In the area where Taoist books were kept in the inner treasury, incense was burning to refresh the mind. It was unclear whether it was offered by the Imperial Medical Academy or some Taoist priest, but it was believed to clear the mind, improve concentration, and enhance mental clarity.

Li Changzhou immediately ordered the female official in charge of the inner treasury to extinguish all the incense.

It's hard to go from luxury to frugality, and he doesn't want to develop the habit of 'relying on external things to enhance attention and achieve focus'.

In terms of quality, all the Taoist books in the imperial palace's inner treasury were superior to those in the Chaotian Palace's collection.

The Great Sun Tathagata Mantra contains half of it, the Seventy-Two Transformations of the Earthly Fiends contains twenty-four of them, and the Thirty-Six Methods of the Heavenly Gang contains eight of them.

Other works include "The Divine Firmament of Drawing Thunder to Refine the Body and Purify the Elixir", "One Qi Transforms into Three Pure Ones, General Treatise on the Three Incarnations of Buddhism", "Sixty-Four Compilations of Ancient Escape Techniques" (compiled by later generations, containing individual escape techniques), "The Divine Bones of Immortals", "The Eight Trigrams Finger Techniques", "The Precious Manual of Swallowing and Spitting Spiritual Mechanisms in Grotto-Heavens and Blessed Lands", and so on.

It's like seeing a table full of your favorite dishes and not knowing which one to choose.

After hesitating for a moment, Li Changzhou picked up the most famous book, "The Thirty-Six Methods of the Heavenly Gang." Only eight of the methods were recorded in detail, while the others were either incomplete and uncultivable, or simply had a name.

The eight methods are: mending the sky and bathing the sun, manipulating creation, turning back the sun, predicting the future, bringing the dead back to life, flying and leaving traces, turning stone into gold, and seeing through walls.

Mending the Sky and Bathing in the Sun – This technique is so powerful that it can mend the sky. Bathing in the sun and using this Heavenly Gang Technique will increase the amount and power of the magic tenfold, with no upper limit.

Intervening in creation—Nuwa used this Tiangang method to create humans, interfering with the birth and death of matter in the universe;

Returning to Heaven and Reversing the Sun—a celestial technique for returning to the past. It also states that time may be used to arrest people (translated by Li Changzhou), and one cannot arbitrarily return to the past or travel to the future.

Many gods can travel to the future, and although returning to the heavens is miraculous, Li Changzhou didn't find it particularly strange.

The remaining five Heavenly Gang Techniques were equally powerful. Li Changzhou memorized the cultivation methods and then put the Thirty-Six Heavenly Gang Techniques aside—the entry requirements for the "Insight Through Walls" technique were already the lowest, all of which required the magical power of a Human Immortal.

The ability to manipulate creation and turn stone into gold requires celestial magic. These two celestial arts, one fundamentally creates and destroys matter, and the other fundamentally alters matter.

He then watched "The Seventy-Two Earthly Fiends," which lowered his expectations, but still required some of the magical powers of immortals.

After memorizing it, Li Changzhou didn't have anything he particularly wanted to read, so he casually picked up a book called "The Supreme Dao of the Human Body's Heavenly Eye".

This Taoist text says that Heaven also has eyes that see through everything and have boundless power. People can open an eye in their body to draw in the Heavenly Eye.

The effects and strengths of human third-party eyes vary, each possessing its own unique characteristics.

This book of Taoist teachings also contains a message from the creator, which roughly means:

Since the Heavenly Eye can be borrowed, the Heavenly Ear, Heavenly Nose, Heavenly Hands, Heavenly Feet, and all parts of the body should also be able to be borrowed. It is hoped that future generations can continue to create based on the Heavenly Eye, until one day, the entire body is replaced by "Heaven".

"If your entire body is replaced with 'sky,' would you still be yourself?"

As someone who is extremely confident and narcissistic about his own body, Li Changzhou didn't even want to use magic to change his appearance, let alone let something like the heavens reside in his body.

But it wasn't entirely useless; at least it provided some ideas.

He didn't like having the heavens reside in his body, but he could inhabit other people's bodies to protect Li Qianxia, ​​Yang Qinglan, or monitor and control others.

Li Changzhou set this Taoist technique aside.

Even if we were to conduct research, now wouldn't be the time.

He reached for "One Qi Transforms into Three Pure Ones, General Treatise on the Three Incarnations of Buddhism," and just as he unfolded the Taoist text, he suddenly frowned and looked up.

The female official who had led him in and whom he had instructed not to disturb stood at the entrance to the inner library area.

"What is it?" Li Changzhou lowered his head and continued to peruse the Taoist manual in his hand, guessing that it was the Jiajing Emperor who had come to see him, otherwise why would a female official ignore his orders?

One possibility is that the female official was attracted to his handsomeness and tried to seduce him. In Nie Xiaoqian's words, it was like saying, "Unable to sleep on a moonlit night, I wish to have a romantic encounter with him."

The female official looked at him and then removed her own head.

Li Changzhou turned the page on the Daoist teachings.

The black mist standing between the female official and Li Changzhou removed its "head," which separated from its "body" and became a shapeless cloud of mist, which then slowly merged back into the black mist.

On the "neck" of the black mist, wisps of extremely fine and faint smoke re-outlined the shape of a head.

[Ghost Head Copy Successful. Player's 'Main' skill is maxed out. Please select a skill to replace...]

Li Changzhou looked up and saw the female official holding his head behind the black mist.

Player?

It's definitely a player!

Besides players, who else could do something so bizarre in the Forbidden City?

A quick glance at the skill description reveals it's not very useful.

[Do not replace]

A flame flickered and grew from the red-hot charcoal in the copper basin at her feet. With a whoosh, it flew out and burned a hole through the forehead and abdomen of the head that the female official was holding in her hands.

The lady-in-waiting fell to the ground with a thud, her head rolling out and only stopping when it hit a cabinet.

There is no identity card.

According to the description in her mind, this female official was also infected by the skill.

With a wave of his sleeve, Li Changzhou unleashed a burst of flames from the charcoal brazier, burning the female official to ashes.

He continued reading "One Qi Transforms into Three Pure Ones: A General Treatise on the Three Incarnations of Buddhism".

The Three Pure Ones: Taiqing, Shangqing, and Yuqing;

Three incarnations: past life, present life, and future life;

The book says: Buddhist and Taoist methods have different names and effects, but they all involve the transformation and application of the body's "essence, qi, and spirit"...

My dear reader, there's more to this chapter! Please click the next page to continue reading—even more exciting content awaits!