114 Colleague

Cha Ming returned to the guild the next day, both exhausted and depressed. He forced on a smile as he met Feng Huoshan once more.

"So," Feng Huoshan asked, "how did it go?"

Seeing the man's expectant look, Cha Ming could only sigh and summon the brush. It was now clear and inlaid with multicolored runes. The bristles were now black and white.

"Isn't that the same brush as before?" Huoshan asked.

"It is," Cha Ming admitted. "But seeing how attached to it I was, Master Brush Maker improved it for me. His skill is far greater than I ever imagined." He was careful to conceal its nature as an upgradeable, seemingly sentient treasure. He was sure the brush maker wouldn't disclose such crucial information.

"It's good that you followed my advice and met with him," Huoshan said. "Now that you've seen everything else, it's time for me to show you the library."

Cha Ming followed him excitedly. He could do without the other departments, but not the library. Huoshan quickly led him to a large room that seemed to encompass a quarter of the building. It only had a single floor, but the shelves were extremely tall.

"Guardian Treasure, I need you for a moment," Feng Huoshan yelled. A golden blur shot out from between two bookshelves and ran straight up to the middle-aged man's face.

"Master Feng," the object said. It was a golden ruler that positively gushed over with spiritual force. "As much as I respect you for your attainments, you would do well to remember that THIS IS MY LIBRARY, AND YOU WILL BE QUIET IN IT!" This sentence was twice as loud as Feng Huoshan's original words.

What a hypocrite, Cha Ming thought. As though seeing the doubt in his eyes, the ruler floated up to his face.

"Do you have a problem?" the ruler asked.

"No, sir," Cha Ming replied respectfully.

"That's good," the ruler said. "Seeing as you're new here, I will issue you a library card. How much credit do you wish to purchase?" Cha Ming looked askance at Feng Huoshan. The man sent him a mental reply.

"Can I please have ten thousand credits to start off with?" Cha Ming asked, placing a high-grade spirit stone in front of the golden ruler.

"Certainly," the ruler said. It used its spiritual force to move the crystal to a box behind the desk and withdrew a card with ten golden marks. "Access to the outer library costs five hundred credits per month, and it will be deducted from your card automatically. Access to the inner library costs five thousand credits per month; access to the outer library is included. Now, before you proceed, are you aware of the rules of the library?"

Cha Ming fished through his mind before giving a tentative reply. "Don't eat, drink, or speak loudly?"

"Close, close," the ruler said approvingly. "There is only one rule, the golden rule: Don't damage my books, or I will burn you to ashes! The acceptable noise levels just depend on my mood and the person talking."

Cha Ming shivered as the ruler floated away. Perhaps it's best to communicate mentally here, Cha Ming said to Feng Huoshan.

That is indeed the case, Feng Huoshan replied. Now that you have access to the library, feel free to browse around. Come see me if you run into any issues. I do some tutoring in my spare time.

Master Feng left, and Cha Ming began browsing through the outer library. He heard a mental chime as five hundred points were automatically deducted from his card. In this library, there was a large collection of jade slips, tomes, and scrolls, grouped together by theme or character. For example, there were two full shelves containing over five thousand scrolls with titles like "Calligraphy Exercises for Beginner Talisman Artists" and "Circle Drills—Using the Perfect Shape to Perfect Your Characters."

A little further on, he saw many hundreds of books for one of the simplest talismans, the Blaze Talisman. There were fifty or so how-to books and a few dozen books on increasing success rates. Some books were about specific ink usage. And this was only for a first-grade talisman.

Cha Ming moved on to the next row of shelves. This time, the shelves were occupied by materials on second-grade talismans. It contained double the information for every talisman compared to the first row. Seeing nothing useful, he continued to the third row, where the content doubled once more. In fact, it continued doubling until the seventh grade, where the number of books for each character dropped by a factor of four.

The shelf for the eighth and ninth grades similarly dropped in volume. In fact, the ninth row only contained information on thirty different talismans. Each talisman only had ten books or slips accompanying it.

After having recognized each talisman and being proficient in them, Cha Ming proceeded to a short wall with an open entrance. He could faintly feel a force field permeating the air. After bracing himself, he pushed himself through the intangible wall, and a mental chime informed him that another 4,500 credits had been deducted from his library card. He could also tell that if he had not had sufficient credits, the force field would have rejected him and denied him entry.

The room he entered was not physically isolated from the other library. Rather, it was incorporated into the middle of its circular design. The circular inner wall had four entrances, and like the one he entered, neither of them had doors. The short walls extended up to an invisible force field which both isolated the inner library and kept them joined in such a way that they shared the same roof. The roof was filled with beautiful frescos. In them, he could sense profound meaning represented in the paintings, resonating with his knowledge of runes.

As he wandered farther into the central library, he saw a green pillar in the center. It was covered in myriad runes, some of which he could understand, some of which he could not. This could only mean one thing: They were transcendent runes, runes he wasn't yet qualified to understand, though he could understand some key characters. On all four sides, a plaque was affixed, which translated these characters into the common language.

Library Rules:

1. Willful destruction of library property will result in destruction of the guilty cultivator. To be verified by Inquisitor.

2. Willful damage of library property will result in crippling of the guilty cultivator. To be verified by Inquisitor.

3. Books can be signed out for one week's duration at most. All books must be signed out under oath, with a penalty of 1 high-grade spirit stone per additional day's absence.

The list continued. There was also a waiting list for books that were in short supply. Given his low skill level, Cha Ming proceeded to one of the four shelves where information on least-level talismans was located. To his surprise, there were only fifty or so different books for each element, albeit with several copies each. Three dozen of them outlined least-grade talismans, while a dozen were introductory manuals to magic talismans of a specific element. The five elements as well as wind, lightning, light, and darkness were represented.

He also saw one book entitled Five-Element Talisman Artistry—A Primer. However, he noticed that there were no other books on multiple-element talismans. Each one was for a singular element.

Seeing that this book suited his cultivation technique, Cha Ming opened the book and read the opening lines.

Talisman artistry seeks to encompass the nature of the universe itself, imbue it into ink, and bind it with paper. As such, it is reasonable that the five elements, which compose all matter and energy, are best suited to approximating this nature.

The following text hopes to make complex matters simple and draw inspiration from nature to describe the perfect talisman-creation technique.

The lofty introduction was imbued with the presence of an expert, so even reading these short two paragraphs put immense strain on Cha Ming's mind and soul. Even with his superior memory as a high-level cultivator, he could barely remember the sentences he'd just read.

So powerful, so profound, Cha Ming thought before putting the book away. After a quick browse through the book, he saw that it did not contain any talisman formulas, so he continued to search. After looking through several categories, he remembered his confrontation with the golden devil on the way to Quicksilver. He currently lacked offensive fire techniques, so he settled on the simplest least-grade fire talisman, Five-Fire Cremation Talisman.

The talisman joined five different fire runes into a matrix that amplified them and focused them on a single animate target. It was much weaker than its sister talisman, Five-Fire Conflagration Talisman, which focused on collateral and structural damage. To Cha Ming, this was a good thing. It was also a much simpler talisman to paint. The book was annotated with a sheet of paper that marked it as suggested for the master examination.

After obtaining the book, he continued browsing but saw nothing of interest. He took two items to the central pillar: Five-Fire Cremation, A Detailed Guide for Beginners, and Five-Element Talisman Artistry—A Primer.

To sign them out, he followed the instructions and imbued a trace of his incandescent force into two drops of blood, one for each book, and sent them toward the jade obelisk. It glowed slightly after contacting both books, but as soon as the glow receded, Cha Ming felt an invisible binding on the books loosen while a different binding constricted around his soul. It didn't damage him. It bound him firmly to an oath to protect the books and to pay a penalty for late return.

The consequences of failing to adhere to these oaths were quite dire.

***

Three days later, Cha Ming was painting a talisman in a guild practice room. Sweat accumulated on his brow as he painted the intricate red lines that connected the five runic characters that he had previously painted on the talisman paper. He followed the method described in Five-Element Talisman Artistry—A Primer, drawing inspiration from the nature of fire. He incorporated flickering motions as he painted. As a reference, he kept a small, ever-burning fire beside him in the practice room.

The line he drew was much more than a line. It contained meaning, depth, thickness, and power. And like the many times before, the line was trembling as he painted it. Before long, the first line connected. But the second line he drew immediately afterward began to collapse. Cha Ming focused every fiber of his being on controlling the wild energy. But like the many times before, he ultimately lost control.

The ink did not return to his brush like it used to. Rather, it spiraled out of control, igniting the five flames that were imprinted on the talisman paper and enveloping him in a five-colored wreath of flames.

Cha Ming didn't panic. He threw up a water-based qi shield with practiced ease, dousing the five fires before they consumed him. His lightly burned skin healed in a few breaths, leaving behind only the smell of roast pork to assault his nostrils. His clothes were fine. The gifts he had received from Fuxi's Library were both powerful and durable. Half his hair had burned away, but it regrew in mere moments.

"Why can't I make this work?" he said out loud. He had less than two months to prepare for the examination, and he had barely made any progress. A single line out of fifty was hardly anything to be proud of. The most he had accomplished was setting himself on fire.

As he cleaned the soot and ash off his face, he heard a soft knock on the door. He frowned, wondering what anyone could need him for. It was considered rude to bother someone in seclusion. He opened the door and saw Feng Huoshan.

"That's the fiftieth explosion in three days," Huoshan said with a smile on his face. "Care to take me up on that offer?"

Cha Ming sighed but nodded, letting the man in. "What did you have in mind? I've been trying for days but with no progress."

The most frustrating part was that all the theoretical knowledge on geometric relations from Fuxi's Library wasn't helping him in the slightest. They were theory, and he was dealing with real-world applications. It reminded him of why construction workers mocked engineers, who in turn mocked scientists, who then mocked mathematicians. Each step down the chain was one step further removed from reality.

Feng Huoshan pulled a chair up and sat down beside Cha Ming. "This is quite normal in the beginning. Fortunately, you chose to start with fire, so I will be able to help you."

"What's the price for your tutoring lessons?" Cha Ming asked.

"Price?" Huoshan said, surprised. "I had something rather different in mind. You see, I might be superior to you in some ways, but in other ways I'm lacking. Therefore, I was thinking we could have more of a collegial relationship."

"I excel more than you in some ways?" Cha Ming questioned. "You mean…"

"Runes," Huoshan stated. "Your knowledge of runes far exceeds mine. I confess, during your ninth-grade examination, I couldn't comprehend a single character. Therefore, I propose to help you with this first fire-based talisman in exchange for tutoring on the earth characters you drew that day. To be clear, we will tutor each other until our comprehensions have reached sixty-percent efficiency, the requirements for the examination. What are your thoughts?"

Cha Ming considered for a while before nodding. After all, Feng Huoshan seemed like a nice enough person. He saw no issue in sharing knowledge with him. Of course, he wouldn't teach him the entire knowledge of Fuxi's Library. That was something reserved for fated individuals with merit halos.

"All right, since I offered, let's start by fulfilling my end of the bargain," Huoshan said. "Start painting the Five-Fire Cremation Talisman without worrying for my safety. I can take care of myself."

At his insistence, Cha Ming began crafting the talisman once more. His brush moved swiftly as he imbued the five characters into the paper, just like before. Then he began tracing the first line, which trembled as he painted. He was concentrating far too hard to notice Feng Huoshan's frown over his shoulder.

After the first line was completed, he continued on to the second, which immediately began collapsing. Cha Ming focused his qi and spiritual force to restrain the explosion, only to notice that Feng Huoshan did the same. Together, they suppressed the fire, saving Cha Ming the trouble of dousing himself and regrowing burnt flesh and hair.

Seeing Feng Huoshan's brooding expression, Cha Ming explained. "I fail at this step every time. Believe it or not, this is an improvement over yesterday."

The man sat in silence for a while before speaking up. "I have no idea where you learned what you did," Huoshan said, "but I suggest you unlearn it as quickly as possible."