Chapter 262: Seclusion Over (1)
Infinite Strength zone.
16 hours had been spent and 370 drops of blood essence had been consumed by Su Yu to open 32 acupoints. All in all, he had opened a total of 98 War God Art acupoints thus far.
He was only 10 acupoints away from 108 acupoints.
But the more acupoints he opened, the higher the rate of his blood essence consumption became. At first, he only needed two drops of blood essence to open an acupoint. But now, he required around seven to eight drops to open one.
Eighth-stage Great Strength Realm.
The two old men believed that he had reached the seventh stage, but he had actually reached the eighth stage. After the other student left, he finally took his jacket off his face with relief.
"I need 10 more acupoints to reach the ninth stage. And I still have 130 drops of blood essence." Su Yu exhaled. This should probably be enough for him.
He had thought that the 500 drops of blood essence would be enough for him to open all the War God Art acupoints and some extra acupoints for his other techniques such as the Lightning Source Blade.
But that did not seem too likely anymore. The remaining 130 drops were probably only enough to open the War God Art acupoints. As for the War God Art written by Bai Feng, it was completely ruined by now. Not a single bit of willpower remained in it.
As for the Skybreak Technique, the first half of the book had also dimmed significantly. He could feel the willpower of the book draining rapidly. If this continued, even this book would fall apart before long.
"Source Break!"
With great difficulty, Su Yu had grasped the third move as well. The 48 acupoints required by the move happened to overlap with the acupoints he already opened.
Following the guidance of the book, he tried linking the 48 acupoints. The acupoints in his body started flickering. At that moment, he discovered something that might help him stay longer in the grotto.
He could practice powerful martial techniques in the grotto. That way, he would exhaust the source qi in his body, ensuring that acupoints wouldn't reach source qi saturation too early.
He suddenly realized that there were too many things he could do in this grotto. Perhaps there were even more functions waiting for him to discover. For example, this grotto allowed him to practice his techniques at a higher intensity than before.
"Source Break!"
Taking advantage of the fact that the grotto was currently empty, Su Yu started practicing the third move of the Skybreak Technique. It didn't matter that he didn't have his saber with him. He could still practice with his cultural weapon.
The cultural weapon appeared and enlarged into the size of a normal weapon before shooting forward. Instead of hacking, it was stabbing. The third move focused on breaking through the opponent's defense from a single point.
As he practiced, a small source qi tornado formed above him. And when he launched his attack, the tornado dispersed with a boom.
Su Yu shook his head. He had used too much source qi for that move. And it was too loud. He couldn't replicate what Bai Feng did.
Back then when Bai Feng killed the cultist, he had easily killed the enemy without making a sound. The enemy didn't even have the chance to move before his acupoint burst apart, resulting in a helpless death.
"Teacher's mastery over the third move is very high. Coupled with his powerful willpower and Divine Characters, he was able to instantly kill a fourth-stage Skysoar."
Sure, Bai Feng's cultivation had played a part in that, but there was no denying that he had a high mastery over the technique as well.
Just using the move once had drained half the source qi in Su Yu ‘s body. He smiled as with this, he would be able to stay even longer in the grotto.
"This is actually an excellent place for martial technique cultivation. Why does nobody practice their martial technique here?" Su Yu muttered to himself.
Everyone he saw here was focused on opening acupoints. Why was nobody practicing martial techniques? He had completely neglected the fact that entering the Infinite Strength zone would require 200 merit points.
How many people would be willing to spend 200 merit points just to practice their martial techniques? They only needed to spend more time if they were to cultivate outside the grotto.
Generally, most people would only visit the grotto for breakthroughs. Very few would be extravagant enough to visit the grotto frequently. Of course, there were also some people who had practiced their martial techniques in the grotto after finishing their breakthrough. But Su Yu had yet to encounter such people.
He tossed all those thoughts out of his mind and continued opening acupoints. He aimed to open all 108 of the acupoints today.
"The Infinite Strength Realm comes after the Great Strength Realm. I still need to buy the Infinite Strength version of the War God Art. This damn academy is too greedy!"
Su Yu cursed.
The version he had been studying was only the Great Strength version.
"For the Great Strength Realm, I need to open acupoints. What about the Infinite Strength Realm?"
He was starting to get curious. As his growth had been too fast, he had not gotten the chance to learn more about the higher cultivation levels. He had only heard that at the Infinite Strength Realm, there would be a new focus instead of opening acupoints.
Thus, a lot of martial techniques would only utilize the acupoints opened during the Great Strength Realm. In that case, what was the focus of the Infinite Strength Realm?
"Well, it would still be related to the physical body."
Su Yu wasn't too worried. Based on what he read before, warriors mostly focused on strengthening their physical bodies. Even acupoint opening was for the sake of strengthening their bodies and increasing the amount of source qi they had. The Infinite Strength Realm would probably not deviate from that path either.
Nevertheless, he still needed to start learning more about the Infinite Strength Realm, so he decided to do so after this cultivation session. He would also need to spend more money to buy the corresponding cultivation method for the Infinite Strength Realm.
"I should be able to open more acupoints at the Infinite Strength Realm, right?"
That should be the case. Otherwise, wouldn't some cultivators be forever blocked from some martial techniques requiring acupoints they didn't have?
"Infinite Strength cultivators can probably still open acupoints, but the way their levels are measured is probably different from how you measure Great Strength cultivators."
While cultivating, Su Yu continued thinking about the Infinite Strength Realm.
His growth had been surprisingly fast, but he decided to not rush into the Infinite Strength Realm anytime soon. It was never a good idea to rashly advance before getting used to the strength of his newly opened acupoints.
While thinking, he did not forget to keep consuming blood essence for his cultivation.
One drop, two drops...
Suddenly, a newcomer entered the grotto. Su Yu immediately covered his face again and walked away.
But before he could go far, the newcomer shouted, "Fellow student, Old Huang and Old Nie have a message for you."
"What?"
"They asked if you're hungry. If you're hungry, they will get the next student to bring you some food. They also asked if you want a bed as well. You can take a nap inside the grotto if you want."
"..."
Su Yu was stunned.
The newcomer was rather amused. He asked, "Fellow student, are you their student or grandson? How long have you been here? They are even offering to prepare a meal for you..."
When he first heard the request, he was completely stupefied.
Bringing a meal inside?
Bringing a bed inside?
They were so creative!
Also, just how long had this fellow stayed in the grotto?
Su Yu awkwardly said, "No thanks. I'm not hungry."
What were those two thinking? They were offering him food and bed? That was kind of them but he was too embarrassed to accept the offer.
The newcomer smiled and said nothing else. He knew that the two old men might only be joking, but he was also quite curious. The two old men were clearly expecting him to actually leave the grotto before this fellow.
"But I have just entered. How can I leave first if this fellow has been here for a while?"
After separating from Su Yu, the newcomer sat down cross-legged and started cultivating. He also wondered how much longer that mysterious student could stay in the grotto. He could feel intense source qi undulations ahead of him.
From the undulations, the newcomer concluded that the mysterious student was probably an early-stage Infinite Strength cultivator. Would someone like that be able to last longer than him? That was impossible.
Thus, he tossed Su Yu out of his mind and turned his focus to his own cultivation.
One hour. Two hours...
When his acupoints were saturated with source qi and his physical body had been strengthened to his satisfaction, he opened his eyes with an odd look on his face. Damn it. Why was that fellow still absorbing source qi?
Was he not full yet? Was he a bottomless pit? Was he not afraid of bursting apart from absorbing too much source qi?
He shook his head and decided to ignore Su Yu. For him, balance was important in cultivation. Since he had already achieved his goal for this visit, he decided to leave even though he had yet to reach his absolute limit.
"Fellow student, I'll be leaving first. Do you have a message for the two teachers?"
Su Yu shouted back, "I'll be leaving soon as well. Thank the two teachers for me."
The other student said nothing else and left the grotto.
Inside the small room.
Old Huang was starving. He weakly said, "It has been one day and one night since I last ate. Should we get some food?"
Old Nie did not answer. He sat there with a dark expression.
He wanted to keep waiting. He refused to eat before that kid left. He wouldn't starve to death anyway. As a Cloudbreach, he could survive without food for more than a month.
"How long has he been inside?"
"21 hours, I think?"
Old Huang was unsure. But he couldn't help but be impressed by Su Yu.
Previously, they had jokingly said that as long as Su Yu couldn't stay inside the grotto for 24 hours, then the kid would be garbage. He was starting to wonder if the kid had overheard those words and was deliberately doing this?
With a dark expression, Old Nie said, "I have decided to propose to the academy that we should charge the visitors based on the time spent inside instead of per visit."
"..."
Old Huang laughed and said, "If you do that, you will offend a lot of geniuses."
After all, the more of a genius one was, the longer one could stay in the grotto. A lot of people probably wouldn't mind being charged based on their time inside, but the geniuses would probably all go crazy.
Old Huang switched the topic and said, "I am getting really curious. Just how many acupoints will he open this time?"
"At least 20." With a look of amazement in his eyes, he said, "At least that much. Otherwise, he wouldn't have been able to stay inside for so long. Even if he practices martial techniques inside, the exhaustion speed is still slower than the absorption speed, so that alone isn't enough to keep him inside for so long. Thus, the only way he can stay for so long is by opening more and more acupoints, extending the limit of his source qi saturation."
After all, a large amount of source qi was required to open a new acupoint. And even more source qi was required to fill the newly opened acupoint.
Only by constantly repeating that process would Su Yu be able to stay until now.
"That many?" Old Huang was astonished, "He had already opened 66 before this. If he really manages to open 20 this time, he would have 86 acupoints. That makes him at least a seventh-stage Great Strength cultivator. He might even be at the eighth stage already."
Old Nie nodded. He was certain his guess was right.
Old Huang thought for a bit and said, "Generally, the Source Qi Secret Grotto is a suitable place for acupoint opening. But there is still a limit to that. You need time to both locate and open each new acupoint. At times, your other acupoints might already reach saturation before you can open the new acupoint. Just how is he maintaining such a fast speed of acupoint opening?"
That was one thing he couldn't understand. This made no sense. He had seen a lot of geniuses before, but even by the standards of geniuses, Su Yu was abnormal.
"Didn't you hear that he's already in the Infinite Strength zone? And a high absorption speed will either come from a Divine Character or a bloodline. Or maybe it's a secret technique..." Old Nie said, "There might be secret techniques capable of opening temporary acupoints to absorb more source qi.
"Or maybe he has a unique bloodline that can allow him to absorb source qi through his pores as well. Or it could be a unique Divine Character that can strengthen his flesh or hasten his acupoint opening..."
Old Nie proceeded to give a long list of possibilities.