Beneath the Celestial Pivot, behind layer upon layer of seals, lay an area isolated from both within and without by countless creations and kept under strict guard. It contained the vast majority of precious texts, inheritances, and theories collected by the Association's Great Library over the centuries—the formulas once worth fortunes, the artifact-grade books that had laid the foundations of Modern Alchemy, the techniques left behind by countless extinct schools, and the life's work, published and unpublished, of generations of Artisans and masters... even the latest research and breakthroughs from In Secluded.
Too numerous to count, too vast to take in!
To any Artisan, it was treasure in the truest sense—a treasury so immense that it could make any Artisan despair at the limits of their own talent. It was said that even if someone began studying its contents from the moment they learned to speak, even a peerless genius might not master more than a tenth or two of it in an entire lifetime.
When the great doors opened before Ji Jue, even he found himself momentarily breathless at the sheer grandeur of the sight.
As part of the advance payment promised to him, Jiang Tongguang had allowed either Ji Jue or someone designated by him to study freely in the Great Library for one week. Apart from the very few theories classified as [End]-level taboos, which were off-limits, everything else could be read and studied at will.
They had practically let a rat loose in a rice bin.
After spending the first ten-odd minutes dazzled by the selection, Ji Jue began choosing with purpose, then committed everything to memory by rote. Sixteen editions of the Emerald Tablet, regarded as one of the origins of Embers and the oldest surviving alchemical text in existence, gathered and preserved by various