Chapter 559: Not Yummy Anymore! (2)
After dealing with a few other matters, Su Yu returned to the Wentan Research Center.
It had been a while since he was last here. And with nobody here, the place was starting to look like an abandoned building.
Prison zone.
Su Yu directly opened the cages inside. The suanni, mountaindrill bull, and white civet were astonished. Was he really releasing them so easily?
Before this, they had all thought that Su Yu had completely forgotten about them. After all, it had been a while since Su Yu's last visit. Fortunately, he had left them with a decent amount of source qi liquid during his previous visit.
The suanni stepped out of the cage, feeling quite out of place since he had been living in the cage for so long. While shaking his head, he asked, "Lord Su, are you leaving now?"
"I'll be leaving in a few days." Su Yu smiled and said, "Suanni, you and the mountaindrill bull will act as my mounts. Both of you can take turns. It's dangerous outside so be sure to not run off by yourself."
The suanni asked suspiciously, "Lord, are you not putting a restriction on me?"
The suanni was a physical cultivator. And he was not being subjected to any restriction. Was Su Yu not even going to use a Demon Subduing Ring on him?
Su Yu smiled, "There's no need for that. It's too expensive."
The suanni was speechless. But he still felt somewhat weird. Had he been released from the cage just like this? Without any restriction whatsoever? For some reason, he felt very suspicious.
Su Yu was most definitely not a kind person. This was a ruthless person who had nearly starved them to death. Even when the shadow and the water elemental were released previously, that had only happened after the two were subjected to multiple restrictions.
Was Su Yu looking down on him? Su Yu was basically acting like it wouldn't matter if the suanni escaped.
Su Yu couldn't be bothered to give any explanation. He took a tiny seal out and said, "Get your head over here. If you don't want to get killed right after leaving this building, you need to get this mark on your head. With this mark, you will be recognized as a mount."
The suanni felt somewhat uncomfortable, but he still stretched his head over obediently. As his massive jaws approached Su Yu, he had the urge to bite Su Yu's head off.
Su Yu merely looked at the suanni with an amused smile. After stamping the seal on the suanni's head, a character imprint was left on the head, indicating that this was a mount.
"Are you thinking of biting me?"
"Nope."
The suanni denied.
"You can try. You might be a ninth-stage Skysoar, but you have been locked here for too long. I think I can probably beat you to death if I want. Do you believe me?"
The suanni definitely didn't believe that. He was there when Su Yu punched the bull previously. At the time, Su Yu had only demonstrated the strength of a fifth-stage Skysoar. Meanwhile, he was already a ninth-stage Skysoar, albeit weakened. And he was also from a top 100 race.
Su Yu merely smiled, not bothering to explain himself.
"Try to recover as much of your strength as possible. I will be supplying all of you with some high-quality source qi liquid."
He would be taking all these fellows with him. Even if they ended up dying on the journey to Great Ming, that would still be better than leaving them here. It would be a waste to simply starve them to death here.
Hong Tan was still in seclusion. Chen Yong would ignore them. And Wu Jia would be too scared to come here. Thus, after his departure, there would be nobody to care for these beasts anymore.
As for the possibility of their betrayal, well, these fellows were only Skysoars. He honestly didn't care if they decided to turn on him.
After stamping the seal on both the mountaindrill bull and the white civet, his gaze landed on a certain furball. The little furball was staring at him.
When their eyes met, Su Yu smiled, "Are you thinking of eating my characters?"
"Yummy."
"Yummy?" Su Yu smiled, "Are you sure?"
The little furball was probably aiming for the book. What a gutsy little fellow.
"How about this, little guy? I'll hammer you ten times and you can get a bite out of me in exchange. I'm only at the Mental Tempering Stage while you're at the Skysoar Realm."
The little furball's eyeballs spun around as he considered the proposal. Ten hammer strikes for a bite? That seemed to be acceptable!
"Ok!"
Su Yu smiled. He had been wanting to try this. He wanted to see if he could deal with this little fellow with his hammer. If he couldn't, he would have to pass this fellow over to his martial uncle. But if he could keep this fellow under control, this would be a good trump card to have.
A tiny hammer appeared in his hand. Next, Su Yu opened the cage. The little furball flew out warily.
"Don't even dream of escaping. I have two Cloudbreach cultivators with me. And there is also no way you can escape this research center. Do you understand me?"
The little furball was floating in the air with a semi-transparent body. With a childlike voice, he said, "No run...yummy!"
Su Yu smiled and raised his hammer, "Shall we start?"
"Ok!"
Boom!
Right after the little furball replied, Su Yu's hammer descended. The little furball appeared completely unworried. After all, he was a semi-corporeal existence. General source qi attacks would not even be able to touch him.
To be more precise, the little furball was more like a life form with the body of a Divine Character. The furball was waiting leisurely for the hammer to descend when he suddenly felt that something was off.
That thought had barely crossed his mind when a rumble filled his brain. The semi-corporeal furball was directly smacked out of that state, turning into a corporeal form.
The eyeballs of the furball started rolling about in a comical fashion. The furball wasn't rolling his eyeballs because he was scheming. Rather, he was doing that because he was feeling very dizzy. Su Yu did not wait and followed with more strikes.
Boom! Boom! Boom!
After about eight strikes, the little furball finally fainted and dropped onto the ground.
"..."
Around them, the mountaindrill bull and suanni appeared rather calm. But the white civet, who was a cultural researcher, was shivering with fear.
That hammer...was actually a unique soul technique!
What powerful hammer-strikes!
The Soul Expanding Art was created to shake and temper one's sea of willpower. Each hammer strike would shake before compressing the sea of willpower. Unless one was used to it, one would have a hard time withstanding the hammer strikes.
Su Yu picked up the unconscious furball from the ground and smiled.
Success.
So there was a limit to this furball's endurance. The hammer formed by the Soul Expanding Art was not a character. Thus, it did not fear the little furball.
After pinching the little furball a few times, he woke up. Su Yu was quite surprised as he had not expected the furball to wake up so soon.
Right after waking up, the little furball exclaimed, "Amazing! Can you hammer me daily?"
"..."
The other beasts were rendered speechless. Su Yu asked in surprise, "You felt it?"
"Yeah!"
The little furball happily said, "The more you hammer, the more amazing I become!"
Su Yu nodded. That was correct. The Soul Expanding Art was meant to assist others, not kill others. Of course, it was also an effective killing weapon. Since the little furball was still fine, it only meant that this little guy's willpower was already very powerful.
A regular Skysoar would probably remain unconscious for a longer time after receiving eight strikes from his hammer. Less durable seas of willpower might even collapse entirely after eight strikes.
Restraining this little fellow wouldn't be so easy.
At that thought, Su Yu took out his cultural weapon.
An illusory saber floated in the air.
The little furball's eyes lit up.
This was Su Yu's character technique, but it was merely a projection instead of the real deal as he had yet to complete it. All eight of his characters were in the technique.
Instantly, the illusory merged into his cultural weapon.
Su Yu looked at the little furball and said, "You can have a bite. This wasn't what you referred to when you used the word yummy, right?"
"No..."
The furball stared at Su Yu pitifully. That wasn't what he had talked about.
"Why don't you try to give this a bite first."
He wanted to see if a character technique formed of eight second-tier characters could withstand this fellow's bite. Eight second-tier characters, a cultural weapon, and a character technique combined should be as strong as a third-tier character, right? The little furball bit down on the saber unhesitatingly.
A crack rang out. The weapon appeared the same, but the character technique within the weapon shook. At the same time, Su Yu's sea of willpower shook as an intense pain assaulted him.
Holy shit!
This fellow was actually able to bypass the weapon to bite down on the character technique directly!
The character technique was violently shaking to disperse the power of the little furball's bite. This lasted for quite a while before stopping.
Su Yu grabbed the little furball before tossing him aside. "One bite is enough."
The two stared at each other. After a while, Su Yu said, "You can probably swallow a second-tier character with one bite. But the pain is too intense. I thought my grandteacher said that you can swallow characters undetected?"
That intense pain would intensely notify someone of an attack. It did not feel like a great choice for a sneak attack.
"That's swallow. I was biting!"
The little furbal explained with a slightly aggrieved expression. Su Yu was the one who had asked for a bite.
"In that case, show me your swallowing ability—"
Instantly, the little furball vanished. Su Yu hurriedly scanned his surroundings with his willpower. The little fellow had concealed himself. Or to be precise, this wasn't concealment. Rather, the little furball was using his ability to turn incorporeal like a Divine Character. In the next moment, the little furball reappeared.
Su Yu glanced at his character technique. Nothing had happened. All his characters were still there."
The little furball blinked and said, "Swallowed."
"Nonsense!"
Su Yu scolded. This furball was actually trying to lie! Nothing had been swallowed! The word had barely left his mouth when the nearby white civet screeched.
"Where's my hide character?"
Su Yu: "..."
He was completely speechless.
The little furball hurriedly hid behind Su Yu and replied in his childlike voice, "Your characters are all linked! I'm still small and weak! Her character was easier to swallow!"
The white civet was losing her mind. She had only been enjoying the show at the side. She had been happily waiting for the next show to unfold.
Before she knew it, her willpower shook as she felt something drilling into her sea of willpower. And before she could react, the little furball had reappeared. Only then did she notice that one of her characters had vanished.
She was really going crazy.
Her precious character!
"Return my character!"
She screeched madly. Her normal seductiveness was nowhere to be seen. Only exasperation could be seen on her.
Her precious character!
She had lost it without even feeling any pain!
Su Yu was somewhat stunned. He glanced at the little furball behind him. Holy shit. He had swallowed the character? Just like that?
The white civet had indeed sensed nothing except the vague sensation of something entering her sea of willpower. If she hadn't checked her characters, she would probably still be unaware that she had lost a character.
"Yummy Guy, you told me to do it..."
The little furball denied all responsibility. Su Yu was speechless. He had asked for the little furball to swallow one of his characters, not the white civet's character. Whatever. What could he do if it had already happened?
"Can you return the characters you swallowed?"
"Eaten!"
"..."
"Ahhhhhhh!"
The white civet wailed in desperation. One of her characters had actually been eaten!
Su Yu dug his ear and rolled his eyes before saying, "It's not even a main character. Why are you shouting? It's only a second-tier character. You can make a new one in a few months."
All the beasts: "..."
A few months? Screw him!
Even as a Skysoar, the white civet would need at least a year to reform a second-tier character. She needed to first form an incomplete character before completing it into a first-tier character. Then, she needed to nurture it into the second tier. That would probably take her a year or two of hard work.
But when the beasts recalled how Su Yu had formed eight second-tier characters in only a few months, they shut their mouths. There was no comparing them and him.
Perhaps for Su Yu, this was only a month's worth of work.
Su Yu looked at the little furball with an odd gaze and asked,"Can you swallow Cloudbreach characters?"
"For example, his character..."
Su Yu pointed at the shadow beneath him. Immediately after, the shadow shook. The little furball, who was still hiding behind Su Yu just a moment ago, could be seen flying out of the shadow. With an aggrieved tone, he said, "Can't. His willpower defense, too strong. Pushed me out..."
The shadow spoke fearfully, "Lord, this ability of his is too terrifying. I didn't even sense anything before he tried entering my sea of willpower. This fellow is definitely the natural predator of all cultural researchers of the same realm. Why have I never heard of this race before?"
Su Yu nodded. He had never heard of this race as well. There were no records of this race anywhere. This little furball was brought back by Hong Tan. Su Yu even wondered if a second furball could be found on the battlefield.
Su Yu started hesitating. This was too dangerous. Wouldn't he need to be on guard all the time if he took this little furball with him? But he had his hammer. He could always blast the little furball out of his sea of willpower.
At that thought, he said, "Try entering my sea of willpower—"
He couldn't even finish his words before he felt something trying to enter his sea of willpower. The little furball had been wanting to do this for a very long time. Right when the little furball was about to completely enter his sea of willpower, before he could use his hammer, he heard a rumble.
The idle golden book in his sea of willpower seemed to have detected an intruder. A ray of golden light shot out of the book.
Bang!
The little furball was sent flying to the wall. As he slowly slid down from the wall, he exclaimed, "Not yummy anymore!"
Su Yu smiled.
Interesting.
The book had actually attacked. This was the very first time something like this had happened.
No, this was the second time. This had happened before when he tried to form his character technique. Wait, this should be the third time. The second time the book had made a move was when he had tried to form a myriad race character.
"Rejection!"
Su Yu smiled. The golden book seemed to be rejecting certain things. The book seemed to have deemed certain things ineligible for entering his sea of willpower. Anything unhelpful to him would be rejected.
Meanwhile, helpful things like his hammer, cultural weapon, and human characters had never been rejected.
"Truly interesting."
Looking at the little furball, Su Yu had a bright smile on his face. Since he was immune to the little furball, then the little furball would pose no threat to him. On the other hand, this little furball would serve as an excellent weapon.
The ability to devour characters...what an incredible ability. Just look at the white civet who was still going crazy after losing a character.