Chapter 217: Academy of Joy (1)
Su Yu had entered the grotto around 11 pm. At around 5 am, when the sun was starting to rise, he finally emerged from the grotto. He had spent all 60 drops of his blood essence. He had also discovered the true purpose of the Source Qi Secret Grotto.
For him, the source qi inside the grotto wasn't the most important part of the grotto. More importantly, bottlenecks did not seem to exist in the grotto. One could break through smoothly in there as long as one could open enough acupoints.
After using his blood essence and opening a new acupoint, he could directly use the next drop of blood essence without waiting. Even his willpower recovery was much faster there.
The grotto was quite a magical place. Of course, the premise for all that was the ability to constantly break through. The so-called no bottleneck was merely Su Yu's personal experience.
He had spent around six hours there and used up all his blood essence. Just like that, 600 merit points were gone. Even the War God Art willpower text was on the verge of falling apart after he studied it for an entire night and formed a Divine Character out of it. That was 300 merit points gone. To enter the grotto, he had paid 100 merit points.
After adding up his expenses, Su Yu looked up at the sky and started doubting life itself. He had spent 1,000 merit points. And that was basically a discounted price since he had bought his blood essence from the black market.
If he had bought from the official channels, he would have to spend 1,300 merit points. At the black market, that was worth 65 million dollars. That was enough money to buy an entire block in his old neighborhood in Nanyuan. No, he could probably buy two blocks there.
Before this, he had also used over 1,000 merit points' worth of resources in the grotto. In short, he had used over 3,000 merit points during his two visits. Not even a mining tycoon could afford to spend money like that.
At this rate, not even a Cloudbreach would be able to afford raising Su Yu. He would need a Mountainsea to raise him. At the thought of money, Su Yu grew dispirited.
The two old men looked at him with odd gazes. He had stayed in the grotto for six hours. They were too embarrassed to scan the kid with their willpower, but Su Yu had just ended a cultivation session and his acupoints were still overflowing with source qi. Thus, the two Cloudbreach cultivators could see that there were at least 50 or 60 tiny source qi whirlpools in Su Yu's body. That signified that he had at least 50 or 60 acupoints opened.
When Old Huang saw the kid's dispirited expression, he couldn't resist asking, "Su Yu, how's your cultivation?"
"It's okay."
Su Yu forced himself to smile. During his two visits, he had spent over 3,000 merit points to open 61 acupoints. He had reached the fifth-stage Great Strength Realm. He had basically spent around 50 merit points to open each acupoint. That was scary.
Since he still had 47 acupoints left to open, did he need to spend over 2,000 merit points for them? Who else would need to spend around 5,000 merit points just for their Great Strength cultivation? And he hadn't even taken his Divine Characters into consideration.
This was too expensive! Sure, his cultivation speed had grown, but it would be really difficult to keep supporting his current cost of cultivation. The cultivation resources that he had prepared for the following two months had all been used up in one night.
If he had a Mountainsea father, it would be fine. But he didn't have such a father. What was he supposed to do now? He still had 246 merit points remaining, but Su Yu felt like he was as poor as a beggar now.
"It was okay?"
Old Huang had the urge to slap the brat to death. It was okay? That was what the brat had to say for that much progress?
Old Huang coughed and said, "Your current condition is too obvious. Anyone can see that you have grown considerably. I'll help you cover your status. You're welcome."
His eyes lit up brightly as his willpower stretched out and wrapped around Su Yu, sealing all the leaking source qi.
Su Yu blinked his eyes, not able to react in time. But he did not forget to show his gratitude, "Thanks, Teacher."
"Don't mention it."
Old Huang smiled smugly. Wasn't he kind? He had offered to help conceal the brat's growth. And while he was at it, he could also satisfy his curiosity. He was really curious as to how many acupoints the brat had opened.
Su Yu felt somewhat uncomfortable looking at the smile on Old Huang's face. When Old Huang smiled, he looked like an old scoundrel.
Su Yu did not stay long. He did not feel that it was a bad thing to have Old Huang help conceal his growth. It wouldn't be good to have everyone know about his recent growth.
He left. Immediately after, Old Huang slammed his palm into his desk.
Boom!
"Holy shit!"
"..."
Old Nie looked at his old friend in confusion. What was that old man doing?
"61 acupoints!"
Old Huang swallowed. He really couldn't contain his shock.
"How many?"
"61 acupoints!" Still in shock, Old Huang said, "Before entering the grotto, the brat had opened no more than 40 acupoints. He had just opened 36 acupoints not long ago. Even if he can open an acupoint per day, he wouldn't have more than 40 acupoints prior to his entry. This time, he had opened more than 20 acupoints."
Boom!
Old Nie's foot kicked through the desk, but he pulled it back expressionlessly. He acted like nothing happened and said, "Not bad."
"The fuck are you pretending to be calm for?" Old Huang cursed, "You call this not bad? He opened 20 acupoints at one go! Is your son this good as well or is it your dad that's this good as well?"
"Are you cussing me out?"
Old Nie's eyes turned dangerous.
"No!" Old Huang denied. "That kid is really abnormal! He had a thick smell of blood essence on him. Did you smell that as well?"
"Yes." Old Nie couldn't be bothered to argue with Old Huang and said, "Mountainbreak bull blood essence. I think it's Infinite Strength blood essence. And the quantity is definitely not low. In truth, I sensed the blood essence the moment he arrived. That kid had arrived prepared. He is cultivating by consuming blood essence."
"A Great Strength consuming Infinite Strength blood essence?" Old Huang was shocked, "Is that possible? Can that brat's body take it? Wait, he did succeed. He had even consumed a large amount of that blood essence. Is it because of body mutation, bloodline inheritance, or a unique Divine Character?"
Old Nie shook his head. It wouldn't be easy to figure that out. Unless Su Yu told them himself, they wouldn't know for sure. The only thing they knew was that Su Yu had consumed a lot of blood essence for his cultivation. He had swallowed dozens of drops of Infinite Strength blood essence.
"Just like that, he reached the fifth-stage Great Strength Realm..." Old Huang sighed. "Fifth-stage Great Strength Realm! Can his martial technique keep up with his cultivation level?"
"It will probably be fine." Old Nie said doubtfully, "I don't know why but I sensed quite a lot of willpower texts on him as well. One of them even seems to have been written by a Mountainsea."
His voice was uncertain as he said, "It feels like a Skybreak Technique willpower text written by a Mountainsea. It feels very familiar. It should be the Skybreak Technique."
"Was it written by Hong Tan?"
"I doubt so. The aura on it is different. Hong Tan is not around anyway."
The two looked at each other. Suddenly, they recalled something. Not long ago, someone had lost a willpower text in the academy. No way. Did the willpower text end up in that brat's hands?
"This is way more complicated than we think it is."
Old Huang sighed and said nothing else. Things were really getting more and more complicated. Something the single character faction lost had appeared in Su Yu's hands. Was this a coincidence? Or was someone scheming something?