The night wind was biting cold, whipping Su Ming’s robes into a fierce flutter.

He stood before the sheer cliff at the back of the Teachings Peak, tightly clutching the Special Permit that still carried the warmth of Elder Ma’s body heat.

What lay before him was not an ordinary pavilion with upturned eaves, but a colossal tower-like structure floating atop a churning sea of clouds.

The body of this pagoda was constructed entirely from massive, unknown bluish-grey stone blocks, each one astonishingly large, as if sliced from mountains casually moved by gods.

Most unnerving was that the pagoda’s surface was not static;
countless flowing, faint blue halos meandered between the stone seams, like the breathing of a living creature. A vast, majestic, and unfathomable aura, ebbing and flowing with the clouds and mist, washed over Su Ming in wave after wave, like a tide.

“Holy crap…”

Lin Yu’s voice echoed in Su Ming’s mind, carrying unconcealed shock, “What kind of library is this? This is clearly a floating server room! Damn, the scale of this heat dissipation is way too outrageous!”

The corner of Su Ming’s mouth twitched slightly. His master’s peculiar analogies always managed to instantly shatter the atmosphere, pulling him slightly away from that awe of the unknown and restoring a sliver of rational calm.

“Master, can you see what’s special about it?” Su Ming asked in his mind.

“Special? It’s full of special things,” Lin Yu’s phantom pushed up his non-existent glasses within the Xuantian ring, his expression serious. “Disciple, don’t be fooled by those flashy runes. This entire pagoda itself is a massive, living formation! Those flowing lights aren’t decorations;
they’re monitoring all spiritual energy fluctuations within ten miles in real-time.”

Su Ming’s heart tightened. He instinctively restrained all his aura, tucking the Xuantian ring, disguised with the “Formless Pattern,” deeper into his sleeve.

He took a deep breath, lightly tapped his toes, and his figure, like a grey crane, skimmed over the cliff, landing steadily on the floating bluestone platform.

The moment his feet touched down, an invisible pressure enveloped his entire body.

The great doors were tightly shut. There was no handle, only a recessed palm print.

Su Ming stepped forward and pressed his Special Permit into that palm print.

“Hummm—”

A deep, muffled groan sounded, as if a slumbering giant beast had been disturbed from its rest. The thick stone doors did not swing open to the sides. Instead, they crumbled into countless fine stone dust, collapsing inward to reveal a swirling grey vortex.

“Spatial folding technology,” Lin Yu whistled. “The founding ancestor of the Cloud Hidden Sect had some skills. This is way more advanced than those lame designs that still require pushing doors. Go on in, disciple. Don’t keep your new cheat waiting.”

Su Ming adjusted his breathing and stepped into the vortex.

That single step sent the world spinning.

There was no expected dizziness, only the fleeting sensation of weightlessness. When his vision refocused, Su Ming couldn’t help but gasp sharply.

The pagoda, which seemed only nine stories tall from the outside, was as vast as the starry sky within!

Above was a deep, boundless void. Countless luminous orbs, glowing with various colored halos, drifted slowly along mysterious trajectories in this void, like stars scattered across the heavens. Some orbs were crimson like fire, trailing long tails of flame across the sky;
others were cold and clear like ice, silently suspended in corners;
still others were violent like thunder, crackling with tiny arcs of electricity in the void.

Each “star” was a jade slip.

This was a universe of knowledge.

“If I could stay here for a hundred years…” Su Ming murmured to himself, his eyes filled with awe and longing. For a former Hanlin Academy compiler, this tangible manifestation of knowledge held a fatal attraction.

“Don’t daydream,” Lin Yu ruthlessly poured cold water on his hopes. “Every ‘star’ here carries high voltage;
touching them randomly will get you killed. And… I sense something… watching us.”

Every muscle in Su Ming’s body instantly tensed.

At that moment, a grey figure silently materialized from the previously empty void.

It was an old man dressed in grey cloth robes, his features indistinct, as if veiled by an impenetrable layer of mist. He didn’t walk over;
he seemed to “seep” out from the surrounding space, as if he were an integral part of this void itself.

The Library Guardian.

Su Ming dared not be negligent. He hurriedly bowed respectfully, holding the Special Permit aloft with both hands. “Disciple Su Ming of the External Affairs Hall, following Elder Ma’s orders, presents this permit to enter the library and requests a Foundation Establishment cultivation method.”

The grey-robed old man did not speak. Those eyes hidden behind the mist seemed to sweep over Su Ming’s body.

In that instant, Su Ming felt as if he had been stripped naked and thrown onto snow. Whether it was the faint vortex of spiritual energy in his Dantian or the hidden soul injury lurking in his meridians, everything seemed laid bare under that single glance.

Lin Yu’s tone, however, was extremely tense. “Disciple! Steady yourself! That old man isn’t human! Or rather… he’s not entirely human! He carries the exact same aura as this pagoda! This is… a projection of the Pagoda Spirit!”

Cold sweat instantly broke out on Su Ming’s back, but he forcibly controlled the rhythm of his heartbeat, maintaining his respectful posture, motionless.

It was an instinct honed through countless life-and-death crises—since resistance was impossible, he would calmly accept the scrutiny. As long as he wasn’t guilty, the one feeling guilty would be the other party.

After a long while, the grey-robed old man seemed to confirm the authenticity of the token and Su Ming’s “innocence.”

He gave a slight nod and waved a withered finger.

The Special Permit flew from Su Ming’s hand, transforming into a streak of light that vanished into the void. Immediately after, a bridge formed of pure, condensed light extended from beneath Su Ming’s feet, stretching deep into that starry expanse.

“Second floor, Water Phase Domain. Half an hour.”

The old man’s voice was hoarse and mechanical, like two sheets of sandpaper rubbing together. After uttering these eight words, his form dissipated like smoke once more, as if he had never appeared.

“Huuu…” Su Ming let out a long breath, only then realizing his palms were drenched in sweat.

“That was close,” Lin Yu’s voice also sounded somewhat weak. “Just then, I was ready to play dead. The Cloud Hidden Sect’s foundation runs deeper than I imagined!”

Su Ming wiped the sweat from his palms and stepped onto the light bridge.

The sensation of solid ground did not greet him;
instead, it felt like stepping onto clouds.

“The Heart-Seeking Bridge,” the phrase Elder Ma had casually mentioned earlier surfaced in Su Ming’s mind.

This bridge would not be easy to cross.

The moment he took his first step, Su Ming felt the surrounding starry sky suddenly begin to spin. An intangible force, not acting on his physical body, directly penetrated his Consciousness Sea, stirring the spiritual energy within him into a frenzied tumult.

“For what purpose do you seek the Dao?”

A grand voice exploded within his mind.

Source: Webnovel.com, updated by NovelKeep