Chapter 299: The Grotto Is Closed Again (2)
Su Yu's imagination started running wild. Just what had Bai Feng been researching recently? Why did it suddenly feel like Bai Feng's research was extremely important and incredible?
Did the racial ability character really exist? A flawed sea of willpower? Was the racial ability character the missing link? If that was the case...
Su Yu trembled. That was far too important. If that was true, would something bad happen to them after the completion of Bai Feng's research? Had his teacher taken that into consideration?
"Teacher is too easy-going. He might not have thought of all that."
When Old Huang saw Su Yu blanking out, he cleared his throat and said, "Su Yu, what are you thinking about?"
"Nothing." Su Yu bashfully said, "I was thinking about the fifth principal. He sure was incredible. He was actually on the cusp of being the first proper Eternal cultural researcher."
"Of course." Old Huang said with admiration, "He was truly incredible. You won't understand this since you have not experienced that era. Back then, the fifth principal was able to mobilize the cultural researchers of the entire Human Realm with a single word."
"When the fifth principal said that he was going to affirm his dao, countless powerful cultural researchers flocked to him. Everyone volunteered to become his dao guardian. You need to know that the various prefectures are independent of each other. Principal Wan would not be able to order those from the Great Zhou Cultural Research Academy around. You can get him to try. But would they actually respond to his orders?"
Old Huang mocked, "If he really tried doing so, he should count himself lucky if they didn't kick him out after giving him a beating. But the fifth principal was someone who had brought the Great Xia Cultural Research Academy to the apex of humanity."
Old Nie added, "He was also the one who had brought the multiple character faction to damnation."
"..."
Old Huang's mood turned bleak.
Yes. He was also the one who had brought the multiple character faction down.
With one word, countless experts flocked to his side. Numerous multiple character faction experts would travel from all corners of the Human Realm to be his dao guardian. Together, they faced Invincible experts. So intense was the fight that even an Invincible expert was killed. Alas, they still ended up defeated.
He was the one who had brought the faction to the peak. He was also the one who had led the faction to its downfall. After the fall of the fifth principal, the multiple character had been in a continuous decline.
Listening about the glorious past, Su Yu couldn't help but be overwhelmed by emotions. He said, "If the multiple character faction had such a glorious past, to the point even an Invincible expert had fallen under their hands before, that should be enough to prove that our path is not a wrong path. Why..."
Why would they be subjected to such suppression?
Old Huang spoke bleakly, "You guys can only blame yourselves. After that incident, the multiple character faction has been losing experts instead of producing more experts. After so many years, your past experts have been dying one after another. In fact, a few years ago when the Sunmoon expert in Great Ming passed away, the entire multiple character faction was left without even a single Sunmoon."
The multiple character faction had suffered heavy losses 50 years ago. Over the years, they had not been able to produce new successors. The few Sunmoons they had left had also died one after another during this period of time.
Right now, the strongest expert they had was Hong Tan. But Hong Tan was someone fully focused on research. Without proper leadership, the multiple character faction declined even further, to the point where their voice no longer held any weight.
Not one of the new experts from the multiple character faction had managed to reach the Sunmoon Realm.
Meanwhile, the single character faction had a small number of Sunmoon experts who had survived from back then. And their Mountainsea cultivators from back then had also advanced into the Sunmoon Realm one after another. They were currently at the peak of their power.
And with their current power, what else would they do apart from suppressing the multiple character faction?
Su Yu hesitated for a bit before saying, "Teacher, back then during the fifth principal's advancement, were there no single character factions there to help him as well?"
Why were all the dead experts people from the multiple character faction?
"There were some, but very few." Old Huang said, "You can't blame them either. The fifth principal is a very arrogant person. He believed that even the Mountainsea cultivators of the multiple character faction were better than the Sunmoon cultivators of the single character faction. He had also been widely spreading the path of multiple characters. Thus, he didn't have a good relationship with the single character faction."
Su Yu smiled bitterly. It would seem like that great grandteacher of his was an incredibly arrogant person. He looked down on those people. But the very people he once looked down on had all turned into experts while the lofty fifth principal's juniors were the ones left to suffer.
But all that was in the past. Su Yu really couldn't be bothered to think too much about that. As he learned more about the past, he had a feeling that the current fate of the multiple character faction was basically a form of karma for their past arrogance.
But Su Yu also knew that despite the fifth principal's disdain over the path of single character, he had not suppressed them. That was still different from what the single character faction was doing to them now.
In fact, if the single character faction was not deliberately suppressing them, Su Yu wouldn't even be bothered to do anything to them. If they were left alone, they would have no one to blame but themselves if they continued declining.
However, what the single character faction had been doing to the multiple character faction was even worse than what they had suffered before during the fifth principal's time.
After a short chat with the two old men, Su Yu prepared to enter the grotto.
Old Huang suddenly asked, "Why don't you enter the Infinite Strength Zone directly? That way, you don't have to waste time walking all the way there after entering."
Su Yu laughed awkwardly and said, "It's fine. I'm only a Great Strength cultivator. The Great Strength Zone is enough for me."
What a joke. He was only a Great Strength cultivator. Why should he pay more to enter the Infinite Strength Zone? He also needed 200 total earned merit points to directly enter that zone.
There was no way he was going to do something so stupid. He was still a Great Strength cultivator. Nobody could deny that.
Old Huang said, "Don't stay inside for too long. I keep feeling like we are making a loss letting you enter. You are only spending 100 merit points to stay several days inside. So how long are you staying this time? Are you going to enter the Infinite Strength Realm?"
Su Yu shook his head, "No. I am still not good enough to enter the Infinite Strength Realm. I plan to open more acupoints and cultivate some martial techniques. Otherwise, I won't have any confidence to contend against those fellows."
Su Yu then looked at Old Huang and asked, "Teacher, previously, you said that the main advantage to this grotto is related to willpower and Divine Characters. But when I tried sensing around previously, I didn't find anything."
"Comprehend it yourself." Old Huang refused to give a straight answer. Instead, he reminded, "The crux of the Source Qi Secret Grotto is the word source. To take the source into your body. To combine all source into one. Studying myriad race willpower texts to form Divine Characters is the same as studying Divine Characters to form Divine Characters..."
"..."
What did that mean?
Su Yu sank into thought.
Old Nie looked at Old Huang speechlessly. He might as well give a straight answer. He was only making things more complicated by saying that much.
Seeing that Su Yu was still deep in thought, Old Nie said, "What are you thinking about? The so-called Source Qi Secret Grotto is essentially a source character. Studying a Divine Character is the same as studying a willpower text. You don't necessarily need willpower texts to form or study Divine Characters.
"In short, you can try to duplicate this source character. Of course, this is a character left by a Sunmoon. It is too powerful. You are still too weak to study it. Old Huang was merely trying to confuse you."
Old Huang unhappily said, "How am I confusing him? This is an Eternal character. Just forming a single stroke of this character is enough to benefit this kid for life."
Su Yu gave up.
Forget it. He couldn't form non-human characters anyway.
But then again, this was an Eternal character! If he could duplicate it and crush it to feed his existing characters, would it be very nutritious? Would his characters grow even stronger?
Whatever. That was not his focus for now. After paying 100 merit points, he entered the grotto.
After his recent spendings, he had once again turned into a pauper. He had 300 drops of middle and late stage Infinite Strength mountainbreak bull blood essence, 400 drops of other blood essence, 10 drops of Skysoar silkwrym blood essence, and 10 drops of five elemental blood essence.
He had also bought some other blood essence, such as 100 drops of clearbright bird blood essence to purify his acupoints after this cultivation session. He had spent 800 additional merit points for that.
After spending his money on those purchases and the entry into this grotto, he only had 339 merit points left.
In truth, the night before, he still had over 1,000 merit points left according to his calculation. But he suddenly recalled that he had forgotten to buy some clearbright bird blood essence so he had to make a last minute purchase.
All in all, he had over 800 drops of blood essence with him. He decided to stop thinking about money and focus on opening acupoints first.
After opening the 24 acupoints required for his new technique, he would have 142 opened acupoints in total including his Source Opening acupoints and the Lightning Source Blade acupoints. With so many acupoints, he basically had as much source qi in his body as someone cultivating a top-tier heaven-grade cultivation method.
After all, even a top-tier heaven-grade cultivation method would only require 144 acupoints. Naturally, he might have a weaker offensive power due to his inferior cultivation method, but he would definitely have a high level of endurance.
Inside the grotto.
One could say that Su Yu was already very familiar with this place. After all, this was his fourth visit. He had first entered during the 1st of the previous month. Today, it was the 1st of a new month. An exact month had passed since then.
This time, he decided to go further. After several visits, he was already aware of the locations with fewer people. He picked a place that new visitors would generally not reach. Since he needed to cultivate the Time technique, he naturally had to pick an empty spot.
This, the further away he went, the better it would be. After finding a suitable location, he sat down cross-legged and took out all his items including some of his willpower texts.
"As usual, I'll open my acupoints first."
For the first move of the Time, Crushing Mountainsea, he needed 44 acupoints. Out of those acupoints, 20 overlapped with the War God Art. It was clear that the creator of this technique had used the War God Art as the foundation for this technique.
Su Yu only needed to open 24 new acupoints. After looking around and confirming that there was nobody around, he took out his silkwrym blood essence and placed a drop on the willpower text of the Time technique. Immediately after, he found himself inside the world within the willpower text again.