Chapter 533: Test (1)
Su Yu had tossed the matter of the foreign students to the back of his mind.
He didn't care if they were scheming against him. He didn't care if anyone else was scheming against him. He would simply kill any enemy he could. As for the ones he still couldn't kill, he would kill them in the future. This was what he had learned from Wan Tiansheng!
At the entrance of the research center, he saw Zhang Hao.
A smile appeared on Zhang Hao's face for a split second before vanishing. He handed a merit card to Su Yu and said, "This is for what happened."
Su Yu said, "Do you want to go inside?"
"It's fine."
He then turned and left.
Su Yu laughed. Since Zhang Hao was still maintaining the act, so be it. In truth, this was really no big deal. But it also wasn't a bad thing that Zhang Hao was still pretending to be hostile toward him. Perhaps some people would try to recruit Zhang Hao as a result of this.
He walked into the research center while checking the merit card. After connecting it to his own card and checking the balance, he was overjoyed.
10,000 merit points.
The Zhang Family had probably rounded the number for him. For eliminating 5 enemy Skysoars, he was eligible for a reward of 1,200 merit points. The Zhang Family had also promised a reward of 5,000 merit points. Was it possible that they had obtained 3,800 merit points from raiding the 5 Skysoars?
Probably. If that was the case, the 5 Skysoars were really quite rich. On average, each of them would have a savings of around 800 merit points.
...
Su Yu stepped through the door.
Xia Huyou was still there. He was busy playing a card game with Zheng Yunhui.
Su Yu was completely speechless.
Wasn't the prefecture's anniversary tomorrow? As the son of the prefect, why was this fellow so free? There was also Zheng Yunhui. Why were these fellows so free?
"Why are you guys still playing your card game here?"
Zheng Yunhui smiled, "We're taking a break. Work-life balance is very important, you know. There's nothing for us to do anyway. We're still so far away from your source soul acupoint..."
After completing the acupoint fusion method, Su Yu had not given them any new assignments. Thus, these people were quite free.
Naturally, Wu Lan and Wu Jia were very busy. Ever since they had received Su Yu's praise and had the acupoint fusion method named after them, they had been busy gathering and organizing any information about the myriad races they could find.
Su Yu had requested that they assign every single cultivation method into a relevant category. This was a massive undertaking, so those two had a lot of work to do, unlike the others.
Su Yu found himself somewhat speechless. He decided to move on from the topic and asked, "Fatty, how much did I owe you?"
"It's not much. Don't worry about it. We're family."
Su Yu rolled his eyes, "I'm paying you back. Are you trying to make me pay you with the 36-acupoint version of the fusion method instead?"
"..."
Xia Huyou laughed dryly. Yeah, that was his plan.
How smart!
He was learning from Zheng Yunhui, who had not mentioned the money owed to him even once. That fellow was waiting. Su Yu had promised to pay him back in three months. And it had been a month. After two more months, he would be able to get the Pure Source Art for free.
"Wow, you're amazing. You found some money to repay your debt?"
Xia Huyou was feeling quite sorrowful. He really didn't want to collect this debt. At the very least, he didn't want to collect it in the form of money.
He enjoyed having Su Yu owe him money. Just look at what happened the previous time Su Yu owed him money. The Xia Family had obtained the acupoint fusion method because of a debt. The Zheng Family was going to get the Pure Source Art soon. Even the Soul Devouring Art had been obtained by the Xia Family thanks to a debt.
Thus, all these people were very willing to have Su Yu owe them money. Things would be much harder for them if he no longer owed them money.
"So?"
“9,000 merit points."
Su Yu said nothing and tossed his newly received merit card over and said, "As for the remaining 1,000 merit points, pay Wu Lan before paying Hu Qiusheng the rest."
"There is really no need for this..."
Meanwhile, Zheng Yunhui was overjoyed. So Su Yu still didn't have the money to repay him. Good!
Su Yu ignored their reaction and thought about something before saying, "Out of the 5,000 merit points Xia Yuwen gave us, 3,000 had been spent on Zhou Hao. We have around 2,000 remaining. Fatty, buy me some blood essence with that money. I'll give you a list later."
He had opened a lot of new pages before this, but he did not have the blood essence to test all those abilities and cultivation methods. There were about 90 of them. With 2,000 merit points, if he was willing to buy the lower-tiered blood essence, he would be able to gather all the blood essence he required.
He couldn't be bothered to save up his money. Money was meant to be spent. Just look at how casually he was spending tens of thousands of merit points like nothing. He was a lot more generous than even some Mountainseas.
"Also, since the Xia Family has started disseminating the acupoint fusion method, I am eligible for one merit point per person taught as per our agreement. Don't forget my share."
Xia Huyou hurriedly said, "Of course. But generally, we will be making our payment once per year. If you need money, I can lend you some. I'll just take the money from your cut at the end of the year."
"Sure."
At this time, Jiang Mu, who had been staying silent, asked, "Su Yu, have you entered the Infinite Strength Realm?"
"I'm now a fourth-stage Infinite Strength cultivator."
They all looked at each other. That sure was fast. It had happened in the blink of an eye.
"How about you, Xia Huyou?"
"I..." Xia Huyou laughed dryly. "I've just reached the Infinite Strength Realm."
Su Yu did not believe a word of that. Bullshit!
This fellow was already on the verge of completing his first stage of fusion a while ago. But he had probably slowed down somewhat to open the acupoints required for the fusion method. In that case, he might have really reached the Infinite Strength Realm not long ago.
Whatever. In any case, Xia Huyou would still be able to reach the ninth-stage Infinite Strength Realm in a short amount of time.
Su Yu wasn't too bothered about their cultivation. Instead, he asked, "It's the prefecture's anniversary tomorrow. Is Great Xia King returning?"
"I think so."
Xia Huyou said, "I wonder if Great Grandpa would return with some treasures this time. During the 300th anniversary, he returned after chopping a chunk of space out of the Golden Peng Realm. That chunk of space had been converted into a new grotto of the academy. I wonder if he would do something like this again."
Su Yu recalled hearing about that before. When he thought about it, he remembered that Liu Wenyan was the person who had told him about it.
No wonder the story sounded familiar. Great Xia King had once chopped an entire chunk of space out of the Golden Peng Realm just to get them a new grotto. What a ferocious individual.
With that reminder, Su Yu also grew excited.
For the 350th anniversary, Great Xia King would probably return with something good as well, right? Su Yu wouldn't get anything, but he did not mind. He would be happy with just getting to look at the treasure and broaden his horizons.
While they were chatting, Hu Qiusheng came down from upstairs. He looked as scholarly as ever, but a trace of helplessness could be seen on his face. When he saw Su Yu, he smiled and said, "Su Yu, give me a separate lab. Those two...are complaining that I'm getting in their way."
Sigh.
An elegant genius like him was actually being looked down on by those two.
When Su Yu heard that, he was somewhat speechless. He nodded and said, "Sure. There are a few rooms on the second floor. Just pick an empty room for yourself. We still have plenty of room."
"Thanks."
After some thought, Hu Qiusheng said, "Su Yu, we are still cultural researchers. You are going to focus on the source soul acupoint next, but I don't think it's going to be easy. I believe our immediate goal after this should be an aperture fusion method instead."
Hu Qiusheng solemnly said, "Since you can come up with something like the acupoint fusion method, it might also be possible for you to come up with an aperture fusion method as well.
"Sure, that would only be useful for those at the Mountainsea Realm and above, but I suggest that we start working on it now. It would be too late to start when we're all Mountainseas."
The eyes of the others lit up upon hearing that.
Xia Huyou stopped his card game and stood up before saying, "Su Yu, I agree! We can only rely on you for the source soul acupoint, but I think we can work together for the aperture fusion method instead. Maybe you can use the same method you used to produce the acupoint fusion method to make an aperture fusion method as well."
Su Yu thought about it for a while and said, "Aperture opening is a lot harder. Even if we manage to produce an aperture fusion method, if it requires 36 apertures, very few people would be able to even cultivate it..."
Of course, that wouldn't be an issue for him.
That was something that couldn't be spread widely. Then again, Su Yu didn't really care if it could be spread widely or not.
Thus, he nodded, "Sure. Let's start with the preparatory works. We're in no rush, but there are too few aperture fusion methods out there for our reference. The difficulty would probably be higher."
The human race had quite a lot of acupoint fusion methods available. Thus, he had been able to use those methods as references while making his own. But aperture fusion methods were much rarer.
"Let's try."
The others were getting excited. This was related to the actual path they were walking. It wasn't that physical cultivation wasn't good, but these people were all cultural researchers, including Zheng Yunhui who was known as a brute by the people in the academy. Even someone like that wished to do better in his willpower cultivation.
With stronger willpower cultivation, at the very least, his characters would be stronger. For example, that healing character of his could be pushed to the second or even the third tier. At that point, he would probably obtain the ability to regrow his body from a drop of blood earlier than he was supposed to. That was basically the same as gaining additional lives.
Thus, they were overjoyed when Su Yu agreed. They had developed a high level of confidence in Su Yu when it came to research.
Suddenly, a voice came from upstairs, "I am going to be the leader of this project's Breakthrough Team as well!"
"..."
Su Yu smiled, "We're still at the preparatory stage so there is no Breakthrough Team yet. For now, we will be gathering materials and information. For example, we need the blood essence of races proficient at willpower cultivation. And we need time to gather all that. These materials are a lot harder to gather. We need to take this slow."
He was in no rush. After all, he would only start fusing apertures at the Mountainsea Realm. And he was still very far away from that realm.
After dealing with Wu Lan, Su Yu beckoned at Xia Huyou, "Fatty..."
"Are you going to stop with that!"
Xia Huyou was furious. He had ignored Su Yu a few times, but Su Yu continued calling him fatty.
"Cough, cough. Huyou, let's have a chat."
"That's more like it."
Feeling much better, Xia Huyou followed Su Yu into a nearby room with a smile.