Chapter 143: First Visit to the Research Center (2)
The academy was huge.
The Heart Cultivating Pavilion was quite far away from the Mental Tempering Garden. Bai Feng's research center was located there. After walking for about 20 minutes, a towering building appeared ahead of him.
That was the famed Heart Cultivating Pavilion, the academy's seat of power. Most of the academy's senior researchers resided there. The Heart Cultivating Pavilion was in truth an area with multiple buildings. However, the towering building he saw was called the same name as well. Generally, the academy would hold most of its major meetings there.
Su Yu gazed at the towering building longingly. That was still not a place he could enter for now. There, countless Cloudbreach and Mountainsea experts could be found. Even the more ordinary Skysoar cultivators wouldn't be qualified to enter that building.
After taking a corner, Su Yu arrived at the research center to the south of the Heart Cultivating Pavilion.
...
There were a lot of research centers in the academy. The area beside the Heart Cultivating Pavilion was the second research zone of the academy. There were more than one research center in the zone.
As usual, there were guards standing outside the zone. After showing his student card, the guards let him in. There were quite a lot of people in the research zone.
Most of them appeared to be in a rush. It was clear that the people here were all busy people. Beside the street, a few middle-aged individuals clad in instructor uniforms were in a discussion. Su Yu overheard some of what they were saying, but he had no idea what they were talking about. The contents of their conversation felt incredibly profound to him.
He slowly searched the area and before long, a shabby building entered his vision.
Wentan Research Center.
He found it!
Su Yu rushed over. Nobody stopped him from approaching, but the door was shut. The entire building looked like it had been abandoned for a long time. He could even see some spiderwebs around the door. He was speechless. Was this an abandoned building? Did Bai Feng move out? He was about to knock on the door when it swung open.
A pale Bai Feng walked out and nodded at Su Yu before saying, "You're here? Come in."
Su Yu didn't dare to say anything else and hurriedly walked inside. The door shut behind him. Surprisingly, it was brightly lit inside.
Right in front of the door was a long corridor. While yawning, Bai Feng said, "The next time you're here, swipe your card to enter. I will give you the authority. I'll show you the place as well. You won't have the authority to enter some of the places so don't run around blindly. You might get yourself killed.
"Don't look down on the research center even though I'm alone here. Teacher spent decades working on the defenses of this place. Even a Mountainsea expert would suffer if they try to break in.
"There are six main zones in the research center. The main laboratory, the secondary laboratory, the prison zone, the data room, the living area, and the storeroom..."
Bai Feng spoke with a tired zone, "I have given you the authority to enter the secondary laboratory, the living area, and the storeroom. You won't be able to enter the other three zones. Don't blame me if you kill yourself trying to enter those places.
"The main laboratory is where we have been conducting our research for years. You still can't enter that place for now. The living area is the lodging. The storeroom used to be full, but it is completely empty now. Don't even dream of getting anything good there.
"The prison zone...used to house some powerful beasts. Most of them are dead now. You still can't enter that place as there are still a few beasts at the Skysoar Realm and beyond there. You can get yourself killed easily there. There is no need for me to introduce the data room..."
Bai Feng gave a simple introduction as the two walked through the corridor. Su Yu listened silently as he walked. Eventually, they arrived at a lounge. He even saw a television, a couch, a dining table, and some other furniture. Evidently, this was the living area.
"Teacher..." Su Yu asked, "Do you mean that I can visit here frequently in the future?"
"Yes."
"What’s my task?"
"Your task..." Bai Feng looked around before saying, "Cleaning the place, maintaining the storeroom, and participating in some minor experiments. Can you cook? If you can, you'll be in charge of that as well. The restaurants are too far away."
...
Su Yu was speechless. Was this guy looking for a student or a housekeeper?
"Don't be unhappy about this." Bai Feng lazily said, "That's what all new guys have to do. When you become an old guy as well and there are some other new guys, then it will be their turn to do all that. It doesn't matter if you're a genius or not. Even if you're a genius, your voice would only hold weight after you grow strong. Without strength, you're nothing. The academy has plenty of geniuses stuck at the peak of the Mental Tempering Stage. Who cares about them?"
Su Yu stayed silent for a while before saying, "Teacher, I can't cook. But I can clean. What can I learn here?"
"Learn?" Bai Feng had a teasing smile as he said, "There are plenty of things you can learn here. I won't teach you the basics as you can learn those in your classes. Here, you only have one task for now. Form Divine Characters and enter the Mental Tempering Stage.
"Build up your foundation first and you would naturally have something to learn. For our faction, you need enough Divine Characters. Otherwise, you won't be able to learn anything."
"But..." Bai Feng frowned and said, "You already have two Divine Characters. That is actually quite fast. I'm not worried about your Divine Characters. I wouldn't have accepted you as a student if you weren't able to form Divine Characters quickly. But your willpower growth is too slow.
"If you continue forming Divine Characters, I'm afraid that your willpower wouldn't be strong enough to nurture them. You would be stuck before the Mental Tempering Stage due to a lack of willpower. For now, you can stop forming Divine Characters. Focus on growing your willpower instead.”
Su Yu nodded. That was his weakness. His willpower was too weak. A 30 percent willpower was actually not bad. But when compared to the other high-tier students, that was bad. Most of the other high-tier students had already reached the Mental Tempering Stage.
When Bai Feng saw that Su Yu was taking his advice seriously, he said, "Before the Mental Tempering Stage, it's not hard to increase your willpower. At the secondary laboratory, there is a waste area. And within the waste area is a filter room and a fragment room."
"In the filter room, there is a lot of blood essence residue. The energy within that room is messy and chaotic. You can cultivate there, but don't go too deep into the room or the chaotic energy might cause a cultivation deviation.
"The fragment room is where we store all our broken original texts. There is a large amount of chaotic willpower inside that room. It can help with the growth of your willpower. To grow your willpower, you mainly need to have your willpower clash against an external willpower. You can do that in the fragment room. But of course, you wouldn't be able to read any of the original texts there. You can only make use of the chaotic willpower inside to temper yourself."
At the mention of the filter room, Su Yu recalled what Zhao Li told him previously. That was a room filled with leftover blood from blood essence experiments. Zhao Li placed a lot of importance on it. But Bai Feng did not seem to care about that room one bit.
As for the fragment room…it was filled with damaged original texts? Just how many original texts had been damaged for them to have one whole room of them? This faction was indeed rich!
They seemed broke, but they were actually very rich. He had never heard of anyone using an entire room to keep broken original texts.
Bai Feng sat down on the couch, poured himself a cup of tea, looked at Su Yu, and waited. When he saw that Su Yu was showing no signs of wanting to brew him a fresh pot of tea, he grumbled inwardly that this kid had no manners.
"This would be your current task. I can't really teach you much before the Mental Tempering Stage. Basic classes would be enough for you. But you will still be very busy. You have to attend the basic classes and come help out here. Be sure to clean the place well. It has been a few months since the place was last cleaned."
Bai Feng took a sip of the tea that had been kept in the pot for who knew how long and said, "I won't let you work for nothing. Each month, you'll get five merit points. You're already in the academy for a few days. You should know how hard it is to earn five merit points. As for the filter room and the fragment room, those are treasure rooms for outsiders, but they are nothing for us. You are free to cultivate there. Grab every opportunity you see."
Bai Feng then stood up and said, "I still have something to do outside. Explore the place yourself, but remember to not approach the areas you don't have the authority to enter. Also, don't take anyone inside the research center. If you get your friend killed by the defensive system, don't blame me.
"Look for a random room to rest up when you're tired. A lot of people used to stay here. Some of the rooms still have their furniture. If the beddings is moldy, deal with it yourself."
Bai Feng then walked away. Su Yu was speechless. But without Bai Feng, he also relaxed somewhat. Since he was alone in the research center, he could freely look around without worrying about making a spectacle of himself.
"Secondary laboratory, storeroom, living area..."
Those were the three places Su Yu could enter. When he scanned the living area, he was speechless. These people looked nice and impressive on the outside, but how did they live privately? Why was the living area so dirty? The living area was littered with so much trash that he could barely find a spot on the floor to stand on.
"Sigh."
Su Yu let off a long sigh. The carefree and refined image of Bai Feng shattered inside his mind, replaced by a sloppy Bai Feng. That guy was even sloppier than him!
After his father had left, he had at least placed enough effort into cleaning his house for it to be clean enough to receive visitors. As for Bai Feng's place...he had no word to describe what he was looking at.
"How nice would it be if I had Xia Huyou's ability..."
Su Yu was starting to envy Xia Huyou. His Little Blood and Little Lightning were truly useless. They couldn't even help with something like cleaning, forcing him to do it himself.
.