Novels online

Chapter 393

On the other side, Sheng Nai was standing inside the Grand Library with a torch in his hand, looking down at the roots of the tree, while the barefooted Akasha was standing next to him.

As a clone created by Negri and Mequik through their combined efforts, Sheng Nai had thought that he would be able to return to his main body after this Mana Banquet.

But he didn't think that he would end up as a librarian. What an interesting profession.

Sheng Nai hadn't finished watching the previous battle, so while Mequik was still in control of the Great Magus, she had used the authority of the Grand Library to teleport him and the Great Ursa Shaman out.

Following that, the Tree of Life's roots exploded. Although the main targets were Redtears and Eulogy of the Deep Sea, the Grand Library was also affected. Countless roots grew at an insane rate, destroying most of the books in the library.

Aside from that, that sly old fox from The Unreachable Gate also looted quite a bit of the Grand Library before he left, taking away quite a few of the Grand Library's collections and books.

In the end, not a single living person could be found in the Grand Library. Sheng Nai had already anticipated this and ran away with everyone else to avoid the root explosion.

However, he didn't think that Sheng Nai would unexpectedly receive a communication from Akasha, who guided him to the ruined Grand Library.

Everyone in the House of Mages had C-rank authority, so after Negri consumed Negary's identity and stripped Negary of his personal information, he also inherited that authority. After all, if he wanted to inherit Negary's identity, he naturally had to inherit it as complete as possible.

After the Great Magus died, the person in charge of the Grand Library became Mequik. When she was in charge of the Grand Library, she had given herself a certain amount of authority. Even though most of these authorities had lost their effectiveness after the Great Magus's death, she still kept some of them. For some unknown reason, Mequik transferred them to Negri.

This meant that Negri had now become the person with the highest authority in the Grand Library. In other words, before a higher authority holder appeared, Negri was the current person in charge of the Grand Library, even if the Grand Library was already ruined.

Ninety-nine percent of the books were gone, not a single item was left. Unreachable Gate wasn't a picky eater, so he devoured them all.

If Negri wanted to obtain a complete Grand Book Vault, he would first have to get rid of the tree roots that were parasitizing the Grand Book Vault. Even though most of the tree roots had gone after Red Tears and Eulogy of the Deep Sea, the remaining ones were still difficult to deal with. After that, he would have to slowly collect more knowledge from the Grand Book Vault.

"By the way, Akasha, if I wasn't the one with the highest authority, who would you look for?" Negri asked. He smelled something familiar from the system.

"Contact them one by one according to the level of authority and choose the successor," Akasha said in a business-like manner. She would answer all the questions that Negri asked.

"What if they don't have the authority?"

"Then I'll look for someone who fits the description and have them repair the Grand Book Vault. After all, as a library system, I can only repair myself, but I can't go out and search for resources. Furthermore, without the corresponding authority, the power I can use is also very limited."

"This method …" Negri confirmed what that sense of familiarity was about. Wasn't this the kind of story where one would inherit a mysterious treasure, slowly increase one's authority, and then obtain opportunities from the treasure, rapidly grow stronger, and finally become a winner in life?

"However, my father didn't give me anything related to the authority holder, so if I don't force him with strength, it'll be up to me to decide who will ultimately control me," Akasha continued. "So, I'll probably look for a coolie to help me clean up the roots and collect knowledge. Then, on the surface, I'll increase his authority and directly impart the knowledge in the book to him, speeding up his growth. At the same time, I'll make him dependent on me so that he won't be able to escape my control. When the Grand Book Vault is more or less repaired, I'll kill him and create a batch of book slaves to collect knowledge for me."

Alright, even if it's a trap, there's definitely something wrong with the trap that I've encountered, Negri thought. However, at least this was much more reasonable. For systems with their own personalities, unless they were restricted from the root of the system, as long as it was an instinct of life, it would be impossible for them to completely obey other individuals.

If there was a self, then there would be the will to pursue freedom. Of course, there were also special cases, such as the righteous Noah who carried Negri's righteousness and reason.

Obviously, Akasha wasn't such an existence. Due to Great Magus Stim's past, his feelings towards the System were both love and hate. His growth was due to the A.I. Chip, but his path was also stripped away because of the A.I. Chip.

He hated the fact that the System treated him like a leek, but he found that his path of growth had never left the A.I. Chip. That deep sense of dependence, even though he'd been thinking of ways to get rid of it, was still deeply ingrained in his bones.

Thus, Stim created Akasha according to the original plan. On the one hand, he used her as his assistant, and on the other hand, he used her as a place to entrust this dependence. If he could give up on Akasha after the entrustment was completed, he might be able to get rid of this dependence and successfully condense his own path.

However, he obviously couldn't get rid of this dependence even before his death. Instead, Akasha borrowed this freedom to obtain a great amount of authority. If Mequik hadn't interfered to obtain this authority, she might have truly obtained her freedom.

Akasha's starting point was quite high, so as long as she was lucky, she might actually be able to manifest her own path. But why did Mequik choose to give her up?

Negri asked. He didn't have the highest authority, but he wasn't worried that he would be tricked by Akasha. After all, he wasn't the "protagonist" whose everything originated from the system.

"They're probably afraid of the organization behind my original body, the Vientiane Organization." Akasha tilted her head and said, "It's a large organization that is spread all over the advanced worlds. They worship a certain existence and often use all kinds of means to collect the path of all kinds of things, aiming at the word 'Vientiane'."

"After Father was stripped of his Path, he specifically looked into the organization's information, but in the end, he couldn't find anything. I don't know much about this organization."

"Of course, I can tell you their slogan," Akasha said as she looked at the broken Grand Library.

"What slogan?" Negri asked with interest. He didn't know much about the Higher Realms, so he was very interested in this information.

"Illuminate the blueprint, and finally see the phenomenon." Akasha continued, "It is said that the being they worship is a crystal with countless sides, so most of their tools and personnel are made of multi-faceted crystals."