he had been tortured by those dreams for way too many years. He wanted nothing more than to solve the issue immediately. Tens of thousands of dollars was a price he was willing to pay if it would really work.

Staring at the drop of blood essence, Su Yu couldn't bring himself to use it. He only had a single drop of these. The drop of blood was as hard as a precious stone. He couldn’t even split it into smaller portions. He would have to directly swallow it as smearing it against his skin would not be an option here.

"Do I really need to swallow it? I'm only at the Source Opening Realm. If I take it, I'll either die or suffer grievous injuries. I already have very little hope of reaching the fourth-stage. If I hurt myself here, my cultivation level might even drop lower than it already is."

Su Yu couldn't make up his mind. Due to the years of torture he had suffered, he had developed a calm and steadfast personality. He wasn't the type of person to take risks. If it wasn't for the fact that his father had joined the battlefield, he wouldn't even think of joining a war academy. The dreams had tortured him for too many years. He wanted badly to solve the mystery behind his dreams.

"Just one drop...that probably won't kill. Should I try it? What's the worst that could happen? If I really get myself injured by this, I can just not enter a war academy. It's not like I stand much chance with my third-stage cultivation level anyway. And for cultural research academies, it wouldn't matter even if I'm only at the first-stage."

Su Yu stared at the golden blood before him. It appeared rather bright to his eyes. After some hesitation, he poured the drop of blood out. It was as solid as a stone and was actually rather heavy. He tried squeezing the drop of blood, but nothing changed.

"Should I wait one more day and see what happens after another dream? Maybe a different monster would need the iron-winged bird's blood as well? Or the iron-winged bird's blood would only work today?"

Every day around midnight, he would dream of a different monster. If he missed the window to use this drop of blood, just how long would he have to wait for the same bird to reappear? The bird might not even appear anymore in his life. Or maybe it would take decades to reappear. He grew so anxious that his breathing grew heavier.

"In that case, I'll give it a try! At worst, I'll suffer some injuries and just enter a cultural research academy instead of a war academy! I'll focus on studying the myriad races at the cultural research academy. A day will come when I eventually solve the mystery behind my dreams!"

His chances of entering a war academy were low anyway. The prospect of solving his dreams was attractive enough that he was willing to risk his rather low chance of admittance into a war academy. Clenching his teeth, he finally reached a decision.

Also, solving the mystery behind his dreams might even bring him an unexpected reward. With the blood essence in one hand and his communicator in his other hand, he quickly typed a message: Come to my house. I've something to tell you. If I'm not answering the door, break in!

The message was sent to Chen Hao. If he really ended up injured or losing his consciousness before he could seek help, Chen Hao would be around to send him to the hospital. After doing that, Su Yu clenched his teeth and swallowed the drop of blood. At worst, he would suffer some injuries. Was he someone who was afraid of pain?

"Ahhh!"

A miserable wail rang out the moment that thought crossed Su Yu's mind. He nearly teared up from the pain.

Boom!

Next, a boom erupted within his mind as he fainted.

"Moonlight!"

The massive iron-winged bird reappeared. This scene was so similar to the scene from the previous night yet dissimilar at the same time. This was something that had never happened before. The monsters from his dreams had never appeared twice. Today, that had happened! The iron-winged bird had reappeared!