Turning Heaven and Earth Upside Down

Strands of spiritual energy flowed through his meridians toward his dantian.

They gathered within the dantian, forming a mass of spiritual radiance that slowly merged into his five viscera.

The transplantation process was swift, accompanied by an alternating sensation of heat and cold that was immensely comfortable.

Perhaps it was caused by the five-element attributes inherent in the Spiritual Root itself.

At last, after a while, the spiritual radiance vanished completely. His internal organs returned to calm, as though everything just now had been an illusion.

He slowly opened his eyes.

His gaze was unfathomably deep, stripped of much of its clear-eyed foolishness.

Only then did he feel his body become light and weightless, as though he had shed his mortal shell and been reborn.

Main Peak · Daoist Arena (Training Ground)

Looking over, he saw countless disciples gathered around.

"Well fought! Well fought indeed!"

"Senior Brother Li and Senior Brother Wang's matches are still the most enjoyable to watch. In this year's Sect Grand Competition, our Main Peak will surely seize first place."

"Hard to say. Gongsun Ying of Sitting Dao Peak and Ye Tian of Fairy Cloud Peak have both entered the Late Golden Core stage. Those two monsters broke through two minor realms in just half a year."

Others offered a more objective analysis.

The Sect Grand Competition was held every year, and disciples from every peak could participate. On one hand, it tested the strength of each peak's disciples; on the other, it came with a division of benefits.

Whichever peak performed better would receive more rewards in the latter half of the year.

Last year, Fairy Cloud Peak sent out its Big Senior Duan Shuyun and Mu Liuxi. The two of them practically crushed the other six peaks from start to finish.

That was why Meng Yutong had the chance to secure an opportunity to enter the Kingdom-Destroying Secret Realm.

But this year, Duan Shuyun had gone out to gain experience and could not return in time. The burden could only fall upon Ye Tian, Mu Liuxi, and Yun Yao.

Lin Heng had merely been passing by and had not intended to join the excitement, but someone unexpectedly recognized him.

"Hey! Look, isn't that Lin Heng?"

Lin Heng's great name had spread throughout the sect from the day he acknowledged his ancestors and returned to the clan.

Some disciples had even seen him before.

"It really is him!"

"Hey! What are you doing at Main Peak? The Sect Leader is still in seclusion, so you won't be seeing him."

The speaker was a plump, bloated fatty.

His name was Du Yan. He was the biological nephew of a Main Peak Elder and had secured himself the job of manager at the Library Pavilion on Main Peak.

So this was the deadweight otaku at Ye Tian's side.

Lin Heng was somewhat speechless at the sight of him, unable to understand why every protagonist always had a fat guy as a lackey.

Because he was honest and dependable?

Since they had run into each other, Lin Heng could not pretend not to see him.

He would still need this fatty's help later when he went to the Library Pavilion to obtain cultivation techniques.

Lin Heng turned around and smiled faintly.

"Greetings, Senior Brother Du. I was just about to head to the Library Pavilion. I did not expect to encounter Senior Brother Du here."

According to the original plot, Du Yan had already begun interacting with Ye Tian, though he had not yet become his lackey.

Seeing how politely Lin Heng spoke, Du Yan asked in surprise, "You know me?"

"I heard of Senior Brother Du's deeds from Senior Sister. It is rare to meet the real person today."

"Oh..." Du Yan nodded. "You just said you were going to the Library Pavilion. Are you going to select cultivation manuals?"

"That is correct!"

"Do you have a secret order?"

"I do."

Lin Heng took out the wooden token Meng Yutong had given him and displayed it.

Immediately, the disciples watching nearby drew in sharp breaths.

"An Elder's Secret Order! He actually obtained an Elder's Secret Order!"

"Hm? Are secret orders ranked differently?"

Lin Heng glanced at the wooden token in his hand, puzzled.

Du Yan coughed twice, suppressing the shock in his heart as he waved a hand. "In that case, follow me."

After walking for roughly five minutes, the two arrived at the Library Pavilion. Seeing that Lin Heng still had questions, Du Yan explained,

"The Library Pavilion has nine floors in total. Each floor corresponds to a grade of cultivation technique. The higher the floor, the higher the quality and completeness of the techniques."

"The Elder's Secret Order in your hand can ignore all restrictions. You may enter any floor from the first to the ninth as you please."

"I have to say, your Master truly dotes on her disciples. Even a newcomer like you can directly use an Elder's Secret Order."

"Even I can currently only select cultivation techniques from the first through fourth floors."

Du Yan spoke with envy.

Lin Heng understood.

So secret orders were ranked as well. Ordinary secret orders could only be used to select basic techniques from the first floor, while the next rank allowed access to floors one through four.

Only the highest rank was an Elder's Secret Order, known as a Clearance Order.

Not bad, not bad. Master had handled this matter without any ambiguity!

Lin Heng looked around, then went straight to the second floor.

The Library Pavilion was oval in structure, with all manner of scrolls arranged upon desks. Fortunately, every section was marked with special characters, so he would not have to grope around blindly.

Pills, artifact forging, body techniques, attributes, miscellaneous.

They were broadly divided into five major categories, each with many branches beneath it.

As the name implied, body techniques concerned cultivating the body. Fist arts and leg techniques were everywhere.

In the original plot, because he had no Spiritual Root, he could only cultivate the simplest form of qigong.

In actual combat, not only was its damage low, but circulating his qi for too long nearly made his bones fall apart.

Now that he possessed a Mutant Five Elements Root, he could cultivate techniques related to all five elemental attributes.

Qi Refinement involved cultivators drawing spiritual energy into their dantian until it was full, forming vast pathways within their bodies, then storing spiritual energy throughout every limb and bone to achieve the purpose of cleansing the marrow and transforming the meridians.

A manual placed among the wood-attribute techniques caught Lin Heng's attention.

"Azure Emperor Spirit Devouring Art"

The Heavenly Chart flipped through his mind, but it found no information related to this manual.

The Azure Emperor might have been the author.

But he naturally understood the words "Spirit-Devouring Art."

Those words usually indicated a cultivation technique that aided the absorption of spiritual energy.

In order to retrieve information about it as quickly as possible, Lin Heng tossed it into the System Space without another word.

Just as expected, the system seemed to activate an automatic scan and directly displayed the relevant information.

Technique: Azure Emperor Spirit Devouring Art

Grade: Fourth Tier

Attribute: Wood

Description: A greatly underestimated cultivation technique. If one can open all one hundred and eight acupoints throughout the body, one will possess extraordinary cultivation speed.

"Why would a fourth-tier cultivation technique be placed on the second floor?"

Lin Heng found it somewhat strange.

He took out several other cultivation techniques that aided in absorbing spiritual energy and tossed them into the System Space. Their grades all turned out to be second-tier.

The descriptions even directly classified them as trash.

"All right, all right. I'll take the Azure Emperor Spirit Devouring Art first, then head upstairs to look at attribute techniques."

Lin Heng put away the technique and headed directly to the third floor.

From the third floor onward, there were no longer basic qi-circulation techniques like Spirit-Devouring Arts. Attribute techniques accounted for the overwhelming majority.

"Good heavens, the third floor clearly has twice as many cultivation techniques as the second!"

"There are plenty of disciples too."

"They must all be here to freeload."

The Library Pavilion had a rule: each person could only take away three cultivation techniques.

But that did not stop them from huddling inside the Library Pavilion and browsing through them everywhere.

This library-like operating model was quite humane.

Technique: Ten-zhang Golden Body

Grade: Third Tier

Attribute: Gold

Description: A method of forging a Golden Body that had been lost for a thousand years. It was originally a tenth-tier divine art, but the remaining fragmentary scrolls could now only cultivate a three-zhang Golden Body.

"This one is quite good. A Golden Body is supremely hard and supremely yang. It will greatly help me enhance my gold attribute and temper my Spiritual Root's attribute to the utmost limit."

"Although the Golden Wheel Art is more complete, its prerequisites are too demanding and would waste too much time. Even if the ten-zhang Golden Body is incomplete, it was once a tenth-tier divine art."

Cultivating immortality was also a process of self-realization. Perhaps he could rely on his Heaven-Defying Comprehension to restore the latter half of the technique.

Or perhaps he could cast off the old and bring forth the new.

Just as he picked up the ten-zhang Golden Body and prepared to turn around and leave, someone had appeared behind him at some point.

Holy crap, where did this little potato come from?

Lin Heng looked at the woman before him, who was only as tall as his shoulder, and took a startled step back.

"Potato..."

"Pah, pah! I mean, little miss, why do you walk without making a sound? If I knock you over, don't try to extort me."

"Little miss?" The woman let out an annoyed laugh. She had lived for several hundred years, yet this brat with a bone age barely over twenty was calling her a little miss.

This was truly turning heaven and earth upside down!