Chapter Fifty-Two: The Supreme Azure Record

Bang!

A figure leapt out from the ruins.

Dust and dirt covered him from head to toe, but then the air around him shimmered slightly, and all the grime was swept away in an instant.

It was Chen Jin. He had just wrested himself free from the debris of the basement.

He was fortunate that Wu Quan hadn't set up any traps or formations; otherwise, he might not have made it out unscathed.

"I really was too naive," Chen Jin muttered in frustration, standing atop the rubble.

This was all because he hadn't seriously considered the possibility of traps and had descended without much precaution.

He had originally entered the basement through the restroom by the edge of the first floor, but now he emerged in the grand hall.

"Freeze!"

A sudden shout rang out from behind.

"Oh? And who might you be?" Chen Jin ignored the command entirely.

He turned around slowly.

He found himself facing a middle-aged man dressed in a black leather jacket, with a square jaw and a military crew cut. The air around him radiated a sense of uprightness and authority—he looked very much like a government official.

"Police!" The man raised his pistol. "Put your hands up and don't move."

"Of course, happy to cooperate with you, Officer," Chen Jin replied, nodding as he raised his hands slowly.

"You..." The man started to give further instructions.

But as soon as he opened his mouth, he fell into a daze, frozen in place.

Illusory hypnosis—Chen Jin wielded it with ease.

With a light leap, Chen Jin landed on the second-floor corridor, right beside the officer.

He didn't even bother to confiscate the man's gun. He merely wanted to ask a few questions. After all, the man was a government employee; it wouldn’t do to simply dispose of him. Chen Jin had no intention of making anyone disappear from the world without a trace.

"What brings you here?" He began with the most fundamental of questions.

"Wu Quan is my apprentice," the man replied woodenly. "He called me last night and said that if he didn’t call again this morning, I should come here and look for a book called 'The Supreme Azure Chronicle.'"

Apprentice? Wu Quan is his apprentice? Chen Jin studied the man closely, but couldn’t detect even the faintest trace of cultivation.

Moreover, Chen Jin had hypnotized him with ease, which only proved that the man possessed no foundation in cultivation; otherwise, how could he have succumbed so easily?

So, his so-called apprentice must just be someone who worked under him—hence, the title of 'master.'

"And? Did you find it?" Chen Jin continued.

"I did. It’s right here with me," the man replied dully.

"Take it out."

"Yes."

The man reached inside his black jacket and produced an orange-bound book, about as thick as a dictionary but of normal size. It looked old.

Chen Jin took it, flipped through a few pages, and perused the contents. The material was thorough—nothing seemed out of place.

"Remember, you never saw me. Repeat that," Chen Jin commanded.

"Remember, I never saw you," the man echoed in a monotone.

Though the answer was a little dense, it meant the memory of seeing Chen Jin in this villa was now locked away—sealed by a chain in the man's mind.

Erasing it entirely was impossible unless Chen Jin gave the man a concussion.

With the Supreme Azure Chronicle in hand, Chen Jin took his leave.

He stashed the book in the compartment under his electric scooter’s seat, then sped away.

He had already checked the area upon arrival—no surveillance cameras. Being the countryside, fields surrounded the village, and people were already out working at dawn. Many students were riding scooters to class, so Chen Jin was unconcerned about being seen, even if the police later investigated.

Besides, he wasn’t wearing a suit or anything that would make him stand out.

Riding swiftly, he reached his shop. This time, he skipped breakfast at Wang’s Restaurant—he was genuinely eager to explore the mysteries of the modern cultivation method.

He had always been curious about modern methods. The cultivation manual is a practitioner’s very foundation, their treasure, and never easily shown to others. Thus, Chen Jin had never managed to obtain a modern method. He knew about the cultivation stages, but not the key techniques.

Today, he might finally glimpse the profundities of the modern path.

If that was the case, then he now possessed the modern method (the Supreme Azure Chronicle), the ancient method (The True Return to Origin Sutra of Mind Illumination), and the archaic method (the incomplete White Emperor’s Mysterious Origin Classic, Metal Qi formula).

It was starting to feel quite impressive, almost like he was the protagonist of a novel.

Chen Jin chuckled to himself as he opened the Supreme Azure Chronicle on his office desk.

The opening chapter was "Free and Easy Wandering"—yes, the same as Zhuangzi’s classic.

Following that was a Taoist scripture developed from "Free and Easy Wandering," filled with small annotations—likely the insights and commentaries left by Wu Quan’s ancestors.

The scripture was followed by detailed methods for each cultivation stage.

The scripture itself was the main framework, running throughout, while the methods for each stage were like branches extending from the main stem. Most cultivation manuals were constructed this way.

This was a thoughtful arrangement for posterity, allowing future generations to cultivate methodically and purposefully. Not like the White Emperor’s Mysterious Origin Classic, which consisted of a single scripture—Chen Jin felt more and more like he’d been set up the more he learned about it.

Reading on, he found that the Supreme Azure Chronicle’s methods only extended up to the Innate Primordial Spirit stage, after which it stated simply: "Comprehend for yourself."

Comprehend for yourself—what nonsense.

But this was the nature of Daoist cultivation. The path must be walked by oneself; if ancestral teachings alone could turn one into an immortal, the world would be overflowing with golden core cultivators and deities.

After that brief instruction, the latter half of the book contained spells, alchemical recipes, methods for forging artifacts, and other miscellaneous knowledge, interspersed with the Wu family ancestors’ cultivation reflections.

In short, the second half was a compendium of assorted writings.

Now, with his eidetic memory, Chen Jin absorbed all the contents at a glance.

With the material memorized, the next step was to ponder it, chew on its meaning, consider its possibilities, and compare it to his own cultivation methods. Of course, he wasn’t yet able to compare much—he had only just set foot on the path and had read few scriptures, his knowledge still far from profound.

It would take time.

Still, he needed to thoroughly check the Supreme Azure Chronicle for traps; he’d already been tricked by Wu Quan once. Moreover, he intended to give this scripture to Chen Lan for cultivation, so he had to be even more careful.

...