Chapter 316

Chapter 316: Effortless, Relaxed, and Offhand
Dean Mo Xin let out a sigh: “Forget it, forget it. Heaven’s Will is like this.”

As he thought of something, his expression suddenly softened. The strict air he had shown before vanished.

He looked at her and said: “Yu Zhao, first tell me what you know, and where your news came from.”

Yu Zhao had promised Clan Leader Nine-Tails that she would never reveal the secrets of the Nine-Tails Clan, so she did not mention the Mystic Thread that drew out Spiritual Energy. She only briefly spoke of what she had seen under the Longevity Tree on the Floating Island.

Dean Mo Xin had just learned that Yu Zhao had heard about the Heavenly Ladder’s change even earlier than he had expected. This made him even more sure that she was deeply tied to this matter.

So he stopped hiding things and slowly began to tell her what he knew.

“The Heavenly Ladder really started having problems a few hundred years ago,” he said. “At first, no one could Summon Forth the Heavenly Ladder. Later, no one could reach Divine Transformation Great Perfection…”

Yu Zhao’s eyes darkened.

From his tone, she could tell that he only knew the Heavenly Ladder had changed and no longer appeared in the Cultivation World, which led to the Immortal Path being cut off. But as for the true cause, he knew nothing at all.

He did not even know that cracks had appeared on the Heavenly Ladder.

This was not the clue Yu Zhao had hoped to get.

Just as Yu Zhao was feeling disappointed, Dean Mo Xin changed the topic: “The Former Academy Head noticed something was wrong. He searched with all his heart and, with the protection of the Heavenly Dao, obtained a Wordless Heaven Tome in an ancient secret realm. Inside that Heavenly Tome, he learned the secret of why the Heavenly Ladder no longer appears in the world.”

Yu Zhao’s spirit lifted.

The real show was coming.

But at that moment, Dean Mo Xin started selling the mystery again and instead began to introduce the Wordless Heaven Tome.

“This Wordless Heaven Tome was the most precious treasure of an ancient Grand Ascension Stage Senior,” he said. “It knows the Heaven’s Mandate above and understands human affairs below. There is nothing it cannot do. But there is one rule. The person who holds the Heavenly Tome can only look at it once in their entire life. And only someone with fate can open it. Those without fate, no matter how hard they try, cannot glimpse even a corner of it. Also, the Heavenly Tome is the guardian treasure of Tai Bai Academy. Fewer than five people know it exists.”

Yu Zhao had still been a little distracted before, but once she heard how strange the Heavenly Tome was, she focused at once. When she heard the last sentence, a bold and almost unbelievable guess quietly rose in her heart.

“Yu Zhao,” Dean Mo Xin asked, “are you willing to be that person with fate and borrow the Heavenly Tome for a look?”

Once her guess was confirmed, her nervous heart actually calmed down.

She said seriously: “This junior could not ask for more.”

Dean Mo Xin nodded, then brought the subject back to the start.

“The Former Academy Head kept the Heavenly Ladder in his heart,” he said. “The Heavenly Tome can see into people’s hearts, so it let him learn an important secret about the Heavenly Ladder. That secret is—”

Yu Zhao pricked up her ears. Her body even leaned forward a little.

Dean Mo Xin broke off once more: “Yu Zhao, I can give you one more chance. Are you sure you want to hear it?”

Caught off guard, Yu Zhao almost fell off her chair.

She gritted her teeth: “I am sure!”

Dean Mo Xin seemed pleased by this little bit of mischief. He let out a chuckle, then his tone grew deep: “The Cultivation World has gone many years without anyone’s Ascension, not because we cannot summon the Heavenly Ladder, but because the Spiritual Energy in the Cultivation World now cannot keep the Heavenly Ladder running. In other words, the problem is not with the Heavenly Ladder. It is with Spiritual Energy.”

Yu Zhao felt a loud boom in her mind. A shiver rose from the depths of her soul and swept through her whole body.

Dean Mo Xin’s words matched the secret records of the Nine-Tailed Fox Clan exactly.

Some unknown force was stealing the Spiritual Energy of the Cultivation World.

“Back then,” Dean Mo Xin went on, “when the Former Academy Head learned this from the Heavenly Tome, his mind was struck with fear. He thought about it day and night. A few years later, his oil ran dry and his lamp burned out, and he passed away. The reason I did not want to tell you is also because I cherish talent. I cannot bear to have your Dao heart trapped by this and ruin your own future.”

A bleak look showed on Dean Mo Xin’s face.

A cultivator spends their whole life just to prove the Dao and Ascend, to live long for ages. If they learn ahead of time that becoming an immortal is already an empty dream, how many cultivators can still keep a firm Dao heart and move forward without fear?

No one wants to see a world fall into chaos and disorder because there is no hope of immortality.

This was the true reason why the Heavenly Ladder’s change had never spread through the Cultivation World.

At first, Yu Zhao was also shocked by what Dean Mo Xin revealed. Her thoughts were a jumble. But when she calmed down and thought it over, she found a question that was worth thinking about.

Was there really a direct link between the Spirit Power of the Cultivation World growing thinner by the day and the cracks that had appeared on the Heavenly Ladder?

According to Dean Mo Xin, the Cultivation World’s Spirit Power was lacking, so the Heavenly Ladder could not appear. If Spirit Power was enough, the Heavenly Ladder could appear again.

But what she had heard from Senior Chang Sheng was: “The Heavenly Ladder is broken, the Immortal Path is cut off. Heaven wants to destroy our Cultivation World.”

The “Heavenly Ladder is broken” clearly meant that the Heavenly Ladder itself had a problem. It had nothing to do with Spiritual Energy.

So were these two things cause and effect, or did they each have their own reason?

With the clues Yu Zhao had right now, she still could not reach a conclusion.

Her gaze could not help drifting to Dean Mo Xin.

Would the Wordless Heaven Tome, the treasure of that Great Ascension Stage Senior, give her guidance?

The desire in Yu Zhao’s eyes burned like a blazing fire.

Dean Mo Xin smiled: “You want to see the Heavenly Tome?”

“Mm, mm.” Yu Zhao nodded again and again.

“You can, but agree to one condition first.”

“Okay.”

Yu Zhao answered in one breath without even thinking.

Seeing that all her thoughts were on the Wordless Heaven Tome, Dean Mo Xin stopped teasing her: “Relax your body. I will take you to see the Wordless Heaven Tome.”

Yu Zhao did as he said.

A heavy wave of dizziness rushed over her.

When she opened her eyes again, what she saw was a clean attic.

In the center of the attic stood a desk. On the desk lay a thin book. Its cover was as clean as a blank sheet of paper.

“Is this the Wordless Heaven Tome?” Yu Zhao’s eyes lit up as she blurted the words out.

But beside her, Dean Mo Xin shook his head: “Of course not. How could I put the academy’s guardian treasure out in the open? That is just a copy.”

Yu Zhao: …

Then Dean Mo Xin rummaged in his robes and pulled out a torn and shabby booklet, handing it to Yu Zhao: “This is the real Wordless Heaven Tome.”

Yu Zhao: …

Her silence was deafening.

[So angry. It felt like they were treating her like a fool.]

Even though she had many complaints in her heart, she still did not delay at all. She reached out and took the booklet from Dean Mo Xin.

She did not rush to open it. Instead, she looked it over first.

The more she looked, the more speechless she became.

The booklet in her hand was so broken it looked like it had just been picked up from a trash heap, while the one on the desk was spotless and new.

The two books were totally different.

[How could Tai Bai Academy even make a fake that half-hearted?]

She grumbled in her heart, then pinched the cover between her fingers and flipped it open.

A yellowed blank page appeared in front of Yu Zhao without any warning.

On the side, Dean Mo Xin’s eyes almost popped out of his head from shock.

He had taken the Wordless Heaven Tome from the Former Academy Head more than four hundred years ago. He had tried to open the Wordless Heaven Tome no fewer than a thousand times, yet he had never once succeeded.

And now Yu Zhao had opened the Wordless Heaven Tome right in front of him, easily, relaxed, and offhand, just like that?

The resentment in Dean Mo Xin’s heart almost punched a hole in the sky.

Yu Zhao still did not realize how serious this was. She kept flipping several more pages. The booklet was still completely blank.

She looked in doubt at Dean Mo Xin beside her, whose face had already twisted into a sour, wrinkled gourd.

More?

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