Chapter 2283: Memories At Six (2)

Wan Tiansheng asked doubtfully, "Is this not a version everyone will enter in the beginning? I used to be able to enter that version. Is there anything special about it?

"Eventually, I grew strong and stopped being able to enter that version. I never cared about it as I assumed that the so-called past and future were mere illusions that were crushed after I grew strong enough..."

Yes. He had concluded that the past and future were mere illusions. The illusions only seemed real and convincing when one was weak.

That sent Su Yu into contemplation. Illusions? His river of memories...

After a long contemplation, Su Yu said, "By the way, when you cultivate the Three Body Method, do you cultivate your being or do you cultivate the dao?"

What was the meaning of this? Everyone looked at him, their confusion deepening.

Su Yu explained, "In short, do we cultivate our own river of time or do we cultivate the dao of time?"

No shit!

Great Zhou King said, "All cultivation will naturally be linked to the dao of time."

How could one cultivate themself? Wouldn't that be the same as cultivating the chaos?

Su Yu shook his head, "Not necessarily. Something is really odd about the Three Body Method. I feel like this is a method to cultivate your own river before extracting some power from the River of Time. Simply put, this method allows one to cultivate an independent dao by borrowing the strength of the River of Time. You will be a Creator of sorts. As you grow strong enough, you will eventually gain independence from the River of Time."

Su Yu continued, "The river of memories...might be elsewhere. It might not be the same as the River of Time."

Everyone was still confused, but they could understand the gist of what he was saying.

Wan Tiansheng thought about it and said, "Your Majesty, are you saying that each three body cultivator has their very own river of memories? But through our own rivers, we can extract the power from the River of Time to assist in gaining independence from the River of Time?"

If that were the case, the Three Body Method would be a terrifying method.

Wan Tiansheng shook his head, "Won't this make everyone a Creator? Would the Three Body Method still be an apt name for it? We might as well call it the Creation Method."

Such a terrifying method had been treated as a trash method for so many years. Was that possible?

Su Yu was unsure.

"I can try." Su Yu smiled, "Whatever the truth is, we'll know after giving it a try. Perhaps the river of memories is merely a manifestation of what the method can do. There might not be actual rivers of memories around."

This was also beyond what Su Yu was familiar with. Thus, he could only try it out personally. As long as it could grant him strength, everything could be set aside for now.

As for the potential issues of this method or its origin, he would learn about them sooner or later. This might be a method created by a supreme being, or it might be an accidental product of a regular person.

Anything was possible. If the method were an accidental creation, it wouldn't matter. If it were something deliberately created by a supreme being, that supreme being would be an incredibly impressive person.

As for the reason for the creation of this method, anything was possible. Perhaps the creator only wanted a suitable method for themself. Perhaps the creator was preparing to gain independence from the River of Time. Perhaps the creator wanted to stop the River of Time from growing even stronger.

Perhaps the creator wanted to suppress the Master of Time. That was possible. With everyone cultivating the Three Body Method, the River of Time would not be able to keep growing by benefiting from everyone's cultivation. In that case...even the conflict between humanity and the myriad races would be suspicious.

A new thought came to Su Yu suddenly.

The Three Body Method was weak. Thus, few cultivated it. With people like Human Emperor and the others around, the development of the Three Body Method was suppressed. These beings shone too brightly for the Three Body Method to grow.

With these shining examples around, nobody wanted to cultivate the Three Body Method. For them, it was too weak. It was a trash method. And thus, a conflict erupted, sweeping all these beings off the Myriad Realms. This allowed the Three Body Method to become the mainstream method.

Everything was so coincidental.

"Time Sage's departure is the spark triggering the instability. Culture King and Martial King only left because of her. Her departure might have been a ploy by Human Ancestor's line. But what exactly did they do? Control? She wasn't strong enough or smart enough to be a serious threat to Culture King and Martial King.

"But when I made that claim previously, Hundred Battle did not deny it. Can I conclude that the Three Body Method is related to Human Ancestor as well?"

The Three Body Method was meant to weaken the River of Time. Things were getting more and more complicated. To the point that not even Su Yu could see through all the confusion.

So be it.

Su Yu set the matter aside. For now, he only needed to prioritize gaining strength. He knew the core concept behind the Three Body Method. It was meant to extract from the River of Time, so it shouldn't be too dangerous a method for him to cultivate.

"Weakening the River of Time..."

He had a feeling that a conspiracy was brewing. One that had been brewing for countless years.

"Master of Death...Master of Time...three gates...opportunity..."

As Su Yu muttered these keywords one after another, he called out suddenly, "Death Spirit King."

Right after, Death Imperator appeared.

Su Yu said, "Previously, you said that the Three Body Method might be related to something the Master of Death mentioned before. Can you tell me again what exactly his words were?"

Death Imperator looked confused. Why was Su Yu asking the same question?

Despite his confusion, he answered, "The Master of Death said that the River of Time is too difficult to consume. To do so, three powerhouses would be required. Two at the two ends and one in the middle. Together, they could compress the entire river before swallowing it. That's pretty much it."

Su Yu's eyes gleamed, "Three bodies. Three gates. Devour."

Right at that moment, he gasped as a certain thought came to him.

He was not alone. A look of overwhelming shock covered the faces of Great Zhou King and Wan Tiansheng as they reached the same conclusion from hearing those keywords from him.

South Heavenly King, who had not thought too much about it, asked them with surprise, "What is it?"

Great Zhou King said, "South Heavenly King, were you not listening to His Majesty? Three bodies. Three gates. Devour the river."

What?

South Heavenly King was still confused, but Death Imperator understood as he exclaimed with disbelief, "Your Majesty, are you saying that some people are weakening the river through the Three Body Method?

"There might be three unknown beings who had entered the three different gates, which respectively correspond to three different nodes of the river. Even now, there is a conspiracy to devour the entire River of Time?"

He added, "Is Master of Death one of the three?"

Was that the case?

After all, the Master of Death had mentioned something similar before.

Furthermore, the Master of Death had also claimed that the Master of Time had snatched the mysterious opportunity just because he was here earlier.

After a short silence, Su Yu said uncertainly, "I don't know. But if our guess is correct, we can safely conclude that there is a supreme powerhouse behind each gate. The Earth Gate can be found in the Myriad Realms. In that case, the Heaven Gate and Human Gate are probably at the two ends of the River of Time.

"The three gates are essentially the pillars of the entire river. Human Ancestor is probably the collaborator inside the Earth Gate. As for the Human Gate...I don't know. Or maybe Human Ancestor is behind the Human Gate instead.

"The spread of the Three Body Method was for the purpose of weakening the River of Time. The three gates might have appeared for the sake of this conspiracy to devour the entire river."

Su Yu forced himself to calm down and said, "We should stop talking about this matter here. Taking our essence from the river might not be a good thing. Weakening the river might not be a good thing. We don't even know if Human Emperor and his people are aware of this."

Were there really three supreme beings out there conspiring to devour the River of Time? Were those three the reason for all the conflicts that had erupted over the countless years? Su Yu did not have the answer to that question.

However, he couldn't keep pursuing that line of thought as it might trigger the reaction of some truly incredible beings. It was possible that Human Emperor and his people had not only been plotted against. Rather, their actions had gotten in the way of some bigwigs, resulting in them being targeted in return.

"Things are getting more and more complicated."

Su Yu lamented to himself. To the side, the expressions of Wan Tiansheng and the others changed, but they kept their mouths shut.

Su Yu said, "I'll try gathering my past and future. Observe closely and see if there are any issues with this method. If everything is fine, the rest of you can give it a try as well."

***

Su Yu had the others observe.

He did not tear a rift into the River of Time. Rather, reality spun around him, returning him and those around him to the Allheaven Battlefield. None of the others sensed any fluctuation before finding themselves in the Allheaven Battlefield.

"Three bodies and the pursuit of the origin..."

Su Yu muttered to himself. He had a rough idea of how he should assess the river of memories. Origin. That was the keyword. Right at that moment, everyone heard the sounds of waves crashing.

Boom!

As their vision spun, they found themselves reappearing somewhere similar yet dissimilar to the River of Time. Towering waves could be seen in all directions. No tributary could be seen. Or to be precise, this was a river without a tributary. Only a single, dark branch flowed.

This was very similar to the river Wan Tiansheng took Su Yu to back then.

Su Yu's voice rang out, "Three Body Method, river of memories. This is merely a method to explore one's origin."

They were confused, but they noted everything down since this wasn't the time for them to sink into thought.

With a flicker, Su Yu appeared before them. He gazed ahead of them and said, "To the front is the past, and the future is behind us. Each wave represents an important memory in your life. To fuse the three bodies, you need to fish the strongest of these waves and strengthen yourself."

That was basically how the Three Body Method worked.

"Each wave represents a defining moment of your life. Your origin, your essence. The true convergence of essence is to take in both the past and future into yourself, concentrating all that has been and could be into one, single you.

"Of course, claiming all your past and future is not necessarily doable. For the most part, getting one copy of each is sufficient."

Su Yu started striding forward with the group behind him. Looking at the various waves, he smiled, "This is my past. Which version of my past is the strongest? What do you think?"

Which version of his past should he collect to maximize what he could gain here?

Great Zhou King said, "Your strongest past is naturally the past from a moment ago."

Wasn't that the only correct answer to this question? Would he have a stronger past? The future was fluid. It might be weak, dead, or supremely powerful. Anything was possible. But there was a lot more certainty to the past.

Su Yu said, "Perhaps. But I'm only a tier two in my world. After leaving my world, I'll be a tier three. My past is located within the River of Time. It won't be stronger than the third tier. Can the fusion of two tier-threes bring me to tier-two?"

Great Zhou King gave it some thought and concluded that there was no promise.

Su Yu continued, "To gather the essence from the river, you require either a carrier treasure or a strong physical body to serve as the carrier. With my current strength, my body can probably sustain the burden of one more body. I can also use a carrier treasure, but only the human lord's token is strong enough for this task. In short, I'll only have one chance at it. Thus, I must pick my strongest past. But when was my strongest past?"

Everyone looked at each other. Shouldn't that be him from a moment ago? Su Yu kept asking the same question, as though there was a stronger past than a moment ago. That shouldn't be the case. It wasn't like Su Yu was an old fossil with a long history.

"Your Majesty...do you suspect your memories?"

Wan Tiansheng was feeling doubtful as well. He had witnessed Su Yu's growth with his own eyes, and Su Yu's strength had always trended upward instead of the other way around.

Su Yu chuckled, "You never know. Yes, I have been growing steadily. But I wonder...if I was the strongest at the exact moment I fused with the Book of Time when I was six."

Everyone blinked.

Su Yu said, "When the Book of Time first arrived, did it carry with it some of Time Sage's strength? Time Sage should be stronger than me. Would Time Sage's strength of that moment grant me a single moment in time when I was stronger than now?"

Was that possible?

Everyone was greatly shocked to hear that possibility. Was Su Yu really stronger at six? It might have lasted only a single moment, but it would still be incredible if it were true.

Wan Tiansheng suggested, "That might not be the case. If you gained so much strength for even a split second, you would have blown apart."

Su Yu shook his head, "Perhaps...I died before? And then, the Book of Time brought me back. Who knows? The earliest memory I have of the Book of Time was of a book that was nearly drained of power. I wish to see...what happened back then."

That could very well be his single strongest moment. Regardless, he would know after taking a look himself.

"Let's go. With my current strength, I'm at least capable enough to go against the currents. Let's return to sixteen years ago and witness my fusion with the Book of Time."

Su Yu had always been curious about the matter.

Had he fused with the Book of Time as easily as his father had claimed? That was such a powerful book. Not long ago, he had fused the book with his own dao to receive a large boost in strength. And he was already incredibly strong at the time. Just how did he fuse with the book at six?

He only recalled suffering from a high fever for a day. Was that all? He found that hard to believe. Things could not be so simple.

In the past, he did not have the ability to enter his river of memories and take a good look for himself. Now that he had gained a deeper understanding of the Three Body Method, he was finally able to do so. In that case, he might as well satisfy his curiosity and take a good look at that defining moment of his life with his very own eyes.