Chapter 468: Whack-A-Mole (1)
Su Yu was unaware of what was happening outside the grotto.
After stepping through the grotto, his vision blurred before he arrived at a new place.
Not far away, Xia Chan was looking at him with a frown. The two had been transmitted to the same area. After all, they had entered at the same time. Su Yu flashed her a simple and honest smile.
The willpower in the grotto was dense, but the density level wasnt too high. Since not everyone had entered, the grotto was not fully activated yet. The willpower he was seeing was merely what the grotto had accumulated passively.
Ignoring Xia Chan, Su Yu started looking around. The place was quite big. At the very least, it was big enough that he couldn't see the end of the grotto with his naked eyes.
Apart from Xia Chan, he saw nobody in their immediate surroundings. He wondered how big the grotto was. The Source Qi Secret Grotto was quite big. Even after entering so many times, he had only stayed around the Great Strength and Infinite Strength zones.
After looking around for a short while, Su Yu started walking away.
Xia Chan frowned and hollered at him, "You followed me because you were afraid of Zhou Pingsheng. Why are you leaving now?"
"I'll take a look around. I don't want to disturb your cultivation, fellow student."
Su Yu replied with his trademark honest expression before running off. This was merely a smokescreen. He wasn't going to cultivate with her. Instead, he would look for his own spot.
Suddenly, he turned his head and hollered, "Student Xia, you won't betray my whereabouts, right? Brother Huyou is my brother! We're basically family!"
Xia Chan snorted. She didn't even deign to give him a response.
Su Yu smiled and vanished into the distance.
...
When he was far enough away that Xia Chan couldn't see him anymore, he switched directions and continued running. He did the same several times while cautiously avoiding anyone he saw. He was also paying close attention to his Perception Jade, constantly on guard over any spying attempt on him.
He took out a voice transmission talisman and said, "Brother Zhang, can you do me a favor?"
"What favor?"
"Where are you? I hope to hide behind you while I cultivate. I'll pay you for your service with mutual aid points. What do you think about 500 points? That's enough for you to purchase the locations of five apertures from the club."
"..."
Zhang Hao replied without any hesitation, "Sure."
Su Yu exhaled in relief. The members of his Mutual Aid Club were still quite reliable.
Zhang Hao was a genius of the talisman faction. Not even Zhou Pingsheng would dare to needlessly investigate him as that would create unwanted misunderstandings.
As for people like Xia Huyou, forget it. That was probably the first person Zhou Pingsheng would look for while searching for him.
Maybe Zhou Pingsheng was already lying in wait there.
Zhang Hao was the better choice as those people were unaware of his relationship with Zhang Hao.
...
About five minutes later, he met Zhang Hao.
There were no obstructions in the grotto. Even the ground had some sort of cloud-like texture, making it impossible for someone to dig themselves an underground hiding place.
But there were also several small hills in the grotto. Using these hills as the landmarks, the two were able to link up with each other.
At that point, the willpower in the grotto was growing thicker and thicker.
The willpower was also extremely pure. After meeting Zhang Hao, Su Yu checked his Perception Jade again. Fortunately, its color remained the same. Nobody had noticed him.
"Brother Zhang!"
Su Yu cupped his hands and wasted no time. He took out a jade talisman and tossed it over, "The methods of opening the five apertures. You can take this chance to open it right inside the grotto."
"Thank you!"
Zhang Hao had a wide smile on his face.
How lucky.
This was only a small favor. In exchange, he was given the methods of opening five apertures. He was very pleased with this exchange.
Looking at the small hill behind them, Su Yu said, "Brother Zhang, I'll be hiding under your robe to cultivate. You should claim this hill for yourself. I'm afraid you'll have to play the villain for once."
"Don't worry about it." Zhang Hao smiled, "This place is big and there aren't a lot of us. Everyone will be able to find their own cultivation spots. If anyone really wants to pick a fight with me, I'm also not a pushover. But I'm afraid this won't feel good for you, Brother Su. Are you sure you're going to hide under my robe?"
"I have no choice. That fellow is targeting me. He will definitely look for me after entering."
While speaking, the two walked toward the hill.
It was time for the long robe commonly worn by cultural researchers to shine.
Zhang Hao sat down cross-legged and spread his robe around him. Su Yu hid under the robe and stuck his body close to Zhang Hao's back.
Zhang Hao was slightly uncomfortable with that. At this time, Su Yu said, "Brother Zhang, I'll be pulling over a large amount of willpower so don't mind this. You should focus on opening more apertures."
Zhang Hao's heart thumped. True. Su Yu had definitely opened a decent number of apertures. He would benefit greatly if Su Yu left some of the willpower untouched after pulling a large amount over.
"I understand. Don't worry. Not even Cloudbreach cultivators would dare to spy on me for no reason."
After saying that, his vitality surged while his willpower erupted.
A small pillar of power formed around him, telling anyone in the area that he had laid claim to this spot. A challenge to his claim would be the same as starting a feud.
Su Yu promptly opened his apertures and pulled over a large amount of willpower toward them.
Zhang Hao was shocked. Just how many apertures had Su Yu opened?
He hurriedly started cultivating. While doing so, he whispered, "Try to be faster and gather more willpower around us. That way, if someone suspects anything, we can claim that this is a place with a higher natural density of willpower."
"Sure!"
Su Yu put all 44 of his apertures to work as he gathered more and more willpower around them.
While absorbing the willpower around them, Su Yu took note to leave some for Zhang Hao.
At the moment, Zhang Hao was still in the process of opening his first aperture. He had obtained the location of the first aperture from Su Yu previously. With the five newly obtained aperture locations, he would be able to leave the grotto with six opened apertures if everything proceeded smoothly.
The willpower around them grew denser and denser. A few minutes later, Su Yu poked Zhang Hao's back.
Zhang Hao's heart thumped as he hurriedly shouted, "This place is taken. The grotto is big enough for everyone. Don't disturb my cultivation. I am Zhang Hao of the talisman faction. Don't needlessly escalate this into a feud."
A figure could be seen approaching them from afar. It was Hu Wensheng. He had a frown on his face as he studied the area while floating in the air. He had only come this way after sensing a higher density of willpower in the area. He did not expect to see someone else here.
Zhang Hao? This was a new student.
Hu Wensheng was still thinking when Zhang Hao yelled, "Teaching Assistant Hu, I found this place first. This is a place where willpower naturally converges. Are you going to snatch this place from me?"
Hu Wensheng said nothing and turned around with a frown.
It was improper for a teaching assistant to take from a student. Zhang Hao was also the student of an elder and the grandson of a ninth-stage Cloudbreach. This was not someone he wanted to provoke.
After Hu Wensheng left, Zhang Hao exhaled in relief.
Inwardly, he was alarmed. Just what was up with Su Yu? How had Su Yu sensed Hu Wensheng? Was it a character or something else?
He couldn't be bothered to think too much about it and returned to his cultivation. The willpower density around them had reached a terrifyingly high level. In the blink of an eye, the aperture he had spent several days opening was fully opened.
Boom!
Similar to what Su Yu had experienced, he heard a loud rumble in his head before getting an out-of-body experience.
That only lasted for a split second before his senses returned to normal. He was overjoyed. This was really working! The aperture was real!
Prior to this, he was still slightly worried that he had been given false information. But now, he no longer doubted the information Su Yu gave him.
The two continued absorbing the dense willpower around them even as more willpower continued converging around them.
...
At the same time.
One after another, the people in the grotto settled down and started cultivating. Floating in the air, Zhou Pingsheng was scanning his surroundings.
Shortly after, he landed on the ground.
Not far ahead of him, Xia Huyou was busy cultivating. When Xia Huyou saw Zhou Pingsheng, he frowned and said, "Don't provoke me! I'm from the Xia Family! If you mess with my cultivation, the Xia Family will fuck you up!"
Zhou Pingsheng said nothing and looked around. Su Yu was nowhere to be seen. He frowned slightly before flying away. Right after he left, Xia Huyou mumbled to himself. This was such a waste of time on the single character faction's part.
But Su Yu was probably in trouble. The grotto wasn't small, but it wasn't exactly big. If Zhou Pingsheng continued his search, it would only be a matter of time before Su Yu was found. And the moment he was found, he could forget about cultivating.
Zhou Pingsheng was a seventh-stage Cloudbreach. Even someone like him would be able to improve slightly while cultivating in the grotto. But he had clearly given up on cultivating just to ruin Su Yu's cultivation.
...
Shortly later, Zhou Pingsheng arrived somewhere else.
A few people were there.
Wu Jia was one of them. Less than five meters from her was Wan Mingze. When she saw Zhou Pingsheng, she snorted before shutting her eyes to focus on her cultivation.
Her junior brother had told her to ignore these people. If this fellow dared to disturb her cultivation, she would walk up to Wan Mingze and sit down right beside him.
She had just started to open her first aperture anyway. She still didn't need that much willpower yet. Even with some disturbance from cultivating so near someone else, it wouldn't affect her too badly.
When Wan Mingze opened his eyes and saw Zhou Pingsheng, he frowned slightly. But the frown was quickly replaced by a smile as he said, "Teacher Zhou, since you're in the grotto, you should treasure this opportunity and absorb more willpower. You should strive to reach the Mountainsea Realm as soon as possible..."
Zhou Pingsheng had a sharp look in his eyes as he said, "There is no need for you to worry about me, Student Wan."
He then flew away.
As for Wu Jia, he might dislike her as well, but she wasn't important. If it wasn't for the sake of dealing with Chen Yong, he wouldn't have bothered to pay her any attention.
Su Yu was the person he truly hated. And that kid was too terrifyingly talented. If Su Yu was allowed to absorb more willpower, he would turn into an even bigger trouble.