"I am Grand Elder Guo. Today's lecture, I refer to as 'On the Proper Use Of Battle Techniques.' It is no exaggeration to say that techniques are why we are all here. The abundance of techniques provided from the Library from which our sect gets its name ensures our sect is a powerful one, and attracts talented disciples to our ranks. Building a sect in the first place around such a potent and unique Legacy Tomb was no easy task. There were many who would have descended upon it and scattered the techniques and knowledge within to all corners of the Mortal Heaven on the wind.
But the founder was patient, and careful. He hid the Library's location well, obscuring further what was already no easy task to find, assiduously built his base of power and those of his followers, and revealed the Library to the world when the time was right. Thus was the 10,000 Scrolls Library sect founded.
This tale is no secret. There are no great revelations to be found within it. But in recent decades, our sect has begun a slow, spiraling fall from grace. And it is because we have failed to keep the lessons of the founder in our hearts and minds! By handling his knowledge carefully, the founder was able to create a force that was many times greater than the sum of all the power every technique ever obtained from the Library could have expressed. If he had not taken exceptional care, the Library would have been discovered by others and much of its knowledge would have been squandered. The sect keeps the contents of the Library alive by distributing its knowledge through multiple generations.
However, that knowledge is no longer handled carefully by many. Year after year, I see so many disciples squander their talents, assuming that with a powerful technique of Spirit or Heaven Rank they will simply overwhelm those who stand in their way. They neglect fundamentals, ignore suitability, they remain incomplete as warriors, relying only on their power! If you have the will to push yourself beyond mere power, disciples, then listen well…"
For the next three hours, Grand Elder Guo exposited on what techniques were appropriate for what fighting styles, how to develop ones self as a fighter, even at one point going into personality profiles and positing styles that would come more naturally to different personality types. By the time it was over, I well understood why she was considered infamous.
As it turned out, "controversial" would have been a better word. Listening to the disciples talk after, roughly half of those who heard one of her lectures thought of her as brilliant, but the other half thought she was a kook. For my part, while the kook side did have a valid point in that genuinely overwhelming disparities in power were extremely common in the cultivation world, I came down more on the brilliant side.
Shokoya nodded in agreement at my saying this. "People who rely on their talent to carry them, rather than use that talent to push their skills as high as they'll go, those sorts will get a rude awakening sooner or later. My favorite part was the personality quiz. Who'd have thought a Grand Elder had such a sense of humor?"
"I particularly liked what she said about every technique in your arsenal needing to have a purpose," I replied, "that's exactly why Repelling Sword Strike was my first choice at the Codex."
Where we'd come down hadn't gone unnoticed by the disciples working at the Lecture Hall. As we were leaving, one of them made a point of mentioning that Grand Elder Guo lectured every three months, and always made a point of scheduling a year in advance. We accepted passes for the next one, and the disciple looked like we'd made his day.
I was about to return to studying the Repelling Sword Strike technique when Shokoya asked me to come eat with him. I figured there was something up, so I agreed.
"Thanks for this," he said once we'd found a table, "the Invigoration Pavillion is so loud all the time, I figure it's just about impossible to be overheard."
"Oh?" Now I was genuinely curious. "By all means, go ahead then."
"It's about the plan to advance and find backing. You've been talking about starting to take on challenges in the dueling courts once you're satisfied with your use of Repelling Sword Strike."
"Right."
"The only thing is, you've mentioned before that you're more of a PvE guy. Cut your teeth on extracting legendary loot drops, that kind of thing."
"Yeah, so?"
"Wouldn't it be better to challenge the Tower of Enlightenment?"
I took a breath. "Don't think I haven't considered it. There's a problem with your line of reasoning, though. Magical beasts have very different ways of fighting from cultivators, but other than that, PvE and PvP aren't distinct here like they were in, in the old days."
"True…"
"Besides, it's too soon for the Tower of Enlightenment, while plenty of disciples hit the dueling courts day 1. We have to go about this conscientiously. If we make too big a splash, attract too much envy, act too much like we're showing off, it'll blow up in our faces for sure. Heck, you're supposed to be the patient one here, and I'm telling you this?"
Shokoya facepalmed. "Touché. I'm just a sucker for that kind of challenge, I guess. You know, stuff with such orderly progression. I'm kind of itching to try it myself, though I know I should prepare a lot more. He stood up from the table. "Well, I've kept you from your study long enough. Honestly, I'm thinking about visiting the Codex soon myself. I have the points for a new technique, but I'm thinking about saving for a Spirit Rank technique instead."
"Yeah, can't say I come down on either side of that debate for you." I stood myself, "be seeing you."