Chapter 56: 7th Level of the Library
Early next morning, the cross legged Jian Chen slowly opened his eyes. He had not been cultivating for the past 2 days, and instead was spending his days at the library reading books. Every night, he immersed himself with trying to understand the sword within his dantian, in order to learn to use his Saint Weapon as efficiently as possible.
After all, Jian Chen had only recently broken through to Sainthood, and even though the Saint Weapon within him was connected to his mind, he still didn’t know how to use the Saint Weapon to perfection. Jian Chen, who had experience from the previous world, still found the Saint Weapon in this world a fresh new experience. If he didn’t spend his time familiarizing himself with it, then even connecting his soul with his Saint Weapon like he did with the tree branch, it would still be very hard to show off the pinnacle of his strength.
The reason for this was the same as a person had a severed arm for ten to twenty years, but the arm suddenly grew back. Since that person was familiar with living with a severed arm and now had to face the newly grown arm, they would also be a bit unfamiliar to his condition. This development required time to slowly accept and become comfortable with.
Standing up from his bed, Jian Chen walked out of his room and headed towards the dining halls. Then as per usual, after eating, he headed to the library.
The doors to the library were already open, but there weren’t many people inside; just the regular janitorial lady.
Jian Chen looked at the nearly empty library and then walked towards the 5th level of the library. For the past few days, all of the books he had been interested in, from the first to fourth level, have all been completely read by him.
The library had a total of 7 levels. The first two levels could be accessed by anyone below the Saint level while the 3rd and 4th levels would be opened to those who broke through to the Saint level. The 5th level of the library wasn’t open to any student except for the Freshman Champion, so for those who wanted to read the books from that level, they would have to be a teacher from the academy. The 6th and 7th layer of the library was protected by very strong bindings, and only the headmaster and vice headmaster could enter. For those who wanted to enter, they would need the strict approval of either the headmaster or vice headmaster first.
Even though the fifth story of the library wasn’t open to the students, Jian Chen, who had achieved the first place in the Freshman Competition, could freely enter the fifth level.
The amount of space the fifth level occupied wasn’t really that big, and the number of books weren’t very many either. If you added them all up, the number was barely a hundred, which was incomparable to the ten thousands of books that the first level had.
But Jian Chen knew that any one of these hundred books, had a value far greater than any of the books he had ever read before.
The fifth level of the library was very quiet. Although not many people visited it, Jian Chen could see that this place was cleaned by someone very often. The entire room was clean; one wouldn’t be able to find a single speck of dust in it.
Jian Chen walked towards the bookshelves and selected a book on cultivation before walking back towards the table. The contents of the book were only about cultivation. Although he didn’t know if the contents of the book would help him with his problem, it would at least enrich his mind with other information he deemed helpful.
Jian Chen was extremely invested in reading, to the point of addiction. Although the information recorded inside the book had almost nothing that could help him, it still helped open his eyes and broadened his horizons to a whole new world of cultivation. The information he saw was about things he could never think about before in his past life.
The information on cultivation written inside the book wasn’t too profound and only had a few dozen pages, so he quickly finished the book. After reading it, Jian Chen placed the book back onto the bookshelves and started to mutter to himself, as if he was trying to commit the knowledge to memory.
After carefully putting the book back in its original location, Jian Chen grabbed another book and started to repeat the process of reading once more. Within the 5th level of the library, practically all of the books were left behind by predecessors to help people with cultivation techniques. However, the majority of these cultivation techniques were not too strong; most of them were barely above the Primary Earth Tier level.
The time slowly went by, as Jian Chen resided on the 5th level to read book after book. He had completely forgotten about the time, he hadn’t noticed that he was no longer alone, as two other middle aged men appeared. Just one look at the two was enough to tell that these were teachers of the academy.
The two middle-aged men appeared to know Jian Chen; when they saw him, their eyes let out a very surprised look. However, they did not make a sound to avoid disturbing him.
Just then, an old man wearing a light blue and luxurious chang pao walked up from below. He looked to be in his fifties or sixties. His hair was as white as a crane but his appearance was like that of a young man. He had a mysterious expression that constantly flashed in his eyes.
The 5th level of the library wasn’t too big, and so after the elderly man entered the 5th level of the library, he promptly walked to the side to get to the staircase that would lead to the 6th layer. All of a sudden, he had noticed a young child out of the corner of his eye.
The elderly man came to a sudden stop as he sized up the child in his head. Immediately recognizing the academy uniform on the tall but slender child, he realized with a start, “Changyang Xiang Tian!”
Jian Chen was immediately brought back to his senses and looked back to the old man who had called him. His face was a little sluggish before he jolted to his feet with a smile, “Headmaster, why have you come here?”
This man was the headmaster of Kargath Academy.
The headmaster’s voice had simultaneously startled the two teachers. The moment they saw the headmaster, they looked startled and placed their books down onto the table before standing up. Cupping their hands to salute the headmaster, they called out respectfully, “We greet the headmaster.”
The headmaster of Kargath Academy was a well known figure whose name resounded throughout the Gesun Kingdom. His strength was on the level of a Heaven Saint Master, and he was one of the 6 strongest individuals of the Gesun Kingdom.
A Heaven Saint Master on the Tian Yuan Continent was still regarded as a very strong and valiant person.
The headmaster’s gaze swept across the two middle aged men and waved his hand as he said, “Don’t mind me, please continue reading your books.”
“Yes, headmaster.” The two middle aged men immediately sat down again, though they didn’t have the spirit to concentrate on the books in their hands.
The headmaster’s eyes glanced over the book within Jian Chen’s hand. With a smile as he nodded his head in satisfaction, he said with a gratified tone, “Changyang Xiang Tian, do you like this library?”
Jian Chen nodded his head without hesitation, “That’s right; from this library, I can learn many different things. Even if the information here provides little to no help to someone, it’ll still increase one’s knowledge.”
Hearing Jian Chen, the headmaster looked at him with admiration. “Good, good. Changyang Xiang Tian, someone with your understanding and logic is hard to come by. Since you enjoy being in this library, then let me help you. Come with me.” Turning around, the headmaster started to walk towards the stairway to the 6th level.
Seeing the direction that the headmaster was heading in, Jian Chen fully understood the old man’s meaning and was overjoyed. He immediately returned the book in his hand to the original position and followed behind the headmaster toward the sixth level of the library.
Seeing Jian Chen disappear off into the staircase, the two teachers looked at his direction with some envy. The 6th and 7th levels of the library could only be accessed by the headmaster and the vice headmaster. Those who wanted access needed the approval of one of the two first. When it came to the 6th and 7th levels of the library, these were the areas that every single teacher of the academy wanted to go to, mostly because those two levels contained high level techniques. Not only that, but the other books in that level had rich information pertaining to many other fields. Most importantly, on the 6th and 7th levels of the library, there were records of many of the different types of spiritual treasures on the Tian Yuan Continent.
Very quickly, Jian Chen followed the headmaster to the entrance of the sixth level. Jian Chen could clearly see the transparent bindings keeping the door shut.
“The bindings of the sixth level and the seventh level are all arranged by the previous generations of headmasters. The defence is very strong, and even if it is a Heaven Saint Master, it is impossible to break it within a short period of time.” The headmaster’s tone carried a bit a pride, and he immediately took out a token constructed from Purple Coin. The token had very complicated markings on it, and it seemed to be a design of some sort.
The Purple Coin token in the headmaster’s hands released a faint purple glow, and soon the purple glow grew more and more bright. At last, a ray of light like a material substance shot out and directly landed on the bindings.
The transparent bindings slowly rippled twice like water, and the center slowly split apart to form a large hole that a person could easily enter through
“Changyang Xiang Tian, follow me inside.” The headmaster called out to Jian Chen, and directly walked inside.
Jian Chen followed behind the headmaster, and they walked straight through the sixth level onto the seventh level. The library’s seventh level was very empty. It was only the size of a typical room, and there was a single wooden table placed in the center. In front of the table was a small bookshelf that had a few thin books. There were two boxes on top of the bookshelf; one of the boxes was completely made of extremely precious jade, while the other was entirely made of Purple Coin. Both of their values were not at all lacking, and it could be seen that the items within these boxes had to be extremely important.
“Ever since Kargath Academy was first established, this library has always existed. Up until now, it’s been here for hundreds of years already. These past few centuries, the number of people aside from the headmaster of each era that have come to this library’s seventh level hasn’t been small. However, every single one of them was an extremely influential power, if not an impressive expert from the Tian Yun Continent. You are the first Kargath Academy student to have entered the seventh level these past few centuries.” The headmaster explained slowly, with an extremely calm tone.
“Changyang Xiang Tian, this library’s seventh level is where my Kargath Academy’s riches are contained. The entire seventh level is enveloped by a layer of powerful bindings. This layer of bindings were painstakingly created by the Saint Ruler, Brian, the first generation’s headmaster. The items within all have special tracers; as long as the bindings aren’t broken, there is no way they can be brought outside. In addition, the books inside here were all the books about cultivation methods that Headmaster Brian had collected himself, if not personally written by him. These are Kargath Academy’s greatest riches.”
Hearing this, Jian Chen’s expression became extremely serious. He hadn’t imagined that the library’s seventh level would be so important. The fact that Kargath Academy’s first generation headmaster had actually been a Saint Ruler that was an exceptional expert was also shocking to Jian Chen.
The headmaster’s gaze brightly looked at Jian Chen, and his expression changed and he said with a strict tone, “Changyang Xiang Tian, right now I use my authority as the headmaster to allow you to read any book except the one inside the jade box. You only have this one chance, I hope you properly utilize it.”
Jian Chen solemnly nodded his head, “I thank the headmaster for the help.”
“The jade box contains items that would not be of any use to the current you, and it may even obstruct your growth. Therefore, you must not look at the items within the jade box. However, the Purple Coin box contains a Primary Heaven Tier cultivation technique that you can read however much you want. However, your Changyang clan’s family heirloom Law of Yang Qi isn’t any weaker than the Collecting Heart Sutra. Therefore, choosing whatever cultivation method you use isn’t something you should be too hasty with.”
“Okay, you can stay here by yourself and take your time to read them. Remember, you only have this once chance to enter the seventh floor of the library, I hope you treasure it. The bindings at the entrance will only prevent the people who are trying to enter, if you want to leave, you can leave directly.” After finishing, the headmaster immediately turned and left the place, disappearing outside the bindings on the seventh floor, leaving Jian Chen standing there dazed.