Scripture of Days Past

As Chu Qiguang's gaze swept over the crude images in the Sumeru King Scripture, he unconsciously began to make hand seals. At the same time, his qi and blood surged through his body like a raging river.

During this stint of cultivation, Chu Qiguang felt his physical constitution improve drastically, far beyond anything he had experienced during his previous attempts to cultivate the Sumeru King Scripture.

In the past, the effects seemed to diminish each time I cultivated the Sumeru King Scripture. So why has it suddenly become so effective again? Is it because my physical constitution has grown much stronger since the last time?

It felt as though his entire body had been set on fire. His temperature continued to rise, melting the snow and ice around him.

Before long, the heat exceeded what he could endure. He immediately shouted, "Chen Gang! Give me the Fire Pill!"

Chu Qiguang had entrusted the Fire Pills he had refined to Chen Gang for safekeeping. Upon hearing his request, Chen Gang immediately brought one over. After swallowing the Fire Pill, Chu Qiguang found the intense heat coursing through his body much easier to bear.

As he continued staring at the images in the scripture, he felt a warm and comforting sensation, as if he were soaking in a warm spring. The feeling was so pleasant, he wanted to immerse himself in it completely.

The moment he noticed this sensation, Chu Qiguang immediately summoned all his willpower and firmly shut the scripture.

Qiao Zhi wasn't by his side, and he was worried that Chen Gang wouldn't be able to stop him if things went wrong, so he stopped cultivating as soon as he sensed his mental state begin to deteriorate.

Even so, a lingering sense of fear remained in his heart. Just now, he had come dangerously close to crossing the point of no return.

Even with my willpower, it's this difficult to resist the Sumeru King Scripture. If the average person were to lay eyes on it, wouldn't they be doomed to self immolation? If you handed this to someone without telling them it's one of the twenty-five orthodox arts, you could practically use it as a weapon!

Chu Qiguang shook his head to clear those thoughts from his mind, then closed his eyes to meditate, both to recover his mental state and compose himself.

Shortly afterward, he resumed reading the Sumeru King Scripture, and his temperature quickly began to rise again.

After repeating this cycle around a dozen times, Chu Qiguang discovered that the benefits from each stint of cultivation had become completely negligible.

It was as if something that he had accumulated within his body over the past month had now been completely exhausted.

Now that I'll have opportunities to leave the mountain, I should run a few experiments to figure out exactly what it is that allows me to gain more from cultivating the Sumeru King Scripture.

In the short time he had spent cultivating the Sumeru King Scripture, his physique had already improved noticeably. Looking down at his feet, he saw that although only two tentacles still extended out of his shadow, a third one was beginning to take shape.

A pleased smile appeared on his face at this observation, and he buried the Sumeru King Scripture in its original hiding place.

He then turned to Chen Gang and asked, "When are the Chongming Birds scheduled to come next?"

"Tomorrow," Chen Gang replied.

"That's too soon," Chu Qiguang mused. "I'll wait for their next visit in four days to make a trip back to Azure Sun County. Make the necessary preparations. You'll be coming with me, and we'll return here once we're—"

His voice suddenly cut off. It sounded as though someone nearby was chanting something.

***

Na! Mo! He! Na! Da! Na! Duo! Na! Ye! Ye! Na! Mo!

***

Chu Qiguang immediately tried to determine from which direction the sound was coming from, but as soon as he attempted to focus on it, it disappeared, and all he could hear was the sound of the wind.

"What's wrong, Brother Chu?" Chen Gang asked.

"Did you hear something just now? It sounded like a group of people chanting?" Chu Qiguang asked.

"No, I didn't hear anything," Chen Gang replied with a puzzled expression.

Was that just my imagination? Chu Qiguang wondered. Are my senses playing tricks on me because I overdid it with the Sumeru King Scripture?

With that thought in mind, Chu Qiguang decided to visit the archive building and see if he could find any scriptures related to the Sumeru King Scripture.

The two of them then parted ways. Chen Gang returned to the relay station, while Chu Qiguang went to meet the servants who had been sent on procurement missions.

Given the rampant corruption throughout the Great Han Empire, Chu Qiguang had fully expected the servants to use the opportunity for personal gain, and sure enough, that was exactly what they had done.

Although Chu Qiguang was one of the most promising prodigies on Jade Face Mountain, he still looked like an ordinary fifteen-year-old boy. The servants assumed he would be easy to deceive, but they soon came to regret it.

After carefully inspecting everything, Chu Qiguang discovered that all the servants had engaged in various shady dealings.

The worst offender had purchased all the medicinal ingredients Chu Qiguang had instructed him to procure, but every last one of them was expired and unusable. Chu Qiguang reprimanded him on the spot and forced him to return all the money he had embezzled.

By making an example of that servant, Chu Qiguang made it clear to the other servants that he wouldn't allow them to pull the wool over his eyes, and they immediately became much more obedient... at least for the time being.

***

That night, Chu Qiguang returned to the mountain, and the first thing he did was visit Yang Ling and give him a list of the cultivation resources he had procured.

Yang Ling thanked him for his efforts, but inwardly, he sneered in disdain.

You could've spent this time cultivating on the mountain, but instead, you insisted on completing these procurement assignments. You may be a cultivation prodigy, but you clearly don't have much going on upstairs!

There was a lot of money to be embezzled from procurement assignments, but the instructors and lecturers who were responsible for them didn't want to bother themselves with such menial tasks, so they passed on the assignments to the servants on the mountain.

That way, the servants would stand to benefit, and the lecturers and instructors had more time to cultivate and instruct trainees.

This time, however, Chu Qiguang had voluntarily taken on the task himself, and that was perfect as far as Yang Ling was concerned.

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