Chapter 6

Chapter 6: Archive Tower
There were actually people in this world who could grow stronger through the Fate-Devouring Method. If such a shocking method spread, it would surely cause a bloody storm.

Yet when the accusation fell on Ye Cong Xin, she twisted it with just a few words and turned it into a story about being maliciously framed.

And Yu Zhao, who had stepped out to point at Ye Cong Xin, became the main culprit instead.

Master Qing Yan was furious. He personally crippled one of Yu Zhao’s arms and ordered that she be expelled from the sect.

That day, it rained very hard.

Rain blurred Yu Zhao’s vision.

She could not see the crowd’s faces clearly. All she could hear were sharp, piercing curses drilling into her ears again and again.

She wanted to cover her ears, but she could not lift her arm.

It hurt so much.

Her head hurt, her arm hurt, and even her chest hurt… every bit of pain cut deep into her bones.

Yu Zhao curled her lips in self-mockery.

In the past, she had always thought that as long as she gave her heart, she would surely be repaid.

But only when she hit a wall so hard that her head bled did she finally understand. Some people only know how to take. They do not know how to be thankful. They are born ungrateful. No matter how much others give, they will only think it is what they deserve.

In this life, she would not flatter anyone. She only wanted to be a little selfish, to stay alive, and to live on for a very, very long time.

In the Cultivation World, the weak were prey to the strong.

If she wanted to live safely, she had to have the power to protect herself.

The matter of Reset Foundation and Rebuild was urgent. What she needed most now was a new cultivation technique.

Yu Zhao thought for a moment and decided to go to the Archive Tower the next day to try her luck.

The Archive Tower was the library of the Five Elements Dao Sect. It had six floors. The first and second floors were open to all disciples. The third floor and above were open to Golden Core Stage disciples and elders. The fourth floor was for the Nascent Soul Stage, the fifth for the Divine Transformation Stage, and the sixth was a core place of the sect that only the Sect Master and Grand Elder had the right to enter.

The reason Yu Zhao said she was trying her luck was because, although the Archive Tower held many techniques and mental arts, the truly precious ones were mostly on the third floor and above.

The first and second floors mostly stored basic techniques commonly seen in the Cultivation World, and also famous biographies of the ancestors of the Five Elements Dao Sect. These were not very helpful to Yu Zhao.

But right now she had no better solution, and she was not someone who would sit and wait for death. So she still decided to give it a try.

After resting for one night, early the next morning, Yu Zhao left her cave dwelling and went to the Five Elements Dao Sect’s Archive Tower.

Come to think of it, in her previous life, she had cultivated in the Five Elements Dao Sect for more than a hundred years, yet the number of times she had gone to the Archive Tower could be counted on one hand.

Luckily, cultivators had excellent memories. She did not need to ask anyone and could still find the way to the Archive Tower.

On the road, she sometimes ran into disciples of the Five Elements Dao Sect. They all gave her curious, playful looks.

Yu Zhao kept her eyes straight ahead. Before long, a tall and imposing building appeared in her sight.

The Five Elements Dao Sect ranked first among the many sects in the Cultivation World. There was even a saying in the Cultivation World: one sect, two schools, four clans. That “one sect” referred to the Five Elements Dao Sect.

Because of that, the Archive Tower of the Five Elements Dao Sect was especially grand, fully showing the bearing of a super sect.

When Yu Zhao walked up to the base of the Archive Tower, she did not go in at once. She stood still and admired it for a moment before walking up the steps.

Crossing the threshold, the first thing Yu Zhao saw was an old white-bearded elder sitting by the door in charge of registration.

Yu Zhao paused, and a small smile appeared in her eyes.

This was an eccentric person.

She remembered that this white-bearded elder’s surname was Gu. He had first been an elder of the Hall of Enforcement. Later, because of his strange temper and poor social skills, many disciples complained about him. After that, the sect reassigned him to the Archive Tower to watch over the books as a warden.

The Hall of Enforcement held the sect’s power to enforce the rules and had a very high status, while the Archive Tower was known as one of the quietest places in the sect. Being moved from the Hall of Enforcement to the Archive Tower was clearly not a good thing.

If it had been anyone else, they would have felt unwilling. Elder Gu, however, had been overjoyed. That same day, he had rushed over to take his post in the Archive Tower and then stayed there for several decades.

Many people secretly laughed at Elder Gu, saying he had no ambition and had given up on himself.

In her last life, Yu Zhao had put most of her energy into her five senior brothers and her master, and the rest into cultivation. Because of that, she had never paid attention to this Elder Gu. When others talked about him, their words just passed through her ears. She never took them to heart.

Right now, Elder Gu was holding an ancient book and was fully absorbed in reading it. Yu Zhao grew curious and could not help glancing at him a few more times.

Elder Gu had a plump body and a ruddy face. His hair and beard were white. Light wrinkles fanned out from the corners of his eyes, and his eyes were as bright and clear as a baby’s.

Yu Zhao’s gaze was not very subtle, yet Elder Gu did not spare her even a bit of attention.

As expected. [Only a fish knows the joy of swimming in the water.]

The outside world was noisy and full of trouble. Elder Gu only wanted to guard his own small piece of clean land.

Yu Zhao seemed to understand something.

She bowed to Elder Gu without a sound, then turned her eyes to the many bookshelves on the first floor.

Each shelf had seven levels, and every level was filled with neat rows of books. The first floor of the Archive Tower had a total of one hundred and eight shelves.

Trying to find books that could help Yu Zhao among so many was no easier than finding a needle in a haystack.

But compared with the suffering she had gone through in her past life, this level of difficulty was nothing.

She walked straight to a corner of the first floor of the Archive Tower. From the bottom level of the last shelf, she took a book and started to read.

Diamond Scripture. It was a basic metal attribute technique, suited for beginner disciples with a Metal Spiritual Root.

Yu Zhao put the book back on the shelf and picked up a second book.

She opened it. It was another metal attribute technique.

Yu Zhao put that book down again and picked up a third one.

She opened it, put it down, opened another, and put that one down as well.

With a clear goal in mind, Yu Zhao quickly flipped through all the books on the first shelf and then started searching the second shelf.

A quarter of an hour later, Yu Zhao came to stand in front of the third shelf.

Her unusual actions soon drew the attention of the other disciples reading on the first floor of the Archive Tower.

Someone whispered, “That looks like Lone Moon Peak’s Senior Sister Yu. What is she doing?”

Another said, “I heard Yu Zhao knelt and apologized to Senior Sister Ye in public yesterday and even cried her eyes out. She looked so pitiful.”

A third person muttered, “But she is Master Qing Yan’s personal disciple. Why would she come to the Archive Tower to look for books?”

“…”

Disciples of the Five Elements Dao Sect were divided into three types. Those under Nascent Soul Stage and Divine Transformation Stage cultivators were called personal disciples. Those under ordinary Golden Core Stage elders were called inner disciples. Those without any master were called outer disciples.

The most respected among them were, of course, the personal disciples. They had famous masters to guide them and outstanding talent. Even the monthly resources the sect gave them were higher than others. Because of that, they did not need to come to the Archive Tower to look for cultivation techniques.

Most people who came to the Archive Tower were outer disciples with no master.

Yu Zhao showing up on the first floor today was like a lone wolf appearing in a flock of sheep. She was very eye catching and went against common sense.

From watching Elder Gu a little earlier, Yu Zhao had understood some simple truths and had learned not to care about other people’s gazes. Her speed in flipping through the books did not slow down at all.

Outer disciples had limited talent. If they wanted to stay in the sect, they had to finish a certain number of sect tasks every month. Their time was tight. When they saw that Yu Zhao, the person they were watching, had no reaction, they lost interest. After a while, they each looked away and went back to searching for the techniques they needed.

Time slipped by quietly.