Chapter 624: City of Wisdom (2)

Suddenly, a voice came from outside the room, "Looks like everyone is here."

Next, Hu Xiansheng stepped through the door.

"Hello, Faculty Head."

"Morning, Faculty Head."

Everyone in the room was addressing Hu Xiansheng as either the faculty head or a teacher. Rather than calling this a faculty, one might as well call this Hu Xiansheng's private dojo. After all, all the Skysoars and Cloudbreaches were his students.

"Sit down, everyone."

Hu Xiansheng smiled and said, "We have two newcomers, and both of them are geniuses. This is worthy of celebration." "There is no need for me to introduce Su Yu as everyone here knows him. That student over there is Wu Lan, a genius student from Great Xia. She is one of the two Wu in the Double Wu Acupoint Fusion Art."

For some reason, Wu Lan felt somewhat uncomfortable when she heard that. After all, the old man was saying that with a weird smile on his face.

Suddenly, Hu Xiansheng turned stern as he said, "A new semester has begun. I called this meeting for two reasons. Firstly, I want all of you to know the two newcomers. Secondly, I want to remind all of you to work hard. Otherwise, we might really go bankrupt soon."

Hu Xiansheng sighed and said, "We really need to work together with a common purpose. Try to challenge the Hundred Dao Pagoda. Otherwise, we won't have any income. That small yearly allocation is not enough for us. Just work harder, everyone. It will benefit all of us. Wouldn't it be great if we could work together to strengthen our Multiple Character Faculty?"

Su Yu was remaining silent, but Hu Xiansheng looked at him and said, "Su Yu, do you know about the Hundred Dao Pagoda?"

Su Yu nodded, "During the founding of the academy, to fulfill the principal's request, Great Ming King had gathered a large number of cultural researchers to build a tower of trials. This building is incomparably magical, and it is even more valuable than a grotto. There is no Top 100 Ranking in Great Ming. Instead, there is a Pagoda Ranking. Everyone is ranked according to how high they can climb instead of their combat strength."

Hu Xiansheng smiled, "Exactly. This is our way of ensuring fairness. How are the cultural researchers with weaker combat strength supposed to prove themselves otherwise? How are they going to gain recognition and the support they need?

"In this pagoda, the challengers will be given different trials depending on what they specialize in. Pillmakers will be tested in pillmaking. Beast tamers will be tested in beast taming. This is the core principle behind the Hundred Dao Pagoda's existence.

"This is applicable to both teachers and students. There are 100 floors in total. Those at the Mental Tempering Stage can enter the first 20 floors. Those at the Skysoar Realm can enter the first 40 floors. Those at the Cloudbreach Realm can enter the first 60 floors, and those at the Mountainsea can enter up to the 80th floor. Sunmoons can reach the top floor.

"A Skysoar teacher incapable of reaching the 21st floor will not receive any salary and benefits for an entire year. If one can reach the 21st floor, one will receive 210 merit points for the year. The higher one climbs, the more one can get. At the 30th floor, one can get 300 merit points. Starting from the 31st floor, one can get 50 extra merit points per floor. At the 40th floor, one can get 800 merit points for the year. On top of that, your faculty will also receive the same sum of money as a reward.

"Of course, the rules are a lot more complicated than that. You can check the rules if you're interested. Since you're new, you can start from the first floor. You will get rewarded for each floor you climb."

Su Yu nodded. He was aware of this. But he didn't have the chance to challenge the pagoda yet as he had just joined the academy for a day.

Hu Xiansheng said, "The Hundred Dao Pagoda is a test for both students and teachers. It is also a test for me. I am a seventh-stage Mountainsea. With my cultivation, I need to reach the 71st floor. Otherwise, I won't get a single cent from the academy."

Su Yu asked curiously, "Faculty Head, is this pagoda hard to climb?"

"That's hard to say as each person will be tested differently." Hu Xiansheng said, "For example, a beast tamer might encounter some professional tests such as taming beasts in the pagoda. The things you see in the Hundred Dao Pagoda are both illusory and real. Strictly speaking, the pagoda is a top-tier heaven-grade cultural weapon. It is also the most valuable treasure of the academy or even Great Ming itself.

"Some people are strong, so the pagoda might decide to test your combat strength. That will prove rather troublesome as the pagoda has high requirements for character masters. But if you're a pill master at the Mental Tempering Stage, you can still try to climb beyond the 20th floor through pillmaking alone."

Su Yu nodded in understanding. How magical. This felt fairer than Great Xia's Top 100 Ranking. Sure, there were also other rankings in Great Xia, such as the Pillmaking Ranking, but apart from the students of those factions, outsiders knew nothing about those rankings.

"Faculty Head, in short, if nobody challenges the pagoda, a faculty could very well receive no extra income for the year?"

"..."

Hu Xiansheng was rendered somewhat speechless. He said, "Wen Zhong? He's a ninth-stage Cloudbreach. He's not weak at all..."

"Yes, but he's old. He might not be able to enter the Mountainsea Realm. But if I can create the aperture fusion art, as a part of the research team, he might be able to take this chance to make a breakthrough. What do you think, Faculty Head?"

Hu Xiansheng sank into thought. Su Yu pressed on, "I had a short chat with him earlier. I found that he knows a lot about apertures and acupoints. But since he has been spending too much time on research, he has neglected his acupoint fusion. With his age, if this continues for a few more years, he will die of old age before breaking through."

Hu Xiansheng sighed and said, "That's right. Wen Zhong's foundations are actually quite solid. And he has good aptitude. He has been with me for hundreds of years, but he has not been able to break through. Now, age is finally catching up and even his sea of willpower is slowly deteriorating. If this continues, he will definitely die of old age in a few decades."

He focused on Su Yu and asked, "Can you help him enter the Mountainsea Realm?"

"I don't know." Su Yu calmly said, "I'm only at the Mental Tempering Stage. As for the aperture fusion art, it is still in the conception phase for now. I can't promise anything."

Hu Xiansheng thought about Su Yu's fire of civilization, hesitated slightly, and nodded, "Alright. I'll try to persuade Wen Zhong. His bottleneck has been stronger and stronger these years. After producing the Fusion Sutra back then, he has not produced anything new."

Su Yu blanked out. What was that? Fusion Sutra? He knew about that art! He had even learned that art! The human race did not have too many acupoint fusion cultivation methods. One was the Acupoint Fusion Art with 15 acupoints and the other was the Fusion Sutra with 24 acupoints.

Strictly speaking, the Fusion Sutra was quite good. It was comparable to the first version of Su Yu's fusion art. But the first version required only 18 acupoints. Thus, it rapidly exceeded the Fusion Sutra in popularity not long after it was released.

But that did not mean that the Fusion Sutra was a bad cultivation method. On the contrary, Su Yu had actually obtained a lot of inspiration from the Fusion Sutra. Even when he was researching the version with 36 acupoints, he still took a lot of inspiration from the concepts in the Fusion Sutra. That was understandable, as that was a proper human cultivation method. Thus, it had a high level of compatibility with humans.

After a short silence, Su Yu hurriedly took out a book from his storage ring. He flipped the title page open and saw the name of the creator: Wen Zhong. He was greatly shaken. No wonder the name sounded so familiar. So they were the same person? In that case, Wen Zhong was actually quite an important individual.

Hu Xiansheng smiled and said, "Did you think I was lying? Wen Zhong has spent many years researching apertures and acupoints. You can consider him a subject expert. After your fusion art was released, he finally gave up and stopped. Prior to that, he was still trying to improve his Fusion Sutra. Unfortunately, he was not successful. I heard that you have a version with 36 acupoints as well. Is that true?"

"Yes!"

Hu Xiansheng thought about it and said, "It's not hard to entice Wen Zhong to work for you as long as you're generous enough. Just let him take a look at the third version. With that, he will probably be willing to even work for free until his death."

The Fusion Sutra was something Wen Zhong had created after hundreds of years of hard work. But Su Yu had overtaken him in only a few days. Realizing that, Su Yu finally understood the meaning behind Wen Zhong's words earlier. Wen Zhong had said that he would be able to produce the first version given enough time.

Su Yu had not said anything about it, but he had thought that the old man was bluffing. But after learning that the old man was actually the creator of the Fusion Sutra, Su Yu could only say that he was definitely not bluffing. Even Su Yu himself had learned from the old man's work.

"I can agree to that."

Su Yu agreed easily and said, "I'll talk to Senior Brother Wen after this. Please put some words in for me as well. I'm worried that he won't agree. After all, he's a ninth-stage Cloudbreach."

Suddenly, he thought of something and asked, "Faculty Head, is Senior Brother Wen an elder?"

"He's an honorary elder." Hu Xiansheng said, "He was promoted thanks to the Fusion Sutra. Back then, his Fusion Sutra was the most popular fusion art. Thus, he was promoted due to his great contribution. But your fusion art was like a slap to his face. Since then, he had been feeling greatly useless."

Su Yu shook his head, "Senior Brother Wen relied on true ability, unlike me. I achieved what I did by standing on the shoulders of giants like Senior Brother Wen and the others. It's not the same as creating something from scratch."

Su Yu felt that Wen Zhong would be perfect for his research center. During his time at Great Xia, he could get Zhao Li's help in deducing cultivation methods. Here in Great Ming, Wen Zhong would be the perfect person for that. In fact, Wen Zhong would be even better than Zhao Li since Zhao Li was not an expert in this subject.

Great Ming might not have a lot of expert combatants, but Su Yu was starting to realize that Tiandu was actually a city of innovation and wisdom. Perhaps he would really be able to absorb enough knowledge here to further grow himself.