Nightfall

The Academy arranged mathematics courses for the second day. But the atmosphere in the study room today differed from that of yesterday. While the students next to the desks were listening to the professor in silence, their minds had already floated to a place called the old library. Obviously, many students experienced the same situation as Ning Que did yesterday, which, on the contrary, triggered the unwilling mood and challenging will of these young students.

The bells rang beautifully and the professor dismissed the class. With a huge sound in the study room, all the students quickly rushed out of the classroom and ran towards the wooden building deep in the Academy. The professor was used to such performances of new students in the Academy. He smiled and shook his head without a word.

Chu Youxian, who didn’t go the old library yesterday, wanted to go and explore after he was told about the magic of that building. He greeted Ning Que and rushed out. Ning Que appeared to be quite calm today and unrushed. He didn’t go to the old library after he went out of the study room. Instead, he walked towards the focal hall along the vines.

Ning Que had a big lunch for two with a chicken leg and three raw eggs. After he finished, he touched the bulge on his abdomen satisfied, looking around the empty focal hall.

Outside the focal hall, he set foot on the quiet vine around the wetland reeds and walked slowly along it for three rounds. He was still not in a hurry to the old library. Instead, he walked and made sure that he had digested all the foods he just ate and turned them into energy needed by his body. Then after he squatted by the lake and carefully washed his hands, he finally calmly walked towards the old library.

Although he did not have the potential for cultivation, he had enough experience in combat. He decided to overcome all difficulties ahead of him with a positive attitude of confrontation and a strong spirit in the face of the mysterious books in the old library. Therefore, he must adjust his body and the spirit to the best state.

“Back off! Step aside! It’s not boiled water! It’s a living person!”

There were shouting noises in front of the old library. Four executive staff, wearing academy robes, quickly carried a fainted student out of the building without expressions on their faces but shouted interesting words. Perhaps they had carried out too many fainting students for these last two days and they had to find a way to spice up the boring repetition of the work.

There had already been at least a dozen of fainted students lying outside the old library. The Academy had prepared to handle such a situation and there were instructors rescuing with drugs like Xingshen soup and Jiyuan pills.

Ning Que couldn’t help but shake his head with a bitter smile after he saw the scene.

He found fewer students studying among the bookshelves in the empty building than yesterday. The students were not afraid of climbing the floors as they were elites who could pass the entrance examination of the Academy and none of them wanted to give up on the second day. In fact, most of them were carried out. They looked pale with their bodies shaking as if they had been drunk. None of them seemed able to sustain for a long period.

The dull bell sounded from time to time. The students beside the bookshelves fainted one by one like ripe fruits falling on the mud in autumn, making a slapping noise. Some of them convulsed unconsciously and others dully looked at the sky foaming at their mouths. It looked very miserable.

Ning Que was holding the First Exploration of the Snow Mountain and Ocean of Qi in his hands. He stopped looking at the poor fainting classmates and after a deep breath opened the book.

“Heaven and earth have breathing, which is called the breath… ”

He had to start over as he didn’t remember what he had read before he fainted yesterday. All he could remember was that he was holding this book. He had helplessly expected the repetition of reading in the future as he had to start from the first sentence every time.

Scripts in the book became blurry again as he had expected. Those groups of ink stains, like drops of ink into the water urn from pen tips, quickly blew out. Ning Que was not affected and read continuously at a quick speed.

“Man is the spirit of all things, so he can understand the way of nature. Will equals power, so it is called Psyche Power.”

Fuzzy scripts again drifted away from the papers, buzzing in his mind. He felt the vibrations more like cold winds on the grasslands rather than paddling as if he was fighting with countless aggressive Horse Gangs.

He took a deep breath and forced himself to lift his head to rest for a moment. He felt a dull pain in his neck as his action was too strong and tough. In order to digest the disgusting feelings in his chest and stomach, he rejected the infinite attraction of the book and looked at spring branches outside the windows and other classmates beside the bookshelves.

A small figure weakly fell to the ground. It turned out to be Linchuan Wangying. And then Ning Que noticed Xie Chengyun, who was sitting cross-legged on the ground in the deepest part of the bookshelves. While his eyes were still shining, he looked terribly pale.

“All students are trying hard to climb.” Ning Que said to himself, infected by his stubborn and unyielding classmates. He then began to read the book again.

“The Psyche Power of human origins from the brain integrates into the Snow Mountain and Ocean of Qi and turns into frosts, dew, and water. It passes through acupoints and spreads out of the body, interacting with the Breath of nature… ”

Ink groups began to float again, oscillating and shaking. He suddenly could not hear the buzz in his head and felt as if standing in the streets of the Spring Breeze Pavilion with endless rain falling from the sky, making him all wet. In his imagination, Chao Xiaoshu was not together with him. All of a sudden, he felt extremely cold and wet.

He then lost his mind again.

…

…

It was the afternoon of the third day, outside the old library.

“Back off! Step aside! It’s not boiled water! It’s a living person!”

Four executive staff in academy robes carried the unconscious Ning Que out of the old library and threw him to the doctors waiting outside the building, then someone carried him into a horse carriage.

27 people in the building fainted today.

…

…

It was the afternoon of the fourth day, outside the old library.

“Back off! Step aside! It’s not boiled water! It’s a living person!”

The same four executive staff in academy robes carried the unconscious Ning Que out of the old library again and threw him to the doctors waiting outside the building, complaining while wiping away the sweat on their foreheads.

Nine people in the building fainted today.

…

…

It was the afternoon of the fifth day, outside the old library.

“Back off! It’s still the living person who has been boiled!”

The same four executive staff in academy robes carried the unconscious Ning Que out of the old library in no hurry, weakly complaining about it with few words. Doctors waiting outside the building saw the familiar face again and couldn’t help sighing.

Four people in the building fainted today.

…

…

It was the afternoon of the sixth day, outside the old library.

“Back off!”

Four executive staff in academy robes simply said two words, and then threw someone into the shadow outside the building.

…

…

The temperature got higher as spring came. Students from the Academy, however, did not make any progress in challenging the old library. Instead, they were gradually defeated in the following days as their unforgettable experience made most students believe that books in the old library were too difficult for them to deal with. Therefore, fewer and fewer students would go to the second floor.

Ning Que still kept on trying, getting a big meal and having a walk around the wetland for three laps, and then climbing the building. He fainted and was carried away every time. He didn’t lose confidence, however, nor did he give up. He just got an increasingly paler and smaller face. He became weaker as he climbed the library.

He climbed the library, then he was carried out. Without exception.

One afternoon, Ning Que ate two dishes of mushroom chicken rice and two pieces of steamed bread with a plate of red wine belly silks. He then washed his hands in the wetlands, and once again went to the old library.

Students in the Academy had now forgotten that Ning Que got three A+s in the academy entry exams. All they knew was that the lad was the most famous and craziest man in class C. When he appeared at the entrance of the old library, all students, reading or taking notes by the side of the windows, which couldn’t be taken away, raised their heads up, murmured, and looked at him.

“Is this guy crazy?”

“How long will he stay upstairs today?”

“Half an hour?”

“I don’t think so. He will be carried out after a tea time, at most.”

“I am more curious about who will go downstairs sooner, he or Childe Xie.”

“Childe Xie has the potential for cultivation. How about him?”

“Why does he try so hard?”

“I think it is because he wants to compete with Xie Chengyun, why else?”

Ning Que did not pay attention to these whispered discussions. He looked at the stairs in front of him, wringing his slightly trembling right wrist with his left hand. He forced himself to give up the idea of withdrawal and go on with a deep breath. Only he himself knew the stairs would be more steep and difficult and longer than yesterday.

Watching him difficultly go upstairs, and seeing his pale face, the students’ views downstairs became more and more complex. Many students suspected his purpose or disdained his obsession. All, however, had to admire his will and perseverance.

Ning Que went on another floor and gently wiped the sweat from his forehead. He silently walked to the bookshelf by which he stood every day. He drew out the book, which he had been reading for many days. But he still could remember nothing from this thin book.

The empty floor was enveloped in calm. In addition to Ning Que, only one student could continue. Xie Chengyun sat at the end of the bookshelves with his legs crossed. He put a book on his knees as Ning Que did, his face as pale as a blank piece of paper.

Ning Que knew Childe Xie was here as he had the potential for cultivation to pass the course of magic skills course. So he was not surprised that he could stick for such a long time. But he had not expected how students in the Academy would talk about them when they were the only two left on the second floor.

In the eyes of many students and even instructors, Ning Que and Xie Chengyun had been up against each other since the academy entry exams. None of them wanted to give up first. Therefore, they continued to come to the old library and put in great effort.

Ning Que did not hear of these discussions, nor did he know whether Xie Chengyun came here for this reason. Even if he knew these ideas, he could care less as he only knew why he came here every day. Although he had obtained nothing, he would keep on trying.

He came here because he liked and needed to do this. That was the reason.