Chapter 542: Breaking Your Backbone (2)
Standing in the ring, Su Yu said nothing else.
He shut his eyes and started cultivating. He was fusing his acupoints.
At the same time, he was keeping his fire character active to help with his cultivation. As he sank into a meditative state, a certain aura simmered within his body while his acupoints shone like stars.
Inside his sea of willpower, he was slowly separating his character technique into eight character techniques.
Nobody saw that.
The only thing everyone saw was his overbearingness and his strength.
One man and one saber.
Clad in a snow-white outfit.
Waiting in a ring for fights to the death. But nobody dared to step into the ring with him.
The anniversary day had transformed into a day of mockery.
Elder Sun and the others eventually regained their calm. One after another, they left. Some of them looked at Su Yu like he was already dead before leaving. They had decided to kill him the moment he stepped out of the academy.
They would not spare him. The matter today would spread all over Great Xia or even the Human Realm before long. They had to kill Su Yu. A mere Mental Tempering Stage student had suppressed the entire single character faction. That was a disgrace.
...
The news spread everywhere.
Great Xia War Academy.
The students there had also heard of what happened.
"Breaking news!"
"Great Xia Cultural Research Academy's Su Yu fought the number one student, Di Feng, in a fight to the death. With three slashes, he killed Di Feng. Now, he is challenging all early Skysoars in the cultural research academy, but nobody dared to step into the ring."
"A fifth-stage Skysoar of the single character faction was so scared that he didn't even have the courage to enter the ring. This is too shocking."
"..."
The entire Great Xia War Academy was shocked.
Someone asked, "Su Yu? The creator of the acupoint fusion method?"
"Yeah. He's also the creator of the Soul Devouring Art."
"This fellow...is a new student, right?"
"Yeah. This is his first year in the academy."
"..."
With the news spreading everywhere, Su Yu's name which was previously only known in the Great Xia Cultural Research Academy was now known throughout the capital.
Madman Su Yu.
Freak Su Yu.
On the anniversary of Great Xia's founding, he had slain Di Feng, the number one student of the cultural research academy.
He had also challenged everyone for a fight to the death. Not one person dared to face him in battle. Was that really a new student? That was too terrifying.
From this, some people were able to unearth some truths. Not long ago, a third-stage Skysoar and a fifth-stage Skysoar from the cult were killed. These people were starting to claim that instead of the Xia Family, those cultists had actually been killed by Su Yu himself.
Su Yu, who was below the Skysoar Realm, had slain two Skysoars. No, Di Feng was the third Skysoar he had killed. Di Feng had broken through during their match.
Su Yu had allowed the number one student to break through in the ring before killing him. A Mental Tempering Stage student had killed a Skysoar.
Some of the older people in the capital couldn't help but think of a different name, the name of an individual who had similarly shocked the entire capital back then: Liu Wenyan!
That was also someone who had killed Skysoars as a Mental Tempering Stage student.
"Multiple character faction..."
Numerous people were once again reminded of this faction. They couldn't help but admit that this was a faction of freaks. No wonder that the single character faction had failed to fully suppress that faction even after so many years.
...
Martial Dragon War Academy, Nine Heavens Cultural Research Academy, Daoseeking Cultural Research Academy...
Everyone was talking about the same incident.
The news continued spreading everywhere.
Su Yu of Great Xia.
On that day, that name spread in all directions.
...
Time passed slowly.
There were no fights, but the crowd had only swelled. Looking at the youth in the ring, the people there were feeling slightly excited. But most of them didn't even know what they were feeling.
If one asked them what they felt when they looked at that youth, they wouldn't know what to say. They couldn't find the word that could express what they were feeling. They only knew that a certain emotion was trying to erupt from the depths of their hearts. They wanted to vent that emotion, but they didn't know what to do or say.
What kind of an emotion was that? Nobody knew. The sky slowly turned dark. It was finally the time to start the Top Hundred Banquet. But nobody was in the mood to eat.
At that moment, someone new arrived.
Xia Family.
It was Marquis Xia. Great Xia King wasn't there. Xia Longwu wasn't there. Only Marquis Xia was there.
The crowd parted for him. Marquis Xia gazed at Su Yu silently. After a long while, he finally spoke.
"Let this end here. I can give you my personal protection in Great Xia."
Su Yu stood up and bowed as he said, "Thank you, Marquis. I won't get off the ring before 12. This is my gift to Great Xia for the 350th anniversary of its founding."
The look in Marquis Xia's eyes changed as he nodded, "I understand. But you are lowering yourself too much bickering with garbage all the time."
He patted Xia Huyou's shoulder and said, "Send Su Yu his meal for the banquet. He can eat in the ring."
Xia Huyou was still somewhat confused, so he had a blank look on his face. Despite his confusion, he still took a tray filled with food and drinks from an attendant behind him and entered the ring with it.
Marquis Xia then laughed and announced, "All top 100 students, enter the House of Hundred. Let us start the banquet. This is the anniversary day, after all, so we need to properly celebrate it."
Nobody said anything.
Silence descended.
The others were confused. Were they still going forward with the banquet?
But since Marquis Xia had spoken, nobody dared to contradict him.
The students started entering the building, but while walking, they couldn't resist turning their heads to look at Su Yu again. For some reason, when they looked at Su Yu, who was eating and drinking in the ring, an empty feeling appeared in their hearts.
...
Before long, the banquet started. Since none of the students was in the mood for a banquet, the dishes felt tasteless for them.
Outside the building, in the ring.
After chasing Xia Huyou away, Su Yu started eating silently with his senior sister. Wu Jia did not understand what Su Yu was doing. The only thing she knew was that her junior brother seemed different today.
But she couldn't quite put her finger around it. She was also quite worried. Would her junior brother be fine after killing Di Feng? She overheard some people talking earlier. Her junior brother would be fine in the academy. But nobody knew what would happen the moment he went outside.
Some people were clear about what would happen, but they didn't dare to talk about it openly. This was not a topic they could lightly touch. Some believed that Su Yu was too rash. There was no need to escalate the tension just so that he could kill Di Feng. What was the point?
For a lot of people, there was still a way for Su Yu to salvage his situation if he left Di Feng alive. At worst, he could simply leave the multiple character faction. The single character faction might even agree to take him in since he was such a genius.
Wu Jia didn't understand what he was planning. While eating, she softly asked, "Junior Brother, are you going to stay in the ring?"
"Yeah." Su Yu smiled, "I'll stay until the day ends."
Every second he spent in the ring was every second the single character faction spent in humiliation. He was going to fully insult them. He would step on them to establish his own reputation.
"Are they going to send anyone here?"
"I don't know."
Su Yu smiled. He really didn't know.
Would some people run out of patience and enter the ring? He had no idea. Anyone daring to enter the ring at this point was a truly courageous individual. But he wouldn't hold back against anyone.
Things were very simple. At this point, it was no longer a small quarrel between individuals.
When Su Yu was done eating, he smiled, "Senior Sister, leave the ring. I can stay here alone."
"But..."
"It's fine."
When Wu Jia saw the firm look on Su Yu's face, she said nothing and silently gathered the empty plates before leaving. Only Su Yu was left in the ring.
At this point, the sky had turned completely dark. The atmosphere in the House of Hundred was rather cold.
A new crowd started forming around the ring.
Nobody said anything. They stood there, waiting for something even if they didn't know what they were waiting for. Were they waiting for a challenger from the single character faction? Would anyone have the courage to come?
Time slowly passed. The later it got, the bigger the crowd became. Even some people from outside of the academy had sneaked into the crowd. These people were mostly the students and teachers of the other academies and the members of the powerful families in the capital.
Despite the swelling crowd, nobody said a word. Everyone was waiting silently. They couldn't help but wonder if they would have the courage to enter the ring if they were the members of the single character faction. They couldn't even imagine being put in such a situation.
After an unknown amount of time, someone else arrived. The crowd parted to reveal Liu Hong. The moment he arrived, he said, "Su Yu, you can leave the ring now. You already killed Di Feng. Are you not satisfied with that? Must you insist on killing more Skysoars to prove that you're a genius?"
Su Yu smiled and asked, "Is the single character faction surrendering?"
Liu Hong did not answer. He didn't even want to be here. He was only here because someone had ordered him to come.
"Must you do this?"
Su Yu ignored Liu Hong and shut his eyes, returning to his cultivation. Liu Hong said nothing else and left. It was unlikely that Su Yu would leave the ring. The only way to remove him was to enter the ring and kill him.
While walking away, Liu Hong couldn't help but wonder just what was Su Yu trying to do. This had been escalated to a level higher than that of a regular internal conflict. After this, the single character faction would be forever disgraced unless Su Yu was dead. Why would someone as smart as Su Yu put himself in such a position?
...
A single Mental Tempering Stage student had suppressed an entire faction.
Midnight was near.
At this point, the crowd finally grew restless. Sounds of whispers rang out.
"Does the single character faction really not have even one Skysoar with the courage to enter the ring?"
"That's suicide..."
"You can't be sure, right? You need to fight before you know it for sure. Is there nobody with enough courage? There are almost a hundred of them. And a few dozen of them are at the early stage. Can't they find even one person with the courage to do this?"
"Sigh. What happened to the Character Faculty?"
"..."
Some of them were taking the chance to create more trouble while some were truly disappointed. Even some students and teachers of the single character faction were disappointed to see the sight of this.
Not one person dared to face Su Yu. Not one person had volunteered to fight. Just like that, they allowed Su Yu to insult them for an entire day. This was disgraceful.