Chapter 446: Snatching The Championship (1)
Wan Tiansheng's aura did not linger for long. It soon vanished without trace. Everything had ended quickly, just like the day when the principal had punished Zheng Yuming. It was as though nothing had happened.
The principal did not care about the conflicts between students. As long as they stayed within the bounds of the rules, he wouldn't be bothered to interfere. But the moment his bottom line was crossed, he would unleash a terror far surpassing the expectations of everyone in the academy.
Amid the crowd, Chen Yong looked at the Heart Cultivating Pavilion for a very long time. He was wondering. If he killed Zhou Pingsheng, would he be able to escape the principal? From what he saw today, that was highly unlikely.
His teacher was a pseudo Sunmoon as strong as some of the newer Sunmoon cultivators. Even someone like that had escaped without hesitation, not willing to face the principal. It was clear not even his teacher had the confidence to face the principal.
...
Silence descended.
Zhou Pingsheng stopped talking. The injured students were carried away. Ten students had stepped into the ring. And ten had been crippled. The students had suffered far lighter injuries during the first round.
Su Yu waited until Wan Tiansheng's aura was gone before smiling, "The second match is over. I am now open for the third challenge."
Nobody said anything.
Liu Hong's eyes flickered. Su Yu's strength had far surpassed his imagination. This kid was probably already strong enough to take the first place in the top 100.
Liu Hong did not say anything unrelated to the tournament. He was also trying to keep a low profile. He said, "The other students should also proceed with the tournament. We have more than one ring available. The ones willing to challenge Su Yu are free to enter his ring."
"..."
The students ignored him. Amid the crowd, Zhan Hai gave Su Yu another look, inhaled deeply, and stepped into a different ring. Jiang Mu, Li Minyu, and the other top 10 students did the same.
Each of the teams confident in themselves had occupied a ring for themselves. The second round had finally started for real.
When Su Yu saw that, he laughed.
He looked at the crowd and said, "After this, I am going to apply for a research center and recruit talented individuals to join me. Of course, I will only accept like-minded individuals. And in the beginning, I won't be taking in too many people. Everyone, please consider joining my research center.
"Also, if you're afraid of the backlash of joining me, don't bother joining. Students of the single character faction can also forget about joining. You guys are probably spies or the losers of some internal power struggle in your faction. There is no need to waste our time with this."
Su Yu started taking the opportunity to advertise himself, "The main goal of my research center is to study the cultivation methods and techniques of the myriad races and decipher the myriad cultures. Our study also extends to topics like characters and cultural weapons. As for the other topics, we won't be touching upon them for now.
"As for the main focus of my research, I might sound boastful, but I wish to focus on a select group of cultivation methods of a few specific races..."
He spoke confidently, completely indifferent to the fact that nobody was responding to his words.
Establishing a research center. This was his way of giving himself an avenue to put more of the functions of his book into use. There were things that he could spread to the public. But there were also things that could not be spread to anyone.
As for the Wentan Research Center, that was a place predominantly involved in blood essence research. If he kept using it as the scapegoat for all the cultivation methods he was going to come out with, he would invite suspicion. It would be fine if he only came out with one or two cultivation methods, but things would get suspicious if he came out with more.
This research center would also be a good tool to rope in some talented students. For this research center, he was only interested in recruiting geniuses. As for those who weren't geniuses, forget about it. In terms of the topics he was going to be researching, a non-genius might not even be able to understand what he was talking about.
He not only needed people who were talented in cultivation. He also needed talent in other aspects. For example, he needed language experts, exploration of different cultures, and so on.
Suddenly, Zhou Hao said, "You're too strong."
Zhou Hao suddenly felt like there wasn't even a need for him to be there.
Su Yu said, "Don't worry. This is only the second round."
Would Zhan Hai and the others give up on the tournament? No, they wouldn't. They were simply unwilling to fight Su Yu this early and benefit the other participants. If they really intended to give up after witnessing Su Yu's strength, they would have stopped right now.
Zhan Hai and the other top students were unlike the opponents Su Yu had faced earlier. The students who had fought Su Yu earlier were merely a bunch of old people who had long lost their fighting spirit. There was no comparing them with young geniuses like Zhan Hai.
...
Su Yu continued advertising his plans eloquently.
In the spectating zone, the single character faction researchers were still in complete silence. Their plan had failed. Even with their numerical advantage, they had failed to stop Su Yu. They had even ended up as Su Yu's stepping stone, helping him prove his strength and talent to the entire academy.
At this time, Elder Sun placed a soundproofing formation around them. Yu Hong and Elder Li had arrived. Zhou Mingren was the only elder present. But none of them could find anything to say.
A single Mental Tempering Stage student had slapped their faces repeatedly. The multiple character faction had remained silent for so many years and were finally starting to hit back recently. Surprisingly, the single character faction was completely helpless before the counterattacks of the multiple character faction.
Elder Sun looked at both Zhou Pingsheng and Liu Hong coldly.
With a helpless expression, Liu Hong said, "I...I intended to have his team members drag him down. I never expected him to be so strong..."
He was also feeling very helpless. Could these elders stop looking at him like that? That Su Yu hadn't even won through a team battle. Instead, he had defeated all his opponents alone! He had fought five opponents at once and defeated all of them easily!
Elder Sun suppressed the anger in his heart and said, "You can't be blamed for this."
It would be irrational to blame Liu Hong for this. And at this point, it was pointless to assign blames. If someone must be blamed, Zhou Pingsheng should be the one taking the blame.
"Pingsheng, were you the one who had supplied Su Yu with the funds for his initial growth?"
The moment that question was asked, Zhou Pingsheng's expression turned unsightly. He gloomily said, "I asked for the permission of a few elders before doing that. And the elders agreed. Junior Brother Liu was there as well. He knows the full story."
Liu Hong had a helpless expression as he said, "That's right, Elder Sun. None of us have expected Su Yu to be so devious. There were even some Xia Family members present during the day of the sale. And the people from other factions and forces were there as well. Nobody noticed anything wrong with his formula."
Liu Hong had no choice but to speak for Zhou Pingsheng. He couldn't allow them to start pursuing the matter related to the purchase as that would get him in trouble as well.
"Oh?"
Elder Sun coldly said, "So did you really spend 100,000 merit points for that purchase?"
His gaze settled on Liu Hong as he said, "Liu Hong, you'll answer."
Liu Hong cursed inwardly.
Holy shit!
Why him?
Wouldn't he fully offend both Zhou Pingsheng and Zhou Mingren if he answered?
Damn this Elder Sun! Why was Elder Sun insisting on dragging him down? Was this the time to be doing something like that?
Zhou Pingsheng remained silent with an ugly expression on his face. Beside him, Liu Hong awkwardly said, "Uhm...about that...Elder Sun, we can talk about this later. For now, we should prioritize dealing with Su Yu. Our previous plan is not working. He is too strong. He will be even more troublesome if we allow him to reach the Skysoar Realm."
Elder Sun remained silent.
Yu Hong coldly asked, "Who's going to stop him? Zhan Hai and the others? Can they even do it?"
"It's not completely hopeless. Su Yu is alone. No matter how strong he is, he's fighting alone..." Liu Hong hurriedly said, "If not even this works, we can send a large number of experts to surround Su Yu in the grotto. They will snatch all the willpower and push the rest away before he can absorb anything. He won't be able to do anything about it."
The elders all nodded at that suggestion. It was very likely that Su Yu would end up with a slot. They needed a countermeasure for that.
Since they couldn't attack students, the best option was to have several experts surround Su Yu and absorb all the willpower near him, ensuring that he wouldn't be able to absorb anything.
Liu Hong added, "Also, Su Yu is trying to start a research center. Elder Sun, should we deny him? We can all see that Su Yu isn't a fool. Nobody knows what he's planning. We should be prudent and just deny that request of his."
Elder Sun remained silent. Doing so was tantamount to going back on his own words. He didn't feel like doing so. Also, Su Yu was only asking for a building. That wasn't a hard thing to get unless they decided to completely ruin his application.
Elder Sun said, "We'll discuss that later."
As for the matter regarding the actual price of the formula, since Liu Hong had avoided answering the question, everyone had the answer. The price was definitely lower than 100,000 merit points.
Not only had that garbage Zhou Pingsheng provided Su Yu with a lot of money, but he had also embezzled a lot of money himself. Elder Sun and the others had the urge to kill Zhou Pingsheng then and there.
This Zhou Pingsheng was only good at causing them troubles.
Elder Sun warned, "Zhou Pingsheng, stop creating trouble for us. If you dare to keep messing around in the academy, you will be sent to the Allheaven Battlefield."
Because of this idiot, they had provoked Wan Tiansheng yet again. When Wan Tiansheng flipped out earlier, even Elder Sun himself was trembling with fear. The principal had most likely reached the Sunmoon Realm.
Zhou Pingsheng lowered his head and said nothing. He knew that as of this moment, he was the target of their anger. These people would not admit to their own mistakes. Thus, they were basically blaming him for everything bad that had happened.
Was he the one in charge of the plan to suppress Wu Jia and remove Chen Yong from the books depository? That was the plan of the entire faction.
But they were making it look like the plan had only been carried out for his sake. Sure, he wanted to become the head manager as well, but the faction had most certainly not started the plan for his sake.
As for the matter involving the purchase of the formula, without their approval, would he be able to get his hands on those merit points? Was he the one who had told them to organize this tournament? Was it his idea to deal with Su Yu through this tournament?
No!
But now that things weren't going well, they were placing all the blame on him.
In fact, they should be blaming themselves for failing to suppress Hong Tan and Liu Wenyan. That was why the multiple character faction had been able to create more trouble for them. Without Hong Tan and the others, what could a mere Su Yu do?