Tribulation of Myriad Races

That night, there were no senior brothers or sisters knocking on their doors like Zhou Hui had mentioned. The night was uneventful.

...

Early next morning, Su Yu walked down the building to find Zhou Hui waiting for them.

"Take your luggage with you."

Zhou Hui was in the midst of talking to the gathered students, "When we reach the main campus, free accommodation will no longer be provided. This place is also not free at any other time.

"Take your merit cards, bank cards, and acceptance letters with you."

Around Zhou Hui, the other senior students were reminding their junior students as well.

"We'll get on vehicle #18 later. Don't go the wrong way."

"All of you will be registered and assigned together. As for the faculty choices, some of you will have your faculty chosen for you while some are free to choose your faculty."

Since they were in a rush, Su Yu and company only grabbed a simple breakfast before leaving. The Visitor District was quite a distance away from the main campus. If they went on foot, some of the physically weaker students would probably be incapable of walking that far. If this was a war academy instead, students so weak physically wouldn't exist.

Before long, they walked out of the building. Outside, a long row of vehicles was waiting for them. Students could be seen everywhere.

There were slightly less than 2,000 new students this year. Some had gone straight to the main campus. Even so, there were still nearly 1,000 new students here at Visitor District. Each vehicle could carry 20 students and there were around 50 of these vehicles waiting along the road.

Su Yu started looking around, wondering if those from the Nanyuan had arrived. He did not know if their journey had been smooth after his departure. There were too many people around and he couldn't see any familiar faces.

...

Before long, everyone was on the vehicles.

When Su Yu saw the petite girl called Liu Ke struggling with two suitcases, he offered to help. But she merely looked at him cautiously, worried that he would ask for merit points. Su Yu was left speechless and could only rescind his offer to help. Did he look like a villain or something?

On the vehicle, after confirming that everyone was there, Zhou Hui said, "Everyone, don't run around randomly during registration. When you encounter old students, don't interact with them too much unless you actually know them."

Zhou Hui solemnly said, "I'll be frank. We have a lot of crazies in the academy. Some of them are those whose willpower had collapsed from cultivation. Most of the time, they look completely normal. They won't do anything unprovoked, but the moment you provoked one, you might end up getting beaten to death. Sure, the crazy would suffer the consequences as well, but you would be dead anyway so that wouldn’t matter to you.."

Zhou Hui was stern as she warned, "I'm being serious. Don't treat this lightly. Some of these people are even researchers. You should understand how strong a researcher is. A casual strike is enough to take your life.

"Of course, these incidents are rare, but they have really happened before. I'm warning you. If you provoke such trouble yourself, nobody will pity you."

Everyone turned solemn as well. Nobody dared to neglect her warning.

Liu Ke asked fearfully, "Senior Sister, won't the academy deal with those people?"

"Of course the academy would." Zhou Hui gloomily said, "But they can't inspect the academy every single day. Some people have been in seclusion for a long time. After leaving seclusion, nobody would know that they have gone mad if they still behave normally. And the moment they behave abnormally, someone would suffer from that. What else could the academy do in that situation?"

Liu Ke paled as she asked, "We won't meet one later, right?"

Zhou Hui smiled and said, "Don't say that. Normally, the more you say that something won't happen, the easier it is for something to happen."

She was only scaring them. There were really not that many crazies walking around. These new students were the most disobedient lot. The more talented ones, in particular, were incredibly haughty. They were the hardest to deal with.

Since she had two high-tier students in her group, it was better for her to scare them for a bit. The vehicle started moving.

Zhou Hui stopped talking about the crazies. Instead, she said, "When your family and friends visit in the future, they can stay in the Visitor District. When you return late from missions, you can stay here as well.

"Also, there are more food options here. The taste is quite good. A lot of old students like to eat here. This place is actually a famous food street of the academy."

Zhou Hui licked her lips and smiled, "For food, remember to come here. Those in the Commerce District won't do it. That place mostly sells cultivation resources while the Visitor District specializes in food and entertainment. There are also a lot of fashion stores here, so a lot of girls like to shop for new clothes here..."

That caught the attention of the females in the group.

"Not far ahead is a shop called House of Women. Their clothes are pretty and cheap. Feel free to visit when you have some time. If you give my name to the shopkeeper, you can get a discount."

The students were already familiar with her so one of them laughed and said, "Senior Sister, would you receive an introduction fee if you give your name?"

Zhou Hui did not mind and said, "Who cares about a small fee like that? How much can some clothes cost? The clothes there are really pretty. If we're doing introduction fees, we would normally work with those high-profit businesses."

Zhou Hui’s gaze landed on Liu Ke and Su Yu as she said, "If any of you want to purchase some original texts, weapons, blood essence, pills, or talismans, you can look for me too. I'll introduce you to some reliable sellers.

"Also, if you don't have merit points but are rich in cash, you can look for me as well. Some of the less restricted resources can actually be bought with cash.

"You can also look for me if you want to buy or sell contribution points."

Liu Ke asked in astonishment, "Senior Sister, private merit point transactions are illegal!"

Zhou Hui smiled, "That is only applicable to large transactions. Small amounts of private transactions are fine. Some of the students can't even afford to feed themselves and put a roof over their heads. They only have a small number of merit points. Are you going to stop them from selling those points for food and shelter?

"Some students come from poor families. If their parents encounter trouble and they need some cash, what could they do apart from selling some merit points?"

Zhou Hui sighed and said, "If possible, nobody would wish to sell their merit points. But there are situations where people are at the end of the line."

All the new students sank into silence, but Su Yu curiously asked, "How many merit points would be considered a large volume?"

"Above 100 points and you would need to start watching your backs." Zhou Hui reminded, "Your merit cards have a notification system for any transaction above 100 merit points. All the transactions are logged."

"What's the exchange rate?"

Zhou Hui said, "For us, merit points are necessities, not cash. The sale of merit points has always been a gray area. Thus, the market rate ranges between 30,000 to 50,000 for 1 point."

"50,000 dollars!"

Su Yu was speechless. That was a very high variance. As expected of unregulated transactions. The difference between the highest and lowest rate was actually so high.

Liu Ke said, "Even with merit points, without enough total earned merit, you won't be able to buy anything anyway."

Zhou Hui rolled her eyes and said, "If you have enough merit points, you won't have to worry about not being able to buy what you want.

"Take me as an example. With my total earned merit, the academy allows me to buy an Infinite Strength original text per month for about 100 merit points each. Those without enough total earned merit won't be allowed to buy any.

"With the original text in hand, I would ignore anyone offering to buy it from me with cash. But if someone offers 200 merit points for it, would I sell it?"

Zhou Hui smiled, "You can actually make a lot selling what you buy through the official channel. Of course, there would be a limit to what you can get from the official channel.

"For example, if I intend to get into the business of Infinite Strength original text selling, I would only be able to sell one per month. In truth, the volume is too small to be helpful. The time they spend waiting for me to buy one book per month could be used to bring their total merit earned up instead.

"There are actually some people specializing in this business in the academy. They will survey the academy each month to figure out what the students need the most for the month. Then, they will start contacting people to buy and sell the resources that are in demand. The academy would turn a blind eye most of the time, but you would still lose a lot if you are unlucky enough to have your business raided by the academy."

Zhou Hui shook her head and sighed, "Not long ago, we organized a large sale. But the academy raided us and over 100 students lost nearly 10,000 merit points from the raid. And there was absolutely nothing we could do about it."

One of the new students hurriedly asked, "Would the academy really do that?"

"Of course." Zhou Hui gnashed her teeth in anger, "The academy is actually very sly as well. Those reporting an unauthorized transaction will receive one percent of the merit points obtained from the raid.

"Someone must have reported us, making nearly 100 merit points by stabbing all of us in the back. That person better hide well or all those fellows who had lost some merit points to the raid would beat that fellow to death."

Zhou Hui had clearly lost some merit points during the raid as well, but she probably hadn't lost that many. She didn't look that rich anyway. Su Yu merely shook his head and said nothing.

It would seem like this wasn't an easy business to do at all. It would be fine when the academy was turning a blind eye, but the moment one was raided by the academy, one would make a massive loss.

But would the academy actually be unaware of these private transactions? They were merely unbothered about the smaller transactions. Only upon reaching a certain volume of transactions would the academy make a move and raid the black market, delivering a massive loss to all of them.

After a while, the new students finally saw the main campus. They knew they had arrived because there was a massive gate leading into the main campus. Using the word gate was not that accurate. To be precise, a massive archway acted as a gate of sorts. Some armored soldiers could be seen standing guard around the gate.

Su Yu knew that those weren't the city guards. Rather, they were the academy guards. The academy had the rights to establish a private security force.

The Great Xia Cultural Research Academy had 1,000 academy guards. There were a decent number of experts among them.

The eight guards standing around the gate were basically blinding clumps of light to Su Yu's senses. That signified that these people were at the Infinite Strength Realm or beyond. All eight of them were that strong.

"Get off the vehicle," shouted Zhou Hui before leaving the vehicle herself. The new students hurriedly followed behind her.

...

A while later, they started lining up to go through the gate.

Su Yu and company were waiting in line when a group of people arrived behind them.

"Get out of the way!"

With that shout, a group of good-looking young men and women walked forward. Leading the group was a man of roughly 30 years old. The group walked straight to the gate without sparing anyone else a glance.

"Open the door."

The regular students like Su Yu were lining up to get through the main gate. Beside the main gate was a smaller door. That door was being opened for these newcomers.

Sounds of discussion broke out.

"Don't they need to line up?"

It was obvious those people were new students since some even had their luggage with them. They were quite young and some were curiously looking around.

One of the students in Su Yu's group was unhappy and asked, "Senior Sister, what is this?"

Zhou Hui wasn't surprised as she said, "Ignore them. Those fellows are from the Beifeng Club. There are many regional clubs in the academy. You should be aware of that. These clubs have paid some money to the academy for priority entrance."

Someone said unhappily, "Why is the academy so greedy?"

Zhou Hui smiled and said, "You can do so if you're rich enough as well. Since they have the money to burn, nobody cares what they do with their money. They are the ones insisting on showing off this way. I'll have you know that for this special entrance, they are paying at least 100 merit points per entry. Would you be willing to pay that much?"

...

Nobody answered.

Of course they wouldn't. It was better to just wait in line. Anyone stupid enough to burn their money like that could go and do so. They definitely weren't going to do that.

Su Yu laughed. It would seem like the academy was really doing everything they could to earn money.

Opening a side door to earn 100 merit points. In the black market, that was basically worth three to five million dollars. That was more profitable than robbery. And even with that atrocious price, some people were still willing to pay. How could the academy say no?

The new students were no longer upset. Sure, they were still envious, but nobody was stopping them from paying for the benefit as well.

Next, a different group arrived.

This time, Su Yu saw a familiar face: Hu Zongji. Since that fellow was with them, were these fellows from the Tianshui Club?

Beside Hu Zongji was a young man with a friendly smile on his face who somewhat resembled Hu Zongji in appearance. While walking, that person said, "We are from the Tianshui Club. Junior brothers and sisters, if you're interested, you can apply to join our club. We welcome everyone with middle-middle evaluation and above.

"The Tianshui Club organizes a lot of dao preaching sessions. For these sessions, well-known researchers will be invited. Even those who aren't our club members can register to attend those sessions."

After saying all that, the young man walked through the side door without waiting for a reply.

Beside him, Hu Zongji was busy looking around while walking. When he noticed Su Yu in the crowd, he grinned smugly. He did not greet Su Yu, but he was clearly feeling proud that he was able to enter first while Su Yu had to wait.

Look at me! I don't have to wait in line! So what if you're a high-high student? You still need to wait in line like the others!

Su Yu merely smiled. He was unbothered. As far as he was concerned, that fellow was merely a fool. What was so great about entering first? They needed to pay for that! The 100 merit points the club had spent for the special passage would definitely be earned back from these new students.

If this was really not profitable for the club, nobody would bother doing it. The club would have shut down long ago. The second group had barely entered when a third group arrived. This group was larger, and the members of the group looked incredibly impressive.

"The locals are here!"

"These are the local elites!"

"The person at the front...is Liu He?"

"Liu He? Who's that?"

"Number 87 on the Top 100 Ranking. His brother is the genius teaching assistant, Liu Hong. This fellow was able to enter the Top 100 Ranking not long after entering the academy. He's very strong."

Some of the older students started talking among themselves, causing many people to focus on the person leading the group, Liu He. A student on the Top 100 Ranking! Any student on the Top 100 Ranking was worthy of respect and envy.

Liu He did not look too old. Su Yu didn't pay him much attention. He only knew that Liu He's elder brother, Liu Hong, did not get along well with Bai Feng.

"Senior Sister, do you know him?" Su Yu asked with a soft voice.

Zhou Hui replied, "Yes. A top 100 student. How can I not know him? He's a genius. He joined the academy last year and entered the Top 100 Ranking after half a year. Around a month ago, he succeeded in his challenge against the person occupying the 87th place, making himself a top 90 student.

"He entered the academy with a high-middle evaluation and created quite a scene when he entered. Back then, Assistant Liu Hong asked Assistant Bai Feng to accept his little brother as a student but was rejected. A lot of people heard about that. When Liu He entered the Top 100 Ranking, he publicly thanked Assistant Bai Feng for being smart enough to not accept him.

"Everyone knows that he was being sarcastic."

Su Yu raised his brow. Something like that happened? Previously, Bai Feng told him that many geniuses in the academy wanted to be his student, but he couldn't be bothered to entertain any of them. So it turned out he was telling the truth.

Liu He's own brother was a genius as well, but he still chose to become Bai Feng's student. In the end, he ended up rejected. That was quite humiliating for a genius like him. He was probably very unhappy or he wouldn't utter those words after entering the Top 100 Ranking.

Liu He walked with a cold expression while looking straight ahead. He did not care about what these people were saying.

When he reached the side door, he suddenly turned to look at the students waiting in line and coldly asked, "Are the people from Nanyuan here yet?"

Nobody replied.