Chapter 526: Ruckus (1)
Su Yu stood there and gazed at the departing marquis.
A strong thought rose in his mind.
He still needed a bigger fist.
Marquis Xia's words had crushed some of his delusions.
The current human race was in an era of separate governance, with the various super experts ruling their own lands. Unity was only present at the front line for the sake of contending against the myriad races. But there was no supreme expert capable of suppressing everyone above these warlords.
Like the other Invincibles, Great Xia King was one of these warlords. The traitor Invincible was also one of these warlords. The fifth principal was already dead. Even if they could find out who that traitor was, the other warlords might only pay some lip service, show some anger, and suppress the traitor somewhat, but they might not be willing to kill the traitor.
The so-called War Shrine and Knowledge Seeking Realm were akin to a conference of warlords meant to present a united front against the enemies of humanity. But these two were not meant to meddle with the internal situation within the Human Realm. The various prefectures were ruled by their own respective governments.
"I was too optimistic."
Su Yu sighed. In truth, both his grandteacher and Teacher Liu had long realized all that. They wouldn't have opted to stay silent for so many years otherwise. It was unlikely that anything would be done by relying on others. In Great Xia, they could only try to gain the support of Great Xia King. Because the multiple character faction had a deep involvement with Great Xia King.
Back then, many people believed that the advancement of the fifth principle was something that would benefit only Great Xia and none of the other warlords. Sure, they would be happy to see him succeed, but most didn't care if he failed.
"A realm ruled by various warlords."
This was the current situation of the Human Realm. He stopped thinking about the so-called ancient ruins. Something like that was still too far away from him. If that was what the others believed, so be it. His top priority was his own cultivation.
With the acupoint fusion method, fusing acupoints would be much easier for him. It was time for him to enter the Infinite Strength Realm. As for his acupoints, he would open as many as he could, but he wouldn't delay his advancement just to open more.
...
Time passed, but news of the Double Wu Acupoint Fusion Art had yet to be spread. It was likely that the Xia Family had some other considerations.
Su Yu did not mind. With the acupoint fusion method, he had successfully gained a certain level of status within Great Xia. And that was what he wanted.
This fusion method would help him with his own cultivation and increase the level of his importance in the eyes of some people. An untalented individual would not receive any attention. Only a genius capable of creating value was worth being viewed with importance.
Cultivation level alone was not enough to create value. Even if he was a Skysoar or a Cloudbreach, that still wouldn't be enough strength to catch Great Xia's eye.
But his acupoint fusion method and the additional foundation cultural arts that he might create in the future served as the perfect chips for him to bargain with. With these chips, he would receive the protection and assistance he required.
On the 18th of November, Su Yu officially entered seclusion.
He entered a grotto for his seclusion.
The Source Qi Secret Grotto was a better place for acupoint fusion and source qi absoprtion.
...
While Su Yu was in seclusion, Great Xia started stirring.
Marquis Xia was finally getting to work.
And the name Double Wu Acupoint Fusion Art started spreading throughout Great Xia.
...
Academy.
Dao Preaching District.
A researcher was in the middle of a lecture. He was speaking about a certain topic. The more he spoke, the more excited he became. "When it comes to the advancement from the Great Strength Realm into the Infinite Strength Realm, everyone knows that the biggest hurdle is the fusion of acupoints.
"The more of a genius one is, the more powerful one's cultivation method is. But acupoint fusion would also be much harder. All of you know about the repelling force between acupoints. The experts and sages of humanity have been exploring and researching this topic for generations. How can we reduce this repelling force?"
The researcher increased the volume of his voice in excitement, "Let me give a simple example. A student cultivating the regular version of the War God Art needs to fuse eight acupoints into one to achieve perfect fusion. Those with the earth-grade version of the same art need to fuse twelve acupoints for perfect fusion. Under regular circumstances, how long would that take?"
The researcher pointed at one of the students and said, "If you advance after fusing eight acupoints, how long would you take to reach first-stage Infinite Strength Realm from ninth-stage Great Strength Realm?"
The student thought about it and answered, "At least three months."
"Exactly. At least three months." The researcher smiled, "And how long would you take to reach ninth-stage Infinite Strength Realm? If your speed remains constant, you will take 27 months. But in reality, you would take longer. Generally, a high-tier student would take around three years to do so."
"That's a genius high-tier student. And you need three years as a genius cultivating a 72-acupoint art. Don't talk about those fusing only two or three acupoints. That's pointless. As cultural researchers, we would take more time as we also need to cultivate our willpower."
A lot of the students nodded. That was true. Their physical cultivation was slower as they needed to split their focus for their willpower cultivation. The perfect example would be the top 100 students. They needed more than three years for their advancement.
A lot of them were still stuck at the Great Strength Realm. It wasn't that they couldn't reach the Infinite Strength Realm, but they lacked the time. The cultivation of willpower and Divine Characters took a lot of their time.
The researcher said, "But now, someone has produced a cultivation method capable of assisting with acupoint fusion. This cultivation method will allow you to save a third of the time you would otherwise take. If you originally require three years, with this cultivation method, you only need two years."
The students started whispering among themselves. Shortly after, one of them asked, "Teacher, is this reliable? It's not like there are no acupoint fusion methods available in the market. But most of them aren't too efficient. And you need to open more acupoints to cultivate them. This would waste even more time."
"Yes, it's reliable." The researcher said, "Because this cultivation method is being disseminated by the Xia Family. And the creator of this cultivation method is not a stranger to any of you. This cultivation method comes from a research center of our very own academy, the Source Soul Research Center."
The researcher's voice was loud, "All of you are aware of how high Marquis Xia's standards are. After this cultivation method was produced, Marquis Xia had paid 300,000 merit points to buy all the rights for this cultivation method. 300,000 merit points! Would Marquis Xia pay that kind of money for something unreliable?"
300,000 merit points!
Boom!
All the students were stunned.
That was a crazy figure.
It was only an auxiliary cultivation method. If it wasn't really good, who would spend 300,000 merit points to buy it? That was especially true for someone as stingy as the marquis. It was truly unbelievable that someone had actually made Marquis Xia pay 300,000 merit points.
"Teacher, is this true?"
"Source Soul Research Center...isn't that Su Yu's new research center?"
"Heavens, they made so much money from this cultivation method?"
"..."
All the students were shocked.
Sounds of discussion grew louder and louder. Selling one cultivation method for 300,000 merit points. That was something they would never have imagined happening. Just how long had Su Yu's research center been established?
The researcher raised his hand, but he wasn't able to calm the students. He raised his voice and said, "Of course I'm telling the truth. The Great Xia War Academy, Martial Dragon War Aacdemy, Marine War Academy, Windcatcher Academy, and so on are already trying to obtain this cultivation method. I heard that like the War God Art, there are two versions to this cultivation method: the genius and regular versions.
"The regular version requires only 18 acupoints. Some of them overlap with the War God Art acupoints. For most people, they only need to open about seven or eight additional acupoints. You can save at least a year's worth of time with this cultivation method."
The researcher's voice grew louder, "If you're fast, you can probably open seven or eight acupoints in a month. Even if you're slow, you can probably complete it in three months. This would save a year or two for you. With more acupoints, your foundation would also be stronger..."
At this point, the students could barely control their excitement anymore.
Someone loudly asked, "Teacher, what about the genius version?"
"That requires 30 acupoints. It can suppress two-thirds of the repelling force. But that doesn't mean that you will only save two-thirds of the time. After all other factors come into play, you might be able to cut your initial advancement period from three years to one year."
Boom!
The students were incomparably excited. As cultivators, saving a few years of time during their prime was an inconceivable concept. Even more inconceivable was the fact that something like this had been produced by the Source Soul Research Center.
They had sold the cultivation method for 300,000 merit points. It was truly too surprising even if that was a purchase of all the rights.
At this moment, someone thought of something and exclaimed, "Shit! Wouldn't the number of Infinite Strength students in the war academies increase sharply with this? In that case..."
That reminded everyone of the war academies.
This was a cultural research academy, so the people here weren't that crazy about physical cultivation. Even so, they were already wild with joy. One could only imagine the kind of commotion this would create in the war academies.
The students there had probably gone crazy. That was especially true for the geniuses there. Acupoint fusion was too difficult.
For this cultivation method, they only needed to open a few additional acupoints. Even the genius version only required 30 acupoints. Many of these acupoints might already overlap with their existing acupoints.
Thus, they would probably need to open about a dozen new acupoints. For a genius warrior, that would only take them three months. In exchange, they would be able to reach ninth-stage Infinite Strength Realm at least two years earlier.
The researcher did not seem to care about that. He smiled and said, "With this result, Su Yu is applying to be promoted to a full researcher during the year end evaluation. The young nowadays are truly getting more and more talented. I believe it is very likely that he would get the promotion. Once promoted, he would become an official researcher.
"People like Wu Jia, Wu Lan, and Hu Qiusheng are also applying to be promoted into assistant researchers due to their roles in producing this cultivation method. Our academy will welcome a new batch of researchers before long."
Those words caused yet another sensation among the students. Researcher and assistant researchers. Those people had only been in that research center for a few days! That was too scary!
Someone couldn't resist asking, "Teacher, was this cultivation method really created by the Source Soul Research Center? Just how long has it been since they started their research center?"
The researcher smiled, "Yes, I'm certain about that. That was why I called them geniuses. In one week, they gathered thousands of cultivation manuals and checked over ten thousand books on various topics. Previously, I didn't take a research center staffed by students seriously. But reality proves that we can never underestimate anyone.
"This cultivation method has been officially named the Double Wu Acupoint Fusion Art. This is Su Yu's way of honoring the contributions of Wu Jia and Wu Lan during the research. Those two were the ones who had discovered the key information that had allowed for a breakthrough in research.
"I'm saying all this so that all of you will learn from them. In a cultural research academy, we should never forget who we are. We are cultural researchers. We are explorers. We are not brutes.
"No matter how strong the warriors in the war academies are, they can't forget that their powerful cultivation methods originate from us.
The researcher loudly said, "Remember this, we are cultural researchers. For cultural researchers, strength is not everything. Yes, strength is important, but don't forget the essence of what we are. We are seekers of knowledge.
"I hope everyone here won't forget why they are here. I believe that every single student of this academy had entered the academy with the intention of analyzing the various cultures and civilizations, exploring the true nature of life, pursuing the power of culture, and preserving the fire of civilization.
"I am very happy to see that a group of students that has not forgotten why they are here has appeared. I am happy to see that the true essence of cultural researchers remains.
"In my opinion, our academy is currently in a state of impatience. It isn't wrong to pursue strength. But everyone has something they are good at. If you are not good at combat, move to other pursuits instead of stubbornly doing the same thing. That was not the intention behind the founding of this academy."
"..."
One could say that this researcher was actually one of the pedantic scholar types. He was very unhappy with the current state of the academy where everyone pursued strength. It was understandable that geniuses would pursue strength.
But a lot of people were less talented in combat and better in research. Some students had entered the academy with over 100 languages, but after entering, they switched their focus to cultivation instead. As a result, they were unable to gain much from their hard work after abandoning what they were good at.
Thus, this researcher had given Su Yu and his research center such high praise for one reason: to bring the academy back to the correct path! He wanted to show everyone what they should be doing.
300,000 merit points. Was that enough incentive?
Leaving their names in the annals of history. Was that enough incentive?
Strength was not the only way for one to earn respect and admiration.
...
The news spread all over the academy.
The students of the war academies were a lot more excited to hear this.
Some of the genius students had already obtained the second version and had entered seclusion to cultivate it.
It was time for them to open more acupoints.
Then, they would be able to cultivate this method at the side before entering the Infinite Strength Realm.
Even those who were already at the Infinite Strength Realm could cultivate this method. This included those who had not fused the maximum number of acupoints before their advancement. These people had started cultivating this method as well.
In fact, there were even some Skysoar and Cloudbreach cultivators cultivating this method. Everyone was busy fusing the acupoints they weren't able to fuse before this. They were trying to reduce the obstacles they would face at the Mountainsea Realm.
Of course, Marquis Xia was no philanthropist. He was charging an arm and a leg for this cultivation method. The regular version would be sold at 20 merit points. The genius version would be sold at 50 merit points. And these were merely regular copies, not willpower texts. The price would be much higher for the willpower texts.
Unfortunately, there were no cultural researchers familiar enough with this cultivation method around yet. Thus, the willpower texts of this method would not be available for now. It was quite shocking that a regular copy was being sold at such a high price.
Of course, this thing would only cost this much in the beginning. As time passed, prices would drop. The current high price was mostly due to the impatience of some people to cultivate it. This was something that could be sold in mass numbers.
The common version wasn't exactly something everyone could cultivate, but with only 18 acupoints, anyone talented enough to enter an academy would have the talent to cultivate it. They only needed to open a few extra acupoints.
And there were hundreds of thousands of students across all the war academies. If all of them wanted to cultivate this method, Marquis Xia would be able to earn millions from selling to these people. And this only applied to Great Xia. There were other prefectures in the Human Realm.
Of course, this was a long-term business. Thus, a large amount of manpower would also be required. The various academies would also take a cut as intermediaries, so the Xia Family would not receive the full profit. But it was still apparent to everyone that Marquis Xia was going to earn a lot from this.
In a short period, the Marquis had earned much more than the 300,000 merit points he had supposedly used to purchase this cultivation method.