Chapter 741: Return Gift (2)

At a certain corner of the academy.

Wu Lan and a few individuals were speaking secretively, "Get some people to spread rumors about how incredible Shan Xiong is. Say that he once defeated Qin Fang and Huang Teng in the Allheaven Battlefield. They were only spared after kneeling and begging for forgiveness from him.

"Say that he has been able to enter the Cloudbreach Realm long ago, but he has been refusing to break through because he's aiming to enter the Mountainsea Realm in one day. In truth, he is stronger than some of the weaker Mountainseas.

"Hmm, spread this around as well. He's actually the final student of Great Zhou King. But since Great Zhou King is no longer taking any official students, he was placed under Zhou Polong's name. He is the last student of an Invincible, an incredibly powerful cultivator who grew up bathing in the juice of heavenly source fruit."

Zhu Hongliang and the others were completely dumbstruck. Why? Why should they spread these rumors?

"Wu Lan, why are we doing this?"

They were quite familiar with each other by now as Zhu Hongliang and Bai Junsheng would visit Su Yu occasionally. But since Su Yu was in seclusion most of the time, Wu Lan was the one receiving these guests as she had more free time than Su Yu.

Wu Lan snorted and said, "Didn't they say that Su Yu has been relying on his ruin? They said that he's not strong, right? We'll let them feel good thinking that Shan Xiong is number one in the world. That way, when Su Yu beats him to death, the entire world will see it as the absolute decline of the single character faction."

Zhu Hongliang asked, "What if Su Yu loses?"

Wu Lan blanked out. After a while, she asked, "Su Yu, losing?"

She had never considered that possibility. She couldn't remember Su Yu losing a single time. No, wait, that fellow seemed to have suffered a lot of losses.

For example, there was a time when he had lost over eight thousand matches...Wu Lan snorted and said, "Since Shan Xiong is such an amazing person, isn't it normal that Su Yu loses? Meanwhile, Shan Xiong will look really inept if he loses. How can you not understand this? You sure are stupid."

Zhu Hongliang was speechless. But after thinking about it, that made a lot of sense.

"Sure. We'll do it. This is nothing. Don't worry. By tonight, everyone in Tiandu will know that Shan Xiong is number one in the world, a psychopathic butcher who once killed a Mountainsea and fought a Sunmoon to a standstill..."

"Is this too much exaggeration?" Bai Junsheng softly asked, "Isn't this too crazy? Killing a Mountainsea and fighting a Sunmoon? Nobody will believe this."

"Then change it to killing a Cloudbreach and fighting a Mountainsea. That's fine, right? This fellow should have the strength to kill some weak Cloudbreaches. Otherwise, he will be a normal ninth-stage Skysoar instead of a super genius."

"That works!"

Wu Lan stood up and said, "Alright. Let's do it this way. You guys sure are useless. Why do I need to be the one coming out with this idea? If it's Fatty Xia, he would have thought of a solution long ago. Fatty Zhu, you're not as good as Fatty Xia."

Zhu Hongliang felt gloomy. Xia Huyou, right? That fellow had arrived in Great Ming as well. At the very least, that fellow wasn't as fat as him. What was so special about that fellow?

***

Su Yu wasn't bothered about the rumors Wu Lan was spreading. He was in Great Ming so he had nothing to fear.

In the basement, he looked at a Cloudbreach and said, "Try detonating your acupoints. Blow them all up. Don't worry, with your sea of willpower intact, you can rebuild your body. At worst, you'll have to restart your cultivation. You won't die so easily."

The Cloudbreach paled. Flanking Su Yu were the three Mountainsea beasts.

Su Yu indifferently said, "It is only a matter of time before you die if the status quo remains. You might as well take a gamble and detonate your acupoints for my research. Perhaps this way, you can actually live longer."

The Cloudbreach cultist asked with a pale face, "Lord Su, can I survive the detonation of my acupoints?"

"I'm not sure." Su Yu said, "It depends on your luck. Of course, if it helps in my research, I will give you the chance to live on."

"Lord, what is the goal of this detonation?"

"Locate the source soul acupoint." Su Yu did not hide anything. "I have a theory. When one's acupoints are destroyed, it will release a certain amount of energy. With enough energy, one might be able to lure out something I call the yang acupoint...

"Try to aim your detonation at the center of your body. It is even better if you can form a circle with your acupoints before the detonation. Perhaps this will be enough to lure the yang acupoint out.

"With 108 acupoints, you can be considered a little genius. And you're a Cloudbreach. You might be able to generate a considerable amount of power from detonating your acupoints."

The cultist said, "Lord, to rebuild my body, I'll need some valuable materials. Without my body, my sea of willpower won't remain for long..."

Su Yu nodded, "That's nothing. Blood essence and heavenly source qi are the best materials for body reconstruction. I can easily build a Great Strength body for you. It's not like we're going to rebuild a Cloudbreach body for you."

Then, Su Yu smiled, "So? Are you willing to give it a try? This is your opportunity to earn a contribution. I promise to grant anyone with ten contributions freedom. I won't go back on my words."

Ten contributions. In other words, they had to push themselves to the verge of death ten times before earning the opportunity to leave. Yes. It was only an opportunity instead of a guarantee as they were relying on Su Yu being honest.

The Cloudbreach in front of Su Yu became more pale than before. The suanni and the mountaindrill bull who had just arrived were looking at the Cloudbreach with sympathy. Fortunately, they were too weak to be worth researching. This was too terrifying.

Su Yu had reached a level where he was forcing Cloudbreaches to self-detonate. He did not even intend to subdue these Cloudbreaches. Previously, they had thought that Su Yu was going to try subduing these people. But in the end, all these people ended up as test subjects.

In the Human Realm, it was not illegal to conduct cultivation tests on death row inmates. These cultists sure were pitiful.

Su Yu was too busy to pay any attention to the two. Recently, they were showing signs of advancement. Thus, they had been asking the three Mountainsea beasts about what they should take note of during times like this. But since they were too weak, Su Yu had completely ignored them.

After a while, the pale Cloudbreach replied, "Alright. I agree."

Either he waited for death or he agreed to take this gamble. It was that simple.

Su Yu might seem like an agreeable person, but he was actually incredibly hard to deal with. He did not see these cultists as humans. At such a young age, he was already so cold. Not long ago, he had killed a few disobedient death row inmates.

This was how everyone in Great Xia treated the members of the Myriad Race Cult. As far as they were concerned, a cultist was the same as an animal. In fact, for them, even animals were worth more than cultists.

Su Yu smiled, "Good. Follow my instructions. Detonate your acupoints accordingly."

He turned to look at the three beasts and said, "I need to observe this closely. I'll need to trouble you to protect me from the explosion."

"Alright."

The three beasts were quite speechless. This kid was quite ruthless. One should never think that this kid was soft because of his age. Just how did this kid grow into someone so murderous? The kid was behaving like someone who was completely used to death.

Sure, Great Xia was filled with ruthless individuals. But very few of them were as ruthless as Su Yu. Usually, only the veterans in the military could reach such a level of ruthlessness.

Su Yu did not bother giving any explanations. He started giving his instructions to the Cloudbreach. How should the detonation happen, which acupoint should be detonated first, what to do after the detonation...

He wanted to see if this was enough to lure the yang acupoint out. The self-detonation of a third-stage Cloudbreach with 108 acupoints wouldn't be weak. Before long, a rumble erupted.

The three beasts released their aura and suppressed the scope of the explosion to a small area. Meanwhile, Su Yu stood indifferently before the Cloudbreach and observed with his fire of civilization active.

As he observed, he would occasionally furrow his brows and relax them again after some time.

"Something seems to be going on here...but the power of the detonation isn't strong enough."

Su Yu casually reached out as blood essence and heavenly source qi gathered in his palm. The blood essence and heavenly source qi slowly assumed the form of a man. Then, the man opened his eyes. He had a pale expression and a weak look in his eyes.

"I'll consider this one contribution from you."

After saying that, Su Yu returned to his contemplation about what he had seen earlier.

"Something is still lacking. I need the detonation of at least 144 acupoints. Only a Cloudbreach with 144 acupoints have a chance at luring the yang acupoint out."

He could sense something from the detonation earlier, but that sensation was too weak and vague.

"The detonation needs to generate the strength at the level of a Mountainsea." Su Yu muttered, "Perhaps 108 acupoints will be enough if it's a seventh-stage Cloudbreach or someone stronger. What a pity that the stronger cultists have all been killed. A ninth-stage Cloudbreach would be perfect for this. I need to capture some experts of this level or go after Mountainseas directly."

The beasts were left completely speechless as they listened to him. This kid had been crazier and crazier lately. He was actually thinking of capturing Mountainseas for this self-detonation experiments?

What a ruthless fellow. Those who had offended him would probably suffer once the kid gained enough strength.

"I still lack something important before I can open the source soul acupoint."

Su Yu shook his head. He had to stop this research for now. He lacked suitable test subjects. Meanwhile, the prisoners in the basement had looks of despair on their faces.

They wondered if dying was a better fate compared to what they were going to suffer in Su Yu's hands. But that was easier said than done. If they weren't so afraid of death, they would have died long ago. They had only survived this long because they were afraid of death.

Right as Su Yu was about to leave, one of the prisoners knelt down and loudly called out, "Lord! Lord Su! I am willing to serve you..."