Chapter 7: Book Activation
"Moonlight!"
The massive iron-winged bird shrieked. This time, the dream was much clearer. Su Yu was able to see the appearance of the bird clearly. What was different about this dream was the existence of a massive drop of golden blood hovering in the air. That was the blood essence he had consumed.
The iron-winged bird that was originally busy chasing after Su Yu seemed distracted. When it laid its eyes on the golden blood, the bird blanked out. It stopped chasing Su Yu and started flying toward the golden blood instead. It flew rapidly and instantly reached its target. After a shriek, it swallowed the drop of blood.
Boom!
Resplendent radiance erupted from the iron-winged bird, making it look like a bright sun that illuminated the entire dreamland. Sure enough, the blood essence was useful! Su Yu waited in anticipation. What would happen next? The iron-winged bird suddenly started enlarging uncontrollably, looking like it was about to burst apart.
Su Yu's expression changed. With a rumble, the iron-winged bird exploded into countless golden dots of light that spread everywhere in the air. The dreamland started collapsing, and even Su Yu's body was torn apart due to the explosion. At the final moment before the dreamland collapsed completely, a massive book appeared in the air.
The pages of the book started flipping over rapidly. All the pages were blank. Eventually, the flipping stopped at one blank page and the golden dots dove into it, instantly litting that page up. An illustration of an iron-winged bird appeared on the blank page. That was the point the dream ended and Su Yu woke up in reality.
...
"Hiss!"
His head was hurting so much he wondered if it was going to burst apart. In fact, his entire body was hurting, as though he had really been blasted apart in reality. His eyes flickered in excitement as he seemed to have finally deciphered his dream. At that moment, a faintly discernible book could be seen in his mind. That was the same book that had appeared in the dream.
"From dream to reality..."
Su Yu's expression turned solemn. After so many years of torture, he should be happy to finally decipher his dreams. But why would something from a dream appear outside of it? The book that had absorbed the iron-winged bird's blood essence had actually appeared in his mind. Was that an image or was there really a book within his head?
As Su Yu gazed inwardly at the book, he tried controlling the book with his mind. The pages of the book started flipping. Before long, he arrived at the page that had been illuminated by the iron-winged bird.
Iron-winged bird (Seventh-stage Great Strength Realm)
Racial abilities: Tier-1 Rip (activate with blood essence), Ironwing Slash (activate with blood essence)
Foundation source art: Source Swallowing (activate with blood essence)
There were only a few words on the page. Those weren't written in the human language. Rather, they were written in the iron-winged bird language. If Su Yu had not learned the language before, he would not be able to read this page.
"Seventh-stage Great Strength, racial ability, foundation source art..."
Su Yu frowned. What was that book? Looking at the contents of the page, was he supposed to consume more blood essence for activation? Activate? What was he supposed to activate? Those abilities?
Seventh-stage Great Strength probably referred to the strength of the iron-winged bird the blood essence had been extracted from. That was easily understandable. ?But what about the rest of the words? What did they mean?
Numerous thoughts crossed Su Yu's mind.
"Will I be able to unlock the abilities of the iron-winged bird race as long as I have enough blood essence? But will I even be able to use the activated abilities? Even if I can, how strong will those abilities be when activated by me? Will it be at the level of third-stage Source Opening or seventh-stage Great Strength? How long will the abilities stay activated? Are there any side effects? Where did this book come from?"
Su Yu's eyes flickered as he sank into thought. These dreams had started over ten years ago. Was it possible that this book had stayed in his mind for that long as well? If so, who was the one who had planted the book in his mind? Was there some sort of conspiracy?
There were countless races in existence. Could this be a scheme by one of them with the intention of using him to sow chaos among humanity? He couldn't help considering that possibility.
After all, there were some extremely treacherous races out there. In fact, something like that had happened in the Human Realm before. There was one incident where numerous human experts fell into the machinations of the enemy and were eventually enticed into becoming the members of the Myriad Race Cult.
"But humanity has a population of tens of billions. I am as ordinary as a human can get. Even if they have to plot and scheme, is there a need to use the plan on me? Especially a plan that would take over ten years?"
Su Yu still couldn't find a proper explanation for the book in his mind. He couldn’t resist giving it a try. Also, that was quite a thick book. He had only activated a single page so far. Was it possible that he could activate the other pages as well?
While deep in thought, Su Yu suddenly sensed a burst of undulations. He blanked out as he realized that the undulations were coming from the book. The book was actually conversing with him. However, the conversation wasn't made through words. Instead, the answer was somehow being mentally projected into his mind.
"Yes, I can activate the other pages. As long as it is a race that I've dreamed about, I can activate the corresponding page with the correct blood essence. But I'm only at the Source Opening Realm. I need to take my body into consideration when consuming blood essence."
In fact, Su Yu was feeling like his body was on the verge of exploding right this moment. It was extremely painful. After all, he had consumed the blood essence of a seventh-stage Great Strength iron-winged bird. If it had been the blood of an Infinite Strength Realm bird instead, Su Yu would have probably been crippled if not killed by now.
"I see," muttered Su Yu to himself. He finally understood. Over the years, he had been dreaming of a different race every night.
As for the book in its mind, it wasn't something that had appeared due to the iron-winged bird's blood essence. Rather, as long as he had the blood essence of any race he had dreamed of, he would be able to activate the book.
Unfortunately, Su Yu had not been able to recognize the races that he had dreamed of in the past. Additionally, he was only a third-stage Source Opening cultivator. He wouldn't randomly swallow a drop of blood essence for no reason at his cultivation level.
If he hadn't been able to understand the words of the iron-winged bird in his dream, he wouldn't have taken this risk either. After all, doing this at his cultivation was dangerous enough to kill him if he was careless or unlucky.
"Foundation source art: Source Swallowing..."
Suddenly, Su Yu noticed the third row of the words in the page. The Source Swallowing Technique was the foundation art of the iron-winged bird race. It only had one usage: source qi absorption.
"Source Swallowing Technique...activate with blood essence?"
Su Yu's eyes lit up, "What does this mean? Will I be able to activate this technique with blood essence and start absorbing source qi with it? But those in the Source Opening Realm aren't supposed to be able to actively absorb source qi. They can only cultivate passively."
He did not care much about the racial abilities. Rip and Ironwing Slash were the basic abilities of the iron-winged bird race. That was something the human race was aware of. Blood essence activation might allow Su Yu to learn those abilities, and he might even be able to use them at the level of a seventh-stage Great Strength bird. Even so, he still didn't care much about those abilities.
His attention was completely on the Source Swallowing Technique. That technique could be activated with blood essence as well. What did that mean? Before the Great Strength Realm, humans were not able to actively absorb source qi. The Source Opening Codex could only help humans gather a tiny bit of source qi and slightly increase the ambient source qi density around them, increasing the efficiency of their passive cultivation.
"Source Swallowing Technique..."
Su Yu couldn't help but to grow excited. If he could really activate the Source Swallowing Technique, did that not mean that he would be able to actively absorb source qi at the Source Opening Realm?
It took a long time for a human to open the nine acupoints. The main reason for that was their inability to actively absorb source qi. That was because humans were not born with interlinked acupoints. What would happen if a human gained the ability to actively absorb source qi at the Source Opening Realm?
"But...I still don't know if there are any side effects. How efficient will the active absorption be? And how many drops of blood essence would I need to activate the technique? If I only use one drop, how long will the technique stay active? How good would the technique be? This shit is very expensive. I'll need to spend fifty thousand per drop. If each drop would last only several minutes, it wouldn't be worth it."
Numerous possibilities appeared in Su Yu's mind. Additionally, there were also the other pages in the book that would also require activation with more drops of blood essence. How was he supposed to get his hands on so many drops of blood essence? There were too many things to consider. Su Yu suddenly felt like he did not have enough mental capacity to think about all that.
"Perhaps...I should test it out. Also, where did this book come from? Should I ask the teachers about it?"
After some thought, Su Yu rejected that notion. Even if that book was really planted by someone else, his teachers wouldn't know anything. They were too weak compared to someone capable of such a feat. After all, the book had remained undetected for over ten years. Even those at the Skysoar Realm might not be able to do anything about it, never mind those at the Great Strength and Infinite Strength Realms.
"Sitting here thinking won't change anything. It's better for me to perform some tests."
Just as Su Yu was busy thinking, a loud noise erupted from the door. Next, Chen Hao burst through the door waving his school bag while roaring, "I've notified the Windcatcher Department! Feel free to stay if you're not afraid of death! We have experts all around the apartment! You better piss off if you know what's good for you!"
"..."
Su Yu was speechless. After Chen Hao's shout, noises started coming from the apartment units upstairs and downstairs. Before long, someone living upstairs shouted, "What's going on? Are the animals from the Myriad Race Cult here? Audacious! Surround them!"
"..."
Su Yu stopped blanking out and hurriedly shouted, "It's fine! It's fine! Grandpa Zhou, it's Chen Hao playing a joke on me! I'm sorry!"
Soon, an old man rushed over with a cleaver in hand. After pushing Chen Hao who was standing before the door aside and checking that Su Yu was fine, he breathed out in relief and said, "I thought the bastards from the Myriad Race Cult were here. Your father is not around anymore, so you need to be careful. Feel free to look for us if you encounter any trouble."
Then, he slapped Chen Hao on the back of his head.
"You! Who told you to start shouting? Don't go around shouting for no reason. What if we think you’re lying the next time you ask for help when the Myriad Race Cult bastards are really here? Wouldn't that be terrible?"
The old man was furious. However, his anger was only directed toward Chen Hao.
"Kid, if you dare to raise a false alarm again, I'll have your father drag you downstairs and hang you naked before whooping your ass."
Chen Hao had a sullen expression. He really wanted to explain that this wasn't his idea. It was Su Yu's idea! That fellow had suddenly sent such a message to him. How could he not be worried? This really wasn't his fault!
Su Yu stood up. His body was still in pain, but it was bearable. A majority of the blood essence had probably been absorbed by the book. Thus, his body had only absorbed a tiny bit of the blood's power and was only suffering from some pain instead of actual injuries.
He ignored his pain and hurriedly apologized to Grandpa Zhou. Grandpa Zhou had a gratified smile on his face as he listened to Su Yu. At the end, he did not forget to give Chen Hao's head another slap.
Just look at you! Why are you so different from this Su kid? Compared to him, you’re so dumb!
Chen Hao felt like crying.
Su Yu was also feeling helpless. He remembered something and hurriedly asked, "Did you contact the Windcatcher Department?"
"No. I was bluffing," Chen Hao replied sulkily. He wasn't sure if something had really happened, so he hadn't actually notified the Windcatcher Department.
"Good." Su Yu breathed out in relief.
Chen Hao said unhappily, "What's so good about that? Also, why did you send me a message like that? I thought something bad happened to you!"
When the crowd of grandpas and grandmas that had gathered outside saw that everything was fine, they left.
Su Yu breathed out in relief and dragged Chen Hao back into his home. After shutting the door, he said, "I was feeling dizzy earlier so I was afraid I would faint. That was why I sent you that message. Didn't I tell you to knock first?"
"Oh, you're fine?" Chen Hao did not pursue the matter. Instead, he asked worriedly, "Did you starve yourself? Uncle Su is gone so you're out of food? You should come eat at my place in the future! My dad even told me to invite you over the other day. I didn't tell you because I was worried that you would be embarrassed..."
Su Yu did not know whether to laugh or cry. Was he stupid enough to starve himself? Nevertheless, he was still moved. This fellow could be noisy and simple-minded at times, but he was still a good friend to have.
"I'm fine. I spent too long cultivating the Source Opening Codex last night so I was feeling unwell in the morning. I'm fine now."
"That's good to hear." Chen Hao was relieved. "So are you going to school today? Why don't you call in sick. While you’re at it, tell the school that I'm accompanying you for a checkup and get a leave of absence for me as well."
"..."
Su Yu was no longer feeling as moved. He had nothing to say to this fellow. So it turned out that Chen Hao wanted to skip class but did not have the guts to do it. Therefore, he was trying to get Su Yu to get a leave of absence for him instead.
"Piss off!" Su Yu scolded with a laugh. "I'm not skipping today. I have something to do at school."
"You're going to school today?" Chen Hao found himself confused. Why was this fellow changing his mind all the time? He was the one who had refused to go previously. But now, he wanted to go? Was this how the brains of all smart people worked? They would change their mind all the time?
Su Yu couldn't be bothered to explain himself. He wanted to see if there were any ways he could get some iron-winged bird blood from the school. Or maybe he could find a cheaper source of blood essence from school. After all, the Xia Trade Company was too greedy! At fifty thousand per drop, there wasn’t much he could do with the small amount of money Su Long left behind.