The elder guarding the pavilion took the token and deducted the required Contribution Points.
After collecting the fee, the elder returned the token to Chen Xuan.
The Library Pavilion charged by the day.
One payment let a disciple read there for a full day.
Outer Peak disciples were not allowed to borrow books from the Library Pavilion, either.
And the fee was hardly cheap. If they learned nothing, it would sting.
Those rules alone turned away plenty of disciples whose eyes were bigger than their stomachs.
Chen Xuan took back his token and entered the Library Pavilion to read.
Many disciples from Jade Firmament Peak noticed Chen Xuan, an Outer Peak disciple, but after a few glances, they paid him no further attention.
Chen Xuan soon found a basic book on Artifact Refining.
"Brother Dragon, let's see what you can do."
Chen Xuan thought to himself.
Chen Xuan opened a book.
[Your Dao Technique "Purple Imperial Dragon Flame" is studying Artifact Refining.]
Good, good, good!
Chen Xuan was overjoyed.
Purple Imperial Dragon Flame really is incredible.
Flowing Cloud Myriad Forms, Flowing Cloud Moon-Chasing—you two could learn a thing or two.
Chen Xuan leafed through one book after another.
[Your Dao Technique "Purple Imperial Dragon Flame" has mastered first-tier Artifact Refining.]
Over the next few days,
Chen Xuan arrived at the Library Pavilion on Jade Firmament Peak early every morning to read.
Purple Imperial Dragon Flame had already advanced its Artifact Refining to the fifth tier.
After that, Chen Xuan stopped coming.
The elder guarding the Library Pavilion on Jade Firmament Peak paid it no mind.
He had seen plenty of people come to read, only to give up. It was nothing new to him.
He simply assumed Chen Xuan was one of them.
Once he had learned Artifact Refining, Chen Xuan began making preparations.
First, he earned a sum of Contribution Points through pills.
Then he bought a refining furnace, going straight for a top-grade artifact.
Next, he bought a great deal of materials.
With everything ready, Chen Xuan began refining.
His first task was to upgrade his Floating Cloud Sword.
The Library Pavilion on Jade Firmament Peak held many blueprints for artifacts and treasures. Both the Floating Cloud Sword and the White Cloud Artifact could be returned to the furnace and reforged into top-grade artifacts.
When Chen Xuan first met Jiang Qiong, the White Cloud Artifact she used had been reforged from a mid-grade artifact into a top-grade one.
Chen Xuan spent some time upgrading the Floating Cloud Sword and the White Cloud Artifact to top grade.
After being reforged, both artifacts gained a tremendous boost in power and effectiveness.
Next, Chen Xuan refined several more top-grade artifacts for himself.
He had armed himself to the teeth.
The Technique Pavilion.
Chen Xuan returned to the Technique Pavilion that day.
Ever since he had broken through to the Spirit Sea Realm, he had gained another Spirit Awakening Point.
He could not let it go to waste.
At first, he had considered seeking another Dao Technique.
But after thinking it over,
he already had three Dao Techniques: one for attacking, one for escaping, and Flowing Cloud Myriad Forms could even defend and trap enemies.
He was hardly short on options.
So... he thought of a spiritual-sense cultivation technique.
With the Enlightenment System, he could cultivate all three paths at once.
Over the past few days, he had also asked around about the better spiritual-sense techniques in the Technique Pavilion.
Once there, Chen Xuan went straight to examine the techniques he had heard about.
In the end, he found himself torn between two jade slips.
Neither technique was complete, but they were the two best spiritual-sense techniques in the Technique Pavilion.
One was the Divine Wandering Void Scripture, an Emperor Scripture from the Void Sacred Land.
The other was the Cloud Sea Heaven-Observing Technique, created by the Great Emperor who had founded the Cloud Sea Sacred Land. This spiritual-sense technique was exceptionally compatible with the Nine Firmaments Cloud Sea Scripture.
The Nine Firmaments Cloud Sea Scripture was the Emperor Scripture of the Cloud Sea Sacred Land.
It had three volumes: upper, middle, and lower.
The Flowing Cloud Technique Chen Xuan currently cultivated was a simplified version of the Nine Heavens Cloud Sea Scripture: Volume One.
Although he was only cultivating the simplified version now, Chen Xuan had learned something else.
Once he became a core disciple—that was, once he broke through to the Dao Foundation Realm—he could obtain the Nine Heavens Cloud Sea Scripture: Volume One from the sect.
The Flowing Cloud Technique was a simplified version of the Nine Heavens Cloud Sea Scripture: Volume One,
so he could switch to the scripture directly in the future without the slightest problem.
In other words, Chen Xuan was bound to cultivate the Nine Firmaments Cloud Sea Scripture someday.
From that perspective, the Cloud Sea Heaven-Observing Technique was the best choice.
But... the Cloud Sea Heaven-Observing Technique was not an Emperor Scripture. It could only be considered a Quasi-Emperor scripture.
The Divine Wandering Void Scripture, on the other hand, was an Emperor Scripture.
One word apart, yet as different as heaven and earth.
That was what left Chen Xuan torn.
The strengths and weaknesses of both techniques were obvious.
The Divine Wandering Void Scripture was an Emperor Scripture, and unquestionably the better technique.
But according to its own account, this Emperor Scripture had four volumes.
The Void Sacred Land had made the first volume public to attract talented cultivators.
Want to learn the later volumes?
Fine—join the Void Sacred Land.
Even if Chen Xuan did go to the Primordial World someday, he would belong to the Cloud Sea Sacred Land. How could he possibly switch sides?
This was not like changing jobs at a modern company.
Of course, there was another way to obtain the later volumes: steal them.
Compared with how hard those later volumes would be to obtain,
the rest of the Cloud Sea Heaven-Observing Technique would be much easier. As a disciple of the Cloud Sea Sect, he would surely gain access to them as long as he kept growing stronger.
Chen Xuan weighed his options.
Should he choose a technique that was easier to obtain but only at the Quasi-Emperor level, or an Emperor Scripture whose later volumes would be difficult to acquire?
After pondering for a long time,
Chen Xuan took down the Cloud Sea Heaven-Observing Technique.
In the end, he chose his own sect's technique.
The Divine Wandering Void Scripture was excellent, but unfortunately, it did not belong to his sect.
Besides... the Cloud Sea Heaven-Observing Technique was a Quasi-Emperor scripture, true.
But who could say whether it might become an Emperor Scripture in the future?
Boundless ambition surged in Chen Xuan's chest.
Make no mistake: his confidence was not in himself. It was in the system, and in what the Cloud Sea Heaven-Observing Technique could become after Spirit Awakening.
Chen Xuan quickly paid the Contribution Points, and the contents of the Cloud Sea Heaven-Observing Technique's first volume were imprinted directly into his mind.
Though it was only a Quasi-Emperor scripture, and he had obtained only one volume, it cost even more than the Azure Heaven Dragon Transformation Art.
After all, the Cloud Sea Heaven-Observing Technique had only three volumes in total.
If spiritual sense, body cultivation, and qi cultivation were each divided into fifteen realms,
mastering all three volumes of the Cloud Sea Heaven-Observing Technique could take one straight to the Quasi-Emperor realm.
The first volume alone could carry one through the fifth realm.
The first volume of the Azure Heaven Dragon Transformation Art, however, could only carry one through the third realm.
Of course, if he exchanged for the Azure Heaven Dragon Transformation Art's second volume as well, its cultivation effects would match the first volume of the Cloud Sea Heaven-Observing Technique.
But Chen Xuan had no plans to exchange for it yet.
He had not even reached the Dao Foundation Realm. There was no need to rush.
Cultivation techniques cost no small number of Contribution Points.
He would wait until he obtained Heavenly Dao Qi, successfully established his foundation, and reached the Dao Foundation Realm. Then he could earn more Contribution Points and exchange them for the Azure Heaven Dragon Transformation Art's second volume.
With the technique in hand, Chen Xuan returned to his residence.
He sat cross-legged on his bed and summoned the panel.
[Host: Chen Xuan] [Qi cultivation: Spirit Sea Realm, perfection] [Body cultivation: second realm, perfection] [Spirit Awakening Points: 1] [Techniques:] [Flowing Cloud Technique (Spirit Awakened)] [Azure Heaven Dragon Transformation Art (Spirit Awakened)] [Cloud Sea Heaven-Observing Technique (not Spirit Awakened)] [Dao Techniques: omitted]
Before you continue