Chapter 204: Haijing Secret Vault

Zuo Zhicheng took the catalog and casually flipped through it.

The dozens of bookshelves before him were clearly the materials related to Dao Arts and Life Groves collected over the years by Haijing City.

Zuo Zhicheng flipped through a few pages and nodded. “I understand. You can wait outside.”

“Yes,” the guard bowed. “I will step out now, but the higher-ups mentioned… four hours in total…”

“I understand. I won’t make things difficult for you. You may leave.” Zuo Zhicheng waved his hand, dismissing the guard.

Then, following the catalog’s guidance, he first went to the farthest section of bookshelves. According to the catalog, this area held the records of Life Groves gathered by Haijing in the past.

In fact, many years ago, Zhu Yuwen had also tasked several Taoist Priests under his command to search for promising individuals with Life Groves within his territory. Unfortunately, because only Taoist Priests using Spiritual Power could detect the presence of Life Groves, the search was very inefficient.

More importantly, the Dao Arts manuals they possessed were not as comprehensive as the Daoist Canon, which covered over two hundred Life Groves. They found many promising individuals with Life Groves but did not understand the characteristics of those Life Groves or their cultivation methods.

After a long series of failed experiments, Zhu Yuwen’s side gradually gave up the idea of training Taoist Priests.

Zuo Zhicheng picked up a register and opened it. It contained the record of a middle-aged man.

“Wei Wuji, lived in Lulushui Village, Qingyuan County, Nantian City, nearly thirty years old. Life Grove located three inches below the right knee, function unknown…”

What followed were various reports about this Wei Wuji and the experiments conducted on him by the Shadow Corps. Several books next to it were all about the experiments on Wei Wuji. Unfortunately, they ultimately failed to detect the function of this Life Grove and sent him back.

An entire row, comprising hundreds of volumes of materials, documented the data and experimental records of over ten individuals discovered to have Life Groves. After browsing through them, none contained records that Zhu Yuwen and the others knew about.

However, Zuo Zhicheng glanced at an empty spot on the bookshelf and thought, “This empty spot has no dust? So, before I arrived, someone had some materials removed.”

‘Cruel experiment records? Or geniuses with Life Grove data they possessed?’

He shook his head and didn’t dwell on it. He had two main purposes for coming here this time. First, to review the records of Life Groves collected back then, identify those that matched the records on the four Life Diagrams, and then note down their addresses. He would then go to see if they were still alive or if any descendants possessed the same Life Grove.

After all, the Life Grove organ should also be related to heredity.

His second purpose was naturally to memorize the Dao Arts manuals collected by the Shadow Corps, as a supplement to his own soft power.

The first objective was the most important to him, so Zuo Zhicheng immediately began browsing the relevant materials. He spent over two hours on this.

He recorded the identities and addresses of all individuals described in the materials who might belong to the Life Groves listed on the four Life Diagrams. There were eight such individuals in total. Zuo Zhicheng used the shorthand skills he learned in his previous life to record their identities and addresses.

After screening and recording these, Zuo Zhicheng picked up the catalog again, intending to use the remaining time to browse through the Dao Arts manuals collected by the Shadow Corps.

Although called Dao Arts manuals, they were actually just rudimentary methods for training Life Groves. As for the methods for Cultivating Heavenly Palace mentioned, it was unclear whether Zhu Yuwen truly didn’t have them or was unwilling to disclose them, even to the extent of having them removed in advance.

Even so, Zuo Zhicheng was very interested in the body modification parts.

Many of the manuals here originated from the Qingyue Family because, in the past, the Qingyue Family was a clan that often inherited Life Groves through their bodies. However, in the last ten-plus years, fewer and fewer children with potential emerged. In this generation, only Qingyue Qiu could practice Dao Arts.

This family’s philosophy regarding Dao Arts cultivation also differed from that of the South Saint Sect, which wrote the Daoist Canon. Their method involved body modification, strengthening bones, muscles, and organs, to gain the ability to perform Dao Arts in coordination with Life Groves.

This was clearly entirely different from the South Saint Sect’s Harmony of Heaven and Man, which involved absorbing various Spiritual Powers from the world.

Of course, this mainly related to the Qingyue Family being a clan. The Life Groves they awakened were almost all on internal organs, absorbing Spiritual Power through digestion, respiration, and blood circulation. Although body modification was dangerous, it could make them stronger.

“Interesting,” Zuo Zhicheng smiled as he looked at a modification plan titled “Flash Surgery.” This was a technique that modified the human nerve plexus, controlling and accelerating electrical signals to give the subject superhuman reflexes. Those reflexes could basically allow an ordinary person, after the surgery, to catch mosquitoes with chopsticks or arrows with bare hands.

However, it required a Life Grove called “Flash” to cooperate.

“I don’t have Flash, but I have Night Sea. If I could convert electrical signals into light signals, it would be even faster.” But the changes involved were clearly very profound. Zuo Zhicheng was just having a spontaneous thought for now.

Moreover, before performing these surgeries, one obviously needed to study a great deal of material on human anatomy and medicine. Zuo Zhicheng could handle minor external injuries, remove bullets, or perform bloodletting, but performing surgery wasn’t so easy for him.

After reading books on body modification for another half hour, Zuo Zhicheng had made up his mind. He wanted these surgical materials.

Originally, his physical body had reached its limit, but now, with the appearance of these Dao Arts materials, he saw new hope.

The Qingyue Family didn’t master the ability to transplant Life Groves and couldn’t perform these surgeries freely, but he could. And by transplanting Life Groves and modifying his body, his physical strength would improve further.

Thinking of this, he suddenly had an insight: “Modifying the body allows the physical form to break through limits. The strengthening of the body can, in turn, enhance a person’s spirit and brain. Perhaps Dual Cultivation of Dao and Martial Arts is the shortcut to reaching the peak.”

“Are Martial Arts and Dao Arts interconnected?” Zuo Zhicheng inadvertently pondered this. “Dao Arts require Mental Force to guide them, while Martial Arts can cultivate the Power of Mind and Spirit. But Mental Force only affects objects, while the Power of Mind and Spirit only affects living beings. What exactly is the difference between them?”

“If they are both some kind of special wave, is it because of different frequencies? Different mediums?”

Four hours passed in the blink of an eye. When the guard came to the secret vault, he saw Zuo Zhicheng still sitting cross-legged on the floor, staring intently at the book in his hands without blinking.

The guard waited a few minutes and finally coughed. “Sir, time’s up.”

Zuo Zhicheng hummed in acknowledgment, then closed his eyes and sighed with reluctance. However, he didn’t make things difficult for the guard and directly put the book back.

Body modification required a lot of preparation—equipment, knowledge, and experience. The immediate priorities were preparing a site, finding the previously recorded Life Grove targets, and preparing for Life Grove transplantation.

The matter of body modification would have to wait for later.