Chapter 372: I, Su Yu, Am Not A Sore Loser (1)
Should they go? All the single character factions were asking themselves the same question.
Hesitation.
Who was the first single character faction member ranked above Su Yu? Suddenly, many odd gazes landed on a certain person.
Xia Chan.
Ranked 90.
Recently, the ranking had been changing. Wan Mingze climbed to the 86th rank, Hu Qiusheng climbed to the 88th rank and Zheng Yunhui had not been advancing. But due to the changes of those ranked above him, he had dropped to the 89th rank. That was followed by Xia Chan. Zhang Hao was still in the 96th rank.
As for Lin Qing, she was in the 99th rank. She was in an awkward position where she couldn't climb the ranking yet wouldn't completely drop out of it. Xia Chan was Zhou Mingren's newly accepted student. One could say that she was his final student.
As for why Xia Chan had agreed to become his student, nobody knew the reason. Nobody knew what Marquis Xia was thinking. Marquis Xia was making things difficult for Zhou Mingren while sending his granddaughter over to become Zhou Mingren's student. And Zhou Mingren had actually accepted her. Nobody knew if this was merely an exchange of benefits.
In the ring, Su Yu couldn't even stand properly anymore. His severed arm had been forcefully reconnected. But full recovery would probably take some time. One could say that Su Yu's physical strength had dropped to the weakest level. Could Xia Chan defeat him?
In the crowd, Xia Chan was looking at Su Yu. She did not appear angry. She only looked somewhat dispirited. The gap between her and Su Yu had not been reduced with the passage of time. Instead, the gap had only increased. With great difficulty, she had reached the 90th rank only to find that it was becoming harder and harder to keep up with Su Yu.
"I concede."
Xia Chan declared calmly. Some people were relieved to hear that while some were indignant. But nobody dared to say anything. It was already clear that Xia Chan wasn't Su Yu's match. The crowd didn't even know if they should call her a coward for conceding.
"Next." Su Yu was completely indifferent as he said, "You can keep conceding until only Di Feng stands before me."
Nobody answered. Some of them felt extremely indignant. Conceding? Facing him? If the single character faction really allowed Su Yu to ascend the Top 100 Ranking so easily, then they would lose even more prestige.
That was the Top 100 Ranking! The strongest ranking in the academy!
One of the biggest pride of the single character faction was the fact that they had a lot of students in the ranking. Fifteen of the students in the ranking were actually from the single character faction.
How many factions were there in the academy? How many faculties were there in the academy? Their faction had 15 members in that ranking. And that was after Huang Qifeng's defeat. There were also people like Yang Sha, Chen Qi, and many other students with the potential to enter the ranking at any time. The students who Su Yu had defeated easily earlier were among these students.
"So are you fighting or are you conceding?" Su Yu said, "If you're not fighting, make it clear. Also, my senior sister will be entering the ranking as well. You guys are free to challenge her. But each time you challenge her, I'll drop out of the ranking before climbing from the very bottom again."
His tone was calm despite the overbearing words he had just uttered. He was basically declaring that a spot had been reserved for his senior sister in the ranking. If anyone dared to kick her out, he would drop out before slaughtering his way up again. Thus, without first defeating Su Yu, it would be pointless to target Wu Jia.
...
"How do we deal with this?"
"This is too hard for us to handle. Is the faculty head still here?"
"Nope. He left."
"How about the elders?"
"All gone as well."
"Find Zhou Pingsheng. Get him to handle this matter."
With that decision, some of them rushed off to notify Zhou Pingsheng. Lately, Zhou Pingsheng had been busy working on the ability blood essence project. It had been a while since he had isolated himself for his research. At this moment, they had no choice but to look for Zhou Pingsheng.
Zhou Mingren was away. Of his four students, Hu Wensheng was in seclusion, Zheng Yuming had been crippled, while Xia Chan was merely a student in name. The only person who could make a decision in Zhou Mingren's absence was Zhou Pingsheng.
Su Yu was in no rush. He waited patiently. He alone stood in the ring, suppressing all the single character faction students.
...
About eight minutes later, Zhou Pingsheng rushed over. He had already been updated on the matter while he was on his way. The moment he arrived, he glared at Su Yu coldly. Was the data taken out by this little bastard fake or real?
"Di Feng!"
"Teacher!" Di Feng hurriedly answered. He was the direct student of Zhou Pingsheng. Apart from him Zhou Pingsheng had another student. That student was Qiu Yi, ranked 24th in the top 100.
"Qiu Yi."
"Teacher!"
The two rushed over and greeted their teacher.
"Where is Guo Shengquan?"
Zhou Pingsheng looked around. That person was nowhere to be seen. Guo Shengquan was Hu Wensheng's first student, Chen Qi's senior brother, and one of the stronger single character faction students. This Guo Shengquan was ranked 35th in the top 100.
Di Feng softly said, "Junior Brother Guo is not here. He has been focused only on his cultivation. He spends all his time in grottos and his cultivation. At times, he would leave the academy. It has been a while since we last saw him."
"Hmph!"
Zhou Pingsheng was slightly unhappy. How dare Guo Shengquan stay away from a matter so big. There had been rumors that Guo Shengquan had joined the so-called neutral faction. That might really be true.
Looking at his students before looking at Su Yu, he transmitted his voice to them, "We can't run from this fight. We must fight. And we must win. Cripple Su Yu. Qiu Yi, you'll go first. Su Yu has not used much of his willpower yet. Aim to drain his willpower. You don't need to fight to win. Just drain him before conceding. Di Feng, your goal is to cripple him. Even if you can't kill him, you need to send him to his bed for a few months like your Junior Brother Huang. Injure him so much that he will have to stop cultivating for months."
Qiu Yi had a look of hesitation. She was somewhat worried. She was afraid of suffering the same fate as the other students. That Zhou Hao was really very strong. She felt like if she had to fight Zhou Hao, she might be the one to be defeated.
Zhou Hao was only a ninth-stage Great Strength cultivator. But with 144 acupoints, he was probably no weaker than those fifth or sixth-stage Infinite Strength cultivators. More importantly, Zhou Hao's killing intent was too strong. He was absolutely crazy in battle. Even if someone who was slightly stronger than him had to face him in battle, that person would not be confident of victory. Yet someone like Zhou Hao had nearly been beaten to death by Su Yu.
Noticing the worry in his student's eyes, Zhou Pingsheng was slightly furious. But after thinking about it, he decided to not blame her. He said, "Elder Sun, Li and Yu have students in the ranking as well. All below top 50 are to concede. Those above the top 50 will accept the challenge with one goal: tire him out. This might be embarrassing, but everything will be fine as long as we can cripple Su Yu."
Zhou Pingsheng had already reached a decision. Even if doing this was not going to bring them any glory, even if it was going to embarrass themselves, he couldn't allow Su Yu to leave unharmed.
If they allowed Su Yu to leave unharmed after provoking them like this, the morale of the single character faction would drop even further. Since they couldn't even deal with a single student, what could they even deal with? Who could they even compete against?
Those below the top 50 wouldn't be able to do anything. They would basically be free food for Su Yu. But those in the top 50 would be able to drain him a little even if they couldn't defeat him. They would not give him the chance to recuperate. They would keep draining his willpower.
...
In the ring.
Su Yu noticed Zhou Pingsheng and the little meeting they were having. He said nothing and continued waiting. Since he had decided to step on them today, he was going to see it through.
Before long, a single character faction student said, "I concede."
That was the student ranked 84th.
"I concede."
That was the student ranked 73rd.
"I concede."
"..."
A string of students conceded. At the same time, more and more students arrived to witness this shocking scene. One student had forced the students of an entire faction to concede. And all those students were top 100 students. This was a truly astonishing sight to behold.
It wasn't that Su Yu was unequaled. But the students ranked above him had all slowly climbed to their current positions while he was someone who had once reached rank 38. Thus, the students below top 50 were basically not his match.
There had never been a need for the students of the other factions to do something similar. Although the two character factions had been clashing against each other relentlessly, the other factions had generally maintained a peaceful relationship with each other.
Su Yu was able to reach the 61st rank without any challenge. But at that moment, his advance stopped. The single character faction did not have any students between the 50th and 60th ranks.
Thus, they weren't able to continue with their plan of baiting Su Yu to the top 50 before draining him of energy. Was the matter going to end here?
Clearly, Su Yu did not intend to challenge anyone apart from the single character faction students. He stood there silently. Meanwhile, the expression of Zhou Pingsheng changed repeatedly.
Looking at Su Yu, he finally shouted, "Su Yu, aren't you challenging Di Feng? Why have you stopped?"
Su Yu was unperturbed. "I'm waiting."
"What are you waiting for?" Zhou Pingsheng frowned.
Su Yu said, "I'm waiting for Xia Yuwen to pay his 10 merit points. I don't have the money to pay the challenge fee. It doesn't matter if I challenge your people without paying. But when it comes to the other seniors, I have to pay up first."
"You!" Zhou Pingsheng was infuriated.
Su Yu said, "How about you urge Teacher Xia to pay the debt for me? Otherwise, today's challenge will stop here. We'll continue tomorrow."
Tomorrow? Zhou Pingsheng was furious. Su Yu was intentionally doing this! Even the students could see that Su Yu was simply trying to further annoy Xia Yuwen and the single character faction.