Chapter 353: Exploring the Heavenly Book Again

Chapter 353: Revisiting the Heavenly Book

The blind woman truly vanished without a trace of responsibility, leaving only a parting remark: "Put the Heavenly Book into the ring, and don't take it out lightly."

Zhao Changhe, with a pained expression, stowed the Heavenly Book back into the ring and pondered to himself.

Calling her a riddle-monger, but compared to before, this time she not only made a move but also said quite a lot.

The token was made of sword-casting material, and what was still missing was Night Drift Sand. Although the Black Tortoise's records listed the missing materials, he didn't recognize them—who knew what was what, and what material the token was made of? With the blind woman's words, he now had a foundation.

And the ring was a token of the Night Emperor. According to the description "used before attaining the Dao," it might not necessarily represent the Night Emperor's faction, but at least it was akin to a "personal seal," representing the individual. The token, in its time, could also represent a single task, but that meaning was now lost.

Speaking of which, the blind woman even knew this—she seemed to know everything...

And this page of the Heavenly Book represented nature. He hadn't thought of anything special about it before, but the blind woman actually reminded him that it would be beneficial to Tang Wanzhuang...

To be fair, just this piece of information alone made Zhao Changhe's resistance toward her ease up quite a bit.

Also... she didn't want the dog.

Zhao Changhe stared blankly into space. Compared to coercion, wasn't the blind woman's way of tricking people just a little bit better?

Damn it, everything is relative...

Forget it, for this reason, I'll use a bit less beauty serum on you in the future.

But a riddle-monger is still a riddle-monger; the specific use of the Heavenly Book still had to be explored on his own. What was even more annoying was that he couldn't just hold it in his hands and slowly figure it out like before—he had to put it in the ring and probe it with his spirit, which was exhausting and unsustainable, making it even harder.

Zhao Changhe suddenly realized: she probably had a way to shield the Heavenly Book's aura but deliberately didn't, forcing him to keep it in the ring just to make it inconvenient for him to apply beauty serum, right?

Case solved... damn it.

Zhao Changhe felt a mix of amusement and exasperation. This blind woman suddenly became down-to-earth.

He collected his thoughts and once again delved his spirit into the green mountains and clear waters of the Heavenly Book, immersing himself in the experience.

Earlier, he had only skimmed it, hoping the blind woman would explain. Since she didn't, immersing himself still allowed him to sense something.

What was called "nature" wasn't about evolving natural creation—the Heavenly Book wasn't a book of genesis; it was a book of chaos... In practical terms, all its pages were related to martial arts.

Its notable difference from the previous gold leaf was that, unlike the gold leaf which evolved various martial techniques and moves, this one evolved special techniques based on the principles of nature. Typical examples were the sound attacks, formations, and even the light-footed techniques derived from borrowing wind power, and so on.

There should also be the Five Elements, like the final Path of Thunder. If he had cultivated some fire or ice attribute true qi, he might have gained some insights and benefits from it. But it was just a part of integrating into nature, not a dedicated exposition of the Five Elements.

Zhao Changhe didn't think this corresponded much to the Four Symbols Sect. They might correspond to another page—one dedicated to the Five Elements of the Heavenly Book.

Also, this didn't correspond to mountains, rivers, and products; there might be another page for that, or there might not. Those treasures and rarities could be related to martial arts or not—it was unclear for now.

But if this page was taken as a foundation, plus a page of mountains, rivers, and products, plus a page on the use of metal, wood, water, fire, and earth, it felt like a complete mold was emerging.

What the Heavenly Book should be like now had a rough outline.

In fact, the original gold leaf could evolve various specific martial arts, more like a "general outline of martial arts," while this page was closer to an upgrade for the gold leaf, adding new patches.

For example, with the original gold leaf, when you fought someone, it could record and analyze their martial techniques, but it couldn't analyze their internal energy. To know someone's internal energy, light-footed techniques, or special mental methods, you had to give it the secret manual to analyze—this limitation was quite obvious.

Similarly, if the opponent used sound attacks or set up formations, the gold leaf definitely couldn't analyze them. Zhao Changhe had never been able to use the gold leaf to break formations. Or if they set fire to you or drowned you, it might not even analyze whether it was martial fire or real fire, because it lacked these "cores."

But now it had them.

Next time he encountered sound attacks or formations based on the environment, he would definitely be able to analyze them, directly counter and learn them.

If he wanted to comprehend a sound attack technique from these mountains and waters, he probably could, but it would require deep musical understanding and long-term study—something only Wanzhuang could achieve.

For instance... Zhao Changhe focused his mind, recalling the brief clash with Tian Lingzi in the poison hut, his strange footwork and light-footed technique.

Unconsciously, a figure of Tian Lingzi appeared in the mountains and waters before him, demonstrating footwork that moved with the wind.

The unparalleled light-footed technique of the Thief Saint Ye Wuzong was now completely analyzed without a trace.

In the void, words even began to appear: "Wind moves without trace; the core is driven by the Heavenly Wind Cloud Body Technique, cultivating both internal and external, a single leaf without a trace."

Below was a manual—this even analyzed the core technique of Ye Wuzong. It seemed that any technique related to nature was now within its scope.

This was what Sisi had stolen. Old Ye was quite unlucky—his secret manual was stolen, and now this was even more of a cheat.

Zhao Changhe let out a long breath, and his spirit receded from the Heavenly Book like a tide. He found himself so exhausted he could barely stand.

But his expression was extremely joyful—this haul was worth it...

Although this short analysis and understanding still couldn't show how it could help Tang Wanzhuang's injuries, if he kept searching slowly, he would eventually find something. For now, at least he could analyze others' techniques and light-footed skills—so why would he ever worry about lacking inheritances in the future?

That didn't mean he had to steal the Thief Saint's technique; it wasn't his path, and it wasn't necessary.

The same went for light-footed techniques. His light-footed skill was also derived from nature. With this cheat in hand, he could use that technique as a foundation, combine it with the "Treading Blood Without Trace" he learned from the Blood God Sect and the "Walking on Water and Ripples" taught by Tang Wanzhuang, and ultimately synthesize a light-footed technique more suited to him and more powerful.

This was only two pages of the Heavenly Book. With more, what even more miraculous effects could be achieved?

No wonder gods and demons fought over it—it encompassed all aspects of martial arts in the world. If any one of them had the Heavenly Book in hand, it wouldn't be hard to surpass everyone else.

But then again, this still didn't quite align with his path of secret treasures—the direction was off.

Zhao Changhe temporarily put aside further thoughts and returned to his room to rest. His spirit was too exhausted, and as soon as his head hit the pillow, he fell asleep.

In this dream, there was no blind woman.

Instead, there was a face long forgotten. Amid the great fire of the Luo Family Manor, a man rushed to the side of the Vermilion Bird and reported in a low voice: "All close relatives of the Luo family have been executed, only Luo Zhenwu remains."

Who was that...

Oh, it's you, Sect Leader Xue.