A dream was always beautiful, but reality was always cruel.

Su Yu wanted to first dig the hole in the River of Time because he needed an opportunity to deepen his comprehension of the various daos as well. He had comprehended a lot of daos, but most of his comprehension was relatively shallow.

He needed to work on the myriad daos in an orderly manner to further deepen his understanding. Dao pioneering wasn't an easy feat.

Or to be precise, Su Yu was merely seeing this as a blind test. The fusion of the myriad daos was something he still didn't know how to do. It would be very difficult. He only aimed to get started on this project. He could always take his time to slowly perfect his dao in the future.

The Time Sage had done the opposite with her Book of Time. She aimed to first perfect everything in her book before completing her dao in one go. That would instantly elevate her to the level of the Master of Death right after her dao pioneering.

Then again, the ultimate result would be the same. However, the difficulty of perfecting the dao after pioneering it would be higher. The fault tolerance of the dao would also be lower after it was pioneered. It would be far easier to change things upon mistakes before actually pioneering the dao.

"Time Sage..."

Once again, Su Yu thought of the Book of Time. Should he really consume the Book of Time? Was Time Sage still alive? If she wasn't dead, why hadn't she pioneered her dao with the Book of Time? Or did she not even have the opportunity to do so? Su Yu did not have an answer for that.

From the Book of Time, he was certain that Time Sage wanted to pioneer a dao as well. Why had she not attempted it?

"If I were to encounter a crisis as well, I would have attempted the dao pioneering regardless. Perhaps that would be enough to free me from the crisis."

Was Time Sage the one who had sent the Book of Time back to the Myriad Realms? Had she opted to not pioneer her dao? Or was she no longer capable of pioneering her dao? Or was this method of dao pioneering problematic?

Numerous possibilities emerged in Su Yu's mind. Dao pioneering was definitely not so easy. Fusing the myriad daos? Su Yu wasn't even sure if he could do it. Perhaps the end result would be a simple, bare-bones dao. But that was enough. The start would always be the hardest with any endeavor.

But progress was only possible with a start. There must be a start for anything to happen.

"Lan Tian..." After calling Lan Tian's name, Su Yu said, "Senior Grand Dream, can you gather my teacher's group up? Collect He Tu and the students of Culture King as well. Principal Wan..."

After naming them one after another, Su Yu said, "Take this time to organize everything you know. I will be doing some research on the fusion of daos. Let's meet again in half a month."

"That should be enough for those in the Human Realm to finish packing up. Ten days should be enough for us to finish digging that hole. Let's aim to sink the Celestial Chasm Realm within one month. After that, I can start preparing for my dao pioneering."

The others were all looking solemn. 𝘧𝓇ℯℯ𝑤ℯ𝘣𝓃ℴ𝓋𝑒𝑙.𝑐𝘰𝑚

Not even Soy Bun was feeling like playing around anymore. Great Zhou King formed a projection of himself around his sea of willpower and said, "Pioneering your dao at this time...it would be extremely dangerous, right?"

Su Yu laughed. "Dangerous? I suppose. At worst, I will fail and lose even my Mark of Civilization. With that, I will truly become a regular Sunmoon."

That was the worst-case scenario. Losing his dao. All he had poured into his Mark of Civilization would go to waste. That would be a disastrous loss for Su Yu. He had sacrificed too much for the Mark of Civilization.

Su Yu had gathered countless treasures over the years, but he had used nearly all of them on the Mark of Civilization. Losing the Mark of Civilization was the same as losing all he had gained over the years.

Without the Mark of Civilization, he would need to start from scratch. But would that even be possible? How was he supposed to find another Master of Law corpse? Where was he supposed to find so many experts to kill?

Great Zhou King sighed and asked, "Why...don't you wait longer?"

Su Yu said, "What should I be waiting for? I reckon Time Sage had the same mentality back then. To perfect everything before pioneering her dao. But time waits for no one. Anything can happen at any time. Who knows? I might die tomorrow."

He could not afford to wait.

Wait?

If he wanted to pioneer his dao only after perfecting his dao, he would need to first fully research the myriad daos crammed into his Mark of Civilization. Then, he had to grow all his fake daos to a level equivalent to the daos of Masters of Laws.

At that point, he would already be incomparably powerful. The moment he completed his dao pioneering, he would reach the level of people like Master of Death. That was probably the path Time Sage had chosen. But something had happened to her before she could complete her plan. It was quite regrettable.

Even Human Emperor had been waiting. He pioneered his dao halfway before taking his time to slowly complete it. But before he could complete it, something happened. In Su Yu's opinion, it was perfectly normal for unexpected circumstances to appear when pioneering the dao.

That was an act of Creation. It shouldn't be so easy.

Su Yu didn't even know what his core dao was. He had yet to fully settle on an aspect to focus on. Human Emperor focused on responsibility. Master of Death focused on death. What would his focus be?

That was also something he needed to work on. That could be very important. He needed a core dao serving as the foundation of the myriad daos. Without a foundation, he would not be able to pioneer a dao.

Great Zhou King was left quite speechless to see how much of a rush Su Yu was in. He didn't know what he should say about this. Su Yu's preparations were too simplistic and crude. Even someone like Human Emperor had spent a long time preparing before attempting his dao pioneering. But Su Yu had suddenly decided to do so. Out of nowhere.

This really wasn't the best time for him to do so. Of course, this was a good thing for everyone else as this was a great opportunity for them to observe his dao and grow from it.

Numerous thoughts emerged in Great Zhou King's mind. His figure trembled slightly as he said, "Back when Human Emperor pioneered his dao, I wasn't there to observe the dao. But you have been telling me about the process lately. Are you going to connect to the River of Time and draw some power from it, Emperor Yu? Are you digging the hole in preparation for that?"

Su Yu shook his head and said, "No. I won't be connecting to the River of Time anytime soon. The River of Time is too powerful. I only intend to pioneer a small dao for now.

"Unlike Human Emperor and the others, I don't require a large amount of power for my dao. I only need enough power to push me back into the level of a heavenly king. I don't mind stopping below the level of a Venerable. The ambient power in the air is enough for me.

"The power in the River of Time is too abundant. It could easily scatter my tiny dao. When I need to grow my dao in the future, I will require a lot of power. But that's something for the future, not now."

Great Zhou King nodded. True. Su Yu wasn't asking for much. He only wanted to pioneer a simple dao. He did not require too much power for that.

"Emperor Yu, what dao will serve as your foundation?"

Had Su Yu thought of that?

With a complicated expression, he added, "I...have one more question. Did you sense anything in the Dao Origin Land? Is...is..."

Su Yu glanced at him and sneered, "Are you talking about Human Emperor's dao? Sure enough, you know a lot more. You are a liar through and through. I suspect you're only here to pick a successor for Human Emperor. Torchbearer? You're not here for continuation. No, you're only here to pick Human Emperor's successor. But you're too weak for that. Are you sure you're qualified to make that choice?"

Su Yu snorted and continued, "Old Liar, I suspect you're still hiding something from me. Hundred Battle is colluding with the primordial giants, and the primordial giants descended from Human Ancestor. Perhaps...you have Human Emperor's bloodline in you?"

Su Yu grinned and said, "As of late, I have discovered a lot of interesting facts. This so-called conflict between the various races are still a conflict between fellow humans. Immortals, devils, and divines are all humans of different branches. The same applies to the primordial giants. So who were the ancestors of the divines, devils, and immortals? And now, Control King's lineage has defected from humanity and called themselves the holy race. Perhaps many years later, the holy race will become a part of the myriad races like the divines, devils, and immortals.

"The people of the future would say that according to the legends, the holy race used to be a part of humanity. Naturally, few would believe that as they would consider that a mere fairy tale.

"The Myriad Realms are truly incredibly complicated. You know a lot, Great Zhou King. I believe you still have some hidden contingencies. So be it. Just keep them for the chosen successor of Human Emperor if you wish."

Su Yu curled his lips and said, "When I visited Human Emperor's dao, the damn dao tried to force itself onto me. I rejected it. I reckon you know the truth about that dao. There is no way I'm going to accept such a dao. It's going to turn me into a slave. The Human Emperor wanted that, but not me."

Hearing that, Great Zhou King's projection trembled again. He spoke, his voice trembling, "Are you saying that...Human Emperor's dao picked you, yet you rejected it?"

"Yes."

"Why?"

Great Zhou King roared with agitation. He finally lost his patience. He was not aware of that. Su Yu had never mentioned that before.

Great Zhou King was furious. "Why did you make such a choice? There are no traps in Human Emperor's dao! He was the one who had truly loved humanity with everything! He was far stronger than Culture King, and he was far more responsible than all of them!

"Unlike Culture King and the others, he was not one to abandon humanity for his personal interests, leaving the others to face the coming calamity.

"They all enjoyed the grace of Human Emperor. By Human Emperor's grace, they were elevated into legends. But they cared more about their personal interests than the common good! Culture King? Martial King? Both were selfish!

"His Imperial Majesty was the sole exception. He worked hard and gave everything to humanity. He suppressed the internal turmoil and pacified the external enemies. He only needed more time. Given enough time, he would have been able to fully assimilate the myriad races, turning the entire Myriad Realms into the territory of humanity!"

The eternally calm Great Zhou King was nowhere to be seen. Perhaps his loss of body and damaged dao had eroded his patience. Or perhaps Su Yu's disdain toward Human Emperor's dao had driven him crazy.

Why did Su Yu reject it? Was Human Emperor's dao not good?

"His Imperial Majesty was a true Emperor. He did everything for the good of humanity. He was unlike the so-called human lords. All of them were selfish, mixing duty and personal goals together.

"Since you had the chance to inherit it, why did you reject it? Even if you couldn't complete the fusion immediately, you would be able to reach the level of a heavenly king or even a Venerable in no time. Or you could have even surpassed Hundred Battle King, becoming someone truly capable of contending against Masters of Laws."

Why did Su Yu reject that dao?

Su Yu remained completely indifferent.

The others were just about to disperse when that argument broke out. Everyone listened in fear, not daring to make a single sound. A conflict had erupted between Su Yu and Great Zhou King.

Or to be precise, this was the first time Great Zhou King had ever lost his temper against Su Yu. Prior to this, he had always been incredibly patient. Even when Su Yu was making things difficult for him, he would stay calm and collected.

Su Yu merely waited until Great Zhou King was done shouting. Then, he spoke with indifference, "So what if his dao is so powerful? As I said, I am not Human Emperor. Don't you know the essence of his dao? You should know. But do you think I'm such a person?"

Su Yu looked around and said, "That is why there was only one Human Emperor. Culture King was only Culture King, and Martial King was only Martial King. As someone capable of gaining the loyalty of the likes of Culture King and Martial King, Human Emperor was definitely a great person. Nobody can deny that."

That was an era of monstrous freaks. An era where the radiance of four kings illuminated all of existence. And the sole common leader of that era was Human Emperor. There was no doubting his greatness. Nobody could deny his accomplishments. But not everyone wanted to be in his position.

For instance, Su Yu was uninterested in that position.