"It's true," Wang Ming replied. "What she said is accurate, though she also has plenty of talent on her own."

Upon hearing that confirmation, Feng Tian Wu's eyes lit up, and she opened her mouth with a gleam of interest.

"Hey, Wang Ming—then you wouldn't mind if I wanted to Dual Cultivate with you, right?" Feng Tian Wu said with a playful wink, surprising the other girls. Her unexpected question caused Wang Ming to raise an eyebrow.

"No, I don't mind," Wang Ming replied casually and pointed at his girls "I've already Dual Cultivated with all the female disciples in the Outer Court, so it's not a problem. Just keep in mind, your improvement might not be as dramatic as theirs."

"No problem. Lingxi, you don't mind, right?" Feng Tian Wu asked with a smirk. Bai Lingxi merely shrugged indifferently, and Feng Tian Wu smiled at her response.

"Alright, let's go check out the scrolls," Feng Tian Wu said cheerfully, winking again at Wang Ming before walking over to browse the collection.

Wang Ming also activated his Soul Eyes to examine the various techniques on the shelves. Many caught his interest, and his gaze kept darting across the scrolls—until he stumbled upon something.

"What's that?" Wang Ming mumbled.

[Hidden Compartment]

Wang Ming's eyes narrowed as a message appeared across his retina. He had been casually browsing through the scrolls using his Soul Eyes technique when the notification suddenly popped up which made him startled. Curious, he walked toward the location indicated and found a shelf with many scrolls clustered together, seemingly arranged to hide something from the others.

He carefully removed the scrolls one by one, inspecting each with his technique. None of them caught his interest, so he placed them on the ground. Once the scrolls were cleared, he noticed a small hidden compartment behind them. Activating his Soul Eyes again, he examined it more closely.

[Hidden Compartment]

A small section of the black wooden board, slightly larger than his palm, was glowing faint blue. There was a carved palm imprint on the wall. Wang Ming raised his hand and aligned it with the imprint.

Clink

A fist-sized black basin emerged from the other side of the shelf, covered in glowing inscriptions. Just above it, a small needle protruded.

"What is this?" Wang Ming muttered, confused by the mechanism. He reached out and traced his fingers over the intricate array inscribed on the basin.

"Do I need to prick my finger with this needle?" he mumbled to himself. The scene reminded him of something straight out of a cultivation novel he had read in his previous life—where the protagonist would drop blood into a hidden mechanism, which would then react and reveal a treasure or secret. The current situation felt eerily similar.

He had already confirmed that there were no curses or poison on the needle. Raising a finger, he approached it and attempted to make a small cut—but nothing happened. He clicked his tongue in annoyance, realizing he had forgotten that his body was protected by spiritual energy.

"Shit," he cursed aloud. As soon as he withdrew the spiritual energy from his finger, the intense spiritual pressure exerted by the room crashed down on it. His finger exploded instantly, and flesh and blood splattered into the basin in front of him which made him curse out loud.

'Supreme Regeneration,' he activated his technique, watching as his finger began to regrow. As it regenerated, he quickly reinforced it again with spiritual energy.

"Hmm..." Under his gaze, the flesh and blood in the basin began to glow with a faint blue hue as it was slowly absorbed.

Click

As soon as the blood was fully absorbed, the basin retreated back into its original position.

Bang! Bang!

Woosh!

"Damn, what the hell?" he muttered, startled. The entire floor began to shake violently. The girls, who had been browsing quietly nearby, were alarmed by the sudden disturbance and quickly turned toward Wang Ming.

"What the hell happened, Wang Ming?" Bai Lingxi shouted, rushing toward him with the others close behind.

He didn't reply immediately, eyes fixed ahead. Under their gaze, the bookshelf in front of him began to tremble—then slowly started to split apart, moving sideways to reveal something hidden behind it.

"What the fuck is going on?" Feng Tian Wu cursed as she watched the scene unfold, and was nervous thinking the building would get wrecked or worse the scrolls getting destroyed. A moment later, a small bookshelf emerged from the ground.

Wang Ming narrowed his eyes and walked toward the shelf, spotting a small parchment resting on the smaller shelf.

"Hey, what did you find?" Luo Li asked as she and the other girls rushed over to him.

"A parchment?" Shi Yu raised an eyebrow and leaned in along with the others as Wang Ming held it up to read.

"What are these symbols?" Bai Lingxi asked with a frown. She couldn't make sense of it. The scroll was covered in unfamiliar symbols she had never seen before, unlike the other parchments which were written in a proper language they could all understand.

Even Wang Ming, who was trying to decipher it, found himself clueless, his brows furrowing in frustration.

[System Message: Host, use your Soul Eyes technique on it.]

Wang Ming was startled by the sudden message from the system, surprised it had taken the initiative without him requesting assistance. Not dwelling on it, he immediately activated his pupil technique.

"Soul Eyes," Wang Ming muttered as he reactivated his technique. A few lines of text appeared in his retina once again:

[Shadow Veil]

[Rank: ???]

[Description: ???]

Wang Ming frowned when he saw that, aside from the name, there was no useful information available.

'System?' Wang Ming called out directly.

[System Message: Host, look carefully. This is only a small part of the complete scroll. You need to find the other pieces of the parchment.]

Following the system's message, Wang Ming examined the parchment more closely and realized that it was indeed a torn fragment of a larger scroll.