Seeing that there is nobody in the large room drake immediately turned off the invisibility mode since he only had five minutes left to use for rest of the day.
As he looked around the room for the first time since he entered, drake noticed that everything in this luxurious personal chamber is arranged neat and orderly. Apart from the round canopy bed located behind a thin red veiled curtain, There is also a book rack that housed a sizable collection of cultivation manuals, sword arts, and ancient literature books... And placed beside the book rack are two comfortable armchairs and a small round table which are perfect to sit and read for long hours.
As drake glanced at the names of various top-grade cultivation manuals and sword manuals he couldn't help but feel a little greedy. The cultivation technique he is using right now is the one given to outer court disciples in the sect. It is only a basic bronze grade one which is called the Nine purification Heart calming mantra which is actually a very basic qi cultivation art.
In fact, there is no need to even join their sect to cultivate this technique. Any random toddler belonging to rich and influential families in the Azure dragon city would be able to obtain this technique if their family could spare two or three medium-grade spirit stones.
So when he saw all these sect legacy techniques, some of which he had never even heard of, drake wanted nothing more than to make them all disappear into his system's storage space.
Once the thought crossed his mind drake didn't hesitate any more and walked over towards the book rack while feeling rather excited at how this is going to be his first time stealing something since he arrived in this world. Standing in front of the rack he began to casually browse through the various sword art manuals and picked the only Earth grade sword art of the sect.
"Divine Seal sword art, written by Cheng Longwei, Sect Founder of Mystic Sword Sect" drake whispered lightly as he looked at the cover page of the slightly worn sword manual. As he carefully turned over the book cover so that it wouldn't get ripped off from the already delicate hinge of the book, drake found his sight greeted by an almost empty page except for the warning note written at the bottom.
'This manual is not to be copied in any form and could only be viewed by the Sect Master of Mystic Sword Sect or anyone he/she deems promising enough in the sect'
"Huh? There is only original and no copies ?" drake frowned as he thought. He immediately took out another gold grade manual and opened it. Noticing the same warning message, drake proceeded to check the few other manuals present in the rack.
"Hmm... it seems that the earth grade and gold grade cultivation arts are not allowed to be circulated as freely as the silver and bronze grade arts in our sect." drake thought as he shook his head.
"Whatever, what does all of that have to do with me." drake thought inwardly. He knew fully well that he is not some saint and this world isn't some heavenly paradise. Here only strength matters and anyone who doesn't do their best will only return to dust.
Though drake is having these thoughts, in reality, he is unable to make the move and stood still for a long time.
"Goddammit! Why do I have this guilty feeling ?" drake cursed inwardly. The moment he figured that he would be taking the sect's most valuable battle arts away from them, a feeling of contempt and shame towards himself began to emerge in his heart.
Why? Well, it's complicated.
Though drake himself has no qualms about stealing, there are a few things that had changed in him after he transmigrated into Wen Dingxiang's body and inherited his memories. It is inevitable for one's personality to undergo changes when someone else's memories and experiences get fused with theirs, as essentially one's personality and the character gets shaped up based on their experiences and challenges they face in their life.
For example, Wen dingxiang admired and loved Mystic Sword Sect wholeheartedly. For him, they are the ones who believed in him and taken him under their roof when he was just an orphan and had to work every day to get food on his plate. So when drake transmigrated and inherited his memories, automatically a feeling of gratitude had unknowingly taken shape in his mind regarding the Mystic sword sect.
So now that he is thinking about taking away the sect's legacy techniques, a faint but persistent guilty feeling kept surfacing in his heart.
"Damn these feelings. I have to get rid of them when I get the opportunity in the future." drake thought as he fell into a dilemma on what he should do now.
"Well, I'll just read them up here instead of stealing them... But do I really need to memorize all these manuals just like those university students back on Earth who mug up the answers just before their exams ?"
"No way! the sect master and the others might return at any moment. What should I do?.... " drake began to think again as he walked to and fro in front of the book rack. Suddenly his eyes narrowed as he immediately stopped walking.
"Maybe I can... Let's just try first." drake murmured lightly to himself.
"System can you... Umm... perhaps scan these manuals ?" drake asked the system doubtfully. As he remembered the way the system had shown him the seamless live video broadcast earlier when he was stuck in the illusion and also the various familiar icons it uses drake had a feeling that this System might have incorporated the various features of modern electronic gadgets present on Earth.
"Ding*
Detected Battle Arts:
Earth Grade: 1
Gold Grade: 3
Bronze Grade: 9
Detected Cultivation Arts:
Earth Grade: 1/2 (incomplete)
Gold Grade: 3
Bronze grade: 5
Scanning Initiated...
Time Elapsed 00:02:44"
"Wow that's quite detailed." drake thought excitedly as he prepared to wait for the elapsed time to reach zero. However, Drake couldn't help but become speechless when he saw that instead of the countdown there is actually a miniature animated Santa Claus wearing a black eye patch sneakily tip-toeing from one end of the screen to another end in a loop.
"You kidding me !?" Drake exclaimed as he looked at the unique and creative loading animation used by the system.
Suddenly the animated Santa stopped walking and slowly took out a gift box from the red bag he carried on his back and threw it up in the air. The gift box immediately burst open into a system message which got displayed on the screen.
"Ding* Congratulations Scanning Complete.
All the manuals are available for host's use."
"Ding* System found the cultivation manuals selected by the host are too redundant.
Do you want the system to merge the cultivation manuals?"
As drake saw the first system message and was about to celebrate how he was able to easily obtain the top grade cultivation techniques of the sect, he became dumbfounded when another popup message appeared saying that all these techniques are too redundant.
"It can merge the cultivation techniques? Is that even possible? You sure I wouldn't become a vegetable after I cultivate the hybrid technique you cooked up ?" Drake questioned inwardly as he felt skeptical about all this. Actually, not even a top-grade expert would be confident about perfectly merging these many cultivation arts, which basically have vastly different concepts which they worked on.
"Whatever I'll just try it first and see what will happen. Anyway, I don't think the system brought me here all the way from the earth just to screw me up now." drake thought as he directly pressed on the accept button.
"Ding*
Initiated analyzing the cultivation manuals....
Elapsed Time 23: 59: 59"
Seeing the system displaying the animated Santa on a loop again along with the progress bar drake shook his head and willed for the system screen to close.
Done with the system and remember that he might not have much time left drake didn't waste any more time and immediately brought out the Nine petal amorous rose along with a paper slip from the system's storage space. This time instead of 'Yours Secret Santa' the phrase 'A gift from Secret Santa Society :-)' is written on it.
He then slowly walked towards the round canopy bed and gently placed both the amorous rose and the slip on it. After standing there and inhaling faint fragrance which lingered in the room for a few seconds drake turned on the invisibility mode and walked out of the room.
As he exited the chamber and was about to walk out of the restricted corridor suddenly drake remembered something as he searched his surroundings. And there he noticed something fixed on the top of the entrance for the sect master's personal chamber.
A large eyeball which is the size of an adult man's fist with its golden pupil having complex formation inscriptions is situated there facing the entrance of the corridor.