Chapter 106: Dragon's Lair (2)
Su Yu resumed his life as a shut-in. He would read in the morning, cultivate in the afternoon, and practice the Lightning Source Blade in the evening. His dreams would also visit him every now and then.
Unlike in the past, he was actually looking forward to his dreams nowadays. In the dreams, he would be able to practice with his Divine Characters. In his dreams, he could use his Divine Characters the same way he used them during the test. His dreams were very realistic.
Also, he could use Divine Characters without exhausting his willpower in his dreams. That would only increase his proficiency with them.
On the 1st of July, the examination results were out.
Su Yu placed first for both examinations.
As for Chen Hao, he had gotten 220 marks including his bonus marks. In other words, he had obtained 60 marks for his hearing and liquid tasting test. That was actually a higher score than Su Yu's had expected, but it was also much lower than Chen Hao's own expectations.
Chen Hao was very sad. He had been confident that he could get 60 marks for the hearing test and 30 marks for the liquid tasting test. Why did he get 30 less marks? Su Yu couldn't even be bothered to explain anything to him.
Excluding his bonus marks, he would only have 190 marks in the examination. With that result, he could barely make it into the Great Xia War Academy. But Su Yu had already suggested that he join the Martial Dragon War Academy instead. Chen Hao didn't mind either way.
His score of 220 marks was decent enough at the Martial Dragon War Academy. But at the Great Xia War Academy, that would be a pitifully low score. And he would also have the care of Old Xie in the Martial Dragon War Academy. Meanwhile, nobody in the Great Xia War Academy knew him. As someone at the bottom of the pack, he would not be qualified to receive any attention.
On the 2nd of July, all the students started submitting their applications for the academies. Su Yu did not go out. Instead, he had Chen Hao do it for him. He only needed to submit an application for the Great Xia Cultural Research Academy.
It didn't matter even if Chen Hao got the forms wrong. Su Yu was a special recruit. He could fix any mistake by contacting the Great Xia Cultural Research Academy. Thus, he couldn't be bothered to waste his time personally filling up the application forms.
In the span of a few days, he had used a drop of source qi liquid and three drops of blood essence. Today, he aimed to open his first additional acupoint after the nine basic acupoints. His time was too precious to be wasted on applying for the academy.
...
The first eight acupoints he needed to open were located at his left arm, four limbs, torso, and head. These acupoints were mainly for the purpose of creating a basic circulation of source qi through his body, allowing him to absorb source qi and strengthen his body.
As a ninth-stage Source Opening cultivator, he could already start actively absorbing source qi. However, there was no comparing his absorption speed with someone in the Great Strength Realm. That was why he was still using the blood essence and his book for his cultivation. However, this method was no longer as effective on him.
Inside Su Yu’s room.
A white glow flickered on Su Yu's left arm. The dim glow slowly turned into a bright glow.
It only appeared for a split second before vanishing. That was an acupoint. He had opened the first acupoint on his left arm. He clenched his left fist and threw it out. Instantly, rumbles rang out in the room. The strength of his left arm had increased considerably.
Even without the full circulation formed of eight acupoints, his left arm had still grown much stronger. One additional acupoint meant that he could absorb and store more source qi in his body.
"So I'm technically now a Great Strength cultivator..."
In fact, if he was cultivating an inferior low-tier yellow-grade cultivation method, opening one acupoint would probably be enough to make him an official Great Strength cultivator. There were actually such Great Strength cultivators around. However, there were very few of them since low-tier yellow-grade cultivation methods were simply too terrible.
These terrible cultivation methods were mostly only used by talentless cultivators with no background. For them, entering the Great Strength Realm would still be better than staying in the Source Opening Realm. At the very least, they would have greater physical strength and could perhaps do hard labor more effectively.
And if they were lucky enough to enter the Infinite Strength Realm, they would be able to get a relatively easy and high-paying job in a small city even though they would be among the weakest Infinite Strength cultivators in existence.
People like them weren't suited for the battlefield. Instead, they could only use their inflated cultivation to scare some ignorant people behind the front line.
"From the 29th until the 2nd to open the first acupoint. This is quite fast. But it's too expensive."
In truth, the basic acupoints were much harder to open than Great Strength acupoints. That was why Su Yu's speed when opening the eighth and the ninth acupoints of the Source Opening was slower than the first Great Strength acupoint.
If the Great Strength acupoints weren't easier to open, those academy students wouldn't have been able to reach the Great Strength Realm or even the Infinite Strength Realm so quickly.
If all acupoints were as hard to open as the Source Opening acupoints, each student would probably take decades to reach the next realm.
"I'm officially cultivating the War God Technique now. My willpower has grown recently as well. But that bone fragment looks like it's not going to last much longer. As for the Lightning Source Blade, I can only keep practicing the first move..."
Overall, he had improved considerably. He had even tried incorporating his lightning character with the Lightning Source Blade to grant his attack more destructive power. One could say that he was growing every single day.
"There is less than a month left before the semester starts. I'll try to open at least five or six acupoints before then. I'll also try to push my willpower to 30 percent full."
Su Yu set a goal for himself. Since he had enough merit points to use and was in a phase of rapid growth, he was not interested to join any of the Windcatcher Department missions. He would have a much easier time earning merit points after becoming a proper Great Strength cultivator. He knew very well what his current priority should be.
...
At the same time.
Great Xia Cultural Research Academy.
Inside an ancient, tall, and iconic building.
Bai Feng had his head lowered submissively as he said, "Respected elders, my teacher has researched the blood essence of the myriad races for many years. We're at a critical point of our research. If we cancel the project now, this will be a great loss to humanity..."
Several old men were silently listening to him.
After a while, one of them said, "Hong Tan has spent too much of his energy on this project over the years. He has neglected even his teaching duties in the academy and often spent years at the Allheaven Battlefield. He has also stopped providing the academy with any resources. If everyone does so, how can the academy stay strong? How are those new students supposed to get the resources they require for cultivation?
"It's not like we haven't given you any time. The academy has been allocating funds without stopping to the project all these years. It has been decades. It's about time we put a stop to this."
Bai Feng said, "We're really getting a result soon. This project is very important. The moment we succeed, us humans will be able to possess the racial abilities of the myriad races. We also believe that us humans have our very own racial abilities as well. Those abilities are simply undiscovered for now..."
"Bai Feng, we know Hong Tan's project better than you," said someone. "Extracting the blood essence of the myriad races and decoding the racial abilities of the myriad races. Hong Tan was not the first to research this subject. The Knowledge Seeking Realm has been researching the same subject as well.
"But reality proves that humans have no racial abilities. The racial abilities of the myriad races can't be transplanted either..."
Bai Feng frowned, "Facts need to be proven with proof and demonstration, not empty words."
"Sure. Where's your proof?"
The person who had spoken did not sound angry. Since Bai Feng demanded proof and demonstration, where was the result?
Bai Feng's expression changed. After a while, he took out a drop of blood essence and swallowed it. With a roar, his body started growing. In the blink of an eye, he turned into a seven-meter tall giant. He threw a punch out, creating loud rumbles in the entire building.
In front of him, an old man caught his fist with one hand. The old man's face turned solemn as he asked, "Collision?"
"Yes. The racial ability of the fire hog race, Collision."
Then, Bai Feng's body returned to normal. His clothes were torn up, but he did not care as he said, "There is already an early result for Teacher's research. But we still need to perfect our findings. For now, we are only able to extract the racial abilities of the weaker races such as the fire hog race. But this is a start. I believe our progress will be significantly faster after this. It is only a matter of time before we can get the racial abilities of the divines and devils.
"Through this project, we can unlock the hidden racial abilities of humans, granting the human race an additional trump card. This will benefit the entire human race. We can't cancel the project."
The higher ups exchanged gazes with each other. One of them sighed and said, "Bai Feng, we saw your proof. But in all honesty, the Knowledge Seeking Realm has accomplished the same as well. But even with the fire hog race, the progress stops at the Great Strength Realm.
"The ability you extracted came from a Great Strength fire hog. You must have tried Infinite Strength and Skysoar fire hogs before as well. Did you succeed?"
Bai Feng did not expect that the Knowledge Seeking Realm had accomplished the same. He frowned and said, "Although they have done the same, we might not share the same line of thought. We will walk our own path. We never know who will be the one to succeed in the end.
"But since we have proven that we haven't been conducting this research for nothing, why can't you give us more time?"
The higher ups conversed among themselves through voice transmission. Before long, one of them slowly said, "It's possible to give you more time. But the academy will stop allocating funds to this project.
"Additionally, if you can't provide a breakthrough in five years, Hong Tan better return to his tasks and focus on teaching and accepting new students. He also needs to start exploring more secret grottos and contribute to the academy. If he continues wasting his time on projects that do not benefit the academy, we will have to remove his qualification as a senior researcher."
The old man sternly said, "Bai Feng, humans are strong because of our regulations. Hong Tan has enjoyed the benefits of being a senior researcher of the academy and Great Xia. However, he has failed to contribute to the academy and the prefecture. Is it fair that he continues enjoying all those benefits?
"Everyone has their own research. If everyone acts like him, how are we supposed to get our resources? Are we supposed to wait for the military to provide us with the resources?"
Bai Feng clenched his teeth and said, "Ok. I'll pass that on to Teacher. If we can't get any results in five years, we will give up on the academy-provided research center and hand over a copy of our findings to the Knowledge Seeking Realm."
"You're too stubborn..."
Someone sighed. Clearly, Bai Feng meant that they would continue the research outside the academy if the academy stopped supporting them. The elders gave up on further persuasion. They believed that if Hong Tan had not wasted so much of his energy on this project, he would have broken through long ago.
What a pity.
Furthermore, Bai Feng seemed to have fallen into the same pit. They were worried that the project would delay Bai Feng's growth as well.