Purple Item, Human Skin Book

The moment Chen Xun entered the Martial Repository Pavilion, he froze in place, his eyes filled with shock.

"What's wrong?"

The person guarding the Martial Repository Pavilion looked at Chen Xun in confusion.

"Nothing."

Chen Xun hurriedly shook his head, revealing an excited smile.

The other person did not pursue the matter further.

"The first floor contains low-level martial arts, forty-eight kinds in total. You may choose any one to practice."

"But remember, manuals cannot be taken outside the residence. Seven days after borrowing a manual, it must be returned."

"If you teach martial arts to others without permission and the residence finds out, the consequences will be quite severe. Do you understand?"

By this point, the person's tone had turned stern.

Chen Xun hurriedly nodded. "I understand. I will absolutely never teach anyone any martial arts from the residence without permission. Otherwise, may I die a miserable death."

Only after hearing Chen Xun's guarantee did the other person nod in satisfaction.

Afterward, the man stood to one side, watching Chen Xun choose a martial art.

Ignoring the watchful gaze upon him, Chen Xun immediately pounced on a manual resting on a shelf.

"Purple—it's actually purple equipment."

Chen Xun cried out in delight inwardly.

Besides this piece of purple equipment, there were several blue items, several green items, and more than a dozen white items on the first floor of the Martial Repository Pavilion.

Chen Xun had frozen just now because the glow of all this equipment had nearly blinded him.

"Why are there so many items here?"

Chen Xun did not quite understand.

Soon afterward, he stopped dwelling on it and carefully examined the attributes of the purple item in his hand.

[Iron Garment Art Manual (Purple)]

[Attribute: Iron Vest Training Boost (Blue)]

[Attribute: Iron Garment Art · Perfection (Purple)]

[Attribute: Absorption Acceleration (Blue)]

[Attribute: Iron Vest (Purple)]

[This is a manual made from the tanned skin of someone who had attained Major Accomplishment in the Iron Garment Art.]

"Hiss, a human skin book."

Chen Xun felt a chill creep over his skin as he muttered inwardly.

"I wonder whether it was flayed from him alive before he died."

At that thought, goosebumps rose all over Chen Xun's body.

Yet despite his aversion to this human skin book, Chen Xun showed no sign of letting go. Instead, he clutched it tightly to his chest.

Afterward, he examined the other items in succession.

Among them were three blue items, five green items, and twelve white items.

From Chen Xun's observations, these items either had unusual materials or were old in appearance. Most had been passed down for ten or twenty years.

This gave Chen Xun a vague idea of how these items came to be.

Among the five green items was an Iron Cloth Shirt manual, but its attributes were utterly incomparable to those of the Iron Garment Art manual.

Since he could only choose one manual, Chen Xun did not hesitate in the slightest and directly chose the Iron Garment Art.

"This one."

Chen Xun said.

"Alright, I'll register it for you."

As the man registered it, he reminded Chen Xun to take good care of the book. If it was damaged, Chen Xun would have to bear a certain degree of responsibility.

Furthermore, Chen Xun could borrow it for no more than half a month. If he had not returned it after half a month, someone would come to question him in person.

At that point, if he did not have a reasonable excuse, even the lightest punishment would be a fine.

Once the registration was complete, the man recommended another service to Chen Xun: the Manual Translation Service.

Quite a few Martial Artists of the Li Family had been selected from among the servants, and most of them were illiterate.

Even with a manual in their hands, they could not understand it.

Thus, the Martial Repository Pavilion had introduced this Manual Translation Service. It could accurately translate the contents of a manual one-on-one, allowing Martial Artists to avoid taking winding roads.

The fee was not expensive either: one tael of silver per manual.

After thinking it over, Chen Xun still gritted his teeth and took out that tael of silver.

Though he could barely read himself, once an item manual was placed in his Inventory, he could learn it immediately.

But he did not want to arouse suspicion, so he could only grit his teeth and pay the tael of silver.

Three hours later, Chen Xun walked out of the Martial Repository Pavilion.

Chen Xun had gained a preliminary understanding of the cultivation method for the Iron Garment Art.

If there was anything he did not understand later, he could come back and ask, but the service was only valid for seven days.

After seven days, if he wanted further consultation, he would have to pay another tael of silver.

"What a waste of my tael of silver."

Chen Xun felt a pang of heartache. One tael of silver had once been his hard-earned wages for an entire month, and now it was simply gone.

"Chen Xun, I heard you chose the Iron Garment Art, not the Iron Cloth Shirt."

A voice suddenly rang out.

Li Peng stood by the roadside with a gloating expression, as though he had been waiting for Chen Xun for quite some time.

"How did you know?"

Chen Xun frowned as he looked at him.

"Heh, wasn't that easy? I just asked the people inside."

Li Peng smiled smugly.

In truth, he had spent some money to buy this information. Otherwise, no one would have told him for no reason at all.

Chen Xun could only shake his head helplessly at that.

Even if he knew who had leaked the information, there was nothing he could do to them.

After all, outsiders could not stay in the Martial Repository Tower. The staff here were all members of the Li Family.

"Tell me, if Captain Luo Shan finds out you lied to him, what do you think his reaction will be?"

Li Peng said complacently.

He stared fixedly at Chen Xun, seemingly hoping to see the expressions he wanted on Chen Xun's face—panic, regret, anger, and the like.

However, Chen Xun's expression remained calm.

The moment he had chosen the Iron Garment Art, he had already prepared himself mentally for this.

"Are you done?"

"If you are, stop blocking the road."

With a sweep of his hand, Chen Xun pushed Li Peng aside and walked away without looking back.

"Good. Very good. Once I tell Captain Luo Shan about this, let's see how you'll remain in the Medicine Escort Team afterward."

Li Peng glared at Chen Xun's retreating back and spoke sharply.

Chen Xun had already gone far away and did not hear Li Peng's threat.

Right now, all he wanted was to equip the purple item in his hand as quickly as possible.

He hurried back to the Martial Artist Courtyard. Once he returned to his room, he looked around, saw that no one was there, and immediately breathed a sigh of relief.

He then took an Ironwood Saber out of his Inventory, considered it for a moment, and placed it beneath the bed.

One Inventory slot could only hold one item.

Items were different from ordinary objects and could not be placed in the same Inventory slot together.

Therefore, if Chen Xun wanted to equip a new item, he could only replace an old one.

After emptying an Inventory slot, Chen Xun impatiently placed the Iron Garment Art Manual (Purple) inside.

The instant he put it in, Chen Xun felt a torrent of information surge into his mind.

The next moment, Chen Xun briefly lost consciousness as his brain began rapidly processing the massive amount of incoming information.

Once he regained consciousness, his head immediately felt swollen. This was the aftereffect of receiving too much information in too short a time.

Rubbing his head, Chen Xun began sorting through the information he had received.

Once he had finished organizing it, an uncontrollable smile appeared on Chen Xun's face.

"Good, excellent. It truly deserves to be a purple item."

Chen Xun could not help but marvel.

With the assistance of the [Attribute: Iron Garment Art · Perfection (Purple)], as long as this item remained in Chen Xun's Inventory, he could cultivate the Iron Garment Art to the Perfection realm at the fastest possible speed.

It was equivalent to someone who had already cultivated the Iron Garment Art to Perfection dispersing his cultivation and starting over. How could the speed not be fast?

Besides that, the [Attribute: Iron Vest Training Boost (Blue)] could further increase Chen Xun's cultivation speed for the Iron Garment Art.

It was equivalent to gaining a 50% experience boost buff.

There was also the [Attribute: Absorption Acceleration (Blue)]. This attribute could help Chen Xun more efficiently absorb the essence of all kinds of food, medicinal soups, and even medicinal baths.

Taking Blood-Strength Powder as an example, when Chen Xun normally consumed a dose of Blood-Strength Powder, he could only absorb around thirty percent of its medicinal effect.

But with the help of the [Attribute: Absorption Acceleration (Blue)], that efficiency could rise to forty percent, or even fifty percent.

To Chen Xun, this attribute was even more surprising than the Perfect Iron Garment Art attribute.

With this attribute, Chen Xun's cultivation speed would greatly improve in the future.

It would also save him quite a bit of expense.

The final [Attribute: Iron Vest (Purple)] was an even more godlike skill.

It could form a transparent defensive energy field over the surface of Chen Xun's skin, with defensive power equivalent to the Iron Garment Art at the Perfection realm.

Once Chen Xun also cultivated the Iron Garment Art to Perfection, that would mean double defense.

At a critical moment, it could save his life.

"I absolutely cannot return this item."

This powerful thought surfaced in Chen Xun's mind.

As for exactly how he could pull the wool over the heavens and cross the sea, Chen Xun had not yet thought of a good method. For now, he could only proceed slowly and make plans step by step.