Chapter 174: Second Page (2)
Inside the small building.
The two middle-aged men had left with their students. Bai Feng was still waiting there. He wiped the nonexistent sweat on his forehead and heaved a breath of relief. Fortunately, he had bluffed about the amount of time he had lasted in the grotto. Su Yu would probably surpass his real record soon. Back then, he had only stayed for one and a half hours in the grotto.
Old Huang checked the time and smiled, "This new student is not bad. His foundation is quite strong and his nine Source Opening acupoints are stable. Looks like he might really be able to open six or seven new acupoints this time."
The other old man who had returned after sending the fox away said, "He's a small city kid. Not bad at all. I love the students of these small cities the most. They grew up lacking source qi, but as a result, they obtained a stable foundation. That is completely unlike those from the big families. Their elites are still fine, but a lot of those from the branch families only pursue growth speed. Without a good foundation, how can they go far?"
Old Huang sighed and said, "You can't really say that. How many of those from ordinary families and small cities can get a chance like this? The probability of someone rising to prominence among them is too low. This student is only a special case."
Bai Feng suddenly asked, "How long do you think he can stay inside?"
"Probably two hours or so." Old Huang smiled, "He has a stable foundation and enough mountainbreak bull blood essence. His body will slowly grow strong. Since he is still inside and the two kids from earlier said that he has just started using blood essence, he can probably still last a while."
Bai Feng nodded and exhaled in relief. This was not too far from his estimation. Two hours...that was quite good.
Cultural researchers did not care too much about physical cultivation during the Source Opening Realm. A lot of them were quite delicate during that phase. But that was only applicable for the more ordinary people. For geniuses, they still hoped to have a stronger body.
Su Yu's physical body was by no means weak compared to the others in the Source Opening Realm. He was able to even cultivate the second move of the Lightning Source Blade. That wouldn't be possible unless he had a strong physical body.
Of course, talent also played a great role in acupoint opening. The more acupoints Su Yu could open, the longer he would be able to last in the grotto. If he was stuck on a single acupoint for a long time, he would eventually be forced to leave.
Thinking about all that, Bai Feng suddenly asked, "I remember that back then, the person who had lasted the longest and opened the most acupoints was my martial uncle, right?"
"Liu Wenyan?" The two old men looked at each other. Old Huang thought for a bit and shook his head, "No. I entered the academy two batches after him. I heard that when he was at the Great Strength Realm, he didn't cultivate the War God Art. Instead, he cultivated the Sky Sundering Countless Saber."
"Hmm?" Bai Feng was astonished, "Why am I not aware of that? I thought that's the Xia Family's secret cultivation method?"
"Yes, it's their secret method." Old Huang smiled, "But back then, the fifth principal took him as a student and asked for the method from the Xia Family. With the fifth principal's prestige, after promising to not teach the method to anyone else, the Xia Family agreed to teach Liu Wenyan.
"The Sky Sundering Countless Saber is a heaven-grade cultivation method. The version Liu Wenyan got was probably the low-tier version with only 117 acupoints at the Great Strength Realm. When Liu Wenyan was breaking through, he had lasted 3 hours and opened 12 acupoints, nearly stepping into the second-stage."
He teased, "When you bluffed earlier, you were actually talking about your martial uncle's record. You have quite a thick face."
Bai Feng laughed awkwardly and said, "So it's not my martial uncle? I thought he had the longest record..."
"No." Old Huang shook his head. He wanted to say something but hesitated.
The other old man was much more straightforward. He rolled his eyes and said, "Are you intentionally forgetting something? It was the fellow who had beat you up a few years ago. He rented the grotto once and took 5 hours to open 24 acupoints. He went straight into the third-stage Great Strength Realm during that time."
Bai Feng's face fell.
Shit! He had actually forgotten about that.
He couldn't help but to curse, "That bastard isn't even a member of our academy. I was talking about our own people, not him."
The two old men couldn't help but laugh at his reaction.
Old Huang grinned and said, "I didn't want to talk about him. You were the one who insisted on asking. By the way, do you know that he's already in the Cloudbreach Realm?"
Bai Feng had the same ugly expression as he said, "No. I don't care."
Old Huang said, "Hehe. You better put more focus on cultivating and entering the Cloudbreach Realm. Don't stay in your lab all the time. Xia Yuwen is probably near that realm too. Wu Qi is already a ninth-stage Skysoar. After this defeat, Hu Wensheng would probably reach Cloudbreach soon too. There's also Liu Hong..."
His tone turned regretful, "Bai Feng, the freaks of your batch are all getting near the Cloudbreach Realm. Even if you can defeat ninth-stage Skysoars, what about Cloudbreach cultivators? You should put more effort into cultivation. If you don't work hard, even that fellow from Great Zhou is going to catch up to you. I heard he's reaching the sixth-stage Skysoar Realm soon."
"Sixth-stage Skysoar?" Bai Feng was disdainful, "So what? Even if he's at the ninth-stage, I can still kill him with one slap."
/p>
"Don't forget he's only 19," reminded Old Huang.
Bai Feng was much older than that fellow.
Bai Feng grumbled to himself that it wasn't a big deal. His student was only 18...Fine. His student was only about to reach the Great Strength Realm. But the gap between the Great Strength Realm and the Skysoar Realm wasn't really that big!
As they conversed, time slowly passed. Before long, two hours passed.
Bai Feng stared at the door, but when he saw no movement there, he was surprised. Was his student not coming out yet? Not bad at all!
"Don't tell me he managed to open seven or eight acupoints already."
...
Another half an hour passed. Bai Feng was starting to get anxious. "Did something happen?"
"That’s not likely." Old Huang said, "The Great Strength Zone is safe. Maybe he's still cultivating. The mountainbreak bull blood essence is very good for body forging. With a stronger body, he can open more acupoints."
Bai Feng blankly said, "That's not right. According to my calculation, 100 drops of blood essence would only help him open around 10 acupoints. He should be coming out about now. Should I go in and check on him?"
"Maybe he hasn't finished using the blood essence. Or maybe he has finished and is absorbing source qi to cultivate. Calm down."
The other old man said, "Don't trust him. This Bai Feng has gone mad from poverty. He is probably trying to get an excuse to enter the grotto and cultivate for free."
Bai Feng looked embarrassed. He was definitely not that kind of person!
"The multiple character faction is rich! We don't lack money—"
He couldn't even finish his sentence before the old man took out a delicate teapot and said, "Tsk, tsk. I heard this is Hong Tan's favorite teapot. He had used it for over 50 years. Good stuff. I bought it from the black market for 10 merit points. I wonder if it's the real deal."
Bai Feng was stupefied. Holy shit! Why was that teapot here? No, that wasn't the point! He had sold a bunch of stuff for only 800 merit points yet they were selling a single teapot for 10 merit points? He remembered selling dozens of items that were even more valuable than the teapot!
"Scammers!"
Bai Feng cursed in rage. Those people had actually scammed him! No, that wasn't right. This old man was the one who had been scammed. He was the one stupid enough to spend 10 merit points on a teapot.
Bai Feng even forgot about Su Yu and coughed before saying, "That is definitely not my teacher's teapot. The one he used is still in the research center. How can it be at the black market?"
"Is that so?"
The old man beamed, "I heard that someone hired Old Qian to fabricate a bunch of things recently. Are you trying to trick your teacher with forgeries?"
Bai Feng exclaimed in anger, "Old Qian promised to not leak the information! He actually sold me off? I'm going to look for him after this!"
"Cough."
The old man hurriedly said, "Please don't. That was an accident. It's no big deal. Don't worry. We won't tell Elder Hong all his stuff has been replaced by forgeries."
Bai Feng clenched his teeth and said, "My teacher's things are all the real deal! The ones you guys bought are the forgeries!"
"Right, right."
The old man nodded in agreement. He had nearly gotten his old friend in trouble earlier. It was better to agree with Bai Feng here. Speaking of, this fellow was truly a bastard. He was actually selling his teacher's personal belongings for money. It was lucky Elder Hong wasn't in the academy. Otherwise, he would probably be infuriated to death.
Bai Feng's expression changed repeatedly before he murmured, "I have no choice either. He was the one who had left nothing behind. Faculty Head Zhou and the others are assholes. They were trying to make a move against my senior brother. What else can I do?"
Yes, it was not his fault. It was his teacher's fault! What could he do if his teacher had left no money behind? There wasn't anything he could sell. As for his teacher's personal belongings, they would be worth something since they belonged to a Mountainsea expert.
And sure enough, he was able to get over 800 merit points from his teacher's personal belongings. He was actually quite surprised when he was given that price. The two old men did not say anything. It was better for them to not get involved in the conflict of the two factions.
Bai Feng could scold the other faction, but they couldn't.
…
At the same time.
Su Yu had not finished his blood essence like Bai Feng had expected. He had only used about 60 drops so far. He had also opened 16 new acupoints. Initially, he had used 18 drops and opened 6 acupoints. A few of them had been opened without using any blood essence.
Then, he had used over 40 drops to open 10 acupoints. He had reached the second-stage Great Strength Realm. Even he himself was shocked at his progress. The acupoint opening speed in this grotto was way too fast.
"I still have eight acupoints to reach the third-stage. Can I open them all in time?"
He had used more than half of his blood essence. He wasn't sure if he had enough to open the remaining eight acupoints. If it was possible, he would be able to reach the third-stage Great Strength Realm in one go.
"This grotto definitely has the ability to help others open acupoints."
Su Yu was more and more certain that his conclusion was right. His physical body had been strengthened considerably. He tried throwing a punch and without even using a martial technique, his punch was strong enough to create a loud rumble in the air.
"I think I've surpassed Teacher in terms of opened acupoints. But I still need to last a bit longer to surpass him. I think I can last longer than three hours..."
He still had about 40 drops of blood essence. He could definitely break his teacher's record.
"Next."
He stopped thinking and continued his cultivation. Drop after drop of blood essence was consumed, keeping the Body Strengthening Art activated and the temporary acupoints opened.
Su Yu was extremely satisfied with his progress. It was fortunate that the mountainbreak bull had activated a new page in his book, and it was also fortunate that the Body Strengthening Art was a great body strengthening cultivation method.
Su Yu believed that the Body Strengthening Art was why he had been able to open so many acupoints so easily. Not even the Infinite Strength Source Swallowing Technique would work so well.
"This blood essence is so useful yet Chen Qi and the others are trying to snatch it from me? I won't forget this!"
The more he thought, the angrier he became. Good thing he had not agreed to sell the blood essence. The so-called silkwrym blood essence was definitely not as good as the mountainbreak bull blood essence. Would the silkwrym blood essence activate a new page in his book? If there was a new page, would the cultivation method be useful for body strengthening? Would it help in acupoint opening? Probably not.
"Damn them all! They nearly severed my path of cultivation! I will remember this!"
Su Yu was furious. He was more and more convinced that the others deserve his anger. There was no helping it since the mountainbreak bull blood essence was really too useful.