Jin Cheonhee spends about 20 hours a day reading, by modern standards.

Two hours for sleep, and about two hours for taking care of bodily functions and morning exercises.

The food in the bundle was similar to fasting pills, but it was a more delicious preserved food.

Made in the Imperial Palace, it combined honey, various medicinal ingredients, and culinary secrets, somewhat reminiscent of modern energy bars when eaten.

‘It fills the stomach quite well after eating.’

Essentially, it was a healing(?) lifestyle of tearing open energy bars and cracking Imperial Archive books for ten days.

Surprisingly, Jin Cheonhee’s personal satisfaction with this lifestyle was quite high.

‘About 240 books per day on average. So I’ve mastered 720 martial arts manuals in three days.’

Many were thinner than novels, so his reading speed was even faster.

Of course, the comprehension wasn’t thin, but he compared and digested them while reading the next manual.

Crunch-

Jin Cheonhee munched on an Imperial energy bar and fell into thought.

‘Somehow this reminds me of playing Animal Crossing. I was the first in the entire medical school to repay my loan and fully upgrade my house.’

Animal Crossing was a good game for healing.

Jin Cheonhee achieved K-healing by repaying his loan faster than anyone else.

Because it was K-healing, Jin Cheonhee’s field featured various colored flowers efficiently arranged in rows, and his furniture arrangement was optimal for turning the village into a tourist attraction.

Similarly, Jin Cheonhee’s house placement was also optimally positioned considering the movement patterns of animal NPCs and shops.

This was the K-healing life that combined the K-fantasy of buying a house by selling butterflies. He didn’t touch turnip stocks during this time.

‘Hehehe… my skin is improving from resting without stress these days.’

Enjoying the Imperial energy bar, Jin Cheonhee organized his gains so far.

First, what he learned from his reading.

‘I’ve read everything from what the martial world considers third-rate to what’s counted among supreme techniques. However, even among supreme techniques…’

There were so-called “tiers” even among supreme techniques.

Within supreme techniques, there were always higher elevation arts and lower arts, and here only those that could be considered lower within supreme techniques existed.

‘They said the most important ones are hidden elsewhere…’

For example, the Zhuge clan’s Taiji Immortal-Destruction Sword.

It’s certainly a supreme technique, and a martial art that would earn respect anywhere in the martial world if mastered.

But if asked whether it’s among the highest within supreme techniques, it’s not.

The biggest weaknesses are the Zhuge clan martial arts’ characteristic of being person-dependent and difficult to master fully.

Moreover, even the same Taiji Immortal-Destruction Sword varies greatly in power depending on how it’s applied, which further holds it back.

‘Master, I’m sorry.’

Objectively comparing sect martial arts with other martial arts is a taboo that shouldn’t exist for traditional martial artists.

In a way, it’s no different from comparing our parents with other people’s parents.

It’s something only possible for a modern person based solely on pragmatism.

‘It’s something that shouldn’t even be spoken aloud.’

Modern people don’t understand such things.

They only know that no value in this world is more important than their own life.

This is why his master allowed Jin Cheonhee to receive the Taiji Wisdom Sword.

If fully mastered, it might be different… but in its current state, it falls at least two levels below Wudang’s Taiji Wisdom Sword.

‘So far, I’ve read about nine supreme techniques at the level of the Taiji Immortal-Destruction Sword?’

As the Chief Eunuch Admiral Han Gwang said, although the “real ones” are stored separately, there are plenty of martial arts manuals that are “enough to shake the martial world.”

After all, the Taiji Immortal-Destruction Sword is a supreme technique that can certainly shake the martial world.

‘With this, the supreme techniques I already knew were Taiji Wisdom Sword, Dual Mind-Intention Technique, Heavenly Demon Divine Arts, Five-Elemental Divine Technique, Profound Origin Heaven and Earth Divine Technique, Taiji Immortal-Destruction Sword, and Heaven Earth Vajra Arts, and now nine more instant supreme techniques are added.’

Though they’re said to be on the same level as the Taiji Immortal-Destruction Sword, of course, a supreme technique is still a supreme technique.

Even if they’re considered top-tier among high-tier martial arts, they’re incomparable.

If just one secret manual of these martial arts were to surface, dozens of medium-sized sects or two or three major sects would get involved, creating chaos to obtain it.

‘Wow… physicians would go crazy cleaning up that mess.’

Right now, the nine supreme techniques are just memorized.

It’s impossible to master them while comparing them like other intermediate martial arts.

‘I’ll have to slowly research and extract their essence later… this will be helpful for training martial artists, won’t it?’

Wind God’s Bow[1]. Nine Dragons Spear Technique[2]. Thousand Li Divine Step[3]. Profound Ultimate Great Strides[4].

Additionally, the Qingcheng Sect’s supreme technique, Heaven and Earth Divine Technique[5].

The method for brewing Thousand Day Intoxication[6], a supreme wine said to last a thousand days once drunk.

‘This is also a supreme technique.’

A supreme technique doesn’t necessarily have to split people’s heads.

There’s also the Wild Beast’s Sense Blade[7].

Unfortunately, the Kunlun Sect’s Extreme Clarity Peerless Divine Technique[8] was partially lost.

And one of the demonic arts.

Seven Demonic Zither[9].

A martial art of playing the zither, capable of attacking enemies or controlling emotions through sound.

‘For it to be classified as a demonic art, its cultivation process is quite stable, but it became a demonic art because its users were villains.’

It seems it can be substituted with a pipa if a zither isn’t available.

The setting that the Imperial Archives also collect secret techniques from various sects did appear in many martial arts novels, and it’s the same here.

Well, there were also incomplete Zhongnan Sect martial arts, so…

‘Still, the Extreme Clarity Peerless Divine Technique doesn’t have a lot of lost parts, so the rest can probably be roughly reconstructed and used? This is also quite an impressive internal energy cultivation method.’

However, using a currently existing sect’s martial art exactly as it is would make one a public enemy of the martial world.

Though this world carelessly plagiarizes Jin Cheonhee’s soap without concern for copyright, if one were to plagiarize martial arts…

Next month might find them in the Martial Righteous Alliance’s or Demonic Cult’s underground inner prison, with severed limb meridians, living a life of only spitting out information when needed.

‘Even if I use them, I need to disassemble and reconstruct them in various ways… though the Wild Beast’s Sense Blade, Nine Dragons Spear Technique, and Wind God’s Bow could be used since their sects have been destroyed.’

Though the martial world is sensitive about intellectual property rights for martial arts, techniques from exterminated sects become free sources, called “lost martial arts” that can be used.

‘So all I need to do is research ways to make the medical pavilion’s martial artists stronger with these?’

• Create a downgraded external technique that’s easier to learn and more effective than the Heaven Earth Vajra Arts.
• For long-range, a degraded version of the newly acquired supreme technique, Wind God’s Bow.
• For close combat, a degraded version of Nine Dragons Spear.
• For lightweight movement techniques, a degraded version of the long-range Thousand Li Divine Step.
• And for short-range, a degraded version of the Profound Ultimate Great Strides.

Everyone would think him crazy for deliberately creating degraded versions.

Why create something that’s inevitably one or two levels below better martial arts?

This is due to Jin Cheonhee’s own philosophy.

‘Effort is a limited resource. Supreme techniques are powerful but difficult to learn. It takes long effort and understanding just to become proficient, let alone master them.’

Effort doesn’t lie.

As powerful as supreme techniques are, to learn them properly requires proper basic training from a young age and step-by-step gifted education.

With such effort, if one’s enlightenment capacity follows, they might earn a title like “~Dragon” in their 20s, and by their 40s, they would become a pillar of their sect.

Full mastery typically comes after age 50 in most cases.

Only a rare few unprecedented geniuses achieve the dream of full mastery before thirty.

Or a fortunate sixty-year-old elder achieves second youth and lives a second life.

‘Weapon enhancement probability would be better.’

Teaching supreme techniques to martial artists in their thirties and forties is a waste.

It’s clear they’d die on some battlefield before reaching full mastery.

‘They wouldn’t even reach six-tenths achievement before fifty.’

So degrade them.

So that even ordinary martial artists who learn late and have slow enlightenment capacity can follow.

If they can live to see tomorrow, that’s enough.

‘Good. I’ve roughly framed this task. Now what remains is…’

Research for Jin Cheonhee himself and his sworn siblings, Wang Gakyeon, and Three Seasons Tiger to reach the Profound Realm.

‘Tang Ah… is a bit of a problem.’

Currently, there’s the least information about Tang Ah.

For some reason, there’s no reply to Jin Cheonhee’s letter, and she’s said to be in seclusion within the Tang clan.

According to an elderly Tang clan patient who came briefly…

This period after escaping the heart demon(?) is extremely sensitive, so one should never urge for a reply or try to meet forcibly.

It’s a time when all the things done while possessed by the heart demon and the expressions of those around keep coming to mind.

Time is needed to either accept it or stow it away in the warehouse of oblivion.

‘A difficult age, isn’t it?’

Well, that’s something to think about later.

Let’s tackle the research at hand first, shall we?

“But still… even after working so hard, there’s so much left. Roughly speaking, there seems to be at least ten thousand martial arts manuals… reading all ten thousand was impossible after all.”

He never expected ten days to be so insufficient, even after achieving a speed-reading ability far beyond human capacity.

“Even after filtering based on importance by quickly reading titles and introductions, it’s still this much… sigh, I’d like to stay longer, but it’s a pity.”

Ten days is the maximum viewing period.

Since he’s already taken the maximum possible, it wouldn’t be extended.

Crunch-

Continuing to chew on the Imperial fasting pill, Jin Cheonhee rapidly turned his mind.

It was the most important time of the day, organizing thoughts.

“…Huh?”

Just for a moment, the blue light in his pupils shone even deeper.

With the fasting pill in his mouth, Jin Cheonhee swiftly pulled out four books he had read.

After examining the books carefully, he unwittingly spoke.

“Why is this here?”

In the corner of the page of the book he just pulled out, there was ancient text written.

It was completely unrelated to the content and disconnected from the context.

If compared to modern books, it would be like having ancient characters written where page numbers would be.

Since many of the coded messages passed to the White Dragon Medical Pavilion used such forgotten ancient characters, he had learned them as a Minor Pavilion Master.

‘These characters seem to connect?’

If he hadn’t learned about codes, he would have missed it.

No, perhaps if he hadn’t had time to organize his thoughts, he would have missed this small scribble even more.

He dissects the strokes and reassembles them.

‘West direction, 12th bookshelf. Heaven Earth Observation Principle…?’

Who could have left this?

How many people would leave something like this?

He couldn’t know. But the owner of this Imperial Palace wouldn’t have a reason to leave this.

Since this archive itself is already his.

Nor would it be a martial artist passing through with brief permission to browse.

Finding and reading what one wants among these many books would be overwhelming enough.

‘Then with high probability, it’s likely to be the administrator…?’

Administrator, that is, the librarian.

He said that for some reason, the previous emperor eliminated the librarian position.

Is that all that can be inferred?

‘Hmm… alright. Let’s go check it out first.’

Jin Cheonhee walked to find the 12th bookshelf.

Then he knocked on the bookshelf.

Knock knock knock-

It’s difficult to tell from the sound alone.

Jin Cheonhee raised his internal energy and knocked again, this time incorporating the basic principles of sound arts.

Seven Demonic Zither.

The contents of the supreme technique he just read were all stored in his mind.

However, he hadn’t yet fully grasped the essence of that martial art.

He had only completely understood the core theory of how that martial art operates.

Even with just that, this level of application was possible.

Dong–!

“…”

With eyes closed, he kept knocking for about 15 minutes.

True Energy Pulse Diagnosis uses qi, but this is sound art, inferring from the vibrations that flow out and bounce back.

His highly developed enlightenment capacity identifies what returns from which location.

It roughly finds the structure and principle.

This is due to an intelligence that far transcends ordinary people.

The infinitely compassionate yet self-destructive genius opened his eyes.

“There’s a mechanism formation hidden here?”

Yesterday’s Jin Cheonhee wouldn’t have known.

No one could have imagined there would be a madman who learns the Seven Demonic Zither in the morning, disassembles and reassembles it by noon, and then searches for mechanism formations by evening.