Daily life of a cultivation judge

Yang Qing couldn't help but sigh at the sight before him. He had been at the library countless times but every time he came by, he would be struck by the same look of awe every time his gaze fell on it. Even though it didn't exist in a separate space and shared the same ground as the Institute, its presence always made it seem like it existed in a separate dimension.

Yang Qing slightly craned his neck as he looked upwards. The building before him was in the form of a dome that seemed to touch the sky. Its size was so huge that it made it seem like an eclipse had arrived.

The building itself was made of gold silk living dao sand, which made it seem like a waterfall of gold sand that released an ethereal light and sound. One could feel the voices of sages of countless eras coming from each of the grains of the gold silk living dao sand. It was one of the unique features of the sand. The sand contained countless laws and profundities that made up the world, and it could echo them to the world in a perceivable form.

Countless meditation mats could be seen outside the library, and the reason for that was the unique feature of the gold silk living dao sand. There were countless cultivators, some from the Order, and others from outside who had obtained the opportunity either through the token allocation system and had come to the Institute as students, or through a merit conversion system. This was where the outsiders who completed the missions assigned by the Order could choose to convert the payment into a meditation spot outside the Grand Library.

Meditating next to the library while hearing those voices was similar to being preached to by a senior who knew their way around countless different types of dao. While it wasn't guaranteed you would harvest anything from meditating there, those who had high comprehension were almost guaranteed to reap countless benefits from meditating next to the voices contained within the sands. Some gained deeper understanding and clarity into their own cultivation arts because of those voices, while others found a new path entirely, with others receiving the slight nudge they needed to step onto a wide path.

Yang Qing himself had been one of those who occasionally meditated outside on those mats, especially in his first and second years as a student. Meditating outside always helped him string countless thoughts and ideas he had. The voices had a way of helping him separate the useless stuff from what was important. It helped narrow down his focus. He made leaps and bounds in his understanding of different cultivation arts because of it. He only stopped the meditation when he got into the superior core court and had his library privileges raised.

While meditating to those voices had countless benefits, inside was way better, especially the higher the levels one went. Comprehending the dao was easier inside the library than it was outside.

Wasting no time, Yang Qing walked to one of the entrances of the library. Yang Qing did not need to walk that distance, as he could teleport to whichever floor he wanted with the black shell in his hands, but he nonetheless wanted to enjoy the feeling of walking a bit of the journey.

Inside the library was like he had stepped into another realm. The first floor, also known as the common sense general floor, stretched as far as the eyes could see, filled with countless rows of shelves filled with scrolls, old tomes, books, talismans, reading tables, meditation stones, and mats, spread all over. The shelves seemed to extend to the skies.

Yang Qing couldn't help but smile when he saw the scenes happening around him, especially above him when he saw probably first years at the Institute, outside cultivators some looked to be part of the token system with others here as a result of merit exchange, but regardless of their identities, based on their faces, they all had one thing in common, it was their first time at the Grand Library, and it was the first time they used the Starry sky scroll carpet.

Carpets that looked to be made of some kind of golden brown parchment with scribblings that glittered like stars crisscrossed gently around the library like a piece of paper gliding with the wind guiding its trails. The carpets had cultivators sitting atop them and from the look on their faces, one could easily distinguish those who were used to it, from those who it was their first time. The latter all had looks of excitement, coupled with fear for a number of them who kept looking down as if afraid they would fall.ɴᴇᴡ ɴᴏᴠᴇʟ ᴄʜᴀᴘᴛᴇʀs ᴀʀᴇ ᴘᴜʙʟɪsʜᴇᴅ ᴏɴ ɴovᴇlꜰɪre.ɴet

The scroll-like carpets were artifacts used to not only facilitate movement around the library but they serve as cultivation and meditation mats. Saying the library was huge, was an understatement, as just the general floor itself, Yang Qing couldn't completely sense it all with his palace sense. As a student, he had once tried to see how large it really was as a bet hinged on it, and he found out it was about the size of a prosperous city of a rank 3 empire, something like the Purple City of the Red Maple Empire.

Moving around a place that large would be as easy as a palace realm cultivator who could fly at great speeds and cover great distances within a short period, but expecting a qi or even foundation establishment cultivator to do the same, would torture them. They were liable to get lost in the place, or not find what they were looking for. That was where the Starry skies scroll carpet came into play. They were artifacts that helped the cultivators get around the library. They were sentient and also had countless arrays inscribed on them that eased the library experience for all.

Said artifacts could only be used if one had a library token, which served as the key to activating and accessing them. All the artifacts had the collection catalog of the entire library stored in them, and one could access that information by pouring their spiritual essence into the artifact via their library token. The catalog of information they had access to was restricted to the clearance levels afforded to their tokens. Once they had access to the information, all they had to was think of it, and the artifact would transport them to the designated area with the specified information. And if the user had nothing specific just general for example they were interested in sword arts, the artifact would provide a list of all sword arts within that floor, arranged categorically either by elements or other factors along with a brief description that can assist the cultivator to decide.

Down below at the tables, there were spirit thought transmission balls that had a similar feature. However, even with the spirit thought transmission balls, one would still need to use the starry skies scroll carpets to collect them. It was only on the blue-grade floors that things were different. There were celestial flow orbs that would instantly transmit whatever scrolls, jade talismans, parchments, or other items of information from a single thought from the cultivator, and unlike the general floor, which had a communal sense to it, the blue-grade floors, even the top tier orange grade floor had private chambers for reading and cultivating.

Yang Qing used his token to call for a starry skies scroll carpet. Reading the unique signature of his token, a single-person carpet came to him drawing envious looks from the cultivators around who recognized the carpet as a floor-traversing carpet. Yang Qing ignored the curious glances around him as he closed his eyes to meditate slightly in an effort to calm his rapidly beating heart as he willed the artifact to transport him to the low-tier gold-grade floor. He could have flown there himself or even used the token to immediately teleport there, but using the artifact suited his needs perfectly. He was too anxious to fly by himself, and he also wanted to savor the moment of reaching there which an instant teleportation would deprive him of. He wasn't sure when he would get such an opportunity, but while he could, he would make it as memorable as possible, which included taking the scenic route to the floor.

The artifact went through special channels, moving from floor to floor, ascending to Yang Qing's target location, the low-tier gold-grade floor. He intentionally slowed down its pace, which was why it took almost twenty minutes before he reached it, and when he did, he knew the place would shock him to no end, but even then he had underestimated how much.

Yang Qing's eyes were wide open in disbelief as he felt like he had been transported to some immortal's lair. Even though he knew he was indoors, he could see purple-gold clouds above him, surrounded by rainbow lights and rays filled with auspicious lights. Hills stretched as far as the eye could see, each hill releasing an ancient aura like it had born silent witness to the rise and fall of countless eras and epochs. Yang Qing's eyes went wide when he sensed thousands upon thousands of dao markings, lights, and charms being released from tiny cracks that had formed on those hills.

Between the hills was a meandering river that was ethereal and mysterious. In Yang Qing's eyes, it looked no different than the river of destiny as the water that comprised it seemed to contain countless profundities and laws, with the river being its source as it transported it all around the place.

"Is this still the library?" muttered Yang Qing when he saw the dense rich spiritual qi that was infused with the power of dao transform into different auspicious beasts such as the vermilion bird, the phoenix, the Qilin, the dragon tortoise among others.

Where were the books? the shelves, the cultivation chambers, furniture, and other facilities he had expected to find.