Chapter 8

Ling Xiao flipped through the summaries of a few books, hoping to find some clues.

* * *

**The Stele Palm Technique**: A fierce palm technique, its power is like a mountain coming down, relying on strength to win. One must have a strength of 300 catties to practice it.

**The Blazing Fist Technique**: Can condense true qi, bursting out with a powerful fist force like blazing fire. The instantaneous burst is extremely terrifying. If one reaches the Gang Qi stage, they can even unleash Blazing Gang Qi. Only male warriors can practice this; female warriors are prone to injury.

**The Swift Wind Chasing Leaf Step**: Once mastered, it can significantly increase one’s movement speed. As the saying goes, “In the world of martial arts, speed is invincible,” which shows its power. Generally, slender people are more suitable for practicing this, especially slim women, who achieve the best results.

**The Iron Shirt Technique**: A defensive external cultivation technique. Once mastered, it can block sword and spear attacks, significantly reducing the damage to the body. This technique can only be mastered with a determined and humble mind; otherwise, it is easy to give up halfway.

...

"These all sound so powerful. I want to practice every one of them, but unfortunately, I can only choose two. It’s a headache..."

Although he did not find the levels of these martial arts from the summaries, the descriptions still excited Ling Xiao immensely.

As someone who finds it difficult to obtain even low-level martial arts, these martial arts manuals almost made his mouth water.

Damn Ling Jiu, everyone else can take four books out, but I can only take two.

While greed is not good, not every martial art needs to be practiced to perfection.

For example, the Iron Shirt Technique; for most people, just practicing it to the point of enhancing physical defense is enough.

One or two as the core, the rest as auxiliary, this is how one can significantly improve their strength.

Unfortunately, I can only choose two. If I could choose more, it would be great. I now have the Mountain River Martial Soul, and my cultivation will improve very quickly. Even if I practice several martial arts simultaneously, it shouldn’t be a problem.

Hmm?

Suddenly, Ling Xiao thought of something.

The Mountain River Martial Soul can analyze and practice martial arts. Is it possible to practice the martial arts in the manuals?

When he first entered the library, he was afraid that Ling Jiu would notice something, so he didn’t activate the Mountain River Martial Soul.

The method to activate and deactivate it is very simple; just by stimulating true qi, it can be done, similar to using martial techniques.

Thinking of this, he quickly activated the Mountain River Martial Soul.

At that moment, a part of the cloud layer on the Mountain River Map actually opened up, and another building appeared in the village.

The building looked very similar to the Ling family’s library, but it was somewhat low and only had one floor.

The most amazing thing was that when Ling Xiao probed his consciousness into it, he found that all the martial arts manuals he had seen before actually appeared in the library on the Mountain River Map.

When he flipped through a book, a figure immediately appeared on the Mountain River Map, his own figure, practicing the martial art he was reading.

"This... This is too incredible!"

Ling Xiao was shocked, but he was also filled with intense joy.

He never thought that the Mountain River Martial Soul could have such an effect. Does this mean that he can take all the martial arts manuals from the second floor?

Even if he doesn’t practice them, he can give them to others or even sell them for money.

He didn’t think this was a betrayal of the Ling family. After all, the Ling family never treated him as one of their own.

Even Ling Jiu openly threatened to kill him. Why should he keep the Ling family’s secrets?

Moreover, the best martial arts on the second floor are only intermediate level. They can probably be found outside. Only the manuals on the fourth floor of the library are the foundation of the Ling family.

Thinking of this, he no longer hesitated and sped up, quickly flipping through the martial arts manuals. He only read the summaries of each book and then put them back on the shelves.

This wasn’t an easy task, and he had to speed up.

Ling Jiu, you limited me to taking only two books out, so I’ll steal all the manuals here and drive you crazy!

Speed up!

Faster!

Ling Xiao’s face showed a madness he had never shown before.

At first, he had to confirm whether the library in the Mountain River Map had a copy of each book he read, but later, he didn’t bother to verify.

He didn’t need to verify; he could feel it in his heart whenever a new book appeared in the library.

"Ha ha ha... So satisfying! Too satisfying! Mountain River Martial Soul, what kind of martial soul is this, so powerful!"

Ling Xiao couldn’t help but laugh out loud, feeling extremely pleased as he flipped through the martial arts manuals.

This action drew the attention of the other disciples who were reading.

"Is this kid crazy?"

"Yeah, I’ve never seen anyone pick books like this!"

"Just a country bumpkin. Let’s ignore him and focus on our own tasks."

An hour is neither long nor short.

When Ling Xiao had “copied” almost all 9,000 books from the second floor of the library, there was only 15 minutes left.

The reason he hadn’t left yet was that a few books were still in the hands of the Ling family’s disciples, and he hadn’t had the chance to read them.

Notably, the randomly placed martial arts manuals in the Ling family’s library were neatly organized in the Mountain River Map.

They were neatly arranged on different shelves, and a person even appeared to clean the library.

Palm techniques, saber techniques, sword techniques, internal cultivation techniques, movement techniques, and body-strengthening techniques, all were placed on different shelves.

Not only that, intermediate, low-level, and basic martial arts were arranged in order from high to low, with labels indicating their levels.

This made Ling Xiao both stunned and excited.

The library in his Mountain River Map was even better than the Ling family’s library!

Time was running out, but Ling Xiao couldn’t snatch books from the hands of the Ling family’s disciples, as his strength was not yet comparable to theirs.

So he continued to wander around the second floor, hoping to find any manuals he might have missed.

He was so excited earlier that he might have overlooked something.

Hmm? What’s that?

Ling Xiao suddenly noticed two paintings hanging at the entrance of the second floor.

One painting depicted a monster with a bull’s head and a human body, holding a giant axe. The other painting showed a monkey-like creature holding a staff.

Most amazingly, the painting of the bull-headed monster had the words “Bull Demon Technique” written on it, and the painting of the monkey-like creature had the words “Soaring Cloud Step” written on it.

Could these paintings also be martial arts manuals?

Thinking this, Ling Xiao reached out to touch one of the paintings.

"Stop!"

However, before he could touch it, he was stopped by a disciple of the Ling family.

The disciple had a cultivation level of the third stage of the Martial Vein, stronger than Ling Xiao.

"Go and inform Lord Jiu that someone is touching the guardian paintings!"

The disciple said to another disciple.

The other disciple quickly ran down and came back with Ling Jiu.

"Lord Jiu, this person is touching the guardian paintings!"

"Don’t worry, don’t worry. The guardian paintings are indeed part of the second floor’s martial arts library. Let him touch them. These two guardian paintings look ordinary, but they actually have restrictions."

Ling Jiu smiled and said, "Ling Xiao, if you have the ability, take the martial arts manuals behind them."