Scripture of Days Past

”What the hell is this crap?” Chen Gang said as he tore off the note, crumpled it into a ball,and tossed it away.

Chu Qiguang could hardly have cared less. Ever since his victory over Jiang Longyu, everyone had developed an opinion about him, and there had been no shortage of people trying to tell him how he should live his life.

He made his way into the courtyard, and Qiao Zhi also jumped inside before telling him about Li Miao.

After hearing what Qiao Zhi had to say, Chu Qiguang mused, ”It sounds like he’s a bright talent.”

”There’s a chance he could reach the Dao Comprehension state in the future,” Qiao Zhi confirmed with a nod.

Chu Qiguang’s eyes narrowed slightly in contemplation. It wasn’t in his nature to simply ignore an enemy who could potentially reach the Dao Comprehension state, but if he could somehow win Li Miao over to his side, then that would certainly be a welcome turn of events.

After taking some time to weigh up his options, he sent some cat fiends out to keep an eye on Li Miao for now. In any case, he wasn’t going to be able to recover from that kick without at least a month or two of recuperation.

”Brother Chu, the county office went through all of the historical records at your request, and they’ve found out about the Millet Mountain Range... the, uh... ruins... and which dynasty they’re from...

Previously, Chu Qiguang had requested assistance from the county office in finding historical records related to the ruins in the Millet Mountain Range. He wanted to find out what was so special about the place where the Vajra Monastery had decided to hide the Sumeru King Scripture.

He hoped that by gathering this information, he would be able to find some leads on the Purple Mansion Sacred Scripture.

Chu Qiguang shook his head in exasperation as Chen Gang stumbled over his words. ”You should read some books in your spare time to improve your literacy. If you focus solely on martial arts cultivation, you’re going to turn into an idiot who’s all brawn and no brains.”

Chen Gang nodded with a sheepish grin, but there was no way he was actually going to do any reading. In his mind, cultivating martial arts and committing crimes with Chu Qiguang were much more appealing. ”Oh right, I was worried I’d forget, so I asked them to record everything in here,” Chen Gang said as he pulled out a document from the county office.

Chen Gang was struck by a peculiar feeling as he handed the document over to Chu Qiguang.

He still remembered how, back when they had first come to Azure Sun County, Chu Qiguang had to sneak into the county office’s archive room to access its documents, yet now, he was able to get whatever document he pleased without even having to make a personal visit.

Chu Qiguang was very pleased as he read through the document, and he was quite satisfied with the work of the minor officials in the county office.

They didn’t know exactly which set of ruins in the Millet Mountain Range Chu Qiguang was referring to, so they had presented quite a few pieces of historical records linked to potential ruins in the mountain range. After examining all of the information, Chu Qiguang quickly focused his attention on one particular account.

During the Guangshou Era of the Chen Dynasty, a villager uncovered a set of ancient ruins in the Millet Mountain Range, and inside, he found a scripture. He offered the scripture to the imperial clan at the time, and it caused a massive stir. Apparently, many top-tier powerful sects and religions, including the Heavenly Sword Sect and the Religion of Inaction, tried to seize the scripture.

However, the account of that historical event ended abruptly there. It didn’t reveal what the scripture was, nor was there any information on who managed to obtain it in the end.

Many years later, the Vajra Monastery sent the Chu Clan here for some reason to hide the Sumeru King Scripture. Over thirty years ago, the imperial court began its campaign to eradicate Buddhism, and the Chu Clan changed its surname to Zhou.

However, there were no historical records of this in Azure Sun County.

Before the Great Han Empire came into existence, the dragons ruled over the central planes. Before the dragons was the Xia Dynasty, and before that was the Chen Dynasty, so this had to have happened at least over two thousand years ago, Chu Qiguang thought to himself. Was the scripture that was uncovered from the ruins back then the Purple Mansion Secret Scripture?

Unfortunately, there was no one to answer that question for Chu Qiguang. He decided to ask Qiao Zhi about the Heavenly Sword Sect and the Religion of Inaction.

In response, Qiao Zhi told him that he had never heard of the Religion of Inaction. Perhaps it was simply a relic of the past that had been lost to the sands of time. However, he had heard of the Heavenly Sword Sect, but just like the Imperial Heavenly Dao and the Immortal Dao, it had been branded a cult by the Great Han Empire.

Furthermore, it was far more mysterious than the Imperial Heavenly Dao and the Immortal Dao. All Qiao Zhi knew was that the Heavenly Dao possessed one of the twenty-five orthodox arts, the Divine Light Essence Sword, but that was the extent of his knowledge.

”Seeing as it’s a cult, there’s a decent chance that you’ll be able to find information on it once you make it into the Demon Vanquishing Department,” Qiao Zhi suggested.

Chu Qiguang nodded. The information available in Azure Sun County was very limited, so if he wanted to find more leads on the Purple Mansion Sacred Scripture, then the Demon Vanquishing Department was indeed a good place to go.

***

During December of the fifteenth year of the Yong’an Era, the wolf fiend Chu Youtian finally returned to Azure Sun County with five thousand taels of silver and over ten martial arts scriptures.

With that injection of funds, Chu Qiguang’s net worth returned to five thousand five hundred and twelve taels of silver, much to Qiao Zhi’s relief.

With these fiendish martial arts scriptures acquired, all the fiends under Chu Qiguang’s command could now begin cultivating martial arts.

”Humans outnumber fiends to begin with, and they all possess the same bodily structure. Fiends are different. Due to the drastic differences in their bodies, they can’t even use the same cultivation arts,” Qiao Zhi sighed. ”This is why fiends have always fallen far behind humans in terms of martial arts development. In fact, fiends can’t even reach the Dao Comprehension state through martial arts. Instead, the only way to get there is through Dao arts.”

With this injection of funds, an alliance between Master Omniscient and the northwestern wolf fiends was officially established.

***

One snowy winter morning, everyone in Azure Sun County had retreated indoors to take shelter from the elements, making the streets look bleak and deserted.

Around noon that day, the first prototype of the water-powered spinning machine was finally completed.

Thanks to the blueprints Chu Qiguang had drawn based on memories from his past life, the workers were able to make rapid progress. After several months of hard work, the finished prototype bore a strong resemblance to the water-powered spinning machines in Chu Qiguang’s memories.

Due to the fact that it was just a prototype, they hadn’t built it by a river. Instead, they were temporarily using a horse to draw the wheel as a substitute for the power of flowing water.

At the moment, the worker speaking to Chu Qiguang was a man by the name of Xie Yan. He was in his mid-thirties, but all his years as a manual laborer gave him a wizened appearance that was much older than his actual age.

Not only was he literate, he was also the smartest of the skilled workers, so Chu Qiguang had assigned him as their leader.