Chapter 135 — Seven Days in the Library of Blades
The ancient library doors creaked open as Shen stepped inside. His eyes were bright with anticipation, and behind him, Lare leaned against a stone pillar.
> Lare: "Don't take too long. And don't destroy anything in there."
Shen smirked without looking back.
> Shen: "Relax, Lare. I only break limits."
He touched the first scroll.
A violent surge of cursed pain slammed into his skull.
CRACK.
Any normal person would have collapsed.
Shen only grinned as the pain twisted through his nerves.
> Shen: "Hah… this feeling. I almost missed it."
Azel's hidden talent activated—
low-level understanding but high memory storage—
a cursed skill that inflicted pain every time it copied a technique.
Shen enjoyed the pain.
> Shen: "Come on. Give me more."
He absorbed the entire scroll.
Hours passed. Every new scroll hit him with a different flavor of agony—burning veins, stabbing headaches, crushing pressure, cold shocks. Anyone else would run, scream, or faint.
Shen smiled through all of it.
By the first night, he had copied four hundred and fifty techniques.
> Shen: "A warm-up."
Outside, Lare sensed bursts of cursed energy and sighed.
> Lare: "He's actually enjoying that pain… unbelievable."
Three days later, Shen opened ten scrolls at once.
A tidal wave of pain smashed into him so hard the shelves shook—yet Shen burst into laughter.
> Shen: "YES! This is it! More!"
He devoured fist arts, sword arts, footwork, breathing cycles, and stances at impossible speed.
On the fifth day, he had already learned sixteen hundred techniques. The pain flooded his mind nonstop, like a storm trapped in his skull.
But Shen only felt more alive.
> Shen: "Others fear this curse…
But for me—this is paradise."
He opened several advanced sword scrolls together. A massive explosion of pain hit him, and he tilted his head with a satisfied smile.
> Shen: "Beautiful."
By the seventh day, Lare walked into the library expecting to find Shen barely conscious. Instead, Shen sat calmly in a circle of thousands of open scrolls, aura steady, eyes sharp.
Lare stared.
> Lare: "You're still… enjoying this?"
Shen stood up casually.
> Shen: "Enjoying? Lare… this has been the best week of my life."
Lare blinked hard.
> Lare: "How many techniques did you learn?"
Shen stretched lazily.
> Shen: "Two thousand eight hundred forty-seven."
Lare looked like he was questioning reality.
> Lare: "You're insane…"
Shen walked past him with a confident grin.
> Shen: "Stay close, Lare. It's going to get crazier."
He whispered as he exited:
> Shen: "Tomorrow… creation begins."
The idea forming in his mind was clear:
Infinity Sword Style — 2500 Forms.
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