While trembling, the blacksmith mustered his courage and reached out to the shelf.
Who knew, before his fingertips actually touched the precious books on the shelf, an unimaginably enormous power surged. There seemed to be an invisible energy shield in front of the books, where attacking energy that could numb one’s body burst out from the shield.
Before the blacksmith could react at all, he was ruthlessly pushed away by the power.
His body suddenly flew backward and crashed into the back of one of the shelves.
Since the shelf was pinned to the ground, it was not affected by the crash at all. On the contrary, the unlucky blacksmith fell hard to the ground and groaned in pain.
Everyone else was shocked. 2 of the blacksmith’s friends immediately jumped over to help him up.
Fortunately, the only prohibition here was to stop people from retrieving books beyond their levels instead of punishing them with death. Therefore, while the blacksmith was in immense pain, his life was not in danger.
Nonetheless, when the people that witnessed what happened turned to look at Ou Yangming again, they had indescribably strange looks on their faces.
Ou Yangming was also alarmed by the sudden noise, so he turned to look. He saw one of the men moaning in pain on the ground while the others cast weird looks at him.
He touched his nose and felt extremely dispirited. ‘I’m not on the headlines anyway; I’m only hiding here to read books, so why am I attracting attention?’
All of a sudden, someone strode over. It was Shui Wenliang, who was in charge of maintaining the order in the library.
He scanned everyone with his lightning eyes, but he paused for a second longer when he looked at Ou Yangming and the injured man.
“What happened? Why are you making so much noise? Don’t you know that you mustn’t clamor in the library?” Shui Wenliang asked in a deep voice.
Everyone else fell silent. In particular, the blacksmith on the ground had an ashen face. It was difficult for ordinary disciples like them to enter the library, where they had to pay rather high prices.
Thus, they valued every opportunity very much. However, the blacksmith went to the last shelf due to a curious coincidence. In a less serious case, the blacksmith would be driven out for making such a mistake but in an extreme case, he would not be qualified to enter the library anymore. As such, he was anxious.
Shui Wenliang furrowed his eyebrows and approached that blacksmith. “What’s your name?” He was in charge of guarding the library, but the place was visited by somewhat different disciples every day, hence he could not remember everyone’s name.
“I’m Tian Yinghao. I accidentally did something prohibited in the attic, but please forgive me, elder.”
“Why did you do something prohibited? Weren’t you informed about the rules before you entered the library?” Shui Wenliang scoffed.
Tian Yinghao smiled bitterly and explained, “Elder, I-I saw something taking one of the books, so I became possessed and wanted to try as well…” He eventually spoke softer, and he flushed.
Shui Wenliang rebuked him with a straight face, “Hmph, that person must’ve taken the book because he’s qualified, whereas you tried to reach for something beyond your abilities by retrieving a higher-level book when you’re not qualified enough. It’s a serious offense, so you must be punished heavily.”
Tian Yinghao’s face changed, and he pleaded with the middle-aged man, “Elder, I only couldn’t help it because I saw someone taking a book from the shelf on the last row.” He paused before he added, “I was reckless, but please forgive me this once. I assure you that I won’t do it anymore.”
“Nonsense!” Shui Wenliang was furious. “Do you think that I know nothing? The last row of books was brought by Sir Venerable One from the other states, and they can only be read by Venerable Blacksmiths or blacksmiths that are approaching that level.” He glared at the man and uttered, “Nobody in the sect can…” He paused abruptly, and he also had a strange look on his face.
Any other guardian of the library would not have believed what Tian Yinghao said.
This was because very few people in the entire sect were qualified to read books from the last shelf. Even if those people came, how could the guardians not be aware? This was why Shui Wenliang’s first reaction was that the fellow was lying.
Nevertheless, when he began to reprimand Tian Yinghao, he suddenly remembered Ou Yangming.
‘Mm, that young fella seems to have sir’s authenticating object…
‘With that, not to mention the last shelf in this side hall, even if it’s the books about our sect’s greatest lost arts, which I can’t access in the main hall, he can read them if he wants to.’
Shui Wenliang twitched his mouth hard. He understood what Tian Yinghao’s mistake was.
He figured that the fellow must have seen Ou Yangming taking a book from the last shelf and thought that the prohibition had disappeared, which was why the fellow tried to follow suit.
“Elder, please show mercy on me.” Tian Yinghao was appalled. He begged the middle-aged man, “It was really unintentional.”
Shui Wenliang waved his hand and said coldly, “Alright, seeing as this is your first offense and that it’s forgivable, I’ll spare you this once. Don’t act recklessly anymore, or you’ll be punished with due severity.”
Tian Yinghao was stunned. He was soon elated, and he quickly thanked the middle-aged man.
The other people were surprised too because they could not understand why Shui Wenliang, who was always stern, would suddenly become so easygoing.
They thought about what he said earlier, then they stole glances at Ou Yangming half-intentionally and tried to guess his identity again.
Once Shui Wenliang left, the side hall fell silent. Other than Ou Yangming, who curbed his thoughts and focused on his reading material, the other people could not calm down at all.
Even so, Ou Yangming was not affected by their reactions at all.
He read his book quietly, and his eyes shone brighter.
The book that he was reading at the moment was written by an unknown Venerable Blacksmith, who was known for being adept in smithing various pieces of flight equipment. Apart from flying carpets, there were also flying boats, flying ships, and even flying palaces.
Besides, the flight function of those pieces of equipment was only a basis. On top of that, they also had unique effects such as defense, attack, and so on.
In particular, a flying palace was almost similar to a comprehensive, massive formation. If one encountered a formidable enemy, as long as one hid inside the palace, even a Venerable One would find it difficult to break it.
Before this, Ou Yangming thought that the pieces of flight equipment could only be controlled by Venerable One. Only after reading the book, he found out that Spiritualists that possessed spiritual powers could use those pieces of flight equipment.
Needless to say, the pieces of equipment were unusually precious. If they were possessed by ordinary Spiritualists, who showed them off to others without any restraints, it would be similar to a child holding gold on a busy street; one could imagine what would happen.
Among the pieces of flight equipment that were introduced, the palace was unquestionably the greatest equipment. Despite that, Ou Yangming was certainly powerless in terms of smithing something like that. This was because the knowledge involved was too profound, and it was unreachable for him at the moment.
On the other hand, he was somewhat confident in refining the simplest flight equipment, which was the flying carpet.
The flying carpet was the easiest flight equipment to be refined, but it was not something that could be underestimated by ordinary blacksmiths. Without the Military Fire and his spiritual world, Ou Yangming would not be able to figure out anything useful, nor would he gain a practical understanding of the equipment.
Having said that, due to his experience of riding a flying carpet, as well as the introduction in the book, Ou Yangming had a little clue about how it should be done.
After reading the book in detail twice, Ou Yangming stood up and returned it to the shelf, then he left the library, where he had stayed for roughly 10 days.
For some reason, the moment Ou Yangming left, whether it was the blacksmiths in the side hall or Shui Wenliang, who was in charge of guarding the library, they were relieved.
‘That pretentious and annoying fella finally left!’
Ou Yangming returned to his courtyard. After pondering for a brief moment, without alarming Bai Zhiyi nor anyone in the Beast King Sect, he left alone and arrived at a bustling ravine outside the side.
It was a naturally-formed trading point outside the Beast King Sect.
Every day, people from everywhere brought all sorts of precious items or things that they deemed as valuable to trade them here.
Since the place was near to the Beast King Sect, nobody dared to dominate the market here, nor did anyone have the guts to force a sale or snatch items.
Disciples from the Beast King Sect would often visit the area out of habit, and they would often gain from their trips.
Since Ou Yangming had Yuqi the Venerable One’s jade pendant with him, he had access to everywhere in the Beast King Sect. He arrived at the ravine with ease and before he entered, he could sense the lively atmosphere in the air.
There were at least 1,000 people in the ravine. They either occupied a spot to set up their stalls or walked with the crowd.
Ou Yangming was surprised when he looked because he realized that the stall owners were not only humans, but at least a third of them were also beasts. Furthermore, judging from how familiar they were with the place, it was evident that this was not their first time.
Indeed, the Beast King Sect was worthy of its name. Ou Yangming was speechless about the Humans’ relationship with the Beasts.
Nonetheless, he was glad that he could trade with beasts directly.
He entered the ravine but instead of browsing the items displayed in the stalls, he kept scanning the bodies of formidable beasts.
Additionally, he also mumbled to himself.
“This won’t do—its fur is too thick…”
“This won’t do either—its fur doesn’t have enough spiritual power. Ah, Fat Antelope’s wool is better…”
Ou Yangming missed Fat Antelope very much at this time. Unfortunately, by the time he waited for the antelope’s wool to grow again, it would be too late.
At the spur of the moment, Ou Yangming stopped. His eyes gleamed as if they were 2 large light bulbs.
