As everyone knew, the old men guarding Library Pavilions in cultivation worlds, the sweeping monks in martial arts worlds, and the cleaning aunties in modern youth dramas were most likely big shots with hidden identities.
The white-haired elder before her looked kind and benevolent, yet he had seen through Bai Lan's foundations at a glance.
Clearly, he was a hidden big shot.
"Go on in, little girl." The elder waved a hand, signaling for Bai Lan to enter.
Bai Lan nodded, gave him a salute, made a save point on the spot, and only then walked into the Library Pavilion.
Azure Origin Sect truly deserved its reputation as one of the foremost great sects in the cultivation world. Even its outer sect Library Pavilion was far more magnificent than Bai Lan had imagined.
Tens of thousands of books, Jade Slips, and even Stone Tablet Inscriptions and loose pages were arranged neatly within.
At a single glance, one could not help feeling that they could spend an entire lifetime here and still never finish reading all the books.
The first floor contained handwritten notes and ancient texts, mostly miscellaneous writings from the cultivation world and cultivators' journals, and thus they were recorded only in books.
From the second floor upward were Jade Slips, most of them inscribed with cultivation methods and mystical techniques.
Higher still were those ancient Stone Tablet Inscriptions and loose pages, which were not open to menial disciples.
Bai Lan was in no hurry to go up to the second floor. Instead, she wandered around the first floor a few times and casually flipped through several books.
An Examination of Cultivation World Geography, Illustrated Guide to Low-Grade Spirit Herbs, Notes on the Properties and Growing Environments of Low-Grade Spirit Herbs, Illustrated Guide to Low-Grade Demonic Beasts, Map of Demonic Beast Territories in the Hundred Thousand Mountains.
Dao Lord Jiuge's Notes, One Hundred Little Tricks for Qi Induction, A Guide to Learning Low-Grade Mystical Techniques, Miscellaneous Discussions on the Web of Connections Between Azure Origin Sect's Peaks, An Appreciation of True Person Qing Xuan's Beauty...?
Seeing this, Bai Lan was suddenly struck speechless.
To her, True Person Qing Xuan did indeed have a fine face, but that was all there was to it.
There was really no need to publish an entire volume about him and place it here.
She stuffed the book back exactly where it had been, shook her head, and headed up to the second floor instead.
This was the true purpose of her visit to the Library Pavilion.
The contribution point prices for low-grade mystical techniques were generally under one hundred. Common foundational techniques like the Fireball Technique required only fifty Contribution Points, so Bai Lan could exchange for two books at a time.
There were at least ten thousand mystical techniques on the second floor of the Library Pavilion. To learn them all would cost roughly a million Contribution Points.
Yet Bai Lan could use her cheat ability to master every one of them. Even if her current Qi Refining level one cultivation was not enough for her to fully grasp them, as long as she learned them, she would have plenty of time to practice in the future.
A net gain of a million. It was worth it to the point of madness.
With an excited heart and trembling hands, Bai Lan forcibly suppressed the excitement in her chest and began with the most basic Fireball Technique.
She started from the bookshelf on the far left, exchanged for one mystical technique Jade Slip, left the Library Pavilion, and learned it.
Then she loaded her save again and repeated the process.
Fireball Technique, Water Arrow Technique, Golden Bell Shield, Water Healing Technique—mystical techniques such as these were all stored in Bai Lan's memory through one save after another.
She gradually became immersed in the sensation of taking in new things. Every time she learned and memorized a new mystical technique, it was immensely interesting.
"One thousand eight hundred and thirty-seven... Water Mist Technique." The system counted in a bored voice, while Bai Lan beside it pressed her forehead against the Jade Slip and closed her eyes to memorize it.
Things in the cultivation world truly were wondrous, especially items like Jade Slips. They seemed to connect their contents directly to one's divine soul perception.
As long as one read through them once, everything within would be imprinted in the mind. The words and images alike would be crystal clear upon a second recollection.
Yet Bai Lan still insisted on reading through them several more times to deepen her memories.
"Eight thousand three hundred and seventy-six... Earth Evasion Technique."
"...Nine thousand three hundred and seventy-two, Clear Wind Sword Art."
"...Eleven thousand two hundred and thirty-one, Fire Cloud Palm."
The system had witnessed the entire process of Bai Lan repeatedly loading saves and memorizing mystical techniques. After more than ten thousand saves and loads, she seemed utterly tireless.
A host who had mastered more than ten thousand mystical techniques...
For one second, the system suddenly felt numb on Long Aotian's behalf. It suddenly felt that, in the competition three months from now, perhaps the disadvantaged party would not be its host, but Long Aotian—the one who had even had his Storage Bag snatched away.
Imagine this: when you had only learned one mystical technique, Bai Lan on the other side had more than a thousand mystical techniques in her mind to answer your next attack.
Especially since Long Aotian's single Lightning Spiritual Root doomed him to only learn lightning-element mystical techniques.
The system's eyes suddenly widened. "I finally know why you wanted to roll Five Spirit Roots!!!"
Bai Lan, who was studying the Fire Cloud Palm, raised her eyes.
"Five Spirit Roots are the true genius talent! If you encounter fire, use water to subdue the enemy; if you encounter water, use fire to subdue the enemy. Wouldn't you be invincible in a fight!"
With Five Spirit Roots, one could flexibly switch attributes to face enemies, while the limitations of a Single Spiritual Root were obvious. It was fine when facing an enemy with a mutually restraining spiritual root, but if one encountered someone who restrained them instead...
Bai Lan smiled lightly. "You only just realized that?"
"..." The system coughed lightly and turned away. "How, how could that be! I thought of it long ago. I merely mentioned it in passing to liven up the atmosphere, cough!"
It could not possibly admit that it had truly believed the nonsense its host had fed it at the beginning.
What nonsense about how pretty it would look to fight in a blaze of colors—it had all been ghost talk meant to fool the system.
The girl before it had been calculating for this very outcome from the very beginning.
"This should be the final mystical technique scroll in the Library Pavilion, right? What do you plan to do next? Don't tell me you're really planning to learn every cultivation method too?" the system asked suspiciously.
Bai Lan shook her head. "No. I'm learning these mystical techniques so I can use them in future battles. Flexibly changing tactics is useful, but there's no need to learn cultivation methods, especially since most of the cultivation methods in the outer sect Library Pavilion are low-grade. There's no need to learn them."
"That's good, that's good." The system let out a long breath.
Seeing Bai Lan study mystical techniques with such diligence, it was too embarrassed to say that it had grown tired of waiting.
The host was working so hard! Even if the system couldn't help, it couldn't drag her down either.
Though the direction of her efforts was not exactly completing the mission.
"I'm exhausted. It feels like my head is about to explode." Bai Lan took a deep breath, leaned against a tree, sat down, and began to empty her mind in a daze.
Even though loading a save would erase her physical exhaustion, restoring her body and senses to how they had been before the load, that mental fatigue could not be diminished.
"I thought you didn't get tired!!!" the system shouted.
Bai Lan closed her eyes. "I got a little carried away just now. Mystical techniques in the cultivation world really are profound, but unfortunately, with my Qi Refining level one cultivation, I can only store these mystical techniques in my head for now."
Mystical techniques in the cultivation world were divided into four tiers: Heaven, Earth, Black, and Yellow. Heaven-tier was the most precious, while Yellow-tier was the most common.
Most of the techniques in the outer sect Library Pavilion were Yellow-tier, with only several hundred volumes being Black-tier.
The exchange price for Black-tier mystical techniques was also frighteningly high. It took a full thousand Contribution Points to exchange for a single volume.
Moreover, Black-tier mystical techniques could only be used by cultivators in the late stages of Qi Refining at minimum. Cultivators below the middle stages of Qi Refining did not even possess enough spiritual energy reserves to sustain such enormous expenditure.
Before you continue