Three humans and a dog were already waiting outside when Li Hao emerged. Liu Long conversed with Hong Yitang in a low voice. He stopped talking when he saw Li Hao. Although the young man heard a murmured word or two, he didnât ask about their discussion.
Panther stuck to Liu Long in Li Haoâs absence. The dog was deeply fond of Liu Long as the man had taught it the Nine Forged Force, and had done so in a very thorough manner. Therefore, Liu Long was its favorite human when the young man wasnât around. It couldnât be bothered with Hong Yitang or He Yong.
âHave you improved again?â Hong Yitang laughed when he saw Li Hao. The young manâs presence still emanated from his being as his cultivation session had just ended. A hint or two could be gleaned from it. Plainly, Li Hao had taken another step forward.
âIâm just laying down some foundations!â Li Hao shook his head. This was indeed all foundational work for him. The physical body, organs, and skeleton were part and parcel of growing stronger. For him and Yuan Shuo, the key lay in mind intent and aura!
Only when mind intent was strong and the aura perfect could they grow stronger! If the body wasnât strong enough, they could supplement with a spontaneous eruption of the five summoned spirits. The body was the baseâmind intent and aura were the eruption points. Without those, Li Hao would be much more mediocre even if his body was strong.
What the young man wanted most at the moment was to swiftly comprehend the wood aura. But after grasping four auras, he suddenly wasnât in a hurry to manifest the fifth despite knowing the Weeping Willow Sword. He still reeled from how difficult the water aura had been.
âFoundations?â He Yong grumbled. âWeâd love to have your foundations, too bad we canât. With qualities like yours, I wouldâve long opened my supernatural locks.â
Li Hao was curious about this maneuver as well, so they chatted about this as they walked.
âMartial uncles, I understand some of your condition in the sense that snapping your locks releases your accumulated potential and spontaneously boosts your strength. But what next? You canât just keep yourself sealed forever, can you?â
They seemed to have reached an odd loop in their cultivation. The locks had to be broken for them to grow stronger, but that might turn them into supernaturals or cause their outright death. Even if the five organs were strong enough to support the broken locks, a very likely outcome was that theyâd cross over to the supernatural domain. They wouldnât be martial masters anymore, which would be an enormous spot of trouble.
âThatâs why weâre very conflicted as we havenât found the proper path and method yet!â He Yong sighed. âA lot of people are in the same stage. Since we donât wish to become supernatural, Ole Hong and I have discussed some ideas.
âFirstly, mysterious power appears after the locks are broken. We might be able to avoid becoming supernatural if we shatter that power. I hear that your teacher has done so before?â
âYes!â Li Hao thought rapidly. âThere was a time in Silver City when he wanted to ascend to being supernatural, but sensed the mysterious power devouring his internal force during the attempt. He quickly detonated the power and gave up becoming supernatural.â
âWeâve considered doing this too,â He Yong continued in a conflicted tone. âBut Yuan Shuo was very weak then and his internal force strong since heâd just ascended. He immediately supplemented his internal force when his lock broke, making it stronger than the lock. Thatâs why he could do it. We might not be able to because our locks are very strong!â
âThen does that mean my teacher... can break his locks without worry in the future?â
âThatâs not it, but that he can break one of them with peace of mindâthe one that he first broke. The organ that it corresponds to will not produce more mysterious power if its lock breaks.â
Li Hao nodded.
âThatâs the first idea. The second is to break all five at the same time. Itâs our speculation that some unusual circumstances may occur in that case. The combination of five types of mysterious power may give rise to a special energy instead of making the martial master a supernatural.
âThe third idea is to continue to strengthen the locks, body, and organs... The locks represent potential. Both Ole Hong and I speculate that at a certain level, the locks may become part of the body instead of breaking. Theyâll naturally release their potential then, or they may open by themselves if we reach a certain level. We wonât have to force them open like we do now!â
Li Hao nodded. The two had come to some valuable theories through their discussion.
âMy teacher and I have discussed this before. He says that we need to summon our spirits and nurture our auras first, then meld the auras together. My teacher didnât go into specifics because he only had a general concept back then. I think he was considering combining the aura with the supernatural lock and then breaking through it with the aura!
âThat will propel the cultivator to the next stage in a very natural manner and undo the seal created by the supernatural lock.â
The two men listened intently to the fledgling theories from Yuan Shuo. The man had just entered Summoner of Spirit then, so many of his theories were bound to be immature. But perhaps there was something they could glean from his knowledge.
âAlso, I somehow feel that with the current Summoner of Spirit, we have not reached the peak of this level even after melding five auras together,â Li Hao continued. âWe have to nurture them, but I donât feel like Iâve had a chance to do something really like that. I donât know if Iâm using the wrong method or if I donât have the proper tools. Hence, I want to try the Mind Fruits.â
Summoner of Spirit was a level that focused on nurturing the aura, but Li Hao had noted with the exception of the newly born aura, it was very difficult to continuously enhance one. For example, melding three together enabled him to kill peak Solar and possibly match initial Nova, but if this continued, the strongest he would be able to kill with three auras was initial Nova. That would remain the same even if he improved his body to the most he could. This was due to the auras not being strong themselves.
The auras were strong only if they were newly bornâthat was wrong!
His teacher mustâve noticed something similar, which was why he hadnât combined his auras yet. Once he did, that would be their limit and peak. He would have to break through in another manner then.
âTo strengthen mind intent and the aura...â Hong Yitang pondered. âThese are more arcane concepts as they canât be easily strengthened like the body can be through pills, treasures, and mysterious power stones. For martial masters, one way to strengthen the aura is through more fighting, tempering, and reflection!
âThe stronger the heart is, the greater the aura! This is a process of nurturing the aura, the kind of invincibility that the ancients worked on. You didnât sense a difference before because itâs been too soon since you set foot into this level.
âI donât know if the five organs can nurture the auras to stronger versions of themselves. Youâll have to ask your teacher about that as we all gradually did it on our own, walking a different path from you.â
Li Hao thought for a bit and nodded. That was true. Everyoneâs path was different and he didnât understand too much about this either. He would have to wait and see if his teacher found anything new or thought of a different way.
As for himself, heâd come to a deep realization that he knew too little of the world and understood too little of martial dao. Some ancient tomes came to mindâhe needed to quickly convert them to practical knowledge. Not only that, but he suddenly changed direction and headed elsewhere.
The others blinked. Where was the young man going?
âLi Hao, thatâs the wrong way...â
âNope!â Li Hao laughed. âThereâs a place in Battle Heaven that weâve yet to visit all this time, a very important place! The library! Apparently the city has a massive library with countless books inside. While they donât speak of specific methods, there will be ones regarding martial theory.
âAlthough the ancient civilization has a different system from ours, a lot of modern people practice their secret arts. Since they can find some success, that means there must be similarities between the two. Iâd like to borrow some of their basic theory books. If teacher was on this expedition, he wouldâve visited a long time ago.â
The others exchanged glances without saying anything. It was normal that none of them had gone because they couldnât read any of the content inside. They just hadnât thought that Li Hao would pick this moment to borrow books. ...were there still books there?
Who knew?
......
Moments later, they arrived at a large building that wasnât too tallâonly six floors. It was called a building because it occupied a large plot of land. It was close to the city lord manor, but felt much bigger than it. The characters of Battle Heaven Library were written on it.
Not only that, but there were guards at the doorânot Black Armors, but Green Armors. Li Hao had never seen them before. A new type of soldier?
He saw the words âSecurityâ etched on their chest when he took a closer look. Ah, I see. Theyâre from Director General Wangâs division! Li Hao recalled that internal security was usually managed by security guards. So there was another troop of Green Armors running around?
Clang! The guards at the door saluted when Li Hao approached. Their salute differed from military salutes. Instead of pounding their chest, they pointed at their heads. Li Hao didnât know how many courtesies existed in the ancient civilization. At the very least, none of these were present in the modern day Inspectorate and army.
The guards ignored Li Hao after their salute. They were muteâwhether out of inability or lack of desire to speak, no one knew.
......
The first floor was a cavernous lobby upon entering. Some darkened screens were scattered around them; one abruptly brightened. Perhaps the structure sensed the arrival of visitors or a powerhouse in the city had granted him some authorization.
Li Hao swiftly walked up to the active kiosk.
âA Guide to Borrowing Booksâ was written on the screen. The young man poked it curiously, bringing up small pages that spoke of âmartial dao, technology, civilian livelihood, education, novels, arts and culture, science, storytelling...â.
Another row of text flashed: Identity confirmed. Leader of the Twelfth Troop of the Ninth Division in the Reserve Defenders of the Battle Heaven Army. Officer level personnel can read any book below the fifth floor for free. Three books may be borrowed to be returned at...