Chapter 575: The Library
Back at Silent Residence, Lin Shen reflected on some details of his battle with Dou Shi Buddha. Dou Shi Buddha's techniques seemed to be effortlessly executed, yet they were so adept at predicting the enemy's moves that Lin Shen couldn't even use his own skills completely.
When it came to techniques alone, Lin Shen truly was no match for him.
"His method of anticipating the enemy's moves shares a common marvel with Tian Buluo's Unity of Heaven and Man, but it isn't Unity of Heaven and Man. There were no void threads to be seen, so how exactly is it done?" Lin Shen couldn't figure it out, and even after letting Xiaoqi search on the Sky Net, no answer was found.
Lin Shen had an idea and remembered he had a card for Library No. 1, allowing him to check for information there.
He should also be preparing for his own Nirvana, and wanted to investigate Base Mutation Land data at the library; he could just look it up while he was there.
The privileges granted by the Heavenly Emperor allowed him access to most of the Base Mutation Lands within the Celestial Race; he could freely choose any with no issues.
The scale of Library No. 1 was much larger than he had imagined, but unlike what Lin Shen had expected, the library was actually built underground, and the floors were inverted compared to a normal library's layout.
The top layer of Library No. 1 was, in fact, the deepest level underground.
On the uppermost level of the library, the vast number of books Lin Shen saw was beyond imagination. The enormous bookshelves on either side resembled the cliffs of two mountains, with a central aisle wide enough for trains and planes to pass through.
Celestials visiting the library to read included some who flew on their own and others who used hoverboards to search for books on the huge shelves.
When these Celestials saw Lin Shen, they looked somewhat astounded because Library No. 1 was generally not accessible to outsiders, and library cards were rarely issued to outsiders.
This was only the first level of the library, with many more below. Lin Shen didn't waste time checking each level; there were simply too many books to see them all.
In fact, the library had intelligent devices for directly searching book titles or even downloading the content.
However, these devices were less used the further down you went. By the time he reached the second-to-last floor, there were no electronic devices at all, only physical books.
The space here wasn't as vast as the outer levels and was divided into several rooms, each holding different collections of books.
Lin Shen first entered a Skill Pavilion which housed various skills. With just a casual glance, he saw secret techniques from several Great Cosmic Clans.
Lin Shen even found the Demon Heart Finger he learned from Red Heart A, and upon reviewing it, the content was essentially the same, with only a few minor differences that were insignificant and didn't affect cultivation.
The multitude of skills dazzled Lin Shen; any single technique, if brought to the Human Mother Planet, would be enough to provoke desperate battles for its possession.
But here, these techniques were freely available for browsing.
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The box of secret techniques Lin Shen previously obtained on Giant Ring Star, he had thought to be advanced, but compared to the collection here, it was far inferior.
Unfortunately, a person's energy and time are limited. No matter how many secret techniques are in front of him, there aren't that many he can truly master.
Lin Shen used to practice whatever he had at hand; now, with too many options before him, he wasn't sure what to practice.
This was like when he was a child fond of comics: Saving up money to buy a comic book, he could read it over and over. But as an adult, when comics were readily available, it seemed he didn't know what to read anymore.
Initially, he wanted to investigate the origin of the techniques used by Dou Shi Buddha. But with so many techniques here and not knowing the name, it was no easy task to identify what technique Dou Shi Buddha had used.
"I should first look at the Base Mutation Land data." After leaving the Skill Pavilion, Lin Shen strolled around and found a room called the Nirvana House.
After entering the Nirvana House, he indeed saw various methods of Nirvana, including many Base Mutation Land records.
Lin Shen briefly skimmed through and realized the Celestial Race controlled an enormous number of Base Mutation Lands, ranging from those that nurtured Base Variant Creatures to those that sprouted Nirvana Creatures, with almost everything one could need.
There were even vague records of Base Mutation Lands that bred Undying Creatures, though those records weren't detailed and lacked substantial information.
Lin Shen had no use for those; his best options were to pick a Mutant Ascension Land or a Mutant Nirvana Land.
If his body could withstand it, achieving Nirvana directly in Nirvana Land would be the most straightforward approach.
However, Ascenders generally could not endure such Nirvana, and it was easy for them to lose themselves and become non-humans.
After looking for a while, Lin Shen found quite a few Mutated Ascension Base Mutation Lands, some of which greatly tempted him.
As he deliberated, he became overwhelmed, feeling like he was choosing between Guli Nazha and Dilraba.
"This Base Mutation Land is good; undergoing Nirvana to become an Undying Bird, acquiring the Immortal Flame Nirvana Attribute after successful Nirvana... This Base Mutation Land also seems nice, undergoing Nirvana as an Ice Qilin, gaining the Ice Spirit Power Nirvana Attribute..."
Saying it was a choice was an understatement; he hadn't really found the Base Mutation Land that truly suited him.
Lin Shen's most desired Nirvana Attributes were, of course, those related to time and space, as their attributes were strong in any era.
Unfortunately, after searching for quite some time, Lin Shen only found some space-related Base Mutation Lands and no time-related ones.
Lin Shen sat on the floor, flipping through book after book of the available Mutated Ascension Base Mutation Lands, and did mark a few places, but he found it difficult to make a choice.
Putting those aside, Lin Shen then browsed through the methods of Nirvana. Although there were many different methods, they essentially fell into two categories: Minor Nirvana using the Nirvana Egg and Great Nirvana using the Base Mutation Land.
Using Reincarnation Ashes, in fact, corresponded to the path of Minor Nirvana; their methods and outcomes were essentially the same.
Lin Shen was set on taking the path of Great Nirvana because its effects were stronger than those of Minor Nirvana.
"This is an unexpected Nirvana method?" Lin Shen picked up another book on Nirvana methods and was surprised to discover that the method described seemed to be different.
While the methods recorded in the previous books were slightly varied, they all pertained to either Minor or Great Nirvana. However, this book detailed a method that seemed to integrate both, requiring both the Nirvana Egg and the Base Mutation Land.