Chapter 672: 72-Forged Iron Devourer (2)

After learning so many new things, it was time for Su Yu to start extracting heavenly source qi.

Looking at the fruit in front of him, he said, "Senior Brothers, the skin of this fruit feels quite special. Is it possible to replicate it?"

Wen Zhong laughed, "Sharp eyes. I thought you would only focus on the heavenly source qi. This skin is also a treasure. Since it is capable of storing even heavenly source qi, if it can be mass-produced, it can also be used to store treasures. Since it is produced by nature, it will be quite hard to replicate. But it's not completely hopeless..."

Wen Zhong had barely said those words when Su Yu poked a hole through the skin and sent the fruit toward Wu Lan right as heavenly source qi started leaking. Before Wu Lan could react, the heavenly source qi entered her mouth.

Su Yu nonchalantly said, "Open a few acupoints. Don't waste the heavenly source qi."

He took the skin, ignored Wu Lan's shocked expression and the naughty smiles on his seniors, and said, "Senior Brothers, I'll have to trouble you to replicate this thing. This might be something very useful. We can use it to store treasures, source qi, or even willpower."

The others nodded. Wen Zhong said, "Sure. We'll give it a try. We're quite free recently anyway."

Su Yu said, "Feel free to let me know if you need any money for the research. Any problem that can be solved with money won't be a problem."

He was now rich. A large amount of money was going to enter his account soon. He would be fine if he used his heavenly source qi for himself. But if he wanted to share some of the heavenly source qi with others, he needed a proper excuse and a way to produce fake heavenly source fruits.

Heavenly source fruits might be rare, but they weren't nonexistent. If he released his fake fruits in moderation, he would only attract some suspicion at most. But with the rumors that he had inherited a ruin, nobody would suspect him too much. All the blame would go to the so-called ruin.

Su Yu even wondered if there were ruins out there with heavenly source fruits inside. How about the ruins that had produced the first batch of human Invincibles? Were those ruins still around? Or would a ruin be destroyed after the advancement?

It wouldn't be easy to get these questions answered. After all, if one started these questions, those Invincibles would start suspecting that someone was plotting against them.

The old men had nothing else to say. They all left to start researching the skin. As for Su Yu's act of feeding the fruit to Wu Lan...they had nothing to say. They felt that it was a waste, but since Su Yu was willing, what could they say?

Wu Lan was already a Great Strength cultivator. Using the heavenly source fruit on her to open a few extra acupoints was basically a waste. She was better off using an earthly source fruit instead. It would seem like Su Yu had gotten too cocky after getting rich.

Su Yu did not care about what they were thinking. As Wu Lan sat down cross-legged to start opening acupoints, Su Yu walked away while taking out a voice transmission talisman.

"I'm going to have a talk with the Xia Family. Are you coming?"

A short moment later, Xia Huyou narrowed his eyes before smiling, "Did Teacher Su miss me?"

"Stop wasting time." Su Yu replied, "If you're coming, I need your help with something. Of course, you'll be amply rewarded for it."

"What is it about?"

"I need to make a purchase that nobody can know about."

"No problem. What purchase is it that you have to look for me instead of Great Ming?"

Su Yu smiled. It wasn't that he couldn't do it in Great Ming. Rather, Great Ming did not have that much blood essence in stock. Meanwhile, Great Xia was warlike enough that their blood essence market was very robust. Furthermore, Su Yu also didn't want to ask for Zhu Tiandao's help for every little thing.

"Mountainbreak bull blood essence."

Xia Huyou was completely speechless. He had not imagined that even after joining Great Ming, Su Yu was still looking for the same type of blood essence. Was he trying to milk the mountainbreak bull race dry? Just how had they offended him?

"How many drops do you need?"

"Don't get me anything weaker than the Skysoar Realm and stronger than the middle Cloudbreach Realm. I'm buying as much as you can get. Don't forget to offer me a good price."

No limits. Xia Huyou stood up in shock. Holy shit. What did that mean?

"So how much do you actually want?"

"As much as you have." Su Yu said, "Stop wasting time. Offer me a price. You are very well connected. Your network is probably related to the Xia Family, but I don't want Marquis Xia to know this."

"Bullshit. How can I hide a transaction this big from him?" Xia Huyou rolled his eyes. Was this supposed to be a joke?

"You're the son of a prefect. Don't tell me you're completely helpless."

"I'm not, but the volume is too big. It won't be that simple."

Great Xia Cultural Research Academy.

Xia Huyou started pacing around. That fellow was buying so much mountainbreak bull blood essence. Was he trying to forge his body with mountainbreak bull blood essence? That...was actually a decent choice. In fact, this was what most people would choose if they couldn't afford any divine or devil blood essence.

"Skysoar blood essence can be split into the early, middle, and late stages. You can get them for 50, 80, and 100 merit points per drop. That is the best price I can offer. Things will get expensive at the Cloudbreach Realm. You need 300, 500, and 1,000 merit points for them."

Yes, a drop of late Cloudbreach blood essence was worth 1,000 merit points. Su Yu was left quite speechless. That was too crazy. Then again, the mountainbreak bull race was a top 100 race as well. At the late Cloudbreach Realm, these bulls were as difficult to deal with as human geniuses. They were probably as strong as the Mountainseas of some minor races.

At the price of 1,000 merit points per drop, one would earn 10,000 merit points after killing one such opponent. Taking into consideration the danger and numerous procedures involved in completing the sale, this was actually a reasonable price.

Su Yu still couldn't use Cloudbreach blood essence for now, but he would have no issue once his body reached the Skysoar Realm.

He had not tried anything stronger than early Skysoar mountainbreak bull blood essence. Thus, he said, "Try to get some from each stage. You have to spread the love around, right? You can't go around clearing the bulls of the same cultivation level. Just get me 100 drops per stage to test the effects. As for late Cloudbreach blood essence, I only need 10 drops."

"You're buying that much? That will cost you 113,000 merit points. Are you sure?"

𝕗𝐫𝐞𝕖𝕨𝐞𝗯𝚗𝕠𝘃𝐞𝚕.𝐜𝗼𝚖

Xia Huyou was shocked. What was this fellow trying to do? Was he buying so much just to test the effects? He was essentially asking to have around 10 mountainbreak bulls killed per stage. Did the mountainbreak bull race offend him somewhat?

Su Yu's heart was aching. That was a lot of money. Then again, it was still acceptable for him. At the price of 800 merit points per heavenly source fruit, he would be able to produce over 100 heavenly source fruits from the blood essence he purchased.

In other words, he was purchasing over 100 heavenly source fruits with only 113,000 merit points. Was that even expensive? That was a price many people would go crazy over. According to Su Yu's estimation, that would only be enough for him to forge his body nine times.

Cultivation was truly expensive for him. Then again, if he hadn't been so generous in spending money, he wouldn't have grown so strong that he could fight Cloudbreaches as a Mental Tempering Stage cultvator. There was no avoiding spending money if one wanted to grow rapidly.

There were Invincible descendants out there that had spent more than him only to end up weaker. That quota to forge one's body with heavenly source qi was an opportunity not even money could buy. Unfortunately, even after spending so much money, those Invincible descendants still didn't seem too impressive. Thus, Su Yu was more than willing to spend his money if it meant that he could grow stronger.

"I'm sure. I can even buy double the amount. I need a lot of blood essence."

"You're buying too much."

Xia Huyou was feeling troubled. They needed to kill dozens of mountainbreak bulls at the Skysoar Realm and above to fulfill this order. This would generally only happen during massive battles. They wouldn't be able to kill so many of them during regular skirmishes.

"I don't care. If you really can't get enough, just get me some iron-winged bird blood essence instead. I can even accept cloud tiger blood essence. Didn't Great Xia declare war against the cloud tigers recently?"

The cloud tiger blood essence had a decent conversion rate as well.

"Yes, we did. Do you want some?"

"Yeah."

"Sure. That's much simpler. I can get you as much as you want if it's cloud tiger blood essence."

Xia Huyou had a relaxed expression. That wouldn't be an issue. A lot of cloud tigers had survived the war. Most had escaped to the flying sky tigers' territory. Great Xia had no choice but to let these survivors go as the flying sky tigers weren't too weak. This was a race with Invincibles.

Nevertheless, they had still killed more than five thousand cloud tigers recently. The cloud tigers were understandably furious at Xia Qing and the others, but there was nothing they could do.

"Keep this secret. Fatty Xia, if you expose this, we won't be friends anymore..."

Xia Huyou said, "Don’t worry. We have a deal. I'll follow my second grandpa during his next visit to Great Ming. That way, I can take your stuff with me as well. Also, you tricked me! You released the cultural art for almost free not long after you gave it to me..."

"Piss off. The second version I gave you is different than the public version. You know that very well."

"..."

Xia Huyou had nothing to say to that. Shortly after, he said, "I'm reaching the ninth-stage Infinite Strength Realm soon. Before long, I'll start forging my body. Do you want to buy some divine or devil blood essence? Mountainbreak bull blood essence isn't good enough."

"Nope."

Xia Huyou rolled his eyes. Sure. Keep being stubborn. Or had Su Yu received some divine and devil blood essence from Great Ming? Whatever. He didn't care. Su Yu had probably grown greatly as of late. He was probably preparing to forge his body as well.

After thinking about it, Xia Huyou said, "I have one more thing to tell you. Your martial uncle left recently. He's a Mountainsea, so there's nothing I can do about that. But I will keep an eye over your senior sister for you. Don't worry about her. My point is, you need to be careful. There are rumors that you caught Lan Tian's eyes. That fellow is too good at concealment. Watch your back."

"Lan Tian?"

"Yeah. Previously, his student, Li Minyu, was exposed. After our investigation, holy shit. Guess what we found. Lan Tian was truly brazen. He had been hiding in the academy. Guess who was he disguised as?"

"I'm not guessing. Tell me the answer."

"Zhao Ming."

"..."

Su Yu sank into silence. After a long while, he asked, "Is this a joke?"

"Why should I joke about that? After Li Minyu's exposure, Teacher Zhao Ming went missing. We are only suspecting him because we don't have solid proof. But that is very likely to be the case. Holy shit. I shiver each time I recall how we used to play card games together in the Source Soul Research Center."

"Teacher Zhao Ming has been in the academy for many years, right?"

"Yeah." Xia Huyou had an impressed tone as he said, "Isn't that scary? He is a group leader in the House of Hundred. A core figure in the neutral faction. He even stayed with us for a period of time. Nobody suspected him. Even after Li Minyu's exposure, nobody suspected him. He decided to leave by himself. I guess he's looking for you. Nobody would have suspected him otherwise."

How terrifying.