Outside, nobody could see what level Su Yu was on. They only knew that he had surpassed the 40th level. As for the other levels, Su Yu's name wasn't shown since he was too slow.

Maybe he was still stuck on the 41st level, or perhaps he had reached the 59th level. In any case, he wouldn't reach the 60th level. Everyone was sure of that. Very few people had the ability to climb that high.

Even more believed that he hadn't even reached the 50th floor as there really weren't a lot of names there. That was already a level for seventh-stage Cloudbreaches. Great Ming didn't even have that many seventh-stage Cloudbreaches around. Most of the names on the stele were left by some old people in the past.

"I'm getting way too curious. Just how high has he reached?"

"Night is arriving yet again. Do we start another bonfire party tonight?"

They had partied for two nights in a row. Should they do it again?

Someone suggested, "Why don't we set the 12th to the 14th of February each year as a new festival? Let's call it the Bonfire Festival. We will use this festival as a remembrance for the day Su Yu climbs the pagoda. Su Yu might be a Sunmoon or an Invincible in the making. He is definitely worthy of this treatment."

"That makes sense." Someone agreed. "Hey, the ones who had wagered on Su Yu failing to reach the 40th level, what are you waiting for? He is way past that level. Time for you guys to run naked, crossdress, and whatever."

"Yeah, yeah. Come on. Stop wasting time."

The students suddenly turned excited. Amid the crowd, Wu Lan was looking around while following behind Wen Zhong. She wasn't used to this as she mumbled, "If this happened in Great Xia, everyone would be extremely tense."

This was the appearance of a super freak, someone capable of suppressing an entire generation of cultivators. Every single cultural researcher in Great Xia would feel greatly stressed by this.

They would all start cultivating even harder. They would worry about the distribution of benefits after the appearance of a new super freak. Meanwhile, the people of Great Ming were planning to set up a new annual festival.

Wen Zhong smiled and said, "Every place has its customs. In Great Ming, everyone walks a different dao. Thus, nobody will think that you're better than them just because you are able to go far in your dao. As long as you're not as good as them in their dao, then you're still not better than them."

This was Great Ming's philosophy of celebrating the myriad dao in play.

Wu Lan had a pensive look. She said, "Is that the case? For the people here, combat strength is not the only standard you can measure someone with. But that is very useful on the Allheaven Battlefield. In Great Xia, the Allheaven Battlefield is the ultimate goal of every cultivator..."

Wen Zhong asked, "If everyone goes off to fight on the battlefield, what happens to the logistics? How about the gathering of supplies? Why has Great Xia stopped warring since last year? Do you think it's because Prefect Xia wishes to stop? Why is Marquis Xia so greedy? He has the worst reputation out of all the Invincible descendants in the Human Realm. Why does he need so much money? For himself?"

Wu Lan had no answer.

Wen Zhong said, "Anyone with an eye can see that Great Xia itself is no longer capable of waging those wars."

"What about Great Qin?"

Wu Lan could not understand this. Great Qin was just as warlike, but they were doing fine.

"Great Qin..."

After a short pause to organize his words, Wen Zhong explained, "Great Qin is quite poor as well. Their treasury is empty. But they enjoy one advantage over others. The military runs that country. Their entire nation is basically an army. The military controls all their resources. On the other hand, Great Xia is more similar to an ordinary nation. The populace is still quite well-off. The large families of Great Xia are able to establish their own power base and earn their riches. Meanwhile, Great Qin is poorer than Great Xia."

The only reason they could still afford to fight was because there were no large, influential families in Great Qin, so they could dedicate all their resources to their military.

"Great Qin also has a small number of cultural researchers. And warriors are a lot cheaper to raise. Meanwhile, Great Xia has a lot of cultural researchers. They are a lot more ambitious as they wish to walk both paths. Unfortunately, they fail to secure enough resources for their ambitions while providing their populace with a good life. And they are also unwilling to fully militarize like Great Qin. Essentially, they are in a worse state because they are too greedy."

Wu Lan nodded. After a short moment, she gloomily said, "But I still think that Great Xia is good."

That was her home.

"The prefect only wants everyone to live well. He doesn't want everyone to live a life of no freedom like those in Great Qin."

Wen Zhong smiled, "Like I said, everyone has their own dao. And everyone walks their own path. Prefect Xia means well, but it is unfortunate that at times, if you try to gain too much, you might end up with nothing. There is no helping it. Great Xia has been waging endless wars for hundreds of years. They have reached their limits."

Wu Lan softly said, "In truth, I think that the prefect is too kind. Great Xia has a lot of experts. All of them are hiding behind the frontlines. Great Xia will be able to earn a lot more resources if all those people are sent to the battlefield.

"Like my family, we have a Sunmoon, Mountainseas, and Cloudbreaches in the family. But only my father is at the battlefield. My sister will go there occasionally. The rest of them are remaining in the Human Realm. All of them should have gone there..."

Wen Zhong was rendered speechless. She should deliver those words to her family instead. What a crazy lass. Was she not afraid of getting beaten up by her family? Dragging all of them to the Allheaven Battlefield?

At this moment, a figure appeared in front of the Hundred Dao Pagoda.

Su Yu!

He had finally left the pagoda. He had cleared the 49th level, but he had opted to stop there. There was no need to continue his climb. It was pointless to pursue something like a ranking.

He only cared about tangible benefits. Thus, he would visit next time and milk more from the pagoda.

The instant Su Yu appeared, Niu Baidao and the others walked over.

Elder Yun looked at Su Yu. Before he could say anything, Su Yu bowed respectfully and said, "Thank you for your guidance, Teacher. If it wasn't for you, I wouldn't have gained so much from the pagoda."

Su Yu was being very earnest. This Elder Yun was such a kind man. Elder Yun had the urge to cough blood. He had only reminded the kid to not be too focused on clearing the levels. He had not told the kid to milk the pagoda dry. Damn this kid!

He would give the same reminder to all visitors. How many people would actually take his words to heart? Meanwhile, Su Yu had taken his words way too seriously.

On his very first visit, he had learned to reset the levels. Elder Yun couldn't resist asking, "Did someone teach you how to reset the levels?"

"Nope. Wait, so others can do this as well?"

Su Yu was quite surprised, but he soon nodded in understanding. True, there were a lot of smart people in the world.

So the kid had learned it himself. Once again, Elder Yun had the urge to cough blood.

Fuck!

The kid had learned to reset levels without any guidance whatsoever. What a genius. A genius at exploiting loopholes.

He did not voice his thoughts. Instead, he stole a glance at his mirror and saw that the kid had reached the 49th level. For the third time, he had the urge to cough blood. Wow. What an amazing kid.

The 49th level. Was the kid sure he was still a Mental Tempering Stage cultivator? Elder Yun started scanning Su Yu's body repeatedly, but he couldn't even sense Su Yu's actual cultivation level. He was greatly puzzled. Just what cultivation level was the kid at?

At this time, Zhu Hongliang rushed over and hurriedly asked, "Su Yu, what level did you reach?"

"Not that high..." Su Yu smiled, "The subsequent levels were too hard. I couldn't keep going. But this is merely a test run. I've decided to visit again and start my climb from the 1st level. This Hundred Dao Pagoda is such a useful place. No grotto can compare to it. Great Ming King is such an incredible person for creating a treasure like this."

Su Yu exposed his plan to restart his climb during his next visit. There were a lot of things he wanted to try in the pagoda. For example, weaponsmithing and beast taming. He could take the suanni or the mountaindrill bull with him when he felt like taking the beast taming trials. He also had the plan of challenging the pagoda with pure willpower instead of his characters. He could even try challenging it with only his physical cultivation. This Hundred Dao Pagoda was simply too magical.

When the old men around him heard that, their faces twitched. Fuck! Was the kid going to do it again?

Su Yu added, "By the way, the challengers will also be rewarded with merit points for climbing the pagoda, right?"

The old men were going crazy. This damn kid had nearly sucked the pagoda dry. Why was he still thinking about the little bit of money he could get? Could the kid be kinder to the people around him?

Niu Baidao spoke with an exhausted tone, "Su Yu, it's pointless to challenge the pagoda too frequently. You need sufficient rest as well. Rest is necessary to digest your gains."

Su Yu nodded and said, "Thank you, Principal. I will remember that. I will wait at least three or four days before returning. Don't worry, I won't come back tomorrow."

Fuck! Niu Baidao felt like he might as well have said nothing.

Zhu Hongliang asked impatiently, "So how many levels did you climb?"

Su Yu glanced at the crystal stele and was glad to see that his name wasn't there. But these people must have seen him reach the 40th level, right?

Thus, he flashed them a wide smile and answered, "The 41st level."

He was lying through his teeth. Elder Yun learned something new. Everyone else would be keen to show off their actual result, but that was not the case with this damn kid.

"Only 41st level? You sure are slow. It took you so long to clear a single level after the 40th level?"

Zhu Hongliang seemed disappointed. He had thought that Su Yu would reach the 45th level or more.

Su Yu said, "It's acceptable. I'll work harder next time."

Yes, he would work harder to reach the 60th level and experience fighting a Mountainsea. He really wanted to try fighting one. Unfortunately, he was afraid of getting killed if he tried it out here. That would need to wait until the Skysoar Realm.

And now, everything was ready. He needed to link all 180 of his apertures and try to find the source soul acupoint. He was starting to get impatient. Would the discovery of the source soul acupoint change anything? Would he be able to rapidly gain the combat strength of a Mountainsea? And who was stronger between him and the likes of Wu Qi?

He wanted to know the answer to all that. Perhaps he could find a chance to spar with them for a bit. Why wasn't the Luminous Domain Mansion opening yet? He really wanted to give his new strength a try.