Chapter 563: Farewell (1)
Source Soul Research Center.
Su Yu walked down from upstairs with a pale face.
When Wu Lan saw him, she curiously said, "The Missions Department has just delivered the call for help from Nanyuan to you."
With an odd gaze, she asked, "What happened to you? Why is your face so white?"
The pale complexion was due to excessive blood coughing. But Su Yu had also consumed a lot of blood essence. For him, this was no big deal. He only needed to get used to it.
He did not answer the question and caught the mission's notice tossed over by Wu Lan. With a smile, he said, "Can you issue a mission for me? I'll be assembling a team to exterminate the beasts near Nanyuan."
"Is that necessary?" Wu Lan said, "Just kill them yourself. If you could do that in the past, why couldn't you do so now?"
"There is strength in numbers."
"I'll go with you then..."
"It's fine."
"Why? I want to go!"
"You're too weak."
"..."
Wu Lan's face twisted. Her famous nostril made a return as she once again raised her chin, snorted coldly, and left with a dissatisfied expression.
That was hurtful.
She was infuriated.
While walking away, she snorted, "The others you find would be weak as well!"
Her willpower was quite strong. She was already near the Skysoar Realm! Even her physical cultivation had reached the fifth-stage Great Strength Realm. Sure, that wasn't too strong, but she wasn't a warrior. She was a cultural researcher!
Su Yu smiled and said, "I will only be accepting those at the Infinite Strength Realm or peak Mental Tempering Stage. I also won't be taking too many people with me. I'll only accept ten people for the mission. Both Nanyuan and the academy will be giving them some rewards on top of the ten merit points per person I will be offering. And they are also entitled to the spoils of war from the battle."
"I want to go!"
"You're too weak."
"..."
Wu Lan left sullenly. This was the second time she was rejected. She was furious.
Su Yu smiled. He wasn't worried about her anger.
After she left, he sat on the couch and sank into thought. A short while later, Xia Huyou entered the room and said, "Did the Missions Department send you a mission?"
"How are you aware of that already?"
"What a stupid question."
Xia Huyou did not bother being polite. Very few things in Great Xia could be hidden from him.
"Leaving now..." Xia Huyou couldn't help but say, "I still think it's too dangerous."
Su Yu invited Xia Huyou to take a seat and said, "Let's not talk about that. I only have one question. Are those two reliable?"
"Yes, they are." Xia Huyou nodded and said, "Don't joke with me. They are definitely reliable. No matter what, I'm a sort of crown prince. My father won't feel assured without fully reliable guards."
"How's their strength?"
"One of them is a seventh-stage Mountainsea and the other is a sixth-stage Mountainsea."
"That's weaker than what I've expected."
Su Yu was blunt. As a so-called crown prince, Xia Huyou wasn't even assigned a peak Mountainsea guard. Was this really a descendant of an Invincible? Just look at the cloud tiger race. Xia Qing was nothing yet she had a third-stage Mountainsea acting as her dao protector. With Xia Qing as the comparison, Xia Huyou looked rather pitiful.
Xia Huyou rolled his eyes and said, "If I'm leaving on a long journey, I'll naturally be protected by Sunmoons. Why do I need experts at that level within the capital? No Sunmoon can enter the capital without catching my father's notice. What am I afraid of?"
No Sunmoon was stronger than his father. If the Sunmoon tried anything, his father would simply cut that Sunmoon down without even being there in person.
"Seventh-stage and sixth-stage Mountainseas..."
Su Yu sank into thought. In truth, that wasn't weak. Or to be precise, that was actually quite a formidable force. He was only afraid that his enemies would have the numerical advantage.
At that thought, he said, "Station some Martial Dragon Guards along the way. I don't need them to be strong. I only need their presence. They don't even need to stick close to me. They only need to serve as a deterrent, preventing any Mountainsea from making a move against me before reaching Nanyuan. Then again, it would be enough for them to only deter the single character faction. As for the cult, they are free to come at me."
"Sure." Xia Huyou looked at Su Yu with a frown and asked, "Are you sure you can lure them out?"
What a stupid question. Of course he was sure.
Su Yu couldn't even be bothered to give a reply. He tossed a jade talisman over and said, "We're clear. With this, we don't owe each other anything anymore."
"There is no need for you to worry too much about money between us!"
After taking a look at the contents of the talisman, Xia Huyou's eyes flickered. He asked, "Another 36-aperture art? And it can even be linked with the apertures of the art you gave me previously? Just how many of these arts do you have?"
"Since both arts of 72 apertures can be linked into a singular system, I can use them until the Mountainsea or even the Sunmoon Realm. Incredible. I'm afraid we will be welcoming a batch of cultural researcher experts in the near future. You are truly amazing."
"You're not allowed to disseminate this art without my approval." Su Yu indifferently said, "Of course, if you insist on disseminating it, you can do so as well. Just do as you see fit."
That art was his. He held all rights to the art. He did not mind having his art disseminated without permission, but if they did that, the relationship between them would fall apart.
"Don't worry."
Xia Huyou wasn't worried at all. There was no way he was going to disseminate this art. He took out a bunch of items and said, "I have your blood essence here. You sure are getting more and more crazy. Why are you buying even Cloudbreach blood essence? Just what are you doing?"
"Experiments." Su Yu gave a reply that didn't answer anything.
At that moment, Xia Huyou's voice transmission talisman vibrated. When he took a look, he smiled and said, "Someone has accepted your mission."
"Already?" Su Yu had received no notification about it.
Xia Huyou smiled and said, "It's Zhou Hao. Interesting. Is he this desperate for money? Or is he simply doing this because he is itching to kill some beasts?"
Zhou Hao? Su Yu blanked out slightly. When he recovered, he smiled and said, "It's fine. Not everyone will be allowed to go with me. I'll make another round of selection before deciding on the final composition of the team."
He did not wish to drag the innocent into this mess. And it wasn't likely that the single character faction students would dare to accept this mission of his. He would actually admire their courage if they really did something like this. He was mainly aiming for the foreign students when he issued this mission.
Xia Huyou said, "In that case, I'll be taking my leave. I still have something else to do. Feel free to notify me if you need anything else. By the way, if you really decide to kill, you will be in even more trouble after this. Why don't you join the Xia Family's private research center?"
Su Yu glanced at Xia Huyou. Did the marquis not tell him anything? Was this fellow still completely clueless? Why was this fellow still worrying about his fate after returning from the trip? There was no longer any need for that.
Su Yu sighed inwardly. Yes. There was no longer any need for that.
***
Xia Huyou left.
Su Yu's mission had not attracted too much attention in the academy. For a lot of people, this was just a normal mission. As for the single character faction's possible reprisal against Su Yu, many believed that since Su Yu was going to remain within Great Xia, there was nothing the single character faction could do.
Would they be so daring as to pull something within the borders of Great Xia? Even if they wanted to do something, they should wait until Su Yu was out of the prefecture. The ten merit points offered as the mission reward were quite attractive.
And that was not everything one could get from the mission. They would also be entitled to the spoils from the beasts they kill during the mission. Thus, one could say that the pay for this mission was actually quite generous.
Initially, this mission was very inconspicuous. That changed the moment Xia Qing accepted the mission. According to the academy rules, the foreign students were not allowed to participate in any mission unless there were other humans in the team.
Xia Qing did not say much when accepting the mission. Before long, rumors started spreading that Xia Qing had only accepted the mission because she was Su Yu's friend. Additionally, she was trying to prove to humanity that the foreign students here were the friends of the human race.
Friend. A lot of emphasis was placed on the word friend as the rumors spread. This was also a way to manipulate public opinion. With this, even if Su Yu ended up dead, Xia Qing and the others would be able to escape responsibility. Since they were his friends, why would they plot for his death?
Su Yu did nothing to address the rumors. Sure. Since those foreign students insisted on claiming that they were friends, so be it.
***
25th of December.
This was the last day in the year for anyone to challenge the Top 100 Ranking.
Outside the House of Hundred, a lot of students had arrived. Almost all the top 100 students were here as well. And Su Yu was also there. He did not enter the ring. He merely stood behind Wu Jia silently.
Nobody said anything. Many wondered if anyone would dare to challenge Wu Jia. Anyone challenging Wu Jia at a time like this was definitely someone trying to kick her out of the ranking. The conflict between the single and multiple character factions seemed to have intensified due to the Top 100 Ranking. After Di Feng was killed by Su Yu, this conflict had intensified further.
Time passed slowly. The students started challenging each other, but none challenged Wu Jia. With Su Yu there, one must be crazy to challenge Wu Jia. If anyone dared to challenge Wu Jia, Su Yu's retaliation would come swiftly. Even if Su Yu couldn't kill, he could still cripple his opponents during these challenge matches.
Today, there were barely any single character faction members around. They were not keen on showing up and further humiliating themselves. Even when night arrived, Wu Jia had yet to encounter any challenger.
She had successfully kept her ranking for the month. It had happened so easily. Nobody dared to challenge her.
***
Late at night.
This was the last thing Su Yu could do for the multiple character faction. After escorting Wu Jia back home, he arrived at a restaurant within the academy. The students who had accepted his mission were waiting in a private room.
There were twelve of them. All of them were students, and eight of them were foreign students. That was quite a high number.
Apart from Xia Qing's considerably large entourage, some other foreign students had also been attracted by the mission. They had gained the courage to accept the mission after noticing Xia Qing doing so.
When Su Yu arrived, he saw that the students had been split into two camps consisting of the foreign students and the human students. The human students were mostly ignoring the foreign students.
All four of the human students were quite strong. Zhou Hao was one of them. Excluding Zhou Hao, Su Yu knew two out of three of the remaining human students. One of them was Li Minyu, ranked fourth in the top 100 previously. She was currently ranked second.
Jiang Mu was the current first-ranked student. The fight between Su Yu and Di Feng was a private match instead of a challenge match. Thus, he did not replace Di Feng in the ranking. The previous second-ranked student had advanced into the Skysoar Realm at the Allheaven Battlefield not long after Zhan Hai's advancement.
The second student Su Yu knew was Ji Xiaomeng. Su Yu was very surprised to see her. Why was she here? This was very surprising. After all, that was Ji Hong's daughter. It would be very troublesome if she ended up dead during the mission.
Ji Xiaomeng, Li Minyu, and Zhou Hao. Su Yu did not know who the final human student was. That was someone he had never seen before.
Noticing Su Yu's gaze on him, the slightly blond student stood up and said, "Junior Brother Su, let me introduce myself. I am Chen Chen, a student of batch 345 and a 65th-ranked student in the top 100. I am a fourth-stage Infinite Strength and peak Mental Tempering Stage student from the Beast Taming Faculty."
Su Yu was surprised. This was yet another top 100 student.
Chen Chen smiled and said, "I am here because I wish to look for a beast I can tame. I was planning to go alone, but after hearing about your mission, I decided to accept it instead."
"Thank you for accepting the mission, Senior Brother Chen."
Chen Chen smiled and said, "Junior Brother Su, the crisis in Nanyuan isn't too serious. I have to be blunt. It is preferable to not bring these foreign students with us. We never know what they might be planning."
At that, the foreign students looked at him. As they were all clad in cloaks and hoods, their expressions weren't visible. Even so, their anger could be felt.
Chen Chen was unbothered. He said, "These people are beasts as well. And we're on a mission to exterminate beasts. Who knows if they would end up pitying the beasts? We have to be cautious about this."
"Senior Brother Chen." Xia Qing coldly said, "There is no need for you to worry about this. With Brother Su around, we will naturally listen to his arrangements."
Chen Chen ignored her and said, "Junior Brother Su, you are a super genius of the human race. Meanwhile, Great Xia has been warring against the myriad races for many years. It is better for you to be careful. There is no need for you to ruin your reputation like this."
Su Yu nodded with a smile and said, "Don't worry, Senior Brother. Great Xia has adopted a new policy. The human race and the myriad races are no longer enemies. There are so many races out there. We need to be clear about who our real enemies and friends are. We don't want to turn our allies into enemies, right?"
The moment those words were said, one of the cloaked students said, "Exactly. Our race has been allied to the human race for many years. Great Xia itself has been a long-term ally of us. Stop inciting disharmony between our races."
Su Yu looked over in surprise and asked, "Are you someone from the sky horse race?"
"Yes." From the voice, this was a male. The student hurriedly said, "I am from the sky horse race. Our race has been a friend of Great Xia for generations. Senior Brother Chen, those words are very disappointing to hear after generations of friendship between our races."
Chen Chen said nothing. He did not want to offend the sky horse race. There was no need for that. After all, there was even a special unit called the Sky Horse Unit in the Martial Dragon Guards. They had indeed been allied to the human race for many years. Of course, for a lot of people, these sky horses were merely mounts.