Chapter 15: Library

The bus stopped and started again, and in the sky, among the skyscrapers, a cluster of dark green shadows gradually grew larger.

As it drew nearer, a faint chill brushed against him, like morning dew landing on his brow, sharpening his spirit.

Looking up, a colossal green sky-tree, wide enough for ten men to encircle and hundreds of meters tall, stood firm amid the steel and concrete city.

Its branches and leaves flourished to an extreme, covering several kilometers around; emerald birds the size of fists hopped and fluttered among the foliage, while the train weaved through its trunks, perfect harmony between man and nature.

A sacred artifact of the Immortal Sect, one of the central array-spirit computing carriers—the Three-Stage City Sprout of the Divine Tree, Canopy Rong .

“The place closest to the spiritual vein—how enviable.”

“If only my family had a house here.”

“Dream on. Only cultivators or those who’ve rendered great service may settle here, and even then, only for three generations at most.”

The passengers on the bus chatted, filled with envy.

Jiang Ding felt the same—if his mother and Jiang Yuan could live here, their health would surely improve greatly; his martial progress too, and over years, their lifespan might extend by seven or eight years.

“Rongcheng Library, arriving. Please exit from the rear door…”

Jiang Ding followed the crowd off the bus, queued up, and swiped his ID card to enter the library.

His first sight was row upon row of towering bookshelves, books neatly arranged, each made of different materials—animal hide, jade slips, stone tablets—all mostly seized in the Border Wars, some requiring special media for recording martial arts and secret techniques.

The scent of books filled the air, as if stepping into a world of knowledge itself.

Jiang Ding didn’t linger; he walked straight to the computer reading room, swiped his ID, and sat down.

Ding!

“Your library points: 325.”

This was the result of two weeks’ worth of specimen collection from the otherworldly general store.

Huang Deyou was indeed an expert—he’d acquired over four thousand specimens in just two weeks: roadside flowers and grasses, worthless herbs, wheat seedlings from the fields.

Unfortunately, even in the other world, not every specimen was a new species unrecorded by the Immortal Sect’s library; only about three hundred were usable.

After that, the supply dwindled—no longer could any random plant by the roadside be useful; he had to deliberately search the countryside and mountains.

After consulting with Huang Deyou, the acquisition price per specimen was raised to ten wen, and silver reserves plummeted rapidly; now they could barely sustain the operation.

His fingers tapped rapidly on the keyboard.

“Hundred-Step Flying Sword.”

Dang!

A dialog box popped up as usual, with a red X: “Dangerous knowledge—minors prohibited from access.”

Jiang Ding pulled out his phone, lowered his voice, and called Lin Wanyou.

“Mom! I’ve got an application—please approve it.”

“Dangerous? No danger, just curiosity, broadening my horizons—it’ll help my martial arts…”

Thanks to Jiang Ding’s past good reputation, Lin Wanyou hesitated, then finally tapped “approve” on the Immortal Sect Library app to grant supervised access to “Hundred-Step Flying Sword-related materials.”

He hung up, refreshed the page, and a long list of Hundred-Step Flying Sword techniques appeared—still going past page ninety-nine.

“Song Clan Hundred-Step Flying Sword,” “Blood-Cultivated Hundred-Step Flying Sword,” “Thunderous Hundred-Step Flying Sword”…

Jiang Ding opened the Blood-Cultivated version: “Blood-Cultivated Hundred-Step Flying Sword,” abstract by Hu Yuan, Zhang Bing, Qianling University, Cultivator Report, September 6.

“Hundred-Step Flying Sword: a palm-sized, sword-shaped semi-magic tool used by mortal martial artists. Crafted from sentient metal, nurtured for over a decade with one’s own essence-blood and large quantities of decades-old herbs, it becomes sentient and controllable—a remarkably ingenious design… often at the cost of severing one’s future path… Today we have improved it… innovation lies in…”

Severing one’s future path!

Jiang Ding’s heart jolted; he hastily opened the hundred-page, hundred-thousand-character paper and began reading in detail.

Several hours later, he rubbed his temples.

He’d skimmed the paper thoroughly—many parts were incomprehensible, but the general idea was clear.

Hundred-Step Flying Sword!

It was a heretical technique created by brilliant mortal martial artists, envious of cultivators who wielded magic tools—using sentient metal as a blade core, nurturing it for years with potent herbs and essence-blood to allow mortal users to command flying swords.

It was a reckless, short-sighted, self-destructive act.

Essence-blood: the foundation of life.

Even the strongest martial artist has a finite supply; excessive depletion is suicide. Even cautious use damages the body’s root, making further martial progress impossible.

Especially for young martial artists—losing a single drop of essence-blood might take years to recover.

The value? Not nearly enough.

But countless university Dao studies students needed to publish papers—even minor, peripheral research—so over ten thousand years, it accumulated into a vast database of techniques.

“Blood-cultivation… could this be the flaw in this technique?” Jiang Ding opened “Thunderous Hundred-Step Flying Sword.”

It was a doctoral thesis from Caiyun University, originally a secret technique from a martial sect in the Canghai Minor Realm, seized during the Interface War. This doctor collected, corrected minor errors, and uploaded it to earn library points.

He flipped through it, especially the sword-training section in the overview.

“The principle is nearly identical—requires essence-blood nourishment.”

“The difference: it adds a local mineral called Thunder-Sound Stone, which absorbs bioelectricity from spiritual beasts to enhance the sword and imbue it with thunder attributes—faster, sharper.”

Jiang Ding wasn’t satisfied; he opened another.

“Song Clan Hundred-Step Flying Sword: seized during the Sands Minor Realm War. Adds ‘Clan Artifact’ property—inheritable and consecrated by descendants, unusable by outsiders… useless.”

Next one. Next one. Next next one…

Jiang Ding scrolled through a full page, then randomly browsed dozens more—varied attributes, varied heretical methods—but all shared the same core: essence-blood, requiring continuous nourishment for over a decade.

Others’ methods were useless.

“It seems essence-blood nourishment is the fundamental foundation of the Hundred-Step Flying Sword—all its complexity rests on this single point.”

Jiang Ding pondered silently, yet didn’t lose hope; his thoughts began to spread.

“Is there anything that challenges the principle—turns the impossible into possible?”

“Yes!”

An answer instantly surfaced in his mind.

“A powerful enough technique—such as the ‘Sixty-Eighth Set: Young Eagle Soaring Sword Technique’ for the Dao Body prototype.”

With his direction clear, Jiang Ding’s spirit lifted; he clicked the filter, selecting the highest rank.

“The Great Sun Sword Scripture—Seed-Sword and Forge-Sword Method,” by Zhang Junsheng, Hu Lin, Qingfeng University, Cultivator Report, July 1.

The Immortal Sect classifies techniques into four categories: Scripture, Canon, Method, and Art. Due to the First Law of the Immortal Sect, anyone may cultivate the strongest techniques.

But almost no one does.

Because the higher the rank, the more terrifying the difficulty—only peerless prodigies with top-tier resources and treasures can even attempt them.

Those who force themselves to cultivate them rarely advance; most die from qi deviation.

His mouse hovered above it—Jiang Ding hesitated.

The Great Sun Sword Scripture!

Famous in history books—it was the foundational scripture of the Great Sun Sword Pavilion, a major sect from beyond the borders.

The Great Sun Sword Pavilion once ranked among the Nine Great Immortal Sects beyond the borders. During the Third Interface War three thousand years ago, it was the primary enemy. At its peak, a million Great Sun Sword cultivators invaded Blue Star, seizing over ninety-five percent of its land, plundering all the Break-Method Immortal Metal the planet produced.

During that era, most Blue Star cultivators and mortals became slave miners, extracting Break-Method Divine Metal. The population plummeted by over fifty percent—over ten billion perished from endless mining, their bones filling the mineshafts.

Later, the Forbidden Nuclear Weapon—Divine Arrow—emerged, killing the Great Sun Sword Pavilion’s Void Refinement elder in a single battle. The Immortal Sect launched a counteroffensive, reducing the Pavilion’s mountain stronghold to rubble with massive nuclear strikes. To this day, the site remains a dead zone; the sect’s minor realm is nearly biologically extinct.

The Great Sun Sword Pavilion’s foundational scripture, the Great Sun Sword Scripture, was partially seized in that war. For three thousand years, scholars have studied it exhaustively, yielding countless civilian and military technologies.

“The Great Sun Sword Scripture—Seed-Sword and Forge-Sword Method” was one such result, specifically an analytical study focused on the original text.

A classic “valuable but useless” outcome—because the Immortal Sect’s combat style relies on tanks, warships, aerospace carriers, drones, and fighter jets; hand-to-hand combat with cold weapons is seen as archaic by most.

“It’s year… only now are results emerging… over two thousand years after the Great Sun Sword Pavilion’s fall…” Jiang Ding’s gaze drifted over the title, as if witnessing that epic past.

“Of course—the Immortal Sect has never specialized in this area. It’s extremely weak.”

Below it, all were Hundred-Step Flying Sword variants—similar to the Song Clan version, no breakthroughs, all merely the lowest tier of “Method” or “Art” classifications.

He opened the abstract.

What met his eyes was no longer Chinese characters, but a strange script—resembling Chinese, yet twisted, fluid, constantly shifting.

Spirit Script. Far more precise and information-dense than Chinese characters—the foundation of Immortal Sect language education.

“…Use Supreme Pure Divine Iron as the core, Break-Method Immortal Metal as the bone, one drop of essence-blood as the spirit, fuse the essence of the Great Sun, forge with heart-fire upon the white sun, transform from mortal to immortal, forge the supreme immortal foundation…”

Of course.

Jiang Ding drew a quiet breath.

Scripture-grade techniques truly possess the power to turn decay into wonder—even a mere “Method” subsection.

Seeing the words “Break-Method Immortal Metal,” his heart clenched.

Blue Star is indeed rich in Break-Method Immortal Metal—but that doesn’t mean it’s common!

In fact, only a handful of Nascent Soul cultivators who’ve rendered great service may apply for enough material to forge a single magic treasure—and even then, only a tiny amount for the finishing touch.

Moreover, upon receiving Break-Method Immortal Metal, one must swear a Great Dao Oath: never sell it to border cultivators. If one dies or reaches natural end, the artifact reverts to the Immortal Sect, with compensation granted to one’s heirs.

Yet even under these harsh conditions, applications from Nascent Soul cultivators overflow every year—no hesitation whatsoever.

Because this Immortal Metal is that powerful!

It inherently possesses Break-Method properties—shields, spells, arrays all crumble like paper before it.

How could a mere mortal, not even at Qi Refining, dare to covet it?