The martial arts library was an important ground in the whole city that had collections of different martial arts skills gathered over hundreds of years.
They were used to help those of later generations hoping that they would expand the arts. Usually, the amount of skills possessed by the martial artist showed how much experience he had. Bobby remembered that at Belmont there was no library and so a very small number of people were gifted with many skills and techniques.
The library was divided into three floors. On the first floor, there was a large quantity of martial arts, but most of them were low ranked with a few middle ranked ones there as well. The second floor apparently had the city's secret and traditional techniques.
Most of them were of high rank. There were even some peak rank ones there. However, to enter the second floor, one needed to be at least a green belt level student.
And the third floor was just a rumor, as it had never been publicly opened. For Bobby, the second and third floors were just too far away, even the first floor's martial arts were something that he yearned for.
He had no backing in the city, and a person with no backing or exceptional talent could access higher ranked martial arts. The flaming metal fist he had was only a core ranked martial arts and so was even weaker than a low ranked martial arts.
However, after breaking through to the orange belt level, he had the right to enter the first floor and choose a martial art. Bobby stepped into the first floor, his breathing quickened.
He could see a few other students walking around, but all of them were using their time to choose their own martial arts skills. According to the rules, those that entered the library only had half an hour to select skills, so everyone that entered here didn't waste any time.
"I've got half an hour, and I need to choose a middle ranked martial art or two low ranked martial arts," Bobby took a deep breath and scanned the bookshelves.
The first floor of the library had several thousand books and every book was two centimeters thick. To find one or two martial arts among such a high number was not easy.
Rock breaking palm, anger dragon fist, leaf picking sword, wind-like foot. The different kinds of martial arts skills made Bobby's eyes turn colorful. Bobby flipped the pages of these martial arts skills quickly to the first page.
These martial arts usually had their summaries on the first page. Crazy Wing Blade: like the wind, powerful like lightning, uses speed to win. Minimum requirements: first level white belt, to train this skill as average difficulty, rank lone. Angered Dragon Fist: can increase the strength of the cultivator, can put all power into one attack.
Minimum requirements: second level yellow belt, to train this skill is quite hard, rank peak of middle rank. Wind-like Foot: a close combat skill which uses speed to win and trained to their fullest potential.
They can fight against many people and not lose. Minimum requirements: first level white belt but high difficulty, rank middle. Middle Sand: increase the defense of the body, under full activation can go head to head with the same ranked opponent, someone who can train it to a high level can use their body to defend against swords and blades. Minimum requirements: second level yellow belt and high willpower, rank middle. Martial arts library skills are stronger than the core rank skills by far. "Just as expected," he thinks to himself.
Bobby was extremely pleased and the skills he saw were mainly middle ranked ones.
After only looking through tons of books, his heart had already been moved several times. However, the library had restrictions. He could only take out one middle rank martial art.
"If only I could take out a few, and that would be great," Bobby felt unwilling and thought it was unfair. "Ran disciples can only choose one middle martial art, whereas the main disciples can choose two."
To increase his selection speed, Bobby started to use his left eye. With his left eye, his assessment speed increased more than tenfold. Bobby's left eye used an incredible speed to look through these martial arts. He only needed one look to understand them all.
Looking at over thirty books, Bobby fully memorized the contents of them and compared them with one another. When he had scanned over fifty, Bobby suddenly realized something was not right and froze.
He went back to his memories of the other books. In his mind, the contents of the books appeared, but not a single word was wrong or missing. "This," Bobby said as he felt himself trembling with excitement.
After merging with the left eye, Bobby's memory had improved his will. He only needed to look at something once and would never forget him, especially when he activated his left eye, the contents of the books were burned into his mind. Bobby never thought that he would achieve the power of never forgetting. There were many rumors about the geniuses on Azure Flower Continent and never forgetting was one of the attributes they had.
However, never forgetting worked for most people and that their memory was good. They only needed to read something once and they would remember 80-90% of the contents.
However, compared to Bobby's never forgetting, his version was clearly much stronger. He was not able to forget. With this power in the martial arts library, it meant that Bobby could take more books out.
"Fast, fast, fast," Bobby mumbled to himself excitedly and started to memorize all the books he could.
His concentration was pushed to the limit as he flipped through the pages of the manuals as soon as he grasped them. As long as the contents were looked at by his left eye, it didn't matter if it was words or drawings. He memorized everything. It only took Bobby twenty breaths of time to fully remember a book with fifty pages. "Never forget, good," Bobby felt great, but he seemed more and more insane as he ripped through the books. His actions caused some of the other students to look over. "I think this guy's gone crazy. Maybe it's his first time here and he's too excited." Some of them looked at Bobby's actions and shook their heads.
Time flashed by. Twenty minutes had already passed. Bobby let out a long breath. He felt tired, but it still couldn't stop his excitement.
At this point, he had stolen over a hundred martial arts books. These martial arts were mainly middle ranked martial arts and included fist skills, palm skills, sword skills, breathing skills, footwork skills, defense skills, and many others.
But because he kept on using his left eye, his mind became tired. Next, Bobby's left eye scanned around the area and landed upon an old martial arts book. The reason why he stopped on it was because Bobby felt that the materials this book was made of were different from the rest. Bobby picked up this book and on the top were three words: Lightly Floating Fairy.
He flipped to the first page: Lightly Floating Fairy: a high-rank martial art can make the cultivator move through the snow without leaving marks, can drift across the river, and make the person feel like a bird. When trained high enough, the person can double jump and even fly for short moments. Minimum requirements: third level orange belt, in addition, higher will increase the force of the skill. Achieving the highest realm will make a person quicker than anyone else under the seventh level.
Bobby first thought that this was just an ordinary footwork skill, but after he saw a double jump and higher chi, his eyes twinkled. Double jump exceeds the limits of middle rank martial arts, even some high ranked ones couldn't do that. Hi Chi meant that this skill was suited for martial artists at or above the fourth level, and the most incredible part was achieving the highest realm but allowed the person to have the fastest speed of everyone under the seventh rank of the martial path.
"What an exaggeration. Even some peak rank martial arts won't have the courage to say this," Bobby's eyes shone and without hesitation, he started reading the contents of the Lightly Floating Fairy.
He had a question in his heart: why would such a strong skill be put at the bottom floor and why would no one learn it?
Soon Bobby found the reason: after flipping through a quarter of the book, the words started to blur out. The book was too old and it started to mold. That meant that this book only had a quarter of its original contents. "So unfortunate," Bobby sighed severely disappointed. However, he did not give up and continued to use his left eye on the blurred-out words. Using all of his power on his left eye, Bobby could just about see the words under the mold, exceeding the normal human's eyesight by at least twentyfold. After reading two pages, Bobby felt his mind grow tired and his left eye felt as if there was no power left in it.
"If I take this back, I can slowly read all of its later contents," Bobby thought, and then took Lightly Floating Fairy out of the first floor of the martial arts library. "Lightly Floating Fairy. Do you want this book?" The white-robed elder asked with scrunched eyebrows. "Yes," Bobby politely replied.
"This book has been around for a thousand years, and there are parts in it which exceed high ranked martial arts by far," the white-robed elder's voice turned.
"However, only a quarter of this book can be seen. An important note: to fully train in this skill is extremely hard. Even some geniuses cannot do it. If they do it under the fourth level, its potential is restricted."
At last, the white-robed elder warned, "I'd advise you to change your pick or else you will never break through to the fourth level and become a true martial artist."
"Thank you for your warning, elder, but my heart is decided," Bobby had a calm look on his face. Looking at Bobby leave, the white-robed elder shook his head and said, "These youths nowadays all take the highest ranked book possible." He believed that Bobby would not be able to fully learn Lightly Floating Fairy, and taking a step back, if he could, what could a partial martial art book do?
Leaving the martial arts library, Bobby returned home. Sitting on his bed, he closed his eyes and on the inside of his mind, the contents of around a hundred martial arts books quickly surfaced.