A captain is honor-bound to remain on their sinking ship until all passengers and crew escape safely. If they fail in that task, they’ll go down with their ship. The sea isn’t a place for timidity or cowardice, and a crew only respects a strong captain.

~Manannan, God of the Sea & Weather

The library was what one would expect, except the building above ground was primarily hollow and held no books. They stored most of the tomes, vestiges, scrolls, and books below ground. Crow observed the various formations; almost all were for protecting and preserving the content. There were some patterns he didn’t recognize, but he felt threatened even analyzing them.

“This is the first floor, where all the mundane topics are. Histories, maps, and other non-cultivation-related topics,” Zoe explained softly. “Since Sione already chose a branch, we’ll head down to the next floor, but do not go any lower.”

“Where do I go when I have a book I want to read?”

“If you look between the stacks, you’ll see archways that lead into private rooms. For the cultivation content, you can’t take it off the floor, so you’ll need to use those. Everything on this floor, you can take to the building above. While the central part of the building is hollow, the three floors above ground have a lot of tables, lounges, and other relaxing areas. You may bring as many of these books up there as you want and the top part of the Unhulde Stacks doesn’t close. However, you need to be above ground before dark.”

“Alright, I’ll review some of the cultivation things, and then I’ll find a place above to read these other books. Is this floor where they have books on Scholarly Talents?”

“There is,” Zoe pointed to an arch that was easily three meters wide. “Those are all over there, but make sure you do not damage them.”

“And what do I do with them when I’m done?”

“If you are above, toss them over the railing.”

“W-what?”

“I’m not messing around. Toss it over. The central part of the building is like the Plunge. The books fall and disappear only to reappear on the shelf where you grabbed them,” Zoe chuckled, seeing Crow’s face. “Sometimes, the disciples prank people and put books on the shelves that don’t belong to the stacks. The library doesn’t catch those, and you should see the panic on their faces when the book slams against the ground. Or better yet, lands on someone, hehe.”

Crow grinned and shook his head. He found it amazing that this girl was this naive while living in a sect like this place. Evil oozed off everything. He’d long learned to ignore the looks with murderous intent, but he couldn’t imagine being raised in a place like this.

It only took him about two hours to go through all the Ghost Eater techniques. He also went through the general spells that were available to anyone. There were even a few shelves dedicated to incomplete manuals, and some still had the blood of the victims they were stolen from.

None of the Ghost Eater’s abilities were worth even discussing. That isn’t to say he didn’t gain any insights, but there was a reason they left most of those abilities for the outer disciples. The incomplete manuals were a potential treasure trove.

One belonged to a Cult of the Elements, which had a lot of strange religious propaganda, but what he could see of their technique was either genius or complete trash. The ideology behind it seemed nonsensical, but its methods were complex and fascinating. Crow spent a large part of his time reading that one manual and even using light behind the pages to see if there was anything hidden.

He liked it so much because the things it theorized were related to spells cast using the cultivator’s body to create the spell container. They filled it with ambient mana, but the inventor eventually tossed it. Said the spell it made was too chaotic, but Crow had already gone through this thought process. Stripping the mana type from a spell took away its behavior. Mana would provide anomalous behavior based on the shape of the spell.

While the manual was missing the pages on how the cult managed this, the theories and experiences were enough to let Crow know his thought process was following the right path.

Putting those thoughts aside, he went to the first floor and flipped through a few histories of the Unhulde Sect, and the more he read, the more he felt the need to burn this fucking place to the ground. They had done inhumane things, and this book was like the sect’s most outstanding achievements—infamous achievements. They’d sold their souls to the Daemons for a bit of power.

Taking an atlas, he then searched through the maps of the upper floors. There wasn’t much marked that weren’t on other maps he’d found, but they did list locations of sect branches. Crow could not take those places on, at least for now, but with his stolen identity, it wouldn’t take much to infiltrate them.

Putting it back, he grabbed a few other books that were casual reads. Mostly, he wanted to look busy, so he could process all the things he’d scanned.

When he was above ground with an armful of things to read, he went up to the first balcony that looked down over the lobby. There, he found a sofa with a low-height table in front of it.

Sitting down, he opened a few books and took out some parchment. The books he grabbed were about the anatomy of humans, which he was going to use as a guide to designing his Auras and mapping out his meridians.

On it, he sketched an outline of his body from the front, back, and sides. There were smaller drawings that focused on hands, feet, and joints. Anyone looking at the symbols would think it was all gibberish, but Crow wasn’t just writing nonsense. He was bringing his mind to an elevated level, then he took out another quill and split his consciousness so it was like his right and left hand was competing. In a way, he was competing with himself.

Zoe arrived next to him at some point, and her eyes widened in shock while watching. She knew he was doing something that should be impossible, but seeing was believing.

She couldn’t even comprehend what was on the papers but recognized the structures. As a genius herself, if she couldn’t understand that much, she didn’t deserve to be known as one of the greatest Witches born in this generation. Still, even staring at the pages of parchment filled with diagrams, sketches, and notes, Zoe felt like her mental capacity was at its limit.

Instead of bothering him, she sat on the other end of the sofa so she didn’t disturb him. She put her stuff down to watch because she knew the situation happening before her would benefit her. All she had to do so bask in the moment and try to comprehend as much as possible.

Only when he stopped writing did she pay attention to the gossip around her. It was a library, but she figured out long ago that it was one of the best places to eavesdrop. Zoe laughed when she found that most of the idiots came to the library to talk about things they were afraid to say out loud around the sect. It was the most unsound and moronic logic she’d ever heard. It benefitted her because Zoe could come here and relax while figuring out all the drama around Unhulde. She mainly brought Crow here because she feared the backlash of what they’d done. Deep down, she felt like a storm was brewing. Once the restrictions on the sect were gone and the formations were brought down, the masters would return.

Most wouldn’t care about a single genius from the Ghost Eaters, but Ku was one of ten champions selected to enter the temple. If that wasn’t bad enough, the key to enter the temple was in the hands of the boy next to her. The stress caused her hands to shake and drop the book she was holding. Thankfully it fell into her lap without making a sound.

“Fear isn’t scary,” Crow’s voice was soft and didn’t carry. Only she could hear it. “It is only terrifying when we give fear the ability to control us. Bending the knee to fear means giving up on ourselves.”

“How are you not afraid?” Zoe whispered.

“Who says I’m not? I’m in the last place I ever wanted to be. I’m scared out of my fucking mind. But my path doesn’t allow me to bow my head to anything—not the heavens, not fear, and certainly not to another person.”

“But how do I face fear like you?”

Crow pointed at the books and papers in front of him. “Give your mind a task, focus on it, and clear yourself of all other distractions. Sometimes we are at the tiller of life, guiding our ship where we’d like. But sometimes… we’re in the middle of a storm, and we can only ride the waves and fight to remain above water. Have faith in yourself, and don’t give up until you’ve expelled your last breath. That’s all anyone can do.”

“Not so scary when you put it like that.”

Zoe stared at Crow, who looked at her with a smile. His handsome face was calm, but he allowed her to see his unguarded eyes. The stormy green iris showed his unsettled heart, which somehow allowed her to relax.

Crow nodded his head at her, and she responded in kind. Both returned to their studies as if the rest of the world didn’t matter.