Chapter 92: Earth Master

Chapter 92: Chapter 92: Earth Master

The so-called Spiritual Charm is a disturbance in the Matter Field, caused when a person’s Spirituality, Life Magnet Field, and will achieve a high degree of unity.

For example, when a great calligrapher is fully engrossed in their writing, their Spirituality, Life Magnet Field, and will achieve a high degree of unity.

As the brush touches the paper, the Matter Field on its surface is disturbed, leaving behind an imprint.

Recorded within this imprint could be some of the writer’s cognitions, or perhaps some of their emotions.

The emotional impact felt by a viewer mostly originates from this.

Human blood is considered to be rich in Spiritual Charm because a single cell is, in itself, a high degree of unity between Spirituality, will, and Life Magnet Field.

Conversely, for a human as a whole, achieving this threefold unity is very difficult due to their complexity.

However, this only applies to ordinary people and apprentices. Once a Transcendent undergoes Spirit Awakening, accomplishing this is effortless.

Take Chen Qi, for instance. Regardless of whether his handwriting is beautiful, it naturally carries a certain infectious quality.

He can achieve that high degree of unity whenever he wishes.

And only those who can do this are qualified to write a Curse.

As for Spiritual Essence, it originates from the dissipation of Spirituality after a life has ended.

But once born, it is devoured and assimilated by the natural Matter Field, so it basically doesn’t exist in the real world, barring special circumstances.

The gem that dropped after Chen Qi killed Feng Xingyun in the Dream Arena was a physical manifestation of Spiritual Essence.

***

"The sea of learning truly is boundless!"

Chen Qi returned the document to its original place and casually picked up the next one.

This one was a document about Character Roots and Curses. A quick skim revealed nothing different from what Chen Qi already knew.

But at the end of the document, it mentioned that there were even higher forms of existence above Curses.

Spell, Curse Law, Curse Order, True Words, Decree, and Turing.

They all originated from the Shape Change combinations of 15 ancient scripts and possessed incredible power.

Unfortunately, the document only gave them a brief mention. Not only were there no specific construction methods, but there wasn’t even any speculation.

Clearly, the knowledge involved with these things was too high-level.

’Not bad, not bad at all. This really is a great place!’

Chen Qi put down the document with satisfaction. Although the specific knowledge he gained was limited, his horizons had certainly been broadened.

Chen Qi then continued his reading frenzy without stopping.

Time trickled by, and from beginning to end, Chen Qi maintained a constant reading speed.

This was because all the knowledge in the documents was within the scope of the Apprentice Tier.

For a self-taught Awakened like Chen Qi, it was all far too simple.

Chen Qi’s greatest gain, conversely, wasn’t how much specific knowledge he acquired.

Rather, it was in finding and filling the gaps in his own understanding.

For example, regarding the 15 Extraordinary scripts, once they were arranged into specific sentences, they could no longer be photographed or copied using ordinary technological means.

The sequence of words in a photograph would be completely scrambled, not reflecting the original meaning at all.

Regarding this strange phenomenon, researchers of ancient scripts had a bold hypothesis.

They believed that once the ancient scripts acquired a definite meaning, they transformed into a kind of special spiritual life form.

When a human used a camera to photograph them, it was equivalent to launching an attack, killing them once over.

What the camera recorded were merely their remains.

Chen Qi found this conjecture very interesting. ’If I have time, I could run some experiments.’

No wonder Lin Biyun had told him before that if he wanted to take the information out, he could only copy it by hand.

’So that’s the root of the problem.’

’It’s true, the more you know, the more you realize your own ignorance.’

***

Picking up another file, Chen Qi’s reading speed paused for a moment.

’They even have Cultivation Manuals for Fighting Techniques here?’

’And it’s a complete system, including all the Secret Techniques.’

’It seems another Martial Arts Sect made it here before the Red Falcon Sect. As for how they ended up... they’ve most likely been wiped out.’

Out of his love for Fighting Techniques, Chen Qi decided to read it slowly and carefully.

The document recorded a Martial Arts Sect called the Giant Armor Sect.

This school’s Fighting Technique specialized in defense, and its Secret Technique, [Three Armor Shield], was even said to be able to withstand cannon fire.

Chen Qi had no interest in cultivating another Fighting Technique, and cannon fire couldn’t kill him anyway. He just wanted to verify some of his own conjectures.

After some searching, Chen Qi found the original manual for the [Three Armor Shield].

It was an exquisite and vivid Iron Armor Elephant Painting, covered with lines and nodes.

Chen Qi paid no mind to the drawings on the surface, instead focusing on perceiving it in detail.

’My deduction was correct. The so-called Divine Will of a Secret Technique is really just a type of Life Magnet Field fluctuation.’

’But this original manual isn’t made of Nuclear Iron, after all. It’s completely incapable of recording a true Life Magnet Field.’

’Its so-called Divine Will is merely an imitation made using Spiritual Charm, imprinted with some of the cultivation insights of its predecessors.’

’No wonder no one else can cultivate a Secret Technique without the original manual.’

Chen Qi specifically looked up the origins of the Giant Armor Sect. As expected, it was from the Celestial Martial Country and belonged to the same system as the Red Falcon Sect.

In hindsight, his decision to spend money buying the Red Falcon was very wise.

’Could the secret of the Martial Dao be to imitate the Life Magnet Field fluctuations of other life forms to break through the limits of the human body?’

’And a Grandmaster’s so-called Divine Communication... could that be taking it a step further, imitating their Spirituality as well?’

A flash of Spiritual Light crossed Chen Qi’s mind. Changing oneself by altering one’s Life Magnet Field and Spirituality wasn’t necessarily impossible, but it felt like putting the cart before the horse.

’If you cultivate to the final stage like that, can you still be considered human?’

’And what would be the ultimate object of imitation?’

Chen Qi continued to read. Perhaps because the Giant Armor Sect was exceptionally unlucky, the original copies of many of their secret lore had also appeared on the shelves.

’Don’t tell me the entire sect fell into the hands of players?’

’That must be it. Martial Arts Sects view their Secret Techniques as their lifeblood. Since the techniques are here, the sect is clearly gone.’

Perhaps after some time, the current Red Falcon Sect would become the next Giant Armor Sect.

As luck would have it, the Giant Armor Sect’s documents actually mentioned the Red Falcon Sect.

What they recorded wasn’t the Red Falcon Sect’s lineage, but the shamelessness of the contemporary Red Falcon Sect.

It was precisely because of the betrayal of the Red Falcon Sect and other Martial Arts Sects that the Divine Tao Palace was destroyed.

The Giant Armor Sect had fled the Celestial Martial Country during that period and come to the Lanyu Kingdom.

Unfortunately, Demon Island wasn’t an easy place to get by, and the sect was ultimately wiped out.

Skipping past a long tirade cursing the traitors, Chen Qi finally found something else of interest.

It was a record concerning the Original Martial Canon.

Chen Qi had long heard of this legendary stone book.

The Giant Armor Sect was quite close to the Divine Tao Palace because one of their ancestors had been fortunate enough to join it.

According to the fragmented words left by this ancestor, the Divine Tao Palace was established to enshrine that stone book.

The Divine Tao Palace was not a sect with a hereditary lineage. Anyone from the Celestial Martial Country could join as long as they had the aptitude.

And this so-called aptitude was the ability to resonate with the Original Martial Canon.

According to generations of research by the Divine Tao Palace, the original source of this aptitude could be traced back to that gourd of Pills.

Theoretically, as long as people from the Celestial Martial Country were descendants of those pirates, they could all resonate with the Original Martial Canon.

This was an enormous number of people, so the Divine Tao Palace naturally selected the best of the best, choosing only those with the most outstanding aptitude.

In that ancestor’s description, the stone book was divided into two volumes, upper and lower, for a total of 36 pages.

The first 18 pages depicted 18 bizarre and terrifying life forms, things not of this world at all.

The latter 18 pages recorded eighteen mysterious existences that could not be spoken of or described.

This was all the Giant Armor Sect had recorded about the Original Martial Canon.

One could clearly see their longing and reverence for the Divine Tao Palace in their words. No wonder they hated the traitors to the bone.

The end of the document also recorded the truth behind the fall of the Divine Tao Palace.

The destruction of the Divine Tao Palace was not solely due to the Black Blood Federation; certain powers from the Inner World had also taken action.

The Original Martial Canon was also split in two, and the Black Blood Federation only obtained the upper volume.

The remaining content described how the Giant Armor Sect struggled and strove, planning to rebuild its former glory.

Chen Qi gave it a cursory glance and lost interest.

’After all, they’re already extinct!’

***

"The world of Transcendents is truly fascinating!"

After finishing the Giant Armor Sect’s documents, Chen Qi took a short break to replenish his energy.

’Soldier’s Rations Pills really are good stuff. One is enough to fill you up.’

Even though Chen Qi’s current life level had reached 6, two a day were more than enough.

Fortunately, Chen Qi enjoyed a 70% internal discount. Otherwise, he really wouldn’t have been able to afford them.

Chen Qi checked the time. Without realizing it, he had already been here for 10 hours.

And he had only read through half of the documents in the entire reading room.

After a short rest, Chen Qi buried his head in his studies once more.

He had originally planned to wander around the Royal Capital, but after his conversation with Zhong Xingchen, he had completely given up on the idea.

’I was getting a bit full of myself before. I need to be more cautious in my words and actions.’

After becoming an Awakened, no matter how he tried to hide it, Chen Qi was still a bit smug deep down.

After all, in just a few months, he had accomplished something Jomoya Chris couldn’t do in a lifetime.

The players he had encountered before were also mostly shallow in their understanding, with their strength built solely on skills.

Thankfully, there was this trip to the Royal Capital. Otherwise, he really would have become an arrogant frog in a well.

In his subsequent reading, Chen Qi came across all sorts of strange and bizarre professions.

But most were not systematic, and many were just patchworks.

The reason for this was undoubtedly related to the "Human Spiritual Awakening Bill" promulgated by the world government.

This was practically a move that pulled the rug out from under them, digging out the very foundation of the major Extraordinary systems.

Chen Qi was quite curious, though. What would happen if an apprentice still used an Ancient Technique for their Spirit Awakening?

Perhaps the apprentices who would soon be exiled here would know the answer.

He didn’t know if it was a matter of luck, but the value of the remaining documents was getting lower and lower.

Chen Qi’s reading speed grew faster and faster. He could tell at a glance that many things were full of errors and omissions, so there was naturally no need to waste time on them.

However, just when only the last four documents remained, they suddenly gave Chen Qi an unexpected surprise.

’Earth Master, Spiritual Acupoint, Nourishing Spirit, Pregnant Object.’

’Spirituality frequency, Extraordinary Metal.’

’The distribution and absorption of Spiritual Energy!’

Chen Qi never would have expected that in a library filled entirely with Apprentice Tier materials, there would be knowledge that was beyond the curriculum.

Moreover, these things seemed to form a complete system, originating from a lineage called Earth Master.

Chen Qi couldn’t help but think of the Compass in his possession. ’Don’t tell me this thing is part of a set?’

It was a real possibility. Zhong Xingchen had said before that all the good things in the treasury had already been used up.

This Compass might have once been placed here along with these documents, only to be taken by another player first.

But now it had fallen into Chen Qi’s hands. That could only be fate, and Chen Qi had no intention of returning it to its original owner.

The Earth Master lineage required Spirit Awakening right from the start. It was definitely fated to be his!