After bidding farewell to Yu Dai Yan, Gu Han Yuan decided to visit the library first. It was impossible not to be curious about martial arts after coming to this world of martial heroes, and there wasn't a single memory of martial arts in his mind.
After revealing his identity to the elder guarding the library, Gu Han Yuan smoothly entered the building.
It's worth mentioning that the elder on duty today was named Shi He, a disciple of Mu Dao Ren. Mu Dao Ren was a disciple of Zhang San Feng, so according to their lineage, Gu Han Yuan should call him "Grand-uncle-in-law".
Suppressing the headache caused by the complicated situation of this comprehensive martial arts world, he surveyed the library. The library was divided into three floors. The first floor mainly held various Taoist scriptures. The second floor held various martial arts manuals, including internal and external skills, martial arts techniques, light-footwork techniques, and so on. The third floor was locked, and Gu Han Yuan did not have the authority to enter.
The second floor of the library was filled with a wide variety of martial arts manuals, densely packed on five rows of bookshelves. Most of them were written by Zhang San Feng, and the rest were left by the elders who had inherited their master's teachings, with varying levels of skill.
It was indeed worthy of the Wudang Sect founded by Zhang San Feng, who was able to establish a lineage. In terms of legacy alone, it was not inferior to the Shaolin Temple.
Gu Han Yuan flipped through the manuals, looking through them one by one, and discovered that he had a photographic memory, and he could learn martial arts techniques with a single glance.
He glanced at his personal status on the system and found a new row of various techniques, but they were all at the introductory level. Above that were the realms of Proficiency, Mastery, Minor Achievement, Major Achievement, Perfection, and Transcendence. To improve, he could practice and gain insights, as well as use villain points to enhance his skills. Unfortunately, Gu Han Yuan's villain points were a pitiful 0.
After looking through all the manuals, Gu Han Yuan found that most of them were useless. Either they were early works of Zhang San Feng's that were not of a high level, or they were martial arts manuals left by elders who had inherited their master's teachings.
The useful ones included the internal skill "Wudang Nine Yang Skill", the light-footwork technique "Ladder-Climbing Technique", the palm techniques "Cotton Palm" and "Mountain-Shaking Palm", the sword technique "Mystical Void Sword Technique", the sword techniques "Winding Finger Soft Sword" and "Divine Gate Thirteen Swords", and the hidden weapon "Rose Gold Needle", etc.
As for the few ultimate skills like "Pure Yang Limitless Skill", "Tiger Claw Hand", "The Heaven-Slaying Sword and Dragon-Slaying Saber", "Flowing Cloud Flying Sleeves", and Mu Dao Ren's "Spiritual Jade Mind Method" and "Two Instruments Divine Sword", they were probably all on the third floor, accessible only to direct disciples.
Although Gu Han Yuan was somewhat disappointed that he couldn't learn the ultimate skills, he was also content. Moreover, due to his fast learning ability, he had learned all the manuals on the second floor in less than two hours. He thought that maybe he would be able to use "Turn your opponent's own weapon against them" when he learned more martial arts skills in the future.
It was not convenient to practice external techniques and light-footwork in the library, but he could try practicing internal skills.
Gu Han Yuan activated the mental method of "Wudang Nine Yang Skill", and soon felt a trace of Qi flowing through his meridians. After following the Qi circulation route, it became stronger and flowed into his dantian. He easily entered the early stage of the Acquired Realm.
The realms in this world were the Acquired Realm, Innate Realm, Grandmaster Realm, Great Grandmaster Realm, Terrestrial Immortal Realm, and the legendary Realm of Breaking the Void. Each realm was further divided into four levels: early, middle, late, and peak.
Gu Han Yuan was excited for a moment because of his first trace of internal energy, but he was about to continue practicing when a feeling of hunger interrupted him.
He felt hunger in his stomach, and even his stomach was cramping. Gu Han Yuan guessed that internal energy was not generated out of thin air, but was transformed from the body's energy. The old saying, "Poets starve while warriors feast," was true. Whether this only applied to the Acquired Realm or to subsequent realms was still unknown.
Gu Han Yuan endured the hunger and reluctantly left the library. He thanked the elder Shi He and headed towards the dining hall in search of food.
Shi He looked at Gu Han Yuan's back with a slight frown, feeling that he seemed to have changed somehow.
Was he more confident?
Unable to figure it out, Shi He shook his head and gave up.
After dinner, Gu Han Yuan did not go back to his room to rest, but wandered around instead.
As for the content of dinner, there was nothing much to say. In this era where seasonings were scarce, he found it hard to adapt. If he hadn't been so hungry, he would have needed to do some mental preparation before he could eat.
Soon, Gu Han Yuan found the courtyard where Zhang Cui Shan and Yin Su Su lived. It was a place that Song Yuan Qiao had always kept for Zhang Cui Shan.
Zhang Cui Shan was only in his early twenties when he went to Ice Fire Island and had not taken any disciples, so the courtyard was very quiet and secluded.
Yu Dai Yan's courtyard was actually not much better than Zhang Cui Shan's. Although he had taken a few disciples, it was mainly to take care of his daily life. Without teaching martial arts, not many people were willing to be his disciples. However, thanks to Yu Dai Yan, Gu Han Yuan had a separate room. In the courtyards of those with many disciples, like Song Yuan Qiao and Yu Lian Zhou, several people had to share a room.
The quietness of the two courtyards made Gu Han Yuan very satisfied. Even though his martial arts were not high at the moment, he could quietly sneak into Zhang Cui Shan's courtyard at night. He also heard on the way that Zhang Cui Shan was going to have a late-night conversation with his long-separated brothers tonight and would not be going back to his room to rest.
Gu Han Yuan knew that his opportunity had arrived.
He returned to his room and waited for nightfall.
After a few hours, it was almost midnight, around 12 o'clock at night.
Gu Han Yuan quietly left his room. Fortunately, he didn't attract anyone's attention on the way and successfully entered Zhang Cui Shan's courtyard.
It was easy to find Zhang Cui Shan and Yin Su Su's room, because the entire courtyard had only one room with candlelight, reflecting Yin Su Su's slender figure. Of course, at this time, only Yin Su Su was in the room. It was probably because of her encounter with Yu Dai Yan during the day that she was restless and unable to sleep.
When Gu Han Yuan reached the door of the room, he could see shadows moving inside, obviously Yin Su Su had already noticed someone approaching. After all, she was a master at the Innate Realm, so it was no wonder she could sense Gu Han Yuan.
Gu Han Yuan gently knocked on the door a few times, and a woman's voice came from inside.
"Who is it?"
"Fifth Aunt, this is Gu Han Yuan, my master is Yu Dai Yan. I have something important to discuss with you."
Yin Su Su inside the room originally didn't want to open the door to a man at night, but when she heard Gu Han Yuan mention Yu Dai Yan, who had made her restless, she hesitated for a moment and opened the door.
"It's you?"
Yin Su Su clearly remembered Gu Han Yuan, who had been looking at her during the day. She exclaimed in surprise. Because of the incident earlier, she felt a little more wary, and her expression turned cold.
"What do you want?"
"It's about my master, Yu Dai Yan. Fifth Aunt, are you going to discuss this at the door?"
Gu Han Yuan didn't care about Yin Su Su's attitude, but instead, he smiled slightly, a little playfully, and asked.