Awakening the Divine Spark-Chapter 122: Hall of Knowledge.

"Brother Lee! That was amazing!" Xiao Lian couldn’t hide his excitement on the way back. This part was also something new, because usually at this time he was carrying Lee to his room.

"Shhh! Keep your voice down." Lee said, "Let’s get back first and then talk!"

"Of course, of course!" Xiao Lian agreed, "But I still can’t believe we made seventy thousand contribution points! In one day! Can you imagine that?"

Apparently it was impossible to shut the blabbermouth, thus the only thing Lee could do was to somehow divert his attention.

"Not in a day. I got beaten up for three months straight!" He said, pointing at his bloodied face, "And look at me! Wanna switch the roles?"

"No, Brother Lee, sorry! I didn’t mean that." Xiao Lian said, "But how come no matter how badly you get messed up, your clothing remains clean? Are those artifacts?"

"I guess." Lee said, "I got these from an elemental lord. I don’t know much about crafting and can’t say, but they surely are magical. In over two months I haven’t washed them, but they are cleaner than I’ve ever been."

This was what Lee found out several days after he wore the seemingly inconspicuous linen shirt and trousers for the first time. The cloak was the same, except he usually left it in his bag. There was another peculiar characteristics his linen clothing had – it fit despite before wearing it’s size was too big for him.

What he also didn’t mention was that his gloves were even more amazing and actually could be considered weapons. His hands never got hurt no matter how hard he punched, and earlier was the first time in months he was actually scared he hurt himself while attacking.

Xiao Lian was confused about other things, though. He asked, "Why didn’t you say you have elemental lord’s backing? No one would make things difficult if they knew a junior elder was supporting you."

"You misunderstood." Lee said, "It was in the previous world I was in. I got them ... let’s say I got these things in exchange for contribution points."

"Why didn’t you get a cultivation technique instead?" Xiao Lian asked, but then realized what his words actually meant, and said, "Brother Lee! Let’s go to the Hall of Knowledge! Now we can get any cultivation technique we want!"

"Can’t it wait till tomorrow?" Lee asked, but it was obvious it took all the willpower Xiao Lian had to not run to the sect’s library right away.

Before they parted, Xiao Lian asked for Lee’s token and transferred his share of contribution points. Lee didn’t know how much exactly, even though he grasped the trick of seeing what was inside the token. During the past months he hadn’t done anything but trained for this day, and only starting from tomorrow he’ll finally have time to learn to read and write.

It was incredibly humiliating, not to mention annoying, but he was certain he would learn quickly enough since he was already fluent in six languages. Of course, most likely five of them he would never use again, but it still counted.

***

The Hall of Knowledge was home for the sect’s library, but being one of the nine halls it had separate districts in both outer and inner sect. Unexpectedly, the library was built in a form of a tower, standing across an even larger one – the cultivation tower of the Hall of Ascension.

Both towers, along with the administrative buildings of the other halls, were build around wide plaza, in the geographical center of the Nethermoon sect.

Lee was surprised by how many people were rushing about here, but almost all of them wore the fancy robes showing off their inner disciple status. The few exceptions were the junior elders who were politely greeted by every single passerby.

Both Lee and Xiao Lian felt out of place, but trying to keep straight faces, they went directly to the library. Lee certainly felt like a tourist – he didn’t intend to acquire anything yet, but Xiao Lian was as anxious as they came. This was the big day – he was finally getting the fancy cultivation technique.

Of course, finally was not the proper term since he was expecting it to happen several years from now. Nevertheless, Lee managed to persuade the boy that he had earned it, and remembering the stress he went through, Xiao Lian readily agreed.

Lee found confusing the rule of disciples not being allowed to disclose the cultivation techniques to others. He had hard time imagining how anyone could verify or prove what technique anyone used, but, on the other hand, he was not going to question a system that had worked for many millennia.

He happily let Xiao Lian go and look for his new plaything, while waiting and observing the place himself. From what he understood, the guy had chosen his dream technique a while ago and now was only going to memorize it.

Lee didn’t know how long it was going to take, thus he went over to the junior elder who was overseeing the place to learn what the rules were. Turns out it was as simple as Xiao Lian said earlier – being outer disciple he was allowed only on the first floor and could pick a technique depending on the contribution points he could spend.

With that out of the way, Lee had nothing better to do than to go out for a walk. Library was the only place he was allowed in here, thus for half a day he wandered and made plans.

By swallowing two beast sparks, he had basically ruined his prospects for the current life, but that didn’t mean he couldn’t prepare for the following one. For that he decided to spend as much time in the library as possible.

The next on the priority list were the lectures of inner disciples and, rarely, junior elders. During the past months Lee had listened to a few, and there was never an occasion when he felt he had wasted his time. All of these people were stronger and more experienced compared to him, at least in the cultivation aspect, and them sharing the experience was a boon.

Besides the concepts of elements, some lecturers actually taught the basic cultivation techniques and Lee could finally replace the one that Tess taught him. In fact, what he practiced until now couldn’t even be considered a poor man’s cultivation technique – it was something that only elemental warriors who absorbed a beast spark thought was useful.

But even in the sect, the outer disciples, who because of the lacking talent had chosen to have a beast spark, tried to cultivate as advanced technique as possible. Every drop of increase in power was priceless, even though the rest looked at then with ridicule and pity.

The basic rule was simple, if you haven’t ignited your own spark, becoming an elemental master, you were nobody.

Learning was one thing, but getting resources in order to be able to do that, was another. In order to acquire contribution points Lee had to work, theoretically.

On the other hand, practically Lee wasn’t thrilled by the idea. In none of his lives he had actually worked for a longer period of time, and he didn’t intend to start in this one either. The little stunt in the arena proved it was the proper approach, but he had to keep in mind he had to deal with smart and, more importantly, deadly people here, thus he had to be on his toes.

Scheming was interesting and entertaining, but it couldn’t be done on a daily basis. One always needed an opportunity and now it was time to wait for one. Lisa would’ve called this period – between jobs.

Done with the planning in general. Lee turned to less important things.

Lunax had gifted him with useful clothing and a bag one could only consider to be magical. In order to better hide it, he needed to craft another one. And he wanted a weapon. Sooner or later he would have to leave the sect either on a mission or maybe on business, and he needed to have a way to protect himself.

Of course, Lee hoped to get help with the two items from the guy who just stepped out of the library with shiny eyes. Xiao Lian had finally finished memorizing the technique and came out looking for him.