Su Yu quickly opened the book titled Methods for Accelerating the Kaiyuan Realm. Yet the very title page left him speechless. Inscribed across it was a line of large, blood-red characters: The so-called acceleration methods can indeed accelerate progress, regardless of life or death. Most who attempted them died in the process!
Su Yu smiled wryly. A single glance was enough to tell him how unreliable this was. No wonder all the teachers insisted that one shouldn't rush the Kaiyuan Realm or stray onto crooked paths.
"Method One: Bathe in the blood of formidable gods and demons. Gods and demons are born with all nine apertures open and brim with yuanqi; their blood contains vast amounts of Heavenly Yuan Qi..."
"Consequence: The body explodes!"
"Case Study: In the 9th Year of Anping, the son of the Prefect of Daming Prefecture bathed in the blood of gods and demons in hopes of swiftly breaking open the nine apertures. All nine opened in a single instant that very day. That same day, his body exploded, and he died. At the time of death, he was nine years old and had stepped into the Qianjun Realm!"
Su Yu grimaced. There were even case studies; it seemed the book truly wasn't making things up out of thin air.
The prefect's son, Year 9 of Anping—that meant the direct son of King Daming, the very founder of Daming Prefecture! Even someone with his background died; this was far too dangerous!
Besides, getting the blood of gods and demons was hardly simple.
On the All-Heavens Battlefield, the gods and demons were among the most formidable races. Word was that the weakest among them sent to war were at the Wanshi Realm.
For King Daming's son to have obtained such a thing, it had to have been left behind when King Daming killed a god or demon.
Even if this method were viable, let alone not, it had nothing to do with Su Yu.
"My dad isn't King Daming..."
Su Yu muttered inwardly. If his dad were King Daming, he wouldn't even bother cultivating. Who was King Daming? An invincible powerhouse who had founded Daming Prefecture, one of the pillars of the human race. Exactly how strong was he? Su Yu couldn't say, but it was enough to know that he was strong enough that Su Yu didn't even need to worry about anything.
Discarding Option One, Su Yu kept reading, his brow furrowing deeper with every line.
"Option Two: Consume monster race flesh. The flesh and blood of certain monster races aid in opening apertures."
"Consequence: The body explodes!"
"Case Study: In the early years of Anping, when humanity was weak, powerhouses slew members of the monster race and brought their corpses back. Large numbers of humans consumed monster flesh; some exploded and died, while a small fraction swiftly opened all nine apertures."
"Note: Extremely few succeeded in opening their apertures. According to statistics, monster race flesh beneficial for opening apertures includes: Golden Roc Clan, Barbarian Ox Clan, Heavenly Tiger Clan..."
Forget it!
Su Yu abandoned that idea in a heartbeat. Don't kid around. The few monster races listed here were all terrifyingly powerful among the myriad races. Though they couldn't rival the gods and demons, they were still far beyond his reach.
"Option Three: Heavenly Yuan Fruit, natural treasure type."
"The Heavenly Yuan Fruit gathers Heavenly Yuan Qi, the primordial qi of the myriad realms, and provides immense benefits toward opening the nine apertures."
"Location: Produced in minute quantities across several powerful realms, including the Divine Realm, Demon Realm, and Monster Realm."
"Case Study: In the 25th Year of Anping, the son of King Dazhou consumed a Heavenly Yuan Fruit and opened all nine apertures within three days, with no lingering side effects so far."
Su Yu grimaced once more. "The son of King Dazhou... Doesn't King Dazhou only have one son? Could it be referring to the current Prefect of Dazhou, Zhou Potian?"
Fine, scratch that too.
He had never even heard of this fruit before; it was clearly a supreme natural treasure. Zhou Potian was still alive today and had become the Prefect of Dazhou Prefecture, plainly unimaginably powerful.
Even if the human race possessed such Heavenly Yuan Fruits, Su Yu would never get his hands on one. It was likely a top-tier strategic resource.
"Option Four..."
Su Yu read further, his heart sinking lower and lower.
Sure enough, there were no valid shortcuts to cultivating the Kaiyuan Realm. No wonder the teachers never mentioned any of this.
These acceleration methods either required the blood of mighty gods and demons or demanded supreme natural treasures—and more or less all carried severe drawbacks.
"Option Nine: Yuanqi-dense locations. Yuanqi is distributed unevenly across the myriad realms; there are barren lands, and there are abundant lands. In the Kaiyuan Realm, passive tempering of the nine apertures correlates with the amount of ambient yuanqi..."
"Note:
Sacred Grounds of Yuanqi: The All-Heavens Battlefield, academy secret realms, sacred lands of the Human Realm..."
Seeing this option, Su Yu was slightly taken aback.
A place rich in yuanqi!
Those in the Kaiyuan Realm couldn't actually perceive the existence of yuanqi, but he knew that Nanyuan City was hardly a place rich in it.
"I have heard of this one. The larger the city, the more sacred the ground, the faster one cultivates. That must be related to the amount of yuanqi."
The teachers in Nanyuan never mentioned this because bringing it up was pointless.
Moving elsewhere was no simple feat these days.
"In other words, going to a major city or visiting a secret realm or sacred ground would offer a safe way to accelerate cultivation. But it wouldn't be terribly fast—nowhere near as efficient as the earlier methods."
An abundance of yuanqi merely sped up progress slightly; it wouldn't yield instant success overnight like the first few.
Even so, Su Yu felt a glimmer of longing.
Unfortunately, of all the sacred grounds listed, there wasn't a single one he could visit.
The All-Heavens Battlefield went without saying; as for academy secret realms, he had heard that higher academies possessed them, but he knew little about the details. And the sacred lands of the Human Realm were completely out of the question.
"Option Ten: Yuanqi Liquid."
"Yuanqi liquid can be formed naturally or manufactured artificially. In places across the myriad realms rich in yuanqi, dense concentrations of qi may condense into a liquid state, though this is exceedingly rare."
"Artificial creation requires a powerhouse of the Tengkong Realm to condense ambient yuanqi into liquid form."
"Effects are comparable to being in a yuanqi-dense environment."
"..."
Natural was out of the question, and artificial required... the Tengkong Realm!
Su Yu smiled wryly once again. What was the Tengkong Realm?
Qianjun and Wanshi were still purely about physical strengthening. He didn't know much about the Tengkong Realm, only that it was the stage above Wanshi, where humans could soar through the air and conquer the sky.
Reaching the Tengkong Realm was a major metamorphosis. Had anyone in all of Nanyuan City attained it?
Perhaps—the City Lord of Nanyuan, for instance.
But was that a level Su Yu could ever hope to access?
The strongest person in Nanyuan Secondary Academy was the headmaster, and he had only recently stepped into the Wanshi Realm.
If a Wanshi Realm cultivator could condense it, Su Yu might have been able to beg for a drop or two given the headmaster's temperament. But the problem was that the headmaster couldn't do it!
"Not a single reliable method!"
Su Yu grumbled inwardly. No wonder these books were tossed into an out-of-the-way corner.
For people like Su Yu, every single option in there was a dead end.
The simplest would be going to a yuanqi-rich area or obtaining yuanqi liquid. Yet even the cheapest yuanqi liquid required someone at the Tengkong Realm, which was still impossibly distant from him.
His old man had been at the seventh layer of Qianjun eighteen years ago. Over the years, because Nanyuan's yuanqi wasn't dense enough and his dad had lost his supply of military resources, he had only reached the ninth layer of Qianjun to this day.
Even so, he was still considered quite a figure in Nanyuan City. Of course, his dad had never thought of it that way; before rejoining the army, he had worked as an inspector at the Traffic Supervision Office, enjoying an easy, quiet life.
If not to look after Su Yu, someone at the ninth layer of Qianjun like Su Long would have had no trouble securing a high-ranking post in Nanyuan City.
"Not a chance with any of them!"
Su Yu flipped through the books once more before quickly returning them to the shelf.
After a moment's thought, he walked over to Liu Yue and said with an apologetic smile, "Liu Yue, do you mind if I interrupt you for a second?"
Liu Yue put down her book and looked up at Su Yu, offering a gentle smile. "Go ahead."
"I haven't paid much attention to cultivation matters over the years. Do you know anything about yuanqi liquid?"
"You want to buy yuanqi liquid?"
Liu Yue understood immediately. After all, she was the one who had pointed him to those books, and she had read them herself.
"Yuanqi liquid... that's a strategic resource. There are no channels to purchase it in Nanyuan City."
"However, you can get it over in Great Xia Prefecture, though it requires real-name registration."
"There are many types of yuanqi liquid. The liquid condensed by powerhouses of different realms varies. For someone in the Kaiyuan Realm, liquid condensed by a Tengkong Realm cultivator is actually the most suitable. It's cheaper, and the yuanqi isn't overly concentrated, which makes it safer and better for opening apertures. If it's too dense, it could easily harm the body."
"Still... the price is definitely not low!"
"Even for a Tengkong Realm powerhouse, it takes three days to condense a single drop. But Tengkong cultivators need to cultivate too; they need yuanqi themselves. Unless they're truly hard up for money, few would ever be willing to condense it..."
Liu Yue paused and looked at Su Yu. "Su Yu, you really shouldn't buy it—it's too wasteful! Besides, yuanqi liquid only increases the concentration of yuanqi around you; it doesn't guarantee you'll open an aperture."
"I know. Thanks. How much is a single drop from a Tengkong cultivator?"
Su Yu naturally knew it wouldn't be cheap, but he still wanted to ask. When his father left, he had left behind quite a bit of money.
In fact, the entire family savings was in Su Yu's hands; going to the All-Heavens Battlefield was too dangerous, and Su Long had worried he might not return.
"A hundred thousand Anyuan coins!"
"..."
Su Yu's heart gave a violent twitch. A hundred thousand a drop!
His old man was at the ninth layer of Qianjun and held a public post at the Traffic Supervision Office, earning five thousand Anyuan coins a month—not low by any means.
After deducting daily living expenses for the two of them, plus purchasing the occasional cultivation supplies for his dad, saving twenty to thirty thousand a year was already doing well.
Over all these years, Su Long had managed to scrape together a decent marriage fund for his son, around three hundred thousand.
Which meant... their entire family fortune was only enough to buy three drops of yuanqi liquid?
No wonder Liu Yue called it wasteful!
This wasn't just wasteful—this was burning money!
Seeing Su Yu's expression, Liu Yue couldn't help but chuckle. "I told you it was expensive. It really is too much of a waste! Actually... I used a drop once. It only maintained a high concentration of yuanqi for about three days, and the effect was honestly quite average."
"After using it that one time, I never touched it again. It's far too extravagant."
"If the effect were truly remarkable, it's not like nobody in the academy could scrape together a hundred thousand; people would have bought it long ago. But have you seen anyone using it?"
"If you don't open an aperture in three days, you have to keep buying. Six days is two hundred thousand, nine days is three hundred thousand... Nobody can sustain that."
Su Yu gave a wry smile. "I understand. It really is too expensive! If using it guaranteed opening an aperture, that would be one thing. But if it doesn't, that money's just flushed down the drain. No wonder the teachers say there are no shortcuts in the Kaiyuan Realm."
"Exactly." Liu Yue smiled. "And you don't even need to be tested on this. What made you think of buying yuanqi liquid in the first place?"
"I registered for the War Academy, just to have another option prepared."
Su Yu gave a brief explanation, then smiled, said his goodbyes, and didn't linger.
This was a library, not a place for idle chitchat.
Watching Su Yu leave, Liu Yue arched a brow in curiosity.
He registered for the War Academy?
Why on earth would Su Yu sign up for the War Academy out of nowhere?
Shaking her head slightly, she put it out of her mind. Even if the guy registered, it wouldn't matter. Soon enough, they would both be classmates at the Great Xia Civilization Academy. She just hoped he wouldn't do anything reckless.
Chapter 4