Chapter 140: Multiple Divine Character Fusion (1)
After returning to his room, Su Yu reflected on everything that had happened during the day, wondering if he had done anything wrong. By asking for benefits from Bai Feng, he might or might not court Bai Feng's displeasure. But he had definitely benefited by saving 100 merit points.
"If Bai Feng is displeased because of this..."
Su Yu muttered to himself. But soon, a resolute look covered his face. In that case, Bai Feng was basically a petty person that wasn't sincere when accepting him as a student. At worst, he would stop relying on Bai Feng in the future.
The tradition of having the academy experts accept talented students as their personal students had always been for the sake of granting the good students more opportunities. Otherwise, there wouldn't be so many students wishing to get a teacher.
Those with low or middle-tier evaluations would not be given that chance. Why? Because the teacher-student relationship would benefit both the student and the teacher. If the student performed well, the teacher would benefit from it as well. After thinking about it for a while, Su Yu calmed down and stopped worrying.
...
Afternoon.
Xia Huyou arrived.
After knocking on the door, Xia Huyou entered with a worried look. He complained, "The academy has gone crazy. They have been cracking down on the black market repeatedly. Fortunately, I'm not bringing a lot of stuff into the academy or I would have my stuff seized today."
Su Yu did not care about that. At worst, he would start purchasing from the academy instead. He only needed to pay more.
"Where's my stuff?"
"Here."
Xia Huyou took off his hat and showed the items hidden within the hat.
Su Yu was speechless. This fellow was quite good at smuggling stuff into the academy.
"Just tell them you're using these things yourself. Are they going to seize your personal belongings?"
He did not believe a word of that. Things were definitely not that strict. Otherwise, nobody would be able to cultivate in peace. Would such a small amount of things really be seized?
"You don't understand..." Xia Huyou smiled and said, "The academy has been paying close attention. They are aware of the individuals that might smuggle things into the academy. Us Xia Family members are high-level suspects. Things would get troublesome if they found these things on me."
"Come. Complete the trade." Su Yu did not say much and took the things from Xia Huyou. He was handed two bottles.
One bottle of blood essence and one bottle of source qi liquid. The blood essence was easy to check. Each drop of blood essence would showcase a different attribute depending on the beast it originated from. Of course, he still needed to be careful lest he was sold fake products.
After checking with his senses, he confirmed that the blood essence was filled with energy. In fact, the energy was thicker than the Great Strength blood essence that he had used previously. He was certain that these were Infinite Strength blood essence.
He looked at one of the drops and saw a miniature golden iron-winged bird in it. The source qi liquid was even easier to check. After confirming that he had received real products, Su Yu took out his merit card and paid Xia Huyou. After swiping 30 merit points away, Su Yu had 110 merit points left.
After receiving the merit points from the academy, Su Yu felt much more comfortable spending his merit points. These would be enough for him in the short term. Xia Huyou stole a glimpse at Su Yu's balance and was overjoyed to see that Su Yu still had 110 merit points. That was not bad at all. This guy hadn't bought a cultivation method, right?
"Su Yu, do you want an advanced War God Art?" Xia Huyou whispered, "I can get one for you as well. It would be much cheaper than the official channel."
Su Yu frowned and said, "No thanks. The academy is more reliable when it comes to cultivation methods."
It was hard to verify the authenticity of unofficial copies. He wouldn't use an unofficial copy lightly. Furthermore, he already had one. Since Bai Feng had promised him, there shouldn't be any problem on that front.
Xia Huyou was regretful, but he did not seem to mind. With a smile, he said, "Let's not talk about that. Do you need anything else? Feel free to tell me."
"I don't need anything for now."
Su Yu was going to start cultivating again. During the past two days, his cultivation speed had been rather slow due to a lack of blood essence and source qi liquid.
Suddenly, he said, "By the way, do you know the location of Assistant Bai Feng's research center?"
Xia Huyou's eyes lit up as he asked, "Are you joining his research center?"
"Nope. I'm just asking."
"Don't lie to me!" Xia Huyou said in excitement, "You must be joining! Su Yu, why don't we work together? Sell me some of the research results..."
"Scram!" Su Yu was a relatively calm person, but he still couldn't resist cursing furiously, "Piss off! If you're not answering, so be it!"
This fellow had gone mad. Even if Su Yu was still unaware of how important the research center was, he still understood that selling research results would get him in big trouble. And if he happened to sell some vital results, he might even end up losing his life. This fellow was obviously an unscrupulous merchant!
Xia Huyou awkwardly said, "I was just kidding! Even if you're really selling, I won't have the guts to buy them. If it is revealed that I am buying his research results, Master Hong Tan might kill me. I don't have the courage to touch his research results."
His tone turned envious as he said, "Su Yu, Master Hong Tan's research center is a very big deal. Of course, they haven’t been producing much results for the past few decades, but a few decades ago, tsk tsk, that was a very popular research center in the academy."
"Popular?" Su Yu asked curiously, "For what?"
"I'll give you an example..." Xia Huyou grinned and said, "There is a course in the academy, the Divine Character ability fusion course. The human race has been researching this subject for decades. But in the past, the fusion has been crude and simple.
"Back then, Master Hong Tan released a new research result regarding ability fusion. Or to be precise, ability transfer."
Xia Huyou seriously said, "Simply put, a single Divine Character might have multiple abilities, but some of the abilities might not be that useful. It might even hinder the other abilities. In the past, such a scenario would mean that the Divine Character would be rendered completely useless.
"Back then, Master Hong Tan came up with a new way to transfer these abilities instead of forcefully fusing the Divine Characters. For example, a knife character might have a sharp ability. That is a straightforward and powerful Divine Character. But if the character gains a second ability, for example, the brittle ability, then the character would be rendered worthless.
"Sharp is a powerful ability, but no matter how sharp the character is, if using the character on a weapon would not only make it sharp, but make it brittle as well, the weapon might break before the cultivator even finishes swinging the sword. In that case, is that Divine Character still useful?"
Su Yu nodded and said, "Therefore, these abilities can be transferred?"
"Not before," answered Xia Huyou with a smile. "But we can do it now. Of course, it isn't easy. During the transfer, the Divine Character can be easily destroyed. But at the very least, we now have a chance to salvage the characters with bad abilities. That was one of Master Hong Tan's results."
"Master Hong Tan was still young back then, right?" Su Yu said hesitatingly, "When you say a few decades ago, how long ago was it exactly? Master Hong can't be older than 70."
"Yeah, he was very young." Xia Huyou laughed. "That is why he has been a senior researcher for such a long time. Of course, those are not the results of him alone. Back then, he had inherited a part of the fifth principal's research papers. His research results were a product of an improvement of the fifth principal's research."
Su Yu raised his brow. He asked, "Is Master Hong related to the fifth principal?"
"You don't know that?" Xia Huyou asked in astonishment, "He's a student of the fifth principal. Instructor Liu Wenyan is a student of the fifth principal as well. Are you unaware?"
"I never asked."
Su Yu gave a noncommittal answer, but he noted it down in his mind. Of course, the research results were the main point here. Su Yu had not expected that such an important research had been performed in the research center back then.
Ability transfer! That was incredible.
That was very important for Divine Characters. Forming and growing Divine Characters required time and luck. The moment one formed a Divine Character with bad abilities, the character would be rendered useless. All the time and resources spent on the character would go to waste. But if the abilities of the character could be changed, then one would be able to ensure that the character was a suitable one.
Su Yu exhaled and said, "Just tell me the location."
"It's easy to find. It's near the Heart Cultivating Pavilion. There are a few research centers there. Master Hong's research center is called Wentan Research Center. You can find it there."
"Wentan Research Center?"
Su Yu was curious. Was the "wen" in the name referring to the character of Divine Character or was it referring to wen of Liu Wenyan?
.
Su Yu nodded and said, "Teacher Bai Feng said that he's very poor since all his resources have been poured into the research center. Is that true?"
"That...is true."
Xia Huyou nodded, "Their faction...or to be precise, your faction is quite poor. A single research center is dragging all of you down. That wasn't the case before. The ability fusion research alone had earned them a large amount of support back then.
"But...nobody knows what Teacher Hong Tan was thinking. He insisted on researching something else. As a result, the research center has been swallowing resources for decades without any results to show for it. They are now so poor they can barely afford their meals...Otherwise, your faction would have been a lot wealthier."
"Our faction..." Su Yu hesitated before continuing, "You keep saying the word faction, but I don't know about this. Which faction do we belong to?"
"Multiple character faction." Xia Huyou smiled and said, "That's what everyone calls you guys. You need to know that although the Character Faculty utilizes Divine Characters as well, generally, most people would stop at around three to five Divine Characters. Some would keep only one. A single powerful Divine Character is enough.
"But your faction likes to form a lot of Divine Characters. When I say a lot, I mean it. Prior to reaching the Skysoar Realm, Bai Feng formed 12 Divine Characters. A single Divine Character is already very time-consuming. You also need to nurture and strengthen it. If it wasn't for his strong talent, with so many Divine Characters, reaching the Skysoar Realm would have been a pipe dream.
"Therefore, your faction doesn't have a lot of people. Neither do you have a lot of Skysoars. In the past, there were a lot of you. But many ran out of patience and left. In your faction, you won't be allowed to advance into the Skysoar Realm without forming a minimum of 10 Divine Characters. Even if your willpower is strong enough to reach the Skysoar Realm, you will be forced to wait. Who could withstand that?"
Su Yu frowned, "Must they do that? If the students can break through, why stop them? Can't they continue forming Divine Characters after the breakthrough?"
"How am I supposed to know that? There are too many factions in the academy and each faction has its own trump cards. There are things that outsiders won't know."
Xia Huyou shrugged, "Therefore, your faction isn't too powerful in the Character Faculty but with Master Hong around, your status is still quite high. In the past, your faction had been able to accept some students each year. But after so many defections, your faction stopped accepting too many new students."
After accepting a student, the faction would need to use some resources on the new student. But halfway through that, the student ran off. All the resources used on the student were wasted.
Eventually, Hong Tan's faction started accepting less and less students. Even the two student slots under Bai Feng had been left empty before Su Yu's appearance. That was one of the reasons he had refused to accept students.
"Ran off..." Su Yu muttered before asking, "Won't they be punished for defecting?"
Xia Huyou smiled and said, "In normal situations, it is naturally a taboo to defect. But since your faction does not allow them to break through, there is nothing you can say if they decide to leave. The academy would not allow geniuses to waste their time and remain in the Mental Tempering Stage. Then again, Master Hong did have an eye for talent. A few of the defected students did end up advancing after the defection.
"In fact, a few of the current full researchers in the academy used to be from your faction. That's the case with a few of the teaching assistants as well. However, Bai Feng mostly ignores them. He refuses to admit that they used to be in your faction."
"So how many people does my faction have?" Su Yu asked curiously.
"Let me think..."
Xia Huyou made a short calculation before spreading his chubby palm.
"What do you mean?"
"Five!" Xia Huyou laughed heartily and said, "Five, including you."
Su Yu was stunned. "You mean they only have four before this?"
"Yeap. Elder Hong, Bai Feng, a senior brother of Bai Feng who is a full researcher at the Cloudbreach Realm, and the senior brother's student. Including you, there are five."
Su Yu's face fell. Five people in an entire faction? He had thought that Bai Feng was from a large faction! But they only had five people even after including him?