Time flew by, and in the blink of an eye, several days had passed.
The news online was constantly changing.
The buzz around the Innate Powerhouse of the "One Sword Breaks the Peak" incident came and went quickly.
People, busy with the trivial matters of their daily lives, had soon all but forgotten about it.
After all, battles between experts of the Innate Realm were ultimately too far removed from the lives of ordinary people.
They were existences to be looked up to, but never reached.
For the average person, the true meaning of life was putting food on the table.
'It's good they've forgotten. I really did make too big a scene before.'
In the library, as closing time approached, Qin Yang was expertly slacking off, scrolling through the hot search rankings on his phone.
He let out a long sigh of relief when he saw that the top-ranking search term had disappeared.
Recalling his actions, he was still in disbelief.
'Who would have thought that one sword strike could be so powerful?'
'I just casually swung it...'
'And it sliced a whole mountaintop clean off!'
'You can't blame me for that. The mountain was just too fragile!'
'If I'd known it was going to be that powerful, I would've found a small hill to test it on first.'
'I wonder how powerful my single sword strike is now.'
Qin Yang put his phone away, casually flipped through a couple of books on Basic Sword Technique, then shoved them back onto the shelf.
'Boring.'
Over the past few days, he had already gone through all the books on the library's first floor.
The first floor of the library was divided into six main sections.
And during this time, Qin Yang hadn't been idle. Using the excuse of proactively taking on more work, he had made his way through every single one of those sections.
Even the Steward in charge couldn't help but sigh in admiration after seeing this.
A young man as motivated as Qin Yang was a rare sight.
So, he simply opened up the other sections and let Qin Yang clean all of them.
Using the short periods of time while he was "cleaning,"
Qin Yang read through every Basic Sword Technique manual he could find.
All told, he had consulted at least twenty-five different schools of Basic Sword Technique!
However,
to his exasperation,
most of these Basic Sword Technique manuals were repetitive.
Some of the authors were even more ridiculous...
It was one thing for the content to be similar, but some had just blatantly copied other books, word for word, into their own "swordsmanship" manuals.
For a time, even Qin Yang couldn't figure out who the original author was.
'All writing is just plagiarism,' he thought. 'But who on earth copied who?'
Qin Yang was speechless.
Fortunately, however,
while these swordsmanship styles were similar, they still had their merits.
Take the essence and discard the dregs.
With his Enlightenment Space, it wasn't difficult to extract the useful parts from those books.
Having now integrated numerous styles of Swordsmanship, Qin Yang's comprehension of the Sword Dao was soaring.
The power of his "One Sword Opens the Celestial Gate" had reached an even higher level.
'I wonder how much stronger it's actually gotten...'
At this thought, his hands began to itch; he was eager to test his sword again.
But the uproar from the "One Sword Breaks the Peak" incident had only just subsided.
And his sword strike was even more terrifying than before.
'If I really swing my sword now, won't I end up dicing the entire mountain?'
Testing it on a mountain was out. Testing it against the sky was also out.
As the name "One Sword Opens the Celestial Gate" suggested...
'If I swing my sword at the sky... what if I split the atmosphere and tear a hole in the ozone layer?!'
'Now *that* would be real trouble!'
'Sigh... too much power is its own kind of problem,'
Qin Yang sighed, pulling out his phone to check the time.
It was time to clock out.
He reached up, turned off the library lights, and swiftly left his post.
Not long after he walked out of the library, he came face-to-face with a squad of fully armed guards.
They brushed past him, heading toward the library.
The grim, tense atmosphere was palpable.
'All of them are Late Stage Postnatal Realm Martial Artists.'
Qin Yang casually scanned their Cultivation levels and recalled that they were all part of the security force newly added by the Hall Master.
Although the commotion over the "One Sword Breaks the Peak" incident had died down in the past few days,
the rumors of the Bloodthirsty Demon had intensified, sending Jianghai City into a panic.
This Bloodthirsty Demon was wreaking havoc, moving through the city and committing a string of crimes.
The victims had all their blood drained before death, leaving them like desiccated corpses.
All sorts of gossip flew around online, stirring up a massive controversy.
'This world is too dangerous.'
Walking down the street, Qin Yang looked up at the starry night sky, feeling an explosive sense of crisis.
'Just being able to slice a mountaintop in one blow still isn't quite enough.'
'I need even more power.'
Just as he was lost in thought,
Suddenly!
An urgent ringing came from his pocket.
Qin Yang's brow furrowed at the sound, and he fumbled in his pocket for his phone.
'Who could be calling this late? Please don't tell me they're calling me back in for overtime?!'
However, when he took out his phone, he saw it was an unknown number.
A little puzzled, Qin Yang pressed the answer key.
Immediately,
Xia He's loud voice boomed from the other end of the line:
"Old Qin, help me!"
"???"
'What's going on?'
Qin Yang froze. His heart skipped a beat as he immediately thought of the Bloodthirsty Demon.
'It can't be that much of a coincidence, can it?'
'Is this a case of what you fear most is what you get?'
"Where are you? Tell me your location!"
Qin Yang suppressed his doubts and asked calmly.
The majestic Power of Stars began to brew within him, and he was on the verge of using the Seven-Star Step.
Xia He was the person he was closest to in this world; he couldn't just stand by and let him die.
However, in the next moment...
"Honglang Hotel, Room 404! Old Qin, you have to hurry!"
Xia He's tearful voice came through the phone again.
"Huh? What are you doing over there?"
Qin Yang was baffled.
"I'm so fucking unlucky! Some bitch set me up in a honey trap!"
Xia He sobbed, on the verge of a breakdown. "They stripped me naked! Hurry up and bring me some clothes! If word of this gets out and my dad finds out, he'll beat me to death!"
"I'm calling you on a waiter's phone right now. Thank god he's a guy, or I'd never be able to show my face in public again."
Qin Yang: "..."
Hearing this, Qin Yang didn't know whether to laugh or cry.
'So that's all it was.'
'Looks like all the recent commotion in the city has made me a little tense, too.'
"Hey, are you there? Old Qin!"
When there was no reply, Xia He grew anxious on the other end of the line.
"Come and save me! Old Qin... Pfft! Father Qin! Master Qin! Help me!"
"Alright, alright, I'm coming. Just wait there, I'm on my way."
Qin Yang sighed and pinched the bridge of his nose. With a flash, his figure vanished, heading in the direction of the Honglang Hotel.
...
「The next day.」
Last night, he had rescued a bruised and battered Xia He—who was sobbing, stripped naked—and then sent him home.
After a night's rest, he went to work as usual.
However, Qin Yang had barely stepped into the library
when he saw Xia He walking toward him.
He looked exhausted. Having been up all night, he scratched his bed-head.
"Try to keep it in your pants from now on,"
Qin Yang teased. "If I'm not free next time, there'll be no one to come and save you."
"Hmph, I was just careless for a moment."
Xia He snorted, then glanced at his phone and suddenly exclaimed in surprise, "Holy shit, the Bloodthirsty Demon was caught last night!"