I Couldn't Possibly Be That Amazing!

Having finished his meal at the cafeteria, and with no afternoon classes, Su Yu returned to the research center. Bai Feng was nowhere to be seen. Su Yu wasn't sure whether he was out or down on the third subterranean level. As for Xia Huyou, Su Yu decided to leave him hanging for now. He still had blood essence left anyway, so he could check back in a couple of days. "Liu Hong!" In the living quarters, Su Yu leaned back against the couch, growing angrier the more he thought about it. The man was pushing it too far! An adult bullying a kid—utterly shameless. Once his fury subsided, however, Su Yu couldn't help considering the three merit points... That actually sounded pretty good. If he didn't have to shoulder the class monitor's duties and could pocket three merit points for nothing, it would be wonderful. *Is there a way to get merit points for free?* Su Yu fell into contemplation. If the general supervisor wasn't Liu Hong, there really would be a chance. Build good rapport with the instructors, find a stand-in among the students, and offer one merit point a month—someone would definitely jump at it. That way, he could pocket two merit points for doing nothing. It was just a full-timer hiring a temp to do the heavy lifting. Su Yu knew that trick well enough. Unfortunately, the supervisor was Liu Hong. The bastard had set out specifically to make life difficult for him, so he would never let Su Yu exploit a loophole. "Forget it. In a month, I'll hammer that Lin Yao into the dirt!" "Work hard and cultivate!" Su Yu stopped dwelling on it. With Liu Hong as the supervisor, there was zero chance he would leave an opening. Sure enough, sunny-smiling men were all bad news! "From now on, if I run into anyone with a radiant grin, killing ten of them wouldn't wrong nine!" ... Second floor. Su Yu charged into the fragment chamber once more. Having wasted the entire morning, his time was tight, so he didn't dally and threw himself straight in. Willpower confrontation, divine character confrontation. Compared to yesterday, Su Yu felt somewhat more at ease today. Unlike the previous day, when he was pinned to the floor in no time, his condition felt noticeably better. It might have been from anger! Spurred on by Liu Hong's provocation! *I hate Liu Hong, so I'm taking it out on his student. In that sense, I'm just like Chen Qi, bullying the weak while fearing the strong... But Liu Hong is my ultimate target now. I'll take them down one by one!* *First Lin Yao, then Yang Sha, then Liu He, and finally Liu Hong...* Su Yu mapped out the fates of that entire faction in neat order in his mind. Then he thought of Chen Qi. Was that fellow bitterly cultivating right now, preparing to seek revenge on Bai Feng? Kill Su Yu first, then kill Bai Feng? If so, they were practically kindred spirits. *No more daydreaming. Cultivate!* Casting aside all distracting thoughts, Su Yu continued to endure the inhuman torment. A willpower confrontation sounded simple, but once it exceeded one's threshold of endurance, it was pure agony. ... Bai Feng wasn't at the research center. At that moment, he was having tea with Su Yu's arch-nemesis, Liu Hong. Sipping his tea, Bai Feng chuckled and said, "Class monitor? Liu Hong, why does that brain of yours only ever hatch crooked schemes?" Liu Hong couldn't be bothered to engage with the jab. Taking a sip of tea, he remarked, "Hu Wensheng went into secluded cultivation—deep seclusion! He won't come out until he breaks through to the Lingyun Realm. The people on our side told me to step up, so I have to show some results. They know I'm no match for you, so they want me to suppress you through other channels." "Such as?" Bai Feng spoke leisurely, not panicked in the slightest. As for Su Yu being the class monitor... let him do it. Getting merit points out of it was nice enough. Besides, it helped test his student. How would the kid handle it? "By blocking your promotion to regular researcher this year!" Bai Feng raised an eyebrow and looked up at Liu Hong. "You think you can?" "Why not?" Liu Hong smiled. "For a Tengkong to gain full status, there are three requirements. First, accumulate three thousand merit points. "Second, have a student enter the Top 100 Rankings. "Third, receive an Upper evaluation within three years!" Liu Hong smiled. "Aside from meeting the first condition, you haven't fulfilled the rest." Bai Feng said faintly, "I've already received Upper evaluations for two consecutive years. Earning another this year shouldn't be much of a problem, should it?" With a smile, he added, "Besides, I only took on a student this year. As a freshman, he doesn't need to enter the Top 100. That's not a hard requirement. As long as Su Yu performs well on the monthly and quarterly exams, that will prove my instruction has merit." "That's true enough," Liu Hong replied, smiling back. "Which is why targeting Su Yu is the first step. As for you, we can't let you secure an Upper evaluation this year." "Oh? You people can influence the evaluation panel now?" Bai Feng quipped, but Liu Hong grew serious. "Of course not. If caught, heads will roll. However... you'd better watch out. If Su Yu places dead last in three consecutive assessments, there's no way you'll get an Upper evaluation this year. "If you fail to gain regular status this year, your standing will drop by a fraction... Though honestly, it doesn't matter much. Being a teaching assistant is plenty comfortable too." "Dead last in three assessments..." Bai Feng chuckled. "Aren't you looking down on my student a bit too much?" Liu Hong shrugged with a smile. "That depends on my skill! Enough of that. Figure out how to handle it yourself; laying all my cards on the table would spoil the fun." After a brief pause, Liu Hong added, "You should give your senior brother a heads-up. He's probably going to run into quite a bit of trouble this year. Plenty of eyes are on his post. Word has already reached me that someone will move against him soon to strip him of his position..." Bai Feng's expression changed slightly. A chill settled over his face as he asked in a low voice, "An all-out offensive? Over the years, we've surrendered nearly every interest we had, leaving only my senior brother's position. And now you want to wipe us out completely?" Liu Hong smiled. "That has nothing to do with me. I'm just a foot soldier! Who told you to defeat Hu Wensheng earlier? Stealing the spotlight is never good. They're worried you people will rise from the ashes and make a comeback..." Sighing, Liu Hong went on, "At this point, I doubt they even know whether driving you to extinction is out of concern for the academy's future or... concern for their own! "Power corrupts the heart." Liu Hong gave a nostalgic sigh. "Ruling the academy for fifty years... Even with a headmaster above them, they've held the reins of power for half a century, allowing the Single Divine Character Faction to swell into a behemoth. Tell me, after fighting for so long, are they doing this out of fear that the tragedy will repeat itself, or fear of losing their seats?" Bai Feng snorted coldly. "Probably both! I know that crowd. A few decades ago, they might have genuinely grieved the tragedy back then, believing we had harmed the entire academy and even ruined the future path of the human race's Civilization Masters. But over the past ten or twenty years..." Bai Feng sneered. "Their mindset has changed! In the early days, the Multiple Divine Characters Faction could still recruit a few students. Now... heh. If I hadn't recruited Su Yu in advance, we would still have come up completely empty-handed. Even if we took in one or two students, they would probably be plants sent by your side." Bai Feng downed his tea in one gulp and sneered, "Suppressing our momentum was understandable, but my senior brother has kept an extremely low profile all these years. To target even him means this isn't just about curbing our momentum—they want to wipe us out entirely!" Bai Feng stood up and exhaled. "It won't be that easy! Even a cornered rabbit bites, and we are no rabbits. Liu Hong, here's a word of advice: behave yourself, or things will get ugly for you!" With that, Bai Feng walked out the door. After he left, Liu Hong went back to sipping his tea at an unhurried pace. A moment later, he chuckled softly. "Looks like they really are ready to bite. Good thing I'm clever." If Bai Feng and his people decided to bite, they wouldn't bite him for now. Vice Head Zhou and the others were indeed crossing the line. The Multiple Divine Characters Faction was down to just five people. Suppressing them and keeping them from stealing the spotlight was understandable, but trying to pry Bai Feng's senior brother from his post went far beyond mere suppression. ... A short while later. Bai Feng returned to the research center. He went up to the second floor and saw Su Yu cultivating. Seeing the kid pinned to the ground with his limbs trembling uncontrollably, Bai Feng couldn't help laughing, though he also felt a pang of sentiment. Geniuses weren't born out of thin air. This kid truly knew how to endure hardship! Bai Feng watched in silence for over ten minutes. Su Yu persevered the entire time until he finally reached his absolute limit and crawled out, tears streaming down his face. The moment he crawled free, a pair of feet appeared before his eyes. Su Yu looked up, suddenly feeling intensely humiliated and awkward! Forcing down the pain, he scrambled to his feet and asked shakily, "Instructor... why are you here...?" "Just checking on your cultivation." Bai Feng had always made a point of knocking him down a peg to keep him humble, but today, he offered rare praise. "Good resilience. Being able to endure hardship is a virtue, but moderation is key. There's no need to push yourself this hard. This method of cultivation... is still a bit too brutal for you." When a student slacked off, a teacher felt bitter and enraged. Yet when a student worked too hard, it caused a different kind of ache. A genius like Su Yu didn't carry a shred of arrogance. Cultivating with such ruthless intensity left the teacher with no face—he couldn't even find an excuse to lecture him. Su Yu smiled sheepishly. "I'm fine, Instructor. I'm used to it." "Used to it..." Bai Feng fell into deep thought. *You can get used to this?* Entering the fragment chamber multiple times a day, crushed to the verge of bursting each time—and he was used to it? It wasn't as though Bai Feng hadn't experienced it himself. Back then, going in once a day felt like walking to the executioner's block. His master, Hong Tan, had scolded him endlessly: *If you can't endure hardship, how do you expect to rise above the rest?* Back then, he had wished he could spend fewer minutes inside every day. Yet the student he had taken in wished he could spend all day and night trapped in there. Exhaling softly, Bai Feng recalled Liu Hong's words. An all-out suppression... was coming! With Master away, those people could finally hold back no longer! This was his own fault too. For no good reason, he had egged his master into leaving. Now that trouble had struck, he was largely to blame. If Master were still at the academy, they wouldn't have been so bold. If his senior brother truly lost his post before Master returned, they would be in serious trouble. "Take a rest first. I have something to tell you!" "Understood!" Su Yu wiped the sweat from his forehead and followed Bai Feng downstairs. ... Downstairs. Bai Feng remained silent for a moment before speaking. "Originally, you had plenty of time to cultivate at a steady pace! Of course, that's still true even now—you still have plenty of time. But... things might become harder than before." Su Yu didn't quite grasp his meaning. Bai Feng continued, "You have a martial uncle—my senior brother. A ninth-realm Lingyun, he holds a rather critical post in the academy... Chief Curator of Cangshu Pavilion!" Su Yu blinked. Was that very important? "Extremely important!" Knowing what he was thinking, Bai Feng said softly, "Our faction, the Multiple Divine Characters Faction, wields many divine characters... How do we get so many? "Outlining a single divine character requires reading a willpower text at least a dozen times, and that's on the low end... You don't count!" Bai Feng's cheek twitched slightly, and he cleared his throat. "Even for you, you have to read willpower texts and study original texts of the myriad races before you can outline divine characters! That requires massive quantities of willpower texts. Our faction has been suppressed for years; we exhausted our old reserves long ago, and the resources we receive from the academy are scarce. Left with no choice, we had to rely on a few little tricks. "With your martial uncle stationed at Cangshu Pavilion, he has the authority to open back doors for us. For instance, when we visit Cangshu Pavilion, we can view certain willpower texts free of charge... Of course, this 'free' access is technically a form of theft." Bai Feng spoke with complete candor. "But we have no other way. A person's energy is limited. We have research to conduct, cultivation to pursue, and countless matters to handle. Merit points are never enough, and the academy grants us no funding... "Besides, letting higher-ups in the academy view willpower texts for free has always been an unwritten rule of Cangshu Pavilion. We aren't the only ones doing it." Bai Feng let out a breath. "Everyone does it, so it's a tacit understanding, and there's no need to feel burdened by guilt. But now... or rather, in the future, we might lose that privilege. "Last time, when you asked for ten willpower texts, I said I would find a way. I actually intended to arrange it through him. But now, someone has set their sights on your martial uncle. They want to drive us to ruin and leave us no way out!" Bai Feng sneered, "Once your martial uncle loses his post, it will be hard for us to even step foot into Cangshu Pavilion in the future, let alone view willpower texts for free! For a divine character master, willpower texts are the very foundation. If they monopolize the willpower texts, no amount of talent will save a divine character master!" Su Yu frowned and asked, "Instructor, if we can't go to Cangshu Pavilion, aren't there open lectures in the academy? Researchers write willpower texts there..." "It's not the same!" Bai Feng waved a hand. "Most of the divine characters mastered by divine character masters originate from cultivation methods of the myriad races. While willpower texts written by humans can also help us outline divine characters, the probability is low. On top of that, divine character masters willing to host open lectures generally aren't very strong, so the willpower texts they produce are quite weak. "Take me, for example. If I were to study a willpower text written by a Tengkong Realm master, under the clash of wills, the text might be completely ruined after a single viewing." Bai Feng sighed. "And our faction places tremendous weight on this. We must master large quantities of divine characters! Once that supply is severed, our days will become truly miserable." "Instructor, even you can't earn enough merit points to cover your own needs?" Bai Feng snapped irritably, "Earning enough to fund my own cultivation is easy enough! But it isn't just me—there's also the investment into the research center. Eighty percent of the merit points we earn get poured right into the lab. "Besides, do you think training new talent is free?" He shot Su Yu a sideways glance, his tone growing even more exasperated. "When you reach Qianjun, won't I have to prepare blood essence for your foundation building? When you reach Tengkong, won't I have to find a way to get powerful blood essence for your body casting? When you master divine characters, can you really rely on yourself to attend open lectures over and over to seek guidance from those instructors? "Down the road, I might have to provide you with yuanqi liquid, blood essence, civilization weapons... Which of those doesn't cost a fortune?" Bai Feng grumbled, "You think taking on students is a good deal? It's a money-losing trade, don't you know! Yet we still have to do it. If we don't, the Multiple Divine Characters Faction is finished. The lineage will be severed. In a few decades, once our generation dies off, this faction will truly cease to exist! "So ten or twenty years from now, when you grow strong, you'll have to take on students even if you don't want to. It's essential to keeping the faction alive! Without fresh blood, it can't even be called a faction—you'd just be a lone rogue. Because without an inheritance, the moment you die, everything disappears with you." Su Yu scratched his head. He said nothing, because he had no idea what to say. Bai Feng spoke again. "I can guess what they're planning. Your martial uncle has a disciple who is currently on the Top 100 Rankings. They'll probably start there—that's the first step! "Second, your martial uncle privately diverted a batch of original texts of the myriad races to lend to our research center. Of course, it was an 'inter-library loan' in name, but in truth... they're currently lying inside the fragment chamber!" Su Yu bared his teeth. *So that's how it is!* Bai Feng exhaled and said, "So, going forward, we have to make up for that deficit. The total value of those original texts exceeds ten thousand merit points! I had originally prepared a few things for you. The Mountain-Breaking Ox blood essence was a windfall, so that doesn't count, but I had prepared a batch of blood essence for your Qianjun body casting, which I'll now have to liquidate... "I also prepared a low-rank Profound civilization weapon for you, which will be sold off as well! "Along with several willpower texts I set aside for you—all of them will be sold!" Bai Feng looked at Su Yu. "I called you down to tell you that to cover this deficit, we're going to be cleaned out down to our last copper! Aside from this laboratory, nothing will remain. No willpower texts, no blood essence, no merit points—including the five merit points a month I promised you... gone!" Su Yu fell silent. Bai Feng said placidly, "You can leave. I know Zhao Li wants to take you as his student. You can choose to major in the Forging faction now; he won't turn you away! I didn't expect their assault to hit so fiercely. A lot of this... was caused by me. There's no need for you to be dragged down with us!" The trials from before were no longer just trials. The opposition was actually trying to strip his senior brother of his position—they wanted to eradicate them root and branch! This was far more severe than Bai Feng had imagined! If Su Yu stayed, what he faced next wouldn't just be Liu Hong. Liu Hong wasn't frightening; what was terrifying was the chain of trouble trailing behind him. Su Yu's mouth felt parched. Just as he was about to speak, Bai Feng's communicator rang. Frowning, Bai Feng answered. After listening for a few moments, his tone turned icy. "Very good. The counterattack came fast! Senior Brother, this started because of me. I'll find a way to resolve it. Since they're moving so quickly, don't blame me for—" Su Yu faintly heard the person on the other end talk Bai Feng down. Soon, Bai Feng gritted his teeth and said, "Then I'll go to the All-Heavens Battlefield to bring Master back!" "Out of the question. Master's whereabouts are unpredictable. If you go, you'll just end up missing too!" "..." Their exchange was brief, and Bai Feng soon hung up. Looking back at Su Yu, Bai Feng gave a strained smile. "That eldest martial sister of yours... was challenged today on the Top 100 Rankings. She was decisively crushed, suffered heavy injuries, and will need at least three months to recover. She dropped off the rankings!" Su Yu knitted his brows. "Instructor... will this... affect you and Martial Uncle?" "Somewhat!" Bai Feng took a deep breath. "If she fails to fight her way back onto the Top 100 before the end of the year, your martial uncle's evaluation rating will drop. Once it drops, the academy will conduct a secondary audit. And once that happens, your martial uncle's actions won't remain hidden. All the conveniences he granted us... will come to light! "At that point, even if we make up the deficit, a thorough investigation will still expose everything!" Su Yu couldn't resist saying, "You said everyone does this. Why not just go all out against them? If they investigate us, we investigate them..." "Naive!" Bai Feng shot him down. "The Divine Character College is practically their private backyard. When push comes to shove, all it takes is a few official orders from the dean. If the dean authorized it, who could hold them accountable? A dean has the authority to requisition batches of willpower texts. We... have no such power! With your grandmaster away, we don't even have a voice." Su Yu scratched his head, feeling frustrated. Why was today just one piece of bad luck after another? He had bad luck, his martial uncle had bad luck, and even that eldest martial sister he had never met was struck by misfortune. "Instructor, is there anything I can do?" "You...?" Bai Feng looked at him with a half-smile. "Aren't you planning to minor in the divine character faction instead?" "I like divine characters!" Su Yu shook his head. He loved the fragment chamber and the filtration chamber—he wasn't leaving! Wild horses couldn't drag him away! "In that case... there really is something you can do!" Bai Feng narrowed his eyes and smiled. "Before the year ends, slaughter your way onto the Top 100 Rankings! Challenge your way up, severely injure the rival students, and crush them so your martial sister can swoop in behind you, pick up an easy victory, and re-enter the Top 100!" "That works too?" Su Yu stared blankly. "Of course not. If your strength isn't up to par, wouldn't you worry about others challenging and heavily injuring you? However... the ones we'd be severely injuring belong to the rival camp. If your martial sister takes their spots, the others won't dare interfere in the struggle between us right now. They'll just step aside and let us fight it out, which creates our opportunity!" "Before the year ends..." Su Yu did the math. Today was August 5, meaning less than five months remained. Charge onto the Top 100 Rankings in under five months? Could he... really do it? Bai Feng looked at him and smiled. "Do you have the confidence? If you do, we can gamble on this! If not, I'll need to head to the All-Heavens Battlefield as soon as possible to find your grandmaster and bring him back!" Su Yu scratched his head and couldn't help asking, "In less than five months... The Top 100 students all possess combat strength at the Wanshi Realm at the very least... Can I use external assistance?" "External assistance?" Bai Feng raised an eyebrow. "What kind of external assistance?" "Well..." Su Yu hesitated, then said, "Doesn't my 'Blood' character absorb blood essence? After absorbing blood essence, it can temporarily unleash greater power." *Why does that sound so familiar?!* What did he mean by 'unleashing greater power'? Bai Feng felt an eerie sense of familiarity—so familiar that his scalp went numb! "What... do you mean by temporarily unleashing greater power?" Su Yu hesitated. He probably couldn't keep this hidden forever anyway, unless he resolved never to display it in front of others for the rest of his life. "That is, after absorbing blood essence, the divine character provides me with a surge of formidable power. Depending on the quality of the blood essence, I can unleash strength comparable to the realm of that blood essence. Of course, it has to stay within my body's threshold of endurance..." Bai Feng was utterly dumbfounded! Swallowing hard, Bai Feng asked with great difficulty, "Is the power unleashed... ordinary power, or... or does it... carry... special martial skills... that kind of power?" Su Yu blinked. *You know about that too?* It seemed someone else possessed this ability as well. Did that mean it wasn't all that unique after all? Still, it had to be exceedingly rare; otherwise, why would Bai Feng look so tense? After a moment's thought, Su Yu nodded. "Some of them carry special martial skills... For instance, earlier, when I absorbed Ironwing Bird blood essence, it unleashed a Tear skill. Acupoints in my arm opened temporarily, allowing me to suddenly unleash a lethal strike..." "Holy crap!" "..." Su Yu jumped in fright! Little did he know, Bai Feng was completely frozen in shock! *Holy crap!* *Holy crap!* *What is going on?* *What just happened?* *What did he say?* *That's... the extraction of innate skills that we've been researching for years!* *Impossible!* *Absolutely impossible!* *If a single divine character could achieve that, why would we spend countless years pouring fortunes into researching this nonsense?!* *No, this little liar is tricking me!* *I don't believe it!* Bai Feng was genuinely stunned! Dammit, that made no sense. Had their research leaked? Or could such a divine character truly exist? If it did... what were they even researching for? They might as well just outline this kind of divine character and be done with it! "The 'Blood' character..." Bai Feng muttered under his breath. *Wasn't that outlined from the willpower text I wrote?* *Impossible!* *There's no way I, Bai Feng, could be that amazing!* *I must be hallucinating!*