Chapter 350: Just Ask For It! (1)
When Su Yu found Xia Huyou, he had just got out of bed and was still in a daze.
It was too early.
It was almost four in the morning.
Xia Huyou was in a daze because he had just woken up. But that wasn't the case for Su Yu. Just as Su Yu was about to speak, his heart thumped. What did he just see? A thin layer of mist was surrounding Xia Huyou, slowly being absorbed by him. Before long, that thin mist was gone.
"Opened apertures!"
As someone who had just opened 20 apertures, Su Yu was way too familiar with this sight. That thin layer of mist had clearly come from somewhere earlier. Skysoar Realm? Su Yu was alarmed. Was Xia Huyou at the Skysoar Realm? No, that didn't seem to be the case.
If Xia Huyou was a Skysoar cultivator, he would have a full willpower that was already materialized. He would also have a second-tier willpower. He would look slightly different from a regular student. The only exception was if Xia Huyou was already so strong that he could completely conceal his cultivation.
And if Xia Huyou wasn't a Skysoar cultivator, then that could only mean that this fellow had opened some apertures with a cultural art that could be used during the Mental Tempering Stage.
Su Yu was astonished. Wasn't he told that cultural arts suitable for human usage at the Mental Tempering Stage did not exist? No, he was told that such arts existed, but they were monopolized by the great families. So did Xia Huyou know this cultural art because he was an important figure in the Xia Family?
"Su Yu, it's the middle of the night. Can't we talk in the morning?"
Xia Huyou kept yawning. Did Su Yu not require sleep? He wasn't too worried about the tiny bit of willpower surrounding him when he woke up. Su Yu wasn't even a Skysoar cultivator so he was sure that Su Yu wouldn't be able to notice anything. And he only required a short moment to absorb that tiny bit of willpower. Even a Skysoar cultivator could easily miss that if the cultivator wasn't paying close attention.
Su Yu did not talk about what he saw and smiled, "I have too many things to do so I'll have to be troubling you. Huyou, I have a question. Do you sell foundation cultural arts? I'm referring to those arts that can be used during the Mental Tempering Stage."
"No." Xia Huyou said, "How can something like that be sold?"
"So something like that exists? You know more things than me. Can you confirm with me if such cultural arts exist in the Human Realm?"
Xia Huyou scratched his head and said, "Such cultural arts definitely exist, but generally, they are kept secret by their owners. With so many Invincible experts around, some of them must have already come up with a usable cultural art for humans..."
"Since those Invincible experts can create something like that, why haven't they spread these cultural arts like the source arts?"
"It's different." Xia Huyou shook his head, "Simply put, everyone is capable of being a warrior. But only a small minority of people can become cultural researchers. And that small group of people stand at the peak of human society. Those pursuing the path of cultural research are either those from major families or cultural research families.
"Sure, there are some unaffiliated cultural researchers around, but there are very few of them. Even if the cultural arts are made public, the commoners won't be able to get or learn them. In the end, these cultural arts will still end up in the hands of these major families."
At this point, Xia Huyou was finally starting to wake up. He said, "That will only further solidify the position and privilege of those in that special class formed by cultural researchers. At times, not spreading these cultural arts can also be beneficial for the human race. Of course, those people are also keeping these cultural arts private for selfish reasons. They wish to further strengthen their families like how those warrior families have been able to maintain the advantage of their families by keeping their cultivation methods secret."
Xia Huyou smiled, "It is impossible to make all cultivation manuals public. This applies to all races. Even the divines and the devils will keep some of their more powerful cultivation manuals secret from the rest of their population."
Su Yu nodded, "In other words, these cultural arts exist. Am I right?"
"I think so."
Xia Huyou gave an indirect answer.
Su Yu thought about it and asked, "What if someone spread a cultural art like this around?"
Xia Huyou gave it some thought and replied, "The number of cultural researchers will increase. The struggle over resources will intensify. And humanity will face a shortage of willpower texts. Of course, there are also advantages to it. Cultural researchers will be able to reach the Skysoar Realm faster. A cultural researcher can obtain sufficient combat strength in a shorter period of time, shortening the time required for a cultural researcher to reach a high level of cultivation.
"Su Yu, nobody will sell something like this. Stop thinking about it. Also, even if such cultural arts really exist, there definitely won't be a lot of them in existence. Generally, these arts are kept even a secret from those in the same family."
Xia Huyou shook his head, "I'll be honest. For now, it is still impossible to share everything with everyone. Perhaps in the future when the human race is on the brink of extinction, this might be possible since we will be forced to use everything we have against the myriad races. At that time, I suppose all these precious cultivation manuals will no longer seem so precious.
"But the truth is that the human race is still one of the stronger races. We are not in that good of a position, but we are still doing quite well in the Allheaven Battlefield. It is basically impossible for humanity to start sharing all these cultivation manuals at this time."
"Are we really doing well?" Su Yu coldly said, "If we're really doing well, the Devil Subduing Army would not have been forced to recall the retired soldiers several times in the past few years. My father wouldn't have returned to the battlefield at the age of fifty."
Xia Huyou coughed awkwardly and said, "The Devil Subduing Army is different. That is mainly because they have been involved in too many wars early on. You know that the Great Xia Prefecture is very warlike. My-our Prefect Xia is a very stern person that is unwilling to compromise. As long as anyone dares to provoke us, he will answer with his army. That results in disastrous losses among the Devil Subduing Army, forcing us to keep recruiting retired veterans back into the army."
Su Yu asked, "In that case, the other prefectures have actually not suffered as many casualties in all these wars?"
"Yeah." Xia Huyou said, "The other prefectures do fight in wars, but strictly speaking, they are mostly fighting the weaker races. Only our Great Xia Prefecture focuses on the powerful races like the divines and the devils."
"Why?" Xia Huyou sighed, "Why else? It's due to the Great Xia King. He is the kind of person that enjoys doing something nobody else dares to do. For example, he will insist on defending the locations nobody dares to defend. He will also insist on fighting in conflicts nobody dares to get involved in. For a few generations, that is the type of prefect we have been getting. Because of that, our army keeps going deeper and deeper into the Allheaven Battlefield. As a result, the enemies we encounter become stronger and stronger as well."
"Are the other Invincibles not doing anything about this?"
"Yes, they are. But the Invincible cultivators are only involved in the battles of Invincible cultivators. As for the battles below their level, they wouldn't get involved."
When Xia Huyou saw Su Yu's doubtful expression, he explained, "Of course, it is not necessarily a bad thing to be involved in more battles. By engaging in more battles, we have been able to produce more experts as well. The Great Xia is basically raising experts through slaughter..."
He didn't try to hide anything, "Survival of the fittest. Of the various prefectures, Great Xia is the prefecture with the highest rate of experts produced. We are actually among the strongest prefectures in the Human Realm. Of the 36 prefectures of the Human Realm, Great Xia is actually one of the three strongest prefectures."
"36 prefectures?" Su Yu frowned, "Why are there only 36 prefectures? The books say that there are 38 prefectures."
Xia Huyou scratched his head, "I'm referring to the major prefectures. Apart from the major prefectures, there are two small prefectures. The books aren't too clear about it, but one of the two is the Allheaven Prefecture. That is the prefecture with the tunnel leading to the Allheaven Battlefield. The other small prefecture is the Dual Holy Prefecture. That is the core of the Human Realm, the place where the two holy lands of humanity can be found. Both the War Shrine and the Knowledge Seeking Realm is located within that prefecture."
Su Yu nodded and said, "I know about all that. So you're excluding those two when you rank the prefectures? I was confused when you said that we're a top three prefecture. Doesn't that make us the strongest behind the Dual Holy Prefecture?"
Xia Huyou shrugged, "It's not like we're that far off. Ignoring everything else, in terms of military strength and the numbers of experts alone, we are at the top in the Human Realm. There is one other prefecture that is as strong as us, the Great Zhou Prefecture. They are much better at plundering the Allheaven Battlefield for resources. Thanks to their wealth, they have been able to produce a lot of experts as well."
"Apart from Great Xia and Great Zhou, which prefecture is in the top three?"
"Great Qin." Xia Huyou unhesitatingly said, "They are very strong as well. The Great Qin King is standing at the very top even among the Invincible experts."
Su Yu said, "In that case, there are actually 36 Invincible cultivators in the two holy lands?"
"I don't know." Xia Huyou smiled, "Apart from the Invincible cultivators themselves, nobody really knows. Firstly, some of them might have perished but the news has been hidden from the public. Some new experts might have broken through into the Invincible Realm without publicizing the news of the breakthrough. And not all Invincible cultivators will actually start their own prefecture...
"If you check the history books, you should be aware that over 300 years ago, the various prefectures have only been founded out of desperation. Some myriad race experts had entered the Human Realm to create chaos everywhere. Left with no choice, some human Invincibles stepped forth and established the various prefectures to protect the humans living within those territories."
Su Yu nodded. He was aware of that. Of course, the history books were not detailed enough in their description of the events. In truth, history has not given any explanations for a lot of issues.
For example, the matter concerning the advancement of the first batch of human Invincibles over 300 years ago. How did that group of humans break through? Where did they come from? Where had they learned what they knew? Were there any human experts before them?
All these things were only mentioned passingly in the history books. Basically, anything involving the Invincible cultivators would be left ambiguous in the history books.
Su Yu did not push for more answers. He only needed to have a clearer idea of some topics instead of knowing everything. After hearing Xia Huyou's words, he was starting to suspect that this Xia Huyou could very well be Xia Longwu's son.
What a pity. Xia Longwu used to be Su Yu's idol. That was someone who would always look dignified and imposing on television. With one order, he would cause countless heads to fall. He was someone who had planted fear in the hearts of the Myriad Race Cult members. A person so noble and imposing would actually have a son like this? Su Yu found it hard to believe.
Naturally, Su Yu had no intention of exposing Xia Huyou even though he was already 80 percent sure of Xia Huyou's identity. It was fine to know about it, but there was no need to reveal the truth. Strictly speaking, this Xia Huyou was the crown prince of Great Xia. After exposing the truth, was he supposed to start saluting this crown prince each time they meet in the future?