Chapter 263: Seclusion Over (2)
Old Huang nodded, "Since he brought so much blood essence inside, his trick might be related to blood essence. Great Strength cultivators can consume blood essence to strengthen their bodies. But each cultivator can only digest a limited amount of blood essence at a time. With how much blood essence he had brought inside, he probably can absorb more blood essence than normal."
"Exactly." Old Nie had an odd look, "His mountainbreak bull blood essence absorption speed is definitely not slow. During his previous visit, he brought mountainbreak bull blood essence with him. It might be the same this time. In that case, this kid...might have the mountainbreak bull bloodline."
"..."
The look on Old Huang's face turned odd as he said, "The descendant of an expert? Bloodline transformation? Or perhaps...he descended from a mountainbreak bull?"
"..."
The two exchanged glances, the look in their eyes turning more and more odd. In this world, bloodline inheritances were a real thing.
Back then when the relationship between the myriad races were less hostile, the experts of the other races had visited the human race. And naturally, there were also human experts who had visited the various other realms.
After reaching a certain level of strength, a non-human expert could easily assume a humanoid form. If one was strong enough, one could even break the barrier between species and reproduce with a different species.
Thus, there were some unique mixed blood families existing among the myriad races. And without any exception, these families descended from powerful experts. That was only natural as without being really strong, one wouldn't be able to break the barrier between species.
"So Su Yu is actually...a little bull?"
The two looked at each other for a bit before Old Huang turned a device beside him on to check Su Yu's information. After a long while, he said, "There is nothing about bloodlines here. His father is a 100-man commander in the Devil Subduing Army. He has been retired for 18 years and returned to the army not long ago. His mother passed away during childbirth. She's only a Source Opening cultivator...
"His grandfather is an ordinary person in Nanyuan. His grandmother is the same. His maternal grandparents passed away a long time ago..."
With his authority, Old Huang continued investigating Su Yu. He said, "But his family might really have the mountainbreak bull bloodline. Just look at the picture of his father. He is so big. He's basically a bull in human form..."
Old Nie looked at the picture and nodded. In the picture, Su Long was smiling happily. He clearly had a tall and sturdy body.
"We need to trace the line of his family for over 10 generations if we really want to get a result..."
It had been hundreds of years since the era where the experts of the various races could freely visit each other. That was too long ago. Unless the family would produce signs of possessing a bloodline each generation, most bloodlines would probably stay hidden for generations.
Old Huang was very confident, "He definitely has the mountainbreak bull blood essence. I was wondering why that brat could stay inside for so long. So he actually has a bloodline. By swallowing mountainbreak bull blood essence, he provokes his bloodline and constantly strengthens his own bloodline, allowing him to open more acupoints. That's why he can keep staying inside."
Old Nie said, "So he's swallowing the blood of his ancestors?"
"..."
The two looked at each other and laughed in amusement. But soon, Old Huang solemnly said, "Even if he is a mountainbreak bull descendant, it has been so many years so his human blood probably occupies more than half the composition of his bloodline. He can be considered a human, not a mountainbreak bull."
"True. But we still need to report this and have his background cleared."
Old Nie said, "But this is only our guess. If he really is a mountainbreak bull descendant, we need to take many factors into consideration before reporting."
Old Huang thought for a bit and said, "It's really hard to say. Maybe...his bloodline is Liu Wenyan's work? That fellow has been staying in Nanyuan all this while, right? That is also possible, right?"
"Yes." Old Nie said, "That scoundrel has never been a good person. Did he perform some evil experiments on the brat's body?"
"I...doubt he would go so far?"
"You never know."
Numerous storylines started appearing in their heads. So had Liu Wenyan been performing some evil experiments in Nanyuan? Had Su Yu's body been transformed by Liu Wenyan? Su Yu was truly too abnormal. That was the only explanation for his ability to keep opening new acupoints.
Meanwhile, Su Yu was completely unaware of all that. This was his 22nd hour in the grotto. After exhausting 480 drops of blood essence, he had 106 acupoints open in total. He was basically swallowing money to grow.
There was no need to mention the value of the blood essence he had been consuming. He was starting to suspect that the amount of source qi he had absorbed could probably be used to produce over 100 drops of source qi liquid.
"Why is cultivation so expensive in the Great Strength Realm?" Su Yu complained.
He felt like at this point, even Cloudbreach cultivators would no longer be able to afford raising him. He needed a Mountainsea expert. And even a Mountainsea expert might end up crying after seeing how expensive it was to raise Su Yu.
But one also had to admit that he had gained a lot from spending all that money. He was only two acupoints away from completing his Great Strength cultivation. He wasn't too worried even though he only had 20 drops of mountainbreak bull blood essence remaining. He still had hundreds of drops of other blood essence. He would absorb all the blood essence that he couldn't use to activate a new page in his book.
As for the blood essence that could activate a new page, there was naturally nothing left for him to absorb after the activation. He had around 400 types of blood essence with him. He guessed that a large majority of them would probably end up not activating a new page.
After about half an hour, his 107th acupoint opened with a rumble. Now, he had one acupoint left. That was also the final acupoint in the Great Strength version of the War God Art. Slowly, he finished his mountainbreak bull blood essence. But the final acupoint still showed no signs of opening.
Su Yu was in no rush. After consuming the final drop, he opened his suitcase and looked over the other blood essence he had.
"Fire hog blood essence...this is probably useless..."
He swallowed the blood essence and sure enough, his body had absorbed the blood essence. In the past, he had already tried the blood essence of these weak races. With this try, it was clear that no hog had killed him over the years. Or to be precise, this garbage hog had never killed him before.
"Iron-winged bird blood essence...damn that fatty. Is he scamming me?"
Su Yu cursed. He had asked for samples of new blood essence. Why did that fatty include a type of blood essence he already had?
But he couldn't really blame Xia Huyou either since he had not given Xia Huyou a detailed explanation of what he was doing with the blood essence. He resumed his routine of consuming and absorbing blood essence to help open the new acupoint.
Time passed.
"Whitecloud leopard blood essence...useless."
"Longneck crane blood essence..."
Suddenly, Su Yu's eyes lit up.
In his mind, the golden book shook. Then, a new page was activated.
Longneck crane (Sixth-stage Great Strength Realm)
Racial ability: Sky Steering (activation with blood essence)
Foundation source art: Flight Art (activation with blood essence)
Su Yu frowned when he saw the contents of the new page. He was feeling slightly speechless. This was a useless page for him. These abilities were completely worthless.
The book might be incredible, but there were some things he couldn't change about it. For example, the iron-winged bird had more than one ability. Apart from Rip, there was also the Ironwing Slash.
Su Yu had tried using the other ability once. However...he had no wings. There was nothing he could use to slash. Sure, during the activation, a few temporary acupoints had opened on his back. But what was the point of that? Was he supposed to ram his back into his enemies? Sure, that could work. But that was also quite a useless ability.
This Sky Steering was clearly another flying ability related to wings. And Su Yu was sure that even if he activated that ability, he wouldn't be able to fly. The sole purpose of this ability was to waste his blood essence.
"Next!"
Su Yu couldn't be bothered to give this page a second look and moved on to a different blood essence. In any case, he only had one drop of each blood essence anyway. Even after activating a new page, he wouldn't be able to activate the abilities within.
10 types, 20 types...
Su Yu consumed one drop of blood essence after another in his attempt to activate more pages. He was already strong enough to consume Great Strength blood essence so he wasn't too worried. If it was in the past, he would have burst apart after consuming so much random blood essence.
Gradually, he opened more and more pages. He lost interest in most of them after a single look. That continued until a certain page activated. His eyes lit up in excitement.
Soul devouring bug (Ninth-stage Great Strength Realm)
Racial ability: Soul Devouring (activation with blood essence)
Foundation source art: Soul Devouring Art (activation with blood essence)
"Soul devouring bug!"
He had learned about this bug during one of his classes. This wasn't a particularly powerful race, but these bugs were extremely annoying to deal with. That was especially true when they appeared in large groups. They were capable of spraying a certain liquid out of their bodies.
And they were capable of corroding the willpower of cultural researchers.
They were not that bad in small numbers as they were weak individually. But if a large enough number of them gathered, even Cloudbreach or Mountainsea experts might end up dying in their hands. These bugs were basically specialist cultural research killers.
In the Allheaven Battlefield, these bugs would die in swathes when encountering warriors. But when encountering cultural researchers with weak physical bodies, these bugs only needed to spit at that cultivator to instantly corrode the cultivator's willpower, reducing that cultivator into bug food.
"Soul Devouring..."
Su Yu muttered curiously. With this ability, was he supposed to spit on his opponents to corrode their willpower?
"Isn't this a tad bit too disgusting?"
But if he was really in a moment of life or death, nothing mattered. In fact, it would be great if all he needed to do was to spit as his opponent to corrode their willpower.
"Foundation source art, Soul Devouring Art..."
Su Yu's eyes flickered. He considered something. Since the human race had their Myriad Text Sutra for willpower cultivation, how about the myriad races? They definitely had similar cultivation methods as well.
He had simply never encountered one so far. And he had been too narrow-minded as well. He had always taken it for granted that he would only start using willpower cultivation methods after reaching the Skysoar Realm. But he shouldn't forget that he had his book with him.
As long as he could find a race that could actively cultivate willpower at the Great Strength Realm and obtain their foundation art, wouldn't he be able to actively cultivate his willpower before the Skysoar Realm as well?
"Is the Soul Devouring Art a willpower cultivation method?"
He couldn't help but to wonder. These bugs specialized in countering willpower. In that case, was their foundation art a willpower cultivation method? If that was the case, wouldn't he be able to actively cultivate his willpower by only using some blood essence? Right now, he could only rely on willpower clashes to passively grow his willpower.
"This one page is like a brand new world of countless possibilities!"
Su Yu's eyes became brighter and brighter. Although there were very few races capable of cultivating willpower at a low cultivation level, it wasn't like they didn't exist. He needed to look into this after leaving the grotto.
Each time he thought of the 99 Divine Characters he needed to form, he would feel greatly troubled. After all, even if he was capable of forming so many characters, could his willpower withstand the burden?
But he seemed to have stumbled upon a solution for that issue. Alas, he did not have any extra soul devouring bug blood essence on him. Otherwise, he would have tried it immediately.
Su Yu stopped thinking and continued consuming blood essence. Most of the blood essence didn't work. Some worked, but a lot of the new pages only contained some useless abilities. Only a few seemed useful enough for him, but unfortunately, he didn't have enough blood essence to try them out.