The Library

Night fell, and stars dotted the sky.

At last, the group returned to Shrek Academy.

The Rock Crystal Dragon felt the rich Soul Power in the air and bounced around merrily.

Before they parted, Xian Lin'er took something out.

"Xiao Ran, look. Do you know what this is?"

Lu Ran took a closer look. It was a bracelet set with a deep-purple gem that seemed to hold unfathomable depths.

"This is called a Storage Soul Tool." Xian Lin'er realized she had beaten Yan Shaozhe to the punch again, and her mood immediately lifted. "Like your Small World, it has space inside where you can store things. But it's more private and convenient. It's for you."

"This..."

"No refusing!"

Xian Lin'er pretended to be angry and lightly flicked Lu Ran on the head.

Lu Ran pretended it hurt, too, crying out dramatically. The Rock Crystal Dragon turned to look, but, seeing there was no danger, went back to chasing butterflies.

"Thank you very much, Dean Xian."

He accepted the Storage Soul Tool with both hands, full of gratitude. After probing it with his Soul Power, he found that the space inside was indeed enormous... and filled with all kinds of ore.

Ore of every color was piled into little mountains, taking up at least half the space.

Lu Ran looked up at Xian Lin'er. She was smiling brightly at Yan Shaozhe, a smile from the heart. She didn't expect a single Soul Tool to draw Lu Ran over to the Soul Guidance Department. It was enough if it made him curious about Soul Tools.

Seeing Lu Ran look at her, she explained, "Besides its usual food, the Rock Crystal Dragon likes to eat certain minerals. It can absorb their elements to strengthen its scales, teeth, bones, and other parts of its body. That's why it appeared near the Cavern. The Cavern extends deep underground, making it easy to search for minerals."

"Isn't this too valuable?"

He asked without thinking, but Xian Lin'er said it was nothing. She'd given it to him, so it was his.

Lu Ran thanked her again, sincerely.

He'd heard before that Rock Crystal Dragons ate ore, but this seemed like far too much.

He took out a long, prismatic piece of ore that shimmered with a crystalline glow. It felt cool and heavy in his hand.

The ore in the Soul Tool came in all sorts of shapes. Some looked like ordinary chunks of rock, unremarkable at a glance. But this one was immediately recognizable.

The Rock Crystal Dragon, which had been drinking water with its head lowered, suddenly lifted its head and sniffed twice.

Its eyes lit up.

It immediately started looking around.

Turning, it spotted the ore in Lu Ran's hand, and drool streamed from its mouth.

So big?

It had never seen one this big in the Cavern!

It let out a couple of excited cries.

Then it hurried over, almost pressing itself against Lu Ran.

But its eyes stayed fixed on the ore.

It looked as though it were saying, Give it to me, give it to me~

Xian Lin'er laughed at the Rock Crystal Dragon. "Ore like this is scarce, and it's very alluring to Soul Beasts like it."

Lu Ran moved the hand holding the ore to the left, and the Rock Crystal Dragon's head turned left with it. When he moved his hand to the right, its head turned right.

It really was alluring.

He held it out, and the Rock Crystal Dragon happily took it in its jaws at once, then sprawled on the ground and began to chew.

"It can actually chew ore!" Lu Ran said in amazement. "What strong teeth."

"More accurately, it grinds it down," Xian Lin'er said. "It uses its teeth to grind the ore bit by bit into powder, then eats it. That's how it absorbs it."

That made perfect sense.

He marveled inwardly once more.

After that, Yan Shaozhe, Xian Lin'er, and the others left. The once-bustling Sea God Island fell silent.

Outside the Sea God Pavilion and Offering Hall, the most eye-catching things on the island were the countless rare and unusual plants. Growing beneath the Golden Ancient Tree, they had been there for who knew how many years. They were beyond ordinary measures of value and had become part of Shrek's legacy.

Lu Ran decided to take a walk around Sea God Island.

He and the Rock Crystal Dragon strolled along. He saw a flower—didn't know what it was. He saw a plant—didn't know what it was. He saw a vine... still didn't know what it was. But as part of the scenery, they were undeniably beautiful. The Rock Crystal Dragon, meanwhile, chewed away contentedly.

After making a full circuit, Lu Ran realized... he really didn't recognize a single one. The only plants he knew were the Immortal Herbs far away at the Ice and Fire Yin-Yang Well: Star Spirit Grass, Oblivion Flying Flower, and a few of the best-known Immortal Herbs, like Ink Jade Divine Bamboo and Aromatic Silk Beauty...

As he walked, he thought he should visit the library.

On the way back, he'd asked Yan Shaozhe about the Shrek library.

Yan Shaozhe had proudly told him that, as the greatest academy in the world, Shrek Academy's collection was astonishingly vast.

Both the Outer Academy and Inner Academy had libraries.

The Outer Academy library was full of basic books, geared toward introductory study and general knowledge. There were books like A Guide to the Soul Beasts of the Star Dou Great Forest, Notes on Low-Rank Soul Master Cultivation, A History of the Dou Ling Empire, Star Luo Customs and Geography, Weaknesses of Agility Attack Soul Masters, Weaknesses of Power Attack Soul Masters, Weaknesses of Auxiliary Soul Masters... Yan Shaozhe had rattled off book after book to show off his knowledge.

The Outer Academy library had no secrets. Its only distinguishing feature was its breadth—an extreme abundance of books covering every subject imaginable.

The Inner Academy library was completely different.

Its collection was just as vast, but only Inner Academy students were allowed inside.

Most of its books were about advanced Soul Master theory, rare Martial Soul research, and the like. Xian Lin'er had added that it also contained Soul Tool technology, then remarked that Dean Yan had a talent for forgetting important things...

Of course,

Lu Ran also knew about a secret library, open only to Elders and certain other people, where Shrek's core secrets from the past ten thousand years were kept.

It was inside the Sea God Pavilion.

Lu Ran had lived here for six years, but he still knew little about the continent. After all, living in a small village wasn't a way to broaden one's horizons. He'd need to read a lot: about the three great empires, about the Sun Moon Empire, about plants, and about Soul Beasts...

He really did need books.

It was just too late today. He would have to wait until tomorrow.

The night passed without incident.

He got up early the next morning, washed up, and headed to the Outer Academy library.

The Sea God Pavilion was separated from the Inner Academy by a lake, with no bridge connecting them. With his current rank of one ring, there was no way he could cross on his own.

Fortunately, Xian Lin'er had already thought of that.

She'd placed a one-person skiff in the Storage Soul Tool beforehand. It could be started simply by channeling Soul Power into it.

Quick and convenient.

After getting onto the water, he even circled around the lake before landing on the Inner Academy's shore.

Shrek admitted around a thousand students each year, and the total number of students had never exceeded five thousand. Graduation required passing an assessment, and some students were expelled each year, so the numbers never grew very large.

Even so,

For the continent's foremost academy, that was far too few. The continent was vast and full of people. Even if Shrek accepted only one outstanding talent in ten thousand, it should have been packed to bursting.

The reason was the restrictions imposed by the three great empires.

Shrek held a lofty position and remained neutral. But in the eyes of the three great empires, "neutrality" was a pretty way of saying it helped their own side train talent; put less politely, it meant helping enemy nations train talent.

They respected Shrek in public, but in private, none of them wanted to see it grow stronger.

So the three great empires tacitly joined forces to restrict it.

Shrek could admit only a thousand students a year, and they needed recommendation letters. As a result, its students were mostly the children of the powerful.

Shrek had always hoped to admit more commoner students, but faced with the realities of its student body, it had no choice but to establish an Outer Academy and an Inner Academy.

The Outer Academy was already strict.

But the Inner Academy was the core of Shrek—or rather, its students were the ones who truly counted as Shrek students.

They received painstaking training.

Lu Ran put away the one-person skiff and went ashore.

With students leaving every year to graduate or carry out missions, the Inner Academy had never had more than a hundred people. It was only a little livelier than the Sea God Pavilion.

As he crossed the open-air plaza, he naturally drew the attention of several students.

To reach the Inner Academy, students had to complete six years at the Outer Academy. It seemed unlikely that someone his age had done that.

Whispers spread all around him.

Lu Ran paid them no mind and kept walking. Then he came face-to-face with a familiar figure.

A girl of fourteen or fifteen, dressed in the Inner Academy uniform. Her air was cool and composed, her nose small, her face exquisite, and her skin so fair that the faint blue-green veins beneath it were visible.

Her beautiful eyes widened slightly when she looked at him. She clearly hadn't expected to run into him in the Inner Academy.

"Sister Luochen?"