Getting up, Verus walked out of his new room and into the dormitory hall. There were two unfamiliar disciples around, but neither of them paid him any attention, so he ignored them in turn and headed for his destination. All the other disciples were probably busy unpacking or studying their new techniques.
After leaving the disciple hall, Verus began walking along a paved path that led to the library. Around him were quite a few little gardens that the tour had rushed past before he could study them. They were full of flowering bushes and jagged pieces of black rock. It was odd how twisted and sharp some of the stones were. They certainly looked interesting, although falling on them would hurt a lot. They also had a sinister aura, almost as if they’d been placed there to be hazard on purpose. They were just rocks though, so Verus moved on.
The Great Wind Sect’s main temple was a huge place. Almost a small city within a city. There were dozens of huge structures around Verus, and plenty of small ones as well. Off in the distance, beyond the short wall that encircled the inner disciple area, Verus thought he saw several rows of large houses. They probably belonged to elders or were given to respected visitors. There were probably only about a thousand cultivators in the temple but there were also about twice that many servants.
Really, the edge of a city was an odd place for a cultivator sect’s temple. They were usually located in remote locations with high concentrations of natural ki. Verus supposed that being near the palace and the political center of the world was important for the elders who lived here. Looking over his shoulder, Verus studied the huge white tower that dominated the skyline for a moment. It was undoubtedly the other reason all the sects had their main temples here. The Heaven and Earth Array could supply them with all the ki they could ever need, since it sucked up ki from all around the world. Hmmm, he wanted some of that. What would it take to get access to a cultivation chamber?
A few minutes of walking brought Verus to the edge of the outer disciple area. There, he found himself outside the disciple library. Gazing up at the huge building and its ornate columns, Verus felt nervous and out of place again. It towered above him, solid and radiating power. Verus had just arrived in this unfamiliar temple full of strangers and wasn’t sure of the rules and expectations, but he pressed on. This was something he needed to do.
Cautiously, he approached the doors. Finding them unlocked, he slowly opened them and stepped inside.
The inside of the library was even more impressive than the outside. On the other side of the doors was a large entrance lobby that’s floor was covered in large white and grey tiles. A row of statues ran along the far end of the entrance area, and each one was at least twice as tall as a person. They seemed to be of a diverse group of cultivators, representing both men and women, scholars and warriors. All their unmoving faces were gazing toward Verus with haughty disdain though.
Behind the statues stretched countless ranks and rows of bookshelves, and not just one floor’s worth. The ceiling above the lobby went all the way up to the roof of the building, were there was a stained glass ceiling, allowing people standing in the lobby to peer up at all four floors of the building. Ornate brass railings were the only thing stopping someone above from falling down onto the first floor.
There were far more books here than Verus had ever seen before. He couldn’t imagine how much knowledge was contained within them. It was just too much. The library had a cavernous feeling. The silence within was an almost physical presence, which was reinforced by the stern and unblinking gazes of all the statues. With the door behind him shut, it was easy to imagine this place as a small isolated world of its own.
Looking around, Verus noticed a huge wooden desk over to his left, at the side of the entrance lobby, so he headed over to it. There was a woman seated behind the desk. With a quill in hand, she was writing on some papers and hadn’t looked up yet.
Walking up to the desk, Verus coughed politely to get the attendant’s attention. It was hard to tell since she was sitting down, but she seemed tall for a woman, and she had steel grey hair and a severe expression. He wasn’t sure if she was a servant or an elder. Her plain brown robes were probably some sort of uniform, but she seemed to radiate ki like a cultivator even though the feeling was weak and muted. Maybe she was suppressing it?
The librarian kept writing for several seconds before looking up and frowning at Verus. “A first-year visitor already? You move quickly. Your class just arrived.”
“I apologize for the disturbance, but an elder told me to come here right away and look into rare attunements.”
“Oh, one of those. I see,” the librarian remarked coldly as she studied him with narrowed eyes, causing Verus to squirm uncomfortably. “Well, I suppose I can allow you access. Normally you’d need to use a pass, which you don’t have, but all new disciples get a single use one from the requisition office. I’ll simply send them a note that you’ve already used yours.”
“Ah, thank you for your generosity. It is much appreciated,” Verus replied as he gave her a respectful bow. It seemed like a good idea to be as polite as possible to this woman.
“At least you temple raised brats have good manners, unlike some of the others. The books you’re looking for are on the first floor in section three. Ask any library worker about searching for rare attunements and they’ll help you find them. You can take out a single book and won’t be allowed back here until you earn another pass, so choose wisely. Also, you’ll be wanting a channeling orb, so I’ll have one brought here from the requisition office.”
“You are too kind. Thank you again for your wisdom.”
The woman rolled her eyes. “Good luck in your search. You’ll need more than your fair share. Almost all the young disciples that go searching for rare attunements end up deeply disappointed. They’re called rare for a reason.”
Verus simply nodded and began to turn away, but the librarian wasn’t done yet. “This is your first visit, so I’ll give you the same warning I give to all the others. Don’t go touching random stuff. At the Foundation Realm you’re as blind as a mortal. If you know what’s good for you, you’ll keep your hands at your side until you find what you’re looking for. Even here in the disciple library, some of the books and items are dangerous to lower Realm disciples. Also, if you damage anything, you could spend the rest of your life working off that debt.”
“Thank you for the warning. I will do my utmost to obey,” Verus told her before heading off in the direction she’d indicated. The library was certainly far more perilous than he’d thought it would be, but there was no going back now. He’d already used his pass, so he needed to concentrate on finding this section three and the books it contained.
The library was just as vast and maze-like as Verus had been afraid it would be, but also much darker. The rows of tall wooden shelves blocked the light, casting deep shadows that shifted as distant unseen light sources flickered and moved. The shelves were full of thick books and piles of rolled up scrolls, but it was almost too dark to read them in most places. Verus tried to peer over the shelves to see what the source of the flickering lights was, but they seemed to vanish when he looked their way. Should he have brought his own lantern?
Unsettled by the gloom, Verus wandered through the library, occasionally passing numbered signs, but never managing to reach the right area. The only break in the seemingly endless shelves was the occasional piece of art, such as a statue of a mythical beast or a porcelain vase. Thankfully, the art displays were usually lit by small light crystals, so he could actually see them.
These treasures were beautiful and intriguing, but not what Verus was looking for, although one particular oil painting caught his eye. It was masterpiece full of complex detail and vivid strokes that gave it a surreal look. On the painting, a hero on horseback was stabbing a large snake-like spirit with a spear, except both the hero and the spirit were warped and twisted. Their proportions were skewed so that even the hero’s expression looked malevolent. The snake spirit was worse. Many of its scales could be mistaken for eyes - dozens of them, and where it was cut, the ki spurting from the wounds almost resembled grasping tentacles. It was a nightmarish sight, like nothing alive. Were there actually spirits like that? Weren’t most of them supposed to resemble animals closely? Verus hoped he never ran into any spirits that creepy.
Keeping the librarian’s advice firm in his mind, Verus moved on. However, he soon managed to get turned around and became completely lost. Now, he didn’t even know how to make it back to the front desk. The dark rows of books seemed to stretch on forever in every direction. The library wasn’t quite a normal space. It seemed larger on the inside than the outside and all twisted up so that navigating was difficult. Walking one direction should have brought Verus to a wall, but it rarely did. Instead, some of the rows simply seemed to go on forever, like an inescapable trap. He began to grow nervous about his chances of finding what he was looking for and leaving. Borrowing a book shouldn’t be this hard!
As Verus was walking down a shadowy row of shelves, the sound of footsteps reached his ears, and he looked over to see a dim light shining up above the bookshelves and moving his way. Cautiously, Verus crept over toward the light and peeked around the corner of a shelf, only to come face-to-face with an annoyed looking man in brown library robe.
“What are you doing creeping around here in the dark?”
Flushing red in embarrassment, Verus stammered a reply. “The librarian at the front desk sent me to look for section three, but I can’t find it.”
“I see,” the man said as he gave Verus a look that left no doubt as to what he thought of the young disciple’s intelligence.
The man then pointed to the light floating over his shoulder. It was an orb of white light surrounded by a solid ring of white essence with glyphs written on it. Seeing the glyphs, Verus realized he was looking at a construct of some sort, and not a spirit or technique.
“All visitors can summon a library wisp,” the man explained as he told Verus the commands used to control the wisps. Apparently, they also functioned as guides that could take you to any section. That would have been really nice to know earlier. The librarian at the desk must have kept him in the dark on purpose, probably just for her own amusement.
Obviously not trusting Verus to manage on his own, the library worker led him over to section three and the books he was looking for. Verus wanted to ask the man if he was stuck working off a debt to the library for all eternity, but he thought he probably seemed like enough of an idiot already.
As the library worker left, Verus examined the section of books on ki channeling. Some of the books were written in a weird language he didn’t know. Its script looked like spiders being tortured, so he put them carefully aside.
Ki channeling turned out to be a very basic topic. It referred to some simple techniques that did little more than allow a cultivator to gather and hold a small amount of elemental or emotional ki. The techniques had no real practical applications, but using them was one of the best ways to see if you were attuned to that element. All you had to do was hold a channeling orb filled with the type of ki you were trying to fuel the technique with. The ki in the orb made sensing the ki much easier, and the brighter the orb glowed, the more talented you were with that element. The downside was that the orb had to be recharged after each use.
Sighing, Verus went through the books. He wanted one that contained channeling techniques for as many rare attunements as possible. Learning and performing so many techniques wouldn’t be easy, despite how simple they were, but it was what he needed to do.
Verus eventually selected one thick dusty tome. Its writing was a little cramped and hard to read in places, but it seemed to contain more techniques than any of the others. Thus, with his prize tucked under his arm, he headed back to the librarian’s desk. His newly summoned library wisp lit the way and guided him there, so the return journey was much easier and faster.
The librarian was still seated behind her desk, although this time she did look up as he approached.
“Good choice,” she said as she glanced at the book under his arm, she then placed a small transparent marble on the desk in front of him. It was undoubtedly the channeling orb from the books. “I’ll lend you this orb for free, but you’ll have to go to the requisition office and pay a red shard to fill it with whatever ki you want to test yourself for.”
“Thank you so much for your generosity. I will be ever grateful for the help you have given me,” Verus replied as he picked up the orb and tucked it into his robes. Bringing up how she’d sent him into library unprepared would do him no good. It wasn’t like she was actually hostile.
“Wait until you’ve worked your way through that book,” she told him before waving him away and going back to her writing. “It will be a slow and expensive process. There’s a reason we don’t test every disciple for every rare attunement.”
Since he’d obviously been dismissed, Verus turned and exited the library. His heart beat excitedly as he hurried back to the outer disciple dormitory. The halls outside his room were deserted, making it easy for him to slip into his room unmolested. He supposed that everyone else was studying the cultivation techniques they’d just been given in the privacy of their new rooms. Jealousy flared up within Verus, but he quashed it and hugged the book he was holding tighter. He’d soon get a great cultivation technique of his own. All he had to do was find a rare attunement first.
