Xiang Shaoyun did not want to waste the free month he had at the Book Pavilion. He started hungrily going through the ancient records, including the books that nobody seemed interested in. It seemed like he wanted to read everything there.
Han Chenfei, who had arrived with him, was incomparably gloomy. Each time she wanted to talk with him, she stopped when she saw his serious reading expression. Eventually, she headed toward the second floor. At the very least, reading some books related to battle techniques would be a good use of her time.
Half a month later, she found that Xiang Shaoyun was still on the first floor. She started wondering inwardly, All the books on the first floor are useless, yet he seems to enjoy reading them. What is he thinking?
As her free time was up, she had no choice but to interrupt Xiang Shaoyun’s reading and said, “Shaoyun, I’m leaving first.”
Xiang Shaoyun replied, “Um. Go, then.”
He didn’t even spare her a glance, causing her to stomp her foot in anger and curse, “An unromantic bastard!”
She turned to leave, but after a slight hesitation, she rushed to his side and planted a peck on his face before quickly leaving.
Her action caused Xiang Shaoyun to blank out. He smiled helplessly before shaking his head and shutting the book he was reading. For now, he was no longer in the mood to continue.
He stretched out lazily and muttered, “After reading through so many ancient texts, I have learned about many races and bizarre existences. I have also learned of the high-grade materials required to form a powerful soul foundation. This is the benefit of reading more.”
The others thought that the books on the first floor were garbage, but for him, the books there were more useful than many battle techniques. After all, he was able to enrich his experience and widen his horizons just by reading on the first floor.
Instead of staying, he headed to the second floor. He still had half a month left, so it was now time to memorize more battle techniques in case he needed them. There were fewer books on the second floor, but they were mostly battle techniques and cultivation methods. There were also some secret techniques. They were all quality books.
After taking a walk around, Xiang Shaoyun picked a corner and started going through the battle techniques. He did not need long to quickly memorize a large number of battle techniques with his reading speed. Instead of trying to learn them now, he was only memorizing them. He would only train them when required. There was no helping it as he had the innate talent of photographic memory, and it gave him a huge advantage.
About five days later, Xiang Shaoyun had gone through no fewer than 100 battle techniques. This would shock anyone who found out about it. With that kind of speed, it was as though his brain was dedicated to nothing but storing knowledge.
Each academy disciple was a genius, but not a single one could read 10 lines with a single glance and possessed photographic memory at the same time. One could say that Xiang Shaoyun was a freak in this aspect.
Of course, if they knew he had the Light of Wisdom, they wouldn’t be as surprised. The elder in charge had been focusing on Xiang Shaoyun all alone, and he lamented inwardly, This is truly a little freak.
If others saw how Xiang Shaoyun acted when reading, they would think that he was pretending. But the elder in charge was confident Xiang Shaoyun was really reading and was even memorizing everything he read.
After all, this elder had been in the academy for many years and had personally witnessed generations of geniuses. There were others who had done something similar before, but Xiang Shaoyun was still better than them all.
One day, Xiang Shaoyun found several ruined pages in an unremarkable corner of the floor. They contained some ancient text, and the ancient book did not even have a cover. The writings within were so ancient even Xiang Shaoyun couldn’t understand them.
The text piqued his curiosity, and he sensed an ancient aura from the ruined pages, as though they were from a bygone age. After taking a quick look over the pages, he found that the old characters were rather messy, as though they were mismatched. No matter how he looked at them, it did not look like a battle technique or a secret technique.
“There is something odd about these ruined pages,” muttered Xiang Shaoyun as he gently unfurled the pages. He discovered that the pages were extremely durable, and he was even more certain that there was something special about them.
After thinking about it for a bit, he sent some energy into the pages. Sure enough, the characters on the pages started shining.
The ancient characters started throbbing, and an ancient aura surged out. The characters started swimming atop Xiang Shaoyun’s palm, as though they had been granted life. The entire scene looked incredibly peculiar and sacred.
But that only lasted a short while before the ancient characters started vanishing. Even the pages were disintegrating. The shock pulled Xiang Shaoyun out of his reverie, and he quickly wrapped his consciousness around the ancient characters. The characters seemed to have sensed his attempt as they all poured right into his mind. The moment the characters entered his mind, he felt as if his head was going to burst apart.
“AHHH!”
Like raging lightning and flame, the ancient characters started wreaking havoc in his mind with an extremely dreadful might. Even with his filthless soul, he was barely hanging onto his life. Without the Nether Dragon Soul Headband’s protection, he would already be dead.
The elder in charge instantly appeared before him and held him up before asking, “What’s the matter?”
He had thought Xiang Shaoyun had triggered some unique power, but almost immediately after, Xiang Shaoyun’s wail rang out. He rushed over immediately, completely confused as to what was happening with Xiang Shaoyun.
Xiang Shaoyun stabilized his footing and said, “I’m fine. I just need to meditate in silence for a bit.”
He then sat down cross-legged, completely ignoring the elder and focused only on the threat the ancient characters were posing him. The power of the characters wasn’t targeting him intentionally. Rather, the characters were too powerful and Xiang Shaoyun was too weak to accept them. But with the help of his Nether Dragon Soul Headband, he was able to somewhat keep things under control.
He felt like the world within his mind had transformed into a land of lightning and flame that constantly clashed with each other in a certain tempo. It was as though they were showcasing the laws of a certain power, but it also seemed like they were trying to showcase a unique battle technique. The power demonstrated was simply nothing short of a calamity, seemingly capable of annihilating even stars.
After a while, the power gradually faded away. An ancient declaration echoed in his mind, “Lightning Calamity Fiery Star, destroyer of heavens. As the falling star transforms into flame, no demon or devil stands a chance against its divine might.”
