Chapter 269: Delicious (1)
Back at the research center, Su Yu started preparing for the Divine Character tournament.
He had four Divine Characters. That wasn't a lot, but that was definitely not a low number in comparison with the other new students. There might be new students with more Divine Characters around, but he doubted any of them had more than five Divine Characters.
Fragment room.
"The kill and blood characters are all at the second tier."
Su Yu frowned. Second tier characters were very strong. At the very least, they were much stronger than first tier characters. But these characters required a lot more willpower and were also harder to control.
"I still lack something among my Divine Characters."
The blood character could create illusions and absorb blood. The kill character could produce killing intent. The lightning character could produce lightning. As for the battle character, it was still very weak in comparison with the other characters.
"Of the four characters, only the lightning character is a proper combat character."
The other characters were also combat characters, but none were actual offensive characters. Thus, his sole offensive character was the lightning character.
"It would be better if I can form another character with good offensive strength."
Su Yu sank into thought. He required more offensive power. He personally thought that the strength character would be nice. Or the explode character. Or the burst character. These characters had a high possibility of coming with powerful offensive abilities.
The kill character was generally pretty good for offensive purposes as well, but unfortunately, Su Yu's kill character only produced killing intent instead of proper offensive capabilities. He wondered if he had yet to discover the ability or the character simply did not come with such an ability.
After staying in the fragment room for a while, he went to the filter room. He sat down and opened a willpower text. That was one of the texts he had purchased from Xia Huyou. He had purchased 20 of them in total.
It was a Great Strength Art willpower text, a commonly seen technique on the market. This text was basically at the similar level as the Source Opening Codex Bai Feng had casually written for him back then. It had not been written with blood essence, so it couldn't be stored for long.
Willpower texts written with only willpower and regular paper would not last too long. Perhaps a dozen reading sessions would be enough to fully drain the willpower of one such text, turning it into an ordinary book.
Su Yu started studying the text. As a Mental Tempering Stage cultivator, reading such a text did not pose him much challenge.
He took his time studying and sensing the willpower in the text. This time, no new Divine Character was formed. He wondered if it was because he still didn't understand the text enough or the text was simply too weak. It was probably the former since he had been able to form a blood character from the similarly weak text written by Bai Feng back then.
He was in no rush. He took his time and studied patiently. If he still couldn't form a character after about a dozen times, he would switch to a different book. He had plenty of willpower text in his possession right now so he wasn't too worried.
While Su Yu was silently cultivating and studying.
Mental Tempering Garden, special zone.
In a small villa.
A few youngsters were gathered. Chen Qi was among them. In the living room, Chen Qi sat at the edge of the group. There were six people in the room.
There were a total of fourteen students in the third generation of the main line of students under Zhou Mingren. Six of them had reached the Skysoar Realm. Of the eight who had yet to reach the Skysoar Realm, six of them were present in this room.
Chen Qi sat alone at the corner with his head lowered. Two of them were beyond 30 years old. Of the four students under 30, Chen Qi was the only one not in the top 100.
After a short chat, one of them looked at Chen Qi arrogantly and said, "Junior Brother Chen, has Martial Uncle Hu told you when he would leave seclusion?"
"No."
Chen Qi gave a short reply and said nothing else.
The proud youth frowned slightly before saying, "By the way, my teacher will not be around for a while. I heard they are all busy with some research. Before leaving, he told me to keep an eye on Wu Jia and Su Yu from the multiple character faction. Wu Jia is already ruined. As for Su Yu, you fought him before. Do you have any thoughts about him?"
"I fought and lost."
Chen Qi gave another short reply.
The arrogant youth grew even more unhappy. He said, "Junior Brother Chen, everyone is aware of that. We also know about the trick you pulled on Lin Yao too. There is no need to mention all that. I am only asking about Su Yu's strength."
"His strength is ok."
"..."
The youth furiously said, "Don't you know how to elaborate?"
He was very unhappy with Chen Qi's attitude. He had not called Chen Qi over to listen to those useless replies.
The youth coldly said, "Before he left, my teacher told me to watch out for Su Yu. He said that Su Yu had secretly reached the fifth-stage Great Strength Realm and formed a second tier Divine Character. He might challenge the Top 100 Ranking at any time."
The others were shocked to hear that. Even Chen Qi was shocked. Fifth-stage Great Strength Realm already? And a second tier Divine Character?
Su Yu was truly a freak.
"Junior Brother Huang, is that true?" asked a young lady.
The youth nodded, "Yes. I wouldn't have bothered asking about someone who isn't even in the top 100 otherwise. That fellow is not weak. My teacher said that it is only a matter of time before he enters the top 100. It will probably happen in a month or two."
"When facing the multiple character faction, we need to finish them off with a single strike. Since Elder Hong is not around, this is the perfect opportunity to suppress them. Let their inheritance end at Bai Feng's generation."
The youth spoke with confidence.
The others did not say anything. This youth was Huang Qifeng, the last student of Elder Zheng Yuming. Although some of them were stronger than him, he was the person with the highest status present.
Zheng Yuming had accepted six students in total. Four of them had reached the Skysoar Realm. One had failed to reach the Skysoar Realm and was given up after reaching an old age.
Thus, among the students of their faction that were below the Skysoar Realm, Huang Qifeng wasn't the strongest yet he enjoyed the highest status. Among the people present, Chen Qi was the only person not from Zhou Pingsheng's line in the faction.
Huang Qifeng looked at Chen Qi again and said, "When you fought Su Yu previously, did you notice him hiding his strength?"
"No idea."
Chen Qi's reply was as short as ever.
Huang Qifeng was getting more and more unhappy. He coldly said, "I need to determine if he has reached the fifth stage before the fight with you or after. I need to know if he has been feigning weakness to fool everyone. Do you understand?"
Chen Qi said, "I'm weaker than him. I was defeated in only one move. How am I supposed to judge whether he had hidden his strength?"
Huang Qifeng was not pleased with that attitude. This fellow was acting like he was already a Skysoar.
The young lady said with loathing, "Junior Brother Chen, not only have you been defeated, but you are also completely clueless about your opponent?"
Chen Qi raised his head and looked at her. After a while, he said, "I was defeated. What am I supposed to find out? After consuming blood essence, Su Yu has the strength of an Infinite Strength cultivator. Isn't that obvious? What else is there to know? He isn't even in the top 100 yet so it's pointless for you to ask so much about him. It's not like you can challenge him now."
Huang Qifeng said, "Why not? It would naturally be fine if he challenges us."
Chen Qi frowned, "Senior Brother Huang, after you seriously injured Wu Jia, Head Manager Chen and Assistant Bai are already quite unhappy with you. If anything happens to Su Yu as well..."
Huang Qifeng impatiently said, "I don't need your advice. Also, are we supposed to be afraid of them?"
Chen Qi said nothing else.
Huang Qifeng gave it some thought and said, "Let Xia Chan test his strength. Or we can think of a way to force him to challenge us before challenging the top 100. We need to cripple him and stop his growth. The multiple character faction is already on the verge of ruin. Why are they still accepting students how? Are they trying to reclaim their past glory?"
Huang Qifeng said with disdain, "Their faction is only good for wasting resources. People claim that they are strong, but if you ask me, they are nothing special. Bai Feng has exhausted far more resources than Xia Yuwen. But is he Xia Yuwen's match? Their so-called character technique looks fancy but are actually impractical to cultivate. What's the point of forming so many useless characters?
"Simplifying the great dao and focusing on a single path. That should be the future of all cultivators. How many Mountainsea experts did we have when the multiple character faction ran the academy? How many Cloudbreach experts did we have? But today, we have dozens of Mountainsea experts. Why is that? Because we have distributed the resources occupied by the multiple character faction to more people. That was how we came to possess so many Mountainsea experts in our ranks. The multiple character faction alone had hindered the development of the entire academy and humanity."
Huang Qifeng expounded his theory confidently. In fact, he was not the only person with this opinion. The entire single character faction shared this opinion. Sure, the academy was strong previously. But it was even stronger now. They had a lot more Mountainsea experts now than in the past.
In their opinion, the appearance of all these experts were due to a wider distribution of resources that used to be monopolized by the multiple character faction. If the multiple character faction returned to power and monopolized those resources again, how were the others supposed to grow?
Thus, they would not allow the multiple character faction to keep accepting new students. Otherwise, what were they supposed to do if their resources were hogged by the new students of the multiple character faction?
The multiple character faction was simply too expensive to raise. Whether it was blood essence, willpower text, myriad race willpower text, or cultural weapon, the multiple character faction required more than their peers.
Chen Qi curled his lips with disdain. When Huang Qifeng saw that, he coldly said, "Do you disagree, Junior Brother Chen?"
Chen Qi replied, "Of course not. The multiple character faction deserves destruction. They used to be strong, but that's history. If all they can do is live in the shadow of their past glory, who deserves to be destroyed more than them?"
He gave a perfunctory reply, but his heart was still filled with disdain. Huang Qifeng sounded so righteous. But he was mostly quoting the words of those above them.
In fact, Huang Qifeng was still not at the level where he needed to consider all that. He was only trying to suppress Su Yu and Wu Jia to please his superiors. Thus, Chen Qi was disgusted to see Huang Qifeng act in such a self-righteous manner.
What was the point of pretending when there were no outsiders here? They knew each other very well, so Chen Qi was able to easily see through Huang Qifeng.
Huang Qifeng snorted and said with disdain, "Exactly. Even for those in the same cultivation level, the people from their faction are still not my match. But you, on the other hand...hmph. What an embarrassment."
Chen Qi clenched his fists with fury. After that one defeat, these people had been piling insult after insult on him. They were only relying on their age to stand above him. What was the big deal about them?
Huang Qifeng had joined the academy five years ago yet he was still stuck at this level. He was simply not qualified to act so arrogant. Even Wu Jia had only been in the academy for two years.
Huang Qifeng had been in the academy for three more years than Wu Jia. He was also a student of a Mountainsea. Yet he was still stuck below the top 50. Was he not embarrassed of calling others garbage? Five years for that result? He was the actual garbage.
Naturally, Chen Qi did not voice his thoughts.
Huang Qifeng was getting more and more annoyed with Chen Qi. He kept having a feeling that Chen Qi was looking at him with the eyes of someone who did not wish him well. He sneered and decided to ignore Chen Qi.
After a short chat with the others, he said, "Chen Qi, since you know Su Yu, you'll be in charge of keeping an eye on him. Also, Wu Jia is already out of the top 100. I can no longer create trouble for her. You are the only person here who can do something to her. This task is now yours."
Chen Qi frowned, "I have no issue keeping an eye on Su Yu. But Wu Jia is already injured. She spends all her time in the books depository. How am I supposed to create trouble for her?"
Huang Qifeng said, "So what if you do it in front of Chen Yong? Would Chen Yong dare to lay his hands on you? Is he trying to get kicked out of the academy?"
"..."
Chen Qi was getting upset. He asked, "What if he decides to make a move and disregard all consequences?"
He understood Huang Qifeng's meaning. It would be even better for Chen Yong to make a move. Then they would have the excuse to kick Chen Yong out. But was he supposed to be the sacrifice for that?
Did Huang Qifeng think that he was an idiot? Provoking an injured student of a Cloudbreach in front of the Cloudbreach himself? Did Huang Qifeng think that Chen Yong was dead? Huang Qifeng was too vicious. He was clearly telling Chen Qi to sacrifice himself.
Huang Qifeng calmly said, "He wouldn't dare. If he does anything, it's over for the multiple character faction."
"I refuse." Chen Qi stood up and said, "Do it yourself if you want to. Huang Qifeng, don't push it too far. It's fine to just reduce my resources. But you want me to sacrifice myself as well? Dream on."
Chen Qi snorted coldly and scanned the ground before sneering, "Huang Qifeng is a vicious bastard. He isn't even trying to hide the fact that he's sending someone from his own faction to death. Even when I schemed against Lin Yao, I put some effort into hiding it. If I am a shameless villain, then he's a hypocrite. No, he's worse than a hypocrite. What a disgusting person."
He then left.