Chapter 55: Nearing the Limit (1)
Liu Wenyan quickly finished writing the fifth move before stopping and letting out a long breath.
Sensing the principal's gaze, a composed expression appeared on his face as he muttered to himself, "Wow, after getting into the flow, writing this feels much easier than before."
The principal did not know much about willpower texts. That was something from the world of cultural researchers. It wasn't something he had many chances to learn about. In fact, most of what he knew about cultural researchers came from Liu Wenyan.
Upon hearing those words, his expression changed as he looked at Liu Wenyan with excitement. When Liu Wenyan saw the gaze, he blanked out. Why was the principal so excited?
"So...you can write more?"
Liu Wenyan's heart thumped nervously.
"Old Liu!" The principal rushed over and softly said, "So you can keep writing? My heavens. So it's this simple? A single willpower text written by a Skysoar cultural researcher can be sold to a rich merchant for at least three hundred merit points! They will be more than willing to buy some for the juniors in their family!
"And by writing a hundred willpower texts, you can clear your debt! At that time, wouldn't you be able to return to the academy?
"Of course, you will need to take the cost of writing into consideration, but you won't spend more than a hundred merit points for that. Including the cost, you'll only need to write a hundred fifty willpower texts to repay your debt!"
The principal was getting excited. Liu Wenyan was dumbstruck. He...was only bluffing! This fellow seemed to have taken his words seriously. Not to mention one willpower text, just writing four moves was enough to utterly drain him of his energy. Willpower texts weren't that simple to write.
Firstly, he needed to be a cultural researcher with a deep understanding of the Lightning Source Blade. But cultural researchers generally did not have a lot of time to study things like martial techniques.
Secondly, the willpower exhaustion was too great while willpower recovery was too hard. It was much slower than source qi recovery. Three hundred merit points? He could probably write only one every few months. If he had to write everyday, he wouldn't be able to do it no matter what.
He was still capable of writing about three or four willpower texts at the level of the Source Opening Codex per year. But if he had to do the same for something at the Lightning Source Blade's level, it would exceed his capability. He would no longer have any energy to spare for cultivation or doing other stuff.
"Old Wang..." While cursing inwardly, Liu Wenyan smiled and softly said, "Don't talk drivel! Us cultural researchers have our own rules. There are things we can't easily leak to outsiders! We have to prevent the myriad race spies from getting hold of our trump cards!
"Sure, the Myriad Race Cult probably has copies of martial techniques like the Lightning Source Blade. But apart from their own cultural researchers, the cultural researchers of the various prefectures are strictly prohibited from leaking the willpower texts to outsiders.
"Even the leaked willpower texts would not be freshly written ones. These would be the ones that had been kept for so long they were as good as mundane texts. Those texts are not too useful and are not worth much."
Liu Wenyan smiled and said, "Don't ever mention this again lest the higher ups hear about it and start making trouble for you."
The principal froze slightly before saying with a regretful tone, "I see. Yeah, I should have guessed so. If merit points can be earned so easily, cultural researchers would have no lack of merit points. Why would Bai Feng need to steal a fourth-stage Skysoar from us otherwise?"
That was merely a sudden idea he had thought of after seeing how easily Liu Wenyan had been able to complete the text. But now, he realized that there were restrictions in place. He felt enlightened.
Liu Wenyan heaved a breath of relief. Yes, there were definitely some restrictions in place, but they weren't restricted from selling to the rich. However, that wasn't something he could do. In fact, even someone in the Cloudbreach Realm or the Mountainsea Realm would not be able to write a hundred willpower texts a year.
Even if they could, they wouldn't. They also needed to cultivate and work on other projects. Excessively exhausting their willpower will result in the lack of willpower to nourish their own Divine Characters. Who could they blame if some trouble appeared in their cultivation because of that?
Liu Wenyan decided to ignore the principal and turned his head to look at Su Yu.
Su Yu was still struggling with the Divine Character. His attention was no longer on the blade technique. Rather, it was on the Divine Character he was capturing. Liu Wenyan had a look of expectation on his face, but he also felt troubled.
"With a weak willpower, even nourishing one Divine Character will be difficult. And now, he's capturing his second...Sigh. If this continues, his willpower growth will be dragged down by his Divine Characters."
Liu Wenyan was both happy and worried about Su Yu. It was not a good thing to have too many Divine Characters. Of course, not having a single character was even worse.
How was Su Yu supposed to nurture them if he had too many of them? He had limited willpower, but he couldn't afford to stop nourishing his Divine Characters as they would simply dissipate away without nourishment. But nourishing them would exhaust him faster than he could recover, eventually causing a collapse of his cultivation.
"His willpower is now nineteen percent full. He's reaching twenty percent. Since his character 'blood' can be nourished with blood, he should have enough willpower to nourish two Divine Characters.
"However, he definitely can't form a third Divine Character before the Mental Tempering Stage."
Liu Wenyan was troubled. At times, geniuses could be very troublesome as well. Su Yu's speed of Divine Character formation was too fast. He could easily go over his limit and kill himself from the backlash. Or he could get stuck at the same cultivation level without much progress for decades. That was basically the same as destroying his own future.
"All of you may leave." Liu Wenyan said. His face turned solemn as he said, "Do not spread the Lightning Source Blade to outsiders. Every profound-grade martial technique is not something that can be taught to outsiders. Even a mundane copy of a martial technique of this level can be priced at no less than a hundred merit points in the cultural research and war academies."
Previously, the principal had been focusing too much on the value of the willpower text. He had neglected the value of the martial technique itself. Thus, the reminder hit the principal hard as well.
He hastily said, "Yes! You definitely can't teach this to outsiders! Most of the martial techniques in the war academies are mundane copies. Willpower texts are extremely rare. Leaking a profound-grade martial technique will bring you great trouble."
One did not necessarily need a willpower text to learn a martial technique. One would only cultivate slower when using mundane copies as one had to rely on themselves to comprehend the technique. Willpower texts had the special function of having a top expert explaining the technique with great clarity, deepening one's comprehension of the technique.
At the thought of that, the principal looked at Liu Wenyan worriedly. That old fellow had been talking so much about willpower texts that the principal had forgotten that even the mundane copy was very important.
In fact, that wasn't a martial technique of their school. It was something Liu Wenyan had contributed out of his own pocket. Would he be fine leaking the technique to these students?
However, Liu Wenyan was not as worried. Seeing that the students were starting to get nervous, he smiled and said, "You are free to cultivate the technique yourself since I've personally taught you the technique. But outsiders, including your family, can't learn it.
"The human race does not encourage one to reap a harvest without sowing. To gain something, one must pay the relative price. Only parasites will try to gain something without paying anything. Consider this Lightning Source Blade my graduation gift to you all. Even if you can't master it today, it doesn't matter. You have a long path ahead of you. Take your time with it."
"Thank you, Instructor Liu."
The students promptly thanked their instructor. Although they hadn't been able to see much of the willpower text, they had all been shown a mundane copy of the technique.
"Alright. Go back and take a good rest. It doesn't matter if you didn't manage to see anything as this is your first time. With experience, you will be able to gain more in the future. The academy does not lack cultural researchers capable of writing willpower texts. You only need to work hard to learn what you want there."
"Thank you, instructor."
They thanked again before leaving joyously. Many of them turned around to look at the trembling Su Yu before leaving. They were curious. How many moves did Su Yu manage to see?
They weren't really surprised that Su Yu was able to learn more than them. After all, he had been following Liu Wenyan around for private lessons. There was nothing they could do except feeling envious.