12 The Scripture Depository and The Book Depository

Chen Shaojie was actually a little apprehensive. He was not sure whether he could still bask in Li Xuejiao's glow after she had taken the Qi Attracting Pill.

Theoretically speaking, he felt that he should still be able to.

The logic behind his reasoning was simple.

A person's talent level largely depended on the strength of their Qi sense.

Since the Qi Attracting Pill could increase one's Qi sense a hundred-fold, it would be the same as enhancing one's talent a hundred-fold.

If Li Xuejiao's talent level was enhanced a hundred-fold, he should be similarly buffed too through the Bask-in-the-Glow system, thus increasing his cultivation speed.

Of course, if the system was not powerful enough, there was a chance that he might not be able to bask in her glow.

That would result in him wasting a Qi Attracting Pill for nothing in return.

Hmm, the Qi Attracting Pill was not just a simple pill. It was worth a mansion in the imperial capital, or a thousand taels of gold.

This was a huge amount of money, enough to make Chen Shaojie, who arrived in this world penniless, hesitate.

Fortunately--

*Crunch*

[A friendly reminder from the Bask-in-the-Glow System: Li Xuejiao's body contains a grade-3 Wooden Spiritual Root. When you are close to her, your cultivation speed can become 1000 times as fast. Would you like to bask in her glow? (Yes/No)]

Sure enough...

I'm a genius!

Chen Shaojie was both surprised and delighted, his apprehension gone. He quickly sat down, connected to the WiFi, and started cultivating.

　　...

While the two were sitting in the abode, fully concentrating on their cultivation--

On the sky above their heads, a ray of light shot through the air at great speed, straight towards Qing Ming Peak.

The ray of light flew to the Hall of Pursuit on Qing Ming Peak and landed, transforming into a young man who was dusty from traveling.

"I'm finally back..."

"After turning in what I gained from this trip to the North Sea, I'll only be three thousand merit points away from Part 1 of the "Qing Yu Divine Transformation Technique"."

"Three thousand merit points... I should be able to get that much by taking on a Xuan-level mission."

The young man looked around as he stood on the square in front of the Hall of Pursuit and could not help smiling in satisfaction.

He had left the sect for three months and was finally able to return alive and well. People who had never experienced what he did could not possibly understand the joy and relief he was feeling.

His hair was messy, and his robe was dirty and torn in many places. He looked as if he had been through countless battles. It was obvious that he had spent a period of time before this wandering on the edge of life and death and surviving day by day.

But everything was fine now. He had completed the most difficult mission. He was only one step away from obtaining what he desired.

He went into the Hall of Pursuit to hand in his mission. When the young man walked out again, the joy on his face had dimmed somewhat. He held a jade token in his hand which showed the new mission he had just received.

"I actually have to go to Xiling Mountain. The mission itself isn't too difficult, but the place is really far. I heard the terrains of the Xiling Mountain are very complex. Those not familiar with the place will easily get lost there. I better pay the Scripture Depository a visit later to look up the map and local chronicles of Xiling Mountain."

The young man put away the jade mission token and casually gave a spot on his waist a pat. A luminous longsword immediately flew out and landed in front of him.

The young man leapt and landed on top of the flying sword with familiar ease. He then executed a sword skill and, in a flash of green light, flew with an extreme speed to the Scripture Depository, another important place of the sect on the Qing Ming Peak.

After a while--

The young man walked out of the Scripture Depository indignantly, muttering: "Outrageous! They're actually charging twenty merit points for a map of Xiling Mountain! That's daylight robbery!"

After taking a glance at the plaque of the Scripture Depository, the young man turned around with a swing of his sleeve and left without looking back.

The young man flew towards his abode on his flying sword. He planned to go back to rest a little before thinking of a solution to the map.

In any case, the map in the Scripture Depository was too expensive. There was no way he would spend twenty merit points on it.

He earned every merit point he had by risking his life. As long as his problem could be solved in other ways, he would never use his merit points carelessly.

He did not dare fly too fast within the sect.

The young man's abode was on Qing Lian Peak. It was not a long flight from Qing Ming Peak. He would use this as an opportunity to see how the sect had changed while he was away.

When he was approaching the door to his abode, he glanced at the Qing Zhu Peak behind Qing Lian Peak in passing. An idea suddenly came to him. He might have found another way to obtain the map of Xiling Mountain.

On Qing Zhu Peak, there was another place where the sect stored its documents -- the Book Depository.

The Book Depository was full of ancient books. Maybe there would be things like a map or some local chronicles of Xiling Mountain inside.

If he could find what he wanted from the Book Depository, he would be able to save twenty merit points.

But--

The young man hesitated.

He had been to the Book Depository before. Rarely did anyone take up the responsibility to tidy up the Book Depository. The books inside were very messy. It would probably not be an easy task to find a map of Xiling Mountain.

When you try to search for something inside the Book Depository, you needed luck to find it. It was not a guarantee even if you were willing to put effort into it.

A long time ago, he tried to find the formula for a disguise pill in the Book Depository, but after two days of searching, he still could not find it. To his surprise, just when he was about to give up, he found the book containing the formula casually thrown in a corner. His success in finding it was all down to luck.

If he went to the Book Depository to look for something now, there was no guarantee how it would turn out.

"Whatever. I'll go try my luck. I pray for the blessing of the ancestors!"

After a little hesitation, the young man still could not bear to part with twenty merit points, so he ended up not going back to his abode. Using the sword skill again, he flew to Qing Zhu Peak.

A ray of sword light shot down to the ground in front of the Book Depository.

By the time the sword light completely dispersed, the young man was already standing firmly in front of the Book Depository.

He looked up at the plaque of the Book Depository. It had remained the same as before, without the slightest change.

He could not help but think back to the years when he had first joined the sect. Before he knew it, twenty years had already passed.

"Sigh... The things remain the same, but the people have changed!"

The young man dropped his melancholy and walked into the Book Depository.

The rules of the sect stated that all disciples, including servant disciples, were free to browse the books in the Book Depository as long as they did not damage the books.

But over the years, few were willing to come here to read.

The main reason was that the books in the Book Depository were all in physical form. It took time to find them and more time to read through them afterwards.

For many sect disciples, instead of wasting time on this, they would much rather go to the Scripture Depository and spend merit points to use a jade token to make a copy of the required book, then integrate it into their divine sense. This way, they would not need to waste time on the two tasks of "finding the book" and "reading the book". It was convenient and fast.

Therefore, the Book Depository could not begin to compare with the Scripture Depository in the hearts of the sect's disciples.

Of course, the only shortcoming of the Scripture Depository was that everything inside cost merit points.

Merit points were very precious, so if there was a better option, no one was willing to waste them.

The Book Depository, on the other hand, was completely free, and there were lots of books inside. If it was not so chaotic, there would probably be a lot of sect disciples who were still willing to go there to look for books.

The young man shook his head and made up his mind to just go in and try his luck for a short while. If he could not find what he wanted, he would not waste time here.

He had already accepted the new mission. If he could not find a map of Xiling Mountain here, he had to go back immediately and think of another way without delay.