Chapter 2087: Scholars Are All Difficult (2)
In the Myriad Realms, the white dog could easily deal with anyone in the same cultivation level. His dao of biting was too big a counter for the myriad daos. But its effect was far reduced when facing the chaos dao.
"The bite dao isn't strong enough, no, that's not it. He lacks the ability to track the essence of chaos itself and damage it. Unlike the myriad daos, the chaos dao is everywhere in chaos."
Su Yu's gaze landed on his devour dao. It was madly devouring the chaos power around it. At that, his eyes flickered as he said, "Fat Ball, the bite dao is not necessarily something you can only use against daos. The bite dao can bite any power in existence. The chaos dao is a dao as well. Devour the dao power around you and sever the source of power."
"Awooo!"
The white dog was feeling so terrible that he decided to not think anymore. He was furious. He didn't even feel this bad when he fought Yue Hao previously. This damn tiger was the first opponent to cover him with so many wounds. It hadn't even been that long.
Thus, he bit down on nothingness, instantly creating a chunk of emptiness around him. All the chaos power in the vicinity was swallowed into his stomach.
"Nom!"
With another bite, the chunk of vacuum grew to the point that even the immediate surroundings of the tiger were affected.
Su Yu said, "If the chaos dao were really so powerful, it wouldn't have lost all these territories to the myriad daos. Its flaw is too obvious. It is too disordered. Something is not better just because it is original."
Could the Master of Time utilize the chaos dao as well?
Definitely.
In that case, why bother with Creation?
In truth, a dao would grow stronger when order was introduced. The chaos dao only seemed powerful because most people could only specialize in one dao, while the chaos dao was essentially the total sum of the myriad daos. But now, the flaw of the chaos dao became clear for all to see.
Without order, there was no system to how the dao worked. Chaos power was chaos dao. Chaos dao was chaos power. The moment chaos power was removed from the surroundings, a chaos dao cultivator would have nothing except their physical strength to rely on.
As the white dog removed all the chaos power in his surroundings, the movement speed of the tiger dropped drastically. Their offensive strength dropped as well.
Noticing that, Fat Ball roared in excitement, "Big Tiger, I'm going to bite you to death!"
"Nom!"
With one bite, he devoured even more chaos power before shooting forward. Then, he bit down on the tiger's wing.
A crack rang out as the contact point sparked.
The tiger roared and hurriedly retreated back to an area with chaos power, but the excited white dog gave chase and continued devouring the chaos power in his surroundings. That forced the tiger to continue retreating. And the white dog continued with the pursuit.
Noticing that they were moving further and further away, Su Yu shouted,"Pull back!"
The order confused the white dog, but he withdrew without any hesitation. Only after returning to the vacuum he created did he look around doubtfully. What was it? He was winning!
Right at that moment, the tiger emerged from the distant chaos and said gloomily, "Why did you tell him to pull back?"
Su Yu couldn't be bothered to answer. He said, "Fat Ball, digest the chaos power you swallowed. You ate too much."
Fat Bal was stunned. Did he? But he didn't feel anything!
But after taking a moment to check, a shocked expression covered his face. His tail stopped wagging. "Why is my stomach already filled to the brim? I can eat a lot! Why am I not feeling full at all?"
Only now did he notice that he had eaten too much.
There was no need for Su Yu to reply. Instead, the talkative tiger answered, "Fool. The power of chaos is an amalgamation of the myriad daos. You can't feel how full your stomach is because the power of chaos is unique. No matter how much you eat, you will have the illusion that you can eat more. A pity that you didn't eat enough to burst apart."
Fat Ball asked in confusion, "But why? You didn't explain properly. Why do I not feel full?"
Meanwhile, everyone else was rendered speechless, including the nearby chaos beasts. Were they fighting here? Or were they here for a chat?
The tiger was slightly stumped by the question. After a short pause, he answered hesitantly, "Because you won't get that filling sensation from eating chaos. Back then, many chaos beasts died from overeating because they felt nothing even after eating a lot."
As for the theory behind how it worked, how was he supposed to know? He was only an eight-winged tiger. He had never researched this topic before. Why did the dog ask him such a difficult question?
Finally, Su Yu explained, "Because all things originate from chaos. Strictly speaking, we all originate from chaos as well. We are chaos. Just like how a drop of water can be easily returned to the sea, never to be found again.
"This is the difference between the myriad daos and chaos. If chaos were water, the myriad daos would be oil, or vinegar, or something else. They may look similar, but they are also clearly different. With a glance or with a taste, you will notice the difference. Perhaps it's too salty. Or too sweet.
"When you consume the myriad daos, you can feel yourself filling up, like how you can taste the different flavors. When you consume chaos itself, you won't feel the flavor, like how you can't taste the flavor of plain water."
"Wow. You're so smart." The tiger exclaimed in admiration, "The human race is impressive indeed. Hey, Human, that oil and vinegar you mentioned...Can I have some?" "I can't kill this divine sun devouring hound easily, but you can't kill me easily either. Give me some oil, water, vinegar, or something similar and I'll promise to leave you alone."
"..."
Once again, everyone was stunned. What was this? What was wrong with this tiger?
Meanwhile, Su Yu chuckled. What an interesting tiger. This must be a scholar tiger. A well-learned tiger. He was certain of that. This tiger had learned everything they knew from reading, but they had never visited the Myriad Realms before.
"Are you a reader?"
"Of course!" The tiger answered with a chortle, "I am a studious, cultured tiger."
"..."
What?
How did such a unique personality emerge among the chaos beasts? What an oddity.
Unfortunately, Su Yu did not have any oil, salt, soy sauce, or vinegar with him.
He shouted at the assembled crowd, "Does anyone have some oil, salt, soy sauce, and vinegar on them? Give this fellow some."
The assembled crowd looked at each other in dismay. They were all high-tier cultivators. Who among them would bother to carry such mundane items around?
Fortunately, Lan Tian was here to save the day. Even while he was in the midst of battle, he tossed a storage ring out. "You can find some inside."
Everyone looked at Lan Tian with odd gazes. Why was he bringing this stuff with him everywhere?
But Lan Tian appeared completely nonchalant about it.
Why?
Because he was the myriad daos. He was the myriad races. Times when he needed to cook would come up frequently, so it was only natural for him to carry these things around all the time.
Among the many roles he had, some were housewives. Why were these bastards looking at him like that? Were they trying to challenge him or something?
"What are you looking at? I prepared them for Wang Hu!"
"..."
Silence descended.
Silk Destroying King, who was maintaining a low profile amid the crowd, blanked out slightly before his face flushed red.
Motherfucker!
Yes, they were in the middle of a serious battle. But since the powerful tiger was willing to stop fighting, they did not mind conversing with the tiger for a bit.
The tiger did not seem to notice the little byplay.
After catching the tiny storage ring with their massive paw, they exclaimed in admiration, "Is this one of those fabled storage rings? Compressing space and allowing any living being to benefit from spatial manipulation. A pity it isn't too useful for me. We of the chaos race prefer storing everything in our stomachs. The space inside this ring is too fragile and small."
With a casual flap of their wing, they shattered the ring, revealing a chunk of compressed space.
Inside, a pile of bottles could be seen. After taking a random bottle out, the tiger drank everything in it without bothering to check. In any case, the tiger was confident they wouldn't fall to mere poison. And they weren't feeling any danger from these bottles.
After emptying the bottle, the tiger licked their massive lips. That bottle was so tiny in comparison, so it felt as though they had merely consumed a drop of water. However, that was enough for them to taste the flavor. They exclaimed in surprise, "What taste is this? What would humanity call this flavor?"
Su Yu explained, "That's sugar you just consumed. We call the flavor sweet."
"Sweet?" The tiger nodded their gigantic head, "Indeed. It tastes different from water. By the way, there is a unique flavor to chaos water."
Su Yu easily condensed a clump of water before tossing it over.
"This is the water of humanity. It tastes different."
The tiger swallowed the clump of water before exclaiming again, "Yes, it's different. It's bland. You said that if chaos were water, the myriad daos would be oil. What is oil? Which bottle would it be?"
"The yellow bottle."
The tiger proceeded to fish out several yellow bottles from the pile before drinking them all. Then, they said, "Wow, it is indeed different. Human, you're very smart. Sure enough, those who read are different. An apt comparison. If chaos were water, the myriad daos would be oil. They are different. You might not necessarily feel any flavor when drinking water, but you can definitely taste the flavor when drinking oil."
Su Yu couldn't even be bothered to answer. He was willing to be friendly so long as the tiger was not attacking. If the tiger insisted on staying aggressive, well, Great Ming King was busy producing more formations. Su Yu could see that Wan Tiansheng and the others were already to set off. They had more than enough people to kill this tiger.
After taking some time sampling the various contents of the bottles, the tiger grinned as a shrewd gleam glistened in their eyes. "Human, you won't be able to kill me. Chaos is my home. Out here, I can go anywhere I want. I am a scholarly tiger. A cultured tiger. I am familiar with how treacherous humans are.
"I once read a book written by an almighty being titled Ninety-nine Fleeing Stragems. From that book, I learned countless methods of escape."
He looked at the surrounding chaos beasts that were still busy fighting and said, "They are stupid, but I'm not. Human, there is a popular saying among your race. I run this place. If you wish to pass, pay the toll. You wish to attempt Creation here. You have too many people. I am no match for you.
"However, more and more people from my chaos race will arrive soon. Pay the toll and I'll leave, and you'll have one less enemy to worry about. Don't get too confident in the strength of this divine sun devouring hound. He might not necessarily be a match for me."
"..."
Once again, everyone was stunned. So was this a protection racket all along? What...happened to the chaos beasts over the years?
No, they recalled the chaos beasts they had encountered in the Upper Realm. None of those beasts was like this. Even the smart ones were all incredibly wild and ferocious. They would fight without worrying about the consequences.
Didn't this tiger proclaim this a dao conflict earlier? How did that turn into a protection racket?
Su Yu chuckled in amusement and asked, "What do you want from us?"
"I know another saying. Give a man a fish and you feed him for a day. I want books. Ten thousand...no, I want a hundred thousand books."
Su Yu was stunned. Everyone was stunned.
The tiger's voice boomed out, "Books! I want books! Books of all kinds, but there must be no repeat among the books you give me. Don't think that I'm stupid. I can read. I want a hundred thousand books."
The tiger was asking for books! Not even Su Yu could react to this absurd request.
