Apocalypse Forecast

”...”

In the silence, a chilly wind blew over, and Huai Shi looked at the principal next to him with confusion.

The principal also gave an awkward smile. ”I’ll send it back to you later. Aren’t you afraid of getting a cold butt if you sit down on the ground?”

”Alright then.”

Huai Shi hesitated for a long time before putting down his teacup and following the principal to rise.

They stepped onto the stairs.

The massive and heavy Alchemy Gate swung open before them.

The relief of Medusa on the copper door glanced at them before quickly looking away.

In the grand foyer of the library behind the door, a beam of dim yellow light shone down, illuminating the authoritative old man behind the front desk.

He looked at the newcomers outside the door with an indifferent gaze, his expression commanding respect without anger.

It was as if he sat at the very center of the library, guarded by layers of stern arrays, appearing so mysterious and peculiar in the light’s reflection.

He had the air of a master.

”Who is this expert?” Huai Shi jumped, sincerely asking for guidance.

”Don’t let your imagination run wild. He’s just the guard who retired the year before last and was rehired to watch over the library. He’s grown senile and even sleeps during working hours,” the principal said nonchalantly, bursting Huai Shi’s bubble of illusion. ”This place uses a special design. That chair is the hall’s focal point. If you put a dog up there, you’d think it was as handsome and majestic as King Arthur.”

Gathering his courage, Huai Shi looked over and confirmed the old man was indeed sleeping—with his eyes open, no less. It was difficult to tell unless one looked closely. His drool had spread over his beard, and he was snoring, too.

BANG!

A high, clear sound echoed.

The principal walked over, lifted his front paw, and slammed it down heavily on the desk. ”Hey! Stop sleeping! Do you think I pay you to sleep? Get up!”

The sleeping old man raised his head in panic, his complexion quickly turning purplish, almost scared to the point of a heart attack. He fumbled in his pocket for a bottle of pills, swallowed several, and it took him a long moment of gasping to recover.

He didn’t even bother to wipe off his saliva.

He had nearly kicked the bucket on the spot.

Once he put on his glasses and saw who it was, his tense expression finally relaxed. ”You scared me to death! I thought it was the vice-principal coming for an inspection... What’s up, Principal?”

Crouching on top of the front desk, the Black Panther flicked his tail, licking his paws. ”Bringing a newbie for a tour, to look at some books. Open the door.”

The old man hesitated for a moment and then reluctantly said, ”It’s so late. Can’t we do this another day?”

”Nonsense! My school, my library, my books! Do I have to wait until another day to see them?” The Black Panther raised his head, glanced at the old man slacking in his duties before him, and asked angrily, ”Do you effing still want this job or not?”

Under his glare, the old man shrank his shoulders and then resignedly gave in. ”Okay, okay, no need to be so fierce.”

While talking, he wiped the drool off, slowly climbed up from the chair, muttering some complaints, and turned toward the high wall behind him.

It was only then, as the old man moved, that Huai Shi noticed.

In the grand foyer of the library entrance, behind the front desk, that massive wall adorned with solemn reliefs and countless intricate patterns, reaching over ten meters in height... was actually a door.

Indeed, there was a straight seam running down from the center of the steel wall, practically unnoticeable without a magnifying glass, hidden among the myriad complicated decorations and reliefs.

The entire wall consisted of two iron doors.

Huai Shi’s Hand of Confinement could sense that the entire gate was forged from alloy. Such a vast structure and mass probably weighed several thousand tons!

But just before the iron gate, as the hunchbacked old man slowly raised his withered left hand and pressed it upon the door—a sharp sound burst forth.

Is this the ordinary old man the Principal mentioned, the one rehired after retirement? This door is so heavy, not even tank artillery could blast it open! What kind of monsters are the guards at this school?

Huai Shi inhaled sharply with fright.

But before he could finish his breath, amidst the sharp alarm sound, a cold electronic voice declared: ”Fingerprint error!”

The old man hesitated, withdrew his hand, then pressed again.

”...Fingerprint error!”

Huai Shi was speechless.

The principal, too, was silent.

In the silence, the old man turned back with a somewhat embarrassed smile. ”Sorry, I remembered the wrong hand...”

He switched to his right hand.

This time, no sharp sounds followed, and the door opened.

It was as if that weight of several thousand tons did not even exist.

Crouching at the doorway, Huai Shi observed carefully for a while, only to realize that the device was completely automatic with fingerprint recognition. He looked at the door, then back at the old man standing with his hands behind his back as if he were some peerless master.

The one responsible for guarding all the school’s information and important archives, even the fragments of the Heavenly Kingdom’s records, was this old man? Just with a fingerprint lock? Couldn’t they use a password? What if the old man dropped dead one day?

He scratched his head, feeling the Ivory Tower was doomed...

He followed the principal through the door, bewildered, and couldn’t help but look back at the old man. The old man was still standing at the doorway. When he saw Huai Shi glance back, he hastily raised his hand, waving and greeting him with an ingratiating smile.

”...”

So, there really isn’t any reclusive master hidden in this school’s library? How disappointing!

At the entrance, all he could see were seemingly endless rows of densely packed bookshelves. Numerous small mechanical arms were swiftly sliding along tracks on the ceiling, sorting various boxes—big and small—and deftly transferring and arranging files or other items where they were supposed to be.

At the end of his gaze, there were several large doors standing alone. Through their glass windows, he could faintly make out massive machine units submerged in cooling liquid, emitting fearsome levels of high heat.

That was data transmitting, writing, and reading at inconceivable speeds every second.

The entire place felt less like a library and more like some workshop or machine room in a factory.

”The first floor mainly hosts the Ivory Tower’s servers, the school’s archives, and many insignificant records. Nothing much to see, just average stuff.”

The Black Panther confidently led the way to an elevator heading underground, saying buoyantly, ”Follow me, I’ll show you the treasures of the Ivory Tower!”

Is it really okay for him to be so casual? I’ve only been here for a month!

As he entered the elevator, however, he heard the principal ask, ”Was it Dongxia’s Dragon Gate trial, or Yingzhou’s Rashomon?”

”Hmm?”

Huai Shi was puzzled.

The Black Panther, having risen on its hind legs to press the elevator button, suddenly transformed into a muscular Australian Red Kangaroo. Giving Huai Shi a glance, he explained, ”The Heavenly Kingdom Genealogy’s screening mechanism... Which one did you pass? You don’t think I can’t tell you’re a formal member of the Heavenly Kingdom Genealogy, do you?”

”You can tell?” Huai Shi was astonished.

”Of course. There’s just something slightly different about those who pass the screening compared to those who don’t. Whether it’s the person’s whole aura or their Source Substance, there tends to be some special change. Simply put, it’s like a watermark. So, which one did you get through? I’m very curious, Principal that I am. These days, there aren’t many who can legitimately pass those trials.”

”Uh...”

After some thought, Huai Shi decided to tell the truth since there was nothing to hide. ”The All Spectrum Heaven Sphere.”

”...”

The principal looked at Huai Shi in surprise but said nothing.

”What’s wrong?” Huai Shi asked.

”No, it’s just that I’m impressed by the hardship you went through. Among the twelve remaining trials in Current Circumstances, the All Spectrum Heaven Sphere is the most troublesome one. It’s not exactly simple, nor is it overly difficult, but it’s very taxing. The standards for passing also vary from person to person. Plus, Golden Dawn keeps stirring up trouble inside it—things used to be negotiable since everyone was once colleagues in Utopia. Many times, issues could be discussed. But recently, those guys don’t even respond to messages and seem to have a lot of grievances with the school. Do you have any clue?”

”Uh...”

Huai Shi’s expression twitched as he averted his gaze. ”I’m not really sure.”

”That’s right, you don’t seem like the sort of second fifth that Golden Dawn would send,” the Kangaroo nonchalantly commented as it gnawed on a piece of sugarcane from who-knows-where.

Huai Shi suddenly tensed up.

He feared that the principal might suddenly pounce and cleave him to death right there.

Now that he thought about it, did he... seem... rather... like a spy sent by Golden Dawn? What was the principal’s intention in bringing him here? Was it to lure him into exposing himself? Or could it be that the Ivory Tower and Golden Dawn actually had some unspoken, secret friendly relations, often colluding, and the principal mistook him for a liaison?

”Relax, I won’t misunderstand,” the principal said kindly, patting his shoulder. ”If I didn’t know that Osiris’s pilot was you, why would I invite you to the Ivory Tower? I’m actually quite happy that you could inherit Mr. Auden’s legacy. Although the vice-principal has some objections to you, that guy has always been a bit stubborn. He probably wouldn’t trip you up over this... I guess?”

By the end, even he sounded uncertain.

Huai Shi was numb. The Old Turtle’s words contained too much information; he couldn’t digest it all.

But as he was still shell-shocked, the elevator had arrived at the bottom floor.

Passing through layers of defenses that Huai Shi couldn’t even detect, they went straight into the core of the Ivory Tower. The entrance before them was now slowly opening.

When Huai Shi stepped out, walking through the last door, he caught sight of the countless heavy books suspended in mid-air.

It was as if the Tree of Radiance branched out into the void, its straight limbs crisscrossing back and forth, forming a three-dimensional matrix in the vast underground plaza.

Where layers of matrices intersected, heavy tomes emerged at the nodes, gently spinning.

All of them were fragments of the Heavenly Kingdom.

Huai Shi felt the intense vibration of the Book of Fate. It was the vague outline that remained after the fall of the Heavenly Kingdom—a massive structure formed by thousands of its fragmented pieces.

And in the very core of the countless radiant matrices, there was a complex projection purely made out of overlapping images, displaying different aspects every moment within the effulgence and shimmer, faintly outlining a book.

Perhaps... that was what the Book of Fate was originally supposed to look like. Its very existence here seemed to control the workings of the entire world, enveloping everything within its script and records.

In the face of such a breathtaking, almost suffocating scene, Huai Shi couldn’t help but sigh in admiration.

”It’s truly beautiful,” he remarked.

”Isn’t it?” the principal sighed softly. ”A pity it’s a fake.”