Chapter 227: Great Intelligence May Appear As Stupidity (2)
Su Yu left.
The door shut with a loud rumble.
After a while, the shadow said, "This little fellow is very cautious. If we don't offer him something good, it will be very hard to move him."
"I really have nothing left. Do any of you still have anything good? At this point, you're basically waiting for death. You might as well take your treasure out and make a gamble. We need to let him enjoy the benefits of working with us first."
He looked at the water elemental and said, "Water, don't you want to escape?"
The puddle of water in one of the cages slowly took a humanoid form. The water elemental softly said, "I do, but you guys are too impatient. Also, you guys are also too on guard against each other. How can you succeed?
"This little fellow is still very inexperienced. This is our only chance. Perhaps by the time this place welcomes the next newcomer, all of us would have been reduced to piles of bones already. Furthermore, when this kid matures after a few years, he will no longer fall for our lies anymore."
The shadow said, "You mean..."
"Give him some actual benefits. Of course, we can't do it now. We need to wait for good timing to give him some proper benefits. Just wait.
"Wait until he is in a bad mood. Wait when he is feeling dispirited. Wait until his moment of need. Not now. He gives off the feeling of someone who doesn't lack anything for now. He is too cautious toward us. Hadn't he said that he has a seventh-stage Great Strength rival? Just wait. This is a good chance. Let his hatred consume him. When his desire for strength grows to the peak, our chance will come."
After a while, the shadow said, "Then we wait. Wait until he badly needs strength. At that time, I hope that everyone will stop holding back. This might be our very last chance."
The golden lion impatiently said, "Are we going to wait longer? Fine, fine. The next time the kid visits, I'll teach him a heaven-grade martial technique. All of you better take out something good as well."
"Heaven-grade martial technique?" The others were surprised.
The suanni snorted, "A human technique. I used to be a top genius too. Seventeen years ago, I went to the Luminous Domain Mansion and killed a human genius there. The human came from the War Shrine and I obtained a human heaven-grade martial technique from him."
"You went to the Luminous Domain Mansion before?" The shadow was surprised.
The suanni coldly said, "What's so surprising about that? The suanni race is also a top 100 race. Of course we can enter that place."
The shadow replied, "The suanni race is naturally qualified. But 17 years ago, your strength..."
"I was an eighth-stage Skysoar. Is that weak?" The suanni was furious, "I was supposed to be able to enter the Cloudbreach Realm a few years after that. But 15 years ago, I met a monster called Hong Tan."
Less than two years after he left the Luminous Domain Mansion, he was captured by Hong Tan. Otherwise, he would have reached the Cloudbreach Realm already. The shadow said nothing else.
Eighth-stage Skysoar Realm wasn't too high a cultivation level, but the suanni race did not have a lot of members. Because of that, it wasn't surprising that this suanni was given an opportunity to enter the mansion. But this suanni was truly unlucky to be caught not long after.
None of them further mentioned the Luminous Domain Mansion. That was a place where the geniuses of the myriad races reigned. It wasn't surprising for someone to obtain a heaven-grade martial technique after killing a human genius there. That might be a willpower text as well since people wouldn't normally bother with taking regular books with them when traveling.
As for willpower texts, some people would carry them when leaving for long journeys so that they could cultivate while traveling. In fact, that was also how the human race had obtained many of the myriad race willpower texts in their possession.
After all, most people would only feel safe keeping their willpower texts on them. And that also made it easier for them to cultivate while on the move.
...
"I still need 11 acupoints to reach the sixth-stage. I also need to increase my willpower. As for the Skybreak Technique, I can now learn the second move. I need to take some time to learn it. I wonder if I can form more Divine Characters out of this willpower text...
"I should study the Lightning Source Blade a few more times too. The willpower text is on the verge of falling apart. The final moves have no willpower left in them."
Su Yu felt really helpless.
The Lightning Source Blade might not be a high-grade technique, but that was the first willpower text he had received from his Teacher Liu. Also, the Lightning Source Blade only required 40 acupoints. He was capable of opening a few more of those acupoints.
If he could open those acupoints, he would be able to use the ninth move. That move could be stronger than the Skybreak Technique's third move. The 40 required acupoints included the Source Opening acupoints as well, so he only needed 31 more acupoints.
He had already opened a decent number of them previously. And some overlapped with the War God Art's acupoints. After looking over the technique, he found that if he could reach the sixth-stage Great Strength Realm, he would only need 12 more acupoints to complete the Lightning Source Blade. At the seventh-stage, that number would drop to 8.
"After reaching the seventh-stage, I only need to open 8 more acupoints to cultivate the complete Lightning Source Blade. The ninth move is probably as powerful as the attack of an Infinite Strength cultivator."
At the thought of that, Su Yu grew agitated. He had no money left to cultivate! He couldn't afford to buy more blood essence. He also couldn't afford to enter the grotto any more. That night, Su Yu continued his bitter cultivation. Since he couldn't enter the grotto, then he just had to work hard in the filter room.
He intended to buy some iron-winged bird blood essence with his remaining 246 merit points. That was still the cheaper option. He would stick with it for now. At the price of 3 merit points per drop, he could get 82 drops of them. At worst, he would only need to use more blood essence per day to make up for the speed.
Late at night, a battered Su Yu finally returned to the living area. Looking at the filthy living area, he could only helplessly clean up. He was starting to miss Chen Hao. He wondered how that fellow was doing in the Martial Dragon War Academy.
"Has he reached the seventh-stage Source Opening Realm?"
It had been a month since the new semester started.
...
Martial Dragon War Academy.
Late at night, Chen Hao was busy doing housework. After cleaning the house, he brewed a fresh pot of tea before moving on to do the laundry. He wasn't cleaning his own room. He was cleaning a teacher's residence.
Inside his room, Old Xie couldn't take it anymore. He walked out and scolded, "Chen Hao, scram! Who told you to come again?"
"Teacher!"
Chen Hao smiled, "Yu said before that a small favor received should be repaid many times over! Teacher gave me a good saber before I joined the academy. I need to repay that debt! Yu said that I don't have any other talents but I'm very good at cleaning..."
"Are you acting stupid or are you really stupid?" This was giving Old Xie a headache. He said, "I'm not accepting students. I am only a Skysoar. I have no time to teach students. Like I said, I am only in charge of recruiting new students but not teaching new students."
"It's fine, teacher." Chen Hao had a silly smile as he said, "It doesn't matter. I have nothing to do at night anyway..."
Old Xie wanted to curse. Chen Hao was free, but he needed to cultivate! Holy shit! How did he catch the attention of this silly kid? There were so many experts in the academy. Why couldn't he go bother those people instead? Old Xie could no longer be bothered to say anything. He slammed his door shut and started cultivating.
After Chen Hao was done with cleaning the house, he grinned and walked out of the living room and shut the door behind him. He then sat down cross-legged in front of the door and started cultivating.
"Yu! I have discovered a good opportunity! There are a lot of Skysoar and Cloudbreach cultivators here! When they cultivate, source qi will be stimulated and gather around them. This is great!
"It is really pitiful to cultivate at the dorms. But here...hehehe, I can absorb a drop of source qi liquid's worth of source qi after an entire night. The other students are so dumb! I'm a genius to think of this method of insisting to stay and clean the place for Old Xie. He thought I wanted to be his student? Heh, dream on. There are so many Skysoars around here. Nobody cares about him! I'm only here to cultivate!"
"Yu is right. I need to create opportunities for myself. By cleaning here, the teacher will feel embarrassed to chase me away. Cultivating here is even better than staying in the special zone. I can save hundreds of merit points per year cultivating here!
"I'm only at the sixth-stage Source Opening Realm when joining the academy. Now...hehehe..."
Chen Hao was overjoyed. He was catching up with Yu. It was a pity Yu wasn't around. Otherwise, he would be able to tell Yu that there were a lot of fools here. These fools would willingly gather source qi for him to cultivate on a daily basis. This was incredible.
"And it has only been about a month. If I cultivate for one or two more months, I might be able to reach the ninth-stage. One month would probably be enough. Yu...after this semester, I might be able to reach the Great Strength Realm!"
He had joined as a sixth-stage Source Opening cultivator. That was definitely not a bad cultivation level, but that also wasn't good enough to put him at the top. Only those at the seventh-stage and above would be picked by the teachers as personal students.
And Chen Hao did not have such a cultivation level. Fortunately, he had latched onto Old Xie. It didn't matter if he had the support of merit points. He could cultivate for free at Old Xie's place.
He only needed to clean the place as the price, but he was already used to doing that. He only needed to spend about an hour per day for that. And cleaning this place wasn't even as tiring as cleaning Yu's place. He was very good at cleaning!
Not long after joining the academy, he had discovered this secret holy land of cultivation. Thus, he used the excuse of repaying Old Xie's favor to visit everyday. He didn't even feel like returning to his dormitory anymore. It was too barren there!
As for the lack of bed here, that did not matter. He found sleeping outside to be quite comfortable as well!
Chen Hao happily cultivated and absorbed the ambient source qi around him. At the eighth-stage Source Opening Realm, he was now able to actively absorb source qi, so his cultivation speed was quite fast.
...
Inside a room.
Old Xie opened his eyes, not knowing whether to laugh or cry. That kid was waiting outside again.
"Is this an example of great intelligence that appears as stupidity?"
Old Xie couldn't help but to wonder about that. Chen Hao looked simple and honest, but that kid could also be extremely astute at times.
He had picked the Teacher's District as his place of cultivation.
What a genius!
In truth, most of these new students were very fearful of the teachers. And this was a district only those at the Skysoar Realm and above could reside in. Even geniuses was not willing to have too much interaction with these teachers at this point in time.
As for Chen Hao, he was fearless. He even came up with the idea of cleaning the place before...settling down in the district as well! What a shrewd kid!
Here, Chen Hao had spent only about a month to advance from the sixth-stage to the eighth-stage, overtaking the other students in terms of cultivation speed. And he had at least saved about 20 or 30 drops of source qi liquid by cultivating here. That was worth over 100 merit points. Very few new students could take out that much resources.
Chen Hao had surpassed the other students by gaining something that was equal in value to all that before any of the other new students. And this was a great example of how the world of cultivation worked. At times, opportunities were available for everyone, but only those who could grab them would obtain them.
"Eighth-stage..."
Old Xie hesitated. Should he take Chen Hao as a student?
"But...I'm only a sixth-stage Skysoar. I only have an ordinary background. I don't have additional merit points to raise a student. I will only slow him down...If this kid can quickly enters the Great Strength Realm, he might even catch the eye of a Cloudbreach cultivator."
The Martial Dragon War Academy had recruited 2,000 new students this year. Only 500 of them had reached the Great Strength Realm so far.
Chen Hao had joined the academy as a sixth-stage Source Opening cultivator. If he could quickly enter the Great Strength Realm, a stronger cultivator would definitely be willing to take him as a personal student.
"Stinky brat...how dare you use this trick on me..."
Old Xie laughed as some of the gathered ambient source qi outside dispersed. That silly kid...just how much source qi did he think he could absorb when he was in such close vicinity with a Skysoar?
As a Skysoar, if Old Xie's control over source qi he had gathered was so bad that a brat could absorb a large portion of it, he might as well give up on cultivating. Then again, the ambient source qi of this place was indeed denser than some other places, so this kid had still made a correct choice.
"This kid has been mentioning Yu all the time. I wonder how Su Yu is doing in the cultural research academy. What a pity. I heard he joined the multiple character faction."
Old Xie shook his head. In the cultural research academy, one could reach for the heavens in a single bound if one did well. And if one did badly, one would be worthless.