Chapter 146: You're In Big Trouble! (1)
Wentan Research Center.
Fragment room.
Su Yu left with his tail between his legs. He was very upset with his performance, but the pain was really too much. He had no choice but to crawl out of the fragment room. He was unwilling to give up just like that, so after a short rest, he entered the filter room instead.
...
LIke the fragment room, the filter room was also split into several sections. Su Yu stepped into the first section.
This felt a lot more relaxed than the fragment room. A big pool was ahead of him. Golden blood roiled within the pool. That was a mix of countless blood essence. Some of the blood essence already had its essence extracted. These leftover products of blood essence experiments had all been mixed together in one big pool.
A place with mixed blood essence like this was not suitable for the cultivation of experts. But the ambient source qi here was quite dense. As long as Su Yu didn't go too deeply into the room, it was quite a suitable place for him to cultivate.
"If I use the Source Swallowing Technique here, I won't even need to worry about the ambient source qi running out..."
That was the conclusion Su Yu made right after stepping into the first section. The dense ambient source qi wasn't the only benefit of this place. Here, Little Blood could absorb as much blood essence as it wanted.
Little Blood did not seem too picky with its food. It was willing to consume all sorts of blood. There was a massive pool of blood essence in front of them. Just the bloody aura in the air was enough for Little Blood to eat its fill.
"What a pity..."
Looking at the pool, Su Yu couldn't help but to feel that it was a waste to mix all the discarded blood essence together. Otherwise, he could have used the blood essence to open a few more pages in his book.
Some of the blood essence in the pool must have come from the races he had seen in his dreams before. With the sheer amount of blood essence here, it was very likely that some belonged to the races that had appeared in his dreams before.
But with all the different blood essence mixed together, it would be very hard to separate the blood essence again. Even with some of the essence extracted, Su Yu felt that the blood essence was merely some sort of trigger to activate his book, so the leftover blood essence here might work on his book.
"Can I still use the iron-winged bird blood essence for cultivation after extracting its essence?"
Su Yu sank into thought. If he could, would he be able to use the waste products of this research center to help with his cultivation? Could he recycle the pool of blood essence in front of him? He sank into thought again.
But for now, even if he could make use of the blood in the pool, he wouldn't dare to try anything rashly. He had just entered the research center and still knew nothing. Something could go wrong very easily. More importantly, he couldn't even approach the pool.
All around the pool, powerful source qi intermingled. He would get blown up before he could even get near the pool.
"I'll cultivate and let my willpower recover before going back to the fragment room. I refuse to believe that my pain tolerance is really that low!"
Su Yu was getting more and more fixated on his limit. He refused to believe that he was really so useless. If others could wait until they reached their limit, why couldn't he do the same?
Maybe his limit was slightly higher than others. He was sure he would be able to last long enough to reach his limit. He sat down cross-legged and started his cultivation session. In his sea of willpower, the blood character was rapidly absorbing the ambient blood energy in excitement. Meanwhile, gust after gust of new willpower appeared in his sea of willpower.
After every clash of willpower, one's sea of willpower would grow. It would be considered impressive for one to enter the fragment room even once per day. That was because after each clash, one would need to spend some time recuperating. In fact, for those below the Mental Tempering Stage, reading an original text every three days was a common method of cultivation.
It was clear Bai Feng wasn't serious when he told Su Yu to enter the room once per day. For someone at Su Yu's level, it would be more suitable to enter the room once every two or three days.
Su Yu did not care about what Bai Feng told him. He knew that willpower was very hard to recover, but his willpower was somehow able to recover quickly. He suspected that it was due to his weak willpower. Even back at Nanyuan, his willpower was able to recover quickly each time he finished reading an original text.
In fact, he had been reading the incomplete original text he got from Bai Feng a few times each day. That original text did not last long at all. In the filter room, Su Yu did not need to worry about source qi. He could cultivate quickly.
While he absorbed source qi to temper his acupoints, the blood character was having a great time consuming the blood in the room. When it was full, it sank into slumber. When Su Yu sent his senses inward, he could see a bright and shiny Little Blood. It looked much better than the Little Lightning that was lingering nearby.
It would seem like the blood character had benefited greatly from this room. Since this was his first visit, he decided to maintain a low profile and not use any blood essence for his cultivation.
After about an hour, he clenched his teeth and stormed into the fragment room with the expression of a soldier on a suicide mission. He refused to believe he wouldn't be able to reach his limit!
He had been killed thousands of times in his dreams! He had experienced all sorts of pain and torture before! He had encountered all sorts of dangers before! He told himself that he had only failed to reach his limit because he had a far higher limit. After all, he had been killed too many times in his dreams. He wasn't useless. It was his limit! It was higher than normal!
He would not admit that he was incompetent! In fact, he had never believed that he was incompetent since he was a child. At school, he had been able to rank among the best of the students even without the golden book in his mind. Apart from Liu Yue who had started studying foreign languages earlier than him, he was the student with the highest number of mastered languages in Nanyuan.
In Nanyuan, he was an outstanding individual. That would not change here at the academy! With that thought in his mind, he charged into the fragment room bravely.
At 10 minutes, pain flared in his mind.
At 15 minutes, tears started dripping out of his eyes. The pain was terrible.
At 20 minutes, his entire body was trembling. In his mind, the blood and lightning characters shone brightly, helping him resist the ambient willpower in the room.
At 25 minutes, Su Yu crawled out of the room once again.
His entire body was drenched wet with sweat. His performance had improved. Su Yu was overjoyed. That signified that his willpower must have grown after his previous session, allowing him to last longer in the room. But he still couldn't last long enough to reach his limit.
"I can do it!"
He clenched his teeth tightly. He was confident he would eventually be able to do it. If not today, he would try again tomorrow. It would eventually happen. This was basically a repeat of his childhood experience when he first started getting those nightmares.
Back then, he was so scared that he didn't dare to sleep. He nearly tired himself to death. Eventually, he overcame that fear! He learned to brace himself, to keep his fear away, to ignore death, to embrace death, and to accept pain.
He was already capable of all that at a young age. He wouldn't let something like this stop him! This was his chance to strengthen himself. He returned to the filter room and started cultivating and resting there. After he recovered his willpower, he charged into the fragment room again.
He had no other thought in his mind. This was a rare opportunity. What else could he call a place so beneficial to his cultivation?
Su Yu was even slowly starting to approve of Bai Feng's words. Bai Feng had said that some people had offered tens of thousands of merit points just to enter this research center but were rejected. Su Yu was starting to trust those words.
Even ignoring all the other rooms, just these two rooms alone were already worth tens of thousands of merit points.
These two rooms were akin to inexhaustible original text and source qi liquid. In fact, Su Yu had a feeling that he was able to absorb as much source qi here per cultivation session as he could after using a drop of source qi liquid outside.
As for the original texts, they were even more expensive. Su Yu suspected that at the rate he was using his original texts, he would completely exhaust one after about a dozen reading sessions. These two rooms were worth hundreds of thousands or even millions of merit points.
"If I can enter the fragment room and the filter room 10 times per day, that would be the same as making 100 merit points per day."
Su Yu started measuring the value of each visit to the two rooms. After each visit to the fragment room, he needed about an hour to recover. He could only last less than half an hour in the room. Altogether, he would spend two hours per session.
If he could enter the fragment room 10 times each day and spent his recovery time in the filter room, he would need to spend 20 hours per day to cultivate.
"Four hours to eat, drink, and sleep?"
Su Yu exhaled deeply. Forget it. That was too extreme. He would be happy with six or seven sessions per day. Earning 60 or 70 merit points per day was enough for him. Work life balance was still very important, after all.
"Yeah, I need to maintain a good balance. The rooms will always be here anyway. If I enter six times per day, I would only need to cultivate twelve hours per day."
And he could only do that temporarily. When the basic classes began in two days, he would be even more busy.
...
And thus began Su Yu's cycle of cultivation in the research center. He would use the fragment room to exhaust his willpower before going to the filter room to rest, temper his acupoints, and cultivate his blood character.
He could feel his willpower growing rapidly. Naturally, he couldn't measure the exact growth of his willpower. Only those at the Skysoar Realm could sense the level of someone else’s ?willpower. Otherwise, one would only be able to gain a vague impression on the strength of someone else's willpower.
As for the owner of the willpower themselves, they would need to reach the Mental Tempering Stage to accurately measure their own willpower.
...
Su Yu spent the night in the research center. That was his fourth night in the academy.
4th of August.
Bai Feng arrived at the research center early in the morning.
He was no longer the sloppy and decadent guy from before. Nobody knew what he did the previous night, but at the moment, he looked full of vigor. He was also wearing a new set of clothes while his face was freshly shaven. When he scanned the living area, a smile formed on his face.
Very good. The place was quite clean. Finally, there was enough space on the floor for him to stand on. His teacher would probably not scold him for being dirty anymore after returning from the battlefield. Then again, his teacher was quite dirty too.
"Su Yu."
When Bai Feng sensed Su Yu's aura, he called out for Su Yu. Next, a pale Su Yu walked out of a bedroom.
Bai Feng casually tossed a bag over and said, "I knew you wouldn't leave. That's the case with everyone else during their first visit. Nobody was willing to leave. Eat something. I bought these outside. They are quite good."
"Thank you, Teacher."
Su Yu started shoving food down his throat. He had not eaten anything since the day before so he was actually starving. In fact, he was just thinking of going out to eat before Bai Feng arrived.
Bai Feng smiled and was about to ask something when his face stiffened.
"Hmm?"
He looked at the pale Su Yu, wondering if something was wrong with his eyes. Next, his willpower erupted. Su Yu, who was busy eating, sensed a gust of willpower scanning his body. He looked at Bai Feng curiously without saying anything.
Bai Feng blinked a few times and withdrew his willpower. Then, his willpower erupted again. Once again, Su Yu sensed the scan. He shifted his body uneasily as he noticed the odd look in Bai Feng's eyes. What was going on?
Bai Feng rubbed his chin in silence as he sank into thought. After a while, he slowly asked, "Did you enter the fragment room yesterday?"
"Yeah."
"How long did you stay there?"
Su Yu replied with embarrassment, "Not too long."
"How long exactly?"
"Less than half an hour...At first, I was only able to last 20 minutes. But I have been improving. During my final visit, I was almost able to last 30 minutes."
...
Bai Feng sank into silence. What was he doing? He was doubting himself. He was doubting reality itself. Was the fragment room damaged? Half an hour...
Wait, how many times did this kid enter that room yesterday? Bai Feng's heart thumped. He stayed 20 minutes during his first visit. He kept improving...kept improving! So how many times did he enter the room?
Someone with only 30 percent willpower would need at least one day to recover after a visit to the fragment room. Did this kid enter multiple times? Half an hour? He almost lasted half an hour during his final visit?
Bai Feng's eyes widened. What was going on? That made no sense.
Bai Feng solemnly asked, "How many times did you enter the room in total?"
When Su Yu saw the strict expression, he thought that he had wasted too much of the room's willpower. He worriedly said, "Si-six times in total."
"Hmm?"
With a solemn expression, Bai Feng asked, "Six times? Did your sea of willpower churn?"
"No."
"I'm referring to violent churning!" Bai Feng said, "You overdid it! Don't act rashly! If your sea of willpower collapses, nobody can save you!"
Su Yu hurriedly explained, "My sea of willpower didn't churn. Not even once..."