Chapter 595: Leaving Great Xia (2)
Zhu Tiandao clicked his tongue in amazement. He said, "Lan Tian hasn't been in the Sunmoon Realm for long, right? What's his strength now?"
"I'm not sure, but he's at least a seventh-stage Sunmoon already." Great Ming King laughed and said, "That fellow has modified his own body to a terrifying degree. It is not surprising that he's strong. Since I can't arrive in time to catch him, I won't waste my time trying to pursue him. I still have something to do, so..."
Great Ming King looked at Su Yu and said, "Have some patience. Slow and steady wins the race. Great Ming is in no rush. We don't care about immediate benefits. They can fight all they want, but we don't have to involve ourselves. Having the lead now does not mean that they will have the lead forever."
"What if Su Yu comes up with new cultivation methods?"
"Let him do as he wishes." Great Ming King said, "But make sure to not disseminate these new cultivation methods everywhere. Keep the scale of everything under control. Even if the kid wants to start a new multiple character faction, let him be. So long as he doesn't turn everyone into a member, it's fine. That would only create more trouble for us so at the very least, make sure to keep whatever he wants to do from spreading to the other prefectures."
Zhu Tiandao nodded.
Great Ming King added, "Also, can't you do better? The kids of the other old fellows are all on the way to affirm their dao. Meanwhile, you're still stuck. Sure, we can say that we have nothing to fear since we don't have anyone trying to advance. But one can also say that since we don't have anyone trying to advance, we're not even worth their attention."
Great Ming King appeared visibly upset as he said, "That Old Xia might not even be my match, but so what? Ask around and listen to what the others think about Great Ming and Great Xia. My prestige has been ruined by you!"
Zhu Tiandao helplessly said, "Dad, how can you blame me for that? That's the fault of the genes I inherited..."
"Shut your mouth!"At this moment, Great Ming King's gaze landed on the little furball who was still feasting on the characters of the dead Sunmoon. His eyes flickered as he said, "Tell Su Yu to keep this little fellow hidden. Don't show it off too much."
"Hmm?"
"I think I saw this race before..." Great Ming King sounded unsure as he said, "I think I saw them once...but I can't remember it too well. And I'm not sure if they're from the same race. It happened over three hundred years ago when I first affirmed my dao. When I was fighting with someone, something appeared and swallowed the entire sea of willpower of an Invincible in a flash before vanishing. I don't know if they're from the same race."
"..."
"Invincible?"
Zhu Tiandao swallowed. Please be a joke.
"I'm not sure."
Great Ming King stared at the little furball for a long while before saying, "Just make sure to not show this little fellow off to everyone. Why is something like this with Su Yu?'
Whatever. He decided that he was too busy to be concerned with something like this. They only needed to be careful.
He said, "As for the disassembly method...that is the core of the issue. At the very least, that's the case for all cultural researchers. Great Xia King is a brute. The Xia Family walks the path of physical cultivation so they don't understand the significance of something like this. From what I saw when I rewound the time, this disassembly method is still somewhat incomplete. It will probably not work for Mountainseas. And it will be hard for me to further perfect this method since I'm not a member of the multiple character faction. It is better to leave this task in the hands of Bai Feng and Su Yu."
After a short silence, he said, "If this method is effective even for old fellows like us, it would be an entirely different story. Supply the kid with more resources. Ensure that he gets to perfect this method. If he succeeds, I can even tempt a few old friends to side with us."
"Bai Feng is in the Vanguard Regiment."
"It's fine." Great Ming King laughed and said, "I'll be at the Allheaven Battlefield so I can keep watch over him. It's still not the time for me to take him away since we don't want to break any of the established rules. Just let him kill a few people and serve his sentence before leaving the Vanguard Regiment. I can get him back into Great Ming after that."
"Alright." Zhu Tiandao nodded. Seeing that the old man was leaving, he asked nervously, "Dad, what should I do if Xia Longwu decides to attack us after you leave?"
"..."
Great Ming King was tired of speaking with his son. It was so tiring to have a son like this. What a pity that his eldest son had left at such a young age. The Zhu Family wouldn't have been so pitiful otherwise.
"Xia Longwu won't waste his time attacking you. You're not worth his time."
He said, "At the moment, Great Han King is the Invincible in command of the Knowledge Seeking Realm. If you encounter any problems, ask him for help. As for the War Shrine, Silk Destroying King is the Invincible currently in command. I noticed that Su Yu seems to have cultivated his Time technique. You can also consider asking for his help if you really need it. If he refuses to help, tell him you'll throw his Time technique into the toilet and spread the recording of that all over the Human Realm."
"..."
Zhu Tiandao was speechless. Was this old man trying to get his own son killed? If he really dared to do that, the Silk Destroying King would beat him to death!
"What are you afraid of? Your old man is still alive and well!" Great Ming King said, "Alright, I need to go. The first divines and the original devils have been active recently. I need to keep an eye on them. Even Old Xia and the others are already there."
"Dad, Su Yu seems to know a divine-grade cultural art."
"I noticed." Great Ming King shook his head and said, "It's not a big deal. Not everyone is capable of cultivating something like that, including someone like me. How many apertures can I even open at this level of cultivation? Talk to me again after the kid discovers the so-called source soul acupoint or an aperture fusion art."
He continued, "I suspect this cultural art is a modified version of the five elemental race's cultural arts merged into one. I can sense the aura of the five elemental race from his body. Very few people can make use of something like this. For many people, even something with 72 apertures is more than enough. I checked his apertures. There are too many of them. Unless you're a super genius, you won't be able to cultivate it. You will only delay your cultivation for no meaningful gain. It's not like our Zhu Family has a genius capable of cultivating this art. Why are you even focusing on this?"
"..."
Zhu Tiandao couldn't help but nod in agreement. His old man made a lot of sense.
Old Ming King said, "Don't focus on that. It's not too helpful for us. Focus on the source soul acupoint instead. That's more important. Tell Su Yu to visit the Bai Family whenever he finds the time. Back then, Bai Tianhao seemed to have activated the source soul acupoint as well. But I couldn't understand the materials left behind by that fellow since he walked a different path of cultivation."
"Is there really such an acupoint?"
"It's very likely to exist." Great Ming King said, "And this is what's truly important here. With this acupoint, you might even be able to battle Invincibles as a ninth-stage Sunmoon. As for the younger generation, they might be able to skip the Source Opening Realm entirely."
At this point, the old man's face turned sorrowful again as he said, "Your big brother died young because of that damn Source Opening Realm! Without that realm, your big brother wouldn't have taken that risk back then..."
Not this again! Zhu Tiandao was really speechless. His elder brother had been dead for hundreds of years. Could this old man stop talking about his dead son all the time? His living son was standing right in front of him! Zhu Tiandao even wondered if he was actually Great Ming King's son.
Before long, Great Ming King recovered and said, "The divine-grade art, ability blood essence research, and ruin are only useful for super geniuses. Only the Acupoint Fusion Art, source soul acupoint, and disassembly method are truly useful for humanity as a whole. Don't misplace your focus. You're not young anymore. Learn to look further. Don't be silly like the others."
Zhu Tiandao nodded.
"Dad, I'm thinking of giving birth to a few more daughters. What do you think?"
With one glance at Zhu Tiandao's face, Old Ming King said, "Forget about it. Get your third son to do it instead. As for you...try looking in a mirror. If you do manage to get a good looking daughter, that might not even be yours. In truth, I've always suspected that your third son isn't actually your son..."
Leaving those words behind, Great Ming King vanished into thin air.
Zhu Tiandao's face changed. He turned his head and looked at Director Hou who had been acting like he didn't exist and said, "What did you hear?"
"Huh?"
Director Hou's blank expression suddenly returned to normal, as though he had just awoken from a dream. He asked, "What are you talking about, Prefect?"
Zhu Tiandao asked, "How do you think my third son looks?"
"He looks good."
"Does he resemble me?"
"Greatly."
Zhu Tiandao nodded and said, "You're right. In fact, I checked his blood when he was ten. I have confirmation that he's my son."
Director Hou said nothing. Why did this fellow check his son's blood? Was he so insecure? There was always the possibility of a mutation, right? The prefect should be more confident in himself!
While the two were talking, Su Yu opened his 338th acupoint. He had also opened two additional apertures, reaching 110 opened apertures. While doing so, he was contemplating on that one moment of clarity when he had temporarily opened 180 apertures earlier.
At that moment, his instincts were strongly suggesting that the source soul acupoint might really exist. He could almost feel the existence of that acupoint.
During the moment when he delivered the killing strike on Zhou Pingsheng, something told him that the source soul acupoint might appear after opening 180 apertures and 360 acupoints.
After an indeterminate amount of time, Su Yu finally opened his eyes.
Looking at the beasts that were still deep in cultivation, he stood up and walked toward Zhu Tiandao. There, he bowed and said, "Prefect, can you help me open the treasure vault?"
"Sure." Zhu Tiandao was quite curious as well. He asked, "Where did you learn about this treasure vault?"
"A corpse."
"..."
Zhu Tiandao was speechless. He started walking toward the stone wall while saying, "Don't tell anyone about this since it might bring you more trouble. There are things that are still taboo even for Invincibles."
"I understand."
Zhu Tiandao said nothing else. He stopped before the stone wall and started taking a closer look at it. In truth, he had already scanned the wall earlier. With a smile, he waved his hand, instantly creating a door on the wall.
The door swung open. After a short observation, Zhu Tiandao said, "There are some small traps inside, but they aren't too dangerous."
He stepped inside and said, "The master of the Divine Skywing Sect used to be a seventh-stage Sunmoon. He wasn't weak at all. Combined with the other Sunmoons of the sect, they were capable of even killing ninth-stage Sunmoons. Unfortunately for them, they encountered Xia Longwu and died."
"In fact, the Divine Skywing Sect was probably the strongest sect in Great Ming, Great Xia, and Great Shang. If this is really their treasure vault, there is probably a lot of good stuff in here."
As he talked, he casually pointed at several spots inside the vault, destroying the installed mechanisms without any explanation. Before long, a large cave appeared before them.
The cave was brightly lit.
"It looks normal."
Zhu Tiandao was somewhat disappointed after scanning the cave. The defenses were tight, but he didn't see anything truly valuable. At the very least, these things were nothing special for someone like him.
Then again, that was understandable. Even the sect master was only a seventh-stage Sunmoon. Meanwhile, he was a prefect and the son of an Invincible. There was no comparing the two.