Chapter 149: The Library

Another few days passed, and Majiang's work on decrypting the documents hit a standstill after obtaining the information about Ganzhou. Majiang was so stifled he even started smoking, and Du Zhengyi spent more and more time in that study of his, helping him as much as he could.

On the other hand, Wen Lin sent a reply via WeChat; she had already arrived in Ganzhou. The task of monitoring her progress was assigned to Luo Qi, and Luo Qi would chat with her on WeChat every couple of days. In these past few days when neither Majiang nor Du Zhengyi were in the mood to supervise him, he spent a large amount of time in the Society's Library. He read more and more books, gradually extending his reach to the ancient collections in the Library, and the variety of books grew increasingly eclectic. On this point, Guan Xinyue's interests were very much in sync with his.

There were very few history books for Mages, a result of their list-style method of recording history. History was history; there was no discussion, no research. Guan Xinyue had browsed through most of them quite quickly, and from then on, she turned her interest toward the files of deceased Mages.

"In our culture, we call this biographical history," she said while dusting off the books. She had previously let Luo Qi help her clean off the dust, but Luo Qi ended up sending the books flying, causing several to hit the wall and scatter. Ever since then, she had used the honest, old-fashioned method to clean.

Luo Qi was sitting in an armchair by the window reading. Hearing what she said, he couldn't help but laugh, looked up, and made a face at her. "That's what I say, too. Are the biographies of deceased Mages collected here complete?"

"Your biographies aren't arranged chronologically, which is really quite strange," Guan Xinyue said. "So I don't know if they're complete or not."

The two of them had been reading more and more lately, and finding it too troublesome to move books, they spent most of their time reading in the Library rather than the courtyard where they lived. Majiang and Du Zhengyi hadn't been coming out of the study these past few days, so they could only gather for lunch and dinner; it was even less worth it for the two of them to lug books back and forth.

Guan Xinyue bought a thick rug and spread it out on the second floor of the Library. When she wasn't playing her doomsday games, she would lie on the rug and flip through books. Luo Qi spent most of his time sitting in the chair by the window, completely immersed in his reading. The light in the Library was dim, so Guan Xinyue placed all sorts of small lamps everywhere, and reading lamps were scattered all over the place. It was very comfortable staying here, and Luo Qi found himself increasingly unable to leave.

She turned over and rested her head on a cushion. "Every single one of yours is categorized by region. Isn't that strange?"

Luo Qi hadn't read those types of books; he was buried in a book about Telepathy, specifically on how to better partition his Consciousness. Now, he only slowed down when reading these kinds of books, needing to stop occasionally to think and practice. As for reference books like history, he was almost rapidly storing the information. Sometimes, he even dared to open that part of Li Xu's Consciousness. As time passed, Li Xu's memories and his way of thinking had dissolved without a trace, but his knowledge, as a unique storage area in the brain, could be integrated with Luo Qi's own knowledge zones.

Although Luo Qi was still not quite good at this, he was like a clumsy novice librarian. Fortunately, he certainly hadn't obtained Li Xu's entire brain; if that weren't the case, then Li Xu's brain would have been too small.

He kept searching Li Xu's Consciousness to see if it contained the knowledge he was currently studying; if it did, he could finish integrating it in his mind. In the world of Consciousness, everything progressed at lightning speed, just like a supercomputer running in the depths of time. His knowledge and techniques improved rapidly, not to mention that Li Xu was an Mind Mage to begin with. Although clumsy—that was Luo Qi's assessment—he was still a Mind Archmage.

Learning made Luo Qi smarter—this was also something Luo Qi himself perceived.

For example, Luo Qi now realized that he shouldn't show that he was reading faster than Guan Xinyue in front of her. This way, he could get book recommendations from Guan Xinyue. As a smart and sensitive human girl, standing from a different perspective, she could always dig up quite a few valuable things in the Mage World.

Even so, switching took time. Luo Qi didn't react to what Guan Xinyue said for half a day.

Guan Xinyue was used to him, knowing he had gotten lost in his own head again. "I said your Mage biographies are categorized by region, not by chronology. Are you guys map-bombing?"

"We aren't map-bombing." Luo Qi finally caught up and said, "It might be because Mages have almost no distinct period history. We are like... like a dynasty that has never ended."

"That's incredible. The Committee actually rules the world for ten thousand generations," Guan Xinyue said. "But you also have wars, and there are clearly some major historical nodes. For instance, when Mind Mages were respected versus when they were no longer respected is a clear historical watershed."

"That was probably less than a thousand years ago, right?" Luo Qi thought for a moment. He had previously discriminated against Mind Mages, so he hadn't read that period of history very seriously. Besides, although Mages weren't as fond of lying and altering history as humans, Mages didn't value history at all. He thought sarcastically that perhaps it was precisely because they didn't value it that they were too lazy to even change it; without an emperor, they were too lazy to whitewash the peace.

"I always feel that before that, the status of Mind Mages was very high," Guan Xinyue said, lying on the rug and shaking the book in her hand.

"But ever since a Mage appeared who almost controlled the entire Magic World, the situation changed," Luo Qi said. "The Mage World doesn't really accept the existence of an emperor."

"That really doesn't conform to human nature," Guan Xinyue muttered. "Human society always produces emperors. It makes no sense for the Mage World to have been in the form of a Committee from the very beginning. Don't your ancestors fight over prey?"

"You forgot that we are essentially two different species," Luo Qi said. He put down his book, leaned forward, and rested his elbows on his knees. This posture made him look down at Guan Xinyue, bringing him a little closer to her.

When Guan Xinyue was in the middle of a heated argument with Luo Qi, she often forgot that he was a very handsome man. In such quiet moments facing each other, she would suddenly start to feel shy; she didn't want to stare at his face, and she didn't dare look at his slender yet sturdy forearms that were often revealed when he rolled up his sleeves.

It was also at these times that she would often get angry—angry that she wasn't particularly good-looking, and angry that her age was in an awkward middle ground. On the younger side, her face was too thin and not cute at all; on the older side, her figure was too scrawny. She always felt that no matter what, she couldn't attract Luo Qi. This frustration sometimes made her suddenly pick a fight with Luo Qi, and only after a thorough, heated argument did she feel better. Anyway, Luo Qi would always forgive her; he was just a fool who would never stay angry at anyone forever.

Even if he could invade other people's Consciousness, what did that matter? She wasn't afraid of him at all. She trusted Luo Qi more than anyone else, even though Luo Qi had once closed off her Consciousness and occupied her Consciousness. She knew that was harmless because he wouldn't hurt her. And also because he was a good person; he didn't even bother to probe other people's Consciousness. Otherwise, how could he not know that she liked him so much?

Luo Qi didn't know anything, which was why he would say they were two different species. Hearing such words, she wanted to jump up and fiercely knock on his head.

In short, Luo Qi is a...

Big idiot.