While the maps that Sage had got this location from were considered ‘ancient’, Sage had not thought they were at the same level of ‘ancient’ as the thing taught by Tao Ba. There was quite a world of difference between thousands or tens of thousands of years and hundreds of thousands or millions of years. The Violent Sun Sect should not be from the time of the Ancient Array Symbols, which meant that Sage suspected they had somehow passed down this secret, just like Tao Ba had taught him.

With such a great lineage, whatever was hidden in here must certainly be something good. Sage flew through the empty sky and over to the gate that almost looked like it was placed directly onto the side of a mountain. He examined the smaller array upon the door for a while and realized it was keyed to a specific type of power. Maybe only their own Sect members can open it?

Sage stared at the gate for a few minutes and then he pointed a finger and a few bright lights shot out, sinking into the formation at a few specific points. Then the gate lit up and swung wide open. Others might struggle at this place for an inestimable amount of time, but Sage had the Inner World. With a whole team of researchers working for a few years, they found a way to crack the array and he flew right into the gates and passed the outer wall of this compound. Once inside, he skirted around a gigantic copper bell and flew up to the doors of the lone building. They were quite large, but they swung open when he approached. Everything in this special area seemed perfectly preserved, quite unlike the dilapidated state of the ruined sect outside.

He hopped off of The Red Comet and stored it away, stepping upon the tiles with light steps. He walked down the large central hallway, ignoring the two side passages in favor of opening another set of large doors in front of him. Pushing them open he walked forward with a very surprised spring in his step. To either side of him as he entered, were stone walls. These walls were more than twenty feet thick. After passing through this tunnel, he entered an area with a few tables and chairs placed next to what seemed to be a modest library. There was only a single bookshelf in front of him, one that didn’t even seem very full. Well, a ’bookshelf’ was how it would be thought of in this world, as it was filled with Bamboo Slips and not books. The ‘shelves’ were more akin to a wine rack, a diagonal lattice work which was perfect for holding the cylindrical rolls of bamboo strips. They were like wooden scrolls, tucked into cubbies for easy access.

Secret library of the Violent Sun Sect? Excellent!

Sage was just as cautious as ever, stars twinkling in his eye, but he saw nothing dangerous and picked up one of the Bamboo Slips. He set it down and picked up another, and this time he smiled. They were indeed the Bamboo Slips of a cultivator that could be accessed with the mind. The first had held some historical knowledge, but the second had been full of techniques. He didn’t waste any time and opened all of the Bamboo Slips as quickly as he could, copying down every technique to Memory Spheres on the Inner World. Only when this quick copying was finished did he decide to lift up the whole shelf and send the whole library into the Inner World in one go. There was always the chance that the originals would hold some sort of secret.

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Sage took a look around and then walked out of the library heading to check the other halls of this building. Unfortunately there was nothing else of interest. The halls contained mostly bedrooms, kitchens and other living spaces. Perhaps it was so this place could be used as a final safehouse? Were there people trapped here long ago when their sect fell? Did they die in here or did they never make it inside? Sage found no evidence of a single person inside, so he could only guess. After checking the whole place he returned to the central library and scooped up all the tables and chairs.

Since I’m here, why bother to leave anything behind?

Even the furnishings in this place carried a sort of ancient air of dignity, and Sage felt that might catch a decent price from a collector. In fact, he had an even crazier idea as he stripped the curtains from the windows and the paintings from the walls. Then he pulled up the tiles from the floor and used his Spirit Power to start carving into the stone beneath. This place just felt so unique that Sage had the odd idea of bringing the whole thing into the Inner World. He didn’t know a way to take this strange spatial area away with him, but he could take the building away with him piece by piece.

This strange idea turned out to his benefit as he found something deep within the foundation of the building. A cornerstone or keystone. The ceremonial first stone of a building that every further stone would be placed in relation to. Sometimes elaborate rituals would be performed when they were laid, to ensure the strength of the future building or to forever entomb their hopes in carvings upon it. In this case, the cornerstone was actually a Stone Tablet, and when he sent his consciousness into it he found information that would have been pretty simple and harmless for the people creating the building, but were actually quite useful to him.

The usefulness of the information was actually related to what he’d learned in the library. In the library, there was a book detailing the history of the Violent Sun Sect, but the problem was that there wasn’t much context. For someone from the sect it would likely have been quite informative, detailing all the exploits of the sect and their involvement in the major events of the times. The problem for Sage was that none of these events, dates, or names were known to him. They were all using terms that must have been common at the time, but were completely foreign to him in the current time. The information in the cornerstone was quite simplistic, but seemed to have an outside party involved. One of the builders left behind a sort of ‘signature’ that listed the era, the emperor, their sect and also their own nickname. It also detailed some of the special materials and techniques involved in the construction, but most of that wasn’t important.

All that was really important was the name of the era and the emperor. Even if none of the specific events that the sect history detailed were known to him, the names of eras and emperors were far more common knowledge and gave him a lead to properly place when the Violent Sun Sect actually existed. If he was an anthropologist or other sort of historian this would certainly be especially important, but he wasn’t either of those things. In fact, the only reason he found this to be interesting was that it gave him a way to cross reference those ancient maps he’d found so he could have an idea of what all those places of importance actually meant.

I guess I got a little bit excited over making my treasure hunting a little more efficient.