Having studied for a hundred years, why do you call me the Martial Saint?

In the dim light of the faint moon, Gu Shuxian took out a star map and a chess manual.

This time, it felt completely different.

Previously, those densely packed star-shaped dots and the black and white pieces on the chessboard were two unrelated tangled threads.

He tried to force them together, but it only felt forced and far-fetched.

but now……

His fingers moved slowly across the star map, no longer focusing on the correspondence between stars and individual pieces, but attempting to connect the trajectory of the entire star field with the dynamics of offense and defense in the game.

In my mind.

The stars were no longer stationary; they began to move along some mysterious trajectory.

The chessboard was no longer a dead thing; the black and white pieces came to life, constantly locked in a fierce battle.

A wonderful resonance actually occurred between the two!

"There's a chance!"

Gu Shuxian was startled, and inspiration struck him!

"This move corresponds to this star, this severance corresponds to this, so the next flying pressure will fall on..."

On a hidden star that is marked on the star chart as shining only once every forty-nine years.

Based on this, as long as one activates their inner energy once every forty-nine years...

It's all messed up.

That's definitely not right.

The star map and chess score in his mind instantly returned to silence, transforming back into two unrelated mortal objects.

Gu Shuxian put down the star map and rubbed his temples.

He suddenly had another flash of inspiration!

I thought of something, and I'll work on it in a day!

One day of practice is equivalent to one day of uninterrupted arduous practice, which is naturally equivalent to a wholehearted and tireless mental engagement.

If you want to try this...

Tsk, I didn't save any for myself; I put all of it into practicing health-preserving boxing.

Although he didn't advance in his cultivation level, his foundation became noticeably more solid.

Okay, what other options are there?

He looked at the three-tiered bookshelf next to him. Apart from a few borrowed books, a few miscellaneous books he bought down the mountain, two books on herbal medicine, and the unfinished "Hundred Herbs Record," it was completely empty and looked very shabby.

The improvement of one's comprehension of the Heavenly Derivation Technique depends on the quantity and quality of the books in the Langhuan Pavilion. Currently, there are too few books here. With this little improvement, one can probably only catch a glimpse of inspiration, which is probably the limit.

Gu Shuxian lay back down, gazing at the mottled roof beams, feeling not much dejection.

The road ahead is bright; it just requires accumulation.

"But this room is really too small, how can it possibly hold 100,000 books?"

Gu Shuxian felt that he needed a real library.

A place that can hold thousands of volumes and allows the Heavenly Derivation Technique to unleash its true power!

So, what should we do?

Gu Shuxian's mind raced.

First of all, why would a menial servant want to carry out extensive renovations in his own room and turn it into a library? That's too bizarre, brother.

Sun Desheng would not agree, let alone anyone else.

Not to mention, it's easy for people to suspect ulterior motives.

I can't take the lead in this matter myself.

It must be pushed forward covertly to make everything seem natural, and ideally... ideally, it should be a decision made by the sect's higher-ups themselves!

Decided to renovate!

Renovate House No. 9, renovate the servants' quarters, and even the entire Suishan Sword Sect!

Gu Shuxian sat up abruptly, a hint of excitement in his eyes.

Once this idea was sparked, thoughts flowed like a torrent.

How can we get the sect to undertake large-scale construction?

Expansion!

Only with expansion will the land be replanned, and old houses be demolished to build new ones. When that happens, the servants' quarters will be demolished and relocated, and it wouldn't be a problem to build a library on the original site.

How can I expand my sect?

With the sect's status rising, the number of disciples has surged, with both inner and outer disciples growing exponentially. Now, the territory is insufficient, and there are not enough houses to accommodate everyone.

The Suishan Sword Sect has only been around for twenty-seven years. As a newly established sect, it is already in a period of rapid development. Gu Shuxian estimated that even if he waited for more than ten years, without doing anything, the sect would expand by then.

So...

How should we transform this place into a library?

Gu Shuxian continued to think.

A riskier approach is to have a high-ranking member of the sect, who can influence the matter, guide the discussion at a meeting when expansion is needed.

The problem is that the higher-ups may know each other well, and a slight slip of the tongue or a careless word could give them away.

A slightly slower approach is to wait until the construction decision is made, and then secretly modify the planning drawings.

The problem is that I need to learn how to draw planning diagrams, and whether my plans will be found to be inconsistent with the actual plans, causing them to fall apart?

A slower approach is to win over or support someone interested in the development of the sect, and help that person gain greater influence through various means.

The problem is that it will consume a lot of energy, and sometimes the simpler the strategy, the more effective it is; being too complicated will only cause more problems...

Gu Shuxian's thoughts raced, constantly coming up with one idea after another, and finding flaws in those ideas.

"There's no need to rush. I have the Longevity Scroll within the Pavilion, and time is the least valuable thing to me."

Gu Shuxian thought to himself that this matter needed to be considered carefully, and required sufficient strength and capital to operate.

However, we can establish a few goals: one is to understand the sect's upper echelons structure, and the other is to find ways to strengthen the sect.

He closed his eyes, temporarily suppressing his chaotic thoughts.

……

Time flies, and in the blink of an eye, a month and a half has passed.

Library.

The old man leaned back in his recliner, while Gu Shuxian sat across from him at the stone table, talking animatedly.

"...Elder Feng, I believe that general education is of paramount importance. Too many people in our miscellaneous servants' quarters don't even know a single character. Talent is multifaceted; we can't just look at martial arts prospects. If some servants have talents in alchemy or forging, wouldn't they easily be overlooked?"

"...The sect's original layout had no room for expansion. The courtyards where the outer disciples lived were scattered here and there. If there were more disciples in the future, we wouldn't know where to build more buildings."

"I'm not exaggerating when I say some of these buildings are completely haphazardly laid out! Look, the herb garden is on the west side, and the alchemy hall is on the east side. Delivering medicine would probably require going around half the mountain..."

Gu Shuxian boasted while sighing inwardly.

Huang Ziyi is gone, and we don't know where he went.

Chen Wenyan has been very busy lately, not only with the sects that came to watch the ceremony, but also, according to him, with many mixed-race people trying to sneak into the mountain during this opportunity. He estimates that it will be difficult to run into him until the outer sect competition ends.

Zhou Ji was busy refining medicine to prepare for the outer sect competition, so I didn't want to keep bothering him.

These days, I've been turning into a bird to search for medicinal herbs in the deep mountains and forests. I've actually found quite a few, and I've left them all to Qian Le and Deng Shifan to handle. They're busy outsmarting the pharmacy owner and finding buyers.

As for Zheng Da and the others, he couldn't be bothered to talk to them about these things.

So I had no choice but to chat idly with this old man who called himself Feng Lao.

After a month and a half, Gu Shuxian had become quite familiar with him.

At first, Gu Shuxian was a little reserved, after all, she didn't know what kind of person the old man was. But after borrowing books a few times, she found that apart from being quiet and having a detached expression, Old Feng was not difficult to get along with.

We chat occasionally, and sometimes I'll join in the conversation.

Based on his observations over the past few days, he discovered that the old man was most interested in the sect's plans that he had mentioned.

Gu Shuxian was also worried about the possibility of transforming the servants' quarters into a library over the next ten years, so he simply chatted idly with the old man to find some inspiration.

So every time I came to borrow books, I would talk to the old man about things like sect rules and regulations, the management of servants, and the selection of talent, as if I were a high-ranking member of some sect.