Endless Winter: My Camp Upgrades Infinitely Chapter 1423 - 456: Young Men and Face-Slapping, The Secret of the Five Luminaries Tribulation Body, Dark Merchant Invitation, Made the Rankings...

Caiqiu Calendar, Year 297, October 10, early morning

"Ha... enough, it’s time to go back!"

After spending four days within the Governor Mansion’s Book Collection Tower, Xia Hong gently yawned, stretched languidly, and carefully returned a copy of "Moao River Four Vassal Areas" to its rightful place. Casting a glance around, he shook his head and made his way downstairs.

The results from this excursion to the Book Collection Tower were truly immense!

"Six martial arts skills, one a limited version of the Battle Style Fist, three sets of saber techniques, and two sets of swordsmanship, all acquired after sneaking and learning in Cai Qiu. The power boost is at most forty percent; giving them away won’t harm me."

Books, in essence, represent knowledge, a compilation of past experiences; viewed more broadly, they are the very ladder of human advancement, making them exceptionally valuable wherever they are found.

This three-story Cai Qiu Book Collection Tower harbors no less than ten thousand texts, encompassing geography, cultivation, harvesting, hunting, martial arts, cultivation, Cold Beasts, and even deceptive monsters, touching upon nearly every conceivable subject.

From these ten thousand volumes, the profound depth of the feudal town’s foundation becomes evident.

As a traveler from another time, Xia Hong inherently grasces the significance of books. Even before the First Year of Great Xia, he had tasked Xia Chuan with compiling the Cold Beast Record. Subsequently, Yue Feng was assigned to compile the Da Xia Chronicle, and he himself contributed to the formulation and assembly of Xia Li. With his lordship’s unwavering emphasis, from the Eight Departments down to the common populace, a widespread culture of literary creation has already taken root in Great Xia.

Yet, even with these efforts, in all of Great Xia, the recorded books of significant collection value amount to just over four hundred.

If only all ten thousand of these books could be transported back to Great Xia!

Countless times over the past five days, such impulsive thoughts have surfaced in Xia Hong’s mind, though he wisely refrained from any actual attempts.

Despite his own relative weakness, he could sense the presence of at least ten Xianyang Level cultivators within this modest three-story structure, with a few whose power was comparable to his own.

Whether he could abscond with those books right under their noses was a separate issue, and even if successful, could he truly depart from this Governor Mansion unnoticed?

Naturally, these were merely speculative thoughts. In summation, this Book Collection Tower, which embodies Cai Qiu’s historical accumulation over nearly three centuries and safeguards over a thousand invaluable martial arts classics, would never grant easy access.

The six martial arts skills were the very "entrance fee" that Xia Hong presented to the Governor Mansion.

To Xia Hong, these six martial arts techniques were not particularly extraordinary. However, the situation was quite different for Cai Qiu.

As early as the beginning of the year, during a confrontation with Cai Yunzhou, Xia Hong had already surmised that the martial arts proficiency within Cai Qiu Feudal Town fell short of Great Xia’s standards.

Cai Yunzhou, as the City Lord of Qinghua City, was a direct third-generation descendant of the Landgrave, making his status and lineage undeniable. The martial arts he practiced were undoubtedly the most elite within Cai Qiu.

On the day of the battle at the city gates, his power only surged by a little over thirty percent when he employed the Heaven-pulling Sword Technique, indicating that Cai Qiu’s most superior martial arts hovered around this level of enhancement.

Subsequent months spent in Cai Qiu had served to solidify Xia Hong’s initial conjecture.

"The martial arts level of Great Xia, before my skills successfully transcended, required only the force pattern of the Long Fist to be refined to the Transformation Realm to achieve a thirty percent increase. When incorporating martial arts techniques, the boost could reach an astounding fifty percent.

After transcending my skills, through Law-level martial arts imitation and deconstruction, my comprehension of martial arts ascended to unprecedented heights. Once the affairs of the feudal town are resolved, upon my return, I can elevate this boost even further..."

Xia Hong’s eyes gleamed slightly as he continued his descent.

In essence, six martial arts skills offering a maximum forty percent boost were immensely valuable to Cai Qiu, and they indeed secured him five days of access to the Book Collection Tower.

"It was a mutually beneficial arrangement. Not only did I gain entry to the Book Collection Tower, but the gifting of these six martial arts techniques also bolstered the credibility of my Daqin Prince identity in their eyes, thereby further emphasizing my background and origins."

A faint smile touched Xia Hong’s lips as he swiftly reached the first floor and proceeded towards the exit.

Within the Governor Mansion alone, there were no fewer than a thousand direct descendants of the Cai clan. When including the maids and servants, the total number of individuals within the entire mansion exceeded twenty thousand, meaning a considerable number of people naturally frequented the Book Collection Tower on a regular basis.

Despite being clad only in a plain black silk robe, devoid of any adornments on his head or waist, those who saw Xia Hong descend from the upper floors regarded him with a degree of respect, betraying only slight curiosity.

Swiftly, he arrived at the threshold.

At the entrance of the Pavilion of Collected Books, a recliner was placed where an elderly man, his hair a cascade of gray and his face deeply etched with wrinkles, lay. Dressed in a humble blue cotton attire, his eyes were shut, his breaths shallow, presenting an image of one on the brink of death.

The individuals frequently passing in and out of the pavilion largely paid the old man no mind. Only Xia Hong, as he ambled past, offered a subtle nod in his direction.

"This elder in blue, possessing a minimum base strength of 50 jun, surpasses even the eldest prince, Cai Yunlan, who was the most formidable individual I'd encountered since my arrival at the estate nearly four months ago. Yet, not a single descendant of the Cai clan, frequenting the Pavilion of Collected Books, seems to recognize him!"

Xia Hong couldn't suppress an inner sigh, realizing it wasn't merely the obliviousness of these Governor's Estate descendants. Rather, it pointed to the profound secrecy maintained by the Governor's Estate, or perhaps the innermost circles of the Cai clan leadership, leaving the majority of the Cai clan's younger generation ignorant of the true powerhouses residing within their own family.