Chapter 103: The Myriad Race Arrives (1)
After the talk with Liu Wenyan about cultivation methods, Su Yu was relieved. The advanced War God Art would allow him to open 108 acupoints. That was basically as good as a top-tier earth-grade cultivation method. It was actually a very good choice.
As for a heaven-grade cultivation method, Su Yu did not see himself getting one. It was too difficult to both obtain and cultivate. Trying to cultivate one would only slow down his growth. An earth-grade cultivation method was good enough for him.
"If I want to practice the advanced War God Art, I'll need to open 12 acupoints to reach the first-stage Great Strength Realm."
There were nine stages in the Great Strength Realm. Thus, after opening 12 acupoints during the ninth-stage Source Opening Realm, he could directly reach the peak of first-stage Great Strength Realm. However, only the first eight acupoints would be available for the ordinary version.
Su Yu contemplated while eating the charred food. After a while, he looked up and said, "Instructor, how about the Infinite Strength version? Do I need to purchase it as well?"
"Of course." Liu Wenyan nonchalantly replied, "At the Great Strength Realm, you will be allowed to purchase the Infinite Strength version. At the Infinite Strength Realm, you can purchase the Skysoar version. In short, you can get the version one realm higher. But naturally, the higher the realm, the more strict the application process would be and the more expensive it would be."
"To prevent the Myriad Race Cult from getting it?"
"I guess so." Liu Wenyan smiled, "But that's not the sole reason. They also want you guys to learn that you won't be able to get anything without putting in the work for it. The human race has been able to rise not through the work of only a few experts. Rather, we have relied on the hard work of countless humans. Look at the Allheaven Battlefield. There are countless soldiers there. If we rely on only a few experts, how are we supposed to defend our borders?
"If nobody is willing to contribute, the human race will never be a strong race. When someone purchases a cultivation method with merit points, the creator of the cultivation method will receive a share of the profit. Generally, they can receive about 30 percent of it.
"In fact, the richest humans aren't those super experts. Rather, the creators of the various cultivation methods are the richest. All of them stand to earn a terrifying number of merit points just from their yearly dividends alone.
"Of course, there is also the option of purchasing the rights for a cultivation method. For example, the rights of the Great Strength Art have been purchased by the military. I wonder if the creator ever regrets selling the rights..."
Initially, this was merely a yellow-grade cultivation method, something that was not rare at all.? For a super expert, that was nothing. But after selling the rights to it, the expert found that the military has turned the method into their standard cultivation method.
The entire humanity started cultivating the method. If the expert had kept the rights instead, they could probably earn billions of merit points just charging one merit point per cultivator. And this was a profit that could be earned generation after generation.
Even Su Yu felt bad for the creator of the Great Strength Art. He couldn't help but to ask, "How much did the military pay for the rights?"
"I don't know. The rights were bought many years ago. At that time, the merit point system wasn't even in place yet. I heard that the military bought the rights with only a Skysoar demon beast corpse..."
Liu Wenyan wasn't sure. That was ancient history. All people knew nowadays were some unfounded rumors from back then. The corpse of a Skysoar demon beast that might not even be from a particularly powerful race. Just with that, the creator had lost the rights to the cultivation method. What a loss.
Su Yu asked, "How about the follow-up methods? Did the military buy the rights for all of them?"
"I think so. Of course, I'm not very sure either. As for the Mountainsea version, that might have been created long after the Great Strength version. The creator might still be holding onto the rights of that."
Liu Wenyan was a brand new Skysoar cultivator as well. He didn't know too much about all that.
But when he saw how interested Su Yu seemed to be, he smiled and asked, "Are you thinking of giving it a try? After all, cultural researchers are very good at creating cultivation methods. In fact, cultural researchers have created all sorts of cultivation methods over the years. Unfortunately, many of the cultivation methods come with all sorts of flaws as well, so they didn't go anywhere.
"For example, there are cultivation methods that can cause a cultivator to grow a tail, an extra hand, or even scales after practicing them. After all, most of our points of reference come from the cultivation methods of the myriad races. And these are only the less severe cases where people haven't been killed practicing them."
Liu Wenyan sighed, "Just from the fact that cultural researchers are also the creators of cultivation methods, the human race needs to thank us. We have created many cultivation methods. Some are useful, some are not. Nevertheless, the majority of the cultivation methods used by humanity nowadays are creations of cultural researchers. Too many of us have perished in the process of creating new cultivation methods.
"Generation after generation of cultural researchers have worked tirelessly to improve our cultivation methods. From the very beginning when humanity has only been cultivating randomly where luck plays a greater role than hard work until now where we have proper paths of progression, cultural researchers have played a great role in that. From back then where countless people died cultivating to nowadays where barely anyone would die from cultivation deviation, the contribution of cultural researchers can't be forgotten."
Su Yu nodded repeatedly. Perhaps these creators weren't strong. Perhaps they had never even been to the battlefield. But nobody could deny that they had contributed massively to humanity.
Su Yu had a longing look on his face as he said, "If I can create a cultivation method suitable for the masses in the future such as an earth-grade method not harder to cultivate than the Great Strength Art, I can probably stop worrying about money for life!"
"Many people have the same idea." Liu Wenyan smiled, "But reality is harsh. It has been so many years. If a more suitable cultivation method can really be created so easily, the basic cultivation methods of humanity would have changed long ago."
Su Yu did not continue the topic. That was merely a dream of his.
Shortly after, he asked doubtfully, "Instructor, is the Myriad Race Cult really not able to get their hands on these basic cultivation methods?"
"Not really. Some of the more powerful races probably also have a copy of them. At the very least, they should have the versions before the Mountainsea Realm.
"But that doesn't matter. We also have their cultivation methods. We only need to keep improving."
"If that's the case, why are we still being charged?"
"Like I said, you guys need to be taught to only reap what you sow," Liu Wenyan berated. "Don't have the mentality of wanting something to drop from the sky for you. Also, for cultivation methods of higher realms, your merit tier will also be taken into consideration when buying cultivation methods..."
Liu Wenyan sneered and said, "The other races have actually slaughtered a lot of different races to obtain our cultivation methods. For example, the divines have been sending their spies to us to steal our cultivation methods. In order to earn enough contribution points, they won't hesitate to get their hands dirty and kill some of our enemies for us. That's also the same for the other races.
"Each improvement of a cultivation method would bring us great benefits."
Liu Wenyan flashed a wide smile and said, "Let me tell you a secret that is not a secret. About 80 years ago, a spy from the Myriad Race Cult managed to enter the cultural research academy. In order to get the Mountainsea version of the Myriad Text Sutra, that fellow went to the Allheaven Battlefield and killed dozens of divines and devils for us...
"He then purchased the Myriad Text Sutra he wanted. However, that was an early version of the method so it has a lot of problems. Furthermore, it was only suitable for human cultivation. Even humans found it troublesome to cultivate. When the method was sent back to the azure dragon race, several of their top cultural researchers tried modifying that method...but all of them ended up exploding and dying when trying the method."
Liu Wenyan clicked his tongue and said, "That created such a big ruckus that humanity immediately learned of it. Not only did they discover a high-level spy, they also learned of the problems of that cultivation method. Generally, not even unsuitable cultivation methods will cause top experts to explode and die when cultivating. That means that there is a big problem with the method.
"We ended up revising the method multiple times. At times, we would deliberately leak some cultivation methods that we're unsure of. We managed to kill quite a lot of enemies with our leaked cultivation methods."
Su Yu found the entire affair amusing, but Su Yu thought of an entirely different point. When Liu Wenyan was done speaking, Su Yu asked solemnly, "Many of our own cultural researchers had died studying cultivation methods as well, right?"
"Yeah." Liu Wenyan nodded. "It's very normal for people to scheme against each other. Each year, there would be some humans dying, turning mad, or exploding from studying the cultivation methods of the other races. But we have no choice. Our research must continue. All the other races are progressing. If we don't do so as well, how are we supposed to keep up with our enemies?"
The conversation ended on that heavy note. The two resumed their meal in silence.
When they were done eating, Su Yu prepared to leave. After some thought, Liu Wenyan said, "Bai Feng has encountered some trouble recently. You can decide for yourself whether you still want him as your teacher."
"I understand."
...
After taking his leave from Liu Wenyan, Su Yu started heading back home. Apart from physical cultivation, he could also cultivate his willpower. How? By studying myriad race original texts.
A willpower of about 20 to 49 percent full were required to study a Great Strength myriad race original text. But he had only reached 20 percent not long ago, so he could only study an incomplete copy for now.
And he had one such incomplete copy in his possession. He had obtained the copy from Bai Feng back then. When he first studied it, he hadn't been able to see anything as he had been immediately sent into a daze.
Cultural researchers at his level could study these incomplete original texts to strengthen their willpower. The contest of willpower between the cultivator and the text was helpful for the growth of willpower. And at the Mental Tempering Stage, more avenues of improvement would unlock.