Chapter 270: Delicious (2)
Huang Qifeng looked at Chen Qi coldly and said, "Chen Qi, your teacher is in seclusion. I am only asking you to perform a small task yet you keep giving us so many excuses. In that case, you can forget about getting any resources before your teacher leaves seclusion. You won't be getting a single merit point."
Chen Qi ignored the threat and clenched his teeth with a cold look in his eyes. He was no pushover either. Huang Qifeng had relied on his status and strength to constantly humiliate Chen Qi. Sure, Chen Qi couldn't do anything now, but he wouldn't forget this.
Just wait, Huang Qifeng!
At times, those so-called allies could be even more ruthless than one's actual enemies. Of the third generation students in their faction, fourteen were from the faculty head's line. And out of them, eight were below the Skysoar Realm.
Three of them were over 30 years old. These students were basically on the verge of being given up by the faction. Meanwhile, the other four were trying to kick him out. They were naturally more than happy to hog all the resources for themselves.
His senior brother was also one of the four. But that senior brother wasn't present. He didn't know that senior brother's thoughts, but he didn't have much hope that his senior brother would stand by his side.
After leaving the special zone, Chen Qi turned around to look behind him. He sneered coldly. His teacher was stupid enough to allow these people to humiliate him. It was only a matter of time before his teacher was reduced to Liu Hong's status.
They were all fellow students of Faculty Head Zhou. Zheng Yuming was the faction master and an elder. Zhou Pingsheng was the deputy head manager of the books depository. Meanwhile, his teacher, Hu Wensheng, was nothing. And he didn't even enjoy a high status in the faction.
Things weren't this bad when he could suppress Bai Feng. But now, apart from breaking through into the Cloudbreach Realm, he had no other option. People like Huang Qifeng could stay in the special zone. Meanwhile, Chen Qi could only stay in the high-level zone.
It wasn't that he couldn't afford better accommodation, but his teacher had warned him to not stay near Huang Qifeng and the others. He had been told to stay patient.
"Teacher, you are too weak."
Chen Qi sighed. These fellows were the type of people that would take a mile after being given an inch. Huang Qifeng wouldn't have been so arrogant otherwise.
After going further away from the special zone, he called a number.
After a short wait, he said, "I am Chen Qi."
On the other side of the call, Su Yu was stunned.
"Huang Qifeng is starting to target you. He is not only a ninth-stage Great Strength cultivator. He is a second-stage Infinite Strength cultivator. His willpower has reached 96 percent and he has three Divine Characters. One of them is the fight character of the devil race and the other is the sturdy character of the dragon race. As for his third character, I don't know too much about it. I doubt too many people know about it either. But I do know that it is related to sealing. That is a very powerful character."
Su Yu sank into silence.
Chen Qi did not mind the silence. He continued, "Huang Qifeng is aiming to suppress both you and Wu Jia to the lowest point before Elder Hong returns. He hopes to make sure that neither of you can enter the top 100 or even switch factions. It might be even better if he can force both of you to withdraw from the academy, becoming his stepping stone.
"Of the six students under Elder Zheng, he is the weakest. He has been in the academy for five years yet he is still stuck below the Skysoar Realm. Thus, he is getting anxious and needs more support. His best choice is to suppress you guys and sow despair among your faction.
"He has his eyes on you. He has also found out that you're a fifth-stage Great Strength cultivator with a second tier character. All your trump cards have been exposed. The day you challenge the top 100 would also be the day he makes a move on you. Perhaps he would even get some people to challenge you before that."
After a short silence, Su Yu said, "How many acupoints did he fuse for his advancement?"
"Nine." Chen Qi coldly said, "Don't take that fellow lightly. Very few cultural researchers would advance with nine fused acupoints. And his main strength does not come from his physical body. Rather, it's his fight character. That character grants him an impressive combat strength. I'm afraid his real strength is comparable to that of a fourth-stage Infinite Strength cultivator. A true Infinite Strength cultivator, not one of those pseudo Infinite Strength cultivators."
Su Yu asked another question, "Is he rich?"
"..."
Chen Qi was speechless. He said, "Yes. But don't even dream of winning his money. Su Yu, I know you are confident. But you're not his match."
Su Yu smiled, "I know. Thanks for the reminder. I'm not planning to fight him anyway. I'm still not strong enough. It's never a bad idea to stay patient when needed. So I honestly don't need this reminder."
Su Yu curiously asked, "When he defeated my senior sister, was he really unable to hold back?"
"..."
Chen Qi said, "Of course not. Do you even need to ask that? He is far stronger than Wu Jia. How can Wu Jia even force him to lose control of his strength?"
"I understand." Su Yu smiled, "Thank you. I know you're not doing this out of kindness, but it honestly doesn't matter. By the way, are there any single character faction members among the new students? I'm referring to those in the main line of the faction."
"Xia Chan..."
"I know about her. Is there nobody else?"
"There is one other person." Chen Qi answered after thinking for a bit, "Zheng Hong. The freak from your class. He is Elder Zheng's grandson. But he has been maintaining a low profile. You are not his target. He only has the likes of Xia Chan and Wan Mingze in his eyes. But that might have changed. Just watch out."
Zheng Hong!
Su Yu was quite surprised. Out of the six freaks in their class, that fellow maintained the lowest profile.
Su Yu knew a little about people like Xia Chan, Zheng Yunhui, Zhao Shiji, Wan Mingze, and Hu Qiusheng. But he had almost forgotten that Zheng Hong existed. Even the information gathered by Xia Huyou for him did not include Zheng Hong's information.
He frowned and asked, "Zheng Hong is Elder Zheng's grandson?"
"Yeah." Chen Qi said, "Not many people know about that. I only know because Huang Qifeng accidentally leaked the information one time. He is the last student of Elder Zheng so he knows Elder Zheng very well. He said that Zheng Hong has not been learning under Elder Zheng. Instead, he has been learning under Elder Sun."
Understanding dawned on Su Yu. There were multiple Mountainsea experts in the single character faction. One of them was surnamed Sun and one was surnamed Zhao. The one surnamed Zhao was Liu Hong's teacher. So that was the case!
Su Yu hadn't been paying any attention to Elder Sun's students. His attention had always been on Zhou Mingren's line.
"Got it. Thanks."
After thanking Chen Qi for the information, Su Yu ended the call.
Within the research center.
Su Yu laughed before sighing, "What a mess."
The single character faction's internal situation was truly messy. Zhou Mingren, Elder Sun, Elder Zhao...all these people did not seem to be united at all. Just look at Liu Hong. He had basically been reduced into an outlier of the faction. That was actually quite obvious.
Additionally, Chen Qi had previously schemed against Lin Yao. And now, Huang Qifeng seemed to be targeting Chen Qi. This call wouldn't have happened otherwise. Su Yu was starting to suspect that the moment the multiple character faction ceased existing, the single character faction would probably disintegrate from within.
"Teacher and Martial Uncle seem to have a good relationship. I even start to wonder if this so-called internal conflict is an act."
Su Yu started guessing. Perhaps the higher ups of the single character faction were intentionally not suppressing Bai Feng and Chen Yong. After all, according to Bai Feng and Chen Yong, the multiple character faction was in a terrible position. In that case, why did it feel like Bai Feng's life was actually pretty good?
Was it possible that the single character faction was letting them exist as an external enemy to preserve the peace within the single character faction?
"Grandteacher might just be a live target for them."
The impression Su Yu had of Hong Tan was that of someone who couldn't care less about external affairs and was only focused on research. As far as Su Yu was concerned, such a person was too easy to be schemed against. Thus, how would Hong Tan still exist in the academy even after so many years of rivalry with the single character faction?
Had the single character faction been deliberately holding back or was that grandteacher of his simply too strong?
"I'll wait a while longer."
Su Yu forced himself to stay patient. After purifying his source qi, cultivating the heaven-grade martial technique, and forming more Divine Characters, Su Yu would be able to start making his move against that Huang Qifeng.
He could only wish that Huang Qifeng was rich as well. But then again, the single character faction had never disappointed him in terms of being rich.
Since he couldn't be bothered to perform those miscellaneous missions and was restricted from entering the Allheaven Battlefield, he had no source of income. Thus, the single character faction would serve as an excellent cash cow.
This was still not the time for him to accept the bigger missions. And since the multiple character faction was too poor, he could only rely on milking the single character faction as a source of income.
"Zheng Hong, Liu He, and there's Yang Sha as well..."
Yang Sha was Liu Hong's first student. He would deal with them one at a time.
Su Yu was in no rush. When milking them, he had to milk them one by one, from weak to strong. He couldn't miss out on any one of them or it would be a loss. As for Liu Hong's status as a spy...well, that did not matter when merit points were involved.
Even if he really was a spy, they were supposed to be enemies to the public, right? They had to keep on the act, right? Thus, wouldn't Su Yu be doing Liu Hong a favor by taking money from his students?
Su Yu totally had a clear conscience. He was doing all this to help Liu Hong hide his true identity. Teacher Liu should be grateful. He was such a kind and good student.
Even while thinking about all that, Su Yu did not forget to keep studying his willpower texts. Suddenly, his expression changed. Was he going to form a new character?
"What is this? Have I misunderstood something? This character...definitely doesn't suit me!"
Deceit. Yes. That was his new character. Su Yu frowned, displeased. What was the meaning of this? He had merely schemed a little bit against others. Why was this character appearing before him? Would he care about a single character? He still lacked 94 characters! Why would he care about a single character?
He rolled his eyes and convinced himself, "This deceit definitely doesn't mean treachery. It probably means disguise. Yes. It is probably a concealment-related character. That's right! That must be the case!"
Su Yu started comforting himself. He definitely wouldn't admit to being a deceitful and treacherous person.
He, Su Yu, was an honorable man with a genial smile on his face. He was as warm as the gentle sunlight, a simple and honest man who was almost perfect. He had never told a lie in his whole life. This character had most definitely appeared after he comprehended the true meaning of concealment.
Next, his other Divine Characters woke up in his head. The moment the kill character released its killing intent, the new character turned dim. It was very weak. Then, the blood character circled the deceit character before returning to the character technique frame, seemingly bored with this newcomer.
The lightning character seemed really eager for a fight, but the deceit character was simply paralyzed with fear. Bored, the lightning character returned in disappointment.
Su Yu was very speechless. Was this new character so weak? Why did he feel like this character was completely incapable of fighting? It was even weaker than the battle character. The person who had written this text was probably even weaker and less reliable than his teacher.
The deceit character did not receive any beating whatsoever. It only received several kicks from the battle character before it obediently jumped into the character technique frame.
And at that moment, some new information appeared in Su Yu's mind. He was receiving the information regarding the ability of that new character.
"Huh?"
He blanked out. What was this? This character's ability seemed really useless. But at the same time, it also seemed quite useful for him?
"Creating a barrier of concealment..."
Su Yu's willpower pulsed as his vision darkened. He had used a barrier on his own eyes. But he also knew that this ability was still too weak to be of any use. But...it seemed to be capable of concealing other things.
Next, a few of his opened acupoints that were originally shining brightly were covered by one dark barrier after another. Instantly, those bright acupoints turned dim.
Su Yu muttered, "Why is hiding my acupoints my first thought?"
Why? He definitely wasn't planning to pretend to be a pig before eating more tigers. But the instant he obtained that ability, this was indeed his first thought. After all, the ability was still too weak to be used against his enemies. He was better off using his illusions. But it seemed perfect to hide his cultivation.
Su Yu exhaled and told himself that this was a useless character. What was the point of hiding his acupoints? He was an honest and forthright man. Why would he be scared of others finding out about his real strength? What a joke.
While he was telling himself all that, his willpower erupted as he started covering his remaining acupoints with his new ability. The 108 bright dots in his body started dimming one after another.
12 acupoints, 24 acupoints, 36 acupoints...He only stopped when there were only 70 acupoints left. He checked and confirmed that the willpower drain from maintaining these barriers was negligible. He could keep them active for a long period of time.
"I'm a fifth-stage Great Strength cultivator on the verge of reaching the sixth stage. Unless an expert is deliberately intruding into my body, they won't be able to see through my barriers. But doing that is basically the same as declaring war."
Even when people like Old Huang pried on him, they only performed a surface willpower scan. Breaking through his barriers could be considered an active attack. And an expert attacking a student was against the academy rules. One would be punished severely for that.
Su Yu smiled happily. He supposed this was still an acceptable ability. But he had studied three willpower texts before forming this character. Whatever. Something was better than nothing. No matter what, he was still someone with five characters now. That was actually quite impressive.
"Deceit...I suppose it would be able to hide from even Skysoar cultivators at the second tier."
Su Yu muttered, thinking that it would be even better if this character could reach the second tier.