Chapter 470: Whack-A-Mole (3)
At the same time.
Outside.
Elder Sun was furious.
Zhou Pingsheng?
That was definitely the culprit!
That bastard!
Each time, the willpower of an area would be emptied. Shortly after, some willpower would be pulled over to replenish the emptied area. Zhou Pingsheng was the only person who would do something like that.
Damn that bastard!
Was he not aware of how expensive it was for them to open the grotto? Why was he creating so much trouble in the grotto?
Zhou Mingren was also speechless. Just what was Zhou Pingsheng doing?
Even Elder Qi was losing his patience. He said, "It's not easy for this grotto to be opened once. Don't waste this chance. If you guys really can't maintain it anymore, we can replace you. Stop messing around."
What the fuck was the single character faction doing? All these elders had their own people in the grotto. They had not obtained the slots from the single character faction for free.
If they kept messing around like this, these Mountainseas could very well end up reaching their limits, causing the grotto to collapse and all the students to be thrown out with heavy injuries.
It would truly be a tragedy if instead of benefiting from this grotto opening, the students had suffered instead.
Elder Sun and the others stayed silent. After inhaling deeply, Zhou Mingren said, "We don't need any help for now."
If they persevered, they would be able to provide more willpower to their Skysoar Realm and Cloudbreach cultivators in the grotto. If they allowed the other elders to take over, the distribution might become more equal while their Skysoar and Cloudbreach cultivators would receive less than they could right now.
...
At the same moment, someone cursed in the grotto, "Fuck! I demand a refund! Who did this?"
Xia Huyou was furious. "Who's messing around with me? Or is the single character faction doing this on purpose? Where's my willpower?"
A short while later, Zhou Pingsheng arrived. Xia Huyou furiously demanded, "It must be you! You have been running everywhere! You must be the culprit! In order to flush out Su Yu, you have been intentionally emptying the willpower around us, right?"
Xia Huyou said, "I paid for this slot! I paid Vice Principal Xia Changqing 5,000 merit points to enter! If you don't give me an explanation, I'll have the single character faction compensate me!"
Zhou Pingsheng cursed inwardly. Compensate his ass!
How was this related to him?
That had nothing to do with him!
"Xia Huyou, don't accuse people without proof."
Xia Huyou did not care. He said, "Just wait. If this happens one more time, I'll sue all of you for carrying out a grotto scam. You will be the first person I sue since you have been running everywhere! Don't think that I'm a pushover just because I'm not from Xia Family's main branch!"
Zhou Pingsheng was angered, but he had to hold his anger in.
It really wasn't him!
Damn it!
But this fellow's identity was somewhat complicated. His teacher had reminded him to not provoke anyone from the Xia Family. Not one of them could be provoked.
Thus, he forced himself to give an explanation, "This has nothing to do with me. Maybe the grotto itself is unstable. After all, it has remained shut for many years."
"Hmph!"
Xia Huyou resumed his cultivation after a snort, but a moment later, he said, "I don't care if it's you. I paid for this slot. Just a moment ago, the willpower here was still very dense. Now that it's gone, you need to take responsibility and gather some willpower here. If not, I'll leave immediately and sue all of you for false advertising."
"..."
Zhou Pingsheng snorted furiously, but after thinking about it, he still pulled some willpower over.
Even Xia Huyou had fallen victim. What was going on? This had been happening repeatedly. And it had happened everywhere. Of course, it was not only happening at places with people. It had also been happening to places devoid of people. Willpower was being continuously emptied all over the grotto.
...
Su Yu had realized something. When doing something bad, he shouldn't make it too clear who his target was. Who taught him that? His father! His father had told him about the importance of covering his tracks in the wild.
As for what Su Yu got out of that advice, well, that had nothing to do with his father. In any case, he was currently covering his tracks by targeting not only those from the single character faction. Everyone in the grotto had turned into his target.
The single character faction could take the blame for this. After all, this was a grotto opened by them, not him. And logically, this was supposed to be something only a Cloudbreach was capable of.
And all three Cloudbreach cultivators that had entered the grotto were either in the single character faction or related to them. Thus, who but the single character faction would take the blame?
Like it or not, they were taking that blame. One ought to know that among the people in the grotto, a lot of them had paid for their slots. The elders were the ones who had paid for these people. And the academy had also chipped in and paid the single character faction 10,000 merit points.
If this cultivation session proved unsatisfactory to these people, hehehe, wouldn't those elders start demanding compensation from the single character faction?
From what Su Yu knew, those people were pretty stingy. In the first place, their hearts were already aching from the money they had to pay for the slots. There was a very high possibility that they would ask for compensation if this cultivation session was problematic.
For now, it was time for Su Yu to digest the willpower he had absorbed again. He had opened his 52nd aperture.
He was having the time of his life. He was able to run wild and absorb to his heart's content. He had been leaving empty zones all over the grotto. Apart from the single character faction, the other students had also fallen victim to him.
But Su Yu did not care. They couldn't blame him for that. It was Zhou Pingsheng's fault!
If Zhou Pingsheng wasn't targeting him, he would have been able to stay at a single spot without disturbing anyone else. Since Zhou Pingsheng was searching for him everywhere, he was left with no choice but to do what he did: emptying an area of willpower before hiding somewhere to digest the willpower.
...
Time passed, and eventually, the Mountainseas maintaining the grotto reached their limits.
Elder Sun cursed, "Damn it!"
He was furious.
This was infuriating.
That was also the case for Elder Yu and Elder Li. They had ugly expressions.
Couldn't these people just stick to a single spot and cultivate?
Why were they running everywhere? This was driving the elders crazy.
"It has only been four hours..."
Hong Tan laughed. These people were already at their limits after only four hours. Was Su Yu messing around inside the grotto?
But even with 36 apertures, Su Yu's absorption power shouldn't be powerful enough to do that.
Furthermore, opening 36 apertures would be enough to put Su Yu at some sort of saturation. He wouldn't be able to open more and could only use the remaining time to nurture his willpower. Thus, there would be a limit to how much willpower he could absorb.
...
The guerilla warfare continued.
One hour later.
Su Yu returned to Zhang Hao's place. Instead of absorbing more willpower, he hid behind Zhang Hao to digest the willpower he had absorbed.
He had just returned from emptying six spots of willpower. It was time to digest what he had absorbed. This place had already been checked by Zhou Pingsheng so it should be safe for now. There, Su Yu spent half an hour to open two more apertures.
At that point, his total opened apertures had reached 54. In 5 hours, he had opened 10 apertures. This was the power of foundation cultural art.
Opening apertures were very easy at the Mental Tempering Stage. At the Skysoar Realm, the difficulty would increase by at least five times. In other words, if Su Yu was a Skysoar, he would probably be considered lucky even if he could open only two apertures after five hours in the grotto.
"See you, Brother Zhang."
Su Yu smiled and emptied their surroundings of willpower before leaving. Zhang Hao did not mind. He waited until Su Yu was away before shouting furiously, "Zhou Pingsheng! You must be doing this on purpose!"
His furious howl reverberated in the air.
"I won't let this slide!"
Far away, Zhou Pingsheng frowned, but he did not bother going near Zhang Hao.
He spread his willpower around to scan the area.
Coincidence?
Definitely not.
Just what was going on?
Su Yu?
No, Su Yu wasn't capable of this. Was it Hu Wensheng or Xia Yuwen?
He looked in two different directions. It was very far, but he could sense two intense clumps of willpower in those two directions.
He clenched his teeth and flew toward the other two Cloudbreach cultivators. He had decided to keep his eyes on them.
Damn it!
Was it Hu Wensheng?
Senior Brother Zheng had been seriously injured while he had been in a terrible position recently. Xia Chan would never be promoted to an important position in the faction. Thus, Hu Wensheng would be the person with the highest possibility of receiving his teacher's support after entering the Cloudbreach Realm. After all, Hu Wensheng was also from the same line as him.
And after running all around the grotto, he had invited the hostility of many people.
Was this Hu Wensheng's goal?
Damn it!
That couldn't be the case, right?
It was rather unlikely, but it wasn't impossible. Anything could happen when power and benefits were on the line. In the beginning, he suspected Su Yu. But since so much willpower had been absorbed, he would be stupid if he continued suspecting Su Yu.
As a mere Mental Tempering Stage student, even with some opened apertures, he wouldn't be able to absorb so much willpower. That was basically impossible. Way too many spots had been emptied of willpower.
As for Su Yu's hiding place...well, he was no longer in the mood to care about that. The damn kid was probably still hiding in a concealed spot.
This grotto wasn't large, but it wasn't exactly a completely flat area. There were still some places for people to hide if they wanted. Perhaps he had simply passed by Su Yu unknowingly.
He only wanted to see if the random spots would continue being emptied of willpower when he was keeping his eyes on the other two Cloudbreach cultivators. If it continued, then he would know that those two weren't the culprits.
If it stopped...hmph!
One of them must be trying to set him up!
Damn these bastards!
They were basically kicking a dog while it was down!
They were intentionally making things harder from him after seeing that his life had been difficult recently!