Shen Yi brought his divine sense to the jade slip.

Dense, tightly packed small characters at once flooded into his mind. Once he'd digested them all, a line of text quietly appeared on the panel.

【Spirit-Transformation (Rare) · Parting-Flame Heart-Burning Palm, Upper Volume: Not Yet Begun】

"..."

Earlier, hovering in the air for a while and catching the several men's conversation clearly, Shen Yi had guessed the thing this crowd had come by might be no simple matter. The reason being that Xuanguang Cave had plainly stationed a disciple to guard outside the estate. Zheng Zisheng, alone as he was, had still risked striking to seize it — which meant he was unwilling even to let his fellow disciples learn of the treasure's existence, wanting to swallow it whole himself.

So it was a half-scroll of a technique exceedingly precious even at the Spirit-Transformation realm.

"A remnant scroll, then."

Shen Yi turned his gaze to the thick book and opened it. The writing upon it was neat and orderly, with annotations specially made besides. Once he'd finished the preface, Shen Yi roughly understood.

The cave estate's master had chanced to obtain this technique's Parting-Flame volume, yet could never find the Heart-Burning volume. Consumed with curiosity, he'd simply set about deriving it himself. It was precisely for this reason that the technique had been left in the loft used for resting — letting this crowd of outsiders pick up the bargain.

Shen Yi steadied his mind and read on, a measure of delight entering his eyes. He couldn't make much sense of it, but from the notes the estate's master had left, one could see this technique had already been eighty or ninety percent derived. Only the final finishing work remained.

For him this was as fine a thing as could be. Setting aside the lifespan it saved, with a predecessor's guidance he'd no longer have it wrongly warped into demon martial arts.

But there was one trouble that could never be gotten around. Whether Mixed Origin martial arts or Spirit-Transformation techniques, all required a spiritual root to even begin.

At…