Chapter 21
The inside of the Dark Scripture Pavilion was filled with the smell of old dust.
Rows and rows of shelves stretched before me.
Every shelf was packed with books.
And every single book was a martial arts manual.
They said Shaolin's Scripture Pavilion contained all the martial arts under heaven.
I wondered...
Did even that place have more manuals than this?
And what about the Divine Cult's Demon Scripture Pavilion?
The amount here was enough to make thoughts wander.
Everyone...
The other five had already scattered.
Fortunately, all six of us practiced very different martial arts.
So our routes barely overlapped.
The repository was neatly organized.
Manuals had been categorized by type.
I had expected to waste a lot of time simply searching.
At least that wasn't a problem.
Swish.
I looked around once.
Then headed first toward the section containing footwork and movement techniques.
Martial arts.
Combat sports.
Anything involving fighting.
The lower body, steps, and movement always formed one of the most important foundations.
That was why people usually learned them early.
And because all the other trainees already had their own movement arts...
No one came to this section.
Just looking at the names...
I couldn't tell which manuals were good.
I still didn't have enough knowledge of the martial world.
Instant Step...
Body Shift...
Thunder God Movement...
Fighting Serpent Method...
Dominating Steps...?
I scanned titles that sounded impressive.
Then I remembered something.
My time was limited.
I had to move faster.
I reached toward one shelf.
Swish, swish.
Something moved inside me.
Heukrang's tail.
Heukrang?
Heukrang lay lazily with his chin on his paws.
Only his tail moved.
That wasn't random.
It reacted as though something had stimulated him.
Curious...
I moved my hand to another manual.
Swish, swish, swish.
His tail wagged harder.
He was definitely reacting to the manuals.
Heukrang...
Why?
What kind of thing always triggered his strongest interest?
After sharing my body with him for some time...
The answer came easily.
Food.
Heukrang was always hungry.
And what he wanted to eat...
Was energy.
The residual energy inside a martial arts manual probably reflected the nature of the art itself.
Heukrang was tasting fragments of that energy.
If a manual made Heukrang hungry...
Then the energy inside had to be powerful and unusual.
That had been true of the Demon Spirit Pill.
It was true of the Demon Essence Pill too.
Poison was different.
When I'd looked at the poisoned Fasting Pills...
Heukrang hadn't reacted.
He only swallowed the poison after it had fully entered my body.
So poison wasn't really his preference.
Useful bastard.
I thought he just ate everything.
Turns out...
He was a gourmet.
Thanks to that...
Choosing martial arts suddenly became much easier.
The manuals that made his tail wag violently.
The ones that made his hunger surge.
Those should be the highest-level arts.
I placed my hand at one end of the shelf.
Then slowly walked.
As my hand passed over each manual...
Heukrang's tail reacted differently.
Some made him sigh.
Some made his tail wag five times.
I passed several shelves.
Just as I was starting to think five wags might be the maximum...
My hand brushed the very end of one shelf.
Swish! Swish! Swish! Swish! SWISH-SWISH-SWISH!
Heukrang's tail went wild.
Not just a few movements.
He wouldn't stop.
He even raised his head.
I examined the end of the shelf.
There was a narrow gap between the books and the wooden side panel.
Inside that tiny space...
Something small was hidden.
If you weren't looking carefully...
You would've assumed it was empty.
I reached inside.
Pulled out one unusually small manual.
Dust covered it.
It looked untouched for years.
Black Lightning Divine Steps?
[Black Lightning Divine Steps]
Only then did Heukrang look satisfied.
He began washing his face with his front paws.
I carefully opened the manual.
The contents were surprisingly readable.
[Within darkness where even moonlight has vanished, black lightning has no origin. When it strikes, the eye cannot follow it. Only a dying gray shadow remains where it has passed. If one grasps that sharpened edge, whose back under heaven cannot be reached?]
The opening passage immediately explained the essence of the art.
Movement like black lightning inside darkness.
Invisible.
Silent.
Leaving afterimages.
Reaching behind an opponent before they noticed.
It suited me perfectly.
Most of the combat skills I'd learned were strongest at close range.
To use them...
I needed fast movement to approach the opponent.
The Black Lightning Divine Steps could provide that.
It looked excellent.
But one question remained.
Was it truly that valuable?
Many martial arts manuals had dramatic introductions.
Why had Heukrang reacted so strongly to this one?
The answer appeared about two-thirds through the book.
What's this...?
Black Lightning Divine Fist?
[Black Lightning Divine Fist]
Another martial art appeared.
Normally...
One manual contained one martial art.
This book was different.
The second title didn't even have its own cover.
It was simply another section.
I quickly turned the page.
Another opening verse appeared.
[How can one grasp lightning without riding lightning? Drive thunder through the fist and who can block it? If the body cannot wear lightning, thunder cannot be born. Only when movement becomes lightning itself can the fist finally call down thunder.]
The meaning was simple.
You needed to learn the Black Lightning Divine Steps...
Before you could properly use the Black Lightning Divine Fist.
That was probably why both arts were written inside one manual.
Judging from the contents...
They were clearly advanced movement and fist techniques.
Then why had no one touched this book?
The answer was obvious from the empty area around me.
Footwork was one of the foundations of martial arts.
Almost every martial artist learned their own movement art early.
How many people entering the Dark Demon Well would need a completely new one?
Especially A-grade trainees who had already reached this repository.
Most would rather take something else.
On top of that...
This manual was small and hidden behind other books.
Without Heukrang...
I probably would've missed it too.
Good.
I memorize this first.
About thirty minutes had already passed.
I quickly began turning the pages.
I didn't try to deeply understand everything yet.
Instead...
I memorized the overall visual image of each page.
I was good at memorizing documents.
It was part of special operations work.
Physical documents could be lost.
They could be stolen.
And if captured...
They became leaked intelligence.
So intelligence operatives trained to imprint information directly into memory.
I flipped through the manual several times.
Forms.
Principles.
Concepts.
Internal energy routes.
口诀.
Everything.
Not as separate letters...
But as complete visual pages.
I repeated the process until I was sure the images remained in my memory.
Then I returned the manual to its hidden place.
Next...
The cultivation method section.
Unsurprisingly...
No other trainee was there either.
A cultivation method was also fundamental.
If the dantian was a jar holding internal energy...
The cultivation method created the channels directing that energy throughout the body.
I had no proper cultivation method.
That was why using internal energy once had often made me collapse.
This should be easy now.
Once you'd tasted meat...
You knew how to chew it.
I had Heukrang.
All I had to do was touch the shelves...
Then let Heukrang judge.
The stronger his reaction...
The better the martial art.
I began sweeping my hand across multiple shelves.
This time...
It didn't take long.
I passed several rows.
Eventually...
Heukrang suddenly stood up.
His tail moved wildly.
I pulled out the manual closest to my hand.
But...
Formless Art...?
[Formless Art]
The plain title disappointed me.
Among countless Demonic Arts and Divine Arts...
Heukrang chose something called Formless Art.
If he weren't here...
I would've ignored it.
But...
Never judge a book by its cover.
I trusted him and opened it.
[When heaven opened, all things beneath it received form. How then does one break heaven and rise above? Break. Break again. Break until even form itself is broken. When all form beneath heaven disappears, one reaches the state of Formlessness and may break even heaven. For man standing upon earth to covet the heavens, there is no other path.]
The introduction was profound.
Destroy form.
Reach the realm of breaking heaven.
Arrogant.
Grand.
Then I turned the page.
There...
The art's true name appeared.
[Formless Heaven-Breaking Divine Art]
Now that sounded more appropriate.
I quickly scanned the contents.
They matched the introduction.
And the moment I understood the basic principle...
I knew.
Heukrang had found something perfectly suited to me.
I already had confidence in close combat.
There couldn't have been a better cultivation method for someone like me.
According to the manual...
The Formless Heaven-Breaking Divine Art was not bound to one martial form.
Ordinary cultivation methods often forced practitioners toward martial arts that matched their internal nature.
This was completely different.
If I learned it...
I could apply internal energy directly to the combat techniques I already knew.
Even if I learned new martial arts later...
I could modify them to fit the circulation principles of the Formless Heaven-Breaking Divine Art.
Immediately...
I could imagine combinations.
Especially with the two techniques I'd found earlier.
I began memorizing the manual.
I absolutely couldn't lose this one.
Understanding could come later.
For now...
I focused entirely on scanning.
Fortunately...
The Formless Heaven-Breaking Divine Art wasn't as long as the Black Lightning Divine Steps manual.
I managed to imprint the whole thing into memory.
And right as I finished...
"Four hours are over."
"Everyone, get out."
Jo Gyun's cracked voice echoed through the repository.
Reluctantly...
I closed the manual and returned it to the corner of the shelf.
Then I turned around.
Still...
Today's harvest had been excellent.
