By the corner, books were stacked densely on the bookshelves and they were all about cultivation techniques and related subjects. There were manuals on Fighter 1-dan, 2-dan, 3-dan and 4-dan. Similar to Hongtian Academy, the higher the tier was, the less the number of books there were on it. As for Fighter 6-dan manuals, there were only about ten books or so on it.
“The number of books may be few, but it beats having none at all!”
Initially, he thought that it would be like the Compendium Pavilion and that he would be able to find a few hundred or even a thousand books here for his choosing. Now, it was clear to see that he was overthinking it.
However, after pondering over it for a moment, the reason for the difference between the two became apparent to him. Everyone had a different physique, and thus, the suitable cultivation technique for them differed from one individual to the other. Thus, it was clear that the academy would require a huge amount of secret manuals and books so as to ensure that there were sufficient resources for the teachers to cater to the needs of their students, as well as to expand their horizons.
However, for an individual, they only required one or two cultivation techniques suited for them. It was already considered a huge collection for Lu Chen to have over ten books on Fighter 6-dan cultivation techniques.
Casually picking up the ten books, he flipped through them lightly, hualala, and corresponding secret manuals appeared in his mind.
“Why? Are these cultivation techniques too inferior to appeal to you?”
Seeing the youngster pick those books up, flip through them and put them down before taking a good look at the contents, Master Lu Chen was slightly bewildered.
“That’s not it, I am just taking a casual look!” Zhang Xuan shook his head. Scanning the surrounding once again, he affirmed that there were only these few books in here. Just as he was about to take his leave from the study, he suddenly caught sight of a pile of manuals placed not too far away from his current position. Curious, he asked, “These are…”
“Oh, these are left behind by that disappointing son of mine! He likes brute strength, so he collected quite a few secret manuals on enhancing one’s physical strength! In fact, he even went to the kingdom’s Book Collection Vault and moved all related books here!” Master Lu Chen smiled bitterly. “In the cultivation of a fighter, zhenqi [1] is the most important factor of all. One’s physical body only plays a small role in it, and it is not worth mentioning at all!”
Although there was the Pigu realm, which tempered one’s skin and bones in a fighter’s cultivation, what truly mattered was still zhenqi. Only when one’s zhenqi was pure and concentrated could they be truly strong.
In the eyes of most cultivators, the physical body was just an auxiliary tool to one’s strength, and was of little importance!
“Can I take a look?”
Seeing the thousands of secret manuals on heightening the strength of one’s physical body, Zhang Xuan felt a little moved. Thus, he couldn’t resist the urge to ask Master Lu Chen for permission to browse through them.
He possessed the Library of Heaven’s Path, so he didn’t need the cultivation techniques in his possession to be profound. Only with sufficient quantity, would he be able to extract the essence of each to authenticate the true and the false, and distil the truly useful portions from each of them.
Even though training one’s physical body might seem to be unimportant, and it might be unable to allow one’s strength to soar up rapidly, if there were these many books to correct the errors and point out the correct path, the effects might turn out to be significant.
Anyway, he didn’t have sufficient books in his hands on 6-dan cultivation technique for him to raise his cultivation realm, so he might as well flip through these first. Perhaps, he might even get some pointers on it from the information contained within them.
“Little brother, feel free!” Master Lu Chen smiled.
Since he had already brought him in, he wouldn’t be stingy about it, allowing him to browse through the books.
“I will be impertinent then!” Zhang Xuan nodded his head and walked over to the pile of manuals. Just like before, he casually flipped through them.
Hualala! Hualala!
“He is…”
Looking at his actions by the side, Master Lu Chen was bewildered.
[I thought that he wanted to read the books? What is he doing, flipping through them like that?
Could it be that… These books do not fit his taste?
That makes sense though. Given how he is trying to look for Fighter 6-dan cultivation techniques, he is probably already at Fighter 5-dan pinnacle. Given his current strength, he has already undergone the Pigu realm, and it matters not whether he trains his physical body or not.
Perhaps, he might be browsing through them out of curiosity.]
Coming to a realization, he no longer bothered with it. Casually picking up a treasured painting left behind by a master, he examined it attentively.
Zhang Xuan finished flipping through that pile of physical body enhancement techniques within ten minutes or so.
“The correct cultivation method!”
Thousands of manuals appeared in the library. Zhang Xuan’s mind jolted and light enveloped his sight. Then, a flawless manual appeared in his mind.
Similar to the cultivation technique manuals from before, the book contained the perfect sequence of the correct methods recorded in the thousands of books.
“Let me take a look…”
Flipping over the cover, a line of words assaulted him and entered his mind.
“Zhenqi is reminiscent of water, whereas the physical body is the bucket containing the water. With a sturdy bucket, one can fill more water, and the quality of which would be higher…”
The opening verse caused him to feel enlightened.
“That’s right!”
Zhang Xuan’s eyes lit up.
Previously, his thoughts were like the others. He felt that it was of no importance whether he cultivated his physical body or not, what truly mattered was his zhenqi cultivation.
Only upon reading this did he realize how shallow his thinking was.
[If one loses their skin, where can their hairs lodge into?
The same goes for the relationship between zhenqi and one’s physical body. Only a powerful physical body is capable of withstanding violent zhenqi strength to exert even greater prowess.]
Feeling as though a door had just opened before him, Zhang Xuan couldn’t resist the urge to read on. The more he read, the more exhilarated he felt. The zhenqi within his body subconsciously followed the method recorded in the book and flowed continuously.
Geji! Geji!
Under the flow of zhenqi, his physical body, which wasn’t weak from the start, evolved once again. His muscle fibers thickened and his skin membrane became more sturdy. His body evolved towards a much more correct and rational path.
Kacha! Kacha!
As his mind was absorbed in the explanations contained within the book, Zhang Xuan wasn’t aware of the astounding changes that were occurring within his physical body. It was as though an infrastructure had been washed with molten metal, his body gradually becoming a powerful weapon that surpassed that of ordinary humans.
“As expected of a technique filtered by the library, it is indeed formidable! From now on, I will call this Heaven’s Path Golden Body!”
An hour later.
Zhang Xuan finally finished his book. His zhenqi had also circulated a single time through his body according to the methods recorded in the book.
Weng!
After he finishes naming the book, the book glowed radiantly and four large words appeared on the cover of the book ‘Heaven’s Path Golden Body!’.
“In the future, I will have to make sure to train in it properly… Un? I am already done training?”
After finishing the book, just when he had decided to cultivate using the methods recorded on it after returning, he realized that he had unknowingly completed the cultivation of this body enhancement technique while looking through it.
That was to say, he had mastered this body enhancement cultivation technique.
“There are no errors in the cultivation techniques of Heaven’s Path, thus the pace of training is swift. Even though I knew this beforehand, never would have I expected that I would be able to master Heaven’s Path Golden Body unknowingly like this…”
With the experience from Heaven’s Path Divine Art, he knew that a flawless cultivation technique was much more effective and allowed one to cultivate at an extremely rapid speed, thus he had expected the cultivation of the Heaven’s Path Golden Body to not be too difficult as well. Just that, he never imagined that… he would complete the cultivation just by reading through the contents of it once.
At this moment, he didn’t know whether he should laugh or cry.
“Forget it, even though I wasn’t able to find sufficient Fighter 6-dan cultivation techniques, my strength should have increased significantly with this set of physical body enhancement cultivation technique!”
Coming to Master Lu Chen’s house, he might not have accomplished his objective of finding sufficient Fighter 6-dan cultivation techniques, but in exchange, he received the Heaven’s Path Golden Body, so it was still a meaningful trip.
Just that, the physical body was different from zhenqi. Zhenqi could be easily quantified and it wasn’t difficult to gauge how much strength one possessed after one was done with one’s training. On the other hand, muscles were hidden beneath the skin, so it was hard to measure one’s improvement clearly.
That’s to say, even though he had mastered Heaven’s Path Golden Body, he had no idea how strong he had grown, or even whether his physical body had grown stronger or not.
Of course, this wasn’t important. Since he was successfully completed his cultivation of it, he could simply find a Strength Measuring Rock Pillar when he returned to test his strength.
“What is little brother Zhang Xuan doing?”
At this moment, Master Lu Chen, who accompanied him here, had his mind filled with question marks.
While reading his book, he sneaked glances towards the other party occasionally. After flipping through the manuals, this fellow had been standing on the spot without moving at all for two whole hours by now. [What the heck is he doing?
Could it be that he has read too many books and went berserk?
It isn’t like this kind of situation has never happened before.]
In the past, there was an extremely talented genius in Tianxuan Kingdom. The cultivation techniques and battle techniques that took other people two to three years to learn, he only took two to three days!
This was precisely the reason why he wanted to learn all of the cultivation techniques and battle techniques to piece them together so as to create a set of new skills… In the end, before a new mystical cultivation technique could be born, he went berserk!
The youngster before him was able to raise his level of cultivation to Fighter 5-dan pinnacle at such a young age. At the same time, he possessed a master-level competency in painting. Could it be that… just like that senior, he got greedy and some problems popped up within him!
“Little brother…”
Filled with suspicions, he couldn’t hold it in any longer. Thus, he stepped forward and tried to interrupt Zhang Xuan’s thoughts to prevent him from sinking in even deeper.
Just as Zhang Xuan was impressed over the might of the Heaven’s Path Divine Art, he heard a shout, and following which, a palm nudged his body.
“Oh, Master Lu Chen…”
Returning back to his consciousness, he hurriedly turned around and his shoulders accidentally bumped into the latter.
Peng!
A deep echo resounded, and Master Lu Chen was sent flying instantaneously. His back knocked onto a bookshelf, and the books scattered on the floor.
[1] Zhenqi -> True essence