Chapter 553: Fire of Civilization (1)
After the talk with Zhu Tiandao, Su Yu left the Xia Restaurant.
He felt refreshed. And he was in a joyful mood. He didn't know Zhu Tiandao that well, but he knew that a prefect had personally arrived to meet him. The timing of Zhu Tiandao's arrival meant that he had arrived right after hearing about his intention to join.
What else did Zhu Tiandao need to prove? Nothing.
Before this meeting, Su Yu had been filled with nervousness about his future. He was feeling lost. But now, those feelings had weakened significantly. The prefect's appearance was in itself a display of sincerity. And that was the highest level of sincerity Great Ming could show. That was better than any sort of promise they could make.
A ninth-stage Sunmoon. An expert near the Invincible Realm with a father who was the second strongest human cultural researcher had personally met him. That was a lot of sincerity. And that was enough for Su Yu.
Nothing else mattered. Su Yu was confident he had the ability to get anything else he wanted. He only needed some time, a safe place, and more freedom. And Zhu Tiandao had agreed to provide all that.
With a refreshed feeling, the resentment and gloominess deep in his heart dissipated.
So the Human Realm was not completely filled with filth. There was still somewhere clean in the Human Realm. Even if this clean place sounded rather uninspiring. But wasn't the Great Ming Cultural Research Academy described by Zhu Tiandao the exact type of academy he had imagined cultural research academies to be?
A bunch of scholars, engaging each other in debates, drinking wine and reciting poetry, talking endlessly, researching and unveiling secrets of culture and civilization, and ensuring the continuation of culture and civilization...
That was how he had imagined cultural research academies to be. Great Xia Cultural Research Academy was very strong, but this academy felt like a battlefield and an endless abyss to Su Yu. It didn't feel like a holy land of knowledge.
With a cheerful state of mind, Su Yu strode forward. Walking on the street, he took in the scenery around him. Everyone felt much more pleasing to his eyes.
At this moment, his sea of willpower rippled and the aura of a character emerged. At the same moment, all the resentment and gloominess in his heart vanished completely.
A fire character appeared and shone brightly. It shook.
Su Yu did not turn absent-minded. He continued walking amid the crowd. Slowly, his entire body ignited in flames. However, these flames were not visible to the average individual.
High in the sky, someone seemed to have sensed something.
...
Xia Restaurant.
Third floor.
Zhu Tiandao was looking at the departing Su Yu. And he had witnessed the birth of that flame. His mouth opened wide with shock. Was that...a natural character?
With the fire around him, Su Yu was akin to a saint who had descended from the heavens. In Zhu Tiandao's eyes, Su Yu's entire body had turned transparent and bright with not a speck of dust on it.
Walking amid the crowd, that clump of fire illuminated the world around him.
Some of the people in the crowd were in the middle of thinking about some thorny problems. At this moment, solutions to those problems seemingly appeared out of nowhere in their minds.
Some of the people in the crowd had reached a bottleneck in certain issues, but at this moment, those bottlenecks seemed to have vanished. Their thoughts were flowing smoother than ever.
"Fire of civilization..."
Zhu Tiandao muttered with a dumbstruck expression.
Was this...a natural-born cultural researcher? That character was able to influence those around him right after reaching the second tier? This fire character was one that Su Yu had never placed much importance on. Even when he bragged about this character previously, he didn't really mean his words.
But at this moment, Zhu Tiandao was viewing that character with great importance. He was greatly shocked by that character.
...
At the same time.
Prefect's manor.
Standing on a high building, Marquis Xia looked in a certain direction. There, a clump of fire was burning fiercely and illuminating its surroundings.
The brilliance of the fire filled the darkness.
The fire of civilization.
Marquis Xia's jaw dropped in shock. For a long while, he remained silent.
Beside him, Administrator Hu's expression changed. He sighed and said, "We shouldn't have let him go."
That was a natural-born cultural researcher. This was the omen of the appearance of a saint.
Su Yu...was granting everyone around him wisdom.
Marquis Xia's throat was dry. He felt slightly uncomfortable and irritated. A sun and a moon appeared in his eyes as he looked in the direction of Xia Restaurant.
Damn you!
Zhu Tiandao!
The same thing appeared in the Xia Restaurant. A sun and a moon rose and space twisted as Zhu Tiandao and Marquis Xia came face to face even while they were still respectively in the restaurant and the manor.
Marquis Xia was gnashing his teeth. This was a massive loss. An incredibly massive loss.
Meanwhile, Zhu Tiandao had a smile on his face. In a leisurely manner, he said, "It won't end well if you force someone whose heart is not here to stay. Just look at him. Right after deciding to leave, his divine fire advanced in tier. His heart was cleansed and his grievance dissipated. If you keep forcing him to stay, he will develop a grudge toward Great Xia. You will only turn him into an enemy."
Marquis Xia said nothing.
Zhu Tiandao laughed, "What a treasure. This is an inheritance-type character. If you have some people cultivating around him, all those people would be able to comprehend something new and break through their bottlenecks. This is basically a moving education-type character."
Marquis Xia clenched his teeth in anger. This Zhu Tiandao was deliberately saying that to annoy him. He was furious.
With a grin on his face, Zhu Tiandao watched on as that clump of flame continued moving amid the crowd. The grin on his face grew wider and wider. Eventually, his body flickered and vanished, leaving these words behind: "Xiao'er, your big bro is leaving. Don't miss me too much."
The furious Marquis Xia threw a punch in the air. The air twisted and shook. But nothing else happened.
With a snort, Marquis Xia cursed, "That fellow is showing off to us after picking up such a treasure from us."
Beside him, Administrator Hu had a bitter smile. He softly said, "Marquis, it's pointless to bicker with Prefect Zhu about this. He won't be bothered."
This was a prefect who was as shameless as Marquis Xia.
But when Marquis Xia was being shameless, he still constrained himself within the bounds of rules. But Prefect Zhu, on the other hand, did not care about any rules. Or to be precise, he had nothing to lose and nothing to fear. In addition to having nothing to lose, he himself was strong and his father was even stronger. Thus, Zhu Tiandao did not even need to respect the rules.
Marquis Xia snorted.
In truth, his relationship with Zhu Tiandao was quite good. But he still found that fellow annoying. There was no helping it as Marquis Xia was once an arrogant young master as well. But due to the misgivings of the Xia Family, he couldn't afford to be as arrogant as Zhu Tiandao. He was very sad about that. He would have been the number one arrogant young master among all the descendants of Invincibles otherwise.
Ignoring Zhu Tiandao, his gaze settled on the Great Xia Cultural Research Academy again. There, the clump of flame was burning brighter and brighter.
Those in the Skysoar Realm could sense something unusual, those in the Cloudbreach Realm could gain enlightenment, those in the Mountainsea Realm could feel the flame, but only those in the Sunmoon Realm could get a clear look at the flame.
...
At that moment, Su Yu had a wide smile on his face.
He would be going on a long journey soon. A new world awaited him. All the chains shackling him in Great Xia, all the struggles in Great Xia, everything in Great Xia would be put aside for the future.
The sea was wide, the sky was boundless, and he could now roam the seas and the skies like a free spirit.
Today, he was still helpless to do anything in Great Xia. His teachers were exiled to a den of sinners. He couldn't do anything.
Today, his martial uncle was filled with grudge and resentment. He couldn't change anything.
There was nothing he could do about any of that.
He would leave. He would start anew. In Great Ming, he shall welcome his rebirth.
The fire of civilization continued burning. As the fire burned, his willpower looked even purer and brighter than before. His willpower was as beautiful as a diamond and as pure as saintly light.
His transparent body was as pure as his willpower. His apertures shone gloriously as his sea of willpower further consolidated, showing signs of materialization. However, the little hammer appeared to further temper the sea of willpower, halting the advancement.
At this moment, atop the Heart Cultivating Pavilion, Wan Tiansheng was overlooking the academy. When he saw the clump of fire, he could only sigh with regret.
A natural character.
A natural-born cultural researcher.
This was not a character that had been formed from a willpower text. Rather, this was a character that had formed naturally. That was why it was called a natural character.
As of this moment, all eight of Su Yu's characters had advanced to the second tier.
The resplendent characters floated in his sea of willpower. The fire character, which was the weakest character previously, was starting to show signs of elevating itself into the main Divine Character. Su Yu had never decided on a main Divine Character. Instead, he treated each of his characters like a main character.
But at this moment, all the other characters were actually orbiting the fire character. Even the first character he had, the blood character, a character on the verge of becoming a third-tier character, was orbiting the fire character. Tempered by the flames of the fire character, all the other characters appeared even brighter than before.
This transformation had even affected his acupoints. Of his 320 opened acupoints, 80 of them had been fused into 5 acupoints, making him a fifth-stage Infinite Strength cultivator. He had just reached the fifth stage yesterday. But now, 16 more acupoints instantly fused under the illumination of the light from the fire character.
Prior to this, he had only opened 106 apertures. Now, the 107th aperture started opening.
...
Inside the academy.
Step by step, Su Yu walked. The shadow beast inside his shadow and the water elemental hiding on his body could both feel a warm sensation, as though they were resting by the fireside. The fire did not exist in the physical world, but it was burning within their seas of willpower.
The shadow warped while the water boiled. But this was no torture. Rather, this was a form of cultivation, a form of comprehension, a form of enlightenment.
The shadow and water elemental had sustained heavy injuries. After so many years of imprisonment, the very foundation of their cultivation had been damaged. But at the moment, their foundation was starting to recover.
They stayed completely silent, but they understood what was happening.
They understood that...Su Yu was a freak.
The fire of inheritance.
The fire of civilization.
Was this an omen of something greater?
Or was this simply the result of having a unique character?
Su Yu was not thinking about any of that. His mind felt exceptionally clear and his mood was excellent. Slowly, the fire withdrew into his body and faded away. Some sort of transformation seemed to have occurred in Su Yu.
He seemed...gentler than before.
Moments ago, his negative emotions had vanished. The baleful aura accompanying him due to his murder of multiple Skysoars and the resentment in his heart had given him an intimidating presence.
But right now, he was akin to a candle in the dark, giving everyone around him a gentle and comfortable sensation.