Chapter 117: Silent Observer (1)
The night passed peacefully.
Due to the attack, the students were rather dispirited. All of them went to bed early. After a short cultivation session, Su Yu went to sleep as well.
The next day.
Su Yu woke up early and washed up. When he reached the dining hall of the guest house for his breakfast, he could sense that the atmosphere was off.
Xia Bing and Zhao Li were present. There were also some strangers around them. Those were probably the people from Tianshui. The group was conversing at the corner of the room with solemn expressions.
Su Yu walked over toward Xia Bing when he saw the man beckoning at him.
...
"Su Yu, you won't be joining the other students today." Xia Bing went straight to the point, "A few Tianshui students will travel with you. These sirs will personally escort your group to the capital."
Apart from Xia Bing and Zhao Li, there were three strangers around the table. An old man, a middle-aged woman, and a younger man around 30 years old.
Xia Bing continued speaking, "You already know Sir Zhao. This is Sir Hu..."
He started introducing.
The old man beside Zhao Li was Hu Youhui, a Cloudbreach expert and an intermediate researcher in the Great Xia Cultural Research Academy. He was Zhao Li's partner who had left for Tianshui during the previous attack.
The middle-aged woman was Sun Xia, a junior researcher from the Nine Heavens Cultural Research Academy and a Cloudbreach expert.
The younger man was Li Yunfeng, a deputy commander of Tianshui's city guards and a seventh-stage Skysoar expert.
Excluding Xia Bing, these four would be in charge of escorting Su Yu's group to the capital. Four experts. Three were in the Cloudbreach Realm and one was a seventh-stage Skysoar cultivator.
Tianshui had a lot more city guards than Nanyuan. Nanyuan only had a 1000-man unit of city guards while Tianshui actually had a 10000-man unit. Their deputies were seventh-stage Skysoar cultivators while their 10000-man commander would either be a ninth-stage Skysoar or a Cloudbreach cultivator. Tianshui was a much bigger city than Nanyuan. It also had a lot more experts.
Su Yu was surprised. They were only students. Even though an attack had happened the day before, there was no need for so many experts to escort them, right? Furthermore, they weren't even doing it for all the students. Only a few students were selected.
Seeing Su Yu's doubt, Zhao Li sighed and said, "Su Yu, don't spread this. I'll tell you the truth. Something major happened yesterday. Do you know Beifeng City?"
"Senior Zhao!" Li Yunfeng objected with a frown.
Zhao Li ignored him and gestured at Su Yu to sit down before continuing, "When the Nanyuan convoy was being attacked yesterday, the Beifeng convoy was also attacked at the same time. Of their escorts, one Cloudbreach and three Skysoar cultivators were killed. Additionally, dozens of their students were killed as well.
"Of course, the cult was not doing very well either. Xue'e of the Blood Fire Sect had led a large number of cult members in the attack. They did not expect that there were some hidden experts escorting the convoy as well. Apart from Xue'e who had escaped with serious injuries, all the cult members were killed."
The cult had suffered an even bigger loss in their attack against the Beifeng convoy. This year, all the convoys had received secret escorts instead of only a convoy or two like the past years. The group of cult members that had attacked the Beifeng convoy was very strong. There were two Cloudbreach and eight Skysoar cultivators.
Out of that group, only Xue'e, a Cloudbreach cultivator, had managed to escape with heavy injuries. After that attack, the cult's presence in Great Xia had been greatly weakened. They would probably stay hidden for an extended period of time after such heavy losses.
Including the casualties of both sides, two Cloudbreach and more than ten Skysoar cultivators had perished in that battle. It had been many years since something that major had happened within Great Xia. Xia Longwu's previous fight with the intruding divines had been kept a secret. That wasn't the case for the battle yesterday.
Zhao Li said, "Don't worry too much. The Martial Dragon Guards has been fully deployed. They are out in full force to suppress the Myriad Race Cult." "The cult has provoked us again and again. This time, rivers of blood will flow from them. The Martial Dragon Guards will not let this slide."
Zhao Li was actually gnashing his teeth in anger. The Myriad Race Cult had been too arrogant recently. Even after several failed attacks in Great Xia, they still had the courage to launch another attack. They had basically gone crazy. Fortunately, the capital had been on guard against them.
All the security measures were actually put in place as a precaution against the divine skywing race. Instead, Xue'e and his group were the ones who had landed right into the trap.
Beifeng was rather unlucky as well. Their Cloudbreach expert had been negligent initially since he did not expect someone to have the guts to attack them. Thus, he was killed by the opening salvo of the ambush. Otherwise, a Cloudbreach expert would not die so easily.
Since Zhao Li had already spilled the beans, Li Yunfeng had no choice but to stop protesting.
To the side, Sun Xia said, "As a precaution, we will be in charge of escorting you high-tier students to the capital separately. The students of the other cities will also join us on the way."
They were not only in charge of escorting Su Yu and the Tianshui students. They also needed to escort some other students. Excluding the guest students, Su Yu was the sole high-tier student of Nanyuan.
Su Yu didn't know the Tianshui students, but based on Tianshui's size, there were probably around six or seven of them.
As for Beifeng, the second strongest city in Great Xia, they probably had around 10 or more high-tier students. Su Yu didn't know if any of their high-tier students had been killed in the attack yesterday. He did not have any objections about the new plan. He had no say in it anyway.
After thinking about it, he said, "Sirs, how about the other students?"
Xia Bing answered, "Don't worry. We will link up with the Martial Dragon Guards and city guards of the other cities and escort them together. In fact, without you high-tier students around, things are much safer for them. Also, after such heavy losses, the cult probably wouldn't try anything else."
So many of their Skysoar experts had perished. One Cloudbreach expert had also died while the other Cloudbreach expert had suffered heavy injuries. It was unlikely that the cult would be able to gather such a strong lineup again anytime soon.
With the Martial Dragon Guards out and about, unless the cult had gone completely crazy, they would definitely stay in hiding.
Xia Bing said, "Go back and pack your stuff. We will gather up in half an hour. When the Tianshui students arrive, you guys can set off."
"Alright."
Su Yu said nothing else and took his leave. After having a simple meal, he went back upstairs to pack his stuff.
After Su Yu left, Hu Youhui looked at Zhao Li with his brow raised and said, "Old Zhao, from your attitude, are you thinking of accepting him as your student?"
Zhao Li smiled and calmly said, "I am considering it. It has been many years since I last accepted a student. I'm planning to accept one to take care of me in my old age."
"High-high student..." Hu Youhui muttered to himself before saying, "He's from Hong Tan's faction. Would you dare to accept him?"
"Why not?" Zhao Li indifferently said, "Hong Tan is living such a good life. Why can't I accept a student? This student hasn't even joined their faction for real. And even if he has already joined, nobody can say anything if I can really snatch him to my side."
Zhao Li was calm and composed as he said, "Not even the principal had said anything. Why do you care?"
Hu Youhui smiled and said, "I'm not talking about principal. I'm talking about the others..."
"The character faction?"
Zhao Li raised his brow. "They are free to continue fighting among themselves. Would they dare to come at me?"
Although Zhao Li wasn't a Mountainsea expert, he was still quite confident. "Do they really think that I'm a pushover? Sure, us of the weaponsmith faction aren't too strong. There are also not a lot of us around. But they are free to try to provoke us.
"If they push it too far, I'll rally all the weaponsmiths in Great Xia and cut their supply of cultural weapons. I can't be bothered to get involved in their internal conflict, but if they dare to trouble me when I'm only accepting a student...they will come to learn that us weaponsmiths are not pushovers."
Hu Youhui shut his mouth. Beside him, Sun Xia smiled and said, "Senior Zhao, although Su Yu is a high-high student, his willpower is still too weak. I checked his exam results. A large portion of his score came from his physical cultivation. If he relied only on his willpower cultivation, he probably wouldn't be able to get a high-high evaluation. You should be aware of that as well."
Zhao Li did not mind, "Something like willpower can be easily grown by letting him study some willpower texts."
Sun Xia smiled and shut her mouth as well. She was from the Nine Heavens Cultural Research Academy, so she didn't have a lot of entanglement with those from the Great Xia Cultural Research Academy. She was only slightly curious as to why an important member of the weaponsmith faction like Zhao Li would suddenly decide to accept a student.
Su Yu might be an outstanding high-high student, but excluding his physical cultivation and his bonus marks from his merit points, he was really not that special of a cultural research student. Of course, his score for the Mark of Culture test was quite high as well.
But Sun Xia had heard that something was wrong with the Mark of Culture during the test. Assistant Huang had not supplied it with enough willpower. He had even been fined a large number of merit points after the test. Thus, a lot of people believed that the result of that test was unreliable. And Assistant Huang's punishment was the best proof of that.
Their suspicion was understandable. Su Yu's willpower was indeed weak. His willpower wasn't even 30 percent full yet. That was quite far away from the Mental Tempering Stage. Zhao Li might be an intermediate researcher, but he was also a weaponsmith.
Although he couldn't forge earth-grade cultural weapons, he had still forged a pseudo earth-grade cultural weapon before. He also had the potential to be the second cultural researcher in Great Xia capable of forging earth-grade cultural weapons.
And the moment he gained the ability to forge earth-grade cultural weapons, he would be promoted into a senior researcher even without reaching the Mountainsea Realm. In fact, Zhao Li had the highest position and fame within this group.
Hu Youhui and the others obviously disagreed with Zhao Li's view, but since that was his own wish, none of them could be bothered to get involved in his decision.