Chapter 487: Ample Preparations Will Always Help (1)
Wentan Research Center.
The research center was devoid of people.
After entering, Su Yu did not stop and went straight to the prison zone.
It was time to feed the prisoners. It had been half a month.
If he waited any longer, those beasts might really end up starving to death. Both Bai Feng and Hong Tan were no longer around, leaving him the sole person responsible for them. In the past, Bai Feng and Hong Tan would still visit them for some blood essence occasionally and feed those beasts while they were there.
...
Prison zone.
A deathly stillness enveloped the entire floor.
When sounds of a door being opened rang out, the prison zone finally came alive again.
"Lord Su, I am willing to serve you!"
A sharp voice rang out. It was the fire crow.
Su Yu's voice rang out, "You're still alive? Looks like you guys are quite durable."
Then, Su Yu walked down the stairs, revealing himself before the beasts.
The shadow revealed emerged from the darkness. Instead of speaking in circles, he spoke directly, "What do you want us to do? And what can we get from it?"
"Wait." Su Yu said, "I'll talk to the Mountainsea beasts first before talking with you guys."
He then walked past the cages toward the inner section. The beasts shook upon hearing that.
Mountainsea beasts!
They were aware that there were Mountainsea beasts there. But they had thought that those beasts had died long ago.
And there were more than one of them? How many of them were still alive?
The shadow hurriedly said, "Su Yu, Mountainsea beasts are strong, but they are also too conspicuous."
"You're too noisy." Su Yu chided, "Do I need you to tell me what to do?"
With a snort, Su Yu walked away.
Unlike the front section, the inner section consisted of a corridor with jail cells to the two sides of the corridor. The cells were completely sealed. Not a single opening was visible. Normally, not even sound could escape these cells.
Naturally, Su Yu had arrived with Hong Tan's key. His willpower rippled, creating a small hole in front of each cell. Looking through the holes, only darkness was visible. Nothing else could be seen. And no noise could be heard.
Su Yu did not mind. He said, "I am Su Yu, the successor of the multiple character faction. My grandteacher must have reached an agreement with you, seniors. I can come to you guys when I need help. You will serve me for three years. After which, I will escort you out of the Human Realm..."
"Three years?"
A sharp voice rang out straight in Su Yu's mind, causing his sea of willpower to shake. This was already a weakened effect due to the restrictions of the jail cell.
Su Yu's expression did not change. He said, "What about it? Is that a long time? For a Mountainsea, that is nothing. Is freedom not worth three years of your time? You will only be able to leave the Human Realm under the guise of being my grandteacher's mounts. Otherwise, it wont matter even if you're Mountainseas. Are you strong enough to freely traverse the Human Realm?"
The same voice from before said in surprise, "Aren't you at the Mental Tempering Stage?"
According to Hong Tan, his grandstudent was at the Mental Tempering Stage. But this beast did not think so. When he spoke earlier, he had mixed his voice with a fierce willpower attack. The cell might have restricted him, but he was more than capable of giving a Mental Tempering Stage kid a serious injury.
That was meant to be a show of force. But Su Yu seemed completely unaffected.
"Yes, I am." Su Yu questioned, "Since you're not capable of even seeing through my cultivation level, I am starting to suspect your capabilities."
An eye appeared behind one of the holes. The eye looked incomparably deep. The eye gazed at Su Yu, seemingly trying to see through his very being. Instantly, the Perception Jade in Su Yu's sea of willpower changed to red, signifying that something at the level of Mountainsea was prying on him.
Su Yu was quite surprised. He smiled, "With the restrictions here, you are still able to pry on me. Truly worthy of being a Mountainsea. How should I address you, Senior?"
"Senior?"
The owner of the eye coldly said, "Stop being a hypocrite. Senior? Laughable. For Hong Tan, we are merely walking bags of blood. For him, we are not actual living beings. We are only working for you in exchange for our freedom and our lives."
The beast was straightforward. There was no need for them to befriend each other. This was merely a transaction.
Su Yu smiled, "I still need a form of address for you, right?"
"Just call me One-eye."
"One-eye?"
Su Yu raised his brow. This was probably an alias. He wasn't too bothered. Was this perhaps a member of the one-eyed giant race? Or perhaps this was someone from the devil eye race? Hong Tan had not informed him about that.
"In that case, I will be calling you One-eye from now on."
He smiled, "How about the two of you? Are you not giving me your names?" There were three Mountainsea beasts here. One-eye was one of them. What about the other two? Up until now, only One-eye had spoken to him.
Silence descended.
After a short moment, a sinister laughter rang out, "Call me Bloodmoon."
"Bloodmoon?" Su Yu smiled, "Sure. And?"
"Great Mountain."
The third beast finally spoke. But that was the only thing he said.
One-eye ignored the other two and said, "We have an agreement with Hong Tan to help you once regardless of how dangerous it is. We have not agreed to serve you for three years. Kid, you're too ambitious. As a mere Mental Tempering Stage cultivator, you want us to serve you for three years? Stop dreaming.
"We will only help you once. It doesn't matter who the enemies are. We will do our best to protect you. Then, you need to send us back to the Allheaven Battlefield. That was Hong Tan's promise."
Su Yu laughed, "Once? Let me think about it. Can you tell me about your cultivation? You better not be first or second-stage Mountainseas. That would be too useless."
One-eye sneered and said, "I'm a sixth-stage Mountainsea, but my strength have dropped considerably. I now have the combat strength of a fourth-stage Mountainsea."
Great Mountain: "Fifth-stage Mountainsea."
Bloodmoon: "Fourth-stage Mountainsea."
Su Yu nodded. None of them was weak. He said, "Is this your previous or current strength?"
"Current."
In that case, these were all fifth or sixth-stage Mountainseas originally. They had merely weakened after being locked up for so many years. His grandteacher sure was ferocious. He had actually captured a bunch of Mountainseas. These three were probably the only ones that were still alive. There were likely to be a lot more that had died over the years.
"I understand. When the three of you work together, can you handle a seventh-stage Mountainsea?"
One-eye sneered and said, "If we try our best, we can naturally do so. But in that situation, we might not be able to spare any attention to your safety."
"That works." Su Yu said, "You are all experts, so none of you are stupid. I won't say anything unnecessary. If I die, you can forget about leaving the Human Realm. It is understandable that you won't be happy after so many years of imprisonment. But be sure to not create trouble for me. Do you need anything? Source qi liquid or something like that? If you need anything, let me know and I'll send them over. You can try to recover some of your strength."
But none of them said anything. It would seem like they did not require anything from him.
The Mountainsea Realm was a powerful realm. Even in the entirety of the Human Realm, cultivators at this level were considered elites. These were the top experts of the various academies. In fact, even the kings of some of the smaller races were only at the Mountainsea Realm.
For people at this level, the source qi liquid was no longer important. It wasn't like Su Yu could provide them much. They had only weakened because too much of their blood essence had been extracted. They needed more than source qi liquid to recover their strength.
"Forget it, then..."
Su Yu said nothing else and activated the key to shut the holes in front of the cells.
...
Before long, he walked out of the corridor.
Six pairs of eyes were focused on him. Wait, no, seven pairs of eyes were looking at him.
There was a new addition in the room. A small furball could be seen locked up in a small cage. The little furball kept trying to charge toward Su Yu, but each time the furball touched the bars of the cage, electrical currents would lash out, causing the little fellow to wail in frustration.
When the suanni heard the wails, he asked curiously, "Su Yu, what race is this? I've never seen them before. This fellow doesn't even know the common language."
This newcomer didn't even know the common language. Thus, the others couldn't even communicate with him if they wanted. Also, this newcomer didn't look too impressive in terms of strength.
Su Yu smiled, "Soul devourer race. They specialize in eating brains. Be careful lest you get your brain eaten."
The suanni did not seem to believe those words.
Su Yu wasted no time and said, "All of you know what I want. None of you are as valuable as those Mountainseas. As Skysoar and Cloudbreach cultivators, you are not qualified to talk terms like those Mountainseas. I will make my offer. Take it or leave it.
"I can release you, but you need to serve me for five years. I do not need someone who will pretend to serve me. If you are planning to do that, you better not agree or I assure you that you will die. Think it over. This is probably your final chance to leave this place."
After feeding these creatures with a few drops of source qi liquid, he turned to leave. While walking away, he said, "I will be focusing on my breakthrough into the Infinite Strength Realm. It won't take long. And at that realm, even regular Skysoars won't be my match anymore. Thus, if you're a Cloudbreach, you might still have some leniency. But if you're a Skysoar, you dont need to think about it anymore if you still don't have an answer for me at that time."
The fire crow hurriedly said, "Lord Su, I agree..."
Su Yu turned around and smiled, "You have a good attitude, fire crow. But you're too weak. Fine, the next time I come, I'll release you."
The fire crow didn't know if he should rejoice or not. This was so sad. He had offered his surrender long ago. This kid was the one who had ignored him. So it was because he was too weak? Fortunately, Su Yu had finally given a clear answer. The fire crow would be released during his next visit.
"Thank you, Lord Su."
Seeing that, the white civet also hurriedly said, "I am also willing to swear my loyalty to you, Lord!"
Su Yu smiled, "You're a crafty one. I don't need your sworn loyalty. I only need your obedience. I'll consider your offer."
Then, he left and shut the door behind him. The creatures sank into silence.
After a while, the shadow sighed, "Five years of service...is better than dying here."
Clearly, he had reached a decision as well. He no longer had the strength to keep waiting in the cage.
And Su Yu's growth was too fast. It had only been a few months yet he had already grown to a level where he could ignore Skysoars. If this continued, it wouldn't be long before he started disregarding those at the Cloudbreach Realm as well.
...
Second floor, filter room.
Su Yu tossed the matter out of his mind.
His present priority was his own growth. Just because he wasn't entering the Skysoar Realm, it didn't mean that his strength would stagnate. He still had a lot of room for growth. His body was still at the Great Strength Realm. He still had a lot of apertures to open. He was still far from being unrivaled beneath the Skysoar Realm.
He had opened 302 acupoints in total. During the past few days, he had opened some new acupoints. Ignoring all his other acupoints, he activated only the acupoints of the Sky Sundering Saber. All 144 of them shone brightly. With 16 of them, he formed a small cycle.
If he wanted to enter the Infinite Strength Realm, he needed to fuse the 16 acupoints into 1. That was the peak of what he could achieve with the Sky Sundering Saber.
He made his first attempt. Two acupoints were slowly brought together. This wasn't easy at all. The two acupoints were moving very slowly. With the Pure Source Art, he constantly purified his source qi. The purer his source qi was, the easier acupoint fusion would be.
As for the acupoints for the third level of the Time technique, Su Yu was in no rush to open them. He could always open them at the Infinite Strength Realm even though the difficulty would increase.
But after about half an hour, the two acupoints had only moved slightly closer together. They were still very far from fusion. Su Yu was not discouraged. He continued working on them.
With powerful willpower and plentiful source qi, he was able to keep working on it for a much longer period of time despite the higher difficulty of acupoint fusion.
One hour. Two hours...
After five hours, the two acupoints were finally brought together.
As the two started fusing, a powerful repelling force erupted, stopping the fusion from happening.
Su Yu's willpower erupted, followed by his source qi. The repelling force emitted by both acupoints were forcefully suppressed. But as he forced the fusion, the repelling force only grew stronger and stronger. This was why acupoint fusion had always been known as a difficult task.
While working on his acupoints, Su Yu was deep in thought.
"The repelling force during acupoint fusion is very strong. Even with a pure source qi, this repelling force will still exist. Are there any cultivation methods out there that are capable of removing this repelling force?"
This was what he was thinking about. All sorts of cultivation methods and techniques could be found in the Myriad Realms. He was wondering if there was something out there that could allow one to temporarily fuse one's acupoints for a burst of strength. He seemed to remember hearing about it before.
And if something like that really existed, did it not mean that this method could also be used to remove the repelling force? What was the price for using this method?