Su Yu was unaware of the secret meeting being held about him. But he did know that the bounty issued on him had increased in value. He was now worth 300,000 merit points, comparable to even Sunmoons.

At the same time, Yuan Qingdong finally made a public apology to Su Yu. Yes. He had actually made a public apology. This was way beyond Su Yu's expectations.

Source Soul Research Center.

Su Yu was watching a video. From the video, he saw Yuan Qingdong for the very first time. From the background, Yuan Qingdong was clearly speaking in the Dao Preaching District.

"I sincerely apologize for making rash assumptions before investigating everything clearly and causing Researcher Su so much trouble.

"I've since verified Feng Ji's identity. He is a hero of humanity serving as an undercover agent in the Six-Winged Divine Sect. I apologize for causing Feng Ji such big trouble. Great Xia, Great Xia Cultural Research Academy, and myself promise to rescue Feng Ji from the cult to make up for our previous mistake."

On the screen, Yuan Qingdong had an apologetic expression.

"Researcher Su's Double Wu Acupoint Fusion Art and Source Soul Cultural Art are both greatly beneficial to the human race. The human race should be grateful for his selflessness. I wish to apologize to the three academies of Great Xia. Because of me, they were wrongly blamed. I'm truly sorry. I have troubled all of you.

"I never intended to target anyone. I was unaware of Feng Ji's identity before this. Nevertheless, I agree that I need to take responsibility for my mistakes.

"I know that an apology won't change anything. But I will do my part. From today onward, I will mount a rescue operation to save Feng Ji from the clutches of the cult. I won't allow him to suffer at the hands of those cultists.

"Regarding the one million merit points requested by Su Yu, I truly can't afford that much money. But I am willing to pay the price for my mistake. I can make this payment in installments. Each year, I'll pay Su Yu ten thousand merit points. This debt will be cleared in a hundred years. No matter what, I hope that Su Yu can consider the fact that he used to be a student in Great Xia and consider releasing his cultivation methods to the three academies as well.

"I know that a lot of people have wronged him, including those who are now dead. But a lot of people are also innocent. I hope that Researcher Su won't punish everyone for the mistakes of the few. Once again, I apologize."

Yuan Qingdong looked completely sincere. A great Sunmoon was publicly apologizing to Su Yu. In the eyes of the common people, a Sunmoon was basically a god. But today, someone like that had lowered himself to apologize. He had even promised to pay Su Yu in installments. He had also promised to mount a rescue operation for Feng Ji. He had agreed to every request Su Yu made of him.

Inside the research center's private cinema.

After watching the video of the public apology, Su Yu smiled silently. Beside him, Wu Lan snorted and said, "He has zero sincerity."

Behind them, Wen Zhong said, "Yuan Qingdong...is a Sunmmon, after all. He knows when to bow his head and when he can stay stubborn. The three academies of Great Xia are currently extremely dissatisfied with him. But with this public apology, his offer of payment, and a rescue operation for Feng Ji, you won't be able to reject his offer without incurring public wrath."

In short, the ball was now on Su Yu's court. Was he going to remove the ban or not? If he kept the ban, Yuan Qingdong would no longer be the target of public anger. After all, he had agreed to all of Su Yu's conditions.

Su Yu said, "I'm quite surprised. I thought that he would remain stubborn. He is quite a shrewd one."

"No matter what, he's a Sunmoon." Wen Zhong said, "Don't think that he's a fool just because of the first impression he gave you. If Chen Yong and Wan Tiansheng had stayed silent about Feng Ji's identity, you would have been turned into a traitor. That would have brought you a lot of trouble.

"I know a little bit about Yuan Qingdong. He is from Great Yuan's Yuan Family. Some Invincible families are split into two. This normally applies to prefecture founders with numerous descendants. They will keep one branch of their family in the prefecture and send a second branch to the holy land. For those with even more descendants, they will send a third branch to the Allheaven Battlefield. By doing this, they are able to spread their influence everywhere.

"Yuan Qingdong is a member of the Knowledge Seeking Realm’s branch. At around a hundred years old, he's quite young. He is one of the top geniuses of the Yuan Family in the Knowledge Seeking Realm. His father is the son of Great Yuan King, the current leader of the Yuan Family's Knowledge Seeking Realm branch."

Su Yu nodded before asking curiously, "But why are there no branches of the Xia and Zhu Families in the holy lands?"

"The Invincible families without too many descendants won't choose to do so. Great Ming King had two sons, but you know what happened with that. The Xia Family is in a similar situation. Marquis Xia was still very young when his elder brother perished on the battlefield.

"Also, there are two main categories of Invincible families. The first category consisted of the prefecture founders. The second category consisted of the later Invincibles.

"Back then, there were only 36 prefecture founders. Over the years, some of them had perished while new Invincibles had emerged. These new Invincibles did not start any new prefectures since the Human Realm was already full. Thus, most of these people were based in the two holy lands and the Allheaven Prefecture.

"Because of this, the influence of some Invincible families in the holy lands started growing larger and larger. That's because most of the prefecture founders only care about their own prefectures.

"All Invincibles are nominal members of either the War Shrine or the Knowledge Seeking Realm. In truth, some Invincibles had never even stepped foot in the two holy lands. These two holy lands only existed because we need a nominal leader to prevent civil war."

Understanding dawned on Su Yu. He asked, "Senior Brother, how many Invincibles does the human race have?"

"Nobody knows. Perhaps not even those Invincibles have the answer for that." Wen Zhong explained, "There are things that you will only understand after reaching that level yourself. It is very hard to tell if something is the truth or a lie. The only thing we are sure of is that a few prefecture founders had perished."

Wen Zhong sighed, "320 years ago, Great Wei King perished in a battle. Since then, Great Wei started declining. Back then, it used to be an incomparably powerful prefecture. Great We King's eldest son is the current prefect of Great Wei. He's not weak, but since he's not an Invincible, he can't stop Great Wei from its decline.

"240 years ago, Great Wu King perished in a battle. As a result, Great Wu started declining. Wu Lan's family is related to this Wu Family."

Wu Lan, who was playing with the little furball nearby, looked over and said, "Senior Brother, you sure know a lot. But we are only a branch family. We moved to Great Xia 200 years ago."

Su Yu asked in surprise, "What's Great Wu King's relationship with you?"

"Me?" Wu Lan did a short calculation and answered, "My ancestor from eight generations ago."

"..."

Su Yu was speechless.

For some reason, her words sounded like what someone would say when cursing at someone's family. But seeing her serious expression, Su Yu concluded that she was probably telling the truth.

Wen Zhong said, "160 years ago, Great Qi King perished in a battle. 70 years ago, Great Chen King perished in a battle."

Wen Zhong sighed, "Four founders had perished. I don't know if there are more. Some founders are too brazen. They might have sneaked into the Divine or Devil Realm before perishing in there. The death of an Invincible will create a great disturbance, but we won't notice anything if it happens inside those realms."

In short, at least four founders had perished. Including the non-founders, humanity had lost quite a lot of Invincibles over the years.

Su Yu nodded before returning to the previous topic, "Is Yuan Qingdong a member of the single character faction? Or is he acting on someone's request?"

"Who knows?" Wen Zhong said, "We don't know what those Invincibles are thinking. And nobody knows what Great Yuan King is thinking. It has been a very long time since he was last seen in public. He has been missing from Great Yuan's anniversary day's celebration for a few years in a row."

Su Yu nodded. Beside her, Wu Lan asked, "So are you going to remove the ban on the three academies?"

"Of course." Su Yu said, "Since a Sunmoon has personally apologized, I have to accept his goodwill, right?"

Wu Lan snorted, "Boring."

Why must he listen to that fellow? If he removed the ban, the people from the three academies would probably thank Yuan Qingdong instead of Su Yu for the cultivation methods.

Su Yu said, "It's fine. From his words, it is clear he's not planning to leave. It's good that he's going to remain in Great Xia. He's offering to pay me a million merit points, right? I'm not going to take the money for myself. I'll subsidize the three academies instead.

"The students of the three academies need to pay 700 merit points for each copy of the cultivation method. I'll sell it to them for 200 merit points. The remaining 500 merit points will be deducted from Yuan Qingdong's payment. Using his money, I can subsidize a total of 2,000 students. I'll let the single character faction enjoy this benefit. They only need to pay 700 merit points per copy before claiming back 500 merit points from Yuan Qingdong."

"..."

Both Wen Zhong and Wu Lan stared at Su Yu silently.

𝚏𝐫𝚎𝗲𝕨𝐞𝐛𝕟𝚘𝐯𝚎𝗹.𝕔𝐨𝗺

After a long while, Wen Zhong laughed, "But as he said, he has no money."

Yes, this was a good idea. But Yuan Qingdong had mentioned that he had no money, right? Thus, this ploy of Su Yu wouldn't achieve anything.

Su Yu grinned, "Not at all. Let us do a little calculation. Each year, the Yuan Family stands to earn over 500,000 merit points from the sales of their Myriad Text Sutra. Including their other earnings, they can probably earn millions of merit points each year.

"And this is the income of Yuan Qingdong's branch alone. The main branch back in Great Yuan has its own income as well. Thus, how is it possible that he can't afford to pay the money? He's a Sunmoon. How many Sunmoons does the Yuan Family have in the Knowledge Seeking Realm?"

"Two. Him and his father." Su Yu said, "In that case, he definitely has the money. If he's too stingy to pay up, he has to make that clear. I've decided. Great Xia's single character faction will have to pay 700 merit points per copy. They can claim the subsidy from Yuan Qingdong. He is free to refuse. In any case, I'm not going to take his money.

"As for those not from the single character faction, they can get each copy for 200 merit points. The remaining 500 merit points can be claimed from the Xia Family. The Xia Family definitely doesn't lack money. They earned a lot from my Double Wu Acupoint Fusion Art. We can't let the students bear all the cost of this cultivation method, right?"

"..."

Wen Zhong and Wu Lan were left completely speechless.

Su Yu added, "The Xia Family must have earned a lot raiding the properties of those dead elders. They can use that money to subsidize those students. The students only need to pay 200 merit points. That's still more expensive than the other prefectures, but it's still cheaper than the Myriad Text Sutra. It's totally worth the purchase.

"If they can't even afford that much money, there is nothing else I can do. The Xia Family will probably be willing to pay. As for Yuan Qingdong’s choice...that is none of my business."

How many students were there in the three academies? There honestly wasn't a lot. That number would only rise to a terrifying level if the old students were included. There were probably tens of thousands of Mental Tempering Stage cultivators in Great Xia alone. But most of the older ones would probably not bother with this new cultivation method.

Even if only ten thousand of them decided to cultivate this cultivation method, the Xia Family would need to pay five million merit points to subsidize all of them. That figure might be eventually adjusted, but that would depend on Su Yu's subsequent negotiation with Marquis Xia.

Wu Lan asked, "How about the divine corpse and the Willpower Grotto?"

Was Su Yu giving up on those?

"I'll probably get the corpse. As for the grotto..." Su Yu shook his head, "It's unlikely that I'll get it. That was merely a term I listed to scare them. Yuan Qingdong was my target all along. Since he's trying to fool me with an empty promise of installments, I'll gladly play the game with him. Let's see if he's going to pay for the students or not."

With this move, the result no longer mattered to Su Yu. If Yuan Qingdong agreed, he would suffer greatly. If he refused, even if the single character faction knew that this was Su Yu's trick, they would still be furious at Yuan Qingdong.

After all, Yuan Qingdong was more than capable of paying the money Su Yu had demanded. But instead, he had tried to play a trick on Su Yu, resulting in an increase in the price they needed to pay for the cultivation method.

Five hundred merit points was not a small sum, especially for the students. Even a Skysoar would hesitate to buy something so expensive. Thus, Yuan Qingdong would ultimately receive the hatred of the single character faction yet again.

Su Yu said, "Looks like I need to have a talk with the prefect. I need him to spread the news. We need to let everyone know my decision. We'll keep him busy with endless troubles. That way, he won't have the time to pick fights with me."