Chapter 321: Famous (1)
While Su Yu and Bai Feng were busy talking about their research.
Heart Cultivating Pavilion. Within a large building.
Countless people had gathered there.
The single character faction had eight elders in the academy.
Out of the 42 elders of the academy, 36 of them were at the Mountainsea Realm. The others were incredibly senior ninth-stage Cloudbreach cultivators that had been promoted as elders due to their age and experience.
Of the eight elders of the single character faction, Zheng Yuming had been crippled, Liu Hong's teacher was in a long seclusion, while the other two were in the Allheaven Battlefield. Including Zhou Mingren, only four of them were available.
And all four of them had been gathered here. That included Zheng Hong's teacher, Elder Sun. Zheng Hong himself was also present since he was Zheng Yuming's grandson. He appeared completely calm.
In fact, even when Zheng Yuming was being crippled, he had not uttered a single word. He was a mere Mental Tempering Stage student. What could he do when the principal was personally crippling his grandfather?
And he was still maintaining the same calm. He silently served the four elders tea, not showing any of his emotions. The four elders were drinking tea in silence.
After a while, Elder Sun said, "How is Yuming?"
"Out of his eight characters, seven have been destroyed, including his main Divine Character. Only a dragon character remains," Zhou Mingren answered.
As for Zheng Yuming's destroyed body, it was not that important for cultural researchers. He only needed to use some blood essence to regrow his body. He was not a physical cultivator anyway so it didn't matter even if his physical body would be weaker after this.
"Seven destroyed characters including the main Divine Character..."
A white-haired old woman had a gloomy expression. As a Mountainsea cultivator, things wouldn't be too serious as long as the main Divine Character was preserved. But Zheng Yuming's main Divine Character had also been destroyed. This would be quite problematic to solve.
The old woman said, "Why is Principal Wan so harsh this time? Yuming had not attacked! Of course, he looked suspicious since he was releasing his aura..."
Not even the old woman knew what to say. Fights between students would happen all the time. For elders like them, these fights were nothing important. Why would Zheng Yuming release his aura for no reason? In such a situation, it was understandable that others would suspect his motive.
Zhou Mingren calmly said, "Maybe he was set up by Chen Yong. Yuming is still unconscious. I suspect he had been provoked by Chen Yong. Of course, there is also a possibility that Wan Tiansheng is trying to teach us a lesson."
"Chen Yong?"
At the mention of that name, they frowned.
Elder Sun asked, "Would Chen Yong do something like this?"
Zhou Mingren said, "You never know. Yuming has been trying to get the books depository. Do you think Chen Yong is really indifferent about that? He has been under Hong Tan for 40 years. And he has been staying in the books depository all these years. But don't forget that back then, this fellow was also not a simple figure. He was the one who had personally driven out the remaining students of the multiple character faction. With Hong Tan's character, he would have kept those students around despite their decline."
The multiple character faction had still been accepting students all these years. But some of these students couldn't withstand the pressure of waiting until they have 10 characters before breaking through into the Skysoar Realm. Thus, these students had opted to advance before that. In the end, Chen Yong had personally kicked all these students out of the faction. Hong Tan had not involved himself in that matter.
Zhou Mingren waved his hand, "We'll talk about this at a later date. Yuming is going to head to the Allheaven Battlefield soon. This is an exile, so he will be sent to the Vanguard Regiment. Even though Great Xia has calmed down on the wars, he would still need to participate in battles. Without Divine Characters, he would be killed before long."
"What is your plan, Old Zhou?"
Everyone looked at Zhou Mingren. Zheng Yuming was his student, also their faction master. They couldn't let him die just like that.
Seeing that Zhou Mingren wasn't saying anything, Elder Sun said, "Old Fang and Old Ma are both in the Allheaven Battlefield. Maybe we can work our connections and send Yuming their way."
Zhou Mingren said, "Even if we do so, they might not have the time to take care of him. His injuries are too heavy. If he goes there before recovering some of his strength, he will die. Wan Tiansheng is trying to kill Yuming..."
The other elders sank into silence.
Zhou Mingren said, "Therefore, I've decided to help Yuming change his main Divine Character."
"Changing main Divine Character?"
Everyone looked at him in shock. The old woman said, "That's not possible, right? It's too hard to find compatible characters."
Zhou Mingren said, "The ones in the academy are naturally not good enough. To be precise, over these years, there have only been 11 Divine Characters in existence with the potential to be accepted by new owners."
When the others heard that, their expressions changed. They knew what Zhou Mingren was talking about. He was referring to the multiple character faction experts that had been involved in that battle.
A total of 11 Divine Characters had been left behind. Liu Wenyan had inherited the fifth principal's character. Xia Yunji, Zhao Mingyue, and Hu Ping had inherited the characters of the Sunmoon experts. Seven other people inherited the characters of seven peak Mountainsea cultivators.
Of the seven, six were already dead. Some were dead from old age, some were dead from sickness, and some were killed by their cultivation deviation. Of the eleven chosen students, only five were still alive.
All eleven of them were supreme geniuses back then. Every single one of them had the potential to step into the Mountainsea and Sunmoon Realms. Alas, only a few of them remained after fifty years.
The old woman frowned and said, "You mean..."
Zhou Mingren indifferently said, "Over the years, six of them have died. And they didn't even pass on their characters before dying. In that case, those characters must have been brought to their graves. Unless their seas of willpower have completely collapsed, those characters will still exist. Those characters won't fall apart so easily."
"Yuming's previous main Divine Character is the collapse character of the divine race. It has the ability of causing things to rupture and collapse. Among the six that are dead, one of them had inherited a character that is perfect for Yuming. It is the crack character inherited by Zhang Ruoling back then."
"Zhang Ruoling!"
Their expressions changed upon hearing that name. That was one of the geniuses that had been expelled back then.
Zhang Ruoling, an instructor at the 18th Great Xia Secondary School. He passed away due to sickness nine years ago. But the truth was that he had probably passed away due to his sea of willpower finally failing to withstand the pressure of his Divine Character.
None of the elders said anything.
After a long while, Elder Sun gloomily said, "Old Zhou, that person is already dead. Digging up the grave of the deceased...is improper. If news of this is leaked, do you think you will be able to keep living your good life? Not everyone in the multiple character faction is dead. And even if they are all dead, what would the War Shrine and Knowledge Seeking Realm say if they learn about this? Even those Eternals are afraid that their graves would be dug after they die. And would you be willing to have the future generation dig up your grave after you're dead?"
This was definitely not a good idea. It was a taboo. Everyone would eventually die. Not everyone was willing to pass on their Divine Characters upon death. Thus, some people would definitely be unwilling to have their graves dug for their characters one day in the future.
Zhou Mingren sank into a short silence before saying, "The living is more important than the dead."
"Old Zhou!" Elder Sun advised, "You need to think this through. Even looking for Liu Wenyan and the others are better than this. At the very least, Liu Wenyan and the others are alive and we would only gain the bad reputation of being a bully. But that is still better than getting the reputation of a grave robber."
He would rather bully the living. Sure, he would still gain some infamy doing so, but that was better than performing something as taboo as bullying the dead.
Zhou Mingren said, "Their characters are in the Sunmoon Realm. Those characters might not suit Yuming. The other Mountainsea character inheritor does not have suitable characters for Yuming as that is a devil race character. It conflicts too much with Yuming. Zhang Ruoling's character is the most suitable choice."
"But..."
They were finding it hard to agree to this. This would destroy their reputation. At the Mountainsea Realm, apart from strength, reputation was also very important for them. They would lose all face if the public found out about what they did.
Zhou Mingren knew what they were worried about. He said, "I don't need any help. I can do this myself. I will shoulder the infamy and retribution that will come from this. I am not looking for you guys today for this matter. I am planning to activate some grottos to strengthen Zheng Hong and the other students that are still below the Skysoar Realm. Also, Wensheng and the others are also in need of a boost in strength."
Activating some high-level grottos. That had been suggested since a few months ago.
The other elders did not have anything to say about that matter. Zhou Mingren hesitated slightly and said, "Old Zhao is still in his permanent seclusion. I don't think he will be able to leave this seclusion alive. Thus, he won't be contributing to the resources required to activate the grottos. As for Liu Hong..."
He looked at the others and said, "We'll let him enter as well. As for the required resources, I can take out half of them while the rest of you will cover the other half. What do you think?"
The other elders thought about it. One of them, an elder who had yet to say anything so far nodded, "Sure. Liu Hong is already at the eighth-stage Skysoar Realm. He is already near the ninth stage and Cloudbreach Realm. If he can enter the Cloudbreach Realm, he will only further strengthen our faction."
"Liu Hong has never been Bai Feng's match so we can allow him to enter."
The elders reached an agreement.
Zhou Mingren said, "In that case, those at the Skysoar and above will consist of Zhou Pingsheng, Liu Hong, Sun Yucheng, Li Yunmei...All in all, six of them will enter. Below the Skysoar Realm, 20 can enter. Additionally, we need to give Wu Yuehua some spots too."
The elders looked helpless as they heard that. Wu Yuehua was such an unreasonable mad woman. Previously, she nearly fought them over this matter.
The old woman furiously said, "We can't give her more than three spots. She can forget about getting more than that."
It was not cheap to open a high-level grotto. The academy would have let the grotto stay active all the time otherwise. This single opening would use up years worth of savings from them. And they had just spent a large amount of money not long ago.
At that thought, the old woman said, "Are there any updates on Pingsheng's side? I saw the data as well, but it looks too ridiculous. Is that even the real data?"
Yes, the data was too unbelievable. In fact, none of them were convinced that the data was real. But Su Yu had indeed activated a blood essence ability through a drop of blood essence produced with that method. They could all see that clearly in the recording.
Zhou Mingren shook his head, "We don't have any results yet so that's hard to say. If the data is really fake, then we can only conclude that the Wentan Research Center might have deduced the actual cultivation method of the iron-winged birds. They might have converted the racial ability into a martial technique and Su Yu might have opened the required acupoints for the technique."
That was the only possibility he could think of. Su Yu might have used the required acupoints to use the ability directly. He wasn't present that day so he really couldn't check himself. Even if he was there, Su Yu had more acupoints opened. Who knew if he could see through Su Yu?
"The racial ability of the iron-winged birds is not that hard to deduce." The old woman said, "Of course, the methods and techniques deduced by different people will also be different. Even our faculty has the activation method of that Rip ability. Pingsheng was too impatient. He should have observed more before making the purchase."
Zhou Mingren shook his head, "Even if he was much more patient, the result would still be the same. The only way to know more is for Pingsheng to actually perform a deep willpower scan on Su Yu, but that would be discovered. Other people were also present."
The other elders nodded. That was right. Su Yu was no fool. He would definitely discover someone scanning him. But they couldn't help but to suspect that the data was fake. That was especially true after they witnessed Su Yu's increase in strength. Opening acupoints required money. He would require a lot of merit points to grow so quickly.
And when they checked Su Yu's records, they even found that he had entered the grotto several times. Naturally, the records only indicated that he had entered. Nothing else could be seen from the record. And without money, how was Su Yu supposed to enter the grotto?
"Zheng Yunhui...Su Yu..."
They couldn't help but to suspect that the two kids had worked together to scam them.
100,000 merit points!
If that was true, then these two kids were truly too gutsy. But they still weren't able to determine the truth. They still needed to perform their own research on the data before reaching a conclusion.
At this time, Zheng Hong decided to speak, "Zheng Yunhui and Su Yu are definitely not as hostile to each other as they look. Su Yu should have lost the Skybreak Technique to Zheng Yunhui, but from what I saw, he is very familiar with the Source Break move."
There was no need for him to say anything else. The elders' expressions changed. Su Yu was supposed to lose the Skybreak Technique yet he was so familiar with the Source Break move. What a genius. Had he bought another willpower text?