Chapter 275: Showtime (1)
Su Yu couldn't be bothered to give those women more of his attention. He started heading toward the Secret Character Hall.
On his way, he encountered a familiar face.
To be precise, the face was both familiar and unfamiliar.
It was Zheng Hong.
Su Yu had never paid this person much attention, but that had changed when he learned that Zheng Hong was Zheng Yuming's grandson. Zheng Hong had always been very low profile in the class. And he was still maintaining the same behavior. He only nodded and smiled at Su Yu as a greeting before walking away silently.
Su Yu also returned the greeting with a nod. He never dared to underestimate any of these freaks. Nobody knew just how much strength they were hiding. It was more accurate to say that at present, none of them could be bothered to expose too much of their strength.
What was the point of exposing their strength before even getting into the top 100?
Behind him, another familiar person appeared. It was basically an assembly of senior class students today. Wan Mingze's gentle voice rang out, "Su Yu, if I get first place, do you want to buy the book from me?"
Su Yu turned around and smiled, "That would be great. But if it's too expensive, I won't be able to afford it."
"Are you not confident you can get first place?" Wan Mingze was acting like a friendly neighbor and said, "I thought you would confidently declare that the first place is yours."
"What can I do if I have weak willpower?" Su Yu said, "It's not too surprising that I'm weaker. After all, I haven’t been at the Mental Tempering Stage for long."
"You're right. It's a pity. But I believe you can eventually catch up given enough time." Wan Mingze started walking alongside Su Yu as he said, "In the academy, the Character Faculty has the most intense internal conflicts. In truth, these conflicts are starting to affect the normal operation of the academy in recent years. In my opinion, this is one of the reasons why Principal Wan had accepted the myriad race students. To create a common enemy and reduce the internal conflicts."
When Su Yu looked over doubtfully, Wan Mingze softly said, "I know you're very talented. This batch is filled with talented individuals. I hope to see everyone working together against external enemies. We should set our eyes on the myriad race students instead of on each other."
Su Yu nodded, "I hope so as well. I've never been one to actively seek trouble. I have always wanted to cultivate peacefully. But some people insist on creating trouble for me."
Su Yu looked at Wan Mingze and said, "If they slap your left cheek and ask for you to show them your right cheek for a second slap, would you do so?"
Su Yu smiled, "I understand what you’re doing. You want to be the peacemaker. I'm not looking down on you, but you're really not qualified enough to do that. Also, it's pointless to tell me this. If you can convince those people to stop targeting me, there won’t even be a need for me to waste my time on them."
Wan Mingze nodded, "I understand. Everything is always harder in the beginning. It doesn't matter. We can take our time. Su Yu, the current situation of the human race isn't very good. In the Allheaven Battlefield, the human race might still be able to resist the hostile races, but we are slowly starting to lose the ability to replenish our losses with new talents. The growth of the middle-aged generation is not able to keep up with the loss of the older generation."
Su Yu frowned, "I thought Great Xia is going to stop warring?"
"We're not stopping completely. We're merely going to cut down on some unnecessary wars. We are still fighting. Not long ago, the divine, devil, and beast races held a Myriad Race Conference in the Allheaven Battlefield. Some human experts were present as well. An expert from the first divine race suggested that all races should work together and build a central trade hub."
Wan Mingze clenched his teeth and said, "They suggested that the Human Realm be used as this central trade hub. They want to gather the resources of the Myriad Realms into the Human Realm, turning the Human Realm into a strategic location for all races. They demanded that the divine, devil, demon, immortal, and other strong races be granted autonomous territories within the Human Realm in the form of a lease."
Wan Mingze gritted his teeth furiously. Even Su Yu's face was flushed red. He was a smart person. He naturally understood what was the meaning of that. Leasing lands? That was merely a pretext for their invasion.
"Humanity will not agree to something like this!"
Su Yu clenched his teeth.
Wan MIngze nodded, "Of course we won't. They are basically trying to slowly push us to destruction and destroy our fighting spirit. They are trying to use a gentler method to invade the Human Realm."
Wan Mingze looked furious as he said, "And more than half of the myriad races had agreed to that proposal. They preached for peace and the end of all wars. They requested that humanity cede our own lands to the myriad races. They promised to hold hands with us and build a glorious new era with us. They even offered to invest a large amount of resources into the construction of these new trade hubs."
Wan Mingze sneered, "What a pity. Some ignorant fools, or perhaps these people are deliberately pretending to be clueless, are currently promoting this proposal in the Human Realm. Promising a world without war. A world where we no longer need to bleed. A more prosperous Human Realm."
"The Myriad Race Cult?"
"Yes." Wan Mingze nodded, "The Myriad Race Cult. They are not too strong in Great Xia due to our prefect's iron-blooded policy and suppression of them. But the cult is actually quite influential in some other prefectures."
Wan Mingze snorted, "Previously, some higher ups of the Myriad Race Cult had even written to the War Shrine and Knowledge Seeking Realm, hoping to get the approval to build a test site in the Human Realm. They requested for autonomy to test out the trade hub proposal and see if it works. They gave a very nice excuse. They claimed that this could be the backup plan for humanity in case warfare doesn't work out for us. They suggested that trade might be a different path we can take."
Su Yu frowned and said nothing.
After a while, he said, "They should allow it."
"Huh?" Wan Mingze blanked out.
Su Yu calmly said, "Since the cult is willing to reveal themselves in public, why not give them the chance? Gather them all in this test site before capturing all of them in one fell swoop. Isn't that a good idea?"
"..."
Wan Mingze laughed. He gave Su Yu a deep look and said, "It's not that simple. The cult isn't this stupid. They will only let some insignificant underlings be their face in public. The true experts won't show up. And after making one exception, things might develop uncontrollably."
"In that case, why did our academy start the Foreign Students Faculty?"
Wan Mingze smiled, "These are two different matters. Principal Wan's project is for the sake of roping in the minor races and reducing our internal conflicts."
Su Yu sank into silence. After a while, he nodded. All those matters were still too far from him.
Wan Mingze seemed to know what he was thinking and said, "Su Yu, I am telling you all this because I don't want to see people like us who shoulders the future of humanity waste our strength against each other. I'll be honest. If it was any other person, I wouldn't have wasted my time. But you are different. You're growing very fast."
In short, it was because Su Yu was talented enough to be worth his time.
Su Yu asked curiously, "Do you represent Principal Wan?"
"No." Wan Mingze shook his head, "How can I represent Principal Wan? I am far from qualified for that. I am here as a representative of the neutral character faction."
"What?"
"Do you think that apart from the multiple character faction, the rest of the Character Faculty belongs to the single character faction?" Wan Mingze laughed, "The Character Faculty is massive. The so-called single and multiple character factions merely made up a part of the faculty. Tell me. Do people like Xia Yuwen and Wu Qi belong to the single character faction? Sure, those people do not have any character techniques. But does that make them single character faction members?"
"Some people don't even have a teacher. And these people don't have character techniques either. Are these people single character faction, then?" Wan MIngze explained, "There is a third party in the Character Faculty. Most people in the faculty belong to the third party. They don't care which faction holds the upper hand. They don't care which faction holds the leading role in the academy. None of that is important to them."
"You are talented and are growing rapidly. Thus, the third party is now officially extending an invitation to you. We invite you to withdraw from the conflict between the single and multiple character factions."
"What do you mean?"
Wan Mingze seriously said, "We are protecting you. We wish to help you grow smoothly. We only ask that you remove yourself from their conflicts. We are not asking you to betray the multiple character faction. As long as you stop involving yourself in their conflicts, we can promise that the single character faction will leave you alone."
Su Yu frowned, "You mean to say that I should stay a multiple character faction member nominally but not participate in anything related to them. For example, I should let the matter of Huang Qifeng seriously injuring my senior sister slide."
Wan Mingze hesitated slightly before nodding, "Normal spars are still allowed. We simply ask that you don't target the single character faction members deliberately. That is the condition for our assistance."
Wan Mingze sincerely said, "You are not the only one we have invited. We have invited even those in the single character faction as well. Our goal is for everyone to withdraw from internal conflicts and focus on cultivating and growing strong."
"And who do you have in your faction?"
"There are a lot of us, including people like Researcher Huang Yao who had extended an invitation to you once and people like Researcher Hu Wensheng's first student, Han Chen. These people have all joined the third party to focus on their own cultivation. Internal power struggles will only serve to exhaust our own strength against each other."
Su Yu had a pensive look as he said, "If I join up, you guys will protect me from the single character faction. But I can't make any moves against them anymore either. We will mind our own business. Is this what you're trying to say?"
"Yes."
"Won't my teacher, martial uncle, and grandteacher be unhappy because of my choice?"
"They might. But they would probably be able to understand your choice. As good seniors, they shouldn't drag people like you into the quagmire of conflict. Even Wu Jia had been invited before, but she rejected the offer."
"If the third party is so powerful, why don't you guys advise the single character faction to stop targeting the multiple character faction? There are only a few of us around. We don't even have enough people to encroach upon their benefits. All we get, we worked hard for. We have not been taking anything from anyone."
Wan Mingze smiled helplessly, "That is still quite hard for us. The thing is, this conflict is mainly between the older generation. It can't be so easily resolved. Thus, we aim to start from the younger generation and end the conflict at the previous generation. In fact, we are also working on people like Huang Qifeng."
Su Yu's expression changed, "You guys have even invited him?"
"Su Yu, it is better to squash enmity than keeping it alive..."