Chapter 342: Trouble Is Coming (1)
Great Xia Cultural Research Academy.
Wentan Research Center.
While things were getting intense and chaotic outside, it was peaceful and calm inside the research center.
While staying within the academy, Su Yu did not feel much threat. At the very least, there were rules in the academy. And the rules were very important for Wan Tiansheng. Even when he tried snatching Zheng Yunhui's blood essence previously, he had only done so in accordance with the rules. After all, the blood essence was used in an illegal transaction. It was well within his rights to snatch it.
Naturally, his act of breaking through Hong Tan's defenses to directly communicate with Su Yu was in a gray area of rules.
At present, Su Yu had entered the prison zone yet again.
...
Underground.
The creatures were already used to being starved. Thus, when they sensed Su Yu's arrival, they were even overjoyed at his early arrival. It had only been seven days! Normally, he would only come after ten days!
They were supposed to be fed once every three days, but that had been reduced into a beautiful dream. None of them believed that Su Yu would actually feed them so frequently.
While Su Yu walked down the stairs, the creatures all started moving in excitement. They had no choice but to move. The fire crow had remained still during Su Yu's previous visit and he still regretted it now. He had been fed one less time than all the other creatures.
The moment Su Yu arrived, the white civet said, "Little Brother Su Yu, did you manage to get any merit points from the cultivation methods I gave you?"
Su Yu slapped his forehead and laughed, "I completely forgot about that! I have been too busy conducting research with my teacher. I have completely forgotten to submit the cultivation methods. I'll do it next time."
The white civet turned dispirited. He forgot! She had been looking forward to getting more source qi liquid, but Su Yu had actually forgotten about it. This kid really had a terrible memory. It really wasn't so surprising anymore that he would often forget to feed them.
Su Yu did not waste his time saying anything. He fed the creatures a drop of source qi liquid each. Then, he looked at the cage housing the water elemental.
"Number one, do you want to have a chat?"
The water elemental assumed a faceless humanoid body and said, "What do you wish to talk about?"
"Water Path Art." Su Yu went straight to the point, "The research center is trying to come out with a foundation cultural art suitable for the human race. I'm talking about something those in the Mental Tempering Stage can use.
"The five elemental race seems to be quite proficient in this subject. Your Water Path Art is one such foundation cultural art that requires soul apertures instead of acupoints. You are aware of that, right?"
The water elemental replied, "Like I said, we know these cultivation methods innately. Our apertures are innately open. Thus, we don't really know much about those apertures.
"Furthermore, the seas of willpower of different races can be different as well. This method might be able to open more of my apertures, but it might not work for humans. You humans have killed a lot of five elementals before so you should be aware of this."
Su Yu nodded, "I understand. But I still wish to give it a try. This is how a true cultural researcher should be like. Who would be willing to give up without trying? The moment I succeed, this will be an accomplishment that will leave my name in the annals of history. Wealth, status, and fame will all come toward me."
The water elemental sank into silence.
After a while, he said, "Are you trying to get me to teach you the secrets of Water Path Art?"
"Not really." Su Yu smiled, "I don't need you to tell me about the aperture opening process. Just tell me how you feel about the art or something more vague. I am someone who enjoys reverse deduction. Perhaps your story might give me some new inspiration."
The creatures felt like laughing upon hearing that. This was only a Mental Tempering Stage student. How confident. He was actually trying to derive the cultural art of the five elemental race?
One ought to know that even Invincibles might have a hard time deriving something like that. If it was so easy, the cultivation methods of the myriad races would have been spread everywhere long ago.
Different races had a different body, and because of that, the cultivation methods of different races could be very different from each other as well. Not even the water elemental himself might know all 36 of the apertures required by a human cultivating the Water Path Art.
As this involved the sea of willpower, they had to be extremely cautious. Any carelessness might result in the collapse of the sea of willpower.
The sea of willpower was an extremely powerful existence. But at the same time, it was also quite frail. Opening the wrong aperture would be the same as drilling a hole through a bottle, causing leakage. Thus, soul apertures were much harder to open than acupoints. And it was also much more dangerous.
Otherwise, the Myriad Text Sutra wouldn't have been able to remain the sole cultural art for those in the Skysoar Realm even after so many years. These creatures had to resist the urge to laugh and sneer at Su Yu.
The suanni was the one with the worst temper among the group. In the past, he would have started throwing insults at Su Yu. But today, he was incredibly obedient. He remained silent and stealthily laughed when nobody was noticing.
What was he laughing at? He was laughing at Su Yu for being overconfident. He was laughing at Su Yu for being too ambitious.
Su Yu didn't really care. He needed more vague descriptions of this cultivation method. For example, things like the water elemental's personal understanding of the cultivation method, his personal experiences, and so on. With all these things, Su Yu would be able to write a proper cultivation manual instead of one that only pointed one to the apertures one needed to open.
At present, he didn't even know the actual reason for opening those apertures and the benefits of opening those apertures. During the past few days, he had read a lot of books and checked a lot of cultivation manuals.
He believed that he was already knowledgeable enough to write a decent template of a cultivation manual, but he still lacked the comprehension of an actual five elemental race member in his manual. Such a manual looked too fake and a true expert could very easily see some of his secrets through this manual. As for now, the water elemental was the perfect tutor for him.
One should never transmit cultivation methods too easily, but some manner of transmission was still required. Su Yu was already prepared to transmit some of his cultivation methods. The main issue he needed to be concerned with was the manner of transmission, the benefits he could gain, and staying safe after transmitting the cultivation methods. When the water elemental saw that Su Yu seemed really interested, he smiled. He didn't mind saying more.
"The sea of willpower is actually the same as the physical body. Both apertures and acupoints are merely the tunnels connecting you with the natural world. The more of these tunnels you open, the faster your cultivation will be.
"Why can't humans in the Mental Tempering Stage cultivate the Myriad Text Sutra? Because their sea of willpower is still too weak at that level. At that level, the sea of willpower of a human is actually weaker than the sea of willpower of someone from the five elemental race with the same cultivation level. Thus, humans might not be able to start opening apertures at the Mental Tempering Stage even if we can do so.
"The apertures opened by the Myriad Text Sutra are only usable for those in the Skysoar Realm. Different apertures are different from each other. Some are very hard to discover, some have an intense opening process, some would even destabilize your sea of willpower during the opening process..."
The water elemental did not mind chatting with Su Yu about these unimportant topics. Perhaps Su Yu might give him more source qi liquid if he enjoyed the talk enough. The water elemental was not worried that he would starve to death, but with more source qi liquid, he would be able to gather more strength.
Slowly, Su Yu developed a clear concept of the cultivation method in his mind. He took out a notebook and started writing his findings down. He looked like an obedient student with the water elemental being the teacher.
With Su Yu seriously writing and asking some questions every now and then, the prison zone looked more like a classroom than a prison.
"If we name the apertures of the Water Path Art into water aperture 1 through 36, how would you describe your feeling when opening water aperture 1?"
The water elemental paused slightly and said, "When opening the first aperture, nothing is more important than stabilizing your sea of willpower. Generally, the opening of the first aperture will also cause a destabilization of your sea of willpower. At that time, you will start feeling slight pain after absorbing some ambient willpower in the air."
"You can start absorbing willpower after opening the first aperture?"
"Yes. But it is still a passive absorption. It's basically the same as the Source Opening Realm where you can only passively absorb source qi. The aperture will only increase the speed of that passive absorption."
Su Yu nodded and continued asking more questions. The water elemental answered patiently.
After a long while, Su Yu tossed a drop of source qi liquid into the cage and said, "Thank you. If I have anything I don't understand in the future, I'll come look for you again. I will remember your contribution after completing the Water Path Art that is suitable for human practice."
...
The water elemental didn't even feel like entertaining that remark. If this kid could really come out with the cultural art so easily, he...would be willing to start living as waste water from now on!
Su Yu was about to leave when the mountaindrill bull hurriedly said, "Su Yu, you haven't fed me!"
Su Yu turned around and glared at the bull. This bull looked honest, but he was actually quite treacherous.
"You're getting nothing. I'm starving you for a month." Su Yu said, "I asked someone. Your blood essence is problematic. The royalties of the mountaindrill bull are capable of attaching some willpower and life force to their blood essence and regrowing themselves from a drop of blood. And you had not said anything about that. Were you trying to plot against me? Do you take me for a fool? Even if I know nothing, I can ask others."
"You misunderstand me!"
The mountaindrill bull wailed miserably. One month! Everything was over. He would really starve to death.
"I am only a Skysoar! How am I supposed to do something like regrowing from a drop of blood? Su Yu, that is not an ability I have!"
"Stop talking nonsense." Su Yu said, "The more honest one looks, the more treacherous one actually is. You're even worse than the suanni. Although the suanni hasn't been too honest either, he has at least given me a heaven-grade technique."
The suanni had nothing to say. How had he been dishonest? He had been extremely honest and obedient lately! He had even stopped roaring recently! He had only been obediently waiting for Su Yu to feed him!
Su Yu did not waste his time and left after he was done in the prison zone.
Silence descended.
After a while, the water elemental smiled, "Silly bull, it's your loss."
The bull didn't even feel like talking.
The shadow said, "He might not be too knowledgeable, but he was right. He can ask others. This Su Yu...isn't stupid. Also, have you noticed? He seems to have grown a lot in strength."
"Are you sure?" The suanni questioned, "From my observation, his physical body still isn't absorbing source qi too quickly. I can't directly scan him, but I can see that he is probably still at the middle-stage Great Strength Realm."
"Middle-stage Great Strength Realm?" The shadow said, "I doubt so. The water elemental must have sensed this as well. Su Yu seems to be hiding some of his opened acupoints. That is probably an effect of a Divine Character. It works similarly to the characters of our shadow race. Thus, his real strength is definitely higher."
The water elemental had turned into a puddle of water as he said, "Exactly. He is probably at the late-stage."
The other creatures sank into silence. That kid was growing too fast. With his heaven-grade technique, he could very well be one of the strongest Great Strength cultivators in the area. He was also extremely talented.
"Has he really been asking so much about cultural arts today because he's trying to make one?"
The shadow was still doubtful. That would be an extremely difficult task. In fact, even the Knowledge Seeking Realm had a group of experts focusing on this topic of research. Or to be precise, this was a topic of research the various academies were also engaged in.
Was Su Yu thinking of getting involved as well? Was he not worried about wasting too much time instead? But none of them had an answer. None of them knew what Su Yu was thinking.