Gu Yanshu stood on the terrace and looked at Zhao Renhui.
The morning light had only just started to spread over the sect walls, and Clock Family was still carrying the quiet shape of a place that had not yet decided how dangerous it wanted to become. The training ground below was still covered in the faint marks left from the night before. The library stood silent at the side. The outer wall held the pressure of the Shiyan Baxiong material like a sleeping beast.
Zhao Renhui was standing across from him with his sword not fully drawn, his face calm in a way that did not match the tension in the air.
Gu Yanshu asked, voice low and flat, "Do you know who the real enemy is?"
For a second, nothing moved.
Then Zhao Renhui lifted his head and pointed straight at him.
"You," Zhao Renhui said.
The words landed hard.
Not because they were loud.
Because they were clear.
The next moment, the sect trembled.
A blast cracked through one side of the terrace wall, not enough to destroy the whole sect, but enough to break a section of the outer structure and send dust, stone, and splinters into the air. The pressure line on the left side bent and snapped with a loud groan. Several of the training posts collapsed. The ground shook under their feet.
The seven tools scattered instinctively.
Wen Zhaolin stepped back first, eyes wide. Lan Wuge moved to the side in one sharp motion. He Mulin vanished behind a support pillar before the dust fully rose. Qiu Weiran shouted something half angry, half shocked. Shen Tiaoran's hand went straight toward his sword. Yu Cheng stumbled backward with a pale face.
Gu Yanshu didn't ask again.
He already knew the answer.
The war had started.
Zhao Renhui's mouth twisted into something that was not quite a smile.
"Now you'll see," he said.
Gu Yanshu's eyes narrowed.
So that was it.
Not a random outburst.
Not an accident.
Zhao Renhui had been waiting for this moment.
The strongest disciple moved first, sword flashing out in a clean, hard line. He used the same sword technique Gu Yanshu had taught them. That was the worst part. He knew the form. He knew the rhythm. He knew how the technique was supposed to break hands first, then legs, then the final line.
He came in fast.
Wen Zhaolin tried to intercept, but Zhao Renhui turned the blade line and slammed him away with a forceful shoulder strike. Lan Wuge moved in from the left and caught the edge of one attack with a qi blade, but Zhao Renhui had already read the angle and forced her back with a second hit. He Mulin tried to come from behind, quiet as always, but Zhao Renhui twisted at the waist and nearly caught him in the side. Qiu Weiran rushed in too early and got knocked to the ground by a flat strike that sent him skidding across the stone. Shen Tiaoran lifted his sword and tried to lock the movement, but Zhao Renhui broke through the rhythm with one clean slash and sent him stumbling back with blood at the mouth. Yu Cheng barely got out of the way in time, face pale, hand shaking around his qi sword.
The strongest disciple was overpowering them all.
Not because they were weak.
Because Zhao Renhui was stronger.
Stronger than all of them together, and angry enough to make the difference worse.
He hit Wen Zhaolin again. Then Lan Wuge. Then He Mulin. Then Qiu Weiran. Then Shen Tiaoran. Then Yu Cheng.
One by one, they were forced back, every one of them carrying injuries now, some shallow, some deeper, none of them enough to end the fight, but enough to make the pain real.
Gu Yanshu watched all of it with a cold face.
Then he stepped forward and said, "Everybody move."
The six who were still standing looked at him immediately.
Gu Yanshu's hand went to the traveler's sword.
He drew it cleanly from its cloth wrap.
The blade came out quiet, black and silver, like frozen lightning pulled out of a dark river.
Gu Yanshu's voice stayed calm. "This war will not end until I finish you."
Zhao Renhui turned his head and looked at him slowly.
There was something strange in his face then.
Not only hatred.
Something deeper. Something old.
He laughed once, but it sounded rough.
"You think this is about today?"
Gu Yanshu didn't answer.
Zhao Renhui's eyes had already changed.
The anger was still there, but now it was mixed with something else, something old enough to have been waiting under the surface for years. His breathing shifted. His hand tightened around the sword.
He looked at Gu Yanshu and said, quieter now, "I'm not losing you like Aga did."
That name hit the air like a stone.
Aga.
The six disciples on the terrace froze at once.
Gu Yanshu's expression didn't change, but his eyes sharpened.
So that was the root.
Not just betrayal.
A wound.
Aga had been their father.
Or the man who had acted like one long enough to become that in memory.
And he had left.
The flashback came into Zhao Renhui's face first, but Gu Yanshu could see enough of it now to understand the shape.
Aga had been the one they trusted. The one who said he would return. The one who told them to stay in the village for seventeen days while he went to bring food. The one who left them there and never came back.
Not because he died.
Because he chose not to return.
That was the part that poisoned everything.
Zhao Renhui's voice broke slightly when he spoke again. "He said he would come back. He said we'd be fine. He said—"
His face tightened.
The rest of the words didn't come out cleanly.
The flashback hit harder this time.
Five children.
Small, dirty, and all standing in a half-broken village yard with a bag of food that was already getting lighter.
Aga had looked down at them with a tired face and told them to wait.
"Seventeen days," he had said. "Stay here. I'll come back."
They had been too young to understand the tone in his voice.
Too young to see that he was already deciding not to return.
At first they waited.
And waited.
Nineteen days passed.
Aga never came.
Then twenty.
Then thirty.
By the time they understood he was gone, the hunger had already started.
After that came the hard months.
Three months of killing small monsters in the ruins near the village because there was nothing else to eat. Three months of forcing themselves to swallow meat that tasted wrong and bitter and half rotten because starvation did not care about taste. Three months of the five children clinging together because if one of them was alone for too long, they started crying and nobody wanted to hear it.
The oldest one was Zhao Renhui. The youngest was Yu Cheng.
Zhao Renhui tried not to show it, but he was the one who remembered the waiting the most. He remembered standing at the road every morning and thinking the shape of a father's footsteps might appear at any second.
It never did.
That was when they learned how to survive.
They were not rescued.
They were not chosen.
They just lived through it.
Years passed.
They grew up hard.
By the time they reached Area 901, they had already become the kind of people who didn't trust promises. They moved together because they had no one else. They were brothers in the way people become brothers after enough pain. Not by blood alone. By survival.
And then Gu Yanshu found them.
He had helped them when they were helpless. Led them through chambers. Helped them kill beasts. Stood beside them when they had nowhere else to go. Built the Clock Family with them.
But Zhao Renhui had never fully stopped looking for the shape of Aga's betrayal in other places.
That fear had stayed alive.
If one man could leave after saying he would return, then any man could.
That was the poison sitting under his loyalty.
Back in the present, Zhao Renhui's eyes had gone wet.
His voice lowered, rough and shaking. "I won't be left again."
Gu Yanshu looked at him.
So that was the fear. Not power. Not envy. Abandonment.
Gu Yanshu's face stayed still, but his sword angled slightly.
"You're not thinking clearly."
Zhao Renhui shook his head hard.
"He left us because we were too strong. He left us because he was afraid. He left us because we were a burden. I'm not going to become that again. I'm not going to be the one left behind."
The words came out faster now.
He was not looking at Gu Yanshu anymore.
He was looking through him.
Through the sect. Through the terrace. Through the years.
And that was the moment Gu Yanshu understood something else.
Zhao Renhui had already started losing the line between the past and now.
The strongest disciple was not thinking about the Clock Family anymore.
He was thinking about Aga.
About being abandoned. About being the one who stayed. About never letting himself be weak enough to be discarded again.
That was why he had pointed at Gu Yanshu and called him the enemy.
Because in his mind, every leader was the same eventual betrayal waiting to happen.
The six others saw it too.
Wen Zhaolin's face had gone pale. Lan Wuge looked angry now, not at Gu Yanshu, but at the old wound she could finally see bleeding through. He Mulin stayed still, but his hands had tightened. Qiu Weiran's jaw had set hard. Shen Tiaoran looked like he wanted to say something and didn't know where to put it. Yu Cheng was breathing too fast and looking at Zhao Renhui like he was seeing a stranger.
Gu Yanshu took one slow step forward.
"Zhao Renhui."
Zhao Renhui looked up.
His eyes were wet now. His breathing was uneven. His sword hand was shaking just a little.
"I'm not like Aga," he whispered.
Gu Yanshu's answer came instantly.
"You're right."
That made Zhao Renhui freeze for half a breath.
Gu Yanshu's sword moved.
Not wide. Not dramatic. Just a sharp line.
The traveler's blade cut through the air and the battle ended before Zhao Renhui could even finish pulling his body back.
He stood there for one second.
Then the strength left him.
His sword slipped from his hand and hit the stone.
The strongest disciple collapsed without a sound.
The six others stared in shock.
None of them cried.
Not because they didn't feel it.
Because the old pain of Aga had already taught them too much. They had seen enough abandonment to know what a broken man looked like, and Zhao Renhui had been breaking for a long time before Gu Yanshu ever raised the sword.
Gu Yanshu stood still for a breath after the strike.
Then he looked at the body on the ground.
He was not sorry.
Not for this.
Not for a betrayal that had been growing under the sect floor for who knew how long.
The six remaining disciples did not move at first.
Then Yu Cheng tried.
He pushed himself up with shaking arms, chest heaving, blood still at his lip, legs barely holding him.
He had always been the weakest one.
Not in loyalty. In body.
But he still moved.
He dragged himself toward the training area, one hand over his chest, breathing rough. Every step looked painful. The injuries were still there. The pain was still there. But he kept going anyway, stubborn enough to look pathetic and brave at the same time.
He crossed the threshold of the training hall and then his knees gave out.
Yu Cheng fell to the ground.
Then he stopped moving.
Not dead.
Just asleep.
The body had given up before the will did.
Wen Zhaolin looked at him and then back at Gu Yanshu.
The others were still standing, but the whole sect felt quieter now. Not peaceful. Just stunned. The kind of silence that follows a cut so clean that everyone needs a second to remember how to breathe.
Gu Yanshu turned the traveler's sword in his hand once.
Then he looked at the rest of them.
"The war began because one of you forgot where his enemy was."
No one answered.
He continued, voice even. "If you want to survive here, then stop letting old wounds tell you what your eyes should see."
Wen Zhaolin lowered his head.
Lan Wuge's jaw tightened. He Mulin looked away. Qiu Weiran rubbed his face with one hand, trying to steady himself. Shen Tiaoran shut his eyes for a second. Yu Cheng lay asleep in the training hall entrance, exhausted all the way through.
Gu Yanshu looked around the terrace that had been broken open by the betrayal and then stepped back toward the center of the sect.
Clock Family was damaged now.
Not destroyed. Damaged.
That was different.
Damage could be repaired. Betrayal could be cut out. Fear could be taught to behave if the blade was fast enough.
He sheathed the traveler's sword and looked at the six standing disciples.
"Wipe the blood off the floor," he said. "Then train."
They did not argue.
Good.
Because the next part of the war would not wait for them to feel ready.Lan Wuge rushed in before Yu Cheng could slide any farther down.
Yu Cheng had just hit the ground in the training area, one knee folding first, then the rest of his body following after it like the strength had been pulled out of him all at once. His face was pale, his breath rough, and his hands were still trying to move even after the body said stop. Lan Wuge got there fast, grabbed him under the arm, and pulled him up before he could strike the stone with his head.
Yu Cheng's eyes opened halfway.
He looked confused first, then tired, then embarrassed.
Lan Wuge held him steady and asked, "Who was the one?"
Yu Cheng blinked slow, like he was trying to remember what she meant. Then he looked up past her shoulder and saw the terrace. Saw the broken line. Saw the blood. Saw Zhao Renhui's body where it had been.
Only then did he realize who it was.
"Zhao Renhui," he said, voice thin.
Lan Wuge stared at him for a second, then let out a breath and tightened her grip. She did not ask more. She only lifted Yu Cheng higher and carried him toward the training hall.
His feet dragged a little on the ground.
He was still hurt badly. Too badly to stand on his own yet.
She said, low, "You go rest first."
Yu Cheng wanted to answer, but the words didn't come out right. His chest was still shaking from the fight. His arm had blood on it. His face had dust and old pain in it too.
Lan Wuge carried him into the hall and laid him down near the mat where the others had already been resting and training earlier. She put his arm in a better position and made sure his shoulder was not twisted. Then she stepped back and looked toward the terrace again.
The whole sect had gone quiet in that strange way it does after something big breaks.
Gu Yanshu came down from the terrace only after that.
He walked slow, with his sword still in hand, and his eyes were fixed on the blood trail on the stone. He was not rushing. He did not look surprised anymore. The fight had already passed through the loud part and become something colder.
Wen Zhaolin stood near the wall support with one hand on the beam.
He looked at Gu Yanshu and then at the dead body on the terrace.
Gu Yanshu stopped at the edge of the training yard and looked around.
"Tell me," he said, "what is happening."
Nobody answered at first.
The question was simple, but the room was not.
The strongest disciple had betrayed them. Zhao Renhui had been the one they all looked at first when the sect needed force. He had been the one who could hold the front line when others were unsure. Now he was lying there without movement, and the blood on the terrace was turning dark.
Gu Yanshu kept his face still.
Then Lan Wuge, still near Yu Cheng, answered quietly, "The betrayal was unexpected."
Gu Yanshu looked at her.
She continued, "He said you were the real enemy. Then he started the fight. It got emotional. It got ugly."
She did not look away while saying it.
Gu Yanshu gave a small nod.
That was enough.
He turned back toward the terrace and stood there for a moment.
The air felt heavy still. Not with anger only. With memory. With the kind of embarrassment and pain that sticks to people after somebody they trusted turns the whole room over. The disciples were still breathing hard. Their bodies still carried the marks of the fight. Their eyes kept moving toward Zhao Renhui's body and then away again, like nobody wanted to say the wrong thing first.
Gu Yanshu looked at them one by one.
Wen Zhaolin. Lan Wuge. He Mulin. Qiu Weiran. Shen Tiaoran. Yu Cheng, now lying in the training hall and trying to breathe without shaking.
Then Gu Yanshu spoke again.
"What do you think comes next?"
Nobody answered right away.
Qiu Weiran rubbed the side of his jaw and looked at the terrace blood. Shen Tiaoran held the old route notes tighter. He Mulin kept his face unreadable. Wen Zhaolin was quiet. Lan Wuge stayed near Yu Cheng but listened.
Gu Yanshu asked again, "What happens after this?"
Lan Wuge was the first to speak.
"Nothing."
That got a few looks.
She did not soften it. "Nothing dangerous. Nothing sudden. If we keep the inside clean, then the next thing is just recovery."
Qiu Weiran frowned. "You really think nothing will happen?"
Lan Wuge glanced at the broken terrace edge. "I think if something does happen, we deal with it when it comes."
Gu Yanshu looked at her for a second longer.
Then he said, "Good."
That was all.
But it landed.
Because it told them he had heard her. And because it told them he was not going to tear the room apart looking for a hidden answer that was not there yet.
He walked toward the terrace edge and looked down at Zhao Renhui's body again.
The strongest disciple had gone stiff already. His sword lay a little farther away. The face still had the last shape of the anger on it. The eyes were closed now, but not in peace. Just in the way a body finally stops moving after the mind has already burned itself out.
Gu Yanshu stood above him for a second.
Then he bent down, held the sword tighter, and used its edge to check the chest.
No breath.
No movement.
Then he stood straight again.
The body was still there, and the terrace was still dirty with blood.
Gu Yanshu moved his sword once and laid the flat of the blade over the chest, directly on the heart line. He did not say anything. Then he lifted the body with the sword and the other hand together, steady and careful, not letting the weight drag too much. It was awkward. Heavy. Not clean.
He carried Zhao Renhui away from the terrace.
The sect looked at him while he did it.
No one stopped him.
No one ran.
Nobody wanted to touch the body now. There was too much anger in it. Too much shame. Too much old pain. The right place for it was not on the terrace of Clock Family.
Gu Yanshu walked past the outer gate and kept going until he reached the line where the ground grew rougher and the bushes thickened. The jungle edge was there, just beyond the clearer path. The trees stood close together, their dark leaves catching the weak light. Small sounds moved under them.
He looked once at the body in his hands.
Then he threw Zhao Renhui into the woods.
The body dropped through the branches and landed in the deeper brush.
Some animals would find him.
Some beasts would smell him.
That was enough.
Gu Yanshu didn't smile wide. Just a little. One corner of the mouth, barely there.
The body was gone from the open path now. The road was clear. The monsters in the outer line would have food for a while and maybe stay busy with that instead of coming too close to the sect. That part mattered too.
He turned away and walked back toward Clock Family.
When he reached the terrace again, there was still blood on the stone.
Gu Yanshu stopped, looked down at it, and raised his sword.
One clean sweep.
He cut through the blood marks, dragged the blade across the stone line, and scrubbed the stain into dust and broken grit. The blood vanished into the floor. What stayed was only the mark of the blade and the rough grey stain of the stone under it.
Then he stepped back and looked at the terrace again.
Clean enough.
He returned into the sect.
The inside yard was already moving again.
Wen Zhaolin had gone back to the wall line. Lan Wuge stayed near Yu Cheng in the hall doorway. He Mulin was checking the archive side. Qiu Weiran was getting the younger trainees back into place. Shen Tiaoran was still holding the route notes and watching the map.
Gu Yanshu looked at them all and saw what had happened to their faces in the short time since the fight.
The panic was still there. The shock too.
But under that, something else had started to wake up.
Not fear.
Pressure.
The kind that makes people train harder because they know the old shape they trusted has already been broken once.
Gu Yanshu looked at the trainees in the yard and then at the disciples.
The strongest disciple was gone. That meant they had to carry the rest of their weight themselves now.
He walked toward the training area and stopped in the middle.
"Again," he said.
Qiu Weiran blinked. "Now?"
"Yes."
Nobody argued.
The younger trainees got into line. Their hands were still shaking a little from the fight outside, but they came anyway. Their qi forms were unstable in a few places, and some of them kept glancing toward the terrace like they still expected Zhao Renhui to return from the jungle and laugh at them for being slow.
Gu Yanshu watched them.
Then he raised his hand and began to teach.
Not with a long speech.
With movement.
He showed them a martial art sequence built for close work. First the foot line. Then the leg shift. Then the body angle. Then the hand clamp. Then the head line. The point was simple. If someone came in too close and tried to overpower the body, the answer was not to force against force. The answer was to break the line under them, angle the body, and trap the neck and center before they could recover.
He moved the steps slowly first.
Then again.
Then faster.
Wen Zhaolin watched carefully and copied the foot line. Lan Wuge adjusted the angle of the body first. He Mulin took the hand placement and turned it into a cleaner hold. Qiu Weiran rushed the first step, got corrected once, then tried again. Shen Tiaoran followed the sequence and improved the timing on the second round. Yu Cheng, still resting in the hall, looked up after a while and watched from the doorway with heavy eyes.
Gu Yanshu kept teaching.
The training hall slowly filled with the sound of feet, breath, qi flow, and small corrections.
"Not too loose," Gu Yanshu said.
He showed the movement again.
"Leg first. Then body. Then the hold."
The trainees repeated it.
One of them slipped.
Gu Yanshu pointed once. "Again."
They did it again.
Another one got the angle wrong.
"Again."
Nobody complained.
They were tired, but that was the point. They were supposed to learn even when tired.
Gu Yanshu watched them until the form started to stick.
That was what mattered.
The fight outside had left a hole in the sect, but the training was already starting to fill it. The weaker ones could see it now too. Zhao Renhui had been the senior brother, the strongest disciple, the one who bullied them, the one who stood above the others. Now he was gone. That meant nobody had to keep living under his hand anymore.
It also meant they had to become enough on their own.
That was a hard truth.
But it was useful.
Yu Cheng sat up slowly in the hall doorway and held his chest.
He looked at the others and then at Gu Yanshu.
The weakest disciple was still breathing hard, still hurt, still dragging pain through every small movement. But he was awake now. He watched the training with the others and looked like he was trying to decide whether he could stand yet.
Lan Wuge noticed and stood near him.
"You stay there," she said.
Yu Cheng looked up at her.
"I can still move."
"No."
He made a face like he wanted to argue.
She shook her head once and said, "You moved enough."
That made him stop.
Gu Yanshu saw that too.
Good.
The section of the sect that had tried to break had already started to heal through use. Through training. Through repetition. Through the others refusing to stay in fear.
He looked toward the gate again.
The outside road was quiet, but not empty.
People would hear about what happened here.
The strongest disciple was dead. The sect was still standing. The leader had not hesitated.
That would spread.
Gu Yanshu knew rumor would travel before the blood dried fully. Some would say the sect was already unstable. Some would say it was dangerous. Some would say the leader was too cold. Others would say the sect was finally serious.
It did not matter which version reached the road first.
It only mattered what shape they gave it by the time they came close enough to matter.
Gu Yanshu turned back to the disciples and spoke while the training kept going.
"No one hides pain here."
That made them look up.
"If your body hurts, say it." "If your mind is tired, say it." "If you don't understand the form, say it." "If you feel fear, say it."
He looked at each of them.
"Do not let it sit inside until it turns into a blade."
Wen Zhaolin nodded once.
Lan Wuge listened hard.
He Mulin stayed quiet but understood. Qiu Weiran stopped his movement for half a breath and then resumed. Shen Tiaoran looked down and then back up again. Yu Cheng still sat in the hall doorway, watching.
Gu Yanshu went on, "If one person breaks and keeps it hidden, the whole sect can pay for it."
That line hit them all.
They had seen it happen already.
Zhao Renhui had hidden too much. Aga had left too much. The old pain had grown in both of them until it became the thing that cracked the room open.
Gu Yanshu did not want that again.
He was not going to let Clock Family become a place where people smiled in public and carried poison under their robes.
He looked at the training group again and then walked to the archive hall.
Shen Tiaoran had the route notes spread out and was marking lines under the lamp.
Gu Yanshu took one look at the map and then pointed to the old broken line under Area 902.
"This one again."
Shen Tiaoran nodded. "I marked it twice already."
"Mark it again."
He did.
Gu Yanshu leaned over the table and followed the line with his finger.
The hidden route under the district edge had still not been fully explored. That mattered more now because if the brothers outside wanted to come back later, they might try to use some old passage instead of the main road. The sect needed to know those lines first.
He looked at Shen Tiaoran.
"How many of these old maps show the same kind of cut?"
Shen Tiaoran answered after a short pause. "A few. Maybe more if I sort them by line age instead of route name."
"Do it."
Shen Tiaoran nodded and started pulling the maps into smaller stacks.
Gu Yanshu stayed there for a moment longer, then returned to the training yard.
The younger disciples were still moving through the leg and body hold form. Some were slow. Some were fast. Some were already beginning to adjust it to fit their own shape. That was good. The form was not supposed to stay stiff forever. It was supposed to become alive in the body.
Qiu Weiran caught one of the trainees leaning too hard into the motion and snapped, "Your balance is gone."
The trainee corrected instantly.
Wen Zhaolin saw another one and said, "Your foot line is too open."
He Mulin, from the side, added, "You're leaving your side empty."
Lan Wuge stepped in near Yu Cheng and took the younger one's shoulder lightly so he wouldn't stand too long too fast.
"Not yet," she said.
Yu Cheng looked at the training line for a long second and then gave a small nod.
He was still hurt. Still tired. Still awake.
That was enough.
Gu Yanshu watched them and saw the change in the room.
The death of Zhao Renhui had not made them soft. It had made them stubborn.
That was better.
Because from now on they would train with a reason that sat deeper than pride. They would train because the strongest one was gone and they had to fill the space he left or get crushed under it later. They would train because the other disciples still wanted to grow. They would train because they had already seen what happens when pain is ignored.
That is how a sect gets stronger after betrayal.
Not by forgetting. By carrying the damage and moving anyway.
Gu Yanshu walked across the training yard and stopped at the edge of the terrace scar again.
The blood had been cleared from the stone. The jungle had taken the body. The terrace still held.
He looked at the marks on the floor and then at the sky over Clock Family.
The night was deeper now.
Far away, the higher world still sat in the dark above everything else. The books had told him enough to know the layers were real. Power in the void. Mans of Power. Upper Men. Beasts made and shaped. Routes and chambers and families and sects all tied into a larger chain. That chain was still there.
And above the sect, the future was still waiting.
Gu Yanshu did not speak about that now.
He only looked back at the disciples and saw them still training under the lights.
Yu Cheng sat in the hall doorway, watching. Wen Zhaolin corrected the line again. Lan Wuge steadied the seal. He Mulin kept the records sorted. Qiu Weiran pushed the younger ones through the form. Shen Tiaoran marked the map lines under the lamp.
The sect was moving.
That was enough.
The next event would come.
The next rival would grow. The next rumor would spread. The next blood would show somewhere else.
For now, Clock Family kept training in the night while Gu Yanshu stood there and watched them, and the whole place kept turning that betrayal into something harder, sharper, and harder to break.Gu Yanshu was back in the Library of Learning, but this time he was not here for the books like before. He was here to check the library itself. If the library had any problem, if the shelf had any issue, if the books were moved wrong, if anything looked broken or strange, he wanted to see it with his own eyes and fix it.
He walked slowly through the rows of books and looked at everything.
Then he saw one book fallen on the floor.
He bent down and picked it up.
The moment his fingers touched it, an electric shock hit him hard.
His body jerked once, then he fell straight to the ground.
After that, there was only silence.
Three hours passed.
Then the weakest disciple, Yu Cheng, came into the Library of Learning.
He had come because he knew Gu Yanshu usually finished reading in around two hours. It had already been three hours and thirty-seven minutes, and that was too long. So Yu Cheng came to check, and when he entered the library, he saw Gu Yanshu fallen on the ground.
Yu Cheng did not even think too much.
He rushed forward immediately and carried Gu Yanshu up.
Gu Yanshu was still breathing, but he was knocked out cold.
Yu Cheng looked at him with worry and carried him out of the Library of Learning and took him back to the bedroom.
While Yu Cheng was carrying him, Gu Yanshu was dreaming.
In that dream, he saw his father finally executing him before he could manipulate him.
Then he was thrown out from his family.
Then he fell into the sky and came up toward the heavens.
There, he met the Upper Men.
He talked with them about the Man of Power and about those beasts they made.
The Upper Men replied with kindness, speaking calmly, and telling him what the truth was.
Then suddenly Gu Yanshu woke up.
He opened his eyes and saw that he was resting in his bedroom.
Yu Cheng was sitting on the chair beside the bed, watching him carefully.
Gu Yanshu slowly got up.
Yu Cheng looked at him and said, "You finally woke up."
Then Yu Cheng said that he saw Gu Yanshu falling down in the library floor.
Gu Yanshu remembered the book.
He remembered the electric shock.
He said, "Cut that book."
Yu Cheng blinked and said, "Cut that book? Which book? What book?"
Gu Yanshu did not answer directly.
Instead, he said, "The book I read, but not read."
Yu Cheng stared at him for a second.
Then he asked, "I will try to look for that. Why, was that the thing that caused you this problem?"
Gu Yanshu thought for three seconds.
He thought if he should reveal the truth.
Then he thought, he cared about me. If I lie, maybe my words will damage him more. So he chose the truth.
He said, "Yes. I was fallen, and the thing that caused me to knock out was that book. Don't touch that. Just cut it with your sword."
Yu Cheng nodded immediately.
"Okay, understood, Lord."
Gu Yanshu walked out of the bedroom.
Yu Cheng stayed sitting there for a little bit.
Then Yu Cheng took the bandages off his hand and saw that he was bleeding more now.
He tried to hide the pain, but he could not hide it fully.
Then he screamed.
The scream went out loud through the sect, and it bounced again and again through the walls and halls.
The voice echoed through the sect.
The second strongest disciple heard the injury and saw Yu Cheng there.
And while this was happening, Gu Yanshu was already back in the Library of Learning.
He was standing in front of the book that had fallen.
He looked at it again.
Then he took out his sword and sliced it once.
It was easy.
Very easy.
But then he picked it up again.
This time he did not get any shock.
So he opened it and read it.
Inside, the book was talking about the body.
It was talking about the truth of the body.
It was saying the body is mostly controlled by cells, blood, and all those small things inside the human body, and more and more under it.
Gu Yanshu ignored that book.
He threw it into the trash.
Then the trash can exploded instantly.
The book itself was not destroyed, but all the trash inside it burned completely.
Gu Yanshu did not know what that book was.
He only stared at it for a moment.
Then he grimaced.
And he walked out of the Library of Learning.Gu Yanshu walked out of the Library of Learning, and then something from the dust touched his leg.
He did not notice it at first.
He was just moving forward, step by step, and then his body sent something strange through his leg. It was a smell first. A very bad smell. Too smelly. The smell was so bad that he looked down right away. Then he saw it.
His shoe was slipping off his leg.
Then the shoe itself dropped free and started moving in the air like it was caught in a tornado.
It spun once.
Then again.
Then it moved back toward the Library of Learning.
Fast.
It went straight back inside and came near the book again.
At the same time, only Gu Yanshu could hear a loud noise.
Nobody else heard it.
Only him.
That made the whole thing feel sketchy, very sketchy, at the Library of Learning.
Gu Yanshu stood there for a second and looked back at the library.
He did not want to do anything without his shoes.
So he made a new pair.
He used his kiwei strength and formed another pair of shoes right there, then wore them.
When he put them on, his legs felt different.
More energy. More power. More normality.
It felt better.
But now he did not want to go back into the Library of Learning right now.
Something felt wrong there.
Something dangerous might be waiting.
So he left it alone for now.
He moved out.
He exited the sect.
Then he saw the flowers coming at him very fast.
Outside, he saw a wolf.
The wolf looked dangerous.
Very dangerous.
Gu Yanshu did not want to fight it.
He had meat with him. The meat he was going to eat later to calm himself.
So without any reaction, he threw the meat at the wolf.
He cared more about survival than food.
The wolf ate it.
Then it went away.
Gu Yanshu did not waste more time on it.
Then something changed.
With this new power, suddenly he could control his soul.
His body fell into the ground.
And now his soul was moving.
He was moving without his body.
He was not with his body at all.
He was going on with his soul, like a ghost.
He moved through the air and saw the dead body of the strongest disciple still being eaten.
Millions of bees were around him.
They had surrounded him.
Going to the disciple, no, going to the jungle would be dangerous.
But after they eat that body, they would retreat to their homes.
And if they smelled something delicious again, they would come back.
That was their cycle.
Come. Eat. Retreat. Return again if they smell more food.
Gu Yanshu's ghost body saw all of that while moving.
Then he saw Yu Cheng.
Yu Cheng and the others suddenly saw Gu Yanshu fall into the ground.
They cried and cried because they had confirmed there was no breathing.
They thought he was gone.
They panicked.
They did not know what to do.
Yu Cheng was the first one to reach him and check him, and then he saw that Gu Yanshu was still breathing.
That changed everything.
Gu Yanshu came back into his body.
Then he opened his eyes.
Yu Cheng was looking at him.
Gu Yanshu was now awake again.
Yu Cheng looked at him and said he finally woke up.
Then he said he saw him fallen into the ground.
Gu Yanshu remembered the book.
He remembered the electric shock.
He remembered the strange thing from the Library of Learning.
Then he said, "Cut that book."
Yu Cheng blinked.
"Cut that book? Which book?"
Gu Yanshu did not answer directly.
He answered indirectly.
He said, "The book that is read, but not read."
Yu Cheng looked at him and said he would try to look for it.
Then Yu Cheng asked, why, was that the thing that caused this problem?
Gu Yanshu thought for three seconds.
He thought if he should reveal the truth.
Then he thought again.
If he lied, Yu Cheng would still worry.
If he told the truth, Yu Cheng might get emotionally broken by it.
Yu Cheng cared.
He could care too much.
That would hurt him if Gu Yanshu gave him the wrong kind of answer.
So Gu Yanshu chose the truth.
He said, yes.
He said he fell because of that book.
He said not to touch it.
He said just cut it with a sword.
Yu Cheng nodded.
"Okay, understood, Lord."
Gu Yanshu walked out of the bedroom.
Yu Cheng stayed there for a bit.
Then Yu Cheng took the bandages off his hand and saw that he was bleeding more than before.
He tried to hide the pain.
He really did.
But he could not hide it well.
Then he screamed.
The scream went through the sect.
It echoed.
It bounced.
It came back again.
It echoed through the halls and the walls.
Yu Cheng's voice spread through the sect.
Then Gu Yanshu was already back in the Library of Learning again.
He looked at the fallen book.
Then he picked it up.
This time he used his sword and sliced it.
It was easy.
Very easy.
But then he picked it up again.
This time there was no shock.
So he read it.
The book was talking about the body.
It was talking about the truth of the body.
It said the body is mostly controlled by cells, blood, and many small things inside it.
Gu Yanshu looked at that and ignored it.
That was not the kind of truth he needed right now.
So he threw the book into the trash.
Then the trash can exploded.
The book itself did not get destroyed.
But everything else in the trash burned.
The rest of the trash became ash and burned away completely.
The book still remained.
Gu Yanshu did not know what kind of book that was.
He only knew it was strange.
Then he grimaced.
Then he walked out of the Library of Learning.
After that, he left the place and moved with the new shoes on his feet.
The air felt different now.
The legs felt different now.
The power in his body was not the same as before.
Not just stronger.
Not just lighter.
More normal too.
That was strange by itself.
He did not go back into the library yet.
Something sketchy was there.
That feeling did not leave him.
He trusted that feeling enough to keep walking away.
So he left the library and exited the sect again.
Outside, the flowers moved at him in high speed.
Then the wolf came again.
Gu Yanshu looked at it and still did not want trouble.
He had food.
So he threw the meat.
The wolf took it and went away.
That was enough.
He chose survival first.
Always survival first.
Then the soul thing happened again.
He could move his soul now.
His body was on the ground, but he was not with it fully.
He was moving like a ghost.
He saw the dead strongest disciple body still being eaten.
The bees were still there.
Millions of bees.
They were all over the body.
The jungle was dangerous too.
If the smell stayed, they would come back later.
They would repeat it.
That cycle would keep going.
Gu Yanshu's ghost body watched all of that and then moved back.
Then he saw Yu Cheng and the others.
Yu Cheng had rushed to him and cried because he thought Gu Yanshu had no breathing.
Then he saw him breathe again.
That changed the panic.
Gu Yanshu opened his eyes.
Yu Cheng looked relieved.
He said he finally woke up.
Then he said he saw him on the ground.
Gu Yanshu thought about the book and the electric shock.
Then he said to cut that book.
Yu Cheng asked which one.
Gu Yanshu only gave the indirect answer about the book that is read but not read.
Then Yu Cheng said he would look for it.
Then he asked if the book caused the problem.
Gu Yanshu thought about whether to tell him.
Three seconds.
He decided yes.
He said the book caused him to knock out.
He told Yu Cheng not to touch it.
He told him to cut it with the sword.
Yu Cheng said okay and understood.
Then Gu Yanshu walked out of the bedroom.
Yu Cheng stayed there.
He took off the bandages from his hand and saw more bleeding.
He tried to hide the pain but could not.
Then he screamed.
The sound echoed through the sect.
Meanwhile Gu Yanshu was back in the Library of Learning.
He looked at the book again.
He took the sword and sliced it.
Then he picked it up.
No shock this time.
He read it.
It talked about the body, cells, blood, and the things inside the human body.
He ignored that.
He threw the book into the trash.
The trash can exploded.
The book stayed alive.
Everything else burned.
He did not know what to make of it.
He grimaced and walked out of the Library of Learning.
Then he kept moving.
He had already decided not to go back inside for now.
The feeling there was too sketchy.
Too wrong.
It was better to leave it alone and return later with more preparation.
So he walked away from the Library of Learning again.
The sect was still there.
The air was still there.
Yu Cheng was still there.
The wolf was gone.
The shoes were new now.
The soul thing had happened.
The book was still strange.
And the library still felt wrong.
Gu Yanshu kept walking forward, not rushing, not stopping, just moving with the feeling that something had shifted around him and he could not yet tell exactly what it was.