Chapter 601: Father And Son (2)
Chen Long was still unhappy. He said, "You don't need to placate Big Brother Su. He will get through this himself. But Great Xia is too disappointing. How can they allow this to happen? All the soldiers will be disappointed. This will remain a thorn in the heart of the army for a very long time."
The general said nothing. He was furious as well, but he couldn't change the past. In fact, Great Xia was already being very generous with how they were handling this matter.
A short while later.
With a blank expression, 1000-Man Commander Hu greeted loudly, "Greetings, General!"
A big shot had actually arrived!
Holy shit!
What was going on? Why were so many higher-ups of the Devil Subduing Army here? The general, the Mountainsea commanders, and the deputy generals were all here. Su Long and the other soldiers stopped eating and stood up to salute the visitors. All of them watched on curiously. Why were so many big shots visiting their tiny 1000-man unit?
Su Long was looking around curiously when his gaze landed on Chen Long. Noticing the familiar face, he grinned, but he soon noticed the gloomy expression Chen Long had. He couldn't help but grumble inwardly that this little bastard must have gotten cocky after getting promoted in the army.
Hmph!
Since that fellow was ignoring him, Su Long decided to ignore his old friend as well.Apart from Chen Long, he saw a lot of his old friends as well. He was happy to see them, but he grew curious when he saw that all of them were looking distressed. So Chen Long wasn't ignoring him? Something else must have happened!
But Su Long was only a 100-man commander so he remained silent. This was not the proper venue for him to catch up with his old friends. After a short greeting, 1000-Man Commander Hu stopped talking and waited for the higher-ups to speak.
The general said nothing. He scanned the crowd before stopping at Su Long. He said, "100-Man Commander Su Long, step forth."
Su Long looked to his left and right in confusion. Was the general talking to him? He started growing nervous. He stepped forth and gave the general a military salute before loudly saying, "Su Long greets the general and the various officers!"
The general said, "As commanded by Great Xia, Su Long will be a 1000-man commander effective immediately. He will also be rewarded ten drops of divine and devil blood essence..."
Boom!
All the surrounding soldiers were stunned. What was going on? Su Long was as shocked as the others. What happened? What did he do to deserve this reward? His mind blanked out for a long while as the general continued reading the list of rewards.
Finally, the general stopped. At this time, Chen Long looked at his old leader and said with hesitation, "Big Brother Su, can you come with me for a moment?"
Su Long stepped over blankly. What was going on?
A few minutes later, the blank expression was gone from Su Long's face. He calmly asked with a hoarse voice, "Yu left for Great Ming?"
"Yeah."
"Is he fine?"
"He's fine. He's more than fine. Prefect Zhu of Great Ming places a lot of importance on him. The prefect had personally slain multiple Sunmoons and Mountainseas for him."
Chen Long said, "Big Brother Su, stay calm for now. When we go back, we will demand an explanation for this. We won't let this rest."
Su Long forced himself to smile and said, "It's fine. As long as he's safe, everything is fine. Even Great Xia had killed a few Mountainseas as punishment, right? My son...is truly incredible..."
His throat turned dry as he said, "But...it's the New Year's. Where is Yu celebrating? Is he in Great Ming? What is he eating tonight? Where is he staying tonight?"
As he spoke, the burly man started tearing up. He said, "That damn kid has never left Nanyuan before. After so long, he finally got to visit Great Xia City. I reckon he hadn't even gotten to know the capital that well. But now, he has to leave for Great Ming? Does he know anyone there? Who's going to take care of him there? Am I right, Little Chen?"
Chen Long didn't know what to say. Su Long continued muttering with his hoarse voice, "1000-man commander? divine and devil blood essence? How can I take all that? It's a waste on someone like me..."
"Big Brother, just accept the rewards. I'm afraid that rumors might spread if you refuse the rewards..."
"You're worried that the army morale will be affected?" Su Long said, "All this is for the sake of placating Su Yu's father? Is this...my reward for selling my son? My son was fine when I left him in the care of Great Xia and the Xia Family...but he is gone after only a few months?"
Su Long grimaced. He wasn't crying, but he wasn't laughing either. The expression on his face looked incomparably complicated as he said, "My son was forced to join Great Ming. So many people wanted to kill him. Little Chen, what did my son do? Who did he offend?"
"Big Brother...sorry."
"Why are you apologizing? It's not your fault." Su Long clenched his teeth and said, "Fine. I'll accept the rewards. This is what I get for selling my son. If I refuse, Great Xia might even believe that I'm harboring dissatisfaction. That's not true. I'm just wondering...if that kid has eaten his New Year's Eve meal by now? He needs to eat something good since it's the New Year's Eve..."
Su Long wiped his tears clean and grinned, "It's fine. I'm fine. His father is too useless. If I'm a Sunmoon...or even a Mountainsea...would my son have been fine? But I'm a useless Infinite Strength cultivator with only 36 acupoints. I will accept the divine and devil blood essence. That's some good stuff. If I can enter the Skysoar Realm, I'll be a little bit more useful..."
He kept muttering to himself with a grimace. Finally, he looked at Chen Long and smiled, "Little Chen, I'm fine. Isn't the kid fine? This is good. He must be doing well if even Prefect Zhu is looking so highly upon him. And Great Ming isn't even that far away. Nanyuan is right beside Great Ming..."
"Big Brother Su..."
"I'm really fine." Su Long stepped back into the formation and loudly said, "Su Long thanks the general for the rewards!"
He turned to face his shocked comrades and loudly announced, "This is the glory my son won for me! My son is Su Yu! The same Su Yu who had created the Acupoint Fusion Art! He is a super genius! The general is standing right there. I am telling the truth. Does anyone still doubt my words?"
The surrounding soldiers were still in shock.
Su Long grinned and said, "But he's too much of a genius so he was recruited by the prefect of Great Ming. Maybe I'll be the in-law of the Zhu Family soon. Hahaha!"
The soldiers were shaken. What was the meaning of that? They were confused. Was Su Yu being taken as the Zhu Family's son-in-law?
Looking at Su Long who was grinning while sharing the news, the general sighed. Su Long...was someone who knew what was the right thing to do here.
With his words, the impact of the incident would weaken greatly. After all, even Su Yu's father was joking that his son was going to become the Zhu Family's son-in-law. And the Zhu Family was definitely fine with that. With this, the situation would remain under control for now.
Regardless, Su Long would definitely still be unhappy deep inside. But there was really nothing the general could do about that.
Great Ming.
Inside the tavern, Su Yu was in the middle of a meal. With a smile, he raised his cup at the man in front of him and said, "My apologies for troubling you, Director Hou. Because of me, you have to waste your time here even during the New Year's Eve."
Director Hou smiled and said, "Don't worry about that. After living for so long, these celebrations are really not that important for me anymore."
"Director, are you a Sunmoon?"
"Yeah."
"Amazing!" Su Yu asked, "Director, do you think I'll be prejudiced against after reaching Tiandu?"
"That's not the case." After thinking about it, Director Hou said, "If my guess is right, when you first arrive, everyone will come out to take a look at you out of curiosity. Then, they will lose interest and return to whatever they were doing before."
Yes, that was it. This kid should stop thinking too much. Those people would come out, take a look at him like he was an exotic animal, and exclaim in admiration.
They would praise this incredible young genius. So this was how that Su Yu looked like? What a genius.
Then...that would be the end of it. They would lose their interest and it would be business as usual again. Some old men would probably be demonstrating their new findings. They would need to go over there and take a look. Oh, another old man had created a character capable of brewing wine without any materials. They needed to go over there and take a look as well.
As for Su Yu...wow, he was really incredible. But so what? How could he compare against a character that could brew wine out of thin air?
Su Yu blanked out as he listened to that. After a long while, he nodded in understanding. True. Great Ming was known as...a place filled with unambitious slackers. He wondered if joining Great Ming was the right choice.
Just look at this city he had just arrived at. The city was bustling with people and activity, but nobody even bothered to give him a second look. Oh, he was riding on a powerful beast? So what?
Why should they care? Rather than wasting their time caring about him, they were better off spending time on what they wanted to do.
"Director, are there a lot of cultural research academies in Great Ming?"
"There are three of them." Director Hou smiled and explained, "How should I say this? The Great Ming Cultural Research Academy's principal...is still the first principal."
Su Yu blanked out.
"Do you understand the implication of that?" Director Hou coughed awkwardly and said, "There are a lot of old people in the academy. The mortality rate is quite low, unlike Great Xia Cultural Research Academy which already has a sixth principal."
Su Yu finally understood! He nodded. So the first principal was still alive. Incredible. Were the cultural researchers of Great Ming a bunch of people who would never step on the battlefield?
"Director, in that case, wouldn't the academy be overcrowded? Are there even enough resources to support all these people?"
"That's not the case." Director Hou shook his head and said, "How will that happen? Sure, there are a lot of them. But most of them are quite weak so they don't really need that much resources. And they also enjoy creating all sorts of weird things. They have actually earned a lot selling their creations."
He explained, "For example, the televisions, communicators, and a lot of other things you use daily are actually the creations of Great Ming. Great Ming is also a weapon peddler. We are actually very good at producing standardized weapons. Even Great Xia is buying from us. After all, they are always lacking in weapons and military supplies while we have an excess of weapons and supplies...
"Also, the weak willpower texts that you can easily find on the market are mostly produced by Great Ming as well. Some of our cultural researchers have too much free time so after reaching the Skysoar Realm, they will cultivate dozens of random arts and techniques before making a career out of writing willpower texts..."
"..."
Su Yu maintained his silence.
Director Hou continued his explanation, "Great Ming doesn't produce a lot of powerful arts, but we have a lot of weak arts and techniques. Thus, we actually earn a lot. For example, thirty percent of the commonly seen yellow-grade arts and techniques in the Human Realm are actually produced by Great Ming."
Su Yu was completely speechless.
"So Great Ming Cultural Research Academy is capable of paying for their expenses without any governmental support?"
"Yeah." Director Hou nodded and said, "In fact, these fellows enjoy researching so much that all our scientific research academies have gone bankrupt. There's no helping it. Initially, we have a few scientific research academies, but all these academies have been slowly swallowed up by those cultural researchers. No, that's wrong. Old Niu didn't want them, but they had forcefully merged themselves with the academy."
"..."
Su Yu didn't know what to say. But that was understandable. These cultural researchers had taken over the job of the scientific research academies. What else could they do?
"How about the war academies?"
"Oh, the mortality rate is much higher. Our war academy is currently run by the fifth principal." Director Hou sounded helpless as he said, "The war academy is mainly in charge of wars. That much is obvious from its name. Even so, our mortality rate is much lower than Great Xia's war academies."
"Are there grottos in the academy?"
"Yes." With an odd expression, Director Hou said, "We have a lot of them. Over these years, we have still produced some Sunmoons. But some of these grottos were actually left by Mountainseas. We call these pseudo grottos."
"Do you have something similar to the Source Qi Secret Grotto and Willpower Grotto?"
Director Hou hesitated slightly before awkwardly saying, "Those are unique grottos that are very hard to replicate. Of course, we still have grottos that are slightly similar. Then again, we have our own unique grottos that are also quite popular..."
"Can you tell me more about those grottos, Director?"
"Of course." Director Hou laughed and said, "For example, the Myriad Liquor Grotto. That is an incredible grotto. You won't dare to believe it, but that is a grotto capable of producing ten thousand types of liquor, each with a different flavor. That is a heaven for all wine lovers...
"We also have a Hundred Beauty Grotto...hehehe...cough, cough. I remembered wrongly. It's the Hundred Race Grotto. Inside that grotto, you can have a good time with the beauties of the myriad races...cough, cough, I mean you can talk about the dao with the myriad races...
"We also have the Lyrical Poetry Grotto. There, you can enjoy all sorts of music...cough, cough, I mean you can learn the art of killing with sound in there.
"There's also the..."
Su Yu started drinking, ignoring Director Hou's explanation. Great Ming...he was truly speechless. He didn't know what to say about the names of those grottos. The cultural researchers of Great Ming were truly...a bunch of unique individuals. There was no comparing these cultural researchers with the ones in Great Xia.
Of course, nobody could judge that this was better or worse in comparison. But there was also no doubting that the cultural researchers of Great Ming would definitely stand no chance against Great Xia's cultural researchers.
"How about the character masters? Are they strong?"
"They're alright." Director Hou exhaled in relief at the change of topic. He said, "The character masters of Great Xia are strong, but the character masters of Great Ming aren't weak either. Our character masters are weaker in terms of offensive strength, but we are capable of a lot of tricks."
That was mainly due to the large number of random characters Great Ming's cultural researchers would form. For some reason, the cultural researchers here enjoyed forming a large number of characters despite the fact that they couldn't link all these characters into a proper system. Even after reaching the Skysoar Realm, they would still form new characters without stopping.
For example, these cultural researchers would form characters capable of playing music, brewing wine, preparing a meal, cleaning, or even massaging...
"If it wasn't for the fact that we can't link our characters into a character technique, Great Ming would be the home to the largest number of multiple character faction experts."
Director Hou smiled smugly. Amazing, right? They had plenty of cultural researchers with more than ten characters. Of course, the actual combat strength of these cultural researchers was an entirely different story.
"..."
Su Yu nodded. Amazing.