Chapter 327: Label Me (2)
Unit 189.
Su Yu knocked on the door.
Shortly after, someone asked, "Who is it?"
"Brother Zhang, Su Yu is here to visit you."
The door swung open, revealing Zhang Hao's surprised expression. Su Yu was here to visit?
"Su Yu!" Zhang Hao asked in astonishment, "Why are you here?"
"Is Brother Zhang not happy to see me?"
"Nonsense!" Zhang Hao smiled, "I am honored to have you as a guest. For the past two days, a lot of people have been looking for you but nobody was able to find you. I feel honored to be the one to meet you."
"You flatter me, Brother Zhang."
"Come on in!"
When Su Yu stepped into the building, he sighed. What a rich fellow. Just look at how luxurious the building was. He was actually living in such a large building alone. What a waste. The lounge alone was already over 100 square meters in size.
Zhang Hao was very polite. As a freak, he was naturally a prideful student. But his behavior would change depending on who he was facing. Even some of the freaks from the previous batches or people like Wan Mingze could not earn too much respect from him.
But Su Yu was different. This was someone who had defeated him during the Divine Character tournament. Two days ago, this person had also ruthlessly defeated Huang Qifeng. Thus, Zhang Hao actually admired Su Yu. Perhaps this was an example of the saying that only heroes would understand heroes.
After a short chat, Su Yu went straight to the point, "Brother Zhang, do you still remember the soul devouring bug blood essence I used against you?"
Zhang Hao looked awkward. Was Su Yu here to mock him?
"Don't misunderstand, Brother Zhang." Su Yu sighed, "That drop of blood essence is the only finished product of our research center. To be honest, it can be considered an experimental product. But when we tried producing more, we kept encountering problems. We weren't able to produce a stable outer layer of blood essence. Our finished products keep exploding.
"After many failed experiments, I recalled the Talisman Faculty. I thought of you. During our match, the exploding characters you used against me were unstable as well. But you were able to control them and only allow them to explode when you want them to explode."
This was a random idea Su Yu thought of. Who said that only those from the Character Faculty could produce ability blood essence? He remembered that the Character Faculty was actually very good at sealing. His teacher had been too focused on solving all issues by himself when there was an alternative.
At the mention of that, Zhang Hao's interest was piqued. He asked, "Soul devouring bug racial ability? You want to produce the ability blood essence but the outer layer isn't stable enough?"
"Yeah. It keeps exploding."
Zhang Hao smiled, "That's normal. I have gotten a taste of the soul devouring bug racial ability before. Burning and corrosive. It's basically the same as my explode character. It is most certainly unstable. I thought you guys have already solved this issue since you were able to use the ability. But that was only an accidental success?"
"Yeah."
Zhang Hao's face lit up with delight as he said, "I happen to be very good at this topic. I have been performing a similar research recently. Or to be precise, a lot of cultural researchers are researching blood essence and racial abilities recently. Since I don't have a sample of your ability blood essence, I can only make some guesses. You guys are probably extracting the imprint from the blood essence before sealing the imprint with a layer of blood essence..."
Su Yu couldn't help but to be filled with admiration toward these researchers. They were too smart. Even a student like Zhang Hao was so smart. Just why had Zhou Pingsheng and the others fallen for his scam?
Su Yu was somewhat speechless. But when he thought about it, he nearly laughed. He finally understood. He had personally activated a racial ability after consuming the blood essence he had produced through the fake production process.
Additionally, the Divine Character pulsing method he had made out of thin air must have played a role as well. He had claimed that by pulsing his Divine Characters, he could alter the structural makeup of blood essence. Those fellows had probably been putting all their effort in that instead of focusing on the extraction of ability imprints.
Perhaps they believed that the pulsing method would be helpful in altering the imprint within the blood essence. But suddenly, Su Yu wondered if that could actually work.
If he could eliminate the other elements within blood essence without peeling the imprint from the blood essence, wouldn't the original blood essence serve as the perfect outer layer for the imprint?
At that thought...Su Yu was stunned. That...might really work! If he could make that work, the production process would be far simpler since there was no need to peel the imprint from the blood essence.
Su Yu blanked out.
"I am such a genius. If I can separate the ability imprint from the other elements such as grievances and memory fragments without splitting the blood essence, the original blood essence would simply be transformed into an actual ability blood essence."
Su Yu swallowed. If he could really make that happen, then he would become the creator of a new ability blood essence production method.
"But without cutting the blood essence apart, there is no way to access the imprint within the blood essence and manipulate the elements within."
Su Yu rubbed his head. A unique Divine Character capable of entering a drop of blood essence directly and manipulating the elements within was required.
"Then again, this option might really be feasible."
He became more and more impressed with himself. He finally understood why those people had fallen for his scam. They must have believed that his unique pulsing method was the way to directly manipulate the contents of blood essence without splitting the blood essence apart.
He had not thought of that before because he was unfamiliar with the production process.
As for the random materials he had used, those people probably believed that those materials served to soften the blood essence to make it easier for one to send one's willpower inside the blood essence.
"That might really be the case. Those people probably believed that things like vinegar and soy sauce can help in softening blood essence."
Otherwise, he wouldn't be able to explain why those Mountainsea and Cloudbreach cultivators were stupid enough to fall for his scam.
Zhang Hao had been paying close attention to Su Yu. He wasn't surprised to see Su Yu suddenly sinking into thought while in the middle of conversation. This was a very normal occurrence among geniuses.
That was especially true for people involved in research. Any random conversation might serve as a spark of inspiration, sending someone into deep contemplation. He understood Su Yu very well as this would frequently happen to him as well.
In fact, his respect for Su Yu only increased after seeing Su Yu in deep thought. Not only was Su Yu strong in combat, but he was also talented in the essence of a cultural researcher: research. He was indeed a genius, a freak.
After a long while, Su Yu finally recovered from his reverie. He apologized, "I'm sorry. I was thinking about something..."
"Don't worry about it." Zhang Hao smiled, "Su Yu, you were talking about the outer layer of the blood essence. Since you're here, are you perhaps thinking of using a talisman instead of blood essence as the outer layer?"
Su Yu nodded, "Exactly. I intend to either replace the outer layer with a talisman or apply another layer of talisman outside the outer layer, making something like a capsule that can prevent the imprint from exploding."
"You found the right person for that." Zhang Hao's face lit up with delight, "If you look for anyone else, this will be very expensive to produce. Talismans capable of serving as a stable outer layer exist, but they are too expensive. You have seen my character before. It is a unique character that can constantly produce smaller single-use characters for me."
"As long as I can remove the explosive property of those single-use characters, I can turn those characters into the outer layer for your ability imprint."
Su Yu frowned, "You? But you can't materialize your characters yet..." "I don't need to materialize these unique characters. I can produce them with only willpower. Su Yu, as long as you agree to supply me with some of these unique ability blood essence of the soul devouring bugs, I will stabilize the blood essence for free. What do you think?"
Su Yu suddenly said, "I have a new idea. What if we don't swallow the blood essence and cause it to explode like your unique single-use characters? Can we directly corrode the willpower of our opponents that way?"
"..."
Zhang Hao's eyes lit up, "That's feasible! If that is really possible, then my strength will increase greatly! With hundreds of drops of soul devouring bug blood essence in my hand, even Skysoar cultivators can be seriously injured!"
Zhang Hao swallowed, "Su Yu, this idea of yours might really work! At that time, I will be equivalent to an entire army of soul devouring bugs all by myself. Of course, that will depend on how many single-use characters I can produce and how strong my willpower is. For now, I can only create about 100 of these characters at a time.
"Thus, my character isn't really that strong yet. It is only useful against weaklings like Lin Qing. But if I can add the effect of the soul devouring bug blood essence into the mix as well, even people like Zhan Hai would probably cry while fighting me."
Zhan Hai was not a Skysoar cultivator yet. Thus, when he was subjected to a torture of having his willpower burned and corroded, he would probably cry from the pain. At that thought, Zhang Hao's face turned red from excitement. He could almost see a bright new future waiting ahead of him.
Su Yu said, "Don't get too excited yet. This won't be an easy task. The cost of producing ability blood essence isn't cheap either. The soul devouring bug racial ability is actually a martial technique. It mainly utilizes source qi. Of course, the outer layer of blood essence will supply the required source qi for activation so that won't be an issue.
"The main issue is the production cost. Even if you can really solve the issue of the outer layer, do you know how expensive it is to produce even a single drop? You need to use 100 drops just to harm people like Zhan Hai. How much money would that cost?"
"..."
Zhang Hao blanked out. That was true! Shit. Ability blood essence must be pretty expensive to produce, right?
"What is the cost per drop?"
"Even with mass production, we will need at least three merit points to produce one drop. And that is excluding the extraction process and the cost associated with failed production. Thus, the actual cost even with mass production would be around ten merit points per drop.
In truth, even that could already be considered a cheap price. Yet Zhang Hao shivered upon hearing that.
In that case, to fight someone like Zhan Hai, he would need 100 drops, which would cost him 1,000 merit points. Forget it. With that much money, he would be making a loss unless he could directly kill someone like Zhan Hai with it.
But with his current strength, that was clearly impossible. And he wouldn't be able to do much to Skysoar cultivators either.
Su Yu said, "We can't turn it into a common weapon, but we can still keep it as a trump card. When your willpower is strong enough to create more single-use characters, for example, 500 characters, it would be much better. Just imagine an army of 500 soul devouring bugs. Is that enough to kill a Skysoar cultivator?"
"That probably won't be enough. But 1,000 soul devouring bugs would probably be enough." Zhang Hao's eyes lit up, "But I might be able to grow enough to create 1,000 single-use characters before reaching the Skysoar Realm. If this works, I might really be able to achieve the feat of killing a Skysoar cultivator before the Skysoar Realm! That would be incredible!"
"Therefore, this thing is still pretty useful as a trump card. And now, we are only able to produce Great Strength blood essence. Imagine if we can produce Infinite Strength blood essence as well. And if you can control even the Infinite Strength blood essence we produce, just imagine it. Imagine the scene of 1,000 Infinite Strength soul devouring bugs spitting at your enemy at the same time. Maybe even a Cloudbreach cultivator would die."
"A Cloudbreach cultivator can probably survive that, but even a late-stage Skysoar cultivator would die. Su Yu, we have gotten to know each other from our fight. In a way, we are friends, right? Let's cooperate! I will provide the outer layer for you. I don't even need free blood essence from you. I can buy them from you, but you need to make sure to supply me in great quantities."
Su Yu smiled. He had the Soul Devouring Art, but not everyone could open additional acupoints. Thus, there was still some value in the blood essence. In fact, the blood essence was still very valuable.
It was basically a single-use item like a talisman. Take Zhang Hao as an example. Even after opening the required acupoints, he still wouldn't be able to do much with the cultivation method. How powerful would the corrosive power generated by a single person be?
But with Zhang Hao's unique characters, he might be able to control hundreds or even thousands of drops of the blood essence. That would result in a terrifying offensive prowess.
"We need to perform some tests. We can talk about the price after succeeding. It's pointless to reach an agreement if we're going to fail in the end, right?"
"True." Zhang Hao nodded in agreement.
Su Yu started thinking. Should he take this chance to recruit this number one freak of the Talisman Faculty into his Mutual Aid Club? He would consider it. Even if Zhang Hao agreed to help him with the blood essence production, he would still need to get Bai Feng's permission. After all, Zhang Hao would probably need to enter the research center to do so.
Nevertheless, he had still gained a lot from this meeting. He might have really found a solution for the unstable blood essence.
"Mutual Aid Club...cultural art...ability blood essence..."
Su Yu muttered to himself. He needed to add an extra label on himself: the label of a research genius. For cultural researchers, not even Cloudbreach or Mountainsea cultivators could be as important as a super genius in research. Or to be precise, this was the case for the entirety of humanity.
For example, Zhao Li's status. Not even the academy elders would dare to provoke him for no reason. His status was unrelated to his identity as the son of the fourth principal. It was mainly due to his identity as the second best weaponsmith in Great Xia. Anyone might find themselves at his mercy when trying to get a new cultural weapon.
Zhao Li was a seventh-stage Cloudbreach cultivator. The academy had a decent number of cultivators at that level. But not one of them had a status as high as his.
Thus, if Su Yu could give himself the label of a genius researcher in all matters involving ability blood essence, even if he couldn't do well in the academy, others in the prefecture or outside the prefecture would still be willing to take him into their arms.
Su Yu couldn't help but to start considering the possibility of leaving the academy. The internal conflicts within the academy were too intense. As far as Su Yu was concerned, the multiple character faction was really too weak. He felt like they had only been helplessly taking a beating.
He was a genius, but there was nothing he could do when he wasn't even a Skysoar cultivator yet. But if he was also a genius researcher, then he would have a value surpassing a Skysoar cultivator even before reaching the Skysoar Realm.
"Also, I can also perform some tests on my new idea of altering the imprint within a drop of blood essence without cutting the blood essence open. If I can really produce some ability blood essence with this method, I can even slap the single character faction's face when they finally come after me for selling them a fake production method. That would be fun. Who am I? I am Su Yu. I will never lie!"
Su Yu was amused by his own thoughts. Everyone finally believed that he had sold them a fake production method. But right that moment, he used the same production method to produce a functioning drop of ability blood essence right in front of them. Would they be shocked?
Hehehe. Even his teacher and martial uncle believed that the production method was fake. Yet he was going to successfully produce a functioning blood essence with that method. Were they going to be stunned?
Countless people would be stunned, right? How could the fake method...be an actual working method?