Zhu Tiandao smiled, "Don't worry about that. We're already earning enough from the copies sold in Great Ming. We already made enough to provide for the Strength Guard soldiers I took from the holy land."

Yes. The profit from a single prefecture was already enough for that. One could only imagine how massive the profit was.

"But we should follow the rules." Su Yu smiled, "Prefect, don't break the rules because of me. I'm happy with 1.76 million merit points."

Zhu Tiandao did not push the issue. He smiled and agreed, "Sure. Just let me know if you need anything."

Right after saying that, he stiffened and decided to stop talking. He had said the same words just a moment ago, but his face had been slapped right after making that offer.

After all, Su Yu wanted first divine and original devil blood essence. That wasn't something he could provide.

Su Yu said, "I'll take 1.5 million merit points and trade the rest for mountainbreak bull, iron-winged bird, cloud tiger, and some other blood essence. I'll take all Skysoar and Cloudbreach blood essence. Just give me enough to cover for the remaining money according to the market value."

"Do you need so much blood essence?"

Zhu Tiandao was very surprised. The kid was really buying a lot of blood essence. That was 260,000 merit points spent to purchase nothing but blood essence.

Su Yu said, "Yeah. I'll be producing some ability blood essence soon. And that requires a lot of blood essence."

"Sure. We don't have that much mountainbreak bull blood essence as not long ago, someone cleared the market of this blood essence. But we do have a lot of other blood essence in store."

Su Yu nodded. That buyer was none other than Xia Huyou. That fellow sure was connected. He was even able to buy from Great Ming's market.

"Alright. I'll have the blood essence and money delivered to you. Kid, you sure are good at spending money even if you're good at earning money as well. That's a lot of money you're spending on blood essence."

Before Zhu Tiandao could say more, Su Yu said, "Prefect, I also need to trouble you to get me 100,000 merit points worth of weaponsmithing materials. I'm buying all materials in the yellow and profound grades."

"Hmm?" Zhu Tiandao blanked out slightly before asking, "I thought you got a lot from the Divine Skywing Sect's treasure vault?"

"I gave them all away."

Holy shit! Zhu Tiandao couldn't help but admire the kid's generosity. He had given away hundreds of thousands of merit points just like that?

Then again, that was understandable. Just a moment ago, the kid had insisted on giving 1.2 million merit points to Great Ming. This kid could be annoyingly petty at times, but when he was being generous, he could be incredibly generous as well.

There wasn't even a need to guess where those materials had gone. Zhao Li! That damn broke bastard had formed a good relationship with Su Yu and was now reaping the benefits of it. Zhu Tiandao did not ask too much. This was ultimately up to Su Yu.

"I'll get some people to deliver you some materials as well. Do you need anything else?"

For a prefecture, a few hundred thousand merit points wasn't a big deal. It was only a big deal for a single individual. Su Yu sank into thought. Did he need anything else?

After a while, he nodded, "I also need some Mountainsea blood essence. I don't need that much. I only need about ten drops per race. The variety is more important. And it would be even better if the blood essence came from first-stage Mountainseas. I can probably accept the blood essence of second or third-stage Mountainseas as well."

"To produce ability blood essence? Are you capable of producing Mountainsea ability blood essence now?"

Zhu Tiandao was alarmed. That was the first thing on his mind. Su Yu merely smiled without answering. Fine. Zhu Tiandao decided to stop asking. But he was truly alarmed. Was it really possible?

And could Su Yu really use something like that? If the answer was yes, wouldn't he be as strong as Mountainseas?

Holy shit!

This was still a kid!

"Fine. I can give that to you for free since I still have some in my private stash."

"Then...I'll have to thank you for that, Prefect."

Su Yu did not reject the offer. Before long, he left.

After Su Yu left, Zhu Tiandao rubbed his chin and muttered, "Why is he producing so many ability blood essence, including Mountainsea ability blood essence? Is he...planning to leave?"

Otherwise, it would be pointless. If he was only going to do some research, there was no need to prepare so much of them. Zhu Tiandao had a feeling that the kid was thinking of leaving.

"Leaving...is he going to Great Xia? Or somewhere else? Or is he fleeing? But that doesn't make sense since I'm treating him well."

Zhu Tiandao sank into thought. Su Yu had released quite a lot of cultivation methods. But nobody knew if he had more unreleased cultivation methods that were stronger. One could say that Great Ming had probably squeezed all they could from the kid already.

But Zhu Tiandao personally did not think that was the case. The kid was not only valuable because of his cultivation methods. Just the talent of the kid alone made him worth investing in. Thus, they couldn't allow the kid to leave Great Ming.

"The world is getting more and more chaotic. It is very dangerous out there. Why is the kid leaving now?"

Zhu Tiandao muttered to himself. But if he stopped the kid from leaving, wouldn't that make the kid feel like a prisoner? This was so troublesome.

Zhu Tiandao tapped on the stone table as he contemplated. After a while, he said, "Umbra."

"Lord!"

The air warped as a dark figure appeared out of nowhere. The figure dropped one knee on the ground.

Zhu Tiandao said, "Instead of following me, you can start following Su Yu. Unless he meets a crisis that can kill him, don't show yourself."

"Lord..." The dark figure said, "This subordinate is charged to protect you. How can Su Yu's safety be compared with yours?"

"You? Protecting me?" Zhu Tiandao laughed, "You're only a seventh-stage Sunmoon. The hell are you supposed to protect me? You can only do some minor tasks for me. But your concealment technique is incredible. You only need to follow him. Ignore everything unless he's met with a crisis. Since the kid is planning to leave, he naturally has a way to hide his identity. Don't follow him too closely lest you expose yourself. Of course, since nobody knows you, they might not know that you're with Su Yu even after exposure."

Unable to disobey the command, the dark figure nodded, "This subordinate understands."

After a short pause, he asked, "If he decides to go to the Allheaven Battlefield, I won't be able to maintain my concealment through the portal. What should I do then?"

The vicinity of the portal was constantly guarded by Invincibles. Thus, he could only stay hidden if he used the smuggling portal used by the cult. But apart from the cult, nobody knew the location of that portal. Also, nobody knew if there were myriad race Invincibles on the other side of that portal.

"True..." After thinking about it, Zhu Tiandao said, "Only Invincibles and some elite ninth-stage Sunmoons can discover you. Take my imprint with you. The Invincibles will let you be. If they ask anything, just tell them you're on a mission for me."

"This subordinate understands."

"Go." Zhu Tiandao added, "Also, don't think about anything stupid. If he enters a ruin or something, just stay guard outside the ruin. Not everyone can become an Invincible after entering a ruin. Do you understand?"

"This subordinate wouldn't dare."

Zhu Tiandao nodded, "I believe you won't do so as well. After all, it takes time for even the most talented individual to become an Invincible. And I'll be able to locate you before that."

"This subordinate understands."

Zhu Tiandao waved his hand and the dark figure vanished.

Zhu Tiandao smiled at himself. The kid wouldn't be able to run off by himself with the dark figure following him. If he managed to even escape the dark figure, well, what could Zhu Tiandao do at that point except accept it? Su Yu would be safe during his travels with the protection of a seventh-stage Sunmoon.

***

At the same time.

Su Yu stiffened slightly, but he continued walking as though nothing had changed. Inwardly, he was muttering that a Sunmoon was observing him.

Was that a secret dao protector of Great Ming? But he was right within Great Ming. Old Zhu was still around. Was there a need to send a Sunmoon to protect him?

"The Perception Jade still isn't good enough. It should be improved so that it can provide the exact number of Sunmoons observing me. It also needs to have the ability to tell me if this Sunmoon is the same Sunmoon that has been detected before. Its current function of only changing color is not reliable enough!"

Su Yu was quite speechless. He was finding the Perception Jade more and more unreliable. As of late, it would constantly change colors. There was no helping that as the academy was filled with experts who would occasionally scan their surroundings. Some were the actual guards while some were simply scanning the area randomly.

Thus, Su Yu was finding it harder and harder to determine if the people performing the scans were targetting him or if it was simply a random scan.

"Maybe I can ask Senior Hu Qi for an improvement before leaving. She should have left seclusion by now. As an earth-grade weaponsmith, she should be able to do this, right?"

The Perception Jade's grade was quite high. Hopefully, she could do it. No matter what, he couldn't deny that the jade was still quite useful against people trying to spy on him.

He did not wish to let anyone know about his departure. He also didn't want to be constantly protected, even if they were doing it out of kindness. As far as he was concerned, being completely hidden was the best option. Having an expert following him at all times could be troublesome as well. After all, if the expert was discovered, it might end up exposing him as well.

"I need to extract more heavenly source qi and complete one more forging. Then, I can improve the Perception Jade and leave Great Ming."

Su Yu was starting to get impatient. Since he started cultivating, he had never gone out training alone. His journey to Great Ming didn't count as he was still under constant protection even then. He was quite speechless when he thought of how he had never traveled alone even when he was already as strong as a Cloudbreach.

"If I leave at eight forgings and forge my body a few more times along the way, I can probably start using Mountainsea blood essence by the time I reach the Allheaven Battlefield. That will grant me the strength of a Mountainsea during emergencies. With that, I can be considered an expert even in the Allheaven Battlefield."

Mountainseas and Sunmoons might not feel rare for him currently, but that was because he had mainly been interacting with important individuals.

For example, he had been interacting with prefects, sect masters, and descendants of Invincibles. It was only natural for these people to be strong. But such experts weren't common at all in the Allheaven Battlefield. Most experts would only stick to those of the same level. For regular people, they probably wouldn't be able to meet anyone stronger than the Mountainsea Realm.

"I need to make more preparations for my coming trip. This is starting to feel more and more exciting."

Su Yu couldn't stop his excitement. After all, he had been living as a shut-in for too long. He really wanted to go out and see the world. He was starting to feel limited by his lack of experience. Just reading alone wasn't the same as actually experiencing some things for himself.

"But I still need a suitable identity. It will be even better if it's an existing identity. I'll need Principal Niu to help me with this. After all, I'm leaving to gather some heavenly source qi for his old friends. Dad, I'm coming to see you!"

It had been a year. He was starting to miss his father.

***

At the same time.

Allheaven Battlefield, eastern sector, main headquarters of Great Xia military.

Su Long was lounging on a chair in a courtyard. He was staring at the sky blankly, wondering what his son was doing. Previously, he heard that his son had nearly killed Shan Xiong. But the kid had also injured himself in the process. A total of 144 acupoints had been detonated. Su Long's heart ached just thinking about that. That was more than his total acupoints.

Was the kid fine? It had been about a month since then. How was the kid's recovery? Great Zhou was truly filled with assholes. His son was such an obedient child. Why did they fight him? Served that fellow right for nearly dying in his son's hands.

He heard that Zhou Polong had also encountered some trouble. That fellow deserved it for bullying his son. If he was strong enough, he would go create even more trouble for that bastard.

That day, father and son thought about each other.

However, they were a realm apart.