Chapter 176: As Outstanding As Me (2)
After about five hours, Su Yu left the grotto. He did not try to stay longer. There was no need for that. He had already opened 24 acupoints and formed a circuit in his body. If he stayed longer, he would have to waste even more Infinite Strength iron-winged bird blood essence. That might not be worth it in his current state. He could feel that he wouldn't be able to open more acupoints anytime soon.
It would be a waste to absorb more source qi now. It was better for him to let his body rest first. A bell rang in the room. With a wave of Old Huang's hand, the door behind the counter opened, revealing a filthy Su Yu. Despite his sorry appearance, his eyes were clear and bright.
He felt like his entire body had been cleansed after opening so many new acupoints. Since he had just broken through, he still couldn't hide his aura. Thus, his surging aura was immediately apparent to the ones in the room.
In fact, he looked even more imposing than the two Cloudbreach cultivators and Bai Feng. Bai Feng clicked his tongue in amazement as he looked at Su Yu. What an incredible kid.
But it was a pity this kid hadn't been able to break that fellow's record. Then again, it didn't matter. That wasn't a record the academy or the government maintained so he wouldn't be rewarded for breaking it anyway.
Bai Feng's eyes lit up brightly as he gazed at Su Yu. Su Yu felt like his entire being was being seen through. A short while later, Bai Feng withdrew his gaze. A bright smile formed on his face.
"Third-stage Great Strength Realm."
The two old men did not spy on Su Yu, but they both looked surprised to hear Bai Feng's words. When they looked at Su Yu again, admiration could be seen in their eyes.
Genius!
Freak!
Disregarding everything else about this new student called Su Yu, his talent in physical cultivation alone was comparable to that person from the war academy.
"Third-stage Great Strength Realm..." Old Huang was impressed. "Not bad. Very good. Even better than your teach—"
He was interrupted by Bai Feng's hearty laugh, "He's almost as good as me! I was worried that I would ruin your confidence so I wasn't telling the truth earlier. In fact, I lasted five hours back then. I also opened 24 acupoints and reached the third-stage Great Strength Realm in the grotto."
Bai Feng sighed and said, "I had thought that the heavens were unfair to grant me such incredible talent. It would probably be impossible for my student to be so outstanding as well. Otherwise, the other factions would probably die from envy. But Su Yu, you have proven me wrong. You're as outstanding as me."
This time, Bai Feng did not downplay Su Yu's achievement. Instead, he magnified his own record to save face. With a hearty laugh, he said, "Well done, Su Yu. You did not embarrass your teacher. Our faction is destined to be a faction of experts. And now, you are finally qualified to be one of us."
The two old men rolled their eyes repeatedly. Was this person incapable of feeling shame?
Su Yu asked in astonishment, "Teacher, you reached the third-stage Great Strength Realm in the grotto as well?"
"Yes." Bai Feng had a look of recollection as he said, "I'm not the only one. There are a few others. Even the war academies have a few of them. The world does not lack geniuses. We might be outstanding, but the world is filled with outstanding individuals...
"Of course, I'm only a little bit better than you. I came here the moment I entered the academy. However, you waited one whole month before coming. I don't know if you can catch up to me."
Su Yu had been curious about Bai Feng's advancement into the Skysoar Realm for a while. He finally found the chance to ask about it. "Teacher, how old were you when you reached the Skysoar Realm?"
"Me?" Bai Feng smiled, "I was a year older than you when I entered the academy. I was 19. I reached the Skysoar Realm at 22."
Su Yu was stunned. Three years?
He couldn't hold his tongue as he muttered, " I heard that Wu Lan's sister, Wu Qi, reached the Skysoar Realm at 20..."
Bai Feng smiled indifferently and said, "Yes, she's two years younger than me. But we reached the Skysoar Realm in the same year. I actually joined one year before her. Hu Wensheng joined one year before me. Xia Yuwen and Wu Qi joined in the same year. Liu Hong entered in the same year as me. As the time we joined isn't that far off from each other, we are generally considered to be of the same generation. Strictly speaking, we are from different batches."
"Then..."
Su Yu's eyes flickered. He wanted to ask his teacher about the source of his confidence.
Bai Feng said, "Is it slow to reach the Skysoar Realm in three years?"
He looked at the two old men and smiled, "Try asking them. Am I better or is Wu Qi better?"
Su Yu was somewhat surprised. The next moment, he realized something.
Sure enough, Old Huang who seemed unhappy with Bai Feng's bluffing still smiled and said, "It's different. Those in your faction need to form a lot of Divine Characters before advancing into the Skysoar Realm. Therefore, your faction's advancement time has always been slower. Thus, three years can be considered very fast. In terms of talent, Bai Feng isn't worse than Wu Qi."
Bai Feng was dissatisfied. "Old Huang, I am obviously better than her."
Old Huang smiled, but he declined to comment. That might not necessarily be the case. Nobody was denying that Bai Feng was a genius. But nobody would agree that he was absolutely better than Xia Yuwen or Wu Qi.
Understanding dawned on Su Yu. He had heard from Xia Huyou before that Bai Feng had formed 12 Divine Characters before entering the Skysoar Realm. In that case, three years were really quite fast.
Bai Feng smiled, "Therefore, you need to reach the Skysoar Realm in three years if you want to catch up to me. I have a lot of confidence in you. After all, you're as outstanding as me during the Great Strength Realm."
"..."
The two old men were really tired of listening to Bai Feng. In order to protect his reputation in front of his student, this fellow was getting more and more shameless.
Bai Feng coughed awkwardly and said, "Let's go."
Before leaving, he looked at the two old men and said, "Su Yu still has an incoming spar. Before the spar, I hope his advancement can be kept secret. Otherwise, if we end up losing over 1,000 merit points because of that, the two of you will have to compensate for that even though we don't lack money."
"..."
Old Huang finally lost his temper. "Scram! Get out of here!"
Old Huang had lost his temper several times since Bai Feng arrived. Had Bai Feng remained any longer, he would probably have his lies exposed.
...
After Bai Feng left with Su Yu, Old Huang said, "Old Nie, what do you think?"
"What?"
"About Su Yu..."
Old Nie said, "We have new geniuses and freaks every single year. What can we see when he's still a third-stage Great Strength cultivator? We'll only be able to see more when he reaches the Skysoar Realm. It's not like there aren't a lot of freaks stuck at the Mental Tempering Stage. He will only be a true genius after entering the Skysoar Realm. It's pointless to say anything before then."
"True." Old Huang nodded. "Bai Feng had accepted this student right after Hong Tan left. In fact, he seemed to have left urgently. Maybe Bai Feng was the one who had instigated him to leave? He was probably afraid that Hong Tan would steal his student."
"..."
Old Nie blanked out slightly before laughing, "Shameless."
"You know, that might really be the case," said Old Huang. "It's not like Hong Tan had never done something like that before. Back then, Bai Feng was supposed to be Chen Yong's student. But all of a sudden, he became Chen Yong's junior brother. Isn't it reasonable that Bai Feng is on guard against his own teacher?"
"Cough, cough, cough!"
Old Nie was laughing so hard he nearly choked. "Multiple character faction...truly a faction of indecent individuals. Good thing Chen Yong had eventually accepted Wu Jia. And she is a good student too. She took only a few years to enter the Top 100 Ranking..."
Suddenly, he sank into silence. Wu Jia had been seriously injured not long ago and had dropped out of the Top 100 Ranking. She wouldn't be able to get back in the ranking anytime soon. The conflicts within the academy seemed to be on the verge of getting out of control.
Old Huang was also reminded of the same thing. He said, "This Su Yu is near the Mental Tempering Stage. A few months later, he will probably be at the sixth-stage Great Strength Realm and the Mental Tempering Stage. If he can't do it this year, he can probably enter the Top 100 Ranking next year. Looks like the competition for the top 100 will get intense next year."
"Next year? I think the competition will start in a few months."
Old Nie said, "There are a few freaks this year. I checked them out not long ago. Some of them have already reached the seventh-stage Great Strength Realm.
"So fast?"
"Yeah. They're all holding back right now. Just wait and see. After a few months, some of them would enter the Infinite Strength Realm or the ninth-stage Great Strength Realm. At that time, things would start kicking off."
...
Su Yu was unaware of all that. He was still immersed in the joy of breaking through. In one day, he had reached the third-stage Great Strength Realm. Although he had exhausted a lot of resources doing so, he was still very happy with the result.
He had opened 36 acupoints. If he was cultivating the Great Strength Art like his old man, he would already be a ninth-stage Great Strength cultivator with that many acupoints. He was happy and excited.
Bai Feng was also happy for Su Yu. But at the same time, he was also feeling very nervous. Even bluffing wouldn't be enough to hide the fact that his student was better than him anymore.
This was too embarrassing! He had bluffed about staying for 3 hours and opening 12 acupoints, but this kid had turned around and slapped his face with an even better record. Fortunately, his face was thick enough to cover his lie with an even bigger lie.
In the future, doubling my achievement won't be enough. I have to increase my records by ten times the original number.
Bai Feng sighed. If it wasn't for the fact that the time he took to reach the Skysoar Realm was common knowledge, he would even bluff that he had taken only three months to do that.
Looking at the joyous Su Yu, he coughed and said, "Don't get too excited. The Great Strength Realm is merely the starting line. You're not even at the Mental Tempering Stage yet! For cultural researchers, willpower is the most important. The Great Strength and Infinite Strength Realms are merely a bridge to the next realm. The Skysoar Realm is where everything starts."
"I know, Teacher." Su Yu solemnly said, "I won't get too prideful, Teacher. I'll resume cultivation tonight! After this month, I won't have to be the class monitor anymore. I will be able to cultivate for over 12 hours per day!"
"..."
What else could Bai Feng say? He wanted to shout at his student to slack a bit. This student had just reached the third-stage Great Strength Realm today. Why was he still so disciplined? He had said everything that his teacher was supposed to tell him. What else could his teacher say, then?
Bai Feng felt no sense of accomplishment being Su Yu's teacher. Couldn't Su Yu say something like he wanted to rest a few days after the great progress today? That would give Bai Feng the chance to berate him and tell him to not get too arrogant.
Bai Feng was left with no choice but to say, "Good. But remember to maintain a good balance. Don't tire yourself too much. You need to have more confidence too. But don't get too complacent. That fellow from Great Zhou is only a year older than you and he's already on the verge of reaching the sixth-stage Skysoar Realm."
The more Bai Feng spoke, the more dismayed he was. Why did he need to use a freak from a different prefecture to keep his student grounded? Why couldn't he use himself? Was he not genius enough? This would definitely not be the case if he had accepted any other student!
Back then when Bai Feng was still a young student under Hong Tan, that old man had repeatedly used himself as an example to keep Bai Feng humble. Unfortunately, it didn't seem like Bai Feng would be able to do the same to his student.
"Sigh."
Su Yu interpreted the sigh differently and said, "Don't worry, Teacher. I'll pay you back for the blood essence today after I make some money in the future."
Bai Feng rolled his eyes. Who the hell was sighing because of the blood essence?
But he suddenly recalled something and sternly said, "Learn more languages. I'm afraid that you won't even understand the original texts you read when the time comes. Back when I first joined the academy, I had mastered 35 la-major languages! Including the minor languages, I knew 120 languages!"
Finally, Bai Feng regained some confidence in front of his student. He smiled, "You need to master more languages too. Otherwise, how are you supposed to form more Divine Characters? Are you going to only read the texts of the few languages you're proficient in? Also, the languages you know might not have suitable characters for you. Or their characters might be too weak. Do you understand what I'm trying to say?"
Bai Feng was all confident again. Back then, he had mastered 35...major languages!
Su Yu asked in astonishment, "Major languages? Is that a thing?"
"Of course." Bai Feng said, "All beasts are known as the demon race, but are they all from the same race? How about the tigers? Are all tigers from a single race? Demons, tigers, these are all major races. And under that, there are many minor divisions, and each division comes with its own minor language. But this is my personal classification. You don't have to care too much about it."
"Oh."
Su Yu nodded. Wow. That was really impressive. He only knew 20 languages before this. Recently, he had been attending all his classes and had learned 12 additional languages. However, he had not mastered them yet. It would seem like he still had a long way to go!
"But why do I keep feeling like Teacher is bluffing?"
Su Yu muttered to himself. Did his teacher really enter the academy with 120 languages? He wanted to tell his teacher that he had been in the academy for a month. He was no longer so ignorant.
He remembered that previously, an instructor had said that the highest record of mastered language was held by an instructor with 370 languages. As for the highest record among the students, it was someone who had entered the academy with 79 languages. Bai Feng was neither of those.
"Perhaps he's including his early period in the academy as well?"
Well, that was still quite impressive. Su Yu believed that his teacher loved bluffing too much, but it didn't matter. He would force himself to believe his teacher. It wasn't important anyway.
He had previously thought that his teacher didn't really care about him. But after receiving blood essence worth over 1,000 merit points from his teacher, he found his teacher to be...rather lovable.
Bai Feng might be broke, but he was still quite generous. Alas, he wasn't rich enough or he would probably be even more generous.