Chapter 107: Too Worried (1)
Day after day passed.
...
On the 15th of July, Su Yu received the acceptance letter from the Great Xia Cultural Research Academy.
Back at his home.
After taking a look at the letter, his good mood vanished.
"Registration fee of 10,000, lodging fee of 3,000, student uniform fee of 5,000, and book expenses of 2,000 for a total of 20,000 dollars. The lodging is adjustable. High-tier students can choose to live in the Mental Tempering Garden for a fee of 50,000 dollars per year or a payment of merit points."
Su Yu turned gloomy the moment he saw the acceptance letter. He only had about 20,000 dollars in cash for now. And the registration fee alone would cost 20,000 dollars. And to live in the Mental Tempering Garden, he needed to pay 50,000 dollars. He would probably starve to death after paying the fees.
"Dad, the money you left is really not enough..."
Su Yu was sighing again and again. His father had left too little money behind. If it wasn't for the fact that he was also quite good at making money, he would have been starved to death in the streets long ago.
As for the so-called Mental Tempering Garden, he was definitely not going to stay there for now. He didn't even have enough merit points to cultivate. He wouldn't waste them on lodging.
"This Great Xia Cultural Research Academy...is too greedy!"
Su Yu cursed. They were charging fees for everything. Why did they want so much money? Around half a month had passed since he opened the first acupoint of the War God Art. He had used up almost all his blood essence. He had also used one more drop of source qi liquid since then. He only had one drop remaining in his possession.
A drop of source qi liquid, 30 merit points, and slightly over 20,000 dollars were all he had for now. He was going to enter the academy in half a month. He still needed to purchase more blood essence and source qi liquid. That would probably use up his remaining wealth. He was basically going to enter the capital with no money to his name.
"Sigh."
Even a special recruit student like him had to pay his dues to enter the academy. Nevertheless, he was still going to receive his benefits. Things like 100 merit points and two entries into secret grottos weren't things money could buy. Not even tens of millions of dollars in cash would be enough to buy all that.
The Great Xia Cultural Research Academy had probably not expected a genius student to actually be troubled by something like registration fee.
"I need to take a trip to the school today and buy some blood essence and source qi liquid."
He had been cultivating without caring about the cost during the past half a month. As a result, he had successfully opened the third acupoint of the War God Art. He still needed some cultivation resources for the following half of month. Only by turning wealth into strength would he have the ability to earn more money when he arrived at the capital. He understood that very well.
...
Resource Department.
Su Yu was gnashing his teeth as he spoke with a gloomy tone, "Teacher, 15 drops of iron-winged bird blood essence and 3 drops of source qi liquid."
"The iron-winged bird blood essence is available. But the source qi liquid..."
The teacher shook his head, "Our school never keeps source qi liquid in our stock. The drop you purchased previously was actually loaned from Instructor Liu. He has not sent us any source qi liquid recently."
Su Yu frowned. He had forgotten about that. The school did not have any Skysoar cultivators. No, Liu Wenyan was one, but he was busy cultivating as well. He probably didn't have the energy to provide more source qi liquid to the school.
In the past, the people of Nanyuan could only purchase source qi liquid from the capital. Nanyuan was too small and they had too few Skysoar cultivators. But buying at the capital wasn't an option since he needed the liquid immediately.
After thinking about it, Su Yu asked, "Teacher, if I go to the mayor's manor, can I buy some?"
The mayor was a Skysoar cultivator as well. In fact, the three drops of source qi liquid he got previously were provided by the mayor.
"You can if you have enough merit points, but they might not have any in stock..."
The teacher thought for a bit before saying, "If you really want to buy some, I suggest you go to the Martial Dragon Guards. Their squad leader is a Skysoar cultivator as well. Since they have fewer members here, he might have some in stock."
"But I don't know their location."
The teacher smiled, "That's not a problem. Nanyuan has been making preparations to escort the new academy students to the capital. The Martial Dragon Guards will be involved. They will probably be at the mayor's manor making their plans. Maybe you can find Squad Leader Xia there."
"Thank you, teacher."
After thanking the teacher, he bought 15 drops of blood essence. Apart from himself, his blood character needed the blood essence as well. Out of what he bought here, he would use 10 of them while his blood character would probably absorb at least 2 drops of them. The remaining blood essence would be kept for emergencies.
"Little Lightning is so much better than Little Blood."
Su Yu lamented. The blood character was too expensive to raise as it fed on blood essence. Meanwhile, the lightning character could be grown for free. If other cultural researchers learned of his thoughts, they would probably spit on him in anger. He could grow strong from absorbing blood essence. So what if he had to use a little bit of blood essence? That was basically the perfect Divine Character!
Meanwhile, Divine Characters like the lightning character that fed on willpower were the actual headache-inducing characters for many cultural researchers. Because of these characters, many cultural researchers were constantly in a state of willpower exhaustion.
But here was Su Yu, blaming the blood character for consuming blood essence. He was basically sitting on a treasure without knowing to appreciate it.
...
Half an hour later, Nanyuan mayor's manor.
After waiting outside for a while, Su Yu finally saw Xia Bing.
"Sir Xia..." Su Yu called out.
Xia Bing turned around and asked in astonishment, "You're looking for me?"
"Sir Xia!" Su Yu did not beat around the bush. "The school is running out of source qi liquid. The teacher there suggested that I ask the Martial Dragon Guards if you guys are selling any. Do you have any in stock?"
"Source qi liquid..." Xia Bing looked at Su Yu. A glow flashed in his eyes before he asked in astonishment, "You're already opening additional acupoints? That’s so fast!"
No wonder he needed more source qi liquid. This kid was starting to open his additional acupoints.
Su Yu answered with an honest and innocent expression, "Didn't the mayor reward me with some source qi liquid recently? I tried opening more acupoints with them. It worked, but the source qi liquid consumption is too high. I need more of them."
"That's normal." Xia Bing nodded. "Nanyuan's source qi density is too low. Cultivating here has always been difficult, especially when it comes to opening acupoints. We have some, but we don't generally allow outsiders to buy our supply. I don't have the ability to grant you access to the military's trade network either."
"How about this? I have some personal stock. Just buy from me with some merit points."
The Martial Dragon Guards received their own supply of source qi liquid from the capital. But that was considered military supply and could not be given to outsiders. However, Xia Bing could sell his personal supply to Su Yu. He was a Skysoar cultivator so he could form the source qi liquid himself anyway.
"Thank you, sir."
Su Yu hurriedly thanked the squad leader. If it wasn't for Xia Bing, he probably wouldn't be able to get any source qi liquid in Nanyuan. The mayor had already run out of supply. He knew as he had checked earlier.
This was no big deal for Xia Bing. He asked, "Are you cultivating the War God Art?"
"Yeah."
"That's quite a fast cultivation speed you have there." Xia Bing said, "Generally, the Martial Dragon Guards focus on the War God Artwhile those from the Devil Subduing Army focus on basic cultivation methods such as the Great Strength Art.
"Since you cultivate the War God Art, apart from the willpower texts in the cultural research academy, you can also seek some guidance from the Martial Dragon Guards or the war academy."
"The soldiers on duty definitely don’t have the time to give you pointers, but those not on active duty are also veterans that have cultivated this method for many years. With their guidance, you can avoid many mistakes during your cultivation."
"I understand. Thank you for the advice, sir."
"Don't mention it." Xia Bing started walking as he said, "The source qi liquid is at my place. Come with me. After a while, you guys will set off to the capital. We will work with the city guards to escort you there."
Su Yu couldn't resist asking, "Sir Xia, will the trip be dangerous?"
"Somewhat." Xia Bing explained, "You should know that the Myriad Race Cult is now active in Great Xia. Although we have killed a lot of their people not long ago, we can't guarantee that there aren't more hiding around.
"You also need to watch out for the local demons. Those fellows are very troublesome too."
"Local demons..." Su Yu had heard of those beings before, but he had never seen them. He curiously asked, "I've read about them before. Due to the thick source qi density in some areas, some local beasts in the Human Realm can turn into demons as well. But these demons are mostly weak. Will they actually attack humans?"
"It depends." Xia Bing smiled, "Their attacks are random. These demons always act in accordance with their instinct. In truth, that's because they are not very intelligent yet. They will instinctively attack those who intrude upon their territory.
"We will suppress them each year, but new demons will also appear each year. Thus, you will need protection during your journey to the capital. After all, you all still don't have much combat strength.
"These demons are the reason journeys between cities are very inconvenient. Most merchant convoys will only move in a large group. Even so, many of these convoys will end up destroyed. These demons can never be fully cleared. We can only constantly suppress them to keep our roads safe. It's not like we can exterminate all beasts in existence."
Su Yu nodded. That was true. They couldn't actually keep only humans alive within the Human Realm.
Xia Bing continued, "It's still not that bad on land. But if you're traveling by sea, things are even more troublesome. There are far greater numbers of aquatic beasts around and they are much harder to suppress. Because of that, beast waves will appear every now and then from the seas. The Marine War Academy's students are mostly sent to the navy to deal with these aquatic beasts."
The Marine War Academy was one of the academies Chen Hao had considered joining due to the lower entry requirements. These seas were not located within the Allheaven Battlefield. Rather, they existed within the Human Realm.
Sure, the human race as a whole had the strength to suppress these aquatic beasts as well, but that would be very troublesome to do. There were simply too many of them.
Su Yu suspected that one of the reasons these beasts were not hunted to extinction was because these beasts served as convenient training tools and a source of resources. Otherwise, a few Invincible experts would be enough to clear the seas of these beasts.
"Sir Xia, it won't be too dangerous for us, right?"
"It should be fine unless the Myriad Race Cult decides to launch a large-scale attack, but that's very unlikely to happen."
Su Yu was worried about jinxing it so he hurriedly said, "Sir Xia, I think we better change the topic."
Things that were almost impossible to happen could very well happen after someone claimed that they would not happen. As a well-read person, Su Yu knew very well that saying those words out loud could very well jinx the entire matter.
Xia Bing understood what Su Yu was thinking. He smiled and stopped talking. Before long, they arrived at a small building. Su Yu was astonished. Was this the base of Nanyuan's Martial Dragon Guards? It was actually quite near his house.
"This is our base." Xia Longwu said knowingly. "Don't worry, we will be moving to a different location soon. Since there aren't a lot of us in Nanyuan, we will move every few days. That way, the Myriad Race Cult won't be able to locate us.
"Wait here. I'll get your stuff inside."
Su Yu did not dare to enter a military base without permission so he obediently waited outside. After a while, Xia Bing returned and tossed a bottle over. Su Yu hurriedly caught the bottle before taking out his merit card.
The merit card wasn't a creation of the cultural research academies. Rather, it was created by the scientific research academies. It might be called a card, but it was actually a small machine similar to a calculator.
After connecting his card with Xia Bing's card and keying in the password, the screen on the card displayed that he had 15 merit points remaining. He transferred all of them to Xia Bing.
When Xia Bing saw that, he couldn't resist asking, "You already used up all your merit points?"
Did this kid eat merit points for breakfast or something? Xia Bing knew that this kid had earned 40 merit points during the examinations. He had also been awarded 10 merit points from the Windcatcher Department's mission. He also had his language certification merit points and the 3 merit points from Chen Hao...