Chapter 344 - 228: The Old Headmaster’s Killing Intent, Shrunken War Merits (Part 2)

"On the path of cultivation, you only begin to see the world for what it truly is after you become a Grandmaster. For low- and mid-level Martial Artists, the world seems mostly fair. But after you reach the rank of Grandmaster, you'll feel there are far too many injustices. And once you become a Martial Saint, you will witness an even greater despair!"

Yu Fei didn't know what to say. He could tell from Ye Shuping's expression today that he wasn't faking it. 'Whatever,' he thought. 'I'll just focus on cultivating for now. I'm only a Rank-4 Gang Qi Martial Artist. I can't shoulder the weight of the world.'

He downed the tea in his cup in one gulp. Surprisingly, Ye Shuping didn't offer a refill. Just as Yu Fei was about to pour some himself, he was stopped.

"Jade Green is good, but don't be greedy. Your cultivation level is too low for such a potent supplement. That's enough for today. Go and cultivate diligently!"

Yu Fei immediately stood up and bowed. "Mr. Ye, I'll see you later!"

"Go on."

...

Night had fallen. Ye Shuping's figure materialized at the entrance to the Cyan Field border region. The entrance here was a black fog a hundred meters in diameter, much smaller in scale. He appeared without a sound, completely unnoticed.

With a single step, he entered the border region.

About an hour later, Ye Shuping returned to his home world. The moment his feet touched the earth, he closed his eyes and sensed his surroundings.

A faint sense of familiarity rose from within his heart. Ye Shuping remained expressionless. He immediately returned to the Cyan Field border region, only coming back three hours later. He closed his eyes, sensing for a moment, then hurried to the next border region.

The old principal, weary from his travels, continued this pattern, frequently entering and exiting the major border regions. The duration of his stays varied, sometimes for a few minutes, other times for more than a day.

Then, without a word, he returned to Shenhan and announced he was entering seclusion, cutting himself off from worldly affairs.

Prompted by Yu Fei's theory about the planet's will, Ye Shuping had personally run dozens of experiments, verifying its accuracy.

His expression was incredibly grim.

A Martial Saint's divine soul is supposed to be stable and unshakable; not even death can sway their will. But Ye Shuping discovered Yu Fei was right. Before returning to his home world from a border region, he would guard his heart and quiet his mind, clearing it of all thoughts and suppressing every emotional ripple.

Logically, he should have remained in this state after returning to his home world.

But that sense of familiarity still rose up unbidden, emerging from his divine soul for no reason at all. It felt so dissonant.

Before this, Ye Shuping had always believed it was simply his love for his own world, a feeling of which he was proud.

But now...

Furthermore, the longer he stayed in a border region, the stronger this sense of familiarity became. Ye Shuping tried every method he could think of, yet he was still unable to stop this feeling from manifesting, its origin a complete mystery.

The realization sent a chill down his spine.

He was a Martial Saint! The principal of Shenhan!

Yet he couldn't even control his own emotions, and for over three hundred years, he had been completely oblivious!

'A planetary will? What the hell is this thing!'

In the quiet room, memories from the past several hundred years churned in his mind. He dissected every decision he had ever made, questioning whether any of them had truly been born of his own will.

After a long time, he came up with nothing.

'Yu Fei... ah...' He let out a long sigh.

'That kid is a "wind-chaser" by nature—someone who yearns for absolute freedom. That's why he's so suspicious of everything. But I never imagined he would stumble upon something so terrifying purely by chance.'

'No, I have to figure this out. Does this happen to everyone, or only to specific groups? Or is it...'

In the darkness, Ye Shuping's expression was grim, and a murderous aura began to thicken in his eyes.

...

Back in the long-missed Geometric Pyramid Realm, Yu Fei finally relaxed completely. The constant killing over the past few days, the shock of the Origin Demon race, and his own speculations about special talents had left him exhausted.

He had drunk too much tea at Mr. Ye's place today, and his divine soul felt a little unstable. So, instead of cultivating, he simply fell into a deep sleep.

When he next awoke, Yu Fei was amazed to discover that the range of his Divine Sense had expanded to a two-zhang radius. 'This is all thanks to the Jade Green,' he thought. 'Looks like I'll have to find more excuses to chat with Mr. Ye and scrounge some more off him.'

With that in mind, he searched for "Jade Green" on the *Ping Tianxia* network but found nothing.

'Looks like it's a top-tier resource that isn't traded on the *Ping Tianxia* network.'

He sent a message to Jiang Nianwei to let her know he was safe, then resumed his cultivation.

His merit points from the battle hadn't been distributed yet, and he didn't have many on hand. Fortunately, he still had some resources left over from before, enough to support his cultivation of the All Things Return to Origin Scripture.

The Inner Qi stage was primarily focused on accumulating Inner Qi. Yu Fei was currently at the Vast as the Sea level, meaning his Inner Qi was immense and his attacks were extraordinarily powerful. If he had a weakness, it was his slow Qi recovery.

If not for the Melt Gold Jade Body Skill allowing him to refine Yang Qi for replenishment during the day, it would take him at least a day or two to fully recover his Inner Qi through natural regeneration or meditation alone.

According to the cultivation technique's description, if he could reach the Infinite Ruins level, he would no longer have to worry about running out of Inner Qi.

'If I had enough Inner Qi, I could unleash tens of thousands of Sword Qi with a wave of my hand!'

Yu Fei imagined that if he could continuously unleash a limitless barrage of Sword Qi, then no one below the rank of Grandmaster would be his match, no matter how many of them there were.

On the front lines at Dragon Map Crossing, he alone would be worth a hundred Gang Qi Martial Artists.

However, his Qi Sea was only thirty percent full right now. The road ahead was long. Since it involved his fundamental cultivation method, it would be a slow grind even with abundant resources.

Days of cultivation passed uneventfully. On the third day after his return to the academy, the merit point distribution for him and the Yulin Army was finally announced.

Yu Fei examined the details carefully on the virtual interface.

Each rank of demon was assigned a fixed number of merit points. Spider Demons were the most valuable: a Rank-6 Spider Demon was worth 50,000 merit points, a Rank-5 was worth 20,000, and a Rank-4 was only worth 5,000.

The other mid-rank Origin Demons were all valued the same. Whether they were Shadow Demons, Blade Demons, or Wing Demons, a Rank-6 was worth only 500 merit points, a Rank-5 was worth 300, and a Rank-4 was worth 100.

As for the lowest tier on the battlefield, a single Lesser Demon was only worth 10 merit points.

Seeing this, Yu Fei did a rough calculation of his kills. He figured he should have at least twenty million merit points.

He was delighted. 'With this many merit points, I should be able to cultivate comfortably for some time,' he thought. 'Besides, the risks on the Abyss front line aren't that great for me. I can earn points quickly there.'

At this rate, he should be able to gather the resources for the Melt Gold Jade Body Skill quickly. Reaching mastery was just a matter of time.

Yu Fei couldn't help but feel a surge of anticipation. An image of Li Mengyao seemed to flash before his eyes.

'Soon. Maybe next year I can invite her to visit the Geometric Pyramid Realm? What would be a good reason... To see my cat?'

He continued reading down the list. The numbers shown for demons he had killed independently or assisted in killing were more or less what he expected.

Approximately 71 Rank-6 Spider Demons, with more than half killed on the final day; 341 Rank-5 Spider Demons; and even more Rank-4s, totaling over a thousand.

The Spider Demons were the fewest in number, but they contributed half of his total merit points. After them came the Blade Demons; regardless of rank, Yu Fei had slain over 40,000 of them in total. They posed no threat to him. A single sweep of his blade, Zhanming, would cut them down like wheat.

He had also killed over ten thousand Shadow Demons. On the battlefield, Shadow Demons were incredibly easy to deal with. They were fragile, and support-class Martial Artists marked their positions in advance. The creatures loved to sneak up on humans, thinking they were well-hidden, and were usually killed off as an afterthought.

If you encountered a Shadow Demon in the wild, however, without a support-class Martial Artist to sense and mark its position, it would become extremely dangerous.

Yu Fei skimmed through the rest; he couldn't even remember the exact numbers himself.

He skipped directly to the "Theoretical Total Merit Points" section. The number was over twenty-nine million. A jolt of joy went through him. He finished the page and flipped to the next one, and then... as he read through the itemized deductions, his smile vanished.

First, for participating under the banner of a freelance battle group, the front lines provided extensive support and logistics. Therefore, 50% of his merit points were deducted.

Second, the battlefield support provided by the Defense Corps—including the establishment of the Heart and Mind Network Platform, battlefield medics, and so on—claimed another 20% of his merit points.

Finally, after a comprehensive assessment of his combat contributions, most of his kills were deemed collaborative efforts. After all was said and done, of the 30% that remained, his share was further reduced, leaving him with only about 20% of the original total.

In the end, Yu Fei's total merit points came to around 5.83 million.

'This... is a total rip-off!'