Chapter 325: The Answer Lies In Books (3)
Xia Huyou stared at Su Yu in stupefaction. He had only planned to earn a few willpower texts for free. But this fellow was truly crazy. He was actually planning to get all the Mental Tempering Stage students to get free willpower texts from the single character faction? This guy was...too ruthless!
Su Yu suddenly said, "No, it would be too embarrassing if I do it for free. I should accept one merit point from each challenge. See how generous I am? Anyone can afford one merit point. They are basically buying a willpower text for only one merit point! It would be totally worth it! From tomorrow onward, I'll start accepting challenges. I reckon I can accept a few thousand challenges per day."
Su Yu seemed immensely pleased. Those students shouldn't have any issue affording one merit point to challenge him.
But he then frowned and said, "No, that would make me seem too weak. After all, a kind person is much easier to bully. I'll first fight a few matches for real and make an example out of the more impatient challengers before going ahead with my plan. I should know when to use the carrot and the stick. Only then would everyone revere and be grateful toward me. They wouldn't know to appreciate something they had obtained too easily."
Xia Huyou was completely dumbfounded. After a while, he asked, "Is your father a mayor or something?"
"What?"
"You're very good at politics. It almost feels like you're an old fox."
Xia Huyou stared at Su Yu in astonishment. What was up with this fellow? Sure, he knew all that as well, but he had learned all that through the education provided by his family. Was Su Yu born crafty?
Su Yu smiled, "This is merely a little trick. Just read more books. You can learn more from books. So tomorrow, I'll first demonstrate my strength and show everyone that I'm no pushover. After that, I can bestow my favor upon them.
"As for whether Zhou Mingren would honor his promise, that is unrelated to me. By the way, can I issue special missions in the black market? The moment Zhou Mingren reneges on the debt, I'll hire some people to create trouble, complain to the parents, to the academy, to the bureau..."
Xia Huyou was completely dumbstruck. This fellow was extremely gutsy!
"Su Yu, are you not afraid of offending—"
"Nonsense. I have already offended them. What choice do I have now?" He gloomily said, "I don't have the time to slowly deal with him. It isn't like he can directly attack me anyway. Why should I be afraid of him? If he sends someone stronger to challenge me, I can just admit defeat. What? Do you think I will fight to the death for the sake of saving face? Everyone probably thinks that I will fight on stubbornly like my senior sister, right? That is what I should do, right?"
"Yeah." Xia Huyou nodded.
That was what everyone believed, including Zhou Mingren. That was why he had promised such an attractive reward for defeating Su Yu. For a genius, every single defeat was a great humiliation.
And with Su Yu's strength, there actually weren't that many students capable of defeating him in the academy. Thus, they believed that they wouldn't need to take out more than a few willpower texts for this promise.
Could Zhou Mingren afford that? Of course he could. There would only be a few victors at most. He would be more than happy to reward these people. As for Su Yu, after several defeats, would he still have his previous vigor and fighting spirit? Unlikely. That was what everyone believed. That was most likely how a normal person would behave.
But Su Yu was completely unbothered. A single defeat would sever his path? What? He had already been defeated thousands of times in his dreams over the years. He would lose his life to a different creature every single night. If a single defeat was enough to sever his path, he wouldn't have been able to reach this far.
When one got accustomed to losing, one more defeat was nothing. And if he could use the carrot and stick properly during the challenges, would anyone actually see him as a piece of trash?
What a joke. They only needed to take a look at Huang Qifeng to know if Su Yu was a pushover. When needed, Su Yu was more than capable of being ruthless.
Thus, everyone would only be grateful toward him. If Zhou Mingren reneged on his promise, he would invite mass resentment. A great Mountainsea cultivator like him was actually completely untrustworthy. The public would have a hard time accepting that. His reputation would plummet.
In fact, Su Yu felt like he didn't even need to lose to tens of thousands of people. The challenges would probably end after dozens of losses. The people from Zhou Mingren's side would definitely not let it continue.
At that thought, Su Yu suddenly said, "Calm down. Keep an eye on those Mountainsea cultivators for me. Notify me when they are either in seclusion, away from the academy, or in a meeting. I will then start accepting challenges. I won't even give them a chance to react."
Xia Huyou's eyes flickered as he said, "How about this? I'll find some elders to call for a meeting and drag it out for a few hours. You only need to pay the elders a fee for their help."
"Fuck off."
Su Yu rolled his eyes, "I can't afford it. Don't even think of it. Also, you can totally profit from this..."
"Me?" Xia Huyou hesitated, "How am I supposed to profit? At most, I would only be able to defeat you once. But everyone else would have the chance to do that as well so that won't be too big a profit."
Su Yu said, "Are you dumb? The victors might not have the background to actually collect from Zhou Mingren. You can purchase the debt from them. Just get them to issue you receipts. Compared to willpower texts that they might not be able to collect, they will probably be more than happy to sell you the debt for 10 merit points."
"Of course, they won't agree to sell the debt to you immediately. Wait until Zhou Mingren starts reneging on his promise before you start purchasing their rights. And then, you can have the Xia Family collect the debt for you."
Su Yu was certain that after he was done, Zhou Mingren would definitely go back on his words. After all, that potentially involved thousands of willpower texts. The single character faction was definitely not that rich. Just the cost of producing so many willpower texts would be an astronomical sum.
"Would he dare to renege on the debt against the Xia Family? If he can't afford it, just let Marquis Xia deal with him. Even someone like me is aware of Marquis Xia's cutthroat attitude when it comes to money. Let him deal with them. They wouldn't dare to really renege on the debt."
Xia Huyou looked somewhat embarrassed when Marquis Xia was mentioned. Who said that his second granduncle was cutthroat? But...that made a lot of sense!
If they did that, Su Yu would get to earn merit points while the students would also not leave empty handed. They would even be filled with gratitude toward both Su Yu and the Xia Family. Additionally, the Xia Family would also make a profit with all the receipts.
Zhou Mingren might have the courage to renege on a debt to the students, but would he dare to do the same to the Xia Family? With the receipts in Marquis Xia's hands, he would not be known as Cutthroat Xia if he didn't make a big deal out of it. The single character faction...had quite a lot of treasures. Ignoring everything else, just the patents they held would be worth a lot of money.
Xia Huyou remained excited for a while before recovering. He looked at Su Yu and said, "Su Yu, you are too scummy. You're starting to even drag the Xia Family into your schemes. You sure are gutsy."
He had nearly neglected something. If the Xia Family got involved, then it would be a conflict between the Xia Family and the single character faction. Zhou Mingren would be too troubled to focus on targeting Su Yu.
With this one scheme, Su Yu was basically hitting multiple birds with one stone. Through this scheme, he was able to win the gratitude of the students, trouble the single character faction, and unleash the Xia Family against the single character faction, keeping them busy enough to leave him alone. This fellow no longer looked like a student. He looked more like an old fox.
Su Yu nonchalantly said, "If you're not interested, you are free to not participate. It's not like I need the Xia Family for my plan to work. Without the Xia Family, I can still work with Zheng Yunhui. Even if the Zheng Family can't collect from Zhou Mingren, the Zheng Family has never gotten along well with the cultural research academy. He would definitely be more than happy to spend some money to annoy the academy and tarnish their reputation."
Su Yu was completely indifferent, "It's not like I will earn a massive benefit from this. I don't really care if you don't want to do it. There are plenty of people out there not afraid of the single character faction. There are also the Nine Heavens Cultural Research Academy, the Martial Dragon Academy, or even the Martial Dragon Guards or the Devil Subduing Army."
Su Yu sneered and said, "My dad himself is a member of the Devil Subduing Army. I can simply get the Devil Subduing Army involved. I guarantee they will be more than happy to use this chance to make some money. I heard that they are getting more and more annoyed with cultural researchers, especially after Principal Wan brokered the armistice..."
Xia Huyou stared at Su Yu for a long while before asking, "Did you learn all that from books as well?"
Su Yu smiled and said nothing. Of course he learned some from books, but the biggest contributor was his smart brain. He had never been one to silently eat a loss since he was a child. Why would they provoke him? They should be rejoicing that he was leaving them alone before this!
Zhou Mingren might be strong and smart, but he occupied a different position from Su Yu. For him, reputation and prestige was more important. For Su Yu, he only cared about benefits. Face? Why the fuck would he care about losing face?
Su Yu thought to himself that if Zhou Mingren was willing to pay him 10,000 merit points, he would be willing to even do something like bring Bai Feng with him and kowtow to Zhou Mingren while calling Zhou Mingren teacher.
Thinking of that, Su Yu suddenly laughed. Meanwhile, Xia Huyou was staring at Su Yu speechlessly. This fellow...was a truly difficult opponent to have. He was talented, flexible, shameless, eloquent, and good at acting. He was simply a perfect hypocritical villain!
Every single freak out there was a prideful person. Su Yu...was also prideful. But his form of pride was rather different from the norm. He also had the craftiness of someone who had grown up in the streets.
Xia Huyou inhaled deeply and said, "Fine. I'll give it a try. How about this? 'll get an elder to gather them all in a meeting at the Heart Cultivating Pavilion. I will even forbid anyone who is not an elder from entering the building. That will keep them occupied for a few hours. By the time they find out, it will be too late."
Su Yu stared at Xia Huyou for a long while before saying, "So even elders need to follow your orders? Xia Huyou, don't tell me you're Marquis Xia's son."
"What bullshit are you saying?" Xia Huyou rolled his eyes, "I swear I'm not his son. If I'm his son, then I'm an animal and he's a pig. I'm not his grandson either. Don't even think about this. If I'm his grandson, I'll kill myself. I told you, I'm from a branch family. Why are you thinking so much?"
Su Yu laughed, but he was cursing inwardly.
Go fuck yourself! Since you have the guts to call Marquis Xia a pig, even if you're not Marquis Xia's son or grandson, you're definitely an important person in the Xia Family! Do I look stupid to you?