Chapter 479: The Grotto Is Collapsing (3)
While Su Yu was taking a stroll, Hong Tan was finding it harder and harder to hang on. This time, it wasn't Su Yu's fault. Rather, it was because the grotto had only been reduced to an empty shell of willpower, and that shell had been getting dangerously thin. Before long, the willpower would be completely exhausted.
The willpower that was supposed to last three days was emptying fast.
Seeing that the third day had yet to arrive, Hong Tan's willpower rippled slightly. Next, Chen Yong rushed over and anxiously said, "Teacher, I heard from Junior Brother. His injuries are flaring up again! You need to take a look at him!"
"What?"
Hong Tan blanked out and exclaimed, "His injuries are flaring up?"
He looked at Zhou Mingren and frowned, "Fine. I'll take a look. Old Qi, do me a favor and take over this grotto from me..."
Elder Qi smiled and said, "Sure. Don't worry. I'll help you..."
But immediately after, someone ran into the room while gasping for breath and hastily said, "Teacher, Little Nine broke a bottle of your experimental product. I don't know what happened, but he has fallen unconscious!"
"Fool!" Elder Qi furiously said, "That is a sleeping concoction meant to be used against Mountainseas. I need to leave as well. That damn bastard. I'll be sure to teach him a lesson when I return..."
But at that moment, he recalled something and hurriedly looked at Hong Tan.
The two looked at each other. Hong Tan's eyes flickered as he said, "Let's call Vice Principal Han or Vice Principal Su over..."
Nearby, Zhou Mingren frowned and unhappily said, "I'll do it."
Looking for the other two vice principals? What was the meaning of that?
The single character faction was the one who had opened the grotto this time. They had already reached an agreement and the two vice principals were not supposed to be involved. Since he had already recovered fully after resting for a day, he was more than capable of taking control of the grotto yet again.
"You..."
Hong Tan had a dissatisfied expression as he said, "Are you going to be targeting my people again?"
Zhou Mingren frowned, "The majority of the people in the grotto are from the single character faction. Your faction has so few people inside that it's almost negligible. I'm not about to waste my energy and time on something this trivial."
Since a majority of the people in the grotto were from the single character faction, it would not be easy for him to locate the few individuals that were actually not members of his faction.
It really wasn't worth the effort. He would need to spare a lot of energy for that. Perhaps only someone as unreasonable as Hong Tan would do something this pointless.
Hong Tan was about to say more when Chen Yong's anxious voice rang out, "Teacher, let's return first. I'll keep watch here instead. Junior Brother's injuries are very difficult to deal with!"
"Fine."
Hong Tan had a gloomy expression as he muttered, "It hasn't even been one full day..."
How regretful. He could no longer provide his two grandstudents with preferential treatment. He then left.
Zhou Mingren became the new controller of the grotto. Also exiting the room was Elder Qi. Both Elder Qi and Hong Tan exchanged knowing looks before flying away. This had nothing to do with them! The single character faction itself had resumed control over the grotto!
...
The moment Zhou Mingren took control, he frowned. The grotto was very unstable. What was going on?
But after giving the grotto a rough scan, he saw that the willpower was still quite thick. This shouldn't be a problem. Perhaps the grotto was still somewhat unstable because Zhou Pingsheng had absorbed too much willpower.
This shouldn't be too problematic. It was evident that Zhou Mingren was still weaker than Hong Tan. As a crafty old fox, Hong Tan had given the grotto a shell of willpower. At one glance, the grotto looked relatively normal, so Zhou Mingren wasn't too worried.
When he scanned the grotto, he found that a specific spot had a much higher density of willpower. But there were also a lot more people there. It would seem like all the Cloudbreach and Skysoar cultivators had gathered there.
He did not bother changing that. This would only make things easier to manage. After about half an hour, Hong Tan and Elder Qi returned. Elder Qi looked at Hong Tan with surprise. This fellow actually dared to return?
Hong Tan ignored the odd look Elder Qi was giving him. The moment he entered the room, he said, "It's not too serious. The brat is fine. Old Zhou, I can resume my task."
"There is no need for that." Zhou Mingren said, "Changing controllers frequently might also result in the collapse of the grotto."
Hong Tan frowned and said, "The second day is almost over so you might as well let Old Qi take over instead..."
Zhou Mingren was about to say something when Elder Qi laughed and said, "It's fine. Since Old Zhou can keep doing it, let him do it."
He was not interested in getting involved. Hong Tan was definitely not harboring any good intentions. This fellow had most likely returned to enjoy the show that would unfold. This was a fellow with a black heart! He even returned to fight over the control of the grotto to remove all suspicion from him.
...
At the same time.
After sensing the willpower flow in the grotto, Su Yu transmitted a message to Xia Huyou, "What did Elder Qi say?"
"Your grandteacher ran off long ago. He's currently waiting for the show to start."
Su Yu was very impressed. In that case, whatever happened next would be unrelated to his grandteacher, right?
"Prepare yourself. Don't get injured."
After giving Xia Huyou a reminder, Su Yu ran off toward the area with the highest willpower density. While traveling, he continued absorbing the willpower along the way, only leaving a small amount of willpower behind to continue masking the lack of willpower in the grotto.
He stopped not far away from the area with high willpower density. After checking his Perception Jade to ensure that nobody had noticed him, he started rapidly absorbing the willpower in the area.
His speed kept increasing.
Soon, the color of his Perception Jade started changing. Someone seemed to have noticed something. Instantly, Su Yu activated his deceit character and covered his entire body with shadow before fleeing.
With Su Yu's mad absorption, the entire grotto had been nearly emptied of willpower..
...
At the same time.
Zhou Mingren's expression changed.
An area in the grotto had suddenly been cleared of willpower. When he attempted to move some willpower elsewhere to balance out the willpower distribution in the grotto, he cursed. There was no willpower to be found!
The entire grotto was almost devoid of willpower! Zhou Mingren blanked out blankly before realization hit him. He turned his head and glared at Hong Tan.
Damn that bastard!
"People, support the grotto!"
Zhou Mingren suddenly yelled.
"The grotto is collapsing!"
The expressions of the elders changed upon hearing that.
Hong Tan and Elder Qi exchanged looks before stepping forth to help. While doing so, Hong Tan scolded, "Idiot! I told you to let me take over earlier but you insisted on doing it yourself! Damn it! If something happens to my grandstudents, I won't spare you!"
Zhou Mingren was so furious he felt like he was going to get a heart attack.
Fuck Hong Tan and all his ancestors!
Would Hong Tan really dare to take over if he had agreed to hand over control earlier?
Damn it!
That bastard had sensed something wrong long ago and had escaped promptly.
Damn it! Couldn't Hong Tan have given them a warning or something if the grotto was on the verge of falling apart? Instead, that bastard had used this chance to screw with him!
But Zhou Mingren did not have the time to play the blame game. His willpower erupted and forcefully stabilized the grotto before howling, "Everyone in the grotto, stop cultivating--"
Crash!
Before he could finish his words, a loud rumble resounded.
Boom!
A large shockwave spread through the room.
And a silhouette was spat out from the portal.
Whoosh!
One silhouette after another was spat out by the portal. Zhou Pingsheng and company were the first group to leave the grotto. All of them were coughing blood. These people had yet to reach willpower saturation. And the willpower around them had the highest level of density. Thus, they were still busy absorbing willpower when the grotto suddenly collapsed. As a result, all of them were badly injured.
Even with his heavy injuries, Zhou Pingsheng was using all his strength to protect a certain individual.
Inwardly, he was cursing. What happened? Why had the grotto collapsed suddenly?
The beloved daughter of Director Ji was right beside him. He was forced to take care of her. Fortunately, he was not too weak so he was capable of doing that much. But as a result, he wasn't able to protect himself well enough and ended up suffering a heavy injury.
The others weren't much better off than him. Every single one of them was coughing blood.
And every single teacher was protecting the students near them. Most of these students were from the single character faction. The teachers had called these students over after noticing that the area had a much higher density of willpower.
People were continuously spat out of the portal. The same happened to Su Yu. After the sudden and forced teleportation, he promptly coughed a mouthful of blood. Thanks to his blood character, this was something he could do any time he wanted.
He had a pale expression and a shaken sea of willpower. That was accomplished by smashing himself with his hammer. This trick had nearly failed due to how solid his willpower was. It was important that his willpower didn't look too stable or it would be too conspicuous.
Fortunately, after a few hammer strikes, he finally managed to shake his sea of willpower somewhat. He had a pale expression and a blurry look in his eyes as he had hammered himself so hard that he was starting to feel dizzy.
Boom!
Students were dropping on the ground all around Su Yu. Meanwhile, the experts were busy dealing with the grotto's collapse and couldn't spare any attention to them.
With a wave of his hand, Chen Yong gathered both Su Yu and Wu Jia to his side. Wu Jia was relatively fine. She was almost fully uninjured. But when Chen Yong's gaze landed on Su Yu, his expression changed to worry. His willpower instantly surged forward to help stabilize the kid's sea of willpower...
But the moment he did that, the look on his face changed.
Holy shit!
Solidified?
Was this a joke?
What the fuck?
Why was the kid's willpower so solid?
Were his senses lying to him?
With such a powerful willpower, could the aftermath of the grotto collapse even harm the kid?
Sensing something, Su Yu hurriedly hammered himself a few more times. He kept telling himself that he was injured. He had lost consciousness. He knew nothing. He had done nothing.
With the hammer strikes, his sea of willpower shook again as he coughed another mouthful of blood.
Chen Yong was dumbstruck.
Holy shit!
What was the kid doing?
But he quickly changed his expression and said, "Teacher, Su Yu is injured. I need to send him back first."
Hong Tan was still busy stabilizing the grotto. When he heard that, he turned his head and looked over. When he saw Su Yu, his expression changed as he said, "Alright. Go back immediately. I'll return shortly."
"Sure."
Chen Yong grabbed both Su Yu and Wu Jia before flying away.
They couldn't stay here for long. If someone decided to check Su Yu's status, everything would be revealed.
At this time, Zhou Mingren also shot Su Yu a glance. He saw that the kid had a pale face and an unstable sea of willpower. He snorted inwardly. It would seem like the kid had been seriously injured as well. He deserved it!
The kid must have gotten greedy and insisted on staying in an area with a lot of willpower. That was the only reason the kid would be injured so badly. He looked around and exhaled in relief. Things weren't too bad.
Due to a lack of willpower, the grotto had collapsed. But only a small number of people had been injured. Nobody was killed. And most of the victims were those from the single character faction. This wouldn't bring him too much trouble.
That thought had barely crossed his mind when a furious voice rang out, "Manager Zhou had been creating trouble everywhere and interrupting our cultivation. Not long after the disturbances stopped, the grotto collapsed. Teacher, I obtained nothing from this cultivation session. The single character faction needs to compensate us!"
"..."
Among the crowd, a Mountainsea elder blanked out slightly as he looked at Zhang Hao. The kid had obtained nothing from the grotto?
Zhang Hao had a furious look as he said, "Teacher, after entering, Manager Zhou has intentionally targeted me a few times. He eventually stopped, but I hadn't been able to cultivate for long before the grotto collapsed. I have gained nothing from this grotto!"
Immediately, a different voice rang out, "Same here!"
"Yeah, it's the same for me!"
"The willpower around me was emptied a few times in a row!"
"..."
The students of the other factions started complaining one after another.
The price of entry wasn't cheap! But after entering, they encountered trouble after trouble.
This was an opportunity given to them by their Mountainsea teachers. Some of their teachers had been forced to use the favor of a Mountainsea on top of paying a large price to get these slots. But after entering, they weren't able to cultivate peacefully. How would they be willing to accept this?
Ji Xiaomeng, who had received Zhou Pingsheng's protection, had a look of hesitation. After giving the ashen-faced Zhou Pingsheng a look, she softly said, "Uncle Zhou is a good man. I don't blame him. But they need to compensate me. I spent all my savings on that slot!"
The faces of Zhou Mingren and the others turned purple from anger.
Bullshit!
Had she even paid anything for the slot?
Nevertheless, they were still greatly troubled.
Elder Sun and the others had unsightly expressions. What the fuck happened? Why would the grotto collapse suddenly? A pseudo Sunmoon like Zhou Mingren wasn't even able to detect the collapse in advance? They felt terrible.
After paying such a large price to open this grotto, they had been able to earn the favor of a number of people with the slots they had sold. But now, they had earned the ire of all these people.