Chapter 759: The Shut-In Leaves His Room (1)

25th of April.

After leaving the Hundred Dao Pagoda, Su Yu returned to the Source Soul Research Center without attracting any attention. He had stayed twenty-five days in the Hundred Dao Pagoda, spending all that time on weaponsmithing. His brain was now filled with all sorts of tips and tricks for weaponsmithing.

Nobody else could persist in weaponsmithing for twenty-five days like him. Not even Zhao Li could do so. After all, Zhao Li did not have as many apertures as him, resulting in a lower rate of recovery. Zhao Li would probably need a long rest after fully draining his own willpower. That wasn't the case for Su Yu.

The 51st floor corresponded with a middle-tier profound-grade weaponsmith. Of course, since everything in the Hundred Dao Pagoda was simulated, Su Yu would need a few attempts in the real world to truly complete a profound weapon. Only after grasping the difference between the real world and simulation would he be able to become a true middle-tier profound-grade weaponsmith.

He had forged a cultural weapon with forty-six golden stripes on the 51st floor. That was his current limit. He couldn't make anything better. His control, experience, willpower strength, and accumulated knowledge were not enough for that.

Even so, he was very satisfied with his progress. It had been expensive, but his progress had also been unimaginably fast.

Of course, he had also been recovering and forging his body during the past twenty-five days. He had merely been doing the two slower. He had just completed his seventh body forging.

Prior to his match with Shan Xiong, he was at his fifth body forging. But after an entire month, he had only completed two more. And he was completely out of heavenly source qi. He had given some to Hu Qi, wasted some for Zhu Tiandao's fake phenomena demonstration at the Knowledge Seeking Realm, and used up the rest. However, he still had some late-stage Cloudbreach mountainbreak bull blood essence left unextracted. He could probably extract about fifty portions worth of heavenly source qi from his remaining blood essence.

Su Yu was confident his body was now strong enough to withstand the power of late-stage Cloudbreach blood essence. After all, he had completed seven forgings. And he was even stronger than regular cultivators with seven forgings. His body was probably as strong as that of weak Cloudbreaches. He shouldn't have trouble absorbing some late-stage Cloudbreach blood essence.

𝗳𝚛𝗲𝕖𝕨𝕖𝗯𝚗𝚘𝕧𝕖𝗹.𝗰𝗼𝕞

"Out of the 150 portions of heavenly source qi, I've used about 120 portions myself and some of the heavenly reward the other day to complete 7 forgings. Thus, I'll probably need around 20 portions per forging. My forging is twice as expensive as the forging of others."

Su Yu sighed at that realization. He would need about a thousand merit points to extract one portion. To get enough portions for a single forging, he would need to spend twenty thousand merit points.

The blood essence he purchased previously should have been enough for ten forgings, but he had given some out. He had enough blood essence to complete around one or two forgings. Thus, he would reach nine forgings at most after exhausting all his blood essence and heavenly source qi.

Of the 1.26 million merit points he received from Marquis Xia, he had given a million to Hu Xiansheng. He had spent two hundred thousand merit points not long ago and twenty thousand merit points on the pagoda. He now had forty thousand merit points left, but after buying some stuff for himself and his research center, he wouldn't have much left.

"Looks like I'll need at least 1.3 million merit points to complete my 72 forgings. Time to ask for money from the prefect."

Su Yu made a short calculation. His Source Soul Acupoint Opening Art, Source Soul Cultural Art, and Double Wu Acupoint Fusion Art's highest edition were all sold through Great Ming. A few months had passed. Even the Source Soul Acupoint Opening Art, the latest art he released, had been out for over a month.

These arts must have earned him a lot of money, right? The Source Soul Cultural Art was being sold at a hundred merit points per copy. The Source Soul Acupoint Opening Art was also being sold at a cheap price of a hundred merit points. Naturally, the academies and military could get them for an even cheaper price.

As for the fusion art, even the highest version was being sold at fifty merit points per copy. As the creator, he was entitled to forty percent of the income. After a rough calculation, Su Yu concluded that the cultural art had probably sold the lowest number of copies since only cultural researchers would use it. As for the Source Soul Acupoint Opening Art, it had definitely sold a lot.

He would be entitled to forty merit points per copy sold. Of course, with the discount to those from Great Ming, he could get twenty-eight merit points per copy. As for the military, he could get twelve merit points per copy.

Even if only a hundred thousand people from the military had bought the art, he would be entitled to 1.2 million merit points.

"This sure is an easy way of making money."

Su Yu was very surprised. He recalled that the Myriad Text Sutra and War God Art were a lot more expensive than his arts. Those two had been sold for so many years. Just how much money had the Knowledge Seeking Realm and War Shrine earned from the two cultivation methods?

One ought to know that the Knowledge Seeking Realm and War Shrine were entitled to twenty percent of the profit from the two cultivation methods. And if the two holy lands were also the creators, they would be entitled to sixty percent of the profits. The two cultivation methods had been sold for decades.

Even if they could only earn fifty merit points from each copy, they would sell at least a million copies per year. In that case, wouldn't they make fifty million merit points per year?

And after decades of that...

Su Yu inhaled deeply. They must have earned billions from the two cultivation methods. New merit points would not be issued so easily. Instead, they would only be issued after assessing the contribution of the cultivators entitled to merit point rewards. Thus, the purchasing power of merit points was still pretty strong.

Not even the issuers of merit points, the two holy lands, could rashly release billions of merit points into the market at once or that would destroy the economy. They had been earning so much money for so many years. Had their income been ruined?

Su Yu recalled Wen Zhong's reminder that he had destroyed the income of some people. Since the Zhou and Yuan Families had remained silent about it, he hadn't thought too much about the issue. But after making his calculation, he realized that he had destroyed their business which was worth billions of merit points per year. How was it possible for them to not hate him?

"I still need to watch out for them."

He entered his research center while deep in thought. At this time, Wu Lan just happened to be coming downstairs. She was surprised to see him returning from outside. She looked upstairs before looking at Su Yu in confusion. Wasn't Su Yu supposed to be in seclusion upstairs?

After a long while, she asked, "When did you leave seclusion?"

"I left this morning to get some fresh air."

"Morning?" Wu Lan doubtfully asked, "I spent the entire morning playing with the little furball. Why didn't I see you leaving?"

"I left last night."

"Last night?" Wu Lan spent three seconds in thought before looking at Su Yu with a look of contempt, "You're injured yet you're spending your nights outside? You insisted on going to those places even with an injured body? Su Yu, the more I know you, the more I realize that you're just as shameless as the others."

It took Su Yu some time to understand what she was insinuating at. He was quite speechless, but he couldn't be bothered to explain himself. He said, "Cut the nonsense. Have you guys made any progress recently?"

"Yeah." Wu Lan had a troubled expression as she said, "We have been researching aperture fusion methods recently. Senior Brother Wen and the others are all focusing on this project. They have even stopped their research on the source soul acupoint. After all, an aperture fusion method is more suitable for the masses. Additionally, we have also been working on an improved version of the Double Wu Acupoint Fusion Art. We're trying to come up with a 72-acupoint or 108-acupoint edition. These editions will be helpful for even Mountainseas. Our current version isn't too helpful for them."

Everyone had given up on the source soul acupoint. Su Yu was the one who had told them to stop their research on that topic. He had gotten some ideas himself so there was no need to waste their time and energy.

Thus, the others had been focusing on aperture fusion recently. After all, this was something that Su Yu himself might need before too long. He did not have any issues with that. Even an improved version of the acupoint fusion art was something that would benefit him. However, it was unknown if they would really succeed. If they failed, Su Yu would have no choice but to do his own tests when required.

"Did anything else happen during my time in seclusion?"

"Yes." Wu Lan cheerfully said, "Several major battles erupted in Great Zhou recently. An eighth-stage Sunmoon celestial eye divine tried to spy on Great Zhou. Ultimately, that divine was killed by Zhou Polong. After that incident, Prefect Zhou Potian deployed their army to remove the cult influence in their borders.

"Some assassins have also been active recently. A few Mountainseas have been killed. The various prefectures are on high alert. Those assassins are suspected to be members of the Six-Winged Divine Sect. Those fellows have gone mad. A few days ago, they encountered General Zhao. Their Mountainseas were all killed. Even the two Sunmoons were about to perish before the cult sent eight Sunmoons to save them. This action alarmed even Great Han King."

Wu Lan sighed, "It's fine if the chaos is only limited to Great Zhou, but seems like the chaos is spreading all over the Human Realm. I heard the cult has established a council. All their Sunmoons are going to be working together. It will no longer be possible to catch and remove them separately."

"Myriad race experts have also been sneaking into the Human Realm as some myriad race experts have been making moves in the Human Reallm recently. Even the demonic beasts of the three major seas are creating trouble recently. I heard that some myriad race experts have sneaked into the seas and reached an agreement with them.

"Great Xia is going to start accepting divine and devil students. Those students are probably on their way to Great Xia right this moment. Marquis Xia is getting more and more shameless."

Su Yu mourned for Marquis Xia. Was this really Marquis Xia's idea? Well, who else could take the blame apart from him?

After all, the foreign students were being charged an excessive fee to study in the Human Realm. And it was rumored that Marquis Xia was the one in charge of the newly earned money. It was only natural that he took the blame for it as well. A lot of people in Great Xia were probably badmouthing Marquis Xia right this moment.

In fact, some popular slogans regarding overthrowing Xia Xiao'er had gained a lot of popularity in Great Xia.

"What about my teacher and the others?"

"Teacher Bai and the others are preparing for their new faculty, so nothing has happened to them yet. I heard that even the new vice principal, Yuan Qingdong, has gone silent recently."

Su Yu nodded, "Are there any news about Prefect Xia Longwu?"

Previously, he had heard that Xia Longwu had departed Great Xia.

"No. Nobody knows where he went." Wu Lan shook her head. "By the way, there is one more thing. Do you remember Wan Mingze? He recently broke through into the Skysoar Realm. Did he cultivate your Source Soul Cultural Art as well? He brought a few individuals with him and started traveling all over the Human Realm. How dumb. I heard that they are visiting one academy after another to look for like-minded individuals. He's planning to form a youth alliance that will enter the Allheaven Battlefield with him. He wishes to break the walls between the various prefectures and form a truly united army of human youths."