As the duo were walking towards the Library which was located at the west side of the estate, Adrian couldn’t help ask Emin about the interesting things he could find in the library. His mom would often tell him stories of brave warriors, magicians to help him sleep but they didn’t go much on detail.
Seeing the boy getting excited over visiting a library, Emin would only reply with a smile and say “you’ll know soon, young master!”. Letting Adrian hold his hands and walking together he felt like a big brother to the boy rather than just a caretaker. It was a year back when he was assigned to look after Adrain. Ethan, being reached the age of 16 was sent to the academy to graduate as a warrior.
After a minute of walk they finally reached the library. A white building stood there supported by pillars on the sides. Taking a few steps up one could see a tall statue of a scholar standing at the side of the door with a hand on his chin. “Do you know who that is, young master?” asked Emin. To which Adrain uninterestingly answered “Yess, thats the great scholar Georgios. I hear about him from father every time we pass through here. He was a good friend of our ancestor”.
“Don’t look down on him, young master. He wasn’t just a friend to our ancestor. Just a friend wouldn’t earn him such respect from the great general Jagan. Did you know there are statue like this in almost every academy, library or places of knowledge all over the empire? Do you think a simple person would garner such respect without being great?” Emin gently retorted the boy.
Adrain was a little surprised and curiously asked “What? All over the empire? Why?”. Feeling successful at making his young master interested Emin explained “Because, he was not just any scholar, he was also the 8th prince of the empire at that time. He was called a failure of a warrior for being born physically weak. But he overcome fate and became a great scholar when he established the school of martial arts. It was because of his various ideas that humanity was able to refine the cultivation practice and increase our strength that we could fight back against the blackblood empire in the war 7000 years ago otherwise we would have become part of the blood river continent. Now every academy, city has at least one branch of school of martial arts to research on the cultivation practices.” Looking at the figure of such a man, Emin’s face showed nothing but reverence.
“Wow…. he was sooo great!” Adrian felt shocked to hear about the scholar, if just the statue before the library had such a story, what interesting things could he find inside. He was more motivated to go in.
After admiring the statue for a minute, they both gave a bow and went through the door. The first thing Adrian saw after entering was a desk where an old man with white hair was relaxingly reading a book. “Uncle John!!”. The old man put down his book and noticed the boy and gave a smile “Huh! ahhaha, so its young Adrain here, what mischief are you upto again boy?” Uncle John came around the house to have tea with Adrian's grandfather so he was more familiar with the boy than others.
“Uncle John! I dinn do any mischy. I’m here to read about warriors and magic, I’m here to study, yess!!”. Complained the boy with a frown and a little pride at the end. “Hoh, to study or to read stories? hehe, just go to the left and you’ll find what you are looking for. Emin, be careful about the books and don’t let the boy damage a single page!”. Uncle John then opened the book and got back to whatever he was reading.
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After walking a few meters to the left, a big hall could be seen with rows and rows of racks that could easily be 4-5 meters tall, all of which were filled with books of different colors and sizes. Emin quickly found a book, patted it a few times to remove the dust and brought it to the table. Adrain was waiting eagerly to open the book and know about the interesting things it could tell.
Emin opened the book and flipped few pages to reveal a picture of a large map, so beautifully drawn that it looked like a work of an artist. “Young master, this is our world, its called Leven. Much of our world is water, and the land is separated into 3 continents - the Maand continent, Blood River continent and the Baum continent.”
Letting the boy a moment to digest the picture Emin continued “We are in the Maand continent, where there are mostly us humans and some of the other humanoid races. The Baum Continent to the South is occupied mostly by other humanoid races, legend has it that millions of years ago, there were only humans but because of continuous practicing of magic and cultivation, there was evolution and other different humanoid races were formed, like the giants, little eyeums and others more.
And the last one is the blood river continent, ruled by the blackbloods which I’m sure you have heard many times in stories as the enemy of humanity and the plague of this world.” Flashing a little anger in his eyes at the mention of the blackbloods, Emin continued to read and explain. In the process, he showed Adrian various drawn out pictures of lands, mountains, rivers, life forms and also explained about the geography and structure of the world.
Closing the book, Emin could see a shine in the young boys eyes. Adrain looked at Emin and said, “Emin, when I’m big and strong, I’ll go visit all the places and see the world, I’ll go to the blood river continent and punish the blackbloods, yess”.
“Of course you will, young master, of course”. Adventure was common among the cultivators, they were warriors and blackbloods were humanity’s enemy. Such words were encouraged among the young ones.
Emin went and brought another book with golden rim at its edges, making it seem precious. “Now that you know about the world we live in, let me tell you about cultivation, magic, and how the heroes and warriors you hear about in the stories become so strong. It all starts with qi. All living organism posses qi, after a certain age, our heart will develop a core at its center which would circulate qi along with blood. That will be the time when we will be able to feel …!”
At this point Emin realized the weird face his young master was making and remembered that Adrian was just a 3 year old child who just learnt to speak and walk, and could barely communicate, forget about the human anatomy and cultivation practices. And being 12, Emin himself did not understand it all nor was he qualified to teach someone. So he thought hard for a minute and tried to come up with a simple explanation. “ Young master, I’ll explain in a simple way. When you grow older, you’ll be able to feel qi like how you can feel wind. Then you can use cultivation methods to absorb qi into your body and become strong. You can make your hand as hard as a rock when you use qi and make elephants fall with one punch.”
Adrian was shocked to hear such a explanation. “What?? Punch an elelephant? WOW! Cultivation is so great!”. With big round eyes staring at Emin, he asked “Then what about magic, can I do magic also? Can I cut mountains and make rain??”
“Hahahaha, yes young master, you’ll also be able to do magic. Magic actually falls under cultivation but it differs in a way that we warriors cultivate qi with ourselves whereas magic is when qi is used to influence nature. Using qi to manipulate the movement of water, fire, wind, earth, etc is magic. But such things as cutting mountains and making rain, I’ve only heard in stories. I don’t know much about higher cultivation and magic. You’ll know more about that when you grow up I guess”. The books the young ones could access and the information provided was limited to what they could handle so Emin himself wished to know more on the subject but alas, he was just a servant and still young for such knowledge.
Closing the book, they both were in thoughts of their own. Suddenly, Adrian took a deep breath and said those few words which no kids around his age would even know how to say. “Emin….. I will try this cultivation thing”.