Chapter Fifty-Eight: The Library

The Azure Cloud Academy comprised more than thirty branches. Each branch housed a grand library, which, in addition to sharing the history, culture, and comprehensive knowledge of the Azure Cloud Empire, contained specialized insights into their respective professions—combat techniques, magical theories, and references or commentaries on various other disciplines. The breadth of information was truly vast.

Within each branch, the library was the most striking building apart from the tower: sprawling grounds, towering stories, unmistakable in their prominence. Xu Wen presented the token entrusted to him by Vice Dean Halman as a temporary pass at the library entrance. Though the librarian eyed him with suspicion for some time, he was eventually permitted entry—after all, a mere two-star intermediate novice could hardly possess the ability to sneak in undetected.

“Books may not be taken out of the library. Find yourself a seat, remember—no noise, no wandering around, and do not disturb other students.”

Despite Xu Wen’s obedient nods, the teacher repeated these admonitions several times, still uneasy.

“And one more thing: if you come across any restricted areas, do not act rashly, understood?”

The library spanned eight floors, each protected by a barrier attuned to spiritual force. The first floor was open to all; the second required three-star strength, its shelves filled with advanced magical and combat insights, as well as classic battle records. The third demanded four-star ability, and so on—without sufficient spiritual cultivation, one could not ascend through the barriers to higher levels.

“Understood.”

Finally shaking off the nagging teacher, Xu Wen darted inside.

The first floor alone held over a hundred bookshelves and more than a hundred thousand volumes. Following the classification signs, Xu Wen quickly gathered seven or eight hefty tomes. Ignoring the librarian’s murderous glare, he carried his stack to the reading room and took a seat by the window.

Running about and collecting so many books, Xu Wen caused veins to bulge on the librarian’s forehead with every trip.

Just as the librarian prepared to stride over and sternly admonish him—perhaps even retrieve a few of the volumes—Xu Wen had already opened one and was flipping through at lightning speed, his eyes skimming line after line.

Approaching from behind, the teacher glanced at the thick books set aside and his frown eased slightly, his expression softening.

“Annals of the Azure Cloud Empire”
“Lives of the Empire’s Heroes”
“Geographical Records of the Azure Cloud Empire”

…And apart from the lowest book, the ubiquitous “Compendium of Magic,” the others were all scholarly works—rarely touched in the course of a year.

The teacher paused, swallowing his reprimands, and looked at Xu Wen in some surprise. Had it been any other student perusing these tomes, he would have scolded them; had Xu Wen chosen magical treatises, he would have berated him for wasting resources, regardless of his connection to the vice dean. But as Xu Wen was not a student here, and his interests were merely ordinary works, the teacher could only turn a blind eye.

Puzzling over why the vice dean’s distant relative was so unremarkable, the teacher moved away.

Xu Wen did not leave for the entire afternoon. Waves of upperclassmen came in search of knowledge, each casting a glance at the window—astonished to see an unremarkable mage, without even visible elemental vortices, calmly reading in the library. Such a sight was rare at the Azure Cloud Academy.

Even more eye-catching were the books beside him—two already read and set aside, his reading speed far surpassing the average. Upon learning from the librarian that Xu Wen was merely a temporary guest of the vice dean, no one paid him further attention—three years would pass in a flash, and none had the leisure to concern themselves with a novice who hadn’t even formed an elemental vortex.

Time slipped by. Only after nightfall, when prompted by the librarian, did Xu Wen reluctantly set his books aside and leave.

The librarian watched him go, shaking his head. It was hard to believe a youth could truly absorb the contents of five books in half a day. He surmised perhaps, faced with the brilliance of his peers at the famed Azure Cloud Academy, the boy was trying to mask his insecurity and relieve his pressure with such diligence.

But he was unprepared for what happened next: the following morning, Xu Wen returned!

He chose the same seat. There were new books on his desk, and he resumed his voracious reading at the same pace as before—only now, a water jug and a packet of rations accompanied him.

The librarian was baffled.

Xu Wen would sit for an entire day, finishing several books, occasionally pausing to ponder as if in deep thought. When the librarian passed by, gathering up returned volumes, he noticed Xu Wen had begun perusing magical treatises—simple one-star spells, which this two-star mage read with evident relish.

The librarian was momentarily stunned, then shook his head and walked away. In these times, who did not strive upwards? The young geniuses were always eager to master the magic of a higher star—one-star mages coveting two-star spells, three-stars already eyeing four-star insights. Few would bother with such “backtracking.”

Thus, in the librarian’s eyes, Xu Wen became a peculiar figure.

This continued for seven days. Xu Wen devoured almost all the one-star and two-star fire magic treatises before finally vacating his window seat.

The manuals on one-star and two-star alchemy were only a few dozen pages each. Given the library’s policy of limiting the number of simultaneous loans, Xu Wen found that fetching and returning books took more time than reading them. So he shifted his strategy: browsing directly at the shelves, flipping through volumes, committing the useful ones to memory and returning the rest at once.

Fortunately, the first floor was rarely crowded. Otherwise, his voracious consumption of knowledge would surely have drawn attention.

Ten days passed in this fashion.

By then, Xu Wen had gained a comprehensive understanding of this world and its systems of professions.

The Azure Cloud Empire spanned a vast territory, yet it was only one of the four great military powers on the Continent of Souls. Its population, over seventeen billion, was less than half that of the neighboring Dark Empire. Even the northern Behemoth Dynasty surpassed it, with more than twenty billion citizens sprawling across the cold, barren lands.

But the richest lands lay to the southwest, the Scarlet Alliance, with a population exceeding fifty billion.

Historical records revealed that centuries ago, the Continent of Souls entered a period of darkness when hordes of dark mages and necromancers flocked to the Dark Empire, aiding its tyrannical ambitions. As the Dark Empire swallowed its neighbors, over fifty small and medium western kingdoms, desperate to avoid subjugation, pooled their wealth and rallied champions, uniting into a superpower that built the greatest military force on the continent and quietly crushed the Dark Empire’s dreams.

Beyond these four giants, more than two hundred other nations dotted the continent. Shielded from the Dark Empire by the three great powers, they managed to survive.

One question, however, had preoccupied Xu Wen—and within these histories, he found his answer.

Centuries ago, after the three powers united to annihilate nearly all of the Dark Empire’s necromancers and dark mages, the Dark Empire had maintained an adversarial, isolationist stance toward the trio ever since. From that day, necromancers and dark mages became the common enemy of every profession on the continent.