Chapter 252: Teacher Died A Horrible Death (1)
By the time Su Yu was done with everything he needed to do for the day, it was late at night. His scheme had been carried out successfully. The end result was somewhat unsatisfactory, but it had still gone smoothly. Meanwhile, the chain reactions of the fight had yet to end.
Staff Residential District.
A loud rumble rang out. Next, a figure appeared out of thin air and fell to the ground. The mask on that person's face was dyed red with blood.
"Cough, cough, cough..."
After a series of coughs, the masked man shook the mask off and said, "Stop attacking. I'm Chen Linhai. I surrender. I'll return to the Nine Heavens Cultural Research Academy immediately. I promise to not step foot here again. May I know which elder am I facing?"
"Leave the recording behind." An indistinct figure appeared in the air and said, "Also, you need to pay an entrance fee for entering the academy. Additionally, our books depository had just lost 10 Cloudbreach myriad race willpower texts. You must be the thief."
"..."
On the ground, Chen Linhai had a helpless expression. Bullshit! How would he dare to intrude upon a place as important as the books depository? They were clearly trying to blackmail some money from him.
But he had no choice. He had tried his best to escape and failed. And he had been defeated in only a few moves. Thus, he had no choice but to agree to their demands. The number one academy was truly worthy of its prestige. There were simply too many experts in it. In fact, he could consider himself lucky to be able to pay his way out of trouble after getting caught here.
"I didn't take anything..." Chen Linhai explained. He hurriedly continued, "But I deeply sympathize with your academy for losing 10 willpower texts. I am willing to donate 10 Cloudbreach willpower texts to your academy."
He would never admit to being the thief. Otherwise, this bastard might use that excuse to accuse him of an even heavier crime such as the trespass of a restricted zone. At that time, he would probably need to pay more than 10 willpower texts for freedom.
The elder in the air looked regretful that his ploy had failed. He smiled and said, "Fine. You may piss off now. Remember to deliver what you promised tomorrow. If you dare to intrude upon our academy a second time, don't even dream of leaving anymore."
"I understand."
Chen Linhai did not dare to say much. After leaving behind a jade talisman, he left hastily. The talisman contained the recording of Su Yu's production process. He had already memorized everything in it, so it didn't matter if he had to leave the talisman behind.
After the individual from the Nine Heavens Cultural Research Academy left, another person appeared in the air. With a laugh, that person said, "The person I tailed is a transformation cultivator."
"Remember to keep a close watch on him."
"Of course."
After a short conversation, a third person arrived and said, "The person I tailed is a beast tamer."
"Leave that person alone for now. Try to see if he is working alone or if he is merely carrying out the order of their faction."
One elder after another arrived. These were all the elders who had been pretending to be students. And after a while, Jia Mingzhen arrived.
"Old Jia, how's the situation on your side?"
Jia Mingzhen had a complicated look as he said, "I bore witness to a big show. By the way, I found that pretending to be a student is really helpful. It allows you to learn a lot of information that you normally wouldn't. All of you had missed out on a super show."
"What happened?"
Jia Mingzhen sighed and said, "Every single one of them is a hidden expert. Those kids are all super geniuses. Their schemes come in multiple layers. When you peel a layer off expecting the truth, you will only be faced with even more layers."
"Stop being cryptic."
Jia Mingzhen smiled bitterly and said, "In short, you can throw the talismans in your hand away. The data is fake. The single character faction has been scammed. The 80,000 merit points they spent is a complete waste of money. By the way, Zhou Mingren is really quite rich, isn’t he? That geezer spent 80,000 merit points without any hesitation. In the end, a bunch of kids benefited. Every single one of them is working hard to empty the pockets of that old bastard."
The elders grew even more curious. So they asked more questions.
Jia Mingzhen gave a short explanation of what had happened. He had a bitter smile as he said, "That was what I saw at the restaurant. I thought that's the end of it. I was still in the middle of lamenting how crafty every single one of them is until I watched an even bigger show tonight."
Earlier, he had some free time in his hands so he decided to tail Su Yu a little bit longer. And what he saw next further stunned his mind.
Holy shit!
Undercover, counter scheme, upfront extortion, threats and promises, creating new relationships, backing down when required...Every single one of those kids was overflowing with schemes and trickeries.
Even Jia Mingzhen was starting to have a hard time understanding everything he saw. He had a complicated feeling. He could only say that he was already behind the times. He had been in his high and mighty position for too long. Thus, he had neglected the youngsters below him.
Now that he was finally spending some time with them again, what he saw shocked him to his core. Was everyone from the new generation so incredible?
The other elders were completely dumbfounded by the time he finished his story.
"Old Jia...is Liu Hong really Geezer Hong's undercover?"
Jia Mingzhen smiled bitterly and said, "Truth and lies are mingled together. How am I supposed to know? According to what Liu Hong said after Su Yu left, that was a lie. But...can you be sure? That is a story crafted with a mix of truths and lies. Who can see through it? In any case, I've decided to never trust these kids easily."
The other elders nodded. All of them had complicated emotions. The youngsters were getting scarier and scarier.
"And there's also Su Yu..." Jia Mingzhen said, "That kid has both talent and wisdom. He only lacks experience, but that is normal. In truth, I never expected him to be so bold. He's not even a Skysoar yet he is already brave enough to scam Geezer Zhou's money. What a courageous kid."
The other elders had nothing to say.
Jia Mingzhen then smiled and said, "This is not a bad thing. This generation really has quite a lot of promising individuals. My friends, it is time for us to carry out our mission. These kids will be our targets. Su Yu, Zheng Yunhui, Xia Huyou, Wan Mingze...all these are the targets we need to suppress. We need to make their life difficult."
The elders nodded. They were brimming with anticipation. It was time for them to beat some people up! They would take this chance to vent some of their anger. After all, those little bastards had fooled even them!
"How are Zheng Yunhui and Su Yu? They were injured quite badly."
"Zheng Yunhui will definitely be find. Old Fart Zheng is still a peak Mountainsea. After earning so much money, Old Fart Zheng will probably go mad with joy. He is naturally willing to use some of his resources to help his grandson heal."
"As for Su Yu..." Jia Mingzhen smiled, "Don't worry about him. He has 20,000 merit points in his pockets. He has more than enough to heal up."
The elders nodded again. Jia Mingzhen said, "Come on. Let's go. We are supposed to be in seclusion. We can't show our faces in public."
They said nothing else and vanished into thin air. A short while later, a few other experts arrived at the same spot. When they checked around and recognized the aura of the elders, they left without making a ruckus.
Prefect's manor.
The chubby Marquis Xia was busy eating watermelon ravenously while Xia Xinyi reported what he had encountered during the day.
While eating, Marquis Xia said, "You're not my son. You're too stupid to be my son. That is clearly fake data. Why are you so troubled by it?"
"Father..."
Marquis Xia continued eating as he said, "Idiot. How much money did you lose this time?"
"No loss..."
Marquis Xia glared at his son and tossed the watermelon skin aside. After a burp, he said, "Idiot! No loss? We can offer 300,000 merit points. Would Zheng Yunhui sell to us or not?"
Xia Xinyi smiled helplessly and said, "But you said the data is fake..."
Marquis Xia rolled his eyes and said, "Stupid. You only need to make the offer. I'm not saying you need to pay for real. Squeeze more money out of the single character faction before looking for Zheng Yunhui to ask for a share in the profit."
"But father..."
Marquis Xia waved his hand. He couldn't be bothered to hear any explanation. He said, "It's merely a game of children. Forget it. Since you already missed the chance, let it go. It doesn't matter if the data is real or fake anyway. You wouldn't have been able to get it. Also, even if it's real and you managed to get it, that Wan guy would take it from you before you could leave the academy. At that point, you would lose both money and the product."
Marquis Xia knew that person very well. Thus, everything was probably completely under that person's control. If the product was real, it wouldn't have been allowed to leave the academy. There was no need to doubt that.
"Let's move on from this topic. Get Huyou to spend more time with that kid. How interesting. Looks like this batch is filled with interesting students."
Marquis Xia stood up and lumbered off while saying, "By the way, increase the price for the materials Su Yu had used to produce the fake blood essence. Monopolize the supply and sell them to the single character faction at an increased price. Since they are so rich, who else am I going to rip off if not them?"
But suddenly, he thought of something and changed his mind, "No, scratch that. Don't monopolize the market. Secretly monitor the market and take note of everyone buying those materials."
Marquis Xia's eyes lit up as he continued, "Pay close attention to those people. The ones buying those materials in great quantities after this are the ones who had received a copy of the list of materials. Some of them might even be present during the fight. Apart from those from the other academies, the rest are very likely to be from the Myriad Race Cult."
He grinned at Xia Xinyi and said, "Perhaps this is a good chance for us. Let's see if we can take this chance to capture some of the higher ups in the cult. After all, only those with a sufficiently high position will know about this."
Xia Xinyi also grew excited as he said, "I understand, father. You are indeed wise..."
"Scram. Do I need you to butter me up?" He said regretfully, "What a pity. If we do this, we won't be able to capitalize on this to earn a big profit. Whatever. Perhaps I can earn even more from raiding those cult research centers. Oh, this reminds me..."
Marquis Xia muttered, "Should I leak something else instead? If we leak some formulas with main materials that are already under our control, we might be able to use this as bait for a bigger fish."
His eyes became brighter and brighter.
"The Xia Family's heavenly source pill is world-famous! Should I leak the formula? With the main materials under our control, we might really be able to lure out a big fish!"
Xia Xinyi was alarmed, "Father, we can't do that..."
"Shut up!" Marquis Xia impatiently said, "I'm only talking to myself. It's not like I'll really do it. It's not necessarily a good thing to leak what we have. We will only cause others to fear us more. But some other stuff...might work just as well when leaked!"
His eyes were bright, looking like he had just discovered a new money-making strategy. Xia Xinyi said nothing and left silently. His father was scheming against others again! He wondered who the victim would be this time.
…
Su Yu was unaware of all that was happening. And he did not care. He had suffered heavy injuries from his fight with Zheng Yunhui. He even had a decent number of broken bones. Thus, he spent the night healing up. But he could only reset his bones. He would probably need some time for a full recovery. As for his willpower, that was not an issue. His willpower did not take much time to recover.
The advancement of his blood character had further increased his interest in Divine Characters. A second tier Divine Character was much stronger than a first tier Divine Character.
The illusions generated by a first tier blood character could be destroyed by Zheng Yunhui easily. But the second tier blood character could cause Zheng Yunhui to suffer heavily the moment he got careless.
"Second tier characters are strong, but they use up a lot of willpower as well. If it wasn't for my willpower's endurance, I might not be able to last that long in the fight."
From that fight, Su Yu was able to get a clear look at his own strength. He believed that despite being at the Mental Tempering Stage, his willpower was much more durable than Zheng Yunhui's.
"My cultural weapon is very strong as well. The weapon used by Zheng Yunhui would definitely not be a bad weapon, but I nearly broke his weapon..."
Then, Su Yu's gaze landed on the two merit cards in front of him. A wide smile bloomed on his face. 20,000 merit points. That was a large sum of money. This time, he had really gotten rich!
Based on his previous calculation, he needed 50 merit points per acupoint. He had already opened 66 acupoints and was 42 acupoints away from the ninth stage. Of course, the difficulty would only increase the more acupoints he opened. But he believed that he would need no more than 3,000 acupoints to open the remaining 42 acupoints.
At worst, he would enter the grotto a few more times to speed up his cultivation. He was rich enough to do so now!
"I'm rich now...I'm very rich..."
Su Yu was happy, but at the same time, he was also somewhat troubled. Should he share the wealth with his teacher? He had given his martial uncle that much. Should he still give his teacher anything? Earlier, he had already given his teacher's share to his martial uncle.
"Forget it. Teacher is still in seclusion so he won't be needing any merit points for now. I'll use his share for him..."
Su Yu nodded and convinced himself with that excuse. Based on his previous intention, he needed to share half with his teacher. Since he had earned 34,000 merit points in total, after deducting what he gave Chen Yong, he still needed to give his teacher 3,000 merit points.
But since his teacher was in seclusion, he would use the money on his teacher's behalf. They were basically family. His teacher's money was basically his money! Although this teacher didn't need the money, Su Yu still had a second poor teacher. He hesitated slightly before calling a number.