Su Yu had just walked a few steps when he suddenly turned back and asked in surprise, "Why are you still following me?"
Chen Hao looked confused. "Aren't we going to class?"
"I'm not."
"Not going… then where are you going?"
Chen Hao felt wronged. Didn't you just say we were heading to class? Why the sudden change?
"Library."
Su Yu spoke calmly. "I don't need to attend other courses anymore. The instructor already approved it. If I skip, it's fine. But if you skip… you ready to have your parents called?"
"…"
That hit hard.
Chen Hao covered his face and fled. Right, Su Yu had special permission to skip classes. He didn't.
As for cultivation classes, Su Yu was already at Kaiyuan Stage Three, which was more than enough. Since he never showed interest in entering the War Academy, no teachers pushed him to train.
…
Watching Chen Hao leave, Su Yu chuckled and shook his head.
Chen Hao's father was an old friend of his own father. They were classmates and practically best friends. Still, Chen Hao was loud and impulsive—being around him was a headache.
…
Library.
The librarian was familiar with Su Yu. He came often and stayed for hours. After years of visits, familiarity was inevitable.
"Su Yu, you've already mastered over ten languages of the myriad races. Still grinding? No break?"
The librarian teased with a smile. Su Yu was something of a known figure at Nanyuan Middle Academy.
Most students only learned the essential languages—Celestial, Demonic, Beast, and the Common Tongue. Few had the energy for more. But Su Yu? He even studied obscure dialects.
Su Yu responded with a polite smile but said little.
He headed straight to the third floor.
It was class time. The library was nearly empty, save for a few teachers browsing reference books. Hardly any students were present.
Most would rather sweat in cultivation than decipher what they saw as scribbles. Why use the brain when brawn could solve things?
The teachers glanced at Su Yu but didn't greet him. Everyone preferred the silence, absorbed in their own world.
Su Yu also kept quiet, moving purposefully to a familiar bookshelf. He scanned it briefly, then pulled out a thick tome:
—"Lu Fish"
This was part of the Atlas of the Myriad Races, a comprehensive record of discovered or known races compiled by humans. It was made available for widespread learning.
Of course, this was just one volume.
The Atlas wasn't a single book but a large series. Su Yu didn't know the total number. Some editions were classified and restricted.
Nanyuan Middle School held only 39 volumes, each covering one race.
These books were exhaustive—detailing race appearance, customs, languages, cultivation techniques, combat methods, even kill strategies.
But Su Yu wasn't interested in the text this time. He flipped to the front page—the illustration.
Each volume began with an illustration of the race.
"Lu Fish"—it sounded like a fish but wasn't.
He stared at the image. The creature resembled a bull but had a serpent-like tail and wings.
Yet those wings didn't mean it could fly. More like chicken wings—flap a little, sure, but flight? Not a chance.
Said to be amphibious, Lu Fish thrived in water and seas, more powerful in aquatic battles than on land.
"The flesh of Lu Fish detoxifies all poisons—a holy remedy."
"Inhabits the Dìshān Realm, a land of hills and water. They hibernate in winter and awaken in summer. Be cautious—extremely dangerous in summer."
"Neutral in the battlefield of the heavens. Do not attack without cause."
Su Yu skimmed it. He'd read this before. He'd never learned Lu Fish language—it was too niche. Besides, Lu Fish weren't the ruling race of Dìshān Realm.
What he cared about now wasn't the text, but the picture.
"Lu Fish…"
He murmured to himself, recalling the nightmare from last night.
Was it a Lu Fish that had chased him in his dream?
When he was younger, he hadn't thought much about dreams. But as the same nightmare recurred over the years, he'd begun researching it, trying to find clues in reality.
What were those monsters chasing him in his dreams?
Did they exist in real life?
Others saw him as a prodigy who diligently mastered 18 languages of the myriad races. His efforts earned awe.
But none knew—the true reason behind his effort… might just be to answer a dream.
In truth, things weren't as outsiders imagined. Su Yu's mastery of so many languages of the myriad races wasn't due to natural talent, but rather because of the recurring nightmare that had haunted him for years.
It was those relentless dreams, night after night, that drove him to develop an intense interest in the myriad clans. For years, he had poured over every kind of text, trying to match the blurry figures in his dreams with real-world creatures. This obsession eventually led him down the path of learning various languages and scripts.
"The dream was too fuzzy. I can't say for sure if it was a Luyu, but the beast definitely had wings, and its call... sounded a lot like a cow…"
Su Yu muttered to himself. Though the dream was unclear, he focused on the details, hoping to find something concrete. Over the years, he had managed to match certain features from the creatures in his dreams to real races described in official records.
With each match, his belief grew firmer: the ones hunting him in his dreams weren't fictional beasts—they were real, from the myriad clans of the universe!
Thousands of nights, over a decade… he had dreamed of thousands of monsters. If they weren't from the myriad races, could the world really hold that many unknown species?
"You're really giving me face, huh? Sending all the myriad races to hunt me in my dreams…"
Su Yu chuckled bitterly. He was just an ordinary youth. What reason could such powerful beings possibly have to hunt him?
Soon, his expression twisted with frustration. I don't even know you. Never seen you before. Is it really necessary to kill me?
Is tormenting a powerless kid really that satisfying?
"But... why? Why am I even having these dreams?"
Su Yu still couldn't understand. He had never left Nanyuan City, had never even seen the races he studied in person. His only knowledge came from books, yet somehow these beings appeared in his dreams again and again.
Having more or less confirmed the creature in last night's dream, Su Yu returned the book to its shelf. There were some things he simply couldn't unravel—at least, not yet.
But he wasn't here today only to confirm the Luyu theory. He had another purpose.
Moments later, he entered another section of the library—the Kaiyuan section.
Books in this area all focused on foundational cultivation techniques for the Kaiyuan Realm.
Human cultivation always began with the Kaiyuan Codex. Though practitioners hadn't yet opened their nine orifices and couldn't sense spiritual energy, energy existed everywhere. With the Codex, they could slowly absorb tiny amounts of it to temper their bodies and eventually open the orifices, stepping into the Thousand Pound realm for true physical cultivation.
It was a slow and gradual process, which was why children began cultivating from a young age. Over time, the gap in talent would begin to show—those with aptitude advanced far quicker.
Su Yu was no novice. He had read many of these books and understood that Kaiyuan wasn't something brute force could overcome—it relied on steady progression.
But this time, he wanted to see if there were any safe ways to speed things up.
He browsed for quite a while, but couldn't find what he was looking for.
"Nothing at all?"
He frowned. If there was truly nothing, then his chances of reaching Kaiyuan Tier 4 before the entrance exams would be slim.
"Su Yu, what are you looking for?"
A short-haired girl nearby finally spoke. She'd been reading for a while and couldn't help but ask.
Though not from the same class, they'd both frequented the library often enough to recognize one another.
Su Yu smiled apologetically. "I'm looking for any material on accelerating Kaiyuan cultivation, but no luck so far."
"Accelerated cultivation, huh…" The girl frowned slightly. "There are methods, but humans generally advise against using shortcuts in the Kaiyuan Realm. It's foundational. Stability is key. The name Kaiyuan literally means 'to open the origin.'"
"You're aiming for the Civilization Academy, right? That stuff's not even on the exam. You're not actually trying to brute-force your way through it, are you?"
She sounded genuinely concerned. "If you mess up your foundation, even if you break through now, you'll regret it later. I've read stories of people doing that… most didn't live long."
Su Yu smiled again. "I'm not that reckless. Just looking, in case there's a safe option. If not, then that's fine too."
"…I see."
The girl pointed toward the lowest row in a far corner. "You'll find a few old books there. But be careful—some of the methods are extreme. Back when the Anping Era first began, some had no choice but to use them, but almost none of those people lived to reach the peak. Most died young, their foundations ruined."
"Thanks, I'll be careful."
"That's good."
The girl's name was Liu Yue, a student from the top pre-exam class. Su Yu didn't know much about her, other than that she read a lot and was rumored to have mastered many languages.
Most likely, she too was aiming for the Civilization Academy and didn't care much for cultivation breakthroughs at this stage.
Su Yu didn't linger. He quickly walked to the corner shelf she had indicated and found several aged books, titles etched in faded ink:
"Kaiyuan Realm Acceleration Techniques,""My Thoughts on the Kaiyuan Stage,""On the Importance of a Proper Foundation"…