Ou Yangming looked away from the book. He closed his eyes and recalled the book’s content.
When he read, he must not only read the words but also conclude them. Moreover, he had to apply his experience as well to absorb the beneficial points to convert them for his own.
That was the essence of reading, which was more than just reading fast.
Needless to say, one must train for a long time and put the knowledge into practice to achieve that. Ou Yangming was not lacking in terms of this.
Ever since he obtained the Military Fire, he had smithed countless pieces of equipment. In particular, he had smithed so many magic tools that even blacksmiths that had lived for several decades might not be able to compare with him at all.
Since Ou Yangming had enough experience, the benefits that he received from reading these theories were far beyond one’s imagination.
Of course, Ou Yangming could only record those contents at the moment. Only by putting them into enough practice could he achieve mastery.
Reading was a step-by-step process. Ou Yangming read the most basic contents at first but as he grasped the knowledge, he began to read faster and looked at more difficult contents.
Many people entered the library to learn. Even in the side hall, which especially gathered books related to smithing art, it was packed with people.
Ou Yangming found it strange because the people seemed to be very interested in his books.
Nonetheless, he did not know that his appearance was the exact reason there was a huge gap between him at the blacksmiths from the Beast King Sect.
This was because he was reading too fast!
In the beginning, not many people bothered about Ou Yangming when he read the fundamental contents. Although the people found it weird, they did not pay extra attention to him. As the young fellow started to speed up and read more profound contents, the blacksmiths quickly became curious.
Especially after a week, when Ou Yangming started picking books that were related to the smithing of High Grade magic tools, there was a small sensation among the blacksmiths.
High Grade magic tools were pieces of high-end equipment among magic tools. There were definitely no more than 20 people in the Beast King Sect that could normally smith them. Therefore, back when Xu Feiyu smithed a fine High Grade magic tool, he could show off for some time.
From the time when Ou Yangming started to read fundamental smithing techniques to when he eventually read tempering techniques for High Grade magic tools, it had only been 10 days.
When the blacksmiths from the sect heard about this, they had a special feeling.
They had seen pretentious people, but none of them were as pretentious as this young fellow.
It was reasonable for a beginner to study basic smithing art but if he continued and even read about High Grade magic tools, he must be pretentious—so pretentious that he lacked principle.
Of course, what made the blacksmiths even more indignant was most of them were not qualified enough to read those books.
Who knew, the young fellow pulled strings with Bai Zhiyi, such that all of the book collections that were related to smithing art were accessible to him. As such, everyone envied him.
They dared not make such remarks in front of Bai Zhiyi, but the elder still heard about the gossip. He did not know to cry or to laugh when he received the news, and he thought, ‘How could I have such an honor?
‘Ou Yangming didn’t pull strings with me but Sir Venerable One.
‘The books that he has access to aren’t only limited to smithing art; he can read anything in the library.’
It was a secret that Ou Yangming entered the library with Yuqi the Venerable One’s jade pendant, by which there were less than 5 people who knew. Nevertheless, they dared not leak the secret at all because they must keep their mouths shut about anything that was related to Sir Venerable One.
Besides, while Ou Yangming displayed his smithing talent in the Beast King Sect in the past, he had only shown up once, and it had been several months since. As such, the sensation that was stirred up had disappeared, and very few people could recognize him. Even if people did recognize him, nobody would believe that he could smith High Grade magic tools.
On this day, Ou Yangming entered the library again. He looked around and hesitated for the first time.
After reading carefully for some time, Ou Yangming had gained a new understanding of smithing art. In particular, he underwent systematic learning for smithing art as he studied from the basics. The young fellow might have learned through the unorthodox method before this, but he was at least close to the standard now.
All of a sudden, he recalled the flying carpet that he rode to come to the sect.
It was an impulsive feeling, where he wanted to study the suprema equipment’s smithing technique.
Even though it was inevitable for him to learn step-by-step, he could occasionally skip steps to study superb things.
Once he made up his mind, he shifted his gaze to the book collections deeper inside the hall.
The book collections in the library were not simply arranged. Normal books were placed at the outer layer so that any disciple could easily access them. As long as they did not take them out of the library, there would not be a problem.
However, books that involved high-level skills could not be read by anyone.
Unless one had a certain status and paid some price, one would not be able to read them.
Of course, due to Yuqi the Venerable One’s jade pendant, Ou Yangming had the highest-level pass in the library. Regardless of a book’s level, he could retrieve them without any problems.
As at this moment, Ou Yangming strolled toward the innermost area in the side hall.
He looked up at the last shelf in this area, but there were only roughly 10 books there. Furthermore, each of the books was not thick; they were extremely thin, which made them look lonely.
Even so, all of the blacksmiths from the Beast King Sect knew that those 10 over books were the real treasures and were far more valuable than the 10,000 books at the front.
Seeing as Ou Yangming arrived at the last shield, about 10 people in the side hall could not help but look at each other. They could not even focus on their books anymore.
“Hey, look, what is he trying to do?”
“Since he came to the library, he’s here to read, of course.”
“Pfft, you don’t say, but he’s looking at that shelf!”
“Yes, what’s going on? That shelf keeps the treasures of our sect. I heard that those books were written by Venerable Blacksmiths. Even Elder Bai isn’t qualified to read them, is he?”
“Heh, after pretending for so many days, he finally reached his limit today.”
“It’s good for him to hit a brick wall so that he’ll stop reaching for what’s beyond him.”
They controlled their voices as much as they could, but they could not hide their looks of surprise.
This was because they never saw any of their seniors reading the books from the innermost section in the side hall as though nobody in the sect was qualified at the moment.
Thus, when Ou Yangming stood in front of that shelf, they thought that he was putting up another show.
Ou Yangming looked with bright eyes at the books in front of him. He had not touched any of them, but he could surprisingly sense the powerful auras that they contained.
Those were powers of Venerable Ones, which meant that the books’ owners or authors were beings that were comparable with Venerable Ones.
Back then, Ou Yangming would have backed away if he sensed these auras. After all, he had not even grasped the smithing techniques for High Grade and Fine Grade magic tools, so it was still early for him to read books from Venerable Blacksmiths indeed.
Despite that, he could not stop thinking about flying carpets at the moment, and he could not wait.
After looking for some time, Ou Yangming finally decided on one of the books. He reached out for it.
He did not realize that while he was doing that, the blacksmiths that were either standing or sitting behind him had odd smiles on their faces as if they were waiting for him to make a joke out of himself.
Since the books were of a different level, they could not be read by anyone.
Without the required status and standard, one would not have the right to read the books from the inner section. If one tried to take one of the books by force, they would only be taught a painful and unforgettable lesson.
When Ou Yangming reached out for one of the books, the other people felt like he was being overconfident.
They widened their eyes and sneered as they wanted to watch Ou Yangming being fended off by the defensive power.
This was not because Ou Yangming had poor relations with people, but the blacksmiths were simply envious of him reading rapidly throughout these few days.
Eventually, Ou Yangming extended his arm and grabbed one of the books.
‘It’s coming!’
Almost at the same time, all of the onlookers shouted internally.
Who knew, they were soon surprised because unlike what they had expected, Ou Yangming was not struck by thunderbolts. The young man took the book away as though he was taking an ordinary book. It was exactly the same as what he had been doing for the past few days.
Following that, Ou Yangming returned to his seat slowly and enjoyed reading the book.
Everyone else looked at each other in disbelief.
For the past few days, Ou Yangming might have successfully read all sorts of books because he was being looked after by Bai Zhiyi, but the people were flustered after what happened today.
As far as they knew, even Bai Zhiyi had not read the books on the last row.
The people exchanged glances, then one of the disciples gritted his teeth and got up to walk toward the last shelf.
Upon seeing this, the others knew what he was trying to do. The disciple wanted to test if the Guardian Formation Map was malfunctioning because it had been such a long time.
When the disciple reached the last shelf, he reached out for a book like how Ou Yangming did…