Wang Sheng finally put away the paper. Regardless, it indeed yielded him a great harvest.
Of course, it also raised new questions and a longing for power.
His current realm was at the Stage of Quenching Fire, and achieving progress would likely take some time. One can’t rush a breakthrough in realm.
Therefore, he focused all his attention on enhancing his Divine Skills.
Now that he had nearly understood all of the Scholar’s matters, the next step was to collect various books, which was also an important reason for coming to the Imperial City.
The royal library was naturally vast, and he stood upon a library tower.
It had ten floors in its main section, and Wang Sheng was currently on the tenth floor where the rarest books and what could even be called forbidden texts were stored.
However, Wang Sheng wasn’t particularly interested in these forbidden texts.
So-called forbidden texts were books that were detrimental to the empire’s rule. Generally, such books were to be destroyed, but as this was a world graced with formidable personal power, the influence of these texts wasn’t particularly significant. Thus, the Imperial Family destroyed some but still preserved a number of singular editions.
Most of the books in this library were treatises and miscellaneous notes which, to the interested, would be invaluable treasures that could expand wisdom and enlighten the populace.
Unfortunately, for Wang Sheng, they served to merely augment his knowledge and broaden his horizons – useful, but not entirely so.
After some thought, Wang Sheng still used his Divine Thought to scan all the books, beginning to record the contents into the Jade Scrolls.
If these materials were released, they might not create a peerless powerhouse, but they could educate countless learned individuals. Taking them back to Qingshan Village would also be good, as not everyone could reach the pinnacle on the path of Martial Arts.
Since the books weren’t particularly complex, he could record them much faster than he could the Martial Arts Secret Manuals.
If he encountered a unique volume, he would collect it directly.
With the aid of Divine Thought and his experiences traveling from Qingshan Village to the Imperial City, even though the library housed a multitude of books, it didn’t take him too much time.
Not only that, he also discovered a “flaw” in recording with Jade Scrolls – they had a capacity limit.
After recording to a certain extent, they would accept no more. Discovering a flaw wasn’t necessarily a bad thing; recognizing these things allowed for better improvement.
After recording these books, he went straight to his primary destination for coming to the Imperial City – the Martial Arts Secret Manual library.
Even though the Imperial Family was in decline, the place where Martial Arts Secret Manuals were stored was guarded by a Martial Artist at the Grandmaster Level. Unfortunately, the guard proved useless against the illusion created by Divine Thought.
With Spiritual Cultivation not being widespread and powerful, Divine Thought was essentially an unsolvable force.
This was also one of the reasons why Wang Sheng found Qi Blood Martial Arts to be superficial. Any path, no matter how imperfect, shouldn’t have such glaring flaws, yet the deficiencies of Qi Blood Martial Arts were rather pronounced.
Had there been no path of Spiritual Martial Arts in this world, that would be one thing, but the affairs of Qiao Nian, the old Scholar, and the White Lotus Demon King clearly indicated its existence.
With such a significant flaw, if not remedied, once the two paths spread, practitioners of Qi Blood Martial Arts would become mere playthings for those who cultivated spiritual power.
Wang Sheng enjoyed the convenience of Divine Thought but wouldn’t stop the spread of Spiritual Martial Arts.
Even though he had been cultivating for a short period, he understood that by hindering other cultivators from becoming strong and maintaining the highest position for himself, he was bound to be overthrown eventually.
Wang Sheng sought absolute power, not to suppress the cultivation of others, and the secret manuals in this library were the sustenance for his power.
Without alarming anyone, he moved through the library, recording secret manuals into the Jade Scrolls, while casually flipping through them.
If he came across something particularly valuable to him, he would take the original copy for himself.
It must be said, as befitting a dynasty that ruled for five hundred years, the completeness of the secret manuals was beyond imagination.
Many of the secret manuals here had already been obtained by Wang Sheng.
Generally speaking, if it existed outside, it was basically here as well, including numerous family heirloom manuals of martial artist families. This library even contained manuals that were not available outside, with an extremely extensive variety.
The more Wang Sheng collected, the more his heart ached for the Imperial Family’s secret vault that the young emperor had destroyed.
The manuals inside that must have been even more astonishing.
Unfortunately, it was too late to talk about that now, and he could only collect the manuals from this place.
However, it wasn’t long before he pushed the heartache out of his mind.
Because he saw the section specifically for storing research books on “Qi.”
The “Qi” secret manual itself was extremely mysterious, and the Imperial Family had specialized research on it, not to mention what was collected from the outside world.
For instance, the “Long-Distance Space Movement” concept study’s assorted notes that Wang Sheng originally acquired; the author had left behind plenty of research achievements, but unfortunately, what he had obtained before was just bits and pieces.
However, in the emperor’s Martial Arts Secret Manuals library, there was a complete version bound into a book. He briefly flipped through it, and the content was incredibly comprehensive, not just what he had already acquired, but also sections he had not.
With this book, his progress with “Qi” was likely going to advance rapidly for a while.
There were also other research books of considerable value.
“Just having this one book makes it all worth it!”
But the surprises were not limited to just that.
He also found the secret technique of transforming one sword into thousands from Wu Qingfeng, the Great Grandmaster of Spirit Sword Valley. Although it was not the complete version, for him, it was still a huge gain and something he could use as a reference.
The library of Martial Arts Secret Manuals, although far fewer in quantity than the library of regular books, documented a much longer period of time, mainly because the Martial Arts Secret Manuals were all more complex.
It took a very long time, but he finally recorded all the secret manuals. He only took the originals that were of the greatest value to him.
After making a tidy profit, Wang Sheng left the palace and then he had something to look forward to.
After he had left, the palace’s Spirit Secret Techniques also unraveled, and almost no one noticed anything unusual. The only one who knew some of the inside story, the Clan Elder and the emperor, said nothing.
They were no match for such a powerful being, and compared to anger, they felt more fear.
The palace was a tempting target; staying on would only invite who knows what powerful being next.
This time they were lucky, the powerful being didn’t take their lives; what about the next time?
Therefore, the Clan Elder immediately started preparing for departure.
It wasn’t just them; many other forces also started getting ready, especially the Rebellion Army.
The burst of light in the Imperial City had been seen by many who were monitoring the city’s status, and this information was reported straight up the chain.
For those of Overlord Level strength, they understood even more. After Wang Sheng had killed the Evil Dragon, some of the special talents they nurtured sensed something.
Almost simultaneously, an order was issued.
“Due to concerns of backlash, we had withdrawn our people, but now there’s no need. Bolster the Rebellion Army’s power, attack the Imperial City, and bring the Great Zhou Dynasty to complete ruin!”
(Today I finished farewelling relatives that needed to leave, so tomorrow I’ll resume updates, or else I’ll have to invoke an ancient oath, dressing as a woman! Pushing myself to the limit!)