Chapter 466: Entering The Grotto (1)
After Hong Tan recalled what he had forgotten, his willpower undulated.
A short while later, a little furball appeared before Su Yu's eyes.
That was a white furball. Two black dots could be seen on the furball. Those were actually eyes.
Su Yu was stunned. What was this? Why did his grandteacher take out something bizarre like this?
While he was thinking, the little furball opened his eyes and revealed his tiny pink nose. The nose wrinkled as he sniffed around before flying out of Hong Tan's palm straight toward Su Yu.
Su Yu couldn't even react in time. He could only sense the furball rushing toward his sea of willpower.
"Impudent!"
Hong Tan roared furiously and reached out with his hand. With a creak, he grabbed the furball and said, "You're courting death!"
"Ya! Ya! Ya!"
The little furball seemed to be whining in pain. But at the same time, he also seemed to be pleading for mercy.
All the while, he continued staring at Su Yu with his jet-black eyes.
Hong Tan also looked at Su Yu curiously and asked, "Have you formed a unique character? This little fellow is saying that he's smelling something nice and delicious on you."
"..."
Su Yu was speechless. What were they talking about? What was this thing here?
"This is a member of the soul devourer race. I named this race myself."
Hong Tan was relieved to see that the furball was fine. He smiled and said, "I spent several months and a lot of energy capturing this little fellow."
"Soul devourer race?"
Su Yu was surprised. He had never heard of such a race. Bai Feng once told him that a new race had appeared in the Allheaven Battlefield. That was why Hong Tan had spent several months on the battlefield. So his grandteacher was gone for so long just for this little furball?
"Don't look down on him." Hong Tan had a look of heartache as he said, "This thing isn't weak. He specializes in eating characters. He is capable of entering seas of willpower directly to eat the characters inside. Of course, he is still not too strong. His current level is basically the equivalent of a human's Skysoar Realm. He can only consume second-tier characters for now."
His face turned helpless as he said, "In order to capture this little fellow, I had to feed him a few of my characters. Nothing is left of those characters. They were devoured clean."
Soul devourer race!
This race had never appeared in the Allheaven Battlefield before. This was a mysterious and powerful race. This little fellow was capable of consuming characters. He was capable of entering seas of willpower and devouring everything clean. This was a terrifying ability.
Su Yu was greatly shocked.
Holy shit!
When this fellow charged him earlier, he had been able to sense something trying to enter his sea of willpower. So this fellow was actually trying to consume his characters?
That could be very bad for him. The characters he had formed after great difficulty would be gone!
Suddenly, Su Yu thought of something. The little furball was claiming that there was something delicious in his sea of willpower. Was the little fellow aiming for his golden book? Was the little fellow really so sensitive?
Wait, wouldn't that be tantamount to suicide? Su Yu didn't know how powerful the book was, but if it was really a character, then it would be no weaker than an Eternal character. This little furball wouldn't be a mere Skysoar beast if he was capable of devouring Eternal characters.
"Ya! Ya! Ya!"
The little furball continued crying impatiently while staring at Su Yu hungrily. Of course, that was the impression Su Yu got from the pink nose and black eyes of the little furball.
Hong Tan said, "This race has just appeared so this little fellow doesn't know the common language. I don't know their language as well, but I can at least understand the intention behind this little fellow's words."
Su Yu asked, "Grandteacher, you mean that this race has never appeared in the Allheaven Battlefield before?"
"Yeah."
Hong Tan said, "The Allheaven Battlefield is actually a unique realm connected to all realms. The inhabitants of each realm are able to establish a connection between their realm and the battlefield. Thus, the Allheaven Battlefield can be considered a hub for all realms. The members of all races can enter the Allheaven Battlefield without being subjected to any suppression.
"Some of these so-called new races are the races that have recently discovered the Allheaven Battlefield while some of them are races that have actually discovered the Allheaven Battlefield long ago but didn't have an expert strong enough to form a connection between their realm and the Allheaven Battlefield.
"Only those at the Mountainsea Realm and above can establish a connection between a realm and the battlefield. Thus, the appearance of each new realm is a sign that the race in that realm has produced someone at the Mountainsea Realm or beyond."
At that point, Hong Tan lifted the little furball and shook the furball around before saying, "This soul devourer race is probably a race that has newly formed a connection between their realm and the battlefield. They have never been seen before. I have only been able to find this little fellow after a lot of effort. This fellow is a very difficult target. He enjoys hiding in seas of willpower and feasting on characters. And his body is actually incorporeal in nature. His body is more similar to cultural weapons than a normal living being."
That was why he had forgotten about this little furball for such a long time. He had been storing the furball in his sea of willpower. He had been too busy recently while the little fellow had been very obedient in his sea of willpower. Thus, he had completely forgotten about the furball.
Su Yu looked at the little furball curiously. The furball was also staring at Su Yu while his pink nose throbbed continuously, as though he had smelled a heavenly fragrance. Even when he was being manhandled by Hong Tan, his gaze remained on Su Yu.
Devouring characters...that was a rather incredible ability.
Since Hong Tan had captured this little furball, it was clear his grandteacher was going to start researching this new species soon.
Suddenly, Hong Tan said, "This little fellow is too hard to imprison. I will forge a unique cage to keep him locked. After that, I'll enter seclusion. You'll need to keep him fed for me. This little fellow eats nothing except divine characters. Just feed him some damaged characters in the fragment room. Don't starve him to death."
"Feeding him with characters?" Su Yu grimaced, "What a picky eater. Where am I supposed to find so many characters? Does he eat willpower as well?"
"Yeah." Hong Tan nodded, "The best way to raise this thing is by throwing him into a pile of corpses. Cultural researcher corpses would work even better. He is also an excellent hidden weapon. Imagine throwing him out against a cultural researcher. The cultural researcher will throw out a second-tier character to lose it instantly. Imagine how amusing it would be."
A large subset of cultural researchers were actually character masters. These people would turn into lambs the moment they lost their characters.
Su Yu rubbed his chin and said, "Grandteacher, since this thing feeds on characters, won't he destroy the sea of willpower while feeding on the characters in it?"
"No. In fact, he can devour characters stealthily. You won't even feel anything."
Su Yu's eyes brightened as he said, "Grandteacher, this thing isn't a weapon. Instead, it is a godly tool for treatment!"
Hong Tan blanked out slightly.
Su Yu explained, "You said that this thing can consume characters without destroying the sea of willpower housing the characters. And some of us are thinking of destroying their existing characters. But doing that will also cause a backlash and damage their seas of willpower."
The moment those words were said, Hong Tan's eyes lit up.
Right!
He had not thought of that before! But that was understandable since prior to this, the last thing anyone wanted was the destruction of their characters. Thus, he had been treating this furball as a weapon.
But now, they knew that non-human characters were problematic. Unfortunately, it was very hard for these people to voluntarily destroy the characters they had painstakingly cultivated.
Apart from the fact that all the effort they had put into growing those characters would go to waste, they were also worried that they would kill themselves doing so. The backlash from the destruction of characters was too large.
But if they could use this furball, couldn't they remove unwanted characters without dealing any damage?
Hong Tan said in excitement, "You're right. This thing could really be used for medical purposes! When consuming characters, he can actually apply some sort of anesthetic. He will cause your sea of willpower to go numb before consuming your character. Thus, we can help people remove their characters without any pain or damage. And doing so will also benefit this little fellow..."
But suddenly, Hong Tan frowned and said, "But he's too weak. He's only a Skysoar. He can only consume second-tier characters. Most of the people thinking of switching their focus to human characters are at the Mountainsea Realm. This fellow still can't swallow the characters that are too powerful."
In fact, that was the situation he was in. His characters were too powerful. Even if he allowed the furball free reign in his sea of willpower, the furball wouldn't be able to do anything.
If he had taken the furball out earlier, Bai Feng wouldn't even need to crush his own characters and suffer from the backlash. He could have used this furball to help Bai Feng with the removal of those characters.
Hong Tan eventually said, "I will spend a few days studying this little fellow before locking him in the prison zone. Don't forget to feed him."
Su Yu laughed dryly and said nothing. His memory wasn't very good. It had been almost a week since he last fed the fellows downstairs. But it wasn't too bad. He reckoned they could wait longer, so he would do exactly that: let them wait.
He would think about feeding them after leaving the Willpower Grotto.
But at that moment, the little furball in Hong Tan's hand started struggling, trying his best to rush toward Su Yu. Hong Tan frowned and tightened his grip.
"Ya! Ya! Ya!"
The little furball started shouting anxiously.
Hong Tan frowned as he listened for a while before deciphering what the little furball was saying. He said, "He seems to be saying that there is a nice smell on your body..."
Su Yu had nothing to say.
Nice smell?
More like the smell of death!
This little fellow couldn't be aiming for his golden book, right?
That was suicidal!
Just look at the little hammer in his head. The hammer was so incredible and domineering, but the moment it sensed the golden book, it instantly turned tail and fled. It didn't even have the courage to approach the golden book.
There was no way this little furball would be able to eat the golden book in his head.
Su Yu smiled, "If we can use this fellow well, he will serve as a powerful pet. Grandteacher, you can study him first, but I'll study him as well when I find some time. Maybe I can get a new character with a devouring ability from this little fellow."
As for keeping this fellow as a mount or something, forget about it. He was afraid that he would lose all his characters to this fellow. That would be terrible.
...
The conversation ended. Hong Tan seemed really interested in the little furball as he went straight to the laboratory after the conversation. Su Yu wondered if his grandteacher would spend the night researching.
Even when being taken away by Hong Tan, the little furball continued trying to charge toward Su Yu. His gaze never left Su Yu. He could smell something good. Something very good. He would definitely turn really amazing and awesome after eating that something.
What a pity that this person named Su Yu couldn't understand him. Even Hong Tan was only able to get a general gist of what he was saying.
...
That night, Su Yu rested and returned to his peak state while awaiting the next day to arrive.
...
25th of October.
Su Yu woke up early.
Today, he wasn't going to leave alone. Chen Yong and Wu Jia had arrived at the research center early in the morning.
At this time, Hong Tan walked out of the laboratory. He appeared to be in a great mood. In fact, if it wasn't for the fact that he needed to help with the grotto, he would have stayed in the laboratory.
The moment he saw the others, he said in excitement, "Brat, you were right. I tested that thing and found that the little fellow can really numb one's sea of willpower. I'll check with Wu Yuehua later and see if we can extract something out of that little fellow to create some special numbing pills. If we can do that, it would be incredible. We can use the pills both offensively and medically."
When Su Yu thought about it, his grandteacher was right.
That little fellow could consume one's character without causing any pain. It was clear the little fellow could numb one's sea of willpower. And if they could really create these special pills, they would be able to completely freeze the willpower of a cultural researcher.
"Teacher..."
When Chen Yong saw how excited his teacher was, he said, "It's about time. We need to go to the Grotto District."
"Right, right. I nearly forgot that."
Hong Tan was grinning happily. He was in a great mood. This little soul devourer beast was such a useful beast. He felt like this beast was going to be a new source of wealth for him. If he could raise this little fellow to the Mountainsea Realm, the little fellow would basically turn into a tree that could grow money.
At that time, he would be able to use the little fellow to provide a specialized service of removing unwanted characters. He would be able to do it without causing any backlash or damage to the owner of the unwanted characters. What an incredible beast.
Su Yu ignored the two and whispered to Wu Jia instead, "Senior Sister, have you learned the Heaven Shaking Sutra?"
"Yeah..."
"Don't wander off alone after entering the grotto. Just follow Xia Huyou and stay close to him." Su Yu reminded, "We don't want anyone to notice your abnormal absorption speed."
Since Xia Huyou was also someone with opened apertures, his willpower absorption speed would be quite fast as well.
If Wu Jia stayed close to him, she wouldn't need to worry about exposing her fast absorption speed.
That would only bring them more needless trouble.
As for Su Yu himself...
He would try to look for a freshly advanced Skysoar from the single character faction. He only needed to stay close to such a person. Stronger Skysoars would be harder to make use of, but new Skysoars would be just nice as these people would probably be even slower than him in willpower absorption.
A Skysoar cultivator would be the perfect cover for his own absorption speed. As for whether that would arouse the suspicion of the Skysoar in question, well, the words of the Skysoar wouldn't really matter. People would only believe that the Skysoar was trying to frame Su Yu unreasonably.
Since the single character faction was already planning to target him in the grotto, he would kindly deliver himself to them. He would take the initiative to approach their people.
Wu Jia nodded in understanding.
Both Chen Yong and Hong Tan smiled while looking at the two. Hong Tan said through voice transmission, "This kid is still quite talented. Are you trying to play matchmaker for him and Jia?"
"I'll just let nature take its course." Chen Yong replied through voice transmission, "Teacher, we should let the youngsters deal with matters of love themselves. But Su Yu's strength is still the same after a few days. His willpower does seem much clearer than before. Did he think things through and stop holding onto his resentment?"
"He did it himself. I don't know what happened."
Hong Tan didn't know what to say. He had no idea how the kid had managed to think things through. This was actually a good thing for Su Yu. And that was all Hong Tan needed to know. There was no need for him to pry into the affairs of the kid too much.
Hong Tan said, "Your martial uncle and junior brother will be leaving soon. I'm worried about them so I'll probably head over to the Allheaven Battlefield as well after reaching the Sunmoon Realm. Why don't you enter the Mountainsea Realm and go to the Allheaven Battlefield instead? I can be the one staying behind to hold the fort..."
"Teacher, you should go. Even after entering the Mountainsea Realm, I still won't be that big of a help to them."
Chen Yong shook his head. "The character technique wall, books depository, and Wentan Research Center need a caretaker. The other martial uncles also require help with putting their characters in order. Even if you're not around, I can help them do the same. If all of us end up leaving, it won't be long before our mark is completely erased from the Great Xia Cultural Research Academy."
Hong Tan sighed and said nothing else.
After walking a few steps, he suddenly said, "I know you have an unsolved matter, but what's the point of staying at the Cloudbreach Realm?"
Chen Yong said nothing.
"The foundation of your willpower cultivation is too strong after such a long delay, while your physical body is not strong enough. I'm afraid that your physical body will burst apart the moment you advance. At that point, your hope of entering the Invincible Realm in the future through the physical cultivation route would be almost completely lost."
"Teacher, that is still too far from me."
"Far?" Hong Tan chided, "How is it far? Back then, I took you as my student because of your astonishing talent. I even believed that you were the second coming of my senior brother. You would achieve far greater things than me. But it has been 40 years. You have been a Cloudbreach for decades. You would have reached the seventh or eighth-stage Mountainsea by now if you hadn't remained in the Cloudbreach Realm."
"I'll wait a bit longer."
Chen Yong softly said, "It's still not time."
After a slight pause, he said, "Teacher, of the people that had made a move back then, I had dealt with a lot of them. But some of them are still hidden. I'm certain the mastermind was a Mountainsea. After so many years, that person might already be a Sunmoon or near that realm."
"I can help you..."
"There's no need for that. He's aware that I'm waiting for him. With you around, he has remained hidden over the years. It is unfortunate that your recent trip to the Allheaven Battlefield had been too short."
Chen Yong felt regretful. If it wasn't for the crisis, Hong Tan would have been able to stay in the Allheaven Battlefield for a longer time.
With Hong Tan around, the mastermind would not dare to come out of hiding. Over the years, he had killed a lot of people, forcing that person to remain in the dark. Hong Tan's previous departure was actually a great opportunity to lure that person out.
Chen Yong said, "This person might be related to the hidden Invincible. Or perhaps they're related to the single character faction. Teacher, after you revealed your strength, this mastermind would go even deeper into hiding. Thus, the day you leave for the Allheaven Battlefield after your breakthrough is also the day of my breakthrough..."
And that would also be the day he killed his enemy. He would have his revenge.
Hong Tan sighed and stopped persuading. In his opinion, it would be better for this student of his to attempt the advancement in a safe environment. Unfortunately, Chen Yong did not think the same.