Chapter 769: Reading All the Startling Books in One Night

The library of the Startling Academy stood tall and imposing, conspicuous in the silent night.

After a few breaths, Zhang Xuan landed on a large tree in the courtyard.

“The academy’s library requires a student ID and credits; otherwise, you can’t get in at all…”

He scratched his head.

He had thought that as long as he found the library, he could push the door open and slip in to read books unnoticed. Only upon arriving did he realize it wasn’t that simple.

The academy’s library, like the Sea of Artifacts where he had taken the artificer exam, required a student ID and credits to open. He had neither, so even if he reached the entrance, it would be difficult to enter.

If he forced his way in and triggered the mechanisms, it might alert the academy’s elders, causing no small trouble.

“Could it be… that I came all this way only to turn back?”

He felt helpless.

Having come, returning without reading a single book, empty-handed, was truly inexcusable.

“By the way, the library’s mechanisms and formations work against cultivators, but what about the soul? The soul is formless and intangible—can it enter?”

A thought struck him.

The library was controlled by formations and mechanisms that verified credits and student IDs. The soul, being formless and invisible, probably wasn’t subject to these restrictions, right?

Previously, even if the soul could move, he had to touch books with his hand to store them in the library. Now, simply looking was enough… That meant he could use only his soul to record books into his sea of consciousness!

“Let’s try!”

The more he thought about it, the more excited he became. He hid his body among the dense leaves, then with a mental command, his soul left his body.

In the dark night, it drifted down like a ghost.

The library’s main door was tightly shut. In a nearby room, a few students were guarding the entrance.

Just as he was wondering how to get in, he heard footsteps behind him. A figure approached slowly.

With a mental command, his soul hid to one side.

“Senior sisters, I’d like to enter the library to look up some materials!” The figure came to the front and bowed to the guarding students.

It was a woman around thirty years old. On her chest, a master teacher badge shone with five dazzling stars.

A five-star lower-rank master teacher, likely a second-year student.

“Student ID and credits!” The senior student in charge of the library raised his eyelids.

These students were probably working part-time, guarding the library to earn credits.

“Yes!” The student handed over her ID and credit card.

After a moment, the senior student nodded: “You’re a second-year student, so you can only read books up to the third-year level. If you go beyond, you’ll be expelled immediately. Also, one credit allows you to study for ten hours. You may not take books out or copy them!”

“Yes!” The student nodded.

She was already familiar with these rules.

“Alright, go in!”

After stating the rules, the senior student waved his hand. The student walked forward with her ID and credit card, placed them gently on the stone platform in front of the door, and with a creak, the library door slowly opened.

“Good opportunity!”

Knowing that someone was entering presented a perfect chance. Zhang Xuan hesitated no longer. His soul followed closely behind and slipped in with a flicker.

Upon entering the doorway, a spacious hall appeared before him. The walls were covered with various night pearls, illuminating the interior brightly as if it were day.

Rows of bookshelves lined up before him, filled with countless books.

“As expected of a master teacher academy—truly rich in collections…”

Zhang Xuan’s eyes lit up.

The Startling profession was relatively niche. Under normal circumstances, such books would be few, but this was a master teacher academy where everyone was a master teacher with their own ideas and insights. Accumulated over time, the collection had grown.

“I’ll record them first and examine them later…”

Knowing there were too many books and searching specifically for soul techniques would be troublesome, his soul flickered to the beginning of the bookshelves and focused his gaze.

“Flaw!”

He called out in his mind, and immediately felt books being copied into the library.

His eyes were like scanners; once he looked at a book, it was fully recorded. The speed was indeed several times faster than before, when he had to run.

“Excellent…”

His eyes gleamed. Zhang Xuan concentrated, his gaze like lightning.

Rustle!

Countless books flickered continuously. The bookshelves in the Library of Heaven’s Path grew fuller, with more and more books.

After two hours, he had looked through all the books in the hall, and corresponding volumes had formed in his mind.

“On to the second floor…”

After finishing the first floor, his soul moved to the second floor.

This floor had noticeably fewer books than the first, but the content was more advanced.

Like alchemists and artificers, Startling Masters were also divided into nine stars. The first floor contained content from apprentice to four-star peak, while the second floor held cultivation techniques and content for various five-star lower-rank dances.

Zhang Xuan accepted everything, moving along the shelves and reading book after book.

An hour later, he had recorded all the content on this floor.

“Continue…”

Knowing that since he had come to the Startling Academy, he should make the most of it, he hurried toward the third floor.

Under normal circumstances, first-year students could only access the first and second floors; the third floor was off-limits. This was a barrier set by the academy to prevent students from biting off more than they could chew.

However, while such a barrier could easily stop students, it was difficult to stop a soul. With a mental command, his soul turned into a stream, slipped through the barrier, and ascended.

The books on the third floor were even fewer. This time, he finished reading them in half an hour.

Then came the fourth, fifth, and sixth floors!

Before long, the contents of the six floors were all imprinted in his mind. The remaining three floors together took only an hour.

In other words, in less than five hours, all the books in the Startling Academy’s library had been absorbed into his mind.

“I’ll examine them carefully when I get back!”

Zhang Xuan smiled, looking very satisfied.

Earlier, he had wondered how to find an opportunity to read at the Startling Academy. Unexpectedly, he had accomplished it just by following Hu Yaoyao.

Moreover, with this experience of reading with his soul, could he do the same when entering other academies?

“If so, in ten days, I can probably finish reading the books of the ten major academies. Then… I can break through to higher realms, even the Saint realm, and leave this place smoothly!”

His eyes shone.

As long as he had enough books to gather enough Heaven’s Path techniques, advancing would be as easy as drinking water.

His purpose in coming to the master teacher academy was to read books. Now that the Library of Heaven’s Path had evolved, his soul could accomplish this, allowing him to study in secret.

Even without credits, it didn’t matter.

Thus, in ten days, he could probably read all the content, compile it into Heaven’s Path books… and break through in one go!

In ten days, advancing from the Bridge Transcendence realm through the Unity realm, Void Step realm, Silkworm Seal realm, Half-Saint, Sub-Saint, and Saint—six major levels—while also learning the ten professions to reach six-star peak…

Just thinking about it was exhilarating.

“Let me first try the Startling Master profession…”

Knowing this was just a plan and that actual implementation might be more troublesome, Zhang Xuan smiled and focused his mind on his sea of consciousness.

Whoosh!

A series of brand-new Heaven’s Path Startling techniques appeared before him.

There were six in total.

They represented the levels from one-star to six-star.

“Books on the soul!”

He glanced outside and saw that dawn was approaching. There wasn’t enough time to study, so he turned his attention to the other books on the shelves.

Rustle!

With his thought, all the books related to soul cultivation gathered together.

“Correct!”

He called out again, and a brand-new book appeared.

Knowing that this might be related to suppressing the innate fetal poison in his soul, Zhang Xuan suppressed his excitement and quickly looked through it.

He finished reading it shortly.

His expression turned grim.

“These are just methods to strengthen the soul, and the content is incomplete. They won’t do much against the fetal poison…”

The Heaven’s Path technique formed from the many books could increase soul strength, but it couldn’t counter the innate fetal poison.

In other words, after all his efforts tonight, he hadn’t found a way to combat the innate fetal poison in his soul.

“What now?”

He was deeply frustrated.

For him now, the urgent priority was not to strengthen his soul but to find a way to suppress the innate fetal poison within it. Otherwise, if the poison acted up, he might die without knowing how.

He had thought that the Startling profession, with its deep study of the soul, would provide a good solution through the books here. Now it seemed he had been too naive.

Indeed, if the innate fetal poison were so easy to resolve, the Heavenly Human Master Teacher would have found a way long before him, and wouldn’t have had to wait until breaking through to nine-star master teacher to completely eliminate it.

“These methods can increase soul power. Let’s see if they can be integrated into the soul cultivation techniques!”

These alone were not systematic and couldn’t form a Heaven’s Path cultivation method. However, he had obtained the soul cultivation techniques from Mortal Transformation levels one to nine from Mo Hansheng. He wondered if the two could be merged to form a Heaven’s Path level technique.

Previously, the Heaven’s Path technique only reached the Spirit Fusion realm, so his soul power had only been cultivated to that level. With so many books now, he could try to fuse them.

“Correct!”

He placed these books together with the soul cultivation techniques.

He called out softly.

Rustle!

Two books appeared before him. He quickly grabbed them and flipped through them.

“Soul cultivation techniques for the Bridge Transcendence and Unity realms… no flaws—they’ve reached Heaven’s Path level!”

After reading for a while, Zhang Xuan was so excited he almost laughed out loud.

He had thought he would gain nothing, but unexpectedly, when these manuals were combined with the soul cultivation techniques, they produced Heaven’s Path level manuals.

The cultivation techniques for the Bridge Transcendence and Unity realms were now complete.

With these two books, it was foreseeable that he could easily advance his soul to the Unity realm, greatly increasing his strength.

Although increasing soul power couldn’t completely eliminate the innate fetal poison, it could help restrain it.

“Alright, it’s dawn. Time to go back…”

After finishing all this, he looked outside again. The sun was leaping over the eastern horizon, and the sky had brightened.