Chapter 35: Getting Away with It
Three days passed by in the blink of an eye.
That night, at the scripture library of the Cold Flame Sect.
Ever since the Heavenly Talisman Hall incident, the number of people patrolling the scripture library had been doubled.
In a dense forest several thousand feet away from the pavilion, an indistinct silver figure appeared. Under the cover of the night, it was impossible to make out the figure's facial features.
The figure raised his head to look up at the octagonal pavilion that was the scripture library, and a moment later, he flipped a hand over to produce a light purple talisman, which he adhered to his own body.
The purple talisman instantly exploded silently into several indistinct runes that resembled tadpoles, revolving around the figure momentarily before vanishing into his body.
A burst of purple mist abruptly rose up around the figure, instantly devouring him and causing him to vanish on the spot.
The figure naturally hadn't actually disappeared. Instead, he had taken on an insubstantial form as he drifted directly toward the scripture library, paying no heed at all to the patrols in the area.
The patrols were constantly surveying their surroundings, and their spiritual sense was also sweeping through the area incessantly, but they completely failed to detect the figure.
Before long, the figure had already reached the entrance of the scripture library.
It was quite late at night, and the scripture library's doors were already shut. The wide stone doors of the scripture library were flashing occasionally, clearly indicating that there were restrictions applied to them.
The figure chanted an incantation as he made a hand seal, then opened his mouth to release a cloud of barely visible azure qi that drifted into the doors.
If the cloud of azure qi were to be enlarged by several hundredfold, one would be able to see that it was comprised of countless tiny runes. These tiny runes instantly seeped into the restrictions on the stone doors upon contact, and a large hole seemed to have been corroded into the restrictions, allowing the figure to fly through in a stealthy manner.
Without the restrictions in place, the stone doors posed no obstacle at all, and the figure flew through in a flash.
The restrictions on the doors flashed ever so slightly before instantly returning to normal.
All of this had taken place in the blink of an eye, and the patrolling cultivators outside had no idea that anything was amiss.
The figure entered the scripture library, arriving in a circular hall.
The hall was extremely large, roughly 200 to 300 feet in size, and there were around a dozen paths leading deeper into the scripture library from the hall.
At the very end of the hall was a winding black staircase that led upward.
The figure quickly inspected his surroundings, then flew silently toward one of the paths.
The path wasn't very long, and he quickly arrived at the end, reaching a stone chamber.
Just like the doors of the scripture library, the doors of this stone chamber were also bolstered by a white restriction.
Above the door was a white jade plaque, upon which were inscribed the words "Cultivation Arts".
A hint of elation flashed through the figure's eyes upon seeing this, and he opened his mouth to release a cloud of azure qi. Once again, the azure qi corroded a large hole into the white restriction, allowing the figure to fly through without any impediment.
Beyond the stone door was a huge stone chamber that housed hundreds of bookshelves, every single one of which was enshrouded under a red light barrier.
All of the bookshelves were split up into several grids, and each grid contained a jade slip.
There were labels beside each grid denoting the cultivation art contained in the jade slip that was stored in the grid.
The figure casually made his way over one of the bookshelves, then opened his mouth to release a burst of azure qi that corroded a large hole into the red light barrier around the bookshelf. After that, he drew several jade slips into his grasp with a wave of his hand, then injected his spiritual sense into them.
Moments later, his brows furrowed slightly as he casually tossed the jade slips back onto the bookshelf.
The jade slips contained various Core Formation and Nascent Soul Stage cultivation arts, but none of them seemed to have caught the figure's fancy.
The figure continued to make his way through the stone chamber. Soon, he had examined every single one of the jade slips on the bookshelves, and he shook his head in a display of disappointment.
He immediately departed without any hesitation, quickly passing through the stone door before returning to the same hall from before.
From there, he went down another path, and at the end of that path was yet another stone chamber.
There was another plaque above this chamber, and this plaque read "Arts".
The figure quickly dispelled the restrictions on the door of this stone chamber before entering.
A short while later, he returned once again before going down a third path.
Over two hours passed by in the blink of an eye, and all of the dozen or so paths had been explored by the figure, but his brows were still tightly furrowed, indicating that he hadn't found what he was looking for.
The figure drifted over to the black staircase at the very end of the hall, and after taking a glance upward, he slowly flew up the staircase.
The staircase wasn't very long, and he quickly reached the top, upon which he arrived before a huge stone door that was several dozen feet wide.
There was a figure seated with their legs crossed on each side of the door.
The one on the left was a portly man wearing a purple kasaya, and he seemed to be a monk. As for the figure on the right, he was a tall and thin man with a sickly, yellow complexion.
Neither of them had a particularly remarkable physical appearance, but the vast auras that they were giving off indicated that they were both Spatial Tempering cultivators.
The two of them were meditating with their eyes closed, completely oblivious to the fact that there was an intruder present.
The figure took a glance at the pair of Spatial Tempering cultivators, then quickly directed his gaze toward the stone door behind them.
Light rippled like water over the surface of the stone door, giving off colorful refractions, and it was clear just from a glance that this restriction was far more powerful than the ones on all of the other stone chambers.
Given the context clues, the inner library of the scripture library was most likely beyond this stone door. The inner library was home to the Cold Flame Sect's best cultivation resources, and it seemed that it was not going to be an easy task to break through this restriction.
The figure's eyes narrowed slightly as he waited for a moment, then began to advance again, arriving directly in front of the stone door, where he was less than 10 feet away from the two Spatial Tempering cultivators.
Right at this moment, the portly monk on the left raised an eyebrow, and he opened his eyes before quickly inspecting his surroundings.
"What is it, Brother Lingxi?" the thin man on the right asked as he also opened his eyes.
"Nothing," the portly monk murmured in response as he turned back to take a glance at the door of the inner library.
He hadn't actually detected anything substantial. Instead, he had felt something rather vague and indescribable, and that feeling had stemmed from a certain secret technique that he had cultivated in the past.
However, the success rate of this secret technique was quite low, and given all of the restrictions imposed on this place and the fact that there were two Spatial Tempering cultivators constantly stationed here, it was extremely implausible that anyone would've been able to infiltrate the inner library without being detected. In fact, even a Grand Ascension Stage being would've most likely struggled to pull off such a feat.
With that in mind, the monk slowly closed his eyes again.
The thin man merely brushed it off as a false alarm upon seeing this, and he also closed his eyes to meditate.
Throughout this process, the figure remained completely still on the spot, and only after the two Spatial Tempering cultivators had closed their eyes again did he release a powerful burst of spiritual sense that quickly encompassed the entire door, forming a protective barrier.
Immediately thereafter, he opened his mouth to release a burst of azure qi that fell upon the rippling restriction on the door.
The restriction immediately began to shimmer and warp as if it were resisting the azure qi, and it was releasing magic power fluctuations in the process, but the two Spatial Tempering cultivators were completely oblivious to this outside the spiritual sense barrier.
The figure made a hand seal, and the azure qi instantly began to expand and shrink, constantly changing forms to combat the rippling restriction. As a result, an area that was around five feet in size was opened up at the center of the restriction.
The figure immediately took advantage of the opening, flying into the stone door in a flash.
The process seemed to have been a complex and convoluted one, but in reality, it had only taken one or two seconds from the moment he broke through the restriction to the instant that he flew through the stone door, and only after that did the spiritual sense barrier silently dissipate.
The portly monk's eyebrows twitched slightly, and he opened his eyes again before quickly turning his gaze toward the stone door of the inner library.
The restriction on the surface of the stone door was rippling incessantly, and it wasn't displaying any signs of abnormality.
However, even though the sense of foreboding that had just welled up in his heart had only appeared for a flash before vanishing, it still planted a seed of doubt in his heart.
"Did you notice something, Brother Lingxli?"
At this point, his companion seemed to have also noticed that something wasn't quite right, and hurriedly rose to his feet, turning back to take a glance at the stone door, then closed his eyes again to release his enormous spiritual sense throughout the entire area.
"Did you sense anything just now, Brother Qingtao?" the portly monk asked as he made his way over to the stone door before conducting a careful inspection.
The thin man opened his eyes, then shook his head as he replied, "Surely it's nothing unless someone was able to travel hundreds of kilometers away from the scripture library in just two or three seconds, or they were able to break through this Glazed Dark Water Array set up by Patriarch Cold Flame to access the inner library."
He hadn't managed to catch anything with his spiritual sense just now.
"Neither of those options sound possible. It must've just been my imagination," the portly monk said with a wry smile.
Even for the Grand Ascension Stage supreme elder of the Cold Flame Sect, it would've been rather implausible for them to break through the Glazed Dark Water Array before restoring it to its original condition in just two or three seconds.
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