Chapter 204: Better Left Uninvestigated (2)
Wan Tiansheng interrupted them and said, "Don't waste your breath saying all that. It's pointless. I only want to know their current circumstances. Back then, an expert on the cusp of reaching the Invincible Realm, three Sunmoon experts, and seven Mountainsea experts had picked eleven young geniuses to inherit their main Divine characters."
"Liu Wenyan had been picked to inherit the Divine Character of that person. Zhao Mingyue, Hu Ping, and Xia Yunji were picked to inherit the Divine Characters of the three Sunmoon experts..."
"With the lives of 11 experts as the price, did anything come out of their choice?" Wan Tiansheng solemnly said, "Of the 11 geniuses, a few had passed away. Only 6 of them are still alive. Was their choice right?
"We have waited for so many years but there is still no answer. I am not the only person waiting. The other academies are also waiting for an answer. They should give us a clear answer. We have a few Mountainsea experts nearing the end of their lifespans. If they have an answer, they shouldn't keep it hidden from us.
"We also need to know if this method would only work for the main Divine Characters of those in the multiple character faction or if it would work for any Divine Character. Even the Knowledge Seeking Realm is seeking the answer for this."
Marquis Xia was getting impatient, "Why do you people keep asking me? How am I supposed to know the answer? Even if you can find Xia Yunji, it's pointless. He won't tell you anything. Of course, since they're still not saying anything, it can only mean that this is still not the right time to announce the result. Or maybe there is simply no result yet."
Marquis Xia muttered to himself, "It's pointless for Wan Tiansheng to ask. Even if they have an answer, they might not be willing to tell Wan Tiansheng anything. Just look at the terrible state the multiple character faction is in. He should be glad they're not looking for him for revenge."
Wan Tiansheng rolled his eyes, "How is that my fault? I have merely been doing nothing. I wasn't the one suppressing them. Hong Tan is the one who has been too useless. He is a Mountainsea expert. But apart from stubbornly pursuing his research on racial abilities, he has been doing nothing else. He has not even tried to get anything for his faction. Am I supposed to force him to take from the academy? No matter what, he is still the deputy head of the Character Faculty. What has he been doing with that position? Has he ever bothered making his presence known to the public?"
Wan Tiansheng sternly said, "I am not taking this blame. Of the 36 pavilion elders, the elders from the pill making and talisman factions support him. Including himself and a few of the old elders from back then, he has the support of at least 10 out of 36 elders. Hong Tan only has himself to blame for being too useless. You can't put the blame on me.
"As for Zhou Mingren, a few Mountainsea experts have emerged from their side. They worked hard for that. Back then, there were only four Mountainsea experts in the single character faction. Now, there are eight. Are you telling me to suppress all eight of them?"
Marquis Xia shrugged, "Don't tell me all that. I don't care. That's the internal problem of your academy. Yunji is really not around. And I have no idea where he is. Didn't you say that you have two matters? What's the second matter?"
Wan Tiansheng ignored the marquis and looked at Old Hu, "Is Hu Ping unwilling to see anyone as well?"
"You are not allowed to disturb her peace!" Old Hu warned, "If you dare to disturb her, I won't spare you!"
Wan Tiansheng was starting to feel helpless. "Why are all of you acting like this? I'm really looking for them for something important. I'm not going to do anything to them. Do you not understand my words? A lot of Mountainsea experts and even some old Sunmoon experts are approaching the end of their lifespans.
"Should they leave their Divine Characters behind as Marks of Culture or should they materialize their Divine Characters to be inherited by young geniuses and increase the overall strength of humanity? This is very important!"
Marquis Xia smiled, "I know. But in my opinion, even if this option is feasible, I still think that the choice they made 50 years ago wasn't worth it. With the talent of Liu Wenyan and the others, they could have reached the Mountainsea or even the Sunmoon Realm by now if they had cultivated normally. Was there even a need for them to inherit those Divine Characters?
"Back then, those experts were heavily injured and some were close to death. They had no choice. After witnessing the fifth principal's strength and seeing the hope of reaching the Invincible Realm, they recklessly passed their Divine Characters on with immediate death as the price.
"I personally don't have much hope for that option. The Mountainsea experts who are dying from old age today have not experienced the battle that year. They had never witnessed the magnificence of the fifth principal. They had not seen him kill an Invincible as a Sunmoon. Even if they picked the same path, the result might be completely different."
Wan Tiansheng nodded, "That is what I'm worried about as well. In that case, even if Liu Wenyan and the others could eventually reach the Invincible Realm, they would only be a special case. I still wish to find a stable path to the Sunmoon and Eternal Realms. It has been 50 years since the academy last produced a new Sunmoon expert. I don't know what's wrong. Fatty Xia..."
"Hmm?" Marquis Xia's face fell.
"Cough, cough. Marquis Xia," Wan Tiansheng corrected himself. "The academy's strength is Great Xia's strength. You still need to give us some help. We can talk about Xia Yunji next time. My second matter is related to something else. I need to borrow something from you."
"I have no money," said Marquis Xia. "No money, no resources, no blood essence, nothing. I have nothing except my life. Do you want my life?"
Wan Tiansheng blanked out slightly, but he was able to recover quickly since he was already used to Marquis Xia's antics. He said, "I want to use the Heaven Connecting Mirror once.
"I want to get a clear look. Why have we been failing to produce new Sunmoon cultivators? Is it because of the multiple character faction's decline? That shouldn't be the case right? Back then, the single character faction had produced Sunmoon cultivators as well. But now, even the single character faction has stopped producing Sunmoon cultivators. Why is this happening?"
Wan Tiansheng frowned and continued, "A few of our elders have been stuck at the ninth-stage Mountainsea Realm. In fact, something similar is happening in the other academies. Has something gone wrong?"
Wan Tiansheng had a troubled expression, "Not long ago, I gathered the data of the various prefectures and the Knowledge Seeking Realm. I found that over the past fifty years, only seven new Sunmoon cultivators have appeared. Seven. Only seven!"
Wan Tiansheng sternly said, "And of our existing Sunmoon cultivators, nine had perished for various reasons such as combat, old age, and cultivation issues. In other words, our total number of Sunmoon experts have actually dropped by two over a period of fifty years."
Marquis Xia nodded, "I'm aware of that. The number of Sunmoon cultural researchers have indeed dropped. But if we take you into consideration, then the number would change from two to one, right? So over fifty years, our total number of Sunmoon cultivators have only been reduced by one. By the way, which stage of the Sunmoon Realm are you in right now?"
Wan Tiansheng sighed, "I'm still at the Mountainsea Realm. I have been stuck for many years."
Marquis Xia was obviously not buying that, "Sure. Maybe I remembered it wrongly. If you say you're at the Mountainsea Realm, so be it. I really wonder who was the one who had stealthily killed that Sunmoon divine 36 years ago. The divines nearly declared war on us for that incident. I heard that some traces of the killer were left behind. People claimed that my father was the killer, so that old fart was feeling really wronged because he really wasn't the killer."
Marquis Xia shrugged and continued, "The killer knows the Sky Sundering Saber. Isn't that odd? My old man had not taught too many people that. Since the killer wasn’t someone from the Xia Family, then the list of potential killers is really short. Perhaps Liu Wenyan was the killer? Incredible. That fellow is strong enough to kill Sunmoon cultivators already?"
Wan Tiansheng laughed, "Maybe Great Xia King made the kill and forgot about it..."
"Yeap, yeap. Everyone acted like my father has gone senile because of his old age." Marquis Xia rolled his eyes and said, "Why are you pretending? Is there a point in pretending in front of me? Why would I care if you're already at the Sunmoon Realm?"
Marquis Xia couldn't even be bothered to expose Wan Tiansheng. He said, "Heaven Connecting Mirror...Wan Tiansheng, it's not that I don't want to let you use it. But this issue concerns not only the Great Xia alone. It concerns all cultural researchers of the human race. Would you be able to see anything at all? Maybe you would end up losing your life before seeing anything."
Wan Tiansheng sighed, "I must take a look. I can't accept this. The mirror might not be able to show me the exact future, but it can still show me some hints. I need to see if the cultural researchers of humanity are really going into decline..."
"It's not that serious." Marquis Xia comforted him, "Those old fossils of the Knowledge Seeking Realm are still around. If something that bad is really happening, they would have done something by now. Also, seeing the future is a joke. The future holds countless possibilities. Any random Invincible expert is strong enough to change the future. The mirror will only show you one of the predicted results. It's not worth losing your lifespan for something like this."
Old Hu said, "Old Wan, forget it. The Heaven Connecting Mirror is merely something formed of several Divine Characters combined. It's not some sort of heavenly treasure. It is only an analytical Divine Character and what it shows might not necessarily be accurate. If you have the time and energy, you might as well spend it killing more enemies and get some blood essence."
Wan Tiansheng smiled, "Just let me use it. I want to take a look. Even if I'm only looking at a single possibility, I can still make some plans accordingly. I also need to see the future of the Foreign Students Faculty."
"Do what you want." Marquis Xia did not try to further persuade Wan Tiansheng. He said, "It's not with me. My old man has it. I'll send someone to get it from him. I suspect they had checked the same thing with the mirror already. It would be really pointless for you to use it as well. You might even delay your own progress into the Invincible Realm."
"Hmm?" Wan Tiansheng smiled bitterly and said, "I'm only a Mountainsea cultivator. I might be stuck in this realm for life. How can I even hope to reach the Invincible Realm?"
"Whatever." Marquis Xia impatiently said, "Leave. I don't want to look at your treacherous face any longer. It's annoying to look at."
"Remember to tell me when Xia Yunji returns."
"Yeah, yeah. Leave."
Marquis Xia did not enjoy conversing with people like Wan Tiansheng as he could never know which of Wan Tiansheng's words was true and which was a lie.
...
After Wan Tiansheng left, Old Hu laughed and said, "Marquis, has he really entered the Sunmoon Realm?"
"What do you think?"
"I think it's very likely. But I'm curious. Why is he hiding his cultivation?" Old Hu frowned, "The human race isn't in such a bad position that our experts need to start hiding themselves, right? It's pointless for Principal Wan to do that. He will only lose more opportunities by hiding his real strength."
Marquis Xia said, "Who knows. Maybe he's cooking a scheme against someone. Maybe the target of his scheme is an Invincible expert. This fellow is probably still below the Invincible Realm or he would be showing his fangs already."
"Invincible? Human or one of the myriad races?"
"How am I supposed to know?" Marquis Xia impatiently said, "Think about it yourself. How can you claim to be the number one sage of Great Xia with that brain of yours? Why do you need to ask me everything? Do I look like your dad? Can't you use your own brain?"
.
"..."
Marquis Xia was lucky Old Hu couldn't kill with eyes or he would have died by now.
...
After Old Hu stomped away in anger, Marquis Xia rubbed his plump chin and muttered, "Just what are all these people doing? Who is Old Wan scheming against? He has been hiding his cultivation for so many years. He's even lying to the Knowledge Seeking Realm and the War Shrine. Is he really stuck?"
At times, even Marquis Xia couldn't help but to wonder if Principal Wan was telling the truth.
If it wasn't for some things that would only make sense if Wan Tiansheng was in the Sunmoon Realm, Marquis Xia might really believe that Wan Tiansheng was only at the Mountainsea Realm. But there was really no need for him to hide his strength.
Unless...that old fart had a massive scheme for a massive goal. And that goal was most definitely related to an Invincible expert.
Otherwise, there really wasn't any need for him to hide himself. There were still so many Invincible experts in the Knowledge Seeking Realm and the War Shrine. Even if he broke through into the Invincible Realm, the myriad races would not band together just to stop him. They had lost too much during their operation against the fifth principal back then. And Wan Tiansheng wasn't even someone who was unrivaled in the same cultivation level.
"I don't understand."
Marquis Xia decided to not think about it since it was unrelated to him. There were things that were better left uninvestigated.
Fifty years ago, Liu Wenyan and the others were expelled. Not a single surviving multiple character faction expert was spared. Who knew if they had actually reached some sort of agreement back then.
"I don't care anymore. As long as they continue producing experts for the military, they can do whatever they want."