3 Chapter 3 (1/2)

A week later, Shen Yue was on his way to the Alchemy Association. After negotiating (bribing), a couple of the Associations Masters agreed to let Shen Yue read all books at master level and below without being a member. It must have cost his father a favor or two.

The entrance to the Alchemy Association was certainly awe-inspiring. With a long set of steps between two towers and statues bordering the path, it was a pleasant trek to the top. His two new guards quickly sorted things out with the Masters and Shen Yue was ushered into their library.

Seeing the massive number of books, easily twice the size of the family library, he got straight to work. With his bodyguards hovering and looking menacing, no one was brave enough to indulge their curiosity and talk to him.

Over the next three weeks, Shen Yue received many stares, ranging from curious to sneering contempt. It didn't bother him in the slightest as he scanned every book and scroll he could get his hands on. The only person that interested Shen Yue was a stunning dark-haired beauty. She was always surrounded by a couple of guys, either apprentices or masters, this 18-year-old stunner drew them all. She was, of course, a young Yang Xin, still only an apprentice.

Other than a few looks, she did not pay Shen Yue much attention and he was not ready to meet her. Shen Yue was planning to start an organization to rival the Alchemy Association and wanted her to lead it, but he still needed the Soul Shackle inscription. She was the future Director of the Association so she certainly had the skills and determination. With all books scanned, there was no need for him to be here any longer. Onto the Holy Orchid Institute!

The school was a welcome surprise. Shen Yue wasn't expecting much, as all books were made public for students to read. According to the librarian, the number of books in the library easily numbers a hundred thousand and 90% of them are left behind from the ancient times. There are many books that have not even been translated yet. Different languages meant nothing to the Library of Heavens Path. As long as he had enough material, he could compile a manual on the language. This was how he learned the language of Glory City.

It turned out that Shen Hong had already planned ahead after learning that Shen Yue could read around one thousand books in eight hours. Since Shen Hong already knew the size of the school's library, he judged it would take a minimum of one hundred days, so he just paid a year's tuition after receiving permission from the Vice Principle Ye Sheng. This was only for access to the library as they agreed he was still too young to attend any classes.

This suited Shen Yue perfectly as he had no desire to waste his time in a classroom. After learning to deal with extreme boredom for the first 6 years of his life, scanning one hundred thousand books didn't faze him. Especially when the knowledge gained would give his library a solid chunk of material to compile perfect books. For the next hundred or so days Shen Yue was like a machine, only stopping for lunch when his little aunt forced him.

In fact, in the three and a half months Shen Yue attended Holy Orchid Institute, he had become quite close to his cute little aunt. Traveling to and from school, plus lunch every day, he ended up nearly enjoying the thirteen-year old's chatter. It also became clear she didn't really have any friends. The Sacred Family doctrine pumped out snobby entitled children that looked down on others, which made it hard to make friends. He didn't help her with her training as that would expose his skills. She would definitely expose him to Shen Hong in her eagerness to show off. She was very prideful.

”Mmme exhausted afterward, and they can easily lose their sanity.

-Scarlet Body Refining – A technique that is mostly used by fighters to temperately greatly raise their combat abilities.

-Soul Refining – One of the most effective techniques used for interrogation after pulling out a person's soul. With it out, the soul won't have consciousness so it will always answer questions truthfully.

-Soul Separating – Able to partially release the soul from the body and can be used to mentally communicate.

These special techniques had multiple uses, and that was before correcting the flaws. Because Shen Yue didn't have enough of the same type of special techniques to compile a book without flaws, he could only do things the old fashion way.

After the flaws where listed, Shen Yue would re-write the technique fixing the flaws as he went. After a few re-writes, the technique would be as good as he could get without more references. Although he could never eliminate all flaws, as the library would do when it compiled multiple books, it vastly improved the techniques.

This was exactly why he chose the Library of Heavens Path, in a world where most knowledge was lost or in a forgotten language, his system would just use its bullshit skills to pop out technique after technique! He couldn't understand the choices his female counterpart made. Ye Ziyun was already supposed to be beautiful so why waste points? The Realm of the Violet Jade Immortal Pendant / System from the Ancient Strengthening Technique novel was pretty cool but made redundant by the Myriad Miles Rivers and Mountains Painting. He would still pillage it though as he still held an unhealthy grudge from her comments on his maturity and sexual conquests.

He was hoping for some enslaving techniques or inscriptions but was sadly disappointed. He did, however, get a few about the soul. Hopefully, it will be able to enhance the Soul Shackles considerably. Being able to pull out and inscribe a slave inscription directly on their soul would be terrifying.

Shen Yue spent the next week relaxing and consolidating his looted knowledge. He had never been as happy in this life as he was now. After 6 years of torture, his goal was in sight! With the list of skills and techniques he had now, he could dominate the trade industry in Glory City. All he needed was his betrayal countermeasure. He was going to have to try and bargain his way into the restricted area of the Sacred Family library.

Waiting outside for his father's permission to enter his courtyard, he was once again reminded of how much of a douche Shen Hong was. It had already been at least half an hour. While waiting he had fantasized over ways to kill him and take over the family, it was another option than just starting out on his own. Finally getting the nod from one of the countless nondescript guards inhabiting the family compound, he made his way in.

”Greetings lord father.” He said giving a salute.