Lonely Days of Copying Books

Time always passes quickly when copying books. In the blink of an eye, another day has gone by. The bookstore is incredibly quiet. Ever since Zhou Guanyu, it's rarely been this deserted.

Ma Feifei found it a little hard to get used to the sudden lack of people after being accustomed to having them around.

He glanced at the deserted street outside, then closed the bookstore's door and returned to the backyard.

Yang Chengzhi didn't show up today. Perhaps he just thought Ma Feifei's words were a joke! Let him be. It's still a bit of a shame, though, considering how good the material was.

I need to hurry up and copy these books too.

Several days had already passed, and Ma Feifei hadn't even finished copying the first of the three books rewarded by the system, The Legend of the Condor Heroes.

This book was only a little over a million characters. Theoretically, it shouldn't take too much time to copy. Although Ma Feifei had been out and about during the day these past few days, he still spent three to five hours copying books in the backyard after returning at night.

Yet, he had only managed to copy about a third of it.

"I don't know why, but I feel like the slower I copy this book, the longer it takes," Ma Feifei thought, feeling a bit puzzled by his experience copying books over the last couple of days.

Before this, he had copied Andersen's Fairy Tales, which had over seven million characters, in just two days. Then, Half a Mu of Flower Fields, with over five hundred thousand characters, took him a day and a half. Now, The Legend of the Condor Heroes felt even slower.

Is it getting harder to copy as I go along?

Unconsciously, Ma Feifei had also developed a habit of trying to figure out the puzzles presented by the Mysterious Bookstore. Gradually, he had begun to discern some patterns.

For example, book quality. The system always provided books of blue quality. The ones he created himself were white quality. Following this logic, there must be higher qualities above blue.

Another example is the benefits books bring to customers, which he'll call "returns" for short. The initial returns from books wouldn't be very large. As the book's quality increased, the returns would surely increase as well.

Furthermore, the same book could yield different returns for different customers. For instance, Customer A reads this book and gains nothing. But Customer B reads it and gains something. This could generally be observed from how long a customer spent reading the book. Customers who read for a short time would undoubtedly have limited returns, while those who read for a long time could gain significant returns.

Take Zhou Zhuling, for example. She spent several days reading Half a Mu of Flower Fields, several times longer than anyone else. Although Ma Feifei didn't know precisely what she had gained, seeing Zhou Zhuling's increasingly healthy complexion, he figured she must have obtained something from the book that helped cure her illness.

So, the longer one reads, the greater the returns.

"Then, can I deduce that just as longer reading time yields greater returns, longer copying time yields higher book quality?" Ma Feifei pondered.

If his hypothesis held true, then even books of the same blue quality could differ in value. Blue quality books that took longer to copy would be superior to those copied in a shorter time.

Andersen's Fairy Tales and Half a Mu of Flower Fields were prime examples.

"In that case, Zhou Zhuling's returns are actually higher than Zhao Xiaodao's!" Ma Feifei couldn't help but click his tongue twice at this thought.

Zhao Xiaodao had advanced six levels in a row! It was like she had a cheat code. Ma Feifei had initially thought Zhao Xiaodao was the one who gained the most from his bookstore, only to discover there was a hidden BOSS, Zhou Zhuling!

"It's a shame you can't communicate with this system," Ma Feifei lamented.

If the system could communicate with him, he wouldn't have to guess everything himself. He could just ask the system what returns Zhou Zhuling received, instead of racking his brain to deduce these things.

The days were passing faster and faster. Time is truly the greatest enemy of all things. In the blink of an eye, another weekend had passed, and Ma Feifei had lived a few days less.

The Legend of the Condor Heroes was finished and had been hanging on the bookshelf for a few days. It was blue quality, and no higher quality had appeared as Ma Feifei had imagined.

Zhou Zhuling hadn't reappeared since that day. It had been a week, and Ma Feifei found himself missing her a little.

He wondered if that girl Zhao Xiaodao had safely reached the borders of Zhao State.

Why am I thinking about Zhao Xiaodao?

Yang Chengzhi, whom Ma Feifei had been concerned about, seemed to have truly forgotten his words and vanished without a trace. Ma Feifei had gone to the tavern again over the weekend, but unfortunately, he didn't run into him.

The armies of Great Qin and Great Chu had been in a stalemate for nearly half a month, and they still hadn't engaged in battle. However, as more and more people were mobilized, the atmosphere grew increasingly oppressive, so oppressive that even Old Man Wang's dog, Ah Huang, died from it.

Even though the two states hadn't officially clashed, they were both showcasing their strength.

Three hundred students from Great Chu's Zhenguan Academy, led by Xiaoyaozi, entered the fourth level of Nine Heavens Mountain and hunted four Level Six Spirit Beasts, earning renown.

Great Qin's Mingdao Academy was not to be outdone. Led by Qin Wudao, ranked first on the Dao rankings, three hundred students also entered Nine Heavens Mountain and hunted a Level Seven Spirit Beast, retaliating.

It was rumored that the two sides later met within Nine Heavens Mountain, and Xiaoyaozi and Qin Wudao even fought. The outcome was undecided. However, according to eyewitnesses, Xiaoyaozi's hands were trembling on his back after the fight, and he vomited a mouthful of blood upon returning, suggesting he was no match for Qin Wudao.

Although the two countries had not officially gone to war, conflicts below the official level were increasing, and war was almost imminent.

"The weather today seems a bit strange!"

Ma Feifei opened the shop door and looked up at the sky. He noticed there was no sun today; as far as the eye could see, the sky was covered in dense, dark clouds.

Ma Feifei was now a ninth-stage Spirit Master. He occasionally practiced his cultivation, and although he hadn't participated in any battles, he could truly feel the difference between before and after cultivating.

For example, looking at the sky now, before cultivating, Ma Feifei could only see the surface. But after cultivating, he could see the dense clouds churning with violently swirling spiritual energy.

Spiritual energy is the element of heaven and earth; it is the foundation of cultivators in this world. Without spiritual energy, there is no way to cultivate. It is said that in ancient times, when spiritual energy was abundant, Azure Dragon Continent was filled with immortals, and Spirit Saints were as common as dogs.

Unfortunately, spiritual energy on Azure Dragon Continent is now severely depleted. According to historical records, no one has ascended to immortality on Azure Dragon Continent for tens of thousands of years.

After Emperor Chu the Conqueror established Chu State, he went into seclusion for five thousand years, hoping to break through the Spirit Saint realm and enter the realm of immortals. Now, five thousand years have passed. Although there has been no news of Emperor Chu the Conqueror's demise, in the eyes of the world, Emperor Chu the Conqueror, one of the three recluses, is definitely dead.

This is because the lifespan of a Spirit Saint is only around four thousand years. Emperor Chu the Conqueror was already over six hundred years old when he founded Chu State. Five thousand years have passed since then. If Emperor Chu the Conqueror is still alive, he has either become an immortal or a ghost.

If he had become an immortal! It would have caused a sensation across the entire Azure Dragon Continent. After all, it had been over ten thousand years since an immortal appeared on Azure Dragon Continent.

Therefore, in this era, a cultivator who can reach the Spirit Saint realm is almost equivalent to an immortal.

Generally speaking, spiritual energy is dispersed in the air and is gentle. For it to be constantly in motion like today, there can only be one possibility: someone is manipulating the spiritual energy.

With all the spiritual energy within a radius of ten thousand li being manipulated, how great must their power be? It's likely only a Spirit Saint could achieve this.

"Could Chu Saint and Qin Sage have started fighting?" Ma Feifei thought this was the only possibility. With this thought, Ma Feifei quickly returned to the bookstore and diligently continued copying books.

Outside, he feared he might be crushed to dust before he even had a chance to react. After all, this was a battle between Spirit Saints, beings powerful enough to change the very heavens and earth.

The Legend of the Condor Heroes had been transcribed, and now Ma Feifei was transcribing My Fair Princess Part One. My Fair Princess Part One only had a little over 200,000 characters, significantly fewer than The Legend of the Condor Heroes.

In a little while longer, this copy of My Fair Princess would also be finished.

Ma Feifei roughly calculated the time spent transcribing My Fair Princess, estimating it to be about a quarter of the time for The Legend of the Condor Heroes. This meant the quality of the two books should be roughly similar.

This was within expectations. Although Jin Yong's The Legend of the Condor Heroes became a super IP in his previous life, Aunt Qiong Yao's My Fair Princess was no less popular. Placing them on the same level was understandable.

It was at this very moment that Yang Chengzhi, whom Ma Feifei had been eagerly awaiting, finally arrived.