Strange Numbers

Splash-!

Lu Zhiying watched on as Gu Qiansi climbed onto the bank.

"You sure look dry," Lu Zhiying said with a slight pout.

"This is a simple utilisation of essence energy. Now that you have formed your spiritual meridian root and have thereby entered the Foundation Building realm, you will soon be able to do something similar as well," Gu Qiansi said with an apologetic smile. "Here."

Gu Qiansi reached out and placed her hand on Lu Zhiying's head.

With that, she sent a wisp of essence energy through Lu Zhiying, and Lu Zhiying's damp hair dried off in an instant.

"I sure hope so, but there's really so much to learn!" Lu Zhiying said with a sigh. "Just the encyclopedia of spiritual herbs that you gave me yesterday is enough to make my head hurt!"

"Take your time," Gu Qiansi chuckled. "Don't worry, you have a long way ahead of you."

"Mm," Lu Zhiying nodded before turning her attention towards the raging waterfall. "Senior Martial Brother Zhao is still at it..."

"Yeah, he is pretty good at this. But for an injured person, he is indeed pushing himself a little too hard!" Gu Qiansi said with a frown. "Zhao Yunxiao! Are you planning to push yourself to the limit again? Mind you, if those wounds get ripped apart upon coming into direct contact with the waterfall, you can forget about going on your trip tomorrow!"

Zhao Yunxiao slowly opened his eyes upon hearing that.

Her words made sense.

Indeed, he had to prioritise a little here.

While it was important to push himself hard during training, it would be extremely unfortunate if he were to lose his chance to go on Elder He's work trip after passing the interview!

He slowly tuned down the force of the water until it was back to normal before diving back into the water.

Splash-!

Zhao Yunxiao climbed onto the water bank while looking completely dry as well.

"I'm surprised that you listened," Gu Qiansi raised an eyebrow.

"Only someone as shortsighted as you will fail to realise how rational and reliable I actually am," Zhao Yunxiao shrugged. "So, what's the plan? Are you going back to rest?"

"Yeah," Gu Qiansi replied. "I guess you aren't?"

"Not today," Zhao Yunxiao shook his head. "I will be heading straight to the Sect Library instead."

Because it was made to push one's endurance and defence to the limit, the Silver Rain Waterfall was considered one of the most exhausting out of the various training grounds.

Therefore, most disciples would choose to take a rest after visiting the Silver Rain Waterfall.

Normally, Zhao Yunxiao and Gu Qiansi would do exactly that as well, but today was slightly different.

Unlike their past visits, Zhao Yunxiao had exercised plenty of self-restraint, stopping his training prematurely instead of pushing himself to the limit.

This also meant that he was nowhere near as tired as he usually was, and had the energy to go straight for his sect job.

Gu Qiansi understood this as well, and was not surprised to hear his reply. "Junior Martial Sister Lu, shall we return first then?"

"Yeah, okay," Lu Zhiying said while looking at Zhao Yunxiao in slight surprise.

Even though she had been the first to leave the waterfall, she still felt completely exhausted right now.

And yet Zhao Yunxiao was heading straight for his sect job?

Now that she was starting to try things out for herself, Lu Zhiying was beginning to better appreciate just how hardworking Zhao Yunxiao truly was!

Just like that, the trio parted ways.

While the two young ladies returned to the Outer Disciples' Quarters, Zhao Yunxiao headed straight for the Sect Library.

There were two reasons for going to the Sect Library today.

Firstly, it was simply because he was rostered to work there in the first place.

Secondly, while he was there, Zhao Yunxiao also intended to look through the various manuals to find some inspiration, hoping to create a fighting style that suited himself best!

***

The role of a sect librarian was rather simple and could be summarised into three main duties.

To make sure that the books and scrolls were in good condition and stored in the correct areas.

To help maintain the library records which tracked disciples' activities.

To ensure that the library was neat and tidy.

These were administrative tasks that, quite honestly, did not require much time and effort to accomplish.

On top of that, most disciples visiting the Sect Library did not want any disturbances, which in turn meant that they would not disturb the sect librarians either.

Because of that, duty sect librarians usually had quite a bit of free time on their hands, which they mostly used to peruse the manuals in the library.

This was a perk that Zhao Yunxiao enjoyed as well.

It felt good to be able to spend some time reading through the various documents in the Sect Library, but it definitely felt better to be paid to do so!

Of course, being a sect librarian did not mean that they could bypass access restrictions.

Certain documents could only be accessed by inner disciples and above, and being a sect librarian certainly did not exempt them from such restrictions.

Thankfully, Zhao Yunxiao was not looking for those in the first place.

At this moment he was sitting at a corner of the Sect Library, with multiple scrolls rolled out on the desk before him.

These were all manuals of techniques that others would consider too simple and unimpressive – not worth the time and effort to learn.

In fact, in this huge Sect Library where there were plenty of other options to choose from, it would not be surprising if Zhao Yunxiao was the only disciple who had ever taken an interest in these manuals.

However, Zhao Yunxiao cared not about others' opinions in this regard.

He carefully looked through these manuals, trying hard to think of possible situations in which these techniques could shine.

Over the years, his peers had slowly gotten used to his habit of looking through common and simple techniques.

The only difference was that previously, Zhao Yunxiao was looking through these manuals to understand the underlying concepts and eventually apply them back to the Xuanwu Fist Art and Xuanwu Movement Art.

But now, Zhao Yunxiao was no longer just looking at the concepts alone. Instead, he was also looking at the techniques as a whole to assess if they could be used to build a brand new fighting style that suited him best.

Yet even though Zhao Yunxiao's purpose in looking through these manuals had changed, it was not something noticeable on the surface, so his peers naturally did not think that there was any difference with him.

Flying Snake Fist – a fist technique comprising twenty-six moves, emulating the movements of a snake to strike with absolute speed and precision.

Golden Crane Twelve Fists – a fist technique of absolute aggression that focused on overwhelming the opponent.

Searing Tiger Fire Fist – a fist technique capable of bringing out an individual's latent strength, enough to beat even the strongest of beasts...

Wait a minute...

Zhao Yunxiao suddenly frowned while looking through the various fist techniques laid out before him.

And it was not because of the content of the manuals either.

Instead, it was because he spotted a few strange characters at the bottom of the page.

They were written small enough that they would be easily neglected if one did not pay close attention, but also not so small that nobody would be able to see them.

There was a strange picture of an urn, followed by two numbers.

"Six, thirty-five..." Zhao Yunxiao read the numbers while rubbing his chin in contemplation.

He had no idea what these numbers meant.

Looking at the sixth and thirty-fifth words of the page did not make any sense either.

However, he could not help but feel that the picture of the urn looked familiar.

Zhao Yunxiao thought back to the manuals that he had gone through four days ago while waiting for Gu Qiansi to be done researching her recipe.

Could it be...?

Zhao Yunxiao immediately went to look for the manuals that he had been looking through just a few days ago.

Thankfully, they were still on their respective shelves as nobody had borrowed them during this period.

Then again, it was extremely unlikely that somebody would ever borrow the type of manuals that he always looked at, so it was nothing too surprising either.

Flipping through those manuals, Zhao Yunxiao quickly found what he was looking for.

There, at the bottom of the page for one of those manuals, was the same exact picture of an urn.

And just like what he saw earlier, it was followed by a few numbers too.

"Four, twenty-one..." Zhao Yunxiao furrowed his brows.

He still had no idea what the numbers meant.

The next thing he looked at was the names of the two techniques.

Searing Tiger Fire Fist.

Clean Cloud Meditation Art.

It was a dead end.

The two techniques had nothing in common whatsoever, perhaps apart from the fact that they were rather simple and straightforward.

But just as Zhao Yunxiao was scratching his head on this, he finally noticed the bridge that linked the two techniques.

Searing Tiger Fire Fist. Author – Jiang Taiming.

Clean Cloud Meditation Art. Author – Jiang Taiming.

Zhao Yunxiao recognised this name.

Jiang Taiming was an ancient unaffiliated cultivator hailed for single-handedly subduing a powerful evil cultivator, as well as writing many common technique manuals to benefit the world.

Unfortunately, he seemingly disappeared from the world soon after.

Nobody knew the current whereabouts of this man, or if he was even still alive.

Still, no one could deny that despite his origins as an unaffiliated cultivator, his contributions to the cultivation world were not to be slighted!

Someone who wrote many common technique manuals, eh?

Zhao Yunxiao wasted no time as he sprang into action, combing the shelves in search of manuals for the other techniques written by Jiang Taiming.

As a sect librarian himself, he naturally had no problem doing so in the fastest time.

Before long, Zhao Yunxiao found himself standing before a table on which dozens of manuals laid open.

Author – Jiang Taiming.

This was the one thing in common among all these techniques.

If not for the author's name, just from the name of the techniques alone, there would seem to be absolutely no link among all of them.

Quickly scanning through the manuals, Zhao Yunxiao felt his heart skip a beat.

Indeed, every single one of these manuals had similar characters written at the bottom of a random page!

"Hey, what are you doing?"

Zhao Yunxiao almost jumped, startled by the interrogating voice that came all of a sudden.

He turned around to see Liang Wenshao standing there by the aisle, watching him with furrowed brows.

"Reporting to Senior Martial Brother Liang, I'm comparing the manuals to find any differences in the underlying concepts!" Zhao Yunxiao quickly answered.

"Look, I am not stopping you from reading whatever you want, but don't make a mess while doing so," Liang Wenshao berated. "Even if these techniques are trash, you should still treat their manuals with care. They belong to the Sect Library after all."

"Understood, Senior Martial Brother Liang. I will arrange them back nicely once I am done!"

"As long as you understand," Liang Wenshao shook his head at Zhao Yunxiao before leaving. "Sigh, what a waste of time..."

Once Liang Wenshao left, Zhao Yunxiao immediately dived back into the manuals.

Previously when there was only one or two manuals, the numbers made absolutely zero sense whatsoever.

But now that he had all these manuals laid out in front of him all at once, everything became clear as day.

Each manual had a random page that contained two numbers. And across all these manuals, the first number never repeated.

Zhao Yunxiao grinned in satisfaction as he figured out the key to the numbers.

The first number determined the order of the manuals, while the second number was referring to the corresponding word on that page.

Extract the word from each manual, then arrange them according to the order.

Zhao Yunxiao took in a deep breath after reading the resulting sentences.

Duyuan Empire, Thousand Autumn City, Blueflag Mountain to the East.

Snow-capped peak, Verdant trees, Point where all things meet.