Chapter 100: Getting To Know The Cultural Research Academy (2)

Su Yu knew about those two places. He had heard of them from Bai Feng. Both the third and fourth generation principals had each left a manifested Divine Character behind. Those characters had formed a pocket world each.

Su Yu gave it some thought and asked, "What will one get as a high-low student?"

"Only 100 merit points. Nothing else," Huang Sheng answered with a smile. "A high-middle student will get a chance to enter a grotto while a high-high student will get two chances." This is a very rare opportunity. The secret grotto promised by the Nine Heavens Cultural Research Academy is a far cry from our grottos."

Su Yu nodded. That was the type of confidence expected from the strongest academy. Multiple secret grottos of a different academy was not even the equivalent of a single grotto in their academy.

A high-low student would not even be given that chance. One was free to not join the academy if that was unacceptable. Those chances were only reserved for high-middle and high-high students.

"About the two grottos..."

"You'll know after joining the academy." Huang Sheng's tone turned stern as he said, "I suggest you use your ticket into the source grotto right after joining. To be precise, use it when you reach the peak of the ninth-stage Source Opening Realm.

"That place will be very helpful for your breakthrough. At the Great Strength Realm, you will start forging your body with your opened acupoints. Making your breakthrough in the grotto will be very beneficial for you.

"Generally, only students at the Mental Tempering Stage will opt to break through. You're a brand new student and might earn other opportunities in the future. It will be more beneficial to use that chance to gain more combat strength. Of course, the choice will still be up to you."

Su Yu nodded, "Teacher, can I ask something unrelated?"

"Yes."

"I heard the academy will be opening up a Foreign Student Faculty this year. Is that true?"

"Yes." Huang Sheng nodded. He sternly said, "This thing has been in planning for a long time. We tried launching it once before, but it eventually failed for complicated reasons."

"Because the prefect eliminated those races?"

"It's not that simple," Huang Sheng shook his head. "You must have heard that from Instructor Liu. The actual circumstances are much more complicated. But that's not important for you. It's all in the past.

"Things are different this time. The capital has tacitly agreed to the project. Marquis Xia made an excessive demand and demanded a large amount of resources from the foreign races. This time, nothing can go wrong. Great Xia's reputation is at risk here. Previously, the prefectural government had not accepted the plan. It was the academy's private project. We could use that excuse for the previous failure. But not anymore...

"I'm telling you all this because upon encountering foreign students in the academy, you are allowed to compete against them or even provoke them into a battle to the death. All that will be allowed. But dirty tricks outside of the rules will not be acceptable.

"But all this will probably not be related to you. Those freaks in the capital will be the ones we need to be watching out for. Some of them have never suffered a loss before. They will react badly the moment they suffer their first loss. And with the group of brainless underlings instigating them, they might create a big ruckus behind the scenes."

Su Yu understood what Huang Sheng was getting at. The so-called ruckus behind the scenes was probably the usage of some dirty tricks or assassinations on the foreign students. That would sully Great Xia's reputation.

And that definitely didn't apply to Su Yu. If he suffered a loss in the hands of these foreign students, he wouldn't be able to play any dirty tricks since he had no big families backing him.

But something else caught his attention. He solemnly asked, "Are the foreign students actually stronger than the freaks?"

"Some of them will be." Huang Sheng indifferently said, "That's normal. After all, some races do not calculate their age the same way humans do. Some of them will need hundreds of years to reach adulthood. Meanwhile, humans will reach adulthood after about two decades. There is nothing we can do about that. There are also races who are already at the Great Strength Realm at birth. What can we do about that?"

"Are there cultural researchers among the foreign races as well?"

"You can say that. But they don't call themselves cultural researchers. They have all sorts of terms for that. Some are known as mages. Some are known as spellmasters, and so on."

"Cultural researcher is a human term. And even among humans, there are diverging terms. Some humans call themselves divine character masters, some call themselves explorers, gatherers, reformers, destroyers, and all sorts of titles. But you don't have to worry too much about that."

Su Yu nodded. He understood that those different terms might actually be related to the paths of these individuals.

"Will there be a conflict between us and the foreign students in the academy?"

"Both sides will need to hold back and try to avoid each other. In fact, they will probably not be assigned to the main zone of the academy. We don't want there to be too many unnecessary conflicts between the two parties, after all."

"What will the academy do in the event of a dispute?"

Huang Sheng looked at Su Yu and smiled, "You have been asking the same question repeatedly. Are you going to look for trouble with those foreign students?"

"No. But I'm worried about disputes. Who knows if they will come after me?"

"You don't have to worry about that. This is Great Xia. After paying such a high price to send these people over, the foreign races won't send some fools that will create trouble for no reason. If you are actually able to lure them into a match to the death, then you'll be allowed to kill them.

"And if nobody collects the corpses, we can always use those corpses for our meals. We won't have trouble doing that. But don't think of doing anything to the Foreign Student Faculty. Don't worry. They will be keeping a much lower profile than you think."

"I see."

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Su Yu asked a few other questions. Eventually, Huang Sheng recommended several researchers to him, telling him to consider picking a different teacher. Bai Feng was still too weak. Huang Sheng earnestly told him that Bai Feng was a very irresponsible person.

Before leaving, Huang Sheng repeated himself, "Bai Feng is a genius, and all geniuses are selfish. They will need to spend a lot of their time cultivating, exploring secret grottos, searching for treasures, and competing against their rivals. They don't have the time to properly teach a student. It will be better for newbies like you to find an old and reliable teacher.

"Bai Feng has a lot of opponents in the academy. Among the younger generation, he isn't even considered the strongest. He also has some conflicts with freaks like Xia Yuwen. Now that Senior Hong has left for the Allheaven Battlefield, he will probably have a hard time even taking care of himself. You need to consider your choices properly."

"Having a hard time taking care of himself?" Finally, Su Yu learned something different. He hurriedly asked, "What do you mean by that? Can people kill in the academy?"

"No..." Huang Sheng hesitated slightly before saying, "There are things that are more hurtful than death. Removing the benefits of a genius, giving a low evaluation, canceling one's qualification to enter the secret grottos, limiting the supply of resources, canceling some other important qualifications, and so on. Su Yu, since you've decided to join the academy, you need to know that there is no avoiding all those conflicts.

"The academy aims to cultivate geniuses and strong individuals. We follow the rule of the survival of the fittest. If you only cultivate obediently like me and aim to be a normal assistant, nobody will make trouble for you. People like us will not be worth their time. And if you want to start competing against the others, then you need to be aware that the availability of some things are limited..."

Huang Sheng's mood turned melancholic as he continued, "For example, the blood of divines and devils. Who doesn't want to forge their body with that? I want to do so as well. But I don't have the courage to fight for that opportunity. Why? Because I won't be able to win the competition. I can only be practical and use the blood of some weak races to forge my body. Nobody will care about that.

"If I decide to compete instead, do you think others will allow me to get what I want easily? The more you give, the more you stand to gain.

"The truly strong ones are really very strong. If you fail, it's not because everyone is prejudiced against you. It's only because you're too weak. It's because you have competed for something beyond your ability to get. Doing so will only get you in trouble."

Huang Sheng was very earnest. Although others might look down on him for reaching the Skysoar Realm at middle-age, nobody knew him better than himself. If he really had the ability, why would he even be wasting his time taking this job as a proctor in Nanyuan? Was it worth wasting so much of a genius' time for some merit points?

He did not have the ability to compete against people like Bai Feng and Liu Hong. Otherwise, why would he need to fawn on and work for Liu Hong? Both of them were Skysoar cultivators. He wasn't necessarily afraid of Liu Hong. However, a conflict with Liu Hong was simply not worth it for him. And he also couldn't afford to offend Liu Hong.

Su Yu was starting to see a clearer picture. The academy was definitely not a safe place. Or to be precise, no academy would be absolutely safe. If he did not have the value, why should the academy help him grow?

"So is Teacher Bai in a dangerous situation?"

"It's hard to say. But since Bai Feng is now a seventh-stage Skysoar cultivator, he will probably be coming up with new ideas. Some of the things he hadn't dared to fight for in the past will no longer be out of reach. At that time, his opponents will no longer be Liu Hong. Instead, it would be an entirely different group of people that are far stronger than Liu Hong."

"Liu Hong?"

Huang Sheng smiled, "That's Bai Feng's old rival. You will know after entering the academy. But Bai Feng has broken through recently while Liu Hong is still stuck at the sixth-stage, so you don't have to worry about him too much."

"I understand. Thank you, teacher."

"You're welcome."

After receiving some benefits from Liu Hong to give Su Yu a little bit of trouble during the examination, Huang Sheng naturally needed to balance the scale with Su Yu after the examination. After all, Bai Feng was also not someone he could afford to offend. People like him were far better at surviving than those geniuses.

𝙛𝒓𝓮𝒆𝔀𝒆𝙗𝓷𝒐𝙫𝒆𝙡.𝒄𝓸𝓶

"Also, it's better if you don't involve others in your rivalry with Wu Lan. You better don't try underhanded tricks on her either. The Wu Family is very powerful. Even Bai Feng can't afford to provoke her elder sister..."

Huang Sheng then left. Su Yu stood there scratching his head. After a long while, he muttered, "Rivalry?"

He spent a long time thinking but he just couldn't recall any rivalry between them. He had never considered that idiot a rival. How did Huang Sheng reach that conclusion?

Su Yu shook his head. This must be a misunderstanding. In his eyes, Wu Lan was a child who had yet to grow up. She seemed even dumber than Chen Hao. He wouldn't be bothered to compete against such a person. It would be too easy to deal with her. He only needed to provoke her with some words and that would probably be enough to make her go and challenge some freaks to a battle to the death.

"If I can crush her with my brain, why bother getting my hands dirty?"

Su Yu muttered as he shut the door behind Huang Sheng. This fellow was looking down on him too much. He wasn't that stupid.