Chapter 265: Stunned (1)
Meanwhile, Su Yu was trying to keep a low profile while returning to the research center. After what the two old men told him, he was starting to get paranoid about the existence of cult spies in the academy. He was such a genius. What if the cult set their eyes on him?
He was already a ninth-stage Great Strength cultivator!
He was only relieved after reaching the research center. He wasted no time and called a number.
"Su Yu..."
Xia Huyou's dazed voice rang out. The sun was not up yet.
"Do you have clearbright bird blood essence? I’m referring to Infinite Strength blood essence."
"Yeah."
Xia Huyou instantly woke up. Holy shit. Another big business was falling into his lap. This fellow had only vanished for two days. Was he going to start spending again?
"How about soul devouring bug blood essence?"
"Yeah, I can get you some. But these blood essence would most likely be at the Great Strength Realm. The soul devouring bugs mostly move in groups but their blood essence is actually quite rare. Most people wouldn't bother to extract their blood essence since it wasn't too valuable. And if you want their Infinite Strength blood essence, it would probably be even harder to find."
"What's the price?"
"The clearbright birds do not pose much threat so the human race rarely kills them. The supply of their blood essence would be quite low. How many drops do you want?"
"Give me a price first."
"Are you looking for early-stage Infinite Strength blood essence?"
"Yes."
"Eight merit points per drop. Their blood essence is too rare. Sometimes, the rarity of blood essence does not depend on the strength of the corresponding race. Only rarity matters. Also, I went through the market of the entire Great Xia to gather the mountainbreak bull blood essence you wanted. If you want more, you'll have to wait."
Eight merit points per drop.
Su Yu did a short calculation. After consuming so many different types of blood essence, his source qi was rather impure. Even his acupoints were starting to feel uncomfortable. After thinking about it, he said, "Get me 50 drops. Wait, make that 100 drops."
He guessed that he might need at least a drop to cleanse each acupoint. Thus, he decided to try using 100 drops for now. In any case, there weren't any side effects to using this blood essence since it could purify his source qi. For source qi, it would be better the higher the purity was.
Xia Huyou hurriedly answered, "Sure. 800 merit points for 100 drops. Do you want soul devouring bug blood essence as well?"
"Yes."
"It won't be cheap either. But since it's Great Strength blood essence, you can get it for only three merit points per drop."
Su Yu thought about it and said, "Get me 10 drops for now."
Xia Huyou was slightly disappointed to hear that. The previous orders made by Su Yu had been too big. Thus, he couldn't help but to lose some excitement upon hearing about an order worth only 30 merit points.
"Sure. Anything else?"
After a short silence, Su Yu said, "Mountainbreak bull blood essence. Infinite Strength. Get as many as you can."
"I'll try to find some. I probably can't get you too much, but I can get at least 100 drops for you."
Su Yu had bought too much in a short period of time.
After a short calculation, Xia Huyou said, "Make that 100 drops. In total, you need to pay 1,830 merit points. Do you agree?"
"Sure."
Su Yu agreed easily. This was an acceptable price for him. Out of his 11,800 merit points, he had spent 100 to enter the grotto, leaving him with 11,700. And after deducting 1,830 from his new transaction, he would have 9,870 left. He was spending money like water.
The only reason he still had so much money left was because he had only bought 20 willpower texts previously when he should have bought more.
"After getting the heaven-grade martial technique, I would probably need to open more acupoints. And that requires money as well..."
At that thought, he said, "Try to buy as much mountainbreak bull blood essence as possible. Don't limit yourself to only early-stage Infinite Strength blood essence. I can accept middle-stage blood essence as well."
Su Yu was already a ninth-stage Great Strength cultivator. His physical body was strong enough. Thus, he should be able to withstand the power of middle-stage Infinite Strength blood essence.
"But middle-stage blood essence would be more expensive as well. It would cost you no less than 15 merit points per drop." Xia Huyou said, "At the Infinite Strength Realm, the price can increase very rapidly. Even 15 merit points per drop is already a cheap price. You can try to ask around in the academy. If you can find any seller offering a price of lower than 20 merit points per drop, I can give you all your blood essence for free."
"Yeah, yeah. I understand. Just try to get the blood essence for me as fast as possible."
"Ok!"
Xia Huyou was overjoyed. This was a big transaction. Since Su Yu hadn't even mentioned the amount of blood essence he wanted, then he was definitely going to be buying a lot. In that case, what if he could get 500 drops of middle-stage Infinite Strength blood essence?
"7,500 merit points..."
According to Xia Huyou's calculation, Su Yu could still afford to spend 7,500 more merit points. Any more than that and Su Yu would probably start having troubles paying.
"In that case, he has probably spent nearly 20,000 merit points in such a short period of time!"
Xia Huyou was astonished. What a extravagant fellow! With that much money, he could already hire an assassin to go after a Mountainsea expert. Of course, that referred to those fearless lunatics that would do anything for money.
Generally, mere merit points would not be sufficient to buy the life of a Mountainsea expert. However, one could definitely hire an assassin to kill an early-stage Cloudbreach cultivator for only 1,000 merit points. And Su Yu had spent a lot more money than that recently.
Xia Huyou started wondering what Su Yu was using all those blood essence for.
"Increasing his strength? But does he need so much blood essence? Feeding his Divine Character? His first character is a blood character, right? Is he using blood to strengthen that character? Is that why his character is able to reach the second tier so early?"
Even if that was the case, Su Yu was still using way too much blood essence. Furthermore, Su Yu was also rather picky on the type of blood essence he wanted. Was his character a picky eater as well? Was the mountainbreak bull blood essence the most delicious of all?
Xia Huyou shook his head and decided to stop thinking about it. After using up all his existing money, Su Yu would probably start selling his own information again.
"Su Yu..."
Xia Huyou muttered softly. He could only hope that Su Yu was not a spy for the enemy. As long as that was the case, everything would be fine no matter what Su Yu did. As a member of the Xia Family and the son of Xia Longwu, he had the breadth of mind to tolerate a lot of things.
The citizens of Great Xia were basically the citizens of the Xia Family. The experts of Great Xia were the experts of the Xia Family. And the geniuses of Great Xia were naturally the geniuses of the Xia Family as well.
He had honestly been selling all those things to Su Yu for a really cheap price. The Xia Family was actually more than happy to help nurture more geniuses. After all, strengthening these geniuses was the same as strengthening Great Xia itself.
At times, he would even pay out of his own pocket to cover for what Su Yu wanted. The merit points in Great Xia were issued by the Xia Family anyway. They could issue as much as they wanted so long as there was a need.
Of course, they wouldn't do that easily since that would only destroy their own economy. There was also the War Shrine and Knowledge Seeking Realm keeping an eye on them.
"I have witnessed the strength of Su Yu and Zheng Yunhui. How about Wan Mingze? How about Zhao Shiji?"
The people of the Wan and Zhao Families were also a part of the Great Xia. He couldn't help but to wonder about the quality of their juniors.
His father had gotten to know a lot of future experts back when he was still a student in the academy. In fact, each generation of Great Xia's prefect would start building the foundation for their future rule at a young age.
For example, the current deputy general of the Martial Dragon Guards was a genius his father had personally discovered and developed.
Another example was the current general of the Devil Subduing Army. That general was also his father's friend when they were fellow students. That was how that person came to command the entire Devil Subduing Army. The general of the Great Xia Army was also a genius his father had recruited back then.
Xia Huyou smiled. He looked forward to discovering even more geniuses during his time in the academy. Of course, strength was not everything. Character was important as well.
"But I need to grow strong as well."
There had never been a single weak Great Xia prefect before. Back when his father first ascended to that position, he was already a peak Mountainsea.
Up until now, the Great Xia had been led by a total of three prefects. The first prefect was the Great Xia King. He had reached the Invincible Realm. The second prefect was Xia Huyou's grandfather, a Sunmoon expert.
Unfortunately, he had been killed during a battle in the Allheaven Battlefield. Xia Huyou's father was the third prefect, someone who had demonstrated enough potential to be lauded as the future second Invincible of the Xia Family.
Meanwhile, the future fourth prefect, Xia Huyou, was still too weak.
"Sigh."
His father would not remain in Great Xia for long after reaching the Invincible Realm. He might not have that much time left. If he wasn't strong enough when the time arrived, the fourth prefect might not be him.
Even if he was the firstborn of the main branch, the Xia Family was massive. Even his second granduncle was part of the main branch. His second granduncle might not care about the position, but there were more juniors below him.
As Xia Huyou thought about all that, he couldn't help but to think about a certain person.
Xia Yunji.
That person was older than his father. Back then, after his grandfather perished in battle, the Great Xia King actually had his eyes on Xia Yunji instead of Xia Longwu. Alas...Xia Yunji had been crippled alongside all the other peers of Liu Wenyan.
And Xia Yunji wasn't even from Great Xia King's branch. Instead, he was the son of Great Xia King's younger brother. That younger brother had passed away a long time ago. Thus, Xia Yunji was actually the nephew of the Great Xia King and the cousin of Marquis Xia.
Strictly speaking, Xia Longwu should address him as uncle as well. If he hadn't been crippled from that incident, he might be the current prefect instead of Xia Longwu.
"And there's also Granduncle Changqing..."
Xia Huyou muttered to himself. The strongest expert in the Xia Family was the Great Xia King, followed by his father, with Xia Changqing coming in third. He was the vice principal of the Great Xia Cultural Research Academy, a peak Mountainsea cultural researcher.
That was Xia Yunji's elder brother, so Xia Huyou wasn't too worried about him. But their branch of the family had other juniors as well. And some of them had their eyes set on the position of the prefect.
In truth, the massive Xia Family had actually declined somewhat from their peak. Apart from his father, they did not have a second Sunmoon expert.
"Second granduncle..."
But when Xia Huyou thought of the second granduncle who had raised him, he laughed. Perhaps, the Xia Family still had a second Sunmoon nobody knew about. He shook his head and tossed all those thoughts out of his mind. The position of the prefect was a matter for the future.
If he really failed to get that position, it wasn't that big of a deal. His life wouldn't be in danger. After all, both his father and ancestor were Invincible experts. Who would dare to touch him? He could simply turn into an arrogant young master and focus on enjoying life instead.
"But my silly little sister, Xia Chan, seems to be rather stubborn about this..."