Zong Lizi noticed that Jing Jiu’s expression was as usual, with no change in his breathing. She couldn’t help but feel admiring as she asked, “What level are you at now?”

There were a few main states of Cultivation in this world. The vast majority of the people at the New Era Institute were in the primary state, which was the Fire-Observing State.

The Fire-Observing State had twelve levels.

Jing Jiu had learned all this on the computer and in the books. Looking at those intermittent battleships, Jing Jiu thought to himself that he should keep a low-profile. “The eleventh level?” he offered.

Zong Lizi said while looking at him with an admirable expression, “The professors at the New Era Institute are at approximately tenth level, to say nothing of the students. You’re a ,genius, no matter where you go.”

Jing Jiu thought what she said was true, which was something he couldn’t deny.

She referred to the neighborhoods in the underground, the New Era Institute, and the world above when she said “no matter where”.

But Jing Jiu thought of the universe and Chaotian.

After they arrived at the New Era Institute, Zong Lizi took Jing Jiu to the registration office and applied as his relative for an auditor position.

Jing Jiu reached out his hand to show the bracelet as his ID and obtained the auditor card and the most important item, the library card.

With the library card, he could go to the library and have the access to the inner database if he wished to get the required materials and books.

A bell chimed in a distant building. Zong Lizi hastened to attend her class after she brought Jing Jiu to the front of the library and offered some instructions.

She suddenly halted her steps after she took two quick paces. “Don’t go to other places,” she turned to him and said, “I’ll take you to the canteen to eat lunch at noon.”

Because she had moved a bit fast and halted a little too abruptly and turned around a tad too quickly, her silvery hair billowed in the air.

It looked like the rotating star in the universe.

…

…

The library at the New Era Institute was much smaller than he had imagined; and it was even much smaller than the building storing books on Shiyue Peak.

Soon he found out the reason for it.

The computers and the reading terminals in the library could store many books, which seemed to be more advanced in comparison to Chaotian, though the electronic books could merely display 3-D diagrams and couldn’t stock the author’s sword will, pen will and heart will. As such, the book-keeping system here was still inferior.

While thinking of all this, Jing Jiu took out his library card to borrow a reading terminal. He found a remote and quiet corner in the reading room and sat down.

He had been scanned five times as he walked from the entrance of the library to the counter for the reading terminal and to the reading room.

It was difficult to avoid the scanning. If he didn’t wish to be scanned, he had to break through the walls. However, the buildings here were all regularly arranged and the people here were all moving in a designated area and according to a designated route. There was no mountain, lake or sea in this place, and the trees and rocks were rare. What role could he play then?

Like what he had thought when he first arrived in the laboratory of this world, must he turn himself into a paper bucket?

…

…

The reading terminal was a computer, but it was connected to the library database, so one could have access to the data of the New Era Institute at any time.

Countless rays of light came out from the terminal and formed a light screen, exuding a gentle and eye-friendly glow as it displayed the diagrams and words.

Jing Jiu’s fingers moved swiftly on the terminal, bringing out innumerable residues; it was unclear what he was doing.

The diagrams and words on the light screen were changing at an unimaginably fast speed. If one stared at the light screen at the moment, they would be merely able to see countless light strips; even those Cultivation practitioners in a high state couldn’t see the content on the screen.

The data were changing constantly, and the scenes merged into the light rays. Within a short period of time, Jing Jiu had finished reading several hundred books and journals.

Yet, he thought the progress of his reading was too slow. It was because the contents in those books and journals had many repetitions, and most of all, most of the content was useless information.

According to the introduction of the library, the database stored three billion, eight hundred million books and files, which was equivalent to ten thousand “t” bytes.

He had learned that the “t” meant a trillion bytes.

How long would it take for him to read all the data here at such a pace?

Jing Jiu scattered his sword awareness and ascertained that nobody had paid attention to him, but the scanning wave was still up ahead. He tabbed his finger at the window of the reading room through the space, a sword will left his finger and covered the window with a layer of intermittent energy. If someone happened to walk past the window and look in, they would merely see him record something on the light screen.

The sword will spread after it reached the window glass; it formed a sword formation within a few seconds, isolating Jing Jiu from the outside world, except for a small gap for the high-speed fiberglass cable to send in the data.

Having done all this, Jing Jiu cut off the fiberglass cable from the reading terminal and held the cable in his hand.

If Zhao Layue were here, she would be able to notice a slight change on his palm.

With his eyes closed, Jing Jiu began to read the data sent in through the fiberglass cable.

It was probably not accurate to use the word “read” for his action; it would be more appropriate to describe him as “absorbing” the data.

And the data were rushing over rather than sending in.

The data as vast as sea were rushing into his body like tides. Some sprays formed in his mind even though he had the awareness as deep as ocean.

The sprays were white, and his face turned ashen as well.

…

…

“What is happening?”

Looking at the alarm indicators in the database, the teachers at the New Era Institute eyed each other.

In the next moment, all the doors of the reading rooms in the library were pushed open as the students walked out in bewilderment, asking each other why the terminals were not working properly.

The lights in the grand hall were not glistening, nor did any electrical sparks came out, but an eerie and anxious atmosphere spread in the place.

One of the nodes couldn’t withstand the payload of such a large amount of data and broke off.

If the database had a soul, it would feel relieved in secret.

The door of a reading room was opened without the aid of the wind; someone had left the room.

The fiberglass cable dropped to the floor like a dead snake, devoid of any life force.

Jing Jiu walked out from the library and looked up at the sky while standing on the stone steps. A hint of regret was revealed in the end of his eyes when he saw the intermittent battleships behind the blue sky and white clouds.

It was truly an interesting activity to absorb knowledge, especially about the unknown.

Back when he had just joined Green Mountain, he was led by his Big Brother to Shiyue Peak where he had read books for many years and read all the books collected by Green Mountain.

Ever since, he hadn’t felt as happy as he did now. It was because it was such a joyful experience when he was totally embroiled in the reading. But he had absorbed so much data that the computing center of the database couldn’t withstand it anymore, even though the fiberglass cable of the data could still support the data flow.

He decided it was time to leave for the sake of security. He remembered that Zong Lizi mentioned that she wanted to have lunch with him; he waited on the stone steps.

It didn’t take long before Zong Lizi ran over from the instruction building. She panted for a while with her hands resting on the knees when she arrived at the foot of the stone steps. “I heard there was an incident in the library,” said she.

Jing Jiu failed to understand why she was running back and forth when she had such severe leukemia. “I don’t know,” he returned calmly.

…

…

The canteen of the Institute of New Era was not far from the library. Zong Lizi talked about the incident in the library and found that he had no idea what had happened. Feeling indignant, she stopped short and asked Jing Jiu, “Do you want to meet my classmates? If they know you’re the author of The Path toward…”

Jing Jiu cut her off, “No.”

“Fine,” said Zong Lizi, feeling indignant.

As the two of them walked into the canteen, many people gazed at them.

Jing Jiu covered his head with the hoodie of the tracksuits, so the gazes were naturally fixed on Zong Lizi’s silvery hair.

Over the last few days, many people at the Institute of New Era found out that she had written a novel and about her family affairs.

The gazes contained surprise, sympathy, mockery and contempt. The students found out that her parents were dead and that the second gene modification of hers had failed. It seemed that she had some sort of an illness, but none of them could obtain the precise information because of the security rules. The reason they felt so surprised to see her was because she had never come to the canteen to eat before.

“I thought she was a princess who looked down at the mortal world and the foods we ate; but it turns out…she is too poor to come here.”

Four female students sat around a table in the distance. One of them made the remark in a mocking tone while looking in the direction of Zong Lizi; the other three laughed out loud. Another female student said in contempt, “When I saw her desolate appearance, I thought she intended to become a priest.”

The voices of the discussion were not loud enough for Zong Lizi to hear; she could tell what was going on based on the laughing and unconcealed gazes.

She didn’t give a response. She led Jing Jiu to a corner and sat down.

Jing Jiu didn’t pay any heed to them even though he could hear all the discussions clearly.

Zong Lizi went to buy the foods after she found a seat for Jing Jiu.

Seeing this, the crowd’s curiosity was piqued, wondering who the guy whose face was covered by the hoodie was and how he could let Zong Lizi do the chores for him.

The foods on the plates in front of them were not the cheap nutrient bars but the actual vegetables and beef steaks.

The foods were all the same for Jing Jiu, and so was eating or not eating. Thinking of her benevolent intent, Jing Jiu nodded to express his gratitude.

It was then that a girl came before their table after some hesitation. She wanted to speak to Zong Lizi but chose not to.

Zong Lizi raised her head and asked the girl, “What?”

The girl, with tears in her eyes, said embarrassingly, “Lizi, I’m so sorry…I mentioned in the class what had happened to you and your family when you were young; but I didn’t expect those people to have heard it.”

“Don’t be silly. I’m not going to blame you for that,” said Zong Lizi with a smile.

Upon hearing this, the girl felt relieved. She left after she said “sorry” again with her hands clutching her chest.

Zong Lizi took off the hair band from her wrist and tied her silvery hair with it, asking, “She’s Lu Shuqian, my classmate in primary and middle schools. What are your thoughts?”

“She’s a liar,” said Jing Jiu.