Chapter 39

The library in your eyes

"You're saying this library is a pollutant and still operating?" After class, Fu Guang and the others came to the Dark Forest to carry out this mission.

The library is huge, with many people inside. A woman standing by the door looked up from the book she was searching, met the gaze of the few people outside, and, as if ignoring them, placed the book back where it belonged and vanished.

An image from an unknown time.

"The library is also one of the few safe zones in the Dark Forest."

To exit the Dark Forest, one must be within a safe zone; the Dark Forest is vast, and no one has fully explored it, its border seeming nonexistent.

Compared to the dangers of reality, this place is even more dreamlike, like the water essence from Yummengze in distant legends, the fire essence Fusang tree exists, and there is the metal essence Emperor's Mound…

Mystery and the unknown are synonymous with the Dark Forest.

"Can staying in the library increase one's spiritual power?" Fu Guang recalled a somewhat ambiguous record about the library, neither confirming nor denying it.

"In my opinion, it's true." Yin Zhu said, shrugging her shoulders, a sharp glint flashing in her golden eyes: "When I was young, I was once pursued and hid here for a while; after leaving, I indeed increased my spiritual power somewhat, going from C-rank to B-rank."

"Suddenly remembering, it feels almost like a lifetime apart."

"Isn't only B-rank allowed to enter the Dark Forest? Isn't that sneaking in?" Fu Guang noticed a loophole in Yin Zhu's words, turned and asked her.

"B-rank is the safety line; as long as you can endure the pain of your spiritual power feeling crushed, any rank can enter." Yin Zhu rubbed Fu Guang's head, smiling somewhat unrestrainedly.

Fu Guang nodded, making up for her past actions; if Li Shao suddenly asked her what it felt like to come to the Dark Forest as a D-rank, she would have an answer.

Don't expose such obvious loopholes again like the First Legion did.

This legion ranking is also absurd; there is no First Legion.

A splendid voice rang out beside them: "I've heard that the longer one stays in the library, the appearance each person sees differs, said to be related to the culture one has experienced." Shang Ze spoke, his gaze following Fu Guang and Sheng Lai Ke Si.

Shang Ze's thoughts turned; Sheng Lai Ke Si had been here so long that any usual differences were hard to discern, so it might be better to ask the guide miss.

"Captain, what do you see in your eyes?"

The others also looked curiously at Fu Guang.

Fu Guang's eyes flickered; what she naturally saw was a multi-tiered pavilion, wind chimes tinkling, inside countless jade talismans dragging long tails as they flew, disciples sitting or standing all holding scrolls to read.

Fu Guang took a deep breath, her eyes dim, and turned back saying, "Is this related to the mission?" On the girl's face appeared for the first time a clear wariness, and she did not wish to mention her past.

Shang Ze's smile froze at the corners of his mouth; the atmosphere among the few instantly dropped to freezing point, and Fu Guang seemed to erect a barrier around herself, starkly standing between them.

Fu Guang lifted her head; a pavilion reaching a thousand meters high stood tall, the wind moving the wind chimes under the eaves to ring, gradually forming a melody familiar to her, the sound evoking a dreamlike past life.

"Fu Guang, copy the sect's laws three thousand times." The stern instructor, his eyes seeming to blaze, struck the thin, weak girl with a ruler, his voice harsh.

In the candlelight, the girl's figure of vigorously writing with her brush was reflected.

"Fu Guang, save me." A fellow disciple accidentally knocked over a bookshelf, burying himself in a high stack of scrolls, reaching out his hand to her for rescue.

"Junior sister, I bought the new alchemy formula because I thought you'd like it." The red-clothed girl smiled warmly, placing the scroll into her hand.

Fu Guang pressed her lips together; past matters should be forgotten, not clung to—she had cultivated for so long, yet now she could not avoid being bothered by this heart?

It seems her cultivation has regressed.

"Fu Guang, are you alright?" Sheng Lai Ke Si patted her shoulder to call back her thoughts.

Fu Guang's eye sockets were slightly red, her voice low: "I remembered the past; how about you? How do you feel?"

Sheng Lai Ke Si shook his head: "To me, the past is merely a shackle."

"Shackles—should be broken." His words carried little ripple, even seeming bland.

"That's right."

"Let's go, go inside and have a look." Fu Guang blinked, returning to her usual state, her pale profile as calm and peaceful as ever, she stepped forward.

"Let's go." Yin Zhu followed her in.

She left a sentence: "Who doesn't have an unaskable past? Digging to the root is impolite."

"Don't let curiosity be too heavy."

Shang Ze's brow twitched as he gazed at the five-story-high library that seemed built by his own family; the cold, bright stones beneath his feet reflected his visage.

Bai Gao passed Shang Ze, his tone harsh: "Young master, have you heard the saying, curiosity killed the cat?"

Shang Ze's steps were heavy; he did not wish to step into the cold, lifeless library.

If everything were according to his memory, only he would be here.

Fu Guang turned her head; Shang Ze's spiritual power seemed to be shrinking into a knot, his resistance fully evident.

"What's wrong, young master?" Fu Guang asked as she walked toward him; they were a squad, she was still the captain, and she had to take responsibility for the members.

Shang Ze hadn't expected Fu Guang to so keenly notice his abnormality; his fox eyes shifted, and in a blink he came up with an excuse.

Bai Gao looked Shang Ze up and down: "No way, I don't recall your nightmares ever involving a library."

As Bai Gao's words fell, Shang Ze's face instantly flushed, like a fox whose tail had been stepped on, and he quickly retorted, "I certainly don't."

The few just looked at Shang Ze; none were fools, they all knew in their hearts whether he was telling the truth or not.

"Or why not have someone show what the library looks like in their eyes and bring him in?" Yin Zhu said based on Shang Ze's reaction.

The library appears as people imagine it, so though it seems a team task, it is actually an individual one.

If someone's vision of the library matched another's, they could enter together.

She then described her own vision of the library: "I once stayed at a black market library; pitch black, not to mention, everyone coming and going wore masks, calling it a library isn't quite right—it's just the black market, you know."

The black market, a dark zone, where traffic consists of outlaws; their way of obtaining knowledge is naturally violent and bloody.

"Some of my knowledge comes from there."

Speaking of what one is familiar with is like laying bare one's past for others to see.

Yin Zhu, on the other hand, was casual; her past wasn't anything worth hiding.

"Come to think of it, I recall you have a cleanliness obsession, young master; I'd expect you'd vomit upon entering."

Bai Gao's complexion stiffened; he also didn't want to show Shang Ze his former life, the high-and-mighty young master who never lacked food or clothing—could he understand someone who once lived in the slums?

Moreover, now they are equals; he has no need to expose his wound for him to see.

The boy turned his head toward Fu Guang, his silver eyes blinking repeatedly, "If you need it, sister, I can describe it."

Sheng Lai Ke Si directly shook their head, flatly refusing, "No."

Fu Guang did not want to explain to Shang Ze; why is the library in her eyes different from all libraries in interstellar?

Several people were at an impasse.