Chapter 544: Cold Night (1)
Of the single character faction challengers, two had left and one had died, leaving three of them standing there, not knowing what to do. Under the dark night, Su Yu had an even wider smile on his face.
It was people he was killing, but it was their hearts he was crushing. What was the point of killing only a few individuals? The single character faction did not lack people. Instead, he wanted to show Great Xia the true nature of this so-called powerful faction.
"Parasites." Su Yu coldly said, "If I'm remembering things correctly, the Sun, Li, Yu, Ma, Fang, and Zhou families have their own Skysoars as well. Where are their Skysoars? It doesn't even matter if they are warriors or cultural researchers. Where are they? Why are they sending nobodies here to die?"
Su Yu's voice spread everywhere, "Where are the family members of those elders? Are they pissing themselves in fear somewhere?"
"A bunch of garbage. You enjoy the best food, wear the best clothing, receive the largest portion of the academy's resources, and monopolize a large portion of Great Xia's resources. You have not done anything productive to society yet you enjoy this first-rate treatment. Where are you when it's time for you to fight? What a joke."
Su Yu pointed at one of the Skysoars and sneered, "So are you fighting next? Do you want to die? Are you fighting for humanity? Are you fighting for Great Xia? Or are you fighting for Sun Xiang and his cronies? Where did the resources you have enjoyed come from? Were they the ones who had fought for your resources?"
"Don't misunderstand them. Their resources belong only to themselves and their family members. Your resources came from the military, from Great Xia, from the Knowledge Seeking Realm, from the War Shrine. Are you not even aware of that, you pieces of trash? Have they ever shared any of their resources with you? Have you ever received anything from them?"
Someone from the crowd shouted, "Su Yu, do not mislead the public with lies!"
Su Yu looked over and sneered, "I know you. You're someone from the Li Family. A fifth or sixth-stage Skysoar. It doesn't matter. Get in the ring. Let me teach you what it means to speak with your ability."
The Li Family member was furious. This was too arrogant.
Brandishing his saber, Su Yu roared, "Get in the ring! Is the single character faction only capable of sending these idiots to die in the ring? Why don't you send a direct descendent of one of their elders? Where are the direct descendants? Are all of them dead? How about this? I'll be accepting the challenges from all descendants of elders at the sixth-stage Skysoar Realm and below! Who among you dare to face me?"
After those words were said, one of the three challengers finally lost his mind and said, "Yes, there are a lot of them! The drawing was a farce! They fixed it! They forced us to come here and die, but I don't want to die!"
"Why?" That person roared madly, "Why is none of the descendants of elders fighting? Why are we the only ones fighting? Why must we be the ones to sacrifice for everyone? Are we not humans as well? We receive the least amount of resources and support, but we need to do the most. Why?"
That person was breaking down mentally. He knew that it was already over for him regardless of whether he fought or not. But he couldn't accept this.
After hearing Su Yu's words, he was starting to lose his mind. He pointed at the Li Family member and scolded, "Li Feng, why don't you get into the ring? Go! You're a sixth-stage Skysoar! Fight him! Why are you sending early Skysaors like us to our deaths while you stand aside and do nothing? You're a fake genius! Screw you!"
That person had been driven completely mad. Death. The price of stepping into the ring was death. And the price of not stepping into the ring was a life of suppression. He couldn't accept this.
He roared, "Where are the grandchildren and great grandchildren of the elders? Why is none of them fighting? Aren't they the ones who have received the biggest portion of the faction's resources? They are allowed to enter all the grottos. They are the ones to receive all the good stuff. They are the ones to claim the merit for every good thing done. And they are the ones to reap all the rewards. Why must we be the ones to die instead of them?"
Li Feng was infuriated at being challenged. He said, "Damn you, Liu Jie! You're destroying the unity of the faction!"
"Fuck you!" Liu Jie cursed, "Get into the ring and prove me wrong, then! If you have the balls to enter the ring, I will accept this! If you go, I'll go as well. I'll gladly die alongside you. Let's go! Why aren't you moving? Damn you! Why aren't you going? Why are we the only ones being told to throw our lives away?"
Li Feng's expression changed repeatedly. He was a sixth-stage Skysoar. He was absolutely not weak. But he didn't have the confidence to face Su Yu. He couldn't muster any confidence before Su Yu.
From what he had seen, Su Yu's offensive prowess was near the level of a fifth-stage Skysoar. But up until now, Su Yu had yet to use his willpower and characters. So how strong was Su Yu, exactly?
He had no answer.
"Hahaha...trash! You're the real trash here!"
After roaring with laughter, Liu Jie took down a token pinned on his shirt and threw it on the ground. Stepping on it, he said, "I quit! At worst, I'll join the army. Try suppressing me in the military, assholes. You want me to sacrifice myself for the sake of your glory and honor? Just by killing Su Yu, you can gain honor and glory? Piss off! A bunch of assholes who is treating me as cannon fodder. You're cheating even when drawing lots. Screw you!"
He was furious. He was tired of this. He was annoyed. He didn't know exactly if the draw had been rigged, but this was what he felt. Why else would all the elders' descendants be so lucky to not draw the lot to fight otherwise?
How had all of them avoided drawing the lot to fight? There were picking 6 individuals out of 36 to fight. Why were all those people so lucky?
Of course, there was also the fact that very few descendants of elders were stuck at early Skysoar Realm. But at this point, that no longer mattered. He needed to give himself and everyone else a reason for his choice. It wasn't that he was afraid of death. Instead, the single character faction was simply unfair.
Liu Jie started leaving. While walking away, he said, "I'm joining the military. Both the Devil Subduing Army and the Martial Dragon Guards are better choices than staying here. Hu Fang, are you guys staying? Are you going to stay and die? Either you enter the ring or accept the fate of being subjected to endless suppression."
He was persuading the other two to leave. So were they leaving? If they left together, with three Skysoars, they would still have some bargaining power. If he left this place alone, it would be far too easy for the single character faction to focus their ire on him alone.
Of course, prior to this, two other Skysoars had left. He had to link up with them. The expressions of the remaining Skysoars changed repeatedly. They said nothing, but they still turned around and left. Even if they had to sacrifice themselves, this was most certainly not how they wanted to die.
Run!
They could no longer stay in the academy. The single character faction might not dare to kill in the academy, but they could easily suppress these defectors. If these Skysoars wanted to continue growing, they had to leave the academy.
All the Skysoars left.
Li Feng, the member of the Li Family, stood there with an ugly expression. There were also a few Cloudbreach cultivators from the single character faction in the area, but none of them said anything.
As Skysoars, these people were all decently connected. Regardless of whether it was the dead Wang Zhen or the others, they had all the people these Cloudbreach cultivators knew. With Wang Zhen dead, were they supposed to force the others to pointlessly throw their lives away?
They were already unhappy with the fact that the descendants of the elders were able to avoid fighting Su Yu. So it turned out that for the elders, anyone outside of their families could be sacrificed without a second thought? The sentiment of the regular single character faction members was starting to change.
Su Yu sneered with contempt. He had expected this. The internal strife of the single character faction was so strong that he didn't believe that these people would be willing to die for the faction.
For these regular members, death was not their only option. Those Skysoars could choose a different option. Why should they enter the ring and die? This was a match to the death. Participation must be voluntary.
...
All around them, the students started whispering to each other.
"Why did the single character faction turn into something like this?"
"What an embarrassment to our academy."
"This is more than an embarrassment. Even at a time like this, the elders are still cheating and sending those not aligned with them to die. Why bother with the draw? If they really want to repair their reputation, each of the elders only needs to send a descendant. Each elder can send out a Skysoar. If their Skysoars end up dead, just shut up. If not, Su Yu would be dead. None of this would have happened."
"Pfft. Those people are the descendants of Mountainseas. They are very important. Their lives are more expensive than people like us. How can they die so easily?"
"Hehe, you're right. It's as Su Yu said. They live in luxury and enjoy the best resources the academy has to offer. If I were in their position, I would not want to die fighting Su Yu as well. It's not worth it..."
"Yeah. We need to understand them. They are the descendants of Mountainseas, after all."
"Hehe, they seem to be even more important than those from the Xia Family. Even the Xia Family would often lose their members to their enemies. Even the previous prefect had perished on the battlefield."
"These people aren't worthy of being compared against the Xia Family."
"True."
"..."
Sounds of discussion rang out repeatedly. They weren't loud, but there were a lot of them. When the single character faction members in the crowd heard them, they paled. Where were the descendants of the elders? What was Li Feng doing? He was a sixth-stage Skysoar. Since Su Yu had challenged him, why wasn't he in the ring? Get into the ring, damn it! Had they lost all their courage to something like this?
...
In the ring.
Su Yu felt comfortable, happy, and free.
Of course, he also knew that a lot of trouble awaited him after this. But it did not matter. If he couldn't vent his anger before leaving, he would need to carry his indignation to his new place. This was not something he wanted to tolerate.
He scanned the crowd and noted that he would probably not get any other challengers. Wang Zhen's death had completely crushed the courage of these people. He had been able to kill Wang Zhen way too easily.
If Su Yu had deliberately made his victory seem harder, more people might be willing to fight him. That would allow him to kill a few more single character faction members, but that was pointless. This wasn't his goal. Look at the reaction of Liu Jie and the others. That was what he wanted: to crush their morale.
To not take responsibility for their cowardice, they started finding excuses and shifting all blame to those elders. This was a lot more interesting than killing them. Having outsiders talk badly about them was incomparable to having their fellow faction members talk badly about them.
Su Yu maintained the same refined and gentle smile on his face, looking as genial and easy-going as ever, but a lot of hearts chilled at the sight of him. They all realized just how ruthless this person could be.
The single character faction shouldn't have provoked this fellow. Look at how helpless they were toward him. Today, Su Yu had allowed Skysoars to fight him. After today, the Skysoars would no longer be able to lay their hands on him. And below the Skysoar Realm, even including everyone in Great Xia or the Human Realm, how many people could be a match for him?
This was a stage for Su Yu alone. Nobody else could share the stage with him.
This was Great Xia's anniversary day, but it was also a day of humiliation for the single character faction. From today onward, the people of Great Xia would be reminded of the humiliation inflicted upon the single character faction on every future anniversary day. This would probably not change even after Su Yu's death.
There were no new challengers.
Dong!
A loud sound came from the capital's clock tower, indicating that the day had ended. The anniversary day had ended. Su Yu smiled. He slowly walked off the ring without saying anything else.
He was leaving. His clothes were still in perfect condition. The Water Transformation ability had not damaged his clothes. Today, he had killed two of their members and broken their spine. The single character faction could remain on their knees from now onward. They were unworthy of standing on their feet.