Su Yu smiled, "Marquis, just settle the deal with cash. I don't need anything else. Of course, if you're willing to use the Willpower Grotto or Source Qi Secret Grotto as a replacement, I can even pay you a million merit points on top."

Marquis Xia decided to stop talking and took out his card to proceed with the transfer. Was that a joke?

With the entry fee between 100 to 200 merit points, the Source Qi Secret Grotto alone could earn over a million per year. That was a terrifying sum of money. Sure, they needed to spare some money maintaining the grotto, but these grottos were basically the main source of income for the academy. They would be stupid to sell it off. Not every Sunmoon character could be made into such a grotto. He proceeded to pay Su Yu every last cent he owed.

Su Yu couldn't be bothered to verify if that was really the number of copies sold. After all, the Xia Family was the one recording the figures, not him.

"We're clear."

Su Yu stood up and said, "I'll be taking my leave, Marquis. About my three mounts..."

"I brought them. They have been sent to the prefect."

"Thanks, Marquis."

Su Yu bowed and said, "Thank you for your time, Elders. I'll have to excuse myself."

He then left.

Xia Huyou stood up and laughed, "Su Yu, it isn't easy for us to meet again. Let's catch up."

"Sure."

Su Yu replied without looking back and Xia Huyou hurriedly ran off with him.

After the two left, Elder Qi sighed, "What a pity."

Marquis Xia said, "It's pointless to talk about the past. He is living a good life here. That Zhu Tiandao is too generous. He even offered to give away the Knowledge Seeking Realm slot for free. This isn't something the Xia Family can give."

Even if they wanted to give something like that for free, they wouldn't be able to. He had only asked Su Yu the question as a test. In truth, their slot had been given to someone else: Great Xia War Academy's Huang Teng.

The Xia Family had decided to invest in Huang Teng. It was not too surprising that the Zhu Family was doing the same, but they were investing in Su Yu instead. The elders said nothing else. Su Yu's attitude was clear. He would handle everything in a businesslike manner.

After a short silence, Elder Qi said, "What a pity that Old Zhao isn't willing to come."

Marquis Xia rolled his eyes, "That's a bad idea. Who thought of that? It would be better for that old fellow to not come. With his temper, he might even decide to join Su Yu with his grotto. Are you going to take responsibility for that?"

"..."

Elder Qi had an awkward expression. That made a lot of sense. Good thing Old Zhao wasn't here. If that old fellow really did something like that, the Xia Family would probably go crazy. Meanwhile, the Zhu Family would cry tears of joy.

Outside.

Su Yu said nothing and walked straight to the research center. The outside wasn't a suitable place for them to talk. That could wait until they were indoors.

Xia Huyou was busy looking around. Instead of talking about blood essence, he said, "The environment here was too good. Great Xia should learn from this. With an environment like this, I'm even getting the mood to start picking up girls."

Su Yu couldn't be bothered to give a reply. After a while, he asked, "Is there no news about my martial uncle?"

"No."

"This is so troublesome."

Su Yu felt helpless. But things probably weren't that bad since General Zhao and Director Hou were already out there. With two Sunmoons on the search, they would be able to detect any major battles that weren't too far away.

Before long, they entered the research center.

Inside, Xia Huyou gasped and said, "Is this really a research center? This is more like a high-class resort."

Su Yu said, "Let’s get to the point. Where's my stuff?"

"I know you're rich now. 113,000 merit points worth of mountainbreak bull blood essence. I have all of them. I also gathered 87,000 merit points worth of cloud tiger blood essence. All in all, you owe me 200,000 merit points. Are you fine with this price?"

"Sure."

Su Yu nodded. Xia Huyou sure was efficient.

"Is your second granduncle aware of this?"

"What stupid question is that? This is such a large volume. How am I supposed to gather so much blood essence without going through him?"

Xia Huyou said, "Don't worry. I told him Zhu Hongliang was the buyer. As for whether he believes me or not, that's not up to me."

He grinned, "It's no big deal. Don't worry."

Su Yu said nothing. He agreed that it was unlikely that they could hide this from Marquis Xia. The volume was simply too big.

He took the storage ring from Xia Huyou. Before he could speak, Xia Huyou said, "Storage rings aren't cheap either. You need to pay an extra 10,000 merit points if you want the ring as well..."

Screw that.

Su Yu was not interested. He took all the bottles out of the ring before returning it to Xia Huyou. After paying Xia Huyou 200,000 merit points, he said, "Tell me more about Lan Tian. I don't care about anything else. How do I see through his disguise?"

"It's hard unless he's forced to fight. But if you force him to fight, he will expose his strength. And through that, you will know that it's him. See, it's so simple."

"..."

Screw this!

Xia Huyou laughed awkwardly and said, "That's the only option. Of course, he won't be able to fight freely as he needs to seal his strength whenever he's in disguise. It will take him some time to remove his seal. My second granduncle guessed that he might need around three seconds for that. You will have plenty of time to determine his actual identity. Before removing the seal, he will only maintain the strength of a Cloudbreach."

"So he'll only be exposed if he fights? Only that?"

"Not really. Invincibles can detect him through a detailed scan as well. But no Invincible is free enough to do something like this. Scanning random people for no reason is too rude, even for an Invincible."

Su Yu nodded. That was true. How troublesome.

"Alright. You can leave..."

But after a short pause, Su Yu took out an item and said, "Hand this to Senior Hu Hao. For the sake of saving me, he lost his body. He will need to go through a lot of effort cultivating his body from scratch. With this Source Soul Acupoint Opening Art, he can regain his physical cultivation much faster. This is only for him. You're not allowed to look."

"Am I that kind of person?" Xia Huyou said, "As you said, this thing will be released to the public soon anyway. Why should I be so impatient?"

Su Yu nonchalantly said, "Yeah, but I might not distribute it to Great Xia."

"..."

Fuck!

Xia Huyou was left speechless. Su Yu took out another item and said, "This thing is for Senior Hu Hao as well. It will be helpful when forging his body."

He took out a storage ring and handed it over, "This is for my senior sister. You're not allowed to look."

He then took out a merit card and said, "There are 10,000 merit points in here. Give it to my senior sister as well."

He thought about it and took out another storage ring, "I have some top-tier weaponsmithing materials here. Hand this ring to Teacher Zhao Li."

"..."

Xia Huyou's teeth were starting to ache. Just how rich was this fellow now? He hadn't even been in Great Ming for long. Why was he suddenly so rich?

"Anything else?"

"Nope." Su Yu asked curiously, "What? Are you expecting something from me as well?"

"Don't I deserve something?" Xia Huyou smiled, "No matter what, I have traveled so far to deliver your stuff..."

"True." Su Yu nodded and said, "A 36-forge art. Are you interested?"

"..."

Holy shit! Was he really getting something?

36 forgings...

Xia Huyou said, "That's too expensive to cultivate. I don't have that much divine and devil blood essence. Even the holy land slot has been given away. My old man gave it to Huang Teng. The offer earlier was a lie."

"Is your family not keeping it for you?" Su Yu was surprised.

Xia Huyou helplessly said, "I'm a cultural researcher. Huang Teng is the actual warrior. Body forging is more important for warriors. I personally agree with this. He's very strong. He might choose to forge his body 36 times as well. Or maybe not. I'm not sure. I only know that he's amazing. Both my great grandpa and Great Qin King have 36-forge arts in hand."

He stopped and stared at Su Yu. It was normal for those two to have something like that. It was abnormal for Su Yu to have that as well.

Su Yu couldn't be bothered to explain himself. After some thought, he gave Xia Huyou his leftover original devil blood essence and said, "Take this for your travel expenses. I might need to buy another batch of blood essence from you in the future."

Xia Huyou curiously opened the bottle given to him. Instantly, a ferocious aura erupted, stunning him completely. Su Yu hurriedly released his aura and suppressed the eruption.

He nonchalantly said, "Cloudbreach original devil blood essence. Each drop can be easily sold for 3,000 merit points. I still have some left. You might need it during your body forging."

Xia Huyou stared at Su Yu in stupefaction. "Holy shit. You changed! When did you become so generous?"

Giving him something like this? Was Su Yu not going to forge his body as well?

"I have plenty. I don't lack these things in Great Ming."

"..."

Xia Huyou was rendered speechless. He enviously said, "I should have joined Great Ming as well. I wonder if Xia Longwu's son can get so many benefits through defection."

"You can try."

"Forget it. I'm afraid of death. My old man would chop me to death." Xia Huyou said, "Fine. I'll accept this. I'll also take all those things back with me. Anything else?"

"Nope. Try to buy more mountainbreak bull blood essence if possible. I need a lot of them."

"Sure. The mountainbreak bull race will probably be living a bad life after this."

With the business concluded, Xia Huyou wasted no time and started leaving. At the entrance, he stopped and said, "Like I said, I'm personally at your side. But I'm a member of the Xia Family. I enjoy the benefits of being a part of the Xia Family. Thus, if you return to the Great Xia in the future to pick a fight with the Xia Family, I'll have no choice but to face you."

Su Yu smiled, "Sure. But...you're a tad bit too weak. I can probably kill you with a single slap right now."

Fine.

Xia Huyou left with embarrassment.

Behind, Su Yu laughed. He was in a good mood after stuffing his storage ring full of blood essence. He was going to be a Skysoar soon! He had spent a lot of money on this purchase, but it didn't matter. He was rich now. He still had 1.06 million merit points left. There was nothing to fear.

With this much blood essence, he should be able to extract enough 200 heavenly source fruits worth of heavenly source qi, right? Or even more. Was that enough for 20 forgings? If that was possible, he would become a third-stage Skysoar and the strongest Skysoar in existence after that.

He entered his laboratory and decided to ignore everything else. He would be focusing on heavenly source qi extraction. He had a feeling that he had forgotten something, but it didn't matter. It was probably nothing important.

***

At the same time.

Tiandu.

The three beasts were looking at Zhu Tiandao before exchanging gazes with each other. Standing in Zhu Tiandao's presence, all of them were trembling with fear. Why was Su Yu not here to pick them up yet?

They were terrified of this person. They still remembered how this person had killed the Sunmoon devil not long ago. When was Su Yu coming?