Chapter 36: The Top Student Is Working Hard
Inside the office.
"You reached the fifth-stage?" With a cup of tea in hand, Liu Wenyan looked at Su Yu in astonishment. His senses weren’t too sharp previously, but after willpower materialization, he could see Su Yu's changes very clearly.
Normal people were not able to see or feel the differences between Source Opening cultivators in different stages. But cultural researchers could clearly sense the nine acupoints. Five of Su Yu's acupoints were lit up, indicating that he had reached the fifth-stage.
"Yes." Su Yu nodded, "I was still at the fourth-stage yesterday, but after looking at Teacher Bai's Source Opening Codex, I feel my familiarity with the nine acupoints increasing greatly. I was able to directly enter the fifth-stage."
"That's well-deserved." Liu Wenyan did not doubt Su Yu. "Bai Feng might act indifferent, but with his strength, he would need to exhaust a lot of willpower to finish writing a complete Source Opening Codex. That's all due to his thick foundation. Regular Skysoar cultivators won't be able to do the same even at the seventh-stage.
"In the academy, the instructors won't write willpower texts easily. The willpower exhaustion is too great and recovery is hard. They still need their willpower to nourish their Divine Characters. Generally, they won't be willing to waste their willpower unless necessary. That is why their classes are so expensive. Most students will end up spending all their merit points on these instructors."
Liu Wenyan smiled. "Fifth-stage Source Opening. Looks like you're quite talented in physical cultivation as well. But the speed of Source Opening is really not that important."
Liu Wenyan wasn't impressed. So what if one was a Source Opening genius? ?Even if you could open your acupoints at nine, so what? Cultural researchers would reach the Skysoar Realm the moment they achieved willpower materialization, instantly putting a wide gap between them and regular cultivators.
"I didn't get the chance to ask you yesterday. Did you kill that cult member?"
"Yes." Su Yu did not deny and answered with a nod. He couldn't be bothered to fabricate a lie before Liu Wenyan.
"Not bad. When there is a need for you to make a move, you should never hesitate. So did you swallow a drop of blood essence to gain the strength to kill the opponent?"
"Instructor, you're able to sense that?" Su Yu was surprised.
"Of course. Do you think you can conceal this from a cultural researcher?" Liu Wenyan laughed before assuming a stern expression, "Your body is too weak. Those in the Source Opening Realm should not be cultivating with blood essence. Neither should they be using blood essence for short bursts of strength. You were too rash!
"Of course, I understand that you were forced by the situation. It was our fault for letting danger fall to the students. I can't say anything about what you did there. But from now on, you should stop using blood essence."
Liu Wenyan was solemn, "Do not ruin your life for a short term gain in cultivation. Blood essence can strengthen your body and speed up your cultivation, but you have yet to open your nine acupoints. With unconnected acupoints, the blood essence will accumulate in your body. Do you know how much trouble that will cause you in the future?
"When you finally manage to materialize your willpower, you will find that too many impurities from the blood essence you used have been left in your body. At that time, you won't be able to use more blood essence to refine your body since it has gained resistance to blood essence from your repeated usage. The blood essence impurities will also clash against the newly consumed blood essence, greatly lowering the effect of your body refinement."
Liu Wenyan was extremely serious. "Remember, do not consume more blood essence after this. Don't gamble with your life. You won't get away with it each time."
"Got it." Su Yu hurriedly answered. In truth, when he consumed blood essence, it wasn't his body that was absorbing the blood essence. Rather, it was the book. Only the aura of the blood essence was left on his body. That was probably what Liu Wenyan had sensed. The blood essence would not harm Su Yu's foundation. Of course, that wasn't something he could tell his instructor.
"Good." Liu Wenyan started smiling again, "The exam is two months away. You've basically been shortlisted, but that does not mean that you can waste the two months. Bai Feng is right. You're a genius in Nanyuan but nothing special in the capital.
"But that's in the past. I had not achieved willpower materialization before and couldn't teach or help you with some topics. But now, things are different. In the coming two months, you'll be learning exclusively from me."
Su Yu hesitated before asking, "Instructor, only me?"
"Yes."
"Instructor...is my father...your long lost son?"
"..."
Liu Wenyan was enraged, but that was such a ridiculous question that he also felt like laughing.
"What? Are you trying to be my grandson? Do you think I would even want that?" ?He pointed at Su Yu as he spoke. After a while, he laughed, "Stop thinking so much. In Nanyuan, both you and Liu Yue are decently talented. But Liu Yue has her family to guide her, help her, and provide her with resources. That's why she's better than you right now.
"You have nothing. Your father has left for the Allheaven Battlefield. After spending five years in this school, you can be considered to have grown up before my eyes. I'm not a selfless person who is completely impartial. Strictly speaking, the other students will be rather limited in their future accomplishments. You can walk further than them. The human race needs more experts."
Liu Wenyan spoke bluntly, "I believe you stand a chance to become an expert in the future. Therefore, I'm willing to give you as much help as I can, allowing you to walk a smoother path. Of course, there is a premise for my help. You need to be worth my help. If you're an arrogant fool, I will only watch silently and not say anything to you."
"Thank you, instructor," thanked Su Yu sincerely. During his five years in secondary school, Liu Wenyan had helped him greatly. He was only able to master eighteen languages thanks to Liu Wenyan. From an ignorant child five years ago, he had grown into a youth on the verge of entering a cultural research academy. Liu Wenyan had played an important role in his growth.
"Don't thank me. When you become an expert one day, just remember to kill more enemies on the battlefield. That will be the best way to repay me."
Liu Wenyan stood up and changed the topic, "Come with me. Learn a few more languages and improve your willpower. You're too weak."
Su Yu did not say anything. He stood up and followed Liu Wenyan out of the office.
...
Xia Trade Company.
Warehouse.
Accompanied by a manager from the trade company, the two walked into a massive warehouse. Upon seeing the contents of the warehouse, Su Yu was stunned.
"First lesson today, identifying corpses."
"This is Xia Trade Company's main warehouse in Nanyuan. There are 132 corpses from the various demonic races. Most of them are obtained from the Allheaven Battlefield. These corpses are fresh from the battlefield and have yet to be processed. Your mission is to stay here for a day and identify all the corpses."
Liu Wenyan tossed a small book over and said, "Record their data such as height, width, weight, bone count, and so on."
Su Yu was blanking out. He felt sick. The smell of blood in the warehouse was too strong. Was he supposed to stay there for a day?
"Go on. You'll be here all by yourself today. Of course, do not mess around with these corpses. They're all very valuable. You won't be able to pay for any damages done. I'll check your work later in the evening. I want to see your speculations on the unknown races as well. Even if you have to make things up, I want you to write something about them."
"Instructor, I'll be doing this alone?"
Su Yu had a bitter expression. He wasn't scared. But the warehouse was massive. And it was such a bloody warehouse. Was it right to throw an eighteen-year-old into such a warehouse alone?
"Yes." Liu Wenyan said indifferently, "Is this too much for you? On the Allheaven Battlefield, soldiers will be required to hide among corpses for days at a time. If even this is too much for you, forget about going to the battlefield. You'll only be throwing your life away."
"I...understand." Su Yu did not say anything else and accepted his fate. Thinking about it, this was actually a good idea. There were many corpses here, some belonging to races he had never seen before. He wondered if he could identify some of the monsters in his dreams from these corpses.
"Shut the door."
Liu Wenyan stepped out of the warehouse. Next, the people of the trade company shut the thick metallic door of the warehouse.
...
Outside, the manager who had been staying silent smiled and said, "Old Liu, is this your personal disciple?"
"Yes."
Liu Wenyan did not say anything else and the manager did not ask more. That question was quite pointless. If this wasn't his personal disciple, he wouldn't have paid such a large price to rent the warehouse from the Xia Trade Company. This was the main warehouse of the Xia Trade Company. Not everyone could enter it.
"Old Liu, he's still an inexperienced child who has yet to see the battlefield. He's too young. I'm afraid he will be having nightmares for several days after this. Why don't we turn on the lights inside? That will at least reduce the pressure on him."
The lights in the warehouse were shut, with only a few dim safety lamps active. Thus, it was quite dark and sinister inside.
"No. Cultural researchers need to work with corpses a lot. If he can't even get through this, how is he supposed to face what's coming in the future?" Liu Wenyan had a wide smile as he said, "A powerful cultural researcher is capable of going to the Allheaven Battlefield to capture the divines or devils they need for research. Since this is the path he's walking, he need to get used to corpses."
The manager smiled but did not say anything. He believed that it was still too early to talk about Su Yu becoming a cultural researcher. There were way too many people that were stuck in the Mental Tempering Stage for life. Not everyone could become a cultural researcher. Capturing divines and devils? How many people in Great Xia were capable of that?
Liu Wenyan had placed too many expectations on this student of his. He had also overestimated this young man. Of course, it would be improper for the manager to counter Liu Wenyan's words. After all, this guy had materialized his willpower and was a proper cultural researcher.
Of course, the Xia Trade Company wasn't really afraid of a fresh cultural researcher, but Liu Wenyan also had a junior brother who was a senior researcher in the Great Xia Cultural Research Academy. That position held a lot of weight, and that wasn't someone the trade company's Nanyuan branch could afford to offend.
...
"This is a fire hog, 3.1 meters tall and 7.2 meters long. Good at breathing fire and ramming, commonly used as cannon fodder on the Allheaven Battlefield. The bulk of them are at the Great Strength Realm..."
Looking at the massive corpse before him, Su Yu started recording the characteristics he noticed. Liu Wenyan thought that he would be afraid or disgusted, but in truth, Su Yu wasn't really that scared. His only issue was the thick smell of blood in the warehouse. He found it somewhat unbearable.
"As for the weight..."
After looking at the size, the muscle density, and bone count of the fire hog corpse, Su Yu did a rough calculation on the corpse's weight. It would be between forty thousand to fifty thousand kilograms. That was the weight of this fire hog. It had a terrifying size and an even more terrifying weight. Even if this was only a Great Strength fire hog, it still had a terrifying ramming power. A squad of Great Strength soldiers could easily be scattered by a fire hog's ramming if they didn't prepare for the encounter in advance.
"Huh?" While calculating, Su Yu frowned. The blood character in his mind was kicking a ruckus.
"You want to consume the blood?" Su Yu frowned. "This isn't mine. Although the blood essence has been extracted, the ordinary blood inside the corpse is also worth a lot. It's not good to steal what is not yours, understand?"
In truth, the corpses in the warehouse did not have a lot of blood left in them. After having their blood essence extracted, they would not have much blood left. A majority of the blood had been used for the formation of the blood essence. In any case, the blood here wasn't his to take. His instructor had brought him here to learn. If he took something he shouldn't, the blame would lay on his instructor. He couldn't accept that.
"You can actually consume blood?" Su Yu muttered.
His little brother was displeased with the question. It was a blood character. Was it so surprising that it could consume blood?
"Can consuming blood strengthen you?"
Su Yu was unsure. Regardless, he couldn't allow the character to consume any of the blood here. Otherwise, he wouldn't be able to explain himself.
"Calm down. When I get some money, I'll buy some for you. Ordinary blood won't be too expensive."
Previously, he had spent five thousand dollars on a bottle of iron-winged bird blood. Of course, that actually wasn’t a lot of blood. But if he wanted to buy a large amount of blood, it would actually be quite cheap as he could get a deal for large purchases. That was because people generally wouldn't buy ordinary blood in large amounts. Unless...
Su Yu's eyes flickered as he thought of something. Blood essence was something extracted from ordinary blood. He couldn't help but to ask, "Little bro, can you extract blood essence from ordinary blood?"
If the character could, this might be a way for him to get rich. Some cultural researchers were capable of extracting blood essence. They would be paid handsomely for each drop they extracted. A single drop of Great Strength blood essence was sold at the Xia Trade Company for fifty thousand dollars.