Menjelang malam tanggal 3, nama Su Yu telah menyebar ke mana-mana. Sekelompok siswa sudah sangat ingin menantangnya, tetapi dia sepertinya telah menghilang sejak tanggal 3. Beberapa orang bilang dia sedang menjalani pertapaan, ada yang bilang dia terluka, dan ada pula yang bilang dia bersembunyi karena takut untuk menghindari semua tantangan.
Berdasarkan peraturan akademi, jika Su Yu ditantang namun tidak menerima tantangan tersebut sebelum tanggal 25, dia akan otomatis dikeluarkan dari peringkat saat pembaruan berikutnya. Ini adalah tindakan pencegahan yang diterapkan untuk mencegah para siswa menghindari pertarungan secara sengaja demi memonopoli peringkat mereka setelah berhasil masuk ke dalam daftar.
...-
Namun, pada kenyataannya Su Yu sama sekali tidak tahu apa-apa. Dia sedang tenggelam sepenuhnya di dalam dunia magis—dunia penelitian kemampuan esensi darah, dunia pembuatan esensi darah kemampuan.
Lantai bawah tanah ketiga.
Laboratorium utama.
Su Yu berseru kagum, "Guru, tera di dalam esensi darah ternyata benar-benar bisa dikupas! Ini terlalu magis. Apakah ini tera kemampuan?"
Setiap tetes esensi darah pasti memiliki bayangan pemilik darah tersebut di dalamnya. Semakin kuat esensi darahnya, semakin jelas pula bayangannya. Sebagai contoh, pertama kalinya Su Yu membeli esensi darah burung bersayap besi, dia melihat seekor burung bersayap besi kecil di dalamnya.
Mereka sedang berada di tengah-tengah penelitian esensi darah serangga pemakan jiwa. Di dalam tetesan esensi darah itu, sesosok serangga kecil dapat terlihat samar-samar.
Sambil mengendalikan mesin dengan hati-hati untuk mengupas tera tersebut dari darah, Bai Feng menjawab, "Tepat sekali. Inilah tera kemampuan. Apa itu esensi darah? Esensi darah adalah sesuatu yang ditinggalkan oleh makhluk hidup setelah mati. Atau bisa juga didapatkan dari makhluk hidup dengan menguras sejumlah besar darah dan qi sumber. Sebenarnya, esensi darah dapat dibagi lagi menjadi esensi darah mati dan esensi darah hidup. Kamu harus belajar cara membedakan keduanya."
"Apakah ada perbedaannya, Guru?"
"Ada." Bai Feng sangat berpengetahuan dalam subjek ini karena ini adalah bidang keahlian khususnya. Dia menjelaskan, "Umumnya, orang-orang tidak peduli dengan perbedaannya. Namun sebagai peneliti, kita harus memahaminya dengan jelas. Esensi darah mati diambil dari makhluk yang sudah mati. Di dalam esensi darah mati, sedikit kekuatan kehendak dapat ditemukan.
"Rasa sakit hati dari yang sudah mati mungkin meninggalkan banyak hal lain di dalam esensi darah, seperti beberapa kenangan yang tidak dapat dilupakan oleh pemilik darah tersebut bahkan dalam kematian. Oleh karena itu, kamu mungkin bisa melihat beberapa adegan dari kehidupan sang pemilik melalui esensi darah. Tapi situasi ini lebih sering terlihat pada esensi darah dari para ahli kaum ilahi dan iblis.
"Esensi darah hidup, seperti yang bisa kita ekstrak dari makhluk-makhluk yang dikurung di pusat penelitian kita, tidak mengandung hal-hal tersebut."
Tiba-tiba, keduanya saling berpandangan.
"Sudah berapa hari sejak terakhir kali kamu memberi mereka makan?"
Su Yu membuat perhitungan singkat sebelum mengembuskan napas lega, "Belum lama. Hari ini baru tanggal 4. Belum ada lima hari."
"Oh, baguslah." Bai Feng mengembuskan napas lega. Baru beberapa hari. Makhluk-makhluk itu akan baik-baik saja.
Pada titik ini, Bai Feng telah menyelesaikan proses pengupasan.
Kekuatan kehendaknya muncul dan melilit serangga kecil itu sambil berkata, "Ini adalah teranya. Namun, ia tidak selalu hanya berisi kemampuan saja. Ia mungkin juga mencakup beberapa hal lain. Oleh karena itu, kita perlu melanjutkan proses pengupasan."
Dengan bangga dia berkata, "Di masa lalu, banyak orang yang mampu mencapai tahap ini. Banyak orang yang sadar bahwa mungkin ada hal lain di dalam tera ini. Namun, tidak ada satupun yang mampu mengupas bagian yang hanya sesuai dengan kemampuan dari tera tersebut. Metode pengupasan cepat ini adalah ciptaan unik gurumu."
Mata Su Yu membelalak saat dia buru-buru menyanjung gurunya, "Luar biasa, Guru!"
"Tentu saja."
Bai Feng merasa sangat puas. Akhirnya, anak ini sadar betapa hebatnya gurunya.
Agar tidak memberi anak itu kesempatan untuk mengatakan sesuatu yang bisa melukai perasaannya, dia buru-buru berkata, "Metode pengupasan cepat ini tidak sulit, tetapi kamu harus sangat teliti dan berhati-hati. Kamu tidak hanya bisa mengupas tera kemampuan, kamu bahkan bisa mengupas beberapa kenangan dari pemilik darah tersebut."
Bai Feng berkata dengan sungguh-sungguh, "Dan ini sangat penting. Aku berani pastikan bahwa saat ini, sangat sedikit peneliti budaya yang mampu mengupas semua elemen berbeda ini dari esensi darah."
Su Yu merasa gurunya sedang membual. Apakah benar sedemikian sulitnya? Apakah cukup sulit hingga para ahli tak terkalahkan pun tidak mampu melakukannya juga? Sangat sedikit?
"Kamu meragukanku? Perhatikan baik-baik. Dengarkan baik-baik." Bai Feng memutar bola matanya, "Ini adalah keahlian unik gurumu. Selain kakek buyutmu yang mempelajarinya tanpa izin, aku tidak pernah mengajarkannya kepada siapa pun."
Mempelajari tanpa izin? Itu... pilihan kata yang menarik. Terlepas dari apakah Su Yu mempercayai gurunya atau tidak, dia tetap memusatkan perhatian sepenuhnya pada apa yang sedang dilakukan oleh gurunya.
Dengan kekuatan kehendaknya, Bai Feng memindahkan tera tersebut ke atas meja kerja. Sebuah pedang kecil muncul di tangannya. Itulah teknik karakternya.
Bai Feng berkata dengan sungguh-sungguh, "Benda ini berwujud sekaligus tak berwujud. Dalam artian tertentu, ia mirip dengan Karakter Ilahi. Di masa lalu, aku tidak mengerti benda apa ini. Namun sekarang, aku percaya bahwa ini mungkin adalah proyeksi dari karakter kemampuan rasial atau lautan kekuatan kehendak setelah keruntuhannya.
"Untuk memisahkan berbagai elemen di dalam tera tersebut lebih jauh lagi, kamu harus menggunakan Karakter Ilahi milikmu. Di sinilah kebanyakan ahli menemui jalan buntu. Bahkan kakek buyutmu telah gagal dalam proses pengupasan berkali-kali saat itu. Padahal dia mencoba melakukannya dengan kekuatan kehendak yang kuat dari seorang kultivator Tingkat Laut Gunung.
"Kebanyakan orang tidak menyadari bahwa kamu hanya perlu menggunakan Karakter Ilahi untuk proses pengupasan."
Sambil berbicara, Bai Feng dengan hati-hati membuat beberapa sayatan menggunakan teknik karakternya. Serangga tunggal itu berubah menjadi beberapa ekor serangga.
"Kamu harus tahu apa yang sedang kamu lakukan agar tidak gagal pada tahap ini. Setiap bayangan berisi elemen yang berbeda."
Dia menunjuk ke salah satu serangga dan berkata, "Bayangan yang pekat dan gelap ini adalah rasa sakit hati dari serangga tersebut. Atau lebih tepatnya, itu adalah ketidakmurnian dari esensi darah. Saat mengonsumsi esensi darah, inilah alasan mengapa tubuhmu akan mengakumulasi ketidakmurnian."
Dia kemudian memotong bayangan itu dengan pedangnya, mengubahnya menjadi sepulur asap.
"Ini adalah fragmen kenangan." Dia menunjuk ke bayangan yang berbeda, "Jika kamu menghancurkan ini, kamu akan bisa melihat kenangan yang meninggalkan kesan paling mendalam pada serangga ini semasa hidupnya. Tentu saja, serangga ini terlalu lemah jadi kamu tidak akan bisa melihat banyak."
Dia menghancurkan bayangan itu. Selanjutnya, sebuah adegan muncul di hadapan mereka. Mereka dapat melihat ruang gelap yang dipenuhi oleh tak terhitung banyaknya serangga pemakan jiwa. Seekor serangga tertentu sedang merayap turun dari tubuh serangga yang besar. Kemudian, adegan itu berkedip sebelum lenyap.
Bai Feng mengerutkan kening dan berkata, "Itu adalah serangga pemakan jiwa betina. Ia sangat kuat. Jika kamu kebetulan menemui salah satunya di Medan Perang Langit-Semua, larilah. Larilah sejauh yang kamu bisa. Benda ini adalah musuh utama semua peneliti budaya. Bahkan serangga betina yang paling lemah pun akan berada di Tingkat Menembus Awan. Bahkan peneliti budaya Tingkat Laut Gunung pun akan kesulitan mengalahkan salah satu darinya."
"Aku mengerti." Su Yu mengangguk dan berkata, "Guru, ini terlihat menakutkan. Kamu benar-benar bisa membaca beberapa kenangan makhluk itu melaluinya. Kalau begitu, bukankah kita bisa mempelajari lebih banyak rahasia dengan membunuh beberapa kaum ilahi dan iblis?"
"Ya." Bai Feng mengangguk dan berkata, "Tetapi seperti yang kubilang, sangat sedikit orang yang mampu mengupas kenangan dari esensi darah. Oleh karena itu, ini tidak terlalu berdampak besar bagi umat manusia secara keseluruhan."
"Tapi rasanya cukup sederhana."
Su Yu merasa hal itu tampak sederhana. Bai Feng hanya perlu membuat beberapa sayatan untuk melakukannya.
Bai Feng memutar bola matanya dan berkata, "Omong kosong. Itu terlihat mudah karena aku sudah sangat akrab dengannya. Aku juga sangat berpengalaman dan memiliki bakat yang luar biasa. Saat kamu melihat satu bayangan, bagaimana cara memotongnya, bagian mana yang berisi kenangan, bagian mana yang berisi rasa sakit hati, dan bagian mana yang berisi kemampuan? Bisakah kamu bahkan memastikannya?"
Su Yu memikirkannya dan menggelengkan kepalanya. Benar juga. Tidaklah mudah untuk menentukan mana yang mana.
Bai Feng bertanya, "Kamu harus mempelajari semua itu secara perlahan. Ketika kamu akhirnya mencapai levelku, kamu akan bisa melihat menembusnya hanya dengan satu pandangan."
"Guru, bagaimana dengan umat manusia?"
"Apa?"
"Saat seorang manusia mati, apakah esensi darah akan tertinggal? Bisakah kita mengupas kenangan dari manusia yang sudah mati?"
Bai Feng mengerutkan kening dan berkata, "Ada aturan bagi semua peneliti budaya. Kita tidak diperbolehkan melakukan eksperimen pada manusia, termasuk mereka yang berasal dari Kultus Berbagai Ras. Bahkan membunuh mereka jauh lebih baik daripada melakukan eksperimen pada mereka. Itu adalah garis batas yang tidak boleh dilalui. Saat kita melewati garis itu, kita tidak akan berbeda dari monster.
"Kamu harus memahami bahwa ada beberapa hal yang begitu kita lepaskan, kita tidak akan pernah bisa mendapatkannya kembali. Tidak peduli apakah kamu berhadapan dengan musuh atau seorang teman. Paling-paling, bunuh saja mereka. Tapi jika kamu memutuskan untuk membedah dan bereksperimen pada mereka... Su Yu, jangan lupakan ini. Ini adalah hal tabu. Jangan melewati garis ini."
Su Yu mengangguk paham. Bai Feng memikirkannya dan menambahkan, "Tentu saja, jika kamu berada di Medan Perang Langit-Semua dan telah membunuh beberapa anggota kultus yang memiliki informasi sangat penting yang sangat kamu butuhkan, kamu dapat mengekstrak esensi darah dari anggota kultus ini dan mengambil kenangan mereka untuk keperluan yang kamu butuhkan..."
Bai Feng memperingatkan, "Tapi hanya sebatas itu saja. Tidak peduli apakah kamu ingin mencambuk mayat musuhmu atau bahkan membakar mayatnya menjadi abu. Tapi jangan pernah bereksperimen pada manusia."
"Aku mengerti."
Bai Feng mengalihkan pembicaraan dari topik tersebut dan kembali bekerja. Tidak lama kemudian, bayangan-bayangan lain dihancurkan, hanya menyisakan satu bayangan serangga di sana.
Chapter 323: The Answer Lies In Books (1)
By the night of the 3rd, Su Yu’s name had spread far and wide. A bunch of students were itching to challenge him, but he seemed to have disappeared since the 3rd. Some said he had entered seclusion, some said he was injured, and some said he was hiding from fear to escape all challenges.
According to the academy rules, if Su Yu was challenged yet did not accept the challenge before the 25th, he would be automatically removed from the ranking during the next update. This was a precaution put in place to prevent students from deliberately avoiding battles to monopolize their ranks after getting into the ranking.
...
But in truth, Su Yu was completely clueless. He was fully immersed in a magical world. The world of blood essence ability research. The world of ability blood essence production.
Third underground floor.
Main laboratory.
Su Yu exclaimed in admiration, "Teacher, the imprint in blood essence can actually be peeled out! This is too magical. Is this the ability imprint?"
Every drop of blood essence would have an image of the blood's owner in it. The more powerful the blood essence was, the clearer the image was. For example, the first time Su Yu bought some iron-winged blood essence, he saw a miniature iron-winged bird in it.
They were in the midst of researching the soul devouring bug blood essence. Within the drop of blood essence, a miniature bug could be vaguely seen.
While carefully controlling the machine to peel the imprint off the blood, Bai Feng replied, "Exactly. This is the ability imprint. What is blood essence? It is something left by a living being after death. Or it can also be obtained from a living being by exhausting a large amount of blood and source qi. In truth, blood essence can be further split into dead blood essence and living blood essence. You need to learn how to differentiate the two."
"Is there a difference, Teacher?"
"Yes." Bai Feng was very knowledgeable in this subject since it was something he specialized in. He explained, "Generally, people don't care about the difference. But as researchers, we must be clear about it. Dead blood essence is taken from dead beings. Within dead blood essence, some willpower can be found.
"The grievances of the dead might leave a lot of other things in the blood essence, such as some memories the owner of the blood couldn't forget even in death. Thus, you might be able to see some scenes from the owner’s life through the blood essence. But this situation is more commonly seen in the blood essence of divine and devil experts.
"Living blood essence, such as what we can extract from the creatures locked in our research center, does not contain these things."
Suddenly, the two looked at each other.
"How many days since you last fed them?"
Su Yu made a short calculation before exhaling in relief, "Not long. It's only the 4th today. It has been less than five days."
"Oh, good." Bai Feng exhaled in relief. It had only been a few days. Those creatures would be fine.
At this point, Bai Feng had completed the peeling process.
His willpower appeared and wrapped around the tiny bug as he said, "This is the imprint. But it might not necessarily only contain the ability. It might also include some other things. Thus, we need to continue the peeling process."
He proudly said, "In the past, many people were able to reach this step. Many people were aware that there might be some other things in this imprint. But none were able to peel the part corresponding to only the ability from the imprint. This rapid peeling method is your teacher's unique creation."
Su Yu's eyes widened as he hurriedly fawned on his teacher, "Amazing, Teacher!"
"Of course."
Bai Feng was very satisfied. Finally, the kid was aware of how amazing his teacher was.
To not give the kid a chance to say anything that would hurt his feelings, he hurriedly said, "The rapid peeling method is not difficult, but you need to be very attentive and careful. Not only can you peel out the ability imprint, you can even peel out some memories of the blood owner."
Bai Feng solemnly said, "And this is very important. I dare say that currently, very few cultural researchers are able to peel out all these different elements from blood essence."
Su Yu felt like his teacher was boasting. Was it really that difficult? Was it difficult enough that those Invincible experts wouldn't be able to do it as well? Very few?
"You doubt me? Watch carefully. Listen carefully." Bai Feng rolled his eyes, "This is the unique skill of your teacher. Apart from your grandteacher who had learned it without permission, I had never taught anyone about it."
Learned without permission? That was...an interesting choice of words. Regardless of whether Su Yu believed his teacher, he still focused fully on what his teacher was doing.
With his willpower, Bai Feng moved the imprint onto a workbench. A small sword appeared in his hand. That was his character technique.
Bai Feng solemnly said, "This thing is both corporeal and incorporeal. In a sense, it is similar to Divine Characters. In the past, I didn't understand what this thing was. But now, I believe that this might be the projection of the racial ability character or the sea of willpower after its collapse.
"To further separate the different elements within the imprint, you need to use your Divine Characters. This is where most experts are stumped. Even your grandteacher had failed the peeling process many times back then. And he had tried doing so with the powerful willpower of a Mountainsea cultivator.
"Most people aren't aware that you only need to use your Divine Characters for the peeling process."
While talking, Bai Feng carefully made several cuts with his character technique. The singular bug turned into multiple bugs.
"You need to know what you're doing to not fail this step. Each image contains a different element."
He pointed at one of the bugs and said, "This pitch-black image is the grievance of the bug. Or to be more precise, it is the impurity of the blood essence. When consuming blood essence, this is why your body would accumulate impurities."
He then cut the image with his sword, turning it into a wisp of smoke.
"This is the memory fragment." He pointed at a different image, "If you crush this, you will be able to see the memories that had left the deepest impression in this bug while it was alive. Of course, this bug is too weak so you won't be able to see much."
He crushed the image. Next, a scene appeared before them. They could see a dark space filled with countless soul devouring bugs. A certain bug was climbing off the body of a massive bug. Then, the scene flickered before vanishing.
Bai Feng frowned and said, "That is a female soul devouring bug. It is very powerful. If you happen to encounter one in the Allheaven Battlefield, flee. Flee as far as you can. This thing is the bane of all cultural researchers. Even the weakest female bug will be at the Cloudbreach Realm. Even Mountainsea cultural researchers would have a hard time defeating one of them."
"I understand." Su Yu nodded and said, "Teacher, this looks scary. You can actually read some of the creature's memories through it. In that case, can't we learn more secrets by killing some divines and devils?"
"Yeah." Bai Feng nodded and said, "But like I said, very few people are capable of peeling memories from blood essence. Thus, this isn't that impactful for humanity as a whole."
"But it's quite simple."
Su Yu felt like it looked simple. Bai Feng only needed to make several cuts to do it.
Bai Feng rolled his eyes and said, "Nonsense. It looked easy because I am already very familiar with it. I am also very experienced and incredibly talented. When you're looking at a single image, how to cut, which part contains the memories, which part contains the grievances, and which part contains the ability? Can you even determine that?"
Su Yu thought about it and shook his head. True. It wasn't easy to determine which was which.
Bai Feng asked, "You have to slowly learn all that. When you finally reach my level, you will be able to see through it with a single look."
"Teacher, how about the human race?"
"What?"
"When a human dies, will blood essence be left behind? Can we peel the memories of a dead human?"
Bai Feng frowned and said, "There is a rule for all cultural researchers. We are not allowed to experiment on humans, including those from the Myriad Race Cult. Even killing them is better than experimenting on them. That is a bottom line that can't be crossed. The moment we cross that line, we will be no different from monsters."
"You need to understand that there are some things that once we let go, we can never get back. It doesn't matter if you are dealing with an enemy or a friend. At most, just kill them. But if you decide to cut them open and experiment on them...Su Yu, don't forget this. This is taboo. Do not cross this line."
Su Yu nodded in understanding. Bai Feng thought about it and added, "Of course, if you're in the Allheaven Battlefield and have killed some cultists possessing some extremely important information you urgently need, you can extract some blood essence from these cultists and extract their memories for what you need..."
Bai Feng warned, "But that is the extent of it. It doesn't matter if you wish to whip the corpse of your enemy or even burn the corpse to ashes. But never experiment on humans."
"I understand."
Bai Feng moved on from the topic and returned to his work. Before long, the other images were destroyed, leaving only a single bug image behind.
"This is the ability imprint." Bai Feng solemnly said, "I'd experimented a few times on soul devouring bugs before and failed all of them. Perhaps their ability is not very suited to be made into ability blood essence."
"Why?"
"Maybe that has something to do with the nature of the ability. It is able to alter your source qi, granting it burning and corrosive properties against willpower. Because of that, the outer layer of blood essence wrapped around the imprint itself would always suffer some damage from the corrosive power.
"This is only an ability imprint. To properly turn it into a drop of ability blood essence, you will need to wrap a layer of unique blood essence around it. I had not separated the imprint from the original blood essence just to separate the other elements from it. I also did so because the original blood essence is not the most suitable outer layer for this imprint."
Su Yu nodded again, behaving like an obedient child. This all sounded quite complicated. Even the outer layer of blood essence had to be manufactured through a special production method.
When Su Yu recalled the fake production method he had come up with, he couldn't help but admire his courage.
Holy shit.
The fake production method he came up with was utterly ridiculous. And his scam had even succeeded. He felt somewhat speechless. Weren't those people a tad bit too stupid?
After a series of complicated procedures, Bai Feng started working on the outer layer of the imprint. But the moment he applied a new layer of blood essence on the imprint, it exploded. At the moment of explosion, the image spat at Su Yu. He couldn't move away in time and was suddenly assaulted by a burning pain to his willpower.
"Ahhh!"
Bai Feng's willpower descended upon Su Yu as he rolled his eyes, "This is no big deal. What are you screaming for? It wasn't even powered by blood essence so it can't even harm a Source Opening cultivator."
"But it hurts."
Su Yu felt aggrieved.
Holy shit. That was so painful. It basically felt the same as being killed one more time in his dream. And unlike his dreams, this was a death that he would gain nothing from. What a loss.
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