Chapter 170: I Want Them All

Unaware of Navarre’s petty, delusional plotting—and entirely uncaring even if he did know—Rhain calmly walked toward the massive rows of bookshelves.

He stopped before one of the shelves, his hand reaching out to grab one of the martial art book.

But mid-way through the motion, his hand abruptly paused as a sudden realization struck him.

He had been standing inside the Grand Library for several minutes now.

He had even climbed all the way up to the fourth floor.

Yet, the voice of System hadn’t sounded.

He hadn’t received the Location Sign-In notification!

"Why hasn’t the system prompted me yet?" Rhain thought, his brow furrowing into a frown.

"Unless..." Rhain’s gaze shifted thoughtfully, "I haven’t reached the exact designated coordinates for the sign-in."

Grand Library was a towering, five-story pagoda.

If the node wasn’t triggered at the entrance or the fourth floor, it meant the spatial anomaly tied to the System’s reward was isolated to a very specific area.

Perhaps he had to go to the other floors to get his Location Sign-In to successfully trigger.

’I’ll check the other floors after a while,’ Rhain decided, dismissing the thought for now. ’First, let’s find what I came here for.’

He turned his attention back to the massive repository of high-tier Epic-Grade martial arts.

The collection on the fourth floor was staggering.

These were the foundational treasures of the Stormveil Academy, techniques refined over a thousand years by half-step Domain Masters and true Domain Masters alike.

Rhain walked slowly along the aisles, his Eyes of Truth allowing him to scan the descriptions and principles of each technique without needing to physically open them.

As he combed through the shelves, he marveled at the sheer variety and lethal power of the Epic-Grade arts housed here.

There were peerless weapon-type martial arts—sword manuals that claimed to sever the space, and saber techniques that flowed like a river of blood.

There were brutal, body-shattering boxing martial arts designed to pulverize a cultivator’s internal organs with raw force.

Fire-type martial arts also appeared in considerable number.

"Crimson Blazing Palm... Epic-Grade, fire attribute, primarily a close-range palm art. Decent power output, but the casting speed is too slow for my needs."

He moved on.

"Inferno Serpent Coil... Epic-Grade, fire attribute, a binding-type technique. Interesting concept, but too specialized. Not versatile enough."

Rhain continued scanning, dismissing one after another.

Some were powerful but unwieldy.

Others were fast but lacked the destructive power to channel a Heaven-Grade flame like his Red Tribulations.

Then his gaze locked onto a particular scroll.

Epic-Grade Martial Art: Empyrean Purgatory Bloom.

It was a technique that allowed the user to infinitely compress their flame into small petals.

In melee, these sparks are driven directly into an opponent’s body through precise strikes, detonating from the inside out.

When cast as an area-of-effect attack, the petals scatter into the air and instantly sprout into a massive, inescapable domain of burning flame.

This was exactly what he had been looking for.

Unlike the Solar Annihilation Sphere Art, which required extended preparation time to gather and compress fire essence into a massive projectile, Empyrean Purgatory Bloom Art operated on a diverse principle.

Close range. Long range. Rapid execution. Cascading destruction.

It could do anything.

It was tailor-made for someone wielding a Heaven-Grade flame.

Rhain held the crimson scroll in his hand with great satisfaction.

But as he turned to head back to the staircase, his gaze lingered on the aisles containing the boxing and Soul-type martial arts.

He was incredibly reluctant to leave with just the fire-type martial art.

His Abyssal Sovereign Physique granted him monstrous physical strength, making the boxing arts a perfect fit for his close-quarters dominance.

Although he had the upgraded Void Fist, it’s never too late to learn a few more tricks.

And with his newly expanded, thousand-mile spiritual sea forged by the Mystic-Grade pill, ignoring those lethal Soul-type martial arts felt like an absolute waste.

Rhain stood there for a long moment.

Academy rules strictly stated that a Gold Badge disciple could only borrow one high-tier Epic-Grade martial art per month.

A normal person would agonize over choosing just one.

But Rhain was not a normal person.

’Why choose?’

A smirk slowly stretched across Rhain’s face.

’Kids make choices. I will learn them all.’

If anyone in the Stormveil Academy heard such a declaration, they would call him a raving lunatic.

Even the most prodigious genius in the Academy’s history required two to three full years of dedicated study to learn a single high-tier Epic-Grade martial art to a functional level.

And Rhain wanted to learn over a hundred of them?

But Rhain possessed something no other disciple in this Academy had — the Eyes of Truth and a comprehension speed that defied all mortal logic.

Where others needed years to decipher the complex meridian pathways and essence-flow patterns of a single technique, Rhain could map and internalize those same patterns in mere minutes.

He didn’t need to borrow the scrolls and take them back to his courtyard.

He could learn them right here, right now.

Given that he was the only person left on the fourth floor, and no one else was going to come up to this restricted zone, he had uninterrupted privacy.

Thinking of this, Rhain didn’t hesitate any longer.

He pulled the first scroll from the nearest rack, unrolled it, and activated his Eyes of Truth at full intensity.

Golden light flashed deep within his dark grey pupils.

The dense, ancient text and the intricate meridian diagrams within the scroll were instantly deconstructed, analyzed, and absorbed into his consciousness.

Six minutes later, he rolled the scroll back up and placed it precisely where he had found it.

He reached for the next one.

Then the next.

Then the next.

Afternoon moved into evening.

Evening faded into the darkness of night.

Rhain sat cross-legged on the polished jade floor of the fourth floor, surrounded by dozens of scrolls.

Fire arts. Ice arts. Lightning arts. Sword forms. Saber techniques. Spear arts. Boxing methods. Movement techniques. Defensive techniques. Soul attacks.

He consumed them all without discrimination.

By the time the night had fully descended and the floating essence lanterns of the Academy spilled their gentle glow across the quiet library, Rhain finally opened his eyes from the last scroll.

He had spent the entire day on the fourth floor.

It took him full nine hours.

And now, nearly every single high-tier Epic-Grade martial art housed on this floor resided within his mind, perfectly memorized.

He had basically hollowed out the Stormveil Academy’s foundational treasury in a single sitting.

Only a small handful remained in a distant corner he hadn’t reached.

"I can finish those next time," Rhain thought, glancing toward the crystal window where the moon now hung high. "I need to go and see Seris now before she starts worrying."

Rhain stood up, stretching his limbs until his bones let out a series of cracks.

He picked up the crimson scroll containing the Empyrean Purgatory Bloom to physically check out, maintaining the illusion that he had spent the entire day agonizing over a single choice.

With the crimson scroll in hand, Rhain left the fourth floor.