Chapter 623: City of Wisdom (1)
16th of January.
The multiple character faction was holding a meeting in the morning. It also served as a faculty meeting since there weren't that many people in the faction anyway. Including Su Yu and Wu Lan, 57 people would be there.
The Multiple Character Faculty wasn't small. There were a lot of buildings in the faculty, and the meeting was held in the Character Technique Hall. When Su Yu and Wu Lan arrived, they almost thought that they were at the wrong place.
The Character Technique Hall was furnished with chairs and tables. And on the tables were an assortment of snacks. The smell of liquor could be smelled from even outside the building.
And when they entered the room, they were faced with a scene of people eating snacks, gossiping with each other, playing with their pet birds and dogs, and so on. There were only a few dozen people in the room, but they were making as much noise as a hundred people.
Some of the people were even reciting poetry in the room. When one of them noticed Su Yu and Wu Lan's arrival, the student started reciting while swaying his head with a dreamy look, "Two new arrivals, two heads and four arms, never seen before, upon closer look, an astonishing bearing revealed..."
Su Yu said nothing and ignored the student as he walked into the room. The people here truly had too much free time on their hands.
Not far away, Huang Feng was in the middle of a conversation with a few other people. When she saw Su Yu, she beckoned at him, "Su Yu, come take a sit over here. Only students sit over there."
Could Su Yu still be considered a student? Nope. He was already a junior researcher.
Su Yu turned to look at Wu Lan. Before he could speak, she said, "Just go. I'll get to know the students here and see if there are any geniuses. But if they're all garbage, forget it."
Her voice was quite loud. But this was how she had always been. She knew no fear. She was willing to engage with students she considered geniuses, but she would completely ignore those she deemed weak.
Of course, she also had a habit of ignoring those who were better than her unless there was a chance for her to catch up to them as it felt embarassing to be in the midst of those better than her.
Su Yu smiled and nodded before walking away. A lot of students started whispering among themselves as they stared at him.
"Is that Su Yu?"
"He looks quite scholarly. Why did he kill so many people?"
"He's ferocious. Watch out, everyone."
"I heard he specializes in killing geniuses. He will kill any genius he sees. We're all geniuses so we need to be careful."
"..."
Su Yu decided to ignore them. The people of Great Ming talked way too much.
There was a large table in the teacher's area. Including Huang Feng, ten people were seated around it. There were supposed to be four Cloudbreaches and eight Skysoars in the multiple character faction, but two were missing here.
Including the faculty head, these people were all the qualified teachers of the multiple character faction.
Huang Feng grinned and said, "Su Yu, let me make the introductions."
She then introduced the nine other teachers around the table. There were six men and three women, and all of them looked young. But a few of them were probably quite old.
Then, Huang Feng singled out two of them. One was a man and the other was a woman. Both were young and quite good-looking.
"You should get to know these two well." Huang Feng said, "They are the youngest students of the faculty head. They have only been in the academy for a few years. This is Junior Brother Hou Liang, the youngest son of Director Hou. This is Junior Sister Yun Zhi, the daughter of the first princess."
The first princess was Zhu Tiandao's first daughter. In short, Yun Zhi was Zhu Tiandao's maternal granddaughter. Hou Liang was a sixth-stage Skysoar and Yun Zhi was a seventh-stage Skysoar. They were the most remarkable youngsters in the multiple character faction. Both were quite young as they weren't even thirty. They were from the same generation as Bai Feng.
Hou Liang smiled and said, "Greetings, Junior Brother Su."
He did not address Su Yu as a student. Hou Liang was an assistant researcher while Su Yu was a full researcher. Thus, he did not view Su Yu as a student.
"Hello, Junior Brother Su."
Yun Zhi also gave a prompt greeting with a smile. Su Yu nodded and greeted the two. He knew who they were. They were also members of the so-called Eight Eminents of Tiandu.
He had done his homework on the Eight Eminents. Both of these were a part of it. Fatty Zhu Hongliang and Dressed Up Animal Bai Junsheng were both members as well. Some of them were from the war academies.
They came from the various academies. People like Zhu Hongwen were not included among them. According to Su Yu's understanding, the Eight Eminents were basically eight children of influential families with average strength but great popularity.
He had not expected that two of them were members of the multiple character faction. Zhu Qingyan, the so-called eighth princess of the Zhu Family was also a part of the Eight Eminents.
Both Zhu Hongliang and Zhu Qingyan were members of this academy as well, but neither was in the multiple character faction. One was in the beast taming faction and the other was in the puppet master faction.
Su Yu remained silent. The others started looking at him curiously. The oldest and the strongest among them was an old man at the ninth-stage Cloudbreach Realm. He smiled and said, "Junior Brother Su, since you have arrived at Great Ming, you should stop being so reserved. To speak the truth, we're all very interested in all the cultivation methods you have released. Soul Devouring Art, Acupoint Fusion Art, and Pure Source Art are all interesting cultivation methods. I went through all of them and I can see traces of the myriad races in all three of them."
The old man was Wen Zhong, and he had followed Hu Xiansheng for many years. He was nearly 300 years old, but he had yet to fuse all his acupoints to reach the Mountainsea Realm. It was unlikely that he would be able to reach that realm in the future either.
But Wen Zhong was not too worried about that. With a smile, he said, "The Pure Source Art and Soul Devouring Art are probably modified cultivation methods of two different races. But the Acupoint Fusion Art seems to be a combination of multiple cultivation methods."
The old man exclaimed in admiration, "To speak the truth, if one works hard enough, even someone like me can produce something like the Pure Source Art or the Soul Devouring Art after spending enough time. But the Acupoint Fusion Art is too exquisite. The first version is decent, but from the second version, I can see traces of the cultivation methods used by the red frog race and the flying eagle race. I can also see the shadow of our very ownFusion Sutra in it."
His voice turned doubtful as he said, "But the main bulk of this cultivation method is unrelated to all of that. I believe it comes from a modified cultivation method of a powerful race. But I still can't deduce which race it is..."
The old man hesitated slightly before he continued, "It also reminds me of a racial talent of a powerful race, but I'm not sure. The celestial dragons are born with powerful physical bodies and the ability to easily fuse acupoints. That is probably not a racial ability, right?"
The old man then sank into thought. Meanwhile, Su Yu was greatly shocked. This was an expert. A super expert.
The old man was right. He had taken inspiration from the cultivation methods of numerous races when creating his Acupoint Fusion Art. But the myriad races do not have the same acupoints as the human race. Thus, those cultivation methods were very different from what he had produced. In truth, even Su Yu himself would have a hard time seeing the traces of those cultivation methods in his completed fusion art.
Meanwhile, Wen Zhong was able to see so many things from his fusion art, including what he took from the celestial dragon race. One ought to know that only the first two versions of his fusion art were publicly available, so the versions in the market weren't even complete. Of course, the second version was actually the fusion art of the celestial dragon race that he had modified. This Wen Zhong was clearly a very knowledgeable person.
"Teacher..."
Su Yu had just opened his mouth when Wen Zhong recovered from his reverie and said, "Don't call me that. Just address me as senior brother. You are someone with your own achievements. Thus, we can communicate as equals. In the path of dao, there are newcomers and latecomers, but that does not determine the height one can reach."
Su Yu inhaled deeply and said, "You're right, Senior Brother Wen. I base my Acupoint Fusion Art on many other cultivation methods. Rather than creating, I have merely gathered all these cultivation methods together."
Wen Zhong smiled and said, "Do not be unduly humble. Does the human race not know about the existence of those acupoints and cultivation methods? That's not the case. But why has nobody ever produced something like that? Each acupoint has its unique function. It is up to every single one of us to discover the role of each acupoint. With different circulation pathways, you can create different cultivation methods from the same acupoints. Just because two cultivation methods utilize the same acupoints does not mean that one is the copy of the other, right?"
Huang Feng smiled and said, "Senior Brother Wen, you're straying from the topic."
Wen Zhong smiled and said, "I heard that your initial goal when establishing the Source Soul Research Center was to research the source soul acupoint, right?"
Su Yu nodded.
Wen Zhong said, "In that case, you can talk to me when you have the time. I have also been researching this subject in recent years. You know about Bai Tianhao, right?"
"Yeah. He's an ancestor of my teacher."
"Right, Bai Feng..."
Wen Zhong laughed and said, "Bai Feng is a genius as well. Back then, I wanted to take him as my student. But I wasn't good enough for him. Instead, he yearned for the fifth principal's academy. He wanted to walk a different path..."
"Senior Brother Chen, why are you guys addressing him as the fifth principal as well?"
Noticing the look of astonishment on Su Yu's face, Wen Zhong explained, "The entire multiple character faction of the Human Realm is akin to a single family. And the multiple character faction originated from Great Xia. The first principal founded the faction, the third principal developed and promoted the faction, and the fifth principal led it to a golden era. Strictly speaking, for those in the multiple character faction, the fifth principal can be considered the third principal.
"Since you know who Bai Tianhao is, this will be easier for me to explain. Prior to his death, he had released a powerful strength and killed a seventh-stage Mountainsea as a ninth-stage Cloudbreach. I have been researching this for many years..."
He paused slightly to think before continuing, "I have been very curious about one thing. According to your theory, the source soul acupoint is the node connecting acupoints and apertures. But Bai Tianhao was a warrior."
Hearing that, Su Yu frowned. Wen Zhong said, "Before you proposed your theory, the name source soul acupoint did not exist. I used to name this acupoint the full cycle acupoint."
Su Yu's eyes flickered as he said, "You mean that after opening 360 acupoints, you will form a full cycle instead of a so-called source soul acupoint?"
"Yes."
Wen Zhong said, "But your theory makes sense as well. Also, Bai Tianhao had not opened 360 acupoints back then. Perhaps he had opened 180 acupoints and created his own full cycle acupoint instead? Or was it 270 acupoints?"
"..."
The two started talking rapidly one after another. The others weren't even able to take part in the conversation.
At this time, a middle-aged man sent a voice transmission to Huang Feng, "Senior Sister, the kid is actually able to engage Senior Brother Wen in such a complicated topic. Is the kid a real deal?"
Huang Feng said, "Definitely. Just listen to what they are talking about. I don't know about anything else, but his understanding of acupoints is far higher than the two of us. And he has also opened numerous acupoints himself. I can see that he has opened at least 320 acupoints. Someone like him is actually a practical researcher while people like us are merely academic researchers."
"Also, from how easily the kid is mentioning all sorts of cultivation methods, he must have studied at least a lot of cultivation methods."
Huang Feng clearly approved of Su Yu. She didn't know how good he was in other topics, but at the very least, he was an expert in physical cultivation. And for a cultural researcher, it was good enough if one could specialize in a single topic. Not everyone could achieve perfection in multiple topics. One should not forget that Su Yu was still so young.