Chapter 471: Curious Coincidence (1)
Outside the grotto.
Elder Sun and the others were too tired to even curse anymore.
That fellow had been messing around repeatedly in the grotto, greatly increasing the difficulty of maintaining the grotto. Even Zhou Mingren didn't have much energy to spare for talking. Elder Sun and the others were already reaching their limits. Thus, they were all relying on him to keep the grotto active.
Inwardly, however, they were all cursing at Zhou Pingsheng. As far as they were concerned, Xia Yuwen and Hu Wensheng wouldn't do something this stupid.
...
Inside the grotto.
Su Yu was busy digesting the willpower he had absorbed from Zhang Hao's spot.
He was having a great time.
This grotto was filled with dense and pure willpower. The purity was lower than the willpower he had absorbed from his teacher's laboratory previously, but it was much higher than the willpower in the fragment room. The amount was also much higher.
In truth, Su Yu hadn't dared to go all out when absorbing the willpower in the fragment room. He didn't want to suck the room dry and leave nothing for the newcomers after him.
After a while, he opened yet another aperture.
At this moment, he had opened a total of 55 apertures.
Su Yu took out his voice transmission talisman and sent a message to Xia Huyou, "What is Zhou Pingsheng's current location?"
These friends were why he had been able to hide from Zhou Pingsheng for so long. People like Xia Huyou, Lin Yao, Zhang Hao, and Wu Jia were serving as his eyes and ears. Each of them had received a voice transmission talisman from him. With all these people, he had been able to stay informed of Zhou Pingsheng's whereabouts.
"He's not near me. I think he went near Hu Wensheng."
Xia Huyou had his own source of information.
As someone who was doing business with everyone, including the single character faction, he had eyes and ears everywhere too.
"Hu Wensheng..."
Su Yu wondered if Zhou Pingsheng actually thought that he was hiding near Hu Wensheng.
He didn't even know Hu Wensheng that well. Ahh, but there was someone he knew very well in the grotto: Liu Hong. He had already used most of the people he could rely on as his cover so far. If he kept using them as his covers, he could very easily expose himself.
His eyes flickered as he thought of someone. He took out a different talisman and said, "Teacher Liu, do you want to have a chat?"
"..."
After some time, Liu Hong replied, "Su Yu?"
The talisman he had received could be used for both direct messages or group chat rooms. But he had yet to discover Su Yu's username. Seeing that this unknown username was calling him Teacher Liu, he was able to guess that this was Su Yu. He couldn't help feeling somewhat nervous.
Su Yu must be transmitting the message to his talisman instead of his username, right? There was no way Su Yu knew his username, right?
Su Yu was definitely unaware that he was Yellow99, right?
Su Yu did not know about him calling someone else grandpa in the chatroom, right?
He was unsure. So he was nervous. When he had called the other person grandpa, he had forgotten about Su Yu. The kid was unaware of that, right? It would be too embarrassing if the kid knew it was him!
He wouldn't admit to it no matter what!
"It's me, Teacher Liu. Mind doing me a favor?"
"What favor?"
"I cultivate for a short time at your place, and you cover for me. What do you think?"
"No thanks."
Liu Hong was speechless. What was the kid thinking?
Did the kid think that they were close or something?
"Teacher Liu, what if I issue this as a mission of the Single Eradication Club? Have you not discovered the mission assignment system of the club after this long? You can get single eradication points from missions. And these points are very valuable. The Single Eradication Club is the source of my current strength.
"Since you're a newbie, you probably still don't have access to it. But I can assign you private missions and pay you with single eradication points. After all, I have been in the club for quite a while. I have some points saved."
Liu Hong asked, "Didn't you say that you are the founder?"
"That was a random lie. How could you believe that? I'm just an errand boy. So do you accept the mission or not? You will be paid 10 single eradication points. You might think that 10 points are nothing, but I'll be honest. With 100 points, you can purchase an earth-grade cultivation method. With 1,000 points, you can purchase a heaven-grade cultivation method. Don't underestimate the value of 10 points."
Liu Hong said nothing.
Su Yu said, "Teacher Liu, you are probably leaving this grotto as a Cloudbreach. At that level, Zhou Pingsheng will be your biggest obstacle. And I'm targeting Zhou Pingsheng and Zhou Mingren, not you. My growth won't harm your own benefits, right?"
Liu Hong remained silent.
Su Yu continued his persuasion, "Have you checked the public channel through the talisman, Teacher? A newbie was forced to call someone grandpa before getting the answer for a simple question. I'm telling the truth. That really did happen. And the answer given was true. I asked my grandteacher the same thing before. If you don't believe me, you can check with some other peak Mountainseas..."
Finally, Liu Hong started growing uneasy. Was the kid saying that on purpose? Was the kid aware that he was the newbie in question? No, right?
"Su Yu, what are you trying to say?"
"Divine and devil characters are not suitable for a human's advancement into the Sunmoon Realm. They might even sever the path forward. Unless you're strong enough that you can blast right through all obstacles, this will pose an issue to you as well. But not even my grandteacher can do so. He can only counteract the negative effects of divine and devil characters with his powerful character technique.
"Not everyone has the courage to destroy their own characters. But even if you have the courage, destroying too many of your characters might cause your sea of willpower to collapse.
"If Teacher Liu agrees to work with me, you can use the 10 single eradication points to purchase a backlash-free character removal service for one character. Maybe you'll say that you can also detonate the character you want to destroy for a boost of power and kill an enemy.
"I also believe that you have the courage to do so. But what about your main character? Are you going to detonate your main character as well? The backlash will be severe. Are you not afraid of destroying your sea of willpower in the process? I promise you that I'm telling the truth. With one favor, I can help you remove one character with no backlash."
"..."
Liu Hong was alarmed.
Character removal?
Without backlash?
Was this real?
That was a truly amazing offer, with the premise that divine and devil characters were really harmful for his cultivation. That was something that he still couldn't verify for now.
Su Yu was right. He had the courage to detonate his other characters. He only needed to receive some injuries. He could even take the chance to get rid of an enemy or two. He wouldn't mind doing so.
But the detonation of a main character would be a lot more harmful to himself.
Sunmoon Realm...
Was he ambitious enough to aim for that level of cultivation?
Every genius had such ambition.
Sunmoon, followed by Invincible. Which genius wouldn't want to achieve those realms?
If he didn't have such ambition, there wouldn't be a need for him to keep strengthening his foundation and gathering strength during his lower cultivation levels.
Sure, the Sunmoon Realm was still quite far away, but after this grotto trip, he would be a Cloudbreach. And if his characters were problematic, it would naturally be smart for him to make his preparations as early as possible.
If he waited until the Mountainsea Realm when all of his characters were much more powerful, he would have to spare a lot more effort to form new characters and grow them to a similar level of strength. Additionally, destroying his characters at that level would also result in a stronger backlash.
Thus, if he could confirm that divine and devil characters were really problematic, he should solve this issue as soon as possible.
After some hesitation, he said, "Give me a few minutes."
...
Liu Hong stopped sending more messages after that.
Su Yu was in no rush. He waited patiently. He still had the option of working with someone else. In fact, he could always choose to continue his guerilla warfare. In any case, Zhou Pingsheng wouldn't be able to find him so easily.
The only disadvantage of doing so was the lack of cover, slightly increasing the risk of discovery.
...
Meanwhile, Liu Hong was flying at a rapid pace.
After searching around the grotto, he finally found someone.
He wasted no time and went straight to the point, "I'm buying some information from you. Give me a price."
"What is it?"
Xia Huyou looked at Liu Hong with surprise.
Why was this fellow buying information at this time? Was he trying to find Su Yu as well?
Liu Hong said, "Are divine and devil characters harmful for a human's advancement into the Sunmoon Realm? You're from the Xia Family. You should know something. Don't give me fake information. The products of Xia Family are always expensive, but all their products are authentic."
Xia Huyou looked at Liu Hong with sympathy. What a pitiful fellow. This Liu Hong was also the student of a peak Mountainsea. But he didn't even know about something like this.
This was already common knowledge among all Mountainseas. As a member of the Xia Family, he was naturally aware of that as well.
"500 merit points."
Xia Huyou quoted an outrageous price. He even gave an explanation for the price, "There are a lot of rumors floating around. Some people believe that this is true. Some people think that this is false. You're not really here to learn about these rumors. Instead, you're here to learn about the Xia Family's stand on this issue, right? And this is definitely worth 500 merit points. It's not like you can believe what others say anyway."