Chapter 40 - 40

Chapter 559: Not Yummy Anymore! (2)

After dealing with a few other matters, Su Yu returned to the Wentan Research Center.

It had been a while since he was last here. And with nobody here, the place was starting to look like an abandoned building.

Prison zone.

Su Yu directly opened the cages inside. The suanni, mountaindrill bull, and white civet were astonished. Was he really releasing them so easily?

Before this, they had all thought that Su Yu had completely forgotten about them. After all, it had been a while since Su Yu's last visit. Fortunately, he had left them with a decent amount of source qi liquid during his previous visit.

The suanni stepped out of the cage, feeling quite out of place since he had been living in the cage for so long. While shaking his head, he asked, "Lord Su, are you leaving now?"

"I'll be leaving in a few days." Su Yu smiled and said, "Suanni, you and the mountaindrill bull will act as my mounts. Both of you can take turns. It's dangerous outside so be sure to not run off by yourself."

The suanni asked suspiciously, "Lord, are you not putting a restriction on me?"

The suanni was a physical cultivator. And he was not being subjected to any restriction. Was Su Yu not even going to use a Demon Subduing Ring on him?

Su Yu smiled, "There's no need for that. It's too expensive."

The suanni was speechless. But he still felt somewhat weird. Had he been released from the cage just like this? Without any restriction whatsoever? For some reason, he felt very suspicious.

Su Yu was most definitely not a kind person. This was a ruthless person who had nearly starved them to death. Even when the shadow and the water elemental were released previously, that had only happened after the two were subjected to multiple restrictions.

Was Su Yu looking down on him? Su Yu was basically acting like it wouldn't matter if the suanni escaped.

Su Yu couldn't be bothered to give any explanation. He took a tiny seal out and said, "Get your head over here. If you don't want to get killed right after leaving this building, you need to get this mark on your head. With this mark, you will be recognized as a mount."

The suanni felt somewhat uncomfortable, but he still stretched his head over obediently. As his massive jaws approached Su Yu, he had the urge to bite Su Yu's head off.

Su Yu merely looked at the suanni with an amused smile. After stamping the seal on the suanni's head, a character imprint was left on the head, indicating that this was a mount.

"Are you thinking of biting me?"

"Nope."

The suanni denied.

"You can try. You might be a ninth-stage Skysoar, but you have been locked here for too long. I think I can probably beat you to death if I want. Do you believe me?"

The suanni definitely didn't believe that. He was there when Su Yu punched the bull previously. At the time, Su Yu had only demonstrated the strength of a fifth-stage Skysoar. Meanwhile, he was already a ninth-stage Skysoar, albeit weakened. And he was also from a top 100 race.

Su Yu merely smiled, not bothering to explain himself.

"Try to recover as much of your strength as possible. I will be supplying all of you with some high-quality source qi liquid."

He would be taking all these fellows with him. Even if they ended up dying on the journey to Great Ming, that would still be better than leaving them here. It would be a waste to simply starve them to death here.

Hong Tan was still in seclusion. Chen Yong would ignore them. And Wu Jia would be too scared to come here. Thus, after his departure, there would be nobody to care for these beasts anymore.

As for the possibility of their betrayal, well, these fellows were only Skysoars. He honestly didn't care if they decided to turn on him.

After stamping the seal on both the mountaindrill bull and the white civet, his gaze landed on a certain furball. The little furball was staring at him.

When their eyes met, Su Yu smiled, "Are you thinking of eating my characters?"

"Yummy."

"Yummy?" Su Yu smiled, "Are you sure?"

The little furball was probably aiming for the book. What a gutsy little fellow.

"How about this, little guy? I'll hammer you ten times and you can get a bite out of me in exchange. I'm only at the Mental Tempering Stage while you're at the Skysoar Realm."

The little furball's eyeballs spun around as he considered the proposal. Ten hammer strikes for a bite? That seemed to be acceptable!

"Ok!"

Su Yu smiled. He had been wanting to try this. He wanted to see if he could deal with this little fellow with his hammer. If he couldn't, he would have to pass this fellow over to his martial uncle. But if he could keep this fellow under control, this would be a good trump card to have.

A tiny hammer appeared in his hand. Next, Su Yu opened the cage. The little furball flew out warily.

"Don't even dream of escaping. I have two Cloudbreach cultivators with me. And there is also no way you can escape this research center. Do you understand me?"

The little furball was floating in the air with a semi-transparent body. With a childlike voice, he said, "No run...yummy!"

Su Yu smiled and raised his hammer, "Shall we start?"

"Ok!"

Boom!

Right after the little furball replied, Su Yu's hammer descended. The little furball appeared completely unworried. After all, he was a semi-corporeal existence. General source qi attacks would not even be able to touch him.

To be more precise, the little furball was more like a life form with the body of a Divine Character. The furball was waiting leisurely for the hammer to descend when he suddenly felt that something was off.

That thought had barely crossed his mind when a rumble filled his brain. The semi-corporeal furball was directly smacked out of that state, turning into a corporeal form.

The eyeballs of the furball started rolling about in a comical fashion. The furball wasn't rolling his eyeballs because he was scheming. Rather, he was doing that because he was feeling very dizzy. Su Yu did not wait and followed with more strikes.

Boom! Boom! Boom!

After about eight strikes, the little furball finally fainted and dropped onto the ground.

"..."

Around them, the mountaindrill bull and suanni appeared rather calm. But the white civet, who was a cultural researcher, was shivering with fear.

That hammer...was actually a unique soul technique!

What powerful hammer-strikes!

The Soul Expanding Art was created to shake and temper one's sea of willpower. Each hammer strike would shake before compressing the sea of willpower. Unless one was used to it, one would have a hard time withstanding the hammer strikes.

Su Yu picked up the unconscious furball from the ground and smiled.

Success.

So there was a limit to this furball's endurance. The hammer formed by the Soul Expanding Art was not a character. Thus, it did not fear the little furball.

After pinching the little furball a few times, he woke up. Su Yu was quite surprised as he had not expected the furball to wake up so soon.

Right after waking up, the little furball exclaimed, "Amazing! Can you hammer me daily?"

"..."

The other beasts were rendered speechless. Su Yu asked in surprise, "You felt it?"

"Yeah!"

The little furball happily said, "The more you hammer, the more amazing I become!"

Su Yu nodded. That was correct. The Soul Expanding Art was meant to assist others, not kill others. Of course, it was also an effective killing weapon. Since the little furball was still fine, it only meant that this little guy's willpower was already very powerful.

A regular Skysoar would probably remain unconscious for a longer time after receiving eight strikes from his hammer. Less durable seas of willpower might even collapse entirely after eight strikes.

Restraining this little fellow wouldn't be so easy.

At that thought, Su Yu took out his cultural weapon.

An illusory saber floated in the air.

The little furball's eyes lit up.

This was Su Yu's character technique, but it was merely a projection instead of the real deal as he had yet to complete it. All eight of his characters were in the technique.

Instantly, the illusory merged into his cultural weapon.

Su Yu looked at the little furball and said, "You can have a bite. This wasn't what you referred to when you used the word yummy, right?"

"No..."

The furball stared at Su Yu pitifully. That wasn't what he had talked about.

"Why don't you try to give this a bite first." Thıs content belongs to noⅴelfire.net

He wanted to see if a character technique formed of eight second-tier characters could withstand this fellow's bite. Eight second-tier characters, a cultural weapon, and a character technique combined should be as strong as a third-tier character, right? The little furball bit down on the saber unhesitatingly.

A crack rang out. The weapon appeared the same, but the character technique within the weapon shook. At the same time, Su Yu's sea of willpower shook as an intense pain assaulted him.

Holy shit!

This fellow was actually able to bypass the weapon to bite down on the character technique directly!

The character technique was violently shaking to disperse the power of the little furball's bite. This lasted for quite a while before stopping.

Su Yu grabbed the little furball before tossing him aside. "One bite is enough."

The two stared at each other. After a while, Su Yu said, "You can probably swallow a second-tier character with one bite. But the pain is too intense. I thought my grandteacher said that you can swallow characters undetected?"

That intense pain would intensely notify someone of an attack. It did not feel like a great choice for a sneak attack.

"That's swallow. I was biting!"

The little furbal explained with a slightly aggrieved expression. Su Yu was the one who had asked for a bite.

"In that case, show me your swallowing ability—"

Instantly, the little furball vanished. Su Yu hurriedly scanned his surroundings with his willpower. The little fellow had concealed himself. Or to be precise, this wasn't concealment. Rather, the little furball was using his ability to turn incorporeal like a Divine Character. In the next moment, the little furball reappeared.

Su Yu glanced at his character technique. Nothing had happened. All his characters were still there."

The little furball blinked and said, "Swallowed."

"Nonsense!"

Su Yu scolded. This furball was actually trying to lie! Nothing had been swallowed! The word had barely left his mouth when the nearby white civet screeched.

"Where's my hide character?"

Su Yu: "..."

He was completely speechless.

The little furball hurriedly hid behind Su Yu and replied in his childlike voice, "Your characters are all linked! I'm still small and weak! Her character was easier to swallow!"

The white civet was losing her mind. She had only been enjoying the show at the side. She had been happily waiting for the next show to unfold.

Before she knew it, her willpower shook as she felt something drilling into her sea of willpower. And before she could react, the little furball had reappeared. Only then did she notice that one of her characters had vanished.

She was really going crazy.

Her precious character!

"Return my character!"

She screeched madly. Her normal seductiveness was nowhere to be seen. Only exasperation could be seen on her.

Her precious character!

She had lost it without even feeling any pain!

Su Yu was somewhat stunned. He glanced at the little furball behind him. Holy shit. He had swallowed the character? Just like that?

The white civet had indeed sensed nothing except the vague sensation of something entering her sea of willpower. If she hadn't checked her characters, she would probably still be unaware that she had lost a character.

"Yummy Guy, you told me to do it..."

The little furball denied all responsibility. Su Yu was speechless. He had asked for the little furball to swallow one of his characters, not the white civet's character. Whatever. What could he do if it had already happened?

"Can you return the characters you swallowed?"

"Eaten!"

"..."

"Ahhhhhhh!"

The white civet wailed in desperation. One of her characters had actually been eaten!

Su Yu dug his ear and rolled his eyes before saying, "It's not even a main character. Why are you shouting? It's only a second-tier character. You can make a new one in a few months."

All the beasts: "..."

A few months? Screw him!

Even as a Skysoar, the white civet would need at least a year to reform a second-tier character. She needed to first form an incomplete character before completing it into a first-tier character. Then, she needed to nurture it into the second tier. That would probably take her a year or two of hard work.

But when the beasts recalled how Su Yu had formed eight second-tier characters in only a few months, they shut their mouths. There was no comparing them and him.

Perhaps for Su Yu, this was only a month's worth of work.

Su Yu looked at the little furball with an odd gaze and asked,"Can you swallow Cloudbreach characters?"

"For example, his character..."

Su Yu pointed at the shadow beneath him. Immediately after, the shadow shook. The little furball, who was still hiding behind Su Yu just a moment ago, could be seen flying out of the shadow. With an aggrieved tone, he said, "Can't. His willpower defense, too strong. Pushed me out..."

The shadow spoke fearfully, "Lord, this ability of his is too terrifying. I didn't even sense anything before he tried entering my sea of willpower. This fellow is definitely the natural predator of all cultural researchers of the same realm. Why have I never heard of this race before?"

Su Yu nodded. He had never heard of this race as well. There were no records of this race anywhere. This little furball was brought back by Hong Tan. Su Yu even wondered if a second furball could be found on the battlefield.

Su Yu started hesitating. This was too dangerous. Wouldn't he need to be on guard all the time if he took this little furball with him? But he had his hammer. He could always blast the little furball out of his sea of willpower.

At that thought, he said, "Try entering my sea of willpower—"

He couldn't even finish his words before he felt something trying to enter his sea of willpower. The little furball had been wanting to do this for a very long time. Right when the little furball was about to completely enter his sea of willpower, before he could use his hammer, he heard a rumble.

The idle golden book in his sea of willpower seemed to have detected an intruder. A ray of golden light shot out of the book.

Bang!

The little furball was sent flying to the wall. As he slowly slid down from the wall, he exclaimed, "Not yummy anymore!"

Su Yu smiled.

Interesting.

The book had actually attacked. This was the very first time something like this had happened.

No, this was the second time. This had happened before when he tried to form his character technique. Wait, this should be the third time. The second time the book had made a move was when he had tried to form a myriad race character.

"Rejection!"

Su Yu smiled. The golden book seemed to be rejecting certain things. The book seemed to have deemed certain things ineligible for entering his sea of willpower. Anything unhelpful to him would be rejected.

Meanwhile, helpful things like his hammer, cultural weapon, and human characters had never been rejected.

"Truly interesting."

Looking at the little furball, Su Yu had a bright smile on his face. Since he was immune to the little furball, then the little furball would pose no threat to him. On the other hand, this little furball would serve as an excellent weapon.

The ability to devour characters...what an incredible ability. Just look at the white civet who was still going crazy after losing a character.

Chapter 560: Mission (1)

Ignoring the sorrowful white civet, Su Yu stepped forth once again and picked up the little furball, who was screaming about something not being yummy anymore. Read complete versıon only at novelfire(.)net

Other than the ability to devour characters, this little fellow did not seem to possess any other abilities. It couldn't harm one's physical body. Nor could it devour source qi.

With an odd look in his eyes, Su Yu asked, "Little guy, can you grow by consuming characters?"

The little furball merely stared at Su Yu with an aggrieved expression. He sulked and refused to talk. The only thing he wanted was to eat that yummy thing. But he discovered that even though he could smell that thing, he couldn't eat it. He was sad.

After thinking about it, Su Yu asked, "Can you eat character fragments as well?"

There was a fragment room in the Wentan Research Center. That place was filled with character fragments. If he could feed this fellow with those fragments and push this fellow into the Cloudbreach or even the Mountainsea Realm, wouldn't that be crazy?

Why stop at that? What about the Sunmoon or even the Invincible Realm?

Cough, cough. This was mere delusion.

Su Yu couldn't help but recall how the unknown Invincible had attacked Liu Wenyan and company with only some characters.

Hehe. If something similar occurred when this little furball was around, no amount of character would be enough. How many characters would that Invincible have to spare? That would be truly incredible. At that time, the unknown Invincible could basically be treated as a food supplier.

Su Yu looked at the little furball with burning eyes. This little guy was only a ball of fur, but his looks were very misleading. The little guy was actually very useful.

"Can eat...not yummy."

The little furball replied in dispiritedly. Sure, he could eat those things as well, but those things were not yummy. Only the thing in Su Yu's head was yummy.

Su Yu smiled, "Be patient. You're still too weak. Of course you can't eat anything yummy. But when you grow stronger, you will naturally be able to eat lots of yummy food."

That made a lot of sense.

"Just eat more character fragments for now. I'll try to find you some characters. Just grow first. And then, you will be able to start eating the truly delicious stuff."

The two stared at each other. Su Yu smiled, "Think about it. You can follow me. Also, do you have any blood essence? Can you provide me with a drop of your blood essence?"

"Blood essence?"

The little furball shook his head...no, his body. Alas, Su Yu wasn't able to see that the furball was shaking his head. All Su Yu could see was the furball shaking his entire body. So was that a no?

Su Yu was very curious. Since this little fellow was more of a Divine Character than an actual living being, would he have any blood essence? That was hard to determine.

Of course, Su Yu was more curious about whether he had been killed by any furballs before in his dream. If that hadn't happened before, the blood essence of this little fellow would do nothing for him.

Su Yu was also curious about something else. With his current physical strength, he could probably safely consume Skysoar blood essence. What about Cloudbreach blood essence? Would that cause his body to burst apart? But if he only took a single drop, it should be fine, right?

A lot of people had already forgotten how he had defeated Chen Qi back when he had first arrived in the academy.

Initially, he had only consumed blood essence for strength, not cultivation methods or racial abilities. In the past, he had a habit of keeping a drop of blood essence in his mouth as insurance whenever he left home.

As Su Yu thought of all that, he played with the little furball in his hand. After a while, he looked at the suanni. This fellow was a member of a top 100 race and a ninth-stage Skysoar.

With that level of cultivation, his offensive strength would be pretty good. After all, warriors were quite good in terms of pure offensive power. This suanni was an existence capable of facing some Cloudbreach cultivators in battle. It should be fine to swallow a drop of this fellow's blood essence, right?

Su Yu wondered if he should just slaughter this suanni for blood essence. That blood essence might come in handy in his coming trip. The others probably believed that they already saw his limit. That was nonsense. He had not been using any blood essence for combat recently because a need had not arisen. A drop of blood essence would be able to grant him a boost in strength for about two or three minutes.

The suanni was looking at Su Yu with his big eyes when he suddenly felt uneasy. He hurriedly said, "Lord, you would look very cool with me as your mount! Exceptionally cool!"

That look in Su Yu's eyes was very scary. It was as though Su Yu was looking at an art piece. That was normally an expression one would wear when appreciating the corpse of a dead suanni.

"Heh..."

Su Yu laughed and nodded. He said nothing. Well, he could always get Xia Huyou to buy some suanni blood essence for him. He needed to take more blood essence with him for the trip. It would be better if he could increase the variety as well.

He would need more blood essence for more than opening new pages. The blood essence would also come in handy in protecting himself, granting him access to more abilities.

Water Transformation, Metal Transformation, Wood Transformation...

Phasing through earth, flight, concealment...

Too many abilities could be found among the myriad races.

When a single individual gained access to all those abilities, Su Yu would be able to show the world that he might be a Mental Tempering Stage student, but he was more difficult to deal with than a Mountainsea.

In the past, he had not dared to use these abilities as he had too many misgivings. But...he no longer had those misgivings. Racial abilities would serve as an excuse. All the blame would lay on ability blood essence.

As for whether Great Ming would force him to teach them the blood essence production method, he could simply do so before finding a way to flee. It wasn't like they would be able to properly utilize the production method even after learning the steps involved. And even if they could utilize it, they would never be able to reproduce what he could do.

Bai Feng's research on blood essence had yet to reach maturity. Previously, it had only reached the Infinite Strength Realm. Bai Feng had quit at that point to focus on Divine Characters instead.

With numerous thoughts in his mind, Su Yu stopped looking at the suanni and walked away with the little furball in hand. While walking, he said, "I don't need your blood essence anymore. So are you interested in following me?"

"Eat!"

"Stop thinking about food all the time. A lazy bum does not deserve food."

"Then...will work!"

Su Yu smiled, "Would you betray me?"

"Betray? What is that?"

"..."

Su Yu was slightly speechless. He asked, "How old are you?"

"Old?"

The little furball stared at Su Yu in confusion. Su Yu explained, "A month has passed since you were put in the cage. How many months have passed since your birth until now?"

The little furball spent some time calculating before replying, "120 months!"

Ten years. Ten years old? Holy shit. This little guy was a Skysoar, right? Was he really so incredible?

Of course, a lot of divines and devils were born at the Great Strength Realm, allowing them to reach the Infinite Strength Realm at a young age. Some could reach that level at around five or six. Thus, it wouldn't take them long to reach the Skysoar Realm either.

Thus, it honestly wasn't so surprising that some people could reach the Skysoar Realm at ten. But this was only applicable to a small number of major races. The human race was the only exception among the major races with the Source Opening Realm as the starting point.

"Is your race powerful?" Su Yu asked, "You are capable of swallowing second-tier characters. The character you failed to swallow earlier is called a third-tier character."

"I don't know about any of that. I saw my first character not long ago!" The little furball started speaking in excitement, "There are so many yummy things out here! In the past, I didn't know. I had only been eating..."

The little furball tried to use some gestures to show what he had been eating, but he had no limbs to do so. But Su Yu seemed to have guessed something and pointed at a random willpower text for confirmation.

That would be understandable. After all, willpower could be found in willpower texts as well. In this case, was this little guy sustaining himself on willpower?"

"How did you get out there?"

"I ran."

"How many people do you have in your race?"

"Dada, mama, me...nobody else."

Su Yu did not say anything. Bullshit. That was impossible. This little guy was probably completely clueless. This was a very dangerous race.

The moment they started appearing en masse on the Allheaven Battlefield, they would turn into a disaster of all cultural researchers. Then again...that did not matter to him, right? It wasn't like all cultural researchers were good people.

"What's the strength of your dada?"

"Pseudo Emperor."

"..."

Su Yu looked clueless, but the nearby white civet stiffened. When Su Yu looked at the white civet, she nervously said, "Pseudo Emperor...is a term used by some ancient races. For example, the first divines and original devils refer to their Kings as Pseudo Emperors..."

Su Yu maintained his silence.

Holy shit.

This was a much bigger trouble than he thought! Was his grandteacher even aware of this little guy's background? Had his grandteacher kidnapped this little fellow without asking anything?

Pseudo Emperor...Invincible? Someone like that would not be a regular Invincible. Instead, someone like that would be a top existence even among Invincibles. Of course, it was also possible that this was a very weak race. The so-called Pseudo Emperor might not be a proper realm. That was merely an empty title for their ruler.

Perhaps the so-called Pseudo Emperor was only a Mountainsea? Fine. Not even Su Yu himself was convinced of that logic. After all, this little guy was already a Skysoar at this age.

Whatever. That had nothing to do with him. If that Pseudo Emperor was so impressive, he could come into the Human Realm for his child. The human race, with its number of Invincibles, was no pushover.

As they chatted, they arrived at the fragment room. When Su Yu opened the door, he immediately sensed the dense willpower inside meant to preserve the character fragments. The intent of the numerous fragments filled the room.

Su Yu was actually capable of absorbing the power of these fragments as well, but he had been avoiding doing so. There was no need to grow his characters too much and increase the pressure on his sea of willpower. That was something he had intended to do after reaching the Skysoar Realm.

Ignoring the character intent in the air, Su Yu absorbed a tiny bit of willpower in the room. The purity was high, comparable to the willpower in Bai Feng's laboratory. The high-purity willpower in the research center had all been obtained back then for the sake of experiments, dissecting characters, and removing characters from the seas of willpowers of some other humans or non-humans.

It was time for him to absorb all the high-purity willpower in the research center. He was going to leave soon. And his grandteacher and the others had no need for the high-purity willpower. Thus, it was a waste to leave the willpower here.

While Su Yu was absorbing willpower, the little furball's eyes lit up when he saw the fragments in the room. Sure, these weren't as yummy, but they were still food! He shot toward one of the shelves. He easily phased into the shelf. Then, one of the fragments on the shelf vanished.

Su Yu smiled and said, "Work for food. This is a fair exchange. Otherwise, you can return to the cage. What do you think?"

"Ok!"

The little furball replied. Life in the cage was terrible. He had been wanting to leave for a while. Su Yu was the one who had refused to take him out previously. But seeing how easily the little fellow had agreed, Su Yu started worrying.

This little guy was very hard to control. But whatever. If the little fellow really ended up escaping, he would simply report it to some experts. If Hong Tan could capture this little guy once, the others must be able to capture him as well. In any case, this fellow wouldn't kill anyone. He would only eat some characters. Sure, losing characters was scary, but that wasn't as damaging as losing one's life.

Su Yu left the little furball in the room with the fragments and headed to the filter room. It was time to increase the strength of his cultural weapon.

He would allow the weapon to absorb some blood essence before leaving. The weapon was already able to reach the profound-grade some time ago. Su Yu had merely been delaying its growth.

Chapter 561: Mission (2)

One hour later.

Both the fragment room and filter room were ransacked by Su Yu.

His cultural weapon had grown even stronger. He had also opened a new aperture after absorbing the high-purity willpower. With that, he had completed opening the apertures of his third art, putting him at 108 opened apertures.

"This is quite troublesome. I should try to get a spatial-type character. Otherwise, it would be hard for me to carry my stuff around."

Just look at how cool Hong Tan was as he traveled around empty-handed. Meanwhile, Bai Feng looked incredibly pitiful dragging his luggage behind him each time he needed to travel.

Additionally, it would also be better for him to get a beast-taming character. True beast tamers would have such characters, allowing them to keep their mounts in those characters before hiding those characters in their seas of willpower.

Meanwhile, both the water elemental and shadow had been stuck on Su Yu's body all the time. The suanni and the others would be kept in Wentan Research Center for now. Even the little fellow was left behind. After stuffing himself with the fragments in the room, he was busy digesting what he had eaten.

"I really need a spatial-type character. I guess I need to try to read something these two days. Even a first-tier character would be useful for travel."

He needed such a character to keep his research materials or even his blood essence. Otherwise, someone strong could easily detect the large amount of blood essence he carried on him.

He also needed to gather more blood essence. He intended to reach the ninth-stage Infinite Strength Realm within two days. Perhaps at that stage, his body would be strong enough to withstand the consumption of Cloudbreach blood essence.

He would be happy with even first or second-stage Cloudbreach blood essence. He only needed the blood essence of races with great offensive power.

"The celestial dragon race is a decent choice, but their blood essence is too expensive..."

Of the top 10 races, Su Yu had only consumed the blood essence of the celestial dragon race before. The mountainbreak bull race was also a decent choice. And this was a race he was very familiar with.

As a top 100 race with powerful body, mountainbreak bulls were good at attacking. Their ability to crush mountains with a single strike was quite impressive.

Su Yu was walking while thinking when he suddenly stopped and looked ahead of him. There, an amused Liu Hong could be seen. "Su Yu, it has been a few days since I last saw you."

"Teacher Liu." Su Yu smiled, "Teacher, you have just entered the Cloudbreach Realm, but why does it feel like you're even more subdued after that?"

Liu Hong had been keeping a low profile after his advancement. He was seen less and less, and he was also a lot less active in the academy than before.

Liu Hong smiled and said, "Since I've just advanced, it is good to focus more on my cultivation. I have been too busy to even open more apertures. Su Yu, you have been growing well. You're near the Skysoar Realm already, right?"

"Not at all."

Liu Hong smiled. Suddenly, he switched to voice transmission, "You sure have a lot of good stuff. Lin Yao has actually opened an aperture. And I also heard that there is a special edition of the acupoint fusion method. Would you consider me giving me some of the good stuff you have?"

"Heh."

Su Yu's eyes turned cold. Dream on. But this fellow sure had been paying attention. He had actually noticed Lin Yao's aperture so soon?

"Don't be so quick to refuse. I'll offer you a piece of information. I guarantee you would voluntarily give me something for that information."

Su Yu switched to voice transmission as well and said, "What is it?"

Generally, one needed to reach the Skysoar Realm before one could start using voice transmissions. But Su Yu's willpower was strong enough that he had obtained this ability in advance. He had merely refrained from using it as it felt too shady talking in secret like this.

While holding a conversation through voice transmissions, Liu Hong was saying something else with his mouth, "Su Yu, humility is good to have for everyone..."

With his voice transmission, he was saying, "Give me the acupoint fusion method and the aperture opening method. If you agree, you can have the information."

"Forget it, then."

"Don't be so hasty." Liu Hong said, "Firstly, you're now very famous in the cult. You rank very high in their killing list. They have a bounty of 15,000 merit points for your life. A bounty of 30,000 merit points is also available for those capable of capturing you alive."

Su Yu raised his brow and asked, "And how did you find out about that?"

"I am someone with a lot of friends." Liu Hong grinned and said, "Do you think the Myriad Race Cult is only filled with lunatics? They also have some regular hoodlums, some unambitious people there only to earn a living, or some greedy bastards who would do anything for money. Thus, it isn't hard to get information about the cult."

Su Yu smiled. A bounty of 30,000 for bringing him in alive and a bounty of 15,000 for his head. That bounty was so attractive that he wanted to offer them his head himself.

Liu Hong asked, "Are you interested in cooperation? You can feign death and I'll claim the bounty from them..."

"Would that even work?"

"Of course. But to do so, we need to offer them a strong proof. For example, your cultural weapon. Are you interested? It's not like your cultural weapon is worth much."

"Forget it. I'm not interested."

Su Yu was uninterested. If this was before, he might be moved. But it was no longer enough to attract him. The reward was too small and he did not have the time to attempt something like that.

Liu Hong's eyes flickered as he continued bickering with Su Yu outwardly.

Meanwhile, he continued using voice transmission and said, "That's only the first piece of news I have for you. My second piece of news is related to Di Feng's family. Do you know about them? It's the Di Family, a large but not too powerful family. They only have a few Cloudbreach cultivators in the family. They have been shouting about taking revenge on you, but recently, they seemed to have gone silent."

"What does that mean?" Su Yu asked, without a change in expression.

Liu Hong said, "I'm very curious as well. They made a lot of noise before this, but they were suddenly summoned to see Elder Sun this morning. After about an hour, they left the meeting and stopped shouting about you. It was as though they have decided to let the matter be."

"Generally, there are only a few scenarios where this would happen. Firstly, Elder Sun had given them sufficient compensation. Secondly, you are too strong, forcing them to let go of the grudge. Or thirdly, it is also possible that they are ready to do something big. In that situation, it is naturally pointless for them to keep making noise about it. Which do you think is the case here?

"In all honesty, the single character faction is currently broke. They won't be able to afford the compensation. You are good at defeating them in arguments, but you're not strong enough that they can't do anything to you. Thus, I'm guessing that perhaps it's the third scenario."

Su Yu stared at Liu Hong for a while. Suddenly, he said, "You're not from the single character faction."

He suspected that this fellow owed his allegiance to an entirely different power. Why had this fellow informed him about this out of nowhere? Was he betraying the single character faction? Wasn't this a tad too straightforward?

Had he betrayed his faction just to secure Su Yu's cultivation methods for himself? Liu Hong had always been a pragmatist. Why would someone like that betray his faction before confirming that he would be able to get something from Su Yu?

"We're on the same side."

Liu Hong flashed a big smile. Su Yu narrowed his eyes. Nonsense!

Thinking about what he knew about Liu Hong, Su Yu tried to make a guess before frowning. He looked at Liu Hong again and smiled, "I don't feel like guessing anymore. You're probably an agent of the Xia Family or Principal Wan. In any case, you're not from our faction or the single character faction. You're only a shit-stirrer."

"I don't understand what you're saying." Liu Hong was still smiling.

Su Yu continued speaking with voice transmission while walking, "Ignoring everything else, without the support of Principal Wan or the Xia Family, could you have expanded your black market business to such a level? The single character faction people believe that they're the reason for that. But I doubt so. Xia Huyou once said that the Xia Family is only involved in the black market for information. They would never allow your involvement unless you're actively providing them with information. Thus, even if you're not their agent, you have definitely worked with them before."

Liu Hong laughed, "You guessed wrongly. It's only some information. We only need to provide the information to the single character faction. The information will then be passed to the academy. As long as someone of sufficient status is in charge, the Xia Family doesn't care about the process of getting the information."

Su Yu couldn't be bothered to argue.

Liu Hong followed Su Yu and said, "We are not the only single character faction members around. There are still a lot of members in Great Xia apart from us. Have you forgotten about the Daoseeking and Nine Heavens academies? Do you know that the very principal of the Nine Heavens Cultural Research Academy is a member of the single character faction?"

Su Yu paused slightly, but he said nothing and continued walking immediately after.

"In our academy, Principal Wan is keeping an eye on everyone. But look at the other academy. Their very principal is from the single character faction. And the Xia Family won't be keeping a close watch on that person all the time. No matter what, that is an expert near the Sunmoon Realm."

Su Yu continued walking silently.

"Give me the cultivation methods and I can provide you with a list of Mountainseas that might be leaving on a trip soon. What do you think?"

Su Yu finally turned to look at Liu Hong. His eyes flickered as he said, "I don't need your help. Do you think I can't get my hands on the same information myself?"

"Oh?" Liu Hong grinned, "I know a secret. There is a black market merchant in Great Xia's black market. This merchant is a big supplier of Mountainsea blood essence. This merchant has been active even in recent years. Guess who this black market merchant is."

He added, "Are you willing to give me the methods now?"

Su Yu said, "I can let you have this win, but offending me like this won't benefit you."

"Wrong. I'm not offending you. This is a fair trade. I'm not forcing you to give me anything, right? I'm only here to sell you some valuable information."

"What's your goal in doing this?"

Liu Hong had an odd look as he said, "What goal do I need to have? But if you really want a goal, it's really very simple. I need you to help me with the removal of several Mountainsea characters within three years. What do you think about this?"

"Your teacher?"

"Exactly." Liu Hong said, "If what you said previously is true, this would be a chance for you to produce Sunmoons. I have been gathering information lately. I learned that my teacher is not the only human Mountainsea stuck at that level. Su Yu, just how does your removal method work? You weren't lying, right?"

"No. This method exists."

He never lied. He had merely neglected to mention that he could only remove Skysoar characters for now.

"You still can't do so for now, right?"

Su Yu said nothing.

"You need time, right?"

Su Yu maintained his silence.

"Therefore, you can't be allowed to die. You need to get the time you need." Liu Hong's eyes were burning as he said, "I'm worried that I won't be able to find anyone else to do this after your death. Su Yu, you can deal with those who have wronged you accordingly. I don't care about that. I only want my teacher to survive."

"You don't look like the kind of people that would care about others." Su Yu sneered.

"You're wrong." Liu Hong said, "We're both the same type of people. The only difference is that you're luckier and more talented than me, giving you more confidence. I don't owe the single character faction anything, but I do owe my teacher something. Do you understand now?"

Su Yu had a pensive look. He stared at Liu Hong for a long while before saying, "Fine. We'll maintain contact with voice transmission talismans. Of course, I won't fully trust your name list. If your teacher can remain alive for three years, I can try to remove the characters for him."

"Deal."

Right after receiving Liu Hong's reply, Su Yu ran off. The source of thɪs content is novel★fire.net

"He sure is fast. He hasn't even given me the cultivation methods."

Liu Hong then laughed. This was someone with the courage to complain about the status quo in front of a Sunmoon. Why was he so confident? Or had he perhaps decided to throw all caution to the wind? Or maybe he had found an alternative?

Liu Hong didn't have enough information to guess what Su Yu was about to do, but he was sure that this kid was definitely plotting something.

Chapter 562: Mission (3)

23rd of December.

Su Yu stopped going outdoors. He was focused on reaching the ninth-stage Infinite Strength Realm, consuming blood essence, and forming a spatial character. He also had a lot of work to do.

He had three Mountainsea beasts with him. Xia Huyou had promised to back him up with two Mountainseas, but he wasn't sure if that would remain the case. But if the help was still coming, he would have five Mountainseas on his side. But that wasn't good enough for him.

"It would be better if I could set the location at the Starfall Mountain. There, Great Ming would be able to interfere. Any other location would be too unfavorable for me. They won't dare to show up with their real identities. They will only disguise themselves as cultists."

The single character faction would not dare to expose their identities when assassinating him. Thus, it was only natural that they would disguise themselves as cultists.

This would be a good opportunity for Su Yu to deal with them. After all, it was everyone's responsibility to exterminate the Myriad Race Cult.

"As far as they know, I'll only have a single Mountainsea on my side. How many Mountainseas would they send?"

It wouldn't be easy to get an answer for that.

With Xia Qing's betrayal, if he really only had one Mountainsea on his side, it would be enough for the single character faction to only send one Mountainsea. If they could send a seventh-stage Mountainsea, they could practically guarantee a victory.

But the single character faction's desire to kill him was too strong. Just how many Mountainseas would they send? More than one, right? But it was really hard to guess. One was probably not enough. Even after Xia Qing's betrayal, she would probably not dare to make any direct move on him. Would they collude with actual cultists to deal with him?

Since the academy was still keeping watch over the single character faction's Mountainseas, they wouldn't be able to send all their Mountainseas. They would only be able to send one or two Mountainseas out after coming up with a good excuse. More than that and they would catch too much attention.

At that thought, Su Yu took out his voice transmission talisman and said, "Zongji, can you check with me if any elders have departed for missions recently?"

A short while later, Hu Zongji replied, "From early of this month? Or do you have a specific time frame in mind?"

"Starting from the 20th."

"One moment..."

With his second granduncle at the Missions Department, Hu Zongji would be able to find out about the missions of some elders even if those weren't public missions. After all, a record would be kept for all missions unless it was a secret mission directly assigned by the principal.

After a short while, Hu Zongji replied, "Four elders. Elder Xie of the beast taming faction has left for the Allheaven Battlefield. Elder Li of the Character Faculty left for the the naval battlefield. Elder Wang of the Transformation Faculty left for Great Qin to visit a friend. And Elder Yu has also left. She's not going too far away. She's only going to Beifeng to welcome a visiting elder From Great Shang. I heard that the elder had arrived because of you."

Yu Hong and Elder Li! Unknowingly, the single character faction had sent two of their elders away. Of course, both of them had obtained a proper excuse for their departure. One had left for the naval battlefield while the other was welcoming a visiting elder from Great Shang.

Su Yu knew a little bit about that. That elder seemed to have arrived after he killed Di Feng and humiliated the single character faction. So that elder had remained in Great Xia until now?

In that case, there were at least three Mountainsea enemies out there. Su Yu wasn't sure if that visiting elder would make a move against him as well. And there were also the people from the Nine Heavens and Daoseeking academies.

"If even those two academies are sending some people, they are truly putting a lot of importance on me."

Even if those two academies decided to send an elder each, that would grant them a total of five Mountainseas they could send after him. That was crazy. It was like they were trying to kill a Sunmoon instead. Was there a need for that?

Su Yu started grumbling to himself.

But even if they were going to do something, it was unlikely for them to move together in Great Xia. There were too many of them.

"Well, let's see if you guys are ambitious enough."

If those people were really ambitious enough, those people would only make their move after arriving at his "ruin". And that would give him the chance to deal with them. Of course, if those five Mountainseas were lunatics who would attack right after he left the academy, there would be nothing he could do.

This was the best opportunity to test the greed of these people. He would be dancing in the edge of life and death. At that thought, Su Yu smiled as he couldn't help getting excited. This was quite exhilarating.

This was not a bad thing. He needed something like this. Those people might test him repeatedly on his way to the so-called ruin. They would keep trying to force him to reveal his trump cards. They might even take this chance to test Great Xia itself and the multiple character faction. This would be the perfect opportunity for him to temper himself.

While he was thinking, his body suddenly shook. He had successfully fused his acupoints. He had actually been fusing his acupoints for quite some time. From the time he came up with the fusion method until now, about a month had passed. He had finally successfully fused all the acupoints of the Sky Sundering Saber.

All 144 of Sky Sundering Saber's acupoints had been fused. The resulting product was nine fused acupoints. And he had successfully reached the ninth-stage Infinite Strength Realm.

Su Yu's eyes flickered as he sank into thought. He still had a lot of acupoints. It would be better if he could also fuse the acupoints of his martial techniques. But since he was lacking time, he had to slow it down. He could do so after arriving at Great Ming.

"Time for me to start consuming some new blood essence. Let's try a drop of ninth-stage Skysoar blood essence."

He wouldn't try any Cloudbreach just yet. He was afraid of death. He would only have the courage to try if the ninth-stage Skysoar blood essence ended up not giving him much pressure.

A drop of blood essence appeared in his hand. Ahhh, this was an old friend. It was a drop of iron-winged bird blood essence.

He had received his recent batch of blood essence from Xia Huyou. He had spent quite a lot of money, about 20,000 to 30,000 merit points, on this batch. He did not mind. That was nothing for him.

He stopped thinking, clenched his teeth, and swallowed the drop of blood essence.

Boom!

His entire body shook as his acupoints opened wide while the powerful blood essence flooded his body with power. Only a short instance had passed but Su Yu could feel his body reaching its limit.

Fortunately, the book in his head was not slow. It immediately absorbed the power of the blood essence. Next, a golden page appeared in his sea of willpower.

It was the iron-winged bird's page. Something seemed to have changed.

Iron-winged bird (Ninth-stage Skysoar)

Racial abilities: Tier-3 Rip (activation with blood essence), Ironwing Slash (activation with blood essence)

Foundation source art: Source Swallowing Art (activate with blood essence)

Basic body forging art: Ironwing Nine Forged Art (activation with blood essence)

An extra row of words had appeared.

Basic body forging art.

Su Yu wasn't surprised. At the Skysoar Realm, a warrior would start forging their body, cleansing their marrows, transforming their blood, and strengthening their physique. This was the time when they would start cultivating some arts to enhance this process and rebuild their body. Newest update provıded by novel_fіre.net

These arts did not require acupoint opening. They only needed to utilize their source qi in a certain way. The source qi would work in tandem with one's blood essence and reforge one's body. One could also add some natural treasures to help with the process.

This was quite different than cultural researchers at the same level of cultivation. At this stage, cultural researchers would mainly focus on opening apertures. Su Yu wasn't too concerned about this. He was still too far away from that stage. There was no rush.

Of course, if he managed to find an opportunity to reforge his body, he wouldn't mind doing so as it would only benefit him. Ignoring the contents of the page, he swallowed another drop of iron-winged bird blood essence.

His body started swelling and his hands started transforming. With a roar, Su Yu clawed out. A tearing sound rang out. The training puppet in front of him was instantly ripped apart.

After studying the destroyed puppet for a while, Su Yu cursed, "Garbage."

The iron-winged birds were too useless. The offensive strength of a ninth-stage Skysoar did not even feel much stronger than his actual offensive strength. Truly garbage. This blood essence had also failed to put much pressure on his body.

"Sure enough, all the races beyond the top 100 are weak."

Su Yu grumbled about the expensive price of this blood essence despite how weak it was. It should be stronger since it came from a ninth-stage Skysoar, right? What a waste of money.

"This won't do. I need the blood essence of a stronger race."

At the very least, he needed the blood essence of a race that was as strong as the suanni race.

The iron-winged bird race was truly garbage. Su Yu even felt like each second he spent looking at their page was a waste of his time. He took out another drop of blood essence and swallowed it. He refused to stop before finding a sufficiently powerful race.

It would be even better if he could find a race capable of killing Mountainseas at the Cloudbreach Realm. With that, he could perhaps swallow a drop of first or second-stage Cloudbreach blood essence and kill a Mountainsea with his own hands. Of course, he was also aware that he was probably dreaming. Only a very small number of super elites of a small number of elite races could pull something like this.

And a drop of blood essence was probably not enough to grant him that much strength. Not to mention that he would only be able to use the blood essence of an early-stage Cloudbreach. An early-stage Cloudbreach killing a Mountainsea was something that had never happened before as far as he remembered.

He continued consuming blood essence to open more pages. Occasionally, he would cough a few mouthfuls of blood. The blood essence of some races was quite powerful, capable of forcing him to cough blood even at the ninth-stage Skysoar Realm. The more powerful the blood essence was, the more excited Su Yu became as that represented strength.

The iron-winged bird blood essence was truly worthless. A drop of their blood essence had only caused his body to swell a little. How garbage.

***

At the same time.

Great Xia Cultural Research Academy.

The Missions Department finally received a plea for help from Nanyuan.

"The principal of Nanyuan Secondary School has requested for Su Yu to return and assist with the removal of the beasts that had been wreaking havoc near Nanyuan..."

"Jointly signed by Mayor Wu Wenhai."

The Cloudbreach experts in the meeting room exchanged gazes. Hu Zongji's granduncle, Hu Youhui, said, "This is Nanyuan's plea for help. They are requesting the assistance of Su Yu. What do you think, everyone?"

A different Cloudbreach nonchalantly said, "Inform Su Yu and let him make his own decision. Since Nanyuan is his birthplace, it is only natural that they ask for his help. Since he is a genius capable of killing Skysoars, a few beasts won't trouble him."

"The beasts at Nanyuan aren't too strong. But they are everywhere so extermination is troublesome."

They continued voicing their opinions. One of them smiled and said, "In that case, just let Su Yu accept this mission. He's a genius, right? He needs a chance to temper himself."

Hu Youhui scanned the room. A few of them were members of the single character faction. After some thought, he said, "He has a bounty in the Myriad Race Cult. It's too dangerous to send him back."

"This is a good chance for him to temper himself. It's still within Great Xia's borders. If he's worried, he can get the experts of his faction to protect him in secret. We can let him decide. We only need to inform him about this."

Hu Youhui nodded in agreement.

"Guards, pass on this mission to Su Yu. He can decide for himself if he's accepting it or not."

Before long, someone left with the mission's notice.

Hu Youhui stood up and said nothing else. As he scanned the room, he felt somewhat uneasy. What were these people thinking? This mission could actually be a threat to Su Yu's safety.

The Myriad Race Cult was keeping a close watch on Su Yu. Why was the single character faction getting involved? Would they actually dare to...

He didn't even dare to finish that thought. This mission felt too sudden and suspicious to him. This couldn't be a scheme of the single character faction, right?

He couldn't help but recall the scene of him escorting the youth to the academy a few months ago. The inconspicuous youth from back then had now turned into a renowned individual in Great Xia.

Chapter 563: Farewell (1)

Source Soul Research Center.

Su Yu walked down from upstairs with a pale face.

When Wu Lan saw him, she curiously said, "The Missions Department has just delivered the call for help from Nanyuan to you."

With an odd gaze, she asked, "What happened to you? Why is your face so white?"

The pale complexion was due to excessive blood coughing. But Su Yu had also consumed a lot of blood essence. For him, this was no big deal. He only needed to get used to it.

He did not answer the question and caught the mission's notice tossed over by Wu Lan. With a smile, he said, "Can you issue a mission for me? I'll be assembling a team to exterminate the beasts near Nanyuan."

"Is that necessary?" Wu Lan said, "Just kill them yourself. If you could do that in the past, why couldn't you do so now?"

"There is strength in numbers."

"I'll go with you then..."

"It's fine."

"Why? I want to go!"

"You're too weak."

"..."

Wu Lan's face twisted. Her famous nostril made a return as she once again raised her chin, snorted coldly, and left with a dissatisfied expression. Content orıginally comes from noveⅼfire.net

That was hurtful.

She was infuriated.

While walking away, she snorted, "The others you find would be weak as well!"

Her willpower was quite strong. She was already near the Skysoar Realm! Even her physical cultivation had reached the fifth-stage Great Strength Realm. Sure, that wasn't too strong, but she wasn't a warrior. She was a cultural researcher!

Su Yu smiled and said, "I will only be accepting those at the Infinite Strength Realm or peak Mental Tempering Stage. I also won't be taking too many people with me. I'll only accept ten people for the mission. Both Nanyuan and the academy will be giving them some rewards on top of the ten merit points per person I will be offering. And they are also entitled to the spoils of war from the battle."

"I want to go!"

"You're too weak."

"..."

Wu Lan left sullenly. This was the second time she was rejected. She was furious.

Su Yu smiled. He wasn't worried about her anger.

After she left, he sat on the couch and sank into thought. A short while later, Xia Huyou entered the room and said, "Did the Missions Department send you a mission?"

"How are you aware of that already?"

"What a stupid question."

Xia Huyou did not bother being polite. Very few things in Great Xia could be hidden from him.

"Leaving now..." Xia Huyou couldn't help but say, "I still think it's too dangerous."

Su Yu invited Xia Huyou to take a seat and said, "Let's not talk about that. I only have one question. Are those two reliable?"

"Yes, they are." Xia Huyou nodded and said, "Don't joke with me. They are definitely reliable. No matter what, I'm a sort of crown prince. My father won't feel assured without fully reliable guards."

"How's their strength?"

"One of them is a seventh-stage Mountainsea and the other is a sixth-stage Mountainsea."

"That's weaker than what I've expected."

Su Yu was blunt. As a so-called crown prince, Xia Huyou wasn't even assigned a peak Mountainsea guard. Was this really a descendant of an Invincible? Just look at the cloud tiger race. Xia Qing was nothing yet she had a third-stage Mountainsea acting as her dao protector. With Xia Qing as the comparison, Xia Huyou looked rather pitiful.

Xia Huyou rolled his eyes and said, "If I'm leaving on a long journey, I'll naturally be protected by Sunmoons. Why do I need experts at that level within the capital? No Sunmoon can enter the capital without catching my father's notice. What am I afraid of?"

No Sunmoon was stronger than his father. If the Sunmoon tried anything, his father would simply cut that Sunmoon down without even being there in person.

"Seventh-stage and sixth-stage Mountainseas..."

Su Yu sank into thought. In truth, that wasn't weak. Or to be precise, that was actually quite a formidable force. He was only afraid that his enemies would have the numerical advantage.

At that thought, he said, "Station some Martial Dragon Guards along the way. I don't need them to be strong. I only need their presence. They don't even need to stick close to me. They only need to serve as a deterrent, preventing any Mountainsea from making a move against me before reaching Nanyuan. Then again, it would be enough for them to only deter the single character faction. As for the cult, they are free to come at me."

"Sure." Xia Huyou looked at Su Yu with a frown and asked, "Are you sure you can lure them out?"

What a stupid question. Of course he was sure.

Su Yu couldn't even be bothered to give a reply. He tossed a jade talisman over and said, "We're clear. With this, we don't owe each other anything anymore."

"There is no need for you to worry too much about money between us!"

After taking a look at the contents of the talisman, Xia Huyou's eyes flickered. He asked, "Another 36-aperture art? And it can even be linked with the apertures of the art you gave me previously? Just how many of these arts do you have?"

"Since both arts of 72 apertures can be linked into a singular system, I can use them until the Mountainsea or even the Sunmoon Realm. Incredible. I'm afraid we will be welcoming a batch of cultural researcher experts in the near future. You are truly amazing."

"You're not allowed to disseminate this art without my approval." Su Yu indifferently said, "Of course, if you insist on disseminating it, you can do so as well. Just do as you see fit."

That art was his. He held all rights to the art. He did not mind having his art disseminated without permission, but if they did that, the relationship between them would fall apart.

"Don't worry."

Xia Huyou wasn't worried at all. There was no way he was going to disseminate this art. He took out a bunch of items and said, "I have your blood essence here. You sure are getting more and more crazy. Why are you buying even Cloudbreach blood essence? Just what are you doing?"

"Experiments." Su Yu gave a reply that didn't answer anything.

At that moment, Xia Huyou's voice transmission talisman vibrated. When he took a look, he smiled and said, "Someone has accepted your mission."

"Already?" Su Yu had received no notification about it.

Xia Huyou smiled and said, "It's Zhou Hao. Interesting. Is he this desperate for money? Or is he simply doing this because he is itching to kill some beasts?"

Zhou Hao? Su Yu blanked out slightly. When he recovered, he smiled and said, "It's fine. Not everyone will be allowed to go with me. I'll make another round of selection before deciding on the final composition of the team."

He did not wish to drag the innocent into this mess. And it wasn't likely that the single character faction students would dare to accept this mission of his. He would actually admire their courage if they really did something like this. He was mainly aiming for the foreign students when he issued this mission.

Xia Huyou said, "In that case, I'll be taking my leave. I still have something else to do. Feel free to notify me if you need anything else. By the way, if you really decide to kill, you will be in even more trouble after this. Why don't you join the Xia Family's private research center?"

Su Yu glanced at Xia Huyou. Did the marquis not tell him anything? Was this fellow still completely clueless? Why was this fellow still worrying about his fate after returning from the trip? There was no longer any need for that.

Su Yu sighed inwardly. Yes. There was no longer any need for that.

***

Xia Huyou left.

Su Yu's mission had not attracted too much attention in the academy. For a lot of people, this was just a normal mission. As for the single character faction's possible reprisal against Su Yu, many believed that since Su Yu was going to remain within Great Xia, there was nothing the single character faction could do.

Would they be so daring as to pull something within the borders of Great Xia? Even if they wanted to do something, they should wait until Su Yu was out of the prefecture. The ten merit points offered as the mission reward were quite attractive.

And that was not everything one could get from the mission. They would also be entitled to the spoils from the beasts they kill during the mission. Thus, one could say that the pay for this mission was actually quite generous.

Initially, this mission was very inconspicuous. That changed the moment Xia Qing accepted the mission. According to the academy rules, the foreign students were not allowed to participate in any mission unless there were other humans in the team.

Xia Qing did not say much when accepting the mission. Before long, rumors started spreading that Xia Qing had only accepted the mission because she was Su Yu's friend. Additionally, she was trying to prove to humanity that the foreign students here were the friends of the human race.

Friend. A lot of emphasis was placed on the word friend as the rumors spread. This was also a way to manipulate public opinion. With this, even if Su Yu ended up dead, Xia Qing and the others would be able to escape responsibility. Since they were his friends, why would they plot for his death?

Su Yu did nothing to address the rumors. Sure. Since those foreign students insisted on claiming that they were friends, so be it.

***

25th of December.

This was the last day in the year for anyone to challenge the Top 100 Ranking.

Outside the House of Hundred, a lot of students had arrived. Almost all the top 100 students were here as well. And Su Yu was also there. He did not enter the ring. He merely stood behind Wu Jia silently.

Nobody said anything. Many wondered if anyone would dare to challenge Wu Jia. Anyone challenging Wu Jia at a time like this was definitely someone trying to kick her out of the ranking. The conflict between the single and multiple character factions seemed to have intensified due to the Top 100 Ranking. After Di Feng was killed by Su Yu, this conflict had intensified further.

Time passed slowly. The students started challenging each other, but none challenged Wu Jia. With Su Yu there, one must be crazy to challenge Wu Jia. If anyone dared to challenge Wu Jia, Su Yu's retaliation would come swiftly. Even if Su Yu couldn't kill, he could still cripple his opponents during these challenge matches.

Today, there were barely any single character faction members around. They were not keen on showing up and further humiliating themselves. Even when night arrived, Wu Jia had yet to encounter any challenger.

She had successfully kept her ranking for the month. It had happened so easily. Nobody dared to challenge her.

***

Late at night.

This was the last thing Su Yu could do for the multiple character faction. After escorting Wu Jia back home, he arrived at a restaurant within the academy. The students who had accepted his mission were waiting in a private room.

There were twelve of them. All of them were students, and eight of them were foreign students. That was quite a high number.

Apart from Xia Qing's considerably large entourage, some other foreign students had also been attracted by the mission. They had gained the courage to accept the mission after noticing Xia Qing doing so.

When Su Yu arrived, he saw that the students had been split into two camps consisting of the foreign students and the human students. The human students were mostly ignoring the foreign students.

All four of the human students were quite strong. Zhou Hao was one of them. Excluding Zhou Hao, Su Yu knew two out of three of the remaining human students. One of them was Li Minyu, ranked fourth in the top 100 previously. She was currently ranked second.

Jiang Mu was the current first-ranked student. The fight between Su Yu and Di Feng was a private match instead of a challenge match. Thus, he did not replace Di Feng in the ranking. The previous second-ranked student had advanced into the Skysoar Realm at the Allheaven Battlefield not long after Zhan Hai's advancement.

The second student Su Yu knew was Ji Xiaomeng. Su Yu was very surprised to see her. Why was she here? This was very surprising. After all, that was Ji Hong's daughter. It would be very troublesome if she ended up dead during the mission.

Ji Xiaomeng, Li Minyu, and Zhou Hao. Su Yu did not know who the final human student was. That was someone he had never seen before.

Noticing Su Yu's gaze on him, the slightly blond student stood up and said, "Junior Brother Su, let me introduce myself. I am Chen Chen, a student of batch 345 and a 65th-ranked student in the top 100. I am a fourth-stage Infinite Strength and peak Mental Tempering Stage student from the Beast Taming Faculty."

Su Yu was surprised. This was yet another top 100 student.

Chen Chen smiled and said, "I am here because I wish to look for a beast I can tame. I was planning to go alone, but after hearing about your mission, I decided to accept it instead."

"Thank you for accepting the mission, Senior Brother Chen."

Chen Chen smiled and said, "Junior Brother Su, the crisis in Nanyuan isn't too serious. I have to be blunt. It is preferable to not bring these foreign students with us. We never know what they might be planning."

At that, the foreign students looked at him. As they were all clad in cloaks and hoods, their expressions weren't visible. Even so, their anger could be felt.

Chen Chen was unbothered. He said, "These people are beasts as well. And we're on a mission to exterminate beasts. Who knows if they would end up pitying the beasts? We have to be cautious about this."

"Senior Brother Chen." Xia Qing coldly said, "There is no need for you to worry about this. With Brother Su around, we will naturally listen to his arrangements."

Chen Chen ignored her and said, "Junior Brother Su, you are a super genius of the human race. Meanwhile, Great Xia has been warring against the myriad races for many years. It is better for you to be careful. There is no need for you to ruin your reputation like this."

Su Yu nodded with a smile and said, "Don't worry, Senior Brother. Great Xia has adopted a new policy. The human race and the myriad races are no longer enemies. There are so many races out there. We need to be clear about who our real enemies and friends are. We don't want to turn our allies into enemies, right?"

The moment those words were said, one of the cloaked students said, "Exactly. Our race has been allied to the human race for many years. Great Xia itself has been a long-term ally of us. Stop inciting disharmony between our races."

Su Yu looked over in surprise and asked, "Are you someone from the sky horse race?"

"Yes." From the voice, this was a male. The student hurriedly said, "I am from the sky horse race. Our race has been a friend of Great Xia for generations. Senior Brother Chen, those words are very disappointing to hear after generations of friendship between our races."

Chen Chen said nothing. He did not want to offend the sky horse race. There was no need for that. After all, there was even a special unit called the Sky Horse Unit in the Martial Dragon Guards. They had indeed been allied to the human race for many years. Of course, for a lot of people, these sky horses were merely mounts.

Chapter 564: Farewell (2)

Su Yu was curious to see a sky horse here. Was this sky horse also scheming against him? That seemed unlikely.

The sky horse race had been an ally of the human race for many years. They even had several Mountainseas serving in the Martial Dragon Guards. If this sky horse youth was really plotting against him, the entire sky horse race would be endangered.

Or perhaps...

As Su Yu thought of a different possibility, he glanced at Xia Qing and her group. Interesting. Had Xia Qing arranged for a few clueless foreign students to join the mission as well? Was this a ploy to share the burden of his death with more people?

That was understandable. With someone from the sky horse race present, even if Great Xia was unhappy with these foreign students, the others would be able to avoid responsibility if they could get this sky horse youth to serve as the witness that the cult was the culprit behind his death.

The authorities would have a hard time deciding if they wanted to punish the sky horse youth alongside Xia Qing and her group. If they did so, they would have to worry about causing dissatisfaction among the sky horse race.

After all, the sky horse race had fought for the human race for so many years. After losing only one genius, a young genius of their race was punished even if they had nothing to do with the death. Would they be happy about it? Resentment would ensue. This was not something Marquis Xia and Xia Longwu would allow.

"She sure is smart."

Su Yu sneered inwardly. But he had to admit that this was a good move. Out of the eight foreign students, who among them were Xia Qing's allies? Su Yu was unsure. In fact, he wouldn't even put his trust in the sky horse youth. After all, you never knew what someone was thinking.

To be precise, he did not trust any of the students here, including Zhou Hao. He was not the type of person to place his safety in the hands of others, including the three Mountainsea beasts that had reached an agreement with Hong Tan to help him.

Without a proper way of restricting those fellows, he would never have trusted them. And yes, his distrust extended to Ji Xiaomeng as well. Who knew what she was thinking in that head of hers? She was the daughter of the Talent Fostering Bureau's director. Thus, it was quite suspicious that she had actually joined his mission.

Su Yu wasted no time and said, "Everyone, I am a blunt person. This mission seems easy. And it is indeed easy. But I have to make one thing clear. There is a bounty on me in the Myriad Race Cult. Thus, there is a possibility that they might make a move and plunge us into danger. Think carefully about this before deciding to set off with me.

"Of course, I don't know if they would really pull something crazy, but the possibility is there. Then again, the foreign students will be escorted by their dao protectors outside the academy. I'm not too worried about their safety. But I can't guarantee the safety of the others."

As he said that, his gaze landed on the four human students. With his stuffy voice, Zhou Hao said, "You're their target. In that case, can I run when they're attacking you?"

"Yes."

"Then it would be fine. I have great survival skills in the wilderness."

He was very confident. Su Yu was not surprised. This fellow was someone who had grown up in the wilderness. It was understandable that this fellow would be able to protect himself well in the wilderness.

His gaze landed on the others. Li Minyu smiled and said, "This is precisely why I'm here. I wish to face some cultists. I am trying to advance into the Skysoar Realm."

"That's ambitious." Su Yu calmly said, "But if they're really going to make a move against me, I'm afraid the attackers would be no weaker than the Skysoar Realm. Are you sure this is helpful for your advancement?"

Li Minyu smiled and replied, "There is no guarantee that they will show up. Even if they do end up attacking, you will be in more danger than me. If the cult is nowhere to be seen, I can simply try to find a beast that is a suitable opponent for me to attempt my advancement."

Su Yu's gaze settled on Chen Chen. With a smile, Chen Chen said, "I am a student of the Beast Taming Faculty. Out in the wilderness, I can survive very well."

Finally, Su Yu looked at Ji Xiaomeng. She had a cheerful smile on her face as she said, "Don't worry. I will be fine. If I encounter danger, I can teleport away. My dad gave me a teleportation talisman. I'm only curious about how beasts look like..."

Su Yu merely smiled, but Chen Chen said, "Is there a need to go so far for that? We have some beasts right beside us."

"You—"

Xia Qing and the others were furious.

Su Yu ignored them and focused on Ji Xiaomeng. Teleportation talisman...was Ji Hong so rich that he didn't know what to do with his money? Why couldn't he share some of the wealth with Su Yu if he was so rich?

Su Yu was aware of what a teleportation talisman could do. In the event of an attack, one could instantly move away with the talisman. The distance one could move would depend on the rank of the talisman.

This was something only spatial talisman masters could produce. It was extremely expensive. How generous. Was she spending this much money just to see some beasts in the wild? How rich. Su Yu even wondered if Ji Hong was a corrupt official for them to be so rich.

Since these people insisted on joining after hearing about the potential danger, Su Yu couid no longer be bothered to keep persuading them. He said, "You already know about the associated danger so I won't be taking responsibility for your choice. As for our mission itself, it is very simple. We simply need to go to Nanyuan and kill some beasts.

"At Nanyuan, you can form teams among yourselves for the hunt or work alone. We can talk more after reaching Nanyuan. We will be setting off tomorrow evening."

Su Yu said, "We will be leaving silently in the evening. Keep your departure to yourselves as we want to avoid any unnecessary trouble if possible. We won't be driving. The route we take is hard to traverse with vehicles anyway. We'll be traveling on cloudrush horses.

"Keep one thing in mind. I am the leader of this mission. Be sure to listen to me during the mission. If you disagree, just pull out from the mission. Otherwise, don't blame me for dropping you during the mission. Any issues?"

"Nope." Zhou Hao agreed easily. Li Minyu smiled and said, "Since we have accepted your mission, we will naturally listen to you."

Xia Qing said, "I can agree to that."

Su Yu scanned the group again and repeated, "Like I said, you have all been warned of the danger. It will be great if nothing unexpected happens. But in the event of danger, you're liable for your safety. Don't come up to me and say that I have scammed you when you encounter danger. It is even possible that we might encounter Mountainseas."

The sky horse youth said, "So what? Between the eight of us, we have five Mountainsea and three ninth-stage Cloudbreach dao protectors. Su Yu, you worry too much."

"..."

Su Yu stared at the sky horse youth. So this fellow wasn't naive. Instead, he was stupid. Just look at how easily he had exposed the trump cards of the foreign students. Worry too much?

Su Yu couldn't be bothered to say anything. The sky horse youth continued, "We're only going out on a scenic tour and helping you with the mission while we're at it. If the cult dares to show up, we'll kill them all. We can even earn additional merit points from that!"

The sky horse youth said with excitement, "In fact, I can't wait for them to attack. Each cultist you kill will grant you merit points that can be added to your total earned merit. With enough total earned merit, members of the sky horse race can directly become a commander in the Martial Dragon Guards upon joining!"

Su Yu was somewhat speechless. He wanted to tell the youth that the sky horses were mounts. Since when were mounts allowed to be commanders? That was something new for him.

He looked at the other students and asked, "Is any of you from a race with a sect in the cult?"

"Nope." Xia Qing answered, "Only the major races will have a sect in the Human Realm. It's not like human experts would be willing to work for a weak race."

That was the truth. Even the traitors looked down on the minor races.

Bai Ce smiled and said, "Generally, most of these sects claiming to serve the minor races only exist to scam some resources out of the minor races. After a few minor races were scammed, the other minor races stopped falling for it." The most update n0vels are published on n0velfire.net

That wasn't surprising as it wouldn't be so easy to fool a major race. There was a bunch of people who specialized in scamming the minor races within the Myriad Race Cult.

"Alright."

Su Yu had not mentioned the single character faction. It didn't matter if these people were aware of his enmity with the single character faction or not. It also didn't matter if they were pretending to be clueless. Nothing would change. He would treat any attacker as a cultist. And he wouldn't hesitate to kill these attackers.

They spent some time familiarizing themselves with each other. After that was done, Su Yu sent them off. He remained in the restaurant. A short while later, Xia Qing returned with a few individuals. Including Xia Qing, there were four of them.

"Brother Su!" Xia Qing introduced, "This is Bai Ce of the fox race, this is Niu Zhen of the barbaric bull race, and this is Zhan Fei of the iron-winged bird race. I already told them what you want me to say. Brother Su, is our target within Nanyuan?"

"No. It's slightly south of Nanyuan."

Su Yu did not say much about their target. He looked at the group and indifferently said, "As you have learned from Xia Qing, I will pay you ten thousand merit points to escort me to a certain location. Don't ask me anything else. If we encounter enemies, just let your dao protectors deal with them. Are your dao protectors all Mountainseas?"

Xia Qing smiled and replied, "Three Mountainseas and one ninth-stage Cloudbreach. Zhan Fei's senior is a Cloudbreach. His Mountainsea dao protector is staying in the academy. This dao protector might be a Cloudbreach, but as a member of the bird race, he is capable of facing Mountainseas in battle."

"Cloudbreach..." Su Yu muttered before saying, "I'm only paying eight thousand merit points for a Cloudbreach dao protector. If you disagree, forget it."

Zhan Fei nodded, "Sure. Money is not our goal anyway. We're only here for our friendship. I only hope that you will remember this favor. That is more valuable than mere money."

Su Yu smiled and said, "That is only natural. I agree with you, Brother Zhan."

Zhan Fei smiled, but he cursed inwardly. This Su Yu had just consumed some iron-winged bird blood essence recently. The stench of blood on Su Yu was too thick. That had definitely happened very recently. This was too excessive. This person deserved death!

Su Yu said, "How about the other foreign students?"

Xia Qing explained, "They accepted the mission themselves. Since we didn't know them well, we told them nothing. If it's inconvenient to take them with us, we can split up at Nanyuan."

Su Yu nodded.

Xia Qing asked, "Is that Ji Xiaomeng the daughter of Director Ji? Brother Su, should we leave her behind? It would be troublesome if she notices anything."

Su Yu smiled and said, "We will definitely be doing that. I'll leave her behind at Nanyuan. We can't do that yet. Just let her follow us for now. We don't want to catch Director Ji's attention too early."

After saying that, Su Yu frowned. With a sigh, he said, "I'm worried about one other thing. Will the single character faction make a move? But with your dao protectors around, I reckon they won't dare to try anything unless they have seven or eight Mounainseas or even a Sunmoon..."

At that, Su Yu smiled again and said, "Whatever. I doubt they will try anything unless they're mad. With your help, apart from those cult lunatics, who would dare to try anything?"

Xia Qing nodded and said, "I believe so as well. Then again, we still need to be careful. Brother Su, you should stick closer to us during the journey. Our dao protectors will be staying near us. Thus, you should stick with us in the event of danger."

"Thank you!" Su Yu cupped his hands and expressed his gratitude, "I'll be troubling you, friends. As for the pay, I'll be paying thirty percent first. You will receive the rest upon our return. Is this agreeable?"

"Sure." Zhan Fei smiled and said, "Honestly, we don't lack money. We have received quite a lot of resources from our races before coming to the Human Realm."

Su Yu smiled, "Brother Zhan is a generous person. But I still need to pay you what you deserve. This is what I should do, even if we're friends. You have no idea how grateful I am for your assistance."

Su Yu gave them another promise, "Don't worry. After this, I'll introduce you to my grandteacher. He will definitely leave seclusion as a Sunmoon. Even in the Human Realm, a Sunmoon holds a lot of weight."

It was the foreign students' turn to express their gratitude. Both sides were constantly acting. After a short chat, Su Yu paid them the deposit for their service. Over ten thousand merit points were paid to them.

Where had Su Yu gotten the money for this? Well, it was naturally from a loan. He had borrowed the money from Xia Huyou. He didn't even need to repay the money as he had paid for the loan with a cultural art.

He had to pay these foreign students something in advance to make everything more believable. Otherwise, he would seem too confident that they would join him on this journey.

They finally parted ways when it was late at night. They had agreed to meet again the next day.

Su Yu walked out of the restaurant and walked alone in the dark of night. After a while, he arrived in front of a research center. He stopped under a large tree.

After checking his Perception Jade, he confirmed that nobody was paying attention to him. He stood there silently, staring at the resarch center for a very long time.

Finally, he sighed. Ultimately, he decided to not bid his teacher farewell. That would only strengthen the sorrow in his heart for disappointing his teacher. Instead, he gave the research center a solemn bow.

He remained bowed for a long while before straightening his back and walking away. He had made sure that he owed nobody in the academy.

Of course, there were some favors that he would forever keep in his mind. For example, the old man in the research center behind him. That old man had taught him a powerful cultivation method without asking for anything in return. He was very grateful for that.

"Teacher, I will be taking my leave. Thank you for your during my time here."

Su Yu walked away without looking back.

Not long after he left, an old man appeared under the same tree. The old man had a complicated look in his eyes.

"He's too stubborn..."

The kid could have left the multiple character faction and joined the weaponsmithing faction. Zhao Li would be able to protect him. The kid had not been a part of the multiple character faction for long. So what if he had killed Di Feng? He had yet to involve himself in the struggle between the Invincibles.

"Perhaps...this is a good thing for him."

A long sigh filled with regret rang out. This shitty academy was getting worse by the day. Perhaps leaving was the right choice.