Threat

Nie Li looked at the furious Shen Xiu and smiled faintly. "Instructor Shen Xiu is truly knowledgeable. You claim a book doesn't exist just because you haven't seen it. Have you read every book in this world, Instructor Shen Xiu?" In his past life, Shen Xiu was just as unreasonable.

"Thunder Fire Sacred Codex? I remember now, I think I borrowed that book from the academy library!" a commoner student suddenly exclaimed. He had borrowed three books, and one of them was the Thunder Fire Sacred Codex. However, much of the content in the Thunder Fire Sacred Codex was too profound for him to understand, so he had simply forgotten to return it.

The commoner student's voice made Shen Xiu's expression instantly darken.

The commoner student opened the Thunder Fire Sacred Codex. This was a transcribed copy, not the original, and was written in the script of the Snowy Wind Empire era. The first volume had a translation, but the subsequent volumes were completely untranslated. The script from the Snowy Wind Empire period was very obscure, and ordinary people couldn't understand it at all.

To think such a book actually existed! Even Vice Principal Ye Sheng and Lu Ye exchanged surprised glances. Although they were Vice Principal and Professor of Sacred Lan Academy, the academy library held hundreds of thousands of books, over ninety percent of which were ancient collections. Even they couldn't claim to know the name of every single book. Many books were even beyond their ability to translate.

In his past life, Nie Li had traveled the continent, mastering seven languages. After reaching the Legendary realm, he could read a million books in a hundred years within the still time of the Book of the Temporal Demonic Spirit, absorbing information at an astonishing rate.

Reading the script of the Snowy Wind Empire posed no obstacle for Nie Li.

The grey-robed elder beside Ye Sheng and Lu Ye also showed a look of surprise. He himself had not read the Thunder Fire Sacred Codex in its entirety.

"Ye Sheng, send someone to the library to retrieve a copy of the Thunder Fire Sacred Codex!" the grey-robed elder commanded.

"Yes!" Ye Sheng glanced at Lu Ye beside him. Lu Ye didn't dare to delay and sprinted off.

The gazes of the students in the class focused on the Thunder Fire Sacred Codex in the commoner student's hand. Both Ye Ziyun and Shen Yue were greatly astonished. As disciples of Peak Families, they had also read extensively, but they were unaware of a book called the Thunder Fire Sacred Codex. This was because the book was too obscure, and very few people bothered to study it.

City of Brilliance had the most complete set of three inscription systems: Snowy Wind, Sacred Fire, and War Blade. Almost everyone only cultivated and studied these three. The Thunder Fire Engraving system was largely lost during the Dark Era. The remaining texts, like the Thunder Fire Sacred Codex, were untranslated and thus shelved away. Occasionally, students would borrow them, only to return them immediately after finding them incomprehensible.

"Let me see, Volume Seven of the Thunder Fire Sacred Codex." The commoner student quickly searched. The Thunder Fire Sacred Codex was hundreds of pages thick, filled with illustrations and densely packed text detailing various Thunder Fire Engravings. After the first volume, there were no more translations. The ancient, dense script was headache-inducing. He flipped to Volume Seven, which alone contained over a hundred engravings. The commoner student compared them one by one, searching for an engraving similar to Crimson Flame Explosion.

Everyone waited impatiently. How long would this take?

Shen Xiu's face was icy. "You probably just found this book in some corner of the library and have no idea what it says, yet you claim Crimson Flame Explosion comes from it! Insolent fool, how dare you defile the ancestors of my Sacred Family! If you can't find the engraving, I will go to the Temple of Sacred Judgment and accuse you of slandering our ancestors!"

Nie Li looked at Shen Xiu with a half-smile and scoffed, "Instructor Shen Xiu, isn't it a bit too early to say that? This book is an ancient text from the Snowy Wind Empire era, dating back several thousand years, much older than the era of the first patriarch of the Sacred Family, isn't it?"

"That's right!" Shen Xiu nodded. This was an undeniable fact, and she couldn't refute it.

"Then it's simple." Nie Li glanced at the commoner student and said, "Flip the Thunder Fire Sacred Codex from Volume Seven onwards, thirty pages. Compare the sixth illustration on the thirtieth page with the Crimson Flame Explosion engraving."

Seeing Nie Li's confident expression, Shen Xiu's heart sank. If Nie Li could truly find the origin of the Crimson Flame Explosion engraving, it would be a stain on the Sacred Family. The Sacred Family had always claimed that Crimson Flame Explosion and sixteen other engravings were created by their successive patriarchs, which brought them great fame. If the outside world knew that these engravings were copied from ancient texts, it would undoubtedly damage the Sacred Family's reputation.

Seeing a hint of panic in Shen Xiu's eyes, Nie Li sneered. The Sacred Family craved fame and prestige, always presenting themselves as inheritors of the Sacred Fire Engravings, glorifying their past patriarchs as creators of engravings and exceptionally talented individuals who saved City of Brilliance from peril. In reality, the Sacred Family was a hypocritical clan!

Before City of Brilliance was breached in his past life, all the noble families fought for it. The Sacred Family was responsible for defending the west gate of City of Brilliance. However, when the great battle broke out, the Sacred Family, in order to preserve their strength, hid all their powerful members in the Sacred Ancestor Mountain Range, leading to the breach of the west gate and the rampant advance of the Snowy Wind Demonic Beasts. Nie Li clearly remembered the tragic scene of the Snowy Wind Demonic Beasts slaughtering the residents of City of Brilliance.

Nie Li and the others were forced to retreat, leaving their homes and City of Brilliance!

After being reborn, Nie Li had no good feelings towards the Sacred Family.

In this life, he would make this hypocritical family disappear from City of Brilliance!

To make the Sacred Family despised by everyone in City of Brilliance, he had to first expose the true face of this hypocritical clan!

"The sixth illustration on the thirtieth page?" the commoner student murmured. With precise guidance, he quickly found the Thunder Fire Engraving.

"Ah!" The surrounding students gasped in surprise. The Thunder Fire Engraving was composed of two parts, and one part was identical to the Crimson Flame Explosion engraving. The Crimson Flame Explosion engraving was indeed much simpler than the Thunder Fire Engraving, essentially half of it.

Nie Li was actually correct!

Shen Xiu clenched her fists tightly, her fingertips turning white. Shen Yue, among the students, looked at Nie Li with a hateful expression, as Nie Li was slandering their Sacred Family!

Nie Li naturally noticed Shen Xiu and Shen Yue's hostile gazes and snorted coldly. As expected, people from the Sacred Family were all the same. Instead of looking for reasons within themselves, they blamed others for any dissatisfaction. If they hadn't faked things themselves, why would they fear others exposing them?

"Even if the first patriarch of my Sacred Family drew inspiration from this Thunder Fire Engraving, so what?" Shen Xiu said with a cold snort.

Nie Li laughed heartily. "Instructor Shen Xiu, it seems you are not very familiar with the Demon Spirit Master Code. Shall I explain it to you? The Demon Spirit Master Code has been passed down for over three thousand years, and almost all Demon Spirit Masters abide by it. Article 161 of the Demon Spirit Master Code states that engravings extracted or copied from other Demon Spirit Masters' engravings must cite their source and cannot be claimed as original creations. This is the moral code of a Demon Spirit Master!"

"You... you..." Shen Xiu trembled with anger. Nie Li's words were truly damning, directly accusing the Sacred Family of not adhering to the moral code of a Demon Spirit Master, yet she couldn't refute him.

"If it were inspiration, learning from the Thunder Fire Engraving to create a new engraving, that would be one thing. But for the first patriarch of the Sacred Family to directly take half and claim it as his own creation, that's a bit too... speaking ill of ancestors is a grave sin. Perhaps the first patriarch of the Sacred Family had some unavoidable difficulties?" Nie Li blinked, feigning innocence.

Nie Li's words were sharp, directly hitting the Sacred Family's sore spot, yet he still pretended to be innocent, making Shen Xiu and Shen Yue furious enough to kill.

The students whispered amongst themselves:

"So that's what the first patriarch of the Sacred Family was like."

"It's said that although the first patriarch of the Sacred Family was only a Gold Demon Spirit Master, he was a grandmaster in engraving research and created several fire-element engravings. The Sacred Family has always been the inheritor of the Sacred Fire Engravings?"

"I didn't expect the Crimson Flame Explosion engraving to be copied from an ancient text."

"I've read the Record of Snowflake Engravings, and many engravings in it are also copied or extracted from ancient texts, but those rune masters always cited their sources and never claimed them as original creations."

"This is the moral code of a Demon Spirit Master. Every noble Demon Spirit Master would do this!" The students were confused. Could it be that the grandmaster who created engravings in their hearts was merely a glory-seeker?

Hearing their discussion, Shen Yue became even more displeased. He now regarded Nie Li as an enemy, his face ashen. He stood up abruptly and said in a deep voice, "Nie Li, my Sacred Family has been passed down for over three hundred years and is one of the three major Peak Families of City of Brilliance. How can you, a disciple of an ordinary family, speak of us so carelessly! This Crimson Flame Explosion engraving was written in the first patriarch's notes and was not publicly announced. It's normal for us descendants to sort through the first patriarch's notes and assume it was created by him."

Nie Li glanced at Shen Yue. As expected of a disciple of the Sacred Family, his words were laced with subtlety and veiled threats. He simultaneously used an excuse to completely absolve himself of responsibility!

When Shen Yue emphasized the words "Peak Family" and pointed out that Nie Li was from an ordinary family, the implied threat was clear. If Nie Li continued to pursue the matter, the Sacred Family, as a Peak Family, would certainly not let him off easily.

Nie Li disdained Shen Yue. In his past life, Shen Yue and Ye Ziyun were about to get engaged, but when disaster struck, Shen Yue fled first. Hearing Shen Yue speak made Nie Li even more annoyed.

"Classmate Shen Yue is being a bit overbearing. Fortunately, City of Brilliance has strict laws, otherwise, I would truly be worried that the Sacred Family might... " Nie Li acted as if he were a fearless pig being scalded by boiling water, blinking his eyes. "I believe that the Sacred Family, being such a large Peak Family, would protect my safety, right? Otherwise, if something were to happen to me, it would likely become an indelible stain on the Sacred Family."

~~This new book is still very young and needs everyone's care. Please vote for recommendations to support it!!!