Chapter 264: Seclusion Over (3)
After a few hours, Su Yu finally consumed all the blood essence to activate 38 new pages. Including the mountainbreak bull and iron-winged bird pages, he had opened 40 pages in total.
"This is too little..."
Su Yu frowned. He had been killed in his dreams for so many years. Why weren't there more pages?
But when he recalled the races these blood essence came from, he could only shake his head helplessly. Most of these races were common races and only a few were from the races that were relatively rare to see. And most of the activated pages had also been activated by the blood essence of these rarely seen races.
"In that case, I might have never dreamed of these common races after all. So I might continue dreaming in the future until all these races are assembled?"
Su Yu was somewhat speechless. In that case, how many years longer would he need to be tortured by these nightmares? Then again, it really wasn't that important since these were all weak races anyway. He did not mind missing out on their abilities.
The 40 pages provided him with 40 different foundation arts and even more abilities as some races came with multiple racial abilities.
Since these blood essence samples were all in the Great Strength Realm, they weren't as powerful. Thus, he was only able to barely open his final acupoint after swallowing all of them. And he could clearly feel the source qi in his body reaching saturation.
Both his acupoints and physical body were already saturated with source qi. Furthermore, since he had consumed so many random types of blood essence, he could sense the source qi in his body becoming filled with impurities.
"So I am not supposed to randomly swallow blood essence. But it doesn't matter..."
He smiled. One of his activated pages came from a race known as the clearbright bird. These birds weren't strong, but they were symbols of purity as they possessed the ability to cleanse filth and impurities.
Their foundation source art was known as the Pure Source Art. Su Yu guessed that this cultivation method could be used to purify source qi. Thus, he wasn't too worried despite the impure source qi he had. He only needed to use some clearbright bird blood essence to cleanse his source qi.
He had finally reached his limit in the grotto. And he had used up all his blood essence. This had been an expensive cultivation session. But he was also very satisfied with the result. He had reached the ninth-stage Great Strength Realm and activated 38 new pages.
His current physical combat strength was similar to that of a normal War God Art cultivator. He was still not proficient enough in his martial techniques while his source qi was really not stronger than other cultivators at the same level. Only his physical body was slightly stronger, but the effect of that wasn't too pronounced.
It was very hard for him to stand out among the various geniuses. But he wasn't too bothered. During this cultivation session, he had built a base for his cultivation and brought it to a sufficient level. What he needed to do next was to keep tempering himself and purify his source qi, open more acupoints, strengthen his source qi, and practice his martial techniques.
After some time, he would naturally become an expert among his peers. After all, he had still cultivated a good cultivation method. He was in a far better position than those cultivating profound or yellow grade cultivation methods. With a higher number of opened acupoints, he was able to utilize more martial techniques and unleash a greater offensive prowess.
"Dad is probably not my match anymore."
Su Yu had a complicated feeling. His father cultivated the Great Strength Art, a technique with only 36 acupoints. That was one third of his acupoints. The Source Break move alone could unleash the prowess of 48 acupoints. With one move, even if Su Long could utilize all 36 acupoints at the same time, he still wouldn't be Su Yu's match.
"Oh dad, you sure are slow when it comes to cultivating."
Su Yu shook his head with pity. His father had spent decades opening only 36 acupoints. That was basically the same as opening an average of one acupoint per year.
He wanted to tell his father to look at him. In one day, he had opened more acupoints than his father had opened in his entire life. Sigh, it would seem like he would be the one taking care of his father in the future.
Su Yu was feeling very smug. Of course, he definitely couldn't say those words to his father's face or he would definitely receive a beating from his father.
"Time to leave the grotto. How long have I been here?"
Su Yu had not paid much attention to the passage of time. He wondered if he had spent 30 hours in the grotto. He didn't feel like he had spent that long, but he had definitely been in the grotto for quite a while.
He had entered late at night on the 22nd of September. It should be the 24th today, right?
Outside.
Old Nie muttered, "Should we get someone to deliver us some food? Old Huang, I'm getting hungry."
One day and one night had passed. To be precise, almost 30 hours had passed. Was that kid addicted to staying inside the grotto and was not leaving anymore? Old Huang glanced at his friend. Wasn't this old man planning to wait until Su Yu was out before eating? Keep it up!
As for Old Huang, he wasn't hungry anymore. Right after that, his expression changed as he said, "He's out!"
He could sense some movement behind the door. Finally, the kid was out. There were no other people in the grotto.
Old Nie was overjoyed. Damn it! The kid was finally out! He was starting to wonder if the kid was going to settle down and start a family in the grotto.
The moment Su Yu stepped out, he sensed two pairs of gloomy eyes staring at him.
"Kid, are you hungry?"
He looked at the two in stupefaction. Why were they being so nice? They had offered to deliver him some food previously. And now, they were asking if he was hungry. Were all the teachers in the academy so nice?
"I'm good." Su Yu smiled, "Thank you for your concern, Teachers."
He was very polite. Teachers this nice were truly rare. Just look at Bai Feng. That teacher had never asked if he was hungry.
Old Huang curled his lips. Concern? The two of them preferred giving this kid a punch instead.
Old Huang didn't want to say anything else so he coughed and said, "I can see that your entire body is filled with leaking source qi. Let me put a seal on you. The seal I placed on you previously worked fine, right?"
He then sent his willpower out.
But Su Yu hurriedly said, "It's fine, Teacher. I can withdraw my own source qi..."
He had grown too much so he was afraid that others would notice that something was wrong with him. But he was already very abnormal. After all, which Great Strength cultivator could spend so long in the grotto?
But Old Huang merely coughed before saying, "Don't be shy. I love helping students the most. Just look at yourself. Your source qi is leaking too much while the aura of blood essence on our body is obvious enough that it can be felt even hundreds of meters away. Also, the academy isn't a safe place. It is filled with cult spies..."
The old man was basically saying that if Su Yu stepped out like this, he would die instantly. Old Huang did not seem to mind one bit that he was talking bad about the academy. He was free to say whatever he wanted. What could anyone do to him?
"Su Yu, I'll help you with the seal. Don't be shy. There are too many cultists around. The academy is filled with them. You need to be careful. Also, there is also the single character faction. They have been waiting for a chance to target you. You need to keep your trump cards hidden. Do you see those guards out there? They are actually the agents of the single character faction. They are here to monitor you!"
"..."
Su Yu was completely speechless. He did not know whether to laugh or cry. For the sake of checking his cultivation, this fellow was vilifying everyone he could. If the single character faction heard these words, they would probably not let it slide.
Also, Wan Tiansheng might not let this slide as well since this old man dared to claim that the academy was filled with cult spies. But then again, the old man still made some sense.
Su Yu had just broken through so his aura was still too obvious. His source qi was leaking uncontrollably so he could easily attract unwanted attention.
"Then...I'll have to trouble you, Teacher."
"Hahaha! Don't mention it!"
Old Huang was overjoyed. Kid, there was no escaping this! His willpower engulfed Su Yu. And as he checked Su Yu's cultivation, his face turned stiff. One scan wasn't enough. So he scanned Su Yu's body again.
Beside him, Old Nie said, "Old Huang, you're not strong enough. Let me do it. I'm stronger than you."
He then sent his willpower out as well.
Su Yu resisted the urge to roll his eyes. He was basically akin to a naked lady right now, allowing the two old men to inspect him as they wished. He really had nothing to say. It wasn't enough that one of them was doing it. But both of them were doing it together.
The two old men spent a long time scanning his body. Finally, they proceeded to put a seal on him to hide his source qi and sank into silence.
Su Yu waited for a bit before carefully saying, "Teachers, may I leave now?"
"Yeah."
Old Huang waved his hand lazily. With a nervous heart, Su Yu carefully stepped away. After he left, the two old men looked at each other.
After a while, Old Huang said, "Did I see wrongly?"
"Nope." Old Nie said, "He has 108 opened acupoints. He seems to have opened some other random acupoints as well."
"108 acupoints...ninth-stage Great Strength..." Old Huang said, "Just what is up with this kid? I checked. He had swallowed too many different types of blood essence instead of only the mountainbreak bull blood essence. Our bloodline theory is definitely wrong. Has he really been modified by Liu Wenyan?"
Old Nie said, "If it isn't a bloodline, then it might be a Divine Character. This kid has actually reached the ninth stage..."
The two looked at each other again. After a while, they decided to stop talking about that kid.
Keep calm!
At their age, what had they not seen before? They had even seen cultivators above the Mountainsea Realm. Was a single Great Strength cultivator worth so much attention from them?
Ninth-stage Great Strength Realm? So what?
The kid had only reached the ninth stage from the fifth stage in a single day. So what?
Was that impressive? Were they so easily amazed?
After a long silence, Old Huang said with disdain, "He is definitely bad in martial techniques. Also, his source qi has a lot of impurities. A ninth-stage Great Strength cultivator like this is only as strong as an eighth-stage cultivator. Or he might even be weaker. Hmph. At such a young age, he is actually doing things like this to gain attention."
Old Nie nodded, "Yeah. If he's my grandson, I definitely wouldn't allow him to do this. I'll beat him to death if he dares to mess around like this."
Old Huang said, "That's right. If my grandson can reach the ninth stage from the fifth stage in one day...I'll beat him to death as well."
The two looked at each other and nodded again. Yes. It was good that they had reached a unanimous decision. In any case, their grandsons would definitely not be able to accomplish such a feat. Thus, they didn't have to worry that they would have to walk the talk after saying all that.
They weren't able to keep lying to themselves. After a short while, Old Huang slumped down and muttered, "Just how did he do that? His talent in physical cultivation is too crazy. Even if he has an unlimited supply of blood essence and source qi, this speed should still be impossible."
Ninth-stage Great Strength Realm!
He had watched with his own eyes how that kid had taken no time at all to reach the ninth-stage Great Strength Realm from the Source Opening Realm.
At that thought, he suddenly asked, "When did he first come to this grotto?"
"On the 1st." Old Nie still remembered clearly. "The 1st of this month after the month examination. It is already the 24th. So he has taken 24 days to open 96 acupoints."
"So an average of 4 per day?"
"Yeap." Once again, Old Huang was stunned speechless. After a short silence, he smiled, "Are we going to witness the birth of a legend with our own eyes?"
"Perhaps."
"Do we celebrate this in advance?"
"How are we celebrating?"
"Let's grab a good meal. You'll pay for it."
"Why me?"
"Aren't you hungry?"
"Fine."
The two then packed up and shut the door. The grotto was closed for business today! Yes. They were closing the grotto for the day. What could anyone do to them? Yes. They didn't feel like working today. What about it?
They walked out blankly. They had taken some time to calm down, but they still felt like they had a lot of things to say, such as: Holy shit!