During all of this Naath was inside of the library studying various information about elemental attunement and cultivation. At first he had trouble understanding some of the terminology but soon he adjusted. As he read more and more his speed slowly started to increase over time. At first it took him an entire hour just to finish two books. By the time his brother arrived to pick him up though he could read four books within an hour without any trouble. Naath was satisfied with having read ten books and devotedly remembering the information as he did so. It was a drop in the bucket compared to the thousands of books in this one section of the library alone, but still Naath felt satisfied.

When his brother picked him up and brought him home it was already time to eat dinner. Once everyone sat down at the table Naath’s mother and father both asked Naath questions on what he had read. They even helped to reinforce his knowledge by questioning his descriptions and asking him to clarify. The meal passed by quickly. Naath continued talking with his two older brothers about how they had started cultivating and asking them other various questions. Naath’s family home was filled with bustling noise as Naath asked countless questions of everyone there who was familiar with cultivation. This included the family chef, after all he cooked spiritual foods from time to time. To do this required cultivation to handle the energy in the ingredients and work on them. He asked the doctor too who had some basic knowledge of alchemy and pill refinement.

The noise and excitement went on until finally Naath’s father sternly told him it was time for bed and refused to answer any more questions. The next morning at breakfast the questions started once more. Naath’s parents made eye contact with each other both thinking the same thing. ‘No wonder our child had such a sign at birth, he is impossibly passionate about cultivation.’ It was in fact the case, Naath was fascinated with every possible aspect of cultivation. From basic cultivation information about elements to alchemy to cooking to forging. If it in any way shape or form had anything to do with cultivation, Naath became enamoured in learning about it.

After Naath questioned everyone in the house to the point of driving them to near madness, his parents decided that it would be good to get him a few teachers. They canceled his normal classes as he knew everything he needed to function in the world already. They then hired instructors for the various facets of cultivation and had some old hermits who had cultivated for decades come by to share their experiences and stories. Through all of their stories Naath began to understand more and more of how the world of cultivation worked. A lot of them said that the world was ruled by the strong alone. Naath disagreed with the thought that “might makes right“. Could someone just because they were mighty, forge a miraculous weapon?

Could their might allow them to create a formation by waving a hand? Could their raw strength cook delicacies? If the strong truly made the rules then why was it that in cultivation that the stronger you got the harder it became to walk to the next stage? After forming this opinion Naath began to look deeper into their stories and learn from them. Many times they would mention battles they barely escaped from and had to make a temporary shelter. Naath took this to heart and memorized how to make such things through study. Eventually Naath learned all he could from these stories and told his parents he no longer needed to hear these stories. They listened and instead started to have his instructors explain their arts in more depth.

They had the alchemists form pills in front of Naath for him to learn, they had them teach him some basic pill formulas and the logic behind them. He learned basic equipment crafting from various masters, he even began to watch as the family chef worked with spiritual foods. There were many many things to learn and soon Naath settled into a routine. He would wake up and join the chef in the kitchen to watch him work on breakfast. He would eat with his family, and then immediately go off to his lessons with his alchemical instructor. After that he would have lessons with his smithing instructor for a few hours. This lesson always took the longest because even without martial energy Naath could start forging.

Without his realising it this slowly gave him a strong physique, as he worked with the metals. After this lesson would be lunch and then Naath would spend the rest of his time at the library. His walks to the library slowly increased his endurance the same way as his smithing classes. He slowly fell into this routine and began to enjoy it day to day. One day while he was at the library though he closed a particular book and let out a breath. He had been in this one section of the library for half a year now and finally finished all of the books on elemental principles and energy sensing. He could also now read through ten books in a single hour. After he closed this book he stretched his arms and legs and got up from his chair going to another part of the library.

As he carried himself to the next section of the library a light smile hung on his face. He had gotten used to this routine of coming down to the library and peacefully reading books all day. Suddenly he had the thought of one day owning his own grand and luxurious library and being able to simply gather books and read in peace. Due to the size of the library he had several minutes to dream of this before he arrived at the next section. This next section contained countless large jade tablets the size of his hand. He stopped as he entered this section and stood looking in awe at the glistening jade tablets. Sitting nearby was the librarian responsible for watching over this section of the library. When he saw Naath his eyes focused and he came out of his usual daze he was in due to the calm environment.

He looked at this young man with interest noting how he looked in case this child broke anything or caused any issues. He made a special point to memorise the odd seemingly three colored mark on the boy's head. It looked like three swirls of a faint white, a faint black, and a faint grey that all faded as they curved backwards and moved towards the center point between them all. After quickly memorising the child's face he went back into his daze and simply let the young man do whatever he wished. He wouldn't wake up from this daze again unless the young man did some things that would harm the library or attempted to steal things. Naath saw the seemingly sleeping librarian open his eyes for a brief moment and then fall back into his sleep and shrugged.

He made his way to the closest shelf of jade tablets, reaching his hand out he gently grabbed the first one at the edge of the shelf. When he looked down though he discovered there was no writing at all on the jade tablet. His expression grew to one of confusion and no matter how he flipped it or used the light to look he couldn't see any writing or feel any bumps on the jade tablet. It was as if it was the smoothest object in existence. Puting the jade tablet back into place he then pulled out the next one in line and then furrowed his eyebrow in deep thought. This one was also as smooth as the first and contained no form of writing whatsoever. Naath pulled out the next five and they all had the same nothing on them.

After seeing this he walked over to the ‘sleeping’ librarian and cleared his throat. When the librarian opened his eyes Naath gently asked “Excuse me elder, can you tell me why these jade tablets have no text at all on them? Why would an item that can’t be read be placed inside of a library?”

The librarian let out a breath and asked, “Young man how old are you? Have you even started to cultivate yet?”

Naath shook his head saying, “I am only seven years old, so I haven’t started to cultivate yet. Why does elder ask?”

The librarian shook his head saying, “I’m sorry to inform you young man but in order to read these slips you must have started to cultivate. You need to use your martial sense to probe the jade tablets in order to read what is imprinted within. If you want to read things, we have an entire section at the front of the library with many thousands of books for you to read as well.”

An odd look appeared on Naath’s face as he said, “Excuse me elder, but I have already finished reading all of those texts. From the short childish books at the bottom all the way up to the encyclopedic scrolls depicting various magical herbs and their basic uses as well as how to raise them. Not only this but I have memorised all of this information by heart.”

The elder seemed to not believe Naath and he asked, “Okay then what is the use of a heart flame flower leaf?”

Naath didn't even flinch when he said, “It has a less potent fire energy than the flower itself and is used to warm the body and to help expel unwanted cold energy, it is good for beginning fire cultivators to use to purify the heat energy somewhat without overwhelming themselves by taking all of the fire energy from the flower into their bodies. It also makes a good tea agent that will warm the heart and calm the spirit. To grow it you need to…”

Naath continued listing all of the information he had memorised on the plant. As the librarian listened his eyes began to widen more and more. When Naath was done the librarian asked yet another question this time about the ice lotus vine. Again Naath recited lines and lines of information to the librarian stunning him even further. The librarian suddenly had a brilliant smile on his face as he asked more and more questions. At the end he had asked dozens of questions. Naath answered them all correctly and in great detail. The elder smiled even wider.

He looked at the young man in front of him and his usually listless eyes sparkled as he asked. “Young man, what is your name, and would you like to study under me? It will give you many benefits inside of this library and even grant you access to otherwise restricted materials. Don't get it confused, I won't be your master, I just want to help a brilliant young talent succeed and continue their studies.”

Naath smiled wide and nodded profusely saying, “Absolutely! Thank you elder! I have wanted nothing more than to learn since I was only five years of age when I first started to read!”

Naath bent his waist and bowed respectfully to the librarian. From this day forward Naath added this to his routine. He would go to the library and the librarian would ask him questions he would answer and in return the librarian would grant him new books to take home that the library did not display to the public. This routine lasted for two and a half years until the librarian gave him a book that had a faint idea about soul energy.