Suddenly, a voice came from outside the room, "Looks like everyone is here."
Next, Hu Xiansheng stepped through the door.
"Hello, Faculty Head."
"Morning, Faculty Head."
Everyone in the room was addressing Hu Xiansheng as either the faculty head or a teacher. Rather than calling this a faculty, one might as well call this Hu Xiansheng's private dojo. After all, all the Skysoars and Cloudbreaches were his students.
"Sit down, everyone."
Hu Xiansheng smiled and said, "We have two newcomers, and both of them are geniuses. This is worthy of celebration." "There is no need for me to introduce Su Yu as everyone here knows him. That student over there is Wu Lan, a genius student from Great Xia. She is one of the two Wu in the Double Wu Acupoint Fusion Art."
For some reason, Wu Lan felt somewhat uncomfortable when she heard that. After all, the old man was saying that with a weird smile on his face.
Suddenly, Hu Xiansheng turned stern as he said, "A new semester has begun. I called this meeting for two reasons. Firstly, I want all of you to know the two newcomers. Secondly, I want to remind all of you to work hard. Otherwise, we might really go bankrupt soon."
Hu Xiansheng sighed and said, "We really need to work together with a common purpose. Try to challenge the Hundred Dao Pagoda. Otherwise, we won't have any income. That small yearly allocation is not enough for us. Just work harder, everyone. It will benefit all of us. Wouldn't it be great if we could work together to strengthen our Multiple Character Faculty?"Su Yu was remaining silent, but Hu Xiansheng looked at him and said, "Su Yu, do you know about the Hundred Dao Pagoda?"
Su Yu nodded, "During the founding of the academy, to fulfill the principal's request, Great Ming King had gathered a large number of cultural researchers to build a tower of trials. This building is incomparably magical, and it is even more valuable than a grotto. There is no Top 100 Ranking in Great Ming. Instead, there is a Pagoda Ranking. Everyone is ranked according to how high they can climb instead of their combat strength."
Hu Xiansheng smiled, "Exactly. This is our way of ensuring fairness. How are the cultural researchers with weaker combat strength supposed to prove themselves otherwise? How are they going to gain recognition and the support they need?
"In this pagoda, the challengers will be given different trials depending on what they specialize in. Pillmakers will be tested in pillmaking. Beast tamers will be tested in beast taming. This is the core principle behind the Hundred Dao Pagoda's existence.
"This is applicable to both teachers and students. There are 100 floors in total. Those at the Mental Tempering Stage can enter the first 20 floors. Those at the Skysoar Realm can enter the first 40 floors. Those at the Cloudbreach Realm can enter the first 60 floors, and those at the Mountainsea can enter up to the 80th floor. Sunmoons can reach the top floor.
"A Skysoar teacher incapable of reaching the 21st floor will not receive any salary and benefits for an entire year. If one can reach the 21st floor, one will receive 210 merit points for the year. The higher one climbs, the more one can get. At the 30th floor, one can get 300 merit points. Starting from the 31st floor, one can get 50 extra merit points per floor. At the 40th floor, one can get 800 merit points for the year. On top of that, your faculty will also receive the same sum of money as a reward.
"Of course, the rules are a lot more complicated than that. You can check the rules if you're interested. Since you're new, you can start from the first floor. You will get rewarded for each floor you climb."
Su Yu nodded. He was aware of this. But he didn't have the chance to challenge the pagoda yet as he had just joined the academy for a day.
Hu Xiansheng said, "The Hundred Dao Pagoda is a test for both students and teachers. It is also a test for me. I am a seventh-stage Mountainsea. With my cultivation, I need to reach the 71st floor. Otherwise, I won't get a single cent from the academy."
Su Yu asked curiously, "Faculty Head, is this pagoda hard to climb?"
"That's hard to say as each person will be tested differently." Hu Xiansheng said, "For example, a beast tamer might encounter some professional tests such as taming beasts in the pagoda. The things you see in the Hundred Dao Pagoda are both illusory and real. Strictly speaking, the pagoda is a top-tier heaven-grade cultural weapon. It is also the most valuable treasure of the academy or even Great Ming itself.
"Some people are strong, so the pagoda might decide to test your combat strength. That will prove rather troublesome as the pagoda has high requirements for character masters. But if you're a pill master at the Mental Tempering Stage, you can still try to climb beyond the 20th floor through pillmaking alone."
Su Yu nodded in understanding. How magical. This felt fairer than Great Xia's Top 100 Ranking. Sure, there were also other rankings in Great Xia, such as the Pillmaking Ranking, but apart from the students of those factions, outsiders knew nothing about those rankings.
"Faculty Head, in short, if nobody challenges the pagoda, a faculty could very well receive no extra income for the year?"
"Yes." Hu Xiansheng said, "That is also why the fund allocation for our faculty is so small. The 30,000 merit points allocated to us this semester are actually the rewards for the floors our students climbed last semester."
They had 44 students in the faculty. If each of them climbed an average of 10 floors, the faculty would earn 4,400 merit points. For Skysoars, one could get 10 extra merit points per floor climbed up until the 30th floor. After that, they could get 50 extra merit points per floor climbed.
For Cloudbreaches, they would get 50 extra merit points per floor up until the 50th floor. Between the 51st to the 70th floor, they could get 70 extra merit points per floor. Thus, these Cloudbreaches could actually earn a decent amount of money each year.
If a Cloudbreach could climb to the supposed limit of a Cloudbreach at the 60th floor, one would be able to earn 2,300 merit points that year. It was clear that Great Ming was quite supportive of their cultural research academies. Just look at Chen Yong. He wasn't able to earn much at all staying in Great Xia unless he did some side jobs for more income.
"Looks like I need to study the Hundred Dao Pagoda's rules after this. It never hurts to earn more money."
Hu Xiansheng said, "Each of you must challenge the Hundred Dao Pagoda. There are no excuses. You can't always rely on your family. Also, try to complete some missions as well. You can earn more merit points that way."
That provoked a reaction. Someone said, "Principal, can we try to get more of those easy missions? Each year, only difficult missions such as beast subjugation and cult suppression are available for us. That's the job of warriors, not us! Look at the other faculties! Look at their easy missions! They only need to protect some roads, tend to some flowers, brew some wine, and repair some rapid transit beasts. This is unfair!"
That person complained loudly. He wanted such simple missions as well.
Hu Xiansheng sighed and said, "We're character masters. Furthermore, we are from the strongest branch of character masters, the multiple character faction. Thus, the academy intends to temper our combat strength through these missions. Even the single character faction is being given a large number of combat missions."
Su Yu and Wu Lan looked at each other speechlessly. Were those missions so difficult? No, right?
The academy wouldn't assign missions that were too difficult for students. Most of these missions would probably be pursuit and capture missions. Even in Great Xia, these missions were quite common. Of course, Su Yu had only accepted one of these missions before to find himself an excuse to head toward Nanyuan.
But for some reason, the students here thought that these missions were extremely difficult. Instead, they were asking for menial tasks such as repairing rapid transit beasts?
Noticing Su Yu's expression, Huang Feng spoke through voice transmission, "This is embarrassing. Junior Brother, our academy does not have too many combat missions. Most of these combat missions are actually the side missions of some other missions requiring specific characters."
Su Yu nodded. Everyone was good at different things. Great Ming was not necessarily wrong here. It was difficult to raise cultural researchers. Sending a pillmaker to a combat mission would be a waste. Then again, Wu Yuehua, one of the few pillmakers Su Yu knew, was a violent battle fanatic.
Hu Xiansheng did not seem to mind the ruckus the students were making. Soon, he distributed a talisman to each of the people in the room and said, "These are the missions that have been assigned to us for the semester. Be sure to complete them before the end of the semester. Only then can we spend the remaining time of the semester in peace. Otherwise, the academy will criticize us again. What's with that look on your faces? You will be rewarded for completing these missions."
He looked at Su Yu and smiled, "Su Yu, your Source Soul Research Center is newly opened. Do you need to hire some people from the academy?"
He was trying to provide some employment opportunities for the people in his faction. A lot of them were so poor that they couldn't even support their own cultivation anymore.
Su Yu said, "Not for now. I'll issue a recruitment mission if I need manpower."
"Fine."
Hu Xiansheng was regretful to hear that. How stingy. This damn brat was so rich yet he was so miserly.
"Alright. The meeting ends here. Everyone except Su Yu may leave."
Su Yu was quite surprised, but he still nodded. When he looked at Wu Lan, he saw that she was already on her way out. He laughed. It would seem like he no longer needed to worry about her.
After everyone left, Hu Xiansheng said, "By the way, didn't you tell the prefect that you need some knowledgeable helpers? The academy has a lot of geezers that are very knowledgeable. Do you want to pick a few of them to help with your research?"
Su Yu thought about it and asked, "Is Senior Brother Wen one of them?"
"..."
Hu Xiansheng was rendered somewhat speechless. He said, "Wen Zhong? He's a ninth-stage Cloudbreach. He's not weak at all..."
"Yes, but he's old. He might not be able to enter the Mountainsea Realm. But if I can create the aperture fusion art, as a part of the research team, he might be able to take this chance to make a breakthrough. What do you think, Faculty Head?"
Hu Xiansheng sank into thought. Su Yu pressed on, "I had a short chat with him earlier. I found that he knows a lot about apertures and acupoints. But since he has been spending too much time on research, he has neglected his acupoint fusion. With his age, if this continues for a few more years, he will die of old age before breaking through."
Hu Xiansheng sighed and said, "That's right. Wen Zhong's foundations are actually quite solid. And he has good aptitude. He has been with me for hundreds of years, but he has not been able to break through. Now, age is finally catching up and even his sea of willpower is slowly deteriorating. If this continues, he will definitely die of old age in a few decades."
He focused on Su Yu and asked, "Can you help him enter the Mountainsea Realm?"
"I don't know." Su Yu calmly said, "I'm only at the Mental Tempering Stage. As for the aperture fusion art, it is still in the conception phase for now. I can't promise anything."
Hu Xiansheng thought about Su Yu's fire of civilization, hesitated slightly, and nodded, "Alright. I'll try to persuade Wen Zhong. His bottleneck has been stronger and stronger these years. After producing the Fusion Sutra back then, he has not produced anything new."
Su Yu blanked out. What was that? Fusion Sutra? He knew about that art! He had even learned that art! The human race did not have too many acupoint fusion cultivation methods. One was the Acupoint Fusion Art with 15 acupoints and the other was the Fusion Sutra with 24 acupoints.
Strictly speaking, the Fusion Sutra was quite good. It was comparable to the first version of Su Yu's fusion art. But the first version required only 18 acupoints. Thus, it rapidly exceeded the Fusion Sutra in popularity not long after it was released.
But that did not mean that the Fusion Sutra was a bad cultivation method. On the contrary, Su Yu had actually obtained a lot of inspiration from the Fusion Sutra. Even when he was researching the version with 36 acupoints, he still took a lot of inspiration from the concepts in the Fusion Sutra. That was understandable, as that was a proper human cultivation method. Thus, it had a high level of compatibility with humans.
After a short silence, Su Yu hurriedly took out a book from his storage ring. He flipped the title page open and saw the name of the creator: Wen Zhong. He was greatly shaken. No wonder the name sounded so familiar. So they were the same person? In that case, Wen Zhong was actually quite an important individual.
Hu Xiansheng smiled and said, "Did you think I was lying? Wen Zhong has spent many years researching apertures and acupoints. You can consider him a subject expert. After your fusion art was released, he finally gave up and stopped. Prior to that, he was still trying to improve his Fusion Sutra. Unfortunately, he was not successful. I heard that you have a version with 36 acupoints as well. Is that true?"
"Yes!"
Hu Xiansheng thought about it and said, "It's not hard to entice Wen Zhong to work for you as long as you're generous enough. Just let him take a look at the third version. With that, he will probably be willing to even work for free until his death."
The Fusion Sutra was something Wen Zhong had created after hundreds of years of hard work. But Su Yu had overtaken him in only a few days. Realizing that, Su Yu finally understood the meaning behind Wen Zhong's words earlier. Wen Zhong had said that he would be able to produce the first version given enough time.
Su Yu had not said anything about it, but he had thought that the old man was bluffing. But after learning that the old man was actually the creator of the Fusion Sutra, Su Yu could only say that he was definitely not bluffing. Even Su Yu himself had learned from the old man's work.
"I can agree to that."
Su Yu agreed easily and said, "I'll talk to Senior Brother Wen after this. Please put some words in for me as well. I'm worried that he won't agree. After all, he's a ninth-stage Cloudbreach."
Suddenly, he thought of something and asked, "Faculty Head, is Senior Brother Wen an elder?"
"He's an honorary elder." Hu Xiansheng said, "He was promoted thanks to the Fusion Sutra. Back then, his Fusion Sutra was the most popular fusion art. Thus, he was promoted due to his great contribution. But your fusion art was like a slap to his face. Since then, he had been feeling greatly useless."
Su Yu shook his head, "Senior Brother Wen relied on true ability, unlike me. I achieved what I did by standing on the shoulders of giants like Senior Brother Wen and the others. It's not the same as creating something from scratch."
Su Yu felt that Wen Zhong would be perfect for his research center. During his time at Great Xia, he could get Zhao Li's help in deducing cultivation methods. Here in Great Ming, Wen Zhong would be the perfect person for that. In fact, Wen Zhong would be even better than Zhao Li since Zhao Li was not an expert in this subject.
Great Ming might not have a lot of expert combatants, but Su Yu was starting to realize that Tiandu was actually a city of innovation and wisdom. Perhaps he would really be able to absorb enough knowledge here to further grow himself.