Yang Qing's mouth started salivating as his gaze locked onto the enchanting silver scrolls before him. Each one likely concealed a blue-grade art that quite possibly he had never encountered before.
By his estimation, there were at least a hundred scattered across this side of the mountain alone. And that was just one side—what about the others, or the peak? How many more would he find?
The thought of it sent a surge of excitent rippling through him, but just as quickly, his focus shifted to sothing else.
"What about these grey scrolls? Could I pull them out too?" Yang Qing asked, gesturing toward a few clustered nearby.
"You can," Wei Shen replied curtly.
With the answer he'd hoped for, Yang Qing wasted no ti. He walked over to one of the grey scrolls and, with ease, yanked it free.
It was evident that among the numbers observed, the grey ones had the highest representation in the area, followed by the silver-colored ones. The unchanging scrolls had the fewest. Although there were fewer scrolls, Yang Qing spotted at least ten of them, while the grey ones numbered close to five hundred.
The pull was smooth and effortless. Yang Qing's heart raced as he unfurled the scroll, eager to uncover its contents.
True to form, it was a cultivation art—one he was already familiar with.
Silent Raindrop Splash Step (Grey grade)
Yang Qing's eyes flickered with surprise as he read through the art. It was a movent technique he had first encountered during his days at the institute—one of the arts handed out for free to first-year students. Back then, it was a low-tier Orange-grade art.
To help new students adjust to the Phantom Void Steps, one of the Order's most prestigious gold-grade movent arts, the instructors had them perfect low-tier movent arts first. Only after mastering these basic techniques would they progress to the Phantom Void Steps.
These foundational movent arts were designed to build strength in the fundantals, ensuring that students reached a certain level of mastery before starting on the Phantom Void Steps. That level was the perfection realm which only served to show how demanding the Phantom Void Steps were.
The instructors had provided a variety of movent arts, all low-tier Orange-grade movent arts. Silent Raindrop Splash Step was one of those arts, and Yang Qing had chosen it as his foundation.
Despite its low grade, he had been fascinated by it. Unlike other arts that prioritized speed, this one was focused on versatility and adaptability to the environnt. It worked with the elents—wind, water, and earth—using their combined forces to obscure the user's movents, allowing them to blend seamlessly with their surroundings.
It complented his Yin Yang Jade Rune: Nature's Rhythm perfectly, which was why he had chosen it. But as Yang Qing read through the scroll, he quickly realized the art had been improved. The version in his hands had already reached the pinnacle of the Orange-grade, offering far greater versatility and addressing the flaws of its earlier form.
A nostalgic sigh escaped him, the sensation akin to rediscovering a cherished book from childhood, one that had suddenly beco popular again, its value heightened by ti.
His attention soon shifted to a particular detail in the title. Although he had noticed it before—on the other scrolls, including his own—it hadn't stood out at the ti, drowned by the excitent of his discoveries. But now, with a rare mont of calm, it struck him like the glow of the moon cutting through the darkness of night.
"Grey grade," He muttered the words softly, a contemplative expression clouding his features.
He held the silver and grey scrolls in both hands, his gaze flickering back and forth between them. A theory began to form slowly in his mind. With a final glance at the grey scroll, he returned it to where he had found it, watching in awe as it lded seamlessly into the walls of Sage Mountain, as if guided by an unseen force.
Conveniently, even as he was doing that, he was still holding onto the silver scrolls he had picked earlier, hugging them tightly onto his body as if they were his prized possessions.
Yang Qing moved with deliberate focus, pulling out several of the grey-colored scrolls one by one, scanning each with quick but careful eyes before returning them to their resting place. He sifted through five in total before coming to a halt.
All five scrolls contained cultivation arts, reinforcing the notion that all the scrolls within Sage Mountain likely also contained cultivation arts. However, Yang Qing still entertained the idea that so of the scrolls, particularly those that remained unchanged, might contain sothing different. Nonetheless, he felt that the likelihood of that being true was very slim.
His second discovery further confird his growing theories about the aning of 'Silver' and 'Grey.'
Of the five grey scrolls he pulled out, four of them were orange-tiered, with one of them being at the top tier while the rest were in the middle- tier. As for the fifth scroll, it was a top-tier red-grade art.
This revelation was significant—it largely confird his earlier assumptions. The silver-colored scrolls, he now knew, contained blue-grade arts across various tiers, while the grey scrolls housed arts below the blue grade. Initially, Yang Qing had assud the grey scrolls only contained orange-grade arts, but the discovery of a red-grade art shattered that idea, expanding his understanding of the scrolls' contents.
Still clutching five silver scrolls tightly to his chest, Yang Qing turned to face Wei Shen, his expression utterly shaless despite his actions. Wei Shen, however, had already resolved not to tell him until the very last mont that he couldn't leave with those scrolls.
For now, he chose to stay silent. Watching Yang Qing's childlike excitent as he held the scrolls, Wei Shen couldn't bring himself to burst that bubble—at least, not yet.
"Senior Wei Shen, are white-grade cultivation arts included among these grey scrolls?" Yang Qing asked, his curiosity evident.
"No," Wei Shen replied, shaking his head. "The minimum threshold for acceptance is top-tier red grade. Anything below that won't be registered," he added matter-of-factly.
Yang Qing's eyes lit up at the answer, his gaze sweeping over the endless expanse of grey-colored scrolls scattered across the space.
He couldn't practice orange-grade or red-grade cultivation arts due to the overwhelming demands of his current techniques—his purple-grade art, the lone gold-grade technique in his arsenal, Phantom Void Steps, and the handful of blue-grade arts he had mastered. Among them, no more than seven, with one being his own creation.
Yet, despite the burden of maintaining his current repertoire, he still relished studying orange and red-grade arts. They offered invaluable reference material and served as great sources of inspiration. His own Brilliant Ray Fist Art was a pri example, having been born from a red-grade art.
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