“Welcome, respected Grand Magister.”
The magic puppet at the entrance of the Great Library emitted a mechanical synthesized voice.
The heavy alloy doors opened, and Xia An stepped inside.
Inside the spacious hall, the mage apprentices who passed by, upon seeing Xia An in his Grand Magister robes, all stepped aside and bowed.
The Deep Blue Great Libraries were not limited to this one, but each one was a behemoth that occupied at least an entire floor.
The single floor area of the Deep Blue Magic Tower was about the size of Tiananmen Square.
To build this ten-thousand-story giant tower, the Sages had literally dug the surrounding mountains into a wasteland.
A library of such vast size naturally housed countless books.
For those wandering mages who were unrefined, without direction, and had not yet entered the halls of true magic, these books were an inexhaustible treasure trove.
This was the reason why mages flocked to the Deep Blue Magic Tower.
The books in this No.7 Great Library were divided into four sections corresponding to the four eras: from the oldest Genesis Era, to the subsequent Mythological Era, the Age of Strife, and the current Dark Era.
Generally, the older the magic, the more powerful and higher level it was.
But at the same time, it was more cumbersome and required higher amounts of mana and mental strength from the mage.
After the [Guanxingzhe], one of the Three Saint Kings of humanity during the Age of Strife, established a magic system suitable for humans, newly developed magics moved toward lightweighting.
That is, the closer the invention time point, the simpler the magic was at the same tier.
Do not underestimate simple low-level magic.
In duels between high-level Archmages, these low-level spells were actually more commonly used.
In gaming terms, these low-level spells had fast startup, short recovery, and controllable power.
By brute-forcing with the immense mana of Grand Magisters, they could still deal tons of damage.
Walking between the book walls, rows of bookshelves dozens of meters high cut the space of the Great Library into independent, quiet little worlds.
For someone of Xia An’s level, these elementary knowledges were no longer really needed.
He had come to find suitable magic for Luo Ya to use.
Passing rows of tall bookshelves, Xia An walked toward the deepest Forbidden Books Area.
If she was going to learn, she might as well learn something exciting.
Xia An would personally vet for Luo Ya, to see if he could get her something like the Burning Technique, a kind of cheater magic.
Having a high-level mage as a teacher had this advantage: the risk of using forbidden spells was greatly reduced.
Pushing open the ancient wooden door located between two bookshelves, carved with magic runes, the light from outside seemed to be blocked outside.
The Forbidden Books Area was extremely dim, with only the faint flames of eternal lamps between the rows of shelves, each lamp burning in the darkness stretching all the way to the deepest shadows.
Sensing a different spatial fluctuation, Xia An realized that this was an independent space created using spatial folding technology.
There were many such spaces in the Deep Blue Magic Tower; the manufacturing technique was not low, because it involved the domain of space and required at least a Sage to be present.
“Mmm… mmm…”
A groaning sound came from the counter.
A young girl, awakened by the footsteps, sat up from the counter with sleepy eyes.
The girl wore a large pointed witch hat and a magic robe.
Her frost-gold long hair was frizzy due to long-term sloppy habits.
However, there was no unpleasant odor; instead, she exuded a uniquely feminine scent.
Her upper body was in a loose shirt, and her lower body had black stockings matched with delicate leather shoes.
But strangely, the girl’s neck and both hands were restrained with metal shackles, and there were chains connecting them in pairs, making her look like a prisoner.
“Oh my, isn’t this the young Grand Magister?”
The girl greeted Xia An with a frivolous tone.
Xia An thought back in his memory and recalled who this girl was.
Girl—no, a lady who looked like a girl—named Ye Yan.
She was a pure-blood witch and also a Traveling Mage.
Because Xia An often came to the Forbidden Books Area, the two had gotten familiar over time.
As a Traveling Mage, Ye Yan had traveled for at least over ten years and passed through countless regions.
When she passed through Deep Blue territory, she came into conflict with a Sage of Deep Blue, which eventually escalated into a magic duel.
The result was Ye Yan’s narrow defeat; she had two arms and one leg broken and became a prisoner of Deep Blue.
The Sage Council also found it a headache.
Since she was a pure-blood witch, they dared not actually kill her.
But to imprison her would cost manpower and resources that would not be worth it.
Finally, after discussion, the Sage Council decided to let Ye Yan serve as the administrator of the Forbidden Books Area for thirty years, after which she could go wherever she pleased.
Ye Yan herself was a rather easygoing person.
Upon hearing that she could freely read any book in the Forbidden Books Area, she naturally had no complaints about the judgment.
She happily selected a set of restraints, put them on, and came here to start slacking off.
That set of restraints had absolutely no magic-sealing ability; it was purely for show.
With Ye Yan’s Half-step Sage strength, it counted as voluntary imprisonment.
It was probably like: We’ll draw a circle here; you stay inside and don’t come out, as a favor to us.
Now a few years had passed, and Ye Yan had practically become a member of the entire Deep Blue Magic Tower.
Originally, the choice of administrator for the Forbidden Books Area was a thorny issue—selecting someone from any faction would be inappropriate.
Now, with Ye Yan, a qualified third party who belonged to no faction and had no interests with other factions, her becoming the administrator became a decision recognized by all.
Now there were even rumors that this mysterious witch lady and the Sage who had dueled her had become good friends.
Some claimed to have seen them with their arms around each other, drinking until the world went dark in a bar on some floor.
In short, Ye Yan was also a legendary figure in Deep Blue, one of the prototypes for the eerie tales passed among the apprentices.
Ye Yan’s age was unknown, but she was likely over fifty and under one hundred.
By pure-blood witch standards, she was very young.
After all, witches were a mythical race on par with vampires, elves, dragons, demons, and celestials.
In terms of witch lifespan, Ye Yan had just reached adulthood not long ago.
“I’m here to find magic suitable for an apprentice’s use.”
Xia An said.
“For that little apprentice you just took in?”
‘No, word already got out this fast?’
Xia An clicked his tongue internally.
“What? Why are you looking at me like that? Since even a shut-in like me knows, then probably everyone knows.”
Ye Yan shrugged.
“There are so many Grand Magisters, and I’ve only just become one not long ago. What’s worth paying attention to about me taking on a disciple?”
Xia An frowned.
“Little Xia An, I see you completely don’t understand.”
Ye Yan sighed.
“You’re not even twenty-five yet. Becoming a Grand Magister so young—what about the future? If you become a Sage later, wouldn’t it be a huge profit to follow you now? You know, being a Sage’s disciple and being a Grand Magister’s disciple are completely different concepts. Not to mention that someone like you, who just became a Grand Magister, urgently needs a few disciples to solidify your position. Many people are watching you closely.”
“Besides, a mage’s disciple—hah. It’s called a disciple, but everyone knows what it really is. If you bring in an experimental consumable under the name of disciple, or if you have that kind of taste and want some fun, raising a little slave girl or something, no one would care. But you let her walk into Deep Blue wearing your mage robe in full view of everyone. That’s the treatment of a closed-door disciple.”
Ye Yan’s amber eyes sparkled as if she had found a treasure.
“Hey, tell me about it. What did you see in that girl? Let me get the gossip.”
‘So that’s how it is?’
Xia An pondered inwardly.
‘I was careless before.’
‘But… the future?’
‘Sorry, there is no future.’
He knew his own situation well.
Xia An’s Grand Magister status was inflated; the vast amount of mana came from the Cold Calamity dwelling within his body.
That thing was like a death warrant, consuming his own life.
“Don’t worry about so much. This is my own business,” Xia An said with a frown.
Ye Yan pretended to look hurt.
“Alright, alright, we’ve grown distant, we’ve grown distant. Little Xia An won’t even tell me his little secrets anymore…”
Xia An knew Ye Yan was always so unreliable, so he ignored her and walked straight inside.
“I should warn you in advance, you know.”
Ye Yan’s voice came from behind.
Xia An stopped, turned his head, and turned around.
“If you really want to take that lucky girl you picked up as your closed-door disciple, then that child had better truly have the talent to become a Grand Magister’s closed-door disciple. If she doesn’t, then she’ll be unworthy of the position. Even if you protect her a hundred times over, she won’t have an easy time. Do you understand what I mean?”
In the dim room, the atmosphere was silent for a moment.
“I have it figured out.”
Xia An said.
“Alright.”
Ye Yan stretched.
“I’ll say no more.”
Then the young witch lay back down, closed her eyes, and made small, comfortable sounds, dedicating her limited life to infinite slacking off.
Xia An turned around and walked toward the deep darkness.