Transcending Dreams - D2 - Chapter 59

“I’m happy to contribute, Brother Yang!”

In Su Rou’s defense, she didn’t seem annoyed by actually having to help William.

“Excuse me for a moment, Brother Yang, Junior Wei,” Su Rou said before returning to her group to say some quick farewells.

“Senior Su is talented in multiple things,” William commented, mindful that she could hear everything.

“She is,” Lan Yang agreed. “Be sure to use the chance well. She will undoubtedly rise high once she is admitted into the Golden Pill Peak.”

He took that as code to keep her occupied so she couldn’t bother him. That was very doable. It seemed like the trip to the library would be fruitful before he had even entered the building.

“Let’s go!” Su Rou cheered as she walked back to them. “Junior Wei, feel free to ask me any questions you may have. I will do my best to help if it’s in my capabilities!”

“I think that’s my job, Su Rou,” Lan Yang commented as he led them inside.

“So? Brother Yang, you never wanted to be a mentor before. It’s not fair you were picked when I applied so many times.”

“I think part of that has to do with you stationed in Dazhou Kingdom,” Lan Yang said with a pointed look. “It didn’t escape anyone why you were so eager to be a mentor… not that it stopped you from leaving your post.”

“Eh,” Su Rou shrugged shamelessly. “If the sect won’t let me use an official excuse, I’ll do it anyway. What can they do? Punish me?”

William saw Lan Yang roll his eyes when Su Rou snorted in laughter at the thought of being punished.

“Ah, Junior Wei, that doesn’t mean I just wanted to be a mentor to free myself from Dazhou Kingdom. It was a happy side effect,” Su Rou defended when she realized he could have taken it the wrong way. “You won’t believe how backwards that place is. It’s as if they purposely avoid making their lives easier. No wonder they are so weak. The cultivators there spend far too much time on useless—”

“That’s enough, Su Rou,” Lan Yang interrupted her rant. “Don’t spread slander of an allied kingdom.”

William wanted to ask where this kingdom was, but with the sudden silence and Su Rou’s awkward expression, he figured it might be better to look at a map and find the answer himself.

Lan Yang stopped them at the edge, where the entrance hallway opened into the massive first floor.

“Silence is encouraged past this area, and if the overseers feel you are too disruptive, they can, and will, eject you from the library. If need be, they will ban you from further visits until the Punishment Hall is satisfied that you are apologetic enough. When we speak, keep it to a whisper. The formations will be able to isolate the sound. Understood?”

“Uh, yes,” William nodded, wondering why there would be a system in place that was so easy to abuse by these overseers. The answer was simple. This was a cultivation world where strength was everything, no matter how pretty the paint was on top.

If you come across this story on Amazon, it’s taken without permission from the author. Report it.

And it wasn’t lost to him that, yet again, formations were used.

“Good, follow me.”

Su Rou smiled at William and motioned with her head to go first. He stepped into the library and immediately heard unnatural silence. Yes, he could hear it.

As he looked around, he noticed a disciple reading a manual. The pages didn’t make any noise as he turned them. A girl wearing shoes with heels passed them, but her footsteps were muted on the tiles.

These were all things that William could quickly get accustomed to. His uneasiness mainly came from the loss of a sound that he had unknowingly filtered out of his daily life, though it had always been in the background.

His beating heart.

He pressed his hand to the center of his chest, frown decreasing slightly when he felt the steady beating under his palm.

“I had the same expression, Junior Wei,” Su Rou whispered next to him. “You’ll appreciate the total silence soon.”

William was skeptical. “It was necessary to silence the heart, too?”

“It drove some disciples mad in the early days,” she shrugged as they followed Lan Yang to something that looked like an information desk. “It might have been some issue with the formations back then, but nobody cares enough to change what works well.”

William tilted his head in thought, isolating the constant beat of his heart and imagining that being the only thing he could hear.

… It wouldn’t be pleasant, but just like outside the library, he was sure it would eventually be easy to tune it out as white noise. He supposed it was a hypothetical situation.

“There are multiple stations like this scattered on every floor,” Lan Yang said quietly when they reached the circular station. It looked like a high-standing desk with four manuals spread apart evenly. “The books act as catalogs of everything viewable for you, and I’m sure you know how they are activated.”

“The Inner Court pass,” William replied. Without it, most of the sect would be inaccessible to him, and it made sense that it also applied here.

“Correct,” Lan Yang backed away slightly. “Why don’t you try it?”

“Er, sure,” he pulled out his pass and laid it down on the blank state next to a book. He was getting used to seeing them everywhere. The blank slate started glowing a dull white.

William flipped the book open to see a list. It was like a phonebook. He wasn’t sure. Those were basically nonexistent on Earth, but he had heard about them, which seemed similar.

At least the list was alphabetical, so it was fairly easy for him to flip to ‘egg.’ He wasn’t ready for the pages and pages of lists that were apparently books about eggs. One even seemed to be something about cooking them.

Thankfully, William soon found what he was looking for. The problem now was that there was nothing else on the page.

“Tap what you want to find with your finger,” Lan Yang gave him the next step.

He did so, and the table’s surface immediately darkened to reveal a floorplan. A red dashed line appeared next.

This was basically an interactive map for the library. Wang Xiaoling was proved right again by calling the sect ‘fancy.’

“J-7,” William said out loud, reading the destination label on the map. It was a section of the library.

“That’s to the end over there,” Su Rou commented, pointing behind him. “Before you rush off, Junior Wei, would you like some beginner lessons in healing? It’s unlikely you will be able to understand it, but as you said, it might be a matter of life and death.”

His eyes widened briefly before nodding quickly, not wanting the offer to go away.

“Great!” Su Rao cheered in a hissed whisper. “Brother Yang, let’s rent a room and prepare him.”

“Sounds good to me,” Lan Yang agreed readily before addressing William. “Anything else you want to know?

He had plenty of questions, but those could wait until after. “No, I’m fine.”

“Then we’ll take our leave. Try to stay around J-7. I’ll get you in an hour or so after setup is complete,” Lan Yan smiled.

“Sounds perfect, Senior Yang,” William smiled. It grew wider into a grin as he glanced at the dashed line again—time to learn more about the egg that eats corpses.