Chapter 551: The Easygoing Great Ming (2)
Su Yu continued his casual stroll through the academy. He went near Zhao Li's research center a few times and hesitated about entering before ultimately turning away. He would put aside the visit. Perhaps he could visit right before his departure.
As Teacher Zhao had a bad temper, Su Yu was actually quite scared of telling him about the departure. Teacher Zhao had placed a lot of hope in him and had even permitted him to claim that he was a part of the weaponsmithing faction if needed.
"Forging an earth-grade cultural weapon..."
Su Yu muttered to himself. He would return. And he would help his Teacher Zhao complete that weapon. He was not strong enough to do so now. He had been too busy recently to the point where he didn't even have the chance to strengthen his grasp of the art of weaponsmithing. If he insisted on helping now, he would only make things worse.
...
That day, he walked all over the academy, taking a look at some people and some places.
When night arrived, he set off with the shadow and the water elemental and left the academy under the cover of night.
He had spent the day walking all over the academy. All the single character faction members in the academy would go far away whenever they encountered him. Even those who had been paying attention to him previously had probably lost interest. After all, he had spent the entire day annoying them.
...
Xia Restaurant.
This was a large restaurant in the center of the city. The capital city was a city that never sleeps. Even at night, the streets were still full of people.
This was Su Yu's very first time taking a stroll outside the academy. Yes. This was the very first time he had done something like this. After arriving at the capital, he had only left the academy a handful of times. He had left once during the warzone incident and once for the Myriad Race Pit visit. Apart from that, he had spent all his time in the academy.
Tonight, he was finally able to take in the sight of the flourishing capital city. The city was brightly lit even at night. And pedestrians filled the streets. There were people everywhere.
This was a bustling city, and this was a scene Su Yu never had the chance to enjoy. Alongside the streets were numerous shops. In front of these shops, shopkeepers were loudly advertising their wares. Sounds of laughter and clinking glasses could also be heard from some of these shops.
Numerous private dojos could also be seen. Even among the common populace, there were a lot of cultivators. It was late a night, but sounds of people grunting while training could be heard. This was Great Xia.
Sure, Great Xia was a complicated place, but that mostly applied to the upper echelons. The common folk had mostly remained the same over the years. They were still martial lovers and hot-blooded.
With one clarion call, Great Xia would be able to raise an army of millions. This was the reality. There were retired soldiers everywhere. Su Yu's father was one such example. With one command from Great Xia, all these retired soldiers would gladly pick up their weapons again. This was Great Xia.
Su Yu walked slowly amid the crowd in his green robe, looking completely inconspicuous. Before long, a large restaurant appeared before his eyes.
Xia Restaurant.
He raised his collar even as his deceit character continued covering his face with a thin layer of shadow. He couldn't understand why they were meeting here. And he also didn't know who he was meeting. This place was too busy. It did not seem like a suitable place to talk.
The moment he stepped into the restaurant, one of the employees stepped forward to greet him. But right that moment, a middle-aged man who had been waiting there stepped forth and smiled, "Is this Mr. Su?"
"Yes."
"This way, please. The lord is already waiting upstairs."
Su Yu was shocked to see the middle-aged man. That was a Mountainsea. Yes. A Mountainsea. Both the water elemental and the shadow had informed him of it. But he himself had also noticed it thanks to the Perception Jade.
Was the person even a Mountainsea was addressing as the lord a peak Mountainsea or a Sunmoon? Who was it?
Su Yu's expression did not change as he followed the middle-aged man. He wasn't too worried. This was a restaurant opened by the Xia Family. Unless one was suicidal, nobody would dare to assassinate him here.
Not even the First Divine Sect master would be brave enough to attack Su Yu in a restaurant operated by the Xia Family in the capital of Great Xia. Nobody would be able to survive such an attempt.
...
Third floor.
Inside a large room, Zhu Tiandao was leisurely drinking tea and looking at the scenery outside the window while humming a song. He looked to be in a great mood.
When he heard the sounds of approaching footsteps, he smiled and said, "Come in."
The door swung open.
Under the middle-aged man's lead, Su Yu entered.
When Su Yu's gaze landed on Zhu Tiandao, he found the man familiar. However, he couldn't recognize who this person was. The pictures of all the prefects were available to the public, so Su Yu would probably realize who this person was if he was in Great Ming. But this is Great Xia so the thought hadn’t really crossed his mind. Even so, he was able to sense that this was someone important.
"Lord, I shall be taking my leave..."
Zhu Tiandao nodded. Looking at Su Yu, he smiled, "Su Yu, if you don't mind, can you let the two little fellows on you go with him for now? Let's have a private meeting. It feels somewhat uncomfortable to have outsiders listen while we talk."
Su Yu was shocked, but he still nodded in agreement. At the next moment, both the shadow and water elemental revealed themselves. They were trembling with fear as they gave Zhu Tiandao a slight bow as a sign of respect.
Then, the shadow merged into the middle-aged man's shadow while the water elemental turned into a drop of water on the man's body. With a smile, the middle-aged man retreated and shut the door.
"Lord..."
Zhu Tiandao interrupted and said, "There is no rush. Take a seat and enjoy the night view of Great Xia first."
Su Yu walked over and sat down in front of Zhu Tiandao. The table was filled with food and drinks.
Zhu Tiandao smiled, "That fatty from Xia Family sure is greedy. He's charging 100 merit points for some beast meat like this. This is truly excessive."
Su Yu nodded, "You're right, Lord."
Marquis Xia was indeed a greedy merchant.
Zhu Tiandao smiled, "You're quite gutsy, kid. You dare to even talk badly about Fatty Xia?"
Su Yu was quite surprised. How had this person sensed his thoughts when he was thinking about someone else?
Zhu Tiandao laughed, "Kid, that expression on your face is too obvious. You had agreed with me that Fatty Xia is greedy. Am I right?"
Su Yu smiled and nodded, "Yes. Marquis Xia may be greedy, but he is also fair. At the very least, he can rip everyone off in a way that you can't argue against it."
"True. That's a special talent of his." Zhu Tiandao asked, "So how do you feel after getting your cultivation methods scammed by him?"
"It's no big deal." Su Yu softly said, "The acupoint fusion method is good, but it only took me a week to make. With only a week's worth of work, I was able to settle a debt of 300,000 merit points and receive follow-up income in the future. The future income should be pretty large as well."
"Do you know how much he's selling the right of distribution to Great Ming alone?"
"A million merit points?"
That was Su Yu's guess, but Zhu Tiandao soon told him the truth, "A million for the inferior version. Three million for the superior version."
Su Yu was speechless. How greedy. He took a sip of the tea to calm himself. That Fatty Xia—cough, cough. That Marquis Xia was truly greedy. There were 36 human prefectures. And he was charging so much for only the distribution right of a single prefecture.
"Of course, this distribution right is an everlasting one. So it's not overpriced." Zhu Tiandao smiled, "Great Ming can still afford this much money. We're not as poor as Great Xia. I reckon Great Xia's treasury is already empty after so many years of war. If it wasn't for Fatty Xia and his greed, Great Xia would have lost the ability to pay their soldiers long ago."
Su Yu did not say anything about that. Since he knew nothing about the matter, it was pointless for him to talk about it.
Zhu Tiandao smiled and asked, "Do you know who I am?"
"No, Lord. But you are definitely an important person in Great Ming."
"You're pretty good at talking." Zhu Tiandao laughed, "I am surnamed Zhu. I am the someone from Zhu Family's main branch. Can you guess who I am?"
Su Yu inhaled in shock. He stood up and bowed, "I offer my greetings to Lord Prefect."
He was able to immediately guess who this was. A Sunmoon of Zhu Family's main branch. Only one person could fit those criteria: Zhu Tiandao, prefect of Great Ming.
This had completely surprised Su Yu.
In truth, he already had some guesses after entering the room. But finally, his guesses were confirmed. This was Zhu Tiandao, not someone from a branch family. He was surprised and shocked.
He had never imagined that the prefect himself would come to meet him. These prefects were basically the highest ranked humans below the Invincibles. Their status was higher than even the other regular Sunmoons.
Zhu Tiandao smiled, "I believe this is enough to show you Great Ming's sincerity. You are free to voice any conditions you have. But I wish to ask you something. What can you bring to us? Would you return to Great Xia after I painstakingly help you grow? That would be a total loss for me, right?"
Su Yu nodded and said, "Let's put my strength aside for now. And let's put the future aside as well since nobody can predict the future. I will talk about one thing. There are three versions of the acupoint fusion method. The Xia Family has only received the rights for the first two versions. They have a copy of the best version as well, but they do not have the distribution right for it. I still hold full rights over the best version. And this is a version capable of fully removing the repelling force for Infinite Strength cultivators."
Zhu Tiandao's eyes flickered. Heavens. So there was really something better out there?
"How many acupoints does it require?"
"36."
"How many overlaps with the War God Art?"
"18."
"So you only need to open 18 new acupoints?"
"Yeah."
Zhu Tiandao inhaled in shock, "Are you willing to sell the rights to the Zhu Family?"
"Depends." Su Yu said, "I'm afraid that I will die after distribution starts."
"That won't happen." Zhu Tiandao said, "We are not the Xia Family. All those people who have offended the Xia Family are not necessarily unafraid of them. Rather, they know that the Xia Family has too many misgivings and would put up with them. That's not the case for our Zhu Family. Even Invincibles will need to think twice before offending us. Things won't end well for them, regardless of who they are."
Yes, the Zhu Family was weaker than the Xia Family as a whole. But they had nothing to lose. And that was the most terrifying enemy one could get.
Su Yu nodded. He said, "Additionally, I once sold the Xia Family a foundation cultural art with 36 apertures. They have not received the distribution right as well."
"..."
Zhu Tiandao inhaled deeply and said, "Looks like what I'm about to offer next won't be attractive to you. As a cultural researcher family, we have a foundation cultural art with 24 apertures. I wanted to use it as part of my offer, but looks like you're a more surprising kid than I thought."
Great Ming King of the Zhu Family was a cultural researcher. Thus, they had a foundation cultural art in their family. But Su Yu actually had a cultural art that was even better than theirs.