"You bastard, Jun Jiu-the new guy!” the man bellowed, his voice echoing across the courtyard.
"It''s your job to assist me as your senior in managing the ntation! How is it possible that you haven''t reported for work for an entire month? If I don''t beat you to death today, then I''m the pig!"
Alex slowly opened his eyes and ended his meditation.
The shout had shattered the quiet around his small hut.
He stepped outside and walked into the courtyard.
An Outer Sect disciple stood there, ring at him with obvious fury.
Alex paused for a moment. He had only been here a short time and still didn''t understand how many things worked inside the sect.
He decided to ask.
But before he could even speak, the man who had been ready to explode with rage suddenly froze.
His eyes narrowed as he stared at Alex carefully, studying his face as if digging through his memory.
"...Wait."
The man''s expression changed.
"Are you... the guy from the kitchen?” he asked suddenly.
"Yes," Alex replied calmly.
The man''s face instantly turned pale.
All the anger vanished as if someone had poured cold water over his head.
“I—I''m sorry! I made a mistake. Wrong person... wrong ce," the man said quickly, his voice suddenly nervous. "Sorry. I''m looking for someone else."
Without waiting for another word, he turned around and hurried away as fast as he could.
As he ran, the man cursed himself under his breath.
"Damn it... how did I end up yelling at that junior? That''s the monster who defeated both the Dragon Group and the Tiger Group. I''d better stay far away from him. It''s safer if I work alone."
Back in the courtyard, Alex scratched his head.
He had no idea what had just happened.
After standing there for a moment, he looked down at the book in his hands— Twenty Thousand Herbs.
He suddenly remembered that he needed to return the book so he could receive the next volume.
Since it was already daytime, he figured this was the right moment to visit the ce the senior had mentioned before.
The Scripture Pavilion.
The pavilion was located quite far from his residence, on the opposite side of the mountain.
Alex began walking.
Nearly an hour passed before he finally saw a cluster of tall pagodas rising in the distance, their roofsyered like des against the sky.
The ce looked ancient and solemn.
Along the path, Alex encountered quite a few other Outer Sect disciples.
Most of them were moving quickly, busy with their own matters.
When they noticed Alex, they barely gave him a nce.
Some simply ignored himpletely.
Alex didn''t mind.
However, he could clearly sense that most of the disciples he passed possessed cultivation levels far higher than his own.
Because of that, he moved forward cautiously.
There were even a few disciples whose cultivation was so deep that Alex couldn''t sense anything from them at all. Their strength felt like a sealed ocean-impossible to read.
Those disciples were different from the rest.
Wherever they walked, crowds of other disciples gathered around them,ughing
and chatting as if they were honored to walk beside them.
Alex watched quietly as they passed.
Then he continued walking toward the Scripture Pavilion.
The closer Alex got to the Scripture Pavilion, the thicker the crowd became.
Outer Sect disciples moved in every direction—some hurrying inside, others walking out with stacks of books under their arms. The noise of voices and footsteps filled the air.
Alex pushed his way through the crowd and headed toward the entrance.
The Scripture Pavilion towered over the surrounding buildings. It had four floors, each level rising like a quiet guardian of ancient knowledge.
When Alex stepped inside the first floor, he stopped for a moment.
The entire floor was packed with long wooden tables and rows upon rows of bookshelves. Books and bamboo scrolls filled every corner of the hall.
Near the entrance, behind arge wooden table, an old man sat quietly with his eyes closed in meditation.
He lookedpletely still, as if he had been sitting there for decades.
One by one, disciples who wished to enter would ce their Outer Sect identity medallion on the table before walking deeper into the pavilion.
Alex nced at the medallion hanging from his waist.
The small metal piece had his name engraved clearly on its surface.
Jun Jiu.
Following what everyone else was doing, Alex walked to the table.
He ced the book Twenty Thousand Herbs on the table and set his medallion on
top of it.
He didn''t see anyone writing anything down, but it seemed obvious that someone would record the return of the bookter.
Many disciples simply left their medallions there and retrieved them when they finished browsing the library.
Alex left his medallion where it was and began to walk around.
The first floor was enormous.
Rows of tall shelves stretched across the hall, packed tightly with paper books and the asional bamboo scroll. A faint glow shimmered around many of them, giving the entire floor a strange, mystical atmosphere.
The air itself felt heavy with knowledge.
After wandering for a while, Alex noticed a staircase in the distance that led to the second floor.
Curious, he walked toward it.
But the moment he tried to step onto the first stair, his foot bounced back as if he had hit an invisible wall.
Alex blinked in surprise.
Off to the side, a young man sat calmly with a bamboo scroll in his hands. His eyebrows were sharp and straight, giving him a naturally cold expression.
When he sensed what had happened, he slowly looked up at Alex.
Alex immediately put on his most friendly smile.
"Elder Brother," he said politely, "what qualifications do you need to go up there?"
The young man stared at him for a moment.
Then he scoffed.
"People like you will never step foot on the second floor,” he said coldly. "Why bother asking?"
Alex kept smiling.
"Right," he said lightly.
He could already tell the young man didn''t want to be disturbed.
So he simply dropped the subject.
Instead of wasting time on the second floor, Alex turned back and began wandering through the first floor again.
asionally he picked up a book and flipped through its pages. Other times he examined bamboo scrolls filled with strange symbols and cultivation diagrams.
The variety of magical techniques was astonishing.
There were cultivation manuals, martial techniques, herbal records, and mysterious
spells that seemed both powerful and dangerous.
Alex felt like a child standing inside a treasure vault.
Suddenly, Gaia''s voice echoed softly inside his mind.
"Master, do you want me to record all of these books?" she asked.
Alex paused.
Gaia continued speaking.
"After I analyze and summarize them, I can extract the best knowledge for you. Or, if
you prefer, I can directly upload the memories into your brain while you sleep."
Alex raised an eyebrow.
"How exactly would that work?" he asked.
“Just skim the pages," Gaia replied calmly. “My rapid imaging system will capture
everything in milliseconds."
Alex''s eyes suddenly lit up.
A wide grin spread across his face.
If Gaia could record everything this quickly, then every book inside this pavilion could be copied and stored. Later he could share the knowledge with the people in Estoria
His excitement grew.
"Then let''s start," Alex muttered.
He walked to the nearest shelf and picked up the first book.
He opened it, flipped through the pages quickly, then returned it to its ce.
Then he grabbed the next one.
And the next.
Page after page. Book after book.
He moved methodically down the rows, repeating the same action over and over
again—pick up, skim, return.
To anyone watching, the behavior lookedpletely insane.
Several disciples nced at him with confused expressions.
Some whispered among themselves.
After half a day of this strange activity, one of the pavilion staff members finally
approached him.
The man crossed his arms and frowned.
"What exactly are you doing?" the staff member asked. “You''ve been opening books
and skimming them all day."
Alex looked up and gave him a friendly smile.
"I''m trying to find the cultivation method that suits me best," he exined casually. "All of these books look interesting, so I thought I''d skim the titles and pages before choosing one."
The staff member snorted.
"What a clueless newbie."
He shook his head.
"Just make sure you don''t damage the books."
"Yes, yes, of course," Alex replied quickly.
The moment the man left, Alex continued his work.
Book after book.
Hour after hour.
Night eventually fell.
But the Scripture Pavilion did not close.
It remained open day and night, a quiet sanctuary of knowledge that never slept.
Alex pulled out one of his food pills and swallowed it to keep his strength up.
Whenever exhaustion crept in, he would lie down on one of the long wooden tables and sleep for a short while.
Then he would get up and start again.
The strange routine continued.
One day passed.
Then another.
By the third day, almost everyone inside the pavilion had noticed him.
By the fifth day, Alex had be something of a legend.
The disciples whispered about the strange man who did nothing but skim every
book in the library.
By the seventh day, he had earned a reputation.
The freak of the Scripture Pavilion.
Some disciples even avoided walking near him.
They thought he might be mentally unstable.
But Alex didn''t care.
He continued flipping through books until the final one passed through his hands.
When he finished thest book on the first floor, Alex finally stretched his stiff arms.
Then he walked toward the entrance.
He nned to retrieve his identity medallion.
But just as he reached the table-
The old man behind it suddenly opened his eyes.
The sharp gaze felt like a de cutting through the air.
"You searched through books for seven days and seven nights," the old man said
slowly. “Yet you didn''t take a single one with you.”
His eyes locked onto Alex.
"Why?"
Alex immediately sensed the power hidden within that gaze.
The old man''s eyes were bright and sharp, filled with deep inner energy.
Alex answered honestly.
"I don''t want to waste time studying a cultivation method that isn''t the best."
The old man studied him quietly for a moment.
Then he nodded.
"The better manuals are on the second and third floors,” he said
calmly if you be an
Intermediate Apothecary, you will be
allowed to enter the second floor."
With that, the old man slowly closed his eyes again and returned to meditation.
But Alex stood there, frozen.
A me had ignited inside his chest.
Better cultivation methods... waiting upstairs.
If he could reach them, his progress would skyrocket.
Then he suddenly remembered something. Thousand Herbs Peak trained apothecaries.
Alex''s eyes narrowed with determination.
"Well then," he murmured to himself.
"I''ll be an apothecary."