Stranger Danger

The Arts Tower of Gold Island claimed to have thousands and thousands of secret books, countless Magia, and innumerable secret arts. It wasn't a lie.

The Arts Tower was a one hundred meter tall octagonal pagoda with nine floors. The first to eighth floor contained martial arts manuals, secret arts and Magia that corresponded to each cultivation level: Body Tempering, Qi Invocation, Vessel Augmentation, Astral Refinement, Spirit Purification, Spirit Master, Trueman and Sage. The ninth floor was where incomplete scriptures with mysterious origins or extraordinary content, secret art or Magias whose power level was difficult to discern were stored.

Each floor was also split into a corresponding Martial Arts Section, Magia Section, Secret Art Section and so on. Generally speaking, they did a pretty good job at categorizing the items and enabling anyone to find, read, and cultivate.

There were no particular rules and regulations one needed to follow on the first six floors. Anyone belonging to Gold Island could enter the floors, pick up a scripture, and start practicing immediately. Even outsiders were allowed to enter the first six floors and practice the martial arts they contained so long as they paid a corresponding fee.

The seventh floor was where things started to get strict. Each floor after that only had stricter regulations.

Those who wished to enter the seventh floor and study its Trueman-stage scriptures must first obtain the island lord's permission. They must also submit a Trueman-stage scripture that did not already exist in the Arts Tower in exchange for the martial art of their desires.

Those who wished to enter the eighth floor and study the Sage-stage scriptures must be a Trueman or a Grandmaster at least. They must also join Gold Island afterward.

Finally, those who wished to enter the ninth floor and study those mysterious and incomplete scriptures weren't mandated to join Gold Island. Instead, they owed Gold Island a favor. If Gold Island ever ran into some sort of trouble or danger, they must lend their aid to the best of their abilities.

At first glance, it looked like the condition to enter the ninth floor was less stringent than the eighth floor. In reality, it was the opposite. Anyone who might need the incomplete manuals, secret arts and Magia kept in the ninth floor were at least Half-Sages or Sages. In other words, there was an unwritten rule where those who wished to enter the ninth floor must be a Half-Sage at the minimum.

Obviously, Half-Sages or Sages had tremendous backgrounds. They must be the guests of honor of various sects, some of them huge. It was impossible for Gold Island to recruit such people, and forcing them to accept an unacceptable condition would only piss them off. That was why Gold Island changed it to a favor instead.

A favor was a flexible thing. It could be big or small. It could be worth nothing, or it could mean everything.

It was thanks to the Arts Tower that Gold Tower was able to recruit many elite warriors and accrue a sizable amount of favors over the years. It was also one of the reasons Gold Island was well regarded everywhere in the Profound Alliance.

But of course, rules and regulations only ever worked on weaklings and outsiders, and Ye Qing and Feng Qingyou were neither. Not only that, they were Jin Manshan and Ming Yueying's saviors.

Forget going in and out of the Arts Tower whenever they felt like it or going through any scripture, they could empty the whole place, and Jin Manshan still probably wouldn't complain about it.

Right now, Ye Qing was sitting beside a window on the ninth floor of the Arts Tower and looking through a secret scripture.

The secret scripture's name was "Song of Nature and Grace". It was a great and innocuous-sounding name, but its content was one hundred percent a dark art. It spoke of stealing the Nature of the heavens and the Grace of the earth to nourish oneself. At the end of the path, the practitioner would supposedly become the center of the creatures, the mountains, the rivers, the sun, the moon, the stars, the Heaven, the Earth, and even the universe. The universe was I, and I am the universe.

Concept wise, the "Song of Nature and Grace" stood on a level so grand that even the Sage-stage scriptures on the eighth floor could not hope to match it. It was absolutely an unparalleled art that led to the Great Way.

In fact, the origins of the "Song of Nature and Grace" was quite extraordinary as well. According to the book, it was the unparalleled divine art of the Dark Sect of Nature, an ancient sect with an incredible history.

Unfortunately, the "Song of Nature and Grace" Ye Qing was holding was incomplete. It featured only a general outline and possessed none of the specifics. It was a true shame.

In fact, most of the scriptures on the ninth floor were like this. There was almost no martial arts manuals, secret arts or Magia that were complete.

For those below the Trueman stage or the Grandmaster stage, these incomplete scriptures were barely useful. But to Ye Qing, they were priceless treasures that out-valued even the Sage-stage martial arts on the eighth floor considerably.

Although these scriptures were incomplete, they all had extraordinary roots. They were either the unparalleled art of an ancient and powerful sect, the ultimate Magia of an ultimate champion of good or titan of the Dark Ways, or the boundless secret art of a celestial, Buddha, god or demon.

For example, the ancient Animitta Celestial Sect's "Sun Moon Yin Yang Great Art" spoke of beginning one's Way via the supreme yang of the sun, and the supreme yin of the moon. An unparalleled art that focused on cultivating the mind, it preached that the physical body was a cage that one should strive to break free from. At the adept level, the practitioner could break free from their mortal shell, and their mind would become like the sun and moon. So long as the sun and the moon still shone, the practitioner's spirit would never die.

For example, the "Boundless Immortality Divine Art" of the ancient Goumang Clan focused on honing the physical body. They preached becoming a Sage via the physical body and become as long-lived as the heavens themselves.

For example, the "Desireless Heaven's Law" invented by the Confucian Law Sage preached the core idea of annihilating human desire to preserve the ultimate laws of the world. At the adept level, the practitioners would become one with the natural laws themselves. Every word they spoke; every action they took would become a law of nature itself. How could any creation hope to go against the very thing that dictated every aspect of their lives?

For example, the "Nine Lives Magia" discovered by the Nine Lives Buddha King was an art where the practitioner must experience nine lifetimes to shed their mortal shell and become a Buddha.

For example, the "Great Art To Dye Heaven and Earth" was a secret art belonging to the Nine Nethers Heavenly Demon King. It was a heretical, schismatic art that went against everything that was considered normal in the secular world. It preached endless magnifying one's desires and corrupting the world using the Seven Emotions and Six Desires to become an unparalleled Heavenly Demon.

Besides that, there was the "God Worship Art" that preached becoming a deity via worship, the "Ghost Praying Sutra" that walked the Way of the Ghost Gods, the "Song of Virtue" that walked the Way of humanity, the "Without Embroiling Stranger God Art" that was primarily focused on Stranger bloodlines... so on and so forth.

Although these martial arts were all incomplete—some of them only had a general outline, some only had an introductory chapter, and some only had a few sentences to go about—and so were impossible to practice, their foundational concept was lofty and compatible with the world. Every sentence; every word they spoke contained the true intent of the Great Way. It was profound beyond words.

One might say that every secret scripture was the imprint and memory of an era, every art was a Way that could reach the summit, and every Magia was an evolution and display of the natural laws.

Viewing these scriptures was like swimming across multiple different eras. One could almost feel the concept and intelligence of the seniors who invented them; almost understand the will of the world and the principles of the Great Way. It was highly beneficial for one's martial cultivation.

For the past few days, Ye Qing had almost never left the Arts Tower. He was completely absorbed by the arts and Magia, intoxicated by the concept and intelligence of those before him, lost in the worldly secrets and profound Ways of these scriptures. He forgot about the time, he forgot about the place, he forgot even himself.

Alas, all journeys must come to an end, and all books must end with a conclusion. When Ye Qing closed his final book, he could not help but let out a sigh, loss and emptiness dwelling inside his chest. He would not regain his wits until a long time later.