Chapter 151: The Scripture Pavilion

Zhou Qi felt an illusory figure appear in his mind. The figure was holding a sword and thrust it forward with deceptive simplicity.

A plain thrust? Zhou Qi was puzzled. Was this sword technique from the Sword Immortal Chronicles really just a simple straight thrust? Wasn't this the most basic of sword moves?

Sensing it shouldn't be that simple, Zhou Qi studied it closely and realized that this thrust seemed inescapable; no matter how one tried to dodge, it remained within the trajectory of this single strike.

This thrust resonated with the momentum of heaven and earth, blending the sword immortal's vital energy and spirit, making it feel as though the entire cosmos was contained within this single move.

This technique was named "Sorrow of Heaven," implying that even the heavens themselves would suffer injury under this sword. Overjoyed, Zhou Qi hurriedly began to practice it, mimicking the phantom figure.

The others saw the phantom appear before Zhou Qi, point a finger, and then vanish. Immediately after, they watched as Zhou Qi stood there, looking bewildered one moment and bursting into laughter the next, repeatedly thrusting and retracting the sword in his hand.

"Is this the sword technique from the Sword Immortal Chronicles? So utterly plain that even a three-year-old could do it," Lixing sneered. Intense jealousy had robbed him of his calm judgment; a sword immortal's technique, even if it looked like a simple thrust, could never be that straightforward.

Daofan wore a solemn expression. He recognized the extraordinary nature of this sword strike. Zhou Qi’s simple thrust seemed to condense a kind of momentum—though still just a prototype, if refined to perfection, this sword strike would become truly inescapable.

"Qiqi, what are you doing over there? Come over quickly, we can leave now," Huangfu Xiu shouted, worried that Zhou Qi standing alone there would draw a joint assault from Lixing and the others.

Hearing Huangfu Xiu’s call, Zhou Qi snapped back to reality. This place was not suitable for studying the sword immortal's technique; the "Sorrow of Heaven" would likely require long-term practice and comprehension to unleash even a fraction of its true might. With formidable enemies lurking all around, it was best to leave first.

The barrier enveloping the plaza had vanished. Finding that they could now use their flying swords to travel beyond the Sword Lake, the crowd was overjoyed and soared into the sky.

According to the ancient map, there was one last location remaining in the Saint's Secret Realm. This spot was merely marked without a specific name, so the crowd took to their flying swords and hurried toward this final destination.

Flying away from the vicinity of the Sword Lake and following the map for a short distance, they discovered a massive palace standing in the distance. The palace appeared extremely archaic, not of modern architecture, with three characters inscribed above the entrance: Pavilion of Scriptures.

***

Pavilion of Scriptures? The crowd paused in surprise. Could these be the sword immortal's collection of books?

Everyone's minds instantly became active. The sword immortal's collection? Such a place would surely not house useless books. If they could acquire even a single stance or half a spell from within, it would undoubtedly be the greatest harvest of this trip.

Inscribed on the palace doors was a passage: *"I, Sword Mountain, was originally merely a person infatuated with knowledge, fond of reading and fond of collecting, and was revered by others as a saint. Alas, demons and fiends wreaked havoc across the world, reducing the human race to food for alien species. My title of saint was truly undeserved, so I abandoned books and took up the sword, swearing to carve out a realm of survival for the human race. Thus, I have sealed all my scrolls here, awaiting those destined to find them."*

The crowd suddenly understood. They had always been puzzled as to why this wasn't called the Sword Immortal's Secret Realm, and now they saw how the title of the Saint's Secret Realm had come to be. The sword immortal had actually been a scholar.

A trace of disappointment washed over the group; they could forget about finding divine arts and spells. Still, since they had arrived, they might as well make the best of it. Perhaps they could uncover some ancient secrets from the collection.

Pushing open the heavy doors, they entered one by one. The moment they stepped inside, they felt as though they had crossed into another layer of space, and the people around them were no longer visible.

Greeting their eyes were rows upon rows of bookshelves, piled high with texts made of bamboo slips, silk fabric, and even inscribed iron plates. At a single glance, there must have been over a million volumes.

Zhou Qi was somewhat dumbfounded. How was one supposed to read through all of this? He randomly pulled out a volume, only to find that he could not recognize a single character inside; they looked like ghostly talismans. Putting the book back, he strolled among the bookshelves, searching for text he could actually understand.

One book caught his attention. It had a glittering golden cover and was titled *Asura Dao-Slicing*. What kind of book was this? Could it be about the Asura clan?

The Asura clan was a branch of the demon race. Legend had it that Asura women were born with peerless beauty, while the men were hideously ugly. The Asura clan was obsessed with conflict; male Asuras constantly stirred up trouble among various realms, prone to fighting and loving warfare, frequently launching massive wars across the heavens and taking joy in conquest. Female Asuras, possessing extreme beauty, often bewitched all living beings and hindered their cultivation.

Zhou Qi pulled the volume out and opened the cover to find an annotation left by the sword immortal: *"An Asura named Wu Que appeared within the Asura clan, attempting to sever the dao of heaven and earth, overthrow the rule of divine beasts, and reign supreme over the world. Regrettably, he failed. However, the 'Asura Dao-Slicing' he authored is still regarded as a holy scripture by the demon race. I seized this book from a demon, and moved by his defiant spirit of resistance against the heavens, I have preserved it here. Later generations may study his aspirations and comprehend his methods, but remember this: under no circumstances must this book fall into the hands of the demon race."*

After flipping through a few pages, Zhou Qi placed the book into his storage ring. Although he could not practice the methods of the demon race, divine arts and spells shared underlying principles, and keeping it would allow for future cross-verification.

The books collected by the sword immortal covered an extremely wide range of subjects, touching upon formations, alchemy, agriculture, commerce, and various other fields.

***

After browsing for a while, Zhou Qi discovered that many of the formations possessed unique brilliance, such as the God-Slaying Dao-Destroying Formation, the Nirvana Nether-Sea Formation, the Five-Snake Heavenly-Pillar Formation, the Nine-Dragon Battle-Heaven Formation, the Asura Heaven-Slicing Formation, the Nine-Nether Heavenly-Evil Formation, the Dragon-Tiger Supreme-Heaven Formation, and the Azure-Spirit Demon Formation. However, the materials required to set up these formations were completely unheard of. Perhaps due to the immense passage of time, the terminology for the formation materials had changed. Zhou Qi gathered them into his storage ring for future study.

He had no idea how many books the sword immortal allowed a person to take away. Zhou Qi was tempted to empty the place out, but after so many years, there were still this many books left, which suggested there must be restrictions on how many could be removed.

As for the art of alchemy, Zhou Qi glanced through it briefly before putting the texts back. He already possessed the Medicine Immortal's inheritance, which was worth spending many years to fully master and integrate. Grasping too many things would make one unable to chew properly; learning too much would inevitably slow down his cultivation progress.

Thinking of the Medicine Immortal's inheritance brought Jiang Yiyi to mind. He had promised to exchange alchemy insights with her, but Lixing remained a constant hazard. The seeds of hatred had already been planted, and given the opportunity, it would certainly be a battle to the death.

Lost in thought, Zhou Qi continued browsing through the books until a yellowed volume caught his attention: *Five Thousand Years of the Heavenly Dao*. The author had an immense amount of audacity to casually discuss the heavenly dao. Who on earth was this nameless writer?

Opening the yellowed ancient book, Zhou Qi froze, unable to recover his senses for a long time. Within its pages, he saw familiar names: the Three Sovereigns and Five Emperors, the Xia, Shang, and Western Zhou dynasties—this was the ancient history of Earth's China! Why on earth would it appear here?

Could this nameless author travel across myriad realms, defying space and time? Zhou Qi felt his heart pounding fiercely and hurriedly tucked the book into his possession.

What was the actual reason behind his soul transmigrating across realms from Earth? Zhou Qi fell into deep contemplation.

Everything about Earth felt as though it had happened just yesterday, unforgettable. Although he tried his best to push the events of the Yang-Void Illusion Realm into the back of his mind, in his quiet moments, he still couldn't help but think of Ren Shanshan and Zhou Mo.