Chapter 29 - 29

Chapter 488: Ample Preparations Will Always Help (2)

Of the human cultural researchers, so many of them also practiced physical cultivation. Over the years, had none of them considered creating a cultivation method or technique to remove this repelling force? Perhaps there was a way to link the acupoints in a way that the repelling force would be weakened?

"If the human race does not have something like this, what about the myriad races?"

And if that was the case, this would be his opportunity. According to his estimation, if he fused his acupoints normally, he would take at least 3 days to fuse only 2 acupoints. It would take him 45 days to fuse the 16 acupoints if the speed remained constant.

But the difficulty would keep increasing the more acupoints he fused. Thus, he might even take 2 months instead of 45 days to finish fusing the 16 acupoints.

He would need to take 2 months to enter the first-stage Infinite Strength Realm. And after that, he needed to progress through 8 stages. If he needed 2 months per stage, wouldn't he need to take 18 months to reach the peak of the Infinite Strength Realm?

Su Yu was actually grumbling that reaching peak Infinite Strength Realm with 16 fused acupoints per stage within a year and a half slow. If Xia Huyou knew that, he would probably cough blood in anger.

Xia Huyou had started fusing his acupoints for 3 months. And he had only fused 14 acupoints. Even now, he had yet to enter the Infinite Strength Realm. According to his estimation, he would require at least 1 or 2 more months to finish fusing 16 acupoints. Thus, he would require half a year to reach the first-stage Infinite Strength Realm.

And upon entering that realm, he would probably need 3 years to reach the ninth stage. He also needed to use a lot of precious resources to assist with his cultivation. Only then would he be able to start considering the advancement of his physical body into the Skysoar Realm.

Since this was the time when he needed to be building his foundation, he was in no rush. In fact, he guessed that Su Yu would probably take a much longer time than him.

Little did Xia Huyou know, as per Su Yu's own estimates, he would only need a year and a half to reach that level.

"If I can derive a cultivation method capable of weakening this repelling force, this will be an incredibly significant cultivation method."

He was right. Such a cultivation method might even be more valuable than a foundation cultural art. This would ease the advancement of all cultivators into the Infinite Strength Realm. More importantly, this would also allow people who would originally be able to fuse only three or four acupoints to fuse six or seven or even eight acupoints instead.

That would turn them into true Infinite Strength cultivators instead of so-called Five Strength or Six Strength cultivators.

"No, people will continue fusing acupoints at the Mountainsea Realm. So this cultivation method will also be very helpful for even Mountainseas."

So did something like this exist? Su Yu had no answer. Despite his talent, he was still too young. He lacked experience. He had opened a lot of pages in his book, but since he couldn't read some of the pages, he had yet to try those abilities.

"It's not enough to work alone. I need to get the research center going and get more people to help with translation. They can also help with information gathering. That way, I don't have to rely on Xia Huyou all the time..."

After all, the more questions he asked, the more the other person would know about him. If he asked only one person his questions, that person would basically have a full grasp on what he was up to as well. Thɪs chapter is updated by ɴovelfire.net

It would seem like he really needed to start his research center. Even if he would end up recruiting some people with bad intentions, it didn't matter. He could always make everyone research separately. And he did not mind exposing some of his secrets. He only needed to keep his core secrets.

He continued working on his fusion, but the two acupoints were moving slower and slower. Eventually, the two acupoints finally overlapped. To truly fuse them, he needed to suppress them and keep them together until the repelling force was gone.

After a fusion, the single resulting acupoint would be much stronger than the total strength of the two original acupoints. A true Infinite Strength cultivator would be able to unleash the strength of 20 basic acupoints with only an acupoint fused from 10 basic acupoints. That was basically double the strength.

The same cultivator would have 90 basic acupoints fused into 9 acupoints at the ninth stage, granting them the strength of 180 basic acupoints. And if this was someone who had cultivated the War God Art and opened 108 acupoints, that person would have the strength of 198 basic acupoints.

This was the strength of a true ninth-stage Infinite Strength cultivator.

As for Su Yu, he had actually opened over 300 acupoints. He was able to unleash a similar level of strength in bursts, but he did not have the endurance to keep unleashing this level of strength for long.

His strongest cultivation method was the Sky Sundering Saber, allowing him to use the strength of 144 acupoints. With the assistance of some other techniques, he could further boost his strength. That gave him a similar level of strength as a ninth-stage Infinite Strength cultivator.

That was why he had been able to defeat those so-called Infinite Strength cultivators previously. Those people were at the ninth-stage Infinite Strength Realm, but they had not fused too many acupoints and weren't true Infinite Strength cultivators. They were naturally not his match.

In fact, Su Yu would not fear these fake Infinite Strength cultivators even if they somehow managed to reach the Skysoar Realm in the future. If someone managed to fuse 16 acupoints, one would be able to do more than double the strength of each basic acupoint.

Every basic acupoint fused would give a boost of 10 percent to the strength of each basic acupoint. By fusing 16 basic acupoints, a single basic acupoint would be as strong as two and a half basic acupoints.

After fusing 144 basic acupoints into 9 acupoints, one would be able to unleash the strength of over 300 basic acupoints. That would grant Su Yu an incredible combat strength. He would be much stronger than other true Infinite Strength cultivators. As for those who had fused only seven or eight acupoints, they would be akin to babies in front of him.

...

But to do one's job properly, one needed the proper tools.

Su Yu did not intend to work on his acupoints blindly like everyone else.

He wanted something better than taking two months to enter the first-stage Infinite Strength Realm. He would rather spend the two months in search for a shortcut, a more efficient method of fusion.

The next day.

6th of November.

Su Yu went to class again. As usual, he was maintaining a low profile.

On his way, he encountered Wu Lan. Normally, when Wu Lan saw him, she would not pick a fight even if she wouldn't be too cordial either. But this time, she had a cold and detached expression as she turned her head and walked away from him, as though he was an embarrassment and she couldn't stand being near him.

Su Yu had nothing to say. But he could guess the reason for her behavior. He was now known as a friend of the myriad races. He was different from everyone else. He was a traitor.

Everyone was prejudiced against the myriad races while he was their friend. What was the meaning of that? Su Yu couldn't even be bothered to explain himself. He continued heading to the classroom. On his way there, he heard some idle gossip about him.

When he arrived at the classroom, a lot of the students were gossiping with each other as well.

Surprisingly, Xia Huyou was present. When he saw Su Yu, he loudly asked, "Su Yu, is that Xia Qing really your friend?"

He then blinked his eyes at Su Yu. Clearly, he was trying to give Su Yu a chance to explain the matter.

Su Yu smiled, "If she says we're friends, then that must be the case. There is no need to explain myself. This is a class of geniuses. Everyone has their own way of judging things. There is no need to explain things to the smart ones. As for the fools...what's the point of explaining to them?"

Xia Huyou was speechless. Was this fellow accepting his fate?

Sure, some people believed that the myriad race students were trying to screw Su Yu over. But his reaction was way too gentle. After all, when the majority started believing that Su Yu was really a traitor, the few smart ones who knew the truth would shut their mouths.

At that point, speaking for Su Yu would only turn them into his fellow conspirators.

Su Yu ignored Xia Huyou and sat down beside Hu Qiusheng. He smiled and asked, "Brother Hu, you don't mind me sitting here, right? Or should I stay far away from you to not implicate you?"

Hu Qiusheng smiled, "Are you joking with me? Just ignore those boring rumors. The Foreign Students Faculty is finally trying to do something after so many months of silence. It's not like nobody knows what they're doing. But you can only blame yourself for being careless and giving her this opening..."

He added, "Also, I wasn't the one who had spread your encounter with her. Don't misunderstand me."

"I don't suspect any of you." Su Yu smiled, "That tigress herself is working hard to kick up a ruckus from nothing. I'll just ignore her. By the way, I'm going to open my research center soon. Are you still interested in joining, Brother Hu?"

"Of course."

"Good. I'll be filing my application soon." Su Yu exhaled and said, "I'll try to get the research center up and running first. Previously, Elder Sun promised to give me a building to set up my research center."

"You still need a Skysoar. Are you..."

Su Yu smiled, "I'll talk to some people. I only need to borrow someone's name. It won't be difficult."

Hu Wensheng had a profound tone as he said, "But due to all the rumors, you might not be able to get someone to lend you their name. You understand that, right?

"You can't rely on the help of Elder Wu and the others. These people already have their own research centers. Their names can't be used to open more research centers. This was a decision the academy made to prevent some researchers from opening random research centers and wasting academy resources."

Su Yu nodded, "It's fine. I know someone who wouldn't mind the rumors surrounding me."

He actually had a decent number of candidates. This wouldn't be an issue for him.

Instead, something entirely different was the issue. He said, "I need to build a data room. But for my data room, I need a lot of information, including information about cultivation methods. I can find some in the Wentan Research Center, but most of the information there is related to characters. I want to build a data room with more information, including the information of the myriad races. Are you able to gather some of the information for me?"

Hu Qiusheng nodded, "Common information is of little value. I can get a copy of each book in my house for you, but I doubt I can get you any top-secret information."

"Just gather as much information as you can."

Su Yu smiled, "I can give you a share in the research center, Brother Hu."

The Hu Family was a big family. Thus, he was trying to drag them toward his side.

Hu Qiusheng smiled, "Giving me a share? Forget it, Brother Su. I only want to focus on cultivating. I don't want to get involved in any other affairs..."

Su Yu said, "Sure. But don't regret your decision when we release a research result. Of course, as the first member, you will still receive a good bonus. But I have to make it clear that we're still very poor right now. You won't get anything for now."

"I understand." Hu Qiusheng asked, "Do you want to get Mingze and the others involved as well?"

"I'm still thinking about it." Su Yu did not give a confirmation. He would need to think more about Wan Mingze.

But he could try to recruit some other people, such as Zheng Yunhui and Xia Huyou to make his research center look more impressive. That was the only thing he wanted out of them. Prestige. He did not expect any contribution from them in regards to research.

As for the acupoint fusion cultivation method he was looking for, he would first do some investigation himself for it. If he failed to find anything, he would start asking around.

While he was thinking, Hu Wensheng said, "The war academy has decided on a date. During the 1st of next month, they will be visiting our academy to challenge our students. What are you going to do?"

"Isnt participation compulsory?"

"Not really. But...you will understand. If you stay away from the fight, you will probably feel terrible looking at the fights of others."

Su Yu smiled, "Because our fellow students will be receiving a beating from the war academy students?"

Hu Qiusheng nodded helplessly. He said, "Every year, there are even situations where some of our students are beaten until they start crying. Also, those fellows from the war academy are...very vulgar. People like us will still watch our words when we are talking trash. But those brutes won't. They will happily scold your family and your ancestors. Can you stand that?"

Su Yu smiled, "In that case, I'll simply be absent."

"Even if you're absent, they still know about you. They will simply stand in a ring and issue a public challenge to you. If you refuse to fight, they will call you a coward. You won't have a choice."

"..."

Su Yu was speechless. Was that really going to happen? No wonder the cultural research academy students had continued to fight each year even after being beaten up for so many years. They would rather receive a beating than allow the brutes to act all arrogant in their academy. Alas, those brutes would only turn more arrogant after delivering them a beating.

"I'll see. If they dare to provoke me...they will have to suffer the consequences."

Su Yu said, "Let's forget that for now. It is still quite far away. Let's focus on establishing our research center first. As for our recruits, we don't need strong individuals. We only need people who are rich in knowledge, such as someone with mastery over hundreds of languages, or someone with a wide base of knowledge, and so on. Strength is really not too important for what I want to do."

"That won't be an issue." Hu Qiusheng nodded, "I'll compile a list of names for you. These names can be easily found in the academy records. After all, one would be tested for the languages they know in the academy. But you will have to do the recruiting yourself."

"Sure."

Su Yu nodded. Some people had been focused on studying, resulting in a comparatively weaker strength. Some of these people were probably still stuck below the Mental Tempering Stage. It wouldn't be too hard to recruit these people.

And these were precisely the type of people Su Yu needed the most currently. He might have mastered dozens of languages himself, but that was not enough. And it was impossible for him to learn all languages by himself.

Thanks to the existence of the common language, there were fewer language experts nowadays. In fact, the languages of some minor races were on the brink of completely dying out in the Human Realm.

Chapter 489: Source Soul Acupoint (1)

Not long after Su Yu finished his discussion with Hu Qiusheng, the instructor arrived. Su Yu resumed his act as a good student, listening attentively to every word spoken by the instructor. Inwardly, however, he was busy thinking about all sorts of things, such as his recent lack of money. He wondered if he could continue getting the academy benefits.

Since he was already the top ranked new student in the top 100, that should be the equivalent of getting first place during the monthly examination. That should earn him 10 merit points, right? As the class monitor, he was still entitled to 5 merit points per month. And as a high-high student, he had a monthly stipend of 3 merit points.

He was currently ranked 29th in the top 100. He was previously ranked 24th, but his rank had changed due to the movement of other students in the ranking. Nevertheless, his rank was still high enough to receive an additional 10 merit points.

According to his calculation, he should be entitled to 28 merit points from the academy. But a certain asshole had cancelled his monthly stipend, so he wondered if the academy would still pay him. That asshole was only a discipline master, not the hall master of the Disciple Hall.

"I need to ask about this at the office. That's a lot of money."

After some calculation, Su Yu noticed that he was really broke. He had a debt of 1,100 merit points to Xia Huyou and he only had 130 merit points to his name. All the merit points he had listed earlier were the sources of merit points that would add to his total earned merit. That would be important as a high total earned merit would allow him to enter more grottos.

Additionally, high total earned merit would also grant him access to some cultivation manuals. Although he didn't need these manuals anymore, it was still a good idea to keep increasing his total earned merit.

Total earned merit would also be important when it comes to selecting missions and purchasing resources.

Basically, in Great Xia, one's total earned merit also represented one's status. The higher one's total earned merit was, the higher one's status was, and the more doors would open for one.

Even for his future advancement into a full researcher and further promotion would require enough total earned merit.

...

While Su Yu was thinking about all sorts of things, the class came to an end.

Right after class, he rushed toward the Merit Office.

"Can you check if my merit stipends for last month have been credited?" Su Yu asked right after entering the room.

The same young lady was on duty at the counter. But when she saw Su Yu this time, she was not as friendly as she was. With a cold expression, she took her time checking the records before finally saying, "You are supposed to be entitled to 28 merit points, but due to your punishment, your stipend as a high-high student has been rescinded. Thus, you are still eligible to receive 25 merit points."

When Su Yu thought about it, this should be right. Xia Yuwen had only removed his stipend as a high-high student, nothing else. 25 merit points. That was still a decent amount of money. But the 3 merit points he lost would not be gone for only one month. This might persist for many years.

He was supposed to keep receiving these stipends before reaching the Skysoar Realm. Damn that Xia Yuwen! This was such a big loss! Su Yu vowed to one day get his money back from Xia Yuwen.

He didn't really mind the cold expression of the young lady. This was most likely due to the rumors floating around about his relationship with the myriad races. Her reaction was understandable.

"Can I regain my monthly stipend for being a high-high student?"

"You can submit an appeal to the Discipline Hall."

"I understand. Please send me what I can receive for now."

Su Yu handed his merit card over. Before long, 25 merit points were transferred into his account.

At this time, he recalled the reward for placing first in the top 100. With that placing, one could get 30 merit points every month and one Infinite Strength willpower text. If one could maintain the rank for half a year, one would even receive a drop of divine or devil blood essence. That was a much better reward than what he was getting as a 29th ranked student.

And after half a year, one could get a drop of divine or devil blood essence. That was worth over a thousand merit points.

After reaching the Skysoar Realm, one would generally only require around 10 drops of divine or devil blood essence for body forging. Of course, only someone with a rich and powerful background would be able to afford such a luxurious body forging.

If one really couldn't gather enough money, one could consider staying in the first place for five years in a row. That way, one could earn ten drops of blood essence for their body forging after advancement. While thinking about all that, Su Yu ignored the young lady's disdainful gaze and left.

Inwardly, he thought of her with disdain as well. She believed everything Xia Qing said. How foolish. He couldn't even be bothered to explain himself. It was pointless. He was in quite a good mood with 25 merit points. At the very least, he had earned some money.

...

Character Faculty, staff block.

Elder Sun was a seventh-stage Mountainsea expert. Of the 36 Mountainseas of the academy, not many were at the late stage.

Elder Sun was also the deputy head of the Character Faculty.

Yu Hong was a seventh-stage Mountainsea as well. But instead of being the deputy head, she was the head of the Resource Office. That was an important position. In fact, she enjoyed more practical power than a deputy head. After all, she was almost fully in charge of all resource allocation in the faction.

Both of them had their own offices in the staff block. If they were not in seclusion, they would spend most of the time there. And at that moment, Su Yu was heading straight toward the office of the deputy head. When he arrived outside, he knocked on the door.

Inside, Elder Sun was in the middle of a conversation. When he sensed who the visitor was, the look in his eyes turned odd.

"Come in."

Su Yu strode in and flashed a wide smile, "Greetings, Elder Sun..."

Then, Su Yu noticed the other individual in the office. It was an old man with a familiar face. He was able to immediately realize that this was Lin Yao's grandfather.

"Greetings, Teacher Lin."

Su Yu acted like an obedient boy. When Elder Sun saw that, he raised his brow in annoyance. He greatly disliked Su Yu. Initially, he did not hate or even care about Su Yu. But Bai Feng had killed his student. Thus, he started hating anyone related to Bai Feng. He had not expected that Su Yu would visit him in his office.

"Elder Sun, since you have a guest, I'll be taking my leave."

Lin Yao's grandfather stood up to leave.

Elder Sun smiled and said, "We're in the middle of our conversation. What's the rush? Su Yu, why are you here? Out with it."

"Previously, you promised to provide me with a location for my research center..." Su Yu had his trademark simple smile as he said, "I have been recovering from my injuries during the past few days. But I'm all better now. Elder Sun, about your promise..."

Elder Sun was somewhat speechless. He did not expect the kid to be brave enough to really come and ask for a place.

Lin Yao's grandfather looked at Su Yu in astonishment. He asked, "Su Yu, are you really starting a research center?"

Su Yu flashed another simple and honest smile as he answered, "Of course. How can I go back on my words? I, Su Yu, am not the kind of person who would grow fat eating my own words. That would be too embarrassing."

He was indirectly criticizing some other people with that statement.

Elder Sun sneered and said, "There is an abandoned research center behind the Wentan Research Center. That's a big building. You want to apply for a research center? Sure. Get a Skysoar and five students or teachers to meet the minimum requirements before submitting your application. Also, you need to submit your research topic to the Research Department. If your topic is approved, you will naturally get your research center."

Su Yu grinned, "Elder Sun, will the academy allocate me funds after my application is approved?"

"Yes."

Elder Sun said, "But are you sure you want to take the academy's money? If you take the money, the academy will have full rights for your research results. If you can't produce any results within the time limit, you will be liable to compensate the academy."

In practice, barely anyone had been asked to compensate the academy for failing to produce any research results before. But with the changes in the Discipline Hall this year, nobody knew if that would still be the case.

The Discipline Hall was preparing to do something big at the end of the year. The various research centers would be one of their major focuses. It was very likely that some research centers might really be asked to compensate the academy this year.

"Full rights?" Su Yu said, "I don't think so, Elder Sun. The academy will only be given the right of first refusal, not full rights."

Elder Sun sneered and did not bother to argue. He said, "So you wish to apply for a starting fund? A lot of projects are awaiting funding recently so the academy is planning to cut down on some unnecessary projects. I'll be honest. You won't be able to get anything."

He was being very straightforward. He was not going to give Su Yu any money. And there was nothing Su Yu could do about it.

Su Yu could only sigh helplessly and said, "Forget it. Elder Sun, do you mean that if I can gather the minimum number of members and get my research project approved, I will be ble to start my own research center?"

"Yes." Elder Sun said, "Submit your application when you're done with it."

"Thank you, Elder Sun." Su Yu earnestly said, "I will definitely run my research center well. If I end up benefiting the whole human race with my research results in the future, I won't forget that it was only due to your great support that I would tread upon this path of research..." Thıs content belongs to NoveIꜰire.net

Elder Sun gave Su Yu a look of impatience before sneering with disdain. Sure. He would be waiting for this kid to benefit the human race.

Su Yu said nothing else and took his leave.

Right after Su Yu left, Lin Yao's grandfather said, "Old Sun, are you really approving his application?"

"It will be an empty shell. He won't be able to do anything with it."

Elder Sun was completely unbothered.

Lin Yao's grandfather sank into a short silence before saying, "If he really ends up producing something, then it would look bad on us."

"Don't worry." Elder Sun said, "Let him be. He will only be wasting his own time and delay his own cultivation."

In fact, he would be more than happy to see Su Yu spending all the time on research instead of cultivating, staying below the Skysoar Realm forever. The two then moved back to their original topic, forgetting about Su Yu.

Chapter 490: Source Soul Acupoint (2)

As for Su Yu, he moved with great efficiency.

He aimed to complete the application within a single day. He needed the names of five students and one Skysoar. It wouldn't be hard for him to find enough students. With his senior sister, Hu Qiusheng, and himself, he only needed two more people.

As for the Skysoar...

He could forget about Liu Hong. With that person around, he would need to be constantly on guard against any attempt to swallow his entire research center. Shortly after, he arrived at the House of Hundred.

Zhao Ming!

Yes. This referee was his target. That was someone from the neutral faction.

He had asked Zhao Li, Old Huang, and Old Nie. All three of them had advised him to look for a neutral researcher. He needed someone who would not be biased against anyone. That person would only need to lend him their name and receive some monetary compensation in return.

Zhao Ming would be the perfect person for this since he would be punished by the neutral faction if he stopped being neutral. Today, nobody was challenging the ranking. Thus, Zhao Ming was resting in his office while happily chatting with the young ladies employed at the House of Hundred.

Su Yu had never entered the House of Hundred. He had always left after finishing his matches. Thus, this was his first time actually stepping into the building.

Before long, Zhao Ming sensed his arrival. He looked at Su Yu and called out in astonishment, "Su Yu?"

This fellow was missing yesterday when the cloud tigress was fighting under his name. Instead, he appeared today.

"Are you challenging the ranking?"

"Nope." Su Yu smiled, "I'm here to have a chat with you, Teacher."

"What is it?"

"I need your name. You will be paid 30 merit points per year."

Su Yu went straight to the point.

Zhao Ming was able to immediately understand what Su Yu wanted. At that time, a few students happened to be passing by. When they heard that, they looked over curiously.

Su Yu completely ignored them. Zhao Ming was similarly unbothered. With an amused expression, he asked, "For your research center?"

"Yes."

"Since you are here, you must have realized how important I am." Zhao Ming grinned, "I am someone who loves following rules. And I will always stick to my words after coming to an agreement instead of trying to pull something dirty. Your price is too low. It isn't easy to find someone that can fulfill this role. And it's even harder to find someone you can trust..."

Su Yu smiled and said, "Senior Brother Liu Chuan would probably be suitable as well."

"Pfft!"

Zhao Ming knew who Liu Chuan was. He was also a student of Liu Wenyan. He was not young, but he was still stuck at the Skysoar Realm.

Zhao Ming curled his lips and asked, "So are you planning to drag him into your mess? Those big shots have forgotten about his involvement during the previous conflict because he's not important enough. But by using his name for your application, you will bring him into the limelight again. Won't you feel bad?"

Su Yu said, "That's why I'm here. But I'm not lying when I say that I have other options. You must be aware of that as well."

"100 merit points." Zhao Ming couldn't be bothered to say anything else. He directly quoted a price.

"50 merit points. Yearly. And you won't need to do anything. If you can't agree to this, forget it."

"Deal." Zhao Ming agreed without hesitation. He smiled, "Money is but a trivial matter. We shouldn't place that much importance on money and let it harm our relationship. By the way, what's your research project? Do you want me to make a fake proposal for you? Basically, I can write you a proposal that can get approved easily. Don't worry. The academy does not mind. And I won't charge you too much for this service."

Su Yu smiled, "At present, I intend to research the source soul acupoint."

"What?"

"Source soul acupoint." Su Yu smiled, "According to my own theory, there exists a special acupoint in the human body. This acupoint is the link between acupoints and apertures. If I can locate it, I will be able to help the entire human race skip through the Source Opening Realm. Instead of passive cultivation in the beginning, they can directly cultivate the Source soul acupoint.

"With the source soul acupoint, all beginners can cultivate both source qi and willpower at the same time. Perhaps in the future, the Source Opening Realm might even cease to exist."

Zhao Ming was stunned. He stared at Su Yu for a very long time.

He had thought that this was going to be the game of a child. But this kid was actually tackling an incredibly massive project.

Source soul acupoint.

Su Yu had even named the theoretical acupoint. And if this acupoint was really discovered, the entire human race would enter a new era. And Su Yu...would be the person responsible for starting a new page of history, leaving his mark in the history of humanity.

Zhao Ming's face turned solemn as he said, "Source soul acupoint...the link between source acupoints and soul apertures?"

"Yeah."

"Does it exist?"

"I don't know."

"Why are you researching it, then?"

"How can I know the answer before researching it?" Su Yu smiled, "Every discovery starts from the exploration of the unknown. I have noticed that the cultural researchers of humanity have been stagnant. They are exploring less and less. We have a Knowledge Seeking Realm, signifying the true purpose of cultural researchers. Yet the cultural researchers we have today..."

Su Yu smiled and stopped. He did not wish to place a label on every single cultural researcher in existence so easily. But he really couldn't help but notice that in recent years, there hadn't been much innovation among human cultural researchers.

Zhao Ming stared at Su Yu for a long while and asked, "There must be a reason for you to even come up with this idea, right? How did you get this theory?"

"I got this feeling after opening 300 acupoints."

Su Yu spoke indifferently, but like Hu Qiusheng, Zhao Ming was left completely speechless.

Fuck! Was this kid showing off?

Zhao Ming spoke in a somewhat sour tone, "What's the point of opening so many acupoints? It's not like you can link all of them."

Su Yu smiled, "That will change if I can discover the source soul acupoint. In the future, we might even be able to link acupoints with apertures. I am even suspecting that this source soul acupoint might be the crux for a human to advance into the Invincible Realm through willpower cultivation."

"..."

As of that moment, Zhao Ming was completely stunned.

Meanwhile, Su Yu blinked.

Fuck!

What the fuck did he just say?

No way...right?

He was honestly only bragging earlier. But at this moment, his eyes flickered as he sank into thought. If the character techniques of the multiple character faction was the crux for a cultural researcher's advancement into the Invincible Realm, why couldn't this source soul acupoint be another crux?

Did this acupoint not exist? But he had a feeling that something like this truly existed. After opening more acupoints, he was starting to get a sensation that there was an important undiscovered human acupoint in the human body. The more acupoints he opened, the stronger this feeling became.

Numerous thoughts appeared in the minds of Su Yu and Zhao Ming.

Suddenly, Zhao Ming said, "You can have my name for free. But I wish to participate in your research."

Suddenly, someone else said, "Su Yu, can I join your research center?"

Jiang Mu!

Su Yu was aware that Jiang Mu was there. He smiled and said, "I was merely rambling randomly. Don't take my words seriously."

"Of course not. I doubt your theory about the Invincible Realm is correct. But as for the source soul acupoint..." Jiang Mu solemnly said, "I believe this acupoint might really exist for real. I once read a travelog with a story about an expert during the early Anping Calendar. That expert had unleashed an astonishing level of strength to kill a seventh-stage Mountainsea as a ninth-stage Cloudbreach with one hit..."

Zhao Ming asked in astonishment, "You're talking about Bai Tianhao?"

"Yeah."

Jiang Mu nodded. Meanwhile, Su Yu had a blank look. He had never heard of that name before.

Zhao Ming explained, "Bai Tianhao is someone who was active during the early Anping Calender. He is actually...related to you. Your teacher, Bai Feng, is a descendant of Bai Tianhao. It is said that this person had killed a Mountainsea as a Cloudbreach. But that person had died not long after. It has been too long so nobody knows if something like that had really happened. This story can be commonly found in travelogs or similar compilations of memoirs."

"Bai Tianhao?"

Bai Feng's ancestor?

Su Yu was very surprised. He said, "You mean that he had opened this source soul acupoint and linked his acupoints and apertures to gain the strength to kill a Mountainsea?"

"Yeah." Jiang Mu seriously said, "You said that you came up with this theory due to the feeling you got after opening 300 acupoints. I believe that you might be right. In fact, during the early Anping Calender, quite a lot of people had opened hundreds of acupoints due to a lack of proper cultivation system. Of course, most of these people are already dead. Some were dead from old age while the others were dead while fighting in the battlefield. It is rumored that Bai Tianhao had also opened a lot of acupoints. Perhaps this source soul acupoint really exists!

"Of course, he was probably not aware of this acupoint's existence. He had probably unleashed it by accident in a fight to the death, unleashing an unprecedented level of strength."

Su Yu didn't know what to say. That was merely a random guess of his. But hearing Jiang Mu's words, the possibility of this acupoint existing was actually quite high? He didn't mind letting others know about his theory.

Nobody would steal this research of his. Who would be crazy enough to open hundreds of acupoints just for research? In fact, only the humans during the early Anping Calendar had opened that many acupoints. Subsequently, human cultivators had stopped opening so many acupoints. Follow current novels on novelFirｅ.net

"So both of you are interested to join?"

Both of them nodded.

Zhao Ming smiled, "This is a very interesting subject. If this source soul acupoint really exists, perhaps it is something that can only be discovered after opening hundreds of acupoints. But after determining the position of this acupoint, we might be able to find a way to directly open this acupoint and skip the process of opening hundreds of acupoints."

Jiang Mu nodded, "Yes. This is a very meaningful subject. Apart from you, I doubt we can find anyone alive who can perform this research. Su Yu, if you can really locate this acupoint, you will change the path humanity walks in the future."

Chapter 491: Source Soul Acupoint (3)

After thinking about it, Su Yu nodded, "This is merely a guess of mine. But since you wish to join...I need to make things clear. I am the leader. Both of you will be joining as researchers. You do not have any supervisory or management roles."

"No problem."

Both nodded in agreement. They were very interested in this subject. They suspected that the moment Su Yu submitted his research topic, he would even attract the attention of some big shots.

Of course, since this required one to open hundreds of acupoints, it was unlikely that anyone else would attempt to do the same research. Firstly, it was too difficult to open so many acupoints. One needed to be a super genius for that.

Secondly, it was too expensive and time consuming. If they started training someone capable of doing so from now, it would take them years or even decades.

Thirdly, even if they could find someone so talented, why should that person keep opening acupoints instead of advancing?

Su Yu...was merely an outlier. He was a lunatic. Nobody knew how he had opened so many acupoints in such a short period of time.

At that thought, Zhao Ming suddenly said, "Su Yu, I think you can recruit one other person. Zhou Hao. He is very fast in acupoint opening as well. He has already opened 144 acupoints. Unfortunately, his Thousand Mountain Art makes it very difficult for him to advance. He will probably be stuck. And since he can't advance, he can only open more acupoints to gain more strength."

He smiled, "Hadn't you worked with him once before? You can totally recruit him and turn him into your test subject. His teacher can pay for his acupoint opening. After all, this topic would definitely attract Xia Yuwen's attention as well. He would want to get involved. He might not be willing to spend all that money for his student's acupoint opening before this, but after hearing about your research, this would change."

Su Yu's heart thumped. That made a lot of sense! He could use this as an excuse to scam some money from Xia Yuwen!

Also, he held the complete initiative in this research topic as very few people could open as many acupoints as him. Furthermore, he had even opened apertures, something Zhou Hao lacked. Would someone with no opened apertures get the same premonition?

Initially, this source soul acupoint research was only an excuse Su Yu used to scam others. But now, he was truly starting to get interested in it. With such an incredible research topic, he could finally give himself a new label: a genius researcher.

Just look at how interested Zhao Ming and Hu Qiusheng were right after hearing about this research topic?

After thinking for a bit, he asked, "Do any of you have any special abilities? Fighting prowess does not count."

Zhao Ming rolled his eyes and said, "Does healing ability count? I'm a doctor. You guys would definitely injure yourself a lot during your experiments."

That made a lot of sense! Su Yu nodded in agreement. What about Jiang Mu? He didn't know Jiang Mu well, but this person could be considered a part of the neutral faction. Thus, he wouldn't mind having this person in his research center.

But this person still needed to have a special talent if he wanted to join, right? If his sole talent was fighting...well, as someone below the Skysoar Realm, there would be a limit to that talent of his, even if he was about to enter the Skysoar Realm.

Jiang Mu sank into thought. After a while, he said, "I read a lot of travelogs and memoirs in my free time. Over the years, I've read thousands of them. Does that count?"

"..."

Su Yu was stunned. After a while, he nodded, "Yes."

He had no choice but to agree. Just look at the results of this person's hobby of reading travelogs and memoirs. The moment he heard about the source soul acupoint, he recalled someone called Bai Tianhao, pointing out that the source soul acupoint might really exist. This was indeed a special talent. Chapters fırst released on NovєlFіre.net

These travelogs also contained numerous unofficial historical records and legends. Su Yu had not read too many of such books as he lacked time. But this Jiang Mu seemed to have a lot of free time in his hands.

At that thought, Su Yu asked curiously, "So my teacher's family has such a glorious past?"

Yes. That was glorious. A mere Cloudbreach had killed a Mountainsea.

Zhao Ming said, "It's not surprising. It is very hard for a regular family to produce a genius. That is the truth. The Bai Family isn't exactly super strong, but they're decent. They still have a few Cloudbreach cultivators in the family. They only lack a Mountainsea."

Su Yu was really unaware of that. Bai Feng had never mentioned his family before.

Zhao Ming said, "The Bai Family isn't a part of Great Xia. Instead, they are from Great Ming. Bai Feng has joined the Great Xia Cultural Research Academy...because of the fifth principal. The fifth principal was too famous. Back then, Bai Feng had joined the academy due to his admiration for the fifth principal. He even joined the multiple character faction unhesitatingly even if the multiple character faction had already declined."

Su Yu raised his brow. Was this real?

He had never felt that his teacher was a fan of the fifth principal. Then again, perhaps his teacher was after the profound research topics the multiple character faction was engaged in. That much was obvious from the sheer amount of time Bai Feng spent cooped up in the research center.

That fellow was basically a research nerd. If it wasn't absolutely necessary, he would not take a single step out of the research center.

"The Bai Family still has a few Cloudbreach cultivators...In that case, my teacher's exile..."

Su Yu stopped without finishing his sentence.

Zhao Ming understood what Su Yu was trying to convey. With a smile, he said, "The Bai Family...how should I put it? By joining the multiple character faction, Bai Feng had involved himself in the struggle. But the Bai Family is not a part of the struggle. This is a good thing. They won't be dragged down. But the Bai Family has never removed him from their family registry. They are basically adopting a wait-and-see attitude."

"Are the parents of my teacher still around?"

Zhao Ming was somewhat speechless. "You truly know nothing about your own faction. You seem completely clueless about your teacher."

What a stupid question. Su Yu rolled his eyes. Who would ask their teacher about their teacher's family? Would your student ask you if your parents were dead out of nowhere?

"Yes. They are still alive. His father is a Cloudbreach expert, the little brother of the family head. He is currently a 10000-man-commander in the Great Ming Army, so you can say that he is quite an important person."

Su Yu did not ask any other questions. He had actually gained himself two members here. This was quite an unexpected harvest. With this, he already had enough members and a suitable topic. It was time for him to submit his application.

...

6th of November, afternoon. Su Yu submitted his application to start a research center.

His intended research topic was submitted as well. Zhao Ming would serve as the teacher of the research center. Su Yu, Hu Qiusheng, Wu Jia, Jiang Mu, and Xia Huyou were the students of the research center.

The moment the application was submitted, it created a sensation, attracting the attention of numerous big shots.

...

Great Xia City, capital of Great Xia.

Main hall of the prefect's manor.

Marquis Xia had just received a report regarding the Great Xia Cultural Research Academy. Prior to this, he had already received a similar report. This time, the report was sent by Xia Huyou.

"Source soul acupoint..."

Marquis Xia muttered to himself. He couldn't help but to agree that the multiple character faction was truly filled with creative individuals. This concept of source soul acupoint had given him numerous new ideas.

"Old Hu!" Marquis Xia said, "Check if the War Shrine and Knowledge Seeking Realm have conducted any research on this topic over the years."

Administrator Hu had already been updated on this matter as Hu Qiusheng had learned of it as well.

Upon hearing that, he stroked his beard and said, "320 years ago, they performed their first venture into this topic. But they failed without anything to show for it. 180 years ago, someone from Great Qin revived the topic. They even had some people experiment on this theory, but the research ended in failure as well. 80 years ago, Great Xia King brought up the topic again."

"What?"

Marquis Xia blanked out. His father? Why was he unaware of that?

Administrator Hu said, "In truth, Master Xia had experimented on himself. But after opening 180 acupoints, he was stuck. So he gave up. Just like that, the research ended."

"My big brother tried it before?"

Marquis Xia was surprised. He was really unaware of that. At the time, he had yet to be born.

"Yeah. But it ended in failure." Administrator Hu said, "Of course, they hadn't mentioned something like the source soul acupoint. They were only working on a vague hypothesis, but there was no result. A lot of similar projects had failed over the years so nobody cared that yet another research had failed."

"So do you think Su Yu would be successful?"

"Who knows?" Administrator Hu said, "He is the newcomer with the highest number of opened acupoints in recent years. Barely anyone has ever succeeded in opening more than 300 acupoints. Even those capable of doing so wouldn't do it. They might as well go for the Infinite Strength Realm or even the Skysoar Realm."

Nobody would waste their time and energy opening 300 acupoints at the Great Strength Realm. Marquis Xia couldn't understand why Su Yu would do something like this.

Perhaps the kid was simply too talented. He had merely been opening random acupoints with his free time. Before he knew it, he had opened over 300 acupoints. Yeah, this was Marquis Xia's conclusion.

After a short silence, Marquis Xia said, "This is a very interesting topic. The War Shrine, Knowledge Seeking Realm, Great Qin, and Great Xia have all researched the same topic before. That can only mean that the Invincibles are actually paying attention to this topic as well. This must be due to Bai Tianhao's feat back then, right?"

"I think so."

"Notify the Great Xia Cultural Research Academy to quickly approve this application. Tell the single character faction to stop creating trouble for me." Marquis Xia lazily said, "Su Yu might be the closest person to this source soul acupoint. We should let him try it. If this acupoint really exists, from now on, the human race would no longer need to go through the passive cultivation stage of the Source Opening Realm. This will cut every newcomer's cultivation time by five to eight years. This is not a small matter."

Administrator Hu nodded, "Do we need to get some people to protect him in secret?"

Marquis Xia thought about it and said, "Do it. But keep it a secret from him. If anyone really tries something, kill them and eliminate all witnesses. Do not let anyone know that we are protecting the kid."

"Alright." Administrator Hu then asked, "Are you investing in this research center?"

"Forget it." Marquis Xia curled his lips, "There are no signs that this kid will be successful. Also, I have a feeling that the kid is merely boasting. In truth, he probably knows nothing as well."

Administrator Hu nodded.

Marquis Xia moved to the next topic and asked, "What is the update on Liu Wenyan and the others?"

"The journey has been smooth. There were some troublemakers during the journey, but most of these people were only testing our defenses. The Myriad Race Cult also joined in, but after a few Cloudbreach cultivators were killed, everything calmed down."

"How many days before they reach the Allheaven Battlefield?"

"Around ten."

"Continue watching over them. Get the Martial Dragon Guards to be on standby. Notify the various prefectures to clear the path Liu Wenyan's group is taking of all cultists. If these prefectures can't clear the cultists from their own lands, Great Xia will personally dispatch our soldiers to assist them with it.

"If they can't even maintain the security within their own borders, is there a need for them to keep existing? Tell them that if we notice an increase in cult activity, we will have to conclude that the Human Realm is destabilizing. In that case, we will have no choice but to dispatch our soldiers to their lands and help them with security.

"Our soldiers have been pretty free lately after pulling back from the battlefield. Since these prefectures clearly lack the soldiers to maintain the security of their own lands, we shall send our Devil Subduing Army over and help them with it."

Administrator Hu smiled and nodded, "Sure. With this, the various prefectures will no longer be able to keep evading their responsibilities."

Marquis Xia sneered.

With a disdainful tone, he said, "All of them are waiting for Great Xia to get into more conflict. Some of these people also have their eyes on the fifth principal's character. Dream on!"

After saying that, Marquis Xia chased Administrator Hu away before returning to his own room to rest.

...

At the same time.

Su Yu's research topic was slowly spreading in the circle of experts.

Source soul acupoint.

This was the very first time some people had heard this name. And this was also the first time many of them heard of this concept. They were quite surprised. Some were skeptical, thinking that Su Yu was daydreaming.

Regardless of what they believed, they couldn't help but give Su Yu a new label for his idea: research genius.

Instead of using his talent to cultivate and advance to the next realm, he had been using his time and talent to open over 300 acupoints. One ought to admit that an abundance of talent had indeed given him the qualification to go crazy.

Some people could hardly open even a dozen acupoints. Meanwhile, this bastard had casually opened 300 acupoints. Life could truly be unfair at times.

The source soul acupoint theory started spreading far and wide. Similar theories had emerged in the past, but this was the very first time a new cultivator had brought up this theory. And this new cultivator might also be the person with the highest number of opened acupoints in many years.

Chapter 492: Deep in Debt (1)

On the 6th of November, the application for the research center was submitted.

On the 8th of November, the academy approved the application.

The single character faction had not attempted to stop this. Or to be precise, they didn't care. On top of that, they were also being pressured externally to allow this research center to be established.

...

9th of November.

With the key to his new research center in hand, Su Yu brought his fellow initial members to the building not far from the Wentan Research Center.

Xia Huyou, Hu Qiusheng, Wu Jia, and Zhao Ming were all there. Chen Yong was also present. He was there to give Su Yu some support and suggestions.

At the entrance of the new research center.

The building looked desolate.

Weeds were growing everywhere.

It was a three-story building with a large courtyard. Above the entrance was a dilapidated signboard. If one paid close attention, one would be able to see the words on it: Lan Tian Research Center.

At the sight of that, Chen Yong and Zhao Ming exchanged gazes. Zhao Ming said, "What a surprise. They actually gave you this place."

Su Yu was still busy checking the environment. Wu Jia was the one to curiously ask, "What's wrong with this place?"

"This is Lan Tian Research Center..." Zhao Ming sighed. Before long, the complicated expression on his face was replaced by a smile, "The previous owner of this place is slightly famous."

"Who's that?" Wu Jia was curious. Was that a famous person?"

"It's Lan Tian." Zhao Ming smiled, "Since it's called Lan Tian Research Center, the previous owner is naturally Lan Tian."

Wu Jia shook her head. She didn't know that name. But beside her, both Hu Qiusheng and Jiang Mu seemed to know the name.

Jiang Mu frowned and said, "This is inauspicious."

Su Yu looked over and asked, "Who's Lan Tian?"

"A traitor." Jiang Mu explained, "It happened around 20 years ago. I read it in a travelog before. Lan Tian...or to be precise, he is now known as the sect master of the Original Devil Sect."

"Hmm?"

Su Yu blanked up. What was the story? He knew that of the myriad races, the divine and devil races were the strongest.

And the divine and devil races were merely the general names of their respective races. They were further split into numerous smaller races. And among these smaller races, the first divine race and the original devil race were the strongest.

Master of the Original Devil Sect?

Zhao Ming said, "You don't know this? Yes. The Original Devil Sect master came from our academy. Of course, since this is dark history, the academy doesn't enjoy talking about it too much. This history has been mostly left to be forgotten. Lan Tian...hehe, that's an incredible individual."

Chen Yong said, "Just a mere traitor. What's so impressive about him?"

Zhao Ming smiled, "Head Manager Chen, that's wrong. He might be a traitor, but you can't deny his talent."

When he saw that Su Yu and the others were looking at him curiously, he said, "Lan Tian...used to be the faculty head of the Transformation Faculty. As for his age...he's not too old. He's from the same generation as Elder Hong. Twenty years ago, he was a seventh-stage Mountainsea and the head of the Transformation Faculty. The Transformation Faculty isn't exactly a strong faculty, so he was strong enough to hold down the fort with that level of cultivation."

"And this Lan Tian...modified his body so much that he went mad. One day, he decided to transform his human body into an original devil body." ᴛhis chapter is ᴜpdated by novel✶fire.net

The others started frowning. Zhao Ming continued his explanation, "That fellow was amazing. He disguised himself as an original devil and infiltrated the original devil's military camp in the Allheaven Battlefield. There, he did some crazy things and killed some original devils. If that was all, he would have been lauded as a hero of humanity."

Su Yu and the others nodded. That was correct. If that was the end, then this person would definitely be considered a hero. But since this person was presently the master of the Original Devil Sect, that was definitely not where the story ended.

Sure enough, Zhao Ming said, "In the end, a Sunmoon from the original devil race caught him. Instead of killing him, that expert told him that his transformation was a failure. His body wasn't a true original devil body. His body was flawed..."

Zhao Ming shrugged, "We don't know what exactly happened. But eventually, Lan Tian was persuaded to jump ship. After that, he returned to the Human Realm and replaced the previous master of the Original Devil Sect. Over the years, the First Divine Sect and the Original Devil Sect had been scrambling for power and wealth in the cult. The Original Devil Sect held the upper hand in this struggle."

"He's already a Sunmoon?"

"Yeah. He's a Sunmoon." Zhao Ming nodded, "That fellow is a genius. It's not surprising that he can reach the Sunmoon Realm. After all, even Elder Hong is on the verge of reaching that realm."

"..."

Chen Yong stared at Zhao Ming.

Why did that feel somewhat insulting?

Why was it so surprising that his teacher could reach that level?

Zhao Ming laughed and said, "It's true that he is quite an incredible individual. He modified his body so much that he turned himself into an original devil. You need real talent to do something like that. The original devils have extremely powerful bodies. How did that fellow manage to turn his body into an original devil body? There is actually a lot to learn there. Unfortunately, he defected not long after his successful transformation. Otherwise, we would have learned a lot more about the original devils."

Su Yu asked curiously, "Did Principal Wan do nothing?"

Why hadn't the principal killed the traitor?

"What could the principal do?" Zhao Ming shrugged, "That fellow is a Sunmoon. He is very secretive and has been avoiding Great Xia. Do you think the principal will leave the prefecture and search the whole Human Realm just to hunt that person? Also, the principal is currently known to the public as a peak Mountainsea. He's not supposed to be running around hunting down Sunmoons, you know."

Zhao Ming had an amused expression.

Peak Mountainsea Realm, the principal's strength as known to the public.

Su Yu frowned, "Isn't the academy ruining their own prestige by sparing a traitor like this? What about the Xia Family? Why are they ignoring this traitor?"

Xia Huyou said, "What can we do? Not even Great Xia King can find that person. He is too mysterious. And he has been claiming that he is Principal Wan's spy in the cult. In fact, he has been telling everyone that while asking for benefits from the various forces."

"Spy?" Wu Jia asked curiously, "He's a spy? So he's a good guy? But if he's a spy, why is he saying that everywhere?"

Xia Huyou had a helpless smile as he said, "That's bullshit. He's intentionally doing this. And the meaning behind that is clear. He's telling us to stay out of his way. If we do that, he will leave us alone and focus only on the First Divine Sect. "

Su Yu said, "He's only fighting the First Divine Sect? That's a good thing, right?"

"What are you thinking?" Xia Huyou said, "Don't underestimate him. He intends to unify the Myriad Race Cult and establish a major force or even a new prefecture within the Human Realm. He is the most annoying type of person to deal with."

Xia Huyou sighed, "If he is only someone capable of violence, in all honesty, he won't be that terrifying an enemy. But the scariest part about him is the fact that he is the main voice preaching for the peaceful coexistence of the myriad races. He was also the person who suggested establishing a free-trade zone in the Human Realm to facilitate trade between humanity and the myriad races."

Xia Huyou said, "All the higher ups know that he has ulterior motives in what he preaches. But it's different for the masses. Some actually believe that he is a saint. He proclaims that he is not acting against human interests. He preaches that humanity should consider more perspectives and opinions. He asks for the people who reject war to be given a chance. He is offering to protect those people..."

Xia Huyou said, "The Xia Family naturally wishes to kill this person. In fact, they want to kill him more than they want to kill the First Divine Sect master. The other cultists focus only on creating chaos and slaughtering the innocent. Meanwhile, this person is an idealistic preacher. And his ideals also seem perfectly reasonable, even if they are unfeasible."

Xia Huyou helplessly said, "He is saying that the human race should establish a free-trade zone. He is preaching that we should welcome the myriad races into the Human Realm. Since the Human Realm does not have any suppressive effect on all races, he suggests that we join hands with the myriad races and turn the Human Realm into the heart of the Myriad Realms. What do you think about that?"

Su Yu frowned. He had heard the same before from Wan Mingze. That day, he had reacted negatively to it.

And his reaction was the same. He said, "Someone like this should be killed."

"Exactly." Xia Huyou shrugged, "But some people agree with his ideals. Why should we go to war? Isn't it a good thing that we can live in peace with the myriad races? People will die in wars! Peace is much better! We can achieve peace by becoming a center of trade, and the heart of the Myriad Realms! Isn't that a wonderful idea?

"He has been preaching that the myriad races aren't here to kill us. Instead, they are here to help build up the Human Realm. The Human Realm has a lot of room for development. By distancing ourselves from war, we will be able to achieve self-actualization. What do you think?"

"..."

Su Yu didn't know what to say. That was indeed...a thorny individual. Someone cruel or ruthless was not terrifying. Someone truly cunning was a lot scarier.

No matter how strong an enemy was, even if the enemy was an Invincible, the human race would still be capable of killing one such enemy. But this person did not launch his offense physically. Instead, he was doing it spiritually.

The Great Xia Cultural Research Academy was truly...incredible. Even a traitor who had defected from the academy was such an incredible schemer. Sure enough, anyone who had spent decades in this academy would not be a simpleminded fool.

Even Zhou Mingren, who had suffered loss after loss recently, was able to solve the many issues plaguing the single character faction with relative ease once he decided to get serious. In recent days, he had solved a lot of internal issues within the single character faction.

The faction that seemed to be on the verge of falling apart was once again brought together.

Keeping the position of faction master as bait, even the Cloudbreach cultivators and the elders in the faction had suddenly turned obedient. That was one tasty carrot he was dangling in their faces. They were all staying obedient in the hope that they would get the carrot.

Thanks to that, all the infighting within the single character faction seemed to have ceased recently.

Chapter 493: Deep in Debt (2)

"This man..." Su Yu thought about it for a long time before saying, "He should be killed. In fact, we should kill him as soon as possible. The Original Devil Sect's reputation must be pretty good nowadays, right?"

"Yeah." Xia Huyou sighed, "It's not obvious in Great Xia as all the sects are still known collectively as the Myriad Race Cult. But in some other prefectures, the Original Devil Sect is starting to be viewed as a separate entity than the Myriad Race Cult. Also, the Original Devil Sect refers to themselves as the Holy Sect.

"And some people are actually starting to address them as the Holy Sect. That is a very troublesome individual."

"Has nobody moved against him all these years?"

Xia Huyou said, "Of course. My-our prefect once set off personally to hunt him down. But after three months of pursuit, that fellow vanished completely. The prefect was forced to return. But right after that, the madman reappeared. He is an expert of the transformation faction. He is someone capable of transforming himself into an original devil. Just imagine how good someone like him would be at concealment. He can easily transform into an entirely different person at any time."

Su Yu had nothing to say. That was true.

"So we have no way of tracing him?"

"He won't be able to escape the senses of an Invincible once the Invincible locks on to him. But the issue is that no Invincible has ever gotten the chance to lock on to him. He is too good at hiding."

Xia Huyou then curled his lips as he looked at the building in front of them and said, "They actually gave you his research center. I was wondering why they were so kind to give you a research center here. All the research centers in this area are the older and larger ones. So it's that fellow's abandoned research center? How inauspicious."

The newer research centers were much smaller due to the reduction of available space in the academy. And it was obvious that the single character faction had allocated this old research center to Su Yu simply because they wanted to annoy him with something inauspicious.

Su Yu did not seem to care. He smiled, "This is fine. It's even better that we get to have a large place. We might even find something left behind by that Lan Tian fellow."

"Keep dreaming." Zhao Ming said, "After he defected, the Knowledge Seeking Realm, War Shrine, and Great Xia had all searched his research center repeatedly. Everything that could be taken away had been taken. This is only an empty shell. Even an Invincible was personally here once to investigate this place. There is nothing left for you."

Su Yu smiled, unbothered. He wasn't serious when he said that. He had naturally not expected to get anything good out of this research center. He wasted no time and threw a punch, breaking the dilapidated signboard.

"From today onward, this is the Source Soul Research Center."

Su Yu turned around and said, "Xia Huyou, I'll have to rely on you to get me a new signboard."

"Do you need an opening ceremony when hanging up the new signboard?"

"No. Just hang the new signboard and be done with it. There is no need for a ceremony." Su Yu said, "Come on. Let's take a look inside."

...

While Su Yu and company were exploring their new research center.

Heart Cultivating Pavilion.

Wan Tiansheng smiled, "This kid is quite gutsy. He actually smashed that fellow's signboard? Interesting."

He had an amused smile on his face. It had been so many years. That research center had not been reused after Lan Tian's defection. Today, Sun Xiang allocated this research center to Su Yu. Was that a coincidence, or was that a deliberate decision?

In truth, one of the reasons the academy had left the research center alone for so many years was to keep it as bait for Lan Tian. Back then, Lan Tian had left in a rush. He had not been able to take anything with him. But when they searched the research center, they failed to find anything related to the original devil race.

The Knowledge Seeking Realm, War Shrine, and Great Xia all believed that there was still something undiscovered in the research center. Since even an Invincible had failed to find anything, whatever was hidden must be a huge secret.

Thus, the research center had been sealed for 18 years. The seal had only been removed 2 years ago as Lan Tian had not returned even after so long. And not long after the seal was removed, the research center was allocated to Su Yu by Elder Sun.

Was Elder Sun doing this purely to annoy Su Yu, or was he trying to get someone else to kill Su Yu?

Wan Tiansheng's willpower spread over the entire academy as he muttered, "Are you still in the academy?"

That fellow was too good at hiding. Who knew if he had entered the academy with a fake identity? With his signboard smashed apart, would he finally show himself? Would he finally expose some traces of his whereabouts?

After scanning the entire academy, Wan Tiansheng smiled and withdrew his willpower.

Whatever.

Even if that fellow was in the academy, he wouldn't dare to show himself.

That fellow knew very well that a lot of people were leaving him alone so that he could deal with the Myriad Race Cult. And once the Myriad Race Cult was truly unified, it would also be time for him to stop existing. That would be the perfect opportunity for the forces of humanity to destroy the cult in one fell swoop.

In fact, this was the very thing a few old fossils were waiting for.

They were waiting for him to unify the entire cult. It would be even better if he could hold an appointment ceremony to solidify his position as the leader of the newly unified cult. At that time, he would probably find several Invincibles on his tail.

Wan Tiansheng smiled and shut his eyes. He decided to toss this matter out of his mind for now. Was Su Yu lucky or unlucky to get this research center? If that fellow was really hiding in the academy, he probably wouldn't spare Su Yu for smashing his signboard.

"Well, this might be a good thing if that fellow ends up revealing himself."

Lan Tian...

His spy in the cult...spy his ass! That fellow had been using his name for so many years. He had simply been too busy to care about that fellow. He would properly settle the score with Lan Tian after dealing with the traitor Invincible.

...

"Cough, cough, cough..."

The moment the door was opened, an intense smell of blood assaulted them.

Wu Jia coughed several times before she covered her nose and said, "This smells terrible."

Zhao Ming said, "It's normal. The transformation faction...tends to butcher a lot of living beings. Today, they will cut a limb down. Tomorrow, they will cut a paw down. They will be constantly butchering bodies for their research. The number of creatures that had died in this research center back then was much higher than the number of creatures that had died in Wentan Research Center."

"We have never taken any lives before..."

Both Su Yu and Chen Yong declared at the same time. Then, they exchanged gazes and smiled at each other before shutting their mouths.

The others looked at the two with odd gazes. Were they serious? How had they gotten all the blood essence for their research, then? Had they purchased all their blood essence?

Zhao Ming, in particular, was madly rolling his eyes. Back then, Hong Tan had brought an incredibly large number of creatures into his research center. Were these two really unaware of that?

Where were all those creatures now? He reckoned that not even their bones were left.

Su Yu ignored Zhao Ming and scanned the room. The place was very spacious. He did not mind the smell of blood in the air. It was natural for a place to reek of blood after a large amount of slaughter. In truth, a similar smell also pervaded the prison zone of the Wentan Research Center. The smell was not as strong, though.

After looking around, he noted that there were three aboveground levels and three underground levels. This was basically the same as the Wentan Research Center.

The first floor was the living area. But the living area was almost empty. There were only some old and broken pieces of furniture in the room. It had been decades. Anything valuable had been taken away, while the things left behind had pretty much been damaged by the passage of time.

Not a single living being could be seen in the building. Not even a rat could be found. The murderous intent left in the building was still too strong. After looking around, Su Yu looked at Xia Huyou.

Noticing the gaze, Xia Huyou looked over curiously. What?

"Come on. Clean the place up." Su Yu rolled his eyes and said, "Have you forgotten? You're a professional cleaner. You have a cleaning Divine Character."

"..."

Fuck!

This fellow still remembered that?

Xia Huyou said, "Don't tell me that this is the only reason you have recruited me."

"Yeah."

"..."

Xia Huyou was speechless. Did this fellow not know his identity? Was that how this fellow was treating Xia Longwu's son? Using him like a cleaner?

"Go on. Stop wasting time." Su Yu said, "There isn't a lot to do. A simple cleaning is enough. We can then start moving in."

Xia Huyou was feeling rather sullen. This fellow was really using him like a cleaner!

Su Yu ignored his sulking friend and said, "Senior Sister, can you go to the Wentan Research Center and bring my bundle of books over? Senior Jiang, both you and Brother Hu will be in charge of buying more books to make our research center look more impressive. Teacher Zhao, I need you to get us some items..."

"What do you need?"

After thinking about it, Su Yu said, "I need cages with talisman formations that can keep creatures locked in. I also need a character preservation room. I only need some simple devices for that. Any complicated tasks involving characters can be done at Wentan Research Center. Our main research subject is the source soul acupoint. Thus, we need some accurate replicas."

Su Yu thought about it and said, "We need the most accurate replica of the human body. The replica needs to be able to emulate a real sea of willpower as well."

"Hmm?" Zhao Ming asked in astonishment, "You want something like that as well? Our academy does not have the technology to create accurate body emulators. But Great Zhou has a mature level of technology for this purpose. You need hundreds of merit points for an emulator of an Infinite Strength cultivator. And if you want an emulator for a Skysoar, it will cost you thousands of merit points..."

"Just get some for me."

"Where's the money?"

"You can pay for me first. I'll pay you later."

"..."

Zhao Ming stared at Su Yu. Su Yu stared at Zhao Ming.

Content orıginally comes from ⓝovelFire.net

Chapter 494: Deep in Debt (3)

After a long while, Zhao Ming asked, "Is it...too late for me to pull out now?"

"Teacher, I know you don't lack money. You're quite rich. I'll definitely pay you back after making enough money."

"Xia Huyou is a black market dealer. Why don't you get him to pay for you?"

Su Yu said, "I still owe him 1,100 merit points. I might need him to buy some other stuff for me. I can't keep milking a single person, right?"

"..."

Zhao Ming was tired of speaking to Su Yu. He looked at Chen Yong, wondering if this was how everyone from the multiple character faction behaved.

Chen Yong avoided Zhao Ming's gaze. He had no money. It was up to Zhao Ming whether he wanted to lend the kid money.

Su Yu seriously said, "Teacher, I won't borrow money from any random person. I'm borrowing from you because I trust you. Please trust me as well. I can easily earn some money by selling what I have. I just can't be bothered to benefit some outsiders with my stuff."

"So you're borrowing money from me because you respect me?"

"What are you saying, Teacher? Of course I respect you."

Zhao Ming raised his brow and asked, "If I refuse, will I have nothing to do with the future research results of this research center?"

"Yeah."

Zhao Ming smiled, "Fine. You're truly crazy. How about Hu Qiusheng and Jiang Mu? Are they using their own money to buy the books you want as well?"

"Yeah. Put it all on my tab. I'll pay you guys when I get some money." Su Yu said, "Don't worry. I'm not one to renege on my debt. If I really end up failing to get money, I still have some treasures on me. I can just sell these treasures to you. You won't regret buying from me."

Xia Huyou hurriedly said, "If you have anything to sell, consider me first! I can pay good money for your stuff!"

Su Yu did not deign to give Xia Huyou a reply. While walking around the room, he said, "Our research center will focus on cultivation methods and characters. We won't need too much money. Based on my calculation, we won't need more than 5,000 merit points for everything."

All of them were rendered speechless. Was that his so-called not too much money? He was a mere Mental Tempering Stage student. Why was he speaking with such a tone?

"I'll be paying the library a visit to get the copies some books there. I've already reached an agreement with them. I only need to pay around 300 merit points. Those are all the books we'll be needing soon..."

Su Yu stopped and started scanning the room. Finally, his gaze landed on Wu Jia. She had a pitiful expression on her face. Why was he looking at her? She had no money! Out of everyone here, she was the only one who was truly broke!

Su Yu rubbed his chin and said, "After some consideration, I have reached the conclusion that our research center still lacks manpower. Wu Lan is an old friend of mine. As a good friend, I need to introduce her to this great research center of ours. I'll be sure to extend her an invitation as well. As for the books from the library, well, she'll have to pay for them first. That should be fine."

Since that was Wu Yuehua's grandniece, she was practically on his side! He was naturally obligated to pull her into such an incredible research center. She looked way too pitiful with her slow advancement. He couldn't let her be anymore.

The others were completely speechless.

Xia Huyou curled his lips and said, "In terms of money, the pillmaking faction is the richest. Second after that is the talisman faction. Both are rich. Oh, the weaponsmithing faction is quite rich as well. In fact, all these non-combat factions are pretty rich." Thɪs chapter is updatᴇd by novel•fire.net

"Oh?"

Why was he unaware of that? After all, Zhao Li looked pretty poor to him.

Xia Huyou rolled his eyes, "Forget about Teacher Zhao Li. He is an outlier. That old man has an odd temper. He will only forge weapons when he's in a good mood. If he's not in the mood, he can stop working for half a year. How would he be so poor otherwise?"

Su Yu tossed that matter out of his mind. For now, he should focus on lending Wu Lan a helping hand. Life must be so hard for her. And her grandaunt was so rich.

Wu Yuehua might have a good relationship with Teacher Liu, but he still couldn't borrow money from her as he wished, right? It wouldn't be a bad idea for her to lend him some money, as it would ultimately benefit her.

After all, his next research topic was related to the acceleration of acupoint fusion. If he really managed to produce such a cultivation method, he would benefit all Great Strength and Infinite Strength cultivators.

Even Mountainsea cultivators would benefit from that!

"Oh, there's also Zhou Hao..."

Su Yu rubbed his chin, "The single character faction and the other factions are probably going to try sending some spies into our research center. We might as well take the initiative and invite Zhou Hao in. He's poor, but his teacher is rich!"

The Xia Family was definitely rich.

Zhao Ming nodded. Meanwhile, Chen Yong reminded, "Xia Yuwen might not necessarily be rich. Also, don't go too crazy. Our faction is currently in a lot of debt."

"What?"

Su Yu was surprised. They were short of money?

What happened to the money he gave his martial uncle previously?

Chen Yong stared at Su Yu for a long while before saying, "Before entering seclusion, Teacher told me that the multiple character faction is now yours. Wentan Research Center and all our debt are naturally yours as well now. Don't you know about that?"

"Debt?"

"Yeah." Chen Yong nonchalantly said, "Since your grandteacher has so much trust in you, I won't object. The debt isn't too big. After nearly destroying the Eighteenth Secondary School, all combatants owe the prefecture 1.2 million merit points. The debt is split three ways. The single character faction is required to pay 800,000 merit points, Xia Yuwen is required to pay 100,000 merit points, and we are required to pay 300,000 merit points. That's not much at all. Marquis Xia is already being very generous toward us. Don't you know about that debt?"

Su Yu was completely stunned. No! He had no idea!

Su Yu started stuttering, "Uhm...c-can the single character faction afford the fine?"

"Yes."

Chen Yong said, "The Nine Heavens Cultural Research Academy is paying 300,000, the Daoseeking Cultural Research Academy is paying 100,000, and Great Zhou is paying 300,000. As for the branch of the single character faction in our academy, they only need to pay 100,000.

"Our debt of 300,000 merit points actually includes the fines of many different individuals. But these people had put their lives on the line to fight for us. We can't make them pay these fines, right?

"For example, we have Elder He Ji, Elder Wu Yuehua, and Senior Zhao Mingyue...are we supposed to make them pay?"

"..."

Su Yu swallowed and laughed dryly before saying, "This must be a joke, right? Who can afford to pay that much money?"

"Joke?"

Chen Yong laughed. Zhao Ming also laughed.

Xia Huyou said, "Do you think the Xia Family will joke around? Do you think Marquis Xia will joke around? Su Yu, you need to pay this debt, or the Wentan Research Center will welcome a new owner before long."

Marquis Xia loved to joke around, but he would never joke about money.

Su Yu was completely speechless.

1.2 million merit points!

For the damage done to a small place like the Eighteenth Secondary School, all these people were fined 1.2 million merit points. Marquis Xia...Xia Xiao'er...was truly a shark.

"Do we really need to pay the fine?"

Su Yu was still in disbelief. Were they being serious?

Xia Huyou resisted the urge to laugh and said, "Of course. In fact, Great Zhou had already paid. And that's despite the death of Shan Tianhao. If they refuse to pay...they can't deny that the people from Great Zhou have damaged our place. We will simply send our Martial Dragon Guards over to rob their treasury and escalate the matter. Who's scared of them?"

Su Yu was dumbfounded.

"As for the Nine Heavens Cultural Research Academy, Principal Jin Yuhui has been busy selling off his stuff. He's probably going to sell off his pants one of these days. But he did manage to pay up as well."

Xia Huyou said, "Principal Jin can only blame himself for being so active during the conflict. He has no choice but to pay up for the amount of damage his academy did. Your grandteacher did a lot of damage as well. You should be thankful for a cheap fine of only 300,000 merit points."

"But the single character faction..."

Su Yu was really curious. Could the single character faction afford this?

Xia Huyou said, "Don't worry. They are broke, but their elders can still gather enough money by pooling their resources. They also have the alternative of asking for money from Great Zhou. Great Zhou is rich enough to shoulder the debt."

"..."

Su Yu was starting to suspect that the Xia Family was deliberately allowing Zhou Mingren to collude with Great Zhou and turn them into a money dispensing machine.

That way, they could squeeze some money from the single character faction every now and then.

"In that case, I'm now 300,000 merit points in debt?"

That was 300,000 merit points, not anping dollars.

Fuck!

He suddenly remembered something. No wonder his grandteacher had generously told him to pawn the Wentan Research Center if he needed money for his blood essence. So his grandteacher was only so generous because...they were already on the verge of losing the research center?

Perhaps at this point, the only thing they could do with the research center was to get some divine or devil blood essence? To squeeze some benefits before losing it?

Su Yu stared at Chen Yong in stupefaction. His martial uncle was the faction master, not him!

Chen Yong indifferently said, "We can afford the fine. The physical building of Wentan Research Center is not the truly valuable aspect of the place. Rather, it's our data. Of course, the devices and formations we have in the research center are quite valuable as well. Those things can actually be sold for hundreds of thousands of merit points. Teacher intends to let you decide. If the Xia Family starts pushing you for money, just sell the research center to settle the debt."

So they were on the verge of selling their research center.

Holy shit!

Why hadn't they done it themselves? Why made him do it?

They were trying to make him the scapegoat!

Only then did Su Yu realize that he was now laden with debts.

In fact, he was in an even worse situation than his Teacher Liu!

He now had a debt of 300,000 merit points!

His head was starting to ache. He asked, "So Xia Yuwen and the others are broke as well?"

"Pretty much."

Chen Yong said, "Of course, he still has enough money to support his student. You can still recruit Zhou Hao and use him as your test subject.

"But you still need to take note of your core secrets and not leak anything. I doubt Zhou Hao understands research well. Even if you let him read your reports, he probably won't understand anything."

Chen Yong might be speaking jokingly, but he was most likely right. Just how many languages did Zhou Hao even know? Most of the information kept in the research center would be in the form of original texts of the myriad races instead of translated versions.

Chen Yong said, "You also need a good large-scale defensive formation. You need this formation to prevent eavesdropping. It would be even better if you could get something that can block the prying of Sunmoons. But for something like this, you need tens of thousands of merit points."

"..."

Su Yu was getting tired of this. But such a formation was really necessary. In that case, he either needed to find himself a whale to scam or go dig up some buried treasure.

Without such a formation, Wan Tiansheng would probably be able to spy on them anytime he wanted. And they would not even be aware of it.

"Martial Uncle, I don't feel like starting my research center anymore..."

Chen Yong consoled him, "Just do it. We are probably going to lose Wentan Research Center soon. You will need to move out of it sooner or later. You might as well prepare yourself an alternative in advance."

Chen Yong was very supportive of establishing a new research center. At the very least, his teacher would not be homeless after coming out of seclusion if they ended up losing Wentan Research Center.

Su Yu could serve as a filial grandstudent and invite his grandteacher to his research center after his grandteacher left seclusion. After all, the books depository belonged to the academy, not Chen Yong. It would be improper for Chen Yong to house Hong Tan there.

Poor.

At that very moment, Su Yu felt extremely poor.

The multiple character faction was so poor that its members were on the verge of becoming homeless.

Just look at the other factions. They were so rich they could even afford to have an entire building just for meetings.

"Is Marquis Xia really going to take our research center?"

"It won't happen too fast..." Xia Huyou said, "Generally, Marquis Xia will give you some time before he collects. Since 300,000 merit points is not a small sum of money, he will probably give you half a year to gather money."

Xia Huyou felt the need to explain on behalf of his second grandpa. His second grandpa was definitely not someone who would not give others any chances.

He would give them enough time to gather money!

With a pseudo Sunmoon in the multiple character faction, if they spent every day hunting for powerful beasts, they would be able to gather enough money in half a year.

By killing a Mountainsea beast each day, they would be able to kill 180 beasts in half a year...scratch that. Even if they killed only 1 beast every 10 days, they would be able to kill 18 beasts in half a year. That would be almost enough to pay the debt. His second grandpa was truly kind!

Su Yu rolled his eyes.

Piss off!

He finally realized something. The Xia Family, or to be precise, Marquis Xia, was an unscrupulous business through and through.

Great Xia was the only party that had massively benefited from the previous conflict. Everyone else had suffered some losses.

These people would probably think twice before fighting in Great Xia again.

Nobody would enjoy shouldering a massive debt after a battle.

Xia Xiao'er, the unscrupulous businessman!

Su Yu started cursing inwardly. So what if that fellow is a Sunmoon? Not even a Sunmoon could sense anything if he wasn't scolding the Sunmoon right in front of the Sunmoon!