Chapter 512: Double Wu Acupoint Fusion Art (1)
Great Xia Cultural Research Academy.
Not long after Su Yu's return, news of the attack on him started spreading among the more well-informed students.
Source Soul Research Center.
The people there were also well-connected. Jiang Mu frowned and said, "These cultists are getting more and more gutsy."
"We don't even know if they really are cultists." Su Yu smiled and placated them, "It's fine. Look at me. I'm perfectly uninjured."
Wu Jia was furious, "Junior Brother, we need to tell Teacher and Grandteacher and get them to do something about it. Are we going to let those bastards target you all the time?"
"I'm fine." Su Yu said, "I didn't even notice what happened. All I heard was a crack. By the time I looked over, Xia Huyou's guard had already defeated them."
He sighed and added, "Xia Huyou keeps claiming that he's from a branch family. I honestly can't believe that. He even has a Mountainsea acting as his guard."
Hu Qiusheng had an odd look in his eyes. Was Su Yu really not aware of Xia Huyou's identity? That fellow was definitely not from a branch family. Yet Su Yu was treating that fatty like the fatty was his own grandson. Thus, Hu Qiusheng really wasn't sure if Su Yu knew about Xia Huyou's identity or not. He had yet to receive any news about what had happened during the attack.
After a while, he said, "Just be careful for now. Try to not leave the academy unless absolutely necessary."
"I know." Su Yu smiled, "I'm not planning to go out anymore. By the way, since all of you are here, let's stop talking about this boring topic. I need your help with something."
"There is a plant with three blue leaves..."
"Three blue leaves? Are you talking about the skystar flower?"
Su Yu blanked out. How was she even aware of something like this?
When he looked at Wu Lan in astonishment, her face turned smug as she said, "Why are you looking at me like this? I saw this plant before. It has three blue leaves. Upon reaching maturity, a skystar flower will bloom on it. It's very pretty."
"Do you have a picture of it?"
"I'll try to look for it. I think you can find it in the plant encyclopedia."
Wu Lan ran upstairs. Shortly after, she returned with a massive book. She handed the book to Su Yu and said, "There are 12 volumes of the plant encyclopedia. I've only read a few of them. Take a look. Is this the plant you're looking for?"
Su Yu flipped through the pages before stopping at the page introducing the skystar flower.
The plant in the picture was exactly the same as what he saw in the memory fragment.
But when he checked the location where these flowers could be found, he frowned. The scope was still too large. These flowers could be found in eight prefectures.
They could be found in Great Xia as well, but they could also be found in the nearby prefectures. Great Ming, Great Shang, Great Xia...
Nevertheless, Su Yu was still certain that the hidden treasure would not be too far away from Great Xia as these flowers did not exist in the prefectures that were too far away.
That had narrowed down his search.
He wasted no time and said, "I'm also looking for a tree with watermelon-like fruits on it. These fruits are massive and there are stripes on it..."
After finishing his description, Wu Lan raised her hand like an eager student and hurriedly said, "I know, I know! It's the nine-striped fruit! There are nine stripes on each fruit, right?"
"..."
Looking at the smug expression on Wu Lan's face, Su Yu blanked out.
Amazing. This lass was fighting to answer his question. Did she misunderstand that this was a test or something?
He asked, "Where can these fruit trees be found?"
"Great Ming, Great Xia, and Great Shang."
"Incredible!"
Su Yu praised her.
He then described yet another plant, "There is another tree. This isn't a fruit tree..."
Before he could finish, Wu Lan asked, "Is there any reward for getting all the answers right?"
"..."
Did she think that this was a game?
Su Yu was speechless. But he still flashed a smile and said, "Yes. I will keep asking. The one to get five questions right will be given the opening method of one aperture."
"..."
Everyone looked at him with stupefaction. He calmly said, "This is your employment benefits. Don't look at me like this. As a new research center, we lack money, but we're not poor. To encourage the staff of this research center, I have decided to hold some quizzes every now and then. And those capable of getting the answers right will naturally be rewarded."
Unlike everyone else, Wu Lan exclaimed in excitement, "You're using apertures as the reward? Those are the apertures we can open with our current cultivation level, right?"
"Yeah."
"What are you waiting for? Ask away!"
"..."
Meanwhile, Hu Qiusheng and the others were getting totally speechless. Was she not curious about the origin of that aperture opening method instead? Uhm...yeah, she seemed to lack any curiosity about that. But at this point, even Zheng Yunhui, Hu Qiusheng, and Jiang Mu were paying full attention to Su Yu's question.
Holy shit!
He should have told them earlier about the reward! They would be a lot more enthusiastic in answering him if they had known about it!
With a smile, Su Yu continued, "A fruitless tree that is very tall. It's about seven to eight meters tall with lotus-like leaves..."
"There are three plants matching your description!"
Hu Qiusheng hurriedly answered. But before he could finish, Wu Lan screeched, "I know the answer! Lotus sandal, orchid maple, or cloudleaf wood! Which is it? Are there spots on the trunk?"
"No..." Su Yu answered with a blank expression.
Wu Lan followed up with another question, "Are the leaves blue?"
"No..."
Wu Lan hurriedly said, "Then it's the lotus sandal tree! It can be found in Great Zhou, Great Ming, and Great Shang!"
"..."
Su Yu blinked and looked at Hu Qiusheng, who nodded helplessly. He knew the answer as well, but Wu Lan had not given him the opportunity to answer.
Su Yu asked, "What is the place with all three of these plants?"
"Great Ming."
Wu Lan continued answering before anyone could answer, "I even know a specific place that is not far from Great Xia. In fact, it's not far from your Nanyuan! It's a place called...Starfall Mountain!"
Wu Lan looked incomparably smug as she said, "This is my fourth correct answer. Continue!"
Su Yu had nothing to say.
Holy shit!
He was only casually asking to try his luck. Was he really going to find the place just like this? And that place was the Starfall Mountain!
"Wu Lan, how do you know all that?"
With a proud and happy expression, Wu Lan tried and failed to look humble as she said, "It's nothing special. I love reading about things like flowers and other plants. I always spend my free time reading about these. It's much more interesting than reading about beasts."
In other words, she was telling him to not ask her about beasts. She would not be able to answer anything.
"Is Starfall Mountain big?"
"Very." Wu Lan asked, "Does this count? Do you need to know the actual size of the mountain? I need to look around if you want to know the exact size..."
She was about to run off for an answer when Jiang Mu smiled and said, "The Starfall Mountain has a main peak and six minor peaks. You can reach it after traveling about 350 kilometers south of Nanyuan. That's actually a border region of two prefectures. It has a rough and mountainous terrain. With some wild beasts living there, that's a rather dangerous place. There are also bandits and even some cultists hiding there..."
Wu Lan looked grief-stricken. That was supposed to be her question! That fellow had snatched her question! Su Yu's heart thumped. Cultists? Was it the Divine Skywing Sect? Was it possible that this sect had been based near Great Xia in the first place?
That actually made a lot of sense. After all, the entire sect had participated in the attack against Great Xia. There were so many of them. For their movement to remain undetected, their base of operations was probably not too far from Great Xia.
The Starfall Mountain was a region that was not under the jurisdiction of any prefectures.
Su Yu was quite surprised that he was able to locate the place so quickly.
Incredible.
This research center of his was actually filled with geniuses. Oh, there were two exceptions: Zheng Yunhui who was staring at them blankly, and Wu Jia who looked completely confused. Those two had not been able to get a single word in. How pitiful.
Su Yu asked, "What's the biggest danger there? And what's the danger level?"
At this point, Hu Qiusheng looked at Su Yu in astonishment. He seemed to have realized something. Su Yu was trying to look for a place. And that place was the Starfall Mountain!
Jiang Mu smiled and said, "I'm not too sure, but the danger level there won't surpass the Mountainsea Realm. A Mountainsea level danger is already the highest level of danger classification. Generally, most threats of this level will be eradicated by the various prefectures once discovered."
Su Yu nodded.
Perhaps he could consider taking a trip to this Starfall Mountain.
Seeing that he had stopped asking his questions, Wu Lan gloomily asked, "Are you stopping?"
Quizzes were fun!
And she had only gotten four answers right so far. She still lacked one answer to get her reward.
Su Yu said, "Sure. I'll ask you one more question. One day, you leave on a mission in a team. Someone in the team wants to target you, but they lack the courage to kill you out of fear for your grandaunt. How should you force that person to make a move against you regardless of their fear?"
Wu Lan blinked. That was a very difficult question.
Some of them looked pensive, seemingly having realized something. Nobody said anything.
After a short while, Wu Lan asked, "Is this a treasure hunt or a combat mission?"
"Treasure hunt."
"Produce a great treasure that can tempt all of you. When there are only the two of you, that person will definitely not be able to resist making a move against you..."
But doing so will result in that person getting killed by my backer."
Wu Lan started having a headache. She said, "Make sure your backer is unaware of this mission or make it so that your backer can't touch the killer by providing proof that your death is not that person's proof."
"How should I do that?"
Wu Lan sank into thought again. At this time, Hu Qiusheng said, "As long as there are enough benefits, you don't need to provide any way for that person to deny their participation. They will act so long as there is no one else to witness it. Thus, the benefits offered are the most important. As long as the benefits are attractive enough, killing someone is nothing. As long as there is no witness, who can prove that the other person is the killer?"
Su Yu nodded in agreement. The benefits offered should be large enough.
After thinking about it, Su Yu asked, "What's the most tempting for some people?"
"Well, for the myriad races, the ancient ruins are probably what they want most," Hu Qiusheng answered. "Or something capable of changing the order of the world, such as our source soul acupoint, a method to restore our suppressive force, or..."
He gave a long list of examples.
Su Yu nodded, "What are the consequences if I kill her after that?"
"Watch out for the reprisals of her race, watch out for the anger of the foreign students who might join hands against you out of their shared hatred toward you..."
Hu Qiusheng had a profound smile on his face as he said, "You can take more foreign students with you. Some can be killed while the rest can be roped to your side. It is better to have foreign students serving as your witness than some humans. Just let some of them be the ones to prove that the person who had died deserved it."
"As long as they don't come from the same race, they will have their own agendas. If you can satisfy the benefits of some of them, you will be able to use them to deal with the rest of them. That way you can align the interests of some of them with yours and destroy their unity. It's not that complicated."
Su Yu looked at Hu Qiusheng with a smile. Hu Qiusheng was also looking at him with a smile.
As for Zheng Yunhui, after looking at the two, he looked up at the ceiling.
Was this proper?
These two were openly plotting Xia Qing's death. The only thing that was missing was the mention of Xia Qing's name. Was this really proper?
There were still some girls there.
Weren't they afraid of looking too treacherous in front of these girls?
But when he looked at the two girls...fine. Continue on. The two girls were completely clueless. They were still thinking that Su Yu and Hu Qiusheng were discussing a hypothetical situation.
Before long, Su Yu moved on from the topic and said, "Wu Lan, I will give you a pass. Getting four answers right is actually quite impressive. And you have also provided some thoughts for the final question. You will be given the opening method of one aperture. Keep working hard. If you contribute more to the research center, I won't be stingy with the rewards."
Wu Lan was pleased. She had been rewarded! She felt even more motivated to work harder for the research center.
Su Yu smiled and stopped talking. As for the matter of the attack on him earlier, everyone seemed to have forgotten about it.
They all tacitly agreed to accept the explanation that Xia Huyou had killed the attackers.
...
The attack on Su Yu could be considered a major incident, but it also couldn't be considered major.
After all, Su Yu had survived the attack without any injury. Instead, the five Skysoars were defeated. Great Xia was in the middle of investigating the incident while the three survivors had been dragged to the Myriad Race Pit before being executed. Exposed cultists couldn't even be used as bait.
Thus, Great Xia would not keep these cultists around for long and would execute them immediately. Those who had been discovered and not exposed would be kept around as bait to fish out the more important members of the cult.
Su Yu's life returned to normal.
As far as the public knew, the only change was a tiny conflict that had erupted between Su Yu and Zhang Hao.
And the reason for that was the fact that the people who had attacked Su Yu were actually members of a branch family of Zhang Hao's family.
According to the rumors, Zhang Family insisted that those people were merely common criminals who had gotten too greedy instead of cultists. But Su Yu had insisted that they were cultists. That resulted in the death of those people and a punishment to the head of the Zhang Family from his superior.
If the attack was merely a regular robbery, it wouldn't implicate the Zhang Family. But since they were being treated as cultists, it had brought some trouble to the Zhang Family. Even though the family head promptly dealt with them, Su Yu had still complained to Xia Huyou and insisted that those people were cultists.
That was the main reason for the execution of the attackers as cultists.
...
Su Yu allowed the rumors to spread.
He did nothing. All these plotting and scheming were not for the sake of killing someone. His sole goal was to grow stronger. After receiving the blood essence he had asked Xia Huyou to gather, he started consuming the blood essence. More pages were activated and more abilities were tested.
Apart from the cultivation methods of the myriad races, Su Yu was also testing the cultivation methods of the human race. Since he had opened a large number of acupoints, most cultivation methods wouldn't pose much issue for him as his opened acupoints would overlap with their required acupoints.
And if he was a few acupoints short, he could easily open them.
With the Body Strengthening Art, opening new acupoints was not an issue for him.
In the blink of an eye, five days passed.