Chapter 124: Obtaining the Profound Technique

"This is Wanfa Tower. Our Great Gan Imperial Court collects all the techniques under heaven and stores them in this tower, hence the name.

However, it is not just cultivation techniques inside Wanfa Tower; the classics of the Hundred Schools of Thought and local gazetteers from all over are also preserved here."

Sun Shouren brought Chen Mo to a tower in the Inner City and introduced it to him carefully.

This tower has six floors, its height only a fraction shorter than the Main Hall of the Palace City, standing proudly above the vast majority of buildings in the Inner City.

The tower covers a wide area; the first floor alone must be over ten mu in size.

The beams and pillars are not made of wood, but are of a material similar to jade, just like the beams and pillars of the Palace City.

It is just that there are no patterns carved on these pillars; they simply stand there quite ordinarily, like sturdy, ancient trees deeply rooted in the ground, supporting the entire tower.

"It is said that an Innate Expert guards this tower, though no one has ever seen the face of that Innate Expert," Sun Shouren said, standing before the tower gate and lowering his voice.

"Then this child will go in and take a look first." Chen Mo felt somewhat impatient inside.

Sun Shouren nodded with a smile and said, "Go ahead. I won't stay in the city today; I'll set up camp outside the barracks first. Tomorrow, when you enter the city, we two will have a good drink."

"Alright." Chen Mo responded with a laugh and stepped into Wanfa Tower.

Inside the tower, what met the eye were row upon row of bookshelves, filled with all kinds of books, as vast as a sea of smoke, with no end in sight.

The scent of ink permeated the entire first floor of the tower, signaling to people the sheer volume of books stored here.

As Chen Mo walked in, he could feel many differences.

There was the power of heaven and earth circulating within the tower; these must be the Arrays laid down by Qi Refiners to protect this place.

Not only that, he could also perceive that the temperature and humidity of the air within this tower were kept at a relatively constant level.

Gandu is located in the Central Plains; although it is relatively dry, there is always a period of time each year that is quite humid.

It stands to reason that the purpose of setting up this Array must be to prevent damage to the books stored here.

Many techniques are precious and worth writing on specially made paper, but the vast majority of techniques are not that precious.

Furthermore, it is not just Martial Dao techniques stored within this Wanfa Tower.

"This official, do you have an Imperial Court warrant? Otherwise, you may not enter this place at will."

Seeing Chen Mo walk into the tower, an official responsible for cleaning the environment and organizing books here walked over.

Chen Mo revealed the Purple Jade Token. Upon seeing it, the official hurriedly bowed and paid his respects, his expression extremely respectful, "My lord, since you have the Emperor's Token, you may enter and leave this place at will."

He did not know Chen Mo's identity, but he understood very well that someone who could produce the Emperor's Token was definitely not someone he could afford to offend.

"Where are the Martial Dao techniques stored in the tower?" Chen Mo asked in a focused voice.

"Replying to my lord, there are no Martial Dao techniques on this first floor. Only on the second floor are there Martial Dao techniques collected by the Imperial Court from various places, though most are relatively shallow.

Above the second floor is not a place this subordinate can go, so this subordinate is not clear.

As for the sixth floor, it is the place where several seniors live in seclusion; I hope you will not go to disturb them."

He spoke in one breath, stating all the information he knew.

Chen Mo nodded slightly and followed the stairs up to the second floor.

The area of the second floor was much smaller than the first, but it still held many bookshelves.

All kinds of cultivation techniques were recorded, but most were just there to make up the numbers.

They were no better than the most basic cultivation techniques like the Bright Jade Longevity Technique, and some were even worse.

It could only be said that the Imperial Court preferred to have too many rather than too few; regardless of whether a technique was important or precious, as long as it could be collected, it would be collected and stored first.

Walking up the stairs to the third floor, Chen Mo could sense the power of the Array circulating around his body.

The Purple Jade Token flashed with a faint light, and the probing power of the Array then dissipated.

It seems that without the Token on one's person, if one wanted to force their way in, they would inevitably alert this Array.

Even if there were no experts living in seclusion in this tower, the Palace City and Inner City themselves had countless experts guarding and residing within them.

Even an Innate Expert would likely not fare well if they came to break in here easily.

The techniques on this third floor were much more exquisite, and the quantity was also much smaller.

Chen Mo even saw the Greedy Wolf Seven Kill Fist and the Eighteen Tremors of Running Thunder among them; it seems these two techniques were only qualified to be placed on the third floor.

Unlike the first and second floors, no one was currently cleaning or organizing the third floor. The techniques stored here were mostly written on high-quality cowhide or sheepskin parchment.

Such paper does not fear humidity, and even if preserved for hundreds of years, the handwriting on it remains clearly visible.

Continuing upward, Chen Mo did not stop on the fourth floor and went straight to the fifth floor.

Unlike the floors below, the number of techniques stored here was much smaller.

There were only seven or eight bookshelves, totaling just over a hundred books.

Each bookshelf was already labeled with the type of technique—internal arts, external arts, or movement arts and martial skills—to make it convenient for Martial Artists who came to choose to find techniques suitable for themselves.

Chen Mo first walked to the bookshelf containing external arts and began to browse carefully.

There is actually no strict classification for the grade of a technique.

However, relatively speaking, there is a common sense that most people recognize.

That is, the higher the realm a technique can reach, the more profound its level.

The reason is simple: because the creator of this technique must have reached that realm.

If an Innate Martial Artist creates a technique, as long as they don't deliberately think of it as inferior, then no matter how bad it is, it is still stronger than what a Post-Heaven Martial Artist can ponder.

The techniques stored on the fifth floor all point directly to the Innate Realm. As long as Chen Mo obtains one, he won't have to worry about this for a very long time to come.

Furthermore, the more widely known a technique is, the more perfect it is relatively, because more people practice it, and thus more people work to perfect them.

Especially the top techniques within noble families or Jianghu sects—in terms of power, they might not be the strongest, but in terms of universality and perfection, they are absolutely top-tier.

Chen Mo flipped through the technique manuals very quickly, but the front pages of these techniques all roughly described the situation of the technique to facilitate the chooser in making a specific selection.

By the Innate Realm, even for external arts, most do not just purely cultivate the physical body.

Once an external art reaches a certain realm, it will also nourish Inner Qi; the Inner Qi regulates the physical body and strengthens the physical foundation, only then can one further practice the external art.

However, on this row of bookshelves, Chen Mo actually found a few rare ones that purely cultivated the physical body.

Unlike using Inner Qi to regulate the physical body, these few cultivation manuals speak of nourishing and refining blood, using one's own Qi and Blood to increase the foundation, and then making breakthroughs and improvements.

Such cultivation manuals are formidable, but they have one drawback: the threshold for cultivation is extremely high.

Those with insufficient natural talent and a physical foundation that is not strong enough, let alone cultivating to the Innate Realm, would find it difficult for the vast majority to even reach the Acquired stage.

Therefore, the number of Martial Artists who practice these types of purely body-refining cultivation manuals is extremely rare.

Yet, this type of cultivation manual happens to perfectly suit Chen Mo; the so-called talent requirements are a problem for others, but for him, they do not exist.

Chen Mo looked through all these pure body-refining cultivation manuals and picked one he was more interested in to read carefully.

This cultivation manual is named Xuanhuang Indestructible Body.

Its concept is very profound, pursuing the state of being immortal and indestructible when cultivated to the extreme, where ten thousand techniques cannot touch the body, existing eternally alongside heaven, earth, the sun, and the moon.

The cultivation manual is divided into three stages, with the first stage named Body Refining Realm.

While condensing Qi and Blood within the body and increasing physical strength, it can also make the physical foundation robust.

Condensing Qi and Blood nine times within the physical body, each time can increase the body's strength by one thousand and eighty catties.

Upon completing the cultivation, one can possess nine thousand eight hundred catties of strength in the body.

It is just that this step alone can stop the vast majority of people, because each time the physical body wants to grow further, the time required is longer; those with insufficient talent might cultivate until they die and still not necessarily complete this stage of cultivation.

Chen Mo browsed carefully, yet vaguely, he could see a shadow of the Greedy Wolf Seven Kill Fist within this cultivation manual.

It seems that even if the creator of the Greedy Wolf Seven Kill Fist had not practiced this cultivation manual, they must have comprehended it.

However, compared to the entry-level of this cultivation manual, the entry-level of the Greedy Wolf Seven Kill Fist is very simple, and one can easily achieve results.

After passing the first stage, the Body Refining Realm, the second stage is the Transcendence Realm.

At this realm, a Martial Artist is not only strong enough in power but also has meticulous control over the physical body, able to accurately manipulate every change in the body.

Even if an arm is severed, as long as the severed arm is still there, the Martial Artist can quickly reattach it.

Relying solely on the power of Blood Qi, one can walk through the air, making the air beneath one's feet as condensed as iron and stone, sufficient to support oneself.

When the physical body is strong to the extreme, one can further use the power of Blood Qi to open the Five Senses, allowing one to observe the surrounding situation more carefully and have a deeper understanding of this world.

In addition, the annotations below specifically state that one should try not to open the Five Senses simultaneously at night; even if not within the Mirage Sea, one might observe other things, or even see another completely different world.

When this realm is cultivated to perfection, a Martial Artist can possess fifty-four thousand catties of strength.

Relying solely on physical strength, it is enough to defeat an ordinary Houtian Consummation Realm Martial Artist.

The third stage is named Divine Storehouse; the human body is a great treasure, and a Martial Artist who cultivates the physical body to open the Divine Storehouse can manifest all kinds of incredible abilities.

Opening the Divine Storehouse of both hands can move mountains and fill seas; opening the Divine Storehouse of both legs can travel a thousand miles in a single step.

Opening the Divine Storehouse of both eyes, a Martial Artist can see through heaven and earth, observing the flow of Dao techniques and the myriad phenomena of rules.

As for observing everything that happens within several thousand miles with both eyes, that is not even worth mentioning.

As for whether it is true, it is hard to say; in any case, that is how the cultivation manual introduces it, and the specific truth or falsehood will have to wait until Chen Mo cultivates to this realm to be certain.

And at this realm, the more Heavenly Divine Storehouses a Martial Artist opens, the stronger their strength will be.

The entire cultivation manual stops abruptly here, with no follow-up whatsoever, failing to connect completely with the concept at the beginning.

This cultivation manual is by no means complete when cultivated to this point, but rather cuts off in an extremely abrupt manner.

The powerhouse who created this cultivation manual must have also created subsequent cultivation manuals, but what he found here were only the first three stages, which only correspond to the Innate Realm.

There are no records here of any cultivation manuals beyond that.

This gives one an extremely abrupt feeling.

Chen Mo then searched for other basic cultivation manuals and browsed through them one by one; among them, there were clearly two or three manuals that should have had follow-ups after the Innate Realm, yet they cut off very abruptly.

If this world has cultivation manuals that can be practiced beyond the Innate Realm, then there must be powerhouses beyond the Innate Realm, but where are they now?

In fact, let alone powerhouses beyond the Innate Realm, Chen Mo has not even met an Innate or Golden Core powerhouse yet.

After a little thought, Chen Mo still made a decision, intending not to explore these secrets for now.

This world must have powerhouses beyond the Innate Realm, but these powerhouses are unable to appear, or rather, they have already been wiped out in some crisis.

But no matter the reason, it is not something he can explore at present; ultimately, his strength is still too weak.

To understand and clarify these secrets, he must at least wait until he reaches the Innate Realm to be qualified.

And right now, it is still far from enough.

As for the Xuanhuang Indestructible Body, although this cultivation manual only has the first three stages, it is enough for him to cultivate for a very long time.

And the fact that it has a follow-up means there is a chance to find it.

It would be best if he could find the subsequent cultivation manual in the future; if he cannot find it, he will consider switching to other cultivation manuals then.

After putting away this cultivation manual, Chen Mo walked to the bookshelf on the other side and began to select the internal arts and movement techniques he needed, preparing to take them away together for his own cultivation.

(End of this chapter)