Xia Huyou’s face lit up with delight. He couldn’t help but look at Su Yu again. He was still in disbelief. Was this truly a cultural art? But Su Yu was ignoring Xia Huyou. Instead, he was focused on the distant war zone. With the arrival of Xia Yunji and Hu Ping, two powerful combatants had joined the multiple character faction’s camp.

High-tier Mountainseas!

Su Yu couldn’t discern their exact cultivation levels, but he could see how several Mountainseas had been forced to retreat by the two.

The spear was ruling the battlefield like a dragon. After trapping a seventh-stage Mountainsea, Xia Yunji was giving another Mountainsea a terrible beating.

As for Hu Ping, she was facing Shan Tianhao, a ninth-stage Mountainsea. She had been relatively silent. Her sword was brilliant and glorious, illuminating the night sky with her deadly sword qi.

The cultural weapons used by the two were definitely no ordinary weapons.

Su Yu could see traces of character techniques in the two weapons. Countless dots of light could be seen in those weapons. Both of them actually walked the path of offense.

“Huyou, can you tell me more about them?”

Su Yu wanted to know the identities of all these people. He knew too little and recognized very few of the Mountainseas present. As the son of the prefect, Xia Huyou knew almost all the Mountainseas in Great Xia. As for the ones he had never met before, he would have read about them as well.

Thus, he softly said, “You know Elder Wu Yuehua. The person she’s beating up is Tang Yunfei from the Nine Heavens Cultural Research Academy.”

“That person…”

Xia Huyou pointed at a sturdy middle-aged man. The valiant man was riding a fierce tiger with a massive halberd in hand. Similarly, he was giving his opponent a beating.

“The tiger rider is Elder He Ji from the beast taming faction. His opponent is Elder Qiu Yunhua of the Nine Heavens Cultural Research Academy.”

“That person…”

Su Yu looked at the third person. It was an old man with countless talismans hovering around him. Some radiated intense chill, some radiated sharp sword qi, and some radiated destructive electrical currents.

“That is Elder Fan Jin of the talisman faction. He is also a supporter of your faction. His opponent is Elder Wang Ming from the Daoseeking Cultural Research Academy.”

…

Xia Huyou introduced one expert after another. A great many Mountainseas were present. These experts had come from all over the Human Realm.

The multiple character faction actually had a decent number of helpers. Just from the academy alone, there were four elders on their side. Excluding Hong Tan and company, there were three additional Mountainseas helping them. In total, seven Mountainseas from the academy were fighting on their side.

As for the combatants from the Nine Heavens Cultural Research Academy and Daoseeking Cultural Research Academy, most of them were here to help the single character faction. Thus, the single character faction still held the numerical advantage.

Over twenty Mountainseas had been gathered in this spot alone.

“There’s also Shan Tianhao, the faculty head of Great Zhou Cultural Research Academy’s Character Faculty, a ninth-stage Mountainsea.”

Xia Huyou gave a detailed introduction of Shan Tianhao, “He has a grandson. That grandson is the prodigy from Great Zhou that everyone has been talking about, the one who had entered the Skysoar Realm in only half a year. But his grandson does not have much to do with him. This grandson is the final student of Great Zhou Cultural Research Academy’s principal, Zhou Polong. Zhou Polong was the one who had taught that grandson everything.”

Su Yu nodded. He had long heard that the Great Zhou genius had a senior researcher as his grandfather. So this was the grandfather of that genius. He made sure to remember every single one of these people.

He asked, “Some of them do not seem to have any grudge with us. Why are they getting involved as well?”

“For benefits.”

Yes. It was that simple.

Xia Huyou said, “Everyone wants to take a look at the fifth principal’s character. Everyone wants to get their hands on it. Additionally, with the stance Great Zhou is taking, some of these people are also here to fawn on Zhou Polong or some other benefits.”

“Fawn on Zhou Polong?” Su Yu asked, “Are they not afraid of offending the Xia Family?”

Xia Huyou thought for a long while before softly saying, “No. Because the biggest backer of all cultural researchers is the Knowledge Seeking Realm. Let me put it this way. The Xia Family stands at the top in the path of warriors. Both Great Xia King and the prefect were people who had walked to the peak of the path of physical cultivation. But the Xia Family lacks influence in the Knowledge Seeking Realm. Vice Principal Xia Changqing and granduncle Xia Yunji are the top cultural researchers of the Xia Family.”

Su Yu finally started to understand.

He asked, “So Great Zhou King is an expert from the Knowledge Seeking Realm?”

“Yes.” Xia Huyou nodded, “You finally understand. Great Zhou is the leader in the path of cultural research. Principal Zhou is also on the verge of entering the Invincible Realm. When that happens, he will become yet another big shot in the Knowledge Seeking Realm.”

Su Yu was hit by a realization. No wonder. No wonder these people dared to participate in this conflict even when they were within the Xia Family’s territory. That was because cultural researchers did not rely on the Xia Family.

It was the other way around. The Xia Family was the one needing to rely on cultural researchers. After all, the Devil Subduing Army and Martial Dragon Guards needed the participation of many cultural researchers.

“So the Xia Family can’t control these people?”

“We can.” Xia Huyou smiled, “We definitely can. You shouldn’t look down on the Xia Family. But according to the agreement made with the community of cultural researchers back then, the Xia Family would generally give the cultural researchers a free rein as long as the cultural researchers are not in the military.

“After all, freedom is very important for cultural researchers. It is very normal for cultural researchers to be poached. We won’t be able to do anything if they decide to jump ship to Great Zhou. Of course, it might not necessarily be very beneficial for one to leave their homeland for a different prefecture, so people won’t really move unless there is a strong reason.”

Su Yu nodded and stopped asking.

…

A thick killing intent covered the war zone.

In truth, people like Su Yu weren’t really able to see what was going on inside. At most, they could only see some flashes here and there.

Liu Wenyan was still standing at the same spot. At this point, there was no longer any Mountainsea around him. Only a few recently arrived Cloudbreach cultivators were guarding him, looking around cautiously.

Liu Wenyan looked around before suddenly saying, “My answer is the same. I still can’t materialize the character. Even if I can, only the descendants of the ones who had perished in the battle back then can see it. Nobody else can.

“Are you sure you want to dig up Zhang Ruoling’s grave? I can move the grave to Nanyuan and stay away from the capital for life. Is this acceptable?”

“Can’t materialize it?” Someone sneered, “Xia Yunji and Hu Peng are both here. And both of them are able to materialize their characters. Why are you the exception? Liu Wenyan, you’re too selfish. The fifth principal’s character does not belong to you alone. It belongs to everyone.”

“Exactly. Back then, countless cultural researchers had perished while helping the fifth principal affirm his dao. You have insisted on monopolizing the character. It isn’t like we have not given you any time. You have been given 50 years. Yet you are still giving these stupid excuses.”

One Mountainsea after another berated Liu Wenyan.

Liu Wenyan calmly said, “Yes, the character does not belong to me alone. But…some of you are unqualified to say all these to me. The friends of my teacher that had perished back then did not have a lot of descendants. But there are so many of you here. Some claim to be a senior brother of one of them. Some claim to be a junior brother of one of them. But in truth, most of you are unrelated to any of them. You are unqualified to say these words.”

“Those people are unqualified. How about me?” Someone else shouted, “Back then, my father perished while fighting alongside the fifth principal. Even the character he left behind was given to a so-called genius. But who knows if that was really my father’s wish? He breathed his last among your people. Who knows if you people were telling the truth back then?”

Liu Wenyan knew who that person was. He sighed, “Brother Qi, back then, Uncle Qi was seriously injured. By the time we managed to notify you, he had already breathed his last. He couldn’t afford to wait so he picked Liu Ran to inherit his character. And Liu Ran is already dead…”

The other person said, “I don’t care! Liu Ran is dead and I won’t lower myself to disturb his grave. My father’s character can remain in his grave. I only want to know if I am qualified to take a look at the data left by my father back then? Just where is the data left by the fifth principal? The data said to contain the path to the Invincible Realm! Where is it? Back then, my father had put a lot of effort in the fifth principal’s research as well. But not long after the results came out, my father had perished. Are you saying that after my father perished, the data no longer has anything to do with us?”

Liu Wenyan said, “My teacher had not left any data behind. Everyone who was present back then knows this. Only some unimportant and incomplete data was left behind. For example, the fusion of characters. That was why Hong Tan had subsequently released his research result on the fusion of characters into different systems. That is a research result that has been completed by Hong Tan himself.”

Basically, all the data they had actually received from the fifth principal had already been shared with the public.

Character fusion was actually one of the most important research subjects today. And back then, Hong Tan had released the research result without hiding anything for himself. Eventually, the research had only been stopped because it was too difficult. A lot of people were aware of that.

“I don’t believe that!” Someone shouted, “Earlier, Bai Feng displayed a method to split character techniques. Why hasn’t this been disseminated before?”

“…”

Liu Wenyan frowned, “That was Bai Feng’s own research. It has nothing to do with my teacher.”

Sure enough, some of them had set their eyes on Bai Feng’s research. Of all the things the fifth principal had left behind, they had already shared everything they could. Only the inherited character was left.

And now, these people were even trying to credit Bai Feng’s research result to the fifth principal’s inheritance. They were trying to snatch Bai Feng’s research result without paying any price. Liu Wenyan was furious. He definitely wouldn’t agree to that.

“Bai Feng’s own research? What a joke. How many years has he been in the academy? I knew you guys can’t be trusted!”

Right after that, multiple mountains appeared out of thin air before dropping down on Liu Wenyan. While the people around him resisted the mountains, Liu Wenyan raised his brow and suddenly palmed the ground below him.

A dark shadow exploded out of the ground. Not far away, the alarmed Wu Yuehua hurriedly sent her cauldron flying over. With a rumble, the shadow was smashed into pieces.

While the cauldron was returning, the distracted Wu Yuehua had her defenses penetrated by her opponent. An attack stabbed right through her shoulder.