Chapter 361: Chapter 348: Mysterious Trace Identification
"With the help of a classmate with severe social anxiety, you have had a sudden epiphany regarding *Array General Knowledge*. Experience +1000!"
"*Array General Knowledge* has been committed to memory."
"You are reading *Mysterious Trace Identification*. This book is obscure and difficult to comprehend, with an extremely high threshold for entry. Normally, only a young soul can understand it.
"However, the effects of the ritual persist. Your inspiration is exceptionally high. You have gained an extraordinary amount of identification-related inspiration from the book, and your Identification Skill Level is rapidly increasing!"
Gu Ming swayed, holding the ancient book on identification.
The reason was simple: Gu Ming felt like his head was about to explode.
A flood of unfamiliar images rushed into his mind from the book: statues, Evil God totems, ancient sacrificial rites...
The etiquette, consumables, timing, and divinatory signs for each ritual—all knowledge related to mysterious traces bored its way into his mind.
He had never felt the weight of a thousand points of inspiration so viscerally.
Not even when he faced the Profound Celestial Beast Ghost Soul had it been this intense.
Faced with the tidal wave of inspiration and new knowledge, he almost suffocated, able only to passively receive the torrent.
Everyone around him was engrossed in their own books. Few noticed his strange condition.
Gu Ming’s Pet Beasts couldn’t read the book and weren’t focused on it, so they immediately noticed something was wrong with their master.
They rushed forward and nudged him, interrupting his reading.
Gu Ming shook his head and let out a long breath.
He almost threw the book aside. Fortunately, he steadied himself and managed not to drop it.
His head felt like it had been stretched to its breaking point. For a moment, it seemed like he understood everything, but when he tried to think about it in detail, his mind was a blank slate.
Just then, a club member acting as a librarian noticed his odd behavior. He walked over, glanced at the book in Gu Ming’s hands, and immediately cried out in alarm:
"Where did the words in the book go?"
His voice instantly drew more attention. SWISH. A crowd gathered around Gu Ming once again.
Gu Ming used his Divine Sense Sword Body to gently sweep through his Sea of Consciousness, calming its turbulent waves. Only after settling his Spiritual Power did he spare a bit of focus to look at the *Mysterious Trace Identification* book in his hands.
It was blank as a freshly washed slate, without a single word.
It was as if all the words from the book had been carved directly into his mind, which was a terrifying thought.
"I..." Gu Ming looked at the pairs of eyes staring at him, unsure how to answer.
...
The club president, Ruan Qitian, walked into the noisy Library Pavilion.
According to the rules, one was supposed to remain quiet in the Library Pavilion and not disturb others as they savored the Great Dao within the books.
But this time, with an ancient book having been damaged, no one could be bothered with the usual rules. The club members were all chattering at once, discussing how Gu Ming should compensate for it.
Ruan Qitian pushed through the crowd and barked in a low voice, "All of you, shut up!"
He then pointed to a club member present and asked what had happened. Afterward, he took the copy of *Mysterious Trace Identification* from Gu Ming’s hands and began flipping through it.
The pages were indeed completely empty. No matter how he flipped through them, there wasn’t a single word to be found.
The aura of the Great Dao emanating from the book had diminished to almost zero. It was dull and lifeless, no different from a piece of waste paper.
"How is this even possible?" he muttered to himself.
At that moment, Gu Ming walked over, his tone apologetic. "President, how should I compensate for this book?"
"Just tell me. I can’t afford to pay for it right now, but I’ll work hard to earn the money and pay it back."
As he said this, a bitter feeling welled up inside him.
’I’ve tried everything to escape a fate of being in debt.’
’I never expected to rack up debt just by reading a few books in the club.’
Ruan Qitian didn’t answer right away. He studied the book by himself for a moment before quickly reaching a conclusion.
"You’ve drained this book of its Spiritual essence. Whether you drove it away or dispelled it, there’s definitely something strange about you."
He stated bluntly, "You certainly can’t afford to pay for it with money. This book is priceless."
"If you want to make amends, you’ll have to find an ancient book of a similar Mysterious Attribute during one of our expeditions. Finding one and turning it in will be considered atonement."
"Yes!" Gu Ming replied without hesitation.
But after thinking it over, he couldn’t help but ask doubtfully, "Is just finding one enough?"
"My job is to follow the team and perform Identification. That’s a team activity. Does it count if I find a book with everyone else?"
The president chuckled. "Heh heh. Of course, I’m not talking about the team finding a book. It only counts as your compensation to the club if you find an additional ancient book with the Mysterious Attribute during your personal time and turn it in."
A nearby club member also reminded him in a low voice that the Outdoor Adventure Club has free-activity periods, which are the members’ private, unsupervised time.
Only then did Gu Ming understand. It turned out that aside from the team-cooperation phase, during the rest periods of a full expedition—once everyone’s safety was confirmed—the Outdoor Adventure Club would set aside some time for free activity.
This was an opportunity for members to search for treasures on their own, and anything they found was theirs to keep.
This was one of the reasons the club remained so attractive to students from Capital University.
’If everyone does this, how many books can the club actually collect and store?’ Gu Ming wondered to himself.
As if he had read his mind, Ruan Qitian added:
"Some mechanisms can’t be cracked by a single person. They require the strength of the team."
"Items obtained by cracking such mechanisms as a team are all turned over to the Library Pavilion or the Curios Pavilion for storage."
"As for things found privately through personal ability, the club doesn’t get involved."
"But back to the matter at hand." Ruan Qitian changed the subject. "We should investigate the issue with you."
After all, this was a club that revered the spirit of exploration and was full of interest in all unknown phenomena.
It wasn’t just that the club members couldn’t understand how Gu Ming had turned an ancient tome into a piece of waste paper devoid of words and the Great Dao.
The phenomenon of the ancient book becoming waste paper itself was something no ordinary person could accomplish. This was Great Dao Gold Paper, which carried a Dao as heavy as a mountain; simple reading couldn’t erase it.
"If I’m not mistaken, some special trait of yours dispelled the book’s Spiritual essence," Ruan Qitian said. "We’re going to need to give you a detailed examination."
Gu Ming had no objections.
His Beast Taming Space already possessed the Mysterious Attribute. Although it hadn’t been fully utilized to its utmost potential, it was more than enough to handle a general examination.
Soon, a High-Level club member produced his physical examination report and Spiritual Power score.
Ruan Qitian looked at the numbers on the report, stroking his chin with a surprised expression. "Gu Ming’s Spiritual Power is actually at the Three-star level?"
"How is that possible?"
Hearing this, Gu Ming was also slightly taken aback.
It was a known fact that Gu Ming’s physical data from after he enrolled was on record.
Back in June, he was still a Beastmaster at the 2.2 level.
However, this wasn’t the main point. Everyone was more interested in figuring out why he could dispel the Spiritual essence of an entire book.
Gu Ming recalled the feeling of his head exploding just now. In that instant, it had been stuffed with so many things, and his Sea of Consciousness had undergone a massive change. Towering waves had crashed ceaselessly, nearly capsizing the entire sea.
Perhaps because of the upheaval in his Sea of Consciousness, which was similar to undergoing a spiritual baptism from a mysterious ritual, Gu Ming’s Spiritual Power had spontaneously increased by a few tenths of a point, reaching the 3.0 level—the standard for a Three-star Beastmaster.
But Gu Ming couldn’t say this so directly. He gave an ambiguous answer: "I once performed a ritual to petition a Spirit God. Maybe I caught a glimpse of the Spirit God, or maybe it was because of the ritual... In any case, I’m very sorry. I don’t really understand it myself."
When the president heard the words "Spirit God," his expression grew dazed for a moment. "Wasn’t it a Spirit Venerable?"
"No." Gu Ming shook his head.
For the first time, Ruan Qitian’s gaze became solemn. "Petitioning a Spirit God and petitioning a Spirit Venerable are two completely different things."
"The fact that you were able to do this shows that your luck is far beyond that of an ordinary person."
He sighed softly. "If a Spirit God was involved, then it’s not so strange after all."
This was a field that had not yet been fully explored. Even High-star Beastmasters didn’t have a deep understanding of it, let alone an undergraduate student.
However, based on Gu Ming’s Perception, the president’s doubts had been dispelled the moment he heard the words "Spirit God." It seemed he knew something about them.
At the very least, his knowledge surpassed Gu Ming’s.
Right now, Gu Ming was just using the Spirit God as a cover. He didn’t actually understand what was going on either.
