Chapter 328: Start The Show (1)
6th of October.
A storm was brewing in the academy.
Early in the morning, a certain piece of news started spreading all over the academy.
"Have you heard? Su Yu is out of seclusion. He's going to start accepting challenges today."
"Do you know who's challenging him? Su Yu is not weak. Just look at Huang Qifeng. A second-stage Infinite Strength and peak Mental Tempering Stage cultivator was reduced to such a miserable state. Who would still dare to challenge him?"
"Yeah. Are they tired of living?"
"Su Yu is no pushover. Not everyone can push him around."
All over the academy, people were talking about Su Yu.
He was not a weakling. Huang Qifeng was strong, right? So what? Even now, he was still unconscious. He would probably need a few months to recover from his willpower injury.
Huang Qifeng's actual combat strength should be somewhere around the fifth-stage Infinite Strength Realm. Someone like him had suffered such a miserable fate in Su Yu's hands. Nobody below the top 50 would actually be Su Yu's match.
Only the top 30 students were probably the ones with an actual chance of defeating Su Yu. All the top 30 students were as strong as late-stage Infinite Strength cultivators. But that was not absolute due to the existence of the Mental Tempering Stage.
If one encountered a Divine Character that was a perfect counter to one's ability, one might still end up defeated even with a stronger cultivation. The Top 100 Ranking of the cultural research academy was not as straightforward as the ranking in the war academy. Apart from Divine Characters, there were also talismans and tamed beasts to be taken into consideration.
While the crowd was talking about the upcoming challenges.
Wu Lan was walking behind her sister with her head lowered dispiritedly. Her usual arrogance was nowhere to be seen.
"Are you feeling discouraged?"
Wu Qi smiled. When the nearby students saw her, they hurriedly greeted her before moving away. Wu Qi was also known as the great demon in the academy. Thus, a lot of people were terrified of her.
Wu Lan gloomily said, "No. Elder Sister, I just don't understand why such a stupid Divine Character has appeared in my sea of willpower."
"Stupid?" Wu Qi laughed, "Say that after you actually form a stupid character."
"Is this not stupid?" Wu Lan sullenly said, "Why is it the weak character? I want the strong character!"
This was too embarrassing. Any character would be better than this.
Wu Qi was getting tired of speaking with her. She asked, "How's the ability?"
"It can weaken others."
"And how is that bad?"
"How is it not?" Wu Lan unhappily said, "I don't want to weaken others. That will only turn them into garbage. I want others to be strong with me being the stronger one."
Wu Qi decided to ignore her little sister. She was afraid that she would get a heart attack if she continued talking to her sister. That weak character could weaken her opponents, not herself. She was unhappy with such a useful character? In that case, she might as well give up on all characters.
Wu Qi continued heading toward the House of Hundred. A big show was going to unfold there today. The appearance of Su Yu was a turning point in the conflict between the single and multiple character factions. Because of him, the conflict had increased in intensity. The hostility between the two was made even more blatant than before. Thus, a lot of researchers would probably be around to watch the show.
Bai Feng had injured Hu Wensheng. Huang Qifeng had injured Wu Jia. And Su Yu had injured Huang Qifeng. The conflict kept on escalating. If it wasn't for the academy rules and the fact that Bai Feng and Chen Yong had been keeping to themselves, the conflict would have escalated into a battle between Skysoars long ago.
From how things looked, the multiple character faction stood no chance. Hong Tan was not around. What could Su Yu do by himself? The multiple character faction could only rely on the protection of the academy rules to reduce the suppression on them.
House of Hundred.
A large crowd had gathered to watch the show. Apart from students, a lot of teachers were present as well. Some instructors, researchers, and old students were here as well. Su Yu had vanished from the public eye after the 3rd.
His silence lasted until today when a rumor started spreading that he was going to be accepting those challenges. Everyone wondered if today would be a repeat of what happened on the 3rd.
Suddenly, the crowd exclaimed, "Zhan Hai is here!"
Number one under the Skysoar Realm, Zhan Hai. His arrival astonished many students. Most of the teachers were only here to enjoy the show. As for Zhan Hai, he was most likely here to judge Su Yu's strength. Thus, this signified that Su Yu had even attracted Zhan Hai's attention.
"Jiang Mu is here as well!"
"So many people are here today. Almost half the top 100 students have arrived. Look, isn't that Li Minyu?"
One top 100 student after another arrived, causing the excitement of the crowd to further increase. Even some top 10 students had arrived today.
These people were generally extremely hard to meet. In fact, their appearances were even rarer than that of some researchers. Yet today, a large number of these elite students had appeared.
Wu Jia and Chen Yong were also in the crowd. She looked around and worriedly said, "Teacher, is Junior Brother really coming today? I heard that some higher ranked students have shamelessly dropped their ranks to challenge him. Why is the academy letting them do as they wish? This is such an obvious loophole."
Chen Yong said, "What can they do? This is the first time something like this has happened. There is nothing the academy can do."
The Top 100 Ranking existed for the purpose of determining the strength of the students. It was meant to be climbed. It was never meant for students to intentionally fall in ranking. Due to Su Yu's rank, many students were unable to challenge him. Because of that, they had intentionally dropped their ranks to challenge him.
"Can Junior Brother win?"
"I don't know."
Chen Yong was somewhat speechless. How was he supposed to know? In fact, he was only here because Su Yu had told him to come.
When Chen Yong recalled the words Su Yu told him the previous night, he felt extremely helpless. If he did that, then his image would definitely turn into that of a shameless and treacherous person. But he was an honest man! He had stayed silently in the books depository for so many years. But now, Su Yu was going to ruin his reputation!
While he was thinking, the crowd stirred as they parted to make way for a newcomer.
"So handsome!"
Many girls started screaming madly.
Su Yu could be seen walking through the crowd. He was still clad in his white outfit. With a gentle smile on his face, he nodded at the students making way for him. After a few days of research without rest, he was slightly pale. But the paleness gave him an even more scholarly look, making him even more pleasing to look at.
How refined. This was how a cultural researcher should look!
"Thank you."
Su Yu thanked a girl who had just moved aside for him. Step by step, he advanced, completely calm and composed, his white robe flowing behind him. Finally, he arrived before the ring.
He stepped into the ring and turned around to face the crowd. With a smile, he said, "My apologies. This is my first time in the top 100 so I was unaware of the rules. I have been helping my teacher with research so I have not been keeping up with the events of the academy.
"I only found out that some seniors have challenged me when I left the lab last night. According to the academy rules, I should accept these challenges. But before accepting the challenge, I need to make one thing clear. This is only a conflict between me and a certain group of people. Everyone else is only involved in this for profit. There is no need for us to get into a quarrel as well. I don't mind accepting any challenges as long as the rules are followed.
"As for those intending to use me as a stepping stone to earn the favor of some people, my apologies. I will not be lenient when it comes to enemies. Thus, think carefully before entering the ring."
The crowd sank into silence. Dıscover more novels at NoveI~Fire.net
Someone from the crowd shouted, "Well said! Junior Brother Su Yu, do your best! Show them how strong you are!"
Yes. The person who had spoken was a female student. She was one of the older students whose cultivation was going nowhere and had given up on going further. Thus, she didn't really care if she would offend someone with her words.
Very few people dared to voice their agreement to her words. The single character faction was still the dominant faction in the academy with a large number of experts. Thus, many were still worried about offending them.
Apart from the single character faction members, there were also some top 100 students who were thinking of challenging Su Yu for the reward.
The referee today was still Zhao Ming. But there were two referees today. The other referee was the young man who had tried to persuade Su Yu against fighting Huang Qifeng previously. Su Yu did not know who that person was. He had also forgotten to ask Chen Yong about that. But he could feel that this person was rather friendly toward him.
Looking at Su Yu, Zhao Ming grinned and said, "Su Yu, you have a lot of challengers. Just pick one."
Su Yu asked, "Teacher, will I get 10 merit points for each victory?"
"Of course."
"Teacher, are there any students who were previously between the 30th place to the 70th place among my challengers?"
"Let me check..." Zhao Ming looked at the jade talisman in his hand and smiled, "Yes. There are three. Wang He, previously ranked 38th, currently ranked 75th. Hu Yu, previously ranked 44th, currently ranked 77th. And Huang Yi, previously ranked 48th, currently ranked 81st."
All three of them were top 50 students. Yet they had dropped in ranks during the past two days. It was clear what their goal was. Some of the people in the crowd jeered in displeasure.
The expressions of several people in the crowd changed, but they remained silent. A willpower text written by a peak Mountainsea cultivator was on the line here. Since the other students were unwilling to lose face for something like a willpower text, they were more than happy to give it a try.
As for those below the top 50, none of them had bothered dropping in ranking. It was pointless since they might not necessarily be Su Yu's match. Only the top 50 students would have some confidence in defeating Su Yu.
Chapter 329: Start The Show (2)
Generally, those between the 30th to the 50th places were capable of facing even sixth-stage Infinite Strength cultivators.
As for Su Yu, when he defeated Huang Qifeng, he had displayed a level of strength capable of contending against a fifth-stage Infinite Strength cultivator. In truth, the battle had ended too fast. Huang Qifeng wasn't even given a chance to unleash all his strength.
Su Yu did not hesitate. He said, "The moment you step into the ring, we will have to fight until a victor emerges. Since everyone is paying so much attention to me, I'll have to be frank. If you find yourself not my match, just concede. Otherwise, I won't be pulling my punches. You can't blame me since you are obviously trying to step all over me. I won't let that slide."
Zhao Ming smiled, "I don't care about your grudges. Su Yu, which challenger are you fighting?"
"Wang He." Su Yu said, "Ranked 38th, right? I'm pretty curious about the strength of a senior at this rank."
Naturally, this Wang He was now ranked 75th.
Among the crowd, a young man clad in white smiled and jumped into the ring. He said, "Junior Brother Su Yu, I am not trying to bully you here. Put yourself in my position. When an opportunity arrives for you to get a willpower text written by a peak Mountainsea cultivator, would you give it a try?"
Su Yu nodded, "Yes. But it's pointless to say all that. Since you want the willpower text, show your strength. Since we're both standing in a ring, we will talk with our ability. Within the bounds of the rules, let victory and defeat decide everything."
"Well said!" Wang He smiled, "I do not have a grudge against you. This is merely a spar. I saw your match with Huang Qifeng. You're very impressive, Junior Brother."
He was trying to elevate Su Yu's status. That way, he would lose less face challenging a junior like Su Yu. Su Yu couldn't even be bothered to say anything else. He could let it slide if the challenger was just a normal student from the top 100. But someone like this who had deliberately lowered his rank just to challenge him was clearly trying to use him as an offering to get some benefits for himself.
Zhao Ming wasted no time and announced, "Start."
This time, Su Yu did not try hiding his strength. His cultural weapon appeared, his five characters attached themselves to the saber, and all 153 of his acupoints opened wide to take in the ambient source qi around him.
He sent the saber flying out and unleashed a kick. He was astonishingly fast.
Whoosh!
The attacks whistled through the air as they approached Wang He. As someone previously in the 38th position, Wang He was naturally not weak. He was a fourth-stage Infinite Strength and peak Mental Tempering Stage cultivator.
He opened all his acupoints and took out a cultural weapon in the form of a sword.
Illusion!
Shadow!
Lightning!
Su Yu unleashed one character ability after another. Meanwhile, Wang He was also not pulling his punches. His willpower and characters erupted, turning the very air itself red.
The entire ring became filled with fire. A fire-related character!
The illusions wavered, the lightning bolts vanished, the killing intent was burned into nothingness, while the battle intent weakened.
Bang!
Su Yu's kick landed, but it only struck through Wang He's afterimage.
"Speed-related character!"
Someone among the crowd exclaimed. Wang He had more than one Divine Character. He was extremely fast. He wasn't as fast as Su Yu, but as he was already ready for Su Yu's attack, he was able to avoid it in time.
Su Yu's kick hit nothing, creating a small explosion in the air. Right that moment, a thin sword descended from the sky. Holding the sword was Wang He who was stepping on thin air.
He aimed his sword straight at Su Yu's One Hundred Openings acupoint. Before the sword arrived, a powerful willpower was already approaching, sending a chill into Su Yu's One Hundred Openings acupoint.
The attack aimed to break his acupoint.
Source Break!
Fast.
He was fast, but Su Yu was faster. With a step to the side, Su Yu stomped on the ground and leaped into the sky. He released a kick.
Boom! Boom! Boom!
Wang He answered the kick with a punch, creating booming sounds around them. At the same time, two cultural weapons clashed in the air.
Su Yu sent kick after kick, borrowing the momentum to remain in the air, forcing Wang He to retreat again and again.
This wasn't supposed to happen, but each kick by Su Yu gave him an impression that space itself was working against him. He had no way of avoiding those kicks.
Around the ring, even the researchers were impressed by the technique Su Yu was using. This was an extremely powerful technique.
"Heaven-grade technique!"
Many of them were able to see that this was a heaven-grade technique. As a fourth-stage Infinite Strength cultivator, Wang He was not weak. And he was a true Infinite Strength cultivator who had advanced by fusing 10 acupoints. He was not as strong as an expert with 12 fused acupoints, but among cultural researchers, he was very impressive. He wouldn't have been able to reach the 38th place in the ranking otherwise.
But he had less acupoints than Su Yu, his source qi was not as pure as Su Yu's, and even his martial technique was weaker. Thus, he was unable to gain an upper hand through physical combat.
The two continued exchanging punches and kicks. The skin on both his hands started tearing apart while his blood flowed out. At that moment, he suddenly realized that something wasn't right. He was losing way too much blood. These tiny wounds weren't supposed to have much effect on him. But he had lost so much blood that he even felt weakened.
"Damn it!"
Wang He was alarmed. Apart from during the battle with Zheng Yunhui, Su Yu had never revealed his blood absorption ability. Thus, very few people were aware that he had such an ability. And that ability actually came from a second tier character. Thus, he was able to absorb blood at an astonishing speed.
Wang He kept feeling a sense of weakness spreading all over his body while Su Yu seemed stronger the longer they fought. With 153 acupoints actively absorbing source qi, Wang He couldn't even regenerate source qi as fast as him.
Eventually, with a loud bang, Wang He was sent flying before crashing onto the ground. He hurriedly got back on his feet and took the chance to pull away from Su Yu. He swallowed a drop of source qi liquid and healed the wounds on his arms, hurriedly stopping himself from bleeding.
With a pale expression, he frowned as he looked at Su Yu. His white outfit was already stained with dust and dirt while not even a crease had formed on Su Yu's clothes. Apart from the beads of sweat on Su Yu's forehead, he still looked the same as before.
Wang He was alarmed. This was indeed a difficult opponent. It was no wonder the single character faction had offered such a prize to defeat Su Yu. He had thought that Su Yu wouldn't be his match, but now, he found that this fellow was no weaker than Infinite Strength cultivators despite his Great Strength cultivation.
In terms of physical combat, he reckoned not even the war academy would have a Great Strength cultivator stronger than Su Yu.
Around the ring.
The students were also greatly shocked. After Su Yu's victory over Huang Qifeng, everyone knew that he was strong. But he had still surpassed everyone's expectation by suppressing even the ranked 38th Wang He.
A researcher curiously said, "His willpower has grown even stronger. I think he has reached 70 percent willpower. And his willpower is even more durable than Wang He's."
The two had been fighting intensely, but Su Yu had not been suppressed even once. He was even able to split his attention and use his blood character to absorb his opponent's blood. The actual strength of his willpower was far higher than what it should be at his current level of cultivation.
His growth had been too fast. Before anyone knew it, he had reached 70 percent willpower. A few people in the crowd were even more astonished than the others.
Liu Hong and Wu Qi had been paying attention to Su Yu before this. During the Divine Character tournament, Su Yu hadn't even reached 60 percent willpower. Only such a short period of time had passed yet he was already at 70 percent?
How was this guy growing so fast?
At a corner.
Zhao Li stood hugging his arms. The weaponsmith that had appeared during the Divine Character tournament was standing beside him. He softly asked, "Teacher, did you teach him the Soul Expanding Art?"
"Does that have anything to do with you?"
The middle-aged man did not know whether to laugh or cry. He said, "Teacher, are you going to make him your successor? He is a member of the multiple character faction." New ɴᴏᴠᴇʟ ᴄhapters are published on novelFirｅ.net
"How does that concern me?"
"..."
The middle-aged man softly said, "Teacher, be careful lest you attract some new enemies. A lot of people are saying that Su Yu has learned your Soul Expanding Art."
Zhao Li had actually been quite mild in front of Su Yu. In front of others, he had a terrible temper.
He said, "So what if he has learned the Soul Expanding Art? Zhou Mingren is free to come after me. He is free to try. Fuck him. I have never gotten involved in their factional conflicts. Why do they care what I do with my own cultivation method? I will continue focusing on weaponsmithing. Who would dare to mess with me? At worst, I'll become a retainer of the Xia Family. If the Xia Family tries to meddle in my affairs, I can join the Zhu Family from Great Ming. If not, I can also join the Great Zhou. Who the fuck can stop me?"
Zhao Li said in disdain, "I don't owe the academy anything. I have been spending the money I earned myself all these years. So what if I decide to teach someone the Soul Expanding Art? Do they think they can control me?"
The more Old Zhao spoke, the more agitated he became. He suddenly raised his middle finger in the direction of the Heart Cultivating Pavilion and said, "Screw all of you. If I lose my patience and leave, you guys will have to return the Source Qi Secret Grotto to me. Otherwise, I'll get an Invincible to collect the debt for me."
"..."
Chapter 330: Start The Show (3)
Nobody had anything to say. There were a few single character faction experts nearby. And they all hurriedly moved away from Old Zhao.
As for the neutral experts, they said, "Old Zhao, calm down. Nobody is saying anything about you. Just ignore those voices."
Zhao Li snorted and said nothing. He would do as he wished. Who could control him? He did not owe anyone anything!
His student looked incomparably awkward. He did not dare to say anything else. He was worried that his teacher would be dragged into the conflict, but since even the single character faction members were keeping their mouths shut, he decided to shut his mouth as well. He could only shake his head helplessly.
Whatever. In any case, his teacher had plenty of alternatives apart from staying in the academy. There really wasn't any need for him to be worried about his teacher.
Not only was his teacher a grandmaster weaponsmith, his teacher was also the actual owner of the Source Qi Secret Grotto. Even if the academy could stop him from taking the grotto for now, he could easily get an Invincible expert to collect on his behalf. At that time, not even the Great Xia King could do anything. Who could stop the son of the fourth principal from taking the belongings of the fourth principal?
And the Source Qi Secret Grotto was a very useful grotto. Many prefectures were salivating over it. Apart from the book, the Source Qi Secret Grotto was the main reason why Su Yu had been able to grow so rapidly.
The battle in the ring was still continuing.
Not many people noticed Old Zhao's spectacular eruption of temper.
Heart Cultivating Pavilion.
A meeting was starting soon. Prior to this, a few of them had stealthily sent their senses over to the ring and heard Zhao Li's words.
Many of them looked at Zhou Mingren upon hearing what Zhao Li said. Zhou Mingren frowned and said, "Zhao Li is free to teach whoever he wants. That has nothing to do with me."
There was no need to provoke that old man for no reason. Even if Su Yu had really learned the Soul Expanding Art, Zhou Mingren had never intended to use that as an attack. Old Zhao's student had been worrying too much.
One of the old men in the meeting room said, "Don't get involved with Zhao Li for no reason. I don't care how you guys fight among yourselves, but think carefully before getting Zhao Li involved. The influence of the fourth principal has not completely left the academy."
Nobody said anything.
The old man said, "The multiple character faction has declined, but the fourth principal's faction has not declined. The principal of Great Zhou Weaponsmithing Academy is a student of the fourth principal. Zhao Li has always been too lazy to leave his home, but if you guys really annoy him so much that he decides to leave, you guys will have to shoulder the consequences yourself."
The elders maintained their silence.
The fourth principal had a student as well. And this student was still around. He was actually from the same generation as Wan Tiansheng and the fifth principal. But due to the backwardness of Great Xia's weaponsmithing industry, he had left for Great Zhou decades ago.
Zhou Mingren's head was hurting. He said, "Nobody is getting Zhao Li involved. Old Qi, stop saying all that. It's pointless."
Nobody was draggin Zhao Li into the conflict. That crazy old man was the one who had suddenly started scolding everyone out of nowhere. None of them had even provoked him.
The old man known as Old Qi snorted and said, "Sure. We won't be talking about that. Today, I am calling this meeting to talk about the willpower text curse."
Suddenly, he chided, "Enough! Why are all of you splitting your attention for some fights between children? Do you not know what's more important here? Pull your willpower back. If you keep splitting your attention, I'll cancel this meeting. And you can forget about getting me to attend any of your meetings in the future."
The elders pulled their willpower back awkwardly. They were merely curious. Why was Old Qi in such a bad mood today? Seated in the middle of the room, Wan Tiansheng was staying completely silent. The meeting today was not called by him so he couldn't be bothered to say anything. He was only here to listen.
Old Qi claimed that he had discovered something about the curse. Wan Tiansheng decided to first listen to what Old Qi had to say before believing that claim. If even he had failed to discover anything, what could Old Qi discover?
But you never knew. No matter what, Old Qi was a veteran Mountainsea cultivator. There was always a possibility that he had really discovered something useful.
Even Wan Tiansheng decided to stop paying attention to the challenges. He might as well focus on what Old Qi had to say. Nobody wanted to provoke Old Qi. He was a veteran Mountainsea cultivator. Nobody wanted to offend him for no reason.
In the ring.
The fight between Su Yu and Wang He had gone on for around four minutes.
The longer the fight dragged on, the weaker Wang He became. From the start of the match, he never stopped bleeding. Su Yu was also gasping for breath with a slightly pale expression and numerous beads of sweat on his forehead.
Right that moment, a crack sounded. A victor had finally emerged from the fight between their cultural weapons. The sword had been broken.
Immediately after, Wang He coughed a mouthful of blood. Su Yu naturally wouldn't hold back. This was the opening he had been waiting for.
He stepped forth and instantly appeared before Wang He. Wang He was greatly alarmed, but his willpower was still suffering from the backlash of the damage his cultural weapon had suffered. A chill crept up his spine when he recalled Huang Qifeng's fate. He didn't even have the chance to concede. Su Yu slammed his knee into Wang He's chest.
Crack!
Sounds of bones being broken rang out.
Wang He crashed loudly outside the ring. An endless flow of blood was spurting out of his mouth.
With a calm expression, Su Yu exhaled lightly. He put his cultural weapon away. After breaking a cultural weapon, the killing intent emanated by his cultural weapon had grown even stronger than before.
The kill character specialized in destruction. Breaking a cultural weapon was an act of destruction. With the kill character attached to the saber, the saber looked much more threatening than before.
The expressions of many people around the ring changed. With his cultural weapon destroyed, Wang He had made a great loss from this challenge. Even his willpower had suffered some damage. His injuries weren't as grave as Huang Qifeng's, but he still needed to spend a month or two in recovery.
"Pseudo profound weapon!"
Some people exclaimed in envy. During Su Yu's fight with Huang Qifeng, he had also destroyed Huang Qifeng's weapon. But that fight had ended too quickly so nobody was able to get a good look at his weapon.
Today, everyone was finally able to notice something. He was not using a yellow-grade weapon. He was using a pseudo profound weapon, a weapon on the cusp of becoming a true profound-grade weapon.
A lot of gazes landed on Zhao Li. They didn't even need to ask. A weapon so powerful had most definitely been forged by Zhao Li. Zhao Li was indeed treating Su Yu like his successor.
Wang He had been seriously injured. Several faces in the crowd turned solemn. The other two students who had also dropped their ranks to challenge Su Yu had unsightly expressions. Wang He had actually been defeated.
Not only had he been defeated, but his cultural weapon had been broken and his willpower had been damaged. This was such a big loss that not even a willpower text could cover. Instead of earning a benefit using Su Yu, he had suffered a great loss.
A cultural weapon he had spent several years nurturing had been broken just like that. He needed to buy a new cultural weapon and nurture the weapon from scratch. That would significantly slow down his progress toward the Skysoar Realm.
After spending a short while gasping for breath, Su Yu said, "It is pointless to look at me like this. Like I said, I won't bother you if you don't bother me. Since you are going as far as dropping your rank to take advantage of me, I won't hold back."
Nobody had anything to say.
Zhao Ming smiled, "Su Yu is the victor. Do you want to take a short rest before continuing?"
Su Yu nodded.
Suddenly, someone from the crowd asked, "Su Yu, do you only dare to accept the challenge of those under top 30?"
Su Yu looked at the speaker.
Zhao Ming happily introduced, "You asked for the names of those between the 30th and 50th places, but this person isn't one of them. His name is Di Feng..."
Su Yu said, "I know. Ranked 9th, Di Feng. Deputy Manager Zhou Pingsheng's student. Am I right?"
Di Feng said, "I'm now ranked 72nd. According to the rules, I can challenge you. And you can't refuse my challenge. You can either fight or concede..."
Su Yu smiled, "I am facing multiple challenges. According to the rules, I can pick which challenge to accept. I am also allowed to reject further challenges after accepting three challenges per day. What can you do about that?"
Di Feng said, "Are you afraid?"
"Are you trying to provoke me into action?" Su Yu laughed, "You're even older than Huang Qifeng. Someone like you is here to provoke a student who has only been in the academy for two months? Interesting."
"..."
Di Feng remained silent. It was pointless for him to say anything else. There was nothing he could do if Su Yu decided to not accept his challenge.
"Unless you can fight three matches every day until the 25th, you will receive an automatic defeat if you do not accept my challenge." ᴛʜɪs ᴄʜᴀᴘᴛᴇʀ ɪs ᴜᴘᴅᴀᴛᴇ ʙʏ NoveI-Fire.ɴet
Su Yu couldn't even be bothered to say anything else to this fellow. Instead, he glanced at Xia Huyou. Within the crowd, Xia Huyou nodded slightly. It was done. They could proceed with the plan.
Su Yu smiled and stopped wasting time with Di Feng. He said, "Hu Yu, Huang Yi, are you still challenging me? Concede and I will only take 10 merit points from each of you. If not, you better be stronger than Wang He or you will receive even heavier injuries."
Among the crowd, a man and woman had dark expressions.
Concede?
Conceding before fighting?
But when they recalled that even Wang He had been defeated and how fast Su Yu was, they really weren't confident they could survive a match with Su Yu unscathed. The two remained silent.
Su Yu was in no rush. He spent some time recovering his source qi through swallowing several drops of source qi liquid. After about half an hour, he said, "In that case, let's continue. Hu Yu, get in the ring."
Hu Yu, previously ranked 44th.
He was hesitating. Should he get into the ring? After thinking about it, he exhaled and decided to enter the ring. At worst, he could concede after getting into the ring. It would be too humiliating to concede before even fighting.
He wasn't that much weaker than Wang He. He wasn't completely hopeless against an opponent like Su Yu.
Chapter 331: Start The Show (4)
Once again, a fight broke out. This time, Su Yu had changed his approach. Ferocious. He was fighting with intense ferocity.
He was fighting the same way he fought during his match against Huang Qifeng. He did not take his cultural weapon out while his willpower was only used to protect his sea of willpower. The moment the match started, he opened all his acupoints and charged forward.
Fast.
He moved and attacked rapidly, his attacks fierce and ferocious. At this moment, nobody felt like he was a cultural researcher. Everyone felt like they were looking at a brute from the war academy. In less than a minute, sounds of exclamations rang out from the crowd.
Su Yu had allowed a small saber to stab through his shoulder blade before grabbing Hu Yu with his right hand. Before Hu Yu could concede, Su Yu's leg lashed out and broke over 10 bones in Hu Yu's body.
Blood flowed out of his shoulder and dyed his clothes red, but he seemed completely incapable of feeling pain, ignoring the saber as it flew out from his back and opened a wide wound on his body. He stomped his foot down.
With a crack, he broke more of Hu Yu's ribs.
Then, he kicked Hu Yu out of the ring like he was kicking trash.
He picked up Hu Yu's saber and smiled before tossing it toward Hu Yu. After moving his injured arm for a bit, he said, "The spars in the academy are too soft. You should have cut my entire arm off instead. If you think you can stop me just by stabbing through my shoulder, you are underestimating me too much."
"..."
The crowd sank into silence.
A lot of girls were looking at him with sympathy. In the past, they had felt that he was too gentle. Today, he was once again revealing his feral side to the crowd. That was how he had behaved when he faced Huang Qifeng. He was behaving the same way today.
Not only was he ruthless toward his enemies, but he was also ruthless toward himself. The expressions of some top 100 students turned even more solemn than before. They had always thought that Su Yu lacked experience and had grown too quickly. But Su Yu had proved that in terms of ruthlessness, they weren't his match either.
Only those who had experienced it would understand how painful it was to have one's shoulder blade stabbed through. And Su Yu appeared completely indifferent to that injury.
Within the crowd, Zheng Yunhui curled his lips. A bunch of idiots. Su Yu was not some inexperienced rookie. This fellow had taken some human lives before. Zheng Yunhui had investigated Su Yu before.
Even though some of Su Yu's information had been kept hidden, he was still able to find out about them. Before even reaching the Great Strength Realm, Su Yu had already taken the lives of some cult members. He was a killer.
If anyone dared to tell Zheng Yunhui that Su Yu was a refined scholar, he would give that person a punch in the face.
"Huang Yi, do you concede?" Su Yu asked with a smile, "You are the last of the three. Do you concede?"
Huang Yi had a stiff expression, but she remained silent.
"Fine. Give me half an hour."
He smiled, but in Huang Yi's eyes, that smile of his looked somewhat frosty. Clearly, Su Yu had finally been angered. After all, he was getting harsher and harsher toward his opponents.
Huang Yi suddenly felt a sense of crisis enveloping her. After a while, she clenched her teeth and said, "I concede."
She did not have the confidence to face Su Yu in battle. She was afraid that she would suffer the same fate as the previous opponent. It was not worth risking a fight with Su Yu just to try and get a willpower text. Even if Su Yu was already injured, this was still not an opponent she wanted to risk facing.
"Thank you, Senior Sister."
Su Yu was completely indifferent. He did not care about the gender of his opponent. Even if the opponent was a girl, he still wouldn't hold back against someone trying to take advantage of him.
Something like gender did not matter for him. Clearly, he had successfully intimidated the crowd with his performance so far. He was very satisfied. Some of the students were even starting to look at him with dread.
And that wasn't what Su Yu wanted. He was a good and honest man. He was everyone's friend. Don't look at him like that! Now that he had used the stick, it was time to take out the carrot.
A wide smile bloomed on his face as he said, "I know what everyone is here for. You're all here for the willpower text, right? If you are willing to be reasonable with me, then I am naturally willing to be reasonable as well."
"As for those trying to pull a cheap trick against me like dropping their rank to challenge me...I find these people disgusting. Teacher Zhao, I refuse the rest of the challenges. Since I've accepted three challenges today, I am now free to proceed with non-top 100 matches."
Numerous hearts thumped in the crowd.
What? Google seaʀᴄh NoveI~Fire.net
Su Yu loudly said, "Willpower text? You don't have one? Fear not! After today, everyone will have one willpower text! I am willing to exchange pointers with all students below the Skysoar Realm! As long as you pay me a fee of one merit point for my time, I am willing to spar with everyone. And I guarantee you will win the spar.
"As for whether you can actually get the willpower texts, I can't promise anything. But I believe a Mountainsea cultivator won't be shameless enough to renege on his debt. I believe some of you will be able to get the reward."
Su Yu laughed, "Are you worried that a top 100 student can't fight you? Fear not! After today, I will no longer be a top 100 student! I will have to trouble Senior Sister Lin Qing who is ranked 100th to challenge me and push me out of the ranking. After that, everyone will be able to challenge me!"
The moment those words were said, a clamor erupted among the crowd.
Suddenly, Chen Yong's willpower erupted as he roared, "Silence! Line up! Sign up and go one after another. One merit point for one willpower text. As for whether you can get the willpower text or not, we won't be making any promises. We were not the ones who had promised this reward."
"Jia, get to work. Start collecting the fees." Looking at the stunned Wu Jia, Chen Yong said, "What are you waiting for? Everyone else, line up and register your participation here. It is still very likely for you to get something out of this. Even if you can't get a willpower text written by a Mountainsea cultivator, any random willpower text would have a value surpassing 100 merit points. You have numbers on your side. What are you afraid of? If they renege on the debt, they can talk to the Talent Fostering Bureau."
All the students were stunned. And the expressions of those from the single character faction changed.
"Chen Yong, you..."
Chen Yong released his willpower and coldly said, "What? Do you object? Even if you do, keep it to yourself. You guys are the ones who have started this. I hope you can actually fulfill the promise you made. Otherwise, I would be more than happy to escalate this matter."
Suddenly, someone rushed out of the crowd and loudly said, "I wish to sign up. Do I only need to pay one merit point? Will Su Yu concede?"
"Definitely." Su Yu smiled, "I enjoy sending a certain someone to bankruptcy. I hope everyone can participate."
The student wasted no time and said, "I am not a top 100 student. So we can't really fight..."
"That person did not say that the match must be an official challenge. But to prevent him from reneging on his word, please give me a moment. I will drop out of the top 100 first. Friends behind me in the ranking, is anyone interested in challenging me?"
Some of the top 100 students looked at each other in hesitation.
In the crowd, Zhang Hao pushed someone beside him. That person looked at him and softly said, "Hao, we will offend—"
"Is the Talisman Faculty afraid of them? Senior Brother, has Teacher told you to lower your head to the single character faction?"
That person's expression changed as he stepped forth and said, "Ranked 88th, Wang Qing of the Talisman Faculty, wishes to challenge you."
"I concede."
Su Yu was extremely straightforward.
Next, Zheng Yunhui shouted, "It's my turn! You're now in the 88th place so I can challenge you. Su Yu, concede!"
Su Yu laughed, "I concede."
"Hahaha! I'm now ranked 88th!"
Meanwhile, Wang Qing was completely stunned. His rank had increased to the 71st place. And he hadn't even fought anyone. Just like that, his position had increased by 17 places?
Wu Lan also hurriedly pushed Lin Qing. With a dumbfounded expression, Lin Qing looked at her teacher. Wu Qi had an amused smile on her face as she nodded.
Lin Qing then said, "100th place, Lin Qing, wishes to challenge Su Yu."
"I concede."
Lin Qing was completely stunned. She was now in 91st place. This had happened out of nowhere.
"Anyone else? I am now in the 100th place. Anyone can challenge me. One more challenge and I will be out of the ranking." Su Yu looked at the first student to sign up and smiled, "How about you, Senior Brother? You're now a top 100 student. I concede."
"..."
Everyone was speechless. The students started looking at each other in excitement. Should they go for it? They might not be able to get the willpower text. But what if they could get it? The expressions of some single character faction experts changed as they rushed off to the Heart Cultivating Pavilion. This was getting very troublesome.
Within the crowd, Xia Huyou smiled. At that moment, someone from the crowd shouted, "Liu Bo from the Weaponsmithing Faculty wishes to challenge you."
"I concede. Don't forget to pay the fee of one merit point," Su Yu answered with a smile.
"Wang Hao of the Pill Faculty..."
"I concede."
"..."
"I concede."
Again and again, Su Yu conceded. The entire academy was being driven mad.
Meanwhile, Wu Jia was collecting merit points with a dumbfounded expression. How did this happen? Wasn't her junior brother here to fight today? He had finally won three matches, but why was this happening?
Her junior brother...had dropped out of the ranking. And she was...collecting money?
One merit point, two merit points... One student after another walked up to her to make a payment.
The majority was beyond reproach.
In the beginning, a lot of people were still fearful of the single character faction. But as more and more people participated, the students started growing excited. What were they afraid of? What the hell was there to be afraid of?
The worst that could happen was Faculty Head Zhou reneging on the debt. And they only needed to pay a low price for a chance to hit the jackpot. Perhaps they might hesitate if the fee was ten merit points, but it was only one merit point. They could afford to lose that much.
And if they managed to hit the jackpot, they would obtain a willpower text written by a Mountainsea cultivator! They would regret this for the rest of their lives if they didn't give it a try!
Wu Jia was completely dumbstruck when she looked at her merit card. She had accepted more than 1,000 merit points thus far. Looking at that number, she almost cried.
She had never seen this much money before. But today, everyone was lining up to give her money.
Chapter 332: Rules Are Good To Have (1)
In the ring.
Su Yu had been shouting the word "concede" so many times that he was starting to feel numb. There were so many challengers. How sad. Wouldn't it be nice if someone delivered him a cup of tea right about now?
"I concede—" Su Yu suddenly stopped. He stared at the person in front of him and asked, "Weren't you here earlier?"
A girl shyly said, "They never said that we can't win twice. I paid three merit points so I still have two challenges left!"
"..."
Su Yu wondered if this was Xia Huyou's little sister. She was definitely that fatty's sister! Stop pretending!
Su Yu kindly reminded her, "Once is enough. And if you can't even get the reward with one victory, it doesn't matter if you have more victories. It is worth betting one merit point on a certain someone not being too shameless, but don't waste too much money, fellow student."
The girl shyly said, "I understand. Thank you for the reminder, Student Su Yu. I'm not afraid. I can definitely get the rewards. My dad is the director of the Talent Fostering Bureau. If he reneges on the debt, I'll have my dad disqualify him as a researcher."
"..."
Su Yu was dumbstruck.
Holy shit!
Director of the Talent Fostering Bureau. That was a big shot.
And it was true that one needed to get an official approval from the Talent Fostering Bureau to get promoted as a researcher. In that case, would Zhou Mingren give this girl the willpower texts?
If he refused, she might really be able to make her father disqualify him. Of course, people were generally unwilling to offend a Mountainsea cultivator. But this matter involved more than one or two people. This matter had created such a big ruckus. If Zhou Mingren did not give a satisfactory answer, he might really suffer some losses.
After learning of the girl's identity, Su Yu asked, "Why don't you pay 10 merit points for 10 attempts?"
"..."
The girl ignored him and went back to the line for her third attempt. She was not interested. Three attempts were more than enough for her. She only wanted one Myriad Text Sutra, one War God Art, and one Skybreak Technique. You should never get too greedy!
Nearby, the researchers who had gathered to enjoy the show were completely stunned. If this matter kept escalating, then things could get very troublesome.
The daughter of the Talent Fostering Bureau's director, the grandson of the Martial Dragon Guards' deputy commander, the grandson of the war academy's vice principal, the juniors from the Xia Family, the juniors of the 1000-man-commanders of the Devil Subduing Army, the juniors of Principal Wan, the juniors of the prefect...
It was fine to ignore those without any background. But those with a proper background did not fear Zhou Mingren. Zhou Mingren himself had promised the reward! They had never forced him to make the promise!
They were more than happy to take a gamble. They only needed one merit point. And there were so many of them. Zhou Mingren would probably give them something even if he ended up going back on his word of giving the victors a willpower text each.
At least some of them would be able to get something out of this. As for those without a background, well, too bad. Those with a good background would make his life hard if he dared renege on his debt to them.
More and more students were signing up. And even more were arriving after hearing about what was happening.
At this time, some single character faction experts were left with no choice but to take action. They shouted, "Leave! Victories in this manner do not count for the reward!"
In the ring, Su Yu said, "Is the academy completely devoid of justice? While I am exchanging pointers with my fellow students, some people at the Skysoar Realm and above are here to threaten students like us. Does the academy not have rules anymore? Official source ıs ɴovelfire.net
"Sigh. I suppose everyone has already forgotten Elder Zheng's fate even though it hasn't been that long. Looks like Principal Wan's rules are nothing but a joke. Teaching assistants and researchers are actually bullying students. This is incredible. Is this still the same Great Xia that is ruled by the Xia Family?"
Su Yu hollered without fear.
The expressions of some researchers changed upon hearing those words. Chen Yong roared, "Any researcher and teaching assistant meddling in the private matches of students are to be treated as a member of the Myriad Race Cult. Where are the academy guards? Have you forgotten the academy rules?"
The moment he said that, a group of guards rushed over. The leader was a 100-man commander who was also a Cloudbreach cultivator.
When Chen Yong saw the commander hesitating, he berated, "What are you waiting for? Some people tried to get involved in the challenges between students. Are they above the rules? Or perhaps even the guards are trying to overturn the rules as well?"
The commander's expression changed as he finally ordered, "Arrest them! Apart from the referee, nobody is allowed to meddle in matches between students!"
"You dare—"
"Kill!"
A Skysoar teaching assistant had barely opened his mouth when a blade struck his chest, sending him flying while coughing blood.
More and more guards arrived. The seventh-stage Cloudbreach cultivator had an unsightly expression. Screw that idiot! There were so many eyes looking at them! Even if he wanted to show some bias to the single character faction, they couldn't do so openly!
Who were they? They were the academy guards. They were meant to maintain order in the academy. They were meant to ensure the safety of the academy. They only answered to the principal and the Xia Family. Nobody else had any authority over them. The moment rules were broken, they had the authority to even kill the rulebreaker.
That teaching assistant should have kept his mouth shut. Why had he insisted on running his mouth in front of so many people? The crime of meddling in the matches of students could be easily resolved, but upon escalation, it could potentially result in one being subjected to the death sentence.
Why didn't the teaching assistant look at who was speaking before running his mouth? Chen Yong was the head manager of the books depository. His position in the academy was quite high. There was no way to downplay this offense in front of him.
The other single character faction experts shut their mouths with ashen expressions. This was really getting troublesome.
They had not put much thought into it before taking action, but that had given Su Yu the chance to instantly pin the crime of bullying students on them. Anyone at the Skysoar Realm and above found guilty of bullying students would be exiled to the Allheaven Battlefield even if they could escape the death sentence.
Being exiled to the battlefield was completely different from going there after joining an army. The exiles would be sent to the Vanguard Regiment.
"Arrest them!"
The Cloudbreach commander gave the order and the researchers who had tried to stop the students were all arrested. Regardless of whether they were in the Skysoar or the Cloudbreach Realm, all of them were taken in.
None of them dared to resist. Even the teaching assistant sent flying earlier had realized what was happening. They suddenly recalled Elder Zheng's fate. How many days had it been since that incident? Were they really suicidal? Why would they challenge the academy rules so soon after that?
In the ring, Su Yu appeared completely indifferent.
Rules...were meant to be exploited. And only rules that could protect him were worth following. He had long expected that the single character faction would try to meddle during the challenges. And the guards were the perfect tool against them. Why? Because of the rules. They were not allowed to meddle in fights between students.
"The challenge continues." Su Yu said, "Everyone, you better move faster while you have the chance. The rules are on our side. If they dare to renege on the debt, just sue them! Worst comes to worst, the academy will settle this for you. Even if you can't get the promised willpower text, you might be able to get some merit points, or a free entry into a grotto, or a free chance to observe a willpower text writing session, or something else. None of you will end up empty handed.
"The single character faction has nearly 100 teaching assistants and researchers. Each of them only needs to write at least one willpower text to produce 100 willpower texts. Even if you can't get a Mountainsea willpower text, a Skysoar willpower text would still be a decent reward.
"Even if they decide to replace your willpower texts with some free lectures, a single lecture would normally cost you at least five merit points, right? No matter what, you won't lose money doing this!"
Right that moment, someone shouted, "If you really fail to claim the willpower text from them, give me a chance to do it. Just issue me a receipt so that I can claim the text on your behalf. I am willing to pay for the receipts with merit points. What do you think?"
"..."
The crowd looked at the speaker in astonishment. That was an unfamiliar face. It was not Xia Huyou. Rather, it was a relatively unknown student.
That person continued shouting, "I'm telling the truth. I'll buy your receipts with money. Don't worry. I'm not trying to scam anyone. My dad is a 1000-man-commander in the Martial Dragon Guards!"
That finally moved the crowd. A 1000-man-commander in the Martial Dragon Guards! That was not the Devil Subduing Army. The Martial Dragon Guards was basically the personal army of the prefect. Even the weakest of their 1000-man-commander would be a seventh-stage Skysoar. A majority of them were in the Cloudbreach Realm.
Sure, they were not Mountainsea cultivators, but they were the personal army of the prefect. And thus, more and more people were tempted. The line in front of Wu Jia became longer and longer.
Su Yu glanced at Xia Huyou and saw the fatty smiling silently. He couldn't help but to berate inwardly that this fellow was truly too devious. Instead of making a move himself, he had someone else move on his behalf.
Clearly, Xia Huyou did not intend to directly involve the Xia Family in this matter. Rather, he was using an intermediary. Even if the Xia Family was eventually going to be the one to collect the debt, he would insist that the debt had merely been sold to them.
Su Yu didn't even need to guess to know that Xia Huyou would be using that excuse. The Xia Family could not get involved directly since they were the ruling family of the Great Xia. They could not show too much bias toward a single side.
Su Yu felt somewhat regretful. He had originally intended to drag the Xia Family into the matter as well. That way, he would be able to create an impression that the Xia Family backed the multiple character faction. But clearly, the Xia Family was no fool. They could not be dragged in so easily.
Chapter 333: Rules Are Good To Have (2)
While Su Yu was losing matches repeatedly.
Heart Cultivating Pavilion.
A few single character factions had arrived, but they had been stopped from entering.
Outside the building.
A Cloudbreach expert asked anxiously, "Where is Faculty Head Zhou? Please pass a message to Faculty Head Zhou that something big has happened!"
The guard frowned and said, "The elders are in the middle of a grade three strategic meeting. Unless this is a matter of life and death, nobody is allowed to interrupt a meeting of this level."
The researcher said, "This is urgent! Very urgent! If you're unwilling to pass the message, I'll start shouting out here instead!"
"Impudent!" The commander berated, "This is the Heart Cultivating Pavilion. How dare you make a scene here? The elders are in an important meeting. Are you deaf?"
The researchers got more and more anxious.
Finally, one of them clenched his teeth and slammed his own palm into his chest. After coughing a mouthful of blood, "This is now a matter of life and death. Please pass a message to the faculty head."
"You!"
The commander's expression changed. What a ruthless person. The researcher had attacked himself hard enough to seriously injure himself.
"Do you want me to die here?" The researcher furiously said, "Can you shoulder the consequences of my death?"
He hit himself with another palm attack.
Hiss!
More blood spurted out of his mouth. The other single character faction experts watched on with grief. Damn it! The timing of this meeting was too coincidental. There must be a conspiracy here. All their Mountainsea cultivators were not around right when Su Yu was pulling that stunt of his.
Without the elders, people like them had no way of stopping Su Yu. Furthermore, their elders were not the only ones away for this meeting. All the academy elders were in this meeting. Otherwise, the elders of some other faction would have probably stopped the mess before it spread any further.
Alas, all the elders had been called to the meeting. The so-called strategic meeting. A strategic meeting was one that couldn't be interrupted. Anyone attempting to enter the building during the meeting would be suspected of espionage and subjected to harsh punishments.
Seeing that the researcher was really not holding back, the commander hesitated slightly before saying, "Enough! I will report this to the principal. You will bear the consequences for this!" Thɪs chapter is updated by novel⁂fire.net
He turned around and entered the building. He had no choice but to report this incident. Otherwise, having a Cloudbreach cultivator dying right in front of his face would also bring him a lot of trouble.
Within the massive meeting room.
The room was silent.
In order to let everyone focus on the meeting, Elder Qi had activated a soundproof barrier around the room.
At that moment, Zhou Mingren was frowning. He looked outside. The window was open, but he couldn't figure out what was happening. He couldn't hear anything, but he could see a lot of people moving hastily.
Was everyone there to enjoy the show? He knew that Su Yu was in the process of accepting challenges today. Were all those people going there to watch the show? There were so many of them. For some reason, Zhou Mingren was feeling a sense of unease.
Wan Tiansheng had noticed the rapidly moving crowd even earlier. He had his eyes shut as he feigned calmness, but inwardly, he was rather alarmed. Just what were those people trying to do? He opened his eyes and glanced at Elder Qi. Weird. This fellow was not from the multiple character faction. What was wrong with him today? Why was he moving against Zhou Mingren?
"Has the Xia Family gotten involved?"
Wan Tiansheng had a guess. This elder seemed rather close to that fatty. Had that fatty involved himself? That would be troublesome. Was that damn fatty trying to take advantage of this conflict to earn some benefits from the academy?
Even if the single character faction had to suffer some losses, Wan Tiansheng was unwilling to see that fatty be the one to benefit from their losses. While rapping his fingers on the desk, he glanced at Zhou Mingren.
Zhou Mingren was frowning. When Wan Tiansheng noticed that, his heart thumped. Was he...capable of stepping into the Sunmoon Realm? Crisis sense...Zhou Mingren seemed to have developed a partial crisis sense. But only actual Sunmoon cultivators would possess proper crisis sense.
He did not say anything but numerous thoughts rose in his mind. Multiple character faction...those fellows had yet to return but Su Yu alone was already starting to create a massive storm.
"Su Yu...Cloudbreach?"
He recalled the scene he saw when he glimpsed at the future. That scene was unclear. Was Su Yu a Cloudbreach cultivator in that scene? How many years in the future did that scene come from? Thirty? Or twenty years?
He was unsure. He only knew that the kid would eventually reach the Cloudbreach Realm. And the kid would become an exceptionally powerful Cloudbreach. Using a human character as the main Divine Character, he was able to battle Mountainsea cultivators as a Cloudbreach.
Wan Tiansheng rubbed his head. The scene involving Su Yu was merely a tiny portion of what he saw. He only noticed Su Yu because the sight of a Cloudbreach battling a Mountainsea was simply too stunning. Every single genius of the multiple character faction was shockingly talented.
But Wan Tiansheng did not know the exact point in time where all those events he had seen would happen. Furthermore, his focus was not on the Cloudbreach and Mountainsea cultivators. He was mostly focused on the Sunmoon and Eternal cultivators.
While he was deep in thought, Elder Qi said, "Principal, stop daydreaming."
That pulled Wan Tiansheng out of his thoughts.
Elder Qi complained, "Principal, do you disagree with my opinion?"
Wan Tiansheng was speechless. He said, "No. I was just thinking about it. You were saying that when divines and devils use their own characters, they are able to display more strength than humans using the same characters, right? You are suggesting that perhaps the characters of the powerful races have been cursed from the very beginning."
"Exactly." Elder Qi seriously said, "I suspect that the inability of cultural researchers to enter the Eternal Realm is not an issue that has only started 50 years ago. Instead, it has been that way since a long time ago. The divines and devils have long placed a curse on us through cultural invasion. I even suspect that the curse has perhaps been placed on human characters instead of their characters.
"I believe they have cursed our characters, making us believe that human characters are innately weaker. Because of that, we have to cultivate their characters, but as humans, we have not been able to enter the Eternal Realm by cultivating their characters."
Wan Tiansheng had a pensive look. This argument actually made some sense. He said, "You might be right. Human characters...The human race is also a powerful race. Why are our characters weaker than even the characters of some minor races? But it won't be easy for us to verify this claim. We also need the help of the Knowledge Seeking Realm..."
Elder Qi nodded, "That was why I gathered everyone here today. I wanted to talk about this. Also, our previous plan to have some people focus on human characters might need to be put on hold. Or at the very least, we need to slow down that process. We need to first ensure that there are no issues with human characters—"
Suddenly, someone knocked on the door. The door was knocked in a tempo that indicated that there was something urgent to report.
Elder Qi frowned and berated, "What is it? Who's messing around when we're having an important meeting?"
He looked outside the window. The world was not ending. What was so urgent that had to be reported immediately?
Wan Tiansheng glanced at Elder Qi before saying, "Since it's something urgent, let's listen to the report first."
The door swung open.
The commander hurriedly said, "Reporting to the principal and elders, a few researchers are trying to intrude into the building. When I stopped them from entering, they started harming themselves as a threat. One of them is already seriously injured..."
The elders all sent their willpower out. The expressions of Zhou Mingren and a few others changed as they instantly vanished into thin air.
Not far away, Wu Yuehua sneered, "These people are getting more and more unruly nowadays."
She then left as well. The expressions of one elder after another changed. One of them even started sending his willpower further away, but his willpower was obstructed upon reaching the challenge ring area.
The elder's expression changed as he withdrew his willpower and remained silent. Inwardly, he already had a guess of what was happening. Something must have happened in the challenge ring.
Has yet another single character faction genius been crippled by Su Yu? Was that Su Yu...really so ferocious? As a new student, he had crippled several single character faction geniuses. That was...actually quite impressive!
The elders remained calm. They weren't too worried. They were sure that nothing major had happened or the alarms would have started blazing already. The academy guards were no pushovers.
If something major was really happening, they would be able to at least notify the elders. There wouldn't be a need for the single character faction members to be the ones making the report instead. This matter was clearly something related to the single character faction.
The elders indifferently swaggered out of the building. Since the meeting had been interrupted, they might as well go out and enjoy the show. Only the elders from the single character faction appeared nervous. The other elders were completely indifferent. During challenges between students, injuries were normal. The worst that could happen was suffering from serious injuries like Huang Qifeng. With a referee around, nobody would die.
Near the challenge ring.
Jia Mingzhen and company were all present.
Jia Mingzhen was clicking his tongue in wonder, "What an incredible kid. What an expert schemer. Just look at this. If those fellows had left slightly later, they would have been caught by the guards as well. In that scenario, the single character faction would still be clueless."
Yes. The single character faction experts had all been arrested not long after a few of them left to notify the elders. The guards were at a loss. The crowd was too big. They could only maintain order and do nothing else. As for the single character faction members they had arrested, those people had all been taken away. Those people were probably going to be locked up until this matter was resolved.
There were still some single character faction members left, but there was nothing they could do. They couldn't meddle in the challenges. And they couldn't chase the students away either.
Chapter 334: Rules Are Good To Have (3)
Su Yu seemed incredibly well versed with the academy rules. If they tried doing that, he would definitely accuse them of bullying students, causing them to be arrested as well. They could only wait around anxiously.
The single character faction researchers felt incredibly sullen. A single student had pushed them into such a sorry situation. A bunch of Skysoar and Cloudbreach cultivators could only watch helplessly as he dug a hole for their faction.
They watched on as one student after another signed up, happily noting down how many victories they had obtained, and discussing the possibility of actually claiming the promised reward. The hell were they thinking?
Jia Mingzhen smiled, "Come on. We should challenge Su Yu as well. Maybe we can get a few willpower texts for free. No matter what, we are the students of academy elders. Who knows? Maybe Old Zhou will show us some respect and really give us some willpower texts? After all, disrespecting us is the same as disrespecting those old farts..."
Nominally, they were the students of a few academy elders. Sure, those elders were too ashamed to want to have anything to do with them, but they were still nominally students and teachers.
An elder beside him said, "Why are you getting involved in this? We should just watch the show. If we get involved and our actual identities get exposed, Old Zhou will probably start hating even us."
"How is this our fault? Aren't we students now?" Jia Mingzhen was indifferent, "Come on. Let's do it before Old Zhou and the others are here. They are probably going to go crazy this time. Sigh. What can they do when they encounter someone so shameless? In his place, I would probably go crazy as well. I thought the kid was going to fight until the end. Even if he's going to ultimately lose, he would put up a spectacular fight before losing with grief and indignation. But...why is this happening?"
He could only shake his head in admiration. So a person could actually reach such a level of shamelessness? So what if he was a genius? Why must all geniuses care about reputation?
It was a mistake to judge these youngsters with the mindset of old fellows like them. Every last one of these kids are treacherous and cunning. They were more than willing to lose some face for the sake of some merit points.
They were just about to sign up for the challenge when someone among the crowd shouted, "Su Yu, I challenge you!"
Su Yu looked at the person who had shouted and said, "Di Feng, is something wrong with you? I'm not a top 100 student anymore. Are you going to force me into a fight with you? Is there a teacher around? What's the punishment for a top 100 student trying to force me into a fight?"
Zhao Ming scratched his head with a troubled expression and berated, "Di Feng, stop messing around. If you cause more trouble, I'll have you arrested as well!"
"..."
Di Feng was furious. This was simply too infuriating. Su Yu had dropped out of the ranking.
Suddenly, Su Yu said, "Wait, are you challenging me because you want a free willpower text as well? You should have told me earlier, my friend! Sigh. Sure, sure, I'll grant you a victory over me as well. Just pretend you won a match against me when I was still in the top 100. Don't forget to claim the reward from your grandteacher."
"You!" Di Feng was furious, "Can't you feel any shame?"
Su Yu laughed, "I concede. Next! Di Feng, don't bother trying this on me-I concede. Next-Di Feng, if you really have the guts, why don't you challenge the entire academy? If you do so, I'll-I concede. Next…"
Su Yu continued accepting challenges while chatting with Di Feng. Di Feng was losing his mind. He decided to just leave. Each time he heard the "I concede. Next!" from Su Yu's mouth, he felt like someone was hammering his heart.
Right that moment, several powerful presences soared into the sky.
Chen Yong hurriedly withdrew his willpower and asked Wu Jia, "How much?"
Wu Jia asked blankly, "What?"
"How much have you collected?"
"Let me check...8,523 merit points..."
Chen Yong's heart thumped. That much money? Were students nowadays so rich? But when he thought about it, this was understandable. Each person only needed to pay one merit point. Some even signed up several times. And there were about 6,000 participants.
That wasn't a big number since the academy had tens of thousands of students in the Mental Tempering Stage. At the very least, not all of the students had participated.
"Leave first. Quickly! Go hide in the books depository."
"Teacher..."
"Go! Someone is here to rob us!"
Although they had not broken any rules, strictly speaking, they were operating in the gray area. Thus, they needed to be cautious as well. After all, over 8,000 merit points were at stake here.
This martial nephew of his was truly a genius in earning money. Moreover, he was able to earn money without offending the masses. After all, he was only charging them one merit point per challenge. Like he said, the students could just treat this as buying a lottery ticket to try their luck. He had not forced anyone to pay him.
Thus, he was able to earn some money without making new enemies while also leaving a big mess for the single character faction to clean.
Even a ninth-stage Cloudbreach cultivator like Chen Yong would need to work 10 years to receive that much salary. And he was the head manager of the books depository. He already occupied one of the highest positions under the elders in the academy.
With a monthly salary of 50 merit points, he had a yearly salary of 600 merit points. Including the additional benefits, he could earn around 800 to 900 merit points per year. That would be his total income over 10 years without any additional income.
Su Yu had spent only an hour to earn that much. It was also the same before this. Through a single fight, he had earned tens of thousands of merit points.
"Why do I feel like the multiple character faction no longer lacks money after the kid is here?"
Chen Yong was starting to doubt the world. Was earning money really so easy? Why had his teacher been so troubled by only a few thousand merit points that he had to earn money by hunting beasts at the Allheaven Battlefield previously? While he was thinking, a furious shout rang out.
"Silence!"
"The challenges end here."
Several individuals appeared in the sky.
With a frown, Zhou Mingren looked down at Su Yu and Chen Yong. His expression was unsightly.
"Faculty Head!"
"Grandteacher!"
"Faculty Head!"
"..."
The single character factions called out in excitement, as though their savior had finally arrived.
Su Yu appeared completely calm. He looked at Zhou Mingren expressionlessly. This was his first time actually seeing Zhou Mingren. During the Zheng Yuming incident, he had only seen a vague silhouette of Zhou Mingren.
This old man actually looked quite good. He was scholarly and refined. If he could stop frowning, he would basically look like an attractive middle-aged man. He had a transcendent demeanor, looking even more refined than Liu Wenyan.
So this was Zhou Mingren? So this was the person who had been targeting them? While Su Yu was studying Zhou Mingren, Zhou Mingren was also studying Su Yu. He had never taken someone below the Skysoar Realm so seriously before.
"He does look quite refined..."
That was the impression Zhou Mingren got of Su Yu.
For a moment, he even felt like he had traveled back in time to look at Liu Wenyan.
Back then, this was also how Liu Wenyan looked like. Calm, confident, elegant, and exceptional.
Silence reigned shortly before Su Yu said, "The challenges end here. In total, I have been defeated 8,120 times. As for the ones who have yet to challenge me after signing up, I'll be refunding your registration fee later."
"..."
Nobody dared to say a word. There were thousands of students present and not a sound could be heard. Thᴇ link to the origɪn of this information rᴇsts ɪn novel⚑fire.net
Su Yu calmly said, "If anyone wishes to get a proof of victory over me, I am willing to issue each of you a certificate of acknowledgement. Our referee here is the witness. I have indeed lost to all these people. They are too skillful for me to defeat."
8,120 defeats. Zhou Mingren felt like his heart was going to stop beating.
Looking at Su Yu, he slowly said, "Su Yu, I made that offer to encourage the students to work hard. How can you be so wilful and go against the very purpose of this academy..."
Su Yu calmly replied, "I don't understand what you're saying. I was injured so I decided to concede. Is that not allowed? My fellow students are too strong. I am no match so I can only surrender. Everything else is unrelated to me."
He was essentially saying that he was only in charge of conceding. As for getting the reward from Zhou Mingren, well, that was not his job. Why bother explaining to him? Sure, Zhou Mingren could totally renege on any debt toward Su Yu. Everyone knew that they were hostile toward each other.
Alas, Zhou Mingren did not owe Su Yu anything. Rather, the debtors were the other students. There were thousands of them.
At that time, someone smiled and said, "Faculty Head Zhou, I want a Myriad Text Sutra willpower text. I want a peak Mountainsea willpower text. Or else, my grandpa might end up displeased."
Zhou Mingren stared at Zheng Yunhui.
Zheng Yunhui had an innocent expression as he said, "Are you...going back on your words? Forget it. Whatever. I thought I could really get a willpower text after winning. Well, I guess climbing to the 88th place is a reward in itself."
Someone else said, "I want my willpower texts. I won three times! It wasn't easy to defeat Su Yu three times!"
Both Su Yu and Zhou Mingren looked at the new speaker. That was Wu Lan. And she was completely unbothered by the stares. She had indeed defeated Su Yu three times today. Was there a problem with that?
Zhou Mingren said nothing. His head was hurting. This was so troublesome.
He asked, "Anyone else?"
Someone spoke softly, "Faculty Head, Chen Huan and the others...were arrested for meddling in the matches of students."
The guard commander bowed and said, "Faculty Head Zhou, Chen Huan and the other researchers tried to stop the students from joining the matches. Su Yu, a participating student, filed a complaint. We acted in accordance with the rules."
Zhou Mingren did not say anything. In accordance with the rules… That alone was enough to shut his mouth. Why? Because there were rules to follow in the academy. And there were also rules to follow in Great Xia. If he decided to ignore the rules today, then someone else could also ignore the rules when dealing with him tomorrow.
Fools!
He could only curse inwardly. Even he himself didn't know who that curse was directed at.
Someone else stepped forth and smiled, "It's only about 8,000 willpower texts. Faculty Head Zhou, if you write one per day, you will only need around 20 years to finish writing them all. That's nothing. Everyone will be grateful toward you."
Wu Yuehua had arrived. She was smiling very happily.
When Su Yu looked at her, he was slightly stunned. This old woman...was actually quite attractive! She only looked like she was around 30 years old. She had a valiant and heroic demeanor, and when she smiled, she looked very good.
Of course, he was mostly viewing her in such a positive light because she was here to sneer at Zhou Mingren. Su Yu was very happy that someone was finally speaking for him.
"Grandaunt, I won three willpower texts!"
When Su Yu heard that voice, he finally knew who the newcomer was. Wu Lan was happily showing off to her grandaunt that she had won three willpower texts.
"Hahaha! Well done!"
Wu Yuehua praised. Three willpower texts? That was nothing. Get fucked, Zhou Mingren. He wanted to dig up someone's grave? Well, they would bury him in a grave first! He now owed all these students over 8,000 willpower texts. Even if he was going to renege on the debt, she was still going to ensure that he would suffer.
Thousands of students watched silently as the clash of words commenced.
Inwardly, all of them were filled with expectation. Come on! Please honor the debt! They could even accept Zhou Mingren only rewarding some of them. That way, some of them could still wait and hope to get lucky.
Thousands of students were watching. Even someone as experienced and knowledgeable as Zhou Mingren was finding it hard to stay calm. Should he give all these people the willpower texts they wanted?
Nonsense! There were thousands of them. How was he supposed to get his hands on so many willpower texts? Was he supposed to spend decades writing willpower texts for them?
An old woman walked out and berated, "Stop messing around. These naughty children...how can cultivation methods be easily taught? Disperse, disperse..."
Chen Yong said, "Naughty children? Elder Yu Hong, there are thousands of students here. And the juniors of the various families are here. Do you want to embarrass our academy in front of the entire Human Realm? We have already embarrassed ourselves enough in Great Xia. Are we supposed to spread our disgrace all over the Human Realm or even the Myriad Realms as well? The Foreign Students Faculty is definitely already aware of this. They only need to go out and start talking about...the character of our elders and vice principals."
The old woman said, "Chen Yong, you are aware that this is only an internal matter within the academy. There is no need to escalate the matter."
Chen Yong said, "Whatever. It really has nothing to do with us. It's not like we stand to gain anything from you. Elders, you naturally have the final say here."
The elders said nothing. The reward they had offered for the defeat of Su Yu had been turned into a joke.
They were feeling very helpless. Previously when Zhou Mingren offered the reward, they didn't feel like anything was wrong. Why had things...developed in this direction?