Chapter 684: The Curtain Rises (2)

Inside a restaurant, a storyteller was talking about Su Yu.

One of the diners said, "Su Yu himself is already very famous. Is he not afraid of getting assassinated doing this with such great fanfare? This is a heaven-grade cultivation method!"

The storyteller snorted, "What are you thinking? Do you think the higher-ups of Great Ming won't consider something you can think of? This time, the prefect and Principal Niu will personally protect Su Yu. Not even the princes of the Zhu Family can enjoy such a treatment. Assassinating someone under the protection of seventh-stage and ninth-stage Sunmoons? Someone capable of doing so does not exist."

"He truly has the favor of the higher-ups."

All the diners were shocked. The prefect and principal were big shots. And both of them were personally protecting someone advancing to the Skysoar Realm. That showed just how important Su Yu was to them.

The storyteller said, "Those are not the only ones involved. I heard that one or two more Sunmoons will be around. They won't give the cultists a chance to ruin the occasion. I guess in his own way, Su Yu is creating history in Great Ming."

"True. So many big shots are protecting him just for a Skysoar breakthrough. It seems like cultural researchers are more respectable, after all."

"It has nothing to do with that. It's his identity as a genius researcher. A single good cultivation method can be spread all over the Human Realm. How much would Great Ming profit from this?"

"True."

Everyone in Great Ming was talking about the same topic. And a lot of them were excited to hear the news. After all, a majority of cultivators were warriors.

According to Su Yu's own words and some leaked information, this new 126-acupoint art had 18 overlaps with the Double Wu Acupoint Fusion Art. The other 18 acupoints of the fusion art did not overlap. If one cultivated both as a set, it would be the equivalent of a 144-acupoint heaven-grade art.

But one could complete a stage of the Source Soul Acupoint Opening Art cultivation every 14 acupoints. After completing the first stage, one's acupoint opening speed would start increasing. Thus, the difficulty of cultivation would drop, and coupled with the fusion art, one would be able to rapidly reach the ninth-stage Infinite Strength Realm.

The speed was comparable to the War God Art with only 72 acupoints. With this new cultivation method, the Human Realm would basically be filled with geniuses after a few years. Of course, the resources consumed by humanity would also increase significantly. There was no avoiding that.

Even so, everyone still believed that this was a huge matter. This might mark the start of a new era for humanity: An era where everyone could become a genius. Perhaps after enough years, any cultivation method below the heaven grade would cease to exist.

***

The news continued spreading.

Su Yu was going to show everyone how strong one would be with enough acupoints and fast enough cultivation speed after body forging. It was rumored that he would even spar with some Cloudbreach warriors after his body forging to prove his combat strength. In other words, the name Source Soul Acupoint Opening Art had spread all over Great Ming.

Countless people wanted to see for themselves if Su Yu had really opened so many acupoints. What was the difference between him and someone else after body forging? When would that new cultivation method start distribution? How expensive would it be to cultivate? It was said that Su Yu would make everything clear on the day of his breakthrough.

***

"Source Soul Acupoint Opening Art?"

Outside Tiandu, an old man was tilling the land. Behind him, an honest-looking middle-aged man was helping. The man softly said, "Yes. But he did not show his face for the release of his previous cultivation methods. This time, he's publicly promoting his new cultivation method. What is he trying to do?"

"A trap." The old man said, "It's meant to attract people like you. Maybe he can even make you attack him."

"Attack him?" The middle-aged man was speechless. Nonsense.

Multiple Sunmoons would be present. He wouldn't dare. The old man was quite doubtful as well. This ploy seemed a tad too simple. But since Zhu Tiandao and the others were personally providing protection, were they trying to bait Invincibles? But which Invincible would make a move?

What was the point of the demonstration, then? Just to promote his new cultivation? The old man really couldn't understand what Su Yu and Zhu Tiandao were doing. If this was a trap, it was too stupid. Nobody would be foolish enough to attack Su Yu in public when there were so many Sunmoons present.

But how would Su Yu benefit from the demonstration? Was he doing that to show that he was a super genius?

"I don't understand..."

The old man was an experienced and knowledgeable person, but even he was completely confused.

The middle-aged man had a sudden idea as he said, "Lord, is it possible that the entire thing is a farce? On the day itself, those Sunmoons won't be present. Instead, they will wipe out the known cult strongholds while we are distracted by Su Yu."

The old man was unsure, "Would they go so far for some strongholds?"

Using Su Yu as bait just to clear some strongholds? Was that even worth it?

The middle-aged man said in excitement, "Since everyone thinks that it's not possible, they might really do this to catch everyone by surprise. I heard that the Six-Winged Divine Sect has been pursuing Chen Yong and Feng Ji. Perhaps Su Yu is serving as the bait so that Zhu Tiandao and the others can move out and help his martial uncle..."

That made a little bit of sense. But they still couldn't be sure.

After thinking about it, the old man said, "I still can't figure out what they're thinking. Forget it. Don't do anything rash. These people are no pushovers. We have no idea what they're planning. When the time comes, sneak into the crowd with a few of our people and take a look. If Zhu Tiandao and the others are there, this might be one of those random festivals Great Ming loves so much. It's not like something this ridiculous has never happened before."

It honestly wasn't surprising for Great Ming to do something that was completely pointless. The people of Great Ming had a track record of doing such things. The difference was that there was a lot more fanfare this time.

Great Ming, the prefecture of slackers, would organize all sorts of events and festivals every single year. Everyone knew that. The happiness index of those in Great Ming was actually very high. In fact, Tiandu had numerous nicknames, such as the Capital of Romance, the Capital of Gossips, the Capital of Festivals, and so on.

Since the old man couldn't understand what they were planning, he decided to stop thinking and sent his subordinates out instead.

"Got it." The middle-aged man said, "Lord, what if Zhu Tiandao and the others are absent..."

The old man said, "Don't make any rash conclusions. Don't forget that you only have one life to lose. Don't do anything stupid."

The old man was quite confused, but it didn't matter. He never planned to enter the city himself. He only needed to listen to the reports of his subordinates.

The middle-aged man nodded and softly asked, "What about the Travelling Merchants Association?"

"Xu Bin?" The old man snorted, "Ignore him. Source Soul Research Center...the rumors are being spread way too fast. I'm starting to suspect that this is the real bait. We don't know if Su Yu's demonstration is bait, but his research center is definitely bait. We're not going."

He was absolutely not interested in entering that research center. He was starting to suspect that Su Yu, Zhu Tiandao, and the others were deliberately giving others the chance to sneak into the research center. This felt way too dangerous. Only absolute fools would fall for this trick.

Then again, there were a lot of fools in the world. Some might really decide to go. In any case, no Sunmoons would be stupid enough. In fact, not even Mountainseas would be so stupid.

Xu Bin had probably spread those rumors to get the others to test the defenses for him. It would be wise to simply ignore that bastard. The middle-aged man had nothing else to say. He left.

Right after the middle-aged man left, the old man smiled, tossed the hoe aside, and walked away. After walking for a while, he transformed into a middle-aged man. One could never be too careful.

Nothing was more important than safety. In any case, he was not going to participate in any of the things happening in Great Ming. At most, he would observe from far away.

***

Similar conversations were happening everywhere.

On a farmland, a chubby old man was greeting the nearby farmers with a friendly smile before walking into his farmhouse. There, he took out his voice transmission talisman and checked the message within. After a while, he muttered, "A trap?"

Like the previous old man, this chubby old man was doubtful as well. He couldn't understand what Great Ming was doing.

"Source Soul Acupoint Opening Art..."

That was definitely something good. Even if he couldn't use it himself, he could always keep it for his juniors. Nobody could deny that all of Su Yu's creations were quality products. And his products were also quite cheap. If one had a proper identity, one could easily purchase one of his creations.

"Source soul acupoint...capable of skipping the Source Opening Realm, allowing one to convert willpower to source qi and vice versa...Is this real?"

The chubby old man would not believe these words if they came from anyone else. But if they came from Su Yu, it would be wise to at least trust some of them. After all, Su Yu had proved his worth with his creations. That kid had definitely obtained an Invincible ruin. How lucky.

After thinking for a bit, the chubby old man sent a message, "Send some people to observe the situation. Don't enter the research center. That might be a trap. Report back the moment you find anything. Be careful. Don't catch any attention."

"Yes."

After sending the message, the chubby old man smiled and crushed the voice transmission talisman. He had to be careful. There was no way he was going to be the one to test Great Ming.

A lot of people aimed to either capture or kill Su Yu. But the first to do so would probably suffer. In any case, the chubby old man did not intend to do anything this time. He would settle with observation.

"Are they doing this to reduce the pressure on Chen Yong and Feng Ji?"

The chubby old man reached this conclusion. Was Su Yu doing this to distract the Six-Winged Divine Sect?

"He's a good martial nephew. Unfortunately, they might not take the bait."

The Six-Winged Divine Sect had been targeting Chen Yong for many years. They had lost a large number of experts in recent years. Chen Yong and Feng Ji were probably the culprits. The saying was right. A dog that bites wouldn't bark. A lot of people believed that those deaths were accidents.