Scripture of Days Past

On the second floor of the archive building, Lin Lan stood nearby as Chu Qiguang pored over the forbidden texts. As he read, his emotions seemed to fluctuate wildly.

One moment, he would murmur unintelligibly to himself with his brows tightly furrowed, seemingly perplexed by what he saw. The next moment, his confusion would be replaced by elation, as if he had arrived at some glorious revelation.

Brother Chu must be struggling to resist the corruptive effects of these books, Lin Lan thought with a pained expression. He must be enduring a lot of pain right now, especially considering that he was already injured before coming here.

Inspired by Chu Qiguang's display of courage and resolve, she was determined to do everything in her power to help him.

At this point, Chu Qiguang had just finished looking over the third assassination picture. He had received three boons in succession, allowing him to elevate both the Heavenly Demon Vanquishing Palms and the Star Shifting Cloud Piercing Step to the fourth level, matching his Primordial High Zenith Demonic Arts.

The seventh tentacle in his shadow had already fully taken shape, and this feeling of rapid progression was as exhilarating as it was addictive.

This is what they mean when they say knowledge is power!

However, when he searched for the next assassination picture, he was unable to find it.

Perplexed, he began reflecting on the contents of the three assassination pictures and the attached investigation records of the Demon Vanquishing Department.

During the Demon Vanquishing Department's initial investigation, they discovered that the Heavenly Sword Sect's assassination pictures contained records of all of the most prominent assassination cases throughout history. It seemed their goal was to alter the course of history through assassinations to exert control and influence over the entire world.

However, the Demon Vanquishing Department later found the assassination picture for the Great Han Empire's Shenzong Emperor. At the time, the imperial title of "Shenzong" hadn't even been decided, as the Shenzong Emperor was only twelve years old and had yet to become emperor.

More than ten years after the assassination picture was found, the assassination finally took place, and it unfolded exactly as depicted in the assassination picture.

The Demon Vanquishing Department determined that the Heavenly Sword Sect's Two Eight Assassination Pictures were a collection of twenty-eight pictures dating all the way back to the Early Han Dynasty.

No one knew who had illustrated those pictures, but whenever someone looked directly at the strange lines and bright red bloodstains on them, they would see a disturbing depiction of an assassination.

Initially, no one paid much attention to the pictures. That changed when a slave who had seen one of the assassination pictures went on to carry out the assassination it depicted, successfully killing the emperor of the Early Han Dynasty as if fulfilling some type of morbid prophecy.

From that point onward, people began studying the pictures in earnest and eventually discovered that they were prophecies rather than records.

Anyone who saw one of the pictures had a chance of becoming the assassin depicted within it.

However, the pictures didn't have much of an effect on Chu Qiguang, seemingly because his Dao pursuer eyes granted him some degree of immunity to their influence.

Once it was discovered that the assassination pictures were prophecies of future assassinations, virtually every emperor throughout history had made an effort to find and destroy them. As a result, only three could be found even on the second floor of the archive building.

After seeing the three assassination pictures, Chu Qiguang was plagued by more hallucinations of sword qi.

He could see streaks of incomparably sharp sword qi racing through the air, seemingly intent on slicing him to pieces.

However, these were just hallucinations, and his mental state wasn't affected by them.

Chu Qiguang was just about to continue his search under the guidance of his Ring of Ignorance when Lin Lan brought him a large box. With determination and admiration in her eyes, she said, "Let me help you, Brother Chu. Grandpa Hai told me that this box contains the most important and dangerous scriptures in the entire archive building. In the past, only the Demon Vanquishing Envoy had access to them."

Chu Qiguang's eyes instantly lit up. Sure enough, as soon the box was placed before him, his Ring of Ignorance began radiating an unprecedented level of scorching heat.

As Lin Lan removed the first page from the box, a passage of text appeared before Chu Qiguang's Dao pursuer eyes.

***

Notes of an ascensionist; notes left behind by the only person in history to have successfully ascended.

It's said that in order to break free from the shackles imposed by the gods, a Dao pursuer abandoned his mortal vessel.

***

"Thank you, Lin Lan," Chu Qiguang said, his voice filled with joy and gratitude. "I seriously don't know what I'd do without you."

Lin Lan blushed upon hearing this. She sat down beside him and said, "I'm just doing what little I can to help you."

With no time to waste, Chu Qiguang began poring over the texts in the box, while Lin Lan sat beside him as his assistant, handing him the next page as soon as he finished reading the previous one.

As Chu Qiguang read through the pages, his expression began changing more rapidly and erratically, and a look of deep concern soon appeared on Lin Lan's face.

I beg of you, Profound Origin Dao Lord, please give Brother Chu your blessing and ensure no harm befalls him...

As Chu Qiguang absorbed more and more forbidden knowledge, the demonic tainting within his body continued to accumulate until it began to overflow and spill out of him.

His hallucinations became increasingly severe, as if a nightmare had crossed over into reality.

Before long, even Lin Lan began to sense an unsettling aura in the air. All of a sudden, she spotted a pale figure running through the darkness.

At that moment, a resounding boom rang out in the distance.

***

It had taken the undying divine general only a few punches to smash the gates of the archive building to pieces. The shattered remnants of several stone statues now lay scattered across the ground around it.

The undying divine general had made short work of the stone statue guardians before smashing the gate open, after which Yang Ling was forced to lead the way inside.

Where is the head instructor? Yang Ling wondered, his eyes filled with deep concern. Why isn't he here yet? Is he facing a Dao Comprehension-state opponent? This living corpse is definitely powerful enough to break into the second floor of the archive building. If Yi Shuang gets his hands on all of the scriptures on the second floor and brings calamity upon the world, then even if he doesn't kill me, my future will be ruined.

With that in mind, Yang Ling stopped in his tracks, refusing to comply with Yi Shuang's plan.

"Go inside, Yang Ling," Yi Shuang ordered.

"If I take you to the second floor of the archive building, my life will be over anyway, so I may as well die here," Yang Ling said with a defiant expression. "At the very least, my reputation will remain intact."

"It's adorable that you think you have a choice in the matter," Yi Shuang sneered. At his command, the undying divine general kicked Yang Ling, sending him flying into the archive building.

Only then did Yi Shuang and Han Ying make their way inside, and the four of them gradually disappeared into the darkness.

The pitch-black interior of the archive building resembled a bottomless abyss, completely swallowing them without a trace.

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