Having completed a test and paying a hefty registration fee, Sage sent his consciousness into the Jade Tablet and immediately frowned. Then he headed towards the main library, a journey which took him through at least ten large open areas with varying forms of decor. From gothic metal and stonework to finely carved wooden cottages, and even perfectly maintained flower gardens. It seemed there was a special courtyard that could fit anyone’s aesthetics. Past the many large open areas he entered one of many stairways, climbing upwards a few floors and then moving down another hallway to a Magic Tool equivalent of an elevator.

Sage had created a much cheaper way to make a similar device, but it didn’t mean that Cultivators didn’t already have their own version. It showed how expensive it was since even here in the Clear Sky Academy this elevator device didn’t stop on every floor. Instead they were used to move between the tiers. In this case, Sage wanted to go to the main library which was on the upper tier where all the large school facilities were. In this way, the school had express elevators, but used stairs otherwise. It wasn’t unreasonable, considering how many of these elevator Magic Tools were listed on the map he saw.

The look of the upper tier was far more like what Sage thought of as a university campus, but it was so large that it was also not unlike a huge sports arena or a convention center. There were so many huge buildings and large gathering areas with young people acting like young people. The difference being they were all Cultivators so instead of using sporting activities to show off, they challenged each other to sparring matches. Old as he was, Sage felt quite out of place, being completely ignored by all the students just like the teachers and other staff.

There was quite a crowd and he didn’t want to make himself stand out so he moved along with the same pace as the others. It took him some time to make his way to the library, which turned out to be a building that looked like an old medieval castle. As he got closer he saw that each of the big bricks of the building were covered in Formation Arrays, which intrigued him as that meant they could link all these arrays together. Sage had also done something similar with the Formation Machine, but it was based around Formation Plates and limited by their size and materials. He stopped to examine the building while on the Inner World he worked with the team of researchers to try and figure out how it was done. The conclusion they came to was that the formation itself had a special quality to it, somewhat like how Sage created Formation Swords.

While the research teams started work on those topics, Sage walked into the library and felt the power of the building thrumming around him. Not only was there a protective barrier around the shelves, he could also feel a sort of will inhabiting it. He looked over to one of the tables where three golden haired students were studying together and saw the protective layer was still present around the Jade Tablets. He reached out to one of the shelves and found that the barrier didn’t stop him from reaching in and picking up a Jade Tablet. He wasn’t foolish enough to attempt to damage them as a test, but he theorized that the will was smart enough to know if anyone was going to harm a tablet and then defended against them.

In the interest of saving time he went over to a circular desk at the center of the first floor where he saw someone with the livery of staff. The old woman turned towards him as he approached, and she spoke with volume just above a whisper.

“Do you need assistance?”

“I’m looking for information about a plant called Ghostwood. Can you direct me to the right section?”

The old woman nodded, “Fourth floor, section 4.”

After thanking the woman, he went to the indicated area and started searching through the tablets. Considering that she didn’t direct him to a specific tablet, it meant she wasn’t familiar with the information. It wasn’t surprising, especially since he only knew it was a ‘Ghostwood’ because that’s what Count Voctem had referred to it as. He also wasn’t expecting a random librarian to have exhaustive knowledge of the whole library. If he was looking for a specific ‘book’ or things created by a specific ‘author’, he was sure they could find him the right Jade Tablets, but since he only knew the characteristics of the Ghostwood, he’d have to search for it the hard way.

Jade Tablets were much easier to peruse using one’s consciousness rather than having to read like a book or scroll. While this wasn’t an ‘instant upload’ it was much easier to consume the contents rapidly in comparison to having to carefully read words from a page. The information wasn’t automatically seared into the mind and still had to be processed by one’s consciousness. On the other hand, Cultivator’s minds were far more powerful than a normal persons, at least when it came to memory, speed of learning, and pure ‘processing power’. The ability to learn, retain and recall information was greatly enhanced, but that didn’t mean they were infallible nor did it change their personality or common sense.

Sage could skim through a whole Jade Tablet in just a few moments, but given the size of the library it took him a few days worth of visits to the Clear Sky Academy’s library before he finished reading through the whole section. Unfortunately, none of the plants or unusual objects in the mass of Jade Tablets matched the attributes of the Ghostwood. On the plus side, because of the time differential, all of the Jade Tablets from this section of the library were copied over to the Inner World. This was quite the benefit and also an annoyance to Guan Zhenyan because it delayed Sage in his job as a debt collector. It was made worse by the fact that Sage had only read a single section of the library and there were many more available.

Zhenyan had to be upset because Sage already decided to stay here for the weeks or months it would take for him to read through the whole library because he’d already found it was far more comprehensive than what he’d learned in the Holy Flame Sect. At the same time, he wasn’t forgetting his original goal, so rather than continue to read through the whole library he sought for more information and learned from the librarian there was a restricted section of the library that had more obscure and valuable information.

The only problem was that he would need to gain the trust of an important staff member in order to get access. The Clear Sky Academy was a place of learning, but it wasn’t created for purely altruistic reasons. In order to gain access to their better resources, he would need to provide them some benefits in return. An academy like this that raised Cultivators would have connections to each of these Cultivators as they matured. As long as just a few of their students could rise to the highest levels they would be safe from any harm or intervention. They made themselves valuable in raising future generations which kept them safe and provided them with resources.

Sage was not a student, so he wouldn’t have the same connection to the Academy. So, if he wished to make use of their resources he would have to prove his trustworthiness or provide some value in return. Becoming someone trustworthy would take a long time and essentially make him a member of the staff. Instead, Sage chose the route of providing value. He was still going to work for the Academy, but not over the long term. Instead he could do some much riskier or difficult tasks to show his sincerity.

He learned of these details from the rules booklets and also knew where to head to find these sorts of jobs. The place he had to go was just a small office with a large Stone Tablet upon a table and a single attendant. Placing his hand on the tablet he found a huge list of jobs, their requirements, and rewards. After searching through it, he smiled.

That’s the one.