Chapter 655: Thanking Principal Niu Again (2)

Su Yu decided to stop thinking about the matter for now. The only thing he could do was to solicit some help and keep growing stronger. Just growing stronger alone wasn't enough. He needed to strengthen some of his friends as well.

There were things that he couldn't personally get involved with. The current situation was one such example. He was not weak, but he didn't even dare to leave Great Ming as that might cost him his life.

He didn't have too many friends in Great Ming. That must change. He had to recruit some allies. At that thought, Su Yu's gaze landed on Jin Sheng. At the moment, Jin Sheng was busy researching the little furball.

"Senior Brother, this little furball has eaten a lot of characters yet he's still stuck in his cultivation level. Why is that the case?"

Jin Sheng was a subject expert in characters. He had been spending the past few days studying the little furball.

Before Jin Sheng could say anything, the little furball spoke in his baby voice, "No yummies!"

In short, he was stuck because his food wasn't good enough. He was promising to advance if he was given better food.

"Piss off." Su Yu said, "Previously, you ate all the characters in Wentan Research Center but you're still stuck."

"Not yummy..."

Su Yu was left speechless. He thought about it and said, "Senior Brother, you have a lot of characters, right? This is the main reason advancement has been hard for you. Why don't you feed the little furball with some of them? That way, you can finally push some of your characters to the third tier and enter the Cloudbreach Realm."

At those words, the little furball stared at Jin Sheng attentively. He concluded that this would be a decent meal.

Jin Sheng laughed and said, "It hasn't been easy for me to form all those characters. Why do you want to take them away? But you're right. I have too many characters of different races so the repelling force is too strong. If I can remove some without backlash, I might really be able to break through."

Su Yu thought that this was an agreement, but Jin Sheng shook his head, "Don't eat mine. I still need these characters for my research."

"This little fellow is stuck not because he's lacking food, but it's because he lacks quality food."

After pondering on it for a bit, he continued, "I suspect this is a race that has never been documented before. It is probably an ancient race. For warriors, an advancement from the Skysoar to the Cloudbreach Realm involves the tempering of their bodies. For cultural researchers, their characters and willpower need to reach a certain level."

"This fellow can be viewed as both a cultural researcher and a character. Thus, his path of advancement is probably similar to characters. Eating characters alone is probably not enough for him to break through."

Su Yu hurriedly asked, "In that case, what should he do?"

After a short pause, Jin Sheng said, "Nourishment and comprehension. Take him to the Hundred Dao Pagoda with you. There, keep your fire character active at all times. Look for a place with thick willpower density. If you're feeling generous, you can even let him eat a part of your fire character. You can regrow your partially damaged character while he can probably advance much easier."

These were the advantages unique to Su Yu. Without Su Yu, the little furball would have a hard time attaining comprehension since he was still too young. Advancement would be too difficult.

Sure, he would eventually advance with the passage of time, but that would probably take him decades or even centuries. This was a race that required a long life to grow strong. And the little furball was obviously still very young.

"Eating the fire character?"

Su Yu grimaced. Was he supposed to use his own character as the supplement for this little furball?

The little furball shouted in excitement, "Yummy!"

Jin Sheng said, "In his eyes, natural characters are the most delicious, far better than derivative characters. And among natural characters, this fire of enlightenment is probably one of the most helpful characters for him.

"Junior Brother Su, it is worth nurturing this little fellow to the Cloudbreach Realm. There are a lot of people who are stuck in the Skysoar and Cloudbreach Realms in Great Ming. Senior Brother Wen Zhong is one of them. Additionally, he is also having difficulty fusing his apertures. That makes it harder for him to advance.

"This little fellow is capable of painlessly devouring one's characters. He is the best option for those who are at the end of their lifespans. For these people, crushing their characters to pursue a breakthrough is the same as courting death through backlash.

"You don't look like someone who can stay idle for long. Rather than beg for the help of others, you might as well rely on yourself. Use this service to exchange for the assistance you need..."

At Jin Sheng's age, he had seen a lot of people. After a few days by Su Yu's side, he had learned of Su Yu's mindset. This was a kid who did not enjoy relying on others unless absolutely necessary. He would rather do things himself than owe others a favor.

Jin Sheng continued his persuasion, "You don't lack cultivation methods, merit points, trump cards, ability, talent, and fame. You have everything you need except time. For a lot of old geezers, they lack a single opportunity to take that step forward. A lot of them would rather take a chance with you than helplessly wait for death."

Su Yu nodded silently. That was true. Jin Sheng's words also reminded Su Yu of One-eye, Bloodmoon, and Great Mountain. All three of them were still in Great Xia. He had asked about them once. According to Zhu Tiandao, they were still waiting for an Invincible to spare the time and seal their memories.

At the very least, they needed to seal the memories regarding the disassembly method and Su Yu's 180 apertures. Those were the most crucial memories. Everything else did not matter as much. Since Great Xia King had yet to return, the wait would probably take a while.

Jin Sheng was right. Rather than rely on others, he was better off relying on himself. Each time he asked for help, he would owe someone a favor. For example, some of the requests he made of Zhu Tiandao weren't even important enough to trouble a prefect. But Su Yu lacked an alternative.

The more he owed someone, the harder it would be to repay them.

After noting down everything he needed to do, Su Yu found that he was going to be very busy. He needed to visit the Hundred Dao Pagoda. He needed to help grow the little furball. He needed to decide on a body forging art as well.

Or he might even need to create one himself. He had the forging arts of the first divines and the original devils. He had tried both through blood essence activation, so he knew a little about both. Both were somewhat unsuitable.

It wasn't that they weren't good. In fact, they were excellent body forging arts with 36 forgings. But according to what he learned through his book, he had three options.

Firstly, he could use them through blood essence activation thanks to his book. Secondly, he could visit the Divine and Devil Realms and gather the heavenly source qi there for his body forging. Thirdly, he could use countless heavenly source fruits as an alternative for the primordial heavenly source qi.

Screw that!

He knew about heavenly source fruits and heavenly source qi. Both were naturally produced by nature in locations with the purest source qi. For a human, a single heavenly source fruit would be enough for a Source Opening cultivator to easily open all their Source Opening acupoints.

One ought to know that one wasn't supposed to be able to actively cultivate at the Source Opening Realm. And heavenly source fruits were extremely rare.

Some of the influential families might have some in stock, but each fruit was extremely valuable. Earthly source fruits were less rare in comparison. In fact, Su Yu had one big chest of those. These fruits were meant for acupoint opening after the Source Opening Realm. A single earthly source fruit could help a regular person open around one or two acupoints.

Based on Su Yu's judgment, if he wanted to use the two body forging arts, he would need an endless supply of heavenly source qi. He was also slowly coming to understand why the human race loved using divine and devil blood essence for body forging.

That was so they could extract the heavenly source qi within the blood essence. Any living being would have some heavenly source qi inside their body. The amount was what differed between different individuals. Generally, the amount was dictated by one's living environment and one's strength. Why was the blood essence of the first divines and original devils the best? Because both of them lived in excellent environments.

The realms of the original devils and first divines were realms where heavenly source fruits could grow naturally. Thus, the divines and devils there basically grew up soaked in heavenly source qi. That was why their blood essence was so effective in body forging.

But what was Su Yu supposed to do? Rob the Divine and Devil Realms? A better option would be the blood essence of the first divines and original devils. The blood essence of other divine and devil races would do as well, but the purity of the heavenly source qi would be comparatively lower so further extraction might be required.

"Heavenly source fruit, heavenly source qi, and blood essence extraction..."

Su Yu started thinking of a plan. In truth, blood essence was a decent option. After all, when his book absorbed the blood essence he consumed, it was essentially a process of extracting the heavenly source qi in the blood essence for his consumption.

"Is it possible to consume the blood essence of other races and extract the heavenly source qi within to power these body forging arts?"

He had never tried something like that before. Body forging arts did not require any acupoints to be activated, but cultivation methods still mattered a lot as one would need to use one's acupoints to convert the blood essence consumed into heavenly source qi.

That was essentially how most body forging arts worked for the human race. In other words, if a warrior with only 36 acupoints was given divine or devil blood essence, that warrior still wouldn't be able to advance rapidly.

A great example would be Su Yu's father. He was given 10 drops of divine blood essence by Great Xia, but it would take him a long time to fully digest even a single drop of the blood essence.

Understanding dawned on Su Yu. A so-called body forging art was merely a method of utilizing one's acupoints to utilize the power within blood essence or heavenly source qi. Su Yu had actually sought the advice of Cao Hui, the creator of the Ninestar Body Forging Art, regarding this topic.

The better a body forging art, the more effective one's acupoints would be at utilizing the power within the blood essence one consumed. As for the difference between the number of forgings, it was very simple. For example, an art with 9 forgings would lose its effectiveness as the body would grow too strong for it to affect after 9 forgings. Meanwhile, an art with 36 forgings could continue tempering the body for 36 times.

The more cultivation methods Su Yu learned, the more he understood the true nature of the various cultivation methods. A lot of cultural researchers were essentially theorists without much practical experience. Meanwhile, Su Yu was someone who had practiced almost everthing he knew about cultivation methods thanks to his book.

Even Cao Hui had not experienced too many body forging arts with his own body. However, Su Yu had experienced over 30 body forging arts over a period of only several days. That was not a feat Cao Hui could replicate as he would need to actually cultivate all those arts if he wanted to do so.

"Since body forging arts rely on acupoints for energy conversion, I hold an advantage in this. After all, I have a lot of acupoints. But these forging arts are still not as effective as directly using blood essence."