Chapter 334: Rules Are Good To Have (3)
Su Yu seemed incredibly well versed with the academy rules. If they tried doing that, he would definitely accuse them of bullying students, causing them to be arrested as well. They could only wait around anxiously.
The single character faction researchers felt incredibly sullen. A single student had pushed them into such a sorry situation. A bunch of Skysoar and Cloudbreach cultivators could only watch helplessly as he dug a hole for their faction.
They watched on as one student after another signed up, happily noting down how many victories they had obtained, and discussing the possibility of actually claiming the promised reward. The hell were they thinking?
Jia Mingzhen smiled, "Come on. We should challenge Su Yu as well. Maybe we can get a few willpower texts for free. No matter what, we are the students of academy elders. Who knows? Maybe Old Zhou will show us some respect and really give us some willpower texts? After all, disrespecting us is the same as disrespecting those old farts..."
Nominally, they were the students of a few academy elders. Sure, those elders were too ashamed to want to have anything to do with them, but they were still nominally students and teachers.
An elder beside him said, "Why are you getting involved in this? We should just watch the show. If we get involved and our actual identities get exposed, Old Zhou will probably start hating even us."
"How is this our fault? Aren't we students now?" Jia Mingzhen was indifferent, "Come on. Let's do it before Old Zhou and the others are here. They are probably going to go crazy this time. Sigh. What can they do when they encounter someone so shameless? In his place, I would probably go crazy as well. I thought the kid was going to fight until the end. Even if he's going to ultimately lose, he would put up a spectacular fight before losing with grief and indignation. But...why is this happening?"
He could only shake his head in admiration. So a person could actually reach such a level of shamelessness? So what if he was a genius? Why must all geniuses care about reputation?
It was a mistake to judge these youngsters with the mindset of old fellows like them. Every last one of these kids are treacherous and cunning. They were more than willing to lose some face for the sake of some merit points.
They were just about to sign up for the challenge when someone among the crowd shouted, "Su Yu, I challenge you!"
Su Yu looked at the person who had shouted and said, "Di Feng, is something wrong with you? I'm not a top 100 student anymore. Are you going to force me into a fight with you? Is there a teacher around? What's the punishment for a top 100 student trying to force me into a fight?"
Zhao Ming scratched his head with a troubled expression and berated, "Di Feng, stop messing around. If you cause more trouble, I'll have you arrested as well!"
"..."
Di Feng was furious. This was simply too infuriating. Su Yu had dropped out of the ranking.
Suddenly, Su Yu said, "Wait, are you challenging me because you want a free willpower text as well? You should have told me earlier, my friend! Sigh. Sure, sure, I'll grant you a victory over me as well. Just pretend you won a match against me when I was still in the top 100. Don't forget to claim the reward from your grandteacher."
"You!" Di Feng was furious, "Can't you feel any shame?"
Su Yu laughed, "I concede. Next! Di Feng, don't bother trying this on me-I concede. Next-Di Feng, if you really have the guts, why don't you challenge the entire academy? If you do so, I'll-I concede. Next…"
Su Yu continued accepting challenges while chatting with Di Feng. Di Feng was losing his mind. He decided to just leave. Each time he heard the "I concede. Next!" from Su Yu's mouth, he felt like someone was hammering his heart.
Right that moment, several powerful presences soared into the sky.
Chen Yong hurriedly withdrew his willpower and asked Wu Jia, "How much?"
Wu Jia asked blankly, "What?"
"How much have you collected?"
"Let me check...8,523 merit points..."
Chen Yong's heart thumped. That much money? Were students nowadays so rich? But when he thought about it, this was understandable. Each person only needed to pay one merit point. Some even signed up several times. And there were about 6,000 participants.
That wasn't a big number since the academy had tens of thousands of students in the Mental Tempering Stage. At the very least, not all of the students had participated.
"Leave first. Quickly! Go hide in the books depository."
"Teacher..."
"Go! Someone is here to rob us!"
Although they had not broken any rules, strictly speaking, they were operating in the gray area. Thus, they needed to be cautious as well. After all, over 8,000 merit points were at stake here.
This martial nephew of his was truly a genius in earning money. Moreover, he was able to earn money without offending the masses. After all, he was only charging them one merit point per challenge. Like he said, the students could just treat this as buying a lottery ticket to try their luck. He had not forced anyone to pay him.
Thus, he was able to earn some money without making new enemies while also leaving a big mess for the single character faction to clean.
Even a ninth-stage Cloudbreach cultivator like Chen Yong would need to work 10 years to receive that much salary. And he was the head manager of the books depository. He already occupied one of the highest positions under the elders in the academy.
With a monthly salary of 50 merit points, he had a yearly salary of 600 merit points. Including the additional benefits, he could earn around 800 to 900 merit points per year. That would be his total income over 10 years without any additional income.
Su Yu had spent only an hour to earn that much. It was also the same before this. Through a single fight, he had earned tens of thousands of merit points.
"Why do I feel like the multiple character faction no longer lacks money after the kid is here?"
Chen Yong was starting to doubt the world. Was earning money really so easy? Why had his teacher been so troubled by only a few thousand merit points that he had to earn money by hunting beasts at the Allheaven Battlefield previously? While he was thinking, a furious shout rang out.
"Silence!"
"The challenges end here."
Several individuals appeared in the sky.
With a frown, Zhou Mingren looked down at Su Yu and Chen Yong. His expression was unsightly.
"Faculty Head!"
"Grandteacher!"
"Faculty Head!"
"..."
The single character factions called out in excitement, as though their savior had finally arrived.
Su Yu appeared completely calm. He looked at Zhou Mingren expressionlessly. This was his first time actually seeing Zhou Mingren. During the Zheng Yuming incident, he had only seen a vague silhouette of Zhou Mingren.
This old man actually looked quite good. He was scholarly and refined. If he could stop frowning, he would basically look like an attractive middle-aged man. He had a transcendent demeanor, looking even more refined than Liu Wenyan.
So this was Zhou Mingren? So this was the person who had been targeting them? While Su Yu was studying Zhou Mingren, Zhou Mingren was also studying Su Yu. He had never taken someone below the Skysoar Realm so seriously before.
"He does look quite refined..."
That was the impression Zhou Mingren got of Su Yu.
For a moment, he even felt like he had traveled back in time to look at Liu Wenyan.
Back then, this was also how Liu Wenyan looked like. Calm, confident, elegant, and exceptional.
Silence reigned shortly before Su Yu said, "The challenges end here. In total, I have been defeated 8,120 times. As for the ones who have yet to challenge me after signing up, I'll be refunding your registration fee later."
"..."
Nobody dared to say a word. There were thousands of students present and not a sound could be heard.
Su Yu calmly said, "If anyone wishes to get a proof of victory over me, I am willing to issue each of you a certificate of acknowledgement. Our referee here is the witness. I have indeed lost to all these people. They are too skillful for me to defeat."
8,120 defeats. Zhou Mingren felt like his heart was going to stop beating.
Looking at Su Yu, he slowly said, "Su Yu, I made that offer to encourage the students to work hard. How can you be so wilful and go against the very purpose of this academy..."
Su Yu calmly replied, "I don't understand what you're saying. I was injured so I decided to concede. Is that not allowed? My fellow students are too strong. I am no match so I can only surrender. Everything else is unrelated to me."
He was essentially saying that he was only in charge of conceding. As for getting the reward from Zhou Mingren, well, that was not his job. Why bother explaining to him? Sure, Zhou Mingren could totally renege on any debt toward Su Yu. Everyone knew that they were hostile toward each other.
Alas, Zhou Mingren did not owe Su Yu anything. Rather, the debtors were the other students. There were thousands of them.
At that time, someone smiled and said, "Faculty Head Zhou, I want a Myriad Text Sutra willpower text. I want a peak Mountainsea willpower text. Or else, my grandpa might end up displeased."
Zhou Mingren stared at Zheng Yunhui.
Zheng Yunhui had an innocent expression as he said, "Are you...going back on your words? Forget it. Whatever. I thought I could really get a willpower text after winning. Well, I guess climbing to the 88th place is a reward in itself."
Someone else said, "I want my willpower texts. I won three times! It wasn't easy to defeat Su Yu three times!"
Both Su Yu and Zhou Mingren looked at the new speaker. That was Wu Lan. And she was completely unbothered by the stares. She had indeed defeated Su Yu three times today. Was there a problem with that?
Zhou Mingren said nothing. His head was hurting. This was so troublesome.
He asked, "Anyone else?"
Someone spoke softly, "Faculty Head, Chen Huan and the others...were arrested for meddling in the matches of students."
The guard commander bowed and said, "Faculty Head Zhou, Chen Huan and the other researchers tried to stop the students from joining the matches. Su Yu, a participating student, filed a complaint. We acted in accordance with the rules."
Zhou Mingren did not say anything. In accordance with the rules… That alone was enough to shut his mouth. Why? Because there were rules to follow in the academy. And there were also rules to follow in Great Xia. If he decided to ignore the rules today, then someone else could also ignore the rules when dealing with him tomorrow.
Fools!
He could only curse inwardly. Even he himself didn't know who that curse was directed at.
Someone else stepped forth and smiled, "It's only about 8,000 willpower texts. Faculty Head Zhou, if you write one per day, you will only need around 20 years to finish writing them all. That's nothing. Everyone will be grateful toward you."
Wu Yuehua had arrived. She was smiling very happily.
When Su Yu looked at her, he was slightly stunned. This old woman...was actually quite attractive! She only looked like she was around 30 years old. She had a valiant and heroic demeanor, and when she smiled, she looked very good.
Of course, he was mostly viewing her in such a positive light because she was here to sneer at Zhou Mingren. Su Yu was very happy that someone was finally speaking for him.
"Grandaunt, I won three willpower texts!"
When Su Yu heard that voice, he finally knew who the newcomer was. Wu Lan was happily showing off to her grandaunt that she had won three willpower texts.
"Hahaha! Well done!"
Wu Yuehua praised. Three willpower texts? That was nothing. Get fucked, Zhou Mingren. He wanted to dig up someone's grave? Well, they would bury him in a grave first! He now owed all these students over 8,000 willpower texts. Even if he was going to renege on the debt, she was still going to ensure that he would suffer.
Thousands of students watched silently as the clash of words commenced.
Inwardly, all of them were filled with expectation. Come on! Please honor the debt! They could even accept Zhou Mingren only rewarding some of them. That way, some of them could still wait and hope to get lucky.
Thousands of students were watching. Even someone as experienced and knowledgeable as Zhou Mingren was finding it hard to stay calm. Should he give all these people the willpower texts they wanted?
Nonsense! There were thousands of them. How was he supposed to get his hands on so many willpower texts? Was he supposed to spend decades writing willpower texts for them?
An old woman walked out and berated, "Stop messing around. These naughty children...how can cultivation methods be easily taught? Disperse, disperse..."
Chen Yong said, "Naughty children? Elder Yu Hong, there are thousands of students here. And the juniors of the various families are here. Do you want to embarrass our academy in front of the entire Human Realm? We have already embarrassed ourselves enough in Great Xia. Are we supposed to spread our disgrace all over the Human Realm or even the Myriad Realms as well? The Foreign Students Faculty is definitely already aware of this. They only need to go out and start talking about...the character of our elders and vice principals."
The old woman said, "Chen Yong, you are aware that this is only an internal matter within the academy. There is no need to escalate the matter."
Chen Yong said, "Whatever. It really has nothing to do with us. It's not like we stand to gain anything from you. Elders, you naturally have the final say here."
The elders said nothing. The reward they had offered for the defeat of Su Yu had been turned into a joke.
They were feeling very helpless. Previously when Zhou Mingren offered the reward, they didn't feel like anything was wrong. Why had things...developed in this direction?