Iron-Eater Seventy-Two Reforgings

Mountain-Breaking Ox blood essence—he needed a vast quantity of Mountain-Breaking Ox blood essence. Of course, if none was available, other types could substitute. It was just a question of cost-effectiveness; at worst, it would merely cost a bit more money. Since it could yield Heaven Yuan Qi, hardly anyone would care about spending extra. Certain things truly transcended mere wealth. If the human race had possessed enough Heaven Yuan Qi, Heaven Yuan Fruits would never have become the exclusive privilege of Invincible descendants, nor would two Invincible powerhouses have had to sneak into the Immortal Realm to seize Heaven Yuan Fruit Trees. *** February 15th. Su Yu received a Heaven Yuan Fruit delivered by Zhu Tiandao. The Zhu family didn't have an abundance of these either! Their descendants needed them, meritorious officials needed them as rewards, and their reserves were meager. That they could send Su Yu one was entirely due to his immense value. It was a golden fruit. Not very large, about the size of a fist. Its skin was golden and faintly translucent, with dragon-like wisps of Heaven Yuan Qi swirling inside. Inside the laboratory. Several elders had gathered around to marvel at the novelty. Most people had only ever heard of Heaven Yuan Fruits by name, never seeing one in person. Living a long life didn't mean one had seen everything. Even Wu Lan, a scion of a prominent family, had never seen one before. As Wu Lan studied it, she said, "The Xia family has these too, though very few, it seems. They can shave off time during the Kaiyuan Realm. Normally, opening one's apertures takes five or six years, but with this, you can finish Kaiyuan very quickly." Curious, Su Yu asked, "Xia Huyou didn't use one?" If he had, he would have finished Kaiyuan long ago instead of only reaching Qianjun and Wanshi so late. Wu Lan shook her head. "I don't know. The Xia family doesn't seem to use them much. Kaiyuan is also a process of accumulation. Going through it too quickly isn't necessarily a good thing. If you spend that period solely focused on opening apertures, you miss out on accumulating a lot of knowledge." Different prominent clans had different methods of education. Some favored grooming a monstrous young prodigy, while others preferred not to let children focus solely on cultivation during their youth, instead instilling other knowledge and giving them more time to learn and experience life. If someone completed Kaiyuan by age seven or eight, most of their later energy would likely be poured entirely into opening apertures. Of course, such matters varied from person to person, and Su Yu wasn't in a position to judge. He inspected the fruit closely and weighed its essence. The Heaven Yuan Qi contained within a single Heaven Yuan Fruit was roughly equivalent to what could be extracted from fifty drops of early-stage Tengkong Iron Wing Bird blood essence. At twenty merit points a drop, that amounted to at least one thousand points. Naturally, an actual Heaven Yuan Fruit would never be sold that cheaply. It was something with a nominal price but no market supply; money alone couldn't buy it. *One thousand points to extract the equivalent of one Heaven Yuan Fruit... That's using Iron Wing Bird blood essence. If I use Mountain-Breaking Ox blood essence, the cost can be cut by a quarter, meaning around seven to eight hundred points per fruit's worth of Heaven Yuan Qi.* However, while Heaven Yuan Fruits were suitable for the Kaiyuan Realm, and also suited for body reforging, the required quantity for reforging was staggering. One Heaven Yuan Fruit provided about the same amount of Heaven Yuan Qi as a single drop of blood essence from the Primordial God Race or Primordial Demon Race. As for whether obtaining a Heaven Yuan Fruit was easier than slaying a Tengkong cultivator of the Primordial God Race or Primordial Demon Race... that depended on the quantity. Killing one Tengkong Primordial God yielded at least ten drops of blood essence, equivalent to ten Heaven Yuan Fruits. It was hard to compare, but both were exceptionally difficult. Wen Zhong watched for a while, then turned to Su Yu. "You aren't planning to use this to reforge your physical body, are you?" Looking at Su Yu, he shook his head. "The required amount is astronomical! Even for just nine reforgings, a hundred fruits wouldn't be enough. A hundred... you'd have to rob the Quest Realm or the War God Hall to have any hope of getting that many." Currently, the Human Realm was only known to possess five Heaven Yuan Fruit Trees, producing a combined 180 fruits every nine years. Five full years of the Human Realm's total yield would only barely cover nine reforgings for Su Yu. Unless Su Yu's father was the Human Emperor! Otherwise... he might as well wash up and go to sleep. "No..." Su Yu chuckled. "I was just taking a look. But I do have a question: what's the difference between a Heaven Yuan Fruit and raw Heaven Yuan Qi? Since Heaven Yuan Fruit Trees are planted in places rich with Heaven Yuan Qi, why not absorb the Heaven Yuan Qi directly instead of planting trees?" Wen Zhong knew the answer to this and smiled. "Heaven Yuan Qi is quite violent and powerful. For body reforging, you can absorb it directly, but in realms like Kaiyuan, you can't touch it. Use it carelessly, and it'll blow you to pieces! A Heaven Yuan Fruit converts the Heaven Yuan Qi into a gentle form that Kaiyuan cultivators can absorb. The human race doesn't have much Heaven Yuan Qi to begin with. Using it for body reforging is far too wasteful; it's much better spent nurturing geniuses during Kaiyuan." Su Yu nodded. Powerful and violent—Kaiyuan cultivators couldn't withstand it. Yet the Heaven Yuan Qi he extracted didn't feel overly violent or domineering. That meant his golden album must have performed a conversion of its own, serving a role similar to a Heaven Yuan Fruit Tree. Namely, converting the turbulent form into a gentle form. "Then where exactly does Heaven Yuan Qi come from?" Su Yu asked, puzzled. "Why do the sacred lands have it, while nowhere else in the Human Realm does?" Wen Zhong shook his head. Beside him, Cao Hui, who had developed the Nine Stars Body-Reforging Art, smiled and said, "I've actually done some research and investigation into this. Heaven Yuan Qi exists in many places, not just the Human Realm's sacred lands. Of course, the key is that the sacred lands have a large, uninterrupted supply!" "Major realms like the Gods, Demons, Immortals, and Dragons also have such places with endless Heaven Yuan Qi." "In truth, Heaven Yuan Qi exists everywhere. Even the yuanqi we normally use is converted from Heaven Yuan Qi." Cao Hui explained, "The yuanqi between heaven and earth is naturally birthed by the grand worlds. What is naturally birthed is Heaven Yuan Qi. But where humans, demon beasts, and other living beings exist, that energy quickly becomes polluted and degrades into ordinary yuanqi. That's why blood essence contains Heaven Yuan Qi, even if the creature didn't live in a Heaven Yuan Qi zone." Su Yu nodded and asked, "Then why can certain places preserve Heaven Yuan Qi?" "Under normal circumstances..." Cao Hui paused before continuing, "I have a few conjectures, though I can't confirm whether they're entirely true. To put it simply, places that naturally sustain Heaven Yuan Qi likely fall into two categories. First, realm cores! Second, places where Invincibles have fallen!" "A realm core is where an entire world extracts and purifies yuanqi, so it's completely natural for vast amounts of Heaven Yuan Qi to persist there long-term. As for the second case, when an Invincible falls, because they have touched upon the realm of laws and rules, their death annihilates all life in the surrounding area and can even cause spatial-temporal distortions. Those fractured rules create conditions capable of preserving Heaven Yuan Qi." Hearing this, Wen Zhong raised an eyebrow. "Junior Brother Jin's words... Which category do the Quest Realm and War God Hall belong to?" "The former is more likely!" Jin Sheng explained, "The Dual Sacred Prefectures might very well sit atop the Human Realm's core region. Of course, that core is probably very hard to locate. As for the latter, no Invincibles are recorded to have fallen where the Dual Sacred Prefectures stand." Jin Sheng paused, then added, "Naturally, nothing is absolute. Perhaps an Invincible fell there in ancient times! In fact, some ancient ruins today might harbor pockets of Heaven Yuan Qi. Those ruins might once have been clan estates, sects, or institutions similar to our academies. In such places, powerhouses passed away; if an Invincible underwent parinirvana there, a Heaven Yuan Qi zone could easily form." He continued, "In realms like the Gods, Immortals, and Demons, their Heaven Yuan Qi generally originates from one of these two circumstances as well." Su Yu nodded once more, his horizons broadened. These old scholars truly understood everything! Here, he could ask any question and receive an answer most of the time. "Then do some people in the human race's two sacred lands reforge their bodies directly using Heaven Yuan Qi...?" Before he could finish, Wen Zhong interrupted him. "Don't get any wild ideas. Heaven Yuan Qi zones aren't opened to just anyone. Not only does it consume Heaven Yuan Qi, but it also risks polluting the source. Under normal circumstances, an Invincible clan might be allocated a single spot roughly every fifty years. On average, that's about one person per year across the entire realm who enters to reforge their body. And taking that spot means the clan cannot receive any Heaven Yuan Fruits for the next fifty years... That's the cost, and being an Invincible clan is merely the baseline threshold." Su Yu was visibly moved. Zhu Tiandao had told him that if he wanted to go, he could submit an application. A dozen or more Heaven Yuan Fruits over fifty years—that was the price that had to be paid. And for the next fifty years, the Zhu family wouldn't be allowed to send a second person to reforge their body there. Zhu Tiandao had offered the opportunity so casually, and Su Yu had simply turned it down. He hadn't understood the gravity of it before! He had assumed descendants of Invincible clans could go whenever they pleased. Seeing him lost in thought, Wen Zhong chuckled. "You could try asking the Manor Lord. The Zhu family hasn't sent anyone to the sacred lands for body reforging in quite a few years. They generally use god and demon blood essence instead. Under normal conditions, when someone only reforges a few times, god and demon blood essence is more than sufficient." Only those aiming for numerous reforgings would go to the sacred lands to reforge that way. Rather than pouring resources into a single person, it was better to claim more Heaven Yuan Fruits. Heaven Yuan Fruits were exceedingly rare, whereas god and demon blood essence could always be procured by killing a few enemies on the battlefield. It was a matter of balancing priorities. Su Yu smiled and shook his head, offering no further explanation. Forget it! He didn't need it! Using up the Zhu family's once-in-fifty-years opportunity just for Heaven Yuan Qi would incur far too immense a favor. Besides, he had his own means of extraction. Having clarified so many things, his next step was to extract Heaven Yuan Qi—and in massive quantities! Su Yu looked at the Heaven Yuan Fruit and suddenly said, "Brothers, this outer skin encasing the fruit feels quite unique. Would you all be able to replicate it?" At these words, Wen Zhong laughed in spite of himself. "Good eye! I thought your attention was entirely fixed on the Heaven Yuan Qi inside. This peel is indeed a treasure! It preserves Heaven Yuan Qi, so if it could be mass-produced, it would be the ultimate medium for sealing away treasures. It's naturally formed, so replicating it won't be easy, but if we can uncover its underlying principles, there's definitely hope..." Before he had even finished speaking, Su Yu pierced the peel. The moment the Heaven Yuan Qi began to disperse, he waved his hand, sending the fruit straight in front of Wu Lan. The Heaven Yuan Qi surged into her mouth in an instant. Su Yu said offhandedly, "Open a few apertures, don't let it go to waste!" With that, he pocketed the peel, ignoring Wu Lan's wide, stunned eyes and completely disregarding the knowing, teasing glances exchanged by his senior brothers. He smiled and said, "Brothers, please look into this peel and see if you can replicate it. If we can use this to seal treasures, yuanqi won't leak out, and it might even seal willpower. It would be tremendously useful." The elders nodded. Wen Zhong thought it over and said, "We can do that. We'll give it a try; we don't have any pressing tasks on hand right now anyway." Su Yu grinned. "Whatever funding you need, just say the word. Anything that can be solved with money isn't an issue!" He had money! A massive sum was about to roll in! Using Heaven Yuan Qi for himself was fine, but if he ever gave it to outsiders in the future... he needed a cover story, and disguising it as Heaven Yuan Fruits was the best option. Heaven Yuan Fruits were scarce, but not nonexistent. As long as he didn't bring out too many at once... at most, people would suspect that the ruins under his control contained a Heaven Yuan Qi sacred ground with a Heaven Yuan Fruit Tree. Su Yu wondered if other ruins might possess them as well. Also, the Invincibles who founded the prefectures had all emerged from ruins. Did those ruins still exist? Or had they been destroyed upon their ascension? That wasn't something he could easily ask! Ask that, and those Invincibles might suspect he was plotting against their ascension grounds. The elders didn't say much more and quickly busied themselves, taking the peel with them. As for Su Yu's extravagant wastefulness in feeding the fruit to Wu Lan... well, as long as he was happy. Wu Lan was already in the Qianjun Realm; at best, the Heaven Yuan Fruit would open a couple of apertures for her. It was a massive waste—she would have been better off using Earth Yuan Fruits. Su Yu was truly getting reckless now that he was rich! *** Su Yu didn't care about any of that. Wu Lan sat cross-legged on the spot, entering seclusion to open apertures, and Su Yu left her to it. As he walked, he pulled out a specialized voice transmission talisman. "I need to discuss business with the Xia family. Are you coming this time?" After a brief relay delay, in the Great Xia Prefecture, Xia Huyou narrowed his eyes, chuckled, and replied, "Teacher Su, are you missing me?" "Cut the crap!" Su Yu replied swiftly, "If you come, I've got a job for you. Naturally, there'll be plenty of benefits in it for you!" "Let's hear it." "A deal, but I don't want anyone knowing about it." "Easy enough. What kind of deal can't be done in the Great Ming Prefecture that you have to come looking for me...?" Su Yu chuckled. It wasn't that the Great Ming Prefecture couldn't do it, but rather that its blood essence circulation wasn't as vast as the Great Xia Prefecture's. Great Xia was steeped in warfare and slaughter, so its blood essence reserves were enormous. In Great Ming, the reserves were insufficient, and he couldn't run to Zhu Tiandao for every little thing. Exchanging for it directly through official channels would cost far too much! "Mountain-Breaking Ox blood essence..." Silence fell on the other end! Xia Huyou hadn't expected that even after arriving in the Great Ming Prefecture, Su Yu would still be fixated on Mountain-Breaking Ox blood essence! He truly wouldn't rest until the Mountain-Breaking Ox race was wiped out! Just how had they offended him? "How much do you need?" "Nothing low-grade. Tengkong is the baseline, but early and mid-stage Lingyun work too. No limit! And it has to be cheap!" No limit! At that moment, Xia Huyou sprang to his feet. Holy crap! What did "no limit" mean? "How much is 'no limit'?" "As much as you have!" Su Yu replied quickly, "Stop wasting time and give me a price. You've got wide channels, and... your channels probably run through the Xia family, but I don't want Marquis Xia finding out that this batch is flowing to me..." "Get lost! With a volume that large, how could he not notice!" Xia Huyou was speechless. Was he joking? "You're the son of the Manor Lord, don't you have any private channels of your own?" "I do, but you're asking for way too much. It's not that simple!" *** Great Xia Prefecture, Great Xia Civilization Academy. Xia Huyou stood up and paced around. Blood essence again—this guy was asking for so much. Was he planning to reforge his body using Mountain-Breaking Ox blood essence? To be fair, Mountain-Breaking Ox blood essence wasn't bad for body reforging. Many people who couldn't afford god or demon blood essence ended up compromising by using Mountain-Breaking Ox blood essence. "For Tengkong grade, divided into early, mid, and late stages, I'll give you the lowest prices: fifty, eighty, and a hundred merit points across the three tiers. Lingyun is much more expensive: three hundred, five hundred, and one thousand points for early, mid, and late stages." Late-stage Lingyun reached one thousand points! Su Yu was speechless. *Why don't you just go rob someone?* Still, they were a top-hundred race, after all. Slaying a late-stage Lingyun Mountain-Breaking Ox was no easier than killing a human genius; they could be considered on par with weak Shanhai cultivators from minor races. Earning ten thousand merit points from slaying a single Mountain-Breaking Ox in a perilous place like the All-Heavens Battlefield, with multiple processing steps in between, meant it wasn't exorbitantly overpriced. Su Yu couldn't use it right now, but once his physical body broke through to the Tengkong Realm, devouring late-stage Lingyun blood essence wouldn't be an issue. Su Yu hadn't experimented much, having only tested early-stage Tengkong Mountain-Breaking Ox blood essence. After thinking it over, he replied, "Give me some of each. Don't hunt down just one rank. Give me a hundred drops of each tier first... Keep the late-stage Lingyun to a smaller batch, ten drops to test the waters." "That much? That's 113,000 merit points! Are you sure?" Xia Huyou was stunned. *What the hell are you planning to do?!* Just "testing the waters" and he was ordering over a hundred thousand merit points worth of blood essence! That meant slaying at least ten or so Mountain-Breaking Oxen for every single tier! Did the Mountain-Breaking Ox race slaughter your ancestors or something? Su Yu felt a pang of heartache too. It really was expensive! Still, doing the math, it wasn't bad. Assuming eight hundred merit points could yield one Heaven Yuan Fruit's worth of energy, he would end up with the equivalent of over a hundred Heaven Yuan Fruits. If someone offered to sell you over a hundred Heaven Yuan Fruits for a hundred-odd thousand merit points, would you take it? You couldn't get that many even if you begged! And according to his projections, that much would at most cover nine physical reforgings for him! He truly was a gold-devouring beast! Of course, if he didn't devour gold, he wouldn't be this strong. Without devouring gold, he wouldn't be able to battle Lingyun cultivators while still in the Character Cultivation Realm. To grow powerful rapidly, how could one avoid spending money? Some Invincible descendants spent just as much as him, yet their combat prowess couldn't match his. Just entering a Heaven Yuan Qi sacred ground once for body reforging was something money couldn't buy, yet those Invincible descendants weren't necessarily all that impressive. It was his own money he was spending. Su Yu felt the pinch, but he was willing to part with it. "I'm sure. If possible, double the order. I need a massive amount!" "It's too much!" Xia Huyou's teeth ached. That would require killing dozens of Mountain-Breaking Oxen at or above the Tengkong Realm. Unless a full-scale battle broke out against the Mountain-Breaking Ox race, there was no way to get that much; small-scale skirmishes wouldn't yield such quantities. "I don't care how you do it. If you can't get enough, help me get some Iron Wing Bird blood essence instead... or Cloud Tiger blood essence. You have that, right? Didn't the Great Xia Prefecture just go to war with the Cloud Tigers?" Cloud Tiger blood essence was actually quite good too! "That... we do have. You want it?" "I want it!" "Alright, then! That's way easier than Mountain-Breaking Oxen. Even if you want a million merit points' worth, I can get it for you!" Xia Huyou sounded relaxed. They truly had plenty of that. The Cloud Tiger race hadn't been wiped out entirely, and quite a few had fled into the territory of the Flying Tigers, making it inconvenient for Great Xia to pursue further. Fighting the Cloud Tigers was fine, but the Flying Tigers were ranked relatively high, with an Invincible powerhouse presiding over their race. Even so, over the recent period, at least five thousand Cloud Tigers had been slain—so many that the Cloud Tigers wished they could grind Xia Qing and the others to dust. Naturally, they had no chance! "Keep it discreet, Fatty Xia. If you leak a word of this, consider our ties cut..." "What's the big deal!" Xia Huyou replied swiftly, "Alright, how about this: when my second granduncle heads to Great Ming, I'll tag along and bring the goods with me! By the way, you bastard, you weren't very honorable. You turned around and made the divine aperture art practically free for the public..." "Piss off. The second set I gave you is completely different from the second set I published. Know your place!" "..." Fine, Xia Huyou had no comeback for that. He quickly sent another message: "I've reached ninth-stage Wanshi and will soon be reforging my body. Do you want to purchase some god and demon blood essence? Forcing your way through with Mountain-Breaking Ox blood essence isn't a good approach." "No need!" Xia Huyou curled his lip. Getting cocky now, was he? Did Great Ming provide him with god and demon blood essence? Whatever, he couldn't be bothered. Su Yu's strength had probably progressed significantly, and he was likely preparing for body reforging as well. Thinking for a moment, Xia Huyou added, "One more thing: your martial uncle left recently. He's a Shanhai, so I can't keep tabs on him, but I'm looking after your martial sister, so don't worry about her... That's not the main point, though. The main point is, watch your own back. Word has it that Lan Tian might have his eye on you. Be on your guard; that guy moves like a ghost!" "Lan Tian?" "Yes! Him! Last time, his student Li Minyu was exposed... When they investigated afterward, holy crap, guess what? Lan Tian had massive guts—he'd been hiding in the academy the whole time! Guess who he might have disguised himself as?" "I'm not guessing. Who? Just tell me!" "Zhao Ming!" "..." Su Yu fell silent. He was silent for a very long time before finally replying, "Are you joking?" "Why would I joke about that! The moment Li Minyu was exposed, Teacher Zhao Ming vanished without a trace! We only suspect it was him, not confirmed! But... the suspicion is huge! Holy shit, to think I used to play cards with him all the time at the Primordial Spirit Research Institute... It gives me chills!" "Teacher Zhao Ming had been enrolled in the academy for decades, hadn't he?" "Exactly!" Xia Huyou's message carried palpable shock. "Terrifying, right? The head referee of the Top 100 Building! A pillar of the neutral faction! He spent so much time alongside us, and to be honest, no one ever suspected him. Even after Li Minyu was exposed, nobody thought of him... He probably left on his own initiative. My guess is he went looking for you; otherwise, if he hadn't left, no one would have noticed anything amiss." Terrifying! Su Yu felt a chill run down his spine. Zhao Ming? Lan Tian? Holy crap! Back at the Primordial Spirit Research Institute, he had interacted with Zhao Ming constantly. More than that, he had known Zhao Ming since his very first match on the Top 100 Arena. *He was Lan Tian?* *The Primordial Demon Cult Master?* If he had wanted to kill Su Yu... it would have been effortless! And no one had noticed? Su Yu swallowed hard, feeling lingering dread. He instinctively glanced downstairs. *Good grief... none of the elders here are Lan Tian in disguise, right?* If one of them was... that would be utterly horrifying. Were modification-faction maniacs really that difficult to detect? King Daxia himself visited the Great Xia Prefecture occasionally, yet even he hadn't noticed anything unusual? Could a Sun-Moon modification-faction cultivator really be that terrifying? Zhao Ming... Lan Tian! Su Yu's eyes flickered continuously. He still remembered his first visit to the Lan Tian Research Institute—the later Primordial Spirit Research Institute—and what Zhao Ming had said. Zhao Ming had called Lan Tian "an extraordinary talent," while Chen Yong had called him a traitor. Zhao Ming hadn't argued, but in his words, he had still noted that Lan Tian was a genius, a monstrous talent, a genuine powerhouse, and being a traitor couldn't erase any of that. The Lan Tian Research Institute... Zhao Ming had been the first to bring it up. Su Yu's gaze shifted rapidly! *He was Lan Tian?* Zhao Ming had entered the academy decades ago, whereas Lan Tian had defected only twenty years ago. Thinking of this, Su Yu recalled Zhao Ming's enrollment timeline. Once, Zhao Ming had mentioned that he enrolled ten years before Xia Yuwen. Xia Yuwen had enrolled around the same time as Bai Feng and the others, and last year marked Bai Feng's ninth year. That meant the timing roughly matched: right after Lan Tian defected, Zhao Ming had enrolled! Su Yu clicked his tongue in disbelief and transmitted, "So you're saying right after Lan Tian defected, he actually slipped straight back into the Great Xia Civilization Academy?" "Yes, back to back. Lan Tian defected during a break, and that same year, about a month later, Zhao Ming enrolled..." *Damn!* Su Yu was speechless. What a madman! Defecting one moment and sneaking right back the next, remaining undercover for nearly twenty years. What was he doing in the Great Xia Civilization Academy? Was Great Xia Civilization Academy so wonderful that it was worth guarding for decades? And after lurking for so long, why run now? *He couldn't really be coming for me, could he?* A flicker of fear crept into him! *I never offended you!* *Wait... I smashed the signboard of the Lan Tian Research Institute. Dammit, could he have marked me because of that?* He had also said a few things like "someone like Lan Tian deserves to die!" Could he have provoked the man? "Zhao Ming... Lan Tian..." Great Xia probably wouldn't make this public. Having Lan Tian infiltrate the academy for decades wasn't something they could openly discuss. Announcing it would cause widespread panic. The Primordial Demon Cult Master had lurked in Great Xia for decades without being discovered; did that make Great Xia look utterly incompetent? Su Yu took another deep breath. Dealing with someone like that was truly troublesome; he hid too well. "Fatty, is there any way to identify him?" If there was no way at all, it would be far too dangerous. "Hard to say. How about this: when I get to Great Ming, we'll talk in detail..." "You won't be replaced, will you?" "Bullshit! He'd have to be insane. I'm around my second granduncle every single day—a high-stage Sun-Moon powerhouse! Once or twice might slide, but day in and day out, no matter how skilled he is, he'd be exposed!" That was hard to say! Wan Tiansheng was in the academy, after all, and he had hidden himself perfectly well. Still, it made sense. No matter how bold Lan Tian was, he wouldn't dare remain in constant contact with the Xia family's powerhouses; the risk of exposure was too high. *** Su Yu didn't dwell on the conversation with Xia Huyou for long. Soon, he left the institute to exchange for a batch of blood essence first. At the very least, he needed to settle things with the Iron-Eater Beast and secure a drop of its blood essence. He still harbored a slight doubt: *Have I ever been killed by an Iron-Eater Beast?* That creature only knew how to eat. Had it ever killed him? He had no idea! He would just have to test it! Helping the three little Iron-Eater Beasts complete Kaiyuan wouldn't be difficult. Three to five Heaven Yuan Fruits' worth of energy would suffice. If needed, he could give a bit more. Extracting blood essence took a toll on them, so topping it off with another two fruits' worth would be more than enough. Seven or eight fruits' worth of energy would cost at most seven thousand merit points. Seven thousand merit points for a single drop of blood essence from a young Iron-Eater Beast was undeniably a terrible, money-losing trade, but sometimes wealth was secondary, and there was no need to take it by force. If Su Yu insisted on forcibly extracting a drop of blood essence from the little beast, even if the big fatty was unhappy, the Zhu family would appease it. But that was unnecessary. Not only would he owe the Zhu family a favor, but he would also antagonize the big fatty Iron-Eater Beast. That creature was by no means weak; even Sun-Moon cultivators couldn't breach its defenses. Even if its offensive burst hadn't reached Sun-Moon, ordinary Shanhai cultivators were certainly no match for it. There was no need to turn a friend into an enemy. If he helped its three cubs complete Kaiyuan, the big fatty would actually have to thank him. *** Heading to the academy's exchange center, Su Yu traded for a batch of blood essence at high prices. Fortunately, after purchasing the institute, he still had tens of thousands of merit points left, which was more than enough. Returning to the institute, Su Yu spent the entire night extracting the exchanged blood essence into Heaven Yuan Qi. Without wasting a moment, he promptly set off to find the goofy fatty. *** Beast Taming Academy. Today, it wasn't as lively. Su Yu searched for a while and didn't spot Zhu Hongliang, but he did find the goofy fatty sitting alone, munching on bamboo beside a small hill. Not far away sat an enormous white bear! That was the Big Round Ball everyone spoke of! Of course, Big Round Ball didn't come over, keeping a noticeable distance from the goofy fatty. Su Yu stifled a chuckle. Was this an attempt to cover up the obvious? Burying its head in the sand? Pretending they didn't know each other? The goofy fatty, currently gnawing on bamboo, raised its head to glance at Su Yu. The next instant, its voice echoed in Su Yu's mind: "Here to trade blood essence?" "Yes!" Just as Su Yu spoke, his vision blurred, and the goofy fatty materialized right before him, plopping down onto the ground to continue chewing bamboo. A muffled voice transmitted, "Do you have enough Heaven Yuan Fruits? It takes at least three to build the foundation for the three little round balls..." "I do!" The goofy fatty looked up at him, seemingly surprised. *He really has them?* Three... was quite a lot! Su Yu didn't elaborate. "They're at my research institute. If you trust me, I'll take the three little guys back with me and extract a drop of blood essence while I'm at it. There are too many eyes and ears out here; if people see me feeding Heaven Yuan Fruits to little round balls... I'll be cursed to death." The goofy fatty glanced at him and transmitted, "Nothing to worry about. You can't run away from Great Ming. Don't try to fool me by passing off Earth Yuan Fruits as Heaven Yuan Fruits. I can tell the difference..." "Of course!" Su Yu smiled. "Whenever people deal with Su Yu in good faith, I never let them suffer a loss! When I extract the blood essence, I'll provide ample compensation. Uh... pardon me for asking, but are these little round balls of pure bloodline?" The goofy fatty fixed its dark, bead-like eyes on him for a long moment before replying, "Of course!" Naturally. It was a supreme great demon with a bloodline far more formidable than Big Round Ball's, so the cubs it sired had naturally inherited its lineage. "Then there's no problem!" Su Yu also noticed the three little round balls waddling and running with their bottoms swaying. He smiled and said, "Then I'll take them back now and bring them back tomorrow morning. If you're uneasy, you can wait outside the institute. You can't come inside, though, as there are many confidential projects." The goofy fatty chewed on bamboo for a bit, then transmitted, "Fine... You're not allowed to lie. Otherwise... I'll get angry!" Getting angry was terrifying! Su Yu smiled and nodded. This time, everything was truly in place! He quickly ran over and scooped up the three little bears. Big Round Ball glared at Su Yu, radiating an aura that wasn't weak at all—Su Yu estimated it was at the Lingyun Realm. But Su Yu wasn't worried. Sure enough, just as Big Round Ball was about to roar, it abruptly quieted down. It glanced at the goofy fatty, its bear eyes brimming with tenderness... *Damn!* He had just been fed public displays of affection by two bears! Speechless, Su Yu didn't linger to watch. Holding the three little round balls, he swiftly vanished from the Beast Taming Academy. Not long after he left, chaos erupted in the Beast Taming Academy. "It's terrible! The little round balls were stolen!" "They're gone!" "I think I just saw someone running off with the little round balls!" "Catch the thief! A thief broke into our academy!" In an instant, the Beast Taming Academy was in an uproar. Meanwhile, Su Yu had already carried the three little round balls back to his research institute. Stepping inside, Su Yu looked down at the three little round balls and chuckled gleefully. *You're the ones!* At such a young age, they were already tough-skinned and thick-fleshed, and that was without even growing up in a Heaven Yuan Qi environment. Could the Iron-Eater Beast race also be some kind of ancient race? However, they were listed on the Top 100 Rankings. Whether they were an ancient race or not, he wasn't sure, but the race definitely possessed Invincible powerhouses. Quickly grabbing one—Su Yu roughly recognized it as Little Round Ball Number One from last time—he muttered, "You're up. I'll give you some tasty treats first, then draw your blood. You're so young, barely over a month old, so you probably don't even know the pain of drawing blood." Su Yu ducked straight into the laboratory and began drawing blood, instantly stuffing an apple-sized morsel into the cub's mouth. Sure enough, once it had food, the little creature forgot everything else, compliantly letting Su Yu draw its blood. Extracting blood essence consumed a significant portion of blood, nearly a tenth of its total supply, but Su Yu pumped a generous amount of Heaven Yuan Qi into it, so the little guy didn't seem to mind at all. It was entirely lost in bliss! Ten minutes later, Su Yu extracted a single drop of blood essence. The little round ball, still happily munching, turned its head to look at him, looking somewhat dazed. *What did you just do to me?* Su Yu didn't bother explaining and shoved another small ball of energy into its mouth, instantly making it forget everything again. Leaving it behind, Su Yu quickly exited and stepped into the secret chamber, swallowing the blood essence to activate the album. It was so weak! Only at the Kaiyuan Realm! If the body-reforging technique wasn't an innate talent skill or a basic yuan art, that would be a massive headache—he would have to wait until it reached the Tengkong Realm for it to manifest. Swallowing the drop of blood essence yielded no physical reaction; it was far too weak. Su Yu could now comfortably withstand Lingyun blood essence, let alone this. In the span of a breath, Su Yu felt a twinge of anxiety. *Please tell me one of them has killed me!* If none had killed him... all that Heaven Yuan Qi would have gone down the drain! Fortunately, the next moment, the golden album stirred slightly, and Su Yu was overjoyed! It finally appeared! *I have been killed by a bear!* "Iron-Eater Beast (First-stage Kaiyuan): Racial Skills: Iron-Eater Seventy-Two Reforgings (Unlocked via blood essence), Void Devour (Locked), Heaven-Shaking Strike (Locked) Basic Yuan Art: Iron-Eater Art (Locked)" Su Yu shuddered slightly. *There are locked innate talent skills?* *Do they unlock based on cultivation strength?* That wasn't important... What was important was that he had forgotten one crucial detail: he needed another drop of blood essence! *Damn, I forgot about that!* Little Round Ball Number One couldn't spare another drop right now. Maybe he should go draw one from Number Two! Still, delight welled up within him. This Iron-Eater Seventy-Two Reforgings—this was a body-reforging technique, wasn't it? An innate body-reforging technique, an inherent racial skill! This... there was good reason for this race's terrifying physical toughness. And sure enough, that goofy fatty was a liar. Void Devour and Heaven-Shaking Strike—don't tell him those were just for show! The goofy fatty had definitely unlocked those innate skills! In all likelihood, its destructive power was every bit as formidable as its defense! Three major innate skills! "Seventy-two reforgings... It can't really require reforging the body seventy-two times, can it?" Su Yu clicked his tongue in awe. Stronger than the reforging arts of the God and Demon races? How much Heaven Yuan Qi would that consume! After seventy-two reforgings, would he be able to slay Shanhai cultivators at ninth-stage Tengkong? It felt... entirely possible! *I'm terrifying!* Su Yu sighed with emotion. His ninth-stage Tengkong might genuinely allow him to fight across two major realms. One had to remember that the stronger one became, the harder it was to fight above one's realm! "I'm way too terrifying!" Su Yu marveled once more. He needed to keep a low profile; next time, he absolutely had to keep his martial prowess under wraps.