Su Yu quickly opened the book titled Source Opening Acceleration Method. The very first page he saw rendered him speechless.

This acceleration method is one that will not take survival into consideration. Take note that a majority of the people who had attempted this method had died.

Su Yu smiled helplessly. That preface made it clear that this would be an unreliable method. No wonder all his teachers had exhorted him to take it slow during the Source Opening Realm. They were all trying to make sure he did not step onto a wrong path.

First method: Bath in the blood of formidable divine and devil beings. These beings have their nine acupoints opened at birth. They have abundant source qi in their bodies and their blood is rich in source qi...

Result: Body explosion.

Past case: Year 9 of the Anping Calendar. The son of Great Ming's prefect had bathed in the blood of divine and devil beings to quickly open his nine acupoints, bringing him into the Great Strength Realm. He was able to open all nine acupoints within one day, but his body also exploded on the same day. He was still nine when he perished.

Su Yu grimaced. Since a real case was given, this book was most likely not lying. Son of a prefect, year 9 of the Anping Calendar. That was probably the first son of the Great Ming King. Even someone like that had perished in the attempt. This was too dangerous. There was also the fact that the blood of divines and devils were not something easy to obtain.

The divines and devils were among the strongest races that could be found on the Alleaven Battlefield. It was said that even the weakest combatant of these two races on the Allheaven Battlefield would be at the Infinite Strength Realm.

The son of the Great Ming King must have obtained the leftover blood from the divines and devils the Great Ming King had killed himself. With the rarity of the blood required, this method wouldn't be feasible for Su Yu even if it worked.

"My dad isn't the Great Ming King..." Su Yu muttered to himself. If his dad was the Great Ming King, he wouldn't have bothered cultivating. Who was the Great Ming King? He was the supreme expert who had founded the Great Ming Prefecture, a pillar of humanity. His strength was at a level Su Yu couldn't find the words to describe. In short, he was so strong that this method wasn't something Su Yu should even bother entertaining.

Abandoning the first method, Su Yu continued reading. The more he read, the deeper his frown became.

Second method: Consuming the flesh of the demons. The flesh of some demonic races are capable of opening one's acupoints once consumed.

Result: Body explosion.

Past case: Early in the Anping Calendar, the human race was in decline. Human experts slaughtered some demons and returned with their corpses. A large number of humans feasted on these flesh. A majority of them died from the explosion of their bodies. A minority of them were able to quickly open all nine acupoints.

Note: Only a very small number of people had successfully opened their acupoints with this method. According to the records, the flesh of the following races would be helpful for acupoint opening: golden peng race, barbaric bull race, sky tiger race...

Su Yu immediately rejected this method. What kind of a joke was this? The listed races were incredibly powerful races. They might not be as powerful as the divines and the devils, but they were still far beyond Su Yu's reach.

Third method: Heavenly Source Fruit, a natural treasure.

The Heavenly Source Fruit gathers the heavenly source qi, the original qi of the myriad realms. This fruit is extremely helpful for opening the nine acupoints.

Locations: Can be found in the Divine Realm, Devil Realm, and Demon Realm in limited numbers.

Past case: Year 25 of the Anping Calendar. The son of Great Zhou King consumed a Heavenly Source Fruit and opened nine acupoints in the span of three days and suffered no aftereffects.

Su Yu grimaced yet again. "Son of Great Zhou King...That Great Zhou King only has one son, right? Isn't that the current prefect of Great Zhou, Zhou Potian?"

This was yet another method Su Yu had to give up on. He had never heard of this fruit before. It was definitely an incredible natural treasure. After all, Zhou Potian was still alive even now. He was also the current prefect of Great Zhou. It was clear he was incredibly powerful. But even if humanity was in possession of these Heavenly Source Fruits, it would have nothing to do with Su Yu. Something like that was basically a high-level strategic resource.

Fourth method...

Su Yu continued reading, but the more he read, the more hopeless he felt. Sure enough, there were no shortcuts in Source Opening cultivation. It was no wonder that his teachers had never mentioned these shortcuts before. The available shortcuts would require either the blood of powerful divines and devils or some high-tier treasures. Most of these methods came with serious side effects as well.

Ninth method: Look for a location rich in source qi. The source qi is distributed unevenly among the various realms. Some places are barren and some places are abundant. As one could only passively train one's acupoints during the Source Opening Realm, the speed of one's cultivation would rely on the ambient source qi of one's surroundings...

Holy lands of cultivation: Allheaven Battlefield, secret grottos of the various academies, Sacred Land of the Human Realm...

Su Yu blanked out. Locations rich in source qi. In truth, those in the Source Opening Realm were incapable of sensing source qi. Despite that, he knew that Nanyuan City wasn't a place rich with source qi.

"I'm aware of this. The bigger a city is, the better the location is, and the faster one could cultivate. That is probably related to the amount of source qi in these cities."

The teachers at Nanyuan had not mentioned that to their students because it was pointless. This was not an era where one could easily relocate to a different city.

"In other words, if I can get to a bigger city or a secret grotto, I'll be able to safely speed up my cultivation. But this method will still be slower compared to the other methods."

Abundant source qi can only slightly increase one's cultivation speed instead of pushing one through the entire realm in one go like the other listed methods. Even so, this was still a method Su Yu hoped to utilize. Unfortunately, not a single one of the listed locations was a place he could reach.

He could forget about the Allheaven Battlefield. As for the secret grottos, it was said that the high academies would have access to those, but he knew too little about them. There wasn't even a need to consider something like the Sacred Land of the Human Realm.

Tenth method: Source qi liquid.

There are two types of source qi liquid: natural or synthetic. Places rich in source qi are capable of producing natural source qi liquid. However, natural source qi liquid is extremely rare.

As for synthetic source qi liquid, it is something produced by Skysoar Realm experts.

The source qi liquid has the same level of efficacy as a location with abundant source qi.

"..."

There was no way Su Yu would be able to get any natural source qi liquid. As for synthetic source qi...a Skysoar Realm expert was required. Su Yu smiled helplessly. Skysoar Realm? One would still be cultivating one's physical body at the Great Strength and Infinite Strength Realms. But beyond that, a human cultivator would be able to take to the skies.

The Skysoar Realm was a stage where human cultivators would go through a qualitative transformation. Was there even a single Skysoar Realm cultivator in the entirety of Nanyuan City? Perhaps. Maybe the mayor was one such expert. But could Su Yu realistically get in contact with an individual of this level?

As for the Nanyuan Secondary School, the strongest individual was the principal. But even the principal was only at the Infinite Strength Realm. If an Infinite Strength cultivator could actually produce source qi liquid, the principal was probably nice enough that Su Yu could get a few drops off him. Unfortunately, that wasn't possible.

"I can't rely on anyone!" Su Yu complained. No wonder these books were left collecting dust at the corner of the library.

For people like Su Yu, none of the listed methods were usable. The easiest method would either be finding a location with rich source qi or getting some source qi liquid. However, source qi liquid would require a Skysoar Realm expert at the very least. That was out of Su Yu's reach.

His father was a seventh-stage Great Strength cultivator eighteen years ago. Due to the lack of ambient source qi in Nanyuan City and the lack of support after leaving the army, his father had only managed to reach the ninth-stage after all these years.

Even at such a low cultivation level, he was still regarded as an important individual in Nanyuan City. Of course, his father did not think that he was anyone special. After his retirement from the army, he had worked as the city’s traffic controller and lived a relatively leisurely life. If he hadn't sacrificed his career prospects to raise Su Yu, his cultivation of ninth-stage Great Strength Realm would be enough to get him a rather respectable position in Nanyuan City.

"None of these methods works!"

Finally, Su Yu gave up and returned the books to the shelf. After giving it some thought, he approached Liu Yue apologetically and said, "Liu Yue, can I get a minute of your time?"

Liu Yue placed down the book she was reading and smiled, "Of course."

"I haven't been paying much attention to cultivation all these years. Do you know about source qi liquid?"

"You want to buy some source qi liquid?" Liu Yue immediately understood what Su Yu wanted. After all, as the one who had referred those books to Su Yu, she had naturally read them as well.

"Source qi liquid...that is a strategic resource. It is not available for purchase in Nanyuan City. However, you can find it at the capital. You need to register your real name before making the purchase.

"There are many types of source qi liquid. The liquid formed by experts of different cultivation levels would be different as well. Naturally, for Source Opening cultivators, the liquid formed by Skysoar cultivators would be the best. That would be the cheapest tier of liquid you can get. With the relatively lower density of qi in the liquid, it is much easier for Source Opening cultivators to digest. If the density is too high, Source Opening cultivators can easily harm themselves.

"However, it definitely wouldn't be cheap to purchase. After all, even a Skysoar cultivator would require three days to form a drop. However, Skysoar cultivators need their source qi for their own cultivation as well. Unless they are broke, no Skysoar Realm expert would be willing to form any source qi liquid."

Liu Yue gazed at Su Yu and said, "Su Yu, it really isn't worth it. Source qi liquid can only increase your source qi density. It won't guarantee an opening of your acupoints." 

"I know. Thank you. So how much for a drop of source qi liquid formed by a Skysoar expert?"

Su Yu naturally knew that it wouldn't be cheap. But he still wanted to learn more. After all, his father had left a decent amount of money behind before leaving. Or to be precise, Su Long had left all his money behind. After all, the Allheaven Battlefield was a dangerous place. There was no guarantee that he would be able to return with his life.

"100,000 anyuan dollars."

"..."

Su Yu grimaced. 100,000 per drop? His father was a ninth-stage Great Strength cultivator. Working as the city's traffic controller, he had a monthly salary of 5,000 anyuan dollars. That was by no means a low salary. After deducting the money used for their family's daily expenses and some cultivation resources, they could save about 20,000 or 30,000 anyuan dollars per year.

Through years of saving, Su Long had saved about 300,000 anyuan dollars, enough for his son to start a family. But now...it turned out that all their family savings only amounted to three drops of source qi liquid? No wonder Liu Yue said that it wasn't worth it! Using source qi liquid to cultivate was basically the same as burning his money away!

Seeing Su Yu's expression, Liu Yue couldn't help but laugh. "I told you. It's expensive and totally not worth it. In truth, I had used a drop before. It only increased my source qi density for about three days. It's really not that good. I only used it that one time. It's too expensive. 

"If it's really that good, the school would have long encouraged us to use it. After all, the school could still afford that much money for something actually useful. Just look around you. How many people do you know that have actually used this method?

"If you couldn't open your acupoints within three days, you will then have to buy more. In six days, 200,000 dollars would be used. In nine days, 300,000 dollars would be wasted. Nobody can sustain that."

Su Yu smiled helplessly, "I understand. It's really too expensive. If it guarantees the opening of my acupoints, it might still be worth a try. But if I fail to open any acupoints, I would have wasted my money for nothing. No wonder all the teachers claimed that there are no shortcuts in Source Opening cultivation." 

"That's the truth," Liu Yue smiled. "You're not going to be taking any tests related to your cultivation anyway. Why are you suddenly thinking about buying source qi liquid?"

"I signed up for the war academies. Not putting all eggs in one basket and all that, you know?"

Su Yu gave a short explanation before taking his leave with a smile on his face. This was the library, not a place for them to chat away. Looking at the departing Su Yu, Liu Yue raised her brow curiously. Signed up for the war academies? Why would he sign up for the war academies for no reason?

She shook her head and stopped thinking about it. Nothing would change even if this fellow had signed up for the war academies. They would most likely still end up schoolmates in the same cultural research academy. She could only hope that this fellow wouldn't do anything stupid.