Published at 22nd of September 2024 11:59 pm

Chapter 615: Close Friend In Foreign Land (1)

This chapter is updated by JustRead.pl

"You're here. Feel free to look around."

Hu Xiansheng had complicated emotions.

Su Yu smiled. Beside him, Huang Feng said, "Faculty Head, just sell it. Why are you even sad? You have spent countless money on your research over the years. It's not a bad idea to stop while you still can. You might have reached the Sunmoon Realm long ago without this research."

"You don't understand..."

"Yeah, I don't." Huang Feng said, "There are so many subjects to research. Why do you insist on this subject? So that you can look cool?"

"..."

Su Yu looked at the two in astonishment. What was up with these two? Were the teachers here allowed to talk with their faculty heads in this manner?

Hu Xiansheng looked at Su Yu and said, "What are you looking at? She's my student. All four Cloudbreaches and eight Skysoars of the single character faction are my students."

"..."

Holy shit!

Su Yu was shocked. Was this for real? They were all his students?

Huang Feng explained, "The Faculty Head is very old. He's over three hundred years old. We're indeed all his students."

"..."

Su Yu was speechless.

Hu Xiansheng was indifferent. He was already used to the lack of manners in his students. He sighed and said, "Great Ming's multiple character faction has always been a pointless existence. Back then, I was the sole member. And I only started the faction due to Great Xia's first principal. But eventually, the first, third, and fifth principals all ended up dead. I no longer have any interest in their affairs."

Su Yu was speechless. This was someone who had lived since the first principal's time. But he was still a seventh-stage Mountainsea. This...cough, cough. It would be improper for him to say anything here.

Hu Xiansheng could guess Su Yu's thoughts. He grumbled, "Strength is not everything. I specialize in space. Not even Sunmoons can catch up to me. As cultural researchers, fleeing is the priority. Nothing is more important than preserving your life. You're not a warrior. Kid, stop thinking that Great Xia is a big deal. How big of a deal can they be? All those fellows are dead while I'm still alive."

"Come on in."

Hu Xiansheng waved his hand, causing the air to ripple.

"This is the first Sunmoon formation, capable of preventing eavesdropping. But it does not work against Invincibles. It only works against those up to the Sunmoon Realm."

Next, he showed the second formation and said, "This is the second formation, capable of detecting all intruders. It can instantly detect even a Sunmoon and ring the alarm. This is the third formation, the offensive formation. Even a Mountainsea can be killed while a Sunmoon will be delayed for quite a while."

Su Yu was quite amazed by the three formations.

He was already aware of the existence of these formations, but he was still shocked when he saw them. These formations were much more powerful than the ones in Wentan Research Center. Naturally, they were also a lot more powerful than the one in his previous Source Soul Research Center.

Behind the three formations was a door.

"This is not a regular door."

Hu Xiansheng introduced, "I forged this door myself. Consider it my gift to you. This is an incredible door, something I spent many years to forge. It is in actuality a teleportation formation. But it is not meant for transportation. Rather, it is meant for killing. If a Sunmoon intruder carelessly attacks this door, they will be rapidly dragged into the door before being cut apart by chaotic spatial currents."

Hu Xiansheng smiled and said, "Most of the time, people will relax after getting through the three major formations. They won't waste their time slowly opening this door. Instead, they will try to deal with it with force. And they will come to regret that choice."

Su Yu asked in astonishment, "Faculty Head, is Great Ming so dangerous?"

"It's alright." Huang Feng explained, "Great Ming isn't exactly dangerous. But Great Ming is also not feared. There are a lot of cultists active here. And some of them are rather brave. At times, they will even sneak into the capital itself. Since there are way too many research centers here, the cultists also have their eyes on our research centers. Thus, the more important research centers still need to be cautious."

Su Yu nodded in understanding.

Myriad Race Cult.

They were indeed courageous if they dared to sneak into Tiandu. In Great Xia's capital, the cult could rarely be seen, excluding those who were hiding inside. Nevertheless, they wouldn't dare to actually do anything major within the capital itself.

The capital of Great Xia was essentially a forbidden zone for the cult. Even in the areas surrounding the capital, the cult would still be extremely cautious when carrying out their operations.

Su Yu followed Hu Xiansheng through the door and was instantly stunned by what he saw. The regular rooms and living area he had expected to see were nowhere to be seen. Instead, he had arrived in a large courtyard.

It was massive. When he raised his head, he could even see the sky. Right ahead of him was a rock garden surrounded by small creeks. The sound of running water gave the courtyard a sense of life. This was unlike the bland and dull environment of the other research centers.

Hu Xiansheng appeared indifferent, but when Huang Feng saw Su Yu looking at the sky, she smiled and explained, "That's not the real sky. Or to be precise, you're looking at the sky, but it's merely a projection of the sky outside. We're still indoors. With some reflection talismans and characters, the sky outside is projected inside. You can even change the setting to maintain the sunlight even if it's already night outside. Or you can do it the other way around and let it be night all the time inside."

Su Yu's eyes flickered. This wasn't a super advanced technology, but the people of Great Xia never bothered with doing this to their research centers. Most of the time, the research centers in Great Xia would look dull and bland.

They were on the first floor of the building, but the sky looked incomparably real. And thanks to the projected sky, the entire room felt much bigger. Some small furry animals could be seen running around in the garden. At this time, the little furball shot out and started frolicking with the small animals.

Huan Xiansheng asked in surprise, "What's that?"

"A pet."

"Heh."

Hu Xiansheng sneered. Pet? He almost failed to notice it. How could something like that be a pet?

"Let's move on. The first floor is the relaxation floor. The sixth floor is also a relaxation floor. And the environment there is even better. It is an excellent place to gather and drink with your friends. There, you can freely change the season of your surroundings. Snow, rain, and so on can be summoned as you see fit."

Su Yu said nothing. In a research center with six floors, two of the floors had actually been dedicated to relaxation. If someone dared to try this in Great Xia, that person would probably end up raided by Marquis Xia. That was too much of a waste!

And when he saw the second floor, he was even more speechless than before.

Fuck!

This was a multipurpose resort. There were dining halls, bars, large televisions, elegant bedrooms, and luxurious toilets. All sorts of facilities could be found here.

Hu Xiansheng had a look of reluctance as he said, "This is where I normally stay. It will be yours soon. The second floor is basically the personal space of the owner. There is an elevator that can reach the third floor directly for the visitors. You can directly lock the second floor from all visitors."

Su Yu had nothing to say. This faculty head sure was good at enjoying life. Next, they arrived at the third floor. The third, fourth, and fifth floors were research areas. But these floors also stood out from anything Su Yu had seen before.

The third floor was filled with numerous bookshelves and compartments. Oh, there was also a cinema on the third floor.

Hu Xiansheng introduced, "This is the place where you can search for all sorts of information. When you're tired, you can go to the cinema and have the system read the data out while you relax."

"There are 118 bookshelves here. I've spent many years gathering all these books. I can't be bothered to move them away so you can have them. All sorts of books can be found here, and they have all been sorted accordingly. Treasure them. Don't mess them up..."

Su Yu nodded. This could be useful. This was precisely what he lacked at the moment.

"Faculty Head, can books on foundational cultivation methods be found here as well?"

"Yes." Hu Xiansheng pointed somewhere and said, "There. They are of little value. Most of them are normal copies instead of willpower texts. There used to be a lot of willpower texts here, but most have been sold."

Fine. This was also acceptable for Su Yu. For him, reading these books was a type of enjoyment. In comparison, his previous Source Soul Research Center was akin to a doghouse. There was simply no comparing the two.

There was also a reading room with luxurious couches and wide windows. Through the windows, he could even see the elegant garden on the first floor. The more he looked, the more he felt like the cultural researchers of Great Xia were a bunch of miserable country bumpkins.

There, all cultural researchers would need to stick the book close to their face whenever they were reading. Meanwhile, under the talisman-powered lighting system in this room, that would no longer be required. Just look at the gentle and bright light coming from the ceiling. The research centers of Great Xia were incomparably shabby in comparison.

Soon, they arrived at the fourth floor.

There, Hu Xiansheng grew excited as he introduced, "This is the main research floor. There are a few important rooms on this floor. Firstly, you have the Spatial Cutting Room."

As he said that, he opened the door to a laboratory. The moment the door was opened, Su Yu felt a pulling force coming from within the room.

Pointing at the floating fragments in the room, Hu Xiansheng said, "Don't look down on them. These are spatial fragments. Do you know that these spatial fragments are one of the components making up a grotto? Great Ming doesn't have a lot of powerful grottos, but we have a lot of minor grottos here. Do you know why?"

"Is it related to this?" Su Yu asked in surprise.

Hu Xiansheng nodded, "In Great Xia, there are Marks of Culture. You're aware of that, right?"

"Yeah. A Mountainsea can leave behind a character that will be produced into a Mark of Culture."

"There aren't a lot of Marks of Culture in Great Ming." Hu Xiansheng proudly said, "In fact, we're not useless like what everyone believes. For example, we are involved in a lot of grotto renovations, earning a lot of money from that. Generally, anyone with a Mountainsea character suitable to be modified into a grotto will come to me. I will use my spatial cutting facilities to transform their character into a grotto that can be entered by living beings."

Su Yu blanked out slightly. Then, his eyes lit up as he asked, "With this, why were you..."

So broke? He left those words unsaid.

He was truly surprised. This was most likely a service Hu Xiansheng had produced in the course of his research. It might only be a side project, but the creation of a grotto could probably net him a lot of money, right? Why was he so broke?

Hu Xiansheng's expression turned awkward. Huang Feng mercilessly said, "You should keep your expectations tempered. How many Mountainseas are there in Great Ming? And how many of them will die each year? We don't have that many characters left behind by dead Mountainseas. It's not like we can use the characters of Skysoars and Cloudbreaches. Those characters are too weak to withstand the pressure of being transformed into a grotto. Think about it. How many cultural researchers will die in Great Ming each year? How many characters can we get each year? Even at a premium price of ten thousand merit points per job, we will only get a job every three to five years. That's not enough."

Su Yu nodded in understanding. But he was still shocked. He said, "But you can expand that service outside Great Ming. I believe nobody will refuse to have more grottos, right?"

Hu Xiansheng coughed and said, "I can't do that without my facilities. And these facilities are too cumbersome to move around. Thus, I can only provide the service here. But a completed grotto is also very hard to move around. Why else would most grottos remain in the same place for so many years? If it's within Tiandu itself, they can still get some experts to help them move the completed grotto. How about those from outside Tiandu?"

"Why don't you build the same room in the other prefectures? Or you can simply sell this technology to others..."

Hu Xiansheng said, "Even so, I still need to be there. That's too troublesome. And it is not my dream to rely on something like this to build a fortune."

Fine. In short, this was a faculty head with a dream. Because of his dream, he suffered from destitution. Su Yu couldn't help but give the room a few more gazes. What a valuable room.

Hu Xiansheng warned, "These spatial fragments are very limited and rare. Also, don't cut them rashly. If you cut them too frequently, they might fail to recover in time and turn into a black hole that can devour everything. Generally, you can do it once every three months. Don't do anything rash. If you accidentally create a massive black hole, you might end up destroying the entire academy or even Great Ming. That will be disastrous."

Su Yu asked in surprise, "Is this thing destructive? In that case, you can use it as a weapon, right?"

"Don't think about fighting all the time. It's too slow. If you try to do this in the Allheaven Battlefield, an Invincible will notice it before the black hole even finishes its formation and slap you into a pile of mincemeat."

Realization dawned on Su Yu.

Next, they arrived at the fifth floor. The fifth floor was massive as well. There was a Character Peeling Room, a Preservation Room similar to Bai Feng's laboratory back in Great Xia, an Automatic Source Qi Generation Room, a Puppet Room, a small Teleportation Room, and so on. In short, this was a floor filled with high-end research facilities.

This was an eye-opening experience for Su Yu. And the sixth floor was even more impressive. There were four sectors on the sixth floor, each representing a different season. The Spring Sector was filled with a gentle breeze, swaying willow trees, blooming flowers, and a curtain of blue sky above the sector. The Summer Sector was filled with sandy shores, seawater, and swimming pools. The Autumn Sector was filled with fluttering leaves and a setting sun in the sky above. The Winter Sector was filled with floating snowflakes, gentle ice pavilions, and warm fireplaces.

This was no research center. This was a resort. Furthermore, different music was playing in each sector. Different small animals could be seen frolicking in all four sectors as well.

Su Yu was truly speechless. Impressive. Great Ming's cultural researchers were really good at enjoying life.

He had thought that the cultural researchers here all lived a hard life. But he was wrong. They were all living very well here. While the cultural researchers of the other prefectures were fighting with their lives on the line, the cultural researchers here were living life to the fullest.

Everyone believed that Great Ming's cultural researchers were useless, but in truth, they were all living well. Unfortunately, they were relatively weaker. After all, they had lived in peace for too long. They lacked the sense of crisis that was present in all the other prefectures.

In the event of war inside the Human Realm, Great Xia would be able to react immediately and turn into a war machine. That was not the case for Great Ming.

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