Chapter 5 : Secret Book of Tibetan Scripture Pavilion

Scripture Pavilion.

As the most important location in the Zhou family, the entrance to the Scripture Pavilion is guarded by family members who verify the identity of those seeking entry.

Zhou Tong took out his identity card and handed it to the guard at the entrance. After the verification was complete, one of them said, "You know the rules, right? You can only borrow one martial arts manual each time. Anyone caught taking more will be banned from entering the Scripture Pavilion for a month. Also, since you just reached the Heavenly Origin Realm, you have the opportunity to enter the second floor once. Going further up is restricted territory, so don't wander around. Go ahead."

Zhou Tong nodded, saluted, and entered through the gate.

The Scripture Pavilion is divided into five floors, with most people only able to choose from the first floor. Approval is required to access the second floor and above. In addition, when a member of the Zhou family breaks through to a higher realm, they have one opportunity to enter the second floor. Zhou Tong surveyed the martial arts on the first floor, mostly containing lower-grade martial arts.

Each floor of the Scripture Pavilion had hundreds of martial arts manuals. While these martial arts might be considered invaluable to ordinary people, they were not considered precious in the Zhou family.

On the first floor of the Scripture Pavilion, only lower-grade martial arts were stored, with the highest being a fifth-grade martial art. However, on the second floor, the lowest-grade martial arts were fourth-grade, and beyond that were the more important martial arts of the Zhou family. Given Zhou Tong's current strength, he wasn't qualified to peruse them.

Zhou Tong looked around and, not finding any suitable martial arts on the first floor, sighed and headed straight for the second floor of the Scripture Pavilion.

"How did he go up? Isn't that restricted territory?"

"That's Zhou Tong, just reached the Heavenly Origin Realm. He's allowed to go up now."

"Heavenly Origin Realm? I've been struggling with cultivation and just reached the Earth Element Realm!"

A few people near the bookshelves whispered, their eyes filled with envy as they looked at Zhou Tong.

"Better focus on cultivation; the family competition is coming up. Those who fall behind will have their resources deducted."

"Yeah, let's get back to reading." The speaker picked up a scroll and continued perusing.

When Zhou Tong reached the second floor, the door was tightly closed. After a moment of hesitation, he took a deep breath and pushed the door open.

As the door opened, a sense of antiquity wafted through. Compared to the first floor, there were fewer bookshelves on the second floor. Only a few rows of bookshelves were placed in the middle, and Zhou Tong roughly scanned them. The martial arts here were no more than a hundred, less than half of the first floor.

Sitting next to the second-floor entrance was an old man in a white robe. The old man had sharp eyes and a powerful aura, indicating a formidable cultivation.

"I've seen the elder." Zhou Tong respectfully bowed.

"Hmm." The old man lifted his eyelids, glanced at Zhou Tong, and said indifferently, "Here to choose martial arts techniques?"

"Yes."

"Since you're here, choose for yourself." The old man casually pointed to a row of bookshelves and said, "These are all fourth-grade martial arts. With your current strength, they should be more than enough. Beyond that are higher-level martial arts. Look for yourself. The entrance to the third floor is at the end of the bookshelves. Don't go up there; it's restricted territory. Stepping into the area of the third floor will get you immediately expelled from the Scripture Pavilion. Understand?"

Zhou Tong nodded and replied, and the old man waved his hand, allowing Zhou Tong to choose.

Zhou Tong walked slowly along the bookshelves, his gaze constantly sweeping over them. Blood Element Fist, Return to Origin Force, Lingyun Finger, Mountain-shaking Qi...

These martial arts, though only middle-grade, were at the lowest level of the middle-grade. For Zhou Tong, they were not lacking, as the ones he needed now were stronger fifth and sixth-grade martial arts, or even seventh-grade martial arts.

"I only have one chance to enter the second floor. I need to choose carefully." Zhou Tong sighed and continued to walk, eventually reaching the innermost part of the second floor, where the best martial arts were gathered.

"Alas, I can't go any higher." Zhou Tong looked regretful as he gazed at the entrance to the third floor.

Then, Zhou Tong put away his sighs and carefully examined the martial arts on this floor. The last bookshelf only had a few martial arts manuals, all of which were sixth-grade martial arts.

Zhou Tong had never practiced sixth-grade martial arts. His current main martial art was the fifth-grade martial art of the Zhou family, the Gang Feng Quan. Before coming, he asked his elder brother, Zhou Xuanfei, who had also been to the second floor after reaching the Heavenly Origin Realm. Zhou Xuanfei told him about the existence of seventh-grade martial arts on the second floor, but Zhou Tong didn't dare to expect too much. If he could obtain a sixth-grade martial art, Zhou Tong felt it would be sufficient.

"Tai Yin Fist, Purple Sun Fist, Tremor Mountain Claw, Chaos Yuan Fist... all middle-grade sixth-grade martial arts. The fist techniques truly live up to being the main study of the Zhou family. There are three fist techniques among these many sixth-grade martial arts." Zhou Tong casually picked up a scroll and started reading.

This martial art was called Tai Yin Fist and consisted of three forms.

"The first form—Tai Yin Rupture," Zhou Tong muttered.

Then he turned the page and continued reading.

Soon, Zhou Tong finished reading the entire martial art.

"This martial art has formidable power."

Tai Yin Fist had three forms, with the power of the first form slightly inferior to sixth-grade martial arts. The second form had the same power as sixth-grade martial arts, and the third form's power could compete with seventh-grade martial arts. If used properly, it could even confront opponents across realms.

"Although Tai Yin Fist is powerful, it's not easy to perform. Firstly, you must reach the mid-stage of the Heavenly Origin Realm, and secondly, you must balance the Yin and Yang energies to unleash Tai Yin Fist," Zhou Tong thought to himself.

"For me, I haven't met these two requirements. Let's look at the others."

Zhou Tong opened another martial art book and studied it for a long time.

In a few hours, when Zhou Tong put back the last sixth-grade martial art book on the shelf, he had looked through all the sixth-grade martial arts here.

"These are indeed sixth-grade martial arts, much more complex than the lower-grade ones."

"Which sixth-grade martial art should I choose?" Zhou Tong pondered, suddenly noticing a row of bookshelves in the right corner with only three books on them.

"Could it be seventh-grade martial arts?" Zhou Tong's heart beat violently, breathing rapidly. In the world of martial arts, divided into nine grades and three realms, the first to third grades were lower-grade, the fourth to sixth grades were middle-grade, and the seventh to ninth grades were upper-grade. Although sixth-grade and seventh-grade were only one grade apart, the gap between them was vast—one was middle-grade, and the other was upper-grade. Seventh-grade martial arts were considered important in the Zhou family.

Zhou Tong's breathing became heavy. He cautiously approached and took out an old yellowed scroll. On it were three ancient and simple characters—Lian Xu Quan.

Seeing these three characters, Zhou Tong became excited, unable to suppress his trembling. He had never expected to find seventh-grade martial arts on the second floor of the Scripture Pavilion.

Zhou Tong took a deep breath, trying to suppress the excitement in his heart, and earnestly began studying.

This study took half an hour, and the more Zhou Tong read, the more delighted he became.

"Lian Xu Quan, refining the Yang Gang energy, transforming it into an attack, condensing it into a fist seal, and unleashing a boundless power."

"This martial art looks quite practical, and it's not too difficult. With my current strength, if I can perform it, the power would be absolutely terrifying."

"Good, good."

A smile appeared on Zhou Tong's face. He originally intended to choose this martial art, but when he turned to the last page of the manual, he saw a passage: Practicing this martial art has extremely high requirements for the practitioner. It cannot be practiced if the Yang Gang energy has not reached the fifth rank.