Chapter 482: Farewell (1)
Hong Tan had left. And Su Yu was relieved.
His grandteacher had not asked too many questions. Su Yu had expected that as the people from the multiple character faction seemed to place a lot of importance on respecting one's fortuitous encounters.
They would never pry into the fortuitous encounter of others unless that person was willing to say that themselves. In truth, this was the same mentality many experts had.
Everyone had their own encounters. Only a small number of people would greedily aim for the encounters of others. Most people only cared about their own encounters because one might not necessarily be able to snatch what someone else had obtained from a fortuitous encounter. Even if one could get it, one might not be able to put it to use.
"Skysoar..."
Su Yu muttered to himself. It was still too early for him to enter that realm. He did not intend to do so anytime soon.
Since he could now disassemble his character technique, he could always split his character technique into sets of eight characters. The first set would be more than enough for his advancement. With 90 percent willpower, the Skysoar Realm really wasn't that far from him anymore.
In truth, it was not impossible to break the record of that genius from Great Zhou. Ignoring those from the other batches, there were at least five or six students from Su Yu's batch capable of doing so.
In the past, reaching the Skysoar Realm in six months seemed impossible to Su Yu. But at this point, that seemed a lot more possible. But it was pointless to pursue quick advancement just to break records.
"Fortunately, I was able to absorb so much willpower without exposing myself."
Only a few people knew the truth. He needed to stay low-profile! That was Principal Wan's advice! He believed that this time, he had successfully done what the principal asked.
If he had openly competed against the single character faction for willpower, he would be in a lot of trouble even if he could prevail over the single character faction. He might even attract the attention of experts who he definitely didn't want paying attention to him.
"Seclude myself and heal up!"
Su Yu made up his mind. His grandteacher was entering seclusion. He was going to do so as well. He could do so on the pretext of needing to recover from his injury. Yes. He had been injured by the grotto collapse. His injury was quite severe!
As for the research center he was supposed to be founding, the classes the multiple character faction was supposed to be starting, the Mutual Aid Club, and the Single Eradication Club, all of that could be put aside for now.
Oh, there were also some beasts waiting to be fed downstairs. Well, it would be fine. They wouldn't die so easily. Su Yu could no longer be bothered to work more on the beasts.
The next time he visited the prison zone would also be the time for him to finally subdue those beasts. He needed a show of force to suppress them or they would stay stubborn and disobedient.
...
On the 26th of October, Su Yu and the others left the grotto.
On the 27th of October, the Great Xia Cultural Research Academy welcomed a series of good news.
Zhan Hai had broken through into the Skysoar Realm.
Both his willpower and physical cultivation had advanced at the same time. On that same day, he forged his body with some divine blood essence and reached the third-stage Skysoar Realm immediately.
Of course, that was only the level of his physical cultivation. His willpower cultivation was still stuck at the first stage.
At the same time, Liu Hong had easily entered the Cloudbreach. Including Hu Wensheng, the single character faction had welcomed two new Cloudbreach experts, winning them some much needed prestige.
Both Hu Wensheng and Liu Hong were promoted into junior researchers. Additionally, genius teaching assistant, Wu Qi, had left for the Allheaven Battlefield. She aimed to seek her advancement into the Cloudbreach Realm through slaughter.
Of the geniuses in their batch, Bai Feng was the only person still stuck below the Cloudbreach Realm. In fact, Bai Feng was still suffering from his serious injuries. Many people couldn't help but feel regretful when they thought of this. Out of all the geniuses in that batch, Bai Feng had the worst fate.
And something even worse was waiting for him. He was going to be joining the Vanguard Regiment soon. Nobody knew if he could even survive that.
...
Su Yu had vanished from the public eye. According to the rumors, he had suffered a heavy injury from the grotto collapse and his sea of willpower had destabilized.
A lot of people sighed with regret. Su Yu had been fighting for so long and won so many matches just to be seriously injured when he was in a grotto. One could only blame fate for being unkind.
...
When the 1st of November rolled around, Su Yu finally walked out of the research center.
He still looked somewhat pale.
His pale pallor was due to the lack of sunlight for the past few days, not his supposed injuries. But thanks to his paleness, he looked a lot more delicate than before.
Outside.
Wu Jia had a look of heartache as she asked, "Junior Brother, have you not recovered yet?"
"I'm fine." Su Yu smiled. He said, "Congratulations, Senior Sister!"
Wu Jia had entered the Infinite Strength Realm. As for her willpower cultivation, it had reached the peak Mental Tempering Stage. And she had opened a total of eight apertures. This was decent progress. Or to be precise, this was actually great progress.
She had already reached a level where she could start preparing to enter the Skysoar Realm.
Beside her, Chen Yong smiled, "It's only the Infinite Strength Realm. What's there to be happy about? But when are you entering the Infinite Strength Realm?"
"Soon."
This was what Su Yu had been planning on doing. In fact, he had been contemplating on the matter of acupoint fusion while cultivating during the past few days. After digesting all the willpower he had absorbed, he had pushed the number of his opened apertures to 104. He wasn't able to reach his goal, but it was still good progress.
At that point, he shifted his focus to the Infinite Strength Realm instead of stubbornly trying to open more apertures.
"But fusing acupoints might be more difficult for you..." Chen Yong said, "You cultivate the Sky Sundering Saber so you need to fuse 16 acupoints if you want a perfect advancement. Jia only cultivates the War God Art so 12 acupoints are enough for her to enter the Infinite Strength Realm."
Su Yu smiled, "Senior Sister, how many acupoints have you fused so far?"
One could advance into the Infinite Strength Realm with as little as two fused acupoints. Since Wu Jia had entered the Infinite Strength Realm so early, she must not have fused too many acupoints.
Wu Jia had a happy smile as she said, "I fused 10. Even before this, I already fused 7 of them. And I have fused a few more recently. I advanced the moment I reached 10 fused acupoints. This will make me a true Infinite Strength cultivator instead of a fake Infinite Strength cultivator."
With 10 fused acupoints, one would be considered a true Infinite Strength cultivator.
Chen Yong helplessly said, "I told her to wait until she has 12 fused acupoints, but she refused to listen. She said that even you are already a ninth-stage Great Strength cultivator. It is too embarrassing for a senior to be at the same level so she insisted on advancing. Whatever. I guess she can continue fusing acupoints even after this even though the difficulty would increase."
Yes. One could continue fusing acupoints even after advancing into the Infinite Strength Realm. That also applied to the fused acupoints they had used for their advancement into the realm. However, the repelling force between the acupoints would also be stronger.
Thus, if Wu Jia wanted to increase the number of her fused acupoints from 10 to 12, the final 2 acupoints would be harder to fuse since she was doing it after entering the Infinite Strength Realm.
Wu Jia seemed indifferent. She said, "This is already very impressive, Teacher. With 10 fused acupoints, I can be considered a genius even in a war academy. Your standards are too high, Teacher."
"You..."
Chen Yong had a pampering tone. He smiled and decided to stop nagging. In a way, she was right. That was actually pretty impressive.
If she continued to suppress her advancement, she would lose even more confidence. Thus, advancing would be good for her as she could finally throw all those useless thoughts out of her mind and focus on cultivating.
"Teacher, I am actually quite good. My willpower is almost full as well. After forming two more characters, I can start aiming for willpower materialization..."
That would bring her into the Skysoar Realm.
After doing a short calculation, Wu Jia smugly said, "At the latest, I will be able to enter the Skysoar Realm early next year. That makes me someone who has reached the Skysoar Realm in less than three years after entering the academy. Teacher, I am going to break Martial Uncle's record."
Chen Yong did not know whether to laugh or cry. He said, "Your Martial Uncle had to form more characters than you before he could advance. And he was also a lot more knowledgeable than you. In truth, life was very bad back then. Your martial uncle had no access to these benefits you are currently enjoying."
He stopped at that and sighed before looking at Su Yu, "Let's go. We'll see your teacher off."
This was the day of separation.
Bai Feng was leaving.
The Allheaven Battlefield was his destination.
The moment that was said, Su Yu's expression dimmed. But he quickly recovered before putting on a smile. "Let's go see my teacher off."
Having said that, they started heading toward the academy exit.
...
At the academy gate, a group of people were also bidding someone farewell.
They were bidding Zheng Yuming farewell.
At this moment, Zheng Yuming had recovered from his physical injuries, but he still looked somewhat pale.
Behind him, a few soldiers from the Great Xia Army were waiting. There would be some soldiers in charge of escorting every individual banished to the Allheaven Battlefield. Or to be precise, they were around to ensure that these individuals would not run off and join the Myriad Race Cult while on their way to the battlefield.
Zhou Mingren himself had arrived. He stood to the side without saying anything. The students of Zheng Yuming were also present. Some of them noticed Su Yu. Their faces turned unsightly. One could say that Su Yu was the reason this had happened to Zheng Yuming. They really wanted to kill Su Yu.
Meanwhile, Su Yu strode over with a calm expression without saying a single word. These people hated him. But did he like them?
Bai Feng and Liu Wenyan. One was his first teacher while the other was his academy teacher. Both had been exiled to the Allheaven Battlefield. And these people had received a punishment worse than Zheng Yuming. Unlike Zheng Yuming, they needed to kill 10 cultivators of the same cultivation level.
Bai Feng needed to kill 10 Cloudbreach cultivators before he could return. As for Liu Wenyan, unless he could enter the Sunmoon Realm, he could forget about returning.
According to Great Xia's laws, he would need to kill 20 Mountainseas or 2 Sunmoons to end his exile. Liu Wenyan was merely a Skysoar. How was he supposed to do that? Standing beside Zheng Yuming was Huang Qifeng, who was looking at Su Yu with a dark expression.
Su Yu!
Zheng Yuming appeared calm. When he noticed Su Yu's group, he smiled and said, "Su Yu, I had not tried to kill you. That was a misunderstanding. I hope we can undo this misunderstanding today."
"The conflict between the single and multiple character factions have persisted for many years. But it has always been limited in scale. No lives have been lost to the struggle in the past. Recently, that has changed. Lives were lost and lines were crossed. I was unaware of my teacher's attempt to rob Senior Zhang Ruoling's grave for me. That was not what my teacher had initially planned to do. Everything had only happened due to a series of coincidences."
Su Yu said nothing.
Zheng Yuming did not mind the silence. He looked at Chen Yong and smiled, "Head Manager Chen should understand that for certain matters, we are merely chess pieces. When some people move, we have to move as well. We don't really have a choice."
Chen Yong calmly said, "Elder Zheng is right."
"Are you seeing Bai Feng off?"
Zheng Yuming said, "Let's go together since are all mere chess pieces. Our fates do not lie in our own hands."
Chen Yong said nothing. He left with Su Yu and Wu Jia.
After they left, someone beside Zheng Yuming softly said, "Teacher, why bother saying all that to them?"
Zheng Yuming smiled, "I was merely speaking my mind after a recent realization."
He then looked at his teacher before looking at the towering Heart Cultivating Pavilion in the distance. He then smiled. That was a helpless smile. A smile that mocked himself.
In the end, Wan Tiansheng was the true master of this academy. And the Xia Family was still the true master of Great Xia.
"Teacher..." He transmitted his voice, "Teacher, from now on, I won't be around anymore. This Great Xia looks beautiful on the outside, but it is merely a giant cauldron that is slowly boiling us inside. Both Wan and Xia are using us as chess pieces. The same goes for Great Zhou. Teacher, just enter seclusion and ignore all these affairs. Focus on entering the Sunmoon Realm. At the very least, your voice will hold more weight as a Sunmoon."
Zhou Mingren said nothing.
"Teacher, isn't the Sunmoon Realm your goal? For now, let go of the single character faction if you need to. Face, legacy, wealth...none of that is important. The moment you become a Sunmoon, you can rise to the top again. Let Elder Sun and the others waste their time with all those troubles."
Zhou Mingren nodded, but he still wasn't saying anything.
With a complicated expression on his face, Zheng Yuming gave the academy one last glance and smiled before turning around. While walking away, he waved his hand and said, "Everyone, let us part ways here. If fate allows it, we shall meet again."
And if fate did not allow it, this might be their final meeting.
Behind, Huang Qifeng called out with grief, "Teacher..."
"Cultivate well. Aim to enter the Skysoar Realm as soon as you can." Zheng Yuming said, "The world of Skysoars is a lot more wondrous. What's the point of constantly getting into conflicts between Mental Tempering Stage cultivators? Even if you end up dying in one such conflict, it would be a pointless death."
By the time he finished his sentence, he was already far away from the academy. The soldiers followed behind him. There were four of them and each of them was a Cloudbreach.