Wentan Research Center.
Third underground floor. Main laboratory.
It was already the 12th of October. Su Yu and the others had stayed almost exclusively indoors for the past two days. The injured ones were focused on recuperating, while the rest were focused on cultivating.
Bai Feng had recovered considerably. But due to the loss of his characters, his combat strength had dropped considerably.
Bai Feng wasn't too worried. He still looked calm and indifferent. Every now and then, he would secretly read some of Su Yu's willpower texts. Bai Feng believed that Su Yu had too many willpower texts to even remember how many he had.
But today, Bai Feng was not reading any willpower texts. Since he had some free time and was about to leave this place soon, he suddenly remembered that he was also a teacher.
"Today, I'll be teaching you my newest creation, the character technique disassembly method."
Not far away, Hong Tan was seated cross-legged in cultivation. Obviously, he was pretending to be cultivating. He was too embarrassed to openly learn from his student, so he was pretending to be cultivating while eavesdropping on the lesson.
Su Yu and Bai Feng did not bother exposing him. This old man would really beat them up if they exposed him.
While talking, Bai Feng took out a small sword. It was very small. And there were only four dots of light inside it.
"Back then, my character technique required 12 foundation characters. After entering the Skysoar Realm, I formed 16 additional characters. In total, I had 28 characters.
"During the battle with Xia Yuwen, I had to crush 24 characters before I managed to deal him a serious injury. That fellow is really quite impressive.
"Xia Yuwen has been known to be unrivalled at the same cultivation level. That actually isn't too wrong. He is very strong. Not even those weak fifth- or even sixth-stage Cloudbreach cultivators in the academy could be his match. What does that mean?"
Su Yu instantly understood, "That can only mean that you are incomparably heroic and powerful, Teacher. If you decide to fight for real, you can instantly kill a fifth- or sixth-stage Cloudbreach cultivator."
"Exactly."
Bai Feng had the urge to raise his thumbs at his student. It felt incredible to have a smart student who could say the words he left unsaid.
Not far away, Hong Tan started looking at Su Yu suspiciously.
This kid...no longer looked like a simple and honest person.
"Of course, I also paid a high price. Honestly, anyone else would not be willing to sacrifice 24 characters for this. The separation of a character technique is not as simple as forcefully tearing it apart. If that's really how you do it, we would have discovered this method long ago during our peak when we had numerous experts."
"In fact, my disassembly method was inspired by my racial ability character research. Since characters can be brought together, why can't they be taken apart again? In that case, how should we take them apart without destroying the character technique? How do we keep the character technique strong even after it is taken apart? Not even your grandteacher has the answer to this. But I..."
Su Yu gave his teacher a pitiful look. It didn't matter what his teacher said in the past since his grandteacher wasn't around. But now, the grandteacher was sitting not far away.
Meanwhile, Hong Tan's eyes remained shut, acting like he had heard nothing.
Bai Feng also realized this fact. He coughed awkwardly and said, "Forget about this. Let's move to the main topic. How should we perform this disassembly?"
He took out his Dragon Slaying Sword again.
"Each character is different from each other. They will have different properties and abilities. They will also differ from each other in strength..."
Bai Feng stopped straying from the topic and started giving Su Yu a class on the disassembly of character techniques while ensuring that these techniques would still possess some combat prowess.
"Even a disassembled character technique with only one character is stronger than a single independent character. Do you know why?"
Su Yu shook his head.
Bai Feng smiled, "You can say that a character technique with only one character can't even be considered a proper character technique. But why is it still stronger than a regular character? Because even after disassembling your character technique, there is still a connection between them. There is still a resonance. Do you know about Zhao Li's Hundred Sword Box?"
Su Yu nodded.
"At its peak, his Hundred Sword Box is capable of creating a formation of a hundred swords. These swords will resonate with each other and amplify their power. That's the case with character techniques."
After saying that, Bai Feng instantly disassembled his Dragon Slaying Sword into four smaller swords.
The four swords started circling around Su Yu. They were completely in sync with each other, yet each of them had different properties.
One of them emanated an aura of frost; one emanated an incomparably sharp aura; one emanated a destructive aura...
"This is the difference between a single character in a character technique and one outside a character technique."
The four swords erupted in strength at the same time. They moved in sync, their power resonated with each other, and a balance was reached.
"They can work together as a formation."
Su Yu nodded. After thinking for a bit, he said, "Teacher, at times, the single character faction will also use multiple characters together in some sort of system, such as a system of wind, fire, mountain, and forest. Is that system of theirs similar to what you're showing here?"
"More or less."
Bai Feng nodded, "In truth, those systems they are using also originated from our faction. Back then, your grandteacher was the one who had come up with the methods of using characters as a system. The single character faction had merely adopted these methods. Of course, they had subsequently performed their own research and improved upon these methods, but the core of their systems is still utilizing the fusion method created by your grandteacher."
At this time, Hong Tan clarified, "I am not the creator of character systems. Your great grandteacher had left some incomplete information behind. I had merely improved upon those methods before releasing them."
Su Yu nodded. True. Back then, Hong Tan was still too young. It would be too difficult for someone that young to come up with an entirely new system of utilizing Divine Characters. Nevertheless, one should also not underestimate the difficulty of actually improving upon a system left by the fifth principal.
In truth, Su Yu felt like both his teacher and grandteacher fit the image of real cultural researchers in his mind.
Prior to entering the academy, Su Yu believed that despite the strength of cultural researchers, they should still spend more of their effort and energy on research. But after entering the academy, he saw that such researchers were actually quite rare.
Zhao Li could be considered one of them. He would spend most of his time in his research center. And Bai Feng was definitely one of them. He had basically been living in his laboratory.
Su Yu didn't know too many other researchers. He knew that there were a decent number of them who enjoyed hiding in their research centers, but he also knew that there were a lot who spent the majority of their time outside their research centers.
Bai Feng ignored his teacher and continued speaking, "Your character technique requires 18 foundational characters. It is a character technique with 18 nodes..."
"Hmm?" Hong Tan asked in astonishment, "How many?"
Bai Feng looked at his teacher and gloomily said, "Teacher, aren't you cultivating? Aren't you focusing on your breakthrough? You should enter seclusion now. I'm in the middle of teaching my student."
He was finally giving his student an official lesson, but why was his teacher interrupting again and again? That was so annoying! Yes! Irresponsible teachers like Hong Tan were the most annoying!
Hong Tan shut his mouth and gave Bai Feng a glare. Fine. He decided to shut his mouth. Eighteen foundational characters? That was basically the same as his senior brother!
Su Yu was unbothered by that little episode. He hesitated slightly and said, "Teacher, according to your words, we can disassemble our techniques and continue adding foundational characters even after the techniques solidify? In that case, does this mean that it no longer matters whether I need 18 or 88 foundational characters?
"For example, if I have a character technique with 99 characters, I will first split a part with only 9 characters and enter the Skysoar Realm. After entering the Skysoar Realm, I can continue forming the remaining 90 characters. In this situation, needing 99 foundational characters no longer changes anything, right?"
"There is still a difference." Bai Feng explained, "Upon reaching the Skysoar Realm, you will have one chance to solidify the character technique. That is also the reason why we used to need our members to form their characters before the Skysoar Realm. The solidification process is essentially a strengthening process. And you can only do it once.
"Using your example of 99 characters, if you split a part with only 9 characters before advancing, those 9 characters will receive this chance. But the other characters that you form after entering the Skysoar Realm will not have such a chance."
Su Yu nodded. He finally understood, "Does the solidification make a big difference in strength?"
"Yes. The difference is considerably big." Bai Feng said, "In normal circumstances, it is basically a free upgrade. Take me as an example. Back then, I advanced into the Skysoar Realm with 12 characters. After the solidification, all 12 of those characters reached the second tier. Prior to that, all of them were first-tier characters. As for the other 16 characters I formed after, even after years of working on them, some of them had still not reached the second tier."
"So it basically saves you time."
"Is that not good enough? The strength of a character technique is greatly dependent on the tiers of characters in the technique. With stronger characters, the technique would naturally be stronger."
"So the characters that have not gone through the solidification process can be just as useful as long as I can upgrade them?"
"Yeah. But you will need a lot of time and resources."
"..."
One was asking, one was answering. Not far away, Hong Tan was gratified to see this.
Such a scene of a teacher teaching a curious student while the grandteacher watched over them not far away had not been seen in the multiple character faction for a very long time.
Sure, Chen Yong had a student as well. And Chen Yong quite enjoyed giving his student lectures. But Wu Jia would merely sit there and listen silently without asking a single question.
Slowly, Su Yu came to learn more and more things.
At this time, Bai Feng said, "You have formed five characters"
"Six now."
"..."
Bai Feng looked at Su Yu. Su Yu looked at Bai Feng as well.
What? Was there a problem with that? But that was the number of characters he had.
Bai Feng told himself that he was a calm person. This was nothing. The previous time they met, this kid only had five characters. It was only natural that the kid had improved since then.
"A human character?"
"Yeah."
"Then you can try to remove all six of your characters from the character technique." Bai Feng said, "If you can remove these characters, you can form a small saber with them. By the way, have you named your character technique? It's better to give it a good name. Like mine. The Dragon Slaying Sword. I only need to pull my sword out, and everyone will know what's coming."
"Giving it a name?" That thought had never crossed his mind. With Bai Feng's suggestion, he thought about it and said in hesitation, "Why don't I name it the Sealing Saber?"
"..."
What was the meaning of that? Bai Feng looked at his student blankly. He couldn't understand the reasoning behind that name.
Su Yu said, "I'll pull my saber out while loudly shouting its name. My enemy will think that I specialize in sealing. But in truth, that's not the case. My enemy will be looking out for sealing abilities. But instead, I'll simply cut him down with my blade. What do you think about this, Teacher?"
"..."
Bai Feng had nothing to say. Meanwhile, Hong Tan looked at the ceiling. He was mistaken. An honest person? This grandstudent? He must have been blind to think that. Just the reasoning behind the name of a saber was enough to tell Hong Tan that he had greatly misunderstood his grandstudent.
"Sealing Saber..."
After some thought, Bai Feng said with a regretful expression, "You're right. Why had I named my sword the Dragon Slaying Sword? With that name, everyone knows that my sword is meant for slaughter. What a pity."
His student made a lot of sense! With that naming sense, they would be able to confuse their enemies! That was such a good idea!
"Sealing Saber...very good! This is a good choice!" Bai Feng praised his student and said, "You have a cultural weapon as well, right? Are you giving it the same name as well?"
"Yeah." Su Yu nodded, "Yeah. I'll give it the same name. After I become popular, even if everyone knows that I walk the path of offense, the name of my saber will still mislead them if they have never actually seen me before."
"That's right." Bai Feng smiled, "You can first separate your six characters from the technique and use them to form a small Sealing Saber. Then, you can send this small saber into your cultural weapon. That way, you will be able to properly apply the power of your character technique.
"This is a character technique, so it will still greatly increase your combat strength. Sure, it is not a complete version, but you will still be much stronger than before. By doing this, you will no longer be stuck below the Skysoar Realm. You can always fill up the remaining characters after your breakthrough."
Wentan Research Center.
Third underground floor. Main laboratory.
It was already the 12th of October. Su Yu and the others had stayed almost exclusively indoors for the past two days. The injured ones were focused on recuperating, while the rest were focused on cultivating.
Bai Feng had recovered considerably. But due to the loss of his characters, his combat strength had dropped considerably.
Bai Feng wasn't too worried. He still looked calm and indifferent. Every now and then, he would secretly read some of Su Yu's willpower texts. Bai Feng believed that Su Yu had too many willpower texts to even remember how many he had.
But today, Bai Feng was not reading any willpower texts. Since he had some free time and was about to leave this place soon, he suddenly remembered that he was also a teacher.
"Today, I'll be teaching you my newest creation, the character technique disassembly method."
Not far away, Hong Tan was seated cross-legged in cultivation. Obviously, he was pretending to be cultivating. He was too embarrassed to openly learn from his student, so he was pretending to be cultivating while eavesdropping on the lesson.
Su Yu and Bai Feng did not bother exposing him. This old man would really beat them up if they exposed him.
While talking, Bai Feng took out a small sword. It was very small. And there were only four dots of light inside it.
"Back then, my character technique required 12 foundation characters. After entering the Skysoar Realm, I formed 16 additional characters. In total, I had 28 characters.
"During the battle with Xia Yuwen, I had to crush 24 characters before I managed to deal him a serious injury. That fellow is really quite impressive.
"Xia Yuwen has been known to be unrivalled at the same cultivation level. That actually isn't too wrong. He is very strong. Not even those weak fifth- or even sixth-stage Cloudbreach cultivators in the academy could be his match. What does that mean?"
Su Yu instantly understood, "That can only mean that you are incomparably heroic and powerful, Teacher. If you decide to fight for real, you can instantly kill a fifth- or sixth-stage Cloudbreach cultivator."
"Exactly."
Bai Feng had the urge to raise his thumbs at his student. It felt incredible to have a smart student who could say the words he left unsaid.
Not far away, Hong Tan started looking at Su Yu suspiciously.
This kid...no longer looked like a simple and honest person.
"Of course, I also paid a high price. Honestly, anyone else would not be willing to sacrifice 24 characters for this. The separation of a character technique is not as simple as forcefully tearing it apart. If that's really how you do it, we would have discovered this method long ago during our peak when we had numerous experts."
"In fact, my disassembly method was inspired by my racial ability character research. Since characters can be brought together, why can't they be taken apart again? In that case, how should we take them apart without destroying the character technique? How do we keep the character technique strong even after it is taken apart? Not even your grandteacher has the answer to this. But I..."
Su Yu gave his teacher a pitiful look. It didn't matter what his teacher said in the past since his grandteacher wasn't around. But now, the grandteacher was sitting not far away.
Meanwhile, Hong Tan's eyes remained shut, acting like he had heard nothing.
Bai Feng also realized this fact. He coughed awkwardly and said, "Forget about this. Let's move to the main topic. How should we perform this disassembly?"
He took out his Dragon Slaying Sword again.
"Each character is different from each other. They will have different properties and abilities. They will also differ from each other in strength..."
Bai Feng stopped straying from the topic and started giving Su Yu a class on the disassembly of character techniques while ensuring that these techniques would still possess some combat prowess.
"Even a disassembled character technique with only one character is stronger than a single independent character. Do you know why?"
Su Yu shook his head.
Bai Feng smiled, "You can say that a character technique with only one character can't even be considered a proper character technique. But why is it still stronger than a regular character? Because even after disassembling your character technique, there is still a connection between them. There is still a resonance. Do you know about Zhao Li's Hundred Sword Box?"
Su Yu nodded.
"At its peak, his Hundred Sword Box is capable of creating a formation of a hundred swords. These swords will resonate with each other and amplify their power. That's the case with character techniques."
After saying that, Bai Feng instantly disassembled his Dragon Slaying Sword into four smaller swords.
The four swords started circling around Su Yu. They were completely in sync with each other, yet each of them had different properties.
One of them emanated an aura of frost; one emanated an incomparably sharp aura; one emanated a destructive aura...
"This is the difference between a single character in a character technique and one outside a character technique."
The four swords erupted in strength at the same time. They moved in sync, their power resonated with each other, and a balance was reached.
"They can work together as a formation."
Su Yu nodded. After thinking for a bit, he said, "Teacher, at times, the single character faction will also use multiple characters together in some sort of system, such as a system of wind, fire, mountain, and forest. Is that system of theirs similar to what you're showing here?"
"More or less."
Bai Feng nodded, "In truth, those systems they are using also originated from our faction. Back then, your grandteacher was the one who had come up with the methods of using characters as a system. The single character faction had merely adopted these methods. Of course, they had subsequently performed their own research and improved upon these methods, but the core of their systems is still utilizing the fusion method created by your grandteacher."
At this time, Hong Tan clarified, "I am not the creator of character systems. Your great grandteacher had left some incomplete information behind. I had merely improved upon those methods before releasing them."
Su Yu nodded. True. Back then, Hong Tan was still too young. It would be too difficult for someone that young to come up with an entirely new system of utilizing Divine Characters. Nevertheless, one should also not underestimate the difficulty of actually improving upon a system left by the fifth principal.
In truth, Su Yu felt like both his teacher and grandteacher fit the image of real cultural researchers in his mind.
Prior to entering the academy, Su Yu believed that despite the strength of cultural researchers, they should still spend more of their effort and energy on research. But after entering the academy, he saw that such researchers were actually quite rare.
Zhao Li could be considered one of them. He would spend most of his time in his research center. And Bai Feng was definitely one of them. He had basically been living in his laboratory.
Su Yu didn't know too many other researchers. He knew that there were a decent number of them who enjoyed hiding in their research centers, but he also knew that there were a lot who spent the majority of their time outside their research centers.
Bai Feng ignored his teacher and continued speaking, "Your character technique requires 18 foundational characters. It is a character technique with 18 nodes..."
"Hmm?" Hong Tan asked in astonishment, "How many?"
Bai Feng looked at his teacher and gloomily said, "Teacher, aren't you cultivating? Aren't you focusing on your breakthrough? You should enter seclusion now. I'm in the middle of teaching my student."
He was finally giving his student an official lesson, but why was his teacher interrupting again and again? That was so annoying! Yes! Irresponsible teachers like Hong Tan were the most annoying!
Hong Tan shut his mouth and gave Bai Feng a glare. Fine. He decided to shut his mouth. Eighteen foundational characters? That was basically the same as his senior brother!
Su Yu was unbothered by that little episode. He hesitated slightly and said, "Teacher, according to your words, we can disassemble our techniques and continue adding foundational characters even after the techniques solidify? In that case, does this mean that it no longer matters whether I need 18 or 88 foundational characters?
"For example, if I have a character technique with 99 characters, I will first split a part with only 9 characters and enter the Skysoar Realm. After entering the Skysoar Realm, I can continue forming the remaining 90 characters. In this situation, needing 99 foundational characters no longer changes anything, right?"
"There is still a difference." Bai Feng explained, "Upon reaching the Skysoar Realm, you will have one chance to solidify the character technique. That is also the reason why we used to need our members to form their characters before the Skysoar Realm. The solidification process is essentially a strengthening process. And you can only do it once.
"Using your example of 99 characters, if you split a part with only 9 characters before advancing, those 9 characters will receive this chance. But the other characters that you form after entering the Skysoar Realm will not have such a chance."
Su Yu nodded. He finally understood, "Does the solidification make a big difference in strength?"
"Yes. The difference is considerably big." Bai Feng said, "In normal circumstances, it is basically a free upgrade. Take me as an example. Back then, I advanced into the Skysoar Realm with 12 characters. After the solidification, all 12 of those characters reached the second tier. Prior to that, all of them were first-tier characters. As for the other 16 characters I formed after, even after years of working on them, some of them had still not reached the second tier."
"So it basically saves you time."
"Is that not good enough? The strength of a character technique is greatly dependent on the tiers of characters in the technique. With stronger characters, the technique would naturally be stronger."
"So the characters that have not gone through the solidification process can be just as useful as long as I can upgrade them?"
"Yeah. But you will need a lot of time and resources."
"..."
One was asking, one was answering. Not far away, Hong Tan was gratified to see this.
Such a scene of a teacher teaching a curious student while the grandteacher watched over them not far away had not been seen in the multiple character faction for a very long time.
Sure, Chen Yong had a student as well. And Chen Yong quite enjoyed giving his student lectures. But Wu Jia would merely sit there and listen silently without asking a single question.
Slowly, Su Yu came to learn more and more things.
At this time, Bai Feng said, "You have formed five characters"
"Six now."
"..."
Bai Feng looked at Su Yu. Su Yu looked at Bai Feng as well.
What? Was there a problem with that? But that was the number of characters he had.
Bai Feng told himself that he was a calm person. This was nothing. The previous time they met, this kid only had five characters. It was only natural that the kid had improved since then.
"A human character?"
"Yeah."
"Then you can try to remove all six of your characters from the character technique." Bai Feng said, "If you can remove these characters, you can form a small saber with them. By the way, have you named your character technique? It's better to give it a good name. Like mine. The Dragon Slaying Sword. I only need to pull my sword out, and everyone will know what's coming."
"Giving it a name?" That thought had never crossed his mind. With Bai Feng's suggestion, he thought about it and said in hesitation, "Why don't I name it the Sealing Saber?"
"..."
What was the meaning of that? Bai Feng looked at his student blankly. He couldn't understand the reasoning behind that name.
Su Yu said, "I'll pull my saber out while loudly shouting its name. My enemy will think that I specialize in sealing. But in truth, that's not the case. My enemy will be looking out for sealing abilities. But instead, I'll simply cut him down with my blade. What do you think about this, Teacher?"
"..."
Bai Feng had nothing to say. Meanwhile, Hong Tan looked at the ceiling. He was mistaken. An honest person? This grandstudent? He must have been blind to think that. Just the reasoning behind the name of a saber was enough to tell Hong Tan that he had greatly misunderstood his grandstudent.
"Sealing Saber..."
After some thought, Bai Feng said with a regretful expression, "You're right. Why had I named my sword the Dragon Slaying Sword? With that name, everyone knows that my sword is meant for slaughter. What a pity."
His student made a lot of sense! With that naming sense, they would be able to confuse their enemies! That was such a good idea!
"Sealing Saber...very good! This is a good choice!" Bai Feng praised his student and said, "You have a cultural weapon as well, right? Are you giving it the same name as well?"
"Yeah." Su Yu nodded, "Yeah. I'll give it the same name. After I become popular, even if everyone knows that I walk the path of offense, the name of my saber will still mislead them if they have never actually seen me before."
"That's right." Bai Feng smiled, "You can first separate your six characters from the technique and use them to form a small Sealing Saber. Then, you can send this small saber into your cultural weapon. That way, you will be able to properly apply the power of your character technique.
"This is a character technique, so it will still greatly increase your combat strength. Sure, it is not a complete version, but you will still be much stronger than before. By doing this, you will no longer be stuck below the Skysoar Realm. You can always fill up the remaining characters after your breakthrough."
