System: Replicating The Heavens

"Outline Of The World? What is it?"

Alex looked at the black book that lay quietly in the most remote corner. It was covered in a thick layer of dust, indicating that no one had moved it in a long time. Alex gently picked it up and blew at it. Immediately, dust flew everywhere and a line of indistinct words appeared.

Curious, Alex flipped the first page, looking at what this book exactly was about.

However, when he flipped the page, he didn't find anything. There were about thirty pages in Outline of the World, however, every page was completely blank. There was not a single word written in this book.

Alex sighed and shook his head. He was about to keep it back when he thought of something and again looked at it.

[Name: Outline Of The World (damaged).

Details: Contains almost 90% of information about the world called Taujeer. This book was written by Asif Raza, founder of the Immortal Sky Gate. Because of some accidents, more than half of the book was lost.

Note: To activate the book and see the detail, one has to first look for the other part of the book before binding it with one's blood as the medium.]

Alex understood why he couldn't see a single word written in this book. It is because more than half of the book was lost. Moreover, he first needed to bind it using his blood before he could see anything.

"What are you looking at?"

Alex started hesitating about what should he do with the book. Should he take it with him or should he leave it here? Just as he was still hesitating, he heard a hoarse sound.

Surprised, he looked around but didn't find anyone. He understood the voice should belong to the elder guarding the Martial Arts Pavilion. Taking a deep breath, he said, "Elder, can I take this book with me."

There was silence for a few seconds before the same voice once again sounded, "This book is completely blank. There is nothing written in this book. Why do you want to take it?"

Alex was troubled. He didn't know how to answer. After hesitating for some time, he decided what to say. He said: "Elder, this book has some use to me. Anyway, there is nothing recorded inside the book. It is useless and will only eat dirt here. Why don't you give it to me?"

There was again silence. Sometime later, the elder replied: "OK, you can take that book. I don't know why you want that book, but let me tell you something. That book was picked up in a ruin by the founder of our sect. Although there is nothing recorded inside, for generations, everyone has the same point of view regarding this book; that is... This Outline of the World has some secret inside."

"So, although I'm giving it to you, this book won't belong to you. You'll have to return it back after seven days. And if you find anything about this book, you must report it to me or any other elder of the sect. Do you understand?"

To Alex, seven days was too low. He didn't even have a lead on where to find the other half of the book. But it was OK, he could at least duplicate this half of the book. So, he didn't care much and kept it. Then he started flipping through the rest of the skill manuals to pick up and learn.

Soon, a martial arts skill attracted his attention.

"Boundless Sword Art!"

"What a sharp name!" Alex's interest was piqued. Flipping it open, he realized that it was a very powerful sword art. His eyes immediately lit up and he had the urge to cultivate.

"You have your eyes on this sword technique?"

As he was excited, he heard an indifferent voice. This voice belonged to the same elder Alex talked to before, but this time, it came from his front. Alex raised his head to look and saw a wrinkled old man with turbid eyes looking at him in surprise.

Alex immediately understood that this elder was the one guarding the Martial Arts Pavilion. He immediately greeted the old man.

"No need to be so polite." The old man waved his hand slightly. Astonishment could be seen in his cloudy eyes as he said: "You're Alex?"

"Yes, I'm Alex!"

"Enlightenment Stage Level 1. Hmm... Your foundation is almost ten times more solid than other people. It doesn't seem to be the same as the rumors." The old man softly muttered.

Alex lowered his head slightly and did not say much. The old man was merely a little shocked. He pointed at the small black book in Alex's hand and said, "You want to learn this sword skill?"

"Yes." Alex answered honestly, "Elder, is there any problem with this Boundless Sword Art?"

"Problem? It should be! This sword skill is rather special. It emphasized doing as one pleased and not acting according to common sense. Training in this sword skill is extremely difficult."

Alex frowned, and asked: "Has anyone practiced it before?"

"I think there are more than 100 people who have practiced it! I can't remember exactly. There are only about 7 or 8 people who succeeded in their training, but the might of their training is inferior to what it should be. They were never able to comprehend the essence of this sword technique. It is said as long as you can understand the essence of Boundless Sword Art, you'll no longer need to learn any sword in the future. You can simply continue to improve the Boundless Sword Art, for there is no grade to this sword art."

"So that's how it is." Alex suddenly realized. The difficulty of training and the lack of power was such that not many people would choose to cultivate it.

But at the same time, Alex was puzzled, if this sword skill was not cultivated, then why was it placed here?

To fill in numbers? Of course not.

The sect was huge and there were tens of thousands of powerful martial skills. It did not matter if there is one more or one less.

Seemingly seeing through Alex's confusion, the old man said, "The reason this Boundless Sword Art is placed here because it was also picked up from the same ruin Outline Of The Word was picked up. Both books were found side by side so both of them are placed here. Sect leader and elders think that this sword skill might be related to the Outline Of The World in some ways."

Alex held the Boundless Sword Art with both hands and pursed his lips. Then, with a determined look in his eyes, he said, "I'm going to practice it."

"Oh? You really want to choose Boundless Sword Art?"

"En!" Alex nodded his head and then took out a brush and ink, as well as a blank piece of paper, and started to copy the contents of Boundless Sword Art seriously.

The old man's wrinkled face trembled slightly. He had noticed Alex since the moment Alex had entered the Martial Skill Pavilion. The two cultivation techniques he had chosen, "Hundred Shadow Hands" and "Boundless Sword Art", were things that ordinary people did not wish to learn. The disciple that people called "trash" in front of him was truly a little hard to figure out.

However, from the old man's perspective, Alex would come back to change the skills he had chosen sooner or later.

.....

Time skipped once again. Two years later, on the top of the mountain cliff, under the moonlight, a half-naked youth was dripping with sweat. He held an ordinary sword in his hand and was dancing with a strange sword technique. The reason why swordplay was called strange was because of that. The reason for that was because the coherence of his moves was too poor.

The previous move was obviously to attack the opponent's lower body. However, the next move was turned into the upper half of the body. One second it was clearly slanted to the left, and the next it was to the right. Even a seven or eight-year-old child would think that this sword art was not right and was filled with flaws.

In the quiet night, only Alex's "Hehehe" sound could be heard, but slowly, even he himself felt that something was wrong.

"Boundless Sword Art!"

Alex held the long sword in his hand and slashed horizontally at a metal plate in front of him. The sharp blade made a whistling sound in the air.

"Chi!"

An ear-piercing sound rang out. The long sword was about half an inch into the metal plate.

"Why is this lousy sword technique only this powerful?" Alex looked at the performance that he showed after practicing the sword art for two whole years with a worried expression. It was simply too unbearable, even an ordinary attack would be better than this.

That old man guarding the Martial Arts Pavilion had not deceived him when he told him that no one was able to practice this technique to perfection. This sword skill truly did have a great problem.