Chapter 602: Su Yu Enters The Capital (1)
After a short chat with Director Hou, Su Yu felt much better. It was the New Year's Eve. Thus, having someone to talk with had improved his mood significantly.
Sure, Great Ming was somewhat...unreliable. Then again, Zhu Tiandao was also someone from Great Ming. And he was a ninth-stage Sunmoon cultural researcher. Wasn't he pretty strong? What was there to worry about?
He concluded that only some of the people in Great Ming were unambitious slackers, not all of them. This Director Hou was a Sunmoon as well. And he was probably quite strong.
After a while, Director Hou said, "In truth, you don't even need to join the academy. You can simply start your own research center."
Su Yu smiled and said, "Forget it. It's too troublesome to start a private research center. I am still quite lacking so I need to study more."
He was telling the truth. He did not think that he knew everything. He still had a lot to learn. For example, students like Hu Qiusheng knew more than him in terms of general knowledge.
Director Hou smiled. That was acceptable as well.
He said, "Do you want me to take you to the capital immediately? You can witness the bustling sight of Tiandu during the New Year's Eve."
"Nah." Su Yu shook his head and said, "I'll take my time to familiarize myself with Great Ming. If you wish to return, you can go first. This is Great Ming. Who would dare to provoke me? I also have a few beast protectors with me."
Director Hou said nothing. He couldn't leave before Su Yu was in the capital. If he left like this and something happened to Su Yu, the prefect would not spare him.Since Su Yu was uninterested in leaving for the capital immediately, Director Hou continued the conversation. He said, "Let's stop talking about the cultural researchers. We are both well aware that Great Ming's cultural researchers do not have the upper hand when it comes to combat power."
"But Great Xia is incomparable with us in terms of variety. In Great Xia, being a character master is the mainstream path. Very few people walk the other paths."
Su Yu nodded.
In Great Xia, regardless of whether it was the single or the multiple character factions, both were the leaders of their cultural researchers in different periods of time. The other factions such as the weaponsmithing faction, the beast taming faction, and so on only played a supportive role.
Director Hou said, "Don't think that our warriors are weak just because Great Ming King is a cultural researcher. It's the opposite. The more types of cultural researchers we have, the more theories we touch upon, and the stronger our warriors are."
"There are three incomparably powerful armies in Great Ming. Ranked first is the Great Ming Iron Cavalry."
Su Yu nodded and said, "I heard of them. This is an army mounted on beasts. The army isn't big, but it's very powerful. It is a first-tier army even in the Allheaven Battlefield. It is rumored that this army is capable of facing off against the Martial Dragon Guards."
"Martial Dragon Guards?" Director Hou shook his head and said, "The Public Regiment of the Martial Dragon Guards is not even a match for Great Ming Iron Cavalry. The Secret Regiment is where the true strength of the Martial Dragon Guards lies. They have a lot of Sunmoons. Even the weakest of them are at the Skysoar Realm. That is the true elite of Great Xia."
Su Yu nodded. He had only learned about the Secret Regiment not long ago. In fact, even Xia Wen and Xia Wu were members of the Secret Regiment. And both were quite strong. The old Sunmoon in Nanyuan was also an expert from the Secret Regiment.
"The Great Ming Iron Cavalry only has five thousand members. The weakest of them are is the Skysoar Realm. The Cloudbreaches are 100-man commanders, the Mountainseas are 1000-man commanders, and the three generals are Sunmoons. Their armor, weapons, talismans, pills, and mounts are the best of the best."
Su Yu was shocked, "Five thousand Skysoars?"
"Yeah." Director Hou proudly said, "This is an army comparable to the Secret Regiment of the Martial Dragon Guards. It is a result of Great Ming's three hundred years of accumulation. Even among the various warrior armies of humanity, it is among the very best. It is no weaker than the Martial Dragon Guards and Great Qin's Ironhawk Army."
Finally, there was something he could brag about. He did not let go of the chance and continued, "Every member of this army is provided with a powerful mount. With the unitaurus race as mounts, they are able to charge and break through all enemy lines, obtaining victory in every battle."
"Unitaurus?"
Su Yu looked at the bull who was sprawled on the ground while enjoying his food. The mountaindrill bull looked up with an innocent expression before saying, "There are a lot of bull races out there. I know the unitaurus race. With their sharp horns, they are excellent at breaking through enemy lines. But they're not that highly ranked. Strictly speaking, they are only a top 1,000 race."
That was actually decent enough. Su Yu was quite surprised. He had not paid much attention to these matters during his time in Great Xia. So there was actually such an army in Great Ming?
Director Hou smugly said, "That is only one of our elite armies. We also have our main army, the Heavenly Dao(Tiandao) Army..."
Su Yu blanked out slightly. When Director Hou saw that, he coughed awkwardly and said, "We renamed this army a few decades ago. Great Xia has its Martial Dragon(Longwu) Guards right? Our prefect cares greatly about his face...so he..."
Su Yu instantly understood what happened. Seeing that Xia Longwu had renamed an army after himself, Zhu Tiandao had decided to do the same as well. This Heavenly Dao Army is comparable to the Devil Subduing Army in strength.
"The Heavenly Dao Army is quite big with 500,000 soldiers in it. They are well-equipped and can be considered a second-tier army. In terms of strength, it is similar to the Devil Subduing Army. But it is slightly lacking in terms of eagerness to fight. Generally, the Devil Subduing Army is viewed as a first-tier army.
"Our third elite army, the Great Ming Army, is also quite big with 500,000 soldiers. Like the Heavenly Dao Army, it is stationed within Great Ming. They are well-equipped with the best equipment money can buy, but their eagerness to battle is slightly weak as well."
Su Yu couldn't resist asking, "Director, I thought you said that Great Ming's warriors are strong? Why is their eagerness to battle weak?"
"Well, that isn't entirely accurate..." Director Hou found it hard to explain it. After thinking for a bit, he said, "To be precise, they rely a lot more on external tools. When it comes to upfront confrontations, they are slightly lacking. You might not know this, but the outsiders love to complain about Great Ming's cultural researchers for providing our armies with all sorts of weird things before every battle..."
Director Hou smiled helplessly and said, "Take the battle three years ago as an example. The Heavenly Dao Army encountered a 10000-strong army of the divine race. Both armies were immediately engaged in a bitter battle. The supporting cultural researchers of the Heavenly Dao Army came out with some weird stuff they encountered somewhere else and accidentally released millions upon millions of predator bugs. They lost control of the bugs and nearly wiped out both armies. In the end, the two armies called off the battle and fled for their lives. Even now, that battleground is still a land of death. Those bugs are still sweeping through the Allheaven Battlefield, forcing even Invincibles to deal with them..."
He felt very helpless as he talked.
Great Ming was absolutely not weak. But during battles, their cultural researchers had a way of causing headaches both to their enemies and their allies. Their supporting cultural researchers would frequently produce these weird incidents.
Su Yu said nothing. So the three main armies were not weak. They were simply lacking in eagerness to fight. They preferred relying on external tools to fight their battles, and these external tools were naturally supplied by the cultural researchers.
"Does the Great Ming have a lot of enemies on the Allheaven Battlefield?"
"About that..." Director Hou thought for a bit and said, "It's hard to say. The Allheaven Battlefield is very chaotic. But generally, the Allheaven Battlefield is split into the eastern, southern, western, and northern sectors. The human race operates at the eastern sector, the divine race operates at the western sector, the devil race operates at the southern sector, and the immortal race dominates the northern sector.
"Naturally, that is only a general classification. The other races are also operating in all these sectors. Most of the battles on the Allheaven Battlefield are due to three reasons. Firstly, to eliminate the enemies. Secondly, to seek for the ancient ruins. Thirdly, to invade the minor races."
Su Yu was already aware of the first reason. He was quite surprised to hear about the second reason. He asked, "There are ancient ruins on the Allheaven Battlefield as well?"
"The Luminous Domain Mansion is one such ruin. You know about this place, right?" Director Hou said, "As for the third reason, that's very easy to understand as well. Occasionally, some minor races will accidentally open a connection between their realms and the Allheaven Battlefield. The moment these connections are discovered, they will be invaded. Sure, there are suppressive forces in these minor realms as well, but it won't be too strong."
Director Hou explained, "For example, a certain minor race had conquered their own realm. But the strongest among them is only a Mountainsea. When the Sunmoons of the divines and the devils enter, they will be suppressed to the Mountainsea Realm. But so what?"
They would still be strong enough to defeat the minor race even with the suppression on their cultivation. The major races could easily take down these minor races.
"Most of the time, you can find some rare and unique treasures in these minor realms. Some experts will even choose to refine the entire realm into their own playground. Thus, the moment a minor race is discovered, even if they promptly sever the connection, they might still end up invaded. Therefore, most races will opt to submit to the powerful races and pay tribute for their survival."
After a short silence, Su Yu asked, "Is the human race doing this as well?"
"Yes. We have invaded and occupied some minor realms as well." Director Hou said, "How else are we supposed to support the expenditure of our large armies? Slaughtering our enemies on the battlefield alone is not enough for that. Thus, every human prefecture has several minor realms under their control."
At this moment, the shadow spoke, "Back then, the Shadow Realm had been invaded as well. But since we have a lot of experts and our suppressive force is strong, the invading devils lost three Sunmoons and one Invincible before being kicked out of our realm. Since then, the myriad races have acknowledged the independence of the Shadow Realm."
"Isn't the shadow race a top 100 race?" Su Yu asked, "Why would anyone invade a top 100 race?"
The shadow said, "The top 100...is merely a general term instead of a proper ranking. Generally, any race with an Invincible King will be named a top 100 race. Even if the actual ranking of that race is beyond top 100, it will still be known as a top 100 race. For the shadow race, the Shadow Ancestor is our sole Invincible. We are actually quite weak among the top 100 races."
That was why they were invaded. They were unlike the human race that had suddenly produced a bunch of Invincibles, catching the invading races by complete surprise.
With a smile, Director Hou said, "On the Allheaven Battlefield, most races with at least one Invincible will be able to remain independent. Even the powerful races with plenty of Invincibles like the divines and devils will find it difficult to invade these realms as the suppressive force will generally reduce your combat strength by an entire cultivation level.
"Even an Invincible will be reduced to a Sunmoon in such a realm. Meanwhile, they have their own Invincible defending the realm. You will need at least ten Invincibles to defeat a single defending Invincible. The price of invading such a realm is too high."
Thus, all races with even one Invincible would be regarded as a major race.
Even if they were weaker, they could simply retreat back home, forcing any invader to pay ten times the cost to invade that realm. It was simply not worth it.
Su Yu frowned, "The human race has so many Invincibles. Even if our realm doesn't have the suppressive force, they will still suffer a lot from invading us. In that case, why are the myriad races still trying so hard to invade us?"
"That is probably related to the ancient rumors. Additionally, the ruins in the Human Realm are very tempting for the myriad races. After all, our ruins have produced dozens of Invincibles in a very short time frame. If you're a member of a different race, would you not covet the Human Realm?"
"Nope. I won't."
"..."
Director Hou was left speechless. This kid must be fun at parties.