Chapter 14: Library

The bus stopped and went. On the horizon, among the high-rise buildings, a cluster of ink-green shadows grew larger step by step.

Closer, there was a slight coolness, like morning dew falling on the center of the eyebrows, and the spirit was refreshed.

Looking up, a giant green tree, ten people around and hundreds of meters high, stood in the steel and concrete city.

Its branches and leaves were extremely lush, covering several kilometers around. Emerald birds the size of fists hopped around in the trees, and trains shuttled through the branches, a perfect combination of man and nature.

An Immortal Sect heavy weapon, one of the carriers of the central array spirit computer—the Tier 3 Rongcheng branch of the Divine Tree Futianrong.

"The place closest to the spiritual vein, I'm envious."

"If only my family had an apartment here."

"Dream on. Only cultivators or those who have made great contributions can settle here, and it can only be passed down for three generations at most."

People on the bus chatted, full of envy.

Jiang Ding was the same. If his mother and Jiang Yuan could live here, their bodies would definitely be much better, and their martial arts progress would be too. Over the years, their lifespan could be extended by seven or eight years.

"Rongcheng Library, we have arrived. Please exit from the back door..."

Jiang Ding followed the crowd off the bus and lined up to swipe his ID card to enter the library.

The first thing he saw were rows of tall bookshelves, with various books arranged neatly. The materials were different—beast skin, jade slips, stone slabs, all kinds of carriers were there, mostly captured in wars outside the realm, and some techniques and secret arts had special requirements for the carrier.

The fragrance of books permeated, simply like walking into a world of knowledge.

Jiang Ding didn't look much, walked straight to the computer reading room, swiped his ID card, and sat down.

Ding!

"Your library points are 325."

This was the result of two weeks of specimens from the otherworld general store.

Huang Deyou was indeed an expert. In just two weeks, he had purchased more than 4,000 specimens, all kinds of roadside flowers and plants, worthless medicinal materials, and wheat seedlings in the fields.

It is a pity that even in the otherworld, not all specimens are new species not recorded by the Immortal Sect library, and only three hundred or so were usable.

Next, there will be fewer. It is no longer the case that every plant on the roadside is useful; one has to search specifically in the countryside and mountains.

For this reason, after discussing with Huang Deyou, the purchase price of a specimen has now risen to ten wen, and the silver reserve is falling rapidly, and now it can barely maintain the situation.

Fingers typed on the computer.

"Hundred-Step Flying Sword."

Deng!

As usual, a dialog box with a red cross popped up: dangerous knowledge, minors are not allowed to visit.

Jiang Ding took his phone and called Lin Wanqiu in a low voice.

"Mom! I have an application here, could you agree to it?"

"Dangerous? No danger, just curious, to broaden my horizons, it's good for martial arts..."

Thanks to Jiang Ding's good impression in the past, Lin Wanqiu hesitated for a while, but still clicked agree on the Immortal Sect Library app for the ward to visit "Hundred-Step Flying Sword related."

Hanging up the phone and refreshing the page, a long line of Hundred-Step Flying Sword-related techniques and secret arts appeared, and even until the 99th page, there was no end in sight.

"Song Family Hundred-Step Flying Sword", "Blood Refining Hundred-Step Flying Sword", "Thunder Hundred-Step Flying Sword"...

Jiang Ding clicked on "Blood Refining Hundred-Step Flying Sword" Hu Yuan; Zhang Bing, Qianling University Cultivator Report, September 6, Year...

"Hundred-Step Flying Sword, a palm-sized sword-shaped semi-magic treasure used by mortal martial artists. Using spiritual metal as the sword embryo, nourishing it with one's own essence blood and a large amount of medicinal materials of several decades for more than ten years can make it psychic and flexibly controlled. It is a quite ingenious conception... often at the cost of cutting off the path forward... Today we have improved it... the innovation point is..."

Cutting off the path forward!

Jiang Ding's heart shook, and he hurriedly opened the detailed reading of the thesis, which was more than a hundred pages and more than 100,000 words long.

Several hours later, he rubbed his eyebrows.

After reading the thesis roughly, he didn't understand many places, but he knew roughly what it was about.

Hundred-Step Flying Sword!

This is a side-door secret method created by great wise men among mortal martial artists who envied cultivators for controlling magic treasures. Using spiritual metal as an embryo, they nourish the sword embryo with large medicines and essence blood year after year, thereby controlling the flying sword during the mortal period.

This is a stupid act of seeking quick success and cutting off the path forward.

Essence blood, the foundation of a person.

No matter how powerful a martial artist is, their essence blood is limited. Excessive consumption of essence blood is no different from suicide, and even if used cautiously, it will inevitably damage the body's foundation, making it difficult for martial arts to advance even a fraction.

Especially for young martial artists, losing a drop of essence blood may not be recovered for several years.

The value is not necessarily much.

It's just that the undergraduate, master, and doctoral students of the cultivation departments of various universities have to publish articles. Even if it is just a corner, after nearly ten thousand years of accumulation, it is a huge database of techniques.

"Blood refining... could it be a problem with this technique?" Jiang Ding clicked on "Thunder Hundred-Step Flying Sword".

This was done by a doctor from Caiyun University. It was originally a heritage secret method of a martial arts sect in the Canghai Minor Realm, captured during the interface war. This doctor collected and corrected a few fallacies and then uploaded it to get library points.

Roughly read through it, especially the sword practice part in the general outline.

"The principle is not much different; they all need essence blood irrigation."

"The difference is that a local ore called Thunder Stone is added, which can absorb the bio-electricity of spirit beasts to enhance the flying sword and add thunder attributes, making it faster and sharper."

Jiang Ding was not reconciled and opened another one.

"'Song Family Hundred-Step Flying Sword', captured during the Yellow Sand Minor Realm war. When practicing the sword, the 'Clan Treasure' attribute is added, which can be inherited and refined by future generations, and outsiders cannot use it... useless."

Next one, next one, next next one...

Jiang Ding flipped through a whole page and randomly checked dozens of books backward. There were all kinds, all kinds of attributes, all kinds of side-door techniques, but they couldn't escape the most core thing—essence blood, continuous irrigation of essence blood for at least ten years.

Others' are useless.

"It seems that self-essence blood irrigation is the most basic foundation for the Hundred-Step Flying Sword, and all prosperity is built on this point."

Jiang Ding thought to himself, but he didn't lose confidence, and his thoughts gradually diverged.

"Are there things that challenge the principle and turn the impossible into the possible?"

"Yes!"

An answer appeared in his mind almost immediately.

"A sufficiently strong technique, such as 'The 68th Set of Fledgling Eagle Taking Flight Sword Art' for the prototype of the Dao body."

With the idea determined, Jiang Ding was refreshed, the mouse clicked on the filter, and he chose the highest grade.

"'Great Sun Sword Scripture - Sword Planting and Sword Refining Method' Zhang Junsheng, Hu Lin, Qingfeng University Cultivator Report, July 1, Year..."

The Immortal Sect's classification of techniques is generally divided into four types: Scripture, Canon, Law, and Resolution. Due to the influence of the Immortal Sect's First Law, anyone can practice the Immortal Sect's strongest techniques.

But most people won't do this.

Because what corresponds to the grade is the terrifying difficulty. Without being a peerless genius and the blessing of top resources and treasures, it cannot be practiced.

Those who practice by force are lucky if they have no progress in their whole life, and dying from qi deviation is the norm.

With the mouse on it, Jiang Ding hesitated for a moment.

"Great Sun Sword Scripture"!

It is famous in history books, coming from the sect-protecting technique of the Great Sun Sword Pavilion, a major sect outside the realm.

The Great Sun Sword Pavilion was once one of the nine major immortal sects outside the realm and was the main enemy during the "Third Interface War of the Immortal Sect" more than 3,000 years ago. At its strongest, a million Great Sun sword cultivators killed their way into the Blue Star, occupying more than 95% of the ground area of the Blue Star, and the Law-Breaking Immortal Gold produced by the entire planet was theirs to take.

During that period, the vast majority of Blue Star cultivators and mortals were reduced to mining slaves for refining Law-Breaking Divine Gold, and the population decreased by more than 50%. A full ten billion people were worked to death in endless mining, and white bones filled the mines.

Later, the taboo nuclear weapon "Immortal Shooting" was born, killing the Void Refinement ancestor of the Great Sun Sword Pavilion in one battle. The Immortal Sect entered the counterattack stage, using a large number of nuclear weapons to raze the Great Sun Sword Pavilion's mountain gate to the ground. To this day, where it is located is still a dead zone, and the sect's minor realm is almost biologically extinct.

The Great Sun Sword Pavilion's sect-protecting unique skill "Great Sun Sword Scripture" was captured in this battle. For three thousand years, experts and scholars have conducted countless studies on it, and fruitful results have been achieved, and a large number of civilian and military technologies have been born.

"Great Sun Sword Scripture - Sword Planting and Sword Refining Method" is one of the results, and it is a research result that tends to be original analysis.

A typical "valuable but useless" result, because the Immortal Sect's combat method is to drive tanks, warships, space-sky aircraft carriers, drones, fighter jets, etc. for joint operations. Fighting with cold weapons is considered too primitive by most people.

"Now it is the year..., the results were produced in the year..., more than two thousand years since the destruction of the Great Sun Sword Pavilion..." Jiang Ding's eyes wandered on the title, as if he saw the epic past.

"Also, the Immortal Sect is not a specialty in this regard, it is quite weak."

Looking down, they were all techniques and secret arts suffixed with Hundred-Step Flying Sword, similar to the previous "Song Family Hundred-Step Flying Sword", and there was no breakthrough research. They were all the lowest grade among the "Classic Law Resolutions", barely entering the "Resolution" ranks.

Click on the summary.

What came into view was no longer Chinese characters, but a special kind of text that had the appearance of some Chinese characters, but was more distorted and casual, and seemed to be changing at any time.

Spiritual text, compared to Chinese characters, can express more information in a single character and is more accurate. It is the foundation of the Immortal Sect's language class.

"... Using Taiqing Divine Iron as an embryo, Law-Breaking Immortal Gold as bone, taking a drop of essence blood as spirit, melting and taking Great Sun essence, heart fire calcining the white sun, transforming from mortal to immortal, casting a supreme immortal foundation..."

Sure enough.

Jiang Ding took a light breath.

Scripture-level techniques really have the ability to turn decay into magic, even if it is just a "Law" level sub-chapter.

Seeing the words "Law-Breaking Immortal Gold" again, his heart twitched.

The Blue Star is indeed a rich mine of Law-Breaking Immortal Gold, but it doesn't mean it is common!

In fact, only a few Nascent Soul cultivators who have made great contributions can apply for materials enough to forge a magic treasure, and it is only a little bit used for the finishing touch.

Not only that, when receiving Law-Breaking Immortal Gold, one must make a Great Dao oath not to sell it to cultivators outside the realm. If one falls or dies of old age, the magic treasure will be confiscated by the Immortal Sect, and compensation will be given to their descendants.

However, even with such harsh conditions, the Nascent Soul cultivators who apply every year are still full, without any hesitation.

Because this kind of immortal gold is too strong!

It comes with law-breaking attributes. Any shield, spell, or array is like paper in front of a law-breaking treasure.

How dare a mere mortal who is not even in the Qi Condensation Realm covet it! ===== CHAPTER 15 =====