Chapter 578: Arrival at the Starfall Mountain (2)
Wu Wenhai said nothing. He felt somewhat dispirited. Those words were too mean. And he had nothing to say.
There was no denying that Nanyuan was weak. They could hardly find a Skysoar in the city. They might be one of the 28 cities of Great Xia, but they were only as big as a single district of a large city.
Suddenly, dust rose in the distance. A streak of golden light appeared. That was the suanni, moving ahead while emitting a powerful aura.
Standing atop the city wall, Wu Wenhai exclaimed, "Is that the suanni Li Yunfeng mentioned? A high-stage Skysoar of a top 100 race..."
"Even his mount is stronger than you. Sigh."
The old principal was as mean as ever. Wu Wenhai was speechless. He was already feeling pretty dispirited. Why was the old principal so mean? Nevertheless, he was still overwhelmed by the shock he was feeling. Su Yu was truly impressive. In less than half a year, Su Yu had returned mounted on a suanni.
Suddenly, a city guard exclaimed, "There are a lot of beasts!"
Yes. There were a lot of beasts. Or to be precise, there were a lot of beast corpses. Su Yu's group had encountered a group of rampaging beasts near the city. After dealing with these beasts, they decided to drag the corpses over since they were already near Nanyuan.
All the corpses were strung together. The suanni and mountaindrill bull were in charge of dragging these corpses. That was why they were producing clouds of dust as they moved.
There was no need to worry about damaging the corpses while dragging them on the ground as these were all powerful beasts. As they had just been killed, their corpses wouldn't be damaged so easily.
They had finally reached Nanyuan. Looking at the dilapidated city walls ahead of him, Su Yu could see how small Nanyuan was compared to cities like Tianshui and the capital. He wouldn't feel this way in the past, but when he looked at those city walls yet again, he was able to see just how shabby these walls were.
Nevertheless, he still loved Nanyuan more. After all, this was his true home. This was where he had lived eighteen years in joy. This was where he met his friends and teachers. When they were near the city, Su Yu leaped off the suanni and landed on the wall. There, he greeted loudly, "Su Yu greets the mayor and the principal! I have returned!"
When Su Yu's gaze landed on the old principal, he couldn't help but feel a sense of intimacy. And when his gaze landed on Xia Bing, he became absent-minded for a short moment. He even saw Chen Hao's father, Chen Qinghe, there. Like the others, Chen Qinghe was also looking at him with a joyful smile.
"Everything is fine as long as you're safely back..."
The old principal stepped forth and patted Su Yu's shoulder with a complicated expression. But he soon gave Su Yu a kick before grinning, "Why are you being rude? Are you not going to invite your friends in? Show them the hospitality of Nanyuan!"
Su Yu smiled. For some reason, the old principal looked even older than before. But fortunately, the principal still looked healthy. He couldn't help but recall how this principal would always bicker with his Teacher Liu. This principal was frequently made the scapegoat for the things his Teacher Liu did. There was a period of time when the principal nearly yanked his chin clean of his beard due to stress.
What a pity that Teacher Liu was no longer here. Instead, Teacher Liu was now staying at the incomparably dangerous Allheaven Battlefield. After a short exchange of pleasantries, the city gate swung open. The city guards sallied forth to welcome Su Yu's friends into the city.
From atop the city wall, Su Yu hollered at them, "Take a rest. The mission isn't urgent. I won't be staying with you. I'll be taking a trip back home."
The others nodded and followed the guards to their accommodations. At this point, the sky was starting to turn dark. After traveling through the night, Su Yu was feeling slightly tired. But he was still able to walk and talk with the others just fine.
After a while, he noticed that the old principal was hesitating to say something. Thus, he said, "Senior Great Mountain, has everyone left?"
Great Mountain did not reveal himself, but he replied through voice transmission, "Yes. But I think there are some existing Mountainseas hidden in Nanyuan. I can sense them, but I don't know their exact positions."
Su Yu wasn't surprised. Those were probably the people from Xia Family that were here to look for the ruin.
In fact, there might even be a Sunmoon around. But that wasn't a bad thing. With these people here, he would be able to take a good rest. Yu Hong and the others wouldn't dare to do anything in Nanyuan.
Su Yu felt like laughing as he wondered if those people would dare to attack the city if he claimed that the ruin was inside the city.
The principal did not appear surprised to see that Su Yu was being protected by a hidden expert. In fact, he was relieved to see that. With a soft voice, he said, "Since you're back, take a few days off and rest. After New Year's, return to the capital and focus on your studies. Don't get into any trouble. Do you understand me?"
That was all the principal could say. Su Yu seemed to have changed into a completely different person after a few months away from Nanyuan. He had changed way too much. Instead of his appearance or his strength, his demeanor had changed the most.
Before Su Yu left Nanyuan, he was a bookworm and a refined gentleman. He might be impatient at times, but he would always give off the impression of a refined gentleman. But all of that had changed.
In fact, when the principal saw Su Yu, he was reminded of his first meeting with Liu Wenyan over forty years ago. Liu Wenyan had eventually transformed into the shameless old man that he was after spending forty years in Nanyuan.
Su Yu smiled and said, "Don't worry, Principal. I'm not the type of person to create trouble needlessly."
He changed the topic and asked, "Did my father send me any letters? I didn't receive anything at the capital."
"There are no letters, but he did tell someone to bring a verbal message back."
Xia Bing was the one to answer. He said, "He asked if you're now dating someone. If you're not seeing anyone, he'll introduce someone to you. There is a pretty girl who is the daughter of a 100-man commander that he wishes to introduce to you..."
"..."
The old principal roared with laughter. Su Yu didn't know whether to laugh or cry. He said, "Is that all?"
"Yeah." Xia Bing found it funny as well. He said, "You don't need to worry about him. The Devil Subduing Army has not been involved in many battles as of late. The soldiers on the frontlines will also be rotated back to the headquarters soon. Your father might be one of the soldiers being rotated back so things will be even safer there."
"With your current strength, you can easily join the Devil Subduing Army or even the Martial Dragon Guards. In fact, the Martial Dragon Guards would be glad to have you. Your father's biggest dream has always been to join the Martial Dragon Guards."
Su Yu smiled and said, "Forget it. I'm still a student."
"You—" Xia Bing could say nothing to that. He helplessly asked, "You have killed a lot of Skysoars already, right?"
"Well, I did kill a few of them." Su Yu smiled and asked, "Uncle Xia, have some experts arrived at Nanyuan?"
Xia Bing remained silent.
Su Yu said, "The others might not be aware of this, but both you and the mayor are definitely aware of this. The Martial Dragon Guards is the private army of the Xia Family. They won't hide this from you."
Xia Bing and the mayor were definitely the ones in charge of providing accommodations to the visitors. Thus, it was not possible that those people would come without informing them. Xia Bing wanted to say something, but he hesitated.
Su Yu said, "Don't worry. I talked about this with Marquis Xia before. They are here because of me, right? They're looking for the ruin."
With the mention of Marquis Xia, Xia Bing stopped struggling and nodded, "Yes. They are from the Secret Regiment. There are two main regiments in the Martial Dragon Guards. people like us belong to the Public Regiment while those people belong to the Secret Regiment. The Secret Regiment is also the core of the Martial Dragon Guards. A commander from the Secret Regiment has arrived."
"What's the strength of this commander?"
"Sunmoon Realm, I guess." Xia Bing shook his head and said, "I honestly don't know. The Secret Regiment is small, but all of them are experts. That lord arrived with several subordinates. All his subordinates are Mountainsea experts so I assume that he's a Sunmoon. I know nothing else. But your guess is probably correct."
"Uncle Xia, why did you tell me all that? Are you not afraid that this will get you in trouble?"
Xia Bing smiled and said, "It's fine. You know this very well. Since they're here to look for something that belongs to you, they need to notify you as well. Thus, this isn't really something that should be kept from you. The prefect once said that any individual's fortuitous encounter belongs to that individual alone. Trying to snatch something like that away is the same as thievery. And that is not something Great Xia can tolerate. Thus, even if they do manage to find something, they will need to talk to you about it."
Su Yu smiled, "Is that so? But why didn't they ask for my permission before starting the search?"
Xia Bing didn't know what to say.
Su Yu smiled, "It's fine. Let them do as they wish. I don't care."
Why would he care? He didn't even know if there was really a ruin in Nanyuan. According to the established rules, they would need to share thirty percent of what they found with him. Thus, he was more than happy to have them search for the so-called ruin.
"How many Mountainseas are there?"
"I saw three of them."
Su Yu nodded. So there were one Sunmoon and three Mountainseas in the city. It was clear they attached great importance to this so-called ruin. This city was roughly three hundred kilometers away from Starfall Mountain. That wasn't a long distance. Sunmoons and Mountainseas wouldn't need much time to cover such a distance.
These people might need to head over to the Starfall Mountain to collect the corpses there by the time he was done.
Su Yu took out a merit card and handed it to the old principal. With a smile, he said, "Principal, when Teacher Liu wrote the Lightning Source Blade's willpower text for me back then, you said that I need to repay the school a hundredfold. I can do that now. Please make good use of the money in this card."
The old principal frowned and said, "That was a joke from me and Old Liu. Why are you taking it seriously?"
"I am taking it seriously." Su Yu smiled and said, "It is only natural that I repay the school now that I have the ability to do so. You only need to focus on nurturing more talented juniors. This is nothing for me."
"You are getting more and more confident nowadays, kid." The principal laughed and said, "Speaking of, I need to tell you something. That Old Liu is a total bastard. He only wrote four moves in the willpower text. The remaining five moves are all fake."
"..."
Su Yu didn't know whether to laugh or cry. He said, "No wonder something felt off. I thought I did a bad job at taking care of the willpower text, but the remaining moves have been fake all along?"
The old principal laughed happily. He had been waiting to say this for a very long time. What a pity that Old Liu was no longer here. He really wanted to see the embarrassed look on that old bastard's face.
Su Yu laughed as well. After a while, he looked at Xia Bing and said, "Uncle Xia, can I trouble you to send my father a letter? Tell him to ignore all the rumors. Just live his life. His son has grown up. Regardless of what I do, I won't regret the choice I make myself."
Xia Bing did not ask any questions. He merely nodded. The old principal also watched on without asking anything.
When they reached Su Yu's old neighborhood, he smiled and said, "Alright then. I'll be heading back home to take a look. I'll be leaving for the mission tonight. Those beasts aren't really that big of a deal. Those Mountainseas can easily deal with the beasts anytime they want."
The principal stayed silent. If the kid was already aware of that, why had the kid returned? This kid was clearly plotting something.