Chapter 172: Great Strength (2)
About 15 minutes later.
Under Bai Feng's lead, Su Yu entered the Grotto District. Su Yu looked around curiously. There weren't a lot of people around, but the environment here was decent with greeneries everywhere. Amid the flora were some small buildings. In fact, the entire district was filled with these small buildings.
Before long, the two arrived in front of one of these buildings. When they walked inside, Su Yu found that the building was small but there were a few people waiting inside. He instinctively sent his senses out and immediately, several blinding dots of light erupted within his senses.
So powerful!
These people felt even stronger than his teacher. Were these Cloudbreach experts?
"Bai Feng, how are you teaching your student? How can he use his willpower to probe others without permission?"
Su Yu was still in a shocked state. An old man in the room berated, but his words were directed toward Bai Feng, not Su Yu.
Bai Feng coughed awkwardly and said, "He's still young and curious. Don't mind him."
He then looked at Su Yu and said, "Don't probe others with your willpower rashly. Those at the Skysoar Realm and above can sense your willpower."
"Sorry, teachers. I did not mean any offense..."
Su Yu hurriedly apologized. In the room, there were two old men, two middle-aged men, and two youths. Excluding Su Yu and Bai Feng, there were six of them. The small room felt somewhat packed with eight people in it.
Bai Feng looked somewhat uncomfortable as he complained, "The academy should have expanded the buildings here long ago. This room is too small. What if there are more people?"
"Are you paying for it?" The old man who had berated Bai Feng earlier rolled his eyes and said, "The acting prefect wants nothing more than to spend nothing on us and you're asking for more construction? You should be happy he's not telling us to wait under the sun. This place is usually not this crowded anyway. Today is just a coincidence."
Evidently, the two old men were in charge of watching over this place. The others were people like Bai Feng and Su Yu who had come in pairs of teachers and students.
The old man looked at Su Yu and nodded, "You're entering the grotto to advance into the Great Strength Realm?"
Su Yu nodded.
"You have to wait a while. There is still someone in the Great Strength Zone. You can enter after that person is done."
Bai Feng asked, "They can all enter together, right? The grotto is big enough for everyone."
Yes, multiple individuals could enter the grotto together. Chen Qi wouldn't have tried to get someone to meddle with Su Yu in the grotto otherwise.
The old man said, "You don't understand. Just wait."
While the others were talking, Su Yu looked around in confusion. Where was the grotto? Where was it? Why couldn't he see it? The only thing he saw was a simple and crude room that felt similar to the random stores he could find beside the street.
There was a counter in the room. The two old men were seated at one side of the counter while the rest of them were waiting at the other side. There seemed to be a door behind the two old men. Was that the entrance to the grotto?
The old man looked at the two middle-aged men and said, "Since all of you are here for the same purpose, all three of you can enter together later. Once inside, look for a suitable place to break through. Don't disturb the cultivation of others.
"Remember, the moment you feel some resistance from the grotto, leave. If you end up bursting apart from source qi pressure, don't blame me for not reminding you. Don't be too greedy in the grotto. That's suicide."
The old man then recalled something and asked, "Bai Feng, what's the name of your student?"
"Su Yu."
"Let me check..."
The old man worked on the machine on the counter for a bit before looking at Su Yu, "Are you sure you're using your free entry now? This is a reward so you can use it at the Great Strength, Infinite Strength, or even the Skysoar Realm. If you're paying to enter, the price would be different depending on your cultivation. Don't waste this chance. It would be better to save it and use it when you're at peak Mental Tempering Stage."
Su Yu flashed an honest smile and said, "Teacher, I'm not at the Mental Tempering Stage yet. I still have plenty of time to earn my second chance to enter the grotto."
"That's an ambitious thought."
The old man smiled. The other two youths in the room couldn't help but to take a look at Su Yu.
Su Yu? The same Su Yu from the Character Faculty? When Su Yu noticed their gaze, he smiled and nodded at them. He didn't know them. There were too many people in the academy. It was impossible for him to know everyone. But the two did not seem hostile toward him.
Bai Feng and their teachers did not seem to have any issues with each other either. There was no need for him to offend them.
Noticing the youngsters looking at each other, the middle-aged man with long hair smiled and said, "Bai Feng, I heard your student was incited by Liu Hong's student into a spar after the monthly exam. Do you have confidence in your student?"
Bai Feng indifferently said, "It doesn't matter. It would be good if he wins. If not, I'll go kick Liu Hong's ass. He will have to return whatever his student took from my student. He can try hiding from me for life if he wants."
The two middle-aged men couldn't help but to laugh.
Even the two old men laughed. The same old man who had spoken earlier said, "Bai Feng, don't get too confident. Liu Hong had just entered grotto #3 a few days ago. He might leave the grotto as an eighth or ninth-stage Skysoar."
Bai Feng arrogantly declared, "So what? Hu Wensheng is at the ninth-stage too."
That left the rest of them speechless. The middle-aged man from before laughed and said, "In that case, we'll be looking forward to seeing you teach Liu Hong a lesson."
Bai Feng grinned, "Me? No. Su Yu can deal with this. Since he can win, there is no need for me to do anything. In fact, my student is here today to break through and get ready to deal with that fellow."
He looked at the old man and asked, "Had that useless student of Liu Hong been here?"
The old man said, "I'm not telling you. If you want to check the records, pay for it with your merit points."
Bai Feng curled his lips. No thanks. It didn't matter.
Bai Feng looked at Su Yu again and said, "After you enter, don't run around aimlessly. There are signs inside. The Great Strength Zone is quite small. Outside that area is the Infinite Strength and the Skysoar Zones. You can't go there as the source qi density there will cause you to burst apart.
"After entering, start cultivating and linking up your acupoints. Enter the Great Strength Realm directly and cultivate according to your War God Art. With the dense source qi in the grotto, your acupoint opening speed would be even faster."
Finally, Bai Feng was fulfilling his duty as a teacher as he reminded, "Keep opening acupoints until you reach your limit. Then, start forging your body with the blood essence. Just swallow them one drop at a time. After the energy of each drop runs out, swallow a new drop. Keep opening acupoints while consuming the blood essence. The blood essence would strengthen your body by itself.
"Generally, you wouldn't be able to finish all 100 drops. Only those at the ninth-stage can use up all 100 drops. In the early Great Strength Realm, 50 drops would probably be enough. Of course, geniuses can use more. Since you're a genius, remember to take enough blood essence with you."
The two youths looked at Su Yu enviously. They knew about the mountainbreak bull blood essence Su Yu had.
The middle-aged man who had spoken before said, "Bai Feng, if you're letting your student use the blood essence now, what if..."
He wanted to ask what Bai Feng would do if Su Yu was defeated in the spar.
Bai Feng interrupted him, "He won't. Even if he loses, it doesn't matter. Mountainbreak bull blood essence is nothing. We're rich. Do we care about something like that?"
The others rolled their eyes. Everyone knew that their faction was so poor that they were on the verge of pawning off everything they had. As for how Su Yu and Bai Feng would pay up upon losing the spar, that was really none of their business.
In the academy, they still needed to follow the rules. If they had agreed on a bet, they had to honor it. Otherwise, they might end up paying an even higher price.
Bai Feng ignored the others and continued advising Su Yu, "Try to last longer and absorb more source qi. The source qi in the grotto has a higher purity. It is even purer than the source qi in our filter room. Back then, I came here to advance into the Great Strength Realm too. I lasted three hours..."
"Cough."
The two old men coughed.
They had been there for decades and they were present when Bai Feng was here for his advancement. They knew very well how long Bai Feng had lasted. Sure, Bai Feng was free to bluff in front of his student, but was it proper to do it in front of them?
Bai Feng ignored them and continued, "That time, I opened 12 acupoints and entered the second-stage Great Strength Realm directly. Try to open more acupoints. I don't expect you to open 12 acupoints as well, but try to open 7 or 8 acupoints. That would save a lot of your time. Otherwise, you would probably need a month outside to open the same number of acupoints."
The two old men were speechless. The two middle-aged men were speechless too. Could Bai Feng stop bluffing in front of his student? When did he open 12 acupoints? When did he last 3 hours?
When the middle-aged men noticed their students looking at them, the long-haired one coughed and said with a smile, "Yes, three hours is something only freaks can do. That is very impressive. I wasn’t that good. Back then, I only lasted two and a half hours. Try to last one hour inside. Don't force yourself if you can't. After all, your teacher used to be one of the few high-high students back then..."
The other middle-aged man also smiled and said, "Looks like I'm the worst here. I only lasted 145 minutes."
The three teachers exchanged knowing gazes with each other. Since one was bluffing and it was improper for the others to expose him, they might as well join in. They were absolutely doing it out of love. They were only doing this to encourage their students.
Meanwhile, the two old men were completely speechless. Were these guys done? Even the other two were joining in on the bluffing. Did they think that the two old men would really not expose them?
Did they want to be exposed and embarrassed in front of their students? Three hours? Two hours? Back then, Bai Feng had only lasted one and a half hours. That was quite a good result, but why did he have to double his result in front of his student?
At this moment, someone knocked on the door behind them. One of the old men waved his hand and the door swung open. Next, a figure stepped through the door. When Su Yu and the others looked over, their expressions changed.
"Fox race?"
Su Yu raised his brow. The other two youths appeared upset while Bai Feng and the others looked shocked. No wonder the other students weren't allowed to enter earlier. There was a demon beast inside.
The newcomer had a long tail, a pair of fox ears, and a face that was a combination of a fox and a human's face.? This was most likely a demon from the fox race.
When the two old men saw the unfriendly expressions of Bai Feng and the others, they coughed. One of them stood up and said, "I'll send her out. Old Huang, handle the matters here."
"Ok."
The old man wasted no time and grabbed the silent demon fox. With a flicker, both of them vanished.
Old Huang looked at Bai Feng and the others and said, "Stop thinking about it. The Foreign Student Faculty has opened. The source grotto isn't an important grotto. They are willing to pay so the academy has agreed to let them use it."
Bai Feng snorted, but he didn't say anything.
The long-haired man said, "It's a basic grotto now, but who knows if more important grottos would be opened for them in the future?"
Old Huang said, "It's no use telling me that. Talk to the principal. Are you entering or not? You can enter now. If not, leave."
The others merely sighed. Bai Feng tossed a bottle to Su Yu and waved his hand lazily. They were not too happy seeing demon beasts in their own grotto. Su Yu and the other students walked toward the door silently. Su Yu was still thinking about what he saw earlier.
A demon beast. That was his first time actually seeing one.
"Fox race...sure enough, those books can't be trusted. They all claim that the foxes are extremely pretty. Pretty my ass."
The face Su Yu had seen earlier definitely wasn't something he would describe with the word pretty. He decided to no longer trust everything he saw in books. As far as he was concerned, even Wu Lan was prettier than the fox girl he saw earlier.