Chapter 490: Borrowing Books (I)

Chapter 490: Borrowing Books (I)

Three humans and a dog were already waiting outside when Li Hao emerged. Liu Long conversed with Hong Yitang in a low voice. He stopped talking when he saw Li Hao. Although the young man heard a murmured word or two, he didn’t ask about their discussion.

Panther stuck to Liu Long in Li Hao’s absence. The dog was deeply fond of Liu Long as the man had taught it the Nine Forged Force, and had done so in a very thorough manner. Therefore, Liu Long was its favorite human when the young man wasn’t around. It couldn’t be bothered with Hong Yitang or He Yong.

“Have you improved again?” Hong Yitang laughed when he saw Li Hao. The young man’s presence still emanated from his being as his cultivation session had just ended. A hint or two could be gleaned from it. Plainly, Li Hao had taken another step forward.

“I’m just laying down some foundations!” Li Hao shook his head. This was indeed all foundational work for him. The physical body, organs, and skeleton were part and parcel of growing stronger. For him and Yuan Shuo, the key lay in mind intent and aura!

Only when mind intent was strong and the aura perfect could they grow stronger! If the body wasn’t strong enough, they could supplement with a spontaneous eruption of the five summoned spirits. The body was the base—mind intent and aura were the eruption points. Without those, Li Hao would be much more mediocre even if his body was strong.

What the young man wanted most at the moment was to swiftly comprehend the wood aura. But after grasping four auras, he suddenly wasn’t in a hurry to manifest the fifth despite knowing the Weeping Willow Sword. He still reeled from how difficult the water aura had been.

“Foundations?” He Yong grumbled. “We’d love to have your foundations, too bad we can’t. With qualities like yours, I would’ve long opened my supernatural locks.”

Li Hao was curious about this maneuver as well, so they chatted about this as they walked.

“Martial uncles, I understand some of your condition in the sense that snapping your locks releases your accumulated potential and spontaneously boosts your strength. But what next? You can’t just keep yourself sealed forever, can you?”

They seemed to have reached an odd loop in their cultivation. The locks had to be broken for them to grow stronger, but that might turn them into supernaturals or cause their outright death. Even if the five organs were strong enough to support the broken locks, a very likely outcome was that they’d cross over to the supernatural domain. They wouldn’t be martial masters anymore, which would be an enormous spot of trouble.

“That’s why we’re very conflicted as we haven’t found the proper path and method yet!” He Yong sighed. “A lot of people are in the same stage. Since we don’t wish to become supernatural, Ole Hong and I have discussed some ideas.

“Firstly, mysterious power appears after the locks are broken. We might be able to avoid becoming supernatural if we shatter that power. I hear that your teacher has done so before?”

“Yes!” Li Hao thought rapidly. “There was a time in Silver City when he wanted to ascend to being supernatural, but sensed the mysterious power devouring his internal force during the attempt. He quickly detonated the power and gave up becoming supernatural.”

“We’ve considered doing this too,” He Yong continued in a conflicted tone. “But Yuan Shuo was very weak then and his internal force strong since he’d just ascended. He immediately supplemented his internal force when his lock broke, making it stronger than the lock. That’s why he could do it. We might not be able to because our locks are very strong!” ViiSiit novelbi/n(.)c/(o)m for latest novels

“Then does that mean my teacher... can break his locks without worry in the future?”

“That’s not it, but that he can break one of them with peace of mind—the one that he first broke. The organ that it corresponds to will not produce more mysterious power if its lock breaks.”

“Li Hao, that’s the wrong way...”

“Nope!” Li Hao laughed. “There’s a place in Battle Heaven that we’ve yet to visit all this time, a very important place! The library! Apparently the city has a massive library with countless books inside. While they don’t speak of specific methods, there will be ones regarding martial theory.

“Although the ancient civilization has a different system from ours, a lot of modern people practice their secret arts. Since they can find some success, that means there must be similarities between the two. I’d like to borrow some of their basic theory books. If teacher was on this expedition, he would’ve visited a long time ago.”

The others exchanged glances without saying anything. It was normal that none of them had gone because they couldn’t read any of the content inside. They just hadn’t thought that Li Hao would pick this moment to borrow books. ...were there still books there?

Who knew?

......

Moments later, they arrived at a large building that wasn’t too tall—only six floors. It was called a building because it occupied a large plot of land. It was close to the city lord manor, but felt much bigger than it. The characters of Battle Heaven Library were written on it.

Not only that, but there were guards at the door—not Black Armors, but Green Armors. Li Hao had never seen them before. A new type of soldier?

He saw the words “Security” etched on their chest when he took a closer look. Ah, I see. They’re from Director General Wang’s division! Li Hao recalled that internal security was usually managed by security guards. So there was another troop of Green Armors running around?

Clang! The guards at the door saluted when Li Hao approached. Their salute differed from military salutes. Instead of pounding their chest, they pointed at their heads. Li Hao didn’t know how many courtesies existed in the ancient civilization. At the very least, none of these were present in the modern day Inspectorate and army.

The guards ignored Li Hao after their salute. They were mute—whether out of inability or lack of desire to speak, no one knew.

......

The first floor was a cavernous lobby upon entering. Some darkened screens were scattered around them; one abruptly brightened. Perhaps the structure sensed the arrival of visitors or a powerhouse in the city had granted him some authorization.

Li Hao swiftly walked up to the active kiosk.

“A Guide to Borrowing Books” was written on the screen. The young man poked it curiously, bringing up small pages that spoke of “martial dao, technology, civilian livelihood, education, novels, arts and culture, science, storytelling...”.

Another row of text flashed: Identity confirmed. Leader of the Twelfth Troop of the Ninth Division in the Reserve Defenders of the Battle Heaven Army. Officer level personnel can read any book below the fifth floor for free. Three books may be borrowed to be returned at...