Journey to the Compendium Pavilion
1856 Words
Despite his frail appearance, no one doubted his strength.
"Elder Moore," Jack said respectfully, bowing slightly.
The old man cracked open one eye, his sparse beard twitching as he gave Jack a once-over.
"You’re here for a new manual? Broke into Warrior Level 4, did you?"
Jack offered a faint smile.
"It was mostly luck."
"Hmph! Luck or not, a breakthrough’s a breakthrough," Elder Moore snorted, stroking his beard.
"Good. The academy could use more young blood willing to work hard."
"I’ll do my best," Jack replied with a respectful dip of his head.
Without waiting for more small talk, he moved past the elder and stepped through the heavy oak doors into the Pavilion.
Behind him, Elder Moore chuckled softly and shook his head.
"A good lad," he muttered to himself.
"But slow… painfully slow. Three years to break through where most manage it in two."
He sighed heavily.
Still, Elder Moore bore no resentment toward Jack.
In fact, among the newer generation, Jack was one of the few polite and sincere ones.
"If he keeps his head down and works hard, maybe he’ll scrape by as a decent teacher. As long as he doesn’t embarrass himself again during the next Qualification Exam..."
Grumbling to himself, Elder Moore leaned back against the stone bench and closed his eyes once more.
Unaware of the elder’s musings, Jack stepped into the silent, sacred halls of the Astoria Library Pavilion.
The scent of parchment, ancient ink, and something even older, something timeless filled the air.
Rows upon rows of towering bookshelves stretched out before him, filled with secrets for which generations had fought, bled, and died.
Jack’s mouth curled into a faint, eager smile.
It was time to find the next key to his path forward.
Oblivious to Elder Moore’s mutterings, Jack Reed stepped deeper into the library.
Though Astoria Academy’s library Pavilion was vast and impressive by mortal standards, it still paled compared to the Vault of Eternal Insight that existed within Jack’s mind.
The two weren’t even in the same league.
Moving quickly, Jack headed straight for the cultivation technique section, aiming for the fourth row.
As he expected, the Astoria Nine Dan Formula’s Warrior Level 4 (Iron Belly Realm) cultivation manual was shelved there.
Jack reached out, pulled the manual free, and casually flipped it open.
Hu!
In that moment, a matching secret manual materialized within the Vault of Eternal Insight.
Scanning through it, Jack’s face darkened.
The manual contained over a thousand flaws, just like the Warrior Level 3 (Essence Fist Realm) version.
"This is supposed to be the standard skill everyone practices?" Jack frowned.
He didn’t linger.
Instead, his gaze swept across the shelves in front of him.
Thousands of manuals lined the rows with different theories, different techniques annotated with notes from generations of teachers.
To an ordinary student, the sheer volume and contradictions among them would have been overwhelming.
Choosing randomly could easily ruin one's Hayki foundation or worse, cause crippling inner turmoil.
But Jack Reed was no ordinary cultivator.
With the Vault of Eternal Insight, he could instantly distinguish the flawed from the flawless.
Without hesitation, Jack began pulling books off the shelves and flipping through them at lightning speed.
Hu!
Hu!
Hu!
Each time he opened a manual, a corresponding tome was instantly compiled and stored within the Vault.
He wasn’t browsing.
He wasn’t comparing.
He was systematically copying everything.
Not wanting to look suspicious, Jack grabbed a pen and paper from a nearby counter and began scribbling nonsense, pretending to take notes.
The sound of his pen scratching against paper and the rapid flipping of pages echoed loudly through the Pavilion’s silent halls.
Outside, Elder Moore frowned from his seat at the entrance.
"Impatience. Unrealistic ambition," the elder muttered, shaking his head.
In his eyes, Jack’s actions were pure foolishness.
A young, weak teacher like Jack should have obediently stuck to the Astoria Nine Dan Formula, copying it carefully, training slowly and steadily.
Trying to skim through so many manuals at once was reckless.
It could lead to confusion, Hayki deviation, or even madness.
"Doesn’t he know what happened to that prodigy thirty years ago?" Elder Moore grumbled to himself.
That so-called genius had thought he could combine countless techniques into a perfect one.
Instead, his cultivation had collapsed, his mind fractured beyond repair, leaving him a muttering wreck on the fringes of society.
"Greedy dogs can’t digest fine food," Elder Moore snorted.
Jack’s earlier politeness had earned him some respect, but that respect was evaporating fast.
"Pretending to be deep... just showing off," Elder Moore huffed.
"The academy’s standards are falling with each new generation."
Seeing Jack flip pages so fast that even he couldn’t catch a word, the elder’s lip curled in disgust.
Those notes Jack occasionally scribbled once every hundred books or so must be pure trash.
Meanwhile, Jack continued flipping through manuals at an astonishing pace.
Thousands of books scanned. Thousands of techniques were absorbed into the Vault.
After two hours, Jack finally stopped.
"Finished," he murmured with quiet satisfaction.
Without hesitation, he turned and made his way toward the exit.
Elder Moore nearly exploded with rage.
"What questions? How could he find answers so fast?! What a disgrace!"
He shook his head furiously.
"I’ll have to speak to Principal Carlisle about teachers like him."
Meanwhile, inside his small living quarters, Jack Reed closed the door behind him and immediately sat down at his desk.
Without wasting a moment, he pulled out a stack of paper and a pen, organizing his thoughts and knowledge.
First, he flipped through the Astoria Nine Dan Formula level 4 manual, copying only the parts confirmed as correct by the Vault of Eternal Insight.
Then he did the same with the other techniques he had scanned at the Pavilion.
But after only a few minutes, Jack realized…
Sorting through thousands of manuals manually was mind-numbingly exhausting.
He tapped his pen against his forehead, frowning.
There had to be a better way.
And just as the thought crossed his mind, a sudden jolt of awareness ran through him.
The countless books compiled inside the Vault began to shift.
Merge.
Weng!
A crisp, resonant sound echoed in his mind.
Before Jack’s mental eye, the thousands of fragmented manuals crumpled, twisted then fused together into a single, unified tome.
Jack’s hands trembled slightly as he reached out mentally and flipped it open.
His breath caught.
"This..." Jack whispered, eyes wide.
"This is a perfect compilation… no flaws!"
It wasn’t the Astoria Nine Dan Formula anymore.
It wasn’t any single technique he had browsed.
It was something new.
Something pure.
A true cultivation method, perfectly synthesized with zero flaws.
Excitement surged through Jack’s veins like wildfire.
If this were the Vault’s ultimate compilation, created from the best fragments of thousands of techniques
It deserved a name.
He thought for a moment, then decided:
"Eternal Insights Divine Art."
Weng!
As if responding to his will, the blank cover of the mental tome shimmered.
Four golden characters appeared, gleaming brightly:
Eternal Insights Divine Art.
Jack smiled faintly, heart pounding with anticipation.
"Let me give it a try!"
After obtaining the flawless cultivation technique, Jack Reed didn’t hesitate.
He sat down cross-legged and began meditating, following the method recorded in the newly forged Eternal Insights Divine Art.
The pores on his body instinctively widened, drawing in spirit energy, Hayki from the surrounding air.
Warrior Level 4 – Iron Belly Realm.
1st level: Breath Initiate — where a cultivator first learns innate breathing techniques, sensing spirit energy in the air, and gaining the ability to direct internal flow with their mind.
2nd level: Core Creator — where the dantian is formed, creating a vessel to store spirit energy and transform the body from a mere mortal into a true Fighter.
3rd level: Essence Fist — where spirit energy stabilizes within the dantian, forming a consistent wellspring of Hayki.
4th level: Iron Belly — where Hayki overflows, enriching the body itself, strengthening the organs, muscles, bones, and tendons, pushing a cultivator closer to the threshold of true mastery.
The first three levels were about laying foundations.
Only at Warrior Level 4, Iron Belly, did the fruits of that training manifest physically enhanced vitality, increased strength, resistance to illness, and fatigue.
At Astoria Academy, the standard cultivation method, the Astoria Nine Dan Formula, relied solely on internal Hayki overflow to nourish the body.
But the Eternal Insights Divine Art was different.
It simultaneously drew in external spirit energy to strengthen the body, while internal Hayki overflow reinforced the transformation from within.
It was a two-fold refinement.
Gugugugu!
Streams of pure spirit energy flooded Jack’s meridians, rushing through his veins, strengthening, mending, filling microscopic flaws and gaps in his body’s natural structure.
Gezhi! Gezhi!
A crisp, resonant sound echoed from within him.
Bones hardened. Tendons thickened. Muscles tightened and grew more resilient.
It was as if his entire body was being forged anew, tempered under an invisible hammer.
A soft, healthy glow radiated from Jack’s skin as the transformation continued, his very being remolded into something stronger, faster, more enduring.
His breathing slowed.
His heartbeat deepened.
Jack Reed, once mocked as the academy’s weakest, was undergoing a rebirth.
And this time, he wasn’t just chasing after the others.
He was leaving them behind.
Boom!
After countless circulations of Hayki, Jack’s body jolted.
A bottleneck shattered
The invisible shackles that had once bound his physical form crumbled into nothing.
Jack gasped, overwhelmed by a sensation of lightness
Total control.
Every movement felt smoother. Sharper.
It was like a butterfly breaking free from its cocoon.
"Warrior Level 4 Iron Belly Realm… I actually completed the breakthrough!"
Opening his eyes, Jack still felt like he was dreaming.
According to the traditional teachings of the Astoria Nine Dan Formula, reaching Iron Belly typically took three to five months of careful cultivation, sometimes longer, depending on one’s luck and innate talent.
But with the Eternal Insights Divine Art?
He had done it in less than four hours.
And the Hayki inside him
It was on a completely different level.
Before, it had been murky, thick, and sluggish, like dirty river sludge.
Now?
It was crystal-clear.
Rich. Potent. Alive.
As pure as a mountain spring freshly born from untouched stone.
In cultivation, Hayki was divided into quality tiers:
Inferior
Intermediate
Superior
Previously, Jack’s Hayki had barely qualified as Inferior.
Now?
It was unmistakably Superior.
His breath caught at the realization.
"They say you need at least a Saint-tier technique to cultivate Superior Hayki... and yet..."
Jack’s fists clenched tightly, excitement surging through him.
Cultivation techniques themselves were ranked by tier:
Mortal Tier
Phantom Tier
Spirit Tier
Saint Tier
God Tier
And within each tier:
Inferior, Intermediate, Superior, Pinnacle.
The Astoria Nine Dan Formula was a low-grade Mortal Tier technique the very bottom rung.
And yet...
By using the Vault of Eternal Insight to patch every flaw, he had essentially elevated it.
Not just a little.
To a level that rivaled Saint-tier methods!
- Writer
