Chapter 1810: Spring and Autumn Ceremony

With a creak, the gap in the doorway widened, and Zhang Xuan, with a thought, quickly slipped inside. After more than a month of upgrades, he was eager to see what changes had taken place.

What met his eyes was still an endless expanse of bookshelves and books, stretching as far as he could see, seemingly boundless. When he first acquired the library, it contained only illusory books. Now, however, it was filled with countless real volumes, a dazzling array of knowledge.

Over the past year or so, he had read more books than anyone else on the continent; truly, no one could rival him. Particularly within the mountain of books, though his time there was brief, the volumes he consulted encompassed all knowledge and historical shifts from ancient times to the present. This experience significantly elevated both his state of mind and his wisdom.

"Hmm, there's a staircase here now," he murmured.

He continued deeper into the library, and not long after, a look of confusion crossed his face. The library had always appeared towering but only ever had one floor. Now, a staircase had materialized. Could there be more levels above?

He stepped onto the staircase, but after just one stride, he involuntarily stumbled, nearly falling.

"It's fake!" His expression darkened.

The staircase before him was illusory, just like the books had been when he first acquired the library. He couldn't even touch it, let alone walk on it. It hadn't been there before, so what was the meaning of this extra illusory staircase?

"Could it be like the books before," he mused, "that it needs to encounter a real staircase to become complete?" He pondered this possibility. When he first acquired the library, the books within were visible but intangible. Only after reading countless volumes did they become complete. Could this staircase follow the same pattern?

He had experience with filling in books, but how would one "fill in" a staircase?

"Never mind," he thought for a long time but couldn't figure it out. Shaking his head, Zhang Xuan continued forward, stopping again a moment later.

Not only had a staircase appeared, but the internal structure seemed to have changed as well. At some point, a quiet room had materialized deep within the library. From the outside, it resembled a colossal book.

"A reading room?" He was puzzled once more. Standard libraries always had areas for reading, but this one hadn't. He hadn't given it much thought before, but could it be that this upgrade had introduced such a space? Would reading inside be faster than outside?

He pushed open the door and stepped inside. Unlike the staircase, this door opened easily. The moment he stepped inside, his expression shifted dramatically.

"The flow of time here is different from the outside!" With his understanding of the laws of time, he could easily perceive that the temporal flow inside was completely different from that outside.

"It's roughly a one-to-ten ratio!" He clenched his fists. A one-to-ten time ratio meant that ten days of cultivation inside this room would equate to only one day passing in the outside world.

"However, if only my consciousness enters here, it would primarily sharpen my martial skills and not offer significant help for actual cultivation." His initial excitement was quickly tempered by understanding the limitation. One could only enter the library with their consciousness, much like the Zhang Clan's Blood Pool. It primarily refined one's spirit and understanding of martial arts and cultivation techniques, but it offered little direct benefit to one's personal cultivation level.

The Heaven's Path cultivation technique was already straightforward to practice. Even a tenfold increase in speed wouldn't significantly benefit him. Was there truly a significant difference between advancing a level in two hours and advancing one in twelve minutes? It seemed rather insignificant. After all, two hours was not an excessive amount of time to spend.

He shook his head, deeming the function rather pointless, when his mind suddenly stirred. He felt the true qi within his body begin to circulate in response to his thoughts.

"Wait, no! Here, I can mobilize the energy within my body and cultivate according to this accelerated time flow. This means that even though my physical body can't enter, I can still benefit from a tenfold increase in cultivation speed!"

Zhang Xuan's eyes lit up, filled with excitement. He had initially thought this feature was just for show, but he never imagined it would be this powerful! It had taken him an entire month to recover his strength after severing ties with the Master Teacher Pavilion. With this new ability, he could fully recover in just three days! A simple severed finger or arm could probably be healed in just a breath or two.

"This way, not only will my cultivation speed increase, but my recovery rate will also dramatically improve. I'll no longer fear injuries!" While his progress with the Heaven's Path cultivation technique was certainly not slow, fundamental injuries took an extremely long time to heal. Like this time, it had taken him a full month to recover. If someone had taken the opportunity to attack him then, he might not have been able to resist. But now, with this room, that problem was entirely resolved. Ten times the effective time was enough for a quantitative change to lead to a qualitative one, propelling him towards even greater heights.

"Not only that, but cultivating here makes my thoughts clearer, giving me a feeling of being within the Confucius Temple itself." He smiled faintly.

After only a brief stay in the room, he felt countless streams of scholarly fortune pouring into his mind, making his thoughts increasingly clear. He felt refreshed and mentally agile. He spent some time consolidating his cultivation right there, feeling his Heart's Insight Realm fully solidify, on the verge of breaking through to the Immemorial Realm at any moment. No wonder this upgrade took so long; it was indeed far more impactful than any previous ones. Both the staircase and this room effectively introduced entirely new elements to the library.

Pushing the door open, he exited the room. Just as his consciousness was about to return to his physical body, Zhang Xuan suddenly froze.

"This is a book that can alter time... could it be the Spring and Autumn Grand Canon?"

He had personally witnessed Luo Ruoxi refine the Spring and Autumn Grand Canon. However, after she left, he had fallen into a coma, and that was when the library began its upgrade. The Spring and Autumn Grand Canon was known by every peak Master Teacher on the continent to possess the ability to alter time. The library's sudden acquisition of this very power naturally made him suspicious.

He quickly looked back at the room. It looked exactly like a book. He hadn't paid close attention before, but upon careful examination now, it bore a striking resemblance to the Spring and Autumn Grand Canon he had seen previously. Although he had never physically touched the Grand Canon, he had observed it closely when it appeared. The feeling it evoked was identical to this room, save that the room felt like a subdued version, lacking the Canon's intense aura.

"Could she have placed the Spring and Autumn Grand Canon here, thus triggering the library's upgrade?" His fists clenched, and Zhang Xuan's face was filled with utter disbelief.

He had only learned at the very last moment that Luo Ruoxi knew about the library's existence, and that revelation had already shocked him beyond measure. Could she truly have placed the Spring and Autumn Grand Canon inside, causing the two to completely merge and form this room? Was this real? If so, who exactly was she? And what was her connection to it?

In that instant, Zhang Xuan's mind reeled, leaving him utterly bewildered.