The Secret of the Apertures

On Yuexin Island. Su Yu engaged in continuous self-reflection. In truth, this had been his original plan, but he had grown too furious and too disappointed, altering his strategy time and again until he lost sight of his primary goal. Right now, he was no match for those people. He had to be strategic! Taking them down face-to-face in armed combat would feel great, but did he have that kind of strength at the moment? "Understood!" Su Yu murmured softly and soon asked, "Principal, what kind of cultivation art do you think could create a sensation? A basic cultural art?" "Undoubtedly!" Niu Baidao smiled. "However, there's a catch: a basic cultural art can only win over people below the Tengkong Realm. After all, cultivation arts that open fewer than seventy-two divine apertures are useless to those above Tengkong..." "What about one with one hundred and eight divine apertures?" "Well..." Niu Baidao winced internally, but kept a smile on his face. "That is indeed good, but many people might not be able to open that many divine apertures. At best, only a portion of geniuses would switch over to it." Niu Baidao chuckled and added, "Young man, don't rush. Take it slow. Don't release everything all at once. Put out a new one every few days. If you dump them all at once, they won't be valued! If you have any powerful battle techniques or divine techniques, you can release a few of those too... "Ideally, the kind..." Niu Baidao paused in thought. "The kind of battle technique that doesn't require opening several new apertures to use. Do you have any of those?" "I do!" Su Yu nodded. He had those; he knew far too many cultivation arts. The apertures of certain techniques shared a very high degree of overlap with basic cultivation arts. After a moment's consideration, Su Yu said, "I have ones that clear the mind and calm the spirit, ones that heal wounds, and several sets that accelerate the absorption of origin qi..." "*Cough, cough, cough!*" Niu Baidao, who was drinking wine, suddenly choked on it. Maintaining his composure, he kept his smile intact. "That's great. You can release some in moderation. You're already quite famous right now, and the results of the aperture fusion method will show soon enough. Once the effects of aperture fusion are proven, your reputation will soar even higher. Releasing a batch of arts at that time will inspire immense trust." "Understood!" Niu Baidao smiled. "Build the Primordial Spirit Research Institute, build Researcher Su Yu into a gold standard! A Su Yu product is a certified masterpiece! Keep that up, and before long, you will become a sage of the Human Realm! When your arts become standard curriculum across every academy one day, you will be the ultimate winner in life!" Su Yu hesitated. "Back then, the creators of the Kaiyuan Art and similar works didn't become particularly famous..." "Foolish!" Niu Baidao said crossly. "Those people didn't know their works would become popular at first and sold them outright! Why would anyone bother promoting the creators after that? Take the War God Art, for instance—it was pushed by the War God Hall. The Myriad Characters Scripture was promoted by the Quest Realm! "You need a distinct brand so everyone knows these things come from the Primordial Spirit Research Institute, and that the institute belongs to Su Yu! "That's called branding!" Su Yu nodded. Right—thankfully, he had told Marquis Xia last time that the aperture fusion method had to be credited to the Primordial Spirit Research Institute. Otherwise, as time passed, many people would forget, and eventually everyone would remember it as something launched by the Xia family rather than Su Yu. Time would erode everything! "Principal, I understand!" Niu Baidao stroked his beard and beamed, nodding. A teachable student indeed! Zhu Tiandao would have to thank him for this. Look, this kid would soon be churning out results. After coming to the Great Ming Prefecture, how could they let him leave without leaving behind some good things? Getting him to offer them voluntarily, and cheerfully at that—now that was true ability! Su Yu hesitated again. "If it's too conspicuous, could it...?" Niu Baidao reassured him, "It's fine. As long as it isn't something that would drive Invincibles mad, even if it impacts the Sun Moon Realm, it doesn't matter too much! Did you really think King Daming is toothless?" Niu Baidao chuckled. "King Daming has no desires! Do you understand? Among all the prefectures, King Daming ranks among the top tier of Invincibles in strength, but he has very few needs. In that regard, he's different from the others. Even King Daqin and the rest face certain constraints. King Daqin might be the strongest Invincible, but the Great Qin Prefecture also has several experts at the ninth level peak of the Sun Moon Realm, and currently, their hands are somewhat tied... "As for King Daming..." Niu Baidao gave a merry laugh. "Our Governor Zhu only recently stepped into the ninth level of the Sun Moon Realm, and by the looks of it... reaching the Invincible Realm is probably out of the question! Aside from Governor Zhu, the Great Ming Prefecture doesn't even have another expert at the ninth level of the Sun Moon Realm. *Sigh!*" He let out a sigh of deep regret. We are weak, after all. Su Yu glanced at Niu Baidao and asked in surprise, "Do the other great prefectures have many ninth-level Sun Moon experts?" "More or less, they have one or two. We have one too—isn't Governor Zhu right here? But for our Great Ming Prefecture, with King Daming being one of the top five strongest Invincibles, having only a single ninth-level Sun Moon expert... it's honestly a bit embarrassing." Su Yu saw the light! Put that way, it really did sound weak. In reality, the Great Ming Prefecture was no weaker than the smaller, lesser prefectures. But the key was that King Daming was so strong. With such a formidable King Daming, having weak descendants and a weak prefecture was indeed rather shameful! "Then what if the governor wants to attain the Dao in the future?" Su Yu wondered: if he offended too many people, what would happen when Governor Zhu tried to attain the Dao later on? Niu Baidao chuckled. "Then he'll have to find his own way. If it doesn't work out, he just won't attain the Dao. Given our governor's caliber, he might not succeed anyway, right?" That made some sense. It was such a pity about King Daming's eldest son, dying so tragically and so young. That thought surfaced unconsciously in Su Yu's mind! He truly hadn't meant to think it, but so many people repeated it that he had ended up adopting the sentiment without realizing it. What a tragedy that King Daming's eldest son had died at nine years old... The next moment, something felt faintly off. Why did he always feel that Zhu Tiandao, a ninth-level Sun Moon expert, was inferior to a nine-year-old Qianjun? How had that idea even originated? Had he read it in a book? Were others constantly bringing it up? Was Zhu Tiandao saying it himself? Was King Daming crying poverty and woe everywhere? Or... what was going on here?! "Principal, let me ask one more thing. Does the Great Ming Prefecture have anything that can increase willpower...?" "Plenty!" Niu Baidao asked in surprise, "You didn't know?" Su Yu was speechless. How could he know? "Drinking wine, eating fine food, reading books, listening to music..." Niu Baidao said languidly, "Which of those doesn't enhance willpower? You think they're unorthodox paths? When a person focuses wholeheartedly on one thing, that is a passion, that is willpower, that is an epiphany of the self! Immersing yourself, delving deeply into it—that is the path to willpower growth! You don't honestly believe those legends are just legends, do you? A hundred paths and a hundred arts, all can attain the Dao! Step into Tengkong in a single day, break through Shanhai in three days, behold the Sun Moon in ten, and once the Sun Moon is seen, eternity naturally manifests... That is a legend, yet it is no legend!" Su Yu was slightly taken aback! "Where did your natural divine characters come from?" At that moment, Niu Baidao rose to his feet, exuding a transcendent, immortal aura. "They came from an epiphany of the self! "Since you can manifest natural divine characters, hasn't there ever been a moment when your mind suddenly cleared, your willpower surged, and it grew in a flash?" "There has!" Su Yu nodded. There had been—for instance, his 'Fire' character had advanced like that. Of course, there had also been the 'Yin' character, though that was an accident. "Exactly!" Niu Baidao smiled. "All hundred arts are Daos! We Civilization Masters cultivate the mind! Ask Wen Zhong whether they let things take their natural course in cultivation. They don't force it, though not forcing it doesn't mean abandoning cultivation! The path of the Great Ming Prefecture is actually correct; it's just a bit too laid-back, which is its downside!" He admitted there were drawbacks. But the Civilization Masters of the Great Ming Prefecture cultivated differently from others, and in Niu Baidao's view, this was the Dao! "If not for that, why did they divide the Civilization Academies into a hundred paths and a hundred arts when establishing them back then? Why didn't everyone just take the warrior's path, or the divine character path? Why bother with beast taming and pill refinement?" Niu Baidao chuckled. "Su Yu, don't always think that only the Great Xia Prefecture's path is correct. You need to broaden your perspective!" "Su Yu has learned a valuable lesson!" "..." That night, Su Yu chatted with Niu Baidao for a long time, realizing that this civilization academy principal of the Great Ming Prefecture appeared simple on the surface, but was anything but. He was ancient! He belonged to the very same generation as the Invincibles of old. A founding elder of the prefecture! At over four hundred years old, he had to be among the oldest living humans today, right? …… Su Yu departed, leaving with relief and satisfaction. Shortly after he left, the old turtle crawled onto the shore. Watching Niu Baidao singing and dancing merrily, it couldn't help saying, "Old Daoist, did you hoodwink someone again?" "Nonsense!" Niu Baidao beamed. "Old Turtle, come dance! Let's celebrate. I'm about to make a fortune!" "Make a fortune?" "Of course. Su Yu is a member of my Great Ming Civilization Academy, after all. Ten percent of the profits from any cultivation art submitted go to the academy. Didn't he see that rule?" "..." The old turtle slipped back into the water. Here he went again! Niu Baidao didn't mind in the least, chuckling. "These are the rules. It's been like this for hundreds of years since the founding of Great Ming Prefecture, set by me! To keep the academy running, producing a single genius is enough to feed us for many years. Old Turtle, once I make money this time, I'll buy you a little female turtle!" "No need!" "Five then?" "..." After a long silence, the old turtle poked its head out of the lake. "They must be xuan turtles!" "Done!" "Keep your word!" Just as the old turtle finished speaking, turtle heads poked out of the lake one after another, an astonishingly vast number! From the Qianjun to the Wanshi Realm, from Wanshi to Tengkong, and from Tengkong to Lingyun and Shanhai... they were all present! It was a stunning sight! At this moment, the entire lake was packed densely with turtles. A female turtle snapped angrily, "You old Daoist, instigating my old man to take concubines again!" Niu Baidao roared with laughter. "Nonsense! How is it instigation? If the old turtle didn't fancy it, how could all of you exist? Look at your xuan turtle family—nearly a thousand strong now. You eat and drink on my dime every year, and did I ever complain? Aren't you his eighth wife? *Tsk, tsk*, you've grown so old, no wonder the old turtle wants new concubines..." "You scoundrel..." The female turtle was furious, but Niu Baidao merely chuckled. "Don't be mad, don't be mad. By the way, whenever you have some free time, give that young man a few drops of source blood. Old Turtle, you acted so pitiful, making it look like your family didn't have any little turtles left!" The old turtle sighed. "What comes easily isn't cherished! Forget it, if all else fails, I'll offer a drop of my own source blood. Doing him a favor isn't a bad idea either!" "True!" Niu Baidao laughed. "Seems you've learned a thing or two from me. Alright, let's leave it at that! Old Turtle, I plan to dig a circular canal near Su Yu's research institute soon, so migrate a few of your little turtles over there." "Fine!" The old turtle agreed readily. It had already felt this lake was getting cramped. Serving as guardian beasts was a simple matter. Their xuan turtle family had plenty of one thing: little turtles. Niu Baidao paid it no more mind and resumed his merry song and dance. The turtles in the lake quickly submerged, vanishing from view until not even their aura could be detected. …… Meanwhile, Su Yu was already far from the great lake. After walking a distance, he suddenly asked, "Senior Brother Wen, did you sense anything unusual...?" "What do you mean?" "In that lake, it felt like something was watching me. Are there demon beasts in the water?" "Probably," Wen Zhong smiled. "It's normal. Our academy actually has quite a few members of the demon races. Great Xia Civilization Academy officially enrolls them as students, but we don't. Some people capture them, toss them into an arbitrary spot, and they might just grow up there..." Su Yu was speechless. Toss them casually into an arbitrary spot? Weren't they afraid they'd harm people? Seeing that Su Yu looked ready to speak, Wen Zhong said with a smile, "Don't worry, the academy has experts watching over it and protective grand arrays. The truly strongest asset of the academy is Baidao Pavilion. That Heaven-rank cultural weapon isn't just for show. It's a top-tier Heaven-rank cultural weapon—there are barely a handful of its kind in the entire Human Realm. It possesses autonomous defensive capabilities and can unleash the power of the Sun Moon Realm!" Su Yu was surprised. "It can activate on its own?" "Yes!" Then it was formidable indeed! After a moment's thought, Su Yu asked again, "Senior Brother, there's another matter that puzzles me. When I was looking over the academy's regulations earlier, I noticed that above the Elders, there's a Mingxin Hall. What is that?" "Oh, that's where retired Sun Moon experts reside," Wen Zhong said with a smile. "Split the character 'Ming' apart, and you get 'Sun' and 'Moon'! Don't you know? Our Great Ming Prefecture has remained under its first-generation governor, so our Civilization Masters suffered few losses. We've accumulated a few Sun Moon experts over the years. They don't show their faces much, mostly enjoying retirement without serving as Elders or Deputy Heads. So the principal established Mingxin Hall for their retirement..." "Sun Moon Realm experts?" Su Yu was stunned. "Aside from our principal, there are other Sun Moon experts?" "Of course!" Wen Zhong laughed. "Naturally! We live long lives. A Lingyun expert like me has lived for nearly four hundred years, let alone the others! Mingxin Hall currently has four or five elders residing there, though I'm not entirely certain of the exact number, nor do I know if any have fallen. After all, they are quite advanced in age. Even though Sun Moon experts have long lifespans, some carried old injuries from the past." Su Yu frowned. "Then Great Xia Prefecture..." "Don't bring up the Great Xia Prefecture!" Wen Zhong shook his head. "The Great Xia Prefecture is powerful—exceptionally powerful! Think about how many experts the fifth-generation head took with him back then, and how many experts fell in that battle fifty years ago! Even so, how many experts does the Great Xia Prefecture still have? Just looking at the Sun Moon Realm, Wan Tiansheng must be one. Jin Yuhui, Zhou Mingren, Hong Tan, and that Academy Head Liu from Wendao Academy... they're either at the Sun Moon Realm or close to it, and none of them are particularly old! "It's only because Liu Wenyan's generation was ruined over the past few decades that a gap formed. Otherwise, Liu Wenyan, Hu Ping, Zhao Mingyue, Xia Yunqi, and the rest would all have had hopes of reaching the Sun Moon Realm, or might even be there already. When you think about it, aren't they formidable? "The Great Xia Prefecture also lost several Sun Moon experts in battle over the years. Taking everything into account, if nothing had gone wrong and no one had died, the Great Xia Civilization Academy alone would have more than ten Sun Moon experts! "Besides, people like Xia Xiao'er can also be considered part of the Great Xia Civilization Academy..." Wen Zhong smiled. "So the Great Xia Prefecture's strength is genuine, but so are their heavy casualties. After all, it is the birthplace of the Multiple Divine Characters Faction." With that, he added, "Don't worry too much about these things. The human race still has a fair number of Sun Moon experts. While some people have been stuck at the peak of Shanhai in recent years, it's only been fifty years—a mere seventh of the Anping calendar." "Then don't the gods and demons have even more Sun Moon experts?" The thought struck Su Yu, but Wen Zhong chuckled. "They have a respectable number, but saying they have overwhelmingly more would be an exaggeration. The main thing is that gods and demons have long lifespans, and with longer lifespans, their cultivation progresses slowly. In reality, when comparing peers of the same age, humans utterly outmatch them. You can't compare them directly." Su Yu nodded and stopped asking. None of that was his concern right now. His top priorities were gathering all three hundred and sixty origin apertures as soon as possible, and creating a stir to make a name for himself. …… Over the next few days, Su Yu opened origin apertures while transcribing cultivation arts. He continued consuming source blood, unlocking one art after another. He knew many cultivation arts, but had never properly cataloged them before. Now that he was sorting through them one by one, all that was left was fabricating some explanatory manuals for them. Among the basic origin arts, the strongest included several Heaven-rank manuals. "The *Heavenly Dragon Art* opens one hundred and forty-four apertures—top-tier Heaven rank! The *Thousand Mountains Art* and *Heaven-Cleaving Blade* are also top-tier Heaven-rank arts, both opening one hundred and forty-four apertures! "The *Body Strengthening Art* is low-grade Heaven rank, yet it's the best art for opening apertures. "*Time* is a battle technique and cannot be spread to outsiders... "And there are a few divine techniques... divine aperture battle techniques..." Looking at the dense array of cultivation arts before him, Su Yu felt a twinge of shock. He hadn't realized it before organizing them, but he now possessed more than ten Heaven-rank cultivation arts and martial techniques. As for Earth-rank arts, they were countless! Combined, the cultivation arts of all races in his grasp exceeded five hundred. On top of that, he knew numerous human cultivation arts. All told, Su Yu truly possessed over a thousand arts. And among these, many would be considered peerless treasures by outsiders! "Honestly, a few are quite suitable for public circulation... like the *Body Strengthening Art*." The *Body Strengthening Art* opened one hundred and twenty-six origin apertures and was considered a mid-grade Heaven-rank art. It was already exceptional! Opening fourteen apertures per tier, each tier unlocked further accelerated aperture opening speed. It was extremely suitable for talented students—ordinary geniuses, that was, not monstrous freaks. After all, many monstrous students only cultivated the one-hundred-and-eight-aperture *War God Art*. The sole reason was that opening apertures took time, and many Civilization Masters were unwilling to waste too much of it. It was merely eighteen apertures more. Cultivating the *Body Strengthening Art* and cultivating the *War God Art* should take roughly the same amount of time, yet the result was eighteen additional apertures opened, yielding a stronger physical body and greater combat prowess. Su Yu was certain that once this art was released, talented and upper-class students would almost all choose it in the future. Unless someone was an idiot, why cultivate the *War God Art* if cultivating this art took the exact same amount of time? "However, the *War God Art* has matching martial techniques, whereas the *Body Strengthening Art* doesn't. It would be best to produce matching martial techniques. Actually, that's simple enough... the Mountain-Breaking Ox race's Mountain-Breaking Strike is a matching martial technique. It's just too easy to recognize, so it'll need a disguise!" The Mountain-Breaking Strike was the innate technique of the Mountain-Breaking Ox race. It opened quite a few apertures, all of which belonged to the *Body Strengthening Art*, totaling one hundred and eight apertures. Matching martial techniques generally used fewer apertures than their parent cultivation arts, unless cultivated to the absolute pinnacle, where the art and the technique became one. "This one is suitable for geniuses..." Su Yu designated the *Body Strengthening Art* as one of the primary arts to promote next. For ordinary warriors, however, this would not do. "The best approach is to find an art designed to accompany the *Aperture Fusion Method*, one with a very high degree of overlap—opening thirty-six apertures, capable of both aperture fusion and advancing realms!" Su Yu flipped through manuals one after another. Which art best suited the aperture fusion method? If the common folk cultivated it, opening thirty-six apertures wouldn't be much of a problem. They wouldn't need to open extra apertures, and could rapidly fuse apertures without wasting any time, practically skipping the Wanshi Realm altogether! For countless ordinary people, that would be monumental, joyful news! "Even if all thirty-six apertures don't overlap, at least thirty must. If necessary, I can modify the existing art that comes closest..." He continued sifting through the materials. He planned to release the highest version of the aperture fusion method! Paired with an art featuring heavily overlapping apertures, Su Yu was certain it would cause an immediate sensation among countless people. Skipping an entire cultivation stage! Aperture fusion was fast. For thirty-six apertures, fusing four into one at the speed allowed by the aperture fusion method meant that even common folk could complete the aperture fusion for the first tier of the Wanshi Realm within three to five days, advancing from the Qianjun Realm to the ninth tier of the Wanshi Realm in about a month! "Though by that time, people probably won't be satisfied with thirty-six-aperture arts anymore. Oh well, I'll prepare several companion versions, ideally including a seventy-two-aperture one..." Su Yu searched around and soon found an art with a remarkably high degree of overlap. "The *Yellow Silkworm Art*..." Su Yu recalled the details. It belonged to a subordinate race of the Dragon Silkworm race, a minor ethnic group. The cultivation art was rather poor, opening only thirty-six apertures at the Yellow rank, but it overlapped significantly with the top-tier version of the aperture fusion method! Twenty-seven apertures overlapped, meaning one only had to open nine more, for forty-five apertures in total. Following the art's circulation route, Su Yu swiftly circulated energy through those thirty-six apertures. He unleashed a strike—not weak at all! Of course, to Su Yu, it was terribly weak. After thinking it over, he tried the *Qianjun Art* to compare and see if there was any drop in power. Otherwise, if it proved inferior to the *Qianjun Art*, it wouldn't be very practical. With a boom, the *Qianjun Art* erupted. Gauging the force, Su Yu murmured, "No, it's slightly lacking. The *Yellow Silkworm Art* is just a touch weaker. The *Qianjun Art* is better suited for humans... "Still, it can be modified. It's just a Yellow-rank art. There are plenty of people here in Great Ming who can modify it. By combining it with the *Aperture Fusion Method*, or even deducing an art directly from these thirty-six apertures of the *Aperture Fusion Method*, we might just develop a whole new art." With that in mind, Su Yu hurried outside. Just as he stepped out the door, Wu Lan emerged from the archives, yawning with messy hair and faint dark circles around her eyes. Spotting Su Yu, she said hastily, "Su Yu, I sorted through the records of both the Great Xia and Great Ming Prefectures and cataloged all the origin apertures. Besides that, I found something. Come take a look..." Su Yu asked curiously, "What is it?" "Stop wasting words, just come look!" With that, she grabbed Su Yu and dragged him toward the adjacent puppet room. Wen Zhong was there as well. Seeing this, he smiled with a somewhat ambiguous grin. Just as he was chuckling, Wu Lan looked up and said, "Teacher, you come too..." "Me?" "Hurry up!" Very well! Wen Zhong walked over. A moment later, inside the laboratory, Wu Lan looked at the puppets with a hint of disdain. "They're still a bit lacking, not realistic enough!" With that, she laid a puppet onto the dissection table. Shortly after, she picked up a knife and began cutting. "Help me slice it open. Cut it apart, unfold it, and lay it out!" Seeing how decisively she carved up the puppet, Su Yu was speechless. He wasted no more words and stepped forward to help, quickly slicing the puppet open. The puppet closely resembled a real human, aside from lacking internal organs. Inside were merely mechanical components. Wu Lan tossed those components aside and rapidly drew several red dots, saying, "Look, what I'm marking now are the Nine Kaiyuan Apertures—eight in the head, and one at the navel..." Su Yu nodded. Wu Lan continued, "Look closely. Whether it's the ear apertures, the nose apertures, or the eye apertures, aren't they all symmetrical?" He nodded. "Aren't the Baihui aperture and the Zifu Shenque aperture centered and perfectly aligned? If you take these two apertures as the core and draw a straight line between them, doesn't it form an axisymmetric pattern?" Su Yu nodded once more. Wen Zhong chuckled. "Little Wu Lan, are you saying that the body's apertures are entirely symmetrical, so if there are three hundred and sixty origin apertures, one only needs to discover one hundred and eighty? Is that it?" "No!" Wu Lan said, exasperated, "I obviously know such a simple principle! What I'm saying is that the ears, nose, and eyes are all symmetrical and paired, but the Baihui aperture, the Zifu Shenque aperture, and the mouth aperture are asymmetrical! In other words, three other apertures might also be special apertures. Su Yu, check the apertures you've mastered so far and see if they're symmetrical!" Su Yu's eyes flickered. He swiftly marked out every aperture he knew. Aside from the Nine Kaiyuan Apertures, he had mastered three hundred and forty-eight others. The next instant, Su Yu's expression changed slightly! With the Baihui, Zifu Shenque, and mouth apertures serving as the dividing midline, every single aperture on either side was perfectly symmetrical! All three hundred and forty-eight were symmetrical! Wu Lan said excitedly, "See that? That means, Su Yu, you might already have mastered nearly every aperture, but there are still three you haven't found! I suspect these three lie right along this line. Stop asking other people—if you ask further, I doubt anyone else knows either..." She quickly traced the line connecting the three apertures. "This is a central axis. Unless something unexpected happens, the remaining three apertures are along this line; otherwise, it wouldn't be symmetrical. Or at least one is on it, and for the remaining two, finding one will reveal the other—assuming they're symmetrical and not on this line!" Wen Zhong's eyes shifted, and he nodded. "The girl makes a good point. In truth, the Great Ming and Great Xia Prefectures have already mapped out nearly every aperture. Two such powerful prefectures wouldn't leave many undiscovered apertures. Have you found any, Su Yu?" Su Yu shook his head. "None. Not a single one!" He had unlocked so many cultivation arts, yet none revealed the remaining three! Wu Lan, bubbling with excitement, said, "Su Yu, I suspect there's one right here..." She pointed her finger at a specific spot on the puppet. Both Su Yu and Wen Zhong fell silent. The anus! It was indeed a point along the line of symmetry, and quite distinctive. Could it... truly exist? Wu Lan said excitedly, "Su Yu, give it a try. If you don't dare, find... forget it, Zhou Hao isn't here, otherwise we could let Zhou Hao try. Maybe there really is an aperture there!" She was beside herself with excitement. "If there's an aperture there, then I discovered it. I want to name it..." Su Yu said dryly, "The Anal Aperture? The Wu Lan Aperture? Every time someone opens that aperture, they'll think of you. What do you think about that?" "..." The excitement on Wu Lan's face froze instantly! Right... the location of this aperture was terribly awkward! Wen Zhong stifled a laugh, staying quiet and not chiming in. After a moment, he changed the subject: "There really might be an aperture there. Su Yu, you can test it out. Find someone to try opening it. Even if they fail, or open it wrong, it's no big deal. At worst... *cough, cough*, it ruptures, and they just need some time to recover." Su Yu grimaced. I'm definitely not trying that! If that ruptured—holy crap, I'd never be able to show my face again. I can't afford that kind of humiliation. Wu Lan really had a knack for discovery; an aperture truly might exist in that spot. Furthermore, that line wasn't particularly long, terminating at the perineum. If the other two apertures were also special apertures... fine, Su Yu didn't even want to think about it. Still, it had to be said: after Wu Lan organized these apertures, a distinct pattern had indeed emerged. Su Yu hadn't dissected the puppet earlier; otherwise, he likely would have sensed it as well. Of course, there was no point in boasting after the fact. Wu Lan truly was the first to dissect the puppet and map out the symmetrical pattern. Generously, Su Yu said directly, "Wu Lan, since you discovered this origin aperture, it's yours from now on!" The naming rights were all hers! Once opened, whenever origin qi erupted from that aperture, who knew if people would think the practitioner was just breaking wind? What an awkward aperture.