Chapter 24: Immortality

……

Ten minutes later, Li Mochen, in a restroom of the school library, looked speechlessly at the bloodstains on his clothes.

He thought to himself, I’ve really lost my dignity in my old age. If anyone found out, how could I ever face people? Being driven to such an awkward position by two girls.

Also, should I apologize to those two girls? What I said while in the ‘Heavenly Mind Illumination’ state was indeed too harsh.

They hadn’t done anything wrong; their chivalrous act deserved praise. Girls with such a sense of justice were rare, whether in the Original Dome Realm or in America. On the contrary, my own behavior was truly ungrateful.

But then he shook his head violently, dismissing the thought. He thought, I can’t exactly go apologize to them while still in the ‘Heavenly Mind Illumination’ state, can I?

Better forget it. His ‘Heavenly Mind Illumination Great Technique’ was clearly trending toward deviation. In that state, he would never apologize to the two girls. Not only that, he might even say something even more outrageous.

But not using ‘Heavenly Mind Illumination’ was also impossible.

So, for now, it was best to keep his distance from these two girls. Only by staying far away could he avoid causing harm.

Also, this third level of ‘Heavenly Mind Illumination’ seemed unreliable. He would have to find another way, adding an extra layer of insurance beyond ‘Heavenly Mind Illumination’.

Thinking of this, Li Mochen couldn’t help but sigh deeply. He lowered his head to the faucet and cleaned off all the bloodstains on his clothes one by one.

After that, he used the borrowing permit given by the vice principal of Georgia to enter the school’s internal library.

The collection here was even larger than Li Mochen had imagined. One hundred and forty oversized bookshelves, holding a total of 140,000 books of various kinds. Some of the texts were ancient, over two thousand years old, practically antiques.

Of course, Li Mochen couldn’t borrow these books out; he could only read them inside the library or take out copied versions.

“—Indeed, the materials of these books are unusual.”

When Li Mochen took a book called ‘Divine Cause Meditation Method’ from the shelf, he immediately sensed that the cover and pages were made of something special—definitely not ordinary paper, but the skin of some animal.

As the saying goes, ‘writing carries the Way.’ In the Original Dome Realm, whether it was immortal cultivation techniques or Buddhist and Taoist scriptures and talismans, ordinary paper and bamboo slips could not bear them, because they contained the ultimate principles and profound essence of heaven and earth, exceeding their capacity. Forcing it would only destroy the paper and bamboo slips themselves.

Presumably, this world was similar.

Li Mochen read quickly, memorizing the entire content of ‘Divine Cause Meditation Method’ in no time. It was a source force meditation method, very high-end, likely one of the top-tier among all source force meditation methods.

It must be noted here that the term ‘fighting spirit’ is actually the Eastern term for a power similar to true essence in the Western cultivation world. But Americans prefer to call this power ‘Source Force’ or ‘The Force,’ and translating it as ‘source force’ is more accurate.

The next book he picked up was ‘Blood Source Documents.’ Unlike the previous meditation method for training magic power and fighting spirit, the Blood Source Documents recorded methods for tempering the body using the blood of various exotic beasts, along with various secret formulas.

Such secret texts, which Li Mochen found valuable, were simply placed on the shelves of a middle school in this world.

Again, within five minutes, Li Mochen had finished reading the entire book, which had 12,000 words.

12,000 words might not seem like much, but every word was written in Phoenician, rich in profound principles.

Phoenician was the first alphabetic script in this world, the source of all alphabets, and one of the mandatory languages for magic energy practitioners and clergy.

This was because most magic books and magic energy secret texts in the world were written in Phoenician and Latin, much like the seal script and oracle bone script in the East.

Fortunately, Li Mochen’s father, Li Chunchu, had high hopes for him and laid a solid foundation in his childhood.

Li Mochen not only mastered Phoenician but also knew Latin, Ancient Greek, and Ancient Egyptian, though he was proficient but not expert in all four.

However, Li Mochen didn’t seek to fully understand these Western ancient books; he only needed to memorize them, imprinting the profound meanings contained in the words completely in his mind.

—If it were the original owner of the body, this would have been absolutely impossible. But Li Mochen’s soul strength and accumulated Dao foundation allowed him to perceive their essence and forcibly memorize them.

The third book Li Mochen chose was a scroll written in Eastern script called ‘Undying Divine Seal,’ placed at the top of the first bookshelf.

The material of this book was among the best of all ancient texts on that shelf, which is why he selected it third.

This time, Li Mochen flipped through it for only a moment before letting out a surprised exclamation.

“This technique is somewhat interesting—”

Even in the eyes of someone like him, this technique called ‘Undying Divine Seal’ was quite sophisticated.

‘Undying Divine Seal’ consisted of two parts: one was the technique, called ‘Undying Seal Method’; the other was the footwork, called ‘Illusory Spirit Footwork.’

What was astonishing was the former. Though it was a martial art nearly bordering on demonic path, it was theoretically based on the Buddhist principle of ‘not on this shore, not on the other shore, not in between,’ using Buddhist emptiness and Taoist Tai Chi philosophy. Practitioners must first cultivate two extremely conflicting techniques, then use the principle of yin-yang mutual generation and extreme reversal, through rapid transformation of true qi between life and death, making it nearly inexhaustible and without breathlessness, able to freely switch between life and death qi.

Abilities included using true qi to detect, know, and confuse enemies. The essence lay in ‘borrowing force,’ using the rapid conversion of life and death qi to borrow and neutralize force, converting the enemy’s attacking true qi (death qi) into life qi to restore one’s own blood and qi, and methods to make one’s true qi and internal energy endlessly regenerating.

The Illusory Spirit Footwork existed dependent on ‘Undying Divine Seal,’ a highly unpredictable and supreme footwork. By leveraging the conflict of two extreme true qis, it produced various bizarre changes and possessed nearly endless energy channels.

In the original Li Mochen’s memory, the East in this world also had a ‘martial cultivation’ lineage, whose great achievers were called ‘human immortals,’ with overall strength even surpassing that of spell cultivators.

Li Mochen thought this was indeed not without reason. Such magical techniques already had combat power surpassing many superior spell cultivation methods.

At that moment, a strange light flickered in his eyes. The flow of true essence within him began to undergo subtle changes.

The ‘Zhou Tian Yuan Chen Two Instruments Formless Scripture’ and ‘Eighty-Eight Constellation Meditation Method’ could use one’s own true essence and magical power to simulate various techniques.

In Li Mochen’s view, ‘Undying Divine Seal’ was an excellent object for simulation. Life and death qi—he already had both within him, and they were two extremes.

He estimated that he could now simulate over eighty percent of the power of the second level of ‘Undying Divine Seal’—

But then he restrained his thoughts and continued to pick up the next book.

By the end of the lunch break, Li Mochen had memorized twenty ancient magic energy secret texts. Then, using his borrowing card, he checked out six more books, each as thick as a brick.

The first book was ‘A Secret History of Magic Energy,’ recording all history related to magic energy since the Western ‘Dark Age’; the second, ‘A Complete Guide to Medieval Magic’; the third, ‘A Preliminary Study of Magical Creatures’; the fourth, ‘A Complete Guide to Magic Energy Professions’; the fifth, ‘European Legends,’ a collection of ancient legends and secrets—all helpful for understanding the Western magic energy system.

As for the sixth, it was ‘Travels in the Dark World,’ an adventurer of legendary rank’s experiences in the dark world, along with numerous descriptions of dark creatures.

Li Mochen planned to take them home and read them when he had time. These six were all hefty tomes of over three million words, enough to keep him busy for a while.

……

During the two English classes in the afternoon, Li Mochen was distracted the whole time. The original owner’s ability in English was excellent, far exceeding high school level. He only attended class to accumulate hours. So Li Mochen simply focused his energy elsewhere.

However, in the second period, the teacher was called away midway through class due to an urgent matter. Class B was dismissed early.

William didn’t even pack his textbooks and rushed out, presumably to deal with his problem with Hancock of the Blood Fang Gang.

Li Mochen could only carry his sword bag and head alone to the Comprehensive Cold Weapon Combat Club.

In American middle schools, classes generally ended after 3:30. After that was sports time, where students could choose any sport. Physical education was mandatory, requiring a certain number of hours to earn credits.

Of course, they could also leave early. Linden College only had four PE classes per week, so students could schedule freely.

Additionally, if conditions allowed, they could join magic energy training institutions affiliated with the school, which also granted Linden College PE credits.

The original owner had already accumulated enough PE hours, but before Tao Ran arrived, he still diligently went to the school’s Comprehensive Cold Weapon Combat Club’s dedicated gym every day. This was because after moving out of his family villa, he lost a suitable practice space, and his finances couldn’t afford joining those magic energy training institutions.

So this gym at Linden College was his only place to practice swordsmanship and magic energy techniques.