Chapter 29: Beyond Skysoar (1)
School dormitory.
The school-provided dormitory was a large apartment unit with four bedrooms and two living rooms. Liu Wenyan could ignore Bai Feng, but that wasn't the case for the principal or Nanyuan itself. None of them could afford to slight a researcher, even if the researcher in question was only an assistant.
Thus, Bai Feng's temporary residence was even better than what the regular instructors were provided with. Inside the living room, Bai Feng was seated on the couch. Standing respectfully before him were Su Yu and Liu Yue, waiting silently while Bai Feng watched the television.
Plop!
The television was showing a scene of numerous people being dragged out and executed. The day before, the Martial Dragon Guards and city guards of the capital had been deployed. Tens of thousands of cult members were killed and over three thousand were captured.
Great Xia had a ruthless policy where any captured cult member would be executed without trial so long as their identity was confirmed. The executions were being shown live on television. Three thousand might not sound like a big number, but the executions had been ongoing for more than ten minutes and it was far from over.
.
Liu Yue was finding the scene hard to witness as she averted her gaze from the television. Su Yu was also feeling rather uncomfortable. He did not feel any pity toward the cult members, but he felt sick after seeing so much blood despite the fact that he had personally killed two cult members the day before.
Bai Feng seemed to be enjoying himself. While leisurely drinking his tea, he commented, "There are numerous sects in the Myriad Race Cult, and the Divine Skywing Sect can be considered one of the larger ones. Their sect master was a super expert as well. However, they suffered a complete defeat in Great Xia. Their sect master was killed alongside almost all their elite members. Looks like Great Xia has earned big this time."
Both Su Yu and Liu Yue were confused. Earned big?
"You don't understand?" Bai Feng smiled, "It's simple. The elites are dead. The sect master is dead. Who's the killer? How many people are there in Great Xia that actually have the ability to kill the sect master? Since the sect master has the guts to come, something must have given him the confidence. Nobody will be willing to seek death. What was his source of confidence? The other sect masters in the cult? No. His backers must have arrived. That was why he had the courage to enter Great Xia."
Su Yu's eyes flickered as he asked, "Teacher Bai, you mean that someone from the divine skywing race was here?"
"Exactly. They must be here. And since the sect master has been killed, how about those from the divine skywing race? If they were really killed, wouldn't it be profitable for whoever the killer was?"
Bai Feng laughed and said, "Things are going to get troublesome for the prefect."
"Troublesome?"
"Yes. Just you wait. The various war academies and cultural research academies will be bothering him for the flesh and blood of the divine skywing race. I wonder if our principal is back. He needs to get something good for the academy as well. The prefect is going to be rich. Blood essence, flesh, weapons, and cultivation methods of the divine race...tsk tsk. He is definitely getting rich."
"The prefect is probably going crazy right this moment. It is probably very lively right now in the capital."
Putting it like that, Su Yu and Liu Yue naturally understood what Bai Feng meant. The two had a look of longing on their faces. They weren't really envious of those treasures, but they were simply getting excited hearing about so many valuable treasures.
"Teacher Bai, are the intruders from the divine skywing race strong?"
Bai Feng looked at the two and smiled, "Of course they're strong. I'm a frank person, so don't mind me. For people of Nanyuan, the Skysoar Realm is the ultimate height. But for the capital, the Skysoar Realm is merely halfway to the top. Or to be precise, that is only the first step toward becoming a true expert.
"Those from a small city would never be able to imagine just how strong a true expert can be. Of course, there is no need for them to know. For people like them, Skysoar and the realm beyond is practically the same as experts of that level can wipe them out with a wave of a hand.
"For a cultivator, the Source Opening, Great Strength, and Infinite Strength Realms are the foundational stage, one where you strengthen your body so that your body won't implode from taking in too much source qi. Only by reaching the Skysoar Realm would your voice hold weight in the academies, the armies, the sects, the various realms, and the battlefield. Only by reaching that level can one start being regarded as an expert."
Su Yu's eyes were shining. He had seen too little of the world. Nanyuan was too small. His world had been too small.
"Teacher Bai, I know there are still more realms beyond the Skysoar Realm. I heard from my father that the 10000-man commanders are all in the Cloudbreach Realm. Is that the realm one level above the Skysoar Realm?"
"Yes." Bai Feng took a sip from his tea and calmly said, "How far can a Skysoar cultivator fly? How high can a Skysoar cultivator reach? That is only the first step into becoming an expert. Only when you can breach the clouds and travel beyond it would you be truly considered an expert. At that point, even if you're facing countless Infinite Strength and Great Strength cultivators, what can they do to you?
"I'll walk on clouds, high above the ground. No matter how strong your arms are, how powerful your armies are, can you reach me? On the Allheaven Battlefield, almost everyone capable of leading an army of ten thousand is a Cloudbreach cultivator. At the Cloudbreach Realm, you can even be a 1000-man commander in the Martial Dragon Guards."
"In the Martial Dragon Guards, a stronger squad leader would be in the Skysoar Realm while a weaker one would be at the ninth-stage Infinite Strength Realm. Their 100-man commanders are basically all Skysoar cultivators, and most of them are at the middle-stage or higher. The Martial Dragon Guards have five 1000-man commanders. Three of them are at the Cloudbreach Realm while the other two are at the ninth-stage Skysoar Realm."
Su Yu swallowed. They were so powerful? How about their deputy general, then? There was no need to talk about the general as he was Great Xia's prefect. But how about the deputy general?
Bai Feng glanced at him and smiled, "And above the Cloudbreach Realm is the Mountainsea Realm. Capable of hacking mountains and severing oceans, a Mountainsea cultivator can shake the world with every move. That is an incomparably powerful realm where with one strike, you will be able to collapse mountains and evaporate oceans."
"And beyond the Mountainsea Realm?" Su Yu asked. "I have heard the terms apex experts and invincible experts being thrown around before. Are these people in the Mountainsea Realm?"
"No. A Mountainsea cultivator is capable of ruling a region. Even at the Allheaven Battlefield, someone like that is qualified to lead an army. With one command, a hundred thousand soldiers will do their bidding. Someone like that can be a general or a deputy general of a powerful army. The deputy general of the Martial Dragon Guards is one such person.
"Only above the Mountainsea Realm will one be known as an apex expert or an invincible expert. That is too far away from you. You only need to know that those realms exist, but you don't need to ask too much about them. You will come to learn all that at the capital. There is no point in learning too much about apex and invincible experts. That is a realm far beyond us.
"You're not even a Great Strength cultivator yet. Are you going to become an invincible expert within one day after learning about it? You only need to know that they're strong. Very strong. That would be enough. Most of the prefects are apex experts, and most of the prefecture founders are invincible experts. That is all you need to know."
Su Yu felt his lips go dry. For the very first time, he felt very clearly how small Nanyuan was, and how low the sky above Nanyuan was. Here, an Infinite Strength cultivator was an expert and a Skysoar cultivator was invincible. As for the realms beyond such as the Cloudbreach and Mountainsea Realms, he had never even heard of the existence of such experts in Nanyuan.
At the Cloudbreach Realm, one could be a 10000-man commander on the Allheaven Battlefield. At the Mountainsea Realm, one could dominate a region on the Allheaven Battlefield and gain command of an entire army. And beyond that were the apex experts and the invincible experts.
Looking at the expression of the two kids before him, Bai Feng smiled joyfully. He loved looking at such shocked expressions. He had a somewhat unhealthy interest in generating such expressions.
In truth, there wasn't a need for him to tell them all that as they would end up learning the same at the capital. However, he had still decided to tell them. That was because he had been somewhat upset with how much Liu Wenyan had belittled him. Did this little genius called Su Yu really knew how high the sky was?
After a short while, Su Yu heaved a long breath and calmed himself down. When Bai Feng saw that, he praised inwardly that this kid had a decent mindset. As a kid who had yet to see the world, it was rather incredible for him to be able to calm down so quickly.
As for Liu Yue, she was getting slightly excited, but she was also mostly calm. Bai Feng did not pay her much attention as he could see that she was already aware of all that. The little excitement she displayed was only due to her desire for strength. The only person who was truly clueless here was Su Yu.
It wasn't his fault. He was born here and he grew up here. He had not taken a step out of the city during his eighteen years of life. Su Long had taken great care of Su Yu, but Su Long himself was only a Great Strength cultivator. Someone like him wouldn't really know that much about the world either. Liu Wenyan had no reason to tell Su Yu things that did not concern him. And this information wouldn't even be available in books, so Su Yu truly knew nothing about the higher cultivation realms.
"It will be a very long time before you reach that realm. You don’t have much time with me. Are you sure you want to waste your time on this topic?"
Bai Feng did not bother inviting the two to sit. He smiled and continued, "I'll be here for two days. Before I leave, you can ask me anything. I'll tell you what I can. This is a rare opportunity for you."
Su Yu asked, "Teacher Bai, what exactly is willpower? How do I cultivate it? How do I measure it? How do I determine if mine is strong or weak?"
"Willpower..." Bai Feng glanced at Su Yu and said, "You're actually quite decent in terms of willpower. Of course, you haven't properly sensed or cultivated it before, so you aren't able to measure it. Martial Uncle has been trying to get you to join the cultural research academy because he sensed the strength of your willpower. He does not wish to see you walk down a wrong path. As far as I am concerned, willpower is similar to physical power. Each of them is a type of power. One materializes externally, and one materializes internally..."
He picked up a black glass and covered the top of the glass with his hand. "Physical power is akin to this glass. If I hit you with it, can you feel the pain?"
Su Yu nodded.
"Physical power operates similarly. If I hit you, you'll be hurt. You can directly feel it. You can also see it at work. How much it hurts depends on the quality of the glass. The harder, bigger, or heavier it is, the more pain you'll feel. As for willpower, it is the power within the glass. You can't sense it, but the act of cultivating willpower is the same as filling the glass with water."
He started pouring water into the glass.
"The state before the glass is full is akin to the state before willpower materialization. Even with your glass full, you still can't do anything with it. That was the state your instructor was in previously. His glass was full, but not overflowing yet. When the water is full enough to overflow, you will achieve willpower materialization."
Bai Feng continued pouring water into the glass, to the point water was overflowing out of it. More and more water overflowed out of the glass.
"Sure, when you see the water overflowing bit by bit, you will think that it's nothing compared to physical strength. But what if there is a lot more water overflowing out of the glass?"