"Everyone is helping me. Those worthy of the dao will receive numerous helps. How can I fail? How can I fail?"
This was usually how people started shackling themselves down.
Su Yu was no saint. He was not selfless. He was selfish. He once thought of living only for himself, allowing nothing to restrain him.
Dao pioneering?
After failing once, he could always try again in the future. He could take his time. He was in no rush. He could find some place to seclude himself for ten thousand or so years and not leave before he succeeded in his dao pioneering.
Pen dao? Human Emperor's dao? Those were powerful daos, but they weren't his. Culture King and Human Emperor could easily take those daos away from him in the future. All his hard work on those daos would be rendered pointless. He would essentially be cultivating those daos for others for free.
That was his true thought. He did not mind the dao he cultivated so long as it was powerful enough. But he knew full well that those daos could never be truly his. They also weren't the most compatible daos for him. He would be at the mercy of others after cultivating those daos. They were too restrictive.
And of the two daos, he was most opposed to inheriting Human Emperor's dao. But now, he was telling Great Zhou King that he would inherit that dao if he failed his dao pioneering. Others might feel like he was being too dramatic about this. After all, he had such a powerful backup even after failing his dao pioneering. What was there for him to be disatisfied about?
But he really didn't want to become someone's puppet. He did not want to be Culture King the second or Human Emperor the second. Everyone preferred living as themselves, not someone else.
Su Yu wanted that as well.
Back then, everyone said that he resembled Culture King. He was unhappy about that. He was Su Yu. He was not Culture King. He did not want to be the second coming of Culture King.
He was no replacement. Someone else could be the replacement if they wanted. So what if he had to live a harder life due to his choice? So what if he was weaker for his choice? Better that than failing to stay true to himself.
But now, Su Yu had bowed to reality. Looking at the numerous daos before him expectantly, he roared inwardly. He must succeed. He did not want to become a replacement. He only wanted to be himself!
More and more daos were laid down before him.
The third stage was starting.
The third stage mainly involved the establishment of the eternity dao.
In truth, it wasn't as difficult as it seemed. Yes, eternity symbolized time, and anything related to time wouldn't be easy to cultivate. But it was actually quite simple. As long as his dao could reach a sufficient completion level, the eternity dao would establish itself. Time would start existing within his dao.
Time was the most enigmatic. Time was immutable. That was Su Yu's understanding of the dao of time. There was no need for it to be deliberately pioneered. The moment his dao became ready for time, time would come.
He would decide the beginning of time.
He would decide the length of a year.
He would decide the length of a day. If he proclaimed that a day outside was a year within his world, that would be so.
As time would come into existence naturally, there wasn't a need for him to develop too much of a comprehension for it. In any case, it was also almost impossible for him to develop more comprehension of time. For him, the biggest issue was the life and death daos.
"Life...leads to death. Everyone knows that. But I can't die for real. Should I lay down the life dao first? Or should it be the death dao?"
While working on the other daos, Su Yu contemplated. Life and death were the hardest. But the two concepts were inescapable. To first lay down the life dao was to first live before dying.
But if he were to do that, it would be far harder for him to complete the loop and return to life through death.
Suddenly, a deafening rumble rang out.
Wan Tiansheng roared, "Impudent! You're courting death!"
Instantly, the power of countless emotions filled the chaotic space.
Joy, anger, sorrow, happiness, life, death, and numerous concepts erupted.
Amid the boundless darkness, Wan Tiansheng transformed into countless Wan Tianshengs, representing countless emotions as he threw a palm strike forward. A terrifying being deep in the chaotic space looked at the incoming attack in surprise. Then, the being asked, "Who are you?"
The being was speaking through willpower, and that was an incomparably powerful willpower. In fact, it felt like the willpower of someone with a higher cultivation level.
Everyone's face fell when they sensed the willpower. Not far from Su Yu, Stable Army Marquis said, "This feels...comparable to Hundred Battle King in strength!"
Or to be precise, it felt comparable to Hundred Battle King from six thousand years ago. At the time, Hundred Battle King was already almost as strong as Masters of Laws. At the time, Hundred Battle King was already strong enough to face three Venerables alone without issue.
A single Venerable was good enough to face three heavenly kings without much issue. Yes, Yue Qin had been killed by Wan Tiansheng and Lan Tian. But that was mostly due to the self-detonations of two heavenly kings. That was by no means a regular battle. Even so, Yue Qin had only died after Su Yu and Fat Ball interfered.
In short, someone at Hundred Battle King's level was as strong as ten or so heavenly kings. What was a Venerable? A Venerable was someone whose dao comprehension had reached the level of Masters of Laws. They were merely stuck in cultivation level. As a result, a Venerable would not suffer from level suppression when encountering a Master of Law. But the same couldn't be said for heavenly kings.
Slowly, the powerful being emerged from the darkness.
With a sigh, Su Yu muttered, "Is this luck?"
Creation would never proceed smoothly. Obstructions would definitely appear. Su Yu did not think that the appearance of this being was a mere coincidence. Calming his emotions, he looked at the distant beast. The massive beast resembled a dragon. Perhaps this was the origin of the dragon race of the Myriad Realms.
With a smile, Su Yu sent his willpower out and asked, "How did you reach this place?"
This was definitely no coincidence. Perhaps chaos itself had arranged for this encounter. The gigantic beast gazed at Su Yu with their golden eyes.
"Are you pioneering your dao in chaos?"
"Yes."
"No wonder." The beast said, "Chaos summoned me. I have been in a deep slumber for a long time. However, chaos has awakened me to deal with you."
In short, the beast was called here by chaos. The beast wasn't here after sensing something.
Su Yu sighed again and said, "Chaos...looks like nature itself has a will as well. Chaos is clearly trying to stop me. The other beasts have probably arrived after sensing the rejection here, but you're clearly different from the others. Chaos manages to dig out even someone in deep slumber to deal with me. Are you here to kill me?"
"I can settle with driving you away." The gigantic beast said, "Pull out of chaos, and I can spare your life."
The beast looked around, noting that there were quite a lot of experts among these people.
Fat Ball and Wan Tiansheng were considerably powerful. However, Lan Tian had been seriously injured, while Great Zhou King and South Heavenly King were not around. In combat prowess alone, Su Yu's group was no match for this being.
Their heavenly kings wouldn't be enough to handle this opponent.
As for those below the level of heavenly kings, they were even more useless here. Someone at that level couldn't be handled with numbers alone. What Martial Emperor said back then was right. If numbers were so useful, wouldn't he die to only fifty or so Daofuses? But that was clearly impossible.