Chapter 209

Jin Ja-gang awoke naked.

Wooden floor. The smell of old books.

Though he had been stripped bare, his body was cleanly washed and medicine had been applied to his wounds. His injured nail was also wrapped with thin bandages.

However, both his ankles were bound with shackles, making movement inconvenient.

“Get up.”

A heavy bass voice was heard. When he came to his senses and raised his head, he saw a person standing before him. It was a middle-aged martial artist with a scholarly air, appearing to be about fifty years old.

“I am Tang Lim, Master of the Library Pavilion. You are now in a forbidden zone where no one except members of our family can enter.”

Forbidden zone?

Jin Ja-gang looked around his surroundings.

All around, countless books could be seen crammed onto shelves. Several rooms without doors stretched endlessly, and each of these rooms had shelves arranged without end.

“Buddhist scriptures and ancient texts number thirty-five thousand volumes. Twenty-six thousand bamboo slips, eighteen thousand woodblocks, and five thousand five hundred martial arts books. These are the numbers of books held by this pavilion.”

Tang Lim cleared his voice.

“Now I will convey the elder’s words.”

Tang Lim infused his internal energy to deliver Tang Qing’s words precisely but intimidatingly.

“You are severely inadequate to become a son-in-law of our family. I give you ten days. What can you do in ten days?”

As Jin Ja-gang pondered, Tang Lim said.

“This library pavilion contains numerous martial arts texts. Within ten days, find and learn peerless martial arts from among them, or find such martial arts manuals to at least prove your discernment.”

Jin Ja-gang replied indifferently.

“I understand that much without explanation.”

Tang Lim’s eyebrows twisted.

“Yes, then you must also know what it means to learn martial arts by looking at the Tang family’s martial arts manuals?”

“I know. Either become a member of the Tang family, or die for the crime of learning the Tang family’s martial arts.”

“Arrogant fellow. You seem quite leisurely even knowing that.”

Jin Ja-gang replied with an annoyed tone.

“Anyway, there won’t be anyone who can harm me in this place for ten days.”

Tang Lim flinched at Jin Ja-gang’s answer.

“You’re quite sharp-minded as rumored. Well, let’s see how long you can remain leisurely. Keh keh keh.”

Tang Lim said with his eyes flashing with killing intent.

“If nothing has changed after ten days pass, I’ll kill you. If you want to live, struggle desperately. Of course, even if you escape from here, I’m not sure if it will be a better place than here. Keh keh keh.”

Tang Lim went out through the thick iron door and locked several layers of bars.

Jin Ja-gang listened carefully. He could hear footsteps going up stairs.

This place has no sunlight. There are no lanterns or fires either. Instead, light-emitting orbs are embedded in the ceiling, casting enough light to keep it from being dark.

The floor was wooden and the walls and ceiling were also built with timber, but this was to control humidity. From the support pillars visible here and there, this place was certainly underground.

Left alone, Jin Ja-gang fell into thought for a moment.

One entrance. Moreover, it was impossible to remove the ankle shackles and run away.

Furthermore, Jin Ja-gang was naked and had nothing in his possession.

So the only thing he could do now was inevitably learn martial arts. Whether he learned peerless martial arts within ten days to escape, or surrendered to the Tang family to preserve his life, he had no choice but to find peerless secret manuals.

But how?

Jin Ja-gang lightly toured the rooms.

Countless rows of bookshelves.

Nearly eighty thousand books.

No matter how capable Jin Ja-gang was, how could he find useful martial arts texts from among these in just ten days?

“Haha.”

Even Jin Ja-gang laughed helplessly at the overwhelming task.

The Library Pavilion was officially a secret location that did not belong to the Tang family’s thirty-six outer courtyards or the six major inner courtyards.

However, it occupied such a vast underground area beneath the halls of the Family Business House that managed the Tang family’s enterprises and the Phoenix Pheasant House that served as an educational institution among the six major inner courtyards.

Library Pavilion Master Tang Lim was leisurely enjoying his comfort in one of the halls built above the Library Pavilion.

“I’m curious what kind of face that arrogant fellow will show after ten days.”

The Deputy Pavilion Master asked.

“What is the elder’s intention? No matter how exceptional a genius, learning useful martial arts from the Library Pavilion in ten days is unreasonable.”

“Of course. He’ll either become frustrated in the vast library or try to learn anything – one of the two. Either way, he certainly won’t meet our expectations.”

“Then why bother…”

“The elder has already begun taming a wild horse.”

Tang Lim said while stroking his beard.

“That fellow has lived without defeat until now. For such a fellow to enter as an adopted son-in-law into a family he considers his enemy is nearly absurd. He’s known to be vicious, so it’s difficult to draw him to our side without considerable shock.”

“So failure in the Library Pavilion was predetermined. What happens when he fails?”

“Next is the snake pit beneath the Phoenix Pheasant House. He must be punished for failing to meet our expectations.”

“Isn’t that the place where you must survive for a month in a cramped space barely large enough for a body, chewing and eating live snakes?”

“I will break all his limbs and put him in the snake pit. He must endure the constant attacks of snakes biting his body while unable to move. When hungry, he’ll have no choice but to crawl with his body and chew snakes with his mouth. But the snakes there have parasites, so the more he eats, the more severe stomach pain he’ll suffer.”

The Deputy Pavilion Master made a disgusted expression.

“He’ll be unable to move a single finger while constantly having diarrhea, and due to dehydration, he’ll be forced to drink snake blood again. Knowing he’ll suffer pain but having no choice but to eat snakes will create self-loathing. He must endure such agony for a month.”

“The snake pit is a terrible place. I’ve only heard about it.”

“Of course, since he’s vicious, he’ll probably survive even there. Then the dark cave awaits next.”

The Deputy Pavilion Master shook his head in disgust at just hearing about it.

Tang Lim continued.

“The dark cave is where those dying from various diseases and poisoning are isolated. Men and women, young and old, are all gathered in one place, so just staying there for one day lets you see all the most terrible and filthy sights in the world. But unfortunately, he’s scheduled to be there for half a year.”

“Half a year in the dark cave… Can he possibly come out sane?”

“What the elder wants is for his mind to collapse there. He plans to tame him completely from the beginning.”

“What if he can’t regain his sanity, or touches the opium given there and can’t break free…”

“He’ll never come out of there. Anyway, once the elder finds someone useless, he never looks back again.”

The Deputy Pavilion Master swallowed dry saliva and asked.

“What if he says he’ll convert in the middle?”

Tang Lim laughed menacingly.

“That won’t happen. Such a report will never come from my mouth. You know too, right? I hate rude and arrogant fellows most in the world. I’ll seal that fellow’s tongue the moment he survives the Library Pavilion. He can only open his mouth after experiencing all the satisfactory hospitality our family provides, from the snake pit to the dark cave.”

***

There really were books everywhere.

From texts describing the theories of Confucianism, Buddhism, and Taoism to very old scriptures, there were also precious books written in Tibetan script that Jin Ja-gang couldn’t even recognize.

Books on mechanics, formation studies, immortal studies, miscellaneous studies and more were comprehensively filled. It would take a lifetime to read them all.

It seemed to contain most of the information humans had recorded while living throughout Central Plains history.

Just skimming through these books would take several years, and Jin Ja-gang lacked the ability to distinguish whether something was a martial arts text just by skimming.

It took a full day just to simply examine what was in each room and what books were mainly there.

For meals, a few Fasting Pills were provided daily through a small hole in the door.

Jin Ja-gang selected several martial arts manuals.

Movement and footwork texts that Jin Ja-gang lacked, internal energy methods for handling poison, martial arts texts for handling the eighteen types of weapons.

They were all useful for Jin Ja-gang to learn, but far from being peerless secret manuals.

Due to the nature of martial arts texts, they don’t write whether they’re third-rate or second-rate.

When you open the first page, the first thing that appears is…

“One who masters this secret manual can dominate the world and stand tall in the martial world as the world’s greatest!”

…this.

Most martial arts texts boasted and exaggerated, making it meaningless to judge their level by the preface. You had to actually skim through the content and understand it to know if it was truly a proper secret manual.

Jin Ja-gang piled the martial arts texts he found to one side and continued searching through rooms while pondering.

How could he survive this place?

Among them, what particularly caught Jin Ja-gang’s interest most was toxicology.

Jin Ja-gang had learned poison through his body. Since he inherited the Medicine Sect’s legacy, he was skilled in medicine but had never learned poison. So toxicology, which covered general topics about poison, was most interesting.

Thanks to Mang Ryo’s Clarity Pills made without considering side effects, Jin Ja-gang’s concentration was highly trained. He read through the thick toxicology book in one day.

Thud thud!

Someone knocked on the door twice from outside.

Two days had already passed.

Regrettably, he wanted to learn more about toxicology, but there was no time for that.

However, toxicology had been helpful in some aspects.

After reading toxicology, Jin Ja-gang realized what he needed to do.

The first thing he did after reading toxicology was search the bottoms of old bookshelves and corners of rooms.

No matter how cleanly you sweep and wipe, there’s bound to be dust in corners and edges.

He picked up dust with his finger and smelled it. His eyes lit up.

“As expected!”

Dust.

Pollen, mold, rotten wood pieces, insect corpses, etc., aged into stale dust.

Unlike humus, this had toxicity. It was dust that had dried without severely decomposing due to the Library Pavilion’s good humidity control.

Jin Ja-gang tore up books to wrap dust in paper. While searching through books on shelves, he scraped and collected dust from corners and floors.

Since the rooms were vast and there were many bookshelves, the quantity was sufficient. Soon the dust he collected amounted to several handfuls.

He spread half the collected dust well on the floor to dry, and urinated on the other half and left it to ferment in a corner.

Then he went around looking at books again.

Now what Jin Ja-gang needed was narrowed down to several things.

Jin Ja-gang tried not to be impatient and continued wandering around the bookshelves.

On the third day, Jin Ja-gang, who had covered about thirty percent of the bookshelves, luckily found one of the things he wanted.

Blazing Twin Phosphorus Palm.

It was an extreme yang palm technique derived from Heat Yang Palm, which came from the True Samadhi Fire that creates flames with pure internal energy.

Blazing Twin Phosphorus Palm generates palm power through two methods.

First, circulate one strand of internal energy only through the yin meridians filled with yin energy. When the yang meridians begin to heat up as the body’s energy naturally balances itself, then circulate another strand of internal energy through the yang meridians to double the yang energy.

After that, eliminate the cold yin internal energy that circulated through the yin meridians at the waist’s belt meridian, leaving only the yang meridian internal energy to circulate to the extreme limit. When heat is felt in all the body’s qi and blood and sweat evaporates into steam, open the blood points at the tips of the thumb and middle finger to generate two blue ghostly flames.

It was an extremely dangerous technique because if yang energy rose to the head, one would immediately fall into fire deviation.

Moreover, Jin Ja-gang’s qi and blood durability was particularly weak due to the Mad Blood Heaven technique, so circulating internal energy through the yang meridians to the extreme limit was not easy.

However, Jin Ja-gang had no choice.

Not much time remained. If he delayed further, there would be no time to learn martial arts either.

Jin Ja-gang decided to invest all his remaining time solely in learning Blazing Twin Phosphorus Palm.