The Terpsichore Compendium Pavilion was large and majestic, standing tall and conspicuous even amidst the deep darkness of the night.
In several breaths, Zhang Xuan landed on the branch of a large tree just outside the building.
The libraries of the academy require a student token and Academic Credits to enter… Zhang Xuan scratched his head in distress.
He’d thought that he would be able to access the library freely as a student of the academy, but based on what he saw at the entrance of the Terpsichore Compendium Pavilion, that didn’t seem to be the case.
Just like the Ocean of Weapons in the Blacksmith School, the doors to the libraries could only open by scanning one’s student token and paying the required amount of Academic Credits. Unfortunately, Zhang Xuan had neither of the two, so it was impossible for him to enter.
If he were to attempt to barge in and trigger some kind of protective formation due to it, he might even attract the attention of the school’s elders, bringing himself trouble.
But I am already here… Am I to return empty-handed? Zhang Xuan muttered in frustration.
The matter regarding his Innate Fetal Poison could not wait. His goal was just standing before him, and if he were to return just like that, he might possibly regret it for life.
Wait… The mechanisms and formations protecting the Terpsichore Compendium Pavilion are indeed useful against cultivators, but can it block off souls? After all, souls are intangible existences, rendering most mechanisms and formations ineffective against them. Perhaps, I might be able to enter the premises this way… Zhang Xuan thought.
Based on Zhang Xuan’s analysis, it seemed like the formations and mechanisms around the library could only sense tangible beings. As such, it might be possible for him to sneak in as a soul.
Furthermore, while he could only duplicate books in the Library of Heaven’s Path by touching them in the past, with the new upgrades it had just undergone, he could replicate them just by laying his eyes on them… In other words, even with just his soul, he could gather every single book in the Terpsichore Compendium Pavilion into the Library of Heaven’s Path easily!
Let me give it a try!
The more Zhang Xuan thought about it, the more excited he became by the idea. Thus, he hid his body well amidst dense shrubs before drawing his soul out.
As if an apparition of the night, his soul gradually approached the tightly shut doors of the Terpsichore Compendium Pavilion silently. At its entrance, he saw several students standing guard to keep away intruders.
Despite the intangible nature of souls, they were still bound by the laws of the world. One of the manifestations of such a phenomenon was their inability to pass through concrete walls, and unfortunately for Zhang Xuan, the Terpsichore Compendium Pavilion was made of an airtight material which prevented even souls from slipping through.
Just as he was contemplating about how he could enter, he suddenly heard footsteps behind him as a figure approached the doors of the library.
The figure walked up to the doors and bowed deeply to the several students at the entrance.
“Seniors, I would like to access the library to check some information.”
She was a lady in her thirties, and the master teacher emblem pinned on her chest had five stars on it.
5-star low-tier master teacher, she was a Grade-2 student.
One of the seniors glanced at her and said, “Your student token and Academic Credits token!”
Most likely, the seniors standing guard at the entrance were taking this job as a way to earn additional Academic Credits to finance their expenditure.
“Yes!” The student quickly passed her student token and Academic Credits Token over.
A moment later, the senior nodded and said, “You are a Grade-2 student, so you can only browse through the books of Grade-3 and below. If you attempt to look at any book beyond that tier, you will be expelled from the library immediately. On top of that, you are only given twenty hours of reading time for each Academic Credit you spend, and you are not allowed to take out any books from the library.”
“Yes!” The student nodded in response.
As a Grade-2 student of the Master Teacher Academy, she was accustomed to the rules of the library.
“Ok, you may enter now!”
After emphasizing on the rules, the senior waved her hand to gesture that the student may pass. Carrying her student token and Academic Credits token, the student walked up to a stone pedestal in front of the doors and placed them on it. Jiya! The doors to the library opened.
This is a good opportunity for me to enter as well!
Upon seeing a chance to slip into the building, Zhang Xuan immediately got to action and dived in behind the student as well.
After entering through the doors, a vast hall immediately appeared before his eyes. The walls were embedded with Night Illumination Pearls of all sizes, making its interiors as bright as day.
Shelves of books were positioned orderly in the hall, and the books on them were innumerable.
As expected of the Master Teacher Academy! Their collection of books is indeed astounding… Zhang Xuan’s eyes lit up.
Terpsichore was one of the more uncommon occupations, so the number of books on them was severely limited. However, the members of the Master Teacher Academy were all master teachers who had unique insights and had their own understanding of the occupation. Over time, more and more books had been added to the collection, resulting in the impressive compendium that lay before him at this very instant.
“I should collect them all first and look at them later…”
Considering the number of books that were in the library, it would take a considerable amount of time if he had to go through them one by one.
Zhang Xuan’s soul moved to the very first bookshelf at the corner and began scanning through them.
Flaws!
Muttering in his head, he could feel that book after book was being replicated in the Library of Heaven’s Path.
It was as if his eyes were scanners, allowing him to replicate the content within books entirely just by laying his eyes on them. This allowed him to copy books at a rate far quicker than he did by running.
This is really great! Zhang Xuan thought excitedly.
Hualala!
Books were filling up the shelves in the Library of Heaven’s Path at an unprecedented rate.
Four hours later, Zhang Xuan was finally done taking in all of the books in the hall, and he compiled them into a Heaven’s Path manual.
On to the second floor…
After Zhang Xuan was done with the first floor, he proceeded on to the second floor.
There were significantly fewer books here than on the first floor, but the content covered within them was more profound.
Just like apothecaries and blacksmiths, terpsichores were also ranked from 1-star to 9-star. Contained on the first floor was the basic knowledge regarding dancing from apprentice to 4-star pinnacle whereas the second floor contained the dancing art and cultivation technique manuals corresponding to 5-star primary terpsichores.
Zhang Xuan took all of the books on the shelves into the Library of Heaven’s Path without any hesitation.
Two hours later, he was done collecting the books on the second level.
Continuing on…
It wasn’t easy for him to get into the Terpsichore Compendium Pavilion, so it would be a huge shame if he didn’t make use of this opportunity to take in as many books as he could. Thus, he hurried off to the third floor.
Technically speaking, a Grade-1 student was only allowed to browse through the books on the first and second floor. This rule was set by the academy in order to discourage ambitious students from attempting what was far beyond their capability, and various measures were implemented to enforce it.
However, while these measures could stop students, they couldn’t do the same to souls. With a thought, Zhang Xuan’s soul turned into a stream that flowed right through the formation blockading the stairs and arrived at the next floor.
There were even fewer books on the third floor, and Zhang Xuan finished them in just an hour.
After which, he did the same for the fourth, fifth, and sixth floor.
It only took him another two hours to collect the books on the remaining three floors.
In other words, in less than ten hours, he had made duplicates of the innumerable books in the Terpsichore Compendium Pavilion in his head!
With a slight smile on his face, Zhang Xuan thought in satisfaction, I will examine them carefully when I return to my residence!
He had been thinking that he would have to pay a visit to the Terpsichore School someday to browse through the books, but who could have known that he would accomplish this while following behind Hu Yaoyao?
Furthermore, now that he had learned that he could easily access the libraries in the Master Teacher Academy through his soul, wouldn’t he be able to do so for the other schools as well?
If that is the case, I should be able to cover all of the books in the ten schools within ten days. By then, I would have sufficient books to push my cultivation to higher realms as well, perhaps even reaching Saint realm. With that, my work at the Master Teacher Academy will be done! Zhang Xuan’s eyes lit up in agitation.
As long as he had sufficient books to compile the Heaven’s Path Divine Art, advancing his cultivation would be as easy as eating and drinking.
The main reason he had chosen to enroll in the Master Teacher Academy was so that he could access their trove of books.
The upgrade of his Library of Heaven’s Path had truly come at an ideal time.
With this, he would be able to access the knowledge from the various schools as he pleased, and his lack of Academic Credits wouldn’t be an issue anymore.
Ten days should be enough for him to cover everything in the Master Teacher Academy. After compiling them into the respective Heaven’s Path manuals, he would be able to make a breakthrough both in his cultivation and master teacher ranking.
Just the thought of advancing six realms— the Perfect Harmonization realm, Void Treading realm, Chrysalis realm, Half-Saint, Nascent Saint, and Saint realm—and bringing the ten supporting occupations to 6-star pinnacle left his heart trembling in excitement…
I should go through the terpsichore books first…
However, Zhang Xuan knew that it wouldn’t be as simple as that. Thus, shrugging the thought off with a smile, he turned his consciousness back to the Library of Heaven’s Path.
Hu!
New Heaven’s Path Terpsichorean Art manuals appeared before his eyes.
There was a total of six of them, consisting of books from 1-star to 6-star.
Let me see if the portions regarding souls…
Zhang Xuan swiftly turned his gaze outside and noticed that the sun was already setting. It didn’t seem like there would be sufficient time for him to learn the entire Heaven’s Path Terpsichorean Art, so he chose to focus his attention on the content regarding souls instead.
Huala!
At Zhang Xuan’s will, the books regarding soul cultivation flew from the shelves and gathered in front of him.
Compile! he commanded silently, and yet another book appeared before him.
This was the book that could potentially suppress the Innate Fetal Poison in his soul. Unable to suppress his agitation, Zhang Xuan immediately started browsing through it.
It didn’t take long for him to finish reading it all.
By then, his face was already looking incredibly awful.
These are only methods to strengthen one’s soul, and they aren’t even complete. They won’t be much help in dealing with the Innate Fetal Poison…
The books he had collected were sufficient to form a Heaven’s Path manual, but it was only effective in strengthening one’s soul. Against the Innate Fetal Poison, it was nearly completely useless.
In other words, after all the effort he had put in that night, he didn’t have a way counter the Innate Fetal Poison to alleviate the threat he was under yet.
What do I do now… Zhang Xuan thought frustratedly.
To him, the most urgent matter at hand was to suppress the Innate Fetal Poison in his soul. Otherwise, if the Innate Fetal Poison was triggered on a whim, that might very well be the day he would breathe his last breath.
He’d thought that, given the nature of the terpsichore occupation, the terpsichores would possess a deep understanding of souls, and he might be able to find a solution to his problems here.
But it seemed like he was being too naive.
If the Innate Fetal Poison could be dealt with that easily, Empyrean Kong shi wouldn’t have to rush all the way to become a 9-star master teacher to resolve it properly. He would have long found a solution before then.
Nevertheless, these methods are still effective in building up the resilience of one’s soul. I should try to compile them with the soul oracle techniques and see if I can perfect them!
The soul cultivation techniques he had obtained from Mo Hunsheng ranged from Transcendent Mortal 1-dan to 9-dan, but he didn’t have enough books to complete them then. Perhaps, if he were to fuse these books together with them, he might be able to compile new Heaven’s Path Soul Art manuals.
Currently, the strongest Heaven’s Path Soul Art manual he had was still at Consonant Spirit realm, so his soul cultivation was still capped there as well. With the new books he had gathered, it was worth giving it a shot.
Compile!
Zhang Xuan tried putting the books together with his soul cultivation technique manuals.
Hula!
Two new books appeared before Zhang Xuan’s gaze. He swiftly grabbed them and flipped them open.
“These are the Cosmos Bridge realm and Perfect Harmonization realm soul cultivation techniques. There are… no flaws at all! They have reached the level of Heaven’s Path!” Looking at the content of the books, Zhang Xuan nearly burst out laughing out of sheer delight.
He’d thought that his trip had been a wasted one, but who would have thought that he’d be able to compile the 6-dan and 7-dan Heaven’s Path Soul Art manuals using the books he had gathered from the library?
With these two books, he would be able to advance his soul cultivation to Perfect Harmonization realm, thus enhancing his fighting prowess significantly.
Even though the advancement of his soul cultivation wouldn’t be able to resolve the threat concerning the Innate Fetal Poison, it would at least help to suppress the Innate Fetal Poison a bit.
It seems like it’s already morning. Time for me to return…
By the time Zhang Xuan was done, the brilliant radiance of the sun rays was already spilling in from the eastern horizon of the skyline. It was dawn.
