Chapter 568: Caught Up (1)
Su Yu’s killing intent had indeed been very intense during the journey. This was an opportunity for him. A chance to fight this much was very rare in the Human Realm. He would need to travel to the Allheaven Battlefield if he wanted to fight and slaughter to his heart's content like this in the future.
Since his enemies were still unsure of his true strength, they would continuously send people his way to test his strength.
After about half an hour of rest, Su Yu announced, "Let's resume our journey."
"Already?" The sky horse youth stood up and grumbled, "Can’t we rest through the night?"
Su Yu looked at the sky horse youth sternly and said, "You can stay here alone if you want."
"I—"
The sky horse youth shut his mouth after noticing Su Yu's glare. That was somewhat scary. Why was Su Yu being so fierce? Was Su Yu not aware that the sky horse race was an ally of Great Xia? What a terrible temper.
Su Yu ignored the sky horse race and leaped onto the back of the suanni. Once again, the team set off.
As they travelled, Su Yu remained alert. Unfortunately, it was hard for him to determine if the Mountainseas the Perception Jade was detecting were friends or foes. After all, their hidden protectors were Mountainseas as well. The only enemies he could confidently detect in advance were Skysoars.
"The Perception Jade still lacks an important ability. It needs to be able to record the aura of each individual as well..."
If there was such a function, there would be no confusion. As it was, things were quite confusing. Even when there were Mountainseas prying on him, he wasn't able to see who these Mountainseas were.
The group traveled under the dark of the night. Along the way, they also encountered other travelers. These were mostly the traveling merchants.
Su Yu did not approach any of these groups. But these groups were also extremely cautious. They would continue traveling in silence instead of greeting each other. This was the wilderness. It was the generally accepted practice to not rashly approach strangers while traveling in the wilderness.
After about three hours, they were attacked by yet another group of berserk beasts.
Blades danced everywhere.
Endless slaughter ensued.
The more Su Yu killed, the thicker his killing intent became. Among the beasts he killed, there were even a few Skysoar beasts. The Time technique required 132 acupoints. Each level required 44 acupoints. There were only three levels in total.
Generally, only those at the Mountainsea Realm would start fusing the acupoints of their martial techniques. Meanwhile, Su Yu was already starting to fuse the acupoints of his techniques at the Mental Tempering Stage.
He was doing so even in the midst of battle. He was aiming to fuse all forty-four acupoints of the first level into one acupoint.
It wasn't even important if he could really accomplish that for now. The more acupoints he fused, the stronger he would be. Thus, he had been working hard despite the drop in source qi density after leaving the capital. It wouldn't be an issue anyway since he had brought a decent amount of source qi liquid that was formed by Mountainseas with him.
He would have more than enough source qi for his needs.
Some of the acupoints overlapped with the acupoints of his cultivation method and he had already fused them with other acupoints. Thus, he left these acupoints alone for now. It wouldn't be too late to bring them all together at the final step when he was fusing all forty-four of the acupoints into one.
The suanni could sense that Su Yu was cultivating while traveling. Thus, he slowed down somewhat and tried to ensure a smooth journey. In any case, it wasn't like the suanni could continue running at top speed.
He was a ninth-stage Skysoar. The other members of the team were either travelling on foot or riding some cloudrush horses. None of them could keep up with the suanni.
Seeing that the others were having difficulty keeping up, Su Yu tossed the miniature bull out. As the bull enlarged, he said, "Xia Qing and the others who can no longer run, get on the bull."
Xia Qing glanced at the mountaindrill bull. The bull remained silent even when he was being treated as a mount. He waited obediently for Xia Qing and the others to get on his back.
"Brother Su, is this proper?"
Xia Qing hesitated. This was a Skysoar beast. The mountaindrill bull race was also ranked much higher than their races. For the beast races, this could be considered a breach of etiquette.
Su Yu frowned and chided, "Stop wasting time. Like we agreed, you will all be following my orders during this mission. Xia QIng, Li Minyu, and Ji Xiaomeng. Get on the bull. You're light enough that the bull won't have an issue carrying all of you. If you exhaust yourself too much, how are you supposed to fight later?"
While he was saying that, he sent a voice transmission to the mountaindrill bull, "Keep an eye on them. If anyone acts suspiciously, kill them."
The mountaindrill bull did not reply. He merely cursed inwardly. He knew that this fellow wasn't such a kind person. So there was a reason for this generosity.
This fellow had acted like he was offering them a mount out of kindness, but in truth, he was treating them as hostages. The bull couldn't help but wonder how many of these people would die by the end of the journey.
The three mentioned names were initially mounted on cloudrush horses. But those horses had since died from exhaustion. Thus, they had been running on foot. Since Su Yu had said that much, they did not hesitate and leaped onto the back of the mountaindrill bull.
This was a ninth-stage Skysoar mountaindrill bull. When he enlarged his body, he could easily carry ten people on his back.
Seeing this, the concealed dao protectors started conversing through voice transmissions again, "The human race is indeed powerful. Both the suannis and the mountaindrill bulls are powerful races. But both of them have turned into Su Yu's mounts. Sigh."
The person who had spoken had complicated emotions.
A different dao protector replied, "There's no helping it. This is the Human Realm and the human race is a major race. Isn't that why we're here? Sure, everyone is saying that we're here as allies, but in truth, we're more like vassals than allies..."
At this time, a different dao protector said, "Stop talking. Everyone, if you wish to grumble and complain, do it when you return. Don't do it here."
"Old Antelope, your race is suited as a mount as well. Why haven't your race sent some juniors over to serve as mounts?" teased one of the dao protectors.
The old antelope snorted coldly and said, "Old Fox, stop trying to incite disharmony. Don't try anything funny and stop wasting your breath. If you don't enjoy your time in the Human Realm, feel free to leave. Don't drag the rest of us down with you."
Just listen to what these people had been saying. If they were so unhappy with their status here, they could simply leave the Human Realm.
It was fine if they gossiped behind closed doors, but there were so many of them here. If one of them leaked the contents of this conversation, their relationship with the human race might deteriorate.
The old antelope said, "So far, only a bunch of fools have attacked. But it is clear that the cult is really aiming to kill this kid. And they are also aware that we're here. Keep an eye out, everyone. If they're really trying to kill this kid, they must have devised a plan to deal with us as well."
The antelope did not dare to be careless. It wasn't like nobody knew that these myriad race students were traveling with Su Yu. According to the rules, the myriad race students were allowed to bring their dao protectors along when traveling outside the academy.
If the Myriad Race Cult wanted to kill Su Yu, they would take these dao protectors into consideration as well. But the antelope believed that the cult would probably not dare to launch a serious attack as there were five Mountainseas and three ninth-stage Cloudbreach cultivators in their group.
Nevertheless, they still needed to be cautious. There was no guarantee that the upper echelons of the cult would make an appearance, but anything could happen. It would be too late for them to do anything if Su Yu was killed. Nothing would change even if they could ultimately kill the murderer.
There were eight dao protectors in total, consisting of the experts from the cloud tiger, fox, barbaric bull, iron-winged bird, sky horse, mountain antelope, black panther, and sky wolf races. Among these dao protectors, those from the iron-winged bird, black panther, and sky wolf races were in the Cloudbreach Realm. The rest of them were Mountainseas.
The antelope said, "Try to keep your mouths shut. I believe some Great Xia Mountainseas are monitoring us as I sensed some unknown Mountainseas earlier. Watch what you say."
He had sensed at least one Mountainsea tailing them after leaving Great Xia. He was not able to detect the exact location of the extra Mountainsea, but he was sure they were being monitored. After all, so many myriad race Mountainseas were traveling together. Great Xia would definitely keep an eye on them.
The dao protectors were actually well aware of this. The cloud tiger Mountainsea said, "We're only escorting the young geniuses of our races out on a mission. Even if Great Xia has numerous experts, they won't send too many of them here. I reckon there are only one or two Mountainseas monitoring us. Perhaps there's only one. What do you think, Old Antelope?"
"I suppose."
The antelope Mountainsea did not say much, but he was also certain that Great Xia wouldn't spare too many Mountainseas just to monitor them. Great Xia was large. They wouldn't have that many spare Mountainseas to spare on this monitoring mission.
These dao protectors would be fine unless they started causing trouble The hidden Mountainseas were only here to deter them, not assassinate them. While they were talking, sounds of explosions suddenly erupted beneath them.
Amid the explosions, the suanni leaped into the air. Numerous craters could be seen on the ground. At the same time, a dense fog appeared around them.
"Poisonous fog."
Su Yu warned as his source qi erupted. With the Pure Source Art, he purified the poisonous fog around them. But right at that moment, his heart skipped a beat. The little hammer immediately appeared and slammed down toward a seemingly empty spot in the air.
The air undulated before a cultural weapon appeared out of nowhere. The weapon instantly broke apart. Then, the air continued undulating as a Mountainsea appeared and shot into the distance. At this time, a dao protector's voice rang out, "It's a Cloudbreach. Be careful. The black panther is giving chase."
A Cloudbreach. And a cultural researcher at that.
Su Yu frowned, but he said nothing. When he landed on the ground, he scanned the group around him. The others looked to be in a sorry state as nearly all the cloudrush horses in the group had died.
The sky horse youth couldn't help but complain, "Have they gone crazy? They are really sending so many assassins after you? Su Yu, just how many enemies do you have?"
This was supposed to be a scenic tour for him! Why were there so many enemies? They were still within Great Xia yet enemies at the Cloudbreach Realm were already starting to appear. He had nearly been killed by the explosions earlier.
Fortunately, someone had pulled him out of harm's way at the last moment. He felt a lingering fear as he thought of that. He was also starting to regret following this team.
Su Yu ignored the sky horse youth. The Cloudbreach that had just attacked them wasn't weak. That attack had been launched from afar to test their defenses. As a result, one of their dao protector had been lured away.
Su Yu's eyes flickered as he said, "Seniors, cease all pursuit lest this is a diversionary tactic."
"Alright."
Someone gave a short reply.
Su Yu said nothing else. But at this point, he was certain that the iron-winged bird, fox, barbaric bull, and cloud tiger races were colluding with the single character faction. He was still unsure about the other four races, but he still wouldn't fully trust them.
It was possible that even the four races he had identified as enemies were meant to be diversions as well. There might be more hidden enemies among them. Thinking about it, his enemies had truly put a lot of effort into killing him. Just how many Mountainseas had he attracted with this trip of his?
Su Yu sneered inwardly. What a pity that they were still in Great Xia and the Xia Family was still laying low. If he was already in Great Ming, with Zhu Tiandao's assistance, he could probably lure out even more enemies and kill them all.
At present, Great Xia would only kill when required instead of actively seeking enemies to kill. Most experts of Great Xia would only do something when the cult pulled something major. Then again, the cult did not have much strength in Great Xia so they were rarely able to do something big enough to attract the attention of these experts.
Since the populace of Great Xia greatly despised the cult, recruitment within Great Xia had been very difficult for cultists. While thinking about all that, Su Yu resumed the journey.
Even poisonous fog and explosive talismans had been utilized. The cult had expended quite a lot of effort to deal with him.