Great Ming.

Inside his cultivation room, Su Yu's entire body radiated golden light as he forged his body with heavenly source qi.

He had yet to start studying the ten Invincible notes he had received from Zhu Tiandao. He didn't have the time to do so as studying and forming characters were usually quite time-consuming.

After a while, he exhaled and stood up before leaving the cultivation room.

Upstairs.

On the third floor, Wu Lan had heavy eyebags. She kept yawning without a care for her sloppy appearance. With a weak voice, she said, "Including those with long lifespans, those with strong recovery ability, those whose flesh contains medicinal properties, those good at healing...There are seventy-four races in total. This is all Senior Brother Wen and I found after working together. See if it's useful to you."

She stopped to yawn before continuing, "Also, some races are good at divine characters, and some characters are capable of healing. But the information about characters is much harder to gather. If you really need it, I can try to look around."

"Thank you for the hard work." Su Yu said, "Take a rest. We can handle the rest."

"Ok..." After yawning again, Wu Lan said, "By the way...my grandaunt sent me a mail not long ago. She said that your father has left the front lines. He is now serving in the headquarters where Great Qin King frequents. She told you to not worry about your father and Head Manager Chen. All of them will be fine. Also, things are going to get slightly chaotic in Great Xia so you shouldn't think about returning anytime soon. She told me to not return as well."

She looked rather displeased at the end.

Su Yu blanked out slightly. Chaos? The cult had lost so many Sunmoons recently, so it was unlikely that the chaos was coming from them. Was it the single character faction? That seemed unlikely.

Yuan Qingdong had been very silent recently. What had he been doing? Strictly speaking, things had actually been quite peaceful in Great Xia as of late. Where was the chaos? Despite his confusion, Su Yu still nodded.

After Wu Lan left, he took out his voice transmission talisman and said, "Brother Zhang, is there anything different about Great Xia recently?"

***

Great Xia City, capital of Great Xia.

Somewhere in the academy.

As of late, the academy had been feeling like a graveyard.Wan Tiansheng had stopped running the academy and numerous senior elders had entered seclusion. The funds of the academy had been cut, forcing some of the academy teachers to go to the Allheaven Battlefield to earn some money. A lot of genius students were starting to leave the academy on missions as well.

After receiving Su Yu's message, he replied, "A lot has changed. The academy is dead. There is no vitality in the academy. I'll be leaving on a mission soon as well. By the way, my grandpa said that Great Xia might make a bigger concession during the next semester to open the path for Prefect Xia's advancement."

"Concession?" Su Yu blanked out slightly before asking, "What manner of concession?"

"I don't know the details, but there are rumors saying that Marquis Xia is negotiating with the myriad races, including the divines and devils. They are in the process of making concessions to receive a peace agreement. They are even considering opening the academy to the divine and devil students. And they are even willing to give up a few Luminous Domain Mansion slots. They must have gone crazy.

"Nobody knows if these rumors are true, so we can't say anything yet. But if Great Xia is really going to do this, they will attract the hostility of some prefectures. My grandpa said that the Xia Family has given up on seeking the assistance of their fellow humans and are now sourcing help externally."

Su Yu's expression changed. Seeking external help. This was crazy. Had Marquis Xia gone mad? Was he planning to sacrifice Great Xia's spine just for Xia Longwu's advancement?

Su Yu might have left Great Xia, but he still couldn't completely forget about Great Xia. After all, that was his homeland. His greatest pride was the fact that Great Xia's blade was eternally sharp.

Killing was their answer for everything. They would kill all their enemies on the Allheaven Battlefield. They would kill all the cultists they encounter. Apart from their hesitation when dealing with the single character faction, Great Xia's blade had always remained sharp.

But now, Zhang Hao was telling him that Great Xia might retire this blade. Without their blade, what else did they have? Was their persistence over hundreds of years meaningless?

"Brother Zhang, are you telling the truth?"

"I don't know if the rumors are believable. My grandpa only heard a vague statement from Administrator Hu. He didn't dare to ask too much about it. The marquis might be running out of patience as there are rumors that Prefect Xia can no longer hold back his breakthrough. He needs to affirm his dao soon, but he still doesn't have that many supporters among humanity." Zhang Hao sounded very worried as he said, "Brother Su, you're now a famous person in Great Ming. Can you contact Great Ming King and try to seek his help for our prefect? Sure, some people in Great Xia have wronged you. But...the prefect...I don't know what to say. I only know that if Prefect Xia dies, Great Xia might not be able to recover from the loss..."

Su Yu remained silent for a while before replying, "I'll try. Keep an eye out and notify me if you learn anything new."

"Alright. By the way, the Light of Sunmoon have been appearing frequently around a grotto in the academy recently. According to the rumors, either Elder Hong or Faculty Head Zhou is going to leave seclusion as a Sunmoon soon."

"My grandteacher is leaving seclusion?"

Su Yu was surprised, but he was also quite speechless. His grandteacher was finally going to leave seclusion. From the day Su Yu joined the academy, Hong Tan had only spent a month in the academy before entering seclusion. Su Yu wondered how his grandteacher would feel after leaving seclusion and being faced with a dead multiple character faction.

"Alright. Got it. Thanks, Brother Zhang. By the way, how goes your cultivation of the Source Soul Acupoint Opening Art?"

"I opened forty-eight acupoints and spent a lot of money doing that. You should really stop tempting me with something like this in the future."Zhang Hao had a smile while he was saying that. In order to compensate the members of the Mutual Aid Club, Su Yu had transmitted some of his cultivation methods to them in advance.

Thus, Zhang Hao had switched to the Source Soul Acupoint Opening Art and had opened over forty acupoints. Additionally, he had also opened around thirty apertures.

The Zhang Family also gave him their full support, hoping that he could rapidly open seventy-two apertures and step into the Skysoar Realm before advancing into the Cloudbreach Realm.

"That's good to hear. I'll send you something nice when I have the chance."

Su Yu did not waste much time and ended the conversation shortly after. Inwardly, he was wondering just what was Great Xia trying to do. Was Great Xia really going to bow to the myriad races?

Sure, what they were doing wasn't as bad as paying war reparations and giving away their own lands, but from the rumors, Marquis Xia was trying to get a peace agreement with the myriad races. Thus, they would definitely need to pay a price for that. Was that possible?

Su Yu did not think that the Xia Family would really do something like that. Were they really going to do this just for Xia Longwu's advancement? Su Yu didn't know what to feel. Did Xia Longwu agree to this? If he was also agreeable to this, was he still the Xia Longwu that so many people worshipped?

"Xia Family..." Su Yu muttered to himself. This is not the Xia Family that he had in his mind. He could understand their misgivings, including their repeated tolerance of the single character faction. But that was still a tolerance toward internal conflicts.

Meanwhile, the divines and the devils were the greatest enemies of humanity. Were they really going to bow? Was Great Xia going to lay down their blade? In that case, Great Qin would be the sole blade remaining for humanity.

Was Xia Longwu's advancement worth laying down this blade? Su Yu had no idea. He only knew that this would no longer be the same Xia Family he used to idolize.

He left the research center and started heading toward the palace. He had to look for Zhu Tiandao and ask for some resources, including the blood essence he needed. He also wanted to ask if Zhu Tiandao heard anything about the Xia Family.

Within Great Ming, Su Yu's safety was still guaranteed. He would have three Mountainsea beasts constantly protecting him from the dark. And a bunch of Sunmoons had just died in Great Ming. No Sunmoon would be stupid enough to challenge Great Ming so soon after that incident.

Prefect's estate.

When Su Yu saw Zhu Tiandao, he handed over the list prepared by Wu Lan. He said, "Prefect, I need the blood essence of these races. And I need at least three drops per race. Skysoar and Cloudbreach blood essence will be optimal, but I can also accept weaker blood essence."

After taking look at the list, Zhu Tiandao nodded, "All these are long-lived races or races good at healing. I will get this done as soon as possible. But a few of these races are very rare and some are neutral races. I'll try my best."

"Thanks, Prefect." Su Yu asked, "Prefect, I heard that Great Xia is going to start accepting divine and devil students in the next semester?"

Zhu Tiandao laughed, "How do you know about this as well? I have just learned about it. Xia Xiao'er has only leaked a tiny bit of information. That is not all. According to the Xia Family and Wan Tiansheng, they will be pulling their soldiers out of some of their territories in the Allheaven Battlefield. They might even give up on a few conquered minor realms to reach an agreement."Su Yu frowned and asked, "Is the Xia Family really doing this?"

"I don't know." Zhu Tiandao shook his head, "But if they do that, they will definitely attract a lot of dissatisfaction even if this is for Xia Longwu's advancement. Of course, if they insist on doing it, nobody can stop them. Unless the various Invincibles make it clear that they are going to help Xia Longwu with his advancement, the others can only shut their mouth while the Xia Family negotiates peace with the divines and devils."

Su Yu asked, "Is everyone going to remain silent even if the Xia Family starts inviting wolves into our midst?"

Zhu Tiandao replied, "They are not necessarily wolves. Even when two armies are at war, they won't kill the envoys. These students can be viewed as special envoys. There will be some limitations on the type of people that can enter the Human Realm. They won't allow top experts to enter.

"But the Xia Family also needs to be careful lest something problematic happens in their own borders. You know how the people of Great Xia are. They are very hostile toward the myriad races. And if even the greatest enemies of humanity, the divines and devils, are also allowed to enter Great Xia, something bad might happen in Great Xia."