Mang Shusheng's Ink Painting Practice

Chapter 2 Seeking Scripture in a Dark Room
Zhao Yifu obtained the pass to the stone pavilion, respectfully left Liang Zhongzhi's study, and then turned and walked out.

The stone pavilion is where the scrolls of the Danqing Sect's outer sect are stored. In fact, it is not within the Molu Study Hall of the outer sect, but in a stone cave near the middle of the mountain.

Zhao Yifu walked through a winding mountain path and finally found the cave at the edge of a lush grove.

He entered Molu Academy at the age of twelve and is twenty years old this year. This place is like his second home and he is naturally very familiar with it.

Looking at this stone pavilion again, its appearance is ordinary and looks like a natural cave, but the inside has long been hollowed out, leaving a very wide space.

The entrance to the cave is a hall with ten oil lamps on the walls on both sides. It is unknown what material the lamp oil is made of. It is smokeless and emits a faint blue light, making the cave seem a little gloomy and cold.

Zhao Yifu stopped here and didn't dare to move forward on his own. It was rumored that the stone pavilion had guards, and anyone who dared to enter the stone pavilion privately would be severely punished.

So after he stood still, he took up the waist badge given by Liang Zhongzhi with both hands and held it in front of him and said, "Zhao Yifu, a disciple of Molu Academy, is here to learn from Master Liang Zhengfang on his orders."

"Zhengfang" is Liang Zhongzhi's courtesy name.

As he finished speaking, his eyes suddenly blurred, his hand felt lighter, and he saw the badge flying away in the air.

Zhao Yi Fu was startled for a moment and looked over quickly, only to see a shadow appear at one end of the cave at some point.

The shadow seemed to be a person, but it was too dark to see clearly. More importantly, he seemed to see the shadow coming through the wall!

The hairs on his back immediately stood on end and he felt terrified.

But the shadow knew he was afraid and said soothingly, "Don't be afraid. I am the spirit that guards this stone pavilion. You can call me 'Stone Spirit'."

"This stone pavilion has three floors. Since your cultivation is still shallow, you can only select scriptures on the first floor. Do you understand?"

Zhao Yifu immediately folded his hands in front of him, with his thumbs raised straight up, and bowed, saying, "Thank you, Senior Shi Ling, for your guidance."

Isn't it strange that there are so many people?

He had lived in Molu Academy for such a long time that he certainly knew that people in this place liked to be polite.

Sure enough, this trick is very effective.

The inky black stone spirit said with satisfaction, "I'm not telling you anything, but I think you might find what you need on the eighth bookshelf after you go in."

"Also, all open flames are prohibited in the stone pavilion."

"Now, go ahead."

Zhao Yifu suppressed his doubts, bowed again, and watched the stone spirit disappear.

As the stone spirit disappeared, he saw a dark cave entrance over there.

He knew that was where the books were kept.

As soon as I entered the cave, everything was pitch black and I couldn't see anything.

There is not a single ray of light coming in here, how can I find the book?

There is an eighth bookshelf. Should I ask him to look for books in the dark?

This is really possible...

wrong!

Zhao Yifu suddenly realized something.

Or perhaps it was the only barely usable spell he had practiced in all these years that gave him inspiration.

That is 'opening the spiritual eyes'.

The purpose of this technique is to open the spiritual eye which is between the heavenly eye and the physical eye, so that one can see things that cannot be perceived by the mortal eye.

Thinking of this, he quickly took out two willow leaves that had been soaked in dew and refined from the lining in his arms.

Then he placed the willow leaves on his eyelids without using any mantras. He just circulated the little bit of true energy accumulated in his body, and after a while, he moved it to the fingers of both hands, and then lightly touched the two willow leaves.

Inspired by the true energy, Zhao Yifu's eyelids immediately opened, and then he clamped the two willow leaves with his eyelids. The next moment, the stone chamber he saw was no longer pitch black, but filled with a spiritual glow.

The source of these lights is the rows of bookshelves in front of us, and each volume on the bookshelves emits a different aura.

Zhao Yifu was shocked, but this scene perfectly matched his vision of the world of cultivation.

Unfortunately, he soon felt a slight soreness in his eyes, and his true energy was reduced by about one tenth... He immediately gathered his thoughts and didn't dare to think too much.

This method of 'opening the spiritual eyes' is very complicated. The carrier of the spell is the two willow leaves, which he spent a lot of effort to refine successfully.

But even so, the difficulty of using it is still too high for him, an outer disciple whose term is about to be driven down the mountain.

First of all, each use would consume almost 10% of his true energy.

The second is the time limit for use... He currently doesn't know how long this 10% of true energy can last, because his eyes can't last that long without blinking.

Once you blink, the spell will be broken, and you need to consume another 10% of your true energy to open your eyes again...

He dared not delay any longer.

Without time to savor this stone chamber full of mystery and magic, he hurriedly counted the number of bookshelves and came to the eighth row of bookshelves.

The scriptures on this row of bookshelves also had a unique aura, and Zhao Yifu buried his head in searching.

He discovered that this spiritual light emanated from every word on these scriptures. He seemed to see how much effort the writer of these words had poured into them...

But at this moment, he felt his eyes suddenly dry and itchy, and he blinked subconsciously.

In the blink of an eye, things went wrong. The willow leaf stuck on his eyelid fell off, and his spiritual vision was suddenly interrupted... The spell was broken.

Zhao Yi Fu rubbed his eyes quickly, closed his eyes for a while, then put the willow leaf on him again and cast the spell again.

This time he widened his eyes and tried to hold on a little longer.

However, his eyes told him that this was not possible, because this time he only had time to quickly flip through a volume of scriptures before he couldn't even blink.

So it failed again.

Zhao Yifu couldn't help feeling anxious, but he quickly calmed down and didn't rush to take action again. Instead, he rubbed his eyes and racked his brains to think of a solution.

He didn't want to experience the feeling of entering a treasure trove empty-handed.

Then he has to make a choice.

You can no longer look through the scriptures carefully, you can only make a choice as quickly as possible and without too much hesitation.

After all, although the willow leaves can be reused, his true energy is extremely limited.

After pondering in the dark for a while, he immediately found a solution from his experience in his previous life.

As a corporate slave in his previous life, he suffered from an occupational disease that most corporate slaves have: dry eyes.

When the disease occurs, the eyes may be dry and unbearable for several days in a row, which is very painful.

However, he unexpectedly found a wild solution in a period when he needed to wear a mask frequently. That is, wearing a mask can allow the hot and humid air he exhaled to blow onto his eyes, moisturizing his eyes to a great extent.

This time he tried this method... and sure enough, it lasted much longer.

This made him very happy.

But how much can you see in these three to five minutes?
Then he thought of another way: open only one spiritual eye at a time and use the two eyes alternately. Wouldn't this save the loss of true energy?

Zhao Yifu felt that he might not have much talent for cultivation, but this kind of unconventional cleverness was still good.

After making multiple preparations, both serious and not serious, he began to quickly and methodically flip through the scriptures on the bookshelf.

　Wuhu~coming.

　　
　
(End of this chapter)