Chapter 81: Chapter 81- A Clue

Yesterday at the Martial Arts Library Mountain…

Sol was browsing one of the many shelves containing various Martial Arts Techniques, while Little Zeel was sleeping on his head.

Meanwhile, Mar-Dule and Yoon-Jae were chatting casually at one of the many tables in the center of the large library.

Sol went along the shelf and flipped through dozens of manuals, but his expression became more and more downcast as he did.

Yoon-Jae paused talking with Mar-Dule to say to Sol.

“You might want to go to the second floor if you want to find a Martial Arts Technique that you can actually use in battle. The manuals here are only basic Body Strengthening Techniques and general knowledge about cultivation in the Mortal Realm.”

Sol’s eyes lit up and he turned to rush to the second floor; the Martial Arts Library had three floors.

However, just as he was about to run off, Mar-Dule chimed in.

“Brother Sol, if it’s Martial Skills you’re looking for then you might as well give up. The real Martial Skills are on the third floor, but only Spiritual Realm cultivators are allowed to go up there.”

“What? Then the academy doesn’t provide disciples with Martial Arts Techniques?!”

Yoon-Jae shrugged.

“They do but not for free. If you want to learn Martial Skills, then you can purchase them at the Battle Pavilion. It’s a faculty that is jointly operated by the Weapon Innate Dharma Pavilion, the Divine Beast Pavilion, the Elemental Innate Dharma Pavilion, and the Irregular Innate Dharma Pavilion. Those four Pavilions are where Martial Skills come from in the Academy.”

“Then what about the Martial Arts Techniques found in this Library?”

“Brother Sol, there are Martial Skills here, but they’re the basics of the basics. You might find one or two that are truly good and are suited for you, though you might have to search high and low.”

Sol frowned, since he wasn’t sure if he had enough money to buy Martial Skills. He was sure they wouldn’t be cheap.

Sol thanked Mar-Dule and Yoon-Jae before hurrying up one of the staircases that led to the second floor. He’d first look around to see if he could find a Martial Skill suitable for him before he thought about buying one.

As soon as Sol got to the second floor, he didn’t mind the gazes of the people who turned to him and instead headed for the first shelf.

The first manual Sol took up was called ’Sword Severance Art.’

It was a Sword Skill that had a few sets of sword movements along with a circulation method.

Sol paused and thought to himself.

’I have my Heavenly Eyes so the best weapon for me would be the bow, I don’t need to learn any Sword or Saber Skills.’

Sol was just about to place the manual down without looking at its contents, but he stopped.

“Well, I guess it can’t help if I’m curious. Who knows, learning a Sword Skill might come in handy later.”

With that, Sol eagerly opened the manual and devoured its contents.

His eyes shine as he memorized the sets of sword movements along with the path of Aether circulation to use the Sword Skill.

It took Sol about five minutes to fully memorize the Sword Skill but to actually learn it, it would take at least two to three hours tops.

Sol placed down the Sword Skill and picked up another manual.

It was a Martial Skill involving the spear.

Sol hesitated, but eventually, his curiosity got the better of him and he couldn’t help but take a peek inside.

After another five minutes, he moved on to another manual, a Saber Skill this time.

Sol paused. He had a feeling that these types of weapons took up a majority of the Skills here. To find a bow Skill in this place would be akin to finding a needle in a forest.

Soon, nearly three hours passed by with Sol memorizing every manual he picked up. It was then that he found a bow Skill called ’Celestial Arrow Creation.’

The name made it sound like a great Bow Skill, but in reality, like all the other Skills that were grandly named, Sol found out it was just a basic Skill to form arrows from Aether Elemental Energies.

It was practically useless in a real battle since the formation time of the arrows was long, but this got him thinking.

He was slowly forming a battle style in his head.

This was all new to Sol as this was his first time viewing any Martial Art Techniques, but he was like a fish in water.

With diligence to learn coupled with his child-like curiosity and hunger to get stronger, he indulged in the manuals to understand as much as he could.

Even though he wouldn’t use 99% of these Skills later on, each one he learned could give him insights into how to use Martial Skills more efficiently.

After nearly five hours, Sol was sitting on the ground between two shelves while being surrounded by piles of manuals that almost blocked his entire body.

When he finished one manual, he would form a hand sign and flick his finger at another on the manual on the shelf.

With that hand sign, his Aether gained the consistency of sticky adhesive, and then with a flick of his finger it stuck to a manual. Sol’s finger twitched, and the manual came flying back to him.

Sol would repeat this action mechanically, reading manual after manual.

It was during this trance that a manual caught his attention.

“The Six Holy Sects and the Five Great Clans Core Martial Arts Techniques.”

After reading the title aloud, Sol’s heart began to beat rapidly at the possibility of what this book could contain. But he knew a small manual like this wouldn’t actually contain the Core Techniques of these behemoths.

However, he still eagerly opened up the manual.

As he read the contents of the manual, Sol realized it was a detailed list of well-known Martial Skills used by the Six Holy Sects and the Five Great Clans.

“The strongest Palm Technique in Jianghu is the Shaolin Temple’s Thousand Hands Buddha’s Palm? So, it’s not the Wudang Clan’s Eight Trigrams Palms? It’s really strong from what I can tell, but it’s actually second best?”

Sol was fascinated and he continued to flip the pages of the manual with a frenzied look.

He read every single word carefully, all while wishing he could learn these Martial Skills. Just by reading a short description, no, it wasn’t even a description but merely just a sentence about the Martial Skills; just by reading them Sol felt these were incomparable to the ones he memorized so far.

“Hm?”

As Sol was skipping through the manual, he suddenly stopped on a page.

The manual didn’t only talk about the Martial Skills from the Six Holy Sects and Five Great Clans, but it also talked about who created these Skills as well as a few notable figures in the Holy Sects and the Great Clans.

Sol had to pause on the description of a certain person.

After rereading the short description over and over he couldn’t help but shoot up from his seat; knocking over the mountain of manuals around him.

Not carrying for them, Sol rushed to find Mar-Dule and Yoon-Jae.

What made Sol so frantic was how this person was described in the manual.

’The third Elder of the Huashan Sect was once the twelfth Plum Blossom Sword Saint. He created numerous Martial Skills, but his most notable one was his Movement Skill called ’Heavenly Stride’. He also taught numerous pupils but has only ever had one disciple. But because of his great deeds, he was known as the Cheonma of the Orthodox Faction.’

The name Cheonma rang a bell…

That was the name of his Master!

It was a clue for Sol to find out who his Master really was.

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