Bamboo Mound

"In that case, I'll have to see what they're all for."

Upon seeing these names, Ning Chang's interest was piqued. After all, those names containing the words "blood" or "demon" were probably unorthodox techniques. Although the price might be high, the effects should be outstanding.

Relying on the token given to him by Ning Tongyu, Ning Chang took down and browsed through these strangely named cultivation techniques one by one.

"Heart Demon Swiftness, alas, this is not a footwork technique!" Ning Chang exclaimed after reading the introduction.

"Assisted footwork? That's a new concept. Activating one's mind and guiding spiritual energy to gradually drive the heart? That's a brilliant idea; it might have other uses if taken out of context."

Hmm... After activating it, combined with existing footwork, the speed increases according to the level of activation... Wow, up to five times!

"However... as the level increases, one's mind and consciousness will gradually spiral out of control, becoming manipulated by inner demons and descending into madness. In such cases, one will need the assistance of others or must rely on their own willpower to break free after a period of time..."

"Inner demons... there's no precise concept to that. They're not all just those indiscriminate acts of destruction, are they?"

He frowned. Most of the descriptions of inner demons he had encountered before involved people going crazy and fighting wildly, but he wasn't sure what the actual situation was like.

"The library in Medicine King Valley should have this concept recorded. Let's look for it in the document room later. If we can't find it, we'll ask Ning Tongyu."

"Airborne speed also involves gradually increasing speed, allowing for an instantaneous stop and a change of direction without inertia. Isn't that just vector control?"

"Up to three times, but if you interrupt it, you have to speed it up again, which won't work and will disrupt your rhythm."

He seemed to have seen the operation of controlling vectors somewhere before, but he wasn't quite sure, and this "space lag speed" was just a concept of vectors, not something that suited his habits.

"The Blood Intent Technique uses the burning of blood and spiritual energy to stimulate physical abilities, gaining speed, strength, and a certain level of spiritual power... The main focus is on speed, oh? This is also about five times faster?"

"It's a pity that it requires burning blood and mental energy. Blood is fine, it's just anemia for a while, and I can quickly recover with pills. But mental energy... it should be something related to the fetal heart state, but it probably won't be so easy to recover, and the side effects are a bit too great, so I don't want it."

Ning Chang looked through the bookshelves, one shelf at a time.

"Stepping on clouds, the mind can soar..."

......

"Plants and trees convey meaning? This... sigh?"

Ning often sees a book that is clearly not about footwork and body techniques, only to find that it has been moved to a different bookshelf.

The bookshelf with restricted movement was only two meters long and had five shelves!

The collection contains only about fifty books!

Of these, aside from the inner demon he was somewhat interested in during the initial encounter with the inner demon, none of them suited his tastes.

"Keep watching, and take it with you when you leave."

Ning Chang noted down the location of "The Heart Demon's Swift Journey" and walked back a few steps to the bookshelf where "The Meaning of Plants and Trees" was displayed.

"To attach one's consciousness or spirit to plants out of thin air? And even control the plants being attached to..."

He thought it was some kind of technique that allowed him to communicate with plants and understand their meanings.

"What's the use of this? Mind possession... it's a decent technique for gathering information and observing the environment, but as for manipulating the possessed plants..."

"What power can plants possibly have? If that's all, why are they placed in restricted areas?"

After observing the movement techniques and footwork within the restricted area, Ning Chang naturally concluded that all the techniques within the restricted area had significant side effects or were prone to loss of control.

"That's it!" he suddenly realized, "Isn't my Green Spirit Bamboo a powerful plant?!"

"A single bamboo leaf can injure a Spirit Platform Realm cultivator who has no spiritual power to protect him, and it can even have some effect on the spiritual power that protects him!"

With the addition of amplification techniques, in terms of sheer numbers, they are practically invincible in attack!

The main stem was incredibly sturdy; I had to use bamboo leaves as a trick to cut down just a few.

As he pondered, his brow furrowed again. "But a plant is a plant. What's the difference between possessing and controlling it, and directly controlling it? First-person perspective versus third-person perspective?"

After all, once you reach the Lingtai or Taixin realms, you'll basically be able to control objects with spiritual power without needing to learn it. Learning this would be redundant. It all depends on what kind of control this technique uses.

Thinking it over, he still remembered this place. He didn't lack time for now, so he might as well learn more cultivation techniques. The techniques might come in handy in other ways! Not to mention the Heavenly Origin Spirit Body, a cultivation technique that had accidentally saved his life.

"Next up are defense, mental aspects, and catalysis."

Ning Chang took a few steps, then turned back and used the token to take "The Meaning of Plants and Trees" and "The Swift Journey of the Heart Demon" off the bookshelf, controlling them to float behind him.

After all, the space here is so big, and if we keep looking, we don't know where we'll end up. If we go too far, we'll have to come back for it. It's better to just take it with us now.

Following the arrangement, Ning Chang went straight to the bookshelf with the word "defense" engraved on it.

They then headed straight for the restricted area behind.

"Welding Rock Soul: Covers itself with materials from the surrounding environment, greatly enhancing its defense and strength; for melee combat."

"Huh? Magnification Technique?" Ning Chang shifted his gaze from "Welding Battle Rock Soul" and inadvertently glanced at the unrestricted bookshelf next to him, where a cultivation technique with a rather straightforward name was displayed.

Seeing this, he took two steps over and took down the martial arts manual.

"Enlarge the target and increase its hardness; the purpose depends on the type of object..."

"It seems that the enlargement tools used to transport new recruits before operated in this way. If I used them on bamboo leaves, I could launch a large-scale attack, but... most of the time it would still be smaller than the original size, since large beasts are not common."

After much deliberation, he took down the book "Magnification Techniques" anyway, since it would be quite useful.

"Since there's an enlargement spell, is there a shrinking spell?" His bamboo leaves need a shrinking spell more, so that they can more easily break through the enemy's defenses and even work in conjunction with the enlargement spell.

"Wait, this is a defensive zone! How could shrinking magic be used in a defensive zone? What criteria were used to select items for this library?"

Ning Chang was somewhat puzzled. The Amplification Technique could use the size of an object for defense, so including that as an entry was understandable. However, since it was the only suitable entry, it was placed in the defense category...

"Could it be that the same cultivation technique is placed in every suitable area?" he guessed.

But he quickly put the question out of his mind.

Just keep an eye out for the shrinking technique while you're looking for it; there's no point in going out of your way to find it, you can always ask Xie Jun when you get out of here.

In the end, Ning Chang only took one book, "Mi Jian," from the restricted defense zone before heading to the bookshelf inscribed with the words "Divine Sense, Primordial Spirit."