Chapter 9 - Martial Arts Library

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  “I suggest you go to the Martial Arts Library first before looking for a house to stay in, there are still vacancies in terms of houses. And unlike the Treasure Pavilion, the Martial Arts Library has at least thousands of manuals on the 1st floor and about a hundred on the 2nd floor.”

  “I see, are there any differences between the manuals on the 1st and 2nd floor?” Gu Xuan couldn’t help but ask, after all, in the Treasure Pavilion, the treasures on the 2nd floor were far more powerful than the ones on the 1st floor.

  “That’s right, for someone like you in the 1st Layer of Qi Gathering Realm, you can only access the 1st floor. The manuals on the 2nd floor can be considered as forbidden techniques that can damage one’s body, vitality, and even destroy a part of the body when used but in return, can deliver a very powerful blow beyond one’s ability. Furthermore, the 2nd floor can only be accessed when you have enough contribution points to squander since a minute there costs 100 sect points.”

  “Then, I’ll go first, Grandpa Liao so I can check it out, thank you for your advice.” Gu Xuan cupped his fists.

  Elder Liao simply nodded as he led the way down the Treasure Pavilion, “Go, Elder Yan… Elder Yan Wen, the 4th Elder and the youngest one is tending to the martial arts library, he’s a little anti-social but still, greet him if you meet him there.”

  “Yes, Grandpa Liao.” Gu Xuan said before walking out of the Treasure Pavilion.

  Meanwhile Elder Liao who was looking at Gu Xuan’s back from afar couldn’t help but squint his eyes and mutter softly, “14 years old yet he carries himself as if he’s a man in his 30s…”

  Elder Liao had a life filled with experience interacting with different kinds of people but he hasn’t met anyone like him. There were teenagers who tried to act but usually failed to act like adults. But Gu Xuan was different, he acted as if he’s had a lot of experience despite being mostly ignorant in most things.

  After thinking as such, Elder Liao chuckled to himself, “Look at me, I’m already retired, I shouldn’t pry into someone else’s business. Especially as a disciple of my own sect, and his personality might simply be the result of a traumatic experience carried by his orphaned life.”

  He smiled, then said, “I wish you luck on your cultivation path, young one.”

  Gu Xuan’s eyes, as he walked away, looked to the side for a moment but he didn’t turn his head. He could feel Elder Liao’s gaze but he didn’t want to seem suspicious since he isn’t in the first place and simply a cautious person.

  However, cautious people usually act like they are guilty of something so it’s hard for them to defend against accusations.

  He didn’t know about other people but when the gaze of someone is focused on him, he could feel it even as a mortal in his previous life, what more now? That his senses are enhanced by several times due to his breakthrough to the 1st Layer of Qi Gathering Realm?

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  Looking back will be very suspicious. Even if he explains himself that his senses are just sharper than others, they would ask why and if he answers honestly, it’s quite unbelievable, meaning more suspicions so he didn’t look back even if he felt the gaze.

  When his feet touched the ground of the man-made road of the Central District, he could see the Martial Arts Library from the entrance of the Treasure Pavilion.

  After all, the main street after the gates wasn’t very big and it was only on the opposite side of the road.

  The Martial Arts Library was also very noticeable as the second tallest building in the Central District being two-stories tall.

  And unlike the luxurious looking Treasure Pavilion, the Martial Arts Library had a scholarly vibe, it might be because of the design of the building or maybe it was because of the books that could be seen from the open windows, Gu Xuan wasn’t a professional in exterior or interior designing so he couldn’t tell.

  It just passed by his mind for a moment before he started walking towards the Martial Arts Library.

  After several steps, he had entered the Martial Arts Library and within, he saw a table by the entrance and there sat a middle-aged man.

  His hair had a tinge of whitening but it was still mostly black. He also had a clean face, not a sign of a beard growing anywhere, a sign of him taking care of his face and shaving it off most of the time.

  Unlike the other elders, the 4th elder looks far younger than them.

  All this aside, Gu Xuan cupped his fist as he stood 2 meters away from the elder and said, “Disciple Gu Xuan greets Elder Yan Wen.”

  Elder Yan who was sitting on the table reading a book turned his gaze to Gu Xuan and just nodded his head in reply.

  Gu Xuan was taken aback but then recalled Elder Liao saying that Elder Yan was a little anti-social so he took the initiative to continue the conversation, “I’ve climbed the Central District today and it’s my first time in the Martial Arts Library. May I ask Elder Yan how many manuals I can bring with me when I go outside?”

  Elder Yan soon closed his book and turned to Gu Xuan, “First of all, congratulations on your breakthrough. As for the Martial Arts Library, you can browse and study as much as you want but if you want to bring some manuals out, you can only bring out two.”

  He then took a book on his table and pushed it forward, “Just log in here your name and the manual you wish to take and you can bring it out for a month before returning it.”

  “I see, thank you Elder Yan. I’ll excuse myself and won’t disturb your reading further.”

  “Um.”

  Gu Xuan went towards the shelf and Elder Yan couldn’t help but gaze at him in satisfaction before going back to reading his book.

  In Gu Xuan’s opinion, Elder Liao’s comment about being anti-social is a little over the top. Elder Yan might be a little quiet, but he wasn’t anti-social judging by how he carried himself when he replied.

  Gu Xuan walked around the 1st floor of the Martial Arts Library and after counting, there were 50 shelves filled with manuals. Each of them had 5 layers and had 10-20 books per layer. Meaning, 2500 to 5000 books…

  Seeing the amount, Gu Xuan sighed, ‘Hopefully, I find what I want to take out in a hundred or two books. No wonder Elder Liao suggested that I go to the Martial Arts Library first before looking for a house to stay in.’

  However, there was nothing Gu Xuan could do with the amount, so he picked up manuals after another.

  There were titles such as “Celestial Dragon Rises to the Sky!”, “Howling Tiger Roars Violently!”, “Shadow Wolf Bites Silently!”.

  Seeing such domineering titles, his eyebrows twitched.

  ‘At the level of Qi Gathering Realm, how strong can a martial arts technique be to have such titles?’

  Gu Xuan directly discarded those books because he doesn’t like pretentious stuff, so his search for manuals became slightly easier.

  After browsing a couple of shelves, he found some books that caused him to be interested.

  They were “The Theory of Qi Control’, “Basic Sword Stances”, and finally, real martial arts techniques rather than concepts, “Silent Step Footwork.”

  As for the others, the titles were too domineering causing him to have little to no ounces of interest in them so he went to a table within the library and started reading.

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