With how focused I was on finally reaching my long target; the library, I forgot about a single, small detail.This time, I had no access token on me!
While initially, that didn"t seem to be a problem, as I pa.s.sed through the first set of doors that allowed me to move from the nicely furnished and finished corridor to the same, crude tunnel, the deeper I got into the mountain, I could feel how the pressure on my body was steadily increasing to the point when even making another steep seemed like a challenge!
When I first realised this small mishap, I felt the urge to rid of this obstacle with a precise entropy strike at the origin of this strange repulsive force, yet upon realising that the rune, formation, spell or whatever was responsible for my hards.h.i.+p could be serving more than just this single job of barring intruders from the library, I realised that unless I was down to unearthing the entire underground library complex after it could potentially collapse on itself due to the missing support of the formation, I had no other way than to gnash my teeth and trod forward.
Even with all the improvements to both magical and physical sides of my strength, by the time I finally reached the portier office, I was barely capable of taking a single step for as long as an entire minute!
Yet to my surprise, rather than seeing either the same disciple as before or one of his coworkers, the reception was empty!
While that alone could be explained with the ongoing event and how everyone was either willing or obliged to take part in the celebration that ultimately turned wrong, what made me actually baffled was the fact that as soon as my body moved past the point where I should meet with a hard barrier due to the lack of a token, all the pressure that was slowing me down suddenly disappeared!
Just to be sure that I wasn"t misunderstanding things, I even limited the strong that I could govern to just a fraction that I used back when I first visited this place, yet just a single moment later I realised that it wasn"t that my body simply turned too strong to even perceive the barrier as a real obstacle!
In reality, there was no barrier at all!
Puzzled by this strange change, I had no other way than to continue deeper into the corridor, swiftly recognising the same corridor that leads me to all the places that penguin sect disciples should have access too.
Yet rather than ending with the one door at its very end, it actually extended way further, connecting to a huge, circular room from where I could not only see the paths that spread to the other directions on the mountain, but also a huge, central point filled with bookshelves!
Unable to hold my temptation, I rushed to this grand hall and picked a few random ma.n.u.scripts, opening them on random pages and reading a few words just to confirm my guess.
And just like I thought, this place was nothing else but the secret archive that those managers from the continent kept for themselves!
While I could only speak about those few books that I picked, I honestly doubted that the records of s.h.i.+pping certain groups of disciples from the island to the continent, along with the detailed costs of making them appear as worthless could belong to anyone acquaintances with the heavenly city!
Looking at the other scroll, I found a list of disciples subjected to various tests under the guise of ancestral teachings, with only the third scroll detailing the specifics of the technique clearly foreign to the locals.
Thinking about this, the way to use the energy back in the cultivation part of the world relied on reinforcing the body to the point where it was capable of holding immense soul of a cultivator and then using the prowess of said soul to manipulate the energy. When talking about the Vivaci tribe, they initially infused their body with the energy they cultivated in their core, only to focus at a specific part of their body corresponding to the most prominent attribute of the guardian beast they wors.h.i.+pped.
As for the technique in the manual…
"By infusing enough energy in Jidai, Leniar and Gukken points of one"s aura, one will be able to create a negative vortex. By reinforcing it by circulating the energy through Uler and Cyen aura points, the vortex will become resilient enough to be used as a portable armour."
Just this random line that I found in the middle of the book was enough to confirm that there was no way that those records could belong to any of the local sects!
Yet just as I was about to put the books away and find a fitting place from where I could start methodically browsing through all the novels to infuse them into my database log, I felt a s.h.i.+ver going down my spine.
Recognising the familiar feeling of danger, I didn"t dare to take the incoming hit on my chest with the hopes that my increased resistance would be enough to fend of the attack.
Dodging to the side, I could see how a bolt of energy, similar to what I just imagined this "vortex" to be swished past the place where my body was just a moment ago. Instantly turning my head around as to locate the source of the attack, I saw a corner of a robe that instantly disappeared behind one of the long bookshelves.
Did some of the continentals survive the onslaught of their comfortable place by working around the books?
While some might consider it a mishap, a mistake during work, I couldn"t see it as anything else but an opportunity! The books could wait, but if I allowed this chance of mine to learn about the reality and customs of the continent slip through my fingers, I would never forgive myself!
After all, what one could learn from a human and from books, greatly differed!