Chapter 179: So Lucky (3)
After a while, Su Yu found Xia Huyou.
When Xia Huyou heard the question, he said, "You don't know that? That's War God Art's complementary martial technique."
"Complementary martial technique?" Su Yu blanked out slightly before asking, "Is the Skybreak Technique good?"
.
Xia Huyou was rendered speechless by Su Yu's ignorance. He said, "A martial technique relies on the practitioner. How do you judge if it's really good or not? But that reminds me of something. Not long ago, the black market was raided and someone lost a Skybreak Technique willpower text. Tsk tsk..."
Xia Huyou grinned and continued, "I heard it was written by a senior researcher from the Nine Heavens Cultural Research Academy. It was supposed to be sold to one of this year's freaks. Its price on the black market has reached 1,500 merit points. In the end, the black market was raided and the seller escaped. While escaping, the seller lost the text. Nobody knows where it is and everyone has been looking for it recently. Even the academy is looking for it. That's quite a funny story."
"..."
Su Yu was dumbfounded.
"Personally written by a Mountainsea expert?"
"Yeah." Xia Huyou clicked his tongue and said, "Most of the willpower texts sold by the academies are the works of Skysoar or Cloudbreach cultivators. Very few of them are written by Mountainsea experts. The demand for Mountainsea willpower texts is much higher than the supply. The moment one appears, even those in the Cloudbreach Realm might try to buy it. After all, they could comprehend different things from a willpower text of a different realm.
"I don't know why that senior researcher suddenly decided to write a willpower text. The text was booked by someone and was smuggled into our academy. In the end, hehehe...the entire black market was raided..."
"So where's the text?"
Xia Huyou rolled his eyes, "How am I supposed to know? If I knew, I would have gone looking for it myself. The academy is so big and the guards are very strict. Who knows where the text is right now?"
"So it's still missing?"
Xia Huyou said, "Yeah. But don't even think about it. If you find a text, you won't even know if it's a legitimate copy. I suspect the smuggler stole the text and lied about losing it. It's something from the black market anyway. If someone stole it and used it secretly, nobody would know."
Su Yu blinked his eyes as he thought about it. Liu Hong...claimed that the text was in the library earlier. Was that true? How did Liu Hong know about that?
Su Yu asked, "Who's the black market seller?"
"Why do you ask? Are you trying to get connected to that seller?"
"I'm just asking."
Xia Huyou looked at Su Yu suspiciously and said, "Have you heard some rumors and are very happy about it right now? So you're already aware that the text was lost by Liu Hong's people?"
"..."
Sure enough! Su Yu had been wondering about the source of Liu Hong's information. So it was his own people that had lost the text.
"So that fellow knows the location but has yet to find the text?"
So it was in the library and not the books depository? The library only housed the more ordinary books and some damaged willpower texts. In other words, that text might still be in the library right now.
As for Liu Hong's words, he was basically whispering toward the end. If Su Yu hadn't been paying close attention, he would have missed those words. So had Liu Hong intentionally leaked this information to him?
"Library..."
Su Yu's eyes lit up. That was a willpower text worth 1,500 merit points! And if he found it, he could even save the 200 merit points he was going to spend on buying a regular copy of the martial technique!
But did that text cover only the Great Strength version? What if it covered the Infinite Strength version or even the Skysoar version? At the thought of that, Su Yu had the urge to drop everything and went to the library.
But when he saw Xia Huyou's suspicious gaze, he calmed down and smiled, "I see. No wonder my teacher was talking about Liu Hong having bad luck recently. I'm very happy to hear that. Alright. Bye."
Su Yu then left with a calm expression. Meanwhile, Xia Huyou gazed at Su Yu's departing back and scratched his head, "Is this fellow aware of something nobody knows? Perhaps...he knows where the text is?"
That shouldn't be the case, right? How could this fellow be so lucky? Xia Huyou refused to believe that. After all, he was the one who had told Su Yu about the lost text in the first place.
…
"Library..."
Su Yu could not get the matter concerning the willpower text out of his mind. Nothing else mattered for now. It didn't matter if Liu Hong looked down on him. The only thing that mattered was that a Skybreak Technique willpower text written by a Mountainsea expert was lost in the library. It was a willpower text worth 1,500 merit points.
"Liu Hong must still be looking for it..."
Su Yu was excited, but he quickly calmed down. Even though he knew the general location of the lost text, it didn't mean that he would be able to find it. After all, even Liu Hong, who was aware of the location, couldn't find it.
"Has someone else found it? Or maybe the person that had lost it remembered the wrong place? Or maybe it was a piece of fake information to mislead Liu Hong?"
Numerous possibilities rose in Su Yu's mind. He didn't even have the mood to focus on his classes anymore. Late in the afternoon when all the classes were finally over, Su Yu roamed around the academy in a random route before entering the library.
...
Unlike the books depository, the library was not a place filled with willpower texts. In the library, ordinary books and scrapped willpower texts could be found. Those scrapped willpower texts were kept in a room that functioned similarly to the fragment room in the research center. To enter the room, one would need to pay.
The library of the Great Xia Cultural Research Academy was massive. It was a building with six floors. The first three floors only housed some regular books and could be accessed via student cards. The remaining floors could only be entered after paying the required fee.
This was Su Yu's first visit to the academy library. And the moment he arrived, he was stunned. The library was too big. How was he supposed to find a single missing text in a place so big? There were some bookshelves on the first floor, but most of the space was occupied by tables and chairs. The second and third floors were the actual places housing the majority of the books.
"Books related to humans can be found on the second floor while books related to the myriad races can be found on the third floor. The languages used on these floors are different. The seller must have run off during the black market raid and found a random place to hide the book."
That was Su Yu's guess. But the library had too many books. Thus, they weren't able to find the book after returning.
"Since the text was written by a researcher from the Nine Heavens Cultural Research Academy, it must have been written in the human language. It would be too obvious on the third floor. Therefore, the second floor would be the better hiding place..."
After asking around, Su Yu learned that there were 3,300 bookshelves on the second floor and nearly a million books there. Each shelf housed around 300 books. In fact, the Great Xia Cultural Research Academy's library was among the largest libraries in the Human Realm. A lot of rare and classic books could be found in it.
"How am I supposed to find it from 3,300 bookshelves?"
Su Yu was shocked to hear that number. No wonder Liu Hong and his people couldn't find the text. If the text had been hidden in a hurry, they would not be able to find it easily without first marking the text.
And since they had to also keep a low profile while searching, the search became even more difficult. Su Yu was even more shocked when he arrived at the second floor. It was massive. Row upon row of bookshelves could be seen before him.
At the moment, there were quite a lot of people on the second floor. But they were spread all over the massive space so it was still quite quiet. This was indeed a place where one could easily lose track of something one hid without proper markers.
"Liu Hong's people are probably here searching for it right now!"
Su Yu kept his head low and started looking around. He was getting so suspicious that every single person on the floor looked like Liu Hong's agent in his eyes.
"A willpower text is still different from a regular book. This would be much easier if I can search with my willpower..."
But there were a lot of people here. Using his willpower here would only attract more attention. And probing others with willpower was considered a type of provocation among cultivators.
"How am I supposed to find it?"
Su Yu sank into despair. This place was too big and there were too many books here. Was he supposed to flip through the books one by one?