Chapter 2 - 2

Chapter 322: Famous (2)

The old woman asked, "I heard you lost to him during the Divine Character tournament?"

Zheng Hong said apologetically, "Yeah. I lost. He has multiple characters, and two of them are second tier characters. He has also mastered the initial form of a character technique. He might have also learned a willpower enhancement technique because his willpower is very powerful."

"Willpower enhancement technique..."

The elders exchanged gazes.

Zhou Mingren said, "That might be the Soul Expanding Art."

"Soul Expanding Art?" Elder Sun frowned, "With Zhao Li's temper, he won't give anyone face. Back then, I looked for him to talk about his cultivation method, but he completely ignored me. But he had chosen to teach it to Su Yu instead?"

"I'm not sure." Zhou Mingren couldn't be sure. He suddenly thought of something and asked Zheng Hong, "You still lack one character, right?"

"Yeah." Zheng Hong respectfully said, "Grandteacher, I still lack the forest character."

"I understand. Old Sun, allocate more related willpower texts to him. Make sure to use those that are from at least 50 years ago. Also, Zheng Hong will be entering the grotto this time as well."

"Thank you, grandteacher." Zheng Hong thanked the elders one after another. Since Elder Sun was Zheng Hong's teacher, he was naturally agreeable to that.

"You may leave first."

Zhou Mingren waved his hand and sent Zheng Hong out.

After Zheng Hong left, Zhou Mingren sighed and said, "Old Sun, give your student more pointers. Yuming has been injured so this kid...has no one else. Also, get the kids under us to get closer to each other. I realized something from Qifeng's injuries."

The elders looked at him.

Zhou Mingren regretfully said, "The kids under us no longer have the sense of camaraderie between fellow members of the same faction. Su Yu had crippled Qifeng to avenge Wu Jia. If we remain silent, how many of the kids would actually be willing to fight for Qifeng?"

The elders sank into silence. They found that to be a bitter pill to swallow.

"Single character faction..." Zhou Mingren sighed again, "I had thought that encouraging internal competition is good. That will only help them grow faster. But because of the competition, we lose our unity. The other factions are far more united than us."

Nobody said anything.

Zhou Mingren said nothing else. He also wasn't sure what Zheng Hong was thinking.

The kid was very calm and rational. He even remembered to get some benefits for himself in such a situation. If he was staying patient to find an opportunity to take revenge on Su Yu, it would be fine. But Zhou Mingren was afraid that the kid never planned to do so and was completely unbothered about his grandfather's fate.

Zhou Mingren was not afraid that those under him would fight for power and profit. He also wasn't worried that they would scheme around too much. All that was good for them. But he was afraid that they would no longer have any affection for fellow members of the same faction and only cared about benefits.

"Let's end this here. Remind the kids that we need to continue suppressing Su Yu. We have to put more effort into it." Zhou Mingren's tone turned cold as he said, "It's good that a clear target has emerged. Without an external enemy, our people are probably going to start killing each other. The stronger Su Yu is, the better it is. That way, they would have a clear target instead of fighting among each other and making a joke out of themselves."

As far as Zhou Mingren was concerned, Su Yu was no big deal. Zheng Yuming had suppressed the multiple character faction for personal grudge. As for Zhou Mingren, the multiple character faction was merely a tool to foster unity within his own faction.

He even believed that the multiple character faction's many years of silence had been a bad thing for them. Hong Tan...was a bastard who would immediately withdraw the moment he was attacked. Throwing a punch at him basically felt like punching air. It felt terrible.

Zhou Mingren even wondered if that was actually Hong Tan's scheme. He only needed to act like a turtle to turn the single character faction members against each other. If even elders like them weren't truly united, what about those below them? Their internal conflicts were actually much more intense than their conflicts with outsiders.

Thus, Zhou Mingren was more than happy to see someone like Su Yu appearing. He even hoped that Su Yu could last longer instead of falling apart under their suppression. Without him, the single character faction members would once again devolve into endless internal conflicts.

Back when Bai Feng was still below the Skysoar Realm, he would still compete against the single character faction. Because of the competition with Bai Feng, their faction had also produced talented teaching assistants like Liu Hong and Hu Wensheng. But when Bai Feng also started turtling like Hong Tan, the entire multiple character faction had basically turned into air within the academy.

The elders were about to leave when Elder Sun suddenly said, "I almost forget this. Xia Yuwen is returning soon. Are we still fighting for the books depository?"

"Of course." Zhou Mingren was firm, "The sole target of our top 100 students is Wu Jia. Make sure she can't enter the Top 100 Ranking for the year. No, even our other students also need to target her. Make them keep a close eye on Wu Jia.

"Let them unite against a common enemy. They should focus on Wu Jia and Su Yu. Without first defeating these two, they are unworthy of getting involved in internal conflicts."

"I understand."

Elder Sun nodded. This was a good thing. It was never bad to give their students a proper target.

Zhou Mingren thought about it and added, "Tell them that they can get a reward of 100 merit points for each victory against Wu Jia. I will personally write a willpower text to reward each victory against Su Yu."

Even the elders were astonished to hear that. Zhou Mingren was really taking this seriously. A peak Mountainsea cultivator was personally writing willpower texts to reward those below the Skysoar Realm. This was too rare.

"Sure."

This time, Su Yu would probably be in big trouble.

Suddenly, Zhou Mingren added, "This applies to even those outside the single character faction."

"..."

The elders stared at him in shock.

Zhou Mingren said, "Let our kids know that if they can't even accomplish this task, I will get outsiders to do it. When the time comes, they will be the ones losing face, not me."

The elders were completely speechless. This would certainly make things even harder for Su Yu. But if some outsider really ended up claiming the reward, it would be too embarrassing for them.

Zhou Mingren said nothing else. The elders did not ask anything about Zheng Yuming's Divine Characters. That was not a matter they wanted to get involved in. Let Zhou Mingren do the dirty work himself. After all, that was his student, not their student.

...

Heart Cultivating Pavilion. Top floor.

Wan Tiansheng was seated cross-legged on the floor while looking outside the window. He muttered, "Are they going to start fighting? Maybe that can be a good thing."

The students were busy fighting each other. Even the experts were going to start fighting each other. Since these people were unwilling to fight outsiders, it would still be better to have them fight among themselves than stay stagnant.

"Come in."

A short while later, an old man walked in and said, "Principal."

"Tell Wu Yuehua that Zhou Mingren is planning to dig Zhang Ruoling's grave."

"Alright."

"Tell...Liu Wenyan as well. Wu Yuehua might not tell him anything even if she knows about it."

"Understood."

"Go."

The old man nodded and walked away.

Wan Tiansheng stood up and continued staring out the window as he muttered, "Fight. Start fighting. Without something to fight for, you guys will keep hiding. And if you guys keep hiding, how can I find out the true culprit of the scheme back then?"

It was time for the multiple character faction to stand up again. Fifty years ago, so many people had died during that attempt to stop the fifth principal from affirming his dao. And most of the dead were multiple character faction experts. They had nearly lost all their experts during that one battle.

What a massive scheme. They had so many Invincible experts on their side, but every single one of these experts were kept busy. Even Great Xia King was delayed by an enemy expert and arrived too late.

The culprit was too powerful. Powerful enough to even know the whereabouts of all human Invincibles during that period of time.

"Was it you?"

Wan Tiansheng muttered as he looked at the sky. There was a big hand behind the scene in the future he saw. Whose hand was that? What exactly was the Knowledge Seeking Realm doing? Were there still no clues even after so many years of investigation? Or perhaps...even the Knowledge Seeking Realm had been infiltrated?

Wan Tiansheng sighed. The future he saw was merely one among the countless possibilities of what might happen. Thus, what he saw was not necessarily the true future. Perhaps...he had been oversensitive?

"Liu Wenyan...Xia Yunji..."

He muttered, shook his head, and sat down cross-legged again. This time, let all of them come out. If they continued hiding, the world would eventually forget about the multiple character faction. Thɪs chapter is updated by novel✶fire.net

At the same time.

A piece of news was being spread. Anyone capable of defeating Su Yu once would be rewarded with a willpower text written by a peak Mountainsea cultivator.

This news shook the entire academy. A willpower text written by a peak Mountainsea cultivator would worth at least 3,000 merit points. More importantly, it was something one might not be able to purchase even with money.

For this reward, there were no limitations. Thus, perhaps one could even request for a Myriad Text Sutra willpower text as the reward. If that was really true, then the person to get rewarded would profit immensely.

Even the students who were already near the Skysoar Realm were alarmed by this reward. Those near the Skysoar Realm had to get ready to cultivate the Myriad Text Sutra. And learning it without the guidance of a willpower text was very difficult.

Su Yu! As long as they could defeat him, they would be able to obtain an extremely rare willpower text! He was ranked 71st in the top 100. Thus, all the students between the 72nd and the 80th places were getting excited.

That was not all. Even the students with higher ranks were considering working with some lower ranked students to reduce their ranks. If they could reduce their ranks enough, they would be able to openly challenge Su Yu.

In the span of a single night, Su Yu's name spread all over the academy. He became famous in the academy. In fact, his fame had reached a level comparable to Zhan Hai, the first ranked student in the Top 100 Ranking.

And the news continued spreading rapidly, to the point even some people outside the academy heard of it.

Su Yu from the Great Xia Cultural Research Academy. A new student that had entered the academy this year. A freakish student that had suppressed the successors of the Wan, Xia, Hu, and Zhao Families.

Defeating Su Yu became the dream of countless students. By defeating him, one could get a willpower text. Even if one ended up obtaining an unsuitable willpower text, one could still sell it for thousands of merit points. And for a student, that was a lot of money. Some people might not see that much money even after working their entire life.

Meanwhile, Su Yu was still fully immersed in the mystical world of research, completely unaware of the troubles brewing outside the research center.

Chapter 323: The Answer Lies In Books (1)

By the night of the 3rd, Su Yu's name had spread far and wide. A bunch of students were itching to challenge him, but he seemed to have disappeared since the 3rd. Some said he had entered seclusion, some said he was injured, and some said he was hiding from fear to escape all challenges.

According to the academy rules, if Su Yu was challenged yet did not accept the challenge before the 25th, he would be automatically removed from the ranking during the next update. This was a precaution put in place to prevent students from deliberately avoiding battles to monopolize their ranks after getting into the ranking.

...

But in truth, Su Yu was completely clueless. He was fully immersed in a magical world. The world of blood essence ability research. The world of ability blood essence production.

Third underground floor.

Main laboratory.

Su Yu exclaimed in admiration, "Teacher, the imprint in blood essence can actually be peeled out! This is too magical. Is this the ability imprint?"

Every drop of blood essence would have an image of the blood's owner in it. The more powerful the blood essence was, the clearer the image was. For example, the first time Su Yu bought some iron-winged blood essence, he saw a miniature iron-winged bird in it.

They were in the midst of researching the soul devouring bug blood essence. Within the drop of blood essence, a miniature bug could be vaguely seen.

While carefully controlling the machine to peel the imprint off the blood, Bai Feng replied, "Exactly. This is the ability imprint. What is blood essence? It is something left by a living being after death. Or it can also be obtained from a living being by exhausting a large amount of blood and source qi. In truth, blood essence can be further split into dead blood essence and living blood essence. You need to learn how to differentiate the two."

"Is there a difference, Teacher?"

"Yes." Bai Feng was very knowledgeable in this subject since it was something he specialized in. He explained, "Generally, people don't care about the difference. But as researchers, we must be clear about it. Dead blood essence is taken from dead beings. Within dead blood essence, some willpower can be found.

"The grievances of the dead might leave a lot of other things in the blood essence, such as some memories the owner of the blood couldn't forget even in death. Thus, you might be able to see some scenes from the owner's life through the blood essence. But this situation is more commonly seen in the blood essence of divine and devil experts.

"Living blood essence, such as what we can extract from the creatures locked in our research center, does not contain these things."

Suddenly, the two looked at each other.

"How many days since you last fed them?"

Su Yu made a short calculation before exhaling in relief, "Not long. It's only the 4th today. It has been less than five days."

"Oh, good." Bai Feng exhaled in relief. It had only been a few days. Those creatures would be fine.

At this point, Bai Feng had completed the peeling process.

His willpower appeared and wrapped around the tiny bug as he said, "This is the imprint. But it might not necessarily only contain the ability. It might also include some other things. Thus, we need to continue the peeling process."

He proudly said, "In the past, many people were able to reach this step. Many people were aware that there might be some other things in this imprint. But none were able to peel the part corresponding to only the ability from the imprint. This rapid peeling method is your teacher's unique creation."

Su Yu's eyes widened as he hurriedly fawned on his teacher, "Amazing, Teacher!"

"Of course."

Bai Feng was very satisfied. Finally, the kid was aware of how amazing his teacher was.

To not give the kid a chance to say anything that would hurt his feelings, he hurriedly said, "The rapid peeling method is not difficult, but you need to be very attentive and careful. Not only can you peel out the ability imprint, you can even peel out some memories of the blood owner."

Bai Feng solemnly said, "And this is very important. I dare say that currently, very few cultural researchers are able to peel out all these different elements from blood essence."

Su Yu felt like his teacher was boasting. Was it really that difficult? Was it difficult enough that those Invincible experts wouldn't be able to do it as well? Very few?

"You doubt me? Watch carefully. Listen carefully." Bai Feng rolled his eyes, "This is the unique skill of your teacher. Apart from your grandteacher who had learned it without permission, I had never taught anyone about it."

Learned without permission? That was...an interesting choice of words. Regardless of whether Su Yu believed his teacher, he still focused fully on what his teacher was doing.

With his willpower, Bai Feng moved the imprint onto a workbench. A small sword appeared in his hand. That was his character technique.

Bai Feng solemnly said, "This thing is both corporeal and incorporeal. In a sense, it is similar to Divine Characters. In the past, I didn't understand what this thing was. But now, I believe that this might be the projection of the racial ability character or the sea of willpower after its collapse.

"To further separate the different elements within the imprint, you need to use your Divine Characters. This is where most experts are stumped. Even your grandteacher had failed the peeling process many times back then. And he had tried doing so with the powerful willpower of a Mountainsea cultivator.

"Most people aren't aware that you only need to use your Divine Characters for the peeling process."

While talking, Bai Feng carefully made several cuts with his character technique. The singular bug turned into multiple bugs.

"You need to know what you're doing to not fail this step. Each image contains a different element."

He pointed at one of the bugs and said, "This pitch-black image is the grievance of the bug. Or to be more precise, it is the impurity of the blood essence. When consuming blood essence, this is why your body would accumulate impurities."

He then cut the image with his sword, turning it into a wisp of smoke.

"This is the memory fragment." He pointed at a different image, "If you crush this, you will be able to see the memories that had left the deepest impression in this bug while it was alive. Of course, this bug is too weak so you won't be able to see much."

He crushed the image. Next, a scene appeared before them. They could see a dark space filled with countless soul devouring bugs. A certain bug was climbing off the body of a massive bug. Then, the scene flickered before vanishing.

Bai Feng frowned and said, "That is a female soul devouring bug. It is very powerful. If you happen to encounter one in the Allheaven Battlefield, flee. Flee as far as you can. This thing is the bane of all cultural researchers. Even the weakest female bug will be at the Cloudbreach Realm. Even Mountainsea cultural researchers would have a hard time defeating one of them."

"I understand." Su Yu nodded and said, "Teacher, this looks scary. You can actually read some of the creature's memories through it. In that case, can't we learn more secrets by killing some divines and devils?"

"Yeah." Bai Feng nodded and said, "But like I said, very few people are capable of peeling memories from blood essence. Thus, this isn't that impactful for humanity as a whole."

"But it's quite simple."

Su Yu felt like it looked simple. Bai Feng only needed to make several cuts to do it.

Bai Feng rolled his eyes and said, "Nonsense. It looked easy because I am already very familiar with it. I am also very experienced and incredibly talented. When you're looking at a single image, how to cut, which part contains the memories, which part contains the grievances, and which part contains the ability? Can you even determine that?"

Su Yu thought about it and shook his head. True. It wasn't easy to determine which was which.

Bai Feng asked, "You have to slowly learn all that. When you finally reach my level, you will be able to see through it with a single look."

"Teacher, how about the human race?"

"What?"

"When a human dies, will blood essence be left behind? Can we peel the memories of a dead human?"

Bai Feng frowned and said, "There is a rule for all cultural researchers. We are not allowed to experiment on humans, including those from the Myriad Race Cult. Even killing them is better than experimenting on them. That is a bottom line that can't be crossed. The moment we cross that line, we will be no different from monsters."

"You need to understand that there are some things that once we let go, we can never get back. It doesn't matter if you are dealing with an enemy or a friend. At most, just kill them. But if you decide to cut them open and experiment on them...Su Yu, don't forget this. This is taboo. Do not cross this line."

Su Yu nodded in understanding. Bai Feng thought about it and added, "Of course, if you're in the Allheaven Battlefield and have killed some cultists possessing some extremely important information you urgently need, you can extract some blood essence from these cultists and extract their memories for what you need..."

Bai Feng warned, "But that is the extent of it. It doesn't matter if you wish to whip the corpse of your enemy or even burn the corpse to ashes. But never experiment on humans."

"I understand."

Bai Feng moved on from the topic and returned to his work. Before long, the other images were destroyed, leaving only a single bug image behind. This update ıs available on novel·fire.net

"This is the ability imprint." Bai Feng solemnly said, "I'd experimented a few times on soul devouring bugs before and failed all of them. Perhaps their ability is not very suited to be made into ability blood essence."

"Why?"

"Maybe that has something to do with the nature of the ability. It is able to alter your source qi, granting it burning and corrosive properties against willpower. Because of that, the outer layer of blood essence wrapped around the imprint itself would always suffer some damage from the corrosive power.

"This is only an ability imprint. To properly turn it into a drop of ability blood essence, you will need to wrap a layer of unique blood essence around it. I had not separated the imprint from the original blood essence just to separate the other elements from it. I also did so because the original blood essence is not the most suitable outer layer for this imprint."

Su Yu nodded again, behaving like an obedient child. This all sounded quite complicated. Even the outer layer of blood essence had to be manufactured through a special production method.

When Su Yu recalled the fake production method he had come up with, he couldn't help but admire his courage.

Holy shit.

The fake production method he came up with was utterly ridiculous. And his scam had even succeeded. He felt somewhat speechless. Weren't those people a tad bit too stupid?

After a series of complicated procedures, Bai Feng started working on the outer layer of the imprint. But the moment he applied a new layer of blood essence on the imprint, it exploded. At the moment of explosion, the image spat at Su Yu. He couldn't move away in time and was suddenly assaulted by a burning pain to his willpower.

"Ahhh!"

Bai Feng's willpower descended upon Su Yu as he rolled his eyes, "This is no big deal. What are you screaming for? It wasn't even powered by blood essence so it can't even harm a Source Opening cultivator."

"But it hurts."

Su Yu felt aggrieved.

Holy shit. That was so painful. It basically felt the same as being killed one more time in his dream. And unlike his dreams, this was a death that he would gain nothing from. What a loss.

Chapter 324: The Answer Lies In Books (2)

"Of course it hurts. If it doesn't hurt, how are soul devouring bugs supposed to kill cultural researchers?"

Bai Feng seemed to take joy in finally seeing his student suffer a loss. He said, "Now you understand why all those people make such a big deal on the extraction of the soul devouring bug racial ability? It is simply too painful. In the hands of warriors, wouldn't defeating cultural researchers be much easier?"

"Just imagine this. You send your willpower over, trying to seal me or something. And then...hehehe. My source qi changes in nature and burns your willpower, causing you to wail in pain while withdrawing your willpower. I can then approach you and cut you down."

Su Yu nodded.

Incredible. What a great idea. He should try using it. The next time Wan Mingze tried to seal him, hehehe, he would alter his source qi and burn Wan Mingze until that fellow cried for his mother before crushing that fellow with a kick. What an incredible ability.

"Teacher, you failed?"

"Yeah." Bai Feng sighed, "These corrosive and burning properties are very troublesome. It's too hard to create an outer layer for them. Any blood essence we try using as the skin can be easily destroyed by the imprint."

Bai Feng was troubled, "This was why I had given up on this project previously. You'll need to think of something yourself. I don't have the time to waste on a small issue like this."

Su Yu had a helpless expression. Was this a small issue? This was totally a big issue! But Bai Feng was too committed to his racial ability character project, so Su Yu had no choice but to work on this project himself.

Bai Feng was as irresponsible as ever. After a single demonstration, he said, "You can keep trying. Just follow the steps I showed you. As for the blood essence layer, you will have to think of a solution yourself."

He tossed a jade talisman over and said, "This is my previous blood essence improvement method and the production method of the blood essence layer. Take a look at the data and try to come up with an improved blood essence layer suitable for the soul devouring bug ability. Consider this your entrance test."

"Teacher, this is something even you have failed to create. Isn't it too hard of an entrance test?"

"How is it hard?" Bai Feng rolled his eyes, "It isn't hard. I simply can't be bothered to waste my time working on it or I would have come up with a solution long ago. Just work harder. As my student, can't you solve something so simple?"

Su Yu felt very helpless. Then, Bai Feng left and returned to his own room to resume his own research.

Su Yu started reading the data in the jade talisman while grumbling about something inwardly. The blood essence his teacher had experimented on...was supplied by him. What a poor teacher.

His teacher didn't even have any research materials. His teacher was too poor. This was so infuriating. As a student, he was the one supplying the research material instead. This was too sad.

"Forget it. I'm magnanimous. I'll earn money myself."

Su Yu was gloomy, but at the very least, Bai Feng was not stingy in terms of knowledge. His teacher had taught him everything he should know.

...

Thus, Su Yu began a cycle of reading and researching. However, all his experiments had failed even after using several drops of soul devouring bug blood essence. But success was built atop failures, so he wasn't worried about failing.

He was only troubled by the fact that he was out of blood essence. It was time to restock. He suddenly understood why Bai Feng had been experimenting on fire hog blood essence. Because that was cheap.

If he only wanted to practice, fire hog blood essence would be a lot better. It was no wonder the laboratory was filled with fire hog blood essence. So that was the reason.

Su Yu was hit by a realization. His teacher had so much fire hog blood essence because his teacher was poor. He couldn't afford any other blood essence apart from fire hog blood essence.

Just look at the soul devouring bug blood essence. A single drop of Great Strength blood essence was worth three merit points. And that was already a discounted price given by Xia Huyou.

And Su Yu had wasted eight drops in no time at all. Just like that, he had exhausted 24 merit points for his experiments. He hadn't even managed to peel a single imprint out of all those drops of blood essence. Sure enough, research was very expensive.

As for blood essence that he had experimented on, they could no longer be used. He could only keep them in the filter room. Without the imprint, Su Yu couldn't even activate the Soul Devouring Art after he tried swallowing a drop.

Clearly, his book did not only utilize the energy in the blood essence. The imprint within the blood essence was also important.

"Ruined blood essence isn't completely useless. At the very least, it has pure energy. No wonder I have been able to absorb some pure energy from the filter room. The energy is pure because the impurities have been peeled."

Su Yu's understanding of the Wentan Research Center was growing through these experiments.

...

Since he was out of blood essence, he had to look for Xia Huyou. When he left the laboratory, it was already the morning of the 5th. He was about to leave when he recalled something and hurriedly took a look at the mirror.

And he was shaken by what he saw. Just how many days had it been? A messy stubble had formed on his chin. His hair was also in a mess. Even his white outfit had turned into a black outfit. And he had heavy eyebags.

"Dang!"

Su Yu was alarmed. Wasn't this basically Bai Feng number two? No wonder his teacher would look like this each time he left the laboratory. Su Yu hurriedly unleashed the power of all his acupoints and shook off every speck of dust from his body. The dark circles under his eyes also vanished.

His cultural weapon also appeared. Using the tiny saber, he shaved his stubble and gave himself a minor haircut. Finally, he changed into a new outfit. When he looked at the mirror again, he had transformed into a refined scholar. He was relieved to see that.

Appearances were very important.

Was he supposed to act like Zheng Yunhui and show an appearance that clearly belonged to a villain? He was Su Yu, a good and honest man. In the academy, who would say that he wasn't a classy, refined, kind, and easy-going person?

...

Half an hour later.

Mental Tempering Garden. Within a small teahouse.

When Xia Huyou saw Su Yu, he hurriedly said, "You still dare to show your face? I thought you had been hiding out of fear! Are you not afraid that people will come looking for trouble the moment you show yourself?"

"What?"

Xia Huyou gave Su Yu a simple explanation of what had been going on. He said with a regretful tone, "It's a pity that I'm not qualified to challenge you. Otherwise, I would have rigged a match with you and earn some money from this."

Su Yu frowned, "Willpower text written by a peak Mountainsea cultivator? Zhou Mingren promised that?"

"I think so."

"So anyone can get one by defeating me once? There are no limitations on the number of times a single person can defeat me?"

"Nope." Xia Huyou shrugged, "You noticed, right? I noticed the same as well. Too bad I'm not even a top 90 student. Just being in the 89th place would be enough. We could have joined hands and set up a fake match..."

Su Yu rolled his eyes, "Even if you're in the 89th place, you will only have a single challenge before my ranking drops out of the top 90. How are you going to continue challenging me after that?"

"You can challenge me after that and I'll lose, letting you climb up again. I can then challenge you and earn another willpower text from them. We can keep doing this until they tell us to stop."

Xia Huyou grinned, "This actually sounds like a great idea. What do you think? Do you want me to find you a partner to carry out this plan?"

"Are there no limitations put in place by the academy?" For more chapters visıt novel•fire.net

"There is. Top 100 students are only allowed to issue three challenges per month unless they improve their ranks."

Xia Huyou smiled, "In other words, as a ranked 71st student, if you fail in your challenge against the top 70 students three times in a row, you won't be allowed to issue any other challenge for the month. But this limitation will not affect you since you guys will keep dropping and climbing in ranks."

Su Yu smiled, "You sure are creative. But this is too scummy. And you might not be able to find anyone willing to do it. Everyone is afraid of death."

"True."

Xia Huyou nodded in agreement. Nobody would be brave enough to team up with Su Yu and do something like that. Who wouldn't be afraid of being targeted by Mountainsea cultivators? Sure, Mountainsea cultivators wouldn't be able to touch these students in the academy, but there were plenty of ways they could target a student without lifting a finger personally.

Su Yu smiled, "As the saying goes, the majority is beyond reproach. People might be afraid of offending the single character alone, but when there is a whole group of people, there is nothing to be afraid of."

He shook his head with disdain, "Zhou Mingren and his lackeys have some really stiff thinking."

Su Yu showed no fear whatsoever as he said, "I'll be in the ring tomorrow. Those from the 89th to the 72nd place are allowed to challenge me freely. I will make sure each of them can get a victory against me. They can come according to their ranks. I will drop one rank at a time and help them get dozens of willpower texts from Zhou Mingren."

"No, wait." Su Yu muttered, "After I drop to the 89th rank, the ones with lower ranks will then be able to challenge me as well."

He rubbed his chin, "Alright. I'll allow everyone ranked below me to challenge me. Each of them can challenge me once. There are dozens of them so they stand to earn dozens of willpower texts from Zhou Mingren. And if they want more, I can climb the ranks after that before dropping again. They can just challenge me one at a time. We can keep doing this all day long. I refuse to believe the single character faction would dare to target so many students."

Su Yu curled his lips, "This would be a good chance for me to gain more goodwill from my fellow students. And if that is not enough, I can simply drop out of the ranking. Who cares about the ranking? Outside the ranking, anyone in the Mental Tempering Stage can challenge me. Zhou Mingren did not limit the challengers to only those in the top 100, right? Oh my, I should really do this tomorrow! All Mental Tempering Stage students shall get a chance to challenge me and win a willpower text!

Su Yu grinned, "We have tens of thousands of Mental Tempering Stage students in the academy, right? All of them can challenge me. I will concede to all of them. Every single one of them will be entitled for a willpower text from the single character faction. What will the single character faction do?"

Chapter 325: The Answer Lies In Books (3)

Xia Huyou stared at Su Yu in stupefaction. He had only planned to earn a few willpower texts for free. But this fellow was truly crazy. He was actually planning to get all the Mental Tempering Stage students to get free willpower texts from the single character faction? This guy was...too ruthless!

Su Yu suddenly said, "No, it would be too embarrassing if I do it for free. I should accept one merit point from each challenge. See how generous I am? Anyone can afford one merit point. They are basically buying a willpower text for only one merit point! It would be totally worth it! From tomorrow onward, I'll start accepting challenges. I reckon I can accept a few thousand challenges per day."

Su Yu seemed immensely pleased. Those students shouldn't have any issue affording one merit point to challenge him.

But he then frowned and said, "No, that would make me seem too weak. After all, a kind person is much easier to bully. I'll first fight a few matches for real and make an example out of the more impatient challengers before going ahead with my plan. I should know when to use the carrot and the stick. Only then would everyone revere and be grateful toward me. They wouldn't know to appreciate something they had obtained too easily."

Xia Huyou was completely dumbfounded. After a while, he asked, "Is your father a mayor or something?"

"What?"

"You're very good at politics. It almost feels like you're an old fox."

Xia Huyou stared at Su Yu in astonishment. What was up with this fellow? Sure, he knew all that as well, but he had learned all that through the education provided by his family. Was Su Yu born crafty?

Su Yu smiled, "This is merely a little trick. Just read more books. You can learn more from books. So tomorrow, I'll first demonstrate my strength and show everyone that I'm no pushover. After that, I can bestow my favor upon them.

"As for whether Zhou Mingren would honor his promise, that is unrelated to me. By the way, can I issue special missions in the black market? The moment Zhou Mingren reneges on the debt, I'll hire some people to create trouble, complain to the parents, to the academy, to the bureau..."

Xia Huyou was completely dumbstruck. This fellow was extremely gutsy!

"Su Yu, are you not afraid of offending—"

"Nonsense. I have already offended them. What choice do I have now?" He gloomily said, "I don't have the time to slowly deal with him. It isn't like he can directly attack me anyway. Why should I be afraid of him? If he sends someone stronger to challenge me, I can just admit defeat. What? Do you think I will fight to the death for the sake of saving face? Everyone probably thinks that I will fight on stubbornly like my senior sister, right? That is what I should do, right?"

"Yeah." Xia Huyou nodded.

That was what everyone believed, including Zhou Mingren. That was why he had promised such an attractive reward for defeating Su Yu. For a genius, every single defeat was a great humiliation.

And with Su Yu's strength, there actually weren't that many students capable of defeating him in the academy. Thus, they believed that they wouldn't need to take out more than a few willpower texts for this promise.

Could Zhou Mingren afford that? Of course he could. There would only be a few victors at most. He would be more than happy to reward these people. As for Su Yu, after several defeats, would he still have his previous vigor and fighting spirit? Unlikely. That was what everyone believed. That was most likely how a normal person would behave.

But Su Yu was completely unbothered. A single defeat would sever his path? What? He had already been defeated thousands of times in his dreams over the years. He would lose his life to a different creature every single night. If a single defeat was enough to sever his path, he wouldn't have been able to reach this far.

When one got accustomed to losing, one more defeat was nothing. And if he could use the carrot and stick properly during the challenges, would anyone actually see him as a piece of trash?

What a joke. They only needed to take a look at Huang Qifeng to know if Su Yu was a pushover. When needed, Su Yu was more than capable of being ruthless.

Thus, everyone would only be grateful toward him. If Zhou Mingren reneged on his promise, he would invite mass resentment. A great Mountainsea cultivator like him was actually completely untrustworthy. The public would have a hard time accepting that. His reputation would plummet.

In fact, Su Yu felt like he didn't even need to lose to tens of thousands of people. The challenges would probably end after dozens of losses. The people from Zhou Mingren's side would definitely not let it continue.

At that thought, Su Yu suddenly said, "Calm down. Keep an eye on those Mountainsea cultivators for me. Notify me when they are either in seclusion, away from the academy, or in a meeting. I will then start accepting challenges. I won't even give them a chance to react."

Xia Huyou's eyes flickered as he said, "How about this? I'll find some elders to call for a meeting and drag it out for a few hours. You only need to pay the elders a fee for their help."

"Fuck off."

Su Yu rolled his eyes, "I can't afford it. Don't even think of it. Also, you can totally profit from this..."

"Me?" Xia Huyou hesitated, "How am I supposed to profit? At most, I would only be able to defeat you once. But everyone else would have the chance to do that as well so that won't be too big a profit."

Su Yu said, "Are you dumb? The victors might not have the background to actually collect from Zhou Mingren. You can purchase the debt from them. Just get them to issue you receipts. Compared to willpower texts that they might not be able to collect, they will probably be more than happy to sell you the debt for 10 merit points."

"Of course, they won't agree to sell the debt to you immediately. Wait until Zhou Mingren starts reneging on his promise before you start purchasing their rights. And then, you can have the Xia Family collect the debt for you."

Su Yu was certain that after he was done, Zhou Mingren would definitely go back on his words. After all, that potentially involved thousands of willpower texts. The single character faction was definitely not that rich. Just the cost of producing so many willpower texts would be an astronomical sum.

"Would he dare to renege on the debt against the Xia Family? If he can't afford it, just let Marquis Xia deal with him. Even someone like me is aware of Marquis Xia's cutthroat attitude when it comes to money. Let him deal with them. They wouldn't dare to really renege on the debt."

Xia Huyou looked somewhat embarrassed when Marquis Xia was mentioned. Who said that his second granduncle was cutthroat? But...that made a lot of sense!

If they did that, Su Yu would get to earn merit points while the students would also not leave empty handed. They would even be filled with gratitude toward both Su Yu and the Xia Family. Additionally, the Xia Family would also make a profit with all the receipts.

Zhou Mingren might have the courage to renege on a debt to the students, but would he dare to do the same to the Xia Family? With the receipts in Marquis Xia's hands, he would not be known as Cutthroat Xia if he didn't make a big deal out of it. The single character faction...had quite a lot of treasures. Ignoring everything else, just the patents they held would be worth a lot of money.

Xia Huyou remained excited for a while before recovering. He looked at Su Yu and said, "Su Yu, you are too scummy. You're starting to even drag the Xia Family into your schemes. You sure are gutsy."

He had nearly neglected something. If the Xia Family got involved, then it would be a conflict between the Xia Family and the single character faction. Zhou Mingren would be too troubled to focus on targeting Su Yu.

With this one scheme, Su Yu was basically hitting multiple birds with one stone. Through this scheme, he was able to win the gratitude of the students, trouble the single character faction, and unleash the Xia Family against the single character faction, keeping them busy enough to leave him alone. This fellow no longer looked like a student. He looked more like an old fox.

Su Yu nonchalantly said, "If you're not interested, you are free to not participate. It's not like I need the Xia Family for my plan to work. Without the Xia Family, I can still work with Zheng Yunhui. Even if the Zheng Family can't collect from Zhou Mingren, the Zheng Family has never gotten along well with the cultural research academy. He would definitely be more than happy to spend some money to annoy the academy and tarnish their reputation."

Su Yu was completely indifferent, "It's not like I will earn a massive benefit from this. I don't really care if you don't want to do it. There are plenty of people out there not afraid of the single character faction. There are also the Nine Heavens Cultural Research Academy, the Martial Dragon Academy, or even the Martial Dragon Guards or the Devil Subduing Army."

Su Yu sneered and said, "My dad himself is a member of the Devil Subduing Army. I can simply get the Devil Subduing Army involved. I guarantee they will be more than happy to use this chance to make some money. I heard that they are getting more and more annoyed with cultural researchers, especially after Principal Wan brokered the armistice..."

Xia Huyou stared at Su Yu for a long while before asking, "Did you learn all that from books as well?"

Su Yu smiled and said nothing. Of course he learned some from books, but the biggest contributor was his smart brain. He had never been one to silently eat a loss since he was a child. Why would they provoke him? They should be rejoicing that he was leaving them alone before this!

Zhou Mingren might be strong and smart, but he occupied a different position from Su Yu. For him, reputation and prestige was more important. For Su Yu, he only cared about benefits. Face? Why the fuck would he care about losing face?

Su Yu thought to himself that if Zhou Mingren was willing to pay him 10,000 merit points, he would be willing to even do something like bring Bai Feng with him and kowtow to Zhou Mingren while calling Zhou Mingren teacher.

Thinking of that, Su Yu suddenly laughed. Meanwhile, Xia Huyou was staring at Su Yu speechlessly. This fellow...was a truly difficult opponent to have. He was talented, flexible, shameless, eloquent, and good at acting. He was simply a perfect hypocritical villain!

Every single freak out there was a prideful person. Su Yu...was also prideful. But his form of pride was rather different from the norm. He also had the craftiness of someone who had grown up in the streets.

Xia Huyou inhaled deeply and said, "Fine. I'll give it a try. How about this? 'll get an elder to gather them all in a meeting at the Heart Cultivating Pavilion. I will even forbid anyone who is not an elder from entering the building. That will keep them occupied for a few hours. By the time they find out, it will be too late." ᴛʜɪs ᴄʜᴀᴘᴛᴇʀ ɪs ᴜᴘᴅᴀᴛᴇ ʙʏ novel{f}ire.net

Su Yu stared at Xia Huyou for a long while before saying, "So even elders need to follow your orders? Xia Huyou, don't tell me you're Marquis Xia's son."

"What bullshit are you saying?" Xia Huyou rolled his eyes, "I swear I'm not his son. If I'm his son, then I'm an animal and he's a pig. I'm not his grandson either. Don't even think about this. If I'm his grandson, I'll kill myself. I told you, I'm from a branch family. Why are you thinking so much?"

Su Yu laughed, but he was cursing inwardly.

Go fuck yourself! Since you have the guts to call Marquis Xia a pig, even if you're not Marquis Xia's son or grandson, you're definitely an important person in the Xia Family! Do I look stupid to you?

Chapter 326: Label Me (1)

Su Yu couldn't be bothered to argue with Xia Huyou. Since his friend was insisting, then he would just pretend to be clueless. Even if Xia Huyou was really an important member of the Xia Family, Su Yu did not care.

The Xia Family had a decent reputation. They had been running Great Xia for over 300 years yet rumors of them bullying the weak had never appeared. In fact, if they had a bad reputation, some experts would have probably rebelled long ago.

Su Yu did not insist on sticking to the topic. He said, "I asked you to gather some five elemental blood essence for me. How is that going?"

"I got some, but not much." Xia Huyou helplessly said, "The five elemental race is truly too rare. Also, each of them are very strong. And you only want Infinite Strength blood essence. I can't get much even after collecting from the other prefectures."

Five elemental blood essence wasn't cheap. For a single drop of Infinite Strength five elemental blood essence, Su Yu needed to pay 50 merit points.

Su Yu was planning to buy some and activate their cultivation methods before using the period of time when those cultural arts were active to open some soul apertures. As long as he could open 36 soul apertures, he would be able to start actively cultivating his willpower without the help of blood essence.

"Cut the crap. How much have you gathered?"

"At the moment, 60 drops in total."

That was not enough for Su Yu. According to his calculation, he would probably need two or three drops to open one soul aperture. With 60 drops, he would only be able to open around 25 apertures.

"Give me the 60 drops first and try to get at least 40 more drops for me."

He would probably need at least 100 drops to meet his target.

Suddenly, he asked, "Have there been talks about soul devouring bug ability blood essence lately?"

Xia Huyou narrowed his eyes and smiled, "Yes. In fact, even some people outside the academy are asking about this. Most of them are trying to find out if this is actually a willpower ability instead of a martial ability. If it is, then it would be useless for warriors. If not, then the warriors would be even more interested in it."

Su Yu smiled, "It's not a willpower ability. It is a unique martial ability capable of harming willpower."

"..."

Xia Huyou sank into thought. It was a martial ability. He had already guessed the same. According to the Xia Family's records on the soul devouring bugs, this was a species with weak willpower. The soul devouring liquid they used to corrode willpower shared a lot of similarities with source qi.

In truth, the Xia Family had their own in-house researchers as well. After all, they couldn't completely rely on outsiders in matters involving research.

"Martial ability..." Xia Huyou said, "Su Yu, this ability would be much more valuable as a martial ability than a willpower ability. You're not stupid so you know what this means. Of course, the production cost and actual level of the produced blood essence will also affect the value, but..."

Su Yu smiled, "I know. If it's just a normal ability blood essence, it's nothing. But what if I say that we have successfully discovered the acupoints of the Soul Devouring Art? Humans will be able to open the required acupoints to change their source qi into one that can harm willpower. What do you think?"

"Huh?"

Xia Huyou stared at Su Yu in alarm.

"Are you telling the truth?"

Humanity has never stopped trying to convert myriad race cultivation methods into human cultivation methods. In fact, many of the existing cultivation methods and martial techniques in the Human Realm had been obtained in this manner.

But this had mostly been limited to the larger life forms that were closer to humans physically. Life forms like the soul devouring bugs were too different from humans so their cultivation methods were much more difficult to derive.

Furthermore, it was extremely hard to obtain the willpower texts of the soul devouring bugs. Of course, humanity still had some willpower texts from the soul devouring bugs. In the past, some humans had been able to kill some female soul devouring bugs to obtain some willpower texts of that race.

Xia Huyou said, "Is it even possible to derive a version of their cultivation method that is suitable for the human race? Are you sure that this method will help someone harm willpower with only source qi?"

He understood how important this cultivation method would be if Su Yu was telling the truth.

Su Yu said, "We have yet to perfect the cultivation method. My grandteacher has been studying the soul devouring bugs for 30 years. My teacher is also an expert in this subject. Or should I say he is a genius in this subject. Afer countless attempts, he has finally derived some required acupoints of this cultivation method."

Xia Huyou nodded. Nobody would deny that Bai Feng was a genius. Even previously when Bai Feng was only a sixth-stage Skysoar, he was already known as a genius teaching assistant. His strength was not the only reason he was known as a genius. His ability in research also played a role in that.

Xia Huyou inhaled deeply and said, "And you're saying this because..."

"Transaction." Su Yu said, "Although we have yet to complete this cultivation method, I am confident that we will be able to complete it soon. But I am still hesitating about whether we should release it.

"If we release it, the human race as a whole will gain an increase in strength. Sure, not everyone would be willing to open additional acupoints, but some would still be willing to do so.

"But how can we ensure the benefits of our research center after releasing it? Are we going to start charging copyright fees like all the other copyrighted cultivation methods? We have created this method to deal with the enemy cultural researchers, but for outsiders, they will probably believe that we are betraying our fellow cultural researchers. That will only put us in a difficult situation."

Xia Huyou clearly disagreed. He even looked furious as he said, "Why care about what those people think? This is Great Xia! Great Xia of the Xia Family! You must definitely release the method! If you're afraid of trouble, sell the rights to the Xia Family! We will be in charge of releasing it!"

Increasing the strength of humanity was something every single ruling family of the human race was trying to do. This would be an extremely important cultivation method since it would grant part of the human warriors a trump card against cultural researchers.

Of course, not everyone was capable of opening additional acupoints. But some geniuses would definitely not mind doing so, especially when this cultivation method was an effective counter toward cultural researchers.

Xia Huyou said, "Elder Hong is not back yet. Will he...change his mind after he returns?"

Things would be troublesome if that was the case. After all, he was an eighth-stage Mountainsea cultivator. This was essentially an act of using trickery to purchase a cultivation method he had created while he was away.

The Xia Family was not afraid of him, but that would still cause a lot of dissatisfaction among the people they ruled over. The cultural researchers would definitely use this chance to create a big ruckus and give them more trouble.

Su Yu shrugged, "That's unrelated to me. My teacher said that it's fine. He said that he is the biggest contributor to the project. Before my grandteacher left, he had agreed to give my teacher full control over the project."

"That's great to hear! That's great!" Xia Huyou nodded joyously, "Su Yu, the copyright fee is a long term business. I'm not going to scam you. Releasing the cultivation method through charging copyright fees will benefit your faction more. Even your descendents can continue profiting from this. But we never know what will happen in the future. And you never know if you can even live that long..."

"..."

Su Yu looked at Xia Huyou with an odd gaze. He felt like this bastard was cursing him to die young.

Xia Huyou coughed awkwardly and said, "That's not what I mean. What I'm trying to say is, this is the result of your research center, not the result of any individual member. Thus, individually, you might not be able to earn much from charging copyright fees. You might as well sell the copyright of this thing for one big profit. That way, you would be able to get a bigger share in a shorter period of time."

"And how much are you offering?"

"5,000 merit points..."

Su Yu had to resist the urge to punch this fatty to death.

"Are you sure?"

Xia Huyou awkwardly said, "The soul devouring bug cultivation method might come with the ability to alter the nature of source qi, but I believe that it won't require too many acupoints. And the soul devouring bug race isn't a powerful race. Thus, we might need an entire army cultivating it to use it effectively. Basically, we need numbers for it to work, like how the bugs will only be scary in great numbers. Follow current novᴇls on novel~fire~net

"But opening additional acupoints have always been something only geniuses can do. Thus, it is impossible to create an army of cultivators with this cultivation method. In truth, this cultivation method isn't as important as it seems."

That actually made some sense. But Su Yu would not believe that this cultivation method was only worth 5,000 merit points. What a joke.

Xia Huyou said, "I'm being serious. We have yet to try distributing it so we don't even know how hard it is to learn. 5,000 merit points is already a good price. You need to know that back then, the Great Strength Art series of cultivation methods that everyone is cultivating nowadays have only been sold for the price of one Skysoar beast..."

Su Yu rolled his eyes. He was aware of that incident. He didn't need this fatty to tell him that.

"We'll see." Su Yu did not waste his time haggling. He said, "We haven't even completed the method yet. When we do manage to complete it, I will try cultivating it for myself before we make our decision."

Xia Huyou grew anxious. He hurriedly said, "Alright. 10,000 merit points. I really can't give you a better offer. If you're selling, you should sell to the Xia Family. Don't sell to the academy. The academy is filled with cultural researchers so they might decide to let the cultivation method rot in some storage. That way, the human race wouldn't benefit from it."

"Is the academy so short-sighted?"

"You never know." Xia Huyou shook his head, "We might claim that human warriors and human cultural researchers are on the same side, but do you think that is really the case? Even siblings of the same family will have a hierarchy among themselves. Do you think that there won't be any conflict between two different cultivation paths?"

Su Yu nodded. That was true. If cultivators of two different paths were to claim that they were family, that was definitely a lie.

Cultural researchers might look down on warriors, but that was also the case the other way around. The cultural researchers had always addressed the warriors as brutes while the brutes had always addressed the cultural researchers as delicate flowers.

If it was a regular cultivation method, it didn't matter. After all, a lot of the cultivation methods in circulation had been created by cultural researchers as well. But a cultivation method that could harm cultural researchers might not be something the cultural researcher community was willing to share.

Su Yu couldn't be bothered to say more at this point. He ended the topic, "I'll see. The research is not complete anyway. But you need to help me in the meantime. Suppress all those noises so that nobody will come after us."

"Sure." Xia Huyou promised, "No problem. I'll talk to a few Xia Family experts. You will be able to continue your research without disturbance. I hope you can complete the research soon."

"I will."

Su Yu nodded. He had only told Xia Huyou this much to get some help in stopping others from disturbing him before he could complete the research. The Xia Family was the actual number one warrior family in Great Xia. As the ruling family, they would be more than happy to see the number of experts growing in their territory. They wouldn't care if the experts were warriors or cultural researchers.

The two continued chatting for a short while. Su Yu did not try to recruit Xia Huyou into his club. He was an important person in the Xia Family. That was a dangerous identity.

Xia Huyou was an experienced and knowledgeable person with an important identity and a powerful backer. Su Yu did not have the courage to recruit Xia Huyou at this time. Someone like this really didn't need any help from him. And some of the things he could offer would only attract more suspicion from Xia Huyou.

It would be fine if he only came up with one or two cultivation methods. But what if he came up with dozens or hundreds of cultivation methods? Was he some sort of god? Were everyone idiots who were incapable of realizing that something was wrong with him?

"Give me the five elemental blood essence."

"It's at my place. Come with me. For 60 drops, the price is 3,000 merit points. Of the 7,000 merit points I owe you, I still owe you 4,000 merit points."

Su Yu nodded.

"Help me get some soul devouring bug blood essence and clearbright bird blood essence. And don't forget the usual mountainbreak bull blood essence."

Su Yu wanted to purchase more blood essence. It would be the best if he could produce some actual ability blood essence of these races. If he was really able to do so, he could then start claiming that in the process of his research, he had also derived a version of their cultivation methods suitable for human practice. That way, he would be able to avoid suspicion.

When Su Yu received the five elemental blood essence, he exhaled in relief. Hopefully he could open more soul apertures. Even if he couldn't open enough to form a system, more opened apertures would only increase the speed of his passive absorption and hasten his willpower growth.

He wanted to reach the Skysoar Realm as soon as possible. He did not intend to be stuck at the Mental Tempering Stage for several years. Just forming multiple Divine Characters was time consuming enough. With weak willpower, he would probably be stuck for several years.

And when he thought of the possibility of being stuck for decades like his Teacher Liu, he shivered. That would be too miserable.

When Su Yu was about to leave, Xia Huyou asked, "By the way, are you sure you're going to accept the challenges of those students tomorrow?"

Su Yu smiled, "Of course. Oh, it would be even better if the elder meeting starts after I defeat a few opponents. That way, they might notice that I really care a lot about my reputation after observing a few matches. They will be relieved to find that I would rather fight until death than to concede. Satisfied that their scheme is working, they will definitely be in a good mood and disregard the rest of the matches."

The plan wouldn't work if Su Yu started conceding from the very first match. He had to first give them some assurances. He had to show them that he was a genius student! He was unwilling to concede! Conceding was the same as killing him! He would fight for victory!

Xia Huyou grimaced. Damn it. This fellow was such a scumbag. With that, the elders were probably going to ignore whatever disturbances that might arise subsequently.

At that thought, he asked, "Are you not going to get your martial uncle involved as well? He's a ninth-stage Cloudbreach cultivator. Maybe you can get him to seal the area around the ring to ensure that the elders won't notice anything. Even if they notice some disturbances, they wouldn't dare to actually send their senses over for fear of becoming a second Zheng Yuming."

"..."

What a scumbag. Su Yu cursed inwardly. Was this guy not ashamed of calling him a scumbag? This fellow was an even bigger scumbag!

Martial uncle...That was a good idea. The Zheng Yuming incident had happened not long ago. With Chen Yong's appearance, even if they created a large disturbance, would the elders dare to force their willpower through the seal unless there was a massive disturbance?

No, they wouldn't. Who would want to be the second Zheng Yuming? And by the time they finished their meeting, everything would be over.

The two looked at each other and smiled. Su Yu said, "My martial uncle isn't cheap to move. He will require a fee of 3,000 merit points. What do you think?"

"..."

Xia Huyou blinked, "I'm paying?"

"Yeah."

"Why?"

"Because you're going to earn big from the single character faction. Is that a good enough reason? I'm only going to make a small profit. Is a ninth-stage Cloudbreach cultivator supposed to work for free?"

"..."

That made a lot of sense! But after a short calculation, Xia Huyou cursed inwardly. Damn it! He hadn't even earned anything yet but he already had to pay so much money. Would he even make a profit at the end?

He looked at Su Yu speechlessly and said, "What if I fail to get anything at the end?"

Su Yu smiled, "There is always risk in business. If you don't even have the courage to take some risk and invest, how are you supposed to grow your business?"

"You..." Xia Huyou inhaled deeply and said, "Do you want to join the Xia Trade Company? I can give you a position. Don't worry, it won't be a low position. If you do well, you might even be promoted into the person in charge of an entire prefecture."

"Not interested."

Su Yu shook his head. Turning him into a businessman? Don't joke around! He was a man destined to become an expert!

At that thought, he said, "Do you know where Zhang Hao is staying?"

"Huh? You're looking for him?"

"Not really. I need to get in touch with someone from the Talisman Faculty. Since I know him, I might as well look for him."

"Faculty Talisman? Are you buying talismans?"

Su Yu stared at Xia Huyou with a smile. Xia Huyou's expression turned awkward. He decided to not ask more. There was no need for him to know too much. He wasted no time and gave Su Yu Zhang Hao's address.

Mental Tempering Garden. Special zone.

Freaks like Zhang Hao all lived here. Some of the older genius students under the Skysoar Realm also lived here. For some reason, Xia Huyou had not been spending much time here.

When Su Yu arrived, the sky was already dark. After passing through the security checkpoint, he entered the special zone. Walking along the tiny path, he couldn't help but to admire the beautiful environment of the special zone. There was also ample source qi in the air.

This was indeed a good place to cultivate. No wonder all these fellows were living here. A rent of 100 merit points per year was not cheap at all.

Chapter 327: Label Me (2)

Unit 189.

Su Yu knocked on the door.

Shortly after, someone asked, "Who is it?"

"Brother Zhang, Su Yu is here to visit you."

The door swung open, revealing Zhang Hao's surprised expression. Su Yu was here to visit?

"Su Yu!" Zhang Hao asked in astonishment, "Why are you here?"

"Is Brother Zhang not happy to see me?"

"Nonsense!" Zhang Hao smiled, "I am honored to have you as a guest. For the past two days, a lot of people have been looking for you but nobody was able to find you. I feel honored to be the one to meet you."

"You flatter me, Brother Zhang."

"Come on in!"

When Su Yu stepped into the building, he sighed. What a rich fellow. Just look at how luxurious the building was. He was actually living in such a large building alone. What a waste. The lounge alone was already over 100 square meters in size.

Zhang Hao was very polite. As a freak, he was naturally a prideful student. But his behavior would change depending on who he was facing. Even some of the freaks from the previous batches or people like Wan Mingze could not earn too much respect from him.

But Su Yu was different. This was someone who had defeated him during the Divine Character tournament. Two days ago, this person had also ruthlessly defeated Huang Qifeng. Thus, Zhang Hao actually admired Su Yu. Perhaps this was an example of the saying that only heroes would understand heroes.

After a short chat, Su Yu went straight to the point, "Brother Zhang, do you still remember the soul devouring bug blood essence I used against you?"

Zhang Hao looked awkward. Was Su Yu here to mock him?

"Don't misunderstand, Brother Zhang." Su Yu sighed, "That drop of blood essence is the only finished product of our research center. To be honest, it can be considered an experimental product. But when we tried producing more, we kept encountering problems. We weren't able to produce a stable outer layer of blood essence. Our finished products keep exploding.

"After many failed experiments, I recalled the Talisman Faculty. I thought of you. During our match, the exploding characters you used against me were unstable as well. But you were able to control them and only allow them to explode when you want them to explode."

This was a random idea Su Yu thought of. Who said that only those from the Character Faculty could produce ability blood essence? He remembered that the Character Faculty was actually very good at sealing. His teacher had been too focused on solving all issues by himself when there was an alternative. Follow current novᴇls on novel⸺fire.net

At the mention of that, Zhang Hao's interest was piqued. He asked, "Soul devouring bug racial ability? You want to produce the ability blood essence but the outer layer isn't stable enough?"

"Yeah. It keeps exploding."

Zhang Hao smiled, "That's normal. I have gotten a taste of the soul devouring bug racial ability before. Burning and corrosive. It's basically the same as my explode character. It is most certainly unstable. I thought you guys have already solved this issue since you were able to use the ability. But that was only an accidental success?"

"Yeah."

Zhang Hao's face lit up with delight as he said, "I happen to be very good at this topic. I have been performing a similar research recently. Or to be precise, a lot of cultural researchers are researching blood essence and racial abilities recently. Since I don't have a sample of your ability blood essence, I can only make some guesses. You guys are probably extracting the imprint from the blood essence before sealing the imprint with a layer of blood essence..."

Su Yu couldn't help but to be filled with admiration toward these researchers. They were too smart. Even a student like Zhang Hao was so smart. Just why had Zhou Pingsheng and the others fallen for his scam?

Su Yu was somewhat speechless. But when he thought about it, he nearly laughed. He finally understood. He had personally activated a racial ability after consuming the blood essence he had produced through the fake production process.

Additionally, the Divine Character pulsing method he had made out of thin air must have played a role as well. He had claimed that by pulsing his Divine Characters, he could alter the structural makeup of blood essence. Those fellows had probably been putting all their effort in that instead of focusing on the extraction of ability imprints.

Perhaps they believed that the pulsing method would be helpful in altering the imprint within the blood essence. But suddenly, Su Yu wondered if that could actually work.

If he could eliminate the other elements within blood essence without peeling the imprint from the blood essence, wouldn't the original blood essence serve as the perfect outer layer for the imprint?

At that thought...Su Yu was stunned. That...might really work! If he could make that work, the production process would be far simpler since there was no need to peel the imprint from the blood essence.

Su Yu blanked out.

"I am such a genius. If I can separate the ability imprint from the other elements such as grievances and memory fragments without splitting the blood essence, the original blood essence would simply be transformed into an actual ability blood essence."

Su Yu swallowed. If he could really make that happen, then he would become the creator of a new ability blood essence production method.

"But without cutting the blood essence apart, there is no way to access the imprint within the blood essence and manipulate the elements within."

Su Yu rubbed his head. A unique Divine Character capable of entering a drop of blood essence directly and manipulating the elements within was required.

"Then again, this option might really be feasible."

He became more and more impressed with himself. He finally understood why those people had fallen for his scam. They must have believed that his unique pulsing method was the way to directly manipulate the contents of blood essence without splitting the blood essence apart.

He had not thought of that before because he was unfamiliar with the production process.

As for the random materials he had used, those people probably believed that those materials served to soften the blood essence to make it easier for one to send one's willpower inside the blood essence.

"That might really be the case. Those people probably believed that things like vinegar and soy sauce can help in softening blood essence."

Otherwise, he wouldn't be able to explain why those Mountainsea and Cloudbreach cultivators were stupid enough to fall for his scam.

Zhang Hao had been paying close attention to Su Yu. He wasn't surprised to see Su Yu suddenly sinking into thought while in the middle of conversation. This was a very normal occurrence among geniuses.

That was especially true for people involved in research. Any random conversation might serve as a spark of inspiration, sending someone into deep contemplation. He understood Su Yu very well as this would frequently happen to him as well.

In fact, his respect for Su Yu only increased after seeing Su Yu in deep thought. Not only was Su Yu strong in combat, but he was also talented in the essence of a cultural researcher: research. He was indeed a genius, a freak.

After a long while, Su Yu finally recovered from his reverie. He apologized, "I'm sorry. I was thinking about something..."

"Don't worry about it." Zhang Hao smiled, "Su Yu, you were talking about the outer layer of the blood essence. Since you're here, are you perhaps thinking of using a talisman instead of blood essence as the outer layer?"

Su Yu nodded, "Exactly. I intend to either replace the outer layer with a talisman or apply another layer of talisman outside the outer layer, making something like a capsule that can prevent the imprint from exploding."

"You found the right person for that." Zhang Hao's face lit up with delight, "If you look for anyone else, this will be very expensive to produce. Talismans capable of serving as a stable outer layer exist, but they are too expensive. You have seen my character before. It is a unique character that can constantly produce smaller single-use characters for me."

"As long as I can remove the explosive property of those single-use characters, I can turn those characters into the outer layer for your ability imprint."

Su Yu frowned, "You? But you can't materialize your characters yet..." "I don't need to materialize these unique characters. I can produce them with only willpower. Su Yu, as long as you agree to supply me with some of these unique ability blood essence of the soul devouring bugs, I will stabilize the blood essence for free. What do you think?"

Su Yu suddenly said, "I have a new idea. What if we don't swallow the blood essence and cause it to explode like your unique single-use characters? Can we directly corrode the willpower of our opponents that way?"

"..."

Zhang Hao's eyes lit up, "That's feasible! If that is really possible, then my strength will increase greatly! With hundreds of drops of soul devouring bug blood essence in my hand, even Skysoar cultivators can be seriously injured!"

Zhang Hao swallowed, "Su Yu, this idea of yours might really work! At that time, I will be equivalent to an entire army of soul devouring bugs all by myself. Of course, that will depend on how many single-use characters I can produce and how strong my willpower is. For now, I can only create about 100 of these characters at a time.

"Thus, my character isn't really that strong yet. It is only useful against weaklings like Lin Qing. But if I can add the effect of the soul devouring bug blood essence into the mix as well, even people like Zhan Hai would probably cry while fighting me."

Zhan Hai was not a Skysoar cultivator yet. Thus, when he was subjected to a torture of having his willpower burned and corroded, he would probably cry from the pain. At that thought, Zhang Hao's face turned red from excitement. He could almost see a bright new future waiting ahead of him.

Su Yu said, "Don't get too excited yet. This won't be an easy task. The cost of producing ability blood essence isn't cheap either. The soul devouring bug racial ability is actually a martial technique. It mainly utilizes source qi. Of course, the outer layer of blood essence will supply the required source qi for activation so that won't be an issue.

"The main issue is the production cost. Even if you can really solve the issue of the outer layer, do you know how expensive it is to produce even a single drop? You need to use 100 drops just to harm people like Zhan Hai. How much money would that cost?"

"..."

Zhang Hao blanked out. That was true! Shit. Ability blood essence must be pretty expensive to produce, right?

"What is the cost per drop?"

"Even with mass production, we will need at least three merit points to produce one drop. And that is excluding the extraction process and the cost associated with failed production. Thus, the actual cost even with mass production would be around ten merit points per drop.

In truth, even that could already be considered a cheap price. Yet Zhang Hao shivered upon hearing that.

In that case, to fight someone like Zhan Hai, he would need 100 drops, which would cost him 1,000 merit points. Forget it. With that much money, he would be making a loss unless he could directly kill someone like Zhan Hai with it.

But with his current strength, that was clearly impossible. And he wouldn't be able to do much to Skysoar cultivators either.

Su Yu said, "We can't turn it into a common weapon, but we can still keep it as a trump card. When your willpower is strong enough to create more single-use characters, for example, 500 characters, it would be much better. Just imagine an army of 500 soul devouring bugs. Is that enough to kill a Skysoar cultivator?"

"That probably won't be enough. But 1,000 soul devouring bugs would probably be enough." Zhang Hao's eyes lit up, "But I might be able to grow enough to create 1,000 single-use characters before reaching the Skysoar Realm. If this works, I might really be able to achieve the feat of killing a Skysoar cultivator before the Skysoar Realm! That would be incredible!"

"Therefore, this thing is still pretty useful as a trump card. And now, we are only able to produce Great Strength blood essence. Imagine if we can produce Infinite Strength blood essence as well. And if you can control even the Infinite Strength blood essence we produce, just imagine it. Imagine the scene of 1,000 Infinite Strength soul devouring bugs spitting at your enemy at the same time. Maybe even a Cloudbreach cultivator would die."

"A Cloudbreach cultivator can probably survive that, but even a late-stage Skysoar cultivator would die. Su Yu, we have gotten to know each other from our fight. In a way, we are friends, right? Let's cooperate! I will provide the outer layer for you. I don't even need free blood essence from you. I can buy them from you, but you need to make sure to supply me in great quantities."

Su Yu smiled. He had the Soul Devouring Art, but not everyone could open additional acupoints. Thus, there was still some value in the blood essence. In fact, the blood essence was still very valuable.

It was basically a single-use item like a talisman. Take Zhang Hao as an example. Even after opening the required acupoints, he still wouldn't be able to do much with the cultivation method. How powerful would the corrosive power generated by a single person be?

But with Zhang Hao's unique characters, he might be able to control hundreds or even thousands of drops of the blood essence. That would result in a terrifying offensive prowess.

"We need to perform some tests. We can talk about the price after succeeding. It's pointless to reach an agreement if we're going to fail in the end, right?"

"True." Zhang Hao nodded in agreement.

Su Yu started thinking. Should he take this chance to recruit this number one freak of the Talisman Faculty into his Mutual Aid Club? He would consider it. Even if Zhang Hao agreed to help him with the blood essence production, he would still need to get Bai Feng's permission. After all, Zhang Hao would probably need to enter the research center to do so.

Nevertheless, he had still gained a lot from this meeting. He might have really found a solution for the unstable blood essence.

"Mutual Aid Club...cultural art...ability blood essence..."

Su Yu muttered to himself. He needed to add an extra label on himself: the label of a research genius. For cultural researchers, not even Cloudbreach or Mountainsea cultivators could be as important as a super genius in research. Or to be precise, this was the case for the entirety of humanity.

For example, Zhao Li's status. Not even the academy elders would dare to provoke him for no reason. His status was unrelated to his identity as the son of the fourth principal. It was mainly due to his identity as the second best weaponsmith in Great Xia. Anyone might find themselves at his mercy when trying to get a new cultural weapon.

Zhao Li was a seventh-stage Cloudbreach cultivator. The academy had a decent number of cultivators at that level. But not one of them had a status as high as his.

Thus, if Su Yu could give himself the label of a genius researcher in all matters involving ability blood essence, even if he couldn't do well in the academy, others in the prefecture or outside the prefecture would still be willing to take him into their arms.

Su Yu couldn't help but to start considering the possibility of leaving the academy. The internal conflicts within the academy were too intense. As far as Su Yu was concerned, the multiple character faction was really too weak. He felt like they had only been helplessly taking a beating.

He was a genius, but there was nothing he could do when he wasn't even a Skysoar cultivator yet. But if he was also a genius researcher, then he would have a value surpassing a Skysoar cultivator even before reaching the Skysoar Realm.

"Also, I can also perform some tests on my new idea of altering the imprint within a drop of blood essence without cutting the blood essence open. If I can really produce some ability blood essence with this method, I can even slap the single character faction's face when they finally come after me for selling them a fake production method. That would be fun. Who am I? I am Su Yu. I will never lie!"

Su Yu was amused by his own thoughts. Everyone finally believed that he had sold them a fake production method. But right that moment, he used the same production method to produce a functioning drop of ability blood essence right in front of them. Would they be shocked?

Hehehe. Even his teacher and martial uncle believed that the production method was fake. Yet he was going to successfully produce a functioning blood essence with that method. Were they going to be stunned?

Countless people would be stunned, right? How could the fake method...be an actual working method?