Chapter 621: Omens of Strife (1)
The entire Great Ming Cultural Research Academy was bustling with noise and excitement. Something big had happened. The newly appointed vice principal had been crippled before even stepping foot in the academy. How pitiful.
"Poor guy."
That was Wu Lan's remark when she heard the conversation outside. A vice principal was at least a peak Mountainsea, right? Someone like that had actually lost his leg to a hunting trap? What a poor guy. That sure was embarrassing.
Meanwhile, Su Yu did not feel any sympathy for the guy. Instead, he was busy being impressed by Great Ming's courage. They were clearly treating the Knowledge Seeking Realm as nothing. Accidentally losing a leg to a hunting trap? Only a fool would believe that.
"Knowledge Seeking Realm..."
Su Yu was feeling doubtful. What was the Knowledge Seeking Realm trying to do? Wasn't that the holy land jointly built by the Invincibles of the various prefectures? And the people of Great Ming was supposed to be among the leaders there since Great Ming King was a cultural researcher. Why would the Knowledge Seeking Realm dare to meddle with Zhu Family's affairs? Were they crazy? Or was there simply no need for them to show Great Ming King any respect since he was only the second in command?
In truth, Great Xia King was the second in command of the War Shrine. The leader of the War Shrine was Great Qin King. But unlike the Knowledge Seeking Realm, the War Shrine did not dare to mess with Great Xia. Just look at how obedient the ambassadors of War Shrine were when they were in Great Xia. Why were things different for cultural researchers?
Su Yu decided to forget about the matter. This could very well be completely unrelated to him. Sure, he had created a large ruckus, but his cultivation was still low. For many people, Su Yu had derived most of his strength from ability blood essence. Otherwise, defeating an eighth-stage Skysoar would probably be his limit.
He might be a super genius, but there was no need for them to send an expert over just to keep an eye on him. What a pity for the Knowledge Seeking Realm that their representative wasn't able to stay around for long before he was sent back to where he came from.
No wonder the people of Great Ming could live in peace. They never intended to give outsiders any chance to meddle in their affairs.
***
After the meal, Su Yu and Wu Lan went downstairs.
The other students were still busy talking about the three breaking news of the day. Firstly, Big Ball had given birth to some cubs. Secondly, Su Yu had joined the academy. Thirdly, the new vice principal had lost his leg.
It was rare for there to be so much breaking news in Great Ming, so all the students discussed endlessly in excitement.
Looking at the clamorous crowd, Wu Lan asked in confusion, "Don't they need to attend classes and cultivate?"
Why was everyone here so free?
"This is a type of cultivation as well."
Su Yu smiled and pointed at a female student who was tending to her flowers nearby. "If I'm right, her characters are probably related to plants or flowers. She might seem weak, but if she is given time to set up a dominion of plants, she will definitely not be weak."
Su Yu was slowly starting to understand one thing. It wasn't that the cultural researchers of Great Ming never cultivate. Rather, they cultivated differently.
Then, Su Yu pointed at a student who was fishing by a pond. "That student is tempering his willpower. There is a decently strong demonic beast in the pond acting as a training partner. This is a form of cultivation as well.
"Do you see the teacher on a pair of flaming wheels? Those wheels were formed of several different characters. He is probably testing the effects of this combination of characters."
At this moment, the teacher skated over on his flaming wheels and grinned. "Su Yu, as a genius of the multiple character faction, you definitely know a lot about character fusions. If you're willing, we can share our knowledge with each other."
Su Yu smiled and said, "I will be honored to do that. Teacher, how many characters did you use to form these flaming wheels?"
"Three. Wind, fire, and fast." The teacher smiled and said, "Its speed is decent, its offensive strength is pretty good, but I still feel like it lacks something. Also, the combination does not feel smooth. There must be a conflict somewhere."
The old man muttered, "I thought they would slowly adapt to each other with time, but it's not working."
Su Yu smiled and said, "Wind is capable of strengthening the intensity of fire, but the same is not true the other way around. There is no balance. The fast character is not enough to achieve the balance you need. You should consider forming a character capable of strengthening the wind character as well. Otherwise, the balance will completely break apart since the fire is too strong while the wind is constantly suppressed."
"That makes sense."
The old man sighed, "But I'm not a member of the multiple character faction. I can insert more characters into the combination, but it will also take a lot more from me to control this new combination. It's common to have multiple characters, but only the character techniques of the multiple character faction can naturally solidify numerous characters into a single entity. For the rest of us, we need to forcefully control the characters with our willpower. This is my current limit..."
Su Yu nodded. That was true. Even without a character technique, everyone could still use multiple characters together. But combining these characters forcefully would result in a repelling force between each character. One would be forced to constantly exhaust one's willpower to suppress the repelling force.
"Student Su, come talk to me when you're free. I'll be taking my leave for now."
The old man left.
Wu Lan looked at Su Yu with an odd expression and asked, "Is he from the single character faction?"
Why was Su Yu being so friendly with someone from the single character faction?
Su Yu smiled and said, "It's fine. My enemy is not the single character faction as a whole. Only some of them are my enemies. Those in Great Ming have no grudge with me. It's fine to treat them like any other person.
"Our next goal is not the aperture fusion art. Rather, it's the source soul acupoint. I am confident that acupoint exists!"
He was sure of that. After temporarily opening 180 apertures with blood essence, his guts were yelling at him that something like that existed. But he still lacked something. What exactly did he lack? Acupoints. And a proper system utilizing all the acupoints together.
He had opened 346 acupoints thus far. He still needed 14 acupoints. But he had already opened all the acupoints Great Xia knew about. And Great Xia was one of the strongest warrior prefectures. He wondered if he could find the remaining acupoints in Great Ming.
At that thought, he said, "Wu Lan, the next difficulty you need to overcome is the locations of the remaining acupoints. There are many cultivation methods on the third floor. Try to find the acupoints outside of the 346 acupoints Great Xia already knows."
Wu Lan was excited to hear that. Finally, there was something for her to do!
"Alright!" But she soon asked, "Am I going to do it alone?"
It was boring to work alone. And she wouldn't have anyone to order around.
Su Yu smiled and said, "No. You can order the suanni and the mountaindrill bull around. Both of them know the human language. Since they're not strong, they can work in the library..."
Wu Lan nodded, but something felt off about what Su Yu was saying.
What did Su Yu mean when he said that one should work in the library since one was weak? Was he talking about her or was he talking about the two beasts?
"How about you?"
"I need to open more apertures." Su Yu explained, "Apertures are much slower to open. I need to get started."
He also aimed to activate some cultivation methods in the book in his head. Perhaps he could discover some unique acupoints that way. He did not expect to locate the remaining acupoints purely through Great Ming.
He had to open all the acupoints and apertures before forming a bunch of characters. After that, it would be the time for him to step into the Skysoar Realm.
The two wasted no time and returned to the research center. After throwing out the useless things Old Hu left behind, Su Yu started preparing for his cultivation.
Late at night when he was finally done with his preparations, he started cultivating.
Opening apertures, reading, and forming new characters.
What a pity that there was no Willpower Grotto or fragment room here. He told himself to ask around for a method to rapidly grow his willpower in Great Ming.
During the night, Su Yu stayed on the first floor while Wu Lan stayed on the second floor.
Silence enveloped the research center.
The water elemental, shadow, suanni, mountaindrill bull, and little furball were all focused on their cultivation as Su Yu had ignited his fire character.
Everyone in the research center had entered a special state of enlightenment. The things that they had trouble understanding in the past were suddenly not so difficult anymore. And the bottlenecks that had stopped them in the past had started to loosen as well. These beasts had harmed their very foundations from years of imprisonment. Further advancement was pretty hopeless for them. But bathing in the light of enlightenment, they were slowly being reborn.
On the same night, Su Yu was intently studying his willpower texts with the fire character active.
"A so-called willpower text is essentially a willpower brand containing the experiences and knowledge of the writer...The stronger one is, the more knowledge will be left behind, and the clearer the knowledge will be. Some of the characters in the text might serve as the cores of the willpower text, allowing a reader to study it and form a similar character..."
The more he read, the more he understood. Some of the concepts that used to be difficult and complicated for him seemed much simpler.
"That explains the existence of natural characters."
Natural characters were essentially characters that would form through self-comprehension. Meanwhile, characters from willpower texts would only form through comprehending the knowledge of others.
After reaching a certain level of comprehension of certain concepts, characters would take form naturally. That was how he had obtained his tribulation and fire characters. The fire character had the abilities of comprehension and enlightenment. What about the tribulation character?
Su Yu gave it a try. Instantly, a calamitous aura rose from his body. Not far away, the little furball twitched uncomfortably and started moving further away from Su Yu. Both the water elemental and shadow looked at Su Yu with shock. What character was that? Why was it giving them such an uncomfortable sensation? They felt as though a disaster was about to descend on them.
Finally, Su Yu opened his eyes with a look of understanding. The tribulation character is not an offensive character. It was a supportive character meant to deter and threaten his opponents.
Or to be precise, it was a sort of pressure, a pressure one would feel when facing a great catastrophe. Even if the opponent was stronger, he would still be able to plant fear and discomfort in the mind of that opponent with this character. He could even give one the sensation that death was approaching. Those with weak minds could be easily scared off by this character.
"This character is still weak now, but at the Sunmoon Realm, it will be very useful. Sunmoons have sensitive danger senses that can amplify the effect of this character."
Those in the Sunmoon Realm were capable of sensing incoming danger, but there were also exceptions.
For example, one might not be able to sense an opponent who was too strong. Just look at how the fifth-stage Sunmoon devil who was completely oblivious to Zhu Tiandao's presence. And this tribulation character was capable of intensifying that sense of danger and amplifying it.
Even now, that character was already slightly effective against the water elemental and the others. However, that was enough. When fighting him, they would remain worried, and their combat strength would drop as a result. Losing one's confidence in the middle of a battle could be fatal.
Upstairs, Wu Lan was also cultivating. For some reason, she felt like she had grown much smarter today. She could easily comprehend the concepts she wanted even without the help of willpower texts.
She did not think too much about the change and was fully focused on her cultivation. After all, a busy day awaited her tomorrow so she couldn't afford to waste time.