Chapter 498: Leaving Openly (1)
After walking out of the Foreign Students Faculty, Su Yu smiled.
The fish had taken the bait.
Dearest friend, be sure to leave the academy with me when you receive the invitation in the future.
"One Mountainsea and one Cloudbreach."
This was Su Yu's judgment after observing the changes of his Perception Jade. There should be two of them. And one was actually a Mountainsea.
The cloud tiger race wasn't strong. He heard that even the leader of the entire race was only a peak Mountainsea. But they had actually dispatched a Mountainsea to protect a princess. This was actually very generous. He had to ask around after this to know more about the cloud tigers.
"Xia Qing, Niu Zhen..."
Su Yu started wondering if he should invite Xia Qing alone or invite more foreign students with him? But he also needed to be careful lest he invite more people than he could handle. Or he could simply solicit the help of the beasts in his grandteacher's prison.
Mountainsea beasts!
But based on their previous talk, those fellows intended to leave after helping him once. He would naturally not agree to that. If they would only move once, he wouldn't use them against these foreign students, as that would be a waste.
He tossed the matter out of his mind for now. He would slowly reel Xia Qing in before planning his next move.
...
Source Soul Research Center.
It was late at night.
The research center had transformed completely. Instead of the empty and desolate building it was before, it was now filled with furniture and decorations. Couches, television, tea table, dining table...anything one could think of could be found there.
Initially, they didn't have enough furniture to decorate the whole research center when Wu Lan was the only one who had moved her stuff over. But subsequently, Wu Jia ran to the books depository and nearly emptied Chen Yong's residence before the research center was transformed into such a comfortable and warm place.
Food and drink were served on the dining table.
Su Yu stood up, raised his glass of wine, and said, "I am only a Mental Tempering Stage student. I thought that nobody would believe in my research. With how impoverished I am, I thought that nobody would be willing to work alongside me. But so many friends have actually supported me. I will not waste your time with a pointless speech. Thank you, everyone. It is true that only during hardships will you see who your true friends are."
Hu Qiusheng and the others raised their glasses as well. Xia Huyou smiled and said, "This is a good occasion. Also, since this is a research center started by Su Yu, I am optimistic about the future of this research center."
"May your words come true." Su Yu smiled, "I also hope that everyone can work hard together and produce some results as early as possible."
He looked at everyone and said, "The source soul acupoint is a very important research topic. And the acupoint is only a general direction of our research. To determine if this acupoint exists, we still need to overcome numerous difficulties."
"We are all cultivators. This dinner will be our opening feast. And after the feast, it is time for us to work hard." Su Yu smiled, "I will be looking forward to our celebratory feast. And I hope the celebratory feast won't be too far in the future. Alright, I'll stop wasting your time. Jiang Mu, Hu Qiusheng, Xia Huyou, Wu Jia, Zheng Yunhui, and me. There are seven of us. None of us is a Skysoar. Even Jiang Mu, the strongest among us, is only an eighth-stage Infinite Strength cultivator. I would like to stress that our cultivation is still very important despite our focus on research."
The others nodded.
Su Yu smiled, "Therefore, I will give everyone a little problem to solve. Our first project is to derive an auxiliary cultivation method that can assist with acupoint fusion. Consider this our opening act."
"..."
They all stared at him with stupefaction.
Holy shit!
Stop messing around!
He called that a little problem?
With a stunned expression, Xia Huyou asked, "You mean we should first derive a cultivation method that can help with acupoint fusion? A method that can reduce or remove the repelling force between acupoints?"
"Yeah."
"Su Yu..." Xia Huyou had a worried expression as he said, "Don't mess around. This is something even those big shots are researching. Simply put, this is a subject that is as difficult as the discovery of the source soul acupoint. And you're calling it our opening act?"
"Those big shots are amazing in terms of strength. But cultivation level has nothing to do with research." Su Yu calmly said, "My teacher is a research genius. I am a research genius as well. I'll be honest. The ability blood essence production method the multiple character faction has researched for many years is much more important than you know. The extraction of racial abilities, as you all know, is a part of our research."
The others nodded. They were aware of that.
With a flat tone, Su Yu said, "How idiotic. Since we are capable of extracting racial abilities, we can definitely derive the cultivation methods of those races. Even the Soul Devouring Art had been derived through the ability we extracted from blood essence."
Su Yu's body started shining, making him look like a sage.
Like a preacher, he said, "Right now, all of you are in charge of gathering any information you can related to acupoint fusion. I need a lot of information and cultivation methods for the research.
"I also need a batch of blood essence from different races for ability extraction. I might also need to extract some memories for these cultivation methods.
"The source soul acupoint will definitely be able to help a lot of people. But it might not be too helpful for us. But the acupoint fusion method will help us once created! In fact, it will remain helpful to us even at the Mountainsea Realm!"
Su Yu looked at the others and solemnly said, "I am confident that we can accomplish this. How about you guys? If you don't have the confidence, forget it. You can still withdraw now. I will return all the money you spent when joining.
"Including Teacher Zhao, the eight of us are the founders of the Source Soul Research Center. I hereby announce that all of you will be allowed unrestricted access to any good thing we manage to produce. Of course, you will still be required to keep what you know to yourself. If you can't agree to this, you may leave now."
Xia Huyou nodded, "That is reasonable. No researcher can accept having their hard work leaked. If something like that were allowed, all research centers would have shut down long ago. Research centers also need to make some profit."
That was normal. Nobody would release their research results for free unless it was research that had been sponsored by the government or some other parties.
Hu Qiusheng said, "Su Yu, are you sure this is our first project? In all honesty, the Human Realm has risen to power for many years. And a lot of people have attempted something similar before. Some have even managed to make some progress, but nobody has ever succeeded in coming up with a conclusive plan to solve the issue of acupoint fusion. If this is such a simple issue to solve, Infinite Strength cultivators wouldn't be so rare today."
Su Yu raised his hand and said, "Don't question it. In our research center, we are allowed to voice our opinions. But you are only allowed to voice your opinions while in the middle of a project. Do not question anything when we are deciding on a project. You can simply opt not to take part in that particular project if you disagree with it."
Su Yu looked at the group and said, "Anyone not interested in this project can exclude themselves and focus on a different project instead."
Wu Lan snorted, "Of course I'm joining. If you're incapable, you should shut up and stop trying to demoralize the others."
"..."
Hu Qiusheng was speechless. He really had to admire Su Yu for somehow managing to recruit this fellow. Just look at how spirited she was. Looking at her expression, he was sure that if anyone tried telling her she couldn't participate in this project now, she would fall out with that person.
Su Yu smiled, "If none of you wish to withdraw, this will officially be our next project. Xia Huyou will be in charge of providing the blood essence we need. Wu Lan, you're in charge of compiling and checking the various sources of information for what we need. Hu Qiusheng, you are in charge of the various relevant cultivation methods. It doesn't matter if those are human or myriad race cultivation methods.
"Jiang Mu, you are in charge of gathering some travelogs and memoirs. Some information might be excluded from the official records, but you can find this information in travelogs and memoirs."
"How about me?" Wu Jia asked.
Su Yu smiled, "Senior Sister, you will have to assist Wu Lan. Her task might be too heavy for one person to do."
Wu Jia seemed somewhat unwilling, but since this was her junior brother's request, she ultimately agreed. Wu Lan was overjoyed. Sure enough, she was the team leader here. Even Wu Jia needed to listen to her now.
Zheng Yunhui asked bashfully, "How about me?"
"You..." Su Yu smiled, "You have an easy job. Go pick fights. That's your favorite thing to do, right?"
"Pick fights?"
"Yeah."
"Pick fights with the single character faction?"
"No." Su Yu said, "Can you create some trouble for the foreign students in the top 100? Don't let them have an easy time. Sway public opinion and make things hard for them. That is very easy to do in Great Xia. Stroke everyone's hatred against them to the point that they would celebrate the deaths of those fellows."
"..."
Zheng Yunhui and the others blanked out. What was the point of that?
Su Yu smiled, "Why are you looking at me? Are you not good at this? In my opinion, you're exceptionally good at this. Don't look at me like this. You're doing this for the research center. The foreign students are troubling the leader of this research center. That is the same as troubling the research center. It will delay the progress of our research."
But the others continued staring at him. Wu Lan had an odd expression on her face as she wondered what Su Yu was trying to do.
Su Yu couldn't be bothered to explain more. He checked the time and said, "Get working. From today onward, you will work day and night. The faster we can produce this acupoint fusion method, the better it is. All of us will benefit from it."
The others looked at each other in dismay. This was their first day here, yet they already needed to start slaving away. How miserable.
Su Yu ignored their expressions. When they were done collecting and compiling all the information, it would be his turn to start experimenting one by one.
He casually tossed out a copy of the Pure Source Art and said, "All of you can consider cultivating this in your free time. Also, if we fail to produce a result in three months, the rights to this art will go to the Zheng Family. As the creator of this art, I naturally retain full rights to this art even after the Zheng Family obtains the rights for it. Zheng Yunhui, do you agree?"
Zheng Yunhui was overjoyed. He hurriedly answered, "Of course I agree."
That was a precious treasure. If the Zheng Family could get it, they would earn more than ten or twenty thousand merit points. Instead, they could generate wealth that would last generations with it.
Su Yu was completely unbothered. The Pure Source Art was merely a basic cultivation method. He had plenty of such cultivation methods. And it would also be good for it to be spread around. That way, he wouldn't look too conspicuous anymore as the sole cultivator of this method.
When Su Yu stood up to leave, Xia Huyou hurriedly asked, "Where are you going?"
They were all going to work. What about Su Yu?
"I'm busy. There is something I need to handle. Just do your job. Why are you questioning your leader?"
Since everyone was part of the same group now, he was no longer as polite when speaking to them. They should stop asking questions they shouldn't ask! They should learn to respect their leader!
Xia Huyou was feeling very gloomy. He was the prefect's son, not this fellow's son. This bastard was really treating him like a mere employee now.
...
After Su Yu left, Wu Lan spoke up in excitement, "Come on! Let's start working! We need to break through our first difficulty!"
"..."
The others were speechless. This fellow was so vigorous even when she was working for free. They couldn't help but admire Su Yu. After all, he had successfully found himself a group of free workers who needed to pay him instead of the other way around.
...
Su Yu was not idle when the others were working. He was conversing with someone through the voice transmission talisman.
"Zongji, have you found a mission to the Myriad Race Pit?"
"Yeah. But this is a bad mission." Hu Zongji replied, "A few days later, a researcher from the Pillmaking Faculty will be leading a group to the Myriad Race Pit. There, they will be extracting some death qi to refine some poisonous pills. The reward is not too attractive. You can only get three merit points for joining. For that much money, you will be required to look for corpses with dense death qi..."
"I thought we're not supposed to research human bodies?"
"He's not researching human bodies. He's only extracting death qi. That is allowed."
"I see..." Su Yu said, "Register my name for the mission...wait, scratch that. Wait for now."
Wouldn't his name be too attention-grabbing? But he had to go personally. Not everyone could extract blood essence from corpses, and even fewer people could extract memory fragments from blood essence. And that was something he had to do on the spot.
There would be checkpoints along the way, so he would not be able to bring anything forbidden out of the Myriad Race Pit. He tapped on his thigh as he sank into thought. There was no avoiding going there personally.
If he stayed low key, he might be able to hide his true goal there. But it would be better if he could find a good excuse to join the mission. If he joined the mission for a meager reward of three merit points, even a fool would know that he had a different goal.
"But apart from corpses, there is nothing in the Myriad Race Pit..."
After thinking about it, Su Yu headed toward the Missions Department. It wasn't feasible to accept this mission. Maybe he could issue a mission and lead his own team there instead.