Chapter 10 - 10

Chapter 372: I, Su Yu, Am Not A Sore Loser (1)

Restore scroll position

Chapter 372: I, Su Yu, Am Not A Sore Loser (1)

Should they go? All the single character factions were asking themselves the same question.

Hesitation.

Who was the first single character faction member ranked above Su Yu? Suddenly, many odd gazes landed on a certain person.

Xia Chan.

Ranked 90.

Recently, the ranking had been changing. Wan Mingze climbed to the 86th rank, Hu Qiusheng climbed to the 88th rank and Zheng Yunhui had not been advancing. But due to the changes of those ranked above him, he had dropped to the 89th rank. That was followed by Xia Chan. Zhang Hao was still in the 96th rank.

As for Lin Qing, she was in the 99th rank. She was in an awkward position where she couldn't climb the ranking yet wouldn't completely drop out of it. Xia Chan was Zhou Mingren's newly accepted student. One could say that she was his final student.

As for why Xia Chan had agreed to become his student, nobody knew the reason. Nobody knew what Marquis Xia was thinking. Marquis Xia was making things difficult for Zhou Mingren while sending his granddaughter over to become Zhou Mingren's student. And Zhou Mingren had actually accepted her. Nobody knew if this was merely an exchange of benefits.

In the ring, Su Yu couldn't even stand properly anymore. His severed arm had been forcefully reconnected. But full recovery would probably take some time. One could say that Su Yu's physical strength had dropped to the weakest level. Could Xia Chan defeat him?

In the crowd, Xia Chan was looking at Su Yu. She did not appear angry. She only looked somewhat dispirited. The gap between her and Su Yu had not been reduced with the passage of time. Instead, the gap had only increased. With great difficulty, she had reached the 90th rank only to find that it was becoming harder and harder to keep up with Su Yu.

"I concede."

Xia Chan declared calmly. Some people were relieved to hear that while some were indignant. But nobody dared to say anything. It was already clear that Xia Chan wasn't Su Yu's match. The crowd didn't even know if they should call her a coward for conceding.

"Next." Su Yu was completely indifferent as he said, "You can keep conceding until only Di Feng stands before me."

Nobody answered. Some of them felt extremely indignant. Conceding? Facing him? If the single character faction really allowed Su Yu to ascend the Top 100 Ranking so easily, then they would lose even more prestige.

That was the Top 100 Ranking! The strongest ranking in the academy!

One of the biggest pride of the single character faction was the fact that they had a lot of students in the ranking. Fifteen of the students in the ranking were actually from the single character faction.

How many factions were there in the academy? How many faculties were there in the academy? Their faction had 15 members in that ranking. And that was after Huang Qifeng's defeat. There were also people like Yang Sha, Chen Qi, and many other students with the potential to enter the ranking at any time. The students who Su Yu had defeated easily earlier were among these students.

"So are you fighting or are you conceding?" Su Yu said, "If you're not fighting, make it clear. Also, my senior sister will be entering the ranking as well. You guys are free to challenge her. But each time you challenge her, I'll drop out of the ranking before climbing from the very bottom again."

His tone was calm despite the overbearing words he had just uttered. He was basically declaring that a spot had been reserved for his senior sister in the ranking. If anyone dared to kick her out, he would drop out before slaughtering his way up again. Thus, without first defeating Su Yu, it would be pointless to target Wu Jia.

...

"How do we deal with this?"

"This is too hard for us to handle. Is the faculty head still here?"

"Nope. He left."

"How about the elders?"

"All gone as well."

"Find Zhou Pingsheng. Get him to handle this matter."

With that decision, some of them rushed off to notify Zhou Pingsheng. Lately, Zhou Pingsheng had been busy working on the ability blood essence project. It had been a while since he had isolated himself for his research. At this moment, they had no choice but to look for Zhou Pingsheng.

Zhou Mingren was away. Of his four students, Hu Wensheng was in seclusion, Zheng Yuming had been crippled, while Xia Chan was merely a student in name. The only person who could make a decision in Zhou Mingren's absence was Zhou Pingsheng.

Su Yu was in no rush. He waited patiently. He alone stood in the ring, suppressing all the single character faction students.

...

About eight minutes later, Zhou Pingsheng rushed over. He had already been updated on the matter while he was on his way. The moment he arrived, he glared at Su Yu coldly. Was the data taken out by this little bastard fake or real?

"Di Feng!"

"Teacher!" Di Feng hurriedly answered. He was the direct student of Zhou Pingsheng. Apart from him Zhou Pingsheng had another student. That student was Qiu Yi, ranked 24th in the top 100.

"Qiu Yi."

"Teacher!"

The two rushed over and greeted their teacher.

"Where is Guo Shengquan?"

Zhou Pingsheng looked around. That person was nowhere to be seen. Guo Shengquan was Hu Wensheng's first student, Chen Qi's senior brother, and one of the stronger single character faction students. This Guo Shengquan was ranked 35th in the top 100.

Di Feng softly said, "Junior Brother Guo is not here. He has been focused only on his cultivation. He spends all his time in grottos and his cultivation. At times, he would leave the academy. It has been a while since we last saw him."

"Hmph!"

Zhou Pingsheng was slightly unhappy. How dare Guo Shengquan stay away from a matter so big. There had been rumors that Guo Shengquan had joined the so-called neutral faction. That might really be true.

Looking at his students before looking at Su Yu, he transmitted his voice to them, "We can't run from this fight. We must fight. And we must win. Cripple Su Yu. Qiu Yi, you'll go first. Su Yu has not used much of his willpower yet. Aim to drain his willpower. You don't need to fight to win. Just drain him before conceding. Di Feng, your goal is to cripple him. Even if you can't kill him, you need to send him to his bed for a few months like your Junior Brother Huang. Injure him so much that he will have to stop cultivating for months."

Qiu Yi had a look of hesitation. She was somewhat worried. She was afraid of suffering the same fate as the other students. That Zhou Hao was really very strong. She felt like if she had to fight Zhou Hao, she might be the one to be defeated.

Zhou Hao was only a ninth-stage Great Strength cultivator. But with 144 acupoints, he was probably no weaker than those fifth or sixth-stage Infinite Strength cultivators. More importantly, Zhou Hao's killing intent was too strong. He was absolutely crazy in battle. Even if someone who was slightly stronger than him had to face him in battle, that person would not be confident of victory. Yet someone like Zhou Hao had nearly been beaten to death by Su Yu.

Noticing the worry in his student's eyes, Zhou Pingsheng was slightly furious. But after thinking about it, he decided to not blame her. He said, "Elder Sun, Li and Yu have students in the ranking as well. All below top 50 are to concede. Those above the top 50 will accept the challenge with one goal: tire him out. This might be embarrassing, but everything will be fine as long as we can cripple Su Yu."

Zhou Pingsheng had already reached a decision. Even if doing this was not going to bring them any glory, even if it was going to embarrass themselves, he couldn't allow Su Yu to leave unharmed.

If they allowed Su Yu to leave unharmed after provoking them like this, the morale of the single character faction would drop even further. Since they couldn't even deal with a single student, what could they even deal with? Who could they even compete against?

Those below the top 50 wouldn't be able to do anything. They would basically be free food for Su Yu. But those in the top 50 would be able to drain him a little even if they couldn't defeat him. They would not give him the chance to recuperate. They would keep draining his willpower.

...

In the ring.

Su Yu noticed Zhou Pingsheng and the little meeting they were having. He said nothing and continued waiting. Since he had decided to step on them today, he was going to see it through.

Before long, a single character faction student said, "I concede."

That was the student ranked 84th.

"I concede."

That was the student ranked 73rd.

"I concede."

"..."

A string of students conceded. At the same time, more and more students arrived to witness this shocking scene. One student had forced the students of an entire faction to concede. And all those students were top 100 students. This was a truly astonishing sight to behold.

It wasn't that Su Yu was unequaled. But the students ranked above him had all slowly climbed to their current positions while he was someone who had once reached rank 38. Thus, the students below top 50 were basically not his match.

There had never been a need for the students of the other factions to do something similar. Although the two character factions had been clashing against each other relentlessly, the other factions had generally maintained a peaceful relationship with each other.

Su Yu was able to reach the 61st rank without any challenge. But at that moment, his advance stopped. The single character faction did not have any students between the 50th and 60th ranks. Chapters fırst released on novel✶fire.net

Thus, they weren't able to continue with their plan of baiting Su Yu to the top 50 before draining him of energy. Was the matter going to end here?

Clearly, Su Yu did not intend to challenge anyone apart from the single character faction students. He stood there silently. Meanwhile, the expression of Zhou Pingsheng changed repeatedly.

Looking at Su Yu, he finally shouted, "Su Yu, aren't you challenging Di Feng? Why have you stopped?"

Su Yu was unperturbed. "I'm waiting."

"What are you waiting for?" Zhou Pingsheng frowned.

Su Yu said, "I'm waiting for Xia Yuwen to pay his 10 merit points. I don't have the money to pay the challenge fee. It doesn't matter if I challenge your people without paying. But when it comes to the other seniors, I have to pay up first."

"You!" Zhou Pingsheng was infuriated.

Su Yu said, "How about you urge Teacher Xia to pay the debt for me? Otherwise, today's challenge will stop here. We'll continue tomorrow."

Tomorrow? Zhou Pingsheng was furious. Su Yu was intentionally doing this! Even the students could see that Su Yu was simply trying to further annoy Xia Yuwen and the single character faction.

Chapter 373: I, Su Yu, Am Not A Sore Loser (2)

Su Yu said, "Teacher Xia kept harping on rules, discipline, and military law. Does someone like that not know that you need to pay up when a debt is incurred? Is someone who would renege on his debt even worthy of being a teacher? Is someone like that qualified to berate me for not respecting my teachers and elders? His student has just arrived at the academy so he definitely can't afford the challenge fee. As the teacher, shouldn't he be the one paying?

"If we're going to talk about rules, then the rules need to be applied to everyone. Otherwise, someone like him won't be qualified to punish me and my teacher and deprive us of our merit points. Ah, I see. Is it because this is Great Xia?"

Su Yu's voice suddenly increased in volume.

"This is Great Xia, so no rules matter for him? This is Great Xia, so the members of the Xia Family can do as they wish? But Great Xia King and Prefect Xia have always followed the rules. Even when Marquis Xia does business, he follows the rules. But Xia Yuwen is the exception? He alone can act like a tyrant?"

"..."

For the sake of 10 merit points, Su Yu was basically saying that Xia Yuwen was not even qualified to be called a human.

The furious Zhou Pingsheng said, "I'll pay."

"You? Manager Zhou, are you Xia Yuwen's father? Or are you his son?"

"Bastard!" Zhou Pingsheng raged.

Su Yu indifferently continued, "If not, are you his teacher? On what basis are you paying for him? If you insist on giving me money, I'll take it as a gift. Since Manager Zhou is so generous, I will gladly accept your gift."

Fury.

Anger.

This Su Yu was not only strong in combat, but he was also incredible in a war of words. Was he not going to stop before Xia Yuwen personally came over and pay him the merit points? Right that moment, a jade case flew over. With a bang, it landed in the ring.

"For you." Xia Yuwen's calm voice rang out from faraway, "Ten drops of source qi liquid. Is this enough?"

The jade case had actually been embedded into the floor. Su Yu's pupils shrank. Even when he and Zhou Hao rampaged all over the ring, they had only managed to leave some shallow dents on the floor. But this jade case thrown over from faraway by Xia Yuwen had actually been embedded into the floor.

Very strong.

Su Yu smiled, "Of course it's enough. But according to the academy rules, apart from the students in an active match, anyone else will be subjected to a fine of 100 merit points for damaging the ring. I think that's a rule we have. Teacher Xia, I'm afraid I'll have to trouble you to pay more."

He then looked at Liu Hong and smiled, "Teacher Liu, as a referee, don't you know the rules? Are you sure you're qualified to be a referee? The academy rules are starting to look more and more unimportant. And that's the fault of those who either don't care about or don't know the rules."

Liu Hong laughed and said, "My apologies. This is my first time being a referee. I am still somewhat clueless. In that case, Brother Xia, please pay 100 merit points. Don't break the rules or I'll get in trouble as well."

"..."

Everyone was starting to feel awkward on behalf of Xia Yuwen. It was clear that the jade case had been embedded into the floor to shame and scare Su Yu. But Xia Yuwen had instead placed himself in an awkward position.

He was fined 100 merit points for damaging the ring. Students wouldn't be fined for damaging the ring during a match. And in truth, it was extremely hard for students to actually damage the ring. Thus, it had been many years since someone was last fined for this reason.

Did Su Yu not need to cultivate? Why did it seem like he spent all his time studying the academy rules instead of cultivating? No reply came from Xia Yuwen. Nobody knew if he was so furious he couldn't speak or he simply didn't know what to say.

A short while later, another jade case flew over. This jade case was much calmer than the previous jade case.

Xia Yuwen made no sound. Liu Hong smiled and caught the incoming jade case before saying, "That concludes the matter. Su Yu, are you continuing your challenge?"

Su Yu smiled, bent over, and punched through the jade case embedded in the floor to reveal the 10 drops of source qi liquid inside.

After nonchalantly swallowing a drop of the source qi liquid, he smiled, "Of course." ᴜᴘᴅᴀᴛᴇ ꜰʀᴏᴍ novel{f}ire.net

He then looked at the crystal stele near the ring before looking at the crowd.

He said, "The seniors ranked above me, can one of you do me a favor? I do not wish to fight any students not from the single character faction. I hope you can give me the chance to witness the strength of the single character faction experts."

A youth from the crowd smiled and said, "I'll do it. I'm right above you at rank 60. My position is just enough to challenge the top 50 students. I am not your match. Perhaps I would try to exchange some pointers with you if this is any other day, but there is no need to do so today. I concede."

"You have my gratitude, Senior Brother Jiang."

Su Yu was very polite. He gave the student a slight bow and smiled, "After I wipe the floor with the single character factions ahead of me, you will probably find yourself in a higher rank. Don't you worry about your rank, Senior Brother. I'll be sure to cripple at least one of them."

"..."

Near the ring, the student surnamed Jiang did not know whether to laugh or cry. He definitely couldn't say anything to that. He would probably incur the wrath of the single character faction if he said anything.

Conceding to Su Yu wouldn't offend the single character faction since he was allowing the challenge to continue. But if he chimed in while Su Yu was talking shit about the single character faction, there was no guarantee that the single character faction wouldn't be offended.

"Next."

Su Yu said nothing else and continued his challenge. A long-haired youth inhaled deeply and leaped into the ring with a solemn look in his eyes.

"Su Yu, I"

"You don't need to introduce yourself. I'm not interested. Referee, we can start."

"You!"

The youth was furious. Liu Hong cleared his throat and said, "Sure. Let's continue. You are allowed to concede if you want. Begin."

Right after that, the long-haired youth crushed a jade talisman.

Whoosh!

A shield materialized. After using his willpower to activate the shield, the student retreated instead of approaching Su Yu. Meanwhile, Su Yu merely watched on silently without doing anything.

Silence descended.

Su Yu was not moving. His opponent was also not moving after activating his defensive talisman. But there was a time limit to the defensive talisman's activation.

Thus, Su Yu's opponent was placed in an awkward position. He wanted to attack Su Yu with his cultural weapon, but the moment he summoned his cultural weapon, he would expose himself to Su Yu's Soul Devouring Art.

But if he didn't use his cultural weapon, his only choice would be fighting with his physical body. He clenched his teeth. He couldn't wait until his talisman expired or it would be a complete waste. And there were so many people watching.

He rushed Su Yu, preparing to fight in melee range. He did not dare to use his cultural weapon and willpower due to his fear toward the Soul Devouring Art.

Su Yu remained still. He stared at his opponent silently, to the point his opponent was feeling a chill up his spine. But at this point, there was nothing Su Yu's opponent could do apart from proceeding with his attack.

Su Yus opponent clenched his teeth and continued his charge. He had a cultivation of fourth-stage Infinite Strength Realm. He was definitely not weak.

When he arrived near Su Yu, he saw that Su Yu was still not doing anything. Steeling himself, he threw a punch to Su Yu's right arm. He had seen with his own eyes that Su Yu's right arm had been broken earlier. That was a weak point he could manipulate. But right after he threw the punch, alarm bells rang in his heart.

A regretful sigh rang out in his ears.

"Idiot."

Boom!

Behind him, Su Yu had utilized the third move of the Skybreak Technique, the Source Break move to crush one of his acupoints. The acupoint exploded and his source qi started leaking. The long-haired youth coughed a mouthful of blood before collapsing with heavy injuries.

Su Yu shook his head and said, "As a cultural researcher, you're fighting without using his willpower. Doing so, you won't even be able to see through my illusions. Which idiot gave you this idea?"

That was too idiotic. Talisman? Not using his willpower? And open himself wide to illusions? Su Yu couldn't understand the logic behind the youth's decision.

Near the ring, many faces turned red in embarrassment. They had completely forgotten about this.

Holy shit!

Due to the excessive strength of Su Yu's physical cultivation, many had forgotten that he was also a cultural researcher with second-tier characters. He was capable of generating second-tier illusions.

The long-haired youth had forgotten about that and was too busy worrying about the Soul Devouring Art. Thus, he had decided to not use his willpower. As a result, an illusion was used on him instead.

That was an illusion that was already hard to break out of even with willpower. Yet this fellow had decided to not use willpower. The end result was clear for all to see. He had suffered miserably for his choice.

One of his acupoints had been destroyed. He could repair the acupoint, but repairing a damaged acupoint was harder than opening a new acupoint. He would probably spend a month or two in recuperation.

After destroying his opponent's acupoint, Su Yu gave his opponent a heavy kick without giving his opponent the chance to say anything. With a rumble, his opponent landed outside the ring.

"Is this the intelligence level of a top 50 student from the single character faction?"

Su Yu frowned doubtfully before shaking his head. He had a look of regret on his face. With the look on his face, it was as though he was asking Zhou Pingsheng if these students were even qualified to be cultural researchers with that level of intelligence.

"Damn it!"

Zhou Pingsheng and a few others frowned. This was getting very troublesome. If they utilized willpower, they would have to watch out for the burning and corrosive effect. If they didn't use their willpower, he could easily influence them with his illusions. The only solution was to have a strong enough source qi to break through illusions like Zhou Hao. But not even the source qi of regular fifth-stage Infinite Strength cultivators was that powerful.

"Next." Su Yu sighed and said, "Can you guys surprise me or something?"

A girl frowned and looked at Zhou Pingsheng. Zhou Pingsheng transmitted his voice to the girl, "Drain his energy. No matter how strong the Soul Devouring Art is, it is only a cultivation method with 36 acupoints. Its actual offensive power is at the Great Strength level."

The girl was rendered speechless. She knew that as well. What was the point of telling her that? The issue was the extreme pain that the Soul Devouring Art could cause. Just look at Zhu Hong and the others. Only one attack was enough to cause them to wail in pain. That art was not easy to deal with.

She was unwilling, but she had no choice but to fight. She wasn't from Zhou Mingren's line. Rather, she was from Elder Yu Hong's line. With the absence of Elder Yu, Zhou Pingsheng was the person in charge. What else could she do? She leaped into the ring.

Chapter 374: I, Su Yu, Am Not A Sore Loser (3)

When Su Yu saw that it was a girl, he laughed, "I don't like to bully girls. We might be opponents, I still have some respect for myself. Senior Sister, please concede. If not, I'll consider you an enemy. And genders do not matter when it comes to dealing with enemies."

The girl frowned, "Junior Brother Su, are you looking down on women?"

"Not really." Su Yu said, "Don't bother trying to trap me with words. I respect a lot of female experts. For example, Teacher Wu Qi who once killed a devil expert. I have always believed that only someone like her is worthy of being called a cultivator. I will stand my ground even in front of my teacher. Only someone with the courage to enter the Allheaven Battlefield alone to slaughter the enemies of humanity is worthy of my respect. Gender does not matter. As for you...since you're unwilling to concede, let us begin."

Su Yu was very polite when he was speaking, but the moment Liu Hong announced the start of the match, he moved without waiting.

A saber appeared noiselessly and swung down. The saber emanated an overbearing saber qi, a cold killing intent, with lightning currents cackling alongside its surface. At the same time, illusions appeared alongside a clump of black flame.

The girl cursed inwardly. Wasn't he supposed to not enjoy fighting girls? Why was he even more ferocious than before? She activated her willpower and characters.

A frosty power covered the ring. Even the temperature near the ring started dropping. The saber was slowed down by the chilly aura. But immediately after, the burning power latched onto the girl's willpower.

Her face paled. That was too painful. To the point she wanted to give up immediately.

Damn it!

Unless one was already at the Skysoar Realm, it would be extremely difficult to resist this power.

Nearby, Liu Hong was curling his lips. This black flame was really very painful. This would be troublesome. If this cultivation method was spread, the cultural researchers would...well, it wouldn't be too bad since this was only an art with 36 acupoints.

At the Skysoar Realm, this art would no longer be as threatening. But if the user of the art was also a Skysoar, this art would still be effective to a certain degree. At the very least, it would grant a warrior one extra trump card against cultural researchers.

While Liu Hong was thinking, a small hammer flew out noiselessly. It was concealed by the deceit character. The girl was still resisting the black flame with her frosty cultural weapon when her sea of willpower trembled.

Boom!

A loud rumble rang out in her mind. Her vision blurred as her cultural weapon faded away. A saber flew over and shot through her chest, nailing her to the ground outside the ring.

Liu Hong looked at Su Yu with an odd gaze. Didn't he claim that he didn't like to fight girls? Was the kid not aware that what he just did was even worse than crippling the girl? Countless people were staring at Su Yu.

Su Yu was somewhat confused. He explained, "I already held back. She might be my opponent, but she is still a girl. I had not harmed her willpower seriously..."

He was confused. Why were they looking at him like that? He had really held back! He couldn't really fight freely against a girl because he himself had just used his senior sister to act pity earlier. He was worried that the single character faction would pull the same trick against him. But why was everyone still looking at him like that?

The next person up against him was Qiu Yi. Qiu Yi's expression changed as she looked at her teacher with panic and refusal in her eyes.

No!

She refused to fight!

This Su Yu was a pervert!

He had actually stabbed through the girl's chest! To make things worse, he had not stabbed the center of the chest. Instead, he had stabbed somewhere to the side, right through the breast. She...didn't want to be subjected to the same fate!

The girl who was still on the ground had a look of despair. Su Yu had already withdrawn his weapon. With a pale face, the girl glanced at her blood-soaked breast and roared, "Su Yu! Our enmity won't end until one of us is dead!"

"..."

Su Yu frowned. Still clueless, he said, "If this is what you wish for, so be it. I already held back. Do not do something you will regret, Senior Sister."

"You...damn you!"

The girl stumbled back up and ran off with grief and indignation on her face.

...

Outside the ring.

Xia Chan and the other girls had odd looks as they looked at Su Yu. Soon, one of them whispered, "Is Su pletely clueless about girls?"

"Has he never gotten to know girls before?"

"..."

As they chatted, they soon found that Liu Yue was Su Yu's schoolmate from secondary school. Thus, they started asking her about him.

Liu Yue himself was also blanking out. With an uncertain tone, she said, "When he was in secondary school, he rarely got involved with girls. His best friend is a guy and he mostly interacted with the guys of the school. He spent most of his time at school, at home, and at the library. He would spend an entire day reading. Even when we encountered him in the library, we would only nod at each other." Nᴇw novel chapters are publɪshed on novel[f]ire.net

Everyone blanked out slightly upon hearing that.

Liu Yue suddenly remembered something and softly said, "His...mother passed away when he was young."

The moment those words were uttered, overwhelming maternal love emanated from the girls around the ring.

"I see."

"What a pure little brother. He hasn't even gotten involved in any girl before."

"So pitiful. He lost his mother at a young age."

"No wonder he doesn't understand that stabbing through the breast of a girl is worse than severing the girl's hand."

"..."

The girls started pitying Su Yu. Previously, they were still slightly furious as they thought that he was being too nasty. But when they learned that he had never gotten involved with girls and was basically a pure boy, their anger dissipated. A pure boy like this was very rare nowadays!

...

Faced with the odd gazes, Su Yu frowned and decided that he couldn't be bothered to care anymore. He had really held back. Unlike Chen Hao, he knew how fearful public opinion could be. It wouldn't be good for his image to be too cruel against girls.

And not even Qiu Yi was his main target here. His main target was Di Feng. When it was a fight between guys, nobody would pity the loser even if the loser was killed. But if it was a fight between a guy and a girl, it wouldn't be proper to be too heavy-handed.

He couldn't understand what all those people were muttering about. The way they looked at him made him feel very uncomfortable.

"Next." Su Yu hollered.

Qiu Yi had a look of refusal on her face. Chen Qi's senior brother was supposed to fight next. The previous girl was ranked 40, But since Chen Qi's senior brother, Guo Shengquan wasn't around, it would be her turn to fight next. But she really didn't want to get in a ring with Su Yu.

Zhou Pingsheng looked furious. They had not achieved their goal of exhausting Su Yu even though Su Yu had used his willpower in the previous fights. As someone occupying the 24th rank, Qiu Yi was actually quite strong.

"Qiu Yi, go."

Zhou Pingsheng ordered with voice transmission. Why was she so afraid? After some hesitation, she clenched her teeth and jumped into the ring.

Su Yu exhaled and looked at Qiu Yi. In truth, she was his initial target for the day. Zhou Hao had caused serious injuries to his body so he would probably need to work harder to defeat Qiu Yi.

She was very strong. With her physical body at the fifth-stage Infinite Strength Realm and her willpower at the peak of the Mental Tempering Stage, she was as strong as a regular seventh-stage Infinite Strength cultivator. If she fought with all her strength, Su Yu might not be her match in his current condition.

But for some reason, Qiu Yi seemed really hesitant even after the match started. She looked like she didn't want to be there. And Su Yu also noticed that as they fought. A thought rose in his mind. Was this a spy of the multiple character faction?

The fight continued. After less than three minutes, when Su Yu burned her willpower for the second time, Qiu Yi wailed and fell off the ring.

"..."

She had faked her defeat. But why? Su Yu was confused. Was she really a spy? He was certain that Qiu Yi had not utilized her full strength. In truth, many other people had odd looks in their eyes. Qiu Yi had clearly not shown her full strength. She seemed unwilling to fight.

Even Zhou Pingsheng saw that. He looked at her furiously but she only lowered her head silently. She wasn't really afraid that Su Yu would hurt her too much, but there was no need for her to risk herself. After all, there was still a senior brother waiting above her.

Her main goal was to exhaust Su Yu, and she had indeed wasted some of Su Yu's willpower. Was she supposed to fight Su Yu to the end like the senior sister earlier? Or should she fight until she was reduced into Zhou Hao's state?

At this point, Zhou Pingsheng could no longer be bothered to say anything. He looked at Di Feng. Di Feng exhaled deeply.

Su Yu had finally climbed to the 24th rank. Di Feng previously occupied the 9th rank. But not anymore. Previously, he had dropped in ranks in order to deal with Su Yu. He had only managed to climb back up to the 12th rank recently.

There was no need for Su Yu to say anything. Di Feng leaped into the ring by himself. With a cold look in his eyes, he smiled, "Su Yu, I hope you can really leave this ring on your own two feet today."

The surrounding students were watching nervously. They were fully focused on the two.

It was Di Feng's turn!

After defeating Di Feng, Su Yu would have swept through all the single character faction members in the top 100. But would he be Di Feng's match in his current match?

Di Feng, a seventh-stage Infinite Strength and peak Mental Tempering Stage cultivator. It was also rumored that he possessed a second-tier character. Nobody knew if he had one for sure, but there was no denying that he had the combat strength of a peak Infinite Strength cultivator. He once fought a Skysoar and was defeated, but he had managed to actually put up a fight.

Even with the Soul Devouring Art, Su Yu was probably as strong as a seventh-stage Infinite Strength cultivator. His combat strength had definitely not reached the level of a ninth-stage Infinite Strength cultivator.

With his injuries, was he Di Feng's match? While Di Feng was eagerly waiting for the match to start, Su Yu suddenly jumped off the ring.

"..."

Everyone blanked out when they saw that.

Di Feng bellowed, "Su Yu, what are you doing?"

"I'm stopping here today." While walking away, Su Yu said, "I'm satisfied with my progress today. I'll continue two days later. For now, I need to go back and heal my wounds."

"Bastard! Damn you! Scoundrel!" Di Feng roared furiously.

Holy shit! In order to give him the chance to fight, the students of his faction had either conceded or forced themselves to face Su Yu. But when his turn finally arrived, Su Yu decided to stop?

He actually stopped! Didn't Su Yu claim that he was going to challenge him today? Bastard!

Di Feng roared furiously as his source qi and blood force shot into the sky. Su Yu was actually stopping here! Hearing that felt even more uncomfortable than actually being defeated.

"Su Yu! You piece of trash! Didn't you claim that you will slaughter your way through the single character faction?"

Di Feng roared.

Zhou Pingsheng also appeared exasperated. He bellowed, "Su Yu, are you conceding?"

Su Yu asked in astonishment, "I'm ranked 24th. How is this me conceding? Manager Zhou, are you bad at math? I'm conceding because I am not challenging the people above me? It's not like someone below me is challenging me. How odd. Do you call this conceding? I climbed all the way to the 24th rank without a single defeat. When did I concede?"

"You!"

Zhou Pingsheng was further infuriated. Damn this bastard! He was clearly playing with them! He had never intended to fight Di Feng today!

"Manager Zhou, it is against the rules for a teacher to interfere in matches between students. Someone as knowledgeable as you should not deliberately ignore the rules."

Su Yu appeared completely calm even while uttering words that could probably be used to anger someone to death. What nonsense. He was no fool. He wasn't even sure if he was Di Feng's match in his peak condition. Why should he fight when he was already injured?

If he really sustained injuries that required several months of recuperation, it wouldn't be worth it even if he could ultimately win.

Su Yu smiled, "I'll be taking a break for three days. If anyone wishes to challenge me, go ahead. I will concede. Feel free to kick me out of the ranking. I can always climb it from the bottom. I hope the single character faction can help me protect my rank. Otherwise, I will climb the rank from the bottom through you guys again."

"Bastard!"

Zhou Pingsheng was bursting with anger. Damn this scoundrel! He was actually telling the single character faction to protect his rank. Damn him!

Su Yu smiled, "I hope the single character faction can kick anyone thinking of challenging me out of the ranking. Otherwise, I will simply concede until I'm ready to fight again. As someone who had lost over 8,000 matches, I don't really care about defeat. I will be visiting this place frequently until only Di Feng is left above me."

"..."

Silence enveloped the area.

Even the unrelated students and researchers had odd expressions on their faces. In that case, the single character faction might really need to protect Su Yu's rank. Otherwise, Su Yu would pester them to no end.

He would visit this place every few days, targeting only the single character faction members. And they would need to either surrender or simply not accept the challenge. The moment they fought, they would be tortured by him.

In the ring, Di Feng was bursting with anger.

His willpower rippled out as he roared, "Su Yu, you shameless scoundrel! Aren't you challenging me? Get in the ring!"

He was really going crazy.

Su Yu turned his head to look at Di Feng again. With a smile, he said, "So what if I refuse? Are you going to jump off the ring and hit me?"

"..."

Di Feng had the urge to throw caution to the wind and jump down to kill this bastard. That smile was too annoying. That smile was basically saying that he was toying with them. He was calling them clowns. He was calling them idiots.

The endless disdain contained in that smile ultimately caused Di Feng to leap off the ring. Right that moment, Zhou Pingsheng's expression changed as he hurriedly grabbed Di Feng and threw him dozens of meters away.

After crashing onto the ground, Di Feng finally regained his clarity of mind. He looked at Su Yu again. With a smile, Su Yu said, "Anyone attacking a student outside a ring is to be treated as a member of the Myriad Race Cult. Such a person is to be executed without mercy. Martial Uncle, be sure to not be lenient the next time. Someone like this is basically a member of the Myriad Race Cult."

Nearby, Chen Yong smiled and nodded, "I'll take note."

Su Yu had a look of disdain as he gave both Zhou Pingsheng and Liu Hong a look. With a smile, he turned around.

"Di Feng, I can grow very fast. Wait for me. I'll come to toy with you again some other time."

After uttering those words, he helped Wu Jia up and left in a carefree manner.

"Ahhh!"

Di Feng roared furiously. This felt worse than an actual defeat. He couldn't accept this. He was indignant.

Su Yu had been toying with them all along! Su Yu alone had toyed with all of them!

Chapter 375: Human Acupoints (1)

Just like that, Su Yu had decided to stop his challenge. That decision had surprised many people. Most of them believed that he would fight until the very end. But when they thought about it, well, this wasn't the first time Su Yu was acting this shameless.

During his previous challenge, everyone had also believed that he would fight until the end. Instead, he had only fought a few rounds before losing over 8,000 times. He was doing something similar this time.

Yet nobody could argue that this was wrong or improper. They even agreed that this was what he should have done. Nothing was wrong with his decision.

Su Yu, Wu Jia, and Chen Yong left. Behind them, Di Feng roared once again.

"Su Yu, Wu Jia can dream about entering the top 100. You can concede without fear, but can Wu Jia do the same? I will guard the final position of the top 100 until next year. Wu Jia can forget about entering the ranking!"

Su Yu could concede because he did not care. Everyone knew his strength. And everyone acknowledged his talent. In truth, Wu Jia herself also didn't care too much about her rank. But she needed it. Chen Yong needed it.

Su Yu couldn't even be bothered to give a reply.

Wu Jia, who was still walking with his help, had an unsightly and sullen expression. She said, "Junior Brother..."

Su Yu smiled, "Ignore him, Senior Sister. We're just toying with him today. There is still plenty of time."

"What?"

Su Yu smiled, "Think about it, Senior Sister. If he wants to stop you, he has to drop to the 100th rank, right? You can challenge someone else. For example, the 95th rank. When he challenges you, concede. And your positions will be switched. You will be in the 100th rank. I want to see if he will drop out of the rank to challenge you. Perhaps their faction will get a few people to drop out of the ranking to challenge you..."

Su Yu beamed, "If that's the case, things will get even more interesting. Who's afraid of who? Since you're still recuperating, you can challenge the ranking whenever you find the time. Toy with them every day like you're playing with your pet."

"Concede?" Wu Jia's expression turned unnatural as she asked, "Junior Brother, is it proper for us to concede all the time?" Follow current novels on novęlfire.net

Beside them, Chen Yong chided her, "Learn more from your junior brother. Since you're clearly not a match, what's the point of fighting to the death?"

"Teacher, we can lose the fight, but we must not lose our courage!" Wu Jia was unwilling. She said, "I can accept losing to others, but I don't like losing to the bastards from the single character faction."

"In that case, focus on your recuperation and grow strong as fast as you can."

Chen Yong's face turned solemn as he said, "Su Yu, be careful. Xia Yuwen has actually returned. Since you have humiliated him, he won't let it rest. He has a flaw in his personality. He is overbearing and self-centered. He won't forget the humiliation you gave him in public."

"Overbearing and self-centered?" Su Yu asked in astonishment, "Martial Uncle, is he really so arrogant?"

"Somewhat." Chen Yong spoke without any bias, "In fact, a lot of geniuses are like that. Xia Yuwen's arrogance is built atop his unequaled combat strength among his peers. He had never suffered a single defeat in the hands of a peer all these years."

"Not even my teacher has defeated him before?"

"Your teacher has never been his actual peer." Chen Yong sighed, "When your teacher was still in the Mental Tempering Stage, Xia Yuwen was already near the Skysoar Realm. Your teacher was also a few months slower in entering the Skysoar Realm. And he had never caught up to Xia Yuwen. Now, Xia Yuwen is already a third-stage Cloudbreach while your teacher is still an eighth-stage Skysoar. The gap between them is very big."

"If they are both in the same realm, would Teacher be his match?"

Chen Yong gave it some thought and said, "That's very hard to say. Instead of the War God Art, Xia Yuwen cultivates the Sky Sundering Saber. The Sky Sundering Saber is not only a martial technique, but a cultivation method as well. A heaven-grade cultivation method. Furthermore, there are multiple versions of this cultivation method. The version Xia Yuwen cultivates is the high-tier version. It allows him to open more acupoints and gain more strength.

"And that's only the strength of his physical cultivation. As for his strength in the path of willpower, his characters are also very powerful. Thus, it is really hard to say who will win between him and your teacher."

Su Yu scratched his head, "Really? But my teacher has his Dragon Slaying Sword. That's pretty strong."

Chen Yong smiled. He wasn't really saying that Bai Feng would lose for sure. If they really fought at the same level, well, he believed that Bai Feng would probably be the one to emerge victorious.

Of course, since the two had never been in the same cultivation level, Chen Yong couldn't be bothered to give Bai Feng such praise.

Su Yu asked doubtfully, "Martial Uncle, he is now a discipline master of the Discipline Hall. Why is he still fighting for the position of the books depository's head manager?"

Su Yu knew the academy rules. He was aware that the position of a discipline master was not worse than the position of a head manager. In fact, one could even say that the discipline master was a higher position with more power in the academy. In that case, why was Xia Yuwen insisting on standing against the multiple character faction?

Chen Yong smiled, "Let's not talk about the position first. He wishes to rope in the single character faction or even gain the support of the Zhou Family. And we are the easiest target to bully due to our size. Who else would he target if not us?"

Chen Yong explained, "Of course, it is also understandable why he wants the position of the head manager. There are 42 elders in the academy. You know that. Among them, 36 are Mountainseas and 6 are veteran ninth-stage Cloudbreach cultivators. Do you know this?"

Su Yu nodded.

Chen Yong said, "Of the six veteran elders, four are guarding the Grotto District, one is the hall master of the Discipline Hall, and the other one is the head manager of the library.

"I was supposed to be appointed an elder as well since the books depository is more important than the library. But back then, there were some disputes. Coupled with my young age, I was not given that privilege."

Chen Yong sighed, "Of course, I couldn't be bothered to fight for the position either. Thus, the position reserved for the head manager of the books depository has remained vacant until now. They are fighting for the position to both kick me out of the books depository and gain the position of an elder."

Su Yu had an odd expression as he said, "Martial Uncle...you were supposed to be an elder?"

Chen Yong nodded, "Yeah. But it doesn't matter."

"Martial Uncle, I'm curious. What do you get for being an elder? How is this position attracting even someone like Xia Yuwen?"

"Elder..." Chen Yong thought about it and said, "Firstly, the status. Secondly, a voice. For example, only elders can attend the meetings at the Heart Cultivating Pavilion. And only elders can vote on decisions made during these meetings. At times, the principal does not get to decide everything. In these situations, the elders will vote to come to a decision. Thirdly, only elders are allowed to apply for some special resources. Fourthly, one gains a direct connection with the Knowledge Seeking Realm. Fifthly, it sounds cool."

"..."

Su Yu nearly tripped upon hearing the fifth reason.

"But Xia Yuwen is only a third-stage Cloudbreach. With that cultivation, he's trying to be an elder?"

Chen Yong said, "It won't take him long to reach the ninth stage. A genius like him can grow very fast. Xia Yuwen is 30 this year. Two years later, he will get a big opportunity. If he can reach the seventh-stage Cloudbreach Realm during that time, he can probably leave that place as a ninth-stage Cloudbreach.

"That much time is enough for him to reach the ninth-stage Cloudbreach Realm. But he will take a long time to reach the Mountainsea Realm."

Chen Yong explained, "In the various prefectures, the elders of the various academies enjoy the same benefits as Mountainseas. And in practice, each elder is treated as a Mountainsea. This position will be very beneficial for him in his fight for the prefect's position. Why? Because you can view him as a Mountainsea."

"Two years?" Su Yu asked, "The Luminous Domain Mansion?"

"Yes."

"Martial Uncle, is that place so magical?"

"You can say so."

"Have you been there before?"

Chen Yong smiled, "Once. Let me see...around 27 or 28 years ago."

Su Yu nodded. He had heard about that place. It would only open once every 10 years. Thus, his martial uncle's entry was the opening prior to the previous opening.

"Martial Uncle, what kind of a place is that?"

"You'll know in the future. There is no need for you to know too much right now." Chen Yong shook his head, "When you manage to get the qualification to enter, I'll tell you more. It's pointless to tempt you with the benefits of that place if you can't enter."

That made sense.

Meanwhile, Wu Jia was feeling neglected. She grumbled, "You keep talking about things like this and are completely neglecting me. I'm an injured person!"

She felt slightly aggrieved. Their topic of conversation was too high-level, to the point she was confused. Luminous Domain Mansion? That had nothing to do with people at their level!

Chen Yong laughed as he chided, "Serves you right! I told you to not cause trouble. But you insist on accepting the challenges. If it wasn't for your junior brother, you would have been beaten to death in the ring."

Wu Jia said nothing. Her teacher was clueless. Clearly, her junior brother was the one who had told her to cause trouble!

Su Yu stole a glance at Chen Yong. He suspected that his martial uncle was aware that he was the culprit. After all, he had visited them this morning. Was his martial uncle reminding him?

Su Yu had an awkward expression. That was understandable. His senior sister was still recovering yet he had instigated her to fight. Because of that, her injuries had worsened. He was indeed at fault here.

His martial uncle had only reminded him in such a roundabout manner to save some face for him. Both Chen Yong and Su Yu were aware that Wu Jia's injuries had worsened after the challenge matches.

Su Yu shut his mouth. He glanced at Wu Jia. This senior sister of his...was really simple. He told her to feign injuries in the ring. But instead, she had suffered real injuries and aggravated her previous injuries. Because of that, Su Yu was feeling rather awkward around them.

Physical wounds were nothing much, but her willpower injury seemed to have worsened as well.

He recalled something and was about to speak when Chen Yong said, "I will send some healing pills to you later. Spend the next few days recovering. Especially your broken arms. If you don't deal with them properly, your future body cultivation will be affected."

Chen Yong sternly said, "Don't be so rash in the future. Not even Mountainseas can regrow their bodies from a drop of blood. Only Sunmoons stand a chance. Don't really think that having your body damaged as a cultural researcher is not a big deal. Sure, you can always heal your damaged body, but if you do it often and don't always heal your body correctly, the hidden damage will probably prevent you from entering the Sunmoon or the Eternal Realms."

"Alright." Su Yu hurriedly answered.

Chen Yong sent him all the way to the research center and gave him a few more reminders before leaving with Wu Jia. He didn't stay long because Wu Jia needed to go back for recovery.

As for Su Yu, things weren't too bad. He only needed to send some healing pills over later. Physical injuries were much easier to heal, unlike willpower injuries that were extremely hard to heal before willpower materialization.

Chapter 376: Human Acupoints (2)

Inside the research center.

After a short rest, Su Yu went to the second floor. In the fragment room, he started healing while absorbing source qi. He felt like he needed his very own healing Divine Character as well. Or perhaps a healing cultivation manual.

His injuries were actually quite heavy. One of his arms was severed while the other was broken. The soles of his feet had also been punched through.

Zhou Hao!

That fellow was really very strong. This was the strongest Great Strength cultivator Su Yu had ever encountered. That was a pure warrior. Someone who relied fully on physical cultivation.

Warrior.

He wondered where Xia Yuwen found someone like that. Su Yu's overall combat strength was comparable to a seventh-stage Infinite Strength cultivator. Yet he was reduced to such a state in the fight. The moment Zhou Hao entered the Infinite Strength Realm, Su Yu might not be able to defeat him anymore. Were there students as strong as Zhou Hao in the war academies?

Previously, Su Yu believed that with 180 acupoints as a ninth-stage Great Strength cultivator, he was probably the strongest Great Strength cultivator in terms of physical body even when compared with those from the war academies. But after meeting Zhou Hao, he wasn't so sure about that anymore.

"Zhou Hao...if this fellow is an Infinite Strength cultivator with 16 fused acupoints, he would be even scarier." Follow current novels on novel⁂fire.net

Were there such geniuses in the war academies? Someone capable of cultivating a top-tier heaven-grade cultivation method and fusing 16 acupoints to enter the Infinite Strength Realm.

One acupoint of such a cultivator would be much stronger than the acupoint of someone who had advanced by fusing nine acupoints. As for those who had fused only seven or eight acupoints, they could be easily defeated even if they were five or six stages above the cultivator who had fused 16 acupoints.

As for the weakest type of Infinite Strength cultivators, the so-called Two Strength cultivators, a single true Infinite Strength cultivator could defeat a ninth-stage Two Strength cultivator. The number of acupoints fused had too great an effect on one's strength.

"War God Art..."

Su Yu frowned. His version of War God Art was only a basic cultivation method cultivated by the various geniuses. It allowed one to open 108 acupoints and fight with the strength of 108 acupoints. That would not grant him a stronger explosive strength than the other geniuses.

He had already opened 180 acupoints. And he could open more. Should he insist on only cultivating the War God Art? Should he get a heaven-grade cultivation method as well?

"Even the Body Strengthening Art is better than the War God Art."

The Body Strengthening Art of the mountainbreak bull race utilized more than 110 acupoints. And Su Yu had the means to learn that art. The version he knew was one that was actually suitable for human practice.

Heaven-grade cultivation methods weren't completely out of reach for him. If he could get some divine or devil blood essence, he could even get some divine or devil cultivation methods. And he would be able to alter all those cultivation methods into versions suitable for him.

"War God Art is good enough against ordinary cultivators, but the offensive strength of an earth-grade cultivation method is still weaker than what one could get from a heaven-grade cultivation method."

That was not something that could be changed just by opening more acupoints. More acupoints would only grant him more endurance, denser source qi, and stronger defense. His offensive power would still be lacking. Who were his opponents?

They were people like Xia Yuwen, a genius from the Xia Family and Zhou Mingren, a peak Mountainsea. Perhaps he might even offend some divine or devil experts in the future...

And all these people cultivated heaven-grade cultivation methods while he only cultivated an earth-grade method. With only the strength of 108 acupoints, he would already be weaker during the Great Strength Realm. At the Infinite Strength and Skysoar Realms...he might fall further behind.

Sure, he could bridge a part of the gap by opening more acupoints. But there would still be a gap.

Prior to encountering Zhou Hao, Su Yu wasn't too worried since almost everyone he knew cultivated the same thing. But now...he found that there were some exceptions. And heaven-grade cultivation methods were much stronger offensively.

If he could unleash the strength of 144 acupoints during his fight, Zhou Hao would not be able to put up much of a fight against him.

He would be stronger in terms of offense, defense, and endurance. And he would not be weaker in terms of ruthlessness, killing intent, and battle intent. The fight wouldn't have been so desperate.

He had clearly opened 180 acupoints yet he could only utilize the power of 108 acupoints. He could at most increase that by a few acupoints when using martial techniques, but his offensive strength was still far weaker than Zhou Hao's.

"The Body Strengthening Art is a low-tier heaven-grade cultivation method. If I want to cultivate one, I need to find a stronger method!"

After thinking about it, Su Yu stood up and went upstairs to the data room.

...

Inside the data room.

Ignoring his wounds, Su Yu started writing and drawing. The source qi circulation path of multiple cultivation methods were slowly being drawn out, alongside the diagram of a human body.

Body Strengthening Art, Pure Source Art, Source Swallowing Technique, War God Art, Great Strength Art...

Even the Divine Skywing Technique he had looted previously was included. He drew out the acupoints and circulation path for all the cultivation methods. And one acupoint after another was added onto the human diagram.

Su Yu knew a lot of cultivation methods. Due to the large number of willpower texts he had gathered, he also knew some garbage cultivation methods requiring acupoints that he had yet to open.

After a few hours, he finally finished illustrating all the cultivation methods he knew. A total of 285 dots of light could be seen on the human diagram.

"From all the cultivation methods I know, I have discovered 285 acupoints."

Su Yu sank into thought. Once again, he wondered the same thing. Just how many acupoints were there in a human body? Even the strongest top-tier heaven-grade cultivation method could only utilize 144 acupoints. Was that the limit?

But there were so many acupoints in the human body. If all of them could be utilized...

For example, the 285 acupoints on the human diagram. Just how strong would he be if one could utilize all of them? Would such a Great Strength cultivator be strong enough to kill Skysoars?

"Acupouint fusion...That's what you do at the Mountainsea Realm as well!" Su Yu muttered to himself, "In that case, the ultimate goal is still to fuse all acupoints into one. Making one acupoint the equal of myriad acupoints. Allowing one acupoint to unleash the strength of myriad acupoints. Ultimately, everyone will walk the path of acupoint fusion. Cultivation methods only serve to ease the process if all the acupoints one is fusing are the required acupoints of a single cultivation method."

Su Yu continued his contemplation. What would happen when there was only a single acupoint left after all the fusion? Would that allow one to unleash the strength of all the acupoints without a corresponding cultivation method?

Su Yu was not qualified enough to actually create a new cultivation method. He might know a lot of cultivation methods, but his knowledge was still lacking in a lot of topics. Of course, compared to his peers, those in the Infinite Strength Realm, or even those in the Skysoar Realm, he probably knew a lot more cultivation methods than them.

After a while, Su Yu walked out of the room. Shortly after, he returned and unleashed his saber qi to destroy everything he had drawn out. This could not be leaked or it would attract even more troubles his way.

After destroying his drawing, Su Yu even struck the broken pieces until not even a speck of dust remained. Only then did he leave the room again.

...

Prison zone.

Su Yu was here again. He was not here to feed them. He had just fed them not long ago. The creatures stared at him anxiously. In truth, it had been three days since he last fed them. And he was supposed to feed them once every three days. Alas, Su Yu did not intend to feed them today.

In the beginning, the creatures were somewhat expectant. But they were quickly disappointed. They noticed that Su Yu had suffered some injuries. The injuries were quite heavy. Even both his arms had suffered damage. They wondered about the origin of these wounds.

Su Yu wasted no time. He looked at the water elemental and said, "Water guy, you're the strongest here. I have a few questions. Do the Mountainsea warriors of the myriad races focus on acupoint fusion as well?"

The water elemental took a humanoid form and softly answered, "You can say so. In cultivation, there are numerous paths. But all paths will ultimately lead to the same destination. Regardless if you're a human or a different race, you will ultimately end up walking a similar path."

"Has anyone managed to fuse all their acupoints into one after opening hundreds of acupoints at the Great Strength or the Infinite Strength Realm?"

The water elemental laughed. This was the first time ever Su Yu had seen him laugh. The water elemental asked, "If that person has successfully fused their acupoints into one, why would that person still be in the Great Strength or the Infinite Strength Realm?"

"..."

That question stunned Su Yu for a long time. After a while, he said, "But there are still the Skysoar and Cloudbreach Realms above them before the Mountainsea Realm..."

The water elemental smiled, "At the Skysoar Realm, you temper your bones, renew your blood, and cleanse your marrows. At the Cloudbreach Realm, you transform your source qi. But all that is done for the sake of strengthening your body and source qi, allowing you to withstand the power of the Mountainsea Realm.

"But since you are able to fuse all acupoints into one, that can only mean that your body and source qi are already strong enough. The Skysoar and Cloudbreach Realms are nothing but a process. They are merely names. The process is unimportant. The end result is."

At this time, the suanni suddenly chimed in, "In terms of physical cultivation, I am qualified to say something. Things like realms aren't absolute. What the human race know as the Skysoar Realm might be known differently for some other races. For example, the suanni race does not classify our cultivation levels into all these realms. We only have the Growth Phase, Maturity Phase, the Complete Phase, and so on. This is merely a process of growth, a process of gaining strength. Ultimately, only strength matters. Strength alone is the main variable determining what realm I'm in."

The suanni looked at Su Yu with his large eyes and asked, "Su Yu, don't tell me you're planning to open hundreds of acupoints before fusing them all into one at this stage, right?"

Instead of answering, Su Yu doubtfully said, "Is there a difference between acupoint fusion at the Mountainsea Realm and the Infinite Strength Realm?"

"Of course." The suanni explained, "For Infinite Strength cultivators, they only fuse the acupoints of their cultivation method. For example, the War God Art of the human race. You know that during the Infinite Strength Realm, you'll be fusing the acupoints of that art. You can even call yourself an Infinite Strength cultivator after fusing only two acupoints."

"As for the Mountainsea Realm, do you know what's the trademark for a Mountainsea?"

"No."

A smile appeared on the suanni's ferocious face, "It's really quite simple. If you can fuse all the acupoints of an earth-grade cultivation method and smash a mountain apart with one attack, you can be considered a Mountainsea."

Su Yu raised his brow, "In that case, I only need to fuse as much as 73 acupoints at the bare minimum and destroy a mountain to be called a Mountainsea? Does the mountain need to have a minimum size or something?"

"No. When you manage to fuse all 73 acupoints of the same cultivation method onto a single acupoint, you will be a Mountainsea."

They were talking about 73 acupoints because that was the acupoints required by the weakest tier of earth-grade cultivation methods.

"During this process, you will find that you can fuse nine acupoints, or even ten acupoints into one. But the increment of every acupoint will greatly increase the difficulty. To complete your fusion, your physical body and source qi need to be powerful enough. Your physical body needs to be strong enough that it won't fall apart during the fusion. Your source qi needs to be strong enough to maintain the balance in your acupoint. If your source qi is too weak, your acupoint might fall apart as well. But if your source qi is too strong, the repelling force during the fusion will also increase accordingly..."

As an expert physical body cultivator, the suanni knew a lot about physical cultivation. He said a lot. And as Su Yu listened, he slowly understood. From the Great Strength Realm until the Cloudbreach Realm, one was merely preparing and strengthening one's body for acupoint fusion.

Even the acupoint fusion during the Infinite Strength Realm was for the sake of easing one's path at the Mountainsea Realm.

"In other words, the gap between warriors can be very big at the Mountainsea Realm. Some might have fused only 73 acupoints while some might have fused hundreds of acupoints. Am I right?"

"Yeah." The suanni said, "You don't fuse your acupoints randomly. The acupoints will reject each other if they don't belong to the same cultivation method or technique. Of course, if you have two cultivation methods or techniques with a large number of overlapped acupoints, you might stand a chance to fuse the acupoints of two cultivation methods into one. For example, the War God Art and the Time technique. They share a lot of acupoints so you might be able to fuse them all in the future."

"There are also nine stages to the Mountainsea Realm. And the number of fused acupoints will determine which stage you're in. Those with cultivation methods below the low-tier earth-grade will find it almost impossible to enter the Mountainsea Realm. But there is still hope. One can always cultivate a new method."

Su Yu nodded in understanding. If different methods or techniques shared a high number of acupoints, it might be possible to fuse all those acupoints into one.

"By the way, do you know the total number of acupoints a human body has?"

"..."

The suanni was speechless. Why was the kid asking him this? Was he a human?

"I don't know. Probably a few hundreds. Who would bother to figure out something like this?"

The shadow suddenly said, "I suspect there are 360 or more. There are records in the shadow race detailing how some races have no idea how to advance when they first stepped on the path of cultivation. The only thing they can do is keep opening acupoints. Some races managed to open a large number of acupoints during that process. And the human race is one of them.

"Of course, the records are ancient. Eventually, these people discovered that opening more acupoints have indeed granted them more strength, but the essence of their beings remained the same. Simply put, their lifespans remained the same. Even with 360 acupoints, with the strength to battle Skysoar and Cloudbreach cultivators, one still wouldn't be able to live long. The essence of one's being remained the same. In fact, each eruption of one's strength was an act of burning away one's life force.

"Because of that, different cultivation systems emerged, allowing one to advance and transform the essence of one's being."

Su Yu nodded. He had learned something new today.

So that was why. At least 360 acupoints. In that case, the number of acupoints he had opened wasn't really that high.

Su Yu stopped asking and casually tossed a few drops of source qi liquid to the water elemental, suanni, and the shadow before running off impatiently. The mountaindrill bull, fire crow, and white civet were completely dumbstruck. He left? What about them?

A grin appeared on the suanni's ferocious face as he said, "I knew it. Good thing I managed to get some words in. Otherwise, I reckon only the water elemental can get some source qi liquid today."

When Su Yu was asking the water elemental questions, the suanni had been wondering if he should chime in. If he did nothing, Su Yu might end up giving only the water elemental something and ignore the rest of them. And reality proved that he was right. The other creatures were completely speechless.

That was especially true for the fire crow and mountaindrill bull. They had received the least amount of source qi liquid after Su Yu took charge of feeding them. They were really on the verge of being starved to death. The two exchanged gazes. If they didn't start saving themselves, they would be the first ones to die among the six of them.

The next time Su Yu visited, they had to quickly offer something to him as well. At this moment, a crack had appeared in the unity of the six creatures.

Poverty was not what one loathed the most. Instead, it was an uneven distribution. The other creatures had all received benefits while the two of them had received nothing. The other would survive while the two of them were going to be starved to death. At this point, they no longer cared about escaping. All their so-called escape plans were no longer important.

Nothing was more important than survival.

...

Su Yu was completely oblivious to all that. He was busy summarizing all that he had learned.

"Thus, if I can open enough acupoints, even better if I can link all my cultivation methods together and ensure a high number of overlapped acupoints, I will be able to rapidly fuse my acupoints at the Mountainsea Realm..."

Sure, the Mountainsea Realm was far away, but it would not hurt to open more acupoints. Opening more acupoints would still be helpful to him in the future. Those with less opened acupoints might be able to advance quickly during the early stages of cultivation, but they might end up stuck below the Mountainsea Realm.

"I also need to take note that it is much easier to open acupoints during the Great Strength Realm. The stronger my body is, the harder it will be to open new acupoints. The strength of source qi and body will instead suppress the speed of acupoint opening."

Su Yu concluded that strength would actually make acupoint opening harder. And at the later stages, one might not be able to change one's cultivation method even if one wanted because new acupoints would be too hard to open.

Su Yu had been able to open new acupoints so easily because he was still in the Great Strength Realm. If he was already a Cloudbreach with a powerful body and source qi, opening new acupoints would be much harder.

After understanding all that, Su Yu decided to open more acupoints while he was still at the Great Strength Realm.

Chapter 377: Blatantly Helping The Enemy (1)

Bang!

While Su Yu was busy planning his acupoint cultivation.

Inside a building of the single character faction.

Zhou Pingsheng slapped his palm on the table and furiously said, "First, it was Huang Qifeng. Next, it was Liu He, Zhu Hong, Yang Sha, and Chen Qi. Does our faction still have any prestige left? And all this is happening because of only one student. What are all of you doing?"

Dozens of researchers had been gathered in the meeting room.

"Huang Qifeng has just regained his consciousness. Senior Brother Zheng is unconscious even now. A single Su Yu has caused us so much trouble!"

There was one matter he left unsaid. Was that data real or fake? It felt impossible to complete their research with the data they obtained.

Zhou Pingsheng furiously said, "Tell me. How are we going to solve this problem that is Su Yu? He has joined the academy for only around two months yet he has already created so much trouble for us. Our prestige has been ruined and the morale of our students are plummeting. Will it be our turn next?"

Nobody said anything.

Zhou Pingsheng looked at Liu Hong and berated, "Liu Hong, didn't you promise that you will deal with Bai Feng and his student? What's going on? That bastard Bai Feng had even killed Zhang Yu!"

"Hmm?"

Liu Hong blanked out slightly before asking in astonishment, "Who did Bai Feng kill?"

"Zhang Yu!"

Liu Hong was in shock. "That's impossible, right? Isn't Senior Brother Zhang Yu a second-stage Cloudbreach?"

Zhou Pingsheng coldly said, "I am also trying to look for an answer. You have competed against him for so many years, Liu Hong. Don't you have an answer?"

Inwardly, Liu Hong was slightly shocked. He hurriedly defended himself, "Senior Brother Zhou, if I had known that he's so strong, I wouldn't have competed against him. That fellow is a ruthless bastard. I fought him many times before, but he never displayed so much strength! If he is strong enough to kill Senior Brother Zhang Yu, he is definitely strong enough to kill me. How would I dare to keep provoking him if I knew about his strength?"

Zhou Pingsheng frowned and scolded, "You failed to notice anything even when Bai Feng is hiding his strength right in front of you. The faction has been allocating a lot of resources to you every year. What have you been doing all these while?"

Liu Hong awkwardly said, "Senior Brother, I have been cultivating very hard. I am going to reach the ninth-stage Skysoar Realm soon. And after the visit to the Willpower Grotto, I might even be able to enter the Cloudbreach Realm. But even after that, I still don't think I'm strong enough to kill Senior Brother Zhang..."

He frowned and asked, "Senior Brother Zhou, where did he perform the killing?"

The others looked at Zhou Pingsheng as well. Killing a fellow academy member was not something one could lightly do. Only special circumstances would allow one to do so.

Suddenly, the door opened and someone strode in. The newcomer said, "At the Eighteenth Secondary School. The Xia Family has temporarily classified that place as a warzone. Anyone can enter and it doesn't matter how many people die there."

Everyone's heart shuddered.

Liu Hong raised his brow and looked at the newcomer, who was Xia Yuwen. He smiled, "Is that the same Eighteenth Secondary School I graduated from, Senior Brother Xia?"

Xia Yuwen completely ignored Liu Hong. He walked to the front of the crowd, sat down, and indifferently said, "I won't waste anyone's time. The conflict there is your business. It is unrelated to me. But since Bai Feng had killed Zhang Yu there and proclaimed that he could kill anyone at the third-stage Cloudbreach Realm and below, Faculty Head Zhou had requested my help."

Everyone was surprised to hear that, but realization also dawned on them. No wonder Xia Yuwen had returned earlier than expected. There was no doubt that Bai Feng was strong. But nobody could say for sure that Bai Feng was undefeatable in the same realm. And nobody knew if Bai Feng and Wu Qi had fought for real before. But since even Zhang Yu had been killed, they did not have anyone that could gain an advantage over Bai Feng.

Liu Hong coughed and said, "Please wait a moment. Warzone, Eighteenth Secondary School, and killing...To speak the truth, I am still clueless. What is happening?" Get full chapters from novel fire.net

"..."

Some people in the crowd looked at him oddly. So he was really clueless. The other elders were aware of what was happening. Those below the elders were naturally informed. But Liu Hong's teacher was in seclusion. And there weren't that many people in their line. Thus, nobody had informed Liu Hong, leaving him clueless.

Xia Yuwen frowned. An old man smiled and answered, "Let me explain. Elder Zheng was injured, right?"

The old man gave a simple version of the story.

Liu Hong's expression did not change as he said, "Thank you, Senior Lin, for the information."

This old man was Lin Yao's grandfather. It would seem like there were still some benefits to be gained from accepting Lin Yao as his student. He then glanced at a different old man who had remained silent. That was Liu He's teacher. Was that fellow aware of this as well?

If the old man knew, why had he not informed him? Liu Hong's expression remained unchanged. He stopped asking.

Xia Yuwen then said, "Are you done talking? If you're done, shut up and listen to me."

Nobody said anything. Xia Yuwen said, "I can deal with Bai Feng, but you guys will need to get me the position of the head manager of the books depository. That was something Faculty Head Zhou had promised me before. I don't care about anything else. If you can't kick Chen Yong out, Manager Zhou can resign from your position and let me take it."

Zhou Pingsheng's face changed.

Xia Yuwen continued, "Don't worry, Manager Zhou. The position of faction master in your faction is still vacant. If you become the faction master and enter the ninth-stage Cloudbreach Realm, you might also be appointed an elder."

Zhou Pingsheng's eyes flickered.

Xia Yuwen said, "However, it would be for the best if you can kick Chen Yong out. If he remains, the position of a manager is but a joke as long as the head manager is there."

"Best case scenario, Manager Zhou becomes the new faction master. Two years later, he can ascend to the position of an elder with his status as a manager and a faction master. Meanwhile, I will ascend as the head manager of the books depository."

Everyone nodded. That was indeed the best case scenario.

Xia Yuwen said, "At that time, the elders in the academy coupled with the elders in the battlefield and the elders in seclusion are enough to turn the entire academy into the single character faction's playground. At that time...you can even aim for the position of principal."

At that, everyone's expression changed.

An old man coughed and said, "Yuwen, do not utter such words lightly. Principal Wan is the one who has led the academy to its current peak. And the academy is still growing steadily."

Xia Yuwen looked at the old man and said, "I am only talking about a possibility."

He ignored that person and continued, "Chen Yong is a ninth-stage Cloudbreach. Since he stays in the academy all the time, it is hard to deal with him. His student is his weakness. If you can't even deal with someone like him, then you might as well give up trying to become the most powerful faction in the academy."

He looked at everyone and said, "After so many years of growth, can't the single character faction deal with a single student like Su Yu?"

Some of the people in the crowd had a look of embarrassment, but some cursed inwardly. Xia Yuwen's own student had also failed in dealing with Su Yu. In fact, his own student had nearly been killed by Su Yu. Was he not ashamed to berate them of the same failure?

Some of them were already unhappy that this person had intruded on their meeting. Now that he was acting like the leader, they became even more unhappy. They even started feeling that Zhou Pingsheng was too soft.

If Zheng Yuming was still around, Xia Yuwen would definitely not be allowed to be so arrogant.

There were a few ninth-stage Cloudbreach cultivators in the crowd. Alas, none of them was willing to stand against Xia Yuwen, so Xia Yuwen was allowed to keep acting arrogantly.

However, Liu Hong showed no fear. He smiled and said, "Previously, Faculty Head Zhou talked to me about this. I gave him a proposal. He had been considering it, but I don't know if he has reached a decision or not."

Xia Yuwen glanced at him and said, "What is your proposal? You are the smartest among your batch despite your weak strength."

Liu Hong did not mind. He said, "Let Su Yu enter the Skysoar Realm."

"Preposterous!"

"Nonsense!"

"..."

He was chided by multiple people, but Liu Hong did not mind. He sighed and said, "To speak the truth, our current students...are really quite lacking. We only have a single Di Feng in the top 10. The rest of them are either over 30 or at the Skysoar Realm.

"Even among our Skysoar members, a lot of them are geniuses. You might not be happy to hear this, but even Di Feng is probably much weaker than someone like Zhan Hai who holds the first rank."

Liu Hong smiled, "This is why we are having so much trouble dealing with Su Yu. But what if he is a Skysoar? What can a single Skysoar change?

"Nothing. And the moment he steps into the Skysoar Realm, we will have a lot more options to deal with him. Skysoar cultivators will have to take on some missions, including the yearly reviews. We can easily make him suffer a loss with a hard mission. We can even station him at the Allheaven Battlefield for a few years.

"But since he's not a Skysoar, he can keep hiding in the academy. Regardless of how strong we are, what can we do to him? Senior Brother Xia, would even someone like you dare to attack a student in the academy?

"Therefore, this might seem like we're helping an enemy, but in truth, we're doing this to restrict him. We have the perfect chance to do so. Throw him into the Willpower Grotto. With the purity of the willpower in there, even if he can't enter the Skysoar Realm, he would be on the cusp of reaching that realm. At that time, a slight push is all we need to send him into the Skysoar Realm. He might even enter the realm before completing his character technique.

"Some help might not be beneficial to the recipient. It's pointless to keep going against Su Yu right now. We will only waste our strength. Huang Qifeng, Zhu Hong, and the other genius students used to have the potential to enter the Skysoar Realm. But after their clash with Su Yu, even their future advancement has been delayed or even severed."

As he explained his plan, some expressions in the room started changing. The crowd couldn't help but to agree with him. Even Xia Yuwen was nodding. This really sounded like a good plan.

But Zhou Pingsheng frowned, "Allow him to enter the Willpower Grotto? But that is a treasured land. And who can guarantee that he will really enter the Skysoar Realm? What if he doesn't? He seems to have learned the Soul Expanding Art. All of you might not know that art too well, but you should know about Zhao Li. He had even dropped his cultivation level before. Liu Hong, be careful lest you harm yourself with your tricks instead."