With such a wealth of knowledge in front of him, Sage wasted no time in picking up the first of the Jade Tablets and ‘flipping’ through it. His consciousness zoomed through the information as quickly as it could, which was more than enough time for him to copy it all down into a Memory Sphere on the Inner World. While he was working, a few hours passed uneventfully, something which he assumed would continue on for the next few weeks or months it would require for him to copy down the entirety of the library. Unfortunately, his hopes were dashed by a sudden loud sound and surge of energy.

He pulled his mind away from the Jade Tablet and made note of the title as he set it back on the shelf. At the same time he was using his Spiritual Sense to investigate the commotion going on around him and he felt a barrier blocking him off. There was a similar barrier around each of the library shelves, but there was now a many times more powerful one surrounding the library. The gate blocking the restricted section of the library was mostly physical, if anyone wanted to breach it, it would alert someone. On the other hand, this protection around the library itself was overwhelming. It felt as strong as the most powerful Sect Defending Arrays that Sage had run into in the past. He’d been examining the stones that made up this castle-like building when he first entered, but now he was getting exposed to their actual capabilities.

A few moments later, a powerful voice boomed through the building. It wasn’t loud, or else such volume might burst the ear drums of weaker Cultivators, instead it was powerful because it carried a force of its own. The voice had a tinge of law energy to it, and Sage was curious about how such a technique worked. It seemed quite useful at impressing people while also giving out orders.

“The library is now under restriction. Everyone is now required to return to the lobby, or you will be considered a conspirator.”

Even if the powerful barrier hadn’t been erected around the library, Sage would have still complied with the command. He had no desire to get on the bad side of the Clear Sky Academy, so he turned to head back down the stairs to the restricted section. He passed through the gate and down a few more flights of stairs. As he approached the central desk he saw not just the old librarian, but a total of nine other people. All but two of them were standing in front of the desk, even the librarian, and across from them was someone somewhat familiar to Sage.

After a moment he realized where he recognized the man from. When he’d first entered the academy, he’d seen this older man with a teacher’s badge escorting a middle aged man, a teenager, and a group of guards and servants. Now, this teacher was here standing beside an older man with a stern and commanding gaze. Sage looked down at this stern man’s chest and identified the badge as a Keeper. On the Inner World they did a bit of quick research and now Sage realized this was a Discipline Keeper.

The Discipline Keeper was holding an ornately decorated club in his hand, which he then held up in the air. He looked at the librarian and she nodded quickly, “This should be everyone, Lord Keeper.”

The man gave the club a shake and waves of power rippled through the building. Sage felt an oppressive law energy within those waves and he was surprised by the unusual law they contained. It wasn’t elemental or weapon centric like most of the laws he ran into, instead it felt reminiscent of a courtroom, or a true public servant. Some sort of justice or balance law? That’s interesting.

The waves of law energy rippled through the building, empowering the Discipline Keeper’s Spiritual Sense. He could feel it rampaging around wantonly through the library, yet there was a clear area around this group of people that was untouched by it. So he must be searching the building without holding anything back.

If the man were to bring down such a powerful Spiritual Sense upon this group of people some of them might be hurt and it would also leave the Discipline Keeper open to retribution. Due to their proximity and the number of people, it was more than possible that a few of them could team up and cause some damage to the man’s Spiritual Sense. Of course, as just a clash between Spiritual Sense it was unlikely they would do a large amount of damage, but it was still something to be worried about if a battle was to follow where every bit of strength counted. The Discipline Keeper was probably hoping there was someone else in the library that would try to resist his Spirit Sense since that would give him a lead. Given the mention of ‘conspirators’ as well as the powerful barrier around the building it was no secret that something had happened already.

The Discipline Keeper lowered his club and looked at the group in front of him while his widely spread Spirit Sense returned to him and formed into a small probe. The man carefully examined each one of them with all of his senses, including the probe of Spirit Sense. None of them dared to resist, letting themselves have their whole bodies searched by the Discipline Keeper. The probe of Spirit Sense was like a Qi based pat-down, a Spirit based sense of touch that was sensitive to energy. Such an invasive action was not usually ever taken, even in the most high security areas, but in this case the Discipline Keeper was serious enough to undertake it.

“Alright, bring them over. I’ll go first.”

These words were directed towards the teacher standing beside the Discipline Keeper. After speaking, the man with the club turned and sped off. He was wrapped in a layer of Qi, letting him move rapidly without disturbing the library. Sage was quite impressed with his speed and how close it came to his own without causing any of the damage to the ground like pure physical strength would. The teacher looked around the group to make sure they were all paying attention. He had a sour look on his face, “You heard the Keeper. Follow me.”

The group started to walk through the library and Sage felt the Discipline Keeper’s Spirit Sense enveloping them all like a blanket. While they walked he also got a chance to have a better look at the others in the group and he recognized far more of them than he’d imagined. Of the nine, there was the teacher leading them and, of course, the librarian. He also saw Keeper Deng, who he’d just left earlier, and the trio of golden haired students he’d seen in the library. That was six. Only the Discipline Keeper and two others were completely unfamiliar to him. One was a dark haired student with heavy bags under her eyes, while the other was another teacher with a similar bag eyed look.

They turned a corner and in front of them they saw the Discipline Keeper standing behind the shape of a person laying face down upon the ground with their limbs askew. The three golden haired students gasped, almost in unison, while the rest of the group had varying looks of surprise upon their faces.

Ahh, so that’s why he was watching us so carefully. He’s brought us to a crime scene and wanted to look for any unusual reactions.