Chapter 418: Rumor Mongering (1)
Great Xia Cultural Research Academy.
Filter room.
Su Yu opened the book in front of him. This was the Sky Sundering Saber of the Xia Family, the so-called number one cultivation method in Great Xia.
The moment he opened the book, his vision blurred. A human figure appeared in front of him. That was a familiar figure. It was Xia Longwu! This was a willpower text written by Xia Longwu himself!
"Sky Sundering Saber, the prized cultivation method of the Xia Family. It is split into a cultivation method and a martial technique. But both are actually the same. They are basically different routes leading to the same destination. After all, at the Mountainsea Realm, cultivation methods can be used as martial techniques and vice versa."
Xia Longwu was speaking calmly, showing none of the aggresiveness he usually displayed.
"The Sky Sundering Saber allows you to open 144 acupoints. You can cultivate the entire cultivation method from the beginning. As for the martial technique, you need to train it one level at a time.
"Each move consists of 16 acupoints. There is a total of nine moves you can use to sunder the heavens. The first three moves can be used to behead Skysoars. The next three moves can be used to slaughter Cloudbreaches. And the final three moves can be used to exterminate Mountainseas."
Su Yu merely smiled. It was apparent that the Xia Family wasn't too good at bluffing.
Just look at the Time technique. The creator of that technique was much better at bluffing. He could crush Mountainseas with the first move alone. The second move could suppress Sunmoons and the third move could battle Invincibles.
This was not a real Xia Longwu. It was merely a projection. Thus, it ignored Su Yu and continued its explanation on the Sky Sundering Saber.
It required 144 acupoints. But a lot of them overlapped with the 186 acupoints Su Yu had opened. After reading the entire manual, he found that he only needed to open 84 new acupoints. If he was able to open all these acupoints, he would have 270 opened acupoints in total.
"84 acupoints..."
Su Yu felt a headache incoming. That was a lot of acupoints. If he really decided to open all of them, that would put his total opened acupoints at nearly double the number of those geniuses cultivating top-tier heaven-grade cultivation methods.
And even those freaks would require countless resources and time to open 144 acupoints. But Su Yu actually needed to open double the number of acupoints.
"84 acupoints..."
The more acupoints he opened, the harder it would be to open new acupoints. After a short calculation, Su Yu concluded that he needed at least 500 drops of early-stage Infinite Strength mountainbreak bull blood essence. If he could get late-stage blood essence instead, he would be able to reduce that number.
"That is enough blood essence for me to open all the Body Strengthening Art acupoints."
In that case, he might as well open the Body Strengthening Art acupoints first. After cultivating the Body Strengthening Art, he could use it to increase his absorption speed when opening the acupoints for the Sky Sundering Sword. He would only spend more time doing so.
After all, he mainly used blood essence to increase the speed of acupoint opening as he would be able to absorb source qi at the speed of an Infinite Strength cultivator.
But after opening so many acupoints, his absorption speed was already as fast as an Infinite Strength cultivator's.
Thus, it would be a better choice for him to use his blood essence to open the Body Strengthening Art acupoints. That would grant him a smoother growth, allowing him to stop relying on blood essence that much. After all, enough mountainbreak bulls had been killed to satisfy his cultivation needs.
...
Mental Tempering Garden.
Su Yu wasted no time and tossed a jade talisman to Xia Huyou. He said, "This is for you. You are not allowed to teach it to anyone else. Also, have you purchased the mountainbreak bull blood essence worth 5,000 merit points I told you to purchase previously?"
Xia Huyou ignored the question and checked the talisman. Then, he curled his lips and said, "This is a trade. Why are you making it sound like a gift for me?"
Curiosity covered his face as he asked, "Are you sure you're going to buy so much blood essence?"
"What stupid question is that? I need blood essence to cultivate your family's Sky Sundering Saber or it would be too slow."
Xia Huyou exclaimed, "Have you gone mad? Why are you still opening more acupoints? You might as well enter the Infinite Strength Realm or even the Mountainsea Realm earlier. At that time, you can fuse all your acupoints into one. A heaven-grade cultivation method no longer make much difference at that level."
"Do you think I'm dumb?" Su Yu rolled his eyes and said, "With a good cultivation method, you might be able to fuse 144 acupoints at the Mountainsea Realm. But with only the War God Art, you will only be able to fuse 108 acupoints. Fusion will be much harder with a weaker cultivation method. Are you trying to fool be because you're afraid of being overtaken by me?"
"..."
Xia Huyou was speechless. This fellow was twisting his intentions into something completely different. Whatever. If this fellow didn't want his advice, so be it.
"The single character faction's tournament will start soon. Are you giving it a try?"
"When is it starting?"
"On the 20th. You might not be aware of this, but a lot of seniors from the Elderly District are going to be joining for the five slots."
Xia Huyou had a deep look on his face when he said that.
Seniors?
How old were they?
Very old!
Some of them had been stuck at the peak Mental Tempering Stage for decades and were at the end of their lifespan. The moment they heard about a chance to enter the Willpower Grotto, they got so excited that they were behaving like they were decades younger than their actual ages.
There were also instances where grandparents and grandchildren were going to be joining the tournament together. The grandfather had failed to enter the Skysoar Realm back then. Now, the grandson was near the Skysoar Realm. Thus, they had decided to join the tournament together.
Su Yu was somewhat speechless. He said, "But even if you can enter the grotto, there is no guarantee that you can break through, right?"
"But you will have a much higher chance." Xia Huyou explained, "In the past, the academy had opened the grotto as well. But back then, all the candidates had been decided internally. If it wasn't for the conflict with the multiple character faction, the single character faction would have kept all the slots for themselves as well."
"Has the academy been ignoring their old students?"
But Su Yu himself started shaking his head. It wasn't possible to take care of all the old students.There were simply too many of them around.
Those who were still stuck at an old age were either untalented or too cowardly to fight for opportunities. These were most certainly not the people the academy would pay close attention to.
Xia Huyou said, "In truth, most of these people are not worth pitying. A lot of them are at the peak Mental Tempering Stage. If they really can't materialize their willpower, they could have put some effort into physical training, joining the army, or even the Windcatcher Department. They could have fought for a future. All experts have emerged by fighting for their own opportunities. These people didn't even have the courage to fight for it. Thus, they deserve being stuck for so many years."
It wasn't like the Allheaven Battlefield was filled with only experts. There were plenty of Great Strength and Infinite Strength cultivators there. If the ordinary soldiers could go, why couldn't these cultural researchers go as well?
As Mental Tempering Stage cultivators, they would also be able to progress faster than regular physical cultivators in physical cultivation. And their combat strength would also be higher in comparison. Even with their advantages, they were still too cowardly to go.
Su Yu moved on from the topic and asked, "Cut the crap. Do you have my blood essence? I need to open more acupoints and cultivate the Sky Sundering Saber."
The tournament would be held on the 20th. He still had a week.
"You...are truly a money swallowing monster."
Xia Huyou couldn't help but be impressed by the rate at which Su Yu was spending money.
Su Yu didn't even deign to give a response. He was spending the money he had earned himself. Nobody could say anything about it.
"The mountainbreak bull race sure is pitiful to encounter someone like you..."
Xia Huyou mumbled to himself. Su Yu ignored the fatty. If the fatty really pitied those bulls so much, he could always stop selling their blood essence.
If he was going to do business with their blood essence, he should just shut his mouth.
Since it had been a few days since Su Yu made this order, Xia Huyou had already gathered the blood essence. He also knew that Su Yu would be needing some blood essence. With the Sky Sundering Saber in hand, this fellow was definitely impatient to start cultivating.
...
Su Yu followed Xia Huyou to go get the blood essence.
In total, he had obtained 200 drops of late-stage mountainbreak bull blood essence for 4,000 merit points. Additionally, he had also obtained 20 drops of Infinite Strength five elemental blood essence, bringing the total transaction value to 5,000 merit points.
This fellow would always be so precise when it came to doing business, giving exactly what Su Yu could afford to purchase at any given time. Su Yu couldn't even be bothered to say anything about how calculative the fatty was. He went straight to the Grotto District with his newly purchased blood essence.
...
"The kid is here again."
Source Qi Secret Grotto.
Old Huang sighed. He had just finished packing up. He was going to leave his post today.
"Old Nie, just what's so great about the Discipline Hall? I would rather stay here and keep my freedom. Why do you guys insist on pushing me to that position?"
Old Nie indifferently said, "Sure. Don't go, then."
"Forget it. I'll magnanimously accept this promotion."
Old Huang laughed awkwardly. Not going? What a joke! He had been here for decades! Even Old Nie was already an elder while he wasn't one. Now that his time had come, he naturally had to properly enjoy the treatment of an elder as well.
Su Yu had yet to reach the room. Old Huang took this chance to ask, "When are you entering the Mountainsea Realm?"
"There is no rush." Old Nie spoke through voice transmission, "Have you not discovered anything after studying this source character for so many years?"
"You're saying..."
Old Huang's eyes flickered as he asked, "You're planning to form a character technique?"
"Even if I can't form a character technique, I need to form a complete system and fuse them together."
Old Nie did not hide his discovery. "This source character is actually not a single character. Rather, it is a character formed of multiple characters. You should have discovered the same. From this, we can see that the multiple character faction is still quite valuable. They can't be destroyed. That is also why we decided to replace Old He with you. Keep the single character faction in check. The people above us are still showing an unambigious attitude. But from what we have discovered, we can't allow the multiple character faction to really be destroyed."