Chapter 2276: Natural Karma (1)

Su Yu was in great need of more strength.

Despite his rapid growth and despite the powerful subordinates under him, he still felt like he wasn't strong enough. Why? Because he had to cover up for Human Emperor. Based on his previous estimation, he should have gathered enough strength to go upstream by now.

But now, he was too wary to go upstream with his current strength. As far as he knew, the only thing he could find that could still give him a boost in strength was the world behind the Hell Gate. But that place was even more dangerous than the battlefield upstream.

Milking the river alone wouldn't be enough to push him to the first tier or he would have done so long ago.

***

Death Realm.

Su Yu was back.

Death Imperator sensed his arrival almost immediately. He greeted, "Your Majesty."

Su Yu nodded as he regarded the ancient being before him. This was someone who was around during Master of Death's era.

Su Yu thought about it and said, "I have a question, Death Spirit King."

"Ask away, Your Majesty."

"How did the powerhouses of your era reach such heights? How did they cultivate?" Su Yu asked doubtfully, "Did they accumulate their cultivation with the passage of time? Did they slowly gather their strength?"

That was quite a challenging question for Death Imperator to answer.

Someone Su Yu would consider a powerhouse would clearly not be someone ordinary. In fact, even the average Master of Law would not be able to catch his eye. He was most likely referring to the terrifying beings at the very peak of existence.

After a slight hesitation, Death Imperator said, "Your Majesty, if we get to the heart of the matter, the powerhouses of the Myriad Realms derive their strength from the River of Time. During that era, the gates had yet to appear. Everyone based their cultivation on the River of Time, including the Master of Death. Everyone only grew strong through the river."

Su Yu nodded. That was true. The River of Time was the greatest mystery of the Myriad Realms and also the most terrifying existence in the Myriad Realms.

Even Su Yu didn't know much about the river. For example, he had never gone upstream, and he had never explored the downstream too deeply. He had always been wary of going too far when exploring the river.

Who would know if the passage of time would change once he was far enough? Maybe a day for him would turn into untold years in the Myriad Realms. Also, what if the other end of the river was connected to a different world instead of the Myriad Realms? In short, there were too many things for Su Yu to worry about.

The past could be found upstream and the future could be found downstream. That was the core concept of the Three Body Method. Through this method, one could capture one's strength from the past and future to strengthen the present.

That was the answer given by Death Imperator. That was the method used by everyone back then.

"Past and future bodies..."

Su Yu muttered to himself. The abandoned Three Body Method.

It was the weakest dao affirmation method, but it granted one two additional lives. Furthermore, if one were strong enough, one could keep capturing the past and future to stack one's strength endlessly.

Of course, that was only possible in theory. In practice, it was nearly impossible. Su Yu had not studied the method in detail, as it was known as the weakest method. But now, Death Imperator was telling that the foundation of everything was the River of Time. It was the reason for all those ancient powerhouses to be so strong.

After some thought, Su Yu asked, "Do you know the Three Body Method?"

"Three Body Method?"

Death Imperator had heard of it before, but this method had long been abandoned by the time he was unsealed. Even the ones who had cultivated this method before had mostly switched to different methods.

Su Yu said, "When I was weak, I entered the River of Time with someone else. The river I saw then was different from the one I can see now."

Su Yu explained, "At the time, I could see the past. I never tried looking at the future, but that was possible. At the time, everyone explained that I was merely looking at my past memories through a tributary. But why is the river so different for me right now? I can see the main branch of the river, but all those scenes from the past can no longer be seen."

Su Yu had never been too bothered about this matter. He had assumed that back then, he was only looking at his memories imprinted in the river. But his growth into a higher-level entity had scrubbed those memories clean from the river. That was a logical assumption.

"Memories?"

Death Imperator asked with surprise, "Is this Three Body Method capable of allowing someone to see their own memories through the river?"

"Yes!" Su Yu nodded, "I even used it to see the memories of someone else before. But now that we're no longer cultivating the Three Body Method, this has stopped happening."

"Three Body Method...can you tell me more about this method?"

That was something that had appeared a long time after the end of the ancient past. It eventually became the most widely circulated cultivation method. Death Imperator knew next to nothing about it.

Su Yu gave a short explanation on the method before saying, "In my opinion, the past and future bodies are merely the manifestation of the power of law. Through this method, one can gather the comprehension from the past and one's exploration toward the future. That must be the reason for the combination of the three bodies to result in a massive boost of strength."

Death Imperator said, "Your Majesty, I'm certain this method did not exist in our era. Who created it?"

"That..."

Su Yu had no idea. He only knew that it was since the ancient past, but at the time, it was largely ignored due to how weak it was. Sure, it granted one three lives. But someone strong enough to kill someone once could totally kill someone thrice. In short, this benefit was rather pointless when it mattered.

But Death Imperator was quite impressed as he exclaimed, "Your Majesty, two revivals? Are you talking about the full destruction of sea of willpower, dao, and body? Even in such a situation, can one still return?"

Su Yu blinked. Yes, one could still return from that! This was how the Three Body Method worked.

Death Imperator gasped, "Your Majesty, you're a Creator as well. But can you freely resurrect someone even inside your world?"

Su Yu thought about it and nodded, "It will be very, very difficult. Maybe it's because I'm still too weak. Otherwise, I would have an undying army under me by now."

"Yet according to your explanation of this method, one only needs to become a peak Sunmoon or a so-called pseudo Invincible to capture either a past or future body and gain the ability of absolute revival. This does not make any sense."

Su Yu clarified, "Everyone believes so. And reality has proven that to be true. There are many disadvantages to the Three Body Method. When the three bodies are split, one will be extremely weak. All three bodies need to come together for someone to be as strong as a cultivator of a different method."

Su Yu raised his brow and said, "To force the separation of the three bodies, one only needs to damage the dao enough. Why does this feel like the path of cloning? By leaving three imprints in one's dao, one can die three times..."

Su Yu had grown strong enough to understand just how hard it was for resurrection to happen. Who was the creator of the Three Body Method? There seemed to be a massive secret behind this method.

After some thought, Death Imperator asked, "Your Majesty, is any person of note cultivating this method?"

"Nope." Su Yu shook his head, "Those in the ancient past did not cultivate this method. As for those after the ancient past, very few cultivated this method. The ones who had cultivated this method had either died or switched their daos by now. The ones still cultivating this method today..."

Were there more?

Su Yu thought about it and said, "There are probably some Eternals among the myriad races. The ones left behind are probably cultivating this method."

After a short silence, Death Imperator said, "The Three Body Method is reminding me of something."

"What?"

"Master of Death."

How was this related to that person?

Su Yu was greatly surprised. Was that guy supposed to be the creator of this method?

Death Imperator explained, "At the end of the Creation Era, the Master of Death once proposed a terrifying idea. Eventually, he gave up on it..."

"What?"

"Swallowing the entire River of Time."

Su Yu grimaced. Holy shit! Truly crazy and domineering. That was something not even Su Yu had considered.

After spending some time in recollection, Death Imperator continued, "Back then, the Master of Time was very domineering. He once mentioned that only three powerhouses would be required for this project. Two at the two ends and one in the middle. Together, they could compress the entire river before swallowing it.

"According to a speculation at the time, the River of Time existed in different dimensions. The past, present, and future you mentioned are essentially the three different dimensions of the river.

"In short, the past, present, and future of someone should not exist together. Unless...the Three Body Method is related to this idea of Master of Death?"

Su Yu frowned, "Are you saying that according to the Master of Death, one can't appear at the different stretches of the river at the same time?"

"Yes!" Death Imperator nodded, "Not even clones can accomplish this. For example, you can leave a clone behind before going upstream. But the moment you go far enough, your clone will fall apart automatically."

Su Yu asked with a frown, "What if I separate the spirit and body?"

"I'm not sure about that. Maybe...this can work?"

Su Yu nodded, "In short, it's impossible to have the same person appear at the two ends and somewhere in between the two ends at the same time. Is that so?"

"Yes, that was what Master of Death proposed. Of course, I don't know much since this whole thing is too complicated for me."

"..."

Su Yu nodded and sank into thought. He was here to resurrect Death Imperator. But somehow, their conversation had taken a surprising turn. Suddenly, the Three Body Method felt a lot more mysterious than before.

Resurrection was something very few could accomplish. Not even Human Emperor and Culture King could do it. It was almost impossible.

Yet a cultivation method known as the trash method could accomplish the impossible. One ought to remember that it granted true resurrection. One would return even when the body, the willpower, and the dao were all destroyed.

Upon further thought, that was actually an incredibly terrifying feat. And this wasn't even a case where only a select subset of cultivators could do so. Rather, anyone cultivating this method would be able to do the same.

Su Yu had completely neglected the Three Body Method after getting the impression that it was weak. Three lives? If he could kill someone once, he could kill someone even if that person had three hundred lives.

But after actual attempts at resurrection, Su Yu finally understood just how hard it was. Resurrecting even a single death spirit would provoke the Master of Death.

Numerous thoughts appeared in Su Yu's mind. Nevertheless, this wasn't his main goal here today. Thus, he pushed the matter aside and said, "Let's forget about this for now. Today, I'm here to resurrect. When we're done with that, I'll catch some three body cultivators and show you the characteristics of this cultivation method."

He needed a unique perspective from someone different. The mindset that this was a trash cultivation method was already ingrained in the minds of others.

"Resurrection..."

Death Imperator blanked out. Was he...going to return to life soon?

"Your Majesty, the Master of the Perished..."

Su Yu laughed, "When he tried to stop me previously, he was only a tier-five Master of Law. How strong can he reach this time?"