"Let's leave too!"
Leilin watched Wells depart, then brought Yuluo along and headed out. His main destination today—the Grand Library—was still ahead. Everything before had just been a bit of sideshow entertainment.
After Leilin's figure also vanished from sight, the wizards present finally picked themselves up, looking thoroughly disheveled.
Being caught up in a battle for no reason today, and especially being suppressed by the Morningstar Domain afterward for so long, had left them all wretched and bedraggled.
Then, "late-arriving" officials showed up to tidy the street and tally the losses, and everything gradually settled into orderly routine.
--- Wells returned to his office, his voice low and heavy. Gone was the faint trace of pride he'd shown earlier.
"Gil!"
A black shadow surfaced silently from the floor.
"Go investigate! Who arranged for the accident on Floating Feather Avenue, and who made sure I was the one dispatched?" Wells's voice carried a chill, and his face was full of shrewd cunning.
"As you command!" The black shadow agreed and withdrew without a sound.
After Wells was alone in the room, he frowned and replayed the day's events in his mind. A cold smile crossed his lips. "They actually dared to use me as a pawn? Very well! Very well indeed!"
Those who could advance to Morningstar—how many of them were fools? No matter how young he looked on the outside, even resembling a child, Wells had lived nearly a hundred years and understood everything there was to understand.
For the sake of empty prestige, would he go provoke a powerful Morningstar
"That Warlock Leilin was rather interesting today! Like me, he wasn't bound by empty prestige. Very good! Very interesting!" Through today's events, Wells actually gained a measure of good feeling toward Leilin.
And yet, he was filled with hatred toward the person pulling strings from behind the scenes.
"Perhaps... I've been too low-key for too long, making certain people think I'm easy to use..."
After a long silence, Wells muttered to himself, and with those words, the temperature in the entire office plummeted dozens of degrees, as if plunging into a world of ice and snow...
--- Of course, Leilin knew nothing of what happened after Wells left. By now, he had arrived at the Grand Library under Yuluo's guidance.
"Truth is my life! The path of pursuing knowledge must be built upon the foundation of power!"
Leilin stood before a sprawling complex of palaces, gazing silently at the numerous sculptures.
These statues were all rendered at life-like proportions, allowing Leilin to make out every hair on their bodies—extraordinarily lifelike.
On the bases of the statues, the specific eras of each depicted figure, along with their mottos and achievements, were inscribed.
After reading the central motto, Leilin shifted his gaze to the dates. "Ilismin! Continental Calendar 1327–???"
"Only a birth date. No death date. Has he lived for over five thousand years?"
Leilin looked at the statue with some surprise. It depicted a kindly old man with a pure white beard flowing down to his chest, and behind round spectacles gleamed a pair of wise, penetrating eyes.
"That is the Great Sage Ilismin, the first City Lord of
Yuluo introduced him to Leilin, her eyes filled with a look of adoration.
"Mm." Leilin had encountered some of this Great Sage's information before, but it had always been mixed in with myths and legends, nothing as detailed as what was written on the statue base.
He strolled curiously through the forest of statues and discovered that the ones admitted here were all at minimum Morningstar Wizards—scholars who had made significant contributions to Sky City or the entire Wizard World.
And a small number of wizards, like Ilismin before them, had only birth years with no death years recorded.
That represented a high probability they still existed somewhere in the world—whether in other dimensions or sealed within ancient formations—but should they appear en masse, the power they represented would be enough to make the entire Central Continent tremble.
"Without the contributions of our predecessors, there would be no wizards today!"
Leilin's expression was solemn as he bowed toward the numerous statues. "Your unfinished causes and your regrets—I, Leilin Farell, will see them through!"
Of course, this could only be said in his heart. If Yuluo overheard, it would be troublesome.
While the Wizard Continent was full of ambitious wizards, someone as audacious as Leilin was truly one of a kind.
--- "My lord, this is the entrance to the Grand Library! Sky City's collection is open to all wizards! No restrictions!"
After the homage was complete, Yuluo led Leilin through the library's entrance, which resembled an ancient Greek temple.
To Leilin's surprise, the library entrance had no doors and no guards—it was simply left wide open for anyone to enter and exit.
The perpetual Light spell's radiance shone outward from within, its gentle illumination feeling very pleasant.
Occasionally, other wizards passed by Leilin. Though there were quite a few of them, an overall quietude was maintained throughout.
"The entire Grand Library is built atop a massive magical array, managed by a sentient Formation Spirit. Everything runs automatically—no guards are stationed, yet not a single incident has ever occurred!"
Yuluo lowered her voice and whispered the explanation in Leilin's ear.
"Not a single incident?" Leilin nodded. That meant this massive magical array possessed protective power far beyond its basic functions of dust-proofing, moisture-proofing, and fireproofing.
"Yes! According to rumor, the Grand Library's protective array can even confine a Morningstar Wizard..." She spoke with some trepidation and stole a glance at Leilin, clearly afraid he might take offense. But Leilin's expression remained calm, giving nothing away.
"Excellent! My expectations for the materials here have only grown!"
Managed by a Formation Spirit, every corner of the Grand Library was surely under constant surveillance. Combined with power sufficient to suppress a Morningstar Wizard and the prospect of rapid reinforcement from Sky City's wizards, it represented an impregnable defense and a vast treasure trove of rare knowledge.
After entering the gates, they found themselves in a brightly lit grand hall, spacious enough to hold a thousand people without feeling crowded. In the very center stood several hundred desktop terminal-like devices.
"The Grand Library has a total of seven levels. The first three are open to all wizards—simply spend a certain number of Magic Stones and you may browse freely! The materials and documents on the fourth level and above carry very high confidentiality ratings. To access them, you can only choose to spend Exchange Points!"
Yuluo explained to Leilin.
Leilin stood to the side, carefully observing a wizard's operation. The wizard deposited a Magic Stone essence into a terminal, used his Spiritual Power to operate it, then placed a blank crystal ball onto another interface. A massive volume of data was transmitted, and the crystal ball was instantly filled with information.
"Digital transmission with backup!" Leilin exclaimed. Fortunately, he hadn't seen the terminal transmitting data directly into the wizard's mental memory area—otherwise he'd have to worry about something identical to his Chip appearing.
"Yes! Any material that the Formation Spirit can archive can be duplicated through the terminals. Of course, there is a fee..."
The reason she said this was that some special documents used very particular materials, and the information on them could only be represented through such materials. Some books could only be read in physical form, which the Formation Spirit could not fully replicate.
Magic Stones were something Leilin had more than enough of, so he asked directly: "How do I obtain Exchange Points?"
"There are two methods. First, complete tasks assigned by the Sage Council to earn them. Second, provide knowledge and disciplines that the Formation Spirit's library doesn't already contain—it will then award Exchange Points based on the level of information you provide."
Yuluo said with a bitter smile: "However, I wouldn't recommend the second method. It might have been feasible in the early days, but through generations of wizards' contributions, the materials not yet collected by the Grand Library are now extremely rare..."
"What grand ambition!"
After hearing how this library operated, Leilin was silent for a long time before letting out a deep sigh. Simply making the first three levels freely available to the public demonstrated an extraordinary breadth of vision. And the subsequent exchange system continuously enriched the Grand Library, until by now it had accumulated a terrifying store of knowledge.
Standing upon this accumulation, it was no surprise that Sky City had repeatedly withstood challenges and even risen to become one of the most powerful forces on the Central Continent.
"This is a blank Crystal Card! Every newcomer receives one." Yuluo brought Leilin to a terminal, and after paying the Magic Stone fee, handed him a white Crystal Card.
"You can choose to lock it with your Spiritual Power, or set it as an open-access card. But the latter requires you to keep the card safe—otherwise anyone could use your Library Card!"
A sweep of his soul power, and the Library Card emitted a layer of black radiance. Leilin placed the card into the slot, and the entire terminal's screen immediately lit up.
Several lines of common script appeared on the display, along with several selection options.
Although Yuluo said the library's collection was already extremely comprehensive, Leilin was confident. After all, his Chip stored a massive amount of data from the Lava World!
Data from another world—the Grand Library certainly wouldn't have that, right?