Chapter 286: Second Place Together (2)
Outside.
The color gold was defending while the color red was attacking furiously. The two seemed to be in a bitter fight. Both were constantly sending willpower into the ball, and both were individuals with thick willpower with a large supply of willpower at their disposal.
One minute. Two minutes...
Time passed slowly.
Everyone watched on silently. These freaks were indeed not to be underestimated. A normal Mental Tempering Stage cultivator would not last more than five minutes. But these two had surprising endurance, especially Su Yu.
The middle-aged man from the Weaponsmithing Faculty was more and more impressed. The kid really had excellent endurance. Right that moment, Su Yu trembled slightly. Everyone started wondering if this was his defeat.
But that thought had barely crossed their minds when Su Yu roared. His reaction was so intense that even his physical body was affected. His willpower channeling that was on the verge of stopping a moment before suddenly regained its vigor as more willpower surged into the ball.
The stream of willpower was pouring in unendingly. Within Su Yu's previously dry sea of willpower, new willpower was being produced.
...
Inside the grotto.
Su Yu was as still as a mountain. Seated cross-legged, he allowed himself to be bombarded by the explode characters.
Meanwhile, Zhang Hao's willpower body was starting to turn translucent. He looked at Su Yu in bewilderment. What was going on? Were all those explosions not enough?
Su Yu completely ignored Zhang Hao and focused on defending. A constant stream of willpower was flowing into the grotto from his body outside. He had a much higher recovery speed than Zhang Hao. Since he was already used to pushing himself to his limit, his recovery was very fast.
Additionally, he also had the book that helped enhance his willpower recovery. Furthermore, the mythic destruction beast skull had also increased his recovery. His willpower was slightly weaker than this opponent, but since he was focusing on defending, his rate of exhaustion was also much lower, which also helped him recover faster than his opponent.
Both of them knew that it was already nearly 10 minutes. According to the rules, if the fight dragged on for 10 minutes, the color that had occupied the most space would be the winner. Although they couldn't see what was going on outside, they both knew that the one with more willpower remaining would be the one to occupy more space.
Zhang Hao frowned. He had exhausted quite a lot of his willpower. Su Yu was much more tenacious than he had imagined. After thinking about it, he waved his hand and withdrew all his explode characters. Calm returned to the grotto.
Su Yu looked at him. He looked at Su Yu as well. Then, he smiled and sat down cross-legged, looking like he was trying to recover. He was going to change his approach.
In the air, a row of characters appeared: “Mountainsea Peace Seeking Stratagem. It is hard for one of us to defeat the other. You want the Mountainsea Peace Seeking Stratagem, right? If you really end up losing this match, you won't be able to get it.”
Su Yu frowned. A short while later, a row of characters appeared in front of him: “I am using my ultimate technique. If your willpower ends up damaged, don't blame me.”
Zhang Hao didn't know what to think. Ultimate technique? Did this fellow still have more trump cards? What ultimate technique? Even the character technique had been used. What else did this fellow have?
...
Outside.
A portion of Su Yu's willpower withdrew. Instantly, the gold on the ball lost a large amount of ground. Everyone's eyes widened. Was Su Yu going to lose?
After withdrawing so much willpower, Su Yu could finally sense his physical body again. Suddenly, he crushed the drop of blood essence in his mouth. The aura of the blood essence appeared in a tiny burst before vanishing.
A few researchers hurriedly looked at Su Yu. Then, they saw the gold on the ball regaining its vigor and reclaiming half the space on the ball.
"Blood essence?"
Someone asked in astonishment, "What is he doing?"
This wasn't even a physical combat. How was blood essence supposed to help a willpower fight?
"Blood essence ability!"
Liu Hong muttered, "What blood essence is this? Is it a type of blood essence that is good in willpower combat?"
Many people appeared astonished to hear those words. Did willpower blood essence abilities exist? If there was, then it would be extremely valuable for cultural researchers.
The previous demonstrated blood essence abilities came from races such as the fire hog and iron-winged bird, but both were physical combat abilities. Had Wentan Research Center come up with a willpower blood essence ability as well?
"There are willpower racial abilities in existence. For example, the fire crow race is able to release fire attacks that can burn one's sea of willpower."
"The celestial eye divine race's Tricolor Ray is able to harm one’s sea of willpower as well."
"The white civet's seduction ability is able to confuse one's willpower..."
One researcher after another spoke out, listing several races with willpower racial abilities.
"Back then, Elder Hong had captured many such creatures. Had he discovered something from them?"
All these people grew excited. As for what blood essence Su Yu had used, the aura had only appeared for a split second. They weren't able to determine what it was. Meanwhile, Jia Mingzhen and the others had been able to sense what blood essence Su Yu had used.
"Soul devouring bug blood essence...in the Great Strength Realm."
Jia Mingzhen was able to easily determine what blood essence Su Yu had used. He shook his head and regretfully said, "It's a Great Strength Realm blood essence. Looks like even if there is a result, they are still not able to make something too powerful. Otherwise, Su Yu wouldn't have used only a Great Strength blood essence."
"The soul devouring bugs are able to corrode willpower. But the soul devouring bugs rely on quantity. Just a drop of blood essence is probably not too effective."
But Jia Mingzhen was still impressed, "Hong Tan is really quite talented for him to have created even something like this. Not even the Knowledge Seeking Realm has willpower racial abilities."
"Just what is that fellow doing in the Allheaven Battlefield?"
"I heard a new race has been discovered. There are very few of them in existence. This is probably a race that has recently connected their realm with the Allheaven Battlefield. Someone encountered them and said that they have a unique ability that can consume Divine Characters..."
Jia Mingzhen grew slightly excited as he said, "This consumption is one that destroys any trace of your character. You won't be able to reform it. I am also quite interested in this race. If I can research them for a bit, I might be able to form a powerful consumption-related character..."
"Is that even real? I heard the same thing, but the location has changed from the Allheaven Battlefield to Great Shang. And the people who had stumbled upon this new race is someone from Great Shang."
"Who knows? But I reckon Hong Tan won't come back easily before catching at least one of them."
The sole woman among the group said, "By the way, is there a possibility that these rumors are merely fake rumors intentionally spread to lure Hong Tan out of the academy?"
"Hmm?"
"Hong Tan has been performing a lot of research on the myriad races over the years. He has a high demand for blood essence, especially the rarer blood essence. Everyone knows about that. Any other person might find a new creature troublesome to capture, but Hong Tan is definitely not such a person. The moment he heard of a creature like that, he would most definitely leave."
"But I heard that Bai Feng was the one who had instigated him to leave..."
"You can't call that instigation. The rumors are already spreading. Even if Bai Feng stayed silent, Hong Tan would eventually find out. And he is the type of person that would definitely leave once he learns of it. Do you think this is the single character faction's work?"
They all sank into silence with pensive looks on their faces. That was very possible.
Bai Feng was not stupid, but at times, he could be very simple-minded. The moment he heard of that new creature, it was only a matter of time before Hong Tan learned of it as well. Bai Feng was not the type of person that would wonder why he had heard about the rumor. But these elders didn't really know that much about what had happened either.
Hong Tan was actually quite similar in nature to Bai Feng. And with his strength, it wasn't surprising that he would fearlessly head toward the Allheaven Battlefield after learning about the new creature.
While the elders were conversing, the colors on the ball kept changing. The two colors continued struggling against each other, but the color red was starting to be pushed back while a look of pain could be seen on Zhang Hao's face. His willpower had been corroded.
When the elders noticed that, they looked at Su Yu in astonishment. Did the blood essence ability really work?
...
Inside the grotto.
Su Yu created numerous bolts of lightning that were covered by some sort of dark energy. The moment Zhang Hao's explode characters got in contact with the dark energy, the characters would be corroded.
The darkness kept spreading.
Eventually, it started eating into Zhang Hao's willpower. With a look of pain on his face, Zhang Hao constantly retreated. He really wanted to punch someone in the face right now. Just what the hell was this? Everything had been fine just a moment ago. Why had this dark energy appeared suddenly?
The dark energy did not even look like something produced by a Divine Character. And after exchanging a few moves with Su Yu, he found that the dark energy was capable of corroding his willpower. Damn it! What in the world was this? If this continued, it wouldn't be worth it even if he could win.
He had to spend a lot of effort and time to repair his corroded willpower. And if his Divine Characters were corroded as well, he would lose even more. That wasn't something that a mere first place could compensate for. Thus, he raised his hand and surrendered.
"Let's have a chat outside."
When Su Yu saw that sentence in the air, he nodded at Zhang Hao. He was also relieved that this was over. Then, Zhang Hao withdrew from the grotto.
...
Both of them opened their eyes at the same time. Zhang Hao instantly grimaced in pain, his grace and elegance from before vanishing completely. His heart was aching. He could see several black dots on his core Divine Character. Damn it. If they kept fighting, his character would suffer even more corrosion. Just what the hell was that?
Su Yu looked at him apologetically and said, "My apologies, Brother Zhang. But I need to win. I have to get the book back for my grandteacher."
Zhang Hao helplessly said, "Don't worry about it. You relied on your strength to win. Even without that technique, you might still win anyway."
"We can hang out sometimes. I am very interested in what you used earlier."
Su Yu smiled and nodded, "Sure."
As for the questions he might receive about the special blood essence he was using, he wasn't too worried. He could easily give a random excuse such as he was prohibited from leaking the secret to outsiders by his teacher. It was not an issue at all.
The two did not waste any time and returned to the crowd immediately after. Both Xia Chan and Su Meng were giving the two a deep look. That was especially true when they were looking at Su Yu as both were looking at him with solemn expressions. After defeating both Zheng Hong and Zhang Hao, they found Su Yu more and more unfathomable.
The moment Su Yu returned to the crowd, Xia Huyou rushed over in excitement and softly asked, "Soul devouring bug blood essence? Blood essence ability? Come on, sell me a few drops. I can offer you 100 merit points per drop. No, 200 per drop! What do you think?"
"Nope. Not selling."
"Come on! Brother! I can gather the raw materials for you! This is definitely something Teacher Bai came up with, right? You definitely have more!"
Su Yu calmly said, "I'm not selling. The end product is still unstable. It can't last too long after production. It is still in the experimental phase."
"How about the iron-winged bird blood essence? Can you sell me a few drops?"
"Nope. Not selling."
Su Yu frowned, "My grandteacher is not back. We won't sell anything before he returns. Just give up."
When Su Yu thought about it, he felt quite helpless. He really needed to ask his teacher if he could get some actual special blood essence to act as a cover. He believed the research center had some of such blood essence, but these special blood essence were all at the Great Strength Realm. However, that didn't matter.
Su Yu ignored Xia Huyou and focused on the two girls who were about to fight instead.
There was a lot more interest in this fight.
A far larger crowd had gathered nearby to observe. Meanwhile, Xia Huyou was busy staring at Su Meng while clicking his tongue. When Su Yu focused, he noticed the fatty whispering to another guy who was fully focused on the two girls as well. "Su Meng is truly well-endowed. My little sister is such a disappointment. She should push Su Meng more, make her sweat so that I can have a better look, you know..."
"Your little sister is pretty decent as well..."
Bang!
Immediately after, Xia Huyou slapped that guy before whispering, "Are you trying to die? His grandpa is that fellow...Do you want me to snitch on you? Your entire family would instantly go bankrupt!"
"Have mercy, Brother Xia! I was just saying! Please don't! Let's focus on Su Meng! Yes, look at her!"
The guy was very nervous. Marquis Xia. He had almost forgotten about that person. Yes, that was definitely someone capable of killing his family financially.
Su Yu was speechless. He decided to ignore them and sat down cross-legged to recover. Wan Mingze and Hu Qiusheng were also doing the same.
Noticing that Su Yu had sat down, Wan Mingze suddenly said, "Su Yu, for us, it doesn't matter if we get first or second place. How about this? If either of us get first place instead of you, we can trade the Mountainsea Peace Seeking Stratagem with you for a drop of the special blood essence you used earlier."
Su Yu was starting to regret what he did. It would seem like he had attracted some trouble by using that blood essence. The soul devouring bug blood essence seemed to be even more valuable than the iron-winged bird blood essence even if it was only at the Great Strength Realm.
That was understandable as this was a cultural researcher academy. Everyone here placed a lot more importance on willpower.
The iron-winged bird blood essence he had used previously was in the Infinite Strength Realm yet people barely cared about it. But now, he had attracted the attention of people like Xia Huyou and Wan Mingze. Those teachers were probably just as interested as well. He realized that he might have stirred up some trouble.
He sighed inwardly. He had not expected that something like this would happen. He had thought that everyone's reaction would be the same. He had simply not considered things thoroughly enough. He really needed to reflect on himself after this.
While thinking of all that, Su Yu smiled and said, "No I can't. Don't make things difficult for me. I need my teacher's permission, but since my grandteacher isn't around, there is no way my teacher would agree. This is only an experimental product. And I only have that one drop on me."
They all silently gazed at him while smiling. Just a drop?