Chapter 111: Chapter 38 Electronic Scripture Depository i
Translator: 549690339
The interface of the Dao Forum was very tidy, with no messy advertisements.
Like most regular forums, its interface was divided into categories such as Discussion Zone, Help, and Best Posts.
Without hesitation, Shen Yuan clicked on the Help Zone and the first thing that caught his eye was a question that had been pinned for a solid three months.
“Help Needed: How to repair a grotto heavens sacred ground that is on the verge of collapse?”
Shen Yuan glanced at it and the name of the questioner was none other than Zhong Buwen, the current Superintendent of the Imperial Astronomical Bureau.
To answer this question, depending on the level of resolution provided, one could earn anywhere from a thousand to a million points.
Shen Yuan had specifically flipped through the Imperial Astronomical Bureau’s exchange list, and it only needed a hundred thousand points to exchange for a Profound Divine Power.
If this question were truly resolved, it would be enough to buy ten Profound Divine Powers.
Of course, since the Imperial Astronomical Bureau was able to offer such a price, there was no doubt that they would gain a return far exceeding the points if they received a correct answer.
Shen Yuan, out of curiosity, clicked on this help question and glanced through it. The ones who answered this help question in the forum were very few, mostly accounts bearing sect names mocking the Superintendent of the Imperial Astronomical Bureau.
Listen to the Tide Sword Master from Junjian Mountain: Seems like the Imperial Astronomical Bureau is having a hard time! Even grotto heavens are about to collapse, any prodigies of the Imperial Astronomical Bureau interested in coming to my Junjian Mountain?
Star Observation Sect’s Tian Shu: Can’t even handle a grotto heaven, is this the level of the Imperial Astronomical Bureau?
Stuff like this, trash talk filled the comment area, continually denigrating the Imperial Astronomical Bureau.
And the cultivators of the Imperial Astronomical Bureau series were not showing weakness, and in the back-and-forth, they managed to stack up tens of thousands of replies to this help question.
Even now, Shen Yuan could still see continuous refreshes on the comment replies.
“Sure enough, where there are people, there is bound to be conflict.”
Shen Yuan couldn’t help but mutter quietly, then continued to browse through other content on the forum.
Apart from areas filled with mutual bickering like the comment area, the atmosphere in most of the other comment areas was relatively normal, and Shen Yuan could see many questions related to cultivation.
Whether it was a sect or the Imperial Astronomical Bureau, they would answer immediately and took the opportunity to mock their old rivals, and everyone seemed to take these as a matter of course.
Besides questions about cultivation, Shen Yuan could also see some help requests about historical legends and certain treasures and divine skills.
As soon as he saw questions about historical legends, Shen Yuan immediately perked up. He hadn’t forgotten that his current power was largely thanks to the completion of three hidden achievements.
If he could get some information from a thousand years ago based on the help questions in the forum, it would be of great value to Shen Yuan.
His eyes kept searching and at first, Shen Yuan was quite interested.
However, after flipping through most of the Help Zone, Shen Yuan realized that the historical legends involved in the Help Zone were just from the last Spirit Energy Tidal Surge era three thousand years ago, and he immediately lost most of his interest.
Even the Ghost Market from three thousand years ago couldn’t provide a hidden achievement, let alone anything else.
In fact, it made sense when you thought about it. After all, a thousand years ago was too far from now. Now, the oldest cultivators in the cultivation world were basically from the last Spirit Energy Tidal Surge era.
The farther back the era, not only was there the influence of a long period of Spirit Energy depletion, but there was also the constant threat of the limitation of lifespan.
Those old monsters who can survive from a thousand years ago to now are all powerful figures. Even the Spirit Energy of ordinary grotto heavens is difficult to supply for them. They could only lie in coffins in a state of suspended animation and have no time to participate in these little games.
Feeling a little disappointed, Shen Yuan looked at the cargoes and divine skills help. They were mostly posted by people holding the names of sects.
“Help Request: The treasured artifact of Mount Laojun, the Purple-Gold Eight-Diagram Furnace, has been missing for thousands of years. If a lucky person gets related information, he can go to Mount Laojun in Yun Province to inform us. If the news is confirmed, the supreme leader can personally accept him as a disciple who received master’s personal coaching and grant a grotto heaven quota.”
“Help Request: The Chrysanthemum Girl of the Yin Yang Love Harmony Sect’s harmony method was lost. If anyone knows its whereabouts, they can go to the Jade Mountain Range in Yeang Province. The Harmony Sect must have a generous reward!”
Similar requests were many, there were requests for lost sect treasures, lost sect methods, or it was seeking a suitable method for oneself.
In this information, Shen Yuan often saw the words “grotto heaven quota”.
After carefully reading the comments, Shen Yuan understood that the meaning of this grotto heaven quota was that once the Spirit Energy Tidal Surge ended and the Spirit Energy depletion period arrived, one could use the quota to enter the sect’s grotto heaven to evade catastrophe.
For the entire cultivation world, the preciousness of a grotto heaven quota was undoubtedly beyond question.
Many times when the Spirit Energy depletion period arrives, the core disciples truly receiving the sect’s teachings may not be able to enter the grotto heaven sacred ground due to the lack of Spirit Energy within the grotto heaven sacred ground.
Especially after numerous collapses of blessed lands during the Spirit Energy depletion period and no new grotto heavens were born, the grotto heaven quota became even more precious.
After browsing the Dao Forum, Shen Yuan could say that his horizons were greatly broadened, and he had a general understanding of the various aspects of the cultivation world.
For Shen Yuan, joining the Dao Forum was undoubtedly an excellent opportunity.
“Next, I should answer some questions to accumulate points and exchange them for the classics of various cultivation skills, right?”
While browsing through the categories of the Dao Forum, Shen Yuan was thinking about the fastest way to accumulate points and exchange for cultivation classics.
Just for cultivation Q&A, Shen Yuan was definitely not capable. In fact, he had encountered many of the questions in the Help Zone himself and needed the help of the comment area to answer them.
As he continued to flip through the sections of the forum, Shen Yuan was pondering over a solution.
However, as Shen Yuan clicked on the Best Posts section, his eyes suddenly froze on the screen.
In the Best Posts category he opened, he saw a large number of download links for various cultivation classics.
Mount Laojun’s “Grand Clarity Tao Te Ching”, “Method Against All Creatures in Two Worlds”.
Listen to the Tide Pavilion’s “All rivers return to the sea”, “Tyrannical Dragon Subdues Whale Method”.
The Yin Yang Hehuan Dao’s “Heaven and Earth Interacting Yin Yang Great
Sorrow Poem,” “Yellow Emperor’s Inner Canon-Women’s Chapter.”
Not only the major sects’ cult-suppression secret tomes, there are also large amounts of cultivation arts books such as “Basic Artifact Refining,” “Chen’s Alchemy Technique,” “Master Swordsmith Ou Ye’s Sword Casting Classic,” “Mo Clan’s Puppetry Compendium” etc.
At a glance, it seemed as if the entire cultivation world’s foundation was on this forum.
“Are these all real?”
Disbelief filled Shen Yuan’s eyes.
Looking at Mount Laojun’s “Grand Clarity Tao Te Ching” and clicking on it, it clearly showed that the person who uploaded it was Mount Laojun’s Profound True Being.
A download interface immediately popped up on the computer, without needing to pay any points, the entire “Grand Clarity Tao Te Ching” was swiftly downloaded.
After clicking on the completed download task, Shen Yuan then saw the contents of the “Grand Clarity Tao Te Ching.”
“The valley spirit never dies, this is called the mysterious feminine…”
After a rough skim, Shen Yuan finally understood what was going on.
These scriptures that were actively thrown out by the sects, were undoubtedly the real sect’s cult-suppression secret tomes, with no changes made to the original text.
Even if placed in the cultivation golden age thousands of years ago, they would undoubtedly be the top cultivation scriptures, enough to make countless cultivators fight for them.
But as cult-suppression secret tomes, these scriptures weren’t as simple as reading the original text to cultivate.
Some secret tomes need to be paired with visualization methods, to glimpse the revered deity in the spirit machine, and thus enter the doorway to cultivating the cult’s suppression method.
Some secret tomes have corresponding body forging techniques, if one cultivates without these techniques, at the least, one’s meridians will be damaged, and at worst, one might lose all accumulated cultivation.
Some secret tomes require special development of an alchemy furnace to begin learning, otherwise, one will not make any progress throughout their entire life.
These cult-suppression secret tomes thrown out by the major sects, are actually just a large carrot hung in front of the many talents on the Philosophical Dao Forum.
Those able to enter the Philosophical Dao Forum are basically the most outstanding individuals of Great Xia, characters whom various forces fight over.
These talents, after coming into contact with the cult-suppression secret tomes, if they want to cultivate a certain book, must join the corresponding sect.
This was, without a doubt, a good thing for the sects, and all they had to give up were these sect scriptures that could not be truly cultivated.
Even if there truly was a talent that managed to complete the cult-suppression secret tome’s cultivation without the assistance of anything, the subsequent divine arts that pair with the secret tome would tightly bind that talent to the sect.
If this were thousands of years ago, in the vibrant and thriving cultivation world, voluntarily revealing one’s own cult-suppression secret tomes would be undoubtedly foolish, as it would cause oneself to lose their most core competitiveness.
However, thousands of years later, if one were to still maintain an attitude of treasuring one’s holdings like a pauper, they would inevitably be eliminated by the times.
As a matter of fact, The Imperial Astronomical Bureau knew full well this was a ruse by the major sects, but given they were even willing to give up their cult-suppression secret tomes, they had no choice but to accept it.
In order to counterbalance the major sects, the Imperial Astronomical Bureau also had to respond.
The Imperial Astronomical Bureau’s foundation was still shallow, they couldn’t compete with the major sects in cultivation, but the Imperial Astronomical Bureau had the widest territory.
Over three thousand years, the Imperial Astronomical Bureau has collected countless scriptures from among the common folk, especially from small families, or those passed down from individual cultivators.
These cultivation art scriptures were not particularly precious, but their strengths lay in their basicness and large quantities, they can meet the needs of any type of cultivator.
Of course, the Imperial Astronomical Bureau naturally had some tricks up their sleeve, the most essential parts of any manual could only be obtained after joining the Imperial Astronomical Bureau.
Therefore, these thousands of scriptures in the premium section, though seemingly astoundingly numerous, their actual worth was not great. Even Xue Mingzhi did not bother to mention it.
“These hold little value for others, but they are priceless treasures for me!”
Shen Yuan was ecstatic in his heart.
He had finished the cultivation arts task, learning a form of alchemy or artifact refining technique was actually the easiest part.
For Shen Yuan, the real challenge was that he had to cultivate in the scripture depository.
To attain the scripture depository’s standards, it had to hold at least thousands upon thousands of cultivation scriptures. Under normal circumstances, Shen Yuan wouldn’t have been able to obtain so many cultivation scriptures.
However, on this Philosophical Dao Forum, scriptures missing key details were everywhere, Shen Yuan only needed to move his fingers to download them.
“Cult-suppression secret tomes can’t be cultivated?”
Shen Yuan never intended to cultivate those cult-suppression secret tomes, he merely wanted to throw them in to make up the numbers.
“Cultivation scriptures missing content?”
The grand Falling Clouds Sect scripture depository having “billions” of fragmentary scriptures is normal.
“The ceilings for cultivation art scriptures missing their core content are not high?”
All Shen Yuan sought was merely to complete the main task, reach the beginner level in the cultivation arts, he, to begin with, never intended to earnestly study the so-called artifact refining and alchemy techniques.
So, in Shen Yuan’s view, these flaws in the cultivation scriptures were not flaws at all!
Without any hesitation, Shen Yuan directly executed a one-click download for all the cultivation scriptures on the entire Philosophical Dao Forum.
As notifications for completed downloads came one after the other from the computer, a message suddenly popped up in front of Shen Yuan.
System: The host has obtained a thousand cultivation scriptures and the sect scripture depository is missing, do you wish to establish a sect scripture depository?