Su Yu sat on the edge of the virtual pod. The tearing pain in his mind from the abrupt halt in his cultivation technique still throbbed faintly.
Eighty thousand for the complete version?
Dream on!
"System," Su Yu said coldly in his mind. "One thousand credits. Forcefully deduce the Breath Concealing Art for me!"
[Ding!]
[Payment successful. Current balance: 241,000 yuan.]
[A thousand years of Breath Concealing Art comprehension experience has been granted!]
Boom!
Su Yu's consciousness was instantly pulled into a pure white space.
There were no cultivation manuals.
No master guiding him.
Only himself and the half-complete, broken pathways for circulating his energy!
Under the system's immense power, a thousand years were crazily compressed into a mere few seconds.
Year one.
Su Yu tried countless times in his mind to reconnect the severed meridian paths.
Failure.
Energy reversed its flow, rupturing his meridians.
Year ten.
He found the first viable hidden branch meridian. With great difficulty, his energy advanced by an inch.
Year one hundred.
The incomplete Breath Concealing Art had been forcibly deduced into over a hundred different potential routes.
Through countless instances of qi deviation, he searched for the one correct path to survival!
Year five hundred.
The rudimentary form of an energy lock began to take shape within his body.
The once-raging energy of a martial artist grew docile, hiding itself bit by bit deep within his bones and muscles.
Year one thousand!
Huum—
Su Yu's eyes shot open.
Outside the virtual pod, the library hall was still buzzing with voices. No one noticed the transformation occurring in this corner.
An extremely faint, obscure light flickered in the depths of Su Yu's eyes.
It was complete!
That one merchant-class, mid-grade cultivation technique, priced at eighty thousand and deliberately mutilated by the authorities as bait, had been smashed into a grand highway to the heavens by him—all for a thousand credits!
It wasn't just completion.
In that thousand years of frenzied deduction, Su Yu's understanding of this technique had even surpassed its original creator!
He could not only hide his energy.
He could also disguise its nature!
He could even simulate the unique pressure of warriors at different cultivation levels!
But...
Su Yu frowned slightly.
"It's still not enough."
He could sense that the "lock" formed by energy within his body wasn't sturdy enough.
It might deceive ordinary Grandmasters or even Grandmasters of higher standing.
But if he encountered a Warrior Leader, or even a terrifying existence like a War King—or one of the military's most advanced energy detection devices—there was still a risk of exposure.
The cultivation levels of this world were: Martial Artist, Martial Master, Grandmaster, Grandmaster Elite, Warrior Leader, War King, War Emperor, War Sovereign, War Saint, War God.
The ceiling of a mid-grade merchant-class technique was ultimately too low.
Su Yu thought for a moment.
There were still two hundred forty thousand yuan in his card.
It wasn't a big deal!
"System! Deduct another thousand!"
"Continue deducing the Breath Concealing Art!"
[Ding!]
[Payment successful.]
[A thousand years of Breath Concealing Art comprehension experience has been granted!]
Rumble!
Su Yu's consciousness, within that pure white space, shattered the now-perfected Breath Concealing Art completely!
Reassembled it!
Shattered it again!
Reassembled it once more!
He abandoned the original, cumbersome meridian paths and inscribed the secret of energy concealment directly into every single cell of his body!
Su Yu sat still, exhaling a long, slow breath.
This stream of air made no sound, didn't even stir the slightest ripple in the surrounding atmosphere.
Perfect.
Absolutely perfect.
At this moment, if Su Yu closed his eyes and stood here, even a Warrior Leader walking past would probably perceive him as nothing but a patch of air.
The 1,000 points of Martial Master energy within him had been utterly locked away deep within his dantian and bone marrow by that mysterious, profound power.
Not a single thread of fluctuation leaked out.
"Let's test the effect."
With a thought, Su Yu activated the Breath Concealing Art.
The invisible aura of a Martial Master that clung to his body receded like a tide.
1,000 points.
500.
100.
10.
Finally, it stabilized steadily at 0.8.
Su Yu glanced at his own hands.
Muscles slack. Eyes dim.
Even the rhythm of his breathing had become identical to his former self.
0.8 energy value.
The last-ranked trash of Jiangcheng Third High School had returned.
Su Yu stood up and took a couple of steps in place.
No sense of incongruity at all.
He even felt that if he went for the physical exam at Jiangcheng Third High School right now, that old, worn-out energy testing device would unhesitatingly flash the glaring number "0.8".
"Too weak," Su Yu shook his head inwardly.
With an 0.8 energy value, he couldn't even get through the gate of the college entrance examination hall.
He needed a reasonable number.
A number that would allow him to smoothly enter a key martial arts university, even obtain a ticket to the Kyoto First Martial Arts University.
But it wouldn't make him seem too monstrous, drawing the covetous eyes of those top-tier noble clans and secret laboratories.
With another thought, the energy lock inside him loosened by a tiny crack.
A thread of extremely pure energy power flowed through his meridians, spreading to his limbs.
0.8.
3.0.
6.0.
9.8.
Stop.
Su Yu felt the state of his body at this moment.
9.8 energy value.
A single step short from the maximum of 10 points.
This number was perfect.
In a prefecture-level city like Jiangcheng, 9.8 was absolutely top-tier genius material, enough to attract serious attention from key high schools and secure the best recommendation letters.
But across the entire Daxia nation, in a place like Kyoto First Martial Arts University where prodigies gathered, 9.8 would only be considered a "pretty good" student.
Not at the bottom, but definitely not sticking out like a sore thumb.
Su Yu shoved his hands in his pockets and sauntered slowly toward the library entrance.
Two days remained until the college entrance exam.
He had his cultivation technique.
He had his energy.
His martial skills were perfected.
Everything was in place.
The only thing missing was the right opportunity.
Meanwhile, in Jiangcheng's wealthy district, at the Eastern Hill Villa.
Inside a luxurious private training room covering two hundred square meters, the rich scent of medicinal herbs filled the air.
A massive white jade bathtub sat in the middle of the room, filled with churning, dark red medicinal liquid.
This was an elite-grade medicinal bath, boiled using century-old ginseng, deer antler, and the vital blood essence of first-tier magical beasts.
An ordinary person taking one sniff might extend their lifespan.
Yet now, all of these precious concoctions served a single man.
Zhao Ze.
He leaned against the edge of the bathtub, his torso bare, letting the scalding liquid wash over his muscles.
But at this moment, the usually composed, confident Young Master Zhao wore an expression of thick gloom.
"Still no news?"
Zhao Ze's eyes snapped open, fixated on a bodyguard dressed in black standing by the tub.
His voice dripped with undisguised irritation.
The bodyguard lowered his head, not daring to breathe too loudly.
"Reporting to the young master... not yet."
"Old Mo's phone has been powered off. The phones of his two underlings are also unreachable."
"We sent people to the spots he usually frequents, but we didn't see him anywhere."
Splash!
Zhao Ze suddenly stood up from the bath.
The dark red medicinal liquid slid down his defined muscles.
"Worthless!"
Zhao Ze grabbed an expensive towel from a nearby rack and hurled it viciously to the ground.
Can't you even handle a high school student?