Now that he had advanced his cultivation, Cao Yun needed to make preparations for his plan to sneak into the Coiling Silk Faction residence. He probably would have to wait several weeks to be ready, so he decided to start as soon as possible.
The easiest thing to get his hands on was some kind of pill to protect himself from the fragrance of incense. By looking within his memory, he browsed through 'Ten Thousands Earthly Mysteries'. It contained hundreds of recipe about pills. He limited himself to the ones he was able to make but couldn't find the specific pill he was looking for.
As he had perfectly memorized the book, he looked through the bibliography and found several other books pertaining to incense, to protecting the senses from external influence and to repel poisons and invading medicinal essences. As Cao Yun had not read these particular books, he had not memorized them of course. So he would need to go to the library to look them up. There, he could also use the opportunity to look for the other things he needed.
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In the morning, he went to the library of the Wubei Sect. Cao Yun had enough points to borrow at least ten books, depending on their level and rarity. But thanks to his mind cultivation, he could memorize everything he read, so he did not care much about these restrictions. However there were still some books and manuals he had to have with him to practice. The best example would be the 'Sealing the Seven Demons in the Nine Peaks' manual. Without the actual characters under the eyes, he could easily make mistakes in drawing them within his mind. Even Cao Yun with his extraordinary memory had to look at them from time to time to be sure he wasn't on the wrong track.
The library was a huge pagoda with eleven levels. Each level's access was also dependent on your merit points. Right now, Cao Yun had more than a thousand merit points with all the pills he was having the Dragon's Fire Faction sell for him. So he could gain access up to the fifth floor. To get to the sixth one, he would also need to become a Mortal Warrior.
The man in charge of the library was the same elder in charge of the armory, Elder Tian. Most of the time the armory was only attended by an instructor because disciples rarely went there. They had the right to pick a weapon when they entered the sect, when they gained ten thousand points and when then broke through a new realm. It wasn't something that happened everyday. Thus, Elder Tian was in the armory at specific times, when many disciples went in. It was especially the case at the beginning of the year with the new disciples and the former third-years who came back to the sect.
"This junior pays his respect to Elder Tian. I wish to browse through various books in the five inferior levels."
Elder Tian briefly raised his head. "Do as you wish, as long as you don't get in the sixth floor."
"Thank you, Elder."
There were books on almost every subject one could imagine. There were martial arts manual sorted by level, books on alchemy, on blacksmithing, on array formations, on demonic beasts... There were also history books, philosophical discussions, cultivation manuals...
This library was a treasure trove of knowledge. It was also perfectly sorted. The first time Cao Yun came here, Elder Tian had warned him not to disturb the order of the books, scrolls and manuals. Unlike him, a first-year boy had not complied with the rules. One day during the first month, that boy was putting books back in the wrong section. All of a sudden, he was swallowed in the air by an invisible force and thrown out of the library. Since this day, every time that boy came back he was very obedient and kept his head as low as he could.
Cao Yun started by looking up the books that were mentioned in 'Ten Thousands Earthly Mysteries'. He read all of them to memorize their content. In the process, he found out the perfect pill for his goal, the Small Moon Closing pill. This was a 3-star Earth rank pill.
This Small Moon Closing pill was pretty obscure so it did not appear in the books Cao Yun had previously read. According to its description, this pill was not especially difficult or expensive to make. The pill's medicinal essence would stay within the body for at least a quarter of a lunar month, a little less than a week. And it would react with any Fire medicinal essence coming from any of the five senses. As soon as it reacted, it would consume itself to burn away this invading essence. So it only worked once per pill and could be overwhelmed by an important quantity of invading essence.
The pill had very few toxins and could be safely used several times in a short row. Even if one pill was entirely consumed by an invading essence, you could still take another one right away. However, it was only effective against low-level poisons and medicinal essences. But for what Cao Yun needed it for, it was perfect.
The recipe was not within the book so he quickly went to the third floor where 3-star Earth pill recipes were stored. He looked through various other scrolls as he was at it, but mainly focused on the Small Moon Closing pill. All the ingredients were fairly cheap and with his connections to the Dragon's Fire Faction, he could easily get them in a matter of days. By giving them two True Essence Low-Level Qi Gathering pills, he would cover the cost and some more.
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Now that he was done with the failsafe against the incense of Lu Meihan, he could focus on his two other goals: detecting array formations and stealth.
He went back to the first floor and looked up martial art manuals about movement and hiding one's presence. Sifting through the books, scrolls and manuals, he found several interesting things.
Among them was a treatise called 'Raging Storm in Still Rock'. It wasn't exactly what he was looking for but he realized a certain similarity with the Neck Star he was cultivating right now. The treatise talked about the way to produce movement and energy while seemingly staying perfectly still. According to the treatise, nothing was ever perfectly still, not even the most immovable rock. Every object or person was always moving in some way, even if it was only its most basic components. Every single thing was composed a tiny blocks moving all the time and vibrating.
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With this knowledge, the treatise expanded that a martial artist was always adapting his stance with micro-movements. Sometimes they were so small that even the martial artist himself did not notice it. The secret to achieve true stillness was in fact in these small movements. And this paradox also worked the other way around, in stillness, movement could be achieved.
Cao Yun read this treatise several times as he was really inspired by it. Even though he had already memorized it, he could not take his eyes off the treatise. He even began to think of ways to integrate it within his practice. In his sea of consciousness, he was imagining his stances being influenced by this way of thinking. There was no stance or practical exercises within 'Raging Storm in Still Rock'. It only contained the thinking of an anonymous martial artist. Cao Yun had been really lucky to randomly find this treatise.
This way of thinking about vibrations also reminded him of 'Slaughtering the Enemy' from 'Dance of Slaughter'. He had not used this cultivation routine for quite some time, but he had already integrated the vibration aspect within his own martial arts. Now he realized that this vibration aspect could in fact exist within every aspect of his cultivation.
Sensing that time was flying by, Cao Yun decided to put all these thoughts and ideas on the side. He would test them the next time he went to the Howling Crane Gorge. If he tried to alter his martial arts only using his 'Shen Visualization', he could easily go astray and he would need even more time to forget a bad habit.
He finally found what he was looking for inside a very small manual called 'Locking the Seven and Stopping the Waves'. It contained two different techniques.
The first one 'Locking the Seven' was a reference to the seven apertures of the head: the two eyes, the two ears, the two nostrils and the mouth. By mastering this technique, you would become invisible to the normal senses of Mortal cultivators. To a degree, you could also escape the senses of a Mortal Warrior by reducing the variations of Qi around you. But you had no way of escaping the spiritual senses of a Spirit Warrior.
This technique consisted in slowing down your entire body while still being able to function normally for a time. This slowing down affected your heartbeat, your breathing and even your Qi. By circulating your Qi through various pathways, your heart would beat more and more slowly. You also had to harmonize with your breathing to increase the effect. But the most important part was allowing your body to still function, especially your muscles and your mind. Instead of using your blood and your breathe, you would directly use Qi to feed your organs. It could not be sustained for long but with enough training, a normal cultivator could go on for at least four hours a day.
The second part was 'Stopping the Waves'. This part pertained to Qi and how to use it to erase every sound from your movements. Once again, you had to circulate it in very specific pathways as well as use specific leg movements. But if you mastered it, your steps would not produce any sound at all. You could even jump or run without producing any sound.
Combining both parts of the manual was also very difficult as you needed your Qi to both sustain your body and your movement technique. Thus, if you combined the both of them, your movements would become extraordinarily slow. But on the other hand, the only reason you would have to move fast would be if you were discovered. In which case, you did not need to use this technique anymore.
This technique was a 4-star Earth martial technique. It wasn't particularly useful in combat but it was difficult to master and could prove essential to survive in certain situations. For example, you could sneak on demonic beasts and kill stronger creatures than you more easily and with less danger.
Right away, Cao Yun began to circulate his Qi as it was described. As all his meridians were not open yet so it did not circulate as smoothly as it should, even with his new Po character. Nonetheless, he still felt the effects as his heartbeat slowed down by around 5%. If he could reach 6th-grade Mortal, he would progress way faster in this technique as all his meridians would be perfectly open. As such, his Qi would flow faster and more naturally. But, according to his own progress, he would only reach 6th-grade Mortal the next month.
This technique also showed Cao Yun that he had to be more careful with his attention. Due to a momentary lapse in his attention while in the Coiling Silk Faction residence, he had fallen victim to a trap. Knowing that this kind of stealth technique existed, even in the Mortal realm, Cao Yun imagine what could exist in the higher realms. A Spirit Warrior could probably literally stand right in front of him without Cao Yun being able to detect a single clue about them.
Thankfully, his mind cultivation enhanced his senses. So Cao Yun was confident that he would always have a better perception than someone at the same level. But if he did not progress fast enough, the difference would get smaller and smaller. After all, having spiritual senses would most likely balance out this advantage he had on others.
Anyway, now Cao Yun had a pill to protect himself against the previous trap. He had memorized the Coiling Silk Faction residence's layout perfectly. And just now, he knew what to cultivate to sneak easily inside and not be discovered. He even found some benefits for his 'Azure Dragon's Seven Piercing Stars'.
What he lacked now was a basic understanding of array formations. Apart from the trap he had fallen into, there could be other array formations meant to capture or detect any intruder. Even if he were the stealthiest man in the kingdom, such an array formation could foil his plans. Until now, he had never paid much attention to array formations.
When he was younger, his older brother took him to look at the array formations protecting their residence. The young Cao Yun quickly got overwhelmed by all the information and got bored. Cao Sheng realized this soon enough and switched toward martial arts, reigniting his interests.
Of course, Cao Yun could go ask Sun Liao directly, but his friend would not give him an entire introduction course about array formations. And even if he did, Cao Yun did not want to waste all his time. Thus he decided to read some books on the subject to at least have some basic understanding before asking him anything. As he was not proficient enough to find the best book for a beginner, he went to Elder Tian.
Elder Tian rarely answered any question. But lucky for Cao Yun, he had left a good impression on him.
"I'm not an array formation master, but 'Guarding the Ten Thousand Directions' seems to be the book to start with. It's very extensive on what array formations can do but very light on actual practice. It will give you an overview of the occupation. After that, you should consult with a true master."
"Thank you, Elder Tian."
Cao Yun followed this advice and went to look for the 'Guarding the Ten Thousand Directions' book. It was in the first floor as it was just an introduction to the array formation occupation. As it was getting late, Cao Yun decided to read it once without trying to understand anything and memorized every single character of the book. He would try to understand it later. Then he would probably go to Sun Liao to learn even more. He did not care about setting up array formations. What he wanted was being able to detect them, or even break them.