Tribulation of Myriad Races

Great Ming.

On the second day after Su Yu took over his new research center, a big-shot researcher arrived: Wen Zhong. In truth, Wen Zhong knew this research center very well. One could say that he knew it even better than his own home.

After all, he was one of the most capable helpers of Hu Xiansheng in the teleportation formation research. He had not expected to return here again so soon. The only thing that had changed was the owner of the research center.

Inside the research center.

After entering the building with Su Yu, Wen Zhong’s gaze landed on the little furball who was frolicking with the small animals in the garden. First, a look of doubt surfaced on his face. Then, he turned curious before sinking into contemplation. Finally, his face turned into one of astonishment.

“Th-this…” Wen Zhong asked, “Is this an ancient race?”

Seeing that Su Yu was looking at him inquiringly, Wen Zhong explained, “A race is deemed an ancient race if its culture and civilization are successfully maintained for countless years.”

Su Yu shook his head and said, “I’m not sure. But this is probably a newly appeared race. My grandteacher caught this fellow at the Allheaven Battlefield not long ago.”

Wen Zhong exclaimed in admiration, “What an amazing creature. That body…exists in a state that is both incorporeal and corporeal. It is similar to a Divine Character. This must be an ancient creature capable of harming one’s willpower or character.”

Su Yu nodded. Wen Zhong was impressive as he was able to guess this much even if he had never met the little furball before.

While following Su Yu upstairs, Wen Zhong said, “What is the current focus of your research?”

“360 acupoints.” Su Yu said, “I’m wondering if the 360 acupoints will automatically form a cycle after being opened. Or do I need to figure out the circulation path myself as well? If that’s the case…”

Su Yu had a troubled look as he said, “It will be very difficult. Even 36 acupoints can be used to create countless cultivation methods, not to mention 360 acupoints.”

Wen Zhong nodded, “That is indeed a difficult problem. Even finding 360 acupoints won’t be an easy task. Of course, I have discovered many acupoints over the years. After all, I have spent many years researching this topic as well. Perhaps we can make a comparison between what we know later. And if we need to find the circulation pathway ourselves, the difficulty will increase to a completely different level.

“This won’t be an easy research. However, according to our speculations, all acupoints will follow a certain set of rules when forming a cycle. Thus, if we are right, then the difficulty won’t be as high as you have imagined. For example, if you tell me the locations of the 144 acupoints required by the Sky Sundering Saber, I can probably recreate the cultivation method through deduction.

“Even the selection of the acupoints used by each cultivation method follows a set of rules. Thus, you don’t need to worry about this too much. As long as we can discover all 360 acupoints, we can get this done given enough time.”

Su Yu smiled and said, “In that case, I’ll be troubling you from now on, Senior Brother Wen.”

Before long, the two arrived at the third floor. Human puppets could be found on the third floor. These were the same puppets that Su Yu had received from Zhao Tianbing.

Wen Zhong was overjoyed to see those puppets. He said, “Great Ming has a lot of fine puppets, but we don’t have too many powerful weaponsmiths. Thus, we have never been able to produce puppets of truly high quality. These puppets must have been forged by Great Zhou’s Zhao Tianbing.”

“Sharp eyes, Senior Brother.”

Wen Zhong smiled smugly. There was no denying that he had good eyes.

He wasted no time and pointed at one of the puppets. “This is an acupoint puppet. It is a fine creation. Su Yu, if you already know the locations of around 350 acupoints, we can actually start deducing the locations of the remaining acupoints. As I said, the more acupoints you have, the clearer the set of rules followed by all acupoints will seem. Of course, this is still a risky research.”

Su Yu nodded. He pointed at the puppet, creating one red dot after another. Those were all the acupoints he knew. Before long, Wen Zhong’s expression changed. There were so many of them!

Finally, Wen Zhong exclaimed in admiration, “346 acupoints. With this alone, you probably know more cultivation methods than me. Have you opened all these acupoints?”

“Yeah.”

“Genius.”

Wen Zhong couldn’t help but be impressed. Everyone believed that Su Yu had only opened around 300 acupoints. Sure, that wasn’t exactly wrong, but 346 was still a crazy number.

After a while, Wen Zhong pointed at the puppet and left a few red dots on it as well. He said, “I don’t know that many acupoints, but I do know a few that you have yet to discover…”

Before long, seven new dots appeared on the puppet.

“Only seven?”

Su Yu frowned slightly. That would bring his number of known acupoints to 353. Wen Zhong was probably one of the most knowledgeable cultural researchers around. But even someone like that could only contribute 7 acupoints.

Wen Zhong said, “If you don’t mind, I can take this puppet with me and ask around for you. I know a lot of knowledgeable people. For example, people like Principal Niu, Director Hou, and the others. These people are extremely well-read.”

“Even the principals of the war academies might be able to help with this since warriors probably know more about acupoints than us.”

Su Yu asked in hesitation, “Will they be willing to share what they know?”

“Don’t worry. This isn’t a big secret.” Wen Zhong smiled and said, “You haven’t met the principal, right? You can take this chance to visit him. If you encounter any problem in the future, you can seek his help as well.”

“In that case, I’ll be troubling you, Senior Brother.”

“Don’t worry about it. Your fusion method has been a very enlightening read for me as well.”

“…”

Su Yu agreed that there was a need to ask around. There was no need to feel embarrassed about it. After all, he had decided to join Great Ming in the first place to strengthen himself. And since there was a chance to learn something new, he wouldn’t mind seeking their guidance.

Su Yu did not waste any time. For researchers, days and nights were the same. Seeing that it was dinner time, Wen Zhong suggested, “Why don’t we go immediately? Let’s visit the principal with a few bottles of fine liquor. Junior Brother Su, this is a piece of advice you need to remember. To survive in Great Ming, you need some good liquors in your collection. A lot of people in Great Ming are liquor fanatics. At times, a bottle of good liquor can be as useful as millions of merit points.”

“I understand.”

Su Yu smiled, “Perhaps I can even form some liquor-producing characters.”

“That would be interesting. Unlike manual brewing, the liquor produced by each character is completely different from each other. Thus, character-brewed liquors are generally more valuable.”

Finally, Su Yu hollered, “Wu Lan, deal with dinner yourself.”

“Oh.”

Wu Lan was still busy going through the books in the library so she couldn’t even be bothered to say more.

Wen Zhong smiled in amusement and started heading downstairs with Su Yu. While walking, he said, “Junior Brother, it seems like you’re quite good at enjoying life as well. But that’s understandable. It can get quite lonely staying here alone.”

Su Yu could only smile helplessly. He was no longer bothered with explaining himself. Perhaps this was just how the brain of everyone in Great Ming worked. Little did they know, Wu Lan would completely ignore him when she was busy reading.

***

On their way to the principal’s place, Su Yu bought a few bottles of fine liquor with 10 merit points.

The sky was slowly turning dark.

Wen Zhong said, “The principal has just returned so he will probably be staying home for now. After all, he has a lot of work piled up.”

They walked along a splendid and magnificent garden, accompanied by sounds of running water and gentle music.

After a while, Su Yu stopped in astonishment. There was actually a massive lake in the academy. Yes, it was massive. A lake so big could rarely be seen in Great Xia. Yet here, such a lake could be found within an academy.

An indistinct island was visible in the middle of the lake. With a smile, Wen Zhong said, “The principal is living on that island. This island is known as the Heart Paradise Island.”

Suddenly, Wen Zhong hollered, “Old Turtle, time to work.”

Immediately after, ripples appeared on the calm lake before a large turtle emerged.

“Looping turtle!”

Su Yu was very surprised…and slightly pleased to see this. Looping turtle! He had tried to buy the blood essence of this race from Xia Huyou for a long time, but he had never succeeded. This was a neutral race.

The looping turtles could be seen in the Allheaven Battlefield, but they were not warlike in nature. Thus, they were very rarely seen. In fact, they were even rarer than divines and devils. They weren’t rare because they were too strong. Instead, they were few in number so they would rarely enter the Allheaven Battlefield.

Most of the time, they would hide inside the Looping Turtle Realm and mind their own business. There was actually a looping turtle here. One that was alive! When Su Yu extended his senses, he was surprised. This turtle was absolutely not weak.