Liu Wenyan returned about fifteen minutes later. Su Yu stole a few glances at him and did not notice anything abnormal.
With an indifferent expression, Liu Wenyan said, "Bai Feng went into seclusion after returning to the academy. I couldn't get in touch with him. You should have told me earlier. Next time, finish your sentences. Why are you being all hesitant and leaving your sentences unfinished? That's not how a cultivator should act!"
Liu Wenyan berated Su Yu, "You need to know that both cultural researchers or warriors...when I say warriors, I refer to the physical cultivators. Both require flexibility, decisiveness, and fortitude to become true experts. A small matter like this kept you hesitating for an entire month? Don't you feel that you're too indecisive?"
Liu Wenyan slapped the table, nearly smashing the table apart. The more he spoke, the more he believed that he was right.
"If you discover the armies of divines or devils marching upon us in the future, are you going to hesitate for a month as well? Are you getting ready to perform mass funerals for humanity? Even if your superior doesn't give you the chance to speak, you need to create a chance to speak!"
Liu Wenyan had a look of disappointment as he continued, "I thought you're calm and dependable. Alas, you're not calm, you're indecisive. I'm very disappointed!"
"..."
Su Yu wanted to say something but hesitated. He eventually decided that his instructor was right and he should stop being indecisive so he hurriedly said, "Instructor, I was wrong. I will change!"
"Good." Finally, Liu Wenyan smiled. He had regained his dignity as a teacher. "Activate your Divine Character."
The blood character in Su Yu’s mind erupted. Once again, an illusion was created. This time, it wasn't an iron-winged bird. Instead, it was a charging army of hundreds of demonic beasts. Liu Wenyan stared at the scene before him with his brows furrowed. These demonic beasts looked real, but they were not without flaws.
"Are these beasts created based on the corpses you studied in Xia Trade Company?"
"Yes."
"They look quite real, but you only saw them as corpses. These illusions lack the liveliness of true beasts. Some Great Strength cultivators that have never been to the battlefield might fall for it, but someone with experience will not be fooled for long."
Liu Wenyan then praised with a nod, "Not bad at all. It will work against ordinary Great Strength cultivators. Of course, it won't last long."
His eyes glowed and the illusion instantly vanished.
Apart from having a slightly pale face, Su Yu was largely fine.
"Not bad. Your willpower isn't too strong, but it's tough and durable, as though it has been tempered endlessly..."
Liu Wenyan paused and looked at Su Yu doubtfully, "As someone who has not seen the battlefield or experienced anything big in life, your willpower shouldn't be so durable. You should suffer some form of backlash after I destroyed your illusion."
Even though the backlash wouldn't be too strong due to Su Yu's weak willpower, it should do something more than only causing Su Yu to pale slightly. In fact, turning pale was merely the sign of willpower exhaustion, not backlash.
Su Yu hurriedly explained, "I watch a lot of executions performed by the prefect on television. I wonder if that has something to do with this?"
"..."
Liu Wenyan had the urge to curse. This kid watched a lot of executions on television? What next? Was he going to say that he had recorded the executions to watch them on repeat every day? How psychotic must he be to do so? This kid...couldn't be a psychopath, right?
Liu Wenyan glanced at Su Yu suspiciously, but he did not say anything about Su Yu’s preferences. He moved on and said, "You mentioned that your Divine Character wants to consume blood? Try doing it."
"I don't have any blood..."
"There's no need. Order the Divine Character to absorb my blood."
Su Yu gave it a try, but he shook his head. His little brother did not seem interested in doing so. Liu Wenyan thought for a bit before slicing his finger, allowing a drop of blood to flow out.
"Again."
"Instructor...this..."
"Do it. Why are you hesitating?"
Su Yu did not dare to delay. He once again ordered the blood character to absorb the blood. This time, the character moved. With a hum in his mind, an absorption force erupted and pulled the drop of blood away from Liu Wenyan.
Liu Wenyan's eyes flickered as he said, "This will do."
He did not allow his blood to be pulled away from him. With a nod, he said, "Not bad. This is an offensive ability. The previous ability your Divine Character demonstrated is an illusory ability."
"Your Divine Character is quite interesting. It is still weak, but it has a lot of abilities. Generally, even if a Divine Character has multiple abilities, there would only be one main ability. As for yours...does it have more abilities? If your Divine Character is strong enough, you can cause your opponents to bleed endlessly the moment a wound is left on them, eventually killing them through excessive blood loss. That was why I called this an offensive ability."
Su Yu nodded before shaking his head. "I think this is as much as the character can do for now. I have not discovered anything."
"So two abilities...no." With some hesitation, Liu Wenyan took out a drop of blood essence and said, "This is the blood of a Great Strength fire hog. Try absorbing it."
But he shook his head and said, "No, wait. I'll grab some ordinary beast blood instead. Wait here."
He then vanished into thin air. Before long, he returned with a bottle in hand. "This is the blood of a python bull. Try absorbing it."
Once again, Su Yu ordered his blood character to get to work. The blood in the bottle trembled for a bit. Then, a small portion of the blood vanished into nothingness. Su Yu could sense that the blood character in his mind had turned deeper in color.
"Again."
Su Yu wasted no time and continued the absorption. More and more blood vanished from the bottle and eventually, the bottle became empty. The blood character was much deeper in color than before.
"How are you feeling?"
"The Divine Character seems to have been strengthened. I don't feel anything else."
"Strengthened?" Liu Wenyan sank into thought. He said, "In that case, your Divine Character can be strengthened with blood. That is good. Most Divine Characters can only be strengthened with willpower. Only some unique Divine Characters can be strengthened with something other than willpower.
"This is your first Divine Character. Since it can strengthen itself with blood, it is a unique character. Not bad at all. This special ability will be a great help to its growth in the future."
Liu Wenyan nodded repeatedly. Su Yu's willpower was still weak, so it wouldn't be easy for him to strengthen his Divine Character. However, his Divine Character was able to strengthen itself through blood consumption. That was a good ability to have.
"Instructor, will I be able to extract blood essence? I heard that some Divine Characters are able to do so."
Liu Wenyan shook his head, "Yours won't work. Your Divine Character is still too weak. Furthermore, it only absorbs blood to strengthen itself, exhausting all the power in the blood in the process."
"But..." Liu Wenyan paused and smiled before continuing, "That's not absolute. This Divine Character is still weak. When it gets strong enough, it will stop needing the power within the weaker blood. It might be able to extract the blood essence out of those weaker blood.
"You won't be able to do that for now. There is no need to try. Just wait until you achieve willpower materialization first. Or maybe the late Mental Tempering Stage will work as well. For now, even if your Divine Character can really extract blood essence, with its absorption speed, it will probably take half a month to produce a single drop. It's not worth the time."
Su Yu was disappointed to hear that. His dream of getting rich had been shattered. On the other hand, bankruptcy seemed to be creeping nearer and nearer. That little brother of his could only eat for free without contributing anything!
"Illusion, blood absorption, and self-strengthening. Three abilities." Liu Wenyan nodded, "Not bad at all."
As for blood essence extraction, he wasn't sure if the character could do so. That wasn't exactly some super valuable ability, so he didn't really care too much about it.
Su Yu was somewhat happy as he asked, "Instructor, does possessing three abilities make this Divine Character strong?"
He had heard from Liu Wenyan that many Divine Characters only had a single ability.
"Strong?" Liu Wenyan nonchalantly said, "The number of abilities does not mean anything. For example, I have a Divine Character with only one ability: to pierce through someone's sea of willpower. Between this character and your character, which do you think is better?"
"..."
Su Yu had an embarrassed expression. Liu Wenyan was right. That was only one ability, but it was an extremely powerful one.
"Therefore, don't focus on the number of abilities. Focus on the function of the ability and its strength.
"Take the fourth principal of the academy as an example. He left the character 'source' behind. It can only absorb source qi, ultimately turning into a source qi grotto. Let me ask you. Is that ability strong or weak?"
Liu Wenyan smiled, "It's actually a weak ability. Are you going to be stronger than your opponent just because you can replenish your source qi faster during combat? But for humanity, that Divine Character is worth more than a living Mountainsea expert.
"No matter how strong a Mountainsea cultivator is, that is still one person. A source qi grotto is capable of nurturing countless students. So is this Divine Character powerful or not?"
Su Yu came to an understanding. He nodded and said, "I understand, Instructor. The strength of a Divine Character is not decided by its number of abilities. Rather, it is decided by how and where you use it. The character 'source' is nothing special in active combat, but when it comes to supporting, it is an absolute treasure."
"Exactly. Therefore, you don't really need to care too much about the number of abilities. However, it can be quite helpful to have more abilities during the early stages of cultivation. But most people will focus on a single ability at the latter stages. That will make it easier for you to reach a higher height."
Liu Wenyan tossed the drop of fire hog blood essence over and said, "Try absorbing this. It's a Great Strength blood essence. As a Source Opening cultivator, you won't be able to make use of it. However, that's not the case for your Divine Character. I'm just afraid that your body won't be able to withstand it."
Su Yu did not hesitate and had his character absorb the drop of blood essence. This time, the absorption process was difficult and slow. Su Yu could feel his willpower dropping at an alarming rate. The blood character was trembling, looking like someone trying to drink from a ten-meter-long straw.
The hyperactive blood character was suddenly much less energetic than before. This was a case of failing to perform after finally getting what it wanted. After expending a great effort, to the point Su Yu felt like his head was going to burst apart, he had only caused the drop of blood essence to tremble slightly. Apart from that, the drop of blood essence remained the same.
Liu Wenyan was able to detect more than that. With a smile, he said, "About one percent of the blood essence has been absorbed. Looks like your Divine Character is still very weak."
Su Yu could see the blood character being covered by a blanket of blood. He didn't know whether to laugh or cry. Was this fellow giving up? It had only absorbed one percent of the blood essence and it was acting like someone who had gone through an intense workout session. He had thought that this fellow was amazing, but it was actually so weak. If it could only absorb one percent of a Great Strength blood essence, why even bother demanding for blood?
"Instructor, so I can grow this Divine Character by absorbing blood, right?"
"I think so. How you grow your Divine Character depends on its characteristics." Liu Wenyan warned, "But don't absorb too much blood. It's not a good thing for your Divine Character to grow too strong. Your willpower is still not strong enough. If your Divine Character grows to the point your willpower can no longer suppress it, you will suffer a backlash from the character."
"And that's only if you're getting off lightly. In the worst case scenario, it can even devour all your willpower." Liu Wenyan turned stern, "Among the group of failed students back then, a few were killed. This was how they had been killed. Those fools had focused on strengthening their Divine Characters. A few of them were like you."
"Their Divine Characters can grow using external resources. After paying a great price, they grew their Divine Characters to incredible levels. As a result, the Divine Characters started needing even more willpower. Their willpower was fully devoured by their own Divine Characters, causing a collapse of their seas of willpower, killing all of them."
Liu Wenyan was solemn, "Therefore, when you feel yourself nearing your limit, when your willpower feels pressured, immediately stop strengthening your Divine Character. Divine Characters and willpower complement each other. It doesn't matter if your willpower is stronger, but if your Divine Characters grow stronger, you're not far away from death. Even if you survive, you will end up crippled."
Su Yu nodded with a similarly solemn expression. He had actually been thinking of trying to grow his Divine Character until he could kill a Skysoar cultivator with it. But with Liu Wenyan's warning, he immediately understood how dangerous that thinking was. After all, he had gotten into a long struggle with the blood character before taming it. If the Divine Character grew too strong, it would turn on him.
"All that is actually common sense. You'll learn them in the academy. But you're a special case since you've completed your Divine Character in advance. In Nanyuan, I'm the only one familiar with this topic. If there is something you don't understand, remember to ask me. Do not experiment recklessly."
Liu Wenyan was extremely stern, "Never, ever, experiment recklessly. Also, since you have completed your first Divine Character, you can form your second. That is fine. But be sure to stay within your limit. When you're near your limit, even if a Divine Character is dancing in front of you, do not attempt to capture it. Don't lose your life over greed.
"Divine Characters are not things that you want to have as many as you can. Having too many of them might overcomplicate things. With a smaller number of characters, you can properly grow each of them. And at the moment, you won't even be able to withstand the might of a single fully grown Divine Character, much less multiple Divine Characters."
Su Yu nodded repeatedly. His instructor was speaking from experience. A novice like him needed to listen carefully. Liu Wenyan continued speaking, sharing more of what he knew with Su Yu. It had been many years since he last touched this topic, but he still had his experience from the past.
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Liu Wenyan returned about fifteen minutes later. Su Yu stole a few glances at him and did not notice anything abnormal.
With an indifferent expression, Liu Wenyan said, "Bai Feng went into seclusion after returning to the academy. I couldn't get in touch with him. You should have told me earlier. Next time, finish your sentences. Why are you being all hesitant and leaving your sentences unfinished? That's not how a cultivator should act!"
Liu Wenyan berated Su Yu, "You need to know that both cultural researchers or warriors...when I say warriors, I refer to the physical cultivators. Both require flexibility, decisiveness, and fortitude to become true experts. A small matter like this kept you hesitating for an entire month? Don't you feel that you're too indecisive?"
Liu Wenyan slapped the table, nearly smashing the table apart. The more he spoke, the more he believed that he was right.
"If you discover the armies of divines or devils marching upon us in the future, are you going to hesitate for a month as well? Are you getting ready to perform mass funerals for humanity? Even if your superior doesn't give you the chance to speak, you need to create a chance to speak!"
Liu Wenyan had a look of disappointment as he continued, "I thought you're calm and dependable. Alas, you're not calm, you're indecisive. I'm very disappointed!"
"..."
Su Yu wanted to say something but hesitated. He eventually decided that his instructor was right and he should stop being indecisive so he hurriedly said, "Instructor, I was wrong. I will change!"
"Good." Finally, Liu Wenyan smiled. He had regained his dignity as a teacher. "Activate your Divine Character."
The blood character in Su Yu’s mind erupted. Once again, an illusion was created. This time, it wasn't an iron-winged bird. Instead, it was a charging army of hundreds of demonic beasts. Liu Wenyan stared at the scene before him with his brows furrowed. These demonic beasts looked real, but they were not without flaws.
"Are these beasts created based on the corpses you studied in Xia Trade Company?"
"Yes."
"They look quite real, but you only saw them as corpses. These illusions lack the liveliness of true beasts. Some Great Strength cultivators that have never been to the battlefield might fall for it, but someone with experience will not be fooled for long."
Liu Wenyan then praised with a nod, "Not bad at all. It will work against ordinary Great Strength cultivators. Of course, it won't last long."
His eyes glowed and the illusion instantly vanished.
Apart from having a slightly pale face, Su Yu was largely fine.
"Not bad. Your willpower isn't too strong, but it's tough and durable, as though it has been tempered endlessly..."
Liu Wenyan paused and looked at Su Yu doubtfully, "As someone who has not seen the battlefield or experienced anything big in life, your willpower shouldn't be so durable. You should suffer some form of backlash after I destroyed your illusion."
Even though the backlash wouldn't be too strong due to Su Yu's weak willpower, it should do something more than only causing Su Yu to pale slightly. In fact, turning pale was merely the sign of willpower exhaustion, not backlash.
Su Yu hurriedly explained, "I watch a lot of executions performed by the prefect on television. I wonder if that has something to do with this?"
"..."
Liu Wenyan had the urge to curse. This kid watched a lot of executions on television? What next? Was he going to say that he had recorded the executions to watch them on repeat every day? How psychotic must he be to do so? This kid...couldn't be a psychopath, right?
Liu Wenyan glanced at Su Yu suspiciously, but he did not say anything about Su Yu’s preferences. He moved on and said, "You mentioned that your Divine Character wants to consume blood? Try doing it."
"I don't have any blood..."
"There's no need. Order the Divine Character to absorb my blood."
Su Yu gave it a try, but he shook his head. His little brother did not seem interested in doing so. Liu Wenyan thought for a bit before slicing his finger, allowing a drop of blood to flow out.
"Again."
"Instructor...this..."
"Do it. Why are you hesitating?"
Su Yu did not dare to delay. He once again ordered the blood character to absorb the blood. This time, the character moved. With a hum in his mind, an absorption force erupted and pulled the drop of blood away from Liu Wenyan.
Liu Wenyan's eyes flickered as he said, "This will do."
He did not allow his blood to be pulled away from him. With a nod, he said, "Not bad. This is an offensive ability. The previous ability your Divine Character demonstrated is an illusory ability."
"Your Divine Character is quite interesting. It is still weak, but it has a lot of abilities. Generally, even if a Divine Character has multiple abilities, there would only be one main ability. As for yours...does it have more abilities? If your Divine Character is strong enough, you can cause your opponents to bleed endlessly the moment a wound is left on them, eventually killing them through excessive blood loss. That was why I called this an offensive ability."
Su Yu nodded before shaking his head. "I think this is as much as the character can do for now. I have not discovered anything."
"So two abilities...no." With some hesitation, Liu Wenyan took out a drop of blood essence and said, "This is the blood of a Great Strength fire hog. Try absorbing it."
But he shook his head and said, "No, wait. I'll grab some ordinary beast blood instead. Wait here."
He then vanished into thin air. Before long, he returned with a bottle in hand. "This is the blood of a python bull. Try absorbing it."
Once again, Su Yu ordered his blood character to get to work. The blood in the bottle trembled for a bit. Then, a small portion of the blood vanished into nothingness. Su Yu could sense that the blood character in his mind had turned deeper in color.
"Again."
Su Yu wasted no time and continued the absorption. More and more blood vanished from the bottle and eventually, the bottle became empty. The blood character was much deeper in color than before.
"How are you feeling?"
"The Divine Character seems to have been strengthened. I don't feel anything else."
"Strengthened?" Liu Wenyan sank into thought. He said, "In that case, your Divine Character can be strengthened with blood. That is good. Most Divine Characters can only be strengthened with willpower. Only some unique Divine Characters can be strengthened with something other than willpower.
"This is your first Divine Character. Since it can strengthen itself with blood, it is a unique character. Not bad at all. This special ability will be a great help to its growth in the future."
Liu Wenyan nodded repeatedly. Su Yu's willpower was still weak, so it wouldn't be easy for him to strengthen his Divine Character. However, his Divine Character was able to strengthen itself through blood consumption. That was a good ability to have.
"Instructor, will I be able to extract blood essence? I heard that some Divine Characters are able to do so."
Liu Wenyan shook his head, "Yours won't work. Your Divine Character is still too weak. Furthermore, it only absorbs blood to strengthen itself, exhausting all the power in the blood in the process."
"But..." Liu Wenyan paused and smiled before continuing, "That's not absolute. This Divine Character is still weak. When it gets strong enough, it will stop needing the power within the weaker blood. It might be able to extract the blood essence out of those weaker blood.
"You won't be able to do that for now. There is no need to try. Just wait until you achieve willpower materialization first. Or maybe the late Mental Tempering Stage will work as well. For now, even if your Divine Character can really extract blood essence, with its absorption speed, it will probably take half a month to produce a single drop. It's not worth the time."
Su Yu was disappointed to hear that. His dream of getting rich had been shattered. On the other hand, bankruptcy seemed to be creeping nearer and nearer. That little brother of his could only eat for free without contributing anything!
"Illusion, blood absorption, and self-strengthening. Three abilities." Liu Wenyan nodded, "Not bad at all."
As for blood essence extraction, he wasn't sure if the character could do so. That wasn't exactly some super valuable ability, so he didn't really care too much about it.
Su Yu was somewhat happy as he asked, "Instructor, does possessing three abilities make this Divine Character strong?"
He had heard from Liu Wenyan that many Divine Characters only had a single ability.
"Strong?" Liu Wenyan nonchalantly said, "The number of abilities does not mean anything. For example, I have a Divine Character with only one ability: to pierce through someone's sea of willpower. Between this character and your character, which do you think is better?"
"..."
Su Yu had an embarrassed expression. Liu Wenyan was right. That was only one ability, but it was an extremely powerful one.
"Therefore, don't focus on the number of abilities. Focus on the function of the ability and its strength.
"Take the fourth principal of the academy as an example. He left the character 'source' behind. It can only absorb source qi, ultimately turning into a source qi grotto. Let me ask you. Is that ability strong or weak?"
Liu Wenyan smiled, "It's actually a weak ability. Are you going to be stronger than your opponent just because you can replenish your source qi faster during combat? But for humanity, that Divine Character is worth more than a living Mountainsea expert.
"No matter how strong a Mountainsea cultivator is, that is still one person. A source qi grotto is capable of nurturing countless students. So is this Divine Character powerful or not?"
Su Yu came to an understanding. He nodded and said, "I understand, Instructor. The strength of a Divine Character is not decided by its number of abilities. Rather, it is decided by how and where you use it. The character 'source' is nothing special in active combat, but when it comes to supporting, it is an absolute treasure."
"Exactly. Therefore, you don't really need to care too much about the number of abilities. However, it can be quite helpful to have more abilities during the early stages of cultivation. But most people will focus on a single ability at the latter stages. That will make it easier for you to reach a higher height."
Liu Wenyan tossed the drop of fire hog blood essence over and said, "Try absorbing this. It's a Great Strength blood essence. As a Source Opening cultivator, you won't be able to make use of it. However, that's not the case for your Divine Character. I'm just afraid that your body won't be able to withstand it."
Su Yu did not hesitate and had his character absorb the drop of blood essence. This time, the absorption process was difficult and slow. Su Yu could feel his willpower dropping at an alarming rate. The blood character was trembling, looking like someone trying to drink from a ten-meter-long straw.
The hyperactive blood character was suddenly much less energetic than before. This was a case of failing to perform after finally getting what it wanted. After expending a great effort, to the point Su Yu felt like his head was going to burst apart, he had only caused the drop of blood essence to tremble slightly. Apart from that, the drop of blood essence remained the same.
Liu Wenyan was able to detect more than that. With a smile, he said, "About one percent of the blood essence has been absorbed. Looks like your Divine Character is still very weak."
Su Yu could see the blood character being covered by a blanket of blood. He didn't know whether to laugh or cry. Was this fellow giving up? It had only absorbed one percent of the blood essence and it was acting like someone who had gone through an intense workout session. He had thought that this fellow was amazing, but it was actually so weak. If it could only absorb one percent of a Great Strength blood essence, why even bother demanding for blood?
"Instructor, so I can grow this Divine Character by absorbing blood, right?"
"I think so. How you grow your Divine Character depends on its characteristics." Liu Wenyan warned, "But don't absorb too much blood. It's not a good thing for your Divine Character to grow too strong. Your willpower is still not strong enough. If your Divine Character grows to the point your willpower can no longer suppress it, you will suffer a backlash from the character."
"And that's only if you're getting off lightly. In the worst case scenario, it can even devour all your willpower." Liu Wenyan turned stern, "Among the group of failed students back then, a few were killed. This was how they had been killed. Those fools had focused on strengthening their Divine Characters. A few of them were like you."
"Their Divine Characters can grow using external resources. After paying a great price, they grew their Divine Characters to incredible levels. As a result, the Divine Characters started needing even more willpower. Their willpower was fully devoured by their own Divine Characters, causing a collapse of their seas of willpower, killing all of them."
Liu Wenyan was solemn, "Therefore, when you feel yourself nearing your limit, when your willpower feels pressured, immediately stop strengthening your Divine Character. Divine Characters and willpower complement each other. It doesn't matter if your willpower is stronger, but if your Divine Characters grow stronger, you're not far away from death. Even if you survive, you will end up crippled."
Su Yu nodded with a similarly solemn expression. He had actually been thinking of trying to grow his Divine Character until he could kill a Skysoar cultivator with it. But with Liu Wenyan's warning, he immediately understood how dangerous that thinking was. After all, he had gotten into a long struggle with the blood character before taming it. If the Divine Character grew too strong, it would turn on him.
"All that is actually common sense. You'll learn them in the academy. But you're a special case since you've completed your Divine Character in advance. In Nanyuan, I'm the only one familiar with this topic. If there is something you don't understand, remember to ask me. Do not experiment recklessly."
Liu Wenyan was extremely stern, "Never, ever, experiment recklessly. Also, since you have completed your first Divine Character, you can form your second. That is fine. But be sure to stay within your limit. When you're near your limit, even if a Divine Character is dancing in front of you, do not attempt to capture it. Don't lose your life over greed.
"Divine Characters are not things that you want to have as many as you can. Having too many of them might overcomplicate things. With a smaller number of characters, you can properly grow each of them. And at the moment, you won't even be able to withstand the might of a single fully grown Divine Character, much less multiple Divine Characters."
Su Yu nodded repeatedly. His instructor was speaking from experience. A novice like him needed to listen carefully. Liu Wenyan continued speaking, sharing more of what he knew with Su Yu. It had been many years since he last touched this topic, but he still had his experience from the past.
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