Chapter 609: Super Rich (2)
After some thought, Su Yu shook the little bell beside him. The bell remained completely silent, but shortly after, Manager Xie's voice rang out from outside the building, "Mister Su, how may I help you?"
"Please come in."
Manager Xie entered and bowed.
With a smile, Su Yu said, "You're too polite, Manager. I am merely a Mental Tempering Stage student. You're a Cloudbreach expert. There is no need for you to bow to me."
"Mister Su, the rules of etiquette should always be followed."
Su Yu smiled and said nothing else. Instead, he pointed at the couch opposite him and invited Manager Xie to take a sit. Manager Xie sat down silently. When he saw the pile of merit cards on the table, the look in his eyes turned odd. There were so many of them.
Su Yu said, "I'm new so I don't know the situation here too well yet. But I know that Great Ming is also a home of numerous specialists. Is there a method to deal with locked merit cards in Great Ming? A lot of cultists are people with fake identities, allowing them to possess merit cards. How does Great Ming deal with these cards?"
"Mister Su, generally, if we can prove that someone is a cultist, we can directly freeze the funds in the card."
"What if I wish to privately access the money in a locked card?"
Manager Xie hesitated slightly before saying, "The military is capable of doing so. After all, they need their spoils of war, right? There are a lot of methods to do this. But the simplest method is to get the Merit Office to provide the passwords for these cards.""..."
Su Yu was speechless. That was indeed the simplest method.
"Is there a method that doesn't involve the Merit Office?"
"Cough, cough. The government does not encourage one to open the merit cards of others. But there are thieves in Great Ming as well. According to what I know, these people are capable of cracking these locked cards as well."
"Can I trouble you to find a specialist in this aspect? I have a lot of merit cards I need to crack."
"Sure. I'll get it arranged immediately."
"Thank you."
***
After a short chat, Su Yu saw Manager Xie off. Looking at the departing Manager Xie, he smiled. Great Ming was truly an interesting place. He suspected that he might be able to find a way to access locked merit cards here, and sure enough, he was right.
After waiting for about half an hour, Manager Xie returned. Beside him was a scholarly-looking person. He was quite surprised when he saw Su Yu, but he kept his mouth shut.
Su Yu did not waste any time and pointed at the cards on the table. With a smile, he asked, "Can you crack these?"
"No problem." The scholarly man said, "These are unencrypted merit cards. Some of them are quite old. Nowadays, people are using the third-generation card—"
Manager Xie coughed and said, "Stop wasting time. We only need to know that you can unlock these cards."
"Yes."
The scholarly man did not dare to say too much. He was not exactly an upstanding citizen. From the moment he was brought into the prefect's residence, he had been trembling with fear. Thus, he naturally wouldn't dare to run his mouth.
Su Yu took a look at the scholarly man. This man was only an Infinite Strength cultivator. Even so, he was still a cultivator. Why would someone like this resort to thievery? Su Yu could only say that everyone had their own ambitions.
The scholarly man took out some devices. After setting these devices up, he inserted one of the cards into one of the devices.
After about eight minutes, the scholarly man wiped his nonexistent sweat and said, "Sirs, I'm done."
Su Yu looked over in amazement. The scholarly man was even more amazed than Su Yu. The card he had unlocked contained 38,000 merit points!
"Zhou Pingsheng's card."
Su Yu still remembered who the owner of this card was. He was quite surprised. That fellow was too good at embezzlement. Both the Soul Nurturing Bead and the Mountainsea talisman were extremely expensive items. And Zhou Pingsheng would rarely accept any missions. Even so, he still had 38,000 merit points left even after purchasing the items. Just how corrupt was he?
"Continue."
The scholarly man moved on to the other cards.
There were 12,000 merit points in Tang Yunfei's card.
There were 6,000 merit points in Qiu Yunhua's card.
There were 8,000 merit points in Wang Ming's card.
There were 23,000 merit points in Yu Hong's card.
There were 13,000 merit points in Elder Li's card.
There were 18,000 merit points in Old Zheng's card.
The cloud tiger, fox, and barbaric bull elders did not have any cards on them as the students they were protecting held all the cards. After all, these students were their masters. And these students were quite rich as well.
There were 30,000 merit points in Xia Qing's card.
There were 35,000 merit points in Bai Ce's cards.
There were 25,000 merit points in Niu Zhen's card.
Additionally, the flying wolf and iron-winged bird youths had 20,000 and 18,000 merit points in their respective cards as well.
These people had brought a lot of treasures to the Human Realm. And a lot of these treasures had been exchanged into merit points. Considering how greedy the academy was, these merit points were probably not everything these students had brought to the Human Realm. Some must have been left in the academy.
As for the cultists, instead of merit cards, they carried contribution cards.
The so-called contribution card was basically the cult's version of merit card. As for the contribution points, they were naturally issued by the powerful races such as the divines and the devils. But to make use of these contribution points, one needed to enter a cult stronghold.
A total of 50,000 contribution points could be found in the cards of the three deceased cultists. Unfortunately, these contribution points couldn't be converted into merit points. If Su Yu wanted to put them to use, he had to find a cult stronghold and purchase what he needed there.
There was also Chen Chen, but he only had 500 merit points in his card.
Su Yu also had the cards of the Skysoars and Cloudbreaches he had killed. Even the cards of the Skysoars and Cloudbreaches Zhou Pingsheng had killed were now his. But these people were quite poor in comparison.
Jin Yuhui's card was the last card to be cracked. He was a Sunmoon, a veteran cultivator, and a principal. As he had been stuck at the peak Mountainsea Realm for many years, his expenditures had been quite low for a very long time.
Thus, a total of 60,000 merit points could be found in his card. This wasn't exactly a large number. He probably had more treasures stored within Great Xia.
All in all, Su Yu had obtained 320,000 merit points and 70,000 contribution points.
The merit card of the fifth-stage Sunmoon devil had been taken by Zhu Tiandao. Otherwise, he would have obtained even more money. At this point, the scholarly man had turned pale. He finally realized who this youngster was.
Su Yu!
Truly incredible. What a murderous individual. After getting so many people killed, he had collected all their cards. Su Yu ignored the scholarly man. He was busy wondering why had Great Xia not frozen the funds in these cards. He smiled. Perhaps they were too busy to do so. Or perhaps this was deliberate as Marquis Xia must have guessed that all these cards were in his hands.
Su Yu said nothing and started transferring all the merit points into his card. Instantly, his empty account was once again filled with money, reaching a historic high.
Su Yu left one merit card untouched. He didn't know who the previous owner was, but there were 100 merit points in the card. He nonchalantly tossed the card to the scholarly man and said, "Thanks. This is your pay."
"I wouldn't dare take this from you, Lord."
"Take it."
"Yes..." The scholarly man did not dare to argue and accepted the card. He softly said, "Lord, the contribution points of the cult can actually be converted to merit points as well..."
Su Yu's eyes flickered. The scholarly man cautiously said, "There are some cultists...who can't really be considered proper cultists. They are basically thugs and swindlers. These people are hidden in the numerous prefectures, and they provide a currency conversion service..."
Su Yu nodded. He waved his hand and said, "Noted."
The scholarly man did not dare to say anything else and hurriedly left with Manager Xie's subordinate.
After he left, Manager Xie said, "Mister Su, there are indeed such people in the cult. You can convert contribution points to merit points through these people. They only require a small fee for the service. Of course, if you have your connections, you can make use of the contribution points instead of wasting your money on the conversion fees."
Su Yu nodded. There was no rush. He wouldn't be in need of more money anytime soon. After all, he had just earned 320,000 merit points. No, that was not all he had earned. He asked, "Manager Xie, is the merit system of the various prefectures connected with each other?"
"Yes."
"I killed a lot of demonic beasts and cultists during my journey to the Starfall Mountain. Can I claim the rewards for these kills, including the death of traitors like Zhou Pingsheng?"
"Yeah." Manager Xie explained, "The various human prefectures are independent of each other, but certain things, such as the financial system, are connected. In fact, the financial system was set up by the Knowledge Seeking Realm and the War Shrine back then for the ease of transactions back then."
"Thus, the various prefectures followed the same merit system."
Manager Xie said, "Those kills of yours can be considered military merit. And the rewards for these contributions are actually assigned by the War Shrine and the Knowledge Seeking Realm. As for the source of these rewards, they are mostly supplied by the various prefectures. This way, even unaffiliated cultivators will be able to contribute to humanity and benefit from it. This serves to encourage more participation from the unaffiliated cultivators."
Su Yu nodded. He could understand that. In other words, the various prefectures would supply the funds while the War Shrine and the Knowledge Seeking Realm would allocate the funds to those who had contributed to humanity. Because of that, one could be rewarded for one's contribution anywhere without subjecting any prefecture to undue financial pressure.
"My mounts have killed a lot of enemies as well. Are these kills considered mine?"
He was referring to One-eye and the others. The Mountainsea beasts had killed a lot of enemies, including some Mountainseas. As for the water elemental and the others, they had also killed the ninth-stage Cloudbreach of the black panther race.
"Of course."
Su Yu started calculating. One could obtain a reward of 100, 200, and 300 merit points for each early, middle, and late Skysoar killed. One could also get 1,000, 2,000, and 3,000 merit points for each early, middle, and late Cloudbreach killed.
As for Mountainsea enemies, one could get 10,000 to 30,000 merit points for each enemy killed.
One-eye and the others had killed two early-stage Mountainseas. Additionally, Su Yu, the water elemental, and the others had killed four late-stage Cloudbreaches. On top of that, they had killed around five to six Cloudbreaches of lower stages as well. All in all, he could obtain around 40,000 merit points for all these kills.
They had also killed some Skysoar beasts and cultists along the way. These kills were also worth thousands of merit points. In total, he could probably get around 50,000 merit points after this. And including the contribution points, Su Yu had actually earned over 400,000 merit points from this incident.
Apart from the money, he had also obtained some damaged cultural weapons and several beast corpses. Unfortunately, he could not find any other treasures from the people he had killed.
There were also the treasures from the Divine Skywing Sect's treasure vault. These treasures were also worth hundreds of thousands of merit points. Thus, Su Yu had probably earned nearly a million merit points this time.
But one should not forget that twelve Mountainseas and two Sunmoons had perished in this incident. If one couldn't even earn that much money after causing the deaths of so many experts, one might as well hide in a laboratory and focus on research. One could earn even more doing so.
Thinking of how profitable research could be, Su Yu finally understood why the cultural researchers of Great Ming were completely uninterested in combat. How much could they earn from killing enemies, including Sunmoon enemies? Over a long enough period of time, they could probably earn more by producing new creations in their laboratories. Killing was never the most profitable business in existence.
Su Yu handed his storage talisman to Manager Xie and said, "Can you sell these things for me? There are even some damaged cultural weapons in it."
He had gathered a large variety of items from his dead enemies, but most of these things weren't too helpful for him. He was better off turning these things into money and buying what he needed instead.
Manager Xie said, "No problem. If it's too troublesome for you, I can claim your rewards for you as well. I only need some of your recordings to serve as proof to get everything done for you."
"Thank you, Manager Xie."
Su Yu was more than willing to agree and let someone else do the busy work for him.
He had yet to deal with the corpses of the three dao protectors. Previously, Zhu Tiandao had taken these corpses away. But subsequently, these corpses had all been returned to Su Yu. Zhu Tiandao had only kept the Sunmoon devil for himself.
Su Yu decided to keep the three corpses with him for now. He might need them in the future.
***
With that, Su Yu settled down in the building.
At the end of the day, Manager Xie came over and handed him a merit card with 50,000 merit points inside. Su Yu didn't know if Manager Xie had added some merit points himself to round it up, but he didn't ask.
In total, he had 370,000 merit points and 70,000 contributions on him.
Additionally, he also had three Mountainsea beast corpses and a variety of treasures from the Divine Skywing Sect's treasure vault. He also had several dozens of willpower texts he had purchased in Great Xia and some of the data he had gathered during his time in Great Xia. The puppets brought by Zhao Tianbing would prove useful in the future as well.
One could say that Su Yu was now superbly rich. He was most definitely richer than even some Sunmoons. Perhaps only the leader of a faction could compete with him in terms of wealth.
Just look at Jin Yuhui. He was a fresh Sunmoon and a principal, yet there were only 60,000 merit points in his merit card.
Not long ago, Su Yu was someone who needed to worry about spending only a few merit points. In the blink of an eye, he had turned into an insanely rich person. But he knew that his future expenses would probably be insanely high as well.
He would definitely need to start a new research center. It didn't matter what others believed. Most people believed that he had access to a ruin or an inheritance. But neither was true. He only had the book in his head, but to make use of the book, money was required. And some of the cultivation methods he learned through the book also needed further research or amendment.
For example, the Five Elemental Arts and the Acupoint Fusion Art. All these had only been finalized after some modification and research on his part. He also required money for many other endeavors, such as ability blood essence research, disassembly method research, and weaponsmithing. After all, he had promised to help complete Zhao Li's earth-grade weapon after reaching the Cloudbreach Realm.
"Great Ming...a new start."
Su Yu inhaled deeply. He was not completely safe yet.
The danger to him did not come from Great Xia's single character faction. Rather, the biggest threat to him was the hidden Invincible and the attitude of the entire Human Realm toward the multiple character faction. Additionally, as Wan Tiansheng mentioned, even the myriad races were targeting the multiple character faction.
After all, the rise of the multiple character faction might produce an actual Invincible cultural researcher. And that was something the myriad races would not permit. Both of his teachers were still in the Vanguard Regiment.
"Great Ming...shall be the place I gather strength."
Here, he would be able to temporarily remove himself from the factional conflicts. But he would not give up on the multiple character faction so easily. Some people were worth remembering. Otherwise, he could go anywhere he wanted and do whatever he wanted with his talent. He was someone who could tolerate loneliness.
"Teachers...you guys might be unreliable, but I am not the same. I won't abandon you guys."
Su Yu smiled. Meeting Liu Wenyan and Bai Feng might have brought him a lot of trouble, but he had also gained a lot from them. That unreliable Bai Feng had long noticed that something was off about Su Yu, but he had still willingly taught Su Yu everything he knew.
A drop of water in need shall be returned with a spring in deed.
Su Yu couldn't let go of this. He could not forget about them.