Chapter 273: Terrifying Life Form (1)
Su Yu was furious with Liu Hong for inciting the other students to fight over the reward, but there was nothing he could do about it. In truth, he wasn't sure if he could really place first in the tournament.
The main reason for that was his weak willpower. Even now, his willpower had only reached 55 percent. Meanwhile, people like Zheng Yunhui had willpower at around 85 percent.
Previously, Su Yu had obtained 10 drops of soul devouring bug blood essence from Xia Huyou. He had thought that the Soul Devouring Art could help grow his willpower, but after testing it out, he found that he had been mistaken.
That was no willpower cultivation method. It was used to corrode and devour willpower.
"The Soul Devouring Art is definitely not suitable for a spar. It can only be used on enemies..."
That was something that could truly damage one's willpower. It would be too cruel to use something like that for a spar. But against enemies, that would be quite a useful method.
An entire day of classes passed while Su Yu was deep in his thoughts. Wu Lan, who had been ignoring him for a few days, walked past him after class with her head held high again. Prior to this, she had been avoiding Su Yu every time she saw him.
Su Yu was confused initially, but when she walked past him with her pulsing willpower, Su Yu understood why. She was here to show off her willpower.
Her willpower percentage was higher than Su Yu's. After all, she had already entered the Mental Tempering Stage before the entrance examination. Right now, her willpower was around 70 percent full.
"Is there a need to show off her willpower in front of me?"
Su Yu was speechless. This idiot could be really childish at times. Also, he had finally understood why she had been running away from him recently. She must have failed to reach the third-stage Great Strength Realm so she was ashamed to face him. Today, she was here to prove that she was absolutely not worthless with her willpower.
Su Yu merely smiled as he looked at Wu Lan who had turned around to walk by him again and asked, "Wu Lan, what is your current willpower percentage?"
Wu Lan was overjoyed! Finally, he asked the question!
"I have just reached 70 percent." Wu Lan feigned indifference and said, "My growth has been too slow. I'm aiming to reach 80 percent by next month."
Su Yu smiled and raised his thumbs while exclaiming in admiration, "Incredible. I am only at 55 percent. Wu Lan, you're actually so far ahead of me!"
Wu Lan greatly enjoyed the praise.
She was wild with joy. Finally, she had surpassed this fellow in one aspect.
She continued feigning indifference, but her voice was trembling from excitement as she said, "It's ok, I suppose. You're pretty good yourself. But you need to be careful during the tournament and the monthly exam tomorrow if you end up encountering me."
Su Yu nodded with the same polite smile on his face.
Wu Lan had her head raised high. She was in such a good mood that she no longer cared about her physical cultivation. She asked, "It has been a while since you reached the third-stage Great Strength Realm. How many acupoints have you opened since then?"
Su Yu made a short calculation. He had opened around 72 new acupoints. Some other students were still in the class so they also started paying attention. How many acupoints had Su Yu opened? Had he reached the fourth stage?
People like Zheng Yunhui knew that Su Yu had already reached the fifth-stage Great Strength Realm. But that was nine days ago. They reckoned that Su Yu was probably near the sixth stage by now.
After thinking for a bit, Su Yu made a gesture that said six with his hands. He had opened too many acupoints for his fingers to gesture. But the six he gestured meant that he had advanced by six stages.
He was definitely not lying. He was an honest man. He never lied.
"Six..." Wu Lan muttered. That was ok.
In fact, it had been around a month. Opening six acupoints in a month could actually be considered fast as well. But that was a figure that allowed Wu Lan to smile. She was actually quite pleased to hear that. It meant that she still had a chance to catch up with him.
She said, "Very good. Keep working hard, Su Yu. Otherwise, I would probably catch up to you soon. After reaching the second-stage Great Strength Realm, my cultivation speed has increased greatly. I have already opened three new acupoints since my breakthrough."
Su Yu had only opened 42 acupoints while she had opened 27 acupoints. The gap between them was not big at all!
Su Yu merely smiled. He definitely hadn't said anything like six acupoints. That was her own assumption. It had nothing to do with him.
Meanwhile, Zheng Yunhui rolled his eyes. Was Su Yu referring to the new acupoints he had opened after his fight with Zheng Yunhui?
After all, Zheng Yunhui remembered that Su Yu had opened 66 acupoints during their fight. In that case, had Su Yu reached the sixth stage? That fellow's growth was truly fast.
Zheng Yunhui was not the only person with that conclusion. Xia Huyou and a few others thought the same. Su Yu had probably reached the sixth stage. That fellow was really quite talented in physical cultivation. Not much time had passed yet he had already reached the sixth-stage Great Strength Realm.
Wu Lan, who felt like she had finally surpassed Su Yu again, was feeling very good. She smugly said, "Su Yu, tomorrow, I will take the first place of the tournament tomorrow. If you want that book, you can consider begging me. I'll probably give it to you for free."
Su Yu was a cocky person! In that case, would he beg her after she took first place?
Su Yu opened his mouth speechlessly. After a while, he dryly said, "Sure. I'll congratulate you in advance for placing first, then."
Just what was this fellow thinking in that brain of hers? If she could place first, Su Yu swore he would rename himself Yu Su from now on.
Did she not know herself at all? Yes. His teacher was right. Women were not rational enough. Was it not good to be more rational?
The other students also smiled silently. None said anything. They couldn't say anything anyway. They would only invite Wu Lan's fury. In any case, it was none of their business what Wu Lan thought.
Outside the classroom.
Xia Huyou rushed over and softly asked, "Are you confident you can get the book back?"
"No." Su Yu shook his head, "If I really have no choice, I will have to buy it back with money. It's something my grandteacher likes. I can't allow it to remain outside our faction. It's only money. But I'm worried those people would ask for a crazy price if I'm personally buying. If I really fail to get it, I'll be relying on you to buy it back for me."
He had thought about it. Even if he lost, he would try to buy the book. But he was also afraid that others would take the chance to ask for a high price. Everyone knew that the book was something from their faction. It was only natural that they would raise the price since he would be more desperate to get it back.
Su Yu softly said, "If I really failed to get first place, we can try to bid against each other. You understand my meaning."
Xia Huyou smiled and nodded.
It was simple.
Su Yu would first offer a low price. The other party would refuse. He could then offer a reasonable price for the item.
Su Yu nodded and said nothing else. He still needed to make some other preparations.
"Many people know that I'm close with Xia Huyou so he's not a suitable buyer either. If I really lose, I can look for Lin Yao."
Su Yu's gaze landed on the distant Lin Yao. Yes. That would be the perfect person to help him.
Everyone knew that they were enemies. Lin Yao was also a student of Liu Hong and a member of the single character faction. If he was the one buying, the single character faction wouldn't make things difficult for him. After all, the book was only a drained willpower text.
"I'm truly a genius!"
Su Yu praised himself. But soon after, he started feeling helpless. His willpower was still too weak. He wouldn't have resorted to all these tricks otherwise.
At that thought, he looked at Xia Huyou and asked, "Huyou, there are so many races in existence. Do you know a lot of races?"
"Of course." Xia Huyou smiled, "I am a businessman. It is very important for a businessman to be knowledgeable. Do you need to find out about something? If it isn't a big secret, I can let you know for free! I may be a businessman, but I am also a loyal friend!"
Su Yu smiled, "It's nothing important. I only want to know if there are any races that are natural cultural researchers that can cultivate their willpower from a young age. Us humans can only cultivate the Myriad Text Sutra at the Skysoar Realm."
"Oh, yes, there are races like that." Xia Huyou said, "Most people don't know this because races like this are very rare. For example, the first divine race. Their babies are born as Skysoars. But I suppose knowing that is pointless since they cultivate similarly to us. They merely have a higher starting point than us."
Su Yu frowned and nodded.
"Apart from the divine race, there are also such sub-races in the devil race. The immortal race also has a lot of cultural researchers. But most of them are those with high starting points.
"You're probably looking for races that can cultivate their willpower at the Great Strength and Infinite Strength Realms, right? You are probably aiming for their cultivation methods, right? A lot of people have thought of the same before. Unfortunately, even with their cultivation methods in hand, those methods are unsuitable for humans. Otherwise, we would have modified those methods for human usage long ago."
Su Yu nodded, "Yeah, but I am thinking of trying to use their blood essence to boost my willpower."
Xia Huyou's eyes lit up, "Oh, that is a good idea. Their blood essence is actually helpful for the willpower, but the boost is honestly very small. I know of a race that can actively cultivate their willpower before the Mental Tempering Stage."
"What race is that?"
"The five elemental race." Xia Huyou explained, "The five elementals are natural cultural researchers. Metal, wood, water, fire, and earth are all elements under their control. Wind escape, fire attack, water flooding, earth concealment, all these are actually Divine Character abilities.
"The five elemental race is a small race. And they don't start out strong. But they are quite fast when it comes to cultivating. And I am referring to the initial stages of cultivation when I say that. Their speed is all thanks to a suitable cultivation method. But that cultivation method is not suitable for humans. The body structure of humans and elementals are too different for the cultivation method to be of use to us."
"Five elemental race!"
Su Yu muttered to himself. So was the water guy in the research center a cultural researcher as well? He was completely unaware of that. In that case, were the water guy, shadow, and white civet all cultural researchers?
"Is the blood essence of the five elemental race suitable for willpower strengthening?"
"It's slightly useful." Xia Huyou then shook his head, "But it's not worth using. They are too rare. And the weaker members of their race are even rarer. And each drop of blood essence can only give you a negligible boost."
"Thus, you can't do anything with only a few drops of blood essence. But it is also too hard to gather more of their blood essence." Su Yu wasn't too worried.
He only needed enough blood essence to activate the corresponding page in his book before activating the foundation source art in the page. He could then find out the corresponding human acupoints of the technique through the temporary acupoints his book opened. He would only need to use some other blood essence to help open those new acupoints.
Yes. His solution was to directly use the cultivation method of that race. His book would convert it into a cultivation method that was completely compatible with the human body. For example, the Body Strengthening Art Su Yu had been using wasn't something he couldn't cultivate himself. He simply didn't have the time to open the required acupoints.
If the supply of mountainbreak bull blood essence started dropping in the future, he could totally open the required acupoints and cultivate it manually instead of relying on his book and blood essence.
"The five elemental race is even rarer than the divine race. Even if I can find some, it won't be cheap." Xia Huyou grimly said, "Su Yu, it's really not that useful. Of course, it doesn't matter if you only want some for your research. How about this? There are five sub-races among the five elemental race. I'll get a drop of blood essence from each of them."
"I want Infinite Strength blood essence." Su Yu said, "Can you get Infinite Strength blood essence?"
"I'll try. I can't promise which stage they would be at, and the price will be very expensive. After all, this race is too rare. Even if I sell the blood essence to you at cost, it would not be cheaper than 50 merit points per drop."
Su Yu nodded. He wasn't too bothered. He only needed a drop to activate the page in his book.
No, that wasn't right. He still needed another drop to activate the cultivation method as well. He wouldn't be able to figure out the corresponding human acupoints required by the method otherwise.
He said, "Get me two drops of each race's blood essence. I will accept your price of 500 merit points. Try to get the blood essence for me as soon as possible."
"Deal!" Xia Huyou smiled, "By the way, the mountainbreak bull blood essence has arrived. All of them are at the middle-stage Infinite Strength Realm. Do you want late-stage blood essence as well? If you want, I have some as well. I only have 200 drops of middle-stage blood essence."
"200 drops for 3,000 merit points?"
Su Yu could feel a headache coming. He was spending money like water! But he had no choice but to spend his money. Sure, he could choose to not spend his money and slowly cultivate.
But he was someone who had enjoyed the rapid cultivation brought about by his money. He wouldn't be able to get used to a slower rate of growth. He still had 10,870 merit points on him.
"I'll get all 200 drops of the middle-stage blood essence. How many drops of late-stage blood essence do you have? And how much are you selling them for?"
"20 points per drop. It's cheap, right?" Xia Huyou said, "We are brothers so I'm selling at cost. This is basically the same as the price you get on the Allheaven Battlefield itself. I'm not even charging you for the delivery."
"Thank you!"
Although Su Yu maintained his view that this fellow was definitely an unscrupulous businessman, this fellow had always been very generous when doing business with him.
"So how many drops of late-stage blood essence do you have?"
"100 drops. The rest have already been ordered by some other people."
"Fine. I'll get all 300 drops of the blood essence you can get me. 5,000 merit points for all of them?"
"Yeap."