Chapter 5: Heavenly Library

Once Sorin had consumed the elixir, he decided to go select his first esoteric spiritual art and technique.

Exiting his room, Sorin headed towards the Heavenly Library.

...

Once Sorin arrived at the front, he was greeted with many disciples entering and leaving the Heavenly Library. The majority were white robed disciples who were here to get their esoteric spiritual art whereas the other robed disciples were likely there to find new techniques to increase their combat power.

Esoteric spiritual arts were the most essential thing for a Spirit Master as it would decide how the Spirit Master develops. At its most basic form, it was a method in which one takes in spiritual energy from the surroundings, making the energy their own.

Just like fighting techniques, or skills, esoteric spiritual arts are graded at different levels. At the lowest level that most outer disciples in this academy have, it merely allows them to absorb spiritual energy, solidifying their rank and increasing their level if they were diligent or had plenty of resources.

Then at the mid grades, these arts would influence the spiritual energy, allowing Spirit Masters to be able to send out attacks with natural attributes like fire, water, lightning, earth etc...

Then at the high grades, these would begin to have their very own skills. At this level, these arts would have the comprehensions of the true path, created by only talented geniuses who's reached an unfathomable level.

Finally, at the highest, the very peak, these arts would then have the knowledge of verities, often only having information of one single verity as just one was enough for an individual to try and learn for countless years, often only comprehending just a fraction of the verity throughout their entire lifetime.

However, even if one only comprehended a fraction, splitting a mountain would be as easy as breathing!

Needless to say, picking a good esoteric spiritual art was very important.

In his past life, he had started with just the lowest like the rest of these disciples. However, after countless years of hardships, he eventually found better ones to switch to. At the very end, he had even developed his own personal esoteric spiritual art at the highest level, implementing his own understanding of verities into it.

As for techniques, they were similar to the high levels of esoteric spiritual arts, but they were just the skills. It was a way for Spirit Masters to manipulate the spiritual energy of their body. For example, through a series of movements, one can create illusions, or it could be as simple as a slash with your sword unleashing spiritual energy.

They were just as important as only through a good technique could you unleash your realm's true potential, with even some techniques allowing one to bypass levels and beat enemies stronger than you.

Entering the Heavenly Library, Sorin immediately saw the countless scrolls neatly arranged on the shelves.

He then noticed the elder overseeing the entire library. At this moment, he simply looked liked an old man, but Sorin knew that he has simply reached a level where he wouldn't even leak a single trace of spiritual energy, only being felt by those at the same realm or higher.

This elder had been introduced to these disciples on the first day. He said that once you've taken your first step as a Spirit Master, you should come to the Heavenly Library.

Walking to him, Sorin announced, "Greetings elder! This humble disciple would like to choose my first esoteric spiritual art and technique!"

Glancing at the boy, the old man's eyes filled with countless years of wisdom scrutinised him. With his memory, he had easily recognised the boy who had been admitted to the academy yesterday.

'This lad is already halfway into reaching the first level of Outer Assimilation! Usually, it took a week for disciples to be able to garner 6 astral tokens. The academy only giving 5 was so the disciples would quickly assimilate to the lifestyle of Spirit Masters. Yet this boy had already bought himself an elixir.' The old man contemplated. He was quite pleased by good prospects to his academy so he viewed this child in front of him favourably.

With a calm voice he said.

"Very well! On the first floor, you can get yourself the basic esoteric spiritual art the academy provides and can take one technique for free. If you want to use the second floor for an hour, you'll need to pay 100 astral tokens. If you want to take a scroll from there, you would also need to check whether other disciples are using it. Moreover, it must be handed back within the time limit based on its popularity and your ranking in the Soaring Arena. As for the third floor and fourth floor, hehe, you don't need to worry about those at your current capabilities. "

Sorin nodded. He was aware of these rules within the Heavenly Library. Such a rule would motivate disciples to place higher in the Soaring Arena. The better your rankings, the more time you had to understand the techniques. The second floor had better esoteric spiritual arts and techniques, the quality improving on each floor.

"Thank you elder!" Sorin spoke before leaving.

After grabbing a copy of the foundational esoteric spiritual art, Sorin walked through the library searching for a suitable technique.

After some time, he had eventually found it: Shadowless Steps!

This was the technique he had selected in his past life. Out of all these trash techniques, he had mastered this one the most. This technique was a movement technique. At the highest attainment, it was said that one can move even faster than their very shadow!

As someone that has rich combat experience and understanding towards the true path, learning these trash techniques and mastering them would be easy for Sorin. However, why would he waste time learning them? In front of better techniques, he would simply be overwhelmed.

He would instead just pick the one's he's already learnt from his past life and show his 'genius' in understanding them.

In this world, there are various kinds of geniuses: the people who achieves breakthroughs very fast, the people who are very good at fighting, the people who comprehends techniques extremely quickly, the people who learns occupations like alchemy much faster than others and much more!

With all of Sorin's experiences, he has made countless mistakes and learnt from each and every one of them. Whenever he does something, he'd instinctively do it efficiently.

Although his talent in cultivating his realm wasn't good, so what? His combat experience would be able to shorten the gap.

Although he has no background, so what? He can simply prove his capabilities and gain resources.

Although his potential is mediocre, so what? In this world, there are countless treasures that can raise one's aptitude and potential.

All these setbacks were nothing to him. He will pursue the true path with an unwavering heart. Even if there were countless enemies in his way, he would simply slaughter all of them and climb the mountain of corpses!

Once Sorin selected the technique, just when he was about to leave the library, a figure had suddenly entered.

Seeing the person entering, Sorin's eyes instinctively turned cold. His eyes were like a deep, bloody pool that would make one feel unnerved and suffocated.

'I didn't think I'd meet her so soon...' Sorin contemplated.

As the beautiful woman entered the library, many disciples seemed to be completely enchanted, their eyes unable to leave her figure.