Chapter 290: Martial Technique Gained (3)
A short while later, all the students were recalled back to the classroom.
Liu Hong shot Jia Mingzhen another glance before announcing, "First place, Wan Mingze at 290 marks. Second place, Hu Qiusheng at 280 marks. Third place, Su Yu at 260 marks. Fourth place, Zheng Yunhui and Jia Mingzhen at 250 marks."
Jia Mingzhen had obtained all his 250 marks from the single willpower test alone. He had obtained zero marks for his culture test. As for Zheng Yunhui, his score for the culture test was lower than Su Yu's, resulting in his overall mark being 10 marks lower than Su Yu's as well.
After hearing about the scores, Zheng Yunhui rubbed his chin and looked at Jia Mingzhen before muttering, "I thought I'm the only brainless brute here. But it turns out...there is someone even dumber than me here."
He remembered that Jia Mingzhen had also done badly during the previous month's culture test. And this time, that fellow had basically obtained zero marks for the culture test.
Zheng Yunhui looked at Jia Mingzhen with contempt before laughing, "At the very least, I had still managed to get 30 marks for the culture test by getting three certifications. But some people are truly dumb, I suppose."
"..."
Jia Mingzhen glared at Zheng Yunhui furiously.
Damn this bastard! Should he get 100 certifications next month to stun this idiot?
That was merely his way of holding back against these juniors. And this rascal actually dared to look down on him? He swore he was going to throw a sack over Zheng Yunhui tonight and gave the brat a good beating.
Su Yu did not say anything. He was satisfied with placing third. He had done decently for the culture test, but Wan Mingze and Hu Qiusheng had also done very well. It was obvious they had all been working very hard for their studies.
"Therefore, people are lying when they say that geniuses don't have to work hard. All these bastards like to pretend they don't work hard, but secretly, they probably burn a lot of midnight oil."
Su Yu could only curse inwardly. These people were already so talented. If they were also hardworking on top of it, how were others supposed to compete with them?
They were even able to gain so many certifications for their culture subject. Just how were those from ordinary families supposed to rise and surpass them?
"This won't do. Looks like I need to decrease my sleep to four hours daily from now on."
Su Yu set a new goal for himself. Bastards like Wan MIngze were talented and rich yet instead of spending their time having fun and fooling around with girls, they were actually working incredibly hard in their cultivation and studies. Su Yu felt greatly threatened.
Even though he was already at the ninth-stage Great Strength Realm, he still felt very threatened. If he couldn't even become the strongest among the new students, how was he supposed to compete against anyone else?
"I'll cultivate the heaven-grade martial technique right away. After entering the Top 100 Ranking, I will give every single one of them a beating. It doesn't matter how many hours you spend daily studying. I will definitely spend more hours on my studies than you guys!"
Su Yu vowed to outwork every single one of these bastards.
…
As usual, Su Yu went to claim his merit points right after the monthly examination.
Merit Office.
The same girl was working the counter. When she saw Su Yu, she had an odd look in her eyes as she read from a list, "Second place in the Divine Character tournament, 30 merit points. Third place in the monthly exam, 8 merit points. Class monitor pay, 3 merit points. High-high student subsidy, 3 merit points. You can get 49 merit points in total. Please confirm, Student Su Yu."
Su Yu nodded.
He had also obtained 20 merit points from Hu Qiusheng, but those points were naturally not claimed from this office.
"Can you check my current total earned merit?"
"149 points."
Su Yu nodded. That was acceptable. He hadn't been able to reach 150 points since he didn't place first in the monthly examination. But he had still earned a lot. This time, he had earned 69 merit points in total. Originally, he had 2,670 merit points left. After the tournament, he had 2,739 merit points.
"I still don't have the five elemental blood essence yet."
It would be great if he could obtain a willpower cultivation method. Otherwise, his willpower would forever lag behind. It was very possible that his willpower might still be stuck below the Skysoar Realm even after his physical cultivation had reached the Skysoar Realm.
"There's also the silkwrym blood essence. I think there is a drop of this blood essence among the samples Xia Huyou gathered for me. Let's see what it does."
He still had a lot of blood essence samples remaining. And there was a drop of silkwrym blood essence among the collection. He would try to activate its page on the book first. That way, he could avoid buying too much unsuitable blood essence.
Wentan Research Center.
By the time Su Yu returned, the sky was already dark. Ever since he had moved into the research center, he had never returned to the Mental Tempering Garden. Before he could even enter the building, his communicator rang.
"Brother Su, you said earlier that you want to have a chat with me..."
Upon hearing Hu Zongji's voice, Su Yu slapped his own forehead. He had actually forgotten about that.
He smiled and said, "Zongji, I was just about to call you. Are you free now?"
"Yeah."
"Hmm. There's a Red Prosperous Restaurant in the Visitor District. Let's meet there for dinner later. The meal is on me."
"You are too polite…"
Su Yu hurriedly said, "I have something important to talk to you about. Don't be a stranger, Zongji."
"Fine. See you later."
After ending the call, Su Yu entered the research center. And after thinking about something, he went to the storeroom and retrieved a few items.
About half an hour later.
Second floor of the Red Prosperous Restaurant.
"Zongji, you're actually here earlier than me. Sorry for making you wait."
"Don't apologize." When facing Su Yu, Hu Zongji was no longer as arrogant as before. He said, "There is no need for the two of us to act like strangers. I still need to thank you for helping me save face today so let me get the bill tonight."
"How can I do that? Are you looking down on me?"
After exchanging some pleasantries, the two entered the private room.
And after a short chat, Hu Zongji asked curiously, "Brother Su..."
"Just call me by my name." Su Yu waved his hand and said, "We're brothers. And fate keeps bringing us together. There is no need for us to be overly formal when speaking to each other. I have to thank our previous conflict for helping us know each other better. Let's forget about all our misunderstandings from before."
"Fine. Then I'll be straightforward." Hu Zongji nodded and asked, "Su Yu, do you need my help with something? Just be honest. To tell you the truth, I have a bad temper. And I'm not that strong either. But I am absolutely loyal to my friends!"
Naturally, Su Yu did not take those words seriously.
After a short silence, he said, "Zongji, I know about you. Your family isn't too influential in the academy. You only have a second granduncle who is a Cloudbreach expert and an intermediate researcher in the academy. Am I right?"
Hu Zongji nodded and said nothing.
"Your elder brother, Hu Zongyu, is a second-stage Infinite Strength cultivator with at least 90 percent willpower. He also occupies the 65th place in the Top 100 Ranking. Additionally, he is also the deputy president of the Tianshui Club. Am I right?"
Hu Zongji started to frown.
Su Yu smiled, "Don't misunderstand. Everyone knows all that. Zongji, I'll be frank. You are in a far better position than me in the academy. But who do you think the Hu Family would prioritize? You or your elder brother?"
Hu Zongji said nothing.
"I don't mean anything. I only feel that life is too difficult for people like us. In the academy, every step we take forward can only be taken with great difficulty. We are akin to unwanted children of a large family. If we want to grow strong, we can only rely on ourselves."
Hu Zongji looked at Su Yu and said, "Su Yu, just get to the point. Why keep beating around the bush when you have already said this much?"
"Sure!" Su Yu said, "I'll be direct. In the academy, there are plenty of clubs. But are these clubs actually helpful? Each year, they recruit a bunch of new students. And each student is milked like a farm animal for their money. But after getting milked, apart from some sense of pride for being part of a large club, what do these new students get?"
"You mean..."
"I intend to found a secret club. A Mutual Aid Club! We will work together and grow together! Of course, since we are only new students, I won't be making the existence of this club public. I also won't be recruiting openly. I only intend to recruit those who have similar goals as us."
He solemnly said, "There is power in numbers. What can you accomplish alone in the academy regardless of your talent? Only by establishing a circle and network that would be helpful to you would you be able to reach the Skysoar Realm. With your own network, even when you enter the Allheaven Battlefield in the future, you would have comrades fighting alongside you. Even when accepting missions, you would be able to find trustworthy team members to carry out the mission together instead of worrying that you would be stabbed in the back."
The look in Hu Zongji's eyes changed several times as he looked at Su Yu. Slowly, he asked, "Why me? I'm not strong. My talent...is decent, I suppose. But I'm only a high-middle student..."
Su Yu smiled, "Every member picked to enter our club naturally has their own strength and brings some benefits to everyone else in the club. That is the point. Pooling together everyone's strength to help each other.
"Your elder brother is the deputy president of the Tianshui Club. Your second granduncle is the deputy head of the Missions Department. We are not accepting any missions yet, but what about the future?
"We can get your second granduncle to save some good missions with high rewards and are less time consuming. We are not breaking any rules doing that, right? Meanwhile, my martial uncle is the head manager of the books depository. We can get his help and guidance when required. In any case, all this is better than stumbling forward alone."
Hu Zongji said nothing.
Su Yu continued, "Also, we can even perform a limited sharing of all our resources..."
As he said that, he took out a willpower text.
"This is a willpower text written by a Skysoar. It's not too valuable, but I have quite a lot of them. And I bought them all myself. After using it a few times, I might not need it anymore. If it still has some willpower left within, someone else can make use of it.
"But I'm not interested in selling these texts. Everyone has a unique style of cultivation. And using some specific willpower texts would be more helpful than attending those public classes. But doing so is too expensive.
"Do you have enough merit points? You're not even at the Great Strength Realm yet. Have you prepared the blood essence for your body forging? Are you planning to use some inferior blood essence? How about the willpower texts of your martial techniques? Have your family prepared them all for you?"
Hu Zongji was silent.
"Can you really rise into prominence relying on your family?"
Hu Zongji took a deep breath and said, "Su Yu, I'll be honest. I really don't have a lot to offer. The more you offer, the more worried I am. I am not as talented as you. I am also weaker. In the end, I will be the one dragging you down. And this club will fall apart because of that..."
Smart.
Su Yu nodded, "I know. But if we work together, we can go further. I am only afraid that you lack the motivation to go further. We all come from a different circle of people. Like you said, your elder brother has a good relationship with Liu He. In that case, you will be able to provide me with some important information.
"Just take the single character faction as an example. They have been targeting me so I won't be able to get into their circle. But you can. In this era, if you don't think of ways to help yourself, if you don't grab every opportunity available to you, are you hoping that others will pity you and give you some help?"