Jin walked with determination towards his destination. One of the annexes. There was a library in that part of the Mansion. Harold, the previous owner, had accumulated quite a lot. Obviously, he had his own collection of books. Right now, Jin needed to learn more about what happened. While he did not attempt the breakthrough with no knowledge, his knowledge was not of the 'Fear' element itself but rather more of a general idea of how it went.

As for the books in the Mansion, Jin was very familiar with them as he had been reading them multiple times throughout his multiple lives. Yet, even though he had the perfect memory of a cultivator, he was unable to recall any of the contents from any of those books. Even the titles...He was unable to!

This should not be happening.

And it made him accelerate his footsteps towards that location.

He was greeted by servants and orphans alike along the way. He greeted a few back only to be surprised that he sometimes mistook their identities. He called a boy 'Jean' when the kid's name was actually 'Paul'... And it happened many times.

He had a difficult time believing and understanding what was happening.

Was it still messing with his mind?

Just what was going on?!

He pushed the heavy doors open in a hurry as cold sweat dripped down his back. He hurried over to the first rack and picked a random book: "Flower Picking on a Saturday Night".

He had no idea what this book was.

Well, he could guess what were the contents but what mattered was that he had never encountered this book!

Yet he was certain that he had already looked through all of the books within this space. And many times, at that. After all, he had a lot of time back then...

So, how could this be possible?

He went further in and began to check the books in a frenzy.

Not this one! Not this one either! Never seen or heard of that one!

After moving around randomly and picking books erratically for a dozen minutes, he reached the conclusion that all the books in here were books he never read before.

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But this was his Mansion? Those were his books? He had been reading them so many times...

He fell to his knees, shocked and distraught. He had no idea what was going on.

Then, some hope kindled within his heart and he got back up. Back then, there were no books on 'Fear' but since the books were different this time then maybe? Maybe there would be some? Maybe he would find answers?

There were no such books within this library.

Even though it contained thousands of them, none were pertaining to Fear.

Not a single one.

Jin sat in the middle of a row, his eyes seemingly lost.

He remained there, blank, for a while.

Until he heard footsteps.

He turned around and saw Ame walking towards him. She was scratching the back of her head as she sighed. She asked him: "What the fuck are you doing?"

He smiled while tears rolled down his cheeks.

Ame... He killed her, loved her, betrayed her... In every life, he had interacted with her in one way or another. He knew her well. But he was not sure how to approach her. The memories he had belonged solely to him. She did not know any of it. She was like a different person. In every life, he felt like that. All the relations he built were resetting with every reroll. So, he always had all kinds of mixed feelings when encountering people close to him.

Especially her.

He loved her.

Then he returned.

He resented her for not remembering and ended up doing some...well...

And then he returned again...

It twisted his way of relating to others.

As she saw him acting weirdly, she faked being grossed out as she asked again: "What's wrong with you?"

Jin moved his sleeve to take care of the tears and smiled at her as he stated: "Nothing. I'm fine"

Of course, he was not. Both of them were aware of it. However, Ame did not probe. She nodded and said: "You reached the tenth, right?"

Jin nodded with a sad smile. He heard her say that many times before. The very same lines.

She continued: "It seems like it messed you up quite a lot, uh"

Jin forced out a laugh and nodded. She sighed and asked: "So, what is this about? What were you doing?"

He told her: "I was trying to find some books"

She chuckled: "Seems like a failure then~ Well, tell me, what are you looking for?"

He didn't hide it from her: "Books related to Fear"

Her eyebrows rose as she contemplated in silence for a moment before she asked him: "Are you trying to say that you fused it with Fear?'

Jin nodded. She sighed. She looked at him with pity and stated: "You fucked yourself hard there"

It surprised him for a moment as she never showed concern about that in any previous life. She always gave him her heartfelt congratulations and wanted to celebrate... Why was she acting differently now?

She saw his reaction but did not pursue it. Instead, she stated: "Most cultivators on this continent would never dare to attempt this kind of shit, you know... You're aware of the elemental classifications, right?"

Jin nodded.

He was familiar with those. The five origins, two glorious and four beyond made for the classics while everything else belonged to the 12th unclassified. Both Fear and Corruption were unclassified.

Ame nodded and explained: "Understanding an element comes at a price. All the people that remain at the 9th stage for their entire lives are not always stuck there because they don't have the means to obtain a treasure. The price differs but every element will make the cultivator feel their existence deeply"