"The multiple character faction is actually recovering thanks to a single cultivation method."

Surprise.

Shock.

Yet understandable.

A lot of people believed that the multiple character faction would only recover after the disassembly method was perfected. But in truth, the disassembly method would only benefit those in the Skysoar Realm and above. Instead, the Source Soul Cultural Art had greatly increased the popularity of the multiple character faction among the Mental Tempering Stage students.

Human Realm. North.

Great Zhou.

Great Zhou Cultural Research Academy.

A meeting of elders was underway. An elder was lamenting that a single cultivation method had caused the recovery of the multiple character faction. That elder had a complicated look in his eyes.

Back then, the multiple character faction existed in Great Zhou as well. Last year, not long after Su Yu entered an academy, Shan Xiong had defeated the students and teaching assistant of Great Zhou's multiple character faction. After that incident, the sole multiple character faction elder of Great Zhou decided to cease accepting new students in helpless disappointment.

𝐟𝕣𝗲𝕖𝕨𝗲𝐛𝗻𝗼𝐯𝗲𝚕.𝗰𝚘𝐦

This was the same elder who was lamenting the rebound of the multiple character faction. He didn't know what to feel. He had persevered for fifty years to not see a single ray of hope. All he had ever known was decline and disappointment.

But right after he announced the closure of Great Zhou's multiple character faction, a single cultivation method had resulted in the reemergence of the multiple character faction.

As of late, a lot of students in the Great Zhou Cultural Research Academy had expressed interest in the multiple character faction. They were also asking about their Character Technique Stele.

The reason for all that was the spread of news regarding the Source Soul Cultural Art in Great Zhou.

As per Su Yu's terms, a prefecture without an active multiple character faction would not be allowed to cultivate his cultivation method. Seeing how the students of the other prefectures were starting to switch their cultivation methods, the students in Great Zhou were losing patience.

When could they start buying the new cultivation method?

When could they start the switch?

When would the Multiple Character Faculty reopen?

The elder had complicated emotions. Would the multiple character faction really rise again? Was a single cultivation method enough for that? After fifty years of decline, the faction was finally showing signs of reemergence. In Great Ming, Su Yu was creating one cultivation method after another. In Great Xia, Hong Tan was reopening the faculty and working on the disassembly method. Those were good news.

What should they do in Great Zhou? Should they go with the tide and resist resolutely? Or should they become the vanguard of resistance against the multiple character faction like how things were back then? But was suppression still possible?

Back then, there were a lot of disadvantages to joining the multiple character faction. Their members needed incredible talent, and they also had to remain in the Mental Tempering Stage for many years. But now, that was no longer a disadvantage. Everyone was more than happy to stay stuck for seven or eight years to open more apertures.

That had turned into an extreme advantage. Fate really had a way of toying with people.

Who would have guessed that a day would come when the delay during the Mental Tempering Stage would become the very factor causing the resurrecting of the multiple character faction?

How laughable..

This whole thing seemed like a sick joke.

After the elder finished speaking, the meeting room sank into silence. After a short moment, someone coldly said, "Even now, we don't have any example of someone reaching the Skysoar Realm after opening seventy-two apertures with that Source Soul Cultural Art. Can it really help someone enter the Cloudbreach Realm? Switching cultivation methods without enough data is the same as gambling with the future of all our students."

The sole multiple character faction elder said, "Su Yu broke through."

The other person indifferently said, "How do you know that this cultivation method is the reason for his breakthrough? How do you know if he is not hiding something? Sure, the Source Soul Cultural Art is decent, but we can't rashly switch our cultivation methods. Also, if everyone decides to stay in the Mental Tempering Stage, what are we supposed to do with our manpower during the next few years?

"Great Zhou has been producing over a hundred cultural researchers each year. But if we follow the trend, there will be a delay of seven or eight years in the progress of each student. How many new cultural researchers can we produce after the switch?

"We need to be realistic. If everyone becomes multiple character faction cultivators, what are we supposed to do if we run out of manpower in the frontlines? And with everyone opening apertures and exhausting our existing willpower supply and willpower texts, the rate of resource exhaustion in Great Zhou will skyrocket. There's also the Source Soul Acupoint Opening Art, an absolute black hole of source qi."

The elder clenched his teeth and said, "Everyone, I don't deny that Su Yu's cultivation methods are good. But those cultivation methods will also bring us more trouble. The Human Realm has just started producing source qi again a few hundred years ago. Up until now, the majority of people have been cultivating yellow and profound-grade cultivation methods. But now, everyone is cultivating heaven-grade cultivation methods. The energy exhaustion of the Human Realm will be increased by five or even ten times. And the population of the human race is quite high as well. Have any of you considered the consequences of adopting these cultivation methods?"

Hearing that, someone else sighed. "What else is there to continue? If this continues, war will erupt again. We will either have an internal or external war. This will be a war to plunder resources, a war to occupy rich minor realms. At the same time, all these battles will drop the population of the human race and reduce the stress on our treasury. War will become the mainstream path in the future."

That was the truth.

What else could humanity do if the Human Realm could not produce enough resources for their cultivation?

War.

Slaughter.

They could reduce their population and plunder more resources outside the Human Realm. Because of a few cultivation methods, humanity might completely change the policies that had existed for hundreds of years. This might seem like a joke, but it was very real.

Those cultivation methods were capable of causing such changes. Just like how a single cultivation method had caused the reemergence of the multiple character faction.

This was an irreversible trend. The only way to stop this trend was to place a ban on those cultivation methods.

"Everyone, this might be a prelude to war." Someone sighed, "Rivers of blood will flow. Many lives will be lost. Su Yu shouldn't have released these cultivation methods..."

Those words were immediately met with protest, "You can't say that. Su Yu released those cultivation methods to strengthen humanity. That is a good thing for the human race. But we also can't deny that it might result in war. In truth, we should slow down the pace of transmission. Transmission should progress in stages."

Listening to all those people, the multiple character faction elder sighed and said, "It's pointless to say all that. Great Qin, Great Ming, and Great Xia are all switching their cultivation methods. If we fall behind, Great Zhou will start falling behind the others.

"We are here today to talk about the Multiple Character Faculty. Should we reopen it? If we don't, we won't be able to teach those cultivation methods. The new semester will start in a few months. Don't be too surprised if you end up with zero students. That is very likely to happen."

The only term Su Yu had imposed on Great Zhou was the existence of the multiple character faction. Making Great Zhou reopen the dead multiple character faction was the same as slapping their face. After all, they had just shut the faction down a year ago. Were they supposed to reopen the faction so soon?

"We can't reopen the faculty..."

"In that case, we won't receive new students and our old students will be dissatisfied. Who will bear the consequences of that?"

"Hmph. If we reopen the faculty, who will bear the consequences of the stress on our treasury? For the sake of a few apertures, you have to stay in the Mental Tempering Stage for ten years. What's the point of that?"

"Our academy students can enter the Allheaven Battlefield and fight for humanity."

"Bullshit. The current strategy of Great Zhou is to avoid any large-scale conflicts. And sending all those manpower to the Allheaven Battlefield will definitely trigger more large-scale conflicts."

"Yes. We can't do that now. The prefect is preparing for his dao affirmation. If we cause wars at this time, what is the prefect supposed to do?"

The elders started arguing. Should they reopen the faculty or not? Should they start distributing the new cultivation methods or not? Su Yu's cultivation methods had placed them in a difficult position.

Someone else sighed and said, "Everyone, even if we stop distribution, the other prefectures won't. We can't stop war all by ourselves. The other prefectures will trigger war, and if we don't distribute these new cultivation methods, we will be the weaker prefecture everyone can bully. At that time, the divines and devils will see us as an easy target. We will be turned into a joke."

"Su Yu...after many years, this Su Yu will either be evaluated as a saint or a sinner."

Someone couldn't help but make this remark. Perhaps humanity would be forced to war due to Su Yu's cultivation methods before they were ready. This might result in a repeat of the tragedy over three hundred years ago. Or it might result in a bigger tragedy.

After all, the divines and devils weren't fully ready for war back then. And the immortals had sued for peace. But now, the divines and devils were ready. The immortals were eyeing everyone greedily. If a new round of war broke out, humanity might be plunged into an even bigger crisis.

More importantly, the current Human Realm was far less united than before.

Someone else said, "Su Yu has hastened the growth of the multiple character faction, but he is also hastening the growth of humanity. Of course, the growth is mainly related to our foundations. For now, nothing much will change. I'm more worried about Hong Tan's disassembly method as that is something those at the Skysoar Realm and above can use. That is a lot more important. Once completed, that research will greatly increase the strength of all cultural researchers."

"Don't forget that the divines and devils are targetting them."

"So what?" Someone shouted, "Are we supposed to suppress growth because of that? Isn't that the same as drinking poison in the hope of quenching one's thirst? In fact, these cowardly thoughts were the reason willpower cultivators have been falling behind physical cultivators. At worst, we'll pick up our weapons again and fight like it was three hundred years ago! What is there to fear?"

An old man berated, "Shut up, all of you! This is too important. We need the prefect to make the decision."

This matter was too complicated. They wouldn't achieve anything arguing like this. A ban wouldn't be beneficial for them. But allowing distribution also wouldn't be beneficial.