"This..."
In the silent room, both the Black and White elders' expressions changed at the same time.
The Black-Haired Elder said, "Every thought in those books has been stirred up. That Shen Clan boy is lost in them and can't pull himself free!"
The White-Haired Elder said nothing, his face thoughtful.
"Whatever happens, we can't let the Shen Clan boy sink in completely. If the emperor investigates, we'll have another mess on our hands." As he spoke, the Black-Haired Elder flicked a finger. A speck of light fell and shot away.
Only then did the White-Haired Elder speak. "The Marquis of Linru County harbors a secret. We underestimated him."
The Black-Haired Elder agreed. "Indeed. Now we wait for him to knock."
Shen Zunli stood motionless and silent, light and shadow shifting in his eyes.
His mind was filled with scene after scene. His thoughts sank into the books as their wondrous stories unfolded one after another, drawing him ever deeper until he forgot where he was.
In the space of a thought, Shen Zunli had become the hero of countless tales: rising from desperate straits, climbing out of poverty, taking revenge as an orphan, returning as a king...
Chen Cuo sat opposite him, quietly exploring what he sensed through their linked thoughts.
*One thread of Frenzied Thought as a spark, drawing out a wisp of Myriad Manifestation Thought and joining it with the contents of countless books. That stirs the radiance of Human Thought and gives it something of the Myriad Realms Cocoon's character, without the same enormous effort. But this is a library. Its special conditions let me use the surroundings, and Shen Zunli's realm isn't high. It wouldn't go so smoothly elsewhere. Unless it was another place where Human Thought gathered, or perhaps, like Nine Songs, when someone