The Sword God Su Muzhe!

"Since you're determined to start over from scratch, it would be too much of a waste of time to study those shallow things again."

"Take this token and go straight to the ninth floor."

Looking at the wooden token of unknown material on the table, Chen Xin felt overwhelmed by the favor.

He knew this was absolutely a heaven-sent opportunity. He hurriedly stood, then gave a deep bow.

"We met by chance, yet Young Master has bestowed such a generous gift. This old man is endlessly grateful!"

"May I ask Young Master's honored name? If I achieve anything in the future, I will repay this kindness even if I must braid grass into rings and hold a ring in my mouth!"

The young man waved his hand, signaling that there was no need for such ceremony.

"It was nothing more than a small effort."

"I'm used to being idle and carefree, and what I can't stand most are all those tedious formalities."

The man lifted his teacup. The smile on his face was still refined and easygoing, but the words he spoke were like a thunderclap, exploding with a boom in the minds of everyone on Douluo Continent.

"As for my name, I've lived so long I can barely remember it myself."

As soon as he finished speaking, the white-robed young master stood.

He casually poured the half cup of leftover tea remaining in the purple clay teapot at the roots of the old plum tree.

A breeze swept through the courtyard, lifting a few fallen bamboo leaves.

The young man turned around and took a casual step forward.

Just that one step.

His figure wavered slightly in the air, and his whole person was like a drop of water merging into the sea, vanishing into thin air without a trace.

There was no raging gale, no dazzling light.

There was not even the slightest ripple in the surrounding air.

Chen Xin remained frozen in his saluting posture, stunned on the spot, his mouth slightly open.

A living, breathing person had disappeared right before him, less than three feet away.

"What... what kind of movement technique is that?"

Chen Xin swallowed, his heart surging with monstrous waves.

He recalled what the man had just said.

He had lived so long he could barely remember it himself.

Just how many years would an old monster have to live to say something so terrifying in such an understated tone?

At the same time, outside the light screen, Douluo Continent was in an uproar.

Heaven Dou Imperial City, inside the main hall of the Seven Treasure Glazed Tile Sect.

The folding fan in Ning Fengzhi's hand had long since fallen to the floor. He stared fixedly at the empty courtyard inside the Sky Screen, his breathing growing heavy.

"Uncle Sword has truly encountered a real god this time."

Ning Fengzhi turned his head and looked at Bone Douluo beside him.

"Uncle Bone, what do you think this person's background is? Lived too long? Could he be an old senior from a hundred years ago? But judging from his appearance, he's clearly a young man in his early twenties."

Gu Rong's face was also extremely grave. He scratched his graying hair.

"Sect Master, the waters of the Great Ruins run too deep. We can't even see the limits of someone like Yankang Imperial Preceptor, the number one beneath the gods. And now another old monster who's forgotten even his own name has appeared."

"To casually hand out a pass token for the ninth floor of the Imperial Academy... this person's status in Yankang definitely can't be low."

Inside Spirit City.

Bibi Dong leaned against the Supreme Pontiff's throne, her beautiful eyes narrowing tightly.

She disliked this feeling of things slipping beyond her control.

"Lived too long?"

Bibi Dong gave a cold laugh.

"Just playing tricks and putting on airs. Even if there really are arts that preserve one's appearance, it's impossible to reverse aging this completely. I'd like to see exactly what kind of mystery this person is pretending to be."

Though she said that aloud, the wariness in Bibi Dong's heart deepened by several degrees.

In that higher-dimensional world, even some young master drinking tea in the Imperial Academy's rear garden exuded an unfathomable air.

It cast a shadow over the hearts of all the experts on Douluo Continent.

Everyone was frantically guessing who exactly this handsome white-robed man was.

Anticipation continued to ferment in everyone's hearts.

Within the Sky Screen's image.

Chen Xin stood beside the stone table for a good while before slowly calming his excited emotions.

He reached out with both hands and very respectfully picked up the wooden token on the stone table, tucking it close against his body inside his robe.

After leaving the quiet courtyard, Chen Xin retraced his steps and returned to the main road of the Imperial Academy.

There were still many students in the Imperial Academy.

Young people gathered in twos and threes by the roadside, discussing their studies.

"The Thunderfire Formation diagram you drew last night was short one energy node. If it were really used on a battlefield, it'd be very easy for the furnace to explode."

"Ugh, my foundation in mathematics is still too weak. I'll have to go ask a senior from the Formation Hall for advice later."

As Chen Xin listened to these words, he found them extremely novel.

On Douluo Continent, whenever soul masters gathered together, what they discussed was always how to hunt soul beasts and how to obtain higher-year soul rings.

But the people here were all studying mathematics, studying formations, studying how to use their own intelligence to leverage the vital energy between heaven and earth.

This was a completely different cultivation atmosphere.

It was full of vigorous life.

After walking for about half an incense stick's time, A majestic building that towered into the clouds appeared ahead.

The entire building was constructed from enormous blue-green stones, exuding an ancient, heavy air.

Copper bells hung from the upturned eaves of the building, and when the wind blew, they rang out with crisp chimes.

Directly above the main entrance hung a plaque with a black background and gold lettering.

On it were written three large characters: Library Pavilion.

The doors of the Library Pavilion stood wide open. Outside the doors were two wooden chairs, where two old men sat with their eyes closed, resting.

The two old men wore gray coarse-cloth robes and looked very unremarkable.

But with just one glance, Chen Xin felt his scalp tighten.

The two old men sat there, their breathing long and even, as if they had merged with the surrounding bluestone slabs and the doors.

If one did not look with the eyes and relied only on perception, there would be no way to discover that two people were sitting there.

These were true experts.

Chen Xin took a deep breath and stepped up before the two old men.

"Two seniors, I am Chen Xin. I would like to enter the Library Pavilion to borrow and read some classics."

Chen Xin's attitude was very respectful, and he bent slightly at the waist in salute.

The slightly plumper old man on the left slowly opened his eyes and looked Chen Xin up and down.

"An unfamiliar face."

The fat old man yawned, his voice rather lazy.

"A newly arrived instructor? Or a student auditing lessons? Take out your waist token and let me see it."

"You may browse the books from the first to the third floors as you please."

"For the fourth floor and above, that will depend on your permission level."

Chen Xin reached into his clothes and took out the wooden token the white-robed young master had given him earlier.

"This was given to me by that young master."

Chen Xin handed the wooden token over with both hands.

The fat old man casually reached out to take it.

But when his fingers touched the edge of the wooden token and he saw clearly the strange patterns on it, The fat old man's movements froze instantly.

His originally cloudy old eyes suddenly went round, his eyeballs nearly bulging out.

The thin old man beside him also sensed that something was wrong and opened his eyes to glance over.

With just that one glance, the thin old man sprang straight up from the wooden chair.

"This... this is!"

The thin old man pointed at the wooden token, his fingers trembling.

The two experts, whose ages probably added up to over a hundred, now looked as if they had seen some unbelievable divine object, and the expressions on their faces were wonderfully dramatic.

The fat old man hurriedly stood up, held the wooden token in both hands, and carefully confirmed it several times.

Afterward, the way he looked at Chen Xin changed instantly.

The laziness and casualness from before were gone, replaced by a deep reverence, and even a hint of ingratiation.

"This token... that person actually gave this token to you?"

The fat old man swallowed, lowering his voice as if afraid of disturbing something.

"Sir, you... you have met His Excellency?"

Chen Xin watched the two old gatekeepers' reactions, and doubt stirred in his heart.

It was just a wooden token. Was it really worth being this frightened?

"I got lost in the rear garden just now and happened to meet a young master in white robes."

"He invited me to drink a cup of tea, then gave me this token."

Chen Xin answered truthfully.

Hearing the words "drink a cup of tea," the fat old man and the thin old man exchanged a glance, and both saw deep envy in each other's eyes.

"Old sir, what a heaven-sent fortune."

The fat old man respectfully handed the wooden token back to Chen Xin, his attitude having become polite to the utmost.

"Since you have that elder's token, you may go to all nine floors of the Library Pavilion."

"Please enter, old sir. Just head straight to the top floor."

The two old men stepped back to either side, opening up a wide path, and even bent slightly at the waist in a gesture of invitation.

This scene made the people of Douluo outside the light screen erupt once again.

Inside Shrek Academy.

Dai Mubai slammed a fist into the tree trunk beside him, his face full of astonishment.

"Damn! What exactly is that token? Two unfathomable gatekeeping old men are actually being this polite to Senior Chen Xin?"

Oscar rubbed his chin, his peach-blossom eyes shining with gossip.

"Looks like we all underestimated that tea-brewing young master's identity. If even a single token can scare them like this, he's definitely a reclusive powerhouse in Yankang Kingdom whose word is law."

"Could he be... Yankang Emperor's father?"

Ma Hongjun rolled his eyes at the side.

"Is there a hole in your head? The emperor's father would look that young? I think he's probably an old monster who's lived for over a thousand years and has been living in seclusion inside the Imperial Academy all this time."

No matter how everyone guessed, their anticipation had already been pushed to the limit by this wooden token and the gatekeepers' reactions.

Everyone was impatient to know what earth-shaking secret was hidden on the ninth floor of the Library Pavilion.

In the Sky Screen's image.

Chen Xin thanked them, put away the wooden token, stepped over the tall threshold, and entered the Library Pavilion.

The space inside the Library Pavilion was very large.

The first-floor hall was filled with rows of tall bookshelves, and a faint scent of ink drifted through the air.

Many students dressed in blue robes sat at wooden tables beside the bookshelves, quietly reading through ancient texts.

Chen Xin did not stop. He followed the wide wooden staircase beside him and went all the way up.

The wooden boards creaked softly beneath his feet.

The second floor, the third floor, the fourth floor...

The farther up he went, the fewer people he encountered.

The texts on the bookshelves also changed from ordinary paper books into thick beast-hide scrolls, and even jade slips engraved with runes.

When Chen Xin stepped onto the final few stairs leading to the ninth floor, there was already no one around him.

He pushed open the thick nanmu door of the ninth floor.

An old, ancient aura rushed toward him.

The space on the ninth floor was much smaller than the floors below, and the light was dimmer too.

Sunlight shone in through the carved wooden windows, forming several golden pillars of light in midair, making the tiny motes of dust drifting up and down in the air clearly visible.

There were only four redwood bookshelves here, standing alone in the center of the room.

There were not many texts placed on the shelves; altogether, there were probably only a few dozen.

But Chen Xin could sense that every single text was wreathed in a faint, almost imperceptible fluctuation of vital energy.

He slowed his steps and walked up to the first bookshelf.

Inside one of the shelf compartments lay a thick, yellowed ancient book, quietly resting there.

Chen Xin reached out with both hands and carefully lifted the ancient book.

On the cover of the book, several large characters were written in ancient seal script:

<Sword Principle Deduction and Compilation of Basic Formation Diagrams>.

He opened the first page.

What entered his eyes was not the kind of simple diagram from Douluo Continent that taught people how to circulate soul power or how to swing a sword.

Instead, it was a complicated blueprint covered in dense lines and circles.

Beside the blueprint, rows upon rows of tiny characters had been written.

Chen Xin leaned in for a closer look.

"When the sword is drawn three-tenths, gather force at a single point, borrow the momentum of the wind, and calculate the distance through space."

"When a sword cultivator faces an enemy, it is not a contest of brute strength."

"One must see through the weakness in the opponent's footing and use mathematics to deduce where their next step will land."

"Before the enemy moves, I already know."

Looking at these theories he had never seen before, Chen Xin's breathing slowly grew rapid.

He kept flipping onward.

The contents recorded in the pages became more and more profound.

From how to calculate the effect of wind speed on sword energy, to how to use geometric formation diagrams to divide sword radiance.

There were even methods for combining the circulation paths of one's own vital energy with the five elements between heaven and earth.

"This... how is this practicing the sword?"

The hands with which Chen Xin held the ancient text trembled slightly.

"This is clearly analyzing the rules by which this world operates!"

On the Douluo Continent, soul skills were fixed, and damage was rigid.

Whatever skill a soul ring granted, that was the only skill a soul master could use.

But this book, Sword Principle Deduction, was telling him that as long as one mastered mathematics and formation diagrams, even an ordinary tree branch could unleash the power to split mountains and sever peaks.

This was a cultivation method that pushed subjective initiative to its absolute limit.

Chen Xin became utterly absorbed.

He sat down cross-legged right beside the bookshelf, placed the ancient text on his knees, and read with desperate hunger.

In his mind, he began unconsciously deducing the lines and formulas in the book.

Who knew how much time passed?

Chen Xin turned to the final page of the ancient text.

There were no complicated formation diagrams on this page, only a handwritten note.

The ink had already dried somewhat, and it looked as if it had been left many years ago.

Chen Xin narrowed his eyes, carefully making out that line of somewhat wild cursive handwriting.

"Calculate all you like; in the end, it is still a minor path."

"A swordsman would rather break than bend."

"Let there be a thousand formations and ten thousand arts—I shall break them all with one sword."

"Left by Su Muzhe."

Just those few simple sentences.

When Chen Xin first saw them, he felt this person spoke with outrageous arrogance, actually daring to leave such a conceited note in this classic that represented the foundation of Yankang's reform.

But when his gaze fell on the three characters "Su Muzhe"...

A sudden change occurred.

Under Chen Xin's stare, the ink that had been dry and black actually seemed to come alive.

Each stroke was no longer ordinary handwriting. In an instant, they transformed into streaks of world-shaking, invisible sword energy, following Chen Xin's eyes and stabbing viciously straight into his mind!

Buzz!

Chen Xin only felt a thunderous roar in his head, while the crisp keening of ten thousand swords firing at once rang beside his ears.

In that instant, the Library Pavilion around him vanished, and the bookshelves vanished.

It was as though he had been dragged into a strange space formed purely from sword intent.

At the very center of that space stood a blurred figure seen from behind.

That back was not tall; it even looked somewhat lonely.

But he held a sword in his hand, and as he stood there so casually, a terrifying edge that made even heaven and earth tremble shot into the sky.

There were no intricate formations, no precise mathematics.

There was only slaughter so pure it could be no purer, only that heaven-defying will that seemed ready to split even this vast firmament in two!

"This..."