Spirit Refining Instruction
Although the Azure Cloud Sect's Scripture Repository was called a pavilion, it was nothing like other pavilion-style buildings. It was a pagoda.
The pagoda had nine floors. On one hand, nine was the highest of numbers; on the other, cultivators' realms were divided into nine levels. Each floor held Cultivation Methods and secret techniques corresponding to a particular realm.
Yi Xuan had once heard the Supreme Elder explain that, when the Azure Cloud Sect was first founded, its strongest member had only reached the Late Grain Avoidance Stage. Back then, the sect was unknown even in the country where it now stood, let alone across the Southern Frontier.
Although the sect was weak at the time, its leader was full of hope for its future. The highest-level manuals the sect possessed, including Cultivation Methods and secret arts, only reached the Grain Avoidance Realm, yet he had built this nine-story tower, hoping that one day the sect's descendants would fill it with Cultivation Methods and secret techniques.
Even Yi Xuan had to marvel at how boldly this founding ancestor had dreamed. After thousands of years of development, the highest-level Cultivation Methods the Azure Cloud Sect possessed were still only Nascent Soul Realm manuals, and even those were exceedingly few.
He had no idea when the founding ancestor's grand wish would come true. Still, Yi Xuan firmly believed that as long as descendants like him lived up to their hopes, the sect's Scripture Repository would one day become what the ancestor had envisioned.
A great defensive formation, jointly laid down by the sect's elders, enveloped the entire Scripture Repository. Unless the sect faced a calamity that threatened its very existence, the repository was probably the safest place in the whole sect.
Each floor inside the Scripture Repository had its own formation. Unlike the defensive formation outside, the formations within had no offensive function. Instead, they tested entrants' strength, allowing them through only if they possessed the requisite strength.
Take Yi Xuan's junior sister Mu Anqing, for example. She could enter the first and second floors without trouble, but she could not enter the third floor or any above it.
Thus, the minimum requirement for entering the third floor was strength at the Grain Avoidance Realm, and each subsequent floor required one realm more. From the fifth floor onward, however, the Nascent Soul Realm was all that was required, since the sect had no experts at a higher realm.
There was one exception in the sect: Yi Xuan. Aside from the sect's Nascent Soul ancestors, he was the only person permitted to roam the entire Scripture Repository without restriction.
That was because Yi Xuan was a Rootless Person. The sect imposed cultivation requirements on the Scripture Repository for fear that its members would aim too high and waste their efforts for nothing.
But for Yi Xuan, that was no concern at all.
Aim too high? Yi Xuan could already see the end of his cultivation journey at a glance; there was no possibility of his rushing ahead. Thus, after the sect leader, his master, discussed the matter with the Supreme Elder, the Scripture Repository was opened to Yi Xuan in its entirety.
Yi Xuan went straight up the tower without so much as looking at the first five floors. As he passed the fifth floor in particular, the few Jade Slips containing Nascent Soul Realm Cultivation Methods and secret arts seemed unable to arouse the slightest interest in him.
He reached the sixth floor, his destination this time.
This floor was completely different from the five below it. The number of Jade Slips stored here actually exceeded the total on the first five floors.
Of course, what was stored here was not Spirit Transformation Realm Cultivation Methods, but thousands of years of sect records.
Yi Xuan quickly immersed himself in the Jade Slips recording the sect's development over the past several thousand years.
Time slowly passed as Yi Xuan examined the Jade Slips, and two days went by in the blink of an eye. Having searched through them all, he found that, apart from the predecessor he had already discovered, who had also been a Rootless Person, there was no record of another Rootless Person in the sect.
Somewhat helpless, Yi Xuan stood up dejectedly and went over to a shelf at the far edge of the floor. A single Jade Slip sat alone on its top tier.
It was the very Jade Slip that recorded the sect's Rootless Person predecessor, and Yi Xuan himself had put it there.
In the period shortly after he had been confirmed as a Rootless Person, Yi Xuan had often come to read that Jade Slip, so he had set it apart here.
Yi Xuan had lost count of how many times he had read its contents, but he opened the Jade Slip once again and examined it with his Divine Sense.
The words that appeared in his Divine Sense were so familiar. When he had been confirmed as a Rootless Person twenty years ago, Yi Xuan had read these records about Rootless Persons countless times.
He read the account of that predecessor from beginning to end once more and felt somewhat disappointed. It seemed his hope of learning more about the characteristics of Rootless Persons had come to nothing.
Just as Yi Xuan was about to withdraw his Divine Sense from the Jade Slip, he suddenly noticed something he had never noticed before: beneath the account of that predecessor was a passage recording events in the sect.
And after skipping past that passage, he found yet another account relating to the Rootless Person.
"What's going on? Did I miss this before? Or did the records in this Jade Slip change? I don't think I saw any of this before," Yi Xuan muttered to himself.
At the same time, he examined the passage closely.
Unfortunately, the passage had nothing to do with what Yi Xuan wanted to learn about Rootless Persons. Instead, it recorded a Cultivation Method that the predecessor had created during his long process of Qi Refining, called the "Spirit Refining Instruction."
This Cultivation Method was completely different from Cultivation Methods in the traditional sense: it was one that allowed Rootless Persons to cultivate.
Yi Xuan was thrilled. He had only come this time to try his luck again and see whether he could find more information about Rootless Persons, yet he had discovered something in the Jade Slip that he had never found before.
Moreover, it recorded that the Rootless Person predecessor had created a Cultivation Method that allowed Rootless Persons to cultivate.
Unable to contain his excitement, Yi Xuan grabbed the Jade Slip and ran outside.
At the entrance, he saw that the Supreme Elder was still sleeping in his chair. Paying no heed to respect for his teacher and reverence for the Dao, Yi Xuan hurried up to him and asked, "Supreme Elder? Supreme Elder? Have you heard of the 'Spirit Refining Instruction'?"
The Supreme Elder, who had been feigning sleep, heard the name Yi Xuan mentioned and nodded. "What is it? Have you finally seen the passage further on?"
"Uh!" Hearing that, Yi Xuan realized that the contents of the Jade Slip had not changed after all; he simply had not noticed that passage before.
"So you've seen the account of that predecessor too. Do you know where the 'Spirit Refining Instruction' is? Can that Cultivation Method really let Rootless Persons cultivate?"
The Supreme Elder gave a helpless smile. "It can indeed let Rootless Persons cultivate, but you'd better not get your hopes up. The book is in the northeast corner of the Scripture Repository's first floor. You can find it and take a look, and you'll understand the situation!"