Chapter 93: Chapter 93: The First Mission Arrives.
Basics of Formless Sword Art.
Shen Yuan flipped through the pages with mechanical precision.
His eyes scanned the content at an inhuman speed. Every word. Every diagram. Every technique description was being filed away into his perfect memory.
He read through the entire book in less than a minute. Then he placed it back and moved to the next one.
Wire and Chain Arts section.
His eyes drifted across the spines. There were far fewer books here compared to the sword arts section. But that didn’t matter.
He just needed a more refined way to kill someone with his metal wires than he already had.
Chain of Binding Chains, Silk Garrotte Method, The Thousand Cuts Technique, The Widow Maker, Death’s Embrace.
Wire arts were subtle. Silent. Perfect for a killer who wanted to leave no witnesses.
He grabbed one—The Widow Maker: Mastery of Wire Arts for Precision Killing.
Another minute and he was done.
Instead of stopping, Shen Yuan kept moving from one section to another.
Demon Blood Knife Dance, Scarlet Fang Technique, The Silent Reaper’s Kiss.
He took the three techniques from the Knife section before moving to the are where elemental arts were placed.
Fire. Water. Wind. Earth. Wood.
Each element had its own section. Hundreds of books in each.
So he went for the most basic elemental manipulation arts and then picked some battle arts at random for every element.
Before he knew it, an hour had passed and Shen Yuan had memorized more than a dozen of books.
It may seem a small number given his initial speed but some of the books were thicker and he also had to make it look like he was just browsing in case the librarian was watching from some mysterious. Technique.
"Your time is finished," a voice said behind him.
Shen Yuan hadn’t heard the librarian move. He slowly turned around, and there he was.
The old man was standing there like a corpse who had already lost its life, his grey eyes barely registering Shen Yuan’s presence.
"Choose your book and get out," the librarian continued, his tone carrying the weight of absolute authority.
"Forgive me, senior, I will leave now." Shen Yuan picked one of the books from the shelf at random without looking at it and left the library.
The old librarian stood in the same spot watching his disappearing back with hollow eyes. He slowly turned to look at the shelf where a new copy of the book Shen Yuan had taken had already filled the empty space and whispered to himself, "Was it a coincidence or on purpose?"
...
Back in the dormitory.
The sun had set.
Chen Bo was already asleep, surrounded by his three suitcases of novels. Bei Zhu and Lin Feng were snoring on their beds, exhausted from the day’s labor assignments. Gu Ren sat in the corner, meditating quietly.
Shen Yuan was lying in his bed, reading a book.
The Flowing Mist Step.
It was the book he had taken from the library.
Pages filled with detailed illustrations. Footwork patterns. How to distribute your weight. How to move so quietly that even the wind didn’t notice you passing. How to maintain perfect balance on uncertain terrain.
The first level of the technique was called Mist Concealment.
It was supposed to make it seem like he was gliding on clouds and not running.
By the time he finished learning everything in the book, Shen yuan heard a ding in his head.
[A New Technique Has Been Registered: Yellow Grade Peak Rank.]
[1 Strand of Qi has been awarded.]
Shen Yuan closed the system and looked at the servants sharing his room.
’I will give them the techniques slowly as they prove their loyalties so they don’t doubt my intentions and also don’t seem like a pushover to them.’ Shen Yuan had not just learned techniques for himself. He had catalogued other techniques to give it to servants who would join the stray feather.
It was his ultimate scheme.
’I need to find a way to gather spirit stones and enter that place again.’ Now Shen Yuan had something to entice the people into joining his group with.
He wanted to use this technique and turn people from other dorms into following him and eventually become the floor leader himself.
Thinking about the steps he had to take in the future, Shen Yuan closed the book and hid it inside his inventory secretly before he started cultivating.
.
.
.
The days blurred together.
Shen Yuan had devoted himself to grinding every technique he had in his arsenal to perfection by the day and cultivating with the little time he had left.
He also made a name for himself in the manor when the servant whose feet he had crushed brought someone to take revenge on his behalf.
Shen Yuan used this opportunity to make himself known to every lowly servant in the building.
As for the techniques he had learned form the Library...
The Flowing Mist Step became second nature within the first week. He had mastered it to perfection by the end of the third.
Shen Yuan spent hours in the forest behind the dormitory, practicing the sword arts in secret.
The Formless Sword Art required no fixed patterns, no predictable movements. Every strike had to be different. Every cut had to adapt to the situation.
He swung the blade until his arms burned.
By the second week, he’d moved on to the wire techniques. The Widow Maker was a delicate art.
It was all about finding the weak point in cultivator’s body. Understanding the breaking point of metal and human flesh.
Shen Yuan practiced on branches. On targets made of straw and bone.
Whatever time he had left, Shen Yuan would spend it all on cultivating by himself.
And his efforts finally paid off.
Shen Yuan was meditating in the dormitory when it happened. His cultivation had been going quite smoothly but on the twenty-eighth day something changed.
His dantian trembled.
[Ding!]
[Breakthrough successful!]
[Current Cultivation: Sixth Stage Qi Gathering Realm]
[Qi Strands: 1,847 / 10,000]
Shen Yuan opened his eyes.
The Sixth Stage.
He’d advanced three entire stages in a single month. Most cultivators would take years to achieve what he’d done.
But then again, most cultivators weren’t him.
Since Shen Yuan had not surpassed his breakthrough with his body, the others in the room felt it as well.
When he opened his eyes, Shen Yuan saw the four of his roommates were watching him like they had seen a miracle happening.
"Did you just break through?"
"Again?"
"Didn’t he just break through the Second Stage of Qi Condensation Realm half a month ago?"
"He did. Not even the inner disciples have such a cultivation speed. I heard the even the talent disciples took over a month to go form first stage ot the second one."
Gu Ren could not believe what an absurd situation he had just witnessed.
Knock! Knock!
Before Shen Yuan opened his month to speak but he stopped when he sentenced someone outside the room. It did not take long before the knock came.
Everyone in the room stilled.
"A mission?"
Gu Ren asked as he stood up from the bed.
"I guess it’s finally your turn to go and do some work." Lin Feng joked while looking at Shen Yuan but his body was tense like he was ready for a sneak attack to arrive.
The moment Gu Ren opened the door he saw a familiar face on the other side. It was the same man who had came a month ago to give another servant a task on the day Shen Yuan had arrived.
"Shen Yuan?" His eyes moved through the room before they landed on the boy sitting on the leader’s bed. "You have a mission."
Gu Ren’s eyes widened as he realized what was happening. "What happened to the other servant who left here a month ago?"
"He is dead." The servant gave the answer he already knew in his heart before turning back to Shen Yuan. "You are next."
In case Shen Yuan misunderstood him, he hurriedly corrected himself, "I mean, you are now tasked with serving Senior brother Bang Fo. You will be reporting him the day after tomorrow since he is in closed door cultivation today."
He raised his hand to show a familiar scroll. He had expected Shen Yuan to despair or even show some intense emotions after hearing he had been practically given a suicide mission.
But his mind when blank when he saw Shen Yuan lazily getting up form the bed and taking the scroll from him with no real emotions on his face.
’Did he lose his mind? Is it because he cannot come to terms with reality?’ He kept wondering why Shen Yuan was not reacting at all standing there while Shen Yuan himself had already returned to his bed with the scroll.
"I will be at the gates of the inner sect the day after tomorrow." Shen Yuan words snapped the man out of his daze.
The servant looked at Shen Yuan with some confusion and nodded. "Take care of everything by tomorrow before leaving. You won’t be able to return to this place until the month is over."
With those final words, the servant turned around and left the way he came, leaving Shen Yuan’s roommates with a torrent of emotions.
Yet, Shen Yuan himself did not have any emotions to show or so he thought. He did not realise that a frown had made its way onto his face as he read the contents of the scroll.
Was that a hint of emotions? Or a habit that escaped without him realising.
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