Chapter 511: Money Is So Easy To Earn (2)
After some calculations, Su Yu realized that he could probably get around 8,000 merit points from this. If he was lucky, he might even get more than 10,000 merit points.
Earning money...seemed to be very easy! He only needed to kill five Skysoars and money would start falling into his lap!
In reality, for many people, this was a feat they wouldn't be able to achieve even after working a lifetime for it. Even an early-stage Cloudbreach cultivator would not dare to guarantee that they would be able to take the five of them down.
And even if such a person did manage to take the five down, they would not receive a gift of 5,000 merit points from Zhang Zhonghe. Su Yu did not mind handing those people to Zhang Zhonghe at all. He was more than happy to exchange them for money.
As for Xia Huyou...he was sure that Xia Huyou was definitely paying close attention to Zhang Zhonghe. Thus, Su Yu was not worried about anything. The Zhang Family wouldn't be able to escape the Xia Family if they decided to try something funny.
As for what Zhang Wu had said after being captured, Su Yu really didn't care. It no longer mattered. The truth would eventually eventually be unveiled now that Zhang Wu was in Zhang Zhonghe's hands.
...
Before long, they reached the main city's gate.
After straightening his clothes, Su Yu strode forward with the earthdragon beast's reins in hand and the beast behind him. Under the dark night, his fluttering white outfit made him look incomparably graceful and elegant.
His white outfit was perfectly clean.
During his fight with the two Skysoars, some blood had splashed onto his white outfit. But he had used the blood character to clean himself. At the moment, he looked nothing like the wild and tyrannical warrior he was earlier.
Beside Su Yu, Zhang Hao had complicated emotions. Cupping his hands together, Zhang Hao said, "Let's separate here. We don't want others to start guessing the relationship between us."
"Take care, Brother Zhang."
Su Yu smiled, "If you're willing, can you help me fan the public opinion in the academy? It has nothing to do with the events today. You must be aware of what the Foreign Students Faculty has been doing recently. Help me fan the hatred of the masses toward the foreign students. Those foreign students should die. They must die. We can't trust anyone except our fellow humans."
"In short, make everyone think that it doesn't matter even if those foreign students die. Make everyone believe that those foreign students have definitely arrived at the Human Realm with ulterior motives."
"But how about Principal Wan's policies?"
Su Yu said, "It's fine. I doubt Principal Wan would care. Those students will be protected within the academy. But outside the academy...who cares?"
Zhang Hao's flickered as he realized something. He nodded and said, "If you're really doing this, you should take along a few of your own people as well. Or you can take along people who appear to be your enemy but are actually your friends. These people can serve as your witness."
"That will be quite dangerous."
"It's fine. If you require my help, I am willing to do it."
Zhang Hao said, "By the way, what happened earlier will be exposed sooner or later. We can try to release some news in advance. You can say that the Martial Dragon Guards were the ones who had dealt with the Zhang Family. Or blame it on someone else. Just insist that the Zhang Family tried to harm you."
"Since that's a branch family of our Zhang Family, it will be normal for the two of us to be enemies."
Su Yu nodded with a smile before waving at Zhang Hao.
The two separated.
There was no doubt that the events of the day would be exposed sooner or later. Just the sharp increase of his total earned merit would invite a lot of suspicion.
"Fatty Xia..."
With a smile, Su Yu muttered, "Fatty Xia was with me. His people defeated the opponents, but I was the one to land the last hit and kill the opponents for the merit points. Would anyone believe this?"
He took out his voice transmission talisman.
After a short while, Xia Huyou was carried over by an old man. While panting heavily, he said, "I was busy! Why did you call me here?"
"Enter the city with me." Su Yu smiled, "As good brothers, we naturally need to enter the city together. We met each other while returning. You even saved me from an attack and gave me a chance to be rewarded with a large sum of merit points. It is only natural that we enter the city together after that."
"..."
Xia Huyou blanked out slightly, but when he realized what was happening, he cursed, "Fuck! Who are you plotting against this time? Your heart is too dark!"
Su Yu laughed, "What are you talking about? I will never plot against a fellow human. I only plot against those I don't consider human. And I don't consider anyone harboring malice toward me human. I am a genius. I am a research genius. My existence will benefit Great XIa. My dearest Prince Xia, I believe you're aware of this. Only by treasuring talent will Great Xia remain standing for a long time to come."
Xia Huyou curled his lips. Those words...were right.
But the issue here was this fellow's tendency to create massive troubles. It was only a matter of time before a mess too big for them to clean up appeared.
Xia Huyou moved on from the topic and asked in astonishment, "You're incredible. Did you do that?"
In truth, Xia Huyou was in the area earlier. But he was not near enough to get a clear look at what happened.
Su Yu...had killed two Skysoars.
The hell?
This fellow was getting a tad bit too scary.
Su Yu said, "You would have been able to do it as well. With so many apertures, what's the big deal with killing some garbage Skysoars?"
"People like us could already be considered ninth-stage Skysoars with sufficient willpower. What's the big deal about killing some garbage warrior with 60 acupoints?"
"..."
Xia Huyou was completely speechless. The mouth of the old man twitched as he flickered and vanished. He decided to stop listening to them. Two Mental Tempering Stage students were claiming that killing Skysoars were easy. Not even a Mountainsea could avoid feeling discouraged after hearing that.
Su Yu didn't mind the old man. Since that person was here with Xia Huyou, he was probably someone directly answering to the Xia Family. This was either a member of the Xia Family or a loyal general under them. When one was in Great Xia, one would not want the Xia Family as their enemy. One would only die a terrible death.
Xia Huyou didn't feel like saying anything else. He hopped onto the earthdragon beast. Su Yu did the same.
The earthdragon beast started running. Before long, they were within the main city. Even at night, the city was still bustling with activity. This main city could actually be considered a city that never sleeps.
Seated atop the earthdragon beast, Su Yu and Xia Huyou were conversing with soft voices.
While chatting, Su Yu did not forget to smear some blood on Xia Huyou's body. Xia Huyou would take the credit for defeating those Skysoars while he would be the one to receive the merit points.
"As for Old Man Zhang Zhonghe, it doesn't matter if he is problematic or not. It is still a good idea to perhaps revise his position for now."
Su Yu smiled, "This is only a suggestion. In any case, the Zhang Family had given our dear Prince Xia a scare. They should receive a punishment, right?"
Xia Huyou grumbled, "Su Yu, you weren't such a big schemer before."
Su Yu smiled, "No. I am only acting in accordance with the circumstances. Also, the academy's environment is not one that a pure-hearted person can survive. You need to either go with the flow or truly learn what survival of the fittest means."
Xia Huyou was left speechless. That was actually true.
In the cultural research academy, one would need to adapt quickly and blend into the existing culture of the academy. Otherwise, one would become an outlier and life would become harder and harder for that person.
One would only be exempted from that if one had a sufficiently strong backer. Otherwise, just go with the flow. The academy was filled with schemers who wouldn't hesitate to plot and scheme for the downfall of their competitors.
Su Yu smiled. He was in a good mood.
He asked, "By the way, have you purchased the blood essence I ordered?"
"I'm still working on it."
"How much would it cost?"
"A few of the blood essence types are quite expensive, especially the celestial dragon blood essence. That is a race comparable to the divines and the devils. They are the kings of the dragon race. To get their blood essence, you need luck. If you're lucky, you can get a drop for a few hundred merit points. If you're unlucky, the blood essence can be as expensive as a drop of divine or devil blood essence."
"What's your estimated total price?"
"Around 2,000 merit points."
That was expensive.
Su Yu was stunned speechless. After a while, he said, "Come on, just make it 1,900 merit points. Including what I owe you from before, I'll owe you a total of 3,000 merit points. I will pay you back when I manage to get some money. Don't worry. I always pay my debts."
Su Yu would definitely repay some of his debt after getting his money. After all, repaying his debt to Xia Huyou would only allow him to borrow even more in the future. As for his debt to Zheng Yunhui...he would have to wait and see. If he really couldn't find some excess money, he would forget about that debt.
The Pure Source Art was enough as a repayment to the Zheng Family. And it was also a good thing to let the Zheng Family be the ones to spread this art. It would be too risky for Su Yu to actually auction the art out himself as that would attract too much attention to him.
While he was thinking about all sorts of things, he suddenly felt the deceit character showing signs of breakthrough.
What?
Holy shit!
What was the meaning of this?
He was only thinking about some stuff when this character wanted to break through out of nowhere.
At the moment, his blood, lightning, and kill characters had reached the second tier. The saber, break, battle, and deceit characters were on the verge of breakthrough. As for the fire character, it was still not showing any signs of advancement.
Before long, Su Yu would be someone with seven second-tier characters.
The deceit character seemed to be catching up with the older characters quickly. In fact, it had already grown a lot after absorbing the intent of the destroyed Sunmoon characters previously. Su Yu had not expected this character to start its advancement after his battle with the Skysoars.
It was unfortunate that the timing made it seem like he had caused the character to advance due to the schemes he was plotting. He was definitely not that type of person. This character was deliberately making him look bad.
...
While Su Yu was on his way back to the academy.
A piece of news started spreading in the capital.
Genius Student Su Yu was attacked outside the main city.
Five Skysoars had attacked. Two were killed on the spot while three were arrested. At present, nobody knew if the attackers were cultists or some other people.
Before long, a second piece of news spread. Those idiots seemed to have attacked when someone from the Xia Family was present. Thus, those people had basically thrown their lives away. How idiotic!
They made the move when there was someone from the Xia Family around? Were they tired of living?
Due to this incident, Xia Huyou, who was relatively unknown before this, gained a little bit of fame. So there was this person called Xia Huyou in the Xia Family? The upper echelons of the city knew that he was Xia Longwu's son, but a lot of people were not even aware of his existence.
...
Great Xia, inside a hidden chamber.
An old man was seated silently. Suddenly, his voice transmission talisman vibrated.
"Those fools. Why did they attack while Xia Huyou was there? Absolute idiots!"
The old man was furious. That was too idiotic. Of course, he also knew that those people couldn't be blamed. Xia Huyou's identity was top secret. Very few people knew about him. And even the few cultists who were aware of it wouldn't speak of it to their subordinates.
As far as those people were concerned, Xia Huyou was just a student. They probably believed that they could just kill Xia Huyou during the job.
Alas, disaster had descended upon them. Trouble was coming. If the Xia Family was angered, this would get very troublesome. The old man had not expected that Su Yu would actually travel alongside Xia Huyou.
"Cease all our operations. Go into hibernation mode. Erase all our connections to Zhang Wu's group. Zhang Zhonghe is investigating this matter to clear his own name. Find a chance to get rid of Zhang Wu's group. Don't give them the chance to speak...wait, scratch that. We shouldn't take this risk. The Xia Family might be waiting for us to make a move. Let them be. Even if they talk, it will be pointless. Pull back and stop all our operations for now."
The old man ordered promptly, but he still felt terrible. They had lost five Skysoars. And these were all agents that had stayed undercover for many years. This was a big loss.
"Increase Su Yu's threat assessment. After this failed attempt, he will be much more careful in the future." They would adjust the threat level and allow only those at the Cloudbreach Realm and above to accept the mission about Su Yu. The reward would also be increased by 5,000 merit points. The Xia Family had probably gotten close to Su Yu due to his talent, but it was also likely that the Xia Family was protecting him because they actually believed that Su Yu might be successful in discovering this source soul acupoint.
One order after another was given by the old man.
Su Yu's threat assessment in the cult was raised.
Su Yu would be on high alert after this. Thus, they would need to be generous and raise the bounty for the kid to 13,000 merit points.
Sure, Su Yu wasn't the person who had defeated the five Skysoars, but the old man had to admit that at the very least, this Su Yu was very lucky.
And luck was also a part of one's ability.
Since even five Skysoars had failed to take Su Yu, it could only mean that this wasn't something Skysoars could do. They should move on and let Cloudbreach cultivators attempt it. As for Mountainseas, these individuals were too conspicuous. They weren't suitable for this mission.
"Su Yu will probably hide in the academy for a long time after this..."
That was the message the old man received.
After a short silence, the old man replied, "That's not necessarily true. Wait and see. There is no rush. The source soul acupoint theory has just been proposed. How can there be a result so quickly? People only look highly on Su Yu because of the number of acupoints he has opened..."
No new messages came. The old man was right. There was no rush.
This research project was simply too difficult. Even if Su Yu was a genius, he could very well stay stuck for a decade or so without making any progress.
After thinking about it, the old man said, "Su Yu's father is in the Devil Subduing Army. What race is the Devil Subduing Army facing recently? Try to contact them and get them to capture his father. This will serve as our backup plan. After all, if Su Yu really manages to produce something out of his research center, Great Xia will instantly take control over him and his research center. At this time, our backup plan will come into play."
"Alright."
After giving that last order, the old man exhaled in relief.
In fact, it would also benefit them if Su Yu was successful in the research. After all, the cultists were also humans. And they would also be able to cultivate that acupoint once discovered.
But they absolutely needed to ensure that the Great Xia wouldn't obtain the research results or Great Xia would turn into an even more troublesome opponent.