Chapter 301: Five Elemental Cultural Art (1)
Fast.
That was the only impression Su Yu had. His leg had moved extremely quickly.
He could barely see his own leg when kicking out.
With that one kick, source qi erupted and an afterimage was generated in the air.
"This is so fast."
Su Yu was astonished. He then put some force on his right leg and jumped. And he reached an incredible height. Midair, source qi erupted at the bottom of his feet, allowing him to temporarily float in the air. He launched another kick, leaving another afterimage in the air.
Boom!
Source qi erupted.
Su Yu was akin to a child who had just learned how to walk. He was incredibly excited as he walked in the air while kicking repeatedly. Again and again, he drained his source qi. But thanks to the grotto, he was able to replenish his source qi rapidly.
"So strong!"
Su Yu did not have an opponent, but he could sense just how strong this technique was. He felt like if he faced Zheng Yunhui now, he could probably defeat that fellow with one kick. And his speed has increased considerably as well.
The moment he landed on the ground, the source qi within his legs erupted, causing his body to flicker before instantly reappearing over 10 meters away.
"Crushing Mountainsea!"
Su Yu muttered. This was a stupid name, but it was a really useful technique. With a single kick, he could even generate some illusions to disturb his opponent. Apart from that, he had not discovered any other special effects of this move. With this move, the moment he sent a kick at his opponent, the surroundings of his opponent would change, giving the opponent a sensation that time was passing rapidly.
"This feels great!"
Su Yu couldn't hide his excitement. Once again, he slammed his foot into the ground and leaped into the air. Next, he kicked. The air rumbled as he practiced the kick again and again.
After an unknown amount of time, Su Yu finally calmed down and stopped. He inhaled deeply and checked his remaining blood essence. Since he had opened the required acupoints for the Crushing Mountainsea move, he was going to stop practicing this technique for now. He did not intend to cultivate the second move yet.
He wanted to consume some five elemental blood essence and see if he could activate their willpower cultivation method. If that method required more acupoints to be opened, the remaining mountainbreak bull blood essence could perhaps be used for that.
With 10 drops of five elemental blood essence, he had enough to activate the page and the cultivation method of each element. And upon activating the cultivation method, he would be able to discover the acupoints required for the cultivation method in question. Even without more five elemental blood essence, he could still open their required acupoints and cultivate their cultivation methods.
He also planned to open the acupoints for the Body Strengthening Art, but it required too many acupoints. He was unsure if the blood essence he had on him was enough to open all those acupoints.
"Human acupoints are too mysterious. There are too many of them."
Su Yu couldn't help but to be amazed at the sheer number of acupoints in the human body. Even after cultivating so many different cultivation methods and martial techniques with overlapping acupoints, he was still constantly discovering new acupoints.
Just how many acupoints could a human open? If he could open all of them, would he be able to cultivate any cultivation method and martial technique without opening new acupoints?
"I have discovered over 200 acupoints so far."
He took a deep breath. He really wanted to open all existing human acupoints. With that, he only needed to activate a cultivation method or martial technique once to know how to use it. Even without blood essence, he would be able to keep using those methods and techniques.
And the more acupoints he opened, the more source qi he had. That would only grant him more endurance during combat. He would also have a stronger offensive prowess and more adaptability during combat. He could turn any part of his body into a weapon.
He stopped thinking about all that and consumed a drop of five elemental blood essence. The book shook. Joy covered Su Yu's face. The book was reacting! He had been killed by the five elemental race before! He was very happy to learn that. He couldn't help but to thank the five elemental race for killing him. After all, if they had never killed him before, he wouldn't be able to activate their pages in his book.
Thank you, five elementals!
Water elemental race (Second-stage Infinite Strength Realm)
Racial abilities: Water Transformation (activation with blood essence), Water Bond (activation with blood essence)
Foundation cultural art: Water Path Art (activation with blood essence)
Su Yu was stunned. He noticed something very different from all the pages he had opened before. A single word had changed.
Foundation cultural art! Cultural art!
One ought to know that even the soul devouring bug's Soul Devouring Art was a foundation source art. But the water elemental actually had a foundation cultural art!
"A cultivation method for cultural researchers!"
Su Yu was overjoyed. The water elemental race really had a cultural art. It was similar to humanity's Myriad Text Sutra. More importantly, the Myriad Text Sutra could only be cultivated at the Skysoar Realm.
In his joy, Su Yu impatiently swallowed another drop of five elemental blood essence.
Metal elemental race (Third-stage Infinite Strength Realm)
Racial abilities: Metal Transformation (activation with blood essence), Metal Bond (activation with blood essence)
Foundation cultural art: Metal Path Art (activation with blood essence)
Su Yu continued consuming the other blood essence.
Metal, wood, water, fire, and earth. All five cultural arts had appeared.
"Let's give them a try!"
Su Yu was getting more and more impatient to try them out. Could he really cultivate his willpower with them? Actively cultivate and grow his willpower? After consuming a drop of blood essence and activating the Water Path Art, Su Yu waited for his acupoints to be opened. But then, he was stunned.
No acupoints were opened. But something seemed to have changed in his sea of willpower. It was as though his sea of willpower was breathing by itself. Yes. Breathing.
"No...not breathing. Are there...acupoints in the sea of willpower as well?"
Su Yu was completely stunned. He had not imagined that acupoints exist in the sea of willpower as well. At that moment, some acupoints had opened in his sea of willpower. And these acupoints were absorbing some unique energy that was not source qi.
Su Yu focused on those acupoints. There were 36 of them. His sea of willpower seemed to have turned into a beehive as 36 cyclones had formed inside it. A unique energy was streaming into his sea of willpower, and that unique energy felt similar to the energy present in the fragment room. And as that happened, his willpower grew.
Suddenly, Su Yu cursed. Why? Because he noticed that a willpower text he had placed nearby had been completely drained of willpower.
"Shit! This thing is absorbing willpower!"
Su Yu's heart ached. That willpower text was a discarded text written by a Skysoar cultivator. It wasn't a powerful text, and it wasn't too valuable either. But he had only studied it a few times yet it had been completely drained of willpower.
"This...right! Fragment room!"
Su Yu was alarmed as he recalled one of his favorite cultivation locations, the fragment room. That room was filled with chaotic ambient willpower. Could he start absorbing the ambient willpower there to cultivate? Could he do so with blood essence?
He was unsure, so he consumed a drop of mountainbreak bull blood essence and tried to open the acupoints within his sea of willpower. Alas, it didn't work.
"Can the willpower acupoints only be opened with willpower?"
Su Yu reached a conclusion. In that case, apart from the five elemental blood essence, he needed willpower to open the acupoints for these cultural arts.
"Does the Myriad Text Sutra require the opening of willpower acupoints as well? Is that why it allows one to actively absorb willpower?"
He activated the other four cultural arts one after another. By the time he was done, his eyes were brightly lit. Each of these cultural arts required 36 acupoints. All of them were willpower acupoints. And there were 180 of them in total. Not one of them overlapped with each other.
These were five different cultural arts, but they gave Su Yu a feeling that each of the five formed an independent cycle that could be combined with each other. It was almost as though they were the five levels of a single cultivation method. Some of their acupoints could ultimately be linked to form a new and bigger cycle.
"If cultural arts are the same as source arts, does this mean that I have just obtained a willpower cultivation method with 180 acupoints?"
Su Yu swallowed. That was somewhat unbelievable. How many acupoints could the Myriad Text Sutra open? He had no idea. He reminded himself to ask Bai Feng about that after this. No, he could just ask the two teachers outside the grotto. After all, almost all the cultural researchers in the academy cultivated the Myriad Text Sutra.
"But combining the five cultural arts into one probably won't be easy. And opening 180 willpower acupoints feel even more impossible. I am happy with just opening 36 willpower acupoints for now. I only need to switch from passive to active willpower cultivation."
Su Yu was still immersed in the joy of discovering these cultural arts. Even if only the five elemental blood essence could help him with willpower acupoints, he was still happy. Since he already knew the location of these acupoints, he only needed to slowly open them with the willpower in the fragment room.
There were 36 acupoints per cultural art. Would he be able to open one every three days in the fragment room?
If he could, he would be able to start using this cultural art in no more than three months. And if he could get his hands on more five elemental blood essence, his cultivation method would only increase.
"The fragment room is such a treasure."
He couldn't help but to lament that he had still underestimated the fragment room in the past.
"I heard that the books depository has a similar place as well. Wait...if that's the case, we definitely can't lose the books depository! Otherwise, it would be hard for me to even enter the building!"
It was fine with his martial uncle running the place. But the moment the person in charge was changed, he might not be allowed to enter anymore. The books depository had a lot more discarded myriad race willpower texts than the fragment room. Thus, that place definitely had even more ambient willpower than the fragment room.
"I wonder if the other people in the academy are also cultivating this way..."
Su Yu reckoned that others were most likely cultivating their willpower with discarded willpower texts as well.
If the Myriad Text Sutra allowed one to actively absorb willpower, then rooms such as the fragment room would be extremely valuable. A lot of people were definitely eyeing the books depository's fragment room. Previously, Su Yu had thought that everyone wanted to run the books depository for the myriad race willpower texts housed there. But perhaps the fragment room was the true treasure of the books depository.
"The academy might also have a grotto filled with willpower." Su Yu muttered to himself.
This was the benefit of studying in an academy. Would he have access to all these grottos cultivating independently? Would he have access to a fragment room? No, he wouldn't.
Only in an academy would one be able to access these valuable locations. Only in an academy would one be able to pay only a small price to cultivate in grottos. Outsiders could only dream of entering these academy grottos. Even those from the war academies would need to pay a high price to use the Source Qi Secret Grotto.
"Therefore...I need power." Su Yu decided.
Without power, one wouldn't be able to access these locations either. If the grotto fell into the control of the single character faction, they would be able to create all sorts of reasons to stop him from entering.
Su Yu was unaware that there was really a willpower grotto in the academy. And each activation of this grotto was not cheap.
In fact, this was the same grotto Zhou Mingren and Wan Tiansheng had once argued about, the same grotto Wu Yuehua had almost fought him for. This was the grotto that Wu Yuehua had demanded to have her people enter for free if Zhou Mingren wanted to activate it.
After activating all five cultural arts, Su Yu moved on to a different matter. For now, he still had no way of cultivating these cultural arts. He did not have a lot of blood essence left either. After thinking about it, he decided to use his remaining blood essence to open the Lightning Source Blade's acupoints.
The Lightning Source Blade required 40 acupoints, and many overlapped with the acupoints he already opened. Nine of those acupoints were the nine Source Opening acupoints. Thus, he only needed to open 11 more acupoints to fully open the acupoints of this technique.
After opening all 11 of those acupoints, he would have 153 acupoints opened in total. That would give him as much source qi as someone cultivating a top-tier heaven-grade cultivation method.
For such a cultivation method, one would need to open 144 acupoints. Including the 9 Source Opening acupoints, one would have 153 acupoints in total.
But even though Su Yu would have the same amount of source qi as someone like that, the other person would have 144 acupoints linked in a proper system, granting that person a much stronger offensive power.
Meanwhile, Su Yu's War God Art could only link 108 acupoints together. As for the 11 acupoints he intended to open, he reckoned his remaining blood essence was enough. He wasted no time and immediately resumed his cultivation.
On the night of the 2nd.
Su Yu had entered the grotto for more than a day. And the Source Qi Secret Grotto had been closed for that long as well. Some researchers had complained about it, but nothing happened. It was just a day of break. That was normal. Just pick a different day to enter the grotto. Why bother complaining?
There were many reasons a grotto would be closed for a day. Perhaps they needed to repair the grotto. Perhaps there were some issues with the grotto. As long as the guards were fine, it wasn't an issue to make those wishing to enter wait a few days.
Mental Tempering Garden.
Xia Huyou was trying to call Su Yu's number. This was his tenth attempt. Nobody was answering the call.
"That fellow...must have entered a grotto."
Xia Huyou concluded that Su Yu must have entered a grotto. And the Source Qi Secret Grotto has been closed since yesterday. Xia Huyou couldn't help but to connect that with Su Yu's disappearance.
"That fellow is definitely in the Source Qi Secret Grotto. The grotto has been closed for a day. Does that mean that he is already in the grotto for a day? Are they closing the grotto for him? Zheng Yunhui is going to start challenging the Top 100 Ranking tomorrow. Would that fellow leave seclusion tomorrow?"