Doom of the Myriad Races

Chapter 3: The Myriad Races Codex

Outside the registration office.

After taking a few steps, Ethan Smith suddenly turned around, surprise on his face.

“Why are you still following me?”

Lucas Bennett looked confused. “Aren’t we going to class?”

“I’m not.”

“You’re not going? Then where are you going?”

Lucas felt wronged. You said we were going to school—how did you change your mind again?

“The library,” Ethan replied calmly. “I don’t need to attend the other classes. The instructors approved it long ago. If you skip classes, though… are you ready to have your parents summoned?”

“……”

That hit too hard.

Lucas covered his face and fled. That was the truth—Ethan Smith was allowed to skip classes with official permission. Lucas definitely was not.

As for cultivation classes, Ethan’s Third Origin Opening was already sufficient. None of the instructors expected him to apply to the War Academy anyway, so no one pressured him to train harder.

Watching Lucas leave, Ethan shook his head with a helpless smile.

Lucas’s father had been an old friend of his own father, and Lucas himself was both a classmate and a close friend. Still, the guy was loud, impulsive, and exhausting to deal with.

The library.

The librarian was very familiar with Ethan. Ethan came here often and would read for half a day at a time. After years of this, it was impossible not to recognize him.

“You’ve already mastered more than a dozen languages of the myriad races, Ethan Smith. And you still won’t relax?” the librarian joked. “Still studying this hard?”

Ethan Smith was something of a minor celebrity at Nanyuan Secondary Academy.

Most students struggled to master even the three mandatory languages—Immortal-Demon, Beast Tongue, and Common Speech. Ethan, on the other hand, had learned many obscure languages as well.

Ethan smiled politely and didn’t say much.

He stepped into the library and headed straight for the third floor.

It was class time, and the library was nearly empty. Aside from a few instructors reading or researching, there were hardly any students.

Most students preferred intense physical training over staring at strange symbols all day. If brute force could solve a problem, they saw no reason to strain their minds.

The instructors noticed Ethan but didn’t greet him. Everyone was used to silence, immersed in their own worlds.

Ethan didn’t greet anyone either. Familiar with the layout, he walked to the bookshelf he visited most often, scanned the titles, and soon pulled out a massive volume.

— Cetus

This was a volume from the Myriad Races Codex.

Humanity had compiled records of known and discovered races—gathering information, editing it into volumes, and distributing them for study across human territories.

Of course, this was only one book.

The Myriad Races Codex was not a single volume but an entire series. Ethan didn’t know exactly how many existed. Some were classified and restricted to specific groups.

Nanyuan Secondary Academy possessed only thirty-nine volumes, covering thirty-nine different races.

These codices contained extensive information—physical appearance, habits, customs, language, unique techniques, combat styles, and even recommended methods of killing.

That wasn’t what Ethan was interested in.

He flipped directly to the opening page. Every codex began with an illustration of the race.

Cetus sounded like a fish—but that wasn’t accurate.

Ethan stared at the illustration for a while. The creature resembled a bull in shape, but not entirely. Its tail was serpent-like, and it possessed an extra pair of wings.

As for the name Cetus, it was said the species was amphibious, capable of surviving in rivers and seas, where its combat ability surpassed its performance on land.

Despite having wings, Cetus could not truly fly. The wings were more like those of a chicken—capable of flapping briefly, but useless for sustained flight.

“Cetus flesh, when consumed, dispels toxins and neutralizes poison. A supreme detoxifying material.”

“Habitat: the Di Mountain Realm. Terrain dominated by hills and waterways. Cetus hibernate in winter and awaken in summer. Extreme caution advised during summer entry—danger level extremely high.”

“Battlefield of the Heavens alignment: Neutral. Unauthorized killing strictly prohibited.”

Ethan skimmed through the text. He had read this material before. He hadn’t learned the Cetus language, though—it was obscure and difficult, and the Di Mountain Realm was not dominated by the Cetus race.

What mattered to him was the illustration.

“Cetus…”

Ethan murmured softly, recalling the nightmare from the previous night.

Was the creature that had hunted him… a Cetus?

When he was younger, he hadn’t thought much about his dreams. But after years of repetition and with age, he had begun trying to analyze them, searching for references.

What exactly were the monsters that hunted him in his dreams?

Did they exist in reality?

Everyone believed he was a genius—someone willing to put in extraordinary effort to master the languages of the myriad races, learning eighteen of them through sheer diligence.

But that wasn’t the truth.

Ethan’s interest in the myriad races stemmed from his dreams.

He studied obsessively to understand them, pouring immense effort into learning their languages and scripts.

“The dream was too vague. I’m not certain it was a Cetus… but the creature did have wings, and its cry sounded like a bull’s…”

He thought silently.

Because the dreams were hazy, he couldn’t be sure.

Still, over the years, he had identified recurring traits. The monsters in his dreams increasingly matched real races recorded in the codices.

Following that logic, Ethan believed his conclusion was correct.

The beings hunting him in his dreams were members of the myriad races.

Over ten years. Four to five thousand nights. He had dreamt of thousands of different creatures.

If they weren’t real races from the heavens, could that many unknown species truly exist?

“You’re really giving me too much credit,” Ethan thought bitterly.

“The entire myriad races hunting me in my dreams…”

He was just an ordinary boy. Was that really necessary?

Soon, his bitterness turned to anger.

“I don’t know you. I’ve never seen you. Why are you so determined to kill me?”

“Is tormenting an ordinary person that enjoyable?”

Yet the question remained unanswered.

Why did these dreams exist at all?

If he had encountered these races in reality—even indirectly—it might make sense.

But he had never left Nanyuan City. At most, he had read about them in books.

So why was there a connection?

Having roughly identified the creature from last night’s dream, Ethan returned the book to its shelf.

Some matters were beyond his ability to investigate for now.

He left that section and walked deeper into the library. This time, he headed toward the Origin Opening Section.

The books here focused on cultivation during the Origin Opening Realm.

When humanity first began cultivating, everyone practiced the Origin Opening Art.

Although the nine apertures were not yet opened and vital energy could not be consciously sensed, vital energy existed everywhere. A small amount could still temper the body, gradually opening the apertures and allowing entry into the Thousand-Pound Realm.

Opening the nine apertures was a long process.

Humans began cultivating the Origin Opening Art at a young age. It was a gradual path—and also one of natural selection.

This was where geniuses rose rapidly.

Those with superior talent advanced faster than the rest.

Ethan Smith was not ignorant about cultivation. He had read most of these books before and knew that the Origin Opening Realm emphasized natural progression rather than brute-force training.

Still, today he wanted to see whether any method existed to accelerate the process safely.

He searched for a long time but found nothing suitable.

Frowning slightly, he wondered if no such method existed at all.

If that was the case, reaching the Fourth Origin Opening before the assessments would be nearly impossible.

“Ethan Smith, what are you looking for?”

A short-haired girl nearby, who had been reading quietly for a long time, finally spoke.

She recognized him. Though they weren’t in the same class, frequent library visitors tended to know one another.

Ethan looked apologetic for disturbing her.

“I’m looking for records on accelerating cultivation in the Origin Opening Realm. I couldn’t find any.”

“Accelerating cultivation?”

She thought for a moment before replying.

“There are methods, but humanity doesn’t recommend using external means at the Origin Opening stage. This realm is about foundation—opening the nine apertures and establishing the base. Stability matters more than speed.”