Chapter 219: The Second Floor
Chen Rui led the trio up the wide staircase to the second floor.
The shift was immediate.
There were fewer shelves here, and those present were arranged with a quiet deliberateness that the first floor hadn't attempted. Each one was crafted from rare spirit wood—their surfaces smooth and faintly luminous, the grain of the material still visible beneath the finish. Four grand columns with six rows each rose toward the ceiling in clean, unhurried lines.
The air carried sandalwood and aged scrolls. The walls displayed paintings of cultivators mid-battle, mystical beasts moving through storm-lit skies, and ancient diagrams that pulsed with residual spiritual light. Subtle formation arrays ran throughout—temperature regulation, scroll preservation, spiritual energy filtration—present but invisible until you knew what to look for. Wide arched windows opened onto the mountain range beyond, soft morning light moving through them in long, clean angles.
"Welcome to the second floor," Chen Rui said, with the particular pride of someone showing you a place they were personally invested in.
Su Tianhao scanned the space. Fewer disciples than below. And the shelves carried something the first floor hadn't—jade slips, interspersed among the scrolls and booklets. At the end of each column, an Outer Court Deacon sat behind a reading desk, recording exchanges and managing circulation.
He filed that and turned to Chen Rui. "Explain the layout. I assume there's a system."
"There is." Chen Rui nodded. "The two columns on the left hold low-grade Spirit Rank techniques—one for martial arts, one for cultivation methods. The two on the right hold mid-grade Spirit Rank techniques, divided the same way."
"That makes sense," Su Tianhao said.
"Does that mean there are no high-grade Spirit Rank techniques on this floor?" Wang Bing asked.
"Correct. Anything above mid-grade is on the third floor, which is restricted to Martial Core Realm disciples only."
"What about Earth Rank techniques?" Su Lei asked, unable to stop himself.
Chen Rui gave a dry laugh. "Earth Rank is a different conversation entirely. Even in the Inner Court, only a select few can cultivate them—and those are mostly low or mid-grade. The truly exceptional Earth Rank techniques are exclusive to the sect's top tier. You won't be seeing those for a long time."
"Is that so..." Su Lei's voice came out low and measured, his mind already working through the implications.
The Heavenpiercing Gale Sword Scripture contained three powerful techniques—one Peak Mortal Rank, one Peak Spirit Rank and one Peak Earth Rank. Handed over without ceremony, without asking for anything in return. A scripture the sect's Inner Court would consider exceptional, given freely by someone who hadn't even paused to consider its value against what he was giving away.
He turned to Su Tianhao.
Su Tianhao was looking at the distance, his golden eyes carrying the particular stillness of someone who had already moved past the conversation and arrived at a conclusion before anyone else had finished thinking.
Something quiet flashed in those eyes.
He had already decided.
Without turning, he said: "How are techniques exchanged here? Points, I assume—but what's the system?"
Chen Rui's brows drew together, he didn't like how Su Tianhao didn't address him with proper attention. He answered anyway. "You'd know if you'd read the manual. But I'll explain."
He shifted his attention to include Su Lei and Wang Bing. "Pay attention—this applies to all of you. The exchange rate follows standard market pricing outside the sect."
Wang Bing's frown arrived immediately. "So a single low-grade Spirit Rank technique costs a thousand Cloud Points?"
"You caught on quickly. Low-grade Spirit Rank technique is worth a thousand spirit stones on the open market, so yes—a thousand points here."
"That's not the same thing," Wang Bing said. "Outside the sect, purchasing a technique makes it personal property. Here, we're paying to study it and return it. The value isn't equivalent."
"This is a sect, not a commercial exchange. The dynamics are different," Chen Rui said with a shrug.
"Then mid-grade is ten thousand points?" Wang Bing pressed. "How are ordinary disciples supposed to afford that?"
"They're not," Chen Rui said, his voice sharpening slightly. "Ordinary Outer Court Disciples receive a thousand Cloud Points on entry. They can't afford Spirit Rank techniques—and they shouldn't be attempting them. Mortal Rank is the appropriate ceiling for disciples at the Martial Disciple and early Martial Adept stages. The disciples who come to this floor are the ones striving to go beyond that."
He paused, scanning their expressions—or more precisely, Su Lei's and Wang Bing's. Since Su Tianhao still hadn't looked at him directly.
Chen Rui's lips twitched, but chose not to comment on it.
"I recommended the second floor because I thought the top-ten new recruits likely already have Mortal Rank techniques covered, and have enough points to acquire one or two low-grade Spirit Rank options. If that assumption was wrong, we can go back downstairs."
"That won't be necessary."
Su Tianhao's voice arrived—not loudly, but with confident certainty that left no room for anything else.
He turned. His golden eyes found Su Lei and Wang Bing with genuine seriousness. "I'm going to the low-grade Spirit Rank cultivation technique section. You two pick what you need—don't rush, but be specific about what you're looking for."
His piercing gaze rested on Wang Bing a moment longer than it did on Su Lei.
Wang Bing felt it. 'Why does it feel like he's speaking directly to me?' she thought. 'Do I even need a technique...?'
Without waiting for a response, Su Tianhao turned and walked toward the left column.
Chen Rui watched him go with a mildly puzzled expression. "Is he always like that? He gives off the energy of someone three times his age."
"Only when he's decided something matters," Su Lei said. A beat. "Which is fairly often."
"Fair enough." Chen Rui glanced toward Wang Bing—still standing where Su Tianhao had left her, turned inward, clearly somewhere else entirely. He studied her for a moment, then decided against interrupting.
He turned back to Su Lei. "Your section's on the left as well. Shall we?"
Su Lei's expression shifted into the particular enthusiasm that made refusal feel unreasonable. "Lead the way, Senior Brother Chen."
They went.
---
Wang Bing didn't notice when they left.
Her mind was still moving.
'I've never had to try seriously for anything. My family handles everything—resources, cultivation, safety. My talent removes bottlenecks before they form. There's always someone intervening before difficulty reaches me.' A breath. 'Which is exactly why Jin Yulong could defeat me despite being two levels below. Not because I lacked strength. Because I lacked experience. And I lacked experience because I was never made to earn it.'
Her fists tightened.
'That's not my family's failure. It's mine. I let it happen. Every time someone stepped in, I let them. I told myself it was circumstance. It wasn't. It was habit.'
Her eyes sharpened.
'Not anymore.'
The words arrived in her mind before she chose them—and once there, they felt less like a decision and more like something that had always been waiting.
"I won't let my position decide who I become." She said quietly, to no one in particular but herself. "I have decided to walk my own path. I must see through it to the end."
She exhaled. Slow, deliberate. Her fists released. Something settled in her chest that hadn't been there before—not comfort exactly, but clarity. The particular steadiness of someone who has made a decision they intend to keep.
Her lips curved slightly.
"Thank you," she said—barely above a whisper. "Senior Brother Tianhao."
She wasn't sure when he had taken up that particular space in her heart. Only that it no longer had nothing to do with the strange resonance between their constitutions—that inexplicable pull she still couldn't name. Only that it now had everything to do with him simply being exactly what he was, without explaining himself.
---
Several metres away, Su Tianhao stood at the edge of the cultivation technique column with his arms loosely folded.
"Looks like she found herself."
A slight smile crossed his face. He turned and walked deeper into the row, something quiet settling behind his eyes.
'I already cultivate the Supreme Dragon Transformation Technique, so another cultivation method would be unnecessary,' he thought, his mind already working through the problem with the methodical ease of long practice. 'I don't need another attack, movement or defensive technique either. My martial arts already exceed anything on this floor. So what do I really need?'
He slowed.
'It's better to choose a destination before setting sail.'
His mind drifted back to the Ironpine clearing—that one moment in the fight with Lu Ruyi when the Dragon Instinct, Sword Will, Killing Sword Sense, and the Realm of Perfect Edge had stopped operating as separate things. A single unified state, lasting only for a fleeting moment. He hadn't summoned it. It had simply arrived—and then gone, before he could examine it.
'I've touched the Realm of Perfect Edge. Touched it—but not mastered it. If I could return to that state deliberately... sustain it... that wouldn't just be an improvement. It would be a different kind of combat entirely.'
His golden eyes steadied with quiet certainty.
'I don't need something that builds strength. I need something that refines what's already there.'
He turned and moved toward the cultivation techniques section—unhurried, purposeful.
"Perhaps this floor still has a surprise or two."
He muttered with quiet interest. And despite the words, he didn't carry any real expectation. The inherited memories had given him access to techniques that would shake the cultivation world to its foundation if revealed. What could a low-grade Spirit Rank cultivation method realistically offer him?
He supposed he would find out.