Chapter 457: Silly Child (1)
"He keeps trying to brainwash me without giving me any benefits."
Su Yu didn't know what to say. No wonder some people said that Wan Tiansheng was the same as Marquis Xia. They both enjoyed collecting money, but getting money out of them was impossible. He was meeting a great principal yet he wasn’t even given a cup of tea. How stingy.
But Su Yu naturally wouldn't dare to show his dissatisfaction. Old Wan was too strong. He couldn't afford to provoke the principal. In fact, he still needed to rely on Old Wan's protection inside the academy.
He started thinking about other things. And he had a lot in his mind.
Chen Yong, Hong Tan, Bai Feng, Liu Hong, Xia Huyou...and even Wan Tiansheng. A lot of people had told him about the incident 50 years ago. They had told him about the fifth principal's death, about Zhou Family's suppression, about the traitorous human Invincible...
Su Yu had learned a lot about the past. At the very least, he now had a general idea about what had happened. The only thing he still didn't know was the identity of his true enemy.
"He told me to focus on my cultivation..."
Su Yu sighed. That might be right. It was about time he started focusing on his cultivation. That was especially true since he was going to enter the Willpower Grotto and absorb a large amount of willpower soon. With so much willpower, he should focus on forming new characters and prepare for his breakthrough into the Infinite Strength Realm.
He wasn't too weak. With all his trump cards, he was probably strong enough to even defeat some of the weaker Skysoars. But Bai Feng was right. The Skysoar Realm was merely the start of cultivation. In fact, only upon reaching the Skysoar Realm would one be considered a true cultivator. That was the starting point for all experts.
"My foundation is still too weak. I need to attend more classes and study more as well."
Su Yu decided to attend more classes, read more books, and learn more languages. He had opened a lot of pages in his book.
But a lot of the pages came in languages he didn't know. Thus, he had not dared to try the abilities in those pages since he knew nothing about them. After all, he didn't want to accidentally activate a self-detonation ability or something similar, right? In fact, he had only been learning the abilities of the races he knew the languages of.
"Time to become a good student."
Su Yu nodded. Yes. He was still a new student. It was time for him to be a good student. The next time he saw Zhou Pingsheng and the others, he needed to treat them with respect.
As for plotting for Zhou Pingsheng's death, well, perhaps there was no need for him to do so. That person was already in a lot of trouble. He had to first deal with the trouble coming from within his own faction. After bringing so much trouble to their faction, would Elder Sun and the others spare him?
Regardless of Su Yu's dissatisfaction, he still took Wan Tiansheng's words seriously. Wan Tiansheng might not be completely right, but Su Yu also believed that there must be some truth in the principal's words. There was no need for someone like that to deceive a mere student with nothing but lies.
But when Su Yu recalled the scene he saw when walking through the corridor, he frowned. Was it possible that what he saw would happen? Perhaps.
During the warzone incident when Liu Wenyan and the others were ganged up on, not a single person had been willing to help. Even after offering the best cultivation methods and martial techniques he knew as payment, Su Yu had still failed to garner any help. At that moment, he suddenly felt like Great Xia was not as great as he had thought. Suddenly, Great Xia felt like a much darker place.
Dark and selfish.
His grandteacher advised him to let go of his resentment. But how could he do so? Why had he opened so many acupoints, joined the tournament, and crippled so many single character faction students? Because of his anger.
Prior to that, he had still been rather merciful toward people like Liu He. Apart from Huang Qifeng, he had not been too heavy-handed against any of them. That included those who had targeted him such as Chen Qi, Lin Yao, Yang Sha, and many others. Even Zhou Hao was someone he had been willing to cooperate with.
But he couldn't bring himself to forgive the single character faction. He held a deep resentment toward them. As for those outside the single character faction, he might not hate them, but he didn't like them that much either. In fact, the academy had disappointed him greatly.
Back then, his father had often talked about brotherhood and comradeship in the army. Su Yu would never admit to it, but he was greatly envious of that. He was also a hot-blooded youth. He also longed for such comrades. That was why he had not complained too much about his father's return to the army.
But none of that was present in the academy. He could really see himself doing what he saw in the scene when he grew strong enough. Such an academy was deserving of that.
As he walked, he contemplated. The resentment in his heart weakened somewhat. But it was impossible for him to completely let go of his resentment toward the single character faction.
However, Old Wan was right. There was no need for him to be too conspicuous. He did not need the entire academy to bear witness to every single thing he did to the single character faction.
In the past, he might have been able to win some sympathy from the public since the multiple character faction was the underdog.
But now that he alone had suppressed an entire generation of the single character faction, the other students would start viewing Su Yu as an excessive bully if he continued his assault against the single character faction.
"Reputation and public image are still very important."
After some self-reflection, Su Yu realized that he still needed to be as cautious as he was when he first joined the academy. He realized how he had been very high-profile after the warzone incident. That was mostly due to his recent change of mindset.
In the past, everything he did had been done in a rational and organized manner. As someone from a small city, he had been very careful when he first arrived in the capital. But in recent days, he had been getting more and more rash.
"I definitely won't stop making moves against the single character faction, but there is no need to kick up a fuss every single time. Even the elders are starting to pay close attention to me now. And that isn't a good thing."
Su Yu continued reflecting on himself. He needed to maintain a low profile. It was honestly pointless to keep injuring those insignificant students. If he really wanted to do something, he was better off leaving the academy and luring a few of his enemies out into the wilderness before killing them.
That would be a much better way of dealing with bastards like Huang Qifeng. It was simply pointless to keep injuring people like that again and again. They were rich enough to keep recovering from the injuries. He should stay patient and find a chance to kill those people in one fight instead of repeating the act of injuring them in the academy.
"Dad said that you need to be patient on the battlefield. It is perfectly normal for you to bury yourself under the ground for seven or eight days just for a single ambush."
"I should do nothing if I can't completely erase my target. I should only move after finding the chance to completely eliminate my target. I should act like a coward in front of big shots. And I should be as ruthless as possible in front of weaklings."
Thinking about all his past experiences, Su Yu started listing a new code of conduct for himself. There was no need for him to break Wan Tiansheng's rules. He would be the one to suffer from that. There was no need for him to be too stubborn and fight everything head on.
...
21st of October.
The tournament had ended. The Willpower Grotto would be opened on the 25th. The single character faction had been busy finalizing the list of individuals that would be allowed to enter the grotto.
As for Su Yu, he started attending classes. He was trying his best to become a good student. As a good student, attending classes was something he had to do.
In the classroom, he found that there were far fewer students in attendance than before. At this point, a lot of students had stopped attending classes and were focused on other avenues of cultivation. Su Yu was unbothered. Everyone had their own path to walk.
Surprisingly, a few of the freaks were in attendance.
The class progressed. After the old instructor left, Su Yu packed up his books and proceeded to leave. While he was leaving, someone stopped in front of him.
It was a smiling Hu Qiusheng. He looked at Su Yu and asked, "Can we have a chat?"
Su Yu smiled and nodded, "Sure. Let's talk while we walk."
The two of them walked out of the classroom together. The other students merely gave them a glance before ignoring them. These students wouldn't involve themselves in the affairs of these freaks. They might be confident that they were geniuses, but their talent paled in comparison to these two.
...
Downstairs.
Students were coming and leaving. A lot of them took the initiative to move aside when they saw the two. Some of the junior or intermediate class students would even take the initiative to greet the two. Both Su Yu and Hu Qiusheng answered the greetings with friendly smiles on their faces, looking scholarly and refined while doing so.
While walking, Hu Qiusheng said, "Previously, you said that you wanted to start your own research center. In truth, that is also one of my goals. Or to be precise, any student truly interested in research would be interested in doing something like that."
Hu Qiusheng hesitated slightly before saying, "But you said that you are going to be researching cultivation methods and Divine Characters...These topics have been researched for many years. A majority of the research centers in the academy are also involved in similar topics. In that case, what's different about your research center?"
That was true. Almost everyone was researching topics related to cultivation methods and Divine Characters. Everyone was interested in those topics. But very few people could actually go far with their research.
Su Yu smiled, "Is Brother Hu interested in joining?"
Hu Qiusheng smiled, "It depends on whether your research center has anything that interests me. I had actually applied to join a research center before. My application was successful, and I am actually quite interested in what they do. But there are too many experts in that research center..."
Su Yu asked curiously, "Which research center?"
"Character Assembly Research Center..."
That was a familiar name to Su Yu. He exclaimed in shock, "That's a decent research center. It's the one that has come up with various character combinations, right? For example, the character system that some members of the single character faction are using came from this research center, right?"
"Yeah."
Hu Qiusheng nodded, "Yeah. Back then, your faction released a theory regarding the fusion of characters. But your faction stopped pursuing this line of research. But the Character Assembly Research Center has never stopped researching this topic. In truth, they have made considerable progress in their research. More and more single character faction members are starting to use character systems. In truth, this system is a hybrid of the teachings of the single and multiple character factions. Of course, their ultimate goal is still to bring everything under the umbrella of the single character faction."
Su Yu nodded. He was aware of all that. For example, Zheng Yuming's grandson was cultivating a character system. Even Wan Mingze, who specialized in sealing, could also be considered a character system cultivator.
Internally, the single character faction was already split. Some of them were focused on cultivating only a single character. They considered that to be the true path they should take.
In truth, the experts focusing on only one character were definitely not weak. Such an individual was able to focus all their time and energy on only one character, growing that character to an extremely high level.
Su Yu explained, "The research I'm planning to engage in is also related to those topics. I am also planning on researching the subject of ability combinations and compatibility of different character abilities. Of course, we are still not Skysoars. Since we can't materialize our characters yet, this won't be our main research subject anytime soon. For now, we will be mainly focusing on cultivation methods."
"Cultivation methods..."
Hu Qiusheng frowned, "That's too broad of a topic. Do you have a more specific topic?"
"Yes." Su Yu nodded, "Before this, we came up with the Soul Devouring Art at the Wentan Research Center, right? The Soul Devouring Art is only a yellow-grade cultivation method. Even so, it is unique enough that its value is above that of a regular yellow-grade method. It allows you to transform your source qi and give it the ability to burn and corrode willpower. But during the Divine Character tournament when we fought through our willpower bodies, I was still able to utilize the Soul Devouring Art. Since then, I have been thinking about the interchangeability between source qi and willpower."
"Interchangeability?" Hu Qiusheng was stunned, "You mean that source qi can be converted to willpower and vice versa?"
Su Yu nodded. "In truth, this topic was researched long ago. But no concrete result has been released yet. But the appearance of the Soul Devouring Art has given me some new ideas. Perhaps through Soul Devouring Art, I can discover some special attributes of source qi and willpower."
Su Yu smiled, "Of course, I only have a general idea for now. I have yet to start the research. I can't do anything alone, anyway. And my teacher is going to leave soon while my grandteacher is entering seclusion."
Su Yu sighed, "My only choice is to open my own research center and recruit some like-minded friends. If we can really come up with something or even find a way to convert willpower to source qi and vice versa, we might even bridge the distance between warriors and cultural researchers. At present, the two communities don't really get along well with each other."
Su Yu seriously said, "Of course, this is such a big project that I believe a lot of people are already attempting to do the same. But we have one advantage over everyone else. I am the one who has derived the Soul Devouring Art. Additionally, I have also discovered that there are some races out there that are already capable of doing this."
Hu Qiusheng frowned and said nothing. As a mere Mental Tempering Stage student, it seemed unrealistic that Su Yu would be able to take on such massive projects.
Sure, they could play it down and call it research on cultivation methods. But if they really wanted to brag about it, they could call it an attempt to remove the barrier between warriors and cultural researchers.
"Su Yu, are you sure this is going to be the direction of your research?"
Su Yu nodded, "Yes. I am more than sure. I already have some ideas as to what I should do. You know that I have opened a lot of acupoints. After opening hundreds of source acupoints and some soul apertures, I discovered something. Perhaps if I can open more apertures, I might even be able to form a link between acupoints and apertures."
Su Yu solemnly said, "Or to be precise, instead of calling it a link, it is actually an acupoint that can link acupoints and apertures together. If this acupoint really exists, the moment I find the way to open it, all cultural researchers can become warriors, and vice versa."