Chapter 297: Before The Storm (2)
Wu Yuehua felt her lips go dry. Fifty years ago, they were still very weak. At that point in time, people from her generation were in a phase of growth, forming the majority of the Divine Characters they would be using in the future.
The Divine Characters of the divines and devils were powerful. Almost all the elders present had Divine Characters of these races. As for the willpower texts they had obtained before that incident 50 years ago, most of these texts had been exhausted from continuous usage.
Thus, most of the myriad race willpower texts humanity used were newly seized texts. Everyone sank into silence.
After a long while, Xia Changqing said, "Has the Knowledge Seeking Realm given a reply?"
Today, Zhou Mingren wasn't around. He was in seclusion. Xia Changqing was the sole vice principal present in this meeting. He had to clarify more.
Wan Tiansheng shook his head, "No. Maybe they are investigating on their end as well. If this is really true, then we are really in deep trouble. Are we supposed to tell everyone to destroy their own Divine Characters? Once someone loses too many characters, one's willpower will also suffer crippling damage. And without the Divine Characters one had nurtured for so many years, is a cultural researcher still a cultural researcher?"
Wan Tiansheng sighed helplessly, "I really hope that this isn't true. But if it's true, the battle 50 years ago wasn't an accident. It was a conspiracy. The myriad races had even used the life of one Eternal to sever our inheritance."
All the elders were greatly troubled. All of them were hoping that Wan Tiansheng was wrong. Otherwise, wouldn't that mean that they no longer had any hope of reaching the Sunmoon Realm? They needed to wait for the update from the Knowledge Seeking Realm.
"Do not leak any of this." Wan Tiansheng said, "All of you are Mountainsea elders. Don't tell anyone about this. We don't want to create a mass panic."
If this was leaked, it might lead to a series of unexpected troubles.
Wan Tiansheng said, "I also suspect that the origin of this curse is that fellow from the celestial chasm race. Can we remove the curse by killing him?"
The elders had a helpless look. Xia Changqing sighed and said, "He has been missing for 50 years. According to the rumors, he suffered serious injuries back then. If he is still alive, he is probably hiding somewhere deep in slumber. If we can't locate him, it doesn't matter how many Eternals humanity has. We won't be able to touch him."
Wan Tiansheng nodded, "I am not telling you this to make all of you panic. I am telling you this because I need your help for an experiment. There are numerous students under all of you. I hope that from today onward, all of you will select a group of students to focus on human characters. Also form a few groups that only focus on characters that are not from the divine, devil, or the other powerful races."
Immediately, someone objected, "The characters of the human and weak races won't be able to grow into Eternal characters. Thus, these people won't be able to reach the Sunmoon Realm anyway. This experiment won't work."
"Yeah. By cultivating the characters of weak races, the cultivators will also be weaker. At that time, they might be so weak that they couldn't even contend against other Mountainsea or Cloudbreach opponents even after reaching the Mountainsea Realm. At that time, the cultural researchers of humanity would truly be ruined."
More people spoke, all of them disagreeing with Wan Tiansheng's experiment.
The Divine Characters of these weak races would not be able to become Eternal characters.
Wan Tiansheng seemed to have expected their objections. He said, "In truth, I have been thinking about something. Multiple character faction. Character fusion. Character technique. If someone cultivates only human characters or the characters of weak races, can they grow the entire character technique into an Eternal character instead?"
Wan Tiansheng solemnly said, "The single character faction does not have a systematic method of utilizing their characters. Even for some who have a system, those systems still can't turn into a proper character technique. Also, for strength, the single character faction must cultivate the characters of the strong races. Meanwhile, the multiple character faction can solve the issue of weak individual characters through their character technique..."
Zheng Yuming, who had been staying silent, suddenly said, "Principal, do you mean that you are going to start assisting the multiple character faction? Just for this guess of yours? For the tiniest possibility that they might be the solution for this dilemma? And then, we will exhaust a large amount of resources to nurture a few weaklings that might not even be able to go far in cultivation? The so-called character technique is essentially the fusion of multiple characters. In essence, they are multiple characters, not a singular character. How can you grow them all into a singular Eternal character? Not even the fifth principal had accomplished this feat!"
Wan Tiansheng sank into silence.
Zheng Yuming continued, "I won't mention anyone else, but Hong Tan is considered talented, right? He has been cultivating his character technique for so many years. Try asking him how strong would he be after removing his divine and devil characters. Can he turn his character technique into a single unit and grow it into an Eternal character?"
Wan Tiansheng sank into silence. After a short while, he said, "We can it a try. The multiple character faction has a new student this year, right? He hasn't formed any divine or devil characters yet. We can observe him first. I will communicate with Chen Yong and Bai Feng. We can try to make him focus on characters that are not from the divine and devil races..."
Wu Yuehua frowned and said, "Principal, if your experiment fails, this student's future will be ruined. I know about that kid called Su Yu. He is very talented. For a single guess of you, we experiment on him and stop him from forming divine and devil characters? Is he supposed to form only the characters from the human and weak races? In that case, the multiple character faction's trademark of being unrivaled in the same cultivation level would be reduced into a joke..."
Wan Tiansheng solemnly said, "But someone has to do it. We can try asking him for his opinion first. If he refuses, we can try to get someone else to try it. If not, I'll have Wan Mingze destroy all his Divine Characters and restart his cultivation in the multiple character faction."
Everyone frowned.
This time, Zheng Yuming did not say anything. Let Su Yu form only human characters or the characters of weak races? This was a good idea. He reckoned that this experiment would cripple Su Yu.
As for whether Su Yu would agree to it or not, that didn't matter. If he disagreed, there would be no way to prove whether character technique was the answer. In that case, the academy naturally wouldn't invest more into the multiple character faction.
Wu Yuehua wanted to say something but hesitated. After thinking about it, she decided to stay silent. She would ask around first before doing anything. Nobody could force Su Yu to do so if he didn't want to. After all, nobody could control what character he ultimately decided to form.
"Also, the books depository..." Wan Tiansheng said, "How many old myriad race willpower texts are still around? Make a list of them. It would be even safer to gather all our willpower texts from 60 years ago. I'm worried that they have been preparing in advance. In the future, our geniuses should prioritize studying these older willpower texts instead of the newer ones."
The moment those words were said, numerous thoughts arose in the minds of these elders. They still had a decent number of old willpower texts remaining. If the newer willpower texts were problematic, would the ones using the older willpower texts be able to avoid this trap?
Zheng Yuming's eyes flickered as he said, "If this is true, the value of those older willpower texts would rise greatly. The books depository would become an extremely important place. It would be no less important than the Grotto District. Chen Yong is still a Cloudbreach. Principal, I think..."
Wan Tiansheng waved his hand and said, "We'll talk about that at a later date. If Chen Yong can pass his end of year evaluation, the position will remain his. Don't forget that all the older willpower texts were left behind by the experts of the previous generations. At that time, the academy was still run by the multiple character faction."
Zheng Yuming frowned and said, "The academy belongs to the entire human race and the Great Xia Prefecture. It belongs to all of us. By your logic, is the academy also theirs since they used to run it?"
Wan Tiansheng impatiently said, "Like I said, do everything in accordance with the rules. The cancellation of the multiple character faction has been done in accordance to the rules. The single character faction has also grown thanks to the rules. As for Chen Yong's position, let the rules decide that. Elder Zheng, do you want to abolish the rules? Without the rules, do you want to face Elder Hong Tan?"
Zheng Yuming's face turned red and he was instantly rendered speechless. Hong Tan was a peak eighth-stage Mountainsea. Even his teacher, Zhou Mingren, did not have the confidence to fully suppress Hong Tan. How could he challenge Hong Tan?
Wan Tiansheng stood up and said, "Do what you think is right. I already told you everything. If any of you are interested in destroying your existing characters, feel free to do so. But I suggest not doing it in the academy. Go to the Allheaven Battlefield and use the characters you don't want to kill a few experts. That way, you can squeeze every last value out of your characters.
"Additionally, all myriad race willpower texts that have been around for 50 years or more in the books depository must be put in a list. Nobody is allowed to move them without permission from the academy. All students and teachers need to have enough total earned merit to study these texts.
"Try to gather more information about that celestial chasm Invincible. Pay attention to the other experts that are proficient in curses as well."
After saying all that, Wan Tiansheng started walking away.
When he reached the door, he suddenly turned around and said, "You are free to compete among yourselves. The academy has always intended to have all of you to grow through competition. But we don't intend for all of you to cripple each other during this competition. If you start crossing the line, others would start doing so as well. Eventually, the rules would be reduced into a joke. At that time, even Mountainsea cultivators can start killing Great Strength cultivators. The academy would truly descend into chaos.
"I might have been silent about some things, but that doesn't mean that I am unaware about it. As long as you follow the rules, I can continue giving you free reign. But the moment someone dares to cross the line, don't blame me for being merciless."
He then stepped out of the room.
Silence enveloped the conference hall. Everyone knew how much importance Wan Tiansheng placed on his rules. As long as everyone stayed within the boundaries of his rules, he would not care about what you do. But if you cross the line, you would anger him.
And how many people in the academy were capable of withstanding the wrath of someone who was already a peak Mountainsea decades ago?
Wu Yuehua stood up, looked at Zheng Yuming, and sneered before leaving. Zheng Yuming did not say anything. He stood up silently and left as well.
Rules. Wan Tiansheng's rules.
The battle 50 years ago...and the newer willpower texts. Were those texts really problematic?
If those texts were really problematic, human cultural researchers were truly in great trouble. Who among them would dare to guarantee that they had not formed any characters with the newer willpower texts?
Things might be better for those who didn't specialize in Divine Characters. They could still accept the consequences of destroying their own characters. But how about those specializing in Divine Characters? Were they supposed to destroy their characters as well?
That would bring a lot of trouble to them as well.
The Knowledge Seeking Realm would not support such an action as well. If all these Mountainsea and Cloudbreach cultivators were crippled, the overall strength of humanity might instantly decrease by about 30 percent.
"Is...the multiple character faction going to rise again?"
Zheng Yuming sank into thought.
Could the character technique of the multiple character faction really be the solution to the curse?
"Character technique wall! Blood essence! Books depository!"
All those terms appeared in Zheng Yuming's mind. There were also the Divine Characters left behind by those experts from the previous generation. If those characters could be used, then they would be free from the influence of the curse.
"These characters can definitely be elevated into the Sunmoon and Eternal Realms. If I really have to destroy my characters, what if I replace my characters with those characters?"
Zheng Yuming exhaled deeply and left the Heart Cultivating Pavilion.
…
Meanwhile, Su Yu had finally received his ordered five elemental and silkwrym blood essence. With his willpower texts, blood essence, and Time technique, he headed toward the Grotto District. He aimed to complete his cultivation of the Crushing Mountainsea move during this cultivation session.
Only then would he stand a chance against those freaks and geniuses that had been cultivating a lot earlier than him. Only then would he be able to enter the Top 100 Ranking and establish himself as an expert among the new generation in the academy.
As for the future of human cultural researchers...that really had nothing to do with him. After all, he wasn't even a proper cultural researcher yet.
The moment Su Yu appeared outside the Grotto District, the faces of Old Huang and Old Nie fell.
How many days had it been?
Why was this brat here again?