Chapter 15: A Different Great Xia
Su Yu spent the day following Liu Wenyan around. He did not mind it as this wasn't the first time he had done this. When he was learning the various different languages in the past, he had frequently followed Liu Wenyan around as well.
While following Liu Wenyan, Su Yu continued doing what he wanted, such as cultivating and studying. The only thing he hadn't been doing was activating the Source Swallowing Technique with his blood essence. The Martial Dragon Guards continued protecting them in the dark.
Su Yu had not been able to detect them, and they had never shown themselves to him either. In truth, he was rather curious about them. He also slightly adored them. He had heard that the Martial Dragon Guards were extremely strong, to the point his father wasn't even qualified to join. Just how strong were they? Like Su Yu, Liu Wenyan was living his life as usual, spending his time drinking tea, reading, and teaching.
...
"You long to join the Martial Dragon Guards?" Liu Wenyan asked after noticing Su Yu looking outside several times, clearly trying to catch a glimpse of the Martial Dragon Guards protecting them.
Su Yu was somewhat embarrassed to be caught and spoke in a low voice, "I'm just curious. They're the strongest army in Great Xia, after all."
"Martial Dragon Guards..." Liu Wenyan's emotions were mixed as he said, "They have existed for many years. The current prefect was actually named after them. The Martial Dragon Guards came before the prefect while the Martial Dragon War Academy came after. This generation's Martial Dragon Guards were the strongest. They do not have a lot of members. After all, they only take in elites. In total, there are only about five thousand of them."
"That few?"
The Martial Dragon Guards' information was not available to the public. Thus, this was the first time Su Yu had ever heard of this. Only five thousand people? That was too small of an army!
One ought to know that even Nanyuan has over a thousand city guards. As for the capital, their city guards surpassed fifty thousand people in number. The Great Xia Army was an army of over one hundred thousand people. The Martial Dragon Guards, which was considered stronger than all of them, had less than ten thousand members.
"The Martial Dragon Guards are elites. They don't need too many people. For an army, quality matters more than quantity." Liu Wenyan smiled, "Officially, the Martial Dragon Guards have ten thousand soldiers, but that is not the truth. Even so, there is no denying that they are extremely strong. A squad at ten, an army at a hundred, undefeatable at a thousand."
"Undefeatable?" Su Yu muttered.
Liu Wenyan smiled and said, "That's just a slogan. Don't take it seriously. But they're really very strong. Even an ordinary soldier there is an Infinite Strength cultivator. Their squad leaders will either be ninth-stage Infinite Strength or Skysoar cultivators while their 100-man commanders will mostly be late-stage Skysoar cultivators."
Su Yu was speechless. That was really strong. With five thousand soldiers, they would have at least fifty 100-man commanders in their army. Were all of them beyond the seventh-stage Skysoar Realm?
One ought to know that even Nanyuan's mayor wasn't that strong. What about the 1000-man commanders that were above the 100-man commanders? Wouldn't they be stronger? Would they be above the Skysoar Realm? How about the deputy general? The general of the Martial Dragon Guards was Xia Longwu. Su Yu was at least aware of that.
With even the weakest soldier in the army being an Infinite Strength cultivator, that was an extremely terrifying army. On the Allheaven Battlefield, the Devil Subduing Army was considered a formidable army. But even an army like that would promote his father who was only a seventh-stage Great Strength cultivator into a squad leader back then, granting him the same rank as a squad leader in the Martial Dragon Guards.
However, one of them was a seventh-stage Great Strength cultivator while the other was a ninth-stage Infinite Strength cultivator at the weakest. It was no wonder his father had been rejected by the Martial Dragon Guards back then.
Looking at Su Yu's reaction, Liu Wenyan smiled and continued, "We have a squad of ten stationed here at Nanyuan. The fellow who had spoken to me previously was a team leader."
"Is he strong?"
"Yes. He's a ninth-stage Infinite Strength cultivator."
Su Yu was once again rendered speechless. "A team leader is already a ninth-stage Infinite Strength cultivator?"
"He might only be a team leader, but the squad stationed here is actually a stronger squad. This team leader is strong enough to become a squad leader in some of the weaker squads.
"You don't need to get too envious of his strength. The Great Strength and Infinite Strength Realms are only the foundation realms. The Skysoar Realm is where cultivation truly begins. Skysoar cultivators would not be cannon fodder even at a place like the Allheaven Battlefield. Instead, they would be the elites. You'll understand after materializing your willpower and entering the Skysoar Realm."
Su Yu said longingly, "I wonder how many years it will take..."
"..."
Liu Wenyan was speechless. Years? He had claimed that one could take three to five years to reach the Skysoar Realm before, but that was only applicable for geniuses. Su Yu might be decently talented, but he was no genius. If he was lucky, perhaps he could reach that level in a decade. If not...he would suffer the same fate as Liu Wenyuan and found himself stuck at the stage before willpower materialization for his entire life.
But even if one had to take a decade for willpower materialization, that would still be a faster speed compared to regular physical cultivators. The two continued their conversation. Su Yu also took the chance to ask about the languages of the myriad races.
Eventually, he asked, "Instructor, is there really no way to accelerate Source Opening cultivation? Apart from those risky methods, are there no other methods? Why were those fourth-stage Source Opening cultivators able to rapidly reach the Great Strength Realm after entering the war academies?
"From the fourth-stage Source Opening Realm to the first-stage Great Strength Realm, one needs to break through six stages. To reach the fifth-stage from the fourth-stage, wouldn't one need at least half a year generally?
"Even if one can maintain the same speed and break through once per six months, one would still need three years to enter the Great Strength Realm. But I heard that many students were able to reach the Great Strength Realm a year after entering the war academies."
Su Yu had always been curious about that. In the past, the teachers and instructors had merely smiled and told them that they would find out after joining the academies. He wanted to take this chance to learn more. After all, his coming progress in cultivation would probably be rapid as well.
Perhaps it was because Su Yu was going to enter an academy soon, but Liu Wenyan did not hide anything this time. He answered, "You must have seen this term in books before: the secret grottos of academies."
"Yes."
"There you have it." Liu Wenyan took the chance to test Su Yu, "There are numerous realms in existence. Why did the experts of the myriad races insist on creating an Allheaven Battlefield outside their realms?"
"Suppression!" Su Yu answered unhesitatingly. "Each realm has a different environment. Gravity, air, qi density, and so on are all different. The divines might find themselves suppressed at the Devil Realm, limiting them to only thirty percent of their full strength. That would be the case for the devils in the Divine Realm. Because of that, no race would dare to rashly invade a different realm."
"Exactly. That was why the Allheaven Battlefield came into existence." Liu Wenyan's eyes grew cold as he asked, "Do you know the reason for humanity to get dragged into the war as well? Why was humanity the target of so many races?"
"Because humans...are weak? So they want to invade us?" ?Su Yu hesitated. That was what the books said. However, his father told a different story. According to Su Long, humans weren't weak. In fact, humans were very strong.
"Weak? No, we're not." ?Liu Wenyan said the same thing. "How can humans be weak? If we're really weak, we would have been defeated at the Allheaven Battlefield long ago. Humans might not be a top-three race among the myriad races, but we're still strong enough to be a top-ten race."
Su Yu was confused, "In that case, why do humans have so many enemies?"
"Human Realm." Liu Wenyan smiled, "You will all learn about this after entering the academies. Of course, this isn't a big secret. The Human Realm is too special. All other realms have some sort of suppression against outsiders, making it hard for the myriad races to invade each other. But that is not the case for the Human Realm."
"Huh?"
"Zero suppression." Liu Wenyan sighed. "That's why the Human Realm is an extremely attractive target for the other races. In fact, the Human Realm could actually be considered a strategic location. Think about it. How would a race feel after spending great effort to invade a different realm only to find themselves weakening after a successful invasion? The Human Realm is the only realm they can enter without suffering any suppression. Why would the Human Realm not become a target for the various races?
"A successful conquest would grant them billions of lives to exploit, more source qi to harvest, a vast world to rule, countless new treasures to be found, and a realm to be devoured. They stand to gain too many benefits from conquering a new realm. But since other realms are difficult to conquer, the Human Realm becomes the most attractive target. We're not attacked because we're weak. The fault lays on the Human Realm, the unreliable Human Realm..."
Liu Wenyan mumbled helplessly. Every other realm had a suppression effect on outsiders. The Human Realm was the sole exception. What could they do about it?
"But why is that the case?"
This was new to Su Yu. He was having a hard time wrapping his mind around it. Why would that be the case? It was no wonder that things were becoming more and more desperate for humanity on the Allheaven Battlefield.
It was no wonder that so many races were hostile toward humans. He had always thought that those fellows had only set their eyes on the humans because they were weak. But both his father and instructor were telling him otherwise. According to them, the human race was powerful enough to be a top-ten race.
A powerful top-ten race had been turned into a public enemy. He couldn't understand why something like that would happen previously, but now he knew. The Human Realm was basically opened wide to the other races. How would they not be attracted? The Human Realm was akin to an attractive clothless woman beckoning at a man. Would that man be able to resist the temptation?
"Why?" Liu Wenyan smiled bitterly. "We have two theories. Firstly, the Human Realm's core has been damaged, so the power of suppression is gone. Secondly, there are legends that the ancient humans were supreme experts dominating the myriad realms. Worshiped by the myriad races, the Human Realm acted as the heart of the myriad realms. Humanity naturally needed no suppression effect toward foreign races. Only weak races would require something like that to defend themselves."
Su Yu was shocked. "Is that true?"
"That's only a legend. Maybe humans made that up to feel good about themselves. In any case, that is one of our existing speculations. None of that matters. We can't change anything. You will learn all this in an academy. Weren't you asking about the cultivation speed of those who had joined an academy? It's all thanks to the secret grottos. A so-called secret grotto is actually a pocket realm, a chunk of space cut out of a place or realm rich in source qi."
Su Yu blanked out. A cut off chunk of space?
"I'll give you a simple example. Take the secret grotto of the Great Xia War Academy. That was a chunk of space cut off and plundered from the Golden Peng Realm by the Great Xia King with one slash of his blade back then."
Su Yu was speechless. P-plundered? Wait. Cutting a realm apart with one slash of his blade? He even managed to take that chunk of space back? Was that still a human?
"The Golden Peng Realm has a high density of source qi. It also has a decent amount of heavenly source qi in it. Thus, with some preparations, one would be able to cultivate rapidly upon entering such a secret grotto. That is why the students of the academy could quickly enter the Great Strength Realm."
Su Yu couldn't help asking, "How about the Human Realm? Don't we have any places rich in source qi or heavenly source qi?"
"Of course we do." Liu Wenyan smiled. "But there are too many people in the Human Realm. It also doesn't make sense for us to cut off our own realm. Doing that too often may even cause the realm to collapse. Since the other races all want to take a bite out of our realm, we can naturally do the same to them."
The more Liu Wenyan spoke, the colder his face became. "Over the years, humanity has not been staying idle. We have actually taken the initiative to attack and destroy a decent number of small realms, seizing the cores of those realms for ourselves. With the cores, we were able to turn entire realms into sacred lands of cultivation for humanity.
"Us humans do not have the habit of silently enduring a beating. It might be hard for us to destroy the bigger races, but those smaller races are asking for a beating for daring to set their eyes on us as well."
It was very rare to see a scholar like Liu Wenyuan to look so murderous.
"Where did you think the academies got their research materials from? You really think all of them were plundered from the battlefield? You're too naive. Some of the materials were actually directly taken from within the realms of these races."
Su Yu's expression changed. After a while, he muttered, "That is so domineering. I had always assumed that we’re only silently taking a beating from the myriad races. So that's not the case at all. We're also hitting back."
Liu Wenyan's smile grew wider, "That is only natural. If we're not ruthless enough, the myriad races will see us as lambs. By ruthlessly suppressing some races and roping in some other races, humanity is able to stand tall among the myriad races. Take our very own Great Xia King as an example. He hasn't been seen publicly for many years. Do you really think he's in seclusion?"
"Is that not the case?" Su Yu asked blankly. Wasn't that what they announced?
Liu Wenyan stroked his beard and said, "Of course not. How can an invincible expert stay in seclusion all the time? He left a long time ago. We don't know his exact whereabouts, but it is said that he had entered the Divine Realm. Of course, that is only a rumor and nobody knows if that's true."
"Incredible!" Su Yu felt like he was listening to a fairy tale. That was amazing! Why aren't they making that news public?"
"Make what public?" asked Liu Wenyan in disdain. "Those who have spent some time at the Allheaven Battlefield will know it. As for those who are not going to the Allheaven Battlefield, it's pointless to let them know. It's better to keep the public pressured instead.
"If we only report the good news and hide the bad news, humanity would not feel any sense of crisis. In that case, will the humans living in peace behind the front line still work so hard in cultivation? In fact, this sense of crisis is one of the main contributors to the constant rise of experts among humanity. Just look at how hardworking you and your schoolmates are."
That made a lot of sense. If only good news were shared, would those staying behind the front line still work so hard? Of course, there were also some disadvantages to this policy. However, Su Yu was in no position to judge it.