Chapter 481: Heavy Burden (2)
Zhou Mingren smiled and said, "We opened the grotto so that everyone can grow from it. Anyone can benefit from absorbing more willpower. When cultivating in a grotto, it is definitely better for everyone to stay together. Otherwise, someone might end up running all over the grotto and creating an uneven flow of willpower, causing excessive waste."
He shot Zhou Pingsheng a glance before continuing, "I can see that all of you have benefited from the grotto. I am happy to see that. Although a mishap has occurred, as a whole, the result is still beneficial for us. Our goal would be met as long as all of you have benefited."
Elder Sun and the others looked at him. After a short moment, Yu Hong transmitted his voice, "Old Zhou..."
Zhou Mingren replied with a voice transmission, "Don't make a ruckus. It hasn't been easy for us to rebuild some confidence in our juniors. Do you want to escalate this and create even more disunity among the juniors? I know what you're thinking. All of you believe that Pingsheng was the culprit. He's not too smart, but he isn't this stupid either. I will pay the compensation out of my own pockets. I believe there is a misunderstanding somewhere..."
The elders were still somewhat unhappy, but what could they say after hearing that?
Zhou Mingren was right. Their faction was already in a mess. If they continued pursuing this matter, they would further reduce the confidence of their members in the faction. The people in the faction would only grow increasingly disappointed with their unreliable allies in the faction.
"Old Sun, take the students back. Whether you're going to be advancing, healing, or entering seclusion after this, all of you should get to it. You have all grown from the grotto visit. This is actually a good thing for us. I hope to see further growth from all of you."
While the single character faction members were leaving, Zhou Mingren said, "Pingsheng, Wensheng, and Liu Hong. Stay."
The three could only do as told.
After all the other members left, Zhou Mingren looked at Liu Hong and asked, "Liu Hong, the Cloudbreach Realm must not be too far away for you."
Liu Hong had a look of gratitude as he said, "It's all thanks to the care you have shown me, Faculty Head. Breakthrough won't be far away for me. After this visit to the grotto, I am confident I can make my breakthrough before long."
"Good."
Zhou Mingren nodded, "I am happy to hear this. Our faction will soon welcome a new expert. Liu Hong, Yuming is going to be heading to the Allheaven Battlefield soon. The position of faction master will be empty. Since you're going to be a Cloudbreach soon, who do you think is best suited to be the next faction master?"
Liu Hong hurriedly said, "Faculty Head, this is naturally up to you and the elders. I have no opinion on this. No matter who the new faction master is, I will serve him with all my effort..."
"You..." Zhou Mingren laughed, "You have such a sweet mouth. Since you're going to be a Cloudbreach soon, you are also an eligible candidate..."
"Faculty Head, please don't joke about this!" Liu Hong hurriedly said, "As of this moment, I am still a Skysoar. And I have never thought of that. Nor would I think about that. I am not capable of such responsibilities. Faculty Head, please don't say something like this..."
"Hahaha!"
Zhou Mingren laughed, "Look at how afraid you got. Don't worry. You may leave now."
"Thank you, Faculty Head!"
With a terrified expression, Liu Hong hurriedly left. Inwardly, he was cursing.
Faction master his ass! He had never considered this. That old man was basically using him to remind Zhou Pingsheng and Hu Wensheng that they were not the only candidates for the position. What a bastard.
The old man was trying to turn him into a buffer between the two! Sure enough, Zhou Mingren was an old, crafty fox. He had probably noticed the conflict between his two students and was setting Liu Hong up as a new target for them. What a bastard! Liu Hong ran off while cursing inwardly.
...
After Liu Hong left, Zhou Mingren's face turned cold.
He stared at his two students for a long while before coldly asking, "Who did it?"
Neither said anything.
"Pingsheng, say something."
With his head lowered, Zhou Pingsheng clenched his teeth and said, "I know you suspect me, Teacher, but it really wasn't me! I never planned to cultivate in the grotto. I only wanted to make sure that Su Yu wouldn't be able to benefit from it. Thus, I spent the first day looking all over the grotto for Su Yu. How would I be in the mood to absorb the willpower in the grotto?"
"Do you have anything to say, Wensheng?"
Hu Wensheng calmly said, "It's not me, Teacher. I am a fresh Cloudbreach, so it is very important for me to cultivate in a slow and steady fashion. Absorbing willpower in large bursts won't benefit me whatsoever."
"If it was neither of you, could Xia Yuwen be the culprit?" Zhou Mingren said, "Don't tell me that Xia Yuwen had done this to turn both of you against each other."
After a short silence, Zhou Pingsheng said, "Teacher, I had moved all over the grotto during the first day. I'm afraid everyone believes that I was the culprit. But if it was really me, why should I make it so obvious? Clearly, someone had framed me. Teacher, don't fall for that!"
Zhou Mingren sank into thought. Zhou Pingsheng was right. Was he the culprit just because he was the most suspicious person?
Was he really that stupid? If he was that stupid, he wouldn't have been able to become a seventh-stage Cloudbreach. Of course, it was also possible that he was trying to use this as reverse psychology and remove suspicion from himself.
"Who do you think is the culprit?"
With a gloomy voice, Zhou Pingsheng said, "I don't know. Perhaps...it's Su Yu."
His tone turned deep as he mentioned Su Yu's name. Perhaps Su Yu was the true culprit. At this point, it didn't even matter if Su Yu was the culprit anymore. It was clear that it would be pointless to accuse Hu Wensheng.
Hu Wensheng said, "Senior Brother is right. Things are too suspicious. Someone must be deliberately confusing us. Teacher, the grotto had collapsed after Hong Tan took control. Su Yu might not be capable of this, but we don't know what Hong Tan is capable of.
"He is an expert of the multiple character faction. And the Willpower Grotto was left behind by a multiple character faction expert. It is possible that he has a way to remove the willpower in the grotto."
Zhou Mingren nodded pensively and said, "Yes. This shall be our official explanation. Hong Tan and Su Yu had colluded inside and outside the grotto to remove the willpower in the grotto, causing a collapse."
This would be their version of truth. It didn't matter if those two were the actual culprits. This was the only explanation Zhou Mingren could accept.
...
And thus, the single character faction had decided to make Hong Tan and Su Yu the scapegoat.
Meanwhile, Hong Tan was too occupied to care about that. At the moment, he was looking at Su Yu with doubt.
After a long while, he asked, "Are you awake?"
Su Yu had the urge to hammer himself a few more times. Why was his grandteacher staring at him like that?
He laughed dryly and said, "Yes, Grandteacher."
"You must have benefited greatly from the grotto, right?"
"Not bad."
"Not bad?" Hong Tan smiled, "Your so-called not bad is absorbing enough to collapse the grotto?"
"Uhm...Grandteacher...I..."
Hong Tan gave Su Yu a helpless look before saying, "How many apertures have you opened?"
"Quite a lot..."
"Quite a lot?"
Hong Tan smiled. The kid had been dishonest. He had definitely opened more than 36 apertures.
Since Su Yu wasn't willing to say much, Hong Tan did not force the issue. Instead, he said, "Don't expose your apertures. Otherwise, everyone will know that you were the culprit for the collapse. For now, everyone believes that it was Zhou Pingsheng. But anyone with a brain knows that unless Zhou Pingsheng was crazy, he wouldn't have done something like that. A lot of people are probably guessing that I have done something. I won't correct that. They can think what they want."
It was understandable that some people would suspect him. But their suspicion wouldn't be too strong since the incidents where random areas were being emptied of willpower had occurred during the first day. At that time, Hong Tan had yet to take over the control from Zhou Mingren.
Thus, some would also suspect that this was actually a result of the internal strife between the two students of Zhou Mingren. In any case, Hong Tan couldn't be bothered to care about these guesses.
"Just keep a low profile." Hong Tan exhaled and said, "I'll be entering seclusion in a few days. Your willpower is so solid that it's unbelievable. You have opened a lot of apertures and your willpower percentage is almost full. Are you preparing to break through?"
"Nope." Su Yu shook his head, "I aim to finish fusing my acupoints and enter the Infinite Strength Realm first. While doing so, I can keep forming characters. I'll try to push both my physical and willpower cultivation into the Skysoar Realm at the same time.
"As long as I remain under the Skysoar Realm, I won't be too much of a threat to the others. As a mere Mental Tempering Stage, I am a person of little significance. The moment I reach the Skysoar Realm, more trouble will come for me."
It would be better if he remained below the Skysoar Realm. This was not the correct time for him to break through. After all, he needed time to fuse his acupoints and form more characters.
According to Su Yu's plan, he would start working on his characters and acupoints next. Perhaps by the time he was at the ninth-stage Infinite Strength Realm, he would also have formed a decent number of characters and opened enough apertures. At that time, he could enter the Skysoar Realm and reach the ninth-stage Skysoar Realm in a single day.
He would instantly become a top expert among those in the same realm right after stepping into that realm. Doing this, he could also catch a lot of people by surprise.
He still needed to open 80 apertures and form 91 characters. Even with enough resources, he would require at least half a year to complete all that. As for the Infinite Strength Realm, Su Yu believed that he wouldn't need that long to reach it.
He did not intend to compete against the person from Great Zhou who had reached the Skysoar Realm in six months. Such competition was pointless. Half a year later when he jumped straight to the ninth-stage Skysoar Realm, that person might still be below the ninth stage.
Seeing that Su Yu had his own plans, Hong Tan did not say anything else about the topic. He said, "After entering the Skysoar Realm, you need to reforge your body. This step will even affect your future advancement into the Invincible Realm through physical cultivation. Thus, the better the blood essence used for this step, the better it would be. I don't know how long I'll be staying in seclusion. If you manage to enter the Skysoar Realm before then, look for Marquis Xia and buy some divine or devil blood essence on credit."
Su Yu blanked out. On credit? Would that work?
Hong Tan smiled, "It's fine. Just pawn something off to him. The Wentan Research Center would be perfect for that. He would agree. It's only some blood essence. If I happen to leave seclusion before your advancement, I'll try to get some first divine blood essence for you."
"If you end up buying from Marquis Xia, try to get some first divine blood essence as well. Original devil blood essence would work as well. These are the two strongest races among the various races. When you're trying to push your physical cultivation to the Invincible Realm, the stronger the blood essence you had used when forging your body, the more helpful it would be."
Su Yu nodded, "Thank you, Grandteacher. I understand."
"Also..."
After a short silence, Hong Tan said, "I won't leave my seclusion before reaching the Sunmoon Realm. Your martial uncle...likes to keep everything in his heart. Watch over him for me. If you notice him leaving the academy, notify Marquis Xia or Principal Wan. I don't want to find my student dead after leaving seclusion."
Su Yu's eyes flickered as he asked, "Grandteacher, you mean..."
"Your martial uncle has a heavy burden on him. He has been weighted down by this burden for a very long time. His talent is actually better than mine and your teacher. He should have entered the Mountainsea Realm long ago. But he stubbornly refused to break through. I already knew his plan a few years ago. He looks calm, but I'm afraid that he will throw caution to the wind and go crazy one day."
Hong Tan sighed and continued, "Also, avoid leaving the academy too often. If possible, avoid the Allheaven Battlefield. This is all I have to say. Our faction is too small so we don't really have anyone around to watch over you anymore. But you're a smart person..."
At that, Hong Tan paused again. After a while, he said, "If you encounter a great trouble you can't solve, you can go to the inner chambers of the prison zone and release the Mountainsea creatures in there.
"I have already reached an agreement with them. The moment you release them, they will receive their freedom. You will be the one to provide them free passage out of the Human Realm. If they end up doing anything to endanger humanity, we will be the ones to take the blame. Thus, you should know that you shouldn't release them unless absolutely necessary."
"Grandteacher..."
Su Yu was shocked. Releasing the Mountainsea creatures?
"Will the Human Realm allow me to return them to the Allheaven Battlefield?"
Hong Tan said, "Yes. Because those creatures have been registered as my mounts. I am a pseudo Sunmoon. They will show me this much respect. But as I said, any crime against humanity they commit will be blamed on us. You need to think it through before taking this route. After all, some of our enemies might take this chance to provoke them into doing something that will get us in trouble. Do you understand now?"
"I understand." Su Yu nodded solemnly.
Hong Tan stood up and started walking away. While walking, he said, "Enter seclusion for a few days. You can see your teacher off after that. Your willpower is too thick right now. If you walk around in your current condition, you will get exposed easily."
"Sure." Su Yu nodded.
At this moment, his good mood from having screwed the single character faction over had vanished. His two teachers were leaving. His grandteacher was entering an indefinite seclusion. And even his martial uncle might get embroiled in some trouble soon.
What a worrisome bunch of people! At such a young age, he actually had to carry such a heavy burden! Life was too hard for him!