The elder continued explaining the most basic things about cultivation for 30 minutes. Almost everyone was on the verge of falling asleep.
"Okay, that's all. The rest you need to discover by yourself." He stopped speaking and waved everyone out.
He dispelled the bored cultivators who quickly left. Maxwell stayed behind to ask him something.
"What do you need?" He asked Maxwell directly.
"What was the purpose of the stairs with increased gravity?"
"You will know with time; the only clue I can give you is that it's very important in this sect. You can ask the ancestor if you want to know more."
"Okay, thank you elder."
'Since that has no purpose, I can use right now I might as well collect my rewards.'
***
The Artifact Hall was an old building that contained all the artifacts available to the students for the past 5000 years of the sect's existence. Disciples could give artifacts they found to the Artifact Hall in exchange for points. It had multiple floors, each floor containing higher-level artifacts. Since The Roaring Dragon Sect was quite wealthy, they had a few mystic grade artifacts.
Maxwell walked straight in, past the old head of the hall and went to the second floor for the Magic Rank Artifacts. There were shelves of weapons and armor in the center and then there were shelves for the other random artifacts that were present.
'So many shoddy pieces, whoever made them wasted excellent materials.'
The shelves were in disarray with no division based on grade. There were even baskets made of bamboo strips with many items tossed in them. The items in the basket all seemed to be untouched for years, as if that was a discard pile.
"Hmmm, there's nothing nice here."
'Not this.'
'Not this either.'
"Hmm, how about this?" Maxwell had found a set of light armor that wouldn't hinder his speed by too much while boasting good defense.
Maxwell's heightened senses felt a slight cosmic aura. His head immediately swung towards the source. He rummaged in the basket where the aura appeared and after a lot of metal clanking against each other he found a chest plate. It was covered in a layer of dust. The black color beneath was barely visible, but it looked just as dark as the night sky. It was evidently a high-grade magic rank armor, yet it had been tossed aside.
'Interesting.'
He went to pick it up, only to find it extremely heavy.
'What the heck! What kind of armor is so heavy?'
Maxwell struggled to make it even budge a centimeter. After struggling for 10 seconds, he finally used his qi. His qi flowed through it, but it didn't help.
'It's only marginally lighter now.'
Maxwell made even more qi flow through his arm meridians as he struggled to lift it.
5 centimeters…
10 centimeters…
It fell out of his hands as it was too heavy for him to lift. It crashed against the other artifacts with a loud clang.
"Don't damage the artifacts." A voice spoke straight into his mind.
"Oh, it was an accident."
'Wait, I can use space qi only. I felt traces of space qi when I detected it.'
Maxwell facepalmed at his stupidity.
He then picked it up with the help of his space qi and it felt almost weightless. The layers of dirt all fell off as if there was something repelling them.
'Woah that's a huge difference.'
Maxwell bit his finger and let a drop of blood fall onto the armor. He wore it after it recognized him as his owner. It required a constant supply of Space qi, like a small stream to it. Maxwell experimented by stopping the flow of qi and he immediately felt the weight on his shoulders.
'Ow, Ow.'
He quickly restarted the flow to the armor. The armor didn't take much qi and he could regain more than it drained if he constantly absorbed qi.
'Now onto my decoy spear.'
Maxwell went to the area where the weapons were scattered. There were a lot of swords even though swords were the most used weapon.
'Low grade…'
'Oh, a spear, never mind it's only medium grade.'
Maxwell explored the room and only found spears that did not suit him properly, they were either too long or too short. Some were even disbalanced. He found himself a good miscellaneous high-grade artifact to use, it was a brilliant brush that he could use to draw formations with, or he could use to paint.
'I might indulge in painting; I need a hobby.'
In the end Maxwell couldn't find a spear that he could use proficiently. Disappointed, he went back down. The head was still sitting there doing nothing.
"You're done? Are you sure you want to get those items? You can't come back to return them for the full cost."
"Before that, can I ask if you know of any High-grade magic rank spears, 2 meters in length?"
"Hmm." He scratched his white beard while thinking.
"2 meters, a balance between length and speed. It's a little big for your current height but you will grow into it. There's a good one I know of."
The elder summoned a spear that flew towards him. It looked like an ordinary spear, with nothing special about its appearance. Maxwell looked at it quizzically, feeling something was off about it.
"It may look ordinary, but it has an excellent qi conductivity. It is very strong too."
Maxwell held it and swung it around carefully. It was perfect for Maxwell to use.
"Thank you, elder."
"It's nothing much."
"I don't need to pay since I won these at the test, but how do you keep track of that?"
"Give me your identity token."
Maxwell handed the jade token to him, and he sent qi into it.
"There, I have kept track that you received it."
Maxwell left with the elder deep in his thoughts.
'He managed to wear that armor piece, how interesting. Nobody has used that ever since it's very heavy.'
Maxwell stored his new artifacts in a spatial ring and headed straight for one of the most popular places, the library. It was one of the largest libraries in the world, exclusive to the members of the sect. There were scores of visitors leaving and entering of varying age groups.
It was a grand pagoda with red walls and green tiles. It had 3 floors, with the bottom floor being humongous. It stretched for 100 meters.
There were 5 librarians in charge of the giant haven of books. Most of the books were techniques and the rest were history books and guides to cultivation.
The head librarian was sitting at the front desk, keeping track of all the books that had been issued and returned. A young clerk was also assisting him till Maxwell walked up.
"How do I get the mystic rank technique I won?" Maxwell asked while giving him his token.
"I'll call a librarian to take you to the mystic rank low grade techniques. You can't look at any other grade techniques since that's all you won."
A female librarian, appearing to be in her twenties took Maxwell to a small area with only 2 shelves. There were ancient scrolls and books lying on them.
"These are all the Mystic Rank Low Grade Techniques. These are vital to our sect so we can't allow you to take them outside. You can come as many times as you want to only read the one you choose."
"Okay, which of them are spear techniques?"
The librarian picked up 2 scrolls and offered them to him.
"One is called Dragon Devouring Spear Technique, it contains 12 different stances and attacks that show a high destructive power, the other is Flying Dragon Spear Technique, it's a technique with rapid attacks."
"Hmmm, I'll take the Dragon Devouring Spear Technique."
Maxwell took the older of the 2 scrolls. He unrolled enough to see the first stance and slowly read through everything written. It was not too detailed, with diagrams showing the footing and the method of attacking. There even were directions on how to spread the qi through the spear for the desired effect.
'What a fascinating technique! Without proper Qi control it's impossible to perform it. Once I grasp the technique, I can even incorporate the Lightning Dragon into it.'
Each successive stance was more destructive than the previous and used more qi. The different stances were to have the most efficient usage of qi. Stances six to twelve took a toll on the body and they were recommended to not be used frequently. They were variations of the same destructive power for different situations, and they had movements of increasing difficulty that required high control of the user's body.
The technique was very demanding, and it would make sense if someone told Maxwell that it had been unused. Maxwell was not one to give up, so he was ready to work hard to use it. Maxwell memorized the first 6 stances and then headed to the training grounds to practice it without qi.