Chapter 109: Departure (1)
Nanyuan.
In the blink of an eye, the 28th of July arrived.
The day of departure.
The new semester would start on the 1st of August. But since they needed to take into consideration the duration of the trip, the Nanyuan students needed to set off a few days in advance.
During the past half of month, Su Yu had been madly cultivating without a care for the cost. Once again, he displayed rapid growth. He had opened six acupoints in total.
].
Only five of them were the War God Art acupoints. For the eight acupoints of the first level of the War God Art, three overlapped with the second move of the Lightning Source Blade. One of the second move acupoints did not overlap with the War God Art acupoints.
While cultivating the War God Art, Su Yu had ultimately decided to open the Lightning Source Blade acupoints first. Since he wasn't going to be advancing to the second level of the War God Art anytime soon, he thought that it was better to grasp the Lightning Source Blade's second move for now.
Although that extra acupoint felt like a waste since a powerful martial technique at this level of cultivation was pointless for many students, any extra strength mattered to Su Yu as that signified that he would be able to protect himself better.
He had completely exhausted his stock of source qi liquid but he still had a few drops of blood essence left. He had zero merit points while his 20,000 dollars would be saved for the registration fee. He was basically going to be penniless in the capital.
After packing up some clothes and his willpower texts, he prepared to leave with a saber in hand. At that moment, someone knocked on his door. Su Yu's ears moved as he walked up to the door.
The door opened to reveal a happily smiling Chen Hao. "Yu, time to go! My father is downstairs. He's driving us to the school."
The Nanyuan Secondary School was where they were supposed to gather. Chen Qinghe was clearly reluctant to part with his son since he had taken the day off to personally drive him. Su Yu did not say anything and walked out with his small luggage.
When Chen Hao saw how little Su Yu was taking, he couldn't help saying, "Yu, is this all you're taking with you?"
"How many things am I supposed to take?"
Su Yu shook his head. He turned around to look at his home, a sense of reluctance brimming in his heart. This was a place he had grown up at. He was going to leave it. He didn't know when would be the next time he could see this place again.
This was a place he had stayed for many years with his father. A few months ago, his father left. Now, it was his turn. The bustle of life of the past was gone from his home, replaced by peace and emptiness.
"Yu, you can't bear to part with your home?" Chen Hao was still smiling widely, "I don't feel that way at all. I can't wait to arrive at the capital. I heard it is a thriving metropolis! There are people and shops everywhere. There is a lot more food, drinks, clothes, training centers, and everything else there."
Su Yu teased, "And your father won't be there to beat you up."
Chen Hao laughed awkwardly. But next, his tone turned regretful as he said, "Without my father beating me, I can no longer claim extra pocket money from him."
"Loser."
That was the only word Su Yu had for him. This fellow seemed reluctant to part with his source of money.
During the past half of month, Chen Hao had progressed in his cultivation as well. Unfortunately, he fell short of reaching the seventh-stage. He was now a sixth-stage Source Opening cultivator.
The Source Opening Realm was after all the realm where cultivators could only passively absorb source qi. The efficiency was too low. Even though Su Yu had invited Chen Hao over each time he used his source qi liquid, that fellow still failed to open his seventh acupoint.
After one last look at his home, Su Yu exhaled lightly, closed the door, and locked it.
...
Downstairs.
Chen Qinghe was chatting with a few old men from the neighborhood. When he saw Su Yu coming down, he smiled and asked, "Little Yu, are you not bringing more clothes with you?"
"We'll get uniforms from the academy. I only need a few extra outfits."
Su Yu also greeted the old men that had gathered downstairs.
They were all in a melancholic mood. One of them said, "In the blink of an eye, Little Yu is going to an academy. The little boy from back then is all grown up now. If your father is around, he will probably tear up today."
"Definitely. Su Long was both the father and the mother. It hasn't been easy for him to raise Little Yu alone."
Su Yu smiled and said nothing. After a short farewell, Su Yu and Chen Hao got into the car.
While driving to the school, Chen Qinghe reminded, "Be careful during the trip to the capital. There are demon beasts in the wilderness. Don't roam around alone."
"Father, you said that a lot of times already." Chen Hao was getting impatient. His father had been nagging on him repeatedly.
Chen Qinghe berated, "Shut up! Do you want to get beaten? Listen to Little Yu on the way. Stick with the city guards and Martial Dragon Guards. Don't roam off alone. At the capital, don't do anything stupid. I'll find some time to visit you there in the future."
"Why bother making the trip? It's so dangerous!" Chen Hao hurriedly said, "It's very dangerous to go alone. You should stay home. I'll come back when I have the chance."
"Shut up!" Chen Qinghe berated, "You don't have a brain. It would be even more dangerous for you to make the trip. Remember this. Every three months, Nanyuan will organize an escort for you guys. Only come back with the escort. Don't move around by yourself.
"An alternative would be the Xia Trade Company. See if they have any traveling convoys. If there are, you can also follow the convoy. Everything is fine as long as you don't travel alone. Do you understand?"
Chen Qinghe continued reminding, worried about his son. In this era, the wilderness was a dangerous place. Even though the army would constantly clear the roads, it still wasn't safe out there.
Most students who had left for the capital would only return with a city escort or a trade convoy. Otherwise, their trip back might be their last trip in life. Of course, if one was strong enough, one wouldn't need to worry about all that.
Su Yu felt somewhat envious listening to the conversation between the father and son. His father was on the battlefield. Otherwise, he would be around nagging at him as well.
While arguing with his father, Chen Hao kept pulling at Su Yu with a look of excitement, showing off the saber in his hands. That was a standard-issue military saber. Su Yu could see that the saber was quite similar to the one he had. These were probably the same series of weapons.
"Yu, I have a proper cultivator's weapon as well!"
Chen Hao declared joyfully. At that moment, Chen Qinghe berated, "The saber is for your cultivation, not for you to show off!"
Chen Hao curled his lips, grumbling that it was no big deal to show off once in a while. Just look at his buddy Yu! He had been showing off his saber a lot as well! Chen Hao had been envious for so many days and finally got one for himself. He naturally had to show it off as well.
Su Yu merely smiled at the antics. Looking at the familiar streets through the window, he sank into a mood of melancholy. Before long, the car stopped. They had arrived at the Nanyuan Secondary School.
...
Today, there were a lot of cars outside the school. However, there was no trace of smoke in the air. These cars were all powered by source qi instead of gas. A tiny bit of source qi would be enough to last these cars a long while.
However, it still wasn't cheap to own a car. A normal car would cost hundreds of thousands of dollars while the source qi charges would cost them thousands of dollars per month.
Previously, Su Long had refused to buy one of these cars. For him, riding on a fire hog would be much better than driving one of these. Su Yu never thought much about that before, but now, he agreed that riding a fire hog would definitely look cooler than driving a car.
Of course, he suspected that the bigger reason Old Su didn't buy such a car was due to a lack of money.
Numerous students could be seen heading toward the public square with their luggages in tow. Their parents followed behind them. Some were wiping their tears while some were nagging at their children.
In this era, without strength, one would be lucky to be able to return once every few months. It was more likely that one would be stuck there for a few years before they could take their first trip home.
Then again, they could always stay in touch with their communicators. The communication system of the Human Realm was quite developed. However, it wasn't cheap as they would be charged several dollars per minute for a call connecting Nanyuan and the capital. For regular families, that would be a considerable amount of money.
The communication stations outside the cities were subjected to frequent beast attacks. Thus, there were times when they wouldn't be able to make a call outside the city.
The situation was still tolerable within the prefecture itself. After leaving the prefecture, the communicators would basically stop working. The large swathes of wilderness were filled with beasts and cult members. These cult members were more than happy to destroy these communication stations and ruin the connection between the various prefectures.
Su Yu saw the principal, Liu Wenyan, his schoolmates, and teachers present. Liu Wenyan waved at him. After taking his leave from Chen Qinghe, Su Yu rushed toward Liu Wenyan.
...
Liu Wenyan looked at Su Yu with a nod, "Not bad. You've opened a decent number of acupoints. Your willpower has grown considerably as well. Looks like you haven't been slacking off."
He then gave Su Yu a slip of paper. "If you encounter any trouble in the capital, call this number. Of course, don't call the number if it's nothing serious."
"I understand." Su Yu took the paper and memorized the number on it. He curiously asked, "Instructor, whose number is this?"
"Don't ask. Just mention my name when you call it."
Liu Wenyan refused to elaborate. What was he supposed to say? That this number belonged to a certain special someone of his? That would be too embarrassing.
"Are you out of merit points?"
Su Yu nodded. He had zero merit points left.
"Don't look at me. I won't be able to give you any. I barely have enough for myself.
"If you don't have merit points, then you'll have to think of a solution. It won't be hard for you to get some merit points when you formally become someone's student in the academy.
"I know you don't want to give up on your physical cultivation. I won't stop you, but remember your balance and don't let it affect your willpower cultivation. At the higher levels, both might be similarly powerful, but cultural researchers are clearly the more mysterious and magical ones.
"In a frontal confrontation, a warrior and a cultural researcher can be evenly matched. But if it's not a frontal confrontation, a Skysoar cultural researcher can even kill a Cloudbreach warrior through an ambush. On the battlefield, cultural researchers are always shrouded in mystery."
Su Yu nodded. Having said that, Liu Wenyan sank into silence. Not far away, the other students were reluctantly saying their farewells to their parents. Of course, there were also some students who were filled with excitement.
Many of them had never left Nanyuan before. Thus, they were filled with expectations toward the bustling and flourishing metropolis that was the capital. It was still too early for them to actually feel homesick. Perhaps they would only start missing home after some time in the capital.
A short while later, Xia Bing and the Martial Dragon Guards arrived. Apart from the Martial Dragon Guards, there were 100 city guards around as well. In total, 110 of them would be in charge of this escort mission. There were roughly 200 students to be escorted.
These were all the students that had been accepted by the various war and cultural research academies. As for the internal affairs and scientific research students, they would travel separately under escort of a different team of city guards.
The difference in treatment between the two was obvious since the other group wasn't escorted by the Martial Dragon Guards. This was how reality worked. The cultural research and war academies were in charge of nurturing experts. Thus, more importance was placed on their students.
Furthermore, the other two academies had a lot more students. There were over 1,000 of them.
The second group would probably encounter less danger since the Myriad Race Cult would not be bothered to do anything to these regular students. They would sacrifice a lot for little gains so it was hardly worth their time.
Xia Bing started walking toward the square. He was personally leading the escort. Even the city guards were placed under his command.
After exchanging a few words with the principal, Xia Bing walked up to Liu Wenyan. He sternly said, "Instructor Liu, we're taking off. There has been a lot of chaos recently. There is disorder in the various cities while chaos reigns in the wilderness. With the city guards and Martial Dragon Guards away, some of those rats will stir. Nanyuan will be in your care while we're gone, Instructor Liu."
With the departure of a Skysoar expert, the Martial Dragon Guards, and the city guards, the city's defenses were at their weakest.
Liu Wenyan nodded, "They better show up. I've been lacking merit points recently. You guys should be careful as well. This is the time each year when the wilderness is the most chaotic. Some cult members might even try to induce a beast wave or two. Don't get trapped."
"I will." Xia Bing promised solemnly. He was an experienced soldier. He naturally was aware of all that.
As the two Skysoar experts conversed, about a dozen trucks appeared outside the school gate.