Chapter 964: Chapter 964: Footprints

Apart from the lack of a rune, the book didn't look particularly special to Zen. It was only a little bit thinner than the others.

The cover seemed to be a dark red color as well, slightly darker than that of the others.

Upon careful examination, Zen could see a thin layer of energy quietly circulating on the book's surface.

“What is this?” Zen asked as he stared at the layer of energy radiating from the cover.

But Immortal Book only shook his head and explained, “It's just a layer of Dust Repelling Spell. Although I clean the library every day, dust can't be avoided. Master used the spell on most of the books.”

After circling around the book a few times, Saul shook his head in defeat. “I know Master's personality. Under normal circumstances, he wouldn't leave behind these unsolvable puzzles. And even if he did, he wouldn't leave them in the library of all places.”

“Where is your master now?” Zen asked.

If even the puppet their master had created had become immortal, then he must have been an extremely powerful warrior. It made Zen wonder where he had gone.

“After Master entered the depths of chaos, he never came back,” Saul muttered.

“The depths of chaos…” Suddenly, Zen was reminded of the Chaotic Storm Chronicle—the chaos was seemingly unending. It was unknown how many years it would take to explore.

Meanwhile, Immortal Book was still lost in thought.

Though he was in charge of the library, he was completely clueless about the book—it was rather humiliating on his part. He had stayed in the library for countless years, after all.

After a long moment of pondering, Immortal Book said slowly, “Whatever the case is, the book is here. It must be a cultivation method that can be cultivated.”

“Cut the garbage!” Saul sneered.

But Immortal Book shook his head. “Master has collected countless cultivation methods in his lifetime. He has learned them all and is proficient in each.”

The fact caught Zen's attention in surprise. “You mean that he has already practiced these tens of thousands of cultivation methods?”

“Not only that. There are far more than just tens of thousands of cultivation methods in the library. With Master's talent, he can master a single cultivation method in a day. It's too simple for him at this point.”

The thought left Zen speechless—such talent was probably too much for him to even comprehend.

“However, during the last ten thousand years before Master left, one thing troubled him,” Immortal Book continued.

To that, Zen's eyes slightly flickered. “This kind of almighty being must be practically omnipotent. Could anything really bother him?”

With a nod of his head, Immortal Book explained, “Master has great abilities, so there are few things in the world that could really trouble him. But he has spent these 10, 000 years doing a single thing—he wanted to introduce chaos into his body so he could wield it.”

“Introduce chaos into his body to use it?” Zen's expression turned even more shocked than it was.

A warrior's body was the purest vessel.

It was true that it could be used as a Sumeru Space and contain foreign objects, like manuals and treasures.

But the inner world formed within one's belly was still formed from the purest life vitality—it was just like Brianna's inner world, where the small island, the vast sea, the roaring thunder, and all other living beings took form from her life vitality.

As for the forceful energy, it was always scattered throughout one's body, from its organs to its muscles and tendons. Life vitality and forceful energy were two different kinds of energies—even forceful energy couldn't be introduced to one's belly. How could chaos be drawn into the body? Was it even possible?

“That's right. According to Master's speculation, the chaos is a type of origin energy. The positive and negative energies evolved from it, just as the four seasons were evolved from those positive and negative energies. All sorts of things in the universe come from the chaos, after all. Since the spiritual energy of heaven and earth evolved from it as well, then why couldn't the chaos be considered a kind of life vitality?”

As Immortal Book explained, Zen remained silent—such thinking wasn't something he could comprehend so easily. While he understood that there was some truth to the conjecture, how could any living being in the universe ever dare to do such a thing? The chaos was something that existed outside of the universe, after all. Even a Supreme Lord wouldn't be able to leave the universe and enter it. Ṝ𝘈₦ô𝔟Ęṧ

“In the memoirs Master left, I discovered some things. He did verify his own method and compiled a cultivation method as well. But this cultivation method seems to have some limitations—he is unable to practice it. I suspect that this cultivation method is recorded in this very book.”

Given that Immortal Book knew every single other text in the library, this was the only plausible conclusion he could come up with.

Even Saul, who was always skeptical of him, nodded in agreement. “Perhaps this is the one. Unfortunately, it looks like we have no way of opening it.”

Zen's gaze lingered on the mysterious book as the curiosity grew in his heart.

In truth, Zen didn't lack in cultivation methods by any means. In his life, he never had enough time to completely comprehend all the methods he used, such as the one left behind by Blood Fiend Emperor. And he had only mastered the second move of Stellar Body.

Of course, Zen was well aware how lucky he was to have become the owner of the fairy palace. One day, he would ascend to the Upper World and encounter talents from one hundred thousand supreme worlds. Some of them could end up his opponents in the future.

As an incomplete Transcendent Divine Might, the Stellar Body was something Zen would focus on cultivating. But an incomplete cultivation method had its own flaws, of course. For instance, Letitia's Sutra of Empyrean Goddess was incomplete—she encountered quite a bottleneck during her cultivation. With that in mind, Zen believed that it was extremely important for him to choose a proper cultivation method this time around.

While he still wasn't clear on what kind of cultivation method the book held, he could tell that it was an outstanding one. Undoubtedly, he wanted to take a look, even though whether or not he could cultivate it at all was another story.

But the main issue remained—he couldn't open the book.

Strength alone might not have been enough, but how about the Black Star?

When that thought came to mind, Zen brought it out, planning to smash the Black Star against the book's cover.

At the sight of his motion, Saul's and Immortal Book's faces turned into those of panic. In an instant, Saul grabbed Zen's hand and yelled, “Don't!”

“Master hates it when his books are destroyed,” Immortal Book hurriedly explained. “The Law of Causality within the pickax is indeed powerful, but if you want to break the cover, that's just wishful thinking. If you try to destroy this book, it will trigger the siren—you'll be in deep trouble.”

When he saw the pair's reaction, Zen sighed in defeat and put the pickax back in his space ring. At that moment, he felt truly helpless—forget about cultivating the hidden cultivation method, he couldn't even open the book itself.

Suddenly, Aura, who wasn't far behind, spoke up. “This bookshelf seems to have changed.”

“What? Where?” Saul asked in confusion.

When she pointed at her feet, the rest took a look, only to see light footprints at their feet.

The footprints looked faint on the pitch-black bookshelf, so no one had noticed until that moment.

“Footprints! Where did these come from?” Saul asked aloud.

Once again, Immortal Book's face was riddled with confusion at the strange string of events. “I've cleaned this library countless times, but I've never seen these footprints before!”

“No wonder you're an idiot!” Saul threw another crack at him with a roll of his eyes.

“Saul, how big is your master's body?” asked Zen, keeping his eyes fixed on the footprints.

“Master has a pretty huge physique. Though he can control it at will, he usually stays about the same height as the bookshelf.”

The bookshelf was about as tall as a mountain—how could such a giant leave those small footprints?