Chapter 87 White-haired Old Man  

However, everyone in Swordsmanship-seeking Sect knew that in every library, there was at least one inner elder guard whose strength had reached the level of the primordial great grandmaster. Moreover, with the mysterious inscription formation laid out by the high-level Inscriptionists, the guarding here were really solid.

Taking the bluestone steps to the pagoda library, Ding Hao arrived at the entrance.

He saw a gray-haired old man sitting quietly on a bamboo recliner under the shade of a tree at the gate of the ancient pagoda, absorbed in an unknown ancient blue thread-bound book in his hand.

The sunshine scattered down along the leaves of the tree, and the gold recliner creaked while it swayed.

This was a beautiful scene full of vicissitudes of life.

“Hmm? A nominal disciple? Wants to enter the library?” Sensing someone coming, the white-haired old man asked softly. He did not look up, but still read quietly.

Ding Hao respectfully answered, “I am Ding Hao, a nominal disciple of the Eastern Academy of green shirts. I came to the library to select a book on magic skills because I’ve won the competition.”

“Oh?” The white-haired old man finally raised his head.

He grew a very common face, not a childlike face Ding Hao had imagined, nor a domineering one. Instead, it was covered in wrinkles, and even had a yellow eye discharge at the corner of the eyes.

However, in the seemingly turbid eyes, there was a suffocating flash of light.

It seemed that this old man in front of Ding Hao was not easy to deal with.

He stared at Ding Hao up and down for a few times. After the scrutinizing, he nodded slightly and revealed a look of approval. He nodded and said, “Well, go ahead and remember, you have four hours to choose a secret script, and you can’t enter the fourth floors and above.”

Ding Hao nodded. “Thank you, elder.”

“Well.” The white-haired old man nodded and suddenly seemed to think of something, and he said, “By the way, you can choose three books.”

“What?” Ding Hao froze. “But... elder, according to the sect’s rewarding regulations, it seems that... I can only choose one.”

“You are quite honest, well done.” The old man looked up smiling, but suddenly changed and made a face, then he said, “The old man is happy today and wants to give you two more ones. What? You don’t want them?”

Ding Hao immediately ran in on all fours while shouting. “I do want them, thank you, Elder. I can’t thank you enough.”

...

“Strange, why does the guarding elder give me two more books? Do I look like his long-lost relatives?”

Ding Hao joyfully thought and entered the “pagoda library”.

In addition to the entrance, there was no other way to enter the “pagoda library”, not even a window. However, with the help of the high-level Inscriptionists, it looked quite spacious and bright inside. The four walls appeared lime green and sent out a gold light like that of an oil lamp, illuminating the entire space in a crystal clear way.

It was a little strange. Today was not a closing day, however, in the entire “pagoda library”, there was not a soul in sight except Ding Hao.

The first thing Ding Hao saw were rows of ancient orange wooden bookshelves.

The bookshelves were packed with ancient thread-bound books.

“‘Vigorous Stele Opener’, ‘Tiger Whistling Boxing’, ‘Rapid-Cross Sword’, ‘Windward Chopping’, ‘Dragon Roaring Spearmanship’, ‘Stunning Steps’, ‘Base-Cultivating Secret’...”

Ding Hao glanced over and saw the names of these books.

They were all books on magic skills.

Ding Hao suddenly had a dazzling illusion.

There were real deal secret books, lying everywhere on the first floor of the “pagoda library”. Like a sea or a mountain of books, Ding Hao was dazzled and immediately felt like he was Granny Liu in a palatial mansion.

“Tsk, don’t be so quick to be swept away. Look at those books, their name might sound fancy, but in fact, they can barely be ranked, and some even are not ranked. Look at yourself, head over heels. So naive.” In Ding Hao’s mind came the voice of Sword Master’s disdainful scorn.

Likewise, Saber Master quickly followed to despise Ding Hao too, unwilling to fall behind Sword Master.

“Little Chap Ding, watch carefully. Books on the first floor are all simple scripts. Many of them are common on streets, and some others are barely ranked. For you, they are all useless. You don’t need them. Go straight to the second floor.” After mocking for a while, Sword Master gave a serious suggestion.

Ding Hao nodded, and without hesitation, he took the stairs to the second floor.

Standing on the thirty-six steps, Ding Hao arrived on the second floor of the “pagoda library”.

At first sight, it was less spacious than the first floor. There were carefully laid-out ten huge mahogany bookshelves made of Phoebe zhennan. Apparently, these bookshelves were much more precious and finer than the bookshelves on the first floor when it came to material and workmanship.

There was a faint fragrance in the air, which made people stay clear and kept insects away.

“‘Blood Flame Secret’, ‘Vajra Body Method’, ‘Vigorous King Tiger Boxing’, ‘Three Bull Shakes’, ‘Lightning-Chasing Central Swordsmanship’, ’81 Skyshatter Styles’, ’16 Sword Skills’, ‘Burning Fire Sword Skill’...”

This time Ding Hao was much calmer than before. After roughly glancing for a moment on the shelf, as expected, Ding Hao found the skills on the second floor were much stronger than those on the first floor when it came to rank. It turned out that they were all ranked magic skills.

However, even if they were indeed ranked, most of them were of Human Rank Lower Grade or Middle Level Human Realm, which was of little significance to present Ding Hao.

Thinking for a while, Ding Hao directly took the stairs to the third floor of the “pagoda library”.

“What? There seems to be some kind of formation here.” The first moment he stepped on the third floor, Ding Hao felt his shoulders sank. Gravity seemed to increase several times in an instant. If any ordinary man entered here, he would definitely swagger and lose his balance.

The faint scent in the air was more intense.

Compared with the second floor, the third floor was about only half large.

In the middle of the space, there were six huge jade bookcases, emitting faint cyan fluorescence. It was a collection of about 600 books, and each book was carefully preserved in a small box made of Phoebe zhennan wood.

On the surface of the small box, fine and incomparable carvings could be seen. There were lines of small characters, introducing the level, power, properties, and other general descriptions of the skill in the box.

This was the highest level that Ding Hao was allowed to enter.

“Well, it’s time to choose the magic skill book that suits me here.”

Ding Hao gently spit out a sigh of relief. He restrained his excitement, and then came in front of the jade bookcase. He pulled out the first wooden box on it.

...