Chapter 170: My Heart Slowly Darkens (2)
That night, Su Yu saw Chen Qi again. It had been a few days since their previous meeting.
Su Yu frowned. He disliked trouble. And this fellow was as troublesome as a persistent housefly.
Without giving Chen Qi a chance to speak, Su Yu said, "I'm not selling. I already agreed to spar with Lin Yao. I can't sell it anymore. If I change my mind, my reputation in the academy would be totally ruined."
"I know." Chen Qi frowned and said, "Su Yu, listen to me. How about the two of us partner up?"
"Hmm?"
"I'll help you defeat Lin Yao. You can get 300 merit points for free. Then, you can challenge me and lose. I will give you 1,000 merit points on top of that. You can get 1,300 merit points in total. This price is more than enough for you to buy all the blood essence you need. You only need to spend some time."
"Defeating Lin Yao?"
"Yes. Do you think you can win without help? Impossible. I was at his place earlier. He's not far from the Great Strength Realm. I also know that he has a profound-grade martial technique. His Divine Character is also quite strong. You won't be his match. He even has a cultural weapon. And he has been in the Mental Tempering Stage for quite a while. He is strong enough to even face Infinite Strength cultivators. You stand no chance against him."
Su Yu asked in astonishment, "How am I supposed to win, then?"
"I have my ways." With the same gloomy expression, Chen Qi said, "After winning, you will gain both fame and 1,300 merit points. If you're willing to buy a cheaper type of blood essence for your body forging, you would probably still have around 1,000 merit points left. That would be enough for you to cultivate until the Infinite Strength Realm or above."
Su Yu raised his brow and said, "I want to beat him fair and square. There is no pride in winning through other means."
Chen Qi furiously said, "Foolish! Fine, I'll offer 100 more merit points. That's the most I can offer. You can get 1,400 merit points for free!"
"It's not for free. You want my blood essence!" Su Yu was speechless. Was Chen Qi taking him for a fool?
Chen Qi was starting to lose his patience. He asked, "What do you want then? Do you really think you can win? If you lose to Lin Yao, you would only get 100 merit points. Silkwrym blood essence might be quite valuable, but if you give me a month, I can get you 100 drops of silkwrym blood essence too. I can also give you 400 merit points on top of that. What do you think?"
Silkwrym blood essence was also quite rare. But the blood essence of most of the top 100 races were quite similar in effect if one wasn't using the mountainbreak bull blood essence. Thus, the blood essence of the other races were much easier to purchase in comparison.
Su Yu hesitated and asked, "Are you serious?"
"Of course."
"What if I say no?"
Chen Qi's voice turned cold. "No? Then you better not enter the Mental Tempering Stage and the Great Strength Realm. Otherwise, you will come to regret your choice today. Su Yu, I am already being very generous. I offer a fair price. I am even willing to help you with Lin Yao. Why do you reject me again and again? Do you really think that I won't lose my temper?"
Su Yu wanted to say that he had a pretty bad temper too. Chen Qi was merely unaware of that.
In his desperation, Chen Qi had decided to threaten Su Yu. Otherwise, he might really lose this blood essence for real.
Su Yu thought about it and clenched his teeth, "Fine. In that case, I'll challenge you after my fight with Lin Yao. The conditions will be the same. If you win, you can buy the blood essence from me for 400 merit points and 100 drops of blood essence from a different top 100 race. If you lose, you need to pay me 1,000 merit points."
"Hmm?" Chen Qi frowned and coldly said, "There is no need to mention the final condition..."
Su Yu sneered, "Maybe I can win. Who knows? You want me to challenge you. But if I have nothing to gain from winning, why would I bother making this gamble? Do you think your threat would work? Do you think I'm helpless against you? I can simply go to Teacher Bai and tell him that you launched a sneak attack on me!"
"You..." Chen Qi was furious. After a while, he said, "You're thinking of using the same trick you used against Lin Yao on me? You want to ruin my reputation?"
Su Yu snorted, "Do you still have any reputation? The moment I challenge you, your reputation would be gone. Do you still care about your reputation? You're a seventh-stage Great Strength cultivator. By facing me in a spar, you would no longer have any reputation."
"If that's the case, why don't you just sell the bloo--"
"Dream on."
...
Chen Qi was infuriated. Su Yu was too stubborn! Additionally, he was also greedy and enjoyed gambling too much. He would only agree to a spar where he would win big in the event of victory and lose nothing in the event of defeat. An image of Su Yu slowly formed in Chen Qi's mind. This was a greedy and poor person who was also addicted to gambling.
"Ok."
Chen Qi gnashed his teeth and agreed. There was no way he would lose. He was at the seventh-stage Great Strength Realm and Mental Tempering Stage. He was someone ready to challenge the Top 100 Ranking. Not to mention Su Yu, he could even defeat Lin Yao without breaking a sweat.
Su Yu did not say anything else and walked around Chen Qi before walking away. Chen Qi was very strong. But Su Yu was confident in his own strength. With Infinite Strength blood essence, he would have the offensive prowess of an Infinite Strength cultivator. He refused to believe he stood no chance against Chen Qi.
Su Yu was already getting tired of Chen Qi's constant pestering, so he decided to deal with Chen Qi as well. He still remembered what Wu Lan said. Chen Qi had looked for her to help with the scheme against him.
"Previously, I was afraid of using my blood essence ability. But since Teacher had said that I can use him as an excuse for my ability, I have nothing to fear anymore. Liu Hong and Hu Wensheng! Both are from the same faction and both are rich. Who else am I going to scam if not you? Just look at how easily they are offering me 1,000 merit points or more."
Su Yu was finding it hard to believe just how rich those people were. His teacher was a seventh-stage Skysoar capable of defeating a ninth-stage Skysoar. But his teacher was incredibly poor. Why were the students from Liu Hong's faction richer than even Bai Feng?
Little did he know, these people were all the genius heirs of rich families. For the sake of their cultivation, their families were naturally willing to invest a lot on them. They came from families with Cloudbreach cultivators. Sure, 1,000 merit points were a lot, but that was still a price Cloudbreach cultivators could afford.
If Bai Feng hadn't wasted all his time and effort on his research, with his cultivation and his status as the student of a Mountainsea expert, he would also be quite rich.
"Chen Qi is planning to stab Lin Yao in the back. He believes that I won't win..."
At the thought of that, Su Yu smiled. He took out his communicator and dialed a number.
...
Half an hour later.
In a certain park in the academy, Xia Huyou met Su Yu. He curiously asked, "Su Yu, why are you looking for me so late?"
"I'm selling you some information."
"What are you selling?"
"100 merit points."
"What exactly are you selling?" Xia Huyou asked in excitement, "Are you selling the research results from your research center?"
"Scram!"
This fellow must be dreaming.
"Someone is scheming against Lin Yao..."
"What?" Xia Huyou was stunned. He said, "If you're going to say that you're the culprit, forget it. I already know about it."
"Not me." Su Yu was furious. How could this fatty say that? He was definitely not scheming against anyone!
"Are you buying or not? If you sell the information to Lin Yao, you can leave a favorable impression on him and earn some money. That fellow is rich. He can definitely afford 100 merit points..."
Xia Huyou said, "That would depend on who the culprit is. If you're going to say it's the Myriad Race Cult or your teacher, forget it. That's pointless. Only tell me if it's someone he won't expect and if it's actually true."
"He won't expect it."
Strictly speaking, Chen Qi and Lin Yao were on the same side. Would Lin Yao expect Chen Qi to stab him in the back? Su Yu had no idea. But he knew that this information was worth some money.
"Tell me who the culprit is first. Don't worry. I am a reputable businessman. If it's worth money, I'll definitely pay you. And if it's not worth money, I'll keep my mouth shut about it."
"Chen Qi."
Xia Huyou thought he heard wrong. "Who?"
"Chen Qi."
"Dang! He's scheming against his own people?" Xia Huyou blanked out momentarily before asking, "For the blood essence?"
"Yes."
"Isn't that Chen Qi afraid of...right. There is nothing to fear. He's not killing anyone and this blood essence was supposed to be his anyway. If he could get it back, not even Liu Hong would have anything to say..."
Suddenly, Xia Huyou's gaze landed on Su Yu. He clicked his tongue and said, "Su Yu, you're the biggest scum of them all. You're going to profit off both of them. And not even that is enough. You're now here to even profit off me. Are you not afraid of biting off more than you can chew? Or have you entered an agreement with Chen Qi?"
Su Yu calmly said, "You told me that after entering the academy, I need to be ruthless. They provoked me first. Why can't I strike back?"
"Good answer!"
Xia Huyou raised his thumb in admiration. This Su Yu was truly ruthless. First, he provoked Lin Yao. Then, he got involved with Chen Qi. Finally, he sold Chen Qi out. Sure, he would end up offending both of them by doing that, but that did not matter.
They were never friends in the first place. Meanwhile, this whole scheme could very well turn Chen Qi and Lin Yao against each other for real. Su Yu was akin to a puppet master, manipulating everything that was happening. Incredible.
Xia Huyou smiled and said, "Sure. I'll buy the information for 100 merit points. I can probably get 100 merit points from Lin Yao. I won't earn any money, but he will owe me a favor from this. He's still a high-high student so that is worth a lot too."
"Thank you. Don't tell him you got the information from me or he won't believe it."
"Of course. I'm not dumb. Don't worry. Not even Chen Qi would believe that you would be the one to leak this information. By the way, what are you planning to do?"
"I can't tell you. You'll know next month."
Right now, he couldn't tell anyone about his spar with Chen Qi. Neither would Chen Qi say anything either. Otherwise, it would be too obvious that there were trickeries involved. It would only make it much harder for him to scam Lin Yao.
"Next month..."
Xia Huyou did not ask anything, but he started thinking about it. Chen Qi was going to stab Lin Yao in the back...was Chen Qi going to cause Lin Yao to lose the spar? What could he get from that? Blood essence! Had Su Yu made the same bet with Chen Qi as well?
Holy shit! What gave this fellow the confidence to face a seventh-stage Great Strength cultivator?
Xia Huyou found that he needed to learn more about Su Yu. This fellow seemed to have a hidden trump card. He was fully confident he could defeat Lin Yao. He wouldn't have come selling this information otherwise.
...
Su Yu naturally did not care about what Xia Huyou was thinking. While on his way back, he couldn't help but to laugh in excitement.
300 merit points, 1,000 merit points, 100 merit points...
The academy was filled with rich people! After the two spars, he was going to get 1,400 merit points! This was crazy. Not even his teacher was this rich.
Just earlier, his teacher was still trying to make him borrow money from someone to feed them. Su Yu started wondering if he should give his teacher a small loan after making his 1,400 merit points.
"Maybe I can lend him some. I'll tell him I loaned the money and he needs to pay the interest...After all, I won't be able to finish 1,400 merit points so quickly anyway..."
Su Yu started making plans for what he was going to do with his future 1,400 merit points.