Chapter 24 - 24

Chapter 457: Silly Child (1)

"He keeps trying to brainwash me without giving me any benefits."

Su Yu didn't know what to say. No wonder some people said that Wan Tiansheng was the same as Marquis Xia. They both enjoyed collecting money, but getting money out of them was impossible. He was meeting a great principal yet he wasn't even given a cup of tea. How stingy.

But Su Yu naturally wouldn't dare to show his dissatisfaction. Old Wan was too strong. He couldn't afford to provoke the principal. In fact, he still needed to rely on Old Wan's protection inside the academy. Tʜe source of this ᴄontent ɪs n͟o͟v͟e͟l͟f͟i͟r͟e͟.net

He started thinking about other things. And he had a lot in his mind.

Chen Yong, Hong Tan, Bai Feng, Liu Hong, Xia Huyou...and even Wan Tiansheng. A lot of people had told him about the incident 50 years ago. They had told him about the fifth principal's death, about Zhou Family's suppression, about the traitorous human Invincible...

Su Yu had learned a lot about the past. At the very least, he now had a general idea about what had happened. The only thing he still didn't know was the identity of his true enemy.

"He told me to focus on my cultivation..."

Su Yu sighed. That might be right. It was about time he started focusing on his cultivation. That was especially true since he was going to enter the Willpower Grotto and absorb a large amount of willpower soon. With so much willpower, he should focus on forming new characters and prepare for his breakthrough into the Infinite Strength Realm.

He wasn't too weak. With all his trump cards, he was probably strong enough to even defeat some of the weaker Skysoars. But Bai Feng was right. The Skysoar Realm was merely the start of cultivation. In fact, only upon reaching the Skysoar Realm would one be considered a true cultivator. That was the starting point for all experts.

"My foundation is still too weak. I need to attend more classes and study more as well."

Su Yu decided to attend more classes, read more books, and learn more languages. He had opened a lot of pages in his book.

But a lot of the pages came in languages he didn't know. Thus, he had not dared to try the abilities in those pages since he knew nothing about them. After all, he didn't want to accidentally activate a self-detonation ability or something similar, right? In fact, he had only been learning the abilities of the races he knew the languages of.

"Time to become a good student."

Su Yu nodded. Yes. He was still a new student. It was time for him to be a good student. The next time he saw Zhou Pingsheng and the others, he needed to treat them with respect.

As for plotting for Zhou Pingsheng's death, well, perhaps there was no need for him to do so. That person was already in a lot of trouble. He had to first deal with the trouble coming from within his own faction. After bringing so much trouble to their faction, would Elder Sun and the others spare him?

Regardless of Su Yu's dissatisfaction, he still took Wan Tiansheng's words seriously. Wan Tiansheng might not be completely right, but Su Yu also believed that there must be some truth in the principal's words. There was no need for someone like that to deceive a mere student with nothing but lies.

But when Su Yu recalled the scene he saw when walking through the corridor, he frowned. Was it possible that what he saw would happen? Perhaps.

During the warzone incident when Liu Wenyan and the others were ganged up on, not a single person had been willing to help. Even after offering the best cultivation methods and martial techniques he knew as payment, Su Yu had still failed to garner any help. At that moment, he suddenly felt like Great Xia was not as great as he had thought. Suddenly, Great Xia felt like a much darker place.

Dark and selfish.

His grandteacher advised him to let go of his resentment. But how could he do so? Why had he opened so many acupoints, joined the tournament, and crippled so many single character faction students? Because of his anger.

Prior to that, he had still been rather merciful toward people like Liu He. Apart from Huang Qifeng, he had not been too heavy-handed against any of them. That included those who had targeted him such as Chen Qi, Lin Yao, Yang Sha, and many others. Even Zhou Hao was someone he had been willing to cooperate with.

But he couldn't bring himself to forgive the single character faction. He held a deep resentment toward them. As for those outside the single character faction, he might not hate them, but he didn't like them that much either. In fact, the academy had disappointed him greatly.

Back then, his father had often talked about brotherhood and comradeship in the army. Su Yu would never admit to it, but he was greatly envious of that. He was also a hot-blooded youth. He also longed for such comrades. That was why he had not complained too much about his father's return to the army.

But none of that was present in the academy. He could really see himself doing what he saw in the scene when he grew strong enough. Such an academy was deserving of that.

As he walked, he contemplated. The resentment in his heart weakened somewhat. But it was impossible for him to completely let go of his resentment toward the single character faction.

However, Old Wan was right. There was no need for him to be too conspicuous. He did not need the entire academy to bear witness to every single thing he did to the single character faction.

In the past, he might have been able to win some sympathy from the public since the multiple character faction was the underdog.

But now that he alone had suppressed an entire generation of the single character faction, the other students would start viewing Su Yu as an excessive bully if he continued his assault against the single character faction.

"Reputation and public image are still very important."

After some self-reflection, Su Yu realized that he still needed to be as cautious as he was when he first joined the academy. He realized how he had been very high-profile after the warzone incident. That was mostly due to his recent change of mindset.

In the past, everything he did had been done in a rational and organized manner. As someone from a small city, he had been very careful when he first arrived in the capital. But in recent days, he had been getting more and more rash.

"I definitely won't stop making moves against the single character faction, but there is no need to kick up a fuss every single time. Even the elders are starting to pay close attention to me now. And that isn't a good thing."

Su Yu continued reflecting on himself. He needed to maintain a low profile. It was honestly pointless to keep injuring those insignificant students. If he really wanted to do something, he was better off leaving the academy and luring a few of his enemies out into the wilderness before killing them.

That would be a much better way of dealing with bastards like Huang Qifeng. It was simply pointless to keep injuring people like that again and again. They were rich enough to keep recovering from the injuries. He should stay patient and find a chance to kill those people in one fight instead of repeating the act of injuring them in the academy.

"Dad said that you need to be patient on the battlefield. It is perfectly normal for you to bury yourself under the ground for seven or eight days just for a single ambush."

"I should do nothing if I can't completely erase my target. I should only move after finding the chance to completely eliminate my target. I should act like a coward in front of big shots. And I should be as ruthless as possible in front of weaklings."

Thinking about all his past experiences, Su Yu started listing a new code of conduct for himself. There was no need for him to break Wan Tiansheng's rules. He would be the one to suffer from that. There was no need for him to be too stubborn and fight everything head on.

...

21st of October.

The tournament had ended. The Willpower Grotto would be opened on the 25th. The single character faction had been busy finalizing the list of individuals that would be allowed to enter the grotto.

As for Su Yu, he started attending classes. He was trying his best to become a good student. As a good student, attending classes was something he had to do.

In the classroom, he found that there were far fewer students in attendance than before. At this point, a lot of students had stopped attending classes and were focused on other avenues of cultivation. Su Yu was unbothered. Everyone had their own path to walk.

Surprisingly, a few of the freaks were in attendance.

The class progressed. After the old instructor left, Su Yu packed up his books and proceeded to leave. While he was leaving, someone stopped in front of him.

It was a smiling Hu Qiusheng. He looked at Su Yu and asked, "Can we have a chat?"

Su Yu smiled and nodded, "Sure. Let's talk while we walk."

The two of them walked out of the classroom together. The other students merely gave them a glance before ignoring them. These students wouldn't involve themselves in the affairs of these freaks. They might be confident that they were geniuses, but their talent paled in comparison to these two.

...

Downstairs.

Students were coming and leaving. A lot of them took the initiative to move aside when they saw the two. Some of the junior or intermediate class students would even take the initiative to greet the two. Both Su Yu and Hu Qiusheng answered the greetings with friendly smiles on their faces, looking scholarly and refined while doing so.

While walking, Hu Qiusheng said, "Previously, you said that you wanted to start your own research center. In truth, that is also one of my goals. Or to be precise, any student truly interested in research would be interested in doing something like that."

Hu Qiusheng hesitated slightly before saying, "But you said that you are going to be researching cultivation methods and Divine Characters...These topics have been researched for many years. A majority of the research centers in the academy are also involved in similar topics. In that case, what's different about your research center?"

That was true. Almost everyone was researching topics related to cultivation methods and Divine Characters. Everyone was interested in those topics. But very few people could actually go far with their research.

Su Yu smiled, "Is Brother Hu interested in joining?"

Hu Qiusheng smiled, "It depends on whether your research center has anything that interests me. I had actually applied to join a research center before. My application was successful, and I am actually quite interested in what they do. But there are too many experts in that research center..."

Su Yu asked curiously, "Which research center?"

"Character Assembly Research Center..."

That was a familiar name to Su Yu. He exclaimed in shock, "That's a decent research center. It's the one that has come up with various character combinations, right? For example, the character system that some members of the single character faction are using came from this research center, right?"

"Yeah."

Hu Qiusheng nodded, "Yeah. Back then, your faction released a theory regarding the fusion of characters. But your faction stopped pursuing this line of research. But the Character Assembly Research Center has never stopped researching this topic. In truth, they have made considerable progress in their research. More and more single character faction members are starting to use character systems. In truth, this system is a hybrid of the teachings of the single and multiple character factions. Of course, their ultimate goal is still to bring everything under the umbrella of the single character faction."

Su Yu nodded. He was aware of all that. For example, Zheng Yuming's grandson was cultivating a character system. Even Wan Mingze, who specialized in sealing, could also be considered a character system cultivator.

Internally, the single character faction was already split. Some of them were focused on cultivating only a single character. They considered that to be the true path they should take.

In truth, the experts focusing on only one character were definitely not weak. Such an individual was able to focus all their time and energy on only one character, growing that character to an extremely high level.

Su Yu explained, "The research I'm planning to engage in is also related to those topics. I am also planning on researching the subject of ability combinations and compatibility of different character abilities. Of course, we are still not Skysoars. Since we can't materialize our characters yet, this won't be our main research subject anytime soon. For now, we will be mainly focusing on cultivation methods."

"Cultivation methods..."

Hu Qiusheng frowned, "That's too broad of a topic. Do you have a more specific topic?"

"Yes." Su Yu nodded, "Before this, we came up with the Soul Devouring Art at the Wentan Research Center, right? The Soul Devouring Art is only a yellow-grade cultivation method. Even so, it is unique enough that its value is above that of a regular yellow-grade method. It allows you to transform your source qi and give it the ability to burn and corrode willpower. But during the Divine Character tournament when we fought through our willpower bodies, I was still able to utilize the Soul Devouring Art. Since then, I have been thinking about the interchangeability between source qi and willpower."

"Interchangeability?" Hu Qiusheng was stunned, "You mean that source qi can be converted to willpower and vice versa?"

Su Yu nodded. "In truth, this topic was researched long ago. But no concrete result has been released yet. But the appearance of the Soul Devouring Art has given me some new ideas. Perhaps through Soul Devouring Art, I can discover some special attributes of source qi and willpower."

Su Yu smiled, "Of course, I only have a general idea for now. I have yet to start the research. I can't do anything alone, anyway. And my teacher is going to leave soon while my grandteacher is entering seclusion."

Su Yu sighed, "My only choice is to open my own research center and recruit some like-minded friends. If we can really come up with something or even find a way to convert willpower to source qi and vice versa, we might even bridge the distance between warriors and cultural researchers. At present, the two communities don't really get along well with each other."

Su Yu seriously said, "Of course, this is such a big project that I believe a lot of people are already attempting to do the same. But we have one advantage over everyone else. I am the one who has derived the Soul Devouring Art. Additionally, I have also discovered that there are some races out there that are already capable of doing this."

Hu Qiusheng frowned and said nothing. As a mere Mental Tempering Stage student, it seemed unrealistic that Su Yu would be able to take on such massive projects.

Sure, they could play it down and call it research on cultivation methods. But if they really wanted to brag about it, they could call it an attempt to remove the barrier between warriors and cultural researchers.

"Su Yu, are you sure this is going to be the direction of your research?"

Su Yu nodded, "Yes. I am more than sure. I already have some ideas as to what I should do. You know that I have opened a lot of acupoints. After opening hundreds of source acupoints and some soul apertures, I discovered something. Perhaps if I can open more apertures, I might even be able to form a link between acupoints and apertures."

Su Yu solemnly said, "Or to be precise, instead of calling it a link, it is actually an acupoint that can link acupoints and apertures together. If this acupoint really exists, the moment I find the way to open it, all cultural researchers can become warriors, and vice versa."

Chapter 458: Silly Child (2)

Hu Qiusheng's heart thumped, "Are you serious?"

"This is only speculation." Su Yu smiled, "Before starting the research, I need to first establish a hypothesis. Only then can I start working hard to figure out whether the hypothesis is right or wrong."

Hu Qiusheng inhaled deeply and asked, "Did Teacher Hong or Teacher Bai come up with this hypothesis?"

Su Yu rolled his eyes, "It's my own hypothesis. This is the feeling I get after opening 300 acupoints. My guts are telling me that such an acupoint exists."

"300 acupoints..."

Hu Qiusheng did not know what to say about that. Apart from the first batch of human experts from over 300 years ago, had any other human ever opened as many acupoints? He was unsure. Perhaps there were, but he had certainly not heard of them.

"Su Yu, if such an acupoint really exists, how come our predecessors have not discovered it?"

Su Yu rolled his eyes, "How am I supposed to know that? Perhaps they have been withholding the information. Perhaps nobody has found it. Perhaps the requirements to discover that acupoint are too strict. For example, you need 300 acupoints and 100 apertures. Or it can be even stricter. Acupoints are easy to open. But can you say the same about apertures?"

"If it's really so hard to open, will you be able to make opening this acupoint a common practice even if you can open it?"

Su Yu said, "Brother Hu, are you stupid? If we can really discover that acupoint, we can try to let someone open that acupoint as their first acupoint.

"For centuries, the human race has started the path of cultivation by opening the nine basic acupoints. Only then would they be able to start cultivating for real. But that isn't the case for the other races. A lot of them can start cultivating right away. A popular theory suggests that the human race is unsuitable for cultivation, hence the difficulty. But that's bullshit. If the human race is unsuitable for cultivation, how can we produce so many Invincibles? How can we grow into a top 10 race?"

"Therefore, I believe that we simply lack understanding of the human body. Imagine this. If we can find this acupoint, our children will be able to open it as their first acupoint. They no longer need to open their nine basic acupoints passively before they can start cultivating. How big would this be for humanity?"

"..."

Hu Qiusheng trembled. After a while, he spoke with a hoarse voice, "The number of human cultivators will skyrocket. The ability to skip the Source Opening Realm will allow a lot of people to start cultivating at their prime.

"Students can start cultivating at the elementary school or the secondary school. By the time they enter an academy at 18, they might have already reached the Great Strength, Infinite Strength, or even the Skysoar Realm."

Su Yu smiled, "Exactly."

Hu Qiusheng inhaled deeply and said, "I have never thought of this before. How about this? I'll go back and gather some information. I'll try to find out if anyone in the various academies or even the Knowledge Seeking Realm has researched this topic before. You have reminded me of something. It isn't that no human expert has ever thought of skipping the Source Opening Realm. I suspect that some people have already researched this topic before. Perhaps we can take the past research as our reference..."

Hu Qiusheng did not realize it, but he was starting to use "we" and "us" when talking about them.

Su Yu laughed. Had this fellow decided to join his research center? Hu Qiusheng was someone from the Hu Family. And the Hu Family was a powerful family. Administrator Hu was a Sunmoon expert. And he was a veteran Sunmoon cultivator, not a fresh Sunmoon.

Hu Qiusheng suddenly looked at Su Yu with an odd gaze and asked, "Su Yu, are you sure you have never read about this before? Have you thought of this all by yourself?"

That was a truly terrifying hypothesis. Even if they had no proof yet, that hypothesis represented a massive research project. There was a lot of value and significance behind such a research subject.

Su Yu smiled, "This is an idea that will naturally come to someone who has opened a lot of acupoints. Someone who has opened so few acupoints like you will naturally fail to understand that feeling."

"..."

That was mean. Hu Qiusheng felt like coughing blood.

Su Yu continued being mean, "You have decent talent in cultivation, but you are not the type of people I'm looking for. Brother Hu, don't blame me for being honest, but in my eyes, someone with a good talent in cultivation can be a warrior or a character master, but that person might not be able to be a good cultural researcher."

Yes. He was saying that even if Hu Qiusheng wanted to join, he might not agree to it.

Hu Qiusheng did not mind the honesty. He said, "Up until now, I have mastered 77 languages. I have been studying since I was a boy, and I have read over 1,082 different cultivation manuals. Of course, these are all normal texts instead of willpower texts. I have once modified and improved a cultivation method. It is a high-tier yellow-grade method. Initially, it only allows you to open 27 acupoints. I was able to reduce the acupoints into 26 acupoints while retaining the same level of power."

Su Yu was surprised.

Modifying a cultivation method? Reducing the number of acupoints required for the same output of strength?

Just because the number of acupoints was reduced, it didn't mean that the cultivation method would decline in quality. Some cultivation methods were so terrible that even with 27 acupoints, they might only be able to display the prowess of 26 acupoints. One of the acupoints was basically pointless to have. In such a situation, reducing the number of required acupoints would basically save more time for the cultivator without reducing the strength the cultivator could gain from the cultivation method.

77 different languages and 1,082 cultivation methods...This fellow was truly worthy of being a member of a powerful family.

And he was only 18 years old. Even if he started reading when he was 6 years old, he would still need to master at least 5 languages and read 90 cultivation manuals per year. That was very impressive!

Su Yu's eyes lit up as he said, "Then you are definitely qualified to join my research center. My future research center, I mean."

Hu Qiusheng sighed, "What a pity. I think you should focus on research. Just ignore the factional conflicts. If that's not enough, we can wait until we produce some results from our research. At that time, I can get my grandpa to recommend you to further your studies at the Knowledge Seeking Realm."

"Let's talk about that next time."

A lot of people had been giving him the same advice for the past few days. Su Yu was actually quite surprised. Had he really changed so much? Even Hu Qiusheng was telling him to avoid those conflicts. Prior to this, Hu Qiusheng had never mentioned something like that.

And the two of them weren't even close. Or perhaps...this was Administrator Hu's message? Su Yu was unsure. Would Administrator Hu even pay attention to a nobody like him?

...

After parting with Hu Qiusheng, Su Yu started making plans for the future. His top priority was his cultivation. He also had to found his research center. And he would continue creating trouble for the single character faction. He also needed to find a chance to leave the academy for some treasure hunting. The Divine Skywing Sect's stash was still waiting for him somewhere out there.

That was a large sect with a Sunmoon expert as the sect master. The sect master had been killed. Even now, his corpse was still in the Myriad Race Pit. Su Yu still needed to find a way to gain access to that corpse. His last resort would be to get Xia Huyou's help.

While Su Yu was busy making his future plans.

Eighteenth Secondary School. Rear mountain.

The rear mountain had turned into a forbidden zone. The teachers and students of the school had been avoiding that place. All of them knew that a few experts had arrived there recently.

After yet another character rearrangement session with Liu Wenyan, Bai Feng exhaled deeply and said, "Martial Uncle, why do you still have so many characters after detonating so many of them? You must have been too free all these years. Have you been spending all your time forming new characters?"

Liu Wenyan didn't even deign to give that a response. After sensing his characters that were much less disorderly than before, he said, "I only have eight of your grandteacher's characters left."

All eight of them were human characters. And all of them were Sunmoon characters. In short, as a mere Skysoar, he had eight Sunmoon characters in his possession.

Bai Feng nodded, "Martial Uncle, this is actually an opportunity for you to fuse your characters and reassemble your character technique. It's not a bad thing that you have detonated some of them. That way, you have almost fully cleansed your sea of willpower of grandteacher's influence. Otherwise, the repelling force of your characters would be too strong for you to even fuse your characters."

"Reassemble..."

Liu Wenyan nodded, "My previous character technique has the form of a sword. Meanwhile, your grandteacher's character technique is an axe. My character technique has been suppressed because his character technique is too strong, forcing me to use an axe instead of a sword. But axes are really too ugly..."

"..."

Bai Feng was speechless. This martial uncle of his loved to call him unfilial. But what was this? He was talking trash about the fifth principal's axe! The fifth principal was his teacher! That was an axe that had killed even Invincibles!

"What's the new form of your character technique, Martial Uncle?"

"Naturally, it'swhy should I tell you?"

Liu Wenyan didn't even feel like answering the question. What was the point? Get full chapters from nοvelfire.net

He said, "I still can't use all the characters. My characters are all at the second tier so the gap between my characters and my teacher's characters is too big. At most, I can unleash the combat strength of a ninth-stage Skysoar."

"Your willpower and apertures are already strong enough. You only lack characters of sufficient tier. But with powerful willpower, you won't take long to grow your characters into the third tier."

Third-tier characters were basically Cloudbreach characters.

According to Bai Feng's estimation, Liu Wenyan would probably take around a year to achieve that. And the moment Liu Wenyan could push his characters into the fourth tier, he would be able to easily enter the Mountainsea Realm.

Thus, he would definitely be able to enter the Mountainsea Realm within three years. And he only needed to rely on his own characters. As for the eight Sunmoon characters left in his sea of willpower, he could still use them in emergencies to unleash the prowess of a Sunmoon.

But he couldn't keep it up for long as his sea of willpower was still not durable enough to withstand that level of strength. And his physical body was also not strong enough.

Liu Wenyan nodded, "I'm in no rush. I am confident I can enter the Mountainsea Realm in three years. But you're a problem. You need to regain your strength as soon as possible. The Vanguard Regiment isn't an easy place to survive."

Bai Feng appeared indifferent. He was in no rush.

He changed the topic and asked, "Martial Uncle, we are all leaving and my teacher is entering seclusion. What will happen to Su Yu?"

Liu Wenyan smiled, "It's fine. I already told some old friends to watch over him. He should be fine. Just focus on your own recovery. Your own student is going to catch up to you soon. Your teacher said that the kid has defeated even a few peak Mental Tempering Students. I think he will be able to reach the Skysoar Realm soon."

Bai Feng was feeling rather gloomy. He had already left the academy. Why was the kid still provoking him from out of sight? He really needed to start working on his cultivation level.

After a short chat, Liu Wenyan said, "You should try to enter the Luminous Domain Mansion during its next opening as well. I have never been there, but your teacher was there before. He told me that the Luminous Domain Mansion was most likely something left behind by a cultural researcher Invincible. And that might be a human. Also, that person might even be an existence beyond the Invincible Realm. Of course, I have never been there myself so I don't know for sure."

Liu Wenyan solemnly said, "Don't delay your cultivation. Although your disassembly method is good, it might not be the best way to go around it. Sure, with the help of your disassembly method, I can probably reach the Sunmoon Realm as well. But the Invincible Realm will still be an issue."

Bai Feng nodded. There was no helping it. He had yet to encounter a true human Eternal character so he had nothing to test his theories on or draw references from.

He would only be more confident about his theories if he could study a proper human Eternal character. Without true confirmation, everything they did was akin to a gamble.

Bai Feng looked in the direction of the Great Xia Cultural Research Academy. What a pity. He would probably not be around to see the kid entering the Skysoar Realm. Otherwise, the kid would be an excellent research subject.

"Eternal character?"

He muttered to himself as he looked in the academy's direction. There was one thing he had never told anyone else.

He suspected that...Su Yu had inherited a true Eternal character.

A human Eternal character.

That was his guess. That silly student of his had been using the blood character as a scapegoat, but that was bullshit. He had seen even Sunmoon characters. After all, Liu Wenyan had some in his sea of willpower.

And not even Sunmoon characters were as incredible as the so-called blood character. Thus, it was probable that Su Yu had actually inherited an Eternal character. And it was very likely that this was a human character. That was the only explanation for Su Yu's inability to form non-human characters.

"That silly kid has exposed too much to me. I hope he can be more careful moving forward."

What a silly kid.

Bai Feng had simply not bothered with exposing the kid. Did the kid really think that he could be fooled so easily?

Chapter 459: My Student Is A Future Invincible (1)

Wentan Research Center.

Su Yu returned to an empty building.

It was unknown if Hong Tan had entered seclusion or left on some other business. In any case, Su Yu was left alone in the large building. He calmed himself and went to the second floor. He started reading while tempering his willpower.

It had been a while since he last focused on reading. During the five years he spent at the secondary school, he had spent nearly every day visiting the library to read and learn. But after entering the academy, he had been constantly kept busy by numerous affairs. As the saying went, the trees long for peace but the wind would never cease.

The source of all trouble was the threat multiple character faction posed to multiple parties, such as the myriad races and some factions in the Human Realm. Su Yu decided to forget all that and focus on reading, learning, and growing.

He also aimed to strengthen some of his friends. If he was alone, even if he became an Invincible, he still wouldn't have enough power to suppress everything. He needed to join hands with a group of people.

Su Yu was confident in his talent. And he also had the assistance of his book. But regardless of his talent, he still wouldn't be able to reach the Invincible Realm in one day. Were people like Great Xia King powerful? But even people like them couldn't act freely. They still needed to get some allies to seize some initiative for themselves.

"The biggest benefit I can give everyone is my cultivation methods."

While reading and tempering his willpower, Su Yu was also busy contemplating on numerous matters. He was basically splitting his attention three ways. But the truly genius ones would not lack cultivation methods.

Just look at someone like Hu Qiusheng. He had read over a thousand cultivation manuals over the years. Would the Hu Family lack cultivation methods? No. They only lacked truly powerful or impactful cultivation methods. For example, cultivation methods such as the Water Origin Art or the Soul Devouring Art.

"If I can combine the five elemental arts into one art with 180 apertures, it will become an amazing art. Even if I can't teach anyone the complete version, I can teach them the incomplete version with 108 apertures. Even such a version would be much better than the Myriad Text Sutra."

"This cultivation method is even more valuable due to the fact that it can be cultivated at the Mental Tempering Stage."

According to Su Yu's plan, he could create the version with 108 apertures by combining three of the five arts. Even so, that would result in a top-tier earth-grade cultivation method. And it was something that could be cultivated at the Mental Tempering Stage. Something like that was enough to impact all willpower cultivators in the Human Realm.

That was basically a cultivation method they could keep using until the Cloudbreach Realm. It would save a lot of time for people at the Skysoar and Cloudbreach Realms. And that required him to combine three of the five arts.

"Who can I trust enough to teach this cultivation method?"

Su Yu sank into thought. He had yet to combine the five arts. He might have opened 44 apertures, but he hadn't been able to link up the apertures of the two arts he had cultivated so far.

He needed the assistance of an expert to perform the combination. A few names appeared in his mind. Liu Wenyan and Bai Feng were actually suitable individuals to help him. But Bai Feng's cultivation level was too low. He might not be as helpful. And Liu Wenyan was not someone he could easily contact at the moment.

There was a better option than those two.

Zhao Li!

That was a teacher who had taught him the Soul Expanding Art. And that teacher had taught him without any intentions. Zhao Li had taught him the Soul Expanding Art merely because he was a suitable person to learn it.

"Maybe...I should pay Teacher Zhao a visit. I can get some help from him."

Zhao Li was the fourth principal's son, someone who had lived for 120 years, created his own version of Soul Expanding Art, and was also a grandmaster weaponsmith. He had once attempted to enter the Mountainsea Realm, but he had failed.

Zhao Li was the perfect person for the task. In all honesty, Su Yu still wasn't that close to Hong Tan and Chen Yong. He had not interacted with them that much.

Sure, he really liked the multiple character faction. And he liked his grandteacher and martial uncle. He also agreed that both of them had been kind to him. But he did not wish to tempt anyone he didn't know well enough with something too valuable.

As for Zhao Li, if the old man really decided to snatch the cultivation method from him, he would simply consider the cultivation method a payment for the Soul Expanding Art. After making up his mind, he checked the time. It was still early. He decided to go after it was dark. He continued reading the willpower text in his hand.

Not long ago, he had bought a decent amount of willpower texts from Xia Huyou. If he continued ignoring these texts, those texts would probably lose all their willpower before he could read them. That would be a big loss for him.

As he read, he sank into contemplation. He was reading the willpower text of a saber technique. Up to this point, he had read a lot of saber manuals. He found that similar types of techniques would actually have a lot of overlapped acupoints. For example, two saber manuals that respectively required 40 and 30 acupoints would have around 20 overlapped acupoints.

What did that mean? Basically, when one mastered a high-tier technique, one would be able to learn a similar technique of a lower tier much easier.

Some of these lower tier techniques could be easily learned after opening only a few acupoints.

"There is actually a lot of overlap between the various techniques. Following this line of thought, does the fact that the Soul Devouring Art requires only 36 acupoints to alter the nature of one's source qi means that there are also some other undiscovered acupoints with unknown special effects as well?"

Su Yu continued contemplating while reading. It had been a while since he last entered such a deep contemplation. While he was doing all that, his willpower was growing without stopping.

Cultural researchers...were supposed to be a group of people in charge of preserving and transmitting culture. It was rumored that some cultural researchers did not even need to read willpower texts. They only needed to read an ordinary book to form a complete Divine Character.

According to the legends, that was how ancient cultural researchers form their characters. Su Yu's 80 percent willpower continued growing as he sat in contemplation. He paid no attention to his willpower as he continued thinking.

...

Night descended.

A new character had taken form.

Su Yu sank into thought.

This was very odd.

This time, the character formation was very smooth. Unlike the previous times, he wasn't forced to beat the new character into submission. Rather, it almost felt like the new character was rushing in to join the team.

Had he attracted the character with his sheer talent? To the point the character itself wanted to work with him?

Also, this character was slightly different from the other characters. All his past characters had been mostly combat focused characters. This time, he had formed the fire character.

At first, he thought that it was a combat character as well. It was fire, so it was understandable for it to be offensive in nature. And he had seen multiple people with the same character. All of them were pretty decent.

But his fire character did not share any similarity with all the fire characters he had seen. When Su Yu realized that, his mood fell.

"A fire character that doesn't burn...what is this?"

Su Yu was completely confused. He already knew what the ability of the new character was. But it was very odd. Instead of offensive, it was supportive in nature.

Suddenly, his willpower ignited.

Yes. The fire character's function was to ignite his own willpower.

Unlike the Soul Devouring Art, this fire character did not cause him any pain when burning his willpower. Instead, it felt like his willpower was actually being purified. But that wasn't exactly accurate either.

After a short silence, Su Yu took out a regular book and started reading it. And he found that his mind was exceptionally clear and his ability to take in information had increased sharply. He flipped through page after page. Before he knew it, he had finished reading the whole book.

"Is this...supposed to be a fire of wisdom or something like that?"

Su Yu was dumbfounded.

By burning his willpower, his comprehension ability had increased greatly, allowing his brain to gain new information at a rapid pace. What was this? Was he being forced to become a top student, to the point he was even getting a character for studying?

"Can it increase my comprehension when reading willpower texts?"

Su Yu performed another text. This time, he used a willpower text. Sure enough, he felt completely different from before. He was able to understand what he couldn't understand previously. Countless ideas appeared in his mind, and comprehending the willpower text felt much easier than before.

But Su Yu had also noticed something else. When reading a willpower text, the fire character was working even harder than before, exhausting a lot of his willpower in the process.

"It's a supportive character."

This was his first time encountering a pure supportive character. His blood character was also an odd one out. Logically, the illusion ability had nothing to do with a blood character, yet for some reason, that was the character's ability.

Perhaps there was a tendency for first characters to mutate. He also had the deceit character that could be considered a supportive character, but he had intentionally forgotten about the existence of that character. Since that fellow was so deceitful, then it could stay deceitful and pretend to not exist. He would gladly forget about it.

"Eight characters."

The fire character wasn't too powerful. It wasn't a second-tier character. It wasn't even a peak first-tier character. But Su Yu was still very curious about the character. His curiosity came from the ease at which he had formed it and the unique ability of the character.

But he put all that for another time. When he checked the time, he noted that it was time for him to pay Teacher Zhao a visit.

...

Zhao Li's research center.

Zhao Li was surprised to see Su Yu. He laughed and said, "Not bad at all. Your willpower feels fresh and clear. You must have thought something through. During your previous visit, despite having strong willpower, your willpower had also been covered by a layer of darkness. It hasn't been long yet you have already adjusted your state of mind."

Clear.

Su Yu did not have the same feeling, but he could guess that this "clear" effect was probably the work of his new fire character. Of course, he had also thought through a matter that had been bothering his mind and made a decision about it. Follow current novels on novel·fire·net

What decision had he made? Well, he had decided to maintain a low profile.

It was better to be an old, slimy snake than a dumb knight in shining armor.

Su Yu flashed a pure and earnest smile. When Zhao Li saw that, he laughed as well. Suddenly, he felt like even Su Yu's smile looked more sincere than before.

"It is normal for one to stumble upon some troubles in the path of cultivation. It is fine as long as you can adjust your mental state accordingly."

Zhao Li asked, "Do you need any help from me?"

Su Yu nodded, "Teacher, do all cultural researchers cultivate the Myriad Text Sutra nowadays?"

Zhao Li shook his head, "The Myriad Text Sutra is a relatively new cultivation method. Back then, people cultivated a different cultivation method. Or to be precise, they cultivated a weaker version of the Myriad Text Sutra. The current Myriad Text Sutra is actually the strengthened version of what people used to cultivate. It can open 72 apertures. The previous version can only open 54 apertures."

Su Yu was quite surprised to hear that.

Zhao Li looked at Su Yu and asked, "Why are you asking this? Are you making plans for your new willpower cultivation method in the future?"

He was aware that Su Yu had already opened apertures.

He had already noticed during their previous meeting.

He had a slight guess as to why Su Yu was here. He smiled, "There is no rush. It is good that you are able to open some apertures at the Mental Tempering Stage. Let me give you an example. With those apertures, you will be able to easily open the first aperture of the Myriad Text Sutra after reaching the Skysoar Realm. This is the benefit of having a foundation willpower art."

"I know that, Teacher."

Su Yu nodded. He was already aware of that long ago. Zhang Hao was the one who had told him about it.

After thinking about it, Su Yu said, "Teacher, the Myriad Text Sutra is only a public willpower cultivation method. Are there any secret willpower cultivation methods out there that can open even more apertures?"

"I'm not sure."

Zhao Li answered, "But these cultivation methods most likely exist. Both Great Zhou and Great Ming can actually be considered traditional cultural research powerhouses. Of course, when someone is strong enough to establish a prefecture, the difference between a warrior and a cultural researcher is no longer that big. But it is very possible that these traditional willpower cultivation powerhouses have their own secret legacies."

"So is it possible that willpower cultivation methods with 144 apertures exist?"

"..."

Zhao Li was speechless. Was this kid here to mess around with him? How was he supposed to know that? 144 apertures? Did the kid think that cultural cultivation methods fall from from the sky or something?

"Just say what's on your mind."

Zhao Li was starting to get impatient. This wimpy kid was a very troublesome fellow. He also enjoyed leaving someone hanging by talking in circles without touching the main topic.

Chapter 460: My Student Is A Future Invincible (2)

Su Yu smiled, "Teacher, your willpower has been compressed numerous times. In terms of durability, your willpower is probably comparable to the willpower of a Mountainsea. But are 72 apertures enough to support your willpower that is clearly beyond the level of a regular Cloudbreach?"

Zhao Li rolled his eyes and asked, "And?"

"I'm wondering what would happen if you could open more apertures. Maybe a dozen or two. Would that make you stronger?"

Zhao Li smiled, "You're thinking of teaching me your foundation cultural art?"

Zhao Li shook his head, "There is no need for that. At my current level, opening new apertures is a very difficult task. And the apertures of your art will belong to an entirely different system from what I'm currently cultivating. Even after opening them, they won't really be that big of a help to me. If the overlap is high, I might not even have that many new apertures to open. For example, out of the 18 apertures of your art, maybe 15 of them overlap. In that case, the 3 additional apertures won't really do much for me."

He was someone with 72 apertures. Opening a few extra apertures wouldn't help him that much. Foundation cultural arts were much more helpful to students below the Skysoar Realm.

At the Skysoar Realm, one could naturally choose to open more apertures. But if one used a different art with a lot of overlap, one would only gain a small number of new apertures. And those new apertures would be separated from the main system one already formed. Independently, these apertures wouldn't really be that helpful.

It would only grant someone a slightly stronger and more robust willpower. For someone who had tempered his willpower countless times like Zhao Li, that was nothing for him. His willpower was already as strong as a Mountainsea's. The only thing holding him back currently was his problematic main Divine Character.

...

Su Yu looked around and asked, "Teacher, will our conversation be spied on?"

"..."

Zhao Li glared at Su Yu. What a stupid question.

No matter what, he was someone with willpower as powerful as a Mountainsea's. Spying on him? What a joke.

Su Yu reminded, "Cough, cough. This is quite important. I'm still worried. After all, we have a certain individual in the Heart Cultivating Pavilion who is very strong."

He suspected that the principal would frequently spy on the activities of everyone in the academy. After all, the principal was even aware of the fact that his character technique required a lot of characters even though they had not met before.

How had the principal found out about that? During their meeting, Su Yu had not once thought about his character technique. And most of the things he had thought about were unrelated to the principal. Those thoughts shouldn't have been sensed.

Zhao Li's expression turned odd as he looked at Su Yu, "You sure are gutsy. You actually have the galls to suspect even the principal?"

But that fellow...was really very strong. The kid was right.

One of Zhao Li's character flickered and formed a layer of incorporeal energy around the room. With that done, Zhao Li smiled, "Is this good enough? This is an anti-spy formation built into the entire research center. Nobody can listen in to us unless they break through the formation with brute force."

Su Yu nodded in relief.

He wasted no time and took out a large sheet of paper before spreading it on the desk. Then, he started writing and drawing on it.

Zhao Li walked over and took a look at the paper. He frowned slightly. Su Yu was drawing an acupoint diagram? But slowly, he noticed that something was off. This wasn't an acupoint diagram. Was this...a replica of a sea of willpower?

It was a sea of willpower filled with numerous dots of light. One red dot after another was drawn out by Su Yu. He stopped at 36 dots. He then drew a line connecting all 36 dots, linking all of them into a system following a complicated pathway.

This was the most important part of a system: the way to link all the apertures or acupoints together.

One could link 36 apertures into numerous different systems through countless pathways. But that did not mean that one could randomly join these apertures together and they would work.

Linking different apertures or acupoints together would result in different effects. And the pathway one chose when linking them together would also result in different effects. For a cultivation method to be considered complete, the acupoints or the apertures were important. But the way to link these apertures or acupoints up was even more important.

Su Yu was the best example. He might have opened 300 acupoints, but he was unable to utilize all of them in a single system. That was because he lacked the method of linking all of them together.

...

Zhao Li frowned.

Was this a cultural art?

Why was Su Yu writing out his foundation cultural art? It was clearly a powerful cultural art. It allowed one to open 36 apertures and could be cultivated at the Mental Tempering Stage.

This was Zhao Li's first time actually looking at a foundation cultural art. It was not a willpower text, so he couldn't get a deeper experience from reading it. In fact, it wasn't even a manual. To be precise, it was merely a diagram. But even a mere diagram like this was enough to teach Zhao Li something new.

The more Zhao Li looked at the diagram, the more surprised he was. There was actually very little overlap with the Myriad Text Sutra. This signified that this cultural art would allow him to open dozens of new apertures if he cultivated it.

An aperture or two wouldn't do much for him. But dozens of apertures would most certainly be helpful for him. After linking the 36 red dots together, Su Yu paused slightly before drawing even more red dots.

Zhao Li frowned. What was the meaning of this? Was the kid drawing random apertures now? One red dot after another was drawn. Before long, another set of 36 red dots could be seen on the paper. Like before, Su Yu started linking all the dots up.

And when Zhao Li saw that Su Yu was going to continue drawing, he said, "Don't mess around. Is this still a sea of willpower? Don't label random positions as apertures. If you open an aperture incorrectly, you might end up punching a hole through your sea of willpower."

True soul apertures were things that were sealed when they were supposed to be open. These were the nodes in one's sea of willpower that could be opened. If one attempted to do the same at a spot without an actual aperture, one would be opening a hole instead. And opening a hole in one's own sea of willpower was the same as suicide.

Su Yu smiled, "Don't worry, Teacher. Be calm."

Only two systems had been drawn out. What was the rush? He still had three systems to draw!

Zhao Li frowned, "Are all of these apertures?"

"Yeah. Just keep watching. You'll see."

Zhao Li frowned, "The two systems are slightly similar. If you aren't randomly drawing things, then these two are two cultural arts with not a single overlap in apertures. But the composition of these two systems are quite similar to each other. Are they actually part of a single cultural art that has been separated?"

Zhao Li muttered, "These two are very likely to be a single art that has been split apart. Is that the case? You're trying to get me to repair these two arts and merge them back into a single art?"

Su Yu smiled. Sure enough, this was a reliable old man. With one look, Zhao Li was able to see that the two belonged together.

Zhao Li stopped asking questions. He focused fully on the 72 red dots. This was a single cultural art that had been taken apart. Su Yu was trying to restore the original version. Or perhaps these two were parts of a single set of cultural arts and there was an issue somewhere preventing them from being linked together?

He continued studying the diagram. After a while, he walked away and took out his hammer. With the hammer, he started hammering at thin air.

Su Yu turned around to look at Zhao Li. As he was only drawing an ordinary diagram instead of writing a willpower text, his diagram was actually not too clear.

Meanwhile, Zhao Li was forging a replica. Follow current novels on novelꞁire.net

A sea of willpower replica.

He was a weaponsmith. It was boring to look at a diagram. He much preferred looking at a replica.

...

Slowly, something spherical took shape.

One red dot after another appeared in the empty sphere.

And one line after another appeared.

While rubbing his chin, Zhao Li said, "Take a look at this. Is it accurate? I don't have enough time to forge a puppet today so I'll settle with a model of a sea of willpower. Sure, seas of willpower are intangible, but there is still a way to properly represent them physically."

At the mention of a puppet, Su Yu recalled the puppet that had chased after him during his meeting with Marquis Xia. Puppets could actually be quite powerful when forged correctly. He walked up to the sea of willpower replica and looked at it before nodding.

The old man's memory was quite good. He was actually able to make such an accurate replica after a single look at his diagram. All 72 of the apertures had been marked at the correct positions.

"Teacher, this isn't enough..."

"Hmm?"

"The apertures..." Su Yu said, "Teacher, can you enlarge this replica? I need a really big replica. A replica big enough for us to walk around inside."

"Sure. But why do you need it to be so big? This thing can actually be considered a cultural weapon. You can change its size as you wish. You only need to add some materials into it..."

It felt really good to talk about forging with a weaponsmith. That was especially true when it was a grandmaster weaponsmith. A series of hammer strikes rang out. Soon, a massive hovering replica appeared.

After walking a circle around the replica, Su Yu pointed at a certain point and said, "Teacher, one here."

"Here."

"And here..."

Zhao Li continued adding red dots with a look of surprise.

80 dots...90 dots...

120 dots...

130 dots...

At this point, Zhao Li's expression had turned completely solemn. Finally, 144 dots appeared. He was looking at 4 different cultural arts with not a single overlap in apertures. And all four of them seemed to operate similarly.

At that moment, Zhao Li was completely stunned. Top-tier heaven-grade cultural art! One art. These four arts most definitely belonged to a single art!

Holy shit!

Top-tier heaven-grade cultural art!

Was this real?

Was it possible for something like this to exist?

Where had Su Yu obtained something like this?

This was a single cultural art with 144 apertures that had been split into 4. Holy shit. This thing would drive the Myriad Realms crazy if it was leaked.

Immediately after, Zhao Li's willpower spread out. The entire room was covered. He started scanning the room inch by inch. He was trying to find out if anyone was spying on them. He even started scanning Su Yu's body. He was worried that someone had planted some spying characters on Su Yu's body.

Suddenly, his expression changed. There seemed to be something in Su Yu's heart. His face fell as he immediately sent his willpower into Su Yu's heart.

While Zhao Li was scanning Su Yu's heart, Su Yu paled slightly. What was going on?

After some time, Zhao Li's expression returned to normal. He looked at Su Yu silently. After a while, he exhaled and said, "It's fine. I was only being cautious. After this, I'll give you a detection cultural weapon that can detect any attempt to spy on you. Nowadays, there are characters capable of spying, eavesdropping, and tracking. You can never be too cautious. Also..."

He looked at the replica and frowned, "You shouldn't have asked me about this. You shouldn't have asked anyone about this. Keep it hidden and slowly study it when you grow stronger."

This was a cultural art with 144 apertures.

Zhao Li reckoned that even Invincibles wouldn't have something like this.

Perhaps only cultural researcher Invincibles would have such a cultural art in possession.

Su Yu smiled, "Teacher, in my eyes, your Soul Expanding Art is just as valuable. In all honesty, without linking all of them into a system, this thing really isn't that valuable. The four systems might resemble each other, but with my intelligence, I might take decades to combine them all."

After a short thought, he said, "Actually, I still have another system. All five systems belong to the same art."

"..."

Zhao Li's expression turned incomparably grave.

"Divine art."

"What?"

"This is a divine art." Zhao Li solemnly said, "Cultivation methods and martial techniques are generally classified into heaven, earth, profound, and yellow grades. And above that is the divine grade. I believe there are some divine-grade martial arts in existence. The Sky Sundering Saber cultivated by Great Xia King himself is probably at that level. Of course, only the heaven or lower grades of the art will be taught to others.

"A single slash of Great Xia King's saber has a power far beyond what the power 144 acupoints can provide. At the Sunmoon Realm, cultivators will fuse all their acupoints into a single acupoint. But that single Sunmoon acupoint will vary between individuals. For example, if you only cultivate a martial art with 144 acupoints, even after fusing 300 acupoints, there will still be a difference between you and someone cultivating a martial art with 300 acupoints. You will understand when you reach the Mountainsea Realm yourself."

Zhao Li stopped talking. He looked at Su Yu for a very long time before saying, "Do not show me the final system. They are all very similar. If we can merge the four systems here, you will be able to merge the fifth system yourself."

Zhao Li then started studying the replica again. After a while, he said, "I will be staying here for a few days. You will be staying here as well. We will try to join all these apertures together. If the aperture locations are all correct and the pathways are also correct, we only need to worry about joining them safely."

Su Yu nodded silently.

Zhao Li did not ask him about the origin of these systems. And he had not told Zhao Li about it either. That was a very sensitive topic to ask. Even without asking, Zhao Li could guess the origin of something like this. Something like this could only come from an ancient ruin.

It was very likely that Su Yu had inherited the legacy of an ancient ruin. And that ruin could very well be a rare cultural researcher legacy. It might even be something left behind by a cultural researcher Invincible.

It would be better for both of them to not talk about such a matter. It was too sensitive and would bring great trouble to both of them.

While walking around the replica, Zhao Li said, "The Myriad Text Sutra is incomparable to this art. Be very strict with who you teach this art to. Even if you're going to teach someone, I suggest that you only teach the version with 108 apertures. Even such a version is already enough to give you a lot of trouble."

"It would be even better if you only teach the version with 2 systems. You can allow someone to start opening apertures at the Mental Tempering Stage. With 72 apertures, even this version is enough for someone to cultivate all the way to the Mountainsea Realm.

"Of course, opening so many apertures might not necessarily be a good thing. Can you even fuse all these apertures at the Mountainsea Realm? The Soul Expanding Art alone is already delaying your advancement. If you open so many apertures, your growth will be slowed down even more. You might even be stuck at the ninth-stage Cloudbreach Realm for decades or even a hundred years. Of course, there is also the option of advancing through physical cultivation first..."

Suddenly, he cursed.

Fuck!

This damn kid had opened a terrifyingly high number of acupoints as well! Did the damn kid intend to spend his entire life at the Mountainsea Realm?

"Kid, don't mess around. Your cultivation methods are too powerful."

"..."

He didn't even know what to say anymore. Looking at the innocent expression on Su Yu's face, he said, "It would be too big of a waste if someone like you doesn't enter the Invincible Realm. You will be spending a lot of time and resources for your cultivation. If you can really enter the Invincible Realm, you will definitely become a super expert among all Invincibles. Someone like you...can probably skip levels to fight Invincibles in the future."

What a crazy kid.

Even someone as crazy as Zhao Li was feeling that Su Yu was crazy. The kid had opened hundreds of acupoints. On top of that, the kid had also opened 180 apertures. Was the kid not afraid of being stuck at the Mental Tempering Stage and Infinite Strength Realm for life?

Of course, the moment someone like him advanced, he would become a terrifying cultivator. He would be able to rapidly surpass the Cloudbreach Realm and enter the Mountainsea Realm before he was faced with yet another bottleneck.

Zhao Li said nothing else. Perhaps a true freak that would shake the Myriad Realms would once again emerge from the Great Xia Cultural Research Academy. For now, his top priority was the combination of these systems into a single art. This art would be far less impressive without joining all the systems together.

"This is supposed to be a job for a couple of Invincibles or Sunmoons. Sigh. Forget it. I suppose it's time for me to start using my brain again."

Zhao Li had no choice but to sigh and do it himself. Sure, those experts could do the job better, but leaking this art could also bring them more trouble. This damn Su Yu was really too gutsy. Why had the kid shown him this art? Was the kid not afraid of being silenced?

Even with Wan Tiansheng around, Zhao Li would most likely only end up exiled to the Allheaven Battlefield instead of being killed after silencing Su Yu. Then again, he was also very gratified at the amount of trust Su Yu was showing toward him.

Sure enough, he had not been mistaken about this kid. Just look at how he was the first person the kid had visited for guidance. What a pity that the kid wasn't his direct student. How was Hong Tan worthy of being this kid's grandteacher?

Su Yu had totally been scammed into joining that declining faction. But if Su Yu really abandoned the multiple character faction, he would only be viewed as a cold-hearted individual. By staying with the faction, he had instead demonstrated his loyalty. A child with such loyalty was very rare nowadays.

Zhao Li continued sighing. If Su Yu really decided to abandon the multiple character faction, he might end up feeling disappointment in the kid instead. Nevertheless, he still couldn't resist cursing inwardly. He really didn't know what to feel.

That bastard Liu Wenyan had misled his great student!

Without Liu Wenyan, the kid would have become his direct student long ago! What a pity.

"This student of mine is a future Invincible."

The more he thought about it, the more regretful he was. Even if Su Yu managed to enter the Invincible Realm in the future, he would be an Invincible of the multiple character faction, not the weaponsmithing faction. Zhao Li felt like someone was stabbing his heart with needles. He reminded himself to give Bai Feng a beating the next time he saw that rascal.

Chapter 461: A Silly Visitor (1)

On the 22th of October, Su Yu started skipping classes again.

He seemed to have vanished completely from the academy. Nobody knew where he was.

The so-called tuition class he claimed he was starting previously was nowhere to be seen. There had also been no updates regarding the research center he wanted to found. It was as though the boastful Su Yu from that day was a lie.

...

While Su Yu and Zhao Li were locked in seclusion.

Great Xia Cultural Research Academy.

Outside.

Chen Hao was looking around curiously. So this was the Great Xia Cultural Research Academy? It didn't look like anything special. The Martial Dragon War Academy looked a lot more imposing!

"Chen Hao?"

Suddenly, someone called out to him.

When Chen Hao looked over, he instantly recognized who the other person was. "It's you! You're the fatty beside Yu previously."

"..."

Xia Huyou was speechless. If this bastard wasn't Su Yu's friend, he would have beaten the damn bastard to death. Who was the fatty here? Was he fat? He was sturdy, not fat! This damn bastard was only relying on his height to look less fat. If they had the same height, this bastard would be a lot fatter than him!

"I'm Xia Huyou." Xia Huyou introduced himself and said, "You heard from Su Yu, right? He's currently busy so I'll be taking charge of you."

"Xia Huyou(Misleading scammer)?"

Chen Hao was stunned. What stupid name was that?

This was clearly the name of a bad guy! Xia Huyou couldn't even be bothered to say anything about that. He was already used to this.

He beckoned at Chen Hao and started walking away while talking, "Come on. Remember to be smart while you're in the academy. Watch what you say and don't mention Su Yu's name. Don't even say that you're his friend. Do you understand?"

"Yeah, I know." Chen Hao nodded. That response surprised Xia Huyou. What exactly did this fellow know?

Why wasn't this fellow asking anything?

Before Xia Huyou could say anything, Chen Hao whispered, "Did Yu scheme someone to death? Or did he kill someone directly? How many people did he kill? It's illegal to kill. He wasn't caught, right?"

"..."

Fuck!

That was the only word Xia Huyou had in his mind. This fellow actually knew Su Yu so well? So Su Yu had already been a scumbag for a very long time?

When Xia Huyou first met Su Yu, he had thought that Su Yu was an honest kid. But listen to Su Yu's childhood friend. This childhood friend was able to immediately guess that Su Yu had done something bad.

So Su Yu had been a scumbag since he was a child! Suddenly, Xia Huyou felt exhausted.

While walking, Xia Huyou said, "He didn't break any laws. Just lay low and be careful in the academy. You don't want to attract anyone's attention."

"I understand." Chen Hao nodded. He glanced around them before asking curiously, "Can I call you fatty? You have the name of a villain. It's not nice to call you by your name."

"Whatever." Xia Huyou gnashed his teeth in anger. This damn bastard was from the Martial Dragon War Academy right? So this was basically a future member of the Martial Dragon Guards. He should find a chance to get a leadership position at the Martial Dragon Guards and use that opportunity to take care of this bastard.

"Fatty, are you strong?"

"I'm decent."

"Are you a new student?"

"Yeah."

"You must have reached the Great Strength Realm, right? People Yu hangs out with won't be too weak."

"Yeah."

"Not bad at all. You have the same cultivation level as me."

Chen Hao nodded smugly. He was a Great Strength cultivator as well.

Xia Huyou didn't even know what to say. Yes. Both of them were at the Great Strength Realm. But they were far from similar, especially when combat strength was taken into consideration.

This childhood friend of Su Yu was really quite lacking in intelligence. No wonder he ended up in the Martial Dragon War Academy.

Chen Hao continued looking around curiously as he walked. Suddenly, he said, "The Great Xia Cultural Research Academy sure is a boring place. In our academy, you can hear the grunts of people practicing martial arts all day long. There are also sounds of people fighting every now and then. It's a bustling place. Why is it so quiet here?"

He was right. Generally, the Great Xia Cultural Research Academy was a very quiet place. Most students would spend their time in classes or cultivation. Very few people would wander around the academy for no reason.

Xia Huyou said, "Those are warriors. We are cultural researchers. We are not the same."

"Oh?"

Chen Hao nodded. Cultural researchers sure were a boring bunch. And for some reason, they loved their long robes so much. That looked totally uncomfortable and inconvenient. Wouldn't the robes get in the way in fights?

Suddenly, a few people walked past them. From their conversation, Chen Hao heard a familiar name.

"Why is Su Yu missing? I thought he's going to climb the top 100 this month. After his defeat, Zhan Hai has entered seclusion. I reckon he's trying to enter the Skysoar Realm. Without him in the top 100, Su Yu will dominate the ranking. The ranking matches will be a lot more boring after that."

"True. After the tournament, the challenge matches have stopped for the monthly reset. They only have two days left if they want to face each other again before they enter the Willpower Grotto. Zhan Hai will definitely leave the grotto as a Skysoar. This is their last chance to fight before the Skysoar Realm."

"..."

Su Yu?

First place in top 100?

Chen Hao blanked out. After walking further away from the students, he asked Xia Huyou, "Fatty, were they talking about Yu?"

Xia Huyou glanced at Chen Hao and smiled, "Who else?"

"First place in top 100?"

Chen Hao was astonished.

"Yeah. He is strong enough to wipe the floor with the number one student of your Dragon Tiger Ranking without breaking a sweat."

"..."

Chen Hao turned dispirited. Was that true?

Wasn't it supposed to be top five previously? Su Yu had upgraded from top five to number one?

That was fast. It hadn't even been long since their previous meeting!

"So he's in hiding after beating some people up?"

"No..." Xia Huyou paused shortly to arrange his words before saying, "The Great Xia Cultural Research Academy is a lot more troublesome than your Martial Dragon War Academy. In your academy, the people are relatively united. After all, most of you will end up serving in the same army after graduation. As for our academy...the situation is somewhat chaotic."

"Chaotic?" Chen Hao whispered, "Will it result in death?"

"Yes." ɴᴇᴡ ɴᴏᴠᴇʟ ᴄʜᴀᴘᴛᴇʀs ᴀʀᴇ ᴘᴜʙʟɪsʜᴇᴅ ᴏɴ novel fire.net

Xia Huyou nodded. He wasn't lying. Just a few days ago, two Mountainseas and one Cloudbreach had died. Additionally, a few popular geniuses had also been crippled. One could say that their internal conflict had reached a very high level of intensity.

Chen Hao said nothing else.

The Grotto District was near.

At that moment, they saw a few individuals walking over from the opposite direction. When they saw Xia Huyou, one of them greeted, "Brother Xia, you're visiting the Grotto District?"

That person then looked at Chen Hao in astonishment. A student from the Martial Dragon War Academy? Yes. Chen Hao was still wearing the Martial Dragon War Academy's uniform.

Why was a student of the Martial Dragon War Academy here? This fellow...didn't not seem to be that strong?

Xia Huyou smiled and asked, "Where are you guys going? Xia Chan, why aren't you greeting your elder brother? That's rude, you know?"

At the very center of the group was none other than Xia Chan.

She shot him a glance and said nothing. Wasn't this fellow trying to hide his identity? Wasn't he pretending to be a member of a branch family? Wasn't it normal for her to ignore him? This damn fatty had been insisting that she call him elder brother just because he was a few months older than her. She couldn't even be bothered to entertain him.

The first person to greet them said, "Brother Xia, we're on our way to welcome some people back. Senior Brother Di Feng and the others are returning in triumph. They have eliminated a cult stronghold and killed a Skysoar. If everything proceeds smoothly, they might even be able to cancel the ban placed on them..."

"Brother Xia, you're quite close with Su Yu, right? Where has he been? Senior Brother Di has killed a Skysoar, proving that he has grown even stronger than before. I'm afraid he's already not far away from the Skysoar Realm. If he manages to enter the Willpower Grotto as well, he would definitely be able to reach the SKysoar Realm. Su Yu must have hidden himself in fear, right?"

Xia Huyou rolled his eyes inwardly. What was the point of saying all that to him?

He was a merchant. He did not involve himself in factional conflicts.

He kept the smile on his face and said, "I don't know, but I guess I have to congratulate Senior Brother Di. I don't know about Su Yu. If you are interested in buying some information about him, I can do some investigation. I am a businessman. I don't care about the conflict between you guys..."

"Yeah, we know that."

They laughed. Previously, when Li Shiyun and the others were defeated, the single character faction was starting to despair.

Perhaps it was for the sake of repairing their morale, but not long after, news of Di Feng destroying a cult stronghold spread into the academy. He had even joined hands with a few other students to kill a Skysoar. The students of the single character faction were all relieved upon hearing that news.

Killing a Skysoar.

That was something not even Zhan Hai had accomplished before. And Di Feng had done so. It could only mean that he was stronger than Zhan Hai. And Zhan Hai was extremely strong. If it wasn't for the surprise attack by Su Yu and Zhou Hao, he might even win against the two of them alone. With the spread of that news, the single character faction's morale recovered.

At this time, the student who had greeted Xia Huyou asked curiously, "Brother Xia, this is...a student from the Martial Dragon War Academy? He can't enter our grotto, right? Are you guys heading to the Grotto District?"

Chapter 462: A Silly Visitor (2)

"Yeah!"

Before Xia Huyou could say anything, Chen Hao answered. Xia Huyou cursed inwardly. Shit! This fellow better not create trouble for him! This childhood friend of Su Yu seemed really silly. At Chen Hao's reply, they looked at him curiously. Could he even enter? Official source ıs NoveI~Fire.net

Chen Hao had an honest expression on his face as he said, "Seniors, I am a student of the Martial Dragon War Academy, a reserve soldier of the Martial Dragon Guards, a servant of the Xia Family. Because of that, my teacher got me a chance to enter a grotto in your academy..."

He then scratched his head and looked at Xia Chan before asking, "Is this Senior Sister from the Xia Family? If that's the case, you will be my future mistress. Are you from the main branch of the family?"

The same student laughed and said, "You have good eyes. Xia Chan is from the main branch, the first granddaughter of Marquis Xia."

Instantly, Chen Hao dropped down on one knee and said, "Chen Hao, student of Martial Dragon War Academy and reserve soldier of Martial Dragon Guards greets General XIa!"

"..."

Xia Chan was left speechless. Why would they stumble upon a Martial Dragon War Academy student so randomly?

Sure, the Xia Family was the ruling family of Great Xia. And the Martial Dragon Guards was basically their private army. It wasn't wrong for Chen Hao to greet her like that. Even so, Xia Chan still felt somewhat awkward. She said, "You don't need to act like this in the academy."

"Yes, madam!"

Chen Hao stood up obediently. With the same simple smile on his face, he said, "I am Chen Hao. I am not strong, but I can be a good meat shield. Since fellow seniors are the friends of General Xia, feel free to let me know if you need my help in the future."

"If you don't mind my slow speed, you can even get me to go with you on missions. A lot of lord cultural researchers require guards when out on missions. And I specialize in security at the Martial Dragon War Academy. I am well-trained in the art of taking the sword for the people I'm protecting!"

Chen Hao scratched his head and bashfully said, "Seniors, you may take my number. I only need a few merit points per mission. I guarantee you I will fight fearlessly!"

With the awkward expression of someone who was in a bad financial position, he said, "Normally, we won't work with those from the other academies on missions. But since you are friends of General Xia, I can make an exception. After all, we of the Martial Dragon Guards are all the private soldiers of the Xia Family. I might be weak, but I will definitely grow after entering the grotto. I am here today to forge my body. I will definitely grow stronger."

The same student asked, "What is your current cultivation level?"

"Second-stage Great Strength Realm!" Chen Hao answered, "Us warriors can grow quickly since we don't have to grow our willpower like the lord cultural researchers. Acupoints are much faster to open. I will reach the fourth stage by the end of the year..."

A meat shield at the fourth or fifth stage of the Great Strength Realm really wasn't anything special. But for some reason, the Martial Dragon War Academy had actually gotten a grotto slot for him? Which grotto was he entering?

Source Qi Secret Grotto?

Or a different grotto?

They were unsure, but since this person could get a grotto slot, he was probably an important student at the Martial Dragon War Academy. They smiled and said nothing else. Chen Hao even read out his number to them, but it was unknown if they had actually taken his number. Before long, they left.

...

After the group left, Xia Huyou looked at Chen Hao in surprise. Meanwhile, Chen Hao continued walking with his head lowered. He nearly collided against Xia Huyou's body. Only then did he look up. While scratching his head, he asked, "Why did you stop, fatty?"

Xia Huyou looked at Chen Hao with an odd gaze and asked, "You knelt down the moment you saw Xia Chan. I'm also from the Xia Family. Do you know that?"

"..."

Chen Hao rolled his eyes and said ,"Yeah. You told me."

"I'm also from the Xia Family. Do you know that?"

"Of course I know."

"Then why..." Xia Huyou paused speechlessly. He said, "Just what were you doing? Those fellows are the enemies of that guy, do you know that?"

"Of course I know."

Chen Hao nodded. What a stupid question. Of course he knew. This fatty had been asking so many stupid questions. Why did Yu befriend someone so dumb?

"Why did you..." Xia Huyou frowned for a long while before saying, "Big guy, do you know that excluding my sister, Xia Chan, almost everyone in that group has the strength at the Infinite Strength Realm."

"Of course I know." Chen Hao nodded, "I can feel how strong they are."

"Then...are you still going to deal with them for that fellow?"

Xia Huyou had a guess of what Chen Hao was planning. He was quite surprised. What a gutsy fellow. At first, he had thought that this fellow was really dumb from how obedient this guy was acting.

With a silly smile, Chen Hao said, "They're cultural researchers while I'm a warrior. Warriors can actually grow very fast since we only focus on physical cultivation. And I only need to open 72 acupoints. After this grotto visit, I will probably become one of the top experts among the new students of my academy. I will be able to apply for more resources. I doubt I will take long to enter the Infinite Strength Realm."

Chen Hao grinned, "And at the Infinite Strength Realm, my physical body is definitely stronger than a cultural researcher's body. If I can close the distance, any cultural researcher below the Skysoar Realm would stand no chance against me."

Could this fatty even understand his words? This was quite a dumb fatty. In previous years, the war academy students had been the ones to wipe the floor with the cultural research academy students during the yearly exchanges.

In close range, a warrior could instantly defeat a cultural researcher. Was this little fatty not aware of that? They weren't even at the Skysoar Realm yet. Before willpower materialization, a cultural researcher did not have too many tricks up their sleeve. Su Yu was simply an exception.

Xia Huyou looked at Chen Hao in astonishment.

Holy shit!

Sure enough, a dog that bites would never bark!

This fellow...was actually preparing to catch those fellows by surprise and kill them all?

Holy shit!

So ruthless?

He hurriedly said, "The girl in the group is called Xia Chan. She's Marquis Xia's granddaughter. Do you know that? Each Xia Family member is protected by hidden guardians."

Chen Hao nodded and looked at Xia Huyou like he was looking at the biggest fool in the world. He said, "Of course I know. I'm not going to go out with her. Since she's a Xia Family member, she definitely has her secret guards. But the other students probably don't have any personal guards, right?"

Chen Hao looked at Xia Huyou with an odd gaze. Was this so hard to understand?

The rest of them were ordinary people. They wouldn't be walking away with personal guards. Meanwhile, he, Chen Hao, was supposedly a genius of the Martial Dragon War Academy, a reserve soldier of the Martial Dragon Guards, the private army of the Xia Family. He was a reliable and honest soldier. And someone like him had volunteered to become their meatshield. Wasn't it great?

And they only needed to pay him a few merit points for his service! With that, he could do all the dirty and tiring jobs for them. He could even offer them his protection from close distance. Wasn't he much more reliable than the other warriors?

Sure, he was still weak. But he was still at his golden age of cultivation. He could still grow quickly.

Xia Huyou was completely speechless. So...this fellow was really planning to kill those people!

How brazen!

At this point, the Grotto District was near. Xia Huyou softly said, "But you told them that the Martial Dragon War Academy sent you here. They can easily find out that you were lying..."

Chen Hao smiled, "It's fine. I'll get my teacher to cover for me. I'm already here. All he needs to do is give me an empty slot. The academy will be more than happy to do it since I won't be taking an actual slot from the academy. In Yu's words, they can earn some reputation without spending money. Why would they say no?

"The academy could even use me as an example, telling the other students that if even Chen Hao was given a chance to enter a grotto, the other students would definitely be given a chance as long as they work hard. With that, what I told them would turn into the truth. I was sent here by my academy!"

"..."

Xia Huyou was completely speechless. This made a damn lot of sense! Wow. He couldn't even say anything to that.

This fellow was already here. He had relied on his personal connection to enter the grotto. The Martial Dragon War Academy was definitely happy to see that. They would be more than willing to give Chen Hao an empty slot and claim the credit of allowing him to enter the grotto. There was definitely no issue with that.

And the Great Xia Cultural Research Academy would certainly not mind as well. They wouldn't care since either way, there was no denying that Chen Hao had been given a chance to enter. And thus, Chen Hao's lie would no longer be a lie.

"You're from Nanyuan..."

Chen Hao scratched his head, "Yeah. I thought the personal profiles of all students are confidential? Those people are big shots. Would big shots investigate a small fry like me?"

"..."

Xia Huyou had nothing to say. He decided to just stop asking questions. This fellow had most definitely been acting dumb.

Holy shit!

He had most certainly thought that this fellow was really dumb earlier.

But instead, this fucker was basically the same as Su Yu. No wonder they were childhood friends.

This fellow's talent was a tad bit bad, but it was still good enough to be accepted into the Martial Dragon War Academy. With more opportunities, he might really emerge as a decently powerful expert in the future.

It was Chen Hao's turn to ask questions. "Do they hate Yu that much? And who's Di Feng?"

"Someone near the Skysoar Realm. And you heard them. He killed a Skysoar recently."

Xia Huyou shrugged, "And they most certainly hate Su Yu. They hate him so much that they won't hesitate to kill him if they have the chance. If Su Yu hadn't been staying in the academy, he would have been killed by them long ago."

"Oh."

Chen Hao did not ask more.

But this time, it was Xia Huyou who spoke first, "You need to know that the details of each mission will be recorded."

"Oh."

"You will screw yourself up if you really go through with your plan. Even without proof that you're the killer, your future will still be ruined with this stain in your profile. You will be forever known as an unreliable guard."

"Oh."

"..."

Oh? Screw your oh!

Xia Huyou asked, "Don't you want to join the Martial Dragon Guards?"

Chen Hao said, 'Yes, I do. But I was never supposed to be able to join. I wouldn't have been able to get into the academy without Yu's help."

Xia Huyou was completely speechless. This fellow sure looked honest. He was even more pleasing to the eye than Su Yu. Just look at that simple and honest face. Even Xia Huyou was tempted to believe this thick-browed guy was a good guy. But it turned out that he was a scoundrel as well.