Leaving the classroom and its petty dramas behind, Lin Yun followed the winding paths of the academy towards a towering structure that dominated the skyline.
The Profound Sky Academy's library was not a building; it was a monument to knowledge. It rose nine stories high, constructed of dark, weathered wood and pale jade, its eaves sweeping upwards as if reaching for the clouds. It was larger than any library, any cathedral, any structure he had ever seen on Earth.
He presented his simple student token at the entrance, and a faint shimmer of light from the doorframe scanned it before granting him access.
Stepping inside was like stepping into another world. The air was cool and carried the faint, dry, comforting scent of old paper and sandalwood.
The first floor alone was vast, with towering shelves arranged in labyrinthine rows, stretching farther than his eyes could see. Light came from glowing crystals embedded in the ceiling, casting a soft, even illumination.
He knew from the memories that access to the higher floors was restricted by cultivation level. The first floor was for Qi Condensation disciples like himself. The second required Foundation Establishment, and so on, with the most profound and powerful texts kept at the very top. For now, the first floor was more than enough.
His first goal was context. He needed to understand the world he now inhabited. He navigated the immense space, his footsteps echoing softly on the polished stone floor, until he found a section marked "Geography & Cosmology."
He selected a few heavy, leather-bound volumes with titles like "A Survey of the Profound Sky Continent" and "The Great Kingdoms of the East."
Finding a secluded wooden carrel tucked between two high shelves, he settled in and began to read.
The information unfolded before him, and with each page, his sense of scale was utterly recalibrated.
He was not just on a new continent; he was on a new world. A planet known as the Profound Sky Star. And on this planet, there was one single, unimaginably vast landmass: the Profound Sky Continent.
The books described it as a colossal entity, surrounded by endless, treacherous seas dotted with mysterious islands. The continent itself was so immense that Lin Yun, trying to compare it to his old world, estimated it had to be several times larger than the entire surface area of Earth.
His mind reeled. The sheer size was incomprehensible. It was densely packed with empires, kingdoms, duchies, sects, and untamed wilds. Cities the size of small countries, mountain ranges that could swallow the Himalayas, deserts that would take years to cross on foot.
He found a map. Fortune City, where he was now, was located within the Great Han Kingdom. The Great Han itself was a powerful empire, but on the map, it was just a large shape on the eastern part of the continent, situated slightly south, far from any coastline. It was a single piece in a continental puzzle of staggering complexity.
And the Profound Sky Academy? The institution he had assumed was the pinnacle of learning? The text revealed it was merely one branch of a vast, intercontinental organization. There were dozens, perhaps hundreds, of branches spread across the continent.
The Fortune City branch wasn't even a major one. It was a sub-branch, reporting to a larger, more prestigious academy located in the capital city of the Great Han Kingdom itself.
Lin Yun leaned back in his chair, letting out a slow, quiet breath he didn't realize he'd been holding. A mix of excitement and profound marvel washed over him.
He had read countless cultivation novels, but the descriptions had always been abstract. Now, he was living the reality. The scale was… humbling. It explained so much. It explained why even powerful cultivators who could fly still used spirit boats and teleportation formations. The distances were simply too vast.
"No wonder," he murmured to himself, staring at the intricate lines on the map. "This world is… immense."
This wasn't a game map he could traverse in a few hours. This was a real, living, breathing universe of impossible proportions. The path to power was not just a vertical climb through the cultivation realms; it was a horizontal journey across a world of endless possibilities and dangers.
Feeling both grounded and dizzyingly small, he closed the geography books. He had the context he needed. Now for practical knowledge.
He moved to the sections on alchemy and formations. He pulled texts on "Fundamental Herbology," "The Principles of Energy Fusion," and "An Initiate's Guide to Basic Formations."
Settling back into his carrel, he began to cross-reference what he read with the knowledge from his system. The library books provided the common, widely accepted theories and practices. His system provided the optimized, "meta" versions.
Hours slipped by unnoticed within the library's timeless quiet. Lin Yun was completely absorbed, his mind a whirlwind of new concepts and comparative analysis.
He then delved into the formation texts, his programmer's mind latching onto the logical structures of energy channels and nodal resonance. He visualized the flow of spiritual energy in a basic confinement formation not as mystical lines, but as a circuit diagram, with the spirit stones acting as power sources and the inscribed patterns as resistors and capacitors.
He was so deep in thought, tracing a complex nodal arrangement with his finger on the wooden table, that a soft, distinct chime echoed in his mind. It was the familiar sound of a system notification, but it wasn't for a mission completion.
[Ding! Through dedicated study, Host has comprehended the foundational principles of Formation Art. Passive Skill Unlocked: Formation Art Knowledge - Level 1 (5/1000).]
Lin Yun blinked, pulled from his intense focus. He leaned back in his chair, a look of mild surprise on his face. A passive skill? Gained just from reading?
He willed his system interface to appear. Under the [Skills] tab, alongside [Heavenly Eyes] and [Enhanced Ingredient Purifier], a new icon had materialized. It depicted a simple, interlocking geometric pattern that seemed to pulse with a faint light.
[Formation Art Knowledge - Level 1 (5/1000) - Passive]
[Effect: Grants basic comprehension of formation principles. Slightly improves the speed of learning and analyzing new formations. Proficiency increases through study and practice.]
His gaze then drifted to another entry he hadn't paid much attention to before. It was listed right below his alchemy proficiencies for specific pills.
[Alchemy Art Knowledge - Level 1 (270/1000) - Passive]
Ah. So these were overarching knowledge skills.
The "Alchemy Art Knowledge" had likely been ticking up slowly with every bit of alchemy theory he'd absorbed from the original Lin Yun's memories and his recent studies, hence its higher progress. The "Formation Art Knowledge" had just now reached a threshold from his intensive reading.
This was fascinating. The system wasn't just about grinding EXP and completing quests. It recognized and quantified understanding. It was a true cultivation assistant system…