Published at 19th of January 2026 7:17 am

Chapter 1789: Ninety-nine Characters! (2)

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Su Yu continued his contemplation.

Heaven and earth. Two vast concepts.

But he did not need to comprehend the grandest meanings behind the two concepts. He only needed to comprehend the basic meaning of them. With soil, earth would come into existence. With clouds, water, and air, heaven would come into existence.

He interpreted the two concepts through his own understanding, splitting the two grand concepts into smaller concepts. He would further refine the smaller concepts through his many techniques and abilities.

Once again, he started practicing the various techniques he knew. He also used the earth character of the five elements to comprehend the concept behind the earth of the heaven and earth. And finally, success was upon him!

Sitting beside the dao of five elements, comprehension came easier. After some time, he threw a punch. Instantly, a piece of land appeared not far ahead of him. But that piece of island was instantly submerged by the raging river.

That did not matter. What mattered was the appearance of a new character in his sea of willpower.

His ninety-sixth character—earth.

"I feel like I'm near success. I need the heaven character. Heaven, the sky, with air as the foundation..."

Air, or qi, was something that existed even if one could not see it. Qi was the foundation of countless techniques. Once again, Su Yu split a grand concept into numerous smaller concepts.

And once again, he practiced numerous techniques related to air. This was his first time studying characters so meticulously. Through the various laws he had touched upon, he tried to form new laws.

Back then, each character would be formed blindly. Now, he was forming his characters methodically. He had seen the truth behind the various daos.

After some time, the ninety-seventh character took form—air.

Su Yu smiled.

He wasn't that far from ninety-nine characters anymore. He already knew what his final two characters would be. Heaven and domain.

There was another character sealed inside the Culture Tomb. That should be the key to the pen dao left behind by Culture Tomb. He did not know what character it was, but he knew that it would appear right after he formed his ninety-ninth character.

As the core of the pen dao, the sealed character would absorb the power of the ninety-nine characters to strengthen itself. And when the fusion of the hundred characters reached a certain level of power, it would lead Su Yu toward the pen dao.

A complete understanding of the process finally dawned on Su Yu. With the appearance of the air character, the heaven character would follow.

Su Yu continued contemplating while practicing the various characters. At the same time, the pressure on him continued to grow. The longer one stayed in the River of Time, the greater the pressure would be. However, this was the closest one could be with the various daos. Thus, Su Yu opted to continue his cultivation here.

Unknowingly, the ninety-eighth character took form--heaven.

The moment it appeared, his Heaven Gate trembled.

The final character, the domain character, was trying to emerge.

But something was still lacking!

Su Yu could feel it. He was still lacking. Not lacking in comprehension, but lacking in power. He needed more power for that character to emerge. He did not hesitate and tore a rift in space before vanishing into it.

Now, he needed the power of laws. The River of Time was filled with the power of laws, but this wasn't something he could extract.

***

Outside.

Eight days had passed since Su Yu's visit.

The Five Elemental Realm had also been sealed for eight days.

The five ancestors had all returned to the Five Elemental Palace, but they were all feeling incredibly helpless. Su Yu had gone missing. They didn't know where he was. They didn't even know if he had departed their realm. They only knew that he had vanished.

Just like those from the ancient past. He had vanished out of nowhere. Even their realm entrance had been sealed. The Eternal watching over the entrance had not noticed his departure.

The fire ancestor said gloomily, "Didn't he promise to handle the tribulations for us? I already opened all my apertures. I'm waiting for the final step to properly circulate the cultivation method. With him gone, should I go ahead and do it?"

"Would he blame us for facing the tribulations without him?"

The five ancestors were almost fully done opening all their apertures. They could finish opening the remaining apertures in only a few days. But should they circulate the cultivation method when they were done? Su Yu had vanished!

"Do not worry, Ancestor."

Despite his words, Topsoil Spirit was rendered quite speechless as well. Su Yu was turning more and more mysterious nowadays. He had gone missing just like that. He had vanished as suddenly as he had arrived.

Suddenly, a rift in space opened in the room. From within, Su Yu stepped out. Everyone looked at him, but they all blanked out upon laying their eyes on him.

Prior to this, his presence was domineering and powerful, with a tinge of enigma. But the enigmatic part of him wasn't that obvious. But now, Su Yu's aura was rippling violently, giving them the feeling that he was akin to a boundless cosmos, ready to devour anything in its path.

"Circulate your cultivation methods."

Su Yu wasted no time. He required the power of laws to form his final character.

His domain character.

"Uhm..."

"Just do it." Su Yu did not bother to give more explanation.

Topsoil Spirit hurriedly said, "Ancestor, you first!"

The fire ancestor grumbled inwardly. Fine, fine. So be it. What a domineering guy. He'd better not regret it. As a ninth-degree Eternal, the tribulation of the fire ancestor wouldn't be weak.

The moment the fire ancestor circulated the cultivation method, faint traces of other elements appeared amid his pure fire element. This was why Su Yu had demanded that they cultivate the Five Elemental Art. This would accommodate the cooperation of the five according to the path he had laid out for them.

With the Five Elemental Art, the rate of fusion between their respective elements would be higher. The rejection between the different elements would be greatly weakened.

Up in the sky, a crimson cloud appeared.

The fire ancestor could feel a powerful pressure bearing down upon him.

Before he could even do anything, Su Yu vanished with a flicker before reappearing amid the cloud.

He opened his Heaven Gate and gazed upon the cloud.

The power of laws.

A berserk clump of power, to be precise.

Such power was not fit for absorption. In the past, Su Yu would only be able to absorb such power by using the power of heavenly rewards as the medium. But he had grown much stronger since then. He simply threw a punch at the cloud.

Boom!

Then, he tore a large chunk off the cloud. The remaining chunks merged into a crimson humanoid. The humanoid charged toward Su Yu in fury, clearly displeased by Su Yu's audacity to attack it.

Looking at the chunk of torn cloud in his hand, Su Yu devoured it directly after a slight hesitation. All ninety-eight of his characters were fused into his character technique. It only lacked one final character. Even now, the final character was flickering in and out of existence, seemingly lacking the power to fully manifest.

Just then, the power of the devoured crimson cloud poured into the sea of willpower. All ninety-eight characters started shaking. They instantly tore the power apart before devouring it. Then, suppression and purification followed.

Together, the ninety-eight characters could unleash all sorts of abilities. In the blink of an eye, the violent power was thoroughly tamed and purified. And at the empty spot where the ninety-ninth character should be, a tiny dot of light appeared. However, it was still unable to fully manifest.

More power was required.

This was not enough.

And thus, Su Yu started battling the tribulation while tearing chunks of cloud off the tribulation every now and then. The tribulation seemed enraged by Su Yu's meddling as it was steadily growing stronger as the battle continued.

Boom!

More and more power was devoured by Su Yu. This was his very first time devouring the power of a tribulation directly. Normally, attempting something like this would fill him with enough power to burst apart.

But it wasn't happening. The domain character embodied the entire material universe. Everything he could see was his. Su Yu even intended to preserve the domain character as an independent character after gaining access to the pen dao.

He was certain this was a powerful character. And the dao it represented would be incredibly powerful as well. And its scope was so vast that it could even touch upon the concepts of other daos. Culture and radiance, life and death, yin and yang, a single domain character encompassed all of them.

"Perhaps I need to include the domain character as the core of the Mark of Civilization as well. Culture and radiance as civilization are too narrow in scope. Compared to domain and eternity as cosmos, they are indeed lacking. To go further, cosmos is better."

Domain, representing space.

Eternity, representing time.

Together, they embodied the cosmos, embodying both time and space. As of that moment, Su Yu had a feeling that he had even touched upon the truth behind the Myriad Realms and the River of Time.

Was the River of Time perhaps the dao of a supreme expert who had mastered the daos of time and space?

"Time Sage."

Once again, he thought of Culture King's sister. Had she reached the same conclusion as him? If that were the case, and if she had embarked upon this path, she would be a truly remarkable person.

"Time Sage, no wonder you call yourself that. In the same position, I would have called myself the same as well."

Even as he was thinking about all that, Su Yu continued his battle with the tribulation. The crimson cloud grew smaller and smaller. Even after consuming a large amount of power from the tribulation, it was not enough. Only a tiny part of the domain character had appeared, but the power was insufficient for it to fully take form.

Boom!

With a rumble, the tribulation was fully defeated.

Strictly speaking, Su Yu was not considered an outsider as far as the tribulation was concerned. He was the origin of the cultivation method the fire ancestor practiced. Thus, there was a karmic connection between him and this tribulation, allowing him to interfere without the tribulation growing out of hand.

Without a karmic connection, he wouldn't have meddled in the tribulation as that could easily result in his death.

"Continue!"

At this moment, five-colored light was swirling around the fire ancestor's body. Topsoil Spirit said, "Earth Ancestor, your turn."

The earth ancestor did as told.

Yet another crimson humanoid appeared in the sky.

***

As usual, Su Yu ripped the tribulation apart and devoured its power.

Those below were all staring at him in shock. The sight of someone devouring a heavenly tribulation like food was truly shocking. What a terrifying person. When the earth ancestor was done, Su Yu no longer needed to give further commands. The others knew what to do.

The metal ancestor was the next. At this point, the five ancestors had completed all their apertures. As time passed, the domain character in Su Yu's sea of willpower grew more and more distinct. He already had sufficient comprehension to manifest it. He simply needed more power to fuel its manifestation.

After the metal ancestor was done, it was the water ancestor's turn. Su Yu battled the tribulations again and again. Or one could say that he was milking the laws repeatedly. And finally, even the water ancestor was done with his circulation.

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