Scripture of Days Past

”That’s enough out of you, Jiang Longyu! You’ve already told me that three times this morning!” Zhang Haizhu snapped in a disgruntled manner. ”Don’t you get tired of saying the same thing over and over again?”

Jiang Longyu barely even bothered to spare Zhang Haizhu a disdainful glance. Instead, he was fully focused on seeing Chu Qiguang’s reaction.

As one of the Eight Han Resurgence Generals, Jiang Longyu had been provided with the best cultivation resources from birth, but at the same time, he had also been forced to endure far more grueling training than his peers.

Throughout his fourteen years in this world, his life had consisted almost entirely of cultivation, study, and battle.

It was a never-ending grind that repeated day after day, year after year, and such a life was bound to become incredibly boring and frustrating for anyone, particularly a child like Jiang Longyu.

He began to wonder why he had to work so hard on his cultivation. He wanted to escape and do something else, anything else, but the adults around him always forced him to return to the same daily grind.

Over time, he naturally began searching for ways to vent his frustration and make himself feel better, anything that could make the grind feel less boring and monotonous.

He still recalled that he had been eight years old when he first discovered his primary source of joy. At the time, he had only been practicing martial arts for a year, yet he had already surpassed his older brother, who was five years older than him.

Jiang Longyu defeated his brother in a sparring match for the first time, and the sight of the indignation, fury, and humiliation on his brother’s face evoked an unprecedented sense of joy within him.

All of a sudden, he felt as if he had found a purpose for his cultivation. For as long as he could remember, he had constantly been told that he was destined to revive the Great Han Empire and save the masses, yet that had never appealed to him, not even in the slightest.

The only reason he was willing to work so hard on his cultivation was because he took joy in crushing his opponents beneath his feet, reveling in their envy and humiliation.

Surpassing others and basking in their envy, disbelief, and anger had the same effect on Jiang Longyu as petting cats did on Chu Qiguang and fooling around with women did on Yi Siman.

He felt as if this were his true calling, and he became so motivated that he was willing to work even harder on his cultivation than before.

”You should spend more time on your cultivation rather than wasting your time reading books, Chu Qiguang,” Jiang Longyu gloated. ”Right now, I’m already at the fourth state, while you’re still languishing down at the third state!”

Chu Qiguang briefly looked up from his book and glanced at Jiang Longyu. The text beside him read, ”Jiang Longyu the braggart.”

”Good for you,” he replied nonchalantly.

Jiang Longyu was astonished.

”Did you hear me, Chu Qiguang? I’ve reached the fourth state, while you’re still only at the third state! I’ve completely surpassed you!”

”Cool,” Chu Qiguang replied.

Jiang Longyu could only stare at Chu Qiguang in utter disbelief. Never had he encountered an opponent as composed and uncaring as Chu Qiguang.

Why isn’t he shocked? Isn’t he envious of me? Is he putting on an act?

”You don’t have anything else to say?” Jiang Longyu asked.

”Nope,” Chu Qiguang replied. ”Can I help you with anything else? If not, I have to go to the archive building.”

This was the day that the gatekeeper had agreed to let him read a second page from the second floor.

As he left Chu Qiguang’s courtyard, Jiang Longyu felt like a complete fool. He had come here to show off to Chu Qiguang, expecting the latter to react with envy or despair, yet all he had managed to do was make a fool of himself.

No, this can’t be right!

Jiang Longyu thought back to how eager Chu Qiguang was to show off during their lessons and how far he went to embarrass his opponents during sparring matches, and his eyes instantly lit up.

Everything he does tells me that he’s clearly extremely arrogant and loves to show off, so there’s no way he actually doesn’t care! He must be pretending! I bet he’s fuming on the inside right now! He probably made up that excuse about going to the archive building so he could cry somewhere I wouldn’t see him!

With that thought in mind, Jiang Longyu’s mood was instantly lifted, and before long, he had set his sights on a new target.

During the next monthly examination, I’m going to defeat Li He and show everyone who’s boss!

***

At the archive building, Chu Qiguang was invited inside by Lin Lan and the gatekeeper, and he noticed an interesting piece of text drifting next to Lin Lan.

”Lost soul.”

Lost soul? What’s that supposed to mean?

Over the past few days, Chu Qiguang had been testing his Dao pursuer eyes everywhere, and he had learned several things from his observations.

For starters, ordinary objects generally yielded no useful descriptions. In fact, unless he deliberately focused his attention on an unimportant object, no description would appear at all.

As for intelligent lifeforms such as humans and fiends, the descriptions attached to them were generally very simple and concise.

The lengthiest descriptions were those pertaining to objects with interesting histories, such as the incantation from the Imperial Heavenly Dao and many of the historical records he had seen in the archive building.

Lin Lan seemed to notice Chu Qiguang’s gaze. She turned to him with a smile and said, ”The poetry anthology you brought me is really nice, Brother Chu. You have my thanks.”

”Not a problem, Ms. Lin,” Chu Qiguang replied with a smile. ”If you—”

”Cut the chitchat!” the gatekeeper interrupted. ”You really wanted to see what comes next in the diary entries, didn’t you? Go ahead.”

Chu Qiguang sat down at the desk, and the gatekeeper handed him a box. He pulled out the page inside, and as soon as he laid eyes on it, a short passage of text appeared.

***

Diary of a demonified monk who underwent demonification after engaging in twisted cultivation.

The Sumeru King Scripture is the first orthodox art to ever be discovered by humans, but after the Buddha’s departure, the monks responsible for safeguarding it soon discovered its dark side.