White-Robed Chief

He laid on the bed with his stomach faced to the ceiling. It was a truly cramped hut, but the fragrance of ink wafted around the room, allowing his mind to be incredibly at ease. It was indeed the perfect place to practice his martial arts. Although the flipping sound of the books never stopped once outside, it was still quiet inside the hut.

His Omniscient Mirror scanned his surroundings until the entire Sutra Library was completely imprinted into his mind, and he could now see both the inside and outside clearly.

The first floor had a total of sixty bookshelves and every bookshelf had four shelves, while each shelf had about two hundred books. If his calculation was not wrong, the number of books that this one floor held was extremely astonishing, not to mention that this building had four floors.

The Sutra Library was literally a vast ocean of books. To finish everything, he would need at least half a lifetime.

Moreover, there were about 200 people in the Sutra Library. The first floor had the least people while the second and third floors had the most, making it about 150 people in total.

As for the fourth floor, although it sported more than 100 bookshelves, the spaces between each bookshelf was extremely narrow. It was only big enough for a single person to fit, barely.

There were about 50 or so people on the fourth floor and they were mostly middle-aged or older, all of whom were completely focused on the books they were reading. The third and second floors had a majority of younger people who were below forty-years-old, with much shallower skill sets.

Suddenly, Chu Li felt extremely excited.

The countless secret manuals of martial arts here were entirely beyond his imagination. Since there were so many secret manuals, how could he not pick out the one he liked? Would the Spirit Crane Technique that he was looking for be here?

Once he thought about this, it immediately lifted his spirits and he got excited. With a push of the door, he went out and headed for the third floor. After showing his jade tag, he had gained unimpeded access to the bookshelves of the third floor.

His gaze swept across the area, with his eyes landing on secret manual after secret manual as antique studies greeted his eyes until his eyesight went blurry.

He suddenly heaved a long breath as happiness filled his entire being. He had so many secret manuals of martial arts to read and to practice, this was truly the peak of happiness!

His gaze swiftly swept across the bookshelves until it eventually stopped on one particular bookshelf where he pulled out a secret manual. The words “Six Forms of Spirit Crane” were written on its cover.

He flipped through the secret manual and it truly was the Six Forms of Spirit Crane — there was no mistaking it.

A sense of disappointment washed over him. He realized that an introductory martial art that the Green Deer Cliff, which was one of the four major sects, possessed was not only obtained by the Holy Church of Light, it was also displayed here for all disciples of the Holy Church of Light to see.

What was worse was that the Six Forms of Spirit Crane was displayed together with the other secret manuals, yet it had no special marks to differ it from the rest. It was as if they saw it the same as the other special manuals it was arranged with, instead of demonstrating it as an antique study that belonged to Green Deer Cliff.

Could it be that the other secret manuals that surrounded the Six Forms of Spirit Crane were also the finest secret manuals?

Disbelievingly, he put the Six Forms of Spirit Crane back in its place and took out a Giant Spirit Palm.

After looking through the book carefully, his expression fell.

This Giant Spirit Palm was an exquisite antique study that possessed immense power in which he was perfectly suited to cultivate it.

The Giant Spirit Palm used power to subdue people and people who were born with supernatural strength would cultivate it easier than most as well. Once they had mastered this palm technique, a single use of this would be enough to double the strength of their entire body.

A lot of top-notch masters, as well as disciples of major sects, usually had refined armor protecting their bodies so that the power of a palm technique would usually be weakened. However, this would not work on Giant Spirit Palm. It was so powerful that a single use of it had enough brute force to send people flying.

It did not hurt people through inner energy but through violent vibrations. It was the same as a suit of armor being able to defend against flying blades, but if the person donning the armor were thrown from a height of 100 meters, surviving would still prove difficult since the vibrations would be enough to take a life.

Chu Li then pulled out a Fluttering Flower Palm. He discovered that if the essence of this palm technique were propelled to its peak, all that would be seen once this technique was put to full use would be palm traces that fell like petals while the actual palms of the user would not be seen at all.

This time, Chu Li shook his head in praise and pulled out a book called Heart Fracturer First. This palm technique was truly sinister and diabolic, but truly powerful as well.

After flipping through a few secret manuals, he suddenly felt that having so many secret manuals was not a good thing either. Since there were so many secret manuals at his disposal, not to mention the fact that each of them was extremely powerful, cultivating even one less of them would mean wasting even more time that he did not have.

Besides, all these martial arts techniques had immense power, but mastering them all would be useless either way. Heart Fracturer Palm and Traceless Palm were both palm techniques, which meant that there was no need to cultivate Traceless Palm if he had already learned Heart Fracturer Palm. After all, if Heart Fracturer Palm could not subdue his opponent, then Traceless Palm would not necessarily be useful either.

To put it simply, the most important thing now was still his skill. If he was not skilled enough, even the best techniques would still have limited power under his grasp.

He suddenly put down the secret manual in his hand and went towards another bookshelf where he pulled out another book. “Preliminary Study of the Great Light Scripture” was printed on its cover, and the book talked about the scripture’s meaning.

Chu Li flipped through the book before setting it down in exchange for a book called “Great Light Scripture Origin Theories”. After reading a few pages of this book, he too set it back in its place for he felt that not everything in the book was necessarily correct, making it not worthy to be referenced. So, he picked up another book.

The entire bookshelf only had books that expanded on the Great Light Scripture. Thus, allowing practitioners to truly understand the infinite mysteries the Great Light Scripture held. Not only were there books on cultivating the Great Light Scripture, there were also books that uncovered the hidden powers within the Great Light Scripture.

Unknowingly, Chu Li had spent an entire morning flipping through the books. When noon arrived, Zhao Zhe walked over with his silver hair betraying his good health and the energy in his step.

“Zhao Dahe, follow me. Let us share a meal,” he said as he walked towards Chu Li.

Chu Li immediately returned the book to its place and greeted the man with a fist salute. He then followed Zhao Zhe out of the bookshelves and past the counter to see that there were two females waiting for them on the outside. They were both about the same age as him and though he would not exactly call them beautiful, their good looks were certainly youthful.

“Let’s go. This is Mo Cuicui and this is Sun Lihua.” After his brief introduction, Zhao Zhe left Sutra Library with the three of them following close behind. He walked downwards until they arrived at a tall building that was about twofold smaller than the Sutra Library.

“Flavorful Tower” was printed on the signboard that Chu Li glanced at and he knew that they were at a place to eat.

Zhao Zhe immediately brought them to the first floor, which was bustling with activity, before they settled down at a table to order a few dishes.

This Flavorful Tower was almost the same as restaurants from the outside. The service was excellent, for their eight dishes and two soups arrived promptly. The food was fragrant and pleasing to the eye — certainly enough to make anyone drool.

Zhao Zhe ate very little. After a few mouthfuls of food, he set his chopsticks down, told the others to take their time eating and that he would head back first.

Chu Li watched Zhao Zhe leave the restaurant before he took his seat once more to continue eating.

Mo Cuicui was a young woman with freckles that dotted the bridge of her nose. She stared intently at Chu Li, her eyes unblinking.

In return, Chu Li smiled at her.

Mo Cuicui merely scoffed coldly, “What are you smiling about?”

“We belong to the same sect now.” Chu Li continued, “I am under your care from now on!”

“Zhao Dahe, you were promoted from being an outer mountain disciple, yes?” asked Sun Lihua calmly.

Chu Li nodded his head. This Sun Lihua was gentle and warm-tempered, a very feminine woman.

“Yes,” said Chu Li with a nod once more. “Are you both official disciples that have been living on the mountain since childhood?”

“Yes, we were born on the mountain and we’ve always stayed here.” Sun Lihua sighed before saying, “I really wish to go outside just to see what kind of world it is out there.”

Chu Li replied, “The outside isn’t as good as in here.”

“I think that really depends,” said Sun Lihua with a smile.

Mo Cuicui sneered. “Zhao Dahe, do you know Mo Qingqing?”

Chu Li was stunned but he promptly nodded his head after. “Of course.”

“Mo Qingqing was my cousin sister.” Mo Cuicui leered. “You killed her!”

Chu Li furrowed his eyebrows. “You’re Mo Qingqing’s cousin sister?”

“That’s correct!” Mo Cuicui gritted her teeth and continued, “You have quite the guts for daring to kill my cousin sister!”

Chu Li sighed. “I had no other choice. She wanted to kill me, so I would’ve died if I didn’t kill her.”

“I will definitely avenge her death!” roared Mo Cuicui through clenched teeth.