Chapter 954: Project Counter Hunt (1)

Su Yu opened his eyes.

Inside his sea of willpower, the suppress character had been beaten into submission. Even so, his sea of willpower still felt incredibly full thanks to the presence of the new character. His sea of willpower was not weak at all. Its size was comparable to what a peak Cloudbreach would have.

But he also had a lot of characters himself. A lot of them were fourth-tier characters. With the inclusion of a peak Sunmoon character, his sea of willpower was starting to feel the pressure.

Meanwhile, Liu Wenyan was busy forcing a calm and indifferent appearance onto his face. He had to remain calm. He had to be completely unperturbed. He had to—

"How did you do that?"

He wanted to remain indifferent, but he couldn't hold his question in. That was a peak Sunmoon character. How did the brat do it?

Su Yu thought about it and answered, "All characters can be beaten into submission. Teacher, Divine Characters are actually quite smart. And they are all scoundrels. Just beat them and they will listen."

"..."

Liu Wenyan wanted to curse loudly. He was going mad. Beaten into submission? Could the brat even defeat a peak Sunmoon character? Furthermore, was the brat not scared of accidentally blowing up his own sea of willpower during the fight?

Was the damn brat lying to him? Whatever, whatever.

Liu Wenyan asked, "Can your sea of willpower take it in?"

Su Yu nodded, "Yes, but it feels very full. It's only one character. Sure enough, my sea of willpower is still too weak. I need to expand it more."

His sea of willpower was only comparable to what a regular peak Cloudbreach would have. He had visited the seas of willpower of his two teachers. Zhao Li's sea of willpower was comparable to what a fifth-stage Mountainsea cultural researcher would have. And Liu Wenyan's was even scarier. Su Yu believed that Liu Wenyan's sea of willpower was already reaching the level of a Sunmoon.

He was still too lacking compared to them. Zhao Li would probably be able to store three to five Sunmoon characters in his sea of willpower. If comfort was discarded, he could probably store six or seven of them.

As for Liu Wenyan, he was still young when he first inherited these characters. But he had received these characters in a sealed form. But now, the seal had been removed as a sealed character was useless for them. He could store one unsealed peak Sunmoon character in his sea of willpower.

Liu Wenyan was greatly shocked. The brat's sea of willpower was much stronger than he had expected. After all, the brat himself had a lot of characters as well.

"Can you only store it in there or actually use it in combat?"

Su Yu immersed himself in his sea of willpower for a bit before nodding, "Yes. But the exhaustion will be high. This character needs a large amount of willpower. With the strength of my willpower, I can only activate it once before taking a long rest."

Su Yu was quite disappointed when he realized that. His willpower was really too weak.

"That's already very impressive."

Liu Wenyan was very impressed. He said, "I'll be honest. For me, even activating it once is hard. I was only able to fight Sunmoons previously by detonating some of the characters to supply myself with the willpower I needed. If I want to fight as a Sunmoon again, I'll need to crush even more characters."

Fighting with the strength of a Sunmoon was no easy feat for him. The biggest issue was the energy source. All these characters could be considered his, so he naturally needed to be the one to supply the energy they needed. A character could be considered a weapon. A weapon could not fight by itself. The user needed to supply it with the energy required to fight using it.

And Liu Wenyan did not have enough willpower to use these characters without external help.

Su Yu was quite speechless. So his teacher was prepared to crush more characters to save him if needed?

At that thought, he said, "Teacher, the fifth principal's characters might not really be the best for you. I saw your sea of willpower. It's very strong. It only lacks willpower. Yes, it's hard for you to accept crushing these characters. But you shouldn't delay your growth just because of that."

Su Yu persuaded, "Teacher, even if you want to keep some of them, it's fine. Just crush enough for you to reach the Sunmoon Realm. You can keep two or three of the strongest ones. At that time, you will have enough willpower to perhaps gain the combat strength of a peak Sunmoon through the remaining characters. Even if you can't compare to the fifth principal, you will definitely grow as strong as a peak Sunmoon of the single character faction."

Liu Wenyan already had everything he needed. As long as he was willing to take that step, he would be able to reach the Sunmoon Realm without external help. The few remaining peak Sunmoon characters could then be used to push his combat strength to a level comparable to a peak Sunmoon of the single character faction.

Su Yu couldn't understand his teacher's persistence. Yes, those characters were the keepsakes of his dead teacher. As a living person, Liu Wenyan was trapped by the dead. That should not be his priority at this moment. He should prioritize his own strength, not the past.

Su Yu continued his persuasion, "Teacher, you might think my words are improper. You might think I'm being disrespectful toward the fifth principal. But I can't see a reason for your persistence. I believe you know how things are currently."

He paused shortly and solemnly said, "Grandteacher Hong Tan is currently disseminating the disassembly method in Great Xia. That should make it clear to you what's happening. Martial Uncle Chen Yong was forced into such desperation that he left home and started running around killing people. Before long, he will be known as a traitor of humanity. They will start hunting him. Teacher, danger lurks on every side for the multiple character faction. That applies to the two of us as well."

With a calm tone, Su Yu said, "I'm not afraid of the consequences. I am confident I can continue my path despite all the challenges I might face. And I haven't even been in the multiple character faction for long, so I don't have that much of an attachment to the multiple character faction. But how about Grandteacher Hong Tan? Martial Uncle Chen Yong? And Teacher Bai Feng? None of them will be able to escape this. They have suffered in silence for a lifetime. Even Senior Xia Yunji and the others are the same. All that just to protect the fifth principal's legacy?"

Liu Wenyan inhaled deeply and said, "I understand all that. I'm aware of all that. But I'm not keeping my teacher's characters as mere keepsakes..."

"Why, then?"

After a short silence, Liu Wenyan said, "Ancient cities."

"What?"

"Ancient cities." Liu Wenyan said, "There are rumors that upon death, everyone will turn into death spirits. It doesn't matter if one is an ancient city resident or not. Anyone might change into a death spirit upon death. I have been wondering if my teacher...is still around as a death spirit?"

He softly said, "If my teacher is now a death spirit, it is only natural that he no longer has any of his characters with him. But he's strong. He might have preserved some of his memories. A character technique is the most important legacy of a multiple character cultivator. Perhaps...a day will come when I can use my teacher's character technique to bring him back..."

"..."

Su Yu was completely stunned.

He stared at his teacher in stupefaction and asked, "Teacher, are you sure? If that's true, even Invincibles will turn into death spirits upon death as well? Even if the death happens nowhere near an ancient city? And you're actually planning to resurrect a death spirit? Is that even possible?"

"Resurrection is not the right word."

Liu Wenyan explained, "I'm aiming to restore his memories. A character technique is the most important thing for a multiple character cultivator. With his character technique, he might be able to recover his past memories. He might still remain a death spirit, but at least he won't be a puppet-like death spirit anymore."

"Has the fifth principal turned into a death spirit?"

"I don't know." Liu Wenyan shook his head, "I've never seen a death spirit so powerful before. I've never even heard of one before. But I grew up in the Allheaven Battlefield. I understand how magical this place can be. I've heard a lot of rumors about those ancient cities. According to the legends, the ancient cities are actually seals to suppress the Death Realm. With thirty-six ancient cities, the entire Death Realm is suppressed. Each ancient city is located atop an entrance to the Death Realm. All living beings will turn into death spirits upon death.

"Of course, that's only a legend. But I still wish to try. If I crush all the characters and leave only one or two behind, I will no longer be able to restore my teacher's memories even if I can find him."

Su Yu was left speechless. After listening to Liu Wenyan, he realized that there might be more secrets behind these ancient cities. But he wasn't too bothered about that. He was more bothered about Liu Wenyan's faith that the fifth principal could return.

He had nothing to say. If Teacher Liu did manage to find the fifth principal, he would probably be the first to die since the fifth principal was already a death spirit.

"Teacher!" Su Yu gloomily said, "Won't you think for those of us who are still living? Won't you think for Grandteacher Hong Tan? Won't you think for my martial mothers? Won't you think for Grandpa Liu, the sole survivor of the Liu Family? How can you be so selfish? For the sake of bringing your teacher back, you're letting down all those people who have placed their hopes on you. Teacher, that's too selfish and cruel."

Su Yu spoke frankly, "You're too selfish. For you and the fifth principal, they have offered everything. But even now, you're still going to put them aside. You have the ability to rapidly become a Sunmoon with the combat strength of a peak Sunmoon. But you're not doing so because you want to bring the fifth principal back."

Su Yu sighed, "You did right by me. But you have definitely not done right by them, all the people who have placed their trust in you. They believe in you, but that does not mean that they believe in the fifth principal. The principal is dead. Do you think they have persisted this long just for a dead fifth principal? No. You're the person they trust, not the fifth principal. You're the person carrying their hope. But...you're going to abandon all of them."

Liu Wenyan said, "I'm not abandoning them..."

"That's exactly what you're doing." Su Yu declared firmly. "That is the fact. You are abandoning them. Answer me. What is your strength going to be in half a year? I believe that in half a year, Great Xia will turn into a battleground. A massive turmoil will befall Great Xia. Many will die. The Xia Family is already preparing for the worst. Xia Huyou is preparing for the day Great Xia stops existing. Can Grandteacher, Teacher, and the others survive that turmoil? How about my martial mothers? How about the elders who have been helping you? How about the experts who have traveled to Great Xia from all over the Human Realm to help you back then?"

Su Yu spoke in agitation, "This might be selfishness. This might not be. But I will never set the living aside for the dead. I will never set aside the ones who have supported and helped me. Teacher, if that is your choice...you can stay as the sole multiple character faction member in existence. I will return. I will fight alongside them. Because they helped me before."

Liu Wenyan stared at his student helplessly and said, "I'm here trying to pass on some characters to you. How did the topic stray this far? How am I selfish and cold?"

"You are."

"..."