Star Gate

Chapter 491: Borrowing Books (II)

The line of small text hovered for a bit. Li Hao scratched his head—he seemed to be limited to three books.

The young man looked at He Yong and the others. When He Yong approached, it appeared that the machine could see him or sense his identity in other ways. His information appeared moments later. Lieutenant level personnel could borrow two books. Liu Long stepped forward for a try. Regular soldiers could borrow one.

When Li Hao looked up, he realized there were no stairs or access points to the upper floors! That was odd.

“Borrowing books.” Another line appeared on the screen. “The system will automatically transmit books to the Battle Heaven armor upon selection. The physical copy is sealed to protect the heritage of civilization. This library is temporarily closed to the public. The Battle Heaven Army can receive their selections through textual transmission!”

“This must be the legendary smart system!” He Yong sighed with appreciation. “Impressive! Sealing away physical copies for record keeping—the ancient civilization was skilled in not only martial dao, but in other areas as well!”

Hong Yitang bobbed his head rapidly, that was indeed the case. Physical books could be archived to protect the civilization’s legacy, but the knowledge within could be transmitted to the armor. This also prevented enemies from stealing information.

Interest piqued, Li Hao quickly paged through the screen selection. Various titles appeared, each genre populated by an endless selection. Just the number of results to choose from was startling.

Li Hao scanned the screen and saw that there was a keyword search at the top. He immediately understood its function and sighed with amazement. “There’s a library at the Veteris Institute in Silver City as well, but the organization is very haphazard. It’s really hard to find a single book and sometimes we need to go through countless titles before locating it. Only experienced members can quickly hone in on specific books...”

“This is the power of knowledge!” Hong Yitang exhaled with similar sentiment. “Skystar Dynasty also values this, but there are too few intellectuals in the land. Upstairs doesn’t wish to expend too many resources in this area either. It’s just a library, a token effort and simply having books is enough. It’s the ancient civilization that properly values this area.”

Li Hao nodded and thought for a bit, then wrote two characters in the search bar. Martial dao. Countless titles immediately filled the screen, bedazzling the young man. There were so many! How was he to find what he needed? He couldn’t borrow that many titles.

Fundamental theory entered the young man. That quickly cut down the number of books on his screen. There were roughly twenty books on a page and only several dozen pages left, as opposed to the thousands of pages before. That meant there were approximately one thousand books of fundamental theory in the library.

That was still an impressive sum for the basics! Li Hao clicked his tongue with amazement. The library at Veteris Institute in Silver City was the biggest library in the city. It stored the most varied collection of thirty thousand books, a splendid figure indeed. And yet, it paled in comparison to the one at Battle Heaven.

Li Hao decided to look at the fifty pages he could choose from instead of further narrowing the field with more keywords. Since there was no way to see the specific contents of the books, he scanned their titles for inspiration.

“Fundamentals of Palm Methods... Fundamentals of Boxing Methods... Blade Methods...” There were all sorts of basic methods. He didn’t know which to choose and rather wished he could take all of them, but that wasn’t possible.

Li Hao started—one of the book’s names was golden in color. That set it apart from the rest. Fundamental Martial Dao Theory at the Martial University.

The young man blinked. He’d heard about this university several times already, it was a place that taught martial dao during the ancient civilization. That made it similar to the Veteris Institute, only that the institute didn’t teach martial dao.

The fundamental theory classes of this university... should be quite comprehensive, right? Li Hao added it to his selection and continued browsing. Since the book’s title was a different color, it might represent a different level of importance. He saw another book with a peculiar name as he flipped through the pages.

Differences Between the Energy and Blood Qi Systems.

Li Hao’s eyes widened—was the energy system the supernatural system? The Silver Armor had mentioned during his previous visit that supernaturals walked the path of energy. The young man quickly chose this as his second selection. He had one spot left. The others could choose five books total; he would help them with their selection. They might not be able to read the ancient text, but Li Hao could.

He made his final choice a few moments later. Just the titles alone didn’t give him many clues, so he made the selections in accordance with his thoughts. He chose Fundamental Martial Dao Theory at the Martial University, Differences Between the Energy and Blood Qi Systems, and the final title of Fundamentals of Sword Methods.

As a swordsman, he chose a book regarding sword methods as his final choice. There was nothing regarding specific cultivation techniques—this type of content didn’t seem to exist in the library. Li Hao didn’t mind this lack as he didn’t want to bite off more than he could chew. Some general theory was sufficient.

“Martial uncles, chief, come choose your books too!” Data flickered through the screen after he finalized his titles and connected with his armor. He saw lines of numbers inside his armor a second later, indicating that the three books had been stored within and could be accessed at any time.

How convenient! Li Hao truly marveled at the ancient civilization—this technology was incredible! If it existed in modern times, his teacher wouldn’t have to force him into memorizing all sorts of books. He just needed to transmit it as data. The suits of armor were tied to one person and completely confidential. Others would not be able to use them if they laid hands on the equipment.

Many secrets were lost in modern times due to confidentiality clauses. Many secret arts were missing pieces here or there. When the legacy was lost, so was the art. But when it came to the ancients, they could directly transmit their data.

Liu Long swept a glance at the screen; it was unintelligible rubbish to him. “You pick one for me, I can’t read the words!”

“That’s easy enough,” He Yong guffawed. “Differences in title color means differences in importance. Two of the ones that Li Hao chose are in gold. I can go by that!”

Apart from the Fundamentals of Sword Methods, the other two were indeed in golden font.

He Yong wouldn’t stand on ceremony. Although he couldn’t understand anything, he tapped randomly until he saw a book with a golden title. “This is good! The color is bright! I’m choosing this one, Li Hao. What do you think?”

The young man took a casual glance, then sharpened his gaze when surprise registered.

“An Illustrated Collection of Monster Spirits!” he read out. So the man had accidentally tapped his way into the genre of general subjects? “This is a good choice. While there aren’t major monster spirits in Silver Moon, they exist in Ash Mountain. We don’t know much about them. Perhaps there’s points of similarity between the ones now and the ones in the ancient civilization.”

They would be better prepared next time if they were armed with knowledge.

“Told you it was good!” He Yong laughed. “It’s fantastic, there’s a lot of monster spirits in the central region. I may be able to learn about their weaknesses or some things that they don’t know about themselves. The monster spirits in our age haven’t awakened for long. If they were present in the time of the ancient civilization, then the ancients would know a lot more than us!”

Li Hao nodded. The man quickly chose his second book that was also in golden font. A Pictorial of the Treasures of Heaven and Earth. The young man looked at He Yong. How come you’re choosing these kinds of books?

“This is a picture book that records the treasures of heaven and earth...”

“Fantastic!” He Yong roared with laughter. ““This is good too! We don’t recognize all of the treasures we find now and it’s such a pity to overlook them. We don’t always know how to utilize a treasure we find in the ruins, so what’s the point of even finding them? We might accidentally treat treasure as trash too, so this will do!”

Li Hao nodded as well after some thought.

“Of course he’s satisfied,” Hong Yitang said calmly. “These are all illustrated, you just need to look at the pictures. He wouldn’t be as happy if you had him choose something without diagrams...”

Li Hao blinked, while He Yong snapped with irritation, “Stop looking down on me! I’m going to learn the ancient language as soon as we leave!”

But that was indeed the case. All the same, He Yong was overjoyed. Two picture books were better than two he couldn’t read. These books didn’t seem to be communal property, so he’d have to memorize the characters, write them out for Li Hao, and wait for the young man’s translation... that was too difficult!

Picture books wouldn’t have as much text in them and when it came to drawing, He Yong possessed a fair bit of skill. He wasn’t illiterate, after all. He could read, write, and possessed certain skills such as drawing. He just didn’t know the ancient language.

Li Hao smiled and didn’t say anything else.

“Can you help me find books on raising crop yields?” Hong Yitang asked after some thought.

The young man blinked. What did he want that for? Li Hao quickly entered the keyword and pulled up a list of books. There was one in golden font.

“An Encyclopedia of Raising Crops...” he read out. Hong Yitang quickly chose it.

“Now search for a similar encyclopedia for the people’s livelihood.”

Li Hao continued to look and found another before long. “A Log of Basic Infrastructure...”

“That’s it!”

Li Hao quietly selected the book, rounding out Hong Yitang’s selection.

“Li Hao, you choose for me!” Liu Long said nothing else. After some thought and finagling with keywords, Li Hao pulled some one that discussed A Record of Mountains, Rivers, and Terrain. It seemed to be an introduction of major landmarks in the ancient civilization.

Li Hao wished to obtain a better understanding of ancient topography, but there didn’t seem to be a full map anywhere. Or perhaps his clearance wasn’t high enough. Those books might be on the sixth floor out of reach.

They’d all made their selections, rounding out Li Hao’s final wish. Time was of the essence, so they quickly left the library.