Chapter 1028: Building A Library
"So much to do," Wei Wuyin breathily commented as he inspected each shelf filled with various mediums of text and information. Due to Liu Yinlan's efforts, he had complete access to the Free Study and Sealed Tower. A tantalizing lure of knowledge beyond the Sealed Regions, all granted with a limited amount of time. It was nothing more than a taste.
Unfortunately for Liu Yinlan, Wei Wuyin never liked sampling benefits, and this all-you-can-eat buffet was not an illusion to him. While the Voyage Tower and Guardian Tower areas were likely greater than the first two levels, Wei Wuyin didn't mind. A sharp glint flickered within his eyes.
"A week should be enough," Wei Wuyin said as he grabbed a book with a hardcover. It was titled: "Principles of Fire Energy - Vol.1." When he flipped the back, he found a brief description of its contents. It detailed the compiled experiences of architects who've studied fire energy in-depth, all of which cultivated a Heart of Fire Qi, transforming it into a Fire Natal Soul and further. They were all credited as Ascended beings, and the subject matter was mortal-graded energies, so they were fully knowledgeable.
The amalgamated knowledge of these experts was organized and formulated into this single book.
With a motion, he pulled out a scroll. "The Art of Fire, By Yan Wei." The scroll was the personal notes of a single person, and it described his experiences in practicing various arts of fire from his days as a Qi Condensation Realm cultivator into the peak of the Astral Core Realm. It had a table of contents that delved into specific arts.
As he delved into the first few sentences, he found that there was a lingering emotion within the ink that contained a wisp of spirituality. It was sad, vexed, and unwilling. There was a hint of deathly aura wafting out. This man was at the end of his road as he wrote this, the last ditch effort to leave behind his legacy.
Wei Wuyin realized that books were organized and formatted mediums of information, but scrolls were personalized journeys of cultivators describing their insights and efforts. As he unfurled the scroll, the sensations of hectic emotions grew stronger. Wei Wuyin sighed softly in his heart.
It wasn't very known, but Wei Wuyin recorded all of his experiences in various forms and kept them with him. Since he claimed his vengeance, dyeing Red Dove City in crimson blood, his path in life had been difficult to continue, and he found it hard to find a reason to continue living. He contemplated ending it all on more than one occasion, meeting his parents, brother, and Dai Lyn with a bright, irrepressible smile in heaven.
But a woman had steered him away from such thoughts, channeling his focus towards legacy and dreams yet to be accomplished. It's why he became a Core Disciple of the Scarlet Solaris Sect, how he met Bai Lin, and Su Mei, and cultivated diligently to the point others thought he relied on an external treasure to rise to prominence.
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"Here!" A thick, blank scroll slammed into a desk. The sleeping silver-eyed youth jolted awake. When he looked at the scroll and the manicured hand that held it, he blinked curiously.
"Record your journey and thoughts—past, present, and future. Especially your past and future. Your legacy and what you've accomplished and want to accomplish matters, let others know it, but most importantly, let yourself know it." The voice didn't leave room for debate or refusal. The owner of the voice lifted their hand and briskly walked away.
"Boss, I…" When the silver-eyed youth finally caught his bearings, he looked upwards to see a slender figure departing. A wave of emotions swelled within his heart.
The figure stopped at the doorway, pressing its hand against the wall. "Don't give up; this world needs a Wei Wuyin as much as I do. Okay?"
"..." The silver-eyed youth felt an indescribable emotion searing into his mind, inextinguishable even by death. With a heavy swallow, the youth weakly smiled as he grasped the scroll. "Thanks, Mei Mei…"
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A single moment could define a person's entire path in life, and Wei Wuyin has had many defining moments that led him here. Without those moments, his principles, beliefs, and heart would've long since descended into the abyss. Fortunately, he had those moments, and he became who he was today because of them.
"Let's begin! Begin! Begin!" Ori's excitement began to leak out. It knew what Wei Wuyin was intending to do, and it loved doing big things the most. It was already connected to Eden, primed and ready.
"Tch." King formed a connection with Eden as well.
"..." Kratos was dissatisfied with all this, especially the constant sensation of being in a cage. It protested equally as hard when Wei Wuyin wanted to feign as a prisoner in the Ninestar Starfield. Even if it knew why, the thought of restraint, imaginary or real, was equally upsetting. Still, it linked with Eden all the same.
"You're really going to try this?" The Heavenly War Spirit questioned skeptically. "You're a mortal, but even if you weren't, Ascended beings wouldn't try to do what you're thinking. It's far too reckless. You might lose your mind." It had tried to offer warnings ever since Wei Wuyin had communicated his plan to Eden to see its plausibility. As an existence connected to Eden, it could sense the intent it possessed, and as such, knew their absurd plan.
"This is the perfect opportunity. How could I let this go?" Wei Wuyin grinned as his silver pupils began to transform into manifest with seven different colors. When Wei Wuyin experienced the Unity of Alchemic Stars in the Saint Cyclic Renewal Summit, he learned how to inscribe insights and knowledge into his memory from others.
It had birthed a thought to himself. Since the beginning, he's always read things one by one, kept doing so until he felt content with what he learned, and then moved on to the next source of information. Unfortunately, locations like the Myriad Monarch Sect and True Element Sect had libraries as large or larger than this Sacred Library, including annotations, diaries left by cultivators, and visual recordings.
It was difficult to look through all of that information. After all, a cultivator only had a limited amount of time and energy to spare for reading, and learning and most of it was typically consumed by the refinement of materials, practicing, enjoying one's life with relationships, and rest. Despite the long lifespans of cultivators, one couldn't do it all.
However, Wei Wuyin realized he had the proper tools that could allow him to do it all. A brazen idea, only possible due to three factors: Eden, his Second Mind, and his Sea of Consciousness.
And all he needed? Was a library of information!
And here it was, like a gift from the heavens, and his heart was set on obtaining it all! Every. Last. Bit!
Wei Wuyin placed the book and scrolled back. Inside his Sea of Consciousness, a grand palace that had eighteen floors was slowly forming that could make kings and queens feel ashamed of its design, occupying a third of his Sea of Consciousness. Eden's roots slithered around it, supplying it with a continuous stream of mental energies.
Wei Wuyin's mental Incarnation manifested within it. It belonged to his typically slumbering second mind. It was now fully awake and walked the vast halls of the grandest palace it had ever seen.
The incarnation was welcomed by endless shelves of eighteen floors extending as far as the eye could see. There were tens of thousands of books, scrolls, and platforms that contained lingering traces of eden force. In comparison to the number of shelves, the books and scrolls were unimaginably scarce. Those books and scrolls were what Wei Wuyin had already read, recorded, and manifested as a copy.
The mental incarnation flickered to the fifth floor, finding The Art of Fire by Yan Wei. He brought it out, and its contents were exactly the same as the outside world. Even the lingering emotional auras were perfectly replicated, the strength of the Seven Source Soul Light's ability to emulate the seven emotions alongside the seven principles of alchemy.
"My library."
The mental incarnation drew upon the mental energies of Eden and rapidly read through the contents of the scroll. It took a few seconds to read and memorize it all, including contemplating the profound principles that were described within. The exhaustion was heavy.
After it was done, it lightly stomped its foot as the roots of Eden received a burst of its mental strength that contained the second mind's experiences and thoughts, bearing the exact same similarity to Wei Wuyin. Then, in the outside world, a conscious Wei Wuyin's eyes glinted with radiant light.
He lightly breathed out excitedly, "It works!"
After his second mind transmitted its conversation with the Heavenly War Spirit to him, he realized that he might have been underusing and undervaluing the importance of having two independent yet connected minds that shared memories, thoughts, emotions, and intelligence. While the Unity of the Alchemic Stars had given him the idea of etching information into his Sea of Consciousness to ponder on at a later date, the Sacred Library was a wealth of information that he would never be able to fully acquire in his lifetime due to all sorts of time constraints, and the unwillingness to sacrifice what time he had to learn a lot of barely usable knowledge.
And now they all congregated into a single idea—the Eden Library, a palace within his mind!
And so, Wei Wuyin decided that within a week, he'll copy every last piece of knowledge within the Sacred Library, and every day after, his second mind will take the job of a scholar.
The only difficulty was the absurdly high cost of mental energy to copy each piece of information. Fortunately, he had prepared numerous mental energy replenishing products after experiencing his World-Light Refraction Elixir's near-failure and the Unity of the Alchemic Stars.