Chapter 268: Real Infinite Strength, Fake Infinite Strength (2)
Su Yu had a look of astonishment on his face. He had never expected that there would be so many things about the Infinite Strength Realm he didn't know about.
"Martial Uncle, so as long as one cultivates an earth-grade cultivation method, one would have the chance to become a true Infinite Strength cultivator?"
"Not really." Chen Yong explained, "Some people might not have the luxury of aiming that high. For example, you have 12 acupoints per stage. The more acupoints you fused, the harder it would be to fuse the subsequent acupoints. Some people might be stuck at 8 fused acupoints for a very long time. In their desperation, they might get impatient and choose to advance with only 8 fused acupoints."
Impatience...Su Yu thought about it and found that choice understandable. Fusing acupoints definitely didn't sound like a walk in the part. If one was stuck for years, one might really give up on fusing all their acupoints.
"In that case, can we keep opening acupoints at the Infinite Strength Realm?"
"Of course you can." Chen Yong smiled, "Your advancement won't affect the opening of new acupoints. Most of the time, people would only open additional acupoints for their martial techniques, not their cultivation method. You can choose to cultivate a new martial technique at any time, but keep in mind that acupoint fusion might be required for martial techniques as well."
Chen Yong solemnly said, "A true expert is able to cultivate a martial technique to the great success stage. Do you know what that means?"
Su Yu shook his head.
"One technique per acupoint. For example, you have a martial technique requiring 40 acupoints. If you fuse all 40 of the acupoints, then you will be able to reach the great success stage where you only need a single acupoint to activate that technique."
Su Yu asked doubtfully, "Martial Uncle, but my Skybreak Technique overlaps with the War God Art. How am I supposed to accomplish that?"
"Why not?" Chen Yong asked, "After fusing all your War God Art acupoints into a single acupoint, won't you be able to achieve the same with the Skybreak Technique?"
Su Yu was stunned. That seemed to be the case!
"But..."
"And that is a matter for those in the Skysoar Realm." Chen Yong interrupted him, "After fusing all your acupoints until you only have nine acupoints left, you will reach the ninth-stage Infinite Strength Realm. What about the Skysoar Realm? That is a realm where the nine remaining acupoints will be fused into one. Thus, it is very, very hard to advance into the Skysoar Realm. The stronger your acupoints are, the harder they will be to fuse since the repelling force between each acupoint will be stronger. Only by fusing all of them would you be able to step into the Skysoar Realm."
Chen Yong sighed, "A lot of people are willing to give up on some acupoints even if they have a good enough cultivation method just to enter the Skysoar Realm. For example, someone with 12 acupoints per stage might choose to fuse only 9 acupoints. That way, at the ninth-stage Infinite Strength Realm, he will have an easier time fusing acupoints to reach the Skysoar Realm."
Su Yu nodded incessantly. So that was the case! So the gap between different Infinite Strength cultivators could actually be so big. If he followed the classification of those experts, he would only be a true Infinite Strength cultivator after fusing ten or more acupoints.
His father, who cultivated the Great Strength Art, would only be able to fuse a maximum of four acupoints per stage, becoming a Four Strength Realm cultivator. He couldn't even be considered a proper Infinite Strength cultivator. How pitiful.
"Martial Uncle, is there a chance for Four Strength or Five Strength cultivators to enter the Skysoar Realm?"
"Yes." Chen Yong smiled, "Of course there is a chance. But they will definitely be weaker than others. But the chance isn't really that high. Very few of such people would actually be able to advance. For example, 99 percent of true Infinite Strength cultivators can advance, 90 percent of Nine Strength cultivators can advance, 80 percent of Eighth Strength cultivators can advance, and at the Two Strength, probably only around 10 to 20 percent of them can advance."
Su Yu felt enlightened.
Chen Yong said, "Of course, that only applies to warriors. For us cultural researchers, acupoints aren't really that important. Cultural researchers do not focus on physical cultivation. Generally, even those geniuses with earth-grade cultivation methods would choose to advance with only 10 fused acupoints.
"Our strength comes from our willpower and Divine Characters. If we have to split our attention too much, how are we supposed to grow strong? That is why the students of our cultural research academy would lose more when facing those from the war academies prior to the Skysoar Realm.
"The people of the war academies focus on their physical bodies. Their Infinite Strength students have all fused a large number of acupoints. Meanwhile, many cultural researchers would choose to advance with only two fused acupoints. How are we supposed to contend against them below the Skysoar Realm?"
Chen Yong shook his head. Their academy had plenty of Two Strength cultivators. Meanwhile, the war academy students would have no less than seven fused acupoints. There was simply no comparing the two.
"In that case, do we have a lot of true Infinite Strength cultivators in our academy?"
"Nope." Chen Yong shook his head, "There are very few of them. Even among those top 100 students, probably only half of them are true Infinite Strength cultivators. And that is a ranking of the strongest under 30 students in our academy. From that, you can see just how rare true Infinite Strength cultivators are in our academy.
"Meanwhile, the Infinite Strength Ranking of the war academy is filled with true Infinite Strength cultivators. Over the years, Principal Zheng had kicked those who are not true Infinite Strength cultivators out of the ranking. He had even set a new rule saying that those who are not true Infinite Strength cultivators are not allowed to climb the ranking. For a period of time after that, their top 100 wasn't full."
They would rather let the top 100 positions remain empty than to let those who weren't true Infinite Strength cultivators into the ranking. Why? Because their ranking was called the Infinite Strength Ranking.
For outsiders, those pseudo Infinite Strength cultivators were the same as any other Infinite Strength cultivator. But for the war academy, the Infinite Strength Ranking represented their prestige. Thus, they decided to kick out unqualified cultivators from their ranking.
Su Yu had heard about that incident. He recalled that his teacher seemed to be the reason why that happened.
After he challenged and defeated all the students in the Infinite Strength Ranking, Principal Zheng was furious and carried out a reform. One ought to admit that he was quite a decisive person.
Su Yu asked more questions and Chen Yong patiently answered all his doubts. This was the benefit of having a proper teacher. The students who could only attend the public classes would have nobody to ask when they have questions in cultivation. Those public class instructors were way too busy to guide all these students one by one.
This was especially true for topics concerning physical cultivation. They would only give a rough explanation to the students. In any case, this was the cultural research academy. They did not place much importance on physical cultivation here. Nobody cared if one was a One Strength or Two Strength cultivator. One wouldn't be looked down on because of that. Here, so long as one's Divine Characters and willpower were strong enough, one would be regarded as an expert.
The lesson lasted over two hours.
Su Yu had a lot of questions. And Chen Yong answered every single one of them. Normally, one would need to spend a lot of merit points to hire a Cloudbreach for a personal tutoring session like this.
Meanwhile, Wu Jia was on the verge of falling asleep. It wasn't that she was neglecting her cultivation, but she already knew all of that.
By the time Su Yu stopped asking, Wu Jia yawned and asked, "Curious boy, any other questions?"
"..."
Su Yu felt somewhat awkward. What was the meaning of that? Curious boy? He was only asking the things he didn't know.
Chen Yong berated her, "You are not taking your cultivation seriously at all! You should learn from your junior brother! As a cultivator, you should always seek more knowledge and be brave enough to ask and learn from others. Even those Invincible experts were humble enough to name their holy land the Knowledge Seeking Realm. The great dao is boundless. Only by constantly seeking knowledge would you be able to keep moving forward!"
Wu Jia said in an aggrieved tone, "But Teacher, I already knew all that. I have gone through the same lesson countless times before!"
Chen Yong said, "Even so, it never hurts to listen more. Your junior brother..."
He decided to stop talking. He didn't want to destroy her confidence. Su Yu had already reached the ninth-stage Great Strength Realm. He was asking all that to prepare for his future advancement into the Infinite Strength Realm.
And Su Yu would only need to listen to this lesson once. Why? Because he would probably reach the Infinite Strength Realm and advance past the point of needing this lesson. Thus, so long as this girl was still stuck below the Infinite Strength Realm, she better be obedient and listen to the lesson again and again.
Wu Jia was naturally unaware of Su Yu's cultivation level. After the lesson was over, she smiled and said, "Junior Brother, I heard you defeated Chen Qi not long ago?"
"I got lucky..."
"Well done!" Wu Jia said in excitement, "That faction is filled with scoundrels. They spend all their time bullying the multiple character faction. I was only able to get into the top 100 after working very hard yet they still decided to create trouble for me."
"They were able to do this to you because you are not strong enough," Chen Yong chided sternly.
Wu Jia felt wronged. She said, "Teacher, why do you keep scolding me today?"
Chen Yong looked awkward. Su Yu's growth had provoked him too much. The student of his junior brother was on the verge of reaching the infinite strength Realm. Meanwhile, his student...forget it. He told himself that he had to stay calm. He was a very calm person.
Wu Jia smiled again and said, "Junior Brother, my teacher keeps praising you, saying that you might be able to challenge the top 100 in three months. Is that true? In three months, the end of year will arrive. I should be fully healed up by then as well. Are you going to fight alongside your senior sister?"
Su Yu flashed his honest smile and said, "How can I compare with you, Senior Sister? I'll just try my best. Your willpower percentage is already near the peak. I am still far from that."
"True. Willpower is very hard to grow." Wu Jia solemnly said, "Junior Brother, I might be able to enter the Skysoar Realm in a year or two. Make sure to not fall too far behind me. Just wait until I complete my character technique and enter the Skysoar Realm. I'll teach all those scoundrels a lesson."
"Let me congratulate you in advance, Senior Sister..."
"It is too early for that!" Wu Jia laughed. "It won't be too late to congratulate me after two years. Junior Brother, by the time I reach the Skysoar Realm, you might already be at the top of the ranking. At that time, one of us will be a genius teaching assistant while the other will be a genius student. With both of us around, the multiple character faction might be able to recruit more students."
"Yeah. You're right, Senior Sister."
Su Yu nodded seriously. Meanwhile, Chen Yong was getting more and more speechless. He decided to leave the room and stop listening to them. He was only afraid that the roles his silly student had imagined would be reversed.
Su Yu would be the genius teaching assistant while she would be the genius student. Chen Yong was afraid that Wu Jia would be so embarrassed she wouldn't be able to show her face anymore when that happened.
...
Su Yu was in a great mood after the chat with Wu Jia.
This senior sister was quite a talkative person. And she was pretty good-natured. He had imagined that his senior sister would probably be proud and cold like Wu Lan, constantly looking at him with her head held high in arrogance.
But he was mistaken. This was a happy mistake as a senior sister like that would only give him more headache. After having lunch at Chen Yong's place, Su Yu took his leave.
When Wu Jia saw her teacher looking down at Su Yu from the window, she couldn't help but to say, "Teacher, why do I feel like you actually treat him better than me? Are you trying to replace your student?"
Chen Yong laughed before sighing. "Jia, moving forward, there will probably be less burden on your shoulders."
"What?"
"Nothing. Focus on your cultivation and recovery. Don't think about anything else. As for Huang Qifeng, someone else will deal with him for you."
"Huh?" Wu Jia looked out the window curiously and said, "Are you talking about Junior Brother Su Yu?"
Chen Yong merely smiled silently. This was probably a good thing. In the past, Wu Jia was the sole member of her generation in the multiple character faction. Because of that, she shouldered a heavy burden.
But Su Yu had appeared. And this new student was talented beyond expectation. With him around, Wu Jia would have an easier time in the academy.
"Ninth-stage Great Strength Realm..."
But it might be quite difficult for Su Yu to reach the Infinite Strength Realm. There were too much impure blood essence energies mixed in his acupoints. It would take him a long time to purify his acupoints. Chen Yong recalled that clearbright bird blood essence could help with that. He decided to see if he could collect a batch of that blood essence for Su Yu.
"But his main focus should still be willpower. His willpower growth is quite slow. Is it because of the Soul Expanding Art?"
Since Su Yu had not mentioned the Soul Expanding Art, Chen Yong decided to not ask about it.
But during Su Yu's fight with Zheng Yunhui, his willpower had displayed remarkable endurance. Chen Yong was really unsure if Su Yu had actually cultivated the Soul Expanding Art or not.
"I forgot to ask how many merit points he had spent for his cultivation...forget it. He probably has more than enough to spend. He probably won't need more than 5,000 merit points to enter the Infinite Strength Realm."
Su Yu had definitely spent a lot of merit points for his rapid growth, but Chen Yong believed that Su Yu wouldn't need more than 5,000 merit points to reach the next realm.
He couldn't help but to admire that kid's willingness to spend money for his cultivation.