the library

'Oh my, that's an impressive collection of books if there ever was one…' Hao thought while walking through the seemingly endless rows of bookshelves, all labelled and sorted according to era, subject and completeness.

As he found out after contemplating the completeness part, it seemed as if every era before the current one had had a different language, and thus made the translation and passing down of knowledge rather difficult.

Prior to the current era, commonly referred to as the Era of Darkness, there seemed to exist a multitude of eras but even the most knowing of scholars staying in Glory City had at best knowledge of the languages ranging up to the sacred empire, which would mean round about three eras down the line, counting the current one amongst them.

Before the current era, the woodland empire seemed to have defined the era and was thusly named after it. Before that was the sacred era, of which only crumbs of knowledge existed nowadays.

The eras before that are, at best, nothing more than speculation amongst scholars. Though, said scholars had named those eras, namely the snow wind empire, saint spirit empire and the ancient era, ranging from youngest to oldest, they had no knowledge of them.

Which was a shame really, as those eras must have defined the discovery and development of the art of cultivation. That theory though made Hao's hunt for knowledge on the origins of cultivation all the more difficult, if not completely impossible. Normally that is.

As you may remember, Hao is a shaman, a medium between the mortal and the spiritual realms. With some patience and a little bit of luck, Hao may be able to either summon a spirit of the past eras or actually find a spirit that old that hasn't moved on from this world towards the great spirit and been reincarnated.

Though the chances of that actually happening were rather small to begin with but you never knew. For the beginning though, Hao would begin by reading some of the books on the current era and what he could find about cultivation in the way it was practised at the moment.

Letting his hand roam over the shelf he was walking past, he grabbed a book on inscriptions, a rather dry topic if he was honest with himself, and not as captivating as a good history book, but informative nonetheless.

Unrolling the book, Hao began to read. Inscriptions, he soon found out were, in simple words, commands engraved into an object or surface using demon blood for ink and charging said inscription with enough either soul force or chi to activate said inscription.

That could be an array meant to contain an enemy or simply boil water inside a pot. That means, if you had demon blood of a good enough quality you could achieve truly wondrous result with inscriptions.

What drew Hao's attention though was again the need for demon beasts, or to be more precise their blood for inscriptions in particular. Why was that? Was their blood maybe so charged with chi that it required the one to inscribe something no great effort on their part? Or was the blood maybe simply a really good conductive medium? If that was so, could it be possible to draw inscriptions using your own blood? After all, humans were able to cultivate just as much as demon beasts were.

Questions over questions and no answers so far. Maybe he should try his hand at those inscriptions himself at some point. It could become a hobby of his to find out the limitations of this art. But that was for later.

Putting said book aside, Hao made to grab another one, this time one on medicinal herbs with inherit chi, when he was interrupted by the clearing of a throat next to him.

Glancing over towards the one that had made said sound, Hao found himself looking about a girl with brown-orange hair and eyes of the same colour, her arms crossed before her chest.

Her face held a neutral look to it, though her eyes betrayed the fire of passion burning behind them if one looked close enough and knew what they were looking for.

"Yes, can I help you with something?" Hao asked with a polite smile directed towards the girl of about his height, who cleared her throat once more as if slightly embarrassed by interrupting him, before she opened her mouth to answer his question.

"I came to the library to read up on medicinal herbs and was directed towards this section. The book you were about to take was the one I was looking for as well. Would you mind terribly if I picked the book instead?" The girl asked with a slightly abashed look on her face, clearly knowing she was being rather impatient in her actions.

"Hmm, why would a fresh student at the holy Orchid Institute want to peruse such a dry book of all things instead of studying about the workings and kinks of cultivation? A hobby perhaps? Or do you maybe have the ambition to become a healer some day?" Hao asked rhetorically into the silence that followed the girl's plea, causing her to frown in…frustration? Not a reaction Hao had expected if he was honest with himself.

'Ahhh, an ailment. I see. Weird though how cultivating could result in her becoming sick.' Hao thought after taking a quick glance at her hearts worries, finding something that picked his interest.

"No, not really. I mean, I didn't mean to say that becoming a healer is not something to strife towards, a respectable position no doubt, but a luxury I cannot afford in my particular situation…" the girl answered despite Hao not expecting an answer from her and nodded to signal her he had understood her sentiment.

"Would you like some help looking through this book? I am a rather quick study and have experience with looking for the right information in large books. Besides, that way we could get around the problem of both of us wanting to read the same book." Hao offered the girl sincerely with a smile, which she thought over for a second before nodding in assent, agreeing to his proposition.

"Good, then let us begin. What exactly is it that you are looking for inside this book?" Hao asked the girl after he had grabbed the book and they both had sat down at his table near the bookshelf.

She worried her lip for a second before glancing around the library as if checking for listening ears before turning back towards Hao, sighing in resignation.

"Promise me that you won't tell anybody about this? It is a rather personal problem of mine, one I don't want spread about." She asked him, apprehension clear in her voice to Hao's ears, though he had absolutely no interest in gossiping over anything really so the girl's problem would not be spread anyway if he had anything to say about the matter, thus causing Hao to give his promise.

And so, the girl he had only just met a couple minutes ago began to tell him her tale, if only the short version but he could most certainly appreciate such trust, even though it was a little foolish on her part. But she was only a child so who was he blame her?