Beside the entrance, behind a wooden counter, sat an old man with graying hair.
Faint fluctuations of Transcendence emanated from him.
He watched Lu Yuan arrive and listened as Lu Yuan explained his purpose, then led him through the registration process.
After handing over one Knight Token, the thirty-three in Lu Yuan's possession became thirty-two in the blink of an eye. However, his name had been entered into the register, granting him a period of reading access.
From then on, each time he entered the Library, he would swipe his badge again, and the time would be deducted accordingly.
Beyond the entrance was the first-floor public reading hall. The hall rose two stories high, and a stained-glass mural spanning the entire wall depicted a towering wall stretching across a snowy plain. Four armored figures stood atop the wall, with a field of ripe wheat at their feet.
The glow of kerosene lamps filtered through the glass and fell across rows of long tables, where copper candlesticks stood at the corners.
The academy branch's collection was enormous. By preliminary estimate, it contained around twenty to thirty thousand volumes.
More than a dozen rows of Bookshelves lined each side of the hall. Books on history, geography, herbs, and basic instruction were placed in the hall and could be read freely.
The Library was quiet. Thirty or forty students sat scattered about, even turning pages as softly as possible.
Lu Yuan did not immediately begin reading. He first walked deeper into the hall, intending to familiarize himself with the Library.
Beyond the hall were separated reading rooms, each with a plaque hanging above its door: Geography and Atlases, Northern Territory Gazetteer, Foundations of Transcendence, Knightly Oaths and History.
He walked all the way to the deepest part.
There was a windowless stone chamber