Chapter 473: Curious Coincidence (3)
In truth, Su Yu had opened a total of 57 apertures thus far. If he was cultivating alone, he would be able to open one aperture every half an hour. But it was tiring to constantly run around. He would rather cultivate slightly slower in exchange for not having to worry about that. Inwardly, Su Yu was still slightly unhappy, but he forced himself to accept it.
At this point, he slightly increased his absorption speed.
Liu Hong had been keeping watch while Zhou Pingsheng was nowhere to be seen. This allowed Su Yu to cultivate in peace.
Before long, Liu Hong said, "With 30 single eradication points, you can cultivate here for 3 hours. Remember to leave when your time is up."
Su Yu was unhappy to hear that.
He was having a great time. Why was this fellow chasing him away?
He had only been in the grotto for 8 hours. He still needed to wait for 16 hours before it was his grandteacher's turn to run the grotto.
"Six hours! If Zhou Pingsheng comes before that, I'll leave early."
"You..."
Liu Hong cursed inwardly.
"Be sure to hide yourself well. Don't bring trouble to me. Su Yu, screwing me up won't benefit you either."
After saying that, he started cultivating as well.
But he didn't dare to use too much of his strength. With both him and Su Yu cultivating here, if he used all his strength, the flow of willpower in the area would be far more intense than what a peak Skysoar like him was supposed to be able to generate.
...
At the same time.
Zhou Pingsheng was raging.
During the two hours he had spent observing Xia Yuwen and Hu Wensheng, the odd incidents had stopped.
Damn it!
Damn it!
The culprit was definitely one of these two!
Why would the incidents stop the moment he started paying attention to them otherwise? And it was very likely that Hu Wensheng was the culprit.
Treacherous snake!
Alas, Zhou Pingsheng had no proof. Damn it!
Not far away, Hu Wensheng frowned and asked, "Senior Brother Zhou, why are you here again?"
Zhou Pingsheng had passed by the area around seven or eight times in the span of two hours.
Hu Wensheng said with an upset tone, "Senior Brother, don't tell me that you think Su Yu is hiding here."
Zhou Pingsheng was being too excessive. Why would he help hide Su Yu?
It was fine for Zhou Pingsheng to pass by once or twice. But this was so frequent that it angered Hu Wensheng. Was Zhou Pingsheng here to cultivate or mess with Su Yu? Or perhaps this fellow was here to monitor him?
Zhou Pingsheng smiled and said, "You misunderstand me, Junior Brother. Su Yu is too treacherous. I'm still looking for him. I have been able to detect traces of him nearby multiple times, but I just can't find him."
Hu Wensheng cursed inwardly. What a piece of trash. Eight hours had passed. And the grotto wasn't even that big of a place. He couldn't even find a mere Mental Tempering Stage student? Just how had this fool reached the seventh-stage Cloudbreach Realm?
"Since you can't find him, why not give up and find a good spot to cultivate instead?"
Despite his anger, he still decided to advise Zhou Pingsheng to find a place to cultivate instead of wasting time.
But after hearing those words, Zhou Pingsheng was further infuriated. This fellow was trying to send him away? If he did that, this fellow would be able to continue creating trouble everywhere before framing him for it!
No way!
He said nothing and left silently, but he lingered not far away. He sat down cross-legged and pretended to cultivate while monitoring Hu Wensheng in silence. After a while, he snorted inwardly and left for real.
Hu Wensheng noticed that. He frowned speechlessly.
Was this person crazy?
After suffering some losses in the hands of Su Yu, this fellow had been somewhat erratic. Just look at how this fellow had spent a few hours monitoring him. Someone who didn't know them might even wonder if his name was actually Su Yu, not Hu Wensheng.
He decided to throw that matter out of his mind and resume his cultivation.
...
At the same time.
Liu Hong suddenly said, "Leave! That fellow is approaching!"
Su Yu was alarmed. His Perception Jade had yet to detect anything yet Liu Hong had already noticed Zhou Pingsheng's approach?
He said nothing and hurriedly left. There was no need for Liu Hong to lie about this. It would seem like it was time for him to resume his guerilla warfare.
While running, Su Yu complained inwardly. Why was that fellow running around again? He would have no choice but to start emptying random locations of willpower again. As for framing Hu Wensheng as the culprit...it had really not crossed his mind. He was unaware that Zhou Pingsheng was suspecting Hu Wensheng as the culprit.
...
Before long, Su Yu was gone.
Shortly after, Zhou Pingsheng arrived. After giving Liu Hong a glance, he said nothing and turned around to leave. At this time, Liu Hong smiled and said, "Senior Brother, I think I heard some people shouting earlier. I was too busy to care. What happened?"
Zhou Pingsheng wanted to ignore Liu Hong, but after thinking about it, he decided to answer. With a sneer, he said, "Some people just can't sit still. When they see that I'm losing favor, they're starting to kick me while I'm down. But that person has affected the entire grotto. I truly want to see how that person is going to frame me after leaving the grotto."
Liu Hong was completely dumbstruck. He didn't understand what Zhou Pingsheng was talking about. Wasn't Zhou Pingsheng hunting for Su Yu? How did someone else get involved?
And it was clear that Zhou Pingsheng wasn't talking about him or the other Mental Tempering Stage students. In the entire grotto, only Xia Yuwen and Hu Wensheng could catch his attention.
After a short thought, Liu Hong concluded that Zhou Pingsheng was probably talking about Hu Wensheng.
Hu Wensheng had done something to affect the entire grotto?
What?
Right that moment, an intense willpower undulation appeared far away.
Liu Hong's heart thumped. That was...Su Yu?
Holy shit!
That fellow's absorption speed was way too terrifying. Even from so far away, he could sense an entire area instantly emptied of willpower.
He thought that Zhou Pingsheng would rush over to give chase, but instead, Zhou Pingsheng hurriedly flew toward Hu Wensheng.
While flying, Zhou Pingsheng was sneering. The incident had resumed so soon after he left! Gotcha, Hu Wensheng!
Meanwhile, Liu Hong was blinking in stupefaction.
Holy shit!
He finally understood!
Zhou Pingsheng thought that Hu Wensheng was the person emptying random areas in the grotto of willpower.
He promptly contacted Su Yu and said, "I have a piece of information to sell you for 1,000 merit points."
"What is it?"
"Pay up. 1,000 merit points."
"I got no merit points. What about single eradication points? You can use it to buy stuff in the club."
"How would I know if you're scamming me?"
"Fine. Forget it."
"..."
But after thinking about it, Liu Hong smiled.
Sure!
He would deliver this information even for free!
This was too interesting.
Zhou Pingsheng was actually suspecting Hu Wensheng. An internal conflict was about to break out among Zhou Mingren's students.
Liu Hong had only been able to obtain a promotion in the faction after Zhou Pingsheng angered the elders. But with Hu Wensheng's reappearance as a Cloudbreach, Zhou Mingren would definitely pass the authority to him instead. After all, his own student would be much more trustworthy than an outsider.
But now, Zhou Pingsheng was suspecting Hu Wensheng! This was too amusing!
"Zhou Pingsheng suspects that Hu Wensheng is the person running around emptying random areas of willpower. He must have been monitoring Hu Wensheng for quite a while. Right after he left Hu Wensheng, you ran off to empty an area of willpower. So now, he has returned to Hu Wensheng's place. You understand what's going on, right?"
Su Yu instantly understood what was happening.
He was quite dumbstruck. Zhou Pingsheng was suspecting...Hu Wensheng?
Interesting. This was too interesting.
"That idiot..."
Su Yu didn't know whether to laugh or cry. He had not expected something like this to happen. But since that was the case, perhaps he could take advantage of this.
He could very well provoke an internal turmoil between Zhou Mingren's students.
Let them suspect each other.
That would make things fun.
"Alright. I'll return to your place to cultivate. Later, maybe you can invite Zhou Pingsheng over and have some chat with him. That way, he won't suspect you and I will have the chance to create even more trouble. Teacher Liu, after reaching the Cloudbreach Realm, you can even consider fighting for the position of faction master..."
Liu Hong snorted disdainfully.
Was this wimpy kid trying to instigate him?
Did he care about that position?
What a joke.
What was so great about that position? He wanted a job where he could be paid without doing anything. But as the faction master, alongside the power, he would also gain a lot of responsibilities. And the moment anything bad happened, he would be made the scapegoat.
And that wasn't even the crux of the issue. The biggest issue was the fact that the multiple character faction was in the middle of hitting back against them. Two Mountainseas had died not long ago. He wasn't suicidal enough to become the next faction master.
Only someone as dumb as Zhou Pingsheng would want that position. Then again, before gaining enough strength, the support and favor of his faction would still be very important.
"Sure. You can come here for now. I'll console Senior Brother Zhou and have a chat with him later..."
Liu Hong smiled. Well, he had some time to kill anyway. It wouldn't harm him to do something this trivial.
He had already reached the very limit of the Skysoar Realm. He could actually step into the Cloudbreach Realm at any time. But there was no need to do so. It would be too eye-catching for him to break through the grotto. He much preferred to stay low key.
Speaking of, was Su Yu hiding some of his apertures? The kid had definitely opened more than 20. From the speed he had observed, the kid had probably opened at least 30 apertures.
No wonder Zhou Pingsheng would suspect Hu Wensheng. Liu Hong himself would have probably reached the same conclusion.
Previously, he had suggested his faction to have several Skysoars surround and absorb all the willpower around Su Yu. But if they really did that, perhaps those Skysoars wouldn't even be able to absorb willpower as fast as Su Yu.
"That kid...has matured."
Su Yu had indeed matured somewhat.
And the kid was practically guaranteed a smooth path to the ninth stage the moment he entered the Skysoar Realm. At that point, the kid would turn into an extremely terrifying competitor.
The kid could very well be one of his competitors during the struggle for the slots two years later.
"The conflict between the multiple and single character factions..."
Liu Hong laughed. That was none of his business.
Suddenly, he thought of his teacher again. His teacher was still stuck in seclusion even now. Was his teacher also suffering from the intense repelling force of the non-human characters? Could the club solve this issue?
It was very unlikely for his teacher to step into the Sunmoon Realm. But what if they could remove a few of his problematic characters? Would that help? Even though that would result in a weaker Sunmoon with a few missing characters, a Sunmoon was still a Sunmoon.
"Single Eradication Club...single eradication points...backlash-free character removal!"
His teacher was already near the end of his lifespan. If he had to destroy his own characters, the backlash would definitely kill him. But what if he could remove the characters without the backlash? The removal might be completely safe!
Single Eradication Club!
Suddenly, the club seemed a lot more important to Liu Hong.
Were there really experts in this club?
Most likely.
After all, Su Yu had obtained even something like a foundation cultural art from the club. That was an art with 36 apertures. The backer of the club would either be an Invincible or the family members of an Invincible.
It was also possible that the Xia Family was the actual backer of the club.
Just where had Su Yu obtained all those heaven-grade methods and techniques of his? Previously, Hong Tan had taken credit for that. But Liu Hong did not believe that. What bullshit.
If those were really the inheritances of the multiple character faction, Bai Feng would have cultivated all those techniques as well. Clearly, Su Yu was the only one in the faction with all those techniques.
But Su Yu came from Nanyuan. With his background, he had either obtained those techniques from Liu Wenyan or some other fortuitous encounter. But Su Yu hadn't been too eye-catching during his time in Nanyuan. It was possible that he had obtained all those opportunities after entering the academy and joining the Single Eradication Club.
"He should have joined the club after entering the academy."
That was Liu Hong's conclusion. If Su Yu had obtained those heaven-grade methods and techniques long ago, why would he purchase the War God Art back then? Why would he fight Zheng Yunhui for a single Skybreak Technique? Sure, that was a scam, but still, there was no need for him to even cross Zheng Yunhui, right?
"Single Eradication Club!"
Liu Hong inhaled deeply. Interesting. Perhaps this invitation to the club was not a trap. Rather, it was the start of his rise to power.
"Lin Yao...that silly kid has probably joined the club as well. It's obvious from how he has been behaving."
Liu Hong decided to wait and see. He needed to observe Lin Yao's progress. If even someone like Lin Yao could benefit from the club, he would be able to benefit even more.
Excellent. This would be the start of his rise!