Chapter 218: 201 Breakthrough, Part 1

In the Great Dao Teaching, the place designated for storing martial arts is called Wuyun Pavilion.

Though it is named a pavilion, in reality, it is a large natural cavern, an underground cave.

Inside, a large amount of specially designed mesh material is placed to prevent dampness.

These mesh materials hang in mid-air, resembling patches of dark clouds, hence the name Wuyun Pavilion.

After Zhang Rongfang realized that alchemy and medicine were slow at helping him accumulate attribute points, he came here, intending to find martial arts to improve his digestion and absorption abilities.

Inside Wuyun Pavilion.

Large gray nets like fishing nets hang overhead.

Around them, at regular intervals, are glass fire basins like street lights.

The fire from the basins glows through the bright yellow glass.

At the top of each fire basin is a long smoke duct leading to the ventilation hole in the cave, preventing smoke from spreading here.

Between the fire basins are towering bookshelves over ten meters high.

On these shelves, many are not paper books but bamboo slips and other kinds of texts.

Zhang Rongfang walked slowly between the fire basin streetlights, like everyone else, looking at the labels on the side of each bookshelf.

Each label denotes the category name corresponding to the bookshelf.

In the dark Wuyun Pavilion, the bookshelves resemble monsters hiding in shadow.

Only their legs are illuminated by the fire basin light, while the rest remains concealed in darkness.

Zhang Rongfang walked towards the deeper parts of Wuyun Pavilion.

He carried an additional lantern to help find books.

Walking along the path between shelves of military weaponry and dietary bookshelves, he kept moving forward.

He felt like he was walking in a town formed by bookshelves.

Occasionally, people passed by him, but none spoke.

The light here was dim, and people couldn’t see each other’s faces clearly, so they didn’t greet.

Not long after of silent walking for several minutes.

Finally, Zhang Rongfang found himself in front of a bookshelf on martial arts techniques.

Compared to other bookshelves, though equally over ten meters high, it didn’t hold many bamboo slips or books.

From top to bottom, each shelf had about fifty or sixty wooden plaques, each with a brief introduction to the martial arts it held.

Holding the lantern, he began searching row by row from bottom to top.

He also dragged a wooden ladder from the side, preparing to climb up higher to search.

From bottom to top, the very bottom row contained basic fist, palm, and finger techniques.

’Cloud-piercing Hand,’ ’Twelve Styles of the Yang Family’s Boxing,’ ’Iron Finger Skill’…

One by one, these ordinary texts recorded timeless, concise classic martial arts that were hard to become outdated.

Then further up were the weapons.

There were many types of weapons: swords, spears, halberds, axes, bows, and all sorts of strange tools.

Zhang Rongfang directly ignored them, continuing upward in his search.

The higher he went, the more the martial arts were made from materials like metal sheets, bamboo slips, and bone fragments.

Soon, he had to climb up the ladder to search high above.

With the lantern, it took over ten minutes, before Zhang Rongfang finally found a martial arts text focused on enhancing eating capabilities.

Strictly speaking, it was an auxiliary technique supporting an advanced martial skill.

Its name was Golden Toad Skill.

The entire technique was recorded on tortoise shells, treated specially, giving it a sense of antiquity.

Zhang Rongfang carefully took it down and, holding the lantern, returned to the fire basin streetlights to examine it closely under the light.

The martial technique was scribbled over with various notes, some of which obscured the original text on the shell.

This left him somewhat annoyed.

Fortunately, through careful tracing, the original text on the shell was quickly brought out.

Zhang Rongfang spent over ten minutes to duplicate the shell using a leather mold tool, finally easing his mind.

After setting aside the shell, he carefully picked up the copy and slowly reviewed it.

The creator was a person known as Moon King. Whether it was a nickname or real name was unknown.

Zhang Rongfang carefully read from the beginning.

’Gold, eternal and indestructible.

Toad, voracious and devouring.

Combine the two, and that is the initial wish of this skill.’

The first page immediately states the original purpose of the technique.

The second page directly presents several diagrams.

These were images of large toads.

Their insides were transparent, showing countless tiny sand-like particles scattered around, some in abundance and others sparse.

No more words followed, only numerous dissected toad diagrams. The text appeared like annotations beside them.

’How many toads did this guy dissect??’ Zhang Rongfang had a speechless expression, flipping page by page.

No wonder nobody paid attention to this martial art.

People came to learn human martial arts, who would read toad dissection diagrams?

But as he read more carefully, gradually, he noticed these toad illustrations seemed similar, yet upon further inspection, the key lay in the distribution inside the toad’s sand-like particles differing, in color, size, and density.

The passage at the end of the book left him even more astonished.

’The power of the toad’s devouring, based on billions of grains of sand. Though minuscule, the sand can live.’

’With life, the sand differs, so does the toad’s devouring ability.’

“Something’s off….!” Suddenly, Zhang Rongfang was struck by a realization, recalling what he learned in his past life.

He suddenly connected the dots—aren’t these microorganisms!?

Isn’t what the Golden Toad Skill refers to just the various microorganisms within the digestive system!?

He continued to observe closely.

Indeed, although the Golden Toad Skill did not mention microorganisms, the creator used extensive observation to almost completely display the process of digestion and absorption.

After food is crushed, it is refined and decomposed by various digestive juices, becoming the most basic nutrients.

These are then absorbed by the epithelial cells with a large surface area, diffusing into the blood.

Of course, the author of the Golden Toad Skill did not possess such microscopic observational abilities.

But they blazed a new trail, modelling the environment of the entire digestive system to simulate the toad.

They took inspiration from the toad’s digestion and absorption, and combined it with training drugs to simulate a similar environment on the outside and within themselves.

Zhang Rongfang read all the way to the end.

The ultimate cultivation technique required a series of medicinal pills to modify the environment of one’s own digestive system.

After reading everything.

He felt somewhat hesitant.

Medicines are poisonous in part; yet, this martial skill actually requires a combination of numerous drugs to be taken continuously to ultimately succeed in learning it.

This could already be considered within the realm of toxic arts.

The complete Golden Toad Skill is divided into three stages.

They are: Hidden Moon, Chasing the Sun, and Swallowing the Sky.

“Such a Moon King…. such a Swallowing the Sky. This person has enormous ambition, yet what was their life like?”

“Moon King… I didn’t expect you would find this cultivation technique.”

Suddenly, a voice sounded from behind Zhang Rongfang.

It startled him tremendously, almost making him jump from his seat.

Turning around, he immediately saw his teacher Yue Dewen standing behind him at some point, with a face full of sighs.

In the area around them, there was not a single person, evidently cleared out.

“… Master, when did you arrive?” Zhang Rongfang stood up, swiftly saluting and making room.

“Hmm, seeing you so engrossed, I didn’t want to disturb you.” Yue Dewen said with a smile.

“I heard from Qingyou that you were looking for martial arts pills to enhance absorption capability?”

“Yes, lately I feel that food absorbs too slowly. So I thought if this aspect could be enhanced, perhaps Cultivation of Literature and martial arts could advance faster.” Zhang Rongfang replied ’honestly’ with a tense heart.

“Your line of thought is correct. People have tried this long ago. Moon King was one of them.” Yue Dewen stood in the shadow of the firelight, slightly immersed in memory.

“However, this kind of martial arts mostly transforms oneself into a special physique. It counts as a way of postnatal modification of inherent talent. The effect is good but very hard.

And…..” He paused.

“And what?” Zhang Rongfang asked quickly.

“And… such martial arts only provide short-term strength, at great detriment to oneself. It significantly shortens lifespan.” Yue Dewen replied.

“Short lifespan….” Zhang Rongfang understood once again why this cultivation technique was left to gather dust in the corner.

“Of course, if it’s just broadening perspective, reading more, it’s still fine.” Yue Dewen’s face shifted to a smile of understanding.

“Yes.” Zhang Rongfang nodded respectfully.

“Alright, my dear disciple, I came specifically to give you this.” Yue Dewen handed a black metal waist token to Zhang Rongfang.

On the token, there were intricate locked patterns, cloud patterns, and pine patterns surrounding it, with two large characters at the center, clearly newly engraved.

They were two large Spiritual Text characters.

’Qiankun’!

“Since you’ve become my disciple, though it’s a special situation now and not suitable to perform the ritual passing of the name, you still need a Dao name.”

Yue Dewen pointed at the two Spiritual Text characters on the token.

“You’ve learned the precepts, henceforth, this is your Dao name!”

“Qiankun!?” Zhang Rongfang felt bewildered, looking at the token in his hand.

“Indeed, Qiankun!” Yue Dewen gently patted his shoulder. “Clearing chaos to see Qiankun, this is my expectation of you!”

An impressive Dao name…!

Zhang Rongfang felt awed, sensing that his teacher was obviously not simple either.

To dare to bestow such an unconventional name, it seemed he held a very special position in the Great Dao Teaching.

“Alright, this Moon King, should be the second-generation Moon King. He developed this skill back then to pair with their Six Phases of the Moon Canon.

Later, he indeed succeeded, surpassing his teacher in a very short time, greatly reducing the accumulation time in martial arts cultivation.

But as a result, caused immense wear on his body. He died young at only forty.”

“Didn’t he worship the gods?” Zhang Rongfang asked.

“Didn’t get the chance… died during seclusion.” Yue Dewen lamented, “Everyone thinks they can advance further, wanting to reach a higher state before worshipping the gods.

Because while worshipping the gods is good, once you do so, you’re forever set, unchanging.”

“So, he didn’t expect to suddenly encounter such misfortune?” Zhang Rongfang understood.

“Yes. The Moon King was the title for the head of the Sensing Sect, only someone with the greatest ambition and strength could take on the role.

But that was many years ago, the current Sensing Sect is a scattered sand, long past its glorious days.” Yue Dewen gave a brief explanation.

Source: Webnovel.com, updated by NovelKeep