Chapter 58: The Character

Outside the hotel, only that unlucky Jishi Valley alchemist stood alone.

Sunlight shone upon him, warm and soothing, yet it could not warm his icy heart.

Weren't we supposed to go out together today to tour mountains and waters, exchange cultivation insights?

Why did he end up coming out by himself?

From inside the hotel, people occasionally came and went in pairs, mostly chatting about last night's trial.

"Honestly, I think the body cultivators and sword cultivators were the hardest to fight in this trial—these two types had it way too easy at the Qi Condensation stage."

"True—I was just terribly unlucky; the first three were body cultivators, then two sword cultivators in a row, and only on the sixth try did I finally face a spell cultivator, but after that fight, my rank had already dropped below three thousand."

"You really are unlucky."

"Sigh~ If only they'd release the rankings, we could see who's so damn strong and took first place."

"I don't care who got first, but I'm curious who the hell designed this trial."

"Wasn't there an ancient cultivator who just emerged from seclusion? Maybe it was him."

"Huh? Isn't the one who emerged from seclusion a demon cultivator? He was trying to forge the Ten Thousand Souls Banner."

"Those two aren't the same person at all—the demon cultivator who wanted to forge the Ten Thousand Souls Banner was the older brother of 'Cang Jiezi' three years ago; the Taishang Dao Sect even posted an official announcement about it."

……

The voices grew fainter, and their conversation drifted from the trial to other topics.

To be unlucky just three times facing body cultivators—that's bad enough; what does it make me, facing them seven times in a row? He looked up at the sky, filled with melancholy.

"Senior brothers and sisters, you all passed the first round of the trial, right?" "Younger brother."

A sudden voice startled him; he turned toward the hotel lobby, disbelief flickering in his eyes.

There, his senior brother and other disciples from the Qitaxian Sect were walking out.

"Senior brother~!"

The heartfelt cry startled everyone.

Even his own senior brother froze for a moment.

His younger brother was usually so composed—he rarely even fought others; what on earth was wrong today? "What's wrong, younger brother?"

"Did you also challenge the Wu Li sword cultivator and get mentally shattered?"

Everyone glared at him.

Can you just shut up for once?

The Longxiang Qingtianzong body cultivator scratched his head awkwardly, yet felt puzzled inside.

What did he say that was wrong?

"Don't lose heart, younger brother; Wu Li cultivators are rare by nature—we should focus on our own paths."

His senior brother dared not say anything like "you'll catch up eventually," lest some mouthy idiot retort.

Others also cast him comforting glances.

His senior brother walked over, patted his shoulder.

"Alright, just prepare calmly for the second trial."

The alchemist was speechless with frustration—he wanted to explain he hadn't passed the trial, but under all those watching eyes, he couldn't utter a word.

/(ㄒoㄒ)/ Why doesn't this trial test alchemy? …………

In the afternoon, Xiao Fan went to the city library.

He had worried himself half to death thinking about it, but still couldn't figure anything out.

So he left home, intending to prepare for the second trial.

Stepping inside the library, a faint scent of ink clung to his nose; stretching before him were endless rows of bookshelves.

Further inside, winding staircases rose on either side, their entrances guarded by a thin, shimmering aura.

The library was eerily quiet, nearly empty.

The outermost shelves on the first floor held travelogues, casual essays, and biographies.

Books recording techniques and arrays were deeper inside, but all were ultra-low-risk: light-body techniques, cleansing spells, transport spells, air-conditioning arrays, and such.

All books on the first floor were free to read.

But the second floor was different—it held sword, knife, and fist techniques used by Qi Condensation cultivators, so you needed to verify your identity and pay a certain number of spirit coins to enter.

The only sword and fist techniques Xiao Fan knew were learned here.

As for the third floor, Xiao Fan had never been there, so he knew nothing about it.

He was about to pay some spirit coins and head upstairs, but after only a few steps, a familiar tremor stirred within him.

Again. Xiao Fan halted, gazing into the depths.

After much hesitation, he stepped forward, arriving before a deep-brown bookshelf, reaching out to take down a volume titled *Qing Xu Travelogue*.

The tremor within him grew stronger, just as it had when he touched the Danhua Vase.

Qing Xu—a famed perilous region in the Central Continent.

In ancient times, many ancient cultivators favored leaving behind their sect legacies in its caves, so every year countless cultivators ventured there to explore.

Some returned laden with treasures; most never returned at all.

Clearly, the book's contents were written by a cultivator during his exploration of Qing Xu.

He carried the book to a nearby reading room.

Opening the door, he found only one girl inside—quiet, seemingly about his age.

Seeing him enter, the girl looked up and smiled gently.

Xiao Fan frowned, turned, and walked away to another reading room.

The girl: "……"

It wasn't because of that faint distaste in his heart, but because he feared some unusual occurrence might be seen—better not to be observed.

Fortunately, the other reading room was empty.

Xiao Fan found a seat and opened the *Qing Xu Travelogue* in his hands, flipping page by page.

Following the faint stirring in his heart, he finally reached the very center page of the book.

The paper of this page was slightly yellowed, as if soaked in water, rough to the touch.

"Still the same as before…"

After a two-second pause, he gently touched the paper.

A slender thread of Qi flowed from his fingertips into the rough page.

Soon, the paper glowed with a faint light, and a mysterious aura spread outward.

Hum~ In a daze, Xiao Fan felt everything around him being pulled away—as if in an instant, all before his eyes had undergone a cataclysmic change.

Beneath his feet lay a deep, chilling darkness.

Before him, countless strange characters he had never seen, each glowing with divine radiance, formed a profound, limitless cultivation method.

He had never seen them before, yet he understood their meaning.

Tai Xuan Tian.

The Cang Clan's Combat Art!

Blades, swords, fists, feet, divine arts, spells—all could be wielded with 'Tai Xuan Tian'.

Divine radiance flowed, coalescing into a sacred, vast figure. The figure stepped forward, raised its fist, and slowly struck—each motion swallowing mountains and rivers, grasping the cosmos.

Upon close observation, its form was clearly the fist technique he had previously learned—but far more 'perfect'.

Yes, perfect.

Compared to his earlier crude version, the figure's fist technique was naturally complete, without a single flaw.

The two were as different as heaven and earth! As the fist technique unfolded, Xiao Fan seemed to see again that hazy vision.

In the vision, still those peculiar figures.

They sat suspended in the clouds, all beings prostrate beneath them.

In laughter, one of them waved a hand—the Milky Way trembled, spilling like wine into a cup.

With a single word, ten thousand spirits bowed their heads.

Laughter, a wave of the hand—the Milky Way poured into a cup.

Mastering heaven and earth, drinking the Milky Way.

Xiao Fan was spellbound; a surge of grandeur welled up in his heart.

Yet in the next blink, all the strange phenomena vanished—he was back in the ordinary reading room.

Xiao Fan closed the book, unable to help but muse: "This is the * Clan?"

Huh? He was confused, so he tried saying it again.

"* Clan."

That character was as if silenced—he had spoken it aloud, yet heard nothing.

Why was this so?

The character 'Cang' had always been pronounceable before.

Please collect! Please follow! (End of chapter)