Chapter 860: The Mysterious Handbook

Translator: Nyoi-Bo Studio  Editor: Nyoi-Bo Studio

Treasures such as the millenary water extract with the water element were hard to come by, as the difficulty of finding such things was similar to that of finding Real Spirit Dragon Veins. At this moment, Su Yu could not help but silently rejoice that he had decided to delve into the wisdom that was contained in the ancient books.

It would be tough to find such rare things in ordinary books, as the remnants of the genuine benefits could only be found in the mysterious ancient civilizations. The information that Su Yu had discovered about Fire Essence Jade was a pleasant surprise. In comparison, however, the information regarding the curses filled Su Yu’s heart with discouragement.

This was because these curses were much more problematic than Su Yu had ever imagined. This was a form of black magic from the ancient era, which was extremely mystifying and complicated. It was said that it had originated from a mysterious race apart, one that was unlike the human race at all.

These kinds of curses were extremely complex and numerous. In fact, there were over a million of them that had been archived in the ancient records.

An example of one such curse was Su Yu’s Evil Spirit Entanglement curse. This curse was slowly devouring his soul.

Moreover, if any untoward circumstances happened to occur, the spell would erupt by means of self-explosion, completely devouring Su Yu’s soul power and ending his life right then and there! Hence, this spell was quite dangerous!

Since the Ghost Buddha who had cursed Su Yu was now dead, Su Yu could only rely on himself to resolve the curse. Once Su Yu’s soul state reached the Almighty level, he would be able to suppress the curse and get rid of it by force. This was his only way out.

Due to his awareness of the existence of such menacing and numerous curses, Su Yu decided to raise his soul energy. He was determined to seize every opportunity to enhance his soul energy, which included his using the Heart Refining Mortal Dust Liquid.

Fortunately, the seeds of various materials of the Heart Refining Mortal Dust Liquid in the Nine Jade Spiritual Pearl had germinated. Now, depending on the nature-defying properties within the Supreme Growing Soil, it would only require three to five days for the materials to fully ripen.

Except for Fire Essence Jade and some spells, any other clues as to the whereabouts of the Saint Blood Soul Nourishing Stone that Su Yu was so curious about were nowhere to be found. Su Yu had checked all of the materials that were related to stones in the local shops, but none mentioned the Saint Blood Soul Nourishing Stone. It was as though it had never existed.

“Is it possible that the Evil God lied to me?” Su Yu wondered aloud.

He was perplexed by this. But, as he recalled the Evil God’s tone and the shocked look on his face, none of it seemed to have been faked.

After some contemplation, Su Yu stared at the piles of ancient books before him and thought… These books seems inadequate…

He felt that it was a pity that Shizhen Bookyard only contained such a limited amount of books that pertain to the topics he was most concerned about at the moment. In the end, the only book that was left unread was the golden-covered ancient authentic work that Gongsun Wuxie was reading.

With some curiosity, Su Yu flipped open the authentic work. The smell of age and some decay wafted from it, filling his nostrils.

Su Yu could not help wonder aloud, “What on earth was the ancient era like? Why did it leave behind such prosperous civilizations, but wasn’t inherited by the human race of the present time?”

In the ancient books, a multitude of things were not inherited by the present generation. For instance, Su Yu would never have discovered the amazing benefits of Fire Essence Jade from a line of tiny words unless he had read a few hundred ancient books first. The current generation simply did not know or teach such things.

Su Yu thought of his birthplace, the Zhenlong Continent. It was a barren continent that had flourished upon the arrival of Shen Yichen and others, but sadly, it had been devastated by Xue Di.

As Su Yu thought of this, he wondered… Could the same fate have befallen the human civilization of Jiuzhou?

Still confused, Su Yu continued reading the ancient authentic work. It wasn’t until he had opened the book that he realized that it was so worn out by the passing of time. It was intact on the outside, but a large portion of the pages had been degraded by time and space, leaving only a limited range of legible words.

Fairy Mountain’s End… God-seeking Road… Rise of All Stars… None of the sentences in the ancient work were continuous, as they were all disrupted and used only sentence fragments consisting of several words strung together.

Su Yu furrowed his brows and wondered… What on earth is this?

He could not wrap his mind around the contents of the ancient authentic work, even after reading it for a long time. He wondered it it was it an introduction to the style and features of the ancient time, but still just couldn’t tell, as the words were truly bizarre!

While he turned the pages, Su Yu had a dazed look on his face. He was totally unclear about what it was that Gongsun Wuxie had found in the book that had delighted her so much.

A moment later, Su Yu gave up on reading the typed words altogether, instead turning his attention to staring at the time-worn, almost illegible handwriting in the book. But, it was impossible to decipher the nearly destroyed handwriting with his naked eyes.

The ink that had been imprinted on the papers had faded so much by this time, leaving only dull remnants of pen marks. It was only after half an hour of reading that Su Yu eventually got some clues. His heart thumped as he finally able to successfully decipher a few lines of tiny words in one of the middle pages.

In that moment, he finally understood what the book was about! The book actually had nothing to do with the styles of the ancient times.

Instead, it was a handwritten book that had been left behind by someone named Yaomu Daoren. It appeared to be a record of the experiences that he had throughout his life.

After reading the passages that were written in his handwriting, Su Yu discovered that Yaomu Daoren was an eminent master, who had surpassed the All Creations realm during the ancient times and whose combat power was equal to a prefecture’s king’s.

Apparently, he had then been stranded in a place that was known as the Desolate Evil Jungle. It was from this place that this handbook had come from. When Su Yu discovered that the handbook had such an amazing origin, he was stunned!

At this moment, he couldn’t help but wonder… A treasure that belonged to an eminent master and absolute strong man, who overrode the All Creations Realm and reigned over the entire Jiuzhou Continent must be immensely powerful, and to think that it originated at the place where he had fallen!

Su Yu immediately continued to read in hopes of coming across the detailed place of tranquil demise that was recorded in the handbook. But, in the end, he only saw information about the Desolate Evil Jungle and nothing else, which really disappointed him.

From the description in the book, the Desolate Evil Jungle was apparently a vast region, where mankind seldom set foot within. Its perimeter stretched for hundred of thousands of miles, which meant that even at Su Yu’s fast speed, it would take several days and nights to cross the entire Desolate Evil Jungle. This meant that finding the place of tranquil demise, which was in a secret spot within that region, would take even longer!

To make things worse, its name alone foreshadowed that the Desolate Evil Jungle could not possibly be a kind and gentle place, but rather must be one that was filled with immense danger! As Su Yu thought about what danger may lie ahead, he drew in a deep breath to regain his composure and continue studying the ancient authentic work. He felt surprised that such an ancient book would end up in this kind of bookyard.

When he was done reading, Su Yu checked the time and was surprised to see that nearly an hour had passed. It was now time for him to leave. But, just as he was about to set down the scroll that was in his hand, he suddenly noticed that a subtle sound was coming from the scroll.

It was an extremely soft sound, like sand flowing. The sound only lasted for a fleeting moment and was so soft that it would have been totally neglected by most. However, since Su Yu was in time acceleration mode, this short-lasting sound was as if it had been lengthened by 400 times!

Even so, the sound only lasted for a couple of breaths in Su Yu’s ears. Thus, it would have been even more brief to an outsider’s ears. In fact, even the All Creation masters might not have been able to notice the sand-flowing sound.

“What’s in there?” Su Yu wondered aloud.

Then, with a quick turn of his thoughts, he instantly activated his Soul Eyes and saw through the entire book. Nothing could hide from the Transparent Eyes, and just as he expected, Su Yu discovered that the internal part of every page contained two grains of golden sand!

Undoubtedly, these golden grains of sand concealed some massive secret, presumably left behind by Yaomu Daoren with the intention of preventing any damage befalling the handwriting in the letter. As he thought of this, Su Yu’s heart raced.

But, he knew that he could not overreact since the servants were staring at him at that very moment! So, he quickly recovered his calmness and reopened the book to keep reading. The servants who had gathered to watch Su Yu strained their necks forward to watch Su Yu turn the pages, while wondering what was going on.

“This person’s really weird! How could he have turned the pages so fast just now?” one of the servants asked in astonishment. He was truly startled by the way Su Yu had turned the pages so quickly, almost to the point of igniting a fire just now!

Zhao Chuan snorted, then asked, “Well… Would he dare to do it slowly? After all, at a rate of 10,000 crystals for an hour, I would also have turned the pages that quickly! Sadly, he deems himself wise and thinks that he finished reading all of the books. The books in Shizhen Bookyard all have seals that keep records of whether a reader has completed reading all of their contents. So… We’ll only have to check the seals to reveal his true colors, as he surely can’t be telling the truth! Ha! How dare he behave so arrogantly? He will have to pay the price!”

A moment later, Su Yu exhaled and put down the ancient authentic writings as if nothing had happened, while secretly holding back his right palm and disabling the time acceleration mode.

He then lifted his gaze to the servants and asked, “How long has it been?”

“An hour. Haha, you’re quite fast!” Zhao Chuan answered him, half smiling.

Su Yu then said, “Of course. Here is 10,000 crystals.”

He then tossed 10,000 crystals to Zhao Chuan. He considered this to be a fair trade, as he had been able to read half of the books in the bookyard, while spending only this amount of crystals. Ordinary people would have spent up to a million crystals by the time they had finished reading that same amount of books! Su Yu felt that this experience had definitely been worth the price tag.

While grasping the ring, Zhao Chuan scanned the inside of it, his pupils slightly constricting. It was indeed filled with 10,000 crystals!

Upon seeing this, he couldn’t help but give Su Yu a skeptical look. After all, it was hard to believe that an old man from the Red Blood Palace would possess such wealth, as 10,000 crystals was a large sum to even the Almighty Divine Masters!

“I’m good to go,” Su Yu said, while turning to leave.

“Wait!” Zhao Chuan yelled out abruptly and moved to block Su Yu’s path.

Su Yu squinted his eyes and asked, “What’s the matter? Does Shizhen Bookyard now kill people and rob them of their riches?”

“What? What in the world are you talking about? Shizhen Bookyard is an honest business!” Zhao Chuan scowled.

Su Yu then replied indifferently, “Oh? Is that right? Then, is the payment too little?”

Zhao Chuan sneered. “Don’t play the fool! Don’t you remember the rule that I mentioned to you earlier?”

Rule? Su Yu wondered. Then, after giving it some thought, he asked, “Are you talking about the rule saying that one is only allowed to leave when they’re done reading all of the borrowed books?”

Zhao Chuan shot him a look that indicated “good that you know,” then slanted his eyes and replied, “Yes. So, why don’t you return to your reading? Surely you wouldn’t dare leave before you finished reading all of the books. Moreover, if the final amount of crystals owed can’t be paid, we’ll pawn you for money in accordance to Shizhen Bookyard’s rules! In that case, don’t blame Shizhen Bookyard for not showing respect for the Red Blood Palace, as I told you to get lost when you first came here, but you didn’t listen! Now, you’ve lost your chance!”

Upon hearing this, Su Yu appeared to be stunned. He then asked, “But… Haven’t I finished reading all of the books already? Do you have any proof that I’ve not finished them all?”

Zhao Chuan’s reply was filled with contempt as he said, “I knew that you would say that!”

As he spoke, he randomly picked up a book that Su Yu had borrowed and sneered. “I’m afraid that you didn’t know that all of these books have seals, so it only takes a little Vital Energy to make the seals react and record the reading state of the previous owner! The more of the book that you complete, the more red light is given off by the seals, with blood red being the darkest. On the other hand, it would display a pure white light if not a single word has been read in the book yet!”

Zhao Chuan then smiled menacingly and asked, “Now, do you still insist that you’ve finished reading them all?”

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