Chapter 116: I'm Rich And Strong! (2)
About half an hour later, they arrived at Tianshui. Instead of entering the city, the convoy stopped at a visitor's zone outside the city. Some people from Tianshui had arrived as well. These people were here to talk about their cooperation moving forward.
An attack by the Myriad Race Cult was a major incident that the city viewed seriously. Furthermore, the incident had happened within their borders. Their city guards had long been dispatched to search the surroundings of the earlier battlefield and Yuanshui Village.
...
Su Yu and the other students were not involved in all that. Due to the attack, they were all gathered at the visitor's zone. They would be stopping there for a night before resuming their journey the next day.
Inside a room.
Su Yu heaved a breath of relief. The arrangements of Tianshui were decent. Two students would share a room and he had been given the same room as Chen Hao. The attack was nerve-racking, but he also felt much more at ease after the attack.
The anticipation of an attack actually felt even worse than to have it over with. Now that the attack had come and gone, he felt much better than before.
While wiping the sweat off his body, someone knocked on the door. Standing outside was Squad Leader Ma. One of his arms was in a sling while some wounds could be seen on his face. When Chen Hao opened the door, Squad Leader Ma laughed heartily and said, "Su Yu, my good brother, I couldn't thank you earlier so I'm here to visit you."
Su Yu walked out of the bathroom and asked anxiously, "Big Brother Ma, are you fine?"
"These are tiny injuries." Squad Leader Ma was unbothered by his injuries. He looked to the side and said, "This is a cultural researcher from the capital. He has something to tell you later but that will wait until we finish our conversation."
He gestured at Su Yu to take a seat and seriously said, "We have heard of your contribution to the Windcatcher Department, but this time, we got to personally witness you in action. I doubted your contribution previously, but you now have my heartfelt admiration.
"If it wasn't for you, at least 10 more of our brothers would have perished earlier.
"Cultural researchers are indeed different. Even a Source Opening cultural researcher is more useful than an Infinite Strength warrior..."
Behind him, the old man smiled. He enjoyed hearing people praise cultural researchers the most, especially when it came from a warrior.
"I told the commander earlier that it's pointless to ambush the cult. We should just face them head on. Would the cult actually dare to face us in battle? If we had only relied on the so-called hidden experts today...even more of us would have perished."
Behind him, the old man's face turned stiff. The people of Nanyuan...were really bad with their words. He was a great intermediate researcher. However, someone like him had been subjected to so much criticism since his arrival.
But soon, Squad Leader Ma was smiling again. "Let's not talk about all that. As soldiers, casualties are inevitable. I am here on official business. We need to finalize your contribution during the battle earlier.
"Su Yu, attention!"
"Here!" Su Yu hurriedly stood up.
Squad Leader Ma solemnly said, "I'll ask and you'll answer."
"Yes, sir!"
"Did you kill four cult members today?"
"Yes, sir!"
"Did you interrupt several cult members with your Divine Character?"
"Yes, sir!"
"There are 7 recorded instances and 21 cult members confused during those instances. Is that accurate?"
Su Yu gave it some thought and answered, "There should be 8 instances and 23 cult members in total..."
Su Yu gave a short explanation on each instance while Squad Leader Ma noted them all down. Finally, he said, "I'll report the eighth instance. At present, we only have seven instances in our records."
After they were done with the business, Squad Leader Ma stopped being so serious and laughed heartily before saying, "Well done! If all cultural researchers are like you, there will no longer be any need for people like us!"
"I only provided some interruptions. The soldiers were the ones who had actually killed the enemies."
"Don't worry. The contribution will be distributed fairly."
Then, Squad Leader Ma turned around to leave. Su Yu hurriedly asked with a soft voice, "Big Brother Ma, so was what I did earlier considered military contribution?"
"Of course."
"Then...how many merit points can I get?"
Squad Leader Ma blanked out slightly. He scratched his head and said, "They will make the calculation and notify you at a later date. But if you're in a rush, I'll tell them to get yours done first. It's understandable. You're going to enter an academy soon."
He laughed heartily again and said, "You will get a decent number of merit points. Interrupting over 20 enemies can earn you at least a point per person even if you didn't kill them with your own hands. This is considered a military conflict so the higher ups will be more generous with their rewards. Out of the four you personally killed, three were middle-stage Great Strength cultivators and one was seventh-stage Great Strength cultivator. You can get nine merit points for that.
"The combat will be considered a mission accomplished and you will be considered a helper during the mission since it was an emergency. Therefore, you will get some additional rewards such as the spoils of war. You won't get much though since those cult members were all broke. All in all, you can probably get around 40 merit points."
Su Yu was overjoyed. That was totally worth it. He had used two drops of blood essence for the battle and only had one drop remaining. He was getting worried about his stock. But now, everything was fine since he had earned a lot from the battle.
The military was very generous when it came to actual military operations. A point per interrupted enemy was not the type of reward they would normally give out.
"Then...when can I get the points?"
"It won't take long. We'll submit the report at Tianshui and you can claim your points by the time you reach the academy."
Su Yu was relieved to hear that. He was basically penniless now. With the reward, he did not need to worry about basic things like a roof over his head or food.
Squad Leader Ma smiled and said, "Talk to this cultural researcher. I'll be taking my leave. Rest early. We'll need to wake up early tomorrow and resume our journey."
"Ok. Thank you, Big Brother Ma."
After seeing Squad Leader Ma off, Su Yu looked at the old man and respectfully said, "Sorry for the wait, sir."
"Don't call me sir. Just call me instructor, teacher, or even senior."
The old man was very friendly. However, he did feel somewhat uncomfortable. Not because of Su Yu, but because of Chen Hao. That silly kid was staring attentively at him. What was the meaning of that?
Excitement could be seen in Chen Hao's eyes. He had witnessed how this old man had killed the cult members earlier. It was evident that this was a super expert. And he adored experts. Thus, he couldn't help but to stare when one such expert was right before him.
It almost felt like he was looking at an animal in the zoo. The old man was speechless. If this was the academy, he would have put the silly kid in detention. But he did not have the grounds to do that here.
Finally, Su Yu noticed that and coughed before saying, "Hao, go stay in the bathroom."
"What?"
"Go."
"Fine..."
Chen Hao left helplessly. He wanted to stay and listen to the conversation, but unfortunately, he was being kicked off.
"Senior, he's an honest kid. Don't mind him."
"It's fine." The old man smiled. "Let me introduce myself. I come from the Great Xia Cultural Research Academy. I am Zhao Li, an intermediate researcher and a seventh-stage Cloudbreach cultivator. If I can reach the Mountainsea Realm in a few years, I can become a senior researcher like Bai Feng's teacher."
Su Yu was alarmed. A seventh-stage Cloudbreach cultural researcher! This old man was much stronger than he had imagined.
"I have taught a lot of students. But I stopped a few years ago. My best student has recently reached the Cloudbreach Realm, currently serving as a junior researcher in the academy.
"Today, you interrupted your enemies with your Divine Character and killed them with your own hands. To speak the truth, I admire that. You are both talented and decisive. At the academy, you can definitely get a senior researcher as your teacher. But I'll be frank. Senior researchers are too mysterious. They are rarely around and can often leave the academy for years on end.
"Someone like that will only be your nominal teacher. You will still have to rely on yourself.
"Meanwhile, assistant researchers and junior researchers are too weak. As for intermediate researchers, not many of them are without a student like me. You need to understand that between a researcher with ten students and a researcher with one student, things will be very different for the students even if both researchers are of similar strength.
"You're decent at physical cultivation so I'll be honest. I'm not good at Divine Characters. I specialize in weapons. I made my name through the weapons I forged.
"You saw my weapon today. The sixth-stage Skysoar cult member was killed using the Hundred Sword Box I forged myself."
A golden box appeared in his hand. "This is the Hundred Sword Box, a top-tier profound-grade cultural weapon. Weapons can be split into cultural and martial weapons. Martial weapons are easier to forge. Meanwhile, cultural weapons are much harder to forge. There are no more than five cultural researchers in Great Xia capable of forging profound-grade cultural weapons."
Zhao Li solemnly said, "If you follow me, you won't lack any weapons or willpower texts. Plenty of people are willing to trade their willpower texts with me for my weapons.
"Even physical cultivators need the help of us weaponsmiths. As someone walking both paths, weaponsmithing is very suitable for you as well."
Su Yu was overwhelmed by the favor shown to him. He said, "Senior, I..."
"Spend some time thinking about it. You don't need to rush your answer." Zhao Li smiled, "As for Bai Feng, don't worry about him. He's only an assistant researcher. Will he dare to challenge me?"
Su Yu could only awkwardly stay silent.
When Zhao Li saw Su Yu looking at the golden box curiously, he smiled and said, "A top-tier profound-grade cultural weapon is worth five times a martial weapon of the same grade. A top-tier profound-grade martial weapon is worth more than 300 merit points. The better ones can be even more expensive. As for a cultural weapon of the same grade, the value can go beyond 2,000 merit points."
Su Yu's eyes widened. He couldn't even imagine how it would feel to own 2,000 merit points.
"As for earth-grade cultural weapons, 5,000 merit points would be the minimum price. Although I don't have a 100 percent success rate when forging earth-grade weapons, I had still succeeded before. In the entirety of Great Xia, there is only one cultural researcher capable of forging earth-grade cultural weapons."
Su Yu looked at Zhao Li in astonishment. Was he actually talking to the best weaponsmith in Great Xia? Zhao Li smiled without saying anything.
Yes, there was only one such person. And...cough, cough. That wasn't him. He had only succeeded once through complete fluke. He still couldn't forge a proper earth-grade cultural weapon. After all, luck was not something one could rely on.
Then again, he had not lied to this kid since he had not claimed to be that person. From this kid's conversation with Squad Leader Ma, it was obvious this kid was lacking money. That was normal. After all, he was from Nanyuan.
Zhao Li said, "By forging earth-grade cultural weapons, you can earn thousands of merit points selling each of them. How many points can you earn killing a Skysoar cultivator? How many can you earn killing a Cloudbreach cultivator? You probably need to kill 10 Skysoar cultivators for a single earth-grade cultural weapon...
"Alright. I'll be taking my leave. Just know that character masters might not necessarily be superior to weaponsmiths. We're rich and strong. Not to mention Bai Feng, I don't even fear his teacher."
Su Yu only laughed awkwardly as he saw Zhao Li off. After Zhao Li left, Su Yu finally laughed to himself. Zhao Li was clearly bluffing earlier. That was especially true when he talked about Bai Feng's teacher when his tone wavered.
"Weaponsmith...cultural weapons...martial weapons..."
Su Yu muttered to himself. He had learned something new today. He was previously unaware of all this.
Those cultural weapons were truly valuable. He couldn't help but be moved by the offer. After hearing about the value of cultural weapons, the merit points he earned earlier didn't feel like they were worth much anymore. Just look at Zhao Li. A random weapon of his was worth thousands of merit points.
Meanwhile, Zhao Li also heaved a breath of relief after leaving Su Yu. What a joke. Random weapon? That Hundred Sword Box was his trump card. His best weapon!
Even the earth-grade weapon he had forged by fluke was an incomplete weapon that could not be used. He had basically emptied his pockets forging this single Hundred Sword Box. His financial situation was only made worse by his attempt at forging the earth-grade weapon.