Entering the building that had the 'Archive' word carved on the doors, they were met by rows of shelves containing thousands of documents, decrees, maps, and ledgers. Most of this information was old, so the doors were not guarded. The building was composed of a single room and was dimly illuminated by a dozen or so oil lamps hanging from the unadorned walls. Seemingly the building was deserted, but after Zhi Kang loudly called, a small, withered old man slowly appeared from the shadows. This man looked dozens of years older than Zhi Kang, dressed in old, plain grey clothes.

"Administrator Zhi, how Old Rui may serve you and your guests?" Slowly and somewhat weakly he said while walking near them and bowing. All these movements were made at a snail pace, but after a quick look at Elder Chen and Wu Guang, he straightened up and with rapid movements neared Wu Guang while saying in a jovial and energetic tone

"Wu Guang! What a surprise! You returned to the City! Are you here to pay a visit, or to peruse the archive?"

With a sigh, Zhi Kang slowly shook his head and looked at Elder Chen while explaining

"Wu Guang visited the archive every day while studying, and somehow it turned out that Old Rui took a liking to him. He treats him far better than anyone else"

After receiving an angry glance from the man called Old Rui, Administrator Zhi lowered his eyes with a somewhat ashamed expression. Seeing this scene, Elder Chen smiled and nodded to Wu Guang indicating that he should be the one to speak.

"Old Rui, I returned to the city thanks to Elder Chen. Right now, I am accompanying him to investigate a possible way to bypass the city, so we came here and try to find any possible clues in the city founding and Island's war documents" Smiling Wu Guang explained

"This matter has been investigated many times, and nobody had the luck to find anything. But considering that you will take part this time, maybe the heavens will help" Smiled the old man, then asked

"Will you come here to check the documents? Or you intend to take them away? You should know that I would not let anyone take them out"

After sharing a glance with Elder Chen, Wu Guang confirmed the latter. Zhi Kang, after looking at the unease plastered on the old archivist face quietly said

"Do not worry, the Wisdom Palace Master knows how to take care of old documents"

"I would not dare to doubt that, Master" After hearing the introduction, Old Rui deeply bowed to Elder Chen, and his old, shriveled face was covered in admiration.

"Everything time related to the founding of the city, including the maps are located on the row near the eight pair of lamps, please follow me"

Approaching the aforementioned row, they were met by dozens of old, yellowed parchments and scrolls. After a cursory glance, Elder Chen summoned a gentle qi current and proceeded to store them all inside his Holding Pouch.

Old Rui silently showed them to another shelf, that had the records from the Island's War period, they were taken as well. Then he accompanied them to the door.

Right before exiting, Wu Guang whispered something to Elder Chen, and the elder that was silent until this moment suddenly turned to look at Zhi Kang and asked

"Head Administrator, do you mind if I request the services of archivist Rui for this investigation?"

Hearing this, Old Rui's face brightened, and his previous sour expression was gone. Seeing this change, Zhi Kang did not deny the request.

"Wait a moment Palace Master, I will take some of my relevant notes and follow you" Old Rui exclaimed while almost running to the farthest corner of the room. Moments after, he returned, panting, with an old bag that seemed full of books.

"Are you sure that you only took the relevant notes?" Smiling asked Wu Guang

"You offend me youngster" Old Rui answered snappily, but with a mischievous glint in his eyes

"You better behave Old Rui, don't make me regret this" Zhi Kang said while looking at the old man that was suddenly looking half his age.

__________________________________________________________________________________

After parting ways with Head Administrator Zhi, the trio, led by Elder Chen returned to the tower. After motioning to Old Rui and Wu Guang to follow, he ascended to the fifth floor.

There was only a small corridor connecting to the next stairs and a slightly glowing door.

This corridor was brightly illuminated, and the words 'Floor of Wisdom' could be seen etched on the wall right over the door. Before approaching the door, Elder Chen called out to an outer disciple that was descending from the sixth floor, and after the disciple paid his respects, sent him to find Ji Yong and tell him about a second visitor that will stay on the floor.

The glow was originated from the runes that were etched around the door handle, after Elder Chen made some seals and touched the handle, they disappeared and the door opened.

After crossing the door, they entered a big, brightly illuminated square room, full of tables, chairs, and bookshelves. There were four doors located on the right and left sides, and one big door on the front. Elder Chen then explained

"This is the floor assigned to the Wisdom Palace, we will be staying here for the duration of the investigation" Pointing at the doors on the left side

"Each of that doors leads to a room, you can choose one of them for your use" Pointing to the door on the front wall

"That one is the Master study" Then he took a brief pause

"Dinner will be brought here, after eating we will discuss our plans. Old Rui, you can occupy the empty bookshelves, and all the tables you need to sort out the documents. Tomorrow we will shall start researching them earnestly" Saying this, he took out all the documents from his Holding Pouch, and with a gentle qi wave settled them on the tables and chairs scattered around the room. Leaving only one table and four chairs free, seeming for them to use at dinner.

After all that, he nodded and went inside the room that he called the Master study.

Old Rui buried himself into the old documents and started practically running around sorting them. The books from the bag he brought were also taken out, and added to different piles of sorted documents.

While Old Rui was occupied with that, Wu Guang walked to the first door on the left side and entered the room where he will be living for the next few days. The room wasn't big, only about ten feet wide and fifteen long. It had a bed, a pair of chairs, a small bookshelf with some books that acted as a table, a small sink, a closet, and surprisingly a window. This was the first window that he saw in the tower, from it he could see the north-western part of the city, the so-called noble district where most of the officials, rich merchants, and military officers had their houses. Finishing the inspection of the room, he returned to the common room and saw Ji Yong entering, followed by two servants that were carrying food, water, and tea.

"Brother Wu" Ji Yong came near and nodded in greeting, then took out a simple cloth bag from inside the Holding Pouch on his belt and passed it to him

"This pouch has all the daily necessities and a change of clothes"

"Thank you, Brother Ji" Nodded Wu Guang

"I will leave you then, please pass my respects to the Palace Master" After saying this, Ji Yong, followed by the servants that finished setting up the table left the room.

Wu Guang went to his room, placed the bag on one of the chairs, and returned to the Common Room. Seeing that Elder Chen had not appeared yet, Wu Guang went near the study door and gently knocked. After a second, the door opened and Elder Chen appeared. With a gentle nod, he went and sat down at the dinner table. Wu Guang followed, and after a brief wait, Old Rui also sat down. They began to eat in silence and quickly finished. After that, Wu Guang stood up to serve tea, noticing the fourth teacup, he sent a questioning glance at Elder Chen, who nodded in response. Right as the teacups were set and filled with tea, Head Enforcer Zhen Mang entered the room and silently sat down at the table.

After Zhen Mang sat down, Elder Chen made some signs, the door leading towards the stairs closed and runes appeared all around the common room. Seeing Old Rui surprised expression, Zhen Mang explained with a somber face

"We don't want anyone to hear what we will discuss after all. Master Chen already informed me that you will cooperate with us during the search for this mysterious way to bypass the city, so you are bound to hear the full story. You will be not leaving here anyway, so..."

Hearing this, Old Rui did not show any panic, contrary to the expectation of Wu Guang, who already regretted taking the old man out of his cave, Old Rui suddenly smiled and said while making a slapping gesture

"Like I would leave the documents with a brute like you! After all, you did not inherit the gracefulness of your mother"

Hearing this, Zhen Mang suddenly laughed, and seeing the incredulous expression on Wu Guang's face, Old Rui explained

"His mother was the adopted daughter of the previous City Lord, while I was the Head Administrator back then. When his father died fighting a stampede of spirit beasts thirty years ago, his mother took him and moved back into the Manor"

"Oh, I see"

"Well, now that we have finished with that, let's discuss what we did not talk about earlier, and also let Old Rui understand fully" Said Zhen Mang and then recounted the ambush and everything that happened up to the rescue of Wu Guang to Old Rui.

Then he looked at Elder Chen as if confirming that he did not miss anything

"You have explained it correctly, Enforcer Zhen. Now let me share what I found, or better said what I didn't find when investigating the ambush scene. After healing our young friend, I attempted to sense the tracks of the attackers, without any gains. I did notice that the qi was messed, so after an hour, I gained some knowledge about what happened. It seems that a Qi Destroying Crystal was used to hide the tracks, but some time later a natural qi current, or something that feels like that, passed throughout the area and filled up the area. This somewhat negated the Qi Destroying Crystal and I managed to sense the one who used it, it was the person that Zhen Mang identified as Gou Yong, the first commander of Flowing Leaves City"

"So basically there were no tracks that we could follow to find how they bypassed the City" Old Rui summed up

"You are right, but the appearance of a Qi Destroying Crystal is interesting. They are very rare, and I haven't seen one for many years. I will try to investigate if one was sold somewhere" Zhen Mang added

"Where exactly the attack happened?" Asked Old Rui while extending a modern map of the Road and the nearest Wildlands

"Here" Wu Guang pointed

"Interesting, I don't seem to recall that there was anything around that location in any of the ancient maps"

Elder Chen seemed to recall something

"When I rushed back to the city, I sensed some kind of qi disturbance that reminded me of this Gou Yong, it was coming from somewhere south, near this part of the south-east city walls"

"I will send a pair of my enforcers to walk around, maybe they will get lucky and find something" Zhen Mang said and almost instantly sent a message glyph.

"Well, I think we have discussed everything. Tomorrow we will analyze the maps and documents, Zhen Mang, come around noon and we will pass the suspicious locations to you. Although the City Manor offered us their guards, I prefer to keep this matter between us" While standing up, Elder Chen concluded.

Zhen Mang stood up, nodded, and after saying his goodbyes left the room.

Old Rui finished his tea and returned to the piles of documents, intending to finish sorting them before retiring for the night.

Wu Guang remained sitting for a while, but when he stood up he was called by Elder Chen who was standing near the table, seemingly deep in thought

"Come with me, I want to discuss something with you" And started walking towards the study